cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Lifestyle and age as determinates of intake and dose from inhaled radionuclides

The whole-body dose from inhaled radionuclides is a complex function of factors that describe exposure and physiology. Exposure-related factors may be estimated by considering likely emission rates combined with measured time-varying meteorological (transport) parameters and estimated exercise patterns. Physiological factors, which strongly influence radionuclide intake and the consequent radiation dose, have been catalogued as functions of age and activity level. Both exercise patterns and physiological factors are related to the age of the exposed individual. Combining these factors permits estimates to be made of the span of exposures that may be expected in a typical population. The ratio of highest to lowest radionuclide intake is predicted to be of the order of 40, suggesting that specification of an 'average' value may be misleading if this value approaches regulatory limits. Individuals exposed to maximal risk may be identified, and these individuals are likely to be active children. Activity pattern (lifestyle) is a primary determinant of risk.
Development of Food Acceptance Patterns.

Suckling and feeding are central to the child's health and development. In addition, feeding provides a context for early parent–child interaction. Despite the centrality of feeding to the child's development, it has been largely neglected by developmental psychologists as an area of study. To interest the developmental researcher in the acquisition of food acceptance patterns, this article provides a rationale for the significance of the study of early feeding and delineates major questions and issues that require investigation.
Laparoscopic versus conventional colorectal resection: a prospective randomised study of postoperative ileus and early postoperative feeding.

Background: A shorter duration of postoperative ileus and earlier oral alimentation of patients may be a clinically relevant benefit of laparoscopic compared with conventional colorectal resection. Patients/Methods: A total of 60 patients were randomised to either laparoscopic (n=30) or conventional (n=30) resection of colorectal tumours. Major endpoints were the postoperative time to the first bowel movement and the time until oral feeding without parenteral alimentation was tolerated. Minor endpoints were the postoperative interval to the first peristalsis and first passage of flatus, the distribution of radio-opaque markers in abdominal radiographs on day 3 and day 5 and the incidence of postoperative vomiting. Results: Age, gender, ASA-classification and type of resection were comparable in thetwo groups. Peristalsis was first noticed 26±9 h after laparoscopic and 38±17 h after conventional colorectal resection (P<0.01). First flatus occurred 50±19 h after laparoscopic and 79±21 h after conventional surgery (P<0.01). The incidence of postoperative vomiting was similar in both groups. Three days after surgery radio-opaque markers were found more often in the right colon (P<0.01) and less often in the small intestine (P<0.05) in laparoscopic compared with conventional patients. Five days after laparoscopic surgery, more markers had reached the left colon (P<0.05). The first bowel movement occurred 70±32 h after laparoscopic and 91±22 h after conventional resection (P<0.01). Oral feeding without additional parenteral alimentation was tolerated 3.3±0.7 days after laparoscopic and 5.0±1.5 days after conventional surgery (P<0.01). Conclusion: The shorter duration of postoperative ileus allows earlier restoration of oral feeding after laparoscopic compared with conventional colorectal resection and therefore increases quality of life immediately after resection of colorectal tumours.
Metals in riparian wildlife of the lead mining district of southeastern Missouri.

Five species of riparian vertebrates (425 individuals) primarily representing upper trophic levels were collected from the Big River and Black River drainages in two lead mining districts of southeastern Missouri, 1981–82. Big River is subject to metal pollution via erosion and seepage from large tailings piles from inactive lead mines. Black River drains part of a currently mined area. Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana), muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus), and green-backed herons (Butorides striatus) collected downstream from the source of metal contamination to Big River had significantly (ANOVA, P<0.05) higher lead and cadmium levels than specimens collected at either an uncontaminated upstream site or on Black River. Northern water snakes (Nerodia sipedon) had elevated lead levels below the tailings source, but did not seem to accumulate cadmium. Levels of lead, cadmium, or zinc in northern rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) were not related to collecting locality. Carcasses of ten bank swallows (Riparia riparia) collected from a colony nesting in a tailings pile along the Big River had lead concentrations of 2.0–39 ppm wet weight. Differences between zinc concentrations in vertebrates collected from contaminated and uncontaminated sites were less apparent than differences in lead and cadmium. There was little relationship between metal concentrations in the animals studied and their trophic levels. Bullfrogs are the most promising species examined for monitoring environmental levels of lead, cadmium, and zinc. Downstream from the source of tailings, bullfrogs had markedly higher levels of these metals in most of their tissues. The species is also widely distributed in North America, easily caught, and relatively sedentary.
Adapting software pipelining for reconfigurable computing

