cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Empiric Vancomycin Reduction in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND At our institution, empirical vancomycin is overused in children with suspected bacterial community-acquired infections (CAIs) admitted to the PICU because of high community rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Our goal was to reduce unnecessary vancomycin use for CAIs in the PICU. METHODS Empirical PICU vancomycin indications for suspected CAIs were developed by using epidemiological risk factors for MRSA. We aimed to reduce empirical PICU vancomycin use in CAIs by 30%. After retrospectively testing, the indications were implemented and monthly PICU empirical vancomycin use during baseline (May 2017–April 2018) and postintervention (May 2018–July 2019) periods. Education was provided to PICU providers, vancomycin indications were posted, and the antibiotic order set was revised. Statistical process control methods tracked improvement over time. Proven S aureus infections for which vancomycin was not empirically prescribed and linezolid or clindamycin use were balancing measures. RESULTS We identified 1620 PICU patients with suspected bacterial CAIs. Empirical vancomycin decreased from a baseline of 73% to 45%, a 38% relative reduction. No patient not prescribed empirical vancomycin later required the addition of vancomycin or other MRSA-targeted antibiotics. There was no change in nephrotoxicity or in the balancing measures. CONCLUSIONS Development of clear and concise recommendations, combined with clinician education and decision support via an order set, was an effective and safe strategy to reduce PICU vancomycin use. Retrospective validation of the recommendations with local data were key to obtaining PICU clinician buy in.
Beta-phase stabilization and increased osteogenic differentiation of stem cells by solid-state synthesized magnesium tricalcium phosphate

In this study, magnesium and strontium-doped β-tricalcium phosphates were synthesized to understand dopant impact on substrate chemistry, morphology, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. Under solid-state synthesis, magnesium doping stabilized the β-phase in tricalcium phosphate, with 22% less α-phase content than control. Strontium doping increased α-phase formation by 17%, and also resulted in greater surface porosity, leading to greater crystal precipitation in vitro. Magnesium also significantly enhanced the proliferation of stem cells (P < 0.05) and differentiation into osteoblasts with increased alkaline phosphatase production (P < 0.05) at all time points. These results indicated that magnesium stabilizes β-tricalcium phosphate in vitro and enhanced early and late-time-point osteoconduction and osteoinduction of mesenchymal stem cells.
The Case for Reparations for the Color of COVID (preprint)

This essay first, surveys the data showing the many ways COVID generates starkly skewed adverse outcomes for vulnerable communities of color in the US, Brazil, and India. These discriminatory outcomes reflect long-standing socio-economic vulnerabilities and are in all likelihood replicated globally. Second, it argues that current plans to reform the global health regime in response to COVID do not as yet embrace changes to address the outcomes documented in the first part, namely, the ‘color of COVID,’ and explains why such reforms remain colorblind. Third, the essay connects the dots between arguments for and against reparations for African-Americans within the US, for the victims of slavery, colonialism and its legacies, and for generally for COVID’s victims. It concludes that the arguments for reparations on behalf of the victims of the color of COVID made by persons against their own governments are on the most solid ground politically and under international law.
Deformed w(1+infinity) Algebras in the Celestial CFT

We compute the modification of the w(1+infinity) algebra of soft graviton, gluon and scalar currents in the Celestial CFT due to non-minimal couplings. We find that the Jacobi identity is satisfied only when the spectrum and couplings of the theory obey certain constraints. We comment on the similarities and essential differences of this algebra to W(1+infinity).
Evaluation of CSF flow by whole-body scintigraphy

1789 Objectives Spinal fluid leakage is a difficulty diagnosis because of the intermittency and multiple possible locations. Spinal fluid blockage may prevent intrathecal application of therapeutic agents. Conventional imaging modalities suffer from low sensitivity. The bluk flow dynamics of tracer within the entire CSF pathway is thus studied to correlate with both types of flow aberrations. Methods 276 consecutive whole-body cisternograms were retrospectively reviewed. Serial whole-body images at 1-2, 3-6, 16-20 and 22 to 25 hours were acquired using a dual-headed gamma camera. Half-lives of In-111 DTPA in CSF pathway were calculated from geometric-mean images. Correlation is made with visual image inspection, nasal pledgett counts, MRI report of CSF blocks and clinical symptoms and openning status of VP shunts valve. Results Visual inspection found leakage in 23/66 patients. 30/66 leakage were found when nasal pledgetts were included. The half-lives of In-111 DTPA were 9.9 ± 4.1 and 8.9 ± 3.8 H for the 2 groups and those without leakage were 15.8 ± 4.8 H (P Conclusions Whole-body images for CSF clearance of tracers provides a direct and convenient method to determinate CSF leakage. Whole-body In-111 DTPA clearance rate is a useful indicator for CSF leakage but is of limited use to identify CSF blockage. Research Support NIH R21CA9772
Climates and Continents

