cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Abstract 3956: A novel compound screen for enhancing T-cell based immunotherapy identifies aurora kinases as a targetable mechanism for tumor immune escape in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma preclinical models

Harnessing a patient’s immune system by attenuating endogenous immune checkpoints on T-cells has led to dramatic, durable tumor rejection for multiple tumor types. Nonetheless, many cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), still do not respond to immunotherapy. PDAC remains largely resistant to all therapies, leading to its notoriety as one of the most lethal malignancies, with a 6% 5-year survival rate. We aimed to find novel, targetable mechanisms by which tumors escape the adaptive immune system and resist immunotherapy. We conducted a high throughput screen of 1280 compounds producing a synergistic effect with T-cell killing to assess differences and similarities among distinct pathways inclusive between PDAC and melanoma. These screens identified several aurora kinase inhibitors as synergistic with autologous T-cell killing of tumor target. Here we present results underlying the mechanism by which aurora kinase inhibition enhances autologous T-cell mediated killing and may improve T-cell-mediated cancer immunotherapy. These findings may contribute to the design of new therapeutic combination strategies for enhancing immunotherapy treatment of melanoma, PDAC, and other “immunologically cold” tumors. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Emily L. Ashkin, Deborah Silverman, Simone Punt, Soraya Zorro Manrique, Leila Williams, Yunfei Wang, Patrick Hwu. A novel compound screen for enhancing T-cell based immunotherapy identifies aurora kinases as a targetable mechanism for tumor immune escape in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma preclinical models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3956.
Success or failure? Predicting the financial performance of United States national non-profit sports organisations using binary logistic regressions

Rationale/purpose: This study aimed to predict the financial performance of United States national non-profit sports organisations (NNPSOs) using financial effectiveness indicators and financial ef...
Generation of statistically representative microstructures with direct grain geometry control

Abstract Microstructural characteristics play a significant role in the determination of effective properties of materials. Consequently, most numerical tools aimed at predicting such properties require, as a starting point, the availability of geometric representations of such microstructures. In this paper, we introduce a method for generating statistically representative synthetic microstructures for materials involving multiple phases. Our method is based on traditional seed placement and tessellation approaches, with three critical improvements: (i) allowing for controlled seed overlap to better represent microstructural statistics, (ii) multi-sphere representation of 3D ellipsoids to account for arbitrarily elongated grains, and (iii) novel application of the axis aligned bounding box tree structure for accelerated seed placement. Our method recreates a diverse set of microstructural features, including the presence of spherical and non-spherical grain geometries, amorphous phases, and voids. After the method is presented, we proceed with a rigorous numerical analysis demonstrating its ability to reproduce key statistical features of target microstructures. The algorithms presented are freely available and open source through the package MicroStructPy.
Integration of Person-Centered Narratives Into the Electronic Health Record: Study Protocol.

BACKGROUND Incorporating a patient's personal narrative into the electronic health record is an opportunity to more fully integrate the patient's values and beliefs into care, thus creating opportunities to deliver high-quality/high-value, person-centered care. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to present a study protocol of a narrative intervention to (a) compare the effects of the narrative intervention to usual care on primary outcome of person's (patient) perceptions of quality of communication, (b) compare the effects of the narrative intervention on secondary outcomes of biopsychosocial well-being, and (c) examine the feasibility and acceptability of the narrative intervention from the perspective of both persons: the patient and the acute care bedside nurse. METHODS A randomized control trial is being conducted with a targeted enrollment of 80 patient participants and 80 nurse participants. The patient participants include individuals who are admitted to the acute care hospital for either heart failure or end-stage renal disease. An acute care beside nurse who has cared for the patient participant is also enrolled. Through a 1:1 random allocation scheme, stratified by illness, we will enroll 40 in the narrative intervention group and 40 in the usual care group. Patient participants will be assessed for patient-reported outcomes of patient's perception of quality of communication and biopsychosocial well-being. RESULTS The study began in October 2019; 53 potential patient participants have been approached, 21 have enrolled, and 20 have completed the data collection process. DISCUSSION The testing and integration of a person-centered narrative into the electronic health record is a novel approach to provide opportunities for improvement in communication between patients and nurses. The results from this study will provide important preliminary knowledge to inform future randomized clinical trials of narrative interventions leading to advances in how to best provide high-value, high-quality, person-centered care for persons living with serious illness.
Trends in otolaryngology consult volume at an academic institution from 2014 to 2018

