cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimal Stopping in a Partially Observable Markov Process with Costly Information

A problem of optimal stopping in a Markov chain whose states are not directly observable is presented. Using the theory of partially observable Markov decision processes, a model which combines the classical stopping problem with sequential sampling at each stage of the decision process is developed. Several results which characterize the optimal expected value function in terms of its parameters are given. An example is given which indicates that the best action to take as a function of the information currently available may not be of the intuitively appealing control limit type. The set of states at which it is optimal to purchase information need not be convex. The expected value of information as a function of the decision maker's knowledge is related to nonmonotone optimal policies.
Progression after Chemotherapy Is a Novel Predictor of Poor Outcomes after Pulmonary Metastasectomy in Sarcoma Patients

Background Sarcoma patients with pulmonary metastases frequently receive chemotherapy before resection. We hypothesized that measurable progression after chemotherapy is a novel predictor of poor outcomes in sarcoma patients undergoing pulmonary metastasectomy. Study Design We conducted a retrospective review of patients between 1998 and 2006 identifying those with sarcoma in whom lung metastases developed as their first site of recurrence, received chemotherapy for their metastases, and then underwent pulmonary metastasectomy. Multivariable analysis of preoperative factors was performed to identify predictors of poor survival. Progression after chemotherapy was defined as either an increase in the size of the nodules or the number of nodules on 2 CT scans before resection. All operations were performed within 3 months of completion of chemotherapy. Results Eighty-one sarcoma patients underwent pulmonary metastasectomy after chemotherapy (45 men, mean age 43 years). Multivariable analysis suggested disease-free interval ≥2 years versus Conclusions Progression of pulmonary metastases after chemotherapy is a novel prognostic factor for survival in patients with sarcoma undergoing metastasectomy, even when controlled for known factors such as disease-free interval and number of metastases.
Discounting and underpricing in seasoned equity offers

Abstract Expected discounting in seasoned equity offers is a cost of uncertainty about firm value, marketing new shares, and acquiring information that raises the offer price. Stockholders incorporate predictable discounting in stock prices when equity offers are first announced. The surprise component of discounting, reflecting the lead bank's final adjustment to the offer price, releases information that often causes economically large price swings on the offer day. Disparities between the issuer's closing price and the price suggested in the lead bank's final order book are a primary source of information. The discount surprise appears to be used by lead banks to update capital suppliers with that eleventh-hour information before they commit their funds.
Increased Diffusional Mobility of CFTR at the Plasma Membrane after Deletion of Its C-terminal PDZ Binding Motif

The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein is a cAMP-regulated Cl- channel expressed at the apical plasma membrane. It has been proposed that the C-terminal PDZ binding motif of CFTR is required for its apical membrane targeting and that PDZ-domain interactions may tether CFTR to the actin cytoskeleton via soluble proteins including EBP50/NHERF1 and ezrin. We measured the diffusional mobility of human CFTR in the plasma membrane of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells by photobleaching of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-CFTR chimeras. After bleaching by a focused laser beam, GFP-CFTR fluorescence in the bleached membrane region recovered to approximately 90% of its initial level, indicating that nearly all of the CFTR was mobile. The GFP-CFTR diffusion coefficient (D) was 0.99 +/- 0.09 x 10(-10) cm2/s at 37 degrees C, similar to that of other membrane proteins. GFP-CFTR diffusion was not altered by protein kinase A or C activators but was blocked by paraformaldehyde and filipin. CFTR mutants lacking functional PDZ-binding domains (GFPCFTR-DeltaTRL and GFP-CFTR-DeltaTRA) were also mobile with D significantly increased by approximately 60% compared with GFP-CFTR. However, GFP-CFTR, GFP-CFTR-Delta TRL, and GFP-CFTR-DeltaTRA had similar mobilities (D approximately 12 x 10(-10) cm2/s) at the endoplasmic reticulum in brefeldin A-treated cells. Agents that modulate the actin cytoskeleton (cytochalasin D and jasplakinolide) altered the plasma membrane mobility of CFTR but not CFTR- DeltaTRL. EBP50 (NHERF1), a PDZ domain-containing protein that interacts with the C terminus of CFTR, diffused freely in the cytoplasm with a diffusion coefficient of 0.9 +/- 0.1 x 10(-7) cm2/s. EBP50 diffusion increased by approximately 2-fold after deletion of its ezrin-binding domain. These results indicate that wild-type CFTR is not tethered statically at the plasma membrane but that its diffusion is dependent on PDZ-domain interactions and an intact actin skeleton. PDZ-domain interactions of CFTR are thus dynamic and occur on a time scale of seconds or faster.
An expression vector tailored for large-scale, high-throughput purification of recombinant proteins

