cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Targeted 3D modeling from UAV imagery

Reconstruction of 3D objects from UAV EO imagery yields useful information, but can be time consuming and computationally expensive. View planning reduces processing time by selecting the optimal image set needed to reconstruct a scene. This paper demonstrates how view planning is used in a targeted manner to select a subset of images from a large existing image set to model specific vehicles or structures. Potential applications of the method include enabling 3D target classification algorithms and rapid geo-location. The method could also facilitate on-board reconstruction. The view planning algorithm is tested on five different targets, and is shown to reduce processing time for target models by up to a factor of 50 with little decrease in accuracy.
Clinical performance of the tomosynthesis guided breast biopsy

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical performance of tomosynthesis guided vacuum assisted breast biopsy (TVAB) and compare it to conventional stereotactic vacuum assisted biopsy (SVAB). Materials and Methods: From June 2013 to May 2017, all women who underwent breast biopsy were included in this retrospective study. Between June 2013 and April 2015, lesions were biopsied with SVAB. Since June 2015, all biopsies were performed with DVAB. Patient demographics, rates of aborted procedures, causes of abortions, as well as the radiologic and pathologic properties of lesions were compared between these two groups. The significance level was accepted as p Results: From June 2013 to May 2017, 336 patients with 352 lesions (mean age 56.05±10.54) underwent SVAB and 516 patients with 555 lesions (mean age 56.05±10.27) underwent DVAB. 5.4% of SVAB and 4.1% of DVAB were cancelled due to non-visualization or difficult lesion location. Eight patients underwent DVAB had self-limiting vasovagal reaction; none reported in SVAB group. The rates of high-contrast lesions with calcifications were 83% in SVAB and 74% in DVAB while the rates of low-contrast lesions without calcifications were 17% and 26% in SVAB and DVAB, respectively (p=0.002). No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to histological results of lesions (p=0.074). Invasive breast cancers mostly presented as low contrast lesions while ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) as high contrast lesions (p<0.001). Conclusion: DVAB has a better clinical performance compared to SVAB because it can successfully biopsy not only the high contrast lesions detected on mammography but also the low contrast lesions only visualized on tomosynthesis. While high contrast lesions have more DCIS, low contrast lesions are often associated with a high rate of invasive breast cancer. DVAB can replace SVAB in routine clinic practice but at a cost of low rate of vasovagal reaction.
Investigating the Use of Role Play Training to Improve the Communication Skills of is Professionals: Some Empirical Evidence

Today, one of the most sought after skills among IS professionals is effective communication. The lack of communication skills of IS professionals has resulted in IT failures in a number of crucial...
Boundary Element Methods for Semilinear Elliptic Partial Differential Equations (II): Algorithms and Computations for Unstable Solutions from Various Models

We continue the study of semilinear elliptic BVPs of the form $$\left\{\begin{array}{lllll}\Delta u(x) + f(x,u(x)) = 0,& x\in\Omega, \\ u(x) = 0,& x\in\partial\Omega \end{array}\right.$$ (12.1) where Ω is a bounded open domain in RN, N = 2, and f is a nonlinear function of x and u. We will deal with f ≡ u p , –u + up, or variants thereof. We wish to compute numerical solutions of (12.1) by BEMand plot their graphics for visualization. on domains with various geometries and topologies. We also hope to survey existing algorithms and to introduce new ones, set certain numerical benchmarks, and explore singular perturbation cases. This chapter is based mainly on our prior work [37].
A 460 GHz MEMS-Based Single-Pole Double-Throw Waveguide Switch

The design, fabrication and measurement of a 460 GHz MEMS-based single-pole double-throw (SPDT) waveguide switch is presented. A silicon etched large-deflection actuator is applied to create two reflective switches that are combined to form the double-throw switch. A hybrid packaging approach combining the silicon MEMS actuator with a metal CNC-milled waveguide housing enables direct integration with standard waveguide components. Insertion loss for the packaged device is 1 dB or less with a return loss of greater than 23 dB across a 17% fractional bandwidth. To the author's knowledge, this is the highest frequency, lowest-loss SPDT switch that has been demonstrated.
Visceral fat and muscle changes during 6-week chemotherapy in pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma.

