cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Two different genetic etiologies for tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in a single family.

Background Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant genetic condition that involves abnormalities of the skin, hamartomas in the heart, brain, and kidneys, seizures, as well as TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders (TAND). About 90%-95% of individuals with TSC will have an identifiable pathogenic variant in either TSC1 or TSC2. We present here two family members with clinical diagnoses of TSC that were later determined to be due to two different genetic etiologies. Methods A 2-year-old Caucasian female (Patient 1) was born to non-consanguineous healthy parents and was determined to have a clinical diagnosis of TSC at 2 months old. Her paternal great-uncle (Patient 2) was also known to have a clinical diagnosis of TSC. Sequencing and deletion/duplication analysis for TSC1 and TSC2 were performed on both individuals. Results Mutation analysis revealed that both Patient 1 and Patient 2 had identifiable pathogenic variants in TSC2. Patient 1 had c.4800_4801delTG (p.Cys1600Trpfs*2), while Patient 2 had c.4470_4471delinsTT (p.Glu1490_Lys1491delinsAsp*). Conclusion To our knowledge, our clinical report is of significance as it is the third kindred to be identified with affected members with two distinct genetic etiologies for TSC. Our case report highlights the importance of incorporating genetic testing into the clinical evaluation for individuals with features suggestive of TSC.
Napabucasin (BBI 608), a potent chemoradiosensitizer in rectal cancer

Background: The induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) represents a viable strategy for enhancing the activity of radiotherapy. The authors hypothesized that napabucasin would increase ROS via its ability to inhibit NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 and potentiate the response to chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer via distinct mechanisms. Method: Proliferation studies, colony formation assays, and ROS levels were measured in HCT116 and HT29 cell lines treated with napabucasin, chemoradiation, or their combination. DNA damage (pγH2AX), activation of STAT, and downstream angiogenesis were evaluated in both untreated and treated cell lines. Finally, the effects of napabucasin, chemoradiotherapy, and their combination were assessed in vivo with subcutaneous mouse xenograft models. Results: Napabucasin significantly potentiated the growth inhibition of chemoradiation in both cell lines. Napabucasin increased ROS generation. Inhibition of ROS by N-acetylcysteine decreased the growth inhibitory effect of napabucasin alone and in combination with chemoradiotherapy. Napabucasin significantly increased pγH2AX in comparison with chemoradiotherapy alone. Napabucasin reduced the levels of pSTAT3 and VEGF and inhibited angiogenesis through an ROS-mediated effect. Napabucasin significantly potentiated the inhibition of growth and blood vessel formation by chemoradiotherapy in mouse xenografts. Conclusion: Napabucasin is a radiosensitizer with a novel mechanism of action: increasing ROS production and inhibiting angiogenesis. Clinical trials testing the addition of napabucasin to chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer are needed.
Adaptive Regret for Control of Time-Varying Dynamics.

We consider regret minimization for online control with time-varying linear dynamical systems. The metric of performance we study is adaptive policy regret, or regret compared to the best policy on {\it any interval in time}. We give an efficient algorithm that attains first-order adaptive regret guarantees for the setting of online convex optimization with memory. We also show that these first-order bounds are nearly tight. This algorithm is then used to derive a controller with adaptive regret guarantees that provably competes with the best linear dynamical controller on any interval in time. We validate these theoretical findings experimentally on (1) simulations of time-varying linear dynamics and disturbances, and (2) the non-linear inverted pendulum benchmark.
Reconstructing the theater of terror

The study explores the nexus of violence and mass media, and the ability of terrorists to enhance their influence and resources via effective marketing of their actions. We utilized a dataset of 24...
Thoughts and attitudes towards mimicking regulations and policy interpretations similar to Title IX

The purpose of this study is to adhere to the call proposed by Anaza & McDowell (2017) and to serve as a framework for consideration when exploring conditions under which regulations and policy int...
Do Corporate Venture Capitalists Add Value to Start-Up Firms? Evidence from IPOs and Acquisitions of VC-Backed Companies

We present evidence that corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) add value to start-up companies only when the start-ups have a strategic fit with the parent corporations of CVCs. We find that CVCs provide a variety of services and support that suit the specific needs of start-ups operating in different industries. CVC-backed start-ups are able to obtain higher valuations at the IPO than non-CVC-backed ones, and the value added by CVCs concentrates in start-ups with a strategic overlap with CVC parents. Entrepreneurial companies with strategic CVC backing also receive higher takeover premiums when they become acquisition targets.
Prioritizing Possible Force Models Error in Multiphase Flow Using Global Sensitivity Analysis

Modeling gas–particle interaction in an Eulerian–Lagrangian frame involves many approximate models. Hence, understanding the model form error is essential to improve the prediction capability. Ofte...
Practice Consolidation Among U.S. Radiation Oncologists Over Time.

