cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sub-Saharan African Culture and Entrepreneurial Activities: A Ghanaian Perspective: An Abstract

Whereas several studies have investigated cultural values and entrepreneurship in terms of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions from a Western-world “lens,” we take a slightly different approach in that three of our six Ghanaian cultural values intersect with three of Hofstede’s dimensions (i.e., power distance, collectivism, and masculinity-femininity). Thus, six traditional Ghanaian cultural values (i.e., godliness, belief in paranormal activities, character or moral value, respect for the elderly, a sense of community, and the sanctity of man) are juxtaposed with entrepreneurial features allowing us to put forward potential relationship between culture and entrepreneurial behavior. Zoogah (2013) writes that, unlike American cultures, research in anthropology, sociology, and psychology shows that sub-Saharan African cultures are collectivistic, cooperative, and less autonomous. Ghanaian culture, for instance, is consistent with sub-Saharan African culture in that individuals think of not only themselves and their immediate family but also their extended family members (Zoogah 2013). Ghanaians, like sub-Saharan Africans (see Oppong 2003), depend on and provide support to one another, offering guidance and behavioral modeling for younger members. Our discussion implies and assumes these underlying commonalities and affinities running through sub-Saharan African and, specifically, Ghanaian culture.
On the Relation Between Products’ Relevance and Customers’ Satisfaction in Voice Shopping

In this talk we consider the domain of voice shopping in Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. In this domain, search scenarios are integral part of the shopping sessions, where users seek for a product to buy, or for some information about a product. The fact that in voice search, both the input and output are spoken, involves many challenges in automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding, question answering, and new user experiences. We will elaborate on customers’ behavior in voice shopping, where we have observed an interesting and surprising phenomenon that many customers purchase or engage with irrelevant search results. The term “irrelevance” may mislead, since a relevant item is typically interpreted as “anything that satisfies the user needs”. Thus, the title of this work may look as an oxymoron – the purchase of a product is a strong signal of relevance to the customer. In the context of this work we take a simplified approach. We mark product items as relevant or irrelevant to the user query based on the relevance judgments of several human annotators. However, even in the context of objective relevance judgments, it is still surprising that so many customers engage with irrelevant results. We will analyze this phenomenon and demonstrate its significance. We will offer several hypotheses as to the reasons behind customers’ purchase and engagement with irrelevant results, including customers’ personal preferences, trendiness of the products and their relatedness to the query, the query intent and the product price.
Effect of aneurysm morphologic parameters on occlusion rates following pipeline embolization

Abstract Objective Treatment failures with the use of Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) continue to be observed in up to 18% of patients in large case series. Adjunctive coiling and layering of multiple devices have been shown to improve occlusion rates; however, the optimal treatment strategy with the use of PED has not been established. The purpose of this study is to identify morphological characteristics predictive of treatment failure after PED. Patient and methods A case control design was used to evaluate the association of aneurysm morphologic parameters with failure after PED placement. Retrospective analysis of patients undergoing PED for elective aneurysm treatment between 2014 and 2017 was performed. Patients who underwent PED placement with at least 12 months follow-up using conventional cerebral angiography were included for further review. Results 84 patients met inclusion criteria for further analysis. ten patients (11.9%) experienced treatment failure defined by retained flow within the aneurysm and of those eight patients (9.5%) required additional retreatment. On multivariate analysis decreasing aspect ratio and increasing neck width were significant parameters that predicted treatment failure. Conclusion Aneurysms with small aspect ratio and large neck width may be more likely to experience treatment failure after PED embolization. This subset of aneurysms may therefore benefit from adjunctive coiling to improve occlusion rates. Future prospective studies are needed to validate these findings.
A Technical Introduction to AXIOM

AXIOM has both an interactive language for user interactions and a programming language for building library modules. Like Modula 2, PASCAL, FORTRAN, and Ada, the programming language emphasizes strict type-checking. Unlike these languages, types in AXIOM are dynamic objects: they are created at run-time in response to user commands.
A Simple High Efficiency Protocol for Pancreatic Islet Isolation from Mice.

