cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Clinical implications of an analysis of pharmacokinetics of crizotinib coadministered with dexamethasone in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Dexamethasone is a systemic corticosteroid and a known cytochrome P450 (CYP)3A inducer. Crizotinib is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor of ALK, ROS1, and MET and a substrate of CYP3A. This post hoc analysis characterized the use of concomitant CYP3A inducers with crizotinib and estimated the effect of dexamethasone use on crizotinib pharmacokinetics at steady state. This analysis used data from four clinical studies (PROFILE 1001, 1005, 1007, and 1014) including 1690 patients with non-small cell lung cancer with ALK or ROS1 rearrangements treated with crizotinib at 250 mg twice daily. Frequency and reasons for use of concomitant CYP3A inducers, including dexamethasone, with crizotinib were characterized. Multiple steady-state trough concentrations (Ctrough,ss) of crizotinib were measured for each patient. A linear mixed-effects model was used for within-patient comparison of crizotinib Ctrough,ss between dosing of crizotinib alone and crizotinib coadministered with dexamethasone consecutively for ≥ 21 days. Dexamethasone was the most commonly used CYP3A inducer (30.4%). A total of 15 patients had crizotinib Ctrough,ss for both crizotinib dosing with and without dexamethasone. The adjusted geometric mean ratio of crizotinib Ctrough,ss following coadministration with dexamethasone relative to crizotinib without dexamethasone, as a percentage, was 98.2% (90% confidence interval, 79.1–122.0%). Crizotinib plasma exposure following coadministration with dexamethasone was similar to that when crizotinib was administered without dexamethasone, indicating dexamethasone has no effect on crizotinib exposure or efficacy. Other CYP3A inducers with similar potency would likewise have no clinically relevant effect on crizotinib exposure.
An Emerging Model of Business: Enterprise and Catholic Social Teaching.

The challenge for faculty teaching in Catholic Business Schools is how to integrate the University’s Catholic heritage and tradition into the core business curriculum. Such integration is necessary if schools of business are to provide their students with a distinctive educational experience. The Living Asset Stewardship (LAS) philosophy of management developed by Joseph Bragdon and described in Profit for Life is an alternative to the prevailing model of management taught in most business schools and practiced by most organizations. The authors believe that Bragdon’s LAS criteria and accompanying model provide a useful methodology for demonstrating the practical wisdom and successful application of many of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Bragdon’s model and its connections to CST can help business faculty more fully integrate the University’s Catholic tradition into topics relevant to a business core curriculum.
The Semantic Differential as a Measure of Students’ Perceptions of Psychological Issues in the Practice of Medicine

An instrument based on the semantic differential was developed to assess attitude change in medical students as part of an on-going longitudInal study. Although other studies of attitude change have employed the semantic differential, no attempt has previously been made to discover dimensions relevant to assessing attitudes in medical school. In the present study, semantic differential data were collected from first and second year medical students and factor analyzed to determine dimensions underlying attitudes about psychological issues in the practice of medicine. The results suggested three such dimensions: general affect, importance, and clarity. The implications of these results for medical education are discussed.
Evaluation of Chen et al.: Overexpression of Protein Complexes and Aneuploidy

One snapshot of the peer review process for "Overdosage of Balanced Protein Complexes Reduces Proliferation Rate in Aneuploid Cells" (Chen et al., 2019).
Effects of dynamic pedal motion and static disorder on thermal expansion within halogen-bonded co-crystals

The contribution of molecular pedal motion, static disorder, or motion inability to the thermal expansion behavior of isostructural halogen-bonded co-crystals is reported.
Inside the Black Box: Stakeholder Perceptions on the Value of Arts Field Trips

This descriptive, qualitative study, an extension of an experimental primary study, documents stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions of attending multiple field trips where urban elementary students in fourth and fifth grades were randomly assigned to receive three arts field trips including an art museum, a live theater performance, and a symphony concert. Evidence of declining K-12 attendance to educational cultural or arts field trips has been mounting for decades. Further, minority students in struggling schools and their teachers report attending fewer field trip experiences, as well as limited access to arts experiences in their schools. The full impact of this declining and restricted access to arts and culture on social-emotional learning (SEL) as well as on other academic outcomes is unknown. However, rigorous empirical evidence supporting the educational benefits of culturally enriching field trips continues to amass. I find that adult as well as student stakeholders report the importance of experience and exposure as the main impacts of educational arts field trips. Additionally, I find that classroom teachers support and advocate for experiential field trips for their students and consider it an important part of the job of educating students in their schools and community. Further, students make meaning from these experiences and articulate that meaning in intricate detail months after the field trips occur. Students also recall field trips from years past, connecting new experiences to prior learning, thus indicating that these are important and memorable experiences for them. I also find evidence of student-to-student connection via common experience, and shared meaning and learning. Lastly, students advocate for these experiences for themselves and for their peers, and articulate the importance of these experiences with poignant and compelling detail.
Assembly of the Prothrombinase Complex on Human Fibroblast Surface Is Enhanced by TSP1 and Leads to CTGF Upregulation by a Different Mechanism from the One Used by FXa and Thrombin.

