cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ascending efferent projections of the superior olivary complex.

The superior olivary complex conveys information about binaural time and intensity to higher centers in the auditory pathway. This information is sent primarily to the subdivisions of the inferior colliculus and to the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus. Olivary projections are the predominant afferents to the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus. Electron microscopic observations of axonal endings in the central nucleus suggest that the ipsilateral medial superior olive and contralateral lateral superior olive make excitatory synapses. In contrast, the axons from the ipsilateral lateral superior olive to the central nucleus contain glycine and have a morphology consistent with inhibitory synapses. Little is known about the transmitter types used by olivary projections to the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus, but they are presumed to be similar to the collicular projections. Olivary ascending efferents are tonotopically organized and terminate in laminae in the inferior colliculus. They combine with other laminar afferents and postsynaptic neurons to create fibro-dendritic laminae in the colliculus. The key to the functional organization of the olivary efferents is the possible segregation of excitatory olivary efferents from each other in "synaptic domains" located on the laminae. This segregation may be the major determinant of response properties in the colliculus. Olivary efferents may converge with other non-olivary afferents on the same postsynaptic neurons in the colliculus. Inhibitory efferents from the lateral superior olive are essential in shaping the response properties of neurons in the colliculus. Olivary efferents to the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus are also key components of ascending pathways that inhibit neurons in the midbrain.
Ultrastructural studies of myonecrosis induced by cobra venom in mice.

The fine structure of necrotic skeletal muscle in mice injected im with venom of the cobra (Naja naja kaouthia) was studied. Degeneration of the entire muscle fiber and its constituents was observed. The myofilaments coalesced to form an amorphous mass, and the sarcotubular system disappeared. The mitochondria swelled into vacuoles containing fragmented cristae. The vacuoles ruptured and were lysed. The degenerated fibre became a less electron-dense mass containing a few cellular remnants enclosed by a vestige of the plasma membrane. Envenomation with cobra venom does cause necrosis of skeletal muscle in mice.
Particle Count Statistics Applied to the Penetration of a Filter Challenged with Nanoparticles

Statistical confidence in a single measure of filter penetration (P) is dependent on the low number of particle counts made downstream of the filter. This article discusses methods for determining an upper confidence limit (UCL) for a single measure of penetration. The magnitude of the UCL was then compared to the P value, UCL ≤ 2P, as a penetration acceptance criterion (PAC). This statistical method was applied to penetration trials involving an N95 filtering facepiece respirator challenged with sodium chloride and four engineered nanoparticles: titanium dioxide, iron oxide, silicon dioxide, and single-walled carbon nanotubes. Ten trials were performed for each particle type with the aim of determining the most penetrating particle size (MPPS) and the maximum penetration, P max. The PAC was applied to the size channel containing the MPPS. With those P values that met the PAC for a given set of trials, an average P max and MPPS was computed together with corresponding standard deviations. Because the size...
Ecstasy abuse and dependence among adolescents and young adults: applicability and reliability of DSM-IV criteria

As part of an ongoing National Institute on Drug Abuse study on the reliability of DSM substance use disorders, 173 adolescents and young adults have been interviewed to date with the CIDI-Substance Abuse Module (SAM) to determine use and abuse of and dependence on ‘club drugs’ and other substances. Respondents are recruited from a substance abuse program, high school ads, college dorm flyers, the internet and chain referral. Retest interviews after 5 days determined the reliability of responses. Ecstasy use was reported by 52 respondents (30%); of these users 52% were female and 23% were non-white. Nearly all users (94%) reported recent Ecstasy use. Among Ecstasy users, ‘continuing to use despite knowledge of physical or psychological harm’ was the most prevalent dependence criterion (63%), with excellent retest agreement (κ = 0.66). Withdrawal (59%) and tolerance (35%) were also commonly reported dependence criteria. Hazardous use was the most commonly reported abuse symptom. Most surprising were the rates of Ecstasy use disorders: 43% met DSM-IV criteria for dependence; 34% met criteria for abuse; only 23% met neither. This is the first effort to assess the reliability of Ecstasy abuse and dependence, and the first to determine abuse and dependence using criteria specific to Ecstasy. The importance of additional studies and the relevance of such work to DSM-V are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Teaching and Researching the History of Disasters in New York City

Since September 11, Americans, we are told, have adapted to the “new normal.” It's a curious phrase, implying as it does a rupture with an “old” normal that knew neither disaster nor tragedy. The traumatic power of the terrorist attacks invites us to forget how much of the present has, in fact, been shaped by the fires, epidemics, accidents, and upheavals of the past. New York City's development in particular has been punctuated and defined by a litany of horrific events. Two new digital resources for teaching and research underscore the role of both tragedy and its memory in the making and remaking of the city's economy, politics, and citizenry.
Congenital syphilis and malocclusions of the teeth