In the previous reading selection from the Introduction to Cosmography, Waldseemuller invoked the geometry of the heavens to mark off distinct zones on the surface of the earth. In the reading selection that follows, he now relates these zones to their respective climates. Perhaps most interestingly, he provides a rather detailed summary of the geography and the peoples of the known regions of Europe, Asia and Africa before mentioning the newly discovered “fourth part of the world.”
$25 spring wheat was a bubble, right?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test for bubbles in the US hard red spring (HRS) wheat market from 2004 to 2014, with particular focus on 2007-2008 when the market experienced record-high price volatility. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply a recently developed bubble testing procedure to cash, rolling nearby futures contract, and individual futures contract prices of HRS wheat sampled at daily, weekly, and monthly frequencies. Two critical value (CV) sequences are derived to date-stamp bubbles, one from Monte Carlo simulations, and the other from recursive wild bootstrap procedure. Findings – The authors find that regardless of the price series adopted, sampling frequency chosen, or CVs used, bubbles account for only a small fraction of the HRS wheat price behavior during 2004-2014. However, much sharper differences are detected regarding the key policy question of bubble behavior during 2007-2008. Individual futures contract prices during this period suggest only a minimal number ...
Authenticity, Anthropology of

The anthropology of authenticity concerns the relationship of cultural objects and processes to posited social or cultural identities. From an objectivist perspective, it should be possible to validate such assignments of identity; from a constructionist perspective, identity-making is an ongoing social and political process that is often contested, yet also central to the cultural aspirations of many of the people anthropologists study.
Gravity as a factor in the animal environment.

Review of current knowledge, research, and research planning on the influence of gravity upon living organisms. Discussed factors affecting the adaptability of animals to increased acceleration fields include age, sex, posture, and body size. Affected functions and aspects reviewed cover growth and mature body size, body composition, maintenance feed requirements, and feed utilization efficiency. It is expected that research involving the exposure of animals to altered gravity states will lead to new biological concepts of very broad importance.
Lindal Buchanan, Rhetorics of Motherhood

In Rhetorics of Motherhood, author Lindal Buchanan, assistant professor of English and women’s studies at Old Dominion University, interrogates motherhood from a rhetorical perspective and argues that the deployment of maternal appeals can “not only benefit women, giving them authority and credibility, but also impede them, always/already positioning them disadvantageously within the gendered status quo” (p. 5). Justifying her approach and theoretical framework, Buchanan suggests that rhetoric has been absent from examining motherhood and has only “begun to explore the topic” (p. 11). As such, the text observes motherhood as a rhetorical constraint and analyzes the “slippery rhetorical terrain for women” (p. xvii), defining maternity as an obstacle in certain circumstances and as an advantage to employ in others. Buchanan explores three case studies utilizing a rhetorical theoretical frame and draws from a variety of feminist scholarship on motherhood.
Measuring community mental health attitudes by means of hypothetical case descriptions

Mental health professional and educators often make the error of failing to measure community attitudes affecting decisions for psychiatric referral in the community. This paper traces recent research utilizing hypothetical case descriptions of emotionally disturbed behavior administered to laymen in the general public, in order to measure their responses to deviant behavior. Case descriptions used in previous research can be refined by holding a number of potentially influential attributes constant among the cases, while permitting only one to vary. In the present research this variable is the aggression-withdrawal dimension of interpersonal behavior. A survey utilizing the refined case descriptions shows psychiatric referral rates of approximately 20%, with little social class difference in response. Female respondents, however, showed a greater tendency to refer the withdrawn case (rather than the aggressive case). The case descriptions and the rationale for the construction provide a format for investigating various determinants of the public's decision to refer deviant actors for psychiatric help.
Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the urinary bladder: A clinicopathologic study with emphasis on cytologic features

BACKGROUND Primary small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SCNEC) of the urinary bladder is a rare but important entity. The authors have attempted to define the cytopathologic features of this tumor. METHODS Sixty-one urine specimens (16 with histologic correlation) from 23 patients were studied. Twenty patients were male and 3 were female with an age range of 43 to 86 years (mean age, 68.8 years). Twenty-one cases were pure SCNEC and 2 were high grade undifferentiated carcinoma with neuroendocrine features. There were no false-positive or false-negative urine cytology diagnoses, but several cases of SCNEC were originally diagnosed as high grade transitional cell carcinoma by cytology. RESULTS Cytologic features of SCNEC included hypercellularity with isolated single cells and clustered cells with naked hyperchromatic nuclei, finely granular nuclear chromatin, rare nucleoli, and a high mitotic karyorrhectic index. Nuclear molding was prominent. No glandular formation or nesting was noted. Half of the cases had a bloody, necrotic, or inflamed background. Histology, when available, was confirmatory in all cases. CONCLUSIONS Cytologic features of SCNEC are distinct and an accurate urinary cytologic diagnosis can be made. Differential diagnosis is limited and includes metastatic small cell carcinoma, high grade transitional cell carcinoma, and malignant lymphoma. Cancer 1997; 79:356-61. © 1997 American Cancer Society.
Isoelectronic sequence fits to configuration-averaged photoionization cross sections and ionization energies

Abstract Hartree-Fock wave functions have been used to calculate configuration-averaged photonization cross sections and ionization energies for orbitals 1 s ⩽ nl ⩽ 5 g in He-like through Al-like isoelectronic sequences. The photoionization cross sections have been fitted as a function of the nuclear charge, Z , and photon energy, X , in threshold units, with average error of less than 10%. The ionization energies have been fitted as a function of Z with errors of less than 0.5%.
Visual masking, handedness, and laterality.