Introduction: There is evidence in the literature indicating that activated factor X (FXa), thrombin and the complex of tissue factor (TF)-activated factor VII (VIIa) can induce upregulation of gene expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) on human fibroblasts [JBC2000; 275]. However, there are no reports demonstrating the ability of human fibroblasts to assemble the prothrombinase complex on their cell-surface. Previously, we have demonstrated that a monocyte/neutrophil precursor cell line (HL60) was capable to assemble the prothrombinase complex on its cell surface, a reaction that was favored by the presence of thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) [Thromb. Res.2005; 115]. Objectives: We hypothesized that human fibroblasts due to their ability to express constitutively TF on their cell surface may be able to assemble the prothrombinase complex leading to cell signaling associated with upregulation of CTGF through the TGFβ pathway. Methods: Cultured human HS-68 fibroblasts, between four to ten passages, were incubated systematically with components of the prothrombinase complex, namely purified FVII (5nM), factor X (5nM), Factor V (45nM) prothrombin (1.4μM) and Ca ++ (2mM). Generation of FXa and thrombin were measured with specific chromogenic substrates for FXa and thrombin. In addition, the reactions were assessed in the presence and absence of exogenous purified TSP1 (20nM). The signaling pathway potentially triggered by serine proteases generated (FXa and thrombin) were evaluated by the use of Western-blotting Analysis with specific antibodies directed to phosphorylated transcription factors. Results: Pre-incubation of FVII with cultured fibroblasts lead to its activation by cell-surface expressed TF, which in turn in the presence of FX, FV, FII (prothrombin) and Ca ++ lead to the generation of FXa (9.7 ± 0.77 nM) and thrombin (7.99 ± 0.04 U/mL x10 −3 ) as judged by efficient hydrolysis of specific chromogenic substrates. Addition of activated FV (FVa) but not FX after pre-incubation of FVII with cultured fibroblasts (under these experimental conditions) was an absolute requirement for the reactions to take place. Addition of TSP1 significantly enhanced thrombin generation (23.3 ± 0.69 U/mL x10 −3 p In summary, TF expressed by normal human fibroblasts activates FVII and subsequently FX in the presence of FVa, prothrombin and Ca ++ . Generation of FXa and thrombin is associated with a downstream effect leading to upregulation of CTGF, independently of the TGFβ pathway. TSP1 not only promotes thrombin generation on the surface of human fibroblast but alone can induce CTGF up-regulation via the TGFβ pathway. This mechanism may play an important role in human diseases associated with fibrosis and with atherosclerosis.
Role of Marek's Disease Virus (MDV)-Encoded U S 3 Serine/Threonine Protein Kinase in Regulating MDV Meq and Cellular CREB Phosphorylation.

Marek's disease (MD) is a neoplastic disease of chickens caused by Marek's disease virus (MDV), a member of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae Like other alphaherpesviruses, MDV encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase, US3. The functions of US3 have been extensively studied in other alphaherpesviruses; however, the biological functions of MDV US3 and its substrates have not been studied in detail. In this study, we investigated potential cellular pathways that are regulated by MDV US3 and identified chicken CREB (chCREB) as a substrate of MDV US3. We show that wild-type MDV US3, but not kinase-dead US3 (US3-K220A), increases CREB phosphorylation, leading to recruitment of phospho-CREB (pCREB) to the promoter of the CREB-responsive gene and activation of CREB target gene expression. Using US3 deletion and US3 kinase-dead recombinant MDV, we identified US3-responsive MDV genes during infection and found that the majority of US3-responsive genes were located in the MDV repeat regions. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) studies determined that some US3-regulated genes colocalized with Meq (an MDV-encoded oncoprotein) recruitment sites. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-PCR (ChIP-PCR) further confirmed Meq binding to the ICP4/LAT region, which is also regulated by US3. Furthermore, biochemical studies demonstrated that MDV US3 interacts with Meq in transfected cells and MDV-infected chicken embryonic fibroblasts in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. Finally, in vitro kinase studies revealed that Meq is a US3 substrate. MDV US3 thus acts as an upstream kinase of the CREB signaling pathway to regulate the transcription function of the CREB/Meq heterodimer, which targets cellular and viral gene expression.IMPORTANCE MDV is a potent oncogenic herpesvirus that induces T-cell lymphoma in infected chickens. Marek's disease continues to have a significant economic impact on the poultry industry worldwide. US3 encoded by alphaherpesviruses is a multifunctional kinase involved in the regulation of various cellular pathways. Using an MDV genome quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) array and chromatin immunoprecipitation, we elucidated the role of MDV US3 in viral and cellular gene regulation. Our results provide insights into how viral kinase regulates host cell signaling pathways to activate both viral and host gene expression. This is an important step toward understanding host-pathogen interaction through activation of signaling cascades.
Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Parking Spaces

