cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An in vitro investigation of the hematopoietic micro-environment in young and aged mice

Abstract Dexter-type cultures derived from the bone marrow of young and aged mice were established as in vitro correlates to the hematopoietic microenvironment and inoculated two weeks later with fresh bone marrow-derived stem cells (colony-forming units, CFUs) from young, syngeneic mice. Such cultures allowed the observation, quantitation and evaluation of interactions between aged or young microenvironments and the young stem cells. The hematopoietic microenvironments derived from aged marrow were found to support a greater total nucleated cellularity and a significantly greater number of CFUs. Also, the production of CFUs on aged monolayers occurred at an elevated rate. Though cyclic variations in total cellularity were noted in all cultures, the granulocyte-macrophage lineage always predominated. Lymphocyte populations in all cultures were seen to decline rapidly with time as other cell types became more abundant. The number of megakaryocytes in the aged marrow-derived cultures was significantly elevated in the early time periods post-refeeding. Differences in the adherent cell population densities were noted with the aged monolayers being somewhat less dense. However, there were no differences in morphologically identifiable cell types comprising the adherent layers derived from marrow of young and old mice. From these results, we conclude that there are differences in the ability of aged versus young hematopoietic microenvironments to support normal young stem cells in vitro and that the microenvironmental influences present in the in vitro system are reflective of those seen in the in vivo marrow microenvironment.
Dupuytren’s Fasciectomies in 60 Consecutive Digits Using Lidocaine with Epinephrine and No Tourniquet

Dupuytren's contracture is a common hand problem. Its treatment, other than percutaneous fasciectomy, is an outpatient operation performed with the patient under regional or general anesthesia. If local anesthetics are used, they are used without epinephrine, and an arm or forearm tourniquet is essential. Multiple reviews have described the safety of local anesthetics with epinephrine in the digits. This study is a retrospective review of operations performed by the same surgeon in the hospital (43 digits) versus the office using local anesthetics with epinephrine and no tourniquet (60 digits). Results and complications were compared and tabulated. The hospital and epinephrine groups were comparable regarding preoperative measurements. Postoperative improvement in extension at the metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints was similar in both the hospital and epinephrine groups. Complications, including digital nerve and artery injuries, infections, and hematomas, were similar between the groups. There were no cases of digital necrosis or gangrene in the epinephrine group, even though one patient sustained a transection of a digital artery at the proximal interphalangeal joint. Because of the similarities in results and complications, there does not seem to be an advantage to performing Dupuytren's excisions with full arm tourniquet and outpatient admission in many cases. Local anesthetics with epinephrine are safe in the treatment of Dupuytren's contracture, although both the use of digital epinephrine and the use of mechanical tourniquets carry the potential for complications. Visibility is similar to that for facial or head and neck surgery and is aided by the use of loupe magnification. The old dogma against its use in the fingers is refuted, as seen by the results in these 60 consecutive Dupuytren's fasciectomies and the results of other authors.
DYNAMIC PLANNING AND CONTROL METHODOLOGY FOR DESIGN/BUILD FAST-TRACK CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

A dynamic planning and control methodology is developed by integrating the applications of axiomatic design concepts, concurrent engineering concepts, the graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT), and the system dynamics modeling technique. The goal of the proposed methodology is to help create a dynamic project plan for design/build fast-track civil engineering and architectural projects where unforeseen changes can be absorbed in the project schedule without creating major interruptions. The axiomatic design concepts are applied to formulate and evaluate various work methodologies, and to create a project plan based on the selected work methodology. The concept of concurrent engineering is adapted to develop a fast-tracking framework based on the task production rate, the upstream task reliability, and downstream task sensitivity to the upstream error. The GERT diagramming scheme is used to calculate the project duration probabilistically by incorporating the possible branches and loops in the p...
The axiom of choice and calculus revision: A dialogue

M. Well, of course the axiom of choice is true. It's obvious. If you have a set A and another set B, you can define a set C that is the set of all ordered pairs (a,13) where a is in A and 13 is in B. P. You mean the set A • B exists. M. Why put it that way? P. It's making what you said more explicit. For you to "define" A • B and use it, you have to believe it exists. M. That's not perfectly clear to me, but I'll go along. Okay. P. And that raises the question, "How do you know it exists?" M. What's the problem? The set A is there, and so is B---so of course the ordered pairs (et,13) are there, and the set of them is A x B. P. But you're asserting that all these things exist! They're not physical objects-in what sense do they "exist"? M. It seems your problem is about how to put this perfectly clear idea into words. Everyone knows putting ideas into words is difficult--the computer types call it "documentation" and avoid doing it at all costs. But you remember that years ago, before you specialized in logic, you learned about ordered pairs and cartesian products, and saw it all perfectly well. P. Well I don't see it now. In what sense can a cartesian product of infinite sets be said to exist? M. You've lost it? That's too bad. P. It wasn' t really clear ever. When questions were raised about it, I couldn't answer them. Now it's clear to me that I was sort of fooling myself the concepts involved are really very obscure. M. It's clear to you? You mean the concepts you use in questioning the axiom of choice are themselves all clearer to you than the concept of cartesian product of sets? For instance, w h e n y o u ask "Wha t is the meaning of 'exists' in the statement 'A x B exists'?", is the term 'meaning' so clear to you? Also, what exactly, is the logical status of the phrase 'what is'? You know that when we wish to raise questions we can raise very difficult ques t ions about the very clearest ideas and attitudes. Some of them are taken seriously by philosophers--for example the question of whether there is such a thing as "free will," as they put i t a n d some are not taken seriously, such as Zeno's paradoxes and the question of solipsism. I don't know how they choose which to dismiss and which to talk about.
An exploratory visualization tool for mapping the relationships between animal movement and the environment

