cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Young adults' motivations to feed wild birds and influences on their potential participation in citizen science: An exploratory study

Conservation science has rapidly adopted citizen science to engage the public in knowledge generation, developing environmental policies, solving localized environmental issues, and generating public support for environmental management. For conservation benefits to be just and equitable, it is important to ensure underserved groups have the opportunity to contribute to citizen science, but the barriers and drivers for their participation are poorly understood. This study explores the perspectives of young adults (18–50 years) who feed wild birds. Their cohort is underrepresented in Project FeederWatch, a large-scale North American citizen science project. Interviews with 72 young adults who do not participate in Project FeederWatch, reveal their motivations to feed birds to be primarily for the benefits it provides for themselves (such as experiencing nature, joy and relaxation) and helping the birds survive. An additional motivation, previously undetected, is to share their feeder bird experiences with others in their social networks. The interviewees hold positive attitudes towards involvement in, and outcomes of Project FeederWatch, although some concerns and barriers to participation are particular to their age group. Most notably, limits on their time and financial resources typical for their life-stage present substantial challenges to their involvement. Project design elements including simple instructions and protocol, a mobile app, and reminders will enable their participation. Social norms related to participation in citizen science are found to be weak. This exploratory work is essential for further research on young adults' involvement in knowledge generation to inform conservation science and practice.
Sensemaking and Negative Emotion Sharing: Perceived Listener Reactions as Interpersonal Cues Driving Workplace Outcomes

Emotions are a ubiquitous part of the workplace, and research on emotion sharing suggests that people often seek out others to express and share their emotions, in particular their negative emotions. Drawing from theory on sensemaking within organizations, we argue that employee perceptions of listener responses to negative emotion/stressful-event sharing have a significant impact on how included employees feel with their peers and their organization-based self-esteem. If employees perceive that others have responded positively to their sharing of negative emotions, they will experience positive inclusion and esteem beliefs and seek to maintain these positive views through socially attached attitudes (i.e., greater commitment and lower turnover intentions). However, if employees perceive listeners have responded negatively, inclusion, esteem, and socially attached attitudes will suffer. Across two studies, we found that employees’ perceptions that others tended to respond to them in a positive manner (e.g., by being supportive and validating the employees’ perspective) predicted the extent to which employees felt included, and experienced positive organization-based self-esteem. In turn, this translated into increased organizational commitment and decreased turnover intentions. In contrast, perceived negative listener reactions (e.g., responding in a critical or disengaged manner) threatened these outcomes. Our second study suggested that these effects are more driven by identity (i.e., esteem)-related processes than by generalized perceptions of social support, and that these effects are stronger for those with lower levels of communion striving.
Chapter 8 – Data Structures: Cell Arrays and Structures

Data structures are variables that store more than one value. There are many different kinds of data structures. We have already been working with one kind, arrays (e.g., vectors and matrices). We use vectors and matrices when we want to be able to loop through them (or, essentially, have this done for us using vectorized code). A cell array is a kind of data structure that stores values of different types. Cell arrays can be vectors or matrices; the different values are referred to as the elements of the array. One very common use of a cell array is to store strings of different lengths. Structures are data structures that group together values that are logically related, but are not the same thing and not necessarily the same type. The different values are stored in separate fields of the structure. One use of structures is to set up a database of information. In many programming languages and database programs the terminology is that within a database file there would be one record of information; each separate piece of information would be called a field of the record. In the MATLAB® software these records are called structs. Both cell arrays and structures can be used to store values that are different types in a single variable. The main difference between them is that cell arrays are indexed, and can therefore be used with loops or vectorized code. Structures, however, are not indexed; the values are referenced using the names of the fields, which can be more mnemonic than indexing.
GPS Modernization and Beyond

The US Government embarked on a modernization effort for GPS starting in the late 1990s. As a result, 8 additional signals were defined - along with numerous other capabilities - and acquisitions were initiated to implement the modernized signals and capabilities, in the form of the IIR-M, IIF and GPS III satellite blocks and upgrades to the ground segment. Modernized GPS is currently being deployed and used worldwide, and the performance of the system continues to improve to remain the gold standard for GNSS. The paper describes how GPS is currently being modernized and quantifies the impact of this current round of modernization on GPS performance. Given this new baseline, opportunities and drivers are identified for the next round of capabilities.
The Mutual Judicial Influence of National Courts and the European Court of Justice through the Preliminary Rulings mechanism: Evidence from the UK

