cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Patients Receiving Palifermin in Conjunction with Melphalan 200 Required Fewer Platelet Transfusions: Analysis of a Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Mucosal injury and concomitant associated side effects represents a major toxicity of autologous transplant for myeloma. The use of Palifermin has been demonstrated to reduce mucositis severity scores and duration in randomized trials. We sought to evaluate the effect of palifermin on overall platelet transfusion requirements as an indirect measure of reduced GI toxicity. Since palifermin has been shown to decrease mucosal damage caused by conditioning regimens for PBSCT, it was theorized that palifermin’s protective effects might lead to a reduction in the platelet transfusion requirements for these patients. Methods: Thirty six consecutive myeloma PBSCT patients conditioned with melphalan 200 mg/m 2 plus palifermin (dosed per manufacturers recommendations) were retrospectively evaluated for platelet transfusion requirements following autologous transplant. As a historical control, data were retrospectively collected on thirty eight consecutive myeloma PBSCT patients conditioned with the same regimen prior to the routine use of palifermin. Platelet support consists of transfusion of leukoreduced irradiated single donor pheresis products. Platelet transfusions were dictated by standard clinical practice on the transplant service either for a routine platelet count Results: The palifermin and control patients were of similar age and renal function. Baseline median platelet count was higher in the palifermin group (260 vs 213.5; p=.01), but both groups had mean platelet counts well above the normal range. Patients in the palifermin group required an average of 1.11 platelet transfusions compared with 2.42 transfusions for the control group (p=.055). In the palifermin group, 17 (46%) of the patients required no platelet transfusions compared to only 8 (21%) in the control group (p=.017). When analyzing only the patients who had normal platelet count (> 150,000) prior to start of the conditioning regimen, the palifermin patients (33) required an average of 1.1 transfusions compared to 1.7 transfusions in the control patients (33). The numbers of patients requiring only 1 transfusion were 11 (31%) in the palifermin group and 13 (34%) in the control group. The time to platelet engraftment was similar in both the 2 groups (14.5 days in the palifermin group and 15 days in the control group). Conclusion: The use of palifermin is associated with reduced platelet transfusion requirements among a group of patients who received melphalan 200 mg/m 2 conditioning and autologous transplant for myeloma. Further cost analysis and quality of life analysis are needed to further justify this approach for all patients.
Management of Diabetes in Stroke

Abstract Individuals with diabetes not only are at higher risk for stroke but also have poorer outcomes after the event. Although meticulous blood glucose control with levels between 72 and 135 mg had been suggested to be beneficial in the clinical setting of acute stroke, a recent comprehensive review failed to confirm this finding and demonstrated that the number of hypoglycemic episodes was significant. Less-restricted glucose targets are currently advised and the circumstances making intensive control less desirable are reviewed. Suggested management pathways to achieve an individualized glucose target in the setting of acute and chronic strokes are provided.
Blood Cell Adhesion on a Polymeric Heart Valve Leaflet Processed Using Magnetic Abrasive Finishing

Heart valve prosthetics replace damaged, malfunctioning valves to improve a patient’s quality of life. Current mechanical valves are durable but suffer from thrombogenicity and flow separation, and can cause blood damage leading to coagulation. While bioprosthetic valves have better haemodynamic function than mechanical valves, the valves suffer from tears due to inflammation and collagen degradation. The absence of living tissue leaves them unable to repair themselves and their antigenicity must be masked. Complications due to thrombosis occur between 1.5% and 3% per year for current mechanical and bioprosthetic valves [1]. Polymeric valves have the potential to exhibit improved haemodynamic performance over mechanical valves without the complications associated with bioprosthetic valves; current issues associated with polymeric valves include calcification, hydrolysis, and durability [2].Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Insights into plant phosphate sensing and signaling

Phosphorus (P) is a macronutrient essential for plant growth, therefore, soil P level is critical to crop yield potential in agriculture. As Pi levels limit crop yield under many soil conditions, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms by which plants adapt to low-phosphate (Pi) soil conditions and interact with their soil microbiome to improve crop P use efficiency, in order to ensure global food security. Recent advances have been made towards achieving this goal through advancing our understanding of the plant's response to limiting Pi conditions to maintain P homeostasis. In this review, we assess advances made in local and systemic Pi sensing and signaling, and in the molecular events for Pi absorption, redistribution and plant-symbiont interactions. These findings offer important avenues for bio-engineering of agricultural crops with traits for enhanced Pi acquisition and utilization.
A Dataflow Processor as the Basis of a Tiled Polymorphic Computing Architecture with Fine-Grain Instruction Migration

