cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
P-027 Experimental Testing of Different Types of Woven EndoBridge Devices in Elastase-induced Aneurysms in Rabbits

Purpose The Woven Endobridge (WEB) device (Sequent Medical, Inc., Aliso Viejo, CA) is an intrasaccular flow-disruption device. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acute and chronic performance of new generation WEB devices using rabbit aneurysm model. Materials and methods Six Enhanced Visualization (EV) WEB - DL (Dual Layer with barrel configuration); six EV WEB - SL (Single Layer with barrel configuration); and six EV WEB - SLS (Single Layer Sphere with spherical configuration) were deployed in 18 elastase-inducedaneurysms in the rabbits and followedfor 12 months. Degrees of aneurysm occlusion immediately after treatment and before sacrifice were graded on a 4 point scale from digital subtraction angiography (DSA): Grade 1, complete flow cessation; Grade 2, near complete flow cessation; Grade 3, incomplete flow cessation; Grade 4, fully patent aneurysm. Comparison of aneurysm occlusion between acute and chronic time points was performed using a 3 point scale (stable occlusion, progressive occlusion, or recanalization). Two shapes of aneurysms were defined: Type I, spherical; Type II, cylinder-like. All aneurysms were harvested for histologic analysis. Results Four spherical and 14 cylinder-like aneurysms were identified. Grade 3 or 4 occlusion was shown in all the three groups acutely. Before sacrifice, Grade 1 (n = 3) and Grade 2 (n = 3) were shown in DL group; Grade 1 (n = 1), Grade 2 (n = 2) and Grade 3 (n = 3) were indicated in SL group; Grade 1 (n = 1), Grade 2 (n = 1), Grade 3 (n = 3), and Grade 4 (n = 1) were shown in SLS group, respectively. Sixteen (89%, 16/18) aneurysms showed progressive occlusion. Aneurysm recanalization was found in one (6%, 1/18) aneurysm of the SLS group. One (6%, 1/18) aneurysm remained stable in SLS group. Extent of occlusion was greater in one spherical aneurysm treated with SLS device by comparison with other spherical aneurysms treated with DL or SL device. Histologic features included unorganized blood clot or organized loose connective tissue filling the aneurysm sac and endothelialized neointima or incompletely organized thrombus across the neck interface. Inflammation within aneurysm lumen was absent or minimal (as localized, patchy, chronic inflammatory foci) (See attached Figure 1). Conclusion Progressive aneurysm occlusion can be achieved using all the three types of devices. Based on the good healing achieved using SLS for spherical aneurysm, SLS may be helpful to occlude narrow neck (spherical) aneurysms. Disclosures Y. Ding: None. D. Dai: None. D. Schroeder: None. R. Kadirvel: None. D. Kallmes: None.
Achieving uniformity and reproducibility for photonic crystal fluorescence enhanced disease diagnostic microarrays

Photonic crystal enhanced fluorescence (PCEF) enables a nanostructured dielectric surface to amplify the output of a variety of fluorophore-labeled biomolecule assays for applications that include allergy testing, cancer diagnosis, and viral screening. By increasing fluorescent signals, PCEF enables the achievement of reduced limits of detection with portable and low-cost instrumentation. Expanding the utility of PCEF for disease diagnostics requires the automation, uniformity, and reproducibility of all aspects of the measurement and quantification process, including laser scanning of the PC surface and the subsequent data analysis. In this work, we demonstrate a laser scanning detection instrument, optimal selection of the optical “on-resonance” incident angle, and automated fluorescence spot intensity analysis that enables PCEF to be utilized for quantification of the concentration of a diagnostic serum antibody (anti-E7) to human papilloma virus infection. The assay is conducted with a single droplet of serum introduced within a PC-integrated microfluidic cartridge that is inserted into the detection instrument.
Tire Pressure Monitoring System Sensor Radio Frequency Measurements for Privacy Concerns

Since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandated the incorporation of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs) in all newly produced passenger vehicles, most vehicle manufacturers have adopted direct pressure measurement. Direct TPMS sensors embedded in each tire require a wireless radio frequency (RF) communications link that broadcasts tire status to the vehicle once per minute from each tire when at speed. Each TPMS message communicates benign information that includes pressure and temperature as well as a static unique identifier that may be exploited, which raises concerns about privacy and spoofing. To focus on concerns related to the TPMS-RF interface, vehicle motion simulations were integrated with live propagation modeling measurements from three classes of passenger vehicles: subcompact car, full-size sedan, and full-size pickup. The RF link and channel models for this TPMS interface with the vehicle resulted in surprisingly long ranges away from the vehicle for the radiation of...
Adapting the Non-adaptable: Rimini Protokoll’s Das Kapital and Mein Kampf

