cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Endothelin antagonizes the hypotension and potentiates the hypertension induced by clonidine

Modification of clonidine-induced cardiovascular effects by endothelin-1 (ET-1) was studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats. A dose-dependent decrease in blood pressure and heart rate was produced by clonidine (100, 250 and 500 μg/kg i.v.). Lower doses produced only a fall in blood pressure (through central α-adrenoceptors) while higher doses of clonidine produced an initial hypertensive response (through peripheral α-adrenoceptors) and subsequent longer lasting hypotension and bradycardia. The hypotension and bradycardia induced by 100 and 250 μg/kg i.v. dose of clonidine were completely blocked by ET-1 (100 ng/kg i.v.) pretreatment. Conversely, the hypertensive response induced by high dose of clonidine (500 μg/kg i.v.) was significantly potentiated by ET-1 pretreatment. In cervical sectioned rats, i.v. administered clonidine failed to produce any hypotensive effect, indicating lack of central effect of clonidine. ET-1 significantly (P< 0.0005) potentiated the hypertensive response of a low dose (50μg/kg i.v.) of clonidine in cervical-sectioned rats. I.c.v administration of clodinine (1, 2, 4 and 6 μg) produced a dose-dependent decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. ET-1 pretreatment (25 ng i.c.v. transietly blocked the clonidine-induced decrease in blood pressure and heart rate for about 10 min but the hypotension and bradycardia was observed subsequently. Since the major site of action of clonidine is the ventral surface of medulla, clonidine was applied directly to the ventral surface of medulla and produced a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. ET-1 pretreatment at the ventral surface of medulla blocked the clonidine-induced decrease in blood pressure and heart rate initially but the fall in blood pressure and heart rate was observed subsequently. To explore the possibility that transient antagonism of clonidine-induced effects is due to vasoconstriction, studies were performed with angiotensin II, a powerful vasoconstrictor. Angiotensin II (5 μg i.c.v.) pretreatment like ET-1 blocked the hypotensive and bradycardic effect of i.c.v. or i.v. administered clonidine. It is concluded that ET-1 blocks the hypotensive and potentiates the hypertensive effect of clonidine, possible mechanisms have been discussed.
Effect of pH, salt, and coupling state on the interaction of ferredoxin with the chloroplast membrane.

Abstract To determine if the interaction between ferredoxin and ferredoxin:NADP reductase is similar to the interaction between the purified proteins when the ferrodoxin:NADP reductase is membrane bound, the effect of pH, salt, and coupling state on the K m for ferredoxin in NADP reduction by chloroplast membranes has been examined. Increasing pH and salt concentrations as well as uncouplers all resulted in increases in the K m for ferredoxin. The pH and salt effects on the K m are similar to effects observed by others ( C. Batie and H. Kamin (1981) J. Biol. Chem. , 256 , 7756–7763 ) on the dissociation constant for a complex between the two purified proteins, although the salt effect on the K m appears to be affected by the surface potential of the chloroplast membrane. These results suggest that the interaction between ferredoxin and the membrane-bound ferredoxin:NADP reductase is not greatly different from the interaction which has been characterized between the two purified proteins.
Effects of dihydrosafrole on cytochromes P-450 and drug oxidation in hepatic microsomes from control and induced rats

Abstract Changes in cytochromes P-450, aminopyrine N-demethylase (APDM), aromatic hydrocarbon (benzo[a]pyrene) hydroxylase (AHH), and type III spectral complex formation were measured in hepatic microsomes of control, phenobarbital (PB)-, and β-naphthoflavone (βNF)-induced rats after a single dose of dihydrosafrole (4-n-propyl-1,2-methylenedioxybenzene, DHS). Time profiles of changes in these microsomal parameters were complex and showed that APDM activities and cytochrome P-450 levels decreased immediately after treatment and were associated with concurrent increases in the intensity of the type III methylenedioxyphenyl (MDP) metabolite/cytochrome P-450 spectral complex. In noninduced rats, both APDM activity and cytochrome P-450 levels returned to control levels between 12 and 24 hr after treatment with DHS and subsequently increased above control levels. In PB- and βNF-induced animals, the inhibitory phases were more prolonged and activity never returned to levels higher than the corresponding controls. AHH activity was increased substantially (two- to three-fold) in all cases after DHS administration. Although displacement of the MDP metabolite/cytochrome P-450 complex with 2-methylbenzimidazole generally led to a marked restoration of cytochrome P-450 levels and partially reversed the inhibition of APDM, it had little or no effect on AHH activities.
Overestimation of heterotrophic bacteria in the Sargasso Sea: direct evidence by flow and imaging cytometry

