cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Review of the Role of Auditory Evoked Potentials in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Assessment

Around 75% to 90% of people who experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are classified as having a mild TBI (mTBI). The term mTBI is synonymous with concussion or mild head injury (MHI) and is characterized by symptoms of headache, nausea, dizziness, and blurred vision. Problems in cognitive abilities such as deficits in memory, processing speed, executive functioning, and attention are also considered symptoms of mTBI. Since these symptoms are subtle in nature and may not appear immediately following the injury, mTBI is often undetected on conventional neuropsychological tests. Current neuroimaging techniques may not be sensitive enough in identifying the array of microscopic neuroanatomical and subtle neurophysiological changes following mTBI. To this end, electrophysiological tests, such as auditory evoked potentials (AEPs), can be used as sensitive tools in tracking physiological changes underlying physical and cognitive symptoms associated with mTBI. The purpose of this review article is to examine the body of literature describing the application of AEPs in the assessment of mTBI and to explore various parameters of AEPs which may hold diagnostic value in predicting positive rehabilitative outcomes for people with mTBI.
Disrupting the Status Quo: How Teachers Grapple with Reforms That Compete with Long-Standing Educational Views.

Teacher education programs and school reform efforts are two mechanisms by which research-based reform messages reach thousands of teachers. Prior research has noted, however, that these messages are often in conflict with longstanding beliefs and norms at school sites. This paper examines teacher agency in the context of school of structure and culture to investigate how both new and experienced teachers grapple with these conflicting messages. Qualitative data reveal that, although the structural and cultural aspects of new teachers’ experiences differed in some ways from those of their more experienced counterparts, the approaches they took in addressing change varied within rather than between the two populations. Some teachers felt they were unable to sustain engagement with instructional reform or were only able to do so within their own classrooms or with a limited group of like-minded teachers. Others challenged the institutionalized practices of their sites, but doing so required navigating the structural and cultural elements of their schools that supported institutionalized practices. Many teachers feared that pushing for wider instructional change among their colleagues would jeopardize cordial relationships, but teachers of all experience levels who did push for change found ways to do so while preserving social cohesion. Findings suggest that it may be useful for both teacher education programs and in-school reform efforts to support their participants in engaging in collegial conversations with their peers in ways that deprivatize practice and push against the status quo while still maintaining social cohesion among the members of the group.
Bayesian assessment of predictors’ contributions to variation in the predictive performance of a logistic regression model

The logistic regression model is the algorithm most commonly applied in business analytics applications for classifying objects into binary categories among industrial users. This paper presents a ...
Dealing With Language Gap in a Hungarian-English Early Childhood Classroom

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or notfor- profit sectors. However, the research was supported by AraNY Janos Hungarian Kindergarten and School, New York.
An Innovator and a Disruptor: Leonard Bickman on Program Theory, Null Findings, and Advice to Future Child Mental Health Services Researchers.

With a career spanning more than half a century, Leonard Bickman has contributed to improving children’s mental health through research on innovative interventions, such as measurement-based care, and service-level initiatives, including systems of care. Len’s highly productive career in children’s mental health services research is founded in his influence on the science of program evaluation, particularly in the area of program theory. This article provides an abridged and combined version of a video interview with Len dated April 16, 2019 and written responses to a series of questions posed to Len in advance of the festschrift held in his honor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on May 11, 2018.
Learning and Sleep Have Divergent Effects on Cytosolic and Membrane-Associated Ribosomal mRNA Profiles in Hippocampal Neurons

Abstract The hippocampus plays an essential role in consolidating transient experiences into long-lasting memories. Memory consolidation can be facilitated by post-learning sleep, although the underlying cellular mechanisms are undefined. Here, we addressed this question using a mouse model of hippocampally-mediated, sleep-dependent memory consolidation (contextual fear memory; CFM), which is known to be disrupted by post-learning sleep loss. We used translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) to quantify ribosome-associated RNAs in different subcellular compartments (cytosol and membrane) and in different hippocampal cell populations (either whole hippocampus, Camk2a+ excitatory neurons, or highly active neurons expressing phosphorylated ribosomal subunit S6 [pS6+]). Using RNA-seq, we examined how these transcript profiles change as a function of sleep vs. sleep deprivation (SD) and as a function of prior learning (contextual fear conditioning; CFC). Surprisingly, we found that while many mRNAs on cytosolic ribosomes were altered by sleep loss, almost none were altered by learning. Of the few changes in cytosolic ribosomal transcript abundance following CFC, almost all were occluded by subsequent SD. This effect was particularly pronounced in pS6+ neurons with the highest level of neuronal activity following CFC, suggesting SD-induced disruption of post-learning transcript changes in putative “engram” neurons. In striking contrast, far fewer transcripts on membranebound (MB) ribosomes were altered by SD, and many more mRNAs (and lncRNAs) were altered on MB ribosomes as a function of prior learning. For hippocampal neurons, cellular pathways most significantly affected by CFC were involved in structural remodeling. Comparisons of post-CFC transcript profiles between freely-sleeping and SD mice implicated changes in cellular metabolism in Camk2a+ neurons, and increased protein synthesis capacity in pS6+ neurons, as biological processes disrupted by post-learning sleep loss.
Anisotropic Structural Collapse of Mg3Sb2 and Mg3Bi2 at High Pressure