Production of milligram quantities of numerous proteins for structural and functional studies requires an efficient purification pipeline. We found that the dual tag, his6-tag–maltose-binding protein (MBP), intended to facilitate purification and enhance proteins’ solubility, disrupted such a pipeline, requiring additional screening and purification steps. Not all proteins rendered soluble by fusion to MBP remained soluble after its proteolytic removal, and in those cases where the protein remained soluble, standard purification protocols failed to remove completely the stoichiometric amount of his6-tagged MBP generated by proteolysis. Both liabilities were alleviated by construction of a vector that produces fusion proteins in which MBP, the his6-tag and the target protein are separated by highly specific protease cleavage sites in the configuration MBP-site-his6-site-protein. In vivo cleavage at the first site by co-expressed protease generated untagged MBP and his6-tagged target protein. Proteins not truly rendered soluble by transient association with MBP precipitated, and untagged MBP was easily separated from the his-tagged target protein by conventional protocols. The second protease cleavage site allowed removal of the his6-tag.
Psychotherapy in controlled psychopharmacology trials. Does it matter if we ignore it

The controlled trial is now the standard for assessing efficacy of new treatments in Psychiatry, as it is in the rest of medicine. Psychiatric outcomes with treatment are influenced by concurrent psychosocial factors. Psychotherapy, alone or in combination with pharmacotherapy is an effective treatment. Thus, if concomitant receipt of psychotherapy is not controlled for in a psychopharmacology trial, outcome may be biased. In this study, all peer reviewed journal articles describing the results of randomized, controlled psychopharmacology trials in two separate years were carefully reviewed to assess the possible influence of control versus lack of explicit control for effect of concomitant psychotherapy on clinical outcome. One hundred sixteen articles, published in the years 1996 and 2000, were reviewed. Those with categorically positive or non-positive global outcome were assessed for description of concomitant receipt of psychotherapy by subjects randomized to different pharmacotherapy treatments. Description of comparability in potentially confounding demographic and clinical variables was present in all studies. Only 22% of 89 studies meeting inclusion criteria explicitly controlled for concomitant psychotherapy. Seventy five percent of 20 studies that did, and only 46% of 69 studies that did not, found different outcomes in groups randomized to different pharmacotherapy interventions (p=.024). This result was not accounted for by other aspects of study design such as placebo-vs.-active control comparison, trial size, length, geographic location, number of sites or authors, source of funding, or diagnostic composition)-suggesting that uncontrolled receipt of psychotherapy may reduce likelihood of finding a difference between a new treatment and a control pharmacotherapy intervention. If confirmed by further investigation, the results may warrant adoption of relevant recommendations for controlled trial design in psychopharmacology research. The method used in this report may be useful in other areas of controlled trial research to assess influence of confounding variables.
Diabetic Monocyte and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Signaling Impairment

Diabetes mellitus has emerged as a major health problem affecting >20 million Americans and 200 million people worldwide. Diabetes complications are often debilitating and affect the function of multiple organs. Although many complications of diabetes mellitus, including uncontrolled capillary proliferation in the retina, have received extensive attention, a poorly understood complication is an impaired arteriogenic response to macrovascular obstruction. This is manifested in patients with peripheral and coronary arterial occlusion as reduced collateral density and impaired wound healing.1–4 Article see p 150 The seemingly paradoxical decrease in arteriogenic responsiveness and increase in angiogenesis observed in diabetic patients5 present a distinct challenge to vascular biologists but also provide a grand opportunity for a deeper understanding of the fundamental biology of these 2 processes and their regulation. Angiogenesis, a process of capillary growth, is a relatively well-understood event. It is most often encountered in tissue injury settings such as wound healing or in ischemic settings after a proximal arterial occlusion or stenosis. Angiogenesis is driven largely by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) released either by ischemic tissues or by inflammatory cells. The result is acceleration of tissue repair in the case of injury and mild amelioration of ischemia in the case of arterial occlusion.6 Arteriogenesis, on the other hand, is a much more complex and much less understood process that refers to formation of new arterial …
Order consistent change detection via fast statistical significance testing

Robustness to illumination variations is a key requirement for the problem of change detection which in turn is a fundamental building block for many visual surveillance applications. The use of ordinal measures is a powerful way of filtering out illumination dependency in representing appearance, and several such measures have been proposed in the past for change detection. By design, these measures are invariant to unknown monotonic transformations that may be caused due to global illumination changes or automatic camera gain. However, previous work has left theoretical and practical gaps that limit their full potential from being realized. For instance, random noise has not been given a principled treatment. In this paper, we formulate the change detection problem in terms of order consistency and show that in the presence of noise with known statistical properties, significance tests for order consistency yield much better results than the state of the art. Since ordinal measures require a reordering of patches, they are usually expensive in practice (O(n*log n) at best). We improve upon this by connecting the problem to monotonic regression, and applying a fast algorithm from the corresponding literature. We also show that good trade offs between speed and accuracy can be made by quantization to achieve accurate and very fast matching algorithms in practice. We demonstrate superior performance on statistical simulations as well as real image sequences.
The Performance of Annual Housing Survey Quality Measures in Explaining Dwelling Rentals in 20 Metropolitan Areas