Taking the moment of imminent UK exit from the European Union as an opportunity to reflect on the mutual influence of the CJEU and the English courts, this chapter examines 113 preliminary references made by the higher English courts over a 10-year period to investigate two related questions. These are: first, the extent to which the CJEU’s rulings have been implemented by the British courts, and second the extent to which the interpretations proposed by the UK courts seem to have influenced the CJEU. On the first question, the study finds that there is a remarkable lack of information available about what happens following preliminary rulings of the Luxembourg Court, which makes it very difficult to assess the extent to which the preliminary rulings of the CJEU were implemented by the referring UK courts in this study. On the second question, the findings of the study suggest that in the substantial number of cases in which the British courts advanced a proposed interpretation of EU law, the CJEU adopted that interpretation in a majority of those cases. Hence, even though the CJEU has rarely acknowledged the influence of national referring courts on its rulings, the cases referred from the higher UK courts over the past decade suggest that instead of a one-way relationship in which British courts were subject to the overriding authority of the CJEU, there was arguably a process of mutual influence in which the Luxembourg court more often than not adopted the interpretation of EU law proposed by the British court.
Using the nucleocapsid protein to investigate the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and closely related bat and pangolin coronaviruses

An initial outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China has resulted in a massive global pandemic causing well over 9,200,000 cases and 470,000 deaths worldwide. The virus responsible, SARS-CoV-2, is known to have a close association with Bat-CoV RaTG13 and Pangolin-CoV MP789. The nucleocapsid protein can serve as a decent model for determining phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships in coronaviruses. Therefore, this present study uses the nucleocapsid gene and protein to further investigate the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and closely related bat and pangolin coronaviruses. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses have revealed the nucleocapsid gene and protein in SARS-CoV-2 are closely related to those found in Bat-CoV RaTG13 and Pangolin-CoV MP789. Evidence of recombination was detected in the N gene and a double amino acid insertion was observed in the N-terminal region as well. Homology models for the N-Terminal Domain (NTD) revealed similar structure but distinct electrostatic surfaces and topological variations in the β-hairpin that are likely reflective of specific adaptive functions. Collectively, this data helps to strengthen the relationship among SARS-CoV-2, Bat-CoV RaTG13, and Pangolin-CoV MP789 and provide additional insights into the structure and adaptive nature of the nucleocapsid protein. Furthermore, this data will help enhance our understanding of the history behind SARS-CoV-2 and how it developed prior to its emergence.
Scalability of Sparse Matrix Dense Vector Multiply (SpMV) on a Migrating Thread Architecture.

Sparse matrix dense vector multiplication (SpMV), exhibits the memory bandwidth and communication driven nature of many sparse linear algebra operations. Irregular memory accesses from the non-zero structure within a sparse matrix wreak havoc on performance. This paper presents strong scaling for communication avoiding SpMV implementations on a migrating thread system intended to address the lack of locality in sparse problems. We developed communication avoiding SpMV code to attempt to reduce off-node thread migration by using the hypergraph partitioning package HYPE to determine workload distribution. Additionally, we investigate the performance impact of overlapping communication and computation through the use of remote memory operations supported by the architecture. Incorporating remote memory operations with hypergraph partitioning we achieved 6.18X speedup for overall performance.
Bias and Trends in Student Evaluations in Online Higher Education Settings

End-of course evaluations have been frequently used to assess teaching effectiveness and influence critical decisions about faculty contract renewal, future course assignment, tenure and promotion in higher education. This quantitative study sought to determine whether there are differences in student perceptions of faculty performance based on gender or faculty status (full-time vs. adjunct) in an online higher education environment. It also sought to answer these questions: 1) Do adjunct faculty tend to grade more leniently than full time faculty, and as such, do adjunct faculty receive higher evaluation ratings than full time faculty, who may be more stringent in grading? 2) Do student evaluation scores differ depending on the course being evaluated? 3) Does gender or faculty status impact student response rates? Survey responses from a total of 683 sections associated with 24 courses were analyzed from the March 2018 to January 2019 timeframe. Due to the broad range of class sizes and differences between faculty characteristics, the variances for each comparison sample were observed to be significantly different using Levene’s test for equal variances. Thus the Mann-Whitney test for two variables and the Kruskal-Wallis test for evaluation of significant difference between more than two variables were used on the data. While other literature and personal anecdotes may indicate that gender bias exists, this study did not indicate that gender bias is occurring in online higher education courses taught for the time period studied, suggesting gender neutrality.
Mechanics of membrane internalization against osmotic pressure: boundary conditions make a difference

