cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Laboratory Markers as Predictors of Mortality in Patients With Clostridium difficile Infection

Previous studies have identified laboratory markers for severe Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). The most consistent of these markers is the presence of marked leukocytosis. We examined the validity of these markers as predictors of mortality in patients with CDI. We excluded patients with preexisting hematologic conditions that would be expected to impair their ability to demonstrate leukocytosis. On univariate analysis, marked leukocytosis (P = 0.02), thrombocytopenia (P = 0.008), and increased blood urea nitrogen (P < 0.001) and creatinine (P = 0.001) levels were found to be significantly associated with mortality in patients with CDI. However, on logistic regression analysis, only renal impairment was found to be an independent predictor (odds ratio, 5.07). Importantly, in our study, leukocytosis was not an independent predictor after adjustment for other variables, which may be due to our selection criteria when adjusting for confounding variables. We are therefore of the opinion that in immunocompromised hosts who are leukopenic at the time of CDI diagnosis, other laboratory markers should be identified to serve as indicators for severe disease.
Direct correlation between injury severity and two markers of the functional status of the immune system

This study was conducted to identify a relationship between anatomical trauma severity and immunologic function. Four milliliters of citrated whole blood (CWB) was obtained from 14 multiply traumatized patients and their Injury Severity Score (ISS) was calculated. Each CWB sample was divided into four 1 ml aliquots with 1 microgram of E. coli endotoxin (ECE) (Difco) being added to the first, 10 micrograms of ECE to the second, 10 micrograms of pokeweed mitogen (PWM) to the third, and 20 microliters of saline to the fourth. Following a 2 hr incubation at 37 degrees C the recalcification time (RT) was determined on a Hepcon-B10. Percent shortening was calculated as the difference in the RT between the stimulated sample and the saline control. There was a significant correlation between ISS and % shortening of the ECE stimulated samples at both concentrations (for 1 microgram ECE r = 0.59, P = 0.02, and for 10 micrograms ECE r = 0.81, P = 0.00025), and also in the PWM sample (R = 0.79, P = 0.00071). This study demonstrates a significant and direct relationship between trauma severity and the patient's monocytes' ability to generate thromboplastin following ECE or PWM stimulation.
Assessing normal and abnormal patterns of growth

The problem of identifying abnormal patterns of growth in the pediatric population has been approached based on a schema that is dictated by the normal physiologic events that occur at each of the phases of infancy, childhood, and pubertal growth. These phases of growth have specific and quantifiable normal patterns, which provide a reference means for defining truly abnormal patterns of growth. The clinical evaluation, therefore, is dependent on and somewhat unique to the particular age group of the child whose growth is in question. By approaching the work-up in this age-specific manner, the clinician can direct his or her attention to the parameters of growth that are most critical to that particular phase, look for explanations that are the most likely, and, it is hoped, avoid unnecessary testing and referral.
Food Coloring and Behavior

The association between the ingestion of tartrazine synthetic food coloring and behavioral change in children referred for assessment of hyperactivity was investigated at the Royal Children’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Parents, Identities, and Trajectories of Antisocial Behavior from Adolescence to Young Adulthood.

Assessments of young adult well-being often focus on family formation and employment experiences, and ignore the potentially important, continuing role of parents. We consider whether and how parental influence reaches beyond the adolescent years. Drawing on longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (N = 1242) and multilevel modeling, analyses examine direct and indirect ways that traditional parenting practices, as well as parental histories of problematic behavior influence trajectories of offspring antisocial behavior. Parental antisocial experiences influenced young adult outcomes and operated through youths’ own developing identities. Youths whose parents scored higher on an index of antisocial behavior were more likely to agree with partier and troublemaker labels. Traditional parenting factors, such as parental support and harsh parenting also influenced respondents’ own trajectories of antisocial behavior. Thus, parental influence persisted net of young adult gainful activity (school, employment), parenthood, and intimate involvement. The results of the current study highlight that parent-child relationships and their association with antisocial behavior remains fluid and dynamic well into adolescence and young adulthood. Parents are also implicated in the adoption of problematic identities which in turn are associated with antisocial behavior. Taken together, greater attention should be given to how parents shape and influence the trajectories of behavior among their adolescent and young adult offspring.
Designing Algorithms For Socially Competent Robotic Navigation

Despite the great progress in robotic navigation in the past decades, navigating a human environment remains a hard task for a robot, due to the lack of formal rules guiding traffic, the lack of explicit communication among agents and the unpredictability of human behavior. Inspired by the efficiency of human navigation, we employ the insights of sociology studies on pedestrian behavior and psychology studies on action interpretation to design an online planning framework that leverages the power of implicit communication to generate legible robot behaviors in pedestrian environments. The foundation of our approach is a novel topological representation, based on braid groups. Preliminary results demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in simulation, whereas planned experiments with human subjects are expected to enable us to extract realistic predictive models and get user feedback. Finally, we plan on evaluating our approach by running our algorithms on our social robot in crowded environments.
Patient-reported opioid analgesic requirements after elective inguinal hernia repair: A call for procedure-specific opioid-administration strategies.

