cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multimodality Imaging in Transcatheter Mitral Interventions: Buzzword or Modern Age Toolbox?

> The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. > > –Socrates Both echocardiography (specifically transesophageal echocardiography [TEE]) and multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT) have played an integral role in preprocedural planning for transcatheter aortic valve replacement, heavily influencing the moniker of “multimodality imaging.” The strengths of each modalities are complementary (Table), although there is overlap between the preprocedural analyses which can be performed.1,2 Having 2 modalities capable of accurately measuring the same anatomic structure3 has clinical utility. For instance, mandated MDCT annular measurements could not be performed accurately by the core laboratory in 6% to 8% of patients in the Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves II SAPIEN 3 trial4 and thus required 3-dimensional (3D)-TEE for transcatheter valve sizing. View this table: Table. Advantages and Limitations of Imaging Modalities for Structural Heart Disease Interventions See Articles by Suh et al and Mak et al Perhaps, the most important imaging lesson learned from the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) experience is not whether one modality is better or worse than another, but the fact that because of the obvious utility of multiple imaging modalities, the imager has become an essential part of the Heart Team and integral to the preprocedural and intraprocedural planning for any successful transcatheter device implantation.5,6 The imager must have a comprehensive understanding of the anatomy of interest, as well as the intended transcatheter device. Without this knowledge, recommendations for sizing and positioning, as well as anticipation of complications, are not possible. At our institution, review of both MDCT and echocardiographic imaging is part of the initial patient assessment. In addition, an imager is always present for all structural heart disease interventions, allowing the interventionalist or surgeon and the imager to gain experience together. …
The institutions curse theory

Good institutions provide the means by which individuals can achieve personal security, improve their material welfare, and reach their potentials. Countries blessed by their institutions experience consistent economic growth and, in some cases, egalitarianism. The result is development in every sense of the word: liberal democracy, prosperity, and social flourishing. Several channels help to link good institutions to these outcomes. They include the rule of law and checks and balances; honest and professional bureaucracies; economic policies that reduce transaction costs and foster competition; and the widespread provision of public goods. If these things are present, citizens tend to feel good about their personal safety and the safety of their investments, and enjoy greater economic opportunities. They will tend to trust each other and their governments, cooperate, and make continued investments in physical and human capital. The collective result is enduring political and economic development. We can use logical inference to deduce the vicissitudes of the institutions curse. Countries are cursed by their institutions when the rules of the game, and the shared beliefs and expectations that underpin those rules, produce outcomes that harm the majority of the population, if not portions of the ruling class. Citizens are forced to navigate between the Scylla of government predation and repression and the Charybdis of citizen-on-citizen predation and crime. Elites face a different, if not deadlier, set of challenges: coups, purges, show trials, and revolutions. The upshot is political and economic underdevelopment as trust, cooperation, and investments that promote productivity remain stillborn. These insights, all inspired by neo-institutionalist political economy, suggest an important puzzle. If institutions are the key to development broadly understood, then why don't all societies simply adopt good institutions? Why are the rule of law and liberal democracy not universal? Why are corruption, cronyism, and despotism – and thus underdevelopment – still so pervasive? They also raise some tangible questions. Why did the initial emergence of private property rights, liberalism, and democracy take place in Western Europe – not in Central Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa? Why did these countries become more inclusive and egalitarian over time? Why was it possible to recreate Western Europe's institutions in some places and not others? Why did liberalism and democracy flourish in Canada, the United States, and Australia, for example, but failed to emerge in Tanzania and Jordan?
Tropical Convective Transition Statistics and Causality in the Water Vapor–Precipitation Relation

AbstractPrevious work by various authors has pointed to the role of lower-free-tropospheric humidity in affecting the onset of deep convection in the tropics. Empirical relationships between column water vapor (CWV) and precipitation have been inferred to result from these effects. Evidence from previous work has included deep convective conditional instability calculations for entraining plumes, in which the lower-free-tropospheric environment affects the onset of deep convection due to the differential impact on buoyancy of turbulent entrainment of dry versus moist air. The relationship between deep convection and water vapor is, however, a two-way interaction because convection also moistens the free troposphere. The present study adds an additional line of evidence toward fully establishing the causality of the precipitation–water vapor relationship. Parameter perturbation experiments using the coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM) with high-time-resolution output are analyzed for a set of stati...
Is The Supreme Court Really Going To Regulate Choice Of Law Involving States