10532Background: Obesity, as defined by elevated BMI, correlates with prognosis in some cancers but not Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). Potential explanations include 1) BMI cannot differentiate lean from f...
The fort in the doctor’s house: using tree-ring growth patterns to discover historic Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

Local Fort Wayne, Indiana (USA) lore says that the Dr. Merchant Huxford House contains timbers from Fort Wayne, the US military outpost constructed in 1794 by General Anthony Wayne. The wilderness ...
BBAid: Using smartwatches to improve back blows

Abstract Choking causes over 5,000 deaths per year in the US. During a choking incident, permanent damage to the brain, vital organs, and nervous system can occur in as little as four minutes. In order to provide lifesaving medical treatment for choking victims, we rely on emergency medical services (EMS) and bystander aid. Since the average EMS response time is over seven minutes, bystander intervention can be critical to prevent permanent damage. Even when bystanders are trained in choking first aid, many individuals assume that someone else is more qualified to help and thus will not intervene. In order to combat this problem, we present BBAid: the first smartwatch based system that provides real-time feedback on the back blow portion of choking first aid while instructing the user on first aid procedure. We evaluated our application through two user studies involving 20 subjects and 200 back blow events. The results of our study shows that BBAid achieves a classification accuracy of 93.75% for back blows. With the use of BBAid, participants in our study achieved were able to perform back blows within the recommended range 75% of the time. Comparatively the participants trained with a video only reached that range 12% of the time. All participants in the study, after receiving training were much more willing to perform choking first aid.
Utilization of an online module bank for a research training curriculum: development, implementation, evolution, evaluation, and lessons learned.

Background: Students enter Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine’s required research program, Embark, with variable levels of experience. Recognizing this, Embark allows for progre...
Ideological differences in the expanse of empathy.

The American political landscape of the 21st century has largely been characterized by culture wars between liberals and conservatives. On policy issues as diverse as economic regulation, defense spending, abortion, marriage equality, and health care, ideological differences have become increasingly pronounced, as reflected in political legislation, public opinion, and news coverage. Much of recent political psychology has indeed focused on explaining ideological differences in terms of cognition, perception, motivation, behavior, and psychological ability. Other empirical research that has employed measures of general empathy and measures of political ideology also shows that liberalism is correlated with self-reported empathy. Empirical research has also examined the association between empathic concern and social dominance orientation (SDO), an individual difference variable that reflects the endorsement of social hierarchy and that is also typically associated with political conservatism. Conservatives, in their tendencies toward closure, order, and stability should expend empathy toward smaller, more well-defined, and less permeable social circles.
Adaptive Three-Stage Clinical Trial Design for a Binary Endpoint in the Rare Disease Setting

A fundamental challenge in developing therapeutic agents for rare diseases is the limited number of eligible patients. A conventional randomized clinical trial may not be adequately powered if the sample size is small and asymptotic assumptions needed to apply common test statistics are violated. This paper proposes an adaptive three-stage clinical trial design for a binary endpoint in the rare disease setting. It presents an exact unconditional test statistic to generally control Type I error when sample size is small while not sacrificing power. Adaptive randomization has the potential to increase power by allocating greater numbers of patients to a more effective treatment. Performance of the method is illustrated using simulation studies.
Getting Started with Open Badges and Open Microcredentials.

This article is intended as a practical resource to help interested organizations design and implement an open badging system. Open badges are a type of open credential designed to recognize a variety of skills, knowledge, and experiences, both inside and outside of traditional educational settings. While growing in popularity, common questions asked by those interested in using open badges include: How do I get started? What technologies exist to produce open badges? And what do I need to know? This article seeks to address questions such as these. First, we introduce the reader to key terms in the badging world and explore open badge design precedents, responding to who, what, how, where, and why open badges have been used in the past. Drawing on this research as well as our own personal experience, we then present a possible framework for getting started with open badges and a step-by-step guide for implementing that framework within your organization.
The Classical Roots of Resource Economics

This chapter begins by asking why we study resource and environmental economics, and answers: To know what economic theory and related empirical findings can tell us about a variety of interesting and important issues in this area, from rates of use of extractive resources, to more recent concerns about sustainability and climate change. All can be considered to derive from the Classical Economists, Malthus and Ricardo, who focused on the most important resource of the time, agricultural land. For Malthus, population (labor) was growing exponentially while land was fixed in supply, or growing very slowly if at all, leading ultimately by the law of diminishing returns to a large population living at the subsistence level. Ricardo shifted the focus to points along the way, where land of a given quality was fixed, but cultivation could shift to the next best land when diminishing returns set in, giving rise to the phenomenon of rent, or the return to each unit of the higher quality land. An example of the computation of rent is given, and the chapter closes with a short discussion of the insights and deficiencies of the classical analysis.
Adult responses to infant prelinguistic vocalizations are associated with infant vocabulary: A home observation study

This study used LENA recording devices to capture infants' home language environments and examine how qualitative differences in adult responding to infant vocalizations related to infant vocabulary. Infant-directed speech and infant vocalizations were coded in samples taken from daylong home audio recordings of 13-month-old infants. Infant speech-related vocalizations were identified and coded as either canonical or non-canonical. Infant-directed adult speech was identified and classified into different pragmatic types. Multiple regressions examined the relation between adult responsiveness, imitating, recasting, and expanding and infant canonical and non-canonical vocalizations with caregiver-reported infant receptive and productive vocabulary. An interaction between adult like-sound responding (i.e., the total number of imitations, recasts, and expansions) and infant canonical vocalizations indicated that infants who produced more canonical vocalizations and received more adult like-sound responses had higher productive vocabularies. When sequences were analyzed, infant canonical vocalizations that preceded and followed adult recasts and expansions were positively associated with infant productive vocabulary. These findings provide insights into how infant-adult vocal exchanges are related to early vocabulary development.
Contrast-Induced Nephropathy Post Percutaneous Interventional Procedures

Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, prolonged hospitalization and consequently increase healthcare costs. The pathophysiology of CIN is complex, and although contrast-induced kidney injury plays a central role, other compounding factors (such as hypotension, bleeding, and atheroembolic showers into the renal arteries) are also involved. Risk stratification prior to catheterization can help identify patients at high risk for CIN and to implement preventive strategies.
Electrolytes, Fluids, Acid-Base Analysis, and Transfusion Therapy

Understand the risks and benefits of fluid replacement therapy options. Know how to calculate a patient’s fluid requirements and allowable blood loss. Learn the types of blood transfusion therapy available and their indications
How Tight Was the Seal? A Reappraisal of Adoption Records in the United States, England, and New Zealand, 1851-1955

This chapter will first demonstrate that in the United States, England and New Zealand, adoption records were open during the first half of the twentieth century or, if sealed, that a majority of adopted adults were able to access them fairly easily; and second, reveal when, why and how adoption records came to be sealed.
The Jun family members, c-Jun and JunD, transactivate the human c-myb promoter via an Ap1-like element

The c-myb protooncogene, which is preferentially expressed in hematopoietic cells at the G1/S boundary of the cell cycle, encodes a transcriptional activator that functions via DNA binding. The regulatory mechanisms governing this specific pattern of expression are not fully understood, although human c-myb expression appears to be positively autoregulated via myb-binding sites in the 5'-flanking region of the c-myb gene (Nicolaides, N. C., Gualdi, R., Casadevall, C., Manzella, L., and Calabretta, B. (1991) Mol. Cell. Biol. 11, 6166-6176). To determine the contribution of other transcription regulators such as JUN family members in the control of c-myb expression, transient expression assays were carried out which revealed a 6- to a 15-fold enhancement by c-Jun and JunD, but not JunB, in chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene expression driven by different segments of the human c-myb 5'-flanking region. An Ap1-like element located at nucleotide -149 from the c-myb initiation site appears to be required for this transactivation upon binding to a nuclear protein complex containing c-Jun and JunD, since site-directed mutations of this Ap1-like element abolished c-Jun and JunD binding and transactivation. Exposure of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells to c-jun and junD antisense oligodeoxynucleotides resulted in a 46 and 43% inhibition of T-lymphocyte proliferation that was accompanied by a decrease in c-myb mRNA levels as compared with sense-treated cultures. Because T-lymphocytes induced to proliferate express c-jun and junD before c-myb, these data suggest a mechanism whereby c-Jun and JunD contribute to the transcriptional activation of c-myb that, in turn, is maintained at the G1/S transition and during S phase by positive autoregulation.
Managing Vulnerability: South Africa's Struggle for a Democratic Rhetoric.Richard C. Marback

Though South Africa's interim constitution—one of the key documents in facilitating the country's passage from apartheid to democracy—was ratified nearly two decades ago, the country's transition c...
Are Foreign Companies Listed in the US Really Worth More? Information Asymmetry and Cross-Listing Discount of China Concepts Stocks

A widely accepted theory is challenged in this paper. Foreign firms’ pricing premium from listing in the US was considered as a result of better regulation and protection of minority shareholders of the listed companies. This paper raises another viewpoint that the regulation clauses may not have been implemented as well as people used to think. The information asymmetry between the US regulators and the overseas firms creates the possibility that illegal activities such as forging documents and faking financial reports may not be discovered in time, especially when listing is through a non-IPO way like reverse merger transactions. As a result, the de facto poorly performed foreign companies also have a chance to list in the US exchanges by exaggerating their business performance in balance sheets and profit from selling stocks to American investors in the secondary market as long as their improper behaviors are not perceived by the regulators before listing. Therefore in contrast to what the existing literature has assumed, there are two types of foreign firms traded on the NYSE, Nasdaq and Amex: good firms with growth opportunities and bad firms which cheat the investors. As investors realize the existence of the bad firms, the problem becomes similar to the market of lemons. Price of the foreign stocks from countries with more information asymmetry, poorer legal enforcement and corporate governance could go down and the cross-listing premium may disappear. This paper uses firm-level accounting data of the Chinese stocks listed in the US exchanges and listed in the four stock markets in mainland China to prove the above hypothesis. Cross-listing discount, instead of premium, is found. Tobin’s q premium from listing in the US has been decreasing from year 2006 when the Chinese firms’ accounting fraud was first reported and finally turned to be negative. The widely reported financial fraud of the US-listed Chinese firms after 2010 proves the correctness of the aforementioned two-type-firm theory. Accordingly, the US-listed Chinese firms with more information disclosure are higher valuated, including firms listed via IPO rather than reverse merger, firms from large Chinese cities with better legal enforcement and easier verification of information authenticity, and large firms which are covered by more analysts and media. As for the hypothesis that bad companies prefer exaggerating their performance in financial reports, the historical data does show that the already delisted companies reported a much higher 12-month trailing EPS before their delisting. Moreover, when there is less information asymmetry and more information disclosure, price of the US-listed Chinese stocks goes up.
Depth profiling of thin films with pulsed glow discharge atomic emission spectrometry

