cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Malpractice litigation after thyroid surgery: the role of recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries, 1989-2009

Background Recurrent laryngeal nerve injuries remain a complication that is a source of concern to both surgeons and patients. RLN monitoring has gained popularity in recent years despite a lack of evidence showing decreased rates of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury when nerve monitoring is used. We sought to explore malpractice litigation in thyroid surgery with respect to recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring. With increased public awareness and surgeon use of recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring, we hypothesize an increase in its use in malpractice litigation in the area of thyroid surgery. Methods Using the LexisNexis Academic legal database, a retrospective review of all relevant federal and state cases from 1989 to 2009 was performed using the search terms “thyroid,” “surgery,” and “medical malpractice.” From this search, data were compiled including year and state of the court's decision, the outcome of the trial, the type of complication, any mention of recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring, and the specialty of the surgeon who performed the procedure. The cases that were settled out of court were not included in this analysis. Results A total of 143 medical malpractice cases involving thyroid surgery were retrieved from our search from 1989 to 2009. After reviewing all cases, 33 cases in which the alleged negligence occurred after thyroid surgery were used for analysis. Of these cases, 15 involved recurrent laryngeal nerve injury; interestingly, no mention of recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring was noted in any of the cases. Conclusion Although recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring has become more widely available and used, there is no evidence that its use or nonuse has played a role in malpractice litigation in the last 20 years. recurrent laryngeal nerve injury remains a cause of malpractice litigation.
The Social Context of Emotion: Effects of Ethnicity and Authority/Peer Status on the Emotional Reports of African American College Students

The emotional impact of imagined and real interand intraethnic interactions with peers and authority figures was examined among African Americans. A total of 66 African American undergraduates rated their emotional responses to paragraphlong vignettes that varied the ethnicity (Black or White) and the peer/authority status of other actors in common inteipersonal situations within three emotional contexts (oy, anger, and neutral). Subjects encountered eitherAfi can American or White experimenters. Subjects reported more negative emotions in their imagined interactions with Whites and intensification of both positive and negative affect in imagined interactions with authority figures. The range of reported affect was more limited in the presence of White experimenters. Results are discussed in terms of contextual moderators of emotional responses among African Americans and their implications forfuture research.
Effect of Filling Ratio on an Uneven Turn Oscillating Heat Pipe

An experimental investigation of the effect of filling ratio on the thermal performance for a flat plate oscillating heat pipe with uneven turns was conducted. The OHP was designed to have 14 long turns running from the evaporator to the condenser and 6 short turn occurring only in the evaporator. The factors varied for this experimental investigation were the input power, condensing temperature, and charging ratio. Experimental results show that for all test conditions, the OHP functioned very well and could operate with an input power of up to 1200 W and could reach a thermal resistance of 0.028 °C/W in the inverted position with a filling ratio of 70%.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Recommended Components for a Definition of the Master Teacher

Institute for Instructional Research and Practice, Univer~i~ of South Florida Summary.-This description indicates five components to be considered in identifying master teachers: expert pedagogy, test demonstrated subject matter mastery, roles and duties, professional activities, demographic data, as well as students' achievement. In recent years great interest has been focused on merit pay, meritorious teachers, teachers high on career ladders, expert teachers-all aspects of the master teacher. A consensus has been developing that different levels of competence are discernible and that more competent teachers should be paid more than less competent ones. If there is, in fact, to be salary differentiation among teachers-a development not popular with most teachers, about 70% of whom are unionized, and even less popular with their unions-the differentiation should be based on identified criteria. The purpose of this paper is to propose components of a working definition of the master teacher. The five main components of this proposed definition include expert pedagogy, mastery of subject matter, roles and duties, etc., of teachers at the top of the career ladder, professional activities, and demographic variables, such as education and experience. These five components are suggested as a basis for developing a working definition of a master teacher. Expert Pedagogy Expert pedagogy is currently receiving public attention. Researchers are identifying and observing expert teachers to analyze their pedagogical practices, which are usually contrasted with those of novice, less abIe teachers. These superior pedagogical practices are then included in the definition of an expert teacher (see Leinhardt, 1983; Berliner, 1986; Shulman, 1986). Expert pedagogy arose by analogy from the study of expertise in cognitive psychology. Lavely, Berger, Bullock, and Follman (1986) identified the characteristics of expertise common to both cognitive psychology and expert pedagogy as possession of large amounts of information; more automaticity of thinking, especially thinking that involves routines; superior learning and
Motion artifact in T2‐weighted fast spin‐echo images of the liver: Effect on image contrast and reduction of artifact using respiratory triggering in normal volunteers