The Garp compiler and architecture have been developed in parallel, in part to help investigate whether features of the architecture help facilitate rapid, automatic compilation utilizing the Garp’s rapidly reconfigurable coprocessor. Previously reported work for compiling to Garp has drawn heavily on techniques from software compilation rather than high-level synthesis. That trend continues in this paper, which describes the extension of those techniques to support pipelined execution of loops on the coprocessor. Even though it targets hardware, our approach resembles VLIW software pipelining much more than it resembles hardware synthesis retiming algorithms. This paper presents a simple, uniform schema for pipelining the hardware execution of a broad class of loops. The loops can have multiple control paths, multiple exits (including exits resulting from hyperblock path exclusion), datadependent exits, and arbitrary memory accesses. The Garp compiler is fully implemented, and results are presented. A sample benchmark, wavelet image encoding, saw its overall speedup on accelerated loops grow from a speedup of about 2 without pipelined execution to a speedup of about 4 with pipelined execution.
Responsibility and Awareness

George Sher's book 1 provides an elegant, concise, and subtle elaboration and defense of the epistemic component of that conception of responsibility that would appear to underlie our everyday ascriptions of responsibility. It is by far the most thorough treatment of this topic of which I am aware. In the first section of this review, I will give an exposition of the highlights of Sher's discussion. In the second section, I will undertake a critical evaluation of this discussion.
SU-E-I-09: Measurements of KV XVI CBCT Dose Profiles in Phantom Using Gafchromic XRQA2 Film

Purpose: To measure CBCT dose profiles inside phantom using Gafchromic XRQA2 film. Methods: Gafchromic XRQA2 film (International Specialty Products, Wayne, NJ) whole sheets were placed between slabs of the IMRT head and torso free point phantom, model 002H9K (Computerized Imaging Reference Systems, Inc, Norfolk, Virginia). Doses were acquired during chest and head imaging protocols of the Volume Imager (XVI) mounted on the Elekta linar accelerator (Elekta, Crawley, UK). Scanned films were analyzed using ImageJ (National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD). Results: For the Chest protocol (full trajectory), dose ranged between 1.25 and 2.11 cGy, with average dose of 1.78 cGy. Here, the dose increased over the first 3 cm from the right surface of the phantom, it then leveled off, with average fluctuation of around 5% (within uncertainty level, with the exception of few points where a fluctuation of 24% was observed). Dose eventually started to drop in the left side of the phantom till it reached its lowest value. For the head and neck protocol (trajectory is 200°), dose ranged between 0.02 and 0.13 cGy, with average value of 0.09 cGy. The dose was more or less uniform from the right surface of the phantom till its center (it fluctuated within uncertainty level of 20 to 40% and even higher at some low dose points) and then started to increase from almost the center of the phantom until it reached its highest value near the left surface. Conclusion: Full trajectory protocol led to uniform dose distribution in the middle part of the phantom and doses were less near surfaces. However, for a protocol with a trajectory of 200° degree, the dose was uniform in one part of the phantom and showed increase in the other part, consistent with the start/stop angle of the gantry. Measured dose fluctuated mostly within uncertainty levels. This project is funded, in part, under a grant with the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Department specifically declaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions
Regulatory Aspects of N-linked Glycoproteins

Activation of β-adrenoreceptors in rat parotid acinar cells leads to copious exocrine protein secretion. Additionally, β-adrenergic stimulation dramatically increases specific secretory protein synthesis and enhances N-linked glycosylation of secretory glycoproteins. Recently, efforts have been directed toward understanding the mechanisms underlying these biosynthetic events. We have been particularly interested in the receptor-mediated regulation of glycosylation. In this report, we evaluate available mechanistic information from the rat parotid gland and present initial data examining the ability of various regulatory agents to modulate N-linked glycosylation in enzymatically-dispersed cell aggregates from surgical specimens of human parotid glands. We conclude that glycosylation of human parotid N-linked glycoproteins may be regulated by extracellular signaling similar to that operative in the rat parotid gland.
Fixation for the millennium: The shoulder

Charles Neer designed his original prosthesis in 1951. It was made of cast cobalt chrome alloy and was only press-fit. There was not any significant loosening in his original series, but patients complained of easy fatigability. This finding was attributed to glenoid issues and a cemented glenoid replacement was introduced in 1973. High rates of lucencies were reported and raised issues regarding fixation. Cementless glenoid components have been found to have fewer lucencies but require metal backing. Higher failure rates have been reported for the cementless design versus the cemented glenoids. With humeral fixation, symptomatic loosening is not a problem with cement or coated press-fit fixation. Long-term outcome studies with cemented and uncemented stems have shown the incidence of humeral loosening to be low. Fixation of humeral components should be based on bone quality, patient age, prosthetic design, and surgeon preference.
Reconsidering the Levelling-down Objection against Egalitarianism

The levelling-down objection rejects the egalitarian view that it is intrinsically good to eliminate the inequality of an outcome by lowering the relevant good of those better off to the level of those worse off. Larry Temkin suggests that the position underlying this objection is an exclusionary version of the person-affecting view, in which an outcome can be better or worse only if persons are affected for better or worse. Temkin then defends egalitarianism by rejecting this position. In this essay, I avoid Temkin's conclusion by arguing that the levelling-down objection is best understood as resting on an alternative position, which involves a distinction between those non-person-affecting ideals that posit value as tied to individuals in a particular manner and those that do not. Taken as the basis of the levelling-down objection, this position allows us consistently to reject egalitarianism while accepting many plausible non-person-affecting ideals.
The effect of tolbutamide on lipolysis and cyclic AMP concentration in white fat cells.

