cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Endoscopic Endonasal Transtubercular Approach for Resection of Giant Pituitary Adenomas With Subarachnoid Extension: The "Second Floor" Strategy to Avoid Postoperative Apoplexy.

Abstract Background Giant pituitary adenomas (GPA) with subarachnoid extension can be challenging to achieve a gross total resection (GTR) through a single endonasal or transcranial approach, and any residual tumor is at risk for postoperative apoplexy. Intraoperative venous congestion of the suprasellar tumor can occur following resection of the sellar tumor, limiting tumor descent, and leading to suprasellar residual. Objective We propose a technique for resecting the suprasellar component first, which we call the “second floor” strategy (SFS) for GPA. Methods A retrospective review from 2010-2020 identified 586 endoscopic endonasal approaches (EEA) for pituitary adenoma resection. We report the rate of post-operative apoplexy and describe the SFS technique used in two cases. Results Of 586 cases, two developed symptomatic postoperative apoplexy (0.3%), and a third transferred to our care after undergoing postoperative apoplexy. All three cases had subarachnoid extension of a pituitary adenoma, underwent EEA and had residual suprasellar tumor. All three had permanent morbidity due to the post-operative apoplexy including blindness, stroke, or death, despite undergoing reoperation. The SFS was used for reoperation on one of these patients and as a primary strategy in a fourth patient who presented with a GPA with subarachnoid extension. We describe the SFS technique and demonstrate it with a 2D operative video. Conclusion Post-operative apoplexy of residual adenoma is a rare but serious complication after GPA resection. The proposed SFS allows early access to the suprasellar tumor and may improve the ability to safely achieve a gross total resection without need for additional procedures.
Endogenous Growth, Population Dynamics, and Economic Structure: Long-Run Macroeconomics When Demography Matters

Even long-run macroeconomic growth models that allow for endogenous growth rely on simplistic assumptions regarding demographic regimes. This paper develops a model with more realistic variation in...
Directly Indirect and Other Paradoxes: What Graduate Students Need to Know About Financial Aid

This presentation reviews what graduate students and first-generation graduate students often do not understand about financial aid. The presentation closes with questions for practitioners and how institutions can better support and educate low-income and students of Color pursuing graduate studies.
Acquisition and quantification pipeline for in vivo hyperpolarized 13 C MR spectroscopy.

Purpose The goal of this study was to combine a specialized acquisition method with a new quantification pipeline to accurately and efficiently probe the metabolism of hyperpolarized 13 C-labeled compounds in vivo. In this study, we tested our approach on [2-13 C]pyruvate and [1-13 C]α-ketoglutarate data in rat orthotopic brain tumor models at 3T. Methods We used a multiband metabolite-specific radiofrequency (RF) excitation in combination with a variable flip angle scheme to minimize substrate polarization loss and measure fast metabolic processes. We then applied spectral-temporal denoising using singular value decomposition to enhance spectral quality. This was combined with LCModel-based automatic 13 C spectral fitting and flip angle correction to separate overlapping signals and rapidly quantify the different metabolites. Results Denoising improved the metabolite signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by approximately 5. It also improved the accuracy of metabolite quantification as evidenced by a significant reduction of the Cramer Rao lower bounds. Furthermore, the use of the automated and user-independent LCModel-based quantification approach could be performed rapidly, with the kinetic quantification of eight metabolite peaks in a 12-spectrum array achieved in less than 1 minute. Conclusion The specialized acquisition method combined with denoising and a new quantification pipeline using LCModel for the first time for hyperpolarized 13 C data enhanced our ability to monitor the metabolism of [2-13 C]pyruvate and [1-13 C]α-ketoglutarate in rat orthotopic brain tumor models in vivo. This approach could be broadly applicable to other hyperpolarized agents both preclinically and in the clinical setting.
Enforcing the Scientific Method

Within Microsoft's Health Solutions Group we are engaged in the development of a platform to assist life sciences researchers--a class of extreme knowledge worker. We refer to this platform by the rubric, Pharos. Pharos has many objectives. One of the most important of those objectives is to supply an audit trail for research. This audit trail serves primarily to provide researchers and Pharos with a shared understanding of both the conduct of a scientific investigation and the results of a scientific investigation. But there are also other stakeholders in the audit trail, including regulatory agencies, funding agencies, tenure granting institutions and for-profit research managements. Put another way, Pharos is also concerned with the rigorous enforcement of the scientific method. In this presentation I will examine the roles and interplay of audited inference and audited workflow in constructing an audit trail.
The Ethics of Consumer Sovereignty in an Age of High Tech

We argue that consumer sovereignty in an increasingly high tech world is more of a fiction than a fact. We show how the principle of consumer sovereignty that governs the societal impact of economic competition is no longer valid. The world of high tech is increasingly responsible for changes in the opportunity, ability, and motivation of business firms to compete. Furthermore, the world of high tech is increasingly responsible for changes in the opportunity, ability, and motivation of consumers to engage in rational decision making. We conclude that we cannot rely on consumer sovereignty to maintain a thriving economy. Instead, we need to develop performance standards designed to meet the demands of the various stakeholders of the organization.
The 2010–2014.3 global earthquake rate increase

