cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial of Naltrexone Among Women Living With HIV: Correlations Between Reductions in Self-Reported Alcohol Use and Changes in Phosphatidylethanol.

BACKGROUND Direct biomarkers such as phosphatidylethanol (PEth) have the capability to detect heavy alcohol use, but it is unclear how strongly self-reported reduction in alcohol use correlates with reduction in PEth. We sought to explore the strength of correlation between reductions in self-reported alcohol use and change in PEth among a sample of women living with HIV (WLWH) who participated in a clinical trial to reduce heavy alcohol use. We also sought to determine whether this correlation was stronger in women with lower body mass index (BMI) and women without an alcohol use disorder (AUD). METHODS 81 WLWH (mean age = 48.7, 80% Black) engaging in a randomized trial of naltrexone versus placebo with a positive baseline PEth (≥8 ng/ml), and alcohol use data at baseline, 2, and 7 months were included in this analysis. Spearman correlation coefficients were compared to measure the correlation between baseline PEth and number of drinks per week by demographic, biological, and alcohol use factors. Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to screen for AUD. Further analyses were stratified by BMI and AUD. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for the change in PEth and the change in number of drinks per week over 7 months, including 3 time-points: baseline, 2, and 7 months. RESULTS At baseline, the correlation between baseline PEth and the number of drinks per week was significantly stronger for those with a BMI ≤25 compared to those with a BMI > 25 (r = 0.66; r = 0.26, respectively). Similarly, the correlation between baseline PEth and number of drinks was stronger for those who did not screen positive for AUD compared with those who did (r = 0.66; r = 0.25, respectively). When stratifying by BMI, a low-to-moderate correlation (r = 0.32, p = 0.02) was present for persons with a BMI > 25; when stratifying by AUD, a moderate correlation (r = 0.50, p < 0.01) was present for persons without an AUD between 0 and 2 months only. CONCLUSIONS In this sample of WLWH, BMI and AUD affected the strength of correlation between PEth and drinks per week. Future work examining changes in PEth over time in broader populations is needed, particularly to understand the sex differences in PEth levels.
Timing of Pediatric Palliative Care Consults in Hospitalized Patients with Heart Disease

Pediatric palliative care (PPC) provides an extra layer of support for families caring for a child with complex heart disease as these patients often experience lifelong morbidities with frequent hospitalizations and risk of early mortality. PPC referral at the time of heart disease diagnosis provides early involvement in the disease trajectory, allowing PPC teams to longitudinally support patients and families with symptom management, complex medical decision-making, and advanced care planning. We analyzed 113 hospitalized pediatric patients with a primary diagnosis of heart disease and a PPC consult to identify timing of first PPC consultation in relation to diagnosis, complex chronic conditions (CCC), and death. The median age of heart disease diagnosis was 0 days with a median of two CCCs while PPC consultation did not occur until a median age of 77 days with a median of four CCCs. Median time between PPC consult and death was 33 days (interquartile range: 7–128). Death often occurred in the intensive care unit (n = 36, 67%), and the most common mode was withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies (n = 31, 57%). PPC referral often occurred in the context of medical complexity and prolonged hospitalization. Referral close to the time of heart disease diagnosis would allow patients and families to fully utilize PPC benefits that exist outside of end-of-life care and may influence the mode and location of death. PPC consultation should be considered at the time of heart disease diagnosis, especially in neonates and infants with CCCs.
Drugs and bugs: Negative affect, psychostimulant use and withdrawal, and the microbiome.

Background and objectives A growing body of literature demonstrates that the human microbiota plays a crucial role in health and disease states, as well as in the body's response to stress. In addition, the microbiome plays a role in psychological well-being and regulating negative affect. Regulation of negative affect is a factor in psychostimulant abuse disorders. We propose a risk chain in which stress leads to negative affect that places an individual at risk to develop or relapse to psychostimulant abuse disorder. Stress, negative affect, and psychostimulant use all alter the gut microbiome. Methods This review brings together the literature on affective disorders, stress, and psychostimulant abuse disorders to assess possible modulatory actions of the gut-brain axis to regulate these conditions. Results Studies reviewed across the various disciplines suggest that the dysbiosis resulting from drug use, drug withdrawal, or stress may cause an individual to be more susceptible to addiction and relapse. Probiotics and prebiotics reduce stress and negative affect. Scientific significance Treatment during the withdrawal phase of psychostimulant abuse disorder, when the microbiome is altered, may ameliorate the symptoms of stress and negative affect leading to a reduced risk of relapse to psychostimulant use.
Women Belonging in the Social Worlds of Graduate Mathematics

