cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Acute Pancreatitis

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology and availability has rapidly improved over recent years with advances in magnet and gradient design, phased array coils and software that permit high spatial and temporal resolution imaging in a clinically practical scan time. MRI combined with MR cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) provides anatomic, physiologic and potentially biochemical information without the need for ionizing radiation or iodinated contrast agents. Compared to computed tomography (CT), MRI provides superior soft tissue contrast, direct multiplanar capability and three-dimensional (3D) data acquisition that is particularly beneficial for pancreatic imaging. Although CT has traditionally been the gold standard for imaging in acute pancreatitis, MRI is a reliable alternative for staging, assessing severity and predicting outcome in patients with acute pancreatitis (Lecesne et al. 1999; Arvanitakis et al. 2004; Arvanitakis et al. 2007; Stimac et al. 2007; Viremouneix et al. 2007).
Cellular and Virological Studies Directed to the Pathogenesis of the Human Myelogenous Leukemias

It is a particular honor for me to give the first Frederick Stohlman memorial lecture because of my personal respect and friendship with Fred. His courage, honesty, and stimulation of good science in the hematological field will be remembered by all who knew him. It is also very fitting to have these lectures in Wilsede where special friends were made at the first meetings and where association and friendship with Fred Stohlman became much closer for many of us.
Simulations of a low frequency beam-cyclotron instability in a dusty plasma

The nonlinear development of a low frequency beam-cyclotron instability in a collisional plasma composed of magnetized ions and electrons and unmagnetized, negatively charged dust is investigated using one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Collisions of charged particles with neutrals are taken into account via a Langevin operator. The instability, which is driven by an ion drift, excites a quasi-discrete wavenumber spectrum of waves that propagate perpendicular to the magnetic field with frequency of the order of the dust plasma frequency. In the linear regime, the unstable wavelengths are of the order of the ion gyroradius. As the wave energy density increases, the dominant modes shift to longer wavelengths, suggesting a transition to a Hall-current-type instability. Parameters are considered that reflect the ordering of plasma and dust quantities in laboratory dusty plasmas with high magnetic field. Comparison with the nonlinear development of this beam cyclotron instability in a collisionless dusty plasma is also briefly discussed.
Teacher/Student Deep Semi-Supervised Learning for Training with Noisy Labels

Deep learning methods are at the forefront of leading state-of-the-art methods in a wide range of machine learning applications. In particular, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) attain topmost performance assuming a sufficiently large number of labeled training examples. Unfortunately, labeled data is artificially curated, and it requires human labor, which consequently makes it expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, there are no guarantees that the obtained labels are noise-free. In fact, the performance of CNNs is influenced by the level of noisy labels in the training dataset. Although the literature lacks attention to train learning methods with noisy labels, few semi-supervised learning methods mitigate this obstacle. In this paper, we propose a new teacher/student deep semi-supervised learning (TS-DSSL) method that employs self-training on noisy labels training dataset. We measure the efficiency of TS-DSSL on semi-supervised visual object classification tasks on the benchmark datasets CIFAR10 and MNIST. TS-DSSL achieves impressive results even in the presence of high-level noisy labels. It also sets a record on datasets with various levels of noisy labels created from the previous datasets with uniform and non-uniform noise distributions.
Low-cost synthesis of carbon nanodots from millets for bioimaging

We presented a green and simple method to synthesize carbon nanodots (C-dots) from millets using hydrothermal synthesis route for the first time. The obtained C-dots have average diameter ranging from 6 to 10 nm. Optical measurements showed the insight into the formation of functional groups on the particle surfaces, resulting in their good water solubility and bioconjugation. After treatment with C-dots, small subpopulation of the human cervical tumor cells became bright and exhibited multicolor fluorescence under different excitation wavelength. The achievement demonstrated potential applications of fluorescent C-dots in the field of biomedical application.
B cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-based immunotherapy for multiple myeloma

Introduction: B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) contributes to MM pathophysiology and is a target antigen for novel MM immunotherapy. Complete responses have been observed in heavily pretreated MM patients after treatment with BCMA antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), chimeric antigen receptor T, and bi-specific T cell engagers (BiTE®). These and other innovative BCMA-targeted therapies transform the treatment landscape and patient outcome in MM. Areas covered: The immunobiological rationale for targeting BCMA in MM is followed by key preclinical studies and available clinical data on efficacy and safety of therapies targeting BCMA from recent phase I/II studies. Expert opinion: BCMA is the most selective MM target antigen, and BCMA-targeted approaches have achieved high responses even in relapse and refractory MM as a monotherapy. Long-term follow-up and correlative studies using immuno-phenotyping and -sequencing will delineate mechanisms of overcoming the immunosuppressive MM bone marrow microenvironment to mediate additive or synergistic anti-MM cytotoxicity. Moreover, they will delineate cellular and molecular events underlying the development of resistance underlying relapse of disease. Most importantly, targeted BCMA-based immunotherapies used earlier in the disease course and in combination (adoptive T cell therapy, mAbs/ADCs, checkpoint and cytokine blockade, and vaccines) have great promise to achieve long-term disease control and potential cure.
Spatially-Variant Image-Based Modeling of PSF Deformations with Application to Limited Angle Dual-Panel Breast-PET Data

