cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Induction of parturition in goats with fenprostalene

Eleven dairy goats of several breeds were administered 0.5 mg of the prostaglandin analogue fenprostalene (0.5 mg s.c.) on Days 146 to 148 of pregnancy. Parturition was successfully induced in all does, with a mean interval to first kid of 31.6 h +/- 0.83 (SEM). The course and duration of labor were normal. All kids were delivered alive. The incidence of dystocia due to fetal posture was 1/11; the incidence of fetal membranes retained for longer than 6 h was 1/11. These data indicate fenprostalene is safe and efficacious for induction of parturition with an interval to effect not significantly different from that reported for dinoprost or cloprostenol.
Dinuclear Zinc‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Desymmetrization of Acyclic 2‐Substituted‐1,3‐Propanediols: A Powerful Entry into Chiral Building Blocks

The asymmetric acylation of meso-2-substituted-1,3-propanediols by using an amphoteric chiral dinuclear zinc catalyst is described. It is has been demonstrated that both 2-alkyl- and 2-aryl-1,3-propanediols can be desymmetrized in high yields and enantioselectivities by using the same family of ligands. Given that both antipodes of the chiral catalyst are available, both enantiomers of the desymmetrized product can be obtained from the same starting material. The synthetic utility of the desymmetrized products has been demonstrated by the synthesis of several chiral building blocks with high enantiomeric purities.
Evolution of sex difference in spatial ability

Many sex differences are likely to be adaptive consequences of sexual selection. Sex differences in spatial ability are well described for Homo sapiens and laboratory rodents, and such cognitive traits may also be shaped by sexual selection. An evolutionary model is outlined to predict the distribution of these sex differences across species. Sex differences in spatial ability were previously believed to be universal among mammals, but the evolutionary model has correctly predicted that such differences will evolve only in species where mobility has different effects on male and female fitness. Wild microtine rodents are particularly useful for testing this model. Radiotelemetric data from field studies of ranging behavior, data from laboratory studies of maze learning, and neuroanatomical data on the hippocampus, a structure believed to be critically involved in spatial processing, all support the model. Several alternative explanations for sex differences in spatial ability are reviewed and evaluated. The proximate developmental basis of these sex differences is discussed, and an attempt is made to integrate developmental and evolutionary perspectives. Several promising future research directions are outlined. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The attenuation of second sound in dilute3He-4He solutions below 1 K

The attenuation of second sound in dilute solutions of3He in4He has been measured from the width of standing wave resonances. Results are presented here for3He molar concentrations of 1.3% and 5% in the temperature range 50 mK to 1 K at pressures of 0 and 10 atm. The results are compared with the theory of Saam, Baym, and Ebner and suggest that theoretical values of the phonon thermal conductivity lifetime are too great. Comparison is also made with recent measurements of the second-sound damping constant in very dilute solutions (X≦0.5%); our result shows no sign of the anomalous peak in the damping constant observed for such concentrations. The shear viscosity of the dilute solutions is also computed and found to be in agreement with the capillary flow measurements of Kuenhold, Crum, and Sarwinski.
Energy performance of FPGAs on PERFECT suite kernels

Energy efficiency as a metric has gained significant importance in the recent years. The goal of the TAPAS project is to discover and develop revolutionary approaches that will generate energy-efficient designs on embedded computing systems. One suitable target platform for implementing energy-efficient algorithms is the FPGA, due to its low power consumption, high performance and efficiency, and high degree of programmability. We develop optimizations targeted at reducing memory and communication energy dissipation on FPGAs. We design parameterized architectures for six kernels selected from the PERFECT benchmark suite, applying our memory and communication optimizations. Our optimizations demonstrate 3x to 110x energy efficiency improvement compared to baseline implementations.
Austenite decomposition during continuous cooling of an HSLA-80 plate steel

Decomposition of fine-grained austenite (10-µm grain size) during continuous cooling of an HSLA-80 plate steel (containing 0.05C, 0.50Mn, 1.12Cu, 0.88Ni, 0.71Cr, and 0.20Mo) was evaluated by dilatometric measurements, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and microhardness testing. Between 750 °C and 600 °C, austenite transforms primarily to polygonal ferrite over a wide range of cooling rates, and Widmanstatten ferrite sideplates frequently evolve from these crystals. Carbon-enriched islands of austenite transform to a complex mixture of granular ferrite, acicular ferrite, and martensite (all with some degree of retained austenite) at cooling rates greater than approximately 5 °C/s. Granular and acicular ferrite form at temperatures slightly below those at which polygonal and Widmanstatten ferrite form. At cooling rates less than approximately 5 °C/s, regions of carbon-enriched austenite transform to a complex mixture of upper bainite, lower bainite, and martensite (plus retained austenite) at temperatures which are over 100 °C lower than those at which polygonal and Widmanstatten ferrite form. Interphase precipitates of copper form only in association with polygonal and Widmanstatten ferrite. Kinetic and microstruc-tural differences between Widmanstatten ferrite, acicular ferrite, and bainite (both upper and lower) suggest different origins and/or mechanisms of formation for these morphologically similar austenite transformation products.
Wildfire and Native Fish: Issues of Forest Health and Conservation of Sensitive Species

