cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pathways of Microvascular Permeability in the Synovium of Normal and Diseased Human Knees

Objective. Our study uses the entire proteomes of serum and synovial fluid (SF) to characterize the avenues of microvascular egress of plasma proteins, and quantifies that traffic in normal and diseased human knees. Methods. Paired aliquots of serum and SF were collected from 17 knees of 11 subjects who died without evident joint disease and 16 patients with clinical effusions, fractionated by gel filtration chromatography and analyzed as continuous plots of the SF/serum concentration ratio versus molecular radius from 1 to 12 nanometers (nm). Curve-stripping methodology, a 3-pore model, and known protein kinetics were then applied to estimate the dimensions of and the net outflow through fenestral, “small,” and “large” apertures in the microvascular endothelium. Results. The 3-pore model correlated highly with the observed data (r = 0.992 in normal and 0.980 in arthritis), yielding the following mean values: for the fenestra, the normal radius (nm) was 1.75 and the effused 3.5, and the normal flow (μl/min) was 1.74 and the arthritic 22.0; for the small pore, the normal radius was 8.6 and the effused 8.5, and the normal flow was 1.5 and the arthritic flow 9.1; for the large pore, the normal radius was 40 and the effused 36, and the normal flow was 0.24 and the arthritic flow 15.5. Conclusion. These findings provide the first functional definition of synovial, endothelial fenestrae; reveal that the “increased vascular permeability” of inflammation is not limited to interendothelial gaps; present evidence suggesting that glycocalyceal damage and aquaporin upregulation may affect permeability in arthritic synovium; and define a straightforward methodology for interpretation of biomarker concentrations in arthritic SF.
Studies of the HER-2/neu Proto-oncogene in Human Breast Cancer

The HER-2heu proto-oncogene encodes a putative growth factor receptor which was shown to be amplified in 25-30% of primary human breast cancers. Amplification of the gene was associated with disease behavior and was more predictive of outcome than any other known prognostic factor with the exception of positive lymph nodes in patients with Stage 11 disease. Since this initial report, a number of studies have evaluated both amphkation rate and association between HER-2heu and prognosis in breast cancer with considerable variation in published results. Some of this variability may be due to the small numbers of specimens studied or to significant differences in the methods used to evaluate the gene and its product. The current study addresses both biological and clinical aspects of the gene and its alteration in human breast cancer. Sequence analysis of several c-DNA clones from actual tumors indicate that, unlike the rat mu gene, mutations in the transmembrane domain may not be an absolute requirement for alteration of the gene. Instead, the data are consistent with an alteration involving overexpression of a normal product since gene amplification is virtually always associated with high levels of expression in the malignant cells of these tumors. The gene product has a half life of 12 h and can be readily identified in both tissue homogenates and tissue sections from breast tumors. To circumvent potential statistical problems introduced by small numbers reported in earlier studies, an analysis of HER-2heu amplification was done in 668 primary tumors, 526 of which had long-term follow-up. The overall amplification rate in breast cancer as well as the association between gene amplification and disease outcome previously reported for Stage II patients was conlirmed in this larger series. A comprehensive analysis of the gene and its products (DNA, RNA, and protein) was simultaneously performed on 187 tumors for which sufficient tissue was available. This analysis identSed several potential shortcomings of the various methods used to evaluate HER-2ineu in this disease (i.e., Southern, Northern, and Western blots, and immunohistochemistry). The Western blot was most prone to errors in assessing HER-2/neu, while immunohistochemical analysis of frozen tissue was the most reliable method. This result has diagnostic implications. The data presented in this study further support the concept that the HER-2/neu gene may play a role in the pathogenesis of some human breast cancers.
Measurement of A and B coefficients in the decay of polarized neutrons

Abstract The coefficients found were A = −0.115 ± 0.008 and B = 1.01 ± 0.04. The value of A leads to | G A / G V | = = 1.26 ± 0.02 for the ratio of coupling constants in beta decay, and B is consistent with G S = G T = 0.
3381 Cross-sectional survey of factors influencing patient satisfaction with gastrointestinal endoscopy.