The application of microsecond pulsed Grimm glow discharge atomic emission spectrometry for depth profiling of thin films is examined. The effects of pulsed conditions including pulse voltage, pulse frequency, pulse width, and Ar pressure on depth profiling performance were characterized for Zn and Cu coatings on steel. Using optimized conditions, linear calibration curves of coating thickness for Zn (6.1-26.9 μm) and Cu (50-500 nm) on steel were achieved. A precision of 2-5% relative standard deviation was determined. An ultrathin coating of Cu (10 nm) on steel was also measured by this technique.
Vaporization And Recondensation In Propagation And Imaging Of Laser Beams

To study the response of a medium to a localized disturbance, the coupled aerosol-beam equations-in which the dominant interactions are diffusive mass transport and conductive energy transport-are solved numerically, thus giving the spatio-temporal behavior of the propagating beam and the irradiated aerosols. In the context of the cloud clearing problem, a deleterious effect of recondensation is assessed. We examine the effect of turbulence on the distribution of droplet sizes during the recondensation. Results relevant to propagation and imaging are given.
Homocysteine and cardiovascular disease: biological mechanisms, observational epidemiology, and the need for randomized trials

Basic research indicates that homocysteine causes endothelial dysfunction and damage, accelerates thrombin formation, inhibits native thrombolysis, promotes lipid peroxidation through free radical formation, and induces vascular smooth muscle proliferation and monocyte chemotaxis. Most, but not all, observational epidemiological studies indicate that individuals with higher homocysteine levels have increased risks of cardiovascular disease. The magnitude ranges from approximately 20% in prospective studies to approximately 80% in retrospective case-control studies. In all observational epidemiological studies, however, the amount of uncontrolled and uncontrollable confounding is as large as the postulated small to moderate effect size. Thus, the totality of evidence should include randomized trials of sufficient sample size and duration with clinical end points. Folic acid reduces levels of homocysteine, but at present, despite several plausible biological mechanisms and a large body of observational epidemiological data, it is unclear whether supplementation will reduce risks of cardiovascular disease. It is also unclear whether any benefit of folic acid is attributable to lowering homocysteine levels. The current evidence is necessary, but not sufficient to judge causality. Such judgments await the availability of data from large-scale randomized trials. The availability of such data would permit rational clinical decision-making for individual patients and policy decisions for the health of the general public.
Iridium-based electrocatalytic systems for the determination of insulin.

Two electrochemical catalytic systems for the determination of insulin were developed. The homogeneous system was based on the oxidation of insulin by chloro complexes of iridium(IV). Kinetic studies revealed that the aquation of iridium complexes activated them toward the oxidation of insulin in acidic solutions; e.g., the rate constant was equal to 25, 900, and 8400 L mol-1 s-1 for the oxidation of insulin by the IrCl62-, Ir(H2O)Cl5-, and Ir(H2O)2Cl4 complexes, respectively. The inertness of the iridium complexes argued for the outer-sphere mechanism of the homogeneous oxidation reaction. Electroplating of aquated iridium complexes on the glassy carbon electrode resulted in the formation of the iridium oxide (IrOx) surface film, which was used in the heterogeneous detection system for insulin. The catalytic activity of the IrOx film toward insulin oxidation was ascribed to a combination of electron-transfer mediation and oxygen transfer which was related to the acid/base chemistry of the film. The IrOx ...
KL techniques for optimal processing of time sequential imagery

Time-sequential imagery is difficult to analyze because of its high dimensionality. This paper advances a new algorithm that screens input data in an intelligent way, discards data with negligible information, and uses the remaining images to represent the sequence in an optimal compact form. Data are presented to illustrate how this algorithm can be used to do novelty filtering, novelty detection, segmentation, background independent modeling, and classification.
Characterization of Broad Spectrum Potato Virus Y Resistance in a Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena-Derived Population and Select Breeding Clones Using Molecular Markers, Grafting, and Field Inoculations