Pancreatic islets, also called the Islets of Langerhans, are a cluster of endocrine cells which produces hormones for glucose regulation and other important biological functions. The islets primarily consist of five types of hormone-secreting cells: α cells secrete glucagon, β cells secrete insulin, δ cells secrete somatostatin, e cells secrete ghrelin, and PP cells secrete pancreatic polypeptide. Sixty to 80% of the cells in the islets are β cells, which are the most important cell population to study insulin secretion. Pancreatic islets are a crucial model system to study ex vivo insulin secretion. Acquiring high quality islets is of great importance for diabetes research. Most islet isolation procedures require technically difficult to access site of collagenase injection, harsh and complex digestion procedures, and multiple density gradient purification steps. This paper features a simple high yield mouse islet isolation method with detailed descriptions and realistic demonstrations, showing the following specific steps: 1) injection of collagenase P at the ampulla of Vater, a small area joining the pancreatic duct and the common bile duct, 2) enzymatic digestion and mechanical separation of the exocrine pancreas, and 3) a single gradient purification step. The advantages of this method are the injection of digestive enzyme using the more accessible ampulla of Vater, more complete digestion using combination of enzymatic and mechanical approaches, and a simpler single gradient purification step. This protocol produces approximately 250-350 islets per mouse; and islets are suitable for various ex vivo studies. Possible caveats of this procedure are potentially damaged islets due to enzymatic digestion and/or prolonged gradient incubation, all of which can be largely avoided by careful ad justification of incubation time.
Abstract 904: Disrupted Mechanobiology Links the Molecular and Cellular Phenotypes in Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Familial dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death and a major indicator for heart transplant. The disease is frequently caused by mutations of sarcomeric proteins; ho...
Electronic Cigarette Aerosol Modulates the Oral Microbiome and Increases Risk of Infection

Summary The trend of e-cigarette use among teens is ever increasing. Here we show the dysbiotic oral microbial ecology in e-cigarette users influencing the local host immune environment compared with non-smoker controls and cigarette smokers. Using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, we evaluated 119 human participants, 40 in each of the three cohorts, and found significantly altered beta-diversity in e-cigarette users (p = 0.006) when compared with never smokers or tobacco cigarette smokers. The abundance of Porphyromonas and Veillonella (p = 0.008) was higher among vapers. Interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1β were highly elevated in e-cigarette users when compared with non-users. Epithelial cell-exposed e-cigarette aerosols were more susceptible for infection. In vitro infection model of premalignant Leuk-1 and malignant cell lines exposed to e-cigarette aerosol and challenged by Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum resulted in elevated inflammatory response. Our findings for the first time demonstrate that e-cigarette users are more prone to infection.
Women who undergo liver transplant have longer length of stay post‐transplant compared with men

BACKGROUND Women on the liver transplant waitlist are at greater risk of hospitalization compared with men, but whether this impacts length of stay (LOS) post-transplant is unknown. We aimed to evaluate gender disparities in post-transplant LOS, an important surrogate of health resource utilization post-transplant. METHODS Using the UNOS/OPTN registry, we analysed all non-Status 1 adult deceased donor liver transplant recipients without exception points from 2008 to 2017. Poisson regression associated female gender with post-transplant LOS. RESULTS Of 27 294 transplant recipients, 36% were women. Women were more likely to be hospitalized pretransplant than men (44% vs 39%, P < .01). Post-transplant, women were more likely to have prolonged (≥20d) LOS (25% vs 22%, P < .01). In univariable analysis, female gender was associated with longer post-transplant LOS (IRR 1.09, 95%CI 1.06-1.12, P < .01). Prolonged pretransplant admission was also associated with post-transplant LOS (IRR 1.83, 95%CI 1.77-1.89, P < .01). In multivariable analysis, female gender remained independently associated with post-transplant LOS (aIRR 1.05, 95%CI 1.02-1.08, P < .01), after adjustment for age, UNOS region, insurance type, MELDNa, cirrhosis complications, and donor risk index. Pretransplant hospitalization mediated this relationship, explaining 14.1% (95%CI 9.7%-25.4%) of the total effect. CONCLUSIONS Women who undergo deceased donor liver transplant have increased healthcare utilization in the peritransplant period compared with men. Reducing gender disparities in liver transplantation, including the disproportionate burden of healthcare utilization by women pre- and post-transplant, will require interventions targeted at preventing hospitalization among women on the transplant waitlist and developing tools aimed at better characterizing the severity of end-stage liver disease in women.
AFFINITY CHROMATOGRAPHY RESOLUTION OF PLASMINOGEN ISOZYMES

ABSTRACT. Two major forms of rabbit plasminogen have been isolated by affinity chromatography from rabbit plasma. One form consists of 5 subforms with an isoelectric pI range of 6.20–7.78. The other plasminogen form can also be resolved into 5 subforms, but these possess an isoelectric pI range of 6.95–8.74. All plasminogen forms and subforms can be converted to plasmin by common plasminogen activators such as urokinase, streptokinase, and the streptokinase-human plasmin (ogen) complex. Each major plasminogen form, as well as all isolated subforms, possesses nearly identical molecular weights of approximately 90,000 and is a single chain molecule. In addition, each major form contains identical amino- and carboxyl-terminal amino acids and identical amino terminal amino acid sequences through at least 12 residues. Carbohydrate analyses indicate differences in sialic acid, neutral sugars and hexosamines between the two major forms. Removal of the sialic acid from each form abolishes the electrophoretic differences between the forms and also leads to loss of resolution of some of the component subforms. However, the affinity chromatography resolution of the two major forms is not affected by removal of the sialic acid. Metabolic studies in intact animals demonstrate that both major plasminogen forms possess dissimilar rates of turnover and synthesis and are not interconverted. Pre-steady state kinetic analyses, using specific p-nitrophenolate esters, of the plasmins resulting from the urokinase induced activation of each major rabbit plasminogen form demonstrate that substrates bind more tightly to plasmin form 1 than plasmin form 2. Acylation rate constants for these substrates are very similar for each plasmin form.
Identifying genes and cell types with dynamic alternative polyadenylation in multi-cluster single-cell transcriptomics data