In this work we extend the functionality of the Direct Image Reconstruction for TOF (DIRECT) method to accommodate for spatially-variant image-based resolution modeling (IRM) of point-spread-function (PSF) deformations within reconstruction (varRM). The method is applied to simulation data for a dual-panel breast PET (B-PET) scanner geometry using a realistic breast model with heterogeneous breast density and lesions. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing contrast recovery coefficients (CRC) across lesions with those obtained with reconstruction of the breast phantom without IRM (NO_rm) and with a spatially-invariant IRM (invRM). It is shown that our reconstruction method (i.e., varRM) delivers lower variation (i.e., %SD) of CRC across lesions with an improvement in mean CRC when compared to both the NO_rm and invRM cases. In addition to recovering the original position of the simulated lesions.
No need for glycosuria/proteinuria screen in pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE More than 22 million prenatal visits occur in the US each year. Each pregnant woman averages 7 visits. Most include urine testing for glucose and protein to screen for gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. Is there sufficient scientific evidence to support this routine practice? METHODS We searched Medline (1966-2004), the Cochrane review, AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse, the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, and Google, searching for studies on proteinuria or glycosuria in pregnancy. The reference list of each article reviewed was examined for additional studies, but none were identified. We found 6 studies investigating glycosuria as a predictor for gestational diabetes mellitus, or proteinuria as a predictor for preeclampsia (1 examined both). Because every study used different dipstick methods of determining results, or definitions of abnormal, each was evaluated separately. RESULTS Glycosuria is found at some point in about 50% of pregnant women; it is believed to be due to an increased glomerular filtration rate. The renal threshold for glucose is highly variable and may lead to a positive test result for glycosuria despite normal blood sugar. High intake of ascorbic acid or high urinary ketone levels may result in false-positive results. Four published studies assessed the value of glycosuria as a screen for gestational diabetes. All used urine dipsticks. Three of the 4 most likely overestimate the sensitivity of glycosuria for predicting gestational diabetes. CONCLUSIONS Routine dipstick screening for protein and glucose at each prenatal visit should be abandoned. Women who are known or perceived to be at high risk for gestational diabetes or preeclampsia should continue to be monitored closely at the discretion of their clinician.
Engineered extracellular vesicles with synthetic lipids via membrane fusion to establish efficient gene delivery.

Abstract The low yield of extracellular vesicle (EV) secretion is a major obstacle for mass production and limits their potential for clinical applications as a drug delivery platform. Here, we mass produced engineered extracellular vesicles (eEVs) by fusing the surface composition of EVs with lipid-based materials via a membrane extrusion technique. A library of lipids (DOTAP, POPC, DPPC and POPG) was fused with EVs to form a hybrid-lipid membrane structure. Uniform lamellar vesicles with a controlled size around 100 nm were obtained in this study. Particle number characterization revealed this extrusion method allowed a 6- to 43-fold increase in numbers of vesicles post- isolation. Further, exogenous siRNA was successfully loaded into engineered vesicles with ~ 15% – 20% encapsulation efficiency using electroporation technique. These engineered extracellular vesicles sustained a 14-fold higher cellular uptake to lung cancer cells (A549) and achieved an effective gene silencing effect comparable to commercial Lipofectamine RNAiMax. Our results demonstrate the surface composition and functionality of EVs can be tuned by extrusion with lipids and suggest the engineered vesicles can be a potential substitute as gene delivery carriers while being able to be mass produced to a greater degree with retained targeting capabilities of EVs.
Exploring Declustered Software RAID for Enhanced Reliability and Recovery Performance in HPC Storage Systems

Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) has been widely used to address the reliability and performance issues of storage systems. As the scale of modern storage systems continues growing, disk failure becomes the norm. With the ever-increasing disk capacity, RAID recovery based on disk rebuild becomes more and more costly, which causes significant performance degradation and even unavailability of storage systems. Declustered data layout enables parallel RAID reconstruction by shuffling data and parity blocks among all drives (including spares) in a RAID group. However, the reliability and performance of declustered RAID in real-world storage environments have not been thoroughly studied. With the popularity of ZFS file system and software RAID used in production data centers, in this paper, we extensively evaluate declustered RAID with regard to the RAID recovery time and I/O performance on a high-performance storage platform at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Our empirical study reveals the advantages and disadvantages of declustered RAID technology. We qualitatively characterize the recovery performance of declustered RAID and compare with that of ZFS RAIDZ under various I/O workloads and access patterns. The experimental results show that the speedup of declustered RAID over traditional RAID is sub-linear to the parallelism of recovery I/O. Furthermore, we formally model and analyze the reliability of declustered RAID in terms of the mean-time-to-data-loss (MTTDL) and discover that the improved recovery performance leads to higher storage reliability compared with the traditional RAID.
Driving into Danger: Perception and Communication of Flash-Flood Risk

AbstractFloods, particularly urban flash floods, frequently disrupt traffic, constraining mobility and exposing motorists to danger. Flood risk managers educate the public on the dangers of driving...
Modern Construction Envelopes: Systems for Architectural Design and Prototyping (3rd ed.)