Alloys between Mg3Sb2 and Mg3Bi2 have recently been shown to be exceptional thermoelectric materials due in part to their anomalously low thermal conductivity. In the present study, in situ high-pr...
Effect of housing type on health of preweaned dairy calves during summer in Florida

A common housing system for dairy calves used in warm humid environments is a wire-framed hutch with a piece of plywood on top to provide shade. Also available to dairy producers is an alternative hutch design for the prevention of heat stress (Calftel®, L. T. Hampel Corp, Germantown, WI). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of housing type on the health of preweaned dairy calves.
From OCR and ECAR to energy: Perspectives on the design and interpretation of bioenergetics studies

Biological energy transduction underlies all physiological phenomena in cells. The metabolic systems that support energy transduction have been of great interest due to their association with numerous pathologies including diabetes, cancer, rare genetic diseases, and aberrant cell death. Commercially available bioenergetics technologies (e.g., extracellular flux analysis, high-resolution respirometry, fluorescent dye kits, etc.) have made practical assessment of metabolic parameters widely accessible. This has facilitated an explosion in the number of studies exploring, in particular, the biological implications of oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and substrate level phosphorylation via glycolysis (i.e., via extracellular acidification rate (ECAR)). Though these technologies have demonstrated substantial utility and broad applicability to cell biology research, they are also susceptible to historical assumptions, experimental limitations, and other caveats that have led to premature and/or erroneous interpretations. This review enumerates various important considerations for designing and interpreting cellular and mitochondrial bioenergetics experiments, some common challenges and pitfalls in data interpretation, and some potential "next steps" to be taken that can address these highlighted challenges.
Fish Encounters: Aquariums and Their Veterinarians on a Rapidly Changing Planet

The extensive body of social science and humanities scholarship on zoos rarely discusses aquariums. Despite their independent historical trajectory and unique characteristics and challenges, aquariums are typically considered the younger sister to the more established terrestrial zoo institutions. This article is an initial exploration of modern public aquariums through the eyes of these institutions’ veterinarians, a small but rapidly growing, and quite influential, professional cohort. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a handful of aquarium veterinarians in various sites — including the United States, Canada, Israel, Portugal, Denmark, and Germany — the article documents some of the everyday challenges that these medical practitioners face when attempting to manage the health and wellbeing of captive marine animals. Their feet in several worlds, aquarium veterinarians must balance their medical training and animal welfare sensibilities with the specific nature of the aquatic animals under their care, and also with the understanding of their evolving responsibilities toward ocean conservation. For these professionals, the rights-welfare-conservation approaches to animal care are not abstract ideas but rather real-life situations that dictate their actual modes of practice in caring for marine animals. This can only be an initial study and thus highlights the need for additional scholarly work in the social sciences and humanities on aquariums, their wet forms of life, and the challenges — as well as the opportunities — that their management poses to the human caretakers of this space. This scholarly need is especially acute in light of the declining state of extant species and ecosystems in the world’s seas. Public aquariums and their veterinarians will arguably perform increasingly important roles in the conservation of our blue planet.
Long-term robot mapping in dynamic environments

One of the central goals in mobile robotics is to develop a mobile robot that can construct a map of an initially unknown dynamic environment. This is often referred to as the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem. A number of approaches to the SLAM problem have been successfully developed and applied, particularly to a mobile robot constructing a map of a 2D static indoor environment. While these methods work well for static environments, they are not robust to dynamic environments which are complex and composed of numerous objects that move at wide-varying time-scales, such as people or office furniture. The problem of maintaining a map of a dynamic environment is important for both real-world applications and for the advancement of robotics. A mobile robot executing extended missions, such as autonomously collecting data underwater for months or years, must be able to reliably know where it is, update its map as the environment changes, and recover from mistakes. From a fundamental perspective, this work is important in order to understand and determine the problems that occur with existing mapping techniques for persistent long-term operation. The primary contribution of the thesis is Dynamic Pose Graph SLAM (DPG-SLAM), a novel algorithm that addresses two core challenges of the long-term mapping problem. The first challenge is to ensure that the robot is able to remain localized in a changing environment over great lengths of time. The second challenge is to be able to maintain an up-to-date map over time in a computationally efficient manner. DPG-SLAM directly addresses both of these issues to enable long-term mobile robot navigation and map maintenance in changing environments. Using Kaess and Dellaert's incremental Smoothing and Mapping (iSAM) as the underlying SLAM state estimation engine, the dynamic pose graph evolves over time as the robot explores new areas and revisits previously mapped areas. The algorithm is demonstrated on two real-world dynamic indoor laser data sets, demonstrating the ability to maintain an efficient, up-to-date map despite long-term environmental changes. Future research issues, such as the integration of adaptive exploration with dynamic map maintenance, are identified. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
The Continuing Vitality of Music Performance Rights Organizations