Purpose Health care practices across the United States have been consolidating in response to various market forces. The degree of practice consolidation varies widely across specialties but has not been well studied within radiation oncology. This study used Medicare data to characterize the extent of practice consolidation among radiation oncologists and to investigate associated market factors. Methods and Materials We utilized Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System data to assess the practice size and billing patterns of U.S. radiation oncologists in 2013 and again in 2017. Individual practices were categorized by the number of radiation oncologists practicing together: solo practices had 1 radiation oncologist, small practices 2 to 10, and large practices 11 or more. Market consolidation within each hospital referral region (HRR) across the country was quantified using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Hospital and market level data were obtained for each HRR, and factors associated with the growth of radiation oncology practices over time were calculated via multivariable linear regression. Results Across the United States, radiation oncology practices appear to be highly consolidated. The mean Herfindahl-Hirschman Index was 0.4711 in 2013—indicating high levels of consolidation at baseline—and increased further to 0.4865 by 2017. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of practices with radiation oncologists in the United States decreased 3.8%, from 1679 to 1615, whereas the number of practicing radiation oncologists increased 9.4%, from 4948 to 5415. Over the study period, the number of solo practices fell 11% (from 708 in 2013 to 627 in 2017), whereas the number of large practices (those with 11 or more radiation oncologists) increased 50% (from 60 to 90). Large practices likewise grew to employ a greater share of all radiation oncologists (23.9%-32.4%) and accounted for a larger proportion of total Medicare billing (21%-26%). Two market factors were predictive for increases in the mean radiation oncology practice size. HRRs with greater hospital market consolidation and those with lower levels of baseline radiation oncology consolidation were more likely to experience higher levels of growth over the study period. Conclusions Radiation oncologists are increasingly working in larger practices. By 2017, nearly one-third of all practicing radiation oncologists in the United States were employed by just the 90 largest practices. Radiation oncology, as a field, is highly concentrated, and represents one of the most consolidated specialties across the country. The implications of practice consolidation among radiation oncologists warrants further investigation.
Characterizing Emergent Behaviors in Twitter Telehealth Communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Telehealth has played a critical role in supporting healthcare delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mitigation practices of physical distancing and sheltering-in-place continue to impose a significant burden on face-to-face healthcare visits. As a result, telehealth adoption and utilization have increased significantly after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services waived telehealth payment requirements. These changes have been rapid and affect both individuals and organizations, ranging from healthcare and technology to news and policy. We turn to Twitter, as a broad-reaching communication platform, to elucidate and characterize Telehealth communication patterns. While different aspects of tweeting about telehealth have been used to answer specific questions, we sought to understand the collective telehealth tweeting behavior as a system of different types of users tweeting with various intent and sentiment. Such an approach combines the typically independent analysis of structure, using social network analysis, and purpose or function of communication, with topic analysis and sentiment analysis. In this paper, we apply a systems-based approach-called hetero-functional graph theory-to comprehensively describe the structure and function of the Twitter Telehealth communication system. We modeled 13 different types of telehealth users and 15 combinations of tweet intent and sentiment, which together describe 195 system capabilities. We applied machine learning to classify individual user tweeting behavior for different classes of telehealth stakeholders. We identified several patterns of longitudinal tweeting behaviors that varied by system form and function. By applying an interdependent methodology to understand both form and function, we provide deeper insights into tweeting behaviors between different classes of stakeholders. In doing so, we achieve a greater understanding of the various needs of different stakeholders, which can be leveraged as a valuable resource in informing more equitable policies as telehealth becomes a more permanent and scaled healthcare delivery service.
EVACUATING ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, IN ABOUT ELEVEN (11) SECONDS

Abstract. Orange County, California, residents must evacuate when there is a crisis at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Clemente, California. They must travel roughly north and east over safe roads. Depending on their location in Orange County (OC), residents will travel to the closest of four (4) waypoints located on the border between OC and neighboring counties. Once a waypoint is reached, evacuees can travel in any direction except back toward OC. The approximate driving distance algorithm is used to suggest a possible waypoint for each address—business or residential. The approximate driving distance algorithm makes this evacuation planning possible, as it takes only around eleven (11) seconds on a state-of-the-art laptop to route 1.1 to 1.2 million addresses to waypoints. Using actual driving distances would take too long and be too expensive, taking approximately fifty-three (53) days on the same platform. The waypoint suggestions are just that: suggestions. In some cases, the approximate driving distance algorithm might not choose the closest waypoint.
Do media portrayals and social consensus information impact anti-fat attitudes and support for anti-weight discrimination laws and policies?

