cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Coral Fish Shoal Detection from Acoustic Echograms

An algorithm was developed that processes data from a single-beam echosounder and GPS system to detect and analyze fish shoals. The proposed algorithm provides the ability to identify regions within an echogram that contain fish and statistically analyze the shoals. The echosounder used is a 50 kHz/200 kHz dual-frequency unit manufactured by Lowrance and was selected for its low-cost, off- the-shelf availability, and portability. The selected unit saves the data onto removable memory cards allowing for easy transfer and offline processing. The development of this algorithm faced several challenges: translating the data to a common format, bottom identification, noise rejection, and fish school recognition. The data is saved by the echosounder in a unique binary format but is parsed into a more manageable data structure by MATLAB software developed at Portland State University. The software, called EchoMap, was developed under sponsorship by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in support of their marine habitat monitoring activities. EchoMap processes and interprets the echosounder data to generate coral reef profiles and to estimate the associated fish populations. This paper discusses the algorithm developed for fish shoal detection and cross-sectional shoal area estimation. Abundance and density of the fish shoals is assumed to be directly related to the area of the identified shoal. Shoals are segmented with a dynamic contouring method and typically have non-uniform shape. The area calculation was improved from the standard Riemann sum approach by using Green's theorem to translate the line integral of a closed level set contour into a surface integral. The advantages of using Green's theorem are higher accuracy and efficiency in estimating contour areas. Preliminary results of applying the detection algorithm to coral reef echograms provided by TNC show promise in the ability to identify fish shoals. Results were compared to detections made by experts in the field from echograms as well as the real-time Lowrance Fish I.D. algorithm. Applying a priori knowledge of fish characteristics may also allow species identification using the calculated descriptors.
Halogenated alcohols as solvents for proteins: FTIR spectroscopic studies.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been applied to investigate the secondary structure of proteins and polypeptides in halogenated alcohols. Each alcohol studied was able, as a pure liquid, to induce conversion of the β-sheet protein concanavalin A into a predominantly α-helical configuration. In 2H2O/alcohol mixtures, helicogenisis was also apparent, decreasing in the order dichloroethanol > bromoethanol > trifluoroethanol > chloroethanol > fluoroethanol. At concentrations below those found to be helicogenic, disruption of the protein secondary structure by the alcohols resulted in pronounced aggregation. At concentrations insufficient to cause noticeable disruptions of the secondary structure at room temperature, the thermal stability of the protein was greatly reduced. We suggest the helicogenic effect exhibited by halogenated alcohols to be related to a combination of a relatively low dielectric constant and a high dipole moment, the latter causing disruption of the internal hydrogen bond networks and the former causing refolding to a helical configuration. The results presented here highlight the risk of using halogenated alcohols, both as solvents for proteins and as a test of the intrinsic capacity of proteins and peptides to adopt helical secondary structures.
Electronic gun (Taser®) injuries

The Taser is an electrical weapon used for immobilization. Two hundred eighteen patients who were shot by police with a Taser for violent or criminal behavior were compared to 22 similar patients shot by police with .38 Specials. The long-term morbidity rate was significantly different for "tasered" victims (0%) and for those with bullet wounds (50%) (P less than .05). The mortality rate was also significantly different between "tasered" victims (1.4%), and gunshot wound victims (50%) (P less than .05). Possible complications associated with Taser wounds included contusions, abrasions, and lacerations (38%); mild rhabdomyolysis (1%); and testicular torsion (0.5%). Although 48% of "tasered" patients required hospitalization, all but one was for a preexisting injury or toxic or psychiatric problem. We conclude that Tasers are relatively safe when compared to shooting with more conventional weapons.
Topical antifungal drugs in the treatment of tinea pedis, tinea cruris, and tinea corporis

Topical treatment of fungal infections took a step forward in the 1960s with the introduction of biologically active agents with specific antifungal mechanisms of action. Most modern broad-spectrum antifungal agents act by blocking specific steps in the synthesis of fungal cell membrane components. The broad-spectrum topical antifungal drugs now in use include the imidazoles (e.g., clotrimazole and miconazole), a pyridone-ethanolamine salt, dimethylmorpholines, and the newest class, the allylamines (e.g., naftifine and terbinafine). The topical allylamines have been shown in comparative studies to produce higher cure rates and more rapid responses in dermatophyte infections than many of the older agents.
An Iron-dependent Bacterial Phospholipase D Reminiscent of Purple Acid Phosphatases

