cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Brief Review of Low-Dose Rate (LDR) and High-Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy Boost for High-Risk Prostate

For patients with unfavorable or high-risk prostate cancer, dose escalated radiation therapy leads to improved progression free survival but attempts to deliver increased dose by external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) alone can be limited by late toxicities to nearby genitourinary and gastrointestinal organs at risk. Brachytherapy is a method to deliver dose escalation in conjunction with EBRT with a potentially improved late toxicity profile and improved prostate cancer related outcomes. At least three randomized controlled trials have demonstrated improved biochemical control with the addition of either low-dose rate (LDR) or high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy to EBRT, although only ASCENDE-RT compared brachytherapy to dose-escalated EBRT but did report an over 50% improvement in biochemical failure with a LDR boost. Multiple single institution and comparative research series also support the use of a brachytherapy boost in the DE-EBRT era and demonstrate excellent prostate cancer specific outcomes. Despite improved oncologic outcomes with a brachytherapy boost in the high-risk setting, the utilization of both LDR, and HDR brachytherapy use is declining. The acute genitourinary toxicities when brachytherapy boost is combined with EBRT, particularly a LDR boost, are of concern in comparison to EBRT alone. HDR brachytherapy boost has many physical properties inherent to its rapid delivery of a large dose which may reduce acute toxicities and also appeal to the radiobiology of prostate cancer. We herein review the evidence for use of either LDR or HDR brachytherapy boost for high-risk prostate cancer and summarize comparisons between the two treatment modalities.
All-ECG: A Least-number of Leads ECG Monitor for Standard 12-lead ECG Tracking during Motion *

As a leading cause of death, cardiac diseases are taking away lives from over a half million US people each year. Standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are gold-standard cardiac vital signs, and have been widely used in clinics and hospitals. However, it is still not readily available in our daily lives, due to its inconvenient and uncomfortable setting, as well as large signal quality degradation during our daily motions. In this research, a novel ECG monitor called, All-ECG, is proposed, which is expected to, at the same time, provide a convenient setting and enable motion-tolerant 12-lead ECG tracking. To achieve the first goal – convenience, a least-number of leads are selected to reconstruct the remaining leads. To achieve the second goal – robustness, a deep learning framework based on the long short-term memory is developed to reconstruct high quality ECG leads from noisy ECG leads. Evaluated on patient ECG data, the proposed deep learning framework can effectively reconstruct standard 12-lead ECG only from noisy 3-lead ECG during daily motions, with a correlation coefficient of as high as 0.82 and a root mean square error of 0.073 mV. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on 12-lead ECG reconstruction from a least-number of noisy leads, and is expected to greatly advance long-term daily heart health management.
Vasculitis: Again, Changing the Standard of Care.

Charles and colleagues extended earlier trials of rituximab to maintain remission of systemic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis for 36 months and suggest that long-term ritu...
Knowing your sources: Partisan media and voters’ perceptions of the economy

Abstract This paper explains how media systems influence the extent to which partisanship colors voters’ perceptions of the economy (i.e., the strength of the partisan screen). It builds upon research on individual-level biases in economic perceptions, seeking to extend existing work by considering how the availability of partisan media for a given party affect such biases. The implication of this is that the greater the availability of media sources favorable to a party, the stronger the partisan screen for its partisans. This follows from several mechanisms including selective acceptance of messages, selective exposure to partisan sources, and incidental exposure to partisan sources. Each of these suggests that differences in the availability of partisan media across parties leads to corresponding differences in the extent of partisan bias for partisans of these parties. I test this Hypothesis in 14 European countries over four time-periods using data built from expert surveys on media characteristics.
Manipulation of Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein Nuclear Bodies by Marek's Disease Virus Encoded US3 Protein Kinase.

Promyelocytic leukemia protein nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) are dynamic nuclear structures, shown to be important for herpesvirus replication; however, their role in regulating Marek’s disease virus (MDV) infection has not been studied. MDV is an oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that causes lymphoproliferative disease in chickens. MDV encodes a US3 serine/threonine protein kinase that is important for MDV replication and gene expression. In this study, we studied the role of MDV US3 in regulating PML-NBs. Using an immunofluorescence assay, we found that MDV US3 disrupts PML and SP100 in a kinase dependent manner. In addition, treatment with MG-132 (a proteasome inhibitor) could partially restore the levels of PML and SP100, suggesting that a cellular proteasome dependent degradation pathway is involved in MDV US3 induced disruption of PML and SP100. These findings provide the first evidence for the interplay between MDV proteins and PML-NBs.
Optimization of Coastal Protections in the Presence of Climate Change