The participation of women in post-graduate mathematics still lags substantially behind that of men. Drawing upon sociocultural theories of learning, I argue that success in graduate school necessitates learning mathematical content, participating in mathematical practices, and developing a sense of belonging in mathematics. Using an institutional ethnography approach, I interviewed 12 women graduate students from three mathematics departments in the U.S. to document their experiences within the social relations of graduate mathematics. They described both intrinsic and extrinsic obstacles to belonging, including a tension between their desire to belong and their needs to distance themselves from what they perceived to be the mathematical culture. These women's stories are interpreted in terms of the ways they are multiply "marked" as deviant (Damarin, 2000)—as women, as mathematically Despite increasing attention over recent decades, women's participation in advanced mathematics in the U.S. still lags substantially behind that of men. In the U.S. in 2006, women earned 41% of bachelors degrees and 43% of masters degrees, comprised 32% of first-year, full- time graduate students (30% of total full-time students) in doctorate-granting mathematics departments, earned 32% of PhDs (among U.S. citizens, women earned only 27% of PhDs), received 22% of new doctoral positions in PhD granting departments, and comprised 12% of full-time tenured or tenure track faculty (25% of non-tenure-track faculty) at doctoral granting
The SUM Expression

There are situations where the implied sum is inadequate to express a linear programming model. For example, the domain of an activity class may be all regions, but its intersection with a particular row class may be with only a subset of those regions. There are many other examples where a more flexible summation is needed to express the model's equations. The SUM expression does this.
Antibodies to Ribosomes in Chronic Active Hepatitis

A recently developed Farr-type radioimmunoassay for the detection of antibodies to tritium-labeled HeLa cell cytoplasmic ribosomes was evaluated as a serologic test in a variety of liver diseases. Ribosomal antibodies were detected in the sera of 31.4% of 70 patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and primary biliary cirrhosis compared with only 4.2% of patients with chronic persistent hepatitis, acute viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, and miscellaneous liver diseases (χ2 = 17.89, P
Convergence of multiple nuclear receptor signaling pathways onto the long terminal repeat of human immunodeficiency virus-1.

Abstract A composite element that interacts with multiple nuclear receptors has been identified in the long terminal repeat (LTR) of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). This element, designated nuclear receptor-responsive element (NRRE), spans the -356 to -320 LTR region and contains tightly clustered binding sites for the retinoid X receptor-alpha (RXR alpha) and for five nuclear receptors with unknown ligands, apolipoprotein AI regulatory protein-1 (ARP-1), v-erbA-related proteins-2 and -3 (EAR-2 and EAR-3), hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 (HNF-4), and nerve growth factor-inducible protein-B (NGFI-B). The NRRE also interacts with heterodimers formed between RXR alpha and either ARP-1, EAR-2, EAR-3, the retinoic acid receptor-alpha (RAR alpha), or the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR). Remarkably, nuclear receptor binding is conserved in the LTRs of recently evolved HIV-1 strains but it is absent in the oldest and most divergent viral isolates, raising the intriguing possibility that the NRRE has been evolved recently in the viral genome. Cotransfection experiments in human choriocarcinoma JEG-3 cells have shown that the HIV-1 LTR-driven transcription is activated by RXR alpha and RAR alpha in the presence of 9-cis- and all-trans-retinoic acid, by PPAR and RXR alpha in the presence of clofibric acid and 9-cis-retinoic acid, and by the "orphan" receptors HNF-4 and NGFI-B. These findings suggest that a complex network of nuclear receptor signaling pathways, that include 9-cis- and all-trans-retinoic acid, fatty acids, peroxisome proliferators, growth factors, membrane depolarization, and possibly other signals, converge onto the HIV-1 NRRE and may participate in modulation of viral gene expression.
Comparisons of Several Populations

Throughout this book we have stressed the basic statistical concept of variability. When some measurement, such as height or aptitude for a particular job, is made on several individuals, the values vary from person to person. The variability of a quantitative scale is measured by its variance. If the set of individuals is stratified into more homogeneous groups, the variance of the measurements within the more homogeneous groups will be less than that of the measurements in the entire group; that is what “more homogeneous” means. For example, the variance of the heights of pupils in an elementary school is usually greater than the variance of heights of pupils in just the first grade, the variance in the second grade, and the variance in each of the other grades. At the same time, the average height of pupils also varies from grade to grade.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that utilizes six core psychological process of change (acceptance, defusion, present moment awareness, self as context, values and committed action) to help individuals achieve psychological flexibility (i.e., the ability to choose one's behavior even when doing so brings a person into contact with aversive internal experiences). ACT shares many features of traditional CBT and its distinctiveness has been a subject of debate. However, ACT appears to operate at least partially through distinct processes, and to emphasize experiential acceptance and valued behavior change over attempts to restructure thoughts or achieve symptom reduction. Empirical support for ACT and its hypothesized therapeutic processes is mounting quickly, but much of it suffers from methodological shortcomings. Keywords: acceptance; psychotherapies; behavior therapy; cognitive behavior therapy
Adaptive PRML detection for improving offtrack BER

In this paper, we study about the adaptive PRML detection for improving offtrack BER. Here very simple adaptive PRML detector is used. Its targets adjust to the decrease in signal amplitude expected from the reader misalignment.
TLR4-MyD88 signalling: a molecular target for alcohol actions

Several studies implicate Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in alcohol-induced neuroinflammatory processes. The work reported by Wu et al., in this issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology, indicates that TLR4 along with its intracellular adaptor protein, MyD88, may play crucial roles in the acute actions of alcohol. The deletions of TLR4 or MyD88 gene or pharmacological inhibition of TLR4 by (+)-naloxone were able to attenuate alcohol-induced sedation, motor impairment and acute alcohol-induced increases in IkBα protein levels in the hippocampus of mice. These results clearly suggest that TLR4-MyD88 signalling may play a causal role in the mediation of the behavioural effects of acute alcohol.
Recognition of spontaneous pneumothorax in premature infants.

