cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Obesity paradox in heart failure: a heavy matter

Obesity and heart failure are two of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. The relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases is complex and not fully understood. While the risk of developing heart failure has been shown to be higher in patients who are obese, there is a survival advantage for obese and overweight patients compared with normal weight or low weight patients. This phenomenon was first described by Horwich et al. and was subsequently confirmed in other large trials. The advantage exists irrespective of the type, aetiology, or stage of heart failure. Patients with morbid obesity (body mass index >40 kg/m2), however, do not have the same survival advantage of their obese counterparts. There are several alternative indices of obesity available that may be more accurate than body mass index. The role of weight loss in patients with heart failure is unclear; thus, providing sound clinical advice to patients remains difficult. Future prospective trials designed to evaluate the link between obesity and heart failure will help us understand more fully this complex relationship.
Development of a portable water quality sensor for river monitoring from small rafts

The 2015 Gold King Mine spill exposed the Animas River (located in Durango, Colorado) to over 3 million gallons of toxic water with spiked levels of arsenic and lead among other metals. In response to public concern for the quality of the river's water, a water quality monitoring system has been developed and deployed. Multiple organizations, both local and federal, have joined forces to understand the effects of the spill, and develop a method for continued sampling and remediation. However, most of the sensor network implemented consists of static sensors at conveniently located or easily accessible locations.
Racial differences in the impact of financial hardship on the intensity of end-of-life cancer care.

6012 Background: Research suggests that Black cancer patients have higher end-of-life (EOL) medical costs than White patients; and that Black, compared with White, families are more likely to use a...
Mid-infrared plasmonic coaxial nanorings for surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy

The plasmonic resonance of metallic coaxial nanorings were measured in mid-IR spectral range. Benefiting from a coherent laser source and lock-in measurement scheme, the resonance peaks from as few as 13 apertures were observed.
Transfer of the Surgical Neonate

Neonatal surgery is increasingly delivered in regional or even supra-regional centres with the specific aim of improving short and long-term outcome for complex congenital conditions. This arrangement permits the concentration of a multidisciplinary team of experts equipped with the wide range of skills required to successfully manage the specific challenges posed by the newborn surgical patient. Neonatal intensive care for these patients may need to commence immediately after delivery or may be only required following surgical intervention. It is essential therefore that nurses and clinicians in units which may potentially receive surgical neonates have the appropriate competencies required for the initial stages of management.
North American domestic pigs are susceptible to experimental infection with Japanese encephalitis virus.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that is capable of causing encephalitic diseases in children. While humans can succumb to severe disease, the transmission cycle is maintained by viremic birds and pigs in endemic regions. Although JEV is regarded as a significant threat to the United States (U.S.), the susceptibility of domestic swine to JEV infection has not been evaluated. In this study, domestic pigs from North America were intravenously challenged with JEV to characterize the pathological outcomes. Systemic infection followed by the development of neutralizing antibodies were observed in all challenged animals. While most clinical signs were limited to nonspecific symptoms, virus dissemination and neuroinvasion was observed at the acute phase of infection. Detection of infectious viruses in nasal secretions suggest infected animals are likely to promote the vector-free transmission of JEV. Viral RNA present in tonsils at 28 days post infection demonstrates the likelihood of persistent infection. In summary, our findings indicate that domestic pigs can potentially become amplification hosts in the event of an introduction of JEV into the U.S. Vector-free transmission to immunologically naive vertebrate hosts is also likely through nasal shedding of infectious viruses.
A RHIO Struggling to Form: Will it Get Off the Ground?

As Dr. James Gibbs walked through the parking ramp to his car, he could not get out of his mind the meeting he had just attended. The board of directors of the Mid West RHIO (MWR) had just met, and it was a frustrating meeting for all attendees. The cold and rainy evening was a perfect match to Dr. Gibbs’ mood.
Association of adjuvant hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy after resection of colorectal liver metastases with improved survival in patients with both right- and left-sided primary tumors.

776Background: Patients with a right-sided (R) and/or KRAS-mutated (KRAS-MUT) primary tumors have inferior outcomes compared to patients with left sided (L) and/or KRAS-wildtype (KRAS-WT) cancers. ...
Optimal Control as Programming in Infinite Dimensional Spaces

Introduction. The terms “Programming” and “Mathematical Programming” refer here to the usual constrained maximization problem of the type: given a function φ (x) = (φ A (x),…, φk (x)) from En (the Euclidean n-dimensional space) into Ek, find a point x ϵ En such that φ A (x) is maximized subject to equality and/or inequality constraints on φ2(x), …, φk(x). This problem has received considerable attention and has led to interesting results ranging from the initial work of Lagrange to the more recent studies of Kuhn and Tucker. Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control are also concerned with constrained maximization problems but over given sets of continuous curves instead of finite dimensional Euclidean spaces as in Programming. Programming has always extended a strong influ ence on Calculus of Variations and one of the motivating forces behind the creation of Functional Analysis was to build a bridge between these two fields. The methods of Functional Analysis have been used to derive Euler-Lagrange equation but we do not know any previous successful attempts to apply those methods to the deri vation of the Weierstrass-E test and the Multiplier Rule for the pro blem of Bolza. This is indeed the purpose of the present paper.
Mitochondrial Dynamics and Its Involvement in Disease