The effect of tolbutamide on lipolysis and the intracellular concentration of cyclic AMP in vitro was examined in white fat cells isolated from epididymal adipose tissue of fasted rats. Incubations were performed in the presence and absence of glucose. Lipolysis was stimulated by theophylline and DL-arterenol plus theophylline. After eight minutes of incubation tolbutamide inhibited lipolysis induced by DL-arterenol plus theophylline but, in contrast to insulin, it increased the intracellular concentration of cyclic AMP. Tolbutamide also inhibits basal and theophylline- induced lipolysis but tolbutamine alone or in combination with theophylline had no appreciable effect on the intracellular concentration of cyclic AMP. The mechanism by which tolbutamide is antilipolytic and yet is able to increase the concentration of cyclic AMP is unknown. The fact that tolbutamide can inhibit lipolysis under conditions where cyclic AMP concentration is either increased or unchanged suggests that the antilipolytic effect...
Efficacy and safety of triamterene/ hydrochlorothiazide combinations in mild systemic hypertension

Abstract After a 3-week placebo lead-in (Period 1), 78 patients with sitting diastolic blood pressures (BPs) of ≥90 and ≤105 mm Hg entered a 4-week period (Period 2) during which they received triamterene (TMT) 37.5 mg/hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) 25 mg/day. Four weeks of therapy with TMT 37.5 mg/ HCTZ 25 mg resulted in a statistically significant decrease in mean BP of −15.0 −9.6 mm Hg . Mean BP changed from 145 95 to 130 85 mm Hg . Fifty-nine percent of patients were classified as responders as defined by study criteria. An additional 4 weeks of therapy (Period 3) for responders produced no further change in BP. Nonresponders as a group continued to have a further decrease in BP in Period 3. However, only patients in whom therapy was transferred to TMT 75 mg/HCTZ 50 mg had a statistically significant decrease. All patients who changed to the higher dose combination achieved goal BP by the end of the study. Of the nonresponders who continued to take TMT 37.5 mg/HCTZ 25 mg, 69% achieved goal diastolic BP by the end of Period 3. Three patients were withdrawn because of adverse experiences, 1 of which was considered treatment related. Of 58 reports of adverse experiences, 8 were considered possibly related and 2 probably related to therapy. There was a total of 8 clinically significant abnormal laboratory values, 1 of which was considered to have a possible relation to therapy.
Fitness of an Escherichia coli mutator gene.

Competition experiments between Escherichia coli mutT1 and mut+populations show that the mutator gene confers selective advantage on the strain that carries it. The observed increase in fitness varies, with an average increase in mutator growth rate of 1.4 percent when mutator and wild-type strains are grown together in chemostats.
Amplicons of maize zein genes are conserved within genic but expanded and constricted in intergenic regions

Summary The 78 101 base pair long sequence of a cluster of 22-kDa alpha zein genes in the maize inbred BSSS53 was determined. Each zein gene is contained within a repeat unit that varies in length. If such a repeat, or amplicon, is aligned along the entire sequence, a 10.5-fold sequence amplification is delineated. Because of insertions and deletions in intergenic regions, many of the zein genes are spaced over different distances. Only three out of 10 zein-related sequences have an intact open reading frame, indicating an unusual large number of genes unable to contribute to the accumulation of normal-size 22-kDa zein proteins. It is proposed that the seven remaining zein-related sequences be considered gene reserves because of their potential to be restored by gene conversion. Intergenic insertions in the cluster range from 1098 to 14 896 base pairs. Although they are composed of transposable element sequences, they also contain additional open reading frames, two of them showing homology to rice cDNA sequences. The average amplicon is 4423 base pairs long, with the sequence surrounding each zein gene more than 90 % conserved. Coincidently, the size of the amplicon is equivalent to the average gene density (one gene within 4640 bp) in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, one of the smallest in plants. Successive steps of amplification and insertion of DNA might explain to a certain degree how genome size variation has been generated in plants.
Neutron/photon physics investigation of brain tumor treatments with BNCT

In boronneutron capture therapy (BNCT) for braintumortreatments, a computational method to calculate the tumor cell survival probability versus treatment conditions is developed as a preclinical neutron beam evaluation. A treatment condition is characterized by the spectrum and lateral size of neutron beams, single or bilateral exposure, and the choice of boron carrier drugs (BPA-F and BSH). The radiationtransport from the neutron source to tumors is carried out using Monte Carlo methods: (1) reactor-based BNCT facility modeling to yield the neutron spectra at an irradiation port; (2) dosimetry to limit the neutron fluence below a tolerance dose (10.5 Gy Eq); (3) calculation of the 10 B (n,α) 7 Li reaction density in tumors. Finally, from a cell-killing yield per (n,α) reaction, the cell survival probability distribution across the tumor is calculated for various treatment conditions. A shallow surface tumor could be effectively treated by single exposure with the volume-averaged cell survival probability of 10 −3 –10 −5 , while a deep tumor will require bilateral exposure to avoid a high cell survival at depth. With pure epithermal beams eliminating low- and high-energy neutrons, the cell survival can be decreased by factors of 2–10, compared to the unmodified neutron spectrum.
Elliptical-hole photonic crystal fibers

