cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Usefulness of heparin therapy in protein-losing enteropathy associated with single ventricle palliation.

This retrospective study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of subcutaneous heparin therapy for the treatment of protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) associated with single-ventricle palliation and to evaluate the side effects of long-term heparin use. PLE affects 4% to 13% of Fontan operative survivors. Five-year survival after onset of PLE is only 46% to 59%. We studied a cohort of patients with single-ventricle palliation who developed PLE and were treated with subcutaneous heparin. Seventeen patients were included in the study. Symptoms of PLE appeared on average 43 months after surgical palliation. At diagnosis of PLE, mean albumin level was 2.0 ± 0.4 g/dl. At cardiac catheterization, mean systemic venous pressure was 11.6 mm Hg. Subjective symptomatic improvement on heparin therapy occurred in 13 patients (76%). Three patients (18%) went into clinical remission. Compared with the period before initiation of heparin, there was no significant difference in the number of hospital admissions (p = 0.99) or albumin infusions (p = 0.88) during the first year of heparin therapy. Five patients had x-rays of their thoracolumbar spine, and 9 patients had bone mineral analyses; all scans were grossly abnormal. In conclusion, subcutaneous heparin therapy leads to subjective improvement of PLE symptoms in most patients; however, it does not change the need for frequent albumin infusions and does not increase the rate of remission above that for standard medical therapy.
Multiple therapeutic use in urban Nepal.

Abstract Studies of resort to healers in medically pluralistic settings in different geographic and cultural areas reveal two basic patterns of resort—illness specific and multiple use. This paper suggests that the particular pattern inferred from a study may depend largely upon whether the data consist of general attitudes and preferences or actual therapeutic choices. Moreover, it proposes that interview responses concerning general attitudes toward and preferences for available therapies tend to show illness-specific patterns, while observations of actual therapeutic choices during illness episodes more often portray multiple use. Consistent with this proposition are findings presented here from a recent study of attitudes and help seeking behavior in Kathmandu, Nepal as well as the overall results of twenty-four other ethnographic studies reviewed of therapeutic resort in medically pluralistic settings. An important implication of these findings for the validity of ethnographic description is that attitudes and preferences of individual patients do not necessarily predict or describe actual strategies of resort. Finally, this paper presents a partial explanation for the pervasiveness of multiple therapeutic use and the disparity between attitudes and behavior in Kathmandu.
Factors associated with involvement of four or more axillary nodes for sentinel lymph node-positive patients.

Purpose: Sentinel lymph node–positive (SLN+) patients who are unlikely to have 4 or more involved axillary nodes might be treated with less extensive regional nodal radiation. The purpose of this study was to define possible predictors of having 4 or more involved axillary nodes. Methods and Materials: The records of 224 patients with breast cancer and 1 to 3 involved SLNs, who underwent completion axillary dissection without neoadjuvant chemotherapy or hormonal therapy were reviewed. Factors associated with the presence of 4 or more involved axillary nodes (SLNs plus non-SLNs) were evaluated by Pearson chi-square test of association and by simple and multiple logistic-regression analysis. Results: Of 224 patients, 42 had involvement of 4 or more axillary nodes. On univariate analysis, the presence of 4 or more involved axillary nodes was positively associated with increased tumor size, lobular histology, lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI), increased number of involved SLNs, decreased number of uninvolved SLNs, and increased size of SLN metastasis. On multivariate analysis, the presence of 4 or more involved axillary nodes was associated with LVSI, increased number of involved SLNs, increased size of SLN metastasis, and lobular histology. Conclusions: Patients with 1 or more involved SLN, LVSI, or SLN macrometastasis should be treated to the supraclavicular fossa/axillary apex if they do not undergo completion axillary dissection. Other SLN+ patients might be adequately treated with less extensive radiation fields.
Processing of 2-D Digital Images by Integral Holography *

The use of integral holography for recovering depth information from a series of two-dimensional digital images is discussed.
Evaluation of Resistance to Ergot, Caused by Claviceps purpurea, in Kentucky Bluegrass, Based on Incidence and Severity Estimates

