cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Collective Narrative: Scaffolding Community Storytelling through Context-Awareness

Sharing mutual experiences on the same topic is an effective way to increase members’ sense of belonging to the community, but existing approaches are insufficient in building such a narrative when a community tries to connect remotely, due to barriers in sharing and organizing content. In this paper, we present Collective Narrative (CN), a context-aware system that facilitates users in identifying share-worthy moments through in-context prompting, and automates the organization process through informed section assignment to a narrative structure. A preliminary study testing the CN iPhone app demonstrates that CN can potentially scaffold in-the-moment sharings and form narratives that are comprehensive yet diverse, thereby presenting contributions in a way that users could easily identify mutual experiences and feelings by reading the narrative.
Sedentary and Nomadic Spaces

With Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas, I show that a home does not have the ontological structure of objects; it is a fixed point that makes possible the perceived and employed map of the paths, objectives, implements and obstacles of the environment. It is also a space closed to the trafficking of the outside environment. It is also a place of welcome, where we, Heidegger says, welcome earth and skies, fellow mortals and harbingers of the sacred, where we, Levinas says, welcome kin and strangers. Humans share the establishing of a home base with many other species of mammals, birds, fish, and insects. And humans share their home with other species. Incarceration is the extreme case of a home base without an outlying environment. Humans also live in spaces without home base. The bent to live on the open road without a home base is something humans share with giraffes, opossums, quail, and albatross. Some people by choice or by necessity are homeless. Most people live months or years of homelessness.
Senior Consumers and Technology: New Directions for Research

This paper examines seniors' perceptions and usage of technologically advanced products and services. The authors present a succinct review of relevant literature and past research findings pertaining to this area and discuss several factors which may be useful to marketing strategists in understanding seniors’ use or non-use of technology. The authors discuss the effects of knowledge base, perceived abilities, memory control processes, and physiological changes upon seniors’ perceptions of and behavior toward certain technologically sophisticated products and services. Throughout the paper, the authors advance priorities for future research in this area.
Randomized Searching on Rays or the Line

This problem deals with finding a point at an unknown position on one of a set of w rays which extend from a common point (the origin). In this problem there is a searcher, who starts at the origin, and follows a sequence of commands such as “explore to distance d on ray i .” The searcher detects immediately when the target point is crossed, but there is no other information provided from the search environment. The goal of the searcher is to minimize the distance traveled. There are several different ways this problem has been formulated in the literature, including one called the “cow-path problem” that involves a cow searching for a pasture down a set of paths. When w D 2, this problem is to search for a point on the line, which has also been described as a robot searching for a door in an infinite wall or a shipwreck survivor searching for a stream after washing ashore on a beach.
Cue-induced craving in dependence upon prescription opioids and heroin.

Background and Objectives Cues associated with heroin use (eg, needles, powder) elicit robust craving responses in individuals dependent upon heroin. Elevated cue-induced craving may be a risk factor for relapse and can persist after periods of drug abstinence. Despite the growing prevalence of opioid dependence involving prescription opioids, published studies have yet to examine whether cue-induced craving is also present in prescription opioid dependence. Methods A sample of 50 adults diagnosed with opioid dependence (20 prescription opioid users, 25 heroin users, and 5 mixed opioid users) completed a cue reactivity assessment. Participants were administered a series of 90 pictures, including heroin-specific, prescription opioid-specific, and neutral images, and were asked to rate craving and cue salience after each image. Results Both the prescription opioid and heroin groups experienced significantly more craving to drug than to neutral stimuli. The prescription opioid group reported significantly less craving to prescription opioid stimuli than the heroin group to heroin stimuli; however, this effect was smaller and non-significant when controlling for group differences in cue salience. Discussion and Conclusions This study found evidence for cue-induced craving in individuals dependent upon prescription opioids. Further research is needed to better understand the role of cue reactivity in the course and treatment of opioid dependence involving prescription opioid use. Scientific Significance As elevated craving reactivity to drug cues may reflect a risk factor for relapse, understanding the nature of cue-induced craving in individuals with opioid dependence is important to improving treatments for this population. (Am J Addict 2014;23:453–458)
Precise deletions in large bacterial genomes by vector-mediated excision (VEX). The trfA gene of promiscuous plasmid RK2 is essential for replication in several gram-negative hosts

We have developed a simple and efficient method of vector-mediated excision (VEX) for in vivo generation of precisely defined deletions in large bacterial genomes. The system uses homologous recombination with small cloned fragments on specialized pVEX plasmids to insert directly repeated bacteriophage P1 loxP sites at positions flanking the region to be deleted. In the presence of Cre recombinase, the loxP sites are efficiently recombined to produce the deletion. Deletion endpoints can be directed to specific nucleotides because they are defined by the termini of small homology-bearing fragments cloned into the pVEX plasmids. We have used VEX to delete trfA, the only known replication initiator gene of the 56.4 kb broad host-range plasmid RK2. The RK2 delta trfA mutant was found to be conjugation proficient, but unable to replicate in the RK2 hosts Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Caulobacter crescentus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas putida, Rhizobium meliloti, or Rhodobacter sphaeroides. These results show that trfA is essential for replication in these hosts and indicate that the broad host-range of RK2 does not involve multiple replicons.
The Velocity Fields of Elliptical Galaxies: Constraints on Intrinsic Shapes