Movement ecologists and environmental scientists are increasingly utilizing large volumes of spatiotemporal data collected from animal tracking and remote sensing of the environment to explore the environmental drivers of animal movements and long distance migrations. For scientists, the visual exploration and mapping of animal tracks in space and time and in relation to their environment is key to the generation of new hypotheses and investigation of dependencies. Effective visualization of such multidimensional data is a time consuming and challenging process. Creating professional, interactive, and fluid looking animations for public outreach and presentation purposes is similarly arduous. We present a new exploratory visualization tool for the analysis of animal movement datasets enriched with environmental variables and other miscellaneous data. This interactive visualization tool is designed to be effective and intuitive for users from biology and ecology disciplines, who are rather unfamiliar with GIS and mapping software. The tool is able to illustrate how environmental factors influence movement patterns of animals by offering to the user a variety of visual variables that can be combined in novel ways. We demonstrate the capabilities of this new visualization tool by analyzing the movement data of nine Galapagos Albatrosses and one Turkey Vulture migration track.
Local Extinctions of Terrestrial Insectivorous Birds in a Fragmented Landscape near Manaus, Brazil

Abstract: We examined the distributions of nine species of terrestrial insectivorous birds in 4- to 14-year-old rainforest fragments north of Manaus, Brazil. We surveyed 11 fragments of 1, 10, and 100 ha, 95 ha of secondary vegetation, and nine continuous forest plots (controls) of 1–100 ha. We augmented standard spot-mapping with extensive playback surveys. The fragments had been sampled with mist nets before isolation, so our results could be compared with the pre-isolation distribution. For the nine species, there were 55 cases of local extinction in the 11 fragments between about 1 year after isolation and the time of our surveys. This corresponds to 74% extinction of the local populations in fragments. These extinctions occurred despite the second-growth connection of some fragments to continuous forest as little as 70 m away. Three apparent colonization events by species not detected before isolation also occurred, but these may also reflect inadequate sampling before isolation. Our comparison of fragments and similar-sized control plots in continuous forest showed an area effect on species richness in both fragments and control plots, but fragments had fewer species than control plots of equal size. In a fragmented Amazonian landscape, the full suite of terrestrial insectivores would persist in the short term only in large fragments ( >100 ha), although much larger areas are probably necessary for the long-term persistence of their populations.
Fault-Tolerance and Complexity (Extended Abstract)

Robust computation—a radical approach to fault-tolerant database access—was explicitly defined one decade ago, and in the following year this notion was presented at ICALP in Antwerp. A decade's study of robust computation by many researchers has determined which problems can be fault-tolerantly solved via access to databases of many strengths. This paper surveys these results and mentions some interesting unresolved issues.
A New Cytotoxic and Tubulin-Interactive Milnamide Derivative from a Marine Sponge Cymbastela sp.

The crude methanol extract of a marine sponge Cymbastela sp. collected in Papua New Guinea was selected for chemical investigation due to its significant cytotoxicity. Fractionation of the extract led to the isolation of jaspamide (1), hemiasterlin (2), milnamide A (3), and a new metabolite, milnamide D (4). The structure was solved by interpretation of NMR and mass spectra data. The cytotoxic and antitubulin activities of milnamide D (4) were evaluated.
The effect of a negative mood priming challenge on dysfunctional attitudes, explanatory style, and explanatory flexibility

Ninety-seven undergraduates, 48 of whom had a history of self-reported major depression, completed measures of mood and cognitive style (e.g. explanatory style, explanatory flexibility, dysfunctional attitudes) prior to and directly after a negative mood priming challenge that consisted of listening to sad music and thinking about an upsetting past event. Eighteen of the previously depressed participants endorsed baseline levels of depression, explanatory style for negative events, and dysfunctional attitudes higher than levels reported by never depressed participants or euthymic participants with a history of depression. All three groups (never depressed participants, dysphoric participants with a history of depression, euthymic participants with a history of depression) demonstrated increases in dysphoria and dysfunctional attitudes in response to the negative mood priming challenge. Dysphoric participants with a history of depression, but not the other two groups, evidenced modest increases in explanatory style following the negative mood priming challenge. Finally, euthymic participants with a history of depression, but not the other two groups, evidenced drops in explanatory flexibility. Findings from the present study suggest that the cognitive theories of depression may benefit from examining both cognitive content and cognitive flexibility when assessing risk for depression.
Use of rosuvastatin in preventing vascular events in patients with elevated C-reactive protein. Commentary.

