cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Infant Motor Skills After a Cardiac Operation: The Need for Developmental Monitoring and Care

Background Neurodevelopmental dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a common outcome of congenital heart defects and their treatment in infancy. The effects of the intensive care unit (ICU) experience and environment on these infants are unknown and potentially modifiable, but no validated metric is available for objective evaluation of early motor impairments in the ICU/hospital setting. The purpose of this study was to characterize the motor status of hospitalized infants after cardiac operations, including the development and field-testing of the Congenital Heart Assessment of Sensory and Motor Status (CHASMS) metric. Methods CHASMS item generation was based on review of the literature, focused interviews with parents, and expert consensus. A nurse administered CHASMS to 100 infants aged younger than 10 months old undergoing cardiac operations. Preoperative and postoperative CHASMS scores were compared, and associations between CHASMS scores and patient characteristics were examined. Physical therapists assessed neuromotor skills by using the Test of Infant Motor Performance or the Alberta Infant Motor Scales for correlation with CHASMS scores. Results CHASMS gross motor scores declined postoperatively in 64% (25 of 39). Lower CHASMS scores, after adjusting for age, were associated with longer duration of mechanical ventilation (p Conclusions Motor impairments in infants after cardiac operations are common and may be exacerbated by longer intubation and prolonged exposure to the ICU environment. The feasibility, reliability, and validity of CHASMS were supported for the evaluation of motor skills in this at-risk population.
Hydroxyurea: Analytical techniques and quantitative analysis

Hydroxyurea is a potent disease-modifying therapeutic agent with efficacy for the treatment of sickle cell anemia. When administered at once-daily oral doses that lead to mild marrow suppression, hydroxyurea leads to substantial and sustained fetal hemoglobin induction, which effectively inhibits erythrocyte sickling. When escalated to maximum tolerated dose, hydroxyurea has proven laboratory and clinical effects for both children and adults with sickle cell anemia. However, there is substantial inter-patient variability with regard to the optimal dosing regimen, as well as differences in treatment-related toxicities and responses that may be explained by hydroxyurea pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics. Addressing the safety and efficacy of hydroxyurea treatment requires quantitative and accurate drug analysis, and various laboratory techniques have been established. We review the historical and current analytical techniques for measuring hydroxyurea concentrations accurately, and discuss clinical settings where quantitative analysis can increase understanding and safety of this important therapeutic agent, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
Developing and Using a Pilot Dialectal Arabic Treebank.

In this paper, we describe the methodological procedures and issues that emerged from the development of a pilot Levantine Arabic Treebank (LATB) at the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) and its use at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Center for Language and Speech Processing workshop on Parsing Arabic Dialects (PAD). This pilot, consisting of morphological and syntactic annotation of approximately 26,000 words of Levantine Arabic conversational telephone speech, was developed under severe time constraints; hence the LDC team drew on their experience in treebanking Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) text. The resulting Levantine dialect treebanked corpus was used by the PAD team to develop and evaluate parsers for Levantine dialect texts. The parsers were trained on MSA resources and adapted using dialect-MSA lexical resources (some developed especially for this task) and existing linguistic knowledge about syntactic differences between MSA and dialect. The use of the LATB for development and evaluation of syntactic parsers allowed the PAD team to provide feedbasck to the LDC treebank developers. In this paper, we describe the creation of resources for this corpus, as well as transformations on the corpus to eliminate speech effects and lessen the gap between our pre-existing MSA resources and the new dialectal corpus
Evaluation of TRPM8 and TRPA1 participation in dental pulp sensitivity to cold stimulation

Sensory neurons innervating the dental pulp have unique morphological and functional characteristics compared to neurons innervating other tissues. Stimulation of dental pulp afferents whatever the modality or intensity of the stimulus, even light mechanical stimulation that would not activate nociceptors in other tissues, produces an intense pain. These specific sensory characteristics could involve receptors of the Transient Receptor Potential channels (TRP) family. In this study, we evaluated 1) the expression of TRPA1 and TRPM8 receptors in trigeminal ganglion neurons innervating the dental pulp compared to sensory neurons innervating the oral mucosa or the skin of the face, and 2) the involvement of these receptors in dental pulp sensitivity to cold stimulation. We showed a similar expression of TRPM8 and CGRP in sensory neurons innervating the dental pulp, the skin or the oral mucosa. However, the proportion of neurons expressing TRPA1 was higher in the neuronal population innervating the mucosa (43%) than in the neuronal population innervating the dental pulp (19%) or the skin (24%). Moreover, neurons innervating the dental pulp had a higher proportion of large neurons (24%) compared to neurons innervating the skin (8%) or the mucosa (10%). The evaluation of the relation between TRPM8, TRPA1 and cold stimulation in trigeminal ganglion neuron culture, showed that a significant proportion of neurons innervating the skin (10%) or the mucosa (37%) were sensitive to cold stimulation but insensitive to TRPM8 and TRPA1 activation, indicating that perception of stimuli would be in part independent to TRPA1 and TRPM8 receptors. Similarly, the application of a cold stimulation on the tooth induced an overexpression of cFos in the trigeminal nucleus that was not prevented by administration of a TRPA1 antagonist or the genetic deletion of TRPM8. However, the pretreatment with the local anesthetic carbocaine abolish the cold-induced cFos overexpression. In conclusion, the unique sensory characteristics of the dental pulp would be independent to TRPA1 and TRPM8 expression and functionality.
Why do persons with bipolar disorder stop their medication

