cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pressure Stiffened Modal Correlation of a Cylindrical Pressure Vessel

Acoustoelastic structures are a complex dynamic system that exhibit modal coupling between a structure and its enclosed acoustic fluid. Common structures that exhibit this phenomenon in the aerospace industry are pressure vessels such as a solid rocket boosters or advanced solid rocket motors. When a structural analyst simulates the structural modes of these pressure vessels with shell finite elements, they often apply an internal pressure force in their model to represent the acoustic fluid. In a model free of boundary conditions, the application of this internal pressure force produces modal results that ground some rigid body modes, often going from six to three zero-frequency modes. Therefore, since the finite element modal simulation inappropriately grounds the structure and thus is unable to accurately predict the rigid body modes, it calls into question whether the elastic or flexible modes predicted by the same modal analysis are accurate. This paper presents an experimental study to address this question by designing, analyzing, fabricating, and testing a simple cylindrical pressure vessel. A free-free steel cylindrical pressure vessel was modeled with finite elements and modal tested with and without pressure. Modal tap testing was used to extract the structural response and compute frequency response functions which were compared to analytical results to discern the accuracy of the predicted elastic modes of the pressure vessel.
Fitting a round peg into a round hole: Asymptotically correcting the generalized gradient approximation for correlation.

We consider the implications of the Lieb-Simon limit for correlation in density functional theory. In this limit, exemplified by the scaling of neutral atoms to large atomic number, local density approximation (LDA) becomes relatively exact, and the leading correction to this limit for correlation has recently been determined for neutral atoms. We use the leading correction to the LDA and the properties of the real-space cutoff of the exchange-correlation hole to design, based upon Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) correlation, an asymptotically corrected generalized gradient approximation (acGGA) correlation which becomes more accurate per electron for atoms with increasing atomic number. When paired with a similar correction for exchange, this acGGA satisfies more exact conditions than PBE. Combined with the known rs-dependence of the gradient expansion for correlation, this correction accurately reproduces correlation energies of closed-shell atoms down to Be. We test this acGGA for atoms and molecules, finding consistent improvement over PBE but also showing that optimal global hybrids of acGGA do not improve upon PBE0 and are similar to meta-GGA values. We discuss the relevance of these results to Jacob’s ladder of non-empirical density functional construction.We consider the implications of the Lieb-Simon limit for correlation in density functional theory. In this limit, exemplified by the scaling of neutral atoms to large atomic number, local density approximation (LDA) becomes relatively exact, and the leading correction to this limit for correlation has recently been determined for neutral atoms. We use the leading correction to the LDA and the properties of the real-space cutoff of the exchange-correlation hole to design, based upon Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) correlation, an asymptotically corrected generalized gradient approximation (acGGA) correlation which becomes more accurate per electron for atoms with increasing atomic number. When paired with a similar correction for exchange, this acGGA satisfies more exact conditions than PBE. Combined with the known rs-dependence of the gradient expansion for correlation, this correction accurately reproduces correlation energies of closed-shell atoms down to Be. We test this acGGA for atoms and molecules, fin...
A Calibration Technique for Ultrasonic Immersion Transducers and Challenges in Moving Towards Immersion Based Harmonic Imaging

The present article describes the calibration of ultrasonic immersion transducers using reciprocity technique. A step-by-step procedure and instrumentation requirements for transducer calibration are presented. Challenges encountered during the calibration experiment such as diffraction and attenuation corrections, and mismatched electrical impedances were also explored. The calibrated transducer was used to measure the acoustic nonlinearity parameter (β) of distilled water using the finite amplitude method. The objective of the current study is to identify potential challenges while moving towards a nonlinear immersion scanning technique for immersed engineering solids. Challenges such as effect of additives (corrosion inhibitors, surfactants etc.), misalignment of transducers, and effect of longer propagation paths were explored. Additives to distilled water were found to decrease the β of the mixture, and for an axial transducer misalignment of 2 mm, β was observed to increase by a factor of 2. Finally, the effect of propagation distance and excitation amplitude is shown.
Consumer health information and question answering: helping consumers find answers to their health-related information needs

Objective Consumers increasingly turn to the internet in search of health-related information; and they want their questions answered with short and precise passages, rather than needing to analyze lists of relevant documents returned by search engines and reading each document to find an answer. We aim to answer consumer health questions with information from reliable sources. Materials and methods We combine knowledge-based, traditional machine and deep learning approaches to understand consumers' questions and select the best answers from consumer-oriented sources. We evaluate the end-to-end system and its components on simple questions generated in a pilot development of MedlinePlus Alexa skill, as well as the short and long real-life questions submitted to the National Library of Medicine by consumers. Results Our system achieves 78.7% mean average precision and 87.9% mean reciprocal rank on simple Alexa questions, and 44.5% mean average precision and 51.6% mean reciprocal rank on real-life questions submitted by National Library of Medicine consumers. Discussion The ensemble of deep learning, domain knowledge, and traditional approaches recognizes question type and focus well in the simple questions, but it leaves room for improvement on the real-life consumers' questions. Information retrieval approaches alone are sufficient for finding answers to simple Alexa questions. Answering real-life questions, however, benefits from a combination of information retrieval and inference approaches. Conclusion A pilot practical implementation of research needed to help consumers find reliable answers to their health-related questions demonstrates that for most questions the reliable answers exist and can be found automatically with acceptable accuracy.
Impaired B-cell tolerance checkpoints promote the development of autoimmune diseases and pathogenic autoantibodies