Background A better understanding of the analgesia needs of patients who undergo common operative procedures is necessary as we address the growing opioid public health crisis in the United States. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient experience with our opioid prescribing practice after elective inguinal hernia repairs. Methods A prospective, observational study was conducted between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016, in a single-surgeon, high-volume, practice of inguinal hernia operation. Adult patients undergoing elective inguinal herniorrhaphy under local anesthesia with intravenous sedation were invited to participate. All patients were prescribed 10 opioid analgesic tablets postoperatively and were counseled to reserve opioids for pain not controlled by nonopioid analgesics. Their experience was captured by completing a questionnaire 2 to 3 weeks postoperatively during their postoperative visit. Results A total of 185 patients were surveyed. The majority of the participants were males (177, 95.7%) and ≥60 years old (96, 51.9%). Of the 185 patients, 159 (85.9%) reported using ≤4 opioid tablets; 110 patients (59.5%) reported that they used no opioid analgesics postoperatively. None of the patients was taking opioids within 7 days of their postoperative appointment. Of the 147 patients who were employed, 111 (75.5%) reported missing ≤3 work days, 57 of whom (51.4%) missed no work at all. Patients who were employed were more likely to take opioid analgesics postoperatively (P = .049). Patients who took no opioid analgesics experienced less maximum (P Conclusion The majority of our patients reported that they did not require any opioid analgesics, and nearly all of those who thought that they did need opioids used
Transforming Religious Liberties: A New Theory of Religious Rights for National and International Legal Systems

Religious liberties are at the centre of many debates on how liberal democratic societies can accommodate diversity. This book considers the interaction between law and religion from a broad international, comparative and jurisprudential perspective and proposes a new theoretical approach to religious liberty that both transcends and transforms current approaches to religious rights. Not only does the discussion draw on the work of a range of legal and political philosophers including John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin and John Finnis, it also tests the validity of the various proposals against actual 'hard cases' derived from multiple jurisdictions. In so doing, the analysis overcomes longstanding challenges to existing religious rights regimes and identifies a new theoretical paradigm that specifically addresses the challenges associated with religiously pluralist societies. Through this type of interdisciplinary analysis, the book identifies a religio-legal system that both religious and non-religious people can support.
Leveraging single board computers for anomaly detection in the smart grid

Smart Grid Technology is becoming an integral part of ensuring reliable and resilient operation of the power grid. The high sample rate and time synchronization of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) can provide enhanced situational awareness and more detailed information on power system dynamics as compared to traditional SCADA systems. A smart grid system must be able to detect alarm events (such as sudden voltage fluctuations or drops in current) in close to real-time. However, the communication network and bandwidth requirements to transfer large amounts of PMU data for realtime analysis is problematic. In this paper, we propose the use of a decentralized architecture for rapidly analyzing PMU data using single board computers to provide energy efficient monitoring locally in the power grid. This approach reduces communication requirements and enables real-time analysis. We present a novel anomaly detection scheme and test our approach on a real dataset of 1.4 million measurements derived from 8 PMUs from a 1000:1 scale emulation of a working power grid. Our results show that a single Raspberry Pi is sufficient to analyze data from multiple PMUs at a rate suitable for real-time analysis.
2018 Guidelines for the Early Management of Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Given the seismic changes we have seen in stroke care over the past 5 years, the stroke community has been eagerly anticipating the 2018 updated Acute Ischemic Stroke Guideline.1 This comprehensive document defines state-of-the-art acute stroke management. We highlight a few selected areas of change relevant to stroke systems of care, imaging, thrombectomy eligibility, postprocedure management, and secondary prevention. Most current stroke systems of care are designed to have Emergency Medical Services transport suspected stroke patients to the closest stroke center, regardless of its infrastructure and subspecialty expertise. Unlike intravenous alteplase, the successful delivery of mechanical thrombectomy requires specialized services unavailable at most hospitals. An important area of future study will be if there is a benefit to bypassing a closer hospital without thrombectomy capabilities to transport patients directly in the field to a Comprehensive Stroke Center, where thrombectomy can be performed more expeditiously. As the authors …
Predictors of health-related quality of life in patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease.

Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to identify predictors of baseline measures of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in symptomatic patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) from objective markers of severity of PAD, clinical and demographic characteristics, comorbid conditions, cardiovascular risk factors, objectively measured physical activity, and patient-based measures of physical function. Methods HRQoL measurements of 216 symptomatic men and women with PAD were assessed with the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey. Patients were further characterized on demographic variables, comorbid conditions, cardiovascular risk factors, ankle-brachial index, peak walking time during a maximal treadmill test, 6-minute walk distance, gait speed, ambulatory activity monitored during 1 week, activities of daily living (ADLs), Mini-Mental State Examination questionnaire, and Walking Impairment Questionnaire (WIQ). Results For the physical function HRQoL subscale, the significant predictors included WIQ speed score ( P P P P = .001), 6-minute walk distance ( P = .004), and daily walking cadence ( P = .043). For the role emotional function HRQoL subscale, the significant predictors included a history of stumbling ( P P P = .022). Conclusions Physical and mental subscales of HRQoL in symptomatic patients with PAD are primarily predicted by patient-based physical function rather than by more specific markers of PAD severity and comorbid conditions. The clinical significance is that interventions designed to improve HRQoL should focus on improving the quality of executing functional tasks, such as walking more steadily without stumbling; completing ADLs that are not specific to walking, such as bathing and transferring; and improving patient-based ability to walk various distances and speeds and to climb stairs.
Organizational Strategies for Intellectual Property Rights in Technology Standardization

The value of intellectual proprietary rights (IPRs) for technology standardization in emerging information and communications technologies has increased. The inherently closed nature of IPR seems to be in direct conflict with the openness necessary to spread a technology, but organizations are creating strategies to maneuver aspects of IPR so that they can create standards as well as protect their rights. This paper provides a brief overview of literature on strategies organizations have taken for standardization, especially in the decision to collaborate or go alone, and the role of IPR in these decisions. I propose a research question and plan to address a gap in current research to analyze IPR strategies not solely in relation to collaboration and to take into account factors such as market position, competing technologies, and product life cycle.
Flux-Limited Diffusion Theory with Anisotropic Scattering

The Chapman-Enskog procedure of kinetic theory is used to obtain a flux-limited diffusion theory for linear transport problems. The analysis is carried out within the context of multigroup theory, with an arbitrary scattering matrix involving anisotropic effects for both within-group and group-to group scattering. Aside from the question of flux limiting, a new definition of the transport cross section arises naturally from the analysis.
Securing NoCs against timing attacks with non-interference based adaptive routing

Timing channel attacks use interference from contending application flows to cause information leakage, and thereby either covertly transmit secrets, or create Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks to undermine the on-chip hardware security. Protecting against timing channel attacks is very challenging since unseen vulnerabilities emerge in newer technology that can be cleverly exploited by malicious applications by intentionally gaming resources to artificially induce interference. In this paper, we propose to secure Network-on-Chips (NoCs) against timing attacks with non-Interference based adaptive routing where we efficiently separate network traffic to not only improve application performance and prevent information leakage. In our performance analysis, we show that the proposed architecture maintains non-interference between security domains, prevents DoS, and improves performance by 2--20% over existing techniques with only a 1.84% power consumption penalty.
A Theory of Applied Mind of Programming: Understanding the challenges in learning to program

Computer Science teaching and education research often struggles to explain a novice programmer's struggles. This dissertation creates a theoretical framework utilizing cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and learning theory to describe the mind of the programmer and the gap novices must bridge. The resulting theory of applied mind for programming can provide greater explanatory power in research and guide assessment and pedagogical approaches.
Polymicrobial Nature of Tick-Borne Diseases.

ABSTRACT Tick-borne diseases have doubled in the last 12 years, and their geographic distribution has spread as well. The clinical spectrum of tick-borne diseases can range from asymptomatic to fatal infections, with a disproportionate incidence in children and the elderly. In the last few years, new agents have been discovered, and genetic changes have helped in the spread of pathogens and ticks. Polymicrobial infections, mostly in Ixodes scapularis, can complicate diagnostics and augment disease severity. Amblyomma americanum ticks have expanded their range, resulting in a dynamic and complex situation, possibly fueled by climate change. To document these changes, using molecular biology strategies for pathogen detection, an assessment of 12 microbes (9 pathogens and 3 symbionts) in three species of ticks was done in Suffolk County, New York. At least one agent was detected in 63% of I. scapularis ticks. Borrelia burgdorferi was the most prevalent pathogen (57% in adults; 27% in nymphs), followed by Babesia microti (14% in adults; 15% in nymphs), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (14% in adults; 2% in nymphs), Borrelia miyamotoi (3% in adults), and Powassan virus (2% in adults). Polymicrobial infections were detected in 22% of I. scapularis ticks, with coinfections of B. burgdorferi and B. microti (9%) and of B. burgdorferi and A. phagocytophilum (7%). Three Ehrlichia species were detected in 4% of A. americanum ticks. The rickettsiae constituted the largest prokaryotic biomass of all the ticks tested and included Rickettsia amblyommatis, Rickettsia buchneri, and Rickettsia montanensis. The high rates of polymicrobial infection in ticks present an opportunity to study the biological interrelationships of pathogens and their vectors. IMPORTANCE Tick-borne diseases have increased in prevalence in the United States and abroad. The reasons for these increases are multifactorial, but climate change is likely to be a major factor. One of the main features of the increase is the geographic expansion of tick vectors, notably Amblyomma americanum, which has brought new pathogens to new areas. The clinical spectrum of tick-borne diseases can range from asymptomatic to fatal infections, with a disproportionate incidence in children and the elderly. In addition, new pathogens that are cotransmitted by Ixodes scapularis have been discovered and have led to difficult diagnoses and to disease severity. Of these, Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, continues to be the most frequently transmitted pathogen. However, Babesia microti, Borrelia miyamotoi (another spirochete), Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Powassan virus are frequent cotransmitted agents. Polymicrobial infection has important consequences for the diagnosis and management of tick-borne diseases.
Settling Down: Itinerant Empire and the Ends of Conquest in El burlador de Sevilla

