cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unnecessary use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in hospitalized patients

Fluoroquinolones are among the most commonly prescribed antimicrobials and are an important risk factor for colonization and infection with fluoroquinolone-resistant gram-negative bacilli and for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). In this study, our aim was to determine current patterns of inappropriate fluoroquinolone prescribing among hospitalized patients, and to test the hypothesis that longer than necessary treatment durations account for a significant proportion of unnecessary fluoroquinolone use. We conducted a 6-week prospective, observational study to determine the frequency of, reasons for, and adverse effects associated with unnecessary fluoroquinolone use in a tertiary-care academic medical center. For randomly-selected adult inpatients receiving fluoroquinolones, therapy was determined to be necessary or unnecessary based on published guidelines or standard principles of infectious diseases. Adverse effects were determined based on chart review 6 weeks after completion of therapy. Of 1,773 days of fluoroquinolone therapy, 690 (39%) were deemed unnecessary. The most common reasons for unnecessary therapy included administration of antimicrobials for non-infectious or non-bacterial syndromes (292 days-of-therapy) and administration of antimicrobials for longer than necessary durations (234 days-of-therapy). The most common syndrome associated with unnecessary therapy was urinary tract infection or asymptomatic bacteriuria (30% of all unnecessary days-of-therapy). Twenty-seven percent (60/227) of regimens were associated with adverse effects possibly attributable to therapy, including gastrointestinal adverse effects (14% of regimens), colonization by resistant pathogens (8% of regimens), and CDI (4% of regimens). In our institution, 39% of all days of fluoroquinolone therapy were unnecessary. Interventions that focus on improving adherence with current guidelines for duration of antimicrobial therapy and for management of urinary syndromes could significantly reduce overuse of fluoroquinolones.
Small-angle scattering from an involuted pyramid

High-frequency scattering by a perfectly conducting four-sided involuted pyramid is investigated. The principally polarized radar cross section at small aspect angles is derived by integrating the fields scattered from a wedge around the base termination. The theoretical results are compared with measurements and shown to be in reasonable agreement.
The AQ Methods for Concept Drift

Since the mid-1990’s, we have developed, implemented, and evaluated a number of learning methods that cope with concept drift. Drift occurs when the target concept that a learner must acquire changes over time. It is present in applications involving user preferences (e.g., calendar scheduling) and adversaries (e.g., spam detection). We based early efforts on Michalski’s aq algorithm, and our more recent work has investigated ensemble methods. We have also implemented several methods that other researchers have proposed. In this chapter, we survey results that we have obtained since the mid-1990’s using the Stagger concepts and learning methods for concept drift. We examine our methods based on the aq algorithm, our ensemble methods, and the methods of other researchers. Dynamic weighted majority with an incremental algorithm for producing decision trees as the base learner achieved the best overall performance on this problem with an area under the performance curve after the first drift point of .882. Systems based on the aq11 algorithm, which incrementally induces rules, performed comparably, achieving areas of .875. Indeed, an aq11 system with partial instance memory and Widmer and Kubat’s window adjustment heuristic achieved the best performance with an overall area under the performance curve, with an area of .898.
Using Audacity for Demonstrations of Psychoacoustical Principles

This article contains both basic and advanced tutorial demonstrations, created with Audacity software, designed to teach psychoacoustical principles to undergraduate students enrolled in courses such as Sensation and Perception. The demonstrations illustrate concepts such as the relationships between physical characteristics of sine waves (e.g., frequency, amplitude, and phase) and perception, the human hearing range, dissonance, complex tones and additive synthesis, perception of the missing fundamental frequency, auditory localization cues, and timbre. The present article also includes discussion of a study evaluating the effectiveness of these demonstrations in teaching psychoacoustical concepts. Specifically, this study revealed a statistically significant benefit of performing these demonstrations over simply experiencing the same phenomena in a lecture setting. Finally, this article offers suggestions for additional demonstrations that instructors may wish to perform.
On the Intractability of Loading Neural Networks

Neural networks have been proposed as a tool for machine learning. In this role, a network is trained to recognize complex associations between inputs and outputs that were presented during a supervised training cycle. These associations are incorporated into the weights of the network, which encode a distributed representation of the information that was contained in the patterns. Once trained, the network will compute an input/output mapping which, if the training data was representative enough, will closely match the unknown rule which produced the original data. Massive parallelism of computation, as well as noise and fault tolerance, are often offered as justifications for the use of neural nets as learning paradigms.
Biomarker discovery: tissues versus fluids versus both.