Articles concerned with the Hedonic Estimation of the Price of Housing Services have often employed the concept of housing “quality.” Quality measurement is best defined as employment of distinct variables to classify dwelling attributes which are for some reason not decomposed into their unidimensional components. The Annual Housing Survey reports a series of variables which, describing the performance of housing attributes, may be classified as quality variables. Past studies have not properly identified the stochastic nature of the performance measure-quality relationships. This paper defines that relationship and devises a procedure to measure the rent performance relationship for twenty cities in the survey. Empirical results confirm the usefulness of the measures explaining housing quality within and among metropolitan areas.
Responses to canopy loss and debris deposition in a tropical forest ecosystem: Synthesis from an experimental manipulation simulating effects of hurricane disturbance

Hurricanes, cyclones, or typhoons are intense and broad-scale disturbances that affect many island and coastal ecosystems throughout the world. We summarize the findings of the articles that compose this special issue of Forest Ecology and Management, which focuses on a manipulative experiment (the Canopy Trimming Experiment, CTE) that simulates two key aspects of hurricane effects in a wet tropical forest. Although previous studies of tropical and subtropical forests have documented changes resulting from hurricanes, it is not clear which of the two simultaneously occurring direct effects of hurricanes—canopy openness or debris deposition—most influence responses. In the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) of Puerto Rico, a multi-disciplinary team of scientists used replicated factorial manipulations to determine the independent and interactive effects of canopy openness and debris deposition on structural and functional characteristics of the forest. The majority of responses were primarily driven by canopy openness rather than by debris deposition. Canopy openness resulted in significant increases in densities of and compositional changes in woody plants, ferns, and some litter arthropods, and significant decreases in coqui frog abundances, leaf decomposition, and litterfall. Debris deposition significantly increased tree basal area and microbial diversity on leaf litter, but these increases were relatively small and ephemeral. Several interactive effects of canopy openness and debris addition emerged, including those involving understory herbivory, canopy arthropod structure, terrestrial gastropod abundances and composition, and soil solution chemistry. Arguably, hurricanes are the most important natural disturbance that affect the LEF, and most characteristics that were measured in the CTE showed evidence of resistance or resilience. By identifying the causal factors affecting secondary successional trajectories of diverse taxa ranging from microbes to vertebrates, biogeochemical attributes, microclimatic characteristics, and measures of ecosystem processes following hurricane disturbance, we better understand tropical forest dynamics resulting from past hurricanes and are better able to predict mechanisms of change related to future hurricanes. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Crack Initiation in Fiber‐Reinforced Brittle Laminates

In fiber-reinforced brittle laminates, crack growth under monotonic tension generally consists of crack tunneling along the weaker ply (usually the 90° ply) followed by plane strain crack growth through the adjacent, more resistant plies (the 0° plies). In this paper, the details of this transition in crack mode are examined. The tunneling crack configuration is generalized to allow the crack to penetrate the 0° ply during tunneling. The effects of crack bridging in the 0° plies on the energetics of tunneling are computed numerically for general cases and combined with analytical results for certain limits. The nature of the transition from tunneling to plane strain cracking is found to depend on the ratio of the toughnesses of the 90° and 0° plies. Implications for laminate design are discussed.
The Effects of an Abstinence-Based Sex Education Program on Middle School Students’ Knowledge and Beliefs:

A statewide evaluation of the Education Now and Babies Later (ENABL) program was conducted to assess its ability to increase adolescents’ knowledge and beliefs about pregnancy prevention. ENABL is aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy through abstinence. Using a quasiexperimental research methodology, middle school students (N = 1,450) comprised a treatment group (n = 974) and a comparison group (n = 476). Subjects completed a pretest and post-test reflecting knowledge and beliefs about teenage pregnancy. ANCOVA revealed significant differences (F = 8.98, p < .001) on posttest scores between the two groups. The treatment group showed marked improvement from pretest to posttest scores, whereas the comparison group did not. These findings support the claim that the Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) curriculum is effective in affecting students’ knowledge and beliefs about teenage pregnancy and illuminate the need for social work intervention at a variety of levels to address this multifaceted problem.
An Artistic View of Posters

Posters are used in many venues including staff education and continuing education conferences. Effective transmission of your message requires more than putting words on a poster board. Visual elements such as color and graphics add to the overall impression of your work. However, planning is required to develop a poster that is both informative and esthetically pleasing. This article describes basic principles of color and design for poster presentations.
MARRT: Medial Axis biased rapidly-exploring random trees

This research supported in part by NSF awards CNS-0551685, CCF-0833199, CCF-0830753, IIS-0916053, IIS-0917266, EFRI-1240483, RI-1217991, by NIH NCI R25 CA090301-11, by Chevron, IBM, Intel, Oracle/Sun and by Award KUS-C1-016-04, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). J. Denny supported in part by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Allergen-induced airway inflammation and its therapeutic intervention.