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effect of respiratory motion on the image contrast of T2-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE) images of the liver as well as the reduction of motion artifact using respiratory triggering of the data acquisition. We imaged the livers of 10 healthy volunteers using a fast spin-echo T2-weighted sequence. Images were obtained both without and with patient triggering. Triggered images were acquired in a segmented fashion during multiple sequential breath-holds using an echo train of 8 or 16, both with and without flow compensation (gradient moment nulling). Ratios of signal difference to noise (SD/N) of the liver and gallbladder as well as the liver and spleen were compared for all sequences. All of the triggered images showed statistically significant improvement of SD/N for the liver and gallbladder as well as for the liver and spleen when compared with the nontriggered images. Triggered images obtained with an echo train length of 8 and, with flow compensation, showed the highest SD/N ratios. In one volunteer whose liver contained multiple small cysts, the triggered images showed improved visualization of individual cysts and identified a larger number of cysts. Respiratory motion causes a significant loss of contrast on T2-weighted fast spin-echo images of the liver. This can be reduced by using a segmented data acquisition triggered by the respiratory cycle obtained during sequential breath-holds.
SVD and log-log frequency sampling with Gabor kernels for invariant pictorial recognition

This paper presents an efficient scheme for affine-invariant object recognition. Affine invariance is obtained by a representation which is based on a new sampling configuration in the frequency domain. We discuss the decomposition of affine transform into slant, tilt, swing, scale and 2D translation by applying singular value decomposition (SVD). The affine invariant spectral signatures (AISS) are derived from a set of Cartesian logarithmic-logarithmic (log-log) sampling configuration in the frequency domain. The AISS enables the recognition of image patches that correspond to roughly planar object surfaces-regardless of their poses in space. Unlike previous log-polar representations which are not invariant to slant (i.e. foreshortening only in one direction), the AISS yields a complete affine invariance. The proposed log-log configuration can be employed either by a global Fourier transform or by a local Gabor transform. Local representation enables one to recognize separately several objects in the same image. The actual signature recognition is performed by multi-dimensional indexing in a pictorial dataset. 3D pose information is also derived as a by-product.
Low-Reynolds-number separation on an airfoil

Unsteady boundary-layer separation from an Eppler 387 airfoil at low Reynolds number is studied numerically. Through a series of computations, the effects of Reynolds number and angle of attack are investigated. For all cases, vortex shedding is observed from the separated shear layer. From linear stability analysis, a KelvinHelmholtz instability is identified as causing shear layer unsteadiness. The low-turbulence wind-tunnel tests of the Eppler 387 airfoil are used to compare with the time-averaged results of the present unsteady computations. The favorable comparison between computational and experimental results strongly suggests that the unsteady largescale structure controls the low-Reynolds-number separation bubble reattachment with small-scale turbulence playing a secondary role. Nomenclature C = chord length CD - drag coefficient CL = lift coefficient Cp = pressure coefficient / = shedding frequency Re = chord Reynolds number R P - reattachment point S P = separation point Sr = Strouhal number U = velocity 9 = momentum thickness Subscripts sep = conditions at separation oo = freestream conditions
Human Cytomegalovirus Infection Causes Premature and Abnormal Differentiation of Human Neural Progenitor Cells

Congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is a leading cause of birth defects, largely manifested as central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The principal site of manifestations in the mouse model is the fetal brain's neural progenitor cell (NPC)-rich subventricular zone. Our previous human NPC studies found these cells to be fully permissive for HCMV and a useful in vitro model system. In continuing work, we observed that under culture conditions favoring maintenance of multipotency, infection caused NPCs to quickly and abnormally differentiate. This phenotypic change required active viral transcription. Whole-genome expression analysis found rapid downregulation of genes that maintain multipotency and establish NPCs' neural identity. Quantitative PCR, Western blot, and immunofluorescence assays confirmed that the mRNA and protein levels of four hallmark NPC proteins (nestin, doublecortin, sex-determining homeobox 2, and glial fibrillary acidic protein) were decreased by HCMV infection. The decreases required active viral replication and were due, at least in part, to proteasomal degradation. Our results suggest that HCMV infection causes in utero CNS defects by inducing both premature and abnormal differentiation of NPCs.
Autophagy in Pulmonary Diseases

The pathogenesis of pulmonary diseases is often complex and characterized by multiple cellular events, including inflammation, cell death, and cell proliferation. The mechanisms by which these events are regulated in pulmonary diseases remain poorly understood. Autophagy is an essential process for cellular homeostasis and stress adaptation in eukaryotic cells. This highly conserved cellular process involves the sequestration of cytoplasmic components in double-membrane autophagosomes, which are delivered to lysosomes for degradation. The critical roles of autophagy have been demonstrated in a wide range of pathophysiological conditions. Emerging studies have identified that autophagy plays important roles in the pathogenesis of various lung diseases. In addition, autophagy has been shown to selectively degrade subcellular targets, including proteins, organelles, and pathogens. Here, we highlight the recent advances in the molecular regulation and function of autophagy in lung diseases.
Optimal electromagnetic-thermo-mechanical integrated design for surface mount permanent magnet machines considering load profiles

