cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional surgical anatomy for stapes surgery computer-aided reconstruction and measurement.

To define anatomical relationships relevant to stapes surgery, computer-aided three-dimensional reconstruction and measurement were performed on nine normal temporal bones. The mean distance from the inferior portion of the long process of the incus to the center of the oval window was 3.80 mm. The shortest distance from the center of the oval window to the utricular macula, saccular membrane, and macula averaged 1.37, 1.60, and 2.13 mm. Surgery directed posteromedial-superior from the oval window was found to be most dangerous because it would come so close to the utricular macula; a pos-teromedial-inferior approach was found to be safest. The distance from the inferior margin of the oval window inferiorly to the cochlear duct in the hook portion ranged between 0.58 and 1.29 mm, suggesting that when a drill hole is made on the inferior margin of the oval window to lift up a depressed stapes footplate, the hole should not be greater than 0.5 mm in diameter.
Reproductive responses of ram lambs under short-term exposure to endophyte-infected tall fescue seed

Abstract Our objective was to determine the influence of short-term exposure to endophyte-infected tall fescue on reproductive function of ram lambs. Rams (214 days of age) were fed a diet free of endophyte-infected fescue seed (EF; n = 8) or endophyte-infected fescue seed (EI; n = 9; 34% of diet; 4.8 μg g −1 ergovaline) for 6 weeks. Feed offered to EF rams, individually fed, was reduced to the average intake of EI lambs from previous day so that intake was similar between treatments and averaged 2.4% BW (DM basis), leading to daily intake of 33.7 μg ergovaline kg −1 BW for the EI fed lambs. Daily high ambient temperature for the trial ranged between 16 and 26 °C. Respiration rate and rectal temperature were measured at 14:00 daily. Blood was collected for serum concentrations of prolactin (weekly) and testosterone (twice weekly). Body weight and body condition scores (BCS; 1 = thin; 5 = fat) were determined every 14 days. Scrotal circumference, scrotal skin temperature, and semen characteristics were determined weekly. Rams were slaughtered after 6 weeks of feeding. Signs of fescue toxicosis in EI fed rams included increased rectal temperature ( P R 2 = 0.11) and respiration rate (day, P R 2 = 0.25) when high ambient temperature exceeded 22 °C and reduced serum concentrations of prolactin (diet × day, P P P R 2 = 0.08). Scrotal skin temperature, scrotal circumference, semen volume, percent sperm motility, and percent abnormal sperm were similar between treatments. Spermatozoa concentration tended to be greater in EF compared with EI fed rams after 43 days of feeding ( P R 2 = 0.15). Rate of forward movement of spermatozoa tended to increase at a greater rate between Days 8 and 29 in EF compared with EI fed rams (diet × day, P
Ultrastructural observations on closure of the neural tube in the mouse.

The fusion of the neural walls in the cephalic part of mouse embryos varying in age from 9 to 20 somites was examined with the electron microscope. In the rhombencephalic region the rim of the neural wall was formed from outside inward by ectodermal surface cells, a row of flattened cells without surface projections and neuroepithelial cells. At the junction of the surface ectoderm and the flat cells were seen large projections containing a cytoplasmic matrix without organelles and previously referred to as “ruffles”. The initial contact between the walls was made by the large cytoplasmic arms and numerous finger-like projections interdigitating with similar projections from the opposite wall. The projections originated from the surface ectoderm and possibly neural crest cells. During further fusion the surface ectoderm cells formed dense membrane specializations, thus establishing a firm contact.
Can robots learn like people do

This paper describes an approach to robotic control patterned after models of human skill acquisition and the organization of the human motor control system. The intent of the approach is to develop autonomous robots capable of learning complex tasks in unstructured environments through rule-based inference and self-induced practice. Features of the human motor control system emulated include a hierarchical and modular organization antagonistic actuation and multi-joint motor synergies. Human skill acquisition is emulated using declarative and reflexive representations of knowledge feedback and feedforward implementations of control and attentional mechanisms. Rule-based systems acquire rough-cut task execution and supervise the training of neural networks during the learning process. After the neural networks become capable of controlling system operation reinforcement learning is used to further refine the system performance. The research described is interdisciplinary and addresses fundamental issues in learning and adaptive control dexterous manipulation redundancy management knowledge-based system and neural network applications to control and the computational modelling of cognitive and motor skill acquisition. 296 / SPIE Vol. 1294 Applications of Artificial Neural Networks (1990)© (1990) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Temperature-dependent Sellmeier coefficients and nonlinear optics average power limit for germanium

A temperature-dependent Sellmeier equation is calculated for Ge. The accuracy of this temperature-dependent Sellmeier equation is compared with the internal consistency of the data. The phase-matching condition is discussed for four-wave mixing when two of the wave vectors are equal. The average power limit for four-wave mixing in a material like Ge is derived both for the case where one wave vector is fixed and for the case where two wave vectors are fixed. Using the derived Sellmeier equation, the average power limit for the four-wave mixing is calulated.
A priority-based flow control mechanism to support real-time traffic in pipelined direct networks