The United States has an enormous supply of parking and with the appropriation of Autonomous vehicles, the interest for these spaces could change drastically. Parking is among the most pervasive land utilizes involving up to 31% of urban territory. With completely automated vehicles expected on the customer advertise by 2020, the $30 billion leaving industry will encounter gigantic changes as autos develop. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the parking and garage spaces can be utilized after the implementation of automated vehicles in every household. Analysis has been conducted about different households in Ypsilanti Township using Zillow application which includes the address, area of the house, parking area and year in which it is built. Results are based on the analysis conducted on the houses and the impact of the autonomous vehicles on their parking space.
Narrative Intervention: Principles to Practice

Purpose Narrative interventions are a class of language interventions that involve the use of telling or retelling stories. Narrative intervention can be an efficient and versatile means of promoting a large array of academically and socially important language targets that improve children's access to general education curriculum and enhance their peer relations. The purpose of this tutorial is to supply foundational information about the importance of narratives and to offer recommendations about how to maximize the potential of narrative interventions in school-based clinical practice. Method Drawing from decades of cognitive and linguistic research, a tutorial on narratives and narrative language is presented first. Ten principles that support the design and implementation of narrative interventions are described. Results Clinicians can use narrative intervention to teach story grammar, complex language, vocabulary, inferencing, and social pragmatics. Storytelling, as an active intervention ingredient, promotes the comprehension and production of complex language. Conclusion When narrative intervention is implemented following a set of principles drawn from research and extensive clinical experience, speech-language pathologists can efficiently and effectively teach a broad set of academically and socially meaningful skills to diverse students.
Transitioning from Face-to-Face to Remote Learning: Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions of using Zoom during COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and during the middle of the spring 2020 semester, many universities were forced to move from face-to-face (FTF) in-classroom to remote instruction. Many institutions used Zoom as their delivery platform. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ attitudes towards the use of Zoom in remote learning, and their perceptions of its effects on their learning and engagement in comparison to FTF learning. Thirty-one university students participated in this study. Data were collected using a 5-point Likert-type survey. The results indicated that students had a negative attitude toward the use of Zoom and perceived it as having a negative effect on their learning experience and their motivation to learn. Students listed flexibility as a main advantage to using Zoom for learning.
The lifecycle of hollows on Mercury: An evaluation of candidate volatile phases and a novel model of formation

Abstract On Mercury, high-reflectance, flat-floored depressions called hollows are observed nearly globally within low-reflectance material, one of Mercury’s major color units. Hollows are thought to be young, or even currently active, features that form via sublimation, or a “sublimation-like” process. The apparent abundance of sulfides within LRM combined with spectral detections of sulfides associated with hollows suggests that sulfides may be the phase responsible for hollow formation. Despite the association of sulfides with hollows, it is still not clear whether sulfides are the hollow-forming phase. To better understand which phase(s) might be responsible for hollow formation, we calculated sublimation rates for 57 candidate hollow-forming volatile phases from the surface of Mercury and as a function of depth beneath regolith lag deposits of various thicknesses. We found that stearic acid (C18H36O2), fullerenes (C60, C70), and elemental sulfur (S) have the appropriate thermophysical properties to explain hollow formation. Stearic acid and fullerenes are implausible hollow-forming phases because they are unlikely to have been delivered to or generated on Mercury in high enough volume to account for hollows. We suggest that S is most likely the phase responsible for hollow formation based on its abundance on Mercury and its thermophysical properties. We discuss the possibility that S is the phase responsible for hollow formation within the hollow-formation model framework proposed by Blewett et al. (2013). However, several potential limitations with that model lead us to suggest an alternative hollow-formation model: a subsurface heat source (most often impact-induced) generates thermal systems that drive sulfur-rich fumaroles in which S and other phases accumulate on and within the surface at night and sublimate during the day to create hollows. We call this hollow-formation model “Sublimation Cycling Around Fumarole Systems” (SCArFS). We suggest that thermal decomposition of sulfides within LRM is a main contributor to S and S-bearing gases within the proposed fumarole systems and that (re-)precipitation of sulfides may occur at the surface along hollow floors and rims.
Passage Through the Leadership Labyrinth: Women’s Journey in the Collegiate Recreation Profession:

The metaphor “glass ceiling” does not accurately articulate the complexities of experiences had by women as they progress in their professional career. The leadership labyrinth serves as a theoreti...
Termination of a 6 year ridge‐spreading event observed using a seafloor seismic network on the Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge

[1] We present automatically determined epicenters and magnitudes for 36,523 earthquakes recorded along the Endeavour segment between August 2003 and October 2006 using a local ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) network. The catalog is dominated by two swarm sequences in January and February 2005 in the vicinity of the Endeavour overlapping spreading center, which included earthquakes in West Valley, the northern portion of the Endeavour segment, southwest Endeavour Valley, and the Endeavour vent fields. These swarms are attributed to volcanism including a dike intrusion on the northern Endeavour in February 2005 and smaller diking events on the propagating tip of the West Valley segment in both swarms. The dike on the northern Endeavour propagated to the south, which is inconsistent with magma sourced from the axial magma chamber beneath the elevated central portion of the segment. Following the swarms, seismic activity on the Endeavour segment decreased on average to ~15% of pre-swarm values and almost ceased at the segment ends. We infer that a 6 year non-eruptive event that started with a swarm in 1999 and finished with the 2005 swarms ruptured the entire segment and relieved plate-spreading stresses. The inferred coupling between the 1999 and 2005 events, the observation of extensive precursory activity prior to the 2005 swarms, and the interaction between seismically active regions during the swarms is consistent with static triggering with delays influenced by viscoelastic relaxation, hydraulic diffusion, and magma withdrawal and replenishment.
Electronic Monitoring of Oral Therapies in Ethnically Diverse and Economically Disadvantaged Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Consequences of Low Adherence

Over the last decade, great advances have been made in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with the development of new biologic therapies (1). Despite these advances, oral disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), most commonly methotrexate, remain the cornerstone of therapy in RA, invariably used as initial therapy. Furthermore, it has been shown that most biologic therapies are more effective when administered in combination with methotrexate. To receive the full benefit of these treatments patients must adhere with the requirements of their prescribed drug regimens (2). Adherence can be assessed using direct or indirect methods. Direct methods include performing biologic assays (e.g., serum drug concentration) and/or direct observation, but are difficult to implement because of their invasiveness, high cost and the variability in results owing to individual pharmacokinetics. (3) Patient observation only can be performed in infusion centers or through direct observation of the patient ingesting the medication (4). Indirect methods, including pharmacy data, patient diaries, pill counts, and patient interviews, are used more frequently than are direct methods (5-10). Self-report methods are relatively inexpensive and easy to use but can result in under or more commonly, overestimation of adherence (4, 11). Advances in the nanotechnology field enabled the development of a new indirect method based on electronic medication adherence monitoring. The cap of a medication bottle records the time and date of each opening through an integrated microcircuitry. This method has many advantages, including the noninvasive and automatic recording of data, decreased susceptibility to modifications, and it also provides a more complete and accurate measure of patient adherence (e.g., coverage time, distribution of doses, and gaps without medication) (12, 13). To our knowledge, only two studies have utilized electronic monitoring to measure adherence in patients with RA (14, 15). In one study on 961 patients, the electronic monitoring data were combined with patient self-reporting, making it impossible to accurately extract the electronic monitoring results from the combined data. Furthermore, the follow-up of this study was only 14 days, limiting inferences about long-term adherence and its effects (15). The other study analyzed adherence in 81 RA patients and found a greater rate of adherence in patients taking methotrexate than in patients taking sulfasalazine (81% vs 55%, respectively). However, follow-up in this study was only 6 months and long-term consequences, or determinants of non-adherence were not assessed (14). The purpose of our study was to quantify adherence to prescribed oral drug regimens in patients with RA over a 2-year period using an electronic medication monitoring system and to examine various determinants of adherence, as well as the clinical consequences of non-adherence.
Fitness in the Endangered Gila Topminnow

The Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis o. occidentalis) is a small, live-bearing, endangered fish extant in a maximum of nine locales in four separate watersheds in the United States. To determine if these populations differed in their fitness, we obtained samples from the four watersheds and examined them for four fitness correlates: survival, growth rate, fecundity, and bilateral asymmetry. Earlier research found that one population, Sharp Spring, had higher allozyme heterozygosity than the other three and had higher survival, growth rate, and fecundity and lower bilateral asymmetry than a sample from one of the other populations with no polymorphic allozyme loci, Monkey Spring. We also verified that Sharp Spring fish were polymorphic for the same allozyme loci whereas the Monkey Spring population was not. We did not, however, find positive associations of allozyme heterozygosity with the four fitness correlates for the four samples. Because the earlier study had much lower survival, it is likely that the differences resulted from differential response of the two populations to a stressful laboratory environment. Whether this unknown stress occurs in natural environments or its effect is predictive of other stresses remains unresolved. As a result, we concur with suggestions in the draft recovery plan that topminnows from nearby sources be used for reintroductions and that the Sharp Spring stock not be used outside the upper Santa Cruz River drainage. El poecilido de Gila (Poecilopsis o. occidentalis) es un pequeno pez viviparo en peligro de extincion que habita en cuando mucho nueve localidades en cuatro cuencas hidrologicas separadas en Estados Unidos. Para determinar si estas poblaciones diferian en su adaptabilidad obtuvimos muestras de las cuatro cuencas y examinamos cuatro correlativos de adaptabilidad: sobrevivencia, tasa de crecimiento, fecundidad y asimetria bilateral. Una investigacion previa encontro que una poblacion, en Sharp Spring, tenia mayor heterocigosidad alozimatica que las otras tres, y tenia mayor sobrevivencia, tasa de crecimiento y fecundidad y menor asimetria bilateral que una muestra de una de las otras poblaciones, de Monkey Spring, sin alozimas con loci polimorficos. Tambien verificamos que los peces de Sharp Spring eran polimorficos para los mismos loci de alozimas, mientras que la poblacion de Monkey Spring no lo era. Sin embargo, no encontramos asociaciones positivas de heterocigosidad alozimatica con los cuatro correlativos en las cuatro muestras. Debido a que el estudio anterior tenia mucho menor sobrevivencia, es probable que las diferencias se debieron a que las dos poblaciones tuvieron respuesta diferencial al estresante medio en el laboratorio. A la fecha no se sabe se este estres desconocido tambien ocurre en el medio natural o si su efecto es predictivo de otros estreses. Como resultado, coincidimos con el proyecto de plan de recuperacion que sugiere la utilizacion de poecilidos de localidades cercanas para reintroduccion y que no se utilice la poblacion de Sharp Spring fuera de la cuenca alta del rio Santa Cruz.
The Star Wars franchise, fan edits, and Lucasfilm