PVY causes yield and quality loss in potato. The Ryadg gene from Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena has been shown to provide extreme resistance to PVY; defined as resistance against all strains. However, Ryadg gene clones have not been screened against PVYN:O, a newly detected North America strain. Three Ryadg-diagnostic molecular markers were tested in tetraploid progeny of a PVY resistant x susceptible cross and in diverse clones/cultivars. Multiple isolates of PVY strains (PVYNTN, PVYN:O, PVYO) were used for mechanical inoculations of the progeny. In addition, PVYO, PVYN, and PVA were used for graft inoculation on a separate clone/cultivar set. Progeny segregated 1:1 for PVY resistance; fitting a gene model simplex for Ryadg. Marker positive progeny were resistant to all PVY strains, including PVYN:O. Marker presence was also in agreement with PVY resistance in the clones/cultivars. These findings show that these markers can identify resistance to all known PVY strains in North America.
Social facilitation of the spontaneous meal size of humans occurs on both weekdays and weekends.

Abstract The amount eaten by humans in spontaneously ingested meals is positively correlated with the number of other people present. This could be due to a social facilitation or may occur as an artifact of a covariation produced by changes in intake occurring over weekends. This possibility was investigated by paying 315 adult humans to maintain 7-day diaries of everything they ingested, when and where they ingested it, and the number of other people present. During weekends, larger meals were ingested, in the presence of more people than during weekdays. However, strong, positive, and significant correlations between meal size and the number of other people present were found separately for meals eaten only during weekdays and for those eaten only during weekends. The results suggest that the correlation results from a true social facilitation of eating and that this facilitation is an important determinant of the eating behavior of normal humans.
Converting nonhuman primate dendritic cells into potent antigen-specific cellular immunosuppressants by genetic modification.

T cell depletion plus donor bone marrow cell (BMC) infusion induces long-term kidney allograft survival in a limited number of rhesus macaque recipients. Therefore, there is a need to enhance the tolerogenic activity of donor BMCs. The tolerogenic effect of donor BMCs is ascribed to a veto activity, mediated by a CD8+ subset that upregulates immunoregulatory effector molecules, transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta), and FasL, after interaction with donor-reactive cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors (CTLp), leading to clonal inactivation/deletion of donor-reactive CTLp. Of note, the receptors for TGF-beta1- and FasL-induced signal transduction are upregulated in activated T cells. Since mature dendritic cells (DCs) are exceptionally efficient activators of T cells, we postulated that mature DCs modified to overexpress TGF-beta1 and FasL might exert potent veto (i.e., inactivating/deleting) activity independent of CD8 expression. A fusion protein comprising antihuman CD40 single-chain antibody and soluble coxsackie-adenovirus receptor enabled high-efficiency transduction of rhesus monocyte-derived DCs (Rh MDDCs) by recombinant adenovirus (Ad). Mature Rh MDDCs transduced with Ad encoding active TGF-beta1 retained a mature phenotype yet exhibited potent alloantigen-specific cellular immunosuppression. Such modified MDDCs have the potential to promote tolerance induction to allografts in vivo.
GPFS-SNC: an enterprise cluster file system for big data

A new class of data-intensive applications commonly referred to as Big Data applications (e.g., customer sentiment analysis based on click-stream logs) involves processing massive amounts of data with a focus on semantically transforming the data. This class of applications is massively parallel and well suited for the MapReduce programming framework that allows users to perform large-scale data analyses such that the application execution layer handles the system architecture, data partitioning, and task scheduling. In this paper, we introduce GPFS-SNC (General Parallel File System for Shared Nothing Clusters), a scalable file system that operates over a cluster of commodity machines and direct-attached storage and meets the requirements of analytics and traditional applications that are typically used together in analytics solutions. The architecture extends an existing enterprise cluster file system to support these emerging classes of workloads by applying five innovative optimizations: 1) locality awareness to allow compute jobs to be scheduled on nodes where the data resides, 2) metablocks that allow large and small block sizes to co-exist in the same file system to meet the needs of different types of applications, 3) write affinity that allows applications to dictate the layout of files on different nodes in order to maximize both write and read bandwidth, 4) pipelined replication to maximize use of network bandwidth for data replication, and 5) distributed recovery to minimize the effect of failures on ongoing computation.
Using a Cox Regression Model to Examine Voluntary Teacher Turnover

Abstract A Cox regression model was used to examine the career paths of 2,327 elementary teachers. The teachers were 1st-year teachers hired by a large Texas school district between August 1985 and November 1991. Five variables were investigated to determine their relationship with teacher survival: sex, age, ethnicity, education, and certification route (traditionally or alternatively certified). Little research has been done comparing attrition rates of alternatively and traditionally certified teachers. The methods used in the analysis are discussed as well as why these methods are more appropriate than traditional methods for examining teacher survival.
Developmental expression of sarcomeric and ubiquitous mitochondrial creatine kinase is tissue-specific

