cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Decision support system for treatment selection: Application of a statistical expert advisor to the problem of prostate cancer treatment selection

For clinical cases with difficult combinations of patient parameter values, treatment selection may be complex or controversial and require considerable time. Treatment selection may be affected by a clinician's experience with a disease and expertise with a treatment, existing protocols, capabilities of local medical facilities, and patient preference. We discuss the concepts and clinical applications of an interactive statistical package (isp) software shell which can create systems that reproduce the judgment of one or more expert clinicians in the management of a patient. An isp system can 1) be taught, verified, updated, and tailored to local facilities quickly and easily by an individual clinician, 2) compute and rank treatment selection probabilities for a presented case in accord with the treatment preferences of its human teacher and explain to a clinician the logical and statistical basis of each step of the decision process, 3) identify sensitive variables of a case for additional verification and to allow questions of the type “what would be the treatment preferences if the value of this variable were changed?”, 4) accumulate statistics for unusual cases (rare combinations of patient parameter values), and 5) continue to learn and achieve further (statistical) insight by recognizing variable combinations (joint variables) whose values are more sensitive to the selection of a particular treatment. An isp system can be used for 1) second opinions, by estimating the treatment preferences of one or more clinical experts for a particular case, 2) allowing patient involvement in the treatment decision in cases for which several treatment options may provide the same outcome, 3) quality assurance, by helping a clinician to identify and review critical patient parameter values and pivotal questions, and to check a treatment decision with his own isp system and those of colleagues, 4) avoiding unnecessary diagnostic tests, by identifying parameters that do not affect the treatment selection for a case, 5) documenting the decision factors of a case, 6) finding the reasons for differences among experts in treatment selection for different types of cases, and 7) teaching residents. The concepts and clinical application of an isp system are discussed. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Influence of seedbed, light environment, and elevated night temperature on growth and carbon allocation in pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) seedlings

Jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) are two autecologically similar species that occupy generally disjunct ranges in eastern North America. Jack pine is boreal in distribution, while pitch pine occurs at temperate latitudes. The two species co-occur in a small number of stands along a 'tension-zone' that traverses central Maine. These populations provide an opportunity for studying differences between boreal and temperate species in their adaptation to climatic factors. As seedling establishment and early growth are key life-stages governing tree distribution, we experimentally evaluated the influence of seedbed light environment and substrate on the success and early growth of these species. Under similar environments, first-year jack pine seedlings allocated relatively more biomass to roots and pitch pine more to foliage. This might provide pitch pine with an adaptive advantage when soil moisture was not limiting and an advantage to jack pine if substantial moisture stress occurred. Complex ontogenetic shifts in these allocation patterns occurred over second and third years of growth, which resulted in an equalization of interspecific differences in shoot-root ratios by the end of the third growing season. Night temperatures of 4-5 °C above ambient reduced growth of jack pine seedlings, while that of pitch pine was unaffected. However, foliar respiration and respiratory response to temperature were not significantly different between species and did not explain observed differences in temperature response.
Orthogonal multicarrier division duplexing for point-to-point communications

Traditional communication systems adopt either time division duplexing (TDD) or frequency division duplexing (FDD). TDD requires guard interval and FDD needs guard band. Orthogonal multicarrier division duplexing (MDD) is a new duplexing scheme, which can avoid both guard interval and guard band. In this paper, we propose a new MDD scheme with a group-wise subcarrier partition, which is more robust to the inter-carrier interference (ICI) than the subcarrier-wise scheme, while keeping the same or better outage performance. We introduce somewhat modified block outage probability and block outage capacity metrics which are defined in such a way to facilitate the analysis and design of duplexing schemes in point-to-point (P2P) system. We give the closed-form of the block outage probability and derive the maximal capturable frequency diversity order based on outage probability. By analysis and simulation, it is verified that in P2P system, the proposed MDD scheme outperforms the existing schemes.
Beyond alternative officing: Infrastructure on‐demand

Over the last ten years interest in and implementation of different forms of alternative officing (AO) have increased dramatically. AO has, in fact, become simply another tool in the real estate and FM space planning and design toolkit. This paper briefly describes different types of AO, and then suggests that AO, which has primarily responded to corporate drives to reduce costs, should broaden its focus to explore alternative ways of constructing and procuring space in response to a different organisational change: namely, to be able to occupy space on‐demand. The article describes the concept of a lean portfolio that helps organisations manage uncertainty better through infrastructure on‐demand; and proposes a research agenda for systematically examining different alternative workplace strategies (AWS).
Psychosocial, Alcohol/Other Drug Use, and Delinquency Differences between Urban Black and White Male High Risk Youth

