cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Contrasting behavioral responses to cold temperatures by two marine fish species during their pelagic juvenile interval

Motor activity of juvenile walleye pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, and sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria, was monitored in the laboratory during high and low light levels under a changing temperature regime over a 5 d period. Water temperatures were ambient (12 °C) for the first 24 h of observation, rapidly lowered to 3 °C for the next 48 h, then raised back to 12 °C for the final 48 h. We hypothesized that the fishes' behavior would either follow a simple bioenergetic response of lowered activity associated with reduced metabolic rates at the colder temperature, or an avoidance response, with increased activity at decreased temperatures. Results for walleye pollock were consistent with a bioenergetic response, with activity decreasing in the presence of cold water under both high and low light levels, then returning to initial levels when temperatures increased. The response of sablefish, in contrast, indicated avoidance of cold temperatures, depending on light level. During high light, when sablefish were typically highly active, cold water induced a slight but insignificant decrease in activity. At low light, however, the presence of cold water caused a marked increase in sablefish movement through the experimental tanks, with a seven fold increase in the measured index of activity. When water temperatures were raised back to 12 °C, sablefish activity at low light returned to its normal, minimal level. The sharp increase in activity of sablefish in cold water, followed by a decrease in activity when the temperature was raised to pre-test levels, is suggestive of an avoidance response. The contrasting responses of the two species to thermal changes are consistent with their separate life history patterns and natural distributions.
The Attending-resident Handoff Evidence-based Pilot Study (tarheels)

Purpose: Effective, efficient sign-out of patients is a critical component of resident education. In response to resident duty hour restrictions, handoffs occur more frequently, leading to increased opportunities for communication errors. Patients are also increasingly being covered by non-resident providers (e.g., hospitalists, nurse practitioners), resulting in patient handoffs between providers at different levels of training. The I-PASS mnemonic has been shown to decrease medical errors without sacrificing efficiency among pediatric resident handoffs, but studies have not examined the efficacy and interpersonal dynamics of the I-PASS method …
Impact of Preoperative Acetaminophen and Carbohydrate Loading on Pain and Functional Status in Patients Undergoing Mohs Micrographic Surgery for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancers.

Background Preoperative acetaminophen and carbohydrate loading has been shown to improve the functional recovery of surgical patients. Objective To determine the effects of preoperative acetaminophen and carbohydrates on functional outcomes and the use of pain medications after surgery in patients undergoing Mohs Micrographic Surgery (MMS) for nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). Materials and methods One hundred patients treated with MMS for NMSC at an academic center were randomized into a control group receiving standard preoperative care or an intervention group receiving acetaminophen and carbohydrate drinks immediately before surgery. Patients rated levels of pain, thirst, hunger, anxiety, and fatigue on the day of surgery on a scale of 0 to 100, and reported through a phone interview the use of pain medications within 48 hours of surgery. Results There was no significant difference between intervention and control groups in maximum pain score on the day of surgery; maximum pain score 48 hours after surgery; use of nonopioid pain medications; and use of opioids. However, the intervention group had lower anxiety levels during and at the end of surgery. Conclusion Patients undergoing MMS for NMSC reported very low levels of pain during and after surgery. Preoperative acetaminophen and carbohydrate loading had no impact on pain levels or the use of pain medications but did reduce levels of anxiety.
Cardinal Mazarin’s Breviary of politics: Exploring parallelisms between the Baroque and public relations in a post-truth society:

This article suggests we live in a neo-Baroque era of communication between organizations and publics. The 17th and 18th centuries are particularly rich in literature about the importance of buildi...
Addressing Horizontal and Vertical Gaps in Educational Systems

Students are often ill-prepared for the leap in expectations within disciplines when they make the transition from secondary to university-level instruction. Moreover, another equally large challenge exacerbates these vertical disciplinary gaps. At all levels, instruction takes place largely in disciplinary silos – in language and literature, history, mathematics, science, and so on. Learning goals in these silos are often phrased in very different language, e.g. ‘becoming a reader’ (or writer) in language arts, ‘inquiry’ in science, and ‘problem solving’ in mathematics. Such horizontal gaps result in instruction being far less coherent from the student’s perspective than it might be. The Teaching for Robust Understanding framework, known as TRU, may provide a means of addressing both kinds of gap. TRU focuses on the nature of learning environments that support the development of students as powerful learners. Through the lens of the TRU framework one can see commonalities across disciplines and across grade levels, and shape instructional practices accordingly. Within any particular discipline, treating students as active sense makers and arranging learning environments to provide opportunities for active sense making may help to bridge the gap between secondary and higher education.
Dysplastic Progression to Adenocarcinoma is Equivalent in Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease.