In its 1973 decision in Hall v. Nevada, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an individual injured in his home state by the agents of another state may sue that other state and that the forum-state (the location of the litigation, the injury and the plaintiff's domicile) was free to apply its own law in the litigation. The Supreme Court dismissed the defendant-state's (Nevada's) claims of immunity and comity. In 2003, in Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt, (Hyatt I) the Supreme Court reaffirmed this principle unanimously. Coincidentally, the states were reversed from the Hall case. In Hall it was a Californian suing the state of Nevada, while in Hyatt I it was a Nevadan suing a California state agency. In Hyatt I, the Nevada plaintiff sued the California agency for various intentional torts in California's aggressive efforts to collect state income taxes from the Nevadan. However, 13 years later in Hyatt II, the case was back before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Hyatt, the Nevada plaintiff, had won $500 million before a Nevada jury, but that amount was trimmed to about $1 million by the Nevada Supreme Court. California took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, urging that Hall be overruled and the California be given immunity. The Court (with only eight members due to Justice Scalia's death) split 4-4 on that question, but 6-2 held that as a matter of the Full Faith and Credit Clause, Nevada could award no more than $50,000 -- the maximum amount it would allow to be collected against a Nevada agency. The article argues that neither overruling Hall, nor the new rule that states must apply their own tort caps to other states, is consistent with full-faith-and-credit jurisprudence.
Fading Statistics of Voice Channel for the European Union Emergency Call

The European Union (EU) emergency call (eCall) employs the GSM voice channel for vehicle emergency data transmission. However, fading statistics of the GSM voice channel after power control has not been discussed previously. This paper reports the power measurements for the end-to-end GSM voice channel with an in-vehicle system (IVS) transmitter in laboratory or on freeway. The data reveals that strong fading still exists in the GSMvoice channel after power control, which can cause severe packet loss and delay in the emergency call.
Transfer of Yeast Artificial Chromosomes into Cultured Cells: A New Method for Manipulating the Mammalian Genome

Publisher Summary Yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) have been developed as cloning vehicles for the propagation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae of very large segments of chromosomal DNA, hundreds of kilobases in length. The ability to introduce intact YACs back into mammalian cells, and potentially into embryos, would permit cellular transformation with large genes or gene complexes, and the screening of large segments of the mammalian genome to identify genes capable of complementing recessive mutations, or conferring dominant mutant phenotypes. This chapter discusses the feasibility of transferring YAC DNA from S. cerevisiae into murine fibroblasts, using cell-fusion techniques that had been used to transfer large segments of chromosomal DNA from one mammalian cell to another. Studies have demonstrated that a YAC, carrying approximately 450 kb of human DNA and a neomycin resistance gene, could be transferred efficiently from the S. cerevisiae cells into the mouse cells, where it was stably integrated into the host chromosomes.
Biochemical Engineering — Past, Present, and Future

Biochemical engineering had its roots in the production of antibiotics, specifically penicillin, the first of the twentieth century wonder drugs. It grew out of the attempts of those engineers who converted the penicillin fermentation from a surface or tray fermentation process to a submerged culture process.
Efficacy and safety of DFN-15, an oral liquid formulation of celecoxib, in adults with migraine: a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study

Background The objective of this proof-of-concept study was to assess the safety, efficacy, and potential for dose response of a new oral liquid formulation of celecoxib, DFN-15, in adults with migraine. Variability in patient-identified most bothersome symptom (MBS) across 3 migraine attacks was also evaluated. Methods This was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, 3-treatment, 6-sequence, 3-period, crossover study of 3 treatments (DFN-15 120 mg, DFN-15 240 mg, and placebo) administered at the onset of moderate to severe headache. Results Of 63 randomized subjects, 56 (89%) took single doses of DFN-15 120 mg and 240 mg and completed all 3 treatment periods. Most subjects were female (75.0%) and white (86.7%), with a mean age of 43.6 years. Both doses of DFN-15 achieved a higher 2-hour pain-free response than placebo (29.1% for 120 mg, 26.1% for 240 mg, and 17.6% for placebo), but the differences were not statistically significant. Photophobia was most commonly reported as the MBS, but for 53% of subjects (27/51), their identified MBS varied across the 3 studied attacks. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events with DFN-15 were dysgeusia (≤11.8%) and nausea (≤5.9%). Conclusion Both doses of DFN-15 outperformed placebo for the 2-hour pain-free end point, but due to a carryover effect with placebo, the differences were not statistically significant. Since response to both doses was similar, DFN-15 120 mg is being further developed for the management of acute migraine. Further study is needed to determine whether the current findings are altered by larger or different trial designs (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02472418).
Naproxen Is Transformed Via Acetogenesis and Syntrophic Acetate Oxidation by a Methanogenic Wastewater Consortium