This chapter focuses on the boundaries of what may be considered suitable for stage adaptation at a given time. Das Kapital and Mein Kampf are among the least likely candidates for dramatization, yet Rimini Protokoll’s adaptations have led to well-received performances and radio adaptations. All versions feature non-professional performers, thus blurring the boundaries between real and performed experience, and the company creates productions with ‘found’ stories by found ‘actors’ around a pre-established topic. Striving for authenticity instead of having performers act out an arbitrary text written by an arbitrary author, Rimini Protokoll privilege connotation rather than re-enactment; and as the chapter argues, use. Precursors as research material to generate devised pieces that juxtapose analysis and personal responses, thus addressing contemporary merit, reach and relevance.
Damage and Failure of Blast Loaded Fiber-Reinforced Composite Laminates Considering Material and Geometric Nonlinearities

Blast loaded sandwich structures undergo large deformations at high strain rates that necessitate the consideration of material and geometric nonlinearities as well as the initiation and propagation of damage until structure’s ultimate failure. Damage modes in sandwich structures with fiber-reinforced polymeric composite face sheets include fiber breakage, matrix cracking, fiber/matrix debonding, delamination, and core crushing. There are several mathematical and computational models in the literature to simulate these damage and failure modes. Due to space and time limitations, we summarize here the work of author’s group for two problems, namely, progressive failure of a fiber-reinforced composite laminate due to blast loads and delamination in a sandwich hull due to water slamming loads. The work was presented at the Workshop “Recent Advances in Blast Mitigation for Civil and Marine Composite Structures” held in Bangalore, India, 2015.
Depression Effects on Long-term Prescription Opioid Use, Abuse, and Addiction.

Objectives Treatment guidelines discourage long-term opioid treatment for patients with chronic pain and major depression, but this treatment occurs commonly, producing higher daily doses, longer duration, and more adverse events. Materials and methods Review of prospective cohort, retrospective cohort, and other observational studies of the relation between depression and opioid use, abuse, and addiction. Results Depressed patients initiate opioid therapy slightly more often than nondepressed patients, but are twice as likely to transition to long-term use. This adverse selection of high-risk patients with depression into long-term high-dose opioid therapy seems to be a process of self-selection. Opioids may be used by patients with chronic pain and depression to compensate for a reduced endogenous opioid response to stressors. Depressed patients seem to continue opioid use at lower pain intensity levels and higher levels of physical function than do nondepressed patients. In studies that carefully control for confounding by indication, it has been shown that long-term opioid therapy increases the risk of incident, recurrent, and treatment-resistant depression. Depressed patients may tend to overuse opioids because they use them to treat insomnia and stress. Depression also seems to increase the risk of abuse or nonmedical use of prescription opioids among adults and adolescents. This increased rate of nonmedical opioid use may be the path through which depression increases the risk of opioid use disorder among patients with chronic pain. Discussion It is not possible to understand long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain without understanding the close and multifaceted relationship of this therapy with depression.
Demonstration of a highly stable 10 GHz optical frequency comb with low timing jitter from a SCOWA-based harmonically mode-locked nested cavity laser.

An optical frequency comb with mode spacing of 10 GHz operating in the c-band is produced from a harmonically mode-locked laser using a slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier device with a fiber-coupled external cavity. An intracavity Fabry–Perot etalon serves as a high finesse optical filter for supermode suppression and as the reference for cavity length stabilization using a multi-combline Pound–Drever–Hall setup. The Allan deviation of a single optical combline near 193.4 THz is measured via a heterodyne beat with a cavity stabilized cw laser and reaches a minimum fractional frequency deviation of 3×10−13 at τ=30 ms. In addition, the phase noise of the photodetected pulsed output of the laser shows a timing jitter of <23 fs integrated from 1 Hz to the Nyquist frequency.
High Frequency Invasion of Mammalian Cells by β Hemolytic Streptococci

The impact of intracellular invasion on the virulence of S. pyogenes (group A streptococci) and S. agalactiae (group B streptococci) is a rapidly expanding field of investigation. The discovery that members of these species are internalized by a variety of mammalian cells at frequencies equal to or beyond those of the more classical bacterial pathogens has piqued that interest. Investigators are attempting to relate this newfound potential to the pathophysiology of streptococcal disease. This chapter will focus on S. pyogenes, but where possible comparisons will be made to another important streptococcal pathogen, S. agalactiae. Knowledge of bacterial adhesions, is of course, essential for understanding the mechanisms by which bacteria are ingested by non-professional phagocytes; however, studies of S. pyogenes and S. agalactiae adherence mechanisms are a large body of work that is littered with debate and uncertainty and will therefore not be directly addressed here. Reviews of S. pyogenes (Hasty et al., 1992) and S. agalactiae (Tamura and Rubens, 1994) adherence phenomena are cited.
Building Enduring Objects Out of Spacetime

