cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Renal colic: Emergency evaluation and management

Renal colic, the excruciating pain caused by an acute obstruction of the ureter (usually from a urinary calculus), is one of the most common urological problems encountered in the emergency department. This is especially true in the southwest, northwest, and southeast United States where urolithiasis is more common.i*2 The peak incidence of urinary stones occurs during the months of July, August and September, immediately following the periods when mean temperatures are highest.3q4 A national study revealed that 7.1 of every 1,000 general hospital admissions (and up to 15.0 in the southeast) were for urinary calculi.2 However, most patients with symptomatic urolithiasis do not require hospital admission for treatment. The symptomatic complex from a ureteral stone is unequivocal, and in the majority of cases the clinical diagnosis is straightforward. As a result, most journal articles and some urological textbooks deal only briefly with the acute management of renal colic, while delving more deeply into the metabolic and pharmacological aspects of diagnosing and treating urolithiasis. In this article, we review the characteristics of renal colic, explain when and what radiographic studies are necessary, discuss emergency department treatment of calculi, enumerate the indications for hospital admission, and outline the instructions a patient with renal colic should receive on discharge from the emergency department. Table 1 summarizes the evaluation and management of renal colic.
Struck by speech revisited: Embodied stance in jurisdictional discourse1

This paper illustrates how stance functions as a semiotic resource that feeds into and mediates institutional context. I consider stance not only as linguistic expression but as interactive, bodily engagement, synchronized in multimodal layers of participation. Using data from a focus group interview, I examine how stance emerges in the collaborative rhythms of linguistic, paralinguistic and, most prominently, embodied conduct between speaker and listener to index socio-cultural knowledge about the jurisdictional division of labor among legal professionals. Drawing on Charles Frake's classic ‘Struck by speech,’ I illustrate not only how a speaker strikes his listener with speech, but also how the body of the listener displays being struck.
Asymmetrical Heating Behavior at Ni/Doped-Si Junctions for Soi Structures

With an increasing component density and shrinking feature size in integrated circuit (IC) chips, the heat dissipation issue on the IC chips becomes increasingly important because of device performance and reliability concerns. The heating behavior at Ni/doped-Si junctions, which depends on Joule heating, Peltier effect and heat conduction, is explored in the study. A semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) structure is used to obtain thermal isolation of the test specimen. The Si channel of 720 μm × 25 μm was lithographically defined and implanted with As+ and BF2 + dopants at a dose of 5×1015 ions/cm2, respectively. By applying a current through a Ni contact/doped-Si/Ni contact structure and measuring the resistance of the doped Si channel near the cathode and the anode ends, we found an obvious asymmetrical heating behavior at the two ends, depending on the dopant type and post-implanatation annealing condition. The Seebeck coefficients of doped Si were measured to be about 140 μV/K and 80 μV/K for BF2 + - doped Si and As+-doped Si, respectively.
[Differentiation of interatrial communications by clinical methods: ostium secundum, ostium primum, common atrium, and total anomalous pulmonary venous connection].

Of 128 children with anatomically confirmed interatrial communications 74 had ostium secundum, 37 had ostium primum defects, 5 had common atrium, and 12 had total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. Analysis of the medical history, physical examination, roentgenogram, and electrocardiogram resulted in accurate diagnosis in most instances. In 6 of the 128 patients the proper diagnosis was not made: 3 infants with total anomalous pulmonary venous connection died within a few hours after admission to the hospital and did not have proper diagnostic evaluation; the condition of 3 other patients with ostium secundum defects was misdiagnosed as ostium primum defect before surgical treatment. In patients with ostium secundum and ostium primum defects the symptoms, signs, roentgenologic data, and findings at cardiac catheterization are similar, but differences in respect to the electrocardiograms are striking when the latter are subjected to vectorial analysis. The QRS loop is clockwise in the presence of ostiu...
Schistosoma mansoni, S. japonicum, S. haematobium: glycogen content and glucose uptake in parasites from fasted and control hosts.

The glycogen content of male and female Schistosoma mansoni has been measured in flukes from normally fed hosts and those from fasted hosts. In infections from both the mouse and the hamster, a significant reduction in schistosomal glycogen of males is seen hours after food is withdrawn from the host. Reductions in protein content of the schistosomes were only observed in hamster infections fasted at least 72 hr. The livers of infected mice not only decrease in size during fasting, but there is a concomitant reduction in glycogen per unit wet weight. Comparisons of glycogen:protein ratios of mansonian males, females, and host livers indicate that the fasting-induced loss of liver glycogen is also observed in the male schistosome, but not the female. Studies of both S. mansoni and S. haematobium pairs from fed hosts suggest that the ratio of glycogen:protein contents in the male schistosome correlates with the glycogen:protein ratio of the female partner. Measurements of glucose uptake in vitro suggest that greater uptake rates may be observed in flukes perfused from fasted hosts. In S. japonicum from infected mice, a reduction in male glycogen was also detected as early as after a 6-hr fasting period, but changes in the females were not significant. Unmated male S. japonicum also exhibit a reduction in glycogen levels after fasting, but the quantity of worm glycogen present in these males remains higher than comparable mated males. In mice entrained to a regulated pattern of available food, fluctuations in glycogen content of the male schistosomes were observed, but in the female partners fluctuations were of a smaller magnitude. Data from the present study suggest that glycogen reserves of the male are more labile than those of the female, at least in initial response to reductions in available nutrients. Furthermore, the male may shield the female from nutritional stress, and in this manner provide for the female partner an optimal or protected microenvironment.
Neurogenesis associated with endothelin-induced cortical infarction in the mouse.

