cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of the School-Based Telemedicine Enhanced Asthma Management (SB-TEAM) Program on Asthma Morbidity: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance Poor adherence to recommended preventive asthma medications is common, leading to preventable morbidity. We developed the School-Based Telemedicine Enhanced Asthma Management (SB-TEAM) program to build on school-based supervised therapy programs by incorporating telemedicine at school to overcome barriers to preventive asthma care. Objective To evaluate the effect of the SB-TEAM program on asthma morbidity among urban children with persistent asthma. Design, Setting, and Participants In this randomized clinical trial, children with persistent asthma aged 3 to 10 years in the Rochester City School District in Rochester, New York, were stratified by preventive medication use at baseline and randomly assigned to the SB-TEAM program or enhanced usual care for 1 school year. Participants were enrolled at the beginning of the school year (2012-2016), and outcomes were assessed through the end of the school year. Data were analyzed between May 2017 and November 2017 using multivariable modified intention-to-treat analyses. Interventions Supervised administration of preventive asthma medication at school as well as 3 school-based telemedicine visits to ensure appropriate assessment, preventive medication prescription, and follow-up care. The school site component of the telemedicine visit was completed by telemedicine assistants, who obtained history and examination data. These data were stored in a secure virtual waiting room and then viewed by the primary care clinician, who completed the assessment and communicated with caregivers via videoconference or telephone. Preventive medication prescriptions were sent to pharmacies that deliver to schools for supervised daily administration. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the mean number of symptom-free days per 2 weeks, assessed by bimonthly blinded interviews. Results Of the 400 enrolled children, 247 (61.8%) were male and 230 (57.5%) were African American, and the mean (SD) age was 7.8 (1.7) years. Demographic characteristics and asthma severity in the 2 groups were similar at baseline. Among children in the SB-TEAM group, 196 (98.0%) had 1 or more telemedicine visits, and 165 (82.5%) received supervised therapy through school. We found that children in the SB-TEAM group had more symptom-free days per 2 weeks postintervention compared with children in the enhanced usual care group (11.6 vs 10.97; difference, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.15-1.22; P = .01), with the largest difference observed at the final follow-up (difference, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.10-1.59). In addition, children in the SB-TEAM group were less likely to have an emergency department visit or hospitalization for asthma (7% vs 15%; odds ratio, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.32-0.84). Conclusions and Relevance The SB-TEAM intervention significantly improved symptoms and reduced health care utilization among urban children with persistent asthma. This program could serve as a model for sustainable asthma care among school-aged children. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT01650844
Organizational Actorhood and the Management of Paradox: A Visual Analysis:

We extend the theorization of organizations as social actors to illuminate how external attributions of actorhood are made by the business media and how these attributions are associated with heigh...
Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures to The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery: The Relevance of Industry-Reported Payments.

BACKGROUND Academic journals such as The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS) require disclosures of financial relationships that authors report as potential conflicts of interest. Because industry payments can take various forms, including food and beverage, consulting, or research payments, the purpose of this study was to determine which categories of industry-reported payments were most frequently considered by authors as irrelevant to their specific publication, and therefore not included in their journal disclosures. METHODS Author disclosures were collected from scientific articles published in JBJS in 2016. Payments reported by authors as relevant to the published article were compared with industry-reported payments from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Open Payments Database (OPD), which includes all payments to eligible physicians in the United States. The number of authors with payments found in the OPD and appearing in publication-specific disclosures was determined for each payment type. Of note, OPD data are not indicative of relevance to a particular publication; therefore, the accuracy of author disclosures could not be determined in this study. RESULTS A total of 747 eligible authors were included; 60.5% of authors did not report at least 1 payment from their OPD report in their publication-specific disclosures, most frequently representing industry payments for food and beverage (55.7%), followed by travel and lodging (26.9%). Payments for consulting (16.3%), royalties (8.2%), research (8.4%), and ownership interests (1.5%) were not considered to be relevant disclosures for specific journal articles by authors at lower rates than those for food and beverage and for travel and lodging. CONCLUSIONS Authors publishing in JBJS were more likely to conclude that industry-reported payments in the OPD for food and beverage and for travel and lodging were irrelevant for specific publications (as disclosed to the journal) than payments for consulting, royalties, research, and ownership interests.
Interactions of land-use history and current ecology in a recovering “urban wildland”

Despite the highly disrupted nature of abandoned industrial sites, they have significant human and ecological value. Ecological recovery at such sites is determined by complex interactions between natural factors and anthropogenic influences. Here we describe the land-use history and ecology of a former industrial wasteland. The spatial and temporal distribution of human disturbance at the study site included early farming, clay mining, brick making and landfilling, activities which have had profound and lasting ecological impacts resulting in a diverse but highly disrupted successional mosaic. Understanding the postdisturbance ecological recovery at this site has required a knowledge of natural factors such as slope, soil types and bedrock geology and hydrology, coupled with a detailed knowledge of the land-use history. Compared to recovery trajectories from many types of natural disturbance, ecological change at this site has been slower and more variable. Understanding ecological history has been crucial in projecting future changes as well as in making wise decisions about use and management practices for the site.
Acute Encephalopathy and Seizures

