cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The memory disorders clinic.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes that the demand for clinical evaluation of memory disorders has increased. Although brief tests of general cognitive abilities, such as the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), have been used in practice for several decades, in particular as screens for dementia, they lack sensitivity to detect mild memory dysfunction, and are not brief enough for widespread routine use by busy general practice clinics. The chapter explains that formal testing of memory and other cognitive abilities requires technical expertise, the availability of standardized test stimuli, and careful interpretation of results. These needs are best served by a memory disorders clinic, whose staff has the training and expertise to carry out evaluations. There are many reasons for referrals to memory disorders clinics. These depend on the expertise of the referring physicians. One of the most common is to assess whether dementia is present, or to confirm the primary physician's or family's diagnosis of dementia.
Spinal Allografts of Adrenal Medulla Block Nociceptive Facilitation in the Dorsal Horn

Transplantation of chromaffin cells into the lumbar subarachnoid space has been found to produce analgesia, most conspicuously against chronic neuropathic pain. To ascertain the neurophysiological ...
Avoiding ‘Death by Default’: Does the Constitution Require a Life Without Parole Alternative?

This Article focuses on the minority of death penalty states which have sentencing juries choose between death and life in prison with possibility of parole, excluding the “middle option” of life without parole (LWOP). A growing body of empirical evidence shows that the absence of an LWOP option causes juries to opt for a death sentence even where death is not otherwise called for, simply to avoid the chance that the defendant may someday “walk the streets.” The Article argues that such sentencing procedures violate the constitutional principles established by the Supreme Court's 1980 decision in Beck v. Alabama and its 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia. Beck established the principle that, in the guilt or innocence phase, where the defendant's life was at stake, the state could not eliminate an intermediate “third option” of a lesser-included, noncapital offense because of the risk that jurors would improperly choose to convict (and thus make the defendant death-eligible) rather than reach a too lenient result. The Article urges that the Beck analysis be applied to the capital-sentencing phase to require the “third option” of LWOP. Atkins demonstrated that a consistent and substantial pattern of state legislative enactment of a death penalty reform could establish “evolving standards of decency” under the Court's Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, requiring the reform as a constitutional matter. Because only two out of thirty-eight death penalty states decline to provide an LWOP option, Atkins establishes that non-LWOP schemes violate such evolving standards of decency.
A ZMET-based analysis of perceptions of climate change among young south koreans: Implications for social marketing communication

Purpose Successful marketing communication campaigns require a thorough assessment of the public's current perceptions and attitudes toward the topic of the campaign. Such insights are most likely attained if a range of research methods are employed. However, in the area of pro-environmental campaigns, there has been an over-reliance on quantitative surveys. To illustrate the benefits of complementary, qualitative approaches, this paper reports a qualitative investigation of perceptions of climate change among young South Koreans. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a variant of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), a hybrid protocol which combines photo elicitation with metaphor analysis of subsequent in-depth individual interviews. Unlike survey research, ZMET uncovers the emotional, interpretive and sensory mental structures which, along with factual knowledge, make up the public mindset about climate change. Findings – The analysis revealed a multifaceted mental model of clim...
Extreme Hypercalcemia of Malignancy in a Pediatric Patient: Therapeutic Considerations

ABSTRACT Objective: Hypercalcemia of malignancy is rarely seen in children, and therefore few cases are available to illustrate the potential severity of presentation and clinical course. The objective of this report is to present the case of a pediatric patient with extreme hypercalcemia of malignancy and his successful management. Methods: We describe the therapeutic course of a pediatric patient with one of the highest calcium levels (21.4 mg/dL) reported in the literature and provide a review of what is published on pediatric hypercalcemia of malignancy, focusing on aspects of management. Results: Our patient's severe hypercalcemia rapidly responded to aggressive normal saline hydration, calcitonin, and zoledronic acid but was followed by hypocalcemia and hypophosphatemia, which were treated with oral supplementation. Conclusion: This case and review of the literature illustrate the potential severity of hypercalcemia of malignancy and important therapeutic considerations for practitioners.
Preferences, Welfare, and the Status-Quo Bias

Preferences play a role in well-being that is difficult to escape, but whatever authority one grants to preferences, their malleability seems to cause problems for any theory of well-being that employs them. Most importantly, preferences appear to display a status-quo bias: people come to prefer what they are likely rather than unlikely to get. I try to do two things here. The first is to provide a more precise characterization of the status-quo bias, how it functions, and how it infects commonly accepted theories of well-being. The second is to give an alternative characterization of an agent's preferences that succeeds in avoiding the status-quo bias.
Finite element analysis of cracked elastic bodies under unsteady translation and rotation