In light of a heightened global earthquake rate during the first quarter of 2014 and recent studies concluding that large earthquakes affect global seismicity for extended periods, we revisit the question whether the temporal distribution of global earthquakes shows clustering beyond that expected from a time-independent Poisson process. We examine a broad window from 1979 to 2014.3 for M ≥ 7.0 shocks, and a narrow window for M ≥ 5.0 seismicity since 2010 that has higher than average rates. We test whether a Poisson process can be falsified at 95% confidence to assess the degree of dependent clustering in the catalogs. If aftershocks within at least one rupture length from main shocks/foreshocks are filtered, then we find no evidence of global scale M ≥ 5.2–5.6 (depending on parameters) clustering since 2010 that demands a physical explanation. There is evidence for interdependence below this threshold that could be a consequence of catalog completeness or a physical process.
Measuring tumor cycling hypoxia and angiogenesis using a side-firing fiber optic probe

Hypoxia and angiogenesis can significantly influence the efficacy of cancer therapy and the behavior of surviving tumor cells. There is a growing demand for technologies to measure tumor hypoxia and angiogenesis temporally in vivo to enable advances in drug development and optimization. This paper reports the use of frequency-domain photon migration with a side-firing probe to quantify tumor oxygenation and hemoglobin concentrations in nude rats bearing human head/neck tumors administered with carbogen gas, cycling hypoxic gas or just room air. Significant increase (with carbogen gas breathing) or decrease (with hypoxic gas breathing) in tumor oxygenation was observed. The trend in tumor oxygenation during forced cycling hypoxia (CH) followed that of the blood oxygenation measured with a pulse oximeter. Natural CH was also observed in rats under room air. The studies demonstrated the potential of the technology for longitudinal monitoring of tumor CH during tumor growth or in response to therapy.
Radiation exposures of ENH’s nuclear departments

2224 Objectives: Limiting exposure is important to technologists9 safety. Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) evaluated the exposure technologists received. Four job types were evaluated: general nuclear medicine, PET, general with PET rotations, and outpatient cardiac. Levels were reviewed to determine the differences between job types. Imaging rooms were also monitored. Methods: Exposure levels for each job type were analyzed for 22 months. A t-test was used to assess statistical differences in exposure rates. Nine badges were placed in rooms for three months to determine the exposure of the areas. Badges were collected and averaged by room type. Results: Badge data for the PET and the outpatient cardiology technologists were compared and found to have no difference in exposure levels. The ring data showed that the PET technologist received higher exposure to the hand. Comparisons were made between the general versus PET technologist and general versus the outpatient cardiac technologist. The data showed that in both cases the general technologists had lower exposures. Technologists that rotated in PET had higher ring levels than general technologists. The room data showed that the PET injection room had the highest exposure levels, followed by the outpatient cardiac rooms, the general nuclear medicine rooms, and lastly the PET control room. Conclusions: In comparing technologist data for PET and outpatient cardiology, there was no difference, suggesting that these technologists had similar exposure rates. The PET technologist received more hand exposure than the outpatient cardiology technologist. The room data from the PET areas suggests that the PET technologists received minimal exposure from the control room and a higher exposure from the injection room. The room data from the outpatient cardiology area suggested that the cardiology technologist received a majority of their exposure from the scanning room. While exposure levels for PET and cardiology technologists were similar, the exposure sources were different. The PET technologists received most exposure from preparing and dosing the patients. The high ring badge readings and higher readings in the injection room support this conclusion. The cardiology technologist received the most exposure from patient contact. The lower ring values and higher scanning room levels support this conclusion.
Introduction to the brain imaging and behavior special issue: mild traumatic brain injury among active duty service members and veterans