This article offers a reading of Tirso de Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla (1630) as a text concerned with the management of empire by drawing on comparisons to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century tr...
Using simple educational methods to motivate consumers to prepare for emergencies

The purposes of the study reported here were to determine: a) if simple educational efforts (a workshop and a booklet) would motivate consumers to prepare their homes for an emergency and b) which variables would best explain if consumers took action. Over 50% of respondents reported preparing for an emergency because of the booklet or workshop. Older and more educated consumers were more likely to take action. Commonly reported actions included storing food, water, and emergency supplies. Variables that best predicted if emergency preparedness actions were taken included: attendance at a Y2K workshop, reading the entire booklet, and having at least a high school education. Language: en
Ahp-Cyclodepsipeptides as tunable inhibitors of human neutrophil elastase and kallikrein 7: Total synthesis of tutuilamide A, serine protease selectivity profile and comparison with lyngbyastatin 7

Abstract We describe the total synthesis of tutuilamide A, a potent porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE) inhibitor and a representative member of the 3-amino-6-hydroxy-2-piperidone (Ahp) cyclodepsipeptide family, isolated from marine cyanobacteria. The Ahp unit serves as a pharmacophore and the adjacent 2-amino-2-butenoic acid (Abu) is a main driver of the selectivity among serine proteases. We adapted our previous convergent strategy to generate the macrocycle, common with lyngbyastatin 7 and related elastase inhibitors, and then appended the tutuilamide A-specific side chain bearing a vinyl chloride. Tutuilamide A and lyngbyastatin 7 were evaluated side by side for the inhibition of the disease-relevant human neutrophil elastase (HNE). Tutuilamide A and lyngbyastatin 7 were approximately equipotent against HNE, while tutuilamide A was previously shown to be more active against PPE compared with lyngbyastatin 7, further demonstrating that the side chain provides opportunities to not only modulate potency but also selectivity among proteases of the same function from different organisms. Profiling of tutuilamide A against mainly human serine proteases revealed high selectivity for HNE (IC50 0.73 nM) and pleiotropic activity against kallikrein 7 (KLK7, IC50 5.0 nM), without affecting other kallikreins, similarly to lyngbyastatin 7 (IC50 0.85 nM for HNE and 3.1 nM for KLK7). A comprehensive molecular docking study for elastases and KLK7 afforded deeper insight into the intricate differences between inhibitor interactions with HNE and PPE, accounting for the differential activities for both compounds. The synthesis and molecular studies serve as a proof-of-concept that the macrocyclic scaffold can be diversified to fine-tune the activity of serine protease inhibitors.
Way forward in the Middle East

America has spent nearly two decades fighting costly wars in the Middle East while its regional and near peer competitors significantly gained strength and now pose major threats to the United Stat...
PTSD symptoms among trauma-exposed adults admitted to inpatient psychiatry for suicide-related concerns

Abstract Individuals admitted to inpatient psychiatry for suicide-related concerns are at increased risk of suicide post-discharge, necessitating an understanding of factors, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), that are associated with suicide-related hospitalizations. In this study, we examined if individuals admitted for suicide-related concerns were more likely than those admitted for other reasons to have elevated PTSD symptoms or a probable PTSD diagnosis. We also examined the moderating role of impulsivity. Participants were 188 trauma-exposed adult psychiatric inpatients (M [SD]age = 33.6 y [11.7 y], 63.3% male, 46.3% white). We used the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5, PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 to assess trauma exposure, PTSD symptoms, suicidal ideation severity, and impulsivity, respectively. We controlled for trauma load, number of psychiatric diagnoses, and comorbid depressive and substance use disorders. Patients admitted for suicide-related concerns (55.3%; n = 104), compared with those admitted for other reasons (44.7%; n = 84), had more severe PTSD symptoms, corresponding to medium-to-large effect sizes; associations were stronger at higher levels of impulsivity. Additionally, patients admitted for suicide-related concerns were nearly four times more likely than their counterparts to screen positive for a provisional PTSD diagnosis. Among the subset of individuals admitted for suicide-related concerns, greater PTSD symptoms were associated with more severe suicidal ideation. In sum, PTSD symptoms are elevated among psychiatric inpatients admitted for suicide-related concerns, and among this subgroup, greater PTSD symptom severity covaries with suicidal ideation severity. Screening for and treating PTSD, and attending to cooccurring impulsivity, in psychiatric inpatients may reduce suicide risk.
Mr. Smith Goes to China: Three Scots in the Making of Britain’s Global Empire: Jessica Hanser, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2019. Xiii, 240 pp. $45 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-300-23608-8

