cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effect of age on halothane-induced alterations of contractility in isolated rat aorta

Abstract Aging is implicated as a factor which increases the susceptibility to volatile anesthetic-induced depression of the cardiovascular system. However, little is known regarding mechanisms responsible for this enhanced depression. Current experiments examined the effects of 1.2 and 2.4 vol.% halothane on norepinephrine-induced contractility in endothelium-intact and -denuded aortic preparations isolated from 4-, 14-, and 24-month-old Fischer-344 rats. Prior to exposure to halothane, endothelium removal significantly enhanced the sensitivity to norepinephrine in all age groups without altering the maximum tension. Additionally, in endothelium-intact preparations, increasing age from 4 to 24 months decreased the sensitivity to norepinephrine. Exposure to 2.4 vol.% halothane caused a significant decline in the maximum tension generated in response to norepinephrine in all groups. There were no differences in the amount of depression seen with 2.4 vol.% halothane either within age groups or between endothelium-intact and -denuded preparations of the same age. Halothane at 1.2 vol.% caused a significant reduction in the amount of tension generated in the 4-month-old, endothelium-denuded group. However, all age groups with and without endothelium tended to decrease to a similar degree at 1.2 vol.% halothane, and there were no differences either within age groups or between endothelium-intact and -denuded preparations of the same age. In the 4- and 14-month-old endothelium-intact groups, both 1.2 and 2.4 vol.% halothane decreased the sensitivity to norepinephrine. If this model of aging is predictive of general vascular responsiveness in other species, these data suggest that the increased cardiovascular depression elicited by halothane in elderly individuals is not mediated by an enhanced susceptibility to the direct vascular effects of the anesthetic.
A Severe Downslope Windstorm and Aircraft Turbulence Event Induced by a Mountain Wave

Abstract A detailed analysis is presented of the large-scale, mesoscale and turbulent-scale features of a major downslope windstorm event in central Colorado on 11 January 1972. The storm is found to be associated with a moderate amplitude baroclinic disturbance moving across the northwestern United States within an intense zonal current. Optimal conditions for strong mountain wave generation are detectable from sounding data 12–24 h in advance and about 1000 km upstream. The mesoscale structure is dominated by a single quasi-hydrostatic wave of extreme amplitude and variable location, with corresponding variations in the windstorm structure. Severe to extreme aircraft turbulence is observed in a deep boundary layer over the region of strong surface winds and also in a separate mid-tropospheric turbulence zone. Analysis of the latter shows that it originates in a region of intense wave-generated shear and is then carried downstream by the mean flow and upward by the wave motion. Energy generation and diss...
Nucleotides and pronucleotides of 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)methylenecyclopropane analogues of purine nucleosides: synthesis and antiviral activity.

Phenylmethylphosphor-L-alaninate pronucleotides 7a, 7b, 8a, and 8b, cyclic phosphates 10a and 10b, and phosphates 11a and 11b derived from 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)methylenecyclopropane analogues 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b were synthesized and evaluated for their antiviral activity. An improved protocol for the synthesis of analogues 1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b is also described. Phosphate 11a was the most effective agent against human and murine cytomegalovirus (EC50 0.25−1.1 μM). The Z-pronucleotides 7a and 7b had EC50 3.6−25.2 and 3−18.4 μM, respectively. The EC50 of cyclic phosphate 10a was 6.0−20 μM. The activity against Epstein−Barr (EBV) was assay-dependent. Pronucleotides 7a and 7b and phosphate 11a had EC50 2.3−3.4 μM against EBV/H-1, but 7b was cytotoxic (CC50 3.8 μM). Cyclic phosphate 10a was the only compound effective against EBV/Daudi (EC50 0.96 μM), but it was inactive in H-1 cells. Pronucleotide 7a was active against varicella zoster virus with EC50 6.3 and 7.3 μM, respectively, and hepatitis B virus (HBV, EC...
High-precision gravity measurements using atom interferometry

We have built an atom interferometer that can measure g, the local acceleration due to gravity, with a resolution of Δg/g = 2 × 10−8 after a single 1.3 s measurement cycle, 3 × 10−9 after 1 min and 1 × 10−10 after two days of integration time. The difference between our value for g and one obtained by a falling corner-cube optical interferometer is (7 ± 7) × 10−9 g. The atom interferometer uses velocity-selective stimulated Raman transitions and laser-cooled caesium atoms in an atomic fountain. We extend previous methods of analysing the interferometer to include the effects of a gravitational gradient. We also present detailed experimental and theoretical studies of potential systematic errors and noise sources.
An equation of state for multilayer adsorption

