cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structure-Activity Study of the Inhibition of Microtubule Assembly in Vitro by Podophyllotoxin and Its Congeners

Abstract This study investigates the inhibition of microtubule assembly in vitro by podophyllotoxin and its derivatives, which include in part the antitumor compounds 4′-demethylepipodophyllotoxin ethylidene β-d-glucoside (VP-16-213) and 4′-demethylepipodophyllotoxin thenylidene β-d-glucoside (VM-26); the cyclic ethers, cyclic sulfides, and cyclic sulfones of podophyilotoxin and deoxypodophyliotoxin; epipodophyliotoxin; picropodophyliotoxin; and several 4′-demethyl compounds. The inhibitory activity of these derivatives is sensitive to the configuration and size of substituents at position 4 in ring C and to steric features of substituents at position 12 in ring D. Decreasing activity correlates with the increasing size of the substituent at position 12, as indexed by their van der Waals radii. These results suggest that rings C and D of these drugs are involved in their interaction with the podophyllotoxin-binding site in tubulin.
Fine structure of normal human cervical squamous epithelium in vitro.

Abstract Cervical biopsies were taken from 8 normal women and explants of squamous epithelium were grown in tissue culture. After 14 to 21 days the cell monolayers were fixed, thin-sectioned, and stained for electron microscopic examination. The cultured cells had features characteristic of squamous epithelial cells, i.e., numerous desmosomes and tonofibrils, and in most other respects resembled their counterparts from biopsy material.
The Use of Chance Corrected Percentage of Agreement to Interpret the Results of a Discriminant Analysis

Most programs for performing discriminant analysis provide a summary table of hits and misses in predicting group membership by using the discriminant function. The interpretation of such tables can be enhanced greatly by computing Cohen's kappa, κ, the chance corrected percentage of agreement between actual and predicted group membership. The standard error of kappa can be used to set confidence limits for the accuracy of the discriminant prediction and to test the difference in predictive accuracy for two independent samples. This was demonstrated in this article, using data previously published in a more preliminary form.
Structural aberration of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and melanosome compartmentalization in long-term cultures of melanocytes from vitiligo patients.

Long-term cultures of melanocytes were established from 14 subjects with vitiligo and from five normal controls and analyzed ultrastructurally. Cultured melanocytes from 78.6% of the vitiligo patients demonstrated abnormalities that consisted of 1) dilation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), 2) circular RER profiles, and/or 3) membrane bound compartments of melanosomes. Cultured melanocytes from control subjects were predominantly normal with only one of the normal cultures demonstrating minimal circular RER profiles. The three unique abnormal structures in cultured vitiligo melanocytes were not always concomitantly expressed and could not be associated with any specific clinical feature of vitiligo. Quantitative analysis of the RER demonstrated that the profiles of dilated RER in cultured vitiligo melanocytes expressed a significant 1.5-2.8-times increase in mean cisternal area over cultured control melanocytes (i.e., 5.41-9.92 microns 2 versus 3.53 microns 2, respectively). The cisterna of the dilated RER profiles frequently contained floccular material that appeared to originate from the ribosomes, an indication that the floccular material may be translation products. The dilation of RER in melanocytes from the same patient persisted through repeated subculturing for up to 14.75 months. Epidermal melanocytes in biopsied skin from a patient whose cultured melanocytes were aberrant also demonstrated dilated and circular RER profiles. These results demonstrate that melanocytes from most vitiligo patients express an innate defect when cultured. Although this defect does not appear to be cytotoxic in vitro, this abnormality may be the primary defect that elicits melanocyte destruction in vivo.
The 2011 Somalia famine: Context, causes, and complications

Abstract On July 20, 2011, the UN declared a famine in southern Somalia, affecting some 3.1 million people. Although largely described by the media as being caused by drought, the Somalia famine of 2011 was caused by multiple factors—including drought, but also conflict, rapidly-rising global food prices, and other long-standing, structural factors. The response to the famine was substantially complicated by several more factors, which combined to make the crisis worse. These include constrained humanitarian access, and the absence of the World Food Programme. This article analyzes these factors, and poses a set of questions, many of which are addressed by other articles in this issue.
Obtaining information by dynamic (effortful) touching

Dynamic touching is effortful touching. It entails deformation of muscles and fascia and activation of the embedded mechanoreceptors, as when an object is supported and moved by the body. It is realized as exploratory activities that can vary widely in spatial and temporal extents (a momentary heft, an extended walk). Research has revealed the potential of dynamic touching for obtaining non-visual information about the body (e.g. limb orientation), attachments to the body (e.g. an object's height and width) and the relation of the body both to attachments (e.g. hand's location on a grasped object) and surrounding surfaces (e.g. places and their distances). Invariants over the exploratory activity (e.g. moments of a wielded object's mass distribution) seem to ground this ‘information about’. The conception of a haptic medium as a nested tensegrity structure has been proposed to express the obtained information realized by myofascia deformation, by its invariants and transformations. The tensegrity proposal rationalizes the relative indifference of dynamic touch to the site of mechanical contact (hand, foot, torso or probe) and the overtness of exploratory activity. It also provides a framework for dynamic touching's fractal nature, and the finding that its degree of fractality may matter to its accomplishments.
The forecasting accuracy and determinants of football rankings

