cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A morphometric method for correcting phytoplankton cell volume estimates

Cell volume calculations are often used to estimate biomass of natural phytoplankton assemblages. Such estimates may be questioned due to morphological differences in the organisms present. Morphometric analysis of 8 species representative of phytoplankton types found in the Great Lakes shows significant differences in cell constituent volumes. Volume of physiologically inert wall material ranges from nil, in some flagellates, to over 20% of the total cell volume in certain diatoms. Likewise, “empty” vacuole may comprise more than 40% of the total cell volume of some diatoms, but less than 3% of the volume of some flagellates. In the organisms investigated, the total carbon containing cytoplasm ranged from 52% to 98% of the total cell volume and the metabolizing biovolume ranged from 30% to 82%. Although these differences complicate direct biomass estimation, morphometric analysis at the ultrastructural level may provide ecologically valuable insights.
On nonlinear oscillations in electromechanical systems

Abstract Part I of the paper gives the representation of an electromechanical system by the dynamic equation of Lagrange in the holonomic reference frame. The equation of voltage and the equation of torque are then obtained from Lagrange's equation. Part II is concerned with the transformation of the system from the holonomic frame to the nonholonomic frame. Lagrange's equation is generalized to the Boltzmann-Hamel equation. Theory of hunting is presented by using a uniformly rotating reference frame. Part III deals with the transformation of the system from the holonomic frame to the quasi-holonomic reference frame in which the d, q components (Park variables) and the f, b components (Ku variables) are developed.From the equation of voltage, the impedance matrix is obtained by considering ω, the angular velocity, as a constant. The equation of torque is, however, nonlinear. If ω is considered as the derivative of the angular displacement τ, the “fourth dimension” in an electromechanical system, the system of equations are nonlinear . A simple four-dimensional formulation thus represents the dynamic characteristic of an electromechanical system. Four simultaneous first-order nonlinear differential equations are explicitly given. Equations of hunting in the nonholonomic frame and equations of voltage for transient analysis in the quasi-holonomic frame, are given in Appendices I and II, respectively.
Determining the utility of a student survey to provide valuable feedback on precepting skills of pharmacy residents

Abstract Purpose American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) defines pharmacy resident growth as preceptors as an objective for ASHP-accredited pharmacy residencies. ASHP recognizes instructing, modeling, coaching, and facilitating as precepting roles necessary for effective teaching. Currently, there is no standard, validated tool for pharmacy resident–preceptor evaluations. Student evaluations meet ASHP requirements for evaluating preceptor effectiveness. The purpose of this pilot study was to implement a process for utilizing student evaluations in developing and evaluating pharmacy residents as preceptors. Methods Pharmacy students that completed advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) during 2010–2011 with pharmacy resident co-preceptors were included. SurveyMonkey™ links were provided to evaluate residents as co-preceptors for the APPE. Residents’ evaluations were summarized and reviewed with them; residents were asked to complete resident response surveys and develop precepting strategies from the feedback. Results A total of 23 pharmacy student evaluations were completed for eight pharmacy residents, and eight residents completed the response survey. No residents received negative evaluations. All residents were recommended by the students to be future preceptors. Overall, 86% of the residents indicated the feedback was useful for preceptor growth and development. The students and residents mostly agreed on their abilities regarding modeling and coaching; their responses differed slightly regarding instructing and facilitating. Residents developed several tools to utilize for future precepting responsibilities and development based on their feedback. Preceptor training is noted as a desirable option. Conclusion Pharmacy student evaluation of pharmacy residents may be an effective method for obtaining feedback for residents on their precepting skills to foster preceptor development.
Leaders and followers in Italian terrorist groups

(1989). Leaders and followers in Italian terrorist groups. Terrorism and Political Violence: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 156-176.
Boron and Phosphorus Implantation Induced Electrically Active Defects in p-Type Silicon

Electrically active defects induced by ion implantation of boron and phosphorus into silicon and their recovery under isothermal annealing at 450 °C were investigated using Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) and Energy Resolved Tunneling Photoconductivity (ERTP) spectroscopy at cryogenic temperatures. DLTS results show electrically active deep traps located at Ev+0.35 eV and Ev+0.53 eV in boron implanted Si and at Ev+0.34 eV, Ev+0.43 eV, and Ev+0.38 eV in phosphorus implanted Si. These meta-stable defect sites were found to be either eliminated or significantly reduced in thermally annealed samples. We assigned these defect sites to hydrogen and carbon incorporated complexes formed during ion implantation. Corroborating the DLTS results, the photocurrent measurement also revealed a strong reduction of electrically active defects states, extended from EC – 0.3 eV up to the conduction band edge of Si, upon isothermal annealing.
Application of chromosomal DNA and protein targeting for the identification of Yersinia pestis