Background: A modified version of the Group Health Association of America-9 survey (mGHAA-9) was recently proposed by the ASGE for the universal measurement of patient satisfaction with gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy. However, it is unclear whether the mGHAA-9 addresses those issues that are most important to endoscopy patients. Aim: To identify and prioritize factors related to satisfaction with GI endoscopy from the patient's perspective. Methods: A 15 item survey listing factors of potential importance to endoscopy satisfaction was developed. Six items were taken from the mGHAA-9, and 9 were identified from the literature and outpatient satisfaction surveys in current use. Respondents were asked to rank the factors from 1-15 (1=Most to 15=Least Important) in terms of how much they influence satisfaction. Two groups were surveyed: 1) Patients who had at least one prior experience with GI endoscopy; and 2) Endoscopists who were asked to respond from their perception of the patients' perspective. Summary distributions of rankings were analyzed for each item overall and for age, sex, respondent, and procedural groups. Results: A total of 559 endoscopy outpatients were surveyed. One hundred twenty two (22%) patient responses were excluded from analysis for failure to rank items as instructed. The mean patient age was 59. The #1 factor influencing endoscopy satisfaction was the technical skills of the endoscopist (median ranking (mr)=1), an item included in the mGHAA-9. Adequacy of control of discomfort, a factor not assessed by the mGHAA-9, was second (mr=4), and ranked #1 by 16% of patients. The other items in the top 5 were: personal manner of the endoscopist (mr=4) and nurses/support staff (mr=5); and adequacy of explanation of the procedure (mr=6); all from the mGHAA-9. Two items regarding waiting time (from the mGHAA- 9) were ranked far lower than non-mGHAA-9 items such as physician / nurse knowledge of medical history, and physician discussion with patient / family post-procedure. No important differences were noted in the mean and median item rankings across age, sex, and past procedural experience. Relative to patients, endoscopists over-prioritized waiting time issues. Conclusions: The mGHAA-9 is an inadequate measure of endoscopy patient satisfaction because it does not assess several important factors, most notably pain control. However, endoscopy satisfaction measurement using a single, universally applied instrument for all age, sex, and procedure groups appears feasible.
Retrospective targeted HCV lookback using centralized contracted notification service

BACKGROUND: Mandated HCV 2.0 lookback significantly challenged the human and financial resources available to the six Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) hospital blood banks. To comply with FDA requirements, DHS developed a centralized process that utilized the services of a contract vendor for performing HCV lookback. STUDY DESIGN AND METHOD: A DHS public health nurse acted as HCV lookback coordinator and as liaison with the vendor. Cases were electronically forwarded to the vendor, who then reviewed the patient's chart to obtain information necessary for tracking the patient through commercial databases. The vendor was responsible for notifying the recipient for pretest counseling and for providing documentation of all efforts. RESULTS: In total, 411 recipients were identified, of which, 168 cases were completed by the hospitals, 243 were forwarded to the vendor, 50 percent were deceased, 21 percent were contacted, and 28 percent could not be contacted, and 1 percent could not be located on any databases. The vendor contacted 35 of 66 cases that the hospitals had unsuccessfully attempted to contact. Of the cases forwarded to the vendor, 82 percent were completed on time. Delays were attributable to the vendor in less than 2 percent of cases. The cost per case forwarded to the vendor was $322. CONCLUSION: Utilizing a professional service to conduct HCV recipient notifications is an effective strategy for meeting FDA deadlines and for freeing transfusion service staff to perform critical functions. It remains to be seen whether such strategies offer a cost savings.
Receptors and breast cancer: do we know it all?

Abstract The use of cytoplasmic estrogen receptor to predict endocrine responsiveness in breast cancer patients is now well established. It is our contention that this pertinent clinical application is only the first of many contributions from receptor studies to the clinic. Efforts are now underway to examine the distribution of receptors within tumor cells, and in particular the significance of receptors in tumor nuclei in the absence of hormone. Also, the demonstration of a direct stimulation of progesterone receptor synthesis by estradiol in cultured breast tumor cells now permits a careful dissection of the complete estrogen response system which should provide clues to the mechanism of antiestrogen action in causing tumor regression. Finally, it is now evident that pharmacologic effects of steroids in breast cancer may be mediated through different pathways than expected from studies of normal physiology.
Beyond Einstein: scientific goals and missions

Abstract A century ago, Albert Einstein began creating his theory of relativity, the ideas we use to understand space, time, and gravity, and he took some of the first steps towards the theory of quantum mechanics, the ideas we use to understand matter and energy. Time magazine named Einstein the “Person of the Century” because his ideas transformed civilization. But his work is not finished: spacetime is not yet reconciled with the quantum. Einstein’s general theory of relativity opened possibilities for the formation and structure of the Universe that seemed unbelievable even to Einstein himself but which have all been subsequently confirmed: that the whole Universe began in a hot, dense Big Bang from which all of space expanded; that dense matter could tie spacetime into tangled knots called black holes; and that “empty” space might contain energy with repulsive gravity. Despite these discoveries, we still do not understand conditions at the beginning of the Universe, how space and time behave at the edge of a black hole, or why distant galaxies are accelerating away from us. These phenomena represent the most extreme interactions of matter and energy with space and time. They are the places to look for clues to the next fundamental revolution in understanding – Beyond Einstein.
Micellar Shape and Long-Range-Ordering Transitions in Ternary Surfactant Solutions