Most existing design and optimization methods treat the electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical designs separately. As a result, the effects of power supply, machine control, load profile, thermal effects and materials are not fully integrated and accounted for, which often leads to over- or under- design. This paper proposes an innovative and computationally efficient approach which integrates the electromagnetic and thermo-mechanical design for Surface Mount Permanent Magnet (SMPM) machines. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is part of this integrated process to efficiently find designs which optimize certain requirements, such as weight, efficiency, etc. for example. The effects of power supplies, machine controls, load profiles, thermal effects and materials can thus all be considered systematically in the proposed multi-physics design approach.
Efficient search of music pitch contours using wavelet transforms and segmented dynamic time warping

We propose a method of music melody matching based on their “continuous” (or “time-frame-based”) pitch contours. Most previous methods using frame-based contours either made limiting assumptions on the locations, musical scale, tempo, and/or rhythm of the queries in relations to the targets, or involved exhaustive dynamic time-warping procedures that were too computation-intensive for use in real scenarios. In the proposed method, variable-scale windowing and wavelet transformations are performed at an initial coarse search stage to efficiently match queries to targets. At the following fine search stage, we apply a novel segmented dynamic time warping (DTW)method for melody contours, computing a more accurate distance between the query and each of the candidate targets with less computation than traditional DTW. The method searches arbitrary target locations and explicitly adjusts for differences in tempo and musical scale between queries and targets as well as rhythmic inconsistencies within queries. At the same time, retrieval times are fast enough for use in real-world scenarios.
Frequency glides in the impulse responses of auditory nerve fibers: implications for binaural neurons

Impulse responses of auditory nerve fibers are characterized by frequency sweeps, or glides in instantaneous frequency. This property of the tuning of the auditory periphery influences the timing of action potentials of auditory nerve fibers. This study considers implications of these frequency glides for binaural mechanisms that involve temporal mechanisms.
Fibrin(ogen)-Induced Expression of ICAM-1 and Chemokines in Human Synovial Fibroblasts

It has long been recognized that in most inflamed arthritic joints the coagulation system is activated, leading to the local generation of fibrin, and it has long been hypothesized that the local fibrin deposition promotes inflammation and tissue destruction. However, only recently has the direct effect of fibrin on the inflammatory process been seriously investigated, and specific roles assigned to fibrin or its products as mediators of the inflammatory process. Although fibrin and/or fibrinogen (fibrin(ogen)) is abundantly present in inflamed tissues and joints rich in fibroblastic cells, no significant data on fibrin(ogen)-induced gene expression by fibroblasts have been published. We now demonstrate that coculture of human synovial fibroblasts with fibrin(ogen) results in the up-regulation of ICAM-1 as well as increased production of the chemokines IL-8 and growth-related oncogene-alpha. Increased ICAM-1 expression was fibrin(ogen) dose-dependent and was demonstrated by ELISA, flow cytometry, and functional adhesion assays. Levels of ICAM-1 induced by fibrin(ogen) were comparable to those that could be induced by cytokine stimulation. Fibrin(ogen) stimulation of ICAM-1 could be suppressed by pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate, an inhibitor of NF-kappaB activation. Chemokine production was induced by fibrin(ogen) in cell culture supernatants >100-fold as compared with controls. Thus, through its activation of synovial fibroblasts, fibrin(ogen) deposition may promote the recruitment (via chemokines) and retention (via adhesion molecules) of lymphocytes within the arthritic joint.
Feminine Tensions in Conflict Situations as Revealed by Metaphoric Analyses

This investigation combined interpretive and quantitative metaphoric analyses to examine conflict images of women in government. Based on feminist, conflict, and metaphor literature, we anticipated that first-order (metaphoric family) and second-order (structural or linguistic) analyses would reveal overarching categories, underlying tensions, and contextual differences in workplace metaphors. Findings indicated that metaphoric families provided generalizable categories but that linguistic devices suggested subtleties in the ways in which professional women conceptualized their conflictual interactions in the workplace.
Testing collaborative traffic over wireless protocols

As technology advances, new opportunities present themselves for computer supported learning in educational environments. One of the enabling technologies for these opportunities is wireless networking. Without being tethered to wires, students can use laptops and other wireless devices both in and out of classrooms for group work and self-paced learning. This will help prepare them for a collaboration-driven global workplace, and it promotes new opportunities for distance education. However, wireless communications currently suffer from several inhibiting problems stemming from the underlying network protocol used by the software. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most utilized standard in networking and is well known for its reliability, but it was built to work with wired networks and its assumptions for the cause of packet loss do not fit with the reality of wireless environments: loss is caused by inherent problems in the network layer and not data collisions. Because of this, the user datagram protocol (UDP) is often used in wireless environments since it can achieve higher levels of throughput by not slowing down traffic to prevent data collisions, unlike TCP, and it supports multicast transmissions. However, UDP provides no reliability; if any packet is lost, it is gone forever. In educational environments, packet loss is not acceptable because every piece of information sent by a teacher or student is important, and throughput is necessary because slow software inhibits productivity and learning. To help resolve this problem, we have tested the experimental pragmatic general multicast protocol (PGM), which supports both reliability through lost packet retrieval and high throughput by not scaling traffic and by using multicast transmissions. Our tests in a real-time collaborative classroom environment of over thirty wireless laptops via the Microsoft ConferenceXP platform have promising results: we encountered no problems in throughput or packet loss. However, we discovered problems with message latency, so we conducted further tests and present our results in this paper.
Correlated sampling added to the specific purpose Monte Carlo code McPNL for neutron lifetime log responses

