cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cor Triatriatum in an Infant

:These transesophageal echocardiograms were obtained in an 18-month-old, 8.8-kg infant with cor triatriatum. The images define the membranous structure in cor triatriatum that represents the line of fusion between the pulmonary venous component and the left atrial component. Because of direction of flow, the membrane bulges toward the mitral valve (Fig 1⇓). Color flow imaging (Fig 2⇓) demonstrates the high-velocity flow through the orifice on the side closest to the atrial septum, with proximal flow acceleration on the surface of …
De Haas-van Alphen effect in interacting electron systems

Abstract For electrons in bulk metals, it is shown that the phase of the dHvA oscillations is not affected by the exchange interation but the amplitude is reduced. Thus, a molecular expression for the Dingle factor is obtained. In the case of electrons in thin metals, the exchange effect on the susceptibility is cancelled out at high density and strong field. However, the effective g factor depends on electron density rather strongly.
The issue of informed consent and the use of neuroleptic medications

Stepping aside from philosophical questions concerning reality qua reality there is a basic assumption of an actual ‘out there’, an objective state of reference, against which an individual may posit faulty thinking which has taken the form of delusions, hallucinations, and other misperceptions occurring in the subjective experience of the individual. It is in the sphere of thought and action that psychosis is determined; and, for the purpose of this paper, the matter of competency or incompetency is established in mental illness. An individual is considered competent to consent as a presupposition of informl (b) to protect allegedly irresponsible persons from themselves; (c) to protect society from anticipated dangerous acts by these persons; and (d) to relieve society-and/or the family-of the trouble of accommodating individuals who, though not dangerous, are bothersome. For many (Kolb, 1973), the British Mental Health Act of 1959 represents the most advanced trend in the treatment of individuals with profound behavior disturbances. One who is psychiatrically ill receives treatment under the same circumstances as a patient with a medical or surgical diagnosis. When involuntary commitment is required, the matter is recognized as a medical decision and not a civil or judicial situation. In the United States each state has its own laws pertaining to involuntary commitment. This diversity led the National Advisory Mental Health Council in 1949 to request the
Determination of the Fowler–Nordheim tunneling parameters from the Fowler–Nordheim plot

Abstract A wide range of values have been reported for the Fowler–Nordheim (F–N) parameters A and B for the tunneling emission in MOS capacitor structures. The parameters A and B are respectively the pre-exponential factor and the exponent in the F–N equation. In this study, it is shown that the oxide thickness is the most influential factor in determining the accuracy of the parameter B . The uncertainty of the oxide thickness may be responsible for the discrepancies in the reported values for B . The discrepancy in the value of A was attributed to the difference in the measurement conditions and gate oxide processing.
Chronic Hand Ischemia Treated With Radial Artery Balloon Angioplasty: Case Report

Although balloon angioplasty in heart and lower extremity vessels has been extensively studied and reported, little information exists regarding its use for digital ischemia in the hand. We report a case of successful balloon angioplasty of the distal radial artery to reverse present and prevent further digital tip cyanosis and necrosis.
Transportation Across Media: Repeated Exposure to Print and Film

“Transportation into a narrative world” is a state of immersion into a story (Green & Brock, 2000). Transportation entails imagery, emotional response, and attentional focus. Two studies investigated whether transportation was affected by the medium of story presentation, especially when the narrative was experienced for a second time (e.g., watching the movie version of a previously read story). Study 1 (N = 88) showed that people who read a novel before viewing the film version were more transported into the film compared to nonreaders. In Study 2 (N = 71) participants came to the lab on two separate occasions to either read a passage or watch a movie clip. Reading followed by watching provided the greatest transportation. Furthermore, high need for cognition individuals were more transported when reading, whereas low need for cognition individuals were more transported when watching a narrative.
Stoichiometry of CH4 and CO2 flux in a California rice paddy

Rice paddies contribute significantly to the atmospheric burden of CH4 but may also sequester atmospheric CO2. Previous studies based on putative relationships between net CO2 exchange and CH4 emissions have concluded that globally significant amounts of carbon can be stored in rice paddy soils. However, the annual ratio of CH4 emissions to net CO2 exchange has not previously been measured. We simultaneously measured the net exchange of CO2 (F CO2) by eddy covariance and the CH4 emission rate (F CH4) using a combination of a flux gradient technique and weekly chamber sampling. During rice growth, F CH4 was 1.9% to 2.4% of net carbon uptake (mole per mole). F CO2 closely followed biomass accumulation. In contrast, F CH4 increased during vegetative rice growth and decreased over the ripening and reproductive phases of rice growth, suggesting that the plants release substrate for methanogenesis early in the season. CH4 emissions represented 4.8% to 5.6% of the net CO2 uptake when summed over an entire year (including a 20-week period over which the field was unplanted and flooded). Assuming harvested rice is remineralized within 1 year, the remaining 0.67 t C ha−1 that was sequestered by the paddy potentially offsets the radiative forcing of the emitted CH4 by 26% to 31%. The ratio of F CH4 to F CO2 varied widely over the course of a year depending on management practices in a specific field. The results reported here emphasize the importance of year-round measurements to obtain a reliable estimate of CH4/CO2 exchange stoichiometry.
National differences in librarians' reception to the open access movement: A comparison of the professional library literatures of China, Taiwan, and the United States