Endurantism, the view that material objects are wholly present at each moment of their careers, is under threat from supersubstantivalism, the view that material objects are identical to spacetime regions. I discuss three compromise positions. They are alike in that they all take material objects to be composed of spacetime points or regions without being identical to any such point or region. They differ in whether they permit multilocation and in whether they postulate mereologically coincident entities. 1. If one embraces coinciding entities and rejects Strong Supplementation, one can say that material objects lack temporal parts even though they coincide with temporally extended regions that have temporal parts. One can get this far while confining oneself to the perdurantist’s simple fundamental ideology – a two-place predicate for parthood simpliciter. 2. If one invokes a more exotic piece of fundamental ideology (a more-than-two-place predicate for a ‘location-relative’ parthood relation), and if one still embraces coinciding objects and rejects Strong Supplementation, then one can say that material objects both lack temporal parts, in the manner of ‘mereological endurantism’, and are multilocated in spacetime, in the manner of ‘locational endurantism’. However, nearly all B-theoretic endurantists already help themselves to a fundamental relativized parthood predicate, even in the context of dualist substantivalism. 3. If one is willing to eliminate complex spacetime regions (in favor of sets or pluralities of points) and treat the fundamental parthood predicate as being both location-relative and non-distributive, one can reject temporal parts, retain locational endurantism, and avoid coinciding entities.
A pilot study of observed physician-parent-child communication and child satisfaction in a gastroenterology clinic.

Background Child participation in pediatric medical visits is low. In this pilot study, we sought to better understand relationships between observed communication and child-reported perceptions of communication in a clinical setting. Materials and methods For this cross-sectional observational study, pediatric gastroenterology appointments (n=39) were videotaped and coded to quantify various adult affective (eg, chit-chat, empathy) and facilitative (eg, asking questions, encouraging responses) behaviors toward the child, interference with child participation (eg, interrupting or ignoring child), and child verbal participation. Post-visit surveys assessed child perceptions of having voice in the clinical encounter, ease of understanding, and satisfaction with communication. Results Parent and provider chit-chat was associated with child-reported ease of understanding. Provider facilitation was positively associated with child participation, but affective communication strategies were not. Physician interference was negatively associated with ease of understanding but positively associated with perception of voice. Conclusion Facilitative communication may improve outcomes by enhancing child participation and thus exchange of medical information, whereas chit-chat appears to positively impact children's perceptions of communication.
Religious Characteristics of Physicians Who Care for Underserved Populations or Work in Religiously Oriented Practices

OBJECTIVES This study examined the relation between physicians' religious characteristics and working for medically underserved populations or in religiously oriented practices. METHODS Secondary data analysis of 2009-2010 national survey of 896 primary care physicians (PCPs) and 312 psychiatrists. Predictors included physicians' religious characteristics. RESULTS Adjusted response rates among eligible physicians were 63% (896 of 1427) for PCPs and 64% (312 of 487) for psychiatrists. Overall, 41.3% of US PCPs and 53.2% of US psychiatrists reported working with medically underserved populations. A smaller percentage reported working in religiously oriented practices. Physicians who rated religion as most important in their lives were more likely to report working for medically underserved populations (52.5% most important vs 36.7% not important, P = 0.02) or report working in religiously oriented practices (23.9% most important vs 6.8% not important, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Religious physicians may be serving in medically underserved areas or religiously oriented practices as a way to integrate their professional and personal identities.
High-order numerical schemes for jump-SDEs

Abstract In this paper we propose an algorithm to numerically simulate Markov processes of jump type. While these processes can naturally be generated as solutions to jump-SDEs the algorithm we propose is instead based on the interlacing construction of the process. We show that one can construct in the sense of strong convergence a high order numerical scheme based on high order ODE solvers. This result is in sharp contrast to the well known difficulty of constructing high-order numerical schemes for diffusion processes.
Single-Cell RNA Sequencing of Plant-Associated Bacterial Communities

Plants in soil are not solitary, hence continually interact with and obtain benefits from a community of microbes ("microbiome"). The meta-functional output from the microbiome results from complex interactions among the different community members with distinct taxonomic identities and metabolic capacities. Particularly, the bacterial communities of the root surface are spatially organized structures composed of root-attached biofilms and planktonic cells arranged in complex layers. With the distinct but coordinated roles among the different member cells, bacterial communities resemble properties of a multicellular organism. High throughput sequencing technologies have allowed rapid and large-scale analysis of taxonomic composition and metabolic capacities of bacterial communities. However, these methods are generally unable to reconstruct the assembly of these communities, or how the gene expression patterns in individual cells/species are coordinated within these communities. Single-cell transcriptomes of community members can identify how gene expression patterns vary among members of the community, including differences among different cells of the same species. This information can be used to classify cells based on functional gene expression patterns, and predict the spatial organization of the community. Here we discuss strategies for the isolation of single bacterial cells, mRNA enrichment, library construction, and analysis and interpretation of the resulting single-cell RNA-Seq datasets. Unraveling regulatory and metabolic processes at the single cell level is expected to yield an unprecedented discovery of mechanisms involved in bacterial recruitment, attachment, assembly, organization of the community, or in the specific interactions among the different members of these communities.
An analysis of UNFCCC-financed coastal adaptation projects: Assessing patterns of project design and contributions to adaptive capacity