Abstract 1. 1. There was no particular type of malocclusion occurring with sufficient frequency to be considered characteristic of congenital syphilis. 2. 2. While the open-bite was frequent, it seemed to occur only in those cases in which the onset had been severe enough to affect jaw development. In cases without hypoplasia the overbite was normal, and where the overbite was slight or edge-to-edge, there was thinning of the incisal portion and a probable failure of the crown to reach its normal vertical dimension. We may infer that the edge-to-edge or slight overlapping is due to a disturbance in the development of the teeth themselves and that in these cases the jaw development is normal. 3. 3. Neither could the spacing of the incisors be considered typical. Though of frequent occurrence, it could not be explained as due to the reduction in their lateral diameters, because crowding was occasionally found where the teeth were much reduced and spacing occurred in some cases where the teeth appeared to be of normal size. 4. 4. The most common type of dental arch is that which may best be described as a diverging arch with a narrow curved anterior segment and straight diverging sides. The size did not seem to be affected except in the anterior part. 5. 5. The mandibular arch in many cases had a tendency toward a squareness of the anterior portion with a general increase in size throughout. 6. 6. The “ogival” or high-arched palate was rare and, when found, was usually associated with a narrow, saddle arch. While many of the palates seemed somewhat high, they were not deformed and not as high as the literature would lead one to expect. 7. 7. With the exception of the first molars, the permanent teeth seemed no more susceptible to caries than could be expected in such a group. As a matter of fact, the teeth, with exceptions mentioned, were as a rule good. 8. 8. The incidence of missing teeth, particularly the maxillary second incisors, was not nearly as high as expected and leads one to discount congenital syphilis as a factor.
Cell wall components affect mechanical properties: studies with thistle flowers

Pollen presentation of Cirsium horridulum depends partially on the thigmonastic contraction of staminal filaments. Although the elastic cuticle is a major component in filament elasticity, it is not clear how the cell wall copes with the shape change. Based on mechanical studies, FT-IR spectroscopy and biochemical analyses we investigated the relationship between cell wall composition and elastic properties using thistle floral tissues as a model. EDTA-extractable pectin correlated with the increased elasticity of the filament and the basal style, suggesting that pectin plays a major role in the elastic behavior of soft tissues. In contrast, covalently linked pectin contributes to the stiffness of the upper style and corolla. Mechanical tests contrasting the soft basal and rigid apical parts of the style after incubation in solutions designed to alter the pectin network confirmed these results. The rigid corolla contained more cellulose than the softer style and filaments. The cellulose-associated xyloglucan of the style and filament cell walls increase the flexibility of cell walls.
Patient, visitor, and nurse evaluations of visitation for adult postanesthesia care unit patients

Although PACU visitation for children is sometimes encouraged, most families of adult postoperative patients continue to be excluded from PACUs in this country. At an academic medical center, an open visitation policy for adult postoperative patients was evaluated by eliciting patient, visitor, and nurse evaluations of visitation for adult patients from 181 families. Commonly cited reasons for restricting PACU visitation were not identified as problems by the vast majority of respondents. Even when some aspect of a PACU visit was disturbing, patients and families expressed a desire for visitation. The results of this evaluation of a change in practice led to permanent implementation of an open visitation policy in this PACU.
The odd one out task: Toward an intelligence test for robots

Detecting the outlier in a set of objects is a fundamental task used in a wide variety of intelligence tests. This paper proposes a theoretical model that allows a robot to interactively estimate the pairwise similarity between everyday objects and use this knowledge to solve the odd one out task. That is, given a set of objects, the robot's task is to select the one object that does not belong in the group. In our experiments, the robot interacted with fifty different household objects (by applying five different exploratory behaviors on them) and perceived auditory and proprioceptive sensory feedback. Pairwise object similarity was estimated for different behavior and modality contexts. In a series of subsequent tests, three objects from a given category (e.g., three cups or three pop cans) along with one object from outside that category were selected and the robot's internal models were queried to pick the object that does not belong in the group. The object similarity relations learned by the robot were used to pick the most dissimilar object, with success rates varying from 45% to 100%, depending on the category. The results show that the learned similarity measures were sufficient to capture some of the common properties of human-defined object categories, such as cups, bottles, and pop cans.
What is an English major? Some afterthoughts

(1990). What is an English major? Some afterthoughts. Rhetoric Review: Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 128-131.
Effects of ligand homologation and ligand reactivity on the apparent kinetic specificity of papain