Allergen inhalation challenge has been useful for examining the mechanisms of allergen-induced airway inflammation and the associated physiological changes and for documenting the efficacy of drugs to treat asthma. Allergen inhalation by a sensitized subject results in acute bronchoconstriction, beginning within 15-30 min and lasting 1-3 hr, which can be followed by the development of a late asthmatic response. Individuals who develop both an early and late response after allergen have more marked increases in airway hyperresponsiveness, and greater increases in allergen-induced airway inflammation, particularly in airway eosinophils and basophils. All of the currently available and effective treatments for asthma modify some aspects of allergen-induced responses. These medications include short-acting and long-acting inhaled β2-agonists, inhaled corticosteroids, cromones, methylxanthines, leukotriene inhibitors, and anti-IgE monoclonal antibody. In addition, allergen inhalation challenge has become a useful method which can, in a very limited number of patients, provide key information on the therapeutic potential of new drugs being developed to treat asthma.
Redes e Historias

This article sketches how social process plays out into, from, and around networks of pair relations. These relations are characterized by stories told in and of them, with meanings from switchings between netdoms. Since settings and the switchings among them are endlessly varied, description here is kept abstract and general. Existing technical and substantive prototypes (e.g., Padgett and McLean 2006; Lazega 2001) and canvasings can guide the reader for particular implementations. It is convenient here often to substitute person for the general term identity.
A functional analysis of southern folk beliefs concerning birth

Abstract Childbirth is universally recognized as one crisis period in the life cycle and receives varying degrees of interest and emphasis in folk belief; thus in the rural South, while not as widely acknowledged, perhaps, as elsewhere, such beliefs are still much in the folk tradition. Although many of the practices are said to have been fostered by country doctors of the past, apart from the debatable psychological benefits, few, if any, modern physicians would give them clinical credence. However, folk beliefs often function symbolically and thus express many basic values germane to a given culture. The birth beliefs presented here are analyzed in such a context and there emerge several health attitudes plus expressions of such social phenomena as male-female sex roles and the overlap between folk and orthodox medicine.
Interracial status competition and southern lynching, 1882–1930

ABSTRACTThis article provides theoretical grounds and empirical evidence that different types of lynching in the post-Reconstruction South were driven by social processes at different levels of analysis. County-level analyses based upon new detailed data on lynchings in Georgia and Louisiana from 1882 to 1930 reveal that ‘private' lynchings, perpetrated by small groups outside the public purview without manifest ritual, were related to whites’ interracial status and social identity concerns on the interpersonal level, whereas ‘public' lynchings, involving larger mobs and ritualized violence, appear unaffected by such dynamics. These results validate relational and interactionist perspectives on violence, lend support to calls for disaggregation in the study of racial, ethnic, and nationalist violence, and shed light on the intertwining of racial identity formation with the generation of racial inequalities. They also carry implications for the study of contemporary ethno-racial hate crime.
GLP-1 Agonists and Blood Pressure: A Review of the Evidence

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The presence of concomitant hypertension in diabetics is a major driver of excess cardiovascular risk. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1a) act on numerous pathways that intersect glycemic, weight, and blood pressure (BP) control. BP-lowering effects have been observed in mouse models of hypertension with a variety of GLP-1a. Acute administration of GLP-1a in humans has been shown to no effects and sometimes increased BP in humans. Chronic administration of GLP-1a, however, reduces clinic systolic BP (≈2 mmHg) at least when evaluated as a secondary end point in glycemia-lowering studies while simultaneously increasing heart rate. BP lowering has not been consistently observed in two recent double-blind controlled clinical trials evaluating ambulatory BP as the primary end point. While a number of mechanisms including vascular, myocardial, renal, and central nervous system pathways have been suggested in animal studies, these mechanistic pathways have not been sufficiently detailed in humans and it is unclear if the same pathways are operational. Further studies need to be conducted to unravel the full spectrum of effects of this drug class. An understanding of their effects on BP may help provide an explanation for the ability of GLP-1a to influence cardiovascular (CV) events in ongoing event-driven CV trials.
Returns for a Touchdown? Universities Entering College Football

Between 2004 and 2014, 50 colleges have started football teams. The expansion of college football, both in terms of new locations and spending at existing programs, can be attributed in part to the belief that athletic success brings other benefits, including increases in donations, student applications, enrollment and student quality (Humphreys and Mondello 2007; Smith 2009; Tucker and Amato 1993). However, is this true for colleges with no football tradition? Given the upfront costs and long odds of on field success, is implementation of a football team enough to expect beneficial outcomes? We analyze a sample of colleges that started football programs in the last decade against a control group without the sport in order to test the short-term benefits of starting a team. Results show that while there is an immediate increase in applications to the college, the quality and retention of students declines.
Environmental Factors Affecting TSV Reliability