A dataflow processor is presented that is to be used as the basis of a tiled polymorphic computing architecture. The key contribution is a new scheme that allows a program's instructions to be migrated before and during runtime in a fine-grained manner across the collection of processors. The primary reason to perform this migration is to execute programs faster. Other reasons to perform instruction migration are to prioritize computational resources and to achieve thermal balancing. The act of performing instruction migration across of a collection of processors is logically equivalent to rearranging the computer architecture under the program (i.e., polymorphic computing). Additionally, a new dataflow instruction set which enables the migration is presented. This instruction set is built upon the concept of a single RISC-like dataflow instruction that can atomically execute, make decisions, and independently route results. Furthermore, the novel concept of an operation cell is presented. An operation cell holds a single instruction and its data. It also contains logic to independently determine when an instruction is executed and when to forward data to other operation cells in the collection of processors. In addition, the internal architecture of this processor is presented. This includes the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that is used to execute the instructions and a series of buses that allow data movement to occur in parallel to instruction execution. Finally, an inter-processor migration strategy is defined.
Quantifying the Evolutionary Conservation of Genes Encoding Multidrug Efflux Pumps in the ESKAPE Pathogens To Identify Antimicrobial Drug Targets

Increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection are one of the most pressing contemporary global health concerns. The ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) have been identified as the leading global cause of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, and overexpression of multidrug efflux (MEX) transport systems has been identified as one of the most critical mechanisms facilitating the evolution of multidrug resistance in ESKAPE pathogens. Despite efforts to develop efflux pump inhibitors to combat antibiotic resistance, the need persists to identify additional targets for future investigations. We evaluated evolutionary pressures on 110 MEX-encoding genes from all annotated ESKAPE organism genomes. We identify several MEX genes under stabilizing selection-representing targets which can facilitate broad-spectrum treatments with evolutionary constraints limiting the potential emergence of escape mutants. We also examine MEX systems being evaluated as drug targets, demonstrating that divergent selection may underlie some of the problems encountered in the development of effective treatments-specifically in relation to the NorA system in S. aureus. This study provides a comprehensive evolutionary context to efflux in the ESKAPE pathogens, which will provide critical context to the evaluation of efflux systems as antibiotic targets. IMPORTANCE Increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection are one of the most pressing contemporary global health concerns. The ESKAPE pathogen group represents the leading cause of these infections, and upregulation of efflux pump expression is a significant mechanism of resistance in these pathogens. This has resulted in substantial interest in the development of efflux pump inhibitors to combat antibiotic-resistant infections; however, no widespread treatments have been developed to date. Our study evaluates an often-underappreciated aspect of resistance-the impact of evolutionary selection. We evaluate selection on all annotated efflux genes in all sequenced ESKAPE pathogens, providing critical context for and insight into current and future development of efflux-targeting treatments for resistant bacterial infections.
Spiral spectrum of Laguerre-Gaussian beams under atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors

The spiral spectrum appears to be extended when the Laguerre-Gaussian beam is applied to atmospheric laser communication due to the turbulence effect and the misalignment of the receiver. In this paper, the spiral spectrum expansion of the Laguerre-Gaussian beam turbulence effect and the receiver misalignment is studied. Mathematical derivation and numerical simulation are used to study the analytic expression of the spiral spectrum of the lateral and the oblique inclination at the receiver under turbulence. The results show that the transmission distance has a nonlinear effect on the diffusion of the spiral spectrum. After reaching a certain transmission distance, the diffusion will suddenly increase and eventually stabilize. With the increase of turbulence intensity, the diffusion of spiral spectrum increases, and the increase rate is related to the transmission distance. The effect of transverse offset distance on the spiral spectrum is related to the turbulence intensity, and finally stabilizes. And the greater the angle of inclination of the receiving end, the more serious the spiral spectrum diffusion.
Containment relations in anatomical ontologies.

In addition to parthood relations, containment relations are needed for describing the locations of anatomical individuals. My lungs are contained, but not part of, in my thoracic cavity. Urine is contained in, but not part of, the cavity of my urinary bladder. Ontologies such as the FMA and GALEN use containment relations extensively. However, the FMA’s and GALEN’s usage of containment relations differs significantly. To provide anatomical ontologies with clear semantics and consistent reasoning strategies, it is necessary to precisely determine the logical properties of their containment relations. In this paper, I define different versions of containment relations in a formal theory and distinguish important logical properties of these relations. The formal containment relations are used to partially analyze and highlight differences between the FMA’s and GALEN’s containment relations.
Multiple Myeloma and the Kidney