An analysis of the clinical records of 27 infants who developed spontaneous pneumothorax in the neonatal period is presented; 17 (63%) were premature infants. The age at onset of the disease varied with the birth weight. The infants with birth weights of 1,500 grams or less averaged 24 days of age at the onset of spontaneous pneumothorax, and the full-term infants developed the disease in the immediate newborn period. The diagnosis of spontaneous pneumothorax was suspected when symptoms of respiratory distress alternated with unusual activity, with an increase of symptoms when the infant was fed or removed from oxygen. The immature infant showed cyanosis or apneic spells, alternating with alertness or apparent hunger. The more mature infant manifested greater respiratory distress and greater activity. The activity assumed the form of irritability, restlessness and, at times, opisthotonus. These symptoms were considered to be due to a persistent lowgrade hypoxia caused by the pneumothorax rather than being manifestations of a vigorous, healthy infant. Signs of infection were minimal or absent. The importance of roentgenograms in establishing the diagnosis is emphasized. Treatment should include relief of hypoxia by administration of oxygen in low concentration and prevention of acute respiratory embarrassment due to distention of the stomach by feedings. Removal of air from the pneumothorax or pneumomediastinum is necessary in severe cases.
Ultimate Acceptability, Cultural Bias, and an American Indian World: Reflections on Nelson Goodman

Nelson Goodman maintains that there is a plurality of internally consistent, equally privileged, well-made actual worlds constructed through the use of very special symbol systems—right or ultimately acceptable world versions. Using evidence from American Indian traditions, I will argue that Goodman’s criteria for ultimately acceptability are culturally biased against any non-Western world version—especially a Native version. I will then offer a culturally sensitive interpretation of Goodman’s criteria for ultimate acceptability that an American Indian world version satisfies, and so is numbered among the internally consistent, equally privileged, well-made actual worlds.
Cyclic GMP-dependent stimulation of the membrane-bound insulin-sensitive cAMP phosphodiesterase from rat adipocytes.

Abstract The insulin-sensitive cAMP phosphodiesterase (phosphodiesterase) in rat adipocytes is a membrane-bound low Km enzyme that can be recovered in a crude microsomal fraction (Fraction P-2). The action of this enzyme to hydrolyze cAMP is known to be inhibited by cGMP; nevertheless, it was found in our present study that under selected conditions, the enzyme can also be stimulated by cGMP as well as some other nucleotide derivatives. The maximum cGMP-dependent stimulation was observed when the enzyme in Fraction P-2 was incubated with 10 microM cGMP for 5-20 min at 37 degrees C in the presence of Mg2+, washed, and then assayed in the absence of added cGMP. The level of this stimulation was close to, but less than, that achieved by insulin in intact cells. The actions of the cGMP- and insulin-stimulated enzymes to hydrolyze labeled cAMP were inhibited in an identical manner by cilostamide (Ki = 0.10 microM), griseolic acid (Ki = 0.19 microM), unlabeled cAMP (Km = 0.20 microM), and cGMP (Ki = 0.16 microM), all added to the assay system. Also, the basal, insulin-stimulated, and cGMP-activated enzymes were identically inhibited by a polyclonal antibody raised against a purified membrane-bound low Km phosphodiesterase from bovine adipose tissue. When the same antibody was used for the Western blot analysis of Fraction P-2, it immunoreacted with a single band of protein (165 kDa). These observations indicate that the insulin-sensitive phosphodiesterase in rat adipocytes can be stimulated with 10 microM cGMP and that this stimulation is detectable only after the nucleotide has been eliminated since the enzyme would be strongly inhibited by the nucleotide if the latter exists in the assay system. It is proposed that the insulin-sensitive phosphodiesterase, which is often referred to as a Type IV enzyme, is functionally similar to the Type II enzymes that are known to be stimulated by a low concentration of cGMP and inhibited by higher concentrations of the same nucleotide.
Policy-Centered Learning in the Local Arena: Policy Feedback Effects from Community Policing

