cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
TG-FTIR analysis of pecan shells thermal decomposition

Abstract The thermal decomposition of pecan shells within the temperature range of 30 °C to 800 °C and at heating rates of 5 to 30 °C/min was studied by the use of TG-FTIR. Friedman's isoconversional method was used for kinetic analysis of the thermal decomposition process. Differential scanning calorimetry was also used to quantify the amount of energy required to thermally degrade pecan shells. The thermal decomposition process was found to compose of four stages—moisture evaporation, hemicelluloses decomposition, cellulose decomposition and lignin degradation. The peak temperatures for hemicelluloses (275 to 315 °C) and cellulose (348 to 385 °C) degradation increased with heating rate. The major gases given off were identified to be carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, acetic acid and ethanol. The amount of energy required to thermally degrade pecan shells was about 30% of the energy content of the shells.
School-based interventions improve heart health in children with multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors

Objective. To determine the immediate effects of two types of elementary school-based interventions on children with multiple cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Design. Randomized, controlled field trial. Setting. Conducted in 18 randomly selected elementary schools across North Carolina. Study Participants. Four hundred twenty-two children age 9 ± 0.8 years with at least two risk factors at baseline: low aerobic power and either high serum cholesterol or obesity. Intervention. Both 8-week interventions consisted of a knowledge and attitude program and an adaptation of physical education. The classroom-based intervention was given by regular teachers to all children in the 3rd and 4th grades. The risk-based intervention was given in small groups only to children with identified risk factors. Children in the control group received usual teaching and physical education. Outcome Measures. The primary outcome measure was cholesterol; additional measures were blood pressure, body mass index, body fat, eating and activity habits, and health knowledge. Results. Both interventions produced large reductions in cholesterol (−10.1 mg/dL and −11.7 mg/dL) compared with a small drop (−2.3 mg/dL) in the controls. There was a trend for systolic blood pressure to increase less in both intervention groups than in the controls. Both intervention groups had a small reduction in body fat and higher health knowledge than the control group. Conclusions. Both brief interventions can improve the CVD risk profile of children with multiple risk factors. The classroom-based approach was easier to implement and used fewer resources. This population approach should be considered as one means of early primary prevention of CVD.
Asymptotic phase revisited

Abstract We discuss the classical problem on asymptotic phase of periodic orbits of planar systems. The existence of asymptotic phase for non-hyperbolic periodic orbits is completely determined with hypotheses on the derivatives of a Poincare map and a return-time map. Smoothness of the vector field turns out to be crucial for existence of asymptotic phase. For hyperbolic periodic orbits, a new proof for the existence of invariant foliations is provided.
Treatment Guidelines for Dialysis Catheter–Related Bacteremia: An Update

Earlier this year, new guidelines for the management of intravascular catheter-related infections,1 sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), were published to update the previous 2001 guidelines.2 Recognizing the unique aspects of the management of catheter-related infections in dialysis patients, the committee solicited participation of nephrologists for the first time. This document provides more comprehensive recommendations for the treatment of dialysis catheter–related bacteremia than those available in the 2006 update of the National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) vascular access guidelines.3 Prevention of catheter-related bacteremia, although an important topic, was beyond the scope of the IDSA guidelines. The present commentary provides highlights of sections dealing with the management of dialysis catheter–related infections.
Aortic Graft-Enteric Erosion Diagnosed by Contrast Sinography: Case Report and Review:

A case of aortic graft-enteric erosion diagnosed by contrast sinography is presented. Only 2 other cases of graft-enteric erosion have been demonstrated in this way. The literature regarding pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of aortic graft-enteric erosion is reviewed.
A two dimensional buddy system for dynamic resource allocation in a partitionable mesh connected system

The system partitioning problem in a partitionable mesh connected system (PMCS) is addressed. A two dimensional buddy system (2DBS) is proposed as a partitioning scheme for dynamic resource allocation in a PMCS. Allocation and reclamation algorithms and the method for locating buddies are designed. Internal fragmentation of our proposed 2DBS under various probability distributions of job sizes is analyzed. Experimental results on external and total fragmentations are also presented.
Environmental Fit: A Model for Assessing and Treating Problem Behavior Associated with Curricular Difficulties in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Theoretical considerations suggest that problem behavior should increase when a child’s competency does not match the curricular demands of the environment (i.e., when there is poor environmental f...
B-Spline vs. Lifting Architecture for Neuroprosthetic Devices

Advances in high-density microelectrode arrays has created a need for high level signal processing to cope with the immense data throughput. The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) has been shown to optimally reduce the amount of data throughput, while concisely preserving the information in the data. Two factorizations, Lifting and B-spline, have been proposed for implementing the DWT in hardware. A comparison based on critical path, memory requirements, and computational hardware is drawn. The context of this comparison focuses on multichannel and multiresolution neuroprosthetic devices.
Charles Lathrop Pack: Timberman, Forest Conservationist, and Pioneer in Forest Education