Abstract Numerous models vie to explain the extent to which and the manner in which people use new information to reconsider existing beliefs. We analyze week-to-week changes in the rankings of big time college football teams to test predictions based on these models. We test logistic regression models of whether Top 25 teams moved up a certain number of places in the rankings following victories, using data on weekly movement in the AP rankings, 1985–95. The predictors in these models are indicators of inertia and constraint, rank elevators, and the passage of time. Lower-ranked teams move up faster after a victory than do higher-ranked teams, but moving up in the rankings after a victory is an incremental process — much more incremental than moving down after a loss. All the focal predictors in the models perform as expected in influencing a team’s chances of moving up following a win. That is, the odds of moving up are greater: the fewer prior losses a team has suffered; the lower the team’s rank before the victory; if an opening has occurred higher in the rankings; if the victory is over a ranked opponent, and especially a higher-ranked opponent; and if the standing of opponents played earlier in the season has risen. These results are most compatible with a model that combines what are often treated as contradictory ideas — that people are ‘naive scientists’ or ‘intuitive statisticians’, on the one hand, and that they are extremely conservative information processors, on the other.
The use of immunoaffinity chromatography for the isolation of antigens in hepatitis non-A non-B sera

Abstract Two particle-associated antigens were isolated by immunoaffinity chromatography from hepatitis non-A, non-B chimpanzee or patient sera. The immunoadsorbent was prepared by coupling the Affi-Prep 10 matrix with immunoglobulins of a chimpanzee immunized with inactivated viral lysate. An antigen estimated to be 33·5 kilodaltons was isolated from acute phase sera of a hepatitis non-A, non-B infected chimpanzee. Western blot analyses showed that this antigen is immunoreactive using a chronic patient serum as the source of antibodies. The antigen was not found in the preinoculation serum. In addition to the 33·5 kilodalton protein, a second antigen estimated to be 56 kilodaltons was isolated from the serum of an acute hepatitis non-A, non-B patient.
Surface core level shifts on InP(110): Use of Sb overlayers

Abstract The surface core level shift of the P2p from a clean InP(110) surface has been studied by use of the Sb overlayer. It is shown that the nonreactive Sb overlayer removes the surface core level shift and does not introduce any other component. The unique possibility to separately characterize the bulk component allows a precise determination of the surface core level shift. We show that the surface P2p core level is shifted to lower binding energy by -0.29 eV, while an opposite and nearly equal in magnitude +0.30 eV shift is established for the In4d.
The use of taxanes in early breast cancer

Abstract The evidence is now clear that taxanes added to standard adjuvant regimens have acceptable toxicity and can improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer. The North American Intergroup 0148 study (CALGB 9344) clearly showed a benefit in terms of disease-free survival and overall survival when paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 was added to adjuvant doxorubicin (A) and cyclophosphamide (C) therapy in 3121 patients with node-positive breast cancer. Adding paclitaxel to AC therapy resulted in a hazard reduction of 17% for recurrence (adjusted Wald χ2 P = 0.0023) and 18% for death (adjusted Wald χ2 P = 0.0064). Results from a similar trial, NSABP B28, in which paclitaxel was also added to standard AC adjuvant therapy and compared with standard AC therapy alone in 3060 patients with node-positive breast cancer are consistent with those of the CALGB trial. This trial also demonstrated a 17% reduction in disease-free survival events (P = 0.008) and a non-significant trend in overall survival when paclitaxel was added. A third large trial (BCIRG 001) testing taxanes as adjuvant therapy comparing 5-fluorouracil plus AC with docetaxel (T) plus AC (TAC vs FAC) yielded a significant improvement in disease-free survival (32% reduction in risk of recurrence, P = 0.0011), as well as a favourable trend in overall survival with the substitution of the taxane in place of 5-fluorouracil. Additional studies in the preoperative setting demonstrate benefits in terms of local tumour response and overall outcomes when taxanes are added to standard therapy. Very recent results suggest that dose-dense administration of chemotherapy including paclitaxel is associated with better outcomes than standard regimens in adjuvant therapy. Hence, the available data are clearly consistent with the hypothesis that taxanes can add to the benefits of existing chemotherapy regimens in the adjuvant setting. Future studies will need to identify subgroups of patients with greater or lesser benefits from taxanes and focus on optimisation of this class of agents.
Sovereignty under Siege, or a Circuitous Path for Strengthening the State? Digital Diasporas and Human Rights

