cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Regulation of Cell Polarity

Virtually all cells in multicellular organisms display polarity that is essential for their function. Neurons extend axons and dendrites in specified directions to make specific connections, immune cells synapse to exchange information that is essential for regulating target recognition, and epithelia transport molecules between compartments while maintaining distinct compositions on either side. Many epithelial cells also display planar cell polarity (PCP), or polarity orthogonal to the apical–basal axis. This article discusses a PCP signaling mechanism that controls the polarization of cells within the plane of the epithelium, orienting asymmetric cellular structures, cell divisions, and cell shapes.
Trends and Variability in Spring and Autumn 0° C Isotherm Dates over Canada

In cold-regions climates, numerous environmental processes and socio-economic activities are significantly impacted by the timing of the seasonal advance and retreat of the 0 °C isotherm. This investigation examines 20th century trends and variability in spring and autumn 0 °C-isotherm dates over Canada. Results reveal considerable variability across the country. Significant trends toward earlier springs are observed over most of western Canada including a dramatic shift to earlier dates during the last 20–30 years. Central regions areassociated with smaller, generally insignificant earlier spring trends. Conversely, extreme eastern areas experience later springs. During autumn, isotherm dates show little change over the majority of the country. The observed spatial and temporal characteristics in the 0 °C-isotherm trends are reflected in past variations in several hydro-cryospheric variables over many regions of Canada including the timing of snowmelt and the dates of freshwater ice break-up. Investigation into the potential causes of observed variability in 0 °C-isotherm dates reveals that large-scale oscillations representing atmospheric/oceanic variations in the north Pacific and north Atlantic significantly relate to isotherm dates over western and eastern Canada, respectively, during both spring and autumn. Although significant, a relatively small amount of overall variance in isotherm dates is explained by the oscillations indicating the influence of other factors. Results from this study improve our knowledge of past trends and variability in 0°C-isotherm dates and resultant impacts on hydro-cryospheric processesover Canada. They also provide insight into potential future climatologic impacts given the possibility of climate change.
Respiratory epithelial cell innate immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis is deregulated by air pollution particulate matter (PM) (INC7P.417)

Epidemiological studies demonstrate a link between exposure to indoor air pollution and cigarette smoke and risk of development of Tuberculosis (TB). The role of ambient air pollution PM in human antimycobacterial immunity has not been studied. We examined the effects of PM ( Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( M.tb )-induced expression of mRNA and protein of human β-defensin 2 and 3 (HBD-2,3, antimicrobial peptides), IL-8 and MCP-1 by qRT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. In addition, cell-mediated growth control of M.tb was measured by colony forming units (CFU) assay. Respiratory alveolar type II epithelial (A549) cells were exposed for 18 hours to PM at 0.1, 1, 10 and 50 μg/mL followed by M.tb exposure at a multiplicity of infection of 10 (MOI 10) for an additional 18 hours. We observed that PM exposure decreased the expression of HBD-2 and HBD-3 (p M.tb -infected A549 cells. Decreased antimicrobial peptide expression was not due to decreased cell viability upon PM exposure (shown by MTS and LDH assay). Interestingly, A549 cells exposed to PM exhibited a decreased capability to control M.tb growth (p M.tb that could potentially increase the susceptibility to M.tb infection.
Antenatal diagnosis of achondroplasia with comment on Deuel's “halo” sign

Abstract Achondroplasia is a hereditary, congenital, skeletal dystrophy and, possibly, a generalized disorder of connective tissue limited to bone. Its intrauterine roentgenographic manifestations in both a normal and an achondroplastic mother are presented. Deuel's “halo” sign which indicated impending fetal death that occurred shortly after parturition, was observed in one case.
Human Impacts on Weather and Climate

This 2007 edition of Human Impacts on Weather and Climate examines the scientific and political debates surrounding anthropogenic impacts on the Earth's climate and presents the most recent theories, data and modeling studies. The book discusses the concepts behind deliberate human attempts to modify the weather through cloud seeding, as well as inadvertent modification of weather and climate on the regional scale. The natural variability of weather and climate greatly complicates our ability to determine a clear cause-and-effect relationship to human activity. The authors describe the basic theories and critique them in simple and accessible terms. This fully revised edition will be a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in atmospheric and environmental science, and will also appeal to policy makers and general readers interested in how humans are affecting the global climate.
Clinical activity of ponatinib in a patient with FGFR1-rearranged mixed-phenotype acute leukemia.