The dynamic properties of mitochondria-including their fusion, fission, and degradation-are critical for their optimal function in energy generation. The interplay of fusion and fission confers widespread benefits on mitochondria, including efficient transport, increased homogenization of the mitochondrial population, and efficient oxidative phosphorylation. These benefits arise through control of morphology, content exchange, equitable inheritance of mitochondria, maintenance of high-quality mitochondrial DNA, and segregation of damaged mitochondria for degradation. The key components of the machinery mediating mitochondrial fusion and fission belong to the dynamin family of GTPases that utilize GTP hydrolysis to drive mechanical work on biological membranes. Defects in this machinery cause a range of diseases that especially affect the nervous system. In addition, several common diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, strongly affect mitochondrial dynamics.
NEEXP is Contained in MIP

We study multiprover interactive proof systems. The power of classical multiprover interactive proof systems, in which the provers do not share entanglement, was characterized in a famous work by Babai, Fortnow, and Lund (Computational Complexity 1991), whose main result was the equality MIP = NEXP. The power of quantum multiprover interactive proof systems, in which the provers are allowed to share entanglement, has proven to be much more difficult to characterize. The best known lower-bound on MIP* is NEXP, due to Ito and Vidick (FOCS 2012). As for upper bounds, MIP* could be as large as RE, the class of recursively enumerable languages. The main result of this work is the inclusion of NEEXP (nondeterministic doubly exponential time) in MIP*. This is an exponential improvement over the prior lower bound and shows that proof systems with entangled provers are at least exponentially more powerful than classical provers. In our protocol the verifier delegates a classical, exponentially large MIP protocol for NEEXP to two entangled provers: the provers obtain their exponentially large questions by measuring their shared state, and use a classical PCP to certify the correctness of their exponentially-long answers. For the soundness of our protocol, it is crucial that each player should not only sample its own question correctly but also avoid performing measurements that would reveal the other player's sampled question. We ensure this by commanding the players to perform a complementary measurement, relying on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to prevent the forbidden measurements from being performed.
Does the Delay in Firm-Specific Information Cause Momentum?

In this paper, I develop a medium-horizon firm-specific information delay (FSID) measure using the methodology introduced by Hou and Moskowitz (2005) (hereafter HM). Unlike the HM measure of the speed of diffusion of US market-specific information in the short horizon (four weeks), FSID measures the speed of diffusion of firm-specific information in the medium horizon (six months). Whereas previous studies including HM found no significant relation between momentum premium and the HM measure, I find that momentum ceases to exist in the cross section of firms after controlling for FSID. FSID has a symmetrical effect on both loser and winner firms: high-FSID loser firms lose more than low-FSID loser firms, while high-FSID winner firms win more than low-FSID winner firms. High-FSID firms are firms with greater uncertainties related to their fundamentals; these are slightly larger growth firms, have higher dispersion among analysts about their future earnings, pay low dividends, have higher costs of goods, have higher volatility around their profitability, and actively perform major corporate events.
Quantify and control reproducibility in high-throughput experiments.

Ensuring reproducibility of results in high-throughput experiments is crucial for biomedical research. Here, we propose a set of computational methods, INTRIGUE, to evaluate and control reproducibility in high-throughput settings. Our approaches are built on a new definition of reproducibility that emphasizes directional consistency when experimental units are assessed with signed effect size estimates. The proposed methods are designed to (1) assess the overall reproducible quality of multiple studies and (2) evaluate reproducibility at the individual experimental unit levels. We demonstrate the proposed methods in detecting unobserved batch effects via simulations. We further illustrate the versatility of the proposed methods in transcriptome-wide association studies: in addition to reproducible quality control, they are also suited to investigating genuine biological heterogeneity. Finally, we discuss the potential extensions of the proposed methods in other vital areas of reproducible research (for example, publication bias and conceptual replications). INTRIGUE is a statistical framework based on the directional consistency criterion for quantifying and controlling reproducibility in high-throughput experiments.
Democracy’s Disparity? Gender, Equality, and the 2020 Iowa Caucuses