Purpose: A comprehensive strategy was developed and validated for the identification of pathogens from closely related near neighbors using both chromosomal and protein biomarkers, with emphasis on distinguishing Yersinia pestis from the ancestral bacterium Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. Experimental design: Computational analysis was used to discover chromosomal targets unique to Y. pestis. Locus identifier YPO1670 was selected for further validation and PCR was used to confirm that this biomarker was exclusively present in Y. pestis strains, while absent in other Yersinia species. RT-PCR and Western blot analyses were utilized to evaluate YPO1670 expression and MRM MS was performed to identify the YPO1670 protein within cell lysates. Results: The described study validated that YPO1670 was exclusive to Y. pestis .P CR confirmed the locus to be unique to Y. pestis. The associated transcript and protein were produced throughout growth with the highest abundance occurring in stationary phase and MRM MS conclusively identified the YPO1670 protein in cell extracts. Conclusions and clinical relevance: These findings validated YPO1670 as a reliable candidate biomarker for Y. pestis and that a dual DNA and protein targeting approach is feasible for the development of next-generation assays to accurately differentiate pathogens from near
An intrinsically disordered yeast prion arrests the cell cycle by sequestering a spindle pole body component

Intrinsically disordered proteins play causative roles in many human diseases. Their overexpression is toxic in many organisms, but the causes of toxicity are opaque. In this paper, we exploit yeast technologies to determine the root of toxicity for one such protein, the yeast prion Rnq1. This protein is profoundly toxic when overexpressed but only in cells carrying the endogenous Rnq1 protein in its [RNQ+] prion (amyloid) conformation. Surprisingly, toxicity was not caused by general proteotoxic stress. Rather, it involved a highly specific mitotic arrest mediated by the Mad2 cell cycle checkpoint. Monopolar spindles accumulated as a result of defective duplication of the yeast centrosome (spindle pole body [SPB]). This arose from selective Rnq1-mediated sequestration of the core SPB component Spc42 in the insoluble protein deposit (IPOD). Rnq1 does not normally participate in spindle pole dynamics, but it does assemble at the IPOD when aggregated. Our work illustrates how the promiscuous interactions of an intrinsically disordered protein can produce highly specific cellular toxicities through illicit, yet highly specific, interactions with the proteome.
Reality versus Simulation

A systematic study of the implementation of simulation hardware (TIMS) replacing software (MATLAB) was undertaken for advanced undergraduate and early graduate courses in electrical engineering. One outcome of the qualitative component of the study was remarkable: most students interviewed (4/4 and 6/9) perceived the software simulations as “fake”. Professionals, on the other hand, find such simulations as essentially perfectly replacing data from “real” systems. The implications of this large difference in perception between advanced undergraduate/early graduate students and professionals are discussed. At present, suitable theoretical frameworks related to motivation do not afford satisfactory explanation for this observation.
From a False Messiah to Just Another Latin American Dictator: Analysis of U.S. Mainstream News Media's Coverage of Hugo Chávez's Death

Combining constructionist framing analysis and thematic analysis, this research analyzes mainstream U.S. newspapers’ coverage of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s death. Overall, the mainstream newspapers defined Chavez as “a leftist revolutionary passing the torch,” “a populist, yet just another South American dictator,” “a false Messiah,” and “a friend of religious extremists and leaders sponsoring terrorism.” He left behind a “polarized and failed experiment.” As a result, Venezuela faces a “not-so-bright future,” unless it adopts a policy friendly toward the United States. Our findings indicate that the Cold War frame, in this case antisocialism, and the War on Terror frame continued in media coverage of international affairs. They also point to an emerging ideological and cultural framing package in the post–War on Terror era: the free market economy and liberal democracy frame.
Exact performance of CoD estimators in discrete prediction

The coefficient of determination (CoD) has significant applications in genomics, for example, in the inference of gene regulatory networks. We study several CoD estimators, based upon the resubstitution, leave-one-out, cross-validation, and bootstrap error estimators. We present an exact formulation of performance metrics for the resubstitution and leave-one-out CoD estimators, assuming the discrete histogram rule. Numerical experiments are carried out using a parametric Zipf model, where we compute exact performance metrics of resubstitution and leave-one-out CoD estimators using the previously derived equations, for varying actual CoD, sample size, and bin size. These results are compared to approximate performance metrics of 10-repeated 2-fold cross-validation and 0.632 bootstrap CoD estimators, computed via Monte Carlo sampling. The numerical results lead to a perhaps surprising conclusion: under the Zipf model under consideration, and for moderate and large values of the actual CoD, the resubstitution CoD estimator is the least biased and least variable among all CoD estimators, especially at small number of predictors. We also observed that the leave-one-out and cross-validation CoD estimators tend to perform the worst, whereas the performance of the bootstrap CoD estimator is intermediary, despite its high computational complexity.
Gun Focus Effect Revisited: Emotional Tone Modulates Information Processing Strategy

