cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Extreme Price Variation for Generic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Medications

ABSTRACT Objective To examine the geographic and pharmacy-type variation in costs for generic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) medications in order to improve drug price transparency and reduce health disparities. Medical therapy for BPH can be expensive, having significant implications for uninsured and underinsured patients. Methods We generated a 20% random sample of all pharmacies in Pennsylvania and queried each for the uninsured cash price of a 30-day prescription of tamsulosin 0.4mg daily, finasteride 5mg daily, oxybutynin immediate release 5mg TID and oxybutynin XL 10mg daily. Our primary objectives were to identify price variation based on pharmacy type (i.e., big chain and independent) and between geographic regions (predetermined by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council Database). We fit multivariable quantile regression models to test for an association between drug price and region after controlling for pharmacy type. Results Among 575 retail pharmacies contacted, 473 responded (82% response rate). The median cash price was significantly higher for big chain pharmacies than for independent pharmacies for tamsulosin ($66 vs. $15), finasteride ($68 vs. $15), oxybutynin immediate release ($49 vs. $35), and oxybutynin XL ($79 vs. $31) (all p Conclusion Compared to independent pharmacies, big chain pharmacies charged significantly more for generic BPH medications to uninsured patients. However, independent pharmacies demonstrated more regional variation in their pricing.
Agriculture, End to End

Agriculture consists of a process for converting energy and biological information into physical products for human consumption. Increasingly sophisticated biotechnology in agricultural inputs makes manifest this definition of agriculture as information flow. The architectural ideal in information science is the end-to-end principle. All intelligence within an information platform arises from its ends. The corollary of the end-to-end principle, however, is that intervening layers facilitating the transmission of intelligence become “dumb pipe,” whose sole contribution consists of efficient transport of information. Within its own domain, agriculture has become dumb pipe. The rise of bioengineered inputs has rendered obsolete the evolutionary contribution of farmers. At the other end of the value chain, consumer-driven preferences in food restrict the inputs that farmers may deploy. “Intelligence” propelled by preferences and tastes among affluent consumers constrain choices traditionally exercised by farmers. This exercise in virtue signaling exerts further competitive pressure. Driving all intelligence in the agricultural supply chain to its ends — where biotechnology reinvents basic inputs in an epoch of resource exhaustion and where consumer tastes dictate practices on the farm — compels a fundamental reevaluation of agriculture’s legal and economic premises.
The Research Challenge: Threats to the Validity of Human–Animal Interaction Intervention Studies and Suggestions for Improvement

Abstract There is a mismatch between the widespread belief that human-animal interaction (HAI) interventions work and the empirical evidence supporting the effects of these interventions. Research on some types of HAI interventions has advanced in terms of both quality and quantity in recent years, but not all areas of HAI research have seen this type of improvement. In this chapter, we examine some problems with existing research on the use of HAI in therapeutic situations including basic design problems, questions about whether the animals really constitute the active ingredient(s) in HAI interventions, low statistical power and variability in procedures, researcher bias, the file drawer problem, and spinning research results. We conclude by highlighting key steps researchers can take to continue to improve the evidence base for HAI interventions.
Modeling of separator failure in lithium-ion pouch cells under compression

Abstract The failure of the separator membrane by rupture or thermal runaway is the prime cause of concern for the lithium battery system. In this work, we model the mechanical behavior and ionic conductance of the separator membrane under compression and its influence on the lithium cell thermal performance. The separator membrane is modeled as an open-cell foam to correlate the mechanical deformation under compressive loads and ionic conductivity. Predicted correlation between mechanical deformation and ionic conductivity is compared with experimental reports of membrane performance. Next, the validated model is used to simulate the thermal performance of lithium-ion pouch cells. Thermal response is predicted for a number of different pouch cell configurations with graphite (C) as anode; cathode chosen from lithium manganese oxide (LMO), lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) or lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP); and separator membrane chosen from monolayer polypropylene (PP), monolayer polyethylene (PE), trilayer, non-woven or ceramic-coated. The thermal response is used to predict the average cell temperature under an applied compressive load. Design maps that plot the maximum cell temperature over a range of applied load for different rates of charging and cooling conditions are prepared and used to identify the design conditions leading to separator meltdown and thermal runaway.
Aqueous Carbon Quantum Dot-Embedded PC60-PC61BM Nanospheres for Ecological Fluorescent Printing: Contrasting Fluorescence Resonance Energy-Transfer Signals between Watermelon-like and Random Morphologies.

