cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Time And Space Integrating Optical Laboratory Matrix-Vector Array Processor

The laboratory realization of a hybrid time and space integrating acousto-optic array processor is described with the fabrication of the system and its electronic support and a case study finite element solution on the laboratory system facility emphasized. The output detector system in this processor is unique and allows the use of different number representations. We emphasize the use of this system for a new sign-magnitude bipolar data representation that is quite attractive for use with a new one-channel LU decomposition algorithm and architecture to solve linear algebraic equations (LAEs). These features are employed in our finite element case study. This work represents: the first laboratory optical matrix vector multi-channel processor, the first laboratory realization and demonstration of a new LU decomposition algorithm, the first laboratory LAE direct solution demonstration, the first finite element method optical laboratory solution demonstration, a new mixed-radix to binary conversion technique, plus a new partitioning technique to allow higher accuracy than the number of bit channels permits as well as system hardware and speed trade-offs. Such optical array processors are of use as linear algebra processors, associative memory processors, feature extractors for pattern recognition, and in nearest neighbor classifiers as well as neural networks.© (1986) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
A Parametric Study on Laser Welding of Magnesium Alloy AZ31 by a Fiber Laser

Laser welding of wrought magnesium alloy has been investigated through experimentation and simulation. Laser butt welds and laser lap welds were performed on 2.0 mm thick magnesium alloy AZ31 plates using a 1 kW fiber laser and shielded with argon gas. The effects of laser power and welding speed on weld geometry and microstructure were investigated. Through experimentation, the ranges of operating parameters for laser power and welding speed which resulted in viable, defect-free welds were found and reported. Simulations were carried out to predict the weld pool geometry and resultant microstructure and are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Linking length scales via materials informatics

Seeking structure-property relationships is an accepted paradigmin materials science, yet these relationships are often not linear. The challenge is to be able to link materials behavior and seek patterns among multiple length and time scales. Materials informatics and statistical learning techniques permit one to survey complex, multiscale information in an accelerated and statistically robust and yet meaningful manner. When this is coupled with advanced tools for computational thermodynamics and kinetic simulations, the result is a powerful computational infrastructure for materials design. This paper provides an overview of the value of this integrated approach to materials modeling in addressing the challenges in linking length scales.
Live Attenuated Tularemia Vaccines: Recent Developments and Future Goals

In the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S., numerous efforts were made to increase the level of preparedness against a biological attack both in the US and worldwide. As a result, there has been an increase in research interest in the development of vaccines and other countermeasures against a number of agents with the potential to be used as biological weapons. One such agent, Francisella tularensis, has been the subject of a surge in the level of research being performed, leading to a substantial increase in knowledge of the pathogenic mechanisms of the organism and the induced immune responses. This information has facilitated the development of multiple new Francisella vaccine candidates. Herein we review the latest live attenuated F. tularensis vaccine efforts. Historically, live attenuated vaccines have demonstrated the greatest degree of success in protection against tularemia and the greatest promise in recent efforts to develop of a fully protective vaccine. This review summarizes recent live attenuated Francisella vaccine candidates and the lessons learned from those studies, with the goal of collating known characteristics associated with successful attenuation, immunogenicity, and protection.
Experience with the holmium laser as an endoscopic lithotrite

Abstract Objectives To study, in a clinical series, the safety and efficacy of holmium laser energy applied as an endoscopic lithotrite. Methods Over a 2-year period, patients with urinary tract calculi were treated endoscopically with the holmium laser lithotripter and data were gathered prospectively. Holmium lasers with maximum outputs of 15, 25 and 60 W were used. Various low water density, quartz fiber delivery systems were developed for specific applications. In addition, various combinations of endoscopes and laser fibers were employed. Results A total of 63 patients with 75 calculi were treated. All calculi were cleared endoscopically. Minimal variation in laser efficiency was noted with different stone compositions, including cystine. Thirty-three of 34 ureteral calculi were treated to completion in one sitting (97%). Twenty-nine renal stone burdens were treated with the holmium laser, 26 of which were treated solely in a retrograde fashion. Of the latter, 23 (88.5%) required only a single sitting. Complications from holmium laser energy, including ureteral stricture disease, were not encountered in this series. Patients with complex, large stone burdens were treated to completion without sequelae. The combination of the actively deflectable, flexible ureteroscope and 200-^m fiber facilitated clearance of 18 lower-pole caliceal calculi. Three patients with partial staghorn stone burdens averaging 30 mm in diameter were treated ureteroscopically. Chronic urinary infections that were problematic preoperatively completely resolved after therapy. All 12 patients who had large bladder calculi with a mean diameter of 55.8 mm were treated to completion in one sitting. Conclusions Holmium laser energy is uniquely suited to treat all urinary calculi safely and effectively.
An experimental study of spontaneous imbibition in fractured sandstone with contrasting sedimentary layers