Objective: Non-adherence to maintenance medication regimens is a major problem, limiting outcomes for many persons with bipolar disorder. The aim of this paper is to determine the most relevant aspects of adherence attitudes in a sample of bipolar patients selected for problems with adherence behavior. Methods: Among a larger sample of bipolar disorder patients participating in a prospective follow-up study (N = 140), a subsample of patients were selected for non-adherent behavior defined as missing ≥ 30% of medication during the past month (n = 27; 19.3%). Adherence attitudes were assessed with the Rating of Medication Influences scale (ROMI), a self-reported attitudinal measure assessing reasons for and against adherence. Multiple logistic regression models for non-adherence vs. adherence were estimated with each of the 19 ROMI items in the model, while controlling for sex, age, ethnicity, education, duration of illness, and substance abuse. Results: Mean score of ROMI items corresponding to reasons for treatment adherence was greater among adherent participants, whereas the mean score of ROMI items corresponding to reasons for treatment non-adherence was greater among nonadherent participants. The ROMI item identifying that the individual believes that medications are unnecessary had the strongest influence for non-adherence (p Language: en
Neurological Sequelae and Clinical Outcomes After Lung Transplantation.

Background Neurological complications are common after lung transplantation. However, no large cohort studies have examined the incidence, predictors, and clinical significance of neurological events sustained by lung transplant recipients. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of a consecutive series of lung transplant recipients, transplanted at Duke University Medical Center between May 2014 and February 2017 (n = 276). Early neurological complications (ie, occurring during the first week after transplant) were documented by transplant mental health specialists and included delirium, ischemic injury, and posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome. Analyses accounted for age, native disease, sex, type of transplant, lung allocation score, and primary graft dysfunction. The objectives of the study were to characterize the prevalence and predictors of early neurological sequelae (NSE), occurring during the first week posttransplant, and the association between NSE and subsequent clinical outcomes, including length of stay and mortality. Results Neurological sequelae were common, occurring in 123 (45%) patients. Fifty-seven patients died over a follow-up interval of 2.1 years. The most common NSE were postoperative delirium (n = 110 [40%]) and posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (n = 12 [4%]), followed by stroke/transient ischemic attack and neurotoxicity. Higher lung allocation score was the strongest predictor of delirium. The presence of a NSE was associated with longer length of hospital stay (32 days vs 17 days, P < 0.001) and greater mortality (hazard ratio, 1.90; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-3.32], P = 0.024), with the greatest mortality risk occurring approximately 2 years after transplantation. Conclusions Neurological events are relatively common after lung transplantation and associated with adverse clinical outcomes.
Expanding the Use of Educational Data for Social Justice: Lessons from the Texas Cap on Special Education and Implications for Practitioner-Scholar Preparation.

Educational data offer a powerful tool for supporting equity. In this article, the authors call for a shift toward greater use of data in educator preparation programs. The authors motivate their p...
NMR Studies on Short Helices

This NMR study on short DNA helices has five general objectives: (1) to develop effective approaches in the assignment of proton and phosphorus resonances of short helices; (2) to calibrate the NMR theory as applied to nucleic acid; (3) to obtain the helical DNA conformational parameters as accurately as possible; (4) to serve as a model system for defected DNA studies, and (5) to serve as a model for protein-nucleic acid interactions.
Geological History and Concluding Remarks

The history of the Egyptian Nile Valley and delta is intimately connected with the geological evolution of northeastern Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean basin, and the Red Sea. Flowing today midway through the rainless wastes of the Sahara, the modern Nile gets its waters from sources outside Egypt, draining an area of more than 3,000,000 km2. This enormous basin extending for 35° of latitude underwent great changes in recent geological history. These changes and the great climatic fluctuations of the past with their impact on world sea levels had their effect on the shape, regimen, and evolution of the river. In addition, the Eastern Mediterranean basin was subject to tremendous changes that converted it into an internal sea. It is fed by the overflow of waters from the Atlantic over the Gibraltar and Messina Straits. Eustatic lowering of the sea level would certainly sever its connection with the ocean and convert it into a basin with a stagnant anaerobic bottom such as occurred several times during the Pleistocene, (Thunnel et al., 1977), or even into a dry basin, as occurred during the late Miocene (Ryan et al., 1973a).
Mobilities of uranium species in sedimentary interbed from the Snake River Plain

Laboratory column tests were conducted to characterize the mobility of uranium in a composite of sedimentary interbed samples from the Snake River Plain. The objective of the studies was to investigate the influence on uranium mobility of carbonate, fluoride, sulfate, and hydroxide complexes at pH 8, which is representative of ground water from the region. It was determined that carbonate species were the most dominant followed by hydroxide species. The observations are consistent with the results of speciation modeling. The carbonate species, which had retardation factors between 5 and 10, were considerably more mobile than the hydroxide species, which had retardation factors in excess of 300.
Are Cells Asynchronous Circuits? - (Invited Talk).