Over-the-counter pharmaceutical compounds can serve as microbial substrates in wastewater treatment processes as well as in the environment. The metabolic pathways and intermediates produced during their degradation, however, are poorly understood. In this study, we investigate an anaerobic wastewater community that metabolizes naproxen via demethylation. Enriched cultures, established from anaerobic digester inocula receiving naproxen as the sole carbon source, transformed naproxen to 6-O-desmethylnaproxen (DMN) within 22 days. Continual enrichment and culture transfer resulted in consistent demethylation of naproxen with no loss of DMN observed. Methane was generated at 0.83 mmol per 1 mmol transformed naproxen. In addition to naproxen, the consortium readily demethylated syringic acid and vanillic acid. DNA analysis revealed a community of acetogenic bacteria and syntrophic acetate oxidizing archaea. Combined with the biotransformation data, this suggests the enriched consortium performs aromatic O-demethylation through a syntrophic relationship between specific acetogens, acetate oxidizers, and methanogens. The proposed model of carbon transfer through the anaerobic food web highlights the significance of linked community interactions in the anaerobic transformation of aromatic O-methyl compounds such as naproxen.
Adolescent mothers: the impact of intimate partner violence on infant health and maltreatment

There is a need for more research focusing on the health outcomes of infants born to the understudied group of adolescent mothers. Archivical data from four independent sources were used to answer ...
Comparison of the Wilkins Equation and Higher Order Approximations for Solid Moderators

Approximations that include the first two terms in the inverse mass expansion are developed for the Boltzmann equation for anisotropic moderators. An asymptotic solution is obtained. The results for beryllium and graphite are compared with the results of the Wilkins approximation. It is seen that this approximation constitutes an improvement over the gaseous model because the error in the Wilkins model produced by neglecting higher orders in the inverse mass expansion is partially cancelled by the effects of crystalline binding. ( auth)
Lead and Cadmium Effect on Host Defense Mechanisms and Toxic Interactions with Bacterial Endotoxin

There is growing concern over the presence of significant quantities of non-biodegradable pollutants, such as lead and cadmium, in the environment (Wessel and Dominski, 1977; Goyer and Rhyne, 1973; Webb, 1979). Widespread environmental contamination with lead and cadmium occurs from many sources ranging from industrial or automobile emissions (Haley, 1968; Beliles, 1975; Cox, 1974) to consumable items and appliances in the home (Chisolm, 1973; Cox, 1974). Understanding of the interaction of these toxic trace metals with biologic systems is thus becoming increasingly important. Such interactions may result from accidental overt intoxication or potential toxic effects of subclinical body burdens of these heavy metals manifested in the presence of costressors. The impact on host defense mechanisms is an important variable in toxicity assessment of these environmental contaminants. Selye et al. (1966) reported that a single injection of lead acetate increased the sensitivity of rats to various endotoxins from gram-negative bacteria by approximately 100,000-fold. This initial observation of an extreme toxic synergism between lead and endotoxin has inspired a number of studies of environmental significance as well as an understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of endotoxic shock. This chapter reviews some toxicologic effects of lead and cadmium on phagocyte function and host resistance to infection and examines potential mechanisms by which these heavy metals render animals hypersensitive to bacterial endotoxin.
Covered Stents for Coarctation of the Aorta: Treating the Interventionalist or the Patient?∗

Interventionalists treating congenital heart lesions are constantly faced with challenging therapeutic decisions, often without randomized trials to support one approach over the other. Indeed, detailed outcome data, particularly outside of the United States, may lag behind the availability of a
Pregnant Behind Bars: Meeting the Nutrition Needs of Incarcerated Pregnant Women

The number of women involved in the criminal justice system has increased dramatically over the past 20 years. Due to their marginalized background, incarcerated women have a complex set of health-related needs. This is especially true of those who are pregnant, a particularly vulnerable, high-risk group. Although guidelines have been developed that recommend pregnancy screening, provision of dietary supplements, regular nutritious meals, and nutritional counseling for incarcerated pregnant women, jail policies and health care protocols often fail to heed these recommendations. In this chapter, we discuss the nutritional needs of pregnant incarcerated women as well as breastfeeding in the context of the criminal justice system and consider some of the challenges in developing programming and policies to address these health-related needs. We also present findings from the William & Mary Healthy Beginnings Project, a nutrition intervention program developed for pregnant incarcerated women in Southeastern Virginia. Assessment of this program suggests that through the development of protocols and polices that consider the health-related needs of pregnant women, correctional facilities could play a pivotal role in helping incarcerated women develop healthier habits to better care for themselves and their newborns.
CDH in Pediatric and Adolescent Patients

Chronic daily headaches are a significant source of disability within the pediatric population. The classification of chronic daily headaches is similar to adults, with chronic daily headaches encompassing chronic migraine, chronic tension headache, and new daily persistent headache all with or without medication overuse. There is little high-quality research to help guide management of this group of patients, particularly the very young under the age of 12 years. However, there are still standard principals of management that can help address the severe impact these headaches can have on the patients and their caregivers.
Measuring public opinion formation: Assessing first- and second-level agenda setting through salience measures

Abstract For the past 50 years since the seminal agenda-setting study, scholars have continued to make strides in understanding the importance mass communication plays in public opinion formation. Although scholars have measured both first- and second-level agenda setting often using open-ended response, more close-ended measures might assist in measuring the theory, adding to the rich data. This experimental study directly compared open-ended responses shown to gauge an agenda-setting effect with close-ended responses to enhance the assessment of both first- and second-level agenda setting. The findings identified close-ended scales, including news salience, social salience, personal salience, and feelings salience, that add to the precision of measuring the salience of issues and attributes, indicating we have alternative measures to gauge agenda setting.
"New or not-so-new" labor management practices and cesarean delivery for arrest of progress.