Alderman, S. C., and Barker, R. E. 2003. Evaluation of resistance to ergot, caused by Claviceps purpurea, in Kentucky bluegrass, based on incidence and severity estimates. Plant Dis. 87:1043-1047. Ergot, caused by Claviceps purpurea, is an important disease of Kentucky bluegrass grown for seed. Resistance is a preferred means of disease control, although approaches to evaluating ergot resistance in Kentucky bluegrass are not well established. A large scale disease assessment trial was established to compare within-year and year-to-year variability among measures of ergot incidence or severity in Kentucky bluegrass and to determine the most efficient approaches for cultivar evaluation. The susceptibility of 104 Kentucky bluegrass cultivars (78 commercial and 26 experimental) to ergot was assessed, based on percentage of panicles with sclerotia (incidence), sclerotia per panicle (severity), percentage of seeds replaced by sclerotia, or percentage of sclerotia among seed by weight. Cultivar ranking for susceptibility within years was similar for all methods of ergot assessment. Yearly mean incidence of ergot among cultivars ranged from 1.0 to 97.5% for susceptible cv. HV102 to 0.0 to 2.5% for resistant cv. Huntsville, with remaining cultivars distributed between the extremes. Yearly mean values of ergot incidence and severity differed among years. Much of this variability was due to days with rain during the period from flower initiation to maturity (period of susceptibility). Disease incidence was correlated (P 0.05) with days with rain in 22 of the cultivars. Duration of flowering was correlated (P 0.05) with ergot incidence in 11 cultivars. Results from this study suggest that variability in host and environment would likely offset any gain in precision of severity data. In large trials in particular, collection of incidence data (percentage of panicles with ergot) would provide the most timely and efficient means for ergot assessment. Additional keywords: Poa pratensis
Selective permeation through hydrophobic–hydrophilic membranes

Hydrophobic–hydrophilic composite membranes, containing polystyrene as the dispersed phase and polyacrylamide as the continuous phase, have been prepared by the concentrated emulsion polymerization method. They are highly absorptive for methyl chloride, benzene, and toluene, but poorly absorptive for cyclohexane. The absorption from toluene–cyclohexane mixtures was found to increse with increasing temperature and toluene concentration and to decrease with increasing fraction of polyacrylamide in the composite. The absorption is controlled by diffusion. The permeation rate through the membrane, which was determined by the pervaporation method, exhibits similar trends with respect to temperature, concentration, and fraction of polyacrylamide as absorption does. Higher permeation was obtained by increasing the temperature and by increasing the toluene concentration or by decreasing the fraction of polyacrylamide. The selectivity which was in the range of 4–8 varies inversely with the permeation rate through the membrane which was in the range of 2 × 103−1.0 × 104 g/m2 h.
High rate of erythromycin and clarithromycin resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from blood cultures from Providence, R.I.

Four (5%) of 81 recent isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from the blood of adult patients but no isolates from pediatric patients (n = 51) were resistant (MIC, > or = 1 microgram/ml) to erythromycin. The MICs of clarithromycin were slightly lower than those of erythromycin, but there was complete cross-resistance. Routine testing and surveillance are needed to determine whether erythromycin resistance among S. pneumoniae isolates is increasing throughout the United States.
Compulsory licensing: implications on multinational drug companies

This article is a critical analysis of compulsory licensing provisions under the Indian Patent law with recent decisions. Compulsory licenses are basically the abrogation of an IP right – an extra-ordinary legal instrument whereby the government allows itself or a third party (typically the competitor) to have access to produce, and use or sell the IP protected product or process without the consent of the IP owner. The method here is of a descriptive–analytical type. The data has been collected from secondary sources, which include the internet, research publications and the Indian Patents Act itself. India’s compulsory licensing provision is now more important than ever since India passed the revised Act. This paper makes an attempt to analyse the potential of compulsory licensing to provide affordable medicines to the common man and thereby improve the quality of life.
Laser Detection Of Latent Fingerprints: Tris(2,2'-Bipyridyl)Ruthenium(II) Chloride Hexahydrate As A Staining Dye For Time-Resolved Imaging

The compound tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) chloride hexahydrate is suitable for laser detection of latent fingerprints on difficult surfaces such as wood and masking tape, as well as surfaces such as polyethylene, metal, etc. The fingerprint treatment can Involve either dusting with powder blended with this compound or by solution staining. The compound displays a strong d-n phosphorescence with a lifetime of about 10-6 and is thus very well suited for time-resolved imaging to suppress background fluorescence.
Acidity of adenine and adenine derivatives and biological implications. A computational and experimental gas-phase study.

The gas-phase acidities of adenine, 9-ethyladenine, and 3-methyladenine have been investigated for the first time, using computational and experimental methods to provide an understanding of the intrinsic reactivity of adenine. Adenine is found to have two acidic sites, with the N9 site being 19 kcal mol-1 more acidic than the N10 site; the bracketed acidities are 333 ± 2 and 352 ± 4 kcal mol-1, respectively. Because measurement of the less acidic site can be problematic, we benchmarked the adenine N10 measurement by bracketing the acidity of 9-ethyladenine, which has the N9 site blocked and allows for exclusive measurement of the N10 site. The acidity of 9-ethyladenine brackets to 352 ± 4 kcal mol-1, comparable to that of the N10 site of the parent adenine. Calculations and experiments with 3-methyladenine, a harmful mutagenic nucleobase, uncovered the surprising result that the most commonly written tautomer of 3-methyladenine is not the most stable in the gas phase. We have found that the most stable t...
Irreproducibility of the Soybean Pollen-Tube Pathway Transformation Procedure