Recombinant phospholipase D (PLD) fromStreptomyces chromofuscus (scPLD) has been characterized using colorimetric assays, spectroscopic investigations, and site-directed mutagenesis. scPLD, which shows phosphodiesterase activity toward a wide variety of phospholipids and phosphatase activity toward p-nitrophenyl phosphate, exhibits a visible absorption band with λmax at 570 nm. Metal ion analysis performed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy shows the presence of ∼1 equivalent of iron, 0.27 equivalent of manganese, and 0.1 equivalent of zinc per mole of protein as isolated. The metal ion content coupled with the visible absorption feature is compatible with the presence of Fe3+-tyrosinate coordination. When scPLD was dialyzed against solutions containing Mn2+, Zn2+ or EDTA, the Fe3+content was reduced to variable extents, and the residual specific activity correlated well with the residual iron content. Sequence homology with metal ion binding motifs in known alkaline phosphatases and purple acid phosphatase from red kidney bean shows that most of the residues involved in metal ion coordination are conserved among all the sequences considered. Mutation of some of these conserved residues (C123A, D151A, Y154F, and H391A) produced enzymes lacking iron with dramatically reduced PLD activity but little change in secondary structure or ability to bind to small unilamellar vesicles of phosphatidylcholine (with Ba2+) or phosphatidic acid. We suggest that scPLD is a member of a family of phosphodiesterase/phosphatases with structural and mechanistic similarity to iron-dependent purple acid phosphatases.
Materials Considerations in Service Life Prediction

To address the issues of aging of energy production and distribution systems, and those associated with durability and reliability of new systems, improvements in the methods for service life prediction are needed to adequately account for the contributions of material and environmental variables. A mechanistically based probability approach is proposed. The efficacy of this approach and the importance of materials considerations are discussed. Support of research, utilizing this approach to address specific failure mechanisms, is recommended. 8 refs., 6 figs.
Design of a MEMS sensor to detect the Casimir force

A single chip MEMS sensor was designed for detecting the Casimir force using parallel plate geometry. The design methodology is aimed at maintaining the parallelism between the Casimir force boundaries. The Casimir force can be estimated from the measurable capacitance shift produced by the moveable boundary. The signal to noise ratio has been calculated to be in excess of 100 without averaging due to the low thermal noise associated with the chip design and the 10aF resolution of the measurement system. The sensor is testable in air and provides a platform for measuring the Casimir force between different materials.
A novel Gateway®-compatible binary vector allows direct selection of recombinant clones in Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Background Cloning genes into plasmid vectors is one of the key steps for studying gene function. Recently, Invitrogen™ developed a convenient Gateway® cloning system based on the site-specific DNA recombination properties of bacteriophage lambda and the cytotoxic protein ccdB, which is lethal to most E. coli strains. The ccdB protein, however, is not toxic to Agrobacterium tumefaciens, an important player often used for studying gene function in planta. This limits the direct application of the Gateway® cloning system in plant transformation-mediated research.
Sports medicine pearls and pitfalls — defending the spleen: Return to play after infectious mononucleosis

Introduction: Defending the Spleen Recently, I spoke with a college football team physician on the sidelines before a game. He said their punter was out with infectious mononucleosis tiM) but was feeling better. Based in part on reviewing the recent literature, he was going to let the punter return to play at 3 weeks after the onset of illness. This reminded me of when the University of Oklahoma starting punter was out with IM, but by day 10 was feeling better and the coach wanted him back. I said, "Not yet, Coach," explaining about the chance of splenic rupture. The coach replied, "Not to worry, Doc, I'll put an extra blocker back for him." Return to play after IM can be a tough call that often hinges on defending the spleen. Controversy abounds. Patients must be individualized, and few physicians (or review authors) have had enough experience with the rare complication of splenic rupture to be experts. As I reviewed in 1996 [1], recommendations for return to contact sports after IM have ranged from 3 weeks to 3 months. Below, I summarize return to play guidelines from four recent reviews [2-5].
Review: The practical aspects of combination therapy with angiotensin receptor blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) are widely prescribed for the management of hypertension. ACE inhibitors (ACE-I) and, more recently, ARBs have an established track record of success in the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF), proteinuric renal disease and most recently the hypertensive patient with a high cardiac-risk profile. The individual success of each of these drug classes has fuelled speculation that given together the overall effect of both would exceed that of either given alone. This premise, although biologically plausible, has yet to be proven in a convincing enough fashion to support the routine use of these two drug classes in combination. Additional clarifying studies are needed to establish whether specific patient subsets exist that might benefit from such combination therapy.
Similarity-Based Retrieval of CAD Solid Models for Automated Reuse of Machining Process Plans

