cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stressful Life Events in Young Adults With Type 1 Diabetes in the U.S. T1D Exchange Clinic Registry

PURPOSE The purpose was to test associations among stressful life events, frequency of missed insulin doses, and glycemic control in young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D). DESIGN The study was a cross-sectional descriptive secondary analysis. METHODS Data from 2,921 participants (ages 18-26 years) in the U.S. T1D Exchange Clinic Registry were analyzed. Report of a stressful life event was defined as one or more positive responses on a 17-item stressful life events index and defined as a dichotomous variable (yes or no). Frequency of missed insulin doses was measured using a single self-report item and collapsed into two levels (fewer than three times a week, three or more times a week). The glycosylated hemoglobin (A1c) level recorded at the time of enrollment was used to assess glycemic control. FINDINGS Nearly half (48.6%) of the participants reported having a stressful life event during the previous year. The most frequently reported stressful life events were problems at work or school (16.1%), serious arguments with family members or a close friend (15.2%), and financial problems in the family (13.8%). Compared to the participants not reporting stressful life events, those who reported stressful life events were more likely to be older, female, with a higher educational attainment level, and not working or unemployed. Those who reported a stressful life event were more likely than those who did not to say they typically missed insulin doses at least three times a week and less likely to say they typically missed insulin doses fewer than three times a week (p < .001 adjusted for age, sex, race or ethnicity, educational attainment level, duration of T1D diagnosis, and insulin delivery method). Mean A1c level was higher for the group who reported having a stressful life event in the past 12 months compared to the group who did not (8.7 ± 1.8% vs. 8.2 ± 1.6%; adjusted p < .001). The results of a mediation analysis suggest that the measure of frequency of missed insulin doses may be a mediator of the relationship between recent stressful life events and glycemic control (Sobel test: ab = .841, 95% confidence interval = 0.064-1.618). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that, for young adults with T1D, the experience of stressful life events may increase their risk for poorer glycemic control, possibly by disrupting adherence with insulin doses. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Further exploration of these relationships may allow for the potential for identifying those at risk and assisting them with more positive approaches to managing stressful events.
Minimally invasive segmentectomy for early stage lung cancer gains momentum.

The extent of surgical resection for peripheral clinical T1N0M0 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) ≤2 cm continues to be a matter of debate. In 1995, results from ‘The lung cancer study group’ trial established lobectomy as the standard of care. Since then, an extensive body of literature mainly composed of retrospective studies supports the use of radical anatomical segmentectomy, certainly for older patients with limited cardiopulmonary function. In a select group of patients, segmentectomy has been shown to be oncologically equivalent to lobectomy and it offers better preservation of pulmonary function (1,2). Paralleled with advancements in various diagnostic modalities, the understanding of segmental anatomy of pulmonary arteries, veins and bronchi continues to improve. Moreover, the risk of developing metachronous, recurrent or second primary lung cancer after therapeutic lung cancer resection surgery remains significant. Hence, patients with preserved lung function are more likely to withstand further therapeutic lung cancer surgery.
Short and Stout Female Donors in Heart Transplantation: Do They Make a Difference?

Purpose Certain donor characteristics after heart transplantation (HTx) may have less optimal outcome post-HTx. One factors leading to worse outcome is female donors to male recipient possibly due to size (height and weight) mismatch relative to male donors. We try to compensate for this size mismatch by using obese female donors into male recipients. However, there have been recent concerns with obese donors, in the sense that there are commonly large fat deposits on the donor heart. It is not known whether short and obese female donors (weight oversizing) results in acceptable outcome after HTx. We sought to assess for this possibility in our large single center. Methods Between 2010 and 2017 we assessed 799 HTx patients and divided them into those male recipients who received female donors (n=246) that were short (≤ 66 inches) and obese (BMI≥30) (n=61) and short and non-obese (BMI major adverse cardiac events (NF-MACE: myocardial infarction , new congestive heart failure , percutaneous coronary intervention, implantable cardioverter defibrillator/pacemaker implant, stroke), and freedom from any-treated rejection, acute cellular rejection , and antibody-mediated rejection . Results There is no significant difference in 1-year outcomes between short and obese female donors, short and non-obese female donors, and male donors of similar heights and weights (see tables). Conclusion Short and stout female donors appear to be acceptable for HTx which increases the donor pool.
Modelling Afghanistanâ€™s Average Monthly Temperature from 1901 to 2015