Some commentators see the need for major changes in the legal and institutional framework surrounding the music industry. Some proposals call for revising or eliminating performing rights organizations (PROs), which have for many years now represented the interests of songwriters in their dealings with broadcasters and other companies that distribute music to the public. This paper argues that despite major changes in the technology and business of music distribution, the traditional allocation of IP rights to songwriters, and the continued existence of active PROs, remain vital and important features of the music industry. Separate copyrights for songwriters promote the continued viability of songwriting as an independent creative profession. And PROs are uniquely suited to represent songwriters in negotiations and dealings with other players in the music industry.
The 2004–2008 dome-building eruption at Mount St. Helens, Washington: epilogue

The 2004–2008 dome-building eruption at Mount St. Helens ended during winter 2007–2008 at a time when field observations were hampered by persistent bad weather. As a result, recognizing the end of the eruption was challenging—but important for scientists trying to understand how and why long-lived eruptions end and for public officials and land managers responsible for hazards mitigation and access restrictions. In hindsight, the end of the eruption was presaged by a slight increase in seismicity in December 2007 that culminated on January 12–13, 2008, with a burst of more than 500 events, most of which occurred in association with several tremor-like signals and a spasmodic burst of long-period earthquakes. At about the same time, a series of regular, localized, small-amplitude tilt events—thousands of which had been recorded during earlier phases of the eruption—came to an end. Thereafter, seismicity declined to 10–20 events per day until January 27–28, when a spasmodic burst of about 50 volcano-tectonic earthquakes occurred over a span of 3 h. This was followed by a brief return of repetitive “drumbeat” earthquakes that characterized much of the eruption. By January 31, however, seismicity had declined to 1–2 earthquakes per day, a rate similar to pre-eruption levels. We attribute the tilt and seismic observations to convulsive stagnation of a semisolid magma plug in the upper part of the conduit. The upward movement of the plug ceased when the excess driving pressure, which had gradually decreased throughout the eruption as a result of reservoir deflation and increasing overburden from the growing dome, was overcome by increasing friction as a result of cooling and crystallization of the plug.
Survey of male perceptions regarding the vulva.

Objective The purpose of this study was to characterize male preferences of vulvar appearance, their awareness of labiaplasty, and their knowledge of genital anatomy. Study Design Men 18-80 years old were recruited via emails sent by an Internet provider to participate in a 27-question web-based survey. The questionnaire included images and queried demographics, men's familiarity with vulvar anatomy, preferences regarding labial appearance, and awareness of labiaplasty. Two deployments to >150,000 email addresses were sent. Demographic data were described using frequencies for categoric variables and mean measures of central tendency for continuous variables. Logistic regression models were used to analyze associations between demographics and responses. Results Two thousand four hundred three men responded to the survey. After excluding incomplete and ineligible surveys, 1847 surveys were analyzed. The median age of respondents was 55 years. The majority was white (87%), married (68%), employed (69%), and had completed high school or beyond (97%). One-third of the respondents lived in the South, with the other regions nearly equally represented. A significant majority, 95%, reported having been sexually active with women, and 86% felt comfortable labeling the vulvar anatomy. With regard to preferences, more respondents considered smaller labia attractive compared to large labia; yet 36% of the men remained neutral. Men also showed a preference for partially or completely groomed genitals compared to natural hair pattern. Whereas 51% of participants believed the appearance of a woman's labia influenced their desire to engage in sexual activity, 60% denied it affected sexual pleasure. Only 42% of men were familiar with labiaplasty, and 75% of all respondents would not encourage a female partner to change her genital appearance. Multivariable analysis revealed younger age to be associated with preferences for small labia and complete genital hair removal, as well as familiarity with labiaplasty. Conclusion In this national survey, men demonstrated familiarity with the female anatomy, but many did not feel it impacted sexual desire or pleasure. Moreover, the majority lacked strong preferences for a specific vulvar appearance and would not encourage a female partner to alter her genital appearance surgically.
16S rRNA sequences of uncultivated hot spring cyanobacterial mat inhabitants retrieved as randomly primed cDNA.