Practice PearlRosuvastatin 20 mg for lowering LDL-C in patients with an elevated CRP but without cardiovascular disease or diabetes dramatically reduced cardiac events.
Efficient Coordination of Wind Power and Price-Responsive Demand—Part II: Case Studies

In Part II of this paper, we demonstrate on a modified 24-bus IEEE Reliability Test System (RTS) that it is indeed possible to manage large-scale intermittent resources in coordination with price-responsive demand. The algorithms introduced in Part I of this paper are simulated assuming 20% and 50% wind capacity. We show that the look-ahead dispatch of the proposed method is physically implementable and, when used with elastic demand, can accommodate the integration of close to 50% wind capacity. This is contrasted with the observation that, without elastic demand, 50% wind integration is not physically implementable. From the perspective of total market surplus, the predictive dispatch of the proposed method is 3.8% suboptimal when compared to the centralized most efficient predictive economic dispatch. Further simulations are needed to test the feasibility of coordinating wind power and price-responsive demand on realistic large-scale power systems.
SURVEILLANCE OF MULTI-COMPONENT SYSTEMS: A STOCHASTIC TRAVELING SALESMAN'S PROBLEM.

The linear programming formulation of Markovian decision processes are used to develop optimal visit sequences.
The state of the art of clinical gene diagnosis

Gene diagnosis is defined and evaluated in light of existing methods of clinical diagnosis. Gene diagnosis for diseases caused by somatic or inherited mutations is more powerful than existing clinical methods, but the state of this art is too cumbersome and expensive for routine diagnosis. Gene diagnosis for infectious disease is more specific than existing detection methods, but usually is not yet as sensitive as culture or as advanced. The format for both forms of gene diagnosis will evolve to liquid hybridization followed by a “dot” format for evaluating results.
Effect of loading on peak power of the bar, body, and system during power cleans, squats, and jump squats

Nine males (age 24.7 ± 2.1 years, height 175.3 ± 5.5 cm, body mass 80.8 ± 7.2 kg, power clean 1-RM 97.1 ± 6.36 kg, squat 1-RM = 138.3 ± 20.9 kg) participated in this study. On day 1, the participants performed a one-repetition maximum (1-RM) in the power clean and the squat. On days 2, 3, and 4, participants performed the power clean, squat or jump squat. Loading for the power clean ranged from 30% to 90% of the participant's power clean 1-RM and loading for the squat and jump squat ranged from 0% to 90% of the participant's squat 1-RM, all at 10% increments. Peak force, velocity, and power were calculated for the bar, body, and system (bar + body) for all power clean, squat, and jump squat trials. Results indicate that peak power for the bar, body, and system is differentially affected by load and movement pattern. When using the power clean, squat or jump squat for training, the optimal load in each exercise may vary. Throwing athletes or weightlifters may be most concerned with bar power, but jumpers or sprinters may be more concerned with body or system power. Thus, the exercise type and load vary according to the desired stimulus.
The development and diversification of Precambrian life.

During the past decade, important strides have been made toward deciphering the paleobiology of the Precambrian Eon, the earliest seven-eighths of Earth history. This progress has accrued chiefly from micropaleontological and organic geochemical studies of fine-grained, ancient cherts. Although understanding of the early biota — of its composition, diversity, paleoecology and evolution — still remains far from adequate, three particularly significant generalizations have emerged: (i) Living systems were extant earlier than about 3000 m.y. ago; (ii) between about 3000 and 1000 m.y. ago, the Earth’s biota was dominated by prokaryotic blue-green algae; and (iii) the development of the nucleated, eukaryotic cell type somewhat earlier than 1000 m.y. ago led to a stage of rapid diversification that culminated with the appearance of megascopic life near the close of the Precambrian. Consideration of these generalizations, and of the evidence bearing on them provides a ‘state-of-the-art’ assessment of the current status of Precambrian paleobiology.
A motion planner for multiple mobile robots