BACKGROUND We sought to determine the rate of progression from dysplasia to adenocarcinoma in ulcerative colitis [UC] vs Crohn's diseases [CD] and describe the risk factors unique to each. METHODS All adult patients [≥18 years] with a known diagnosis of either UC or CD who underwent a surveillance colonoscopy between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2020 were included. RESULTS A total of 23 751 surveillance colonoscopies were performed among 12 289 patients between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2020; 6909 [56.2%] had a diagnosis of CD and 5380 [43.8%] had a diagnosis of UC. There were a total of 668 patients [5.4%] with low-grade dysplasia [LGD], 76 patients [0.62%] with high-grade dysplasia [HGD], and 68 patients [0.55%] with adenocarcinoma in the series; the majority of the dysplastic events were located in the right colon. Significantly more UC patients had a dysplastic event, but the rate of LGD and HGD dysplasia progression to adenocarcinoma was not significantly different in CD or UC [p = 0.682 and p = 1.0, respectively]. There was no significant difference in the rate of progression from LGD/HGD to adenocarcinoma based on random biopsies vs targeted biopsies of visible lesions [p = 0.37]. However, the rate of progression from LGD vs HGD to adenocarcinoma was significantly greater for HGD [p < 0.001]. CONCLUSION While more UC patients were found to have neoplasia on colonoscopy, the rate of progression from LGD and HGD to adenocarcinoma was equivalent in UC and CD, suggesting that endoscopic surveillance strategies can remain consistent for all IBD patients.
A systematic model study quantifying how conical intersection topography modulates photochemical reactions.

Despite their important role in photochemistry and expected presence in most polyatomic molecules, conical intersections have been thoroughly characterized in a comparatively small number of systems. Conical intersections can confer molecular photoreactivity or photostability, often with remarkable efficacy, due to their unique structure: at a conical intersection, the adiabatic potential energy surfaces of two or more electronic states are degenerate, enabling ultrafast decay from an excited state without radiative emission, known as nonadiabatic transfer. Furthermore, the precise conical intersection topography determines fundamental properties of photochemical processes, including excited-state decay rate, efficacy, and molecular products that are formed. However, these relationships have yet to be defined comprehensively. In this article, we use an adaptable computational model to investigate a variety of conical intersection topographies, simulate resulting nonadiabatic dynamics, and calculate key photochemical observables. We varied the vibrational mode frequencies to modify conical intersection topography systematically in four primary classes of conical intersections and quantified the resulting rate, total yield, and product yield of nonadiabatic decay. The results reveal that higher vibrational mode frequencies reduce nonadiabatic transfer, but increase the transfer rate and resulting photoproduct formation. These trends can inform progress toward experimental control of photochemical reactions or tuning of molecules’ photochemical properties based on conical intersections and their topography.
Relating host specificity testing to field risk for nontarget plants in North American weed biocontrol organisms

Abstract Weed biological control programs require extensive testing prior to release to ensure that imported natural enemy species are unlikely to harm nontarget plant species. Typical screening tests confine individuals on the nontarget plant in a laboratory and measure their ability to oviposit or develop. Currently, there is no widely accepted standard for translating laboratory host specificity test results into field risk to nontarget plants. As a guide for decision-making, we developed a database of historic weed biocontrol projects in North America and relate laboratory host specificity test measures to the probability of field use using logistic regression analysis. Using receiver operator characteristic curves, we also examine the tradeoffs between accurately excluding the agents destined to use nontarget plants in the field and mistakenly excluding agents that would actually be safe. Three key findings are that (1) oviposition tests alone appear to be less effective at predicting field use as compared to larval development or full life cycle reproduction tests; (2) an index that combines different laboratory measures of nontarget host use (e.g. choice oviposition and larval development) appears to offer better accuracy for correctly predicting field use; and (3) common methods of host specificity screening are insufficient to eliminate risk without also mistakenly excluding some acceptable agents that would be host specific in the field. These findings can help guide regulatory and permitting decisions in biological control, and they illustrate how biological control records that are routinely collected can be used to predict and manage risk to nontarget plants.
Diffusion-Based Influence Maximization in GOLAP

Author(s): Kim, Mira | Advisor(s): Sheu, Phillip | Abstract: Influence analysis is one of the most important research in social network. Specifically, more and more researchers and advertisers are interested in the area of influence maximization. The concept of influence among people or organizations has been the core basis for making business decisions as well as performing everyday social activities.In this research, we begin by extending a new influence diffusion model (IDM). We incorporate colors and additional node constraints. By adding colors and constraints for different types of nodes in a graph, we are able to solve many practical applications as well as theoretical challenges. We would be able to answer complex queries on multi-dimensional graph such as ‘find at most 2 most important genes that are related to lung disease and heart disease’. More specifically, we discuss the following variations of IM-IDM: Colorblind IM-IDM, Colored IM-IDM, Colored IM-IDM with constraints, lossy IM-IDM as well as colored edge IM-IDM. We also present our experiment results to prove the effectiveness of our model and algorithms.
Effect of a low-fat diet on serum triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations and lipoprotein profiles in Miniature Schnauzers with hypertriglyceridemia.