This study attempts to clarify the relationship between message emotional tone and memory vividness, specifically gun focus effect. Based on findings in neuroimaging research, it is claimed here that positive and negative messages trigger different processing mechanisms in the brain and therefore later detail retrieval is dependent on the degree to which the same processing paths are activated. Overall, data support an assumption that visual recognition aids negative arousing content detail memory more than positive. In contrast, cued recall procedure is more helpful for recalling positive detail. For central detail the matching cues work together with the arousing content to boost memory specificity. Yet for peripheral detail, the matching cues help overcome the harmful effects of arousing content by reducing forgetting. Thus visual recognition minimizes gun focus effect for negative visual content and enhances it for positive. At the same time, a cued recall task minimizes gun focus effect for positive ...
Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of bone in children

Background: Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of bone, often more simply referred to as primary lymphoma of bone, is a rare subset of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in children. There are only a few small series of primary lymphoma of bone in children with long-term follow-up, and none have appeared in the orthopaedic literature. Methods: A review of our institution's Pediatric Tumor Registry identified fifteen cases of primary lymphoma of bone among 306 cases of diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma between 1970 and 2003. Retrospective evaluation included collection of demographic, clinical, radiographic, treatment, and follow-up data. A univariate analysis was used to assess the prognostic significance of risk factors with respect to survival of patients from this series and in a summary analysis of data collected from similar series in the literature. Results: The patients included ten male and five female patients with a mean age of 11.6 years. Most patients had a presenting complaint of pain and had swelling and/or tenderness on physical examination. Eight children had a solitary bone lesion, and seven had multiple bone lesions. Overall, the mean number of bones involved was 3.1 per patient. The femur and the pelvis were the most frequently involved bones. The ten surviving patients were followed for a mean of 13.6 years. Five patients died: three of disease progression, one of treatment-related complications, and one of an unrelated cause. The mean time from diagnosis to death was 2.1 years. Nine patients received chemotherapy only, whereas six patients received a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In the present study, an age of nine years or less was predictive of poor survival (p < 0.05). In the summary analysis of cases collected from the literature, advanced stage, young age, non-large-cell histology, and multiple-bone involvement were predictive of poor survival (p < 0.05). Conclusions: On the basis of the present series and a comprehensive review of similar series in the literature involving patients with primary lymphoma of bone, it appears that younger age, advanced-stage disease, multiple-bone involvement, and non-large-cell histology are associated with decreased survival as compared with older age, localized disease, single-bone involvement, and large-cell histology, respectively. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Diagnosis of Noncultivatable Gastroenteritis Viruses, the Human Caliciviruses

Gastroenteritis is one of the most common illnesses of humans, and many different viruses have been causally associated with this disease. Of those enteric viruses that have been established as etiologic agents of gastroenteritis, only the human caliciviruses cannot be cultivated in vitro. The cloning of Norwalk virus and subsequently of other human caliciviruses has led to the development of several new diagnostic assays. Antigen detection enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) using polyclonal hyperimmune animal sera and antibody detection EIAs using recombinant virus-like particles have supplanted the use of human-derived reagents, but the use of these assays has been restricted to research laboratories. Reverse transcription-PCR assays for the detection of human caliciviruses are more widely available, and these assays have been used to identify virus in clinical specimens as well as in food, water, and other environmental samples. The application of these newer assays has significantly increased the recognition of the importance of human caliciviruses as causes of sporadic and outbreak-associated gastroenteritis.
Robertus Anglicus and the Introduction of Demons and Magic into Commentaries upon the Sphere of Sacrobosco

COMMENTARIES on standard and authoritative texts, such as the Sentences of Peter Lombard, the law books of Justinian, various fen of Avicenna's Canon, and the works of Aristotle, played a prominent part in mediaeval education, writing and thought. This was the form that most university lectures in theology, law, medicine and the liberal arts took. While mediaeval trust in authority has often been exaggerated, and the theologian might go on to compose a Summa a nd Quotlibeta of his own, or the lawyer and the doctor to write Consilia and E xperimenta based on their actual legal and medical practice, nevertheless their thinking, especially that of a theoretical and speculative character, was bound to be profoundly affected, if not in the main guided, by both the method and the content of the questions and arguments which had so largely occupied their student and teaching days and which were a common heritage and possession of all intellectuals and of western European Latin culture. We might add, and of the preceding Arabic philosophy and medicine. This scholastic method and content was, so to speak, in the air and in the intellectual blood. It was reflected to and fro from every quarter. It gave the impulse and direction even to the more original thinking of the time, which was not usually creative along new lines but started with mere contradiction of, or proceeded at a tangent from, the accepted tenets. This indeed continued to be the case with much of so-called modern philosophy. Even in the commentary upon a standard text, however, there were degrees of dependence. A distinction was drawn between the Expositio, whose aim was merely to repeat and expound the meaning of the authority, and Questiones, where more liberty was enjoyed in discussing problems raised by reading the text. The same commentator might compose both an Expositio and Questiones on a given text of Aristotle. Divergence of views further developed between different interpreters. Some went to such daring lengths as to incur the charge of heresy. Others carried so far afield their development of the question raised by Peter Lombard, whether charity increases by degrees, that in the opinion of Pierre Duhem,l they led on to the production of a special literature on the intensity and remission of forms or latitude of forms, which laid a foundation for modern scientific measurement. This important problem, to what extent may a new advance in thought or the introduction of new and foreign material be traced in the literature of the mediaeval commentators, has hitherto been mooted and touched upon chiefly in the domain of theology and of commentaries upon the works of Aristotle in the field of natural philosophy. A rather instructive example may be added from the territory of astronomy and cosmology, where the Sphere of Iohannes de Sacro-
A tool-supported approach to testing UML design models