An algorithm is described for planning the motions of several mobile robots which share the same workspace. Each robot is capable of independent translational motion in two dimensions, and the workspace contains polygonal obstacles. The algorithm computes a path for each robot which avoids all obstacles in the workspace as well as the other robots. It is guaranteed to find a solution if one exists. The algorithm takes a cell decomposition approach, where the decomposition used is based on the idea of a product operation defined on the cells in a decomposition of a two-dimensional free space. This algorithm is being implemented for the case of two robots as part of ongoing research into useful algorithms for task-level programming of the RobotWorld system. >
Level of Trainee and Tracheal Intubation Outcomes

BACKGROUND: Tracheal intubation is an important intervention to stabilize critically ill and injured children. Provider training level has been associated with procedural safety and outcomes in the neonatal intensive care settings. We hypothesized that tracheal intubation success and adverse tracheal intubation–associated events are correlated with provider training level in the PICU. METHODS: A prospective multicenter observational cohort study was performed across 15 PICUs to evaluate tracheal intubation between July 2010 to December 2011. All data were collected by using a standard National Emergency Airway Registry for Children reporting system endorsed as a Quality Improvement project of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator network. Outcome measures included first attempt success, overall success, and adverse tracheal intubation–associated events. RESULTS: Reported were 1265 primary oral intubation encounters by pediatric providers. First and overall attempt success were residents (37%, 51%), fellows (70%, 89%), and attending physicians (72%, 94%). After adjustment for relevant patient factors, fellow provider was associated with a higher rate of first attempt success (odds ratio [OR], 4.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.24–5.68) and overall success (OR, 9.27; 95% CI, 6.56–13.1) compared with residents. Fellow (versus resident) as first airway provider was associated with fewer tracheal intubation associated events (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.31–0.57). CONCLUSIONS: Across a broad spectrum of PICUs, resident provider tracheal intubation success is low and adverse associated events are high, compared with fellows. More intensive pediatric resident procedural training is necessary before “live” tracheal intubations in the intensive care setting.
Induction of capsule growth in Cryptococcus neoformans by mammalian serum and CO(2).

The pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans has a polysaccharide capsule that is essential for virulence in vivo. Capsule size is known to increase during animal infection, and this phenomenon was recently associated with virulence. Although various conditions have been implicated in promoting capsule growth, including CO2 concentration, osmolarity, and phenotypic switching, it is difficult to reproduce the capsule enlargement effect in the laboratory. In this study, we report that serum can induce capsule growth, and we describe the conditions that induce this effect, not only by serum but also by CO2. Capsule enlargement was dependent on the medium used, and this determined whether the strain responded to serum or CO2 efficiently. Serum was most effective in inducing capsule growth under nutrient-limited conditions. There was considerable variability between strains in their response to either serum or CO2, with some strains requiring both stimuli. Sera from several animal sources were each highly efficient in inducing capsule growth. The cyclic AMP (cAMP) pathway and Ras1 were both necessary for serum-induced capsule growth. The lack of induction in the ras1 mutant was not complemented by exogenous cAMP, indicating that these pathways act in parallel. However, both cAMP and Ras1 were dispensable for inducing a partial capsule growth by CO2, suggesting that multiple pathways participate in this process. The ability of serum to induce capsule growth suggests a mechanism for the capsular enlargement observed during animal infection.
Characterization of elements of polynomials in βS

Given the discrete space of natural numbers, we characterize the elements of polynomials evaluated on the points of βℕ. We establish these results by proving the characterization in a far more general setting. Let S be a discrete set which is a semigroup under two operations ⋅ and +. Let g(z1,z2,…,zk) be any polynomial and p1,p2,…,pk be elements of βS. We provide a sufficient condition that a set A⊆S is a member of g(p1,p2,…,pk) and use it to characterize the members of g(p1,p2,…,pk) if each pi is an idempotent in (βS,+).
A novel solution for IP spoofing attacks

IP spoofing is one of the most common forms of on-line disguise. Hackers have long employed the tactic of disguising their true identity. It exploits the security weaknesses in TCP/IP protocol suite. This paper evaluates basic techniques to exploit vulnerabilities of TCP/IP protocol suite such as initial sequence number prediction and forging the source address. This paper covers certain threats and attack methods that employ IP spoofing and analyze preventive measures such as ingress and egress filtering at routers, authentication and encryption.
Reliable video broadcasts via protected Steiner trees

The introduction of the latest generation of ROADMs in the communication long-haul transport networks allows network planners to consider some new cost-effective design alternatives. Specifically, for video broadcast services ROADM wavelength drop-and-continue technology enables simple wavelength connections at each node via a tree-like topology, and the intelligent control plane permits the use of various shared protection schemes (with failure restoration switching times comparable to SONET BLSR). In this article we formulate models for reliable TV/video broadcast. We consider the network topologies based on minimum spanning trees. The objective is to minimize the total network cost while ensuring that the broadcast, originating in one (or two) source node(s), is delivered to a set of destination nodes and the network will tolerate at least one single link failure. The resulting protected tree networks are illustrated, and the cost of protection strategies is analyzed.
Two-disk motion planning strategy

