cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Radiolabelled soman binding to sera from Rats, Guinea Pigs and Monkeys.

Abstract Soman is a highly toxic organophosphorus chemical warfare compound that binds rapidly and irreversibility to a variety of serine active enzymes, i.e., butyryl- and acetyl-cholinesterases and carboxylesterase. The in vivo toxicity of soman has been reported to vary significantly in different animal species, such as rats and guinea pigs or non-human primates. This species variation makes it difficult to identify appropriate animal models for therapeutic drug development under the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Animal Rule. Since species variation in soman toxicity has been correlated with species variation in serum carboxylesterase, we undertook to determine if serum from guinea pigs, rats and non-human primates bound different levels of soman in vitro in the presence of equimolar concentrations of soman. Our results demonstrated that the amount of soman bound in the serum of rats was 4 uM, but essentially null in guinea pigs or non-human primates. The results strongly correlate with the presence or absence of carboxylesterase in the serum of animals and the difference in the toxic dose of soman in various species. Our results support prior suggestions that guinea pigs and non-human primates may be better animal models for the development of antidotes under the FDA Animal Rule.
Sibling Relationship in Foster Care: Foster Parent Perspective

The sibling relationships of youth in foster care has garnered increased attention over the past few years indicating the potential protective role these relationships can have. Despite this growth, very little is known about how foster parents perceive the sibling relationships of youth in foster care and ways to promote these relationships. Thematic analysis was used to analyze semistructured interviews of 15 foster parents. Three major areas emerged as a result of the analysis: (a) the experience of sibling relationships in foster care, (b) how sibling relationships should be treated in foster care, and (c) ways to promote sibling relationships. All of the foster parents in this study discussed the importance of sibling relationships for the youth in their care and offer ways to promote these relationships through collaboration and education. Implications for foster parent training and child welfare practice are discussed.
Analysis and geometry on non-smooth domains

This paper is a summary of the talk given with the occasion of the author’s induction as Corresponding Member of the Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales. We describe recent results in an area of analysis which focuses on the relationship between the geometric properties of a domain and the behavior near the boundary of the solutions to canonical PDEs in this domain. © 2017. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Ex. Fis. Nat.
Tibial Plateau Fracture Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction with a Bone-Patellar Tendon-Bone Allograft: A Case Report.

Case A 36-year-old woman sustained a medial tibial plateau fracture involving a tibial tunnel that had been used 4 years prior for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with a bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) allograft in the same knee. At 26 months following open reduction and internal fixation of the tibial plateau fracture (6 years following the index ACL reconstruction), the patient returned to full activity. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first report of a tibial plateau fracture following ACL reconstruction with a BPTB allograft, which adds to the paucity of literature discussing tibial plateau fractures following ACL reconstruction and discusses the potential predisposing factors to fracture such as ACL graft selection and surgical technique.
Advanced placement and CPA exam performance: Implications for recruitment of quality students into college accounting programs

Abstract Recruiting top talent into accounting careers is essential to the continued prosperity of the profession, and the AICPA Pathways Commission has speculated that an advanced placement accounting course could increase recruitment of quality students into accounting programs of study. Although the College Board does not currently offer an accounting course for advanced placement credit, research outside of accounting does suggest that advanced placement students, in general, may represent a high-quality pool for recruitment into college accounting programs. The current study explores this possibility by examining relationships between students' advanced placement engagement and success and their subsequent performance on the CPA exam. Data provided by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) for 1005 CPA exam takers, along with additional survey information, shows that high school students who engaged in advanced placement courses and passed related exams experienced relatively greater success on the CPA exam compared to students who did not take or pass AP courses. Additional analyses using Bloom's Taxonomy, suggest that certain advanced placement courses, those that focus on higher-order thinking skills, have the highest correspondence with CPA exam success. The current research is the first in the accounting literature to provide empirical evidence showing advanced placement to be an important factor when recruiting high school students into college accounting programs.
An Economic Analysis Model for Determining the Custom versus Commercial Software Tradeoff

Recent cuts in defense spending have prompted managers to seek to conserve resources in many innovative ways. Whereas historically a program development effort would make only marginal efforts to borrow techniques and take advantage of technology transfers from mature programs, today’s programs are attempting to minimize the “reinventing the wheel” behavior. Along those lines, the modern program manager has additional decisions to make concerning how to satisfy his application software requirements. Before deciding in which software language and environment his program will be developed, he should determine just how much software he must develop, and how much may have already been developed for him; i.e. he must determine whether a commercially available software package would satisfy some of his requirements. Today’s competitive environment has led to the creation of several commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products that are capable of satisfying very large software system requirements, often at a fraction of the cost of newly- developed software projects.
Spatio-Temporal Analysis of HPC I/O and Connection Data