The special-purpose neutron-lifetime oil well logging simulation code, McPNL, has been rewritten for greater user-friendliness and faster execution. Correlated sampling has been added to the code to enable studies of relative changes in the tool response caused by environmental changes. The absolute responses calculated by the code have been benchmarked against laboratory test pit data. The relative responses from correlated sampling are not directly benchmarked, but they are validated using experimental and theoretical results. The correlated sampling scheme has been tested using the addition of p.p.m. levels of boron-10 to a 13% porosity limestone reference formation and showed excellent agreement with the expected change in the thermal capture cross section. >
Micro and nanoparticle monitoring during drilling operations using continuous particle size distribution instruments

Recent toxicological studies on airborne particles generated during the drilling process suggest that these types of particle can cause severe health effects after inhalation exposure. Although, the toxicological mechanism for these effects has not been explained yet, exposure to these particles in various settings has become a concern in environmental and occupational hygiene research. A pilot study was performed with respect to biological nanoparticle emissions and particle identification during an animal bone drilling process. The study evaluates several characteristics of a commercial ventilation system to determine the effects of the ventilation system to estimate personal exposure in the breathing zone. To evaluate this preliminary sampling strategy in workplace settings and to explore the performance of sampling instruments, concentration and particle distributions variations were observed under different airflow conditions, using laser and condensation particle counters and smoke tubes.
Fruit production of the Ungurahua Palm (Oenocarpus bataua subsp.Bataua, Arecaceae) in an Indigenous Managed Reserve

The ungurahua palm (Oenocarpus bataua subsp.bataua) is widely used throughout the Amazon Basin for its thatch, fibers, wood, and edible fruits. The fruits of this species are especially important to indigenous peoples and yield a high quality oil. This study examines the use of this species by the Siona people of the Ecuadorian Amazon in the Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve. The reproductive phenology, fruit production, and relationship between vegetative characteristics and fruit production is explored here. Fruit production varies greatly from palm to palm with a range of approximately 500–7000 fruits biennially. This amounts to approximately 700 kg/ha every two years. Height, diameter breast height (dbh), and number of leaves on an individual are poor predictors of tree productivity. Reproductive histories of individual palms are examined. The economic potential of this species and the implications of overharvesting are discussed.
ChargeView: An integrated tool for implementing chargeback in IT systems

Most organizations are becoming increasingly reliant on IT product and services to manage their daily operations. The total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes the hardware and software purchase cost, management cost, etc., has significantly increased and forms one of the major portions of the total expenditure of the company. CIOs have been struggling to justify the increased costs and at the same time fulfill the IT needs of their organizations. For businesses to be successful, these costs need to be carefully accounted and attributed to specific processes or user groups/departments responsible for the consumption of IT resources. This process is called IT chargeback and although desirable, is hard to implement because of the increased consolidation of IT resources via technologies like virtualization. Current IT chargeback methods are either too complex or too adhoc, and often a times lead to unnecessary tensions between IT and business departments and fail to achieve the goal for which chargeback was implemented. This paper presents a new tool called ChargeView that automates the process of IT costing and chargeback. First, it provides a flexible hierarchical framework that encapsulates the cost of IT operations at different level of granularity. Second, it provides an easy way to account for different kind of hardware and management costs. Third, it permits implementation of multiple chargeback policies that fit the organization goals and establishes relationship between the cost and the usage by different users and departments within an organization. Finally, its advanced analytics functions can keep track of usage and cost trends, measure unused resources and aid in determining service pricing. We discuss the prototype implementation of ChargeView and show how it has been used for managing complex systems and storage networks.
Among the colony: Ethnographic fieldwork, urban bees and intra-species mindfulness

As a part of a larger ethnographic study of urban beekeepers in New York City, this article considers the challenges of conducting multispecies participant observation – being in the field with bot...
Effective Population Size and the Efficacy of Selection on the X Chromosomes of Two Closely Related Drosophila Species