Abstract Fluid transport in reservoir formations at low flow rates is strongly dominated by capillary forces. These forces are the macroscopic manifestation of complex molecular interactions between fluids and solids inside the intricate pore structure of rocks. In naturally fractured reservoirs, spontaneous capillary imbibition is an important recovery mechanism since waterflooding of the disjointed matrix cannot be accomplished by forced displacement. The goal of the present experimental work is to study the mechanisms of flow in heterogeneous fractured formations under conditions favoring capillary displacement. This paper presents experimental results of spontaneous capillary imbibition in a layered Berea sandstone sample with a single longitudinal fracture. The sample was artificially fractured using a modified Brazilian test that resulted in an extensional longitudinal fracture oriented perpendicularly to the natural bedding planes of the rock. Non-destructive high-resolution X-ray CT imaging allowed identification of localized cocurrent and countercurrent flow during spontaneous capillary imbibition. Three distinctive flow intervals were also identified: early, intermediate, and late time imbibition. The presence of bedding planes in the rock's structure affects the shape of the imbibing front during early-time imbibition. Cross-layer fluid exchange tends to level the imbibing front during the intermediate imbibition stage. Countercurrent flow controls fluid transport during the early and intermediate intervals, while both cocurrent and countercurrent flow mechanisms coexist at late time. Results from this experimental work present strong evidence of hysteretic behavior. Drainage, imbibition, and transition zones characteristic of countercurrent flow are clearly identified as a function of time.
A TPD study of nitric oxide decomposition on Pt(100), Pt(411) and Pt(211)

Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) was used to compare nitric oxide dissociation on Pt(100), Pt(411) and Pt(211). These three faces were chosen for study because they possess sites with nearly the same orbital symmetries. However, the site densities are different on the three faces. It was found that all three faces show nearly identical reactivity for NO dissociation. Measured dissociation fractions were 66, 70 and 66% on the Pt(100), Pt(411) and Pt(211) surfaces respectively. NO dissociation on Pt(100) was inhibited by a (1 × 1) → (1 × 5) reconstruction, which creates a less active surface during the desorption process. However, the activation energy for N2 formation was nearly identical (28 kcalmol) on Pt(211) and Pt(411). Of course many of the features of the TPD spectra varied from face to face. Pt(100) displays a complicated TPD spectrum, due to the presence of surface reconstructions during desorption process. The binding energy of NO on the (100) steps on Pt(211) was found to be unusually strong. However, examination of the data indicates that, except for some minor effects, the variations in reactivity with changing crystal face were as expected from an examination of the symmetries of the orbitals available for reaction, and do not scale with the site density.
Radioactivity aspects of fusion reactors

Abstract Activation characteristics, including radioactivity, decay heating rate, and integrated decay energy at times after shutdown of a D—T fusion power reactor were investigated for all potential reactor materials using a recently published comprehensive activation cross-section library and decay data handbook. It was found that among the potential structural elements, the shutdown activity could vary by four orders of magnitude, with C, O, and Si producing the least radioactivity and Mo giving the highest activity within a few days after shutdown, a period of importance to the reactor operation. Vanadium, Ti and Fe are among the lower activation elements with the activity levels higher than Si by about one (for V) to two (for Ti and Fe) orders of magnitude. As far as alloying elements are concerned, Cr and Si are best for minimizing the activity level; Mn, Ni, Ta and W are among the elements giving higher radioactivity and decay heat values. These higher activity elements are furthermore subject to the neutron spectral effect resulting in an increase of activation levels in a soft spectrum with higher neutron population at lower energies. The important elements, that need to be limited in fusion reactor materials in order to meet the 10CFR61 Class C shallow-land burial disposal goal, are Al, Si, Ni, Zr and Ta as alloying elements, and Nb, Mo, Ag, Gd, Tb, and Ho as impurities. The concentration limits of some of these elements such as Nb will also become more restrictive in a soft neutron spectrum, that is typical for the present fusion experimental facilities under investigation.
Generalizations and limitations of string-net models

We ask which topological phases can and can not be realized by exactly soluble string-net models. We answer this question for the simplest class of topological phases, namely, those with Abelian braiding statistics. Specifically, we find that an Abelian topological phase can be realized by a string-net model if and only if (i) it has a vanishing thermal Hall conductance and (ii) it has at least one Lagrangian subgroup, a subset of quasiparticles with particular topological properties. Equivalently, we find that an Abelian topological phase is realizable if and only if it supports a gapped edge. We conjecture that the latter criterion generalizes to the non-Abelian case. We establish these results by systematically constructing all possible Abelian string-net models and analyzing the quasiparticle braiding statistics in each model. We show that the low-energy effective field theories for these models are multicomponent $\text{U}(1)$ Chern-Simons theories, and we derive the $K$-matrix description of each model. An additional feature of this work is that the models we construct are more general than the original string-net models, due to several new ingredients. First, we introduce two new objects $\ensuremath{\gamma},\ensuremath{\alpha}$ into the construction which are related to ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ and ${\mathbb{Z}}_{3}$ Frobenius-Schur indicators. Second, we do not assume parity invariance. As a result, we can realize topological phases that were not accessible to the original construction, including phases that break time-reversal and parity symmetry.
Effect of carbonyl-binding agents and oxidative phosphorylation uncouplers on the release of [3H]norepinephrine from mouse heart

