cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Long-Term and Developmental Outcomes of Children with Complex Congenital Heart Disease

As the mortality of neonatal and infant surgery for CHD continues to decrease, attention is now focused on long-term sequelae, especially later cognitive and neurologic function, in survivors. Although children with repaired or palliated CHD have an increased risk for neurocognitive deficits, most survivors are performing within the normal range for most standardized measures. Even those children at highest risk, such as patients with HLHS, are comparable with survivors of other congenital lesions, such as diaphragmatic hernia, or low-birth weight children. Continued efforts are underway to reduce cerebral injury before, during, and after congenital heart surgery.
Alkanes in shrimp from the Buccaneer Oil Field.

A total of 36 samples of shrimp were examined from the region of the Buccaneer oil field, eighteen of which were representatives of the commercial species Penaeus aztecus and the rest were various other species: Penaeus duorarum (pink shrimp), Trachypenaeus duorarum (sugar shrimp), Squilla empusa (mantis shrimp), and Sicyonia dorsalis (chevron shrimp). The alkanes and deuteriated alkanes were completely separated by GC, so a mass spectrometer was not required for their detection and quantitation. To confirm the identities of individual compounds, however, some samples were examined by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results show that only thirteen of the forty shrimp collected from the region of the Buccaneer oil field contained petroleum alkanes, and the majority of these were obtained from trawls immediately adjacent to the production platforms. It appears that shrimp caught in the region of the Buccaneer oil field are not appreciably tainted with hydrocarbons discharged from the production platforms. (JMT)
Legal and Ethical Values in the Resolution of Research-Related Disputes: How Can IRBs Respond to Participant Complaints?:

Under US federal regulations, participants providing informed consent must receive information regarding whom to contact in case of a research-related injury or complaint. Although informed consent processes routinely direct participants to contact institutional review boards (IRBs) with questions or concerns, there has been little empirical study of the ways in which IRBs act to resolve participants' research-related complaints. This article explores available literature on participant complaints, considers the responsibilities of IRBs in dispute resolution, and outlines a research agenda. As a case study, this review considers disputes arising from HIV/AIDS research, focusing on novel issues arising from biomedical HIV prevention trials.
Structural requirements for initiation of Limulus amebocyte lysate gelation by lipoteichoic acids

Lipoteichoic acids (LTAs) of varying chemical composition from five streptococcal species and one lactobacillus species initiated gelation of Limulus amebocyte lysate. Preincubation with antisera specific for the poly(glycerol phosphate) (PGP) chain or, when appropriate, with antisera, specific for a carbohydrate substituent inhibited gelation initiated by lipoteichoic acid, but did not inhibit lipopolysaccharide-initiated gelation. Higher specific activities were found for those LTAs with higher d-alanine or carbohydrate substitution or with a shortened PGP chain, which suggested that those structural features which decreased the relative hydrophilicity or charge to mass ratio appeared to increase the specific activity.
Polyol pathway activity in nervous tissues of diabetic and galactose-fed rats: Effect of dietary galactose withdrawal or tolrestat intervention therapy

Abstract Enhanced polyol pathway activity resulting in an accumulation of sorbitol and a depletion of myoinositol in nervous tissues has been proposed to be important in development of diabetic neuropathies. This investigation demonstrated that in two models of diabetic complications, streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats and galactose-fed rats, 5 weeks of disease led to an accumulation of sorbitol or galactitol, respectively, in three cranial nerves (the optic (II), trigeminal (V), and vagus (X) nerves), as well as the sciatic nerve, cerebral cortex, and retina. In both models, the cranial nerves and cerebral cortex contained lower levels of accumulated polyol than the sciatic nerve. In addition, myoinositol depletion was observed in the sciatic nerve only. In a second galactose-fed rat study, returning 5-week galactose-fed rats to a normal diet for 6 weeks led to complete elimination of galactitol from the optic nerve, sciatic nerve, and retina and normalization of the sciatic nerve myoinositol concentration. Similarly, continuing the galactose diet for 6 more weeks (ie, a total of 11 weeks) as well as administration of the aldose reductase inhibitor (ARI) tolrestat (20 and 40 mg/kg/day), caused the sciatic nerve to contain a normal myoinositol concentration and a galactitol concentration that was 95% below the level observed in galactose-fed controls. In the optic nerve and retina, tolrestat was less effective, resulting in 69–78% lower galactitol levels. In conclusion, these findings indicate that sorbitol and galactitol accumulate in cranial nerves, brain, and retina without a concomitant decrease in myoinositol. Either withdrawal of the galactose diet or intervention with tolrestat normalized polyol levels in the sciatic nerve. In the optic nerve and retina, tolrestat, while causing a reduction, was unable to normalize the galactitol levels completely.
Effect of humidity and temperature on the tensile strength of polyimide/silicon nitride interface and its implications for electronic device reliability