The purpose of this investigation is to examine the variation of temperature in Afghanistan over the past 114 years. The historical dataset of the monthly average temperature from 1901 to 2015 were analyzed. The relationship between temperature and time during the four time intervals, i.e. (1901 -1930), (1931-1960), (1961-1990) and (1991-2015) is presented using a new analytical model based on the last â€“square method of estimation. We accurately fit a polynomial regression trend of degree 4 to the time series to describe the temperature variation. The results show the average difference of temperature between 2015 and 1901 increases about 1.03 Â°C. The average monthly difference between the maximum and minimum temperature was approximately 3.66 Â°C and the average monthly difference between the maximum and minimum temperature during these periods is approximately about 1.31 Â°C. This approach of modeling temperature using regression form significantly simplifies the data analysis. The information from data, namely the variation of the temperature, maybe be obtained from the extracted parameters such as slope, y-intercept, and the coefficients of polynomial function that are a function of time. More importantly, the parameters that describe the time variation temperature trends over 115 years obtained with a high R-squared do not vary significantly. This is in agreement with the Earthâ€™s average temperature that has climbed to more 1 Â°C The evaluation of Afghanistanâ€™s past climate data can be extremely important for understanding how climate has varied along with their possible predictable outcomes that come with increasing drought risk due to gradual increase of temperature. These results may be useful for environmental policy makers in comprehension of climate change in Afghanistan. The results can help develop appropriate strategies for the environment, and regulate resource use or pollution reduction to promote human welfare and/or nature protection.
Adherence to AUA Clinical Guidelines: Motivations and Barriers

AbstractIntroduction:The AUA (American Urological Association) has been producing clinical practice guidelines to inform its members on standards of care since 1994. While adherence to these clinic...
Concurrent ESD and Surge Protection Clamps in RF Power Amplifier

For cost reduction and device miniaturization efforts, the system-level surge suppressor is often being removed, which motivates developing concurrent HBM and surge protection clamps. Here, we characterize Surge and HBM performance of the conventional clamps, and further propose a partial feedback combo clamp and ballasted RC-triggered clamp.
Effect of Temperature on the Fracture Toughness of a NiTiHf High Temperature Shape Memory Alloy

The fracture toughness of Ni50.3Ti29.7Hf20 high temperature shape memory alloy was systematically investigated as a function of temperature. A set of nominally isothermal fracture toughness tests were conducted on disk-shaped compact tension specimens at five temperatures corresponding to three thermodynamical conditions: (i) below martensite finish temperature to obtain the fracture toughness of martensite (ii) above martensite start temperature in austenite but below the martensite desist temperature (Md, the temperature above which the austenite does not transform), in order to find the fracture toughness when stress induced martensitic (SIM) transformation takes place close to the crack tip, and (iii) above Md, in order to obtain the fracture toughness of austenite. The extent of the inelastic zone near the crack tip was detected using digital image correlation, and the fracture surfaces were examined. The fracture behavior was highly temperature/phase dependent. The fracture toughness of the transforming material was higher than that of austenite and martensite, i.e. SIM transformation acts as a toughening mechanism. This was attributed to the differences in strain hardening behavior in detwinning, martensitic transformation, and plastic deformation regimes of the stress–strain response, where SIM transformation occurs with the lowest strain hardening rate. The fracture toughness values obtained here are lower than those of equiatomic NiTi.
Where to Go Next?: A Realistic Evaluation of AI-Assisted Mobility Predictors for HetNets

5G is considered as the ecosystem to abet the ever growing number of mobile devices and users requiring an unprecedented amount of data and highly demanding Quality of Experience (QoE). To accommodate these demands, 5G requires extreme densification of base station deployment, which will result in a network that requires overwhelming efforts to maintain and manage. User mobility prediction in wireless communications can be exploited to overcome these foregoing challenges. Knowledge of where users will go next enables cellular networks to improve handover management. In addition, it allows networks to engage in advanced resource allocation and reservation, cell load prediction and proactive energy saving. However, anticipating the movement of humans is, in itself, a challenge due to the lack of realistic mobility models and insufficiencies of cellular system models in capturing a real network dynamics. In this paper, we have evaluated Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted mobility predictors. We model mobility prediction as a multi-class classification problem to predict the future base station association of the mobile users using Extreme Gradient Boosting Trees (XGBoost) and Deep Neural Networks (DNN). Using a realistic mobility model and a 3GPP-compliant cellular network simulator, results show that, XGBoost outperforms DNN with prediction accuracy reaching up to 95% in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) scenario with shadowing varied from OdB to 4dB.
The productive mind: Creativity as a source of abstract mental representations

Explanations of how the brain makes successful predictions should refer to abstracta. But, the mind/brain system is for more than prediction alone. Creativity also plays an important role in supply the mind/brain system with abstracta that serve a number of valuable ends over and above prediction.
Valuing Flexible Manufacturing Facilities as Options

Models for valuing an option to exchange one commodity for another, or any combination of n input commodities for some combination of m outputs, are applied to the capital budgeting problem, making it possible to draw sound conclusions about the valuation effects of flexibility and innovativeness. New algorithms enable practical application of the model to complex flexible manufacturing facilities. Careful attention to estimating the matrix of correlations among the prices of potential inputs and outputs involves explicit integration of financial analysis and strategic analysis especially the influence of substitutes and the anticipated reactions of competitors, suppliers, and potential new entrants.
Evolutionary insights into coagulation factor IX Padua and other high-specific-activity variants

