cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Protein expression profile of Oxaliplatin-resistant HT29 colon cancer cells

3743 Objectives: In spite of recent advances in clinical oncology with combination chemotherapy, resistance to cytotoxic compounds remains a major obstacle to a successful therapy. Oxaliplatin is a chemotherapeutic agent widely used in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The purpose of this study is to gain further understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in oxaliplatin resistance in colorectal cancer cells. Methods: We established an oxaliplatin resistant cell line from the HT29 human colon cancer cells. Cytotoxicity was analyzed by MTT and colony formation assays. Proteins were extracted from parental and oxaliplatin resistant (HTOXAR3) cells during exponential growth and were analyzed through comparative proteomics (2D gels and MS). Results: HTOXAR3 showed a 6 fold resistance as compared to HT29 cells. We observed 23 spots in the soluble and 14 spots in the insoluble fraction that were >4 fold over expressed or down-regulated in resistant versus parental cells. Mass spectrometry confirmed down-regulation of HSP60 and Enolase 1 in HTOXAR3 cells and over expression of hnRNP core protein C-like 1 in soluble fraction. HSP70 was overexpressed in insoluble fraction while Pyruvate Kinase was down-regulated. Western Blot analyses are ongoing to confirm these results and would be presented in the meeting. Conclusions: Using the proteomic approach comparing HT29 and its OXA-resistant subline, we have identified a group of proteins that exhibit changes in expression in the resistant subline and that may be involved in the acquisition of OXA-resistant phenotype in HTOXAR3 cells. According to the functional activity many of these proteins fall in the following categories: 1) glycolysis and enzymes involved in metabolic pathways, 2) nucleic acid synthesis, and 3) stress-response and protein-folding. Some of these proteins could serve as putative oxaliplatin resistance markers and further experiments are underway to confirm their clinical significance.
Adaptive Transmission for Network-Coded All-to-All Broadcast in Multi-Hop Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

We describe and evaluate a new suite of protocols for the delivery of information from each node to every other node in a multi-hop ad hoc wireless network. The protocol suite is integrated with random linear network coding to mitigate the effects of packet losses due to noise and time-varying fading on the radio links. The suite includes a practical three-mode protocol for packet-by-packet selection of the channel code and modulation based on control information from statistics derived by the nodes themselves. Our performance metric is energy efficiency, and our emphasis is on robust performance in practical networks for which optimization is not feasible.
Irritability and Behavioral Symptom Dimensions of Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Young Adults: Associations with DSM-5 Pathological Personality Traits

Irritability and behavioral symptom dimensions of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in youth exhibit differential associations with adult psychopathology. Recently, researchers have begun to examine ODD in adults, with evidence that symptoms persist into adulthood and continue to cause impairment above and beyond other types of psychopathology. Based on this emerging literature, there is a need to understand how ODD symptoms in adulthood relate to novel frameworks for characterizing adult psychopathology. Three-hundred and four young adult college students completed measures of ODD symptoms, DSM-5 pathological personality traits, ADHD, depression, and anxiety. Poisson regression was used to predict ODD severity score from the five DSM-5 personality traits, while controlling for sex, race, and comorbid psychopathology. Structural equation modeling was used to test competing models of ODD structure, and then to examine ODD dimensions and their specific associations with other psychopathology and the DSM-5 traits. Results show that ODD severity was positively associated with negative affectivity, antagonism, and disinhibition, and negatively associated with psychoticism. The two-factor model, with correlated irritability and behavioral dimensions, fit better than the unidimensional model. Irritability was uniquely associated with anxiety, depression, negative affectivity, and detachment, while the behavioral dimension was uniquely associated with ADHD, antagonism, and disinhibition. These analyses provide evidence that symptoms of ODD in young adults are associated with DSM-5 pathological personality traits above and beyond other psychopathology. These findings provide a framework for future studies and clinical consideration of ODD among adults.
Improving AUV Localization Accuracy by Combining Ultra-Short-Baseline and Long-Baseline Measurements Systems in a Post-Processing Extended Kalman Filter

This paper presents and evaluates an approach for combining ultra-short-baseline (USBL) and long-baseline localization data in a post-processing extended Kalman filter. The goal is to improve localization accuracy and reduce localization uncertainty for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) performing oceanographic survey measurements. The method was evaluated using logged LBL navigation data from field testing and simulated USBL data. Localization accuracy was evaluated by comparing state uncertainties of the independent and combined systems. Uncertainties of USBL localization data were estimated using a Monte-Carlo simulation at each AUV position. The results indicate that combining USBL data improves localization accuracy, especially when the USBL data includes depth telemetry measurements. Although this approach was evaluated by adding USBL data to logged LBL field-testing data, it could be applied to any navigation approach, including dead-reckoning.
‘The perfect counterinsurgent’: reconsidering the case of Major Jim Gant