A role for B cells in autoimmune diseases is now clearly established both in mouse models and humans by successful treatment of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies that eliminate B cells. However, the underlying mechanisms by which B cells promote the development of autoimmune diseases remain poorly understood. Here, we review evidence that patients with autoimmune disease suffer from defects in early B-cell tolerance checkpoints and therefore fail to counterselect developing autoreactive B cells. These B-cell tolerance defects are primary to autoimmune diseases and may result from altered B-cell receptor signaling and dysregulated T-cell/regulatory T-cell compartment. As a consequence, large numbers of autoreactive naive B cells accumulate in the blood of patients with autoimmune diseases and may promote autoimmunity through the presentation of self-antigen to T cells. In addition, new evidence suggests that this reservoir of autoreactive naive B cells contains clones that may develop into CD27- CD21-/lo B cells associated with increased disease severity and plasma cells secreting potentially pathogenic autoantibodies after the acquisition of somatic hypermutations that improve affinity for self-antigens.
Evidence that the Dorsal Velvet of Barn Owl Wing Feathers Decreases Rubbing Sounds during Flapping Flight.

Owls have specialized feather features hypothesized to reduce sound produced during flight. One of these features is the velvet, a structure composed of elongated filaments termed pennulae that project dorsally from the upper surface of wing and tail feathers. There are two hypotheses of how the velvet functions to reduce sound. According to the aerodynamic noise hypothesis, the velvet reduces sound produced by aerodynamic processes, such as turbulence development on the surface of the wing. Alternatively, under the structural noise hypothesis, the velvet reduces frictional noise produced when two feathers rub together. The aerodynamic noise hypothesis predicts impairing the velvet will increase aerodynamic flight sounds predominantly at low frequency, since turbulence formation predominantly generates low frequency sound; and that changes in sound levels will occur predominantly during the downstroke, when aerodynamic forces are greatest. Conversely, the frictional noise hypothesis predicts impairing the velvet will cause a broadband (i.e., across all frequencies) increase in flight sounds, since frictional sounds are broadband; and that changes in sound levels will occur during the upstroke, when the wing feathers rub against each other the most. Here, we tested these hypotheses by impairing with hairspray the velvet on inner wing feathers (P1-S4) of 13 live barn owls (Tyto alba) and measuring the sound produced between 0.1 and 16 kHz during flapping flight. Relative to control flights, impairing the velvet increased sound produced across the entire frequency range (i.e., the effect was broadband) and the upstroke increased more than the downstroke, such that the upstroke of manipulated birds was louder than the downstroke, supporting the frictional noise hypothesis. Our results suggest that a substantial amount of bird flight sound is produced by feathers rubbing against feathers during flapping flight.
Microcarcinoid and Ulcerative Colitis: Case Report and Literature Review.

Gastrointestinal microcarcinoid tumors are rare, and the concomitant diagnosis of microcarcinoid tumor and inflammatory bowel disease is even rarer. A 54-year-old African American male with an eight-year history of ulcerative colitis (UC) presented with a three-day history of abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Rectal biopsy on colonoscopy was notable for small nests of neuroendocrine cell proliferation in the mucosa consistent with a diagnosis of microcarcinoid tumor. Whether the incidence is coincidental or represents an epiphenomenon of chronic inflammation remains to be determined.
High Throughput Mobile Visible Light Communication