Abstract Coastal regions of developing countries are highly vulnerable to climate impacts. Climate change is projected to increase sea level rise, coastal storm events, and natural resource scarcity, impacting coastal ecosystems and societies. These climate impacts intersect with other anthropogenic stressors contributing to the degradation of coastal habitats and ecosystems (driven by, among other things, development, encroachment and pollution), increasing the risk of coastal hazards. Given the complexities of coastal adaptation and the reality of scarce financial and human resources, policymakers must make challenging decisions regarding which adaptation strategies to prioritize. This study seeks to understand: 1) What approaches to coastal adaptation have been most commonly implemented in projects financed through multilateral adaptation funds? and 2) Were the projects designed to build climate-specific or broader adaptive capacity? Using a content analysis of project proposals for 60 coastal adaptation projects financed through multilateral adaptation funds across 39 countries (as well as two regional projects), we categorized adaptation approaches and assessed contributions to adaptive capacity. Our findings indicate that policy, planning, and capacity-building, as compared to more tangible implementation activities, have characterized most coastal adaptation projects in the past 15 years. We also found a common emphasis on climate-specific adaptive capacity which diverges from the widely discussed need to address climate change and development priorities synergistically. In the context of limited resources, decisions regarding which adaptation approaches to invest in inherently involves trade-offs that need to be explicitly acknowledged. While numerous regional studies have analyzed these trade-offs, our study provides a global context and identifies potential areas of underinvestment for coastal adaptation in developing countries.
Prediction of Head Thickness of Hot Rolled Strip Based on Tensor CP Decomposition

In order to improve the control accuracy of strip head thickness in rolling process, a head thickness prediction model based on tensor CP decomposition is proposed in this paper. In the prediction model, the input data are composed of a tensor index matrix composed of rolling speed, rolling force, roll gap, inlet temperature and thickness parameters, and the output is the factor matrix composed of various rolling parameters that affect the thickness trend. To solve the problem of tensor sparseness in rolling data, a gradient-based CP-WOPT method is used to decompose tensor weights. The head thickness prediction and simulation of strip with rolling thickness of 3mm and 6mm were carried out, and the relative errors were 88.25% and 84.9% within ±2%, respectively. The prediction accuracy meets the actual demand, and verifies the feasibility of the prediction method.
Contextual Integration in Cortical and Convolutional Neural Networks

It has been suggested that neurons can represent sensory input using probability distributions and neural circuits can perform probabilistic inference. Lateral connections between neurons have been shown to have non-random connectivity and modulate responses to stimuli within the classical receptive field. Large-scale efforts mapping local cortical connectivity describe cell type specific connections from inhibitory neurons and like-to-like connectivity between excitatory neurons. To relate the observed connectivity to computations, we propose a neuronal network model that approximates Bayesian inference of the probability of different features being present at different image locations. We show that the lateral connections between excitatory neurons in a circuit implementing contextual integration in this should depend on correlations between unit activities, minus a global inhibitory drive. The model naturally suggests the need for two types of inhibitory gates (normalization, surround inhibition). First, using natural scene statistics and classical receptive fields corresponding to simple cells parameterized with data from mouse primary visual cortex, we show that the predicted connectivity qualitatively matches with that measured in mouse cortex: neurons with similar orientation tuning have stronger connectivity, and both excitatory and inhibitory connectivity have a modest spatial extent, comparable to that observed in mouse visual cortex. We incorporate lateral connections learned using this model into convolutional neural networks. Features are defined by supervised learning on the task, and the lateral connections provide an unsupervised learning of feature context in multiple layers. Since the lateral connections provide contextual information when the feedforward input is locally corrupted, we show that incorporating such lateral connections into convolutional neural networks makes them more robust to noise and leads to better performance on noisy versions of the MNIST dataset. Decomposing the predicted lateral connectivity matrices into low-rank and sparse components intro- duces additional cell types into these networks. We explore effects of cell-type specific perturbations on network computation. Our framework can potentially be applied to networks trained on other tasks, with the learned lateral connections aiding computations implemented by feedforward connections when the input is unreliable and demonstrate the potential usefulness of combining supervised and unsupervised learning techniques in real-world vision tasks.
Improving performance of emergency escape ramps (EERs)

Highway downgrades for heavy trucks generate a potential safety risk and disruption for truck drivers and other road users. Emergency escape ramps (EER) are the standard method of accommodating run...
Toward a Microarchitecture for Efficient Execution of Irregular Applications