RG, a 60-year-old African-American man, presents to your clinic with a 6-week history of fatigue and right hip pain, which he attributes to a fall a few months ago. He has not seen a physician in years because he has felt well. However, he did visit the ER a week ago for his hip pain and labs showed a creatinine of 1.9 mg/dL. He has been taking 800–1,200 mg of ibuprofen daily for the last 2 weeks. His physical examination is notable for pain over the right hip. Laboratory studies show a creatinine of 4.6 mg/dL, calcium of 11 mg/dL, and hemoglobin of 7.2 g/dL. Plain films of the right hip show osteolytic lesions. Urine dipstick is negative for protein.
Applications of pathway logic modeling to target identification

To explore the role of proteases in pathogenesis and as potential drug targets we need to elucidate their function and effect on biological networks. In this paper, we describe the application of Pathway Logic (PL) (http://pl.csl.sri.com/) to the symbolic modeling of the interaction networks of proteases of Gram-positive bacteria and the use of Pathway Logic Assistant tool (PLA) to browse and query these models. Pathway Logic is a systems biology approach to biological processes as integrated systems rather than isolated parts based on formal methods and rewriting logic. These models are developed using Maude, a formal language and tool set based on rewriting logic. We show how this approach can be used to represent and analyze systems at multiple levels of details. The Pathway Logic Assistant tool enables us to identify key proteases and regulatory molecules - 'choke points' by comparing different pathways or networks within and across species and to predict how these molecules, if inhibited or avoided would affect the pathway or network.
Extranodal Rosai-Dorfman of the Pancreas Presents with Bilateral Granulomatous Anterior Uveitis.

Background/Aims To report a case of a 65-year-old female who presented with bilateral anterior granulomatous uveitis, which led to the diagnosis of Rosai-Dorfman Disease (RDD) and the discovery of an associated pancreatic mass. Methods This is a retrospective case report of a single patient. Results A 65-year-old African American Female received a full workup for bilateral anterior granulomatous uveitis and was found to have a pancreatic mass on imaging. Biopsy of this mass was diagnostic for RDD, a rare proliferative histiocytic disorder, which classically presents with painless cervical lymphadenopathy, leukocytosis, and hypergammaglobulinemia. Conclusion Although rare, ocular involvement, including eyelid and orbital masses, and anterior uveitis, can herald the development of other systemic manifestations or RDD and can aid in the diagnosis of this systemic disease.
Comparison of cell-based assays to quantify treatment effects of anticancer drugs identifies a new application for Bodipy-L-cystine to measure apoptosis

Cell-based assays that measure anticancer drug effects are essential for evaluating chemotherapeutic agents. Many assays targeting various cellular mechanisms are available, leading to inconsistent results when using different techniques. We critically compared six common assays, as well as a new assay using Bodipy.FL.L-cystine (BFC), to identify the most accurate and reproducible in measuring anticancer drug effects. We tested three common chemotherapies (methotrexate, paclitaxel, and etoposide) in two cell lines (Ln229 and MDA-MB231). Spectroscopic assays such as Cell Titer Blue, and 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCFDA) yielded a strong drug dose response, especially for paclitaxel and etoposide (R2 = 0.9). MTT and Calcein-AM fluorescent dye-based assays were less consistent in that regard. Among three flow cytometry assays, Propidium Iodide (PI)-based DNA content analysis and a new BFC-based glutathione-redox (GSH) assay produced drug dose dependent results. Compared to PI, BFC showed a better correlation (R2 = 0.7–0.9) in depicting live and apoptotic cells. We found that the combination of Cell Titer Blue spectroscopy and BFC flow cytometry assays were most accurate in assessing anticancer drug effects by clear distinction between live and apoptotic cells, independent of drug mechanism of action. We present a new application of BFC as an agent for measuring cellular apoptosis.
[Bis(3-methyl-2-thioxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-imidazol­yl)borato-κ2S,S′]dibromo­indium(III)

The structure of the title compound, [InBr2(C8H12N4BS2)], the first bis­(mercaptoimidazol­yl)borate (BmMe) complex of indium to be structurally characterized, has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The four-coordinate In atom displays a distorted tetra­hedral geometry in the solid state and is surrounded by the two thione groups of a BmMe ligand and two bromides, with an average In—Br bond distance of 2.494 A. The presence of a crystallographically imposed mirror plane results in the observation of a unique In—S bond length of 2.4407 (11) A.
Evaluation of transcatheter heart valve biomaterials: Computational modeling using bovine and porcine pericardium