An equation of state for multilayer adsorption is derived. This equation gives the correct thermodynamic behavior at small pressures and at the saturation vapor pressure. The equation of state is analyzed for weakly attractive and strongly attractive surfaces and results are compared with experimental data. In addition, a new relationship is obtained for the exponent d which describes the singularity in the multilayer adsorption isotherm. It is shown that d depends on temperature, saturation vapor pressure, Henry's coefficient, monolayer capacity, and surface tension.
Hot and humid: a bad combination for you, me, and patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathyCalkins.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is an important cause of sudden death in young adults. Since the initial report of a series of 24 patients with this condition by Marcus and Fontaine in 1982, remarkable progress has been made in the understanding of all aspects of this disease. These advancements include improved understanding of (1) the natural history of ARVD/C, (2) optimal approaches for diagnosis, (3) the genetic basis of this condition, (4) the fundamental pathophysiologic mechanisms of ARVD/C, (5) the link between ARVD and exercise, (6) sudden death prevention, and (7) sudden death risk factors. Although far more work remains, the degree of scientific progress is remarkable. In this issue of HeartRhythm, Chung et al report the results of their investigation into the effect of season and meteorological variations on the frequency of SCD and ventricular tachyarrhythmia in patients with AVRD/C from Taiwan. With the publication of the results of this study, the body of knowledge regarding arrhythmic risk in ARVD/C advances one step further. A total of 88 consecutive patients with ARVD/C (22 living and 68 diagnosed at autopsy) from Taipei City identified over a 14-year period were included in this analysis. There were 106 arrhythmic events, including 38 appropriate ICD interventions in living patients with ARVD/C and 68 patients with SCD in whom ARVD/C was diagnosed at autopsy. Approximately twice as many arrhythmic events occurred during the summer than during any of the other 3 seasons (among which the number of arrhythmic events did not differ). An analysis of meteorological factors associated with the development of ventricular arrhythmias revealed that the 2 independent variables were higher average daily temperature and higher humidity within 3 days of the arrhythmic episode. This study is a welcome addition to the literature as we continue our quest to fully understand all aspects of ARVD/C. To my knowledge, this is the first study to
Observation of absorptive photon switching by quantum interference

We report an experimental demonstration of photon switching by quantum interference in a four-level atomic system proposed by Harris and Yamamoto [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3611 (1998)]. Quantum interference inhibits single-photon absorption but enhances third-order, two-photon-type absorption in the four-level system. We have observed greatly enhanced nonlinear absorption in the four-level system realized with cold ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms and demonstrated fast switching of the nonlinear absorption with a pulsed pump laser.
Synthesis of 1‐ethyl‐1‐(2‐hydroxyethyl)aziridinium‐1,2‐14C2 chloride (1) ([14C]AF64A)

1-Ethyl-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)aziridinium-1,2-14C2 chloride (1) ([(14C]AF64A), the labelled analogue of a selective presynaptic cholinotoxin, was prepared from labelled ethylene oxide. The synthetic intermediate, 1,2-14C2-2[ethyl[2-[(tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl)oxy]ethyl]amino]ethanol, obtained in good yield by the reaction of 2-[(tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl)oxy]diethylamine with [14C] ethylene oxide, was converted to the corresponding ethyl chloride derivative using CH3SO2Cl/n-BuLi. Subsequent removal of the THP group under mild acidic condition gave the mono-armed mustard as a stable hydrochloride salt in an overall chemical yield of 46% and radiochemical yield of 27%. Conversion of the mustard compound to the corresponding aziridinium species was followed by 1H NMR.
Short note: Effects of heat conduction on artificial viscosity methods for shock capturing

We investigate the efficacy of artificial thermal conductivity for shock capturing. The conductivity model is derived from artificial bulk and shear viscosities, such that stagnation enthalpy remains constant across shocks. By thus fixing the Prandtl number, more physical shock profiles are obtained, only on a larger scale. The conductivity model does not contain any empirical constants. It increases the net dissipation of a computational algorithm but is found to better preserve symmetry and produce more robust solutions for strong-shock problems.
Recommendation systems with complex constraints: A course recommendation perspective

We study the problem of making recommendations when the objects to be recommended must also satisfy constraints or requirements. In particular, we focus on course recommendations: the courses taken by a student must satisfy requirements (e.g., take two out of a set of five math courses) in order for the student to graduate. Our work is done in the context of the CourseRank system, used by students to plan their academic program at Stanford University. Our goal is to recommend to these students courses that not only help satisfy constraints, but that are also desirable (e.g., popular or taken by similar students). We develop increasingly expressive models for course requirements, and present a variety of schemes for both checking if the requirements are satisfied, and for making recommendations that take into account the requirements. We show that some types of requirements are inherently expensive to check, and we present exact, as well as heuristic techniques, for those cases. Although our work is specific to course requirements, it provides insights into the design of recommendation systems in the presence of complex constraints found in other applications.
Parallel discrete event simulation of manufacturing systems: a technology survey

Abstract Parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) refers to a simulation platform initiated by Chandy and Misra [1979]. The basic idea of PDES is that a simulation model is decomposed into submodels which are then run on different processes concurrently. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of PDES' use for manufacturing systems. First, the PDES platform and basic analytical methods associated with this platform are briefly introduced, the difficulty of PDES compared with conventional simulation method is discussed. A survey of PDES' use in manufacturing systems is then provided, which covers: (1) a summary of different PDES models for different kinds of manufacturing systems, and (2) a comparison of PDES characteristics in the context of decomposition method and synchronization scheme. Based on the survey, it is concluded that using PDES for manufacturing systems has not been successful and its success depends on both the availability of efficient model decomposition method and the improvement of suitable hardware architecture.
Switching attention within and between categories: Evidence for intracategory inhibition.