This poster describes an analysis of arguments supportive of, or critical of the Open Access (OA) movement expressed in a sample of the professional library literature from China, Taiwan and the United States during the 1998-2005 time period. Scientific journals have played a central role in the accumulation and growth of scientific knowledge (Meadows, 1974); and the sharp rise in the price of scientific journals in recent years has led to numerous calls for publishing reform, including the development of the Open Access movement. This movement envisions a “world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds.” Such system could “share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich”, so that “research and education in every part of the world are that much more free to flourish” (Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002).
Association with prior fluoroquinolone therapy of widespread ciprofloxacin resistance among gram-negative isolates in a Veterans Affairs medical center.

Abstract We performed a case-control study of risk factors for the acquisition of ciprofloxacin-resistant gram-negative isolates in a Veterans Affairs medical center. Sixty-five patients with resistant isolates and 50 control patients were identified. Prior fluoroquinolone use was significantly more frequent among patients with resistant isolates than it was among controls (58 versus 20%; P = 0.0001). The association with prior quinolone use was stronger in the long-term-care division (81 versus 32%; P = 0.0005) than it was in the acute-care division (29 versus 0%; P = 0.015). On multivariate analysis, prior receipt of a fluoroquinolone was the single most significant risk factor for isolation of a ciprofloxacin-resistant gram-negative organism (P = 0.0001).
Diagenesis of Shaly Rocks: ABSTRACT

Argillaceous rocks show major chemical and mineralogic trends as a function of geologic age. If the trends are compared by eras, they are of global significance. The ratios of the various metal oxides to Al2O3 plotted against geologic age form 3 distinct behavioral groups and oxide-Al2O3 ratios, except those of K2O and FeO, diminish with increasing rock age. The first group, water (-H2O), CaO, and CO2, decreases with rock age from high to very low values. The covariance of H2O with CaO and CO2 is consistent with a gentle water leach of shale and loss of original calcium carbonate through time. MgO, Na2O, and SiO2 form a second group, but change with geologic age much less than the first group. The chemical trends of these second group oxides, along with K2O, reflect the differences in shale mineralogy as a function of age. The increase in illite percentage in older rocks results in a slight "relative" enrichment in K2O whereas the abundance of expanded clays in younger shales gives rise to Mesozoic-Cenozoic shales of higher Na2O, MgO, and Si 2 content. This interpretation requires that reactions of the following type obtain within shales in the first few hundred million years after burial: (low silica) kaolinite + (high silica) expanded clay + potassium = (intermediate silica) illite + MgO, Na2O, and SiO2 (lost from shale). The third group includes FeO and Fe2O3. There is a reciprocal relation between these oxides; young rocks are high in oxidized iron, old rocks low, but the total iron oxide concentration in shale is almost constant with geologic age. This trend partly reflects the postdepositional oxidation of organic matter and attendant reduction of iron in shales as they progressively age. These time-dependent chemical and mineralogic trends are in harmony with the general concepts of differential sedimentary cycling and chemical uniformitarianism; concepts that predict approximately the kinds of long-term, postdepositional, selective changes expected in argillaceous rocks as a function of geologic age, and that help to discriminate between primary and secondary chemical and mineralogic features. End_of_Article - Last_Page 858------------
Three-Body Recombination in One Dimension

We study the three-body problem in one dimension for both zero and finite range interactions using the adiabatic hyperspherical approach. Particular emphasis is placed on the threshold laws for recombination, which are derived for all combinations of the parity and exchange symmetries. For bosons, we provide a numerical demonstration of several universal features that appear in the three-body system, and discuss how certain universal features in three dimensions are different in one dimension. We show that the probability for inelastic processes vanishes as the range of the pair-wise interaction is taken to zero and demonstrate numerically that the recombination threshold law manifests itself for large scattering length.
Synthesis of a bromotyrosine-derived natural product inhibitor of mycothiol-S-conjugate amidase.