To go beyond the PC60 surfactant structure, the double-layer micelle morphology in water motivates exploration of altered protocols to produce new morphologies. Furthermore, the low photoluminescence quantum yield of aqueous fullerene-based particles encourages high fluorescence to create a light-emitting display. With this in mind, we established new hybrid n-type nanospheres with carbon quantum dot (CQD)-embedded PC60-PC61BM particles, processed using two different protocols. The homogenizer-assisted PC60-CQD-PC61BM resulted in a watermelon-shaped spherical particle, whereas a circular morphology with randomly embedded CQDs was observed in the microwave-treated hybrids. More surprisingly, the watermelon-shaped colloid induced efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the CQD and C60 molecules of PC61BM, and the FRET-mediated emission signature diminished gradually as the stripe patterns collapsed. This phenomenon allowed different fluorescent colors in the colloidal printing film. ...
Dying Virtues: Medical Doctors’ Epideictic Rhetoric of How to Die

This essay takes the recent popularity of medical doctors’ narrative writings about the dying process as its cultural exigence, analyzing these alongside an earlier wave of such writings as epideictic rhetorics that function to reshape cultural values surrounding the “good death” by reconstituting our notions of virtuous dying conduct. Although the texts analyzed have many admirable and comforting qualities, encouraging us to face death with realism and assuring us that there are aspects of the way we die which are within our control, the virtues and modes of conduct they promote and exalt around a controlled death are available only to the privileged subject.
Status of the TAMUTRAP facility and initial characterization of the RFQ cooler/buncher

The Texas A&M University Penning Trap experiment (TAMUTRAP) is an upcoming ion trap facility that will be used to search for possible scalar currents in T = 2 superallowed pure Fermi decays (utilizing β-delayed proton emitters), which, if found, would be an indication of physics beyond the standard model. In addition, TAMUTRAP will provide a low-energy, point-like source of ions for various other applications at the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University. The experiment is centered around a unique, compensated cylindrical Penning trap that employs a specially optimized length/radius ratio in the electrode structure that is not used by any other facility. The radioactive beam, provided by the Texas A&M University Re-accelerated Exotics (T-REX) program at the Cyclotron Institute, will be prepared for loading in the measurement trap via a specially designed Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) cooler/buncher. These proceedings will describe the current status of the TAMUTRAP facility, paying particular attention to the design and initial characterization of the RFQ cooler/buncher. Future plans will also be discussed.
Dynamic embodied positionalities: The politics of class and nature through a critical ethnography of homelessness:

Researchers’ subjective positionalities are often presented as explanatory factors in the interpretation and analyses of ethnographic experiences. In geographic and anthropological ethnographies, p...
Numt identification and removal with RtN

Motivation Assays in mitochondrial genomics rely on accurate read mapping and variant calling. However, there are known and unknown nuclear paralogs that have fundamentally different genetic properties than that of the mitochondrial genome. Such paralogs complicate the interpretation of mitochondrial genome data and confound variant calling. Results Remove the Numts! (RtN!) was developed to categorize reads from massively parallel sequencing data not based on the expected properties and sequence identities of paralogous nuclear encoded mitochondrial sequences, but instead using sequence similarity to a large database of publicly available mitochondrial genomes. RtN! removes low-level sequencing noise and mitochondrial paralogs while not impacting variant calling, while competing methods were shown to remove true variants from mitochondrial mixtures. Availability and implementation https://github.com/Ahhgust/RtN. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Are the Criminogenic Effects of Incarceration Mediated by a Change in Criminal Thinking or a Change in Perceived Certainty

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether a change in criminal thinking or a change in perceived certainty mediates the putative criminogenic effect of incarceration. A path analysi...
Fourier Transform Infrared Microscopic Imaging and Fisher Discrimination for Identification of Healthy and Degenerated Articular Cartilage

Fourier transform infrared microscopic imaging( FTIRI) can be used to collect the infrared spectra and morphology of the samples. As combined with chemometric method,the content and spatial distribution of the principal components in biological tissues can be studied quantitatively. In this study,FTIRI combined with principal component analysis( PCA) and Fisher discrimination was applied to identify healthy and degenerated articular cartilage samples. First,FTIRI and spectral analysis on articular cartilage specimens were achieved,as well as PCA on the infrared spectra in SPSS software. And then Fisher discrimination was adopted to construct the classification function based on the principal component score matrix for classifying the articular cartilage samples. The healthy and degenerated cartilage samples were effectively discriminated with very high accuracy of 95. 7% for initial samples and 94. 3% for cross validation samples,respectively. It is indicated that the hyphenated technique can effectively discriminate the healthy and degenerated cartilages,which provides a convenient method for monitoring osteoarthritic generation and reparation.
Alliances and Related Domination Parameters

Alliances in graphs were defined to model real-life applications, where an agreement exists between two or more parties to work together for the common good. In this chapter, we explore alliances and related domination parameters.
A Population Approach to Assess Antimicrobial Resistance in Commensal Coliforms of Feedlot Cattle

The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude and duration of apparent antimicrobial resistance in commensal fecal coliforms using a population-based approach in feedlot cattle.
Clinical Characteristics, Management, and Outcomes of Cancer Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Admitted to the ICU.