The problem of planning the motion of a polygonal object through a set of planar obstacles is addressed. A two-disk motion planning strategy is proposed to navigate the object within the free space between the obstacles from an initial location to a final location. This method makes use of the medial axis transform of the free space. Two minimal overlapping disks are determined that fully enclose the moving object, and then the centers of the two disks are constrained to move continuously along a path on the medial axis. Efforts are also directed to the problem of finding the two enclosing disks for a moving object which is considered as a polygon. The problem has been considered as being optimally cutting a polygon into two smaller polygons such that each of smaller polygons can be covered by a minimal disk. It is proved that if the cut is optimal, the resultant minimal disks for two smaller polygons have equal diameters. >
Hybrid Gel Composed of Native Heart Matrix and Collagen Induces Cardiac Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells without Supplemental Growth Factors

Our goal was to assess the ability of native heart extracellular matrix (ECM) to direct cardiac differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in vitro. In order to probe the effects of cardiac matrix on hESC differentiation, a series of hydrogels was prepared from decellularized ECM from porcine hearts by mixing ECM and collagen type I at varying ratios. Maturation of cardiac function in embryoid bodies formed from hESCs was documented in terms of spontaneous contractile behavior and the mRNA and protein expression of cardiac markers. Hydrogel with high ECM content (75% ECM, 25% collagen, no supplemental soluble factors) increased the fraction of cells expressing cardiac marker troponin T, when compared with either hydrogel with low ECM content (25% ECM, 75% collagen, no supplemental soluble factors) or collagen hydrogel (100% collagen, with supplemental soluble factors). Furthermore, cardiac maturation was promoted in high-ECM content hydrogels, as evidenced by the striation patterns of cardiac troponin I and by upregulation of Cx43 gene. Consistently, high-ECM content hydrogels improved the contractile function of cardiac cells, as evidenced by increased numbers of contracting cells and increased contraction amplitudes. The ability of native ECM hydrogel to induce cardiac differentiation of hESCs without the addition of soluble factors makes it an attractive biomaterial system for basic studies of cardiac development and potentially for the delivery of therapeutic cells into the heart.
Using CBR to drive IR

We discuss the use of Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) to drive an Information Retrieval (IR) system. Our hybrid CBR-IR approach takes as input a standard frame-based representation of a problem case, and outputs texts of relevant cases retrieved from a document corpus dramatically larger than the case base available to the CBR system. While the smaller case base is accessible by the usual case-based indexing, and is amenable to knowledge-intensive methods, the larger IR corpus is not. Our approach provides two benefits: it extends the reach of CBR (for retrieval purposes) to much larger corpora, and it enables the injection of knowledge-based techniques into traditional IR. Our system works by first performing a standard HYPO-style CBR analysis, and then using texts associated with certain important cases found in this analysis to "seed" a modified version of INQUERY's relevance feedback mechanism in order to generate a query. We describe our approach and report on experiments performed in two different legal domains.
Retinal Ganglion Cell Axon Guidance in the Mouse Optic Chiasm: Expression and Function of Robos and Slits

The ventral midline of the nervous system is an important choice point at which growing axons decide whether to cross and project contralaterally or remain on the same side of the brain. In Drosophila, the decision to cross or avoid the CNS midline is controlled, at least in part, by the Roundabout (Robo) receptor on the axons and its ligand, Slit, an inhibitory extracellular matrix molecule secreted by the midline glia. Vertebrate homologs of these molecules have been cloned and have also been implicated in regulating axon guidance. Using in situ hybridization, we have determined the expression patterns of robo1,2 and slit1,2,3 in the mouse retina and in the region of the developing optic chiasm, a ventral midline structure in which retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons diverge to either side of the brain. The receptors and ligands are expressed at the appropriate time and place, in both the retina and the ventral diencephalon, to be able to influence RGC axon guidance. In vitro, slit2 is inhibitory to RGC axons, with outgrowth of both ipsilaterally and contralaterally projecting axons being strongly affected. Overall, these results indicate that Robos and Slits alone do not directly control RGC axon divergence at the optic chiasm and may additionally function as a general inhibitory guidance system involved in determining the relative position of the optic chiasm at the ventral midline of the developing hypothalamus.
Fast Docking on Graphics Processing Units via Ray-Casting

Docking Approach using Ray Casting (DARC) is structure-based computational method for carrying out virtual screening by docking small-molecules into protein surface pockets. In a complementary study we find that DARC can be used to identify known inhibitors from large sets of decoy compounds, and can identify new compounds that are active in biochemical assays. Here, we describe our adaptation of DARC for use on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), leading to a speedup of approximately 27-fold in typical-use cases over the corresponding calculations carried out using a CPU alone. This dramatic speedup of DARC will enable screening larger compound libraries, screening with more conformations of each compound, and including multiple receptor conformations when screening. We anticipate that all three of these enhanced approaches, which now become tractable, will lead to improved screening results.
Abstract 17814: Prenatal Diagnosis is Associated with a Lower Rate of Pre-Operative Brain Injury in Newborns with Transposition of the Great Arteries