The interest in developing tissue culture-independent genetic transformation methods for plants has been growth. The pollen-tube pathway transformation technique is one method; however, this method is controversial because it is difficult to duplicate and produces insufficient molecular evidence to confirm transformation. Our objective was to evaluate the robustness of the soybean pollen-tube pathway technique (Glycine max L. Merr.). Solutions of purified DNA constructs carrying abar marker gene and agus reporter gene or a gene of interest (npk1) were applied to severed styles of flowers 6–8 h after self-pollination. The experiment was repeated 3 summers in the field, in which 4 DNA constructs and 7 soybean genotypes were tested. A total of 4793 progeny seeds were harvested from 5590 individually treated soybean flowers. All seeds were germinated and screened for transformants with herbicide spray, histochemical GUS assay, and Southern blot analysis. Although 2% of progenies showed partial resistance to the herbicide, no positive plants were identified from GUS assay and Southern analysis. Our results indicate that soybean pollen-tube pathway transformation is not reproducible.
Distributed calibration and tracking with low-power image sensors

The replication of a single-camera system is not in itself a solution to large scale surveillance. A scalable solution to surveillance can be achieved through employing wireless sensor network technology where distributed sensors embedded with processors communicate wirelessly. To address the constraints of unreliable communications, power-intensive processing and communications, and limited memory, DISCERN (DIStributed Camera Event Recognition Network) distributes reasoning about its organization and detected target information. This enables sensor nodes to collaborate intelligently with one another, forewarning neighboring nodes of possible targets, resolving location ambiguities of the sensor and target, and providing greater intelligence as additional target data is collected. We addressed the limited power and processing speed by incorporating low-power image processing techniques to quickly reduce the large data acquired through images. Robustness was maintained through decision-based fusion for target detection and data-based fusion for target extraction and tracking across the sensor field. Distributed control is possible through our information-based neighbor lists, facilitating the transformation of the target's information across sensor nodes as it traverses to the end user.
“Tails” of Masculinity: Knights, Clerics, and the Mutilation of Horses in Medieval England

In the days preceding the murder of Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury (29 December 1170), members of the Broc family—servants of King Henry II (r. 1154–89), who fought with Becket over the Canterbury estates during his exile (since 1167)—invaded the archbishop's park, butchered his deer, and stole his hunting dogs. On Christmas Eve, either Robert de Broc or his nephew, John, went so far as to dock, or cut off the tail of, a horse (or horses) in Becket's service carrying household provisions; the horse was brought before the archbishop for him to see. Contemporaries suggest that Becket understood the overt message of terror, defamation, and emasculation that the knights communicated through attacking his animals. Indeed, no fewer than five of Becket's biographers made it a point to mention the equestrian mutilation at the hands of the Brocs and to employ, to quote Hugh Thomas, “the rich Latin vocabulary of shame: ‘dedecus, contemptus, ignominia, dehonestatio, opprobrium’” in their descriptions of...
Structures technology for a new generation of rotorcraft

This paper presents an overview of structures research at the U. S. Army Aerostructures Directorate. The objectives of this research are to investigate, explore, and demonstrate emerging technologies that will provide lighter, safer, more survivable, and more cost-effective structures for rotorcraft in the 1990s and beyond. The emphasis of today's R&D is to contribute proven structures technology to the U. S. rotorcraft industry and Army aviation that directly impacts tomorrow's fleet readiness and mission capabilities. The primary contributor toward meeting these challenges is the development of high-strength and durable composites to minimize structural weight while maximizing cost effectiveness. Special aviation issues such as delamination of dynamic components, impact damage to thin skins, crashworthiness, and affordable manufacturing need to be resolved before the full potential of composites technology can be realized. To that end, this paper highlights research into composites structural integrity, crashworthiness, and materials applications which addresses these issues.
Language and Cognition English- and Spanish-Speaking Children's Performance on Perceptual and Communication Tasks

To examine the relationship between language and cognitive performance, 120 kindergarten and second grade children from three different language environments were given a perceptual matching test and a verbal communication test. The three language groups included 40 Mexican Spanish-speaking children from Monterrey, Mexico, and from Houston, Texas, 40 Chicano Spanish-speaking children and 40 English-speaking children. The English-speaking group had significantly lower performance on the communication task than the two Spanish-speaking groups. The processing demands imposed by English adjective ordering rules accounted for this difference in performance. The English speakers also performed significantly lower on the perceptual task, perhaps for the same reason. Implications for education were discussed.
On-line SFC/FT-IR analysis of agriculturally-related compounds