We study the dispersive properties of photonic crystal fibers (PCF's) with elliptical air holes. The unusual guidance of PCF leads to novel behavior of the birefringence, group-velocity walk-off, and dispersion parameters, including the possibility of zero walk-off with high birefringence in the single-mode regime. A number of these effects are closely tied to the underlying radiation states of the air-hole lattice.
Using germline genotype in cancer pharmacogenetic studies

Pharmacogenetics provides great opportunity for improving both the chance of therapeutic benefit and the ability to avoid adverse drug events. To date, the majority of pharmacogenetic studies have been performed using germline DNA. DNA collection in most clinical trials provides a wealth of samples from which pharmacogenetic studies can be launched. However, there is concern that the data from germline DNA pharmacogenetics might be of limited value for diseases, such as cancer, where germline variants may not adequately represent the genetic data obtained from the somatic DNA. In this perspective, we evaluate the literature that compares pharmacogenetic variants between germline DNA and matched somatic DNA. The analysis of these studies indicates that there is almost complete concordance between germline and somatic DNA in variants of pharmacogenetic genes. Although somatic variants are clinically significant and independently provide genetic information that cannot be gained from the germline, the use of...
Local convergence in Fermat's problem

The general Fermat problem is to find the minimum of the weighted sum of distances fromm destination points in Euclideann-space. Kuhn recently proved that a classical iterative algorithm converges to the unique minimizing point , for any choice of the initial point except for a denumerable set. In this note, it is shown that although convergence is global, the rapidity of convergence depends strongly upon whether or not  is a destination.
Construction of symplectic maps for nonlinear motion of particles in accelerators

We explore an algorithm for the construction of symplectic maps to describe nonlinear particle motion in circular accelerators. We emphasize maps for motion over one or a few full turns, which may provide an economical way of studying long-term stability in large machines such as the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). The map is defined implicitly by a mixed-variable generating function, represented as a Fourier series in betatron angle variables, with coefficients given as [ital B]-spline functions of action variables and the total energy. Despite the implicit definition, iteration of the map proves to be a fast process. The method is illustrated with a realistic model of the SSC. We report extensive tests of accuracy and iteration time in various regions of phase space, and demonstrate the results by using single-turn maps to follow trajectories symplectically for 10[sup 7] turns on a workstation computer. The same method may be used to construct the Poincare map of Hamiltonian systems in other fields of physics.
Report explores Congress' science policy

Scientists interested in understanding how Congress develops science policy would find it useful to read a recent report by the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government. “Science, Technology and Congress: Analysis and Advice from the Congressional Support Agencies” contains revealing insights about the often hard-pressed system that Congress uses to analyze science and technology issues. “Congress is on the front line of many battles over the directions of science and technology,” says the 70-page report. “The quality of congressional decisions on these issues often depends on the quality and usefulness of information and analysis made available to Congress.” The report describes the overwhelming amount of information received by members of Congress, few of whom have “substantial training or experience” in science and technology. Making this information understandable and useful is the role of the Office of Technology Assessment, the Congressional Research Service, the General Accounting Office, and the Congressional Budget Office.
Transcriptomics of Maternal and Fetal Membranes Can Discriminate between Gestational-Age Matched Preterm Neonates with and without Cognitive Impairment Diagnosed at 18–24 Months

Background Neurocognitive impairment among children born preterm may arise from complex interactions between genes and the intra-uterine environment. Objectives (1) To characterize the transcriptomic profiles of chorioamniotic membranes in preterm neonates with and without neurocognitive impairment via microarrays and (2) to determine if neonates with neurocognitive impairment can be identified at birth. Materials/Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted to examine the chorioamniotic transcriptome of gestational-age matched very preterm neonates with and without neurocognitive impairment at 18–24 months’ corrected-age defined by a Bayley-III Cognitive Composite Score <80 (n = 14 each). Pathway analysis with down-weighting of overlapping genes (PADOG) was performed to identify KEGG pathways relevant to the phenotype. Select differentially expressed genes were profiled using qRT-PCR and a multi-gene disease prediction model was developed using linear discriminant analysis. The model’s predictive performance was tested on a new set of cases and controls (n = 19 each). Results 1) 117 genes were differentially expressed among neonates with and without subsequent neurocognitive impairment (p 1.5); 2) Gene ontology analysis indicated enrichment of 19 biological processes and 3 molecular functions; 3)PADOG identified 4 significantly perturbed KEGG pathways: oxidative phosphorylation, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease (q-value <0.1); 4) 48 of 90 selected differentially expressed genes were confirmed by qRT-PCR, including genes implicated in energy metabolism, neuronal signaling, vascular permeability and response to injury (e.g., up-regulation of SEPP1, APOE, DAB2, CD163, CXCL12, VWF; down-regulation of HAND1, OSR1)(p<0.05); and 5) a multi-gene model predicted 18–24 month neurocognitive impairment (using the ratios of OSR1/VWF and HAND1/VWF at birth) in a larger, independent set (sensitivity = 74%, at specificity = 83%). Conclusions Gene expression patterns in the chorioamniotic membranes link neurocognitive impairment in preterm infants to neurodegenerative disease pathways and might be used to predict neurocognitive impairment. Further prospective studies are needed.
Superoxide enhances photobleaching during cellular immune attack against fluorescent lipid monolayer membranes