Cells do not seem to have “clocks” in the same sense as synchronous sequential digital circuits. But cells must operate extremely reliably in spite of large amounts of noise and environmental variations which would result in timing variation in a Boolean model of cellular control. We define timing robustness as the ability of cells to function correctly when there are significant variations in the timing of internal events, and explore timing robustness in cellular control systems using symbolic model checking. For example, we started with an existing model of the control of the budding yeast cell cycle, which was originally evaluated using a completely synchronous model, and checked whether it had the same property in a completely speed-independent model. We found that there were a small number of hazards in the cell cycle control that would cause it to deadlock for some variations in timing, but that all deadlocks could be eliminated by changes in the model that could be justified from the biological literature. Furthermore, model checking with random mutations shows evidence for evolutionary pressure to maintain speed independence. We then propose a less conservative timing model than speed independence that allows for “fast” and “slow” processes, which is more realistic biologically than complete speed independence and appears to yield reasonable results for more complex models of the cell cycle and some simple examples from developmental biology.
Statistics and Human Geography

Starting dates are often difficult to pinpoint exactly, but the “mid-Fifties” were certainly the time when statistical methodology began to burgeon in human geography. Although there was a lot of cross-fertilization and independent experimentation, the main strands can be picked out quite easily: the universities of Washington (Garrison, 1955; Berry and Garrison, 1958) and Lund (Hagerstand, 1952; Godlund, 1956a, b), and through the latter the remarkable and lonely efforts of one man in Finland (Ajo, 1953); some parallel efforts at Iowa (McCarty, 1956) and Northwestern (Taaffe, 1958; Thomas, 1960); and then one or two individuals who saw in genuine stochastic modeling a different and fruitful way of looking at the world (Curry, 1960). Years later a pioneering paper in Japan was recovered Matui (1932), but by then the particular statistical question had been asked again, and the answers greatly extended (Clark and Evans, 1954; Dacey, 1960). Most of the early statistical experiments were based upon regression analysis, representing attempts to estimate empirical relationships (usually linear), while maps of residuals were used to highlight the exceptions to such generalizations. No one had heard of such things as spatial autocorrelation in those days — including the statisticians, who were still helping the econometricians worry about the independence of their observations in time series. Spatial statistics were very much an open question, and more extended multivariate approaches, such as factor analytic and numerical taxonomic methods, were only just becoming practical possibilities with the growth of large computing facilities (Berry, 1960, 1961).
Comparison of cost and outcomes in patients receiving thoracic epidural versus liposomal bupivacaine for video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resection.

Abstract Background Thoracic Epidural has long been the most recommended treatment for postoperative pain management in general thoracic surgery. This study compares liposomal bupivacaine (LB) as an alternative method for pain control and compares it to the standard. Methods LB was compared to thoracic epidural bupivacaine hydrochloride (TE BH) in 387 patients who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic pulmonary resection (VATS-R) at our institution. Patients received either continuous TE BH or intraoperative LB at a predetermined dose. A total of 237 patients received TE BH from April 2010 to March 2014 and 143 patients received LB from April 2014 to March 2016. After propensity matching, 95 patients in each group had similar demographics and clinical characteristics including gender, age, race, American Society of Anesthesia (ASA) classification, Zubrod scores, and FEV1 and DLCO percent predicted measurements. Outcome measures included hospital costs, length of stay (LOS), adverse events, postoperative opioid medication use, and pain scores. Results Compared to the TE BH group, the LB group had significantly lower pain scores (average visual analogue scale the day of surgery: 3.9 versus 4.5, p Conclusion LB is a viable alternative for pain management in patients undergoing VATS-R. With recent scrutiny on healthcare costs and the opioid epidemic, these results are encouraging and should be further investigated.
Effects of interface gap and shielding gas on the quality of alloy AA6061 fiber laser lap weldings

Abstract Analyzing the perpendicular and longitudinal sections of the laser welded joints of AA6061-T6, it was confirmed that adding an interface gap between two plates could improve the esthetic appearance and reduce porosity formation. The use of helium as shielding gas yielded a further increase of the weld seam quality in terms of porosity and mechanical properties. The resultant microstructure in the weld zone was analyzed in terms of cooling rate and temperature gradient calculated from the predictive 3D welding model. The failure mechanisms during tensile-shear and cross-tension tests are also analyzed via finite element modeling based on the measured micro-hardness distributions.
Economía del comportamiento: pasado, presente y futuro (Behavioral Economics: Past, Present, and Future)