The broad objective of the investigations described in this report is the accurate finite element computation of stress intensity factors in cracked elastic bodies under steady or unsteady translational and rotational loads. Applications of interest include fatigue under adverse environments, such as stall in turbomachinery and critical speeds in elastic mechanisms. The enriched element formulation of Gifford and Hilton [1] has been extended to include inertial, centrifugal, Coriolis and angular acceleration effects, and to include Mode III (tearing), which is coupled to Modes I and II under unsteady rotation. The extension is based on the fact, which does not appear to be widely appreciated, that inertial effects near the crack tip are completely accounted for by the time dependence of the stress intensity factors. For Mode III, the Mindlin formulation for a plate in bending has been adopted in order to extend the enriched element formulation to torsion and bending effects. The centrifugal and angular acceleration effects are fully coupled to the displacements. A finite element code by Gifford and Hilton [2] for static problems in Modes I and II has been thoroughly rewritten and expanded to implement the dynamic features and Mode III. The code incorporates matrices and vectors representing translational, Coriolis, centrifugal and angular acceleration effects. It implements the Newmark method for time integration, and a non-symmetric ‘wave front’ solver. The elements are validated by comparison with several benchmark problems.
Low Mach number predictions in an extended axially symmetric MHD theory of the magnetosheath

A recent axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model for the Earth's magnetosheath near the Sun-Earth line, with boundary conditions given by Rankine-Hugoniot (RH) equations at the bow shock and the Chapman-Ferraro (CF) condition at the magnetopause, is extended by including smaller terms in the CF condition that become important at low Mach numbers. Three conclusions are predicted for the magnetosheath. (1) The magnetosheath thickness Δms decreases with decreasing Alfven Mach number MA for MA > M* (in which only the “gasdynamic” root of the RH equations for the bow shock boundary is physical), where M* ∼ 2 is the root-transition value for the RH equations at which all 3 roots coalesce. When MA < M*switch-on shock roots (purely MHD) are also physical, and Δms associated with those roots shows a rapid increase to a large value, followed by a rapid decrease back to a very small value as the decreasing MA approaches 1. Thus Δms associated with these switch-on roots may give more distant bow shocks, and may rapidly vary with small MA changes. (2) Δms is very sensitive to the value for the CF constant kCF at the magnetopause. For larger MA and sonic Mach numbers Ms the ratio of Δms to the geocentric radial distance amp of the magnetopause varies from 0.44 for 90% coupling efficiency of the solar wind momentum density to the magnetopause down to 0.18 for 60% coupling efficiency. This suggests a balance between the solar wind coupling efficiency to the magnetopause and the thickness of the magnetosheath, in which an increase (decrease) in the coupling efficiency increases (decreases) the thickness of the magnetosheath to counter that efficiency by moving the bow shock further upstream (downstream), hence minimizing the variation in time of that coupling efficiency. (3) The linear relation between Δms and the density ratio ρsw/ρbs observed in simulations breaks down for MA or Ms ≲ 2. The slope steadily drops as Ms → 1, but increases as MA → 1.
How the Sequence of a Gene Can Tune Its Translation

Sixty-one codons specify 20 amino acids, offering cells many options for encoding a polypeptide sequence. Two new studies (Cannarrozzi et al., 2010; Tuller et al., 2010) now foster the idea that patterns of codon usage can control ribosome speed, fine-tuning translation to increase the efficiency of protein synthesis.
Acute Budd-Chiari syndrome during pregnancy: Surgical treatment and orthotopic liver transplantation with successful completion of the pregnancy

A 26-year-old woman presented with acute Budd-Chiari syndrome 18 weeks into a pregnancy. She was found to be heterozygous for the G20210A prothrombin gene mutation. She was treated with portacaval shunt placement and successfully completed the pregnancy, with a healthy baby delivered at 31 weeks' gestation. She developed progressive liver failure after delivery of the child, likely associated with clotting of the shunt, which occurred in the face of full anticoagulation. The patient subsequently underwent a technically complicated orthotopic liver transplantation, but died 10 months after transplantation. This case illustrates the challenges involved in the treatment of Budd-Chiari syndrome, in addition to difficulties balancing the health of a mother and an unborn child. It is the only case of surgical treatment of Budd-Chiari syndrome during pregnancy reported in the literature. (Liver Transpl 2003;9:976-979.)
Oxygen stress reduces zoospore survival of Phytophthora species in a simulated aquatic system