The problem of determining the intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies cannot be solved using photometry alone. Measuring rotation on the apparent major and minor axes adds a kinematic constraint, but does noi significantly improve the situation. We find that having two more spectra, at the ±45 ° position angles, gives enough kinematic information that much tighter limits can be placed on the intrinsic axis ratios than are possible otherwise.
At Home on This Movable Earth

Calf bucket. Full to the brim with fresh, frothy milk, it's what my grandfather permitted me to carry from the cream separator out of the porch and around the house and across the backyard to the barb-wire fence where under the lowest strand I would push it to feed the waiting calf. Calf bucket. It is also the rusty receptacle I found precisely where I had left it?near the lone stanchion in the barn near the alley, barn large enough to accommodate our one Jersey cow, barn with its weathered shingles and unpainted one-by eights well on its way to oblivion. We'll need another bucket to put the dirt in, my father had said. We already had one bucket, a discarded lard container Father had brought home from the cafe. But we needed another container so that as I trudged up the earthen steps to empty one, my father said, he could be filling the other. I could sense that something big, maybe even something gar gantuan, was about to unfold, but I didn't know exactly what that
Total elbow arthroplasty in patients forty years of age or less.

Background: It is generally accepted that prosthetic elbow replacement should be avoided in young patients because of an anticipated high rate of early failure. The purpose of this paper was to define the success, prosthetic survival rate, and problems encountered in patients who were treated with a semiconstrained total elbow arthroplasty when they were forty years of age or less. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 758 patients who had undergone primary arthroplasty with the Coonrad-Morrey total elbow prosthesis for any reason between 1982 and 2003. We identified fifty-five total elbow arthroplasties that had been performed in forty-nine patients (thirty-eight women and eleven men) who were forty years of age or less (mean, thirty-three years) at the time of the operation and that had been followed for a minimum of five years. Six patients had a bilateral procedure. The indication for the arthroplasty was inflammatory arthritis in thirty patients and posttraumatic arthritis in nineteen. Patients with hemophilia or a neoplasm were excluded. The medical record data were used to calculate the preoperative and postoperative Mayo Elbow Performance Score. Results: The mean duration of follow-up was ninety-one months. During this period, twelve (22%) of the elbows had undergone a subsequent surgical procedure: four because of loosening, three because of triceps weakness, three because of wear, and two because of deep infection. On the basis of the Mayo Elbow Performance Score at the last review, thirty-six results (65%) were considered to be excellent; fifteen (27%), good; three (5%), fair; and one (2%), poor. Conclusions: Semiconstrained total elbow arthroplasty in young patients was associated with a 22% revision rate at a mean of ninety-one months, and the rate of revision was significantly higher for patients with posttraumatic arthritis. Despite this revision rate, fifty-one elbows (93%) had a good or excellent Mayo Elbow Performance Score. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Analysis of biclusters with applications to gene expression data

For a given matrix of size $n \times m$ over a finite alphabet $\mathcal{A}$, a bicluster is a submatrix composed of selected columns and rows satisfying a certain property. In microarrays analysis one searches for largest biclusters in which selected rows constitute the same string (pattern); in another formulation of the problem one tries to find a maximally dense submatrix. In a conceptually similar problem, namely the bipartite clique problem on graphs, one looks for the largest binary submatrix with all '1'. In this paper, we assume that the original matrix is generated by a memoryless source over a finite alphabet $\mathcal{A}$. We first consider the case where the selected biclusters are square submatrices and prove that with high probability (whp) the largest (square) bicluster having the same row-pattern is of size $\log_Q^2 n m$ where $Q^{-1}$ is the (largest) probability of a symbol. We observe, however, that when we consider $\textit{any}$ submatrices (not just $\textit{square}$ submatrices), then the largest area of a bicluster jumps to $A_n$ (whp) where $A$ is an explicitly computable constant. These findings complete some recent results concerning maximal biclusters and maximum balanced bicliques for random bipartite graphs.
Distinct Modulatory Effects of LPS and CpG on IL-18-Dependent IFN-γ Synthesis