Lipid hapten-containing monolayer membranes with bound, anti-hapten antibody molecules serve as model immunological target membranes. Targets with bound-IgG trigger guinea pig macrophages to (a) adhere, (b) spread, (c) release lysosomal enzymes, and (d) increase cyanide-insensitive oxygen consumption. When the target membranes are derivatized with fluorescein, there is a 2-3-fold enhancement in the rate of fluorescein photobleaching in regions of cell-monolayer contact. This effect is due to release of O2- from macrophages, as shown by inhibition with superoxide dismutase and by the fact that enhanced photobleaching is not observed with cells of the RAW264 macrophage line, which undergo responses (a)-(d), but do not release O2- extracellularly. The O2- dependent photobleaching reaction appears to be relatively specific for fluorescein, as it did not occur with two other fluorophores, 4-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole and tetramethyl-rhodamine. Because stimulated neutrophils release large quantities of O2-, the photobleaching of fluorescein-labeled target membranes in response to neutrophils was examined. Monolayer membranes with specifically bound IgG caused neutrophils to adhere and become markedly motile during incubation at 37 degrees C. Like macrophages, neutrophils induced O2- -dependent photobleaching of fluorescein-labeled IgG in regions of cell-monolayer contact. In addition, neutrophils gave rise to a slower, nonphotochemical loss of fluorescence in the same contact regions. The latter effect is apparently due to cleavage of target-bound fluorescent IgG by proteolytic enzymes secreted by the neutrophils in response to the target surface.
Pre-assembly of STAT4 with the human IFN-alpha/beta receptor-2 subunit is mediated by the STAT4 N-domain.

CD4+ T cells regulate adaptive responses to pathogens by secreting unique subsets of cytokines that mediate inflammatory processes. The innate cytokines IL-12 and IFN-α/β regulate type I responses and promote acute IFN-γ secretion through the activation of the STAT4 transcription factor. Although IL-12-induced STAT4 activation is a conserved pathway across species, IFN-α/β-dependent STAT4 phosphorylation does not occur as efficiently in mice as it does in human T cells. In order to understand this species-specific pathway for IFN-α/β-dependent STAT4 activation, we have examined the molecular basis of STAT4 recruitment by the human IFNAR. In this report, we demonstrate that the N-domain of STAT4 interacts with the cytoplasmic domain of the human, but not the murine IFNAR2 subunit. This interaction mapped to a membrane-proximal segment of the hIFNAR2 spanning amino acids 299–333. Deletion of this region within the hIFNAR2 completely abolishes IFN-α/β-dependent STAT4 tyrosine phosphorylation when expressed in human IFNAR2-deficient fibroblasts. Thus, the human IFNAR2 cytoplasmic domain serves to link STAT4 to the IFNAR as a pre-assembled complex that facilitates cytokine-driven STAT4 activation.
Nuclear Spectroscopy in Single Quantum Dots: Nanoscopic Raman Scattering and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Resonant Raman and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies from single gallium arsenide quantum dots are demonstrated. The nuclei were probed through changes in the optical spectra of the quantum dot exciton arising from exciton-nuclear interactions. This approach allowed the application of optical spectroscopy with its extremely high sensitivity and selectivity. The experiments had a lateral spatial resolution of about 10 nanometers and probe a volume that was five orders of magnitude smaller than that of previous semiconductor nuclear spectroscopic studies.
A Direct Method for Constructing Refined Regions in Unstructured Conforming Triangular–Hexagonal Computational Grids: Application to OLAM

AbstractA scheme is presented for constructing refined regions of 2D unstructured computational meshes composed of triangular cells. The method preserves the conforming property of the original unrefined mesh and does not produce hanging nodes. The procedure consists of 1) doubling the resolution of triangles inside a specified closed region by adding three edges inside each triangle that connect the midpoints of its three edges; and 2) constructing one or more transition rows immediately outside the refined area by removing and adding edges in order to maintain the conforming property, to regulate the abruptness of the change in resolution, and to keep triangle shapes as close as possible to equilateral. The latter requirement is met partly by restricting the number of edges that meet at any vertex to values of 5, 6, or 7. The method for constructing the transition rows is the main new contribution of this work. Two variants of the construction are described, and for one variant, the number of transition...
Strain variations and three-dimensional strain factorization at the transition from the southern to the central Appalachians