Using data collected on 286 Black and White male youths entering a juvenile detention center, we examine differences in their psychosocial functioning, substance use, and delinquency/crime. Comparison is made on a wide range of variables, including sociodemographic characteristics, family problems, records of contact with the juvenile court, physical abuse or sexual victimization history, alcohol/other drug use, friends' involvement in substance use and crime, and emotional/psychological functioning problems. Implications of the results for understanding the youths' involvement in the juvenile justice system, and for the development of, and linkage with, appropriate services, are drawn.
Serotonin and neuropeptides in affiliative behaviors

The neuropharmacological study of serotonin and behavior has followed two fundamentally different strategies. One approach has used behavior as a dependent variable for assaying drug effects. To characterize serotonergic drugs, most studies have used relatively simple behaviors, such as locomotor activity, startle, exploration, operant responses, and sleep. A second approach has focused on behavior, with drugs used as tools to elucidate the physiological role of serotonin. These studies have increasingly focused on behaviors of ethological importance, including aggression, sexual behavior, and other forms of social interaction. Here we review studies using this approach to focus on one particular kind of social interaction: affiliation.
Understanding the Use of Weights in the Analysis of Data From Multistage Surveys

Understanding the use of weights in the analysis of data from multistage surveys. Large national surveys are powerful tools with which to examine a variety of important rehabilitation-related issues and are currently the only feasible method to study disability trends over time. Because it is impractical to draw simple random samples from the entire United States, national surveys, such as the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), select random samples of subgroups of a population. Thus, respondents may have unequal probabilities of being included in the survey, and weighting must be used in the analysis before the results may be generalized to the entire United States. Surveys such as the MCBS are rich sources of data for rehabilitation medicine, and it can be expected that more research will be conducted using these data sources. Statistical analysis of these data should account for the sampling scheme used in data collection. We review the principles involved in the design of multistage samples, the calculation of weights, and their use in the data analysis, focusing on their importance in the estimation of population values. Our objective is to help readers to understand and interpret results of research articles using this methodology. Examples using the MCBS data are provided to clarify the concepts presented in the article.
Relationship between rigidity−flexibility and cognitive abilities in adulthood

The interrelationship of measures of rigidity-flexibility and of psychometric intelligence is examined. The latent factors of Attitudinal Flexibility, Motor-Cognitive Flexibility, and Psychomotor Speed are derived from the Test of Behavioral Rigidity, and factors of Inductive Reasoning, Spatial Orientation, Verbal Ability, Numeric Ability, Verbal Memory, and Perceptual Speed are derived from the Thurstone Primary Mental Abilities Test and the Educational Testing Service Kit of Factor-Referenced Tests. The data base in this study comes from the fifth wave of the Seattle Longitudinal Study (N = 1,628; age range, 22-95 years). The Rigidity-Flexibility factors were found to be independent of the cognitive domain. Also, longitudinal stability of the factor structure of the rigidity-flexibility domain was confirmed for 837 participants tested in both 1977 and 1984.
Comparison of Cost Factors in Laser Processing of Materials and Traditional Metal Cutting Processes

Comparison of cost factors between traditional metal cutting process and laser cutting process has been made. The paper presents a generic cost estimation model for laser cutting of metals. Various types of lasers used in cutting have been discussed as well as the parameters affecting the cutting process.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
Photoexcitation of NO2 in Hen Droplets above the Gas-Phase Dissociation Threshold†

The guest-host dynamics of NO 2 embedded in He n droplets have been examined by recording depletion spectra of mass spectrometer signals at m/z values of 8 (He 2 + ), 30 (NO + ), and 46 (NO 2 + ) throughout the wavelength range 340-402 nm. At energies above the A/X conical intersection, gas-phase NO 2 is known to exhibit quantum chaos, and it is also known that deactivation of embedded NO 2 by the helium host is efficient in this regime. Above the gas-phase dissociation threshold (Do) it is shown that there is no net unimolecular decomposition all the way up to D 0 + 4300 cm - 1 . At the upper end of this range, gas-phase NO 2 decomposes with rate coefficients whose values are ∼5 x 10 1 2 s - 1 , which is expected to be larger than the deactivation rates in liquid helium. The deactivation rate in the quantum-chaotic region 17 700-18 300 cm - 1 was found previously to be ∼1.4 x 10 1 2 s - 1 , and it is expected that this will increase at yet higher energies, but not exceed 5 x 10 1 2 s - 1 . To within the experimental uncertainty, it is found that reaction products do not leave the droplets. This is attributed to efficient relaxation and (at the highest energies examined) recombination within the droplets. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that small polyatomics embedded in He n droplets that have (n) values of ∼10 4 or larger will not undergo net unimolecular reaction if the gas-phase pathway is barrierless, with two possible exceptions: (i) if one or both of the products has a positive chemical potential and (ii) if the scattering cross section of the product(s) with helium is small.
Self-concept and job satisfaction.