We treat the competition between self-energy (single-micelle curvature preference) and interaction (interaggregate) effects on the evolution of micellar shapes and long-range ordering phase transitions in ternary systems of mixed surfactant and water. One surfactant prefers to satisfy the hydrophobic effect via formation of globular (positive curvature) micelles, whereas for the other we have in mind the phospholipids, for instance, which prefer to aggregate as planar bilayers. It follows that the preferred curvature in the ternary mixture case will depend sensitively on composition, i.e., on the relative numbers of the two surfactants. At high total concentrations of surfactant, however, the micellar shape is controlled as well by the relative efficiencies of packing aggregates of different curvature, independent of relative amphiphile mole numbers. By combining these self-energy and intermicellar interaction effects, then, we are able to generate “master” phase diagrams for the ternary systems, as a fun...
Effect of horizontal grid resolution on the near-equilibrium solution of a global ocean–sea ice model

[1] We compare the near-equilibrium solution of a global ocean/sea ice model at a horizontal grid resolution of 1° × 1° to near-equilibrium solutions obtained in two configurations at 4° (longitude) × 2° (latitude) resolution. All simulations use realistic, smoothed topography and monthly averaged climatological forcings. Our comparison of the results emphasizes large-scale features relevant to global climate change. Since neither the 1° × 1° simulation nor the 4° × 2° simulations resolves ocean eddies, our results do not address the possible importance of resolving eddies in ocean-climate simulations. There are significant differences between the 1° × 1° and 4° × 2° simulations, most notably in the Arctic Ocean. However, the large-scale features of the model solutions are very similar at the two resolutions and in many cases are more sensitive to a large difference in horizontal viscosity than to the difference in resolution. This suggests that other approaches to improving the solution of ocean-climate models will be more effective than increases in horizontal resolution outside the eddy-resolving regime.
Modeling Drug‐Melanin Interaction With Theoretical Linear Solvation Energy Relationships

The affinity of drugs and other xenobiotic agents for melanin is a well-known phenomenon, often occurring with serious physiological consequences. For example, the interaction of anti-psychotic drugs with neuromelanin may play a pivotal role in the induction of extrapyramidal movement disorders associated with the chronic administration of phenothiazine and other neuroleptic agents. Little, however, is known about the complete nature of melanin-drug binding and the impact of these interactions on the physico-chemical properties of melanin. Data, such as binding affinities, can be analyzed using recently developed computational methods that combine mathematical models of chemical structure with statistical analysis. In particular, theoretical linear solvation energy relationships provide a convenient model for understanding and predicting biological, chemical, and physical properties. By using this modeling technique, drug-melanin binding of a set of 16 compounds has been analyzed with correlation analysis and a set of theoretical molecular parameters in order to better understand and characterize drug-melanin interactions. The resulting correlation equation supports a charge transfer model for drug-melanin complex formation and can also be used to estimate binding constants for related compounds.
The basis number of the n-cube

1. INTRODUCTION Throughout this paper we consider only finite, undirected graphs without loops or multiple edges. Our terminology and notation will be standard except as indicated. For undefined terms see [ 11. Let e,, e2,..., e 4 be an ordering of the edges in a connected graph G. Then any subset S of edges corresponds to a (0, 1)-vector (ui, a,,..., u4) in the usual way, with ai = 1 if e, E S and Ui = 0, otherwise. These vectors Form a q-dimensional vector space over the’ field Z, . Those vectors corresponding to the. cycles in G generate a subspace of (Z,)q called the cycle space of G, and denoted by Q(G). (We, shall say, however, that the cycles themselves, rather than the vectors corresponding to the cycles, generate g(G).) It is well known that the dimension of Q(G) is
Model implementation for dynamic computation of system cost for advanced life support

Life support system designs for long-duration space missions have a multitude of requirements drivers, such as mission objectives, political considerations, cost, crew wellness, inherent mission attributes, as well as many other influences. Evaluation of requirements satisfaction can be difficult, particularly at an early stage of mission design. Because launch cost is a critical factor and relatively easy to quantify, it is a point of focus in early mission design. The method used to determine launch cost influences the accuracy of the estimate. This paper discusses the appropriateness of dynamic mission simulation in estimating the launch cost of a life support system. This paper also provides an abbreviated example of a dynamic simulation life support model and possible ways in which such a model might be utilized for design improvement.
Reaction of the oxygen-deficient YBa2Cu3O6 phase with water

Abstract The oxygen deficient high-Tc material, YBa2Cu3O6, decomposes rapidly when in the presence of water solution or water vapor. Accordingly, upon reaction with water, it decomposes into Ba(OH)2, Cu2O, CuO, a metastable “Y2BaCuO5” phase and a series of unidentified amorphous compounds. Although the majority of the decomposition products are insoluble in water, Ba(OH)2 leaches away into solution where it subsequently reacts with atmospheric CO2 to form sparingly soluble BaCO3 crystals. Interestingly, the “Y2BaCuO5” phase forms only in the initial stages of corrosion and disappears after long water exposure times. On the other hand, authentic Y2BaCuO5 samples are very stable in the presence of water. Thus, the chemical reactivity of the “Y2BaCuO5” phase generated via decomposition of the high-Tc material is different from that of the authentic phase. In addition, comparisons of the relative reactivity of YBa2Cu3O7 and YBa2Cu3O6 samples reveal that the oxygen deficient material is more reactive than the fully oxygenated compound. This unusual reactivity trend suggests that factors other than copper formal valence dominate the chemical reactivity of the high-Tc phase.
Impact Excitation and Polarization of the Emitted Light