Objective: Literature suggests that prenatal diagnosis of critical congenital heart disease does not lead to improved mortality. However, it has been associated with better pre-operative conditions in single ventricle lesions and better neurodevelopmental outcome in transposition of the great arteries (TGA). We sought to describe the frequency of pre-operative brain injury in neonates with prenatal and postnatal diagnosis of TGA. We hypothesize that prenatally diagnosed neonates with TGA have a lower prevalence of pre-operative brain injury. Methods: Term newborns with TGA were studied with brain magnetic resonance imaging preoperatively to determine brain injury severity based on the presence of white matter injury and/or stroke. Comparisons were made between prenatal and postnatal diagnosis. Other variables compared included estimated gestational age at birth (EGA), birth weight (BW), lowest oxygen saturation, balloon atrial septostomy (BAS), age at surgery, and hospital mortality. Analysis was performed with Fisher’s exact test or Student t-test. Further analysis will be performed including data from other centers and cardiac diagnoses. Results: The presence of brain injury was significantly higher in postnatally diagnosed neonates than those prenatally diagnosed (Table). There were trends toward lower EGA, lower BW, higher oxygen saturation and younger age at surgery in the prenatal group. BAS did not differ by prenatal diagnosis. Mortality was low and the only two deaths were in the postnatal group. Conclusions: Prenatally diagnosed neonates with TGA have a lower prevalence of preoperative brain injury as compared to those diagnosed postnatally. This finding is significant even when other known risk factors for brain injury did not differ between groups. Our data is consistent with prior literature demonstrating lower EGA and BW in prenatally diagnosed patients. The impact of these findings on neurodevelopmental outcomes will be studied.
The Excretion of the 3-Oxo-Conjugate of Aldosterone by Normal Adolescent Boys

SummaryExcretion of the 3-oxo-conjugate of aldosterone by three of the ten normal adolescent boys studied was found to be substantially greater than that of normal adults. No correlation was observed between the values for urinary aldosterone and urinary sodium, nor between urinary aldosterone and urinary potassium for the group. A barely significant correlation was found between the values for urinary aldosterone and urinary potassium-sodium ratios.
MICROGEOGRAPHIC LINEAGE ANALYSIS BY MITOCHONDRIAL GENOTYPE: VARIATION IN THE COTTON RAT (SIGMODON HISPIDUS)

We evaluate the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic markers to describe population structure and matrilineal kinship on a microgeographic scale. An analysis of restriction site variation in 134 cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) collected from a 3.2 hectare field revealed significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in frequencies of mtDNA genotypes among nest sites. Inspection of particular genotypes provided additional information about minimum numbers of female lineages (family units) per nest site, and the possible matrilineal affiliations of individuals. However, since shared genotypes are not necessarily synapomorphs having arisen within the study area, conclusions about dispersal must remain reserved. Study of the maternally-transmitted mtDNA genome offers novel perspectives on the meaning of microgeographic population structure.
Cerebral infarctions: evaluation with single-axis versus trace diffusion-weighted MR imaging.

OBJECTIVE. Our purpose was to determine the usefulness of single-axis diffusion-weighted imaging versus trace diffusion-weighted imaging in the evaluation of cerebral infarctions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Twenty-six patients harboring 34 infarctions were examined using single-axis and trace diffusion-weighted imaging within 48 hr of the onset of symptoms. Two neuroradiologists who were not aware of the clinical findings reviewed all images obtained with both techniques and noted the following: type of infarction (small [<15 mm] versus territorial), location of infarction, presence of infarction (seen only on single-axis images, seen only on trace images, seen on both), lesion conspicuity (better on single-axis images, better on trace images, or equal on both), and lesion size (larger on single-axis images, larger on trace images, or equal on both). Differences in opinion were resolved by consensus. RESULTS. Of the 18 small and 16 territorial infarctions, all were identified on both single-axis and trace imaging. Lesion conspicuity was judged to be slightly better on trace images for both types of infarctions. Lesion size was judged to be larger on single-axis images for territorial infarctions. CONCLUSION. Both single-axis and trace diffusion-weighted imaging showed all small and territorial cerebral infarctions. Both types of infarctions were slightly larger on single-axis images but this did not affect correct interpretation in any case. The single-axis technique provided sufficient information for the diagnosis of cerebral infarction in our clinical settings.
Pancreatic islet cell tumors:insulinoma, gastrinoma, and glucagonoma.