Abstract Objective The durability of bioprosthetic heart valve (BHV) devices, commonly made of bovine (BP) and porcine (PP) pericardium tissue, is partly limited by device calcification and tissue degeneration, which has been associated with pathological levels of mechanical stress. This study investigated the impacts of BP and PP tissues with different thicknesses and tissue mechanical properties in BHV applications. Methods Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) imaging was employed to visualize the collagen fibers on each side of the pericardium. Structural constitutive modeling that incorporates collagen fiber distribution obtained from multiphoton microscopy for each tissue type were derived to characterize the corresponding biaxial mechanical testing data collected in a previous study. The models were verified through finite element (FE) simulations of the biaxial test and implemented in valve closing simulations. Results Smooth side collagen fibers were found to correlate with the mechanical response. BHVs with adult (ABP) and calf (CBP) BP tissues had lower maximum principal stresses than those with PP and fetal (FBP) BP tissues. Collagen fiber orientation along the circumferential axis resulted in lower maximum principal stresses and more uniform and symmetric stress distributions throughout the valve. Conclusions The use of PP and FBP tissue resulted in higher peak stresses than ABP and CBP tissues in the given valve design. Additionally, ensuring collagen fiber orientation along the circumferential axis led to lower maximum stresses felt by the valve leaflets, which could also improve BHV durability.
Dynamical Aquaplanet Experiments with Uniform Thermal Forcing: System Dynamics and Implications for Tropical Cyclone Genesis and Size

AbstractExisting hypotheses for the dynamical dependence of tropical cyclone genesis and size on latitude depend principally on the Coriolis parameter f. These hypotheses are tested via dynamical a...
Cervical Spine Computed Tomography Hounsfield Units Accurately Predict Low Bone Mineral Density of the Femoral Neck.

STUDY DESIGN A retrospective cohort. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study to determine the correlation between Hounsfield unit (HU) measurements from the C4 vertebral body and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) T-score. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Recent attention has turned to the utilization of HU measurements from computed tomography (CT) as a potential screening method for low bone mineral density (BMD). We hypothesized that cervical spine CT HU measurements will correlate with BMD measurements conducted with DXA scans of the femoral neck. MATERIAL AND METHODS Patients with cervical CT and femoral neck DXA scans at 1 institution were included in the study. HUs were manually measured from the cancellous bone in the C4 vertebrae by 1 author blinded to DXA scans. HU measurements were compared with femoral neck DXA T-scores for the entire population. RESULTS A total of 149 patients with 149 cervical CT and femoral neck DXA scans were included in the study. The low BMD group (osteoporotic and osteopenic combined) showed a significant difference in HU compared with the normal groups within the study (P<0.0001). A low BMD screening value of 447 HU captured over 95% of patients with low BMD within our study and provided a sensitivity of 92% and negative predictive value of 82.1%. The male and female intrasex analysis demonstrated a significant difference between the low BMD and normal BMD groups with P=0.001 and P=0.0001, respectively. CONCLUSIONS HU measurements taken from the C4 vertebral body on CT scan correlate with low BMD of the femoral neck as determined by DXA scan T-scores. Screening values of 447 HU captured 95% of patients with low BMD, with a high degree of sensitivity, and negative predictive value of 80%. Utilization of cervical spine HU as a screening method provides a simple, quick, and easily assessable screening tool for assessing low BMD. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level III-diagnostic.
Individual Differences in Ethanol Drinking and Seeking Behaviors in Rats Exposed to Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Vapor Exposure is Associated with Altered CaMKII Autophosphorylation in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell.

Chronic intermittent ethanol vapor exposure (CIE) in rodents produces reliable and high blood ethanol concentration and behavioral symptoms associated with moderate to severe alcohol use disorder (AUD)—for example, escalation of operant ethanol self-administration, a feature suggestive of transition from recreational to addictive use, is a widely replicated behavior in rats that experience CIE. Herein, we present evidence from a subset of rats that do not demonstrate escalation of ethanol self-administration following seven weeks of CIE. These low responders (LR) maintain low ethanol self-administration during CIE, demonstrate lower relapse to drinking during abstinence and reduced reinstatement of ethanol seeking triggered by ethanol cues when compared with high responders (HR). We examined the blood ethanol levels in LR and HR rats during CIE and show higher levels in LR compared with HR. We also examined peak corticosterone levels during CIE and show that LR rats have higher levels compared with HR rats. Lastly, we evaluated the levels of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in the nucleus accumbens shell and reveal that the activity of CaMKII, which is autophosphorylated at site Tyr-286, is significantly reduced in HR rats compared with LR rats. These findings demonstrate that dysregulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity and plasticity-related proteins regulating molecular memory in the nucleus accumbens shell are associated with higher ethanol-drinking and -seeking in HR rats. Future mechanistic studies should evaluate CaMKII autophosphorylation-dependent remodeling of glutamatergic synapses in the ventral striatum as a plausible mechanism for the CIE-induced enhanced ethanol drinking and seeking behaviors.
A Machine Learning Approach for Identifying Soccer Moves Using an Accelerometer Sensor