As noted in the recent special issue in Brain Imaging and Behavior (Tate et al. 2012), there has been a growing interest among researchers, clinicians, policy makers, patients and family members, and other consumers regarding mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This interest stems from several converging points of view including epidemiology data that indicates the significant prevalence and incidence of mTBI in the general population, associated legal issues (i.e., symptom validity), our growing understanding of the effects of concussive and subconcussive sports injuries (i.e., chronic traumatic encephalopathy), and an attentiveness to the relationship between TBI and dementia in a rapidly aging society. These interests combined with recent advances in cognitive sciences, improvement in the clinical management of mTBI, a growing number of treatment options, and acquisition and analysis of imaging data are propelling the effort toward identification of unique biomarkers that could improve diagnosis, prognosis, and guide/assess treatments. Not surprisingly, mTBI occurs in the context of a number of different situations. However, in addition to common means of head injury among civilians (i.e., motor vehicle accidents, falls, and other collision-related events), Military and Veteran populations have a number of additional deployment-related risk factors for head injury including combatant training, gunshot wounds, blast exposure, and assault. Brain-related injury in many Military and Veteran TBI patients is also complicated by additional comorbid conditions not typically experienced by civilian TBI patients including combat-related PTSD or depression, burns, hearing dysfunction, traumatic amputations and other injuries associated with combat. With the recent combat operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation New Dawn (OND), and other conflicts, surveillance data from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Centers (DVBIC) have identified over 327,299 U.S. ServiceMembers and Veterans across the branches of service that sustained a TBI (https://dvbic.dcoe.mil/sites/default/files/DoD-TBI-WorldwideTotals%202000-2015Q1-May15-2015.pdf). These head injuries occur both during theatre operations and in garrison with the majority (>70 %) falling into the mild range of severity. The sheer numbers of Service Members and Veterans injured underscore the importance of advancing our understanding of the functional, clinical, and long-term consequences of mild TBI, especially in Military populations. Moreover, there is a growing interest in understanding the impact of mTBI on unit readiness, return to duty, safety of troop operations, troop retention, and long-term cognitive effects (i.e., chronic traumatic encephalopathy and possible links with dementia). Given these concerns, there has been a sudden and rapid growth in the number of investigators * David F. Tate David.Tate@mimh.edu
Inter omental-cerebral vascularization induced by omental graft to the rat brain

The omentum of 13 rats were removed from the abdomen and placed directly on the brain. 5–14 days later the omentum and the underlying brain were joined by numerous vascular anastomoses in 9 rats. The purpose of this work was to study the use of omentum to establish extracranial vascularization of the brain.
Performance-enhancing drugs: design and production of redirected chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells

Performance enhancement of the immune system can now be generated through ex vivo gene modification of T cells in order to redirect native specificity to target tumor antigens. This approach combines the specificity of antibody therapy, the expanded response of cellular therapy and the memory activity of vaccine therapy. Recent clinical trials of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells directed toward CD19 as a stand-alone therapy have shown sustained complete responses in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As these drug products are individually derived from a patient's own cells, a different manufacturing approach is required for this kind of personalized therapy compared with conventional drugs. Key steps in the CAR T-cell manufacturing process include the selection and activation of isolated T cells, transduction of T cells to express CARs, ex vivo expansion of modified T cells and cryopreservation in infusible media. In this review, the steps involved in isolating, genetically modifying and scaling-out the CAR T cells for use in a clinical setting are described in the context of in-process and release testing and regulatory standards.
Does Cournot competition yield spatial agglomeration

Abstract Locations and quantities are chosen sequentially in spatial markets. Strikingly different location patterns emerge, depending on the shape of the market. In a circular city, firms locate equidistant from each other. In a linear city, firms agglomerate at the center.
Hyperreninemic hypertension secondary to a subcapsular perinephric hematoma in a patient with polyarteritis nodosa

Page kidney is the name ascribed to a rare syndrome of hyperreninemic hypertension caused by unilateral compressive perinephritis. Blood or fluid that accumulates in the perinephric subcapsular space compresses the renal parenchyma leading to ischemia. This syndrome is analogous to the description of cellophane-induced perinephritis by Page in 1939. Page kidney typically presents in healthy young men after blunt trauma to the flank or abdomen, although cases have been noted after medical or surgical interventions. We report a case of a Page kidney in a young man with hepatitis B virus-associated polyarteritis nodosa. The patient presented with severe hypertension, hypokalemia, hyperreninemia, and radiographic evidence of a unilateral subcapsular hematoma. Perinephric hemorrhage developed because of necrotizing vascular inflammation and spontaneous or traumatic vascular rupture. In patients who present with new-onset hypertension and hypokalemia with a history of trauma or coexisting vasculitis, the presence of a Page kidney should be considered.
Comparison of Short-term Outcomes in Laparoscopic vs Open Hepatectomy