Alterations of mental status are among the most common and feared complications of both systemic cancer and its therapy [1]. Many potentially promising chemotherapeutic agents are unusable because of central nervous system (CNS) toxicity. Others, which are usually not toxic to the nervous system may, in specific individuals and under specific circumstances, cause CNS toxicity. Among the varieties of CNS toxicity are seizures and encephalopathy. The term encephalopathy is used here to refer to a clinical syndrome of global confusion, disorientation and often somnolence (delirium) which may progress to stupor or coma. Focal neurological signs such as aphasia or hemiparesis may or may not accompany the delirium. Focal signs in the absence of delirium are not considered here. Encephalopathy and seizures may occur either together or separately and may be caused directly or indirectly by several antineoplastic agents.
Here Ends the Fifth Chapter and Begins the Sixth Chapter on the Multiplication of Integral Numbers with Fractions

Moreover if you [1] will wish to multiply a number of any number of places plus a fraction of one or several parts by a number plus a fraction of one or several parts, then you write the greater number and its fraction beneath the smaller number and its fraction, namely number beneath number, and fraction beneath fraction. And you take the upper number and its fraction, and make such a fraction which equals the given fraction plus its number. And similarly with the lower you make its fraction, and you will multiply the made fraction of the upper number by the made fraction of the lower. And in the product fraction you divide the numerator by both numbers under the fraction line, namely the ones arranged there; and you will have the product, a number plus a fraction. And this is clearly shown in demonstrations with numbers.
Pre-optimization Issues

In essence, the stationarity of a time series (such as market price changes, indicators, or individual trade returns) refers to the degree to which its statistical properties remain constant over time. Statisticians may cringe at such a loose definition, but that captures the practical meaning of the term. When we use market history to create a (preferably) profitable trading system, we are implicitly counting on the historical patterns that produced backtesting profitability to remain in force for at least the near-term future. If we are not willing to make that assumption, we might as well give up trading system design.
Congress of Neurological Surgeons Systematic Review and Evidence-Based Guidelines on the Role of Surgery in the Management of Adults With Metastatic Brain Tumors.

Please see the full-text version of this guideline https://www.cns.org/guidelines/guidelines-treatment-adults-metastatic-brain-tumors/chapter_2) for the target population of each recommendation listed below. SURGERY FOR METASTATIC BRAIN TUMORS AT NEW DIAGNOSIS QUESTION: Should patients with newly diagnosed metastatic brain tumors undergo surgery, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), or whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT)? Recommendations Level 1: Surgery + WBRT is recommended as first-line treatment in patients with single brain metastases with favorable performance status and limited extracranial disease to extend overall survival, median survival, and local control. Level 3: Surgery plus SRS is recommended to provide survival benefit in patients with metastatic brain tumors Level 3: Multimodal treatments including either surgery + WBRT + SRS boost or surgery + WBRT are recommended as alternatives to WBRT + SRS in terms of providing overall survival and local control benefits. SURGERY AND RADIATION FOR METASTATIC BRAIN TUMORS QUESTION: Should patients with newly diagnosed metastatic brain tumors undergo surgical resection followed by WBRT, SRS, or another combination of these modalities? Recommendations Level 1: Surgery + WBRT is recommended as superior treatment to WBRT alone in patients with single brain metastases. Level 3: Surgery + SRS is recommended as an alternative to treatment with SRS alone to benefit overall survival. Level 3: It is recommended that SRS alone be considered equivalent to surgery + WBRT. SURGERY FOR RECURRENT METASTATIC BRAIN TUMORS QUESTION: Should patients with recurrent metastatic brain tumors undergo surgical resection? Recommendations Level 3: Craniotomy is recommended as a treatment for intracranial recurrence after initial surgery or SRS. SURGICAL TECHNIQUE AND RECURRENCE QUESTION A: Does the surgical technique (en bloc resection or piecemeal resection) affect recurrence? Recommendation Level 3: En bloc tumor resection, as opposed to piecemeal resection, is recommended to decrease the risk of postoperative leptomeningeal disease when resecting single brain metastases. Question b Does the extent of surgical resection (gross total resection or subtotal resection) affect recurrence? Recommendation Level 3: Gross total resection is recommended over subtotal resection in recursive partitioning analysis class I patients to improve overall survival and prolong time to recurrence. The full guideline can be found at https://www.cns.org/guidelines/guidelines-treatment-adults-metastatic-brain-tumors/chapter_2.
Do Latinos still support immigrant rights activism? Examining Latino attitudes a decade after the 2006 protest wave

The historic and primarily Latino 2006 immigrant rights protest wave occurred in response to proposed federal anti-immigrant legislation (H.R. 4437). Research on the unprecedented series of demonst...
Treating a College-Aged Patient with Neuropsychological Problems and ADHD: Discussion of Dr. Whitman’s Analysis of Mark

The central thesis of this discussion is that an adolescent psychoanalyst—someone who understands development, developmental interference, unconscious conflict, and neuropsychiatric impairment—is e...
Urban Traffic Network Control in Smart Cities; a Distributed Model-based Control Approach.