Real-time extensions to wormhole routing (WR), with multiple virtual channels, and priority based physical link arbitration and virtual channel (VC) allocation, have been proposed in the literature. With a fixed number of VCs/link, a message can face an unbounded priority inversion, rendering the global priority order ineffective. We propose a new flow control mechanism called preemptive pipelined circuit switching for real-time messages (PPCS-RT) to reduce the priority inversion problem. PPCS-RT outperforms WR with the performance difference being largest with 1 VC/link. The difference in overall miss ratio is over 30% with 1 VC.
Levels and determinants of continuum of care for maternal and newborn health in Cambodia-evidence from a population-based survey

Continuum of care throughout pregnancy, birth, and after delivery has become a key program strategy for improving the health of mothers and newborns. Successful program implementation to improve the continuum of care relies on a better understanding of where the gaps are in seeking care along the pathway and what factors contribute to the gaps. Using data from the 2010 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey, we examine the levels of service use along the continuum of care. Three sequential regression models are fitted to identify factor(s) that affect women from getting skilled birth attendance (SBA) after receiving antenatal care (ANC), and from getting postnatal care (PNC) after having both ANC and SBA. Three of every five Cambodian women received all three types of maternal care—antenatal care, skilled birth attendance at birth and postnatal care -for their most recent birth, however with substantial regional variation ranging from 14% to 96%. The results highlight that mother’s age, educational attainment, urban residence, household wealth, lower birth order are associated with women’s use of antenatal care and their continuation to using skilled birth attendant. Health insurance coverage also increases use of antenatal care but not skilled birth attendant. Having four antenatal care visits and receiving better quality of antenatal care affected women’s subsequent use of skilled birth attendant. The odds of having skilled birth attendant increases by 30 to 50% for women who received blood pressure measurement, urine sample taken, and blood sample taken as part of antenatal services. Household wealth status, urine sample taken, and delivery at a health facility were the only three factors significantly associated with the continuation from having skilled birth attendant to receiving postnatal care. Cambodia has made remarkable progress in extending the reach of maternal health care in most areas of the country. Future program efforts should focus on the Northeast part of the country where the lowest level of service use was found. Poor women suffered from lower access to continued care and extending the health insurance coverage might be one way to help them out. Quality of antenatal care is connected to women’s use of skilled birth attendant and postnatal care and should be given more focus.
Decentralized Dynamic Host Configuration in Wide-Area Overlays of Virtual Workstations

Wide-area overlays of virtual workstations (WOWs) have been shown to provide excellent infrastructure for deploying high throughput computing environments on commodity desktop machines by (1) offering scalability to a large number of nodes, (2) facilitating addition of new nodes even if they are behind NATs/firewalls and (3) supporting unmodified applications and middleware. However, deployment of WOWs from scratch still requires setting up a bootstrapping network and managing centralized DHCP servers for IP address management. In this paper we describe novel techniques that allow multiple users to create independent, isolated virtual IP namespaces for their WOWs without requiring a dedicated bootstrapping infrastructure, and to provision dynamic host configuration (e.g. IP addresses) to unmodified DHCP clients without requiring the setup and management of a central DHCP server. We give qualitative and quantitative arguments to establish the feasibility of our approach.
SUBTYPES OF LEGIONELLA PNEUMOPHILA SEROGROUP 1 ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT ATTACK RATES

From January, 1982, through February, 1983, 20 cases of nosocomial legionnaires' disease caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 were identified in two adjoining hospital buildings, UH and RH. Although the buildings housed similar patient populations and the hot water systems in each were colonised with similar numbers of L pneumophila serogroup 1, 19 cases (1.03/1000 discharges) occurred in UH and only 1 case (0.08/1000 discharges) occurred in RH. Three subtypes of L pneumophila serogroup 1 were defined by plasmid content and monoclonal antibody binding patterns; two were unique to the environmental and patient isolates from UH and one was unique to RH. The marked differences in the attack rates suggest that the UH subtypes may be more pathogenic than the RH subtype and that the subtyping of L pneumophila might be a useful tool for studying the epidemiology of legionnaires' disease.
Nateglinide Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVE:To review the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, dosing guidelines, adverse effects, drug interactions, and clinical efficacy of nateglinide.DATA SOURCES:Primary and review articles regarding nateglinide were identified by MEDLINE search (from 1966 to January 2001); abstracts were identified through the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science (from 1995 to January 2001) and the American Diabetes Association; additional information was obtained from the nateglinide product information.STUDY SELECTION/DATA EXTRACTION:All articles and meeting abstracts identified from the data sources were evaluated and all information deemed relevant was included in this review. Much of the information was from abstracts or the product labeling, since few clinical studies have been published in the medical literature.DATA SYNTHESIS:Nateglinide is a novel nonsulfonylurea oral antidiabetic agent that stimulates insulin secretion from the pancreas. It has a rapid onset and short duration of action, allowing ...
Host Range Specificity of Flaviviruses: Correlation with In Vitro Replication