Abstract A new strategy for improving, predicting, and optimizing the mechanical reliability of interfaces appearing in electronic devices, substrates, and their packages, is introduced. An essential feature of this strategy is to measure the fundamental tensile strength of interfaces devoid of any material plasticity and geometry effects and quantify changes in the measured strengths by exposing interfaces to varying levels and duration of in-situ temperature rise and relative humidity. These fundamental strength charts can now to be used in conjunction with simulations capable of predicting time-dependent stress concentrations, moisture accumulation, and temperature rise at critical interfaces during processing and service, and thus, predict device reliability from a fundamental standpoint. Since these latter simulations are already well developed and largely available, implementation of the proposed strategy requires development of largely unavailable database on the degradation of the interfaces’ intrinsic tensile strengths. As a start, this paper presents such a data for the polyimide/Si3N/Si interface system, which besides serving as an exemplar, has importance in device fabrication. The strength data is gathered using the laser spallation technique, in which a laser-generated stress wave on the backside of the substrate pries off the coating deposited on its front surface. This work extends this technique for multilayer testing. Interestingly, the degrading effect of each variable was found to fall in two separate regimes of moderate and strong effect. Uncovering of such transition zones is of obvious importance in reliability studies.
A bayesian based functional mixed-effects model for analysis of LC-MS data

A Bayesian multilevel functional mixed-effects model with group specific random-effects is presented for analysis of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) data. The proposed framework allows alignment of LC-MS spectra with respect to both retention time (RT) and mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). Affine transformations are incorporated within the model to account for any variability along the RT and m/z dimensions. Simultaneous posterior inference of all unknown parameters is accomplished via Markov chain Monte Carlo method using the Gibbs sampling algorithm. The proposed approach is computationally tractable and allows incorporating prior knowledge in the inference process. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach for alignment of LC-MS spectra based on total ion count profiles derived from two LC-MS datasets.
Effects of heat-sensitive agents, soil type, moisture, and leaf surface on persistence of Anticarsia gemmatalis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) nucleopolyhedrovirus

In a laboratory experiment, persistence of Anticarsia gemmatalis Hubner nucleopolyhedrovirus (AgNPV) was significantly lower in marsh soil than in agricultural soil. AgNPV was inactivated significantly more quickly in soil at −0.3 bar water potential than in soil at water potentials of 0 bar or −5 bar. Loss of AgNPV activity was significantly faster in unautoclaved soil than in autoclaved soil. AgNPV stored in unautoclaved marsh water lost 99% of its activity within 64 d, whereas AgNPV in distilled water or autoclaved marsh water remained 98–99% active after the same time period. The soil and marsh-water results indicate that 1 or more heat-sensitive agents, perhaps microorganisms, were inactivating AgNPV. The persistence of AgNPV was examined on foliage of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, versus deer pea, Vigna luteola (Jacq.) Benth, a wild host plant of A. gemmatalis. AgNPV sprayed on upper leaf surfaces lost ≥60% of its activity within 2 d, whereas the virus sprayed on the underside of foliage lost ≤13% in the same time period, regardless of host plant. The results of the soil and water persistence experiments indicate that classical biological control of A. gemmatalis with AgNPV is less likely to succeed in wild, coastal legumes than in the soybean agroecosystem.
Fighting behavior and prior residency advantage in the territorial dragonfly, Perithemis tenera

Many factors, including residency status, body size, age, and energetic reserves, have been implicated as possibly determining the winner in animal contests. In this study I investigated which of these factors were correlated with the outcomes of naturally-occurring territorial contests between male amberwing dragonflies (Perithemis tenera). Amberwing contests consist of non-contact interactions and are characterized by a series of distinct stages that represent different levels of escalation. Prior residents did tend to win, but interestingly this residency advantage only occurred in interactions that were not escalated. For both non-escalated and escalated interactions, body size (wing length) did not influence the outcome. Age was correlated with outcome for escalated interactions, with the younger of the pair tending to win. Winning males had also spent less time in male-male interactions both the day of the interaction and during their entire life, suggesting that energy reserves may also affect the ...
Service oriented adaptive Java applications

The aim of the SOAJA project (Service Oriented Adaptive Java Applications) is to develop a service-oriented infrastructure enabling efficient application running in complex, networked computing environments (GRID). The SOAJA infrastructure provides components and services enabling static and dynamic load balancing through Java object observation. SOAJA performs large scale computing using idle CPU time of the nodes of a GRID. Java Distributed Applications consist of many objects which are processed in parallel which SOAJA allocates to each Grid nodes at runtime. In this paper, we present the mechanisms and algorithms which ensures the automatic adaptation of the application objects, in response to the computing evolutions and to modifications of the resource availability. These mechanisms permit to control the granularity of the treatment and the distribution of the application on the Grid platform.
The immunological profile of a new immunomodulatory agent, oxamisole