The Iowa caucuses are often praised for exemplifying the ideal of deliberative democracy. From this perspective, voters come together publicly on equal footing to debate and choose their preferred presidential candidate. Critics contend, however, that the caucus process is not as democratic as supporters believe. In practice, they claim, caucuses mirror power asymmetries rooted in society-based differences based on gender, race, or sexual orientation. To assess these competing claims, we test whether there is a relationship between group identity and the degree of comfort Iowa voters feel expressing an opinion during the deliberative process. Using interviews, observations, and results from a survey taken by 1024 Iowan voters, we find data consistent with both perspectives. Men and women are generally comfortable voicing beliefs at the caucus, but men more so. Additionally, women are more likely than men to feel social pressure to vote a certain way, discuss their candidate choice with others, and express a sense of community through the process. We conclude that female participants are more open and sociable than men while attending a caucus, but less assertive in sharing their opinions. Based on this criterion, we determine that the Iowa caucuses, while generally approximating the ideal of deliberative democracy, are nonetheless less democratic than its proponents contend.
Dicom_wsi: A python implementation for converting whole-slide images to digital imaging and Communications in Medicine compliant files

Background: Adoption of the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard for whole slide images (WSIs) has been slow, despite significant time and effort by standards curators. One reason for the lack of adoption is that there are few tools which exist that can meet the requirements of WSIs, given an evolving ecosystem of best practices for implementation. Eventually, vendors will conform to the specification to ensure enterprise interoperability, but what about archived slides? Millions of slides have been scanned in various proprietary formats, many with examples of rare histologies. Our hypothesis is that if users and developers had access to easy to use tools for migrating proprietary formats to the open DICOM standard, then more tools would be developed as DICOM first implementations. Methods: The technology we present here is dicom_wsi, a Python based toolkit for converting any slide capable of being read by the OpenSlide library into DICOM conformant and validated implementations. Moreover, additional postprocessing such as background removal, digital transformations (e.g., ink removal), and annotation storage are also described. dicom_wsi is a free and open source implementation that anyone can use or modify to meet their specific purposes. Results: We compare the output of dicom_wsi to two other existing implementations of WSI to DICOM converters and also validate the images using DICOM capable image viewers. Conclusion: dicom_wsi represents the first step in a long process of DICOM adoption for WSI. It is the first open source implementation released in the developer friendly Python programming language and can be freely downloaded at https:// github.com/Steven N Hart/dicom_wsi .
Sensitivity analysis for solutions to heterogeneous nonlocal systems

The paper presents a collection of results on continuous dependence for solutions to nonlocal problems under perturbations of data and system parameters. The integral operators appearing in the systems capture interactions via heterogeneous kernels that exhibit different types of weak singularities, space dependence, even regions of zero-interaction. The stability results showcase explicit bounds involving the measure of the domain and of the interaction collar size, nonlocal Poincare constant, and other parameters. In the nonlinear setting the bounds quantify in different $L^p$ norms the sensitivity of solutions under different nonlinearity profiles. The results are validated by numerical simulations showcasing discontinuous solutions, varying horizons of interactions, and symmetric and heterogeneous kernels.
Psychometric properties of the spinal cord injury-quality of life (SCI-QOL) Resilience item bank in a sample with spinal cord injury and chronic pain

To describe the psychometric properties (e.g., data distribution characteristics, convergent/discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability, and test administration characteristics) of the spinal cord injury quality of life measurement system (SCI-QOL) Resilience item bank delivered as a computer adaptive test (CAT) in a sample of individuals with chronic pain and spinal cord injury (SCI). Descriptive statistics were calculated to investigate variable data distribution characteristics. Correlation analyses were conducted for convergent and discriminant validity. Item response theory-derived reliability was calculated for the SCI-QOL Resilience CAT. One hundred thirty-three adults with SCI (N = 133; 73.5% male, 26.5% female) were enrolled. Sample mean T score on the SCI-QOL Resilience measure was 48.40, SD = 8.60 (min = 29.4; max = 70.0). The CAT administered between 4 (most common, 41.4% of cases) and 12 (9% of cases) items with the Mean#items = 5.73, SD = 2.45. The SCI-QOL Resilience CAT scores were normally distributed, with very low ceiling (0%) and floor (3%) effects. The SCI-QOL Resilience CAT had a reliability of 0.89, and the mean length of time for respondents to complete the SCI-QOL Resilience CAT was 44.34 s. SCI-QOL Resilience CAT validity was supported by significant moderate correlations with pain acceptance, depressive symptoms, pain catastrophizing, positive affect and well-being, and pain interference (convergent validity) and small non-significant correlations with age, sex, injury level, pain intensity, mobility level, and years since injury (discriminant validity). The SCI-QOL Resilience CAT demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity. The CAT administration characteristics were impressive: With few items (low response burden), the scale achieved good reliability.
How to Screen for Monoclonal Gammopathy in Patients With a Suspected Amyloidosis