Papain, a prototype cysteine proteinase, shows a pronounced kinetic preference for substrates and inhibitors based on the Ac-L-Phe-Gly-structural motif. Replacing the L-Phe at position P2 with D-Phe, or with a less hydrophobic residue such as Leu or Met, results in decreases of substrate or inhibitory activity of up to 400-fold. In this study we examined the effect of homologating the P1 glycine moiety to beta-alanine in the context of specific ester and amide substrates, peptidyl nitrile and -aldehyde transition state analog inhibitors, and peptidyl Michael acceptors as irreversible affinity labels. Papain discriminates extremely strongly (i.e., from 1000-fold to > or = 29,000-fold) against the 'homologs' based on beta-alanine at P1 compared to 'analogs' based on glycine at P1. However, with highly reactive ligands such as p-nitrophenyl esters, homolog/analog discrimination is greatly reduced (i.e., < or = 10-fold). These observations are interpreted in terms of (1) cooperativity between several non-covalent enzyme-ligand interactions and the covalent interaction of the ligand P1 moiety with Cys-25 of papain, (2) the decreased ability of homologs to utilize these cooperative interactions optimally because of their extended size, and (3) a decrease in the importance of the cooperative interactions as the intrinsic chemical reactivity of the ligand increases. Some implications of this analog vs. homolog discrimination for peptidyl disulfide and peptidyl chloromethane probes of protease specificity and mechanism are discussed.
Role of α1 2.3 Subunit I-II Linker Sites in the Enhancement of Cav 2.3 Current by Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate and Acetyl-β-methylcholine

Potentiation of Ca(v) 2.3 currents by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or acetyl-beta-methylcholine (MCh) may be due to protein kinase C (PKC)-mediated phosphorylation of the alpha1 2.3 subunit. Mutational analysis of potential PKC sites unique to the alpha1 2.3 subunit revealed several sites in the II-III linker that are specific to MCh (Kamatchi, G., Franke, R., Lynch, C., III, and Sando, J. (2004) J. Biol. Chem. 279, 4102-4109). To identify sites responsive to PMA, Ser/Thr --> Ala mutations were made in potential PKC sites homologous to the alpha1 2.3 and 2.2 subunits, both of which respond to PMA. Wild type alpha1 2.3 or mutants were expressed in Xenopus oocytes in combination with beta1b and alpha2/delta subunits and muscarinic M1 receptors. Inward current (I(Ba)) was recorded using Ba2+ as the charge carrier. Thr-365 of the I-II linker was identified as the primary site of PMA action, and this site also was required, along with the previously identified MCh-selective sites, for the MCh response. Ser-369 and Ser-1995 contributed to current enhancement only if Thr-365 also was available. Mutation of the essential sites to Asp increased the basal I(Ba) and caused a corresponding decrease in the PMA or MCh responses, consistent with possible regulation of these sites by phosphorylation. These results suggest that PMA and MCh both activate a pathway that can regulate the common PMA-sensitive sites in the I-II linker but that MCh also activates an additional pathway required for regulation of the MCh-unique sites, especially in the II-III linker.
Rational or rationalized choices in fluid resuscitation

The war between colloids and crystalloids wages on. In a large multinational survey of fluid prescribing practices in critically ill patients, we have a new and intriguing snapshot of global fluid resuscitation practices. Colloids are more often used for impaired perfusion or low cardiac output, and the choice of colloid or crystalloid varies enormously between countries. Why are some ICUs prescribing colloids more often than crystalloids when there is little convincing evidence that colloids are superior for fluid resuscitation? Are colloids advantageous in certain diseases, or in specific regional patient populations that have not yet been elucidated? Perhaps we should look inwards: the answer may not be more randomized clinical trials, but better adherence to current guidelines and treatment recommendations.
First observations of the temporal/spatial variation of the sub‐auroral polarization stream from the SuperDARN Wallops HF radar

[1] In this letter we present the first two-dimensional observations of sub-auroral ion drift (SAID) variability within the sub-auroral polarization stream (SAPS) using a new mid-latitude SuperDARN radar located at Wallops Island, VA. The radar data are complemented with observations from the DMSP F15, TIMED, and NOAA-18 spacecraft to confirm that a backscatter feature observed at the equatorward edge of the auroral oval is a manifestation of SAPS/SAID. During a several hour long period on August 6, 2005, the velocity data indicate that significant changes in the SAPS flow occurred on time scales of a few minutes. The Wallops HF radar observations demonstrate that the SAPS phenomenon is a source of small-scale irregularities extending over many hours of MLT and that the electric fields associated with SAID in particular are highly variable.
The role of the protein core in the inhibitory power of the classic serine protease inhibitor, chymotrypsin inhibitor 2

