cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Return to Work Program for an Employee With Resolving Vertigo

Vertigo is a disorder that affects equilibrium. Symptoms include a loss of balance with nausea and vomiting. Employees diagnosed with vertigo can return to work safely; however, they may need workplace restrictions and accommodation as symptoms may persist for months. This article reviews the evaluation and treatment of vertigo with back-to-work recommendations.
Modeling reliability with a two-sided power distribution

ABSTRACTModeling the reliability of a system typically involves the piecewise combination of mathematically disparate functions covering distinct periods (e.g., decreasing, constant, and increasing time-dependent failure rates defining the traditional bathtub curve) in the life of an engineered system. This work explores the two-sided power distribution, a nonlinear extension of the triangular distribution, for describing failure time and rendering a statistically valid bathtub curve with a single probability density function. The parameters of the two-sided power distribution also provide some flexibility to describe decreasing and increasing failure rates with a single distribution that are not available with similar distributions.
Coevolution of Life and Earth

Coevolution is a process in which unrelated but mutually interdependent kinds of organisms evolve in a coordinated fashion. Coevolution of grasses and grazers is a well-known example, in which grasses evolved sod growth and abrasive leaves to cope with increasingly hard hooves and high-crowned teeth of grazers. Other plants could not withstand the grazing and other animals could not digest the grasses. The result was creation within the past 30 million years of a new ecosystem type, grasslands, with carbon sequestration, water balance, and albedo unlike other terrestrial ecosystems. These forces for global change arose because both grazers and grasses coevolved in response to biological rather than only physicochemical selection. Such coevolutionary processes can be understood not only in the linkages of interdependence between coevolving partners but also in historical patterns of change, such as promotion of global cooling by grassland coevolution. Such processes have taken Earth far from its primordial state, creating biosignatures that set it apart from known barren worlds such as the Moon, Venus, Mars, and asteroids. Plausible biosignatures of coevolutionary processes on Earth include its inflammable atmosphere, permanent liquid water, carbon-based life, spheroidal weathering, granitic rocks, convex slopes, calcic horizons, argillic horizons, mollic epipedons, and civilizations. A coevolutionary view of the origin of life requires natural selection of interacting interdependent groups of minerals or molecules. As a hypothetical example, erosion resistance (selected property) of soils could be promoted by clay (consumers) formed from hydrolytic weathering of high-temperature minerals (producers). Other soils, lacking clay cements or with clays cracking too much on desiccation, would be eroded and dispersed by wind, water, and impacts. Naturally selected clayey soils with their millions of warm little pools of intergranular water could have been a stable laboratory for the origin of life and remain the source of nutrients fundamental for life.
ELECTROMECHANICAL ACTIVATION TIME VIA HEMOTAG AND 2D ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY: CORRELATION WITH TRICUSPID REGURGITATION PEAK VELOCITY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DIAGNOSIS AND CLINICAL PRACTICE

Background: Cardiac time intervals (CTI) have been classically obtained with phonocardiography, though this technique has been overlooked since the advent of the 2D M-mode echocardiography. The “HemoTag” is a new technology that uses heart sounds and an ECG signal transduced via 3 thoracic
Must a world government violate the right to exit

ABSTRACTThis paper offers a response to the common claim that a world government is undesirable because one would not be able to leave its territory. This claim nearly always appears as an adjunct to the possibility that a world government would be irredeemably bad. I separate out two implications of the impossibility of exit: first, that a world government is unable to respect human rights; and second, that regardless of its status as rights-respecting, it is, all things considered, better to be able to leave a territory if one wishes to do so. As a response, I develop a concept of exit rights. This shows that respect for exit rights is not necessarily undermined by the presence of a world government, and that a world government is able to provide for the substance of the right or the interests that it secures. Next, I argue that the normative force of the claim that one ought to be able to exit the territory of a bad government lies in a false asymmetry between territorial states in the states system an...
Low tolerance of salt water in a marine fish: new and historical evidence for surprising local adaption in the well-studied commercially exploited capelin

Intraspecific biodiversity among populations is ecologically and evolutionarily notable. Substantial adaptations in well-studied commercial species should be obvious and ought to have been uncovered. The tenet of marine stability posits relatively little local adaptation in the sea, except for temperature responses to latitude for widespread species. However, aquatic reproduction is tightly constrained by water chemistry, which may lead to abstruse adaptations. Capelin (Mallotus villosus) reproduction has been studied for over a century, occurring within pebble substrate on beaches or the seafloor of continental shelves. Offshore spawners (Iceland/Barents Sea) have embryos with tolerance of high salinity. I provide new and historical data on beach spawners from several areas indicating that their embryos perform well from ∼2 to 28 psu, but at higher salinities indicative of coastal seawater, there is poor hatch success, larvae take longer to hatch, hatch at a smaller size, and starve more quickly. The bod...
Beyond Ether and Chloroform—A Major Breakthrough With Halothane