Abstract We investigated the effect of small cortical ischemic lesions, produced by intracerebral injection of the vasoconstrictor endothelin-1, on neurogenesis in the adult mouse subventricular zone. Endothelin-1 (0.5–1 μg) produced infarcts restricted to the cortex, and associated neurobehavioral deficits that largely resolved by 3 days. Bromodeoxyuridine labeling of proliferating cells in the subventricular zone was elevated by about 50% in endothelin-1-treated mice, and cells reactive for doublecortin, a marker for immature neurons, were similarly increased in number. These findings indicate that small ischemic lesions restricted to adult cerebral cortex can stimulate neuroproliferation at a distance.
Angulation loading effects on cast-gold endodontic posts: A photoelastic stress analysis

Two-dimensional photoelastic stress analysis was used to investigate the effects of post diameter on stress distribution under angulated (26-degree) loads. Ten models were used; five for each diameter were tested. The models were placed in the straining frame of the polaroscope, and compressive forces of 30 and 60 pounds were applied to each of the models. Instantaneous photographs were made immediately after each load was applied. The fringe patterns were quantitated by determining the maximum fringe order in the test model. The results of this investigation suggest that (1) post diameter should be restricted with heavy anterior masticatory forces and (2) restricting post diameter conserves tooth structure and substantially reduces internal stresses within teeth that have cast-gold posts.
Test reliability estimated by analysis of variance

A formula for estimating the reliability of a test, based on the analysis of variance theory, is developed and illustrated. The data needed for the required computation are the number of correct responses to each item and the score for each subject. The results obtained from this formula are identical with those from one of the special cases of the Kuder-Richardson formulation. The relationships of the new procedure to other approaches to the problem are indicated.
Role of Increased Crystallinity in Deformation-Induced Structure of Segmented Thermoplastic Polyurethane Elastomers with PEO and PEO−PPO−PEO Soft Segments and HDI Hard Segments

The phase-segregated nature of polyurethanes allows meaningful connections to be made between morphological and physical properties. We have taken advantage of this behavior by synthesizing a serie...
Use of dynamical networks for pattern recognition

An established way to synthesize associative memory networks is to use dynamical neural networks. For large dimensional problems, the dynamical networks usually are computationally burdensome to design and generally introduce spurious memories. A new architecture that consists of an input linear filter, a hidden layer of dynamical network and an output linear filter is proposed in this paper to alleviate some of the difficulties in designing large dimensional dynamical networks. A learning rule and its simplified version are presented for the design of the network parameters.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Clevidipine blockade of L-type Ca2+ currents: steady-state and kinetic electrophysiological studies in guinea pig ventricular myocytes.

Summary:Steady-state and transient effects of clevidipine, a rapidly degraded dihydropyridine (DHP) L-type Ca2+ channel antagonist, were examined on ICa in guinea pig ventricular myocytes. When myocytes were voltage-clamped with holding potential (VH) at −80 mV, 10 nM clevidipine decreased ICa at 0
Exploiting domain architectures in software reuse

This paper provides motivation towards the use of domain specific repositories and DSSA's. It shows many of the positive side-effects this usage brings about.An extension to the faceted approach to components classification [Prieto-Diaz and Freeman 1987] is introduced. Our extension suggests a natural way of further benefiting from the use of domain specific repositories.
An examination of U.S. institutional and individual investor sentiment effect on the Turkish stock market

Abstract This study examines the effect of rational and irrational components of U.S. institutional and individual investor sentiment on Istanbul Stock Market (ISE) return and volatility. The results show that there is a significant spillover effect of U.S. investor sentiment on stock return and volatility of ISE. A breakdown of sentiment by the type of investor shows that the impact of institutional sentiment is greater than that of individual sentiment. A breakdown of sentiment by rationality shows that the effect of rational sentiment on ISE return is faster though not necessarily greater than that of irrational sentiment. The conclusion from these results is that the effect of U.S. investor sentiment is systemic and cannot be diversified away. U.S. investor sentiment, therefore, constitutes a priced risk factor and must be accounted for accordingly in international asset pricing models. The findings also provide some evidence of a negative relationship between U.S. investor sentiment and ISE return volatility.
The Deep Flow through the Northeast Channel, Gulf of Maine