A synthetic cyclic peptide, reported to be a tight-binding inhibitor of serine proteases, is instead found to be a good substrate, as is the linear peptide of the same sequence. Both of the peptides, designed to mimic the binding loop of chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 (CI2), were cleaved by subtilisin primarily at the CI2 reactive-site Met-59-Glu-60 bond, revealing that the sequence, in the absence of the structural context of the inhibitor, provides sufficient specificity for hydrolysis of this bond. Insights from the crystal structure of the CI2/subtilisin complex, together with biochemical analysis of a CI2 Gly-83 deletion mutant, have allowed us to identify key features that make CI2 an effective inhibitor, while the cyclic and linear peptides are substrates.
The effects of ambient temperature on the body temperature rhythm of rats, hamsters, gerbils, and tree shrews

Abstract The daily rhythm of body temperature of male rats, Syrian hamsters, fat-tailed gerbils, and tree shrews was studied by telemetry. All animals were maintained for five days at each of four ambient temperatures (14, 20, 28, and 32°C). The amplitude of the body temperature rhythm of tree shrews was found to decrease as ambient temperature increased. The amplitude of the temperature rhythm of rats was found to remain constant at 14, 20, and 26°C but to be slightly reduced at 32°C. No significant effect of ambient temperature was found on the amplitude of the body temperature rhythm of Syrian hamsters and fat-tailed gerbils. Reductions in rhythm amplitude were due mostly to the curtailment of the daily fall in body temperature with no alteration in the daily peak.
The Prevalence and Context of Sexual Harassment Among African American and White American Women

Ethnic differences in the prevalence, type, and outcome of sexual harassment in various work and social settings were examined in a stratified community sample of 248 African American and White American women. Almost half of the women reported sexual harassment in work and social environments. Significant ethnic differences were found in the prevalence and type of sexual harassment and in victim characteristics in work settings. Single African American victims of harassment in social settings were significantly more likely to have incomes at or below the poverty level, compared to their White peers. The finding that significantly more White than African American women reported sexual harassment in a workplace contradicts previous research and suggests the need for further study with multiethnic populations. Future research needs to include a variety of private and public social settings. Factors that prevent women from taking action to remedy sexual harassment across settings should also be examined.
Quantitative Investigation of the Decomposition of Cyclooctene on Pt(111) Using BPTDS

Other researchers have reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 2044; J. Phys. Chem. 1994, 98, 2952) that cyclooctene dehydrogenates on Pt(111) to stable adsorbed cyclooctatetraene, which then undergoes ring contraction to produce benzene but without any calibrated measurements of the yield. Here, quantitative thermal desorption mass spectrometry (TDS) and bismuth postdosing thermal desorption mass spectrometry (BPTDS) are used to investigate the conversion of cyclooctene to benzene on the Pt(111) surface. Our results show that although benzene is formed, it is a very minor product, corresponding to less than 2% of a monolayer (including both adsorbed and gas-phase benzene). Most of the adsorbed cyclooctene either desorbs intact at low temperatures (∼10%) or simply dehydrogenates (∼90%), ultimately to surface carbon by 800 K, but without going through adsorbed benzene as an intermediate. Stable intermediates with stoichiometries C8H12 and C8H6 are identified by TDS to be present at 350 and 430−560 K, respec...
METRIC: tracking down inefficiencies in the memory hierarchy via binary rewriting

In this paper, we present METRIC, an environment for determining memory inefficiencies by examining data traces. METRIC is designed to alter the performance behavior of applications that are mostly constrained by their latency to resolve memory references. We make four primary contributions in this paper. First, we present methods to extract partial data traces from running applications by observing their memory behavior via dynamic binary rewriting. Second, we present a methodology to represent partial data traces in constant space for regular references through a novel technique for online compression of reference streams. Third, we employ offline cache simulation to derive indications about memory performance bottlenecks from partial data traces. By exploiting summarized memory metrics, by-reference metrics as well as cache evictor information, we can pin-point the sources of performance problems. Fourth, we demonstrate the ability to derive opportunities for optimizations and assess their benefits in several experiments resulting in up to 40% lower miss ratios.
The Argument from Evil

The argument from or problem of evil concludes that the existence of evil is, in one way or another, incompatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient being (God). For anyone who is a student of or familiar with modern philosophical orthodoxy in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of action (I will simply refer to the three together as “modern philosophical orthodoxy”), the problem of evil can be likened to the skeletal remains of dinosaurs that are housed in the back room of a museum and occasionally brought out for reexamination and public viewing. This is the case for four reasons. First, the problem of evil is fundamentally, in the words of C. S. Lewis, the problem of pain (Lewis 1962), where an experience of pain is an irreducible, conscious feeling or quale that hurts. The occurrence of such a psychological event is, however, vigorously contested by many adherents of modern philosophical orthodoxy. Given the seemingly outlandish nature of their position, some defenders of this orthodoxy vehemently insist they do not deny that we experience pain. Nevertheless, when one reads their accounts of pain, one cannot help but be suspicious. Almost invariably, they talk about the “functional role” of pain, which is cashed out in terms of pain’s extrinsic or relational features in the form of causal inputs and outputs. And these defenders of modern philosophical orthodoxy make clear that this functional role exhausts what pain is. The problem here is that while no one who is sane will deny that an experience of pain has certain relational features (e.g. other things being equal, one who is experiencing pain will act for the purpose that the pain be mitigated), no one who is sane will hold that an experience of pain is nothing more than its relational features. After all, pain feels a certain way. It has an intrinsic nature for which the only adequate description is that it hurts. And it is precisely because pain has this kind of intrinsic nature that it also has the relational features that it has. It is this irreducible, intrinsic qualitative nature of pain that modern philosophical orthodoxy is intent on either
Maternal Asthma Medication Use and the Risk of Selected Birth Defects