Fan edits assert that fan authority is on par with that of a work's original creator; this authority is generated not only through the argument, but through the structure of the text itself. Fan edits adhere to classical filmmaking techniques, creating coherent plots and editing for continuity. These recut texts are emblematic of current ownership debates; they are the read/write culture brought to fandom. The Star Wars series of films are among the most frequently recut texts and are my focus here.
Relay-aided failover in wireless networks using adaptive power and rate unicast scheduling

We present an adaptive power and rate TDMA scheduling algorithm for unicasting messages from base stations to their associated mobile clients in a cellular wireless network. To enhance network robustness, we consider a relay-aided system under which relay stations are placed in fixed locations in each cell area. Upon a base station failure, a relay station is capable of receiving unicast transmissions issued by a neighboring base station, or by a relay station placed in a neighboring cell. Our adaptive power and rate scheduling algorithm reacts to base station failures by reconfiguring the unicast schedule and packet distribution routes. The objective of this paper is to study the performance behavior attained for such a scheme under pre-failure and post-failure scenarios. We show that our failover scheduling algorithm is effective in adapting to base station failures, limiting the performance degradation incurred.
An Insiders' View of FCC Spectrum Auctions

After a long period of awarding spectrum licenses inefficiently, changes in the budget and budgetary process coupled with increases in the value of the spectrum for non-broadcast use led Congress to allow the Federal Communications Commission to award licenses through competitive bidding. Contrary to the perceived view of government bureaucracies as excessively cautious, the FCC used the newfound authority to adopt a novel approach to auction design—simultaneous multiple round auctions. The innovative auction design would not have been adopted without the successful collaboration between government economists and academic economists, who helped to formulate and refine the design so that decision makers at the FCC could be convinced that the novel technique was both superior and practical. The FCC's implementation of competitive bidding was not only rapid as mandated by Congress, but also much less costly than outside alternatives and allowed the integration of spectrum policy decisions and auction design. Experience from several auctions has led to a number of open questions and refinements. The FCC is trying to replicate the success with the original auction design by facilitating dialog between the agency and outside auction experts in order to address these issues.
Jones, E.H.G., and Uribe-Jongbloed, E. (Eds.). (2013). Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries. Bristol: Multilingual Matters

Social Media and Minority Languages is a collection of timely, meticulous reports about minority language media (MLM) in the era of convergence. In different ways, the contributors all address the question of how MLM can strengthen language use and speakers' sense of belonging to a linguistic and cultural community. They adopt an engaged approach and investigate a wide range of phenomena, such as the tensions between centralized and decentralized modes of production and between passive and active modes of reception.
Update on Clostridium difficile-induced colitis, part 2