The prevalence of natural selection relative to genetic drift is of central interest in evolutionary biology. Depending on the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations, the importance of these evolutionary forces may differ in species with different effective population sizes. Here, we survey population genetic variation at 105 orthologous X-linked protein coding regions in Drosophila melanogaster and its sister species D. simulans, two closely related species with distinct demographic histories. We observe significantly higher levels of polymorphism and evidence for stronger selection on codon usage bias in D. simulans, consistent with a larger historical effective population size on average for this species. Despite these differences, we estimate that <10% of newly arising nonsynonymous mutations have deleterious fitness effects in the nearly neutral range (i.e., -10 < N(e)s < 0) in both species. The inferred distributions of fitness effects and demographic models translate into surprisingly high estimates of the fraction of "adaptive" protein divergence in both species (∼ 85-90%). Despite evidence for different demographic histories, differences in population size have apparently played little role in the dynamics of protein evolution in these two species, and estimates of the adaptive fraction (α) of protein divergence in both species remain high even if we account for recent 10-fold growth. Furthermore, although several recent studies have noted strong signatures of recurrent adaptive protein evolution at genes involved in immunity, reproduction, sexual conflict, and intragenomic conflict, our finding of high levels of adaptive protein divergence at randomly chosen proteins (with respect to function) suggests that many other factors likely contribute to the adaptive protein divergence signature in Drosophila.
Closed-End Funds: A Survey

New theories have emerged over the past 10 years that reveal CEFs to be an important and efficient organizational device. This review surveys the old and current literature on closed-end funds (CEFs) in general and theories of discounts in particular. Among the topics reviewed are liquidity transformation, the effects of tax overhang, the importance of managerial fees, the provision of leverage services, the impact of the potential irrationality of small investors on discounts, and rationality of CEFs' initial public offering (IPO) process.
Laser in situ Keratomileusis for Myopia of -2 to -25 Diopters

PURPOSE: To evaluate excimer laser in situ keratomileusis in the treatment of low, high, and excessively myopic eyes in Taiwan, 77 patients (104 eyes) were treated with Nidek EC-5000 excimer laser and divided into four groups. METHODS: In situ keratomileusis was performed with a Chiron or SCMD microkeratome. The Nidek EC-5000 excimer laser was used, with multiple passes and a multiple zone ablation technique was performed for myopia higher than -10.00 D. RESULTS: In eyes with a preoperative spherical power equal to or less than -7.00 D (29 eyes of 18 patients), the preoperative cycloplegic mean spherical equivalent refraction was -5.44 +/- 1.36 D. The mean postoperative subjective spherical equivalent refraction was 0.25 +/- 0.64 D at 1 month, 0.056 +/- 0.55 D at 3 months, -0.069 +/- 0.415 D at 6 months, and 0.022 +/- 0.496 D at 9 months. The predictability of postoperative 9 month results demonstrated that 86.21% of eyes were within +/-0.50 D, 96.55% were within +/-1.00 D, and 100% were within +/-2.00 D of emmetropia. In eyes with a preoperative spherical power equal to or less than -10.00 D and higher than -7.00 D, 26 eyes of 17 patients had a preoperative cycloplegic mean spherical equivalent refraction of -8.41 +/- 0.84 D. The mean postoperative subjective spherical equivalent refraction was -0.043 +/- 1.15 D at 1 month, -0.12 +/- 0.92 D at 3 months, -0.21 +/- 1.05 D at 6 months, and -0.37 +/- 1.04 D at 9 months. The predictability of postoperative 9 month results demonstrated that 76.92% of eyes were within +/-0.50 D, 80.77% were within +/-1.00 D, and 96.5% were within +/-2.00 D of emmetropia. In eyes with a preoperative spherical power equal to or less than -15.00 D and more than than -10.00 D, 40 eyes of 27 patients had a preoperative cycloplegic mean spherical equivalent refraction of -12.65 +/- 1.51 D. The mean postoperative subjective spherical equivalent refraction was 0.275 +/- 1.72 D at 1 month, -0.30 +/- 1.34 D at 3 months, -0.47 +/- 1.23 D at 6 months, and -0.62 +/- 1.23 D at 9 months. The predictability of postoperative 9 month results demonstrated that 62.5% of eyes were within +/-0.50 D, 75% were within +/-1.00 D, and 87.5% were within +/-2.00 D of emmetropia. For 19 eyes of 15 patients with a preoperative spherical power greater than -15.00 D, the preoperative cycloplegic mean spherical equivalent refraction was -19.53 +/- 2.61 D. The mean postoperative subjective spherical equivalent refraction was -0.40 +/- 1.22 D at 1 month, -0.69 +/- 1.34 D at 3 months, -0.83 +/- 1.40 D at 6 months, and -0.65 +/- 2.99 D at 9 months. The predictability of postoperative 9 month results demonstrated that 31.5% of eyes were within +/-0.50 D, 52.63% were within +/-1.00 D, and 63.16% were within +/-2.00 D. CONCLUSION: LASIK is a safe and effective technique for the treatment of low, high, and excessive myopia.
Defectivity prediction for droplet-dispensed UV nanoimprint lithography, enabled by fast simulation of resin flow at feature, droplet, and template scales

Full-field, physically-based simulation of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is needed to address the throughput-versus-yield challenges that are currently faced by NIL. We demonstrate a simulation framework that can track the spreading and coalescence of tens of thousands of picoliter-volume resin droplets beneath a nanoimprint template, predicting evolution of feature filling and residual layer thickness (RLT) uniformity during the imprinting of geometrically complex designs such as found in solid-state memory. We have used the framework to explore directionality of droplet spreading beneath patterned templates, the role of template curvature in mitigating gas entrapment, and detrimental elastic deflections at wafer-edge partial imprint fields.
Clear-cell carcinoma of the liver. A clinicopathologic study of 13 patients.

