cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Insulin stimulated transport of 3-O- methyl glucose across the rat jejunum.

SummaryThe transport of 3-O-methyl-D-glucose was studied in 20-cm segments of upper jejunum removed with an intact circulation from the animal and perfused extracorporeally. Intestinal preparations from alloxanized animals had a significantly higher percentage minute absorption of the substrate. Insulin failed to modify the transport rate in both the control and the alloxantreated animals. However, insulin stimulation of transport was observed in experiments carried out in a group of rats where diabetes was induced by anti-insulin serum.
Treating Our “Situations” with Science, Not Shame

Rather than ignore the common thread among massacres perpetrated by people with symptoms of mental illness, in an attempt to avoid propagating the myth that all mentally ill people are dangerous, we can address the dreary outlook faced by those with mental illness.
Mapping of the Allosteric Site in Cholesterol Hydroxylase CYP46A1 for Efavirenz, a Drug That Stimulates Enzyme Activity

Cytochrome P450 46A1 (CYP46A1) is a microsomal enzyme and cholesterol 24-hydroxylase that controls cholesterol elimination from the brain. This P450 is also a potential target for Alzheimer disease because it can be activated pharmacologically by some marketed drugs, as exemplified by efavirenz, the anti-HIV medication. Previously, we suggested that pharmaceuticals activate CYP46A1 allosterically through binding to a site on the cytosolic protein surface, which is different from the enzyme active site facing the membrane. Here we identified this allosteric site for efavirenz on CYP46A1 by using a combination of hydrogen-deuterium exchange coupled to MS, computational modeling, site-directed mutagenesis, and analysis of the CYP46A1 crystal structure. We also mapped the binding region for the CYP46A1 redox partner oxidoreductase and found that the allosteric and redox partner binding sites share a common border. On the basis of the data obtained, we propose the mechanism of CYP46A1 allostery and the pathway for the signal transmission from the P450 allosteric site to the active site.
Middle School Pre-Service Teachers' Sense of Self-Efficacy in Relation to Authentic Learning Experiences.

The focus of this research was to test the impact of an authentic science experience on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy and their beliefs about their perceived outcomes with middle level students. Data show that there was a statistically significant decrease in the levels of self-efficacy towards teaching science and no significant change in their beliefs about having positive outcomes. Three institutions (a university, a local park district and a school district) formed a partnership with the mission of enhancing science learning for middle school students. The pre-service teachers examined artifacts discovered during an archeological dig of a chair factory and created inter-disciplinary units based on the artifacts during science methods courses. Pre-service teachers then taught these units to 4th graders, when they visited the park.
Expression of a mutant myosin light chain that cannot be phosphorylated increases paracellular permeability

A murine leukemia retroviral vector was engineered to contain the DNA encoding either the wild-type, rat aorta 20-kDa myosin light chain (MLC20) or a mutant form of MLC20 in which Thr18 and Ser19 were mutated into alanines. These mutations result in a MLC20 that cannot be phosphorylated by myosin light chain kinase. An 11-amino acid epitope from c-myc was added to both MLC20 sequences to facilitate identification of these proteins. Madin-Darby canine kidney cells were stably transduced, and MLC20 expression was demonstrated by Western blot analysis using a myc-specific antibody. MLC20 exchange was demonstrated by purifying myosin from the transduced cells and repeating the Western blot analysis. Actin-activated adenosinetriphosphatase assays on the purified myosins demonstrated approximately 50% decrease in the rate of ATP hydrolysis by the myosin containing the mutant MLC20. Transepithelial electrical resistance was decreased and mannitol flux was increased across monolayers of cells expressing mutant MLC20. These data demonstrate that MLC20 phosphorylation is involved in regulating paracellular permeability and epithelial barrier function.
Can Fracking Be Environmentally Acceptable