Vector-borne flaviviruses have been traditionally grouped into either mosquito-borne or tick-borne group. However, this vector range specificity has sometimes been questioned because of the puzzling records of occasional isolation of mosquito-borne viruses from ticks and of tick-borne viruses from mosquitoes. In this study, host range of the flaviviruses representing not only the two vector-borne groups but also insect flaviviruses and vertebrate viruses that are not arboviruses was comprehensively reexamined by a serial passage experiment in vitro by using cell cultures derived from mosquitoes, ticks, and vertebrates. The results showed that the host range specificity in the four groups of viruses, based on replication for five consecutive passages as a criterion to evaluate the ability of viruses to replicate in three different cell cultures, agreed with the conventional grouping as well as phylogenetic clustering. Thus, this assay provides useful, supplementary information regarding host range for those flaviviruses when their natural host range is unknown, ambiguous, or questionable.
Paralysis of Innervated Cultured Human Muscle Fibers Affects Enzymes Differentially

Increased accumulation of muscle-specific isozyme (MSI) of creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), glycogen phosphorylase (GP), and phosphoglycerate mutase (PGAM) occurs with development and indicates muscle fiber maturation. The expression of MSIs of those four enzymes is greatly enhanced in innervated-contracting as compared to noninnervated and noncontracting cultured human muscle fibers. We have now studied the effect of contractile activity on developmental accumulation of MSIs in innervated-contracting, innervated-paralyzed (2 microM tetrodotoxin for 30 days), and noninnervated-noncontracting cultured human muscle fibers. Muscle acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and total enzyme activities were also studied under the same conditions. We observed a different dependency on contractile activity between total enzymatic activities of CK, LDH, and AChE, which were substantially reduced after paralysis, and GP and PGAM, which were unchanged. The expression of MSIs of CK, GP, PGAM, and LDH was always significantly increased in innervated as compared to noninnervated fibers. While the expression of MSIs of GP and PGAM was the same in contracting-innervated and paralyzed-innervated muscle fibers, the expression of MSIs of CK and LDH in paralyzed-innervated muscle fibers was very slightly decreased as compared to their contracting-innervated controls. Our studies demonstrate that in human muscle: (1) total enzymatic activities and the expression of MSIs of GP and PGAM are regulated by neuronal effect(s); (2) total enzymatic activities of CK, LDH, and AChE depend mainly on muscle contractile activity; and (3) MSIs of CK and LDH are regulated predominantly by neuronal factors and to a much lesser degree by muscle contractile activity.
3D phase-differentiated GDL microstructure generation with binder and PTFE distributions

In this work, a new framework and model for the digital generation and characterization of the microstructure of gas diffusion layer (GDL) materials with localized binder and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) distributions were developed using 3D morphological imaging processing. This new generation technique closely mimics manufacturing processes and produces complete phase-differentiated (void, fiber, binder, and PTFE) digital 3D microstructures in a cost- and time-effective manner for the first time. The results for the digital generation of Toray TGP-H-060 with 5 and 0 wt.% PTFE were in close agreement with confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) images as well as 3D X-ray tomography studies. The resulting structure can be readily used for analyzing transport processes utilizing commercial CFD software.
BETASEQ: a powerful novel method to control type-I error inflation in partially sequenced data for rare variant association testing

Summary: Despite its great capability to detect rare variant associations, next-generation sequencing is still prohibitively expensive when applied to large samples. In case-control studies, it is thus appealing to sequence only a subset of cases to discover variants and genotype the identified variants in controls and the remaining cases under the reasonable assumption that causal variants are usually enriched among cases. However, this approach leads to inflated type-I error if analyzed naively for rare variant association. Several methods have been proposed in recent literature to control type-I error at the cost of either excluding some sequenced cases or correcting the genotypes of discovered rare variants. All of these approaches thus suffer from certain extent of information loss and thus are underpowered. We propose a novel method (BETASEQ), which corrects inflation of type-I error by supplementing pseudovariants while keeps the original sequence and genotype data intact. Extensive simulations and real data analysis demonstrate that, in most practical situations, BETASEQ leads to higher testing powers than existing approaches with guaranteed (controlled or conservative) type-I error. Availability and implementation: BETASEQ and associated R files, including documentation, examples, are available at http://www.unc.
Suboptimal master-slave teleoperation control with delays