Innate cellular production of IFN-γ is suppressed after repeated exposure to LPS, whereas CpG-containing DNA potentiates IFN-γ production. We compared the modulatory effects of LPS and CpG on specific cellular and cytokine responses necessary for NK-cell dependent IFN-γ synthesis. C3H/HeN mice pretreated with LPS for 2 days generated 5-fold less circulating IL-12 p70 and IFN-γ in response to subsequent LPS challenge than did challenged control mice. In contrast, CpG-pretreated mice produced 10-fold more circulating IFN-γ without similar changes in IL-12 p70 levels, but with 10-fold increases in serum IL-18 relative to LPS-challenged control or endotoxin-tolerant mice. The role of IL-18 in CpG-induced immune potentiation was studied in splenocyte cultures from control, LPS-conditioned, or CpG-conditioned mice. These cultures produced similar amounts of IFN-γ in response to rIL-12 and rIL-18. However, only CpG-conditioned cells produced IFN-γ when cultured with LPS or CpG, and production was ablated in the presence of anti-IL-18R Ab. Anti-IL-18R Ab also reduced in vivo IFN-γ production by >2-fold in CpG-pretreated mice. Finally, combined pretreatment of mice with LPS and CpG suppressed the production of circulating IFN-γ, IL-12 p70, and IL-18 after subsequent LPS challenge. We conclude that CpG potentiates innate IFN-γ production from NK cells by increasing IL-18 availability, but that the suppressive effects of LPS on innate cellular immunity dominate during combined LPS and CpG pretreatment. Multiple Toll-like receptor engagement in vivo during infection can result in functional polarization of innate immunity dominated by a specific Toll-like receptor response.
The Effect of Dobutamine on Susceptibility to Ischemia-Induced Ventricular Fibrillation in the Isolated Rat Heart

Sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation (VF) continues to be a major cause of mortality, but the triggers of VF in ischemia remain poorly understood. Our hypothesis is that VF is trigg...
Veränderungen an Pankreaskapillaren bei Diabetikern

Die Pankreaskapillaren von 25 Diabetikern mit und 54 ohne Glomerulosklerose Kimmelstiel-Wilson sowie von 70 Nichtdiabetikern werden auf das Vorkommen von PAS-positiven homogenen Wandverdickungen gepruft. Das Durchschnittsalter aller 3 Gruppen liegt bei annahernd 70 Jahren. Die alshomogene Lasion der Kapillaren bezeichnete Veranderung wird in rund 1/3 der Falle mit Glomerulosklerose und in rund 1/7 der Diabetiker ohne Glomerulosklerose gefunden. Bei den nichtdiabetischen Kontrollfallen fehlt die Veranderung vollstandig. Die homogene Lasion ist in erster Linie an den extrainsularen Kapillaren lokalisiert und durch einen segmentaren Befall der Kapillaren charakterisiert. Histochemisch unterscheidet sich die homogene Lasion von den ebenfalls PAS-positiven nodularen Veranderungen bei der Glomerulosklerose Kimmelstiel-Wilson durch fehlende Fluorochromierbarkeit mit Auramin-Schiff-Reagens nach Vorbehandlung mit Perjodsaure und durch die Resistenz gegenuber Pektinase. Im Gegensatz zu der Hyalinose der Arterien und Artenolen lassen sich in den homogenen Wandverdickungen der Kapillaren keine Fibrinablagerungen nachweisen. Die bei Diabetikern haufig anzutreffende Hyalinose der Pankreasinseln verhalt sich farberisch grundsatzlich verschieden von der homogenen Lasion. Die Pathogenese der homogenen Lasion ist wie diejenige anderer Manifestationen der diabetischen Mikroangiopathie noch ungeklart.
A flow cytometric method to estimate the precursor frequencies of cells proliferating in response to specific antigens

Fluorescent dyes that stain cell membranes or cytoplasm and then partition between daughter cells at division have been used in conjunction with flow cytometry to measure the proliferation of cells. In this paper, using peripheral blood mononuclear cells responding to tetanus toxoid, we describe an extension of this dye methodology to calculate the precursor frequency of antigen-specific T-cells. With mathematical deconvolution of the fluorescence histograms providing information about the proportion of cells in each of the daughter generations, information can be derived about the precursor frequency of cells in the original population that responded to the specific stimulus. Data from a model system with different proportions of fixed and viable cells indicate that the flow method returns accurate values for precursor frequency. Based on the characteristics of flow cytometric data acquisition, it is estimated that the flow method could detect proliferation of cells that represented, before addition of the stimulus, approximately 1/105 of the population. When comparing results to those from the limiting dilution technique, the flow cytometric method returns values that indicate higher precursor frequencies. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. The flow cytometric method offers the advantage of simplicity as well as the additional ability to phenotype the responding cells and determine their rate of proliferation. The flow method may find use as a simple, routine assay in the fields of allergy, transplant rejection, and autoimmunity and for quantitating responses to vaccination and cancer immunotherapy.
Enhanced dopamine release by mesenchymal stem cells reprogrammed neuronally by the modulators of SMAD signaling, chromatin modifying enzymes, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate levels.