Abstract The flow dynamics, volume, heat, and nitrogen transport, and water mass structure in the Northeast Channel (42°17′N, 65°58′W) are investigated using two years of moored velocity and temperature data. Measurements were made from September 1976 to September 1978 at three moorings across the channel just inside the sill with instruments at 100 m, 150 m, and 16 m off the bottom. Energetic water motions occurred at three time scales: 1) tidal frequencies; 2) low-frequency motions in the 4–10-day range; and 3) mean motions with periods of three months or longer. The dominant tidal constituent was the semidiurnal (M2) tide, whose elipses all rotated clockwise, with magnitudes ranging from 61 cm s−1 at 150 m depth decreasing to 41 cm s−1 16 m off the bottom. The low-frequency currents showed strong seasonal variability: In winter, these motions took the form of strong bursts of current up to 50 cm s−1 both into and out of the channel, and were the dominant subtidal motions; in summer, these bursts were s...
High quality epitaxial thin films of actinide oxides, carbides, and nitrides: Advancing understanding of electronic structure of f-element materials

Abstract Over the past five years we have developed a solution based technique for synthesizing high quality epitaxial thin films of actinide materials. These films include oxides (UO2, U3O8, PuO2, and NpO2), UC2, UN2, UC2−xOx, and UN2−xOx. These nearly single crystal quality films have allowed unprecedented experimental measurements (ARPES, optical band gap, electrical conductivity, and XRD). These data have bench marked and advanced DFT theoretical predictions and understanding of bonding and electronic structure in f-orbital actinide materials. The synthesis and characterization of the films, measurement of electronic structure, and the resulting validation of theoretical models are reviewed. The potential impacts of this work in areas ranging from nuclear energy to environmental fate of actinides in the environment are discussed.
Improving the detection of simulated masses in mammograms through two different image-processing techniques.

Abstract Rationale and Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine whether contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) or histogram-based intensity windowing (HIW) improves the detection of simulated masses in dense mammograms. Materials and Methods Simulated masses were embedded in portions of mammograms of patients with dense breasts; the mammograms were digitized at 50 μm per pixel, 12 bits deep. In two different experiments, images were printed both with no processing applied and with related parameter settings of two image-processing methods. A simulated mass was embedded in a realistic background of dense breast tissue, with its position varied. The key variables in each trial included the position of the mass, the contrast levels of the mass relative to the background, and the selected parameter settings for the image-processing method. Results The success in detecting simulated masses on mammograms with dense backgrounds depended on the parameter settings of the algorithms used. The best HIW setting performed better than the best fixed-intensity window setting and better than no processing. Performance with the best CLAHE settings was no different from that with no processing. In the HIW experiment, there were no significant differences in observer performance between processing conditions for radiologists and nonradiologists. Conclusion HIW should be tested in clinical images to determine whether the detection of masses by radiologists can be improved. CLAHE processing will probably not improve the detection of masses on clinical mammograms.
Trait mean depression for second-generation inbred strawberry populations with and without parent selection

Strawberry genotypes selected for superior fruit yield or chosen at random from first-generation self, full-sib, and half-sib populations were crossed to provide second-generation inbred progenies and composite cross-fertilized control populations. Mean yields for inbred offspring from crosses among selected parents exceeded those from the offspring of unselected parents by 87%, 23%, and 37% for self, full-sib, and half-sib populations, respectively; yields for offspring from unrelated crosses among selected parents were 54% larger than those for crosses among unselected parents. Selection for yield also resulted in significant correlated response for fruit number and plant diameter. Mean yields for second-generation half-sib and full-sib offspring from selected parents were greater than those for offspring from the unselected but non-inbred control population. This suggests that selection can be a powerful force in counteracting most of the inbreeding depression expected in cross-fertilized strawberry breeding programs. Selection treatment× inbreeding rate interactions were non-significant for all traits; thus, selection among partially inbred offspring did not have a large effect on the rate of genetic progress. Differential realized selection intensity among individuals with differing levels of homozygosity accumulated due to inbreeding is suggested as the most likely explanation for the absence of association between pedigree inbreeding coefficients and cross performance detected previously in strawberry.
Thermal Interaction From Hot Liquid Entering a Cold Pipe