Born in 1857, Charles Lathrop Pack made his fortune by investing in southern timber, banking, and real estate and by inheriting his father's Michigan timber mills. But by the time he died in 1937, Pack was known internationally as one of the most powerful people in the American forest conservation movement. Spurred on by Theodore Roosevelt's historic Conference of Governors in 1908 (which brought together for the first time state and federal officials and timber men to discuss forest conservation), Pack fervently took up the cause of conservation, which was becoming increasingly popular. Working closely with the Department of Agriculture's chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, Pack learned to use the power of the press to publicize environmental issues. He eventually devised massive campaigns to promote public awareness. Through his efforts, conservation would become a household word as Americans began planting trees and working to save forests. By the time Pack died, he had headed a major conservation congress and helped fund several lobbying organizations instrumental in getting critical forest-management legislation passed. This book reveals Pack's complex personality and dynamic character and masterfully charts the politics of the environmental movement. While working as a conservationist, Pack presented himself as a retired timber magnate who believed timber should be replanted when cut and managed as a renewable crop. Yet this book reveals that he never retired from the timber industry - and never applied forest management or conservation practices to his timber business. In fact, he may have become a forest conservationist at first merely as a way to surpass his well-beloved father inhis many accomplishments. Nevertheless, regardless of his motives, Pack became a tremendous force in changing people's attitudes toward the environment. Drawing extensively on Pack's personal correspondence and documents, Eyle creates a detailed portrait of a timber baron who de
Gauge orbits and the Coulomb potential

If the color Coulomb potential is confining, then the Coulomb field energy of an isolated color charge is infinite on an infinite lattice, even if the usual UV divergence is lattice regulated. A simple criterion for Coulomb confinement is that the expectation value of timelike link variables vanishes in the Coulomb gauge, but it is unclear how this criterion is related to the spectrum of the corresponding Faddeev-Popov operator, which can be used to formulate a quite different criterion for Coulomb confinement. The purpose of this article is to connect the two seemingly different Coulomb confinement criteria, and explain the geometrical basis of the connection.
Tension pneumopericardium after blunt chest trauma

We present a case of tension pneumopericardium in a patient involved in a motor vehicle crash. This patient was treated initially with a percutaneously placed drain and then definitively by a video assisted thoracoscopic pericardial window.
Pending Studies at the Time Hospital Discharge

To the Editors: Kantor et al. studied an important challenge in hospital medicine practice.1 However, failure to document pending test results in the discharge summary and to communicate with primary physicians is just the tip of the iceberg. A survey of hospitalists, junior residents, and primary care physicians in two tertiary care academic hospitals revealed that 61.6 % were unaware whether actionable pending test orders even existed at the time of discharge.2 These test results are likely to be unnecessary or redundant. Miyakis et al. showed that 67.9 % of a total of 24, 482 laboratory tests ordered by trainees at an academic medical center over a 6-month period were not considered to have contributed towards medical management of the patient.3 This study by Kantor et al.1 also showed that 83 % of pending test results were ultimately normal, and hence may have been unnecessary to begin with. The study showed that 68 % of pending test results were microbiology cultures. From the anecdotal experience of our hospitalist group, the majority of these microbiology cultures are ordered by emergency department physicians or admitting hospitalists for the observation admissions requiring 24–48 hours inpatient antibiotic treatment. The majority of these admissions are for mild to moderately severe infections meeting partial admission criteria. The ordering physician generally does not have an expectation to modify a patient’s antibiotic regimen prior to discharge. This study1 showed that communications of pending test results in the discharge summary increased from 18 % to 43 % after introduction of the EMR tool. I would argue that researchers are already near the peak rate of compliance that is achievable, as the majority of these tests are unnecessary, and discharging physicians view them as irrelevant information, even after seeing pending tests. For practicing hospitalists in community hospitals, this rate could be even lower. The sole focus on the communication of pending test results misses the bigger picture. We have to ask ourselves why so many test results, unnecessary in the first place, are pending at the time of discharge. This is not to minimize the risk of ignoring even seemingly unimportant test results.
Instabilities for quantum-cascade lasers under self-phase modulation

Theoretical analysis of lasing instability in quantum-cascade lasers was carried out. A mid-infrared quantum-cascade laser structure with triple resonance levels was chosen as the prototype of the lasing medium with high Kerr nonlinearity from optical transitions. The self-phase modulation effect induced by Kerr nonlinearity was found to possibly change the unstable frequency domain significantly, i.e., not only broaden the unstable domain but also drive it from single-mode to multi-mode. The instability mechanisms of quantum-cascade lasers include one like the coherent multi-mode Rishen-Nummedal-Graham-Haken instability and the spatial-hole-burning-induced single-mode instability.
The advantages and limits of indium-111 labeling of antibodies experimental studies and clinical applications