This paper is part of a larger project devoted to the application of policy-centered theory to the policies and programs of urban government. What is here called policycentered theory and sometimes called the policy feedback approach is a critically important line of empirical and theoretical work initiated in the early 1990’s by scholars interested in the impact of public policy on the functioning of democracy. Ingram and Schneider (1993; 1997), for example, elaborated on Lowi’s (1964) theoretical insight that the character of public policy shapes the nature of politics surrounding it. They theorized that public policies can have varied impacts on political participation depending upon key elements of policy design (such as the “social construction” of the target population, the nature of benefits or burdens provided, and the nature of program administration). Then a series of high profile studies provided empirical evidence consistent with their ideas. Soss (1999) showed that the AFDC program diminished the political involvement of welfare recipients, Mettler (2005) showed how the G.I. bill enhanced the political participation of recipients, and Campbell (2003) showed how the Social Security retirement program politically activated the elderly. At a minimum, these and other studies of social policies in the U.S. (Mettler and Stonecash, 2008; Soss and Keiser, 2006) and Europe (Kumlin and Rothstein, 2005) firmly establish that means-tested programs have a chilling effect on participation while universal (i.e., non-means tested) programs enhance the political engagement of recipients. What is more, the best of these studies control for the effects of individual-level background characteristics (such as education), thus strengthening confidence in the conclusion that the nature of an individuals’ experience with a public program can shape subsequent political involvement, even net the effect of the usual demographic predictors of participation.
Forage Value of Invasive Species to the Diet of Rocky Mountain Elk

T he winter range of Rocky Mountain elk ( Cervus canadensis ) throughout the Intermountain West is threatened by invasive plant species including spotted knapweed ( Centaurea maculosa ) and cheatgrass ( Bromus tectorum ). These species have direct impacts on pasture and grasslands resulting in substantial forage losses and costs associated with prevention and miti- gation. Invasive species cost the United States $ 120 billion annually, with knapweed estimated to cost $ 14 million annually to the economy of Montana. 1 Knapweed and cheat- grass are aggressive invaders, and are generally more common in disturbed sites resulting from overgrazing, fire, cultiva- tion, or other forms of ground disturbance, but can invade and transform relatively undisturbed rangeland. 2,3 The biochemical and physiological characteristics of knapweed allow it to outcompete native plants through greater resource acquisition and inhibition of native plant growth and seed germination. 4 Similarly, cheatgrass may inhibit native grass germination by rapidly outcompeting natives for soil moisture 5 and nitrogen 6 and increase fine dry fuels leading to increased fire intervals that favor cheatgrass dominance. DOI: 10.2458/azu_rangelands_v34i2_kohl
Sexual predators and legal mental illness for civil commitment

Sexual predator statutes, as well as civil commitment statutes generally, fail to provide criteria of eligibility generating an appropriate conception of legal mental illness. As a result, experts are unable to offer, and courts are unable to evaluate, appropriate testimony relevant to the subject's standing as mentally ill under these statutes. Commitment statutes must provide criteria of eligibility for some legal status in a manner that fulfills the discriminative and justificatory functions and allows integration of the roles of the expert witness, the court, and the law maker. Expert testimony in the form of descriptive diagnosis and explanation of the relationship between the impairment and the psychological operations specified in the criteria of eligibility would provide the court with the information it needs in order to determine whether the subject of the commitment petition demonstrates legal mental illness for the purpose of commitment.
Certified reduced basis model validation: A frequentistic uncertainty framework

Abstract We introduce a frequentistic validation framework for assessment — acceptance or rejection — of the consistency of a proposed parametrized partial differential equation model with respect to (noisy) experimental data from a physical system. Our method builds upon the Hotelling T2 statistical hypothesis test for bias first introduced by Balci and Sargent in 1984 and subsequently extended by McFarland and Mahadevan (2008). Our approach introduces two new elements: a spectral representation of the misfit which reduces the dimensionality and variance of the underlying multivariate Gaussian but without introduction of the usual regression assumptions; a certified (verified) reduced basis approximation — reduced order model — which greatly accelerates computational performance but without any loss of rigor relative to the full (finite element) discretization. We illustrate our approach with examples from heat transfer and acoustics, both based on synthetic data. We demonstrate that we can efficiently identify possibility regions that characterize parameter uncertainty; furthermore, in the case that the possibility region is empty, we can deduce the presence of “unmodeled physics” such as cracks or heterogeneities.
Differences in Child Care Quality for Children With and Without Disabilities

Research Findings: Federal, state, and local agencies legislate and support inclusive settings for the education of young children with disabilities. Recommended practices outline critical elements for meeting the educational and developmental needs of children with and without disabilities in inclusive settings, and minimal and essential quality characteristics have been articulated. Research has suggested that inclusive and non-inclusive settings may offer different levels of care as measured against best practices and essential quality characteristics. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine program quality in inclusive and non-inclusive preschool classrooms using observational, interview, and survey data. Results showed that inclusive classrooms earned higher scores on an observational measure of global quality and higher scores on an observational measure of language and literacy. Results also suggested that teachers with higher levels of education tend to have classrooms of higher...
The American Medical Association "Pain Management: the Online Series".