The HPC system consists of a set of layers of software and hardware for I/O and networking. System logs are helpful resources to understand what is going on in the system. A challenge is that it is non-trivial to analyze the logs maintained in various levels of the stack. Independent analysis might lead to an incomplete conclusion due to the limited coverage of each log. This work takes a comprehensive approach to analysis that incorporates the logs in the multiple layers and components, in order to facilitate the detection of anomalous activities. This research aims to identify and predict potential performance bottlenecks in the HPC system, by capturing the temporal variation patterns from heterogeneous, high-dimensional, and non-linear log data. In this paper, we share our preliminary efforts for spatio-temporal analysis of HPC I/O and connection data, with our initial observations from the analysis of one-week HPC log data sets collected from one of NERSC systems.
NCCC: NC-OFDM-based control channel establishment in cognitive radio networks using subcarrier pulses

In cognitive radio networks (CRN), the secondary users need control channels for negotiating communication parameters and exchanging control messages. Previous studies either preselect a dedicated control channel or find a control channel dynamically using channel-hopping (CH) approaches. However, preselected control channels in the licensed spectrum are unrealistic, and the time it takes for CH-based approaches increases drastically when the number of channels increases. NC-OFDM is a promising technology that can access partial channels and aggregate spectrum fragments. However, forming NC-OFDM-based Control Channel (NCCC) is seldom discussed. Therefore, we propose an efficient approach for guaranteed NCCC establishment by utilizing subcarrier pulses. The results show that the time needed for NCCC is lower than that of CH-based approaches. Additionally, the proposed approach can establish NCCC even if there is no common channel in the CRN. NC-OFDM-based control interfaces improve the control channel establishment rate even if the interfaces can only access the spectrum bandwidth that is equal to one channel.
Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators in Trials of Drug Therapy for Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND Medical therapy for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction evolved since trials validated the use of implantable cardioverter–defibrillators (ICDs). We sought to evaluate the perfo...
Protected Health Information filter (Philter): accurately and securely de-identifying free-text clinical notes

There is a great and growing need to ascertain what exactly is the state of a patient, in terms of disease progression, actual care practices, pathology, adverse events, and much more, beyond the paucity of data available in structured medical record data. Ascertaining these harder-to-reach data elements is now critical for the accurate phenotyping of complex traits, detection of adverse outcomes, efficacy of off-label drug use, and longitudinal patient surveillance. Clinical notes often contain the most detailed and relevant digital information about individual patients, the nuances of their diseases, the treatment strategies selected by physicians, and the resulting outcomes. However, notes remain largely unused for research because they contain Protected Health Information (PHI), which is synonymous with individually identifying data. Previous clinical note de-identification approaches have been rigid and still too inaccurate to see any substantial real-world use, primarily because they have been trained with too small medical text corpora. To build a new de-identification tool, we created the largest manually annotated clinical note corpus for PHI and develop a customizable open-source de-identification software called Philter ("Protected Health Information filter"). Here we describe the design and evaluation of Philter, and show how it offers substantial real-world improvements over prior methods.
Provable Neuromorphic Advantages for Computing Shortest Paths

Neuromorphic computing offers the potential of an unprecedented level of parallelism at a local scale. Although in their infancy, current first-generation neuromorphic processing units (NPUs) deliver as many as 128K artificial neurons in a package smaller than current laptop CPUs and demanding significantly less energy. Neuromorphic systems consisting of such NPUs and offering a total of 100 million neurons are anticipated in 2020. NPUs were envisioned to accelerate machine learning, and designing neuromorphic algorithms to leverage the benefits of NPUs in other domains remains an open challenge. We design and analyze neuromorphic graph algorithms, focusing on shortest path problems. Our neuromorphic algorithms are packet-passing algorithms relying on data movement for computation, and we develop data-movement lower bounds for conventional algorithms. A fair and rigorous comparison with conventional algorithms and architectures is paramount, and we prove a polynomial-factor advantage even when we assume an NPU with a simple grid-like network of neurons. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first examples of a provable asymptotic computational advantage for neuromorphic computing.
Incentivizing faculty for open educational resources (OER) adoption and open textbook authoring

Abstract This survey assessed the experiences of faculty who participated in a textbook affordability program at Rutgers University. The program provided incentive awards in exchange for replacing commercial textbooks with affordable course materials such as open educational resources (OER), self-developed course materials, course reserves, or library-licensed content. The survey collected faculty's perceptions about the award program, experiences with OER, and interest in open textbook authoring. Responses suggest that the program is well received and that funds are adequate for adopting new course materials. However, they also indicate that even participating faculty vary greatly in their knowledge and use of OER and their interest in authoring open textbooks. Ultimately, these survey results indicate the lack of a “one size fits all” approach to incentivizing the adoption of affordable course materials, the use of OER, and the creation of new open resources.
Monopsony and collective action in an institutional context