Clinical activity of ponatinib in a patient with FGFR1 -rearranged mixed-phenotype acute leukemia
Stability and experimental velocity field in Taylor—Couette flow with axial and radial flow

The imposition of a radial or axial flow on cylindrical Couette flow alters the stability of the system and modifies the velocity field. An axial flow stabilizes cylindrical Couette flow. The supercritical flow includes a rich variety of vortical structures including helical and wavy vortices. An axial flow also results in translation of the vortices with the axial flow. A radial flow through porous cylinders stabilizes cylindrical Couette flow, whether the radial flow is inward or outward. An exception is that a small radial outward flow destabilizes the flow slightly. The radial flow results in displacing vortex centers toward the cylinder from which fluid exits the annulus. For combined axial and radial flow, the axial flow stabilizes the cylindrical Couette flow regardless of the radial flow. In addition, the radial flow stabilizes the flow compared to the situation with no radial flow. Above the supercritical transition a wide variety of flow regimes occur in the case where the inner cylinder is porous and the outer cylinder is nonporous. The velocity field for cylindrical Couette flow with axial flow and a radial inflow at the inner cylinder is altered very little for small radial flows. However, the vortices shrink in size as they translate in the annulus as fluid is lost through the inner cylinder.
The pricing dynamics of utilities with underdeveloped networks

This paper uses an analytically tractable intertemporal framework for analyzing the dynamic pricing of a utility with an underdeveloped network (a typical case in most developing countries) facing a competitive fringe, short-run network adjustment costs, theft of service, and the threat of a retaliatory regulatory review that is increasing with the price it charges. This simple dynamic optimization model yields a number of powerful policy insights and conclusions. Under a variety of plausible assumptions (in the context of developing countries) the utility will find its long-run profits enhanced if it exercises restraint in the early stages of network development by holding price below the limit defined by the unit costs of the fringe. The utility's optimal price gradually converges toward the limit price as its network expands. Moreover, when the utility is threatened with retaliatory regulatory intervention, it will generally have incentives to restrain its pricing behavior. These findings have important implications for the design of post-privatization regulatory governance in developing countries.
The Possible Involvement of Root-cap Mucilage in Gravitropism and Calcium Movement Across Root Tips of Allium cepa L

Roots of Allium cepa L. grown in aerated water elongate rapidly, but are not graviresponsive. These roots (1) possess extensive columella tissues comprised of cells containing numerous sedimented amyloplasts, (2) lack mucilage on their tips, and (3) are characterized by a weakly polar movement of calcium (Ca) across their tips. Placing roots in humid air correlates positively with the (1) onset of gravicurvature, (2) appearance of mucilage on tips of the roots, and (3) onset of the ability to transport Ca polarly to the lower side of the root tip. Gravicurvature of roots previously submerged in aerated water is more rapid when roots are oriented vertically for 1-2 h in humid air prior to being oriented horizontally. The more rapid gravicurvature of these roots correlates positively with the accumulation of mucilage at the tips of roots during the time the roots are oriented vertically. Therefore, the onset of gravicurvature and the ability of roots to transport Ca to the lower sides of their tips correlate positively with the presence of mucilage at their tips. These results suggest that mucilage may be important for the transport of Ca across root caps.
In the Critical Zone: Geography at the U.S. Geological Survey

Abstract Geography is again becoming an integral part of the premier natural-science agency of the federal government. Geographic research emphasizes the surface of the earth, a portion of the earth system that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) defines as the “critical zone.” Although geography was part of the USGS from the creation of the agency, in recent years geography in the agency has largely been limited to topographic mapping. Recently, the USGS and an advisory committee of the National Research Council (NRC) reviewed the role of geography at the Survey. The committee's report, along with ongoing decision-making in the federal government, is likely to reshape geography in the USGS. The newly defined USGS has a regional structure and four disciplines: geology, hydrology, biology, and geography. The NRC report emphasizes the need for the creation of a spatial database called the National Map to replace the existing series of paper topographic maps. The report also outlines the need for geographic re...
ART in the Genetics Classroom

The first time I saw Julie Delpy perform was around 1992 in the movie Voyager . In the film, Delpy played a young and enchanting woman, Sabeth, who fell in love on a cruise with the middle-aged, science-minded civil engineer Mr. Faber, played by Sam Shepard. Faber later proposed to Sabeth and traveled with her to meet her mother, Hannah. He realized he could not marry Sabeth because he and she were biologically related. In the end, Sabeth died, leaving Hannah and Faber with saddened hearts. The film was shot wonderfully; Delpy’s astonishing beauty and fantastic performance captured my full attention. But I was disheartened by how a lack of communication within a relationship could result in personal tragedy. The plot of Voyager took place in the late 1950s; back then, there was no in vitro fertilization or sperm banks. Faber and Sabeth were biologically related because Hannah and Faber had once been lovers but had parted 21 years earlier, when she conceived his child. …
Non-suicidal self-injury prospectively predicts interpersonal stressful life events and depressive symptoms among adolescent girls