Amyloidoses are diseases in which misfolded proteins deposit in organs, interfering with normal function. Cardiac involvement is common and can result in arrhythmias or clinical heart failure events, which are often fatal (1). The 2 most common types of cardiac amyloidosis in the United States are AL amyloidosis and ATTR amyloidosis. The treatment paradigm for both disorders is to reduce bloodstream concentrations of amyloidogenic protein, and the specific therapeutic approach depends on the subtype of amyloidosis. AL amyloidosis is typically treated with chemotherapy targeted at clonal populations of plasma cells that are responsible for producing amyloidogenic light chains. By contrast, ATTR amyloid fibrils are misfolded monomers of transthyretin, a tetrameric protein produced by the liver that binds thyroid hormone. The most widely used ATTR amyloidosis therapeutics either reduce transthyretin production (inotersen and patisiran) or stabilize the tetramer (tafamidis) (2). Given the divergent therapeutic approaches, determining the subtype of amyloidosis is of paramount importance. In patients with suspected amyloidosis, both AL and ATTR amyloidosis should be considered. Monoclonal protein identification Diagnosing AL amyloidosis requires showing the presence of a clonal plasma cell dyscrasia, which starts with monoclonal protein evaluation (3). The rationale for recommended monoclonal protein evaluation is highlighted in Table 1. This monoclonal protein can be intact immunoglobulin or immunoglobulin fragments, such as free light chains (FLC) or less-commonly free heavy chains. The most widely used laboratory test to identify monoclonal protein is serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP). Serum is loaded onto a medium to which an electrical current is applied, separating constituent proteins into 5 distinct regions based on electrical charge and size: albumin, α1, α2, β, and γ. As most antibodies migrate into the γ region, the monoclonal proteins are generally identifiable as a sharp peak in the γ region of the SPEP, referred to as an “M spike.” SPEP neither establishes the subtype of monoclonal protein nor confirms that an M spike represents monoclonal protein. This requires immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), which involves exposing serum to antibodies against various heavy and light chain subtypes. IFE is often performed reflexively in patients with abnormal SPEP, but if not, both SPEP and IFE need to be obtained. Table 1 Monoclonal Protein Assessment Components
Forget Dumb Luck - Try Smart Luck: Strategies to Get Lady Fortune on Your Side

Effective leaders enhance their control over an uncertain world through scenario analysis, competitive gaming, options planning, simulation, and more. They recognize the surprising benefits that can result from taking a strategic approach to the uncontrollable elements of the future. While uncertainty is inherently hard to plan for, let alone control, these leaders believe that luck should not be left entirely to chance. Easy enough to say, but how can you learn the tactics that will allow you to shape new opportunities, recognize situations in which chance favors you, and seize those moments when they arise. I have distilled various meta-strategies which we can all use - in our professional and personal lives - to encourage Lady Fortune to smile on us more often. This approach entails moving away from a reliance on “dumb luck” and toward strategies for “smart luck.” This reorientation will result in a rich stream of new opportunities wherever luck can strike. My strategic advice applies to individual managers as well as groups and entire organizations, so long as their leaders inculcate the right mindset.
Interventions for Parental Anxiety in Preparation for Pediatric Surgery: A Narrative Review.

The preoperative experience can cause significant anxiety for both pediatric patients and their parents in the lead up to a surgical procedure. Pediatric anxiety in a preoperative setting has been shown to have significant negative downstream effects on the clinical outcomes of children and the healthcare system as a whole. Studies have found that preoperative parental anxiety has significant negative effects on children, regarding anxiety and emotional response. Therefore, interventions for parental preoperative anxiety are important to reduce the child’s anxiety. This review provides a brief overview of a broad range of strategies used to alleviate parental anxiety in a preoperative setting. Preoperative education, play-based interventions, music therapy, the presence of parents at induction of anesthesia, and integrative preoperative preparation programs have all demonstrated some evidence for reducing parental preoperative anxiety. The ultimate goal of using interventions for parental preoperative anxiety is to equip healthcare systems to better support families and optimize the perioperative outcomes of children.
Analysis of Incomplete Multivariate Data

Introduction Assumptions EM and Inference by Data Augmentation Methods for Normal Data More on the Normal Model Methods for Categorical Data Loglinear Models Methods for Mixed Data Further Topics Appendices References Index
Palliative care for the poor and disenfranchised: a view from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Palliative care is likely to become the norm of practice in the mainstream of US healthcare in the coming decade. Healthcare providers are taking the lessons of hospice care and incorporating them in other settings, especially hospitals and nursing homes, where the majority of Americans spend their last days of life. According to unpublished survey findings hundreds of US hospitals have palliative care programmes and many others are planning to establish one. Although these numbers represent a small percentage of the more than 5000 hospitals in the USA, anecdotal evidence suggests that this growth is a very recent phenomenon and is continuing at a rapid rate.
Mechanism by which methylprednisolone inhibits acute immune complex-induced changes in vascular permeability.