In 2009, Major Jim Gant published a treatise online entitled One Tribe at a Time, outlining a strategy for victory in Afghanistan based on the still untested counterinsurgency doctrine developed by...
Spread the Fed: Distributed Central Banking in Pandemic and Beyond

I propose both an interpretation of and an institutional optimization plan for the broad array of new Fed Liquidity Facilities announced in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. These represent an attempt by our central bank to fund concerted state and municipal action as if it were federal action – a mode of action gone AWOL during the Trump occupation of the White House. In one sense this necessity is regrettable – tens of thousands are dying, while the need of vigorous federal governance is what prompted our Constitution in the first place. In another sense, however, the conundrum is simply the latest iteration of our republic’s perennial ambivalence over financial and political federalism alike, and accordingly yields an opportunity: That is to re-distribute our once-distributed Fed’s functionality across its more locally attentive subsidiaries, as envisaged in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Enacting Thinking: Supporting Teacher Candidates in Modeling Writing Strategies

Instructor modeling of metacognitive processes has been shown to support student learning. Teacher educators have leveraged this research to support teacher candidates in framing, decomposing, and ...
Pasts Lost: The Wye House Plantation as a Place of Haunting

Much of what we know about the Wye House Plantation in Talbot County, Maryland in the nineteenth century comes from the writings of Frederick Douglass, who was enslaved there. His descriptions of t...
Does robot-assisted spine surgery for multi-level lumbar fusion achieve better patient-reported outcomes than free-hand techniques?

Abstract Objective To compare the patient-reported outcomes (PROs) between patients undergoing multilevel lumbar fusion with robot-assisted vs. freehand techniques. Methods This was a single-institution cohort study of adult patients (≥18 years old) undergoing robot-assisted spine surgery from 2016 to 2018 with minimum 2-year follow-up. A propensity-score matching (PSM) algorithm accounted for several perioperative factors. PROs were measured using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The minimum clinically important difference (MCID) between groups were assessed at each follow-up period (6-weeks/6-months/1-year/2-years). Chi-square/fisher exact test and t-test/ANOVA were used for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Results After PSM, a total of 70 patients remained. The mean (standard deviation) charlson comorbidity index was 1.4 (1.0) and 57% of patients were female. The most common diagnoses included degenerative disc disease (37.1%), degenerative scoliosis (27.1%), and high grade spondylolisthesis (grade > 2) (19%), and the mean number of instrumented levels was 4.6 (4.4). Rates for intraoperative/postoperative complications, and any reoperation within 2 years after surgery were low and similar between groups. The baseline ODI scores were similar between freehand (39.1) and robot-assisted surgery (40.5, P-value = 0.736). By two years, substantial improvements in both groups (mean ODI-freehand: 4.6, robot-assisted: 1.5; MCID%-freehand: 77.1%, robot-assisted: 82.9%) were achieved, but not significantly different (P-value > 0.05). No differences were observed for the other follow-up periods. When comparing individual component scores, the robot-assisted group scored higher in “Lifting,” “Sitting,” and “Standing;” however, the magnitudes of these differences were less than 1 point. Conclusion Robot-assisted multi-level lumbar fusion can achieve excellent and similar patient-reported outcomes to conventional freehand techniques. Future studies should include large, prospective randomized controlled trials as well as the inclusion of other patient reported outcome measures.
Following the Trail of One Million Genomes: Footprints of SARS-CoV-2 Adaptation to Humans

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has accumulated genomic mutations at an approximately linear rate since it first infected human populations in late 2019. Controversies remain regarding the identity, proportion, and effects of adaptive mutations as SARS-CoV-2 evolves from a bat-to a human-adapted virus. The potential for vaccine-escape mutations poses additional challenges in pandemic control. Despite being of great interest to therapeutic and vaccine development, human-adaptive mutations in SARS-CoV-2 are masked by a genome-wide linkage disequilibrium under which neutral and even deleterious mutations can reach fixation by chance or through hitchhiking. Furthermore, genome-wide linkage equilibrium imposes clonal interference by which multiple adaptive mutations compete against one another. Informed by insights from microbial experimental evolution, we analyzed close to one million SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and identified putative human-adaptive mutations according to the rates of synonymous and missense mutations, temporal linkage, and mutation recurrence. Furthermore, we developed a forward-evolution simulator with the realistic SARS-CoV-2 genome structure and base substitution probabilities able to predict viral genome diversity under neutral, background selection, and adaptive evolutionary models. We conclude that adaptive mutations have emerged early, rapidly, and constantly to dominate SARS-CoV-2 populations despite clonal interference and purifying selection. Our analysis underscores a need for genomic surveillance of mutation trajectories at the local level for early detection of adaptive and immune-escape variants. Putative human-adaptive mutations are over-represented in viral proteins interfering host immunity and binding host-cell receptors and thus may serve as priority targets for designing therapeutics and vaccines against human-adapted forms of SARS-CoV-2.
A General Modeling Framework for Network Autoregressive Processes