Abstract Cloning and analysis of cDNAs synthesized from rRNAs is one approach to assess the species composition of natural microbial communities. In some earlier attempts to synthesize cDNA from 16S rRNA (16S rcDNA) from the Octopus Spring cyanobacterial mat, a dominance of short 16S rcDNAs was observed, which appear to have originated only from certain organisms. Priming of cDNA synthesis from small ribosomal subunit RNA with random deoxyhexanucleotides can retrieve longer sequences, more suitable for phylogenetic analysis. Here we report the retrieval of 16S rRNA sequences from three formerly uncultured community members. One sequence type, which was retrieved three times from a total of five sequences analyzed, can be placed in the cyanobacterial phylum. A second sequence type is related to 16S rRNAs from green nonsulfur bacteria. The third sequence type may represent a novel phylogenetic type.
Frankenstein is Dead

I really admire Richard Day’s work, which may seem a strange thing to say given my critique of parts of his work started all this. Let me explain. In my oral presentation (the one Day says he liked much more than my written paper), I drew on Nietzsche to argue that every person (and thus every political thinker) is multiple. That is, each of us is a tangled mass of many different wills and desires. And each of these wills is running in its own direction, some even directly conflicting with others. So in the oral presentation I offered a critique not of Day’s work as a whole, which I mostly agree with, but only of one particular will or desire in Day’s work, what I called his “will to supersede.” It’s a clunky term, but what I was getting at was that there is a distinct desire present in Day’s book, Gramsci is Dead, to lump a whole multiplicity of different political ideas and practices into one homogenous mass and declare that mass superseded, dead, or past its “sell-by date.” As I say in the paper, the most spectacular example of this is Day’s Frankenstein monster: “(neo)liberal and (post)Marxist theory and practice.” In his response to my written paper we have a new amalgamated monster to run away from, “business as usual.” This monster seems to include everything that does not conform to the sensibilities of the protagonists of the most ‘vibrant’ social movements as Day understands and articulates them.
La marina ecuatoriana: reformismo y activismo político en la década de 1970

Las fuerzas armadas ecuatorianas tomaron el control del gobierno en 1972 con la intencion de utilizar los recursos petroleros de la nacion para reordenar la estructura institucional y el aparato productivo del pais. A diferencia de los golpes militares anteriores, la marina desempeno un papel central en la planeacion y ejecucion del golpe. El auge del petroleo desencadeno un periodo extraordinario de expansion economica y doto al Estado de recursos sin precedente. Los dos gobiernos militares que gobernaron en los anos de 1972-1979 transformaron Ecuador de manera fundamental. Si bien no consiguieron alcanzar las metas trazadas en el plan naval ni terminaron con la inequidad social y economica, lograron tomar el control sobre los recursos naturales, modernizando de esta forma el gobierno nacional, expandiendo la infraestructura economica, impulsando el desarrollo agricola e industrial y proporcionando a un numero importante de pobres de las zonas urbanas y rurales el acceso a los servicios basicos de salud, educacion y empleo.
State, civil society, and the right to dissent: Some thoughts on censorship in contemporary India

The cultural critic and political psychologist Ashis Nandy, one of India’s most well-known intellectuals, is no stranger to either controversy or censorship. Early last year, at the Jaipur Festival...
City Managers and E-Government Development: Assessing Technology Literacy and Leadership Needs

The development of e-government has attracted considerable scholarly interest in recent years, but relatively little has been written about the capacity to develop and provide new e-government services. This chapter seeks to add to our knowledge in this area by assessing the ability of city managers in the United States, to effectively champion e-government development. We present an analysis of scores on the technology practice of the ICMA Applied Knowledge Assessment demonstrating that city managers possess relevant knowledge, but we also find some interesting generational variations in technology literacy and knowledge about managing technology. We also examine the ability of city managers to provide leadership for e-government development and identify some important challenges. We conclude that there are limits to capacity that could delay e-government developments in the future and offer some recommendations on how to limit their impact.
The relationship between physical activity and sleep among pregnant women

Abstract Statement of problem Few studies have examined the influence of physical activity on sleep among pregnant women. To examine the potential sleep-enhancing benefits of physical activity among pregnant women and to therefore see if physical activity may serve as a non-pharmacological treatment for sleep disturbances during pregnancy, this study’s purpose was to examine the association between objectively-measured physical activity and sleep among a nationally representative sample of U.S. pregnant women. Methods Data from the National Health and Examination Survey 2005–2006 was used for the present study. 138 pregnant women who had worn an ActiGraph 7164 accelerometer on the right hip for at least 4 days for a minimum of 10 h per day were identified. Questions on sleep were asked during the household interview. Results Of the 22 sleeping-related parameters assessed, physical activity was only associated with two. After controlling for depression, gestation, income and parity, for every 1-min increase in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, pregnant women were 17% less likely to have difficulty finishing a meal because of being tired or sleepy (OR = 1.17, 95% CI: 0.98–1.38, p = 0.06). Conclusion Our data suggests a weak relationship between objectively-measured physical activity and sleep. Additional research using a larger sample of pregnant women, as well as experimental studies, are needed to determine the extent to which physical activity may assist in improving sleeping-related parameters among pregnant women.
Towards Throughput and Delay Optimal Routing for Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

The design of routing protocols for wireless ad-hoc networks is guided by the dual requirements of throughput optimality and minimum delay. Lately, there has been a movement from the traditional routing approach, which identifies a best path to the destination before transmission and routes all the packets through it, to opportunistic approaches which make routing decisions adaptively based on actual transmission outcomes. We compare the stable rate region of both the approaches and find, interestingly, that opportunistic routing schemes do not always support a larger stable-rate region than traditional routing protocols. Backpressure based schemes are known to be throughput optimal but compromise on delay performance instead. We study the behavior of various schemes and propose a routing policy that considers both the goals of throughput optimality and minimizing expected delay in its design.
Effect of substitutions in position 12 of bombesin on antagonist activity.