Intravital microscopy was used to quantitate protein leakage which resulted from the deposition of immune complexes in the vasculature of the rat cremaster muscle. Immune complex deposition was initiated by the addition of 80 μg/ ml of ovalbumin to the bath surrounding the muscle, followed by the intravenous administration of antiovalbumin. Administration of 25 mg/kg of antiovalbumin produced significant leakage of protein from the third-order venules, while 7.5 and 2.5 mg/kg had no effect. Administration of methylprednisolone (MP), 30 mg/kg, 1 h prior to the deposition of immune complexes significantly inhibited protein leakage. In separate experiments, MP inhibited intradermal edema formation and protein exudation induced in rats by histamine, platelet activating factor, or C5a. However. MP had no effect on protein exudation or edema produced by xanthine oxidase or glucose oxidase. Intravenous administration of MP inhibited the ability of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) to phagocytize bacteria, but failed to alter hydrogen peroxide production. These results suggest that MP prevents acute changes in vascular permeability following immune complex deposition by inhibiting the effects of soluble mediators of edema on vascular endothelium and by inhibiting PMN phagocytosis.
A new instrument for measuring atmospheric turbulence

The Magdalena Ridge Observatory is a congressionally funded project to deliver a state-of-the-art observatory on the Magdalena Ridge in New Mexico to provide astronomical research, educational and outreach programs to the state. In this paper we report results from one of our undergraduate projects being run at New Mexico Tech. This project focuses on the design and characterization of a novel instrument for sensing the atmospheric flow instabilities related to seeing at the observatory site. The instrument attempts to find the power of turbulence on millisecond time scales by measuring a voltage difference between two active microphones. The principles behind the instrument are explored here and a description of the limitations of the current experimental implementation is given. Initial results from the experiment are presented and compared with simultaneous measurements from a co-located Differential Image Motion Monitor. The instrument is shown to be a valuable and robust tool for monitoring the atmospheric conditions during site testing campaigns, but further data will be needed to confirm the precise nature of the correlation between measurements made with this system and more conventional seeing metrics.
13C NMR Analysis of the Cysteine-Sulfenic Acid Redox Center of Enterococcal NADH Peroxidase†

In order to characterize the native Cys42-sulfenic acid redox center of the flavoprotein NADH peroxidase by NMR, an expression protocol has been developed which yields the [3-13C]Cys42-labeled protein in 100 mg quantities. Difference spectra of the labeled minus unlabeled oxidized enzyme (E) give a peak at 41.3 ppm (relative to dioxane) which represents the Cys42-sulfenic acid. Reduction of labeled E with 1 equiv of NADH gives the air-stable two-electron reduced (EH2) species, and oxidized minus reduced difference spectra give maxima and minima at 41.3 and 30.8 ppm, respectively, corresponding to the Cys42-sulfenic acid and -thiolate species. Peroxide inactivation of E, which has previously been attributed to oxidation of the Cys42-sulfenic acid to the Cys42-sulfinic and/or sulfonic acid states, gives rise to a new maximum in the difference spectrum of Einactive minus E at 57.0 ppm. A similar expression protocol was used to obtain the [ring-2-13C]His-labeled peroxidase HHAA mutant (His10His23Ala87Ala258); the spectral change over the pH range 5.8-7. 8 is attributed to deprotonation of the surface-exposed His23. Furthermore, replacement of Arg303, which is hydrogen bonded to His10, has no effect on the 13C spectrum. These results provide direct evidence in support of the peroxidase Cys42-sulfenic acid/thiol redox cycle and add significantly to our structure-based understanding of protein-sulfenic acid stabilization and function.
Farnesoid X receptor alleviates age-related proliferation defects in regenerating mouse livers by activating forkhead box m1b transcription.

Elucidating the mechanism of liver regeneration could lead to life-saving therapy for a large number of patients, especially elderly patients, after segmental liver transplantation or resection of liver tumors. The forkhead box m1b (Foxm1b) transcription factor is required for normal liver regeneration. Here we report that Foxm1b is the first direct farnesoid X receptor (FXR) target gene known to be involved in cell cycle regulation and that aging regenerating livers have delayed activation of FXR, which results in defective induction of Foxm1b and thereby contributes to defective liver regeneration. An inverted repeat 0 (IR-0) FXR response element, acting as an enhancer in intron 3 of the Foxm1b gene, was identified by a combination of transcriptional reporter, electrophoretic mobility shift, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Diminished FXR binding to the IR-0 element was found in aging regenerating livers. FXR activation by a novel ligand in aging livers induced Foxm1b expression and elevated hepatocyte DNA replication to about 70% of the levels found in young regenerating livers, which were specifically suppressed by hepatic expression of anti-Foxm1b short hairpin RNA. Conclusion: Our results have revealed Foxm1b as the first known direct FXR target gene involved in cell cycle regulation and have demonstrated that defective activation of FXR could be an intrinsic defect in aging regenerating livers. Activation of FXR alone is largely able to alleviate age-related liver regeneration defects. These findings highlight FXR as a potential target of drug design for promoting liver regeneration in older subjects. (HEPATOLOGY 2010.)
Consolidation of novel word learning in native English-speaking adults