Monocular thresholds for a black disk and for single letters, presented either alone or followed by a masking stimulus, were obtained for both eyes of 16 left-handed Ss and 16 right-handed Ss. Thresholds for the disk tended to be lower when it was presented to the right visual field, particularly for the left eye and for right-handers. Thresholds for the letters tended to be lower when presented to the right visual field of right-handers and to the left visual field of left-handers. The masking stimulus enhanced these differences for the disk but not for the letters.
Taxonomy and systematics of some Eimeria species of murid rodents as determined by the ITS1 region of the ribosomal gene complex.

Eimeria arizonensis, E. albigulae and E. onychomysis, morphologically similar species from closely related murid rodents, were distinguished using nuclear rDNA ITS1 sequences obtained from multiple isolates of each taxon. ITS1 sequences were also obtained from 6 other species parasitizing murid rodents: E. falciformis, E. langebarteli, E. nieschulzi, E. papillata, E. separata and E. sevilletensis, and from E. reedi, a parasite of heteromyid rodents. Under parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses, the isolates of E. arizonensis, E. albigulae and E. onychomysis were differentiated as closely related, monophyletic lineages. Maximum likelihood pairwise distances between the latter species ranged from 7 to 12%, and distances within each species ranged from < 1 to 5%; thus it is suggested that ITS1 genetic distances may be used to facilitate taxonomic differentiation of Eimeria spp. Against expectation, phylogenetic procedures placed E. reedi within the phylogeny of the Eimeria of murid rodents. ITS1 sequencing appears to provide data that can be used for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies on the speciose genus Eimeria, and may be especially useful when samples contain insufficient numbers of oocysts for other molecular-based methods, e.g. RAPD-PCR.
Parameter Estimation for Bivariate Shock Models with Singular Distribution for Censored Data with Concomitant Order Statistics

When two-component parallel systems are tested, the data consist of Type-II censored data X(i), i= 1, n, from one component, and their concomitants Y [i] randomly censored at X(r), the stopping time of the experiment. Marshall & Olkin's (1967) bivariate exponential distribution is used to illustrate statistical inference procedures developed for this data type. Although this data type is motivated practically, the likelihood is complicated, and maximum likelihood estimation is difficult, especially in the case where the parameter space is a non-open set. An iterative algorithm is proposed for finding maximum likelihood estimates. This article derives several properties of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) including existence, uniqueness, strong consistency and asymptotic distribution. It also develops an alternative estimation method with closed-form expressions based on marginal distributions, and derives its asymptotic properties. Compared with variances of the MLEs in the finite and large sample situations, the alternative estimator performs very well, especially when the correlation between X and Y is small.
Schedule-induced drinking by rats in the runway on DNC schedules of reinforcement

Abstract The potential for adjunctive responding in the runway was assessed in two experiments by training rats on either continuous reinforcement (CRF) or discontinuous negatively correlated (DNC) schedules of food reinforcement with waterbottles placed at various locations in the alley. Evidence for schedule-induced drinking was found in that water consumption was most reliable in rats trained on progressive DNC schedules, but not on CRF or very constrained DNC schedules. Drinking also occurred primarily near the start location indicating stimulus availability at specific points in the required response sequence, as well as the schedule, are critical determinants for runway adjunctive activity.
Desorption of chlorinated hydrocarbons from spiked and anthropogenically contaminated sediments

Abstract The desorption of 20 chlorinated organics from sediments has been studied using a nitrogen purge/Tenax trap system for separating the “dissolved” and “sorbed” fractions in sediment/water slurries. The desorption partition coefficient, KD, was found to decrease with increasing temperature and suspended sediment concentration. While some differences in KD and desorption rates were observed for the study chemicals, considering their wide range of physical/chemical properties such as KOW, these changes were small. Desorption half-lives averaged about 60d at 4°C, 40d at 20°C and 10d at 40°C under continuous gaseous purging. Estimates of the loadings of chemicals via desorption from bottom sediments in Lake Ontario are compared to loadings of these chemicals to the lake from the Niagara River.
PERMITME: integrating android permissioning support in the IDE