Adult patients with cancer have a greater likelihood of developing severe illness and death from coronavirus disease 2019 compared with patients without cancer. We sought to characterize the clinical characteristics and outcomes of cancer patients who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and were admitted to the ICU at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in the United States. DESIGN: A single-center retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Two medical-surgical ICUs of a tertiary-care cancer center. PATIENTS/SUBJECTS: All consecutive adult patients (≥ 18 yr) with current or past (< 2 yr) diagnosis of cancer who were admitted to the ICU with coronavirus disease 2019 between March 1, and June 30, 2020. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data of 89 critically ill cancer patients were extracted from electronic medical records. Median age was 65 years (interquartile range, 57-70 yr), 66% were White, and 58% male. Approximately a third of patients had three or more comorbidities. Fifty-one patients (57%) had solid tumors, and 38 (42%) had hematologic malignancies. Sixty-one patients (69%) received cancer-directed therapy within the previous 90 days. Sixty patients (67%) required mechanical ventilation, 56% required prone positioning, 28% underwent tracheostomy, and 71% required vasopressors. Hospital mortality was 45% (40/89). Among those who required mechanical ventilation, mortality was 53% (32/60). Hospital mortality was significantly higher among patients with hematologic malignancies, higher severity of illness and organ failure scores, need for invasive mechanical ventilation and vasopressor therapy, lower hemoglobin and platelet count, and higher d-dimer levels at ICU admission. ICU and hospital length of stay were 10 and 26 days, respectively. At 9-month follow-up, the mortality rate was 54% (48/89). CONCLUSIONS: We report the largest case series and intermediate-term follow-up of cancer patients with coronavirus disease 2019 who were admitted to the ICU. Hospital mortality was 45%. Intermediate-term outcome after hospital discharge was favorable.
Diffuse Pagetoid Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Situ of the Esophagus: A Rare Case Report and Review of Literature.

Squamous cell carcinoma in situ (SCCIS) with diffuse pagetoid features has been well-described in skin and external genitalia. Diffuse pagetoid SCCIS of the esophagus is extremely rare with only tw...
Syntactic Effects of Conjunctivist Semantics: Unifying movement and adjunction

This book explores the syntactic and semantic properties of movement and adjunction in natural language. A precise formulation of minimalist syntax is proposed, guided by an independently motivated hypothesis about the composition of neo-Davidsonian logical forms, in which there is no atomic movement operation and no atomic adjunction operation. The terms 'movement' and 'adjunction' serve only as convenient labels for certain combinations of other, primitive operations, and as a result the system derives non-trivial predictions about how movement and adjunction should interact; in particular, it yields natural explanatory accounts of the constituency of adjunction structures, the possibility of counter-cyclic attachment, and the prohibitions on extraction from adjoined domains (adjunct islands) and from moved domains (freezing effects). This work serves as a case study in deriving explanations for syntactic patterns from a restrictive theory of semantic composition, and in using an explicit grammatical framework to inform rigourous minimalist theorising.
New and interesting fungi (Loculoascomycetes) from the Amazon

A new genus, Javaria, and species, J; samuelsii, are described from material collected at Serra Araca, Amazonas. Also, the taxonomy of two other Amazonian species is updated; Herpotrichia villosa is tranferred to Byssosphaeria and Thaxteriella roraimensis is tranferred to Tubeufia.
The North American Operations Research Societies

This short article describes the two major societies that make up the North American Operations Research Societies and lists a collection of other societies that are affiliated with the field of operations research within North America. Keywords: societies; North America; history of OR
Orodigitofacial dysostosis and oculodentodigital dysplasia: Two distinct syndromes with some similarities

Abstract One case of orodigitofacial dysostosis and two cases of oculodentodigital dysplasia, the latter affecting two siblings, have been described and the differences and similarities have been discussed. The hereditary pattern of orodigitofacial dysostosis and the genetic significance of the occurrence of oculodentodigital dysplasia in siblings were noted.
Surgical antireflux procedure for scarred or exstrophic bladders: Variation of technique*

Summary A technique of reimplantation which works well even for scarred or inelastic bladders such as those in patients with exstrophy, includes the tailoring of even the moderately dilated ureter, which is often present in patients with exstrophy or prior surgical failure. This tailored ureter is then “advanced” into a trough created in the trigone. The tip of the trough is near the bladder neck where the tip of the ureter is firmly fixed with 3 sutures. The ureters are then covered with urothelial flaps developed from the sides of the trough to prevent leakage through the suture line of the tailored ureter. Circumferential stricturing by the margin of the urothelium is also prevented. Number 8 (French) infant feeding tube splints are left in the ureters for from seven to fourteen days, depending on the extent of tailoring of the ureters which had been done outside the bladder. A Foley catheter is left in the urethra and the ureteral catheters taped to it until they are removed. Foley catheter drainage of the bladder is continued for a full fourteen to seventeen days. It has been my experience that all of these features must be incorporated if success is to be achieved under these more difficult circumstances.
Active Surveillance is an Appropriate Management Strategy for a Proportion of Men Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer by Prostate Specific Antigen Testing