Through silicon via (TSV) is the key technology used in 2.5-D and 3-D packaging. Evaluating the reliability of products using this new technology has been challenging because of complex environmental factors. The aim of this paper was to design and implement a systematic reliability experiment to test self-designed TSV samples under the combinations of several different environmental variables. The Weibull distribution model was used to extract parameters from the experimental data for the statistical evaluation of TSV reliability. After analyzing the Weibull parameters, the environmental stresses that accelerate TSV unreliability were identified and compared, and a simple empirical unreliability equation was proposed. In addition, we observed that using a power law was an effective mean on making TSV reliability curve fittings. Failure analyses by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectrometer were finally reported.
The Political Status of the Chilean Merchants at the end of the Colonial Period: The Concepcion Example, 1790-1810

It is necessary to study the political status of Latin American merchants because we have so long heard that they were largely without franchise during the colonial period. We have been told that the creoles were the landowners, that the peninsulares were the merchants, and that the creoles generally controlled the cabildos. Though several writers have been investigating the merchants for some time now there are still historians who do not recognize the presence of a dynamic, influential group of creole merchants at the end of the colonial period. The Conception merchants (those who maintained residence in the town of Concepcion) have been singled out for case study, but I am fully convinced that the patterns we see among them will apply also for the Santiago and far-northern merchants. By 1790 the town of Concepcion was the capital of Chile's southern intendency, it was as it would demonstrate time and again in later years the capital of the south; and the south was the keystone of early nineteenth-century Chilean political life.
Biological Impact of Contact Insecticides and Insect Growth Regulators on Isolated Stages of the Greenhouse Whitefly (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae)

Greenhouse experiments revealed efficacy of 11 insecticides (two organophosphates, two formulations of a synthetic pyrethrin, two pyrethroids, three juvenile hormone analogues, and two molt inhibitors) on an asynchronous population of Trialeurodes varporariorum (Westwood). To determine the mechanism of chemical control, it was necessary to study the susceptibility of seven discrete greenhouse whitefly stages to four of the insecticides in an environmental chamber. Permethrin was the most effective toxicant through its broad activity on whitefly life stages. Penncapthrin (microencapsulated resmethrin) was effective against 2nd and 3rd instars and had some activity against adults, but it allowed substantial adult emergence after the treatment of eggs, first-stage larvae, or pupae. Enstar (Juvenile hormone analogue, Prop-2-ynyl, 3, 7, 11-trimethyl 2, 4-dodecadienoate) controlled 2nd, 3rd, and early-pupal instars but was ineffective on eggs, first-stage larvae, pupae, and adults. Diflubenzuron had no substantial effects on any stage. The nature of the toxicity of permethrin, Penncapthrin, and Enstar was of an immediate toxicity or a toxicity delayed to a subsequent immature stage. No toxicant produced adult sterility or affected longevity or fecundity.
Evaluation of the Crystal Growth Rate of Felodipine Polymorphs in the Presence and Absence of Additives As a Function of Temperature

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of temperature and a polymeric additive, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), on the crystal growth rate of two polymorphs of felodipine from amorphous samples. Comparing the growth rates of the two polymorphs in the presence of PVP should provide mechanistic information on whether PVP inhibits crystal growth of felodipine by interacting at the crystal surface of felodipine or in the amorphous regions. Optical microscopy was used to measure the growth rates at various temperatures in the range of 18–100 °C for the form I polymorph and 40–100 °C for the form II polymorph. Both surface and bulk growth rates for the form I polymorph were evaluated, while for the form II polymorph, only the bulk growth rate could be studied. No difference in the growth rate between surface and bulk crystals of form I was observed at higher temperatures (>70 °C). However, below 65 °C the surface crystal growth rate was faster than the bulk crystal growth rate. Another mode o...
Vocabulary and Non-verbal Reasoning Components of Verbal Analogies Tests (Miller Analogies Test and Concept Mastery Test)

AbstractThe MAT and the verbal analogies section from the CMT were administered to samples of graduate students and high school seniors respectively, along with measures of vocabulary and non-verbal analogies. For the high school group correlations with vocabulary and non-verbal analogies were of approximately the same magnitude (.62 and .68) whereas for the graduate student sample the correlation with vocabulary was appreciably higher than that with the non-verbal analogies, suggesting that at least with graduate students vocabulary plays a much greater part In performance on the MAT than does non-verbal reasoning. Additional time on the MAT had virtually no effect on the scores of most students but increased the score of a very few students markedly. Previous findings of Coladarci with respect to gain on MAT retesting and essentially aero correlation between gain and Interval between testings are repeated.
Determination of Soluble Arsenic in Niuhuang Jiedu Tablets and Its Disassembled Presciption by AFS