The paper develops a general flexible framework for Network Autoregressive Processes (NAR), wherein the response of each node linearly depends on its past values, a prespecified linear combination of neighboring nodes and a set of node-specific covariates. The corresponding coefficients are node-specific, while the framework can accommodate heavier than Gaussian errors with both spatial-autorgressive and factor based covariance structures. We provide a sufficient condition that ensures the stability (stationarity) of the underlying NAR that is significantly weaker than its counterparts in previous work in the literature. Further, we develop ordinary and generalized least squares estimators for both a fixed, as well as a diverging number of network nodes, and also provide their ridge regularized counterparts that exhibit better performance in large network settings, together with their asymptotic distributions. We also address the issue of misspecifying the network connectivity and its impact on the aforementioned asymptotic distributions of the various NAR parameter estimators. The framework is illustrated on both synthetic and real air pollution data.
Calculation Method for Three-Dimensional Rotationally Symmetrical Laminar Boundary Layers with Arbitrary Free-Stream Velocity and Arbitrary Wall-Temperature Variation

A calculation method is presented enabling a rapid prediction of the distribution of the local skin-friction and heat-transfer coefficients to be made for rotationally symmetrical bodies having arbitrarily specified free-stream velocity distributions and surface-temperature variations for constant-property, incompressible, laminar boundary-layer flows. The method utilizes the Mangier transformation as a basis, thus enabling the results calculated by Hartree and Levy for the two-dimensional case to be used directly in the determination of boundary-layer quantities for the three-dimensional case. Example results using the proposed method are presented in the form of the boundary-layer momentum and displacement thicknesses, the skin-friction coefficients, and the heat-transfer coefficients for a three-dimensional half-body with constant surface temperature. These results, utilizing the Hartree velocity profiles, are compared with similar results obtained by Scholkemeier utilizing the Pohlhausen P-4 velocity profiles. The skin-friction coefficient for stagnation-point flow as obtained by the approximate method is compared with the exact solution for this region given by Homann to show excellent agreement.
Influence of the resin on interlaminar mixed-mode fracture

Both literature review data and new data on toughness behavior of seven matrix and adhesive systems in four types of tests were studied in order to assess the influence of the resin on interlaminar fracture. Mixed mode (i.e., various combinations of opening mode 1, G sub 1, and shearing mode 2; G sub 2) fracture toughness data showed that the mixed mode relationship for failure appears to be linear in terms of G sub 1 and G sub 2. The study further indicates that fracture of brittle resins is controlled by the G sub 1 component, and that fracture of many tough resins is controlled by total strain-energy release rate, G sub T. Regarding the relation of polymer structure and the mixed mode fracture: high mode 1 toughness requires resin dilatation; dilatation is low in unmodified epoxies at room temperature/dry conditions; dilatation is higher in plasticized epoxies, heated epoxies, and in modified epoxies; modification improves mode 2 toughness only slightly compared with mode 1 improvements. Analytical aspects of the cracked lap shear test specimen were explored.
Electroreduction of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in aprotic solvents.

Abstract The effect of solvent molecular features on the thermodynamics and kinetics of the sequential one-electron electroreduction of C60 was investigated in aprotic solvent systems of different polarity, polarizability and viscosity. Interrelationships were established between experimental parameters, such as half-wave potentials and diffusion coefficients, and several solvent parameters. Low values of C60 diffusion coefficients determined in some solvents, particularly tetrahydrofuran, were interpreted in terms of solute aggregation. Solvent polarity and polarizability effects on reversible half-wave potentials were emphasized. The Gibbs energy of electron transfer ΔGET of the C60 n − ( n +1)− processes (n = O, 1, 2, 3) was partitioned into polarity and geometric factors. The geometric factor was related to the Stokes radii of the reduced and oxidized forms of the solute and was demonstrated to contribute more significantly to the overall change of ΔGET than the polarity factor. The calculated standard rate constants of the first two heterogeneous electron transfers, C60 0 − and C60 − 2− , in benzonitrile and dichloromethane were compared with published experimental values.
High performance conductive adhesives modified with molecular wires

Different types of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) were used to treat nano Ag fillers. Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) molecules wires can act as electrical junctions between the conductive filler of the ACA and the contact pad of the substrate, as such, the interfaces between the conductive fillers and contact pad could be enhanced. Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and contact angle results indicated the SAMs were well coated on the nano Ag particles. Furthermore, these molecular wire-treated ACAs were thermally stable at processing temperatures of the ACA samples. By introducing the novel molecular wires into the interfaces between nano metal fillers and the substrate bond pads, the conductivity and current carrying capability of ACAs were further improved due to the stronger bonding between nano fillers and SAM and consequently the improved interface properties of the high performance ACA for potential microprocessor applications
Multiply constrained inverse electrocardiography: combining temporal, multiple spatial, and iterative regularization