Importance Despite the increasing role of laparoscopy in partial hepatic resection, its short-term benefit compared with traditional open surgery remains unclear. Objective To compare short-term (30-day) outcomes between laparoscopic (LH) and open (OH) partial hepatectomies. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective matched case-control study from April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2013, in a tertiary hepatobiliary referral center. Patients who underwent partial hepatic resection (OH or LH) for benign or malignant disease were matched first by extent of resection, then by pathological diagnosis, and finally by age and sex to the extent possible. Exposure Partial hepatectomy for liver disease. Main Outcomes and Measures Thirty-day morbidity and mortality rates. Results After the matching process, we included 104 patients (52 undergoing LH and 52 undergoing OH) in the study. Patients were evenly matched with respect to age, sex, extent of resection, and diagnosis. Cirrhosis was present in 17 patients (33%) in each group. We found no difference in positive margin status (1 patient [2%] for LH vs 2 patients [4%] for OH;P > .99). Although the estimated blood loss differed significantly between groups (237 mL for LH vs 387 mL for OH;P = .049), we found no difference in the rate of perioperative blood transfusion (1 patient [2%] for LH vs 5 [10%] for OH;P = .20). Operative time (219 minutes for LH vs 198 minutes for OH;P = .16), hospital length of stay (5 days for LH vs 6 days for OH;P = .13), and readmission rate (4 patients [8%] for LH vs 5 [10%] for OH;P = .70) were similar in both groups. The rates of major complications (4 patients [8%] for LH vs 4 patients [8%] for OH;P = 10), overall 30-day morbidity (22 patients [42%] for LH vs 19 [37%] for OH;P = .70), and 30-day mortality (1 patient [2%] for LH vs 2 [4%] for OH;P > .99) were not significantly different. Conclusions and Relevance Patients who undergo LH have similar short-term outcomes when compared with those who undergo OH. Laparoscopic hepatectomy was associated with lower intraoperative blood loss, although the clinical significance of this finding is uncertain given the lack of difference in perioperative transfusion or morbidity rates. In addition, we found no difference in margin status between the 2 groups. Future studies are needed to define which patients derive benefit from LH and to determine oncologic equivalence to OH.
The estimation of normalized fuzzy weights

Abstract The estimation of a normalized set of positive fuzzy weights constitutes the most important aspects in the fuzzy multiple attribute decision making process. A systematic treatment of this problem is carried out in this paper. The concept of fuzzy normalization is first defined and the meaning of consistency in a fuzzy environment is discussed. Based on these definitions and discussions, the various approaches in the literature are examined and several improvements or new approaches are proposed. Numerical examples are used to evaluate and to compare the various existing and the newly proposed approaches.
Design and operation of manufacturing systems: the control-point policy

This paper synthesizes recent work by the author and his colleagues on the performance analysis of manufacturing systems and on real-time scheduling methods. It describes a decentralized scheduling/control policy and proposes a method for analyzing the performance of systems that are operated according to the policy. It presents three views of the production system: surplus-based, time-based, and token-based; and shows how they are equivalent in special cases. While there are no assurances of optimality, experience suggests that the policy has desirable characteristics. The paper also suggests how the physical resources and the control policy can be designed together.
Analytic Reviews: Management of Patients Exposed to Biological and Chemical Warfare Agents:

Biological and chemical weapons have been used for waging war since the dawn of recorded history. Recently, these agents have been used on civilian populations by terrorist groups. Terrorist attacks using biological or chemical weapons have far-reaching implications, as they cause widespread fear, anxiety, and panic among the public. Biological agents have particular appeal for use in terrorist attacks because they are reasonably easy to acquire, are inexpensive to produce, and have the potential to affect large populations of people. Biological agents are selected based on their toxicity, ease of production and stability, and ability to be dispersed in respirable aerosols. The most common biological agents that have been weaponized include anthrax, plague, tularemia, botulism toxin, and smallpox. Chemical agents are more expensive and more difficult to manufacture and deploy and are therefore more likely to be used in conventional warfare. Mustard gas and nerve agents are the favored chemical agents of m...
Current Concepts in the Management of the Rheumatoid Hand

Hand surgeons are an integral part of the management team for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. There is now a greater understanding of the national use of rheumatoid hand surgery, which highlights the differences between hand surgeons and rheumatologists regarding the treatment of the rheumatoid hand. Advances in medical treatments have also decreased the prevalence of hand deformities caused by this disease. Hand surgeons today have less exposure to treating rheumatoid hand, but despite more effective medical options, surgery may still offer patients hope for improvement of hand function and appearance. This article summarizes the current state of rheumatoid hand surgery and discuss the surgical treatment strategies for optimizing outcomes for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Efficient homomorphic encryption on integer vectors and its applications

Homomorphic encryption, aimed at enabling computation in the encrypted domain, is becoming important to a wide and growing range of applications, from cloud computing to distributed sensing. In recent years, a number of approaches to fully (or nearly fully) homomorphic encryption have been proposed, but to date the space and time complexity of the associated schemes has precluded their use in practice. In this work, we demonstrate that more practical homomorphic encryption schemes are possible when we require that not all encrypted computations be supported, but rather only those of interest to the target application. More specifically, we develop a homomorphic encryption scheme operating directly on integer vectors that supports three operations of fundamental interest in signal processing applications: addition, linear transformation, and weighted inner products. Moreover, when used in combination, these primitives allow us to efficiently and securely compute arbitrary polynomials. Some practically relevant examples of the computations supported by this framework are described, including feature extraction, recognition, classification, and data aggregation.
Destruction of C-550 by ultraviolet radiation.