Objective:To explore whether the compatibility of Niuhuang Jiedu tablets could reduce the toxicity of realgar,and which may be the possible herbal medicines that could reduce toxicity in the Niuhuang Jiedu tablets prescription.Method:Different groups about Niuhuang Jiedu Tablets and its disassembled prescription were arranged,treated with artificial gastric juice or artificial intestine juice,and then atom fluorescence spectrophotometry(AFS) was used to detect the content of soluble arsenic in the different groups samples.Result:The content of soluble arsenic in the whole prescription was significant lower than that in the single realgar(P0.01).The content of soluble arsenic in the whole prescription except for Gancao,Huangqin and Dahuang was significant higher than that in the whole prescription(P0.01).Conclusions:The compatibility for Niuhuang Jiedu tablets could reduce the toxicity of realgar,and Gancao,Huangqin and Dahuang may be the possible herbal medicines that could reduce toxicity.
Abnormal Germ Cells in Maldescended Testes: A Study of Cell Density, Nuclear Size and Deoxyribonucleic Acid Content in Testicular Biopsies from 50 Boys

AbstractWe have studied the numerical density, nuclear size and deoxyribonucleic acid content of germ cells in consecutive testicular biopsies from boys with maldescended testes. Patient age ranged between 7.8 and 17.9 years. Of the biopsy specimens 16 (32 per cent) contained no germ cells, while in the remaining 34 specimens the number of germ cells per unit volume of tissue was considerably below normal. In all cases the mean nuclear size of the germ cells was above normal. The deoxyribonucleic acid distribution pattern of germ cell nuclei was abnormal in 17 of 19 cases investigated, exhibiting increases in the median and mean deoxyribonucleic acid content, and a higher fraction of cells with a deoxyribonucleic acid content above the normal diploid range.We conclude that germ cells in the cryptorchid testis are abnormal with respect to numbers but also in nuclear morphology, as indicated by increased size and deoxyribonucleic acid content. Thus, quantitative and qualitative changes of the germ cells may...
Radiation-tolerant, low-mass, high bandwidth, flexible printed circuit cables for particle physics experiments

Abstract The design of meter long flexible printed circuit cables required for low-mass ultra-high speed signal transmission in the high radiation environment of the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider is described. The design geometry is a differential embedded microstrip with 100 Ω nominal impedance. Minimal mass and maximal radiation hardness are pre-eminent considerations. Several dielectric materials are compared. To reduce mass, a cross hatched ground plane is applied. The long flexible printed circuit cables are characterized in bit error rate tests, attenuation versus frequency, mechanical response to temperature induced stress, and dimensional implications on radiation length. These tests are performed before and after irradiation with 1 MeV neutrons to 2×1016/cm2 and 800 MeV protons to 2×1016 1-MeV neutron equivalent/cm2. A 1.0 m Kapton cable with cross hatched ground plane, effective bandwidth of 4.976 gigabits per second, 0.0160% of a radiation length, and no detectable radiation-induced mechanical or electrical degradation is obtained.
Harmony in Beethoven

David Damschroder's ongoing reformulation of harmonic theory continues with a dynamic exploration of how Beethoven molded and arranged chords to convey bold conceptions. This book's introductory chapters are organized in the manner of a nineteenth-century Harmonielehre, with individual considerations of the tonal system's key features illustrated by easy-to-comprehend block-chord examples derived from Beethoven's piano sonatas. In the masterworks section that follows, Damschroder presents detailed analyses of movements from the symphonies, piano and violin sonatas, and string quartets, and compares his outcomes with those of other analysts, including William E. Caplin, Robert Gauldin, Nicholas Marston, William J. Mitchell, Frank Samarotto, and Janet Schmalfeldt. Expanding upon analytical practices from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and strongly influenced by Schenkerian principles, this fresh perspective offers a stark contrast to conventional harmonic analysis – both in terms of how Roman numerals are deployed and how musical processes are described in words.
Development of Tinnitus at a Low Dose of Sertraline: Clinical Course and Proposed Mechanisms.