Recently, using the chemical genetics approach for cell reprogramming, via the combination of small molecule modulators of chromatin modifying enzymes, specific SMAD signaling pathways, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate levels, we have been able to generate neuronallike cells predominantly positive to mature neuronal and dopaminergic markers. This study aimed to characterize further the dopaminergic properties of neurally induced (NI) human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and to determine whether addition of sonic hedgehog (SHH)/fibroblast growth factor 8 (FGF8) to NI medium could promote further dopaminergic maturation. Dopaminergic differentiation was evaluated by immunocytochemistry, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results demonstrated that release of dopamine by NI-hMSCs differentiated with SMAD inhibitor supplementation significantly increased from picogram to nanogram levels, with a tendency of further increase when supplemented by SHH/FGF8. Direct generation of dopaminergic cells from adult hMSCs by using this reprogramming approach may have significant implications for understanding the mechanism underlying cell plasticity and may open new potentialities for cell replacement therapies.
The Role of Computerized Tomographic Urography in the Initial Evaluation of Hematuria

Purpose: We determined the usefulness of computerized tomographic urography for the initial evaluation of patients with hematuria as an alternative to excretory urography.Materials and Methods: A total of 259 patients (140 men and 119 women), age range 20 to 100 (mean 59.4) years, underwent computerized tomographic urography for the evaluation of hematuria and were available for followup. A cohort of 253 patients (153 men, 100 women), age range 21 to 92 (mean 57.6) years, underwent conventional excretory urography and were evaluated for comparison.Results: A source of hematuria was identified in 107 patients (41.3%) in the computerized tomographic urography cohort and in 103 patients (40.7%) in the excretory urography cohort. Computerized tomographic urography alone identified a source of hematuria in 25.5% of these patients with the most commonly diagnosed lesions being renal calculi (18.9%), ureteral calculi (2.7%) and renal pelvic masses (2.3%) in the upper tract (0.94 sensitivity), and bladder masses ...
Psychological functioning in children with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis: implications for models of psychobiological interaction.

Implications for psychobiological models of psychosomatic interaction relevant to the DSM-III diagnosis 316.00 (Psychological Factors Affecting Physical Condition) were drawn from a study of outpatient gastroenterology patients (ages 6 to 17) with Crohn's disease (CD) ( N = 51) and ulcerative colitis (UC) ( N = 37), and their siblings ( N = 41 and N – 24, respectively). Reliable and valid measures were used to assess disease activity, severity, growth failure, social competence, psychological health and disorder, and psychological style. Both patient groups had statistically and clinically significant psychological dysfunction, and patients were characterized by internalizing psychological styles. The degree of illness and psychological dysfunction did not predict one another. However, internalizing psychological styles were associated with greater disease activity. CD and UC patients differed in relationships among psychological and disease factors, with UC patients more accurate in reporting physical and psychological functioning.
Dietary therapy can reverse esophageal subepithelial fibrosis in patients with eosinophilic esophagitis: a historical cohort.

Background Fibrosis of the esophageal lamina propria is a known complication of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). To date, therapy with topical corticosteroids has been shown to reverse esophageal fibrosis in some patients; however, there is little evidence to suggest that dietary therapy can also reverse it. Our aim was to examine whether dietary therapy alone can reverse esophageal fibrosis in children with EoE. Methods We performed a historical cohort study based on children with EoE who had esophageal fibrosis on pretreatment biopsies using trichrome staining. Post-treatment biopsies were analyzed for fibrosis reversal, and results were compared between patients treated with dietary restriction and those that received topical steroids. Clinical characteristics (age, symptoms, duration of symptoms prior to therapy, treatment type, and duration of therapy) were recorded. Histological markers (eosinophil numbers and eosinophilic degranulation in both epithelium and lamina propria, basal zone hyperplasia, and the presence of eosinophilic microabscesses in the epithelium) were examined by reviewing hematoxylin and eosin-stained biopsies and by immunohistochemical staining. These were examined as potential predictors for fibrosis reversal. Results Fibrosis resolved following both dietary restriction and topical steroids (3/17 and 5/9 patients respectively, P = 0.078). Post-treatment symptom resolution and decreased intraepithelial eosinophil numbers were found to be the only significant predictors of fibrosis resolution. Conclusions Dietary restriction alone, similar to topical steroids, can reverse fibrosis in children with EoE.
Adaptive Stabilization of MEMS Relays

An adaptive nonlinear stabilizer is introduced for uncertain, voltage-controlled, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) relays. The control construction follows a Lyapunov approach, and is based on a nonlinear dynamic model applicable to the two types of MEMS relays—electrostatic and electromagnetic. The adaptive stabilizer compensates for parametric uncertainty in all mechanical parameters and selected electrical parameters while ensuring asymptotic regulation of the electrode opening and closing. Simulations demonstrate the performance of the adaptive control scheme in comparison to the typical open-loop operation of the MEMS relay.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
No-Fault Laws and At-Fault People