Radiolabeling of antibodies with In-111 has now been accomplished to the point that it is highly reproducible, achieves excellent labeling efficiency, and does not damage the antibody. Use of In-111 for radioimmunodetection is advantageous because of the excellent imaging characteristics of the In-111, moderate radiation dose, ease of labeling, and appropriate half-life. The liabilities of the In-111 method include slightly greater cost of the radionuclide, slow clearance of background sites, and a shelf life requiring it to be ordered on a weekly basis. When all characteristics of the radionuclide are taken into account, it appears to be superior to I-131 for radioimmunoimaging. A controlled study using iodinated and Indium labeled antibodies in the same group of patients needs to be done to accurately access how well the two function for tumor detection.
ACUTE AND SUBCHRONIC NEUROMUSCULAR BLOCKING CHARACTERISTICS OF STREPTOMYCIN: A COMPARISON WITH NEOMYCIN

The characteristics of the neuromuscular block produced by streptomycin in vivo were studied on the sciatic-tibialis anterior nerve-muscle preparation of eight anaesthetized cats. The lungs of the animals were ventilated mechanically and normocarbia was maintained. During acute exposure to streptomycin (within 2 h), ED50 for blockade of the twitch was 56 (SEM ± 5) mg kg−1 of the base. The characteristics of block were similar to those of neomycin-induced block in some aspects. There was absence of train-of-four fade and tetanic fade, partial sparing of the responses elicited at 10 Hz and 20 Hz, and total sparing of the 50 Hz tetanus, as well as the post-tetanic twitch. In contrast to neomycin-induced neuromuscular block, however, post-tetanic exhaustion was not observed and prolonged exposure to streptomycin (22–28 h) did not change the characteristics of the block. We conclude that, despite their chemical similarities, streptomycin and neomycin block neuromuscular transmission differently.
On Old and New Jacobi Forms

Abstract Certain “index shifting operators” for local and global representations of the Jacobi group are introduced. They turn out to be the representation theoretic analogues of the Hecke operators Ud and Vd on classical Jacobi forms, which underlie the theory of Jacobi old- and newforms. Further analogues of these operators on spaces of classical elliptic cusp forms are also investigated. In view of the correspondence between Jacobi forms and elliptic modular forms, this provides some support for a purely local conjecture about the dimension of spaces of spherical vectors in representations of the p -adic Jacobi group.
Tradeoffs between stretch factor and load balancing ratio in routing on growth restricted graphs

A graph has growth rate k if the number of nodes in any subgraph with diameter r is bounded by O(rk). The communication graphs of wireless networks and peer-to-peer networks often have small growth rate. In this paper we study the tradeoff between two quality measures for routing in growth restricted graphs. The two measures we consider are the stretch factor, which measures the lengths of the routing paths, and the load balancing ratio, which measures how evenly the traffic is distributed. We show that if the routing algorithm is required to use paths with stretch factor c, then its load balancing ratio is bounded by O((n/c)1-1/k), where k is the graph's growth rate. We illustrate our results by focusing on the unit disk graph for modeling wireless networks in which two nodes have direct communication if their distance is under certain threshold. We show that if the maximum density of the nodes is bounded by ρ, there exists routing scheme such that the stretch factor of routing paths is at most c, and the maximum load on the nodes is at most O(min(√ρn/c, n/c)) times the optimum. In addition, the bound on the load balancing ratio is tight in the worst case. As a special case, when the density is bounded by a constant, the shortest path routing has a load balancing ratio of O(√n). The result extends to k-dimensional unit ball graphs and graphs with growth rate k. We also discuss algorithmic issues for load balanced short path routing and for load balanced routing in spanner graphs.
Electrical, thermal and structural properties of As2Te3As2Se3 glasses

Abstract Electrical conductivity, switching, D.T.A., and electron microstructures are presented for a series of the chalcogenide glasses As2Te3As2Se3. DTA observations were conducted on each of these glasses to determine the relative glass stability. Bulk threshold switching observations were conducted on a compositional series of glasses. Replica electron microscopy observations indicate the presence of liquid-liquid immiscibility in the AsTeSe ternary system. The evidence indicates that the As2Te3As2Se3 join is not a true binary. The immiscibility observed suggests that this system, like several analogous silicate ternary systems, is quite sensitive to thermal treatment.
Investigating the Perceptions and Behaviors of Elementary Students and Teachers When Internet Access Is Universal