There is a growing number of Internet based programs on pain management. Many of them offer continuing medical education credits (CMEs). “Pain Management: The Online Series” from the American Medical Association (AMA) is a recent addition. Its content is robust but the self-assessments tests needed to obtain CME are weak.
Detection of Occult Medullary Thyroid Cancer Recurrence with 2-Deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro- d -glucose-PET and PET/CT

2-Deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-d-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) has an established role in restaging of various cancers, including papillary and undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma. However, controversies exist regarding its ability to reliably assess recurrent medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). We were therefore prompted to review our experience with FDG-PET for detection of occult MTC. This is a retrospective study (Apr 1, 1997–Mar 31, 2004) of 13 patients with histologic diagnosis of MTC, who had PET examinations. The group included six men and seven women, 15–62 years old (average: 48 ± 13). The PET scan request was triggered by rising levels of calcitonin and negative anatomical imaging studies. Recurrent/metastatic disease was identified by PET in seven (54%) of the 13 patients. The lesions were located in superior mediastinum (4), cervical lymph nodes (3), thyroid bed (2), lung (1) and liver (1). The calcitonin levels ranged from 52 to 5,090 pg/ml (average: 1,996 pg/ml) in patients with negative PET scans and from 132 to 9,500 pg/ml (average: 3,757 pg/ml) in patients with positive studies. The sensitivity and specificity of FDG-PET for disease detection in this cohort were 85.7% (95% CI: 48.7–97.4) and 83.3 % (95 % CI: 43.6–96.9), respectively. Our findings suggest a significant role for FDG-PET in patients with suspected MTC recurrence, with sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 83.3% for disease detection. FDG-PET provides additional information in a significant fraction of cases (54%) and could be used for restaging of patients with MTC and elevated levels of biomarkers (calcitonin). Additional studies are necessary to further evaluate the role of FDG-PET in MTC.
Three-dimensional vibrations of cantilevered right triangular plates

Abstract The first known three-dimensional continuum vibration solutions for cantilevered right triangular plates with variable thickness are obtained using the Ritz method. Assumed displacement functions are in the form of algebraic polynomials, which satisfy the fixed face conditions exactly, and which are mathematically complete. Reasonably accurate natural frequencies are calculated for low aspect ratio, right triangular thin plates having arbitrary values of thickness taper ratios in the spanwise direction. Detailed numerical studies show that a three-dimensional analysis is essential to monitoring coupled-mode sensitivities in the variation of non-dimensional natural frequencies with increasing thickness taper ratio. Upper bound results, obtained using the present method, are compared with those obtained by other investigators using ordinary beam theories, two-dimensional finite element and finite difference procedures, and experimental methods. This unified comparison of upper and lower bound solutions is presented here with the aim of “bracketing” the exact analytical solution of the subject problem.
MiRly regulating metabolism

In this issue of Blood , Tili et al identify an important link between microRNAs and the metabolic adaptation characteristic of cancer cells.[1][1] In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the microRNA, miR-125b becomes down-regulated resulting in an increase in the expression and activity of a myriad
Magnetic stratigraphy observed in ferromanganese crust

Summary. A sample of ferromanganese crust deposit (SCHW-1D) was cut into two sets of 1 mm slices for palaeomagnetic study. Alternating field and thermal demagnetization, and isothermal remanent magnetization analyses were performed on each thin slice. The results reveal the presence of a stable magnetism and both normal and reversed polarity intervals in the specimens. The observed polarity intervals cannot be confidently correlated with the geomagnetic polarity time-scale of the last 10 Myr due to the polarity overlap inherent in the sampling technique. But the results confirm the slow accretion rate of ferromanganese deposit determined by 10Be method and suggest potential use of ferromanganese deposits in palaeomagnetic and tectonic studies.
Relation between Van der Waal's and Activated Adsorption on Chromium Oxide Gel

In the absence of definite evidence to the contrary, it has always been assumed that Van der Waal's and activated adsorption take place independently of each other and are additive. Such, however, is not the case, for activated adsorption on a surface has been found to diminish Van der Waal's adsorption to a marked degree.
Measurement of Alpha Particle Radioactivtiy in IC Device Packages

Alpha particle radioactivity in package materials has been shown to cause soft errors in semiconductor devices. The particles are emitted by uranium and thorium decay sequence radioactive isotopes present as trace impurities in the raw materials used to make the package component parts. Chemical and radiation analys s techniques were correlated to alpha particle fluxes, which range in value from 10 to 100 ?/cm2-hr. for hermetic seal glasses, through 0.1 to 1 ?/cm2-hr. for alumina, to less than 0.1 ?/cm2-hr. for silicon, gold plating, and metal lids. Details of measurment techniques as well as specific package component radioactivity data are presented.
Brenner tumor of the ovary. A clinicopathologic study of 60 tumors in 54 women.