Absent transaction costs, the Coase Theorem suggests that divorce reform would work no change in the frequency of divorce but perhaps would alter the distribution of marital wealth. However, divorce does involve substantial process costs, which no-fault lowered. This paper explores the question of what happened to state divorce rates because of the legal changes wrought by the family law revolution that began in the 1970s, isolating the effect of the legal variable from other demographic and social factors that might also explain the variation in divorce rates across states and across time.
Color Flow Identification of Multiple Ventricular Septal Defects in a Patient with Elevated Pulmonary Vascular Resistance

A 12-year-old boy with a large ventricular septal defect and elevated pulmonary vascular resistance had surgical closure of his defect. There was a gradual diminution in pulmonary resistance over a 2-week period. On the twelfth postoperative day, a new systolic murmur was noted, and an additional small muscular ventricular septal defect was diagnosed by color flow Doppler echocardiography. This defect had not been seen on preoperative left ventricular angiography, nor on several postoperative echocardiography studies. The fall in this patient's pulmonary vascular resistance was analogous to the hemodynamic changes typical of a newborn infant. In that context, the timing of the clinical and echocardiographic appearance of the ventricular septal defect is discussed. (ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Volume 8, May 1991)
Group research in German chemistry: Kolbe's Marburg and Leipzig institutes.

Dans le domaine de l'histoire des ecoles de recherche, il est utile de discuter des groupes formes en Allemagne par Kolbe (H.) tant a Marburg (1851-1865) qu'a Leipzig (1865-1884)
Survey of Intersex Largemouth Bass from Impoundments in Georgia USA

AbstractIntersex fish are increasingly being reported worldwide, primarily in rivers that receive treated wastewater, but few studies have investigated intersex in waters that do not receive wastewater. In a recent reconnaissance survey of intersex fish in North America, a high rate of intersex was reported for Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides in some southeastern U.S. rivers; however, the occurrence of intersex in impoundments has not been well described, especially on a statewide scale. Therefore, our objective for this project was to survey the occurrence of intersex Largemouth Bass in a variety of impoundment habitats across Georgia. Largemouth Bass were collected from 11 impoundments without direct municipal or agricultural wastewater inputs. Gonads from all male Largemouth Bass were evaluated for the incidence and severity of the intersex condition based on presence and arrangement of testicular oocytes. Overall 48% of male Largemouth Bass collected from impoundments were intersex, which was fo...
Effect of Infalling Matter on the Heavy Element Content of a Galaxy

I HAVE considered1 some of the possible implications of infall of intergalactic matter in galaxies, a process which was proposed by Oort2 to explain the 21 cm observations of high velocity hydrogen “clouds” in our Galaxy. It was pointed out that infall of matter may have a number of important consequences for the structure and evolution of galaxies. In this communication I shall consider in more detail one of these possible consequences, namely the effect of continuing infall of matter on the composition of the interstellar medium and the Population I component of a galaxy. I shall show that in the presence of infalling matter the heavy element content of the interstellar material will tend to approach a constant value which is independent of both the infall rate and the early history of the galaxy and depends only on stellar evolution processes.
Innovation in surgery: from imagination to implementation

Abstract Surgeons, perhaps more than any other specialists, recognize the concept of furthering the current state of the art by making conscious changes, whether by tweaking how a surgical procedure is done to push the envelope of minimally invasive techniques, finding novel means of advancing surgical education in the face of work-hour restrictions, or advancing quality initiatives in an era of health care reform. Indeed, innovation seems to be the imperative to moving the field forward, for surgeons recognize that without continual process improvement, we stagnate in the status quo. This article pays tribute to Dr Edgar J. Poth by describing innovation in surgery as an iterative cycle beginning with an imaginative idea that is subjected to a series of “plan, do, check, act” quality cycles and ultimately is implemented as a new initiative, only to yield further creative ideas for improvement.
Relativity and Aether Drift

While aether drift experiments originally suggested the line of thought which led to the formulation of the restricted theory of relativity, it would seem that the fundamental significance of that theory does not depend primarily upon these experiments. The most logical origin of the transformation of the restricted theory is to be found as a special case of the general theory, and the purpose of the present paper is to show how, with this in view, the fundamental working content of the restricted theory, the invariance of laws under the Lorentzian transformation, is something which has no fundamental relation to the question of whether the aether drift experiments do or do not give a positive result.
Harmonic Functions for Robot Path Construction

A frequent problem in the use of potential functions for robot path planning is that local minima often occur. These local minima may be eliminated by judicious selection of potential functions for goals and obstacles. Specifically, harmonic functions may be used without introducing such minima. While there are analytic, easily superposed solutions for impenetrable point obstacles, this is not the case for impenetrable obstacles with finite, nonzero extent (e.g., walls). Instead, numerical methods that are well suited to massively parallel computation can be used.
On Rigorous Specification of ICAR Models

Intrinsic (or improper) conditional autoregressions, or ICARs, are widely used in spatial statistics, splines, dynamic linear models, and elsewhere. Such models usually have several variance components, including one for errors and at least one for random effects. Likelihood and Bayesian inference depend on the likelihood function of those variances. But in the absence of constraints or further specifications that are not inherent to ICARs, the likelihood function is arbitrary and thus so are some inferences. We suggest several ways to add constraints or further specifications, but any choice is merely a convention.
Beta-sheet proteins with nearly identical structures have different folding intermediates.