In this paper, we study membrane deformations powered by a point force under the condition of high pressure and low tension, which is rarely studied but directly relevant for endocytosis in yeast cells with a cell wall. We show that the force-height relationship of membrane deformations under this condition is drastically different from that under conditions of high tension and low pressure. Depending on boundary conditions at the attachment point of membrane with the cell wall, the force-height relationship can exhibit qualitatively different behavior. Our theory is in excellent agreement with experimental shapes of membrane during endocytosis in yeast cells.
Potential role of dose escalation in overcoming acquired resistance to cabozantinib in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

e16568Background: Cabozantinib is among the most potent tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) approved for use in mRCC. Cabozantinib is available in tablet (CABOMETYX) and capsule (COMETRIQ) formulation...
Heat shock protein 27 activity is linked to endothelial barrier recovery after proinflammatory GPCR-induced disruption

Vascular inflammation causes endothelial barrier disruption and tissue edema. Several inflammatory mediators act through G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs), including protease-activated receptor-1...
Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder in Williams Syndrome: Case series and Review of Relevant Literature

Background Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with several medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Objective To describe the clinical presentation and treatment course of functional neurological symptom disorder (FNSD) in three adult patients with WS. Methods This report describes the clinical presentation and long-term follow-up of three individuals with WS and FNSD who experienced a range of clinical presentations and responses to treatment. The literature on the clinical assessment and treatment of FNSD as it applies to patients with neurodevelopmental disorders is reviewed. Results FNSD treatment strategies used in the general population were successfully adapted for these three patients. Literature on the diagnosis and treatment of FNSD in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders is lacking. Conclusions FNSD may be more common in individuals with WS than previously appreciated and future studies describing the prevalence, clinical presentation, risk factors, and treatment of FNSD in WS are needed.
Reframing Art with Nature: Flowers, People, and Art in Bloom

In extending Bernard Stiegler’s conceptualizations of life as the economy of death and Alexander Marshack’s historical tracings of early-human artifacts in relation to flowers, I strive to situate and read flowers as media that they carry an embedded history and infrastructure that reflects and challenges the anthropocentrism that has cultivated, commodified, and curated blooms throughout time. In looking to theorists such as Donna Haraway and Jane Bennett, I study a specific event in which flowers are presented to the public as art: the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Art in Bloom. Art in Bloom offers and sustains a complex media ecology, where paintings and sculptures readily and more permanently adorn the gallery spaces, living blooms are used as accompanying pieces of floral art for four days a year, text embeds all signifying information through the museum, money gains admittance to the space, and visitors experience the collective forces of mediation – and contribute to it by documenting their experience through personal digital photography. Such a study of flowers as both media and art must simultaneously recognize the humanist structures blooms are cultivated and commodified within, emphasizing Art in Bloom as a prime instance in which the tensions surrounding nature, gender, art, and media collide – and where traditional perceptions and understandings of what constitutes art is deconstructed and reverted for the human-oriented benefit and economic gains. How to cite this article: Dufresne, Kelsey Virginia. "Reframing Art with Nature: Flowers, People, and Art in Bloom." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 25 (September 2021): 67-80. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i25.448 Article received: April 20, 2021; Article accepted: June 21, 2021; Published online: September 15, 2021; Original scholarly paper
Oscillatory Gravity Waves in Flowing Water

The main objectives of this paper are (a) to determine the conditions of stability of progressive, oscillatory gravity waves in water flowing over smooth and artificially roughened surfaces and (b)...
Completed sequence of aflatoxin pathway gene cluster in Aspergillus parasiticus1

An 82-kb Aspergillus parasiticus genomic DNA region representing the completed sequence of the well-organized aflatoxin pathway gene cluster has been sequenced and annotated. In addition to the 19 reported and characterized aflatoxin pathway genes and the four sugar utilization genes in this cluster, we report here the identification of six newly identified genes which are putatively involved in aflatoxin formation. The function of these genes, the cluster organization and its significance in gene expression are discussed.
Prediction of accrual closure date in multi‐center clinical trials with discrete‐time Poisson process models

In a phase III multi-center cancer clinical trial or a large public health study, sample size is predetermined to achieve desired power, and study participants are enrolled from tens or hundreds of participating institutions. As the accrual is closing to the target size, the coordinating data center needs to project the accrual closure date on the basis of the observed accrual pattern and notify the participating sites several weeks in advance. In the past, projections were simply based on some crude assessment, and conservative measures were incorporated in order to achieve the target accrual size. This approach often resulted in excessive accrual size and subsequently unnecessary financial burden on the study sponsors. Here we proposed a discrete-time Poisson process-based method to estimate the accrual rate at time of projection and subsequently the trial closure date. To ensure that target size would be reached with high confidence, we also proposed a conservative method for the closure date projection. The proposed method was illustrated through the analysis of the accrual data of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project trial B-38. The results showed that application of the proposed method could help to save considerable amount of expenditure in patient management without compromising the accrual goal in multi-center clinical trials.
Dissolution of first unions in Colombia, Panama, and Peru.