From a 25-year period (1947 through 1971), records of 150 patients with primary carcinoma of the liver, treated at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, were reviewed. Histologic examination of the primary lesions from these patients yielded 13 cases (8.7%) in which the tumors were characterized by large numbers of vacuolated “clear” cells. Historically, these lesions have on occasion been confused with heterotopic or metastatic renal–adrenal neoplasms. More recendy, these clear-cell variants of hepatocellular carcinoma have been recognized, and a relatively favorable clinical behavior has been attributed to them. Our present findings suggest that the prognosis of clear-cell carcinoma of the liver is similar to that of hepatocellular carcinoma in general.
ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder

The outcome of 131 children with ADHD (101 males, 30 females; mean age 5 years, range 3 to 7 years) with and without oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) was determined in a prospective study at the University of Goteborg, Sweden.
Photosynthetic light response of flooded cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda) seedlings grown in two light regimes.

Two-year-old cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda Raf.) seedlings raised in full or partial (27%) sunlight were flooded for 30 days to study the effects of light availability and root inundation on photosynthetic light response. Compared with seedlings receiving full sunlight, seedlings receiving partial sunlight developed leaves with 90% greater blade area, 26% less mass per unit volume, and 35% lower nitrogen (N) concentration per unit area, leading to a 15% reduction in leaf photosynthetic capacity when carbon exchange rates were based on blade area. However, when carbon exchange rates were based on leaf mass, leaves acclimated to partial sunlight exhibited a 15% greater photosynthetic capacity realized primarily through an increased initial slope of the photosynthetic light response (A/PPFD) curve and increased net photosynthesis at leaf saturation (A max ). Short-term flooding increased leaf mass per unit area more than 19%, reduced foliar N concentrations per unit dry mass by 19%, and initiated reductions in A max and apparent quantum yield (Φ) of seedlings in both light regimes. Greatest impairment of A max (56% area basis, 65% mass basis) and Φ (40%) were observed in leaves receiving full sunlight, and the declines were concomitant with a 35% decrease in chlorophyll concentration. Flooding also depressed instantaneous photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PPNUE) such that A max decreased 54%, and the initial slope of PPNUE/PPFD curves decreased 33 and 50% for leaves acclimated to partial and full sunlight, respectively. The A/PPFD patterns indicated that the magnitude of flood-induced inhibition of the photosynthetic mechanism of cherrybark oak seedlings is determined partly by the light environment.
The effect of DL-methionine, vitamin B 12, and thyroid powder on metabolism of formiminoglutamic acid in rats.

SummaryThe effect of methionine and folic acid on metabolism of FIGLU was studied in liver homogenate of rats fed diets which were either deficient or supplemented with vitamin B12, thyroid powder, and methionine. The increased levels of FIGLU in urine and liver caused by either vitamin B12 deficiency or by feeding thyroid powder and absence of FIGLU accumulation in urine and liver by administration of methionine in diet confirmed the previously reported results. The addition of methionine either singly or in combination with tetrahydrofolic acid or with 5,10- methenyltet-rahydrofolic acid to the liver homogenate of vitamin B12-deficient and/or thyroid-fed rats did not affect the rate of FIGLU breakdown in liver homogenate.
Traders, planters, and slaves : market behavior in early English America

List of tables Preface 1. The Atlantic slave trade and the early development of the English West Indies 2. Shipping and mortality 3. Slave prices in the Barbados market, 1673-1723 4. On the order of purchases by characteristics at slave sales 5. The demographic composition of the slave trade: an economic investigation 6. Establishing geographic persistence from market observations: population turnover among estate owners and managers in Barbados and Jamaica, 1673-1725 7. The economic structure of the early Atlantic slave trade: the challenge of Adam Smith's analysis Appendices Notes Selected bibliography Index.
Amplitude Dependence of Metastable Defect Formation

The kinetics of small changes from thermal equilibrium are measured and simulated for thermally induced metastable changes. We find that only a distribution of rate constants is consistent with the data, and therefore we can eliminate certain types of microscopic models for metastability which depend on a single variable such as the carrier density.
Serum Therapy of Botulism in Monkeys