Abstract Oxamisole is a T-cell immunorestorative agent when administered by the oral (p.o.) route. It has little or no effect on the IgM or IgG responses to the T-dependent antigen, sheep erythrocytes (SRBC), in normal mice but augments antibody production in immunodeficient animals. Unlike the response to SRBC, the humoral immunocompetence of both normal and immunosuppressed animals sensitized with the T-independent antigen, trinitrophenyl-lipopolysaccharide (TNP-LPS) was unaffected by oxamisole. Oxamisole restored cellular immunocompetence, as evidenced by an increase in the in vitro proliferative response of normal murine splenocytes to T-cell mitogens, while decreasing B-cell mitogenic responses. This indicates that oxamisole may selectively restore T-cell function. However, oxamisole did not significantly modify the classical T-cell-mediated delayed hypersensitivity responses to either the protein antigen methylated bovine serum albumin or to the contact-sensitizing antigen oxazolone. When assayed in vitro , oxamisole enhanced macrophage chemotactic function but not phagocytic function, suggesting a potential stimulation of the reticuloendothelial system. In vivo studies failed to demonstrate any consistent significant activation of murine macrophage function following oral dosing with oxamisole.
Thermocatalytic decomposition of natural gas over plasma-generated carbon aerosols for sustainable production of hydrogen and carbon

Abstract Thermocatalytic decomposition (TD) of natural gas (NG) is a promising CO2-free approach to hydrogen production, however, the practical realization of the sustainable TD process faces significant technical challenges due to rapid deactivation of existing catalysts by carbon deposits. In this work, the authors report on TD of NG and methane over a new type of carbon-based catalyst: plasma-generated carbon aerosols. The carbon aerosols were produced by non-thermal plasma-assisted decomposition of NG at near-ambient conditions. The plasma-generated carbons exhibit highest catalytic activity for methane (or NG) decomposition among known carbon-based catalysts with a comparable surface area. The nanostructure of the plasma-generated carbons was characterized and found to be consistent with highly disordered (amorphous) carbon. It is demonstrated that the combination of the carbon aerosol generator with the TD reactor provides a means for sustainable production of hydrogen and carbon from NG with a relatively high energy efficiency.
Forced oscillations of an axisymmetric structure in contact with an elastic half-space by a version of global local finite elements

Abstract A version of the global local finite element method (GLFEM) is presented for determining the steady state forced response of an axisymmetric structure in contact with an elastic, homogeneous, isotropic half-space. In this GLFEM version, conventional finite elements are used to model the structure and some portion of the sorrounding medium, and global functions in the form of a complete set of outgoing spherical harmonic waves for the entire space are used to capture the behavior in the half-space region beyond the finite element mesh. An arbitrary distribution of steady state normal loads may be applied to the structure. Full traction and displacement continuity are enforced at the finite element mesh interface with the outer region. On the half-space surface of the outer region, traction-free surface conditions are met by requiring a sequence of weighted-average integrals of the tractions to vanish. Comparison of the present results for the problem of a rigid plate in frictionless contact with the half-space with those obtained by krenk and Schmidt [1] show excellent agreement over a wide frequency range. Other examples on circular plates under various contact conditions with the half-space are presented as illustrations of the forced response.
Millisecond Timescale, Atomistic Protein Folding Simulations Yield a Network Theory for Protein Folding

Understanding protein folding is a classic grand challenge in molecular biophysics; a solution for which could have immediate medical benefits, particularly for protein misfolding diseases like Alzheimer's. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have the potential to provide quantitative models of protein folding but, unfortunately, this potential has yet to be fully realized due to the need to capture long-timescale transitions at atomic resolution. Taking advantage of a new theory for molecular kinetics and the computational power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), however, we are now able to reach millisecond timescales at atomic resolution (one million times longer than conventional simulations). But, how can one use these simulations to gain insight? We present a novel network theory which is capable of quantitative prediction of the native states and folding timescales for the villin headpiece and NTL9, which fold on microsecond and millisecond timescales respectively. Furthermore, it leads to experimentally testable hypotheses about the nature of protein free energy landscapes and how proteins fold so quickly. We also reduce these concepts to simpler and more fundamental, humanly comprehensible networks that capture the essence of molecular kinetics and reproduce qualitative phenomena like apparent two-state folding. Models at both the quantitative and qualitative levels are crucial for gaining an intuition for molecular kinetics and for ultimately answering the general question of “how do proteins fold?”
Peer-Reviewed Articles Assessing the Effects of a Selective Harvest System on Moose Hunters’ Behaviors,Beliefs, and Satisfaction