One of the most common security & privacy issues concerning mobile applications is the unnecessary access to sensitive information and resources. In a mobile application platform like Android, where a permission mechanism is used to maintain access control, the app developer dictates what permissions are necessary at install time. For various reasons however, including user confusion and lack of proper documentation, developers may overcompensate for the necessary permission. By this we mean developers often incorporate more permissions than are necessary for an app to function, thus undermining the access control mechanism and increasing the potential risk from a vulnerability exploit where sensitive user information is compromised. Even when developers intentionally include extra permissions, we believe it still the duty of a developer to at least be aware of what is at stake when it comes to collecting user information. In this paper we present PermitMe, a tool developed as a plugin for the Eclipse IDE, to interactively guide developers on the set of required permissions when creating Android applications. We conducted a between-groups user study in order to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and usability of the PermitMe tool in enhancing the developer's experience when deciding to include Android permissions in their mobile applications.
Effectiveness of dynamic rescheduling in agent-based flexible manufacturing systems

This work has been developed within the framework of agent- based decentralized scheduling for flexible manufacturing systems. In this framework, all workcells comprising the manufacturing system, and the products to be generated, are modeled via intelligent software agents. These agents interact dynamically using a bidding production reservation (BPRS) scheme, based on the Contract Net Protocol, to devise the production schedule for each product unit. Simulation studies of a job shop have demonstrated the gains in performance achieved by this approach over heuristic dispatching rules commonly used in industry. Manufacturing environments are also prone to operational uncertainties such as variations in processing times and machine breakdowns. In order to cope with these uncertainties, the BPRS algorithm has been extended for dynamic rescheduling to also occur in a fully decentralized manner. The resulting multi-agent rescheduling scheme results in decentralized control of flexible manufacturing systems that are capable of responding dynamically to such operational uncertainties, thereby enhancing the robustness and fault tolerance of the proposed scheduling approach. This paper also presents the effects of the proposed agent-based decentralized scheduling approach on the performance of the underlying flexible manufacturing system under a variety of production and scheduling scenarios, including forward and backward scheduling. Future directions for this work include applying the proposed scheduling approach to other advanced manufacturing areas such as agile and holonic manufacturing.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Interferometric wavefront sensors for high contrast imaging.

Several novel interferometer configurations are presented which have a high signal-to-noise ratio making them suitable for high contrast imaging. High contrast imaging instruments, such as required to directly observe extrasolar planets, will require adaptive optics systems capable of reducing the atmospherically induced phase aberrations to a few nm of wave-front error. The interferometer designs presented are shown to provide a higher contrast and/or are more robust than the conventional Mach- Zehnder interferometer, which has previously been considered for high contrast imaging. In addition, all of the interferometric-based wave-front sensors are shown to provide a significant improvement in the achievable contrast ratio when compared with conventional adaptive optics systems containing Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensors.
Multi-Parameter Regularization Methods for High-Resolution Image Reconstruction With Displacement Errors

We propose multi-parameter regularization methods for high-resolution image reconstruction which is described by an ill-posed problem. The regularization operator for the ill-posed problem is decomposed in a multiscale manner by using bi-orthogonal wavelets or tight frames. In the multiscale framework, for different scales of the operator we introduce different regularization parameters. These methods are analyzed under certain reasonable hypotheses. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of these methods.
Association of a model class A (apolipoprotein) amphipathic alpha helical peptide with lipid: high resolution NMR studies of peptide.lipid discoidal complexes.

Class A amphipathic helical peptides have been shown to mimic apolipoprotein A-I, the major protein component of high density lipoproteins and have been shown to inhibit atherosclerosis in several dyslipidemic mouse models. Previously we reported the NMR structure of Ac-18A-NH2, the base-line model class A amphipathic helical peptide in a 50% (v/v) trifluoroethanol-d3/water mixture, a membrane-mimic environment (Mishra, V. K., Palgunachari, M. N., Anantharamaiah, G. M., Jones, M. K., Segrest, J. P., and Krishna, N. R. (2001) Peptides 22, 567–573). The peptide Ac-18A-NH2 forms discoidal nascent high density lipoprotein-like particles with 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. Because subtle structural changes in the peptide·lipid complexes have been shown to be responsible for their antiatherogenic properties, we undertook high resolution NMR studies to deduce detailed structure of recombinant peptide·1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine complexes. The peptide adopts a well defined amphipathic α helical structure in association with the lipid at a 1:1 peptide:lipid weight ratio. Nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy revealed a number of intermolecular close contacts between the aromatic residues in the hydrophobic face of the helix and the lipid acyl chain protons. The pattern of observed peptide-lipid nuclear Overhauser effects is consistent with a parallel orientation of the amphipathic α helix, with respect to the plane of the lipid bilayer, on the edge of the disc (the belt model). Based on the results of chemical cross-linking and molecular modeling, we propose that peptide helices are arranged in a head to tail fashion to cover the edge of the disc. This arrangement of peptides is also consistent with the pKa values of the Lys residues determined previously. Taken together, these results provide for the first time a high resolution structural view of the peptide·lipid discoidal complexes formed by a class A amphipathic α helical peptide.
Energy Expenditure and Heart Rate Responses to Increased Loading in Individuals With Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury Performing Body Weight–Supported Exercises