There are many transient sequences in the energy industry where a hot or cold liquid enters a flow passage that is at a different temperature. Thermal energy is transferred by convection between the liquid and the boundary of the flow passage, causing both temperatures to change with time at all locations as the liquid column moves. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of transient heat transfer between an axial liquid flow at constant velocity V and the walls of the flow passage, which are in contact with constant temperature surroundings. A general nondimensional model that includes internal heat generation from the fluid flow is formulated and solved analytically for various cases such as obtaining the freezing point of a heated liquid material that solidifies after the flow passage extracts enough of its initial thermal energy. Analytical solutions for thin-walled pipes, temperature history at pipe entrance and temperature of the moving liquid front are also provided in this study. A simple numerical scheme is proposed in order to calculate liquid and passage wall temperatures at general points of the time-space domain where analytical solutions have not been obtained.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
A hybrid and adaptive model for predicting register file and SRAM power using a reference design

This paper presents a predictive SRAM power model that reduces the changes required to adapt existing models to handle new circuit topologies, process corners, and design space exploration. Analytical equations model the impact of varying common characteristics such as bit-width, entries, segmentation, gating, and sizing while topology specific characteristics are captured empirically from a reference design. On distinct topologies of multi-port read, single- and dual-ended writes, this approach demonstrates an error of 5% and 7% for leakage and dynamic power respectively. We show that for a specific topology, any reference configuration can be used for accurate prediction.
Foreign debt, crowding out and capital flight

Abstract The modern theory of international debt with potential repudiation is extended to the case of a small two sectors economy facing terms of trade uncertainty. My model explains the phenomenon of simultaneous foreign borrowing and investments at home and abroad. I show that foreign debt rationing is a necessary condition for such an occurrence, and that capital flight can accelerate when the world interest rate falls while the credit ceiling necessarily increases. Moreover, capital controls can potentially lead to increased flight.
The Role of Medicaid in Promoting Access to High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care

One of the most challenging aspects of health care improvement and reform is ensuring that individuals, particularly those who are vulnerable and low income, have access to care. Just as challenging is the imperative to ensure that the care accessed is of the highest quality possible. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, identified the primary goal of any high-quality heath care system: The ability to furnish the right care, in the right setting, at the right time. This aim must also be the primary goal of Medicaid in regard to providing access to high-quality care for women throughout the reproductive cycle. Nationwide, Medicaid is a large purchaser of maternity care; in 2006, the program paid for 43% of all births and maternity costs represented 29% of all hospital charges to Medicaid. Under current federal law, state Medicaid agencies have to fulfill several obligations related to assessing, ensuring, and improving the quality of care, particularly for enrollees who receive services through managed care arrangements. The main purpose of this article is to analyze and describe the role of Medicaid in facilitating access to care for pregnant women and ensuring high-quality maternity care that is affordable. It first summarizes the federal Medicaid requirements regarding eligibility, coverage of benefits, financing, and service delivery, with a special emphasis on existing quality provisions. Then, it discusses current issues and recommends several Medicaid reforms, particularly in the area of quality assessment and improvement. All reforms, including Medicaid reforms, should seek to support the IOM-identified aims. Much of the emphasis in Medicaid policy development has been focused on access to care and great need for reform remains in the area of quality assurance and improvement, and disparity reduction because the program can play a significant role in this regard as well. More broadly, health care reform may provide an opportunity to revisit key issues around access to and quality of maternity care, including the benefit package, the content of services covered in the package, the frequency with which these services should be furnished, and the development of meaningful measures to capture whether women of childbearing age, including pregnant women, regardless of insurance status, indeed receive efficient, timely, effective, safe, accessible, and woman-centered maternity care.
The “great exchange”: the economic promise and peril of the digital library

The economic aspects of new information delivery technologies have been overshadowed by the selection and implementation concerns associated with their introduction to library patrons, staff and systems. This oversight is unfortunate, because these technology changes can offer unprecedented opportunities for cost savings, while at the same time producing significant improvements in staff and patron productivity. Some costs and benefits are readily apparent, while others need more rigorous analysis. The economic consequences of the introduction of digital library products certainly merits increased attention from library managers.
Effect of cytochalasin B and colchicine on the stimulation of α-amylase release from rat parotid tissue slices

A role for microfilaments and microtubules in the secretion of α-amylase is indicated since cytochalasin B and colchicine inhibited the stimulation of α-amylase release by epinephrine (30 or 15 μM) but only cytochalasin B inhibited the stimulation by N6, O2′ dibutyryl adenosine 3′,5′monophosphate (1.0 mM). It was necessary to incubate the parotid tissue slices in the presence of cytochalasin B (1 hr.) or colchicine (4 hrs.) before adding the agonist in order to see the inhibitory effects.
Wire-duct precipitator field and charge computation using finite element and characteristics methods

Abstract A model is described for computation of charge density and electric field structures in wire-duct electrostatic precipitators. The model employs an iterative technique, wherein the finite element method is used to compute electric potential structure for an assumed charge density distribution, and the method of characteristics is used to compute charge density structure for an assumed electric field distribution. The computed potential values are in excellent agreement with experimental data, including a region which has produced disagreement in prior models.
Shock predictability and plasma gastrin in the rat