Spanish Abstract: La “economia del comportamiento” intenta incorporar ideas de otras ciencias sociales, en especial de la psicologia, para enriquecer el modelo estandar. El interes en la psicologia del comportamiento humano es un retorno de la economia a sus origenes. Adam Smith aludio a conceptos clave como la aversion a la perdida, el exceso de confianza y el autocontrol. La economia del comportamiento encontro resistencia entre economistas que preferian mantener el modelo neoclasico estandar y argumentaban que la psicologia se podia ignorar. Este ensayo muestra que esos argumentos han sido rechazados teorica y empiricamente, y que se deber seguir adelante. El nuevo enfoque deberia incluir dos tipos de teorias: modelos normativos que caractericen la solucion optima de problemas especificos y modelos descriptivos que capten el comportamiento humano real. Estos ultimos incorporaran variables llamadas factores supuestamente irrelevantes, que ayudaran a mejorar el poder explicativo de los modelos economicos. English Abstract: “Behavioral economics” attempts to incorporate insights from other social sciences, especially psychology, in order to enrich the standard economic model. The interest in the psychology of human behavior returns economics to its earliest roots. Adam Smith talked about such key concepts as loss aversion, overconfidence, and self-control. Nevertheless, the modern version of behavioral economics introduced in the 1980s met with resistance by some economists, who preferred to retain the standard neo-classical model. They introduced several arguments for why psychology could safely be ignored. In this essay I show that these arguments have been rejected, both theoretically and empirically, so it is time to move on. The new approach should include two different kinds of theories: normative models that characterize the optimal solution to specific problems and descriptive models that capture how humans actually behave. The latter theories will incorporate some variables I call supposedly irrelevant factors, which can improve the explanatory power of economic models.
Bioprosthetic Heart Valves: From a Biomaterials Perspective

For the past 50+ years, the heart valve replacement (HVR) industry has gone through multiple growth phases in terms of innovation and market growth, and is now a formidable submarket of the cardiovascular medical device space. HVRs started off as small, compact simplistic devices made from synthetic parts. Now, these archaic prototypes have evolved into a diverse product offering from a multitude of small to large healthcare firms that range from completely synthetic materials to crosslinked tissue-based HVRs to new research being performed to investigate engineered tissue valves. These innovative leaps in technology and growth in commerce would not have been possible without the collaboration of multidisciplinary investigators unified through their passion in pursuing one goal—a superior healthcare option that resulted in a better quality of life for individuals throughout the world needing a new heart valve. Everything from biomaterial design to micro/macro-biomechanics to build computational modeling to optimize valve design has been utilized to create the current product line and are currently still in use as our metrics and methods get more advanced to innovate the future of heart valves as well as cardiovascular device technology. The future of HVRs rests on academia and industry coming together to move technology forward to provide patients in dire need of a more durable HVR device. Therefore, the rest of the content covered in this book is a comprehensive review of current art and models in existence to design an effective HVR in the efforts of empowering individuals wishing to bring healthcare options to a patient segment in dire need of change. The following chapter will cover past and current approaches in designing and fabricating HVR materials, current performance of HVRs, material design considerations of next generation materials, and major research interests in the next generation of HVR materials. The rest of this publication will cover approaches in properly leveraging this base biomaterial in valve-specific design to innovate a more effective HVR.
Integrating the Literature on Police Use of Deadly Force and Police Lethal Victimization: How Does Place Impact Fatal Police–Citizen Encounters?

Use of lethal force by police officers has incited riots, inspired social movements, and engendered socio-political debate. Police officers also assume a high level of risk during police–citizen encounters. Yet, existing studies tend to center on these two phenomena independently. Additionally, the under-utilization of multilevel research in these areas of inquiry has hampered attempts to empirically disentangle the individual, agency, and contextual correlates of fatal police–citizen encounters. This study integrates the predominantly distinct research bases on these phenomena to examine the contexts in which police use lethal force, relative to the contexts in which officers are killed in the line of duty. Data were compiled on 6416 citizen fatalities and 709 officer fatalities distributed across 1735 agencies and 1506 U.S. places from 2000 to 2016. A series of three-level logistic regression models examined the civilian and officer characteristics, organizational factors, and contextual features that impacted the odds of citizen fatalities by the police relative to police lethal victimization. Findings indicated that structural disadvantage increased the odds of police lethal victimization relative to citizen fatalities by the police. Moreover, this contextual effect was, in part, a product of increased firearm usage by citizens who killed police in more disadvantaged areas. A more complete understanding of fatal police–citizen encounters requires considering police use of lethal force and police lethal victimization concurrently in their broader social contexts.
Crossing the Bridge to Heart Transplantation: Biventricular Impella to Support an Unstable LVAD Patient.

