cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modeling and control of cell wall thickness in batch delignification

Abstract In the Kraft pulping process, the cell wall thickness (CWT) of wood chips significantly affects paper properties. This work proposes a novel multiscale model by combining the mass continuity and thermal energy balance equations adopted from a modified “extended Purdue model” with a kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm to describe the microscopic events such as the evolution of CWT and Kappa number; otherwise, these microscopic properties of wood chips are not accessible by existing measurement techniques. To reduce the model complexity, a data-driven reduced-order model is developed, which is then used for developing a soft sensing system (i.e., Kalman filter) to estimate the primary measurements (e.g., CWT, Kappa number) by utilizing the secondary measurements (e.g., active effective alkali and dissolved lignin concentrations in the free-liquor phase). Based on this soft sensing system, a model-based feedback control framework is developed to regulate both the CWT and Kappa number of wood chips.
Understanding the Role of Metal and Molecular Structure on the Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation of Oxygenated Organic Compounds

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation is increasingly studied as an alternative to integrate the use of recycled carbon feedstocks with renewable energy sources. However, the abundant empiric observations...
The impact of palliative care on quality of life, anxiety, and depression in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal disease that results in poor quality of life due to progressive respiratory symptoms, anxiety, and depression. Palliative care improves quality of life and survival in other progressive diseases. No randomized controlled trials have investigated the impact of palliative care on quality of life, anxiety, or depression in IPF. We conducted a randomized, controlled, pilot study to assess the feasibility of measuring the effect of a palliative care clinic referral on quality of life, anxiety, and depression in IPF. Patients were randomized to usual care (UC) or usual care + palliative care (UC + PC) with routine pulmonary follow up at 3 and 6 months. The UC + PC group received a minimum of one PC clinic visit. Primary outcome was change from baseline in quality of life, anxiety, and depression as measured by the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Index (HADS), and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) at 6 months. Twenty-two patients were randomized between September 2017 through July 2018; 11 to UC and 11 to UC + PC. There was no difference in the change in SGRQ score at 3 months or 6 months, however, the symptom score trended towards a significant worsening for UC + PC at both 3 and 6 months (mean change at 3 months for UC and UC + PC was − 7.8 and + 10.7, respectively, p = 0.066; mean change at 6 months for UC and UC + PC was − 6.0 and + 4.6, respectively, p = 0.055). There was no difference in the change in HADS anxiety or depression scores. There was a significant transient worsening in PHQ-9 scores for UC + PC at 3 months (UC: -1.6, UC + PC: + 0.9, p = 0.008); this effect did not persist at 6 months. This pilot study demonstrated that a randomized controlled trial of palliative care in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients is feasible. Receiving palliative care did not lead to improved quality of life, anxiety, or depression compared to usual care after 6 months. Patients in the UC + PC group trended towards worsening symptoms and a small but statistically significant transient worsening in depression. These findings should be interpreted with caution, and need to be evaluated in adequately powered clinical trials. NCT03981406, June 10, 2019, retrospectively registered.
Multiple Sclerosis and Cancer: The Ying-Yang Effect of Disease Modifying Therapies

Over the past two decades, the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been transformed by the rapidly expanding arsenal of new disease modifying therapies (DMTs). Current DMTs for MS aim to modulate innate and adaptive immune responses toward a less inflammatory phenotype. Since the immune system is also critical for identifying and eliminating malignant cells, immunosuppression from DMTs may predictably increase the risk of cancer development in MS patients. Compared with healthy controls, patients with autoimmune conditions, such as MS, may already have a higher risk of developing certain malignancies and this risk may further be magnified by DMT treatments. For those patients who develop both MS and cancer, these comorbid presentations create a challenge for clinicians on how to therapeutically address management of cancer in the context of MS autoimmunity. As there are currently no accepted guidelines for managing MS patients with prior history of or newly developed malignancy, we undertook this review to evaluate the molecular mechanisms of current DMTs and their potential for instigating and treating cancer in patients living with MS.
The Performance of LSTM and BiLSTM in Forecasting Time Series

Machine and deep learning-based algorithms are the emerging approaches in addressing prediction problems in time series. These techniques have been shown to produce more accurate results than conventional regression-based modeling. It has been reported that artificial Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) with memory, such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), are superior compared to Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) with a large margin. The LSTM-based models incorporate additional “gates” for the purpose of memorizing longer sequences of input data. The major question is that whether the gates incorporated in the LSTM architecture already offers a good prediction and whether additional training of data would be necessary to further improve the prediction. Bidirectional LSTMs (BiLSTMs) enable additional training by traversing the input data twice (i.e., 1) left-to-right, and 2) right-to-left). The research question of interest is then whether BiLSTM, with additional training capability, outperforms regular unidirectional LSTM. This paper reports a behavioral analysis and comparison of BiLSTM and LSTM models. The objective is to explore to what extend additional layers of training of data would be beneficial to tune the involved parameters. The results show that additional training of data and thus BiLSTM-based modeling offers better predictions than regular LSTM-based models. More specifically, it was observed that BiLSTM models provide better predictions compared to ARIMA and LSTM models. It was also observed that BiLSTM models reach the equilibrium much slower than LSTM-based models.
Resilient and Extreme-Event-Aware Microgrid Using Energy Storage and Load Curtailment