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the fraction of men who would qualify for active surveillance in a population based cohort diagnosed with prostate cancer. In those who qualified and subsequently underwent primary treatment with radical prostatectomy, we assessed the rate of upgrading and up staging.Materials and Methods: SABOR is a Clinical and Epidemiologic Center of the EDRN (Early Detection Research Network), NCI (National Cancer Institute), with 3,828 men enrolled at the time of review. Of these men 320 were diagnosed with prostate cancer, of whom 281 had sufficient data for review. These 281 cases were reviewed to determine suitability for active surveillance using 2 sets of criteria. Criteria 1 were prostate specific antigen density less than 15%, 2 or fewer cores involved with cancer, Gleason score 6 or less and cancer involving 50% or less of biopsy volume. Criteria 2 were 4 or fewer cores with Gleason 3 + 3 cancer and only 1 core of Gleason 3 + 4 cancer with up to 15% of core ...
Variable-rate, lossy, tree-structured codes and digital radiography

The author surveys binary tree-structured methods for clustering as they apply to predictive, pruned, tree-structured vector quantization (predictive PTSVQ). Much of the material concerns applications of PTSVQ to the lossy coding of digital medical images, especially CT and MR chest scans. There is a brief introduction to the asymptotic properties of the algorithms and to an attempt to understand variability and covariability of amino acids in the V3 loop region of HIV.
Property as Legal Knowledge: Means and Ends

This article takes anthropologists’ renewed interest in property theory as an opportunity to consider legal theory-making as an ethnographic subject in its own right. My focus is on one particular construct – the instrument, or relation of means to ends, that animates both legal and anthropological theories about property. An analysis of the workings of this construct leads to the conclusion that rather than critique the ends of legal knowledge, the anthropology of property should devote itself to articulating its own means.
Engaging School Students with Tangible Devices: Pilot Project with .NET Gadgeteer

One of the challenges to promoting computer science in schools is to create and retain interest in programming. We describe a pilot project for primary and secondary students in Macau to introduce .NET Gadgeteer, a rapid prototyping platform for building electronic devices. The aim of the yearlong project was to generate interest in building devices, while learning the basics of programming concepts. Our experience with the weekend workshops indicates that the hands-on approach helped to engage the students. Results from a survey of 155 students point to increased engagement through active learning and growing enthusiasm to learn programming. We report some issues that surfaced and give recommendations for teachers who wish to consider such devices for teaching programming to novices. We hope to further explore ways to incorporate learning programming through tangible devices in the curriculum in local schools.
Jean Rhys: Writing colour, writing Caribbean: Voyage in the Dark and the politics of colour

Being black is warm and gay, being white is cold and sad. ( VITD : 31) I bought a bright red dress to celebrate – at Exeter – a cheap Christmas cracker dress … ( L : 209) I wont say one word about Voyage … except this – its after all an often related story. The difficult thing is the only worth while thing. The girl is divided . two people really . or at any rate a one foot in the sea & one on land girl. (Letter to Selma Vaz Dias, 17 September 1965) Throughout Rhys's texts, more intensely in some than others but always significantly, colour functions as a symbolic code. Rhys provides depth and complexity by developing such poetic metaphors within her spare prose. By colour, I mean both a painter's palette and the consciousness of skin shade and the social construction of race which is so clearly an indication of a West Indian consciousness at work in Rhys's texts. By politics, I mean that colour conveys a complex and detailed sense of power relations, mainly to do with how the life force, libido itself, is repressed by hierarchical social organisation. Much can be said about complexities of race, culture, gender and nationality through this coding of colour, which repays close reading because it proves to be quite subtle and integral to Rhys's characterisation and settings.
Is Medical Student Interest in Cardiothoracic Surgery Maintained After Receiving Scholarship Awards

Background Medical student exposure to cardiothoracic surgery has been facilitated by many scholarship opportunities. This study reviews the long-term interest of students at our institution who have received such support. Methods After the first or second year of medical school, participants were selected to receive scholarships for clinical or research activities in cardiothoracic surgery ranging from 4 to 8 weeks in duration. These were funded by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, or a private family donor. Over time, each student's scholarship type, current interest in cardiothoracic surgery, and current education or career status was prospectively monitored in an institutional database. Results Since 1999, 45 students received scholarships. Eight (18%) were funded by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, two (4%) by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons one (2%) by the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, and 34 (76%) by private donors. The median follow-up of graduated students is 7 years. Of the 20 (44%) with an active current interest in cardiothoracic surgery, 2 are faculty, 1 is a fellow, 1 is in an integrated 6-year program, 11 are in general surgery residency and are planning to apply to cardiothoracic surgery fellowship, and the remaining 5 are in medical school and planning a cardiothoracic surgery career. Of all former medical students who received cardiothoracic surgery research scholarships and who have now made a career choice, 17.4% chose cardiothoracic surgery. Conclusions More than one-third of medical students who received scholarships in cardiothoracic surgery maintained their interest over time, and more than half maintained interest in a surgical field. Although long-term data are scarce, it remains critical to foster mentoring relationships with students over time to guide their career choices.
Colorectal Polyps Missed with Optical Colonoscopy Despite Previous Detection and Localization with CT Colonography