It is a well known fact that most of the new designs are modified versions of previous designs. In an attempt to reuse as much possible of the previous investments, engineers spend a lot of time searching for similarly shaped designs and modifying them to generate new designs. This process of searching and modifying similar designs is an extremely time consuming task when it is done manually. In this work we propose techniques and algorithms for automated retrieval of similar designs from a database of old designs. Features and the spatial relationships between the features form a signature. Using this signature we develop an indexing scheme to store and speedily retrieve digital part/component searching.
Comparison of fitting methods and b‐value sampling strategies for intravoxel incoherent motion in breast cancer

Purpose To compare fitting methods and sampling strategies, including the implementation of an optimized b-value selection for improved estimation of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters in breast cancer. Methods Fourteen patients (age, 48.4 ± 14.27 years) with cancerous lesions underwent 3 Tesla breast MRI examination for a HIPAA-compliant, institutional review board approved diffusion MR study. IVIM biomarkers were calculated using “free” versus “segmented” fitting for conventional or optimized (repetitions of key b-values) b-value selection. Monte Carlo simulations were performed over a range of IVIM parameters to evaluate methods of analysis. Relative bias values, relative error, and coefficients of variation (CV) were obtained for assessment of methods. Statistical paired t-tests were used for comparison of experimental mean values and errors from each fitting and sampling method. Results Comparison of the different analysis/sampling methods in simulations and experiments showed that the “segmented” analysis and the optimized method have higher precision and accuracy, in general, compared with “free” fitting of conventional sampling when considering all parameters. Regarding relative bias, IVIM parameters fp and Dt differed significantly between “segmented” and “free” fitting methods. Conclusion IVIM analysis may improve using optimized selection and “segmented” analysis, potentially enabling better differentiation of breast cancer subtypes and monitoring of treatment. Magn Reson Med 74:1077–1085, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fake papers as investigation prompts

We describe an intriguing genre of assignment in which students respond to a fake scientific paper by designing an experiment to test its claims. Put another way, we ask students to be experimentalists, albeit in an artificially controlled and prescribed domain; we hope that through this, students get a better picture of what science is about and why we are asking them to learn the material. As one might predict, many students are perplexed by this assignment, and many responses are weak. Nevertheless, their performance illuminates aspects of student (mis)understanding, and suggests directions for curriculum and assessment.
Always Leave Home Without It: A Further Investigation of the Credit-Card Effect on Willingness to Pay

In studies involving genuine transactions of potentially high value we show that willingness-to-pay can be increased when customers are instructed to use a credit card rather than cash. The effect may be large (up to 100%) and it appears unlikely that it arises due solely to liquidity constraints. In addition to demonstrating the effect, we provide a methodology for detecting it, and our findings suggest a source of variance to test alternative explanations.
COMPOUNDING IS STILL APPROPRIATE IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

Compounding involves the mixing of an active drug and preservatives into an appropriate base, or vehicle. All topical drugs are compounded. In the past, most patients with skin disease were treated with "custom made" topical preparations prescribed by their dermatologist; more recently, responsibility for this has been ceded to pharmaceutical companies that manufacture standardized products created from a set formula. Unfortunately, these commercial entities often do not supply all the medications needed by our patients, and under these circumstances, dermatologists can and should maintain the knowledge to extemporaneously compound these preparations themselves.
Teaching Planetary Gear Trains with the Aid of Nomographs

Planetary gear trains (PGTs) are introduced to undergraduate mechanical engineering students in the course of Theory of Machines. The complexity of the traditional methods for analyzing PGTs has kept many from becoming familiar with the capability of PGTs in mechanisms and machine design. In this paper a unified general formulation for simultaneously visualizing velocities, torques, and power flow through a train is presented on a single nomograph. Therefore, the increasing complex mechanical systems, such as automotive transmissions, are much easier to understand. Nomographs of Fundamental Gear Entities (FGEs) are constructed based on the nomographs of their fundamental circuits, without specifying the exact gear dimensions. They are then unified in one system nomograph. Nomographs are promising to provide designers with an efficient tool for the design of geared mechanisms.
Phase Delay Measurement and Calibration in Built-In Analog Functional Testing

A built-in self-test (BIST) approach has been proposed for functionality measurements of analog circuitry in mixed-signal systems. The BIST circuitry consists of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) based test pattern generator (TPG) and multiplier/accumulator (MAC) based output response analyzer (ORA). In this paper we investigate and discuss the effects of phase delay on analog functionality measurements in mixed-signal systems when using MAC-based ORAs. We show that phase delay has a critical impact on measurement results and that the MAC-based ORA is an effective method for measuring phase delay.
Bounded amplitude performance of switched LPV systems with applications to hybrid systems