Rats with chronic gastric cannulas were immobilized in restraint cages and were subjected either to predictable shock, unpredictable shock, or simply restrained. All rats were immobilized only for 4 h. During the second and third hours, rats in the predictable shock and unpredictable shock groups received their respective treatments. Gastric secretion was collected after each hour, and plasma gastrin estimates were obtained after the first and third hours. Shock stress produced a significant inhibition of total acid output for the two shock treatment groups. However, statistically significant plasma gastrin differences were not observed either between treatment groups or between prestress and poststress measures. The data support contemporary clinical observations that gastrin activity is greater in patients with duodenal ulcers, and not significantly different from control values in patients with gastric ulcers.
Leader and member self-disclosing behavior in counseling groups

Abstract This review, along with others in the group digest series, attempts to place in perspective what is known about a key element in group process and outcome. Keith Morran addresses the topic of self-disclosure in depth. In my opinion, readers will benefit by the research knowledge gained. Perhaps equally important, however, are the guidelines for the use of self-disclosure that Dr. Morran presents. As always, I would welcome feedback from readers regarding this section. Rex Stockton Digest Coordinator This review poses several questions concerning self-disclosure and draws on research findings and clinical experience to provide some tentative answers and guidelines for group leaders.
Air quality: Emissions versus climate change

Climate change is likely to offset some of the improvements in air quality expected from reductions in pollutant emissions. A comprehensive analysis of future air quality over North America suggests that, on balance, the air will still be cleaner in coming decades.
Pulmonary Function in the Marfan Syndrome

To explore the causes of reported abnormalities in pulmonary function in persons with the Marfan syndrome, we analyzed retrospective anthropometric and pulmonary function tests in 79 patients. For ten subjects, there were matched, related control subjects who did not have a connective tissue disorder. Patients had lower values of FVC and TLC than the values expected for their standing heights (83 and 91 percent). However, when sitting height was used to calculate expected spirometric values, patients free of severe deformity of the thoracic cage did not have significant spirometric abnormalities (FVC 195 percent, FEV 1 92 percent). However, patients with moderate-to-severe pectus excavatum or scoliosis (common features of the Marfan syndrome) had marked reductions in total lung capacity as well as in FVC and FEV„ suggesting a restrictive ventilatory defect. The abnormalities of pulmonary function often found in clinical laboratories can be explained in most cases by inappropriate use of standing height to calculate expected values, by thoracic cage deformity, or by both. We have found no evidence from standard tests of pulmonary function for a connective tissue defect of lung parenchyma that is of clinical importance in Marfan patients who lack chest wall deformity.
Decay of calcium transients after electrical stimulation in rat fast‐ and slow‐twitch skeletal muscle fibres

1. Calcium transients were calculated from fura-2 fluorescence signals (corrected for kinetic delays in the Ca(2+)-fura-2 reaction) from single rat skeletal muscle fibres, either fully dissociated from the fast-twitch flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) muscle or in small bundles from the slow-twitch soleus muscle. Fibres or bundles were embedded in agarose gel to inhibit movement and stimulated by single or trains of 1-2 ms electrical pulses (100 Hz, 2-400 ms train duration). 2. The rate constant of decay of [Ca2+] determined from single-exponential fits to the final decay phase of [Ca2+] after a single action potential was considerably faster in FDB fibres than in soleus fibres. As the stimulation duration increased, the rate constant of [Ca2+] decay decreased for both the FDB and soleus fibres, but the effect was greater in FDB than in soleus fibres. 3. Using the magnitude of the decline in the rate constant of [Ca2+] decay with increasing stimulation duration as an index of relative contribution of the saturable Ca2+ binding sites on parvalbumin, subpopulations termed 'high', 'medium' and 'low', referring to estimated parvalbumin content, were determined within each group of FDB and soleus fibres. In fibres assigned to the 'high' and 'medium' groups, parvalbumin was the major contributor (50-73%) to the [Ca2+] decay rate constant after a single action potential. In fibres in the 'low' group, parvalbumin contributed only 0-28% to the rate constant of [Ca2+] decay. 4. Fluorescence recordings using mag-fura-2, a lower-affinity Ca2+ indicator expected to be in equilibrium with myoplasmic Ca2+, gave similar values for both the [Ca2+] decay rate constant after a single action potential and the decrease in this rate constant with increased stimulation duration, as found for the fura-2 [Ca2+] transients from FDB and soleus fibres. Thus, the observed differences in decay rate of Ca2+ were not introduced by kinetic correction of the fura-2 recordings, but are attributed to differences in the Ca2+ binding and transport properties of fast- and slow-twitch mammalian fibres.
Psychoneuroimmunology: psychological influences on immune function and health.