Extreme events such as hurricane, earthquake, flooding, and cyber-attacks can result in power system blackout. Due to the high cost of power outage, appropriate planning, scheduling and preventive strategies should be considered to improve the resiliency of the power system. The optimal resource allocation in an area with high risk of extreme events occurrence is quite challenging. In this paper, a novel method is presented to improve the grid resiliency, from electrical point of view, in case of an extreme event with an emphasis on grid preparation. A multi-objective planning & control strategy is proposed at the pre-event stage. The proposed approach includes microgrid islanding, generation regulation, and load curtailment. Energy Storage Systems are considered as alternative resources in case of occurrence of extreme events. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed and compared to the equivalent conventional control scheme using a test case composed by the IEEE 13-bus distribution test feeders suitably adapted to include stochastic generation and energy storage systems. It is shown that our proposed strategy is able to cover the critical loads in all the 24-hour simulation study.
The Readability of Patient Education Materials Pertaining to Gastrointestinal Procedures.

Introduction. Due to the ubiquity and ease of access of Internet, patients are able to access online health information more easily than ever. The American Medical Association recommends that patient education materials be targeted at or below the 6th grade level in order to accommodate a wider audience. In this study, we evaluate the difficulty of educational materials pertaining to common GI procedures; we analyze on the readability of online education materials for colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). Methods. Google search was performed using keywords of “colonoscopy,” “sigmoidoscopy,” and “EGD” with “patient information” at the end of each search term. The texts from a total of 18 studies, 6 for each of the procedures, were then saved. Each study was also subdivided into “Introduction,” “Preparation,” “Complications,” and if available, “Alternatives.” Furthermore, medical terminology that was properly explained, proper nouns, medication names, and other copyright text were removed in order to prevent inflation of the difficulty. Five validated readability tests were used to analyze each study and subsections: Coleman-Liau, New Dale-Chall, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG. Results. Studies on colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, and EGD had median readability grades of 9.7, 10.2, and 11.0, respectively. Analysis of the subsections revealed that the “Alternative” subsection was the most difficult to comprehend with a readability score of 11.4, whereas the “Introduction” subsection was the easiest to comprehend with a readability score of 9.5. Conclusion. Despite modifications to the studies that improved the readability scores, patient education materials were still significantly above the recommended 6th grade level across all websites. This study emphasizes that clear and simple language is warranted in order to create information that is suitable for most patients.
Scalable topological data analysis for life science applications

Enabling discoveries and foundational understanding in modern day life sciences have largely become centered on our ability to effectively analyze large swathes of complex data from a diverse range of sources, capturing complex information encapsulated across the different layers of the nature-built system. While this data-centric approach has been the primary driver in computational life sciences and discovery pipelines for several decades now, the field has decisively diverged in the last few years on how and why these data are collected. More specifically, in contrast to yesteryear genomic and other -omic projects, modern day data collection by and large happens in an analysis-agnostic fashion---i.e., complex data are collected without any specific hypotheses to drive them; instead data are being collected because of easy availability of affordable high-throughput technologies. This has led to a fundamental shift in how we process these data and what we could glean from these data. In this work, we present a novel algorithmic and software framework called Hyppo-X, which is based on algebraic topology to discover hidden structure within complex biological data sets [1, 3]. Topology is the field of computational mathematics that deals with structure at large. Computational topology and its applications constitute an emerging area of research with ample scope for development and data-driven discovery. We present results of our extensive collaborative studies in developing and applying our methods to analyze two types of data---plant phenomics data obtained from agricultural fields [2], and patient trajectories obtained from a network of hospitals toward antimicrobial stewardship [4]. Topological data analysis holds tremendous promise to model and analyze high-dimensional data sets in numerous scientific domains, and are likely to become part of future machine learning pipelines. These early studies demonstrate its potential while also highlighting a number of challenges and opportunities for future research. The software is available for download at https://mhmethun.com/HYPPO-X/.
Longitudinal Changes in Serum Markers of Bone Metabolism and Bone Material Strength in Premenopausal Women with Distal Radial Fracture.