This paper addresses the delay problem in bilateral teleoperation within a sampled-data context. The passivity constraints are imposed on the master and the slave side as well as the design specifications for a receding horizon-type optimal control design. This results in a quadratically constrained problem that is non-convex which is known to be difficult to solve. Thus, a dual formulation is proposed that provides a suboptimal control input vector that is shown to guarantee bounded trajectories.
Legal and Policy Environments: An Institutional Perspective of Global E-Commerce Adoption

Grounding on institutional theory and e-commerce adoption literature, this study conducts a cross-country analysis, assessing the impact and effect of legal and government environments on global e-commerce adoption in 2003 and 2007, respectively. The study utilizes a set of secondary data from the Economist Intelligence Unit’s global e-readiness rankings. The results indicate that at the starting stage of ecommerce, the legal and policy environment was a powerful facilitator for e-commerce adoption. As ecommerce becomes more prevalent recently, the supportive government policy can still foster ecommerce adoption, but the effect of legal environment turns to negligible. The study discusses extensively the e-commerce policy and its impact on e-commerce adoption. It is one of the first cross-country studies on the institutional environment for e-commerce and the research findings have policy implications for global ecommerce development.
Is religion adaptive

We argue that religious ritual's ability to facilitate communication and the pervasiveness of its basic characteristics across societies, as well as its precedence in other social species, suggests that religious behavior is more than a mere by-product. Religious constructs constitute associationally conditioned mnemonics that trigger neuroendocrine responses which motivate religious behaviors. The adaptive value of these constructs resides in their utility as memorable and emotionally evocative primes.
Real-Time Lineage Analysis to Study Cell Division Orientation in the Arabidopsis Shoot Meristem

Cells in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem are small and divide frequently throughout the life-time of the organism making them good candidates for studying the mechanisms of cell division in plants. But tracking these cell divisions requires multiple images to be taken of the same specimen over time which means the specimen must stay alive throughout the process. This chapter provides details on how to prepare plants for live imaging, keep them alive and growing through multiple time points, and how to process the data to extract cell boundary coordinates from three-dimensional images.
Long-Term Privacy Profiling through Smartphone Sensors

Smartphones are closely coupled with their users and smartphone sensors can perceive users' private information. The existing studies in this area focus on user activity recognition and short-term context detection. In this paper, we show that smartphone sensors are able to profile users' long-term privacy and more sensitive information. We present the techniques of discovering users' spending level by merely using smartphone sensors. We do not access users' contacts, calendar, or call log, so that the profiling is performed in a non-intrusive manner. This paper is an alert towards the public that the privacy leakage could be far worse than imagination by just carrying smartphones.
Serum Protein Determination by Automatic Recording Refractometry

The results of a preliminary study of the feasibility of using recording differential refractometry for total serum protein determination indicate that the method has some merit.
The Justices and Brown v. Board of Education

This essay analyzes the justices' internal deliberations in Brown v. Board of Education, based on the conference notes, with the goal of explaining why they found the case so hard. (At the first conference discussion, in December 1952, it was not obvious whether a majority existed to overrule Plessy v. Ferguson). I argue that for several justices, most notably Frankfurter and Jackson, Brown presented a conflict between law (as they understood it) and politics. Though they thought racial segregation a clear moral evil, they did not believe it was unconstitutional according to the conventional sources of constitutional interpretation - text, original intent, precedent, custom. The essay also tries to explain how a closely divided Court became unanimous and why school segregation struck most justices as an obvious moral wrong at a time when the nation was divided down the middle.
Securing Real-Time Opportunistic Spectrum Access in Cognitive Networks against Malicious Secondary Users

Communications in future wireless systems are expected to rely on opportunistic RF spectrum access where unlicensed secondary users either sense RF spectrum to find idle channels or search for idle channels in a geolocation database of idle spectrum. To avoid channel sensing uncertainties, the FCC mandates that secondary users should query geolocation database to find idle channels for given location and time to communicate opportunistically. However, malicious secondary users can fake their geolocations using GPS spoofing techniques to pretend to be in a place where more idle channels are available. In this paper, we implement and investigate how to secure real-time opportunistic spectrum access in cloud based cognitive radio networks (aka ROAR) against malicious secondary users using angle-of- arrival, received signal strength and time-of- arrival. The proposed approach checks the legitimacy of geolocation reported by the secondary users using cloud computing platform before releasing any idle channel information to them to protect licensed primary users. We implement three step detection process to differentiate the legitimate secondary users from malicious ones which help secure ROAR against untrustworthy secondary users. The proposed approach is illustrated through numerical results obtained from both simulations and experiments.
The political abuse of international health system comparisons

Though the science of medicine subscribes to learning from best practices and the transmission of superior treatment regimens across national boundaries, the same ethos does not inform political debates surrounding health system reform. The Canadian and English health systems have been used - and, more frequently - abused by American politicians in their quest to support their own model of reform, or preserve the status quo.
Atomic-Level and Effective Elastic Moduli at Grain Boundaries