This paper proposes a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) approach for an urban traffic network (UTN) system. The control objective is to minimize the traffic congestion and the total travel time spent (TTS) in each link. The proposed DMPC algorithm considers traffic demand and disturbance predictions. The CasADi optimization tool is used to solve the constrained optimization problem. The proposed distributed control approach achieved 60% less computation time, 14.3% less TTS, and 15.1% less queue length compared to the centralized approach. Moreover, while the centralized algorithm neglected the input and state constraints, the distributed approach resulted in the satisfaction of all the constraints over the whole horizon.
Medication Beliefs, HIV-Related Stigmatization, and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy: An Examination of Alternative Models.

HIV-related stigma and beliefs about medication necessity and concerns have separately demonstrated significant associations with antiretroviral adherence in people with HIV. However, no work has e...
Best Practices in Accessing Tape-Resident Data in HPSS*

Tape is an excellent choice for archival storage because of the capacity, cost per GB and long retention intervals, but its main drawback is the slow access time due to the nature of sequential medium. Modern enterprise tape drives now support Recommended Access Ordering (RAO), which is designed to reduce data recall/retrieval times. BNL SDCC's mass storage system currently holds more than 100 PB of data on tapes, managed by HPSS. Starting with HPSS version 7.5.1, a new feature called “Tape Order Recall (TOR) has been introduced. It supports both RAO and non-RAO drives. The file access performance can be increased by 30% to 60% over the random file access. Prior to HPSS 7.5.1, we have been using an in-house developed scheduling software, aka ERADAT. ERADAT accesses files based on the file logical position order. It has demonstrated a great performance over the past decade long usage in BNL. In this paper we will present a series of test results, compare TOR and ERADAT's performance under different configurations to show how effective TOR (RAO) and ERADAT perform and what is the best solution in data recall from SDCC's tape storage
The (First) Three B’s of the Skyrme Model

It is widely believed that Quantum Chromodynamics is the correct underlying theory of the strong interaction. Such belief exists despite our rather limited ability to investigate the long wavelength limit, where the poorly understood effects of confinement set in. In fact, the very structure of the QCD vacuum remains a mystery, and it is hoped that a better understanding of this vacuum will shed considerable light on the nature of the confinement mechanism.
Necrotizing enterocolitis: It’s not all in the gut:

Necrotizing enterocolitis is the leading cause of death due to gastrointestinal disease in preterm neonates, affecting 5–12% of neonates born at a very-low birth weight. Necrotizing enterocolitis c...
Error Correction Decoding for Underwater Acoustic Tag Detection

This paper presents a decoding method applied to a set of underwater acoustic tags that employ very short signal beacons periodically transmitted. The tags use the CRC8-Dallas linear block code for error detection originally. Though the CRC8-Dallas is quite weak, syndrome-based error correction is applied to correct the decoding errors. Meanwhile, multi-channel array receivers are utilized to find the common decodes of the tag IDs, and the list of the true tag IDs is used to test the detection accuracy and false alarm rate. The proposed syndrome decoding method is applied to over 2 million files recorded in field experiments. The results demonstrate that the syndrome method yields around 9.85% more true positive decodes at the cost of a 2 - 5 times increase in false positive rates. Further insights are also gained to enable future improvement of the detection algorithms.
Regulated in Development and DNA Damage Responses 1 Prevents Dermal Adipocyte Differentiation and Is Required for Hair Cycle–Dependent Dermal Adipose Expansion

Dermal white adipose tissue (dWAT) expansion is associated with important homeostatic and pathologic processes in skin. Even though mTOR/protein kinase B signaling is important for adipogenesis, the role of regulated development of DNA damage responses 1 (REDD1), a negative regulator of mTOR/protein kinase B, is poorly understood. Loss of REDD1 in mice resulted in reduction of body mass, total fat, size of gonadal white adipose tissue, and interscapular brown adipose tissue. Inguinal subcutaneous white adipose tissue and dWAT in REDD1 knockouts were expanded compared with wild type mice. Size and number of mature adipocytes in dWAT were also increased in adult REDD1 knockouts. This dWAT phenotype was established around postnatal day 18 and did not depend on the hair growth cycle. Numbers of adipocyte precursor cells were lower in REDD1 knockout skin. In vitro analysis revealed increased differentiation of skin-derived REDD1 knockout adipocyte precursor cells as indicated by higher lipid accumulation and increased adipogenic marker expression. 3T3L1 cells overexpressing REDD1 had decreased sensitivity to differentiation. Overall, our findings indicate that REDD1 silencing induced expansion of dWAT through hypertrophy and hyperplasia. This REDD1-dependent mechanism of adipogenesis could be used to preferentially target skin-associated adipose tissue for therapeutic purposes.
Things Are Looking Up: Using Cloud-Based Technology Tools in Collection Management Workflows