Abstract Conventional wisdom holds that globalization, and its specific contributing factors such as immigration, information technology, and the emergence of universal values that inform international law, poses a challenge to state sovereignty. This article analyzes this assertion by examining one case, which encompasses each of these factors. Following a review of the literature, this article describes the efforts, using information and communication technologies, of the Egyptian Copt diaspora to advocate for human rights and improved quality of life of Copts residing in Egypt. We conclude that while the theory and practice of state sovereignty are certainly evolving and increasingly complex, the essence of state sovereignty is not necessarily challenged by these trends and may even be supported by them.
Recovery of YAC-end sequences through complementation of an Escherichia coli pyrF mutation

We have developed a genetic means to recover sequences from YAC-ends near the yeast selectable marker URA3. This strategy is based on the ability of URA3 to complement mutations in pyrF, an Escherichia coli gene required for pyrimidine biosynthesis. We have developed an E.coli strain with a non-reverting allele of pyrF that is also suitable for cloning (recA-, hsdR-). We demonstrate the utility of this complementation strategy to obtain right-end clones from three YACs containing Arabidopsis thaliana DNA.
Vitamin C Improves Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation in Forearm Resistance Vessels of Humans With Hypercholesterolemia

Background Endothelium-dependent vasodilation is impaired in humans with hypercholesterolemia. Oxidative degradation of endothelium-derived nitric oxide plays a major role in endothelial dysfunction in animal models of hypercholesterolemia. To assess whether this mechanism is relevant to humans, we studied the effect of vitamin C, an antioxidant, on vasodilator function in forearm resistance vessels of patients with hypercholesterolemia. Methods and Results We studied 11 hypercholesterolemic and 12 healthy control subjects. Forearm blood flow was determined by venous occlusion plethysmography. Endothelium-dependent vasodilation was assessed by intra-arterial infusion of methacholine (0.3 to 10 μg/min). Endothelium-independent vasodilation was measured by intra-arterial infusion of nitroprusside (0.3 to 10 μg/min) and verapamil (10 to 300 μg/min). Forearm blood flow dose-response curves were determined for each drug before and during coadministration of vitamin C (24 mg/min). In hypercholesterolemic subjec...
Solvent-Polymer Interaction. II. Measurements of Liquid Solvent Molecules Associating with Polymer Sites and of Their Transport Behavior in Polymer Membrane by Thermogravimetry, GLC, and Mass Spectrometry

Abstract The measurement of sorption and diffusion behavior of liquid ethanol and water solvent mixtures in polyurethane membrane were made simultaneously by thermogravimetry. The individual amounts of sorbed water and ethanol in the polymer membrane were estimated by thermogravimetry and differentiated by mass spectrometry. In addition, from a single dynamic thermogravimetric experiment the activation energy for solvent molecules desorbing from the polymer membrane was also determined. The thermodynamic activity of ethanol vapor in equilibrium with the ethanol-water-polyurethane system was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. The clustering functions, the mean numbers of solvent molecules in the clusters, and those associating with polymer sites were evaluated by applying simplified mathematical derivatives using the experimentally determined values of activity and volume fraction of solvent molecules. It was found that at lower ethanol concentration the tendency for ethanol molecules to cluster toge...
Open To Debate: Moral Consideration and the Lab Monkey

It is not often that one reads of suggestions to reset the default presumption. Most moral theorists appear to ignore governing presumptions altogether, to assume that all actions take place within...
Noise Properties Of A Kinestatic Charge Detector

Recent breakthroughs in electronic detector technology have allowed digital radiographic images to become competitive with, or superior to, those produced with classical film-screen techniques. A summary of these technologies is given in ref. 1. Our group is involved in the research and development of a recently proposed imaging technology (2,3) based on the kinestatic charge detector (KCD). The modulation transfer function (MTF) of the KCD technique has been discussed in refs. 1 and 4. The low frequency detective quantum efficiency (DO(0)) of several KCD designs has been modeled and a value of approximately 0.75 is expected for future detectors (1,5). In this paper, the noise power spectrum (NPS) and the frequency-dependent DOE (MEM) are discussed. Noise contributions from x-ray quanta (random and structured) and data acquisition electronics are considered and preliminary experimental results are given for a recently installed imaging detector. A brief comparison is made of our theoretical and experimental results with published results for film-screen radiography.
No dense metrizable Gδ-subspaces in butterfly semi-metrizable Baire spaces

Abstract A class of Baire spaces, which contains many known examples and variations thereof, is described and it is shown that no space in this class contains a dense metrizable G δ -subspace. This gives a class of semi-metrizable spaces which are not σ-spaces. We discuss the existence of Lindelof semi-metrizable spaces which are not σ-spaces. This is of interest since the only known examples require the use of CH.
The crisis in leadership in the context of the nursing shortage and the increasing prevalence of nursing unions