An analysis of marital histories from World Fertility Survey data in Colombia, Panama, and Peru indicates a high level of union dissolution: the probabilities of a first union ending by separation within twenty years of the onset of union equal .27, .40, and .18 in the three countries respectively. Dissolution probabilities are especially high among women with young ages at first union and among women residing in urban areas. For all subgroups studied, consensual unions are characterized by several times the risk of separation of legal marriages. Consensual unions are especially frequent among women in rural areas, women with little education and women who enter unions at young ages. The different prevalence of consensual unions among the different subgroups affects the associations between union stability and various correlates so that it becomes essential to investigate the factors affecting union stability for both consensual unions and legal marriages. In spite of high dissolution rates, remarriage rates in all three countries are also high, as are the percentages of time spent in a union. Hence, the potential effects of voluntary disruption of unions on fertility appear to be modest.
Primary care appointment availability and preventive care utilization: evidence from an audit study.

Insurance expansions under the Affordable Care Act raise concerns about primary care access in communities with large numbers of newly insured. We linked individual-level, cross-sectional data on adult preventive care utilization from the 2011-2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to novel county-level measures of primary care appointment availability collected from an experimental audit study conducted in 10 states in 2012 to 2013 and other county-level health service and demographic measures. In multivariate regressions, we found higher county-level appointment availability for privately insured adults was associated with significantly lower preventive care utilization among adults likely to have private insurance. Estimates were attenuated after controlling for county-level uninsurance, poverty, and unemployment. By contrast, greater availability of Medicaid appointments was associated with higher, but not statistically significant, preventive care utilization for likely Medicaid enrollees. O...
Analysis, Design, and Performance of a Capacitive Pressure Sensor IC

Medkcal research has an urgent nieed for a small, accurate, stable, low-power, biocomnpatible, and inexpensive pressure sensor with a zero to full-scale range of 0-300 mmHg. A comparison of fundamenital transducer limits shows that the capacitive device offers better accuracy than the piezoresistive type. Limitations of the on-board circuitry, needed to buffer the transducer capacitor against parasitic capacitanice, hatve previously prevented the realilzation of this accuracy. An integrated circuit (IC) for use with acapacitive pressure transducer was designed, built, and tested. Capacitance is measured by a new ratiomnetric scheme employing an on-chip reference capacitor. The typical random pressure measuarement error due to resolution and nonlinearitiy is ±0.4 mmHlg (with a full-scale of 300 mmHg). The long-term systematic error due to falling battery voltage is ±0.6 mmHg. These figures Were calculated from measurements of temperature, supply dependence, and nonlinearity on completed integrated circuits. The ature compensation of the transducer.
Isolation and characterization of the porcine hypothalamic growth hormone releasing factor.

A 44 amino acid peptide with high intrinsic growth hormone releasing activity was isolated from 2500 porcine hypothalami by means of acid extraction, immunoaffinity chromatography, gel filtration, and 2 steps of reverse phase HPLC. The growth hormone releasing factor was structurally characterized by gas phase sequence analyses of the intact peptide and its carboxyl terminal cyanogen bromide digestion fragment. Reverse phase liquid chromatography of the native peptide and synthetic replicates showed that the molecule possesses an amide rather than a free acid at its carboxyl terminus. The structure of the peptide was established as: Tyr-Ala-Asp-Ala-Ile-Phe-Thr-Asn-Ser-Tyr-Arg-Lys-Val-Leu-Gly-Gln-Leu-Ser-Ala-Arg-Lys-Leu-Leu-Gln-Asp- Ile-Met-Ser-Arg-Gln-Gln-Gly-Glu-Arg-Asn-Gln-Glu-Gln-Gly-Ala-Arg-Val-Arg-Leu-NH2 using approximately 6 nmol of material.
EMOTIONAL CONTAGION Gender and Occupational Differences

Theorists have proposed that men and women and those in various occupational groups should differ in their susceptibility to primitive emotional contagion. Study 1 was designed to explore the exten...
2D Analysis of Acoustic Transfer Through the Chest Cavity of Sounds Associated With Coronary Artery Disease

Cardiovascular disease represents the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for about 35% of all deaths, the majority of which are due to Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), which alone accounts for 20% of all deaths [1]. This is primarily due to the difficulty in early diagnosis of CAD; only about 20% of all cases are diagnosed prior to the patient’s first heart attack [2]. This is due to the limitations of current diagnostic techniques, which are either invasive or prohibitively expensive for use as a screening test for CAD. Phonoangiography is a technique that promises inexpensive and noninvasive diagnosis of CAD by detecting the flow noise created by turbulent flow within a stenosed coronary artery, also known as a bruit in the medical community. This technique is not currently used due to the difficulties of detecting the faint sound of a bruit in the noisy environment of the chest. To the authors’ knowledge, analysis of the acoustic transfer of cardiovascular sounds through the chest has not studied previously. We hypothesize that the acoustic transfer function at different locations on the chest surface is significantly dependent on the source location, which would provide a signal processing technique for detecting the presence of CAD.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Use of Pharmacotherapies in the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders and Opioid Dependence in Primary Care