Background: The genus Phytophthora includes a group of agriculturally important pathogens and they are commonly regarded as water molds. They produce motile zoospores that can move via water currents and on their own locomotion in aquatic environments. However, zoosporic response to dissolved oxygen, an important water quality parameter, is not known. Like other water quality parameters, dissolved oxygen concentration in irrigation reservoirs fluctuates dramatically over time. The aim of this study was to determine whether and how zoospore survival may be affected by elevated and low concentrations of dissolved oxygen in water to better understand the aquatic biology of these pathogens in irrigation reservoirs. Results: Zoospores of P. megasperma, P. nicotianae, P. pini and P. tropicalis were assessed for survival in 10% Hoagland’s solution at a range of dissolved concentrations from 0.9 to 20.1 mg L -1 for up to seven exposure times from 0 to 72 h. Zoospore survival was measured by resultant colony counts per ml. Zoospores of these species survived the best in control Hoagland’s solution at dissolved oxygen concentrations of 5.3 to 5.6 mg L -1 . Zoospore survival rates decreased with increasing and decreasing concentration of dissolved oxygen, depending upon Phytophthora species and exposure time. Overall, P. megasperma and P. pini are less sensitive than P. nicotianae and P. tropicalis to hyperoxia and hypoxia conditions. Conclusion: Zoospores in the control solution declined over time and this natural decline process was enhanced under hyperoxia and hypoxia conditions. These findings suggest that dramatic fluctuations of dissolved oxygen in irrigation reservoirs contribute to the population decline of Phytophthora species along the water path in the same reservoirs. These findings advanced our understanding of the aquatic ecology of these pathogens in irrigation reservoirs. They also provided a basis for pathogen risk mitigation by prolonging the turnover time of runoff water in recycling irrigation systems via better system designs.
An objective approach to faculty promotion and tenure by the analytic hierarchy process

This paper proposes a novel evaluation approach for the selection of candidates for promotion and/or tenure. The decision problem is conceptualized as a hierarchy of factors and a mathematical procedure known as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used for successively “weighting” or prioritizing factors at each level of the hierarchy, in order to arrive at a final composite set of weights for each potential candidate, listed as alternatives at the final level of the hierarchy. The procedure and its mathematical basis are explained and illustrated using hypothetical data. It is argued that the AHP can aid university decision makers in arriving at objective and consistent decisions on faculty tenure, which at present appear to be largely subjective and informal.
A Static Aeroelastic Analysis of a Flexible Wing Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract : The static aeroelastic behavior of the Nighthawk mini unmanned aerial vehicle is examined using a combined experimental and computational approach. Three wings are examined. In order of increasing stiffness they are: a flexible wing, a stiff wing, and a fictitious rigid wing with zero deflection. Photogrammetry is used during wind tunnel testing to measure the average deflected shape of the flexible and stiff wings during flight. The independent variables during wind tunnel tests are angle of attack (ranging from -5.1 deg through 13.4 deg) and velocity, which is 20 mph, 30 mph, and 40 mph. Roll angle and yaw angle are control variables, held constant at 0 deg. The measured deflection of each wing is used to adjust the wing shape for computational fluid dynamics analysis. Solutions are obtained for the flexible, stiff, and undeflected (or rigid) wings using a steady-state viscous flow solver with a Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. The flexible and stiff wings experience two forms of deformation during flight. They bend upward along the span increasing the dihedral, and the leading edge twists downward (wing washout). The amplitude of deflection is greatest for the flexible wing. As a result, the flexible wing is more stable, but also exhibits worse static aerodynamic performance. The rigid wing has the greatest lift (CL max=1.29) and the highest lift-to-drag ratio (L/Dmax =10.2). Stall occurs first near the root for all three wings. None of the wings stall at the tip in the range of angles of attack tested. A separation bubble forms under the wing at angles of attack less than 8o. This separation decreases the overall lift. It is most prominent on the flexible wing.
‘It is like putting fire in the children’s hands’: a comparative case study of pre-service teachers’ knowledge of and beliefs about education for democracy in an established and emerging post-conflict democracy

This report documents and compares two cases of pre-service elementary teachers’ beliefs about democracy and education for democracy in the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina along with contextual factors influencing the similarities and differences among these beliefs. Findings suggest that US pre-service elementary teachers have a self-proclaimed lack of knowledge about democracy and primarily view citizenship education as a means to teach children how to get along. Conversely, Bosnian pre-service teachers hold more nuanced views of democracy and education for democracy, formed while their country transitioned from socialism towards democracy following a devastating civil war. Consequently, they focus on teaching children the skills and dispositions necessary for successful democratic citizenship to preserve their country. These divergent understandings of democracy within the two cases may hold potential benefits to teachers in both emergent and established democracies. Implications of these and other find...
Vocational Interests and Performance: A Quantitative Summary of Over 60 Years of Research

Despite early claims that vocational interests could be used to distinguish successful workers and superior students from their peers, interest measures are generally ignored in the employee selection literature. Nevertheless, theoretical descriptions of vocational interests from vocational and educational psychology have proposed that interest constructs should be related to performance and persistence in work and academic settings. Moreover, on the basis of Holland's (1959, 1997) theoretical predictions, congruence indices, which quantify the degree of similarity or person-environment fit between individuals and their occupations, should be more strongly related to performance than interest scores alone. Using a comprehensive review of the interest literature that spans more than 60 years of research, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the veracity of these claims. A literature search identified 60 studies and approximately 568 correlations that addressed the relationship between interests and performance. Results showed that interests are indeed related to performance and persistence in work and academic contexts. In addition, the correlations between congruence indices and performance were stronger than for interest scores alone. Thus, consistent with interest theory, the fit between individuals and their environment was more predictive of performance than interest alone.
VANADIUM ALLOY DEVELOPMENT FOR SODIUM-COOLED REACTORS.