Abstract Accurate measurements of bacterial biomass in the ocean are needed for modeling marine microbial food webs and global biogeochemical cycling. We present direct evidence that previous estimates of heterotrophic bacteria biomass in the oligotrophic ocean are confounded by the presence of the abundant photosynthetic procaryote, Prochlorococcus . The chlorophyll autofluorescence of these photosynthetic bacterial cells is very faint and fades rapidly under epifluorescence microscopy. Detection and enumeration of these cells thus far has almost exclusively been by flow cytometry. Using a cooled, charge-coupled device (CCD) camera we were able to image these cells for direct biovolume measurements. A double-exposed image of DAPI-stained Prochlorococcus cells shows that they are indistinguishable from heterotrophic bacteria in standard slide preparations. At two Sargasso Sea stations Prochlorococcus could cause an overestimation of surface (top 150 m) integrated heterotrophic bacterial biovolume (biomass) of 18 and 22% determined by standard microscope methods. At the subsurface chlorophyll maximum Prochlorococcus was 33 and 43% of the heterotrophic bacterial biovolume (biomass) at these stations. Prochlorococcus cell size increased from 0.05 μm 3 in the surface mixed layer to about 0.2 μm 3 below 100 m, confirming previous interpretations of flow cytometric light scatter measurements. Shifting biomass from the heterotrophic bacteria pool to the primary producer compartment has significant implications for ecosystem structure and trophic transfer in marine food webs.
Second language idiom learning: The effects of lexical knowledge and pedagogical sequencing

This article examines the acquisition of Spanish idioms in a classroom setting that was supplemented with explicit instruction over a 10-week period. The research design manipulated two variables: prior lexical knowledge and idiom organization. Sixty-five second language (L2) learners completed pre- and posttests that measured their ability to recognize and produce the target idioms, as well as a vocabulary test to control for lexical knowledge. Participants in the experimental groups received contextualized idiom presentation that encouraged noticing, retrieving, and generating (Nation, 2001). The results indicate significant treatment effects, although no significant advantage was found for the thematic grouping of idioms. The results also show a significant effect for prior lexical knowledge on one of the dependent variables. These findings are discussed in relation to prior studies of idiom learning from a cognitive linguistics perspective (Boers et al., 2007) as well as psycholinguistic studies that emphasize the salience of literal meanings (Cieślicka, 2006).
D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Manifolds

We give an overview of recent work on Dirichlet branes on CalabiYau threefolds which makes contact with Kontsevich’s homological mirror symmetry proposal, proposes a new definition of stability which is appropriate in string theory, and provides concrete quiver categories equivalent to certain categories of branes on CY.
Drinking Behavior Among Low‐Income Older Adults: A Multimethod Approach to Estimating Alcohol Use

BACKGROUND: Substance abuse is the fastest growing health concern for older adults. Heavy drinking among older persons is associated with an increased risk of health consequences such as diabetes, cognitive impairment, sleep issues, and depression. It is important to note, however, the prevalence estimates of alcohol use among older adults are often based on inconsistent methodology. To address these potential methodological shortcomings, this study examines drinking patterns among low-income older adults using both self-report and unobtrusive methods. METHODS: The study was conducted in a low-income residential senior center in the United States. A total of 174 participants, aged 60 years or older, completed 2 self-administered cross-sectional surveys. A bogus recycling program was implemented to assess the amount of alcohol consumed by residents. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to model predictors of drinking status and to determine predictors of 3 category Alcohol Use and Disorders Identification Test scores. Bivariate associations that predicted associations with alcohol use were included in the final multivariate model. Alcohol containers collected from recycling were converted to standard drink estimates in order to calculate the capital consumption of residents. RESULTS: About 40% of respondents reported consuming alcohol and 25% reported drinking at least once a week. On average, a total of 1,079 drinks were consumed per month. There were 3 significant predictors of drinking status: age, education, and diagnosis of diabetes. Additionally, there appears to be an increase in recycled alcohol containers coinciding with the time residents received their social security checks. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the combination of self-report and unobtrusive measures of alcohol consumption has potential to highlight different aspects of drinking behavior with a population living in a single dwelling such as a senior center apartment complex, residential hall, and the like. Language: en
Remote sensing of crop residue cover and soil tillage intensity

Crop residues on the soil surface reduce soil erosion and affect water infiltration, evaporation, and soil temperatures. Crop residues also influence the flow of nutrients, carbon, water, and energy in agricultural ecosystems. Current methods of measuring crop residue cover are inadequate for monitoring large areas. One promising remote sensing approach for discriminating crop residues from soil is based on a broad absorption band near 2100 nm that appears in plant materials and is absent in most soils. The cellulose absorption index (CAI), which measured the relative depth of this absorption feature, was linearly related to crop residue cover. High-altitude AVIRIS data acquired on 11 May 2000 prior to spring crop planting at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland were analyzed. NDVI was calculated using bands centered at 827 nm and 646 nm and CAI was calculated using bands at 2031, 2101, and 2211 nm. Agricultural fields with low green vegetation cover (low NDVI) were classified into three tillage categories based on crop residue cover determined by CAI. Fields with >30% residue cover were classified as conservation tillage; those with 15-30% residue cover as reduced tillage; and those with <15% residue cover as intensive tillage. The tillage classification agreed with ground observations in corn harvested for grain and tilled fields. Soybean fields and mowed alfalfa fields had low residue cover even with no tillage. Thus, both residue cover and previous crop type are necessary to classify tillage intensity in agricultural fields.
Forward osmosis: Principles, applications, and recent developments