Abstract Background The use of equipment powered by electricity in the operating room increased the risk of fires in the presence of flammable agents such as ether and cyclopropane. Chloroform was associated with cardiac arrhythmias and liver damage. The introduction of halothane in the late 1950s was heralded as a solution to many problems facing the specialty of anesthesia. We explore whether the manufacturer promptly reported halothane's adverse effects to regulatory agencies and practitioners. Sources We consulted documents submitted by Ayerst Laboratories to federal authorities through the Freedom of Information Act, promotional advertisements, package inserts, published articles, and textbooks. Results Two major complications associated with the use of halothane, cardiac arrhythmias and the risk of hepatotoxicity, were disclosed by the manufacturer when the drug was first introduced to the US market. Reports appeared timely and complete; there was no apparent attempt to conceal or otherwise downplay these risks. Conclusion The process of drug discovery and approval for clinical use has always been a lengthy, complex, and extremely expensive undertaking, with only a small minority of compounds receiving approval. The risk of adverse effects or drug interaction directly impacts commercial viability. In the case of halothane, the manufacturer disclosed major adverse effects, and the drug enjoyed decades of popularity until it was replaced by agents with a better drug profile.
Residents' response to bleeding during a simulated robotic surgery task.

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to assess performance measurement validity of our newly developed robotic surgery task trainer. We hypothesized that residents would exhibit wide variations in their intercohort performance as well as a measurable difference compared to surgeons in fellowship training. Materials and methods Our laboratory synthesized a model of a pelvic tumor that simulates unexpected bleeding. Surgical residents and fellows of varying specialties completed a demographic survey and were allowed 20 minutes to resect the tumor using the da Vinci robot and achieve hemostasis. At a standardized event in the simulation, venous bleeding began, and participants attempted hemostasis using suture ligation. A motion tracking system, using electromagnetic sensors, recorded participants' hand movements. A postparticipation Likert scale survey evaluated participants' assessment of the model's realism and usefulness. Results Three of the seven residents (postgraduate year 2-5), and the fellow successfully resected the tumor in the allotted time. Residents showed high variability in performance and blood loss (125-700 mL) both within their cohort and compared to the fellow (150 mL blood). All participants rated the model as having high realism and utility for trainees. Conclusions The results support that our bleeding pelvic tumor simulator has the ability to discriminate resident performance in robotic surgery. The combination of motion, decision-making, and blood loss metrics offers a multilevel performance assessment, analyzing both technical and decision-making abilities.
Leukaemia: Vitamin C regulates stem cells and cancer.

It emerges that high levels of vitamin C in blood-forming stem cells influence the number and function of the cells and affect the development of leukaemia, through binding to a tumour-suppressor protein, Tet2. See Article p.476 The effect of changes in metabolite levels on stem-cell fate in vivo has been unclear. Sean Morrison and colleagues survey the metabolites of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and progenitors. They show that each type of blood cell has a specific signature and that human and mouse HSCs have high levels of ascorbate, which drop during differentiation. Depletion of ascorbate in mice increases the number and function of HSCs and cooperates with a mutation associated with leukaemia to accelerate tumorigenesis. Analysis of the phenotypes indicates that ascorbate can act in a non-cell-autonomous fashion, partly by modulating the function of the tumour suppressor Tet2.
Iteration of Sine and Related Power Series

SummaryWe consider the nth iterate of the sine function and related functions by looking at the growth and form of the coefficients in the resulting power series. By controlling for the growth of the terms, as functions of n, we find a surprising relationship to a family of algebraic functions.
Advance Statements and Ruth Macklin’s Useless Concept of Human Dignity

This paper aims to demonstrate the importance and usefulness of human dignity from the perspective of achieving of Advance Statements as a manifestation of the concerned person able to make gaugeable and valid in particular his intention to exercise the constitutional right to die with dignity and, from that, submits an objection to the thesis of human dignity held by Ruth Macklin. For this purpose, in the first topic, human dignity will be explored under the philosophical approach, from the perspective of medical ethics and its foundation in the Brazilian legal system. The second topic will demonstrate the Advance Statements as an instrument of materialisation of human dignity, specifically for patients in end-of-life stage. This writing will be directed according to the deductive method of qualitative approach, starting from general notions of human dignity, passing through the perspective of medical ethics and the study of Advance Statements, to present, finally, an answer to Ruth Macklin. The results confirmed the effectiveness of human dignity in face of inevitable death of terminally ill patients by formalizing of Advance Statements, proving, thus, the actual usefulness and relevance of human dignity. In the doctor-patient relationship, human dignity involves pain and suffering mitigation, respect for patients and for their autonomy in decision-making about where and they prefer stay in the last days before dying, right information about their illness and risks due to medical and health care interventions, access to therapies and treatments in order to mitigate their distress, offer the possibility to renounce, suspend and withdraw therapeutic techniques, not abandoning patients and respect for their beliefs.
Further Study of the Distribution of Chloride Between Plasma and Intraocular Fluids of the Rabbit Eye