Clostridium difficile is a nosocomial pathogen able to survive unfavorable environments by sporulation; when conditions advantageous for rapid growth appear, the vegetative form is regenerated. Lack of conscientious hand washing and failure of health care providers to use disposable gloves facilitate transmission within institutions. Exposure to certain antimicrobials expedites C. difficile overgrowth within the colon by altering the composition of the normal gut microflora. Antineoplastic agents may also precipitate CDIC. The characteristics of the colonizing strain, the properties of the inciting drug, and individual host factors collectively seem to govern the expression of the disorder. Clinical presentations range from self-limiting diarrhea to severe diarrhea accompanied by abdominal pain, fever, and leukocytosis to potentially life-threatening PMC. A preponderance of data supports the interpretation that oral metronidazole and oral vancomycin are therapeutically equivalent for the treatment of all but the most severe cases of CDIC. Whether the two drugs are equivalent in severe CDIC is controversial and will probably remain so in the absence of a well-designed trial to expand on the findings of the study by Teasley et al. Because of the cost difference and therapeutic equivalence, oral metronidazole should be the preferred routine treatment for CDIC; oral vancomycin should be reserved for severe cases and cases that fail to respond to at least six days of oral metronidazole therapy. Another important argument, albeit a hypothetical one, for limiting institutional use of oral vancomycin is to minimize selective environmental pressure for the emergence and dissemination of vancomycin-resistant enterococci. An epidemic outbreak of CDIC caused by clindamycin-resistant C. difficile in an institution where clindamycin use was extremely high illustrates the possible consequences of such selective pressure. Oral metronidazole 250 mg four times daily will usually provide a satisfactory response, but clinicians may wish to consider increasing the total daily dose for some patients who have symptoms like fever and leukocytosis. For oral vancomycin, 125 mg four times daily is sufficient in virtually all circumstances. Ten days of therapy is usually adequate for either drug. CDIC in a patient unable to take medications orally presents a bit of a therapeutic dilemma. Two approaches that appear effective are rectal administration of vancomycin and intravenous administration of metronidazole, although intravenous metronidazole can fail to work, possibly because the colonic concentrations achieved are inadequate. Clinicians may wish to consider a total daily dose of intravenous metronidazole that is at the upper end of the adult dosage range, if this is feasible.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Transmission of Chinese Medicine

The Transmission of Chinese Medicine. Elisabeth Hsu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.306 pp.
Increasing Memory Bandwidth for Vector Computations

Memory bandwidth is rapidly becoming the performance bottleneck in the application of high performance micro- processors to vector-like algorithms, including the "Grand Challenge" scientific problems. Caching is not the sole solution for these applications due to the poor temporal and spatial locality of their data accesses. Moreover, the nature of memories themselves has changed. Achieving greater bandwidth requires exploiting the characteristics of memory components "on the other side of the cache" - they should not be treated as uniform access-time RAM. This paper describes the use of hardware-assisted access ordering, a technique that combines compile-time detection of memory access patterns with a memory subsystem that decouples the order of requests generated by the processor from that issued to the memory system. This decoupling permits the requests to be issued in an order that optimizes use of the memory system. Our simulations show significant speedup on important scientific ker- nels.
Control of attosecond pulse and XUV high-order harmonic generation with spatially-chirped laser pulses

We present a technique to drive high-order harmonics with angularly spatially chirped pulses. Our calculations show that each harmonic is emitted with angular chirp, leading to dramatically improved control of spectral and temporal spatial resolution.
PREFERRED STOCK VALUATION IN RECAPITALIZATIONS

CHAPTER X AND SECTION 77 of the Bankruptcy Act now provide the machinery through the use of which an insolvent corporation may be reorganized by legal mandate. After the petition to reorganize, filed in a federal court of bankruptcy by creditors or by the corporation itself, has been approved, the court appoints a disinterested trustee whose primary function is to formulate and present to the court a plan for reorganization of the insolvent company. To the appropriate Commission (S.E.C. or I.C.C.) has been relegated the responsibility of advising the court (in cases involving substantial creditors' claims) as to whether or not the trustee's plan is "fair and equitable" to the parties concerned. Thus, for situations of insolvency or impending insolvency, clearcut principles of valuation and procedures for determining values in terms of these principles have evolved. Over the years, including the earlier period of equity receivership, the principles of valuation to be applied with respect both to the over-all value of the corporation and to the value of the various claims against the corporation have been established by court decisions. Valuation of the going concern on the basis of capitalized expectable earnings and distribution of this over-all value, until exhausted, to existing securities in order of their priority and to the full amount of their liquidation preferences are the two basic principles applied by the regulatory commission and the courts to reorganization plans proposed by a disinterested trustee and the parties at interest. These are the principles which apply in the valuation of the preferred stocks, as well as the bonds, of corporations being reorganized under the Bankruptcy Act.
Intracerebral lipopolysaccharide induces neuroinflammatory change and augmented brain injury in growth-restricted neonatal rats

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) alters fetal development and is associated with neurodevelopmental abnormalities. We hypothesized that growth restriction from reduced intrauterine perfusion would predispose neonatal rats to subsequent inflammatory brain injury. In this study, IUGR was achieved by induced placental insufficiency in pregnant rats at 14 days of gestation. IUGR offspring and sham-operated control pups were subsequently injected with intracerebral lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a model of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). LPS similarly elevates proinflammatory cytokines in the brains of both IUGR and control rat pups. However, the chemokines cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant-1 (CINC-1) and macrophage chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), as well as microglia activation, were significantly higher in LPS-treated IUGR rat pups as compared with LPS-treated controls. In addition to the unique brain inflammatory response, IUGR rat pups demonstrated increased brain damage with an increased number of apoptotic cells, larger lateral ventricular size, and more severe impairment of myelination. This study provides evidence that placental insufficiency may sensitize the innate immune system in the immature brain and reveals a possible link between brain inflammation and injury.
Cholesterol kinetics in the normal rat aorta, and the influence of different types of dietary fat