Proteins are principal regulators and effectors of physiologic and pathophysiologic processes within solitary cells, cell lines and highly complex organisms. For these reasons, proteomics is expect...
FibronectinEDA Promotes Chronic Cutaneous Fibrosis Through Toll-like Receptor Signaling

Scleroderma is a progressive autoimmune disease affecting multiple organs. Fibrosis, the hallmark of scleroderma, represents transformation of self-limited wound healing into a deregulated self-sustaining process. The factors responsible for maintaining persistent fibroblast activation in scleroderma and other conditions with chronic fibrosis are not well understood. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and its damage-associated endogenous ligands are implicated in immune and fibrotic responses. We now show that fibronectin extra domain A (FnEDA) is an endogenous TLR4 ligand markedly elevated in the circulation and lesional skin biopsies from patients with scleroderma, as well as in mice with experimentally induced cutaneous fibrosis. Synthesis of FnEDA was preferentially stimulated by transforming growth factor–β in normal fibroblasts and was constitutively up-regulated in scleroderma fibroblasts. Exogenous FnEDA was a potent stimulus for collagen production, myofibroblast differentiation, and wound healing in vitro and increased the mechanical stiffness of human organotypic skin equivalents. Each of these profibrotic FnEDA responses was abrogated by genetic, RNA interference, or pharmacological disruption of TLR4 signaling. Moreover, either genetic loss of FnEDA or TLR4 blockade using a small molecule mitigated experimentally induced cutaneous fibrosis in mice. These observations implicate the FnEDA-TLR4 axis in cutaneous fibrosis and suggest a paradigm in which aberrant FnEDA accumulation in the fibrotic milieu drives sustained fibroblast activation via TLR4. This model explains how a damage-associated endogenous TLR4 ligand might contribute to converting self-limited tissue repair responses into intractable fibrogenesis in chronic conditions such as scleroderma. Disrupting sustained TLR4 signaling therefore represents a potential strategy for the treatment of fibrosis in scleroderma.
Krawall in der Zionskirche: Skinhead Violence and Political Legitimacy in the GDR:

In 1987, an East Berlin punk concert was attacked by Skinheads. This event and others like it provoked sustained outcry in the German Democratic Republic in the last years of the 1980s. The politic...
A comparative study of color measurement lntstrumentation

A multiplant Quality Improvement Team [QIT] was firmed to develop and implement an evaluation program for various color measurement .systems as potential replacements for the then-current aging systems. The emphasis qf this article is the analytical methodology utilized to evaluate the various color systems. The evaluation program consisted cf two phases. Phase I was a general overview/review of several systems, while Phase II was an extensive internal comparative evaluation measurement systems. These were Milton-Roy's ColorMate HDS, HunterLab's Ultrascan, Datacolor's CS-5, and BYK-Gardner's The Color Sphere [TCS]. The main comparison criteria were interinstrument agreement [agreement between two instruments ofthe same system], user-friendly software and computer interface capability, vendor amenability to a long-term logistical and maintenance relationship, and price. All systems were evaluated by duplicate measurements on various color tiles, yarns, and polymer flakes-over 1600 measurements on each system. The systems were compared with an instrument matrix, a decision matrix, and a product matrix. The instrument matrix was a comparison qfinstrument parameters, software/math treatments, and economics. The decision matrix was a forced ranking of each system by each criteria category [1–4 scale, with 1 representing the best and 4 representing the worst]. The product matrix accentuated the relative importance ofone criterion category over another by multiplying the forced ranking by the criticality of the category. The criticality of a given category wus determined by consensus within the QIT. Thr combination qf the three matrices allowed the evaluator[.s] t o select the color rneasuremmt system that best satixfied the color measurement needs and requirements of their facility and their products. For this evaluation, all ofthe evaluated systems were superior to the then-current agingsystems. As a result of this methodology, one instrument emerged as clearly superior. © 1994 John Wrley & Sons, Inc.
A parting shot at tobacco.

ON SEPTEMBER 13, 1989, I made my last appearance as Surgeon General before the US Congress. I used the occasion to address the one issue with which previous Surgeons General and I have become most closely associated: tobacco and health. In testimony before the Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Substances, Committee on Energy and Commerce, US House of Representatives, I focused my remarks on two topics that this subcommittee had considered in previous hearings: tobacco advertising and children's access to tobacco products. The purpose of this article is to share with a wider audience the comments I made at that hearing. Tobacco Advertising The bill introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Thomas A. Luken (D, Ohio), HR 1250, would eliminate all image-based tobacco advertising (allowing only so-called tombstone advertising). On several occasions during my tenure as Surgeon General, I endorsed proposals that would ban all tobacco advertising and promotion. I certainly support
On the generation of surface waves by shear flows Part 3. Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