The high-specific-activity factor IX (FIX) variant Padua (R338L) is the most promising transgene for hemophilia B (HB) gene therapy. Although R338 is strongly conserved in mammalian evolution, amino acid substitutions at this position are underrepresented in HB databases. We therefore undertook a complete 20 amino acid scan and determined the specific activity of human (h) and canine (c) FIX variants with every amino acid substituted at position 338. Notably, we observe that hFIX-R338L is the most active variant and cFIX-R338L is sevenfold higher than wild-type (WT) cFIX. This is consistent with the previous identification of hFIX-R338L as a cause of a rare X-linked thrombophilia risk factor. Moreover, WT hFIX and cFIX are some of the least active variants. We confirmed the increased specific activity relative to FIX-WT in vivo of a new variant, cFIX-R338I, after gene therapy in an HB dog. Last, we screened 232 pediatric subjects with thromboembolic disease without identifying F9 R338 variants. Together these observations suggest a surprising evolutionary pressure to limit FIX activity with WT FIX rather than maximize FIX activity.
Impact of a Thoracic Multidisciplinary Conference on Lung Cancer Outcomes.

Abstract Background With the complexity of cancer treatment rising, the role of multidisciplinary conferences (MDCs) in making diagnostic and treatment decisions has become critical. This study evaluated the impact of a thoracic MDC (T-MDC) on lung cancer care quality and survival. Methods Lung cancer cases over 7 years were identified from the Roswell Park cancer registry system. The survival rates and treatment plans of 300 patients presented at the MDC were compared with 300 matched patients. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines were used to define the standard of care. The compliance of care plans with NCCN guidelines was summarized using counts and percentages, with comparisons made using the Fisher exact test. Survival outcomes were summarized using Kaplan-Meier methods. Results There was improvement in median overall survival (36.9 vs 19.3 months; P Conclusions Our results suggest that lung cancer patients have a survival benefit from MDC discussion compared with controls. Patients with advanced disease (stages III and IV) benefited the most. Further research is necessary to understand the precise mechanisms that drive these results.
Credit Rating and Underpricing of Seasoned Equity Offerings

This paper examines how firm credit rating affects SEO underpricing and announcement-period abnormal stock returns. We find that firms with credit ratings have less SEO underpricing than firms without credit ratings. We also find that firms with high credit ratings have less SEO underpricing and smaller announcement-period abnormal stock returns than firms with low credit ratings. These results suggest that the existence of credit ratings reduces information asymmetry and the level of credit ratings indicates the degree of wealth transfer from shareholders to bondholders in SEOs.
Efficacy of montmorillonite and vitamin AD combined with zinc preparation in children with diarrheal disease and its effect on inflammatory factors.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of montmorillonite and vitamin AD combined with zinc preparation in children with diarrheal disease and its effect on inflammatory factors. METHODS A total of 156 children with diarrheal diseases admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to January 2020 were enrolled and divided into two groups (n=78 for each) using random number table. The control group (CG) was treated with montmorillonite, and the observation group (OG) was additionally treated with vitamin AD and zinc. Both groups completed 7 d of treatment and 3 months of follow-up to compare the efficacy rate, time to onset of symptom relief, inflammatory factor levels, T-lymphocyte levels, adverse drug reactions, and relapse rate. RESULTS The efficacy rate of 7 d treatment in the OG was 94.87%, higher than that of 56.41% in the CG (P < 0.05). After intervention, the OG had normal frequency of defecation, shorter time for stool to return to normal appearance, shorter duration of antiemetic, antipyretic, antidiarrheal treatment and shorter hospital stay than those of the CG (P < 0.05). The OG exhibited lower levels of CRP, TNF-α, NO, and PCT and higher levels of SOD than the CG (P < 0.05). The OG had lower levels CD3+ and CD4+ at 7 d after treatment, lower CD8+ levels and higher CD4+/CD8+ levels than the CG (P < 0.05). The relapse rate at 6 months after treatment in the OG was lower than that in the CG (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The combination of montmorillonite, vitamin AD and zinc preparation can achieve higher short-time efficacy, shorten the time of disappearance of symptoms, reduce the level of inflammatory factors, and improve the level of T-lymphocytes, without increasing the incidence of adverse drug reactions.
When is a Seminoma not a Seminoma? The Incidence, Risk Factors and Management of Patients With Testicular Seminoma With Discordant Elevated Serum Alpha-fetoprotein.