Abstract Recently we described the structures of two new bromotyrosine-derived alkaloids that inhibit the detoxification enzyme mycothiol- S -conjugate amidase (MCA) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Here we describe a concise total synthesis of bromotyrosine oxime 1 . The six-step synthesis of 1 utilized a trifluoromethyloxazole intermediate, whose hydrolysis product underwent alkylation and coupling to agmatine to give the inhibitor in ∼40% overall yield. Oxime 1 inhibited MCA and its homolog AcGI deacetylase with IC 50 values of 30 and 150 μM, respectively.
The Valanis-Landel Strain-Energy Function

A constitutive equation is derived for the Cauchy stress matrix for arbitrary deformations of an isotropic elastic solid characterized by a Valanis-Landel strain-energy function. A simple example is given of the way in which results for controllable deformations of an incompressible elastic solid, with a Valanis-Landel strain-energy function, can be obtained from the known results for the more general strain-energy function employed by Rivlin.
Local epi-continuity and local optimization

One of the fundamental questions in nonlinear optimization is how optimization problems behave when the functions defining them change (e.g., by continuous deformation). Recently the study of epi-continuity has somewhat unified the results in this area. Here we show how to localize the concept of epi-continuity, and how to apply these localized ideas to ensure persistence and stability of local optimizing sets. We also show how these conditions follow from known properties of nonlinear programming problems.
γ-tubulin is a component of the spindle pole body that is essential for microtubule function in Aspergillus nidulans

Abstract We have recently discovered that the mipA gene of A. nidulans encodes γ-tubulin, a new member of the tubulin superfamily. To determine the function of γ-tubulin in vivo, we have created a mutation in the mipA gene by integrative transformation, maintained the mutation in a heterokaryon, and determined the phenotype of the mutation in spores produced by the heterokaryon. The mutation is lethal and recessive. It strongly inhibits nuclear division, less strongly inhibits nuclear migration, and, as judged by immunofluorescence microscopy, causes a reduction in the number and length of cytoplasmic microtubules and virtually a complete absence of mitotic apparatus. We conclude that γ-tubulin is essential for microtubule function in general and nuclear division in particular. Immunofluorescence microscopy of wild-type hyphae with affinity-purified, γ-tubulin-specific antibodies reveals that γ-tubulin is a component of interphase and mitotic spindle pole bodies. We propose that γ-tubulin attaches microtubules to the spindle pole body, nucleates microtubule assembly, and establishes microtubule polarity in vivo.
Empirical Research on Ethical Issues in Pediatric Research

Although there is usually agreement about the ethical principles that should govern research on children, there may be little agreement on how those principles should be interpreted into research procedures in some instances. Empirical research on ethical issues that arise in research on children can often elucidate ways to improve on existing research practices and ways to resolve debates about best practices. Following in the success of evidence-based medicine, evidence-based ethical problem solving in human research can enable investigators to avoid such poor alternatives as doing nothing, endlessly debating, or acting on the basis of hunch or time-honored but dubious research practices. A variety of approaches to evidence-based ethical problem solving are illustrated in this article.
Fluoxetine potentiates the effects of corticotropin-releasing factor on locomotor activity and serotonergic systems in the roughskin newt, Taricha granulosa

The anxiety- and stress-related neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) elicits behavioral changes in vertebrates including increases in behavioral arousal and locomotor activity. Intracerebroventricular injections of CRF in an amphibian, the roughskin newt (Taricha granulosa), induces rapid increases in locomotor activity in both intact and hypophysectomized animals. We hypothesized that this CRF-induced increase in locomotor activity involves a central effect of CRF on serotonergic neurons, based on known stimulatory actions of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) on spinal motor neurons and the central pattern generator for locomotor activity in vertebrates. In Experiment 1, we found that neither intracerebroventricular injections of low doses of CRF (25 ng) nor the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine (10, 100 ng), by themselves, altered locomotor activity. In contrast, newts treated concurrently with CRF and fluoxetine responded with marked increases in locomotor activity. In Experiment 2, we found that increases in locomotor activity following co-administration of CRF (25 ng) and fluoxetine (100 ng) were associated with decreased 5-HT concentrations in a number of forebrain structures involved in regulation of emotional behavior and emotional states, including the ventral striatum, amygdala pars lateralis, and dorsal hypothalamus, measured 37 min after treatment. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that CRF stimulates locomotor activity through activation of serotonergic systems.
15-Deoxy-Δ (12,14)-PGJ2 inhibits astrocyte IL-1 signaling: inhibition of NF-κB and MAP kinase pathways and suppression of cytokine and chemokine expression

We studied the role of 15-deoxy-delta (12,14)-PGJ2 (15d-PGJ2), a macrophage inhibitor with reported therapeutic effects on experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, in human astrocyte activation in vitro. 15d-PGJ2 inhibited a broad range of astrocyte inflammatory gene expression induced by IL-1, including cytokines (TNFalpha and IL-6), chemokines (RANTES/CCL5 and IP-10/CXCL10) and inducible nitric oxide synthase. 15d-PGJ2 inhibited transactivation of NF-kappaB-dependent promoters, as well as p38 and JNK MAPK phosphorylation induced by IL-1, while having no inhibitory effect on IFN-induced Stat signaling pathways. Our results demonstrating 15d-PGJ2-mediated astrocyte deactivation through inhibition of NF-kappaB are similar to those described for macrophages, and add astrocytes as additional targets for this prostaglandin (PG).
Derived methane in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere from Aura Microwave Limb Sounder measurements of nitrous oxide, water vapor, and carbon monoxide