Much has been learned of the making of British empire in India and the role of British East India Company (BEIC) in it. The scholarship about British trade in China under the Canton system and its ...
Optimization of approaches for DNA isolation and copy number analysis from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues using high-density SNP microarrays identifies novel genomic regions of gain/loss in early-stage breast cancer

2930 DNA copy number changes are common to breast tumors. High-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays and array-based comparative genomic hybridization are used to detect such chromosomal aberrations and loss of heterozygosity (LOH). Archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues with follow-up data constitute an invaluable resource for retrospective studies of disease and treatment outcomes. However, technical issues associated with FFPE samples have limited their general use in genomic profiling studies. Using tumor and normal matched DNAs from nine early-stage breast cancer patients (FFPE tumor, fresh frozen tumor and normal tissue, and peripheral blood leukocytes), we compared two novel methods of genomic DNA extraction to the Qiagen DNeasy method and devised an optimized strategy for DNA copy number and LOH determination using Affymetrix® high-density oligo-based SNP microarrays. Standard PCR and RAPD PCR (50-750 bp amplicons) used for quality control proved good predictors of the genotyping call rate and accuracy for DNA copy number and LOH detection. The use of unmatched normal controls derived from the HapMap Project as references for copy number analysis also proved valid in comparative studies to use of patient matched normal tissue. Genotyping efficiency and accuracy was improved using our novel extraction methods. After censoring the data for probe sets that rely on the presence of longer amplicons not present in fragmented FFPE DNA, call rates for FFPE DNA were equivalent to call rates for fresh frozen tissue DNA, and concordance rates between FFPE and fresh frozen tumor reached >99%. Identical DNA copy number changes were obtained between FFPE and fresh frozen tumor samples. We observed and validated by additional methodologies a heterogeneous pattern of shared gains and losses across the sample set, including the amplification of EGFR (in chromosome 7p11.2, 11%), gains in 16p13.3 (MAPK8IP3, 33%) and 11q13.3 (CCND1, 33%), and losses in 12q24.33 (FZD10, 67%), 13q13.3 (CCNA1, 56%), 16q23.3 (CDH13, 44%) and 17p13.1 (TP53, 33%). These data demonstrate that optimization of the DNA extraction procedure from FFPE and removal of probe sets requiring longer amplicons from the analyses yielded highly concordant calls enabling the identification of DNA copy number changes from FFPE DNAs relevant to early stage breast cancers.
A probabilistic assessment for classification of bridges against fire hazard

This paper presents the development of a simplified approach for classification of bridges based on fire hazard. Statistical data from recent fires in bridges is utilized to quantify the probable risk of fire in bridges and also probability of fire-induced collapse of structural members in bridges. An importance factor is derived for identifying the vulnerability of bridges to fire hazard. The proposed importance factor, developed using weighted factor approach, takes into account the degree of vulnerability of different bridge components, critical nature of a bridge from traffic functionality point and fire mitigation strategies present in a specific bridge. The proposed importance factor for fire design, which is similar to the one currently used for evaluating wind, and snow loading in buildings, is validated against previous bridge fire incidents. It is shown through this validation that the proposed method for importance factor can be used as a practical tool for identifying critical bridges from the point of fire hazard.
The Biofeedback Treatment of Neurological and Neuropsychological Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence

Biofeedback is one of several behavioral treatments designed to increase an individual’s self-regulation of physiology. It employs instrumentation to provide patients with both immediate and precise information about otherwise occult physiological processes. In clinical settings, biofeedback is typically used in conjunction with other behavioral or medical interventions to reduce the frequency of distressing symptoms or to minimize physical impairments. The mechanisms underlying biofeedback’s clinical efficacy are unclear. Different theorists have advanced varying explanations including operant conditioning of discrete physiological responses (Miller, 1969), the learning of a generalized relaxation response (Silver and Blanchard, 1978), and the production of cognitive changes promoting an increased sense of self-control and self-efficacy (Holroyd et al., 1984; Turk, Meichenbaum, and Berman, 1979). Despite these different viewpoints, agreement exists that motivated individuals are able to use biofeedback signals to learn voluntary control over a variety of physiologic parameters.
Plasma estrone, estradiol, estriol, progesterone, and cortisol in normal labor☆