Abstract Creatine kinase (CK) isoenzymes play prominent roles in myocardial energy metabolism. Two nuclear genes encode mitochondrial creatine kinase (MtCK), are tissue-specific in their expression, and are thus designated as sarcomeric MtCK (sMtCK) and ubiquitous MtCK (uMtCK). Quantitative analysis of the mRNA expression of both MtCKs in developing rat tissues demonstrates tissue-specific developmental regulation. sMtCK mRNA in heart is undetectable prenatally but is dramatically upregulated by 28 d postnatally. sMtCK mRNA in skeletal muscle is also extremely low prenatally but is markedly upregulated at birth and doubles by 28 d postnatally. uMtCK mRNA expression is present at low levels in fetal brain and intestine. Brain uMtCK mRNA continues to rise from −4 d prenatally until 28 d postnatally (6-fold increase), but intestinal uMtCK mRNA increases immediately prior to birth, falls, and is upregulated again at 28 d (20-fold). uMtCK mRNA is undetectable in fetal skeletal muscle or heart, but increases to low levels in skeletal muscle at birth and remains at this level into adulthood. uMtCK is not detectable in heart, lung, testes, or liver at any stage examined. We conclude that sMtCK and uMtCK are developmentally regulated in a tissue-specific manner. Unlike cytosolic muscle CK and brain CK, there is no isoenzyme switch between sMtCK and uMtCK in the developing animal. Our results suggest that specific trans-acting factors regulate the different developmental and tissue-specific expression of the MtCK genes.
Bronchogenic Carcinoma Presenting as a Pseudopregnancy

A young woman with an occult bronchogenic carcinoma presented with secondary amenorrhea and an elevated beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin that was mistakenly attributed to pregnancy. Physicians should be aware that this carcinoma may present solely with an elevated beta human chorionic gonadotropin value, and the potential exists for confusion with a pregnancy state in women of childbearing age.
In the Aftermath: Serial Crisis Intervention for People with HIV

Because the ever-changing course of HIV disease, including AIDS, represents a continuous series of unexpected stressors, repeated crisis intervention is appropriate for people who are HIV infected. HIV disease causes situational, developmental, social, and compound crises. People with HIV may experience episodic trauma over the course of the illness and consequently move in and out of equilibrium. Crisis intervention should be offered at every hazardous juncture. This article examines ways to use crisis intervention techniques to help people living with HIV.
Soft x-ray emission spectroscopy using synchrotron light excitation

Special problems affecting the design of spectrometers used to acquire synchrotron light excited soft x-ray emission spectra are discussed, and a high efficiency, high resolution spectrometer especially designed for this use is described. The special advantages of soft x-ray emission spectroscopy and of synchrotron light for exciting emission are outlined. Several types of experimental investigations that would benefit from the use of photon excitation and a high efficiency spectrometer are discussed.© (1984) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Traumatic aortic injuries: Current concepts

This article summarizes current concepts of traumatic injuries of the aorta. The "osseous pinch" mechanism of injury is presented and discussed. The role of each imaging modality in patient evaluation is considered and a rational approach to their use suggested based on current technology and practices.
Cyclopia and congenital cytomegalovirus infection

We describe the first documented association of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and cyclopia. A previous report has suggested that any infant with congenital ocular defects should be investigated for CMV infection [Frenkel et al, 1980]. Our case underlines this suggestion and questions a teratogenic role for CMV in cyclopiaholoprosencephaly. More documented cases may help clarify the relationship of transplacental CMV infection to the holoprosencephaly developmental field defect, including cyclopia.
Cytomegalovirus Retinitis and Viral Resistance: Ganciclovir Resistance

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is among the most common opportunistic infections in patients with AIDS and a substantial cause of visual loss. With long-term therapy, resistant CMV may develop. In a prospective study of 108 patients with CMV retinitis, 80.6% of patients were found to have either a positive blood culture or positive urine culture for CMV at the diagnosis of retinitis. At diagnosis of retinitis, 0.9% and 2.7% of patients had a ganciclovir-resistant blood culture isolate and urine culture isolate, respectively. Of 76 patients initially treated with ganciclovir, 11.4% had a resistant blood or urine culture isolate by 6 months of treatment and 27.5% by 9 months. The development of ganciclovir resistance during follow-up correlated with the occurrence of CMV retinitis in the contralateral eye (odds ratio = 9.06, P = .003).
Surgical site infections: incidence and trends at a community teaching hospital.