Abstract Three carbonyl reagents, namely sodium bisulfite, hydroxylaminc and phenylhydrazine, increased the release of [ 3 H]norepinephrine from sliced mouse heart during stimulation with 50 mM potassium ion. The [ 3 H]norepinephrine was identified by binding to aluminum hydroxide and subsequent thin-layer chromatography. These carbonyl reagents at 10 3 M increased the overflow of [ 3 H]norepinephrine by 162 249 per cent. Semicarbazidc, another carbonyl reagent, proved to he an exception. However, semicarbazide reacted more slowly than the other carbonyl reagents with pyridoxal phosphate (which was used as a model aldehyde). Therefore, the ability of carbonyl reagents to increase overflow of [ 3 H]norepinephrinc appeared to correlate with their ability to react with carbonyl groups. The augmented release of [ 3 H]norepinephrine by sodium bisulfite, hydroxylamine or phenylhydrazine was not due to inhibited reuptake of released transmitter since cocaine, a strong uptake blocker, did not increase the release of [ 3 H]norepinephrine. When animals were pretreated with 6-hydroxydopamine to destroy adrenergic nerve terminals, the stimulus-induced overflow of [ 3 H]neurotransmitter in the presence of sodium bisulfite was virtually abolished. Similar results were obtained when cocaine was used to prevent the accumulation of [ 3 H]norepinephrine by nerves. Thus, the adrenergic nerve endings were the source of the increased overflow of [ 3 H]norepinephrinc. These data implicate endogenous aldehydes or ketones in a regulatory role during the release of neurotransmitter. Experiments with norepinephrine-deplcted hearts (rcserpine. 16 hr) labeled with [ 3 H]metaraminol (not metabolized by monoamine oxidase) as neurotransmitter showed increased release of [ 3 H-neurotransmitter in the presence of 10 −3 M sodium bisulfite. This indicated that the aldehyde derived from norepinephrine by the action of monoamine oxidase was not responsible for the action of the carbonyl-binding agents. In separate experiments, two oxidative phosphorylation uncouplers. 2.4-dinitrophenol (5 × 10 −4 M) and carbonyl cyanide m -chlorophenylhydra/one (10 −6 M). similarly increased overflow of [ 3 H]norepinephrine. Experiments with cocaine showed that the increased release of [ 3 H]norepinephrinc in the presence of carbonyl cyanide m -chlorophenylhydrazone was derived from nerve terminals. The oxidative phosphorylation uncouplers and the carbonyl reagents may have a common site of action, perhaps at an adenosine triphosphate-dependcnt carbonyl site in the axonal membrane.
Scaling Early Reading Alternate Assessments with Statewide Measures

Alternatives to the standard statewide assessment often are necessary for valid measurement of students with significant disabilities. These alternate assessments must be carefully developed and evaluated with respect to generally accepted psychometric standards. Ideally, these measures should be sensitive to growth and scaled to state tests that are aligned with grade level content standards. In this study, we investigated the technical adequacy of early reading performance tasks for a Grade 3 statewide alternate reading test. Our research hypotheses pertain to (a) equitable measurement function across populations of students, (b) measurement dimensionality, and (c) item difficulty. Using test results obtained from annual testing in one state, our findings suggest that performance tasks are adequate for use in the alternate assessment, and they can be scaled in terms of the statewide testing metric.
The incorporation of testing into formal verification: Direct, modular, and hierarchical correctness degrees

We describe a paradigm for the incorporation of software or hardware testing into formal verification and give some preliminary results. The “correctness degree” is essentially the fraction of computations of a program (or other computational description) that satisfy a given specification (this fraction can be weighted to account for a non-uniform distribution of inputs in the application environment.) We give some results about using test sets to establish correctness degrees, and we indicate how to find the correctness degree of a system composed of partially verified, partially tested modules.
Effect of irradiation on thermal sensitivity of bone marrow progenitors.

The heat sensitivity of murine CFU-GM and CFU-E following 2.5 Gy of total body irradiation (TBI) was studied. C3H f/Sed female mice were treated with 2.5 Gy TBI and femoral bone marrow was heated in vitro at 43°C. CFU-GM show heat radio-sensitization when bone marrow was heated immediately following irradiation. There was a brief decline in heat and radiation interaction when cells were heated 3 hours following 2.5 Gy of TBI, but heat radiosensitization returned to its maximum from 1 to 2 days following irradiation and remained significantly different from the control on days 5 and 7 following irradiation. The heat and radiation interaction disappeared by 30 days. CFU-E shows significant heat radiosensitization only on day 2 following 2.5 Gy of TBI. Total nucleated cells per femur showed a decrease by 70 per cent in days 1 to 2 following TBI, recovered to control values by day 5, and did not correlate with the changes in heat radiosensitization. Cell cycle analysis of CFU-GM using hydroxyurea showed no si...
Uterotropic 6-methoxybenzoxazolinone is an adrenergic agonist and a melatonin analog.