The ratios for the concentration of chloride in the ocular fluids compared with plasma, based on analyses made in the presence of protein, are 6 to 8 per cent below those observed when the analysis is performed after removing protein, or when the ratios are determined from the distribution of S6 Cl administered parenterally to the same rabbits 72 hours before taking samples. The residts suggest that, contrary to earlier beliefs, there is only a slight deficiency of chloride in the posterior aqueous compared with plasma and that this ion exists in slight excess in the anterior aqueous. The steady-state distribution in the aqueous humors is in accord with predicted values based on the rate of accumulation of radioactive chloride.
A new inverse planning formalism with explicit DVH constraints and kurtosis-based dosimetric criteria

In inverse planning processes of radiotherapy, dose-volume histograms (DVH) have been commonly used as a measure of plan quality. The exact mathematical formulation of DVHs involves binary variables and is therefore intrinsically nonconvex. In view of the resulting computational intractability, existing treatment planning systems adopt convex surrogate models that involve many parameters. Manual parameter tweaking is then required to determine reasonable values for those parameters in order to generate plans that meet the target DVHs. However, conventional convex formulations for inverse planning entails non-trivial differences from an exact formulation and, therefore, provide only very limited control over the DVHs. In view of this limitation, this paper presents a new formulation that combines a novel folded concave penalty (FCP)-based constraint and a new kurtosis-based optimization criterion. The former presents a much sharper approximation to the exact DVH constraints than the existing counterparts, and the latter penalizes the occurrence of hot and cold spots in dose distributions. We investigated the effectiveness of the proposed planning formulations on three head-and-neck cases in comparison with conventional DVH-based formulations. Significant outperformance in terms of better distributed doses-at-volume was achieved through the proposed scheme.
Advances in Breast MRI in the Setting of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast is a pre-invasive breast malignancy with controversial clinical relevance and management. These lesions have increased in incidence with breast cancer screening programs and are associated with increasingly recognized clinical issues of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. This article discusses the imaging presentation of these lesions with emphasis on advances in breast MRI and its role in the management of DCIS.
Hold the door: hPMCA1/neuroplastin interactions regulate Ca2+-binding site accessibility.

Abstract In a September 2018 paper published in Nature Communications, Gong et al. identified the domains through which human PMCA1 and neuroplastin (NPTN) interact. Upon binding, hPMCA1 TM domains separate T110 in TM1 and A370 in TM3 to reveal the Ca2+-binding site. Thus, NPTN is able to directly modulate the accessibility of cytosolic Ca2+ to PMCA.
13 Data Exchange Using STEP

The ultimate goal of STEP is to define models for the entire product life cycle for all kinds of products. Manufacturing needs many specifications to make a product. The most important is a description of the tolerances, but other kinds of specifications are also required, such as the material properties and the surface finishes. The ability to support many protocols within one framework was a key strength of STEP. In the early years it allowed many groups to define protocols. All the protocols were built on the same set of integrated resources (IRs) so they all used common definitions for the same information. Each (application protocol) AP includes a scope, an activity diagram, and an application model describing the information requirements of those activities. These information requirements are then mapped into the common set of IRs and the result is a data exchange standard for the activities within the scope. Keywords: data exchange; product life cycle; STEP
How Optimal Classification (Oc) Works in One Dimension: The

first started working on modeling roll call voting in 1978 when I was at the University of Oregon. I developed a simple scaling program that I dubbed Edith (my wife's middle name) and it, in effect, does a simple Guttman-like scaling of roll calls. The rationale behind Edith is the following. Suppose voting in Congress is entirely driven by one basic dimension-liberalism-conservatism-so that a legislator's degree of liberalism determines all his/her issue positions. Translated into standard spatial theory, members are arrayed from left to right on a single dimension, have symmetric utility functions centered at their ideal points, and when faced with a choice between the two alternatives corresponding to Yea and Nay on a roll call, they vote for the alternative closest to them on the dimension. Therefore, given the legislator ideal points, all roll call votes should look something like the following
PosoMAS: An Extensible, Modular SE Process for Open Self-organising Systems