The inverse problem of electrocardiography is ill-posed and requires the imposition of a priori constraints. The authors investigate the joint use of several constraints, including explicit spatial and temporal constraints and implicit frequency constraints via truncated iterative conjugate gradient solutions. >
Ultra-thin electromagnetic bandgap absorbers synthesized via genetic algorithms

A design methodology is presented for utilizing electromagnetic bandgap meta-materials, also known as artificial magnetic conductors, to realize ultra-thin absorbers. One approach that has recently been proposed is to place a resistive sheet in close proximity to a frequency selective surface acting as an artificial magnetic conductor. However, we demonstrate that incorporating the loss directly into the frequency selective surface can eliminate the additional resistive sheet, thereby further reducing the overall thickness of the absorber. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the geometrical structure and corresponding resistance of the lossy frequency selective surface in order to achieve the thinnest possible design. Two examples of genetically engineered electromagnetic bandgap meta-material absorbers are presented and discussed.
Contrast of liver and lymphoid tissue ribonucleases.

Abstract The distribution of ribonuclease activity in different cell fractions of rat liver and thymus were contrasted on the basis of effects of pH and treatment with SH reagents on enzyme activity. The main differences between the ribonuclease systems of the two tissues are:the ratio of acid alkaline activity is many-fold higher in thymus; the acid ribonucleases of cytosol fractions differ in their response to p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonate (PCMS) treatment, the effects of some common ions, in the nature of enzyme attack on RNA substrate, and in distribution among the cell particulates. Acid ribonuclease activity in purified nuclei of both liver and thymus decreases after PCMS treatment.
Polly Bemis, Pedagogy, and Multiculturalism in the Classroom

As Katy Fry suggests in her paper "Polly Bemis, Pedagogy, and Multiculturalism in the Classroom," the history of the US-American West is too often taught in mythological terms. This is especially true in grade school classrooms, where children are told that the West was settled by courageous men and women who dared to come to and conquer a wild, untamed place. The notion of what it meant to be a pioneer remains simple and uncomplicated. As Fry points out, however, there were pioneers of a different sort, such as the Chinese immigrant Polly Bemis. Fry's article examines the various pedagogic narratives centering on Bemis's life and puzzles over its continuing importance. She argues that such narratives fail to place Polly Bemis in her historical context, obscuring the hardships and inequities endured by Asian immigrants to the US-American West in the late nineteenth century. Polly's story, as it is told to children in storybooks and classrooms, turns away from these themes, allowing a flat, multicultural celebration of Polly's life. Katy Fry, "Polly Bemis, Pedagogy, and Multiculturalism in the Classroom" page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 10.2 (2008): Thematic Issue, Racialized Narratives for Children. Ed. C. Richard King and John Streamas
Vocal Dialect Recognition and Population Genetic Consequences

SYNOPSIS. On the basis of male territorial song, a system of discrete dialects is described in a population of White-crowned Sparrows in central, coastal California. Four of these dialects are genetically differentiated from one another. Inbreeding coefficients calculated from electrophoretic alleles indicate that individuals in a dialect are inbred due to isolation of the dialect not because of inbreeding with close relatives. Males react more aggressively to male song from an adjacent dialect than to song from another member of their own dialect but react only weakly to song from a distant dialect. This indicates that male-male interactions may have a role in maintaining dialect populations. Females of the Mountain White-crowned Sparrow have been tested in dialect experiments in the laboratory and found to respond with precopulatory sexual posturing almost exclusively to song from the home dialect in comparison to song from an alien dialect. This indicates that female choice of mate may also play a role in maintaining dialect populations.
Nondestructive measurement of canary melon maturity by delayed light emission

Canary melons (cv. Juan Canary) representative of the full range of maturities were evaluated in 1988 and 1989 for differences in delayed light emission (DLE) measurements and physical and chemical properties that are related to melon maturity. DLE, chlorophyll, yellow pigments and firmness decreased with maturity and soluble solids increased. DLE correlated highly (r = 0.85) with maturity index (MI), which was calculated for each melon based on values for chlorophyll, yellow pigments and soluble solids content. The high correlation of DLE with MI indicates that DLE could provide a nondestructive method for measuring the maturity of canary melons.
Cardiovascular and antidiuretic effects of central histamine.