Correspondence: Latisha L BaloghRobinson Marist College, School of Global and Professional Programs, 3399 North Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, USA Tel +1 845 677 9960 Email latisha.balogh-robinson1@marist.edu Abstract: Developing nurse leaders in a unionized environment presents unique challenges that are beyond those traditionally experienced in nonunion settings. This literature review examines multiple factors contributing to increasing nursing union membership, including population aging, the nursing shortage, and the relationship between leadership and staff engagement. Current trends in succession planning and leadership development are also highlighted. Job dissatisfaction related to the inability to provide quality care in the context of a protracted nursing shortage and current health care trends is identified as the driver in nursing union growth. The discussion that follows assumes current trends in nursing unionization will continue and proposes that adversarial relationships between management and union nurses will further amplify the dearth in leadership by reducing the pool of nurses willing to leave the union for nonunion leadership roles.
Thio and nitrogen analogues of acronycine

The thio, thio acetyl, oxime, and several hydrazone and azine derivatives of the antitumor alkaloid acronycine (1) were prepared. NMR spectroscopy was used to study the configurations around the C=N double bond in these acronycine derivatives. In the hydrazones and azines of acronycine the N-N bond assumes asyn configuration to the C6-OCH3 group, while the N-O bond in the oxime and the N-N bond in noracronycine hydrazone and azines assumes ananti configuration.
Influence of Process Parameters on the Ironing of Deep-Drawn Cups

An analytical model for the ironing of deep-drawn cups is developed using the slab method. Inhomogeneous deformation of the drawn cup is taken into consideration. Elastic recovery after a cup being ironed is also modeled. Predictions on punch load and frictional force at the punch-cup interface show excellent agreements with experimental measurements. Influence of die semi-angle, ironing reduction ratio and friction on the process is investigated. With this model, new process parameters for ironing can be designed and analyzed before actual die tryout.
Manufacture of amorphous silicon and GaAs thin film solar cells: An identification of potential health and safety hazards

Abstract Large-scale manufacturing of amorphous silicon and GaAs thin film photovoltaic cells may present potential health and safety hazards to workers and the public. These hazards were identified by examining process data, control technology availability, biomedical effects and environmental standards. Quantitative estimates of material inputs and outputs and of control costs for selected processes were made on the basis of preliminary engineering designs of hypothetical 10 MWp production facilities. Toxic byproducts of the deposition processes are likely to be produced in small quantities and can be controlled using available technology. The basic emission control options and the associated costs for selected processes and byproducts were examined. Explosive and flammable gases may present significant occupational safety hazards; gas handling systems will need to be carefully designed. Electrical and electromagnetic hazards from plasma generators will require close attention.
Development and validation of LC-MS/MS method for determination of very long acyl chain (C22:0 and C24:0) ceramides in human plasma.

Ceramide is a key metabolite in both anabolic and catabolic pathways of sphingolipids. The very long fatty acyl chain ceramides N-(docosanoyl)-sphing-4-enine (Cer(22:0)) and N-(tetracosanoyl)-sphing-4-enine (Cer(24:0)) are associated with multiple biological functions. Elevated levels of these sphingolipids in tissues and in the circulation have been associated with insulin resistance and diabetes. To facilitate quantification of these very long chain ceramides in clinical samples from human subjects, we have developed a sensitive, accurate, and high-throughput assay for determination of Cer(22:0) and Cer(24:0) in human plasma. Cer(22:0) and Cer(24:0) and their deuterated internal standards were extracted by protein precipitation and chromatographically separated by HPLC. The analytes and their internal standards were ionized using positive-ion electrospray mass spectrometry, then detected by multiple-reaction monitoring with a tandem mass spectrometer. Total liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) runtime was 5 min. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 0.02–4 and 0.08–16 μg/ml for Cer(22:0) and Cer(24:0), respectively, in human plasma with corresponding absolute recoveries from plasma at 109 and 114 %, respectively. The lower limit of quantifications were 0.02 and 0.08 μg/ml for Cer(22:0) and Cer(24:0), respectively. Acceptable precision and accuracy were obtained for concentrations over the calibration curve ranges. With the semi-automated format and short LC runtime for the assay, a throughput of ∼200 samples/day can easily be achieved.
Formation of Octachlorostyrene During the Synthesis of Chromium(Iii) Chloride

Octachlorostyrene has been recovered from the reaction tube, along with previously reported hexachlorobenzene, during the synthesis of CrCl 3 from Cr 2 O 3 and CCl 4 at high temperature. The region in the reaction tube where the octachlorostyrene was found, namely upstream from the Cr 2 O 3 held at 890°C, suggests that this molecule is formed at a temperature below 890°C and that it decomposes if raised to that temperature. A low gas flow was used in this experiment, allowing products to diffuse countercurrently.
Partially deficient methylation of cytosine in DNA at CCTAGG sites stimulates genetic recombination of bacteriophage lambda