Abstract 6-Methoxybenzoxazolinone (MBOA) is a compound isolated from grasses which has gonadotropic effects in a variety of animals. The weak β-adrenergic agonist character of MBOA is shown by its in vitro stimulation of adenylate cyclase from several tissues. Tritiated MBOA bound specifically to particulate fractions from uterus is also displaced by α- and β-adrenergic compounds. The adrenergic properties of MBOA suggest it may exert diverse effects including direct actions on gonadotropin synthesis and release. The mixed adrenergic agonist ephedrine and the antidepressant imipramine were also found to be Uterotropic in the vole Microtus montanus following injection protocols used with MBOA. MBOA is structurally similar to melatonin (5-methoxy- N -acetyltryptamine); [ 3 H]melatonin which binds to uterine and pineal membranes is displaced by MBOA and by other adrenergic agents. The fact that MBOA is a β-adrenergic agonist and a melatonin analog can account for stimulatory and inhibitory effects of this compound on sexual development.
The effectiveness of nalbuphine and hydroxyzine for the emergency treatment of severe headache.

The present treatment for acute attacks of headache is empiric. Intramuscular nalbuphine (Nubain ® ) and hydroxyzine (Vistaril ® ) were assessed for pain relief in a prospective, double-blind clinical trial. Ninety-four patients were assigned randomly to treatment groups receiving nalbuphine 10 mg, nalbuphine 10 mg plus hydroxyzine 50 mg, hydroxyzine 50 mg, or placebo. The treatment groups were found to be adequately homogenous with regard to age, sex, type and duration of headaches, and history of prior narcotic use. All data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. Patients who had headaches diagnosed as other than classic migraine had significantly greater pain relief with nalbuphine compared to placebo ( P
Concept-Utilization as a function of the strenth of relevant and irrelevant associations

Summary The present study was undertaken to develop and evaluate a task situation designed to permit the investigation of verbal concept utilization with verbal units whose requisite associations had been acquired in the laboratory. A two-stage task was developed. Stage 1, a variant of paired-associate training, was used to establish an associative relationship between concept instances and their attributes. Each instance had one relevant and one irrelevant attribute. The strength of this relationship was varied during Stage 1 by means of the number (10, 20, or 40) of paired instance-attribute presentations. In Stage 2, concept utilization, S was required to discover the relevant basis for sorting instances into one of three slots. As predicted, it was found that, in terms of the mean number of errors per trial during concept utilization, proficiency in sorting was directly related to the strength of the association between concept instances and their relevant attribute. Proficiency was inversely related to the strength of the association with irrelevant attributes. It was concluded that the present technique appears to be a feasible alternative to the use of normative material in studies of verbal concept utilization and that it may circumvent some of the difficulties encountered with such material.
EELS analysis of surface-channelled electrons

Abstract An EELS analysis has been made of the surface-channelled electrons from a GaAs(110) atomically flat surface under the surface resonance conditions. Experimentally these conditions can be identified by using the resonance parabolas in the RHEED pattern. A sharp energy loss peak at about 6.3 eV energy loss has been observed and has been attributed to channelling radiation resulting from transitions between the intrinsic surface bound states involved in the surface resonance scattering process. It has been shown that this energy loss peak position is very sensitive to surface contamination and adsorption, and depends on the environment. It can vary from 6.3 eV for fresh surfaces to about 8–9 eV for contaminated surfaces. Effects of the channelling radiation on the other inelastic scattering processes and therefore the energy loss spectra are discussed.
Origin and clinical relevance of musical murmurs.

Abstract Although our observations are limited to studies performed on a degenerated bioprosthetic valve that produced a musical murmur, we believe that they can be applied to musical murmurs caused by abnormal natural valves. Several points regarding the characteristics of musical murmurs have been clarified. 1.(1) A musical murmur results from a uniform periodic vibration of a cardiac structure. 2.(2) A non-musical murmur results from turbulent blood flow which initiates random vibrations of adjacent structures. The broad spectrum of frequency of a non-musical murmur reflects the broad range of random fluctuations of blood velocity that characterizes turbulent blood flow. 3.(3) The frequency, amplitude, and time of occurrence during systole or diastole of a musical murmur are dependent upon the hemodynamics in the vicinity of the vibrating structure. Variability of all of these characteristics of the murmur, therefore, may be expected. 4.(4) Musical murmurs may have a purer tone at a site distal to the source than close to the source. This may reflect a superimposition of a broad spectrum of noise due to turbulence close to the valve. With distance from the valve, turbulence attenuates more than the sound-pressure fluctuations which are due to the uniform vibrations of the valve. A pure tone, uncontaminated by this broad spectrum of noise due to turbulence, therefore, is heard at some distance from the valve.
Stability and relaxation of power-law distribution.