Substance-related and addictive disorders are chronic relapsing conditions that substantially impact public health. Effective treatments for these disorders require addressing substance use/dependence comprehensively as well as other associated comorbidities. Comprehensive addressing of substance use in a medical setting involves screening for substance use, addressing substance use directly with the patient, and formulating an appropriate intervention. For alcohol dependence and opioid dependence, pharmacotherapies are available that are safe and effective when utilized in a comprehensive treatment paradigm, such as medication assisted treatment. In primary care, substance use disorders involving alcohol, illicit opioids, and prescription opioid abuse are common among patients who seek primary care services. Primary care providers report low levels of preparedness and confidence in identifying substance-related and addictive disorders and providing appropriate care and treatment. However, new models of service delivery in primary care for individuals with substance-related and addictive disorders are being developed to promote screening, care and treatment, and relapse prevention. The education and training of primary care providers utilizing approved medications for the treatment of alcohol use disorders and opioid dependence in a primary care setting would have important public health impact and reduce the burden of alcohol abuse and opioid dependence.
Cell and organ printing turns 15: Diverse research to commercial transitions

Fifteen years ago, the field of cell and organ printing began with a few research groups looking to take newly developed direct-write tools and apply them to living cells. Initial experiments demonstrated cell viability and functionality post-deposition. Recently, research has begun in earnest to create three-dimensional cellular constructs that mimic both the heterogeneous structure and function of natural tissue. Several companies are now marketing cell printers, expanding access to a wider group of scientists and accelerating the pace of development. This article describes the past decade and a half of research by showing examples of some of the most sophisticated work, comparing the approaches and tools used in the field, and predicting the products that will arrive in the not too distant future.
Principles of positive prevention.

After 2 decades of the death and devastation of AIDS, ever-increasing numbers of HIVinfected persons are able to live longer and healthier lives, chiefly as a result of effective antiretroviral treatment (ART). At the same time, there are larger pools of HIV-infected persons in many populations than before, which could result in increased HIV transmission if prevention efforts are not expanded. Thus, current efforts to develop more effective HIV prevention strategies for persons living with HIV/AIDS are timely and appropriate. As we focus more on “prevention for positives,” it may be useful to articulate some principles that reflect lessons learned to date—chiefly from prevention efforts aimed at “negatives”—and suggest future directions. HIV IS TRANSMITTED THROUGH HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AND THUS SHOULD BE APPROACHED FUNDAMENTALLY AS A RELATIONAL PHENOMENON Whether transmission occurs through sexual intercourse, from mother to child during birth, by sharing injecting equipment, or by transfusing blood from 1 person to another, it virtually always involves 2 people in some sort of social relationship to each other. Yet, historically, most HIV prevention efforts, particularly in the developed world, have focused on reducing risk among individuals rather than dyads. Although some small-group and community interventions have been developed, tested, and implemented, individual-level psychosocial interventions have been the mainstay of HIV prevention research and practice. What is missing is a focus on the dynamics of the relationship in which transmission occurs. Relational dynamics are important and explain such fundamental things as why condom use is often inconsistent or lacking, even though people know it is an effective HIV prevention strategy. Negotiating over condom use and disclosure of HIV infection status require interpersonal and communication skills and a level of comfort that are not possessed by all. In many contexts, the social construction of sexual relationships renders those kinds of conversations moot or impossible. For example, women and men engaged in commercial or transactional sex cannot demand condom use by their partners if to do so jeopardizes their ability to earn payment (of whatever sort), and thus to survive. In more intimate relationships, conversing about condom use and infection status suggests a lack of love, fidelity, and trust, and for many people, the emotional risks of having this conversation are thought to be much greater than the potential risks of acquiring or transmitting HIV. Conversely, for those who do possess the necessary skills and comfort to discuss sexual intercourse before it happens, decisions can be made at the couple level to avoid HIV transmission, whether this means using condoms or engaging in “strategic positioning” during sex so as to reduce the risk of transmission (eg, among men who have sex with men [MSM], the HIV-infected partner in a serodiscordant couple may take the “receptive” position instead of the “inser
A CSMP/360 precompiler for kinetic chemical equations