Abstract Issues related to forest health and the threat of larger, more destructive wildfires have led to major new initiatives to restructure and recompose forest communities in the western United States. Proposed solutions will depend, in part, on silvicultural treatments and prescribed burning. Large fires can produce dramatic changes in aquatic systems, including altered sediment and flow regimes, fish mortality, and even local extinctions. Responses of salmonid populations to large disturbances such as fire indicate that complexity and spatial diversity of habitats are important to the resilience and persistence of populations. Some populations retain the ecological diversity necessary to persist in the face of large fires, and natural events such as wildfire have been important in creating and maintaining habitat diversity. Although timber harvest and fire can precipitate similar changes in watershed processes, we do not necessarily expect the physical and ecological consequences of large fires and ...
POLITICS IN A SYMBOLIC KEY: PIERRE LEROUX, ROMANTIC SOCIALISM, AND THE SCHELLING AFFAIR

Pierre Leroux founded the liberal journal Le Globe in the 1820s, moved briefly into the Saint-Simonian camp, and then emerged as one of the most important, independent and philosophically ambitious Romantic socialists of the period before 1848. This essay examines the conflict that erupted between Leroux and German Left Hegelians when Leroux chose to endorse the Berlin lectures of F. W. J. Schelling in 1841. Whereas German radicals like Marx believed Leroux simply did not understand Schelling, the article argues that Leroux's support of Schelling was consistent with the political project that he had pursued since his break with the Saint-Simonians. Leroux's attempt to create a third-way politics between the “socialisme absolu” of the Saint-Simonians and the “individualite absolu” of liberalism was strongly influenced by his long-standing engagement with Romantic poetics, most importantly with what he called Romanticism's “style symbolique.” The Romantic notion that the symbol is a visible representation of the invisible and fundamentally unrepresentable connected Leroux's aesthetics and his politics, for the symbolic mode suggested a way to think of social relationships without reifying them; the gap between representation and objects such as “individual”, “society”, “humanity”, and “God” seemed to open up a space for artistic and political creativity. This commitment to a politics based on the role of the symbolic created an affinity with Schelling that was not acknowledged in the polemics that followed from Leroux's defense of the Left Hegelians' arch-enemy. Recovering the terms of that affinity casts a new and different light on the intersection of aesthetics and politics in Romanticism, and it illuminates paths in the early history of socialism that later developments closed down.
Measures of Neighborhood Quality: Self-reports of Mothers of Infant Children

Poor neighborhood perceptions among mothers during pregnancy are associated with negative health outcomes such as maternal stress, preterm birth and long-term mental health problems in children. Given the increasing research on neighborhood perceptions, we examined the maternal-, child-, and neighborhood-level correlates of self-reported maternal neighborhood satisfaction at 13 months post-partum. Women were recruited from the post-partum units at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island from January 5, 2009 to March 19, 2009. Unadjusted and adjusted regression coefficients were estimated using linear regression. In the full model, being a mother in excellent or very good health, being Hispanic/Latino, and having a higher or unknown household income were associated with a higher neighborhood satisfaction rating at 13 months, and having a stubborn baby, having more than a high school or GED education, as well as living in a neighborhood with a higher percent of black and Latino residents were significantly associated with a lower neighborhood satisfaction rating. Our results indicate that various aspects of the neighborhood environment, maternal characteristics, and characteristics of the child influence maternal neighborhood satisfaction post-partum. All of these characteristics should be accounted for when assessing the relationship between maternal neighborhood perceptions and both short- and long-term health effects in the offspring. In addition, when assessing neighborhood perception at any point in the life course, it is important to account for neighborhood- and individual-level characteristics, as well as risk factors associated with daily stress at the time of assessment.
Assessing the Cost of Electronically Monitoring High-Risk Sex Offenders

In addition to housing, employment, and registration restrictions, sex offenders have been subjected to electronic monitoring with the idea that they may be either surveilled or deterred from committing additional crime. This study evaluated the supervision costs of placing high-risk sex offender parolees on Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) monitoring as part of a pilot program by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Using a quasiexperimental design, the study tracked parolees’ costs of supervision and their parole violations for 1 year. GPS was not cost-effective; the overall cost of parolees on GPS was greater than parolees not on the monitoring, the two groups committed similar parole violations, and parolees on GPS were retained on parole longer.
Activation of Hedgehog Signaling by the Environmental Toxicant Arsenic May Contribute to the Etiology of Arsenic-Induced Tumors