Abstract This study presents a preliminary investigation into changes in the perceptions and behaviors of teachers and students when all have universal Internet access at home and school using Internet-on-TV technology. Four hundred fourth-grade students and their teachers from seven schools participated in the WISH TVSM (WorldGate Internet School to Home) Project. Through the use of qualitative research methodology, results indicated that teachers' perceptions of the benefits of Internet use and the Internet-on-TV technology had a direct impact on their decisions regarding instructional delivery. Technical and instructional support also influenced teachers' willingness to integrate Web-based resources into lesson plans. Teacher behaviors also affected student use of the Internet. In classrooms where teachers implemented Web-based resources, students reported that they were doing more homework, searching for more information, and getting better grades. Reactions to the Internet-on-TV technology varied and...
Solution Adapted Mesh Refinement and Sensitivity Analysis for Parabolic Partial Differential Equation Systems

We have developed a structured adaptive mesh refinement (SAMR) method for paraboli c partial differential equation (PDE) systems. Solutions are calculated using the finite-difference or finite-volumemethod in space and backward differentiation formula (BDF) integration in time. The combination of SAMR in space and BDF in time is designed for problems where the fine-scale profile of sharp fronts in space should be resolved and implicit integration in time is necessary to improve the efficiency of the computation. Methods for forward sensitivity analysis on the adaptive mesh are presented.
Hormones associated with non-maternal infant care: a review of mammalian and avian studies.

Hormonal changes during non-maternal infant care have been demonstrated in many cooperatively breeding bird species, some monogamous rodents and two species of New World primates. Coevolution of hormones and social traits may have provided for the different breeding systems that occur today. Several hormones have been shown to covary with the breeding systems of vertebrates. Elevated levels of the hormone prolactin with male parenting behaviours are common to many birds, rodents and the callitrichid monkeys Callithrix jacchus and Saguinus oedipus. In birds, prolactin may be elevated in both male and female breeders during various stages of nest building, egg laying, incubating and feeding of young. Testosterone levels appear to have an inverse relationship to prolactin levels during infant care in birds and rodents, but this relationship has not been examined for primates. In cooperatively breeding birds, helpers who remain at the nest also have elevated levels of prolactin when displaying parental care behaviours. Prolactin levels are elevated in helper callitrichid monkeys during the postpartum period. Monogamous male rodents demonstrate elevated prolactin levels with parental care behaviour but, in contrast to the birds, the mechanisms mediating prolactin increase appear to differ for male and female rodents. Two factors may influence male parental behaviours and hormonal changes: stimuli from the pregnant female and stimuli from the newborn pups; whereas maternal behaviours are influenced by the maternal hormones of the female and the pup stimuli. An experiential factor may also influence male parental behaviours. Neuropeptides such as oxytocin and vasopressin appear to be involved in male rodent parental care and there may be an interaction between a series of hormones and neurosecretions and stimuli from mates and pups. Studies of Saguinus oedipus, the cotton-top tamarin, suggest that prolactin levels are responsive to stimuli from contact with infants and the level of infant care experience influences the levels of prolactin with male infant care. Father tamarins also have elevated levels of prolactin before the birth of infants suggesting that cues from the pregnant female are important. Prolactin's role in parental care may have evolved from prolactin's role in other reproductive functions. Hormonal regulation of non-maternal care may occur due to a complex interaction of many hormones and neurotransmitters. Studies described here should provide the impetus for further work on parental care hormones in a wide variety of primates.
Dimensional Stability of Fused Silica, Invar, and Several Ultra-low Thermal Expansion Materials

We have measured length change vs time for several low thermal expansion materials maintained in evacuated environments at constant temperature (near 300 K). Materials were two types of fused silica, Cer-Vit, ULE, Zerodur, Invar, and super Invar. ΔL/L was measured over a period of 170 days to a precision of two to three parts in 109. In addition, we have measured time-dependent changes in optical contact interfaces and have placed an upper limit on drift of optical phase shift on reflection from multilayer dielectric coatings.
Local Endovascular Delivery, Gene Therapy, and Cell Transplantation for Peripheral Arterial Disease:

Advances in catheter technology, gene identification, and cell biology may provide novel treatment options for patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who are not candidates for standard revascularization procedures. Animal studies and recent results in human beings suggest that transfer of growth factors or regulatory genes and transplantation of progenitor cells may provide novel therapy options by inducing therapeutic angiogenesis or by inhibiting restenosis. This review will discuss the development of a variety of catheters for localized endovascular delivery, as well as the various cellular and genetic strategies that exist to restore blood flow to ischemic tissue and to reduce neointimal hyperplasia.
An evolutionary scaling law for the primate visual system and its basis in cortical function.