Background Markers of bone metabolism (MBM) play an important role in fracture evaluation, and changes have been associated with increased fracture risk. The purpose of the present study was to describe changes in MBM in premenopausal women with distal radial fractures. Methods Premenopausal women with distal radial fractures (n = 34) and without fractures (controls) (n = 39) were recruited. Serum MBM in patients with distal radial fractures were obtained at the time of the initial presentation, 6 weeks, and 3, 6, and 12 months. MBM included 25(OH) vitamin D, PTH, osteocalcin, P1NP, BSAP, CTX, sclerostin, DKK1, periostin, and TRAP5b. Areal bone mineral density (aBMD) was assessed with dual x-ray absorptiometry, and the bone material strength index (BMSi) was assessed with microindentation. Results Most MBM reached peak levels at 6 weeks after the injury, including osteocalcin (+17.7%), sclerostin (+23.5%), and DKK1 (12.6%). Sclerostin was lower (-27.4%) and DKK1 was higher (+22.2%) at 1 year after the fracture. CTX declined below baseline levels at 6 and 12 months, whereas TRAP5b, BSAP, and periostin did not significantly change. At 12 months, sclerostin was lower (p = 0.003) and DKK1 was higher (p = 0.03) in the distal radial fracture group than in the control group. Greater fracture severity was associated with greater increases in P1NP and BSAP. aBMD and BMSi were not associated with fracture. Conclusions Distal radial fractures caused increases in several MBM, which typically peaked at 6 weeks after injury and gradually decreased over 6 months. Sclerostin and DKK1 remained below and above baseline at 1 year, respectively. Increasing fracture severity resulted in larger changes in MBM. aBMD and BMSi did not discriminate between patients with distal radial fractures and controls. Continued efforts to identify markers of skeletal fragility in young women are warranted to mitigate future fracture risk. Level of evidence Prognostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Central Neuropathic Pain: Multiple Sclerosis-Related Headaches

A 32-year-old man presents to his neurologist with a history of new-onset right-sided occipital head and neck pain. His medical history is significant for clinically isolated syndrome, anxiety, and frequent migraine headaches since his early twenties. His migraine headaches occur about three times per month and are heralded by typical visual aura half the time. The pain is unilateral usually on the left, pulsatile, and severe. Headaches are associated with prominent nausea and sensitivity to light. Three years ago, he had an episode of right leg weakness, blurry vision in his left eye, difficulty with depth perception, and pain on lateral eye movements that lasted several weeks. On the basis of his symptoms, neurologic deficits, and imaging, clinically isolated syndrome was suspected at the time and he received a course of IV Solu-Medrol with resolution of his symptoms.
Thoracic Esophageal Cancer

Radiation combined with chemotherapy is currently the standard approach for treating thoracic esophageal cancer, and in most cases, this treatment is coupled with esophagectomy. Several randomized trials have demonstrated that the trimodality approach (chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery) provides the best survival outcomes for patients with thoracic esophageal cancer. However, given the proximity of the heart and lungs to the treatment fields, treatment can be quite toxic and occasionally fatal. Radiotherapy dose distributions in normal tissue contribute to the morbidity of therapy, and dosimetric evidence and recent clinical evidence suggest that the use of advanced radiation techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy can reduce the dose to organs at risk and hence the morbidity of treatment. This chapter summarizes this research and the approach taken at MD Anderson Cancer Center for treating thoracic esophageal cancer.
Comparison of Nessler, phenate, salicylate and ion selective electrode procedures for determination of total ammonia nitrogen in aquaculture

Abstract An assessment was conducted to compare the precision and accuracy of Nessler, phenate, salicylate, and ammonia electrode procedures for total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) concentration determination in waters of aquaculture. Salicylate method was selected as a standard method for its high precision and accuracy. In replicate analyses of water samples for precision estimate, Nessler method usually gave higher mean concentration of TAN than other methods and it is not recommended for use for its high coefficient of variance. Results from Nessler's with Rochelle salt method were more accurate than Nessler without Rochelle salt method. Electrodes for sensing NH 3 and NH 4 + usually gave higher mean concentration of TAN than salicylate method. NH 4 + electrode, although with high accuracy, was strongly affected by sodium and potassium and not recommended to use especially in waters of high salinity. The finding also suggested that the salicylate kit by using YSI photometer also was a preferable alternative to salicylate method while Nessler kit was not. TAN concentrations measured in 27 water samples by all methods were highly correlated (R 2 = 0.919 to 0.996) with salicylate method. All of the slopes except phenate I and II method were different from 1.0 ( P P Statement of relevance In this study, we evaluated the accuracy and precision of different possible ways of measuring TAN concentration at aquaculture facilities. These findings will be useful because producers need reliable measurement of TAN concentration to effectively manage ponds and other culture systems. The conclusions made in this manuscript provide valuable information when researchers and farmers need to measure TAN concentration.
Statistical Point-to-Set Edge-Based Quality of Service Provisioning