Between 2018 and 2019, two librarians at the College of Charleston Libraries incorporated cloud-based technologies into their collection management workflows. The following paper was derived from a...
The Saguaro Cactus A Natural History

David Yetman, Alberto Burquez, Kevin Hultine, and Michael Sanderson. 2020. The Saguaro Cactus A Natural History. (ISBN-13: 978-0-81654004-4, pbk). The University of Arizona Press, 1510 E. University Blvd., P.O. Box 210055, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0055, U.S.A. (Orders: uapress.arizon.edu). $19.95 US, 208 pp., references, index, 5½" × 8½".
Nikolai Karazin’s military project: the discourse of power

Chapter three examines Nikolai Karazin’s “military project” and demonstrates how he at once applauds the Russian expansion and laments the “excessive” violence accompanying it on both sides. As a dedicated Russian military officer, the artist vividly presents heroic Russian soldiers and their selfless commanders, fighting against a predominantly cowardly and treacherous enemy. This stereotypical picture is made more balanced by several exceptions among his countrymen and the local people, but even more so by the author’s sincere empathy for those suffering on both sides. The “military project” is presented in the context of the “imperial networks,” highlighting the personal connections between privileged officers closely linked to the metropole and the tensions between them and regular officers of common background.
Growth of 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' in commercial grapefruit juice-based media formulations reveals common cell density-dependent transient behaviors.

The phloem-restricted, insect-transmitted bacterium 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' (CLas) is associated with Huanglongbing (HLB), the most devastating disease of citrus worldwide. The inability to culture CLas impairs the understanding of its virulence mechanisms and the development of effective management strategies to control this incurable disease. Previously, our research group used commercial grapefruit juice (GJ) to prolong the viability of CLas in vitro. In the present study, GJ was amended with a wide range of compounds and incubated under different conditions to optimize CLas growth. Remarkably, results showed that CLas growth ratios were inversely proportional to the initial inoculum concentration. This correlation is likely regulated by a cell density-dependent mechanism, since diluting samples between subcultures allowed CLas to resume growth. Moreover, strategies to reduce the cell density of CLas, such as subculturing at short intervals and incubating samples under flow conditions, allowed this bacterium to multiply and reach maximum growth as fast as 3 days post inoculation, although no sustained exponential growth was observed under any tested condition. Unfortunately, cultures were only transient, since CLas lost viability over time; nevertheless, we obtained populations of 105 genome equivalents/ml repeatedly. Finally, we established an ex vivo system to grow CLas within periwinkle calli that could be used to propagate bacterial inoculum in the lab. In this study we determined the influence of a comprehensive set of conditions and compounds on CLas growth in culture. We hope our results will help guide future efforts towards the long-sought goal of culturing CLas axenically.
Pharmacy-Based Interventions to Increase Use of HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the United States: A Scoping Review

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) remains underutilized in the U.S. Since greater than 85% of PrEP prescriptions are filled at commercial pharmacies, pharmacists are uniquely positioned to increase PrEP use. This scoping review explores pharmacy-based initiatives to increase PrEP use. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus for peer-reviewed studies on pharmacist-led interventions to increase PrEP use or pharmacy-based PrEP initiatives. Forty-nine articles were included in this review. Overall, studies demonstrated that patients expressed strong support for pharmacist prescription of PrEP. Three intervention designs compared changes in PrEP initiation or knowledge pre- and post-intervention. Commentary/review studies recommended PrEP training for pharmacists, policy changes to support pharmacist screening for HIV and PrEP prescription, and telemedicine to increase prescriptions. Pharmacists could play key roles in improving PrEP use in the U.S. Studies that assess improvements in PrEP use after interventions such as PrEP prescription, PrEP-specific training, and adherence monitoring by pharmacists are needed.
JUE Insight: Understanding spatial variation in COVID-19 across the United States

Abstract What factors explain spatial variation in the severity of COVID-19 across the United States? To answer this question, we analyze the correlates of COVID-19 cases and deaths across US counties. We document four sets of facts. First, effective density is an important and persistent determinant of COVID-19 severity. Second, counties with more nursing home residents, lower income, higher poverty rates, and a greater presence of African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately impacted, and these effects show no sign of disappearing over time. Third, the effect of certain characteristics, such as the distance to major international airports and the share of elderly individuals, dies out over time. Fourth, Trump-leaning counties are less severely affected early on, but later suffer from a large severity penalty.
Exopolymers in microbial mats: Assessing their adaptive roles