Objective To evaluate changes in emergency department and inpatient consult volumes of an otolaryngology service at an academic medical center from 2014 to 2018. Methods A retrospective review of all otolaryngology consults in the electronic medical record from March 2014 through December 2018 was completed. The total number of consults was recorded to determine changes in consult volume over time. Additional parameters were analyzed including volume of weekday, night and weekend, adult, pediatric, emergency department, and inpatient consults. Results From 1 March 2014 to 31 December 2018, a total of 8806 consults were seen by the otolaryngology service. In the first year, a total of 990 consults were seen. In the final year of the time period, a total of 2416 consults were seen. This represents a 144% increase in consults over the examined time period. Similar increasing trends were seen when consults were analyzed by weekday, night/weekend, pediatric, adult, emergency department, and inpatient consults. Conclusions This is one of the first studies examining trends in otolaryngology consult volumes at an academic medical center in the United States. Our data show that the volume of consults has increased by 144% in a 4-year time period, predominantly due to an increase in emergency department consultations. This study demonstrates the increasing burden of emergency department consultations on an otolaryngology service at an academic medical center and highlights a potential role for increasing and improving provider availability. Level of evidence 4.
The Immortal Commonwealth: Covenant, Community, and Political Resistance in Early Reformed Thought: by David Henreckson, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2019, 208 pp., $106 (hardback), ISBN 978110847021-6.

In The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt describes the classical concept of the “public” as meaning “the world itself, in so far as it is common to all of us and distinguished from our privately owned...
Association of physical activity levels and brain white matter in older Latino adults.

Investigate the associations between self-reported physical activity (PA) engagement and white matter (WM) health (i.e. volume, integrity, and hyperintensities) in older Latinos.Cross-sectional stu...
Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers: by Andy Greenberg, New York, Doubleday, 2019, 349 pp., $28.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-385-54440-5

It is likely that the next world war won’t look like those that humanity has experienced in the past. Experts indicate that we are headed into an era of international conflict based upon applicatio...
Methodological considerations of assessing meaningful/reliable change in computerized neurocognitive testing following sport-related concussion.

Traditional reliable change index (RCI) methods may be psychometrically limited due to their inability to account for particularly high or low baseline performance and regression to the mean follow...
Inside the Crisis : An Empirical Analysis of Banking Systems in Distress

Much of the substantial literature on banking crises, focuses on early warning indicators. The authors look at what happens to the economy, and the banking sector after a banking crisis breaks out. Much of the theory of banking crises assigns a central role to depositor runs, with vulnerability to runs viewed as a basic characteristic of banks as financial intermediaries. But banking systems can be financially distressed, even when depositors do not withdraw their deposits, if other bank creditors rush for the exit, or if banks become insolvent. Are contemporary banking crises characterized by large declines in deposits? The authors find that contemporary banking crises are not accompanied by declines in aggregate bank deposits, and credit does not fall relative to output, but the growth of both deposits, and credit does slow down substantially. Output recovery begins the second year after the crisis, and is not led by a resumption of credit growth. Instead, banks (including the stronger banks) reallocate their asset portfolio away from loans. This suggests that protecting deposits during a banking crisis, may not be enough to protect bank credit, as lack of usable collateral, and poor borrower creditworthiness, discourage banks from lending. However, protecting bank credit may not be a priority right after a crisis, as the real economy can rebound without it, at least while there is substantial under-used capacity.
Cardiovascular Effects of Particulate Air Pollution.

Inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to increases in blood pressure, thrombosis, and insulin resistance. It also induces vascular injury and accelerates atherogenesis. Results from animal models corroborate epidemiological evidence and suggest that the cardiovascular effects of PM2.5 may be attributable, in part, to oxidative stress, inflammation, and the activation of the autonomic nervous system. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, there is robust evidence that long-term exposure to PM2.5 is associated with premature mortality due to heart failure, stoke, and ischemic heart disease. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Medicine, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Digital calibration system for the proposed NISAR (NASA/ISRO) mission

The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument for the proposed NASA/ISRO mission would utilize a distributed architecture dubbed SweepSAR. This real-time On-orbit digital beamforming, combined with lightweight, large aperture reflectors, promises significant increases in instrument capability for solid earth and biomass remote sensing. These new instrument concepts require new methods for calibrating the multiple channels, which are combined on-board, in real-time. The benefit of this effort is that it enables a new class of lightweight radar architecture, Digital Beamforming with SweepSAR, providing significantly larger swath coverage than conventional SAR architectures for reduced mass and cost.
Arbitrariness and Discrimination in the Administration of the Death Penalty: A Legal and Empirical Analysis of the Nebraska Experience (1973-1999)