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the deliberate self-harm of one's tissue, engaged in without lethal intent, and occurs frequently among late adolescents. Although research has indicated that NSSI predicts depression, the potential psychosocial mechanisms through which engagement in NSSI makes one susceptible to future depressive symptoms remain unclear. The present study examined whether NSSI increases the risk of experiencing stressful life events, which, in turn, heightens the risk for subsequent depressive symptoms. Drawn from a sample specifically selected for adolescents at high and low risk for developing bipolar spectrum disorders, a total of 110 late-adolescents (mean age=18.74, SD=.69; 73% female) were administered measures of lifetime and past year engagement in NSSI and current depressive symptomatology. Approximately 6 months later, they completed a measure of depressive symptoms and a questionnaire and interview assessing life events that occurred over the 6-month interval. Results suggest that the frequency of lifetime and past year NSSI predicted the occurrence of interpersonal stressful life events beyond the effects of initial depressive symptoms, but only for late adolescent girls. Results further suggest that higher levels of interpersonal stressful life events mediated the relationship between NSSI frequency and prospective increases in depressive symptoms among girls.
Intimacy and Self-Abstraction: Radio as New Media in Aboriginal Australia

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, a number of Indigenous radio stations around Australia began to use digital programming and digital music libraries, at times pre-programming their broadcast signal days in advance through various forms of digital audio workstation (DAW). This shift initially caused both celebration and concern, and occasioned reflection by many producers on how radio ought to work and sound. For some producers the shift to digital pre-programming seemed a threat to the intimate address that Aboriginal radio entailed. On the other hand, some of these same producers began to re-imagine the audience to which such indigenous media might now aspire and to celebrate the sheer quantity of Aboriginal programming that a smaller number of producers could now produce. In challenging radio's naturalised ‘liveness’ for Aboriginal radio producers this oscillation suggests a distinct media ideology (Gershon 2010a), a sense of what radio media ought to accomplish, that draws together form...
Determination of Subcritical Damping in CF-5 Flight Flutter Tests

The strake vortex has merged with the wing vortex at the trailing edge for a>\2 deg. The circulation of the strake vortex is of the same sign as that of the wing vortex and is weaker than the latter. The coalesced process is related to the wing vortex strength; however, it is not clear what the coalesced condition is. Figure 3 shows the formation of the trailing-edge concentrated vortex. The circulation of the trailing-edge vortex is of opposite sign to that of the strake and wing vortex, and the concentrated trailing-edge vortex will move outward and .upward around the wing vortex. Because the strake vortex is weak, it can deform the trailing-edge vortex sheet only slightly, and not form another concentrated vortex (see Fig. 3a). In Fig. 3b, there exist one wing vortex and one trailingedge vortex, similar to that produced by the delta wing (see Ref. 1, Fig. 12). The strake vortex has merged in this case. The essential feature of the calculated flowfield is quite similar to that of Hummel's experiment. The pressure distribution at x=0.1 is underestimated in comparison with experimental results (see Ref. 2, Fig. 9). The present method can be used qualitatively to simulate roll up of complicated vortex sheets.
n-Alternation deficiency of geometric rank-functions

A function � defined on the subsets of a set S is n-alternating if a certain n-alternation deficiency function �n� has no negative values. In the case of a geometric rank-function r, �1r�0 and �2r�0 because r is non-decreasing and semi-modular. The only geometry G(r,S) for which �nr0,n�3, is the Boolean Algebra on S. Specializing to the case n=3, for any given non-negative integer p, the geometries for which min �3r=�p are characterized by an excluded subgeometry.
Outcomes research: An overview

During the past few years there has been significant interest in studying methods that document outcomes of medical care. Outcomes management should result in higher quality health care at lower cost. However, what does outcomes research mean and how does it apply to dermatology and specifically to the individual dermatologist? This article reviews the evolution of medical outcomes research and presents the status of the current instruments, indices, and methods.
Project SAILS: Launching Information Literacy Assessment Across University Waters

Beginning in 2000, a team headquartered at Kent State University launched Project SAILS, with the objective of developing a standardized test for assessing information literacy skills. Auburn University Libraries was one of the charter institutions that participated in pilot testing the Project SAILS instrument. This article provides background information about Auburn's participation in Project SAILS, reports on how Auburn University Libraries analyzed the SAILS test data and presented findings to campus stakeholders, and outlines steps taken both inside and outside the library to incorporate information literacy instruction into the general education curriculum at Auburn University.
Motor Coordination via a Tug-of-War Mechanism Drives Bidirectional Vesicle Transport

The microtubule motors kinesin and dynein function collectively to drive vesicular transport. High-resolution tracking of vesicle motility in the cell indicates that transport is often bidirectional, characterized by frequent directional changes. However, the mechanisms coordinating the collective activities of oppositely oriented motors bound to the same cargo are not well understood. To examine motor coordination, we purified neuronal transport vesicles and analyzed their motility via automated particle tracking with nanometer resolution. The motility of purified vesicles reconstituted in vitro closely models the movement of LysoTracker-positive vesicles in primary neurons, where processive bidirectional motility is interrupted with frequent directional switches, diffusional movement, and pauses. Quantitative analysis indicates that vesicles copurify with a low number of stably bound motors: one to five dynein and one to four kinesin motors. These observations compare well to predictions from a stochastic tug-of-war model, where transport is driven by the force-dependent kinetics of teams of opposing motors in the absence of external regulation. Together, these observations indicate that vesicles move robustly with a small complement of tightly bound motors and suggest an efficient regulatory scheme for bidirectional motility where small changes in the number of engaged motors manifest in large changes in the motility of cargo.
Do patients and providers agree about the most important facts and goals for breast reconstruction decisions