This paper introduces PosoMAS, the Process for open, self-organising Multi-Agent Systems. The process is composed of a number of practices, reusable and customisable building parts, and integrated into the lifecycle of the Open Unified Process to yield an iterative, incremental software engineering process tailored to open self-organising systems. The individual practices are introduced and their interplay described. We evaluate PosoMAS in two case studies and provide a qualitative comparison with existing AOSE processes.
The Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology: A Model for Effective Creativity in Academic Neurosurgery

Background: There is currently an acceleration of new scientific and technical capabilities that creates new opportunities for academic neurosurgery. OBJECTIVE: To engage these changing dynamics, the Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology (CINT) was created on the premise that successful innovation of device-related ideas rely on collaboration between multiple disciplines. The CINT has created a unique model that integrates scientific, medical, engineering, and legal/business experts to participate in the continuum from idea generation to translation. METHODS: The workflow is structured to enable cross-disciplinary interaction, both intramurally and extramurally between academia and industry. This involves a structured method for generating, evaluating, and prototyping promising device concepts. The process begins with the “Invention Session,” which consists of a structured exchange between inventors of diverse technical and medical backgrounds. Successful ideas, which pass a separate triage mechanism, are then sent on to industry-sponsored multidisciplinary fellowships to create functioning prototypes. RESULTS: After 10 years, the CINT has engaged 78 clinical and non-clinical inventors, 95 fellowships, and 19 patents - for which 11 have been licensed to industry. CONCLUSION: CINT is a model that supports an integrated approach from the time an idea is created through its translational development. To date, the approach is successful in creating numerous concepts that have led to industry licenses.
Forced technology transfer and China

Innovation is the most important competitive advantage of the United States. However, the infringement of intellectual property and the forcing of US firms to transfer technology to foreign firms have become increasingly important issues in recent years. This article discusses the implications of China's forced technology transfer regime.
A 5G 24-30 GHz 2x32 Element Dual-Polarized Dual-Beam Phased Array Base-Station for 2x2 MIMO System

This paper presents a complete 5G phased-array base-station, which consists of 2x32 element phased-arrays, each with vertical and horizontal polarization (V&H) for 5G polarization MIMO operation. The array is based on high performance 24-30 GHz 2x2 beamformer chips and a 22-44 GHz wideband up/down-conversion transceiver chips, which are placed on the same PCB with all the other supporting circuitry. An EIRP of 44-46 dBm is measured at 25-30 GHz, with -35 to -40 dBc LO leakage, <-30 dBc cross-polarization levels, and 40-100 dBc single-sideband rejection. The array scans to ±50/sup /\circ in the azimuth plane and ±40/sup /\circ in the elevation plane for both polarizations. Single- and dual-beam complex modulation measurements demonstrate that the 2x32 element V&H array can support multi-standard and multi-gigabit-per-second 5G communication links with polarization MIMO. All measurements are done without any calibration, greatly reducing the overall system cost. To the author's knowledge, this work achieves state-of-art performance in terms of EIRP, LO rejection, SSB rejection, and power consumption
Maximizing decision-making style and hoarding disorder symptoms

Abstract Background Past research links hoarding disorder (HD) to indecisiveness and difficulty with decision-making. However, it remains unclear what contributes to difficulty making decisions in HD. Decision-making research suggests that some individuals have a maximizing decision-making style (seeking the best option through an exhaustive search of all existing alternatives) while others “satisfice” (choosing options that are satisfactory even without seeing all options). Past work has linked the dispositional tendency to maximize in decisions to elevated depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, but no study has investigated whether maximizing may be relevant for hoarding behaviors. Method We administered measures of hoarding behaviors, decision-making style (maximizing vs satisficing), generalized difficulty with decision-making (indecisiveness), distress (depression, anxiety and stress symptoms) and OCD symptoms to a sample of community adults (N = 1113) recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Results The tendency to maximize in decision-making was significantly correlated with hoarding symptoms (including difficulty discarding possessions, excessive acquisition, and clutter). Moreover, regression results showed that maximizing predicted hoarding severity after controlling for indecisiveness, general distress and OCD symptoms. Limitations We utilized self-report questionnaires in an unscreened community sample. Replication in a clinical sample is needed. Conclusions The dispositional tendency to maximize in decisions may represent a specific aspect of decision-making relevant for hoarding behaviors. Implications for improving cognitive-behavioral models and treatments are discussed.
Challenges in Evaluating Safety and Efficacy in Drug Development for Rare Diseases: A Review for Pharmacists:

A rare disease, or orphan disease, in the United States is a condition with a national prevalence of fewer than 200,000 diagnoses. As therapies for rare diseases are developed and brought to market, pharmacists should understand the challenges of drug development for rare diseases and aid in educating patients about the approval process for rare disease therapies. Developing drugs for treating rare diseases presents unique challenges in proving the drug's safety and efficacy with adequate study design, power, and validity. Results of the clinical trials for rare diseases may be weakened by small patient populations, limited disease information, and difficulty defining end points and biomarkers. In addition to investigational barriers, pharmaceutical companies face financial barriers in justifying the investment of bringing a rare disease therapy to market. Federal programs, such as the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, expedited review, the Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Vouchers (RPD PRV) program, and the 21st Century Cures Act, give pharmaceutical companies motivation to develop therapies for rare diseases. The objective of this article is to provide pharmacists with an understanding of the challenges in designing clinical trials for drugs for rare diseases and discuss federal programs that address efforts to develop safe and efficacious drugs for rare diseases.
Abstract MP01: Vasopressin Contributes To Differences In The Physiology Of Hypertension Between Non-Hispanic Blacks And Whites

Objective: Vasopressin increases water permeability and activity of the epithelial sodium channel ENaC in the distal nephron of the kidney, favoring increased water and sodium retention. We hypothe...
Using the US EPA CompTox Chemicals Dashboard to interpret targeted and non-targeted GC-MS analyses from human breath and other biological media.

The U.S. EPA CompTox Chemicals Dashboard is a freely available web-based application providing access to chemistry, toxicity, and exposure data for ~900,000 chemicals. Data, search functionality, and prediction models within the Dashboard can help identify chemicals found in environmental analyses and human biomonitoring. It was designed to deliver data generated to support computational toxicology to reduce chemical testing on animals and provide access to new approach methodologies (NAMs) including prediction models. The inclusion of mass and formula-based searches, together with relevant ranking approaches, allows for the identification and prioritization of exogenous (environmental) chemicals from high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) in need of further evaluation. The Dashboard includes chemicals that can be detected by liquid chromatography (LC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and direct-MS analyses, and chemical lists have been added that highlight breath-borne volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs). The Dashboard can be searched using various chemical identifiers (e.g., chemical synonyms, CASRN and InChIKeys), chemical formula, MS-ready formulae monoisotopic mass, consumer product categories and assays/genes associated with high-throughput screening data. An integrated search at a chemical level performs searches against PubMed to identify relevant published literature. This article describes specific procedures using the Dashboard as a first-stop tool for exploring both targeted and non-targeted results from GC-MS analyses of chemicals found in breath, exhaled breath condensate, and associated aerosols.
Student Perceptions of an Online Ungraded Course

What do grades mean? What purpose do they serve? What role do they play in the learning process? Teachers and scholars have recently begun to re-examine these questions central to our current grading system. As a result, many have started to re-assess how grades are assigned in their classes. In this case study, I examine the effectiveness of ungrading, an approach centered around students assigning their own grades through reflecting on the learning process. After contextualizing and describing the approach developed for this fully online, asynchronous history class, I share quantitative and qualitative data regarding student perceptions, motivation, and information usage to argue that systems such as ungrading have potential for contributing to the construction of highly effective and meaningful learning environments.
Fractional-order structural stability: Formulation and application to the critical load of nonlocal slender structures

Abstract This study presents a framework to perform stability analysis of nonlocal solids whose behavior is described according to the fractional-order continuum theory. In this formulation, space fractional-order operators are used to capture the nonlocal response of the medium by means of nonlocal kinematic relations. We use the geometrically nonlinear fractional-order kinematic relations within an energy based approach to establish the Lagrange-Dirichlet stability criteria for nonlocal structures. This energy based approach to nonlocal structural stability is possible due to a positive-definite and thermodynamically consistent definition of the deformation energy enabled by the fractional-order kinematic formulation. The Rayleigh-Ritz coefficient for critical load is also derived for linear buckling conditions. The fractional-order formulation is finally used to determine critical loads for buckling of the slender nonlocal beams and plates using a dedicated fractional-order finite element solver. Results establish that, in contrast to existing studies, the effect of nonlocal interactions is observed on both the material and the geometric stiffness, when using the fractional-order kinematics approach. These observations are supported quantitatively via the solution of case studies that focus on the critical buckling response of fractional-order nonlocal slender structures, and a direct comparison of the fractional-order approach with classical nonlocal approaches.
Association of Physician Group Practice Participation in Bundled Payments With Patient Selection, Costs, and Outcomes for Joint Replacement