Several agricultural compounds which are used as herbicide precursors have been analyzed by SFC and are detected on-line via a flow cell FT-IR interface. A mixture of ureas is separated on a microbore packed column; while a mixture of benzamides and anilides and a mixture of sulfonamides are separated on capillary columns. The use of 100% CO2 as the mobile phase enables an infrared spectrum of each eluting analyte to be obtained on-line with good signal to noise ratio. The urea mixture is also separated with a conventional cyanopropyl bonded phase analytical scale packed column using a methanol-modified CO2 mobile phase and UV detection. The separations achieved with and without modifier are compared.
Trauma and Sex Surveys Meet Minimal Risk Standards Implications for Institutional Review Boards

Institutional review boards assume that questionnaires asking about "sensitive" topics (e.g., trauma and sex) pose more risk to respondents than seemingly innocuous measures (e.g., cognitive tests). We tested this assumption by asking 504 undergraduates to answer either surveys on trauma and sex or measures of cognitive ability, such as tests of vocabulary and abstract reasoning. Participants rated their positive and negative emotional reactions and the perceived benefits and mental costs of participating; they also compared their study-related distress with the distress arising from normal life stressors. Participants who completed trauma and sex surveys, relative to participants who completed cognitive measures, rated the study as resulting in higher positive affect and as having greater perceived benefits and fewer mental costs. Although participants who completed trauma and sex surveys reported slightly higher levels of negative emotion than did participants who completed cognitive measures, averages were very low for both groups, and outliers were rare. All participants rated each normal life stressor as more distressing than participating in the study. These results suggest that trauma and sex surveys pose minimal risk.
Peak Retrograde Flow: A Novel Predictor of Persistent, Progressive and New Onset Asymmetry in Adolescent Varicocele

Purpose: The major indication for adolescent left varicocelectomy is testicular asymmetry. However, a period of observation is often recommended preoperatively to determine if the asymmetry resolves, persists or progresses. We investigated whether varicocele grade or the duplex Doppler ultrasound measurements of peak retrograde flow and mean vein diameter could be used as predictors of persistent, progressive or new onset asymmetry.Materials and Methods: Only patients with left varicoceles who had undergone at least 2 duplex Doppler ultrasounds without intervening surgery were included in the study. Grade of varicocele, peak retrograde flow and mean vein diameter were analyzed as possible determinants of catch-up growth, or persistent or new onset asymmetry.Results: A total of 77 patients (mean age 14.3 years, range 9 to 20) were identified with a mean observation period of 13.2 months. Of the patients 50 (65%) had 10% or greater asymmetry at the first measurement. Of patients with initial 20% or greater ...
Dead-box proteins: a family affair—active and passive players in RNP-remodeling

DEAD-box proteins are characterized by nine conserved motifs. According to these criteria, several hundreds of these proteins can be identified in databases. Many different DEAD-box proteins can be found in eukaryotes, whereas prokaryotes have small numbers of different DEAD-box proteins. DEAD-box proteins play important roles in RNA metabolism, and they are very specific and cannot mutually be replaced. In vitro, many DEAD-box proteins have been shown to have RNA-dependent ATPase and ATP-dependent RNA helicase activities. From the genetic and biochemical data obtained mainly in yeast, it has become clear that these proteins play important roles in remodeling RNP complexes in a temporally controlled fashion. Here, I shall give a general overview of the DEAD-box protein family.
Designing and executing protocols using the event calculus

Multiagent protocols regulate the interactions between agents. In addition to ensuring meaningful conversations, protocols should also respect agents’ autonomy and enable them to interact flexibly to exploit opportunities and to handle exceptions. Our approach to specifying protocols is based on capturing the intrinsic meaning of actions and explicitly representing them as part of the protocol. We model these intrinsic meanings through social commitments. Conceptually, social commitments capture the obligations from one party to another. Operations to create and manipulate commitments, combined with the reasoning rules, enable agents to reason about their interactions. By representing the intrinsic meaning of the actions, we develop protocols that permit the agents to reason about their and others’ behavior during the execution of the protocol, and to modify their actions as best suits them.
Research Note: Growth and Waste Production of Broilers During Brooding

Abstract Body weight, manure production, and volatile solids production from manure were determined daily for young broilers from 1 to 25 days of age. Prediction equations were developed for each parameter as a function of brooding day or body weight.
Robotics As A Component Of A General Education Course

We describe a robotics assignment for a General Edu cation course. This assignment is part of an Introduction to Computer Technology course designed for the General Education requirements at The College of Staten Isl and. The goal for this assignment was to acquaint studen ts with basic robotics while satisfying the course goals of algorithmic thinking, limitations of computers, pro blem solving, and debugging
Developing a community vision: the case of a regional United Way

This paper provides descriptive research about a successful collaborative vision development process undertaken for a regional United Way. The entire process from learning about the client to achieving a new strategic vision is reviewed. Among the techniques used were basic research, interviews, and focus groups. The process ended with a decision event involving the United Way board of directors. The process centers around the creation of a "shared space" - a model - and a unique lexicon that together focus participants on the same goal and keep them talking the same language. The importance of understanding the challenges prompting a change in vision is stressed as well as uncovering the concerns of all stakeholders. The paper describes how "games" can be used to solicit data and prioritize goals. The role and value of facilitators is discussed. It concludes with lessons learned that confirm many of the functional theories of group collaboration.
Predictors of emergency commitment for nursing home residents: the role of resident and facility characteristics.