Abstract These experiments investigated the centrally mediated cardiovascular and antideuretic effects of histamine. In conscious water loaded rats third ventricular injections of histamine produced pressor effects, bradycardia and antidiuresis. At 0.5μg and 5μg histamine doses the average antidiuretic effects corresponded to an antidiuretic hormone (ADH) release of between 0.1 and 0.5mU. All centrally effects of histamine were blocked by central pretreatment with pyrilamine, indicating a role for H 1 receptors in these responses.
Illness-related concerns of mothers of children with congenital heart disease.

ABSTRACT Objective This study examined concerns expressed by mothers of children with congenital heart disease (CHD). The relationships among mothers’ concerns, medical severity, and mother's emotional state were examined at two points in time. Method Thirty-eight mothers of children with CHD aged 3 to 16 completed semistructured interviews and rating scales during hospitalization and 2 to 4 weeks after discharge. Mothers rated their distress about illness-related concerns, as well as their own depressed mood and anxiety. Mothers and two cardiologists rated the medical severity of each child's disease. Results Mothers’ concerns were reliably grouped into five categories: medical prognosis, quality of life, psychosocial functioning, effects on family, and financial issues. During hospitalization, mothers were most concerned about medical prognosis. Distress about most concerns decreased postdischarge, as did mother's anxiety and depressed mood. Mothers’ perceptions of medical severity were associated with distress about psychosocial issues postdischarge. Mother's anxiety was not associated with number of concerns reported, or with distress about those concerns. Maternal depressed mood was associated with fewer illness-related concerns, but greater distress about those concerns. Conclusions Illness-related concerns can be meaningfully categorized and are not necessarily a function of disease severity or mother's emotional state. An awareness of common concerns will improve clinical care by enabling practitioners to anticipate and address concerns in a proactive way. The results may inform the development of supportive mental health interventions for families of children with CHD.
Thermal remote sensing of estuarine spatial dynamics : Effects of bottom-generated vertical mixing

Abstract In a recent paper, Hedger, R.D., Malthus, T.J., Folkard, A.M., Atkinson, P.M. [2007. Spatial dynamics of estuarine water surface temperature from airborne remote sensing. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 71, 608–615] demonstrate that airborne thermal remote sensing shows great potential for monitoring estuarine dynamics and surface currents. One aspect needing further attention is the impact of bottom-generated vertical mixing as this can create both stationary thermal features as well as thermal patterns that advect with the flow. This dual effect is illustrated using airborne infrared imagery of a mixing front having an embedded pattern of thermal boils. The boils are several meters in diameter (in water less than 4 m deep) and are ∼0.2 °C cooler than the ambient water surface. Time sequential imagery that captures the movement of individual boils as well as their growth rate can be used to deduce both the near-surface current and the intensity of turbulent mixing.
A Comparative View of Sperm Ultrastructure

A comparative study of mammalian sperm showed common structure but species differences in the thickness of the outer fibers length of the midpiece and overall diameter of the tail. Both external retarding forces and internal resistance to bending may be overcome by the increased diameter of the outer fibers moving them farther from the axis of bending to increase their mechanical advantage and by addition of a third order of motor elements the satellite fibers. Cinematographic analysis of unusual patterns of locomotion that may be correlated with exceptional development of particular structural components may shed some light on the functional significance of these differences. The fine structure of urodele spermatozoa suggested that its axial fiber is the homolog of one of the outer fibers of the mammalian sperm tail and that the marginal fiber is probably homologous with one of the longitudinal columns of the fibrous sheath. The close association of the mitochondria with the axial fiber in urodele sperm instead of with the axonemal complex is consistent with the interpretation that the axoneme is capable of functioning independently of a mitochondrial energy source but that the long middle piece of vertebrate sperm has evolved to meet the energy requirements of the accessory outer fibers.(Authors modified)
Novel optical fiber relative-humidity sensor with optimized parameters

We report a novel fiber optic relative humidity sensor based on the evanescent wave absorption spectroscopy. A comprehensive study of the sensor was made in terms of performance optimization against various parameters, which affects the sensor response and sensitivity e.g. film composition, film thickness, fiber core diameter and the sensor geometry. The sensor was compared against a commercially available relative humidity sensor and was found to be sensitive to relative humidity ranging from ~1.6 % to ~92%. We found that the sensor was having a very fast response to the relative humidity, and was fully reversible, repeatable with an extremely large dynamical range.
The Functions of the Preposition K- in Mehri