The Kelvin-Helmholtz model for the formation of surface waves at the interface between two fluids in relative motion is generalized for parallel shear flows. It is assumed that phase changes across the flow are negligible and hence that the aerodynamic pressure on the wave is in phase with its displacement (rather than its slope). A variational formulation is established and leads to the determination of appropriately weighted means for the velocity profiles. The principal application is to flow of a light inviscid fluid over a viscous liquid; it is shown that the principle of exchange of stabilities is applicable to such a configuration, and a critical wind speed in satisfactory agreement with observation is predicted for an air-oil interface. The results also are applied to an air-water interface and lead to the conclusion that Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of such an interface is unlikely at commonly observed wind speeds. A more general formulation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz boundary-value problem and variational principle, allowing for variations in both velocity and density, is given in two appendices.
Optical properties of Teflon ® AF amorphous fluoropolymers

The optical properties of three grades of Teflon ® AF— AF1300, AF1601, and AF2400—were investigated using a J.A. Woollam VUV-VASE spectroscopic ellipsometry system. The refractive indices for each grade were obtained from multiple measurements with different film thicknesses on Si substrates. The absorbances of Teflon ® AF films were determined by measuring the transmission intensity of Teflon ® AF films on CaF2 substrates. In addition to the refractive index and absorbance per cm base 10, the extinction coefficient k, and absorption coefficient per cm base e, Urbach parameters of absorption edge position and edge width, and two-pole Sellmeier parameters were determined for the three grades of Teflon ® AF. We found that the optical properties of the three grades of Teflon ® AF varied systematically with the AF TFE/PDD composition. The indices of refraction, extinction coefficient k, absorp- tion coefficient , and absorbance A increased, as did the TFE con- tent, while the PDD content decreased. In addition, the Urbach edge position moved to a longer wavelength, and the Urbach edge width became wider. © 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.
Relationships among substrate, flow, and benthic microalgal pigment density in the Mechums River, Virginia 1

Measurements of photosynthetic pigments have been used to estimate the biomass of benthic microalgae on soft and hard substrates in a small river in the Virginia Piedmont. The irregular distribution of periphyton was partially related to substrate distribution and is explained as a result of spatial variations in the current regime in the river. High flow due to unpredictable and heavy rainfall is shown to be the main factor controlling algal biomass. Deterministic predictions of algal crop arc therefore not possible in rivers of this type.
The hope construct, will, and ways: Their relations with self-efficacy, optimism, and general well-being.

This investigation (N = 204) examined (a) the relations between the hope construct (Snyder, Harris et al., 1991; Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991) and its two essential components, "will" and "ways," and the related constructs of self-efficacy and optimism; and (b) the ability of hope, self-efficacy, and optimism to predict general well-being. Maximum-likelihood factor analysis recovered will, ways, self-efficacy, and optimism as generally distinct and independent entities. Results of multiple regression analyses predicting well-being indicated that (a) hope taken as a whole predicts unique variance independent of self-efficacy and optimism, (b) will predicts unique variance independent of self-efficacy, and (c) ways predicts unique variance independent of optimism. Overall, findings suggest that will, ways, self-efficacy, and optimism are related but not identical constructs.
Combined product and substrate inhibition equation for cellobiase

Cellobiase is a beta-glucosidase which hydrolyzes cellobiose to glucose and is known to be subject to both product and substrate inhibition. This work reports a model which combines both product and substrate inhibition effects for cellobiase isolated from a commercial preparation of Trichoderma viride from Miles Laboratories (Elkhart, IN). An integrated rate equation is presented which predicts the trends of time courses for hydrolyses of cellobiose at concentrations ranging from 14.6-146 mM cellobiose. The constants used in the model (determined from initial rate data) are compared to those reported for cellobiase obtained from other sources of Trichoderma viride. Most notable in this comparison is the apparently higher activity and reduced inhibition of this enzyme compared to other sources of cellobiase. (Refs. 15).
Degrees of freedom of the K user MIMO interference channel

We provide inner bound and outer bound for the total number of degrees of freedom of the K user multiple input multiple output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with M antennas at each transmitter and N antennas at each receiver if the channel coefficients are time-varying and drawn from a continuous distribution. The bounds are tight when the ratio max(M, N)/min (M, N) = R is equal to an integer. For this case, we show that the total number of degrees of freedom is equal to min(M, N)K if K les R and min(M, N) R/R +1 K if K > R. Achievability is based on interference alignment.
Modulation of redox signaling promotes apoptosis in epithelial ovarian cancer cells

Objective Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells are known to be resistant to apoptosis through a mechanism that may involve alteration in their redox balance. NADPH oxidase is a major source of intracellular superoxide, which is converted to the less toxic product by superoxide dismutase (SOD). Superoxide contributes to hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α stabilization. We sought to determine the effects of inhibiting the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) on apoptosis of EOC cells.
Acoustic source identification using multiple frequency information

We consider the inverse problem of identifying the location and shape of a finitely supported acoustic source function, separable with respect to space and frequency, from measurements of the acoustic field on a closed surface for many frequencies. A simple uniqueness proof and an error estimate for the unknown source function are presented. From the uniqueness proof an efficient numerical algorithm for the solution is developed. The algorithm is tested using numerically generated data in dimensions 2 and 3.
Dislocations as quantum wires: Buffer leakage in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