Abstract Lambda bacteriophages grown on arl mutants of Escherichia coil ("Arl − " phages) display intermediate levels of cytosine methylation: less 5-methylcytosine (m 5 C) than phages grown on wild-type bacteria ("Arl + " phages) but more than phages grown on dcm mutants, and thus lacking the methylated sequences (Cm 5 C T A GG) characteristic of E. coil K-12 bacteria ("Dcm − " phages). "Arl − " phages are one twelfth as resistant to Eco RII restriction (recognition site CC T A GG) as "Arl + " phages, but 40-fold more resistant than "Dcm − " phages. Chromatographic analyses show the 5-methylcytosine content of "Arl − " DNA to be one third that of "Arl + " DNA. Altered cytosine methylation frequency correlates with two previously described properties of "Arl − " phages, increased genetic recombination and unusual sensitivity of phage DNA to endonuclease S1, which are absent in phages grown on dcm or dcm arl bacteria. Methylated/unmethylated heteroduplex DNA prepared in vitro (one strand from Eco RII-modified phages/one from "Dcm − " phages) is highly recombinogenic but not S1-sensitive. We hypothesize that hemimethylated CC T A GG sites in "Arl − " DNA are necessary and sufficient for enhanced recombination, and necessary but not sufficient for S1 sensitivity.
Tc(H) for quasicrystalline micronetworks: Analytical and numerical results

Abstract We report on some analytical and numerical results, on the study of flux quantization in aperiodic superconducting arrays. In particular, the superconducting-normal phase boundary, T c ( H ), is calculated and the origin of its overall and fine structure is analyzed as a function of the network size. We also propose a new way of analytically analyzing the overall and the fine structure of T c ( H ) in terms of short- and long-range correlations among tiles. Some of the results obtained are compared with experimental measurements done by, in alphabetical order, the groups of Chaikin, Pannetier, and Van Harlingen.
Permeation of Ethylbenzene and Hydrogen Through Untreated and Catalytically-Treated Alumina Membranes

Abstract Experiments were conducted to measure the transport rates of ethylbenzene and hydrogen through an alumina inorganic membrane in a tubular geometry. The effective diffusivity was estimated from a membrane tube model and interpreted via a four-region picture of the membrane structure. Knudsen diffusion through the 40 A narrow membrane pores appeared to control the overall separation. The membrane with catalytic treatment yielded effective diffusivities two orders of magnitude lower than the untreated membrane. Ethylbenzene and hydrogen diffuse independently of one another in both treated and untreated membranes.
Textualization and organizing: Illustrations from a public discussion process

In his theoretical work on organizing processes, Karl Weick proposes that the activity of organizing is to be found somewhere between the interaction moment and the construction of stable meaning structures, or ‘cause maps,’ which retrospectively make sense of interaction (Weick, 1979, 1995). Since 1969, Weick has provided us with many concepts in order to show how organizing occurs, from enactment to retention through the structuring of interaction cycles and rules. Following the work of Taylor and his colleagues, this paper adopts Weick's intuition regarding the links between action and meaning in organizing; however, it argues that a better understanding of the organizing processes can be reached by grounding intersubjectivity in discourse instead of behavior. More specifically, it examines one of the two basic organizing processes to be found in communication according to the work of Taylor, that of textualization, in which interactions are interpreted and translated collectively into a meaningful tex...
God is in the Data: Epistemologies of Knowledge at the Creation Museum

In contemporary American public culture, interest groups increasingly mobilise social constructionist arguments in order to discredit strains of scientific knowledge. According to Latour [2004. Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry, 30:225–48], the field of science studies has contributed to this trend by exposing the ways that scientific facts are socially mediated. In this article, I examine how a narrative of social construction is articulated in the Creation Museum, a young earth creationist museum in Northern Kentucky, USA. I compare the epistemology of science in the Creation Museum with that of conspiracy theory and of social constructionist science studies. I examine how, in the Creation Museum, social constructionist critique is combined with a framing of the Bible as a source of factual data. It is argued that science studies, conspiracy theory and creationism overlap in their critiques of the transparency and objectivity of science. Howe...
EXtENDINg β cell survival by UPRegulating ATF4 translation

In this issue of Cell Metabolism , Daniel Drucker and colleagues (Yusta et al., 2006) explore how the incretin mimetic exendin-4 improves β cell function and survival during ER stress. Their findings suggest that protein kinase A signaling elicited by GLP-1 receptor activation differentially modulates one arm of the unfolded protein response (UPR). Regulation of this UPR pathway leads to enhanced translational expression of ATF4, a transcription factor central for stress remedy and cell survival.
Graduate training opportunities in the hearing sciences at the University of Louisville

The University of Louisville currently offers two branches of training opportunities for students interested in pursuing graduate training in the hearing sciences: A Ph.D. degree in experimental psychology with concentration in hearing science, and a clinical doctorate in audiology (Au.D.). The Ph.D. degree program offers mentored research training in areas such as psychoacoustics, speech perception, spatial hearing, and multisensory perception, and guarantees students four years of funding (tuition plus stipend). The Au.D. program is a 4-year program designed to provide students with the academic and clinical background necessary to enter audiologic practice. Both programs are affiliated with the Heuser Hearing Institute, which, along with the University of Louisville, provides laboratory facilities and clinical populations for both research and training. An accelerated Au.D./Ph.D. training program that integrates key components of both programs for training of students interested in clinically based res...
ESR spectra of AsF2−6 and SbF2−6