Selective harvest systems (SHS) have been developed by several state and provincial wildlife management agencies to prevent the over harvest of bull moose (Alces alces). Although these regulations potentially achieve biological objectives for the targeted moose population, wildlife managers and decision makers recognize that such hunting regulations can also affect hunter attitudes and behaviors. The social psychological impacts of a SHS for bull moose in south-central Alaska on resident moose hunters were examined. Results indicated a majority of hunters supported the SHS and had positive evaluations of its effects for both moose and moose hunters. In addition, beliefs about the outcomes of the SHS and attitudes toward the SHS were strong predictors of whether or not hunters were satisfied with their most recent moose hunt. A minority of hunters believed that the SHS would lead to negative outcomes and were responsible for lowering hunting satisfaction. Information on specific beliefs that lead to negati...
Combined ERCP and EUS in One Session Is Safe in Elderly Patients When Compared to Non-elderly Patients: Outcomes in 206 Combined Procedures

Aims Combined ERCP/EUS is becoming common. Combined procedures are frequently performed in elderly patients. We hypothesized that combined ERCP/EUS is equally safe in elderly patients when compared to non-elderly patients.
Circular Dichroism of Long Wavelength Forms of Chlorophyll a

THE properties of chlorophyll a (Chl) in a highly condensed state are relevant to an understanding of photosynthesis. I here describe circular dichroism (CD) measurements of various Chl aggregates in vitro. Details of the preparation of Chl have been reported1.
Ascorbic acid and chemically induced methemoglobinemias

Abstract Sodium nitrite was added to suspensions of washed guinea pig red cells in concentrations which converted about a third of the total blood pigment to methemoglobin. Various aliquots also contained added ascorbic acid in concentrations of 0.05, 0.5, or 5.0 m m (“physiological” levels are between 0.05 and 0.1 m m ). Methemoglobin levels were followed for 2 hr at 37°C. None of the tested concentrations of ascorbate significantly attenuated methemoglobin formation. On the contrary, significantly higher methemoglobin levels were sometimes found with 5.0 m m ascorbate. Guinea pigs were maintained several weeks on a scorbutogenic diet with or without ascorbate supplementation in their water. When blood ascorbate levels were significantly different, both groups were given intraarterial sodium nitrite, 40 mg/kg, and methemoglobin levels were followed with time as above. At none of the sampling times was there a significant difference in the methemoglobin levels between the 2 groups. As judged by the appearance of radioactivity in blood at various times after sc injection, the two groups also showed no difference in the rates at which they absorbed KS 14 CN. In human red cell suspensions 5.0 m m ascorbate significantly attenuated the methemoglobinemic response to tested concentrations of sodium nitrite, hydroxylamine and phenylhydroxylamine at 1 hr, but lower concentrations of ascorbate were without effect. When human red cells were first exposed to nitrite, then washed and ascorbate added, significant acceleration of methemoglobin reduction was observed with 5.0 m m ascorbate at 12, 24, and 36 hr, and with 0.5 m m ascorbate at 12 and 24 hr. In contrast, the oxygen capacities of suspensions with 5.0 m m ascorbate were significantly higher than control only at 12 and 24 hr, whereas with 0.5 m m ascorbate they were significantly higher at 12, 24, and 36 hr. In plain buffer, 5.0 m m ascorbate produced a small but significant loss of the tested concentration of sodium nitrite within 2 hr, but not at shorter intervals or at lower ascorbate concentrations.
Research Note: Selected Factors Influencing Marketers' Deontological Norms

This paper focuses on deontological norms of professional marketers. The data were obtained from a mail survey of American Marketing Association members. The results generally indicate that deontological norms are a function of Machiavellianism and locus of control. That is, as hypothesized, those high in Machiavellianism and with an “external” locus of control tend to be “lower” in their deontological norms than their counterparts. This study, however, found no relationship between organizational culture and deontological norms. Nevertheless, to a certain degree, an organization, by means of its codes of ethical enforcement, can affect its employees’ deontological norms in a positive way. The results also indicate that business experience positively correlate with deontological norms and that there was no significant relationship between gender and deontological norms.
Model-based requirement generation

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is intended to enhance productivity and quality through a paradigm shift from document-centric engineering. However, most MBSE development tools require the manual creation of requirement constructs. This time consuming step is vulnerable to human error, and must be repeated as high-level designs inevitably evolve. This paper describes a capability that uses SysML structure and behavior diagrams to automatically generate textual requirements. Using modified off-the-shelf MBSE software, information is extracted from SysML constructs (e.g., blocks, states, activities) and combined in SysML requirement objects. The requirement syntax conforms to NASA and DoD standards. Requirements are based on SysML construct relationships (e.g., allocations, control flows, object flows) commonly used in diagrams to describe system architectures and designs. Through the embedded error checker, designers can ensure that requirements are complete and consistent. When new requirement constructs are created, traceability to the “parent” SysML constructs is automatically created to capture the rationale. As the architectural models evolve, the requirements are updated to ensure consistency with configuration management and other model-based tools. Such an approach allows designers to quickly assess the impact of requirement changes and reduces requirement management costs. The capability is demonstrated by comparing model generated requirements to a traditionally developed GPS receiver specification.
FCC organizational structure and regulatory convergence