Recent empirical research has documented a dramatic change in government’s role in regulating employer–employee relations, a collapse in workers’ collective action, and low wage growth contributing...
Constraining population synthesis models via the binary neutron star population

The observed sample of double neutron-star (NS-NS) binaries presents a challenge to population-synthesis models of compact object formation: the parameters entering into these models must be carefully chosen so as to match (i) the observed star formation rate and (ii) the formation rate of NS-NS binaries, which can be estimated from the observed sample and the selection effects related to the discoveries with radio-pulsar surveys. In this paper, we select from an extremely broad family of possible population synthesis models those few (2%) which are consistent with the observed sample of NS-NS binaries. To further sharpen the constraints the observed NS-NS population places upon our understanding of compact-object formation processes, we separate the observed NS-NS population into two channels: (i) merging NS-NS binaries, which will inspiral and merge through the action of gravitational waves within $10 $ Gyr, and (ii) wide NS-NS binaries, consisting of all the rest. With the subset of astrophysically consistent models, we explore the implications for the rates at which double black hole (BH-BH), black hole-neutron star (BH-NS), and NS-NS binaries will merge through the emission of gravitational waves.
Evolution of a quasi-two-dimensional shear layer in a soap film flow

A quasi-two-dimensional shear layer is produced by merging two gravity-driven flows of soap film at different average velocities. The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability dominates the evolution of the shear layer, similar to what is observed in three-dimensional shear layers. However, the constraints that effectively limit the flow to two spatial dimensions have a considerable influence on the development of secondary instabilities and transition to turbulence. Nearly 40 cm downstream in the flow, two two-dimensional instabilities are observed, namely, vortex-pairing and secondary Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. The development of secondary instabilities and transition to turbulence in the flow is also affected by the interaction of the flowing soap film with boundary layers forming in the air surrounding the flowing soap film in the direction normal to the plane of the film. This becomes apparent when the flow is analyzed quantitatively in terms of the mixing interface length and fractal dimension. Initially, the mixing interface length grows exponentially with the downstream distance; however, beyond a certain distance, the growth stops. For the fractal dimension of the mixing interface in our quasi-two-dimensional shear layer, we have observed a peak value of 1.27 as compared to 1.34 reported in the literature for a corresponding section of a three-dimensional shear layer. For scales larger than ∼1 cm, interaction with air begins to dominate as the leading mechanism of dissipation. Coupling with boundary layers in air near the soap film drains energy from the large flow features and apparently “freezes” its evolution, producing “fossil” turbulence at large downstream distances.
Postcarotid endarterectomy hyperfusion or reperfusion syndrome

To the Editor: I read with great interest the study by Karapanayiotides et al.1 This study highlighted several important features of the hyperperfusion syndrome and raises several questions. It is not entirely surprising that the middle cerebral artery mean flow velocities do not reliably predict the occurrence of the hyperperfusion syndrome. The relationship between velocity and volumetric flow is complex and not always predictable. As suggested, it is likely that volumetric flow may contribute to microvascular trauma. Furthermore, the relationship between the release of free radicals and metabolic products after reperfusion and their contribution to intracerebral endothelial dysfunction has not been studied adequately in this setting. …
Identification of non-volatile compounds that negatively impact whole wheat bread flavor liking.

Abstract Untargeted LC–MS flavoromic analysis was utilized to identify chemical compounds that impact consumer liking of whole wheat bread. Chemical fingerprints of thirteen whole wheat breads were modeled against consumer flavor liking scores by orthogonal partial least squares (OPLS) with good fit (R2Y = 0.98) and predictive ability (Q2 = 0.95). The four most predictive features (negatively correlated) were identified as 9S,12S,13S-trihydroxy-octadec-10E-enoic acid (pinellic acid), 9S,12S,13S-trihydroxy-octadeca-10E,15Z-dienoic acid, 8R*,9R*,10S*-trihydroxy-octadec-6Z-enoic acid, and 1-(octadeca-9Z,12Z-dienoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. Sensory validation studies including bitter threshold determination and recombination tests confirmed the contribution of these compounds to the perceived bitterness intensity of the bread samples and the overall negative impact on flavor liking. Lipoxygenase activity of the flour was reported to have a significant impact on the formation of the three bitter compounds (trihydroxy fatty acids) in the bread samples.
Back2Future: Leveraging Backfill Dynamics for Improving Real-time Predictions in Future