Abstract We report the first case of a patient with a durable left ventricular assist device admitted with cardiogenic shock and managed with biventricular Impella support as a successful bridge to...
Carlos Montemayor, Minding Time: A Philosophical and Theoretical Approach to the Psychology of Time

Carlos Montemayor, Minding Time: A Philosophical and TheoreticalApproach to the Psychology of Time, Brill, Leiden, 2013, xiv +154 pp.
Histological approaches for tight junction

Abstract Tight junction can be studied by light and electron microscopic techniques. Fixation is essential for preserving the structure and function of tight junction in cells and tissues. This section describes the key approaches used to fix the tight junction in organs. Tight junctions are found in almost every organ, either of epithelial origin or of nonepithelial origin. This section also provides a comprehensive atlas of tight junction localization in organs, which lays down a histological premise for tight junction research.
An Examination of COVID-19 Outbreaks in Prisons and Jails Throughout Asia

This article highlights regional variation in the extent of COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons throughout Asia. Stark differences in the utilization of front-end, in-prison, and back-end mitigation stra...
Invited Review Paper in Commemoration of Over 50 Years of Oxidation of Metals: Current Aspects of Deposit-Induced Corrosion

Alloys and coatings used in high temperature applications are often subject to surface degradation influenced by the presence of deposits. Typical examples are fireside corrosion in coal-fired boilers and hot corrosion of blades and vanes in the hot sections of gas turbines. Depending on the source, deposit compositions may occur in a wide range from primarily sulfate to primarily oxide and various combinations of the two. There does not seem to be evidence of severe corrosion caused by gaseous Na2SO4. Generally, severe corrosion occurs when the deposits are liquid. However, significant corrosion has been observed in some cases with deposits, which are nominally solid. Corrosion is often caused by liquid deposits, in which negative oxide solubility gradients for alloy components are established across the deposits by rapid interface reactions. Hot corrosion can occur at temperatures near 700 °C by a variety of mechanisms if a phase which allows rapid transport is formed. This includes compounds such as Na2MoO4 (even in atmospheres without SO3), MSO4–Na2SO4 solutions or metastable nanostructured phases. Calling all corrosion in this temperature regime “Type II” can be misleading with regard to mechanism. There are similarities in the underlying mechanisms of some forms of hot corrosion in the 700 °C range and fireside corrosion in that they involve synergistic fluxing. The corrosive species responsible for fireside corrosion of ferrous alloys is a liquid (Na,K)2SO4–Fe2(SO4)3 solution and not alkali iron trisulfate. The propagation mechanism involves a synergistic dissolution process of protective Cr2O3 and Fe2O3. Terms such as “Type I,” “Type II” and “gas-phase-induced acidic fluxing” should be used with care in describing mechanisms of deposit-induced corrosion.
Moderate prenatal ethanol exposure leads to attention deficits in both male and female rats.

Background Attention deficits caused by prenatal ethanol exposure (PE) are a prevalent condition in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Importantly, the deficits are observed in individuals with FASD who have normal IQs and show no dysmorphic facial features caused by heavy PE. These observations suggest that even moderate PE could lead to attention deficits. This possibility was investigated using a rat model in the present study. Methods Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were administered with ethanol (3 g/kg/day) or vehicle via intragastric gavage on gestational days 8 - 20. The blood ethanol concentration (BEC) in ethanol-treated rats was 87.7 ± 1.2 mg/dL (1 h after the gavage), similar to the BEC levels reported in other moderate PE studies in rodents. Moderate PE did not produce teratogenic effects on birth weight or litter size. The adult offspring underwent a 2-choice reaction time task. Results Moderate PE led to augmented action impulsivity in both sexes, indicated by more rapid response initiation and increased premature responses. More marked deficits were observed in males than in females. No increases in lapse of attention, assessed by incorrect or relatively slow responses, were observed in rats of either sex with moderate PE. In addition, no deficits in learning or motor function were detected after moderate PE. Interestingly, rats with moderate PE completed more trials than controls. Conclusions Our results confirm that moderate PE indeed leads to attention deficits in both sexes, which is demonstrated by greater action impulsivity, but not increased lapses of attention. This effect is different from that of heavy PE observed in our previous study, which is manifested as impaired action impulsivity and lapses of attention in both sexes.
Power for balanced linear mixed models with complex missing data processes

When designing repeated measures studies, both the amount and the pattern of missing outcome data can affect power. The chance that an observation is missing may vary across measurements, and missi...
pXRF Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from a Rural Spanish Household: Investigating Spanish-Pueblo Interactions in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico

pXRF analysis is used to identify the geographic origins of obsidian artifacts from a seventeenth-century New Mexico Spanish homestead. Socio-economic factors that may have influenced the presence ...
Blended Learning in Principles of Marketing: The Effects of Student Differences on Student Performance:

Blended learning, which combines the benefits of both online learning and face-to-face instruction, is becoming popular in higher education. Despite its increase in application, there is limited re...
Barriers to Internal Rotation in Inorganic Species