Nearly one in four nondiminutive colorectal polyps detected by using CT colonography but not found with subsequent nonblinded optical colonoscopy ultimately proves to be a false-negative (FN) finding, and a majority of these FN findings occur in the right colon and are clinically significant.
Quantum logic gates using photon exchange interactions

Summary form only given. Nonlinear interactions between two photons are normally very weak because of the weak electric field associated with a single photon. We recently suggested that this difficulty could be avoided by relying on exchange interactions, which can have large effects even when there is no physical interaction at all between two particles. We consider two photons in well collimated beams that are incident upon an atomic vapor cell. The probability of there being two excited atoms in the medium is shown to be a factor of two larger in that case than if the two photons were incident upon two separate but otherwise identical media.
Non-linear optical phenomena in the large-sized nanocrystallites

Abstract Photoinduced second harmonic generation (PISHG) in SiC nanocrystallites (with sizes ranging from 10 to 30 nm) incorporated into an oligoetheracrylate photopolymer matrix was studied using an experimental photoinducing non-linear optical technique and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. PISHG measurements were made using a pulse YAG:Nd laser ( λ=1.06 μm ; duration time varying from 4 to 850 ps, laser power about 14 MW) as the probing beam and a nitrogen pulse laser (P=25 MW; λ=0.377 μm ) as the pumping beam synchronized with a probing beam. We found that with an increase in the nitrogen laser power, the PISHG output signal increased and achieved its maximum value at nitrogen laser photon flux of about 2.6 GW / cm 2 . Maximum output PISHG signals were observed for parallel polarization of the photoinducing and probing light beams. The second order non-linear optical susceptibility observed at the maximum PISHG was about 1.2 pm/V. The PISHG signals increased as the sample temperature decreased. This increase became marked when the temperature fell below 30 K. Time-dependent probe-pump measurements showed the existence of a PISHG maximum at a time delay of about 20–25 ps. As a result of total energy structure optimization, a good correlation between the size dimensions and the degree of hexagonality within the nanocrystallites was observed. An increase in the degree of hexagonality was also found to cause an increase in the PISHG signal. At a temperature of about 4.2 K, and with a time delay of 25 ps, the maximum PISHG was observed for a degree of hexagonality of approximately 0.76. Our calculations suggest that hexagonal substructures play a key role in the photoinduced effects observed. Several discrepancies between theoretical and experimental data may be caused by specimen in-homogeneity which is usually present in such kinds of materials.
Ideal matrices. III.

In this paper ideal matrices with respect to ideals in the maximal order of an algebraic number field are connected with the different of the field and with group matrices in the case of normal fields whose maximal order has a normal basis.
Quantum chaos in a deformable billiard: Applications to quantum dots

We perform a detailed numerical study of energy-level and wave-function statistics of a deformable quantum billiard focusing on properties relevant to semiconductor quantum dots. We consider the family of Robnik billiards generated by simple conformal maps of the unit disk; the shape of this family of billiards may be varied continuously at fixed area by tuning the parameters of the map. The classical dynamics of these billiards is well understood and this allows us to study the quantum properties of subfamilies, which span the transition from integrability to chaos, as well as families at approximately a constant degree of chaoticity (Kolmogorov entropy). In the regime of hard chaos we find that the statistical properties of interest are well described by random-matrix theory and are completely insensitive to the particular shape of the dot. However, in the nearly integrable regime nonuniversal behavior is found. Specifically, the level-width distribution is well described by the predicted ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\chi}}}^{2}$ distribution both in the presence and absence of magnetic flux when the system is fully chaotic; however, it departs substantially from this behavior in the mixed regime. The chaotic behavior corroborates the previously predicted behavior of the peak-height distribution for deformed quantum dots. We also investigate the energy-level correlation functions, which are found to agree well with the behavior calculated for quasi-zero-dimensional disordered systems.
Osmotically induced increase in cerebrovascular permeability to [3H]sucrose.

Abstract The effect of an intracarotid infusion of a 5 M urea solution on the blood-brain barrier of the rat was measured using the carotid injection technique. The urea infusion increased the amount of sucrose penetrating the barrier. This increased uptake of sucrose was first seen 10–25 sec after the 15 sec urea infusion. By 10 min, sucrose uptake had decreased in some animals.
Guilt by association: HLA-B27 and ankylosing spondylitis

The remarkable association between HLA-B27 and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) remains an enigma. While previous reviews have discussed the controversies surrounding the involvement of bacteria in the etiology of this disease and the sequence variability between subtypes of HLA-B27, concepts of disease mechanism remain ill-defined. In this article Richard Benjamin and Peter Parham synthesize new data on the structure and function of HLA class I molecules into possible mechanisms that might underly the pathogenesis of AS.
A theory of entropy in Fourier analysis