Buffer leakage in aluminum gallium nitride/gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN) heterostructure transistors is recognized as an issue that has deleterious consequences on device performance for high-power, high-frequency transistors and has been related to the presence of uncharged threading screw dislocations. In this study, we demonstrate that measurements of buffer leakage in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on bulk gallium nitride (GaN) substrates are consistent with a mechanism based on the concept of dislocations acting as quantum wires in series with unintentional silicon (Si) impurity incorporation at the bulk GaN substrate/GaN buffer interface. The number of electronic channels N deduced from the leakage data using Landauer’s formula for the quantum resistance of N electronic channels is consistent with the number of dislocations along the ohmic contact pads determined from panchromatic cathodoluminescence and x-ray diffraction measurements of the dislocation density. This mechanism is consistent with Shockley’s suggestion that dislocations can act as one-dimensional conductors due to the presence of edge states along the dislocation core.
Is physiological performance optimized by thermoregulatory behavior?: a case study of the eastern fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus

Eastern fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) exhibit a distinct thermal preference that might be related to the thermal optimum for physiological performance. Sprint speed and treadmill endurance of S. undulatus were insensitive to body temperature in the ranges of 28–381C and25–36 1C, respectively. Both locomotor andd igestive performances are optimizedat the preferredbod y temperature of S. undulatus, but thermoregulatory behavior is more closely relatedto the thermal sensitivity of digestive performance than that of locomotor performance. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Dietary fish oil modification of cynomolgus monkey low density lipoproteins results in decreased binding and cholesteryl ester accumulation by cultured fibroblasts

Dietary fish oil (FO) has been reported to increase low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor function resulting in lower plasma LDL concentrations in the rat (Ventura et al. J. Clin. Invest. 84: 528-537, 1989). The purpose of this study was to determine whether dietary FO, as compared to lard, affected the receptor-mediated uptake of LDL by cultured skin fibroblasts. Plasma LDL was isolated by combined ultracentrifugation and column chromatography from cynomolgus monkeys fed diets enriched in FO or lard and the effect of these two dietary fats on the binding of LDL and esterified cholesterol (EC) accumulation by cultured fibroblasts was determined. There was no difference in total plasma or LDL cholesterol concentrations between diet groups. The monkeys fed FO had significantly smaller LDL which, on average, contained less protein, phospholipid (PL), and free and esterified cholesterol compared to the LDL from monkeys fed the lard diet. FO LDL were less effective than lard LDL in competing for binding, internalization, and degradation of a standard 125I-labeled LDL by fibroblasts (11.0 +/- 2.4 vs. 3.0 +/- 0.8 micrograms LDL protein/ml for 50% displacement of binding, respectively; P = 0.013). FO versus lard LDL also resulted in less accumulation of cellular EC after a 24-h incubation with fibroblasts (7.7 +/- 0.2 vs. 13.0 +/- 0.4 micrograms EC/mg protein, respectively; P = 0.0001). In general, cellular EC accumulation was proportional to LDL particle size and LDL apoE/B molar ratio; however, LDL from the lard group resulted in greater EC accumulation even when LDL particle size and apoE content were nearly equivalent between diet groups. When LDL were isolated from the same animals by sequential ultracentrifugation, the lard LDL apoE was reduced 22% compared to column isolated LDL and this resulted in a 32% decrease in cellular EC accumulation. However, for FO LDL, apoE content was reduced 34% by sequential ultracentrifugation but this only resulted in a 10% decrease in EC accumulation. These results suggested that lard LDL contained more receptor-active apoE than FO LDL. We conclude that isocaloric substitution of fish oil for lard in the diet of cynomolgus monkeys results in LDL particles that bind less avidly to LDL receptors and in less EC accumulation in fibroblasts. The decreased binding of LDL from the FO group appears related to their decreased size and CE content as well as the decreased content of receptor-active apoE relative to the lard group.
Effect of Rho-kinase Inhibitor, Y27632, on Porcine Corneal Endothelial Cell Culture, Inflammation and Immune Regulation

AbstractPurpose: To investigate the effect of the Rho-kinase inhibitor, Y27632, on pig corneal endothelial cell (pCEC) culture, and on inflammation and immune regulation of the responses of human cells to pCECs.Methods: pCECs were cultured with/without Y27632 to assess cell proliferation and in vitro wound healing assay. The level of MCP-1 and VEGF in pCECs stimulated with human TNF-α were measured. Proliferation of human PBMCs stimulated with pCECs, and cytokine production in human T cells, and monocyte migration after stimulation were investigated.Results: Y27632 promoted pCEC proliferation, prevented pCEC death, and enhanced in vitro wound healing. After stimulation, there were significantly lower levels of MCP-1 and VEGF measured in pCECs cultured with Y27632, and significantly reduced human PBMC proliferation, cytokine production, and monocyte migration.Conclusions: The application of the Rho-kinase inhibitor will be beneficial when culturing pCECs, and may provide a novel therapy to reduce inflammat...
Predicting Cyber Risks through National Vulnerability Database