The global distribution of methane (CH4) in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere has been derived using coincident measurements of water vapor (H2O), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrous oxide (N2O) from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite. The derivation method is based on empirical relationships between these species established using observations from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment—Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) on the SCISAT I satellite. The observed correlation between CH4 and N2O from ACE-FTS is used to derive CH4 from MLS measurements of N2O in the lower stratosphere, extending from a pressure of 100 hPa to a range of 30–10 hPa, depending on atmospheric conditions. In the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere, between 30–10 hPa and 0.1 hPa, correlations between CH4 and H2O are used to derive CH4 from MLS measurements of H2O. Coincident MLS measurements of CO are utilized to separate two distinct air mass regimes in the CH4 - H2O relationship. This new methane data set covers all seasons and latitudes observed by MLS over the course of the Aura mission from 2004 to 2014. Examples are shown demonstrating the consistency of MLS derived CH4 with other trace gas measurements.
Treatment of Life-threatening Primary Pulmonary Hemosiderosis with Cyclophosphamide

This report describes a five-year-old boy with severe pulmonary hemorrhage caused by primary pulmonary hemosiderosis with cow's milk sensitivity. After failing to respond to corticosteroids and azathioprine, he dramatically improved after being given cyclophosphamide. He worsened after discontinuation of cyclophosphamide on two occasions and improved significantly with its reinstitution. Cyclophosphamide was continued for 14 months without further bleeding or adverse effects. The patient has remained in remission for nearly five years. Cyclophosphamide may be a life-saving alternative therapy for refractory pulmonary hemorrhage with pulmonary hemosiderosis.
Electronic spectrum of the BaO molecule

Abstract The emission spectrum of the BaO molecule corresponding to B → X transitions has been studied experimentally using a d.c. arc with barium electrodes in an oxygen atmosphere. No Q branches were observed. This result implies a Σ 1 → Σ 1 transition for the system. In addition, the data on the singlet system, A ′ 1 Π → X 1 Σ, have been reviewed to establish valid molecular constants for the states involved and Frank-Condon factors and r -centroids corresponding to wavefunctions for a Morse potential have been calculated using these constants.
Development of the Voicing Contrast: A Comparison of Voice Onset Time in Stop Perception and Production

The acoustic cue voice onset time (VOT) was used to study development of the voicing contrast in 10 two-year-old children, 10 six-year-old children, and 20 adults. Thirty utterances of the words be...
Bacterial chemotactic motility is important for the initiation of wheat root colonization by Azospirillum brasilense.

Bacteria of the genus Azospirillum are able to colonize plant roots. Using the glucuronidase (GUS) reporter system, various Azospirillum mutants, including mutants affected in chemotactic motility or extracellular polysaccharide biosynthesis, were investigated for their capacity to initiate wheat root colonization at the root hair zones. Only non-flagellated mutants and a generally non-chemotactic mutant exhibited a strongly reduced colonization ability as compared to the wild-type. No role of the Azospirillum calcofluor-binding polysaccharide in primary wheat root colonization could be observed. This is the first report demonstrating directly, by using different motility mutants, the requirement of bacterial motility in the establishment of the Azospirillum-plant root association.
Towards versatile document analysis systems

The research goal of highly versatile document analysis systems, capable of performing useful functions on the great majority of document images, seems to be receding, even in the face of decades of research. One family of nearly universally applicable capabilities includes document image content extraction tools able to locate regions containing handwriting, machine-print text, graphics, line-art, logos, photographs, noise, etc. To solve this problem in its full generality requires coping with a vast diversity of document and image types. The severity of the methodological problems is suggested by the lack of agreement within the R&D community on even what is meant by a representative set of samples in this context. Even when this is agreed, it is often not clear how sufficiently large sets for training and testing can be collected and ground truthed. Perhaps this can be alleviated by discovering a principled way to amplify sample sets using synthetic variations. We will then need classification methodologies capable of learning automatically from these huge sample sets in spite of their poorly parameterized—or unparameterizable—distributions. Perhaps fast expected-time approximate k-nearest neighbors classifiers are a good solution, even if they tend to require enormous data structures: hashed k-d trees seem promising. We discuss these issues and report recent progress towards their resolution. Keyword: versatile document analysis systems, DAS methodology, document image content extraction, classification, k Nearest Neighbors, k-d trees, CART, spatial data structures, computational geometry, hashing
Toward Evidence-Based Practice for Probationers and Parolees Mandated to Mental Health Treatment