This paper discusses recent results on multiple linear agent control for systems satisfying a bounded amplitude performance constraint. The plant is assumed to be a linear parameter varying (LPV) system scheduled along a nominal parameter trajectory; in this respect, the control problem represents a plant operating between a prespecified set of operating conditions. Linear controllers are designed at setpoints along this scheduling trajectory to satisfy bounded amplitude performance constraints. This paper discusses an approach to analyze the switched system behavior under practical assumptions on the structure of the switching rule. The approach combines the scheduling parameter with LPV system properties to derive bounds on the switching behavior of the system. These estimates are then used to construct a logical model of the switched system behavior in the form of a timed automaton. In this respect, this paper presents a way of extracting logical models of continuous time system behavior.
Synthesis of control structures by singular value analysis: Dynamic measures of sensitivity and interaction

A strategy for synthesizing regulatory control structures is developed within the framework provided by singular value decomposition (SVD). Quantitative measures of interaction and sensitivity for the nodes, as well as for the entire system, are established with this method. The approach enables analysis of the control struture over a range of frequencies which are of practical importance for a particular processing unit, thus insuring that both static and dynamic effects are encompassed. In addition, this method allows the designer to identify the modeling aspects which are important in determining the performance of the synthesized control structures. A series of examples, presented in order of increasing complexity, demonstrate the usefulness and versatility of this procedure. The technique is implemented as an interactive computer package.
A parallel accelerator for semantic search

Semantic text analysis is a technique used in advertisement placement, cognitive databases and search engines. With increasing amounts of data and stringent response-time requirements, improving the underlying implementation of semantic analysis becomes critical. To this end, we look at Supervised Semantic Indexing (SSI), a recently proposed algorithm for semantic analysis. SSI ranks a large number of documents based on their semantic similarity to a text query. For each query, it computes millions of dot products on unstructured data, generates a large intermediate result, and then performs ranking. SSI underperforms on both state-of-the-art multi-cores as well as GPUs. Its performance scalability on multi-cores is hampered by their limited support for fine-grained data parallelism. GPUs, though beat multi-cores by running thousands of threads, cannot handle large intermediate data because of their small on-chip memory. Motivated by this, we present an FPGA-based hardware accelerator for semantic analysis. As a key feature, the accelerator combines hundreds of simple processing elements together with in-memory processing to simultaneously generate and process (consume) the large intermediate data. It also supports “dynamic parallelism” - a feature that configures the PEs differently for full utilization of the available processin logic after the FPGA is programmed. Our FPGA prototype is 10–13x faster than a 2.5 GHz quad-core Xeon, and 1.5–5x faster than a 240 core 1.3 GHz Tesla GPU, despite operating at a modest frequency of 125 MHz.
Demobilization of the Individualistic Bias: Housing Market Discrimination as a Contributor to Labor Market and Economic Inequality

Racial discrimination in the nation's housing markets and patterns of residential segregation have contributed to labor market inequalities and economic disparities generally. Housing values are suppressed in minority communities, undercutting wealth accumulation by nonwhite families. Job growth in suburban communities coupled with the concentration of public housing in central city communities restricts minority access to jobs. A range of institutionalized practices by housing providers and public policies by government agencies at all levels have nurtured and exacerbated racial inequalities grounded in traditional stereotypes. But a number of policy options are available to ameliorate these inequities. Eschewing individualistic explanations of racial inequality that point to personal deficiencies and cultural characteristics of minority communities, these policy recommendations—premised on a structural perspective—offer promise for reducing racial inequities in housing and related economic disparities.
Metabolism of Nitrous Oxide by Human and Rat Intestinal Contents

Nitrous oxide labeled with a stable heavy nitrogen isotope was used for in-vitro studies of nitrous oxide metabolism in man and rat. At 5 per cent oxygen tension, which is comparable to normal oxygen tension in the intestine in vivo, each gram of intestinal contents during a 16-hr in-vitro incubation produced 47 +/- 13 nmol of molecular nitrogen for the rat and 103 +/- 17 nmol for man. Active reductive metabolism of nitrous oxide by intestinal contents was significantly inhibited by antibiotics and by 20 per cent oxygen tension. It is suggested that the reduction of nitrous oxide to nitrogen may proceed through a single-electron transfer process with formation of free radicals. Under these circumstances, metabolism of nitrous oxide could produce toxic intermediates, even thought the end-metabolite is inert.
Sherali-adams relaxations of the matching polytope