The author describes the three major clinical syndromes associated with islet cell tumor and suggests surgical and nonsurgical techniques for the treatment of each condition. The simple-article includes a review of recent developments in diagnostic testing.
Disturbance and the carbon balance of US forests: A quantitative review of impacts from harvests, fires, insects, and droughts

Abstract Disturbances are a major determinant of forest carbon stocks and uptake. They generally reduce land carbon stocks but also initiate a regrowth legacy that contributes substantially to the contemporary rate of carbon stock increase in US forestlands. As managers and policy makers increasingly look to forests for climate protection and mitigation, and because of increasing concern about changes in disturbance intensity and frequency, there is a need for synthesis and integration of current understanding about the role of disturbances and other processes in governing forest carbon cycle dynamics, and the likely future of this and other sinks for atmospheric carbon. This paper aims to address that need by providing a quantitative review of the distribution, extent and carbon impacts of the major disturbances active in the US. We also review recent trends in disturbances, climate, and other global environmental changes and consider their individual and collective contributions to the US carbon budget now and in the likely future. Lastly, we identify some key challenges and opportunities for future research needed to improve current understanding, advance predictive capabilities, and inform forest management in the face of these pressures. Harvest is found to be the most extensive disturbance both in terms of area and carbon impacts, followed by fire, windthrow and bark beetles, and lastly droughts. Collectively these lead to the gross loss of about 200 Tg C y− 1 in live biomass annually across the conterminous US. At the same time, the net change in forest carbon stocks is positive (190 Tg C y− 1), indicating not only forest resilience but also an apparently large response to growth enhancements such as fertilization by CO2 and nitrogen. Uncertainty about disturbance legacies, disturbance interactions, likely trends, and global change factors make the future of the US forest carbon sink unclear. While there is scope for management to enhance carbon sinks in US forests, tradeoffs with other values and uses are likely to significantly limit practical implementation. Continued and expanded remote sensing and field-based monitoring capabilities and manipulative experimentation are needed to improve understanding of the US forest carbon sink, and assess how disturbance processes are responding to the pressures of global environmental change. In addition, continued development and application of holistic, decision support tools that consider a range of forest values are needed to enable managers and policy makers to use the best available information for guiding forest resources now and into the future.
OKID via Output Residuals: A Converter from Stochastic to Deterministic System Identification

This paper presents a new approach for the identification of linear state-space models from input–output measurements in the presence of noise. In contrast to the original OKID/ERA algorithm, which works through the observer Markov parameters, the new approach uses the estimated observer output residuals to convert a stochastic identification problem into a virtually deterministic one. A system state-space model and an associated Kalman-filter gain can be then identified. Because the converted problem is virtually deterministic, any deterministic system-identification method can be used. The proposed stochastic-to-deterministic conversion enables these deterministic algorithms to produce the same performance level as the existing stochastic system-identification algorithms.
Time and Nostalgia

The ancient Hebrews believed that God intervened at the beginning of time to create the world and its first human couple, whose descendants were to live in the realm of history, a record of God and His creatures. At crucial times God rendered special assistance to His chosen people and saved them from despair. The failure to attain political stability for their civilization appeared, however, to the Hebrews to be so irreconcilable a misfortune that they envisaged God’s final triumph specifically in terms of theocratic nationalism. Since the course of history had begun by a special act of God, history would end by God restoring the kingdom to Israel. This new regime would be presided over by God Himself or by one especially anointed by God.1 The Hebrews understood their history as a unity, which prompted Bultmann to write, ‘Its unity is constituted by its meaning, the guidance or education of the people of God.’2 But what is the significance of the Hebrew understanding of history? For the first time in the history of the world, we find affirmed the idea that historical events have a value in themselves, in so far as they are determined by the will of God. The classical concept of eternal recurrence is rejected, and time is now understood as moving forward. Commenting on the uniqueness of the Hebrew achievement, Eliade writes, ‘It may, then, he said with truth that the Hebrews were the first to discover the meaning of history as the epiphany of God, and this conception, as we should expect, was taken up and amplified by Christianity.’3
The social psychology of respect: Implications for delegitimization and reconciliation.

In both the popular press and modern identity politics, societal groups are clamoring for respect, o+ en in lieu of economic redistribution (see, for example, Fraser, 1995; Honneth, 1995, 2001; Miller, 1993; Taylor, 1994), and individual citizens are calling for respect in civil discourse (e.g., Carter, 1998). “History echoes with passionate pleas for justice and charity, but in our times, increasingly, what we hear are demands for respect” (Hill, 2000, p. 59). Political leaders around the world recognize its importance when meeting with the opposition, and reconciliation is o+ en premised on its presence. Respect has become a valuable political and economic resource. D us, Iran’s reform-minded past President Khatami noted, “D e G rst requisite to any dialogue is the mutual respect between two parties” (Landler, 2004, p. A5). Similarly, two university presidents—one Palestinian and the other Israeli—jointly maintained “it is through cooperation based on mutual respect, rather than boycotts or discrimination, that our common goals can be achieved” (Cowell, 2005, p. A9). And in attempting to improve relations with disgruntled faculty, Lawrence Summers, Harvard’s past president, promised to temper his style in ways that paid them greater respect (Rimer & Healy, 2005). In his classic book, A eory of Justice (1971), political philosopher John Rawls claims that respect is a primary good—perhaps the primary good—in
Epitaxial High-Tc Films — Impact on Science and Applications