OBJECTIVES: Approximately 4% to 12% of pregnant women have asthma; few studies have examined the effects of maternal asthma medication use on birth defects. We examined whether maternal asthma medication use during early pregnancy increased the risk of selected birth defects.
The Missing Middle: Reconfiguring Rule of Law Reform as if Politics and Process Mattered

We embed a critique of the respective strengths and weaknesses of policy initiatives to ‘build the rule of law’ within the broader literature on political settlements and developmental states, thereby creating a foundation for an alternative framework that takes politics and the legitimacy of change processes seriously. Thus far the dominant terms of debate have been between those advocating or resisting the replication of legal ‘forms’ (i.e., what modern legal institutions, statutes and procedures ‘look like’, such as constitutions) via large, rapid, imported technocratic interventions, and those pushing instead for a focus on enhancing a prevailing legal system’s ‘functionality’ (what the existing system actually ‘does’) via a series of local level legal empowerment programs or attempts to redefine state-society relations by adjusting legal configurations. We argue for the inclusion of a third dimension, namely one encompassing procedural legitimacy and equitable contestation as part of the change process.
Feature-based covariance matching for a moving target in multi-robot following

In this work we present a moving target segmentation technique and apply it to a vision-based robot-following problem. The capability to do autonomous multi-robot following is useful for many robot-team applications; however, the problem becomes very challenging when the robots can carry only a small camera or when they exhibit unpredictable motion. The ability to segment a moving target while the camera is also in motion is critical to the solution of this problem and is the focus of our work. Our contributions include: (i) Matching targets using feature-based covariance matrices; (ii) Enhancing matching performance by using features based upon the Fourier transform; and (iii) Initializing a target model for cases without a known target model. We compare the proposed method with the scale-invariant feature transform and existing covariance matching methods. We then validate our proposed segmentation method through real-robot experiments.
Exendin-(9–39) Corrects Fasting Hypoglycemia in SUR-1–/– Mice by Lowering cAMP in Pancreatic β-Cells and Inhibiting Insulin Secretion

Congenital hyperinsulinism is a disorder of pancreatic β-cell function characterized by failure to suppress insulin secretion in the setting of hypoglycemia, resulting in brain damage or death if untreated. Loss-of-function mutations in the KATP channel (composed of two subunits: Kir6.2 and SUR-1) are responsible for the most common and severe form of congenital hyperinsulinism. Most patients are unresponsive to available medical therapy and require palliative pancreatectomy. Similar to the human condition, the SUR-1–/– mouse is hypoglycemic when fasted and hyperglycemic when glucose-loaded. We have previously reported that the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor antagonist exendin-(9–39) raises fasting blood glucose in normal mice. Here we examine the effect of exendin-(9–39) on fasting blood glucose in SUR-1–/– mice. Mice were randomized to receive exendin-(9–39) or vehicle. Fasting blood glucose levels in SUR-1–/– mice treated with exendin-(9–39) were significantly higher than in vehicle-treated mice and not different from wild-type littermates. Exendin-(9–39) did not further worsen glucose tolerance and had no effect on body weight and insulin sensitivity. Isolated islet perifusion studies demonstrated that exendin-(9–39) blocked amino acid-stimulated insulin secretion, which is abnormally increased in SUR-1–/– islets. Furthermore, cAMP content in SUR-1–/– islets was reduced by exendin-(9–39) both basally and when stimulated by amino acids, whereas cytosolic calcium levels were not affected. These findings suggest that cAMP plays a key role in KATP-independent insulin secretion and that the GLP-1 receptor is constitutively active in SUR-1–/– β-cells. Our findings indicate that exendin-(9–39) normalizes fasting hypoglycemia in SUR-1–/– mice via a direct effect on insulin secretion, thereby raising exendin-(9–39) as a potential therapeutic agent for KATP hyperinsulinism.
Efficient modeling of time-dependent, maldistributed flow in packed beds

Utilisation de l'equation d'Ergun fonction du temps, pour decrire l'ecoulement d'un fluide dans des lits garnis presentant une resistance non uniforme a l'ecoulement
Endogenous lung stem cells and contribution to disease

Epithelial branching during the process of lung development results in the establishment of distinct functional zones, each of which is characterized by a unique cellular composition and repertoire of local progenitor cells. Significant new insights into cellular and molecular mechanisms of epithelial maintenance that provide insights into the pathophysiology of lung disease have been made in recent years. This review focuses on the complex structure-function relationship in the airway epithelium, how this epithelium is maintained in the normal state and repaired following injury, and how deregulation may contribute to airway disease and cancer.
Dissociative effects of a novel immunomodulating agent (CP-20, 961) on host defenses of mice.