Microbial mat environments are characterized by thin-layered stratifications of microorganisms (Cohen 1989; Krumbein and Stal 1991) and geochemical gradients over small (μm) spatial scales (Jorgensen et al. 1983; Revsbech 1983). Sharp gradients in the concentrations of a variety of ions and molecules, such as O2, CO2, SO4 2-, and PO4 3-, have been observed within the layers of the mat. These gradients largely originate from the concentrated activities of specific groups of microorganisms within the mat layers (Jorgensen and Des Marais 1990). The relative stability of geochemical gradients (i.e. preventing rapid fluctuations) is important to maintain the efficient interactions between the different physiological groups of microorganisms contained within the mat layers.
The electrostrictive and related properties of (Pb/sub 1-x/Ba/sub x/)/sub 1-3z/2/Bi/sub z/(Zr/sub 1-y/Ti/sub y/)O/sub 3/ ceramic system

A compositional region was revealed in the (Pb/sub 1-x/Ba/sub x/)/sub 1-3z/Bi/sub z/(Zr/sub 1-y/Ti/sub y/)O/sub 3/ (PBZT) ceramic system where large electrostrictive strains and small hysteresis exist simultaneously. The electrostrictive coefficients, m/sub 11/ (longitudinal) and m/sub 12/ (lateral), are as high as 8.9 and 3.85*10/sup -16/ m/sup 2//V/sup 2/, respectively, and hysteresis is small enough to be negligible, depending on the composition involved. It was found that a small amount of Bi/sub 2/O/sub 3/ additive significantly modified the electrostrictive and dielectric properties of the pure PBZT ceramic system and shifted both the F/sub R/-F/sub T/ and F/sub R/-P/sub C/ boundaries. Hot-pressed samples showed higher saturated strains and smaller hysteresis than those fabricated by conventional sintering. >
Cycle cover with short cycles

Cycle covering is a well-studied problem in computer science. In this paper, we develop approximation algorithms for variants of cycle covering problems which bound the size and/or length of the covering cycles. In particular, we give a (1+ln 2)-approximation for the lane covering problem [3,4] in weighted graphs with metric lengths on the edges and an O(ln k) approximation for the bounded cycle cover problem [9] with cycle-size bound k in uniform graphs. Our techniques are based on interpreting a greedy algorithm (proposed and empirically evaluated by Ergun et al. [3,4]) as a dual-fitting algorithm. We then find the approximation factor by bounding the solution of a factor-revealing non-linear program. These are the first non-trivial approximation algorithms for these problems. We show that our analysis is tight for the greedy algorithm, and change the process of the dual-fitting algorithm to improve the factor for small cycle bounds. Finally, we prove that variants of the cycle cover problem which bound cycle size or length are APX-hard.
The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destruction

This paper presents a newly constructed national time series of job creation by startup firms, using annual data from the BDS for age zero firms. Startups create an average of 3 million new jobs annually. All other ages of firms, including companies in their first full years of existence up to firms established two centuries ago, are net job destroyers, losing 1 million jobs net combined per year. Patterns of job growth at startups and existing firms are both pro-cyclical, although existing firms have much more cyclical variance. The implication of this finding could, and perhaps should, shift the standard employment policy paradigm. Policymakers tend to reflect common media stereotypes about job changes in the economy, which is to say a focus on the very large aggregate picture (such as the national or state unemployment rate) or on news of very large layoffs by individual companies. That attention is almost certainly misplaced. Nationwide measures are a blunt tool for analysis, and net employment growth reveals little that policy can affect. Similarly, the common zero-sum attempts to incentivize firm relocation are oblivious to the important pattern of gross job creation revealed by the BDS. States and cities with job creation policies aimed at luring larger, older employers can’t help but fail, not just because they are zero-sum, but because they are not based in realistic models of employment growth. Job growth is driven, essentially entirely, by startup firms that develop organically. To be sure, Survivors create zero to 7 million net jobs (half of which are at establishment births), while Deaths account for a net loss of 4 million to 8 million jobs, which are large flows for the context of the steady job creation of 3 million startup jobs. But, in terms of the life cycle of job growth, policymakers should appreciate the astoundingly large effect of job creation in the first year of a firm’s life. In other words, the BDS indicates that effective policy to promote employment growth must include a central consideration for startup firms.Part of the Kauffman Foundation Research Series: Firm Formation and Economic Growth
Human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor: biologic activities and receptor characterization on hematopoietic cells and small cell lung cancer cell lines.