Objectives:The ability of nursing homes to manage the mental health needs of their residents is crucial to providing high quality care. An important element is preventing exacerbations of psychiatric conditions that trigger discharge from the nursing home (NH) because of an emergency commitment (EC) for an involuntary psychiatric examination. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between resident and facility characteristics and the risk of EC for involuntary psychiatric examination among Medicaid-enrolled NH residents in Florida. Design: This retrospective cohort study employed 2.5years (31 December 2002 through 30 June 2005) of Medicaid enrollment and fee-for-service, pharmacy, and involuntary commitment data to examine resident characteristics. NH characteristics were obtained from the Online Survey Certification and Reporting database. Setting: Medicaid-certified NHs in Florida (N=584). Participants: Medicaid-enrolled NH residents (N=32,604). Results:Younger age, male gender, having dementia, having a serious mental illness (SMI), and residing in a for-profit facility were all independently associated with the greater risk of EC. Although most residents with EC were prescribed psychotropic medication, less than half received non-pharmacological behavioral health outpatient services before or after their involuntary psychiatric examination. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the salience of resident and facility characteristics to prevalence rates of EC for involuntary psychiatric examinations among NH residents and underscore a need for increased education, communication, and future research on the predictive factors as well as the consequences of these adverse events. Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Whence Applied Science in a Person-Centric Work Psychology?

Weiss and Rupp (2011) argue that because of its prevailing paradigm, industrial–organizational (I–O) psychology can be viewed as having run out of interesting questions to answer and that many of the questions that are being studied are trivial and uninteresting. Although this contention itself may cause quite a bit of debate, the fact that it can be argued should act as a wake-up call to both academics and practitioners. What cannot be argued is the importance of the work that we do. As Weiss and Rupp state, ‘‘because of the importance of work to humans you cannot understand humans without understanding work.’’ In counterpoint to Weiss and Rupp, however, I disagree with their implicit assumption that the current philosophy of science and methodological approaches in I–O psychology are unable to deal with workers as individuals. Weiss and Rupp suggest we consider a rejection of both the premise that people are objects within an organizational system and that the justification for research is application of knowledge with a collective purpose. Without application, however, we are missing out on the fundamental goals and process of psychology as a science, specifically, the understanding of current behavior and the prediction of future behavior. You can only go so
Age of Onset and Course of Major Depressive Disorder: Associations With Psychosocial Functioning Outcomes in Adulthood

Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) that onsets by adolescence is associated with various deficits in psychosocial functioning. However, adolescent-onset MDD often follows a recurrent course that may drive its associated impairment. Method To tease apart these two clinical features, we examined the relative associations of age of onset (adolescent versus adult) and course (recurrent versus single episodes) of MDD with a broad range of psychosocial functioning outcomes assessed in early adulthood. Participants comprised a large, population-based sample of male and female twins from the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS; n = 1252) assessed prospectively from ages 17 to 29 years. Results A recurrent course of MDD predicted impairment in several psychosocial domains in adulthood, regardless of whether the onset was in adolescence or adulthood. By contrast, adolescent-onset MDD showed less evidence of impairment in adulthood after accounting for recurrence. Individuals with both an adolescent onset and recurrent episodes of MDD represented a particularly severe group with pervasive psychosocial impairment in adulthood. Conclusions The negative implications of adolescent-onset MDD for psychosocial functioning in adulthood seem to be due primarily to its frequently recurrent course, rather than its early onset, per se. The results highlight the importance of considering both age of onset and course for understanding MDD and its implications for functioning, and also in guiding targeted intervention efforts.
The Kansas Swedish Rock Artist: Birger Sandzén - Det var ett Äktad Sten Konstnär

(Sven) Birger Sandzen (1871–1954) came to Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas in 1894 from Sweden. He developed a unique style of painting that put him in class by himself. He appreciated the great outdoors and the color and light in Kansas and took advantage of these conditions in his art work. As a friend and colleague of geologist Fritiof Fryxell, Sandzen had ample time to learn some ‘formal’ geology. He had an appreciation for rocks from childhood and his unique painting style has a special three-dimensional aspect that reflect his interest in and his understanding of geology. He ranks as one of the premiere artists of Kansas and is recognized as one of the outstanding American artists of the 20th Century.
The Adoption of Transparency Policies in Global Governance Institutions: Justifications, Effects, and Implications