BACKGROUND Hypertriglyceridemia is common in Miniature Schnauzer (MS). Dietary management of hypertriglyceridemia is important, but no studies are available. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of a commercially available low-fat diet on serum triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations and lipoprotein profiles in MS with hypertriglyceridemia. ANIMALS Sixteen MS with hypertriglyceridemia and 28 MS without hypertriglyceridemia. METHODS Prospective clinical trial. Four blood samples (1-2 months before and 1 day before diet change and 2 and 3 months after the dogs were fed the low-fat diet) were collected from the MS with hypertriglyceridemia. RESULTS Serum triglyceride concentrations for the 2 samples after the diet change (median of sample 3 = 177 mg/dL; range, 48-498; median of sample 4 = 168 mg/dL; range, 77-745) were significantly lower than the 2 samples before the diet change (median of sample 1 = 480 mg/dL; range, 181-1320; median of sample 2 = 493 mg/dL; range, 114-1395; P < .001). Serum cholesterol concentrations for the 2 samples after the diet change (mean for sample 3 = 257 mg/dL, SD = 82.2; mean for sample 4 = 178 mg/dL, SD = 87.4) were also significantly lower than the 2 samples before the diet change (mean for sample 1 = 381 mg/dL, SD = 146.1; mean for sample 2 = 380 mg/dL, SD = 134.7; P < .001). Before the diet change, 15/16 (94%) of hyperlipidemic MS were classified as hyperlipidemic based on their lipoprotein profiles alone. After the diet change, significantly fewer MS (7/16; 44%; odds ratio = 19.3; 95% CI = 2.0-184.0; P = .006) were classified as hyperlipidemic based on lipoprotein profile analysis. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE The study diet was effective in reducing serum triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations and correcting lipoprotein profiles in MS with hypertriglyceridemia.
Effects of Tonic Drone Accompaniments on the Intonation of Collegiate Wind Instrumentalists

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of tonic drone accompaniments on the intonation of collegiate wind instrumentalists. Participants (N = 68) played an excerpt of the melody “Long...
The RIT1 C-terminus associates with lipid bilayers via charge complementarity.

Abstract RIT1 is a member of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases involved in regulation of cellular signaling. Mutations to RIT1 are involved in cancer and developmental disorders. Like many Ras subfamily members, RIT1 is localized to the plasma membrane. However, RIT1 lacks the C-terminal prenylation that helps many other subfamily members adhere to cellular membranes. We used molecular dynamics simulations to examine the mechanisms by which the C-terminal peptide (CTP) of RIT1 associates with lipid bilayers. We show that the CTP is unstructured and that its membrane interactions depend on lipid composition. While a 12-residue region of the CTP binds strongly to anionic bilayers containing phosphatidylserine lipids, the CTP termini fray from the membrane allowing for accommodation of the RIT1 globular domain at the membrane-water interface.
The Management of Prostate Cancer

The prostate gland is part of the male reproductive system and resides in the male pelvis. The prostate is an androgen-driven organ and can transform to develop prostate adenocarcinoma. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. There is tremendous diversity in the natural history of prostate cancer. The majority of men with prostate cancer will die from other causes. For this reason, more indolent tumors can safely be monitored without immediate radical therapy, termed active surveillance. However, given the immense heterogeneity and high prevalence of this disease, prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death. This heterogeneity in outcomes is predicted clinically from a patient’s prostate-specific antigen, stage, and grade. Newer imaging and molecular gene expression tests aim to further improve risk stratification. Patients who have more aggressive prostate cancer require definitive treatment, which most often consists of a backbone of radiotherapy or surgery and may require multi-modality therapy in the form of radiotherapy with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) or surgery with radiotherapy ± ADT. For patients with metastatic disease, the backbone of systemic therapy is ADT, and more recently is often combined with next-generation androgen receptor-signaling inhibitors or chemotherapy. Furthermore, radiotherapy to the primary is now a standard of care component of treatment for patients with limited metastatic disease, and a growing body of evidence supports the potential role for metastasis-directed radiotherapy. However, across all disease states, patients commonly live for multiple years, if not decades, after their diagnosis. Thus, an increased focus has been placed on optimizing patient health-related quality of life and survivorship care.
68. Hemorrhagic shock due to ruptured hepatic adenoma secondary to oral norethindrone acetate in a patient with type 3 von Willebrand disease: a case report

