cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
NMR studies of the quaternary structure and heterogeneity of nitrosyl- and methemoglobin

NMR was used to study the quaternary structure of nitrosyl- and methemoglobin, the kinetics and equilibrium behavior of nitric oxide binding, and the oxidation of hemoglobin. The -9.6 ppm (from H2O) resonance was used as a measure of nitrosylhemoglobin molecules in the T quaternary structure. We found that stripped nitrosylhemoglobin is 70% in the T state below pH 6.4, and is in the R state above. Inositol hexaphosphate (IHP) raises this transition point to pH 7.5. For stripped aquomethemoglobin, the T marker at -10 ppm is absent. In IHP, at pH 6.5 all of the molecules are in the T state. At both higher and lower pH they shift to the R state. The intensity decreases to half of its maximum at pH 5.5 and 7.4. The relative affinity of nitric oxide binding to the alpha and beta subunits was inferred from the intensities of the resonances at -12 and -18 ppm. Under conditions in which nitrosylhemoglobin exists in the T state, NO binds to the alpha subunit 10 times more strongly than it does to the beta subunit. The kinetic experiments reveal that it binds to the two subunits at the same rate and that it dissociates at 5 x 10(-3) s-1 from the beta subunit and at 5 x 10(-4) s-1 from alpha subunit. At high pH, the two subunits are ligated at the same rate. Potassium ferricyanide oxidation, at pH 6.0 in the absence of IHP, is about 3 times more favorable for the alpha than the beta subunit. Addition of IHP raises this preferential oxidation slightly. At pH 8.44, both alpha and beta subunits were oxidized at the same rate.
Prescription contraception use and adherence by women with substance use disorders

Background and Aims Unintended pregnancy rates are high among women with substance use disorders (SUDs), which could be explained partly by lower use of and adherence to contraception. We aimed to test: (1) the association of SUD with prescription contraceptive use, contraceptive method selection and adherence; (2) whether practices participating in the Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative (PCMHI) had better contraceptive use and adherence for patients with SUD; and (3) for differences in the association of SUD with adherence by type of contraceptive used. Design Retrospective cohort analysis of claims and encounter data. Setting Massachusetts, USA. Participants A total of 47 902 women aged 16–45 years enrolled in Medicaid or Commonwealth Care in Massachusetts between 2010 and 2014. Measurements We examined three dependent variables: (1) use of a reversible prescription contraceptive during 2012; (2) the contraceptive methods used; and (3) the proportion of days covered by a prescription contraceptive in the year following the first prescription contraceptive claim. The primary predictor was diagnosed SUD, defined as at least one claim for an alcohol or drug use disorder. Findings SUD was associated with lower rates of prescription contraceptive use during 2012 [19.2 versus 23.9%; adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.79, P < 0.001]. SUD was associated with decreased selection of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) compared with short-acting contraception (SARC) (42.8 versus 44.5%; aOR = 0.83, P = 0.011). There was no significant association between SUD and adherence (aOR = 0.84, P = 0.068). PCMHI enrollment did not alter the relationship between SUD and contraceptive use or adherence. Contraceptive method did not impact the relationship between SUD and adherence. Conclusion Women with substance use disorders are less likely to use prescription contraceptives, especially long-acting methods, but are not significantly less likely to adhere to them once prescribed than women without substance use disorders.
Implications for Retirement Wellbeing of Financial Literacy and Planning

Relatively little is known about why people fail to plan for retirement and whether planning and information costs might affect retirement saving patterns. This chapter reports on a purpose-built survey module on planning and financial literacy for the Health and Retirement Study which measures how people make financial plans, collect the information needed to make these plans, and implement the plans. We show that financial illiteracy is widespread among older Americans, particularly women, minorities, and the least educated. We also find that the financially savvy are more likely to plan and to succeed in their planning, and they rely on formal methods such as retirement calculators, retirement seminars, and financial experts, instead of family/relatives or co-workers. These results have implications for targeted financial education efforts.
Substance Use Disorders and Addictions, by Keith Morgan: Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2017, 293 pp., paperback, $98.00. ISBN: 978-1-4833-7056-9

Morgan’s text is part of Sage’s Counseling and Professional Identity in the 21st Century series, which intends to disseminate new knowledge in the etiology, prevention, and intervention of substanc...
The Role of Power Morcellation and Controversies