Abstract Recent studies show that substitutions for the His in position 12 of bombesin (Bn) are important in determining antagonist activity. The present study was designed to investigate the chemical properties of the substitution in position 12 of Bn that determined antagonist activity and affinity. Nine [Leu 14 ]Bn analogues with a single amino acid substitution and two analogues with multiple substitutions in addition to position 12 were synthesized. Replacing His 12 with Phe 12 resulted in an agonist with 100-fold decrease in potency and as reported previously, replacement with D-Phe 12 resulted in an antagonist, but with a 10,000-fold decrease in affinity. Substitution of D-β-naphthylalanine (D-Nal 12 ), a larger and more hydrophobic group than D-Phe, produced a complete loss of antagonist activity, whereas substitution of D-pyridylalanine (D-Pal 12 ), a group more hydrophilic and similar in size to D-Phe, converted the analogue to a very weak agonist with 300-fold lower affinity than the D-Phe analogue. Antagonist activity depended on the nature of the aromatic moiety, with a D-Trp 12 resulting in an inactive analogue, and with a D-Tyr 12 resulting in a weak antagonist being 100-fold less potent than the D-Phe 12 substitution. The addition of an electron withdrawing group to the D-Phe substitution (D-Cpa 12 ) resulted in a minimal decrease in antagonist activity, whereas the addition of an electron donating group (p-hydroxy in D-Tyr 12 ) resulted in a 30-fold decrease in antagonist activity. The addition of a basic group (D-Arg 12 or D-Pal 12 ) resulted in weak agonists. Substitution of D-Phe in position 5 or 6 and position 12 resulted in antagonists with the relative potency of [D-Phe 6 ,D-Phe 12 ,Leu 14 ]Bn > [D-Phe 5 ,D-Phe 12 ,Leu 14 ]Bn = [D-Phe 12 ,Leu 14 ]Bn. There was a close agreement between the ability of all analogues to affect biologic activity and inhibit 125 I-[Tyr 4 ]Bn binding. The present results indicate that the nature of the substitution in position 12 of Bn is critically important for determining antagonist activity and affinity. Stereospecificity of the substitution in position 12 is important in determining antagonist activity, whereas the hydrophilic nature of the aromatic moiety in the substitution is important in determining affinity of antagonists. Only a multiple D-Phe substitution (D-Phe 6 , D-Phe 12 ) resulted in increasing antagonist activity by a factor of about 10-fold.
Demonstration of electrooptic modulation at 2165nm using a silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We demonstrate electrooptic modulation at a wavelength of 2165nm, using a free-carrier injection-based silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator. The modulator has a Vπ∙L figure of merit of 0.12V∙mm, and an extinction ratio of −23dB. Optical modulation experiments are performed at bitrates up to 3Gbps. Our results illustrate that optical modulator design methodologies previously developed for telecom-band devices can be successfully applied to produce high-performance devices for a silicon nanophotonic mid-infrared integrated circuit platform.
Effects of Internet Use on College Students' Political Efficacy

This study examines the relationship between three types of Internet use (information, entertainment, and interactive contacts) and two types of political efficacy (external and internal) among U.S. college students. Information related Internet use and interactive contacts predict college students' internal political efficacy. An unexpected finding was that visiting public agency sites negatively influenced college students' external political efficacy. This implies that the quality of current public sites is below the expectation of college students and that respondents who visited those sites might develop political cynicism. This study also reveals that online news sites are becoming a primary news source for college students.
Open-field behavior in isolate and trio chicks of two age groups.

New Hampshire Red chicks age 8 or 9 days and 22 or 23 days were tested once in an open field situation as trios or isolates. Locomotor activity and indices of emotion were recorded for a 5-min. observation period. Many birds remained inactive; of those who were active the older trios tended to make fewer emotional responses and to walk over more area.
The influence of vitamin E and selenium on lipid peroxidation and aldehyde dehydrogenase activity in rat liver and tissue

Malondialdehyde (MDA) production and cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) response were examined in rat liver tissues after feeding different levels of dietary vitamin E and/or selenium and polyunsaturated fat for 12–38 wk. MDA production was significantly increased by vitamin E deficiency or by high levels of polyunsaturated fat intake, but not by selenium deficiency. The activity of cytosolic ALDH increased upon increased production of MDA after 12–16 wk of feeding the lipid peroxidation-inducing diets. However, ALDH activity was suppressed after 38 wk of feeding the vitamin E-deficient diet. The results indicate that the hepatic cytosolic ALDH may be involved in the metabolism of MDA during a relatively short-term increase inin vivo lipid peroxidation, but that ALDH activity becomes suppressed after more severein vivo lipid peroxidation has been produced. Hepatic and plasma α-tocopherol levels and lipid peroxidation products were measured for the various dietary groups.
Prolonged Maintenance of a Mammary Carcinoma in Vitamin E-Deficient Rats.