In real-time forecasting in public health, data collection is a non-trivial and demanding task. Often after initially released, it undergoes several revisions later (maybe due to human or technical constraints) - as a result, it may take weeks until the data reaches to a stable value. This so-called 'backfill' phenomenon and its effect on model performance has been barely studied in the prior literature. In this paper, we introduce the multi-variate backfill problem using COVID-19 as the motivating example. We construct a detailed dataset composed of relevant signals over the past year of the pandemic. We then systematically characterize several patterns in backfill dynamics and leverage our observations for formulating a novel problem and neural framework Back2Future that aims to refines a given model's predictions in real-time. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that our method refines the performance of top models for COVID-19 forecasting, in contrast to non-trivial baselines, yielding 18% improvement over baselines, enabling us obtain a new SOTA performance. In addition, we show that our model improves model evaluation too; hence policy-makers can better understand the true accuracy of forecasting models in real-time.
Windstream Holdings: It's a Wonderful Case

In the classic holiday film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, receives an unlikely Christmas gift: a glimpse of what the world would be like if he had never been born. The story has resonated with generations of viewers in large part because it is easy to empathize with the loyal, honest, and charming young president of Bailey’s Savings & Loan in Bedford Falls. But the story also resonates because its Depression-era backdrop plays so effectively to deep-seeded fears regarding economic collapse, financial instability, and the ways in which mankind responds to scarcity. Of course, these are also major themes of bankruptcy law. With or without a guardian angel by their side, parties to bankruptcy proceedings must grapple with and respond to scarcity, conflict, and uncertainty. This holiday season, a business reorganization case unfolding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York offers an opportunity to take up a bankruptcy-themed variation on the question that plagued George Bailey. The debtor is Windstream Holdings, Inc., which previously spun off its real estate assets to a separate entity called Uniti Group Inc. and then leased them back pursuant to a long-term master lease agreement. At the time, the sale and leaseback transaction provided an attractive alternative to traditional secured financing. In this issue of Bankruptcy Law Letter, we will consider how Windstream’s eventual bankruptcy case might have proceeded had Uniti never been born. As we will see, Windstream’s chosen recapitalization structure had profound implications for the company’s eventual bankruptcy, setting the case on a very different course than if the debtor had achieved a similar result through traditional financing. Just as George Bailey’s glimpse has helped countless viewers focus on what is most important in their own lives, a glimpse of what might have been for Windstream helps us to focus on the essential goals of bankruptcy law and policy.
Maintaining pluralism when embedding computational thinking in required science and engineering classes with young adolescents

Background and Context: Computational thinking and practices (CT|P) are key competencies for learners in science and engineering. For studies with young adolescents as participants, manifested rese...
Comparative effectiveness of second-line immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy versus chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma

Abstract Objectives Second-line immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) was recently shown to have a survival advantage over placebo in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), but the survival comparison to chemotherapy in patients with MPM receiving routine clinical care is unknown. Our objective was to examine the effectiveness of second-line ICI versus chemotherapy on overall survival (OS) outcomes in real-world patients with advanced MPM. Materials and Methods We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of real-world adult patients with advanced MPM who received first-line platinum-based chemotherapy and at least two total lines of systemic therapy. Patients received either second-line chemotherapy (gemcitabine and/or vinorelbine) or ICI therapy (pembrolizumab or nivolumab ± ipilimumab). The primary outcome was OS, defined as the time from second-line therapy initiation to death or end of the observation period. We used Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards modeling with adjustment for relevant patient demographic and clinical variables to compare OS between the two second-line treatment groups. Results Of the 176 patients with MPM, the median age was 75 years (IQR: 69–79.5 years), and most were white (77%), male (74%), and had epithelioid histology (67%). Thirty-five percent (61) received second-line chemotherapy and 65% (1 1 5) ICI therapy (80 pembrolizumab, 31 nivolumab, and 4 nivolumab + ipilimumab). Treatment with ICI was associated with significantly longer median OS compared to chemotherapy (8.7 vs 5.0 months, p=0.001; adjusted hazard ratio: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.34–0.81). The estimated 12-month OS probability was 36.7% (95% CI: 27.6%-45.8%) and 15.6% (95% CI: 7.7%-26.1%) in the ICI and chemotherapy groups, respectively. Conclusion In this “real-world” population of patients with MPM, treatment with ICI was associated with improved OS outcomes compared to chemotherapy in the second-line setting, in contrast with a recent clinical trial. Our findings suggest that ICI may benefit patients with advanced MPM and progression after initial platinum-based chemotherapy.
Long-Term Recurrence of Retroperitoneal Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma After a Complete Surgical Resection: A Report of a Rare Phenomenon