The third edition of Modern Construction Envelopes presents a comprehensive taxonomy of building envelope systems supplemented by new drawings and animations accessed on individual pages through a ...
Environment and Energy on the Texas Gulf Coast: An Economic Evaluation Model of Alternative Policies

In 1973 Charnes, Haynes, Hazleton and Ryan (19T5) presented a comprehensive decision framework for evaluating competing alternative environmental and economic policies in the Texas Coastal Zone. Such a framework had imbedded within it a series of interactive submodels. Some of these have been presented elsewhere (Haynes et al., 1974; Haynes and Kleeman, 1975; Kleeman, Haynes and Freeland, 1975; Phillips, White and Haynes, 1976; Charnes, Haynes and Phillips, 1976). But a unique “rows only” **impact evaluation procedure may be of particular interest since we have now demonstrated its useful application not only in environmental policy evaluation but in related evaluations of the local economic impact of alternative energy source utilizations.
Phase Matching in Lower Dimensions

Phase matching refers to a process in which atom-field interactions lead to the creation of an output field that propagates coherently through the interaction volume. By studying light scattering from arrays of cold atoms, we show that conditions for phase matching change as the dimensionality of the system decreases. In particular, for a single atomic chain, there is phase-matched reflective scattering in a cone about the symmetry axis of the array that scales as the square of the number of atoms in the chain. For two chains of atoms, the phase-matched reflective scattering can be enhanced or diminished as a result of Bragg scattering. Such scattering can be used for mapping collective states within an array of neutral atoms onto propagating light fields and for establishing quantum links between separated arrays.
The Unique Strengths and Leadership of Women in Cardiology in the Context of Team-Centered Medical Care, Academic Medicine, and Biomedical Science

Over the past few decades, increasing the number of women in cardiology has been a strategic goal of both the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. There is an increasing emphasis placed on the role of teamwork within clinical cardiology and in cardiology focused healthcare policy including patient-centered medical homes. Concurrently, studies from organizational and industrial psychology researchers have demonstrated the unique strengths of having women on strategic teams on both the collective intelligence and success of these teams. Social sensitivity likely mediates the association between greater female participation on teams and team success. Despite these observations, women also disproportionately exhibit professional altruism which itself is linked positively with team success but either neutrally or negatively with personal or professional success among women. We believe that these new lines of science will strengthen the case for including and promoting women’s careers in cardiology for overall team success. However, measures to ensure that women not only enhance collective team success but also their own personal success should be both studied and promoted in the future. We believe this to be the key to the future advancement of women in both cardiology and medicine.
Order dynamics: Recent evidence from the NYSE

We examine investor order choices using evidence from a recent period when the NYSE trades in decimals and allows automatic executions. We analyze the decision to submit or cancel an order or to take no action. For submitted orders, we distinguish order type (market vs. limit), order side (buy vs. sell), execution method (auction vs. automatic), and pricing aggressiveness. We find that the NYSE exhibits positive serial correlation in order type on an order-by-order basis, which suggests that follow-on order strategies dominate adverse selection or liquidity considerations at a moment in time. Aggregated levels of order flow also exhibit positive serial correlation in order type, but appear to be non-stationary processes. Overall, changes in aggregated order flow have an order-type serial correlation that is close to zero at short aggregation intervals, but becomes increasingly negative at longer intervals. This implies a liquidity exhaustion–replenishment cycle. We find that small orders routed to the NYSE's floor auction process are sensitive to the quoted spread, but that small orders routed to the automatic execution system are not. Thus, in addition to foregoing price improvement, traders selecting the speed of automatic executions on the NYSE do so with little regard for the quoted cost of immediacy. As quoted depth increases, traders respond by competing on price via limit orders that undercut existing bid and ask prices. Limit orders are more likely and market sells are less likely late in the trading day. These results are helpful in understanding the order arrival process at the NYSE and have potential applications in academics and industry for optimizing order submission strategies.
Prior Term Birth Decreases the Risk of Preterm Birth in a Subsequent Twin Gestation.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study is to examine the association between the risk of preterm delivery among women with twin pregnancies and their obstetric history. STUDY DESIGN We designed a retrospective cohort study of live twin births in 2008 in the United States that delivered after 240/7 weeks. Women were categorized into nulliparas, multiparas with prior term delivery, and multiparas with prior preterm delivery. The incidence of preterm birth was compared using Chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression models. RESULTS A total of 32,895 nulliparous and 64,701 multiparous women with twin pregnancies were included in the study. Of the multiparous women, 2,505 (4%) had a history of a prior preterm delivery. Multiparous women with prior term birth were more likely to deliver at term (: 43%): in the index twin pregnancy than nulliparous women (40%) and multiparous women with a prior preterm birth (21%; p < 0.001). Compared with nulliparous women, prior term birth was protective against preterm delivery (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.67 [95% confidence interval 0.60-0.74] for delivery <28 weeks and aOR = 0.79 [0.71-0.77] for delivery <34 weeks). CONCLUSION Among multiparous women with twins, a prior term delivery appeared to be protective against preterm delivery compared with nulliparous women with twins. KEY POINTS · Prior term birth is protective against preterm birth in subsequent twin pregnancy.. · A prior term birth confers an OR of 0.66 for delivery prior to 28 weeks in twin pregnancies.. · A prior preterm birth renders a twin pregnancy nearly twice as likely to deliver before 28 weeks..
Studying the Consistency and Composability of Lottery Ticket Pruning Masks.