Abstract The plasma concentrations of cortisol, progesterone, and unconjugated estrone (E 1 ), estradiol (E 2 ), and estriol (E 3 ) were measured by radioimmunoassay in six patients throughout normal labor induced by amniotomy. The mean plasma cortisol concentration of 199 ± 20 mg. per milliliter (S.E.M.) at the initiation of labor was not different from 175 ± 10 ng. per milliliter (S.E.M.) of 10 pregnant patients not in labor but it increased by 60 per cent throughout labor (P 1 and E 2 remained stable throughout labor. Plasma E 3 concentration did not change in four of six patients but it fluctuated significantly in one patient and fell significantly in another patient, who also sustained the highest plasma cortisol level. The mean plasma estriol of 13.8 ± 1.7 ng. per milliliter (S.E.M.) at the beginning of labor was not significantly different from 10.4 ± 1 ng. per milliliter (S.E.M.) at the end of labor (P > 0.05). The mean plasma progesterone remained unchanged throughout labor but individual patients showed occasional marked fluctuations of their plasma progesterone level. Whether or not any or all of these hormones or their changes during labor play a role in the control of parturition so far remains enigmatic.
Reconciliation of tumor dose response to external beam radiotherapy versus radioimmunotherapy with 131iodine-labeled antibody for a colon cancer model.

Abstract Reported doses of external beam radiotherapy and radioimmunotherapy (RIT) to produce equivalent therapeutic effects are inconsistent, with many proposed causes. Calculations of effective dose were performed for the case of LS174T human colon cancer xenografts, where a 60Co single fraction exposure (6 Gy) was matched with 131I-labeled 17-1A monoclonal antibody therapy (300 µCi injection, 19 ± 2 Gy using the Medical Internal Radiation Dose uniform isotropic model). Measured three-dimensional dose-rate distributions were used to form a time-dependent description of the dose-rate nonuniformity. Included in the calculation of RIT effective dose was energy loss, dose nonuniformity, dose-rate dependence, hypoxic fraction, and cell proliferation. The calculations assumed the linear quadratic model for cell survival with α = 0.3 Gy-1, α/β = 15 to 25 Gy, and µ = 0.46 h-1. The biologically effective dose for the single fraction 60Co exposure was 7.4 to 8.4 Gy. Estimates of dose efficiency factors consecutively applied to the RIT dose estimate were: (a) energy loss external to the tumor (×0.85); (b) effect of dose nonuniformity on cell survival (×0.65); and (c) effect of correlation of dose nonuniformity with cell proliferation rate (×1.08). The resulting effective dose for RIT was 11.4 Gy for tumor regrowth. This analysis substantially reconciles external beam radiotherapy/RIT dose-response results for this tumor model to within experimental uncertainties.
Scalable Production of Transplantable Dopaminergic Neurons from hESCs and iPSCs in Xeno‐Free Defined Conditions

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are potentially an unlimited cell source for cell replacement therapy and personalized medicine. Before hESC- and iPSC-based therapy can be moved from bench to bedside, however, it is essential to establish protocols for generating therapeutically relevant cells, like dopaminergic neurons in defined conditions that are suitable for scalable good manufacturing practice (GMP)-compliant protocols. Here, the derivation and differentiation of functional dopaminergic neurons from hESCs and iPSCs under xeno-free defined conditions are described. These protocols have been validated in multiple hESC and iPSC lines.
caBIG compatibility review system: software to support the evaluation of applications using defined interoperability criteria

The caBIG™ Compatibility Review System (CRS) is a web-based application to support compatibility reviews, which certify that software applications that pass the review meet a specific set of criteria that allow them to interoperate. The CRS contains workflows that support both semantic and syntactic reviews, which are performed by the caBIG Vocabularies and Common Data Elements (VCDE) and Architecture workspaces, respectively. The CRS increases the efficiency of compatibility reviews by reducing administrative overhead and it improves uniformity by ensuring that each review is conducted according to a standard process. The CRS provides metrics that allow the review team to evaluate the level of data element reuse in an application, a first step towards quantifying the extent of harmonization between applications. Finally, functionality is being added that will provide automated validation of checklist criteria, which will further simplify the review process.
Molecular and Cytogenetical Characterization of the 10a1-2 Band and Adjoining Region in the Drosophila Melanogaster Polytene X Chromosome

Some 300 kb of DNA from the 9F12-10A7 X chromosome region (seven bands) uncovered by Df(1)vL3 were cloned and 31 break points of chromosome rearrangements within the region were mapped. Positions of 12 genes found earlier in genetic saturation experiments, transcripts and P element-induced mutations were located on the physical map using either chromosome rearrangements or Southern blot hybridizations. Data on the position of the break points, genes and polytene chromosome bands allow the following conclusions to be made. (1) The size of the bands in the region varies between 4 kb (10A6 and 7) and 183-195 kb (10A1-2). The compaction ratio of DNA in bands varies from 8-36 (10A6 + 7) to 151-161 (10A1-2). Therefore, fine and thick bands appear to have different kinds of DNP packaging. (2) The bands differ in genetic content. Fine bands contain from one to three genes. In contrast, the 10A1-2 band contains three genes and at least six transcribed DNA fragments. (3) Comparison of genetic and physical maps shows that in this region 0.01 centiMorgan corresponds to 3.3 kb of DNA.
Adaptive detection thresholds for multitarget tracking