Human activity recognition is one of the active research topics in the past decade. Many applications have been developed in many domains such as health and sports. In this paper, we recognized main soccer actions using an accelerometer sensor, which was embedded in a mobile phone. The data was collected from 16 players. We extracted time and frequency domain features, tested five feature selection methods and eight supervised machine learning algorithms. We showed that Fast Hadamard Transform had a similar performance to Fast Fourier Transform, but Fast Hadamard Transform was more computationally efficient. In addition, we demonstrated that the recognition task can be achieved using two accelerometer axes instead of three axes. Support Vector Machine was the best classifier with an accuracy of 87% when all features were used. Using Wrapper method, a slight improvement in accuracy was achieved by Random forest to reach 88%. Using an Ensemble Learning approach, we were successfully able to achieve an accuracy of 90%.
Observations of sea ice melt from Operation IceBridge imagery

Abstract. The summer albedo of Arctic sea ice is heavily dependent on the fraction and color of melt ponds that form on the ice surface. This work presents a new dataset of sea ice surface fractions along Operation IceBridge (OIB) flight tracks derived from the Digital Mapping System optical imagery set. This dataset was created by deploying version 2 of the Open Source Sea-ice Processing (OSSP) algorithm to NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Pleiades System. These new surface fraction results are then analyzed to investigate the behavior of meltwater on first-year ice in comparison to multiyear ice. Observations herein show that first-year ice does not ubiquitously have a higher melt pond fraction than multiyear ice under the same forcing conditions, contrary to established knowledge in the sea ice community. We discover and document a larger possible spread of pond fractions on first-year ice leading to both high and low pond coverage, in contrast to the uniform melt evolution that has been previously observed on multiyear ice floes. We also present a selection of optical images that capture both the typical and atypical ice types, as observed from the OIB dataset. The derived OIB data presented here will be key to explore the behavior of melt pond formation Arctic sea ice.
Bicriteria Approximation of Chance-Constrained Covering Problems

A chance-constrained optimization problem involves constraints with random data that can be violated with probability bounded from above by a prespecified small risk parameter. Such constraints are...
Individual associations of adolescent alcohol use disorder versus cannabis use disorder symptoms in neural prediction error signaling and the response to novelty

Two of the most commonly used illegal substances by adolescents are alcohol and cannabis. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) are associated with poorer decision-making in adolescents. In adolescents, level of AUD symptomatology has been negatively associated with striatal reward responsivity. However, little work has explored the relationship with striatal reward prediction error (RPE) representation and the extent to which any augmentation of RPE by novel stimuli is impacted. One-hundred fifty-one adolescents participated in the Novelty Task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this task, participants learn to choose novel or non-novel stimuli to gain monetary reward. Level of AUD symptomatology was negatively associated with both optimal decision-making and BOLD response modulation by RPE within striatum and regions of prefrontal cortex. The neural alterations in RPE representation were particularly pronounced when participants were exploring novel stimuli. Level of CUD symptomatology moderated the relationship between novelty propensity and RPE representation within inferior parietal lobule and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These data expand on an emerging literature investigating individual associations of AUD symptomatology levels versus CUD symptomatology levels and RPE representation during reinforcement processing and provide insight on the role of neuro-computational processes underlying reinforcement learning/decision-making in adolescents.
Stock market reaction and adjustment speed to multiple announcements of accounting restatements

This paper investigates how investors react to multiple restatement announcements and how rapidly they adjust to the information content of the restatement when firms announce the restatement more frequently and the time lag from the prior announcement becomes lengthier. For our own purposes of analysis, overall investors are segmented into two groups: those responding positively and negatively to restatements. We find that investors making a positive initial response to restatements become less favorable to subsequent restatements, while those making a negative initial response become less negative to subsequent restatements. The restatement with a shorter (longer) time lag from the prior restatement is taken favorably (unfavorably) by both groups of investors alike. We also find evidence that investors responding positively to restatements tend to delay moderately the speed at which they adjust to information contained in the restatement after the restatement announcement, and the delay becomes lengthier as restatements are more frequently announced. In contrast, investors responding negatively tend to adjust more rapidly in the post-announcement period with an increasing number of restatements. Both groups of investors consistently adjust more quickly (more slowly) to the restatement with a shorter (longer) lag from the prior announcement.
Unemployment and obesity during the great recession: evidence from US county panel data

This article investigates the effect of unemployment on obesity during the Great Recession. Previous studies using mainly individual data surveys find that the relationship is inconclusive. Motivat...
A short-interval reburn catalyzes departures from historical structure and composition in a mesic mixed-conifer forest