A large proportion of women with uterine prolapse will undergo hysterectomy at the time of surgical pelvic organ prolapse (POP) repair. Abdominal sacrocolpopexy with concomitant hysterectomy (total vs. supracervical), the gold standard for POP repair, can be performed laparoscopically with or without robotic assistance to afford less pain, faster recovery, improved quality of life, and reduced morbidity and mortality. While the majority of women with POP are candidates, these minimally invasive surgical techniques frequently require morcellation, in which the surgical specimen is reduced in size with a bladed electromechanical instrument (“power morcellation”). After a few highly publicized cases documented the potential intra-abdominal spread of cancer in patients with presumed fibroids who harbored an undiagnosed uterine sarcoma, the FDA issued a black-box warning against the use of morcellation, which has made the technique unavailable to many women. While the existing data regarding the risk of uterine sarcomas in patients with presumed fibroids is poor, meta-analyses suggest that the risk of leiomyosarcoma in women with symptomatic fibroids who have undergone an appropriate preoperative assessment is very low, approximately 0.02%. For those with occult malignancy who undergo unintended morcellation, there is a significant risk of worsening their cancer outcomes. However, the real impact of morcellation on outcomes remains unclear. While it is necessary to continue developing new technologies, population-level modeling suggests that restrictions on the use of this current technology will be costly to society, both monetarily and through increased patient morbidity and mortality.
Relationships and Health: The Critical Role of Affective Science:

High-quality social relationships predict a range of positive health outcomes, but no broadly accepted theory can explain the mechanisms of action in this area. The central argument of this article...
Evidence for selective adjustments of inhibitory control in a variant of the stop signal task

The ability to inhibit actions inappropriate for the context is essential for meeting the shifting demands of complex environments. The stop signal task (SST) has been used in many previous studies to examine the interactions between go and stop responses in a cognitively demanding task involving attention, conflict resolution, and motor plan selection. The current study uses a variant of the SST, in which the continue signal instructs participants to proceed with the go response they were preparing. Reaction times (RTs) on continue trials were bimodally distributed, suggesting that an aspect of inhibition was involved in at least some of the trials. We investigated whether the cognitive processes delaying the generation of a behavioural response on continue trials are the same as for stop trials. We found improvement of stop signal reaction times (SSRTs) following stop trials, but the decrease in continue signal reaction times (CSRTs) was not significant. No improvement in either SSRT or CSRT was found following continue trials, suggesting that activation of the processes delaying the response on continue trials is insufficient to drive subsequent adjustments in SSRT or CSRT. In addition, go RTs only slowed following stop trials. These effects may suggest the presence of a selective learning process, which requires that the initial inhibition captured by SSRT and CSRT be combined with recognition of the stop signal specifically to affect subsequent performance.
Thermal Diffusivity and Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Materials for Tokamak Limiters

A plasma limiter is used to control the plasma size in Tokamak fusion research devices and serves as one of the main areas of plasma wall interaction. Wall temperatures can reach as high as 3000 K resulting in significant sputtering and wall erosion. Graphite and graphite composites have been chosen as the materials which best meet the requirements of this severe environment. The thermal conductivities of these materials are critical to the modeling of the thermophysical response of the limiters during operation. The thermal conductivities of several candidate materials were measured. Three categories of materials were investigated in this study: pyrolytic graphite and annealed pyrolytic graphite; carbon/carbon fiber composites composed of two- directionally woven fibers with a graphitized pitch matrix; carbon/carbon fiber composites with a four-directional carbon fiber weave. The thermal conductivities of the carbon/carbon fiber composites were determined as a function of fiber orientation. Conductivities were measured using both the laser flash diffusivity technique and the thermal comparative method. The advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods will be discussed and the data compared.
A Long-pulse Ignited Test Experiment (LITE)

The authors describe a design concept for a tokamak that has the capability of sustained ignited operation and utilizes high performance copper plate magnets to minimize size and cost. They refer to this device as LITE for Long-pulse Ignited Test Experiment. LITE is designed so that it could be located in the TFTR Test Cell, so that substantial cost savings can be realized. Two design options are considered. Illustrative parameters for the lower beta option (LITE-1) are a major radius of 2.7 m, a maximum magnetic field on axis of 8.1 T, and = 0.05. Steadystate water cooling would be used for nominal DT operation and for very long pulse hydrogen operation. Inertial cooling with liquid nitrogen could be employed for a relatively small number of pulses to provide the highest magnetic fields and ignition margins. The second option (LITE2) makes use of a highly shaped plasma to obtain high beta (>10%) operation. The LITE-2 concept is at a very early stage, so that emphasis in this paper is on the description of LITE-1.
Progress in Organismal Design