Abstract Because of favorable nuclear properties and high-temperature mechanical properties, vanadium alloys are attractive as possible fuel cladding materials for sodium-cooled fast-breeder reactors, the only disadvantage being vanadium's affinity for oxygen that leads to the formation of non-adherent oxides when vanadium or vanadium alloys are exposed to sodium containing more than several parts per million of oxygen. Over the years investigators have tested numerous binary and several ternary alloys, and all have exhibited the above described behavior. It is now generally accepted that sodium contacting vanadium alloy fuel cladding must be trapped to avoid scale formation. Hence, it is possible to use vanadium alloy cladding if it can be protected from serious damage during any oxygen excursion. In this paper we have examined the oxidation problem and suggested several possibilities for protecting the cladding during an oxygen excursion.
A Variable Selection Index for the Compensation of Correlated Genetic Change

A selection index for two traits has been constructed which allows partial restriction for one of the traits. The index is used in a situation where correlated response to selection in one sex is compenstated for by selection for other traits in the opposite sex. A numerical example is given.
Reliability study of holographic optical elements made with DuPont photopolymer

In this paper, we report the reliability test results of transmission-type holographic optical elements made with DuPont photopolymer HRF-600. The reliability tests performed in this study include 6000 cycles of liquid-to-liquid thermal shock cycling, 2200 cycles of air-to-air thermal cycling, 1500 hours of humidity test, and 675 hours of burn- in test at 125 degrees C. A total of 210 holograms was tested, with 532 data points collected for efficiency measurements. The results show that the average efficiency change after these tests is negligible and that the standard deviation is only approximately 10 percent.
Oral versus initial intravenous therapy for urinary tract infections in young febrile children.

Background The standard recommendation for treatment of young, febrile children with urinary tract infection has been hospitalization for intravenous antimicrobials. The availability of potent, oral, third-generation cephalosporins, as well as interest in cost containment and avoidance of nosocomial risks prompted evaluation of the safety and efficacy of outpatient therapy. Methods In a multicentre, randomized clinical trial, the investigators evaluated the efficacy of oral versus initial intravenous therapy in 306 children 1 to 24 months old with fever and urinary tract infection, in terms of short-term clinical outcomes (sterilization of the urine and defervescence) and long-term morbidity (incidence of reinfection and incidence and extent of renal scarring documented at 6 months by 99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid renal scans). Children received either oral cefixime for 14 days (double dose on day 1) or initial intravenous cefotaxime for 3 days followed by oral cefixime for 11 days. Costs were estimated using charge-data. Results Treatment groups were comparable regarding demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics. Of the short-term outcomes: (1) repeat urine cultures were sterile within 24 h in all 306 children, and (2) mean time to defervescence was 25 and 24 h for children treated orally and intravenously, respectively. Of the long-term outcomes: (1) symptomatic re-infections occurred in 4.6% of children treated orally and 7.2% of children treated intravenously; (2) renal scarring at 6 months was noted in 9.8% of children treated orally versus 7.2% of children treated intravenously; and (3) mean extent of scarring was ~8% in both treatment groups. Mean costs were at least twofold higher for children treated intravenously ($3577 versus $1473) compared with those treated orally. Conclusions Oral cefixime can be recommended as a safe and effective treatment for children with fever and urinary tract infection. Use of cefixime will result in substantial reductions of health care expenditures.
Computer simulation of action potentials and afterpotentials in mammalian myelinated axons: the case for a lower resistance myelin sheath.

Abstract Depolarizing afterpotentials, recorded in peripheral nerves [Barrett and Barrett (1982) J. Physiol., Lond. 323, 117–144] and spinal axons [Blight and Someya (1985) Neuroscience 15, 1–12], have been interpreted as representing passive discharge of axolemmal capacitance. This interpretation requires a lower resistance pathway through the myelin sheath than previous measurements have suggested. A computer model was used to examine the contribution of the electrical characteristics of nerve fibers to action potential conduction and afterpotential generation. The model consisted of a resistance-capacitance network representing a chain of 20 internodes. The resistances of node, internode and myelin sheath, deduced from observations in the accompanying paper, [Blight and Someya (1985) Neuroscience, 15] were found to produce suitable length and time constants, and prolonged afterpotentials, when inserted into the model. Similar length and time constants were found using a conventional model of the axon, based on measurements from isolated peripheral fibers, but this did not reproduce the afterpotentials. Action-potential conduction velocity is enhanced by reducing the time constant and increasing the length constant. The problem of minimizing the internodal time constant was met in the conventional model through the low parallel resistance of the node, while in the new model it was met by reducing the resistance of the myelin sheath. The latter strategy required the nodal leakage resistance to be higher than values from single fiber measurements (ca 250 MΩ rather than ca 50 Mω) in order to maintain the length constant similar to the conventional model. Simulation of the recorded potentials required the resistance of the myelin lamellae to be approx. 100 Ω cm 2 . The model quantitatively reproduced the voltage response of the axon to injected current pulses and to propagated action potentials, using Frankenhaeuser-Huxley kinetics. [Frankenhaeuser and Huxley (1964) J. Physiol., Lond.171, 302–315; Frankenhaeuser and Moore (1963) J. Physiol., Lond. 169, 431–437]. The short duration components of the afterpotential, observed in mammalian recordings were reproduced by assuming a leakage pathway in the myelin sheath, at the impalement site. The calculated lower resistance of the myelin sheath was such that it minimized the effective internodal time constant for a given nodal resistance. This appears to free the myelinated fiber from the alternative requirement for a high nodal leakage conductance. It may also contribute to greater stability of the axon under conditions of prolonged depolarization, by allowing the internodal axolemma to be repolarized more rapidly by voltage-dependent K+ currents and making the input resistance of the internode dependent on the permeability of its own axolemma, more than that of the surrounding myelin sheath. In addition the storage of charge at the axolemma following the action potential may be of functional significance in modulating excitability.
Impaired spatial learning and defective theta burst induced LTP in mice lacking fibroblast growth factor 14.