Formal transparency policies are increasingly prevalent in global governance institutions, partially attenuating the influence in these institutions of practices of secrecy inherited from interstate diplomacy. This article assesses the incidence and specific characteristics of formal transparency policies across a select group of institutions and outlines some of the justifications given for these policies—including justifications based on the publicness of these institutions—and for the more controversial exceptions to transparency, such as the exception for deliberative materials. It examines three drivers affecting the adoption, form, and content of transparency policies and other transparency measures in these institutions: spillover from national transparency laws and policies, growth in the reach and significance of authority exercised in and through global institutions, and criticism of global institutions by influential states and nongovernmental organizations. Twelve hypotheses are proposed about...
How the core theory of CLARION captures human decision-making

Some mainstream psychologists have criticized computational cognitive architectures on the issue of model complexity and parameter tweaking (i.e., the likelihood that cognitive architectures can explain any results and their opposites). This paper tries to address these criticisms by tackling the issue of model complexity in cognitive architectures. Here, we start with a well-established cognitive architecture, CLARION, and extract its core theory to explain a wide range of data. The resulting minimal model was used to provide parameter-free principled explanations for several psychological “laws” of uncertain reasoning and decision-making. This paper is concluded by a discussion of the implication of parameter-free modeling in cognitive science and psychology.
Modeling interruptions and patient flow in a preoperative hospital environment

Late starting surgeries at a Greenville Memorial Hospital have been shown to cause process and scheduling disruptions, and are a major contributor to dissatisfaction among patients and hospital staff. The preoperative system requires the preparation of a high volume of patients, each with an individual set of characteristics and array of required tasks before surgery. Staff resources do not have a prescribed sequence of activities nor mutually exclusive duties. A novel discrete event modeling paradigm has been adopted for simulating the complex behavior of the preoperative system, identifying the underlying causes of process inefficiencies, and testing mitigating strategies. Current investigations are underway to shift the prescriptive approach of resource decision-making towards an agent-based approach, allowing resources to select their workload in such a way that achieves maximum utility for the agent.
Characterization of anthrolysin O, the Bacillus anthracis cholesterol-dependent cytolysin.

We characterized the expression of a putative toxin of Bacillus anthracis, a member of the cholesterol-dependent cytolysin (CDC) family, which includes listeriolysin O, perfringolysin O, and streptolysin O. We named this cytotoxin anthrolysin O (ALO). Although B. anthracis expresses minimal hemolytic activity in clinical settings, we show that Sterne strain 7702 expresses hemolytic activity when grown in brain heart infusion broth or in other rich bacteriologic media, but it secretes barely detectable amounts of hemolysin when grown in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth. Glucose supplementation of LB broth increases the amount of secreted hemolytic activity. Expression of hemolytic activity is maximal during mid- to late-log phase and decreases in the stationary phase. These observations are supported, in part, by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase PCR of alo mRNA. Hemolytic activity in growth supernatants was increased in the presence of reducing agent and almost totally inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by cholesterol; both of these activities are characteristic of a CDC toxin. A mutant of Sterne strain 7702, strain UT231, in which the alo gene was deleted and replaced by a kanamycin cassette, secreted barely detectable hemolytic activity into the growth medium. When strain UT231 was complemented in trans with native alo on a low-copy-number plasmid [strain UT231(pUTE554)], it regained the ability to secrete hemolytic activity, indicating that ALO is the major hemolysin secreted by this strain of B. anthracis in rich media in vitro. To further support the alo gene product being a hemolysin, recombinant B. anthracis ALO (rALO) purified from Escherichia coli was extremely active against washed human erythrocytes, with complete hemolysis detected at ∼30 molecules of rALO per erythrocyte. Considering the virulence roles of CDCs for other gram-positive bacteria, we speculate that ALO may have a role in anthrax virulence.
Incidence and severity of myofiber branching with regeneration and aging

Myofibers with an abnormal branching cytoarchitecture are commonly found in muscular dystrophy and in regenerated or aged nondystrophic muscles. Such branched myofibers from dystrophic mice are more susceptible to damage than unbranched myofibers in vitro, suggesting that muscles containing a high percentage of these myofibers are more prone to injury. Little is known about the regulation of myofiber branching. To gain insights into the formation and fate of branched myofibers, we performed in-depth analyses of single myofibers isolated from dystrophic and nondystrophic (myotoxin-injured or aged) mouse muscles. The proportion of branched myofibers, the number of branches per myofiber and the morphology of the branches were assessed. Aged dystrophic mice exhibited the most severe myofiber branching as defined by the incidence of branched myofibers and the number of branches per myofiber, followed by myotoxin-injured, wild-type muscles and then aged wild-type muscles. In addition, the morphology of the branched myofibers differed among the various models. In response to either induced or ongoing muscle degeneration, branching was restricted to regenerated myofibers containing central nuclei. In myotoxin-injured muscles, the amount of branched myofibers remained stable over time. We suggest that myofiber branching is a consequence of myofiber remodeling during muscle regeneration. Our present study lays valuable groundwork for identifying the molecular pathways leading to myofiber branching in dystrophy, trauma and aging. Decreasing myofiber branching in dystrophic patients may improve muscle resistance to mechanical stress.
Health Care Use and Costs Associated With Use of a Health Club Membership Benefit in Older Adults with Diabetes