The question of whether or not large-scale historical trends in the design of organisms represent progress (i.e., improvement of design) has attracted attention since the beginning of evolutionary thought but has proved extremely resistant to objective analysis. Some of this difficulty reflects the range of time scales and phylogenetic contexts for which the question might be posed, but a more fundamental problem involves the definition of improvement itself. When improvement of design is discussed within the context of current evolutionary thought, it is frequently portrayed as the expected outcome of the sustained operation of natural selection on variation within populations. Such an interpretation of large-scale historical trends in morphology frequently involves some degree of orthoselection and/or adaptive replacement. An alternative interpretation is that many such trends reflect little more than the Markovian aspect of the evolutionary process. Trends do have a finite, and not always small, probability of occurrence in systems whose underlying causal structure behaves in a pseudorandom fashion. According to this second interpretation, the appropriate level for causal analysis may be well below that at which the trend is manifested. This is equivalent to suggesting that the causal basis of the trend may be extremely heterogeneous. Both selectionist and Markovian models of morphologic change can be tested, but it is always a particular model, defined by its own assumptions and boundary conditions, that is corroborated or refuted, not the whole class of selectionist or Markovian models. Certain large-scale morphologic trends documented in the fossil record (e.g., increases in brain size within mammals) indeed appear to represent the intermittent or sustained operation of directional selection. Other trends (e.g., changes in morphologic complexity or in amount of genetic information within most phyla or classes) show patterns that are best interpreted as a simple random walk or a branching process (depending on the phylogenetic structure of the problem). However, a large number of trends (e.g., body size within certain higher taxa) can be explained by “diffusion” models or models of branching processes in which directionality is imposed by the position of the initial state of the system relative to the total range of accessible states. Because of the frequency of environmental change, the multiplicity of factors underlying fitness, the possibility of frequency-dependent and epistatic interactions among features, and the consequent possibility of nontransitive fitness relations between phenotypes, selection acting within populations frequently, though not inevitably, fails to produce unidirectional trends. The extent to which unidirectional trends dominate, or fail to dominate, the fossil record is therefore not a measure of the adequacy of neo-Darwinian mechanisms as causes of large-scale patterns in evolution.
Self-Organized Circle Formation around an Unknown Target by a Multi-Robot Swarm using a Local Communication Strategy

Multi-robot systems have an innate advantage of enhancing system robustness in situations where the chances for noise in sensory data or faults in robotic agents are high. The distribution of the task at hand among multiple robots and coordination among these robotic agents can also make these systems more efficient. The formation problem for a multi-robot system is defined as the coordination of multiple robots to form and maintain a specific geometric pattern such as circle, line, or square. This paper focuses on circular pattern formation through self-organization in multi-robot systems. A detailed algorithm for circle formation around an unknown target using exceptionally simple robots is presented along with the results. In this algorithm, we adopt a communication-based multi-agent model where each robotic agent interacts through minimal, though explicit, communication within very limited range and with limited capabilities. This algorithm is entirely distributed and does not require any manual intervention or centralized information. Extensive numerical results have demonstrated the stability and robustness in generating the formations.
Dietary protein and changes in markers of cardiometabolic health across 20 years of follow-up in middle-aged Americans.

Objective Dietary protein plays a role in counteracting age-related muscle loss. However, limited long-term data exist on protein intake and markers of cardiometabolic health, which tend to deteriorate with age. Design Prospective cohort study. FFQ-derived protein intake (g/d) and cardiometabolic markers were assessed up to five times across 20 years. Markers included systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures, circulating lipids (total, HDL and LDL cholesterol; TAG), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), fasting glucose (FG), weight and waist circumference (WC). Mixed models accounting for repeated measures were used to estimate adjusted mean annualized changes in outcomes per quartile category of protein. Setting Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort, USA. Subjects Participants (n 3066) with 12 333 unique observations, baseline (mean (sd)) age=54·0 (9·7) years, BMI=27·4 (4·9) kg/m2, 53·5 % female. Results In fully adjusted models, there were favourable associations (mean (se)) of total protein with annualized changes in SBP (lowest v. highest intake: 0·34 (0·06) v. 0·04 (0·06) mmHg, P trend=0·001) and eGFR (-1·03 (0·06) v. -0·87 (0·05) ml/min per 1·73 m2, P trend=0·046), unfavourable associations with changes in FG (0·013 (0·004) v. 0·028 (0·004) mmol/l, P trend=0·004) and no associations with weight, WC, DBP or lipids. Animal protein was favourably associated with SBP and unfavourably with FG and WC; plant protein was favourably associated with FG and WC. Conclusions The present study provides evidence that protein intake may influence changes in cardiometabolic health independent of change in weight in healthy adults and that protein's role in cardiometabolic health may depend on the protein source.
Adapting 360-Degree Cameras for Culvert Inspection: Case Study

AbstractPrior video technologies such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been used for culvert inspection. They are limited by the range of the area scanned and by the direction in wh...
The International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM): Abstracts from its 2018 annual meeting, Busan, Korea.

International scholarship regarding addiction identification, assessment, and treatment is increasingly important. The International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM) is an international fellows...
Case 21-2019: A 31-Year-Old Woman with Vision Loss.