Introduction. Serotonin is involved in filtering of auditory stimuli. Cochlear input is processed through complex interactions between serotonergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic neurotransmitter systems. Options for treatment of tinnitus include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs); however in rare instances this symptom may occur as a side effect of this class of medications. Case Presentation. A 50-year-old woman developed bilateral tinnitus after several weeks of being treated with sertraline 50 mg. She had been on a long-standing daily dose of aspirin 325 mg which had been discontinued shortly before starting sertraline. Medical work-up was negative for her symptom. Shortly after discontinuation of the medication, her tinnitus subsided completely. Discussion. Tinnitus is a rare side effect of sertraline and may be related to particular distribution of serotonin receptor subtypes within the auditory system, and serotonergic agents may reinforce or desensitize the activity of different receptors. Also, there may be a priming effect of salicylate agents on the auditory system, predisposing particular patients to be more sensitive to how auditory stimuli are processed.
Neonatal monocytes exhibit a unique histone modification landscape

Neonates have dampened expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and difficulty clearing pathogens. This makes them uniquely susceptible to infections, but the factors regulating neonatal-specific immune responses are poorly understood. Epigenetics, including histone modifications, can activate or silence gene transcription by modulating chromatin structure and stability without affecting the DNA sequence itself and are potentially modifiable. Histone modifications are known to regulate immune cell differentiation and function in adults but have not been well studied in neonates. To elucidate the role of histone modifications in neonatal immune function, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation on mononuclear cells from 45 healthy neonates (gestational ages 23–40 weeks). As gestation approached term, there was increased activating H3K4me3 on the pro-inflammatory IL1B, IL6, IL12B, and TNF cytokine promoters (p < 0.01) with no change in repressive H3K27me3, suggesting that these promoters in preterm neonates are less open and accessible to transcription factors than in term neonates. Chromatin immunoprecipitation with massively parallel DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) was then performed to establish the H3K4me3, H3K9me3, H3K27me3, H3K4me1, H3K27ac, and H3K36me3 landscapes in neonatal and adult CD14+ monocytes. As development progressed from neonate to adult, monocytes lost the poised enhancer mark H3K4me1 and gained the activating mark H3K4me3, without a change in additional histone modifications. This decreased H3K4me3 abundance at immunologically important neonatal monocyte gene promoters, including CCR2, CD300C, ILF2, IL1B, and TNF was associated with reduced gene expression. These results provide evidence that neonatal immune cells exist in an epigenetic state that is distinctly different from adults and that this state contributes to neonatal-specific immune responses that leaves them particularly vulnerable to infections.
The Love waves of the South Atlantic earthquake of August 28, 1933

Summary The epicenter of the South Atlantic earthquake of August 28, 1933, was located at 58° 56′ S, 24° 54′ W, and the time of occurrence fixed as 22 h 19 m 38 s U.T. A study was made of the first motion of P. On the assumption that the earthquake was caused by a fault movement, the strike of the fault was determined as between N 33° W and N 1° E, and the dip as between 63° E and 76° E. By integration of the seismograms the earth motion during the G phase was determined at 17 stations. This wave was found to agree with the theoretical surface wave of Love. A study of the dispersion of G yielded the following conclusions. The crustal structure of the Atlantic Ocean region is very similar to that of the Indian and Pacific regions, and is characterized by having material with a high velocity for shear waves much nearer the surface than is observed in the continental regions. The thickness of the crustal structure in continental regions is about 30 to 40 km.
Contextual Equivalence for Probabilistic Programs with Continuous Random Variables and Scoring

We present a logical relation for proving contextual equivalence in a probabilistic programming language (PPL) with continuous random variables and with a scoring operation for expressing observations and soft constraints.
Assessing the distribution and determinants of vaccine underutilization in the United States

Despite advances in sanitation and immunization, vaccine-preventable diseases remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In high-income countries such as the United States, coverage rates for vaccination against childhood infections remains high. However, the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy makes maintenance of herd immunity difficult, impeding global disease eradication efforts. Reaching the ‘last mile’ will require early detection of vaccine hesitancy (driven by philosophical or religious choices), identifying pockets of susceptibility due to underimmunization (driven by vaccine unavailability, costs ineligibility), determining the factors associated with the behavior and developing targeted strategies to ameliorate the concerns. Towards this goal, we harness high-resolution medical claims data to geographically localize vaccine refusal and underimmunization (collectively, ‘underutilization’) in the United States and identify the socio-economic determinants of the behaviors. Our study represents the first large-scale effort for vaccination behavior surveillance and has the potential to aid in the development of targeted public health strategies for optimizing vaccine uptake.
Examining ecological consequences of feral horse grazing using exclosures.

Although feral horses have inhabited western North America since the end of the 16th century, relatively little synecological research has been conducted to quantitatively characterize how they interact with ecosystem components. Because feral horses exhibit watering behavior markedly different from that of domestic cattle, it is particularly important to evaluate response of ecosystem elements near water sources to horse use. To assess this response, we performed live-trapping of small mammals and 2-tiered vegetative sampling in 2 mountain ranges in central Nevada in the interior Great Basin, USA. At low elevations, plots around horse-excluded springs exhibited notably greater plant species richness, percent cover, and abundance of grasses and shrubs, as well as more small mammal burrow entrances than plots at horse-grazed springs. At high elevations, meadows protected from grazing exhibited maximum vegetation heights 2.8 times greater than vegetation grazed by horses only and 4.5 times greater than vegetation grazed by horses and cattle. Species richness in quadrats was most different between the horse-and-cattle-grazed meadow and its ungrazed counterpart, suggesting the possibility of synergistic effects of horse and cattle grazing in the same location. This study, the first in the Great Basin to investigate quantitatively ecosystem consequences of feral horse use with exclosures, represents a preliminary step in identifying factors that determine the magnitude of horse grazing impacts.
Seismic attribute selection for unsupervised seismic facies analysis using user-guided data-adaptive weights