OBJECTIVE To describe the incidence, clinical and demographic factors, and treatment patterns associated with discordant elevated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) findings in patients with pure seminomatous histology. METHODS We queried the National Cancer Database to identify patients with testicular germ cell tumors (GCT) diagnosed in 2011-2015. Patients were grouped based on histologic diagnosis and pre-operative serum AFP level. RESULTS Of 18,616 patients diagnosed with testicular GCT, 53% (N = 9,849) had pure seminomatous histology, of whom 8.3% (N = 821) had an elevated serum AFP pre-operatively. Non-white patients with seminoma were more likely to have a pre-op elevated AFP (OR 1.42; 95% CI: 1.10-1.83); patients treated at higher volume centers were less likely to have a pre-op elevated AFP (0.66, 95% CI: 0.53-0.83). Patients with seminoma with elevated AFP received adjuvant radiation more frequently than those with NSGCT (Stage I: 15% vs 0.2%, P <.01; Stage II: 21.9% vs 0.1%, P <.01) and less frequently underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) (Stage 1: 1.9% vs 11.1% P <.01; Stage II: 8.8% vs 17.4%, P <.01). CONCLUSION The detection of elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in patients with pure seminomatous testicular germ cell tumors (GCT) is a discordant finding that implies the presence of occult non-seminomatous GCT (NSGCT) elements. 8% of patients with pure seminomatous GCTs had diagnostically discordant elevated pre-operative AFP levels. Despite recommendations to manage these patients as NSGCT, patients with seminoma and elevated AFP were managed in a fashion comparable to those with seminoma and normal AFP levels.
Data Intensive Distributed Computing; A Medical Application Example

Modern scientific computing involves organizing, moving, visualizing, and analyzing massive amounts of data from around the world, as well as employing large-scale computation. The distributed systems that solve large-scale problems will always involve aggregating and scheduling many resources. Data must be located and staged, cache and network capacity must be available at the same time as computing capacity, etc. Every aspect of such a system is dynamic: locating and scheduling resources, adapting running application systems to availability and congestion in the middleware and infrastructure, responding to human interaction, etc. The technologies, the middleware services, and the architectures that are used to build useful high-speed, wide area distributed systems, constitute the field of data intensive computing. This paper explores some of the history and future directions of that field, and describes a specific medical application example.
The Cambridge Introduction to American Literary Realism

Between the Civil War and the First World War, realism was the most prominent form of American fiction. Realist writers of the period include some of America's greatest, such as Henry James, Edith Wharton and Mark Twain, but also many lesser-known writers whose work still speaks to us today, for instance Charles Chesnutt, Zitkala-Sa and Sarah Orne Jewett. Emphasizing realism's historical context, this introduction traces the genre's relationship with powerful, often violent, social conflicts involving race, gender, class and national origin. It also examines how the realist style was created; the necessarily ambiguous relationship between realism produced on the page and reality outside the book; and the different, often contradictory, forms 'realism' took in literary works by different authors. The most accessible yet sophisticated account of American literary realism currently available, this volume will be of great value to students, teachers and readers of the American novel.
The role of ROS generation from magnetic nanoparticles in an alternating magnetic field on cytotoxicity.

Abstract Monosaccharide coated iron oxide nanoparticles were developed to selectively target colon cancer cell lines for magnetically mediated energy delivery therapy. The nanoparticles were prepared using a coupling reaction to attach the glucose functional group to the iron oxide core, and functionality was confirmed with physicochemical characterization techniques. The targeted nanoparticles were internalized into CT26 cells at a greater extent than non-targeted nanoparticles, and the nanoparticles were shown to be localized within lysosomes. Cells with internalized nanoparticles were exposed to an AMF to determine the potential to delivery therapy. Cellular ROS generation and apoptotic cell death was enhanced with field exposure. The nanoparticle coatings inhibit the Fenton-like surface generation of ROS suggesting a thermal or mechanical effect is more likely the source of the intracellular effect, unless the nanoparticle coating is unstable in the cellular environment. Statement of Significance This is the first study to assess glucose coated MNPs for the delivery of MagMED therapy. With exposure of an AMF, the glucose-coated nanoparticles displayed a significant increase in cellular ROS and apoptotic cell death with no measurable increase in media temperature. To determine the mechanism of toxicity, we investigated the surface generation of ROS through Fenton-like chemistry. The coated systems displayed negligible ROS generation compared to uncoated nanoparticles. These observations suggest the cellular ROS measured is attributed to a thermal or mechanical effect of the internalized nanoparticles. In summary, this manuscript reports on some new insights as to the mechanism of MagMED therapies, which are of high interest to the biomaterials and cancer nanomedicine fields.
Two-electron processes in ion-atom collisions — experiment

In an ion-atom collision, processes involving two electrons often compete with or contribute to the corresponding one-electron processes, making it important to isolate and identify these two-electron mechanisms in order to make detailed comparisons with theory. Four distinct two-electron processes occurring in single collisions are discussed, namely (a) two-electron capture, (b) two-electron loss from a projectile, (c) combined projectile electron loss and excitation, and (d) electron capture associated with additional target ionization. The importance of these two-electron processes compared to the relevant one-electron processes is considered, along with the question of whether independent-particle inte.ractions are dominant or whether electron-correlation effects must be taken into account in the description of these two-electron mechanisms.
Dissolved and particulate organic carbon fluxes from an agricultural watershed during consecutive tropical storms