Exposure to the environmental toxicant arsenic, through both contaminated water and food, contributes to significant health problems worldwide. In particular, arsenic exposure is thought to function as a carcinogen for lung, skin, and bladder cancer via mechanisms that remain largely unknown. More recently, the Hedgehog signaling pathway has also been implicated in the progression and maintenance of these same cancers. Based on these similarities, we tested the hypothesis that arsenic may act in part through activating Hedgehog signaling. Here, we show that arsenic is able to activate Hedgehog signaling in several primary and established tissue culture cells as well as in vivo. Arsenic activates Hedgehog signaling by decreasing the stability of the repressor form of GLI3, one of the transcription factors that ultimately regulate Hedgehog activity. We also show, using tumor samples from a cohort of bladder cancer patients, that high levels of arsenic exposure are associated with high levels of Hedgehog activity. Given the important role Hedgehog signaling plays in the maintenance and progression of a variety of tumors, including bladder cancer, these results suggest that arsenic exposure may in part promote cancer through the activation of Hedgehog signaling. Thus, we provide an important insight into the etiology of arsenic-induced human carcinogenesis, which may be relevant to millions of people exposed to high levels of arsenic worldwide.
Conformational Preferences of trans-1,2- and cis-1,3-Cyclohexanedicarboxylic Acids in Water and Dimethyl Sulfoxide as a Function of the Ionization State As Determined from NMR Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Quantum Mechanical Calculations

The populations of diaxial (aa) and diequatorial (ee) conformers of trans-1,2- and cis-1,3-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acids (CDCAs; 1 and 2, respectively) and their salts were determined in water and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solutions from vicinal proton–proton NMR J couplings (3J_(HH)). Optimized geometries and free energies for these compounds were obtained at the M06-2X/cc-pVTZ(-f)++ level. Although carboxylic acid groups in cyclohexane rings are generally believed to be far more stable (~2 kcal/mol) in equatorial than axial positions, this investigation demonstrated that an aa conformation (normally assumed to be completely insignificant for these compounds) can be favored depending on the medium and ionization state: strong ee preferences (>90%) were observed in water and DMSO for both diacids and their salts, except for the dianion of 1 in DMSO, which was found to be substantially aa (~57%). The possibility of intramolecular hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) was also investigated; the ratios of the ionization constants (K_1/K_2) indicated an absence of intramolecular H-bonding because K_1/K_2 « 10^4 (a standard criterion for non-H-bonding in dicarboxylic acids) for both 1 and 2 in water and also for 2 in DMSO. For 1, K_1/K_2 increased drastically in DMSO (K_1/K_2 = 4 × 10^6), where ^3J_(HH) and the ratio K_1/K_E = 10, K_E being the acidity constant of the monomethyl ester of 1, indicated the formation of an intramolecular H-bond for the monoanion in this solvent. An explanation for the observation of compact dianions in solution in terms of the generalized Born equation is also provided.
Estimates of Driving Abilities and Skills in Different Conditions

OBJECTIVES: This research was a preliminary effort to determine whether various driving situations seemed to require different driving skills and abilities and to identify the relative demands of specific physical, perceptual, cognitive, behavioral, and operational skills and abilities in different driving situations. METHOD: Experienced driver evaluators and trainers estimated the magnitude of driving abilities and skills for different photographed driving situations. Pictures of driving scenarios were counterbalanced for road type, traffic condition, and weather condition. RESULTS: A multifactorial analysis of variance of the total score for each scenario revealed significant main effects for road type and traffic condition but not for weather condition. Highway and city driving were rated as significantly more demanding overall than residential driving, but no difference was found between city and highway driving. Estimates of the overall demands for driving in heavy traffic were significantly greater than in light traffic. However, driving in inclement weather was not regarded as significantly more demanding than driving in sunny weather. Additionally, significant interaction effects were found for road type by weather condition and traffic by weather condition but not for road type by traffic condition. Through multivariate methods to evaluate the significance of individual abilities and skills across conditions, significant main and interactive effects were found for road type, traffic condition, and weather condition. Post hoc analyses showed the impact of these effects on such abilities and skills as scanning, attention and concentration, information-processing speed, and others. CONCLUSION: Evaluators' quantified estimates of driving demands showed driving as a complex task that (a) requires high levels of abilities and skills in all situations; (b) demands greater abilities in some situations than in others; and (c) involves different kinds and various degrees of abilities and skills, depending on the demand characteristics of the situation. Language: en
Genetic Studies in Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) II. General and Specific Combining Ability