Given the increasing importance of efficient data-intensive computing, we find that modern processor designs are not well suited to the irregular memory access patterns often found in these algorithms. Applications and algorithms that do not exhibit spatial and temporal memory request locality induce high latency and low memory bandwidth due to the high cache miss rate. In response to the performance penalties inherently present in applications with irregular memory accesses, we introduce a GoblinCore-64 (GC64) architecture and a unique memory hierarchy that are explicitly designed to exploit memory performance from irregular memory access patterns. GC64 provides a pressure-driven hardware-managed concurrency control to minimize pipeline stalls and lower the latency of context switches. A novel memory coalescing model is also introduced to enhance the performance of memory systems via request aggregations. We have evaluated the performance benefits of our approach using a series of 24 benchmarks and the results show nearly 50% memory request reductions and a performance acceleration of up to 14.6×.
Leveraging self-determination theory to understand which preschool teachers benefit most from a professional development intervention

Effective professional development (PD) interventions that promote high quality teacher-child interactions are important mechanisms to support social-emotional and cognitive development in early ch...
Analytical method development for characterizing ingredient-specific particle size distributions of nasal spray suspension products

Particle size characterization for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in nasal spray suspension products presents unique challenges because both the API and excipient particles are present in the final dosage form. Currently, an established method is lacking because traditional particle sizing technologies do not distinguish the chemical identity of the particles. In this study, a non-destructive, ingredient-specific particle sizing method was developed for characterization of mometasone furoate (MF) nasal spray suspensions using Morphology Directed Raman Spectroscopy (MDRS). A five-step method development procedure was used in this study: sample preparation, particle imaging and morphology analysis, particle Raman measurements and classification, morphology filter selection, and minimum number of particles determination. Wet dispersion sample preparation method was selected to ensure that the particles were measured in their original suspended state. A training set containing over 10,000 randomly-selected particles, including both the API and excipient particles, was used to gain a comprehensive understanding of particle size, shape, and chemical ID for the nasal spray suspension. Morphology and Raman measurements were performed on each particle in the training set. The measurement results suggested that the aspect ratio and intensity mean filter combination was an appropriate morphology filter setting to selectively target API particles and exclude most of excipient particles. With further optimization of the morphology filter cutoff values and determination of minimal number of particles to be measured, the total measurement time was reduced from 90 hours to 8 hours. The morphologically screening strategy ultimately allowed us to create a time-efficient practical API-specific particle size distribution (PSD) methods for nasal spray suspensions. This study shows that MDRS is a fit for purpose analytical technique for determining ingredient-specific PSDs of the pharmaceutical formulation studied in this work.
DNA Adduct Detection after Post-Labeling Technique with PCR Amplification (DNA-ADAPT–qPCR) Identifies the Pre-ribosomal RNA Gene as a Direct Target of Platinum–Acridine Anticancer Agents

To study the DNA damage caused by a potent platinum-acridine anticancer agent (PA) in cancer cells, an assay based on biorthogonal post-labeling using a click chemistry-enabled, azide-modified derivative (APA) was developed. The method involves biotinylation, affinity capture, and bead-based enrichment of APA-modified genomic DNA. The key steps of the assay were validated and optimized in model duplexes, including full-length plasmids, restriction fragments, and a DNA ladder. Native DNA treated with APA and subsequently subjected to post-labeling with a biotin affinity tag was enzymatically digested and fragments were analyzed by in-line LC-MS and MS/MS. The monofunctional-intercalative adducts formed by APA in 5'-pyrimidine/guanine sequences in double-stranded DNA were quantitatively biotinylated by strain-promoted 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition chemistry. When applied to DNA extracted from A549 lung cancer cells, the assay in combination with qPCR amplification demonstrates that platinum-acridines form adducts in the gene sequences encoding pre-ribosomal RNA, a potential pharmacological target of these agents.
Mechanistic model demonstrates importance of autocrine IL-8 secretion by neutrophils

IL-8 (CXCL8) is a potent chemoattractant and pro-angiogenic factor that is involved in maintaining homeostasis and is implicated in a wide range of inflammatory disorders. IL-8 was initially understood to be produced by monocytes to induce neutrophil migration through binding surface receptors IL-8RA (CXCR1) and IL-8RB (CXCR2). Although neutrophil secretion of IL-8 has been reported as ranging from 0--10 molecules/cell/second [1,2], it is unclear how this may affect neutrophil activation. In this study, we create and parameterize a mechanistic model of IL-8 signaling using data from in vitro cell culture experiments. We use this model to estimate receptor internalization rates which had not been previously reported. Through sensitivity analyses and additional simulations, we find that neutrophil secretion regulates the level of IL-8RB available, especially in pM-range environments.
Insights into 5-HT2C Receptor Function Gained from Transgenic Mouse Models