Sleep has been shown to improve the retention of newly learned words. However, most methodologies have used artificial or foreign language stimuli, with learning limited to word/novel word or word/image pairs. Such stimuli differ from many word-learning scenarios in which definition strings are learned with novel words. Thus, we examined sleep's benefit on learning new words within a native language by using very low-frequency words. Participants learned 45 low-frequency English words and, at subsequent recall, attempted to recall the words when given the corresponding definitions. Participants either learned in the morning with recall in the evening (wake group), or learned in the evening with recall the following morning (sleep group). Performance change across the delay was significantly better in the sleep than the wake group. Additionally, the Levenshtein distance, a measure of correctness of the typed word compared with the target word, became significantly worse following wake, whereas sleep protected correctness of recall. Polysomnographic data from a subsample of participants suggested that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may be particularly important for this benefit. These results lend further support for sleep's function on semantic learning even for word/definition pairs within a native language.
Tissue-bonding cystostomy: potential alternative for neuropathic bladder dysfunction and potential model for other prostheses.

ABSTRACT Neuropathic bladder dysfunction commonly results in urinary retention, incontinence, or both. At present, catheterization is commonly used in these patients to empty the bladder, but bacteriuria is a common result. Construction of a device that combines infection-resistant materials and a closed ecosystem has been attempted, yielding a prototype tissue-bonding cystostomy device. This device and the results of the early trials are described.
Behavior of electrically small depletion mode MOSFETs at low temperature

Abstract Impurity freezeout has a substantial effect on the threshold and subthreshold characteristics of large depletion mode devices. Recent experiments on short and narrow channel depletion mode devices demonstrate that geometry effects are independent of temperature and comparable to those of enhancement mode devices. Reduction of the electrical device size does not alter the degree of impurity freezeout. To predict the behavior of small channel enhancement and depletion mode devices, freezeout effects and geometry effects can be directly superimposed. A simple qualitative model is used to describe the conditions under which the superposition is valid.
Targeted isolation of simple sequence repeat markers through the use of bacterial artificial chromosomes

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are versatile DNA markers that are readily assayed and highly informative. Unfortunately, non-targeted approaches to SSR development often leave large genomic regions without SSR markers. In some cases these same genomic regions are already populated by other types of DNA markers, especially restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs), and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs). To identify SSR markers in such regions, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones can be used as intermediaries. First, one or more BAC clones in a region of interest are identified through the use of an existing DNA marker. BAC clones uncovered in this initial step are then used to create a small insert DNA library that can be screened for the presence of SSR-containing clones. Because BAC inserts are often 100-kb pairs or more in size, most contain one or more SSRs. This strategy was applied to two regions of the soybean genome near genes that condition resistance to the soybean cyst nematode on molecular linkage groups G and A2. This targeted approach to identifying new DNA markers can readily be extended to other types of DNA markers, including single nucleotide polymorphisms.
Determination of the light response of BC-404 plastic scintillator for 3He and 4He with energies between 3 and 13 MeV☆☆☆

Abstract The light output of a BC-404 scintillator as a function of energy between 3 and 13 MeV has been measured for 3 He and 4 He. A slightly lower pulse height is found for 4 He than for 3 He at the same energy. The data are not consistent with models of the scintillation process by Wright and Birks but agree well with a newer model proposed by Meyer and Murray. They are also in reasonable agreement with earlier data of Becchetti et al., although the present measurements provide better definition of the response curve below 6 MeV.
Physical Effects of Vehicular Disturbances on Arid Landscapes.

Field experiments indicate that the use of off-road vehicles on arid land increases the amount and frequency of water runoff and erosion by decreasing soil porosity, infiltration capacity, effectiveness of surface stabilizers, and hydraulic resistance to overland flow. These effects are long-lived and may result even when the use of these vehicles is slight.
Regional Pole Placement via Static Output Feedback Based on Coordinate Transformation

This paper focuses on the regional pole placement via static output feedback. Under proper state coordinate transformation with a free matrix variable, the static output feedback gain may be obtained by solving a linear matrix inequality (LMI). The LMI is feasible only if the poles of a dummy control system are in the given LMI region. The free matrix variable can regulate the dummy system as a state feedback gain matrix. So once the free variable is determined, the static output feedback gain matrix may be obtained by an LMI-based method. The main computations do not concern any reduction or enlargement of matrix inequalities. Numerical examples show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Identity development during the first two university years: Exploring intersections between micro-, ontogenetic processes