Abstract Background Because nearly one-third of births in the United States are now delivered by cesarean—more than 1.27 million women each year—national organizations have recently published revised guidelines for the management of labor. These new guidelines stipulate that labor arrest should not be diagnosed unless ≥ 6 cm cervical dilatation had been reached or labor had been stimulated for at least 6 hours. Objective To determine the cervical dilatation and hours of labor stimulation prior to cesarean delivery for arrest of dilatation. Study Design Between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2000, a prospective observational study of all primary cesarean deliveries was conducted at 13 university centers comprising the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network. This secondary analysis includes all liveborn, singleton, non-anomalous, cephalic gestations delivered by primary cesarean at ≥ 37 weeks. A cesarean was considered to have been performed for arrest of dilatation if the indication for the procedure was failure to progress, cephalopelvic disproportion, or failed induction. Augmentation was defined as stimulation after spontaneous labor had been previously diagnosed. Analysis included both the latent and active phases of labor. The active phase of labor was diagnosed when cervical dilatation was ≥ 4 cm in the presence of uterine contractions. Results A total of 13,269 primary cesareans were available for analysis and 8,546 (65%) were performed for inadequate progress of labor with cervical dilatation recorded at the time of cesarean. Of these cesareans for labor arrest, a total of 719 (8%) were performed in the latent phase of labor and 7827 (92%) were performed when cervical dilatation was ≥ 4 cm (active phase). Approximately two-thirds (N=5876; 69%) received intrauterine pressure monitoring. A total of 5636 women (66% of those reaching the active phase of labor) had reached 6 cm or more cervical dilatation before cesarean was performed. Moreover, a total of 7440 (95%) of the 7827 women in active labor were ≥ 6 cm dilatation or had received labor stimulation ≥ 6 hours prior to cesarean for arrest of dilatation. Conclusion Women undergoing primary cesarean delivery for arrest of dilatation 15 years before the recommendations of the Obstetrics Care Consensus had received bona fide efforts to achieve adequate labor consistent with the recommendations of the Consensus . Because 95% of these women were ≥ 6 cm dilatation or had received labor stimulation ≥ 6 hours prior to cesarean for arrest of dilatation, these new recommendations are unlikely to change the cesarean delivery rates.
Data-Driven Forecasting of Postflutter Responses of Geometrically Nonlinear Wings

Ensuring adequate flutter margins is a critical step in aircraft design. However, in the presence of nonlinear effects, subcritical limit-cycle oscillations can arise even before flutter occurs. Wh...
Outcomes of a pilot music education initiative to enhance social justice engagement among university students

Civic engagement and social justice have received heightened attention in music education in the decade since Jorgensen posed the question ‘Why should music educators not be interested in justice?’...
The Virtual Circular Genome Model for Primordial RNA Replication.

We propose a model for the replication of primordial protocell genomes that builds upon recent advances in the nonenzymatic copying of RNA. We suggest that the original genomes consisted of collections of oligonucleotides beginning and ending at all possible positions on both strands of one or more virtual circular sequences. Replication is driven by feeding with activated monomers and by the activation of monomers and oligonucleotides in situ. A fraction of the annealed configurations of the protocellular oligonucleotides would allow for template-directed oligonucleotide growth by primer extension or ligation. Rearrangements of these annealed configurations, driven either by environmental fluctuations or occurring spontaneously, would allow for continued oligonucleotide elongation. Assuming that shorter oligonucleotides were more abundant than longer ones, replication of the entire genome could occur by the growth of all oligonucleotides by as little as one nucleotide on average. We consider possible scenarios that could have given rise to such protocell genomes, as well as potential routes to the emergence of catalytically active ribozymes and thus the more complex cells of the RNA World.
Decay J/. pi. -->. 3. gamma. and a search for the eta/sub c/

The decay $\frac{J}{\ensuremath{\psi}}$ into $3\ensuremath{\gamma}$ final states has been studied. No evidence is found for the existence of the $X(2.83)$ or any heavy narrow state (e.g., the ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}$) decaying into two photons. Upper limits are given on the branching ratio $\frac{J}{\ensuremath{\psi}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}$, ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2\ensuremath{\gamma}$ for ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}$ masses in the 2.7-3.0-GeV region. In addition, the branching ratios $\frac{J}{\ensuremath{\psi}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\eta}}$, $\ensuremath{\gamma}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ are measured. It is found that the ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ branching ratio is higher than previously reported.
Reliable Dynamic State Estimation Based Protection during Geomagnetic Disturbances

Geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) occur when intensive solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field. During this interaction, the geographically extensive power system is impacted by the geomagnetically induced current (GIC), which is a pseudo-DC current (0.0001Hz to 1 Hz). GIC causes half cycle saturation of iron core circuits and subsequent distortion of current and voltage waveforms, resulting in overheating transformers and increasing reactive power consumption. In addition, the distorted waveforms may lead to substantial harmonics in measurements. As many protective relays respond drastically different under the influence of different orders of harmonics, these distorted measurements may risk the operation of protective relays. Moreover, GMD introduces DC flux in iron cores of instrumentation transformers, leading to gross distortion in measurements, which further reduces the reliability of relays. Therefore, a protective scheme with reliable performance in the presence of GMD is needed. Dynamic state estimation (DSE) based protection utilizes a high-fidelity model of the protection zone, a set of measurements from merging units, and a DSE algorithm to give the best estimates of the states of the protection zone. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the DSE based protection relays considering harmonics during GMD. The reliability of the relays is examined under different fault scenarios of transformers and capacitor banks, compared against conventional protection scheme. The simulation results show that during GMD, mis-operation is observed in conventional protection schemes, while the DSE based protection remains reliable.
Understanding User Attitudes Towards Negative Side Effects of AI Systems

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems deployed in the open world may produce negative side effects—which are unanticipated, undesirable outcomes that occur in addition to the intended outcomes of the system’s actions. These negative side effects affect users directly or indirectly, by violating their preferences or altering their environment in an undesirable, potentially harmful, manner. While the existing literature has started to explore techniques to overcome the impacts of negative side effects in deployed systems, there has been no prior efforts to determine how users perceive and respond to negative side effects. We surveyed 183 participants to develop an understanding of user attitudes towards side effects and how side effects impact user trust in the system. The surveys targeted two domains: an autonomous vacuum cleaner and an autonomous vehicle, each with 183 respondents. The results indicate that users are willing to tolerate side effects that are not safety-critical but prefer to minimize them as much as possible. Furthermore, users are willing to assist the system in mitigating negative side effects by providing feedback and reconfiguring the environment. Trust in the system diminishes if it fails to minimize the impacts of negative side effects over time. These results support key fundamental assumptions in existing techniques and facilitate the development of new methods to overcome negative side effects of AI systems.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Network Involvement in the Internationalization Process: A Case of SMEs from the USA, China, and Russia

The internationalization processes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) differ across economic and cultural environments. Creating an operationalizable and predictive framework to explain them has long been a challenging research task. This task is particularly relevant in an era of reconfiguration of globalization, which directly affects the small business sector. This study proposes a model which includes networking, attitudinal, cultural, and environmental factors as antecedents of the degree of SME internationalization. We collected data and tested this model in three distinct cultural environments: the USA, China, and Russia. The results suggest that attitudinal characteristics of managers, such as global mindset and relationship commitment, condition SMEs network involvement. The influence of network involvement on the degree of SMEs internationalization becomes stronger with increasing environmental turbulence. This study’s findings have practical implications for businesses operating in different countries, as well as governmental organizations and educational institutions.
Comparison of Real and Synthetic Network Models of the Western United States with Respect to New Realism Measures

This paper presents results from comparison of an industry-accepted model of the western United States with two different synthetic network models of the same geographic area. The synthetic models were independently produced by different construction algorithms but based on public information concerning the location and size of generation and demand. New realism measures examined include Fiedler Vector Partitioning (FVP), the Spectrum of the Normalized Laplacian (SNL), Topological and Impedance Element Ranking (TIER) and Singular Value decomposition of the power flow Jacobian (SVJ). The synthetic models differ greatly in size and granularity, but each has similarities to the industry-accepted model. However, the industry-accepted model exhibits behaviour not replicated in either of the synthetic models. The suitability of each analysis to assess the realism of a network model is discussed.
Characterizing and Taming Resolution in Convolutional Neural Networks

Image resolution has a significant effect on the accuracy and computational, storage, and bandwidth costs of computer vision model inference. These costs are exacerbated when scaling out models to large inference serving systems and make image resolution an attractive target for optimization. However, the choice of resolution inherently introduces additional tightly coupled choices, such as image crop size, image detail, and compute kernel implementation that impact computational, storage, and bandwidth costs. Further complicating this setting, the optimal choices from the perspective of these metrics are highly dependent on the dataset and problem scenario. We characterize this tradeoff space, quantitatively studying the accuracy and efficiency tradeoff via systematic and automated tuning of image resolution, image quality and convolutional neural network operators. With the insights from this study, we propose a dynamic resolution mechanism that removes the need to statically choose a resolution ahead of time.
Air Coupled Acoustic Thermography (ACAT) Inspection Technique