Clinical and pathologic data were reviewed in 54 women with ovarian Brenner tumors. Three women had multiple tumors, which were bilateral in 2; 68.5% of the patients were premenopausal, and all but 5 of the tumors were incidental findings. The most frequent indications for surgery had been uterine myomas and various ovarian cysts and tumors. In 14 of the 15 cases in which the origin of a small tumor could be ascertained, the tumor was found either wholly or largely in the ovarian cortex. Mucinous cystadenomas, germinal inclusion cysts, and simple cysts were commonly found in the same ovary as a Brenner tumor, but rarely in the contralateral ovary. These findings suggest that the Brenner tumor probably has its origin in ovarian surface epithelium. Although endometrial carcinoma and hyperplasia were frequent in post-menopausal women with Brenner tumors (5 of 17 cases), it is felt that the Brenner tumor probably possesses no specific hormonal activity.
Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis Preceding the Development of Juvenile Xanthogranuloma: A Case and Review of Recent Developments

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) and juvenile xanthogranuloma (JXG) both belong to the histiocytosis group of disorders, which have varied prognostic and clinical significance. Their normal cellular counterparts share a common CD34-positive hematopoietic stem cell precursor that matures along CD14-negative or -positive pathways. Rare cases of LCH and JXG show overlapping findings, suggesting that this divergent maturation is not irreversible. We report a case of an infant diagnosed with cutaneous LCH shortly after birth. Two years after diagnosis, a recurrent lesion in his external auditory canal contained lipidized cells with CD68 and factor XIIIa expression and lacked Birbeck granules and CD1a, consistent with JXG. Our case and previous reports of this phenomenon raise the question of a histogenic relationship between LCH and JXG, and we speculate that the lesional cells of origin are subjected to therapy-induced modulation that results in a varied differentiation.
Light-cone recurrence relations for QCD amplitudes

Abstract I show how to calculate tree-level QCD multi-gluon amplitudes efficiently using a set of recurrence relations evaluated in the spinor helicity basis of Xu et al.
Extremal problems for certain analytic (Nevanlinna) functions

We obtain sharp bounds on some basic functionals defined on the sets of all analytic functions having the representations $$f\left( z \right) \equiv \int\limits_{ - 1}^1 {\frac{{d\mu \left( t \right)}}{{z - t}}} $$ and $$\varphi \left( z \right) \equiv \int\limits_{ - 1}^1 {\frac{{z\mu \left( t \right)}}{{1 - tz}}} $$ ; respectively. Here μ is a probability measure.
Endogenous biosynthesis of arachidonic acid epoxides in humans : increased formation in pregnancy-induced hypertension

Abstract Arachidonic acid is metabolized by means of P450 isoenzyme(s) to form epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and their corresponding dihydroxy derivatives (DHETs). In the present study, we established the presence in human urine of 8,9-, 11,12-, and 14,15-EETs and their corresponding DHETs by developing quantitative assays and using negative ion, chemical ionization GC/MS and octadeuterated internal standards. Urinary excretion of 8,9- and 11,12-DHET increased in healthy pregnant women compared with nonpregnant female volunteers. By contrast, excretion of 11,12-DHET and 14,15-DHET, but not the 8,9-DHET regioisomer, increased even further in patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension. Intravenous administration of [3H]14,15-EET to three dogs markedly increased its DHET in plasma. The terminal half-life ranged from 7.9-12.3 min and the volume of distribution (3.5-5.3 liters) suggested limited distribution outside the plasma compartment. Negligible radioactivity was detected in urine; this fact infers that under physiological circumstances, urinary DHETs largely derive from the kidney. That P450 metabolites of arachidonic acid are formed in humans supports the hypothesis that these metabolites contribute to the physiological response to normal pregnancy and the pathophysiology of pregnancy-induced hypertension.
Trousseau's syndrome and acute arterial thrombosis.

This report describes three patients treated for acute arterial thrombosis due to malignancy-related hypercoagulability (Trousseau's syndrome). The average age was 59 yr. There were two women and one man. The cancers were breast, lung, and pancreas. Atherosclerosis or nonneoplastic hypercoagulable states did not appear to be a factor in any patient. One patient who presented with irreversible arm ischemia and Stage IV breast cancer underwent primary amputation. The other two patients underwent immediate surgical thrombectomy and thrombolytic therapy, and malignancy was discovered during postoperative workup for hypercoagulable states. Both ultimately required amputation. All three patients died due to cancer less than one year after presentation. When a hypercoagulable state is suspected as the cause of acute arterial thrombosis, an evaluation for occult malignancy is indicated. Although aggressive revascularization attempts may be appropriate, the prognosis for limb salvage and long-term survival is poor.
Corporate Raiders and their Disciplinary Role in the Market for Corporate Control

Little research examines the supposed disciplinary effect of the market for corporate control on entrenched and ineffective management teams. Our analysis of the relationships between firm performa...
Effect of Commercial Processing on Vitamin B6 Retention in Almonds