For model driven development approaches to succeed, there is a need for model validation techniques. This paper presents an approach to testing designs described by UML class diagrams, interaction diagrams, and activity diagrams. A UML design model under test is transformed into an executable form. Test infrastructure is added to the executable form to carry out tests. During testing, object configurations are created, modified and observed. In this paper, we identify the structural and behavioral characteristics that need to be observed during testing. We describe a prototype tool that (1) transforms UML design models into executable forms with test infrastructure, (2) executes tests, and (3) reports failures.
The Big Five and venture survival: Is there a linkage?

Abstract This study examines the relationship of the entrepreneur's personality to long-term venture survival. We measure survival in two ways: (1) the likelihood the venture will survive for at least 8 years and (2) the overall life span of the venture. The “Big Five” personality attributes—extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience provide the measures of the entrepreneur's personality. As hypothesized, the entrepreneur's conscientiousness was positively related to long-term venture survival. Contrary to expectations, we found a negative relationship between the entrepreneur's openness and long-term venture survival. Extraversion, emotional stability, and agreeableness were unrelated to long-term venture survival.
Postural Hand Synergies for Tool Use

Subjects were asked to shape the right hand as if to grasp and use a large number of familiar objects. The chosen objects typically are held with a variety of grips, including “precision” and “power” grips. Static hand posture was measured by recording the angular position of 15 joint angles of the fingers and of the thumb. Although subjects adopted distinct hand shapes for the various objects, the joint angles of the digits did not vary independently. Principal components analysis showed that the first two components could account for >80% of the variance, implying a substantial reduction from the 15 degrees of freedom that were recorded. However, even though they were small, higher-order (more than three) principal components did not represent random variability but instead provided additional information about the object. These results suggest that the control of hand posture involves a few postural synergies, regulating the general shape of the hand, coupled with a finer control mechanism providing for small, subtle adjustments. Because the postural synergies did not coincide with grip taxonomies, the results suggest that hand posture may be regulated independently from the control of the contact forces that are used to grasp an object.
Using CAVE in physical rehabilitation exercises for rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic disease that leads to swelling and inflammation of the joints and even spread to surrounding tissues and blood vessels. Physical therapy has been used successfully to slow the effects of this degenerative disease. Patients, however, do not want to do these exercises due to the fact they are boring and repetitive. In this paper, we introduce the first steps in creating a virtual environment using a CAVE System for the physical therapy sessions where the user will be engaged and motived to complete the exercises prescribed by his or her doctor.
Improving Content Area Reading Comprehension with 4-6th Grade Spanish ELLs Using Web-Based Structure Strategy Instruction.

Reading in the content areas of science, social studies, and current events is a difficult task that is even more elusive to Spanish-speaking English language learners. There is a huge increase in children transitioning from their L1 (e.g., Spanish) to L2 (e.g., English) in classrooms across the USA. These ELs face challenges due to a lack of fluency in decoding, vocabulary, and word, sentence, and discourse level complexities in English learning. Structure strategy instruction on the Web for English Language Learners (SWELL) is a web-based tutoring system that supports ELs in reading comprehension by teaching them about five text structures. In addition, SWELL provides two adaptations for ELs—Spanish Scaffolding (where students were presented materials in both Spanish and English) and English Hybrid (where students were given the option of seeking assistance in Spanish by hovering over words, clicking on sentences, or viewing a full page in Spanish). In this chapter, we report on the design and pilot studies conducted within five classrooms at grades 4, 5, and 6. Our results show improvements in reading comprehension measured by researcher designed measures.
Prognostic Factors and Clinical Outcomes in Children and Adolescents With Metastatic Rhabdomyosarcoma—A Report From the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study IV