The folding mechanisms of two proteins in the family of intracellular lipid binding proteins, ileal lipid binding protein (ILBP) and intestinal fatty acid binding protein (IFABP), were examined. The structures of these all-β-proteins are very similar, with 123 of the 127 amino acids of ILBP having backbone and Cβ conformations nearly identical to those of 123 of the 131 residues of IFABP. Despite this structural similarity, the sequences of these proteins have diverged, with 23% sequence identity and an additional 16% sequence similarity. The folding process was completely reversible, and no significant concentrations of intermediates were observed by circular dichroism or fluorescence at equilibrium for either protein. ILBP was less stable than IFABP with a midpoint of 2.9 M urea compared to 4.0 M urea for IFABP. Stopped-flow kinetic studies showed that both the folding and unfolding of these proteins were not monophasic, suggesting that either multiple paths or intermediate states were present during th...
Comparative Biology and Susceptibility of Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Populations to a Granulosis Virus

LC50 values were determined for six populations (two laboratory and four wild-type) of Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hubner), to peroral inoculations of a granulosis virus. Various biological parameters of the populations were measured to determine similarities or differences among the moth populations tested. A significantly (P 0.05) different among them, but showed them to be more susceptible to the virus and with shorter developmental times compared with the two wild-types discussed above.
Advanced aviation concepts via simulation: decision support for advanced aviation concepts

This paper describes The MITRE Corporation Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) research towards simulation of advanced aviation concepts. Research activities are aimed toward improving tactical and strategic decision making methods in the near and long term. We describe how CAASD simulation capabilities assist in determining how to achieve our goals for improving tactical and strategic decision making. For the long term, our simulation capabilities are becoming more agent-based.
Clinical profile of chronic heart failure in elderly women

The pathogenesis, clinical course, and treatment of chronic heart failure (HF) are different in elderly women from those of patients recruited in the landmark trials of chronic HF. Patients included in these landmark trials were predominantly men whose age was 10-15 years younger than the average age of patients with chronic HF in the United States. Diastolic dysfunction resulting in impaired left ventricular (LV) filling is the preponderant LV functional alteration that leads to chronic HF in elderly women. Gender differences in the LV remodeling process that accompanies chronic cardiac pressure are likely to be responsible for the preponderance of LV diastolic dysfunction over systolic dysfunction in elderly women. In response to chronic pressure overload, the LV wall becomes thicker in women than in men. Consequently, in response to chronic pressure overload, women are able to normalize LV wall stress and preserve LV systolic function to a greater extent than men. However, impaired LV filling is an undesirable consequence of the greater increase in LV wall thickness in women. Thus, clinical observations and therapeutic guidelines derived from data collected in the landmark trials of chronic HF may not apply to elderly women with chronic HF. In view of the lack of evidence-based information needed to guide the management of elderly women with chronic HF, special attention should be given to include a substantial number of elderly women in future therapeutic trials recruiting patients with chronic HF.
A new operative approach to snapping hip and refractory trochanteric bursitis in athletes

This report concerns seven patients that had a painful hip due to snapping of the iliotibial band over the greater trochanter and resultant trochanteric bursitis, and whose symptoms were refractory to nonoperative treatment. An operative procedure that has not been previously described was performed. It involved the excision of an ellipsoid-shaped portion of the iliotibial band overlying the greater trochanter and removal of the trochanteric bursa. Five of the seven patients were evaluated at the time this report was prepared; the average length of followup was 55 months. Four were significantly improved or relieved of their symptoms, and the fifth was an operative failure with complete recurrence. This final patient underwent a second, more extensive partial excision of the iliotibial band, and was asymptomatic 1 year later. A review of the clinic records of the remaining two patients that could not be contacted revealed that they both had been doing well at their 6 month evaluation. For those patients with a symptomatic snapping hip and trochanteric bursitis unresponsive to conservative therapy, the procedure described is an effective method of treatment.
Latent TGF-β binding proteins

Latent TGF-beta binding proteins are multidomain proteins with a common, highly repetitive structural organization and partially overlapping expression patterns. Latent TGF-beta binding protein-1, -3 and -4 bind latent TGF-beta. TGF-betas are normally secreted as latent complexes, consisting of the mature TGF-beta dimer non-covalently bound to its processed propeptide dimer plus a latent TGF-beta binding protein. The latent TGF-beta binding protein is covalently bound to the propeptide. These binding proteins may perform at least two functions: structural, as components of the matrix, and regulatory, as modulators of TGF-beta availability.
Heat transfer and binary diffusion with thermodynamic coupling in variable‐property forced convection on a flat plate