Spinocerebellar ataxia 27 (SCA27) is a recently described syndrome characterized by impaired cognitive abilities and a slowly progressive ataxia. SCA27 is caused by an autosomal dominant missense mutation in Fibroblast Growth Factor 14 (FGF14). Mice lacking FGF14 (Fgf14−/− mice) have impaired sensorimotor functions, ataxia and paroxysmal dyskinesia, a phenotype that led to the discovery of the human mutation. Here we extend the similarities between Fgf14−/− mice and FGF14(F145S) humans by showing that Fgf14−/− mice exhibit reliable acquisition (place learning) deficits in the Morris water maze. This cognitive deficit appears to be independent of sensorimotor disturbances and relatively selective since Fgf14−/− mice performed similarly to wild type littermates during cued water maze trials and on conditioned fear and passive avoidance tests. Impaired theta burst initiated long-term synaptic potentiation was also found in hippocampal slices from Fgf14−/− mice. These results suggest a role for FGF14 in certain spatial learning functions and synaptic plasticity.
Dysregulation of HMGIC in a uterine lipoleiomyoma with a complex rearrangement including chromosomes 7, 12, and 14.

Uterine lipoleiomyomas are extremely rare tumors consisting of a mixture of mature adipocytes and smooth muscle cells. Using G-banding and FISH, we characterized a complex rearrangement involving chromosomes 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14 in one of these tumors. The region 14q23-24 was inserted into the long arm of the derivative chromosome 12, between the 3' end of HMGIC and 7q21-22, another region often rearranged in uterine leiomyomas. Other portions of chromosomes 12 and 14 were involved in derivative chromosomes 7, 11, 12, and 14. A chromosome 8 was involved in a three-way rearrangement including the derivative 7, a ring chromosome 10, and a small derivative chromosome 8 bearing segments of chromosomes 10 and 11. No abnormality of chromosome 5 was detected, in contrast to two previously reported cytogenetic analyses of uterine lipoleiomyoma. The consistent finding of chromosomes 12 and 14 on different derivatives indicates that the t(12;14) was a primary event. In addition, immunohistochemical studies showed that HMGI-C was aberrantly expressed in this tumor. These observations suggest that uterine lipoleiomyomas have a pathogenetic origin similar to that of typical leiomyomas. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 27:209-215, 2000.
Cut Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network can get separated into multiple connected components due to the failure of some of its nodes, which is called a “cut.” In this paper, we consider the problem of detecting cuts by the remaining nodes of a wireless sensor network. We propose an algorithm that allows 1) every node to detect when the connectivity to a specially designated node has been lost, and 2) one or more nodes (that are connected to the special node after the cut) to detect the occurrence of the cut. The algorithm is distributed and asynchronous: every node needs to communicate with only those nodes that are within its communication range. The algorithm is based on the iterative computation of a fictitious “electrical potential” of the nodes. The convergence rate of the underlying iterative scheme is independent of the size and structure of the network. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm through simulations and a real hardware implementation.
On Representations of Graphs of Type A

We investigate the number of orbits in a variety Λ v associated to Dynkin graphs of type A n as defined by G. Lusztig. For n Λ v up to isomorphism. This implies that Λ v consists of finitely many orbits for any V . For each n > 4, we show that there exist V for which Λ v contains infinitely many orbits.
Carbarnates and Ureas with Potential Chemotherapeutic Properties

Three series of carbanilates and ureas were prepared and tested for their antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activities. Twelve compounds were prepared by the action of the appropriate isocyanate on N-p-chlorobenzyl-N-methylaminoethanol, N,N-dibenzylaminoethanol, and benzylphenylamine. The meta- and para-tolylcarbamates and the meta- and para-chlorophenylcarbamates of N-p-chlorobenzyl-N-methylaminoethanol were active as antibacterial and antifungal agents. No antiviral activity was seen. The corresponding carbamates of N,N-dibenzylaminoethanol and the corresponding ureas from benzylphenylamine were found to be inactive as antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral agents.
Consistent formulas for estimating the total lengths of trees