The present experiment was carried out to assess the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) of six important commercial cultivars of Gossypium hirsutum L. of Venezuela, viz., ‘Deltapine 16’, ‘Tamcot-SP-21’, ‘Cabuyare’, ‘Stoneville’, ‘Ospino’ and ‘Acala 90-1’ and their 15 F1 hybrids, respectively. The data were analyzed using Griffing’s Model I Method II. Significant differences were found for all traits evaluated, except for seeds per boll and bolls per plant. Combining ability analysis of variance revealed significant differences for GCA and SCA effects among the parents and hybrids for almost all traits except for seed cotton yield ha -1 and fiber % for GCA and boll set, seed yield, and fiber % for SCA. The results suggested the presence of additive and non-additive gene action for almost all of the traits. The ratio GCA/SCA ranged from 0.59 for fiber fineness to 5.14 for plant height. Cultivars with the best (desired) GCA effects were cv. Cabuyare for blooming initiation, seed yield, and fiber fineness; Stoneville for plant height, stem diameter, number of fruit branches, number of set flowers, and boll weight; Tamcot-SP-21 for boll set and fiber fineness; Deltapine 16 for plant height, 100seed weight and fiber length; Ospino for fiber strength. Also, the results revealed that Stoneville was the best general combiner for most of the traits. Finally, the correlations among GCA effects of the parents showed negative and significant associations of boll set with plant height and positive and significant associations of fruit branches with plant height, boll weight, and number of set flowers; of set flowers with plant height and boll weight; and of plant height with stem diameter.
Giving Radon Gas Life Through Language: Effects of Linguistic Agency Assignment in Health Messages About Inanimate Threats

Health messages that linguistically assign agency to a threat (e.g., HIV infects people) tend to evoke more fear and elevate perceptions of threat severity and susceptibility relative to those that...
The solvation, partitioning, hydrogen bonding, and dimerization of nucleotide bases: a multifaceted challenge for quantum chemistry

We present M06-2X density functional calculations of the chloroform/water partition coefficients of cytosine, thymine, uracil, adenine, and guanine and calculations of the free energies of association of selected unsubstituted and alkylated nucleotide base pairs in chloroform and water. Both hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking interactions are considered. Solvation effects are treated using the continuum solvent models SM8, SM8AD, and SMD, including geometry optimization in solution. Comparison of theoretical results with available experimental data indicates that all three of these solvation models predict the chloroform–water partition coefficients for the studied nucleobases qualitatively well, with mean unsigned errors in the range of 0.4–1.3 log units. All three models correctly predict the preference for hydrogen bonding over stacking for nucleobase pairs solvated in chloroform, and SM8, SM8AD, and SMD show similar accuracy in predicting the corresponding free energies of association. The agreement between theory and experiment for the association free energies of the dimers in water is more difficult to assess, as the relevant experimental data are indirect. Theory predicts that the stacking interaction of nucleobases in water is more favorable than hydrogen bonding for only two out of three tested hetero-dimers.
High Art/Low Life: The Art of Playing Grand Theft Auto

Electronic games, with their technological roots in the military-industrial complex, are commonly associated with childish play and lowbrow entertainment for the antisocial—all of which damages their credibility as objects of serious cultural consideration. When critics of violent electronic games view Grand Theft Auto, they see a lurid delivery device for the militaristic culture of violence—one that targets the impressionable minds of children. 1 And in terms of the gore factor, extreme vulgarity, and the sheer gall of game designers, there probably isn’t anything detractors could say about the game that wouldn’t be true. Grand Theft Auto is a bloody mess, and developers have clearly drawn on Hollywood genres of classic slasher films, mob sagas, car chases, and a rich legacy of action adventures. Presented are a series of American cliches, packaged, marketed, and sold back to us. The game seems equal parts social commentary and logical cultural outcome of combining America’s ruthless capitalistic impulse with a valorized national legacy of barbarism and hegemony. Still, what is more interesting than the moral panic around the depiction of violence is how GTA, through a simulated “realistic” sense of space and time, conveys an
Fluorouracil for Allergic Reactions to Capecitabine

OBJECTIVE:To report the safe use of fluorouracil in a patient with breast cancer who had allergic reactions to capecitabine.CASE SUMMARY:A 42-year-old African American woman with metastatic breast cancer developed progressive disease. Capecitabine 1500 mg taken by mouth twice daily was prescribed as the salvage chemotherapy. She developed a generalized rash and itching, sore throat, and dizziness approximately 4 hours after the first dose of capecitabine. These reactions recurred immediately after the second dose. Capecitabine was discontinued and the allergic reactions resolved after the woman took diphenhydramine for 1 week. In view of limited therapeutic options for her progressive disease, a trial of fluorouracil 300 mg/m2/d continuous intravenous infusion over 5 days was initiated without any premedications. She did not experience any reactions. The dose of fluorouracil in the second cycle was increased to 400 mg/m2/d continuous infusion over 5 days.DISCUSSION:Capecitabine is not intrinsically cytoto...
Molecular Epidemiology of Bartonella henselae Infection in Human Immunodeficiency Virus–Infected Patients and Their Cat Contacts, Using Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis and Genotyping