CHEMCSMP is a convenient problem-oriented language based on CSMP/360 and is designed specifically to solve problems in kinetic chemical equations. Users' statements, which resemble conventional chemical nota tion, describe slow and fast reactions in multicompartment systems and flows between compartments. CSMP statements may be inter mixed with chemical equations to provide for a variety of computations and convenient output. CHEMCSMP is implemented via a pre compiler which translates the user's pro gram into pure CSMP. The paper describes the use and implementation of CHEMCSMP and provides an illustrative example.
An Electromyographic Study of Selected Muscles Involved in the Shot Put

Abstract The purpose of this study was (a) to investigate by means of electromyography the functions of the pectoralis major (upper portion), the deltoideus, the triceps brachii, and the teres major in putting the shot; (b) to compare findings from the electromyographic study with findings from a mechanical analysis of the execution of the shot put; and (c) to compare the muscle actions and movement patterns of shotputters differing in skill. The six subjects were divided into three groups in terms of shotputting ability. For each subject as he put the shot, a minimum of four recordings for each muscle studied was taken. An analysis of the resulting data indicates that the pattern of acceleration that results in the greatest final velocity when the shot is released is a gradual increase in acceleration during the movements across the circle, with a large increase in acceleration during the final shoulder and arm thrust. The teres major appears to contribute least force to a maximum effort in putting the shot.
Perforin‐Dependent and ‐Independent Pathways of Cytotoxicity Mediated by Lymphocytes

There is little doubt at the present time that both perforin-dependent and -independent pathways are important in mediating the cytotoxicity associated with lymphocytes. The cell distribution of perforin, initially thought to include both CTL and NK cells, now must be viewed with caution because all previous biochemical studies on CTL have been conducted with cell lines propagated in long-term cultures in the presence of T cell growth factors (IL-2 and perhaps some still undefined factors). Under these conditions, CTL are known to assume a broader, NK-like specificity in target cell killing and may thus differ significantly from primary CTL generated in the body. Accordingly, perforin does not seem to be present in primary CTL activated directly through mixed lymphocyte reactions. It remains to be shown how primary CTL lyse target cells in vivo. Initial studies conducted in several laboratories have already provided some clues. It now seems that even in cultured, perforin-containing CTL, the perforin pathway is not an obligatory mechanism required for target cell killing. Other pathways, possibly involving TNF/lymphotoxin-like molecules, may play a direct role in this type of cytotoxicity. Other still unidentified factors now also need to be sought, including membrane polypeptides that may develop cytotoxicity directly upon cell contact and binding. Although from the studies reviewed here it is clear now that perforin has a more limited role in cell killing than originally proposed, it is still intriguing that it should share structural and functional homologies with complement proteins, drawing paradoxical analogies between two systems (the cellular and the humoral immune systems) which have evolved to become specialized to carry out separate immunological tasks. The cloning of the genes for perforin and for all the C proteins that comprise the MAC should reveal important information on how these genes originated and then diverged during evolution. The cellular distribution of other granule products, such as serine esterases, also must be viewed with caution. A serine esterase activity was initially thought to be CTL-specific. This information stimulated an intensive research activity in many laboratories that resulted in both the purification of a serine esterase family and the cloning of several serine esterase transcripts. It is becoming clear from recent evidence that this group of enzymes is not truly CTL-specific and therefore would not be expected to develop any function rendered absolutely necessary for cytolysis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Topographic changes in the left ventricle after experimentally induced myocardial infarction in the rat

The factors that determine the thickness of transmural myocardial infarcts are unknown. Therefore, the relation between the size and thickness of transmural infarcts in 67 rats 21 days after occlusion of the left main coronary artery was studied. On examination of histologic sections, infarct size was determined by planimetry and expressed as a percentage of the left ventricular (LV) area, and thickness was expressed as a percentage of noninfarcted ventricular septal wall thickness. The circumferential length of the infarcted ventricle was measured in millimeters, as well as the circumferential length of the noninfarcted ventricular septum. Septal wall thickness was similar in rats with transmural infarcts and in sham-operated rats. No significant correlation was observed between infarct size and thickness (r = 0.10) or between circumferential length of the infarct and infarct thickness (r = 0.17). However, large (greater than or equal to 20% of the left ventricle, n = 37) and small (less than 20% of the left ventricle, n = 30) infarcts which were similarly thin (37 +/- 1% and 34 +/- 2% of septal wall thickness, respectively) affected LV topography differently. Large infarcts resulted in a 23% greater loss of myocardium (p less than 0.001), greater expansion of the LV cavity (18 +/- 9 mm2 compared with 14 +/- 1 mm2 in small infarcts, p less than 0.005), and lengthening of the septal wall (7.2 +/- 1.1 mm and 6.7 +/- 1.0 mm in large and small infarcts, respectively [p less than 0.05], and 6.3 +/- 0.1 mm in shams). Increase in cavity area and septal length in infarcted ventricles suggested a volume overload hypertrophy, which at 3 weeks was nonetheless inadequate to provide as much normal muscle as was present in sham-operated rats. In an additional 9 rats with subendocardial infarctions (involving less than 75% of the LV wall from endocardium to epicardium), the LV walls were thicker (94 +/- 5% of septal wall thickness, compared with 35 +/- 1% for transmural infarcts, p less than 0.001) and an inverse correlation was observed between infarct size and thickness. In conclusion, neither the size of a transmural infarct in rat nor the circumferential length of infarction determines the thickness of the infarct; however, infarct size does affect LV topography by increasing LV cavity area and the length of the noninfarcted septal wall. Subendocardial infarcts result in less myocardial thinning than do transmural infarcts.
Detachment in collisions of H and H