Abstract Convergence of information industries has led to the emergence of services that cross industry boundaries. Changes in these industries have caused the organization of regulatory institutions to become inadequate. An exploratory analysis of orders issued by bureaus of the US Federal Communications Commission shows overlap in the issues on which each provides rulings. Rather than organizing into traditional industries such as common carrier, cable, and mass media, bureaus could be re-organized into functions such as oversight of rates, spectrum allocation, and universal service provision. Using theories of bureaucracy and organization, this paper proposes an explanation for the difficulties that the FCC has had in adapting to converging information industries.
Transformational Leadership, Integrity, and Power.

Student affairs professionals should value the ideals of transformational leadership, but they need to navigate the realities of institutional power structures, if they want to maintain their political viability and improve organizational integrity.
Book Review Essay: The Paradox of Race and Capital Punishment Are We Probing Deeply Enough?

Too often Americans speak primarily to themselves when the topic turns to the death penalty. Because the United States is the last of the industrialized Western countries to retain the death penalty, we often think of it as a purely American phenomenon. But it does impact the international community in significant ways, especially given the reality that many of the nation's trading partners and closest allies refuse to extradite criminal suspects who may face the death penalty in the United States. Indeed, the political, economic, and moral ramifications of America's experiment with death will continue to have profound consequences on that country's position in the international community. What is more, those consequences become even more serious—even more heightened—when one factors in the controversial issue of race. It is, therefore, incumbent on scholars and commentators from the United States and around the world to broaden the conversation about race and capital punishment, to become more cognizant ...
Period doubling and quadrupling for some second-order difference schemes

may exhibit stable n-cycles that bifurcate into stable 2n-cycles as a increases, creating period doubling bifurcation sequences, each beginning with a cycle of odd period. These dynamics were first described by May [I, 21, and have since been investigated by many others (see [3-61 for example). A number of universal features of this bifurcation process have been observed, primarily for quadratic maps [7-lo]. By comparison, much less is known concerning the dynamics of higher order nonlinear schemes. Although there have been many numerical investigations of specific second-order equations (see [I l-181 for example), the full range of dynamics possible for such problems has not yet been determined. In this work we investigate some general second-order nonlinear difference schemes. Sufficient conditions are derived for the existence, stability, and bifurcations of periodic cycles for certain classes of such problems. Firstly, the correspondence between periodic cycles of (1) and those of the second-order problem X k+l = .f-(xk-l) (3)
The role of surface disturbances in the entrainment of bubbles by a liquid jet

In this paper, air entrainment by a liquid jet is studied. The size of bubbles entrained by jets plunging into a liquid can be consistently decreased to the 50–100 μm range, and their number increased in a highly controllable fashion, by surrounding a mm-size jet by a hollow cap with a slightly larger inner diameter. When the right amount of air is supplied to the cap, small air bubbles detach from a steady annular cavity that forms around the jet and are entrained into the liquid. The fluid mechanical principles underlying this interesting and useful effect are investigated experimentally and theoretically in this paper. It is shown that a key aspect of the process is the jet surface roughness, which is studied quantitatively and explained in terms of the boundary layer instability inside the nozzle. The maximum bubble size is found to be nearly equal to one quarter of the wavelength of the jet surface disturbances, consistent with a breakup process of relatively large air pockets around the jet, as suggested by close-up pictures. The average bubble size downstream of the cap increases proportionally to the air to water flow ratio. Boundary integral simulations of the air pocket formation are carried out. The results are found to be useful in explaining important characteristics of the experiment such as the threshold for entrainment and cavity size.
The Assessment of Radiation Exposures in Native American Communities from Nuclear Weapons Testing in Nevada

Native Americans residing in a broad region downwind from the Nevada Test Site during the 1950s and 1960s received significant radiation exposures from nuclear weapons testing. Because of differences in diet, activities, and housing, their radiation exposures are only very imperfectly represented in the Department of Energy dose reconstructions. There are important missing pathways, including exposures to radioactive iodine from eating small game. The dose reconstruction model assumptions about cattle feeding practices across a year are unlikely to apply to the native communities as are other model assumptions about diet. Thus exposures from drinking milk and eating vegetables have not yet been properly estimated for these communities. Through consultations with members of the affected communities, these deficiencies could be corrected and the dose reconstruction extended to Native Americans. An illustration of the feasibility of extending the dose reconstruction is provided by a sample calculation to estimate radiation exposures to the thyroid from eating radio-iodine-contaminated rabbit thyroids after the Sedan test. The illustration is continued with a discussion of how the calculation results may be used to make estimates for other tests and other locations.
Virtue, Profit, and the Separation Thesis: An Aristotelian View