Abstract ESR spectra observed in γ-irradiated CsAsF6 and CsSbF6 matrices have been assigned to the free radicals AsF2−6 and SbF2−6 respectively. The large, isotropic central-atom hyperfine interactions and isotropic g-values of these species suggest that they possess 2Atg ground-states in Oh symmetry. The contribution to the semi-occupied orbital of the central-atom valence s atomic orbital is ≈ 0.6, greater than in the halogen hexafluorides (≈0.4) and the chalcogen hexafluoride anions (≈ 0.5). Variation of the central-atom hyperfine interaction with temperature is interpreted in terms of a second-order Jahn-Teller effect involving a low-lying 2T1u excited state.
Repeated principal-agent relationships with lending and borrowing

Abstract It is shown optimal long-term contracts are strictly better than a series of unrelated short-term contracts for two reasons: long-term contracts allow risk to be spread over time and the agent's intertemporal choices provide information about the unobservable random variable.
The Current State of Health Care Reform: The Physicians’ Burden

Congress has passed expansive legislation to “fix” health care. US health care, however, is not “broken”; rather, it functions according to purpose. The legal standard sets health care’s purpose as high-quality care, not care at a pervasive quantity or low cost. Juries focus on quality irrespective of cost, and the court’s concern is not cost but whether the defendant physician has met the standard of care. As the US health system does deliver high-quality (albeit high-cost) care, it is not broken; instead, the system that defines it is broken. The legal system defines the standard of care as the care that an average physician would deliver under similar circumstances. As 91% of physicians admit to practicing defensively excessive care, the legal care standard is therefore excessive care. However, the new health care legislation passed by Congress does not address tort reform. Instead, it reduces physician remuneration and increases penalty-driven cost care control regulations. Caught between a care standard that demands high quality regardless of cost and penalty-driven federal mandates demanding low-cost care regardless of the legal care standard, physicians bear the new law’s ultimate burden. US health care should not continue to focus on quality over cost and quantity; more important, the law should not continue to dictate that it do so. Rather, the system must import cost-effective care, and the law must so direct. To reduce health care costs, the legal system must first recognize a standard of care that respects cost—or tort reform that protects those physicians who do.
Finite Element Analysis of Stress Singularities in Attached Flip Chip Packages

Cracking and delamination at the interfaces of different materials in plastic IC packages is a well-known failure mechanism. The investigation of local stress behavior, including characterization of stress singularities, is an important problem in predicting and preventing crack initiation and propagation. In this study, a three-dimensional finite element procedure is used to compute the strength of stress singularities at various threedimensional corners in a typical Flip-Chip assembled Chip-on-Board (FCOB) package. It is found that the stress singularities at the three-dimensional corners are always more severe than those at the corresponding two-dimensional edges, which suggests that they are more likely to be the potential delamination sites. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the stress singularity at the upper silicon die/epoxy fillet edge can be completely eliminated by an appropriate choice in geometry. A weak stress singularity at the FR4 board/epoxy edge is shown to exist, with a stronger singularity located at the internal die/epoxy corner. The influence of the epoxy contact angle and the FR4 glass fiber orientation on stress state is also investigated. A general result is that the strength of the stress singularity increases with increased epoxy contact angle. In addition, it is shown that the stress singularity effect can be minimized by choosing an appropriate orientation between the glass fiber in the FR4 board and the silicon die. Based on these results, several guidelines for minimizing edge stresses in IC packages are presented. !S1043-7398"00#00904-X$
Differential regulation of rat T-kininogen by tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-6.

Rat T-kininogen (T-KG), a cysteine protease inhibitor, is an acute phase reactant which is induced to high levels in response to inflammation. Both hormones and cytokines participate in this regulation. To investigate the cis-acting elements responsible for the induction of gene expression, various 5′-fragments of the rat T-KG gene were fused to a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase marker gene. These constructs were transfected into a rat hepatoma cell line which was then treated with tumor necrosis factor or interleukin-6 or both cytokines. Expression of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene was induced with interleukin-6 treatment, but suppressed by tumor necrosis factor. The 5′-region of the T-KG gene responsible for conferring both of these effects was localized between nucleotides −404 to −210 upstream of the transcription start site. Fragments containing this region were found to be effective in either orientation, and could also regulate a heterologous promoter.
A comparison of characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder and other anxiety disorders