AbstractThe antimicrobial and antitumor effects of CP-20, 961, a synthetic lipoid amine with immunomodulating properties, were investigated. Mice given CP-20,961 ip seven or three days before challenge with ip Listeria monocytogenes had a lower mortality than control mice. By contrast, CP-20,961 did not protect against lethal challenges of either Salmonella typhimurium or Toxoplasma gondii. In parallel with the in vivo studies, peritoneal macrophages from CP-20, 961-injected mice inhibited multiplication of L. monocytogenes but not T. gondii. Further studies demonstrated that CP-20,961 protected mice against an ip challenge of P815 tumor cells as measured by survival time. This correlated with the ability of simulated peritoneal macrophages to inhibit (3H-TdR uptake inhibition) and kill (Cr51 release) P815 cells in vitro. These data indicate that CP-20,961 affords protection against an ascitic mastocytoma tumor line and at least one, but not all. intracellular pathogens. The dissociation of the immunomodu...
Electrostrictive ceramics for low-frequency active transducers

Electrostrictive ceramics based on Pb(Mg/sub 1/3/Nb/sub 2/3/)O/sub 3/ have demonstrated promise as low-frequency active materials. They broaden the range of design options by providing a mix of properties unavailable in traditional piezoceramics. Typical properties are: 1000 microstrain on the interval 0-1 MV/m with a k/sub 33/ of 0.5; high-field electrical impedance /spl sim/5 times that of traditional piezoelectrics; graceful, predictable, and repeatable property variation with temperature, frequency, and prestress; recoverable change of properties with temperature. Unipolar excitation at fields less than 1 MV/m is typical to provide direct frequency conversion and prevent corona discharge and reliability issues within transducers. Although electrostrictive ceramics are not direct replacements for traditional piezoceramics, they have many similarities in physical and chemical properties. The differences are most obvious in the electromechanical response behavior with changes in bias field, drive level, frequency, and prestress. In addition, the "rules-of-thumb" for traditional piezoceramics, both processing and use, do not wholly apply to electrostrictive ceramics. The development and present state of the art in electrostrictive ceramics for low-frequency uses are detailed.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for intractable depression following epilepsy neurosurgery

Psychopathology following epilepsy neurosurgery is a significant risk. Treatment modalities have not been addressed in the literature. As disproportionately elevated suicide rates have been reported, it is critical to treat aggressively any psychiatric illness wherein suicidal ideation is a key component. This case reports the safe utilization of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for intractable depression following epilepsy neurosurgery (24 references).
Reporting “Basic Results” in ClinicalTrials.gov

Growing awareness of selective publication of research studies (“publication bias”) and the selective reporting of outcomes in publications (“outcome reporting bias”),1 has led policymakers to call for increased “clinical trial transparency” through the public disclosure of key information about clinical trials.2 A US federal law3 enacted in 2007 mandates registration and results reporting for certain clinical trials of drugs, biological products, and devices, regardless of study funding source, at ClinicalTrials.gov, an online registry and results database operated by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Table 1 summarizes the goals of the results database. The theoretical benefits and limitations of non-peer-reviewed public results databases have been discussed elsewhere.4–6 This article summarizes the current requirements for reporting results and describes how to submit results data elements to the ClinicalTrials.gov results database. These tips for creating clear, understandable entries may be kept as a resource for use when preparing to enter results data for a clinical trial. A previous “Medical Writing Tips” article focused on trial registration.7 Table 1 Results Database Purposes for Various Groups
The organization of the contractile apparatus of vertebrate smooth muscle

Smooth muscle of the small intestine of the rat was fixed by vascular perfusion employing aldehydes in a balanced salt solution, followed by immersion fixation in aldehydes and post-osmication. In such tissue preparations thick filaments approximating 140 A in diameter are observed in virtually all the smooth muscle cells. The thick filaments are rather uniformly distributed among the more numerous thin filaments. The nearest neighbor distances between the thick filaments range from 400 to 700 A. The thick to thin filaments ratio is found to apporximate 1:12. Only thin filaments are observed in the most distal segment of terminal processes of muscle cells and the tips of these processes appear to be lined by attachment plaques. A clear segregation of the thick filaments from both dense bodies and attachment plaques is seen. Distally along the tapering extremities of muscle cells progressively more of the plasma membrane is found lined by attachment plaques. These observations are interpreted as strong evidence that the contractile apparatus of the vertebrate smooth muscle cell consists of interdigitating arrays of thick and thin filaments collated into contractile units by the anchoring of the thin filaments in dense bodies and attachment plaques.
Utilization of Atmospheric Transmission Losses for Interference-Resistant Communications