In a variation of the Posner and Snyder (1975b) paradigm, subjects made speeded “same” or “different” responses to pairs of digits or letters on the basis of name identity (Experiment 1) or physical identity (Experiment 2). Each target pair was preceded by an informative (letter or digit) or noninformative (plus-sign) warning signal. The letter or digit represented by an informative warning signal had a high probability of appearing in the subsequent target pair (expected condition). On trials in which the expected stimulus did not appear in the target pair, the target pair belonged with equal probability to either the same category (either letters or digits) as the expected stimulus or to the opposite category (unexpected-similar and unexpected-opposite conditions, respectively). The pattern of “benefits” and “costs” of attentional expectancy found by Posner and Snyder for “same” responses was replicated: Subjects were faster and more accurate in the expected condition than in the neutral (uninformative warning signal) condition, but slower and less accurate in the unexpected conditions. Present theoretical interest concerns “same” response times and accuracy for the two unexpected conditions. Under instructions emphasizing accuracy as well as speed (Experiments 1 and 2), performance was worse in the unexpected-similar condition than in the unexpected-opposite condition. Only when instructions deemphasized accuracy (Experiment 2) was performance better in the unexpected-similar condition than in the unexpected-opposite condition. The fact that subjects may have more difficulty switching attention within a category than between categories (at least when instructions emphasize accuracy as well as speed) contrasts sharply with current theoretical emphasis on intracategorical facilitation effects in the priming paradigm. The results are interpreted within the framework of a model of attention (Keele & Neill, 1978) in which the activation of associates to the focus of attention is actively and optionally suppressed so as to reduce present or potential interference with the focal information processing.
Economic evaluation in health care: A modern day quagmire

The report by Pulikottil-Jacob et al 1 provides us with an opportunity to reflect on various issues associated with the conceptualization and the conduct of economic evaluations in health care. In our opinion, too frequently such analyses, while important in concept, lack optimal execution. Cost-effectiveness analysis, as a means to make informed decisions concerning resource allocation, has a long and distinguished history. 2–4 These decisions have often been associated with government programs, including attempts to critically appraise medical technology. In this regard, from 1972 to 1995, the now defunct Office of Technology Assessment, formerly an arm of the U.S. Congress, routinely performed cost-effectiveness analyses in relationship to technological innovations in health care. 5 Despite its perceived utility, cost-effectiveness analysis has often been criticized as a means to ration health care services—a taboo topic in the United States. Thus, some federal agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), have excluded cost-effectiveness information from consideration when making coverage (what to pay for) and reimbursement (how much to pay) decisions. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has routinely included the results of cost-effectiveness analyses in its decisions on how medical technology will be deployed within the National Health Service. 6 Many other countries have done likewise, with little concern about the rationing of health care resources. In effect, the results of costeffectiveness analyses are viewed as a means to better manage national single-payer health care systems. As we see it, there are 5 issues worthy of consideration when conducting an economic evaluation to establish relative cost-effectiveness. Pulikottil-Jacob et al 1 have addressed most of them, although some better than others. First, ideally, cost-effectiveness analyses are conducted alongside prospective, randomized, clinical trials. Admittedly, this gold standard is rarely achieved, and we compromise accordingly, as have Pulikottil-Jacob et al. Their cost-effectiveness analysis is based on non-randomized, observational data derived from an administrative database. In our opinion, such data in their study enhance the probability of bias for the following reasons: 1. The database excludes variables needed to risk stratify the patient groups subjected to analysis. 2. Many of the HeartMate II (Thoratec, Pleasanton, CA) patients received the device in an earlier period when less was known about patient selection and post-implant management, giving rise to an unacknowledged “period effect.” 3. The frequency of missing data is greater for the HeartMate II group than the HeartWare (HeartWare International, Inc. Framingham, MA) group.
Comparison of two depression measures for predicting stroke outcomes.