ABSTRACT Alternative polyadenylation (APA) causes shortening or lengthening of the 3’-untranslated region (3’-UTR), widespread in complex tissues. Bioinformatic tools have been developed to identify dynamic APA in single cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) data, but with relatively low power and the lack of interpretability for multiple cell types. To address these limitations, we developed a model-based method, scMAPA. scMAPA increases power by building a regression model based on a sensitive quantification of 3’-UTR short and long isoforms. By developing a de novo simulation platform, we demonstrated that scMAPA shows a markedly better sensitivity (9.5% on average) than the previous method with a negligible loss in specificity (0.3% on average). scMAPA improves interpretability by modeling the direction and the degree of dynamic APA for each cell type for each gene, while allowing flexibility to control potential confounders. scMAPA enables to bring a systematic understanding of APA dynamics in complex tissues in human Peripheral Blood Monocellular Cells and mouse brain data.
Real-time optimization using reinforcement learning

Abstract This work introduces a novel methodology for real-time optimization (RTO) of process systems using reinforcement learning (RL), where optimal decisions in response to external stimuli become embedded into a neural network. This is in contrast to the conventional RTO methodology, where a process model is solved repeatedly for optimality. This reinforcement learning real-time optimization methodology (RL-RTO) utilizes an actor-critic architecture similar to that being used in dynamic control research. However, the methodology presented here is purely for steady-state optimization, which is a novel feature of this work. This work also presents a novel, hybrid training methodology, where a gradient-based optimization solver is used for the training the value network (or critic) and a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm (particle swarm optimization or PSO) is used for training the policy network (or actor). Using this novel training algorithm, the neural networks representing the RL application can be updated in real-time or by using a batch-online training methodology. This technique allows for a solver to utilize the entire data set and attempt to find a global optimum, rather than by taking smaller, incremental update steps after each new data point is collected. As the process system runs and more data becomes available, the critic and the actor networks can be updated in sequence so that the RL-RTO application continually updates itself and gets closer to approaching true optimality. A process system (a chemical reactor) is used as a demonstration case study and also to compare the performance of RL-RTO to a conventional RTO methodology, which uses a near-perfect first principles model of the system, combined with a nonlinear programming (NLP) optimization technique. Each of these methods is compared to a brute force operational methodology in which the system's product throughput is maximized. The RL-RTO application demonstrates promise, as it improves the reactor's annual profit by 9.6%. By comparison, the first principles plus NLP method improves the profit by 17.2%. These RL-RTO results, while promising, indicate that there is still more development needed for RL-RTO to be a viable competitor to the conventional methods.
Type I interferon signaling limits viral vector priming of CD8+ T cells during initiation of vitiligo and melanoma immunotherapy

Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease in which epidermal melanocytes are targeted for destruction by CD8+ T cells specific for melanocyte/melanoma-shared antigens. IFNγ is the central cytokine driving disease, but the role of type I IFN in vitiligo remains unclear. We investigated the functional role of type I IFN during vitiligo progression using two different mouse models: one induced with a vaccinia virus (VV) vaccine and one induced with dendritic cells to prime autoimmune T cells. Induction of vitiligo by VV in IFNaR-deficient mice led to the development of severe vitiligo compared with wild-type (WT) mice and was characterized by a significantly enhanced effector CD8+ T-cell response. Severe vitiligo in this model was a result of VV persistence, because exacerbation of disease in IFNaR-deficient mice was not observed when antigen-pulsed dendritic cells were used to induce vitiligo instead of virus. Treatment of B16F10 melanoma-inoculated mice with VV vaccine therapy also induced a significantly enhanced anti-tumor response in IFNaR-deficient mice compared with WT. These results not only help define the pathways responsible for vitiligo progression but also suggest that blockade of type I IFNs following administration of a VV vaccine may provide increased immunogenicity and efficacy for melanoma immunotherapy.
Taming Wild Price Fluctuations: Monotone Stochastic Convex Optimization with Bandit Feedback.