SummaryMaintenance of the Walker 256 mammary carcinoma in vitamin E-deficient rats for a period of 2/12 years, by 22 successive implantations, produced no demonstrable alteration in the rate of growth, transplantability, histologic organization, or cytologic characteristics of the tumor.Normal rats fed concentrates of wheat germ oil failed to show the neoplastic growths observed by Rowntree and his associates.
Time-Kill Studies of the Antianaerobe Activity of Garenoxacin Compared with Those of Nine Other Agents

The activities of garenoxacin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, trovafloxacin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem, clindamycin, and metronidazole against 20 anaerobes were tested. At two times the MIC, garenoxacin was bactericidal against 19 of 20 strains after 48 h and against 17 of 20 after 24 h. Other drugs, except clindamycin (which gave lower killing rates), gave killing rates similar to those for garenoxacin.
Progress in splat-cooling of dental alloys.

Improved techniques in preparing and sizing dental alloy powders containing Ag, Sn, and Cu have led to amalgams with higher strengths and less spread in dimensional change but very poor shelf life. Since maximum strengths occurred for amalgams containing about 15% more Sn than previously reported, and consequently presumably more of the weak γ2 phase, the higher strengths are difficult to understand. The poor shelf life may be explained by oxidation of the highly reactive splatcooled alloy or possibly by the existence of highly reactive metastable phases which transform fairly rapidly to the less reactive equilibrium ones.
TH-E-BRF-10: Interim Esophageal Cancer Response Assessment Via 18FDG-PET Scanning During Radiation Therapy

Purpose: Local failure occurs in a large proportion of esophageal cancer patients treated with chemoradiation. The treatment strategy for non-responders could potentially be modified if they are identified during therapy. This work investigates the utility of an interim 18FDG-PET scan acquired during the course of therapy as a predictor of pathological response post-therapy. Methods: Fifteen patients underwent 18FDG-PET scanning prior to radiation therapy (RT) and once during RT, after delivery of ∼32 Gy. The physician-contoured GTV on the planning CT scan was used to automatically segment a PET-based GTV on the pre-RT PET (GTV-pre-PET) as the volume with >40% of the maximum GTV PET SUV value. The pre- and intra-RT CTs were deformably registered to each other to transfer the GTV-pre-PET to the intra-RT PET (GTV-intra-PET). The fractional decrease in the maximum SUV, mean SUV and the SUV to the highest intensity 10% – 90% volumes from GTV-pre-PET to GTV-intra-PET were compared to pathological response assessed at the time of post-RT surgery. Results: Based on post-treatment pathology of 15 patients, 7 were classified as achieving favorable response (treatment effect grade ≤ 1) and 8 as unfavorable response (treatment effect grade > 1). Neither fractional decrease in maximum SUV nor mean SUV were significant between the favorable and unfavorable groups. However, the fractional decrease in SUV20% (SUV to the highest 20% volume) was significant (p = 0.02), with an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve of 0.84. An optimal cutoff value of 0.46 for this metric was able to distinguish between the two groups with 71% sensitivity (favorable) and 88% specificity (unfavorable). Conclusion: The fractional decrease in SUV to the volume with highest 20% intensity from pre- to intra-RT 18FDG-PET imaging may be used to distinguish between favorable and unfavorable responders with high sensitivity and specificity.
Role of phase instabilities in the early response of bulk fused silica during laser-induced breakdown

We report on the experimental and hydrocode modeling investigation of the early material response to localized energy deposition via nanosecond laser pulses in bulk fused silica. A time-resolved microscope system was used to acquire transient images with adequate spatial and temporal resolution to resolve the material behavior from the onset of the process. These images revealed a high-pressure shock front propagating at twice the speed of sound at ambient conditions and bounding a region of modified material at delays up to one nanosecond. Hydrocode simulations matching the experimental conditions were also performed and indicated initial pressures of \ensuremath{\sim}40 GPa and temperatures of \ensuremath{\sim}1 eV at the absorption region. Both the simulations and the image data show a clear boundary between distinct material phases, a hot plasma and solid silica, with a suggestion that growth of perturbations at the Rayleigh-Taylor unstable interface between the two phases is the seed mechanism for the growth of cracks into the stressed solid.
Reaction coordinate of an enzymatic reaction revealed by transition path sampling

The transition path sampling method previously applied in our group to the reaction catalyzed by lactate dehydrogenase was used to generate a transition path ensemble for this reaction. Based on analysis of the reactive trajectories generated, important residues behind the active site were implicated in a compressional motion that brought the donor–acceptor atoms of the hydride closer together. In addition, residues behind the active site were implicated in a relaxational motion, locking the substrate in product formation. Although this suggested that the compression-relaxation motions of these residues were important to catalysis, it remained unproven. In this work, we used committor distribution analysis to show that these motions are integral components of the reaction coordinate.
Precise determination of the isotopic composition of potassium: Application to terrestrial rocks and lunar soils