Serum therapy of botulism in human beings has not met with the success that has been obtained in the serum therapy of some other diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus. In severe cases of botulism the symptoms, after first appearing usually become progressively worse in a short time allowing only a brief interval in which to secure and administer antitoxin. The death of guinea-pigs and dogs from botulism has been delayed by giving artificial respiration 1 and by administering anesthetics.2
Evaluation of Cultivated and Wild Peanut Species for Resistance to the Lesser Cornstalk Borer (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Collections of cultivated peanuts, Arachis hypogaea L., and wild Arachis species were screened for resistance to the lesser cornstalk borer, Elasmopalpus lignosellus (Zeller), in naturally infested field plots for 6 years. Plants were scored at harvest time for the number of borer-damaged pegs and pods. Of 120 cultivated lines initially evaluated, 30 selections were tested for each of 5 additional years. As compared with the moderate level of resistance found in the cultivar ‘Florigiant,’ 28 of the selected lines had equal ( P = 0.05) or significantly higher levels of resistance (P ≥ 0.05). A moderately high level of resistance to E. lignosellus in field tests was observed with two ‘Valencia’-type peanuts (subsp. fastigiata var. fastigiata) , PI 269116 and PI 275744 and one ‘Spanish’-type peanut (subsp. fastigiata var. vulgaris ), PI 262000. The levels of resistance among the 27 wild Arachis species collections tested are not sufficiently high to justify a breeding program for germplasm introgression from wild to cultivated peanuts.
Effects of concentration prior to cold-stabilization on anthocyanin stability in concord grape juice.

The color of Concord grape juice produced by concentration before cold-stabilization and detartration (direct-to-concentrate, DTC) was compared to juice produced via cold-stabilization prior to con...
A Study of Probabilistic and Algebraic Methods for Semantic Similarity.

We study and propose in this article several novel solutions to the task of semantic similarity between two short texts. The proposed solutions are based on the probabilistic method of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and on the algebraic method of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). Both methods, LDA and LSA, are completely automated methods used to discover latent topics or concepts from large collection of documents. We propose a novel word-to-word similarity measure based on LDA as well as several text-totext similarity measures. We compare these measures with similar, known measures based on LSA. Experiments and results are presented on two data sets: the Microsoft Research Paraphrase corpus and the User Language Paraphrase corpus. We found that the novel word-to-word similarity measure based on LDA is extremely promising.
Bottleneck analysis and strategic planning using Tanahashi model for childhood diarrhea management in Gujarat, Western India

In spite of continued efforts, India is still lagging behind in achieving its MDG goals. The objectives of this study were to identify stake-holders who have a role to play in childhood diarrhea management, to identify gaps in childhood diarrhea management and to propose strategic options for relieving these gaps. Bottleneck analysis exercise was carried out based on the Tanahashi model in six High Priority Districts (HPDs) of Gujarat in period between July-November 2013. The major bottlenecks identified for Childhood Diarrhea management were poor demand generation, unsafe drinking water, poor access to improved sanitation facility and lack of equitable distribution and replenishment mechanisms for Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) packets and Zinc tablets till the front-line worker level. The main strategic options that were suggested for relieving these bottlenecks were Zinc-ORS roll out in scale-up districts, develop Information Education Communication/Behaviour Change Communication (IEC/BCC) plan for childhood diarrhea management at state/district level, use of Drug Logistics Information Management System (DLIMS) software for supply chain management of Zinc-ORS, strengthening of chlorination activity at household level, monitoring implementation of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA) for constructing improved sanitation facilities at household level and to develop an IEC/BCC plan for hygiene promotion and usage of sanitary latrines. Use of Zinc tablets need to be intensified through an effective scale-up. Adequate demand generation activity is needed. There is need to address safe drinking water and improved sanitation measures at household levels. Multi-sectoral engagements and ownership of Zinc-ORS program is the need of the hour.
Experiments in talking

Two perspectives are offered here on a project of the Society for Psychoanalytic Inquiry entitled “Experiments in Talking,” the aim of which is to glimpse the possibilities engendered by our communicative capacities by placing people in conversations where they are asked to talk and listen to one another in an intensive fashion.
Murine In vitro Memory T Cell Differentiation.

Upon pathogen encounter, naive CD8+ T cells are primed and undergo massive clonal expansion. A fraction of effector CD8+ T cells remains during the contraction phase and differentiate into memory T cells critical for mounting robust recall responses in response to secondary infection. Low frequency of memory T cells in vivo is a major obstacle to investigate their functional aspects including migration capacity and genetic regulation. Here, we describe detailed protocol for memory T cell differentiation developed by von Andrian’s group to generate large number of CD44hiCD62Lhi antigen-specific memory T cells in vitro.
Electrodynamics of spoof plasmons in periodically corrugated waveguides