This review focuses on human psychoneuroimmunology studies published in the past decade. Issues discussed include the routes through which psychological factors influence immune function, how a stressor’s duration may influence the changes observed, individual difference variables, the ability of interventions to modulate immune function, and the health consequences of psychosocially mediated immune dysregulation. The importance of negative affect and supportive personal relationships are highlighted. Recent data suggest that immune dysregulation may be one core mechanism for a spectrum of conditions associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and frailty and functional decline; production of proinflammatory cytokines that influence these and other conditions can be stimulated directly by negative emotions and indirectly by prolonged infection.
Flavor SU(3) symmetry in the anomalous magnetic moments of constituent quarks

Abstract The anomalous magnetic moments of constituent quarks are calculated in a model coupling the quarks to the flavor SU(3) octet of pseudoscalar mesons. The inclusion of K-mesons in the model increases the moment of the up-quark by about 50%, compared to the contribution from pions alone. The model correctly reproduces the charge radii of the mesons and of the neutron. Predictions are also made for the strange magnetic moment of the nucleon and for the radiative decay of the D ∗ (B ∗ )- meson .
An outburst of comet Tempel-2 observed spectrophotometrically

Periodic comet Tempel-2, first discovered in 1873, is a possible target of a spacecraft flyby in the 1980s. Accurate physical measurements of this comet have only recently been attempted. Few spectrophotometric data exist for any faint comet, but such data are presented for Tempel-2 at a heliocentric distance of 2.97 AU. The data were obtained during an outburst in which the comet exhibited heightened CN and C3 emission over a quiescent phase. Comet flares of such magnitude are exceptional and are particularly surprising for a periodic comet at such a large heliocentric distance.
The role of surface chemistry-induced cell characteristics on nonviral gene delivery to mouse fibroblasts

Background Gene delivery approaches serve as a platform to modify gene expression of a cell population with applications including functional genomics, tissue engineering, and gene therapy. The delivery of exogenous genetic material via nonviral vectors has proven to be less toxic and to cause less of an immune response in comparison to viral vectors, but with decreased efficiency of gene transfer. Attempts have been made to improve nonviral gene transfer efficiency by modifying physicochemical properties of gene delivery vectors as well as developing new delivery techniques. In order to further improve and understand nonviral gene delivery, our approach focuses on the cell-material interface, since materials are known to modulate cell behavior, potentially rendering cells more responsive to nonviral gene transfer. In this study, self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols on gold were employed as model biomaterial interfaces with varying surface chemistries. NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblasts were seeded on the modified surfaces and transfected using either lipid- or polymer- based complexing agents.
Future prospects in biologic therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus

With the approval by the FDA in 2011 of a biologic agent (namely belimumab) for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), optimism abounds that additional biologic (and nonbiologic) agents will be similarly endorsed. Given the numerous immune-based abnormalities associated with SLE, the potential therapeutic targets for biologic agents and the candidate biologic approaches are also numerous. These approaches include: biologic agents that promote B-cell depletion, B-cell inactivation, or the generation of regulatory B cells; biologic agents that induce T-cell tolerance, block T-cell activation and differentiation, or alter T-cell trafficking; biologic agents that target the B-cell activating factor (BAFF) axis, type I interferons, IL-6 and its receptor, or TNF; and the adoptive transfer of ex vivo-generated regulatory T cells. Owing to the great heterogeneity inherent to SLE, no single approach should be expected to be effective in all patients. As our understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of SLE continues to expand, additional therapeutic targets and approaches will undoubtedly be identified and should be fully exploited.
Implied Volatility from Local Volatility: A Path Integral Approach

Assuming local volatility, we derive an exact Brownian bridge representation for the transition density; an exact expression for the transition density in terms of a path integral then follows. By Taylor-expanding around a certain path, we obtain a generalization of the heat kernel expansion of the density which coincides with the classical one in the time-homogeneous case, but is more accurate and natural in the time inhomogeneous case. As a further application of our path integral representation, we obtain an improved most-likely-path approximation for implied volatility in terms of local volatility.
Novel bone cancer drugs: investigational agents and control paradigms for primary bone sarcomas (Ewing's sarcoma and osteosarcoma).

Background: New investigational agents and chemotherapy regimens including cyclophosphamide + topotecan, temozolomide + irinotecan, and anti-IGF-1R antibodies in Ewing's sarcoma (ES) and liposomal muramyltripeptide phosphatidylethanolamine (L-MTP-PE), aerosol therapy, and bone-specific agents in osteosarcoma (OS) may improve survival and/or quality of life on ‘continuation’ therapy. Objective: Review of investigational approaches and control paradigms for recurrent or metastatic primary bone tumors. Methods: Analyze temozolomide + irinotecan data and review in the context of other newer approaches including antiangiogenesis, anti-IGF-1R antibodies and bisphosphonates for ES. Review some current state-of-the-art approaches for OS including L-MTP-PE, anti-IGF-1R inhibition, aerosol therapies and bone specific agents. Results/conclusion: L-MTP-PE with chemotherapy in OS has been shown to improve survival; compassionate access is available for recurrence and/or metastases. Aerosol therapy (granulocyte–macroph...
Mutational analysis does not support the existence of a putative tertiary structural element in the left terminal domain of Potato spindle tuber viroid