Osmosis is a physical phenomenon that has been extensively studied by scientists in various disciplines of science and engineering. Early researchers studied the mechanism of osmosis through natural materials, and from the 1960s, special attention has been given to osmosis through synthetic materials. Following the progress in membrane science in the last few decades, especially for reverse osmosis applications, the interests in engineered applications of osmosis has been spurred. Osmosis, or as it is currently referred to as forward osmosis, has new applications in separation processes for wastewater treatment, food processing, and seawater/brackish water desalination. Other unique areas of forward osmosis research include pressure-retarded osmosis for generation of electricity from saline and fresh water and implantable osmotic pumps for controlled drug release. This paper provides the state-of-the-art of the physical principles and applications of forward osmosis as well as their strengths and limitations.
Pyridoxic acid excretion during low vitamin B-6 intake, total fasting, and bed rest

Vitamin B-6 metabolism in 10 volunteers during 21 d of total fasting was compared with results from 10 men consuming a diet low only in vitamin B-6 (1.76 mumol/d) and with men consuming a normal diet during bed rest. At the end of the fast mean plasma concentrations of vitamin B-6 metabolites and urinary excretion of 4-pyridoxic acid tended to be higher in the fasting subjects than in the low-vitamin B-6 group. The fasting subjects lost approximately 10% of their total vitamin B-6 pool and approximately 13% of their body weight. The low-vitamin B-6 group lost only approximately 4% of their vitamin B-6 pool. Compared with baseline, urinary excretion of pyridoxic acid was significantly increased during 17 wk of bed rest. There was no increase in pyridoxic acid excretion during a second 15-d bed rest study. These data suggest the possibility of complex interactions between diet and muscle metabolism that may influence indexes that are frequently used to assess vitamin B-6 status.
LIF Measurements of Ar + and Xe + in Ar-Xe Plasmas Near the Sheath Boundary with Tunable Diode Lasers

Summary form only given. The Bohm sheath criterion in two-ion species plasma is studied with Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) using two diode lasers. A new LIF scheme in Xe II plasmas which uses the 5p4(3P1)5d[3]7/2 metastable state is developed with a diode laser. The xenon II transition sequence at 680.574 nm (in air) is adopted for optical pumping to detect the fluorescence from the plasma. To our knowledge, this scheme has never been tried before for LIF measurements in plasmas. The complete scheme is 5p4(3P1)5d[3]7/2rarr5P4(3P1) 6p[2]5/2 rarr5p4(3P1)6s[1]3/2, and the detectable photon has lambda = 492.15 nm in air. Plasmas are generated in an unmagnetized dc hot filament discharge chamber confined by surface multidipole magnetic fields. The argon and xenon ion velocity distribution functions are measured as a function of position relative to a negatively biased boundary plate. The structures of the plasma sheath and presheath are measured by an emissive probe. The new Xe II LIF scheme combined with the previously used Ar II scheme1 in Ar-Xe plasmas permits measurements of the ivdfs for both ions. Both the ivdfs provide a solution for the generalized Bohm criterion in two-ion species plasmas.
Effect of continuous lateral rotational therapy on lung mucus transport in mechanically ventilated patients

Abstract Purpose: Continuous lateral rotational therapy (CLRT) Materials and Methods: Thirteen critically ill, but stable, mechanically ventilated patients, mean age 74 years, were enrolled. They were placed supine on a Biodyne bed (KCI, San Antonio, Texas) and pressures in the cushions adjusted to patient's weight. A radiolabeled aerosol was delivered by bagging for 2 to 3 minutes and repeated measurements of lung radioactivity were obtained by imaging of the thorax over the following 3 hours. A 90-minute period of rotation of the bed, 30 degrees to either side was preceded and followed by two 45-minute control periods during which the patient remained supine and stationary on the bed. Coughs and suctions were recorded and blood gases obtained pre and post study. Results: (1) The mucous clearance was slower than that reported in normal subjects and in ambulatory patients with COPD; (2) there was a slight, but not significant, increase in clearance during CLRT; (3) clearance reverted to pre-oscillation levels following therapy. Lack of significant effect may be attributed to too shallow an angle for rotation or too short an intervention period. Conclusion: Positional drainage effected by short duration CLRT did not appear to stimulate significant mucous removal from the lung in critically ill patients but also did not cause any adverse effects.
When Philosophers Want to Have it All: Comments on Ron Moore's Syncretic Theory of Natural Beauty