Prices generated by automated price experimentation algorithms often display wild fluctuations, leading to unfavorable customer perceptions and violations of individual fairness: e.g., the price seen by a customer can be significantly higher than what was seen by her predecessors, only to fall once again later. To address this concern, we propose demand learning under a monotonicity constraint on the sequence of prices, within the framework of stochastic convex optimization with bandit feedback. Our main contribution is the design of the first sublinear-regret algorithms for monotonic price experimentation for smooth and strongly concave revenue functions under noisy as well as noiseless bandit feedback. The monotonicity constraint presents a unique challenge: since any increase (or decrease) in the decision-levels is final, an algorithm needs to be cautious in its exploration to avoid over-shooting the optimum. At the same time, minimizing regret requires that progress be made towards the optimum at a sufficient pace. Balancing these two goals is particularly challenging under noisy feedback, where obtaining sufficiently accurate gradient estimates is expensive. Our key innovation is to utilize conservative gradient estimates to adaptively tailor the degree of caution to local gradient information, being aggressive far from the optimum and being increasingly cautious as the prices approach the optimum. Importantly, we show that our algorithms guarantee the same regret rates (up to logarithmic factors) as the best achievable rates of regret without the monotonicity requirement.
E-Mail Privacy and Psychological Contract Violation, and Their Influence on Trust in Top Management and Affective Commitment

This study used communication privacy management and psychological contract (PC) theory to see if employee concerns about e-mail privacy would influence their feelings of PC violation and trust in top management. In addition, this study examined the impact of perceived PC violations on employees’ feelings of trust in top management and affective organizational commitment. A total of 251 participants filled out a Web questionnaire. Results were consistent with the theoretical perspective, as feelings of email privacy were linked to perceived PC violations and trust in top management. These perceptions, in turn, were related to employees’ feelings of affective commitment.
Structural Human Ecology

Structural human ecology (SHE) is an effort to link environmental sociology with work in the other environmental social sciences, but also with work in the ecological and physical environmental sciences, and via ethical considerations and historical analyses, with the humanities. We review the six major themes of contemporary SHE: evolutionary thinking, linking the micro and the macro, risk as a framework for thinking about environmental and sustainability issues, examining the tension between reform and transformation, thinking about all drivers of change in consort, and taking account of non-humans. We review these and offer some thoughts about the future of SHE.
Moráceas nuevas de Colombia

Coussapoa chocoensis Cuatr., sp. nov. / Coussapoa cinnamomea Cuatr., sp. nov. / Coussapoa contorta Cuatr., sp. nov. / Coussapoa danielis Cuatr.. sp. nov. / Coussapoa dolichandra Cuatr., sp. nov. / Coussapoa macarenensis Cuatr., sp. nov. / Coussapoa macarenensis var. arrtioquiensis Cuatr., var. nov. / Coussapoa mutisii Killip et Cuatrecasas, sp, nov. / Coussapoa planitiensis Cuatr., sp, nov. / Coussapoa vannifolia Cuatr .. sp. nov. / Pourouma apaporiensis Cuatr .. sp. nov. / Pourouma apaporiensis fma. macrophylla Cuatr., var. nov. / Pourouma garciana Cuatr., sp, nov. / Pourouma hispida Standley et Cuatr., sp. nov. / Pourouma jaramilloi Cuatr., sp. nov. / Pourouma oraria Standley et Cuatr., sp. nov. / Pourouma schultesii Cuatr.. sp. nov. / Pourouma tergoscabra Cuatr., sp. nov.
Properties of Feline Leukemia Virus I. Chromatographic Separation and Analysis of the Polypeptides

Rickard's strain of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) contains two large glycoproteins and five smaller polypeptides of molecular weights 100,000 (gp >/= 100), 70,000 (gp70), 30,000 (p30), 21,000 (p21), 15,000 (p15), 11,200 (p11), and 10,000 (p10) when chromatographed on 6% agarose in the presence of 6 M guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl). P21 is a minor component which was not previously described for mammalian leukemia-sarcoma viruses and may be analogous to the seventh protein found in avian viruses. Analysis on 4% agarose and by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that gp >/= 100 is actually >/= 200,000 daltons and dissociates to polypeptides of approximately 100,000 to 115,000 daltons, whereas gp70 can be resolved into six stained bands ranging from 40,000 to 80,000 daltons despite being rechromatographed as a single symmetrical peak on 6% agarose. Rechromatography on 8% agarose was found to be more effective than on 6% agarose or sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for obtaining the five small polypeptides, especially p11 and p10, in a highly purified form suitable for further analysis and for obtaining more precise estimates of their molecular weights, especially when done by co-chromatography with iodinated standard proteins markers. Rechromatographed p30, p21, p15, p11, and p10 had molecular weights of 27,000, 18,000, 15,000, 12,000, and 12,000 respectively, by co-electrophoresis with the marker proteins on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, clearly establishing that the latter two FeLV polypeptides comigrate to form one less band when compared to elution from agarose. The isoelectric points of p30 and p15 were 5.5 and 8.9, respectively, after renaturation from GuHCl and 5.6 and 8.7, respectively, when isolated from Tween-ether treated virus. Rechromatographed p30, p15, and p11, renatured by removing GuHCl with dialysis, reacted only with their homologous antisera in immunodiffusion analysis, indicating that they are immunologically unrelated. Also the interspecies gs-3 determinant associated with p30 could be regained by removal of GuHCl.
Professionalism Clearly Defined