It is generally acknowledged that interdependent critical infrastructure in coastal urban areas is constantly threatened by storm-induced flooding. Due to changing climate effects, such as sea level rise, the occurrence of catastrophic events will be more frequent and may trigger an increased likelihood of severe hazards. Planning a protective measure or mitigation strategy is a complex problem given the constraints that it must fit within a prescribed and limited fiscal budget and be beneficial to the community it protects both socially and economically. This article proposes a methodology for optimizing protective measures and mitigation strategies for interdependent infrastructures subjected to storm-induced flooding and climate change impacts such as sea level rise. Optimality is defined in this methodology as a maximum reduction in overall expected losses within a prescribed budget (compared to the expected losses in the case of doing nothing for protection/mitigation). Protective measures can include seawalls, barriers, artificial dunes, restoration of wetlands, raising individual buildings, sealing parts of the infrastructure, strategic retreat, insurance, and many more. The optimal protective strategy can be a combination of several protective measures implemented over space and time. The optimization process starts with parameterizing the protective measures. Storm-induced flooding and sea level rise, and their corresponding consequences, are estimated using a GIS-based subdivision-redistribution methodology (GISSR) developed by the authors for finding a rough solution in the first brute-force iterations of the optimization loop. A storm surge computational model called GeoClaw is subsequently used to simulate ensembles of synthetic storms in order to fine-tune and achieve the optimal solution. Damage loss, including economic impacts, is quantified based on calculated flood estimates. Suitability of the potential optimal solution is examined and assessed with input from stakeholders' interviews. The article provides some preliminary optimization results to demonstrate the capabilities of the methodology.
The Spaces of Sensationalism: A Comparative Case Study of the New York Journal and BuzzFeed

This article examines how space mediates the relationship between publishers and public attention. Drawing on a heterodox reading of attention economics, it relates the rise of the yellow newspaper the New York Journal and the viral news publisher BuzzFeed to the spatial structure of two marketplaces of attention: the streets of New York City in the late 1890s and the Facebook News Feed today. It finds that the sensationalist media forms developed by these two publishers were institutional adaptations to spaces in which information and sensation were heavily concentrated ; time–space was radically compressed ; and multiple different social contexts were collapsed . By juxtaposing Facebook’s News Feed with the streets of New York City, this article ultimately endeavors toward a more rigorous understanding of the space of social media.
Characterization of the 31-kDa antigen gene of Haemophilus somnus and its product

27 INTRODUCTION 28 MATERIALS AND METHODS 30 RESULTS 39 DISCUSSION 61 LITERATURE CITED 65 PAPER II. PROTECTIVE AND IMMUNOGENIC CHARACTERISTICS OFTHE 31-KILODALTON ANTIGEN OF HAEMOPHILUS SOMNUS AND THE USE OF THIS PROTEIN IN DIAGNOSTIC TESTS ABSTRACT 7
Psychological Outcome in Siblings of A Child With Severe Hematological Diseases. The “G. Gaslini” Experience

Psychological Outcome in Siblings of A Child With Severe Hematological Diseases. The “G. Gaslini” Experience
Joint Production and Financing Decisions: Modeling and Analysis

This paper develops models to make production and financing decisions simultaneously in the presence of demand uncertainty and market imperfections. While the Modigliani and Miller propositions demonstrate that a firm's investment and financing decisions can be made independently in a perfect capital market, our models illustrate how a firm's production decisions are affected by the existence of financial constraints. We analyze the interactions between a firm's production and financing decisions as a tradeoff between the tax benefits of debt and financial distress costs. Our numerical examples illustrate that a traditional all-equity manufacturing company can improve its performance significantly by making real and financial decisions together. The results illustrate greater firm value sensitivity to production decisions than to financing decisions and that low-margin producers face significant risk in not coordinating production and financing decisions.
Guthrie, George M

George M. Guthrie was born in Paris, Ontario in Canada on September 3, 1924. Following graduation from the University of Western Ontario in 1946, he went on to complete the Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1949 at the University of Minnesota, where Paul Meehl was his supervisor. He then became a member of the psychology faculty at Pennsylvania State University, where he remained until he retired and became professor emeritus in 1988. Keywords: cross-cultural psychology; cultural psychology; indigenous psychology
Mechanism for transcriptional synergy between interferon regulatory factor (IRF)‐3 and IRF‐7 in activation of the interferon‐β gene promoter

The interferon-β promoter has been studied extensively as a model system for combinatorial transcriptional regulation. In virus-infected cells the transcription factors ATF-2, c-Jun, interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-3, IRF-7 and NF-κB, and the coactivators p300/CBP play critical roles in the activation of this and other promoters. It remains unclear, however, why most other combinations of AP-1, IRF and Rel proteins fail to activate the interferon-β gene. Here we have explored how different IRFs may cooperate with other factors to activate transcription. First we showed in undifferentiated embryonic carcinoma cells that ectopic expression of either IRF-3 or IRF-7, but not IRF-1, was sufficient to allow virus-dependent activation of the interferon-β promoter. Moreover, the activity of IRF-3 and IRF-7 was strongly affected by promoter context, with IRF-7 preferentially being recruited to the natural interferon-β promoter. We fully reconstituted activation of this promoter in insect cells. Maximal synergy required IRF-3 and IRF-7 but not IRF-1, and was strongly dependent on the presence of p300/CBP, even when these coactivators only modestly affected the activity of each factor by itself. These results suggest that specificity in activation of the interferon-β gene depends on a unique promoter context and on the role played by coactivators as architectural factors.
Far transfer in cognitive training of older adults.