The objective of this report is to present a rare case of a recurrence after 20 years of retroperitoneal dedifferentiated liposarcoma after surgical resection and to discuss the lessons learned from this rare phenomenon for patients management and understanding the behavior of these aggressive tumors. A 75-year-old woman presented with recurrent retroperitoneal dedifferentiated liposarcoma who had undergone a surgical resection 20 years earlier and had no evidence of disease on frequent follow-ups during that period. The histopathologic examination revealed different morphologic characteristics between the initial and recurrent presentations. The fluorescence in situ hybridization showed amplification of the mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2), a regulator of p53 gene on chromosome 12q15, and positive cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) immunostain. Liposarcoma long-term recurrence is a challenging surgical disease to provide the best survival outcome. Incomplete resection could explain the recurrence in anatomic locations where the lesions are intermixed with the neighboring adipose tissue. However, dedifferentiated liposarcoma can rarely recur after 20 years. The molecular transformation and the survival analysis of these tumors predict certain behaviors. The refraction for radiation therapy in our case and the mixed morphology provide some insight into the biology and the clinical management for these aggressive tumors.
British Romanticism and the Science of the Mind

In this provocative and original study, Alan Richardson examines an entire range of intellectual, cultural, and ideological points of contact between British Romantic literary writing and the pioneering brain science of the time. Richardson breaks new ground in two fields, revealing a significant and undervalued facet of British Romanticism while demonstrating the 'Romantic' character of early neuroscience. Crucial notions like the active mind, organicism, the unconscious, the fragmented subject, instinct and intuition, arising simultaneously within the literature and psychology of the era, take on unsuspected valences that transform conventional accounts of Romantic cultural history. Neglected issues like the corporeality of mind, the role of non-linguistic communication, and the peculiarly Romantic understanding of cultural universals are reopened in discussions that bring new light to bear on long-standing critical puzzles, from Coleridge's suppression of 'Kubla Khan', to Wordsworth's perplexing theory of poetic language, to Austen's interest in head injury.
Synchronization of Josephson oscillations in a mesa array of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ through the Josephson plasma waves in the base crystal

Abstract Using mesa array fabricated at the top of Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 single crystal was demonstrated recently as a promising route to enhance the radiation power generated by the Josephson oscillations in mesas. We study the synchronization in such an array via the plasma waves in the base crystal. First, we analyze plasma oscillations inside the base crystal generated by the synchronized mesa array and the associated dissipation. We then solve the dynamic equation for the superconducting phase numerically to find conditions for synchronization and to check the stability of the synchronized state. We find that the mesas are synchronized when the cavity resonance of mesas matches with that of the base crystal. An optimal configuration of the mesa arrays is also obtained.
Analyzing Protein Sequences Using Signal Analysis Techniques

This chapter discusses the use of frequency and time-frequency signal processing methods for the analysis of protein sequence data. The amino acid sequence of a protein may be considered as a twenty symbol alphabet sequence, or it may be considered as a sequence of numerical values reflecting various physicochemical aspects of the amino acids such as hydrophobicity, bulkiness, or electron-ion interaction potential. When primary protein sequence information is mapped into numerical values, it is possible to treat the sequence as a signal and apply well known signal processing methods for analysis. These methods allow proteins to be clustered into functional families and can also lead to the identification of biologically active sights. This chapter discusses frequency and time-frequency methods for protein sequence analysis and illustrates these concepts using various protein families. In addition, a method for selecting appropriate numerical mappings of amino acids is introduced.
Bypassing the Transistor Paradigm

Current computer technology is based on solid state transistors, in which binary information is carried by switching current between "on" and "off" states. When these devices are shrunk to the molecular scale, they run up against fundamental physical limits, most importantly regarding energy dissipation; as a result, superdense transistor devices would melt as soon as they were switched on. In this Perspective, Lent discusses the advantages of an alternative route to molecular electronics, quantum-dot cellular automata, which store binary information in a charge configuration instead of a current switch.
Extraction and Application of Expert Priors to Combine Multiple Segmentations of Human Brain Tissue

This paper evaluates strategies to combine multiple segmentations of the same image, generated for example by different segmentation methods or by different human experts. Three methods are compared, each estimating and using a different level of prior knowledge about the segmenters. These three methods are: simple label averaging (no priors), a binary expectation maximization (EM) method with independent per-label priors [Warfield et al., MICCAI 2002], and a simultaneous multi-label EM method with across-label priors [Rohlfing et al., IPMI 2003]. The EM methods estimate the accuracies of the individual segmentations with respect to the (unknown) ground truth. These estimates, analogous to expert performance parameters, are then applied as weights in the actual combination step. In the case of the multi-label EM method, typical misclassification behavior, caused for example by neighborhood relationships of different tissues, is also modeled. A validation study using the MNI BrainWeb phantom shows that decision fusion based on the two EM methods consistently outperforms label averaging. Of the two EM methods, the multi-label technique produced more accurate combined segmentations than the binary method. We conclude that the EM methods are useful to produce more accurate segmentations from several different segmentations of the same image.
Community-driven violence reduction programs: examining Pittsburgh's One Vision One Life