Summary Groups of rats, maintained on cholesterol-free diets containing either 30 % safflower oil or 30 % coconut oil, were given single intragastric doses of (4-14C) -cholesterol. The ensuing rise in radioactivity of aorta cholesterol was substantially higher in the coconut-oil group than in the safflower-oil group. The two groups were nearly identical in regard to plasma-cholesterol concentrations, plasma-cholesterol specific activitytime curves, aorta-cholesterol concentrations, and in vitro synthesis of cholesterol from acetate by the aorta. It was therefore concluded that coconut-oil feeding had resulted in faster transfer of cholesterol from plasma into the wall of the aorta, in comparison with safflower-oil feeding, under conditions of identical plasma-cholesterol concentrations. It was estimated that transfer from plasma accounted for roughly 3/4 of the cholesterol in the wall of the aorta in the safflower-oil group. The data did not permit an estimate of this parameter in the animals on coconut oil. Analysis of the fatty-acid constituents of plasma cholesterol esters and triglycerides revealed a distinct tendency in the direction of the composition of dietary fat. Plasma phosphatide fatty acids were influenced only slightly by diet.
Finding the Proton in a Key Intermediate of anti-Markovnikov Alkyne Hydration by a Bifunctional Catalyst

The secondary structure of a bifunctional catalyst positions a crucial reactive proton in the final intermediate of anti-Markovnikov alkyne hydration to give an aldehyde. NMR coupling and isotopic labeling studies elucidate the location of this proton and its involvement in hydrogen bonding.
Vector Currents and Spectral-Function Sum Rules

It is argued, on experimental grounds, that Weinberg's second sum rule must be abandoned for vector-current spectral functions as long as the vector-meson dominance approximation is qualitatively valid.
The synthesis of nicotinic acid-7-13C

Nicotinic acid, an intermediate in the pyridine nucleotide cycle, was labeled with 13C at the 7 position. The reaction of CuCN-13C (prepared from NaCN-13C) with 3-bromopyridine, followed by hydrolysis to the acid and purification by ion exchange chromatography, gave an overall yield of 72% nicotinic acid-7-13C. This greater than 3-fold increase in yield over previous methods is the result of in situ hydrolysis of the nitrile intermediate.
Mass spectrometry of 2‐substituted‐1‐keto‐3‐aryl‐5H‐imidazo‐(1,5‐a)‐pyrroles derived from Schiff bases of N‐terminal prolyl peptides

We have been able to extend the use of Schiff base derivatives in peptide sequencing to N-terminal prolyl peptides. Earlier studies from this laboratory revealed that certain aromatic Schiff bases of peptide esters gave electron-impact mass spectra with relatively intense molecular, sequence and internal fragment ions. We observed that the reaction of N-terminal prolyl peptide esters with 4-dimethylaminonaphthaldehyde, p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde and 2-pyridinecarboxaldehyde gave cyclization products which were found to be 2-substituted-1-keto-3-aryl-5H-imidazo-[1,5-a]-pyrrole derivatives. The molecular ion and many of the expected cleavages were prominent in the mass spectra. Deuterium labeling at the α-carbon, amide nitrogen, or other exchangeable positions has been used in assigning the structure. It was also confirmed by the fragmentation pattern of the products derived by permethylation of the peptide derivative with tetramethylammonium hydroxide. Comparable cleavage patterns were seen among the N-terminal prolyl peptides examined. Proline amide gave the corresponding cyclized product. With the inclusion of N-terminal prolyl peptides in the list of peptides that we have examined, we may now prepare volatile derivatives of peptides containing any of the protein amino acids in two steps: esterification and treatment with the appropriate aromatic aldehyde.
Exotic earthworms alter soil microbial community composition and function

Abstract Exotic earthworms can profoundly alter soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics in northern temperate forests, but the mechanisms explaining these responses are not well understood. We compared the soil microbial community (SMC) composition (measured as PLFAs) and enzyme activity between paired earthworm-invaded and earthworm-free plots in northern hardwood forests of New York, USA. We hypothesized that differences in SMCs and enzyme activity between plots would correspond with differences in soil C content and C:N ratios. Relative abundance of several bacterial (mostly gram-positive) PLFAs was higher and that of two fungal PLFAs was lower in earthworm compared to reference plots, largely because of earthworm incorporation of the organic horizon into mineral soil. In surface mineral soil earthworms increased arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and gram-positive bacterial PLFAs, and decreased fungal (mostly saprotrophic) and several bacterial (gram-negative and non-specific) PLFAs. Earthworms also increased the activities of cellulolytic relative to lignolytic enzymes in surface mineral soil, and the relationships between enzyme activities and components of the SMC suggest a substrate-mediated effect on the SMC and its metabolism of C. A highly significant relationship between components of the SMC and soil C:N also suggests that earthworms reduce soil C:N through functional and compositional shifts in the SMC. Finally, changes in AMF abundances were linked to phosphatase activity, suggesting that earthworms do not necessarily inhibit P-acquisition by AMF-associated plants in our study system. We conclude that the combined influence of earthworm-related changes in physical structure, accessibility and chemistry of organic matter, and relative abundance of certain groups of fungi and bacteria promote C metabolism, in particular by increasing the activities of cellulolytic vs. lignolytic enzymes.
The role of detrending methods in a model of real business cycles