The variable-property, laminar, boundary-layer equations, which describe simultaneous momentum, heat, and binary mass transfer with thermodynamic coupling,11 are analyzed for air flows over a flat plate with the injection of foreign gases through the solid surface. A simplified general treatment of thermodynamic coupling is developed and applied to yield approximate but accurate expressions for evaluating heat transfer rates and adiabatic wall temperatures for injection of hydrogen, helium, and carbon dioxide. This method explains why the driving force based on (Tω − Tω) can be used to correlate heat transfer results for situations where diffusion thermo is important. Furthermore, and perhaps most significant, the method provides a simple error estimate for the correlation obtained by using the adiabatic wall temperature. It is shown that the injection of lightweight gases can significantly reduce viscous dissipation in flows over slender bodies and that diffusion thermo and dissipation effects can be otion in flows over slender bodies and that diffusion thermo and dissipation effects can be of the same order of magnitude even for reasonably high-velocity flows. These effects are discussed in terms of convenient quantities, called σ functions.
The effectiveness of health coaching, home blood pressure monitoring, and home-titration in controlling hypertension among low-income patients: protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Despite the many antihypertensive medications available, two-thirds of patients with hypertension do not achieve blood pressure control. This is thought to be due to a combination of poor patient education, poor medication adherence, and "clinical inertia." The present trial evaluates an intervention consisting of health coaching, home blood pressure monitoring, and home medication titration as a method to address these three causes of poor hypertension control. The randomized controlled trial will include 300 patients with poorly controlled hypertension. Participants will be recruited from a primary care clinic in a teaching hospital that primarily serves low-income populations. An intervention group of 150 participants will receive health coaching, home blood pressure monitoring, and home-titration of antihypertensive medications during 6 months. The control group (n = 150) will receive health coaching plus home blood pressure monitoring for the same duration. A passive control group will receive usual care. Blood pressure measurements will take place at baseline, and after 6 and 12 months. The primary outcome will be change in systolic blood pressure after 6 and 12 months. Secondary outcomes measured will be change in diastolic blood pressure, adverse events, and patient and provider satisfaction. The present study is designed to assess whether the 3-pronged approach of health coaching, home blood pressure monitoring, and home medication titration can successfully improve blood pressure, and if so, whether this effect persists beyond the period of the intervention. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01013857
Comparison of Organic and Conventional Crops at the Neely-Kinyon Long-term Agroecological Research Site

The ISU Neely-Kinyon Farm, Greenfield, Iowa, Long-Term Agroecological Research (LTAR) site was established in 1998 to study the long-term effects of organic production in Iowa. Treatments at the LTAR site, replicated four times in a completely randomized design, include the following rotations: conventional Corn-Soybean (C-S), organic Corn-Soybean-Oats/Alfalfa (C-S-O/A), organic Corn-Soybean-Oats/Alfalfa-Alfalfa (C-S-O/A-A), and organic Corn-Soybean-Corn-Oats/Alfalfa (C-S-C-O/A). Oat/alfalfa plots were field cultivated April 11, 2018. On April 12, Deon oats were underseeded with Viking 3800 alfalfa (Albert Lea Seed, Albert Lea, MN) at a rate of 90 lb/acre and 15 lb/acre, respectively. Plots were cultipacked on the same day as planting. Following harvest of the organic corn plots in 2017, winter rye was no-till drilled at a rate of 75 lb/acre November 10, 2017.
An orthogonal lead system for clinical electrocardiography

E inthoven, in his early investigations of the electrocardiogram, was concerned with the influence of the orientation of the heart on the form of the complexes. His interest in this relationship led to the introduction of the concepts of the manifest vector and the Einthoven triangle. These concepts are two dimensional in character, and apply to the frontal plane. Despite this limitation, they have proved to be so useful that they are routinely employed in electrocardiography today. The value of Einthoven’s approach has been so evident that the possibility of extending it to include all three components of the manifest vector has been under consideration for many years. There are several reasons why the early research with this objective has not culminated in clinical application. The Einthoven triangle itself had, for many years, no clearly demonstrable scientific basis. This basis has since been provided by the concept of the lead vector introduced by Burger and van Milaan. Another problem has been that of obtaining the sagittal component of the heart vector from potentials induced in electrodes on the chest, close to the heart. The recently developed “lead field” concept has shown that the proximity effects can be suppressed through the use of several electrodes whose potentials are averaged. Still another obstacle has been the difficulty of determining the electrical axis in three dimensions without burdening the clinician with calculations of inordinate mathematical complexity. An answer to this problem is the use of “resolvers,” electronic instruments introduced by Schmitt’ and studied by several other investigators.2-5 It has been shown9 that the approximate mean electrical axis of the “QRS” and “T” complexes can easily be determined with these devices. These instruments can be built as compact and reliable units well adapted to the clinic.6 Because of these relatively recent developments, it is now possible to determine the electrical axis of the heart in the clinic in three rather than two dimensions. All that is required is a lead system which provides the three components of the heart vector. A great number of such orthogonal lead systems have been proposed, each with merits and deficiencies of its own. It is beyond the scope of this article to review each of them. In our opinion, even the best systems, such as Schmitt’s’ and Frank’s8 do not strike the optimum balance between accuracy and simplicity. In this report an orthogonal system is described which is intended to satisfy clinical requirements. It is designed specifi-
CURRENT STATUS OF THE PLAINS POCKET MOUSE (PEROGNATHUS FLAVESCENS) IN EASTERN NEBRASKA