The Mehri preposition k- 'with' is used in a variety of idiomatic functions, some of which are not fully treated in, or are absent from, the exisiting grammatical sketches of Mehri. These include expressions of possession, of physical or environmental conditions, and of time. Not only is a description of these important for our understanding of Mehri, but some of these idioms, due to their peculiar nature, are also valuable for cross-linguistic study.
Prognostic role of ERCC1 in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract Background Observational studies have demonstrated an association between excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) expression level and health outcomes in patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with platinum-based regimens. This analysis presents pooled estimates of association from these studies to better elucidate the prognostic role of ERCC1 in advanced NSCLC. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted using the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting databases from June 1995 to December 2010. Included studies were evaluated for clinical, methodological, and statistical heterogeneity. Pooled analyses were conducted using fixed and random effects models. Results In high ERCC1 expression versus low ERCC1 expression patients, pooled analysis results demonstrated a significantly lower response (risk ratio [RR], 0.80, 0.66-0.98) and significantly higher risk of death (hazard ratio [HR], 2.04, (1.48-2.80)), respectively. Subgroup analyses demonstrated significant heterogeneity in outcomes by ERCC1 measurement method (I 2 : 90.7%, P = 0.001) and patient population ethnicity (I 2 : 66%, P = 0.003). Conclusion This study's findings support the hypothesis that ERCC1 expression is associated with response rate and overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced NSCLC treated with platinum-based chemotherapy. Heterogeneity in subgroup analyses demonstrates the need for standardized methods to classify ERCC1 expression level, studies evaluating the association between ERCC1 expression and OS in non-Asian populations, and studies evaluating interaction between ERCC1 and other known prognostic factors in advanced NSCLC.
Ultrasound-guided Transversus abdominal plane block with multimodal analgesia for pain management after total abdominal hysterectomy

Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block has been shown to provide pain relief after abdominal procedures. However, TAP block combined with multimodal analgesia technique have not been assessed in a randomized controlled trial. This randomized, controlled, observer-blinded study was designed to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of bilateral ultrasound-guided TAP blocks with or without acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) combination. Patients undergoing total abdominal hysterectomy were randomized to one of three groups. Group 1 (n = 25) received a TAP block and ketorolac 30 mg, IV at the end of surgery and then ketorolac plus paracetamol 650 mg, orally, every 6 h for 24 h. Group 2 (n = 24) received only TAP block at the end of surgery. Group 3 (n = 25) received ketorolac 30 mg, IV at the end of surgery and then ketorolac plus paracetamol 650 mg, orally, every 6 h for 24 h. All patients received IV-PCA morphine for 24-h, postoperatively. All patients received a standardized general anaesthetic technique and dexamethasone 4 mg and ondansetron 4 mg, IV for antiemetic prophylaxis. There were no statistically significant differences in pain at rest between the groups. However, the pain on coughing (dynamic pain) in Group 1 was significantly less variable, compared with the other two groups (P = 0.012). Opioid consumption and occurrences of nausea, vomiting, and rescue antiemetic were similar in three the groups. The combination of TAP block and acetaminophen and NSAID provided less variability in dynamic pain compared with either treatment alone.
Nonlinear parameter estimation for solution-diffusion models of membrane pervaporation.

A BSTRACT : An optimization-based procedure for estimating unknown parameters in solution‐diffusion models of membrane pervaporation is presented. Permeation of two components through a polymer membrane is described by distinct solution and diffusion models. The solution model is based on a modified form of Flory‐Huggins theory that accounts for interactions between the two penetrants. The diffusion model is derived from Fick’s law, where the diffusion coefficients are allowed to depend on the local concentration of each component in the membrane. A phenomenologic relation is used to account for the effect of temperature on the component fluxes. The solution and diffusion models, as well as the temperature‐flux relation, contain parameters that are not directly measurable. It is shown that these parameters can be estimated effectively from sorption and flux data by the solution of suitably formulated nonlinear optimization problems. The separation of styrene and ethylbenzene with a polyurethane membrane is used to illustrate the parameter estimation procedure.
Malignant melanoma presenting as renal tumor

Abstract We present a case of malignant melanoma presenting as a large renal mass and mimicking renal cell carcinoma. The literature on genitourinary melanoma is reviewed.
Temperature-dependent mutational specificity of an Escherichia coli mutator, dnaQ49, defective in 3'----5' exonuclease (proofreading) activity.

Abstract Escherichia coli strains carrying the temperature-dependent dnaQ49 allele are strong mutators at 37° C. Since the dnaQ49 gene encodes the epsilon subunit of DNA polymerase III, it is thought that the large number of errors results in part from impaired proofreading activity during DNA replication. We have examined dnaQ49 -induced reversion patterns of defined trpA alleles to determine the kinds of errors produced by dnaQ49 at 30°C and 37°C. We found that a 37°C dnaQ49 produced all types of base-pair substitutions in addition to frameshifts with transitions generally occuring more frequently than transversions. This generalized mutator activity is very similar to that displayed in rich medium mby mutD5 , another mutator allele at the dnaQ49 locus. However, when dnaQ49 strains were cultured at 30°C, not only were reversion frequencies much lower than at 37°C, but in addition, the spectrum was altered. Transversions became proportionally more prevalent in the reversion spectra at the lower temperature. We suggest the possibility that 37°C dnaQ49 results in defective proofreading and methyl-directed postreplicative mismatch repair, while at 30°C mismatch repair is fully and proofreading partially restored.
Corn yield and evapotranspiration under simulated drought conditions