Importance Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) program, which ran from 2013 to 2018, was an important experiment in physician-focused alternative payment models. However, little is known about whether the program was associated with better quality or outcomes or lower costs. Objective To determine whether participation in BPCI among physician group practices was associated with advantageous or deleterious changes in costs or patient outcomes. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study used 2013 to 2017 Medicare files and difference-in-differences (DID) models to compare the change over time in Medicare payments, patient selection, and clinical outcomes between 91 orthopedic groups in BPCI Model 2 and 169 propensity-matched controls for patients undergoing joint replacement. Analyses were performed between December 2019 and February 2021. Exposures Voluntary participation in BPCI. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was 90-day Medicare payments; secondary outcomes were patient selection (volume, comorbidities) and clinical outcomes (30-day and 90-day emergency department visits, readmissions, mortality, and healthy days at home). Results There were 74 343 patient episodes in the baseline period and 102 790 during the intervention in BPCI practices, and 88 147 patient episodes in the baseline period and 120 253 during the intervention in control practices; 291 214 of 461 598 (63.1%) patients were women, and 419 619 (90.9%) were White. At baseline, mean episode payments among BPCI-participating practices were $18 257, which decreased to $15 320 during the intervention, while control practices decreased from $17 927 to $16 170 (DID, −$1180; 95% CI, −$1565 to −$795;P Conclusions and Relevance Group practice participation in BPCI for joint replacement was associated with reduced Medicare payments and improvements in clinical outcomes.
Diffusion Blotting from SDS-PAGE Gels Supported by Solid Plastic

Diffusion blotting from a sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel allows a straightforward and fast method for transferring proteins to a membrane. Several blots can be obtained from a single gel, thus permitting testing multiple antisera on practically identical blots. However, in the course of transfer to multiple membranes, the gel tends to shrink. The method described here, developed and described by Olsen and Wiker, overcomes this problem using precast SDS polyacrylamide gels on a solid plastic support. Using such a gel, the authors found that diffusion blotting carried out for 3 minutes transferred 10% of proteins from a gel compared to 1-hour electroblotting. They also found that each later blot from the same gel required twice the transfer time to get the same amount of protein on to each blot. This method transfers high and low molecular weight proteins equally well compared to electroblotting. Both approaches deliver a higher total transfer of proteins of low molecular weight compared to proteins with high molecular weight. The gel stays attached to the plastic support, thus avoiding shrinking or stretching. This guarantees matching blots and enables a more dependable determination of molecular weight. Additionally, residual proteins in the gel can be visualized by staining with Coomassie Brilliant Blue or other means for precise and simple comparison with developed blots. These benefits make blotting by diffusion an excellent method, particularly when the quantitative transfer of protein is not essential.
Communal Coping Manifested in Daily Life: A Focus on Gender

Communal coping consists of a shared appraisal of a stressor and collaborative efforts to manage it. There has been a wealth of literature linking communal coping to relationship and health outcome...
Coping Skills Interventions for Children and Adolescents

Stress and Coping in Children and Adolescents. Learning to Relax. Facilitating Social Problem Solving. Improving Social Interactions. Acquiring Assertiveness Skills. Using Self--Instruction Techniques. Decreasing Irrational Beliefs. Developing Stress--Reducing Thought Patterns. Changing Beliefs About Success and Failure. Promoting Behavioral Self--Control. Prevention Applications. Successful Implementation.
Haydn, The Creation

Foreword 1. Background 2. Theology 3. The libretto 4. Composition, performance and reception 5. Design of the work 6. Musical analysis 7. Excerpts from critical essays Appendices Footnotes Bibliography Index.
Diet as a Risk Factor for Asthma

Asthma prevalence and morbidity have increased in the past 10 years in the face of improved knowledge about pathophysiology and treatment. Changing patterns and interactions among asthma risk factors may contribute to these disease trends. Diet is a newly recognized potential risk factor for asthma occurrence. This chapter focuses on the methodological issues in the assessment of diet as a risk factor for asthma and the available data linking diet to asthma, airway inflammation and airway responsiveness, and it concludes with a consideration of research needs and future directions. Four types of dietary constituents are considered: breast feeding and food avoidance in infancy; antioxidant vitamins, specifically vitamin C; dietary cations, specifically sodium and magnesium; and N3-N6 fatty acids. At present, available data are insufficient to implicate any dietary constituent as a causal risk factor for asthma. Data are strongest for vitamin C, which is associated with protective effects of airway responsiveness, lung function and asthma symptoms. Prospective cohort studies of the effects of early childhood diet on the development of asthma in children (birth to age six years) are needed to assess diet as a risk factor for early childhood asthma and its interrelationship with other risk factors.
An NSF/ONR funded project on the use of micromechanical machines in a power circuit breaker