The relationship between atomic structure and elastic properties of grain boundaries is investigated from both discrete and continuum points of view. A heterogeneous continuum model of the boundary is introduced where distinct phases are associated with individual atoms and possess their atomic level elastic moduli determined from the atomistic model. The complete fourth-order tensors of both the atomic-level and the effective elastic moduli are determined, where the latter are defined for sub-blocks from an infinite bicrystal and are calculated here for a relatively small number of atom layers above and below the grain boundary. These effective moduli are determined exactly for the discrete atomistic model, while only estimates from upper and lower bounds can be determined for the continuum model. Comparison between the atomistic results and those for the continuum model establishes the validity of this definition of elastic properties for heterogeneous structures at these scales. Furthermore, these comparisons as well as algebraic properties of the fourth-order tensor of moduli lead to criteria to assess the stability of a given grain boundary structure.
An inductive role for the endoderm in Xenopus cardiogenesis

Heart induction in Xenopus has been thought to be dependent primarily on the interaction of the heart primordia with the Spemann organizer. We demonstrate, however, that signals derived from the deep dorsoanterior endoderm during early gastrulation are also essential for heart formation. The presence of deep endoderm dramatically enhances heart formation in explants of heart primordia, both in the presence and absence of organizer. Likewise, extirpation of the entire endoderm can decrease the frequency of heart formation in embryos that retain organizer activity. Finally, we show that the combined presence of both endoderm and organizer is necessary and sufficient to induce heart in ventral mesoderm explants that would not otherwise form heart tissue. Xenopus heart induction, therefore, may be a multistep process requiring separate dorsalization and cardiogenic signalling events. This is the first demonstration of a heart-inducing role for the endoderm in Xenopus, indicating that the mechanism of heart formation may be similar in most vertebrates.
Evaluation and Screening Method for Power Grid Planning Schemes Under High Penetration of Variable Generation

Following a discussion of the specific influencing factors in the power grid planning under high penetration of variable generation and the limitations of existing methods and tools for the planning,the supplementary evaluation indices for the planning,such as the capability of accommodating intermittent generation sources and the security risk index taking into account the cascade process,are presented.Secondly,a method of judging whether the capability of admitting intermittent generation sources is rational or not on the basis of acceptability in terms of economy of the least annual energy outputs of the generation sources and the security of the power grid is presented.Finally,a method of employing a number of assistant software to form,analyze,assess and select the planning schemes is presented.The complex characteristics such as the process of contingency can be taken into account in comprehensive comparison and selection of the power grid planning schemes under high penetration of variable generation by utilizing the above method.It is an effective channel through which to evaluate and choose such power grid planning schemes.
Temporal and spectral cues for speech recognition

The present study explores the temporal and spectral cues for speech recognition in an attempt to provide information for improving the speech processing strategies in cochlear implant systems. A noise-excited vocoder was used in a series of experiments to determine the relative contribution of temporal and spectral cues to phoneme recognition and lexical tone recognition. Spectral information was controlled by varying the number of channels and temporal information was controlled by varying the lowpass cutoff frequencies of the envelope extractors. Normal-hearing adult subjects participated in the perceptual tests. The results demonstrated that both temporal and spectral cues are important for phoneme recognition in quiet and in noise. The plateau performance for consonant and vowel recognition in quiet was reached when the number of channels was 8 and 12, respectively and the lowpass cutoff frequency was 16 and 4 Hz, respectively. In noise conditions, vowel recognition benefited from increased spectral resolution. For Mandarin-Chinese tone recognition, the lowpass cutoff frequency required for asymptotic performance was 256 Hz, much higher than that required for English phoneme recognition. Tone recognition performance had not yet reached plateau when 12 channels, the highest in this study, were used. To study the relative importance of fine structure and temporal envelope in lexical tone recognition, a separate experiment using the auditory chimera technique was carried out. The perceptual results demonstrated that tone recognition relies more on the fine structure as does melody perception rather than on the temporal envelope as does English speech perception. Therefore, to improve speech recognition, especially in noise, efforts should be concentrated on providing more effective channels in the cochlear implant systems. Lexical tone recognition could benefit from fine structure information presented in the cochlear implant stimulations.
The feasibility of transradial laser atherectomy for chronic total occlusion using the 5 Fr sheath system.

Objective . We present a case of chronic total occlusion (CTO) approached with LASER endovascular intervention by radial artery approach using a 5 French sheath. Case report . A 57-year-old man presented to our hospital having had retrosternal chest pain for two days. Physical examination was normal at the time of presentation. The laboratory tests were within normal limits, including cardiac enzymes except the lipid panel which showed hypertriglyceridemia. The patient underwent a myocardial perfusion scintigraphy stress test that revealed inferior wall ischemia, with normal left ventricular ejection fraction. A 5-French vascular sheath was placed in the right radial artery. Selective coronary artery angiography was performed, which showed right coronary artery (RCA) CTO. A 5-French JR4 guide catheter successfully engaged the RCA and Laser angioplasty was performed across the CTO into the RCA. A marked improvement of flow was evident thereafter. Conclusion . To best of our knowledge this is the first case report showing the feasibility of laser atherectomy using the 5 French sheath system in a coronary arterial CTO.
HIV-1 immune evasion[mdash]a threat to effective vaccines?