Decisions about breast reconstruction after mastectomy are some of the most difficult decisions a breast cancer patient makes. To make a good decision, the patient should have adequate knowledge of specific facts related to the decision, and the treatment chosen should be consistent with the patient's personal preferences or goals. We sought to identify the most important facts and goals for decisions about breast reconstruction after mastectomy, and to compare patients' and providers' perspectives. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of breast cancer survivors and providers. Participants rated and ranked the importance of facts and goals/ concerns related to breast reconstruction after mastectomy. We compared patients' and providers' rankings using χ 2 tests and compared ratings using t-tests. About 21 patients and 20 providers participated. Facts: Providers were more concerned about the impact of radiation on the success of the reconstruction than patients (60% vs. 24%, 95% CI of the difference: -64, -8). Thirty percent of providers placed the fact that women who do not have reconstruction are equally satisfied as women who have reconstruction in the top 3, whereas almost no patients did (30% vs. 5%, 95% CI: -47, -3). For all 3 of the facts about immediate versus delayed reconstruction, women placed a higher priority on these facts than providers did. Goals: Patients placed greater importance on avoiding use of a prosthesis (33% vs. 0%, 95% CI of the difference: 13, 54). There was a trend toward less patient concern about "looking natural without clothes" compared to providers (24% vs. 40%, 95% CI of the difference: -12, 44). Significant variability exists among patients and between patients and providers, with respect to the most important facts and goals to guide decision making about reconstruction. Providers should ensure that women understand that reconstruction can be performed immediately or delayed, as well as the likelihood and type of complications. Surgeons should ask each woman which goals and concerns are most important to her. Specifically, they should inquire as to how women feel about using a prosthesis, and how they feel about their appearance with and without clothes.
Signaling Effects: A Review of the Research—Part I

This article reviews previous research on the effects of certain structural cues, called signals, that affect a reader's comprehension of expository prose. It concludes that the inconsistent results of many studies may be due to inadequate methodologies that have failed to control for confounding variables, such as text length and difficulty, reader familiarity with the topic, and timing of comprehension tests. Further, accepted signal types (headings, logical connectives, and previews) have not been sufficiently examined for their individual effects, perhaps creating unidentified disordinal interactions that could preclude the possibility of researchers identifying significant effects. This article concludes with recommendations for more valid research methodology to be used in prose assessment studies. The next issue of this journal will present Part II of this article, which details a new study of signaling effects for readers of expository prose, a study that is based on the refined methodology sugges...
Suppression of Intimal Hyperplasia in a Rabbit Model of Arterial Balloon Injury by Enalaprilat But Not Dimethyl Sulfoxide

Intimal hyperplasia appears to result from the deposition of collagen and matrix by medial myofibroblasts, which are stimulated in response to vascular injury. We hypothesized that pharmacologic inhibitors of fibroblast proliferation would suppress the development of intimal hyperplasia. We evaluated the effect of two agents known to inhibit fibroblast proliferation in vitro: enalaprilat, an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), an organic solvent. Thirty-five New Zealand white rabbits underwent standardized balloon catheter injury of the left common carotid artery. Experimental groups received daily intramuscular injections of the following: group I (n = 15), saline solution; group II (n = 10), 0.07 mg/kg enalaprilat; and group III (n = 10), 2 ml/kg of a 25% by weight DMSO solution. Injections were started 1 day prior to injury and continued 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Carotid arteries were perfusion-fixed at 12 weeks and cross-sectioned for measurement by planimetry. Intimal hyperplasia was measured as the ratio of the absolute area of intimal hyperplasia to the normalized area enclosed by the internal elastic lamina (IH/IEL) and was expressed as a percent. Mean values for IH/IEL were as follows: group I (control), 20.6 ± 2.3%; group II (enalaprilat), 9.5 ± 0.7%; and group III (DMSO), 17.6 ± 2.6%. Enalaprilat-treated animals demonstrated a statistically significant suppression of intimal hyperplasia compared with controls (p<0.01, ANOVA, Student'sttest), whereas the DMSO-treated group did not. We conclude that enalaprilat is effective in suppressing the development of intimal hyperplasia in this model of arterial injury. These results support the theory that the smooth muscle cell mitogen angiotensin II plays an important role in the proliferation of medial myofibroblasts following vascular injury.
Insufficient Rest or Sleep and Its Relation to Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Obesity in a National, Multiethnic Sample