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching study of legal education, Educating Lawyers (2007), finds that legal education and the profession itself could do far better at socializing students and practicing lawyers into an ethical professional identity guided by the public purpose of the profession. Existing scholarship uses "professionalism" to capture the elements of an ethical professional identity. "Professionalism Clearly Defined" examines the ABA and Conference of Chief Justice reports on professionalism and synthesizes five elements that define professionalism and an ethical professional identity. The article is the first to put personal conscience as the foundation of professionalism. It is also the first to emphasize that professionalism requires a continuing reflective engagement, over a career, on the relative importance of income and wealth in light of the other principles of professionalism. It is critical to define the elements of an ethical professional identity clearly so that legal education and the education of practicing lawyers like Georgia's required professionalism mentor program for newly admitted lawyers have clear objectives. Clear objectives make possible assessment of efforts to improve professionalism.
A New Formulation of Tabled Resolution with Delay

Tabling has become important to logic programming in part because it opens new application areas, such as model checking, to logic programming techniques. However, the development of new extensions of tabled logic programming is becoming restricted by the formalisms that underly it. Formalisms for tabled evaluations, such as SLG [3], are generally developed with a view to a specific set of allowable operations that can be performed in an evaluation. In the case of SLG, tabling operations are based on a variance relation between atoms. While the set of SLG tabling operations has proven useful for a number of applications, other types of operations, such as those based on a subsumption relation between atoms, can have practical uses. In this paper, SLG is reformulated in two ways: so that it can be parameterized using different sets of operations; and so that a forest of trees paradigm is used. Equivalence to SLG of the new formulation, Extended SLG or SLGX, is shown when the new formalism is parameterized by variant-based operations. In addition, SLGX is also parameterized by subsumption-based operations and shown correct for queries to the well-founded model. Finally, the usefulness of the forest of trees paradigm for motivating tabling optimizations is shown by formalizing the concept of relevance within a tabled evaluation.
Determination of Akt/PKB signaling.

This unit provides a basic protocol for assaying the level of activity, as well as the activation capacity and dynamics of inhibition of Akt/PKB in cultured cells. All these data can be obtained in a single nonradioactive experiment by standard techniques including immunoblotting and immunodetection with phosphospecific antibodies. This unit also provides a support protocol for assaying the membrane translocation of Akt. Keywords: Akt; protein kinase B (PKB); okadaic acid; phosphospecific antibodies
Discovery of cryptic species among North American pine‐feeding Chionaspis scale insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae)

Cryptic species are present in many animal groups and they may be best detected through large sample sizes collected over broad geographic ranges. Fine-scale local adaptation has been hypothesized to occur in armoured scale insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) and a consequence of this process may be multiple cryptic species. We estimate species diversity of pine-feeding Chionaspis scale insects across North America by inferring species boundaries using genealogical concordance across allele genealogies of two nuclear loci and one mitochondrial locus. Our ingroup sample includes 366 individual insects from 320 localities and 51 host species within the Pinaceae. We also conducted a morphological survey of all insect specimens and assigned them as either one of the two currently recognized pine-feeding species, Ch. heterophyllae, Ch. Pinifoliae, or with undescribed morphology. Using maximum likelihood allele genealogies in a majority-rule consensus to assess congruence, we conservatively detect ten species in this group. Most of these species are robust to alternative methods of genealogical inference (Bayesian inference, maximum parsimony) and a few are robust to the use of strict consensus to assess congruence. Species show both narrow and more widespread ranges where almost half of the individuals sampled belong to a single very widespread polyphagous species. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 104, 47–62.
The Drosophila Sex Determination Gene Snf Is Utilized for the Establishment of the Female-Specific Splicing Pattern of Sex-Lethal

The Drosophila snf gene is a positive regulator of the sex determination gene Sex-lethal in both the germline and the soma. Its role in the soma is only evident when the probability of Sex-lethal activation has been reduced. For instance, in an otherwise wild-type background, females homozygous for a weak snf mutation produce both male and female progeny; however, when mated to males hemizygous for a null allele of Sex-lethal, they produce only male progeny. We demonstrate that the lack of female progeny is due to aberrant Sex-lethal regulation in late embryogenesis. In these mutant embryos, there is little accumulation of the late female-specific spliced RNAs and proteins. In contrast, in early embryogenesis, Sex-lethal regulation is not affected. The accumulation of both the early Sex-lethal transcripts and proteins is normal. These results suggest that the wild-type product of snf plays an important role in establishing the female-specific RNA splicing pattern of Sex-lethal. Whether snf influences the female-specific splice site choice directly or indirectly remains to be determined.
Effects of age and acute muscle fatigue on reactive postural control in healthy adults