Abstract Objective To examine acute metabolic and heart rate responses in individuals with motor complete spinal cord injury (SCI) during stepping and standing with body weight support (BWS). Design Cohort study. Setting Therapeutic exercise research laboratory. Participants Nonambulatory individuals with chronic, motor complete SCI between T5 and T12 (n=8) and healthy, able-bodied controls (n=8). Intervention Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Oxygen consumption ( V ˙ o 2 ) and heart rate. Results Individuals with motor complete SCI performed standing and stepping exercises in a BWS system with manual assistance of lower body kinematics. V ˙ o 2 and heart rate responses were assessed in relation to level of BWS. Weight support was provided by an overhead lift at high (≥50% BWS) or low (20%–35% BWS) levels during stepping and standing. Although participants with motor complete SCI were unable to stand or step without assistance, levels of V ˙ o 2 and heart rate were elevated by 38% and 37%, respectively, when load was maximized during stepping (ie, low BWS). Participants without an SCI (able-bodied group) had a similar acute response to exercise. None of the participants met the target range for V ˙ o 2 response in any of the tasks. However, stepping was sufficient to enable half of the participants in the SCI group to attain the target range for heart rate response to exercise. Conclusions Individuals with motor complete SCI exhibit cardiovascular responses during body weight–supported exercise. Findings indicate that body weight–supported stepping provides a minimal cardiovascular challenge for individuals with paraplegia. Emphasis on low weight support during locomotor training can trigger additional heart rate adaptations.
Cognitions, Attitudes and Decision‐Making in Search and Seizure Cases 1

This study investigated decision-making in a search and seizure context. Specifically, the study examined the viability of a tort remedy for deterring police from illegal searches. The decision is made in a context common in legal settings: the decision-maker is supposed to ignore available information (in this case, knowledge about the outcome of the search). This type of judgment allows for the operation of many cognitive influences, such as a hindsight bias-like process and the influence of attitudes and cognitive schemas. A search scenario was presented to 377 subjects; each scenario had one of three different endings—drugs were found (guilty), no evidence was found (not guilty), or no mention was made of the outcome (neutral). The results showed that knowledge of the outcome of the search influenced damage judgements, such that a guilty outcome led to lower damage awards. Outcome knowledge also influenced reconstruction of the events in the scenario, such that a guilty outcome led to a distortion of information in the direction of incriminating the defendant. The results also showed that well-organized and coherent ideological belief systems exert an independent influence on both awards and reconstruction of events.
Formation of osmium nitrile complexes and phosphinimine complexes from n-aroylphosphinimines

Abstract Osmium(III) nitrile complexes of the type OsCl 3 -(NCAr)(PPh 3 ) 2 (Ar = phenyl, p-tolyl) are formed by the action of aromatic nitriles or N-aroylphosphinimines on OsCl 4 (PPh 3 ) 2 in refluxing p-xylene Osmium(II) nitrile and phosphinimine complexes. OsCl 2 (NCAr) 2 (PPh 3 ) 2 and OsCl 2 (ArCNPPh 3 )- (PPh 3 ) 2 , are similarly formed by the action of the respective nitriles or phosphinimines on OsO 2 Cl 2 -(PPh 3 ) 2 . Depending on reaction conditions, triphenylphosphine converts OsO 2 Cl 2 (PPh 3 ) 2 to OsCl 4 -(PPh 3 ) 2 or to OsCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 3 which are useful starting materials for syntheses of a variety of osmium carbonyl, nitrile and hydride complexes.
Effect of glyceryl trinitrate (nitroglycerin) on the systemic and coronary circulation of the dog

Abstract The effect of glyceryl trinitrate (nitroglycerin) on systemic and coronary hemodynamics was studied in normal dogs by means of electromagnetic flowmeters and integrator computers. When given intravenously, glyceryl trinitrate produced changes in the hemodynamics which can be of benefit to the patient with angina pectoris. The drug first increased the coronary blood flow and cardiac index and reduced peripheral vascular resistance for about 20 seconds. This was followed by normal coronary flow with reduced peripheral and coronary vascular resistance, for about 60 seconds; at the same time cardiac work was markedly reduced. These results confirm that the beneficial effects of nitroglycerine are due to its action on the coronary as well as the systemic circulation.
Effect of Interface Design on Usability of Message Handling Systems

Computer-based office support systems are designed to be used by people who view these systems as tools to accomplish tasks. For such users, the usefulness of a function is related to how well the interface to that function is designed. A comparison of two computer-based message systems shows that the amount of use received by a function supporting a secondary task is related to how easy that function is to use. It may be necessary to forego some system-wide power to provide user aids that improve usability of secondary functions.
Relationship between dendritic pruning and behavioral recovery following sensorimotor cortex lesions