[1] Low-frequency high-magnitude hydrologic events mobilize a disproportionate amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from watersheds, but few studies measure the role of extreme storms in exporting organic carbon from croplands. We use high-resolution measurements of storm runoff to quantify DOC and particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes from an agricultural field during consecutive tropical storms that delivered 41 cm of rainfall to the Virginia Coastal Plain. Over a 2 week period, we measured exports of 22 kg DOC ha−1 and 11.3 kg POC ha−1. Ultraviolet absorbance measurements indicate that the aromatic DOC fraction systematically increased as plant-derived aliphatic carbon was depleted during the initial event. Croplands can have event-scale carbon losses that equal or exceed published estimates of annual export for perennial streams draining forested and mixed land use watersheds. We quantify aromatic DOC fractions approaching 50%, indicating that agricultural stormflow can produce a significant load of relatively photoreactive carbon.
Abstract 3981: Targeted delivery of temozolomide to pediatric brain tumors using micelle-based theranostic nanocarriers

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is the single most devastating pediatric brain tumor. Surgical excision of these tumors, due to the exquisite location of the pons, is dangerous and is not curative. No chemotherapy has been identified that can control these tumors. One theory for this failure is that the pons is a unique location into which delivery of medications at therapeutic concentrations is singularly challenging. Current standard of care utilizes temozolomide (TMZ), a pro-drug that releases a DNA alkylating agent that is used to kill glial cells. TMZ is very toxic when delivered systemically and therapeutic dosages are limited by severe side effects. These factors necessitate a selectively targeted carrier for TMZ to deliver the drug efficiently to malignant cells avoiding nonspecific interaction and reducing offsite toxicity. In order to design an efficient and effective drug carrier, we addressed several issues: a tailored surface on the carrier to attach biomolecules for targeted drug delivery; a biocompatible coating which can efficiently encapsulate the hydrophobic drug thereby reducing cytotoxicity; and stimuli-induced (pH) disruption of the carrier agent for slow and controlled drug release to the desired environment. Micelles are the preferred choice of carrier as they fulfill these requirements based on their composition. Micelles containing drug are synthesized using PEG-PE-Amine and N-palmitoyl homocysteine (pH sensitive lipid breaks in endosome pH 5.5). Specific targeting of the micelles to glioblastoma cells is achieved by coupling a short 12 a.a. PDGF (platelet derived growth factor) peptide to the amine moeity of the DSPE-PEG. In addition, these micelles have been labeled with a NIR fluorophore to track them for cellular uptake and can be used to image tumor internalization in vivo. These micelles have an advantage of small size ( Citation Format: Kayla Miller, Suraj K. Dixit, Amy-Lee Bredlau, Ann-Marie Broome. Targeted delivery of temozolomide to pediatric brain tumors using micelle-based theranostic nanocarriers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3981. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3981
SplitTester : software to identify domains responsible for functional divergence in protein family

Background Many protein families have undergone functional divergence after gene duplications such that current subgroups of the family carry out overlapping but distinct biological roles. For the protein families with known functional subtypes (a functional split), we developed the software, SplitTester, to identify potential regions that are responsible for the observed distinct functional subtypes within the same protein family.
An assessment of Fe-Cr-Mn austenitic alloys for fusion service using fast reactor irradiation

A series of model Fe-Cr-Mn alloys and various solute-modified high manganese alloys have been irradiated in the Fast Flux Test Facility in order to provide an early assessment of the consequences of substituting manganese for nickel in austenitic stainless steel. The purpose of this substitution is to reduce the level of long term radioactivation of this alloy, a candidate structural material for use in fusion energy devices. Simple Fe-Mn and Fe-Cr-Mn alloys were found to exhibit much of the same behavior observed in Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-Cr alloys. In particular, they tend to swell at /approximately/1%/dpa after an incubation period that is dependent on irradiation temperature, alloy composition and cold working. The phase stability, both in and out of reactor, is altered substantially by the substitution of manganese, however. It nonetheless appears that appropriate levels of solute modification can be used to improve both the swelling resistance and phase stability. An alloy with a base composition of Fe-20Mn-15Cr appears to offer the best promise for further research. 24 refs., 9 figs., 4 tabs.
Tropical oceanic cloudiness and the incidence of precipitation: Early results from CloudSat

[1] Results of analysis of CloudSat radar data collected during the first three months of operation are described. It is shown that the global tropical oceans (30N–30S) predominantly favor clouds with tops in two layers centered at about 2 and 12 km. Precipitating clouds occur primarily in three modes, a shallow mode that is the most frequent type, as well as a middle and deep mode. Regional features are also discussed. The Indian and western Pacific Oceans exhibit more predominantly high clouds and deeper precipitation features than the eastern Pacific and Atlantic. The occurrence of a mid-level mode of cloudiness and precipitation is shown to vary regionally, being particularly significant in the western Pacific. For all regions examined, precipitating clouds are observed to be deeper than non-precipitating clouds. Over the global tropical oceans, 18% of the clouds detected by CloudSat produce precipitation.
Formal and substantive approaches to phonology.