Abstract Although weight stigma and discrimination are associated with increased body dissatisfaction and eating disorder risk, reduced opportunities, and poorer well-being, there are few legal protections for such discrimination in the U.S. We addressed one barrier to enacting protective legislation – public attitudes toward anti-weight discrimination laws – by assessing the impact of media representations of fatness and information about peer attitudes. Using a 2 × 2 experimental design, participants (N = 525) completed baseline assessments of political conservatism and weight bias and were randomly assigned to view fat-negative or fat-positive media content that was ostensibly supported or not supported by their peers, followed by questionnaires assessing fat phobia and legislative attitudes. Two-way ANCOVAs controlling for baseline weight bias and political conservatism indicated a significant effect for media framing, with greater fat phobia and less support for anti-discrimination laws and policies among those who viewed the fat-negative frame; however, effects for ostensible peer support and interaction effects were not significant. These preliminary findings suggest that efforts to shift media rhetoric may enhance support for anti-weight discrimination laws. Future research should investigate other barriers to anti-discrimination legislation and estimate their impact on body dissatisfaction, eating disorder risk, and other indicators of population health.
Eucapnic Voluntary Hyperventilation to Detect Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction in Cystic Fibrosis.

Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) has not been well studied in cystic fibrosis (CF), and eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation (EVH) testing has not been used as an objective assessment of EIB in CF to date. A prospective cohort pilot study was completed where standard EVH testing was completed by 10 CF patients with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) ≥70 % of predicted. All patients also completed a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) with pre- and post-CPET spirometry as a comparative method of detecting EIB. No adverse events occurred with EVH testing. A total of 20 % (2/10) patients were diagnosed with EIB by means of EVH. Both patients had clinical symptoms consistent with EIB. No patient had a CPET-based exercise challenge consistent with EIB. EVH testing was safe and effective in the objective assessment for EIB in patients with CF who had well-preserved lung function. It may be a more sensitive method of detecting EIB then exercise challenge.
Bulk Optical Properties of Fine Grained Forged Calcium Fluoride

Single crystals of CaF 2 having . . . and orientations have been routinely isostatically foreed in a helium atmosohere at 750°C. The crystals were deformed 60 percent to ensure a uniform grain size of less than 15μm. A fine cloudiness of "veiline" occurs when the forging is done below the recrystallization temoerature of about 800°C for CaF 2 . Nomarski micrographs show that voids are distributed within the bulk of the foreines. Polariscooe photographs show internal stress. Total integrated forward scattering measurements have been made on the sample immersed in a cell containing index matching fluid to eliminate scattering from the sample surfaces. These measurements show variations cannot be definitely correlated with the positions of veils in the CaF 2 .
DNA Probe Hybridization and PCR Detection of Cryptosporidium Compared to Immunofluorescence Assay

There is a need for the development of methods for the detection of Cryptosporidium in environmental samples. Two assays which detect the DNA of this parasite were developed and compared to the traditional method of detection, immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Oligonucleotide primers hybridizing to small subunit ribosomal RNA coding sequences were used in the polymerase chain reaction to develop highly specific detection of Cryptosporidium species. The PCR assay could detect about 20-100 oocyst equivalents in clean samples, but the sensitivity was reduced in some environmental samples. Detection based on direct hybridization of repetitive DNA probes from C. parvum was also accomplished, but the assay was not as sensitive as PCR or IFA and yielded false positive signals with environmental samples.
A cannabis registry.

The report of the Committee on Drugs on the effects of marihuana on man1 is commendable for its thorough survey of the current literature and its succinct presentation of a complex subject. I would like to add some comments in regard to adverse psychological effects, an aspect of the marihuana problem that is of special interest to pediatricians. The Committee discounts many reports of adverse effects on several grounds: uncontrolled observations, data from the Far East and Caribbean of doubtful clinical verity on men with nutritional and other disease problems, and the confusion of interpreting multiple drug effects.
Localized Structural Damage Detection: A Change Point Analysis

Many current damage detection techniques rely on the skill and experience of a trained inspector and also require a priori knowledge about the struc- ture's properties. However, this study presents adapta- tion of several change point analysis techniques for their performance in civil engineering damage detection. Lit- erature shows different statistical approaches which are developed for detection of changes in observations for different applications including structural damage detec- tion. However, despite their importance in damage de- tection, control charts and statistical frameworks are not properly utilized in this area. On the other hand, most of the existing change point analysis techniques were originally developed for applications in the stock mar- ket or industrial engineering processes; utilizing them in structural damage detection needs adjustments and ver- ification. Therefore, in this article several change point detection methods are evaluated and adjusted for a dam- age detection scheme. The effectiveness of features from a statistics based local damage detection algorithm called Influenced Coefficient Based Damage Detection Algo- rithm (IDDA) is expanded for a more complex structural system. The statistics used in this study include the uni- variate Cumulative Sum, Exponentially Weighted Mov- ing Average (EWMA), Mean Square Error (MSE), and multivariate Mahalanobis distances, and Fisher Crite- rion. They are used to make control charts that detect and localize the damage by correlating locations of a sen- sor network with the damage features. A Modified MSE statistic, called ModMSE statistic, is introduced to re- move the sensitivity of the MSE statistic to the variance of a data set. The effectiveness of each statistic is analyzed.
Direct entry of rabies virus into the central nervous system without prior local replication.