The idea of adjusting the detection thresholds adaptively to enhance the performance of an overall tracking system has been one of the important areas studied in tracking community for the last ten years. However, most of the previous work was developed for single target environments where a simple algorithm such as nearest neighbor (NN) or probabilistic data association (PDA) filter was assumed to be used in the tracking system. In this paper, the author studies the issues of adaptive detection thresholds based on the assumption that an optimal assignment algorithm is adopted for a multitarget and cluttered environment. This research is motivated by an important earlier work which makes the analytical evaluation of the optimal assignment algorithm possible. The performance measures considered for determining detection thresholds are the correct association probability and the expected estimation error. The analytical results obtained in this paper represent the upper bound of the tracking performance and can be used for designing and evaluating a tracking system.
The Radiation Chemistry of the Cs-7SB Modifier used in Cs and Sr Solvent Extraction

Abstract The compound 1-(2,2,3,3,-tetrafluoropropoxy)-3-(4-sec-butylphenoxy)-2-propanol, also called Cs-7SB, is used as a solvent modifier in formulations containing calixarenes and crown ethers for cesium and strontium extraction from nuclear waste solutions. The compound solvates complexes of both metals and decreases in its concentration result in lowered extraction efficiency for both. The use of Cs-7SB in nuclear-solvent extraction ensures that it will be exposed to high-radiation doses, and thus its radiation-chemical robustness is a matter of interest in the design of extraction systems employing it. The behavior of the compound in irradiated solution, both in the presence and absence of a nitric acid aqueous phase was investigated here using steady state- and pulsed-radiolysis techniques. The rate constants for the aqueous reactions of Cs-7SB with •H, •OH, •NO3, and •NO2 radicals are reported. UPLC-UV-MS results were used to identify major products of the radiolysis of Cs-7SB in contact with nitri...
Effect of Protein, Energy and Fat Content of the Ration on Calcium Utilization

Abstract THE “Calorie-protein ratio” concept proposed by Combs and Romoser (1955) and the evidence for an increased methionine requirement due to increase in energy content of the ration found by Baldini and Rosenberg (1955), have suggested that the requirement for all of the nutrients in the diet may be similarly associated. Studies by Edwards et al. (1958) showed that the large discrepancies in the literature with regard to the requirement by the chick for arginine may be resolved by considering the feed efficiency obtained by the various investigators and expressing the results on a milligram of arginine required per gram of gain basis. This calculation also makes it very easy to ascertain interrelation between nutrients, e.g. arginine and glycocyamine, and sparing actions, e.g. arginine and betaine. Since calcium is required in rather large amounts by the young chicken for maximum growth and bone formation, work was initiated to study the effect …
Self-Consistent Pair Interaction for Many-Fermion System

The equations which determine the one-particle energy and effective two- bcdy interaction in an interacting Fermi gas are constructed within the approximation which sums up all pair creation-annihilation processes. The equation corresponds to the familiar equation for the K matrix which represents the interaction between particles (or holes) and sums up the particle-particle (or hole-hole) scattering processes. The method of the equation of motion is used in this paper. Our result for the one-particle energy is shown to lead to the result previously obtained by Quinn and Ferrell, and by Rockmore for the case of the electron gas with Coulomb interactions, when we replace screened potentials by bare potential in the self-consistent energy equation. For nuclear matter, it is shown that the presence of an attractive interaction in the equation of motion for number density causes an "enhancement" of exchange forces, whereas in the electron gas repulsive Coulomb interactions lead to "screening" of the exchange force. The strength of the isospin density interaction pseudopotential is enhanced by a factor of two when one solves the self- consistent equation; and a sunple estimate shows that the Geldhaber-Teller mode lies about 15% higher than the value p/sub F/q/m previously estimated by Glassgoldmore » et al. (q: momentum of the oscillation, p/sub F/: Fermi momentum). (auth)« less
Base effects on electrochemical oxidation of indoline

Abstract The electrooxidation of indoline was studied as the first step in exploring its utility as a model liquid hydrogen carrier. Electrochemical oxidation of indoline in the presence of nitrogen-containing bases resulted in a cathodic shift in the onset of the oxidation. A linear correlation was found between the pK a of the base and the magnitude of the cathodic shift of indoline oxidation. A hydrogen bonding complex model is proposed to account for this effect, and 1 H NMR spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry experiments were conducted to support this proposed mechanism.
Characterization of the RNA formed under conditions of relaxed amino acid control in Escherichia coli.