Objectives Little is known about the effect of lifetime history of depression on ischemic stroke outcomes. This study compared a measure of current symptoms of depression at the time of the stroke and a measure of lifetime history of depression for their ability to predict quality of life and functioning at 3 and 12 months after stroke.
The Role of Genetics in the Pathogenesis of Periocular Cutaneous Neoplasms: Implications for Targeted Therapy

In the past, cutaneous malignancies of the periocular region were primarily treated surgically with few other options. As the genetic bases of these tumors have become elucidated, targeted therapies aimed specifically at pathways that are felt to be responsible for cellular proliferation and uncontrolled growth have emerged with new promise. This review contains a summary of the various genetic implications of cutaneous neoplasms as well as their corresponding targeted systemic therapies.
Reduction in hospital-wide mortality after implementation of a rapid response team: a long-term cohort study

Rapid response teams (RRTs) have been shown to reduce cardiopulmonary arrests outside the intensive care unit (ICU). Yet the utility of RRTs remains in question, as most large studies have failed to demonstrate a significant reduction in hospital-wide mortality after RRT implementation. A cohort design with historical controls was used to determine the effect on hospital-wide mortality of an RRT in which clinical judgment, in addition to vital-signs criteria, was widely promoted as a key trigger for activation. All nonprisoner patients admitted to a tertiary referral public teaching hospital from 2003 through 2008 were included. In total, 77, 021 admissions before RRT implementation (2003 through 2005) and 79, 013 admissions after RRT implementation (2006 through 2008) were evaluated. The a priori primary outcome was unadjusted hospital-wide mortality. A Poisson regression model was then used to adjust for hospital-wide mortality trends over time. Secondary outcomes defined a priori were unadjusted out-of-ICU mortality and out-of-ICU cardiopulmonary-arrest codes. In total, 855 inpatient RRTs (10.8 per 1, 000 hospital-wide discharges) were activated during the 3-year postintervention period. Forty-seven percent of RRTs were activated for reasons of clinical judgment. Hospital-wide mortality decreased from 15.50 to 13.74 deaths per 1, 000 discharges after RRT implementation (relative risk, 0.887; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.817 to 0.963; P = 0.004). After adjusting for inpatient mortality trends over time, the reduction in hospital-wide mortality remained statistically significant (relative risk, 0.825; 95% CI, 0.694 to 0.981; P = 0.029). Out-of-ICU mortality decreased from 7.08 to 4.61 deaths per 1, 000 discharges (relative risk, 0.651; 95% CI, 0.570 to 0.743; P < 0.001). Out-of-ICU cardiopulmonary-arrest codes decreased from 3.28 to 1.62 codes per 1, 000 discharges (relative risk, 0.493; 95% CI, 0.399 to 0.610; P < 0.001). Implementation of an RRT in which clinical judgment, in addition to vital-signs criteria, was widely cited as a rationale for activation, was associated with a significant reduction in hospital-wide mortality, out-of-ICU mortality, and out-of-ICU cardiopulmonary-arrest codes. The frequent use of clinical judgment as a criterion for RRT activation was associated with high RRT utilization.
Fetal Outcomes in Pregnancies Complicated by Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy in a Northern California Cohort

Background Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) has important fetal implications. There is increased risk for poor fetal outcomes, including preterm delivery, meconium staining of amniotic fluid, respiratory distress, fetal distress and demise.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN READING: THE CASE FOR LEXICAL ACCESS

Lexical access is the process of getting information about a word, such as its meaning(s) and its pronunciation, from one's mental dictionary. Some students’ reading comprehension is hindered because their lexical access is slow and nonautomatic. Research on lexical access is reviewed, and the implications for comprehension development are discussed.
Metabolism of benzo(a)pyrene in animals with high aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase levels and high rates of spontaneous cancer.

Summary Ambystoma tigrinum found in a sewage polluted pond had high levels of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) activity that decreased to the basal level of control animals after being held several months in clean water. The qualitative formation of benzo(a)pyrene (BP) metabolites by salamander hepatic microsomes was similar to those seen for other species. Inhibition of epoxide hydrase activity did not alter the total metabolite production but did change the ratio of metabolites. A correlation appears to exist between high AHH induction, the presence of polycyclic hydrocarbon pollutants, and the high rate of spontaneous cancer in salamanders.
The internal resistance of a microbial fuel cell and its dependence on cell design and operating conditions

The internal resistance Rint of a mediator-less microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been determined as a function of cell voltage using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for a MFC with and without Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. The same tests were performed for a MFC containing small stainless steel (SS) balls in the anode compartment with a graphite feeder electrode as in a packed bed cell. It has been found that Rint decreased with decreasing cell voltage as the increasing current flow decreases the polarization resistance of the anode and the cathode. The ohmic components of Rint played a very minor role. In the presence of MR-1 Rint was lower by a factor of about 100 than Rint of the MFC with buffer and lactate as anolyte. Rint was also significantly lower for the anode containing SS balls with buffer and lactate as anolyte. For the MFC containing SS balls in the anode compartment no significant further decrease of Rint could be obtained when MR-1 was added to the anolyte since in this case the polarization resistance of the anode was lower than that of the cathode. Similar trends were observed in the cell voltage (V)–current (I) curves that were obtained using potentiodynamic sweeps and the power (P)–V curves that were calculated from the V–I curves.
Do observed or perceived characteristics of the neighborhood environment mediate associations between neighborhood poverty and cumulative biological risk