D espite some evidence of reductions (FBI, 2009a), violent crime remains among the most important social problems affecting the quality of life in communities throughout the United States. Aggregate reductions also mask the variability in violence among and within communities. The total number of persons annually victimized by violence remains high. In 2008, more than 9,000 persons were killed with guns (FBI, 2009b). In 2006, 71,000 persons suffered nonfatal gunshot wounds, and 2.1 million persons sustained an injury requiring emergency-room treatment as a result of a violent incident (CDC, 2010). Overall, more than six million individuals were victimized by crimes of violence in 2006 (BJS, 2007). One comprehensive review of gun research indicated that firearms play a significant role in violence and that young persons are particularly vulnerable to violence and death from firearms (Wellford, Pepper, and Petrie, 2005). The impact of violent crime on individuals, families, and communities is substantial. Some estimates indicate that the annual costs of gun violence are approximately $100 billion (Cook and Ludwig, 2000). The annual costs of all personal victimization by violence, including intangible losses such as pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life, are more than $450 billion (NIJ, 1996). This figure is dated and likely to be significantly higher today.
Interaction of Human DNA Polymerase α and DNA Polymerase I from Bacillus stearothermophilus with Hypoxanthine and 8-Oxoguanine Nucleotides

To better understand how DNA polymerases interact with mutagenic bases, we examined how human DNA polymerase α (pol α), a B family enzyme, and DNA polymerase from Bacillus stearothermophilus (BF), an A family enzyme, generate adenine:hypoxanthine and adenine:8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG) base pairs. Pol α strongly discriminated against polymerizing dATP opposite 8-oxoG, and removing N1, N6, or N7 further inhibited incorporation, whereas removing N3 from dATP dramatically increased incorporation (32-fold). Eliminating N6 from 3-deaza-dATP now greatly reduced incorporation, suggesting that incorporation of dATP (analogues) opposite 8-oxoguanine proceeds via a Hoogsteen base-pair and that pol α uses N3 of a purine dNTP to block this incorporation. Pol α also polymerized 8-oxo-dGTP across from a templating A, and removing N6 from the template adenine inhibited incorporation of 8-oxoG. The effects of N1, N6, and N7 demonstrated a strong interdependence during formation of adenine:hypoxanthine base-pairs by pol α and N3 of dATP again helps prevent polymerization opposite a templating hypoxanthine. BF very efficiently polymerized 8-oxo-dGTP opposite adenine, and N1 and N7 of adenine appear to play important roles. BF incorporates dATP opposite 8-oxoG less efficiently, and modifying N1, N6, or N7 greatly inhibits incorporation. N6, and to a lesser extent N1, help drive hypoxanthine:adenine base pair formation by BF. The mechanistic implications of these results showing that different polymerases interact very differently with base lesions are discussed.
Diazepam versus midazolam for colonoscopy: a prospective evaluation of predicted versus actual dosing requirements

We performed a prospective, randomized, double-blind study to evaluate the efficacy of the currently recommended low doses of midazolam for conscious sedation compared with diazepam for colonoscopy. Each agent was administered in a fixed ratio dose in combination with meperidine, and titrated incrementally to allow for adequate sedation prior to initiating and during the procedure. The currently recommended starting dose of midazolam (0.03 mg/kg) proved to be very appropriate for pre-medication. In contrast, the currently recommended starting dose of diazepam (0.10 mg/kg) proved excessive in 21% of patients (especially in those aged > 65). The low initial and incremental doses of midazolam compared favorably with diazepam in all efficacy parameters studied and exceeded diazepam in post-procedure amnesia scores (p = 0.01). Moreover, the sedative effects of midazolam at these lower doses were not lost despite long duration procedures (> 40 min). We conclude that midazolam, given in small incremental doses, in combination with meperidine, produces effective conscious sedation for colonoscopy and exceeds diazepam in its amnestic effect.
The internal mammary artery malperfusion syndrome: Late angiographic verification