If social scientists take natural science as a model, they may err in their predictions and may offer facile ethical views. MacIntyre assails them for this, but he is unduly pessimistic about business, and in rejecting the separation thesis he raises some difficulties about naturalism. Aristotle’s views of the good life and of the close relationship between internal and external goods provide a corrective to MacIntyre, and in fact suggest how virtues can support social capital and thus prevail within and among firms in competitive markets. Aristotle’s views are not necessarily inimical to those underlying modern democratic capitalism, but they raise questions about the limits to the good life. The separation thesis misses the importance of addressing the questions with both empirical and ethical resources.
Transport of Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone from Cerebrospinal Fluid to Hypophysial Portal Blood and the Release of Thyrotropin

The capacity of the median eminence to transport thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to hypophysial portal blood, and the ability of TRH when introduced into a lateral ventricle to stimulate TSH release from the pituitary gland were investigated. Male rats were injected either intraventricularly or intravenously with 0, 1, 10, or 100 ng of TRH, and plasma TSH concentrations were determined at various times thereafter. TRH administration via both routes resulted in substantial release of TSH. Following intraventricular injection of TRH, there was a delay in reaching maximal TSH concentration when compared with the faster elevation and faster decline in TSH concentrations which followed intravenous injection of the same dose of TRH. In a second experiment, 7 μCi of [3H]TRH were introduced intraventricularly or intravenously, and hypophysial portal and arterial blood were simultaneously collected and examined for the presence of radioactivity. The intraventricular injection of ...
Ecoscale: A scale for the measurement of environmentally responsible consumers

The authors develop a 31-item instrument (ECOSCALE) for the assessment of environmental responsibility. Discussion of the conceptualization and operational functions used in constructing and refining the multiple-item scale to measure the construct environmental responsibility are described. Also presented is evidence that the scale has been validated through assessment of content validity, predictive validity, and construct validity. A final description of the theoretical uses of such a scale is provided. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Optimal Set of Multiple Relays and Distributed Self-Selection in Cooperative Networks

In this paper we derive analytically the optimal set of relays for the maximal destination signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a two-hop amplify-and-forward cooperative network with frequency-selective fading channels. Simple rules are derived to determine the optimal relays from all available candidates. Our results show that a node either participates in relaying with full power or does not participate in relaying at all, and that a node is a valid relay if and only if its SNR is higher than the optimal destination SNR. In addition, we develop a simple distributed algorithm for each node to determine whether participating in relaying by comparing its own SNR with the broadcasted destination SNR. This algorithm has extremely low overhead, and is shown to converge to the optimal solution fast and exactly within a finite number of iterations. The extremely high efficiency makes it especially suitable to time-varying mobile networks.
A Narrative Approach to Quality Care in Long-Term Care Facilities

The negative effects of institutionalization caused partially by homogeneity and uniformity of care prompts the exploration of personal and common meanings of nursing home residents. This study is viewed as an initial step in providing quality care as defined by the resident. Personal and common meanings embedded in the lived lives of five older women residing in a long-term care facility are interpreted using a seven-stage Heideggerian hermeneutical phenomenological approach. An unstructured modified life review format is used to interview each participant on three separate occasions. Three constitutive patterns emerge: dwelling in remembering, living relatedly, and being after loss. These patterns endure across the life span of each woman and continue to endure after admission to the facility. The revelation of common and personal meanings provide new possibilities for the transformation of nursing practice to ensure quality care from the perspective of what is considered meaningful to each resident.
Electrocardiographic exercise stress testing: An update beyond the ST segment

Routine exercise testing is frequently ordered to evaluate a patient's cardiovascular performance. The test is more direct and less expensive than imaging technology, and derives valuable information. New variables such as dyspnea and heart rate recovery, as well as integrated scores, provide incremental value to conventional analysis of exercise-induced angina or electrocardiographic changes. Considerations relating to test accuracy in women need to be weighed. This paper seeks to make physicians aware of the current status of the test, and improve their understanding of and ability to integrate new variables and scores to more effectively manage their patients.
Therapy in ST-elevation myocardial infarction: reperfusion strategies, pharmacology and stent selection.