Bartonella henselae causes severe disease in immunocompromised individuals. B. henselae was isolated from 12 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected individuals with bacillary angiomatosis and/or peliosis hepatis and from their 15 cat contacts. Specific associations between the 2 B. henselae genotypes, individual pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns, and different clinical syndromes and pathogenicity were investigated. The role of cat contacts as the source of human infection was also examined. Three of the 4 patients with B. henselae genotype I infection, but none of the 8 patients with genotype II infection, had hepatosplenic vascular proliferative lesions ( ). Four of 5 human-cat pairs had closelyP p .018 related PFGE patterns and concordant results by 16S rDNA typing, which strongly suggests that human infection was caused by the cat contact. These results corroborate the major role of cats in the transmission of B. henselae to humans and suggest that B. henselae genotypes may induce different pathological features in HIV-infected patients.
Dynamic foreign policy behavior

How best to classify event counts of directed dyadic foreign policy behavior and how best to model them are points of disagreement among researchers. Should such series be modeled as unit roots ("perfect" memory) or as stationary ("short" memory)? It is demonstrated that the dichotomous choice between unit root (I(1)) and level stationarity (I(0)) is overly restrictive. The intermediate (and more general) possibility of fractional integration (0<I<1), a concept proven useful in studies of aggregate opinion, is applied. Results show that fractional integration is extremely common and that error correction mechanisms (ECMs) can still be appropriate in the absence of unit-root series. Fractional ECMs are used in action-reaction models of bilateral relationships to demonstrate this. Given the frequency of fractional integration, its flexibility, and the problems encountered when ignoring it, scholars should incorporate fractional integration techniques into their models.
Adapting a memory framework (source monitoring) to the study of closure processes

The present experiments adapt a memory framework (source monitoring) to the study of closure processes. Closure processes are invoked as explanatory mechanisms underlying the ability to identify objects under conditions of incomplete visual information. If closure processes are activated, filling in missing pieces of visual information, intriguing memory predictions follow. When making source judgments about the way in which visual information was experienced initially (e.g., complete or incomplete in form), a particular kind of memory error should be evident. Incomplete visual information should be remembered as complete in form, and indeed, this error is observed. The present experiments test alternative interpretations for the initial reports of this memory error in the context of a search task modeled after theWhere’s Waldo? children’s books. The effects of several new factors (e.g., familiarity) are reported, and alternative interpretations for the bias to reportcomplete are eliminated. Findings, therefore, have implications for understanding the mechanisms of closure processes, as well as for the source-monitoring framework itself.
Finding the steady-state response of analog and microwave circuits

The authors present two methods that are capable of computing the steady-state response of a circuit directly: harmonic balance, which is a frequency-domain method, and the finite-difference method, which is based in the time domain. Both of these methods are suitable for use on nonlinear circuits that contain distributed devices and that exhibit either periodic or quasiperiodic steady-state solutions. >
Comment on published carrier lifetime data on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials

Une reponse est donnee a un precedent article qui precise qu'il ne faut pas confondre les durees de vie des differents porteurs et qu'il serait utile a l'avenir de verifier les comportements de generation et recombinaison afin que l'etude soit complete en prenant en compte divers dispositifs (bipolaire, MOS, etc.) ainsi que leur forme
Hippocampal extracellular GABA correlates with metabolism in human epilepsy.

As the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in human brain, GABA is an important modulator of hyperexcitability in epilepsy patients. Given the high energetic cost of neurotransmission and synaptic activity, GABA concentrations may be hypothesized to correlate with metabolic function. We studied human epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial EEG monitoring for seizure localization to examine microdialysis measures of extracellular GABA (ecGABA), pre-operative MR spectroscopic measures of neuronal mitochondrial function (NAA/Cr), and wherever possible, neuropathology and hippocampal volumetry. Two groups undergoing intracranial monitoring for seizure localization were studied: surgically treated hippocampal epilepsy (MTLE) and neocortical (non-hippocampal seizure onset) epilepsy. All data are hippocampal and thus these groups allow comparisons between the epileptogenic and non-epileptogenic regions. ecGABA was measured using in vivo microdialysis performed during intracranial monitoring. Pre-operative in vivo MR spectroscopic imaging was performed to measure the ratio of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) to creatine. Standard methods for neuropathology and hippocampal volumetry were used. In the neocortical group, increased ecGABA correlated with greater NAA/Cr (R = +0.70, p < 0.015, n = 12) while in the MTLE group, increased ecGABA linked with decreased NAA/Cr (R = −0.94, p < 0.001, n = 8). In MTLE, ecGABA (increased) and NAA/Cr (decreased) correlated with increased glial cell numbers (R = +0.71, p < 0.01, n = 12, R = −0.76 p < 0.03 respectively). No relationship was seen between ecGABA and hippocampal volumes in either group. In epilepsy, ecGABA increases occur across a range of metabolic function. Outside the seizure focus, ecGABA and NAA/Cr increase together; in contrast, within the seizure focus, ecGABA increases with declining mitochondrial function.
Gestational Diabetes Resources on the World-Wide Web

Gestational diabetes is a common medical problem in pregnancy. Statistics indicate that between 3 percent and 12 percent of pregnant women will develop gestational diabetes each year. The World-Wide Web provides pregnant women and their concerned families and friends with convenient access to diabetes-related information and resources. Included in this article is a select, annotated list of Web-based resources concerning gestational diabetes.
Fine-Tuning of Chemotactic Response in E. coli Determined by High-Throughput Capillary Assay