A Woman with Vision Loss A 31-year-old woman was evaluated because of vision loss, which had developed in the left eye 3 weeks before presentation. Despite the administration of glucocorticoid ther...
Epstein Barr virus epitope/MHC interaction combined with convergent recombination drive selection of diverse T cell receptor a and b repertoires

Recognition modes of individual T cell receptors (TCR) are well studied, but factors driving the selection of TCR repertoires from primary through persistent human virus infections are less well understood. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate a high degree of diversity of EBV-specific clonotypes in acute infectious mononucleosis. Only 9% of unique clonotypes detected in AIM persisted into convalescence; the majority (91%) of unique clonotypes detected in AIM were not detected in convalescence and were seeming replaced by equally diverse "de-novo" clonotypes. The persistent clonotypes had a greater probability of being generated than non-persistent due to convergence recombination of multiple nucleotide sequences to encode the same amino acid sequence, as well as the use of shorter CDR3 regions with fewer nucleotide additions (i.e. sequences closer to germline). Moreover, the two most immunodominant HLA-A2-restricted EBV epitopes, BRLF1109 and BMLF1280, show highly distinct antigen-specific public (i.e. shared between individuals) features. In fact, TCR CDR3 motifs played a dominant role, while TCR{beta} played a minimal role, in the selection of TCR repertoire to an immunodominant EBV epitope, BRLF1. This contrasts with the majority of previously reported repertoires, which appear to be selected either on TCR{beta} CDR3 interactions with peptide/MHC or in combination with TCR CDR3. Understanding of how TCR/peptide/MHC complex interactions drive repertoire selection can be used to develop optimal strategies for vaccine design or generation of appropriate adoptive immunotherapies for viral infections in transplant settings or for cancer. ImportanceSeveral lines of evidence suggest that TCR and {beta} repertoires play a role in disease outcomes and treatment strategies during viral infections in transplant patients, and in cancer and autoimmune disease therapy. Our data suggests that it is essential that we understand the basic principles of how to drive optimum repertoires for both TCR chains, and {beta}. We address this important issue by characterizing the CD8 TCR repertoire to a common persistent human viral infection (EBV), which is controlled by appropriate CD8 T cell responses. The ultimate goal would be to determine if the individuals who are infected asymptomatically develop a different TCR repertoire than those that develop the immunopathology of AIM. Here, we begin by doing an in depth characterization of both CD8 T cell TCR and {beta} repertoires to two immunodominant EBV epitopes over the course of AIM identifying potential factors that may be driving their selection.
The contribution of black carbon to global ice nucleating particle concentrations relevant to mixed-phase clouds

Black carbon (BC) aerosol plays an important role in the Earth’s climate system because it absorbs solar radiation and therefore potentially warms the climate; however, BC can also act as a seed for cloud particles, which may offset much of its warming potential. If BC acts as an ice nucleating particle (INP), BC could affect the lifetime, albedo, and radiative properties of clouds containing both supercooled liquid water droplets and ice particles (mixed-phase clouds). Over 40% of global BC emissions are from biomass burning; however, the ability of biomass burning BC to act as an INP in mixed-phase cloud conditions is almost entirely unconstrained. To provide these observational constraints, we measured the contribution of BC to INP concentrations ([INP]) in real-world prescribed burns and wildfires. We found that BC contributes, at most, 10% to [INP] during these burns. From this, we developed a parameterization for biomass burning BC and combined it with a BC parameterization previously used for fossil fuel emissions. Applying these parameterizations to global model output, we find that the contribution of BC to potential [INP] relevant to mixed-phase clouds is ∼5% on a global average.
FDA Approval Summary: Entrectinib for the treatment of NTRK-gene fusion solid tumors

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved entrectinib on August 15, 2019, for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with solid tumors that have a neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusion without a known acquired resistance mutation, are metastatic or where surgical resection is likely to result in severe morbidity, and have progressed following treatment or have no satisfactory alternative therapy. Approval was based on demonstration of a durable overall response rate (ORR) of 57% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 43, 71), including a complete response (CR) rate of 7%, among 54 entrectinib-treated patients with 10 different tumor types harboring an NTRK fusion enrolled in one of three single-arm clinical trials. The durations of response ranged from 2.8 months to 26.0+ months; 68% of responses lasted ≥ 6 months. The most serious toxicities of entrectinib are congestive heart failure, CNS effects, skeletal fractures, hepatotoxicity, hyperuricemia, QT prolongation, and vision disorders. Adverse reactions were manageable through dose interruptions (46%), dose reductions (29%) or discontinuation of entrectinib (9%). This is the third approval of a cancer drug for treatment of a tissue agnostic, biomarker-defined cancer.
Likelihood Inference for Possibly Non-Stationary Processes via Adaptive Overdifferencing