A unilateral injury to the forelimb area of the sensorimotor cortex results in an increase in dendritic arborization in the contralateral homotopic cortex which is followed by a pruning back of these dendritic arbors. The increase in arborization is due to an increase in the use of the unimpaired forelimb for postural-motor support; whereas, the dendritic pruning is related, in time, to the return to more symmetrical limb use, but is not prevented by the maintenance of asymmetrical limb use. Dendritic pruning can be prevented by administering an NMDA receptor antagonist (such as MK801 or ethanol) during the pruning phase. This manipulation also coincides with the chronic reinstatement of behavioral deficits. The purpose of this study was to see whether removing the antagonism of the NMDA receptor results in the eventual return of dendritic pruning and behavioral recovery. Therefore, MK801 was administered to lesioned animals starting at post-lesion day 18. One group received MK801 injections until day 60 (Lesion + MK60) and another lesioned group received MK801 until day 30 after which the injections were changed to saline until day 60 (Lesion + MK30). Lesion + MK60 animals showed a prevention of dendritic pruning as well as a chronic reinstatement of forelimb deficits. Lesion + MK30 animals also showed a prevention of dendritic pruning, however, they showed behavioral recovery. These findings suggest that pruning of dendritic arbors may not be directly related to behavioral recovery.
BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON THE MALE HORMONE AS OBTAINED FROM URINE

The testicular hormone obtained from human male urine has been the subject of investigation by many workers, notably Funk, Harrow, and Lejwa (1, 2, 3), McCullagh, McCullagh, and Hicken (4), Dodds, Greenwood, and Gallimore (5, 6) and Butenandt (7). With the exception of the last mentioned author, the extracts described by these workers have been rather crude compared to the relatively high purity of the bull testis extracts described by the present authors. The purpose of this communication is to present a method for the extraction and purification of the comb-growth-stimulating substance found in human male urine and to compare the chemical and physiological properties of this substance with the extracts from bull testis. The urine is acidified with sulfuric acid within two hours after collection to approximately 1 per cent by volume. After filtering through cloth to remove foreign particles, the urine is extracted with benzene in a continuous extractor as shown in Figure 1. When a sufficient quantity has...
Comparative effects of intrauterine instillation of analogues of quinacrine and tetracycline on uterine morphology in the rat

Currently, intrauterine instillation of quinacrine hydrochloride is used to induce closure of the uterotubal junction in women, thus constituting a chemical method of sterilization. Questions regarding the safety of this drug have been raised. The purpose of the present study is to screen other drugs for their sterilizing potential by comparing quinacrine-induced changes in uterine morphology in the rat which have previously been correlated with decreased fertility with the changes induced by other drugs. The drugs tested include quinacrine-like compounds, namely chloroquine, primaquine and trimethoprim; and tetracycline and its analogues which are known sclerosing agents. The quinacrine-like drugs were relatively ineffective in producing uterine lesions similar to those of quinacrine, but like quinacrine, chloroquine and primaquine showed some toxicity. Tetracycline and its analogues produced quinacrine-like morphologic changes in the rat uterus and showed no toxicity for the doses tested. These results prompt further testing of tetracycline and its analogues as sterilizing agents.
Conformational Ensembles of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins are Determined by Charge Patterning

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) or regions (IDR) fail to adopt stable secondary or tertiary structures under physiological conditions. 30% of eukaryotic proteins are IDPs while 50% of eukaryotic proteins and 70% of signaling proteins contain IDRs. IDPs sample heterogeneous conformations and characterizing their conformational ensembles is important to understand the role of disorder in IDP function. Recent work has shown that the phase behavior of IDPs with up to 50 residues can be predicted from their net charge per residue. To test the validity of this phase diagram for longer IDPs, we have carried out systematic and comparative computational studies on different IDPs/IDRs with more than 100 residues and low net charge per residue (∼0.1). Our results show that in contrast to the phase diagram predictions of disordered globules, these longer IDPs can adopt semi-extended conformations that appear to have the characteristics of fractal globules or other polymeric mesophases with large conformational heterogeneity. The sequence patterning of positively and negatively charged “blobs” appears to be the primary determinant of deviations from predictions based on net charge per residue. Although the latter is valid within locally compact domains, the charge patterning acts as the primary modulator of stochastic inter-blob and inter-domain electrostatic interactions. The encoding between sequence patterning and the probabilities of through-space inter-blob and inter-domain contacts can be inferred and our ongoing efforts are focused on formalizing a theoretical framework to predict the effects of variations in charge patterning at the sequence level on the conformational ensembles of longer, functionally relevant IDPs and IDRs.
Randomized algorithm for global optimization with bounded memory