AbstractThe hydraulic fracturing or fracking and extraction of shale gas is vital to the continued success of the human race to provide a relatively clean energy source. However, there are several environmental issues that must be solved in order to make fracking environmentally acceptable. Once these issues are resolved, it could lead to a brighter future by allowing shale gas to act as a bridge to clean energy, while providing energy independence for the United States. To achieve these goals, there is a need to find suitable solutions to the following problems: methane gas leaks while fracking and during production, trigger of earthquakes due to fracking, and the disposal of the wastewater (largely comprised of fracking fluid) after the completion of fracking. To investigate the aforementioned environmental impacts, comprehensive research was performed using data for the Marcella formation. Although it is clear that additional research must be performed to fully deal with all the issues, the following s...
Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) can risk stratify patients in transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR).

Abstract Background Neutrophil-lymphocyte (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratios (PLR) mark systemic inflammation. Patients with high NLR and PLR have worse cardiovascular disease and outcomes. We assessed the role of these ratios in predicting outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods The association between NLR and PLR with baseline characteristics, 30-day outcomes, and 1-year readmission/survival was determined in patients that underwent TAVR between 2007 and 2014 and had baseline complete blood count with differential. A subgroup analysis determined the association between change in NLR and PLR (discharge-baseline) and 1-year outcomes. Results In 520 patients that underwent TAVR, a higher NLR (p=0.01) and PLR (p=0.02) were associated with a higher STS-PROM score, and with increased occurrence of the 30-day early-safety outcome (by VARC-2), even after adjusting for STS-PROM score, valve generation (Sapien vs. Sapien XT), and access (transfemoral vs. non-transfemoral) (NLR: OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.04–1.61; PLR: OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.01–1.60) but not with 1-year readmission or survival. In our subgroup analysis (N=294), change in PLR was not associated with the 1-year outcomes but a high change in NLR was associated with worse 1-year survival/readmission and 1-year survival, even after adjusting for STS-PROM score, valve generation and access (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.04–1.44 and HR 1.26, 95% CI 0.99–1.6, respectively). Conclusions NLR and PLR correlate with surgical risk. An elevated NLR and PLR were associated with the occurrence of 30-day adverse outcomes, similar to the STS-PROM score. A high variation of NLR from baseline to discharge may help stratify patients that underwent TAVR in addition to traditional risk factors.
Is CD30 a predictive biomarker for brentuximab vedotin

Brentuximab vedotin (BV), an antibody–drug conjugate that selectively delivers MMAE into CD30-expressing cells, has shown high response rates in both relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and a...
Everything Radiates: Does the Fourth Amendment Regulate Side-Channel Cryptanalysis

Encryption shields private information from malicious eavesdroppers. After years of slow adoption, encryption is finally becoming widespread in consumer-oriented electronic devices and communications services. Consumer-oriented encryption software is now more user-friendly, and much of it turns on encryption by default. These advances enhance privacy and security for millions of people. However, encryption also poses an impediment to law enforcement’s ability to gather electronic evidence. Law enforcement calls this the “going dark” problem. U.S. law enforcement agencies have responded through both legal and technological means to encryption’s perceived threat to their capabilities. The scope of encryption’s impact on those capabilities is not yet clear, and police still have a wealth of data and technical tools at their disposal. Nevertheless, sophisticated criminals can use encryption to stymie investigators, forcing them to resort to resource-intensive, tailored measures to investigate those individuals. One means of doing so is through a “side-channel attack.” Our electronic devices are always radiating something—electromagnetic emissions, heat, and so forth. Those emissions reveal information, called “side channel information,” about the device. The physical implementation of a cryptosystem leaks electromagnetic emissions from which academic researchers have shown it is possible to extract the system’s secret encryption keys. Side-channel cryptanalysis is not a known law enforcement tactic at present, but that may change in time. Law enforcement use of side-channel attacks will raise Fourth Amendment issues that will require a fact-intensive analysis to resolve. In determining what legal process (if any) will authorize a side-channel attack, a court will have to carefully examine what information will be acquired, from where, and how. The Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence does not provide clear, predictable guidance for those inquiries. Its decision in Kyllo v. United States supplies the touchstone for the legal analysis of side-channel attacks. However, the Court’s current framework for electronic surveillance cannot adequately safeguard Americans’ privacy interests from erosion by technological advances.
Dusp6 attenuates Ras/MAPK signaling to limit zebrafish heart regeneration