A new study of the impact of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) escape mutations suggests that holes in the host immune repertoire contribute to poor disease outcomes, owing to a gradual deterioration of the host anti-HIV-1 immune response. This should be accounted for in HIV-1 vaccine development strategies.
Solid Carbon Dioxide: Usage in Slush or Block Form as Therapeutic Agent in Dermatology

The use of solid carbon dioxide (CO2) in dermatology is valuable to treat acne vulgaris, acne excoriee and as an adjunct in chemical peeling for the treatment of photo-aging and depressed scarring. This cryosurgical option is a cost-effective, viable treatment in the twenty-first century in the face of a flood of expensive devices for contemporary consideration. At −78 °C, a block of solid dry ice can be slushed in acetone and alcohol to efface comedones and promote more even healing of excoriated lesions. In addition, the combination of solid carbon dioxide followed immediately by trichloroacetic acid as a medium depth chemical peel has a place in the armamentarium of treatment in a series of over 4000 cases with a wide margin of safety in lighter skin types.
Latitudinal dependence of body condition, growth rate, and stable isotopes of juvenile capelin ( Mallotus villosus ) in the Bering and Chukchi Seas

Capelin occupy a key trophic role and have a broad latitudinal distribution in the northeastern Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Understanding their adaptation to a range of conditions is important to predicting how they will respond to climate change. To quantify the variation in body condition in different physical environments, we measured energy density, RNA/DNA ratios, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in 62 juvenile capelin along the Western Alaskan coast from Bristol Bay to Point Barrow ranging across approximately 14° of latitude. Energy density correlated positively with latitude, whereas RNA/DNA (instantaneous growth index) was strongly correlated with sea surface temperature, indicating that optimal growth of capelin was achieved at ~9 °C, followed by rapid decreases in RNA/DNA ratios at higher temperatures. δ13C and δ15N had strong, inverse nonlinear relationships with latitude. Depletion of δ13C seen in capelin North of Bristol Bay may be related to the incorporation of allochthonous basal resources into the diets of juvenile capelin from nearby riverine inputs. Observed enrichment of δ15N North of Bristol Bay is likely to be related to incorporation of higher trophic level prey items. Given inverse relationship between δ13C and δ15N, these prey items are likely available due to the increased diversity of basal resources from increased inputs of riverine organic material.
Designing the Widget: A Group Decision and Negotiation Task

The Widget design task is an in-class, experiential exercise that affords students the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills in group negotiation. Students engage in new product design in com...
Impact of Bone Marrow Plasmacytosis on Outcome in Patients with AL Amyloidosis Following Autologous Stem Cell Transplant

Abstract Background: Previous studies have demonstrated inferior overall survival (OS) among patients with AL amyloidosis who have bone marrow plasmacytosis (BMPC) >10%. It is well recognized that AL patients who achieve the deepest hematologic responses have superior organ response and OS rate. Methods: We designed a study to determine if BMPC% affects CR rate post ASCT and whether pre-transplant induction therapy improves response rate and OS among patients with a higher baseline BMPC burden. Results: Among 415 AL patients who underwent ASCT at Mayo Clinic, Rochester within 12 months of diagnosis, 116 (28%) had BMPC>10% at diagnosis. The median age was 57.2 years. The median follow up for surviving patients was 67.3 months. There was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, time from diagnosis to transplant, or use of attenuated conditioning regimen between groups with high (>10%) and low (≤ 10%) bone marrow involvement. The high BMPC group tended to receive more induction chemotherapy before ASCT, and presented with greater value of albumin, beta-2 microglobulin and difference in serum free light chain (dFLC). A higher CR rate was observed in low BMPC group (44.6% versus 26.7%, p=0.0013). In patients with high BMPC, a higher CR rate (33.9% versus 17.7%, p Conclusions: Lower bone marrow burden at diagnosis yielded a deeper response following ASCT. Compared to no therapy, patients who were treated with steroid only pre-ASCT had an inferior OS, but other induction regimens appeared to improve survival. These data would support the concept that using induction therapy prior to ASCT conditioning among patients with higher tumor burden may be of value. Download : Download high-res image (42KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure 1 . In BMPC > 10% at diagnosis, OS comparison between induction therapies pre-ASCT Download : Download high-res image (33KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure 2 . Download : Download high-res image (86KB) Download : Download full-size image Figure 3 . Disclosures Kumar: Celgene: Research Funding; Celgene, Millenium, Sanofi, Skyline, BMS, Onyx, Noxxon,: Other: Consultant, no compensation,; Sanofi: Research Funding; AbbVie: Research Funding; Millenium/Takeda: Research Funding; Onyx: Research Funding; Skyline, Noxxon: Honoraria; Janssen: Research Funding. Gertz: Celgene: Honoraria; millenium: Consultancy, Honoraria; Onyx: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; Smith Kline: Honoraria.
Tropical Pacific climate variability over the last 6000 years as recorded in Bainbridge Crater Lake, Galápagos