Background Patients with von Willebrand's disease (vWD) often require menstrual suppression in order to avoid episodes of heavy bleeding. While multiple hormone-based options are appropriate for these patients, specific side effects and clinical considerations based on the type and severity of vWD need further study. We discuss refinement of treatment options for menorrhagia for an adolescent with type 3 vWD who presented with a complication likely related to chronic progestin exposure. Case Patient C.D. was diagnosed with type 3 vWD in infancy and presented at 11 years-old for management of menorrhagia with a goal of amenorrhea. She was initially started on oral norethindrone acetate alone 3 times daily, which was continued for years to control breakthrough bleeding while receiving injectable progestins followed by the etonorgestrel-releasing implant. At 15 years-old, C.D. presented to the emergency room after 1 day of severe abdominal pain. She was found to be hypotensive with peritoneal signs on exam. CT demonstrated multiple hepatic masses, the largest being 9 cm with active contrast extravasation suggesting a bleeding adenoma with associated hemoperitoneum. She underwent an emergent right hepatic lobe embolization by interventional radiology. She recovered in the pediatric ICU with stabilization of her bleeding. The etiology of her hepatic adenomas was suspected to be chronic progestin use. After department discussions with hematology and gynecology, the oral norethindrone acetate was discontinued during her hospital course and she experienced withdrawal bleeding. On hospital day 13, the patient's contraceptive implant was removed and a levonorgestrel-releasing IUD was placed, which expelled 2 days later in the setting of heavy vaginal bleeding. C.D. received depot-medroxyprogesterone and was discharged home on daily recombinant VWF. At 1-month follow-up, the patient was amenorrheic and had stable hepatic masses on repeat imaging. The patient was maintained on injectable progestins with plans to trial a progestin IUD in the future. Comments Hepatic adenoma is a known complication of estrogen-containing medications and a rare side effect from peripheral conversion of oral progestins. A few case reports have shown regression of hepatic adenomas after cessation of progestin therapy. Furthermore, menses suppression for patients with severe vWD is critical to avoid menorrhagia. Patients with type 3 vWD particularly have limited pharmacologic options for preventing heavy menses. Through this case report, we discuss the management options for menstrual suppression and control of menorrhagia in patients with severe vWD with consideration of potential morbid side effects, and explore areas of further research of treatment regimens.
Does the Market Incorporate Previous IPO Withdrawals When Pricing Second-Time IPOs?

This paper examines the initial public offering (IPO) valuations of issuers that return to the IPO market successfully after withdrawing their first IPO attempt. We find that these second-time IPOs sell at a significant discount relative to similar contemporaneous IPOs that succeed in their first attempt. We also demonstrate that switching underwriters on the second IPO attempt reduces, but does not eliminate, the discount for second-time IPOs. When compared to their matched first-time IPOs, second-time IPOs have similar price revisions and post-IPO long-run stock and operating performances. Overall, these results suggest that the negative information conveyed by the withdrawal event is incorporated into the lower offer valuations for second-time IPOs. Switching investment banks can mitigate, but not eliminate, the perceived higher risk of the second-time offerings. In the United States, issuers typically sell initial public offering (IPO) shares to the public through a process known as book-building. In book-building, an issuer hires investment banks to generate and measure investor demand for the pending issue and determine the offer price that investors are willing to pay. The issuer can cancel the offering if the offer price is not acceptable. While withdrawing the offering prevents selling the firm at an unfavorable price, it is coupled with a cost since it sends a negative public signal to the market. The potential market perception is that negative information, information not revealed by observable firm characteristics, has been revealed during the book-building phase. However, investment banks maintain secrecy over the demand schedule built in the book-building process, and investors remain unaware of the nature and magnitude of the negative information. Investigating the differences in initial returns and price revisions between second-time and first-time issuers, Dunbar and Foerster (2008) present evidence that prior withdrawal is a priced risk factor for second-time issuers that have withdrawn their previous IPO filing. In this paper, we examine the IPO valuations of second-time IPOs (issuers that return to the IPO market successfully after withdrawing their first IPO attempt) directly to investigate whether and how the market incorporates previous IPO withdrawals when pricing second-time IPOs.
Fractal surfaces and the de Gennes termite model for a two-component random material

This will be an elementary talk, beginning with a review of the random mixture problem. We will then describe a new way of thinking about this problem: a random walk with two different time scales corresponding to the good and bad conducting regions. The limiting case in which the ratio of the two time scales diverges corresponds to the random superconducting network in which one component is superconducting and the other is normal (de Gennes calls this the termite limit, since the motion of the random walker resembles that of a termite). Finally, we briefly discuss a recent finding that an infinite hierarchy of exponents is needed to adequately characterize the fractal surface of diffusion-limited aggregates.
The influence of deer browsing on the reproductive biology of Canada yew (Taxus canadensis Marsh.). I. Direct effect on pollen, ovule, and seed production.