Zebrafish regenerate cardiac tissue through proliferation of pre-existing cardiomyocytes and neovascularization. Secreted growth factors such as FGFs, IGF, PDGFs and Neuregulin play essential roles in stimulating cardiomyocyte proliferation. These factors activate the Ras/MAPK pathway, which is tightly controlled by the feedback attenuator Dual specificity phosphatase 6 (Dusp6), an ERK phosphatase. Here, we show that suppressing Dusp6 function enhances cardiac regeneration. Inactivation of Dusp6 by small molecules or by gene inactivation increased cardiomyocyte proliferation, coronary angiogenesis, and reduced fibrosis after ventricular resection. Inhibition of Erbb or PDGF receptor signaling suppressed cardiac regeneration in wild-type zebrafish, but had a milder effect on regeneration in dusp6 mutants. Moreover, in rat primary cardiomyocytes, NRG1-stimulated proliferation can be enhanced upon chemical inhibition of Dusp6 with BCI. Our results suggest that Dusp6 attenuates Ras/MAPK signaling during regeneration and that suppressing Dusp6 can enhance cardiac repair.
Children’s Coping with Chronic Illness

This chapter considers the impacts of chronic physical illness on children and adolescents. As with many of the stressors discussed in this volume, chronic illness is heterogeneous in nature. Chronic illnesses vary in their age of onset, age at diagnosis, the functional impairment involved, prognosis of the disease, treatment demands and regimen, visibility, amount of pain involved, cyclic or constant nature of the symptoms, and predictability and pain of symptoms. This chapter focuses on the most prevalent chronic diseases experienced by children and adolescents, as well as diseases that are less common but present significant coping challenges. Physical disabilities are excluded.
Pathogenesis of amebic disease.

Entamoeba histolytica occurs as an endemic infection of man in most regions of the world. It has the ability to invade tissue and cause serious disease, but the vast majority of infected individuals are asymptomatic. In many population groups, including some with high infection rates, amebic disease is rare or absent. In others disease occurs sporadically and in still others it is an important cause of morbidity and death. Various theories have been advanced to explain these differing host-parasite relationships, but to date none has been entirely adequate. In this report we will review briefly current knowledge and theory and advance an explanation for the pathogenesis of disease caused by E. histolytica.
Course-Adaptive Content Recommender for Course Authoring

Developing online courses is a complex and time-consuming process that involves organizing a course into a sequence of topics and allocating the appropriate learning content within each topic. This task is especially difficult in complex domains like programming, due to the incremental nature of programming knowledge, where new topics extensively build upon domain concepts that were introduced in earlier lessons. In this paper, we propose a course-adaptive content-based recommender system that assists course authors and instructors in selecting the most relevant learning material for each course topic. The recommender system adapts to the deep prerequisite structure of the course as envisioned by a specific instructor, while unobtrusively deducing that structure from problem-solving examples that the instructor uses to present course concepts. We assessed the quality of recommendations and examined several aspects of the recommendation process by using three datasets collected from two different courses. While the presented recommender system was built for the domain of introductory programming, our course-adaptive recommendation approach could be used in a variety of other domains.
Syndemic Factors and Resiliency Among Latina Immigrant Indirect Sex Workers in an Emergent Immigrant City.