Purpose This article reviews the literature on far transfer effects in training of older adults.
Unilateral twin ectopic pregnancy

Abstract We are adding another case of unilateral twin ectopic pregnancy, making a total of 72 reported cases. During the preparation of this report, Dr. F. H. Falls, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Illinois, notified us by personal communication that he also has a gross specimen of an ectopic twin pregnancy in the ampullary portion of the tube, as yet unpublished.
Pedagogical Issues Concerning Academic Advising

This study examined whether, and to what extent, students’ personal and cultural variables have an impact on the advising process. 225 students in an urban, private university were asked to complete twenty-nine structured questions in the Fall 2005. Each question asked the student to rank on a scale of one to five the importance of a characteristic/responsibility of an academic advisor. These twenty-nine characteristics/responsibilities were those most often cited in the literature as critical for an effective academic advisor. In addition, the students were asked to provide some cultural, personal, and academic information on themselves including class status, GPA, age, gender, school, and ethnicity. We used the chi-square testing technique. This method of testing the hypothesis allowed us not only to identify which of the advisor’s characteristics and/or responsibilities were significant but also to identify which personal and cultural trait of the student a particular characteristic was most consistent with. We found that students with different variables had quite different perceptions of the advising process. Students’ perceptions varied by age, class status, GPA, gender, school, and ethnicity. While there has been an increasing number of studies devoted to examining student satisfaction with academic advising, few of these studies have considered the student’s cultural, personal, and academic background as determinant factors in a successful academic advising process.
Mutations affecting sexual conjugation and related processes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. II. Genetic analysis of nonmating mutants.

ABSTRACT Rare diploids formed by sterile mutants have been studied by tetrad analysis. Sixteen classes of mutants representing at least five distinct genetic loci have been defined. One group of mutations, isolated only in α, maps at the mating-type locus, while none of the others shows any linkage to mating type. Some of the mutations are nonspecific for mating type, while others act only on a or α. In addition, mutations were found that prevent sporulation when heterozygous in diploids. These appear to be mutations of the mating-type alleles.
Avons-nous vraiment perdu la langue à l’étranger?

Le titre refere, bien sur, aux vers de Holderlin, dans la seconde version du poeme « Mnemosyne », telle qu'elle a ete reconstituee en son temps par Rudolf Beissner. L'essai s'articule autour de trois approches : 1) la mise en evidence (et en question) du role devolu a Holderlin, comme le representant par excellence du « traduire moderne », dans L'Epreuve de l'etranger d'Antoine Berman; 2) une tentative de repeter et d'evaluer l'interpretation heideggerienne des vers de Holderlin, dont l'examen oblige a une relecture partielle et rapide du cours de 1942, Holderlins Hymne des «Ister»; 3) un developpement autour de la perte catastrophique de la langue a l'etranger, comprise a partir de l'experience d'une langue qui ne traduit plus. L'essai culmine dans une interpretation du « presque » dans les vers cites de Holderlin, qu'il faut traduire abusivement par un futur anterieur. Nous aurons perdu la langue. L'advenue (de la Catastrophe) ne se fait qu'a partir du futur. C'est le virement du temps chez Holderlin. D'ou aussi l'imperatif du traduire a l'etranger pour qu'advienne ce qui n'a pas encore eu lieu. Le traduire moderne ne se comprend ainsi qu'a partir de la question holderlinienne : comment traduire a l'etranger, dans la langue deja presque perdue?
Limits to growth: results from the detailed policy assessment tool [air traffic congestion]

Congestion-induced delay is one of the recognized metrics for assessing performance in the National Airspace System (NAS). Delay can arise from many causes, including factors specific to airline operations as well as factors that can be traced to NAS operations. In this paper we introduce a recently developed tool, the Detailed Policy Assessment Tool (DPAT), and use it to explore delay and the predictability of delay using some simple scenarios for NAS growth.
Early steps in steroidogenesis: intracellular cholesterol trafficking: Thematic Review Series: Genetics of Human Lipid Diseases