Atmospheric absorption and scattering losses offer a means of protection against cochannel interference in RF communications links that operate above 18 GHz. By varying the operating frequency of such a link, the communicator can adjust the atmospheric attenuation of the signal and interference in order to improve link performance. If the effective length of the interference path exceeds that of the signal path, significant enhancement of the link's signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) can result. In many situations an optimal frequency exists at which the link SINR reaches a maximum value that substantially exceeds the values obtainable elsewhere in the available frequency band. This paper develops a technique for identifying the optimal operating frequency, and predicting the resultant SINR enhancement, on the basis of given equipment and environmental characteristics. The technique is applicable to the conceptual design of communications systems in the EHF and high SHF bands.
Advillin (p92): a new member of the gelsolin/villin family of actin regulatory proteins

A new member of the gelsolin/villin family of actin regulatory proteins was initially identified by screening an adult murine brain cDNA library with a probe for bovine adseverin. The predicted amino acid sequence of the 92 kDa murine protein p92 (advillin) is 75% homologous to villin and 65% homologous to gelsolin and adseverin. It shares a six domain structure with other gelsolin family members and has a carboxy-terminal headpiece, similar to, yet distinct from, villin. Northern blot analysis shows a high level of mRNA expression in murine uterus and human intestine. In situ mRNA analysis of adult murine tissues demonstrates that the message is most highly expressed in the endometrium of the uterus, the intestinal lining, and at the surface of the tongue. In murine embryonic development, strong expression of the message is observed by day 14.5 in dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal ganglia. Expression is also noted at day 16.5 in cerebral cortex. We propose that p92 (advillin) has unique functions in the morphogenesis of neuronal cells which form ganglia, and that it may compensate to explain the near normal phenotype observed in villin-deficient mice.
Liberal Manipulation of Ventilator Settings and Its Impact on Tracheostomy Rate and Ventilator-Free Days

BACKGROUND: The utilization of checklists, bundles, and protocols attempts to provide standardization in the delivery of patient care. Despite important progress obtained in the prevention of hospital-acquired infections, the daily management of mechanical ventilation is still prone to heterogeneity, depending on the number of providers manipulating the ventilator. Whether the number of changes made on ventilator parameters impacts clinical outcomes remains unknown. METHODS: A quality improvement project was designed to assess whether liberal manipulations of ventilator settings affect the rate of tracheostomy and 28 ventilator-free days. Over the course of 7 d, respiratory therapists recorded all ventilator changes in newly ventilated subjects. Ventilator changes were considered as major changes if manipulations included changes in the mode of ventilation. Minor changes included manipulations of settings within the same mode of ventilation. We evaluated whether the number of total and major changes affected clinical outcomes. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. RESULTS: One-hundred seventeen ventilator manipulations were recorded among 54 subjects. Of those 117 ventilator changes, 35% were major manipulations. For every major ventilator manipulation, the odds of requiring tracheostomy increased 4.95 times. Furthermore, for every major ventilator change, there was an 18.6% decrease in 28 ventilator-free days. These associations were found after adjustments by APACHE (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation) II score, body mass index, and type of ICU. The total number of changes was not associated with either primary outcome measure. CONCLUSIONS: The number of major ventilator manipulations is associated with rate of tracheostomy and stay on the ventilator.
Determination of the Impact of Glycolate on Cs, Sr, and Actinide Separations in High-Level Waste

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), responsible for vitrifying high-level waste (HLW) at the Savannah River Site (SRS), is planning to introduce glycolic acid as a reductant during chemical conditioning of the waste prior to vitrification. A portion of this glycolic acid may be recycled back to the tank farm as sodium glycolate. Since glycolate can serve as a complexing agent for a variety of metallic ions, recent studies were performed to examine the effect of glycolate on the removal of Sr and actinides by monosodium titanate (MST) and modified MST (mMST) and the separation of Cs by the caustic-side solvent extraction (CSSX) process.
Unsettling Academics: Anti-Colonial Designs for Higher Education in 1960s Sierra Leone