In this paper we propose an edge-based quality of service architecture aimed at site-to-site private networks over the Internet. We extend the traditional point-to-point service model to a point-to-set service model, assuming a finite, bounded set of destination sites. Instead of provisioning point-to-point links between a source and its set of destinations, a point-to-set service allows the user to have an allocated bandwidth, which could be flexibly assigned to traffic going toward any destination within the set. The proposed point-to-set service provides low loss rates and flexibility to users while allowing providers to obtain multiplexing gains by employing a probabilistic admission control test. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the utility of deploying such a model.
Minority Shareholder Expropriation and Asymmetric Information Flows in a Global Registered Share: The Saga of Daimler Chrysler

The Daimler foray into the international equity market, beginning with its 1993 cross-listing in the U.S. and peaking with its 1998 merger with Chrysler, provides an uncommon opportunity to explore the interplay between competing approaches countries may take in their treatment of minority shareholders. In the common-law approach often adopted in the U.K, present and former Commonwealth countries, Israel and the U.S., strict disclosure and reporting requirements are combined with strong corporate governance standards on board structure, incentive-based executive compensation, and voting rights to protect minority shareholders from expropriation by controlling shareholders and principal creditors. In contrast, as a cross-listed German stock corporation, DaimlerChrysler's civil-law approach to governance was dominated by direct monitoring by controlling shareholders and principal creditors who imposed strict internal accounting standards and extraordinary confidentiality designed to prevent the leakage of asymmetric information to minority shareholders. In this paper we use the DaimlerChrysler events to generate unique evidence on the extent to which two methods - disclosure requirements and corporate governance standards - can substitute for one another in protecting minority shareholders from expropriation. We find that strict disclosure requirements, though they provide measurable reductions in asymmetric information, are an insufficient substitute for strong corporate governance measures. Strict disclosure complements strong corporate governance, and both may be required to create environments in which firms can raise capital and fund growth opportunities most efficiently.
Common Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) as a Source of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Freshwater Systems1

Habersack, Mathew J., Theo A. Dillaha, and Charles Hagedorn, 2011. Common Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) as a Source of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Freshwater Systems. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(6):1255–1260. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00572.x Abstract: The United States Total Maximum Daily Load program is required by Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act to clean up waters that do not meet state water quality standards. While conducting research into the bacterial composition of semiaquatic mammal feces, the opportunity presented itself to quantify commonly used pathogen indicator bacteria in the gastrointestinal contents from an ectothermic (cold-blooded) animal, the common snapping turtle. Indicator bacteria concentrations were on the order of 106 CFU/g feces (dry weight basis). The estimated bacterial loadings from this study demonstrate that the common snapping turtle, if present in sufficient numbers, may contribute significant bacterial loadings to waterways and should be considered when developing bacterial Total Maximum Daily Loads and in other bacterial water quality assessments.
Eurasia: re-emergence of two world regions

Relations between Asia and Europe have a long history back to ancient times. This history is also a history of superpowers. Today the relations between Asia and Europe are dominated by various regional actors, mainly the EU and ASEAN. Their bi- and multilateral cooperations have changed the international system. These processes, called inter- or transregionalism, also have deep impact on the regional integration in both regions, but especially in Asia. Interregionalism fosters open regionalism in Asia and has catalysed further efforts to multilayered regional integration in this world region.
The Evolution to Steady Nonlinear Pulsation in Stellar Models

The numerically generated dynamical evolution of an RR Lyrae model from different initial conditions is subjected to a time-dependent Fourier analysis, which yields the temporal behavior of the amplitudes and phases of the few longlived transient modes in addition to the ultimate winner. It is shown that the amplitude equation formalism of Buchler and Goupil gives an almost perfect fit to the observed transient behavior of the amplitudes and phases of the excited modes. Prospects and applications are discussed.
Valence-fluctuation scenario for cuprate superconductivity: The finite-U pairing mechanism

The idea that the normal state of cuprate superconductors is a valence-fluctuation (VF) state is appealing for a number of reasons. We are exploring this scenario quantitatively,1 focussing especially on the finite-U mechanism2 for s-wave pairing. The calculations employ a many-body variational technique developed previously for VF and heavy-fermion materials.3 We are presently exploring the effects of (a) varying the Hamiltonian parameters away from the values obtained from photoemission data analysis,4 (b) various simple assumptions for the band structure and hybridization k-dependence and (c) corrections to the Gutzwiller approximation. These are the topics to be discussed in this report.
ST segment analysis by Holter Monitoring: methodological considerations.