We study the Sherali-Adams lift-and-project hierarchy of linear programming relaxations of the matching polytope. Our main result is an asymptotically tight expression 1+1/k for the integrality gap after k rounds of this hierarchy. The result is derived by a detailed analysis of the LP after k rounds applied to the complete graph K_{2d+1}. We give an explicit recurrence for the value of this LP, and hence show that its gap exhibits a "phase transition," dropping from close to its maximum value 1+1/2d to close to 1 around the threshold k=2d-Θ(√d). We also show that the rank of the matching polytope (i.e., the number of Sherali-Adams rounds until the integer polytope is reached) is exactly 2d-1.
Extended Abdominoperineal Resection

Several retrospective case series have shown that in patients with colorectal cancer fixed to adjacent organs, en block resection of the primary tumor and the surrounding organs resulted in lower recurrence and better survival compared to separating the tumor from the adjacent organ. These differences in long-term survival between patients undergoing multivisceral versus standard resection were significant despite the higher surgical mortality associated with multivisceral resection. Based on these early reports, radical en block resection of the primary tumor and surrounding organs has become the standard operation for locally advanced colorectal cancer adherent to adjacent structures. Treatment often requires a multidisciplinary surgical and medical team that in addition to the colorectal surgeon should include a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist, and urologist, and often a plastic surgeon. Advances in the imaging studies that made it possible to identify patients with locally advanced disease preoperatively, to select the patients who are candidates for curative surgery, and to plan the extent of the resection. Many of these patients may be candidates to preoperative adjuvant therapy. Organs adherent to the tumor at the time of the surgery should be removed in continuity with the rectum. Every effort should be made to achieve a negative resection margin, because the type of resection, along with the nodal status, are the main predictors of long term survival in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.
Video-Based Monitoring of Pedestrian Movements at Signalized Intersections:

Pedestrian and cyclist crossing characteristics are important for the design of urban intersections and signalized crossings. Parameters such as waiting time, crossing time, and arrival rate are key variables for describing pedestrian characteristics and improving crossing designs and signal timing plans. Manually collecting such data is often extremely labor intensive. Therefore, an automated computer-vision-based approach is introduced for collecting these parameters in real time with ordinary video cameras. Broadly defined pedestrian objects, including bicyclists and other nonmotorized modes, are extracted by means of the background subtraction technique and tracked through an inherent cost characteristic function in conjunction with an α-β-filter. The waiting-zone concept introduced helps provide robust pedestrian tracking initialization and parameter extraction. The proposed approach is implemented in a pedestrian tracking (PedTrack) system by using Microsoft Visual C++. Tested with real video data f...
Multiscale detection and analysis of the senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease

Senile plaques (SP) are one of the characteristic neuropathologic lesions of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and studies of SP cortical distribution, density (number of SP/mm/sup 2/), and morphology are expected to lead to new information about the mechanism and pathogenesis of AD. The authors describe a digital image analysis procedure to detect SP, and to measure SP size, shape, and total fractional area in digital micrographs of silver-stained tissue sections. This histology is nonspecific so the program detects all the significant stained objects and a classifier sorts the SP from other tissue elements. SP vary greatly in size and form, and detection is based on multiscale template correlation. Three independent comparisons of computed versus expert-determined SP densities produced correlation coefficients greater than 0.8. The program found 94000 SP in 2800 digital images of tissue sections from 42 post mortem cases including healthy aged controls and severely demented subjects.
Regulation of Axonemal Motility in Demembranated Equine Sperm

Equine in vitro fertilization is not yet successful because equine sperm do not effectively capacitate in vitro. Results of previous studies suggest that this may be due to failure of induction of hyperactivated motility in equine sperm under standard capacitating conditions. To evaluate factors directly affecting axonemal motility in equine sperm, we developed a demembranated sperm model and analyzed motility parameters in this model under different conditions using computer-assisted sperm analysis. Treatment of ejaculated equine sperm with 0.02% Triton X-100 for 30 sec maximized both permeabilization and total motility after reactivation. The presence of ATP was required for motility of demembranated sperm after reactivation, but cAMP was not. The calculated intracellular pH of intact equine sperm was 7.14 6 0.07. Demembranated sperm showed maximal total motility at pH 7. Neither increasing pH nor increasing calcium levels, nor any interaction of the two, induced hyperactivated motility in demembranated equine sperm. Motility of demembranated sperm was maintained at free calcium concentrations as low as 27 pM, and calcium arrested sperm motility at much lower concentrations than those reported in other species. Calcium arrest of sperm motility was not accompanied by flagellar curvature, suggesting a failure of calcium to induce the tonic bend seen in other species and thought to support hyperactivated motility. This indicated an absence, or difference in calcium sensitivity, of the related asymmetric doublet-sliding proteins. These studies show a difference in response to calcium of the equine sperm axoneme to that reported in other species that may be related to the failure of equine sperm to penetrate oocytes in vitro under standard capacitating conditions. Further work is needed to determine the factors that stimulate hyperactivated motility at the axonemal level in equine sperm. calcium, demembranated, equine, hyperactivated motility, pH, sperm, stallion
A semiparametric approach for the nonparametric transformation survival model with multiple covariates.