Background. Here we report our experience with the incidence and the surgical treatment of the internal mammary artery (IMA) malperfusion syndrome, evaluate the predictive role of previously described risk factors for the syndrome, and assess the late patency of IMA grafts in patients in whom an IMA malperfusion syndrome was diagnosed and treated by additional saphenous vein grafting of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Methods. From June 1992 to November 1995, 969 IMAs were anastomosed to the left anterior descending coronary artery system. In 11 patients, IMA malperfusion syndrome was diagnosed and treated by additional saphenous vein grafting of the LAD. There were 8 men and 3 women with a mean age of 58.9 years. The angiographic and clinical data for each patient were reviewed, and all but 1 surviving patient underwent late angiographic control (mean follow-up, 18 months; range, 4 to 46 months). Results. One patient died in the hospital. No previously described risk factor was strongly associated with the occurrence of IMA malperfusion syndrome. Late angiography revealed a malfunctioning IMA graft in 7 of the 9 patients. A string sign was observed in 1 patient and a normally functioning IMA anastomosed to a diagonal branch not connected to the LAD, in another. In no patient was a widely patent and normally functioning IMA graft observed. Conclusions. In our series, a high proportion of IMA grafts were found to be malfunctioning at late angiography. This observation, in contrast to previous reports, suggests that IMA malperfusion syndrome can often be attributable to technical problems in harvesting the IMA or in performing the IMA anastomosis. Functional IMA insufficiency seems to play only a marginal role in determining the IMA malperfusion syndrome.
A thermodynamic analysis of the bi-s system by an associated solution model

Abstract The available phase equilibria and thermodynamic data have been used to thermodynamically analyse the Bi-S system. An associated solution model is used to describe the thermodynamic properties of the liquid phase by assuming the presence of ‘BiS’ species in the liquid in addition to ‘Bi’ and ‘S’ species. The phase diagram and the thermodynamic properties, calculated from the optimized parameters, agree very well with the experimental data.
Lesion side matters — An fMRI study on the association between neural correlates of watching dynamic fearful faces and their evaluation in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Most studies assessing facial affect recognition in patients with TLE reported emotional disturbances in patients with TLE. Results from the few fMRI studies assessing neural correlates of affective face processing in patients with TLE are divergent. Some, but not all, found asymmetrical mesiotemporal activations, i.e., stronger activations within the hemisphere contralateral to seizure onset. Little is known about the association between neural correlates of affect processing and subjective evaluation of the stimuli presented. Therefore, we investigated the neural correlates of processing dynamic fearful faces in 37 patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE; 18 with left-sided TLE (lTLE), 19 with right-sided TLE (rTLE)) and 20 healthy subjects. We additionally assessed individual ratings of the fear intensity and arousal perception of the fMRI stimuli and correlated these data with the activations induced by the fearful face paradigm and activation lateralization within the mesiotemporal structures (in terms of individual lateralization indices, LIs). In healthy subjects, whole-brain analysis showed bilateral activations within a widespread network of mesial and lateral temporal, occipital, and frontal areas. The patient groups activated different parts of this network. In patients with lTLE, we found predominantly right-sided activations within the mesial and lateral temporal cortices and the superior frontal gyrus. In patients with rTLE, we observed bilateral activations in the posterior regions of the lateral temporal lobe and within the occipital cortex. Mesiotemporal region-of-interest analysis showed bilateral symmetric activations associated with watching fearful faces in healthy subjects. According to the region of interest and LI analyses, in the patients with lTLE, mesiotemporal activations were lateralized to the right hemisphere. In the patients with rTLE, we found left-sided mesiotemporal activations. In patients with lTLE, fear ratings were comparable to those of healthy subjects and were correlated with relatively stronger activations in the right compared to the left amygdala. Patients with rTLE showed significantly reduced fear ratings compared to healthy subjects, and we did not find associations with amygdala lateralization. Although we found stronger activations within the contralateral mesial temporal lobe in the majority of all patients, our results suggest that only in the event of left-sided mesiotemporal damage is the right mesial temporal lobe able to preserve intact facial fear recognition. In the event of right-sided mesiotemporal damage, fear recognition is disturbed. This underlines the hypothesis that the right amygdala is biologically predisposed to processing fear, and its function cannot be fully compensated in the event of right-sided mesiotemporal damage.
Network congestion avoidance through Speculative Reservation

Congestion caused by hot-spot traffic can significantly degrade the performance of a computer network. In this study, we present the Speculative Reservation Protocol (SRP), a new network congestion control mechanism that relieves the effect of hot-spot traffic in high bandwidth, low latency, lossless computer networks. Compared to existing congestion control approaches like Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN), which react to network congestion through packet marking and rate throttling, SRP takes a proactive approach of congestion avoidance. Using a light-weight endpoint reservation scheme and speculative packet transmission, SRP avoids hot-spot congestion while incurring minimal overhead. Our simulation results show that SRP responds more rapidly to the onset of severe hot-spots than ECN and has a higher network throughput on bursty network traffic. SRP also performs comparably to networks without congestion control on benign traffic patterns by reducing the latency and throughput overhead commonly associated with reservation protocols.
Searches for supermassive X- particles in iron.