Since 1973, Nebraska has had a weighing death penalty system. In this system, the sentencing court finds statutory aggravating and mitigating circumstances and bases its sentencing decision on a weighing of those factors. In Nebraska, judges have the exclusive sentencing authority. This Article presents a legal and empirical analysis of the administration of that system through 1999. Our empirical analysis tracks 185 prosecutions in 175 death-eligible cases that resulted in 89 penalty trials and 29 death sentences, three of which have been executed. The principal focus of this Article is on arbitrariness and comparative injustice in the administration of the death penalty. As it has evolved since Furman v. Georgia, the legal concept of arbitrariness may refer to one or more of the following features of a death penalty system: (1) discrimination based on illegitimate and suspect factors, such as the race and socioeconomic status of the defendant and victim; (2) geographic disparities in outcomes; or (3) random, inconsistent, and capricious outcomes. In addition, the Article focuses on the implications of the Supreme Court's spring 2002 decision regarding the death penalty, Ring v. Arizona, for the future of the Nebraska system. Ring requires the participation of juries in all capital trials, although the scope of that participation, beyond the jury's findings of statutory aggravating circumstances, is currently unclear. Against this background, the Article considers possible reforms of the Nebraska system that will meet the requirements of Ring while preserving the strengths of the Nebraska system that we document in this Article.
Surgical innovation, industry partnership, and the enemy within.

Innovation is an integral part of the practice of surgery. Itis a concept that many surgeons are familiar with, butmany do not fully appreciate the issues surrounding surgi-cal innovation and partnership with industry. Herein, wereview key issues and concepts of surgical innovation,industry partnership, and the potential pitfalls that arepresent. We conclude with principles that every surgeonshould maintain when pursuing surgical innovation.
Studies on Ehrlich ascites cell nuclei. II. Chemical composition of cell fractions.

Abstract A strain of Ehrlich ascites tumor cell and nuclei isolated from it, by three methods, have been chemically characterized through RNA, DNA and nitrogen analyses. As part of this characterization procedure, the RNA, DNA and nitrogen contents per average cell have been determined. Summations were made of the constituent fractions of the whole cell homogenates and these agreed rather well with the respective values of the original homogenate. Mean values obtained for the RNA, DNA and protein for whole cells of method I, determined on the basis of cell counts, without correcting for exudate cell content of the ascitic fluid, were respectively 30, 19 and 314 μμg. When corrected for exudate cell content, the average RNA and DNA values per tumor cell were about 33 and 21 μμg, respectively. Mean characterizing ratios for whole cells were for RNA/DNA about 1.7 (uncorrected), 1.8 (corrected) and protein/DNA, 17 (uncorrected). Mean RNA, DNA and protein values per isolated nucleus obtained by method I (all uncorrected for exudate cell content of ascitic fluid) were about 4.0, 19 and 71 μμg, respectively. RNA/DNA and protein/DNA for ncuclei averaged 0.24 and 4.1 respectively. The amount of protein found in the present isolated nuclei appears to be approximately twice that obtained in the only report presently available for comparison. Without any other criterion by which to judge, it would appear that these isolated nuclei have retained more protein than those isolated by use of 1 per cent citric acid solution. Because loss of protein during the isolation procedure may be the crucial factor in nuclear isolation it appears that the present technique affords an improvement over previously available methods for the isolation of nuclei from Ehrlich ascites cancer cells.
A world in which women move freely without fear of men: An anthropological perspective on rape☆

Abstract In western scholarly debate, there is nearly universal acceptance of rape as a male trait typical of all time periods and cultures. However, cross-cultural data provide insight into societies where rape is rare or unknown and can therefore be helpful to develop strategies for prevention. The paper focuses on the question why men do not rape in these societies with rape being understood as a crime that reflects male dominance and entitlement. An earlier finding by Sanday [J. Soc. Issues 37 (1981) 5] that such “rape-free” societies attach importance to the “contributions women make to social continuity” is further analyzed by taking an in-depth look at matrilineal societies. The category “matrilineal” is chosen because these cultures recognize women's contributions to social continuity, and absence or rareness of rape has been repeatedly reported. Data from matrilineal cultures from the relevant literature including my own work in South America are compared with a select body of data discussing western rapists. As the discussion demonstrates, the specific gender dynamics in matrilineal cultures reduce the significance of man's sexual persona and thus male heterosexual authority which mitigates the potential of male dominance and rape.
Strange Matter in the Universe

In the course of this lecture, I would like to introduce the strange matter hypothesis and some of its consequences.
Universality away from critical points in a thermostatistical model