Female sex workers (FSW) constitute a highly vulnerable population challenged by numerous co-existing, or syndemic, risk factors. FSW also display resilience to these, and some evidence suggests that resilience may be associated with protective factors that improve health outcomes. We conducted in-depth interviews with indirect sex workers (n = 11) and their clients (n = 18). Interviews were coded utilizing an iterative, modified constant comparison method to identify emergent themes. We identified five syndemic risk factors (difficulty finding work due to undocumented status, shame and mental health hardship, lack of social support, alcohol use, and violence) and five resilient factors (rationalizing sex work, identifying as a “decent” woman, fulfilling immigrant goals, reducing alcohol consumption, and creating rules to reduce risk of violence and HIV/STIs). Understanding the syndemic risk factors and resiliency developed by FSW is important to develop tailored, strength-based interventions for HIV/STIs and other risks.
Proximal anterolateral portals in elbow arthroscopy are safer for use relative to the radial nerve: a systematic review

Importance Proper portal placement is imperative for a successful outcome in elbow arthroscopy. Discrepancies in the location of the placement of the anterolateral portal, with variable safety margins in regard to the radial nerve, exist in the current cadaveric literature. Objective To systematically review and compare the placement of the anterolateral portal in elbow arthroscopy with regard to the radial nerve. Evidence review A systematic review was performed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines utilising the PubMed, Embase, Medline and Cochrane databases. Criteria included any original cadaveric study discussing the placement of the anterolateral portal in relation to the radial nerve. No restrictions were placed on publication date or language. Findings Thirteen studies met final inclusion criteria as an original cadaveric work with regard to the location of the anterolateral portal and its relation to the radial nerve. Overall, nine distinct definitions of the anterolateral portal were identified in the literature, each with variable safety margins. Conclusions and relevance There is really no consistency in the literature describing the locations of the lateral portals of the elbow. We have grouped those definitions into three categories: the distal, the direct and the proximal portals based on the location relative to the lateral epicondyle. Portal locations in the direct and proximal categories were consistently found to have an increased safety margin in reference to the radial nerve when compared with those of the distal anterolateral portal. Joint distention and positioning of the elbow in 90° of flexion provides an increase in safety margin. The effects of these techniques are additive. Level of evidence Level IV—Systematic Review of Cadaver studies
Broadening the Supplier Base

Some developments created tension in the collaboration between AO surgeons and Mathys. Quality issues arose as Mathys ramped up production to move from prototyping to mass production. Implant failures occurred and began increasing. What worried the AO surgeons even more was the appearance of signs of corrosion, which caused local inflammations in patients and were difficult to distinguish from more serious and acute infections. Mathys himself became aware of this and on his own contacted a local physicist but was unable to find the underlying cause of the problems.
Population Composition by Race and Ethnicity: North America

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by A. Morning, volume 17, pp. 11744–11749, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.
Endowed by Their Creator: Digital Games, Avatar Creation, and Fat Bodies

This research explores the relationship between character creation systems in digital games and the potential for players to create and embody fat characters via those systems. The character creati...
Segmentation Certainty Through Uncertainty: Uncertainty-Refined Binary Volumetric Segmentation Under Multifactor Domain Shift

Deep learning segmentation models are known to be sensitive to the scale, contrast, and distribution of pixel values when applied to Computed Tomography (CT) images. For material samples, scans are often obtained from a variety of scanning equipment and resolutions resulting in domain shift. The ability of segmentation models to generalize to examples from these shifted domains relies on how well the distribution of the training data represents the overall distribution of the target data. We present a method to overcome the challenges presented by domain shifts. Our results indicate that we can leverage a deep learning model trained on one domain to accurately segment similar materials at different resolutions by refining binary predictions using uncertainty quantification (UQ). We apply this technique to a set of unlabeled CT scans of woven composite materials with clear qualitative improvement of binary segmentations over the original deep learning predictions. In contrast to prior work, our technique enables refined segmentations without the expense of the additional training time and parameters associated with deep learning models used to address domain shift.
Exploring the relationship between ride-sourcing services and vehicle ownership, using both inferential and machine learning approaches