Abstract Recent increases in fire frequency and severity across the western US are triggering abrupt changes in ecosystem structure and composition, especially in lower montane forests, but consequences of fire-regime change for mesic, mixed-conifer forests remain uncertain. Glacier National Park (Montana, USA) is characterized by a complex mosaic of species typical of Rocky Mountain, Pacific Northwest and boreal floras, creating opportunities for species composition to shift as species respond individualistically to environmental change. We quantified prefire and postfire stem density and composition in a recent anomalously short-interval fire (15 yrs) and historically typical long-interval fire (88–282 + yrs) to answer two questions: (1) How do the structure and composition of tree regeneration differ after long- and short-interval fires that burned in close proximity? (2) What drivers explain differences in postfire regeneration densities among species? We additionally compared understory cover in each fire to anticipate consequences of contemporary fire for the whole plant community. Mean postfire tree seedling density was 45 times higher after the long- than short-interval fire, and many stands in the short-interval fire lacked any tree regeneration. Postfire tree seedling densities were above prefire stem densities in the long-interval fire but well below in the short-interval fire. After both fires, fire-avoiding conifers (e.g., Picea engelmannii, Abies lasiocarpa) were generally replaced by fire-tolerating or fire-embracing species (e.g., Larix occidentalis, Pinus contorta var. latifolia). Some stands remained dominated by fire-sensitive conifers after long-interval fire but never after short-interval fire. Seedlings of Thuja plicata and Tsuga heterophylla were present after the long-interval fire but absent before and after the short-interval fire, despite historically occupying both burned areas. For all species, seedling density increased with indicators of proximate seed supply. Seedling density of dispersal-dependent species declined with distance to live trees, whereas P. contorta responded to serotiny. Seedlings of drought-intolerant species were more abundant on northerly aspects. Total understory cover was 50% lower after short-interval than long-interval fire, but shrub cover was twice as high. Our study suggests that persistent seed sources will allow L. occidentalis to expand following sequential high-severity fires, while dispersal-limited, drought-intolerant conifers may decline due to loss of seed sources and elevated postfire aridity. Increased fire activity will likely produce sparser forests that are dominated by fire-tolerating and fire-embracing conifers at the expense of fire-avoiding and fire-refuge species. Complete regeneration failure may be delayed by high fire-trait syndrome diversity, but the structure and composition of extant forests will shift.
Orthopedics and Decision Rules

Everything from Ottawa ankle and knee rules to the Kanavel’s signs for tenosynovitis all wrapped into one action-packed chapter.
Decline and Recovery in Transition Economies: The Impact of Initial Conditions

This paper examines and analyzes the stylized facts of the contemporary transition economies, specifically the initial decline and subsequent variable recovery of real gross domestic product. We test the argument that a major source of observed differences in magnitude and duration of decline is the extent of initial disequilibrium of these economies. We specify and estimate a simple econometric model relating the observed pattern of decline to important pre-transition disequilibrium forces, especially macroeconomic distortions. Microeconomic distortions, conceptual, and measurement issues are considered as well. The transition experiences of former Soviet republics are compared with those of countries in Eastern Europe. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O10, P20, P50. 6 figures, 1 table, 21 references.
Storm surge damage to residential areas: a quantitative analysis for Hurricane Sandy in comparison with FEMA flood map

A quantitative assessment of storm surge damage is used to analyze structural vulnerability and evaluate the performance of flood risk mapping by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Using a survey of about 380 structures in heavily impacted Ortley Beach, New Jersey, following Hurricane Sandy (2012), we first assess component-level damage to each side and story of a structure based on a percentage scale. For each structure, these physical damage percentages are then integrated into a single indicator of overall damage—the economic loss ratio. These performance assessments are combined with building information to develop an integrated Geographic Information System database. This detailed database allows for a quantitative analysis of damage features and causes. Damage at the overall, story, side, and component levels all decrease as the distance to the coast increases, with most severely damaged houses concentrated in a near-shore region. Despite being heavily damaged however, this region was assessed as a low-risk zone according to FEMA’s current flood risk map. In contrast, a neighboring inland region which experienced significantly less damage was assigned as a high-risk zone. The preliminary new FEMA flood map for the area is improved by increasing the risk category for the near-shore region, but the fundamental problem, likely induced by insufficient wave modeling, needs to be addressed further. This study demonstrates a method of quantitatively assessing and documenting storm surge damage and applying the damage information to evaluate flood risk maps.
Pediatric elbow fractures: a new angle on an old topic