The scope of this effort is to determine the viability of a new heating technique using a noncontact acoustic excitation source. Because of low coupling between air and the structure, a synchronous detection method is employed. Any reduction in the out of plane stiffness improves the acoustic coupling efficiency and as a result, defective areas have an increase in temperature relative to the surrounding area. Hence a new measurement system, based on air-coupled acoustic energy and synchronous detection is presented. An analytical model of a clamped circular plate is given, experimentally tested, and verified. Repeatability confirms the technique with a measurement uncertainty of plus or minus 6.2 percent. The range of frequencies used was 800-2,000 Hertz. Acoustic excitation and consequent thermal detection of flaws in a helicopter blade is examined and results indicate that air coupled acoustic excitation enables the detection of core damage in sandwich honeycomb structures.
CHEMICALLY MEDIATED MATE LOCATION AND EVALUATION IN THE LOBSTER, Homarus americanus

Many aspects of lobster (Homarus americanus) social behavior have been shown to be regulated by chemical signals. Female lobsters can determine the sex of sheltered conspecifics from a distance, and will approach and attempt to enter male-occupied shelters. We investigated (1) if female attraction to male-occupied shelters and entering decisions are based upon chemical signals, particularly male urine signals, and (2) if male dominance status and female molt stage influence these female behaviors. Sheltered dominant males were fitted with urine catheters, which collect urine and prevent its release into the environment. We found that males increased urine output in response to female entering attempts. Blocking male urine release significantly reduced the incidence of female shelter approach and the time spent attempting to enter. Artificial release of male urine in the presence of a catheterized male restored female approach but not time spent attempting to enter, while artificial urine release alone did not induce either behavior. Females approached any single male, but seemed to prefer to enter shelters occupied by more dominant males. Premolt and intermolt females differed in their behaviors: premolts showed more interest in approaching dominant male shelters without much effort to enter, while intermolts appeared less likely to approach but more motivated to attempt to enter shelters. This study suggests that both intermolt and premolt female lobsters use one or more chemical signals from sheltered males for location and evaluation of potential mates. Male urine appears to carry compound(s) important for both location and entering decisions, although nonurine chemical or other sensory signals are also implicated during close-up mate evaluation.
Electrophoresis and monomolecular layer studies with serum lipoproteins.

The chemical analysis of the lipids in serum or plasma yields data for total lipids, phosphatides, total and esterified cholesterol, and by subtraction, for neutral fat. Zone electrophoresis, for which experimental details are given, shows the distribution of the serum lipids between α-globulin, -globulin, and a fraction which does not move in the electric field. Values are given for normal man, monkey, dog, and rabbit. Their distinctive patterns are correlated with differences in the propensity of these species to develop atherosclerosis. Combined studies of the lipid partition and the electrophoretic profile were carried out on patients with disturbed lipid metabolism, particularly myxedema, nephrosis of various etiology, and idiopathic hyper-lipemia and hypercholesteremia. The lactescence of lipemic sera is ascribed primarily to increases of the neutral fat and corresponding increases of the electroneutral fraction of the lipoprotein electropherogram. In the Kimmeistiel-Wilson syndrome, the nephrotic syndrome in dis.betes, and in idiopathic hypercholesteremia, where the cholesterol level is increased but the neutral fat level normal, the sera usually remain clear. In animal experiments the destruction of thyroid tissue and, in particular, the feeding of cholesterol induces hypercholesteremia and hyper-phosphatidemia in dog and rabbit. The signs of lipemia are further enhanced by the simultaneous administration of cortisone, when the total lipids in the rabbit run sometimes above 7 per cent of the serum. This experimental condition is associated with severe atherosclerotic lesions. A model for lipoproteins is provided by the reaction between serum albumin and fatty acids, the latter in the form of monomolecular layers. The technic is described. The specificity of the ripping-off reaction and its parallelism with the dyestuff affinity of serum albumin are illustrated and discussed. The application of the reaction to the study of the "albumin defect" in infectious, rheumatic, and malignant disease is suggested.
Dementia worry and its relationship to dementia exposure, psychological factors, and subjective memory concerns

With increased societal awareness of dementia, older adults show increased concern about developing dementia, leading to misidentification of aging-related cognitive glitches as signs of dementia. While some researchers have suggested self-reported cognitive concerns accurately identify older adults with early signs of dementia, there is evidence that subjective cognitive decline is not associated with objective cognitive performance and instead reflects psychological factors consistent with models of health anxiety, including dementia worry. We examined the construct of dementia worry and its relationship to subjective memory concerns in 100 older adults (Mage = 69 years) without signs of dementia, using a recently developed measure of dementia worry. Consistent with hypotheses, dementia worry was related to exposure to dementia, having a high number of depressive or general worry symptoms, and having more memory concerns. Exposure to dementia moderated the relationship of dementia worry to depression and general worry. Furthermore, dementia worry moderated the relationship of objective memory impairment to subjective memory ratings. The results provide further evidence of the role of psychological factors such as dementia worry in subjective memory report and emphasize the need for objective cognitive testing before making determinations about dementia in older adults expressing memory concerns.
A Histochemical Basis for Changes in Rental Tubular Function in Young Mice