We study the stability of the steady state in an aggregation system with injection for one dimension and the mean-field cases. We prove that for any initial perturbation the system is stable and eventually recovers the power-law steady state. The form of the relaxation follows either a stretched exponential (${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{t}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\alpha}}}$, \ensuremath{\alpha}=2,3) or a power law (${\mathit{t}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\beta}}}$, \ensuremath{\beta}=1,3/4) depending on the type of injection.
Nontraumatic rhabdomyolysis with long-term alcohol intoxication.

Rhabdomyolysis, the disintegration of skeletal muscle, is a common cause of acute renal failure.[1][1][,2][2] This clinical entity occurs mainly from 2 sources: traumatic and nontraumatic. Traumatic rhabdomyolysis has been described as crush syndrome during war and natural disasters.[3][3] In modern
Self-crosslinkable poly(urethane urea)-reinforced silica aerogels

Mechanically reinforced organic–inorganic hybrid silica aerogels are produced from simultaneous hydrolysis and condensation reactions of silane precursors – tetraethoxy silane (TEOS) and aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) – and silane-modified polyurethane urea molecules each carrying multiple (≥3) reactive silane groups. In this manner, the post-gelation crosslinking reactions are avoided, the amount of polymer introduced into the aerogel structures is controlled, and the chain length between two crosslink points is tailored. The long chain polymer molecules introduce a certain degree of flexibility to the hybrid aerogel structures. The morphology, compressive properties, and surface area are obtained respectively using scanning electron microscopy, Instron tensile testers, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis. The data on solid state 13C and 29Si NMR spectra reveal chemical reactions of the silane-modified polymers with the silica particle networks. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data are used to determine the fractal dimension of the silica networks. It is found that the self-crosslinkable multifunctional polyurethane urea chains form coatings on the silica networks and produce large enhancements in compressive modulus although with increases in shrinkage and bulk density.
Tachyarrythmias with elevated cardiac enzymes in Münchausen syndrome.

We report the case of a woman with Munchausen syndrome who surreptitiously injected epinephrine causing recurrent ventricular tachyarrhythmias accompanied by dramatically high plasma levels of epinephrine and normal norepinephrine levels.
Pharmacokinetics of amikacin in plasma and selected body fluids of healthy horses after a single intravenous dose.

Summary Reasons for performing study: No studies have determined the pharmacokinetics of low-dose amikacin in the mature horse. Objectives: To determine if a single i.v. dose of amikacin (10 mg/kg bwt) will reach therapeutic concentrations in plasma, synovial, peritoneal and interstitial fluid of mature horses (n = 6). Methods: Drug concentrations of amikacin were measured across time in mature horses (n = 6); plasma, synovial, peritoneal and interstitial fluid were collected after a single i.v. dose of amikacin (10 mg/kg bwt). Results: The mean ± s.d. of selected parameters were: extrapolated plasma concentration of amikacin at time zero 144 ± 21.8 µg/ml; extrapolated plasma concentration for the elimination phase 67.8 ± 7.44 µg/ml, area under the curve 139 ± 34.0 µg*h/ml, elimination half-life 1.34 ± 0.408 h, total body clearance 1.25 ± 0.281 ml/min/kg bwt; and mean residence time (MRT) 1.81 ± 0.561 h. At 24 h, the plasma concentration of amikacin for all horses was below the minimum detectable concentration for the assay. Selected parameters in synovial and peritoneal fluid were maximum concentration (Cmax) 19.7 ± 7.14 µg/ml and 21.4 ± 4.39 µg/ml and time to maximum concentration 65 ± 12.2 min and 115 ± 12.2 min, respectively. Amikacin in the interstitial fluid reached a mean peak concentration of 12.7 ± 5.34 µg/ml and after 24 h the mean concentration was 3.31 ± 1.69 µg/ml. Based on a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 4 µg/ml, the mean Cmax : MIC ratio was 16.9 ± 1.80 in plasma, 4.95 ± 1.78 in synovial fluid, 5.36 ± 1.10 in peritoneal fluid and 3.18 ± 1.33 in interstitial fluid. Conclusions: Amikacin dosed at 10 mg/kg bwt i.v. once a day in mature horses is anticipated to be effective for treatment of infection caused by most Gram-negative bacteria. Potential relevance: Low dose amikacin (10 mg/kg bwt) administered once a day in mature horses may be efficacious against susceptible microorganisms.
Contextual Assessment of Problematic Situations Identified by Insulin Pump Using Adolescents and Their Parents

For youth with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) using insulin pumps, maintaining metabolic control through appropriate selfcare is a complex biopsychosocial process reciprocally influenced by individual, familial, social, and technological variables. Adolescents (n 20) with T1DM using insulin pumps and their parents (n 34) were interviewed to determine (a) the most frequent and difficult situations faced by adolescents and their parents, (b) how the frequency and difficulty of these situations vary as a function of the respondent, the nature (content) of the problem, and the systemic context(s) in which problems occur, and (c) the relationship between the average difficulty rating and the youth’s metabolic control. The most frequently reported problematic situations were T1DM self-care. For youth these problems were predominantly related to social and peer contexts; parents identified problems primarily related to the family context. Implications and additional analyses are reported.
A mechanism for glycoconjugate vaccine activation of the adaptive immune system and its implications for vaccine design