We detail a method for the precise and accurate determination of isotopic variations in the 41K39K ratio with a precision of ±0.5‰ (2σm). Purified potassium is chemically extracted from rocks, soils, minerals, or solutions by ion exchange chromatography. Complete chemical yields (>99.8%) are achieved in order to avoid laboratory-induced isotopic fractionations. The purified potassium is converted to a glass by melting with barium borate flux, and the resultant bead is mounted for ion probe analysis. The SIMS method utilized by the ion probe produces extremely stable K+ ion beams, with no measurable temporal variability in the isotope ratio. The instrumental fractionation is steady at about −4‰, and is corrected for by measurement of a standard. The measurement of gravimetrically prepared isotopic standards indicates that the method is accurate at the stated level of precision and free of egregious errors. Analysis of terrestrial samples including peridotite, basalts, granites, carbonatite, biotite schists, and seawater, indicate the complete absence of isotopic variations in δ41 1K among terrestrial materials at the 0.5%o level. Application to lunar soils and a regolith breccia confirms previously observed large isotopic fractionation effects (Garner et al., 1975a; Church et al., 1976). Some lunar soils, e.g., 14163, are shown to have large sample heterogeneity (≈7%o), while others, e.g., soils and a regolith breccia at several Apollo 15 sites (Station 79), are homogeneous at the level of analytical precision. The presence of potassium isotopic effects in bulk soils (up to +12.7‰ in this study) with magnitudes comparable to the Rayleigh fractionation factor (25‰) indicates that volatility during micrometeorite impact melting played a large role in lunar regolith formation. As much as 15% of the regolith potassium has been lost from the Moon, through the tenuous lunar atmosphere.
Young cumulate complex beneath Veniaminof caldera, Aleutian arc, dated by zircon in erupted plutonic blocks

Mount Veniaminof volcano, Alaska Peninsula, provides an opportunity to relate Quaternary volcanic rocks to a coeval intrusive complex. Veniaminof erupted tholeiitic basalt through dacite in the past ∼260 k.y. Gabbro, diorite, and miarolitic granodiorite blocks, ejected 3700 14 C yr B.P. in the most recent caldera-forming eruption, are fragments of a shallow intrusive complex of cumulate mush and segregated vapor-saturated residual melts. Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) analyses define 238 U- 230 Th isochron ages of 17.6 ± 2.7 ka, 5 +11/–10 ka, and 10.2 ± 4.0 ka (2σ) for zircon in two granodiorites and a diorite, respectively. Sparse zircons from two gabbros give 238 U- 230 Th model ages of 36 ± 8 ka and 26 ± 7 ka. Zircons from granodiorite and diorite crystallized in the presence of late magmatic aqueous fluid. Although historic eruptions have been weakly explosive Strombolian fountaining and small lava effusions, the young ages of plutonic blocks, as well as late Holocene dacite pumice, are evidence that the intrusive complex remains active and that evolved magmas can segregate at shallow levels to fuel explosive eruptions.
Summer and autumn ozone fluxes to a forest in the Czech Republic Brdy Mountains.

Abstract In an effort to examine ozone (O3) deposition over a forest site in the Czech Republic, a low cost eddy flux experiment using slow response ozone and temperature sensors was implemented in July 1993 within the Brdy Mountains. Half-hour 2-Hz ozone and sensible heat measurements made at the Brdy Mountains for 98 days during the period 7 July 1994–20 October 1994 are analyzed and reported. While the Czech Brdy Mountains AOT40 level for the overall 104 day period was 7.6 ppm h (15.1 ppm h for the full 24-h summation), indicating a slight potential for O3 injury, the 1994 summer to autumn measured forest O3 uptake was 2.4 (±0.9) g m−2, not unusually high compared to other studies. Average summer midday O3 fluxes and deposition velocities were −1.0 (±0.6) μg m−2 s−1 and 1.1 (±0.7) cm s−1, and autumn values were −0.36 (±0.4) μg m−2 s−1 and 0.7 (±0.5) cm s−1, respectively. A unique contribution of this study is the first time demonstrated use of slow responding sensors for eddy covariance flux measurements at heights of 20 m above a forest.
Quantum Pasts and the Utility of History

From data in the present we can predict the future and retrodict the past. These predictions and retrodictions are for histories – most simply time sequences of events. Quantum mechanics gives probabilities for individual histories in a decoherent set of alternative histories. This paper discusses several issues connected with the distinction between prediction and retrodiction in quantum cosmology: the difference between classical and quantum retrodiction, the permanence of the past, why we predict the future but remember the past, the nature and utility of reconstructing the past(s), and information theoretic measures of the utility of history.
Neutral polar wind