Advances in cellular and molecular biology now allow investigators to generate small DNA constructs that can be substituted for specific genomic loci in mouse embryonic stem cells. The transgenic mice that are derived from embryos implanted with these engineered stem cells are powerful models for understanding protein function at molecular, cellular, tissue, and in vivo behavior levels of organization. Mice engineered to express serotonin-2C receptors (5-HT2CRs) of different functional characteristics have provided key insights into molecular processes ranging from posttranscriptional editing of messenger RNA to regulation of neurotransmitter receptor activity and sensitization. These models also suggest that 5-HT2CRs are key regulators of many important cognitive, emotional, and functional (e.g., maintenance of energy balance) behaviors. 5-HT2CR function has also been linked to a number of clinically important disease states, including those involving resilience to stress, obesity, movement disorders, and seizure disorders. This review will focus on the different lines of evidence that have come from mice with engineered 5-HT2CRs, and how these models have advanced current concepts linking the regulation of neuronal excitation to coordinated performance of multiple behavioral processes.
A Manufacturer's View of World Emissions Regulations and the Need for Harmonization of Procedures

A variety of exhaust emission regulations exist in the world today, establishing different testing procedures (many with different driving cycles) and emission limits. Vehicle manufacturers competing in the international marketplace must develop technologies to meet the mandated performance levels, and then run different tests to demonstrate compliance. In addition, manufacturers face different national administrative and production conformity requirements. The need for so many different procedures is questioned. Technologies to meet current emission requirements divide the world markets for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles into two divisions, one where catalytic converters and unleaded gasoline are needed and the other where leaded gasoline can be used. Adoption of a single test and compliance procedure for each of these two situations is proposed. The advantages of such harmonization are discussed.
Autophagy in neurite injury and neurodegeneration: in vitro and in vivo models

Recent advances indicate that maintaining a balanced level of autophagy is critically important for neuronal health and function. Pathologic dysregulation of macroautophagy has been implicated in synaptic dysfunction, cellular stress, and neuronal cell death. Autophagosomes and autolysosomes are induced in acute and chronic neurological disorders including stroke, brain trauma, neurotoxin injury, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, motor neuron, prion, lysosomal storage, and other neurodegenerative diseases. Compared to other cell types, neuronal autophagy research presents particular challenges that may be addressed through still evolving techniques. Neuronal function depends upon maintenance of axons and dendrites (collectively known as neurites) that extend for great distances from the cell body. Both autophagy and mitochondrial content have been implicated in regulation of neurite length and function in physiological (plasticity) and pathological remodeling. Here, we highlight several molecular cell biological and imaging methods to study autophagy and mitophagy in neuritic and somatic compartments of differentiated neuronal cell lines and primary neuron cultures, using protocols developed in toxic and genetic models of parkinsonian neurodegeneration. In addition, mature neurons can be studied using in vivo protocols for modeling ischemic and traumatic injuries. Future challenges include application of automated computer-assisted image analysis to the axodendritic tree of individual neurons and improving methods for measuring neuronal autophagic flux.
Epidemiology of Peripheral Vascular Disease

The epidemiology of several atherosclerotic arterial diseases and their association with diabetes will be covered in this chapter. This chapter will focus on peripheral vascular disease (PVD), arterial disease affecting the extremities, and will include more general epidemiological aspects of PVD, including associated conditions and mortality. Additionally, the epidemiology of cerebrovascular disease (CBD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) will also be discussed, primarily as they relate to diabetes.
The effect of behavioral state on the sensory processing of nociceptive and non-nociceptive information.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the effect of the behavioral state on the sensory processing of nociceptive and non-nociceptive information. Behavioral modulation of sensory responsiveness is prevalent in different sensory and motor systems, and at different levels of the nervous system. It occurs in response to self-generated stimuli, environmental stimuli in the receptive field of sensory neurons, and following sensory events that provide instructional information in a task or are trigger stimuli leading to goal-directed behavior. This neural modulation is essential for the extraction of relevant sensory cues from the surrounding environment. The three major classes of chemical mediators, amino acids, monoamines and peptides, participate in the modulation of sensory information association with behavior. Opiates modify the perceived intensity of noxious stimuli in the dorsal horn, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) alters attentional mechanisms in the thalamic pulvinar nucleus, and monoamines amplify novel and behaviorally significant stimuli in the cerebral cortex. Studies are needed to determine the role of different descending control pathways and their chemical messengers in an animal's ability to prepare for significant sensory events in its environment.
Biextensions, bimonoidal functors, multilinear functor calculus, and categorical rings

We associate to a bimonoidal functor, i.e. a bifunctor which is monoidal in each variable, a nonabelian version of a biextension. We show that such a biextension satisfies additional triviality conditions which make it a bilinear analog of the kind of spans known as butterflies and, conversely, these data determine a bimonoidal functor. We extend this result to $n$-variables, and prove that, in a manner analogous to that of butterflies, these multi-extensions can be composed. This is phrased in terms of a multilinear functor calculus in a bicategory. As an application, we study a bimonoidal category or stack, treating the multiplicative structure as a bimonoidal functor with respect to the additive one. In the context of the multilinear functor calculus, we view the bimonoidal structure as an instance of the general notion of pseudo-monoid. We show that when the structure is ring-like, i.e. the pseudo-monoid is a stack whose fibers are categorical rings, we can recover the classification by the third Mac Lane cohomology of a ring with values in a bimodule.
Philosophy of Biology 1983: Problems and Prospects