Abstract Low-temperature absorption spectra of spinach chloroplasts measured after different periods of ultraviolet radiation show that C-550 is destroyed by the ultraviolent treatment. Cytochrome b559 is oxidized and denatured so that it is no longer reducible by ascorbate. The light-induced fluorescence yield changes induced at low temperature diminish as C-550 is destroyed.
Unigrid methods for boundary value problems with nonrectangular domains

Abstract This paper illustrates the use of the so-called unigrid method as a multigrid simulator by applying it to an oceanographic problem with an irregular domain.
Taphonomic bias in fish diversity from cenozoic floodplain environments

Abstract The fossil record of Cenozoic floodplain fishes increases from few species in the Paleocene and Eocene to about 5–15 species per locality in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Modern floodplain habitats usually have more than 5–10 times this many species. The trend could be interpreted as an evolutionary increase, except that there seem to be no ecological or evolutionary reasons to expect ancient floodplains to have fewer species than modern floodplains. The alternate hypothesis is that ecological and fluvial processes destroy most fish bones before they are finally buried. Although floodplain depositional environments trap many fishes, these are subjected to extensive predation and scavenging, thereby reducing the opportunities for bones of small fishes, which make up most of the diversity, to be preserved in the fossil record. Abrasion in bedload probably destroys most small bones that are reworked. Surface collecting methods exaggerate the bias further because fish bones from fluvial rocks are fragmentary, difficult to discover, and difficult to identify. Screen washing for fossils from fine-grained sedimentary lenses should increase the known diversity from floodplain deposits.
Signaling Pathways in NSCLC as a Predictor of Outcome and Response to Therapy

The 5-year survival rate for patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is 10%. A number of genetic alterations are associated with this disease including mutations and amplifications of EGFR (70%) and Ras (20–30%), both of which are upstream of PI3K. Our previous data show that these regulate tumor radiation sensitivity. Here we ask whether the activation of this pathway has prognostic relevance in NSCLC. Two series of patients were retrospectively analyzed. The first series consisted of 23 Stage III NSCLC patients treated preoperatively with a chemo/radiation protocol. The second consisted of 12 Stage III NSCLC patients treated with chemo/radiation without surgery who had survived more than 2 years. Expression levels of EGFR and Her-2 were assessed by immunohistochemical staining. PI3K signaling was evaluated by staining for phosphorylated Akt (P-Akt), a downstream target of PI3K. The staining for EGFR, Her-2, and P-Akt were related to outcome in the two groups. Additionally, the importance of PI3K signaling was evaluated in 3 NSCLC cell lines using a pharmacological blockade of PI3K by LY294002. In the first series of patients, 43% were positive for EGFR, 5% for Her-2, and 82.6% for P-Akt. Of the survivors, 25% were positive for EGFR, 0% for Her-2, and 42% for P-Akt. For P-Akt, this difference had a probability calculation of 0.003. The three NSCLC cell lines that we tested were found to have high levels of P-Akt. Pharmacologically inhibiting PI3K led to decreased Akt phosphorylation and radio sensitization of all three cell lines. The finding that NSCLC survivors treated by radiation have lower levels of PI3K and Akt signaling is consistent with the idea that inhibition of Akt leads to radio sensitization. This further suggests that Akt might be a useful target for sensitization of NSCLC to radiation.
The BTeV experiment

BTeV is an experiment being constructed at the Fermilab p p ¯ collider, designed to study mixing, CP violation, and rare decays of beauty and charm hadrons. The detector covers the forward region (10-300 mrad) and includes a state of the art silicon pixel detector providing real time information to the first level detached vertex trigger, a Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector, providing excellent charge particle identification, a PbWO 4 electromagnetic calorimeter, and a muon system.
Targeting MYCN IRES in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma with miR-375 inhibits tumor growth and sensitizes tumor cells to radiation

The MYCN oncogene is amplified in 20% of neuroblastomas, leading to its overexpression at both the mRNA and protein levels. MYCN overexpression is strongly associated with advanced disease stage, rapid tumor progression and a worse prognosis. In the present study, we identified microRNA-375 (miR-375) as a negative regulator of MYCN: enforced expression of miR-375 inhibited MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma in vitro and in vivo. Upon searching the website miRbase for possible miR-375 binding sites within the whole MYCN mRNA, we found that the MYCN 5′-UTR had significant sequence complementarity to miR-375, yet no complementary sequences existed within the MYCN 3′-UTR and coding regions. Enforced overexpression of miR-375 efficiently inhibited MYCN mRNA translation and protein synthesis, via an IRES-dependent mechanism. In athymic nude mouse model with human MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma, MYCN downregulation by miR-375 led to inhibition of tumor cell growth and tumorigenicity. In particular, miR-375-regulated inhibition of MYCN translation was enhanced when MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells were exposed to stress stimulation, such as ionizing irradiation (IR), resulting in a remarkable increase in the neuroblastoma's sensitivity to IR-induced cell death. Our results identified a novel mechanism by which IRES-dependent translation of MYCN is repressed by miR-375, particularly during cellular stress, highlighting a potential anticancer strategy: the development of miR-375 as a novel therapeutic agent to treat MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma.
A photoactivated flavin-induced degradation of thyroxine and related phenols.