Authors outline procedures to construct 6 pair-comparisons, satisfaction-based, self-concept scales and show only one to produce scores related to employee satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
Comparison of a Small Seine and a Backpack Electroshocker to Evaluate Nearshore Fish Populations in Rivers

Abstract The relative effectiveness of a minnow seine and a backpack electroshocker was compared in shoreline surveys at three permanent stations in the Columbia River during 1977 and 1978. We collected 22 species offish with the backpack electroshocker and 14 species with the seine. The beach seine more effectively captured schooling fry over even substrate. Electro shocking was a better method for sampling over irregular substrate and areas with stronger current. More demersal and shelter-seeking resident species to age II were sampled by electroshocker. About twice as many salmonids were taken by seine as by electroshocker but more cottids and cyprinids were taken by electroshocker than by seine. Both methods provided qualitative information for determining population trends.
MECHANICAL STRESS AND CELL WALL ORIENTATION IN PLANTS. II. THE APPLICATION OF CONTROLLED DIRECTIONAL STRESS TO GROWING PLANTS; WITH A DISCUSSION ON THE NATURE OF THE WOUND REACTION'

This paper describes an attempt to present living stem tissue with defined mechanical stress in a spatial configuration which can be easily interpreted in section. We have applied compressive stress to a growing Coleus internode in vivo, using stainless-steel spring-clips which act through a double-edged glass interface of known area. We have found that cambial activity consisting of cell division and enlargement continues even under applied compressive stress ranging up to 20 atm. Tissue reactions to applied stress are discussed in terms of the equilibration of forces propagating through the tissue before, during, and after the presentation of externally applied stress. THE NOTION that mechanical pressure may be able to control the plane of orientation of new cell walls dates back to the work of Kny (1902). More recent studies by this author (Lintilhac, 1974a; Lintilhac and Vesecky, 1980) have offered preliminary evidence that cell wall orientation in actively dividing plant tissues may be considered to correspond with the trajectories of the lines of principal stress as they exist within a meristematic tissue at the moment of cell plate orientation. The verification of this possibility has led us in a search for simple methods of applying stress to living plant tissues in order to achieve some control over division-wall orientation through manipulation of the stress-mechanical environment
Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work

This article presents a review of the book “Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work,” by David A. Garvin.
Stem Cells in the Face: Tooth Regeneration and Beyond

The face distinguishes one person from another. Postnatal orofacial tissues harbor rare cells that exhibit stem cell properties. Despite unmet clinical needs for reconstruction of tissues lost in congenital anomalies, infections, trauma, or tumor resection, how orofacial stem/progenitor cells contribute to tissue development, pathogenesis, and regeneration is largely obscure. This perspective article critically analyzes the current status of our understanding of orofacial stem/progenitor cells, identifies gaps in our knowledge, and highlights pathways for the development of regenerative therapies.
Positive and negative stimulus relations in severely retarded individuals′ conditional discrimination

Abstract Four low-functioning mentally retarded subjects learned conditional discrimination performances in two-comparison auditory-visual and visual-visual identity matching-to-sample paradigms. Auditory stimuli were spoken food names and visual stimuli were food items. The subjects were also taught, by means of a stimulus shaping program, to perform a variant of the auditory-visual task in which only one comparison was displayed on each trial: if the correct one was displayed, to select it; if an incorrect one, to select a blank alternative. Following the program, subjects performed auditory-visual conditional discriminations on the basis of relations between either the sample and the correct comparison (positive relations) or the sample and the incorrect comparison (negative relations). Additional tests, conducted in the single comparison positive and negative relations (1) in auditory-visual performances with foods that had a two-comparison history, but had not been used in stimulus shaping, and (2) in visual-visual identity performances. All subjects proved capable of such performances. The results suggested that acquisition of both postive and negative conditional relations may occur when developmentally-limited individuals are trained with matching-to-sample procedures. This outcome may be relevant to designing remedial communication programs for this population—especially those concerning generalized “Yes”-“No” concepts.
Importance of cell-procurement methods in transforming personalized cancer treatment from concept to reality

The much-anticipated promise of personalized cancer care is to deliver therapies best suited for a patient based on the knowledge of that individual's genetics and tumor characteristics. This transformative approach will require many changes in the scientific and medical community, one of the most fundamental being the direct study of human tissue biospecimens. Biospecimens will be integral to the elucidation of biomarkers that will help identify and serve as potential diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets in cancer. Despite the vast repositories of fixed-tissue biospecimens that are in existence, a number of flaws exist that hinder their reliable use as instruments from which to enable personalized cancer research and clinical care. A new view of biospecimen worth in the future will mandate that the molecules within its cells are reflective of their in vivo state, and not altered by external variables introduced during the excision and processing of the biospecimen. Research on biospecimen collection is a legitimate field of study that will be necessary for personalized cancer care to become a reality.
Mixed structural-functional path delay test generation and compaction