Purpose: To identify risk factors associated with outcomes in children with metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) treated on the fourth Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS-IV). Patients and Methods: Patients with metastatic RMS were treated with one of two regimens that incorporated a window of either ifosfamide and etoposide (IE) with vincristine, dactinomycin, and cyclophosphamide (VAC) or vincristine, melphalan (VM) and VAC. Study end points were failure-free survival (FFS) and overall survival (OS). Clinical factors including age, histology, sites of primary and metastatic disease, and number of sites of metastatic disease were correlated with those end points. Results: One hundred twenty-seven patients were eligible for analysis. The estimated 3-year OS and FFS for all patients were 39% and 25%, respectively. By univariate analysis, 3-year OS was significantly influenced by histology (47% for embryonal v 34% for all others, P = .026) and increasing number of metastatic sites (P = .028). By multivariat...
Subcutaneous vs Intramuscular Botulinum Toxin: Split-Face Randomized Study

ImportanceMuch has been published regarding rejuvenation of the upper face with botulinum toxin A injection; however, the optimal target tissue layer has not been specifically examined. ObjectiveTo...
I’ll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours: A Brief and Preliminary Examination of Parental Report Cards

This article examines the recently introduced phenomenon of parental report cards, taking a preliminary look at some of the reasons, both real and perceived, behind the concept. Increased parental ...
Evolutionary Genetics of Reproductive Behavior in Drosophila: Connecting the Dots

Species of the genus Drosophila exhibit enormous variation in all of their reproductive behaviors: resource use and specialization, courtship signaling, sperm utilization, and female remating. The genetic bases of this variability and its evolution are poorly understood. At the same time, Drosophila comparative genomics now has developed to a point at which approaches previously only possible with D. melanogaster can be exploited to address these questions. We have taken advantage of the known phylogenetic relationships of this group of flies not only to place these behaviors in an evolutionary framework, but to provide a roadmap for future genetic studies.
Ribosome Depurination Is Not Sufficient for Ricin-Mediated Cell Death in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The plant toxin ricin is one of the most potent and lethal substances known. Ricin inhibits protein synthesis by removing a specific adenine from the highly conserved α-sarcin/ricin loop in the large rRNA. Very little is known about how ricin interacts with ribosomes and the molecular mechanism by which it kills cells. To gain insight to the mechanism of ricin-induced cell death, we set up yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as a simple and genetically tractable system to isolate mutants defective in cytotoxicity. Ribosomes were depurinated in yeast cells expressing the precursor form of the A chain of ricin (pre-RTA), and these cells displayed apoptotic markers such as nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and accumulation of reactive oxygen species. We conducted a large-scale mutagenesis of pre-RTA and isolated a panel of nontoxic RTA mutants based on their inability to kill yeast cells. Several nontoxic RTA mutants depurinated ribosomes and inhibited translation to the same extent as wild-type RTA in vivo. The mutant proteins isolated from yeast depurinated ribosomes in vitro, indicating that they were catalytically active. However, cells expressing these mutants did not display hallmarks of apoptosis. These results provide the first evidence that the ability to depurinate ribosomes and inhibit translation does not always correlate with ricin-mediated cell death, indicating that ribosome depurination and translation inhibition do not account entirely for the cytotoxicity of ricin.
Clinical Presentations of Multiple Personality Disorder

It is hoped that this discussion of MPD will discourage stereotypic thinking about this condition and encourage the inclusion of MPD in virtually all differential diagnoses. The major thrust of what has been learned about the natural history of MPD is that most patients with this condition spend most of their lives not manifesting their MPD in classic manner. The typical presentation of MPD is the tip of a rather large iceberg. Covert and other nonclassic presentations are much more characteristic. An appreciation of this will help the clinician approach the diagnosis of MPD with a heightened sensitivity to the possibility of encountering it within his or her practice.
National trends in resection of cystic lesions of the pancreas

Abstract Background Management of cystic lesions of the pancreas (CLP) is controversial. In this study, we sought to evaluate national changes in the resection of CLP over time, to better understand the impact of evolving guidelines on CLP management. Methods We used Medicare data to examine CLP resection among patients undergoing pancreatic resection between 2001 and 2012. Patients with a diagnosis of CLP were identified and compared to patients with non-CLP indications. We then examined changes over time in patient and hospital characteristics and outcomes among patients with a CLP diagnosis. Results We identified 56,419 Medicare patients undergoing pancreatic resection, of which 2129 had a CLP diagnosis. The annual number of CLP resections, and proportion of all resections performed for CLP increased significantly during the period, from 2.1% (65/3072) resections in 2001, to 4.5% (286/6348) in 2012 (p Discussion CLP resections were performed with increasing frequency in Medicare patients between 2001 and 2012, but this did not correspond to increased diagnosis of malignancy. Additional research is needed to understand the influence of recent guidelines on management of CLP.
An Elementary Model for Skepticism

(1970). An Elementary Model for Skepticism. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 77, No. 9, pp. 975-982.
Psychoanalysis and Theism

Introduction The topic of "Psychoanalysis and Theism" suggests two distinct questions. First, what is the import, if any, of psychoanalytic theory for the truth or falsity of theism? And furthermore, what was the attitude of Freud, the man, toward belief in God? It must be borne in mind that psychological explanations of any sort as to why people believe in God are subject to an important caveat. Even if they are true, such explanations are not entitled to beg the following different question: Is religious belief justified by pertinent evidence or argument, whatever its motivational inspiration? Freud's usage, as well as stylistic reasons of my own, prompt me to use the terms "religion" and "theism" more or less interchangeably, although in other contexts the notion of religion is, of course, more inclusive.
How we treat molluscum contagiosum.