National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID, Program [AGS-1256970, AGS-1561121]; NOAA Climate Program Office; University of Arizona Department of Geosciences; Philanthropic Education Organization; National Science Foundation (NSF) P2C2, Program [AGS-1256970, AGS-1561121]; National Science Foundation (NSF) Geospace Sciences Paleoclimate Program [AGS-1256970, AGS-1561121]
Weight Gain in Women at Midlife: A Concise Review of the Pathophysiology and Strategies for Management

Weight gain accompanied by an increased tendency for central fat distribution is common among women in midlife. These changes are a result of aging, decreasing estrogen levels after menopause, and other unique influences in menopausal women that interfere with the adoption of healthy lifestyle measures. Central obesity, in particular, results in several adverse metabolic consequences, including dysglycemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Given that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in postmenopausal women, the importance of weight management in midlife cannot be overemphasized. In addition, weight gain in midlife contributes to other health risks including cancer, arthritis, mood disorders, and sexual dysfunction. It is imperative that primary care physicians screen midlife women for overweight/obesity and offer appropriate advice and referral. In addition to counseling regarding lifestyle change, behavioral modification, and psychological support, it is important to address the unique barriers to adoption of healthy lifestyle measures in postmenopausal women, including the presence of vasomotor symptoms, mood disorders, and sleep disturbance. When indicated, menopausal hormone therapy should be considered to manage bothersome symptoms. Despite its favorable influence on body fat distribution, menopausal hormone therapy cannot be recommended as a treatment for central obesity in midlife women.
How Is Her-2/neu Status Established When Her-2/neu Gene and Chromosome 17 Centromere Are Both Amplified?

Human cancers have somatic mutations composed of genetic sequences that are moved within the genome, modified, lost, or amplified in copy number. Although many genetic alterations have no apparent impact on cancer progression, 1 other genetic changes play critical roles in the disease process. Gene amplification, the process of duplicating a particular genetic sequence within the genome, has been shown to play a functionally important role in the development and progression of several human cancers including breast cancer. The additional genetic sequences in gene amplification take the form of a tandem array containing many copies of a repeating unit. The tandem repeated segments of genomic DNA are either arranged as extrachromosomal units (double minute chromosomes), or the tandem repeated array is integrated into the genome as a component of a chromosome (homogenously staining region), thus facilitating transmission to daughter cells. Not every gene in such a repeating genomic array is expressed, but for those genes that are expressed the level of expression is increased with increasing gene amplification. 2
The Spectrum of Movement Disorders in Childhood-Onset Lysosomal Storage Diseases.

Background Movement disorders are a significant clinical problem in lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) and account for substantial morbidity. The spectrum of movement disorders in childhood-onset LSD, however, remains poorly defined. Objectives To define the spectrum of movement disorders in a well-characterized cohort of children with LSD. Methods A retrospective chart review at a single tertiary care center (Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA). Patients up to the age of 18 years with a clinical, genetic and/or biochemical diagnosis of an LSD and at least one predefined movement disorder (parkinsonism, dystonia, ataxia, tremor, chorea, myoclonus, ballism, restless leg syndrome) were included. Results 96 patients were identified and 76 patients had a sufficiently document biochemical and/or genetic diagnosis. Of these, 18 patients met inclusion criteria (mean age: 10.3±5.8 (SD) years, range: 3-18 years; 72% male). The most common LSD associated with a movement disorder was Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC), followed by several types of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) and different mucopolysaccharidoses. The most common movement disorder was ataxia followed by rest tremor, dystonia and myoclonus. The other predefined movement disorders were rare. The majority of patients presented with more than one movement disorder. The movement disorder was slowly progressive in all patients. Brain MRI changes included diffuse cerebral volume loss, white matter abnormalities with thinning of the corpus callosum, and cerebellar atrophy. Conclusions Movement disorders develop in a significant number of LSD patients. Ataxia, often in patients with NPC and NCL, is the most common phenotype but significant heterogeneity exists within and between different LSD.
Heart failure, central sleep apnea, CPAP, and arousals: another piece of the puzzle.