Background: There has been a renewed interest in ST segment analysis by Holter Monitoring, especially in multicenter clinical trials, but consensus on how to define an ischemic event is missing. We conducted a survey of European and U.S. publications involving ST segment analysis by Holter monitoring from 1975 to 2002 and found no notation of any correction for baseline ST segment depression in 52% of them. In 45% J-point depression was required in addition to ST segment depression measured either 60 ms (24%) or 80 ms (76%) after the J point. In 28% ST segment elevations were included. Method: Four different criteria for an ischemic event found in our survey were applied to Holter recordings from 66 patients with acute ischemic syndrome enrolled in the Esmolol Myocardial Ischemia Trial (EMIT). Only lead CM5 was used and the analyzer was a Reynolds Medical Pathfinder 600. Results: By the most sensitive method (J + 80), there were 16 (24%) patients who had ischemic events in their Holter recording compared to only 10 (15%) patients if J-point depression was also required. If corrections were made for baseline ST segment depression, only 3 (4.5%) recordings were positive for ischemia. Conclusion: The outcome of Holter analysis for ischemic events is greatly dependent upon how an ischemic event is defined. Consensus on how to define an ischemic event is urgently needed.
Regulation of vascular endothelial barrier function by Epac, a cAMP-activated exchange factor for Rap GTPase

Endothelial cell-cell junctional proteins and cortical actin are of central importance for regulating vascular permeability. Rap1, a member of the Ras family of GTPases, is enriched at endothelial cell-cell contacts and activated by cyclic AMP (cAMP) through a PKA-independent pathway. Activation of a cAMP-inducible guanine-exchange factor for Rap, Epac, results in markedly enhanced basal endothelial barrier function by increasing cortical actin and subsequent redistribution of adherens and tight junctional molecules to cell-cell contacts. Activation of Epac also counteracts thrombin-induced hyperpermeability through down-regulation of Rho GTPase activation, suggesting cross-talk between Rap and Rho GT-Pases. Thus, Epac/Rap activation represents a new pathway for regulating endothelial cell barrier function.
Transfer matrix modeling of a tensioned piezo-solar hybrid energy harvesting ribbon

This paper proposes a multifunctional compliant structure that can harvest electrical power from both incident sunlight and ambient mechanical energy including wind flow or vibration. The energy harvesting device consists of a slender, ribbon-like, flexible thin film solar cell that is laminated with piezoelectric patches. The harvester is mounted in longitudinal tension and subjected to a transverse wind flow to excite flow-induced aeroelastic vibrations. This paper formulates an analytic model of the bending dynamics of the device. We present a Transfer Matrix formulation that also accounts for the changes in natural frequencies and mode shapes of the system when subjected to axial loads in a beam. It also observed that mode shape obtained using TMM formulation shows numerical stability even for very high tensile loads providing results consistent with the geometric boundary conditions applied at the ends of a beam. This article also discusses about structurally modeling a piezo - solar energy harvester using TMM methodology, where a thin clampedclamped solar film is bonded with piezo patches having a much higher bending stiffness. Additionally, the effect of axial tension on the mode shape of the thin host structure of the piezo-solar ribbon is presented and it is shown how this tension can be used advantageously to affect the strain distribution of the entire structure and introduce higher strains at the piezo patches.
Strength of Suckling Stimulus and Maintenance of the Mammary Gland.

SummaryGalactophores of the right 6 mammary glands of rats were ligated on day 3 postpartum and litters were adjusted to contain either 3, 6, 9 or 12 pups. Mammary glands on left side were not ligated. Rats nursing 6 young but without galactophore ligation served as controls. Animals were sacrificed on day 14 postpartum and DNA content of both left and right abdominal–inguinal glands was determined. The posterior pair of pectoral glands was used for histological study. In galactophore-ligated rats, ligated glands were significantly smaller than contralateral non-ligated glands. DNA content of ligated glands of rats nursing 12 young was similar to that of corresponding control glands whereas DNA content of glands of rats nursing 3–9 young was less than control glands. In animals with galactophore ligation, non-ligated glands were significantly larger than corresponding glands of rats without galactophore ligation. It appears that the strength of the suckling stimulus is directly related to maintenance of t...
Restoration ecology: two-sex dynamics and cost minimization.

We model a spatially detailed, two-sex population dynamics, to study the cost of ecological restoration. We assume that cost is proportional to the number of individuals introduced into a large habitat. We treat dispersal as homogeneous diffusion in a one-dimensional reaction-diffusion system. The local population dynamics depends on sex ratio at birth, and allows mortality rates to differ between sexes. Furthermore, local density dependence induces a strong Allee effect, implying that the initial population must be sufficiently large to avert rapid extinction. We address three different initial spatial distributions for the introduced individuals; for each we minimize the associated cost, constrained by the requirement that the species must be restored throughout the habitat. First, we consider spatially inhomogeneous, unstable stationary solutions of the model’s equations as plausible candidates for small restoration cost. Second, we use numerical simulations to find the smallest rectangular cluster, enclosing a spatially homogeneous population density, that minimizes the cost of assured restoration. Finally, by employing simulated annealing, we minimize restoration cost among all possible initial spatial distributions of females and males. For biased sex ratios, or for a significant between-sex difference in mortality, we find that sex-specific spatial distributions minimize the cost. But as long as the sex ratio maximizes the local equilibrium density for given mortality rates, a common homogeneous distribution for both sexes that spans a critical distance yields a similarly low cost.
Notch function in the vasculature: insights from zebrafish, mouse and man