The estimated annual incidence of new and recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) in the U.S. is 715,000 events. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the reperfusion strategy of choice in most patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Recent advances in percutaneous techniques and devices, including manual aspiration catheters and newer generation drug eluting stents and pharmacologic therapies, such as novel antiplatelets and anticoagulants have led to significant improvements in the acute and long-term outcomes for these patients. Implementation of community-wide systems directed to shorten treatment times tied to closely monitored quality improvement processes have led to further advances in STEMI care. Recent data suggests that transradial access for primary PCI is associated with improved outcomes. This contemporary review discusses the strategies for reperfusion, pharmacological therapy and stent selection process involved in STEMI.
OTUbase: an R infrastructure package for operational taxonomic unit data.

Summary: OTUbase is an R package designed to facilitate the analysis of operational taxonomic unit (OTU) data and sequence classification (taxonomic) data. Currently there are programs that will cluster sequence data into OTUs and/or classify sequence data into known taxonomies. However, there is a need for software that can take the summarized output of these programs and organize it into easily accessed and manipulated formats. OTUbase provides this structure and organization within R, to allow researchers to easily manipulate the data with the rich library of R packages currently available for additional analysis. Availability: OTUbase is an R package available through Bioconductor. It can be found at http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/OTUbase.html. Contact: ude.ohadiu@selttesm
Manifold blurring mean shift algorithms for manifold denoising

We propose a new family of algorithms for denoising data assumed to lie on a low-dimensional manifold. The algorithms are based on the blurring mean-shift update, which moves each data point towards its neighbors, but constrain the motion to be orthogonal to the manifold. The resulting algorithms are nonparametric, simple to implement and very effective at removing noise while preserving the curvature of the manifold and limiting shrinkage. They deal well with extreme outliers and with variations of density along the manifold. We apply them as preprocessing for dimensionality reduction; and for nearest-neighbor classification of MNIST digits, with consistent improvements up to 36% over the original data.
Supportive Care Considerations for Older Adults With Cancer

The treatment of cancer presents specific concerns that are unique to the growing demographic of elderly patients. Because the incidence of cancer is strongly correlated with aging, the expansion of supportive care and other age-appropriate therapies will be of great importance as the population of elderly patients with cancer increases in the coming years. Elderly patients are especially likely to experience febrile neutropenia, complications from chemotherapy-induced nausea, anemia, osteoporosis (especially in patients diagnosed with breast or prostate cancer), depression, insomnia, and fatigue. These issues are often complicated by other chronic conditions related to age, such as diabetes and cardiac disease. For many patients, symptoms may be addressed both through lifestyle management and pharmaceutical approaches. Therefore, the key to improving quality of life for the elderly patient with cancer is an awareness of their specific needs and a familiarity with emergent treatment options.
Thermal protection of an 80V silicon-on-insulator LDMOS transistor for power-over-Ethernet applications

This paper describes thermal protection for the pass transistor of a power-over-Ethernet powered device controller developed on a bonded-wafer silicon-on-insulator process. The 1/spl Omega/, 80V LDMOS transistor dissipates up to 8W during a typical fault condition. Current limiting, tightly coupled over-temperature sensing, and drain-to-source voltage sensing combine to limit measured peak junction temperatures to less than 250/spl deg/C.
Intestinal absorption and blood flow.

LTHOUGH AN EVERTED gut sac can move molecules from mucosal to senosal surfaces, time intact intestine utilizes its circulation as an integral part of the transport process, and blood flow must be considered as a potential rate-limiting step. Time immteraction between the circulation and intestinal absorption is a twoway street: absorption influences blood flow and the reverse holds as well. Digestion, motility, and intestinal energy consumption also affect blood flow, either by direct local stimulation or through distant release of humoral agents.
Asymptotic scheme for waves in random media.

A new asymptotic scheme for intensity statistics of waves in random media with a pure power-law correlation is presented. In the strong scattering regime it provides effective and accurate asymptotic expansion series for all intensity moments. The new first-order result, which is considerably more accurate than that from the existing asymptotic theory, may also serve as a starting point for useful statistical models.
The Environment of “Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis” Microaggregates Induces Synthesis of Small Proteins Associated with Efficient Infection of Respiratory Epithelial Cells

“Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis” is an opportunistic environmental pathogen that causes respiratory illness in immunocompromised patients, such as those with cystic fibrosis as well as other chronic respiratory diseases. Currently, there is no efficient approach to prevent or treat M. avium subsp. hominissuis infection in the lungs. During initial colonization of the airways, M. avium subsp. hominissuis forms microaggregates composed of 3 to 20 bacteria on human respiratory epithelial cells, which provides an environment for phenotypic changes leading to efficient mucosal invasion in vitro and in vivo. DNA microarray analysis was employed to identify genes associated with the microaggregate phenotype. The gene encoding microaggregate-binding protein 1 (MBP-1) (MAV_3013) is highly expressed during microaggregate formation. When expressed in noninvasive Mycobacterium smegmatis, MBP-1 increased the ability of the bacteria to bind to HEp-2 epithelial cells. Using anti-MBP-1 immune serum, microaggregate binding to HEp-2 cells was significantly reduced. By far-Western blotting, and verified by coimmunoprecipitation, we observed that MBP-1 interacts with the host cytoskeletal protein vimentin. As visualized by confocal microscopy, microaggregates, as well as MBP-1, induced vimentin polymerization at the site of bacterium-host cell contact. Binding of microaggregates to HEp-2 cells was inhibited by treatment with an antivimentin antibody, suggesting that MBP-1 expression is important for M. avium subsp. hominissuis adherence to the host cell. MBP-1 immune serum significantly inhibited M. avium subsp. hominissuis infection throughout the respiratory tracts of mice. This study characterizes a pathogenic mechanism utilized by M. avium subsp. hominissuis to bind and invade the host respiratory epithelium, suggesting new potential targets for the development of antivirulence therapy.
China takes all? An empirical study on the impacts of quota elimination on world clothing trade from 2000 to 2009

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impacts of quota elimination on the world clothing trade.Design/methodology/approach – Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was undertaken based on trade statistics of 51 clothing exporters from 2000 to 2009 provided by the World Trade Organization (WTO).Findings – First, exporters’ performances in response to quota elimination overall were suggested unequal among countries located in different geographic regions of the world. Second, clothing exporters located in different geographic regions were suggested having unequal results of compound annual growth rate from 2005 to 2009 and market share changes from 2000 to 2009. Third, it was suggested that European countries were achieving faster clothing export growth from 2005 to 2009 and more market share gains from 2000 to 2009 than the rest of the world; and that China was also achieving more market share gains from 2000 to 2009 than other clothing exporters.Research limitations/imp...
High grain size stability of nanocrystalline Al prepared by mechanical attrition

Grain growth in nanocrystalline (nc) Al with a grain size of 26 nm produced by cryogenic mechanical milling was studied through x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. Grain growth kinetics resembled those of ball-milled nc Fe. For homologous temperatures (T/TM) of 0.51–0.83, the time exponent n from D1/n − D01/n = kt was 0.04–0.28, tending toward 0.5 as T/TM increased. Two grain-growth regimes were distinguished: below T/TM = 0.78 growth ceased at an approximate grain size of 50 nm while at higher temperatures, grain growth proceeded steadily to the submicrometer range. Grain growth over the range of temperatures studied cannot be explained in terms of a single thermally activated rate process. The observed high grain size stability was attributed primarily to impurity pinning drag associated with the grain growth process.
Metalloprotein and redox protein design

Metalloprotein and redox protein design are rapidly advancing toward the chemical synthesis of novel proteins that have predictable structures and functions. Current data demonstrate a breadth of successful approaches to metallopeptide and metalloprotein design based on de novo, rational and combinatorial strategies. These sophisticated synthetic analogs of natural proteins constructively test our comprehension of metalloprotein structure/function relationships. Additionally, designed redox proteins provide novel constructs for examining the thermodynamics and kinetics of biological electron transfer.
Measles: Vaccinate, Close Loopholes

1. Mobeen Rathore, MD, CPE* 2. Denise Bratcher, DO† 1. *Editorial Board member. Professor and Director, UF CARES University of Florida Center for HIV/AIDS, Jacksonville, FL. 2. †Editorial Board member. Professor, Pediatrics, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Kansas City, MO. In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the United States thanks to a high level of immunity achieved by routine receipt of 2 doses of a highly effective measles vaccine. As a result of this success, many clinicians have never seen a case of measles. In 2014, however, 644 measles cases were reported in the U.S., the most in more than two decades, and at press time 170 cases already had been reported in 2015. It is believed the index case in the current outbreak was an international traveler. …
Forage Harvest Timing Impact on Biomass Quality from Native Warm-Season Grass Mixtures

Biomass production systems using native warm-season grasses can allow for an early-season harvest (for forage) followed by a dormant harvest (for biomass). A study was conducted to investigate the impact of harvest timing and grass species on the chemical composition of harvested forage and biomass. The three-species composite treatments were switchgrass (SG) (Panicum virgatum L.); a two-way blend of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii V.) (BB) and indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans L.) (IG); and a three-way mixture of SG, BB, and IG. Harvest treatments were a biomass harvest (BH) in late fall, early-boot (EB) harvest (for forage) followed by BH, or early-seedhead harvest (ESH) (for forage) followed by BH. Forage harvested at EB had greater crude protein and less neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) compared with ESH (P = 0.05). The ADF and NDF content of biomass was greatest for BH and was reduced in biomass regrowth after EB, with the later ESH resulting in the largest decrease in fiber content. Total macronutrient removal of N, P, and K was increased in the dual-use system. Results indicated that it is possible to alter the composition of biomass provided for bioenergy production by taking an early-season forage harvest.