Canada yew (Taxus canadensis) populations currently browsed by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) or browsed by deer in the past had significantly lower production of male strobili, female strobili, and seeds than unbrowsed yew populations. Exclosure studies showed that protected yews produced significantly more male and female strobili than unprotected yews, but only after several years of protection. Seed production did not respond as readily to protection from deer perhaps because of reduced pollination levels in browsed yew populations. Previously unbrowsed yews were clipped at different levels of removal of available browse (control (no removal), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% removal) to simulate deer browsing. Reduction in male strobilus production was linearly related to clipping intensity in three years of observation. Female strobilus production was significantly reduced only at the 100% level of removal. Intermediate levels of clipping may have even stimulated production of female strobili. Analysis of covariance, with previous year's branch production as the covariate, showed no significant effect of clipping on male strobilus production except in the 100% removal group. Female strobilus production showed no such covariance with branch production. Effects of clipping on seed production could not be reliably assessed in 1984 and 1985 due to low seed production. Seed production in 1986 was significantly reduced only in the 100% removal group. Field observations of deer browsing of Canada yew indicate that 100% levels of removal are typical of natural levels of browsing.
Chapter 63 The Effect of Message Space Size on Learning and Outcomes in Sender-Receiver Games

Publisher Summary As documented in the dynamics and outcomes, agents learn to attach meaning to “a priori” meaningless messages. For the common interest game, Game 1, this chapter observe the efficient separating outcome, although the learning process is gradual. For the partial common interest game, Game 2, the outcomes and dynamics vary with the size of the message space. With two messages, we observe a partial pooling outcome with a minimal amount of non-equilibrium play. Again, the dynamic adjustment (learning) process is gradual. For three and four messages, the highest frequency of play is the fully separating equilibrium, although there is a significant amount of partial pooling play in both treatments and, consistent with theory, there is more partial pooling play in the four message treatment than in the three message treatment. Finally, while there is less non-equilibrium play in the four message treatment than in the three message treatment, the dynamic adjustment (learning) process in both treatments is gradual and incomplete.
Estimation of the relative contribution of the transcellular and paracellular pathway to the transport of passively absorbed drugs in the Caco-2 cell culture model

Purpose. The objective of this investigation was to determine, using the Caco-2 cell culture model, the extent to which the paracellular and transcellular routes contributed to the transport of passively absorbed drugs. An effort was also made to determine the controlling factors in this process.
First principles modeling of sulfonic acid based ionomer membranes

Proton dissociation in the sulfonic acid groups of hydrated Nafion® and polyetherketone membranes along with its connection to proton transport within the membrane pores is discussed. Minimum energy conformations for trifluoromethane and para-toluene sulfonic acids with clusters of 1–6 water molecules were obtained using ab initio electronic structure calculations. These calculations revealed the influence of both the structure and strength of the conjugate base (sulfonate anion) on the dissociation and hydration of the acid. Although spontaneous dissociation was observed for both sulfonic acids after the addition of three water molecules, the proton (as a hydronium ion) is less bound for the perfluorinated system than with the aromatic system. This is due to the increased electron stabilization afforded by the electron withdrawing of the CF3 group. This molecular membrane specific information was used in combination with membrane morphology data to compute proton diffusion coefficients for both Nafion 117 and 65% sulfonated polyetherketone membranes at hydration levels where the number of water molecules per sulfonic acid fixed site were: 6, 13, and 22.5; and 15, 23, and 30, respectively. The agreement with pulsed field gradient NMR diffusion measurements was very good for both membranes across the entire range of membrane hydration, attesting to the substantial predictive capability of the transport model. Keywords: diffusion; direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC); dissociation coefficient; drag coefficient; electrolyte; electroosmosis; membrane hydration; molecular orbitals (HOMO and LUMO); Nafion® (membranes); polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC); proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell; perfluorinated membrane; permittivity of water; polymer electrolyte; proton conductivity; Stokes law; water diffusion; water electroosmotic drag
Latina Lesbians and Alcohol and Other Drugs

SUMMARY Although studies on alcohol and drug abuse of heterosexual men of color, women, gay males and lesbians are becoming today more prevalent, there has been no documented research on alcohol consumption and drug related problems for Latina lesbians. The author in this article contributes to the limited existing knowledge by providing new data on substance abuse practices among Latina lesbians. This article presents research findings based on 35 ethnographic interviews. It brings forth information related to issues of substance abuse for Latina lesbians and suggests recommendations for research, policy and treatment.
Resource-bounded information acquisition and learning

In many scenarios it is desirable to augment existing data with information acquired from an external source. For example, information from the Web can be used to fill missing values in a database or to correct errors. In many machine learning and data mining scenarios, acquiring additional feature values can lead to improved data quality and accuracy. However, there is often a cost associated with such information acquisition, and we typically need to operate under limited resources. In this thesis, I explore different aspects of Resource-bounded Information Acquisition and Learning. The process of acquiring information from an external source involves multiple steps, such as deciding what subset of information to obtain, locating the documents that contain the required information, acquiring relevant documents, extracting the specific piece of information, and combining it with existing information to make useful decisions. The problem of Resource-bounded Information Acquisition (RBIA) involves saving resources at each stage of the information acquisition process. I explore four special cases of the RBIA problem, propose general principles for efficiently acquiring external information in real-world domains, and demonstrate their effectiveness using extensive experiments. For example, in some of these domains I show how interdependency between fields or records in the data can also be exploited to achieve cost reduction. Finally, I propose a general framework for RBIA, that takes into account the state of the database at each point of time, dynamically adapts to the results of all the steps in the acquisition process so far, as well as the properties of each step, and carries them out striving to acquire most information with least amount resources.
Copper, iron, zinc, and manganese in dietary supplements, infant formulas, and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals

High intakes of iron, zinc, or manganese can interfere with copper absorption. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the amounts and chemical forms of iron, zinc, manganese, and copper added to food products and nutritional supplements might pose a threat to copper status. More than 25% of the vitamin and mineral supplements examined contained no copper, 40% contained the poorly absorbed cupric oxide, and or = 25% of the reference daily intake for both iron and zinc. Copper availability could be improved by reformulation of several food products and supplements.
Estrogen stimulates von Willebrand factor production by cultured endothelial cells

Monolayers of cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells were exposed to 17 beta-estradiol and compared to control cultures with respect to levels of von Willebrand factor (vWF) released into the media after 3-5 days of incubation. The amount of functional vWF activity was assessed by ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation and by a radioreceptor platelet assay. vWF antigen was quantitated by immunoassay. The DNA content of each monolayer was determined fluorometrically and used as a measure of cell number. By all assays, vWF levels in the media from the estradiol-treated endothelial cells were reproducibly and significantly higher when compared with control values. The amount of vWF produced by the cultured endothelial cells showed a dose-response effect to the estradiol added to the media. The estradiol-treated cells produced approximately 1.3 +/- 0.30 micrograms vWF/ml/micrograms DNA at 2 ng estradiol/ml, compared with control cultures that produced 0.75 +/- 0.16 microgram vWF/ml/micrograms DNA (p less than 0.001). The estradiol-treated monolayers consistently contained slightly greater amounts of DNA than control cultures: 2.0 +/- 0.10 micrograms versus 1.7 +/- 0.12 micrograms DNA (p less than 0.001). By multivariant analysis, however, the differences in cell number could only account for less than or equal to 10% of the elevation in the level of vWF that occurred in response to estradiol. By SDS-agarose electrophoresis and radioimmunoblotting, the vWF within the cytosol of the endothelial cells was found to possess a multimeric pattern similar to that found for either purified plasma vWF or vWF released into media overlying endothelial cell cultures. Our studies indicate that estrogen directly stimulates endothelial cells to increase their rate of production of vWF and, in addition, causes a slight increase in endothelial cell replication. These data may bear on the observation that administration of estrogen to some women with von Willebrand's disease causes an increase in their functional levels of vWF.
MAPRM: a probabilistic roadmap planner with sampling on the medial axis of the free space

Probabilistic roadmap planning methods have been shown to perform well in a number of practical situations, but their performance degrades when paths are required to pass through narrow passages in the free space. We propose a new method of sampling the configuration space in which randomly generated configurations, free or not, are retracted onto the medial axis of the free space. We give algorithms that perform this retraction while avoiding explicit computation of the medial axis, and we show that sampling and retracting in this manner increases the number of nodes found in small volume corridors in a way that is independent of the volume of the corridor and depends only on the characteristics of the obstacles bounding it. Theoretical and experimental results are given to show that this improves performance on problems requiring traversal of narrow passages.
Diacetylenic Liquid Crystalline Polymers II: Derivatives of 10,12-Docosadiyne-1,22-Dioic Acid

Abstract Polymers of 10,12-docosadiyne-1,22-dioic acid with different mesogenic groups have been prepared. The mesogenic groups were diphenyl (Polymer I); p-diphenylazoxy (Polymer 11); 2,2′-dimethyldiphenylazoxy (Polymer III); 2-methyldiphenylazomethine (Polymer IV) and α-methylstilbene (Polymer V). All polymers crystallized extensively at room temperature, but only polymers I and V have displayed an enantiotropic smectic mesophase. The X-ray diffractograms were consistent with a smectic H mesophase for both polymers. Polymers I and V differed also from polymers 11-IV by enhanced reactivity of the diacetylenic moiety. A model for chain packing consistent with the X-ray diffraction pattern of the crystalline and the smectic phase is proposed.
Facilitating mobile communication with multimodal access to email messages on a cell phone

This paper reports on a user trial (N=17) that compares the use of two systems for accessing email messages on a telephone handset. The first system uses graphic output and telephone keypad input, while the second system has both graphic and speech output, with keypad and speech as input. To our knowledge, this trial represents the first evaluation of a fully functioning multimodal system that uses natural language understanding on a phone, and was dependent on the 3G network currently available in Australia. Participants saw significantly greater value in the multimodal interaction, and rated their experience with the multimodal system significantly more positively than the unimodal system. They were also significantly more inclined to use and recommend the multimodal system over the current unimodal product offering. While we expected to see some mixed usage of modalities in the multimodal system, participants used speech predominantly, falling back to GUI selection only after encountering multiple speech recognition failures in a row.
Experimental investigation of the role of frictional yarn pull-out and windowing on the probabilistic impact response of kevlar fabrics