Human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is a regulatory glycoprotein that stimulates the production of neutrophilic granulocytes from committed hematopoietic progenitor cells both in vitro and in vivo. In this report, we show that biosynthetic (recombinant) human G-CSF enhances colony formation by normal human bone marrow and the human myeloid leukemic cell lines, HL-60 and KG-1, as well as nonhematopoietic small cell lung cancer lines, H128 and H69. G-CSF also modulates multiple differentiated functions of human neutrophils, including enhanced oxidative metabolism in response to f- Met-Leu-Phe (f-MLP), increased antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), and augmented arachidonic acid release in response to ionophore and chemotactic agents. These effects are all maximal at a concentration of 100 to 500 pmol/L. Using 125I-labeled recombinant human G-CSF, high affinity binding sites were identified on human neutrophils, the myeloid leukemia cell lines KG-1 and HL-60, and the small cell carcinoma cell lines, H128 and H69. G-CSF receptor numbers ranged between 138 and 285 sites per cell with a kd of 77 to 140 pmol/L, consistent with the concentrations of G-CSF that elicit biologic responses in vitro. Decreased specific binding of 125l-G-CSF by human neutrophils was consistently observed in the presence of excess unlabeled human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), suggesting competition or down modulation by GM-CSF of the G- CSF receptor.
Regulation of soil phosphatase and chitinase activity by N and P availability

Soil microorganisms and plants produce enzymes thatmineralize organically bound nutrients. When nutrientavailability is low, the biota may be able to increase production ofthese enzymes to enhance the supply of inorganicnitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Regulation of enzyme productionmay be a point where N and P cyclesinteract. We measured acid phosphatase and chitinase(N-acetyl s-D-glucosaminide) activity in soilacross a chronosequence in Hawaii where N and Pavailability varies substantially among sites and longterm fertilizer plots had been maintained for over 4years. Phosphatase activity was high at all sites. Chitinaseactivity decreased significantly as age and Navailability increased across the chronosequence.Phosphorus addition suppressed phosphatase activity atall sites, while N addition increased phosphataseactivity at the young, N-limited site. In contrast,N addition repressed chitinase activity only at the Nlimited young site, and P additions had no effect onchitinase activity. These results suggest that theregulatory relationship between nutrient supply andnutrient mineralization are asymmetric for N and P,and that the differences could help to explaindifferences observed in patterns of N and Pavailability.
Preparing for the downsizing and closure of Letterman Army Medical Center: a case study.

Abstract : Letterman Army Medical Center (LAMC) is scheduled for a phased downsizing beginning in July 1991 leading to closure by 30 June 1994. An analysis of the information gathered during downsizing and closure activities can serve as an invaluable resource for medical treatment facilities facing closure as the Department of Defense reshapes to a smaller force structure. By review and analysis of documentation and a survey of key personnel, this case study extracted and interpreted pertinent information from historical records and from personnel involved in planning for downsizing and closure. The study quantified contacts between LAMC and external entities and internal employee groups, and quantified each issue and its relative impact on LAMC. Issues identified in the document review were qualitatively evaluated by surveying LAMC managers and other employees. The information in this study provides managers of a military hospitals facing closure with a summary of issues for planning, compiled by their relative importance. Effective communication with employees and with beneficiaries was the most important and time-consuming task faced by LAMC managers.... Hospital downsizing, Hospital closure, Medical center.
An integrated approach to shallow aquifer characterization: combining geophysics and geostatistics

We present a method of aquifer characterization that is able to utilize multiple sources of conditioning data to build a more realistic model of heterogeneity. This modeling approach (InMod) uses geophysical data to delineate bounding surfaces within sedimentary deposits. The depositional volumes between bounding surfaces are identified automatically from the geophysical data by a region growing algorithm. Simple geometric rules are used to constrain the growth of the regions in 3-D. The nodes within the depositional volume are assigned to categorical lithologies using geostatistical realizations and a dynamic lookup routine that can be conditioned to field data. The realizations created with this method preserve geologically expected features and produces sharp juxtapositions of high and low hydraulic conductivity lithologies along bounding surfaces. The realizations created with InMod also have higher variance than models created only with geostatistics and honor the volumetric distribution of sediments measured from field data.
Relative bradycardia in patients with traumatic hypotension.

Background: Tachycardia is considered a physiologic response to traumatic hypotension. The inability of the heart to respond to shock with tachycardia has been described as paradoxical bradycardia or relative bradycardia. The incidence and clinical significance of this condition in major trauma is not known. The objective of this study was to examine the incidence and prognostic significance of tachycardia and relative bradycardia in patients with traumatic hypotension. Relative bradycardia is defined as a systolic pressure ≤ 90 mm Hg and a pulse rate ≤ 90 beats per minute. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at a large Level I academic trauma center during a 4-year period. Seventeen demographic and injury severity factors were analyzed for their possible role in tachycardic or bradycardic response in hypotensive patients. Incidence and mortality were derived for each subpopulation. Bivariate analysis of the association of incidence and mortality with each risk factor was performed. Factors with p values < 0.2 were included in stepwise logistic regression analyses that identified significant risk factors and derived adjusted relative mortality risks between tachycardic and bradycardic hypotensive patients. Results: Excluding transfers and patients dead on arrival, 10,833 major trauma patients were seen during the study period. Seven hundred fifty patients (6.9%) had systolic blood pressure ≤ 90 mm Hg; 533 patients had tachycardia (overall incidence of 4.9%, or 71.1% of hypotensive patients), and 217 patients had bradycardia (overall incidence of 2.0%, or 28.9% of hypotensive patients). The overall crude mortality was 29.2% among tachycardia patients and 21.7% among bradycardia patients (crude relative risk = 1.34; 95% confidence interval = 1.00-1.81; p = 0.047). The adjusted relative mortality risk between the two groups was 1.23 (95% confidence interval = 0.84-1.73; p = 0.284). Multivariate analysis showed that patients with relative bradycardia in the subgroups with Injury Severity Scores ≥ 16, chest Abbreviated Injury Scale scores ≥ 3, or abdominal Abbreviated Injury Scale scores ≥ 3 had significantly better survival than patients with similar injuries presenting with tachycardia. Conclusion: Relative bradycardia in hypotensive trauma patients is a common hemodynamic finding. Mortality among tachycardic patients was more predictable than among bradycardic patients using commonly used demographic and injury indicators. The presence of relative bradycardia in some subgroups of patients with severe injuries seems to be associated with better prognosis than the presence of tachycardia.
Derivations of learning statistics from absorbing Markov chains