OBJECTIVES: Many individuals with serious mental illness are on probation or parole. These individuals are twice as likely as those without mental illness to fail on supervision—that is, to have their community term revoked for a technical violation or a new offense. This article reviews a small but growing body of research on this problem and on practices designed to respond to it. METHODS: Eight publication databases were searched for articles in English published between January 1975 and April 2005 that focused on adult probationers or parolees with mental illness. Unpublished evaluations were also included. RESULTS: Three studies suggest that the link between mental illness and supervision failure is indirect and complex. A national survey of probation described five key features of specialty agencies, where offenders with mental illness are assigned to officers with relatively small caseloads. Two studies suggest that stakeholders perceive specialty caseloads as more effective than traditional caselo...
Organosilicon polymers with alternating σ- and π-conjugated systems

A series of organosilicon polymers containing polysilane and diethynylaryl units along the polymer backbone were synthesized and examined with respect to their optical absorptions. The results indicate that delocalization takes place through the σ–π conjugated system. Lengthening of π-conjugation leads to lower excitation energies while nearly identical UV–vis spectra are observed with increased Si–Si chain length. Introducing a thiophene unit into the π-system instead of a benzene unit leads to a bathochromic shift reflecting greater σ–π delocalization. The polymers undergo photodegradation, probably via cleavage of the Si–Si bonds, and thermal crosslinking by reaction at the C≡C triple bonds. When doped with iodine, these polymers become semiconducting with conductivity of the order of 10−4 S cm−1.
Intrinsic Wrench Estimation and Its Performance Index for Multisegment Continuum Robots

This paper presents the intrinsic capability of full-wrench estimation of multisegment continuum robots with multiple flexible backbones. Intrinsic-full-wrench estimation refers to the ability of continuum robots to also serve as force and moment sensors by using measurements of axial loads on their backbones. This end-effector-as-sensor approach fulfills the rapidly increasing needs for miniature-robotic-surgical tools with haptic sensing ability subject to various limitations, such as size, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatibility, sterilizability, etc. A performance index for the intrinsic wrench-sensing capability is introduced and evaluated to show how this index can serve as a design guide for continuum robots that provide force sensing.
Changes in efferent and afferent connectivity in rats with induced cerebrocortical microgyria.

Freezing injury to the cortical plate at postnatal day (P) 1 initiates a cascade of events that ultimately result in a focal neocortical malformation resembling human 4-layered microgyria. This malformation has been associated with widespread changes in neocortical and thalamic architecture and physiology. It was hypothesized that at least some of these alterations could result from connectional reorganization following early injury. The current experiment was designed to delineate the efferent and afferent connections between the cerebral hemispheres and between the cortex and thalamus of rats with induced cerebrocortical microgyria. Microgyria were induced in the parietal cortex of rats by freezing injury on postnatal day 1. In adulthood, injections of biotinylated dextran amine were made either in the microgyric cortex, in homologous regions of the opposite hemisphere, or in ipsilateral ventrobasal complex of the thalamus. Appropriately directed connections to homotopic areas were seen in some but not all microgyric rats. In addition, heterotopic projections to frontal and secondary sensorimotor cortices were noted. Projections from homotopic regions in the hemisphere opposite to the malformation terminated most often in the medial portions of the microgyrus or avoided it entirely. There were almost no thalamocortical or corticothalamic projections between the ventrobasal complex and the microgyrus itself, although a dense plexus of thalamocortical fibers was often noted at the border between the malformed and normal cortex. These connectional changes may help explain disturbances in architecture, physiology, and behavior associated with these focal malformations.
DNorm: disease name normalization with pairwise learning to rank.

Motivation: Despite the central role of diseases in biomedical research, there have been much fewer attempts to automatically determine which diseases are mentioned in a text—the task of disease name normalization (DNorm)—compared with other normalization tasks in biomedical text mining research. Methods: In this article we introduce the first machine learning approach for DNorm, using the NCBI disease corpus and the MEDIC vocabulary, which combines MeSH and OMIM. Our method is a high-performing and mathematically principled framework for learning similarities between mentions and concept names directly from training data. The technique is based on pairwise learning to rank, which has not previously been applied to the normalization task but has proven successful in large optimization problems for information retrieval. Results: We compare our method with several techniques based on lexical normalization and matching, MetaMap and Lucene. Our algorithm achieves 0.782 micro-averaged F-measure and 0.809 macroaveraged F-measure, an increase over the highest performing baseline method of 0.121 and 0.098, respectively. Availability: The source code for DNorm is available at http://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/Demo/DNorm, along with a webbased demonstration and links to the NCBI disease corpus. Results on PubMed abstracts are available in PubTator: http://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/Demo/PubTator
Intergranular corrosion of an aluminum-magnesium-silicon-copper alloy