Abstract The transition between the southern and the central Appalachian foreland thrust system is a region subjected to at least two non-coaxial deformations, where typical two-dimensional analyses such as cross-section balancing or plane-strain retro-deformation cannot be applied. Three-dimensional factorization can simulate the non-coaxial strain history. Simulation results for compaction and layer-parallel shortening (LPS) were compared to finite strains of 16 quartz arenite samples from the Tuscarora Sandstone. Successful simulations indicate: in the southern Appalachians—30–35% total compaction by volume loss including a 4.5–9% E-W horizontal shortening during lithification, and 5% LPS along 150–330° by plane strain or axial symmetric flattening; in the central Appalachians—30–35% total compaction by volume loss including a 3–7% N-S horizontal shortening during lithification, and 10% LPS along 120–300° by plane strain or axial symmetric flattening; in the transition zone—30% compaction by volume loss including a 3% E-W horizontal shortening during lithification, 5% ‘southern’ LPS along 150–330° by axial symmetric flattening, and 5–10% ‘central’ shortening along 130° or 140° by plane strain or axial symmetric flattening at 10° to the normal ‘central’ trend. From the simulations, horizontal shortening in the southern Appalachians during lithification in the Mississippian was greater than the later Alleghanian deformation. This shortening probably represents a very early LPS developed in unlithified sand that required less deviatoric stress to deform than did the cemented quartz arenites during later tectonic deformation. Also, the oblique and weaker central tectonic LPS in the transition zone probably represents behavior at the limits of central Appalachian deformation. Finally, the LPS simulations indicate that axial symmetric flattening (oblate strain) is more successful than plane strain as the representative behavior, so caution is recommended in assuming plane strain as the dominant strain behavior in orogenic forelands.
Comparison of adverse events during 5‐fluorouracil versus 5‐fluorouracil/oxaliplatin adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer

BACKGROUND: In clinical trials, combined 5-fluorouracil (5FU) plus oxaliplatin improves the survival of patients who have resected, stage III colon cancer with manageable toxicity. However, the tolerability of this in the general population of patients with colon cancer is uncertain. METHODS: Adverse outcomes were compared in patients with stage III colon cancer who received either 5FU or 5FU/oxaliplatin within 120 days of undergoing resection versus a control group of patients with stage II colon cancer who did not receive chemotherapy in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database and in data from the New York State Cancer Registry linked to Medicare and Medicaid. Hospitalizations, emergency room (ER) visits, and outpatient adverse events (AEs) were measured in claims from 30 days to 9 months after patients underwent resection. Multiple logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios of events by treatment. Propensity score matching was used to minimize selection bias. RESULTS: Adverse outcomes were more frequent for chemotherapy recipients. AE rates were higher in patients who received 5FU/oxaliplatin (81%) compared with patients who received 5FU alone (72%), in the SEER-Medicare data. The effect of oxaliplatin on AEs was greater in older patients: The odds ratio was 2.10 (95% confidence interval, 1.53-2.87) for patients aged ≥75 years versus 1.75 (95% confidence interval, 1.39-2.21) for patients aged <75 years. ER use was high in Medicaid patients (83% of those who received chemotherapy), but neither ER use nor hospitalization was increased by oxaliplatin. The 60-day mortality rate was 1% to 3% for patients who received 5FU alone and 1% to 2% for patients who received combined 5FU/oxaliplatin. CONCLUSIONS: The incremental harms of adjuvant chemotherapy with 5FU/oxaliplatin versus 5FU alone were modest in patients with stage III colon cancer who were insured by Medicare and Medicaid. The additional harms in patients aged ≥75 years largely were restricted to outpatient events and did not extend to an increased rate of hospitalization or early death. Cancer 2012. © 2012 American Cancer Society
Resonance structure in the fission of (235U + n)

A new multilevel reduced R-matrix analysis of the neutron-induced resonance cross sections of /sup 235/U has been carried out. We used as a constraint in the analysis the angular anisotropy measurements of Pattenden and Postma, obtaining a Bohr-channel (or J, K channel) representation of the resonances in a two-fission vector space for each spin state. Hambsch et al., have reported definitive measurements of the mass- and kinetic-energy distributions of fission fragments of (/sup 235/U + n) in the resonance region and analyzed their results according to the fission-channel representation of Brosa et al., extracting relative contributions of the two asymmetric and one symmetric Brosa fission channels. We have explored the connection between Bohr-channel and asymmetric Brosa-channel representations. The results suggest that a simple rotation of coordinates in channel space may be the only transformation required: the multilevel fit to the total and partial cross sections is invariant to such a transformation. 32 refs., 4 figs.
Impact of physician screening in the emergency department on patient flow