ABSTRACT. Distribution of the plains pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens) overlaps tallgrass prairies in northeastern parts of the species' range in the central United States. Distribution and abundance of the plains pocket mouse appears negatively impacted by agricultural practices during the last century due to the scarcity of records throughout the region. In eastern Nebraska, few plains pocket mice have been captured and no published account exists in recent decades. We investigated the current status of P. f. perniger, the eastern subspecies in Nebraska, because of a paucity of information regarding this subspecies' natural history and suspected extirpation from the state. We captured 56 P f. perniger in 13 counties in northeastern and east-central Nebraska in 2008, including 10 counties lacking prior records. We also obtained data on its presence in extreme eastern Nebraska (Douglas and Lancaster counties) via a literature review and query for specimens in museums. Some individuals without darker-c...
How shall I compare thee

Gannon (this issue) has critiqued several features of evolutionary psychology. Gannon concluded that because the assumptions of evolutionary psychology are not falsifiable - and in her view many of them are wrong - evolutionary psychology should not be considered a truly scientific enterprise. In this article, several reasons are presented for why evolutionary psychology should be considered a science. For one, the falsifiability criterion invoked by Gannon was incorrectly applied to the paradigmatic level of science. Instead, falsifiability should be used to evaluate low-level empirical predictions, not high-level paradigms. Moreover, a mounting body of evidence supports the utility of using evolutionary theories to generate hypotheses and their accompanying falsifiable predictions concerning much of human behavior. Finally, rationale is provided for why evolutionary psychology may be considered a more valuable science than competing alternatives. For example, the paradigm of evolutionary psychology cont...
Determining the Shape of Delivery Zones to Balance Local and Line Haul Costs

This note follows an early work by Newell and Daganzo which suggests a wedge-like zone to divide a service area for freight delivery. Current literature has been largely using the zone of a fixed shape determined solely by demand density. We find that, given the same demand density, the shape of zones could vary significantly in order to better bal- ance local and line haul truck delivery costs which include environmental externalities. A way to determine the optimal shape of truck delivery zones is presented.
Preparation and Thermal/Fast Neutron Shielding Properties of Novel Boron Containing Ore Composites

Four novel boron containing ores/epoxy composites were prepared by using nature ludwigite green ore (NLGO), artificial ores including boron containing iron ore concentrate (BCIOC), boron rich slag (BRS) and boron mud (BM) as neutron absorbers, which were obtained by dressing from NLGO, blast furnace separation from BCIOC and borax production, respectively. The microstructure of the composites was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Shielding properties of the composites against thermal and Cf-252 fast neutron were measured. Factors affecting the shielding properties were investigated. Energy deposition, absorbed dose and half value layers of the composites against neutron penetration were simulated by Monte Carlo method, and a simulated function was obtained. The results showed that the composites were compact and the particles of ores were homogeneous. Ascending boron mole numbers per unit volume (nB) in the composites can obviously enhance the macroscopic absorbing cross section (Σthermal) and improve the shielding properties for thermal neutron. The relationship of Σthermal and nB follows the equation of Σthermal=0.218+450.490nB. And the relationship of average atomic number (Z) of boron containing ores composites and the macroscopic removal cross section for fast neutron follows the equation of Σremoval=0.042exp (-Z/5.70)+0.032. Enhancement of the shielding abilities against Cf-252 fast neutron can be achieved by using the composites with low average atomic number.
Platelet function abnormalities in the myeloproliferative disorders.

Platelet function studies were performed in 21 patients with myeloproliferative disorders. Blunted serotonin and first wave epinephrine aggregation were noted in 75 % of the patients studied. Abnormalities in platelet adhesion, aspirin bleeding time, and serotonin aggregation were found in all patients with a bleeding history. Similar abnormalities were present in certain patients without a bleeding history; this latter group of patients may have an increased bleeding risk when appropriately stressed. Abnormalities of platelet function were unrelated to the platelet count in patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia; in contrast, subjects with polycythaemia vera showed fewer abnormalities when the platelet count was less than 500,000/μl.