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses problems and prospects of philosophy of biology. The chapter attempts to summarize recent achievements and major lines of ongoing research, work in which biologists, philosophers and historians of science are all, and often cooperatively, involved. The chapter presents philosophical debates about evolutionary biology. Two directions of recent and ongoing work are distinguished in evolutionary biology: on the one hand, conceptual analysis of what is still the orthodox view—that is, neo-Darwinism or the synthetic theory, and on the other, current debates within evolutionary biology that have clear methodological and philosophical implications. The chapter presents the problems connected with systematics that include the species concept, and foundations of taxonomy. The chapter deals with some more general questions that have been, or are, of interest in this field.
Time-Temperature Superposition in Heterophase Block Copolymers

The viscoelastic behavior of a styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer cast from several different solvents was studied in order to examine the validity of the time-temperature superposition principle in heterophase polymers. It is found that stress-relaxation isotherms over a wide temperature range can be easily superposed into smooth master curves. The master curves compare favorably with other mechanical data determined at long times and at high frequencies. The shift factors used in superposition can be rationalized by an additive model. However, it is pointed out that this apparent thermorheological simplicity is strictly valid only in the region where one of the relaxation mechanisms dominates. Consequently, only those portions of the master curve that meet this criterion are expected to be useful. Dynamic mechanical data illustrating the effect of multiple relaxations are presented.
Explaining Hunting Participation in Ohio: A Story of Changing Land Use and New Technology

Long-term per-capita participation in hunting is declining in the United States, although trends vary by region and type of hunting activity. Numerous studies have identified diverse factors affect...
Clinicopathologic features and time interval analysis of contralateral breast cancers.

Introduction We hypothesized that most contralateral breast cancers (CBCs) develop ≥5 years after the primary breast cancer (PBC) and that CBCs have more favorable tumor characteristics. Methods This is a single-institution retrospective review of 323 patients who were diagnosed with CBC from 1990 to 2014. CBCs were diagnosed at least 1 year after the diagnosis of PBC. Χ2 tests and one-way analysis of variance were used to examine the time interval and pathologic features between the PBC and CBC. Results The median time interval between the PBC and CBC was 6.2 years (average: 7.1, range: 1.01–23.0), and 189 (58.5%) patients had a time interval ≥5 years. Patients ≥70 years old developed a CBC sooner than patients 1 cm larger than their PBC, and only 25 (9.9%) patients developed a CBC that was >2 cm larger than their PBC. Only 28 of 201 (13.9%) node-negative PBCs developed a node-positive CBC. Conclusion A majority of CBCs develop ≥5 years after the diagnosis of the PBC. CBCs have more favorable tumor characteristics than the PBC and tend to be smaller and node negative.
Physical Activity Intensity, Lesson Context, and Teacher Interactions During an Unstructured Afterschool Physical Activity Program

BACKGROUND Afterschool programs are promising arenas to improve youth physical activity (PA) levels. During the school year for 2012-2013, 5 elementary schools from a low-socioeconomic status (SES) school district in southern Colorado participated in evaluation of the afterschool program entitled Keep It Moving! (KIM). METHODS In this cross-sectional analysis we sought to evaluate the relationships among participant PA, teacher interaction, and lesson context during an unstructured afterschool PA program. Participants were third-fifth grade students enrolled in the KIM program at the 5 participating elementary schools and were assessed utilizing accelerometers and direct observation with the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT). RESULTS Program participants wore the accelerometer 37.1 ± 5.4 min session−1. Approximately half of the time was spent in light PA (LPA) and 15.7 ± 5.3 min session−1 in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA). Game play was positively associated with LPA and negatively associated with MVPA. When teachers did not promote PA with students there was a positive association with sedentary activity (SA) and a negative association with MVPA. CONCLUSIONS Lesson context and teacher interactions may be important factors associated with PA intensity of afterschool PA programming. Future research should address whether structured PA curricula may improve quality of afterschool PA programming.
ESTAR measurements during the Southern Great Plains experiment (SGP99)