Previous experiments had revealed that deiodination of thyroid hormones occurred in preparations of frog tissues supplemented with flavin compounds, and that this effect was especially marked in preboiled specimens. The present study was therefore undertaken to investigate a possible direct chemical interaction between flavin derivatives and iodinated phenols. Marked degradation of thyroxine (D- and L-isomers), triiodothyronine, tetra- and triiodothyroacetic acids and mono- and diiodotyrosine occurred when these compounds were incubated in a simple buffer medium (KRP) in the presence of flavin compounds and bright light. This degradation proceeded less rapidly in ambient light and was completely prevented by incubation in either total darkness or in red light. The photoactivated flavin-induced degradation of thyroxine was inhibited by anoxia, and by human plasma (provided this was added to the system before the flavin). The rate of the reaction was reduced in the presence of catalase. Certain hydroxylated...
The Pursuit of Love

Combining historical and ethnographic perspectives, Silverman explores the various ways in which researchers, practitioners, and activists have interpreted and responded to autism.
Projections to the caudolateral medulla from the pons, midbrain, and diencephalon in the cat.

Abstract Previous research implicated neurons in the caudolateral medulla in the expression of estrous behaviors triggered by genital stimulation in the female cat. The present study identified descending pathways through which the activity of neurons in estrogen-concentrating cellular regions of the diencephalon and anterior brain stem could be transmitted to caudolateral medullary neurons. Cats received medullary injections of 50% horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in or around nucleus ambiguus. After 1 to 3 days, retrograde transport of HRP was demonstrated using tetramethyl benzidine as a chromogen. In the pons, labeled cells were most numerous in the ipsilateral parabrachial nuclei, the Kolliker-Fuse nucleus, and lateral tegmental field. In the midbrain, the central gray contained many labeled neurons bilaterally, especially at trochlear and caudal oculomotor nuclear levels. Labeled cells were also found in the midbrain reticular formation bilaterally and in the contralateral deep tectum and red nucleus. In the diencephalon, some labeled neurons were in lateral and periventricular hypothalamic regions, usually posteriorly, and many paraventricular nucleus neurons were labeled. The existence of central gray and deep tectal projections to the lateral medulla was also verified electrophysiologically by antidromic invasion. The substantial projection from the central gray to the caudolateral medulla provides a potential route for the activity of estrogen-concentrating neurons to be transmitted to cells involved in genitally triggered estrous responses because some central gray cells bind estrogen and the central gray also receives strong projections from hypothalamic estrogen-concentrating neuronal regions.
Number of modes controlling fluid flows from experimentally measurable quantities

Abstract It is shown by means of an example (the Benard problem) that the number of modes N which control the qualitative behavior of stationary fluid flows governed by the Navier-Stokes equations can be determined exactly from experimentally measurable quantities. For time-dependent flows the method provides a lower bound for N .
Travels with my Syllabi: The College Chemistry Consultant’s Service (C3S)

My first call was from a well-known University in the Northeast. The chemistry faculty there had decided that it was time to take a hard look at their curriculum, which had been in place for many many years, and examine the content and appropriateness of specific courses. Would I be willing to consider these questions and offer some advice? That was certainly an intriguing request, especially after having been involved with some novel ideas for a chemistry program at my own school, and so I accepted the challenge. I was soon the recipient of an armful of catalogs, course descriptions, and departmental statistics. The visit followed what was to become a familiar pattern. Time was spent on the afternoon place flight refreshing my memory on several specific items. The Chair of the Cheistry department met me at the airport. At that point I was more than happy to have brought along the overcoat I never use in.
Treatment of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether Vapors in Biotrickling Filters. 1. Reactor Startup, Steady-State Performance, and Culture Characteristics

An aerobic microbial consortium able to biodegrade methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) was enriched in two waste air biotrickling filters after continuous operation for 6 months. After this acclimation phase, the two laboratory-scale biotrickling filters were able to degrade up to 50 g of MTBE per cubic meter of reactor per hour, a value comparable to other gasoline constituents. Such high performance could be sustained for at least 4−6 weeks. After the acclimation phase, the MTBE degrading biotrickling filters were characterized by their almost full conversion (∼97%) of MTBE to carbon dioxide and the absence of any degradation byproducts in either the gas or the liquid phase. They also exhibited a very high specific degradation activity per amount of biomass (5−10 mg of MTBE per gram dry weight of cell per hour), and a low rate of biomass accumulation. An observed biomass yield of 0.1 g g-1 and a specific growth rate of 0.025 day-1 were determined for the biotrickling filter process culture. Further data on M...
Foundations of Educational Psychology: Howard Gardner's Neoclassical Psyche

This article is a theoretical examination of the implications of Howard Gardner's work in developmental and educational psychology (1983, 1993, 1999a, 1999b) for the structure of the psyche. The author accepts as axiomatic, in the context of this article, Gardner's educational manifesto (1999a) that all students should be taught disciplinary understandings of truth, beauty, and goodness. Rational inferences are then made indicating that the psyche that Gardner intends to educate and help develop is in the form of a neoclassical psyche and that it is structured by the capacities to know truth, to love beauty, and to will goodness.
A Mechanistic Study of the Reactions of H, O (3P), and OH with Monocyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons by Density Functional Theory