A hallmark of mammalian brain evolution is the disproportionate increase in neocortical size as compared with subcortical structures1. Because primary visual cortex (V1) is the most thoroughly understood cortical region, the visual system provides an excellent model in which to investigate the evolutionary expansion of neocortex. I have compared the numbers of neurons in the visual thalamus (lateral geniculate nucleus; LGN) and area V1 across primate species. Here I find that the number of V1 neurons increases as the 3/2 power of the number of LGN neurons. As a consequence of this scaling law, the human, for example, uses four times as many V1 neurons per LGN neuron (356) to process visual information as does a tarsier (87). I argue that the 3/2 power relationship is a natural consequence of the organization of V1, together with the requirement that spatial resolution in V1 should parallel the maximum resolution provided by the LGN. The additional observation that thalamus/neocortex follows the same evolutionary scaling law as LGN/V1 may suggest that neocortex generally conforms to the same organizational principle as V1.
Geometry of a branched DNA structure in solution

An approximate geometry of a stable, four-way DNA junction has been determined in free solution by applying the technique of transient electric birefringence. The current approach consists of (i) construction of a set of six molecules in which two of the four arms of a synthetic junction are elongated by approximately 9-fold (in each of the six possible two-arm combinations), (ii) determination of the ratios of the longest birefringence decay time of each elongated junction to the decay time of a linear control molecule, and (iii) comparison of the experimental ratios with corresponding ratios computed as a function of the junction interarm angle. The result is a set of six angles that define the geometry of the junction. In the presence of magnesium ions, the junction adopts a geometry in which particular pairs of arms approach colinearity. Furthermore, the geometry of the junction is significantly altered in the absence of magnesium, adopting a more uniform structure, although such an effect is not apparent on gels. The application of transient electric birefringence, as described in the current study, should be useful for the characterization of a broad range of tertiary structures in both DNA and RNA.
Experimental constraints on some mechanisms for high-temperature superconductivity.

Since its discovery, many mechanisms have been suggested to explain the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity in oxides. We propose that experimental data, along with theoretical models, can place constraints on or exclude many of these mechanisms. The isotope shift \ensuremath{\alpha}, the transition temperature ${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$, the ratio of the electronic-specific-heat jump to the normal-state specific heat \ensuremath{\Delta}C/\ensuremath{\gamma}${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$, and the superconducting gap ratio 2\ensuremath{\Delta}/${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$ are considered. We find limits on the applicability of solely phonon-based and combined phonon-electronic mechanisms.
Application of NASA general-purpose solver to large-scale computations in aeroacoustics

Of several iterative and direct equation solvers evaluated previously for computations in aeroacoustics, the most promising was the NASA-developed General-Purpose Solver (winner of NASA''s 1999 software of the year award). This paper presents detailed, single-processor statistics of the performance of this solver, which has been tailored and optimized for large-scale aeroacoustic computations. The statistics, compiled using an SGI ORIGIN 2000 computer with 12 Gb available memory (RAM) and eight available processors, are the central processing unit time, RAM requirements, and solution error. The equation solver is capable of solving 10 thousand complex unkowns in as little as 0.01 sec using 0.02 Gb RAM, and 8.4 million complex unknowns in slightly less than 3 hours using all 12 Gb. This latter solution is the largest aeroacoustics problem solved to date with this technique. The study was unable to detect any noticeable error in the solution, since noise levels predicted from these solution vectors are in excellent agreement with the noise levels computed from the exact solution. The equation solver provides a means for obtaining numerical solutions to aeroacoustics problems in three dimensions.
Quality signals and patient referrals in the market for social workers' services

The author describes an indirect measure of quality of care provided by social workers in private practice. The extent to which quality is related to fees or level of education is then explored. The results suggest that higher fees are a signal of higher quality and uninformed consumers appear to use this signal correctly in their choice of social worker.
The effect of nonsedating doses of diazepam on regional cerebral blood flow

Drugs like diazepam induce tranquilization in small doses and sedation in larger quantities. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured before and 5 min after the intravenous administration of nonsedating doses of diazepam or placebo (given on a double-blind basis) to 20 right-handed volunteers. Subjects who received diazepam showed marked right hemispheric rCBF decreases, especially in the frontal lobe, whereas controls did not show significant differences between the two sets of values. None of the subjects became sleepy during the experiment.
NEONATAL VIABILITY IN THE 1990'S: HELD HOSTAGE BY TECHNOLOGY. • 234

The survival of extremely low birth weight newborns (ELBW) [≤ 1000 grams] has dramatically and significantly improved since 1990. This has been attributed to Surfactant, maternal steroids and new forms of neonatal ventilation. Over a 10 year period at our institution, we evaluated neonatal survival (alive at Day 28 of life) based on birthweight (BW) and gestational age (GA). Small for GA newborns, as well as those who expired in the delivery room (DR) and beyond 28 days of life, were excluded. Newborns < 500 grams at birth with a GA ≤ 23 weeks are not routinely resuscitated.Table
Three‐dimensional weak‐form conjugate‐ and biconjugate‐gradient FFT methods for volume integral equations