We make a simple observation that facilitates valid likelihood-based inference for the parameters of the popular ARFIMA or FARIMA model without requiring stationarity by allowing the upper bound $\bar{d}$ for the memory parameter $d$ to exceed $0.5$. We observe that estimating the parameters of a single non-stationary ARFIMA model is equivalent to estimating the parameters of a sequence of stationary ARFIMA models. This enables improved inference because many standard methods perform poorly when estimates are close to the boundary of the parameter space. It also allows us to leverage the wealth of likelihood approximations that have been introduced for estimating the parameters of a stationary process. We explore how estimation of the memory parameter $d$ depends on the upper bound $\bar{d}$ and introduce adaptive procedures for choosing $\bar{d}$. Via simulations, we examine the performance of our adaptive procedures for estimating the memory parameter when the true value is as large as $2.5$. Our adaptive procedures estimate the memory parameter well, can be used to obtain confidence intervals for the memory parameter that achieve nominal coverage rates, and perform favorably relative to existing alternatives.
Plumage manipulation alters associations between behaviour, physiology, the internal microbiome and fitness

Signals often covary with physiological and behavioural traits to form an axis of integrated phenotypic variation associated with reproductive performance. This pattern of phenotypic integration could result from intrinsic between-individual differences that are causally related to signal production, physiology and behaviour. Alternatively, signal expression itself might generate feedback between physiology, behaviour and the experienced social environment, resulting in an integrated phenotype. We manipulated the plumage of female tree swallows, Tachycineta bicolor, to decouple the expression of a social signal from any pre-existing behavioural or physiological differences. We collected a time series of physiological samples, monitored nestbox visiting patterns with a sensor network and tracked reproductive performance. Relative to sham controls, dulled females' nests were visited more by conspecific females and less by males. Dulled females subsequently made fewer trips to other nestboxes and increased nestling provisioning. However, these changes in nestbox visiting patterns depended on both the focal female's pretreatment plumage and on the breeding stage. These differences resulted in an altered internal microbiome and glucose levels and, ultimately, dulled females produced more offspring. Moreover, dulled females produced larger clutches than control females in the year after the manipulation. Thus, signal variation alone – independent from any pre-existing differences – had a sustained causal effect on a suite of integrated traits. This finding suggests that dynamic feedback may play a role in coordinating an integrated signalling phenotype.
Food: Bigger than the Plate

FOOD: Bigger than the Plate served up a slice of everyday life, and showed the multiple elements and interactions that make up and transect the world of food. Through a series of interdisciplinary ...
Chronic stress experience, sleep, and physical activity: Relations with change in negative affect and acute stress response to a naturalistic stressor

Objectives Prior research indicates that chronic stress increases allostatic load and alters individuals' affective response to stress. Recent studies have linked health-related behaviours including poor sleep and physical inactivity with elevated negative affect responses to stress. This study extends prior work to investigate chronic stress experience, sleep, and physical activity as predictors of negative affect and acute stress experience during acute, sustained naturalistic stress. Design Students (N = 637) were assessed during an academic semester and end-of-term final exam period. Methods Self-report ratings of chronic stress experience, negative affect, acute stress experience, sleep, physical activity, demographics, and health were obtained. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the extent to which chronic stress experience, sleep duration and sleep quality, habitual physical activity, and their interactions, predicted changes in negative affect and acute stress experience during final exams. Health-related behaviours were also examined as mediators between chronic stress experience and changes in negative affect and acute stress experience. Results Greater chronic stress experience and shorter exam period sleep duration, but not habitual sleep duration or physical activity, predicted greater increases in negative affect and acute stress experience. Poorer overall sleep quality was a significant predictor in these models and partially mediated the relation between chronic stress experience and negative affect and acute stress experience. Conclusions Findings highlight the importance of chronic stress experience and sleep in predicting individuals' affective health during naturalistic stress. Interventions that reduce chronic stress experience and improve sleep may help individuals' buffer against impairments to affective health during these episodes.
Introduction to redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID)

The authors discuss various types of RAIDs (redundant arrays of inexpensive disks), a cost-effective option to meet the challenge of exponential growth in the processor and memory speeds. They argue that the size reduction of personal-computer (PC) disks is the key to the success of disk arrays. While large arrays of mainframe processors are possible, it is certainly easier to construct an array from the same number of microprocessors (or PC drives). With advantages in cost-performance, reliability, power consumption, and floor space, the authors expect RAIDs to replace large drives in future I/O systems. >
Hospital Charges Attributable to a Primary Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Older Adults in the United States, 1998 to 2004