Software vulnerabilities are the major cause of cyber security problems. The National Vulnerability Database NVD is a public data source that maintains standardized information about reported software vulnerabilities. Since its inception in 1997, NVD has published information about more than 43,000 software vulnerabilities affecting more than 17,000 software applications. This information is potentially valuable in understanding trends and patterns in software vulnerabilities so that one can better manage the security of computer systems that are pestered by the ubiquitous software security flaws. In particular, one would like to be able to predict the likelihood that a piece of software contains a yet-to-be-discovered vulnerability, which must be taken into account in security management due to the increasing trend in zero-day attacks. We conducted an empirical study on applying data-mining techniques on NVD data with the objective of predicting the time to next vulnerability for a given software application. We experimented with various features constructed using the information available in NVD and applied various machine learning algorithms to examine the predictive power of the data. Our results show that the data in NVD generally have poor prediction capability, with the exception of a few vendors and software applications. We suggest possible reasons for why the NVD data have not produced a reasonable prediction model for time to next vulnerability with our current approach, and suggest alternative ways in which the data in NVD can be used for the purpose of risk estimation.
Searching for novel ligands for the cannabinoid and related receptors.

The first purpose of the present dissertation was to apply a high throughput assay to systematically screen a library of food and drug administration (FDA)-approved drugs as potential ligands for the cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2). A cell-based, homogenous time resolved fluorescence (HTRF) method for measuring changes in intracellular cAMP levels was validated and found to be suitable for testing ligands that may act on CB2. Among the 640 FDA-approved drugs screened, raloxifene, a drug used to treat/prevent post-menopausal osteoporosis, was identified for the first time to be a novel CB2 inverse agonist. The dissertation reporting these results demonstrated that by acting on CB2, raloxifene enhances forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, the data showed that raloxifene competes concentration-dependently for specific [3H]CP-55,940 binding to CB2. In addition, raloxifene pretreatment caused a rightward shift of the concentration-response curves of the cannabinoid agonists CP-55,940, HU-210, and WIN55,212-2. Raloxifene antagonism is vi most likely competitive in nature, as these rightward shifts were parallel and were not associated with any changes in the efficacy of cannabinoid agonists on CB2. The discovery that raloxifene is as an inverse agonist for CB2 suggests that it might be possible to repurpose this FDA-approved drug for novel therapeutic indications for which CB2 is a target. Furthermore, identifying raloxifene as a CB2 inverse agonist also provides important novel mechanisms of actions to explain the known therapeutic effects of raloxifene. The second purpose of the current study was to investigate the ability of the third-generation selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene to bind and act on CB2 cannabinoid receptor. We have identified, for the first time, that CB2 is a novel target for bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene. Our results showed that bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene were able to compete for specific [3H]CP-55,940 binding to CB2 in a concentration-dependent manner. Our data also demonstrated that by acting on CB2, bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene concentration-dependently enhanced forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation. Furthermore, bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene caused parallel, rightward shifts of the CP-55,940, HU-210, and WIN55,212-2 concentration-response curves without altering the efficacy of these cannabinoid agonists on CB2, which indicates that bazedoxifene- and lasofoxifene-induced CB2 antagonism is most likely competitive in nature. Our discovery that CB2 is a novel target for bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene suggests that these third-generation SERMs can potentially be repurposed for novel therapeutic indications for which CB2 is a target. In addition, identifying bazedoxifene and lasofoxifene as CB2 inverse agonists also provides important novel mechanisms of actions to explain the known therapeutic effects of these SERMs. The third purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the structure-activity…
Nutrition therapy in critically ill patients - A review of current evidence for clinicians.

Ridley et al. present a thorough and balanced review on nutritional therapy in critically ill patients [1]. We regret, however, that once more, for the practicing clinician confusion arises by not specifying the weight on which the calorie and protein requirements are based: e.g. the ideal weight, or the actual weight if the latter is lower, or the adjusted weight in the obese critically ill patient? As calorie provision seems to have its main impact at the extremes of BMI (i.e. 35 kg/m2) we think specification of the weight on which the nutritional therapy is based is mandatory [2]. In our view it does not make much sense to try to calculate the nutritional requirements as precisely as possible when this is based on whatever weight one prefers. In some cases the final result may differ by as much as 50%. At the same time this reinforces the idea to directly measure energy expenditure (in our view on a daily basis) rather than estimating it with unreliable population based formulas. We suggest ESPEN instruct all authors of forthcoming papers in Clinical Nutrition as well as of oral presentations at the international courses and congresses, to specify the weight on which their energy and protein targets, are expressed. Another problem is that indirect calorimetry measures the resting energy expenditure while the nutritional therapy should in fact compensate total energy expenditure.
The role of carriers in the performance of granular formulations of parathion for mosquito control.