Vascular development entails multiple cell-fate decisions to specify a diverse array of vascular structures. Notch proteins are signaling receptors that regulate cell-fate determination in a variety of cell types. The finding that Notch genes are robustly expressed in the vasculature suggests roles for Notch in guiding endothelial and associated mural cells through the myriad of cell-fate decisions needed to form the vasculature. In fact, mice with defects in genes encoding Notch, Notch ligands, and components of the Notch signaling cascade invariably display vascular defects. Human Notch genes are linked to Alagille's Syndrome, a developmental disorder with vascular defects, and CADASIL, a cerebral arteriopathy. Studies in zebrafish, mice and humans indicate that Notch works in conjunction with other angiogenic pathways to pattern and stabilize the vasculature. Here, we will focus on established functions for Notch in vascular remodeling and arterial/venous specification and more speculative roles in vascular homeostasis and organ-specific angiogenesis.
Successful cimetidine therapy for multiple genital condyloma in an adolescent female with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Background Several case reports have been published in the dermatologic literature demonstrating resolution of verruca plana, otherwise knows as “common warts”, with the use of oral Cimetidine.(Orlow et al. J Am Acad Dermat, 1993;28(5)) The mechanism of this effect has not been fully elucidated. We report complete disappearance of extensive vulvar/introital condyloma acuminata in an adolescent. Case An 18 y.o. female with congenital adrenal hyperplasia presented with multiple recurrent genital warts only 1 month after complete laser ablation. (Photo #1) Cimetidine, 400 mg P.O. Q.I.D. was prescribed and, when evaluated after 5 weeks of therapy, all condyloma had completely disappeared.(Photo #2) No untoward side-effects were noted. Conclusions We propose that there may be a role for Cimetidine in the treatment of extensive genital warts.
The assembly and properties of protobiological structures: the beginnings of cellular peptide synthesis.

New data indicate that lysine-rich proteinoids have the ability to catalyze the synthesis of peptide bonds from a variety of amino acids and ATP. This capacity is evident in aqueous solution, in suspension of phase-separated complexes of lysine-rich proteinoid with acidic proteinoids, and in suspension of phase-separated particles composed of lysine-rich proteinoids with polynucleotides. Since the proteinoid complexes can contain other catalytic activities, including ability to catalyze internucleotide bond formation, it is inferred that the first protocells on earth already had a number of biological types of activity.
Heterophilic Antibodies Following Injection of Blood Group Substances

Titers of several heterophilic antibodies have been found elevated following the administration of blood group substance A through blood transfusion. These antibodies include sheep agglutinins, beef hemolysins, beef agglutinins, and occasionally sheep hemolysins. The titers of the first two antibodies which are consistently elevated also in infectious mononucleosis may be a source of error in the serologic diagnosis of this disease. However, antibodies in the two conditions can be differentiated by absorption with: 1) guinea pig kidney and beef erythrocytes, as is done in the differential test; 2) blood group substance A which removes completely the antibodies that follow immunization with substance A but not in infectious mononucleosis. We could find no evidence to indicate that heterophilic antibodies in infectious mononucleosis are produced against the host's blood group antigens.
The radial flow viscometer

Abstract The radial flow of a non-Newtonian liquid between parallel plates has been theoretically examined for a Rivlin-Ericksen fluid. It was found that by experimentally measuring the radial pressure distribution and comparing the data with theoretical predictions, both the lower-limiting viscosity and a normal stress coefficient of the fluid may be determined.
Testing broken U(1) symmetry in a two-component atomic Bose-Einstein condensate

We present a scheme for determining if the quantum state of a small trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is a state with a well-defined number of atoms, a Fock state, or a state with a broken U(1) gauge symmetry, a coherent state. The proposal is based on the observation of Ramsey fringes. The population difference measured by a Ramsey fringe experiment will exhibit collapse and revivals due to the mean-field interactions. The collapse and revival times depend on the relative strengths of the mean-field interactions for the two components and the initial quantum state of the condensate.
Percutaneous autologous venous valve transplantation: Short-term feasibility study in an ovine model