SUMMARY The nonparametric transformation model makes no parametric assumptions on the forms of the transformation function and the error distribution. This model is appealing in its flexibility for modeling censored survival data. Current approaches for estimation of the regression parameters involve maximizing discontinuous objective functions, which are numerically infeasible to implement with multiple covariates. Based on the partial rank (PR) estimator (Khan and Tamer, 2004), we propose a smoothed PR estimator which maximizes a smooth approximation of the PR objective function. The estimator is shown to be asymptotically equivalent to the PR estimator but is much easier to compute when there are multiple covariates. We further propose using the weighted bootstrap, which is more stable than the usual sandwich technique with smoothing parameters, for estimating the standard error. The estimator is evaluated via simulation studies and illustrated with the Veterans Administration lung cancer data set.
Assessments of empathy in medical school admissions: what additional evidence is needed?

The Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) sponsored a symposium on the theme of Examining the Evidence with Regard to Character, Personality and Values in Medical School Selection which was held on October 14, 2013 at the University of Sheffield Medical School in the United Kingdom. I was invited to speak about credibility issues related to personality assessments in health profession educations. To my pleasant surprise, I found the European audience receptive (more than their counterparts in the United States) to the idea of using personality assessments in admission decisions. There seems to be a hesitation among leaders in medical education in the United States to use personality assessments for selection purposes. They argue that convincing evidence is needed to support using personality assessments in medical school admission. In my presentation, I provided evidence to refute the argument against using personality assessments in admission decisions. Because of our extensive research at Jefferson Medical College on the topic of empathy in medical education and patient care, I placed the emphasis on credibility of evidence for using assessments of empathy, as a personality attribute, in the selection of applicants and professional development of students in any academic health profession institution. The editor of this journal who has a keen interest in medical education issues attended the symposium and suggested that I write an opinion piece about the issue for international audience of the journal. This editorial is based, in part, on my presentation at that symposium. Why is personality relevant to medical school admissions? There is a consensus among behavioral and social scholars that personality plays an unquestionable role in human behavior. In the practice of medicine, the importance of personality in professional assessments has been acknowledged in a paradigm of physician performance.1,2 There is a large volume of research in medical education about the contribution of personality to academic achievement, clinical competence, and specialty interest of doctors-in-training and in-practice.3 The notion that personality is a contributing factor to academic achievement, clinical competence, career choice, and professional behavior implies that personality should be considered as a pertinent measure not only for the assessment of professional development of doctors-in-training, but more importantly as an additional requirement for the admission of qualified applicants to medical schools.
Generic Medications and Blood Pressure Control in Diabetic Hypertensive Subjects: Results from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study

OBJECTIVE To investigate temporal improvements in blood pressure (BP) control in subjects with diabetes and policy changes regarding generic antihypertensives. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In a cross-sectional study we used logistic regression models to investigate the temporal relationship between access to generic antihypertensive medications and BP control ( RESULTS The percentage of subjects accessing generically available antihypertensive medications increased significantly from 66% in 2003 to 81% in 2007 ( P CONCLUSIONS Among African American and white subjects with HTN and diabetes, BP control remained inadequate relative to published guidelines, and racial disparities persisted. Although access to generic antihypertensives increased, this was not independently associated with improved BP control, suggesting that poor BP control is multifactorial.
A Scale Drift Study

This study examines the stability of the SAT® scale from 1994 to 2001. A 1994 form and a 2001 form were readministered in a 2005 SAT administration, and the 1994 form was equated to the 2001 form. The new conversion was compared to the old conversion. Both the verbal and math sections exhibit a similar degree of scale drift, but in opposite directions: the verbal scale has drifted upward, whereas the math scale has drifted downward. We suggest testing programs monitor the score scales periodically by building a testing form schedule that allows a systematic and periodic checking of scale stability.
Isolated descending thoracic aortic aneurysm in Marfan's syndrome.