Visible Light Communication (VLC) data capacity can be in the order of Tera-bits-per-second (Tbps) as it operates on an unrestricted terahertz band (400–700 THz) of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, in practice, all the existing VLC systems are limited in data rate, in the range of Kbps-Mbps. In this paper, we introduce a novel state-of-art VLC system for achieving ultra high data rates from the perspective of designing a high-speed VLC receiver. In our designed VLC receiver architecture, along with high sampling rates photodiode, we integrate an image sensor-like shutter mechanism that filters noise and interference. Through this unified design, the receiver will be able to select the exact area over which the transmitted signal is detected on the array, and thus isolates signal from noise to improve the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) significantly which leads the ultra high-speed in VLC systems. In this paper, we discuss the design details of our proposed VLC prototype and study the feasibility of the system through proof-of-concept experimentation.
Development and Acceptability of a Method to Investigate Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Background: Prescription drug misuse and abuse is an established public health challenge, and young adults are particularly affected. There is a striking lack of real-time, naturalistic data collection assessing intentions to misuse and other precipitating factors at the time of actual misuse, leaving the conditions under which individuals are most likely to misuse prescription medications unknown. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) apps and protocols designed to capture this information would accelerate and expand the knowledge base and could directly contribute to prevention and treatment efforts. Objective: The objectives of this study are to describe the development and administration of a mobile app and the EMA protocol designed to collect real-time factors associated with college students’ prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life; present completion rates, compliance, acceptability, and reactivity associated with the EMA protocol for participants who endorsed recent prescription drug misuse at screening (ie, risk group; n=300) and those who did not (ie, nonrisk group; n=55); and establish initial construct validity by linking the reports of misuse behaviors in daily life collected via the EMA app to prescription drug misuse reported on a standard survey. Methods: An EMA data collection app and protocol were designed specifically to capture hypothesized contextual factors along with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. Using this protocol, young adult college students (N=352) completed signal- and event-contingent reports over a 28-day period. When the intention to misuse a prescription drug was endorsed, a brief follow-up prompt was sent 15 min later to collect participants’ indications of whether or not misuse had occurred. Results: Risk-group participants were significantly more likely than nonrisk counterparts to endorse any prescription drug misuse intentions in daily life (P<.001), to complete one or more follow-up reports (P<.001), and to endorse any prescription drug misuse behavior in daily life on the follow-ups (P<.001). Overall, participants demonstrated consistent engagement with the EMA procedures and returned an average of 74.5 (SD 23.82; range 10-122) reports. Participants in the risk and nonrisk groups did not differ in the number of reports they completed (P=.12), the number of their reporting days (P=.32), or their average completion rates (P=.14). The results indicated some evidence of reactivity to the momentary reporting procedure. Participants reported uniformly positive experiences and remained highly engaged throughout the reporting protocol and broader study. Conclusions: The novel EMA app and protocol provide an effective way to assess real-time factors associated with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. The resulting investigations offer the potential to provide highly translatable information for research and prevention efforts.
Attorney Liability for Client Fraud

This article focuses on counsel's liability exposure when his or her client engages in fraudulent conduct. The article begins by addressing the pertinent ethical rules promulgated by the American Bar Association (ABA). Thereafter, the discussion provides an analysis of the pertinent case law followed by treatment of SEC Rule 2(e). The article concludes with observations dealing with certain problematic situations.
Concealable Biometric-based Continuous User Authentication System An EEG Induced Deep Learning Model

This paper introduces a lightweight, low-cost, easy-to-use, and unobtrusive continuous user authentication system based on concealable biometric signals. The proposed authentication model continuously verifies a user’s identity throughout the user session while s/he watches a video or performs free-text typing on his/her desktop/laptop keyboard. The authentication model utilizes unobtrusively recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and learns the user’s unique biometric signature based on his/her brain activity.Our work has multifold impact in the area of EEG-based authentication: (1) a comprehensive study and a comparative analysis of a wide range of extracted features are presented. These features are categorized based on the EEG electrodes placement position on the user’s head, (2) an optimal feature subset is constructed using a minimal number of EEG electrodes, (3) a deep neural network-based user authentication model is presented that utilizes the constructed optimal feature subset, and (4) a detailed experimental analysis on a publicly available EEG dataset of 26 volunteer participants is presented.Our experimental results show that the proposed authentication model could achieve an average Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.137%. Although a thorough analysis on a larger pool of subjects must be performed, our results show the viability of low-cost, lightweight EEG-based continuous user authentication systems.
Development of a flexible split prime editor using truncated reverse transcriptase

Abstract Prime Editor (PE) has tremendous promise for gene therapy. However, it remains a challenge to deliver PE (>6.3 kb) in vivo. Although PE can be split into two fragments and delivered using dual adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), choice of split sites within Cas9 – which affects editing efficiency – is limited due to the large size of PE. Furthermore, the potential effect of overexpressing RT in mammalian cells is largely unknown. Here, we developed a compact PE with complete deletion of the RNase H domain of reverse transcriptase (RT), which showed comparable editing to full-length PE. Using compact PE, we tested the effect of 4 different Cas9 split sites and found that the Glu 573 split site supports robust editing (up to 93% of full-length PE). The compact PE, but not PE2, abolished its binding to eRF1 and showed minimal effect on stop codon readthrough, which therefore might reduce the effects on protein biosynthesis. This study identifies a safe and efficient compact PE2 that enables flexible split-PE design to facilitate efficient delivery in vivo and advance the utility of prime editing.
Chapter 6 The Structure of Memory Performance in Experts: Implications for Memory in Everyday Life