[1] The classical polar wind is an ambipolar outflow of ions from high latitudes along open geomagnetic field lines. The polar wind consists of light thermal ions (H+, He+) and energetic light and heavy ions (H+, He+, O+). The characteristics of these ions have been studied quite extensively since the 1960s. In just the last 20 years, however, energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that are produced in charge exchange reactions between the singly ionized polar wind ions and the surrounding neutral atoms have been used as a means to remotely probe plasma populations. Recent estimates for neutral outflow integrated fluxes from the LENA instrument on the IMAGE spacecraft have shown values of 1–4 × 109 cm−2 s−1, with a considerable diurnal variation. A theoretical model has been used in this study that is similar to the high-latitude hydrodynamic polar wind model developed at Utah State University, but it has been expanded to include the effects of neutral stream particles so that the characteristics of the neutral polar wind can be elucidated. The neutral polar wind model results show a high neutral hydrogen outflow flux on the order of 109 cm−2 s−1.
A high-activity ATP translocator in mesophyll chloroplasts of Digitaria sanguinalis, a plant having the C-4 dicarboxylic acid pathway of photosynthesis

The effect of exogenous adenine nucleotides on CO2 fixation and oxygen evolution was studied with mesophyll protoplast extracts of the C4 plant Digitaria sanguinalis. Exogenous ATP was found to stimulate the rate of pyruvate and pyruvate + oxalacetate induced CO2 fixation, as well as reverse the inhibition of CO2 fixation by carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone and several electron transport inhibitors. The ATP-dependent stimulation of CO2 fixation varied from 40 to 70 μmol CO2 fixed/mg chlorophyll per h, suggesting that ATP was crossing the chloroplast membranes at rates of 80–140 μmol/mg chlorophyll per h, since 2 ATP are required for each CO2 fixed. Fixation of CO2 could also be induced in the dark by exogenous ATP, in which case ADP accumulated outside the chloroplasts. This suggests that external ATP is exchanging for internal ADP. In contrast, ADP and AMP were found not to traverse chloroplast membranes, on the basis that neither nucleotide inhibited CO2 fixation or stimulated oxygen evolution that was limited by available ADP for phosphorylation. Further evidence that ATP can enter the chloroplasts was obtained by direct measurements of the increase in ATP in the chloroplasts due to addition of exogenous ATP in the dark. These studies yielded minimal rates of ATP uptake on the order of 30–40 μmol/mg chlorophyll per h. It is suggested that a membrane translocator exists that specifically transports ATP into the chloroplasts in exchange for ADP. The significance of these findings are considered with respect to the C4 pathway of photosynthesis.
Dosimetric and anatomic indicators of late rectal toxicity after high‐dose intensity modulated radiation therapy for prostate cancer

We seek to identify dosimetric and anatomic indicators of late rectal toxicity in prostate cancer patients treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy(IMRT). Data from 49 patients sampled from 698 patients treated for clinically localized prostate cancer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with IMRT to a dose of 81 Gy were analyzed. The end point of the study was late Grade 2 or worse rectal toxicity within 30 months of treatment.Dosimetricanalysis was performed on the rectum surface in three dimensions and on two-dimensional dose maps obtained by flattening the rectum surface using a conformal mapping procedure. Several parameters including the percentage and absolute surface area of the rectum irradiated, mean dose as a function of location on the rectum, planning target volume (PTV) size and rectum size were analyzed for correlation to toxicity. Significance was set at p 0.05 for a two-sided t -test. Correlation between absolute areas irradiated and toxicity was observed on both the rectum surface and flattened rectum. Patients with toxicity also received a significantly higher mean dose to the superior 25% of the rectum surface and 15% of the flattened rectum. PTV volume, PTV height, rectum surface area and average cross-sectional area were significantly larger in patients with toxicity. The conformal mapping procedure has potential utility for evaluating dose to the rectum and risk of toxicity. Late rectal toxicity was related to the irradiation of the upper part of the rectum and also to the absolute area irradiated, PTV size, and rectum size on the planning computed tomography(CT) scan.
In situ Raman spectroscopic investigation of zirconium–niobium alloy corrosion under hydrothermal conditions

Abstract In situ Raman spectroscopy was employed to investigate corrosion of a zirconium–niobium alloy in air-saturated water at a pressure of 15.5 MPa and temperatures ranging from 22 to 407 °C in an optically accessible flow cell. Monoclinic ZrO 2 (m-ZrO 2 ) was identified under all conditions after the coupon was heated to 255 °C for 19 h. Cubic ZrO 2 (c-ZrO 2 ) was tentatively identified in situ during heating at temperatures between 306 and 407 °C, but was not observed under any other conditions. Species tentatively identified as α-CrOOH and a Cr VI and/or Cr III /Cr VI compound were observed in situ during heating at temperatures between 255 and 407 °C, but were not observed under any other conditions. The chromium compounds were identified as corrosion products released from the optical cell and/or flow system.