A new formulation is presented for the angular distribution and the polarization of light excited by atomic and electronic collisions and modulated in time by the action of internal and external fields. The formulation disentangles geometrical and dynamical effects and stresses the extraction of data on the alignment and orientation of radiating atoms from observations of the emitted light. The treatment is set in the context of recent experimental and theoretical literature and points to new avenues of research.
Influence of nitric oxide donors and peroxynitrite on the contractile effect and concentration of norepinephrine

Nitric oxide (NO) and peroxynitrite (ONOO) are said to destroy norepinephrine (NE). We studied the role of NE decomposition by NO donors and ONOO as they affect the contractile activity of NE in rat denuded thoracic aorta. First, we determined the relaxing effect of NO donors (SNAP, PROLI/NO, Sodium nitrite, SIN-1) and ONOO after precontraction by NE (1 microM). SNAP and SIN-1 (EC(50) 50-110 nM) were more active than PROLI/NO, Sodium nitrite or ONOO (EC(50) 19-30 microM). The relaxing effect of NO donors and ONOO were decreased by ODQ (10 microM), a guanylate cyclase inhibitor. Second, we compared the contractile activity of NE before and after preincubation with NO donors or ONOO in presence of ODQ. NE (1 microM) was incubated with NO donors or ONOO at the concentrations of 0.1 mM in both Krebs solution or phosphate buffer (pH 7.4; 0.1 M) for 10 minutes at 37 degrees C. NE evoked the aorta contraction in the same concentrations before and after preincubation with NO donors. In contrast, ONOO decreased effect of NE, EC(50) was measured at 4.3+/-0.3 nM and 13.4+/-1.6 nM, before and after preincubation of NE with ONOO respectively. Third, we measured the NE concentration using the HPLC method. We revealed that the concentration of NE after preincubation with NO donors was unaltered. However HPLC measurement revealed that NE concentration after preincubation with ONOO was reduced 2-3-fold. Therefore, under these experimental conditions ONOO, but not NO donors, was capable of destroying NE.
Immunofluorescent visualization of 100 A filaments in different cultured chick embryo cell types.

Antibody prepared against the 55,000 dalton subunit of reconstituted chick gizzard 100 A filaments (anti-G55K) bound to the 100 A filaments of chick smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and skeletal muscle cells, and to the 100 A filaments of Schwann cells and satellite glial cells of the peripheral nervous system. Anti-G55K did not bind to replicating presumptive myoblasts, fibroblasts, chondroblasts, pigment cells, neurons, or to central nervous system glial cells. This contrasted with the wider range of binding of antibody to the 58,000 dalton subunit of chick fibroblast 100 A filaments (anti-F58K) which bound to the 100 A filaments of all cell types examined except hepatocytes and skin epithelial cells. Anti-G55K staining revealed a morphologically distinct distribution of 100 A filaments in the three types of muscle cells. Spindle shaped smooth muscle cells exhibited dense fluorescent staining near the poles of the cells, and also exhibited unique patches of fluorescent material after cytochalasin B and Colcemid treatment. In myotubes, the fluorescence was limited to longitudinal bundles of filaments between the striated myofibrils. Cardiac cells contained uniformly distributed fine filaments. Lastly, smooth muscle cells in various phases of mitosis bound the anti-G55K, whereas replicating presumptive skeletal myoblasts failed to bind the anti-G55K.
The Role of Membrane Context in the Interaction of Polyglutamine Peptides with Lipid Membranes

Huntington's disease is a dominant genetic neurodegenerative disorder associated with motor and cognitive decline, caused by a mutation in the poly-glutamine (polyQ) region near the N-terminus of the huntingtin (htt) protein. Expansion of the polyQ region above 35-40 repeats results in the disease that is characterized by inclusion body aggregates of mutated protein. The polyQ expansion in htt is flanked by a 17 amino acid N-terminal sequence (Nt17) and a proline-rich (polyP) region. To investigate the interaction between htt exon1 and lipid membranes, a combination of Langmuir trough techniques and vesicle permeability assays measuring calcein leakage were used to directly monitor the interaction of a variety of synthetic polyQ peptides with total brain lipid extract (TBLE) model membranes doped with specific membrane components. Our data suggests that the Nt17 domain plays a critical role in htt binding and aggregation on lipid membranes, and this lipid/htt interaction is enhanced by the presence of the polyP domain. The exogenous addition of cholesterol, a primary neuronal plasma membrane component reduced in many Huntington's disease models, to the TBLE monolayer caused a notable condensing effect in the membrane at low surface pressures. This resulted in reduced peptide insertion into lipid monolayers and decreased levels of induced vesicle permeability, though the effect does not scale linearly with cholesterol concentration. Results from parallel studies on htt-membrane interaction with sphingomyelin, a major component of membranes in the nervous system, will also be discussed.
Spatial Foraging Patterns of the African Honey Bee, Apis mellifera scutellata