In E. coli, chemotactic behavior exhibits perfect adaptation that is robust to changes in the intracellular concentration of the chemotactic proteins, such as CheR and CheB. However, the robustness of the perfect adaptation does not explicitly imply a robust chemotactic response. Previous studies on the robustness of the chemotactic response relied on swarming assays, which can be confounded by processes besides chemotaxis, such as cellular growth and depletion of nutrients. Here, using a high-throughput capillary assay that eliminates the effects of growth, we experimentally studied how the chemotactic response depends on the relative concentration of the chemotactic proteins. We simultaneously measured both the chemotactic response of E. coli cells to l-aspartate and the concentrations of YFP-CheR and CheB-CFP fusion proteins. We found that the chemotactic response is fine-tuned to a specific ratio of [CheR]/[CheB] with a maximum response comparable to the chemotactic response of wild-type behavior. In contrast to adaptation in chemotaxis, that is robust and exact, capillary assays revealed that the chemotactic response in swimming bacteria is fined-tuned to wild-type level of the [CheR]/[CheB] ratio.
Enhanced Densification of Boehrmte Sol-Gels by α-Alumina Seeding

Boehmite sol-gels were seeded by adding <2.0 wt%α-alumina powder to a 20% boehmite hydrosol at pH =3. The seeded gel sintered to 98% of theoretical density after 100 min at 1200°C, whereas the unseeded gel had to be sintered at 1600°C to reach 94% of theoretical density. This difference results primarily from nucleation by the α-alumina seeds and enhanced transformation of the boehmite to α-alumina, such that a uniform, well-ordered, fine-grained α-alumina micro-structure forms prior to densification.
New Directions in Conservation Biology: Graduate Programs

Only a decade has passed since conservation biology became an identifiable and proliferating element at universities in the United States. While a number of programs addressing conservation themes were available in the past, comprehensive approaches are just emerging. Recent theoretical and applied developments in science are offering insights and new directions, particularly in the areas of landscape ecology, ecosystem management and restoration, and sustainable development (Lubchenco et al. 1991). Concomitantly, public interest has increased in a natural resource management philosophy that includes values associated with complex, diverse, and healthy ecosystems. Conservation biology, when broadly defined to include new and integrated natural and social science approaches, offers the hope for appropriate environmental management in the future. Jacobson (1990) traced the birth of conservation biology and the development of programs at U.S. academic institutions. The following summaries of conservation biology curricula in graduate programs across the U.S. reflect the maturation as well as the diversity of this growing field. Descriptions of graduate programs in conservation biology were requested from universities (1) represented at the 1993 annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology; (2) listed in the 1992 Conservation Directory published by the National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D.C.; and (3) participating in the national initiative, Integrated Approaches to Training in Conservation and Sustainable Development (Jacobson et al. 1992). The graduate program descriptions we feature represent the universities that responded to our request for information. Descriptions are limited to one paragraph with a list of up to eight representative faculty. The program summaries reveal that the institutionalization of curricula in conservation biology varies among graduate schools. Programs run the gamut from full-fledged master's and doctoral degrees to majors, concentrations, emphases, minors, and coursework. Many of the programs are ensconced in existing biology or natural resources departments; others are components of interdisciplinary programs. The 51 programs described here serve as a menu of current training and research in the field of conservation biology and foretell what will be on our plate in the future.
Automotive component reliability: should it be measured in time or mileage?

This paper is a sequel to the work published in 2004 RAMS Transactions on the nonparametric estimation of the marginal in time and mileage failure distributions. Depending on the failure mode, accumulated time in service (hereafter just time) and mileage could be either a survival variable (i.e. the one "driving" failures and representing failure distribution) or a cumulative use variable. The question is "Which is which?" Proper resolution of this dilemma with subsequent data analysis helps classify the underlying failure mode in terms of assembly-related failures, wear-related failures, etc., which, in turn, is critical to developing the appropriate corrective actions? We review a few available statistical procedures devised to identify a "good" scale to model the failure distribution. We propose, however, that these procedures must be used with caution in the automotive industry applications, since the variability of mileage accumulation of nominally identical vehicles in a population can mislead the choice of the appropriate survival variable. We conclude that most important criterion for selecting the appropriate survival variable is engineering relevance of the failure mode
Threefold increased risk of infertility: a meta-analysis of infertility after ileal pouch anal anastomosis in ulcerative colitis