Molluscum contagiosum is an autoinoculable viral infection that can be mistaken for basal cell carcinoma or keratoacanthoma. Histologic examination will confirm the diagnosis. Any method of treatment that destroys the molluscum lesion without scarring is acceptable.
A Study on the Bacteriostatic Action of 10 Chinese Herbs against Drug-resistant Pneumococcus

Objective:To study the sensitivity of 10 kinds of Chinese herbs against drug-resistant pneumococcus. Methods: Test-bacteria were isolated from clinical specimens. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 10 kino's of Chinese herbs were determined using minim diluting method in vitro. Results: 10 kinds of tested Chinese herbs had bacteriostatic activities at different extent, among which rhizoma coptidis and herba senecionis were highly active against pneumococcus. Their MIC were 1.95 - 7.81 g L-1 and 1.95 - 15.62 g L-1, MIC50 were 1.95 and 3.9 g L-1 , respectively, radix scutellariae, radixet rhizoma rhei and fructus forsythiae aco,uired moderate baceriostatic activity. Conclusion: Some Chinese herbs had acteriostatic effect aganist drug-resistant pneumococcus in vitro.
Competition within food webs

Species that compete for resources are nearly always part of a larger food web, and are attacked by various natural enemies. The losses suffered, and more subtle processes occurring in food webs, such as nutrient recycling, can be expected to influence competitive dynamics and outcomes. To analyze these influences among primary producers competing for inorganic nutrients, a general model of a resource-dependent food web is introduced. The base of this web is an inorganic nutrient, which is consumed by several plant species, which are in turn consumed by herbivores.
Shape Modeling of Organs and Structures Generating for Crops

We present a modeling method that allows easy generation of various crop organs including leaves, fruits, caudexes, petioles and even nonbotanical things. B-splines curve has been used to describe the skeleton of these organs, then the geometry of an organ is generated from its skeleton. The model can be modified interactively by editing the shape of the skeleton and the silhouette in 3-D to control the overall shape of an organ. The users get immediate feedback on what they’ve created model. Realistic appearance of the generated organ is improved by using texture mapping and including hairs that cover many plant organs. We demonstrate that our method handles the complexity of most real plant organs. Basing on these organs models, we develop a simple but efficient method for constructing crop structure. An interactive modeler has been developed to help users to model, edit the organs and crop structure quickly. We demonstrate the flexibility of our approach by creating different organs and crops structure.
Oxygen Tension and Riboflavin Gradients Cooperatively Regulate the Migration of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 Revealed by a Hydrogel-Based Microfluidic Device.

Shewanella oneidensis (S. oneidensis) is a model bacterial strain for studies of bioelectrochemical systems (BESs). It has two extracellular electron transfer pathways: 1) shuttling electrons via an excreted mediator riboflavin; and 2) direct contact between the c-type cytochromes at the cell membrane and the electrode. Despite the extensive use of S. oneidensis in bioelectrochemical systems such as microbial fuel cells and biosensors, many basic microbiology questions about S. oneidensis in the context of BES remain unanswered. Here, we present studies of motility and chemotaxis of S. oneidensis under well controlled concentration gradients of two electron acceptors, oxygen and oxidized form of riboflavin (flavin+) using a newly developed microfluidic platform. Experimental results demonstrate that either oxygen or flavin+ is a chemoattractant to S. oneidensis. The chemotactic tendency of S. oneidensis in a flavin+ concentration gradient is significantly enhanced in an anaerobic in contrast to an aerobic condition. Furthermore, either a low oxygen tension or a high flavin+ concentration considerably enhances the speed of S. oneidensis. This work presents a robust microfluidic platform for generating oxygen and/or flavin+ gradients in an aqueous environment, and demonstrates that two important electron acceptors, oxygen and oxidized riboflavin, cooperatively regulate S. oneidensis migration patterns. The microfluidic tools presented as well as the knowledge gained in this work can be used to guide the future design of BESs for efficient electron production.
Multimodal HALEF: An Open-Source Modular Web-Based Multimodal Dialog Framework

We present an open-source web-based multimodal dialog framework, “Multimodal HALEF”, that integrates video conferencing and telephony abilities into the existing HALEF cloud-based dialog framework via the FreeSWITCH video telephony server. Due to its distributed and cloud-based architecture, Multimodal HALEF allows researchers to collect video and speech data from participants interacting with the dialog system outside of traditional lab settings, therefore largely reducing cost and labor incurred during the traditional audio-visual data collection process. The framework is equipped with a set of tools including a web-based user survey template, a speech transcription, an annotation and rating portal, a web visual processing server that performs head tracking, and a database that logs full-call audio and video recordings as well as other call-specific information. We present observations from an initial data collection based on an job interview application. Finally we report on some future plans for development of the framework.
Releases and Osteotomies Used for the Correction of Adult Lumbar Scoliosis