This panel presentation describes NSF-EPNES research project. The research project relates to electric power distribution: the delivery of electric power from a generation and transmission system to a point of utilization. An important power system component is the circuit breaker, essentially a switch, used to isolate and separate parts of the system under fault and certain other operating conditions. In this project, a radical departure from mechanical circuit breakers is proposed: microelectromechanical (MEMS) switches shall be operated at very high speed to effectuate rapid system operating configuration changes. The use of MEMS switches will allow the application of advanced optimal operating strategies to permit rapid disconnection of faulted components; rerouting of power from faulted segments to unfaulted segments; utilization of DC distribution in naval applications; and minimization of system losses. The broader impact of the project relates to: a potential breakthrough in power distribution switching and a logical break to the next generation of power distribution systems. At present, power distribution manufacturing has moved offshore. A breakthrough in distribution engineering, especially using a technology largely relegated to the United States could have considerable impact on the power engineering industry.
Experimental comparison of synchronous-clock cooperative acoustic navigation algorithms

This paper reports on an experimental comparison of three synchronous clock, acoustic, distributed navigation algorithms commonly found in the underwater robotics community and literature: a naively distributed extended Kalman filter (NEKF), the interleaved update (IU) algorithm, and a decentralized extended information filter (DEIF). Traditional dead-reckoned underwater navigation methods result in unbounded error growth as subsea vehicles do not typically have access to an absolute position reference. Synchronous-clock acoustic navigation systems can provide one-way travel time (OWTT) range constraints to nearby vehicle nodes thereby bounding error. Several distributed estimation algorithms for such scenarios have been proposed by the community; however, each makes fundamentally different trade offs in various specifications such as scalability, complexity, directionality, and consistency. We report an experimental comparison between the performance of each algorithm as compared to the benchmark solution of a centralized extended Kalman filter (CEKF) applied to a variety of 2-node and 3-node vehicle network topologies using data collected from two Ocean-Server autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and a surface craft.
Dispersive computational continua

Abstract The two primary objectives of the present manuscript are: (i) to develop a variant of the computational continua formulation (C 2 ) with outstanding dispersive properties, and (ii) to conduct a rigorous dispersion analysis of it. The ability of the C 2 formulation to capture dispersive behavior stems from its underlying formulation, which does not explicitly assume scale separation and accounts for microstructures of finite size. The dispersion study in heterogeneous elastic media with periodic microstructure has been conducted using both analytical and numerical approaches. The so-called analytical dispersion analysis is based on the Floquet–Bloch wave solution, while the numerical dispersion analysis is based on the modal analysis of the discrete coupled fine–coarse-scale equations. The dispersive curves obtained from the dispersive C 2 formulations were compared with the classical exact Floquet–Bloch wave solution, hereafter referred to as the reference dispersive curve. It has been observed that in the case of the unit cell sizes being either half of the coarse-scale element size or equal to it, the dispersive curves obtained by the dispersive C 2 formulation are practically identical to the reference solution. For other cases, the dispersive C 2 solution is in good agreement with the reference solution. The dispersion analysis results have been further verified by the wave propagation problem in a periodic heterogeneous medium with a wavelength comparable to the microstructural size.
Serial Myocardial Imaging after a Single Dose of Thallium-201

Although thallium-201 exercise scintigraphy has been established for the detection of myocardial ischemia and viability, little is known regarding the myocardial thallium-201 kinetics during angioplasty. Herein, we report a 77-year old man with angina pectoris, in whom serial myocardial imaging after a single dose of thallium-201 was helpful in identifying not only the culprit lesion and myocardial viability, but also the dynamic changes in myocardial perfusion during angioplasty. Thallium-201 images after exercise showed a perfusion defect in the inferior wall, with a trivial redistribution 3 hours after the exercise and a marked improvement 24 hours later. Coronary angiography, performed 27 hours after exercise scintigraphy, showed severe stenosis in the right coronary artery. Guidewire crossing of the lesion interrupted the antegrade flow, which was restored after balloon dilation and stent implantation. Thallium-201 images, 2 hours after angioplasty (i.e., 30 hours after exercise), showed a decreased tracer uptake in the inferior wall, which improved the next day (i.e., 48 hours after exercise). Cardiac biomarkers were negative in the clinical course.
Potassium modified layered Ln2O2CO3 (Ln: La, Nd, Sm, Eu) materials: efficient and stable heterogeneous catalysts for biofuel production

Potassium modified layered Ln2O2CO3 (Ln: La, Nd, Sm, Eu) biodiesel catalysts were prepared by a coprecipitation method followed by an overnight reflux. A high fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield (>95%) was achieved under mild reaction conditions (<100 °C). The FAME yields were investigated as a function of temperature and catalyst weight percentage. Nd2O2CO3 shows a better catalytic performance with a higher reaction rate than the industrial homogeneous KOH catalyst using both microwave irradiation and conventional heating methods. Approximately 100% FAME yield can be reached at 95 °C (microwave radiation) by 1.0 wt% Nd2O2CO3 within 10 min, while the same yield can be reached by 3.0 wt% Nd2O2CO3 at 95 °C (conventional heating method). In addition, leaching tests of the catalysts were performed; no leached rare earth metal ions were detected and the amounts of leached potassium were all under 5 ppm (ASTM standard). The synthesized layered Ln2O2CO3 materials offer a group of ideal alternative catalysts for industrial biodiesel production.
Media Pranks: A Three-Act Essay