This work considers the use of a mixed structural-functional approach to path delay fault test generation and compaction. K Longest Paths per Gate (KLPG) are generated using structural information and filtered using direct implications and heuristics. These paths are then justified using Boolean satisfiability (SAT) algorithms. The paths are dynamically compacted into test patterns, using structural information to identify most conflicts, before final checking with SAT. Advanced SAT algorithms based on structural information of the circuit are investigated to improve SAT performance. Compared to structural-only approaches, the combined structural-functional approach achieves a better test compaction ratio in less CPU time on benchmark circuits. The improvement is more apparent when generating pseudo functional KLPG tests.
One Step Back in Understanding Racial Differences in Birth Weight

In recognition of the biological and social connections in demographic processes, demographers have integrated biological factors into their models of population variation. This new effort has tended to focus on the analysis of fertility and mortality. Edwin J.C.G. van den Oord and David C. Rowe’s article, “Racial Differences in Birth Health Risk: A Quantitative Genetic Approach,” published in the August 2000 issue of Demography, is part of this effort. These authors use race as a proxy for genetic variation, which subverts even the most positive attempts to understand the impact of genetic variation on demographic processes. The authors’ statistical results restate their anachronistic theory of race using latent variables that are not open to empirical testing. Although new data increase the opportunities for the examination of the relationship between biology and demographic processes researchers must be vigilant not to commit the errors of the past by misusing race as a variable.
SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT OF ALGERIAN BUILDINGS IN URBAN AREA

Abstract The recent earthquakes in Algeria have caused significant human and economic losses. The frequent occurrence of damaging earthquakes clearly demonstrates the urgent need of study on seismic risk assessment methods of buildings to effectively reduce the impact of earthquake in Algerian cities. This article contributes to the development and the application of a seismic risk method, appropriate to Algerian building specificities. This method considers five damage levels, defined accordingly to macroseismic intensity and the seismic quality of the building by means of a vulnerability index. The present paper summarises the development of a tool to integrate seismic hazard and structural information and support the decision making process in identification of seismic risk. This tool could be used in the inspection of buildings and the optimal prioritisation of strengthening and preventives remedial actions that are necessary prior to a major earthquake event.
Regional perspectives on Wari state influence in Cusco, Peru (c. AD 600-1000)

Abstract The archaeological reconstruction of ancient states requires consistent regional measures of state-directed power and influence. This paper presents data from a series of systematic archaeological surveys in the Cusco region of highland Peru to evaluate patterns of influence by the Wari state during a period of colonization from ca. AD 600–1000. We discuss interpretive debates over the nature and intensity of Wari social power, suggesting that site-based studies can be contextualized meaningfully using our large-scale dataset, which offers settlement patterns at varying distances (0–70 km) from Pikillacta, a Wari administrative center. We discuss local settlement patterns before and during Wari colonization, as well as the distribution of Wari pottery and local Wari-influenced wares. We then use a geographic information systems analysis of travel time from key sites to evaluate the broad regional distribution patterns of local and Wari ceramic styles. Although the regional survey data do not inform us reliably about all kinds of social power, we conclude that the Wari cultural, economic, and political influence over the Cusco region was limited and discontinuous—an example of colonization that resembles the practices of other early states.
Absorption and Fluorescence of Tyrosine Hydrogen-Bonded to Amide-like Ligands

The absorption and steady-state fluorescence of N-acetyl-l-tyrosinamide (NAYA), chosen to model the tyrosine in proteins, was measured in four solvents in the presence of N,N-dimethylacetamide, N-methylacetamide, and urea, chosen as ligands that model the amide of a protein backbone. The data were fit to a multilinear mathematical model to resolve the overlapping spectra of NAYA with and without ligand. The ligand binding constant was between 0.18 and 4 M-1, increasing with solvent polarity; lack of a strong dependence of binding constant on N-methylation suggests that the carbonyl oxygen is responsible for the hydrogen bonding. The emission spectrum of NAYA was essentially identical in all solvents and with and without added ligand. In contrast, the excitation spectrum shifted by up to 10 nm, depending on both solvent and ligand; this shift is described as a sum of three terms: a blue-shift due to hydrogen bonding to the phenolic oxygen which is proportional to ligand donor acidity, a red-shift due to h...
Preparative separation of human T cells reactive with the OKT4 monoclonal antibody.