Semi-classical calculations are carried out for the processes of associative detachment H + H- -> H2 + e and of collisional detachment H + H- -> H + H + e based upon values of the real and imaginary parts of the complex adiabatic potential computed by Bardsley, Herzenberg and Mandl and upon semi-empirical values derived by Chen and Peacher. The experimental data at high velocities lend support to the theoretical predictions of Bardsley et al., but the argument is inconclusive because of possible non-adiabatic contributions. It is pointed out that it may be possible to resolve the question by an experimental investigation of isotope effects at high velocities.
Acute effects of aflatoxin B1 on liver composition and metabolism in the rat and duckling

In the weanling male rat, a single oral LD20 of aflatoxin B1 caused a transient inhibition of leucine incorporation into liver proteins. The brief (6-hour) suppression was followed by a prolonged period of stimulation of hepatic protein synthesis which persisted for 3–6 days after dosing. Liver deoxyribonucleic acid metabolism was not altered during this period. Five consecutive daily administrations of sublethal doses of the toxin, each equivalent to 10% of the LD50, caused significant suppression of growth and liver weight in the duckling. Liver glycogen content and glycogenesis were also decreased, whereas lipid content was elevated. Treatment of weanling male rats according to the same dosing schedule resulted in suppression of growth and lowering of food intake, efficiency of food utilization, and liver weight; but liver composition was not significantly altered in this species.
A phase II trial of carboplatin (NSC 241240) in advanced prostate cancer, refractory to hormonal therapy. An Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group pilot study.

Twenty-nine patients with metastatic prostate cancer progressing after hormonal therapy (orchiectomy 19, diethylstilbesterol 10) and who had never received cytotoxic therapy were treated with carboplatin. Patients had good clinical performance status (66% PS 0,1) and adequate renal (creatinine 50% reduction in number of abnormal areas of bone scan uptake occurred; 3 patients experienced improvement in clinical status; in no patient did an elevated prostate acid phosphatase return to normal. All patients entered on study have progressed and died: median time to progression was 94 days (6 to 625 days); median survival was 297 days (6–1152 days). The primary toxicity of carboplatin was myelosuppression. The median WBC and platelet nadirs after cycle one were 3150/cu mm and 93,000/cu mm, respectively. Dose escalations to grade 2 or greater myelosuppression were mandated. Twenty-six achieved at least grade 2 myelosuppression during carboplatin treatment. We conclude that carboplatin administered at this dose and schedule has no important activity in hormone refractory prostate cancer.
Online Experiments: Lessons Learned

The Web provides an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate proposed changes or new features quickly using controlled experiments. The simplest experiments randomly assign live users to one of two variants: the control, which is commonly the existing version, and the treatment, which is usually a new version being evaluated. The overall evaluation criterion can be a simple metric that summarizes important business goals or a weighted combination of metrics, as is often used in credit scores. Randomization is too important to be left to chance. A common way to maintain user experience consistency is to employ a hashing function on a user ID stored in a cookie. Cryptographic hashes such as MD5 are generally the best. Failure to randomize properly can confound results when running multiple tests simultaneously. The other common mistakes in online experiments are launching a feature that is statistically significantly different but has little business value and launching a feature because it doesn't negatively impact users. Online experiments, whether they fail or succeed, generate insights that can bring a quick return on investment and promote innovation.
Biofuels and water: another opportunity to ‘do biofuels right’

Progress toward a more sustainable world will require choices between higher and lower priority uses of resources. © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Alcohol‐Induced Bone Loss and Deficient Bone Repair