Two searches have been made for negatively charged massive elementary particles (X/sup -/) in iron nuclei by utilizing the fact that such systems would have the nuclear properties of iron but the chemical properties of manganese. We have looked for /sup 56,58/FeX/sup -/ by searching for ..gamma.. rays emitted following the ..beta.. decays of /sup 56/CoX/sup -/ and /sup 59/FeX/sup -/ produced by (p,n) and (n,..gamma..) reactions, respectively. No evidence of such particles was observed in either experiment, and a limit has been established on the possible concentration of X/sup -/ particles in iron of <1.2 x 10/sup -12/ per nucleon.
Bayesian image reconstruction from partial image and spectral amplitude data

We address a problem of reconstruction of a periodic image from information in image space and Fourier space. The real space information consists of knowledge of part of the image, while the Fourier space information is data in the form of sums of the squares of the amplitudes of sets of particular Fourier coefficients of the image. Such a problem occurs in the determination of polymer structures from x-ray fiber diffraction data. We present a Bayesian approach to this problem, incorporating a priori model for the image based on the structure being made up of 'atoms'. The Bayesian minimum mean-square-error estimate for the missing part of the image is derived. Currently used heuristic estimates are the maxima of certain posterior densities. Simulations are performed for varying amounts of real and Fourier space information to assess the performance of the different estimators. The performance of the minimum mean- square-error estimate is superior to that of the other estimates.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Reply to “Comments on Brandow's ‘ideology’ myth, and reality: Sex equality in Israel”

It is regrettable t h a t p r o b a b l y because of lack of knowledge of Eng l i sh Bar-Yosef and Lieblich, the authors of the critique in this issue of S e x Ro le s , did not read my article carefully. Their criticism appears to be an effort to bypass my research in order to provide their own additional information on the legal and political reforms of the state in regard to the status of women. Although I briefly reviewed the formal status of women, the major argument, as stated in my article, was to show that the failure to establish sex equality is located in the very ideology that articulates the necessity for the emancipation of women, not at the level of their legal and political status. In fact, the point was made that, although many formal discriminatory practices have been abolished, attitudes toward women remain basically the same. With regard to criticism of the substantive aspects of the paper, it must be stated at the outset that the comments of Bar-Yosef and Lieblich are negated by the research findings of several Israeli writers and sociologists.
Neonatal Rat Pinealocytes: Typical and Atypical Characteristics of [125I]Iodohydroxybenzylpindolol Binding and Adenosine 3′5′-Monophosphate Accumulation

Techniques are described which make it possible to studyβ-adrenergic receptors on intact neuroendocrine cells. Receptors were characterized on neonatal pinealocytes using the radioligand [125I]iodohydroxybenzylpindolol ([125I]IHYP). Specific binding of [I25I]IHYP, which is 4-fold greater than nonspecific binding, is concentration and temperature dependent, reversible, and saturable. [125I]IHYP binds noncooperatively (Kd = 35 PM), and Scatchard analysis indicates that only a single class of receptor sites for [125I]IHYP is present. Under the conditions used, it appears that there are about 12,000 ± 1,100 sites/cell. Inhibition of specific [125I]IHYP binding by β-adrenergic agonists and antagonists is stereospecific, and the relative potency of agonists is characteristic of binding to β-adrenergic receptors. Analysis of adrenergic stimulation of intracellular cAMP accumulation indicates that similar half-maximal concentrations of antagonists inhibit [125I]IHYP binding and adrenergically stimulated cAMP accu...
Role of dose order in the development of tolerance to effects of cocaine on schedule-controlled behavior in pigeons.

Abstract Rationale. Tolerance to behavioral effects of cocaine can be produced by exposure to varying doses. The degree to which tolerance develops may depend on dose order. Objective. To investigate the relationships between three sequences of doses of cocaine in a daily, variable-dosing regimen and the development of tolerance to effects on schedule-controlled behavior. Methods. Twelve pigeons responded daily under a fixed-ratio 20 schedule of reinforcement, and performance was investigated under a range of doses of cocaine (0.3–10.0 mg/kg, i.m.) by administering the drug once every 7 days (acute effects). After determination of acute effects of cocaine, the drug was administered daily with dose varying from day to day. Dose order varied systematically across three groups of four pigeons; doses were delivered in ascending, descending, or "sawtooth" (ascending then descending) sequences. This variable-dosing regimen continued until drug effects were stable (at least 13 cycles through all doses). Results. During the acute-dosing regimen, response rates following small cocaine doses were similar to those under control conditions; following moderate-to-high doses, responding was diminished relative to control rates. During the variable-dosing regimen, tolerance to the rate-decreasing effects of cocaine was observed in all groups, regardless of the order in which the drug was delivered, and the magnitude of tolerance was similar across groups. Systematic differences in the rate of recovery from initial response decrements were observed across groups, with rate of recovery fastest under the ascending sequence. Conclusions. These results suggest that dose order under a variable-dosing regimen does not significantly affect the final attainment of tolerance, although it may contribute to the speed with which tolerance develops.