Nature uses phase transitions as powerful regulators of processes ranging from climate to the alteration of phase behavior of cell membranes to protect cells from cold, building on the fact that thermodynamic properties of a solid, liquid, or gas are sensitive fingerprints of intermolecular interactions. The only known exceptions from this sensitivity are critical points. At a critical point, two phases become indistinguishable and thermodynamic properties exhibit universal behavior: systems with widely different intermolecular interactions behave identically. Here we report a major counterexample. We show that different members of a family of two-dimensional systems —the discrete p-state clock model— with different Hamiltonians describing different microscopic interactions between molecules or spins, may exhibit identical thermodynamic behavior over a wide range of temperatures. The results generate a comprehensive map of the phase diagram of the model and, by virtue of the discrete rotors behaving like continuous rotors, an emergent symmetry, not present in the Hamiltonian. This symmetry, or many-to-one map of intermolecular interactions onto thermodynamic states, demonstrates previously unknown limits for macroscopic distinguishability of different microscopic interactions.
Efficient gravity field recovery using in situ disturbing potential observables from CHAMP

[1] We demonstrate an efficient method to determine gravity field model using data from accelerometer- and GPS-equipped satellites, such as CHAMP. On the basis of the conservation of energy principle, in situ (on-orbit) and along track disturbing potential observables were computed using 16-days of CHAMP data. The global disturbing potential observables were then used to determine a 50 × 50 test gravity field solution (OSU02A) by employing a computationally efficient inversion technique based on conjugate gradient [Han et al., 2002]. An evaluation of the model using independent GPS/leveling heights and Arctic gravity data, and comparisons with existing gravity models, EGM96 and GRIM5C1, and new models, EIGEN1S and TEG4 which include CHAMP data, indicate that OSU02A is commensurate in geoid accuracy and, like other new models, it yields some improvement (10% better fit) in the polar region at wavelengths longer than 800 km.
Finding tribes: identifying close-knit individuals from employment patterns

We present a family of algorithms to uncover tribes-groups of individuals who share unusual sequences of affiliations. While much work inferring community structure describes large-scale trends, we instead search for small groups of tightly linked individuals who behave anomalously with respect to those trends. We apply the algorithms to a large temporal and relational data set consisting of millions of employment records from the National Association of Securities Dealers. The resulting tribes contain individuals at higher risk for fraud, are homogenous with respect to risk scores, and are geographically mobile, all at significant levels compared to random or to other sets of individuals who share affiliations.
Research on disclosure of HIV status: cultural evolution finds an ally in science.

This editorial responds to Mason et al.'s (1995) "Culturally Sanctioned Secrets: Latino Men's Nondisclosure of HIV Infection to Family, Friends, and Lovers." Culture is an evolving dynamic phenomenon shaped by society, psychology, and history. Historically, familism and simpatia have been Hispanic cultural assets. As times change, however, values and behaviors that served a culture for generations may become liabilities unless they evolve to fit the changing world of the culture. In the case of Hispanic gay men, the desire to protect family members is a barrier to disclosure of HIV status. Mason et al.'s study points to areas in which cultural development is needed. Science and culture thus become allies, with science pointing the way to needed directions for adaptive cultural evolution.
Enhancing Product Robustness in Reliability-Based Design Optimization

Abstract Different types of uncertainties need to be addressed in a product design optimization process. In this paper, the uncertainties in both product design variables and environmental noise variables are considered. The reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) is integrated with robust product design (RPD) to concurrently reduce the production cost and the long-term operation cost, including quality loss, in the process of product design. This problem leads to a multi-objective optimization with probabilistic constraints. In addition, the model uncertainties associated with a surrogate model that is derived from numerical computation methods, such as finite element analysis, is addressed. A hierarchical experimental design approach, augmented by a sequential sampling strategy, is proposed to construct the response surface of product performance function for finding optimal design solutions. The proposed method is demonstrated through an engineering example.
[H3N(CH2)7NH3]8(CH3NH3)2Sn(IV)Sn(II)12I46– a mixed-valent hybrid compound with a uniquely templated defect-perovskite structure

The incorporation of H3N(CH2)7NH3 with CH3NH3SnI3 resulted in the formation of a mixed-valent and semiconducting (Eg = 0.84 eV) organic-based perovskite, [H3N(CH2)7NH3]8(CH3NH3)2Sn(IV)Sn(II)12I46, with a unique 3D defect-perovskite structure with ordered vacancies at the Sn and I sites.
Availability, uptake and regeneration of phosphate in mesocosms with varied levels of P deficiency

Mesocosms (1.3 m3) in a eutrophic reservoir were treated with NH4Cl (160 µmol l−1), KH2PO4 (10 µmol l−1) or nothing (control) and sampled after 8 days to determine how P dynamics are related to relative P deficiency. Photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll data suggested P deficiency in ammonium and control mesocosms and no P deficiency with phosphate additions. Biologically available P (BAP) and the ratio of BAP to soluble reactive P (SRP) decreased as P deficiency increased. Log of short-term uptake as a function of log of phosphate concentration exhibited an approximate linear increase in control and N mesocosms; substrate dependent uptake kinetics showed no saturation up to 500 µmol l−1 phosphate. Uptake was independent of phosphate concentration (saturated) in samples from the 10 µmol l−1 P enriched mesocosm. This suggests that P uptake may not saturate at ecologically realistic values in short term experiments under P deficient conditions. Particle associated phosphatase activity was greatest in the 0.2–3 µm size-fraction in all mesocosms, but total activity varied little with P deficiency.
E3CC: A memory error protection scheme with novel address mapping for subranked and low-power memories