A large-scale three-dimensional volume integral equation solution for electromagnetic radiation and scattering problems remains a great challenge in spite of many ongoing research efforts. The conventional method of moments, although accurate and flexible, is limited to small-scale problems because of its large requirement of computer memory and computation time. In this paper, we develop two fast methods, the weak-form conjugate- and biconjugate-gradient FFT methods, to solve the Fredholm integral equation of the second kind arising from Maxwell's equations in three dimensions. The weak form is a modified version of the Zwamborn–van den Berg formulation, where the singularity is circumvented by employing the weak-form discretization by rooftop vectorial basis and testing functions. Both weak- form CG–FFT and BCG–FFT methods require O(N log2 N) CPU time, and O(N) computer memory, but the latter converges three–six times faster than the CG–FFT method. We validate the numerical results by comparing them with analytical solutions to multilayer spherical media, and with other published results. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 29: 350–356, 2001.
Social Marketing and Diffusion-Based Strategies for Communicating with Unique Populations: HIV Prevention in San Francisco

We conducted a 2-year investigation of the extent to which strategies based on social marketing and diffusion of innovations concepts are used in preventive health communication with unique (highly ostracized) populations. Of the 49 organizations in San Francisco that operate HIV prevention programs (N = 100), programs that most highly targeted unique populations were surveyed. Personal interviews were then conducted with 38 staff leaders who operated the most and least effective programs. Audiotapes and transcripts were content analyzed to identify the strategies used by program staff. Strategies based on social marketing concepts were more prevalent than strategies based on the diffusion of innovations: More effective programs were characterized by emphasis on homophily, audience segmentation, compatibility-based strategies, and interorganizational collaboration.
Risk factors for mortality after failed coronary angioplasty: An anesthesia perspective

Abstract Monitored anesthesia care (MAC) for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), and anesthesia for emergent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery due to failed PTCA, have added relatively new challenges to the cardiac anesthesiologist in community practice. This study attempted to define easily identifiable preangioplasty and periangioplasty risk factors for mortality after failed PTCA. A total of 1,380 angioplasties performed in a single community hospital were retrospectively reviewed; 120 (8.7%) were attempted PTCAs requiring subsequent CABG during the same hospital stay. The 120 failures included 10 surgical mortalities (8.3%); multivariate analysis revealed several significant differences between the mortality and survivor groups. Mortality tended to be higher in insulin-dependent diabetics (P = 0.003), females (P = 0.005), and patients 70 years or over (P = 0.043). Previous CABG, decreased left ventricular ejection fraction, and number of vessels with significant disease did not differ between the groups. Patients who died required more vasopressor agents (P = 0.011) during PTCA and experienced cardiac arrests (P = 0.011) at significantly higher rates than survivors. Left system (left anterior descending or circumflex coronary artery) angioplasty, inability to pass the angioplasty guidewire, and antiarrhythmic drug use did not differ between groups. Data concerning endotracheal intubation in the catheterization laboratory and time from laboratory exit to initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass, while bivariately significant, were too sparse for multivariate analysis. The authors believe that several risk factors for postangioplasty surgical mortality are easily determined without access to diagnostic angiographic studies. These factors should be considered by the cardiac anesthesiologist in risk assessment, discussion of risk with the patient, and as criteria for MAC in institutions practicing MAC on a case-by-case basis.
Prediction of micropore growth during gasification reactions

ABSTRACT The concept of changing pore geometry during the course of a reaction allows the microscopic solid-gas reaction models to have the potential to describe the porosity change during the reaction. However, only the bulk porous properties can be predicted due to the pore size range chosen for most of these models. The two population systems, micropore and macropore, chosen by the model of Zygourakls et al. [1] provides a method for predicting micropore property changes. However, this model over-predicts micropore property changes because it assumes that the average micropore radius is enlarged. By examining several sets of published carbon gasification data, it is shown that the average micropore radii are not enlarged by gasification. The commonly-used concept that reaction will enlarge all the pore radii is the major reason for the prediction error. A new concept is proposed in which the reaction will not enlarge the size of the micropores and will maintain a constant micropore length by reacting a...
Watching DNA repair in real time.

In 1949, Albert Kelner described a miraculous recovery of cells damaged by UV radiation when cells were exposed to soft sunlight (1). It was found later that an enzyme photolyase (PL) is involved in photoreactivation (2). With a paper in PNAS by Dongping Zhong, Aziz Sancar, and their colleagues (3) describing the real-time progression of the photoreactivation repair reaction observed by femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy, the story of PL, originating 62 y ago, has come to be as complete as any research subject can be. They traced all the steps of the repair reaction, which involves electron transfer between the enzyme and DNA, the splitting of the thymine dimer on DNA, and the return of the electron back to the enzyme redox cofactor following the mechanism predicted earlier. The whole repair reaction takes less than a nanosecond to complete all the steps (Fig. 1).
Optimal times to observe in the kalman-bucy models

Let x(t) , satisfy a linear stochastic differential equation driven by a Biownian moiion and let y(t) be the noisy observation of x(t) The continuous observation is often impossible, if only N observations are allowed, the problem of optimal choice of the time instants are studied. We solve this problem by solving a problem in the efficient approximation of the solution of stochastic differential equations
Morphological observations on some diphtherial phages.