Background A new question on insufficient rest/sleep was included in the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for the 50 states, District of Columbia, and three US territories. No previous study, however, has examined perceived insufficient rest/sleep in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) or diabetes mellitus. We examined the association between self-reported insufficient rest/sleep and CVD, diabetes, and obesity in a contemporary sample of US adults.
Boolean-valued loops

A new control structure construct, thewhile-until, is introduced as a syntactic combination of thewhile statement and therepeat-until statement. Examples show that the use of thewhile-until can lead to structured programs that are conceptually more manageable than those attainable without it. Thewhile-until statement is then extended to a value-returning expression which is shown to be more powerful than the classical looping structures. It is shown to be equivalent in power to those structures withexit when a value-returningif-then-else is allowed. As a consequence, there are flowcharts whose implementations require control structures stronger than thewhile-until. Implementation details are discussed and Hoare-like axioms are presented. A closing discussion on oesthetics discourages some natural generalizations, but it concludes that the basicwhile-until is convenient for all parties on a programming team: coder, reader, compiler, and validator.
Solute movement in the soil-root system

Solute Movement in the Soil-Root System. By P. H. Nye & P. B. Tinker. Pp.542. (Blackwell Scientific: Oxford, 1977.) £12.80.
A supercharacter analogue for normality

Diaconis and Isaacs define in [8] (Diaconis and Isaacs, 2008) a supercharacter theory for algebra groups over a finite field by constructing certain unions of conjugacy classes called superclasses and certain reducible characters called supercharacters. This work investigates the properties of algebra subgroups H⊂G which are unions of some set of the superclasses of G; we call such subgroups supernormal. After giving a few useful equivalent formulations of this definition, we show that products of supernormal subgroups are supernormal and that all normal pattern subgroups are supernormal. We then classify the set of supernormal subgroups of Un(q), the group of unipotent upper triangular matrices over the finite field Fq, and provide a formula for the number of such subgroups when q is prime. Following this, we give supercharacter analogues for Cliffordʼs theorem and Mackeyʼs “method of little groups.” Specifically, we show that a supercharacter restricted to a supernormal subgroup decomposes as a sum of supercharacters with the same degree and multiplicity. We then describe how the supercharacters of an algebra group of the form Un=Uh⋉Ua, where Ua is supernormal and a2=0, are parametrized by Uh-orbits of the supercharacters of Ua and the supercharacters of the stabilizer subgroups of these orbits.
630‐mV open circuit voltage, 12% efficient n‐Si liquid junction

We report the first experimental observation of a semiconductor/liquid junction whose open circuit voltage Voc is controlled by bulk diffusion/recombination processes. Variation in temperature, minority-carrier diffusion length, and/or in majority-carrier concentration produces changes in the Voc of the n-Si/CH3OH interface in accord with bulk recombination/diffusion theory. Under AM2 irradiation conditions, the extrapolated intercept at 0 K of Voc vs T plots yields activation energies for the dominant recombination process of 1.1–1.2 eV, in accord with the 1.12-eV band gap of Si. A crucial factor in achieving optimum performance of the n-Si/CH3OH interface is assigned to photoelectrochemical oxide formation, which passivates surface recombination sites at the n-Si/CH3OH interface and minimizes deleterious effects of pinning of the Fermi level at the Si/CH3OH junction. Controlled Si oxide growth, combined with optimization of bulk crystal parameters in accord with diffusion theory, is found to yield improved photoelectrode output parameters, with 12.0±1.5% AM2 efficiencies and AM1 Voc values of 632–640 mV for 0.2-Ω cm Si materials.
Membrane lipid biosynthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Ethanolaminephosphotransferase is capable of synthesizing both phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine

Phosphatidylethanolamine, but not phosphatidylcholine, is found in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. A cDNA coding for diacylglycerol: CDP-ethanolamine ethanolaminephosphotransferase (EPT) was cloned from C. reinhardtii. The C. reinhardtii EPT appears phylogenetically more similar to mammalian aminoalcoholphosphotransferases than to those of yeast and the least close to those of plants. Similar membrane topography was found between the C. reinhardtii EPT and the aminoalcoholphosphotransferases from mammals, yeast, and plants. A yeast mutant deficient in both cholinephosphotransferase and ethanolaminephosphotransferase was complemented by the C. reinhardtii EPT gene. Enzymatic assays of C. reinhardtii EPT from the complemented yeast microsomes demonstrated that the C. reinhardtii EPT synthesized both PC and PE in the transformed yeast. The addition of either unlabeled CDP-ethanolamine or CDP-choline to reactions reduced incorporation of radiolabeled CDP-choline and radiolabeled CDP-ethanolamine into phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. EPT activity from the transformed yeast or C. reinhardtii cells was inhibited nearly identically by unlabeled CDP-choline, CDP-ethanolamine, and CMP when [14C]CDP-choline was used as the primary substrate, but differentially by unlabeled CDP-choline and CDP-ethanolamine when [14C]CDP-ethanolamine was the primary substrate. The Km value of the enzyme for CDP-choline was smaller than that for CDP-ethanolamine. This provides evidence that C. reinhardtii EPT, similar to plant aminoalcoholphosphotransferase, is capable of catalyzing the final step of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis, as well as that of phosphatidylethanolamine in the Kennedy pathway.
Relaxation of ATP-induced tension of glycerol-treated muscle fiber by polyphosphate