This study presents and evaluates E3CC (Enhanced Embedded ECC), a full design and implementation of a generic embedded ECC scheme that enables power-efficient error protection for subranked memory systems. It incorporates a novel address mapping scheme called Biased Chinese Remainder Mapping (BCRM) to resolve the address mapping issue for memories of page interleaving, plus a simple and effective cache design to reduce extra ECC traffic. Our evaluation using SPEC CPU2006 benchmarks confirms the performance and power efficiency of the E3CC scheme for subranked memories as well as conventional memories.
Executive perceptions in foreign and domestic acquisitions: an analysis of foreign ownership and its effect on executive fate

Abstract Foreign acquisitions account for one in every six acquisitions in the United States and lead to a variety of positive and negative outcomes for executives in acquired U.S. companies. They often enhance career opportunities and enrich executives’ international experiences but increase the chances of being replaced. Despite an increasing number of foreign acquisitions in the U.S.A. during the last twenty years, we still know very little about the differing perceptions of executives involved in foreign versus domestic acquisitions. A better understanding of such perceptions is important in light of the tendency of the popular press to focus on the negative aspects of foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies and landmarks. We present a framework for understanding executives’ perceptions based on surveys and interviews with 284 executives and discuss five areas where executive perceptions differ: (1) cultural differences, (2) system changes in the acquired company, (3) acquisition negotiations, (4) executives’ reasons for staying or leaving after the acquisition, and (5) postacquisition outcomes for the organization. Executives’ perceptions differed significantly in each of these five areas depending on whether the executive was involved in a foreign or domestic acquisition.
Amorphous Ni/Al nanoscale laminates as high-energy intermolecular reactive composites

We use molecular dynamics simulations to explore the potential use of amorphous metals in intermolecular reactive composites. Our simulations show that amorphous Ni/Al nanolaminates lead to an increase in temperature of up to 260 K over their crystalline counterparts; this increase corresponds to over 20$%$ of the heat of fusion and can be explained in terms of the amorphization energy. The reactions are diffusion controlled and crystallization is observed in laminates with relatively long periods where high temperatures are experienced for sufficiently long times prior to intermixing; the effect of this process on the energetics and time involved in the reaction are characterized.
E3 ubiquitin ligase Cblb regulates the acute inflammatory response underlying lung injury.

The E3 ubiquitin ligase Cblb has a crucial role in the prevention of chronic inflammation and autoimmunity. Here we show that Cblb also has an unexpected function in acute lung inflammation. Cblb attenuates the sequestration of inflammatory cells in the lungs after administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In a model of polymicrobial sepsis in which acute lung inflammation depends on the LPS receptor (Toll-like receptor 4, TLR-4), the loss of Cblb expression accentuates acute lung inflammation and reduces survival. Loss of Cblb significantly increases sepsis-induced release of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Cblb controls the association between TLR4 and the intracellular adaptor MyD88. Expression of wild-type Cblb, but not expression of a Cblb mutant that lacks E3 ubiquitin ligase function, prevents the activity of a reporter gene for the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in monocytes that have been challenged with LPS. The downregulation of TLR4 expression on the cell surface of neutrophils is impaired in the absence of Cblb. Our data reveal that Cblb regulates the TLR4-mediated acute inflammatory response that is induced by sepsis.
African American Anthropology and the Pedagogy of Activist Community Research

Anthropological field experiences for African American undergraduates can introduce the students to anthropology and stimulate their interest in the discipline. This is important since relatively few African American students pursue anthropology as a major course of study. Field experiences can also facilitate an understanding of activism, action research, and the uses of these concepts in addressing African American community issues.
Empathy and online interpersonal trust: A fragile relationship

The rapid growth of personal email communication, instant messaging and online communities has brought attention to the important role of interpersonal trust in online communication. An empirical study was conducted focusing on the effect of empathy on online interpersonal trust in textual IM. To be more specific, the relationship between empathic accuracy, response type and online interpersonal trust was investigated. The result suggests both empathic accuracy and response type have significant influence on online interpersonal trust. The interaction between empathic accuracy and response type also significantly influences online trust. Interestingly, the results imply a relationship between daily trust attitude and online interpersonal trust. People who are more trusting in their daily life may experience more difficulty in developing trust online. There is also some evidence to suggest that different communication scenarios may have an influence on online trust.
The clinical spectrum of focal cortical dysplasia and epilepsy