Objective To examine contributions of observed and perceived neighborhood characteristics in explaining associations between neighborhood poverty and cumulative biological risk (CBR) in an urban community.
Predictors of Intention to Promote Family Planning: A Survey of Protestant Seminarians in the United States:

The purpose of this study was to examine Protestant seminary students’ intention to promote family planning. Intention to promote family planning and its predictors were examined by testing a conceptual model based on the theory of planned behavior and social cognitive theory. A nonrepresentative sample of 635 seminarians (90.5% Anglo; 66.5% male) from 10 theological schools in the United States completed a mailed survey. Students were classified according to their religious beliefs as conservative (61.9%) and nonconservative (38.1%), and group differences in intention (and its correlates) were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to assess relationships among attitudes toward sexuality, attitudes toward family planning, subjective norms, knowledge, self-efficacy, and intention for both conservative and nonconservative students. Results indicated that the relationships among predictors of intention were essentially similar for both conservative and nonconservative seminarians, with attitudes an...
Business rule extraction techniques for COBOL programs

Business rules are operational rules, often coded into software, that business organizations follow to perform various activities, such as transaction processing, quality control, business planning and database management. Over time, business rules evolve and the software that implemented them are also changed and maintained. As the encompassing software becomes large and aged, the business rules embedded are difficult to extract and understand, evolving with the encompassing software over time. Furthermore, the encompassing software is changed without changing the corresponding text documents, and thus, often, the business organization trusts the code more than any other documents. This paper proposes several techniques to extract business rules from legacy code. It is possible to use a generic software maintenance tool to extract business rules; however this can be an expensive exercise. We propose a tailored solution approach for the business rule extraction (BRE) problem, which combines variable classifications, program slicing, heuristics for identifying slicing criteria, multiple representations of business rules, bottom-up data flow analysis and hierarchical abstraction, among other maintenance techniques. The proposed solution approach has been implemented as a system and successfully tried with a number of industrial programs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Great Multidrug-Resistance Paradox

Much of the attention devoted to the elucidation of multidrug-resistance mechanisms in tumor cells has focused on transmembrane drug transporters and their ability to pump drug molecules from the cytosol to the extracellular medium. However, intracellular drug concentrations often remain high in drug-resistant cells and therefore do not explain how drug pumping at the plasma membrane confers multidrug resistance. Recent work indicates how drug sequestration in cytoplasmic organelles can account for these paradoxical results and how cellular pharmacokinetics may be exploited to target the activity of small molecules to specific cell types.
An exact method for determining the surface of a countercurrent heat exchanger when the tube side coefficient governs and is a parabolic function of temperature

The “Thermal effectiveness-Transfer unit” charts developed by the authors, for the countercurrent heat exchanger, assume that the overall heat transfer coefficient varies as a parabolic function of temperature; their use can lead to greater accuracy in calculating heat transfer areas. Les auteurs ont construit des chartes d'efficacite ther-mique pour un echangeur de chaleur a contre-courant. Ils ont suppose que le coefficient global de transfert de chaleur varie d'une facon parabolique avec la temperature. L'emploi de ces chartes peut conduire a une plus grande precision pour le calcul des surfaces d'echange de chaleur.
When 'others' initiate repair

Early work on repair (Schegloff et al. 1977) had proposed that virtually all repair initiated by other than speaker of the trouble-source turn was initiated in the turn following the trouble-source turn. Such repair often came to be identified with this locus of initiation, being termed NTRI-an acronym derived from 'next turn repair initiation'. Subsequent work (Schegloff 1992) described another location in which 'other-initiated repair' is initiated-termed 'fourth position'. This paper revisits this issue and elaborates the locus of other-initiated repair. It reports on a number of environments in which 'others' initiate repair in turns later than the one directly following the trouble-source turn (without, however, occupying fourth position), and it describes several ways in which other-initiation of repair which occurs in next-turn position may be delayed within that position. These positionings of repair initiation in conversation among native speakers of English are briefly compared with a proposal by Wong that other-initiated repair by non-native speakers may regularly be delayed. A postscript suggests the prospect that studies of non-native speaker participation in talk-in-interaction be treated as not separable from the study of talk-in-interaction more generally
The Moral Development of First‐Person Authority