ABSTRACTWith the rapid development in seismic attribute and interpretation techniques, interpreters can be overwhelmed by the number of attributes at their disposal. Pattern recognition-driven seis...
Devices for endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition

Abstract Endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition (EUS-TA) has greatly evolved since the first EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration was reported 25 years ago. EUS-TA has become the procedure of choice for sampling of the pancreas, subepithelial lesions, and other structures adjacent to the gastrointestinal tract. Initial EUS devices were needles, primarily for performing fine-needle aspiration. Newer EUS devices have expanded the capabilities of the endosonographer to include TA for histologic evaluation, in vivo microscopy, fiducial placement, and EUS-based therapeutic interventions. This review will focus on the devices for use with EUS that are currently approved in the US including those for EUS-TA as well as other modalities.
Prostate Cancer: Improving the Flow of Research.

A fair amount of very successful research has been performed in the arena of prostate cancer, but we have much more work to do.
Shock attenuation in the human lumbar spine during walking and running

During locomotion, each step generates a shock wave that travels through the body toward the head. Without mechanisms for attenuation, repeated shocks can lead to pathology. Shock attenuation (SA) in the lower limb has been well studied, but little is known about how posture affects SA in the spine. To test the hypothesis that lumbar lordosis (LL) contributes to SA, 27 adults (14 male, 13 female) walked and ran on a treadmill. Two lightweight, tri-axial accelerometers were affixed to the skin overlying T12/L1 and L5/S1. Sagittal plane accelerations were analyzed using power spectral density analysis, and lumbar SA was assessed within the impact-related frequency range. 3D kinematics quantified dynamic and resting LL. To examine the effects of intervertebral discs on spinal SA, supine MRI scans were used to measure disc morphology. The results showed no association between LL and SA during walking, but LL correlated with SA during running (P<0.01, R2=0.30), resulting in as much as 64% reduction in shock signal power among individuals with the highest LL. Patterns of lumbar spinal motion partially explain differences in SA: larger amplitudes of LL angular displacement and slower angular displacement velocity during running were associated with greater lumbar SA (P=0.008, R2=0.41). Intervertebral discs were associated with greater SA during running (P=0.02, R2=0.22) but, after controlling for disc thickness, LL remained strongly associated with SA (P=0.001, R2=0.44). These findings support the hypothesis that LL plays an important role in attenuating impact shocks transmitted through the human spine during high-impact, dynamic activities such as running.
Disposable Mothers, Deployable Children (Review Essay)

This essay reviews Randall Kennedy's Interracial Intimacies (2003), a book that explores African American-white interracial adult-adult relationships and African American- and Native American-white adult-child relationships. For Kennedy, such relationships reflect and promote racial liberty or justice. The paper praises the book for highlighting the arbitrariness and destructiveness of racial classifications, but criticizes it for cloaking in terms of racial liberty what is essentially a conservative narrative about race and poverty that limits socioeconomic and racial mobility. The essay explores how the book fails to take into account fallacies of race neutrality and important distinctions between youth and adults, private and public family law systems, men and women, and adoptive and birth families. The essay first outlines the content and structure of the book and then explores the larger contexts the book ignores. Paying particular attention to Kennedy's portrayal of transracial adoption, the paper shows how his depiction and promotion of such adoption fails to account for the needs and experiences of children, masks institutional racism in, and affecting, the child welfare system, and reflects a white supremacist, patriarchal social agenda that seeks to limit the ability of poor women of color to bear and raise children.
A Diagrammatic Reasoning Architecture: Design, Implementation and Experiments

This paper explores the idea that the cognitive state during problem solving diagrams is bi-modal, one of whose components is the traditional predicate-symbolic representation composed of relations between entities in the domain of interest, while a second component is an internal diagrammatic representation. In parallel with the operators in the symbolic representation that are based on symbol matching and inferencing, there is a set of operators in the diagrammatic component that apply perceptions to the elements of the diagram to generate information. In addition there is a set of diagram construction operations that may modify the diagram by adding, deleting and modifying the diagrammatic elements, in the service of problem solving goals. We describe the design of the diagrammatic component of the architecture, and show how the symbolic and diagrammatic modes collaborate in the solution of a problem. We end the paper with a view of the cognitive state as multi-modal, in consonance with our own phenomenal sense of experiencing the world in multiple modalities and using these senses in solving problems.