Recruitment patterns were investigated for the African honey bee in the Okavango River Delta, Botswana. The waggle dances of two observation colonies maintained in the field were monitored and used to construct maps of daily recruitment activity. These maps revealed that the African colonies frequently adjusted the allocation of recruits among food patches, recruited for 16–17 different food sites/day over areas of 55–80 km 2 ,and concentrated the majority of recruitment within 1 km of the hives (median foraging distances for the two colonies were 295 and 563 m). In both colonies pollen foragers were more abundant than nectar foragers, and pollen sources indicated by waggle dancers were significantly closer to the hives than nectar sources. Compared to the recruitment patterns of temperate climate colonies, the African colonies had smaller recruitment areas, smaller mean recruitment distances, and a greater emphasis on pollen foraging. These differences may be related to the contrasting survival strategies followed by tropical-versus temperate-climate honey bees.
Coupling Coefficients for the Octahedral Group with Orthorhombic Components

A tabulation is given of the vector coupling coefficients for the octahedral group, where the components of the degenerate representations have been defined with respect to a two-fold octahedral axis. Coefficients are given for both real and complex choices of the components, and should be useful in describing nearly octahedral transition metal complexes with orthorhombic perturbations.
Time-Varying Channel Identification and Prediction in OFDM Systems using 2-D Frequency Estimation

We consider the long range channel estimation and prediction problem in adaptive OFDM systems. A deterministic frequency- and time-selective channel model, which contains the Doppler shift, delay and amplitude parameters for each path, is applied to describe the channel. It is shown that the parameter identification problem is essentially a 2-D frequency estimation problem. We propose a new joint 2-D frequency estimation algorithm to estimate the parameters in the deterministic channel model. The proposed algorithm possesses several advantages in identifiability, performance, and complexity. The estimated parameters are then used to predict channel variations. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers better performance than existing channel prediction algorithm based on 1-D frequency estimation
Bjerknes forces between two bubbles. Part 1. Response to a step change in pressure

It is well known from experiments in acoustic cavitation that two bubbles pulsating in a liquid may attract or repel each other depending on whether they oscillate in or out of phase, respectively. The forces responsible for this phenomenon are called ‘Bjerknes’ forces. When attractive forces are present the two bubbles are seen to accelerate towards each other and coalesce (Kornfeld & Suvorov 1944) and occasionally even breakup in the process. In the present study the response of two initially equal and spherical bubbles is examined under a step change in the hydrostatic pressure at infinity. A hybrid boundary–finite element method is used in order to follow the shape deformation and change in the potential of the two interfaces. Under the conditions mentioned above the two bubbles are found to attract each other always, with a force inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them when this distance is large, a result known to Bjerknes. As time increases the two bubbles continue accelerating towards each other and often resemble either the spherical-cap shapes observed by Davies & Taylor (1950), or the globally deformed shapes observed by Kornfeld & Suvorov (1944). Such shapes occur for sufficiently large or small values of the Bond number respectively (based on the average acceleration). It is also shown here that spherical-cap shapes arise through a Rayleigh–Taylor instability, whereas globally deformed shapes occur as a result of subharmonic resonance between the volume oscillations of the two bubbles and certain non-spherical harmonics (Hall & Seminara 1980). Eventually, in both cases the two bubbles break up due to severe surface deformation.
Renal Diseases Associated with Hematuria in Children and Adolescents: A Brief Tutorial

The detection of microscopic hematuria in a child's urine prompts evaluation for renal and urinary bladder causes. Microscopic hematuria identified during a routine physical examination by the pediatrician is much more common than macroscopic hematuria. Persistent microscopic hematuria is particularly worrisome and may require a percutaneous needle core kidney biopsy to determine whether the etiology is secondary to glomerular disease, tubulointerstitial disease, urinary tract infection, urinary tract structural abnormalities, medications, or toxins. This paper reviews the epidemiology, pathologic features, pathogenesis, treatment, and outcome of familial hematuria (Alport syndrome [hereditary nephritis]), thin basement membrane nephropathy), IgA nephropathy, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, and acute postinfectious glomerulonephritis.
Inflammation and Insulin Resistance: An Old Story with New Ideas

Years before insulin was discovered, anti-inflammatory sodium salicylate was used to treat diabetes in 1901. Intriguingly for many years that followed, diabetes was viewed as a disorder of glucose metabolism, and then it was described as a disease of dysregulated lipid metabolism. The diabetes research focused on the causal relationship between obesity and insulin resistance, a major characteristic of type 2 diabetes. It is only within the past 20 years when the notion of inflammation as a cause of insulin resistance began to surface. In obesity, inflammation develops when macrophages infiltrate adipose tissue and stimulate adipocyte secretion of inflammatory cytokines, that in turn affect energy balance, glucose and lipid metabolism, leading to insulin resistance. This report reviews recent discoveries of stress kinase signaling involving molecular scaffolds and endoplasmic reticulum chaperones that regulate energy balance and glucose homeostasis. As we advance from a conceptual understanding to molecular discoveries, a century-old story of inflammation and insulin resistance is re-born with new ideas.
Read before you write