The three most common elbow fractures classically reported in pediatric orthopedic literature are supracondylar (50–70%), lateral condylar (17–34%), and medial epicondylar fractures (10%), with fractures of the proximal radius (including but not limited to fractures of the radial neck) being relatively uncommon (5–10%). Our experience at a large children’s hospital suggests a different distribution. Our goals were (1) to ascertain the frequency of different elbow fracture types in a large pediatric population, and (2) to determine which fracture types were occult on initial radiographs but detected on follow-up. Review of medical records identified 462 children, median age 6 years and interquartile range for age of 4–8 years (range 0.8–18 years), who were diagnosed with elbow fractures at our institution over a 10-month period. Initial and follow-up radiographs were reviewed in blinded fashion independently by two experienced pediatric musculoskeletal radiologists to identify fracture types on initial and follow-up radiographs. The most common fractures included supracondylar (n = 258, 56%), radial neck (n = 80, 17%), and lateral condylar (n = 69, 15%). Additional fractures were seen on follow-up exams in 32 children. Of these, 25 had a different fracture type than was identified on initial radiographs. The most common follow-up fractures were olecranon (n = 23, 72%), coronoid process (n = 4, 13%) and supracondylar (n = 3, 9%). Olecranon fractures were significantly more common on follow-up radiographs than they were on initial radiographs (n = 33, 7%; P < .0001). Twenty-six children had more than one fracture type on the initial radiograph. The most common fracture combinations were radial neck with olecranon (n = 9) and supracondylar with lateral condylar (n = 9). Supracondylar fractures are the most frequent elbow fracture seen initially, followed by radial neck, lateral condylar, and olecranon fractures in a distribution different from what has been historically described. The relatively high frequency of olecranon fractures detected on follow-up speaks to their potentially occult nature. Careful attention to these areas is warranted in children with initially normal radiographs.
Placer++: Semantic place labels beyond the visit

Place labeling is the process of giving semantic labels to locations, such as home, work, and school. For a particular person, these labels can be computed automatically based on features of that person's visits to these locations. A previous system called Placer used the person's demographic data and the timing of their visits to label places with a learned decision tree. We developed Placer++ as a more accurate labeler, augmenting Placer's features of individual visits with (1) labeled visits from other people and (2) features about the sequence of the individual's visits. In processing sequences, we adopt structural learning techniques to take into account the relationships between visits. Accuracy increased by 8.85 percentage points over the baseline of Placer. We describe and justify the features and present our experiments on government diary data.
Stratification of microbial assemblages in Mono Lake, California, and response to a mixing event

Vertical profiles of microbial assemblages from samples of Mono Lake water collected in July 1994 and in April and July 1995 were obtained by analyzing DNA via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The microbial assemblage was vertically stratified and distributions of individual ribotypes were coherent with temperature, salinity, irradiance and dissolved oxygen distributions at the beginning of the study in July of 1994. The lake mixed completely during the winter of 1994–1995 and was beginning to stratify thermally by April 1995. Water column gradients were weak and oxygen was depleted at depth. The microbial assemblage was uniformly distributed throughout the water column except at 20 m, where one band dominated. The microbial assemblage was vertically stratified again by July 1995. Partial sequences (134–160 bp, except one of 83 bp) obtained from DGGE bands revealed affinities to known organisms, but only one potentially exact match was found. With a few exceptions, the same ribotypes were present on all sampling dates; there was no evidence for a marked seasonal succession in microbial community composition, despite the dramatic changes in limnological conditions that accompanied the winter overturn. A band that was ubiquitous in samples from the oxycline and hypolimnion in July of both years was found throughout the water column in April. This sequence could be attributed to the chloroplast rRNA gene of an unusual phytoplankter, the green alga Picocystis salinarum.
Developmental neurotoxicity testing: A path forward

Great progress has been made over the past 40 years in understanding the hazards of exposure to a small number of developmental neurotoxicants. Lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, and methylmercury are all good examples of science-based approaches to characterizing the hazard to the developing nervous systems from environmental contaminants. However, very little effort has been spent to address the challenge of assessing the potential developmental neurotoxic hazard of the thousands of other chemicals in common commercial use. The extensive time, financial and animal resource requirements for current regulatory testing guideline methods make this an untenable solution to this challenge. A new testing paradigm is needed that uses time and cost-efficient methods to screen large numbers of chemicals for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). In silico models are needed to provide rapid chemical structure-based screening. In vitro techniques are being developed to provide rapid and efficient testing in cell-free and cell-based systems. In addition, the use of alternative species, such as zebrafish, will provide efficient models for testing the effects of chemicals in organisms with intact developing nervous systems. Finally, these methods and models need to be used in an integrated fashion to provide the data needs for hazard assessment in a manner that is problem-driven and cost-efficient. This paper summarizes discussions on these issues from the symposium 'Developmental neurotoxicity testing: Scientific approaches towards the next generation to protecting the developing nervous system of children' held at the 2011 annual meeting of the Japanese Teratology Society.
Ground Broadcast Service - Safe Flight 21

The FAA-initiated Safe Flight 21 program is a cooperative government/industry effort to evaluate enhanced aerodrome and aircraft capabilities based on evolving Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) technologies. Safe Flight 21 will demonstrate the in-cockpit display of traffic, weather, terrain and obstacle information for pilots and will provide improved information to controllers. The Ground Broadcast Service (GBS) will act as the main communication link between the Safe Flight 21 sensors and both the avionic and ground vehicle arenas. The data, collected and processed by multiple sensors, is routed to the GBS for reformatting, broadcast timing coordination, filtering and transmission to the user avionics. This paper describes the system specifications of the GBS as specified by the FAA Safe Flight 21 program. It also presents the complete functional requirements for the GBS as well as necessary interface and user avionics formats and protocols.
Integrating cognitive rehabilitation: A preliminary program description and theoretical review of an interdisciplinary cognitive rehabilitation program.