Abstract The effect of commercial processing (blanching and/or roasting) on total vitamin B6 retention in processed almonds (Prunus amygdalus, Batsch) was investigated. The yeasts Saccharomyces uvarum and Kloeckera apiculata were used as comparative test organisms for the assay. Different values for vitamin B6 content were obtained from the same samples by using different test organisms. The use of K. apiculata resulted in significantly higher values for total vitamin B6 content than those obtained using S. uvarum. These differences in vitamin B6 values could be attributed to the inherent differences in the nutritional requirements of the two yeasts to vitamin B6 and to the differences in the natural responses of the two organisms towards the different forms of vitamin B6. The overall results obtained indicate that both blanching and roasting processes resulted in some loss of vitamin B6 content. Roasted almonds retained approximately 76% (with S. uvarum) and 74% (with K. apiculata) of their initial vitamin B6 content. Similarly, blanched almonds retained 88% (with S. uvarum) and 87% (with K. apiculata) of their initial vitamin B6 content. Almonds that were blanched and then roasted retained approximately 78% (with S. uvarum) and 73% (with K. apiculata) of their initial vitamin B6 content. The total vitamin B6 content of the natural unprocessed (raw) almonds was 0.83 μg/g (with S. uvarum) and 1.74 μg/g (with K. apiculata) on a dry-weight basis. These values were used as the basis for calculating the percent retention in the processed almond samples.
On the boiling-point of aqueous solutions of nitric acid at different pressures. Part II.—The influence of water-retaining agents on the composition of the mixture of maximum boiling-point

Abstract 1. 1. The influence of the presence of potassium acid sulphate and sulphuric acid on the boiling-points of aqueous solutions of nitric acid has been studied at atmospheric and diminished pressures. 2. 2. It has been found that, while the presence of potassium acid sulphate brings about little or no change in the composition of the mixture of maximum boiling-point, additions of sulphuric acid to aqueous solutions of nitric acid cause a decrease in the nitric acid content of the mixture of maximum boiling-point, the decrease being greater the greater the addition of sulphuric acid. 3. 3. Diminishing the pressure has also been found to cause a slight further decrease in the nitric acid content of the mixture of maximum boiling-point. 4. 4. The results obtained show clearly why aqueous solutions of nitric acid can be concentrated to over go per cent. by distillation with concentrated sulphuric acid.
Reversible inhibition of ribosomal RNA synthesis in HeLa by lucanthone (Miracil D) with continued synthesis of DNA‐like RNA

Ribosomal RNA synthesis was selectively inhibited in HeLa cells by lucanthone, a clinically useful schistosomicide which shares many of the properties of Actinomycin D. Synthesis of DNA-like RNA continued during complete inhibition of ribosomal RNA synthesis. Under these conditions newly synthesized DNA-like RNA accumulated normally in polyribosomes of the cell cytoplasm; most of it appeared to be messenger RNA. DNA synthesis was partially inhibited by lucanthone but protein synthesis was undisturbed. Synthesis of ribosomal RNA promptly resumed after removal of lucanthone and cell survival was not affected if exposures to the drug were limited to two hours.
Vitamin D and calcium-sensing receptor polymorphisms differentially associate with resting energy expenditure in peripubertal children.

Given that calcium metabolism is influenced by genes and is tightly linked to energy-utilizing pathways, this study evaluated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and calcium-sensing receptor (CASR) with resting energy expenditure (REE). In 273 boys and girls, 7–12 years of age, cross-sectional REE was measured via indirect calorimetry, body composition by DXA, and dietary measures by 24-h recall. SNPs for VDR Cdx-2 (rs11568820) and CASR A986S (rs1801725) were genotyped using the Illumina Golden Gate assay. Multiple linear regression models were used to determine the association between SNPs and REE. African American carriers of the ‘A’ VDR Cdx2 allele had increased levels of REE in the overall sample, and this association was apparent among participants with an adiposity level of <25 % and 30 % body fat in males and females, respectively. For CASR, an association between carriers of the ‘A’ allele and REE was observed only in those in the upper median of calcium intake. VDR and CASR variants are associated with REE in children and are influenced by levels of calcium intake and adiposity. Our results bring awareness to mechanisms underlying the regulation of REE and biological and dietary influential factors.
Follow‐up survey of parents of children with major birth defects in New York State

BACKGROUND: One of the objectives of the New York State birth defect surveillance system, the New York State Congenital Malformations Registry (CMR), is to identify children in need of special programs and assist prevention/intervention programs and services with evaluation. In 1999, the CMR started a statewide massmailing program to inform parents of children with major birth defects about programs and support groups that might be helpful to them. A follow-up survey by mail was conducted in 2002 to evaluate the usefulness of the mailing program. METHODS: The survey was mailed between September and December of 2001 to parents of children born in 2001 and reported to the CMR with selected major birth defects. Non-respondents were followed-up by telephone. RESULTS: Of the 226 eligible families, 54% (122) responded to the survey. Approximately 66% of responding parents stated that the information provided by the mailing program was helpful, and 48% had contacted and/or used the programs and services listed in the information sheets. Parents with children younger than 6 months of age at the time of mailing were more likely to find the information helpful, compared to parents with children 6 months of age or older. The majority of responding parents had contacted and/or used the Early Intervention Program. CONCLUSION: The findings from the current survey show that the statewide information-mailing program administered by CMR is helpful and useful to the families of children with major birth defects in New York State. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 70:597– 602, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
A Wideband Digital Receiver With Hard-Switching Mixers for Cognitive Radio