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a study on expert performance that provides unique insights into the psychology of everyday activities. The goal of psychology is to uncover general laws that account for performance and related phenomena in human adults ranging from peasants in India to computer scientists in the United States. The differences in performance between experts and other adults who are able to complete a task are among the largest stable differences recorded in psychology. The chapter outlines three possible views of the relation between expert and ordinary performance. The empirical review supports a view of expert performance where experts acquire both knowledge and skills. Among the acquired skills, there are memory skills that allow experts to extend their working memory, thus circumventing the basic limits of short-term memory. A review of memory performance in experts shows that these memory skills closely reflect the particular memory needs of the corresponding type of expertise. The chapter presents an overview of three views of expert performance relative to everyday and laboratory performances—the talent view, the knowledge view, and the acquired mechanisms view. Short-term memory limitations have been shown to play an important limiting role in memory for lists of arbitrary items.
EFFECT OF THE CAROTID-JUGULAR-ANASTOMOSIS OPERATION UPON INTELLIGENCE

The psychologic findings on 33 children following the c-j-a operation have been reported. The results show that almost all the patients improved in mental age but only at the same rate, in comparison with the chronologic age, which was evident prior to the operation. There was one instance of significantly increased rate with an I.Q. improvement of 18 points, and one instance of significantly decreased rate with an I.Q. loss of 20 points. The average difference in I.Q. following surgery was slight and in a minus direction. Certain sources of confusion in evaluating intellectual changes have been discussed. A change in I.Q. within 10 points sometimes occurs with repeated tests for no specific reason beyond the measuring error inherent in the intelligence test. The mere fact of improved functioning in a child means little as far as evaluating surgical intervention is concerned, since most children are still in the process of growth, although it may be slow. Moreover, individual I.Q.9s obtained before the chronologic age of 3 years should be interpreted with discretion; this is particularly true in the case of spastic children who, in standard tests, are unfairly handicapped on a purely physical basis. On the basis of the data reported in this study, the previous claim that "this procedure represents the first successful attempt at correction of mental retardation on an organic basis" is not fulfilled. Although in previous reports by Beck, McKhann and Belnap, the concept of the I.Q. is used freely in general statements, no statistical facts have been provided. The improvement in two cases presented in the first published report by these authors has not been sustained by later study. The statement that children with I.Q.9s between 40 and 60 show the greatest improvement is contradicted by the present author9s findings. There is virtually no evidence in this study (significant improvement in one case out of 33) for crediting the c-j-a surgical procedure with improvement of the intellect. The majority of the cases herein reported were tested several months after surgery so that whatever improvement was going to occur should have been manifest, according to the statement of McKhann, Belnap and Beck that "improvement usually begins to appear in the retarded children within the first two postoperative months."
Approximating digital shapes by parametric surfaces

A method for parametrizing discrete points sampled from a smooth shape and fitting a rational Gaussian surface to the points with a required accuracy is presented. With the proposed method, a very complex shape can be represented by a single surface, and the surface can be rendered at a desired level of detail by adjusting a smoothness parameter.
Generating data race witnesses by an SMT-based analysis

Data race is one of the most dangerous errors in multithreaded programming, and despite intensive studies, it remains a notorious cause of failures in concurrent systems. Detecting data races is already a hard problem, and yet it is even harder for a programmer to decide whether or how a reported data race can appear in the actual program execution. In this paper we propose an algorithm for generating debugging aid information called witnesses, which are concrete thread schedules that can deterministically trigger the data races. More specifically, given a concrete execution trace, e.g. non-erroneous one which may have triggered a warning in Eraser-style data race detectors, we use a symbolic analysis based on SMT solvers to search for a data race witness among alternative interleavings of events of that trace. Our symbolic analysis precisely encodes the sequential consistency semantics using a scalable predictive model to ensure that the reported witness is always feasible.
Composition and physiological profiling of sprout-associated microbial communities.

The native microfloras of various types of sprouts (alfalfa, clover, sunflower, mung bean, and broccoli sprouts) were examined to assess the relative effects of sprout type and inoculum factors (i.e., sprout-growing facility, seed lot, and inoculation with sprout-derived inocula) on the microbial community structure of sprouts. Sprouts were sonicated for 7 min or hand shaken with glass beads for 2 min to recover native microfloras from the surface, and the resulting suspensions were diluted and plated. The culturable fraction was characterized by the density (log CFU/g), richness (e.g., number of types of bacteria), and diversity (e.g., microbial richness and evenness) of colonies on tryptic soy agar plates incubated for 48 h at 30 degrees C. The relative similarity between sprout-associated microbial communities was assessed with the use of community-level physiological profiles (CLPPs) based on patterns of utilization of 95 separate carbon sources. Aerobic plate counts of 7.96 +/- 0.91 log CFU/g of sprout tissue (fresh weight) were observed, with no statistically significant differences in microbial cell density, richness, or diversity due to sprout type, sprout-growing facility, or seed lot. CLPP analyses revealed that the microbial communities associated with alfalfa and clover sprouts are more similar than those associated with the other sprout types tested. Variability among sprout types was more extensive than any differences between microbial communities associated with alfalfa and clover sprouts from different sprout-growing facilities and seed lots. These results indicate that the subsequent testing of biocontrol agents should focus on similar organisms for alfalfa and clover, but alternative types may be most suitable for the other sprout types tested. The inoculation of alfalfa sprouts with communities derived from various sprout types had a significant, source-independent effect on microbial community structure, indicating that the process of inoculation alters the dynamics of community development regardless of the types of organisms involved.
De Novo Purine Synthesis in Vegetative Cells and Myxospores of Myxococcus xanthus