Background Limited experience with bioprosthetic venous valve percutaneously inserted into femoral veins in 15 patients has been promising in short-term results only to show disappointing long-term results. Percutaneous autogenous venous valve (PAVV) transplantation was explored in an ovine model as a possible alternative treatment. Methods PAVV consisted of a vein segment containing a valve that was attached to a stent template. The stent templates (n = 9) were designed and hand made in our research laboratory. They consist of two stainless steel square stents 13 or 15 mm in diameter to fit the ovine jugular veins (JV), which ranges from 10 to 15 mm in diameter. A valve-containing segment of JV was harvested and attached with sutures and barbs inside the stent template (n = 9). The valve devices were then manually folded and front loaded inside the 4 cm chamber of the 13F delivery sheath and delivered into the contralateral JV by femoral vein approach. Transplanted PAVVs were studied by immediate and 3 months venograms. Animals were euthanized at 3 months, and jugular veins harvested to perform angioscopic evaluations in vitro. Results PAVV transplantation was successful in all nine animals. Good valve function with no reflux was observed on immediate and 3 months venograms in eight valves. The transplanted maximal JV diameter ranged from 10.2 mm to 15.4 mm (mean 13.1 ± 1.5 mm). Venoscopic examination revealed intact, flexible, nonthickened valve leaflets in eight specimens. One PAVV exhibited normal function of one leaflet only; the other cusp was accidentally cut during the transplantation procedure. All transplanted autologous valves were free of thrombus and incorporated into the vein wall of the host vessel. Conclusion This study demonstrated that autogenous valve transplants remained patent and competent without long-term anticoagulation for up to 3 months. The percutaneous autogenous venous valve may provide in future minimally invasive treatment for patients with chronic deep venous insufficiency, but long-term studies need to be done to document its continued patency and function.
Acoustic focusing with engineered node locations for high-performance microfluidic particle separation.

Acoustofluidic devices for manipulating microparticles in fluids are appealing for biological sample processing due to their gentle and high-speed capability of sorting cell-scale objects. Such devices are generally limited to moving particles toward locations at integer fractions of the fluid channel width (1/2, 1/4, 1/6, etc.). In this work, we introduce a unique approach to acoustophoretic device design that overcomes this constraint, allowing us to design the particle focusing location anywhere within the microchannel. This is achieved by fabricating a second fluid channel in parallel with the sample channel, separated from it by a thin silicon wall. The fluids in both channels participate to create the ultrasound resonance, while only one channel processes the sample, thus de-coupling the fluidic and acoustic boundaries. The wall placement and the relative widths of the adjacent channels define the particle focusing location. We investigate the operating characteristics of a range of these devices to determine the configurations that enable effective particle focusing and separation. The results show that a sufficiently thin wall negligibly affects focusing efficiency and location compared to a single channel without a wall, validating the success of this design approach without compromising separation performance. Using these principles to design and fabricate an optimized device configuration, we demonstrate high-efficiency focusing of microspheres, as well as separation of cell-free viruses from mammalian cells. These “transparent wall” acoustic devices are capable of over 90% extraction efficiency with 10 μm microspheres at 450 μL min−1, and of separating cells (98% purity), from viral particles (70% purity) at 100 μL min−1.
Atlantic Tropical Systems of 1971

Abstract The 1971 hurricane season featured 103 seedlings, 23 depressions, and 12 named storms. An anomalous circulation pattern developed over the Gulf of Mexico and the southwestern Atlantic Ocean in September and spawned a large number of depressions and storms within the subtropical belt near or north of latitude 25°N.
IR signature prediction errors for skin-heated aerial targets

The infrared signature of an aircraft is generally calculated as the sum of multiple components. These components are, typically: the aerodynamic skin heating, reflected solar and upwelling and downwelling radiation, engine hot parts, and exhaust gas emissions. For most airframes, the latter two components overwhelmingly dominate the IR signature. However, for small targets--such as small fighters and cruise missiles, particularly targets with masked hot parts, emissivity control, and suppressed plumes- -aerodynamic heating is the dominant term. This term is determined by the speed of the target, the sea-level air temperature, and the adiabatic lapse rate of the atmosphere, as a function of altitude. Simulations which use AFGL atmospheric codes (LOWTRAN and MODTRAN)--such as SPIRITS--to predict skin heating, may have an intrinsic error in the predicted skin heating component, due to the fixed number of discrete sea-level air temperatures implicit in the atmospheric models. Whenever the assumed background temperature deviates from the implicit model atmosphere sea- level temperature, there will be a measurable error. This error becomes significant in magnitude when trying to model the signatures of small, dim targets dominated by skin heating. This study quantifies the predicted signature errors and suggests simulation implementations which can minimize these errors.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Extralegal factors and the sentencing of organizational defendants: An examination of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines

Abstract The Federal Sentencing Guidelines were developed to provide uniform and standardized punishments for eliminating sentence disparities based on legally irrelevant factors. While research at the individual level showed that extralegal factors continued to affect sentence outcomes, no such research determined if these factors influenced sentencing of organizational offenders. This article extends the unit of analysis beyond the individual and toward organizational offenders to determine if total fine amounts are affected by extralegal organizational characteristics. Relying on post-1991 organizational defendant's data, the findings indicated both legal and extralegal factors significantly affected fine outcomes for organizational offenders. As expected, several legal factors significantly affected fine outcomes. At least two extralegal variables, economically solvent and closely held organizations, however, exerted significant effects in predicting the total fine amount imposed. Similar to research at the individual level, this study indicated that extralegal or legally irrelevant factors had some level of impact upon sentencing under the guidelines.
The fine structure of the slimeways in Labyrinthula.

SYNOPSIS. Electron microscope observations of a strain of Labyrinthula indicate that the spindle cells glide within a collapsible slime tube rather than on top of it. These slimeways are clearly extracellular, partly covered with membranes, and consist of an amorphous matrix encrusted with many small vesicular elements.
Tetraplex formation of d(GGGGGTTTTT): 1H NMR study in solution.

Abstract The oligonucleotide d(G5T5) can in principle form a fully matched duplex with G · T pairing and/or a tetraplex. Non-denaturing gel electrophoresis, circular dichroism and NMR experiments show that the tetraplex is exclusively formed by this oligomer in solution. In the presence of its complementary strand d(A5C5) at low temperature, d(G5T5) forms the tetraplex over the normally expected Watson-Crick duplex. However, when d(G5T5) and d(A5C5) are mixed together in equimolar amounts and heated for several minutes at 85°C, and then allowed to cool, the product was essentially the Watson-Crick duplex. The lack of resolution in the 500 MHz 1H NMR spectra and the presence of extensive spin diffusion do not allow us to derive a quantitative structure for the tetraplex from the NMR data. However, we find good qualitative agreement between the NOESY and MINSY data and a theoretically derived stereochemically sound structure in which the G's and T's are part of a parallel tetraplex.
Sub-keV x-ray imaging using a low-cost ellipsoidal lens

An ellipsoidal lens has been evaluated using the sub-keV x radiation from a laser-produced plasma. The measured collection efficiency is ~0.3%. Inexpensive fabrication and alignment techniques are discussed, and imaging measurements using visible and x-ray sources are presented.
Estimating fixed and random effects models with selectivity

Abstract This paper develops an alternative estimator to the one for the fixed effects model with selectivity that is presented in Verbeek (1990). The random effect in the selectivity equation is specified as a function of the means of time varying variables. This helps to alleviate the bias caused by the correlation between the random effect and the regressors in the selectivity equation.
DIFFERENTIAL REACTIVITY AND STRUCTURE OF MONO- AND DIALKOXIDES : THE REACTIONS OF ETHYLENE GLYCOL ON MO(110)

The reactions of ethylene glycol on Mo(110) were studied using temperature-programmed reaction, infrared reflection absorption, high-resolution electron energy loss, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The major reaction pathway is double C-O bond scission to evolve gas-phase ethylene at 350 and 390 K. Both X-ray photoelectron and infrared spectra demonstrate the existence of two surface intermediates, a bidentate (-OCH{sub 2}CH{sub 2}O-) and a monodentate (-OCH{sub 2}CH{sub 2}OH) species, at saturation coverage of ethylene glycol. We demonstrate that all ethylene glycol in the mixed overlayer of mono- and bidentate species reacts via a bidentate surface intermediate. Furthermore, in contrast to previous studies on other surfaces, the dialkoxide ethylene glycol intermediate is shown to be more reactive than similar monoalkoxides on Mo(110). Finally, analysis of the infrared spectra demonstrates that the bidentate species adsorbs with C{sub 2} (or lower) symmetry at 300 K. 39 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.
Distributed Opportunistic Scheduling for Cooperative Networking

This paper considers distributed opportunistic scheduling (DOS) with cooperative relaying in wireless ad hoc networks, with a focus on characterizing the desired tradeoff between the probing cost for establishing cooperative relaying and the higher throughput via opportunistic cooperative networking. Specifically, distributed scheduling and probing for cooperative relaying is treated as an optimal stopping problem with two levels of incomplete information. Cases with or without dedicated relays are considered, and the existence of the optimal strategies for both cases are established. Then, it is shown that for the case with dedicated relays, the optimal strategy exhibits a threshold structure, in which it is optimal to probe the dedicated relay when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the source-relay link exceeds some threshold. For the case without dedicated relays, under more restrictive conditions, the optimal strategy is also threshold-based, in the sense that it is optimal to probe potential relays when the SNR of the source-destination link lies between two thresholds. Furthermore, these strategies can be implemented in a distributed manner.