OBJECTIVES: To describe total and average hospital charges associated with infectious disease (ID) hospitalizations and specific ID categories and to estimate ID hospitalization rates in adults aged 65 and older in the United States from 1998 through 2004. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of hospital discharge data obtained from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample for 1998 through 2004. SETTING: United States. PATIENTS: Older adults hospitalized in the United States from 1998 through 2004. MEASUREMENTS: Hospital charges and hospitalization rates for IDs described according to year, age group, sex, U.S. Census region, and ID category. Charges for non-ID hospitalizations were also described. Hospital charges were adjusted for inflation. RESULTS: From 1998 through 2004, total charges for ID hospitalizations exceeded $261 billion and accounted for 13% of all hospital charges for older adults. Total charges for ID hospitalizations increased from $31.4 billion in 1998 to $45.7 billion in 2004. The average annual ID hospital charge was lower than the average annual non-ID hospital charge during the study period ($21,342 vs $22,787, P<.001). The average annual rate for ID hospitalizations was 503 per 10,000 older adults, which remained stable during the study period. CONCLUSION: The total charges for ID hospitalizations and for all hospitalizations in older adults in the United States increased 45% and nearly 40%, respectively, during the 7-year study period, whereas the population of older adults grew by only 5%. Sustained increases of such magnitude will have major implications for the U.S. healthcare system as it prepares for the more than doubling of the older U.S. adult population during the first 30 years of this century.
Accelerated Immunofluorescence Procedure for the Detection of Salmonella in Foods and Animal By-Products

An accelerated, direct immunofluorescent-antibody procedure was developed for the detection of Salmonella in food products. This method includes pre-enrichment and selective enrichment but eliminates many of the washing and smear treatments present in existing methods. Commercially available fluorescein-conjugated somatic antiserum was used in comparing this method with conventional culture, biochemical, and serological procedures. The 894 samples tested represented 39 different products. The fluorescent-antibody procedure detected Salmonella in 216 test samples as compared to 205 positives recovered by using the standard culture procedures. In no instance did the fluorescent-antibody procedure fail to detect a Salmonella positive which had been detected by the standard procedure. With a three-tube, most-probable-number procedure, the fluorescent-antibody method was able to detect Salmonella at a level of 0.036 organism per g. In addition to being a more rapid method for the detection of Salmonella, it has proven to be comparable to conventional culture procedures.
Using external anal sphincter activity to detect the onset of bladder contractions

Individuals with spinal cord injury or neurological disorders may develop, involuntary bladder contraction at low volumes (bladder hyper-reflexia), which can lead to significant health problems. Current devices can eliminate nascent contractions through continuous stimulation, but do not have a means to detect the onset of bladder contraction to stimulate conditionally. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between the activity of the external anal sphincter (EAS) and hyper-reflexive bladder contraction, and to use the relationship to develop a model to detect the onset of a bladder contraction. Bladder pressure and EAS EMG were recorded in four intact male cats. There was little EAS activity during the bladder contraction and more activity between contractions (p<0.001). A model was developed to predict the onset of a bladder contraction using the EAS EMG activity. The model calculated the onset of bladder contraction on average 4.8 seconds after the contraction started with an average increase in pressure of 8.7 cmH/sub 2/O. There existed a phasic relationship between the bladder and the EAS, which enabled the prediction model to detect the onset of a bladder contraction. The EAS EMG can be used as a trigger to deliver conditional inhibitory stimulation of the bladder.
Using space-filling curve to generate the feasible routes for the set partitioning problem

The author demonstrates that a heuristic which uses the space-filling curve introduces the possibility of using set partitioning in the general case of the vehicle routing problem. Up to now, set partitioning was used when the feasible routes were obtainable in well-defined applications. These routes either came predefined or were easily discernible. With this heuristic, a random field of nodes can be visited, with the feasible routes being generated in a reasonable amount of time. >
REPRESENTING GENOMIC MAPS IN A RELATIONAL DATABASE

The goals of the Human Genome Project are: (1) construction of a high-resolution genetic map of the human genome, (2) production of a variety of physical maps of all human chromosomes and of the DNA of selected model organisms, (3) determination of the complete sequence of human DNA and of the DNA of selected model organisms, (4) development of capabilities for collecting, storing, distributing, and analyzing the data produced, and (5) creation of appropriate technologies necessary to achieve these objectives.
Psychological influences on customer willingness to pay and choice in automated retail settings