Abstract This thesis deals with a certain set function called entropy and its applications to some problems in classical Fourier analysis. For a set S ⊆ [0, 1 e ] the entropy of S is defined by E(S) = inf S⊂∪ k I k ,I k intervals Σ k | I k | log ( 1 |I k | ) . We begin by using notions related to entropy in order to investigate the maximal operator M Ω given by M Ω (f)(x) = sup r>0 ( 1 r n ) ∫ |t| ≤r Ω(t) |f(x + t)| dt, f ϵ L 1 (R n ) , where Ω is a positive function, homogeneous of degree 0, and satisfying a certain weak smoothness condition. Then the set function entropy is investigated, and certain of its properties are derived. We then apply these to solve various problems in differentiation theory and the theory of singular integrals, deriving in the process, entropic versions of the theorems of Hardy and Littlewood and Calderon and Zygmund.
Methanogens in human and animal intestinal Tracts

Summary Methanogens are members of microbial communities that inhabit the large intestine of man and animals and the specialized forestomachs of some herbivores (e. g., ruminants). Nonmethanogenic populations of these communities ferment substrates to short chain volatile fatty acids, H2 and CO2. Methanogens use the H2 to reduce CO2 to CH4. Methanol and methylamines derived from dietary sources are used in lesser amounts for the production of CH4. Some humans excrete only a few methanogens per g dry weight (gdw) of feces and some excrete 1010 per gdw. About 1/3 of the population has 108 to 1010 methanogens per gdw. The predominant methanogen in all subjects is Methanobrevibacter smithii. A coccus that uses H2 to reduce methanol to CH4 is often present at lower concentrations. This coccus, Methanosphaera stadtmaniae, belongs to the Methanobacteriaceae. The major methanogen in Wistar rats belongs to the same genus as Mb. smithii, but DNA hybridization studies indicate that it is a different species. A coccus resembling Ms. stadtmaniae is present in lower concentrations. Methanogens have been isolated from feces of the horse, sheep, cow, pig, goose, turkey and chicken. The predominant methanogen in all except the chicken and turkey is a Methanobrevibacter species. The chicken and the turkey harbor species of Methanogenium. Methanogens have been isolated from feces of a variety of wild animals and insects and most are Methanobrevibacter species which are also the most common methanogens in the forestomach of the bovine rumen.
TNF-α induced c-IAP1/TRAF2 complex translocation to a Ubc6-containing compartment and TRAF2 ubiquitination

Signaling through tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNF-R2) results in ubiquitination of TRAF2 by the E3 c-IAP1. In this report, we confirm that TRAF2 translocates to a Triton X-100 (TX)-insoluble compartment upon TNF-R2 engagement. Moreover, TRAF2 ubiquitination occurs in this compartment, from which TRAF2 is degraded in a proteasome-dependant manner. Confocal microscopy demonstrated that the TX-insoluble compartment is perinuclear and co-localizes with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) markers. The ER transmembrane Ubc6 bound to c-IAP1 and served as a cognate E2 for c-IAP1's E3 activity in vitro. Furthermore, Ubc6 co-localized with translocated TRAF2/c-IAP1 in the ER-associated compartment in vivo, and a catalytically inactive Ubc6 mutant inhibited TNF-α-induced, TNF-R2-dependent TRAF2 degradation. These results indicate that upon TNF-R2 signaling, translocation of TRAF2 and c-IAP1 to an ER-associated, Ubc6-containing perinuclear compartment is required for the ubiquitination of TRAF2 by c-IAP1. Therefore, the ER plays a key role in the TNF-R-mediated signal transduction cascade by acting as a site of assembly for E2/E3/substrate complexes.
Alternating copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides: an improved route to aliphatic polyesters.

Beta-diiminate zinc catalysts are reported for the synthesis of aliphatic polyesters via the highly alternating copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides under mild reaction conditions. The polymers formed have high Mn values and narrow molecular weight distributions.
Life History, Sex Attraction, Mating, and Natural Enemies of the Grape Mealybug, Pseudococcus maritimus (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae)

Life history studies were made of Pseudococcus maritimus (Ehrhorn) reared in the laboratory on potato sprouts at a LD 16:8 photoperiod and ca. 24°C. The female mealybug had three larval instars while the male had four. Stadia were determined for all stages except the egg and first instar. Average number of eggs produced was 57.0 ( n = 38). Larger females (length in mm) produced more eggs than smaller females ( P < 0.01, n = 20). Mating was necessary for egg production. Five pheromone traps were placed in a Concord grape vineyard in August 1983 during adult male emergence; three were baited with 10 P. maritimus virgin females each; two traps were not baited. The baited traps collected 98.5% of all trapped males, suggesting that mature virgin female grape mealybugs produce a male attractant. Natural enemies of the grape mealybug were collected as they were encountered in the field. These included a parasite, Pseudaphycus angelicus (Howard), and a hyperparasite, Pachyneuron sp. Larvae of Chrysopa carnea Stephens and C. oculata Say preyed on early instars of grape mealybugs occurring under rough bark of the grape vine. In mid-August 1981 and 1982, adults of Coccinella transversoguttata Faldermann were observed in the vineyard feeding on mealybugs on grape clusters.
Evidence that thesame-different disparity in letter matching is not attributable to response bias