Rabies virus pathogenesis was studied in a mouse model by inoculation of the masseter muscle. At different intervals, the masseter muscle, trigeminal ganglia, and brain were analyzed for virus-specific RNA with a polymerase chain reaction assay, which revealed that as early as 18 h postinfection (p.i.), virus-specific RNA was present in the trigeminal ganglia, and at 24 h p.i., viral RNA was identified in the brain stem. Analysis of the masseter muscle demonstrated virus at 1 h p.i. but no virus-specific RNA between 6 and 30 h p.i., indicating that virus invaded the nerve ending directly, without prior replication in the muscle. At 36 h p.i., viral RNA was detected again in the masseter muscle. Selective amplification of plus- and minus-strand RNA isolated from the masseter muscle at 96 h p.i. revealed that the majority of the rabies virus-specific RNA was in the positive sense, suggesting virus replication in muscle tissue during late stages of infection.
The Real Student-Loan Scandal: Undue Hardship Discharge Litigation

For a debtor to obtain a discharge of educational debt in bankruptcy, an adversary proceeding between the debtor and the creditor must be initiated, and the debtor must establish that repayment of the debt would impose an undue hardship. This empirical study documents and analyzes trial-level outcomes of such proceedings. An original data set has been compiled of all terminated undue hardship discharge proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington that were commenced during the five-year period beginning on January 1, 2002 and ending on December 31, 2006. The study seeks to provide an account of the determinants of the extent of discharge obtained by debtors, whether through settlement or through court adjudication. Bivariate and regression analyzes of the data reveal that case characteristics that decisional law would deem irrelevant to the merits of a debtor's claim of undue hardship, such as the level of experience of the debtor's attorney and the identity of the judge assigned to the debtor's adversary proceeding, predominate the group of determinants of the extent of discharge. We conclude that our findings raise serious concerns regarding access to justice and thus challenge long-standing assumptions regarding the propriety of discharge litigation for relief from student loans in a bankruptcy system designed to provide a fresh start for debtors.
The Open-Access Movement is Not Really about Open Access

While the open-access (OA) movement purports to be about making scholarly content open-access, its true motives are much different. The OA movement is an anti-corporatist movement that wants to deny the freedom of the press to companies it disagrees with. The movement is also actively imposing onerous mandates on researchers, mandates that restrict individual freedom. To boost the open-access movement, its leaders sacrifice the academic futures of young scholars and those from developing countries, pressuring them to publish in lower-quality open-access journals. The open-access movement has fostered the creation of numerous predatory publishers and standalone journals, increasing the amount of research misconduct in scholarly publications and the amount of pseudo-science that is published as if it were authentic science.
Continuous Monitoring of Oxygen Concentrations in Air-Purged Shake-Flask Fermentations

Continuous monitoring of the oxygen concentrations in the gas and liquid phases in air-purged shake-flask fermentations was accomplished by means of steam-sterilizable oxygen probes.
Abstract 12091: Novel ECMO Cannulation Strategy Expedites Conversion to LVAD

Objectives: Venoarterial (VA) ECMO has emerged as a successful modality for bridging patients with critical cardiogenic shock to durable support. However, LV distention on ECMO impairs RV and lung recovery and can result in the need for a temporary RVAD. Additionally, patients on VA ECMO with organ dysfunction may require ongoing LV assistance for recovery prior to durable LVAD conversion. Placement of a large apical LV vent allows bedside conversion to LVAD and provides time for organ recovery prior to elective durable device implantation. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that LV venting on ECMO accelerates RV recovery, hastening conversion to LVAD. Methods: ECMO cases from January 2012 to April 2014 were reviewed following IRB approval. Sixteen patients met INTERMACS Category 1 criteria who were placed on VA ECMO for cardiogenic or post-cardiotomy shock. Eight patients had LV venting and eight had standard peripheral cannulation. Refractory pulmonary edema, CPR during cannulation, and severe LV distention we...
Data I/O Minimization for Loops on Limited Onchip Memory Processors

Due to significant advances in VLSI technology, ‘mega-processors’ made with a large number of transistors has become a reality. These processors typically provide multiple functional units which allow exploitation of parallelism. In order to cater to the data demands associated with parallelism, the processors provide a limited amount of on-chip memory. The amount of memory provided is quite limited due to higher area and power requirements associated with it. Even though limited, such on-chip memory is a very valuable resource in memory hierarchy. An important use of on-chip memory is to hold the instructions from short loops along with the associated data for very fast computation. Such schemes are very attractive on embedded processors where, due to the presence of dedicated hard-ware on-chip (such as very fast multipliers-shifters etc.) and extremely fast accesses to on-chip data, the computation time of such loops is extremely small meeting almost all real-time demands. Biggest bottleneck to performance in these cases are off-chip accesses and thus, compilers must carefully analyze references to identify good candidates for promotion to on-chip memory. In our earlier work [6], we formulated this problem in terms of 0/1 knapsack and proposed a heuristic solution that gives us good promotion candidates. Our analysis was limited to a single loop nest. When we attempted extending this framework to multiple loop nests (intra-procedurally), we realized that not only it is important to identify good candidates for promotion but a careful restructuring of loops must be undertaken before performing promotion since data i/o of loading and storing values to on-chip memory poses a significant bottleneck.
Freedom as in a Self-Sustainable Community: The Free Software Movement and Its Challenge to Copyright Law