Steroid hormones are made from cholesterol, primarily derived from lipoproteins that enter cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis. In endo-lysosomes, cholesterol is released from cholesterol esters by lysosomal acid lipase (LAL; disordered in Wolman disease) and exported via Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) proteins (disordered in NPC disease). These diseases are characterized by accumulated cholesterol and cholesterol esters in most cell types. Mechanisms for trans-cytoplasmic cholesterol transport, membrane insertion, and retrieval from membranes are less clear. Cholesterol esters and “free” cholesterol are enzymatically interconverted in lipid droplets. Cholesterol transport to the cholesterol-poor outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) appears to involve cholesterol transport proteins. Cytochrome P450scc (CYP11A1) then initiates steroidogenesis by converting cholesterol to pregnenolone on the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM). Acute steroidogenic responses are regulated by cholesterol delivery from OMM to IMM, triggered by the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR). Chronic steroidogenic capacity is determined by CYP11A1 gene transcription. StAR mutations cause congenital lipoid adrenal hyperplasia, with absent steroidogenesis, potentially lethal salt loss, and 46,XY sex reversal. StAR mutations initially destroy most, but not all steroidogenesis; low levels of StAR-independent steroidogenesis are lost later due to cellular damage, explaining the clinical findings. Rare P450scc mutations cause a similar syndrome. This review addresses these early steps in steroid biosynthesis.
Mössbauer investigation of supported Fe and FeNi catalysts: I. Effect of pretreatment on particle size

Abstract Silica-supported Fe and FeNi catalysts show strong dependence of metal particle size on pretreatment, particularly the initial dehydration step. Room temperature Mossbauer spectra and supporting X-ray diffraction data reveal that mild pretreatment in the form of slow vacuum drying prior to reduction produces significantly smaller particles of Fe and FeNi on silica than either direct reduction or calcining. Once the catalyst precursor is completely dried, metal particles are relatively stable against further growth, suggesting that residual water or anions from the incipient wetness impregnation play a critical role in metal agglomeration during pretreatment. For 5 wt% Fe 5 wt% Ni on silica, vacuum drying and subsequent reduction produce FeNi alloy particles small enough to exhibit superparamagnetic behavior. Precalcining this catalyst increases the alloy particle size considerably as shown by a ferromagnetically split Mossbauer spectrum. Computer fitting of the broad peaks reveals significant amounts of metallic iron or extremely iron-rich alloy and, therefore, that phase separation can accompany particle growth in FeNi alloy catalysts.
Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus Cell Wall Glycan Strands, Evidence for a New β-N-Acetylglucosaminidase Activity

Abstract Using sequential digestion with the glycyl-glycine endopeptidase lysostaphin followed by the pneumococcalN-acetylmuramyl-l-alanine amidase (amidase), the glycan strands of the peptidoglycan of Staphylococcus aureus were purified and analyzed by a combination of reverse-phase-high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry. Reverse-phase-HPLC resolved the glycan strands to a family of major peaks, which represented oligosaccharides composed of repeating disaccharide units (N-acetylglucosamine-[β-1,4]-N-acetylmuramic acid) with different degrees of polymerization and terminating withN-acetylmuramic acid residues at the reducing ends. The method allowed separation of strands up to 23–26 disaccharide units with a predominant length between 3 and 10 and an average degree of polymerization of ∼6. Glycan strands with a higher degree of polymerization (>26 disaccharide units) represented 10–15% of the total UV absorbing glycan material. A unique feature of the staphylococcal glycan strands was the presence of minor satellite peaks that were present throughout the HPLC elution profile eluting either just prior or shortly after the major oligosaccharide peaks. A number of observations including mass spectrometric analysis suggest that the satellites are the products of an N-acetylglucosaminidase activity that differs from the atl gene product and that appears to be involved with modification of the glycan strand structure.
Comparison of combinatoric and likelihood ratio procedures for classifying samples

A random sample is to be classified as coming from one of two normally distributed populations with known parameters. Combinatoric procedures which classify the sample based upon the sample mean(s) and variance(s) are described for the univariate and multivariate problems. Comparisons of misclassification probabilities are made between the combinatoric and the likelihood ratio procedure in the univariate case and between two alternative combinatoric procedures in the bivariate case.
Hormonal regulation of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factor production and expression in mouse mammary gland

Based on previous results showing developmental regulation of aFGF and bFGF, we evaluated the effect of various hormones on aFGF and bFGF mRNA levels, in mammary gland. Northern blots indicated that estrogen alone increased aFGF but had no effect on bFGF messenger RNA level. Progesterone alone increased aFGF and bFGF mRNA levels. Estrogen and progesterone together increased aFGF mRNA level in mammary gland, but the increase was no greater than that caused by either hormone alone. However, the combination of estrogen and progesterone had no effect on bFGF message level. PRL or GH, when administered with estrogen and progesterone, increased aFGF, but did not have any effect on bFGF message level. However, when PRL and GH were administered together with estrogen and progesterone, they increased bFGF messenger RNA level. Ovarian steroid withdrawal increased aFGF, but did not have any effect on bFGF mRNA accumulation. PRL alone (in the absence of estrogen and progesterone) decreased aFGF, whereas it had no effect on bFGF message level. Hydrocortisone alone decreased aFGF, but increased bFGF mRNA level. However, PRL and hydrocortisone increased aFGF, but did not have any significant effect on bFGF message level. In the overall model, during growth of the mammary gland, ovarian steroids cause an increase in aFGF mRNA. During lactogenesis, ovarian steroid withdrawal causes an increase in aFGF messenger RNA levels. Lactogenic hormones together cause a further increase in aFGF message levels.
High Points: An Historical Geography of Cannabis