OBJECTIVE —The purpose of this study was to determine whether elective use of a health plan–sponsored health club membership had an impact on health care use and costs among older adults with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —Administrative claims for 2,031 older adults with diabetes enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan were obtained for this retrospective cohort study. Participants ( n = 618) in the plan-sponsored health club benefit (Silver Sneakers [SS]) and control subjects ( n = 1,413) matched on SS enrollment index date were enrolled in the plan for at least 1 year before the index date. Two-year health care use and costs of SS participants and control subjects were estimated in regressions adjusting for baseline differences. RESULTS —SS participants were more likely to be male, had a lower chronic disease burden, used more preventive services, and had a lower prevalence of arthritis ( P ≤ 05). SS participants had lower adjusted total health care costs than control subjects in the first year after enrollment (−$1,633 [95% CI −$2,620 to −$646], P = 0.001), and adjusted total costs in year 2 trended lower (−$1,230 [−$2,494 to $33], P = 0.06). Participants who made on average ≥2 SS visits/week in year 1 had lower total costs in year 2 ($2,141 [−$3,877 to −$405], P = 0.02) than participants who made CONCLUSIONS —Use of a health club benefit by older adults with diabetes was associated with slower growth in total health care costs over 2 years; greater use of the benefit was actually associated with declines in total costs.
Sensor resetting localization for poorly modelled mobile robots

We present a new localization algorithm, called sensor resetting localization, which is an extension of Monte Carlo localization. The algorithm adds sensor based re-sampling to Monte Carlo localization when the robot is lost. Sensor resetting localization (SRL) is robust to modelling errors including unmodelled movements and systematic errors. It can be used in real time on systems with limited computational power. The algorithm has been successfully used on autonomous legged robots in the Sony legged league of the robotic soccer competition RoboCup'99. We present results from the real robots demonstrating the success of the algorithm and results from simulation comparing SRL to Monte Carlo localization.
Graph transduction via alternating minimization

Graph transduction methods label input data by learning a classification function that is regularized to exhibit smoothness along a graph over labeled and unlabeled samples. In practice, these algorithms are sensitive to the initial set of labels provided by the user. For instance, classification accuracy drops if the training set contains weak labels, if imbalances exist across label classes or if the labeled portion of the data is not chosen at random. This paper introduces a propagation algorithm that more reliably minimizes a cost function over both a function on the graph and a binary label matrix. The cost function generalizes prior work in graph transduction and also introduces node normalization terms for resilience to label imbalances. We demonstrate that global minimization of the function is intractable but instead provide an alternating minimization scheme that incrementally adjusts the function and the labels towards a reliable local minimum. Unlike prior methods, the resulting propagation of labels does not prematurely commit to an erroneous labeling and obtains more consistent labels. Experiments are shown for synthetic and real classification tasks including digit and text recognition. A substantial improvement in accuracy compared to state of the art semi-supervised methods is achieved. The advantage are even more dramatic when labeled instances are limited.
Lateral intercellular space volume as a determinant of CFTR-mediated anion secretion across small intestinal mucosa

Studies of full-thickness, small intestinal preparations have shown that maximal anion secretion [indexed by short-circuit current (Isc)] during intracellular cAMP (cAMPi) stimulation is transient ...
Criticism of Logical Approaches

The relationship between logic and computer sciences and applications is deep and broad. At the most basic end of the spectrum, we have the functional description of a circuit as a combination of AND, OR and NOT gates, and the boolean data type in most programming languages. The generationof sentences by repeated applications of production rules is equivalent to theenumeration of theorems of the form S → (sequence of terminal symbols). A more specialized case is the formulation of the functional and multivalued dependencies of a relational database in terms of implications between the propositional variables, each corresponding to an attribute domain of a relation ([Fag], [Sag]). While these instances are all within the realm of propositional logic, the use of first order predicate logic (FOPL) has become prevalent in recent years. This trend is probably explained by the following reasons: the far richer contents of FOPL than those of propositional logic, the high degree of maturity and refinement it has attained as a theoretical discipline, the ease of the intuitive understanding of an interpretation for such a purely formal system of symbols, without impairing the rigor of the system, and that it has reached a sort of natural boundary as a framework for describing information systems in view of the precise and profound results concerning decidability and computability.
High-Performance Composite Bi2Ru2O7-Bi1.6Er0.4O3 Cathodes for Intermediate-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Porous composite electrodes consisting of Bi 2 RU 2 O 7 (BRO7) and Er 0.4 Bi 16 O 3 (ESB20) were synthesized and characterized using impedance spectroscopy on symmetrical cells. Electrode performance was manipulated compositionally by varying the weight percent of each phase in the composite. Microstructural influences on electrode resistance were examined by varying starting particle sizes of BRO7 and ESB20 powders and using a combination of sedimentation to further reduce particle size and size distributions as well as ultrasonication to break up soft agglomerates. The effect of electrode thickness was also studied by applying successive coats of the electrode inks to the electrolyte substrates. In addition, application of a pure BRO7 current collector was found to dramatically improve performance. Using these optimization techniques, a minimum electrode area specific resistance of 0.03 Ω cm 2 was attained at 700°C.
Sarcasm as Contrast between a Positive Sentiment and Negative Situation