Copyright law, together with the market logic it carries, penetrates deeply into our daily life. The copyright regime is so restrictive that it turns a normal learning process into a series of potential copyright violations. The Free Software Movement (FSM) represents a substantial community effort to counter this trend. It seeks to supersede the copyright regime by offering the ‘Copyleft’ licensing mode, which facilitates the formation of a cooperative, resource-sharing community. The FSM has been so successful that it has challenged the utilitarian values presumed in copyright law, has fuelled widespread reassessment of copyright law, and has influenced many who engage in various creative activities. Claiming to bear similar values, Creative Commons (CC) provides licensing models for people to waive some rights granted to them. However, CC differs from the FSM in significant ways. Most notably, the flexible CC licensing model weakens the firm philosophical and political ground which binds FSM advocates ...
CHARACTERISTICS AND THEORETICAL ORIENTATIONS OF CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKERS

This paper presents the characteristics and preferred theoretical orientations of a national sample of clinical social workers. The respondents am primarily white, and about two-thirds are female. Over half of the respondents received their MSWs after 1960, and a surprising 65.8% report at least part-time involvements in private practice. The preferred theoretical orientation among all respondents is psychoanalytic, although the vast majority report an eclectic a p proach to practice. Some differences appear with respect to the use of various theoretical orientations based on ethnicity. year of receipt of MSW, and whether or not the respondent is in private practice.
4-hydroxy-benzoic acid (4-diethylamino-2-hydroxy-benzylidene)hydrazide: DFT, antioxidant, spectroscopic and molecular docking studies with BSA.

The Schiff base 4-hydroxy-benzoic acid (4-diethylamino-2-hydroxy-benzylidene) hydrazide (SL) was synthesized and characterized. Its antioxidant activity was evaluated using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging action. Being a potent antioxidant its binding ability to the transport protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) was studied using fluorescence quenching and circular dichroism (CD) studies. The binding distance has been calculated by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to be 1.85 A and the Stern-Volmer quenching constant has been calculated to be (3.23 ± 0.45) × 10(5) M(-1). Quantum chemical analysis was carried out for the Schiff base using DFT with B3LYP and 6-311G** and related to the experimentally obtained results. For a deeper understanding of the mechanism of the interaction, the experimental data were complemented by protein-Schiff base docking calculations using Argus Lab.
Inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes by fatty acids and monoglycerides

Fatty acids and monoglycerides were evaluated in brain heart infusion broth and in milk for antimicrobial activity against the Scott A strain of Listeria monocytogenes. C12:0, C18:3, and glyceryl monolaurate (monolaurin) had the strongest activity in brain heart infusion broth and were bactericidal at 10 to 20 micrograms/ml, whereas potassium (K)-conjugated linoleic acids and C18:2 were bactericidal at 50 to 200 micrograms/ml. C14:0, C16:0, C18:0, C18:1, glyceryl monomyristate, and glyceryl monopalmitate were not inhibitory at 200 micrograms/ml. The bactericidal activity in brain heart infusion broth was higher at pH 5 than at pH 6. In whole milk and skim milk, K-conjugated linoleic acid was bacteriostatic and prolonged the lag phase especially at 4 degrees C. Monolaurin inactivated L. monocytogenes in skim milk at 4 degrees C, but was less inhibitory at 23 degrees C. Monolaurin did not inhibit L. monocytogenes in whole milk because of the higher fat content. Other fatty acids tested were not effective in whole or skim milk. Our results suggest that K-conjugated linoleic acids or monolaurin could be used as an inhibitory agent against L. monocytogenes in dairy foods.
An oblique-angle infrared circular polarization filter using a Bezier surface representation

This paper proposes a method to determine CO2 concentration by measuring relative circular polarization using 2D periodic unit cells of Bezier surfaces optimized using the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy. The CO2 absorption spectrum has a peak which can be useful for measurement at 4.3 µm. A filter was designed to separate circularly polarized components of light at this frequency using the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES). The filter presented is capable of blocking the effects due to nearby absorption bands such as the N2O band at 4.5 µm.
A Strip Method for Lateral Drift Force of a Semisubmersible

This paper presents the results of an application of a strip technique for the prediction of the lateral drift forces on a semisubmersible platform floating in oblique regular waves. The method employs Maruo’s formula and source distribution technique, without taking account of the hydrodynamic interaction between the twin hulls and columns of the semisubmersible. Overall the strip technique shows a more favorable correlation with the experimental data than the three-dimensional theory. It is, however, premature to conclude that the technique has been fully validated.
Oxygen electrode-based single antibody amperometric biosensor for qualitative detection of E. coli and bacteria in water.