Abstract Ride-sourcing services are getting more popular each year, and their markets are growing. Much has been speculated, but not much has been tested regarding the impacts of ride-sourcing services on the transportation system. In this study, we examine the relationship between ride-sourcing services and vehicle ownership of households, by using the most up-to-date (2017) national household travel survey data. To better capture the effect of ride-sourcing services on vehicle ownership, we controlled for the effect of socioeconomic characteristics of households and built environment variables, i.e., density, diversity, design, and distance to transit. Two approaches were used to model vehicle ownership: a probabilistic or inferential model (i.e., multilevel Poisson), and a machine learning method (i.e., random forest). This is the first study to utilize such advanced methods to model vehicle ownership and capture non-linear relationships, using the largest sample of household travel records ever assembled for such a study. The results suggest that there is a negative correlation between using ride-sourcing services and vehicle ownership. Vehicle ownership is also negatively associated with the number of years Uber, as the biggest ride-sourcing service, has operated in a county. The relative contributions of ride-sourcing variables, however, are very limited compared to other variables controlled in this study which makes intuitive sense. For urban planning and design practices, this study suggests that the probability of car shedding will increase if the usage of ride-sourcing services becomes a habit, these services become more available, and built environments become more dense, connected, and transit-served.
Study effects of particle size in metal nanoink for electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing through analysis of droplet impact behaviors

Abstract Ink properties play a critical role in different printing techniques. However, it is not straightforward to correlate ink properties to the printing results. In this study, several parameters were identified and analyzed to evaluate the droplet behavior in electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing. More specifically, the effects of metallic nanoparticle sizes in the ink formulation were explored through the analysis of droplet impact behaviors. These parameters include droplet wetting diameter, height, initial impact velocity, and contact angle. With the assistance of machine vision, a high-speed camera captured a sequence of images, which were analyzed to extract the aforementioned parameters. Under fields of gravitational force with/without electric force, four phases of ink droplet behaviors were identified. Our data suggest that with an electric force field, particle size dominates the droplet behavior in respect to contact angle and wetting diameter. The increase of particle size decreased the droplet wetting diameter with an electric field, while increased the droplet wetting diameter without the electric field applied. Larger droplet size resulted in higher bouncing frequency and lower droplet height. Furthermore, under both gravitational and electrical fields, the droplet with medium particle size (average diameter of 276 nm) had a higher impact velocity than that with small (average diameter of 140 nm) and big (average diameter of 1517 nm) particle sizes. This study contributes to fundamental understanding of particle size effects. The results will help optimize ink formulations when designing new ink materials for electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing.
Is Chief Resident Autonomy Safe for Patients? An Analysis of Quality in Training Initiative (QITI) Data to Assess Chief Resident Performance.

OBJECTIVE A chief resident service (CRS) provides a unique environment to assess competence throughout all aspects of patient care. The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program and Quality in Training Initiative databases are utilized to assess patient outcomes by individual residents with institutional and national comparisons. We hypothesized that residents on the CRS would have equivalent patient care outcomes to peers not on CRS and to chief residents nationally. DESIGN An institutional National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was queried from 2014 to 2019 for operations performed on the CRS. Thirty-day complications were compared between CRS and non-CRS postgraduate year (PGY)-5 residents. Quality in Training Initiative reports were used to compare residents on CRS to national PGY-5 residents. Statistical analysis included chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regression. SETTING Independent academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS Chief general surgery residents. RESULTS A total of 1031 cases were included in the analysis; 562 while off CRS and 469 while on CRS. Thirty-day outcomes were similar for CRS vs non-CRS cases for any complication (8% vs 12%, p = 0.05), unplanned readmissions (6% vs 5%, p = 0.58), and mortality (2% vs 2%, p = 0.99). Adjusting for patient and operative risk factors and procedure type, the rate of any complication after an operation on CRS vs off CRS was similar (odds ratio = 1.46, 95%confidence interval 0.82-2.60; p = 0.20). CRS residents had higher rates of postoperative renal failure (1.3% vs 0.5%, p = 0.008), but lower rates of organ space surgical site infection (0.6% vs 2.9%, p CONCLUSIONS Patient care outcomes provided by PGY-5 residents on a CRS are comparable to those on non-CRS rotations and to PGY-5 residents nationally.
The role of age in treatment decisions for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma: Analysis of the National Cancer Database.