Abstract Focal cortical dysplasia is an important pathologic substrate in patients with epilepsy, but its clinical spectrum has not yet been completely defined. We retrospectively studied 30 epilepsy surgery patients with focal abnormalities of neuronal migration as the only histopathologic finding in resected tissue. Patients comprised two clinical groups. Seventeen patients with extratemporal epilepsy had early (median age, 7.0 years) extratemporal resection or hemispherectomy for severe epilepsy (47% of patients with > 10 partial seizures a day) that began in infancy or early childhood (median age, 1.0 year), usually in the setting of mental retardation or developmental delay (59% of patients), and often with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evidence of focal neuronal migration abnormality (44% of patients). In contrast, 13 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were significantly older at age of seizure onset (median, 8.0 years; p = 0.001) and surgery (median, 22.0 years; p = 0.001), with less severe epilepsy (no patients with an average of > 10 seizures a day; p = 0.004), and without mental retardation or MRI evidence of neuronal migration abnormality ( p = 0.001). In both groups, positron emission tomography (PET) was more sensitive than MRI and showed focal hypometabolism in seven patients with normal MRI. Seizure-free outcome tended to be more common after temporal lobectomy (77%) than after extratemporal resection or hemispherectomy (53%). Pathologic abnormalities were more severe in patients with extratemporal epilepsy than in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. The clinical spectrum of focal cortical dysplasia included not only infants and children with severe extratemporal epilepsy and mental retardation, but also older patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and at least boderline IQ. Preoperative diagnosis may be difficult in cases with less severe pathologic abnormality, but high-resolution MRI and PET can increase the yield.
Finite size effect on the phase transition of vanadium dioxide

Raman studies are reported of vanadium dioxide grown on sapphire substrates with morphology ranging from island to continuous layer. Temperatures corresponding to the onset of the structural phase transition and the insulator to metal transition are estimated based on the shifts and disappearance of the phonons, respectively. Minimum dimension h, corresponding to island height or layer thickness, plays a critical role in the transformation. The transition temperature and width exhibit 1/h dependence consistent with finite-size effects related to martensitic nucleation. The length scale below which the finite size effects are important is found to be ∼300 nm.
Office-based management of urticaria.

Urticaria is a common pruritic skin disorder that is often seen in the office and varies in severity and chronicity. The etiologic cause is frequently not identifiable. Urticaria may be associated with physical factors and triggers, including foods or medications. A significant percentage of patients with chronic urticaria have circulating autoantibodies directed toward immunoglobulin-E or the high-affinity receptor for immunoglobulin-E (FceRI), or have antithyroid antibodies that might play a role in the activation of the final common pathway in urticaria: mast cell activation and degranulation. Management begins with a careful investigation and elimination of eliciting factors when identified, followed by treatment of underlying disease. Antihistamines are the current mainstay of pharmacotherapy for urticaria, which provide symptomatic relief in most cases. In severe cases, corticosteroids, hydroxychloroquine sulfate (Plaquenil; Sanofi-Synthelabo, New York, NY), and immunosuppressive agents, including cyclosporin, are sometimes used by specialists.
Sequential Modification of the UMP Test for Binomial Probabilities

Abstract The early decision version of the uniformly most powerful (UMP) fixed-sample-size test for binomial probabilities, as described for instance by Alling [1], is modified by changing all continuation points which lie on or below a line with specified slope into acceptance points. The modification reduces the average sample number (ASN) for small values of the binomial probability with only a slight loss of power. Approximate formulas for the ASN and power function of the resulting test are presented and a small sample comparison made with other sequential tests.
Narrative authority in J.M. Coetzee's Age of Iron

This paper explores the complex nature of narrative authority in J.M. Coetzee's Age of Iron , set in an apartheid South Africa at a moment of extreme political crisis. At first glance, it seems as though Mrs. Curren's ability to comment on and judge the events of the Emergency is constantly undermined, as Coetzee appears to deliberately place her in a marginalized position that cannot claim any real authority over the events she witnesses. However, reading the novel through the critical lens of Coetzee's 1996 essay on Erasmus' In Praise of Folly , it appears that in this novel Coetzee is in fact in search of a position from which one may tell the truth from the outside, without inserting oneself into the rivalrous binary of political oppression and resistance that implies an unavoidable taking of sides (i.e. that of Folly itself). In the end, however, Coetzee is forced to admit that this privileged position of objective truth-telling may not in fact exist, that it is only through the subjective discourse of storytelling – a discourse, however, that is no less authoritative for its being a wholly personal act of witnessing – that one can speak the truth. Keywords: “ekstasis”, authority, alterity, storytelling Tydskrif vir Letterkunde • 43(2) • 2006: 174-185
Comparison of ImmunoCyt, UroVysion, and urine cytology in detection of recurrent urothelial carcinoma: a "split-sample" study.