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OBSTRUCTIVE AND CENTRAL SLEEP APNEA. MOST OBSTRUCTIVE EVENTS END IN AN AROUSAL WHICH IS regarded as a defense mechanism to terminate the apnea.1 Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characteristically responsive to an effective level of positive airway pressure maintaining upper airway patency thereby decreasing apneas and hypopneas and improving sleep quality. On the other hand, Cheyne-Stokes respiration and central sleep apnea (CSR-CSA) is often difficult to treat despite the application of multiple modalities including oxygen therapy, positive airway pressure, sedative-hypnotic medications, theophylline, and exogenous carbon dioxide.2,3
What are the dietary energy needs of elderly adults

The energy requirements of healthy elderly men were investigated by measuring total energy expenditure (TEE), body composition and resting energy expenditure (REE), using 2H2(18)O techniques and indirect calorimetry during ten days when a weight maintaining diet was consumed. Values for TEE/REE (1.75 +/- 0.05, s.e.) were significantly higher than the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) for energy in this age group, as were previously reported values for TEE/REE in a group of young men in the same experimental protocol. There was a significant negative association between TEE/REE (a physical activity indicator) and body fat mass. Combining data from the elderly men in this study and the young men studied previously, age and TEE/REE together accounted for 73% of the variation in body fat mass between individuals. These results lend additional weight to the suggestion that the current RDAs for energy may significantly under-estimate usual energy requirements. They also indicate that the low levels of energy expenditure suggested by the RDAs may favour unnecessarily high levels of body fat mass and that increased levels of energy expenditure are desirable.
Factors Affecting the In Vivo Modification of Fe Protein of Nitrogenase in Rhodospirillum Rubrum

The switch-off of nitrogenase activity observed in R. rubrum has been correlated with the modification of the Fe protein. The modified, inactive form of the protein can be distinguished from the active form on polyacrylamide gels containing SDS. The inactive form exhibits two subunits and the active form a single subunit; the upper subunit of the inactive form contains the covalently attached modifiying group. A method was developed to rapidly extract small samples of cells and analyze the extract for the subunit composition of the Fe protein. The method involves the collection of cells on a glass fiber filter, freeze quenching to stop metabolism and extracting the cells by grinding with carborundum in a small volume. The Fe protein is then immunopreq- ipitated. The Fe protein-antibody complex is resuspended in SDS gel cocktail and electrophoresed. The gel is analyzed for submit composition and, in some cases, labelling of the upper subuint with 32P.
Placing the vulnerable subject: re-theorizing Peruvian street children’s lives through an ethic of care

This article examines the lives of Peruvian street children as a lens to more critically think about ideas of agency, vulnerability and care. Building on more than 14 months of fieldwork with stree...
On intensities of perturbed random measures on Hausdorff spaces

This article studies classes of random measures on topological spaces perturbed by stochastic processes (a.k.a. modulated random measures). We render a rigorous construction of the stochastic integ...
Evaluation of Partial Flow Dilution Systems for Very Low PM Mass Measurements

Particulate matter (PM) mass measurement methodologies were improved considerably with the application of Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations Part 1065 for the 2007 standards for heavy-duty engines that emphasized PM. However, there is still a need to improve the understanding of and the confidence in mass measurements for light-duty vehicles, which are now being subjected to more stringent PM standards. The purpose of this study is to evaluate commercially available partial flow dilutors (PFDs), with a particular focus on their equivalency with the standard constant volume sampler (CVS) tunnel method and the ability to provide reproducible measurements at low PM emission levels. For the main PFD comparison, simultaneous testing was conducted with the three PFDs, over federal test procedure (FTP) and US06 tests. The results of the calibrations and proportionality tests all showed good performance for the PFDs. The exhaust flow meters (EFMs) for the PFDs showed measurements within 2% or less of a calibration source. The PFDs also showed good level proportionality and can easily meet the CFR 1066 requirements for light-duty vehicles and 1065 requirements for all tests performed. Larger differences were seen for the main comparisons between the CVS and the different PFDs during the FTP testing, with the relative difference of PM emissions between the PFDs and the CVS varying from − 16.5 to − 0.6%, with an average pooled difference of − 8.5%. These FTP differences only represented 0.00 to 0.11 mg/mile on an absolute basis, however, and could be attributed to difficulties making and weighing filter mass measurements at such low levels. For the US06 cycle, the differences between the PFDs and the CVS were not statistically significant and ranged from − 6.7 to − 0.7% and up to 0.07 mg/mile.
The yin and yang of magnesium and calcium: New genetic insights for stroke?

Calcium is essential for cell-signaling, muscle contraction, and coagulation in addition to bone maintenance.1 Given this critical role in multiple pathways potentially related to disease, a number of epidemiologic studies have been performed examining whether serum calcium is a factor in cardiovascular disease, returning associations between elevated serum calcium concentration and stroke.2 Because calcium supplementation has been studied as an intervention for osteoporosis, there is also limited randomized controlled trial data supporting a possible link between calcium and stroke risk.