In the kidney of the adult mouse the tubular epithelium in the most proximal (P r ) segment, corresponding roughly to the convoluted portion of the proximal tubule, shows strong alkaline phosphatase activity, and the brush border is moderately reactive to the periodic acid Schiff (PAS) method. In the more distal (P 2 ) segment of the proximal tubule there is no alkaline phosphatase activity, and the PAS reaction of the brush border is intense. Examination of a large number of young mice has now revealed a distinct pattern in the development of this adult condition. Differentiation of the two segments on the basis of the PAS reaction of the brush border becomes apparent on about the 15th post-natal day. The effect is the result of a decrease in the reactivity of the Pi segment. Differentiation of the two segments on the basis of alkaline phosphatase activity develops gradually between about the 22nd and 36th post-natal days. During this period the alkaline phosphatase activity disappears progressively from the proximal to the distal end of the P 2 segment. The administration of testosterone or estradiol to either sex accelerates the differentiation with respect to alkaline phosphatase activity. Castration of male mice retards the completion of this process. It is suggested that morphological changes of this type may provide the basis for some of the functional differences between the kidneys of young and mature animals.
Probes for Narcotic Receptor-Mediated Phenomena. 33.1 Construction of a Strained trans-5,6-Ring System by Displacement of a Nitro-Activated Aromatic Fluorine. Synthesis of the Penultimate Oxide-Bridged Phenylmorphans

The synthesis of the ortho- and para-e isomers in the oxide-bridged 5-phenylmorphan series of rigid tetracyclic compounds was accomplished via rac-5-(2-fluoro-5-nitrophenyl)-2-methyl-2-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9β-ol ((±)-10), an intermediate containing an aromatic nitro-activated fluorine atom. The fluorine atom was used as the leaving group for the formation of the strained tetracyclic trans-fused 5,6-ring system in rac-(1α,4aα,9aα)-1,3,4,9a-tetrahydro-2-methyl-6-nitro-2H-1,4a-propanobenzofuro[2,3-c]pyridine ((±)-11), although preference for cis ring fusion during the formation of tricyclic tetra- and hexahydrodibenzofurans has been well-documented. Single-crystal X-ray crystallographic study of the desired para-e isomer ((±)-2), as well as of two intermediates in its synthesis, provided assurance of the correct structures. The e-isomers are among the last of the 12 oxide-bridged 5-phenylmorphans to be synthesized. We envisioned the syntheses of these rigid, tetracyclic compounds in order to determine the ...
Longitudinal changes in the maxilla and the maxillary-mandibular relationship between 8 and 17 years of age

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in the maxilla and the maxillary-mandibular relationship as they relate to standing height, which is one indicator of skeletal maturation. The subjects for this study consisted of twenty males and fifteen females for whom cephalograms were taken annually between the ages of 8 and 17 years. Descriptive statistics summarized the changes in standing height and the facial parameters from 8 to 17 years of age. Analysis of variance was used to describe the linear and angular changes and also to compare the mean growth profiles of each of the facial parameters to the growth profile for standing height. Autocorrelation analysis was used to assess the predictability of the growth profiles of the facial parameters from the profile of standing height for the same person. Three periods of growth were also compared: premaximum, maximum, and postmaximum. The findings in the present investigation indicated that (1) the growth profile of the absolute and incremental changes in standing height and the various facial parameters were in general significantly different between males and females; (2) the growth profile of standing height was significantly different from the parameters describing maxillary length and relationship as well as maxillary-mandibular relationship; (3) the changes in maxillary length (A-Ptm) were significantly larger in the maximum period of growth than the other two periods of growth for both males and females; (4) the changes in maxillary relationship were significantly different in the maximum period of growth than in the other two periods of growth in males only; (5) the change in maxillary-mandibular relationship was not significantly different in the three periods of growth; (6) autocorrelation analysis revealed that the growth profile of the facial parameters could not be predicted from the growth profile of standing height of the same individual; that is, the growth profile of height was found to have little predictive value in determining the growth profile of any of the other parameters. The present findings as well as those of a previous investigation indicate that treatment of anteroposterior discrepancies should be initiated as soon as the orthodontist believes that treatment is indicated, rather than waiting for the pubertal "spurt," since the presence, magnitude, and timing of such events in any one patient are highly unpredictable, at least to the degree that renders them clinically useful to the orthodontist.
Polymorphic Variation of the Comt Gene Influences Outcome in Patients Undergoing Surgical Treatment for Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease

The degeneration of intervertebral discs (IVD) causes a great deal of morbidity, loss of work, and medical expense each year. Ongoing research is directed toward treatment modalities which slow the catabolic process in the degenerating disc with a focus on gene therapy and molecular therapy. While these avenues do have promise, they are plagued with problems including difficulty with persistence of growth factor production and the immunogenic and oncogenic properties of viral
The 13C-H satellite NMR spectra of Para-benzoquinone, hydroquinone and Para-dimethoxybenzene

The NMR 13C-H satellite patterns of p-quinone, hydroquinone, and p-dimethoxybenzene have been analyzed, at natural isotopic abundance. For quinone some of the parameters differ from previously reported values, in particular, a difference of 3 Hz is noted in the bonded 13C-H coupling. The ortho H-H couplings in the other two cases are predictable from substituent effects derived from monosubstituted benzenes, assuming additivity, but the meta and para couplings do not follow this relation very well. The parameters obtained are discussed briefly in relation to the electronic structures of the respective molecules.
Characteristics of an alkaline phosphatase activity in brown recluse venom.

Abstract The venom of the brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) has been shown by fluorometric assay to contain an alkaline phosphatase activity. Similar Km values were determined for four substrates, differing widely as to size, suggesting a broad specificity. Kinetic inactivation by fluorescein mercuric acetate and p-hydroxymercuribenzoate suggests that this is a sulfhydryl enzyme. The importance of a disulfide bond to the tertiary structure of the enzyme is indicated by the complete loss of activity upon addition of mercaptoethanol.
Validation of an in vitro model of erbB2(+) cancer cell redirection.

Overexpression of the oncoprotein erbB2/HER2 is present in 20–30% of breast cancer patients and inversely correlates with patient survival. Reports have demonstrated the deterministic power of the mammary microenvironment where the normal mammary microenvironment redirects cells of non-mammary origin or tumor-derived cells to adopt a mammary phenotype in an in vivo model. This phenomenon is termed tumor cell redirection. Tumor-derived cells that overexpress the erbB2 oncoprotein lose their tumor-forming capacity in this model. In this model, phosphorylation of erbB2 is attenuated thus reducing the tumor cell’s tumor-forming potential. In this report, we describe our results using an in vitro model based on the in vivo model mentioned previously. Tumor-derived cells are mixed in predetermined ratios with normal mammary epithelial cells prior to seeding in vitro. In this in vitro model, the tumor-derived cells are redirected as determined by attenuated phosphorylation of the receptor and reduced sphere and colony formation. These results match those observed in the in vivo model. This in vitro model will allow expanded experimental options in the future to determine additional aspects of tumor cell redirection that can be translated to other types of cancer.
An Objective Evaluation of Changes in Firmness of Ripening Bananas Using a Sonic Technique

SUMMARY— Firmness in fruits is sometimes evaluated as being the force necessary to attain a given deformation within the product. Since modulus of elasticity is defined as the ratio of stress to strain, it should measure resistance to force and, hence, the firmness of a material. Using a sonic technique, the resonant frequencies of cylindrical specimens of flesh from Valery bananas were measured and Young's modulus of elasticity was calculated. Softening of the banana during ripening was associated with a decrease in Young's modulus of elasticity from 272 × 105 dynes/cm2 at ripeness corresponding to a light green peel color to 85 × 105 dynes/cm2 at the yellow stage. Modulus of elasticity was significantly and directly correlated with starch content, but inversely correlated with luminous reflectance and the logarithm of percent reducing sugars.
The Relationships between Skin Hardness, Pressure Perception and two-Point Discrimination in the Fingertip:

With the recent introduction of computer-assisted sensibility testing devices, it is possible to investigate the hypothesis that the neurological mechanisms responsible for perception of pressure and two-point discrimination are influenced by skin hardness. This study examined the relationships between the skin hardness of the human index and little finger pulp and the perception of pressure in 25 adults. Skin hardness was measured using the Derma-Durometer. Pressure perception was measured with the Pressure-Specified Sensory Device for both static and moving touch stimuli and for two-point discrimination. The mean hardness of the fingertip pulp was 12.5 +/- 0.6 gm/mm2. There was no statistically significant difference in hardness between the dominant and non-dominant, right and left, index and little, or male and female fingertips. Skin hardness was independent of age for this population. The highest correlation, which was r = 0.46, was found between the cutaneous pressure threshold for one-point static touch and skin hardness. While this degree of correlation is significant at the P < 0.02 level, the r2 = 21%, demonstrating that this degree of correlation leaves 79% of the variability unexplained. These results suggest a physical interaction between mechanoreceptors and dermis that is only partially explained by the hardness of the skin.