Design and performance of an amperometric biosensor for E. coli O157:H7 that is based on a common dissolved oxygen probe is discussed. Anti-E. coli O157:H7 antibody was conjugated to horseradish peroxidase and immobilized on a nitrocellulose membrane that was placed over the oxygen probe membrane using a custom-fabricated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) insert. Upon bacterial cell binding, a decrease in enzyme activity resulted in a change in oxygen concentration that was detected with a Clark-type oxygen electrode probe. Validation experiments determined the effect of the outer membrane and insert on the Clarke electrode performance and linearity, and the effects of stirring on sensor response. The mechanism of enzymatic disruption is presumably steric hindrance due to binding of the bacterial cell and conformational change in antibody structure. Sampling various dilutions of heat-sterilized E. coli O157:H7 cells in water, as little as 50 bacterial cells/mL could be detected in approximately 20 minutes of sampl...
On the Accuracy of Forward Dynamic Slicing and Its Effects on Software Maintenance

Dynamic slicing is a practical and popular analysis technique used in various software-engineering tasks. Dynamic slicing is known to be incomplete because it analyzes only a subset of all possible executions of a program. However, it is less known that its results may inaccurately represent the dependencies that occur in those executions. Some researchers have identified this problem and developed extensions such as relevant slicing, which incorporates static information. Yet, dynamic slicing continues to be widely used, even though the extent of its inaccuracy is not well understood, which can affect the benefits of this analysis. In this paper, we present an approach to assess the accuracy of forward dynamic slices, which are used in software maintenance and evolution tasks. Because finding all actual dependencies is an undecidable problem, our approach instead computes bounds of the precision and recall of forward dynamic slices. Our approach uses sensitivity analysis and execution differencing to find a subset of all program statements that truly depend at runtime on another statement. Using this approach, we studied the accuracy of many forward dynamic slices from a variety of Java applications. Our results show that forward dynamic slicing can have low recall -- for dependencies in the analyzed executions -- and some potential imprecision. We also conducted a case study that shows how this inaccuracy affects a software maintenance task. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first work that quantifies the intrinsic limitations of dynamic slicing.
Rapid ephemeral cell sensitization as the mechanism of histone-induced and protamine-induced enhancement of transfection by poliovirus RNA

The mechanism of transfection enhancement by protamine and histone was investigated, using poliovirus RNA and sheet cultures of the CLI line of chimpanzee liver cells. The transfection obtained using inocula prepared by premixing the viral RNA with a large excess of basic protein could be quantitatively accounted for by direct sensitization of the cells by the excess free basic protein postinoculation. Such direct sensitization to transfection was very rapid; at 25 °C with protamine chloride or histone at 1 mg/ml peak sensitivity was reached in about 16 and 25 seconds, respectively. Sensitivity then rapidly decreased, but could be partially restored later by a second pretreatment with fresh basic protein. The original sensitization, desensitization, and resensitization phases of the cell sensitivity curves are transfectionspecific, since ordinary infection with intact poliovirions was not influenced by the pretreatments with basic protein, except that prolonged pretreatment with histone decreased sensitivity to intact virus. The viral RNA transfectivity in inocula premixed with protamine chloride at 1 mg/ml and held at 0 °C was labile, with an initial half-life of only 5 minutes; the transfectivity of RNA similarly held in buffer alone or with histone was completely stable at 0 °C for at least 1.5 to 2 hours. With the best basic protein transfection method (cell sensitization by protamine), the specific transfectivity of RNA isolated from purified poliovirions was 130,000 plaque-forming units/μg RNA.
Subsolidus convective cooling histories of terrestrial planets

The subsolidus convective cooling histories of terrestrial planets evolving from hot initial states are investigated quantitatively. A simple analytic model simulating average heat flux from a vigorously convecting mantle and incorporating a mantle viscosity proportional to mantle temperature and a lithosphere which thickens as the planet cools is employed. Heat flux from the convecting mantle is calculated on the basis of a power law relation between Nusselt number and Rayleigh number. The temperature distribution in the lithosphere is assumed to be linear throughout the cooling history of the planet. Cooling histories have been determined for the earth, Mars, Mercury and the moon and the mantle temperature decreases, mantle viscosity increases and decreases of heat flux to the surface and to the base of the lithosphere and of Nusselt and Rayleigh numbers are illustrated for each planet. It is found that primordial heat can contribute substantially to the present surface heat flux of a planet.
Mobility of spin-labelled sulfhydryl sites in excitable tissue☆

The spin-label 3-maleimido-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-1-pyrrolidinyloxyl was shown to be attached to sulfhydryl groups of the walking leg nerve from the lobster Homarus americanus. Its ESR spectra indicated that it was in a highly immobilized environment. Removal of 90% of the phospholipid by chloroform-methanol extraction had no effect on the degree of immobilization. The ESR spectra of lipid extracted nerves or homogenized nerves showed marked increases in mobility of the spin label when subjected to urea, guanidine·HCl, pH, temperature, proteases, and a smaller shift in response to changes in monovalent cation concentrations. The results are interpreted as a protein conformational shift resulting in increased mobility of the spin-labelled site.
Bacteroides septicemia in older patients.