When pairs of letters or letter strings are judged assame ordifferent, correctsame responses are usually faster than correctdifferent responses. Recently, Ratcliff and Hacker (1981, 1982) have argued that thissame-different disparity is likely attributable solely to a bias to respondsame. The present article reports an experiment in which the relative bias to respondsame ordifferent was varied for matches of single-letter pairs. Bias was manipulated by having 80, 60, 40, or 20 pairs in a block of 100 besame, with the remainder beingdifferent. For both sequential and simultaneous presentation of the letters,same reaction times had an overall advantage overdifferent reaction times that could not be attributed to response bias. Moreover, consistent with Proctor’s (1981) facilitation principle, this reaction time disparity was greater with sequential presentation than with simultaneous presentation. The larger reaction time advantage forsame pairs with sequential presentation was obtained without an increase in the relative number of false-same responses, supporting the view that the facilitation is attributable to changes in sensitivity and not to changes in encoding criteria.
Cortical Catecholamine Secretion Following Intravenous Nitroprusside Infusion: A Voltammetric Study

Intravenous administration of sodium nitroprusside (NP) decreases blood pressure and activates noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC). Microdialysis studies have shown that NP infusion is accompanied by increased extracellular concentrations of norepinephrine (NE) in the medial prefrontal cortex. The present study used in vivo voltammetry to obtain a finer temporal analysis of the NP-induced changes in the extracellular concentrations of catecholamine-like compounds in the LC terminal fields in the rat medial prefrontal cortex. Intravenous infusion of rats with NP caused a rapid decrease in blood pressure that lasted for the duration of the infusion but rapidly reversed when the infusion was terminated. After a delay of between about 2 and 8 min (mean 5 min), there was an increase in extracellular concentrations of a NE-like substance. Presumed cortical release of NE lasted for several minutes but had almost returned to baseline by the time the NP infusion was terminated at 15 min. In many cases, the first peak was followed by a second one, usually of smaller amplitude but more prolonged than the first one. There was no clear response to the cessation of infusion of NP. The time course of the initial response is comparable to the previously reported electrophysiological response of LC-NE neurons to NP. In rats treated with DSP-4 to deplete cortical NE, blood pressure was reduced as in untreated rats, but no voltammetric response to NP infusion was observed. These results suggest that activation of the NE-LC neurons by NP results in a delayed synaptic release of NE in the cerebral cortex which attenuates within several minutes.
Intracranial Ependymomas of Childhood: Current Management Strategies

Children with intracranial ependymomas have relatively poor outcomes despite the low-grade histology of these tumors and recent advances in diagnosis, microneurosurgical resection, and adjuvant therapy. Aggressive surgical resection and postoperative adjuvant therapy result in only a 5-year survival rate of 50%. In this paper, we provide a review of the current technical aspects of surgical resection, and focus on recent studies of the epidemiology, molecular markers, prognostic factors and adjuvant therapy for childhood intracranial ependymomas and discuss their implications for current and future management strategies.
AIDS, Social Sciences, and Health Education: A Personal Perspective

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has raised numerous ethical issues. Above all it has served to highlight the fact that individual liberty always exists in a precarious balance with public interest. The invasion of privacy loss of confidentiality and coercive approaches proposed for testing and disclosure of infected individuals threaten to turn this into and underground epidemic. Health education is the only feasible strategy for containing the AIDS epidemic at this time yet such efforts have been hindered by the governments reluctance to issue explicitly written materials dealing with homosexual sex practices. The need to convey accurate information is important not only to preventing further infection in the gay community but also in limiting the likelihood of reinfection should repeated exposure to the AIDS virus prove to be of pathogenic significance. Despite government prudery the dramatic decrease in rates of rectal gonorrhea in New York and San Francisco indicate that homosexuals are listening to appeals to practice "safe sex." In addition self-reports on the number of sexual partners among gay men suggest that AIDS has had a chilling effect on life-style. Resolution is needed of the non-health-related problems--including confidentiality and the possible loss of job insurance and friends--that make it difficult or unwise to advocate widespread screening for antibody to the AIDS virus at this point.
The interpretation of protein structures: estimation of static accessibility.