Forty-four brands or types of organic and mineral nonmetallic granular carriers were studied for their role in releasing parathion into water at 8-, 24-, 48- and 72-hour intervals. Aliquots of treated water were bioassayed against fourth-instar larvae of the mosquito Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus Say. Fresh and 16- to 25-week-old formulations were evaluated. Of the two organic carriers tested, corncob granules, especially in the aged formulation, yielded fast release of parathion. Release from alfalfa granules was poor. Of the mineral carriers, Celite, Vermiculite, Frianite, Sericite, and most of the attapulgite and montmorillonite granules yielded rapid release of parathion. Calcium carbonate, Emtal, and Pyrax® granules released parathion slowly. Slight differences in performance were registered between calcined and dried attapulgite granules. Differences in the performance of extruded and nonextruded attapulgite granules were also slight, using parathion formulations. The range of particle size of the granules profoundly influenced the release of parathion into the water. An inverse relationship between particle size of the carriers and extent and magnitude of release of parathion was noticed for all the carriers (except Pyrax) having various particle size ranges. Parathion release from attapulgite, montmorillonite, calcium carbonate, Sericite, Frianite, and corn cob granules decreased as the range of particle size of these carriers increased. Coarser Pyrax granules released slightly more parathion than the finer granules, but such a difference is not deemed significant. The sorptive capacity of granular carriers is a limiting factor in preparing high-strength formulations. Attapulgite, Sericite, Celite, Vermiculite, and Pikes Peak Clay carriers have high sorptive capacity, while calcium carbonate and Emtal granules had very low sorptive capacity. The rest of the granules had an intermediate degree of sorptive capacity, and formulations of 2% to 10% concentration can be readily prepared on these carriers.
Observation of a Short-Lived Triplet Precursor in CpCo(CO)-Catalyzed Alkyne Cyclotrimerization

The picosecond dynamics of CpCo(CO), a catalytic intermediate in the cyclotrimerization of alkynes, have been studied using time-resolved infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. In neat 1-hexyne or 1-hexene solution, the first intermediate to form is a triplet η2-coordinated species, which then converts to a singlet η2 species in ca. 30–40 ps. The η2 triplet is the only solvent-coordinated species observed at early times, suggesting that this is the dominant mechanistic pathway for coordination of alkynes and alkenes to the CpCo(CO) catalyst. These new results complement the recent discovery that CpCo(CO) can coordinate to certain solvent molecules in both singlet and triplet spin states and further support previous studies implicating triplet intermediates in cobalt-catalyzed cyclotrimerization and cyclo-oligomerization reaction mechanisms.
On the Energy Flux between Large, Small, Mean and Fluctuating Parts of the Flow in a Turbomachinery Rotor Wake

Ensemble averaging and spatial filtering decompose the kinetic energy into four parts: the mean-flow resolved, mean-flow subgrid, fluctuating resolved, and fluctuating subgrid kinetic energy parts. The evolution equations for these terms contain energy fluxes between the various terms. PIV data obtained in a turbomachinery rotor wake is used for showing the spatial distribution of kinetic energy and energy flux terms. Due to limited spatial resolution, the filter is a third of the integral scale. Consequently, the mean-flow subgrid part plays a dominant role.
Civil religious dissent: patriotism and resistance in a japanese american incarceration camp

ABSTRACTDuring the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, the largely Buddhist population of Idaho's Minidoka incarceration camp organized elaborate Christmas festivities each year. Many outsiders and white employees at the camp saw these celebrations as signs of assimilation into American culture, but this article argues that the material productions of the festivities expressed more complicated attitudes. Christmas cards, decorations, and trees contained messages of dissent and patriotism within an adoption of American civil religious practices. Incarcerees demonstrated the flexibility of that contentious category, civil religion, by using iconic symbols and practices of the American holiday to express their frustrations with the nation. Christmas cards replaced the classic image of snow-covered houses with one of snow-covered barracks. Decorative displays juxtaposed idealistic portrayals of past family holidays with their current, grim reality. The voluntary substitution of sagebrush trees f...
Cardiomyopathies: Treating pediatric DCM--great expectations unfulfilled.