Abstract Identity development processes are explored through analyses of longitudinal interview data collected with ten students during the first two university years. Micro-level analyses, based upon the work of Josephs, I. E. and Valsiner, J. [(1998). How does autodialogue work? Miracles of meaning maintenance and circumvention strategies. Social Psychology Quarterly , 61 , 68–83], entailed the identification of oppositional meaning complexes—statements of conflicting meaning about self—as well as circumvention strategies. Ontogenetic analyses of developmental trajectories were based on Freeman, M. and Robinson, R.'s [(1990). The development within: An alternative approach to the study of lives. New Ideas in Psychology , 8 , 53–72] conceptualization of the developmental process. From the ontogenetic analyses, two primary developmental patterns, and several subpatterns, were identified. Linkages between micro and ontogenetic levels were indicated by differences in rates of oppositional meaning complexes for individuals engaged in “developmental work” compared to those not so engaged, and differences in across-time patterning of these complexes for developmental subgroups. Findings support the potential of these methods for identifying semiotic mechanisms that are associated with longer-term developmental change.
Periodic and “slightly” periodic boundary value problems in elastostatics on bodies bounded in all but one direction

General properties of solutions to elastostatic boundary value problems in which some or all of the functions involved are periodic are studied with particular attention given to problems on bodies unbounded in one direction only. It is shown that, even though the displacement corresponding to a periodic strain may, in a very nontrivial sense, be nonperiodic, it does satisfy a “semiperiodicity” condition. In addition, a theorem of work and energy is derived for periodic strain states on bodies unbounded in only one direction. This formulation of the theorem of work and energy includes extra terms arising from the possible semiperiodicity of the displacement but only explicitly involves one component of the mean stress. This leads to a discussion of the uniqueness of periodic strain solutions to various boundary value problems. Conditions insuring uniqueness are obtained with the necessity of these conditions demonstrated by counter-examples. The degree to which uniqueness can fail is also studied and is shown to be limited.
Experimental Characterization of Chiral Uniaxial Bianisotropic Composites at Microwave Frequencies

This paper presents an experimental procedure for retrieving the effective constitutive parameters of chiral materials. Unlike past research that primarily deals with isotropic materials, this study considers a lossy uniaxial bianisotropic slab with a nonzero chirality along its axial direction. First, plane-wave scattering off the uniaxial slab in a free-space environment is studied analytically. This forward analysis gives insight into the problem and the choice of proper independent measurements required for the inverse process, i.e., retrieving the slab constitutive parameters from its S-parameters. Based on this analysis, three sets of co-polarized and cross-polarized S-parameters are required, including both the transmission and reflection coefficients of the slab. Given the measured scattering data, the complex permittivity, permeability, and chirality tensors are determined numerically using the results of the analytic study. To test the performance of the new retrieval method, an array of 2 × 56 long, metallic helices is designed and fabricated for operation at C-band. Having the same handedness, the helices are closely spaced and held in parallel to each other in a wooden frame in order to create an effective uni-axial chiral medium. A conventional transmission/reflection setup measures the array scattering parameters, which are fed into the retrieval process to obtain the effective parameters. The measured parameters well model the array scattering response, exhibiting a significant averaged chirality of ~0.4 over 5.5-8.7 GHz and a plasmonic behavior at ~7.1GHz.
The hydroxyl of threonine 13 of the bovine 70-kDa heat shock cognate protein is essential for transducing the ATP-induced conformational change.

The mechanism by which ATP binding transduces a conformational change in 70-kDa heat shock proteins that results in release of bound peptides remains obscure. Wei and Hendershot demonstrated that mutating Thr37 of hamster BiP to glycine impeded the ATP-induced conformational change, as monitored by proteolysis [(1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 26670−26676]. We have mutated the equivalent resitude of the bovine heat shock cognate protein (Hsc70), Thr13, to serine, valine, and glycine. Solution small-angle X-ray scattering experiments on a 60-kDa fragment of Hsc70 show that ATP binding induces a conformational change in the T13S mutant but not the T13V or T13G mutants. The kinetics of ATP-induced tryptophan fluorescence intensity changes in the 60-kDa proteins is biphasic for the T13S mutant but monophasic for T13V or T13G, consistent with a conformational change following initial ATP binding in the T13S mutant but not the other two. Crystallographic structures of the ATPase fragments of the T13S and T13G mutants...
Predicting properties and new materials

Abstract The development and application of a “Standard Model” of solids are described with emphases on the capacity of the model for predicting solid state properties and the existence of new materials.
Visual Diagnosis: 2-Month-Old Girl with Left Eye Swelling, Profuse Tearing

Nasolacrimal duct (NLD) obstruction is the most common cause of persistent tearing in a child younger than 1 year. Other possible causes include congenital eyelid abnormalities, chemical irritation, trauma, occult foreign body, congenital or early-onset glaucoma, and conjunctivitis. • In addition to NLD obstruction signs, dacryocystoceles also present with swelling over the nasolacrimal sac. The swelling often has a bluish discoloration. • Management of NLD obstruction requires a conservative approach with observation and nasolacrimal massage because spontaneous resolution occurs in approximately 90% by age 6 months and in more than 99% by age 12 months. Referral to an ophthalmologist for children with persistent symptoms should be deferred until at least ages 6 to 9 months. • Because of the high risk of complications with dacryocystoceles, especially infection, these patients require urgent ophthalmology referral. • Acute dacryocystitis presents with erythema, swelling, warmth, and tenderness of the lacrimal sac. The infection must be identified and treated early to prevent complications, such as periorbital and orbital cellulitis, meningitis, brain abscess, and sepsis.
Lipid exchange between mixed micelles of phospholipid and triton X-100.