: Thirty-seven cases of Bacteroides septicemia are documented. Eighteen of these patients were age 45 or older; the mean age was 65 years. Fourteen of these older patients were males, most of whom had gastrointestinal disease. Seven of the 18 patients died as a result of their infection. The predominant species was B. funduliformis (Sphaerophorus necrophorus). Antibiotic susceptibility testing indicated that all strains were resistant to kanamycin and, with one exception, were sensitive to chloramphenicol. Although clinically indistinguishable from septicemia due to other Gram-negative organisms, a useful clue to Bacteroides sepsis was the delayed appearance of growth in blood cultures. Bacteroides should be considered as a possible etiologic agent in older patients with sepsis who have failed to respond to conventional treatment and whose blood cultures show no growth within forty-eight hours.
Collinear fast-beam laser spectroscopy experiment: Measurement of hyperfine structure and isotope shifts in Xe II

Abstract As an initial test of a new laser spectroscopy system placed on line to the UNISOR isotope separator, the hyperfine structure of 131Xe II and 129Xe II in their 5 d 4 D 7 2 and 6 p 4 P 5 2 levels has been investigated along with isotope shifts for 128–131, 134, 136Xe relative to 132Xe. The method utilizes the resonant absorption of laser light collinear to the beam of ∼50 keV Xe ions from the isotope separator. The spectra were produced by scanning a ring dye laser over a small frequency range and continuously monitoring the absorption through subsequent fluorescence of the 4 P 5 2 level. Laser and other electronic drifts during the course of the measurements were small and were monitored through simultaneous absorption of a portion of the laser light in an I2 cell. The measured hyperfine constants and isotope shifts are compared with earlier results and δ〈r2〉 are deduced from the isotope shifts.
IMPAIRMENT OF ANTIBODY RESPONSE IN PYRIDOXINE-DEFICIENT RATS

Striking impairment of the antibody response to sheep erythrocytes was found in pyridoxine-deficient rats. Deficiencies in the three other B factors required by the rat, and low protein feeding, having effects on body weight comparable to pyridoxine deficiency, failed to influence the antibody response studied. Confirming previous observations, a striking loss of thymic and lymphoid tissue occurred in the pyridoxine-deficient animals. A marked deficit in thymus weight also resulted from the feeding of a diet low in thiamin. Histologically, however, lymphoid atrophy was less pronounced in thiamin-deficient rats than in those deprived of pyridoxine.
Eye dominance and somatosensory asymmetry in relation to motor asymmetry: Evidence from hemiplegic children

Fifty‐four children with congenital hemiplegia (25 left and 29 right hemiplegics) were administered a battery of sensory and perceptual tests, the results of which were related to measures of motor asymmetry obtained from the same children. Asymmetries of visual acuity and eye dominance were largely independent of motor asymmetry. Asymmetries of stereognosis and finger identification, but not graphesthesia, were associated with various measures of motor asymmetry. It appears that the association between tactile and motor asymmetries varies with the motor demands of the tactile task and that there is little intrinsic relationship between somatosensory and motor asymmetry. Even though the development of motor skill in these children was more impaired by left‐hemisphere damage than by right‐hemisphere damage, left‐and right‐hemisphere damage produced equivalent deficits in their sensory and perceptual ability.
Distribution photometry and automation

Automation techniques are currently being utilized in photometric studies to determine accuracy, reliability, and repeatability of luminaire performance, and the various testing procedures employed. Considerable time savings have been realized as the result of improvements made in testing, calculating, and plotting methods
Photobleaching and Stability of Red Fluorescent Proteins

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) are used routinely to visualize structural organization and protein dynamics. Compared with other mutants, there is a large demand for red FPs (RFPs) due to the higher transparency of cells and tissue at longer wavelengths. However, the application of RFPs is limited by the increased susceptibility to photobleaching [1]. A possible mechanism for this may be a decrease in structural stability of the beta-barrel, leading to dark state conversion of the chromophore or oxygen access. To characterize the relation between photostability and structural stability, we use temperature-dependent terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy [2]. Temperature dependent terahertz absorbance measurements were made between 80-270K as a function of photobleaching for mCherry, TagRFP-T and mOrange2 RFP samples. We find that: 1) the absolute THz response follows the thermal stability, as defined by the melting temperature; 2) the protein dynamical transition temperature [3] also follows the thermal stability; 3) the thermal stability increases with photobleaching and 4) the photostability does not follow the thermal stability. The THz sensitivity to thermal stability is verified by CD measurements. The higher stability with photobleaching is surprising, but could possibly be a driving force toward the photobleached state. Our result provides additional insight into photobleaching mechanism, and introduces a way to estimate the qualities of FPs.
Toward a trustworthy voice: increasing the effectiveness of automated outreach calls to promote colorectal cancer screening among African Americans.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer screening rates are lower among African-American members of Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO) than among members of other races and ethnicities. This study evaluated use of a linguistically congruent voice in interactive voice response outreach calls about colorectal cancer screening as a strategy to increase call completion and response.
Estimation of correlation structure for a homogeneous isotropic random field: a simulation study