The distinction made by Basboll between "formal" and "substantive" interests in current phonological research can be cross-classified with a distinction between two approaches to surface data. One, usually labelled "abstract," works toward squeezing all possible generalizations out of the data despite counter-indications on the surface. The other, called "concrete," works with generalizations whose validity and productivity can be verified with surface forms. A number of recent works are mentioned briefly with these distinctions in mind.
Stability characterization of inverter based microgrids considering configuration changes

This paper studies the effect of configuration changes to a modular inverter-based microgrid using an inertia index. The inertia index is developed based on an analogy between the inertia constant of synchronous generators and control parameters of droop controlled inverters. The effect of modular operation on transient performance of microgrid frequency is studied by using the considered index for an islanded inverter-based microgrid. Based on the inertia index, a control approach that mitigates the change in a microgrid frequency dynamics caused by modular operation is also explored. The effectiveness of the inertia index and control approach is also verified.
MONOPSONY AND PLANT LOCATION IN A THÜNEN LAND USE MODEL

. Previous work has developed a method for studying noninfinitesimal operational units, called “plantations,” with the Thuen model. In that model, increasing returns to scale generate large operational units, but the potential market power conferred by the scale economies is sidestepped as an issue. The present work introduces finite supply elasticities and examines their locational impacts. The profit-maximizing monopsonistic plantation is smaller, and the shipment distance for its processed output is shorter, than for a comparable competitive plantation. The present approach does not involve spatial competition strategies.
Corporate cash holdings, uncertainty avoidance, and the multinationality of firms

Abstract We examine the relationship between uncertainty avoidance, multinationality and firm cash holdings. We develop several hypotheses from corporate finance and multinational firm theory, positing that cultural factors as well firm multinationality influence corporate cash holdings. In particular, firms in countries with high uncertainty avoidance hold more cash as a way to hedge against undesired states of nature. At the same time, firm multinationality moderates the effects culture has on the firm's holdings of liquid assets. Based on a large panel of firms in fifty countries, we present evidence consistent with these hypotheses. Firms in countries with high levels of uncertainty avoidance tend to hold more cash. Against commonly held views in cash management, the degree of multinationality of the firm is positively correlated with holdings of cash. At the same time, the effect of national culture on firm's cash holdings is lower for multinationals. These results are economically significant.
Extendable Steiner designs

Let D be a Steiner t-design, where t⩾2, with a collection C of subdesigns such that each member of C is a Steiner t-design whose blocks are blocks of D, and with the property that any (t+1) points of D are together in the point set of a unique member of C. It is shown that if every member of C can be extended to a (t+1)-design, then D can also be extended. The construction described is a development of ideas originally formulated in Assmus and Key [2].
Effect of gender and left ventricular dysfunction on the incidence of hypotension induced by dobutamine stress echocardiography

Background: Of patients who undergo dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE), 14% to 38% experience hypotension that sometimes requires termination of the test before and adequate cardiac workload is reached. The mechanisms of hypotension reportedly are related to peripheral vasodilation, a decrease in cardiac output, and left ventricular (LV) cavity obliteration. DSE is performed increasingly in women and in patients with LV dysfunction. However, the impact of gender and LV dysfunction on DSE-induced hypotension has not been elucidated. Methods and Results: Clinical, hemodynamic, and echocardiographic characteristics were studied in 412 patients undergoing DSE, 82 patients with an LV ejection fraction of 40% or less, and 147 women. Hypotension, defined as a decrease in systolic blood pressure of at least 20 mm Hg, occurred in 117 (28%) patients. Hypotension was more common in women than men (36% vs 24%, P =.01). Hypotension was also more common in older adults ( P =.004), persons taking diuretics ( P =.025) or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors ( P =.01), and persons with higher baseline blood pressures ( P Conclusions: The incidence of DSE-induced hypotension is related to gender but not to the level of LV systolic function. It also is associated significantly with higher age, and use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or diuretics.
Collaboratories: Leveraging Information Technology for Cooperative Research