The chemistry of small aromatic hydrocarbons with radicals of relevance to high temperature combustion and low temperature atmospheric processes has been studied computationally using the B3LYP method and transition state theory (TST). The reaction of H, O (3P), and OH with aromatic hydrocarbons can proceed by two mechanisms: hydrogen-atom abstraction or radical addition to the ring. The calculated free energies for the transition state barriers and the overall reactions show that the radical addition channel is preferred at 298 K, but the H-atom abstraction channel becomes dominant at high temperatures. The thermodynamic and kinetic preference for reactivity with aromatic hydrocarbons increases in the order O(3P) < H < OH. H-atom abstraction from six-membered aromatic rings is more facile than from five-membered aromatic rings. However, radical addition to five-membered rings is thermodynamically more favorable than addition to six-membered rings. In general, the barrier heights and preferences for H-at...
Science and Policy in Integrated Watershed Management: a Case Study

: Policy and management plans can be enhanced through effective communication between researchers and decision makers. Differences in understanding can come from differences in professional cultures. Scientists deal with facts, proof and incremental progress whereas the decision makers are often faced with perceptions, emotions and deadlines. A case study is presented illustrating the interaction between the political system and science on a water management issue. Irrigation projects in the western San Joaquin Valley of California lead to a situation requiring subsurface drainage and disposal of the drainage water. The original plan was to discharge the drainage water in the Suisun Bay east of the San Francisco Bay. Severe damage to birds associated with selenium in the water led to a reevaluation of irrigation and drainage management options. Federal and state agencies cooperated to establish a San Joaquin Valley Drainage Program (SJVDP) which was to develop plans for solving the problem. Discharge to the Bay was politically eliminated as an option for evaluation, an action criticized by a National Research Council Committee as not being scientifically based. The SJVDP published a Management Plan in 1990 which contained proposals viewed by the scientific community as not necessarily incorrect but not completely justified based on the scientific knowledge at the time. A segment of the Citizens Advisory Committee that was part of the SJVDP consisting of representatives from the interest groups viewed the Management Plan as a negotiated agreement between the environmental and agricultural interests. Presently, an Activity Plan exists, consisting of technical committees to evaluate the current technical and economic evaluation of the management options proposed in the Management Plan. This case study illustrates that factors other than scientific facts have bearing on decisions. Successful management plans must be technically sound, economically viable and socially acceptable. The scientific community needs to evaluate its role in the policy making arena and to focus research on questions of greatest value to decision makers, as well as to scientific peers.
High resolution LEED studies of surface misorientation and incommensurate domain walls on reconstructed Pt(110) surface

Using the unique capability of the high-resolution LEED, we can precisely measure the Bragg peak positions and angular profiles of electron diffraction beams scattered from a crystal surface. The observations reported here relate to a reconstructed Pt(110)(1 × 2) surface at room temperature. Oscillations of the Bragg peak position and periodic variations of the FWHM of both the superlattice and integral beams along the reciprocal rods over a wide range of energies have been studied. The oscillation of the peak position of the superlattice beam results from phase shifts of electrons scattering from incommensurate (1 × 2) reconstruction domain walls between adjacent terraces. On the other hand, the oscillation of the integral-order beam is due to a surface misorientation. Furthermore, the periodic variation of the FWHM of the superlattice beam is dominated by the degree of surface misorientations. However, the periodic variation of the FWHM associated with the integral beam results mainly from the existence of steps. Comparing the measurements with an existing model we have estimated the degree of the surface misorientation, the distribution of the incommensurate domain walls, and the lateral incommensurability on the Pt(110)(l × 2) surface.
Liver resection for intrahepatic stones in congenital bile duct dilatation

Summary Objective This study reports our clinical experience with liver resection for congenital dilatation of the intrahepatic bile duct and intrahepatic gallstones to evaluate results and define indications for treatment. Patients and methods We studied the clinical data of patients who underwent hepatic resection for intrahepatic lithiasis from January 1992 to December 2008 and assessed the immediate and long-term results of these interventions. Results Of 49 treated patients, 47 underwent liver resection. In the majority of cases, the disease was limited to the left lobe and left hepatectomy was the most commonly performed surgical procedure. The operative mortality was zero with morbidity in 24.5% of patients. Cholangiocarcinoma was diagnosed in six cases (12.2%). In 91.6% of cases the long-term results were good or satisfactory. Conclusion Treatment goals in all cases should be the elimination of intrahepatic stones, the prevention of recurrent lithiasis, and prevention or cure of cholangiocarcinoma. Surgical excision is the best possible treatment for symptomatic patients with localized disease and atrophy of the affected liver.
Protein–Precursor tRNA Contact Leads to Sequence-Specific Recognition of 5′ Leaders by Bacterial Ribonuclease P