For any detailed description of the complexity of human nature, of the insurgence of instinct in the garb of reason, of the multifarious play of the social environment in the individual ego, and of the individual ego on the social environment, I had to turn to the novelists and the poets. (Beatrice Webb, My Apprenticeship) It is a natural, commonsense assumption that human beings who are competent in their understanding and use of folk-psychological concepts (e.g. ‘belief’, ‘desire’, ‘intention’, ‘fear’, ‘hope’, ‘jealousy’ and the like) have a special kind of authority with respect to claims they make about their own minds, in particular about their own intentional attitudes. One way to capture this special sense of authority is to argue that such claims are subject to a ‘default hypothesis’ of correctness (e.g. Wright 1991: 143–4). If I claim to be upset or happy about something or to have a yearning for plum pudding, then, all things being equal (i.e. assuming I am sane, and sincere, and not deeply distracted), the appropriate default presumption is that such claims are true. This presumption must be carefully understood, of course. On the one hand, it does not amount to endorsing a person’s infallibility or even incorrigibility with respect to the claims they make about their own minds; others may successfully challenge them from the point of view of making sense of the overall pattern of that person’s behaviour. On the other hand, the evidence of someone’s ‘unextorted word’ about what they think, desire, or feel takes a lot to defeat (Dennett 1987: 20). For not only must the rest of the person’s behaviour speak strongly against taking them at their word; there must be some reasonable account of how they have failed to maintain first-person authority in the particular case. In other words, the idea of a special kind of authority attaching to first-person claims brings with it the demand for special explanations in the case of failure. There is a long tradition in philosophy of attempting to explain the special qualities of first-person authority in terms of a privileged epistemological relation a person bears to her own mind. Yet this purely epistemological approach not only encounters serious difficulties in its own terms; it fails to account for a critical feature of first-person authority even if these difficulties could be overcome. It fails to explain the close connection between acknowledging someone’s authority over her own psychological states and treating her as the sort of agent who can be held responsible for what she thinks and does. Such an
Effects of concurrent motor, linguistic, or cognitive tasks on speech motor performance.

This study examined the influence of 3 different types of concurrent tasks on speech motor performance. The goal was to uncover potential differences in speech movements relating to the nature of t...
Model of intravenous bolus propagation for optimization of contrast enhancement

Synchronization of contrast administration and CT imaging can maximize the signal differences between arteries and background in first pass studies. In this paper, a bolus propagation model is developed for tomographic angiography, especially CT angiography that relies on bolus peak prediction, real-time CT observation and adaptive table transport. The bolus propagation model is configured as a network of vessels and organs, each of which is described based on the vascular transport operator theory. The traditional vascular operator is augmented by introducing a longitudinal length parameter to depict the bolus propagation along a vessel. A parameter adjustment algorithm is also designed for the extended vascular operator, assuming real- time measurements of concentration-time curves are available at multiple locations along the vessel. As a result, the bolus concentration can be computed with respective to both the time since bolus injection and the location along the vessel. Numerical simulation and patient studies with CT and MRI are performed to evaluate the feasibility and utility of the bolus propagation model. Individualization of the bolus propagation model are tested. Theoretical and practical values are in excellent agreement. This bolus propagation model has a significant potential for optimization of tomographic angiography. In particular, this model can be applied to CT angiography so that the intravenous bolus peak and the X-ray imaging aperture are matched with an adaptive table transport.
To Grow or Not to Grow: Nutritional Control of Development During Caenorhabditis elegans L1 Arrest

It is widely appreciated that larvae of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans arrest development by forming dauer larvae in response to multiple unfavorable environmental conditions. C. elegans larvae can also reversibly arrest development earlier, during the first larval stage (L1), in response to starvation. "L1 arrest" (also known as "L1 diapause") occurs without morphological modification but is accompanied by increased stress resistance. Caloric restriction and periodic fasting can extend adult lifespan, and developmental models are critical to understanding how the animal is buffered from fluctuations in nutrient availability, impacting lifespan. L1 arrest provides an opportunity to study nutritional control of development. Given its relevance to aging, diabetes, obesity and cancer, interest in L1 arrest is increasing, and signaling pathways and gene regulatory mechanisms controlling arrest and recovery have been characterized. Insulin-like signaling is a critical regulator, and it is modified by and acts through microRNAs. DAF-18/PTEN, AMP-activated kinase and fatty acid biosynthesis are also involved. The nervous system, epidermis, and intestine contribute systemically to regulation of arrest, but cell-autonomous signaling likely contributes to regulation in the germline. A relatively small number of genes affecting starvation survival during L1 arrest are known, and many of them also affect adult lifespan, reflecting a common genetic basis ripe for exploration. mRNA expression is well characterized during arrest, recovery, and normal L1 development, providing a metazoan model for nutritional control of gene expression. In particular, post-recruitment regulation of RNA polymerase II is under nutritional control, potentially contributing to a rapid and coordinated response to feeding. The phenomenology of L1 arrest will be reviewed, as well as regulation of developmental arrest and starvation survival by various signaling pathways and gene regulatory mechanisms.
Acetoxime coordinates to palladium(II) and is catalytically hydrolysed to acetone