Measurements of corn yield and evapotranspiration (ET) were made under a wide variety of limited irrigations simulating drought conditions. Three locations were studied in two seasons. There was a strong linear relation between relative yield and ET (R2 = 0.95 for dry matter yield and R2 = 0.87 for grain yield) where variable irrigation was applied throughout the season as well as where irrigation was applied only at the early part of the season. Yield predictions using the model PLANTGRO (Hanks, 1974) were made from soil, crop, and climatic data. Agreement between prediction and measurements was better for relative dry matter yield (R2 ranged from 0.91 to 0.99) than a relative grain yield (R2 ranged from 0.93 to 0.97). The method for predicting grain yields could be improved but a relation involving seasonal estimates of relative transpiration gave good first-order predictions.
Tolerance and social adjustment to new norms and practices

All forms of political tolerance—political, racial, religious, and social—involve a measure of social adjustment to unconventional groups, ideas, and activities. Tolerance does not depend entirely on the generosity of those who are willing to restrain themselves from punishing and repressing those who deviate from society's norms. Rather it depends also on the ability of people to assuage fears and anxieties and to reconcile themselves to social change. Because people are able to adapt psychologically to changes in norms and practices, increases in tolerance are not necessarily accompanied by increases in self-restraint, social strain, or tension. Several illustrations of social adjustment drawn from diverse arenas are presented as well as a more exact dynamic model of how this process works.
New optically pumped lasers in the B1Πu-X1Σg+ and A1Σu+-X1Σg+ bands of Li2

Abstract Using an argon ion laser and a krypton ion laser operated in a single longitudinal mode, in conjunction with variations of the temperature of the heat-pipe ovens used and predictions of promising transitions with intensity calculations, we obtained 26 new optically pumped laser (OPL) series and 43, 34, and 53 new OPL lines of 6 Li 2 , 6 Li 7 Li, and 7 Li 2 , respectively, in the B - X and A - X band systems.
Concentrating alkaline serine protease, subtilisin, using a temperature-sensitive hydrogel

The alkaline serine protease, subtilisin, produced by Bacillus licheniformis was concentrated using hydrogel ultrafiltration. Separation efficiency at 15° and 20°C was 84 % but decreased above 25°C.
The effect of a detergent complex on the deactivation and rate of reappearance of lysozyme activity in gastric juice fractional samples.

Sodium alkyl sulfate combined with gastric mucin is active for over four hours as measured by lysozyme activity in gastric juice. The detergent itself has only a fleeting effect. Medication for ulcer treatment therefore is rendered more effective by feeding the complex.
Cross-Disorder Comparison of Four Neuropsychiatric CNV Loci

Copy number variants (CNVs) have been identified as a major risk factor in neuropsychiatric disorders. In this review, we describe the phenotypes and syndromic features associated with CNVs at four of the best-characterized risk loci for these disorders: 15q11.2-13.1, 22q11.2, 16p11.2, and 7q11.23. By considering the reported prevalence of these CNVs in autism, intellectual disability, schizophrenia, and controls, we demonstrate a pattern of asymmetric shared risk in which CNVs increase the risk of multiple disorders but to differing degrees. This asymmetric risk sharing is incompatible with a model in which CNVs observed in autism or schizophrenia are secondary to a reduction in IQ, but favors a more complex relationship between individual CNVs and specific neuropsychiatric phenotypes. Finally, we discuss how the lessons learned from CNVs in neuropsychiatric disorders will translate to the expanding list of genes being associated with these disorders through exome sequencing.
Reconsideration of the rate constant for the reaction of hydroxyl radicals with nitric acid

We report rate coefficients for the reaction of OH with HNO3, k1, between 10 and 500 Torr of He, SF6, N2, and O2 and at 10 different temperatures between 200 and 375 K. We generated OH via pulsed photolysis of HNO3 and monitored the [OH] temporal profile via pulsed laser induced fluorescence. Below 300 K the value of k1 increases rapidly with decreasing temperature and depends on pressure. The pressure dependence of k1 at low temperature is significantly larger than that obtained by extrapolation of the currently available data. The pressure and temperature dependence is most likely due to a competition between direct abstraction and reactive complex formation. A rate constant expression derived from such a mechanism gives a global fit for k1 that is applicable to atmospheric conditions. The new rate constant alters the calculated NO2 to HNO3 ratio in the lower stratosphere.
The impact of the Clean Air Act.