Abstract A cell separation technique is described which can provide large numbers (i.e. >5 × 10 7 ) of human lymphoid cells which are positively and negatively selected for their ability to react with the OKT4 monoclonal antibody. Peripheral blood lymphocytes are depleted of plastic-adherent cells and then exposed to OKT4 antibody. Unbound OKT4 antibody is removed by washing and then this OKT4-exposed cell population is placed on plastic Petri dishes that are coated with affinity-purified goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin. Cells which do not bind the OKT4 antibody (OKT4 − cells) can be obtained by gently washing the nonadherent cells from the plates, while the adherent (OKT4 + ) cells can be recovered by vigorous pipetting. This procedure yields functional OKT4 + and OKT4 − cell populations with a purity which approaches that obtained by separation using the fluorescence-activated cell sorter. The principal advantages of this plate separation technique are that: (1) large numbers of functional cell populations can be obtained; (2) very small quantities of monoclonal antibody (e.g. 1:10 4 dilution of ascites) are required; and (3) sterility of the cell preparations can be maintained quite easily.
Integrated modeling: a unified approach to system engineering

Abstract This article describes an approach to system engineering and design called integrated modeling. Integrated modeling describes the process of system development as the iteration of models or “views” from the abstract to concrete and combines and links existing methods, including real-time structured analysis and design, metrics, performance modeling, and quality function deployment. The models represent and integrate four major system views: function, physical structure, end-to-end quantitative performance, and implementation or deployment. In principle, integrated modeling is applicable to general electromechanical and sociotechnical systems. However, this discussion is restricted to electronic sensor and control systems with hardware and software elements. The article presents models for each system view, describes methods for linking the views with a top-down flow of system objectives, and applies the method to a simplified radar warning receiver.
Design and Synthesis of a Cell Permeable Synthetic Transcription Factor Mimic

Synthetic molecules capable of activating the expression of specific genes are of great interest as tools for biological research and, potentially, as a novel class of pharmaceutical agents. It has...
Determinants of oöcyte degeneration in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract During normal oogenesis in many insects some of the oocytes fail to mature; instead they degenerate and are resorbed. In this work ooctte degeneration was investigated in Drosophila melanogaster females and found to be limited to early vitellogenic stages (stages 8–10). Even when retained for up to 18 days by females, mature (stage 14) oocytes showed unaltered protein patterns after separation by SDS polyacrylamide electrophoresis, indicating that protein breakdown, which is characteristic of degeneration, does not occur in chorionated oocytes. A number of environmental parameters were shown to influence the percentage of degenerating oocytes in females. Strong responses as reflected by increased stage-8 and 9 oocyte degeneration were found in females subjected to suboptimal (but not starvation) medium, virgin females, females mechanically unable to oviposit, and females unable to locate suitable oviposition sites. Little or no response was seen in females subjected to crowding, however, since all of these environmental parameters except adult crowding have been shown to decrease fecundity, and therefore the rate of oocyte production, it is suggested that oocyte degeneration is a strategy for decreasing the rate of oocyte production in Drosophila .
Computational experience using an edge search algorithm for linear reverse convex programs

This paper presents computational experience with a rather straight forward implementation of an edge search algorithm for obtaining the globally optimal solution for linear programs with an additional reverse convex constraint. The paper's purpose is to provide a collection of problems, with known optimal solutions, and performance information for an edge search implementation so that researchers may have some benchmarks with which to compare new methods for reverse convex programs or concave minimization problems. There appears to be nothing in the literature that provides computational experience with a basic edge search procedure. The edge search implementation uses a depth first strategy. As such, this paper's implementation of the edge search algorithm is a modification of Hillestad's algorithm [11]. A variety of test problems is generated by using a modification of the method of Sung and Rosen [20], as well as a new method that is presented in this paper. Test problems presented may be obtained at ftp://newton.ee.ucla.edu/nonconvex/pub/.
Laminar film condensation driven latent thermal energy storage in rectangular containers

Abstract This paper focuses on numerically analyzing the thermal transport phenomena in the transient conjugate problem of melting and laminar film condensation. The key focus is to identify an optimum container aspect ratio/shape and conditions for which the heat storage time and the storage capacity are minimum and maximum respectively. Since most solid–liquid phase change materials (PCMs) suffer from poor thermal conductivities, the major resistance to heat transfer comes from PCM. Hence, high thermal conductivity, low-cost metal foam is suggested for use along with PCM to minimize this resistance. The conjugate transient problem of film condensation driven solid–liquid phase change of PCM impregnated inside porous metal foam is numerically analyzed. An effective heat capacity formulation is employed for modeling the transient PCM phase change in porous foam and is solved using finite element method. It is coupled with laminar film condensation on the outside of the storage container. The model is then used for selecting the best aspect ratio for thermal energy storage (TES) containers that enables to store comparatively the maximum heat. The results of the developed model showed that the major resistance to heat transfer and hence efficient thermal energy storage depends strongly on the aspect ratio of the PCM storage containers.
Antitumor Agents LIX: Effects of Quassinoids on Protein Synthesis of a Number of Murine Tumors and Normal Cells