Abstract The intergranular (intercrystalline) corrosion (IGC) of a heat-treated aluminum (Al)-magnesium (Mg)-silicon (Si)-copper (Cu) alloy was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SEM revealed that tall chimneys of corrosion product formed on the surface above the pits during oxygenated salt water immersion. It was postulated that pitting corrosion occurred first and that the corrosion chimneys maintained the acidic, chloride pit environment that subsequently caused IGC (preferential dissolution of the region adjacent to the grain boundaries). TEM foils of the same alloy were immersed in a model pit solution (dilute hydrochloric acid [HCl]) and showed IGC identical to the corrosion attack seen in the bulk samples. Potentiodynamic polarization in the dilute HCl solution verified that pure Al corroded many times faster than the bulk alloy. These results indicated IGC of this alloy occurred because the depleted region adjacent to the grain boundar...
Personalized medicine in diabetes mellitus: current opportunities and future prospects

Diabetes mellitus affects approximately 382 million individuals worldwide and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Over 40 and nearly 80 genetic loci influencing susceptibility to type 1 and type 2 diabetes, respectively, have been identified. In addition, there is emerging evidence that some genetic variants help to predict response to treatment. Other variants confer apparent protection from diabetes or its complications and may lead to development of novel treatment approaches. Currently, there is clear clinical utility to genetic testing to find the at least 1% of diabetic individuals who have monogenic diabetes (e.g., maturity-onset diabetes of the young and KATP channel neonatal diabetes). Diagnosing many of these currently underdiagnosed types of diabetes enables personalized treatment, resulting in improved and less invasive glucose control, better prediction of prognosis, and enhanced familial risk assessment. Efforts to enhance the rate of detection, diagnosis, and personalized treatment of individuals with monogenic diabetes should set the stage for effective clinical translation of current genetic, pharmacogenetic, and pharmacogenomic research of more complex forms of diabetes.
Direct calculation of the HBT equivalent circuit from measured S-parameters

A new approach for directly calculating the heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) equivalent circuit from measured S-parameters is presented. Analytically derived rather than fitted solutions are obtained in this way. Extrinsic as well as intrinsic element values are computed without the use of special test structures or additional measurement steps. Bias-dependent results for base resistance, collector resistance, base-collector capacitance, base transport factor, and base and collector transit times are discussed. >
Carboxylate Inhibition of Apoaspartate Aminotransferase

The pyridoxamine 5′-phosphate (PMP) activation of the apoenzyme of pig heart cytosolic aspartate aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.1, AspAT) as a function of buffer, pH, salt and thiol was investigated. At 100 mM, the cationic buffers used, i.e., bis(2-hydroxyethyl)iminotris(hydroxymethyl)methane (Bis-Tris) and imidazole at pH 6.0 and Tris at pH 8.3, allowed maximum activation with or without 500 mM NaCl and 2.5 mM glutathione. Anionic buffers, i.e., acetate, butyrate, aspartate and glutamate at pH 5.5 and N-(2-acetamido)-2-iminodiacetate (ADA) and cacodylate at pH 6.0 permitted less activation. Malonate, succinate, gluta-rate, and adipate at pH 5.5, citrate at pH 6.0 and Pi at pH 7.0 were completely inhibitory. At lower concentrations, oxalate, malonate and adipate were the most inhibitory of the dicarboxy-lates. In the absence of NaCl and glutathione, activation was diminished in anionic buffers at pH 5.5 and 6.0. The protective effect of the additives was due to NaCl. Dicarboxylates were generally more inhibitory at low pH than at high pH. For Pi, the opposite pattern was obtained.
Modulating drug impact by wrapping target proteins.

Molecular therapy requires a careful control of specificity. The authors review the recent advances in this regard focusing on a novel marker for ligand–target interaction, the solvent-exposed hydrogen bond or dehydron. Dehydrons promote their own dehydration and are not conserved across homolog proteins. Thus, the so-called wrapping technology is geared at enhancing drug specificity and hinges on an analysis of interfacial dehydrons in target–ligand complexes to assess microenvironmental changes occurring on association. Dehydron differences across purported targets have been exploited to redesign drugs in order to enhance selectivity. Tested wrapping modifications to cancer drugs are reviewed. Distance matrices defined by comparing dehydron patterns across targets correlate strongly with pharmacologic distances. This fact suggests a broad applicability of the wrapping technology, ultimately leading to molecular therapies with tighter control of side effects.
Numerical Integration of the Primitive Equations with a Floating Set of Computation Points: Experiments with a Barotropic Global MODEL1