Abstract Background There has been increased national attention on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and surgical site infections (SSIs) highlighted by the media, the public, and federal agencies. It was therefore considered important to analyze the trends and incidence of inpatient detected SSIs and associated resistant organisms at our own institution. Methods The analysis reflects the cultures and sensitivities of SSI on the surgical services at Monmouth Medical Center, a 527-bed community teaching hospital, from January 2003 through December 2007. The SSIs included in the study were those detected in hospitalized patients. Results There were 312 surgical patients who developed SSIs. Contrary to observed national trends, our study demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in the incidence of MRSA among all the surgical services. We also noted a statistically significant decrease trend of SSIs in orthopedic surgery. The 312 patients' cultures yielded 399 bacterial strains. The most common strains varied with the service. Overall, the most common isolate identified was Staphylococcus species, numbering 143% or 35.8% of all isolates. MRSA was identified in 46 SSIs and 8 SSIs were positive for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Conclusions Only a hospital-specific SSI analysis can help focus improvement with clinical impact. The scrutiny of SSI analysis has highlighted SSI problems in the pediatric and orthopedic surgery services that have been addressed.
Implementing the Comprehensive, Continuous, Integrated Service of Care Model for Individuals with Co-Occurring Disorders: Preliminary Findings from a Residential Facility Serving Homeless Individuals

ABSTRACT This study assessed the effectiveness of an evidence-based treatment model for homeless individuals with co-occurring diagnosed mental health and substance use disorders. The model, Comprehensive, Continuous, Integrated System of Care (CCISC), has been recognized by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as one of the best treatment protocols in the United States (Minkoff & Cline, 2004). During residential treatment, clients received medical care, counseling, psychiatric/psychological evaluation, recreational and vocational services, as well as comprehensive discharge planning. All 76 participants were administered measures assessing housing and employment status, as well as mental health symptomatology and levels of substance use at both baseline and six-month follow-up. Analyses revealed significant improvement in all assessment categories at six-month follow-up as well as client satisfaction with the program. The Comorbidity Program Audit and Self-Survey for Behavioral H...
An Attitude Survey in a Typical Manufacturing Firm

Summary The survey used was found to provide necessary information about the general and specific areas of employee dissatisfaction and the relative importance of each. This was true not only for the division as a whole, but also for the specific departments. There were many indications that employees felt better about their place of work when given an opportunity to express their opinions about their work conditions. Follow-up interviews to uncover the reasons that lay behind the expressed attitudes were especially informative. Despite supervisors' predictions that thirty percent of the force were so illiterate that a questionnaire could not be used, less than three percent were actually unable to complete the forms satisfactorily.
Medicine residents' self-perceived competence in end-of-life care.

Purpose Internal medicine residents frequently provide end-of-life care, yet feel inadequately trained and uncomfortable providing this care, despite efforts to improve end-of-life care curricula. Understanding how residents' experiences and attitudes affect their perceived competence in providing end-of-life care is important for targeting educational interventions. Method Medicine residents (74) at the University of Washington and Medical University of South Carolina enrolled in a trial investigating the efficacy of a communication skills intervention to improve end-of-life care. On entry to the study in the fall of 2007, residents completed a questionnaire assessing their prior experiences, attitudes, and perceived competence with end-of-life care. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to assess whether attitudes and experiences with end-of-life care were associated with perceived competence, controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, training year, training site, and personal experience with death of a loved one. Results Residents had substantial experience providing end-of-life care. In an adjusted multivariate model including attitudes and clinical experience in end-of-life care as predictors, only clinical experience providing end-of-life care was associated with self-perceived competence (P=.015). Conclusions Residents with more clinical experience during training had greater self-perceived competence providing end-of-life care. Increasing the quantity and quality of the end-of-life care experiences during residency with appropriate supervision and role modeling may lead to enhanced skill development and improve the quality of end-of-life care. The results suggest that cultivating bedside learning opportunities during residency is an appropriate focus for educational interventions in end-of-life care education.
Chemokines and atherosclerosis: what Adam Smith has to say about vascular disease.

“The division of labor, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labor.” Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776 At the dawn of the industrial age, the social philosopher and economist Adam Smith wanted to explain how some countries were able to create what he called the “opulence” that other countries lacked. Smith suggested that the foremost driver of wealth was the division of labor because it directly results in increased productivity. In his famous example, one worker might make 20 pins a day, but when 10 workers divide the various tasks required to make a pin, they might make 48,000 a day, or an average of 4800 pins per worker per day. This concept is so powerful that it would be surprising if natural selection did not reward biological systems that do the same thing. To pursue this idea, one might, by straining credulity right to the breaking point, draw an analogy between inflammation and manufacturing. The “product” is effector cell infiltration into target tissues, which is a complex, multistep process involving alterations in cell adhesion, motility, and gene expression. The “workers” are chemokines, an equally complex family of 50 or so small secreted proteins that are chemoattractants for the leukocytes that make up the infiltrate (1). Here, then, is a system that seems tailor-made for the benefits of division of labor, and recent work on the function of chemokines in disease suggests that this is exactly what has happened.
Vibro-Acoustic Optimization of Turbulent Boundary Layer Excited Panel with Curvilinear Stiffeners