BACKGROUND: ImmunoCyt (uCyt) and UroVysion are ancillary studies that may aid in the detection of urothelial carcinoma in urine specimens. We compared ImmunoCyt and UroVysion to urine cytology in the ability to detect recurrent urothelial carcinoma. METHODS: Single voided urine samples were obtained from 100 patients who had a previous history of bladder cancer. All patients underwent cystoscopy immediately after urine sample collection. Forty-one cystoscopically suspicious lesions were biopsied. Urine samples were divided and processed blindly and independently in 3 different laboratories for ImmunoCyt, UroVysion, and urine cytology (ThinPrep method). RESULTS: Of the 41 cystoscopically positive cases, most cystoscopy findings showed multiple tumors that were papillary and less than 1 cm. Biopsies showed many low-grade tumors (54%). Overall sensitivity of cytology for low- and high-grade urothelial cell carcinoma was 15% and 27%, whereas ImmunoCyt was 62% and 91% and UroVysion was 8% and 18%, respectively. Overall specificity of cytology was 97%, whereas ImmunoCyt was 63% and UroVysion was 90%. CONCLUSIONS: ImmunoCyt is more sensitive than either cytology or UroVysion in detecting low-grade tumors. Both cytology and UroVysion have comparable specificity in cystoscopically negative cases. Whereas ImmunoCyt may improve the cytological detection of recurrent bladder cancer, UroVysion may be used as a confirmatory test for either cytology or ImmunoCyt. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2009. © 2009 American Cancer Society.
Poster: a comprehensive benchmark suite for emerging solid state drives

Solid-state drives (SSDs) bring a fundamental change to the landscape of storage systems and are generally agreed as the replacement of hard-disk drives (HDDs) in the future. Benchmarking is used extensively to measure and compare the performance of storage systems. However, conventional benchmarks designed for spinning HDDs are not sufficient for benchmarking SSDs, and do not show insights of the measurement well. There is a need to design and develop benchmarks specifically for SSDs and measure the features comprehensively. Such benchmarks are useful in many scenarios, such as assisting the selection and deployment of SSD-based storage systems, evaluating the new design of SSDs, identifying the strengths and weakness of an SSD and finding the best workload for it, etc. We propose a Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for SSDs (CBS-SSD) to benchmark and measure the features of SSDs thoroughly. This study presents the initial design, implementation, and evaluation of CBS-SSD. We believe that the proposed CBS-SSD is a more suitable benchmark suite for SSDs than existing benchmarks, and it will have an impact in the data-intensive high-performance computing era.
A practical iterative procedure to estimate seismic-induced deformations of shallow rectangular structures

An iterative procedure is proposed to estimate seismic-induced distortions of cut-and-cover rectangular structures. The procedure is based on an existing analytical solution for deep rectangular st...
Computer Modeling and Simulations on Flexible Bifunctional Systems: Intramolecular Energy Transfer Implications†

The conformational search of the potential energy surface using the single coordinate driving method CICADA, molecular dynamics calculations, and quantum mechanical studies using the 6-31G* basis set were used for a detailed analysis of the conformational behavior of various flexible bichromophoric compounds Ph-CO-(CH2)x-O-Ar (x = 3-14; Ar = 2-naphthyl, 2-biphenylyl, 3-biphenylyl, 4-biphenylyl). The results were used for the estimation of the end-to-end intramolecular (exchange) energy transfer efficiency and for comparison to the data recently obtained from the steady-state quenching and quantum yield measurements (Wagner, P. J.; Klan, P. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 9626-9635). The conformational search clearly supported the dominance of the through-space interaction in longer molecules (x = 5-14), which was still remarkably high even for x = 14. Comparing both computational and experimental results, a ~90% through-bond coupling was estimated for the shortest (x = 3) bichromophores. The molecular dynamics calculations seemed to validate the fact that only a small fraction of ground-state conformations involved ground-state control (static quenching) with the interchromophore distances within 4 Ĺ. Rate-determining bond rotations to such geometries should be then responsible for the energy transfer within the lifetime of the excited donor. The influence of chromophore orientation was found insignificant for long-tether molecules, but important in short-tether ones due to different reactive volumes of different acceptors, such as naphthalene or biphenyl. In addition, a correlation of the calculated average distances between the gamma-hydrogen and the carbonyl oxygen with the experimental hydrogen abstraction rate constants in the Norrish type II process strongly supported the right choice of the computational method.
Heliothis spp.: parasitism and parasites plus host plants and parasites of the beet armyworm , diamondback moth and two tortricids in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas

A 4-yr study of parasitism of Heliothis spp. [ virescens (F.) and zea (Boddie)] showed parasitism of eggs by Trichogramma was highest in August, September and October (22–46%) and larval parasitism highest in April, May and June (5–6%). Nineteen parasite species were recorded. Beet armyworms were found on 6 cultivated and 5 wild hosts. Diamondback moths were found on 5 cultivated hosts and 9 wild hosts. Two species of Tortricidae, Platynota rostrana (Wlk.) and P. flavedana Clemens, were found on cotton and 4 wild hosts. Parasites reared from beet armyworms and diamondback moths are listed.
Shiverer jimpy double mutant mice. IV. Five combinations of allelic mutations produce three morphological phenotypes.

Abstract Mice which simultaneously express mutant genes at both the shi and jp loci (double mutant mice) have phenotypes much more complex than simple addition of individual mutant characteristics. Morphological study of shi * jp msd , shi mld* jp , and shi/shi mld* jp , and comparison with previously studied shi * jp and shi mld* jp msd , shows that 3 classes of central nervous system (CNS) white matter morphology are produced. (1) shi * jp shows suppression of most jp characteristics: it is like shi except for more major dense line, and possibly more myelin, than shi alone. No other combination has as much myelin or any major dense line at all. (2) shi * jp msd has qualitative and quantitative characteristics intermediate between the two single mutants. (3) All combinations studied involving shi mld have much less myelin than either single mutant. Qualitatively they express most jp locus features but suppress all shi locus features except abnormalities of myelin compaction. The difference between shi and shi mld has more influence on the double mutant morphology than the difference between jp and jp msd . In the 3-mutant combination, shi/shi mld* jp , the influence of shi mld completely overrides that of shi . These morphological phenotypes resist assignment to any hierarchy of normalcy, and their specific features have no simple explanation in presently known molecular biology of the shi and jp locus mutations. They suggest the possibility of multiple copies and multiple primary functions of the messages at these loci.
Health message framing effects on attitudes, intentions, and behavior: a meta-analytic review.

Background Message framing has been an important focus in health communication research, yet prior meta-analyses found limited support for using framing to increase persuasiveness of health messages.
Neuronal β-amyloid precursor protein gene expression : regulation by aurintricarboxylic acid

Abstract β-Amyloid precursor protein (β-APP) and its derivative, amyloid β-protein (β-A4), may cause death of differentiated neurons and aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA), a metabolic inhibitor, improves neuronal survival. Therefore, we studied the effect of ATA on neuronal β-APP gene expression. ATA decreased β-APP mRNA levels by increasing its degradation, without changing the rate of transcription. ATA decreased both steady state and interleukin-1 (IL1)-induced increase in β-APP mRNA levels. These effects of ATA were associated with rounding of cells suggestive of decreased cell adhesion or neurite retraction that was completely reversible when ATA was removed. However, β-APP mRNA levels continued to remain suppressed in neurons that were actively regrowing neurites following discontinuation of ATA. In studies carried out upto 24 h. ATA did not damage cells as determined by Trypan blue exclusion, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)-release and transmission electron microscopy. The findings suggest that constitutive or steady state levels of β-APP mRNA may not be essential for the survival and growth of neurons and that ATA suppresses β-APP expression without causing cell damage. These observations may be a basis for studying whether ATA or a related compound could beneficially regulate β-APP levels in vivo.
Engineered chromosome regions with altered sequence composition demonstrate hierarchical large-scale folding within metaphase chromosomes

Mitotic chromosome structure and DNA sequence requirements for normal chromosomal condensation remain unknown. We engineered labeled chromosome regions with altered scaffold-associated region (SAR) sequence composition as a formal test of the radial loop and other chromosome models. Chinese hamster ovary cells were isolated containing high density insertions of a transgene containing lac operator repeats and a dihydrofolate reductase gene, with or without flanking SAR sequences. Lac repressor staining provided high resolution labeling with good preservation of chromosome ultrastructure. No evidence emerged for differential targeting of SAR sequences to a chromosome axis within native chromosomes. SAR sequences distributed uniformly throughout the native chromosome cross section and chromosome regions containing a high density of SAR transgene insertions showed normal diameter and folding. Ultrastructural analysis of two different transgene insertion sites, both spanning less than the full chromatin width, clearly contradicted predictions of simple radial loop models while providing strong support for hierarchical models of chromosome architecture. Specifically, an ∼250-nm-diam folding subunit was visualized directly within fully condensed metaphase chromosomes. Our results contradict predictions of simple radial loop models and provide the first unambiguous demonstration of a hierarchical folding subunit above the level of the 30-nm fiber within normally condensed metaphase chromosomes.