Abstract Bacterial ribonuclease P (RNase P) catalyzes the cleavage of 5′ leader sequences from precursor tRNAs (pre-tRNAs). Previously, all known substrate nucleotide specificities in this system are derived from RNA–RNA interactions with the RNase P RNA subunit. Here, we demonstrate that pre-tRNA binding affinities for Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli RNase P are enhanced by sequence-specific contacts between the fourth pre-tRNA nucleotide on the 5′ side of the cleavage site (N(− 4)) and the RNase P protein (P protein) subunit. B. subtilis RNase P has a higher affinity for pre-tRNA with adenosine at N(− 4), and this binding preference is amplified at physiological divalent ion concentrations. Measurements of pre-tRNA-containing adenosine analogs at N(− 4) indicate that specificity arises from a combination of hydrogen bonding to the N6 exocyclic amine of adenosine and steric exclusion of the N2 amine of guanosine. Mutagenesis of B. subtilis P protein indicates that F20 and Y34 contribute to selectivity at N(− 4). The hydroxyl group of Y34 enhances selectivity, likely by forming a hydrogen bond with the N(− 4) nucleotide. The sequence preference of E. coli RNase P is diminished, showing a weak preference for adenosine and cytosine at N(− 4), consistent with the substitution of Leu for Y34 in the E. coli P protein. This is the first identification of a sequence-specific contact between P protein and pre-tRNA that contributes to molecular recognition of RNase P. Additionally, sequence analyses reveal that a greater-than-expected fraction of pre-tRNAs from both E. coli and B. subtilis contains a nucleotide at N(− 4) that enhances RNase P affinity. This observation suggests that specificity at N(− 4) contributes to substrate recognition in vivo. Furthermore, bioinformatic analyses suggest that sequence-specific contacts between the protein subunit and the leader sequences of pre-tRNAs may be common in bacterial RNase P and may lead to species-specific substrate recognition.
A remark on a theorem of Andreini, Bacciotti and Stefani

Abstract In a recent paper [1] an important result on the global asymptotic stabilizability of homogeneous systems is proved. The purpose of this note is to show that a simpler proof can be given for a stronger version of the theorem.
What Girls Won’t Do for Love: Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Sexually Transmitted Infections Risk Among Young African-American Women Driven by a Relationship Imperative

Purpose Rates of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to increase among African-American youth. Adolescents who have a stronger identity in relation to others (relational identity) rather than to themselves (self-identity) may view intimate relationships as imperative to a positive self-concept, which may lead to risky sexual behavior and abuse. Therefore, the present study assessed the associations among a relationship imperative and HIV/STI-related risk factors and behaviors.
Oncogenes and linkage groups: conservation during mammalian chromosome evolution.

Proto-oncogenes, which represent the cellular progenitors of the transforming genes harbored by acute transforming oncogenic retroviruses, have been highly conserved during vertebrate evolution. In this report, we have assigned experimentally a subset of proto-oncogenes (SRC, ABL, FES, and FMS — all related to the SRC family) to Chinese hamster chromosomes by Southern filter hybridization analyses of DNAs isolated from both somatic cell hybrids and flow-sorted hamster chromosomes. These results demonstrate that several autosomal linkage groups containing proto-oncogenes originated prior to the radiation and speciation of mammals and have remained remarkably stable for nearly 80 million years.
pH-triggered SERS via modulated plasmonic coupling in individual bimetallic nanocobs.

Abstract : In this Communication, we demonstrate the pH-triggered SPR and SERS properties of silver nanowires functionalized with gold nanoparticles in both solution and dry states. In contrast with previous examples of such bimetallic nanocobs, we utilize here a responsive polyacrylic acid (PAA) nanocoating that acts as a linker between the nanoparticles and nanowire. The pH-responsive nature of the PAA nanocoating, which is sensitive to the environmental pH, is employed to vary the separation distance between the gold nanoparticles and the silver nanowire and thus control plasmon coupling. Moreover, placing nanoparticles inside a polymer-gel layer in close proximity to the nanowire surface effectively prevents any potential aggregation of nanoparticles under variable environmental conditions, in contrast with regular nanoparticle solutions, which easily precipitate with changing conditions.
Nth-Order autocorrelations in pattern recognition

Given a real-valued time function x(t), its nth-order autocorrelation function is defined by {if121-1} It is easy to see that this function is translation invariant in the sense that x(t) and y(t) = x(t + τ) have the same nth-order autocorrelation function. In this paper we investigate the properties of these functions and their use in pattern recognition. Even for small values of n the dimensionality of nth-order autocorrelation space can become very high. We describe indirect methods of using nth-order autocorrelations without explicitly computing them. We also investigate conditions for uniqueness in the sense that equality of rx(τ1, …, τn) and ry(τ1, …, τn) implies that x(t) = y(t + τ) for some τ. Finally we present some experimental results on character recognition.