A common form of sarcasm on Twitter consists of a positive sentiment contrasted with a negative situation. For example, many sarcastic tweets include a positive sentiment, such as “love” or “enjoy”, followed by an expression that describes an undesirable activity or state (e.g., “taking exams” or “being ignored”). We have developed a sarcasm recognizer to identify this type of sarcasm in tweets. We present a novel bootstrapping algorithm that automatically learns lists of positive sentiment phrases and negative situation phrases from sarcastic tweets. We show that identifying contrasting contexts using the phrases learned through bootstrapping yields improved recall for sarcasm recognition.
Selective hydrolysis of triple-helical peptides by matrix metalloproteinases

The matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family plays an integral role in both normal and pathological connective tissue remodeling. This accelerated local turnover of the extracellular matrix can be found in such diverse diseases as arthritis, periodontal disease, and tumor cell metastasis [1,2]. More specifically, MMP-1 is believed to initiate interstitial collagen catabolism and participate in denatured collagen (gelatin) degradation. Three-dimensional structures of collagenases have indicated that the substrate binding groove in the catalytic domain is too narrow to accommodate the triple-helical collagen molecule unless it unwinds. Thus, a local unwinding of the triple-helical structure must occur before proteolysis of interstitial collagens. One approach for better defining the mechanism by which MMPs hydrolyze interstitial collagens is the utilization of triple-helical peptide (THP) models. Successful THP substrates should incorporate a sequence that could be cleaved in triple-helical conformation while having sufficient thermal stability to remain triple-helical under assay conditions. In addition, the ability to control thermal stability by adjusting chain length and composition gives THP substrates more flexibility than native collagen. The interstitial collagen sequences targeted by MMP-1, -2, -8, and -13 have been identified, and a model collagenase cleavage site has been proposed based on the combination of primary, secondary, and super-secondary structures of triple-helical collagen [3]. Our laboratory has developed two solid-phase THP synthetic methods, one which features a C-terminal Lys covalent branch [4], and one which features an N-terminally attached lipophilic molecule [5]. For the present study, we have constructed THP models of 1(I)772-786, the collagenase cleavage site in type I collagen. We have compared the susceptibility and kinetics of THPs for the MMP family members MMP-1, -2, -3, and -13.
The Border Crossed Us: Rhetorics of Borders, Citizenship, and Latina/o Identity

What “counts” as citizenship? What do citizens look like? How does power affect notions of national belonging, and how is such belonging marked? These questions propel a diverse range of approaches...
Maintaining connectivity for networked mobile systems in the presence of agent loss

Connectivity is a fundamental property in many networked systems for communication and coordination among the agents. Removal of any agent from a network may destroy its connectivity. In order to maintain the connectivity of mobile networked systems in agent loss, one can design a robust network topology such that the network is tolerant to a finite number of agent losses, and/or develop a control strategy, such that the network reconfigures itself until the connectivity requirements are satisfied. In this paper, we introduce a decentralized control scheme based on a sequence of replacements, each of which occurs between an agent and one of its neighbors. The proposed scheme always maintains the graph connectivity, and it does not rely on any gathering of global information either a priori or at the intermediate steps of a mission. Moreover, the proposed scheme does not cause any increase in the total number of edges and the maximum node degree in a graph, thus it assures no increase in the overall communication cost due to the topological changes. In this study, we validate the control strategy by means of an analytical proof and simulation results.
Anisotropic Turbulent Flow Simulations Using the Lagrangian Averaged Navier-Stokes-a Equations

Application of the isotropic Lagrangian averaged Navier-Stokes- (LANS- ) equations in modeling anisotropic turbulent flows is investigated. The recently developed dynamic LANS- model is employed to calculate the variation of the parameter in the wall normal direction in turbulent channel flows. A-priori test of the dynamic LANS- is performed at various Taylor Reynolds numbers between 180 and 550 based on the wall friction velocity to find the variation of in the wall-normal direction. It is found that in the wall region the parameter rapidly increases away from the wall and saturates to an almost constant value in the outer region. An appropriate scaling for is also identified. As a result, the isotropic LANS- equations can now be easily used in anisotropic wall bounded flows with a universally damped . Current numerical experiments exhibit a promising application of the isotropic LANS- model for anisotropic flows in complex geometries.