The present work addresses the structural-acoustic design optimization study of straight or curvilinearly stiffened panels excited by turbulent boundary layer (TBL) pressure fluctuation. The Corcos model of representing TBL is used to capture the correlation of TBL pressure excitation. Validation of the Corcos TBL model, implemented in a framework, named EBF3PanelOpt, is also performed. For a comparative study, two optimal baseline designs are obtained for a panel with two and four stiffeners, respectively. The optimal designs obtained by performing acoustic optimization have reduced the maximummean square pressure radiated in the far field by 11.4 dB for a panel with two stiffeners and 18.5 dB for a panel with four stiffeners. The reduction of mass and the acoustic response during structural-acoustic optimization are conflicting in nature. Therefore, amulti-objective design optimization using the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) in VisualDoc is performed. The best Pareto-optimal design with four stiffeners, obtained using the multi-objective design optimization approach, has reduced the maximum mean square pressure radiated in the far field by 4.8 dBwhen comparedwith the baseline designwith four stiffeners. The obtained optimal designs meet all of the constraints, such as buckling eigenvalue, von Mises, and crippling stresses.
Influence of effector molecules on the CD8+ T cell response to infection

Expansion and contraction of antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells after infection or vaccination results in stable memory. Recent evidence demonstrates that anti-microbial effector molecules such as perforin and IFN-gamma regulate specific aspects of CD8(+) T cell homeostasis by mechanisms that may be dependent or independent of pathogen clearance.
The effect of phenazine methosulfate on the activity of dehydrogenases as studied by starch gel electrophoresis.

L'effet de la phenazine methosulfate (PMS) sur l'activite de plusieurs enzymes oxydatifs a ete etudie. En tant que transporteur d'electron, la PMS a un role important sur la coloration des isoenzymes separes par electrophorese en gel d'amidon. En ce qui concerne la deshydrogenase lactique, un exces de PMS provoque une coloration diffuse, alors que dans le cas de la deshydrogenase succinique on observe l'apparition de «bandes negatives» qui n'ont pas encore ete decrites.
Endurance Training and Testosterone Levels

Research has shown that chronic exposure to prolonged endurance training can result in disturbances within the reproductive physiological and endocrinological systems of humans. Until recently, research has focused on exercise training induced disruptions within female athletes. Within the last several years, however, studies have suggested that endurance training may have significant effects on the male reproductive system. The evidence suggests endurance training significantly affects the major male reproductive hormone, testosterone. At rest testosterone appears to be lower in the endurance-trained male than in the untrained male. The mechanism of this lowering is currently unclear, but may be related to dysfunctions within the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular regulatory axis. This assumption has been based upon abnormalities in the resting testosterone levels and pituitary release of luteinising hormone and prolactin. Potentially, the lowered testosterone levels could disrupt reproductive and androgenic processes within the male. Presently, however, there are no findings to indicate that any consistent dysfunctions of any of the testosterone dependent processes in the male occur due to endurance training.
Evaluation of abdominal lymphoma by ultrasound

Ultrasonography was utilized in 13 patients with lymphoma of the bowel, the liver, spleen, and abdominal lymph nodes. The lymphomatous tumors were (except in one patient with Burkitt's lymphoma) ultrasonographically anechoic or hypoechoic and showed very good echo transmission. In 6 out of 13 patients, lymphography was negative, or there was no evidence of enlarged retroperitoneal lymph nodes by ultrasound or computed tomography. In these patients, abdominal lymphoma in other areas was shown by ultrasonography. After a base-line had been obtained, the therapeutic effect or progression of the tumor could be followed simply by ultrasound.
PRODUCT‐DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES IN THE MULTINATIONAL FIRM

A number of studies have assessed problems involved in introducing new products abroad and marketing them effectively on a global scale. This article focuses on the product‐development process and ways to make it multinational in scope. Data collected by interview from four industrial companies are used to discuss the means and objectives of multinational program management.
Properties and Application of Undoped Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films

Device quality undoped hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon has been prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition under different conditions. The dependence of physical, chemical, structural, and electrical properties on the deposition conditions has been investigated. Conductive (conductivity above 10−3Ω−1 cm−1) and resistive (conductivity around 10−9Ω−1cm−1) layers having approximately the same grain size, at a given substrate temperature, have been deposited between 200 and 500°C at two different hydrogen dilutions. Independently of the hydrogen dilution, the average grain sized is dependent on the deposition temperature and the film thickness; and a maximum average grain size of about 40 nm has been achieved for a thick film deposited at 500°C. The density of paramagnetic defects also increases with increasing deposition temperature, which indicates that more dangling bond defects are introduced as the total area of the grain boundaries increases. The etch rate decreases with increasing deposition temperature, and for the films deposited at 250 and 500°C the etch rate has been measured to be 6.6 and 2.7 nm/min, respectively. Thin film transistors incorporating a microcrystalline channel have been fabricated and evaluated. The best device had the following properties: field effect mobility, threshold voltage, and on/off current ratio of about 0.8 cm2/V sec, below 5 V, and around 106, respectively.