Magnitude pruning is a common, effective technique to identify sparse subnetworks at little cost to accuracy. In this work, we ask whether a particular architecture's accuracy-sparsity tradeoff can be improved by combining pruning information across multiple runs of training. From a shared ResNet-20 initialization, we train several network copies (\emph{siblings}) to completion using different SGD data orders on CIFAR-10. While the siblings' pruning masks are naively not much more similar than chance, starting sibling training after a few epochs of shared pretraining significantly increases pruning overlap. We then choose a subnetwork by either (1) taking all weights that survive pruning in any sibling (mask union), or (2) taking only the weights that survive pruning across all siblings (mask intersection). The resulting subnetwork is retrained. Strikingly, we find that union and intersection masks perform very similarly. Both methods match the accuracy-sparsity tradeoffs of the one-shot magnitude pruning baseline, even when we combine masks from up to $k = 10$ siblings.
Creating community: Expanding access to psychosocial programs for Latina breast cancer survivors.

OBJECTIVE Breast cancer survivors often derive benefits from psychosocial interventions, but less is known about Latina women's experiences. Given the disproportionately high disease burden faced by Latina survivors, it is critical to examine ways to enhance access for this population. Thus, the present study aimed to (a) examine women's perceptions of factors associated with effective delivery of a psychosocial program designed for Spanish speaking women with limited access to care, and (b) identify the mechanisms by which the program enhanced women's psychological well-being. METHODS In a qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 immigrant Latina breast cancer survivors who previously received psychosocial services at a community-based organization. Grounded theory was used to analyze the data. RESULTS Through open, axial, and selective coding, we arrived at the core category achieving a sense of community. The psychosocial program promoted access and enhanced women's psychological well-being by creating a sense of community among participants. This was facilitated by three primary aspects of service provision: access factors, a holistic approach to health, and therapeutic factors imparted through a biweekly support group. CONCLUSIONS Psychosocial services promoted a sense of community among Latina breast cancer survivors while reflecting their cultural values and unique psychosocial needs. Findings may guide the development of interventions to increase access to care, enhance health outcomes, and create and maintain a sense of community among medically underserved populations.
Tissue-specific impacts of aging and genetics on gene expression patterns in humans

Age is the primary risk factor for many common human diseases including heart disease, Alzheimer9s dementias, cancers, and diabetes. Determining how and why tissues age differently is key to understanding the onset and progression of such pathologies. Here, we set out to quantify the relative contributions of genetics and aging to gene expression patterns from data collected across 27 tissues from 948 humans. We show that gene expression patterns become more erratic with age in several different tissues reducing the predictive power of expression quantitative trait loci. Jointly modelling the contributions of age and genetics to transcript level variation we find that the heritability (h2) of gene expression is largely consistent among tissues. In contrast, the average contribution of aging to gene expression variance varied by more than 20-fold among tissues with R2age > h2 in 5 tissues. We find that the coordinated decline of mitochondrial and translation factors is a widespread signature of aging across tissues. Finally, we show that while in general the force of purifying selection is stronger on genes expressed early in life compared to late in life as predicted by Medawar9s hypothesis, a handful of highly proliferative tissues exhibit the opposite pattern. In contrast, gene expression variation that is under genetic control is strongly enriched for genes under relaxed constraint. Together we present a novel framework for predicting gene expression phenotypes from genetics and age and provide insights into the tissue-specific relative contributions of genes and the environment to phenotypes of aging.
Darkroom Dynamics: a guide to Creative Darkroom Techniques

This popular book presents creative darkroom techniques in a step-by-step format. It includes multiple printing, montage, toning, reticulation, infrared film, high contrast, combination coloring, dye transfer, liquid emulsions, Sabattier, and much more. Darkroom Dynamics has the information and photographs to expand the the reader's awareness of the sophisticated images which are possible in photography today. Darkroom Dynamics has been written to be easily comprehensible to the novice photographer attempting experimental photography for the first time. It serves not only as a forum for the serious display of experimental and manipulated photographs but also as a comprehensive source on how to make these images.
Internet Information Services Security