Using archival and oral sources from Sierra Leone and the U.K. this paper digs into the details of decolonization, and highlights how academic culture was reordered in the wake of empire. In 1960s Sierra Leone a century of colonial affiliation between Fourah Bay College and its parent university, Durham University, was coming apart day by day. British critics of Sierra Leones postcolonial government were deported, tense conjugal and domestic arrangements snapped apart, and paternalistic ties between Fourah Bay and Durham were unraveling one thread at a time. This paper will show how these tensions provoked debates about the privileged mobility of white professors, the future of universities, and racial dimensions of knowledge production in West Africa. I will demonstrate how for some British academics employed in Freetown colonial order ended in deportations, physical assaults, and emotional breakdowns, but also draw attention to the politics of campus diet, academic protocol, and domestic labor routines. In doing so Ill illustrate how less obvious gestures were fundamental to reordering the discursive and physical boundaries of higher education in postcolonial Sierra Leone. The paper concludes with an analysis of the use of history in current efforts to revive relations between Durham and Fourah Bay.
Design and validation of a vacuum assisted anchorage for the uniaxial tensile testing of soft materials

Current commercial tensile testing systems use spring-loaded or other compression-based grips to clamp materials in place posing a problem for very soft or delicate materials that cannot withstand this mechanical clamping force. In order to perform uniaxial tensile tests on soft tissues or materials, we have created a novel vacuum-assisted anchor (VAA). Fibrin gels were subjected to uniaxial extension, and the testing data was used to determine material mechanical properties. Utilizing the VAA, we achieved successful tensile breaks of soft fibrin gels while finding statistically significant differences between the mechanical properties of gels fabricated at two different fibrinogen concentrations.
An Eye for an Eye: A Global History of Crime and Punishment

The sub-title of Mitchell Roth’s new volume, A Global History of Crime and Punishment, describes an extraordinarily ambitious project. He sets out not only to survey penal issues around the world b...
Numerical simulation of flows caused by shock-body interaction

Various unsteady flows caused by shock-body interaction are simulated by using a 2-D Euler solver which has been constructed based on the spacetime conservation element and solution element (ST CE/SE) method. The flow phenomena include different types of shock reflection from a wedge in a channel, and interaction of shock waves with stationary and moving bodies resulting in vortices, curved shock waves, contact surfaces, and Mach reflections. Numerical results are compared with experiments and/or numerical results obtained by using some traditional methods to demonstrate the accuracy and simplicity of the S-T CE/SE method. Details of the photographed wave patterns are very well captured in the CE/SE numerical solutions.
Food Terrorism: Perceptional Gaps Between Importance and Performance of Preventive Measures

This research paper investigated foodservice operators' food terrorism risk perception and the perceptional gap between importance and performance of food terrorism preventive measures. Cluster analysis was performed using 35 gap scores. T-tests and chi-square tests were performed to compare clusters and address research questions. The largest discrepancy between importance and practice was found for practices related to communication. Smaller incongruities were found for practices related to chemical use and storage and food handling. The results also revealed that foodservice operators who had smaller perceptional gaps between importance and practice were not only more concerned about food bioterrorism and food biosecurity/defense but also performed preventive measures more frequently. This research concluded that enhancing awareness of food terrorism risks and focusing on the effectiveness of implementing preventive measures in food service operations can increase the level of preparedness aga...
Estadio Ciudad de La Plata (La Plata Stadium), Argentina

AbstractEstadio Ciudad de La Plata (the Stadium of the City of La Plata) was designed in the late 1990s. The unique geometry of the structure derives from two overlapping circles, representing the ...
Oil Consumption, Economic Growth, and Oil Futures: A Fundamental Alternative to Financialization

I present new evidence on the relations between oil consumption, oil prices, and economic growth, and build on this evidence to develop a real business cycle model to study oil prices. The model features oil driven long-run productivity risk and recursive preferences, and an oil good which is used for both production and nal consumption. Calibrated model results can match the relations between oil prices and economic quantities, and can rationalize changes in oil futures markets from 2005 to 2012 as a consequence of a decrease in the responsiveness of the oil supply to prices. The results also suggest a link between increasing North American oil production and more recent changes in futures markets.
Challenges and Resolutions

Butterfield gradually reconciled himself to the reality that the technical and the expository could not be divorced in practice. In 1951 he had stated: Unfortunately, the two kinds of history … one which seeks to resurrect the past and the one which examines the processes of time — can never be really separated without misfortune. On the one side … our analysis of the course of things may be defective if we have failed to reconstitute the historic moment in all its fullness. On the other side mere narration and description are in danger of being too intent on scenic display, too preoccupied with the mere surface of things …1
Reconstruction of Incomplete Multivariate Categorical Data: A Useful Tool for Marketing Research

Often, multivariate categorical data are incomplete in the sense that their overall joint probabilities are not available in the data base. Instead joint probabilities (or frequencies) of subsets of the variables are given. We provide a simple approach for “reconstructing” these overall joint probabilities from the information available in the subsets. We develop procedures for identifying “reconstruction ranges (or families),” selecting the best reconstruction family, and computing unbiased estimated probabilities. This approach is illustrated using a store choice data base.