Kantor and colleagues from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada have reported that outcomes for medically treated pediatric patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) have not changed over a 30-year period, despite institution of neurohormonal inhibition therapy. These findings are placed in the context of the worldwide experience of pediatric DCM and the limited number of studies of neurohormonal inhibition therapy in children with heart failure.
Dynamical calculation of Regge trajectories

The possibility of dynamical constructing a Regge trajectory α(s) is investigated under the assumption that it satisfies a oncesubtracted dispersion relation. This implies a departure of α(s) from a pure straight line behavior at sufficiently large |s|. This departure is shown to be connected t e rate of growth of the resonance-width function (which interpolates a long the experimental width of the resonances lying on the Regge trajectory) and turns out to be very small, in agreement with the present data on resonant states.
Historical dictionary of Descartes and Cartesian philosophy

Ariew, Des Chene, Jesseph, Schmaltz, and Verbeek have accomplished a tremendous task in writing their Historical Dictionary of Descartes and Cartesian Philosophy. Less a dictionary than an encyclop...
Remote Sounding of Infrared Surface Fluxes and Cooling Rates from Space

A novel approach is proposed for the direct inference of infrared surface fluxes from space based on the principles of radiative transfer. The methodology proposed involves concurrent observations of broadband outgoing infrared fluxes at the top of the atmosphere and total infrared cooling within the atmosphere. To obtain the total atmospheric cooling, a combined utilization of angular and wavenumber scans is developed to retrieve infrared cooling rate profiles covering the entire infrared spectrum. We demonstrate that suitable weighting functions in the rotational and 6.3μm H2O bands can be selected for retrieval of cooling rates, and that CO2 and O3 absorption can be neglected in the estimate of total atmospheric cooling.
The Projection Matrix Method

In this section, a second method of fast variable elimination in stochastic systems will be introduced. This method aims to remove the problems encountered in the conditioning method when the noise matrix is singular (see Sect. 3.5). The essential idea is to explicitly remove any contribution to the dynamics from the fast directions and retain only the slow degrees of freedom. Since the methodology follows in a straightforward way from the conditioning method, a verbal description of the method is given in the following section, along with applications to some of the models encountered in Chap. 3. The method is later applied to a Moran model with migration, however for clarity some of the history of models of population genetics featuring migration is given in Sect. 4.2, while the model pertaining to later work is introduced in Sect. 4.3.
Triple Melting Pot

The triple melting pot is a metaphor that describes a pattern of assimilation in which various nationality groups merge through intermarriage, but with a strong tendency to do so within the three major religious groupings: Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. The concept was first developed by sociologist Ruby Jo Reeves Kennedy in a study of intermarriage trends in New Haven, Connecticut from 1870 to 1940, in which she found that intermarriage between various European nationalities increased over time but tended to occur within the three major religious groups. The concept was developed into a broader sociological theory by Will Herberg in 1955, in a book entitled Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology. He argued that, as immigrants assimilated into American culture, religious boundaries would replace ethnic boundaries as the main point of differentiation among people of European descent in the United States. Keywords: ethnicity; immigration; religion
Abstract B63: Barriers to colorectal cancer screening among low income and underinsured Hispanics

Background: Colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) rates vary across subgroups with Hispanic Americans and uninsured populations having among the lowest levels. Recent reports also suggest that screening disparities among Hispanics persist, with a slower decline in death rates among Hispanics compared with non-Hispanic whites. Objective: To increase understanding of the barriers to CRCS in low income Hispanics, this cross-sectional study examines cultural (language and nativity), structural (financial and availability of health care), and sociodemographic factors associated with CRCS among Hispanics residing on the Texas-Mexico border. Methods: Five hundred and forty-four people meeting eligibility criteria (50 years or older, self-identified as Hispanic or Latino, and no history of cancer) were randomly recruited from colonias (unincorporated, un-zoned, semi-rural communities) in three counties along the Texas-Mexico border. Univariate and multivariate analyses using 2 tests were used to examine associations of the dependent variable, CRCS (FOBT, colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy and barium enema), and independent variables (i.e., gender, age, birth place combined with years in the U.S., primary language spoken, household income, highest education, marital status, health insurance coverage, travel time to health care provider, and having a place for usual health care). Odds ratios and 95% confidence ratios are reported. Results: Overall, 34% of participants reported receiving any kind of CRCS. Seventy-three percent of the study participants were women and 27% were men. Mean age of participants was 63 years. Almost all (98%) were Mexican American: 77% were born in Mexico, 71% of whom have lived in the US over 20 years. Roughly 14% reported speaking English well. Only 9% were high school graduates, 72% had an annual household income of less than $10,000, and almost half had no form of health insurance coverage. The majority (73%) reported a usual place to receive health care and 89% traveled less than one hour to this provider. Factors significantly associated with any CRCS in univariate analyses included a combination variable representing nativity (birth place combined with years in the U.S.; P=0.029), health insurance (P Conclusion: Structural factors such as nativity, health insurance and having access to a usual source of health care, were significant independent risk factors for not being screened for CRC in a minority, low income Hispanic population. However, these factors were no longer significant in adjusted multivariate models. Further research is needed to understand the mediating structural and cultural barriers impacting colorectal cancer screening in this population. Findings from this research have the potential to inform policy aimed at decreasing structural barriers to improve CRCS in this population.
The Cart and The Horse The Advancing Technology of Carotid Artery Stenting