We describe a class of adaptive algorithms for approximating the global minimum of a function defined on a compact subset of R^d. The algorithms are adaptive versions of Monte Carlo search and use a memory of a fixed number of past observations. By choosing a large enough memory, the convergence rate can be made to exceed any power of the convergence rate obtained with standard Monte Carlo search.
Small RNAs tell big stories in Whistler

The Keystone Symposium on RNAi, microRNA and non-coding RNA convened on March 25–30 at Whistler Resort in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Researchers with backgrounds in different biochemical disciplines came together to exchange ideas on short RNAs and their roles in a host of biological processes.
The Influence of Benzene as a Trace Reactant in Titan Aerosol Analogs

Benzene has been detected in Titan's atmosphere by Cassini instruments, with concentrations ranging from sub-ppb in the stratosphere to ppm in the ionosphere. Sustained levels of benzene in the haze formation region could signify that it is an important reactant in the formation of Titan's organic aerosol. To date, there have not been laboratory investigations to assess the influence of benzene on aerosol properties. We report a laboratory study on the chemical composition of organic aerosol formed from C6H6/CH4/N2 via far ultraviolet irradiation (120-200 nm). The compositional results are compared to those from aerosol generated by a more "traditional Titan" mixture of CH4/N2. Our results show that even a trace amount of C6H6 (10 ppm) has significant impact on the chemical composition and production rates of organic aerosol. There are several pathways by which photolyzed benzene may react to form larger molecules, both with and without the presence of CH4, but many of these reaction mechanisms are only beginning to be explored for the conditions at Titan. Continued work investigating the influence of benzene in aerosol growth will advance understanding of this previously unstudied reaction system.
Measurement of tissue lithium concentration by lithium magnetic resonance spectroscopy in patients with bipolar disorder.

Abstract Measurements of the lithium concentration in the occipital pole of the head and calf muscle of nine patients with bipolar disorder in remission were performed using in vivo lithium-7 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 7 Li NMR). 7 Li NMR measurements were performed on a 1-m-bore, 1.85-T, superconducting magnet supplemented with a multinuclear spectrometer, using 11.5-cm-diameter surface coils. The average lithium concentration in the occipital pole was 0.36 ± 0.10 mEq/L, whereas in the muscle it was 0.50 ± 0.17 mEq/L, both lower than the average serum lithium concentration (0.79 ± 0.23 mEq/L). The average brain/serum lithium concentration ratio was 0.47 ± 0.12 whereas the average muscle/serum lithium concentration ratio was 0.66 ± 0.20. There was a positive correlation between the brain versus serum and brain versus muscle lithium concentrations. The hypothesis is advanced that the minimal effective concentration of brain lithium concentration for maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder is around 0.2–0.3 mEq/L.
The long‐term effects of explosive munitions on the WWI battlefield surface of Verdun, France

Abstract This paper aims to characterise the varying magnitudes of landscape disturbance across the WWI battlefield of Verdun, France. Five study sites were surveyed to best reflect the varying degrees of disturbance under common similar environmental characteristics, e.g. bedrock, soil type and topographic position. Disturbance magnitude was determined by counting and measuring the dimensional attributes of craters in two 0.25 hectare plots at each of the five study sites. Additionally, a survey of microtopography was performed at each of the five study sites to record changes in elevation of damaged sites. The spatial character and variation in the magnitude of disturbance at the five disturbance study sites was linked to four variables: (1) location of armies in relation to the front; (2) stagnation of front lines; (3) topographic location of armies; and (4) geologic characteristics of the site.
CO2 capture properties of M―C―O―H (M=Li, Na, K) systems: A combined density functional theory and lattice phonon dynamics study

Abstract We have computed the phase diagrams for multi-component M –C–O–H ( M =Li, Na, K) systems using first-principles density functional theory complemented with lattice phonon calculations. We have identified all CO 2 capture reactions that lie on the Gibbs free energy convex hull as a function of temperature and the partial pressures of CO 2 and H 2 O. Our predicted phase diagrams for CO 2 capture reactions are in qualitative and in some instances quantitative agreement with experimental data. The Na 2 CO 3 /NaHCO 3 and K 2 CO 3 /KHCO 3 systems were found to be the most promising candidates of all those we investigated for both pre- and post-combustion CO 2 capture. Overall, we show that our calculation approach can be used to screen promising materials for CO 2 capture under different conditions of temperature and pressure.
Error correction for mutually interacting qubits

For a simple model of mutually interacting qubits it is shown how the errors induced by mutual interactions can be eliminated using concatenated coding. The model is solved exactly for arbitrary interaction strength, for two well-known codes, one and two levels deep: this allows one to see under which circumstances error amplitudes add coherently or incoherently. For deeper concatenation, approximate results are derived which make it possible to calculate an approximate ``threshold'' value for the product of interaction strength and free evolution time, below which the failure probability for an encoded qubit decreases exponentially with the depth of the encoding. The results suggest that concatenated coding could fully handle the errors arising from mutual interactions, at no extra cost, in terms of resources needed, from what would be required to deal with random environmental errors.
Pathological versus physiological left ventricular hypertrophy: A review