Ronald Moore's new book Natural Beauty: A Theory of Aesthetics Beyond the Arts seeks to offer up an account of beauty in nature rather than the beauty of nature. Moore claims his is a syncretic theory. That is, it combines the best parts of competing theories into a single comprehensive account of, in this case, our judgments of natural beauty. The syncretic impulse is a common one in philosophy. Seeing many theories, each with some strong points yet none successful overall, a natural solution is to simply glom them all together. But does this work? Are we entitled to pick and choose in this manner, taking what we like but leaving behind the preconceptions to which each theory was moored? And is the resulting supertheory consistent and coherent? I will use Moore's book as a test case for some of these theoretical questions. I identify some ‘syncretic sites’ in Moore's theory to see whether his method passes muster.
Functional Partitioning to Optimize End-to-End Performance on Many-core Architectures

Scaling computations on emerging massive-core supercomputers is a daunting task, which coupled with the significantly lagging system I/O capabilities exacerbates applications' end-to-end performance. The I/O bottleneck often negates potential performance benefits of assigning additional compute cores to an application. In this paper, we address this issue via a novel functional partitioning (FP) runtime environment that allocates cores to specific application tasks -- checkpointing, de-duplication, and scientific data format transformation -- so that the deluge of cores can be brought to bear on the entire gamut of application activities. The focus is on utilizing the extra cores to support HPC application I/O activities and also leverage solid-state disks in this context. For example, our evaluation shows that dedicating 1 core on an oct-core machine for checkpointing and its assist tasks using FP can improve overall execution time of a FLASH benchmark on 80 and 160 cores by 43.95% and 41.34%, respectively.
The Circulation of the Fetus in Utero METHODS FOR STUDYING DISTRIBUTION OF BLOOD FLOW, CARDIAC OUTPUT AND ORGAN BLOOD FLOW

Techniques are described for insertion of vinyl catheters into the umbilical and limb vessels of the fetus of the sheep or the goat through small uterine incisions, with the ewes under spinal analg...
The 0.5-2.22 μm Scattered Light Spectrum of the Disk around TW Hya: Detection of a Partially Filled Disk Gap at 80 AU

We present a 0.5-2.2 micrometer scattered light spectrum of the circumstellar disk around TW Hya from a combination of spatially resolved Hubble Space Telescope STIS spectroscopy and NICMOS coronagraphic images of the disk. We investigate the morphology of the disk at distances greater than 40 AU over this wide range of wavelengths, and identify the presence of a depression in surface brightness at approximately 80 AU that could be caused by a gap in the disk. Additionally, we quantify the surface brightness, azimuthal symmetry, and spectral character of the disk as a function of radius. Our analysis shows that the scattering efficiency of the dust is largely neutral to blue over the observed wavelengths. We model the disk as a steady α-disk with an ad hoc gap structure. The thermal properties of the disk are selfconsistently calculated using a three-dimensional radiative transfer code that uses ray tracing to model the heating of the disk interior and scattered light images. We find a good fit to the data over a wide range of distances from the star if we use a model disk with a partially filled gap of 30% depth at 80 AU and with a self-similar truncation knee at 100 AU. The origin of the gap is unclear, but it could arise from a transition in the nature of the disk's dust composition or the presence of a planetary companion. Based on scalings to previous hydrodynamic simulations of gap-opening criteria for embedded proto-planets, we estimate that a planetary companion forming the gap could have a mass between 6 and 28 solar mass.
P02.40. A systematic review of measurement properties of mindfulness instruments

Purpose A growing body of evidence shows that mindfulness-based interventions reduce symptoms and improve healthrelated quality of life. Several instruments have been developed to measure mindfulness. To make a reasonable choice among these instruments, it is important to know the quality of each instrument. The objectives of this study were to critically assess and compare the measurement properties of the existing mindfulness instruments.
Crime Diffusion and Displacement: Measuring the Side Effects of Police Operations ∗

In 2005, the Camden, New Jersey, Police Department responded to concerns about crime with a series of high-visibility, directed, uniform patrol deployment initiatives. The department deployed extra resources on overlapping shifts into hotspot areas to counteract trends in burglary, violence, and drug crime. In situations such as this, where police employ directed and geographically targeted enforcement initiatives, both police and the public are often concerned about displacement; however, until recently no standard tool for measuring displacement was available. The weighted displacement quotient, despite some acknowledged methodological concerns, represents for the first time a systematic approach to the measurement of geographical displacement of crime. Using the weighted displacement quotient as part of the evaluation of the Camden initiative, researchers found a marked decrease in crime in the target area and evidence of a diffusion of benefits to the surrounding displacement buffer zone. This article...
KOLAM: A cross-platform architecture for scalable visualization and tracking in wide-area imagery