Learning-process statistics for absorbing Markov-chain models are developed by using matrix methods exclusively. The paper extends earlier work by Bernbach by deriving the distribution of the total number of errors, u-tuples, autocorrelation of errors, sequential statistics, and the expectation and variance of all statistics presented. The technique is then extended to latency derivations including the latencies of sequential statistics. Suggestions are made for using the sequential-statistic algorithm in a maximum-likelihood estimation procedure. The technique is important because statistics for very large absorbing matrices can be easily computed without going through tedious theoretical calculations to find explicit mathematical expressions.
Altered Center-Surround Motion Inhibition in Schizophrenia

Background Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that spans across biological and behavioral levels. The links between altered neural circuitry and abnormal behaviors are yet to be understood. Visual motion perception has been established in basic neuroscience and may provide an opportunity to link different levels of brain functions in schizophrenia. Center-surround interaction is a ubiquitous neural mechanism underlying the organization of visual information over different spatial locations.
Breakdowns in flexible use of information: Intelligence-related differences in transfer following equivalent learning performance

Abstract Groups of retarded and nonretarded children were investigated as they learned three rules underlying problems adapted from the Raven Progressive Matrices Test: rotation, imposition, and subtration. The interest was in evaluating group differences in the ease with which the original set of rules was learned and the flexibility with which these rules were transferred to modified contexts. In the case of either learning or transfer, the metric of performance was the amount of aid, specifically the number of computer-generated graduated hints, needed for each subject to solve the problems. The groups were matched on their entering competence to deal with the rules under scrutiny, and also on mental age. No group differences were obtained as the subjects learned the original set of rules. However, on subsequent occasions when required to make flexible use of those rules, clear group differences emerged; and those differences increased as the similarity of the training and test contexts decreased. The results were seen as consistent with theories that emphasize transfer flexibility as one potential source of individual and comparative differences in intelligence.
Focal spinal muscular atrophy in two German shepherd pups.

Focal spinal muscular atrophy evolved rapidly in two German Shepherd pups 2 weeks after birth. By 1 month, the male and female littermates had developed a valgus deformity of the right forelimb, a flexed carpus, and arm and forearm muscle weakness and atrophy. In the male, less severe left forelimb weakness and wasting also occured, and bilateral forelimb denervation potentials were recorded. Postmortem study of the male revealed asymmetric loss and degeneration of motoneurons in the cervical spinal cord intumescence. Degenerating neurons appeared vacuolated or chromatolytic. Chromatolysis was often peripheral and resulted from dispersion and loss of the free and attached ribosomes which normally from Nissl bodies. Although this focal neuronopathy was unlike motoneuron diseases described previously in animals, it resembled the asymmetric and unilateral, benign spinal muscular atrophies found in humans.
Measuring financial integration in the BRIC nations

This paper sets out to test the extent of financial integration at several levels. We focus on two key markets: the foreign exchange and equity markets. Results indicate that the BRIC financial markets are fully integrated with the world market and among themselves, but variably integrated with their corresponding regional markets and within their own financial markets. Furthermore, among the BRICs, Brazil exerts the highest level of regional and global integration, demonstrating the greatest influence, followed by Russia, India and China.
Lithofacies and Depositional Environments of Middle Ordovician Shelf Carbonates in Southern Appalachians: ABSTRACT