Abstract Relaxation of ATP-induced contraction of glycerol-treated muscle fibers by polyphosphate [(NaPO 3 ) 14–20 and (NaPO 3 ) 30 ] is described. Several parameters of the reaction were investigated.
Tell me a good story: using narrative analysis to examine information requirements interviews during an ERP implementation

This paper reports on a participant-observation study examining how clients use narratives to convey information during ERP requirements analysis interviews. Techniques drawn from narrative analysis are used to analyze the structure and content of different types of narratives clients tell during requirements analysis interviews. First, findings reveal that interviewees organized their experience, sought to persuade listeners, and conveyed information to analysts using "stories," "habitual," and "hypothetical" narratives. We argue that cClient narratives provide a pragmatic view of the information system, offering insight into the ways the system is actually used and the habitual practices of the work environment. Second, narratives function to signal the embeddedness of the information system in its larger organizational and social context.While analysts may be inclined to dismiss narratives as messy or asuncodeable data, we argue that the insights they provide merit attention. To the degree that narratives give insight into users' perspectives on organizational issues, they provide knowledge that is essential to any information systems project. This is especially true for ERP projects that, unlike other systems projects, seek to integrate processes spanning the entire organization. ERP projects typically require departments with very different priorities and vocabularies to radically rethink the organization and its habitual practices. Work habits, values, and dilemmas faced by users as recounted in narratives are likely to carry over after the legacy system has been removed. Hence, a sound grasp of these factors is surely advantageous for analysts in assessing the current and future environment of the organization. Future implications for research and practice are also discussed.
The promise of ritual: a lens for understanding persistent practices in mathematics classrooms

In this article, I propose ritual as an analytic lens for understanding the persistence of practices in contemporary mathematics classrooms. By foregrounding the cultural nature of the teaching and learning of mathematics in schools, ritual analysis can provide insight about the causes and effects of practices that persist through rounds of “reform.” I begin by considering the legacy of the notion of culture in mathematics education research. I then provide examples of ritual analysis in education research and in mathematics education research. I draw on the scholarship of Quantz (2011) as I articulate a working definition of ritual for use in mathematics education research, considering how this definition may help raise and answer distinct questions apart from more familiar constructs. I list some well-known problems and dilemmas in mathematics education that may be promising domains for a ritual analysis, and I conclude by positioning ritual alongside other constructs and methods that are in use in mathematics education research today.
Analytical and Experimental Determination of Surface Finish Effects on the EHD Performance of Ball Bearings

An analytical and experimental analysis was conducted to determine the effects of surf ace finish on the elastohydrodynamic performance of a group of 168-mm bore diameter, gas turbine engine, main shaft ball bearings found to have discrepant outer raceway surface finishes. The fatigue life determined during component test was found, to be significantly less than the life of similar bearings with proper finishes and considerably less than predicted by available analytical methods. As a result of test and analysis, engines having suspect bearings were successfully retrofitted to preclude the possibility of premature bearing failures. Presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, April 17–20, 1978
The effect of reflected and secondary electrons on lithography with the scanning tunneling microscope

Abstract The scanning tunneling microscope offers a unique tool for very high resolution, low voltage electron beam lithography. In the STM, most resist systems will use voltages in the range of 10 to 100 eV for exposure. At these voltages the instrument is operating in the field emission regime rather than the tunneling regime, and when the electrons strike the surface, they can either be reflected back from the surface, or generate secondary electrons that can also escape from the surface. The secondary and reflected electrons are subject to the high fields in gap between the tip and the sample, which causes most of them to return to the sample. These electrons are capable of causing additional resist exposure some distance away from the primary beam. We have modeled the current density as a function of position using a Monte Carlo program to follow the trajectories of random electrons. The results show that these electrons cause a background “fog” exposure of about 10% of the primary beam with a radius several times that of the primary beam.
Urologic diseases in America Project: analytical methods and principal findings.

ABSTRACTPurpose:: The burden of urological diseases on the American public is immense in human and financial terms but it has been under studied. We undertook a project, Urologic Diseases in America, to quantify the burden of urological diseases on the American public.Materials and Methods:: We identified public and private data sources that contain population based data on resource utilization by patients with benign and malignant urological conditions. Sources included the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, and private data sets maintained by MarketScan Health and Productivity Management (MarketScan, Chichester, United Kingdom), Ingenix (Ingenix, Salt Lake City, Utah) and Center for Health Care Policy and Evaluation. Using diagnosis and procedure codes we described trends ...
CC1-03: Documentations of Advanced Health Care Directives in the Electronic Health Record: Where Are They?