KOLAM is an open, cross-platform, interoperable, scalable and extensible framework supporting a novel multi- scale spatiotemporal dual-cache data structure for big data visualization and visual analytics. This paper focuses on the use of KOLAM for target tracking in high-resolution, high throughput wide format video also known as wide-area motion imagery (WAMI). It was originally developed for the interactive visualization of extremely large geospatial imagery of high spatial and spectral resolution. KOLAM is platform, operating system and (graphics) hardware independent, and supports embedded datasets scalable from hundreds of gigabytes to feasibly petabytes in size on clusters, workstations, desktops and mobile computers. In addition to rapid roam, zoom and hyper- jump spatial operations, a large number of simultaneously viewable embedded pyramid layers (also referred to as multiscale or sparse imagery), interactive colormap and histogram enhancement, spherical projection and terrain maps are supported. The KOLAM software architecture was extended to support airborne wide-area motion imagery by organizing spatiotemporal tiles in very large format video frames using a temporal cache of tiled pyramid cached data structures. The current version supports WAMI animation, fast intelligent inspection, trajectory visualization and target tracking (digital tagging); the latter by interfacing with external automatic tracking software. One of the critical needs for working with WAMI is a supervised tracking and visualization tool that allows analysts to digitally tag multiple targets, quickly review and correct tracking results and apply geospatial visual analytic tools on the generated trajectories. One-click manual tracking combined with multiple automated tracking algorithms are available to assist the analyst and increase human effectiveness.
High Resolution Millimeter Wave Fabry-Perot Interferometer

The design and operation of a microwave Fabry-Perot interferometer at wavelengths around 6 mm is described. This uses reflectors which are simple, easy to make, and which are capable of scaling for operation at short wavelengths in the ultramicrowave region. With power reflection coefficients around 0.999, very sharp fringes and Q values around 100,000 were obtained on the interferometer. Effects of diffraction in the interferometer are considered, and wavelength measurements with this particular interferometer indicate that accuracies of 0.04 per cent are obtained without any diffraction correction. Advantages of such an interferometer for ultramicrowaves are that the component parts are large compared with the wavelength, the effects of diffraction decrease with the wavelength, and the problem of maintaining a high Q with a single mode of propagation and a structure of adequate size is made much easier. Such an interferometer forms the cavity resonator for ultramicrowaves. It can thus be used for such conventional purposes as wavelength measurements, wavelength spectral analysis, dielectric constant, and loss measurements, or as the cavity resonator for frequency stabilization, or as the cavity resonator for a millimeter- or submillimeter-wavelength maser.
EUV Engineering Test Stand

The Engineering Test Stand (ETS) is an EUV laboratory lithography tool. The purpose of the ETS is to demonstrate EUV full-field imaging and provide data required to support production-tool development. The ETS is configured to separate the imaging system and stages from the illumination system. Environmental conditions can be controlled independently in the two modules to maximize EUV throughput and environmental control. A source of 13.4 nm radiation is provided by a laser plasma source in which a YAG laser beam is focused onto a xenon-cluster target. A condenser system, comprised of multilayer-coated mirrors and grazing-incidence mirrors, collects the EUV radiation and directs it onto a-reflecting reticle. A four-mirror, ring-field optical system, having a numerical aperture of 0.1, projects a 4x-reduction image onto the wafer plane. This design corresponds to a resolution of 70nm at a k{sub 1} of 0.52. The ETS is designed to produce full-field images in step: and-scan mode using vacuum-compatible, one-dimension-long-travel magnetically levitated stages for both reticle and wafer. Reticle protection is incorporated into the ETS design. This paper provides a system overview of the ETS design and specifications.
Estimating primary productivity of forested wetland communities in different hydrologic landscapes

Five forested wetland sites in western Kentucky with hydrologic regimes varying from seasonally to continuously flooded were investigated for net above-ground biomass productivity (litterfall plus biomass growth) and for possible indicators of that productivity, including abiotic (flooding frequency and depth, phosphorus concentrations in water and sediments) and biotic (biomass, tree density, basal area, structural complexity, and mean height) indices. Net biomass productivity ranged from 205 g m-2y-1 for a stagnant semipermanently flooded Taxodium swamp to 1,334 g m-2y-1 in a bottomland forest along the Ohio River. Productivity was highest in wetlands with pulsing hydroperiods, intermediate with slowly flowing systems, and lowest with stagnant conditions. Surface water flooding of the wetlands during the growing season ranged from 17 to 100 percent of the year and did not predict productivity. Phosphorus concentrations in water and in sediments were not correlated to one another and did not, by themselves, predict productivity. No single abiotic variable predicted the exact ranking of productivity of the sites. Of the biotic variables, average tree diameter was inversely related to productivity.
Fast electronic structure methods for strongly correlated molecular systems

A short review is given of newly developed fast electronic structure methods that are designed to treat molecular systems with strong electron correlations, such as diradicaloid molecules, for which standard electronic structure methods such as density functional theory are inadequate. These new local correlation methods are based on coupled cluster theory within a perfect pairing active space, containing either a linear or quadratic number of pair correlation amplitudes, to yield the perfect pairing (PP) and imperfect pairing (IP) models. This reduces the scaling of the coupled cluster iterations to no worse than cubic, relative to the sixth power dependence of the usual (untruncated) coupled cluster doubles model. A second order perturbation correction, PP(2), to treat the neglected (weaker) correlations is formulated for the PP model. To ensure minimal prefactors, in addition to favorable size-scaling, highly efficient implementations of PP, IP and PP(2) have been completed, using auxiliary basis expansions. This yields speedups of almost an order of magnitude over the best alternatives using 4-center 2-electron integrals. A short discussion of the scope of accessible chemical applications is given.
Frame Decoupling for Organizational Change: Building Support Across Divergent Stakeholders