Several new palladium(II) complexes containing acetoxime as a unidentate ligand were synthesized from cis-[Pd(en)(solv)2]2+1a and cis-[Pd(dtod)(solv)2]2+1b, in which the displaceable ligand solv is water or acetone, en is ethane-1,2-diamine, and dtod is 3,6-dithia-1,8-octanediol. The acetoxime complexes are characterized by UV-visible spectrophotometry and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy in solution. Acetoxime in the mono-oxime complexes cis-[Pd(en){N(OH)C(CH3)2}(solv)]2+2a and cis-[Pd(dtod){N(OH)C(CH3)2}(solv)]2+2b undergoes hydrolysis to acetone and hydroxylamine. The proposed mechanism involves internal attack of a PdII-bound hydroxo ligand at the coordinated acetoxime. This palladium(II)-catalysed hydrolysis is at least 104 times faster than hydrolysis in the absence of a catalyst. The rate enhancement arises from polarization of acetoxime upon coordination to palladium(II), the availability of the nucleophilic hydroxo ligand, and close proximity of these two species. The complex [Pd(dien){N(OH)C(CH3)2}]2+, which contains the tridentate diethylenetriamine ligand, is almost unreactive toward hydrolysis because it lacks a PdII-bound aqua or hydroxo ligand, so that the reaction occurs via the less-favorable external attack of solvent water. Acetoxime in the bis-acetoxime complex cis-[Pd(dtod){N(OH)C(CH3)2}2]2+3b hydrolyses very slowly because this complex also lacks aqua or hydroxo ligands. Therefore, this complex was crystallized and its structure determined by X-ray crystallography.
The Critical Incident Technique in Student Affairs Research and Practice

AbstractSince the 1950s, the critical incident technique (CIT) has aided researchers in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of qualitative data. In the student affairs literature only a very small number of CIT studies exist. Using the two most recent publications as examples, this article provides a detailed overview of the CIT, highlights its benefits and limitations, and offers specific recommendations for future applications of the CIT in student affairs research and practice.
Black holes or firewalls: A theory of horizons

We present a quantum theory of black hole (and other) horizons, in which the standard assumptions of complementarity are preserved without contradicting information theoretic considerations. After the scrambling time, the quantum mechanical structure of a black hole becomes that of an eternal black hole at the microscopic level. In particular, the stretched horizon degrees of freedom and the states entangled with them can be mapped into the near-horizon modes in the two exterior regions of an eternal black hole, whose mass is taken to be that of the evolving black hole at each moment. Salient features arising from this picture include (i) the number of degrees of freedom needed to describe a black hole is ${e}^{\mathcal{A}/2{l}_{\mathrm{P}}^{2}}$, where $\mathcal{A}$ is the area of the horizon; (ii) black hole states having smooth horizons, however, span only an ${e}^{\mathcal{A}/4{l}_{\mathrm{P}}^{2}}$-dimensional subspace of the relevant ${e}^{\mathcal{A}/2{l}_{\mathrm{P}}^{2}}$-dimensional Hilbert space; (iii) internal dynamics of the horizon is such that an infalling observer finds a smooth horizon with a probability of 1 if a state stays in this subspace. We identify the structure of local operators responsible for describing semiclassical physics in the exterior and interior spacetime regions and show that this structure avoids the arguments for firewalls\char22{}the horizon can keep being smooth throughout the evolution. We discuss the fate of infalling observers under various circumstances, especially when the observers manipulate degrees of freedom before entering the horizon, and we find that an observer can never see a firewall by making a measurement on early Hawking radiation. We also consider the presented framework from the viewpoint of an infalling reference frame and argue that Minkowski-like vacua are not unique. In particular, the number of true Minkowski vacua is infinite, although the label discriminating these vacua cannot be accessed in usual nongravitational quantum field theory. An application of the framework to de Sitter horizons is also discussed.
Communicating Mission: An Analysis of Academic Library Web Sites

As libraries experience changes in their environment, communicating to stakeholders about the changes as well as the library's mission, strategies, and responses to the changes is critical. Such communication serves well to inform how the change management integrates with the mission of the library so that stakeholders have a shared understanding of the changes taking place, as well as to build and develop their support and confidence in the organization. This study discusses findings of an exploratory analysis in which 111 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Web sites were surveyed to gain insights into the academic library's current practices of communicating the library mission.
THE DRAMA OF ENGAGED READING: EXTENDING THE READER THROUGH CLASSROOM STORY DRAMA

Current reader‐response theory suggests that readers both produce and participate in story worlds created by the reader in transaction with text. From a semiotic perspective, nonlinguistic texts are important media for thought, communication, and reflection and are often created mentally as a response to linguistic text by readers participating in story worlds. But research on less proficient readers suggests that they do not engage or participate with textual worlds in the visual, empathic, and reflective ways of more expert readers. In an exploratory study, I used a variety of story‐based drama activities as an intervention to help a seventh‐grade class of reluctant readers experience the participatory strategies and pleasures of reading. Before, during, and after the dramatic intervention, I collected data on the responses of 2 case study students. Data were collected through observation, interviews, transcripts, and tapes of the students’ written, verbal, and dramatic work. Domain and taxonomic analys...
Binding of the ERα Nuclear Receptor to DNA Is Coupled to Proton Uptake