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of price attribute framing and factors such as urgency and perceived price fairness on customer willingness to pay (WTP) in automated retail settings. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted two sets of quasi-experimental scenarios surrounding vending-machine purchase decisions. The first set was analyzed with MANOVA, the second set with choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis. Findings – When prices are framed positively (as a discount), customer WTP is higher at high published price levels than it is for unframed or negatively framed prices. The effect on WTP holds whether the reference price range is broad (few large increments) or narrow (numerous small increments). In the CBC scenarios, immediate availability of the product was most influential on choice, followed by price and brand effects. These findings held under conditions invoking both urgency and price fairness. Providing an explanation for higher prices increases perceived price fairness. Research limitations/implications – Further study might assess the presence or absence of interaction effects in the conjoint scenarios. Practical implications – Managers should consider transparency in dynamic pricing, particularly when the price change is outside the control of the firm. The conjoint scenario results also offer evidence that dynamic pricing will not impact other marketing-mix decisions for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) dramatically (availability at point of purchase and presence in the consumer consideration set remain strong influences on choice). Social implications – Understanding these effects on WTP could help managers manage perceptions of unfairness and optimize WTP. Originality/value – A theoretical contribution from this study is that the immediate loss/gain consideration under theories of decision making under uncertainty outweigh considerations such as scarcity urgency or perceived unfairness. Use of conjoint analysis in WTP research, study of dynamic pricing in FMCG setting.
Abstract P290: Tai Chi Downregulates Pro-inflammatory Cytokines in Women With Increased Cardiometabolic Risk

Authors: Jo Lynne Robins, PhD, RN; Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing & Jamie L. Sturgill, PhD; Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing. Objectives: To examine the effects of a unique tai chi intervention designed to impact inflammatory factors associated with cardiometabolic risk (CMR) in women with early indicators of risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted in women with increased CMR, as evidenced by increased abdominal adiposity and a family history of CVD. To measure multiple cytokines/chemokines/growth factors, cryopreserved plasma samples were batch-processed using commercially prepared 17-plex kits with a Bio-Plex Pro™ (BioRad, Inc.) magnetic bead system (intra-assay variability < 5%, interassay variability < 9 %, cross-reactivity < 1.0%). Findings: In a sample of 63 women, there were no significant differences in cytokine/growth factor levels at baseline. However, following the 8...
How Do Mobile Information Technology Networks Affect Firm Strategy and Performance? Firm-Level Evidence from Taxicab Fleets

This paper examines how the adoption of mobile information technology networks impact firm strategy and performance in the U.S. taxicab industry. Using a rich, novel firm-level data set from the Economic Census, I test transaction cost economics prediction that adoption of mobile IT networks leads to shifts in the boundary of the firm toward increased fleet ownership of vehicles. I then exploit the homogeneity of the industrys production function and exogenous variation in local market conditions to precisely measure the impact of adoption of mobile IT networks on productivity. I find strong evidence that firms respond to adoption of mobile IT networks by changing their organizational structure, shifting toward owning a greater fraction of vehicles in their fleets (as opposed to contracting with independent driver-owners for vehicles). I then use a precise and economically meaningful measure of firm performance to show that adoption of mobile IT networks causes firms to become more productive. The results suggest that adoption of mobile IT networks increases asset utilization by improving within-firm coordination but that firms must simultaneously shift toward a more highly vertically integrated structure to fully capture the benefits of mobile IT networks.
A Holistic View of Evolutionary Rates in Paralogous and Orthologous Genes

Much work has been done on the evolutionary divergence of duplicated genes in protein coding regions. However, this remains a partial view, and little is known how duplicated genes diverge in non-coding regions, which can play an important role in the evolutionary preservation of duplicated genes. Here we compared the evolutionary rates of different parts of of duplicated genes in the human and mouse genomes, including 5'-UTRs, coding regions, 3'-UTRs, and 500 bps upstream and downstram of the untranslated regions. Results show that compared to orthologous genes, the ratios of the genetic distance of noncoding regions such as UTRs and upstream and downstream regions vs. synonymous substitutions tend to be smaller in paralogous genes, suggesting that synonymous substitutions benefit more greatly from relaxed selective constraints than noncoding regions. Moreover, we also examined the most frequent types of rate comparison among different genic regions in both orthologs and paralogs and found that the ranks of the most frequent types of rate comparison differ little between human paralogs and mouse paralogs, but differ greatly from those in orthologs, suggesting that duplication enables changes of evolutionary dynamics along different parts of genes. We also classified duplicated genes into three categories based on their chromosomal locations, tandem duplicates, intra-chromosomal duplicates, and inter-chromosomal duplicates. Results show that in both the human and mouse, selective constraint (measured by K a /K s ) on intra-chromosomal duplicates tends to be much lower than that on tandem duplicates, which in turn is significantly lower than that on inter-chromosomal duplicates. This shows that genomic location is an important factor in determining the evolutionary divergence of duplicated genes.
Environmental controls and avoidance measures.