The quassinoids (brusatol, bruceantin, bisbrusatolyl esters, and bisbruceantinyl esters of succinic and malonic acids) were observed not to be universal protein synthesis inhibitors. Rather, they were selective for both the types of cancers, e.g., P-388 lymphocytic leukemia, Ehrlich and hepatoma carcinoma and L-1210 lymphoid leukemia, as well as types of normal tissues (e.g., lymphocytes), in which they demonstrated protein synthesis inhibition. The data suggest that the observed difference in the magnitude of protein synthesis inhibition of two P-388 lymphocytic leukemia cell lines by the quassinoids was at the ribosomal levels, whereas the observed difference in normal livers from various strains of mice involve differences in cell membrane transport of the quassinoids into the various tissues. Detailed studies indicated that the mode of action of the quassinoids as protein synthesis inhibitors was identical in all of the cells where inhibition was observed; i.e., the elongation step of protein synthesis was blocked by the quassinoids. The data derived from assays for polyuridine-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis of isolated ribosomes demonstrated that the ID50 values obtained were consistent with the observed inhibition of whole cell protein synthesis inhibition for P-388 cells, as well as for BDF1 and DBA/2 liver cells. The ID50 values obtained from various cells, e.g., P-388 cells and normal liver, were all in the microM range and are consistent with previously published values for the quassinoids in the rabbit reticulocyte and yeast systems.
Metadata standards roundup

In this article, the authors examine the challenges of creating and deploying multimedia metadata standards. They also review several of the significant standardization efforts to date and look at prospects for integrated use and broader adoption. Possible directions exist for improving the standards efforts to better address the growing problems of managing multimedia data.
The Chlamydia pneumoniae Type III Secretion-Related lcrH Gene Clusters Are Developmentally Expressed Operons

Two chlamydial homologues of the Yersinia lcrH chaperone for type III secretion system structural components are present within separate gene clusters. Quantitative transcriptional analyses demonstrated that each cluster is differentially regulated and expressed as an operon using major sigma factor elements, suggesting the presence of more elaborate developmental regulation mechanisms in chlamydiae.
A non-equilibrium model for soil heating and moisture transport during extreme surface heating: the soil (heat–moisture–vapor) HMV-Model Version 1

Abstract. Increased use of prescribed fire by land managers and the increasing likelihood of wildfires due to climate change require an improved modeling capability of extreme heating of soils during fires. This issue is addressed here by developing and testing the soil (heat–moisture–vapor) HMV-model, a 1-D (one-dimensional) non-equilibrium (liquid–vapor phase change) model of soil evaporation that simulates the coupled simultaneous transport of heat, soil moisture, and water vapor. This model is intended for use with surface forcing ranging from daily solar cycles to extreme conditions encountered during fires. It employs a linearized Crank–Nicolson scheme for the conservation equations of energy and mass and its performance is evaluated against dynamic soil temperature and moisture observations, which were obtained during laboratory experiments on soil samples exposed to surface heat fluxes ranging between 10 000 and 50 000 W m−2. The Hertz–Knudsen equation is the basis for constructing the model's non-equilibrium evaporative source term. Some unusual aspects of the model that were found to be extremely important to the model's performance include (1) a dynamic (temperature and moisture potential dependent) condensation coefficient associated with the evaporative source term, (2) an infrared radiation component to the soil's thermal conductivity, and (3) a dynamic residual soil moisture. This last term, which is parameterized as a function of temperature and soil water potential, is incorporated into the water retention curve and hydraulic conductivity functions in order to improve the model's ability to capture the evaporative dynamics of the strongly bound soil moisture, which requires temperatures well beyond 150 °C to fully evaporate. The model also includes film flow, although this phenomenon did not contribute much to the model's overall performance. In general, the model simulates the laboratory-observed temperature dynamics quite well, but is less precise (but still good) at capturing the moisture dynamics. The model emulates the observed increase in soil moisture ahead of the drying front and the hiatus in the soil temperature rise during the strongly evaporative stage of drying. It also captures the observed rapid evaporation of soil moisture that occurs at relatively low temperatures (50–90 °C), and can provide quite accurate predictions of the total amount of soil moisture evaporated during the laboratory experiments. The model's solution for water vapor density (and vapor pressure), which can exceed 1 standard atmosphere, cannot be experimentally verified, but they are supported by results from (earlier and very different) models developed for somewhat different purposes and for different porous media. Overall, this non-equilibrium model provides a much more physically realistic simulation over a previous equilibrium model developed for the same purpose. Current model performance strongly suggests that it is now ready for testing under field conditions.
Triggering sleep slow waves by transcranial magnetic stimulation