Detailed field and laboratory observations are the basis for the description of 13 lithofacies in the Middle Ordovician Chickamauga Group in Jefferson County, Alabama. These lithofacies, including stromatolitic, fenestral and bioturbated mudstones, and varieties of skeletal and peloidal wackestones, packstones and grainstones, represent deposition in seven major environments: high intertidal, low intertidal, tidal channel, subtidal wave baffle, subtidal bar, subtidal bank, and subtidal level bottom. Middle Ordovician deposition began on the extremely irregular karstic surface of the Cambro-Ordovician Knox Dolomite. A lag deposit of reworked dolomite and chert clasts (Attalla Member) is overlain by intertidal deposits. High and low intertidal lithologies vary laterally in hickness in response to deposition over highs present on the irregular Knox surface. With continued transgression, shallow-water facies were succeeded by a suite of subtidal deposits composed dominantly of level-bottom lithologies deposited below wave base. Changes in sedimentation and/or subsidence led to a gradual shallowing and deposition above wave base. Coarse-grained, high-energy tidal bars and skeletal bank deposits dominate this part of the sequence. In the southern part of the study area, subtidal level-bottom lithologies dominate the upper part of the Middle Ordovician sequence. To the north, these lithologies grade laterally into shallower subtidal and intertidal lithologies. The sequence is unconformably overlain by the Upper Ordovician Sequatchie Formation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1433------------
Colony Density and Wing Development in Toxoptera citricida (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Factors influencing the development of the alatoid form of the brown citrus aphid, Toxoptera citricida (Kirkaldy), were investigated in the laboratory using Carrizo citrange as a host plant. No evidence of maternal influences on wing development was observed and nymphs were not irreversibly committed to wing development until the late second or early third instar. Both alatae and apterae were significantly larger when they developed on young, flushing terminals citrus than on older, hardening terminals. Similar numbers of late second/early third instars from high-density colonies developed wings when transferred to young and old citrus terminals, but mortality was significantly higher among aphids on the older shoots. When all adults were harvested daily from high-density colonies the percentage of aphids maturing into alatae reached a peak after about 4 d and then declined with aphid density, despite the advancing age of the plant tissues. The density of aphids in a colony was positively correlated with the proportion maturing into alatae.
Association between trait emotional awareness and dorsal anterior cingulate activity during emotion is arousal-dependent

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is commonly thought to subserve primarily cognitive functions, but has been strongly implicated in the allocation of attention to emotional information. In a previous positron emission tomography (PET) study, we observed that women with higher emotional awareness as measured by the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) showed greater changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in dACC induced by emotional films and recall. In the current study, we tested whether these effects were due to the processing of any non-neutral stimulus, or were specific to conditions of high emotional arousal. Our results extend the previous finding by demonstrating a positive correlation between emotional awareness and dACC activity only in the context of viewing highly arousing pictures. No such relationship was observed when comparing pleasant or unpleasant pictures to neutral or to each other. We also observed that the relationship between LEAS and dACC activity was present in both sexes but stronger in women than men. These results reinforce the concept that greater trait awareness of one's own emotional experiences is associated with greater engagement of the dACC during emotional arousal, which we suggest may reflect greater attentional processing of emotional information.
Mometasone furoate administered once daily is as effective as twice-daily administration for treatment of mild-to-moderate persistent asthma.

Abstract Background: Despite current recommendations, many patients with persistent asthma are still treated with bronchodilators alone. Objective: The safety and efficacy of two once daily dosing regimens (200 μg and 400 μg) of mometasone furoate (MF) administered in the morning by using a dry-powder inhaler (DPI) were compared with those of a twice daily dosing regimen (200 μg administered twice daily) in patients with mild-to-moderate persistent asthma previously taking only inhaled β 2 -adrenergic agonists. Methods: All patients (306 patients; age range, 12-70 years) were given a diagnosis of asthma for at least 6 months before enrollment in this 12-week, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study. The primary efficacy variable was change in FEV 1 from baseline to endpoint (last evaluable visit). Results: At endpoint, FEV 1 was significantly improved ( P ≤ .02) after MF-DPI 400 μg once daily morning treatment and MF-DPI 200 μg twice daily treatment (16.0% and 16.1%, respectively) compared with placebo (5.5%). The improvement seen with MF-DPI 200 μg once daily morning treatment (10.4%) was not significantly different from that with placebo. Secondary efficacy variables also showed significant improvement for the MF-DPI 400 μg once daily morning treatment group and the MF-DPI 200 μg twice daily treatment group compared with the placebo group. All doses of MF administered by means of a DPI were well tolerated. Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate that a total daily dose of 400 μg of MF administered by means of a DPI is an effective treatment for patients with mild-to-moderate persistent asthma previously taking only inhaled β 2 -adrenergic agonists. This treatment was equally effective when administered either as a once daily or twice daily regimen. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2000;106:485-92.)
Electoral Competition and Changes in the Party Balance in the U.S. Congress, 1789–1977

Abstract The Republicans have controlled Congress for only 4 years out of the last 45. This article considers how a majority party in a democratic country can maintain its control over a long period against the best efforts of the minority party. It is argued that if citizens chiefly evaluate the past performance of the incumbents when deciding how to vote, the majority party is likely to maintain itself in power indefinitely, while such an outcome is unlikely if citizens compared parties. Dynamic statistical models of changes in the party balance are estimated; the findings indicate that the minority party has usually had little chance of gaining majority status, no matter how long it tried. The results are consistent with the notion that citizens evaluate performance, not platforms. Implications for interpreting electoral competition are considered.