Cannabis, including hemp and its psychoactive counterpart, has a long but largely overlooked historical geography. Situating the topic within varied perspectives such as world‐systems theory, Fouca...
Effects of tetrodotoxin on the circadian pacemaker mechanism in suprachiasmatic explants in vitro

Abstract Using perifused explants of the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the effects of tetrodotoxin (TTX) on vasopressin (VP) release and its circadian profile were studied at various times throughout the circadian cycle. VP release from SCN expiants was consistently attenuated during TTX treatment, with the amplitude of this effect depending on the time of administration. In addition, the effect of TTX on the circadian pattern of VP release was also time-dependent, such that treatment during the late subjective day was followed by a disruption of circadian rhythmicity in which peptide output remained at basal levels without notable variation whereas treatment at all other times caused no measurable perturbation in the circadian VP rhythm in succeeding cycles. In SCN expiants experiencing this TTX-induced arrest of circadian VP output, subsequent exposure to KCl induced acute increases in VP release, suggesting that VP neurons retain the capacity to actively release peptide in spite of this effect of TTX. These results indicate that the interruption of electrical impulses at a critical phase may compromise the circadian function or output of the pacemaker in the SCN. In addition, the present observations provide further evidence that the overt expression of circadian rhythmicity is dependent on sodium-generated action potentials and that disruption of these electrical signals does not alter the precision of the SCN pacemaker, at least in instances where the phase of the VP rhythm can be determined after treatment.
Extending a Spectrin Repeat Unit. I: Linear Force-Extension Response

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations were used to calculate the elastic properties of a spectrin repeat unit. A contiguous α-helical linker was constructed by employing periodic boundary conditions, allowing a novel scheme for evaluating the thermodynamic force as a function of extension. By measuring the force-extension response under small extensions, spectrin was observed to behave primarily as an elastic material with a spring constant of 1700 ± 100 pN/nm. The implications of this spring constant, in terms of the properties of the spectrin tetramer, are also discussed.
Dedicated to Memory

Early observations of individuals with circumscribed damage to the cerebral cortex led to a consensus that memory is not localized to any particular brain area. Rather, neuroscientists believed that memories were incorporated within the information processing functions of many specialized brain areas. In 1957, this view changed dramatically after Scoville and Milner ( 1 ) described a patient, known as H.M., in whom damage to the medial temporal lobe (MTL; including the hippocampus and surrounding cortex) resulted in global memory impairment but spared perceptual and cognitive functions. A principal interpretation of these findings was that the MTL is a dedicated memory system, and this perspective dominated subsequent research on memory ( 2 ). Recent studies have called this idea into question, however, and McTighe et al. ( 3 ) add another twist on page 1408 of this issue. They claim that one part of the MTL, the perirhinal cortex, has a specific information processing function not directly related to memory. Does this finding turn the clock back to the dedicated area view, or move it forward in understanding how the MTL memory system is organized?
Different Times, Different Places: Histories of Infrastructure Development

The articles in this focus issue evolvedfrom papers originally presentedduring two urban infrastructure sessions of the November 1999 annual meeting of the Social Science History Association. Claire Felbinger andRichardHanley jointly chaired those sessions at the Fort Worth conference. Each article, in its way, details the elements necessary to develop urban infrastructures—powerful decision makers, the right social conditions, adequate funding, and effective political leadership and support.
Case Selection in Judicial Impact Research

States Supreme Court decisions, while technically binding on the lower courts, do not automatically determine the outcomes of cases decided below. As a result, numerous studies assessing the impact of the Supreme Court have been published (see Wasby 1970; and Johnson and Canon 1984, for a summary and discussion of this literature). The accuracy and meaningfulness of the conclusions reached in these impact studies are of course dependent on the validity of the methods used to collect and analyze the data which form the bases of the conclusions. However, several widely used methodological conventions have received little critical examination. One such convention is the use of
Scheduling multi-tenant cloud workloads on accelerator-based systems

Accelerator-based systems are making rapid inroads into becoming platforms of choice for high end cloud services. There is a need therefore, to move from the current model in which high performance applications explicitly and programmatically select the GPU devices on which to run, to a dynamic model where GPUs are treated as first class schedulable entities. The Strings scheduler realizes this vision by decomposing the GPU scheduling problem into a combination of load balancing and per-device scheduling. (i) Device-level scheduling efficiently uses all of a GPU's hardware resources, including its computational and data movement engines, and (ii) load balancing goes beyond obtaining high throughput, to ensure fairness through prioritizing GPU requests that have attained least service. With its methods, Strings achieves improvements in system throughput and fairness of up to 8.70x and 13%, respectively, compared to the CUDA runtime.
Gene-Environment Interactions in Depression Research Genetic Polymorphisms and Life-Stress Polyprocedures