Using qualitative research in one organization that undertook green building, we examine the processes that occur to foster support for a new initiative among people with diverse values and percept...
Incremental value of magnetic resonance neurography of Lumbosacral plexus over non-contributory lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging in radiculopathy: A prospective study

Incremental value of magnetic resonance neurography of Lumbosacral plexus over non-contributory lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging in radiculopathy: A prospective study
Evaluation of Dynamic Coastal Response to Sea-level Rise Modifies Inundation Likelihood

A model that evaluates the likelihood of coastal inundation (flooding) and dynamical response (adaptation) as sea levels rise shows that, for the northeastern US, about 70% of the coast has some capacity to respond dynamically and alter inundation risk. Sea-level rise (SLR) poses a range of threats to natural and built environments1,2, making assessments of SLR-induced hazards essential for informed decision making3. We develop a probabilistic model that evaluates the likelihood that an area will inundate (flood) or dynamically respond (adapt) to SLR. The broad-area applicability of the approach is demonstrated by producing 30 × 30 m resolution predictions for more than 38,000 km2 of diverse coastal landscape in the northeastern United States. Probabilistic SLR projections, coastal elevation and vertical land movement are used to estimate likely future inundation levels. Then, conditioned on future inundation levels and the current land-cover type, we evaluate the likelihood of dynamic response versus inundation. We find that nearly 70% of this coastal landscape has some capacity to respond dynamically to SLR, and we show that inundation models over-predict land likely to submerge. This approach is well suited to guiding coastal resource management decisions that weigh future SLR impacts and uncertainty against ecological targets and economic constraints.
Coupled CFD and rigid body dynamics analysis for the launch vehicle stage separation

A methodology of a computation fluid dynamics (CFD) and rigid body dynamics coupled analysis with application to launch vehicle stage separations is presented. The methodology consists of two parts: CFD and rigid body dynamics. For CFD, the axisymmetric Euler equations in conservation law form with moving boundaries are solved using a finite-volume total-variation-diminishing (TVD) algorithm. For rigid body dynamics, Newton's second law of motion is integrated using a second-order RungeKutta method. The two parts are solved simultaneously at each time step. For each integration step, the rigid body motion solution provides the boundary locations and velocities for the CFD, and the CFD solution provides the forcing terms for the rigid body dynamics. The results of the simulation for a Titan IV flight are given in comparison with flight data. The simulated results are in excellent agreement with the essential parts of the flight data.
Resolving the HONO formation mechanism in the ionosphere via ab initio molecular dynamic simulations

Solar emission produces copious nitrosonium ions (NO+) in the D layer of the ionosphere, 60 to 90 km above the Earth’s surface. NO+ is believed to transfer its charge to water clusters in that region, leading to the formation of gaseous nitrous acid (HONO) and protonated water cluster. The dynamics of this reaction at the ionospheric temperature (200–220 K) and the associated mechanistic details are largely unknown. Using ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and transition-state search, key structures of the water hydrates—tetrahydrate NO+(H2O)4 and pentahydrate NO+(H2O)5—are identified and shown to be responsible for HONO formation in the ionosphere. The critical tetrahydrate NO+(H2O)4 exhibits a chain-like structure through which all of the lowest-energy isomers must go. However, most lowest-energy isomers of pentahydrate NO+(H2O)5 can be converted to the HONO-containing product, encountering very low barriers, via a chain-like or a three-armed, star-like structure. Although these structures are not the global minima, at 220 K, most lowest-energy NO+(H2O)4 and NO+(H2O)5 isomers tend to channel through these highly populated isomers toward HONO formation.
New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus: Moving Within and Beyond the Frame

Places Taiwanese cinema from the 1980s onwards in both national and transnational contexts. In the Taiwanese film industry, the dichotomy between art house and commercially viable films is heavily emphasised by both scholars and the local media. This stems from two separate desires on the part of filmmakers: art house filmmakers in Taiwan are largely dependent on international distributors for funding, and, as a result, they aim to reach international audiences. On the other hand, mainstream commercial films in Taiwan tend to be produced without international export in mind. On a textual level, however, this dichotomy is not so clear cut. Although the difference between art house and commercial film may be very real in financial terms, this is not necessarily the case in the context of the films themselves. These relationships create the need for a new way of thinking about transnationalism altogether. It provides a nuanced picture of the Taiwanese film industry since democratisation and isolation from the Peoples Republic of China; features close readings of the films of Tsai Ming liang, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao hsien, and Ang Lee; connects Taiwanese cinema to the global cinema landscape more generally and refines the study of transnationalism by positing a new mode for viewing contemporary national cinema movements.
Gender and job mobility among rural to urban temporary migrants in the Pearl River Delta in China