Abstract The probabilistic impact responses of single layer greige and scoured plain-weave Kevlar KM2 fabrics are experimentally studied. Single-layer, 101 cm × 101 cm fabric targets are mounted in a novel equilateral octagon (EO) fixture that leaves the principal yarns unclamped. A probabilistic velocity response (PVR) curve, which describes the probability of fabric penetration as a function of projectile impact velocity, is generated through a series of thirty impact tests using a spherical steel projectile impacted at velocities between 69 and 113 m/s. Additional experiments are conducted by impacting targets repeatedly at identical velocities, and comparing the resulting residual velocities of the penetrating projectiles. Fabric penetration in all cases is entirely accommodated by yarn pull-out and windowing, without any principal yarn failure at the impact site. The results indicate that frictional yarn sliding and pull-out are the primary energy dissipating mechanisms during these impact conditions. Controlled yarn pull-out experiments are conducted on the same greige and scoured fabrics to statistically characterize the yarn pull-out loads. Variability in pull-out forces in the greige fabrics are measurably higher than the variability in pull-out forces for the scoured fabrics, which correlates well with variability trends in the PVR and residual velocity ballistic experiments. Additional factors, such as yarn-projectile friction and differences in filament packing efficiency, are hypothesized to also contribute to the observed differences in the greige and scoured fabric impact responses.
Atrial Septal Defect in Patients over the Age of Forty Years

The fate of 62 patients with atrial septal defect (ASD) who were 40 years of age and older was analyzed in detail. All patients were studied hemodynamically, those who underwent operation were recatheterized postoperatively, and the subsequent clinical courses of the entire group were determined. Cardiorespiratory symptoms were reported by 94% of the patients; 45% were in functional class III or IV. Fifty-four patients had moderate or large left-to-right shunts; pulmonary arterial (PA) hypertension was present in 69% of these patients, and was severe in 28%. PA hypertension or a large left-to-right shunt, or both were found in all 28 patients in functional classes III and IV. Eight patients (13%) exhibited evidence of severe obliterative pulmonary vascular disease, with balanced or predominantly right-to-left shunting. Operative correction of the ASD was performed in 48 patients. The overall operative mortality of 12.5% was reduced to 6.5% in the 31 patients operated upon after 1961. At the initial follow...
Effects of heat treatment and HF etching on the strength of silica lightguides

Often lightguide fiber processing involves steps that may cause degradation of very high strength or flaw-free, perfect fiber. A very obvious type of degradation is the development of abrasion flaws during handling. Also, heating of a fiber to moderate temperatures (~300-600°C), for instance during the soldering of pigtails, has been shown to result in strength degradation of strong fiber. It has been suggested that the use of HF etching may be a reasonable technique for the elimination of many types of strength-lowering defects. In this paper we discuss early results from the literature on the effects of heating and HF etching on the strength of silica glass and present new results on both.
Microstructure of epitaxial rutile TiO2 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on r-plane Al2O3

The paper reports on the microstructure of rutile TiO2 films grown on r-plane sapphire surfaces by molecular beam epitaxy as a function of oxygen flux during growth. Single-phase, epitaxial rutile films were obtained for all growth conditions. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy showed that the films contained a high density of twins, likely as a result of different variants nucleating on the substrate simultaneously. At low oxygen fluxes, surface features were dominated by twin variants. With increasing oxygen flux, the surface morphology changed due to the reduced mobility of ad-atoms. The relationship between the arrangements of oxygen octahedra in the sapphire and rutile structures, the epitaxial orientation and twin formation is discussed.
Lack of significant proximal esophageal acid reflux in infants presenting with respiratory symptoms.

The effects of proximal esophageal acid reflux on upper and lower respiratory tract symptoms in infants with gastroesophageal reflux (GER) remain controversial. We studied 116 infants with either respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms to determine whether acid reflux in the proximal esophagus plays an etiologic role in the elicitation of respiratory symptoms in comparison to causing gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms only. Sixty-two infants (age range, 1–12 months) with respiratory symptoms suggestive of GER and 54 infants with gastrointestinal symptoms only (age range, 1–10 months) were evaluated with dual level esophageal pH monitoring. Mean duration of dual-level pH monitoring in infants with respiratory symptoms was 20.4 h, and in those with GI symptoms was 20.7 h. Seventeen of 54 infants with GI symptoms only and 16 of 63 infants with respiratory symptoms had abnormal distal esophageal acid reflux indices (i.e., pH 5% of the duration of study). In infants with abnormal distal pH monitoring, the median proximal acid reflux index in the GI group was 4.0% in comparison to 0.95% in the respiratory group (P < 0.01 by Wilcoxon rank sum W test). Values for other reflux parameters were also higher in the GI than in the respiratory group. We conclude that reflux-associated respiratory symptoms are more likely due to mechanisms other than the mere presence of refluxed acid in the proximal esophagus. Pediatr Pulmonol. 1999; 27:231–235. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Effects of harvesting and deer browsing on attributes of understory plants in northern hardwood forests, Upper Michigan, USA