The surgical release for adult spinal deformity requires both bony and soft tissue removal for realignment surgery. These surgical techniques can be powerful tools to allow the surgeon to safely and effectively correct spinal deformity. However, as the complexity of the surgical release increases, so do the complications, and careful surgical planning is critical.
A Rabbit Model for Testing Helper-Dependent Adenovirus-Mediated Gene Therapy for Vein Graft Atherosclerosis

Coronary artery bypass vein grafts are a mainstay of therapy for human atherosclerosis. Unfortunately, the long-term patency of vein grafts is limited by accelerated atherosclerosis. Gene therapy, directed at the vein graft wall, is a promising approach for preventing vein graft atherosclerosis. Because helper-dependent adenovirus (HDAd) efficiently transduces grafted veins and confers long-term transgene expression, HDAd is an excellent candidate for delivery of vein graft-targeted gene therapy. We developed a model of vein graft atherosclerosis in fat-fed rabbits and demonstrated long-term (≥20 weeks) persistence of HDAd genomes after graft transduction. This model enables quantitation of vein graft hemodynamics, wall structure, lipid accumulation, cellularity, vector persistence, and inflammatory markers on a single graft. Time-course experiments identified 12 weeks after transduction as an optimal time to measure efficacy of gene therapy on the critical variables of lipid and macrophage accumulation. We also used chow-fed rabbits to test whether HDAd infusion in vein grafts promotes intimal growth and inflammation. HDAd did not increase intimal growth, but had moderate—yet significant—pro-inflammatory effects. The vein graft atherosclerosis model will be useful for testing HDAd-mediated gene therapy; however, pro-inflammatory effects of HdAd remain a concern in developing HDAd as a therapy for vein graft disease.
Use of Nicardipine After Cardiac Operations Is Safe in Children Regardless of Age.

Background Control of postoperative hypertension is central to the care of infants and children after cardiac operations. Continuous pharmacologic delivery affords the advantage of rapid onset and ease of titration. Although well established in older children and adults, calcium channel blockers are routinely avoided in children aged younger than 1 year secondary to concerns of safety and efficacy in the setting of sarcoplasmic reticulum development. Thus, the purpose of this study was to review a single-institution experience with nicardipine, a selective calcium channel blocker, in pediatric patients after cardiac operations. Methods Children undergoing cardiac operations at the University of Virginia from 2010 to 2015 were retrospectively reviewed after selection based on receipt of nicardipine for blood pressure management in the postoperative period. Demographic, operative, laboratory, and postoperative data were collected for adverse effect analysis and outcomes comparisons between infants aged younger than 6 months (group 1) and older than 6 months (group 2). Results During the study period, 68 children (group 1: n = 33 [48%]; group 2: n = 35 [52%]) received nicardipine after cardiac operations (0.5 to 1 μg · kg –1 · min –1 ). Nicardipine was initiated at a mean of 6.6 ± 13.1 hours postoperatively in group 1 and 5.4 ± 7.8 hours in group 2. Nine patients (13%) demonstrated clinically significant hypotension necessitating dosing titration with no statistically significant differences between groups. No major adverse events occurred following nicardipine administration. Conclusions Nicardipine is well tolerated after cardiac operations in children irrespective of age or underlying pathology. Thus, nicardipine should be considered as safe and effective in children of all ages for control of hypertension after cardiac operations.
Isolation of high purity americium metal via distillation

Abstract Pure americium metal is a crucial component for the fabrication of transmutation fuels. Unfortunately, americium in pure metal form is not available; however, a number of mixed metals and mixed oxides that include americium are available. In this manuscript a method is described to obtain high purity americium metal from a mixture of americium and neptunium metals with lead impurity via distillation.
Household Load Forecasting Based on a Pre-Processing Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring Techniques

The new vision for moving the power system to a smart grid enables a variety of smart applications at different power system infrastructure's levels. Households represent a massive section of the grid infrastructure which could not be considered as a smart grid without smart households integrated into it. Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF) is the essential tool needed in the management and control techniques required for households to be smart. STLF at this level of the grid is very challenging due to the high percentage of uncertainty in the load demand, influenced by customer behavior, which is too stochastic to predict. In this paper, a new approach for STLF of household load demand is employed based on artificial neural network (ANN) and a pre-processing stage of a Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) techniques. The NILM techniques extract the individual load pattern from the available historical aggregated load demand. These new features increase the training data window for the ANN forecaster and achieve a significant enhancement for its prediction performance. By comparing the new approach with the state of the art techniques in household load forecasting, the proposed method outperforms feed-forward artificial neural network (FFANN) regarding RMSE. Two techniques of NILM were used to emphasize the correlation between the NILM disaggregation accuracy performance and the load forecasting enhancement performance.
Formation and Properties of Synthetic Thorite Crystals

Crystals of tetragonal thorite up to 1 mm in diameter were grown from a 55 mole% ThF/sub 4/--45 mole% KThF/sub 5/ entectic mixture. The resulting transparent crystals were examined for optical and crystelline properties. X- raydiffraction data are also reported. (J.E.D.)
Borish Vectographic Nearpoint Card II contour and random dot stereoacuity in children.