In this paper we investigate the effect of sampling density on the estimation of the covariance and semivanogram for homogeneous, isotropic, random fields. Two methods based on the least-squares principle, and a third method known as the Minimum Interpolation Error method are studied when the analytic form of the covariance or semivariogram model is known a priori. The analysis is accomplished through a single realization simulation experiment which is felt to represent the type of conditions usually encountered in real world environmental and geophysical field problems. The Turning Bands method is used to generate the field at randomly distributed sampling points in a fixed field for three types of correlation structure: exponential, Bessel, and Gaussian models. The performance of the three estimation methods is evaluated for varying sampling densities and correlation distances. The main results are: the least-squares methods work best for preserving the pattern of correlation in most situations examined; for a domain of fixed size, the ratio of the correlation distance to the length scale of the field is a measure of the “information” contained in the field, and when this ratio exceeded ≈0.2 the statistics of the process became inaccurate. On the other hand, when this ratio is ⪷0.2 reasonable estimates for the mean and variance were determined even for small sampling densities (≈ 25–50). The implications for practical problems are discussed.
Towards a theory of conceptual design for software

Concepts are the building blocks of software systems. They are not just subjective mental constructs, but are objective features of a system's design: increments of functionality that were consciously introduced by a designer to serve particular purposes. This essay argues for viewing the design of software in terms of concepts, with their invention (or adoption) and refinement as the central activity of software design. A family of products can be characterized by arranging concepts in a dependence graph from which coherent concept subsets can be extracted. Just as bugs can be found in the code of a function prior to testing by reviewing the programmer's argument for its correctness, so flaws can be found in a software design by reviewing an argument by the designer. This argument consists of providing, for each concept, a single compelling purpose, and demonstrating how the concept fulfills the purpose with an archetypal scenario called an 'operational principle'. Some simple conditions (primarily in the relationship between concepts and their purposes) can then be applied to reveal flaws in the conceptual design.
Self-limiting and Self-inflammatory Movements in Exchange Rates; Germany

I. Scope of the paper: certain self-inflammatory movements, indirect and provisional. — Three cases, distinguished according to the terms of sale, considered theoretically. Case I, 224. — Case II, 229. — Case III, 233. — Conditions in Germany during 1920–24 conform to the assumptions in these cases, 233. — II. Examination of German conditions, 236. — Two periods, 238. — Statistical verification for the two periods, 242. — Conclusion, 248.
Evidence-based standardization and ED admission rate variation in US children's hospitals.

* Abbreviations: ACA — : Affordable Care Act ED — : emergency department In this issue of Pediatrics , Bourgeois et al describe wide variation in emergency department (ED) admission rates for common conditions across 35 US children’s hospitals.1 The greatest variation was observed for concussion, with adjusted admission rates ranging from 5% to 72%; the least was in “bronchiolitis and RSV pneumonia” and “pneumonia not elsewhere classified,” for which rates ranged from 19% to 65% and 19% and 69%, respectively. Studies of adults have demonstrated similar across- and within-hospital admission variation, indicating this phenomenon goes beyond children’s hospitals.2,3 The authors suggest the variation indicates inefficiency, concluding that admission processes should be standardized. As the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is implemented in coming years, “inefficiency” discussions will move to center stage. The ACA promotes payment models that move from away from fee-for-service—in which the doctor or facility is paid for every encounter—to … Address correspondence to Jesse M. Pines, MD, 2100 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Room 314, Washington, DC 20037. E-mail: pinesj{at}gwu.edu
NON‐TARIFF BARRIERS TO INTERNATIONAL DATA FLOW

Due to the economic and strategic importance of telecommunication services, as well as projected growth rates in the information industries, countries have adopted policy restrictions on transborder data flows (TBDF) both into and out of their countries. The reasons for these measures include privacy concerns, national security and the competitiveness of national industries. The short‐term effects on multinational industries have been an increase in data processing costs and a loss of efficiency. Although trade has not yet been restricted in the long‐term, it is possible that trade, particularly in services, will be severely affected. The evolution and types of barriers to transborder data flow are described and their immediate impact on the telecommunications industry and possible ramifications for world trade in general are assessed.