Barriers to internal rotation have been determined using infrared and Raman spectroscopy for some inorganic species. The methods used for the determination of these barriers will be described for a high barrier (BCl2SH), a medium barrier (PF5, AsF5 and VF5) and a low or zero energy barrier (B(CH3)3).
Approaches to Drug Sample Differentiation. III: A Comparative Study of the Use of Chiral and Achiral Capillary Column Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Methamphetamine Enantiomers and Possible Impurities

A gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) system equipped with a chiral and an achiral capillary column is used to analyze control methamphetamine, an illicit methamphetamine preparation (“White Cross”), and a simulated illicit methamphetamine synthesis product. Samples are derivatized with N-trifluoroacetyl-l-prolyl chloride (I-TPC) before the GC/MS analysis. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that the resolution on an achiral column is adequate for the determination of methamphetamine enantiomers and impurities, providing the enantiomeric impurity of the l-TPC is known. Four new possible by-products of methamphetamine preparations were identified in the simulated illicit methamphetamine synthesis product.
A Deformable Template Approach to Registration of Serial CT Studies for Dose Planning in Intracavitary Brachytherapy

CT and MR imaging have failed to replace the classical reference points and orthagonal film image as the basis for planning and evaluating intracavitary brachytherapy (ICT). — One serious obstacle is the substantial time-dependent displacement and deformation of pelvic soft tissue structures caused by multiple ICT insertions and removals, tumor regression, and normal tissue stenosis. This makes combination of dose distributions from different treatment components into a cumulative 3D dose distribution meaningfully correlated with the underlying anatomy all but impossible. We have adapted a deformable template model to map serial CT images, each representing one component of the treatment, to one another[1]. This provides a means to represent the cumulative dose distribution for a multiple-insertion course of ICT and external beam therapy registered to a single anatomical representation of the patient,.
Active Exploration in Instance-Based Preference Modeling

Knowledge of the preferences of individual users is essential for intelligent systems whose performance is tailored for individual users, such as agents that interact with human users, instructional environments, and learning apprentice systems. Various memory-based, instance-based, and case-based systems have been developed for preference modeling, but these system have generally not addressed the task of selecting examples to use as queries to the user. This paper describes UGAMA, an approach to learning preference criteria through active exploration. Under this approach, Unit Gradient Approximations (UGAs) of the underlying quality function are obtained at a set of reference points through a series of queries to the user. Equivalence sets of UGAs are then merged and aligned (MA) with the apparent boundaries between linear regions. In an empirical evaluation with artificial data, use of UGAs as training data for an instance-based ranking algorithm (1ARC) led to more accurate ranking than training with random instances, and use of UGAMA led to greater ranking accuracy than UGAs alone.
Parallel Training for Deep Stacking Networks.

The Deep Stacking Network (DSN) is a special type of deep architecture developed to enable and benefit from parallel learning of its model parameters on large CPU clusters. As a prospective key component of future speech recognizers, the architectural design of the DSN and its parallel training endow the DSN with scalability over a vast amount of training data. In this paper, we present our first parallel implementation of the DSN training algorithm. Particularly, we show the tradeoff between the time/memory saving via training parallelism and the associated cost arising from inter-CPU communication. Further, in phone classification experiments, we demonstrate a significantly lowered error rate using parallel full-batch training distributed over a CPU cluster, compared with sequential minibatch training implemented in a single CPU machine under otherwise identical experimental conditions and as exploited prior to the work reported in this paper.
Fragmented Islam and Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Crimea

While examining the two Spiritual Administrations as well as the other independent/unregistered groups, the focus should be not only on their fundamental ideologies, but also on the political objectives of those viewpoints for which they are being utilized. Accordingly, the research questions of this article will focus on the following themes: 2.1 What are the religious and political (if any) short and long-term goals and aspirations of DUMK and DTsMK in Crimea? Is there any common ground between these two Muftiyats? 2.2 What are the opinions of DUMK and DTsMK about the other “independent” Islamic factions in Crimea? 2.3 What are the religious and political (if any) short and long-term goals of the HUT, Salafis, and Ar’Raid in Crimea? Is there any common ground between these groups vis-a-vis the future aspirations? 2.4 What are the major structural factors that set the grounds for the evolution of these ideologies on the peninsula? What kind of influences do these groups have on the majority of the Crimean Tatars and on the Ukrainian Muslims in general? 2.5 What are the opinions of HUT, Salafis, and Ar’Raid’s on transnational Islamic movements and violence around the globe? 2.6 What are these group’s views of the Ukrainian state, the European West, and the United States?
delta-Opioid receptor immunoreactivity: distribution in brainstem and spinal cord, and relationship to biogenic amines and enkephalin