If phospholipase catalyzed hydrolysis of phospholipid dissolved in a detergent mixed micelle is limited to the phospholipid carried by a single micelle, then hydrolysis ceases upon exhaustion of that pool. However, if the rate of phospholipid exchange between micelles exceeds the catalytic rate then all of the phospholipid is available for hydrolysis. To determine phospholipid availability we studied the exchange of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine between mixed micelles of phospholipid and non-ionic Triton detergents by both stopped-flow fluorescence-recovery and nuclear magnetic resonancerelaxation techniques. Stopped-flow analysis was performed by combining mixed micelles of Triton and phospholipid with mixed micelles that contained the fluorescent phospholipid 1-palmitoyl-2-(12-[{7-nitro-2-1,3-benzoxadiazo-4-yl}amino]dodecanoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (P-2-NBD-PC). The concentration dependence of fluorescence recovery suggested a second-order exchange mechanism that was saturable. The true second-order rate constant depends on the specific mechanism for exchange, which was not determined in this study, but the rate constant will be on the order of 10 6 to 10 7 M 31 s 31 . Incorporation of 1-palmitoyl-2-(16-doxylstearoyl)phosphatidylcholine into micelles increased the rate of proton relaxation and gave a limiting relaxation time of 1.3 ms. The results demonstrate that phospholipid exchange was rapid and that the phospholipid content of a single micelle did not limit the rate of phospholipid hydrolysis by phospholipases. fl 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Does gonadotropin-releasing-hormone agonist therapy for prostate cancer increase the risk of fracture?

Does gonadotropin-releasing-hormone agonist therapy for prostate cancer increase the risk of fracture?
Bicyclobutanes and cyclobutenes: Unusual carbocyclic monomers

Bicyclobutanes and cyclobutenes substituted with electron-attracting groups represent novel classes of reactive monomers. They readily undergo free-radical and anionic polymerizations to give high polymers consisting of 1,3- and 1,2-enchained cyclobutane rings, respectively. They also copolymerize readily with conventional vinyl monomers. These polymers display numerous attractive properties in comparison with their vinyl counterparts, including enhanced thermal stability, superior optical properties, and higher glass-transition temperatures. The syntheses of these monomers are reviewed, and suggestions toward future larger scale production are made. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 625–635, 2003
Research needed relative to radiological Assessment of the dumping of radioactive wastes in the oceans

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the paper provides a historical review of international activities regarding radiation in the sea. Secondly, the paper provides some recommendations for future research needed for realistic dose assessment of the present and potential impact of ocean disposal and dumping operations.
Rare-gas impurities in alkali metals: Relation to optical absorption

An investigation of the nature of rare-gas impurity potentials in alkali metals is performed. Results of calculations based on simple models are presented, which suggest the possibility of resonance phenomena. These could lead to widely varying values for the exponents which describe the shape of the optical-absorption spectrum at threshold in the Mahan--Nozi\`eres--de Dominicis theory. Detailed numerical calculations are then performed with the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker coherent-potential-approximation method. The results of these highly realistic calculations show no evidence for the resonance phenomena, and lead to predictions for the shape of the spectra which are in contradiction to observations. Absorption and emission spectra are calculated for two of the systems studied, and their relation to experimental data is discussed.
Transient thermal deformation of alumina (A12O3) substrate during laser drilling

The cracking and failure in ceramic substrates during the laser drilling process has been acknowledged as a major problem by designers and manufacturers in the electronic component industries. The cracking and failure is due to large localized thermal stresses within the narrow heat-affected zone on the ceramics. Although the knowledge of the stress distribution in the ceramic substrate is important in understanding and solving the cracking/failure problem, it is impossible to measure the stress directly. The physical parameters of the laser drilling process such as temperatures or displacements, which can be directly related to stresses, can however be measured. That is why, in this research, an electronic speckle pattern interferometer (ESPI) system was designed and used to take speckle pattern images of the ceramic surface during the laser drilling process. Using commercial software, the speckle fringe images were image processed to quantify whole-field transient out-of-plane displacement measurements. A deformation history of the ceramic surface during the laser shaping process with millisecond temporal resolution was obtained, restricted only by the camera frame rate, camera resolution and laser power available. A finite difference model was developed to compare the deformation measurements with the predicted strain calculations. The experimental study and the analysis show that the designed in-situ electronic speckle pattern interferometer system provides an excellent experimental basis for whole- field, transient deformation measurements of ceramic substrates during the laser drilling process.