Comparative sequence analysis suggests that the left terminal domain of Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) and other large pospiviroids may assume a branched tertiary structure containing two pseudoknots. To search for evidence of such a structure in vivo, the nucleotide sequences proposed to interact were mutagenized, tomato seedlings were inoculated with mixtures of potentially infectious PSTVd RNA transcripts and the resulting progeny were screened for compensatory sequence changes. Positions 6–11 and 330–335 tolerated only limited sequence variation, and compensatory changes consistent with formation of an intact pseudoknot were observed in only two of the plants examined. No variation was detected at positions 14–16 or 29–31. Passage of selected variants in Rutgers tomato led to an increase in virulence only upon reversion to wild-type PSTVd_Intermediate. The ability of the left terminal domain to assume a branched conformation containing pseudoknots does not appear to be an important determinant of PSTVd fitness.
HIV accomplices and adversaries in macrophage infection

Cell surface and intracellular proteins in macrophages influence various steps in the life cycle of lentiviruses. Characterization of these re- striction and/or cofactors is essential to under- standing how macrophages become unwitting HIV hosts and in fact, can coexist with a heavy viral burden. Although many of the cellular pathways co-opted by HIV in macrophages mimic those seen in CD4 T cells, emerging evidence reveals cellu- lar constituents of the macrophage, which may be uniquely usurped by HIV. For example, in addition to CD4 and CCR5, membrane annexin II facilitates early steps in infection of macrophages, but not in T cells. Blockade of this pathway effectively dimin- ishes macrophage infection. Viral binding engages a macrophage-centric signaling pathway and a transcriptional profile, including genes such as p21, which benefit the virus. Once inside the cell, multiple host cell molecules are engaged to facili- tate virus replication and assembly. Although the macrophage is an enabler, it also possesses innate antiviral mechanisms, including apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme-catalytic polypeptide-like 3G (APOBEC3) family DNA-editing enzymes to inhibit replication of HIV. Differential expression of these enzymes, which are largely neutralized by HIV to protect its rebirth, is associated with resis- tance or susceptibility to the virus. Higher levels of the cytidine deaminases endow potential HIV tar- gets with a viral shield, and IFN-, a natural in- ducer of macrophage APOBEC expression, ren- ders macrophages tougher combatants to HIV in- fection. These and other manipulatable pathways may give the macrophage a fighting chance in its battle against the virus. J. Leukoc. Biol. 80: 973-983; 2006.
Tests of the mitigating effects of caring and supportive relationships in the study of abusive disciplining over two generations

Purpose: To examine evidence of the continuity in abusive discipline across two generations (G1 and G2) and the role of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs) as protective factors. Methods: Data are from the Lehigh Longitudinal Study, a prospective investigation of the causes and consequences child maltreatment that began in the 1970s with a sample of 457 children and their parents. Data were most recently collected in 2008e2010 from 80% of the original child sample (N ¼ 357) when they were adults age 36 years on average. Of those assessed as adults, 268 participants (G2s) were parenting children and thus comprise the analysis sample. Analyses examined the association between harsh physical discipline practices by G1 parents and G2’s reports of similarly severe discipline practices used in parenting their own children. Analyses also investigated the direct and interactive (protective) effects of SSNR variables that pertain to the care, warmth, and support children received from their mothers, fathers, and siblings over their lifetimes. A measure of an adult partner’s warmth and support was also included. A case-level examination of G2 harsh discipliners was included to investigate other forms of past and more recent forms of abuse exposure. Results: Results show a significant predictive association between physical discipline by G1 and G2 parents ( b ¼ .30; p < .05; odds ratio, 1.14; confidence interval, 1.04e1.26), after accounting for childhood socioeconomic status and gender. Whereas being harshly disciplined as a child was inversely related to reports of having had a caring relationship with one’s mother (r ¼� .25; p < .01), only care and support from one’s father predicted a lower risk of harsh physical discipline by G2s (b ¼� .24; p < .05; odds ratio, .74; confidence interval, .59e.92). None of the SSNR variables moderated the effect of G1 discipline on G2 discipline. A case-level examination of the abusive histories of G2 harsh discipliners found they had in some instances been exposed to physical and emotional abuse by multiple caregivers and by adult partners.
CMOL CrossNets: Possible Neuromorphic Nanoelectronic Circuits

Hybrid "CMOL" integrated circuits, combining CMOS subsystem with nanowire crossbars and simple two-terminal nanodevices, promise to extend the exponential Moore-Law development of microelectronics into the sub-10-nm range. We are developing neuromorphic network ("CrossNet") architectures for this future technology, in which neural cell bodies are implemented in CMOS, nanowires are used as axons and dendrites, while nanodevices (bistable latching switches) are used as elementary synapses. We have shown how CrossNets may be trained to perform pattern recovery and classification despite the limitations imposed by the CMOL hardware. Preliminary estimates have shown that CMOL CrossNets may be extremely dense (~107 cells per cm2) and operate approximately a million times faster than biological neural networks, at manageable power consumption. In Conclusion, we discuss in brief possible short-term and long-term applications of the emerging technology.
Dental aspects of hyperparathyroidism.