We have recently developed antisera which recognize epitopes of the cloned delta-opioid receptor (DOR; Dado et al., 1993). In the present report we have further characterized these antisera, and raised additional antisera in rats. We used these antisera to determine the distribution of DOR-like immunoreactivity (-Ll) in rat spinal cord and brainstem in relation to serotoninergic, noradrenergic, and enkephalinergic neurons. We found DOR-Ll in fibers and varicosities distributed throughout the spinal cord gray matter, with highest densities in the superficial dorsal horn, in autonomic regions, around the central canal as well as in the ventral horn motor nuclei. In the brainstem a dense innervation of DOR-immunoreactive (-IR) fibers was found in several nuclei such as spinal trigeminal nuclei, midline raphe nuclei, parabrachial nuclei, periaqueductal gray matter (PAG), interpeduncular nucleus, ans substantia nigra. A group of DOR-positive cells was seen in the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus. In addition, a few DOR-IR cell bodies were demonstrated in the parabrachial nuclei, interpeduncular nucleus, PAG, and superior and inferior colliculi as well as around the central canal in the spinal cord. All DOR-positive cells showed a punctuate staining pattern within the cytoplasm of the cell body and in primary dendrites. No plasma membrane staining of cells or dendrites could be demonstrated using the DOR antisera. Double- labeling experiments for DOR and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT, serotonin) revealed that some 5HT-IR neurons in the raphe complex were surrounded by DOR-IR fibers. In the spinal cord a high degree of coexistence was found between DOR and 5HT in nerve fibers and varicosities in the neuropil around the motoneurons and in lamina V of the dorsal horn. In autonomic regions of the spinal cord, a low degree of colocalization was seen between DOR and 5HT; in the superficial dorsal horn no coexistence was found. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive neurons in the brainstem (in the A5 area, locus coeruleus, and A7 area) were apposed by DOR-positive fibers. However, no coexistence could be seen between DOR and TH in any part of the spinal cord. A close relation, but no coexistence, was observed between DOR- and enkephalin (ENK)-IR fibers in the spinal cord ventral horn; in the intermediolateral nucleus a low degree of colocalization was observed. Thus, a delta- opioid receptor may affect the activity of descending serotoninergic and noradrenergic neurons by means of modulating the release of neurotransmitters from afferents to these neurons.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Quantum and classical mode softening near the charge-density-wave-superconductor transition of CuxTiSe2.

Temperature- and $x$-dependent Raman scattering studies of the charge-density-wave (CDW) amplitude modes in ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{x}{\mathrm{TiSe}}_{2}$ show that the amplitude mode frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$ exhibits identical power-law scaling with the reduced temperature $T/{T}_{\mathrm{CDW}}$ and the reduced Cu content $x/{x}_{c}$, i.e., ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}\ensuremath{\sim}(1\ensuremath{-}p{)}^{0.15}$ for $p=T/{T}_{\mathrm{CDW}}$ or $x/{x}_{c}$, suggesting that mode softening is independent of the control parameter used to approach the CDW transition. We provide evidence that $x$-dependent mode softening in ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{x}{\mathrm{TiSe}}_{2}$ is associated with the reduction of the electron-phonon coupling constant, and that $x$-dependent ``quantum`` ($T\ensuremath{\sim}0$) mode softening suggests the presence of a quantum critical point within the superconductor phase of ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{x}{\mathrm{TiSe}}_{2}$.
Thermodynamic modeling of actinide complexation with oxalate at high ionic strength

A geochemical model describing the solubility of actinides in underground water at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Project is under development. The database for this model consists of standard chemical potentials and Pitzer model parameters for hundreds of species that may be present in the WIPP disposal room. Organic ligands used in separation and decontamination processes may be present in the nuclear wastes placed in the WIPP site and could have a significant impact on mobile actinide concentrations. In this work the β1 and β2 stability constants of NpO2 +, UO2 2+, Am3+ and Th4+ with the oxalate anion have been measured in 0.3–5.0M NaCl media at 25 °C by a solvent extraction technique. For the 1:1 complexation, the values of the stability constants increased in the order: NpO2 +<Am3+<UO2 2+<Th4+, in accordance with the actinide charge density and reflecting the strongly ionic bonding of the complexes. The Pitzer ionic interaction model was used to model the data. Because the data were collected mainly in the high ionic strength region, values of β(1) were estimated from these plus literature values. The Pitzer model gives a good representation of the data using three interaction parameters β(0), β(1), and cφ.
The evolution of gigantism on temperate seashores