Abstract Aneurysm of the ascending aorta due to cystic medial necrosis is usually the first aortic manifestation of Marfan's syndrome. Aneurysm of the descending thoracic aorta in the patient with Marfan's syndrome has been associated with ascending aortic and, often, abdominal aneurysmal disease. 1,2 We recently treated a woman with features characteristic of Marfan's syndrome who had an isolated aneurysm of the descending thoracic aorta. To our knowledge, only 1 other such case has been reported previously. 3
An RNA tertiary switch by modifying how helices are tethered

A viral tRNA-like structure has evolved a unique strategy to undergo a tertiary structure conformational switch that may help regulate viral regulation.
Examining the Changing Influence of Predictors on Adolescent Alcohol Misuse.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine whether the influence of key characteristics on adolescent alcohol misuse (i.e., maternal binge drinking, parenting, peers, school characteristics, and the adolescent's own behavior) change over time and whether predictors of adolescent alcohol misuse vary by gender and race/ethnicity. Using prospective, longitudinal data from a community sample, results revealed that mother's binge drinking, peer drinking, and an early age of onset predicted higher levels of alcohol misuse when respondents were 14–16 years of age. Two years later, when adolescents were 16–18 years of age, maternal binge drinking was no longer significant, however, maternal attachment, school attachment, peer drinking, and early age of onset were found to significantly predict adolescent alcohol misuse. Race differences were found for maternal binge drinking and gender differences were found for school suspension and maternal monitoring on adolescent drinking.
Cost-utility as a measure of the efficiency of a test.

Abstract Frequently a test result or measure x applying to an individual is used to “predict” not a quantity y of the individual, but instead, whether the individual belongs to A or B of two mutually exclusive categories. The question discussed is how to measure the effectiveness of the test x in achieving the dichotomization. Measures such as the biserial or tetrachoric r are considered open to objection on conceptual and operational grounds. A method is advanced that consists in determining (1) the utility, defined as the fraction of individuals actually belonging to category A which the test correctly designates as A and (2) the cost defined as the fraction of individuals actually belonging to category B which the test incorrectly designates as A. Two tests are to be compared on the basis of their comparative costs for the same utility. When a test can be used at any utility, an over-all measure of effectiveness is the mean-cost (M.C.) for all utilities. Derived from this is an index, the mean-cost-rat...
Upregulation of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor alph4+beta2 through a Ligand-Independent PI3Kbeta Mechanism That Is Enhanced by TNFalpha and the Jak2/p38Mapk Pathways

High affinity nicotine-binding sites in the mammalian brain are neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) assembled from at least alpha4 and beta2 subunits into pentameric ion channels. When exposed to ligands such as nicotine, these receptors respond by undergoing upregulation, a correlate of nicotine addiction. Upregulation can be measured using HEK293 (293) cells that stably express alpha4 and beta2 subunits using quantification of [3H]epibatidine ([3H]Eb) binding to measure mature receptors. Treatment of these cells with choline also produces upregulation through a hemicholinium3 (HC3)-sensitive (choline kinase) and an HC3-insensitive pathway which are both independent of the mechanism used by nicotine for upregulation. In both cases, upregulation is significantly enhanced by the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) which signals through its receptor Tnfr1 to activate p38Mapk. Here we report that the inhibition of class1 phosphoinositide 3-kinases isoform PI3Kbeta using the selective antagonist PI828 is alone sufficient to produce upregulation and enhance both nicotine and choline HC3-sensitive mediated upregulation. Further, these processes are impacted upon by an AG-490 sensitive Jak2-associated pathway. Both PI3Kbeta (negative) and Jak2 (positive) modulation of upregulation converge through p38Mapk and both overlap with TNFalpha enhancement of this process. Upregulation through the PI3Kbeta pathway did not require Akt. Collectively these findings support upregulation of endogenous alpha4beta2 as a balance among cellular signaling networks that are highly responsive to multiple environmental, inflammatory and metabolic agents. The findings also suggest how illness and metabolic stress could alter the expression of this important nicotinic receptor and novel avenues to intercede in modifying its expression.
Subsets of ℵ1 constructible from a real

The purpose of this paper is to give a necessary and sufficient condition for a subset of ℵ_1 to be constructible from a real in terms of structural properties of the code set of A, valid under the condition that an appropriate measurable cardinal exists. This can be combined with recent results of Woodin to provide upper bounds for the consistency strength, of theories of the form ZFC + ∀x Є ω^ω(x^# exists)+ "every subset of ℵ_1 with code set in Г is constructible from a real," for various pointclasses Г.
Isolation and Characterization of Mutant Plant Cell Cultures

Mutant plant cell cultures are useful for biochemical and physiological studies, for markers in various genetic manipulation experiments and for the direct improvement of plants if the desired trait can be selected for and plants then be regenerated which express the trait. Many of the lines selected so far cannot truly be called mutants since genetic analysis, at the whole plant level, has not been carried out.
Relationships of Physicians with Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives and Pharmaceutical Companies:: An Exploratory Study