Both forest harvesting and browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) affect the composition and structure of forest vegetation throughout the eastern deciduous forest in the United States. We studied their affect and their interaction by measuring the composition, richness, cover, physical stature, and reproductive potential of vascular plants in the understory of three thinned (uneven-aged, even-aged, managing for old-growth characteristics) and two unthinned (second-growth, old-growth) forests dominated by sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in western Upper Michigan. Based on measurements taken five years after deer exclosures were established, we found consistent and strong statistical differences in species richness and percent cover related to forest harvest but not to deer browse. Percent cover of the understory vegetation showed weakly significant interactions between deer browse and forest harvest. Thinned forests had a greater average richness and cover of graminoid species, average cover of wild red raspberry (Rubus strigosus L.) and sugar maple compared to unthinned forests. Measurements of plant morphology and the frequency of flowering and fruiting were more sensitive indicators of deer browse than community measurements such as richness and cover. Based on measures of physical stature and reproductive potential, sugar maple, red-berried elder (Sambucus racemosa L.), bluebead-lily (Clintonia borealis (Aiton) Raf.), small Solomon-seal (Polygonatum pubescens (Willd.) Pursh.), false Solomon-seal (Smilacina racemosa (L.) Desf.), rosy twisted stalk (Streptopus roseus Michaux), and trillium species (Trillium grandiflorum (Michaux) Salisb. and T. cernuum L.) all experienced significant browse damage. A better understanding of the interaction between forest harvest and deer browse and their effect on community composition and structure is critical to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity in managed northern hardwood forests.
Amniotic fluid fluorescence polarization value as a predictor of respiratory distress syndrome.

Fluorescence polarization of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene in amniotic fluid lipid aggregates was measured to determine the ability of this technique to prospectively predict respiratory distress syndrome. Prior retrospective studies have shown that an FP value of ⪯0.336 correlated best with a lecithin to sphingomyelin ratio of >2.0. Fluorescence polarization value of amniotic fluid samples obtained within 48 hours of birth from 161 pregnancies were correlated with neonatal outcome. Samples from 149 pregnancies had FP values of ⪯0.336 and samples from 12 pregnancies had FP values of ≥0.336. No infants delivered from the former group developed RDS and eight of 12 infants from the latter group developed RDS ( P P P
Three-dimensional P-wave velocity structure derived from local earthquakes at the Katmai group of volcanoes, Alaska

Abstract The three-dimensional P-wave velocity structure beneath the Katmai group of volcanoes is determined by inversion of more than 10,000 rays from over 1000 earthquakes recorded on a local 18 station short-period network between September 1996 and May 2001. The inversion is well constrained from sea level to about 6 km below sea level and encompasses all of the Katmai volcanoes; Martin, Mageik, Trident, Griggs, Novarupta, Snowy, and Katmai caldera. The inversion reduced the average RMS travel-time error from 0.22 s for locations from the standard one-dimensional model to 0.13 s for the best three-dimensional model. The final model, from the 6th inversion step, reveals a prominent low velocity zone (3.6–5.0 km/s) centered at Katmai Pass and extending from Mageik to Trident volcanoes. The anomaly has values about 20–25% slower than velocities outboard of the region (5.0–6.5 km/s). Moderately low velocities (4.5–6.0 km/s) are observed along the volcanic axis between Martin and Katmai Caldera. Griggs volcano, located about 10 km behind (northwest of) the volcanic axis, has unremarkable velocities (5.0–5.7 km/s) compared to non-volcanic regions. The highest velocities are observed between Snowy and Griggs volcanoes (5.5–6.5 km/s). Relocated hypocenters for the best 3-D model are shifted significantly relative to the standard model with clusters of seismicity at Martin volcano shifting systematically deeper by about 1 km to depths of 0 to 4 km below sea level. Hypocenters for the Katmai Caldera are more tightly clustered, relocating beneath the 1912 scarp walls. The relocated hypocenters allow us to compare spatial frequency-size distributions ( b -values) using one-dimensional and three-dimensional models. We find that the distribution of b is significantly changed for Martin volcano, which was characterized by variable values (0.8 b b b b b b -values indicating the robustness of the observations. The strong high b -value region at Mageik volcano is mainly associated with an earthquake swarm in October, 1996 that possibly indicates a shallow intrusion or influx of gas. The new velocity and spatial b -value results, in conjunction with prior gravity (Bouguer anomalies up to − 40 mgal) and interferometry (several cm uplift) data, provide strong evidence in favor of partially molten rock at shallow depths beneath the Mageik–Katmai–Novarupta region. Moderately low velocities beneath Martin and Katmai suggest that old, mostly solidified intrusions exist beneath these volcanoes. Higher relative velocities beneath the Griggs and Snowy vents suggest that no magma is resident in the shallow crust beneath these volcanoes.