The extent to which animal lineages achieve large body size, a trait with broad advantages in competition and defence, varies in space and time according to the supply of (and demand for) resources, as well as the magnitude and effects of extinction. Using the maximum sizes of shallow-water marine shell-bearing molluscs belonging to nineteen guilds (groups of species with similar habits and food sources) in seven temperate regions from the Early Miocene to the Recent, the present study examined the controls on productivity and predation that enable and compel large size to evolve. The North Pacific (especially its eastern sector) has been most favourable to large-bodied species from the Pliocene onward. Large productive kelps (Laminariales) evolved there in conjunction with herbivorous mammals, setting the stage through positive feedbacks between production and consumption for the evolution of large molluscan herbivores and suspension-feeders. The evolution of bottom-feeding predatory mammals together with other large predators created intense selection for large molluscan sizes. Very large molluscs in the Early Miocene were concentrated in the southern hemisphere, especially among metabolically passive species. Extinctions, which preferentially targeted the largest members of guilds in most regions, were more numerous in the southern hemisphere and the North Atlantic than in the North Pacific. Minimal disruption, together with the early evolution of metabolically-active consumers and the positive feedbacks they engendered, accounts for the evolution of molluscan gigantism in the North Pacific. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••.
Numerical Study of the Effect of Verification Core Hole on the Point Bearing Capacity of Drilled Shafts

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the effect of a verification core hole on the point bearing capacity of drilled shafts installed in clay shales. The verification core extracted at the shaft tip may reduce the point bearing capacity of drilled shafts as a result of degradation of clay shales and imperfect core hole infill. Finite-element analyses were conducted using the Mohr-Coulomb model with total stress material parameters estimated from laboratory tests. A series of load-displacement curves was calculated for 1 cycle of air drying and wetting; different drying durations and different core hole conditions were considered; and the point bearing capacity was determined at 3 and 5% shaft diameter displacements. The numerical analyses indicate that the point bearing capacity of drilled shafts with a verification core hole does not decrease for most cases, and the maximum reduction merely reaches 5%. Recommendations are made to reduce the effect of the verification core extracted at the sha...
Metabolites of 2,3,5,-triiodobenzoic acid in cow's milk.

Abstract The metabolites of 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid in cow's milk resulting from acute administration of the compound (1.197g) were determined using electron capture gas-chromatograph procedures. The parent compound plus seven suspected metabolites were detected; of these, four were identified, and one quantitated. The primary metabolite was 2-OH-3,5-diiodobenzoic acid. Occurring in trace amounts were mono-iodobenzoic acids, 2-OH-5 iodobenzoic acid, and 3,5-diiodobenzoic acid. The maximum concentration of 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid in raw milk was found in the 30-hr milk sample at the 0.79mg/kilogram level and of 2-OH-3,5-diiodobenzoic acid in the 42-hr milk at the 0.27mg/kilogram level.
The Rise in Autism and the Role of Age at Diagnosis

Background: Autism prevalence in California, based on individuals eligible for state-funded services, rose throughout the 1990s. The extent to which this trend is explained by changes in age at diagnosis or inclusion of milder cases has not been previously evaluated. Methods: Autism cases were identified from 1990 through 2006 in databases of the California Department of Developmental Services, which coordinates services for individuals with specific developmental disorders. The main outcomes were population incident cases younger than age 10 years for each quarter, cumulative incidence by age and birth year, age-specific incidence rates stratified by birth year, and proportions of diagnoses by age across birth years. Results: Autism incidence in children rose throughout the period. Cumulative incidence to 5 years of age per 10,000 births rose consistently from 6.2 for 1990 births to 42.5 for 2001 births. Age-specific incidence rates increased most steeply for 2- and 3-year olds. The proportion diagnosed by age 5 years increased only slightly, from 54% for 1990 births to 61% for 1996 births. Changing age at diagnosis can explain a 12% increase, and inclusion of milder cases, a 56% increase. Conclusions: Autism incidence in California shows no sign yet of plateauing. Younger ages at diagnosis, differential migration, changes in diagnostic criteria, and inclusion of milder cases do not fully explain the observed increases. Other artifacts have yet to be quantified, and as a result, the extent to which the continued rise represents a true increase in the occurrence of autism remains unclear. (Epidemiology 2009;20: 84‐90)
The effect of insulin‐glucose on microappendages of the plasmalemma in the early chick embryo

Chick embryos incubated for 18-24 hours (stages 4-6) were immersed for 3-5 minutes in Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution containing either insulin (10(-9) M) or D-glucose (10(-1) M) or a mixture of both. The ventral and dorsal surfaces of the entoderm and the ventral aspect of the mesoblast were examined in a scanning electron microscope. D-glucose alone or insulin alone produced negligible change. When combined these ingredients generated highly pleomorphic microappendages of the plasmalemma. The ventral surface of the entoderm was characterized by a large number of microvilli, both long and short. Concentrations of microvilli and blebs appeared in recesses at cell margins. Some of these represented mesoblastic protrusions through intercellular apertures in the entoderm. The dorsal entodermal surface developed stellate clusters of microvilli and blebs. The ventral aspect of the mesoblast became the most pleomorphic area of all. It possessed a variety of microappendages including large populations of microvilli and blebs that resembled the protrusions observed from the subblastodermic cavity. There were also stellate clusters similar to those on the dorsal entodermal surface. The same mesoblastic area in controls was virtually free of microappendages. The mesoblastic protrusions, occurring as they do prior to an established circulation, are interpreted as a "feeding" phenomenon.