Abstract When a strain of Escherichia coli with relaxed amino acid control overproduces RNA, the material made consists of 23-S, 16-S and 4-8-S RNA. When the overproduction occurs in the absence of protein synthesis, as following a shift down from amino acids to minimal medium, the pattern of accumulation is similar to that observed with normal cells inhibited by chloramphenicol. The 23-S and 16-S RNA are present as abnormal ribosomes, and proportionally less of these elements are formed than of s-RNA. At least part of the s-RNA appears to have amino acid accepting activity. When the overproduction occurs with some concomitant protein synthesis, as during adenosine inhibition, then the accumulated RNA appears as apparently normal 50-S, 30-S and soluble components in normal proportions. From these results it has been concluded that the single RC locus affects the normal synthesis of both ribosomal and soluble RNA during amino acid restriction.
Theoretical model of iontophoresis utilized in transdermal drug delivery

A theoretical model of in vitro iontophoresis that utilizes radial mass transport is presented. The applicability of radial transport to the skin morphology of different species is determined by the density of low-resistance pores, which represents the density of skin appendages such as hair follicles or sweat glands. Radial transport is expected to dominate in the case where appendage density is low, in contrast to the linear transport mechanism that would dominate in the case of skin with high appendage density. Parameters such as the effective surface area of highly conductive pores and boundary-layer thickness are defined for the radial and linear transport limits and evaluated for the iontophoretic flux of pindolol hydrochloride through porcine skin. Based upon a decrease in the calculated boundary-layer thickness and an increase in drug flux with current density to a limiting value, it is concluded that radial mass transport is the dominant mechanism of iontophoretic transport under the experimental conditions described.
Unified framework and MMSE transceiver designs for multiple-transmitter-multiple-receiver MIMO systems

A unified framework is proposed for the minimum mean square error (MMSE) transceiver design of general multiple-transmitter-multiple-receiver (MTMR) multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) systems subject to general linear power constraints. Two novel approaches, the generalized iterative approach (GIA) and fast iterative approach (FIA), are proposed. The two proposed approaches, along with two convex optimization approaches, the transmit covariance optimization approach (TCOA) and decoder covariance optimization approach (DCOA), are included in the unified framework. The optimality of the approaches and the relationships between the approaches are shown.
Translation of DNA Signals into Polymer Assembly Instructions

We developed a DNA nanomechanical device that enables the positional synthesis of products whose sequences are determined by the state of the device. This machine emulates the translational capabilities of the ribosome. The device has been prototyped to make specific DNA sequences. The state of the device is established by the addition of DNA set strands. There is no transcriptional relationship between the set strands and the product strands. The device has potential applications that include designer polymer synthesis, encryption of information, and use as a variable-input device for DNA-based computation.
Who owns paradise? Using web mapping to enhance a geography course exercise about tropical forest conservation

Here we present Tambopata: Who Owns Paradise?, a map-centric, multimedia website created to enrich an educational role playing exercise about biodiversity, conservation, and development in the Amazon (www.geography.wisc.edu/tambopata). The exercise assigns students a character from the Tambopata region of the Peruvian Amazon, and asks them to evaluate four proposed zoning plans from their assigned perspective. Using principles of web cartography, we designed the four proposal maps to communicate complex information and allow for increased exploration. Compared to the previously used static maps, the website increases opportunities for student engagement with the material, incorporates multimedia, and clarifies spatial relationships and land use patterns. The website is available publicly and can be integrated freely into other university and high school courses.
Functional Identification of the General Acid and Base in the Dehydration Step of Indole-3-glycerol Phosphate Synthase Catalysis

The tryptophan biosynthetic enzyme indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase is a proposed target for new antimicrobials and is a favored starting framework in enzyme engineering studies. Forty years ago, Parry proposed that the enzyme mechanism proceeds through two intermediates in a series of condensation, decarboxylation, and dehydration steps. X-ray crystal structures have suggested that Lys-110 (numbering according to the Sulfolobus solfataricus enzyme) behaves as a general acid both in the condensation and dehydration steps, but did not reveal an efficient pathway for the reprotonation of this critical residue. Our mutagenesis and kinetic experiments suggest an alternative mechanism whereby Lys-110 acts as a general acid in the condensation step, but another invariant residue, Lys-53, acts as the general acid in the dehydration step. These studies also indicate that the conserved residue Glu-51 acts as the general base in the dehydration step. The revised mechanism effectively divides the active site into discrete regions where the catalytic surfaces containing Lys-110 and Lys-53/Glu-51 catalyze the ring closure (i.e. condensation and decarboxylation) and dehydration steps, respectively. These results can be leveraged toward the development of novel inhibitors against this validated antimicrobial target and toward the rational engineering of the enzyme to produce indole derivatives that are highly prized by the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.
False discovery rates and copy number variation

Copy number changes, the gains and losses of chromosome segments, are a common type of genetic variation among healthy individuals as well as an important feature in tumour genomes. Microarray technology enables us to simultaneously measure, with moderate accuracy, copy number variation at more than a million chromosome locations and for hundreds of subjects. This leads to massive data sets and complicated inference problems concerning which locations are more likely to vary. In this paper we consider a relatively simple false discovery rate approach to copy number analysis. More careful parametric change-point methods can then be focused on promising regions of the genome.