Glycoconjugate vaccines have provided enormous health benefits globally, but they have been less successful in some populations at high risk for developing disease. To identify new approaches to enhancing glycoconjugate effectiveness, we investigated molecular and cellular mechanisms governing the immune response to a prototypical glycoconjugate vaccine. We found that in antigen-presenting cells a carbohydrate epitope is generated upon endolysosomal processing of group B streptococcal type III polysaccharide coupled to a carrier protein. In conjunction with a carrier protein-derived peptide, this carbohydrate epitope binds major histocompatibility class II (MHCII) and stimulates carbohydrate-specific CD4(+) T cell clones to produce interleukins 2 and 4-cytokines essential for providing T cell help to antibody-producing B cells. An archetypical glycoconjugate vaccine that we constructed to maximize the presentation of carbohydrate-specific T cell epitopes is 50-100 times more potent and substantially more protective in a neonatal mouse model of group B Streptococcus infection than a vaccine constructed by methods currently used by the vaccine industry. Our discovery of how glycoconjugates are processed resulting in presentation of carbohydrate epitopes that stimulate CD4(+) T cells has key implications for glycoconjugate vaccine design that could result in greatly enhanced vaccine efficacy.
Light Chain Usage in Anti–double-stranded DNA B Cell Subsets: Role in Cell Fate Determination

Two major mechanisms for the regulation of autoreactive B cells that arise in the bone marrow are functional silencing (anergy) and deletion. Studies to date suggest that low avidity interactions between B cells and autoantigen lead to B cell silencing, whereas high avidity interactions lead to deletion. Anti–double stranded (ds) DNA antibodies represent a pathogenic autospecificity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). An understanding of their regulation is critical to an understanding of SLE. We now demonstrate in a transgenic model in which mice express the heavy chain of a potentially pathogenic anti-DNA antibody that antibody affinity for dsDNA does not alone determine the fate of anti-dsDNA B cells. B cells making antibodies with similar affinities for dsDNA are regulated differently, depending on light chain usage. A major implication of this observation is that dsDNA may not be the self antigen responsible for cell fate determinations of anti-dsDNA B cells. Light chain usage may determine antigenic crossreactivity, and cross-reactive antigens may regulate B cells that also bind dsDNA.
Atención Primaria de Salud en Europa: tendencias a principios del siglo XXI. Una reflexión con motivo de los XXV años de la Declaración de Alma Ata*

La Atencion Primaria recibio un empuje conceptual y dinamico con la declaracion de Alma Ata, de la OMS y UNICEF, hace 25 anos. Desde entonces muchas cosas han cambiado, y en este trabajo se hace una revision en lo que respecta a Europa, con enfasis en los paises de la Union Europea. No basta con cubrir a toda la poblacion, ni con descentralizar la gestion, pues se sigue cumpliendo la ley de cuidados inversos (mas atencion a quienes menos lo necesitan, lo que se acentua al virar hacia el mercado los sistemas sanitarios) y se precisa que la Atencion Primaria cobre el protagonismo necesario para atraer, incluso, a los politicos que la regulan. La figura del medico general sigue siendo central, aunque hay otros profesionales que se han integrado en el trabajo ambulatorio, con organizaciones y peculiaridades diversas en los distintos paises europeos, sin fundamento cientifico que justifique la mayoria de las diferencias. El desarrollo de nuevos medicamentos y tecnologias, especialmente en torno a la genetica, hace cada dia mas importante la labor de filtro del medico general y su trabajo en prevencion cuaternaria (para evitar los excesos de la prevencion y del diagnostico y del tratamiento). Los nuevos usos y posibilidades de la electronica plantean, al tiempo, soluciones y problemas (sobre la confidencialidad de los datos) que exigen del medico general nuevas habilidades y un renovado compromiso etico con los pacientes.
American Public Administration and the Idea of Reform

The conventional wisdom concerning American public administrative thought suggests that a naive orthodoxy in vogue during the first portion of this century, was exposed as ideology a few decades ag...
Inventorying stressing life events as related to health change in the elderly

A 54-item inventory of stressing life events (SLE) was developed for assessing their prevalence in elderly populations. The SLE was sensitive to numerous life changes in this population, although only 11 of the items were reported as occurring in the previous 6 months by 10 per cent or more of the study participants. Scores on the SLE were shown to be significantly related to seeking of physician services in managed care settings and to seeking of emergency medical services regardless of setting. Stressing life events may thus have significantly greater impact on health change in the elderly than they do in younger populations.
On the varieties of asymmetrical dependency: feelings, motives, behavior, and accuracy in a dyadic interaction