Abstract Background Physician triage is one of many front-end interventions being implemented to improve emergency department (ED) efficiency. Study Objective We aim to determine the impact of this intervention on some key components of ED patient flow, including time to physician evaluation, treatment order entry, diagnostic order entry, and disposition time for admitted patients. Methods We conducted a 2-year before–after analysis of a physician triage system at an urban tertiary academic center with 90,000 annual visits. The goal of the physician in triage was to arrange safe disposition of straightforward patients as well as to initiate work-ups. All medium-acuity patients arriving during the hours of the intervention were impacted and thus included in the analysis. Our primary outcome was the time to disposition decision. In addition to before–after analysis, comparison was made with high-acuity patients, a group not impacted by this intervention. Patient flow data were extracted from the ED information system. Outcomes were summarized with medians and interquartiles. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to investigate the intervention effect controlling for potential confounding variables. Results The median time to disposition decision decreased by 6 min, and the time to physician evaluation, analgesia, antiemetic, antibiotic, and radiology order decreased by 16, 70, 66, 36, and 16 min, respectively. These findings were all statistically significant. Similar results were observed from the multivariable regression models after controlling for potential confounding factors. Conclusions Physician triage led to earlier evaluation, physician orders, and a decrease in the time to disposition decision.
Proteinase‐activated receptor activation by coagulation proteinases

Coagulation proteinases signal through proteinase activated receptors (PARs). Thrombin-dependent PAR signaling on platelets is essential for hemostasis, but regulation of inflammation by PAR-signaling is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of other pro- and anticoagulant pathways. In tissue factor (TF)-dependent initiation of coagulation, factor Xa is the PAR1 or PAR2 activating proteinase while associated in the transient TF-VIIa-Xa complex. In the anticoagulant protein C (PC) pathway, the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex activates PC bound to the endothelial PC receptor (EPCR) and EPCR functions as an essential co-receptor for activated PC-mediated signaling through endothelial cell PAR1. Thus, the pro- and anti-inflammatory receptor cascades are mechanistically coupled to cell signaling that precedes systemic coagulant or anticoagulant effects. In contrast with the substrate-like recognition of PARs by thrombin, TF, or EPCR targeted activation of PARs generates cell-type specificity, PAR selectivity, and proteinase receptor co-signaling with the G-protein coupled PAR response. Cellular proteinase receptors are thus major determinants of the biological outcome of coagulation factor signaling on vascular cells. Drug Dev. Res. 59:400–407, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes Baby Carriage: Perspectives on Gay Parenting and Reproductive Technology

WHEN I WAS FIRST INVITED TO SPEAK ABOUT GAY PARENTING, I felt flattered and slightly flummoxed. What could I talk about? As the coordinator and moderator of a panel last year at the Boston Psychoan...
Crossover Homeostasis in Yeast Meiosis

Crossovers produced by homologous recombination promote accurate chromosome segregation in meiosis and are controlled such that at least one forms per chromosome pair and multiple crossovers are widely spaced. Recombination initiates with an excess number of double-strand breaks made by Spo11 protein. Thus, crossover control involves a decision by which some breaks give crossovers while others follow a predominantly noncrossover pathway(s). To understand this decision, we examined recombination when breaks are reduced in yeast spo11 hypomorphs. We find that crossover levels tend to be maintained at the expense of noncrossovers and that genomic loci differ in expression of this "crossover homeostasis." These findings define a previously unsuspected manifestation of crossover control, i.e., that the crossover/noncrossover ratio can change to maintain crossovers. Our results distinguish between existing models of crossover control and support the hypothesis that an obligate crossover is a genetically programmed event tied to crossover interference.
Cranial computed tomography in acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an uncommon inflammatory disorder of the nervous system. The appearance of ADEM on cranial CT scans has rarely been reported. The author reports seven cases in two instititions during a period of seven years. Only four of the seven patients had hypodense lesions in the white matter and six patients showed spotty, nodular, or gyral enhancement after contrast injections. The enhancement resolved with steroid therapy, leaving some persistent hypoattenuated areas even after 10 months follow-up, these findings support the dual components of the pathogenesis of ADEM. The vasculitic component may be responsive to steroids, nevertheless the demyelinating or necrotic areas may not, and the latter may be responsible for the sequelae of ADEM.
A Computer Vision System For Assembly Inspection

A general and flexible automatic system for visual inspection of industrial assemblies was developed and applied on a specific assembly - the HGE Hydraulic Steering System of TRW. The system measures constant and variable geometric characteristics of the assembly scene, such as length and height of parts, area of holes, etc, and compares their relations to test values obtained either from direct measurements of the parts or from the design database.
NATURAL VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF CLAMPED RECTANGULAR ORTHOTROPIC PLATES

The natural vibrations of clamped rectangular orthotropic plates are analyzed using the extended Kantorovich method. The developed iterative scheme converges very rapidly to the final result. The obtained natural frequencies are evaluated for a square plate made of Kevlar 49 Epoxy and the obtained results are compared with those published by Kanazawa and Kawai, and by Leissa. The agreement was found to be very close. As there are no exact analytical solutions for clamped rectangular plates, the generated closed form expression for the natural modes, and the corresponding natural frequencies, are very suitable for use in engineering analyses.
A novel recurrent network for signal processing