This study was designed to determine whether vegetative cells and myxospores of Myxococcus xanthus were capable of classical de novo purine biosynthesis. To answer this question, vegetative and myxospore extracts of M. xanthus FBa were tested for their ability to synthesize the second de novo intermediate, 5'-phosphoribosylglycinamide, from beginning precursors either by way of phosphoribosyl-pyrophosphate amido transferase (EC 2.4.2.14) or ribose-5-phosphate amino transferase. Both the amido and amino transferase routes occurred in both types of extracts, and both enzymes appear to be present at about the same level (per milligram of protein) in vegetative cells, myxospores, and in a bacterial prototype, Salmonella typhimurium. The dose response of the vegetative and myxospore forms of both enzymes towards adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) and guanosine 5'-monophosphate (GMP) suggests that the allosteric structure of both enzymes is changed little by sporulation. Both enzymes were inhibited to varying degrees by a variety of purine nucleotides besides AMP, GMP, and 3':5' cyclic AMP.
Evidence Suggesting that Discontinuous Dosing of ALK Kinase Inhibitors May Prolong Control of ALK+ Tumors

The anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is chromosomally rearranged in a subset of certain cancers, including 2% to 7% of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and ∼70% of anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCL). The ALK kinase inhibitors crizotinib and ceritinib are approved for relapsed ALK(+) NSCLC, but acquired resistance to these drugs limits median progression-free survival on average to ∼10 months. Kinase domain mutations are detectable in 25% to 37% of resistant NSCLC samples, with activation of bypass signaling pathways detected frequently with or without concurrent ALK mutations. Here we report that, in contrast to NSCLC cells, drug-resistant ALCL cells show no evidence of bypassing ALK by activating alternate signaling pathways. Instead, drug resistance selected in this setting reflects upregulation of ALK itself. Notably, in the absence of crizotinib or ceritinib, we found that increased ALK signaling rapidly arrested or killed cells, allowing a prolonged control of drug-resistant tumors in vivo with the administration of discontinuous rather than continuous regimens of drug dosing. Furthermore, even when drug resistance mutations were detected in the kinase domain, overexpression of the mutant ALK was toxic to tumor cells. We confirmed these findings derived from human ALCL cells in murine pro-B cells that were transformed to cytokine independence by ectopic expression of an activated NPM-ALK fusion oncoprotein. In summary, our results show how ALK activation functions as a double-edged sword for tumor cell viability, with potential therapeutic implications.
Increased permeability to polyethylene glycol 4000 in rabbits with experimental colitis

Little information is available regarding colonic permeability to macromolecules in health or disease states. In vivo permeability of rabbit colon to [14C]polyethylene glycol 4000 (14C-PEG) was examined in the presence of immune complex-mediated experimental colitis and compared with that of partially treated (control) and normal rabbits. Permeability was assessed by urinary 14C-PEG excretion after intrarectal administration of 0.1 mM solution of 14C-PEG (1 ml/kg, 7.5 X 10(6) cpm/ml). Experimental colitis greatly increased colonic permeability (p less than 0.001 in two-way analysis of variance) compared with control and normal groups (2.06% +/- 0.19%, 0.14% +/- 0.04%, and 0.01% +/- 0.004%, respectively, of rectally administered counts). Gel diffusion chromatography showed that absorbed 14C-PEG was excreted into urine unchanged, demonstrating its applicability as an inert, nonmetabolizable macromolecular probe. Urinary clearance after mesenteric vein administration of 14C-PEG was similar in normal animals and animals with colitis, implicating colonic absorption as the source of the group differences. Postmortem histology confirmed the acute colitis lesions in the experimental group. These findings support the hypothesis that nonspecific colonic inflammation is associated with significant alterations of mucosal permeability.
“Culturally Restorative Child Welfare Practice - A Special Emphasis on Cultural Attachment Theory”