Recent studies on life stress, depression, and polymorphisms in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) are characterized by powerful genetic techniques, but are also characterized by unconventional and inconsistent approaches to assessing life stress. The present review addresses this problem by critically evaluating this rapidly growing literature with regard to the concepts and procedures employed to assess life stress and the research designs used to test causal associations. The existing body of evidence is seriously compromised by the predominance of ad hoc approaches for measuring life stress and by a lack of attention to key issues concerning research design. Principles and procedures for more refined and rigorous stress measurement are outlined. Improved guidelines are needed to direct future research on interactive effects of life stress and genes in psychopathology, pathophysiological processes, and disease.
An improved topographic mapping technique from airborne lidar: application in a forested hillside

We developed a robust method to reconstruct a digital terrain model DTM by classifying raw light detection and ranging lidar points into ground and non-ground points with the help of the Progressive Terrain Fragmentation PTF method. PTF applies iterative steps for searching terrain points by approximating terrain surfaces using the triangulated irregular network TIN model constructed from ground return points. Instead of using absolute slope or offset distance, PTF uses orthogonal distance and relative angle between a triangular plane and a node. Due to this characteristic, PTF was able to classify raw lidar points into ground and non-ground points on a heterogeneous steep forested area with a small number of parameters. We tested this approach by using a lidar data set covering a part of the Angelo Coast Range Reserve on the South Fork of the Eel River in Mendocino County, California, USA. We used systematically positioned 16 reference plots to determine the optimal parameter that can be used to separate ground and non-ground points from raw lidar point clouds. We tested at different admissible hillslope angles 15° to 20°, and the minimum total error 1.6% was acquired at the angle value of 18°. Because classifying raw lidar points into ground and non-ground points is the basis for other types of analyses, we expect that our study will provide more accurate terrain approximation and contribute to improving the extraction of other forest biophysical parameters.
Metallization of non-genotoxic direct dyes

Abstract Copper (II) salts were used as metallizing agents in the synthesis of new direct dyes for cotton. In this regard, direct dyes possessing ortho-propoxy, ortho′-hydroxy-substituted systems formed the corresponding dye–metal complexes. The complexes were characterized by neutron activation and spectrometric analyses and evaluated on cotton for color fastness.
Mechanical properties and microstructure of pure polycrystalline magnesium rolled by different routes

Abstract Mechanical and microstructural characterizations were performed on pure magnesium samples processed by different rolling routes and annealing conditions to investigate the effects of thickness reduction strain and annealing temperature and duration on mechanical behaviors. The results indicate that (a) rolling increases yield strength significantly by about 100% to 130% and decreases ductility by about 55% to 66%; (b) a rolling route with a lower thickness reduction strain per rolling pass corresponds to a higher strength increase; and (c) annealing does not affect the magnitudes of yield strength and ductility, but largely increases ultimate tensile strength and strain hardening rate compared with the as-rolled material without experiencing annealing.
Dissolution behavior of plutonium containing zirconia–magnesia ceramics

Abstract This study explores the dissolution properties of zirconia–magnesia ceramics containing plutonium as the basis of an inert matrix nuclear fuel. The magnesium oxide phase remains pure MgO, while the zirconia incorporates a small amount of magnesium oxide along with all of the plutonium oxide and erbium oxide. The performance of the material under reactor and repository environments was examined. Reactor conditions are examined using a pressure vessel to expose the material to 300 °C water. To assess the performance of the material as a waste form it was submerged in 90 °C water for 1000 h. In both aqueous dissolution studies there was minimal release of less than 0.8 wt.% of plutonium from the material. To examine the potential for recycling, the dissolution behavior of the fuel matrix was examined in acidic solutions: pure nitric acid and a nitric acid–hydrofluoric acid–peroxide solution. Both acidic media exhibit potential for dissolving plutonium from the zirconia matrix. The experiments performed in this study are meant to lay a foundation for the chemical performance of zirconia–magnesia inert matrix fuel containing fissile material and burnable poison.
Differential diagnostic considerations and potential pitfalls in fine‐needle aspiration biopsies of the mediastinum