Left ventricular hypertrophy is recognized as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbid events. The primary mechanisms responsible for stimulating it are unknown. Epidemiological theories suggest that left ventricular hypertrophy is a continuous variable with no threshold, while morphological studies argue that it is the structure, or quality, and function of the myocardium (and therefore non-continuous), not the quantity of the myocardial mass, that poses the cardiovascular risk. Although left ventricular hypertrophy has been classically viewed as an adaptive response of the cardiovascular system to an imposed load, it has been demonstrated that haemodynamic overloading in selected hypertensive patients is not the sole determinant of left ventricular structure and function. Pathological and physiological states of left ventricular hypertrophy have been described primarily using criteria focusing on normal chamber performance and oxygen delivery as well as the reversibility of the hypertrophy o...
Soil preservation and ventifact recycling from dry-based glaciers in Antarctica

Soil preservation from three glacial thermal regimes was examined in the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) using the University of Wisconsin Antarctic Soils Database (http://nsidc.org/data/ ggd221). Glacial thermal regimes included temperate (wet-based) glaciers from overriding of the TAM prior to c. 15 Ma BP and subsequent polar (dry-based) glaciers. The glacial thermal regimes were distinguished from landform, sediment and erosional features. Buried soils were most common from deposition by dry-based glaciers (44 of 51 pedons). Several of these buried soils had a desert pavement intact with in situ ventifacts. Fifteen percent of the pedons contained recycled ventifacts in relict and buried soils that ranged from late Quaternary to Miocene in age, particularly in drift from dry-based glaciers (56 of 77 pedons). Overall 84% of the buried soils and 78% of the pedons with recycled ventifacts originated from dry-based glaciers. The proportion of soils with recycled clasts on a particular drift was greatest where the ratio of drift thickness to soil thickness ("recycling ratio") was the least. These data illustrate the effectiveness of Antarctic dry-based glaciers in preserving underlying landforms and deposits, including soils. Moreover, the data imply that Antarctic glaciers have been recycling clasts for the past c. 15 Ma. These findings have important implications in selecting surface boulders for cosmogenic dating.
An Analysis of the Modes of Operation of Parasitic SCRs

Four-layer parasitic SCR paths exist in bulk CMOS integrated circuits which can be activated by transient ionizing radiation, by overvoltage stress, and by other means into a low-impedance state (latch-up). These parasitic SCRs often have characteristics which are not explained by simple SCR theory; for example, large holding voltage offsets and saturation of the total current through the device have been observed. This paper analyzes a cross-coupled transistor model to explain how these characteristics can occur in parasitic four-layer paths. Experimental data is presented demonstrating modes of operation present in parasitic SCRs but not normally observed in discrete Shockley diodes or thyristors.
A continuum theory for two phase media

A continuum theory of a two phase solid-fluid media is formulated. The basic balance laws for the solid phase as well as for the fluid phase are presented. Based on thermodynamical consideration a set of constitutive equations are derived and the basic equations of motions of the distributed solid and fluid continua are obtained and discussed. It is shown that the theory contains as its special cases, Mohr-Coulomb criterion of limiting equilibrium of granular materials, Saffman theory of dusty gas, as well as Darcy's law of flow through porous media. It is then concluded that the present theory covers the full spectrum of two phase solid-fluid media from low porosity granular media with Darcy's law of fluid motion to low and high concentration two phase flows such as dusty gas and blood flow.
Dietary carbohydrate dictates development of Type 2 diabetes in the Nile rat.

Amount and type of dietary carbohydrate (CHO), as well as the CHO:fat ratio, are thought to be critical for both the rate of development and severity of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Thus, these nutritional considerations were examined in the previously described “spontaneous” model of diabetes and metabolic syndrome, the Nile rat. Weanling male Nile rats (n=92) were fed semipurified diets, modifying glycemic index and load by changing the amount of fiber or altering the CHO:fat ratio. Random and fasting blood glucose and body weight were assessed, and diabetes was characterized in terms of blood glucose, relevant plasma and liver parameters, food and water intake and terminal organ weights. Nile rats fed with hiCHO became more hyperglycemic than rats fed with modCHO (P<.05), while loCHO and hiCHO+hiFiber rats remained essentially normoglycemic. Liver lipid and glycogen accumulation was associated with severe hyperlipemia in diabetic rats, analogous to metabolic syndrome in humans. Advanced diabetes was linked to liver and kidney damage and elevated blood urea nitrogen with weight loss. Dispersing dietary CHO by fiber or replacing it by moderate fat (reducing the glycemic index and load) delayed the onset of diabetes but did not prevent signs of insulin resistance. A very low content of dietary CHO (high fat) seemed to prevent even these early indicators of insulin resistance. Thus, the Nile rat represents a novel CHO-sensitive model for study of Type 2 diabetes that reliably follows the course of disease in humans.