From the beginning of high-Tc research, epitaxial films have served as model systems to study the fundamental properties of cuprates. Because the properties relevant to most applications are sensitive to nanometer-scale defects, it has become increasingly important to be able to manipulate, control and analyze materials on this level. A selection of key experiments will be discussed, not only delivering insight into thin-film devices but also into bulk-related applications. Advanced deposition methods will be addressed which, besides their potential for creating artificial compounds, will significantly improve the performance of thin-film-based heterostructure devices.
ATTENUATION OF WIND WAVES BY A HYDRAULIC BREAKWATER

Waves generated in a tank by air blowing over the water surface were subjected to a horizontal current of water created by horizontal water jets issuing from a manifold at the water surface (hydraulic breakwater). The energy spectra of the waves were computed for conditions before and after the hydraulic breakwater was turned on. It was found that the shorter, steeper wave components were attenuated to a much greater extent than were the longer wave components. Thus, although a large portion of the wave energy could get past such a breakwater, the waves in the lee of the breakwater looked considerably lower to the observer.
Genetic programming optimization for a sentiment feedback strength based trading strategy

This study is motivated by the empirical findings that news and social me- dia Twitter messages (tweets) exhibit persistent predictive power on financial market movement. Based on the evidence that tweets are faster than news in revealing new market information, whereas news is regarded broadly a more reliable source of information than tweets, we propose a superior trading strat- egy based on the sentiment feedback strength between the news and tweets using generic programming optimization method. The key intuition behind this feedback strength based approach is that the joint momentum of the two sentiment series leads to significant market signals, which can be exploited to generate superior trading profits. With the trade-off between information speed and its reliability, this study aims to develop an optimal trading strategy us- ing investors' sentiment feedback strength with the objective to maximize risk adjusted return measured by the Sterling ratio. We find that the sentiment feed- back based strategies yield superior market returns with low maximum draw- down over the period from 2012 to 2015. In comparison, the strategies based on the sentiment feedback indicator generate over 14.7% Sterling ratio compared with 10.4% and 13.6% from the technical indicator-based strategies and the ba- sic buy-and-hold strategy respectively. After considering transaction costs, the sentiment indicator based strategy outperforms the technical indicator based strategy consistently. Backtesting shows that the advantage is statistically significant. The result suggests that the sentiment feedback indicator provides support in controlling loss with lower maximum drawdown.
Megan's Law and Durkheim’s Perspective of Punishment: Retribution, Rehabilitation or Both?

The victimization of Adam Walsh, Jacob Wetterling and Megan Kanka has been instrumental in designing sex offender laws. Registration and Community Notification Laws (RCNLs) are informally known as Megan’s Law (Terry 2011.) This paper explores sex offender legislation from the Durkheimian framework of retribution versus rehabilitation. In this paper I attempt to answer the research question: Does sex offender legislation respond to the diluted stance of punishment, which Durkheim envisioned is characteristic of modern societal sentiments (rehabilitation replacing retribution)? Why or why not? I first outline a brief history of sex offender legislation, followed by a discussion of select characteristics of societies that exhibit retributive and rehabilitative justice. Based on scholastic evidence presented in this paper, I conclude the punitive tendencies of current sex offender legislations are more retributive than rehabilitative. Current policies do not conform to the progress of punishment which Durkheim envisioned is concomitant to social evolution, and in many ways, demonstrates taking a step backwards.
Discovery of Key Physicochemical, Structural, and Spatial Properties of RNA-targeted Bioactive Ligands

While a myriad non-coding RNAs are known to be essential in cellular processes and misregulated in diseases, the development of RNA-targeted small molecule probes has met with limited success. To elucidate the guiding principles for selective small molecule/RNA recognition, we analyzed cheminformatic and shape-based descriptors for 104 RNA-targeted ligands with demonstrated biological activity (RNA-targeted BIoactive ligaNd Database, R-BIND). We then compared R-BIND to both FDA-approved small molecule drugs and RNA ligands without reported bioactivity. Several striking trends emerged for bioactive RNA ligands, including: 1) Compliance to medicinal chemistry rules, 2) distinctive structural features, and 3) enrichment in rod-like shapes over others. This work provides unique insights that directly facilitate the selection and synthesis of RNA-targeted libraries with the goal of efficiently identifying selective small molecule ligands for therapeutically relevant RNAs.