Abstract Demographic, familial, and intrapersonal characteristics of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder were examined in comparison to other anxiety disorders, including simple phobia, social phobia, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Data were collected via questionnaires administered prior to treatment. Obsessive-compulsive differed demographically from other disorders only in lower employment level and greater poverty. They showed more psychiatric symptoms and specifically more obsessionality, depression, and interpersonal discomfort. More childhood psychiatric symptoms were reported, as well as more current feelings of inadequacy, depression, hostility, and guilt. Among several parental characteristics studied, only orderliness of both parents and demandingness of mothers distinguished among groups. Obsessive-compulsive disorder appears to be more functionally debilitating than other anxiety disorders, but greater psychopathy in the family background is not supported.
China's relations with East Asia and the Pacific region: Part I

China’s emergence as a stabilizing influence in East Asia constitutes the most important development in regional politics and economics of the past decade. Having spent much of the preceding ten years mired in xenophobic isolation and convulsive, almost incomprehensible domestic conflict, the Chinese leadership has devoted the later 1970s and early 1980s to undoing the damage of the past. Economic goals have assumed primacy in Chinese policy-making, with ideological preoccupations largely subordinated for the first time since the mid-1950s. Beijing is seeking to define a hybrid path for socialist development that limits the powers of the country’s long-dominant political and economic institutions, permitting a devolution of decision-making authority unthinkable in the past. At the same time, the Chinese are assertively soliciting capital and technology from the capitalist countries, hoping thereby to harness the scientific and technological transformation underway in the industrialized world to the needs of their own modernization programme. The principal objectives for the next decade are to establish the conditions for sustained technological and economic dynamism in the twenty-first century and to achieve an orderly transfer of power from Deng Xiaoping to his designated successors.
Orbital Cellulitis, Subperiosteal Abscess, Sinusitis, and Septicemia Caused by Arcanobacterium haemolyticum

Purpose/Methods A 16-year-old boy had orbital cellulitis, subperiosteal abscess, sinusitis, and septicemia. Arcanobacterium haemolyticum was identified as the causative organism. Results/Conclusions This organism is a cause of orbital cellulitis and may require aggressive therapy in order to achieve a therapeutic response.
Chirped-pulse programming of optical coherent transient true-time delays

Programming an optical coherent transient true-time delay device with two frequency-chirped pulses provides a novel means of performing broadband (> >GHz) true-time delay with a wide dynamic range of delays with fine temporal resolution. We have demonstrated true-time delays exceeding 2micros with sub-100-ps resolution. Chirped-pulse programming has the advantages over the previously proposed brief pulse programming [Opt. Lett. 21 1102 (1996)] of reduced instantaneous power requirements and the ability to control the true-time delay by frequency shifting the programming pulses.
Transformation of cells by rous sarcoma virus: cytoplasmic vacuolization.

Chick embryo cells transformed by the Bryan “high titer” strain of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV-BH) are heavily vacuolated. A variety of microscopic techniques have been used in demonstrating that the vacuoles are cytoplasmic, bounded by membrane, and are composed largely of water. Proteins, lipids, glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosaminoglycans, glycogen, and nucleic acids were undetectable in the vacuoles. Physiological requirements for development of the vacuoles, and reversal of vacuolization, were examined in cells infected with a virus mutant, RSV-BH-Ta, which induces reversible temperature-dependent transformation. Na+ was the only component of the cell culture medium found essential for both the development and reversal of vacuoles. Glucose depletion or dinitrophenol treatment inhibited vacuolization, suggesting a possible energy requirement in the vacuolization process. Ouabain, an inhibitor of Na+−K+ ATPase, enhanced vacuolization, but a variety of other substances affecting cell surface components were inactive. Two sugars, glucosamine and mannosamine, prevented the disappearance of vacuoles. The observations suggest that cellular vacuolization may be a normal physiological response to an increase in water and Na+, and, in the specific case of transformation by RSV-BH, may be relevant to the physiological basis for malignancy.
Nonlinear Thermoelastic Materials with Viscosity, and Subject to Internal Constraints: A Classical Continuum Thermodynamics Approach

A general approach to continuum thermodynamics that was advocated by R.S. Rivlin is carried out for thermoelastic materials which can also depend on strain rate. An entropy function is constructed (rather than assumed to exist). A method for treating thermomechanical internal constraints for such materials is also presented. In this method, the properties of a constrained material are inherited from those of a related equivalence class of unconstrained materials.
Democratic Indignation Black American Thought and the Politics of Dignity

This essay argues that black Americans writing from outside or at the margins of the democratic polity shed important light on the nature of human dignity and on the political emotion that offers—t...
Aid to stabilize hinged strauch clamp during microvasovasostomy

Abstract Urologists using the large and small Strauch clamps for microvasovasostomy have found that these clamps allow splendid visualization of the end and mucosa-lined lumen of each vas. However, an assistant must stabilize the clamp by holding it while in the “folded” position or else both the clamp and the ends of the vas will move when the sutures are placed in the mucosal lining of the lumens and in the muscular wall of the vas. A simple clamp holder has been designed to stabilize the “folded” Strauch clamp while these sutures are being placed. After the initial “critical” sutures are placed to line up the lumen of each end of the vas, the clamp is unfolded and used in the straight position for placement of the remaining necessary muscular sutures. This allows the surgical assistant to have two free hands rather than one and greatly reduces difficulties with keeping the vas in focus while placing the initial critical sutures.
High school students’ understandings of geometric transformations in the context of a technological environment