Economic, organizational, and societal pressures, as well as the desire to reach shared goals more efficiently and effectively, are driving an increase in collaborative research. Research collaborations frequently occur among participants separated by temporal, geographical, organizational, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries. Increasingly complex collaborative projects focus attention on the question of how to facilitate working together. Through so-called collaboratories, information technology can play an important role in addressing this question. A collaboratory can be defined as an information technology infrastructure that supports cooperation among individuals, groups, or organizations in pursuit of a shared goal by facilitating interaction, communication, and knowledge-sharing. Tools such as Web-based collaborative workspaces, Internet discussion lists/newsgroups/real-time chat, screen- and application-sharing, Web-based conferencing, online Web page mark-up, automatic notification, and videoconferencing can be used to implement collaboratories. Collaboratories have significant potential to facilitate cooperative research, but should be evaluated carefully to determine best practices.
Nonhomogeneous Boundary Value Problems for the Korteweg-de Vries Equation on a Bounded Domain

This paper studies an initial-boundary-value problem (IBVP) of the Korteweg-de Vries equation posed on a finite interval with general nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. Using the strong Kato smoothing property of the associated linear problem, the IBVP is shown to be locally well-posed in the space H s (0, 1) for any s ≥ 0 via the contraction mapping principle.
Diasone and promin as therapeutic agents in experimental toxoplasmosis.

SummaryIn an encouraging but limited number of white mice infected with a rapidly fatal toxoplasmosis, Diasone and Promin have not only suppressed the symptom but have repeatedly eliminated the carrier state, Symptom-freed, promin-treated mice have survived over a year but Diasone appears to be less toxic and more potent since it protected mice when therapy was delayed for of the survival time of simultaneously infected, untreated mice.
ART PREFERENCE AND PERSONALITY

The neuroticism factor of personality was compared with the romantic/classical dimension of art. Twenty-five male and 25 female college students between 19 and 24 years of age participated. Subjects chose their preferred selection of each of 11 pairs of paintings, which had been rated by art specialists on a romanticism scale, and completed the Maudsley Personality Inventory as an index of neuroticism. Subjects choosing Romantic art tended to score higher in neuroticism than did those choosing classical paintings. A negative correlation between extraversion and choice of romantic paintings was also found.
Site autonomy issues in R*: a distributed database management system

Abstract A distributed database management system (DDBMS) must simplify the user's task of defining applications which manipulate shared data stored at multiple computing sites. To this end, the DDBMS must support transparent access to remote data. That is, any operation allowed on local data should also be possible on remote data. At the same time, because different computing sites are controlled by different individuals or organizations, the DDBMS must preserve each site's autonomy over its own data. This paper discusses some of the issues raised in the implementation of a DDBMS by the requirements of site autonomy. The issues will be discussed from the perspective of the R ∗ research project at IBM's San Jose Research Lab.
Rapid, Early-Onset Group A Streptococcus Infection After Impacted Third Molar Removal: A Review and Case Series

s p t t s t i M p c e p c i s The overall postoperative infection rate for third-molar extraction is reported to range from 0.8% to 4.2%. It is unclear how the infection rate would be impacted by stratifying cases according to varying preoperative presentations, such as pericoronitis, caries, periodontal disease, abscess, impaction, partial impaction, and malposition. When considering only preoperatively noninfected third molars, the infection rate is unclear, although it may be lower than the overall reported infection rates. For example, Indresano et al looked at deep-space infections after third olar removal. Rafetto observed that all of the postoperative infections in the study of Indresano et al were associated with teeth that had been infected before treatment. In a prospective cohort study of 100 patients with severe third molar complications, Kunkel et al correlated the majority of these complications with therapeutic removal of symptomatic third molars rather than removal of asymptomatic, impacted third molars. Across surgical specialties, postoperative wound infections occur in approximately 5% to 15% of class II clean-contaminated cases. Most of these infections become evident between the fourth and eighth postoperative days, although some can be discovered even later. One systemic sign of wound infection is the presence of fever. Although most postoperative fevers are due to noninfectious causes, late fevers (after the fourth postoperative day) are often due to wound infections (Fig 1). The primary exception to these norms is invasive soft tissue infection due to group A streptococcus. In these cases it is not uncommon to observe fever and other infectious signs within 24 hours of operation.
Pre- and postjunctional neuromuscular blockade by carbachol.

Carbachol, when applied to the bathing Ringer solution of frog sartorius muscles, caused depolarization of the endplate and a blockade of endplate potentials (EPP's), miniature EPP's (mepp's) and the iontophoretic acetylcholine potential. In muscles treated with an analog of hemicholinium-3, α,α′ bis(dimethylammonium acetaldehyde diethylacetal)-p-p′-diacetylbiphenyl dibromide (DMAE), depolarization of the endplate by carbachol was blocked and the blockade by carbachol of the iontophoretic acetylcholine potential was prevented. These responses to carbachol were attributed to a postjunctional action that was antagonized by DMAE. In contrast, the blockade by carbachol of EPP's and mepp's was enhanced in DMAE-treated muscles at a time when carbachol-induced depolarization was blocked. This response to carbachol was attributed to a prejunctional action. Carbachol either blocked transmitter release by a mechanism that was insensitive to DMAE or enhanced the prejunctional blocking actions of DMAE. Succinylcholine had actions similar to carbachol. DMAE prevented depolarization by succinylcholine but enhanced neuromuscular blockade by succinylcholine. SKF 525-A (β-diethylaminoethyl diphenylpropylacetate hydrochloride), like DMAE, prevented depolarization but not transmission blockade caused by carbachol.
Recombinant factor VIIa corrects prothrombin time in cirrhotic patients: A preliminary study