Abstract Background Falls can cause moderate to severe injuries such as hip fractures and head trauma in older adults. While declines in muscle strength and sensory function contribute to increased falls in older adults, skeletal muscle fatigue is often overlooked as an additional contributor to fall risk. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of acute lower extremity muscle fatigue and age on reactive postural control in healthy adults. Methods A sample of 16 individuals participated in this study (8 healthy older adults and 8 healthy young persons). Whole body kinematic and kinetic data were collected during anterior and posterior reproducible fall tests before (T0) and immediately after (T1) eccentric muscle fatiguing exercise, as well as after 15-min (T15) and 30-min (T30) of rest. Findings Lower extremity joint kinematics of the stepping limb during the support (landing) phase of the anterior fall were significantly altered by the presence of acute muscle fatigue. Step velocity was significantly decreased during the anterior falls. Statistically significant main effects of age were found for step length in both fall directions. Effect sizes for all outcomes were small. No statistically significant interaction effects were found. Interpretation Muscle fatigue has a measurable effect on lower extremity joint kinematics during simulated falls. These alterations appear to resolve within 15 min of recovery. The above deficits, coupled with a reduced step length, may help explain the increased fall risk in older adults.
Loss of the Surface Antigen 3G11 Characterizes a Distinct Population of Anergic/Regulatory T Cells in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

T cell anergy is an important mechanism in the induction of peripheral tolerance against autoimmune diseases, yet no surface marker unique to anergic T cells in these diseases has been identified. In this study we induced in vivo anergy by i.v. tolerance against experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in myelin basic protein TCR transgenic mice, and showed that the hyporesponsiveness of autoantigen-reactive T cells from tolerized mice was associated with a dramatic loss of 3G11, a cell surface molecule on the surface of CD4 + T cells. Purified 3G11 − CD4 + T cells lost autoantigen-induced proliferation and IL-2 production, whereas 3G11 + CD4 + T cells retained responsiveness. Furthermore, 3G11 − T cells actively suppressed proliferation and Th1 cytokine production of 3G11 + T cells and splenocytes of nontolerized mice. Active suppression by 3G11 − T cells was at least partially due to soluble immunoregulatory factors, including IL-10. The T regulatory property of 3G11 − T cells was confirmed in vivo because the transfer of purified 3G11 − T cells effectively suppressed clinical experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. We conclude that loss of the surface molecule 3G11 characterizes a distinct population of anergic/regulatory T cells. This is the first demonstration of the ability to identify and purify anergic T cells by a distinct cell surface marker in an autoimmune disease and paves the way for a better understanding of the mechanism of tolerance in autoimmune diseases.
Kinetics of sodium homeostasis in rats: rapid excretion and equilibration rates

In normal humans, when sodium intake is abruptly reduced from a high to a very low level, renal sodium excretion falls exponentially (half time approximately 24 h), and several days are required to achieve external sodium balance, where intake equals excretion. Because much of our knowledge of intrarenal mechanisms comes from the rat, we studied their capacity to handle sodium. In two strains of rat, Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY), whether the sodium load was administered intravenously, by gavage, or by spontaneous feeding, the slope relating sodium excretion to time was 8-10 times more rapid than in humans, reflecting half times of 2-3 h, and external sodium balance was achieved in hours rather than days. The combination of normal rat nocturnal feeding patterns and the rapidity of the response result in a daily spontaneous transition from an expanded state with a high or intermediate level of sodium excretion to a more contracted state, with minimal sodium excretion. Studies designed to assess sodium homeostasis in rats, and related renal and hormonal changes, must consider these rapid transitions, which are related, perhaps, to the rats' persistent and remarkably rapid growth.
Resonance Raman Spectroscopy

The theory and practice of resonance Raman spectroscopy is discussed in this article. In this technique, laser radiation resonance with an allowed electronic transition is employed to excite the vibrational light scattering spectrum. The frequency shifts of the scattered light reveal vibrational transitions within the ground electronic state, while the intensity of each Raman band as a function of exciting frequency, called the Raman excitation profile, depends on the dynamics in the resonant excited electronic state. This chapter considers the experimental and theoretical aspects of determining absolute Raman intensities for the purpose of studying the dynamics of excited electronic states. Experimental considerations for the determination of absolute Raman cross sections include the polarization of incident and scattered light, and corrections for self-absorption and instrument response. Theoretical approaches include the sum-over-state expression, transform theory, and time-dependent theory. Applications of resonance Raman spectroscopy in the study of electron transfer and solvent dynamics are described. Keywords: resonance Raman; depolarization ratio; transform theory; time-dependent theory; Raman cross section; dephasing; Raman excitation profiles; solvent dynamics; electron transfer
Efficient algorithms for detection and resolution of distributed deadlocks

We present a simple and efficient distributed algorithm for detecting generalised deadlocks in distributed systems. Unlike previous algorithms, which are all based on the idea of distributed snapshot, and require multiple rounds of message transfers along the edges of the global wait-for graph (WFG), the proposed algorithm uses a novel approach that incrementally constructs an "image" of the WFG at an initiator node. The algorithm has time complexity of d+1 and message complexity of e+n, where n is the number of nodes, d the diameter, and e the number of edges of the WFG. Compared with the best existing algorithm, our algorithm notably reduces both time and message complexities. Correctness proof and performance analysis for the algorithm are provided. In addition, the new approach simplifies deadlock resolution. An extension to the algorithm is presented to handle generalized-deadlock resolution with only a slight increase to the message complexity.
The physician and family function assessment.