Asymmetrical outcome dependency (AOD) has been theorized to produce feelings of powerlessness and anxiety, as well as a heightened motive to be interpersonally accurate. Thus far, the research on AOD has been conducted mainly among participants who were anticipating an outcome-dependent interaction. Using both self-report and behavioral measures, the present research investigated the feelings, motives, behavior, and interpersonal accuracy of participants engaged in dyadic task accomplishment under AOD, individual evaluation by the partner (EDP), individual evaluation by the experimenter (EDE), or no dependency. AOD participants showed relatively high levels of felt dominance, less attention to the partner, less happy affect, and less motivational investment than one or more of the other groups. EDP participants appeared to be most interested in being accurate and in making a good impression. No group differences were observed for interpersonal accuracy or anxiety. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aging and the Effects of Knowledge on On-Line Reading Strategies

The effects of knowledge on on-line reading strategies and the relation of these effects to subsequent memory performance among young and elderly adults were investigated. Participants read passages with vague, ill-defined content word-by-word on a computer screen for immediate recall and reading times were recorded. High-knowledge (HK) readers received passage titles that clarified the content and low-knowledge (LK) readers did not. Reading strategy was found to be related to age, knowledge, and subsequent recall performance. LK readers, particularly those who produced high levels of recall, spent differentially more time at intrasentence and sentence boundaries suggesting that they allocated more processing resources to consolidate the concepts in the seemingly disjointed text. HK readers, on the other hand, showed facilitation in this organizational processing. These beneficial effects were more pronounced for elderly readers than for younger readers, suggesting that older readers take special advantage of knowledge in the on-line processing of discourse. Moreover, older LK readers who were above average in recall were differentially slowed at boundaries showing that successful older readers who lacked a situation model with which to interpret text allocated differentially more time to organize and integrate text than did their younger counterparts.
The primal simplex approach to the QoS routing problem

Quality-of-service (QoS) routing problem requires the determination of a minimum cost path from a source node s to a destination node t in a data network such that the delay of the path is bounded by /spl Delta/ (> 0). This problem also known as the constrained shortest path (CSP) problem is NP-hard. So, heuristics and approximation algorithms have been presented in the literature. Among the heuristics, the LARAC algorithm, based on the dual of the LP relaxation or the Lagrangian relaxation of the CSP problem is very efficient. In this paper we study the primal simplex approach to the LP relaxation of the CSP problem and present an approximation algorithm to this problem. Several issues relating to efficient implementations of our approach are discussed. Experimental results comparing the performance of the new algorithm with that of the LARAC algorithm are presented.
The Relationship Between Health Literacy and Diabetes Knowledge and Readiness to Take Health Actions

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship among health literacy, patients' readiness to take health actions, and diabetes knowledge among individuals with type 2 diabetes. Methods Sixty-eight patients with type 2 diabetes receiving care in an academic general internal medicine clinic were administered the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) literacy instrument prior to completing the Diabetes Health Belief Model (DHBM) scale and Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT). Multivariable linear regression was used to assess the association between REALM literacy level, DKT score, DHBM scale score, and most recent hemoglobin A1C level while controlling for other covariates of interest. Results After controlling for other covariates of interest, no significant association between DHBM scale score and REALM literacy level was found (P = .29). However, both DKT score and most recent hemoglobin A1Clevel were found to be significantly associated with patient literacy (P = .004 and P = .02, respectively). Based on the multivariable model, patients with less than a fourth-grade literacy level had 13% lower DKT scores (95% confidence interval [CI], -28% to -2%; P = .08) and 1.36% higher most recent hemoglobin A1Clevels (95% CI, 1.06% to 1.73%; P = .02) relative to those with a high school literacy level. Conclusions Low health literacy is a problem faced by many patients that affects their ability to navigate the health care system and manage their chronic illnesses. While low health literacy was significantly associated with worse glycemic control and poorer disease knowledge in patients with type 2 diabetes, there was no significant relationship with their readiness to take action in disease management.
The Puerto Rico Healthcare Crisis

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is an organized nonincorporated territory of the United States with a population of more than 3.5 million U.S. citizens. The island has been the focus of much recent attention due to the recent default on its debt (estimated at more than $70 billion), high poverty rates, and increasing unemployment. Less attention, however, has been given to the island's healthcare system, which many believe is on the verge of collapsing. Healthcare makes up 20% of the Puerto Rican economy, and this crisis affects reimbursement rates for physicians while promoting the disintegration of the island's healthcare infrastructure. A major contributor relates to a disparity in federal funding provided to support the island's healthcare system when compared with that provided to the states in the mainland and Hawaii. Puerto Rico receives less federal funding for healthcare than the other 50 states and the District of Columbia even though it pays its share of social security and Medicare taxes. To make matters worse, the U.S. Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services is planning soon to implement another 11% cut in Medical Advantage reimbursements. This disparity in support for healthcare is considered responsible for ∼$25 billion of Puerto Rico's total debt. The impact of these events on the health of Puerto Ricans in the island cannot be entirely predicted, but the loss of healthcare providers and diminished access to care are a certainty, and quality care will suffer, leading to serious implications for those with chronic medical disorders including respiratory disease.
On the Conceptualization and Measurement of Political Tolerance