Ever since the Gartner report came out in 2002, Microsoft’s web platform has steadily deteriorated in reputation. That report advised anyone using Internet Information Services in any version as a public-facing, production web server to immediately consider switching to Apache, the popular UNIX web server. Most of it was deserved, too, when you consider the inexcusable buffer overflows, what seems like ten security bulletins each week, worms that take over computers faster than they can be secured when you’re on the network, and so on.
Projective Algebraic Geometry I: Basic Concepts

Let k be an algebraically closed field and let ℙ = ℙ k N be projective N-space over k. We let (Y 0, ⋯, Y N ) be the coordinate functions on ℙ N .
Cognitive Task Analysis for Expert-Based Instruction in Healthcare

This chapter presents an overview of the rationale and evidence for the use of cognitive task analysis (CTA) in healthcare including the following: It presents a brief history and definition of CTA, the reason it is being adopted for healthcare education, evidence for its learning benefits when used in evidence-based instructional design and medical simulators, an example of how one of the evidence-based CTA methods was implemented in healthcare, and suggestions for future research. The point is made that when evidence-based CTA methods are used, learning from CTA-based healthcare instruction increases an average of 45 % when compared with current task analysis methods.
Alpha-linolenic acid: functions and effects on linoleic acid metabolism and eicosanoid-mediated reactions.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the functions of α-linolenic acid (α-LNA) and its effects on linoleic acid (LA) metabolism and eicosanoid-mediated reactions. LA is an essential fatty acid. Dietary LA has been beneficial in reducing atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Humans and other animals (unlike plants) lack the enzymes that can synthesize LA and/or α-LNA. Thus, these essential fatty acids (EFA) must be provided in the diet. In the absence of these dietary unsaturated fatty acids, growth is impaired and structural and metabolic perturbations are evident. The deprivation of α-LNA results in decreased brain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and is associated with impaired learning and visual activity. α-LNA and its desaturation/elongation products, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and DHA, may play an important role in modulating the synthesis of arachidonic acid (AA), prostanoids, leukotrienes (LTs), and various bioactive hydroxy fatty acids. The desaturated/elongated products, especially EPA, may serve as substrate for the formation of prostanoids and LTs with activities that are weaker than the effects of their AA-derived counterparts.
Validating information complexity questionnaires using travel web sites

With the prevalent use of visual interfaces and the increasing demand to display more information, information complexity becomes a major concern for designers. Complex interfaces affect the system effectiveness, efficiency, and even safety. Researchers at the Federal Aviation Administration have developed two sets of psychometric questionnaires to evaluate information complexity of air traffic control displays. This study adapted the questionnaires for commercial visual interfaces and validated them with directed and exploratory tasks on three travel websites. The results confirmed that both complexity questionnaires have satisfactory reliability, validity, and sensitivity. But questionnaire B demonstrated higher sensitivity than Questionnaire A.
Mass Loss from Stars: A Review

For many decades astronomers have realized that some stars lose mass in the catastrophic events that produce supernovae, ordinary novae, and planetary nebulae. Only recently have we learned that less conspicuous mass-loss processes occur throughout much of the lifetimes of most normal stars. My purpose in this Introduction is to summarize briefly the kinds of evidence we have for this conclusion; also what can be said about the properties of the various kinds of flow, and about their significance relative to stellar evolution.
Global electricity transformation: The critical need for integrated market design and risk management research

Abstract The past three decades transformed the electricity industry. The essential goals of liberalization have been to lower costs, improve reliability, and stimulate investment and innovations through establishment of competitive electricity markets, while also relying on market mechanisms to provide creative solutions to environmental and security problems. In many instances, these goals have been achieved, but the occurrence of some spectacular market failures have brought into question the whole restructuring effort. This paper reviews recent experiences with market reform and concludes that a significant cause of failure has been the rush to unbundle vertically integrated utilities without sufficient consideration of alternative ways to manage the risk of electricity market restructuring. In particular, there is a critical need for integrated market design and risk management research to improve the process of market transformation by taking a more evolutionary approach to discover a ‘Third Way’ above vertical integration and full unbundling. Such research can offer a crucial feedback link to the restructuring process by identifying important lessons to be learned from past experience and developing new analytical tools to help introduce more successful market designs for the future.
Blood transfusion in cardiac surgery does increase the risk of 5-year mortality: results from a contemporary series of 1714 propensity-matched patients.