Abstract The diphtherial phages, β, B, and Bh, when examined in the electron microscope appear to be morphologically identical and consist of polygonal heads 45–50 mμ on a side with slender tails 250 mμ long. Structures that are indistinguishable in appearance from β can be seen in lysates from irradiated cultures of the classic PW8 strain, but they are few in number, less than 1% as compared with the number found in UV lysates from normal lysogenic strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae . A defective mutant, βdf, has been shown to consist mainly of separate heads and tails that can be agglutinated in separate clumps by an antiphage serum.
Season of Birth and substance abuse : Findings from a large National sample

Background: Season of birth is a putative etiological factor for several psychiatric illnesses. An excess of late winter and early spring births has been demonstrated repeatedly for schizophrenia, which has usually been interpreted as the result of prenatal or infant exposure to seasonally mediated harmful effects, such as infectious diseases. This study determined whether the seasonal birth rates of substance abusers differed from those of unaffected control groups. Methods: The 1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey, an interview-based study of 42,862 men and women, provided data to assess the association between quarter year of birth and lifetime diagnoses of substance abuse. Results: Logistic regression revealed decreases in winter births in men with histories of alcohol dependence. The significant interaction of sex with season of birth reflected an excess of fall births among male but not female alcoholics. In contrast, there was no evidence of seasonality of birth among alcohol abusers. Men and women with histories of illicit drug use had excesses of fall birth. Discussion: Birth rates of men with past or present alcohol dependence, and of men and women with histories of illicit drug use, implicated seasonal factors in the pathogenesis of substance abuse. The similar birth patterns of illicit drug users and male alcoholics suggest that they may share some common etiological factor, such as seasonal effects on environmental temperature, hormonal function, or susceptibility to viral infection during pregnancy or early infancy.
ADHESIVE FRACTURE MECHANICS

In studies of fracture mechanics the adhesive fracture energy is regarded as a fundamental property of the adhesive system. It is pointed out that the value of the adhesive fracture energy depends on surface preparation, curing conditions, and absorbed monolayers. A test method reported makes use of a disk whose peripheral part is bonded to a substrate material. Pressure is injected into the unbonded central part of the disk. At a certain critical pressure value adhesive failure can be observed. A numerical stress analysis involving arbitrary geometries is conducted.
A rapid non-parametric estimate of multi-judge reliability

A technique is presented for obtaining a rapid estimate of reliability between judges, with special reference to qualitative judgments. It is shown that reliability and discrimination are independent and that estimates of both are needed. A method of obtaining an independent estimate of multi-judge discrimination is developed. It is shown that the size of item-samples is specified by the latter method. Tests of significance for both reliability and discrimination are described.
Concurrent validity of the WISC-R factor scores

Abstract This study investigated the efficacy of predicting academic achievement as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test using the factor scores of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised as potential predictors. Both instruments were administered to 200 school children referred for psychological evaluations. Factor scores for the WISC-R were computed according to equations provided by Gutkin (1978). These factor scores then were regressed in a stepwise manner on the Reading, Spelling, and Arithmetic standard scores from the Wide Range Achievement Test. Stepwise regressions also were performed using the traditional Verbal and Performance IQs as the potential predictors. A comparison was made between the results obtained by use of the factors or the more common scores. The results indicated that the Freedom From Distractibility factor score significantly aided in the prediction of Reading and Spelling achievement and was of primary importance in predicting Arithmetic achievement. When the stepwise results using the different scores were contrasted, the factor scores accounted for appreaciably more variance in Arithmetic than did the traditional Verbal and Performance IQs. Derived regression equations are reported along with a discussion of the interpretability of the Freedom From Distractibility factor.
The Efficacy of 1-Methyl-2-Carbamoyloxymethyl-5-Nitroimidazole Against Enterohepatitis in Experimental Poults

Abstract 1-METHYL-2-carbamoyloxymethyl-5-nitroimidazole (MCMN) ** has been reported by Peterson (1967) and Whitmore et al. (1967) to be an effective anti-histomonad compound in experimental turkeys. There are no other known literature references. This report is a more detailed account of studies on the efficacy of this drug against enterohepatitis in comparison with certain other compounds used as reference standards. MATERIALS AND METHODS Source of Infectious Material: Chicks 4–6 weeks old were infected orally with a suspension of Heterakis gallinae ova. Upon maturity of the parasites, droppings were collected and the ova separated by sugar flotation. Embryonation was accomplished by aerating ova suspensions at room temperatures in shallow pans containing 0.5% formalin for 2–3 weeks. Embryonated ova were proven infective for enterohepatitis by a test inoculation of poults. Poults: Both Broad Breasted White and Beltsville White turkeys were used. Poults were brooded from day-old in electrically-heated batteries and transferred to holding batteries . . .
MYC and Transcription Elongation