Previous studies have found that there is a female disadvantage among rural migrants in the urban labour market in China. It remains unclear whether migrant women also lag behind migrant men in job mobility, an important channel for rural migrants to improve their labour market outcomes. Using data from a large-scale survey conducted in the Pearl River Delta region, one of the most important migration destinations in China, we examine gender gaps in job mobility of rural migrants from 1979 to 2006. Focusing on job mobility, this paper sheds new light on the changing gender dynamics among rural migrants in China. Most of the model results lend support to our hypotheses concerning the gendered job mobility patterns of rural migrants. We find that migrant women are less likely to change jobs for work-related reasons and more likely to engage in family-centered job mobility. Results of fixed-effects models of monthly wage further reveal that the positive effect of work-centered job mobility on rural migrants’...
Institutionalizing Faculty Mentoring within a Community of Practice Model

In higher education, faculty work is typically enacted—and rewarded—on an individual basis. Efforts to promote collaboration run counter to the individual and competitive reward systems that characterize higher education. Mentoring initiatives that promote faculty collaboration and support also defy the structural and cultural norms of higher education. Collaborative mentoring initiatives, however, support all faculty to be lifelong learners. We analyze a reciprocal model of mentoring—a community of practice for mentoring—that integrates collaborative mentoring into faculty's daily work. Additionally, we examine the dilemmas, benefits, and costs of institutionalizing a community of practice model for mentoring in higher education. Our analyses indicate that communities of practice can be fruitful sites of mentoring for all faculty when members mutually engage in shared practices required by the institution. Additionally, such communities nurture relationships and emotional support that sustain engagement in practice and reduce isolation. Given these benefits, we argue that communities of practice should be publically recognized at the institutional level as viable mechanisms for faculty mentoring and learning. Institutions of higher education must explicitly support a campus culture of collaboration and lifelong learning. Findings offer guidance for faculty and center for teaching and learning (CTL) interested in starting or participating in communities of practice.
Environmental Performance Report 2014. NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

The purpose of this report is to ensure that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the public receive timely, accurate information about events that have affected or could adversely affect the health, safety, and security of the public or workers, the environment, or the operations of DOE facilities. This report meets the DOE requirements of the Annual Site Environmental Report and has been prepared in accordance with the DOE Order 231.1B Chg 1, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting.
Immunology of Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis is a complex disease with varied clinical presentation, ranging from self-healing cutaneous lesions to lethal visceral disease. While a vigorous immune response to infection with Leishmania parasites is essential to control disease, it can paradoxically contribute to disease severity. In this article, we will describe how parasites are controlled by the immune response, and discuss the mechanisms that mediate pathology during leishmaniasis.
MO-FG-207B-01: Thorax/Lung

State-of-the-Art in Radiomics in Radiology and Radiation Oncology Radiomics is the science of converting medical images into mineable data, data that are descriptive of “phenotypes,” which may provide diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic information. Genomics is the science of sequencing and analyzing the function and structure of genomes; the complete set of DNA in a single cell of an organism. In turn, imaging genomics (or radiogenomics) is concerned with the correlation between image-based features, as determined by radiomics, and gene expression, as determined by genomics. Imaging genomics arose from decades of work in at least three key areas: 1) sequencing of the human genome, 2) quantitative imaging, computer-aided diagnosis, therapy prognostics, and assessment of therapy response in preclinical and clinical research and practice; and 3) data science, including the burgeoning areas of genomics, preclinical and population-based disease modeling, individualized medicine, and big data. Imaging genomics may answer important questions in medicine by correlating validated, quantitative image phenotypes (through validated imaging biomarkers) with clinical data, histopathologic data, molecular classifications, genomic assays, and treatment outcomes. This approach could address some of the greatest health burdens, including cancer, cardiac disease, and arthritis. Participants will discuss the state-of-the-art of radiomics across multiple disease sites and modalities. Aspects of the presentations will include how to improve the quality of image-based phenotypes of normal and diseased tissue, how to better determine the relationships between these phenotypes and the underlying biology associated with the images, and how to create predictive models using the image-based phenotypes. Topics will also include: 1) creating, archiving, curating and sharing ultra-large datasets (“big data”); 2) standardizing image acquisition and processing methods; 3) standardizing and validating phenotype extraction methods and classifier designs; and 4) using high-throughput, robust, and validated phenotyping systems. H. Aerts, NIH; NCIH. Li, This research was funded in part by the University of Chicago Dean Bridge Fund,and by NCI U24-CA143848-05, P50- CA58223 Breast SPORE program. Hui Li received royalties from Hologic.W. Lu, This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute Grants R01CA172638.
Canine Detection of the Volatilome: A Review of Implications for Pathogen and Disease Detection.