Abstract A Lagrangean-type numerical forecasting method is developed in which the computational (grid) points are advected by the wind and the necessary space derivatives (in the pressure gradient terms, for example) are computed using the values of the variables at all the computation points that at the particular moment are within a prescribed distance of the point for which the computation is done. In this way, the forecasting problem reduces to solving the ordinary differential equations of motion and thermodynamics for each computation point, instead of solving the partial differential equations in the Eulerian or classical Lagrangean way. The method has some advantages over the conventional Eulerian scheme: simplicity (there are no advection terms), lack of computational dispersion in the advection terms and therefore better simulation of atmospheric advection and deformation effects, very little inconvenience due to the spherical shape of the earth, and the possibility for a variable space resoluti...
Left Atrial Thrombus Associated With Interatrial Septal Occluder 5 Years After Implantation

The patient is a 74-year-old woman with a history of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, who initially presented to an outside hospital in 2009 with a transient ischemic attack. Evaluation identified a patent foramen ovale; a percutaneous closure of the patent foramen ovale was performed using a StarFLEX atrial septal occluder device. In 2010, the patient had a deep venous thrombosis in the setting of several weeks of bed rest following a spinal procedure treated with 3 months of therapeutic anticoagulation with warfarin. Hematologic evaluation did not reveal evidence of hypercoagulable disorder, although the patient was noted to be heterozygous for Factor V Leiden. In 2011, the patient had a routine follow-up echocardiogram that showed preserved systolic function without evidence of intracardiac mass or residual shunt. In October 2014, the patient developed sudden onset chest pain and was found to have a non–ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction. An echocardiogram showed preserved systolic function with normal regional wall motion; a 2×1.8 cm sessile mass attached to the septal occluder device was identified in the left atrium. Anticoagulation with warfarin was initiated, and the patient was discharged. A transesophageal echocardiogram in January 2015 showed persistence of …
Glycoprotein reutilization in regenerating microvilliafter renal ischemia in rats

Glycoprotein reutilization in regenerating microvilli after renal ischemia in rats. Renal ischemia causes a reversible loss of microvillar membrane (MVM) of the proximal tubule cell and of MVM enzyme specific activities (S.A.). We sought to determine if recovery of the MVM glycoprotein was accomplished through de novo synthesis or recycling. Renal ischemia (25 min) was induced in rats by occlusion of the left renal artery, followed by 15min or 4hrs of reflow of blood. Radiolabelled fucose was injected into rats before or after ischemia and was used as a marker fornew glycoprotein synthesis or recycling of prelabelled glycoprotein. Ischemia, followed by 15min of reflow, caused a 49% reduction in protein associated with the isolated MVM fraction of theischemic kidney. There was also a decrease in newly fucosylated glycoprotein in both homogenate and MVM fraction measured as S.A. or total amount of labeled glycoprotein Pre-labelled glycoproteins had no change in S.A. in homogenates or MVM fractions of ischemic or contralateral kidneys. However, the total amount of labeled glycoprotein in the ischemic MVM fraction was reduced. At 4hrs of reflow, protein content of the MVM fraction was back to normal Pre-labelled glycoproteins of the ischemic homogenate and MVM fraction were also back to normal with no significant dilution of glycoprotein S.A. by newly synthesized protein, indicating that glycoprotein recycling occurs to a large extent in the ischemic kidney.
The Mystical Vision of Simone Weil in Relationship to Roman Catholicism

Simone Weil was a mystic obsessed with the search for absolutes and with a holistic vision of the world. At the same time she was deeply concerned about the plight of the outcasts of society. This concern rooted her mysticism in reality and, like the biblical prophets, she decried societal abuses. She saw the Church as larger than the institution she was invited to enter through baptism. Her refusal to enter symbolically united her with the members of “common humanity” who were excluded from the institutional Church. This mystical vision was prophetic of the Church of Vatican II.
Modeling of Waste/Near Field Interactions for a Waste Repository in Bedded Salt: The Dynamic Network (DNET) Model

The Fuel Cycle Risk Analysis Division of Sandia National Laboratories has been funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop a methodology for use in assessing the long-term risk from the disposal of radioactive wastes in deep geologic formations. As part of this program, the Dynamic Network (DNET) model was developed to investigate waste/near field interactions associated with the disposal of radioactive wastes in bedded salt formations. The model is a quasi-multi-dimensional network model with capabilities for simulating processes such as fluid flow, heat transport, salt dissolution, salt creep, and the effects of thermal expansion and subsidence on the rock units surrounding the repository. The use of DNET has been demonstrated in the analysis of a hypothetical disposal site containing a bedded salt formation as the host medium for the repository [1]. An example of this demonstration analysis is discussed. Furthermore, the outcome of sensitivity analyses performed on the DNET model are presented.
Task selection in spatial crowdsourcing from worker's perspective