Background: Increased infertility in women has been reported after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) for ulcerative colitis but reported infertility rates vary substantially. Aims: (1) To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the relative risk of infertility post-IPAA compared with medical management; (2) to estimate the rate of infertility post-IPAA; and (3) to identify modifiable risk factors which contribute to infertility. Methods: Medline, EMBASE, Current Contents, meeting abstracts, and bibliographies were searched independently by two investigators. The titles and abstracts of 189 potentially relevant studies were reviewed; eight met the criteria and all data were extracted independently. Consensus was achieved on each data point, and fixed effects meta-analyses, a funnel plot, and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results: The initial meta-analysis of eight studies had significant heterogeneity (p = 0.004) due to one study with very high preoperative infertility (38%). When this study was omitted, the relative risk of infertility after IPAA was 3.17 (2.41–4.18), with non-significant heterogeneity. The weighted average infertility rate in medically treated ulcerative colitis was 15% for all seven studies, and the weighted average infertility rate was 48% after IPAA (50% if all eight studies are included). We were unable to identify any procedural factors that consistently affected the risk of infertility. Conclusions: IPAA increases the risk of infertility in women with ulcerative colitis by approximately threefold. Infertility, defined as achieving pregnancy in 12 months of attempting conception, increased from 15% to 48% in women post-IPAA for ulcerative colitis. This provides a basis for counselling patients considering colectomy with IPAA. Further studies of modifiable risk factors are needed.
Comparative analysis of aortic impedance and wave reflection in ferrets and dogs.

Our modified version of the T-tube arterial model (consisting of two parallel, loss-free transmission paths terminating in lumped loads of complex and frequency-dependent nature) was applied to exp...
Physicians' interpretation of "class effects": a need for thoughtful re-evaluation.

Abstract The concept of pharmacologic “class effects” exists across a broad range of medical products and is particularly pervasive with regard to cardiovascular agents. Evolution of the concept over the past two decades has shown the influence of physicians’ practice patterns, pharmaceutical companies, health maintenance organizations and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Understanding the evolution of health care, social and economic policies, acknowledging the correction of medical misconceptions and inaccurate understanding and appreciating the emergence of new medical knowledge over the past decade should modify the clinician’s viewpoint of “class effects.” These revelations should signal caution in extrapolating the outcome efficacy or safety of one agent to another within a pharmacologic class. The authors urge clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, health maintenance organizations and the FDA to re-examine their concept of “class effects.” An appeal is made for physicians to prescribe those pharmaceutical agents with definitive evidence of mortality and morbidity efficacy and safety established by appropriately scaled randomized clinical trials.
Religious Deprogramming and Subjective Reality

Unlike the psycho-physical interpretation of the Pavlovian approach (Hunter, 1953; Hinkle and Wolffs, 1956) or psychoanalytic notions (Lifton, 1961; Meerloo, 1956) on thought reform, we contend in this paper that contemporary religious deprogramming of American young "cultists" may be best analyzed in terms of ego-identity change as suggested by Schein (1961). The ego-identity change occurs in interaction with "significant others" who provide a unique plausibility structure through three specific stages: a shock treatment of "defreezing," "protective" or "coercive" persuasion to eliminate 'floating" influence of the "cultist mind-control," and readjustment of the changed subjective reality to the larger society. A set of data was collected through intensive interviews with 17 deprogrammed youths and a few deprogrammers and rehabilitators, and through participant observations in the deprogramming-rehabilitation sessions. The data then were used as illustrative and interpretive materials in support of our contention. Problem This paper examines "religious deprogramming" as a social construction of subjective reality. Berger and Luckmann (1966) contend that subjective reality can be transformed and that in a nearly total transformation ("alternation"), the individual switches the worlds of subjective realities.1 Religious deprogramming in this paper is understood as a process bringing a person the total rejection of those attitudes, beliefs and practices of a religious group or "cult" of which the individual was previously a loyal member. The deprogramming then may be seen as an alternation process through which one is led to dismantle and disintegrate the nomic structure of his/her subjective reality and, then, switches to another world-a new or the previously held reality. My discussion in this exploratory study will be focused on what is apparent and what is concealed in the process of religious deprogramming. While the manifest objective of deprogramming explained by parents is to "rescue their children who have been 'brainwashed' in the cult and became incapable of making rational decisions," the latent function of deprogramming might be viewed as religious deconversion and reconversion -in other words, a process of social construction of subjective reality. This can be best examined through analysis of (1) the basic elements which constitute the plausibility structure of
The Cultural Silence of Climate Change Contrarianism

This chapter presents a view of climate change from the perspective of green cultural criminology. The substantive focus of the chapter is on how climate change contrarianism is manifested in the mass media. Denial is profoundly ideological in nature; how it is conveyed and transmitted is of importance to those who wish to reorient collective thinking to not only recognizing the urgency and seriousness of the problem but also recasting it in criminal terms. As this chapter demonstrates, it is vital to understand and expose the dynamics and social construction of deception and “contrary” opinion if positive action is to be taken to address climate change issues.
A Comparison of the Corrosion and Fretting Behaviour Between Large Femoral Heads and Monopolar Hip Implants