The mediastinum is the host for a number of relatively unusual primary neoplasms, as well as a frequent recipient of metastatic tumors. From the perspective of fine-needle aspiration cytomorphology, several distinct patterns are yielded. The polygonal (or epithelial-like) cell pattern may be seen with benign and malignant thymomas, germinomas, embryonal carcinoma, and many metastatic carcinomas. An intimate admixture of small lymphocytes with these epithelial cells may occur in this category. The small cell pattern may be produced by malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, neuroblastoma, carcinoid tumors, and metastatic oat cell carcinoma. Uncommon morphologic forms of thymoma and carcinoid tumors, as well as benign mesenchymal lesions, may yield a picture of a spindle-cell proliferation. In addition to cytomorphology, the cytologist needs to integrate clinical, radiographic, immunocytochemical, and ultrastructural data to formulate a final diagnosis.
First Report of Red Clover Vein Mosaic Carlavirus Naturally Infecting Lentil.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is an important legume crop grown in the dryland Pacific Northwest areas of eastern Washington and Oregon, and northern Idaho. Lentil is highly susceptible to pea enation mosaic enamovirus (PEMV) and bean leafroll luteovirus (BLRV), and infection may result in severe yield losses. Recently, lentil was also found to be infected experimentally with red clover vein mosaic carlavirus (RCVMV) (1). The virus is most commonly transmitted in the Pacific Northwest by the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris) in a nonpersistent manner. In 1997, cv. Brewer lentil bait plants were planted at the Vegetable Research Farm at Oregon State University to monitor incidence of PEMV and BLRV. Many of the plants developed symptoms typical of PEMV. However, other plants exhibited severe stunting, proliferation of axillary branches, and general chlorosis or death. Bait plants were harvested in August, and 204 random samples were tested for PEMV, RCVMV, BLRV, alfalfa mosaic alfamovirus (AMV), and p...
Photodissociation spectra and the assignment of low-lying states in butadiene and toluene cations

Abstract The photodissociation spectra of gas-phase butadiene and toluene cations are discussed and compared with optical absorption spectra, photoelectron spectra, and theoretical results of both all-valence-electron and π-electron types.
Three Dimensional Dynamic Analysis of a Piezoelectric Valveless Micropump: Effects of Working Fluid

Coupled structural and fluid flow analysis of a piezoelectric valveless micropump is carried out for liquid transport applications. The valveless micropump consists of trapezoidal prism inlet/outlet elements; the pump chamber, a thin structural layer (Pyrex glass) and a piezoelectric element (PZT-5A), as the actuator. Two-way coupling of forces and displacements between the solid and the liquid domains in the systems are considered where actuator deflection and motion causes fluid flow and vice-versa. Flow contraction and expansion (through the trapezoidal prism inlet and outlet respectively) generates net fluid flow. The pressure, velocity, flow rate and pump membrane deflections of the micropump are investigated for six different working fluids (acetone, methanol, ethanol, water, and two hypothetical fluids). For the compressible flow formulation, an isothermal equation of state for the working fluid is employed. Three-dimensional governing equations for the flow fields and the structural-piezoelectric bi-layer membrane motions are considered. Comparison of the pumping characteristics of the micropumps operating with different working fluids can be utilized to optimize the design of MEMS based micropumps in drug delivery and biomedical applications.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Similarity and Diversity in the Prehistoric Colonization of Islands and Coasts by Food-Producing Communities

ABSTRACT The colonization of the Pacific, Caribbean, and Mediterranean by food-producing communities in prehistory has rarely been considered in an explicitly comparative perspective. This article suggests that, despite evident human and environmental diversity, these insular colonization episodes have certain formal and processual similarities, especially in terms of the rate and dynamics of the colonization episodes. Specifically, in all three cases, colonizing populations seem to have rapidly crossed very great distances to find new niches, only for these events to be followed by generations of colonizing inactivity. It is proposed that such patterning may be a feature which is somehow common to episodes of coastal and insular colonization by food-producing, pre-state communities. Reasons as to why this might be—including ecological and demographic factors—are considered. This study indicates the utility of a comparative approach, and contributes to the ongoing debate centered on the extent to which in...
Strangeness production in antiproton-tantalum interactions at 4 GeV/c

Abstract A general measure of strangeness production in antiproton-nucleus interactions is given which is unaffected by strangeness exchange reactions occuring after the initial annihilation. An intranuclear cascade model of p -nucleus interactions has also been developed. Both approaches are applied to data on strange particle yields and rapidity distributions obtained in 4 GeV/c p -T collisions. No evidence is seen for exotic phenomena.
Simultaneous Normalized Optical Reflectivity and Microgravimetric Measurements at Electrode/Electrolyte Interfaces: The Adsorption of Bromide on Gold in Aqueous Media

A system is herein described for the simultaneous acquisition of in situ microgravimetric (QCM) and UV-visible reflectance data (ΔR/R) of metal film electrodes sputtered on the surface of optically polished quartz crystals. This dual-technique approach makes it possible to establish correlations between the changes in weight and relative reflectivities associated with the adsorption of ions (and other species) on the electrode surface as a function of the applied potential without uncertainties derived from electrode surface preparation. Simultaneous in situ QCM-ΔR/R measurements for the adsorption of bromide on gold from aqueous electrolytes yielded results in excellent agreement with those reported by other authors for each independent technique. In particular, plots of the change in the resonant frequency of the QCM vs ΔR/R were found to be linear in the potential region in which bromide adsorption is expected to occur for concentrations of bromide spanning more than 2 orders of magnitude.
Advertising Status and Legitimacy: or, Why Did Henry VIII’s Queens and Children Patronize Travelling Performers?