The volatilome is the entire set of volatile organic compounds (VOC) produced by an organism. The accumulation of VOC inside and outside of the body reflect the unique metabolic state of an organism. Scientists are developing technologies to non-invasively detect VOC for the purposes of medical diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, disease outbreak containment, and disease prevention. Detection dogs are proven to be a valuable real-time mobile detection technology for the detection of VOC related to explosives, narcotics, humans, and many other targets of interests. Little is known about what dogs are detecting when searching for biological targets. It is important to understand where biological VOC originates and how dogs might be able to detect biological targets. This review paper discusses the recent scientific literature involving VOC analysis and postulates potential biological targets for canine detection. Dogs have shown their ability to detect pathogen and disease specific VOC. Future research will determine if dogs can be employed operationally in hospitals, on borders, in underserved areas, on farms, and in other operational environments to give real-time feedback on the presence of a biological target.
Modeling long-term changes in tundra carbon balance following wildfire, climate change, and potential nutrient addition

To investigate the underlying mechanisms that control long-term recovery of tundra carbon (C) and nutrients after fire, we employed the Multiple Element Limitation (MEL) model to simulate 200-yr post-fire changes in the biogeochemistry of three sites along a burn severity gradient in response to increases in air temperature, CO2 concentration, nitrogen (N) deposition, and phosphorus (P) weathering rates. The simulations were conducted for severely burned, moderately burned, and unburned arctic tundra. Our simulations indicated that recovery of C balance after fire was mainly determined by the internal redistribution of nutrients among ecosystem components (controlled by air temperature), rather than the supply of nutrients from external sources (e.g., nitrogen deposition and fixation, phosphorus weathering). Increases in air temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration resulted in (1) a net transfer of nutrient from soil organic matter to vegetation and (2) higher C : nutrient ratios in vegetation and soil organic matter. These changes led to gains in vegetation biomass C but net losses in soil organic C stocks. Under a warming climate, nutrients lost in wildfire were difficult to recover because the warming-induced acceleration in nutrient cycles caused further net nutrient loss from the system through leaching. In both burned and unburned tundra, the warming-caused acceleration in nutrient cycles and increases in ecosystem C stocks were eventually constrained by increases in soil C : nutrient ratios, which increased microbial retention of plant-available nutrients in the soil. Accelerated nutrient turnover, loss of C, and increasing soil temperatures will likely result in vegetation changes, which further regulate the long-term biogeochemical succession. Our analysis should help in the assessment of tundra C budgets and of the recovery of biogeochemical function following fire, which is in turn necessary for the maintenance of wildlife habitat and tundra vegetation.
Historical Seismicity: Archaeoseismology

Archaeoseismology is the study of earthquakes in the archaeological record. Because earthquake occurrence on faults is treated as a stochastic process, and since instrumental observations of earthquakes have been recorded for only a little more than a century, the scientific earthquake record is insufficient to understand the seismic risk worldwide. One way to widen the observation window is to extend the earthquake record into the past, by extracting information about ancient earthquakes from the archaeological record. Such an endeavor requires cooperation among archaeologists, geologists, and geophysicists and requires a specific focus on finding evidence of earthquake damage in current and future excavations. Evidence of earthquakes includes patterned collapse of columns or walls; displacement of walls or horizontal surfaces across fault planes; skeletons of earthquake victims trapped beneath rubble, tsunami, or seiche deposits; and more generally preferred axes of destruction within a site or regional damage patterns consistent with known active faults. The greatest obstacle to advancement in this field is the difficulty of communication among the disciplines involved.
Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Predictors of Control of Hypertension in New York City

Background— Hypertension-related risk in urban areas may vary from national estimates; however, objective data on prevalence and treatment in local areas are scarce. We assessed hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control among New York City (NYC) adults. Methods and Results— The NYC Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES), modeled on the national HANES, was conducted in 2004 with a representative sample of noninstitutionalized NYC residents ≥20 years of age. Hypertension outcomes were examined with interview and examination data (n=1975). Multiple logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with control among adults with hypertension. We found that 25.6% of NYC adults had hypertension. Blacks had a higher prevalence than whites (32.8% versus 21.1%, P <0.001), as did Hispanics (26.5% versus 21.1%, P <0.05). Foreign-born residents who had lived in the United States for <10 years had lower rates than those who had lived in the United States longer (20.0% versus 27.5%, P <0.05). Among adults with hypertension, 83.0% were diagnosed, 72.7% were treated, and 47.1% had hypertension controlled. Of those treated, 64.8% had hypertension controlled. After adjustment for sociodemographic variables among all adults with treated hypertension, lack of a routine place of medical care was most strongly associated with poor control levels (adjusted odds ratio 0.21, 95% confidence interval 0.07 to 0.66). Among nonelderly adults with treated hypertension, blacks had 4-fold lower odds than whites of having hypertension controlled (adjusted odds ratio 0.24, 95% confidence interval 0.06 to 0.92). Conclusions— In NYC, hypertension is common and frequently uncontrolled. Low levels of control are associated with poor access to care. Racial disparities in prevalence and control are evident among nonelderly adults. Received May 13, 2008; accepted July 25, 2008. # CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE {#article-title-2}