This paper describes and advocates a focused approach to using inspections of software artifacts as an active learning technique in software engineering education. A central thesis is that one must “learn to read before they write” that is, you should read and study an existing software artifact, before you develop one. There is discussion of how software artifacts and supporting instructional materials from a Digital Home case study project can be used to support and guide software inspection exercises. These inspection exercises are designed to introduce students to realistic software engineering artifacts and involve them in rigorous examination of their contents. Instances of the use of software inspections to teach software engineering are described and analyzed: the experiences of students and instructors, what worked and what did not, and how this influenced the cases study project. The authors also outline a set of topics and courses in which software inspections might be used as a teaching tool throughout a computing curriculum.
Pacemaker electrode perforation of the myocardium: An unusual etiology for recurrent abdominal pain

Abstract A 79-year-old man with a permanent pacemaker presented on five separate occasions to the emergency department with recurrent episodes of crampy abdominal pain. Extensive radiographic studies and repetitive labwork were nondiagnostic. Shortly after hospital admlssion on the fifth visit he experienced cardiac arrest and was successfully resuscitated. Poor pacemaker capture and paced clonic contractions of the diaphragm and abdominal wall were noted, suggesting myocardial perforation by the pacemaker electrode. A new lead and pulse generator were implanted and the patient was discharged without further abdominal discomfort. Implications of pacemaker electrode perforation of the myocardium are discussed.
Detailed layer assignment for MCM routing

A new routing environment model, called the k-MCM model, is developed to take into account the unique features of a multilayer MCM, such as the availability of “segmented vias”, and the presence of two “active” or terminal-bearing layers. A detailed layer assignment problem is formulated on the k-MCM model. A fast heuristic algorithm for the layer assignment problem is proposed. and experimental results on twelve test examples with net counts up to 842 are presented.
Determining safety stocks in the presence of workload-dependent lead times

Most classical stochastic inventory models assume that replenishment lead times are independent of the amount of orders placed. This assumption is clearly problematic in capacitated production systems, where queueing models show that mean cycle time is a nonlinear increasing function of resource utilization. We use a simulation environment created for rapid prototyping of supply chains to examine the problem of setting safety stocks in environments with workload-dependent lead times. We show that even when extensive historical data is used, conventional approaches to setting safety stocks fail to provide the desired service level when lead times are load-dependent, and suggest directions for future research.
Modeling multi-factor binding of the genome

Hundreds of different factors adorn the eukaryotic genome, binding to it in large number. These DNA binding factors (DBFs) include nucleosomes, transcription factors (TFs), and other proteins and protein complexes, such as the origin recognition complex (ORC). DBFs compete with one another for binding along the genome, yet many current models of genome binding do not consider different types of DBFs together simultaneously. Additionally, binding is a stochastic process that results in a continuum of binding probabilities at any position along the genome, but many current models tend to consider positions as being either binding sites or not. Here, we present a model that allows a multitude of DBFs, each at different concentrations, to compete with one another for binding sites along the genome. The result is an 'occupancy profile', a probabilistic description of the DNA occupancy of each factor at each position. We implement our model efficiently as the software package COMPETE. We demonstrate genome-wide and at specific loci how modeling nucleosome binding alters TF binding, and vice versa, and illustrate how factor concentration influences binding occupancy. Binding cooperativity between nearby TFs arises implicitly via mutual competition with nucleosomes. Our method applies not only to TFs, but also recapitulates known occupancy profiles of a well-studied replication origin with and without ORC binding. We then develop a statistical framework for tuning our model concentrations to further improve its predictions. Importantly, this tuning optimizes with respect to actual biological data. We take steps to ensure that our tuned parameters are biologically plausible. Finally, we discuss novel extensions and applications of our model, suggesting next steps in its development and deployment.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES IN CONTRACEPTIVE HEALTH POLICY

The year 2000 marked the fortieth anniversary of the oral contraceptive known as the "pill." Despite the availability of the pill, and other contraceptives, many unresolved issues remain. Concerns with contraceptive side effects, high use-failure rates, and high rates of both unintended pregnancies and abortions indicate a need for improved contraceptive choices. Experts have called for a second contraceptive revolution that would bring radically new contraceptive products to the market. Unfortunately, this second revolution has not occurred, and contraceptive research has been virtually abandoned by most major pharmaceutical firms. We suggest that inclusion of contraceptives within the 1983 Orphan Drug Act and U.S. federal legislation known as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defense could provide the economic incentives needed to spark the second contraceptive revolution.
Doing more with less: Magic on Windows 95/NT