A new recurrent network is developed for the signal processing applications of spectral estimation, direction of arrival estimation, and pattern classification. For the development of the network, the above problems are posed as linear inverse problems with sparseness constraints. The results are provided to support the usefulness of the network. >
Factors Affecting Trust in On-line Prescription Drug Information and Impact of Trust on Behavior Following Exposure to DTC Advertising

Despite growing concerns about the quality and accuracy of Internet-based prescription drug information, there has been very little empirical research on consumers' perceptions of the trustworthiness of on-line drug information. In this article, we report on a study modeled after that of Menon, Deshpande, Perri, and Zinkhan (2002) in Health Marketing Quarterly that reexamines how key demographic, predispositional, and media factors are associated with consumer trust in on-line prescription drug information and the impact of trust in on-line drug information on ad-promoted behavior following exposure to direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. Four major findings are reported: (1) on-line drug information is not highly trusted; (2) trust in on-line drug information is not differentially affected by consumer demographic or predispositional characteristics; (3) trust in the traditional media of DTC advertising is predictive of trust in on-line drug information; and (4) trust in on-line drug information is associated directly with specific types of ad-promoted behavior following exposure to DTC advertising. Implications and recommendations are offered based on the results.
Practical implementation of stripmap Doppler imaging

Doppler imaging is a technique that can generate fine two-dimensional (2D) imagery in the absence of large bandwidths. Radar imaging has traditionally consisted of combining wide bandwidth waveforms with aperture synthesis. Wide bandwidth waveforms provide high resolution in down-range (line-of-sight), whereas aperture synthesis enables high resolution in the orthogonal direction. However, in today’s increasingly congested spectral environment, using wide bandwidths waveforms is becoming less and less attractive. Consequently, imaging techniques that require only narrow bandwidth waveforms offer very attractive and practical advantages. An approach, examined here, is to use phase in conjunction with aperture synthesis to achieve high resolution in down-range while using narrowband waveforms. This method has the added benefit of using the same collection geometry as traditional stripmap synthetic aperture radar imaging. Therefore Doppler imaging is compatible with use in spectrally congested environments where wide bandwidth waveforms might be prohibited. In this study, the basic Doppler imaging concept is explained, a simple framework for its operation is introduced and resolution limits are examined. Results are presented from both simulations and full-scale experiments, which demonstrate range resolutions as fine as 23 cm using an 8.9 GHz CW waveform and 2 m long synthetic aperture.
The influence of provider communication behaviors on parental vaccine acceptance and visit experience

Objectives. We investigated how provider vaccine communication behaviors influence parental vaccination acceptance and visit experience.Methods. In a cross-sectional observational study, we videotaped provider–parent vaccine discussions (n = 111). We coded visits for the format providers used for initiating the vaccine discussion (participatory vs presumptive), parental verbal resistance to vaccines after provider initiation (yes vs no), and provider pursuit of recommendations in the face of parental resistance (pursuit vs mitigated or no pursuit). Main outcomes were parental verbal acceptance of recommended vaccines at visit’s end (all vs ≥ 1 refusal) and parental visit experience (highly vs lower rated).Results. In multivariable models, participatory (vs presumptive) initiation formats were associated with decreased odds of accepting all vaccines at visit’s end (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.04; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01, 0.15) and increased odds of a highly rated visit experience (AOR = 17.3;...
Decoding STAR code for tolerating simultaneous disk failure and silent errors

As storage systems grow in size and complexity, various hardware and software component failures inevitably occur, resulting in disk malfunction in failures, as well as silent errors. Existing techniques and schemes overcome the failures and silent errors in a separate fashion. In this paper, we advocate using the STAR code as a unified and systematic mechanism to simultaneously tolerate failures on one disk and silent errors on another. By exploring the unique geometric structure of the STAR code, we propose a novel efficient decoding algorithm - EEL. Both theoretical and experimental performance evaluations show that EEL constantly outperforms a naive Try-and-Test approach by large factors in overall decoding throughput.
NAD(P)H Oxidase: Role in Cardiovascular Biology and Disease

Reactive oxygen species have emerged as important molecules in cardiovascular function. Recent work has shown that NAD(P)H oxidases are major sources of superoxide in vascular cells and myocytes. The biochemical characterization, activation paradigms, structure, and function of this enzyme are now partly understood. Vascular NAD(P)H oxidases share some, but not all, characteristics of the neutrophil enzyme. In response to growth factors and cytokines, they produce superoxide, which is metabolized to hydrogen peroxide, and both of these reactive oxygen species serve as second messengers to activate multiple intracellular signaling pathways. The vascular NAD(P)H oxidases have been found to be essential in the physiological response of vascular cells, including growth, migration, and modification of the extracellular matrix. They have also been linked to hypertension and to pathological states associated with uncontrolled growth and inflammation, such as atherosclerosis.