Among the primary challenges of designing a flexible and efficient wideband receiver for cognitive radio (CR) are harmonic distortion caused by the hard-switching commutating mixers, the need for wide tuning range frequency synthesizer to span the frequency band of interest, and the use of power-hungry high-speed analog-to-digital converters to reduce the sensing time. In this paper, the harmonic mixing process in wideband receivers is viewed as a multi-user access system in communications. Based on this perspective, a digital equalizer is developed to minimize harmonic distortion in the signal path, reduce the tuning range of the frequency synthesizer, and enable wider spectrum sensing. Compared to the analog harmonic-reject mixers in existing wideband receivers, the proposed receiver achieves significantly improved energy detection sensitivity while enabling parallel sensing of multiple harmonic signals and relaxing the frequency synthesizer tuning range requirement.
A note on sibling rivalry and good-kid, bad-kid equilibria

When parents with concave utility reward good behaviour on the part of their children with a share of the marginal utility they derive from good behaviour, a decrease in good behaviour by kid i causes kid j to increase the amount of good behaviour he/she supplies in equilibrium. This may explain why simultaneous good-kid behaviour is rare and also why children try to get their siblings into trouble.
Factors controlling variability in measurements of the transient gene expression in electroporated protoplasts of wheat callus

Abstract Factors controlling variability in enzyme transient expression assays have been investigated in electroporated protoplasts isolated from wheat embryogenic and nonembryogenic calli. The level of variation was reduced to a minimum through the optimization of the β-glucurornidase measurements in the pellet and the supernatant of the homogenized protoplasts, by expressing the data on the basis of the number of protoplasts found to be viable immediately before the assay and on the amount of protein in the pellet and supernatant. Protoplast separation on the basis of size was also useful in eliminating some of the variation resulting from the heterogeneity of the callus used. Efforts to partially synchronize the callus tissue by auxin starvation have not resulted in a significant decrease of this variation. Our results indicate that the level of variation in enzyme transient activity in protoplasts resulting from calli can be reduced by implementation of the experimental techniques presented here.
Perception of empathy in the therapeutic encounter: effects on the common cold.

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effects of patient–practitioner interaction on the severity and duration of the common cold. Methods We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 719 patients with new cold onset. Participants were randomized to three groups: no patient–practitioner interaction, "standard" interaction or an "enhanced" interaction. Cold severity was assessed twice daily. Patients randomized to practitioner visits used the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure to rate clinician empathy. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) and neutrophil counts were obtained from nasal wash at baseline and 48h later. Results Patients' perceptions of the clinical encounter were associated with reduced cold severity and duration. Encounters rated perfect on the CARE score had reduced severity (perfect: 223, sub-perfect: 271, p =0.04) and duration (perfect: 5.89 days, sub-perfect: 7.00 days, p =0.003) . CARE scores were also associated with a more significant change in IL-8 (perfect: mean IL-8 change 1586, sub-perfect: 72, p =0.02) and neutrophil count (perfect: 49, sub-perfect: 12, p =0.09) . Conclusions When patients perceive clinicians as empathetic, rating them perfect on the CARE tool, the severity, duration and objective measures (IL-8 and neutrophils) of the common cold significantly change. Practice implications This study helps us to understand the importance of the perception of empathy in a therapeutic encounter.
Online, Real-time Tracking and Recognition of Human Actions

We present a top-down approach to simultaneously track and recognize articulated full-body human motion using learned action models that is robust to variations in style, lighting, background,occlusion and viewpoint. To this end, we introduce the hierarchical variable transition hidden Markov model (HVT-HMM) that is a three-layered extension of the variable transition hidden Markov model (VTHMM). The top-most layer of the HVT-HMM represents the composite actions and contains a single Markov chain, the middle layer represents the primitive actions which are modeled using a VTHMM whose state transition probability varies with time and the bottom-most layer represents the body pose transitions using a HMM. We represent the pose using a 23D body model and present efficient learning and decoding algorithms for HVT-HMM. Further, in classical Viterbi decoding the entire sequence must be seen before the state at any instant can be recognized and hence can potentially have large latency for long video sequences. In order to address this we use a variable window approach to decoding with very low latency. We demonstrate our methods first in a domain for recognizing two-handed gestures and then in a domain with actions involving articulated motion of the entire body. Our approach shows 90-100% action recognition in both domains and runs at real-time (ap 30 fps) with very low average latency (ap 2 frames).