Background Environmental control measures refer to using 1 or more interventions aimed at avoiding, reducing, or eliminating allergens and irritants in the environment to improve symptoms of allergic rhinitis. Although avoiding known allergens is highly effective, completely eliminating an allergen from one's environment is often impractical or even impossible. Methods The purpose of this work is to review evidence on the efficacy of various environmental control measures aimed at preventing the development of new sensitizations, reducing the progression of allergic rhinitis, and improving its symptoms and quality of life. Results Current literature examining the protective effects of specific measures such as breastfeeding and early pet exposure against the development of allergic diseases including allergic rhinitis has been inconclusive. Environmental measures such as frequently washing cats and dogs, encasing bedding within impermeable covers, air filtration, and chemicals can effectively reduce levels of allergens in the home. Although environmental control measures reduce allergen exposure levels, significant alleviation in symptoms or improvement in quality of life in patients with allergic rhinitis have not been shown. Conclusion An evidence-based approach can assist health providers in educating patients and helping them to make informed decisions in selecting the most appropriate and cost-effective environmental control strategies to manage their disease. The greatest benefits can be achieved from using a multifaceted environmental approach aimed at routinely and systematically reducing exposure to allergens over time.
Of what is that glass ceiling made?: A study of attitudes about women and the oval office

Abstract Using data from the 2000 National Annenberg Election Survey, this study examines the predictors of reporting that a woman or man would do a better job as president considering the national issue most important to the respondent. Gender, education, and ideology are strong predictors of presidential gender preference. Naming health care as the most important problem facing the nation is positively associated with believing a female president would do a better job, even when controlling for sociodemographic, party identification, and ideology variables. Selecting taxes as the problem is associated with believing that a male president would do a better job.
Proper orthogonal decomposition‐based model order reduction via radial basis functions for molecular dynamics systems

SUMMARY Model order reduction for molecular dynamics (MD) systems exhibits intrinsic complexities because of the highly nonlinear and nonlocal multi-atomic interactions in high dimensions. In the present work, we introduce a proper orthogonal decomposition-based method in conjunction with the radial basis function (RBF) approximation of the nonlinear and nonlocal potential energies and inter-atomic forces for MD systems. This approach avoids coordinate transformation between the physical and reduced-order coordinates, and allows the potentials and inter-atomic forces to be calculated directly in the reduced-order space. The RBF-approximated potential energies and inter-atomic forces in the reduced-order space are discretized on the basis of the Smolyak sparse grid algorithm to further enhance the effectiveness of the proposed method. The good approximation properties of RBFs in interpolating scattered data make them ideal candidates for the reduced-order approximation of MD inter-atomic force calculations. The proposed approach is validated by performing the reduced-order simulations of DNA molecules under various external loadings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Improving mobile video telephony

Video telephony is becoming popular over smart-phones and tablets. Unlike the Desktop era, smartphone users are often ‘mobile’ and this impacts how the video is processed and transmitted over the network. The significant increase in the motion content in such videos change the composition of video frames. Coupled with wireless packet losses, it often leads to poor quality of video received by the end user. In this work, we propose RVD, a framework for Reliable Video Delivery in mobile telephony by accounting for video object motion comprising foreground end-user motion and background scene changes in the network transmission of video. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) based non-linear regression model is used to analyze the impact of redundancy on received video quality under network variations and different degrees of video motion. RVD achieves 17–25% bandwidth savings for a target video quality, and 50–56% quality improvement over video-oblivious approaches.
Traumatically Induced Reactive Change as Visualized Through the Use of Monoclonal Antibodies Targeted to Neurofilament Subunits

Reactive axonal change has long been recognized as a feature of traumatic brain injury. To date, the histological methods used to identify reactive axons have been of limited utility, and they have not provided insight into the initial intraaxonal event that triggers reactive change. In this investigation, monoclonal antibodies to the 68, 150, and 200 kilodalton (kD) neurofilament subunits have been used to follow the progression of reactive axonal change. Anesthetized rats and cats were subjected to moderate traumatic brain injury. One to 72 hours (h) postinjury, their brains were processed for the light (LM) and electron (EM) microscopic immunocytochemical visualization of the various neurofilament subunits. Although all of the chosen antibodies revealed some degree of immunoreactivity within the reactive axon, the 68 kD antibody revealed a dramatic increase in immunoreactivity following injury. Within one h of injury, intensely 68 kD-immunoreactive axonal segments were observed with LM, and parallel EM microscopic analyses demonstrated that this increased immunoreactivity was associated with an increased number of 68 kD-immunoreactive neurofilaments, the majority of which coursed in an axis parallel to the axon's course. Over 2–6 h postinjury, these 68 kD-immunoreactive filaments demonstrated increasingly disordered alignment in relation to the axon's long axis, withdrawing from the focus of injury while becoming encompassed by an expanding organelle cap. It is posited that this increased 68 kD immunoreactivity is associated with a traumatically-induced increase in subunit exchange which contributes to cytoskeletal dysfunction leading to organelle accumulation, focal swelling and ultimate axonal detachment.