Purpose: To determine the completion rate and normative values for the Borish Vectographic Nearpoint Card II (Stereo Optical Co, Inc, Chicago, III) contour and random dot stereoacuity tests in children. Methods: Children had to pass a modified clinical screening technique to be included in the study to eliminate vision problems that could potentially affect stereoacuity. One hundred forty-six children in second through fourth grade (mean age: 8.27 years) from a middle class, suburban, primarily white, elementary school near Columbus, Ohio participated in this investigation. Random dot and contour stereoacuity were measured using the Borish Vectographic Nearpoint Card II. Results: All of the children were able to identify which circle had disparity on the 1280 seconds of arc contour stereoacuity target, but six children were unable to perceive the E on the 1280 seconds of arc random dot target. The median stereoacuity was 80 seconds of arc on both the contour and random dot stereotests in this population. Conclusion: A high completion rate was found on both the contour and random dot stereoacuity tests. Median stereoacuities were higher on the Borish Vectographic Nearpoint Card II in this population than those previously reported with the Randot contour stereoacuity test and Randot Preschool random dot stereoacuity test in children.
Response of the mouse sublingual gland to spaceflight

The ultrastructure and immunohistochemistry of secretory proteins of sublingual glands were studied in mice flown on the US space shuttles Discovery [Space Transportation System (STS)-131] and Atlantis (STS-135). No differences in mucous acinar or serous demilune cell structure were observed between sublingual glands of ground (control) and flight mice. In contrast, previous studies showed autophagy and apoptosis of parotid serous acinar cells in flight mice. The expression of parotid secretory protein (PSP) in sublingual demilune cells of STS-131 flight mice was significantly increased compared with ground (control) mice but decreased in STS-135 flight mice. Similarly, expression of mucin (MUC-19) in acinar cells and expression of the type II regulatory subunit of protein kinase A (PKA-RII) in demilune cells were increased in STS-131 flight mice and decreased in STS-135 flight mice, but not significantly. Demilune cell and parotid protein (DCPP) was slightly decreased in mice from both flights, and nuclear PKA-RII was slightly increased. These results indicate that the response of salivary glands to spaceflight conditions varies among the different glands, cell types, and secretory proteins. Additionally, the spaceflight environment, including the effects of microgravity, modifies protein expression. Determining changes in salivary proteins may lead to development of non-invasive methods to assess the physiological status of astronauts.
Convective Boundary Layer Depth Estimation from S-Band Dual-Polarization Radar

AbstractThis study investigates Bragg scatter signatures in dual-polarization radar observations, which are defined by low differential reflectivity values, as a proxy for convective boundary layer...
Cumulative Antidepressant Use and Risk of Dementia in a Prospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVES To determine whether antidepressant use is associated with dementia risk. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Kaiser Permanente Washington (KPWA), an integrated healthcare delivery system. PARTICIPANTS Community‐dwelling individuals aged 65 and older without dementia and with 10 years or more of KPWA enrollment at baseline (N=3,059). MEASUREMENTS Primary exposures were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (paroxetine vs other), tricyclic antidepressants, and serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors. Using health plan pharmacy data, we calculated cumulative medication exposure, defined as total standardized daily doses (TSDDs), over rolling 10‐year windows. Exposure in the most recent year was excluded to avoid use related to prodromal symptoms. The Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument was administered every 2 years; low scores triggered clinical evaluation and consensus diagnosis procedures. Dementia risk was estimated according to medication use using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS During a mean follow‐up of 7.7 years, 775 participants (25%) developed dementia; 659 (22%) developed possible or probable Alzheimer's disease. Individual antidepressant classes were not associated with differences in dementia risk, although paroxetine use was associated with higher risk of dementia for all TSDD categories than no use (0–90 TSDDs: hazard ratio (HR)=1.69, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.18–2.42; 91–365 TSDDs: HR=1.40, 95% CI=0.88–2.23; 366–1095 TSDDs: HR=2.13, 95% CI=1.32–3.43; ≥1095 TSDDs: HR=1.42, 95% CI=0.82–2.46). CONCLUSION Most commonly prescribed nonanticholinergic depression medications used in late life do not appear to be associated with dementia risk. Paroxetine and other anticholinergic antidepressants may be exceptions in older individuals. Future studies are warranted to improve scientific understanding of potential associations in other settings and populations.