States of the electromagnetic field confined near a periodically corrugated surface of a perfect conductor, spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPP), are approached systematically based on the developed adaptation of the mode matching technique to the transfer matrix formalism. Within this approach, in the approximation of narrow grooves, systems with arbitrary transversal structure can be investigated straightforwardly, thus lifting the restrictions of the effective medium description and usual implementations of mode matching. A compact expression for the SSPP coupling parameter accounting for the effect of higher Bloch modes is found. The results of the general analysis are applied for studying the effect of dielectric environment on SSPP spectra. It is shown that the effective SSPP plasma frequency is unaffected by the dielectric constant of the medium outside of the grooves and the main effect of sufficiently wide dielectric slabs covering the corrugated surface is described by simple rescaling of the maximal value of the Bloch wavenumber and the coupling parameter. Additionally, in the case of a thin dielectric layer, it is shown that SSPP are sensitive to variation of the thickness of the layer on the sub-wavelength scale.
Thermodynamic Considerations for Advanced, High Efficiency IC Engines

Thermodynamics is the key discipline for determining and quantifying the elements of advanced engine designs which lead to high efficiency. In spite of its importance, thermodynamics is often not given full consideration in understanding engine operation for high efficiency. By fully utilizing the first and second laws of thermodynamics, detailed understanding of the engine features that provide for high efficiency may be determined. Of all the possible features that contribute to high efficiency, the results of this study show that highly diluted engines with high compression ratios provide the greatest impact for high efficiencies. Other important improvements which increase the efficiency include reduced heat losses, optimal combustion phasing, reduced friction, and reduced combustion duration. Thermodynamic quantification of these concepts is provided. For one comparison, the brake thermal efficiency increased from about 34% for the conventional engine to about 48% for the engine with one set of the above features. One aspect that contributes to these improvements is the importance of the ratio of specific heats (“gamma”). In addition, these design features often result in low emissions due to the low combustion temperatures.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
The unusual eyes of Xenos peckii (Strepsiptera: Xenidae) have green- and UV--sensitive photoreceptors.

ABSTRACT The highly specialized evolution of Strepsiptera has produced one of the most unusual eyes among mature insects, perhaps in line with their extremely complex and challenging life cycle. This relatively rare insect order is one of the few for which it has been unclear what spectral classes of photoreceptors any of its members may possess, an even more apt question given the nocturnal evolution of the group. To address this question, we performed electroretinograms on adult male Xenos peckii: we measured spectral responses to equi-quantal monochromatic light flashes of different wavelengths, and established VlogI relationships to calculate spectral sensitivities. Based on opsin template fits, we found maximal spectral sensitivity (λmax) in the green domain at 539 nm. Application of a green light to ‘bleach’ green receptors revealed that a UV peak was contributed to by an independent UV opsin with a λmax of 346 nm. Transcriptomics and a phylogenetic analysis including 50 other opsin sequences further confirmed the presence of these two opsin classes. While these findings do not necessarily indicate that these unorthodox insects have color vision, they raise the possibility that UV vision plays an important role in the ability of X. peckii males to find the very cryptic strepsipteran females that are situated within their wasp hosts.
The Formation and Growth of a Hairpin Vortex

Direct numerical simulation was used to study the formation and growth of a hairpin vortex in a flat-plate boundary layer. Fluid injection through the wall initiated a vortex which then spawned secondary and tertiary vortices before viscosity damped the disturbance. A second simulation in which the blowing was much weaker, but extended over a larger streamwise distance did not produce a hairpin vortex.
Inauthentic communication, organization-public relationships, and trust: A content analysis of online astroturfing news coverage

Abstract Guided by authenticity, organization-public relationship, and relationship management literature, this exploratory study uses content analysis to examine the impact of news coverage surrounding astroturfing as a means to understand whether astroturfing, or inauthentic communication, undermines the authenticity of and trust within online organization-public relationships. Findings suggested that positivity and networking strategies have significant associations with dimensions of trust. Strategic implications are discussed.
The “lost” u.s. technical reports: Obtaining reports from the 1940S and '50S

Abstract Although centralized distribution of U.S. government technical reports began in 1946, the reports distributed by predecessors of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for the first 15 years are now effectively “lost.” They are not available from NTIS, and they are not listed in the NTIS bibliographic database. Those reports are available from the Photoduplication Service of the Library of Congress, and many are available from other sources as well. This article describes bibliographic tools and resources available to identify those reports and provides advice on how to obtain them at a reasonable price.
Theory, simulations, and experiments show that proteins fold by multiple pathways.

In PNAS (1), Englander and Mayne repeat an assertion, already made by them along with Bai and Sosnick in 1995 (2), that the modern energy landscape theory of protein folding, by emphasizing the parallelism of potential folding pathways, is incompatible with evidence that in some cases a single particular sequence of folding substructures dominates the set of folding trajectories. This assertion of the authors was false when made in 1995, and since then considerable collaborative work between the experimental and theoretical communities has made an irrefutable case against the notion that the only way proteins fold is by a single obligate pathway (ref. 3 and … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: eaton{at}helix.nih.gov or pwolynes{at}rice.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1