This article was published in the Health Marketing Quarterly [© 1996 Taylor & Francis Online] and the definite version is available at : http://doi.org/10.1300/J026v13n04_07 The Journal's website is at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J026v13n04_07
On the representation of linear system half-line maps: Research Articles

An expression is given for the most general input–output map associated with the members of a certain important large family of causal linear shift-invariant systems with bounded inputs. This expression is a function-space limit of a convolution. Also given is a necessary and sufficient condition under which the limit can be written as a convolution with an integrable impulse-response function. Related material concerning engineering education, as well as additional results for other sets of inputs, is also given. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Isolation of S.pneumoniae in the sputum specimens collected from hospitalized diabetic and non-diabetic patients

Objective To study S. pneumoniae infection in hospitalized diabetic and non-diabetic patients, and to provide scientific evidence for disease control and prevention. Methods From the laboratory database of a general hospital in Guangzhou, results of bacterial and fungal cultures of the sputum specimens collected from the hospitalized patients in 2011 to 2012 and related antibiotic susceptibility testing results were retrieved. From the patient record database of the same hospital, patients discharged in 2011 to 2012 with or without a diagnosis of "diabetes mellitus (E10-E14)" were identified. These two data sets were then merged based upon common variables such as admission number, name, gender and date of birth/age. Isolation of S. pneumoniae and antibiotic susceptibility testing results were compared between diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Results A total of 1 440 bacterial strains and 480 fungal strains were isolated. Only 7 strains of S. pneumoniae were isolated from the sputum specimens of 7 non-diabetic patients. 6 strains were resistant to Erythromycin,2 strains were resistant to Penicillin,and all were sensitive to Levofloxacin or Moxifloxacin. Conclusion The culture positivity rate for S. pneumoniae in the sputum specimens from either diabetic or non-diabetic hospitalized patients was low.
Study on Internal Flow Field Numerical Simulation of Filter with Different Bag Structures

This paper studies the internal flow field of different structural straight-through bag filter in a thermal power plant by using the method of numerical simulation.The results show that: the increased airflow distribution board prevents the generation of eddy currents within the bell and buffer the direct erosion of flue gas to the first row of the filter bag,to distribute airflow inside the bag evenly;reducing the height of the bag space appropriately is conducive to the flue gas flowing to the rear filter bag,to make flow distribution inside the bag even,so that the filtering effect could be obtained.Provide guidance through numerical simulation results for the design and selection of the bag.
Measure and analysis on technological progress of cotton from 1998 to 2005

Using Cobb-Douglas average production function model,cotton technological progress for thirteen provinces in China from 1998 to 2005 is analyzed in this paper.The result indicates technology contributes to cotton production is 63.37 %.Finally,some policies and suggestions are put forward to promote cotton technological progress in China.
Beyond Weimar Expressionism and Agfacolor: Literary Representations of Rubble Space in Heinrich Böll's Der Engel schwieg

This article queries the representation of rubble space in Heinrich Boll’s posthumously published novel Der Engel schwieg , written from 1949 to 1950. Taking a critical look at Germany’s rubble years, the novel at first evokes the expressionist tableaux that also dominated the contemporaneous rubble films. As the narrative progresses, however, the literary text abandons the surreal chiaroscuro landscapes in favor of a more differentiated image of the destruction, a reconfiguration that scholarship on Boll has overlooked so far. Neither a mere add-on to rubble film nor a late contribution to high modernism’s “filmic” writing, Der Engel schwieg is rather highly invested in the literary appropriation of a traditionally visual image—the rubble—as a means to reframe the nation’s postwar narrative after fascism. In the interplay between form and content, I argue, we find a forceful challenge of postwar Germany’s founding myth of the Stunde Null , the convenient belief that the end of the Third Reich also meant a clear-cut break from the nation’s fascist past. The reconfigurations of the rubble that occur throughout the novel give form to the historical continuities, conflicting perspectives, and competing ideologies that—as far as Boll was concerned—still permeated Germany after National Socialism. (KUW)
Multi-input adaptive notch filter and observer for circadian phase estimation

Accurate estimation of circadian phase is critical to the assessment and treatment of circadian disruption. Direct measurements of circadian rhythm markers such as dim light melatonin onset and core body temperature are inconvenient and acquired at best at low rate. On the other hand, measurements of other circadian rhythm-modulated signals such as actigraphy, heart rate, and body temperature are convenient but are typically masked by many other factors.