Since its creation in the mid 1980's, Magic has been one of the most widely used layout tools for Manhattan (Mead and Conway) style IC layout. This is due to its flexibility, ease of use, and cost (free via ftp). Magic has been ported to many platforms, including the MAC-II and DOS, but mainly Unix-based platforms. The DOS version was limited and not widely used. With the proliferation of Windows 95/NT platforms, it seems only natural that Magic be ported to Windows 95/NT. Yet, there does not appear to be a port to Windows 95/NT available. The reason for this appears to be the difficulty of programming "windows" in this environment. We believe that we have a way around this difficulty. Development is currently underway to port Magic to Windows 95/NT using Tcl and the Tk Toolkit. This should ease the interface to the window system through "generic" routines. As a matter of fact, the same Tcl/Tk display driver should function under X11 Unix-based platforms us well as Windows 95/NT and other platforms with Tcl and Tk Toolkits.
Consistent Differential Expression Pattern (CDEP) on microarray to identify genes related to metastatic behavior

Background: To utilize the large volume of gene expression information generated from different microarray experiments, several meta-analysis techniques have been developed. Despite these efforts, there remain significant challenges to effectively increasing the statistical power and decreasing the Type I error rate while pooling the heterogeneous datasets from public resources. The objective of this study is to develop a novel meta-analysis approach, Consistent Differential Expression Pattern (CDEP), to identify genes with common differential expression patterns across different datasets. Results: We combined False Discovery Rate (FDR) estimation and the non-parametric RankProd approach to estimate the Type I error rate in each microarray dataset of the meta-analysis. These Type I error rates from all datasets were then used to identify genes with common differential expression patterns. Our simulation study showed that CDEP achieved higher statistical power and maintained low Type I error rate when compared with two recently proposed meta-analysis approaches. We applied CDEP to analyze microarray data from different laboratories that compared transcription profiles between metastatic and primary cancer of different types. Many genes identified as differentially expressed consistently across different cancer types are in pathways related to metastatic behavior, such as ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, and blood vessel development. We also identified novel genes such as AMIGO2, Gem, and CXCL11 that have not been shown to associate with, but may play roles in, metastasis. Conclusions: CDEP is a flexible approach that borrows information from each dataset in a meta-analysis in order to identify genes being differentially expressed consistently. We have shown that CDEP can gain higher statistical power than other existing approaches under a variety of settings considered in the simulation study, suggesting its robustness and insensitivity to data variation commonly associated with microarray experiments. Availability: CDEP is implemented in R and freely available at: http://genomebioinfo.musc.edu/CDEP/ Contact: zhengw@musc.edu
Diffusion: A Layman's approach and its applications to one-dimensional random systems☆

Abstract Diffusion characteristics are reduced to the solution of a simple stationary equation. In classical one-dimensional random systems, time-irreversability (provided, e.g., by a magnetic field) implies L ∝ l nt, L is a diffusion length, t is time, while local space assymetry (provided by random fields) implies L ∝ l n2t; both cases are related to the localized particle distribution.
Cries From the Morgue

TOPIC Family member homicide. PURPOSE To explore the unique facets of bereavement for a family member of a homicide victim in order to assist clinicians during assessment, evaluation, and intervention with children. SOURCES The authors' experience in working with children at a child grief center and published literature. CONCLUSIONS Children experience grief uniquely and use differing methods of coping and adaptation. Knowledge of these differences can assist clinicians with promotion of adaptive coping and grieving in children who have been exposed to murder.
The Journey Toward Lean Manufacturing: Applying The Kaizen Blitz Method To Improving Operations

The authors researched an interesting example of the application of the Kaizen Blitz method to improving operations in a clean-room plant located in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN, USA, which is part of a division of a large, international medical products manufacturing company. Heartlung devices used in open heart surgery are manufactured in the plant. Under pressure to reduce medical costs and having benchmark data from competitors, it was clear that operations involved in manufacturing the heart-lung devices had lead times that were too long, required far too much inventory, were too labor-intensive in spite of using several expensive automated procedures, and had comparatively low yield rates, resulting in far too much waste. The information and data gathered by the authors were organized into a case study that is suitable for teaching process improvement methods in a university course as well as for industry training. The case details the context in which the Kaizen Blitz method was used, how it was applied, documents before and after conditions with key performance statistics, as well as provides background information on the Kaizen Blitz method. Selected references and sources are also provided.
Applications of a Numerical Spectral Expansion Method to Problems in Physics; a Retrospective

A long collaboration between Israel Koltracht and the present author resulted in a new formulation of a spectral expansion method in terms of Chebyshev polynomials appropriate for solving a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind, in one dimension. An accuracy of eight significant figures is generally obtained. The method will be reviewed, and applications to physics problems will be described.
The Clinician and Clinical Research

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine defined quality patient care as that which “increases the likelihood of desired health outcomes and is consistent with current professional knowledge.”[1][1] Seen in this light, the need to stay consistent and current brings with it the need for research; as a
Durable Airtightness in Single-Family Dwellings: Field Measurements and Analysis