Abstract: Background: Chronic consumption of excessive alcohol eventually results in an osteopenic skeleton and increased risk for osteoporosis. Alcoholics experience not only increased incidence of fractures from falls, but also delays in fracture healing compared with non-alcoholics. In this review the term “alcohol-induced bone disease” is used to refer to these skeletal abnormalities. Alcohol-induced osteopenia is distinct from osteoporoses such as postmenopausal osteoporosis and disuse osteoporosis. Gonadal insufficiency increases the rate of bone remodeling, whereas alcohol decreases this rate. Thus, histomorphometric studies show different characteristics for the bone loss that occurs in these two disease states. In particular, alcohol-induced osteopenia results mainly from decreased bone formation rather than increased bone resorption. Human, animal and cell culture studies of the effects of alcohol on bone strongly suggest alcohol has a dose-dependent toxic effect on osteoblast activity. The capacity of bone marrow stromal cells to differentiate into osteoblasts has a critical role in the cellular processes involved in the maintenance of the adult human skeleton by bone remodeling. Chronic alcohol consumption suppresses osteoblastic differentiation of bone marrow cells and promotes adipogenesis. In fracture healing, the effect of alcohol is to suppress synthesis of an ossifiable matrix, possibly due to inhibition of cell proliferation and maldifferentiation of mesenchymal cells in the repair tissue. This results in the deficient bone repair observed in animal studies, characterized by repair tissue of lower stiffness, strength and mineral content. Current knowledge of cellular effects and molecular mechanisms involved in alcohol-induced bone disease is insufficient to develop interventional strategies for its prevention and treatment. Objectives: The objectives of this review are 1) to identify the characteristics of alcohol-induced bone loss and deficient bone repair as revealed in human and animal studies, 2) to determine the current understanding of the cellular effects underlying both skeletal abnormalities, and 3) to suggest directions for future studies to resolve current ambiguities regarding the cellular basis of alcohol-induced bone disease.
Clinical experience with intravenous radiosensitizers in unresectable sarcomas

Traditionally, adult bone and soft tissue sarcomas have been considered to be ''radioresistant.'' Because of this philosophy, patients who present with locally advanced, unresectable sarcomas often are treated in a palliative fashion, usually with low-dose radiotherapy. Over the last 6 years, 29 patients with unresectable primary or metastatic sarcomas were treated using a combination of intravenous chemical radiosensitizers and high-dose irradiation. Twenty-two of 29 patients achieved clinical local control, with six patients having a complete clinical response. The time to tumor response is often several months or longer, which is in contrast to other tumor histologies (carcinomas, lymphomas), where tumor response usually occurs over several weeks. Several large tumors have shown only a minimal tumor response, yet were found to be sterilized in posttreatment biopsy or autopsy examination. Of 15 patients with primary sarcomas without metastases, 11 patients (73%) remain free of local tumor progression from 12 to 83 months. Adult high-grade sarcomas can be controlled with high-dose radiotherapy and intravenous radiosensitizers, although the precise role of these agents is unclear.
Akt phosphorylation and kinase activity are down-regulated during hibernation in the 13-lined ground squirrel

Hibernation in mammals is a reversible state of suspended animation associated with tolerance to an otherwise lethal reduction of core body temperature and metabolism. An integral aspect of hibernation is tolerance to a profound decrease of cerebral perfusion. Identification of regulatory mechanisms that control hibernation in ground squirrels can guide efforts to develop improved treatment for stroke and brain trauma. In this study, we show in multiple tissues that S473 phosphorylation of Akt (Protein kinase B), a phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase-regulated serine/threonine kinase, was significantly reduced (P<0.001) as was its kinase activity (P=0.023) in the 13-lined ground squirrel, Spermophilus tridecemlineatus, during hibernation. T308 phosphorylation of Akt was relatively preserved. Brain immunohistochemical staining confirmed these results. In hibernating animals, reduction of immunoreactive phospho (S473)-Akt was noted throughout the brain. Akt is a key molecule in the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signal transduction pathway, which plays a critical role in the balance between survival and apoptosis. The data presented here raise the possibility that down-regulation of Akt phosphorylation plays a regulatory role in hibernation. This would resemble dauer larva formation in Caenorhabditis elegans where Akt inhibition is associated with energy conservation, fat storage, expression of antioxidant enzymes and growth arrest.
Perceptual Processes in the Cross-Race Effect: Evidence From Eyetracking

The cross-race effect (CRE) is the tendency to have better recognition accuracy for same-race than for other-race faces due to differential encoding strategies. Research exploring the nature of encoding differences has yielded few definitive conclusions. The present experiments explored this issue using an eyetracker during a recognition task involving White participants viewing White and African American faces. Participants fixated faster and longer on the upper features of White faces and the lower features of African American faces. When instructing participants to attend to certain features in African American faces, this pattern was exaggerated. Gaze patterns were related to improved recognition accuracy.