A research project was implemented through the use of qualitative secondary data analysis to describe a theory of culturally restorative child welfare practice with the application of cultural attachment theory. The research documented 20 years of service practice that promoted Anisinaabe cultural identity and cultural attachment strategies, by fostering the natural cultural resiliencies that exist within the Anishaabe nation. The research brings a suggested methodology to child welfare services for First Nation children the greater the application of cultural attachment strategies the greater the response to cultural restoration processes within a First Nation community.
Ethanol-induced bronchodilatation in TEA-treated canine tracheal smooth muscle is mediated by a β-adrenoceptor-dependent mechanism

Abstract The effects of moderate concentrations of ethanol (8–34 mM) on the electromechanical activity of airway smooth muscle cells of canine trachealis, stimulated by the spasmogen tetraethylammonium (TEA), are described for in vitro and cultured reaggregate preparations. Ethanol produced a concentration-dependent hyperpolarization, and suppression of action potentials in smooth muscle preparations, in vitro, whereas it was without effect in cultured airway smooth muscle cells. In the presence of the β-adrenoceptor antagonist propranolol (1 μM), ethanol had no effect on in vitro preparations. Isoproterenol (0.1 μM) produced hyperpolarization and suppression of action potentials in airway smooth muscle of both preparations. These effects were not observed when propranolol was additionally present. This suggests that both in vitro, and cultured airway smooth muscle preparations maintained their β-receptors, and that ethanol caused the release of endogenous catecholamine from adrenergic nerve endings which apparently remained intact in in vitro, but not in cultured airway smooth muscle preparations.
Human-like robotic handwriting and drawing

The method of human-like handwriting and drawing is addressed with a three-link arm. Three strategies of trajectory planning are considered: the basic stroke method, the Bezier curve method, and the non-gradient numerical optimization method. Planar patterns of handwriting or drawing are converted into the vector form of joint angles in which sequence and speed of the movement can be designed to imitate human handwriting and drawing. A nonlinear three-link three-dimensional arm, similar to a human arm, is developed to track the planned trajectories. The feasibility of these methods is demonstrated by simulation.
THE EQUIVALENCE OF UNIQUELY DIVISIBLE SEMIGROUPS AND UNIQUELY REPRESENTABLE SEMIGROUPS ON THE TWO-CELL (*)

This talk brings together the results of several papers in order to show that the uniquely divisible semigroups on the two-cell are exactly the uniquely representable semigroups on the two-cell.
Transference Phenomena in Medical Practice: Being Whom the Patient Needs

Transference is a process in which individuals displace patterns of behavior that originate through interaction with significant figures in childhood onto other persons in their current lives. It is a powerful determinant of patient behavior in medical encounters. Transference can affect the kind of physician-patient relationship a patient seeks and his or her response to interventions prescribed by physicians. The relationship is also strongly affected by the physician's own transference or countertransference. Rather than approach every patient in a uniform way, tailoring the approach to fit the relationship needs of the individual patient is advocated. Such tailoring would affect whether the physician is collaborative or prescriptive, how much personal information he or she shares, and how close or distant he or she is. Transference issues can also affect level of somatization and patient adherence to medical regimens. We discuss other problems with transference, such as the seductive patient and gift giving. By paying attention to the transference needs of patients, physicians can enhance the therapeutic alliance in which patients optimally participate in fulfilling their medical needs.
Prediction of a large parity-violating total cross-section asymmetry at high energies

Abstract An analytic expression is presented for the dominant contribution to the parity-violating asymmetry in proton-nucleon scattering at medium to high energies. Our quark-based model includes the effects of the scale-dependent strong coupling, and leads to an almost constant asymmetry at the highest energies to which it is applicable. The value is large on the scale of parity-violating effects.
A study of the phytoxicity of 2‐chloro‐6‐(trichloromethyl) pyridine

Abstract Toxicity of 2‐chloro‐6‐(trichloromethyl) pyridine (N‐Serve) occurred on young plants of bean, corn, cucumber, pea, and pumpkin when its concentration was at least 50 ppm in the soil. A restriction in fresh or dry weight production was the most uniform characteristic of N‐Serve toxicity. Cucumbers and peas showed visible foliar signs of injury which persisted until harvest while beans showed a temporary manifestation of N‐Serve toxicity on the primary leaves. Tomato plants did not appear to be injured at concentrations as high as 100 ppm in the soil.
Joule–Thomson Effects on the Flow of Liquid Water

We present a revised form of the energy balance for the coupled thermodynamics of liquid water flowing in porous media and give examples of situations where a commonly used formulation based on transport of enthalpy leads to erroneous results. Assuming negligible contribution from kinetic energy as well as sources and sinks such as energy from radioactive decay, total energy conservation is reduced to a balance between changes in internal energy, enthalpy, conductive heat flux, and gravitational potential energy. The Joule–Thomson coefficient is defined as the change in temperature with respect to an increase in pressure at constant enthalpy. Because liquid water has a negative Joule–Thomson coefficient at low temperatures, at a constant gravitational potential water cools as it compresses and heats as it expands. If one ignores the gravitational energy, transport of enthalpy alone leads to water heating by 2 $$^\circ $$ C per kilometer as it is brought up from depth. The corrected energy balance transports methalpy, which is enthalpy plus gravitational potential energy. Although the simpler form leads to small changes in the temperature profile for typical simulations, there are several instances where this effect may prove to be important. The most important impact of the erroneous form is probably in the field of geothermal energy production, where the creation of a few degrees of heat in a simulation could lead to miscalculation of power plant efficiencies.
Mentoring Global Dual‐Career Couples: A Social Learning Perspective