Times are tough for public universities. Over the past quarter-century, state legislatures have slashed college budgets, and these cuts have only accelerated during a seemingly endless economic meltdown. We have been told to do more with less, make sacrifices, and be self-sufficient—and I couldn’t agree more. Unlike those socialists lining up to mainline milk from the nanny state, many of us favor fiscally sound solutions. We should teach our children well by following dogmatically free-market principles that reject government meddling. My modest proposal is multipronged and forward-thinking. It would hand over all aspects of academic life to private companies, creating a university system that is more efficient, even profitable. In reimagining how higher education can be rebooted, we must ask ourselves, “What would a liberal arts education look like if McDonald’s funded it?” Killing many birds with one lethal stone, we can simultaneously solve the problems of overstuffed budgets, overpaid professors, and—as an added, unexpected bonus—plagiarism. Let me explain.
Projections from Ventrolateral Hypothalamic Neurons Containing Progestin Receptor‐ and Substance P‐Immunoreactivity to Specific Forebrain and Midbrain Areas in Female Guinea Pigs

Many neurons within the ventrolateral hypothalamus in guinea pigs contain estrogen-induced progestin receptors as well as substance P. Retrograde tracing combined with immunocytochemistry was used to determine the specific projections of this subset of steroid-sensitive cells. Unilateral Fluoro-Gold injections into the dorsal midbrain, including the central gray, labeled a large proportion of the ventrolateral hypothalamic neurons immunoreactive for both progestin receptors and substance P (approximately 30%); substantially fewer of these neurons were labeled by unilateral Fluoro-Gold injections into the preoptic area (approximately 6%), medial amygdala (approximately 10%), or the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (approximately 11%). The projections of progestin receptor-immunoreactive neurons in the ventrolateral hypothalamus were similar to those of progestin receptor/substance P double-labeled neurons, while a slightly lower percentage of the ventrolateral hypothalamic, substance P-immunoreactive neurons tended to project to each of these areas. These pathways may prove to be components of the neural circuitry underlying a variety of functions influenced by gonadal steroid hormones and substance P, such as female sexual behavior, salt intake, nociception and aggression.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FUSARIUM INFESTATION OF BARLEY AND THE GUSHING POTENTIAL OF MALT

Fifty barley samples, displaying a range of 0 to 100% kernels infested with Fusarium, were collected in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota during the harvest of 1994. Samples were micromalted, and the levels of the fungal metabolites, deoxynivalenol and ergosterol, were determined. Fusarium infestation and the levels of fungal metabolites were evaluated as predictors of gushing in laboratory trials. Malt samples which were infested with Fusarium or contaminated with the fungal metabolites exhibited a propensity to gush. However, only the levels of deoxynivalenol and ergosterol were found to be strongly correlated with the actual amount of gushing observed. This suggests that their production may parallel that of the component which actual causes gushing, and that screening barley and malt for these metabolites, may offer a means of reducing gushing problems in the brewery. Determination of deoxynivalenol is rapid, when it is present, and necessary because of food safety and malt quality concerns.
Steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) is essential for ovarian development and function

The orphan nuclear receptor steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) was identified originally as a key regulator of the tissue-specific expression of the cytochrome P450 steroid hydroxylases. Hints at considerably broader roles for SF-1 came from analyses of its expression pattern in mouse embryos. As anticipated, SF-1 was expressed in the adrenal glands and gonads from their early stages of development. Surprisingly, SF-1 also was expressed outside of the primary steroidogenic tissues in the anterior pituitary and hypothalamus. SF-1 knockout mice dramatically confirmed its multiple essential roles in vivo. These mice lacked adrenal glands and gonads, leading to adrenocortical insufficiency and male-to-female sex reversal of their internal and external genitalia. SF-1 knockout mice also had impaired pituitary expression of gonadotropins and agenesis of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH), confirming roles of SF-1 at all three levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. With some focus on the ovary, this review summarizes experiments that have defined essential roles of SF-1 in endocrine development, and highlights important areas for future studies.
Personal characteristics relating to risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer in older women in the United States

Background. The ovarian cancer incidence rate is higher for women over 55 years of age than for younger women, but it increases less rapidly with age after age 55 years than before. This slower rate of increase suggests that the postmenopausal ovary may be less exposed or less susceptible than the functioning one to endogenous or exogenous carcinogens. For example, it is not exposed to mitotic stimuli at follicle rupture, which may increase the likelihood of malignancy