Nuclear receptors act as ligand-modulated transcription factors and orchestrate a plethora of cellular functions central to health and disease. Although studied for more than half a century, many mysteries surrounding the mechanism of action of nuclear receptors remain unresolved. Herein, using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) in conjunction with macromolecular modeling (MM), we provide evidence that the binding of the ERα nuclear receptor to its DNA response element is coupled to proton uptake by two ionizable residues, H196 and E203, located at the protein−DNA interface. Alanine substitution of these ionizable residues decouples protonation and hampers the binding of ERα to DNA by nearly 1 order of magnitude. Remarkably, H196 and E203 are predominantly conserved across ∼50 members of the nuclear receptor family, implying that proton-coupled equilibrium may serve as a key regulatory switch for modulating protein−DNA interactions central to nuclear receptor function and regulation. Taken together, o...
Empirical Likelihood Ratio in Terms of Cumulative Hazard Function for Censored Data

It has been shown that (with complete data) empirical likelihood ratios can be used to form confidence intervals and test hypotheses about a linear functional of the distribution function just like the parametric case. We study here the empirical likelihood ratios for right censored data and with parameters that are linear functionals of the cumulative hazard function. Martingale techniques make the asymptotic analysis easier, even for random weighting functions. It is shown that the empirical likelihood ratio in this setting can be easily obtained by solving a one parameter monotone equation.
Estimation of the Proportion of Feed Protein Digested in the Small Intestine of Cattle Consuming Wet Corn Gluten Feed

The objectives of this study were to expand the database and determine the intestinal digestibility of rumen undegradable protein (dRUP) of common dairy feeds and to determine the effects of feeding 37.9% wet corn gluten feed on these estimates. Two ruminally and duodenally fistulated steers were assigned randomly to a crossover design with 4-wk periods. The mobile bag technique was used to determine rumen undegradable protein (RUP), dRUP, total tract digestible protein, and total tract digestible dry matter of alfalfa hay, brome hay, alfalfa haylage, corn silage, whole cottonseed, soybean meal, soyhulls, ground corn, nonenzymatically browned soybean meal, and dried distillers grains. There was no consistent effect of diet on RUP, dRUP, total tract digestible protein, and total tract digestible dry matter. The RUP (% of crude protein) ranged from 5.97% for alfalfa haylage to 75.6% for nonenzymatically browned soybean meal. The dRUP ranged from 15.3% for alfalfa haylage to 96.5% for nonenzymatically browned soybean meal. The dRUP for alfalfa hay (33.9%), brome hay (39.1%), alfalfa haylage (15.5%), and corn silage (19.9%) were lower than National Research Council reported values. The higher dRUP of the nonenzymatically browned soybean meal is reflective of more total protein reaching the small intestine. The large range in dRUP was not reflected in total tract digestible protein (% of crude protein), with corn silage being the lowest at 85.2% and nonenzymatically browned soybean meal the highest at 97.9%. In this study, diet had little effect on intestinal digestibility of protein or dry matter.
Response of mature mice to challenge with neuroblastoma after inoculation with neuroblastoma cells as neonates

Injection (s.c.) of 2 × 105 S20Y neuroblastoma cells into adult AJ strain mice regularly produced a higher incidence of progressive, lethal tumor growth. In contrast, successful tumor growth was significantly less frequent (P<0.001) when the same number of tumor cells were injected into neonatal AJ mice. A significant number (P<0.001) of matured mice that had rejected the initial S20Y cell inoculum as neonates were able to reject 2 subsequent challenges with S20Y cells.
Metabolic effects of antihypertensive agents: role of sympathoadrenal and renin-angiotensin systems

Reports of beneficial, neutral and adverse impacts of antihypertensive drug classes on glucose and lipid metabolism can be found in human data. Furthermore, mechanisms for these diverse effects are often speculative and controversial. Clinical trial data on the metabolic effects of antihypertensive agents are highly contradictory. Comparisons of clinical trials involving different agents are complicated by differences in the spectrum of metabolic disturbances that accompany hypertension in different groups of patients. Two physiological systems are predominant at the interface between metabolic and cardiovascular regulation: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). These two systems are major targets of antihypertensive drug actions, and also mediate many of the beneficial and adverse effects of antihypertensive agents on glucose and lipid metabolism. Thiazides and β-adrenergic antagonists can adversely affect glucose and lipid metabolism, which are frequently compromised in human essential hypertension, and increase the incidence of new cases of diabetes. Laboratory studies confirm these effects, and suggest that compensatory activation of the SNS and RAS may be one mechanism. Other antihypertensives directly targeting the SNS and RAS may have beneficial effects on glucose and lipid metabolism, and may prevent diabetes. Resolution of the controversies surrounding the metabolic effects of antihypertensive agents can only be resolved by further laboratory studies, in addition to controlled clinical trials.
“Truthful witness”;: An interview with Albert Maysles

(1981). “Truthful witness”;: An interview with Albert Maysles. Quarterly Review of Film Studies: Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 155-179.