We seldom think about the air we breathe, but a catastrophe seventy years ago revealed the threat of air pollution to our health. During a five-day period in 1948, twenty people were killed and thousands sickened by a cloud of air pollution from a local factory that formed over the town of Donora, Pennsylvania [1]. This tragedy set into motion meaningful efforts to ensure that our air is life-sustaining and not life-threatening. The Clean Air Act, signed into law in1970 and strengthened in 1990, gave the federal government the authority to enforce regulations that limit air pollution. We have learned much about the relationship between air pollution and health through thousands of epidemiologic and controlled studies. Air pollution, including particulate matter, ozone, heavy metals and acid gases, is harmful and can exacerbate respiratory conditions in children, such as asthma. In this Commentary, we will provide the facts regarding the many effects of airborne pollution on childhood lung disease. We will review the history of the current air pollution regulations, describe current initiatives that threaten these standards, and summarize the scientific evidence that demonstrates the importance for maintaining, and even strengthening, air pollution standards for the health of children.
Resource Allocation Based on Scalability of Shannon Capacity

We investigate the scalability of capacity, power, and bandwidth of a wireless gaussian channel model using Shannon capacity equation. Based on scalability relationships of energy, entropy, volume, and number of particles in a thermodynamic system, and capacity, QoS, buffer, and mean arrival rate of a queuing system, we derive analogous relationships between capacity, power and bandwidth of a Gaussian channel. For a system of parallel wireless gaussian channels power and bandwidth allocation problems are formulated. Equality of microscopic parameters (marginals of power, capacity, and bandwidth) are shown to be the optimal conditions for optimal power and bandwidth allocation. Welfare maximization problem of wireless service provider is presented and their solution are shown to be the function of microscopic parameters.
Client size, auditor specialization and fraudulent financial reporting

This study examines the effect that client size has on the relation between industry‐specialist auditors and fraudulent financial reporting. Most of the major accounting firms have organized their audit practices along industry lines, reflecting a belief that industry specialization leads to higher quality audits. Furthermore, regulatory bodies and extant research suggests that larger clients have greater bargaining power and are more likely to be able to convince the auditor to acquiesce to aggressive accounting. Also, it may be more difficult for an auditor to possess industry expertise for larger clients who are likely to be more complex and operate in more than one industry. Consistent with previous research, we generally find a significant negative relation between auditor industry specialization and client financial fraud. Also, as expected, the negative relation between auditor industry specialization and financial fraud is weaker for larger clients. This study provides evidence that the positive benefits of auditor industry specialization in deterring financial fraud is affected by client size.
SIZING CMOS INVERTERS WITH MILLER EFFECT AND THRESHOLD VOLTAGE VARIATIONS

The maximum speed of synchronous circuits is generally constrained by the worst case propagation delay, which limits the system clock frequency. Various techniques exist to manage the circuit delay, trading off speed for other system resources. One such approach is to equalize the rise and fall delay times. The primary design parameter for equalizing these delay times is the ratio between the width of the PMOS and NMOS transistors, which determines the relationship between the currents passed along the pull-up and pull-down paths. The variation of the pull-up to pull-down ratio for different circuit parameters is discussed in this paper under the constraint of equal rise and fall delay times. It is shown that the short-circuit current and the Miller capacitance affect the ideal linear relationship between the CMOS inverter delay times and the load capacitance, requiring the pull-up to pull-down ratio to be adjusted as circuit parameters are varied. These effects are more pronounced in deep submicrometer technologies with significant parasitic MOSFET capacitances and threshold voltage variations. Based on analytic and experimental observations, circuit design guidelines are proposed to minimize the Miller effect.
Introduction: Inequality Once More, With (Some) Feeling

This special issue represents a rather erratic dialogue within sociological research. While social inequality has been an enduring focus in social research, it has commanded rather limited intellectual and political resources within the specialty that has come to be known as environmental sociology. Despite a history of research since the early 1970s in this arena, it is curious how little we have analytically integrated environmentalism and equity. This volume outlines some of the social consequences of this disattention by both social researchers and environmental movement adherents. From my own perspective, I find this disattention a puzzling paradox. It is comforting for us to attribute this strategic disregard as simply due to the ignorance of social scientists, or due to competition for attention posed by other changing social or ecological factors. These might include the rise of an unprecedently large voluntary social movement labeled as "the environmental movement", or the scientific rediscovery of pollution and its health effects in the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps others currently working within environmental sociology itself, or in other social scientific research, can accept this interpretation. But I cannot, for the simple reason that I have been calling for attentiveness to this issue for over two decades. In 1973, I concluded my very first published paper, Politics, participation and pollution: The 'environmental movement,' with the following statement (Schnaiberg, 1973: 623): Therefore, any proposal for environmental action must clearly incorporate the elements of social justice, and there must be a commitment of the middle-class proponents to explicitly build in such considerations. This is a political necessity, as well as a moral prerequisite, since the coalition of rich and poor is sufficient to