Reconstructing phylogenetic trees using the criterion of minimum evolution requires the use of a formula FT(d) that estimates the total length of a tree T given only the estimated distances d between the leaves of the tree. Let U(T) be the collection of linear formulas FT(d) that correctly estimate the total length of T whenever d is an additive distance function on T. The current paper characterizes a subset U+(W) of U(W) for each tree W such that whenever T is a completely resolved tree, FT is in U(T), FW is in U+(W), and d is positively additive on T, then FT(d) < FW(d). As a consequence, the use of minimum evolution is consistent provided that the length of each tree W is estimated using a member of U+(W). It is shown how to find many explicit members of U+(W) for each W. The ordinary least-squares expression for W is shown to be in U+(W).
Initial-boundary-value problems for discrete linear evolution equations

We present a transform method for solving initial-boundary-value problems (IBVPs) for linear semidiscrete (differential-difference) and fully discrete (difference-difference) evolution equations. The method is the discrete analogue of the one recently proposed by A. S. Fokas to solve IBVPs for evolution linear partial differential equations. We show that any discrete linear evolution equation can be written as the compatibility condition of a discrete Lax pair, namely, an overdetermined linear system of equations containing a spectral parameter. As in the continuum case, the method employs the simultaneous spectral analysis of both parts of the Lax pair, the symmetries of the evolution equation and a relation, called the global algebraic relation, that couples all known and unknown boundary values. The method applies for differential-difference equations in one lattice variable as well as for multi-dimensional and fully discrete evolution equations. We demonstrate the method by discussing explicitly several examples.
Electron microscopic localization of 5'-nucleotidase in the stratum intermedium and ameloblasts.

5′-nucleotidase was demonstrated at the fine structural level in the stratum intermedium and ameloblasts of the first mandibular molars of CD-1 mice. The enzyme was localized with the Wachstein & Meisel (1957) method along the plasma membranes of the cells of the stratum intermedium and ameloblasts. While 5′-nucleotidase was present throughout the stratum intermedium, only the proximal region of the plasma membranes of ameloblasts was demonstrably active for this enzyme. 5′-Nucleotidase has been implicated in transport of metabolites across cell membranes, and its localization in the present study supports this implication as well as the transport functions of the stratum intermedium and the stratum intermedium-ameloblastic interface.
Design‐Inspired Innovation by James Utterback, Bengt Arne Vedin, Eduardo Alvarez, Sten Ekman, Susan Walsh Sanderson, Bruce Tether, and Roberto Verganti

Books reviewed in this issue: ▪ Design-Inspired Innovation ▪ Designing Interactions ▪ The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation ▪ Rainbows & Ratholes: Best Practices for Managing Successful Projects
New Selectivity and Turnover in Peptide Hydrolysis by Metal Complexes. A Palladium(II) Aqua Complex Catalyzes Cleavage of Peptides Next to the Histidine Residue

This seems to be the first report that a transition-metal complex bonded to a histidine residue effects hydrolytic cleavage of a peptide next to this residue. Dipeptides AcHis-Aa in which the C-ter...
Evaluation of hemostatic activity of canine frozen plasma for transfusion by thromboelastography.

Background In humans, fresh frozen plasma (FFP) loses factor V and VIII activities after 1 year. It then becomes frozen plasma (FP), and theoretically is unsuitable for use in patients with coagulopathies. These findings have not been reported for dogs. Hypothesis Canine FP is hemostatically active after 5 years of storage. Animals Fresh plasma (Group FsP; n = 15) and 5-year-old FP (Group FzP; n = 10) from blood bank donors. Methods Group FsP and Group FzP samples were evaluated by thromboelastography (TEG), one-stage prothrombin time (OSPT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), fibrinogen, and antithrombin. Fresh plasma (n = 6) and a subset of Group FzP (n = 8) were evaluated for clotting factor activities (V, VIII, IX, X). A 2nd experiment using short-term storage of thawed FP under suboptimal conditions (refrigerated [4°C] or refrozen [−20°C]) by TEG was performed to simulate general practice storage capabilities. Results Group FzP had shorter reaction time (P = .0007) and larger angle (P = .0004) compared with Group FsP by TEG, suggesting hypercoaguability. Factor VIII and X activities were lower in Group FzP (P = .02 and .005, respectively). Fibrinogen, OSPT, and APTT were significantly lower or longer for Group FzP than Group FsP (P < .05), but most values remained within reference intervals for dogs. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Five-year-old canine FP stored at −30°C is hemostatically active and should be clinically evaluated in patients with coagulopathies. If active, the monetary savings of using older plasma will be substantial.
A Current Perspective of the Growing Emphasis on the Mature Market in the Healthcare Segment by Managed Service Companies

Abstract This paper examines the presence of hospitality managed service companies in the healthcare industry. The research specifically looks at the mature customer in hospitals, active-adult retirement communities, assisted living residences, and continuing care retirement communities. Information on the present contract status of several managed service companies in healthcare is provided. Strategic areas of services for the mature person are discussed. Innovations and creative programs marketed to the mature in healthcare are presented in the findings.
Risk communication in the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster.

The attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) was an unprecedented disaster that resulted in a tragic loss of human life and environmental exposures that were unlike any prior experience. At the outset, government agencies rushed to reassure the public with announcements of ‘‘safety’’ that were based on limited information. The experience of the public ran contrary to the government pronouncements; acrid smells, clouds of smoke and soot, and what has been termed the ‘‘World Trade Center Cough.’’ Public confidence declined in the government’s data and environmental assessments of safety. As a result of this, some environmental and health agency representatives seemed more reticent to speak at public meetings or to the press, thus compounding public fears and uncertainty. In the days and weeks that followed, the public turned more to alternative sources of information in order to evaluate the veracity of government statements. Physicians, occupational medicine specialists, academics, environmental consultants, and the residents living near the site were asked for their opinions. Differing assessments of shortand long-term dangers appeared in the media and caused further uncertainty and fear. In the absence of directly applicable environmental guidelines or limits for such disaster situations, some in the press inappropriately applied short-term exposure measurements to long-term standards for contaminants such as lead, dioxin, and asbestos, and thereby heightened public fears that still exist in Lower Manhattan.
Alternative oxidase present in procyclic Trypanosoma brucei may act to lower the mitochondrial production of superoxide

The mitochondrial electron transfer chain present in the procyclic form of the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei contains both cytochrome c oxidase and an alternative oxidase (TAO) as terminal oxidases that reduce oxygen to water. By contrast, the electron transfer chain of the primitive mitochondrion present in the bloodstream form of T. brucei contains only TAO as the terminal oxidase. TAO functions in the bloodstream forms to oxidize the ubiquinol produced by the glycerol-3-phosphate shuttle that results in the oxidation of the reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate produced by glycolysis. The function, however, of TAO in the procyclic forms is unknown. In this study, we found that inhibition of TAO by the specific inhibitor salicylhydroxamic acid stimulates the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in trypanosome mitochondria, resulting in mitochondrial alteration and increased oxidation of cellular proteins. Moreover, the activity and protein content of TAO in procyclic trypanosomes were increased when cells were incubated in the presence of hydrogen peroxide or antimycin A, the cytochrome bc1 complex inhibitor, which also results in increased ROS production. We suggest that one function of TAO in procyclic cells may be to prevent ROS production by removing excess reducing equivalents and transferring them to oxygen.
The Rise of the Nacirema and the Descent of European Man: A Response to Manuel A. Vásquez’s More than Belief

Abstract Manuel Vasquez’s Beyond Belief richly examines the prospects of rooting the study of religion more seriously within the imperatives of materialist theory. His study also prompts scholars to consider how attention to the body has been shaped by race and empire. In this essay, I reflect on how the linkage of religion, race, and empire has shaped the imperial history of imagining dark bodies and matter more broadly. I conclude that the ethnographic turn within studies of Western religious subjects signals an important, generative shift in scholarship, one that enables a more rigorous, materially-centered interpretation of Western religious subjectivity.
Living with artificial grass: a knowledge update. Part 1: Basic science.

Part I of this two part study reviews the development and characteristics of artificial grass, and the influence of this surface on the American football player.Artificial grass was initially developed to provide city children with increased play space and thus enable them to maintain a fitness level equal to their peers in more rural locales. Today, artificial grass fields allow for increased use when field availability is limited, or for a grass substitute where grass will not grow. However, epidemiologic studies suggest that there is an in creased risk of lower extremity injury to the football athlete playing on an artificial grass field. By reviewing available studies, a knowledge base can be formed that can serve to direct future investigations concerning the influence of artificial grass surfaces and injury and, ultimately, how that influence can be affected.
Buried in the unremissive ground: reading Richmond's subterranean signs

Like the forgotten memories of seminal events that purportedly lurk in the mind's subconscious, the buried substrata of a city can contain unresolved pasts, forgotten incidents that have shaped the present. And like memories, these buried artifacts can be painful once unearthed. Using Richmond, Virginia as a case, this article explores how the public reaction to a city's buried past serves as a map to the social worth of its citizens. Modern reactions to what is underground signal the relative status of modern groups; the treatment of the dead can be read as a code for modern race and class relations.
A Size Threshold Limits Prion Transmission and Establishes Phenotypic Diversity