During the Southern Great Plains experiment (SGP99), the electronically scanned thinned array radiometer (ESTAR) mapped L-band brightness temperature over a swath about 50-km wide and 300 km long, extending west from Oklahoma City, OK, to El Reno, OK, and north from the Little Washita River watershed to the Kansas border. ESTAR flew on the NASA P-3B Orion aircraft at an altitude of 7.6 km, and maps were made on seven days between July 8-20, 1999. The brightness temperature maps reflect the patterns of soil moisture expected from rainfall and are consistent with values of soil moisture observed at the research sites within the SGP99 study area and with previous measurements in this area. The data add to the resources for hydrologic modeling in this area and are further validation of the technology represented by ESTAR as a potential path to a future mission to map soil moisture globally from space.
Current controlled LPE growth of InxGa1-xAs on GaAs

Direct electric current was used to grow epitaxial layers of InxGa1-xAs (0.038 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.054) on semi-insulating (100) GaAs substrates. The layers were grown in a carefully designed LPE system such that growth, under a constant furnace temperature of 750°C, took place primarily by electrotransport of solute atoms in the absence of convection and/or Peltier cooling. Current densities in the range of 2.5 to 30 A/cm2 yielded growth rates of 0.11 to 1.1 μm/min, respectively. These growth rates are about 2.8 times greater than the growth velocities obtained in the case of the GaAs-GaAs system. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements, on as grown layers, yielded emission peaks in the wavelength range of 0.898 μm < λ < 0.912 μm, corresponding to layer compositions of 0.038 < x < 0.054. These results are in close agreement with those predicted from solidus-liquidus data.
Synthesis and structure of μ-3,3'-[1,2-ethanediyl-bis(nitrilomethylidyne)bis(2-hydroxybenzoato)]aquadicopper(II) hydrate

Abstract The complex μ-3,3′-[1,2-ethanediyl-bis(nitrilome- thylidyne)-bis(2-hydroxybenzoato)] aquadicopper(II) hydrate, C18H16N2O8Cu2, was isolated from an attempted preparation of a copper lanthanum binuclear complex. The dark purple crystals are monoclinic, space group P21/n, with 4 molecules per unit cell; dimensions a = 13.961(5), b = tl.787(3), c = 11.622(3) A and β = 113.09(2)°. The final R was 0.046 for the 2062 reflections used in the analysis. The Cu atom in the N2O2 cavity is five coordinate with CuN distances of 1.879 and 1.880 A and CuO distances of 1.898 and 1.900 A. A water molecule at 2.557 A completes the square pyramidal arrangement. The second Cu in the O4 cavity is square planar, with CuO distances to the bridging oxygens of 1.914 and 1.909 A and to the carboxy oxygens of 1.871 and 1.882 A. A survey of copper complexes in a square planar N2O2 arrangement has led to the equation δCu from the N2O2 plane = 0.822 – 0.275 (CuO axial distance) with a correlation coefficient of 0.98 for the 12 structures in which the Cu atom is bonded to a fifth oxygen atom. A model for the transition from square planar to square pyramidal geometry is proposed.
Receipt of preventive services among privately insured minorities in managed care versus fee-for-service insurance plans.

OBJECTIVE: We compare preventive services utilization among privately insured African Americans and Hispanics in managed care organizations (MCOs) versus fee-for-service (FFS) plans. We also examine racial/ethnic disparities in the receipt of preventive services among enrollees in FFS or MCO plans. DESIGN: Analysis of the nationally representative 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included 1,120 Hispanic, 929 African-American, and 6,383 non-Hispanic white (NHW) adults age 18 to 64 years with private health insurance. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We examined self-reported receipt of physical examination, blood pressure measurement, cholesterol assessment, Papanicolau testing, screening mammography, and breast and prostate examinations. Multivariate modeling was used to adjust for age, gender, education, household income, and health status. Hispanics in MCOs were more likely than their FFS counterparts to report having preventive services, with adjusted differences ranging from 5 to 19 percentage points (P<.05 for physical examination, blood pressure measurement, breast examination and Pap smear). Among African Americans, such patterns were of a smaller magnitude. In both MCOs and FFS plans the proportion of African Americans reporting preventive services was equal to or greater than NHWs. In contrast, among Hispanic women in FFS, a non-statistically significant trend of fewer cancer screening tests than NHW’s was observed (Pap smears 75% vs 80%; mammograms 66% vs 74%, respectively). In both MCO and FFS plans, Hispanics were less likely than NHWs to report having blood pressure and cholesterol measurement (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: With the demise of traditional MCOs, reform efforts should incorporate those aspects of MCOs that were associated with greater preventive service utilization, particularly among Hispanics. Existing ethnic disparities warrant further attention.
CONTRALATERAL APPROACHES TO MULTIPLE CEREBRAL ANEURYSMS

Abstract Not infrequently, patients with bilateral cerebral aneurysms are encountered. In such patients, the ability to treat bilateral aneurysms through a unilateral approach spares the patient the risk and inconvenience associated with a separate craniotomy. The contralateral approach for aneurysm repair is technically feasible and safe in appropriately selected patients. Herein, we review our technique for maximizing contralateral exposure and clipping contralateral aneurysms through the four anatomic triangles that serve as corridors in this approach.