Introduction This retrieval analysis study consisted of two goals. The first goal was to determine if there was a difference in the corrosion and fretting damage along the taper interface between large femoral heads in comparison to monopolar hemiarthroplasty heads. The second goal was to examine if the diameter of monopolar hemiarthroplasty heads can influence corrosion and fretting damage along the taper interface. Patients and Methods This retrieval analysis compared the corrosion and fretting behaviour of 40 mm femoral heads (n = 13) to monopolar hemiarthroplasty heads (n = 17 for a diameter The Mann Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were performed for identifying significant differences for corrosion and fretting scores that were not normally distributed (α = 0.05). An unpaired student9s t-test was conducted for comparing the head corrosion scores for the two head size groups of monopolar hemiarthroplasty implants since these scores were normally distributed. Results As shown in Table 3, the 40 mm heads had an average head corrosion score of 6.4 ± 9.9 whereas the monopolar hemiarthroplasty heads had an average score of 13.8 ± 13.4 resulting in a significant statistical difference (p = 0.049). In regards to head fretting, the scores were 1.3 ± 1.9 for the 40 mm heads and 10.5 ± 18.2 for the monopolar hemiarthroplasty implants, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.058). There were no significant statistical differences in the corrosion and fretting scores between the four manufacturers. A significant statistical difference was found for the head corrosion scores of the two monopolar hemiarthroplasty head size groups. Monopolar hemiarthroplasty heads with a diameter Discussion/Conclusion Monopolar hemiarthroplasty heads exhibit more corrosion damage along the taper interface than 40 mm heads. This study also revealed that monopolar hemiarthroplasty implants exhibit more corrosion damage with a larger diameter. This supports the argument that a greater head diameter increases the torque acting along the head-stem taper interface. This would increase the micromotion, which can deteriorate the protective oxide layer, and make the taper interface more vulnerable to crevice corrosion.
A Streptothrix (Nocardia) Infection of Cows' Udders

Four and one-half years ago a study of the bacterial contamination of cow' s milk as it comes from the udder was undertaken by the writer. At that time a number of samples of milk from the Dairy Division herd at Beltsville, Md., were studied and 2 or 3 times each year since a number of samples (usually from 20-30) from this herd have been carefuly examined. At the time of the last examination of samples, in Jan., 1918, it was found that some time since Oct., 1917, when the preceding examination was made, there had been a general infection of the udders with a streptothrix (Nocardia). It was isolated from 18 of 21, or 85.7%, of the samples studied. The number of streptothrix colonies which grew on the plate indicated that the numbers of these organisms in the samples of milk when it was drawn varied from 140-2,600 per c c. It had never before been isolated from the milk of this dairy. A search through the literature yielded only 2 references to the findings of streptothrix in milk. One was in the writer's paper1 on the "Bacteria of Milk Freshly Drawn from Normal Udders." There it was reported that "A streptothrix was found in 6 of the 28 samples of milk from Dairy 3. In one sample there were 5,000 of these organisms per cubic centimeter." Thoni2 reported that he found streptothrices in the market milk of Bern, Switzerland, and Barthel,3 a Swedish investigator, reported finding them in milk, but he found them also in the air of the stable, and therefore concluded that those in the milk were due to air contamination. Since streptothrices are common saprophytes, it is probable that those isolated by Thoni got into the milk after it was drawn. Presumably, then, the streptothrix infection of the udder was unusual, for otherwise it would have been noted by others of the investigators who have studied the bacterial flora of aseptically drawn milk.
Maternal nutrition: I. The urinary urea nitrogen/total nitrogen ratio as an index of protein nutrition

Abstract The spot and 24 hour urinary urea nitrogen/total nitrogen (UN/TN) ratio was investigated as an index of maternal protein nutrision, in both outpatients and patients under metabolic study. This ratio was found to correlate well with maternal protein nutrition. It was not influenced by caloric intake. In all the phases of this study, there was an excellent correlation between the UN/TN ratio in the 24 hour and the single voided urine specimens. Thus, the test was found to be a simple, reliable, and clinically feasible means of assessing maternal protein nutritional adequacy. Preliminary observations showed a positive correlation between the UN/TN ratio and birth weight. The historical background of the UN/TN ratio as well as its implications for the future are discussed.
Restored Physiology in Protein-Deficient Yeast by a Small Molecule Channel

Deficiencies of protein ion channels underlie many currently incurable human diseases. Robust networks of pumps and channels are usually responsible for the directional movement of specific ions in organisms ranging from microbes to humans. We thus questioned whether minimally selective small molecule mimics of missing protein channels might be capable of collaborating with the corresponding protein ion pumps to restore physiology. Here we report vigorous and sustainable restoration of yeast cell growth by replacing missing protein ion transporters with imperfect small molecule mimics. We further provide evidence that this tolerance for imperfect mimicry is attributable to collaboration between the channel-forming small molecule and protein ion pumps. These results illuminate a mechanistic framework for pursuing small molecule replacements for deficient protein ion channels that underlie a range of challenging human diseases.