Abstract This study investigated the nature of students’ understandings of geometric transformations, which included translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations, in the context of the technological tool, The Geometer’s Sketchpad . The researcher implemented a seven-week instructional unit on geometric transformations within an Honors Geometry class. Students’ conceptions of transformations as functions were analyzed using the APOS theory and were informed by an analysis of students’ interpretations and uses of representations of geometrical objects using the constructs of drawing and figure . The analysis suggests students’ understandings of key concepts including domain, variables and parameters, and relationships and properties of transformations were critical for supporting the development of deeper understandings of transformations as functions.
Validity Study of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was compared by means of canonical analysis to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and to the Adjective Check List, with samples of 79 and 53 individuals, respecti...
Collective Electrostatic Super-Accelerator

A new accelerator concept with the potential to reach order of magnitude larger particle energies is proposed. In the concept a large cylindrical cloud of charged particles is radially injected and compressed inside a long solenoid by a rising magnetic field. The cloud is permitted to expand axially and as a result, the particles positioned near the head of it attain very large energies. If the compressing magnetic field rises to ~ 105 G in about ~ 10-5 sec, and if the solenoid is ~ 10 km long, the attainable particle energies are ~ 1013 eV, and if two expanding clouds collide the equivalent stationary target energies for electrons are as large as ~ 1020 eV and for protons ~ 1017 eV. Using megagauss magnetic flux compression techniques the attainable particle energies can reach ~ 1014 eV, with equivalent colliding beam energies of ~ 1022 eV for electrons and 1019 eV for protons.
Are there Hebrews left

The Samaritan sect in the Middle East traces its ancestry over a period of more than 2,000 years from the Biblical Samaritans. The Samaritans are the guardians of a unique and very ancient religious literature which together with other historical accounts makes their claim of such a length of existence probable. Comparison of blood group frequencies as well as other genetic markers (such as PTC sensitivity, color blindness and G6PD deficiency) indicate that the Samaritans are unlike any of the existing surrounding groups whom they might be expected to resemble. From comparison of anthropometric data the Samaritans appear to exhibit their own “typical” features which do not resemble those of any other Jewish or non-Jewish community in the Middle East. These differences support the contention that the Samaritans' separation and isolation from the communities is not a recent event. The possibility that the Samaritans today can be regarded as modern representatives of the ancient Hebrews and the living offspring of a particular branch of the Israelite kingdom is discussed.
Psychiatric comorbidity of eating disorders in men: a national study of hospitalized veterans.

Objective This study examined eating disorders and their psychiatric comorbidity in a national sample of hospitalized male veterans. Method Review of discharge summaries for 466,590 male patients from Veterans Affairs medical centers for fiscal year 1996 resulted in the identification of 98 men with a current ICD-9-CM diagnosis of an eating disorder. For the comorbidity analyses, eating disorder cases were matched with controls drawn randomly from the pool of male patients without an eating disorder, using age and race as matching variables. Results There was a high rate of comorbid substance use and mood disorder for men with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). Men with AN were also at high risk for comorbid schizophrenia/psychotic disorder, men with BN were at risk for comorbid personality disorder, and men with EDNOS were at special risk for comorbid organic mental disorder and schizophrenia/psychotic disorder. Discussion For each eating disorder, there was a distinct pattern of psychiatric comorbidity that deserves further study. © 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 25: 399–404, 1999.
Role of chlorides in hot corrosion of a cast Fe–Cr–Ni alloy. Part I: Experimental studies

Abstract High alloy stainless steels are often used in corrosive, high temperature applications because they form a protective, adherent Cr 2 O 3 scale. When the environment in such applications includes condensed molten salts, especially alkali sulfates and alkali chlorides, these alloys are likely to undergo hot corrosion, even at moderate temperatures compared to their typical maximum application temperature. The chemical (or electrochemical) reactions and transport modes for hot corrosion in a system involving a multi-component alloy and a multi-component salt are complex, but some insight can be gained with the help of a multi-component thermochemical model to identify major reactions. The present work consists of two parts: (a) experimental measurements of hot corrosion rates and characterization of corrosion products on a commercial, cast super-duplex stainless steel (HH), which result from exposure to thin deposits of a mixture of alkali sulfates and alkali chlorides, and (b) an evaluation of possible corrosion reactions by a multi-component thermochemical model. In laboratory hot corrosion tests alloy coupons experienced rapid oxidation rates, penetration of the oxide scale, scale blistering, and scale spallation (on cooling). Compared to simple air oxidation, alkali sulfate deposits increased the corrosion rate by a factor of about 200, but mixtures of alkali sulfate and alkali chloride increased the rate by about 20,000 times. A principal goal of the study was to identify the role of alkali chlorides in accelerating hot corrosion.