This paper explores the dimensions and means to implement a global dual-career expatriate couple mentoring program. The rationale is that learning from an experienced mentor mitigates the complexity of global assignments, leading to more successful completion of overseas assignments. We explored the impact of such mentoring programs on “nontraditional” global managers, along with their trailing spouses. Social learning theory was used as the foundation for the development of such a mentoring program. To add to the contextual understanding of global assignments imposed on global dual-career couples, we explored the effectiveness of mentoring by investigating temporal (before, during, after expatriation) and gender-related dimensions. Further, we analyzed the level of mentor involvement (personal, organizational, and professional) regarding psychosocial and career development.Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it. (A father)© 2010 Copyright the AuthorsJournal compilation © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Alternative CD44 splicing identifies epithelial prostate cancer cells from the mesenchymal counterparts

An epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been shown to be a necessary precursor to prostate cancer metastasis. Additionally, the differential expression and splicing of mRNAs has been identified as a key means to distinguish epithelial from mesenchymal cells by qPCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry. However, few markers exist to differentiate between these cells by flow cytometry. We previously developed two cell lines, PC3-Epi (epithelial) and PC3-EMT (mesenchymal). RNAseq was used to determine the differential expression of membrane proteins on PC3-Epi/EMT. We used western blotting, qPCR and flow cytometry to validate the RNAseq results. CD44 was one of six membrane proteins found to be differentially spliced between epithelial and mesenchymal PC3 cells. Although total CD44 was positive in all PC3-Epi/EMT cells, PC3-Epi cells had a higher level of CD44v6 (CD44 variant exon 6). CD44v6 was able to differentiate epithelial from mesenchymal prostate cancer cells using either flow cytometry, western blotting or qPCR.
A Practice-Based Theory of Professional Education: Teach For America's Professional Development Model

In 1999, Ball and Cohen proposed a practice-based theory of professional education, which would end inadequate professional development efforts with a more comprehensive approach. Their work has been referenced over the past decade, yet there have been limited attempts to actualize their ideals and research their implications. In this article, I describe Teach For America’s Teaching as Leadership framework and professional development model as a practice-based curriculum and pedagogy of teacher education that could be used as a model for a variety of stakeholders. I include a discussion of directions for future research on frameworks for teaching.
Therapeutic rationale for antithrombin III in sepsis.

Objective: To review the preclinical evidence that provides the therapeutic rationale for antithrombin as a novel treatment for human sepsis. Data Sources: A summary of published medical literature from MEDLINE search files and other reviews published about antithrombin use in sepsis. Data Summary: Antithrombin has a variety of anti-inflammatory properties in addition to its functions as an endogenous anticoagulant that appear to have an important therapeutic role in the prevention of microvascular dysfunction and multiple organ injury in sepsis. Appropriate timing and dosing of antithrombin III is critical to realize its full therapeutic potential as an anti-sepsis therapy. Conclusions: Antithrombin is a potent inhibitor of thrombin-mediated vascular injury in the microcirculation in severe sepsis. This endogenous anticoagulant is rapidly depleted in the early phases of sepsis as a result of decreased synthesis, increased destruction, and enhanced clearance by thrombin-antithrombin complex formation. The therapeutic efficacy of antithrombin in experimental sepsis is readily demonstrable in numerous animal systems. Appropriately defined patient populations with early onset severe sepsis and/or septic shock may benefit from antithrombin therapy if it is administered in adequate doses at the optimal time interval.
Endosonographic-guided therapy of pancreatic pseudocysts.

VOLUME 52, NO. 6 (Suppl), 2000 GASTROINTESTINAL ENDOSCOPY S23 EUS is the latest addition to endoscopists’ armamentarium for drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts. The indications for pseudocyst drainage,1 whether performed by radiologic, endoscopic, or surgical means, remain basically unchanged. Symptomatic pseudocysts, infected pseudocysts (i.e., pancreatic abscesses), and enlarging pseudocysts unequivocally require drainage. The necessity of draining pseudocysts based strictly on size has been questioned,2,3 but most authorities recommend that pseudocysts larger than 6 cm in diameter should be drained once their wall has “matured.” Surgery remains the standard for drainage of pseudocysts against which new methods must be compared. Surgical operations usually consist of a cystgastrostomy, a cystduodenostomy, or a Rouxen-Y-cystjejunostomy. These operative procedures carry a 10% to 30% morbidity rate, a 1% to 5% mortality rate, and a 10% to 20% rate of recurrence.4-6 Radiologic drainage7,8 and endoscopic drainage9-17 compare favorably with this surgical “standard.”
Preirradiation PSA predicts biochemical disease-free survival in patients treated with postprostatectomy external beam irradiation.