Background/AimsAdvanced Care planning is becoming a major public health concern. The ambulatory care setting is a new frontier for delivery of palliative care services. Understanding patients? preferences and documenting them in an accessible location can facilitate honoring patients? wishes. However, physicians document Advanced Health Care Directives (AHCD) in various locations within EpicCare EHR, including progress notes, scanned documents, and the problem list. The aim of the study is to identify the locations of AHCD decision documentations in the EHR.MethodsExtensive search of AHCD terms in EPIC EHR, e.g., Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatments (POLST), living will, and power of attorney, using 10 years of EHR data (2000?2010) in a large multispecialty ambulatory group practice in Northern California.ResultsA total of 76,887 patients had a documented AHCD decision. About 69% (53,270 of 76,887) had a decision in progress notes, 43% (33,265/76,887) in scanned documents, and 34% (26,146/76,887) in problem list. Overall, 36% of patients (28,045/76,887) had only progress note documentations, 25% (19,116/76,887) had only scanned documents, 16% (12,606/76,887) had both progress notes and problem list, and 12% (8,964/76,887) had documentation in all 3 locations. POLST documents made up 2% (853/37,706) of scanned documents. About 59% of patients (45,240/76,887) were >= 65 at the time of their first AHCD documentation. About 57% (44,067/76,887) were female. About 90% (5,689/6,347) of patients who died had their first AHCD decision documented within 5 years of their death. Documentation was updated nearing death - 90% (3,594/3,989) of patients who died and had more than one documented decision had their last decision documented within a year of death.DiscussionMost AHCD decisions are in progress notes in the EHR which can be difficult to access for busy physicians. Physicians? effort to elicit patient preferences for AHCD and subsequent decisions may be wasted if these decisions cannot be readily found in the EHR in actionable formats. Scanned documents containing signatures of the patient, surrogate, and if applicable, the physician, may be more actionable than text in progress notes without proper signatures and flagging. Standardizing the location of these important decisions needs to become a priority.
Use of a Viabahn stent for repair of a common carotid artery pseudoaneurysm and dissection

Carotid procedures in the previously operated neck are both technically demanding and subject to increased rates of complications. Adding radiation to the operated field only increases these risks. The incidence of cranial nerve injury in the reoperative neck has increased. Similarly, patients with a history of radiation are at increased risk for stroke, cranial nerve injury, and wound complications. Before the endovascular era, the only option for repair of an extracranial carotid aneurysm was open operation. Recently, more experience has been gained using endovascular techniques to repair these aneurysms. We present a patient with a history of radiation and radical neck dissection who developed a pseudoaneurysm of the common carotid artery. This pseudoaneurysm was repaired successfully using a Viabhan covered stent graft.
Functional MR cholangiography of the cystic duct and sphincter of Oddi using gadoxetate disodium: is a 30-minute delay long enough?

Purpose: To determine if excreted contrast is consistently visualized in the gallbladder and duodenum after a 30-minute delay using gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI in patients without hepatobiliary disease. Materials and Methods: Twenty-two patients without evidence of liver or biliary disease underwent gadoxetate disodium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from February 17, 2009 through October 3, 2011. The mean age was 45 years (range 25–72). T1-weighted hepatobiliary phase images at 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after contrast injection were reviewed in consensus by two radiologists to determine the delay at which enhancement of the gallbladder and duodenum first occurred. Results: Thirteen of 22 (59.1%) patients demonstrated duodenal filling by 20 minutes and 16/22 (72.7%) filled by 30 minutes. The mean time to duodenal enhancement was 19.9 minutes (range 11.4–30.2 min). Seventeen of 22 (77.3%) patients demonstrated gallbladder filling by 20 minutes and 21/22 (95.5%) filled by 30 minutes. The mean time to gallbladder enhancement was 16.5 minutes (range 4.4–30.2 min). Conclusion: A significant number of normal patients do not show duodenal filling by 30 minutes, while the majority fill the gallbladder by 30 minutes using functional MR cholangiography (fMRC) with gadoxetate disodium. These findings will guide fMRC protocol design for patients with suspected acute cholecystitis and sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013;37:993–998. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Improving specialty care follow-up after an ED visit using a unique referral system.