During much of sleep, cortical neurons undergo near-synchronous slow oscillation cycles in membrane potential, which give rise to the largest spontaneous waves observed in the normal electroencephalogram (EEG). Slow oscillations underlie characteristic features of the sleep EEG, such as slow waves and spindles. Here we show that, in sleeping subjects, slow waves and spindles can be triggered noninvasively and reliably by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). With appropriate stimulation parameters, each TMS pulse at <1 Hz evokes an individual, high-amplitude slow wave that originates under the coil and spreads over the cortex. TMS triggering of slow waves reveals intrinsic bistability in thalamocortical networks during non-rapid eye movement sleep. Moreover, evoked slow waves lead to a deepening of sleep and to an increase in EEG slow-wave activity (0.5-4.5 Hz), which is thought to play a role in brain restoration and memory consolidation.
Do Hybrid Procedures Have Proven Clinical Utility and Are They the Wave of the Future? Hybrid Procedures Have No Proven Clinical Utility and Are Not the Wave of the Future

Both coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) have been shown to provide symptomatic relief and to increase long-term survival in patients with coronary artery disease.1–3 Hybrid coronary revascularization (HCR) seeks to combine the respective strengths of CABG and PCI in an attempt to offer a technique that is less invasive than conventional surgery without diminishing the efficaciousness of therapy offered. Response by Shannon et al on p 2510 The major therapeutic benefits of CABG arise from the graft from the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) to the left anterior descending artery (LAD). This can be attributed to the fact that the LIMA-to-LAD graft has excellent long-term patency, reaching as high as 95% to 98% at 10 years,1–3 as opposed to saphenous vein grafts (SVGs), which have high early failure rates, ranging from 6.2% to 30%, averaging ≈20% throughout the literature.4–6 The LIMA-to-LAD graft is also superior to PCI in terms of long-term patency, event-free survival, and relief of angina. The major benefits of multivessel PCI with drug-eluting stents (DES) to treat multivessel coronary artery disease are that it is less invasive, has shorter recovery times, and has lower stroke rates compared with CABG.2,7 It also has lower stent failure rates than SVG (defined as stent restenosis and thrombosis compared with SVG occlusion).2,7 Tables 1 and 2 present existing data on current outcomes with DES and SVGs in non-LAD territories.4,5,8–18 View this table: Table 1. Data From Randomized Trials on Drug-Eluting Stent Restenosis Rate and Stent Thrombosis for Non–Left Anterior Descending Artery Revascularization (n=3631) View this table: Table 2. Data From Studies of 12-Month Postoperative Saphenous Vein Graft Patency With Coronary Angiography for Non–Left Anterior Descending Artery Revascularization (n=7919) Hence, the logic underlying the …
From Antigen Delivery System to Adjuvanticy: The Board Application of Nanoparticles in Vaccinology

In the last years, nanotechnologies have raised great interest because of the potential applications of engineered nanoparticles in nanomedicine (i.e., in vaccination, in diagnostic imaging procedures, and as therapeutic drug delivery systems). The use of nanoparticles in medicine has brought about the issue of their interaction with the immune system for two main reasons: first, understanding how long nanomedicines could persist in the organism and exert their beneficial effects before being recognized and eliminated by our defensive systems; second, understanding how the immune responses can be modulated by nanoparticles in order to obtain optimal effects. This issue is crucial in vaccine formulations based on the use of nanoparticles, which can operate both as a delivery system to enhance antigen processing and as an immunostimulatory adjuvant to induce and amplify protective immunity, in part because of their ability to activate the inflammasome and induce the maturation of interleukin 1β. Nanoparticles can be excellent adjuvants due to their biocompatibility and their physicochemical properties (e.g., size, shape, and surface charge), which can be tailored to obtain different immunological effects. This review provides an overview of recent strategies for the use of nanoparticles as promising/attractive adjuvants for novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. The use of nanovaccines, with their practically infinite possibilities of specific design, could open the way to precision vaccinology, i.e., vaccine formulations tailored on the individual immune reactivity status.
Continuation of invariant subspaces

In this work we consider implementation and testing of an algorithm for continuation of invariant subspaces. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Amorphous transition metal films

The structure and magnetic properties of amorphous transition elements is reviewed. The methods of obtaining suitable samples will be discussed, the structural investigations so far carried out will be described, and the results compared with those obtained from model building. The experimental measurements on the effect of structural disorder on the magnetic moment and Curie temperature of the transition elements will be reviewed in the light of current theoretical progress.
Stress Effects on Defects and Dopant Diffusion in Si

Abstract The effects of stress on equilibrium point defect populations and on dopant diffusion for single crystals free of extended defects are reviewed. The thermodynamic relationships presented permit the direct comparison of hydrostatic and biaxial stress experiments and of atomistic calculations under hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic stress for any proposed mechanism. Experiments on the effects of pressure and stress on the diffusivity are reviewed. For Sb in Si, using as input the measured effect of hydrostatic pressure on diffusion and the assumption of a pure vacancy mechanism, the measured effect of biaxial stress on diffusion can be predicted successfully with no free parameters. For B in Si, an apparent discrepancy between the hydrostatic and biaxial stress effects exists assuming a pure interstitial-based mechanism. The requirements to permit the prediction of the effect of an arbitrary stress state on diffusion in an arbitrary direction are discussed.
Factors Affecting the Reliability of Augered Cast-In-Place Piles in Granular Soils at the Serviceability Limit State (DFI 2013 Young Professor Paper Competition Winner)