According to the prion hypothesis, atypical phenotypes arise when a prion protein adopts an alternative conformation and persist when that form assembles into self-replicating aggregates. Amyloid formation in vitro provides a model for this protein-misfolding pathway, but the mechanism by which this process interacts with the cellular environment to produce transmissible phenotypes is poorly understood. Using the yeast prion Sup35/[PSI+], we found that protein conformation determined the size distribution of aggregates through its interactions with a molecular chaperone. Shifts in this range created variations in aggregate abundance among cells because of a size threshold for transmission, and this heterogeneity, along with aggregate growth and fragmentation, induced age-dependent fluctuations in phenotype. Thus, prion conformations may specify phenotypes as population averages in a dynamic system.
Functional characterization of a Na+-dependent dicarboxylate transporter from Vibrio cholerae

The SLC13 transporter family, whose members play key physiological roles in the regulation of fatty acid synthesis, adiposity, insulin resistance, and other processes, catalyzes the transport of Krebs cycle intermediates and sulfate across the plasma membrane of mammalian cells. SLC13 transporters are part of the divalent anion:Na+ symporter (DASS) family that includes several well-characterized bacterial members. Despite sharing significant sequence similarity, the functional characteristics of DASS family members differ with regard to their substrate and coupling ion dependence. The publication of a high resolution structure of dimer VcINDY, a bacterial DASS family member, provides crucial structural insight into this transporter family. However, marrying this structural insight to the current functional understanding of this family also demands a comprehensive analysis of the transporter’s functional properties. To this end, we purified VcINDY, reconstituted it into liposomes, and determined its basic functional characteristics. Our data demonstrate that VcINDY is a high affinity, Na+-dependent transporter with a preference for C4- and C5-dicarboxylates. Transport of the model substrate, succinate, is highly pH dependent, consistent with VcINDY strongly preferring the substrate’s dianionic form. VcINDY transport is electrogenic with succinate coupled to the transport of three or more Na+ ions. In contrast to succinate, citrate, bound in the VcINDY crystal structure (in an inward-facing conformation), seems to interact only weakly with the transporter in vitro. These transport properties together provide a functional framework for future experimental and computational examinations of the VcINDY transport mechanism.
Higher order structure of chromosomes.

Isolated Chinese hamster metaphase chromosomes were resuspended in 4 M ammonium acetate and spread on a surface of distilled water or 0.15 to 0.5 M ammonium acetate. The DNA was released in the form of a regular series of rosettes connected by interrossette DNA. The mean length of the rosette DNA was 14 μm, similar to the mean length of 10 μm for chromomere DNA of Drosophila polytene chromosomes. The mean interrosette DNA was 4.2 μm. SDS gel electrophoresis of the chromosomal nonhistone proteins showed them to be very similar to nuclear nonhistone proteins except for the presence of more actin and tubulin. Nuclear matrix proteins were present in the chromosomes and may play a role in forming the rosettes. Evidence that the rosette pattern is artifactual versus the possibility that it represents a real organizational substructure of the chromosomes is reviewed.
FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, by Christian Gourieroux and Joann Jasiak, Princeton University Press, 2001

Over the past decade financial econometrics has evolved from a small subfield of econometrics to a rapidly growing area of research that maintains its own journals and dominates the applied time series sessions in many major conferences. Financial econometrics is a conglomerate of statistical models and techniques to summarize regular features of financial data sets and to evaluate theoretical models and hypotheses that have been set forth by financial economists. Besides being a focal point of intellectual curiosity, financial econometrics also provides a rich tool kit that is used by practitioners around the world to forecast volatilities of asset return, optimize portfolio allocations, price derivatives, and manage market risk. Courses in financial econometrics are being offered at all major universities and business schools at the master's and doctoral levels. Given the importance and popularity of the field, it is not surprising that it has become the subject of textbooks and monographs, one of them being the new book Financial Econometrics by Christian Gourieroux and Joann Jasiak.This review has benefited from discussions with Frank Diebold and participants of the Penn Econometrics Lunch.
Application of the implicit particle filter to a model of nearshore circulation

The implicit particle filter is applied to a stochastically forced shallow water model of nearshore flow, and found to produce reliable state estimates with tens of particles. The state vector of this model consists of a height anomaly and two horizontal velocity components at each point on a 128 × 98 regular rectangular grid, making for a state dimension O(104). The particle filter was applied to the model with two parameter choices representing two distinct dynamical regimes, and performed well in both. Demands on computing resources were manageable. Simulations with as many as a hundred particles ran overnight on a modestly configured workstation. In this case of observations defined by a linear function of the state vector, taken every time step of the numerical model, the implicit particle filter is equivalent to the optimal importance filter, i.e., at each step any given particle is drawn from the density of the system conditioned jointly upon observations and the state of that particle at the previous time. Even in this ideal case, the sample occasionally collapses to a single particle, and resampling is necessary. In those cases, the sample rapidly reinflates, and the analysis never loses track. In both dynamical regimes, the ensembles of particles deviated significantly from normality.
The unfinished struggle : turning points in American labor, 1877-present

Chapter 1 The Great Uprising, 1877-1910 Chapter 2 Rise and Fall, 1910-1929 Chapter 3 Triumph and Containment, 1929-1941 Chapter 4 Growth and Accommodation, 1941-1965 Chapter 5 At the Crossroads