Abstract BACKGROUND & AIMS: Cirrhotic patients with a prolonged prothrombin time (PT) are known to have low levels of factor VII. Because the current modalities to correct this problem are not ideal, recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa) may be useful in correcting the prolonged PT observed in the coagulopathy of cirrhosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of rFVIIa in nonbleeding volunteer patients with the coagulopathy of cirrhosis. METHODS: A preliminary, single-center, dose- escalation trial was performed. Cirrhotic patients with a PT of > 2 seconds above the upper limit of the reference value received an intramuscular injection of vitamin K. Ten patients whose PT did not correct to within 2 seconds above the control of the upper limit of the reference value were given three successive dosages of rFVIIa (5, 20, and 80 micrograms/kg) during a 3-week period. RESULTS: The mean PT transiently corrected to normal in all three dosage groups. No adverse effects were noted. There was no evidence of the induction of disseminated intravascular coagulation. CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary trial shows rFVIIa to be effective in transiently reversing the prolonged PT in a select group of nonbleeding cirrhotic patients. These preliminary observations support conducting a large-scale efficacy trial. (Gastroenterology 1997 Dec;113(6):1930-7)
On a Set Theory of Bernays

We are concerned here with the set theory given in [1], which we call BL (Bernays-Levy). This theory can be given an elegant syntactical presentation which allows most of the usual axioms to be deduced from the reflection principle. However, it is more convenient here to take the usual Von Neumann-Bernays set theory [3] as a starting point, and to regard BL as arising from the addition of the schema where S is the formal definition of satisfaction (with respect to models which are sets) and ┌φ┐ is the Godel number of φ which has a single free variable X .
Pricing interprocess streams using slack auctions

When plantwide optimization problems must be decomposed and solved in pieces due to numerical complexity or practical concerns, it is natural to view each plant division as a separate profit maximizer. For a division to maximize its profit, however, it must know the prices of interprocess streams. It is claimed that the correct way of finding these prices is to define slack resources over the process streams and price them using slack auctions. When slack auctions terminate properly, it can be shown that the plant divisions' solutions are globally optimal. How slack auctions are related to Lagrangean relaxation and how they can overcome some of the problems that standard decomposition and relaxation techniques have are discussed.
Resistance to sexual aggression: Personality, attitudinal, and situational factors

This study's purpose was (i) to assess resistance to sexual aggression, from kissing/fondling to intercourse; (ii) to test the relative efficacy of three theoretical models (Victim Precipitation, Social Control, and Situational Blame) for predicting resistance to acquaintance rape. Seventy-five percent of the 206 university students reported vicitimization. Average time since victimization was 2.03 years. Sixty-eight percent of victims successfully resisted their most severe victimization attempt. Four situational factors predicted resistance: isolation of incident site, previous victim—offender relationship, previous victim—offender sexual intimacy, and clarity of victim nonconsent. Two personality variables, the California Personality Inventory scales of dominance and social presence, distinguished successful from unsuccessful resisters. Attitudinal measures were not statistically significant.
Panchromatic Fourier Transform Spectrometer Engineering Model (PanFTS-EM) for Geostationary Atmospheric Measurements

The Panchromatic Fourier Transform Spectrometer Engineering Model (PanFTS-EM) instrument is an imaging FTS to meet the requirements of the NASA GEO-CAPE Decadal Survey mission, as well as other missions for atmospheric composition and carbon cycle studies from geostationary orbit. PanFTS-EM is a flight-like engineering model which emulates the critical functions of the PanFTS flight instrument under realistic flight conditions.
Psychophysiological Responses to Emotional Stimuli in Children and Adolescents with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome

Individuals with autism demonstrate atypical and variable responses to social and emotional stimuli, perhaps reflecting heterogeneity of the disorder. The goal of this study was to determine whether unique profiles of psychophysiological responses to such stimuli could be identified in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with fragile X syndrome (FXS), and with comorbid autism and fragile X syndrome (ASD + FXS), and in typically developing (TYP) individuals. This study included 52 boys (ages 10–17): idiopathic ASD (n = 12), FXS (n = 12), comorbid ASD + FXS (n = 17), and TYP (n = 11). Physiological responses, including potentiated startle, electrodermal response, heart rate variability, and vagal tone, were collected concurrently while participants viewed emotionally evocative pictures of human faces or nonsocial images. Although some of these measures have been utilized separately for investigations on these diagnostic groups, they have not been considered together. Results using Kru...