With the progress of mobile devices and wireless broadband, a new eMarket platform, termed spatial crowdsourcing is emerging, which enables workers (aka crowd) to perform a set of spatial tasks (i.e., tasks related to a geographical location and time) posted by a requester. In this paper, we study a version of the spatial crowdsourcing problem in which the workers autonomously select their tasks, called the worker selected tasks (WST) mode. Towards this end, given a worker, and a set of tasks each of which is associated with a location and an expiration time, we aim to find a schedule for the worker that maximizes the number of performed tasks. We first prove that this problem is NP-hard. Subsequently, for small number of tasks, we propose two exact algorithms based on dynamic programming and branch-and-bound strategies. Since the exact algorithms cannot scale for large number of tasks and/or limited amount of resources on mobile platforms, we propose different approximation algorithms. Finally, to strike a compromise between efficiency and accuracy, we present a progressive algorithms. We conducted a thorough experimental evaluation with both real-world and synthetic data on desktop and mobile platforms to compare the performance and accuracy of our proposed approaches.
Biopolymers in Medical Implants

Many researchers are exploring the potential use of biopolymers as implants in a wide range of applications ranging from replacements of bone to the regeneration of nerves. Biocompatibility, biodegradability and versatility are the properties which make these biopolymers materials of choice. Studies in biopolymer based implants (till date) indicate significant developments in terms of innovative strategies and design of implants to regenerate/repair a damaged tissue or organ. This chapter reviews the present state-of-art of biopolymers and their applications as medical implants. Several biopolymers namely poly (3-hydroxyalkanoates), collagen, gelatin, chitosan and hyaluronic acid are discussed in detail with reference to their applications in orthopaedics, ophthalmology, cardiology, otolaryngology and a few others.
Extending Our Understanding of eWOM Impact: The Role of Source Credibility and Message Relevance

ABSTRACTUsing qualitative data from consumers who have previously purchased online and who read online product reviews, this work expands current thinking on determinants of the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communications on consumer decision making. Specifically, beyond source credibility, findings suggest that consumers also assess how similar the source of eWOM is to them in terms of personality and product usage. In addition to source credibility, the notion of message relevance is introduced as the second first-order factor of eWOM impact. In turn, the underlying dimensions of source credibility (expertise and trustworthiness) and message relevance (persona similarity and usage similarity) constitute four second-order determinants of eWOM impact; providing a comprehensive view of the determinants of eWOM impact. Additionally, a conceptual framework depicting the sequential and cumulative effect of the four assessment dimensions along with possible gender differences in the processes used...
Investigation of musculoskeletal discomfort, work postures, and muscle activation among practicing tattoo artists.

Tattoo artists are an understudied worker population with respect to investigation of work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) discomfort and associated risk factors. Results from one discomfort survey has been published; no analysis of worker biomechanics has been published. As such, a study was conducted to begin exposure assessment of tattoo artists to work factors that could result in MSK discomfort. Consistent with the prior survey, the current study showed an elevated prevalence of MSK discomfort. Twelve month discomfort prevalence exceeded 50% in the neck, shoulders, hands/wrists, and upper and lower back (range: 53-94%). Seventy-one percent of postures evaluated during 16 h of observation had total RULA scores of 5, 6, or 7 (investigation and changes are required soon or immediately). Static muscle activity levels in the left, right, or both upper trapezius muscles in each study participant exceeded the 2-5% MVE limit recommended in the literature. Intervention concepts are also discussed.
Nonmalignant gastric causes of acute abdominal pain on MDCT: a pictorial review

Acute abdominal pain is a common indication for imaging. The stomach may be poorly assessed or overlooked on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT), despite the high prevalence of gastric pathology as the source of abdominal pain. We review the pathophysiology, imaging features, and clinical management of common and uncommon nonmalignant gastric conditions on MDCT. As the stomach is often difficult to assess on MDCT, and pathology overlooked, corresponding increased awareness of gastric causes of pain is critical for radiologists to accurately interpret imaging in the setting of acute abdominal pain.
The Role of Early Childhood Education in Social Behaviour of Children

Public investments in Early Childhood Care and Education have grown and continue to grow considerably, in part based on rigorous research establishing the importance of investing in the first 5 years of life. A large body of evidence on early childhood interventions has found short- and medium-term effects that extend beyond narrowly academic or cognitive outcomes to improvements in pro-social and anti-social behaviours, skills such as self-regulation, commitment to schooling, risky adolescent behaviours, aggression, delinquency, crime, employment and earnings, and both mental and physical health. The potential of high quality early childhood programs to affect a broad range of children’s social behaviours, attitudes and skills has strong implications for the development of programs and policies that can prevent antisocial behaviours, delinquency and risky behaviours while improving productivity in the workforce. Given the importance of the early years in child development, this chapter focuses on summarizing the evidence of the impact of early childhood interventions on children’s social and emotional behaviour in the United States and globally, describes which aspects of these interventions are associated with larger short-term and long-term social and emotional effects, and identifies which types of programs have been found to affect parenting and households in ways that matter for children’s behavioural development. These programs demonstrate remarkable consistency. Implications for international educational policy in the areas of justice and equality are discussed.