A program is described for drawing the van der Waal’s surface of a protein molecule. An extension of the program permits the accessibility of atoms, or groups of atoms, to solvent or solute molecules of specifiedsize to be quantitatively assessed. As defined in this study, the accessibility is proportional to surface area. The accessibility of all atoms in the twenty common amino acids in model tripeptides of the type Ala-X-Ala are given for defined conformation. The accessibilities are also given for all atoms in ribonuclease-S, lysozyme and myogobhn. Internal cavities are defined and discussed. Various summaries of these data are provided. Forty to fifty per cent of the surface area of each protein is occupied by non-polar atoms. The actual numerical results are sensitive to the values chosen for the van der Waal’s radii of the various groups. Since there is uncertainty over the correct values for these radii, the derived numbers should only be used as a qualitative guide at this stage. The average change in accessibility for the atoms of all three proteins in going from a hypothetical extended chain to the folded conformation of the native protein is about a factor of 3. This number applies to both polar (nitrogen and oxygen) and non-polar (carbon and sulfur) atoms considered separately. The larger non-polar amino acids tend to be more “buried” in the native form of all three proteins. However, for all classes and for residues within a given class the accessibility changes on folding tend to be highly variable.
Inhibitors of oxidative degradation of protein: gerontological implications.

Compounds were studied that inhibit the oxidative degradation of human serum albumin by peroxidase and the enzyme model, iron hydroxide. Differences between the two oxidants gave clues for the mechanism of inhibition. The inhibitors studied were inorganic anions, phosphate, sulfate, carbonate and molybdate; organic anions, decanoate and glycocholate; and the nonionic species, glycogen. Such inhibitors might be considered as adjuvants in senscence: by decreasing the rate of enzymic oxidation of essential body proteins, they would, in the course of aging, reduce some of the physiological changes occurring as a result of accumulation of degraded protein. Oxidation of essential body constituents with subsequent accumulation of degraded oxidation products has been implicated as a factor in senescence by several authors (1). As an example, lipofuscin, found in old tissues, is possibly such a product, since hyperoxia increases its amount (2). In keeping with such considerations the present author has shown that human serum proteins are being oxidized by ubiquitous oxidizing enzymes, such as polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (PO) (3), and that undesirable oxidation products might accumulate in the tissues when the rate of synthesis of native proteins is reduced as is the case in advanced age (4). It was accordingly thought desirable to establish what chemicals inhibit, at least partially, the activity of the enzymes mentioned. Such inhibitors, if normally present in the body, migh possibly counteract the oxidative degradation of tissues. Others, foreign to the body, might, if nontoxic, ultimately be considered as pharmaceuticals that could alleviate some of the symptoms developing as a result of accumulation of degraded oxidation products. The present study has been carried out with the aim of finding such inhibitors of protein oxidation. The author also found that iron hydroxide sol is a suitable model for PO, since the latter carries an iron atom as an essential constituent. In the present study therefore parallel measurements of inhibition were carried out with both PO and iron hydroxide. Such parallel study was helpful in choosing possible candidates for inhibitor, as also in drawing some conclusions as to the possible mechanism of inhibition.
IS THERE AN IMMUNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HORSE SERUM AND HORSE DANDER

Evidence has been submitted of the existence of a common antigenic substance in horse dander and horse serum. This evidence has been derived from three lines of study: ( a ) Cross-precipitation tests involving (1) the titration of antisera against horse serum with saline extract of horse dander and (2) titration of antisera against horse dander with normal horse serum. ( b ) Cross-anaphylactic tests by the uterine strip method of Dale. ( c ) Cross-anaphylactic tests in living guinea pigs by the usual shock method. It seems likely from the work here described that the common antigen is present in small proportion in horse dander. Its concentration in horse serum is not indicated by the results obtained.
Lactic Acid Dehydrogenase Isoenzymes of Buffy Coat Cells and Erythrocytes from Different Species

Markert and Moller have called multiple enzyme forms which exhibit similar substrate specificities isoenzymes1. Lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) has been extensively studied, mainly by starch gel electrophoresis; it exists in five molecular forms in most vertebrate species2. The active enzyme is apparently a tetramer composed of varying proportions of two polypeptide chains which are controlled by separate genes. These five LDH isoenzymes have recently been found to consist of additional subcomponents when electrophoresis is carried out at high voltage on a polyacrylamide gel3. This sub-heterogeneity of LDH isoenzyme is not explained, although some evidence suggests that sulphydryl groups are involved3.
Function of Bilateral Oviducts in Double Oviduct Hens Following Surgery

Abstract A double oviduct line of Rhode Island Red chickens has been maintained as a closed flock at the Wisconsin Experiment Station since 1970. Sixty-four percent of the stock reared during the 3-yr study period had complete left and right oviducts. Experiments were designed to determine whether the right oviduct of double oviduct hens was functional. Two surgical procedures were chosen in which either a piece of the left ovary was transplanted to the right side, or the abdominal-midline tunica serosa was opened and the left ovary was pulled to the right side. In one experiment the left oviduct was also made nonfunctional. Laparotomized hens served as controls. Insemination with semen from dominant barred males as a genetic marker, followed by physical examination, confirmed right oviduct function. Hens that formed the egg in the normal left oviduct laid significantly more eggs of much greater weight and had higher percentage fertility than hens with functional right oviducts.