Abstract Objective Many patients discharged from the emergency department (ED) require urgent follow-up with specialty providers. We hypothesized that a unique specialty referral mechanism that minimized barriers would increase follow-up compliance over reported and historical benchmarks. Methods Retrospective review of all patients requiring urgent (within 1 month) specialty referrals in 2010 from a safety net hospital ED to dermatology, otolaryngology, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, urology, plastic surgery, general surgery, or vascular surgery clinics. After specialist input, all patients received a specific follow-up appointment before ED discharge via a specific scheduling service. Necessity for payment at the follow-up visit was waived. Results Of the 1174 receiving referrals, 85.6% of patients scheduled an appointment and 80.1% kept that appointment. After logistic regression analysis, the factors that remained significantly associated ( P 64 years, 93.9%), and mean length of time between ED visit and clinic appointment (kept, 10.5 days; not kept, 14.3 days). The specialty clinic (neurology, 72.8%, to vascular surgery, 100%; P Conclusion A referral process that minimizes barriers can achieve an 80% follow-up compliance rate. Age, insurance, specialty type, and time to appointment are associated with noncompliance.
Irradiate-Anneal Screening of Total Dose Effects in Semiconductor Devices

An extensive investigation of irradiate-anneal (IRAN) screening against total dose radiation effects was carried out as part of a program to harden the Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 (MJS'77) spacecraft to survive the Jupiter radiation belts. The method consists of irradiating semiconductor devices with Cobalt-60 to a suitable total dose under representative bias conditions and of separating the parts in the undesired tail of the distribution from the bulk of the parts by means of a predetermined acceptance limit. The acceptable devices are then restored close to their preirradiation condition by annealing them at an elevated temperature. IRAN was used when lot screen methods were impracticable due to lack of time, and when members of a lot showed a diversity of radiation response. The feasibility of the technique was determined by testing of a number of types of linear bipolar integrated circuits, analog switches, n-channel JFETS and bipolar transistors. Based on the results of these experiments a number of device types were selected for IRAN of flight parts in the MJS'77 spacecraft systems. The part types, screening doses, acceptance criteria, number of parts tested and rejected as well as the program steps are detailed.
Phase II study of gemcitabine in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of gemcitabine in patients with chemotherapy-naive, advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS Twenty-eight patients with unresectable and nonembolizable HCC who had received no prior systemic chemotherapy and with objectively measurable tumors, adequate liver and renal function, and adequate bone marrow reserve were enrolled on this study. The therapy consisted of gemcitabine 1250 mg/m2 intravenously over 30 minutes weekly in an outpatient clinic. One course of treatment included three consecutive weekly infusions of gemcitabine and a 1-week rest. Treatment courses were repeated every 4 weeks for a total of six courses unless there was prior evidence of progressive disease. RESULTS All 28 patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. A partial response (PR) was achieved in 5 patients, for an overall response rate of 17.8% (95% confidence interval, 2.7–32.9%). Seven patients had stable disease (25%), and 16 patients had disease progression (57.2%). The median survival for all 28 patients was 18.7 weeks, and, for those patients who achieved a PR, it was 34.7 weeks. The median time to progression was 12 weeks. National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria Grade 3–4 toxicity consisted primarily of leucopenia (10.7%), anemia (14.3%), thrombocytopenia (10.7%), and hepatotoxicity (14.3%). The spectrum of both hematologic and nonhematologic toxicity was mild, with thrombocytopenia constituting the dose-limiting side effect. CONCLUSIONS Gemcitabine shows marginal antitumor activity in patients with advanced HCC, although the response duration is short-lived. Gemcitabine seems to be particularly promising because of its low toxicity profile. Further studies in combination with other active agents are warranted. Cancer 2000;89:750–6. © 2000 American Cancer Society.
Ionic association and conductivity in polyethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide) metal salt systems

Complexes of poly(propylene oxide) and poly(ethylene oxide) with mixed salts of composition (PPO)20-(ZnBr2)x(LiBr)1 − x and (PEO)20-(ZnBr2)x(LiBr)1 − x have been studied by Raman spectroscopy and ionic conductivity measurements. The relative concentrations of ZnBr2, ZnBr3− and ZnBr42 − (as deduced from the relative intensities of the symmetric stretching modes) have been measured as a function of x. The effect of chain length, end-capping and temperature was also examined. The analysis shows that with increasing bromide concentration the dominant species varies from ZnBr2 to ZnBr3− to ZnBr42 −. The complex with x = 0.5 in all polymer-salt complex systems studied contains only the ZnBr3− species. Complex impedance measurements indicate that the ionic conductivity of ZnBr3− is highest in the PEO (CH3-capped) system. Interesting conclusions are drawn regarding the mobility of these species in the different polymer environments.
Fungal diseases of birds of prey.

Aspergillosis and candidiasis are ranked among the most common infectious diseases in birds of prey. The prevention of these fungal diseases is often easier than treatment. Thus the clinician should strive to prevent infection by minimizing stress, maintaining a healthy environment, limiting long-term use of antibiotics and corticosteroids, and reducing exposure to fungal organisms. Although less commonly diagnosed among wild, free-ranging birds of prey, a high incidence in a free-ranging population should make the clinician think of an immunocompromising factor (i.e., toxins, human encroachment or low prey base) that may be contributing to infection. The diagnosis of aspergillosis and candidiasis often requires more than just the identification of the agent, as these ubiquitous organisms often are cultured from healthy birds of prey. In those birds of prey in which a fungal infection is highly suspected or proven, antifungal drugs remain the mainstay of treatment, although available drugs and modes of delivery have improved in recent years.