Endarterectomy is recommended in current clinical guidelines for selected patients with a significant symptomatic or asymptomatic extracranial carotid artery stenosis, provided that the operation can be performed with acceptable safety.1–3 These recommendations are based on the results of several controlled trials in which those randomized to have the operation had better clinical outcomes compared with those who did not, on a background of what at the time was considered to constitute best medical therapy. The advent of angioplasty/stenting offers the promise of a less invasive means of directly treating carotid artery steno-occlusive disease compared with endarterectomy. Unlike surgical procedures, however, pharmaceuticals, biologicals, and devices are subject to regulatory approval in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. Placement of a carotid artery stent system was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 for the treatment of patients deemed “at high risk for adverse events from carotid endarterectomy who require carotid revascularization [who have] neurological symptoms and ≥50% stenosis of the common or internal carotid artery by ultrasound or angiogram, or in patients without neurological symptoms and ≥80% stenosis of the common or internal carotid artery by ultrasound or angiogram” (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/pdf4/p040012a.pdf). Article see p 159 Registries were developed to help assess the safety of stent systems as used in larger populations, in part to help identify risks that might not have been apparent based on the smaller numbers of subjects included in the randomized trial that compared stenting with endarterectomy in patients at high risk of postendarterectomy complications.4 In that trial, the postprocedural 30-day rate of stroke, myocardial infarction, or death was 2.1% with stenting versus 9.3% with endarterectomy ( P =0.18) for symptomatic patients; for those with an asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis, the periprocedural rates were 5.4% versus 10.2% ( P =0.20), …
Apomictic Reproduction in the Amazon Molly, Poecilia formosa, and Its Triploid Hybrids

The Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa, initially described in 1859 by Girard, is the first vertebrate in which unisexuality was recognized (Hubbs and Hubbs, 1932). Poecilia formosa is intermediate in form between two sexual species, Poecilia latipinna (LeSueur) and Poecilia mexicana Steindachner and is thought to have arisen in nature as a hybrid of these species (Hubbs and Hubbs, 1932; Hubbs, 1955, 1964; Abramoff et al., 1968; Prehn and Rasch, 1969; Balsano et al., 1972). Poecilia formosa is not a true thelytokous parthenogen as defined by White (1973); instead, it reproduces by gynogenesis, a mechanism that is sperm dependent. Males of related sexual species provide sperm, which serve only to activate the egg. Functional syngamy does not occur. Thus, developing embryos are derived from diploid ova that contain only maternal chromosomes and each daughter is a genetic copy of its mother (Meyer, 1938; Hubbs and Hubbs, 1946; Kallman, 1962a,b,c; Hubbs, 1964; Rasch et al., 1965; Darnell et al.,1967; Schultz, 1969; Uzzell, 1970; White, 1973). The obligatory dependence on sperm that is a hallmark of gynogenetic reproduction compels P. Formosa to behave in nature as a sexual parasite on closely related, sympatric bisexual species (Hubbs, 1964). Although a variety of poeciliid males can “father” P. formosa in the laboratory (Hubbs and Hubbs, 1946), the survival and success in nature of these all-female forms require their coincident distribution with at least one of the bisexual host species.
Tracheomalacia and recurrent exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a case report and review of the literature.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of disability and death worldwide. COPD exacerbation is usually treated with antibiotics, systemic corticosteroids, and inhaled bronchodilators. We present a case of recurrent COPD exacerbation that was treated repeatedly with standard therapy. Dynamic expiratory computed tomography of the chest was done, which revealed concomitant tracheomalacia. COPD and tracheomalacia may coexist during recurrent exacerbations of COPD, and delayed diagnosis can be associated with severe comorbidities. Ordering the appropriate imaging may aid in the correct diagnosis and facilitate appropriate management. Keywords: chronic obstructive lung disease; tracheomalacia; dynamic computed tomography; bronchoscopy; pulmonary function tests (Published: 15 December 2016) Citation: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 2016, 6 : 33540 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/jchimp.v6.33540
TREK Blood Culture Systems

Over the past three-plus decades, Difco Laboratories (Detroit, MI) and then TREK Diagnostic Systems (Thermo Scientific Microbiology, Waltham, MA) have developed several iterations of continuous-monitoring blood culture systems (CMBCSs). Similar to other CMBCSs, these systems allow for incubation of inoculated blood culture bottles with simultaneous monitoring of positivity by indirect measurement of bacterial growth. However, the unique approach toward monitoring growth distinguishes the TREK systems from other CMBCSs.