Background Studies have found that cardiac surgery patients receiving blood transfusions are at risk for increased mortality during the first year after surgery, but risk appears to decrease after the first year. This study compared 5-year mortality in a propensity-matched cohort of cardiac surgery patients. Study Design and Methods Between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2011, 3516 patients had cardiac surgery with 1920 (54.6%) requiring blood transfusion. Propensity matching based on 22 baseline characteristics yielded two balanced groups (blood transfusion group [BTG] and nontransfused control group [NCG]) of 857 patients (1714 in total). The type and number of blood products were compared in the BTG. Results Operative mortality was higher in BTG versus NCG (2.3% vs. 0.4%; p < 0.0001). Kaplan-Meier analysis of 5-year survival demonstrated no difference between groups in the first 2 years (BTG 96.3% and 93.0% vs. NCG 96.4% and 93.9%, respectively). There was a significant divergence during Years 3 to 5 (BTG 82.0% vs. NCG 89.3% at 5 years; p < 0.007). Five-year survival was significantly lower in patients who received at least 2 units of blood (79.6% vs. 88.0%; p < 0.0001). In multivariate Cox regression analyses, transfusion was independently associated with increased risk for 5-year mortality. Patients receiving cryoprecipitate products had a twofold mortality risk increase (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.106; p = 0.002). Conclusion Blood transfusion, specifically cryoprecipitates, was independently associated with increased 5-year mortality. Transfusion during cardiac surgery should be limited to patients who are in critical need of blood products.
Jaundice and Other Biochemical Changes

Many other metabolic disturbances have been described besides those involving energy metabolism as described in the preceding chapter. For example (Youngs, J., and Cornatzer, W. 1963), the effects of bilirubin on mitochondrial phospholipids in rat liver have been comparatively studied. Bilirubin, arsenate, dinitrophenol, and oligomycin were all evaluated and compared as regards their ability to alter phospholopid synthesis in rat liver mitochondria. Results showed that bilirubin, arsenate, and oligomycin inhibited synthesis of lecithin, phosphatidyl serine, and phosphatidyl ethanoamine. Dinitrophenol, in addition to the phospholipids above, also inhibited sphingomyelin and phosphatidyl inositol.
Beyond Homophily: A Decade of Advances in Understanding Peer Influence Processes

This article reviews empirical and theoretical contributions to a multidisciplinary understanding of peer influence processes in adolescence over the past decade. Five themes of peer influence research from this decade were identified, including a broadening of the range of behaviors for which peer influence occurs, distinguishing the sources of influence, probing the conditions under which influence is amplified/attenuated (moderators), testing theoretically based models of peer influence processes (mechanisms), and preliminary exploration of behavioral neuroscience perspectives on peer influence. This review highlights advances in each of these areas, underscores gaps in current knowledge of peer influence processes, and outlines important challenges for future research.
Flammability studies of a novel class of thermoplastic elastomer nanocomposites

The thermal insulation properties of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer nanocomposites were characterized at different heat fluxes. Thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer was modified with different loadings of montmorillonite nanoclays and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) via twin screw extrusion processing. The addition of nanoparticle into thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer resulted in the formation of a char layer and modified the thermal insulative properties of the material. It was found that thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer with 10 wt% CNFs and with 5 wt% nanoclays gave the best thermal performance with respect to protecting a substrate. The surface temperature of the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer-clay nanocomposites did not vary much with addition of clay particles while the surface temperature of the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer-CNF nanocomposites varied more substantially. Some of the trends in surface and substrate temperature measurements with nanomodification can be described using a simple energy balance model that takes into account the basic heat transfer mechanisms.
NAD+/NADH and NADP+/NADPH in Cellular Functions and Cell Death: Regulation and Biological Consequences

Accumulating evidence has suggested that NAD (including NAD+ and NADH) and NADP (including NADP+ and NADPH) could belong to the fundamental common mediators of various biological processes, including energy metabolism, mitochondrial functions, calcium homeostasis, antioxidation/generation of oxidative stress, gene expression, immunological functions, aging, and cell death: First, it is established that NAD mediates energy metabolism and mitochondrial functions; second, NADPH is a key component in cellular antioxidation systems; and NADH-dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation from mitochondria and NADPH oxidase-dependent ROS generation are two critical mechanisms of ROS generation; third, cyclic ADP-ribose and several other molecules that are generated from NAD and NADP could mediate calcium homeostasis; fourth, NAD and NADP modulate multiple key factors in cell death, such as mitochondrial permeability transition, energy state, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1, and apoptosis-inducing factor; and fifth, NAD and NADP profoundly affect aging-influencing factors such as oxidative stress and mitochondrial activities, and NAD-dependent sirtuins also mediate the aging process. Moreover, many recent studies have suggested novel paradigms of NAD and NADP metabolism. Future investigation into the metabolism and biological functions of NAD and NADP may expose fundamental properties of life, and suggest new strategies for treating diseases and slowing the aging process.
Surface-enhanced Raman spectra of benzene and benzene-d6 on vapor-deposited sodium