Background Interdisciplinary cognitive rehabilitation is emerging as the expected standard of care for individuals with mild to moderate degrees of cognitive impairment for a variety of etiologies. There is a growing body of evidence in cognitive rehabilitation literature supporting the involvement of multiple disciplines, with the use of cognitive support technologies (CSTs), in delivering cognitive therapy to individuals who require cognitive rehabilitative therapies. This article provides an overview of the guiding theories related to traditional approaches of cognitive rehabilitation and the positive impact of current theoretical models of an interdisciplinary approach in clinical service delivery of this rehabilitation. Objective A theoretical model of the Integrative Cognitive Rehabilitation Program (ICRP) will be described in detail along with the practical substrates of delivering specific interventions to individuals and caregivers who are living with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. The ultimate goal of this article is to provide a clinically useful resource for direct service providers. It will serve to further clinical knowledge and understanding of the evolution from traditional silo based treatment paradigms to the current implementation of multiple perspectives and disciplines in the pursuit of patient centered care. Methods The article will discuss the theories that contributed to the development of the interdisciplinary team and the ICRP model, implemented with individuals with mild to moderate cognitive deficits, regardless of etiology. The development and implementation of specific assessment and intervention strategies in this cognitive rehabilitation program will also be discussed. Results The assessment and intervention strategies utilized as part of ICRP are applicable to multiple clinical settings in which individuals with cognitive impairment are served. Conclusions This article has specific implications for rehabilitation which include: (a) An Interdisciplinary Approach is an effective method for cognitive rehabilitation; and (b) Recent theories offer beneficial evaluation and intervention techniques for cognitive rehabilitation.
Identification of conserved regions for species and subspecies specific epitopes on the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia trachomatis

Abstract Proteolytic peptides containing the serological epitopes present on the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia trachomatis were studied by immunoblots. Monoclonal antibodies which have been defined by micro-immunofluorescence typing as serovar-, subspecies- and species-specific were utilized. The reactivity of either serovar-specific or species-specific monoclonal antibodies in the immunoblots was similar to that in the micro-immunofluorescence test. However, monoclonal antibodies which demonstrated subspecies-specific reactivity by the micro-immunofluorescence test expressed species-specific reactivity by the immunoblot method. The serovar-specific epitope which was identified on the major outer membrane protein was lost after proteolytic digestion with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease. Immunoblots of the proteolytic fragments identified the species-specific epitope on several peptides and the subspecies-specific epitope on fewer peptides than those in which the species-specific epitope was identified. In addition, both the species and subspecies epitopes were present on the same fragments of different serovars. The data indicate that the species epitope is on conserved regions of the major outer membrane protein and is structurally clustered with a subspecies-specific epitope.
The Effect of Freezing and Reheating on Shear Press Values of Precooked Chicken

Abstract INTRODUCTION Precooked frozen meat is increasing in popularity because of greater convenience. However, Watts et al. (1948), West et al. (1959), and Mitchell (1963) have reported that precooking reduces palatability of frozen meat. Mickelberry and Stadelman (1960Mickelberry and Stadelman (1962) compared the following cooking methods: micro-wave, deep-fat fry, deepfat fry and micro-wave, rotary-reel oven, and steam and deep-fat fry. They found that cooking chicken before freezing made it significantly less tender. Deep-fat fried birds were less tender than birds cooked by other methods. Stadelman and Wise (1961) reported shear values of breast meat increased (indicating less tenderness) by cooking before freezing. Miller and May (1965) reported that rate of freezing (0°, —30° and — 90°F.) did not significantly influence tenderness. They also reported that cooking chicken breasts before freezing and storing resulted in greater shear-press values than when the breasts were cooked after frozen storage. The present study was to evaluate methods of…
Relational Contracts, Multitasking, and Job Design

This article analyzes optimal job design in a repeated principal-agent relationship when there is only one contractible and imperfect performance measure for three tasks whose contribution to firm value is nonverifiable. The tasks can be assigned to either one or two agents. Assigning an additional task to an agent strengthens his relational contract. Therefore, broad task assignments are optimal when the performance measure strongly distorts incentives for the two-task job. This is more likely to be the case if these two tasks are substitutes.