Most transcription factors specify the subset of genes that will be actively transcribed in the cell by stimulating transcription initiation at these genes, but MYC has a fundamentally different role. MYC binds E-box sites in the promoters of active genes and stimulates recruitment of the elongation factor P-TEFb and thus transcription elongation. Consequently, rather than specifying the set of genes that will be transcribed in any particular cell, MYC’s predominant role is to increase the production of transcripts from active genes. This increase in the transcriptional output of the cell’s existing gene expression program, called transcriptional amplification, has a profound effect on proliferation and other behaviors of a broad range of cells. Transcriptional amplification may reduce rate-limiting constraints for tumor cell proliferation and explain MYC’s broad oncogenic activity among diverse tissues.
Reversed two-cell convection in the Northern and Southern hemispheres during northward interplanetary magnetic field

[1] This article presents a case study of large-scale ionospheric convection in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres under strongly northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions on 9 November 2004. Using a comprehensive data set from both ground- and space-based instruments, the study shows the formation of reversed two-cell convection in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres that lasted for nearly 2 hours. Examination of the concurrent satellite energy-time spectrograms of precipitating particles reveals that reverse convection occurs in the region filled mostly with the boundary plasma sheet (BPS) type precipitating electrons except that the electron number flux is much smaller than that in the normal BPS. We have named this region the northward Bz boundary layer (NBZBL), which we interpret as a consequence of double-lobe reconnection. This interpretation is corroborated by the global MHD simulations, which show that the NBZBL consists of mostly closed field lines, resulting from double-lobe reconnection in both the hemispheres, together with intermittent presence of overdraped open field lines, resulting from single-lobe reconnection in one of the hemispheres. In addition to reversed two-cell convection, the distribution of field-aligned currents (FACs) shows clearly the presence of a pair of the northward Bz (NBZ) currents near the central polar region in both the hemispheres. Intense downward Poynting flux with a peak value around 100 mW/m2 is also seen in the high-latitude polar region, which tends to surround the upward leg of the NBZ currents. Finally, the potential drop between the two reverse-convection cells exceeds 100 kV, which is far larger than the values reported in any previous studies of reverse convection under northward IMF conditions. The unusually large reverse potential drop in this case is attributed in part to the strong NBZ component of 35–40 nT and in part to the unusually large solar wind dynamic pressure that is about five times its nominal value.
Ethnic Affirmation Versus Social Desirability Explaining Discrepancies in Bilinguals' Responses to a Questionnaire

An analysis was made as to the possible explanations for the fact that bilinguals provide different responses when answering in each of their two languages. Spanish/ English bilinguals answered a paper-and-pencil instrument that contained emic and etic questions. Cultural "anchors"were obtained from a sample of monolingual students, and groups of Hispanic and Anglo psychologists rated the social desirability of all items. The results show that although some differences can be explained in terms of ethnic affirmation, social desirability explains the largest number of differences found.
Plasma progesterone response following ACTH administration during mid-gestation in the pregnant Brahman heifer.

Previous reports of adrenal progesterone (P4) contributions during late gestation in cattle, and ACTH-induced P4 responses in the non-pregnant heifer, prompted a retrospective investigation to evaluate the plasma P4 response and the relative ratio of plasma cortisol (CT) to P4 following ACTH administration during mid-gestation in pregnant Brahman heifers. Twenty-three pregnant (139.0 +/- 5.0 days of gestation) Brahman heifers received one of the following treatments: 0 (saline; n = 5), 0.125 (n = 4), 0.25 (n = 5), 0.5 (n = 4), or 1.0 (n = 5)IU of ACTH per kg BW. Blood samples were collected at -15 and -0.5 (time 0), 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 105, 135, 165, 195, and 255-min post-ACTH challenge. Plasma P4 and CT were quantified by RIA. Pre-ACTH P4 did not differ (P > 0.10) among ACTH treatment groups (pooled, 12.1 +/- 0.6 ng/mL). Among peak P4 values at 15-min post-ACTH infusion, control P4 (9.6 +/- 1.2 ng/mL) tended to be lower (P 0.10) following ACTH challenge. In conclusion, acute increases in ACTH elevated plasma P4, likely of adrenal origin, in mid-gestation pregnant heifers, while the CT:P4 ratio (relative output) remained constant irrespective of ACTH dose (0.125-1.0 IU). Whether ACTH-induced increases in P4 in pregnant animals are of physiological significance (e.g., an accessory role in the maintenance of pregnancy during periods of acute stress) remains to be determined.