Patronage of travelling performers by English kings seems to have been one way of displaying royal power, prestige, and status. Beginning with Edward IV and continuing through Henry VIII, queens and royal offspring also gave their names to travelling performance troupes. Chronologies of the travelling troupes of queens and royal offspring suggest that during the reign of Henry VIII, as queens and heirs presumptive changed, one likely purpose of these troupes was to advertise and legitimize the status of their royal patrons.
Evaluating Habitat Vulnerability to Hazardous Air Pollutants in the Southeastern United States

Long term protection and maintenance of ecological communities and populations must consider the effect of atmospheric pollutants in addition to stressors that occur on the ground. We describe a technique for identifying species ranges and ecosystems across the landscape where there could be potential effects from air toxics releases. We modified the ranking equations for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from the Chemical Scoring and Ranking Assessment Model (SCRAM) to come up with a weighted relative toxicity value. The model combines toxicity rankings from SCRAM, chemical ambient air concentration data from the Assessment System for Population Exposure Nationwide model, and species richness data from the Southeast Gap Analysis Project. The final output was a 30-m pixel grid of potential vulnerability to HAP exposures. We found that the model, in general, resulted in a circular pattern around major urban areas with vulnerability decreasing with distance from the urban center. Those areas having high acreage of federal, state, and locally protected lands were also highlighted by the models added weight for species richness. Since the final toxicity maps were in a raster format the data can be aggregated into any number of assessment units for use by multiple levels of decision makers including federal and state entities who want to compare relative toxicity exposures across a region and local groups who want to evaluate the vulnerability of lands under their management.
Ecological costs of biotrophic versus necrotrophic pathogen resistance, the hypersensitive response and signal transduction

Recent advances along numerous research avenues show that plant interactions with biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens use similar pathways with opposing effects. The hypersensitive response is associated with increased biotroph resistance but decreased necrotroph resistance. In plant/herbivore interactions, opposing effects of defenses against specialist versus generalist herbivores are controlled by plant secondary metabolites, where a metabolite that provides resistance to generalist herbivores may stimulate specialist herbivores. This multi-trophic interaction is presented as an ecological cost of plant resistance, but similar concepts are rarely applied to plant interactions with different classes of pathogens. In this review, we begin to describe how necrotrophic pathogens may place an ecological cost upon plant resistance to biotrophic pathogens. We separate these potential ecological costs into three concepts: (1) the local cost of the hypersensitive response, (2) organismal cost of having machinery for a hypersensitive response and (3) antagonism between salicylate and jasmonate signaling. We describe the literature supporting these concepts and some predictions that they generate.
Accelerated efflux of ( 14 C) and ( 3 H) amino acids from superfused slices of rat brain.

— The rate of spontaneous efflux of several isotopically-labelled amino acids was measured in superfused slices of rat brain. The group specificity of amino acid efflux was studied by examining the pattern of accelerated efflux in the presence of extracellular unlabeled amino acid. The mediated efflux of γ-aminobutyric acid and l-glutamic acid was highly specific. Less specificity was found for amino acids in the small neutral, large neutral and basic groups. The efflux of γ-aminobutyric acid and l-glutamic acid was accelerated by structurally similar amino acids which are known to depress or excite motor neurons. This finding raises the possibility that the physiological effects of non-specific amino acids during local iontophoresis may be secondary to an accelerated release of more specific transmitter amino acids from neighbouring cells.
Context-dependent behavioral effects of interleukin-1 in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)

The behavioral effects of recombinant human interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1) in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were assessed in 3 experimental paradigms: (1) a testing situation in which an initial quiescent period was followed by a challenge designed to evoke agitation; (2) a novel environment with a social partner; and (3) a working memory-dependent nonspatial cognitive task. In the first two experiments we replicated our previous observations that a high IL-1 dose (25 micrograms) induces somnolence in a quiet setting within 1 h. A lower IL-1 dose (1 ng) did not have these sedative properties, but both IL-1 doses significantly reduced the number of vocalizations made by the monkeys. In contrast, when the monkeys were challenged through direct eye contact with a human experimenter, the 25 micrograms IL-1 dose significantly increased agonistic behavior. Finally, performance on a working memory-dependent task (delayed non-matching-to-sample) was unaffected by doses of IL-1 ranging from 1 to 25 micrograms, possibly because the monkeys were tested after learning the task rather than during the acquisition phase. These results demonstrate that high levels of IL-1 in peripheral circulation can have potent behavioral effects in the nonhuman primate, but that the nature of the influence will depend on the context in which the animal is evaluated. Manifestation of cytokine-induced 'sickness behavior' appears to require a permissive environment.