Purpose: To assess the clinical outcome and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and to determine prognostic factors for biochemical disease-free survival in patients treated with external beam radiotherapy following radical prostatectomy without hormonal therapy. Methods and Materials: Forty-eight patients were treated after prostatectomy with radiotherapy between March, 1988 and December, 1993. Seven patients had undetectable PSA ( 2.7. Five-year actuarial biochemical disease-free survival values were 71, 48, and 0%, respectively, for the three groups. Biochemical disease-free survival was not affected by preoperative PSA level, clinical stage, Gleason's score, pathologic stage, surgical margins, presence of undetectable PSA after surgery, surgery to radiation interval, total dose, or presence of clinically suspicious local disease. Based on digital rectal exam, there were no local failures. Conclusion: Biochemical disease-free survival after postprostatectomy radiation is predicted by the PSA at the time of irradiation. Clinical local control is excellent, but distant failure remains a significant problem in this population. The addition of concomitant systemic therapy should be investigated in patients with PSA >2.7.
Creep characterization of vapor-grown carbon nanofiber/vinyl ester nanocomposites using a response surface methodology

The effects of selected factors such as vapor-grown carbon nanofiber (VGCNF) weight fraction, applied stress, and tem- perature on the viscoelastic responses (creep strain and creep compliance) of VGCNF/vinyl ester (VE) nanocomposites were studied using a central composite design (CCD). Nanocomposite test articles were fabricated by high-shear mixing, casting, curing, and post curing in an open-face mold under a nitrogen environment. Short-term creep/creep recovery experiments were conducted at pre- scribed combinations of temperature (23.8-69.2 � C), applied stress (30.2-49.8 MPa), and VGCNF weight fraction (0.00-1.00 parts of VGCNF per hundred parts of resin) determined from the CCD. Response surface models (RSMs) for predicting these viscoelastic responses were developed using the least squares method and an analysis of variance procedure. The response surface estimates indi- cate that increasing the VGCNF weight fraction marginally increases the creep resistance of the VGCNF/VE nanocomposite at low temperatures (i.e., 23.8-46.5 � C). However, increasing the VGCNF weight fraction decreased the creep resistance of these nanocompo- sites for temperatures greater than 50 � C. The latter response may be due to a decrease in the nanofiber-to-matrix adhesion as the temperature is increased. The RSMs for creep strain and creep compliance revealed the interactions between the VGCNF weight frac- tion, stress, and temperature on the creep behavior of thermoset polymer nanocomposites. The design of experiments approach is useful in revealing interactions between selected factors, and thus can facilitate the development of more physics-based models. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42162.
Migration of Ions and pH Gradients in Gels under Stationary Electric Fields

Gels exposed to stationary electric fields on the order of 0.1 to 1.0 V/cm were found to develop pH gradients. The development of these pH gradients appears to be a relevant phenomenon in explaining the phase transitions and volume changes of ionic gels induced by an electric field. It was also found that the occurrence of pH gradients is strongly affected by the type and concentration of the ions present in the gel. The ions in a gel could be classified into different categories, depending on whether they were counter-ions of the charged groups on the polymer network or free ions, and whether they would participate in electrochemical reactions or not. Using a simple theoretical consideration, which takes into account diffusion, ionic drift, dissociation equilibria and electroneutrality, the pH profiles of gels under stationary electric fields have been evaluated and compared with experimental results.
From microchannels to nanochannels in a bilayer resist

This paper describes the use of a unique combination of an environmentally stable chemically amplified photoresist (UV113, Shipley) and a copolymer of methyl styrene and chloromethyl acrylate P(MS/CMA) resist (ZEP520, Zeon), without any additional intermediate layers, in the fabrication of micro- and nanochannels. The two resists used are innocuous to each other during the designed process flow, providing flexibility, high resolution, greater throughput and ease of use. We have also determined that the maximum channel length is limited by diffusion and mass transport effects, and that sub-100 nm nanochannels can be obtained with 30 micron lengths.
Biological safety tests for the quality control of parenteral pharmaceuticals

Biological safety tests are proposed for parenteral water-soluble drugs and for drugs in oil suspensions. The test dosages are base on the intravenous or intramuscular administration of the drugs in doses which approach or surpass symptomatic doses in the species of animal used. The tests thus aid in detecting serious departure from proper compounding procedures and are suggested as routine control measures in the manufacture of the enumerated drugs.