Knowing how family members interact has long been appreciated by family physicians as important in understanding a patient's health status. Yet, systematic application of this knowledge has not been the rule in clinical practice. Much of the explanation for the incongruity between what is intuitivel
Patterning of the neocortical projections from the raphe nuclei in perinatal rats: investigation of potential organizational mechanisms.

Serotoninergic (5-HT), fibers in the cerebral cortex of perinatal rats have a pattern that coincides with the boundaries of primary sensory areas and within the primary somatosensorycortex form the rattunculus. This patterned immunoreactivity (IR) appears about 60 hours after birth and disappears between postnatal days (P-) 12 and 15. Three experiments were carried out to evaluate mechanisms that might underlie the precise patterning of the 5-HT-IR. Retrograde labelling with fluorescent tracers in perinatal rats revealed only a coarse rostrocaudal to ography in the raphe-cortical projection and the existence of raphe cells projecting to multiple cortical locations. Thus, a precise point-to-point, raphe-cortical projection does not underlie the patterned cortical 5-HT-IR. Ablation of the thalamus prior to the age at which patterned 5-HT-IR could be seen in the developing cortex caused a complete loss of patterned immunoreactivity. This suggests that 5-HT fibers may require the presence of thalamocortical axons to achieve the pattern observed in normal animals. Serotoninergic raphe neurons transplanted to the cortices of newborn rats exhiwited extensive axonal outgrowth, but did not form a somatotopic pattern. This result also suggests that specific spatiotemporal interactions between growing 5-HT and thalamocortical axons may be necessary for the somatotopic patterning of the former fibers. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Growth Regulatory Effects of Cellular Interaction

Euploid human fibroblasts and amnion cells showed contact inhibition of growth in monolayers. In mixed cultures the two cell types did not inhibit each other. Neither inhibited the growth of aneuploid epithelial cells. What is the significance of these phenomena with regard to the growth of malignant tumours ?
ISTITUZIONI E FONTI

RIASSUNTO Questa nota riproduce alcune lettere e documenti recentemente rinvenuti in archivi fiorentini e pisani contenenti informazioni sulla vita e carriera scientifica di Galileo.
A new approach to the treatment of penile curvature

AbstractPurpose: Techniques for penile straightening generate the serious dilemma of which is most appropriate. We created and describe our penile disassembly technique to avoid penile shortening in curvature repair.Materials and Methods: From November 1995 to March 1997 we performed our penile disassembly technique in 87 patients 12 months to 47 years old (mean age 4.5 years). Indications for surgery were isolated penile curvature and chordee with or without hypospadias, curvature of the distal third of the corpora cavernosa and a small penis with curvature. Our method consists of separation of the penis into its entities, a glans cap with its neurovascular bundle dorsally, a nondivided or divided urethra, or urethral plate ventrally and corpora cavernosa that may be partially separated in the septal region. This maneuver achieves excellent correction of penile curvature. In addition, during this procedure a space is created between the glans cap and the tips of the corpora cavernosa into which various t...
The Salt Industry in the United States

MR. WARD in his letter to NATURE (May 10, p. 29), respecting the salt industry in the United States, makes no mention of the important and numerous contributions to the literature of that subject by Dr. Charles A. Goessmann, at the present time Director of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, but formerly, from 1861 to 1869, chemist to the Onondaga Salt Company, at Syracuse, N.Y. While filling that position he investigated very thoroughly the salt deposits of New York, Michigan, Goderich, Canada, and Petit Anse Island, Louisiana, and his published reports and memoirs (some twenty in number) upon the salines, brines, and mineral springs of the country form, for the period which they cover, a very complete and valuable record of the salt industry in the United States.
Radical Additions to Aromatic Residues in Peptides Facilitate Unexpected Side Chain and Backbone Losses

Accurate identification of fragments in tandem mass spectrometry experiments is aided by knowledge of relevant fragmentation mechanisms. Herein, novel radical addition reactions that direct unexpected side-chain dissociations at tryptophan and tyrosine residues are reported. Various mechanisms that can account for the observed dissociation channels are investigated by experiment and theory. The propensity for radical addition at a particular site is found to be primarily under kinetic control, which is largely dictated by molecular structure. In certain peptides, intramolecular radical addition reactions are favored, which leads to the observation of numerous unexpected fragments. In one pathway, radical addition leads to migration of an aromatic side chain to another residue. Alternatively, radical addition followed by hydrogen atom loss leads to cyclization of the peptide and increased observation of internal sequence fragments. Radical addition reactions should be considered when assigning fragmentation spectra obtained from activation of hydrogen deficient peptides.
Partial separation of fullerenes by gradient sublimation

An experimental technique is investigated to separate/enrich fullerenes of metallofullerenes, exploiting differences in sublimation temperatures without the use of solvents. Fullerenes are sublimed out of the soot and deposited on a quartz rod along a temperature gradient (gradient sublimation). In a position-sensitive experiment the composition of the deposit on the rod is monitored by laser-desorption mass spectrometry. Strongly enriched regions containing specific fullerene molecules (i.e., C[sub 84] or LaC[sub 82]) are observed. Furthermore, C[sub 74], which could not be extracted from the soot by organic solvents, sublimes out of the soot. 26 refs., 6 figs.
Gambling: A Social Problem?