Owing to an increasing demand to manage risk and maximize cost-effectiveness, preference for reliability-based design (RBD) over traditional deterministic design procedures has increased for deep f...
Behavioral and Anatomical Consequences of Early versus Late Symbol Training in Macaques

Distinct brain regions, reproducible from one person to the next, are specialized for processing different kinds of human expertise, such as face recognition and reading. Here, we explore the relationship between age of learning, learning ability, and specialized brain structures. Specifically, we ask whether the existence of reproducible cortical domains necessarily means that certain abilities are innate, or innately easily learned, or whether reproducible domains can be formed, or refined, by interactions between genetic programs and common early experience. Functional MRI showed that intensive early, but not late, experience caused the formation of category-selective regions in macaque temporal lobe for stimuli never naturally encountered by monkeys. And behaviorally, early training produced more fluent processing of these stimuli than the same training in adults. One explanation for these results is that in higher cortical areas, as in early sensory areas, experience drives functional clustering and functional clustering determines how that information is processed.
End-of-life analysis of analog CATV converters

Analog CATV Converters are becoming obsolete in the United States due to the initiation of digital cable and television. This paper presents an end-of-life information exchange structure for the analysis of these cable boxes. The results from this paper show an economic model and simulation. A case study is presented showing the validity of end-of life processing for an analog CATV converter.
Cross‐resistance profile of mesosulfuron‐methyl‐resistant Italian ryegrass in the southern United States

Diclofop-resistant Lolium species (ryegrass) is a major weed problem in wheat production worldwide. This study was conducted to determine the resistance pattern of diclofop-resistant ryegrass accessions from the southern United States to mesosulfuron-methyl, a recently commercialized herbicide for ryegrass control in wheat; to determine the cross-resistance pattern of a Lolium multiflorum Lam. (Italian ryegrass) accession, 03-1, to acetolactate synthase (ALS) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitors; and to determine the resistance mechanism of Italian ryegrass to mesosulfuron-methyl. Seventeen ryegrass accessions from Arkansas and Louisiana, including standard resistant and susceptible accessions, were used in this experiment. Fourteen of the 17 accessions were more resistant (four- to > 308-fold) to diclofop than the standard susceptible biotype. One accession, 03-1, was resistant to mesosulfuron-methyl as well as to other ALS inhibitor herbicides such as chlorsulfuron, imazamox and sulfometuron. Accession 03-1, however, did not show multiple resistance to the ACCase inhibitor herbicides diclofop, fluazifop, clethodim, sethoxydim and pinoxaden, nor to glyphosate. The in vivo ALS activity of the 03-1 biotype was less affected by mesosulfuron-methyl than the susceptible biotype. This indicates that the resistance mechanism of Italian ryegrass to mesosulfuron-methyl is partly due to an alteration in the target enzyme, ALS. It is concluded that diclofop-resistant ryegrass in the southern United States can be generally controlled by mesosulfuron-methyl. However, mesosulfuron-methyl must be used with caution because not all ryegrass populations are susceptible to it. There is a need for more thorough profiling of ryegrass resistance to herbicides.
Whole Systems Trade Analysis

Ground vehicles are complex systems with many interrelated subsystems – finding the sweet-spot among competing objectives such as performance, unit cost, operations and sustainment (O&S) costs, development risk, and growth potential is a non-trivial task. Whole Systems Trade Analysis (WSTA) is a systems analysis and decision support methodology and tool that integrates otherwise separate subsystem models into a holistic system view mapping critical design choices to consequences relevant to stakeholders. WSTA projects are highly integrated and collaborative efforts which generate holistic systems and Multiple Objective Decision Analysis (MODA) models. The related tool captures and synthesizes subsystem and system level analyses into trade-space visualizations designed to facilitate rapid and complete understanding of the trade-space to stakeholders and provide drill down capability to supporting rationale. The approach has opened up trade space exploration significantly evaluating up to 1020+ potential system configurations to then return a handful of configurations which best meet design and programmatic criteria.
Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Procedure for Descending Aorta—Bifemoral Bypass: A Case Report

In the patient who can withstand the added physiologic stress of descending thoracic aortic clamping, thoracofemoral bypass may have the advantages of longer durability and increased perfusion when compared with axillobifemoral bypass. Using thorascopic techniques and a robot to perform the anastomosis, this procedure may be performed in a less invasive manner.