Abstract This paper examines three detrending methods in a real business cycle (RBC) model: the Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter, the Beveridge-Nelson (BN) filter, and the Linear-in-Time (LIT) filter. The HP filter is posited in between the other two, in the sense that the trend from the HP filter is rather smooth with some variation, whereas the trend from the LIT filter is perfectly smooth and the trend from the BN filter includes a unit-root component. The HP filter fails to work as a band-pass filter if the pre-filtered series is integrated, and the failure deepens as the degree of integration becomes higher. However, the filter-oriented sensitivity of the stylized facts are symmetric between the actual data and the simulated data, implying that the sensitivity itself does not invalidate an RBC model's performance in replicating the actual economy.
Mathematical analysis of a two-phase continuum mixture theory

In this paper, we study the mathematical structure of a continuum reactive mixture model of the combustion of granular energetic materials. We obtain and classify the wave fields associated with this description. This analysis shows that this system of hyperbolic equations becomes degenerate when the relative flow is locally sonic. We derive the corresponding Riemann invariants and construct simple wave solutions. We also discuss special discontinuous solutions of the system of equations. For fixed upstream conditions, different downstream states are possible when the relative velocities exceed the speed of the sound gas.
Dimyristoyl Phosphatidylcholine/water Partitioning-dependent Modeling of Narcotic Toxicity toTetrahymena pyriformis

Regression-type structure-toxicity relationships have been developed between Tetrahymena pyriformis population growth impairment toxicity data (log 1/IGC50) and the dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine/water partition coefficient (log KDMPC) or the 1-octanol/water partition coefficient (log Kow). A statistically robust model [log(1/ IGC50)= 0.73 log (KDMPC)−1.62; n=23, r2=0.926, s=0.24, F=263, Pr/gt F=0.0001] was found for non-polar narcotics, polar narcotics, as well as esters with the DMPC partition coefficient. The above model was statistically better than the model [log(1/IGC50) = 0.71 (log Kow) − 1.60; n = 23, r2 = 0.828, s = 0.39, F = 101, Pr> F = 0.0001] developed for the same compounds with 1-octanol/water partitioning as the independent variable. The former equation does not explain the difference in the acute mechanisms of toxic action known to exist in fish for non-polar and polar narcotics. However, log KDMPC appears to correct for differences in the concentration of toxicant reaching the site of toxic action between narcotic mechanisms. Outliers to the log KDMPC model were primary aliphatic amines.
Salient contour extraction for target recognition

To achieve robust and efficient object recognition, particularly from real outdoor images, methods to reduce clutter and extract salient information of objects need to be developed. Towards this end, the authors present a technique to rank and extract salient contours from a 2-D image acquired by a passive sensor. The goal is to find important contours corresponding to possible objects. The method presented starts with edgels from an edge detector and assigns a saliency measure to linked edgels (contours) based on length, smoothness, and contrast. For length the authors use the number of edgels in the contour; for smoothness they use average change of curvature; and for contrast, the edge magnitude. Contours are ranked by saliency and the more salient contours selected. This method is tested on several real outdoor images of objects in cluttered and occluded conditions. Excellent results are obtained. Performance of this technique is evaluated in the context of a recognition system that matches 2-D image corners with 3-D model vertices. Graphs, using corners on the object of interest and clutter are used to demonstrate the appropriateness of saliency ranking. Curves are plotted to display the percentage of object corners to all image corners for the top few salient contours. Extracting the more salient contours increases the ratio of image corners on the object to all image corners, reducing the search space for the corner matching step in recognition.
The effects of epinephrine and chlorpromazine on visual cliff behavior in hooded and albino rats

Infant hooded and albino rats were tested on the visual cliff and observed for a 5-min period after receiving injections of epinephrine, chlorpromazine, or a placebo. Hooded animals chose the shallow side of the visual cliff more often than albinos and spent more time on that side. They were also more emotional, as measured by fecal bolus counts. Albinos explored more, as indicated by their higher activity and crossover scores. Epinephrine tended to increase the emotionality of the albinos and markedly facilitated the response of avoiding the deep side of the visual cliff. Strain differences evident in visual cliff behavior were discussed in terms of differences in emotionality rather than ability to perceive depth.