Abstract Enhanced Raman spectra have been observed from small amounts of benzene and benzene-d6 adsorbed on vapor-deposited sodium surfaces held at 15 K. Many lines were observed which can be assigned to normally Raman-active benzene fundamentals as well as some that are normally forbidden in D6h symmetry.
POTENTIAL FOR BACTERIAL GROWTH ON THE FRESH CUT TROPICAL SQUASH, CALABAZA (CURCUBITA MOSCHATA), DURING STORAGE

Calabaza (Curcubita moschata) is a tropical squash which is gaining popularity as a specialty crop for agricultural producers in the Northeast United States. It is commonly marketed by being cut in half wrapped in plastic and may be held unrefrigerated until sold This method of display is essential for consumer acceptance, yet unrefrigerated storage means that some potential for food safety problems exists. Experiments were conducted to determine the potential for bacterial growth during storage of cut calabaza. Freshly cut calabaza contained between 1.3 and 4. 7 log 10 CFU/g aerobic mesophiles. By 10 h, duplicate counts from some samples exceeded 4 log 10 CFU/g. After 24 h of room temperature storage, total aerobic plate counts ranged from 5.2 to 7.7 log 10 CFU/g. Rapid bacterial growth on cut calabaza stored at room temperature indicates that these products are highly perishable, and may be able to support the growth of pathogenic bacteria, should they be introduced during the slicing process.
The insanity defense and the question of human agency

Abstract No court trial focuses our attention on the question of human agency more than one in which the insanity defense is being advanced. The Law presumes that human beings have free will. If they lacked this capacity there is no point in trying to decide whether it was intact during the commission of a crime. Unfortunately, many psychiatrists and psychologists who act as expert witnesses during such trials have been trained to believe that human beings are without free will. This paper seeks to correct this disparity between the assumptions of the legal profession and the social sciences. After reviewing the history of the insanity plea, elaborating the shifting grounds on which it has been and currently is being employed, two major theoretical detractions to free will are critically examined. It is argued that these detractions are not convincing, and that there is just as much theoretical and empirical justification for believing that people have free will as there is for denying this capacity. Expert witnesses of the future need have no qualms about taking free will seriously, even when this concerns unconscious behavior. When disagreements among expert witnesses arise on this question of human agency, they can be dealt with in the same reasoned and measured fashion as disagreements of any sort are resolved in the courtroom.
Geographies of nationalist mobilisation

D. Conversi, The Basques, the Catalans and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilization. London: Charles Hurst; Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997. ISBN 0–87417–278–0. M. Hechter, Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, with a new introduction and a new appendix by the author. New Brunswick NJ and London: Transaction Publishers, 1999. ISBN 0–7685–0475–1. G.H. Herb and D.H. Kaplan (eds.), Nested Identities: Nationalism, Territory, and Scale. Lanham MD and Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. ISBN 0–8476–8467–9.
Ehrenfest's principle in quantum gravity

The Ehrenfest principle δt〈q〉 = 〈i[H, q]〉 is proposed as 〈part of 〉 a definition of the time variable in canonical quantum gravity. This principle selects a time direction in superspace, and provides a conserved, positive definite probability measure. An exact solution of the Ehrenfest condition is obtained, which leads to constant-time surfaces in superspace generated by the operator d/dτ = Δϑ·Δ, where Δ is the gradient operator in superspace, and ϑ is the phase of the Wheeler-DeWitt wavefunction ψ; the constant-time surfaces are determined by this solution up to a choice of initial t = 0 surface. This result holds throughout superspace, including classically forbidden regions and in the neighborhood of caustics; it also leads to ordinary quantum field theory and classical gravity in regions of superspace where the phase satisfies |δ,ϑ| ≫ |δt In(ψ≠ψ)| and (δtϑ)2 ≫ |δ2tϑ|.
Applying cognitive radio concepts to HF communications

The concept of cognitive radio, originally proposed in 1998, has since then inspired growing interest and research activity. While the proper definition of the term "cognitive radio" remains debated, the concepts commonly offered as examples of cognitive radio all seem to involve ways in which a radio system can sense relevant features of its environment such as location, spectrum utilization, and spectrum availability, and intelligently adapt its behaviour and resource usage in light of regulatory constraints, equipment state, and other factors, so as to best meet the communication needs of the user. While the automatic link establishment techniques widely used in HF radio systems are frequently offered as an example of an early, limited form of cognitive radio, most of the research attention in this area has been given to communications bands well above the 30 MHz upper limit of HF. In this paper, we first provide a concise overview of the variety of techniques that have been proposed as applications of the cognitive radio concept, and consider the applicability of these techniques to HF communications, in light of the distinctive characteristics of the HF communications medium and its typical uses. We then consider whether there might be distinctive cognitive techniques having promise to improve the effectiveness of HF communications, in spite of their having received little or no attention in other domains, and discuss potential challenges and critical success factors impacting the prospects for successful application of cognitive techniques to HF communications.
Chronic conditions, fluid states: Chronicity and the anthropology of illness