Author(s): Chan, Wanyu R; Walker, Iain S.; Sherman, Max H. | Abstract: Durability of the building envelope is important to new homes that are increasingly built with improved levels of airtightness. It is also important to weatherized homes such that energy savings from retrofit measures, such as air sealing, are persistent. This paper presents a comparison of air leakage measurements collected in November 2013 through March 2014, with two sets of prior data collected between 2001-2003 from 17 new homes located near Atlanta, GA, and 17 homes near Boise, ID that were weatherized in 2007- 2008. The purpose of the comparison is to determine if there are changes to the airtightness of building envelopes over time. The air leakage increased in all but one of the new homes, with a mean increase of about 25%. The weatherized homes also showed an increase in the mean air leakage (12%). A regression analysis was performed to describe the relationship between prior and current measurements in terms of normalized leakage (NL). The best estimate of the ageing factor predicts a 15% increase in NL over ten years. Further analysis using ResDB data (LBNL’s Residential Diagnostic Database) showed the expected changes in air leakage if ageing were modelled. These results imply the need to examine the causes of increased leakage and methods to avoid them. This increase in leakage with time should be accounted for in long-term population-wide energy savings estimates, such as those used in ratings or energy savings programs.
Ethnic differences in sympathetic nervous system-mediated energy expenditure

The impact of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity on energy expenditure (EE) was evaluated in nondiabetic Caucasian and Pima Indian men while on a weight-maintenance diet using two approaches...
Purification and characterization of chicken ovalbumin gene upstream promoter transcription factor from homologous oviduct cells.

Abstract Previous studies established that the chicken ovalbumin gene upstream promoter (COUP) sequence, which lies between -70 and -90 base pairs upstream from the cap site, is essential for the efficient transcription of the ovalbumin gene. A transcription factor which binds to this sequence has been purified from the homologous chicken oviduct cells. The purification scheme starting from oviduct nuclear extract involved a combination of conventional column and sequence-specific DNA affinity chromatography steps. Using gel retardation and DNase I footprinting techniques to assay COUP-binding activity, we achieved extensive purification of this factor. Binding competition studies with the purified factor indicated that it bound specifically to the COUP sequence and that the binding could be competed for only by the promoter DNA fragments or synthetic oligonucleotides containing the COUP sequence. The purified protein preparation showed multiple polypeptide bands on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Renaturation of separated polypeptides after extraction from the gel matrix was carried out. The majority of renatured polypeptides exhibited specific binding to the COUP sequence.
Long-term progression and survival following Norwood Single Ventricle Reconstruction.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Much data exist concerning Norwood discharge mortality. Less is known about late survival. Examining the available data in light of the Single Ventricle Reconstruction trial is insightful as focus shifts toward long-term survival. RECENT FINDINGS Data from 2000 to 2001 demonstrated approximately 40-50% 10-year survival, 30-40% or less between 10 and 15 years. The shape of the curves was characteristic; the majority of deaths within the first year, followed by a late constant phase. Publications from 2001 to 2005 suggested that various combinations of technical and perioperative modifications allowed hospital discharge survivals as high as 90-94%. As results matured (2005-2010) a consistent message was that, although the shape of the newer curves was similar (highest hazard in the first 1 year), higher hospital survival shifted the later phase to yield better long-term survival (70-85% between 5 and 10 years). Some emphasized right ventricle-based shunts as a 'cause' of improving results. Since 2010, the Single Ventricle Reconstruction trial has matured and has increasingly shifted opinion away from the right ventricle shunt as a 'cause' of improved results. The survival of the right ventricle shunt group is slightly higher at 3 years, but the 1-year statistical significance has been lost and the two groups converge. As the Single Ventricle Reconstruction study was based on the interaction between randomized shunt and survival, the secondary and other endpoint analyses must be cautiously considered. SUMMARY The current English-language literature suggests a 60-80% 5-10 year survival expectation. The shape of the survival curve remains; the highest hazard remains the first year before a later, stable phase is reached. Rather than a 'magic bullet' theory surrounding one technique or practice, centers have differentially adopted various combinations to optimize Norwood survival. Optimizing interstage I survival is a challenge to further increase the percentage of patients reaching the late, stable phase.
Metronidazole-Induced Cerebellar Toxicity

Metronidazole is a very common antibacterial and antiprotozoal with wide usage across the globe, including the least developed countries. It is generally well-tolerated with a low incidence of serious side-effects. Neurological toxicity is fairly common with this drug, however majority of these are peripheral neuropathy with very few cases of central nervous toxicity reported. We report the imaging findings in two patients with cerebellar dysfunction after Metronidazole usage. Signal changes in the dentate and red nucleus were seen on magnetic resonance imaging in these patients. Most of the cases reported in literature reported similar findings, suggesting high predilection for the dentate nucleus in metronidazole induced encephalopathy.