This paper reports the results from a national survey of gambling behavior, social problems, and attitudes toward the legalization of gambling. Non-bettors perceived more negative consequences and fewer positive consequences associated with the legalization of gambling than did bettors. One negative consequence perceived by a majority of both groups was an increase in political corruption. The level of gambling activity was positively associated with several social problems such as divorce, absenteeism, and frequency of alcohol consumption. Respondents who were classified as probable compulsive gamblers reported more family problems.
Mapping discursive closings in the war on drugs

This article maps the discursive closing of the most recent war on drugs through a series of case studies drawn from popular culture. This kind of work is performed in an effort to theorize the ref...
Determination of 3-β-OH sterols in serum and tissues by the anthrone reaction

Abstract A method is described for the analysis of total digitonin-precipitable sterols by the reaction of digitonin with anthrone. The temperature conditions for obtaining reproducible color development have been studied. Removal of occluded digitonin from the sterol digitonide was achieved by a single reprecipitation of the digitonide from 50% methanol. Analyses of both total digitonide-precipitable sterols by the anthrone procedure and of cholesterol by the method of Sperry-Webb can be performed on aliquots of the same acetic acid-digitonide solution, thus eliminating separate preparations of the digitonides for each sterol. The recovery of both cholesterol and dihydrocholesterol added to plasma extracts is quantitative within 3%.
A Flexible Fourier Approach to Repeat Sales Price Indexes

Time periods are typically highly aggregated for repeat sales estimators because of the small number of observations available in some periods. We use a flexible Fourier expansion to account for time, which we treat as a continuous variable. Our estimator saves degrees of freedom and enables us to estimate the price index efficiently even for times with few sales. We present estimated price indexes for the City of Chicago, Cook County, and several suburbs.
Analysis of the physiological stress profile: The interrupted time-series design

Most research employing physiological stress profiling procedures has relied upon statistical analyses that are flawed in two ways: (a) These analyses typically average the physiological levels observed across a series of observations during any one phase of the profile, thereby ignoring rate of change as a relevant parameter, and (b) the problem of autocorrelation, or the natural correlation of time-series observations of the same physiologic activity, is unaddressed. We hope to introduce the biofeedback field to the technique of interrupted time-series analysis, which effectively deals with these two flaws. Interrupted time-series analysis additionally permits statistical conclusions based upon the stress profile of a single individual, thereby providing an objective basis for decisions concerning the effectiveness of training or the timing of changes in training for a single client. We describe the application of the technique to the analysis of a stress profile of a subject diagnosed as hypertensive.
Bulimia nervosa: knowledge, awareness, and skill levels among advanced practice nurses.

Purpose To examine the knowledge, awareness, and self-perceived skill levels regarding bulimia nervosa (BN) among advance practice nurses (APNs) caring for young female patients. Data Sources Two hundred APNs of various nurse practitioner (NP) specialties were surveyed with a mailed questionnaire. One hundred and twenty- one (61%) surveys were returned and analyzed. Conclusions Results demonstrated that APNs are knowledgeable and aware about BN. There were several statistically significant relationships among awareness and self-perceived skill levels. Pediatric NPs were found to be the most aware of BN in their young female patients. Implications for Practice The incidence of eating disorders is on the rise. Bulimia nervosa, a common secretive illness, poses a significant challenge for APNs potentially leading to missed diagnosis. There is a paucity of research exploring this issue. Study findings provide evidence to enhance curricula on eating disorders in academic and continuing education programs and guidance for future research.
Efficient Random Field Uncertainty Propagation in Design Using Multiscale Analysis

An integrated design framework that employs multiscale analysis to facilitate concurrent product, material, and manufacturing process design is presented in this work. To account for uncertainties associated with material structures and their impact on product performance across multiple scales, efficient computational techniques are developed for propagating material uncertainty with random field representation. Random field is employed to realistically model the uncertainty existing in material microstructure, which spatially varies in a product inherited from the manufacturing process. To reduce the dimensionality of random field representation, a reduced order Karhunen-Loeve expansion is used with a discretization scheme applied to finite-element meshes. The univariate dimension reduction method and the Gaussian quadrature formula are used to efficiently quantify the uncertainties in product performance in terms of its statistical moments, which are critical information for design under uncertainty. A control arm example is used to demonstrate the proposed approach. The impact of the initial microscale porosity random field produced during a casting process on the product damage is studied and a reliability-based design of the control arm is performed.