Research on political tolerance has made substantial progress in recent years by improving the measures used to gauge public opinion. Much attention has been devoted to developing indicators that control for group affect. Controls for activity affect have not been pursued as vigorously. Indeed, much of the progress has been along the lines of specifying tolerance for unpopular political minorities rather than tolerance for unorthodox or threatening political activities. More generally, tolerance research has not been sensitive to the variety of contextual factors that determine citizen attitudes in civil-liberties disputes.A new approach to measuring political tolerance is presented in this article. The measures developed in this approach disaggregate the traditional measures of tolerance (such as Stouffer's (1955) support for “a communist making a speech in your community”). In particular, scales measuring support for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of political association are presented. As multiple-indicator measures posing conflicts among values, these scales are related to traditional tolerance measures. However, because they reflect the complexity and conflict associated with actual civil-liberties disputes, they will no doubt serve as better predictors of opinions and behaviors in actual disputes.
Lower Urinary Tract Disease in Cats—New Problems, New Paradigms

Companion animal diets may be related to prevention, pathogenesis and/or treatment of diseases of the lower urinary tract. For example, urolithiasis can be either diet induced or nutrient sensitive. One of the most interesting developments in veterinary urolithiasis research has been the recent change in the composition of stones recovered from cats. In 1984, 88% of stones analyzed by quantitative methods were > 70% struvite, whereas < 1% were calcium oxalate. In 1992, the percentage of struvite had dropped to 62, whereas the percentage of calcium oxalate had increased to 24. Another recent development in lower urinary tract disease of cats is the recognition that urolithiasis appears to be a minor cause of the signs of frequency, urgency and hematuria for which patients are presented. This suggests that diet may no longer be involved, or be involved in previously unrecognized ways, in many current cases of this disease. Some of these feline patients may have a disease similar to interstitial cystitis, a disease of humans that appears to be of neuroepithelial origin. Our laboratory has been studying this possibility recently, and many similarities between the two diseases have been found.
Taking Sustainability Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities

Taking Sustainability Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities.
Diabatically Induced Secondary Flows in Tropical Cyclones. Part I: Quasi-Steady Forcing

Abstract The Sawyer–Eliassen Equation (SEQ) is here rederived in height coordinates such that the sea surface is also a coordinate surface. Compared with the conventional derivation in mass field coordinates, this formulation adds some complexity, but arguably less than is inherent in terrain-following coordinates or interpolation to the lower physical boundary. Spatial variations of static stability change the vertical structure of the mass flow streamfunction. This effect leads to significant changes in both secondary-circulation structure and intensification of the primary circulation. The SEQ is solved on a piecewise continuous, balanced mean vortex where the shapes of the wind profiles inside and outside the eye and the tilt of the specified heat source can be adjusted independently. A series of sensitivity studies shows that the efficiency with which imposed heating intensifies the vortex is most sensitive to intensity itself as measured by maximum wind and to vortex size as measured by radius of ma...
An implicitly parallel object-oriented matrix library and its application to medical physics

We introduce VLADYMIR, a matrix library that permits the development of array-based code in C++. It is especially useful for numerical simulation tasks and parallelises automatically, without any need for parallelisation-specific instructions. Thanks to the underlying data-parallel model, it shows up an excellent scalability, even on large parallel machines. VLADYMIR has been successfully tested so far on simulations of physical systems by cellular automata and lattice Boltzmann models. In this paper, an application to emboli detection in medical physics is presented. Occurrence of emboli in the brain presents a risk for cardiovascular accidents, which one tries to avoid by ultrasonography methods. Simulations using lattice Boltzmann methods help to analyse the interaction of an embolus with ultrasounds and lead towards a better understanding of the structure of the signal in ultrasonography measurements.
TOS9 regulates white-opaque switching in Candida albicans.

In Candida albicans, the a1-2 complex represses white-opaque switching, as well as mating. Based upon the assumption that the a1-2 corepressor complex binds to the gene that regulates white-opaque switching, a chromatin immunoprecipitation-microarray analysis strategy was used to identify 52 genes that bound to the complex. One of these genes, TOS9, exhibited an expression pattern consistent with a “master switch gene.” TOS9 was only expressed in opaque cells, and its gene product, Tos9p, localized to the nucleus. Deletion of the gene blocked cells in the white phase, misexpression in the white phase caused stable mass conversion of cells to the opaque state, and misexpression blocked temperature-induced mass conversion from the opaque state to the white state. A model was developed for the regulation of spontaneous switching between the opaque state and the white state that includes stochastic changes of Tos9p levels above and below a threshold that induce changes in the chromatin state of an as-yet-unidentified switching locus. TOS9 has also been referred to as EAP2 and WOR1.