Abstract This report is based upon the study of thirteen dentulous patients with histologically proved hyperparathyroidism. The patients are in addition to the forty-two consecutive dentulous patients with surgically proved hyperparathyroidism previously reported. Four of the total of fifty-five patients in both studies revealed dental-structure changes of loss of lamina dura, giant-cell tumors, and demineralization. Involvement of the jawbones appears to be a late change and the least sensitive indicator of parathyroid overactivity, as compared to hypercalcemia, renal phosphate leak, hypophosphatemia, elevated alkaline phosphatase levels, and other bony lesions. It is concluded that the loss of lamina dura and the apearance of giant-cell tumors are late signs of hyperparathyroid bone disease, which is itself a late complication of primary hyperparathyroidism. However, even though infrequently found, changes in the dental structures may be the first sign of primary hyperparathyroidism. Roentgenographic jawbone alterations must be differentiated from other diseases which may have the same roentgenographic manifestations. Giant-cell lesions may reflect local neoplasia, an inflammatory process, or a parathyroid adenoma. Therefore, correlation of microscopic, clinical, roentgenographic, and laboratory findings is necessary before one can arrive at a definitive diagnosis.
Representing coordination and non-coordination in an american sign language animation

While strings and syntax trees are used by the Natural Language Processing community to represent the structure of spoken languages, these encodings are difficult to adapt to a signed language like American Sign Language (ASL). In particular, the multichannel nature of an ASL performance makes it difficult to encode in a linear single-channel string. This paper will introduce the Partition/Constitute (P/C) Formalism, a new method of computationally representing a linguistic signal containing multiple channels. The formalism allows coordination and non-coordination relationships to be encoded between different portions of a signal. The P/C formalism will be compared to representations used in related research in gesture animation. The way in which P/C is used by this project to build an English-to-ASL machine translation system will also be discussed.
An experimental design and preliminary results for a cultural training system simulation

Computer simulation has been widely deployed by the military for force-on-force based training but only more recently for training researchers, analysts, and war-fighters in matters of cross cultural sensitivity. This latter type of training gives the trainee a sense of "being inside" a target culture. We built the Second China Project as a hybrid immersive, knowledge-based software platform for use in cultural training. Is this training effective? More specifically, what are the effects of immersion on memory and other cognitive variables? We chose to base our research questions, not around a specific user group, but more generally around a category of training system--one involving the use of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). We present the architecture of an experiment designed to test whether MUVEs are effective training platforms, and to explain the process used in developing a testing environment to determine the precise nature of that effectiveness. We also discuss lessons learned from the earlier pilot study and ongoing experiment.
True lattice algorithms for square root solution of least squares linear prediction problems

The authors pose a sequence of linear prediction problems. By solving this sequence of problems they are able to QR factor all of the data matrices usually associated with correlation, pre-windowed and post-windowed, and covariance methods of linear prediction. Their solutions cover the forward, backward, and forward-backward problems. The QR factor orthogonalizes the data matrix and solves the problem of Cholesky factoring the experimental correlation matrix and its inverse. This means they can use generalized Levinson algorithms to derive generalized QR algorithms, which are then used to derived generalized Schur algorithms. All three algorithms are true lattice algorithms that can be implemented either on a vector machine or on a multiline lattice, and all three algorithms generate generalized reflection coefficients that may be used for filtering or classification. >
The effect of three different energy drinks on oxygen consumption and perceived exertion during treadmill exercise

Methods Fifteen (22.1 ± 2.7 years old) participants completed the study. Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) was initially measured to establish each participant’s exercise for the 70% treadmill exercise protocol after ingesting an energy drink. Following VO2 max testing, all participants completed a total of four conditions. Each condition required a participant to ingest an energy drink then rest in a seated position for one hour. Following one hour of rest, participants exercised for a total of 15 minutes on a treadmill at 70% of their VO2 max. For each condition, participants blindly ingested one of four price-matched beverages (12 oz. placebo (Squirt), 8.4 oz. Red Bull, 16 oz. Monster Energy , 2 oz. 5-hour ENERGY). Relative VO2 (ml.kg min) and RPE (6-20 Borg Scale) were recorded each minute during the treadmill exercise and averaged in five-minute increments and as an average for each 15-minute condition.