Chronic conditions, fluid states: Chronicity and the anthropology of illness, edited by Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2010, 320 pp., US$29....
ZERO-PHONON TRANSITIONS AT M' AND R' CENTERS IN ALKALI HALIDES

Abstract Infra-red zero-phonon lines observed in the optical spectra of five irradiated alkali halides are identified with M' and R' centers. Uniaxial-stress spectra for LiF and KCl indicate rhombic and trigonal symmetry respectively. The formation and bleaching behavior and spectral positions are consistent with prime centers. Resonance lines and “mirror” bands are seen in emission for both centers in LiF.
Democratic Governance and Security in Indonesia

As Indonesia democratises, a key feature of the country's political life has been a mixture of turmoil, hope and uncertainty. When Suharto's authoritarian regime collapsed in May 1998, Indonesia was experiencing the worst political and economic crises in more than three decades. On the political front, Suharto's collapse was preceded by communal violence, political turmoil, and state terrorism. Economically, the financial crisis, which came to Indonesia in December 1997, brought down the foundations of growth and pushed the country on to the brink of economic collapse. All these problems, which found their roots in the absence of democracy and good governance, worsened after the fall of Suharto. As the country moved towards democratic transition, however, society was imbued with a sense of hope for a better future, and that hope continues to exist until today. In that context, resolving current uncertainty constitutes the biggest challenge facing Indonesia in fulfilling the people's hope for a democratic future.
4-(Piperidin-1-yl)-4H-benzo[b]tetra­zolo[1,5-d][1,4]diazepin-5(6H)-one

There are two crystallographically unique mol­ecules present in the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C14H16N6O; in both mol­ecules, the seven-membered diazepinone ring adopts a boat-like conformation and the chair conformation piperidine ring is an axial substituent on the diazepinone ring. In the crystal, each mol­ecule forms hydrogen bonds with its respective symmetry equivalents. Hydrogen bonding between mol­ecule A and symmetry equivalents forms two ring motifs, the first formed by inversion-related N—H⋯O inter­actions and the second formed by C—H⋯O and C—H⋯N inter­actions. The combination of both ring motifs results in the formation of an infinite double tape, which propagates in the a-axis direction. Hydrogen bonding between mol­ecule B and symmetry equivalents forms one ring motif by inversion-related N—H⋯O inter­actions and a second ring motif by C—H⋯O inter­actions, which propagate as a single tape parallel with the c axis.
Impact of Ionic Liquid Physical Properties on Lipase Activity and Stability

Lipase activity and stability was investigated in dialkylimidazolium and pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquids with a variety of anions including hexafluorophosphate, acetate, nitrate, methanesulfonate, trifluoroacetate, and trifluoromethylsulfonate. The initial rate of lipase-catalyzed transesterification of methyl methacrylate in these ionic liquids and several organic solvents was examined as well as the polytransesterification of divinyl adipate and 1,4-butanediol. Free lipase (Candida rugosa) catalyzed the transesterification of methyl methacrylate in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate at a rate 1.5 times greater than in hexane. However, no detectable activity was observed in all the “hydrophilic” ionic liquids studied. Methods of enzyme stabilization including adsorption, PEG-modification, and immobilization in polyurethane foam were ineffective in improving enzymatic activity in the hydrophilic ionic liquids. Polytransesterifications performed in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosp...
Synthesis and structure of the elusive [a{sup 2}-B{sub 20}H{sub 19}]{sup 3{minus}}

The apical-apical isomer of the polyhedral borane anion [a{sup 2}-B{sub 20}H{sub 18}]{sup 4{minus}} reacts with various proton sources in dichloromethane to produce the protonated species [a{sup 2}-B{sub 20}H{sub 19}]{sup 3{minus}} in high yield. The mixed tetraethylammonium-pyridinium salt of [a{sup 2}-B{sub 20}H{sub 19}]{sup 3{minus}} crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2{sub 1}/n with a = 11.223(3) {angstrom}, b = 10.970(3) {angstrom}, c = 15.328(4) {angstrom}, {beta} = 106.06(1){degrees}, V = 1819 {angstrom}{sup 3}, and Z = 2. Data were collected on a Syntex P1 diffractometer using Cu K{alpha} radiation, to a maximum 2{theta} = 115{degrees}, giving 2359 unique reflections, and the structure was solved by direct methods (SHELX86). The final discrepancy indices were R = 0.062 and R{sub w} = 0.086 for 1967 independent reflections with I > 3{sigma}(I). The structure of the [a{sup 2}-B{sub 20}H{sub 19}]{sup 3{minus}} anion is similar to that of its apical-apical [a{sup 2}-B{sub 20}H{sub 18}]{sup 4{minus}} precursor with the addition of a hydrogen bridge connecting the two 10-boron atom cages. The boron-hydrogen-boron bond forms an angle of 91(3){degrees} although the component B{sub 10}H{sub 9} cages a share a common axis through their B(1)-B(10) vertices.