Abstract Background The number of elderly patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) is increasing as the elderly population increases. Unfortunately, evidence to guide the management of these patients is lacking. Methods Patients with OCSCC identified from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) were stratified into age-based cohorts. Demographics, comorbidities, and treatment patterns were analyzed. Patients were stratified into early stage (Stage I/II) and advanced stage (Stage III/IV) disease. The likelihood of receiving multimodality therapy by age was calculated using multinomial logistic regression for each stratum while controlling for potential confounders. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to calculate 5-year mortality risk while controlling for potential confounders. Results Surgery alone or palliative options were offered to older patients more frequently. After controlling for confounders, older patients were less likely to receive multimodality therapy for both early stage and advanced stage disease. Patients with advanced disease across all age cohorts had improved 5-year survival with surgery and adjuvant therapy. Conclusion Our analyses suggest that elderly patients have unique demographic and pathologic features. They frequently receive less treatment than similarly staged younger patients, yet they benefit from multimodality therapy when feasible. These data suggest an urgent need to critically appraise the care of elderly OCSCC patients within the broader context of their individual comorbidity burden, functional status, and treatment goals.
X-Ray Based Automatic Detection Of Brain Coil Compaction Using Unsupervised Learning

Endovascular coiling (EC) is a vital procedure that treats intracranial aneurysms (IA) but a common complication is aneurysm recurrence as a result of coil compaction, when the implanted coil fails to isolate IA from cerebrovascular circulation. Such an event may lead to devastating hemorrhages. Hence, frequent follow-up imaging sessions using Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) are critical. However, DSA is invasive, expensive and not widely available. Recently, it has been shown that skull X-rays could be used as a proxy. In this work, we present a new pipeline that enables the semi-automatic evaluation of coil compaction based on X-ray images. Our pipeline involves coil segmentation with GrabCut and an autoencoder that learns image embeddings with a location-sensitive loss function. This approach generates efficient representations without training on image labels. We show that the image embeddings capture information relevant to coil compaction and that a simple distance measure between embeddings outperforms other baseline methods including a Siamese network.
Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy in the Management of Sports Medicine Injuries.

ABSTRACT Treatment of musculoskeletal conditions in athletes with extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is gaining popularity as greater evidence supports its use. ESWT protocols (describing energy flux density, number of impulses, type of shockwave (focused or radial), number/frequency/duration of treatment session, area of application, and postprocedural therapy protocols) can be adjusted in the clinical setting. Protocols vary across studies, and optimal protocols for most indications are yet to be determined. ESWT can safely be used to treat various musculoskeletal conditions in athletes, including rotator cuff tendinopathy, lateral elbow epicondlyopathy, greater trochanteric pain syndrome, hamstring tendinopathy, patellar tendinopathy, Achilles tendinopathy, other tendinopathies, plantar fasciopathy, bone stress injuries, and medial tibial stress syndrome. ESWT can be used to treat in-season athletes, as it often requires no/minimal time away from sport and may result in rapid benefits. ESWT should be used in conjunction with physical therapy to facilitate longer-term gains in function and to optimize healing.
Collaborative Syllabus Building: The “Buffet-Style” Career Preparation Course for Dance Majors

This article follows my experience building a syllabus collaboratively with students. When assigned to teach an existing career-preparation course for senior dance majors in a BFA program, I noted ...
c-lineability: A general method and its application to Darboux-like maps

Abstract We describe a simple class of c -dimensional linear subspaces of R R and show that many natural classes of real functions contain subspaces of this form, proving their c -lineability. The examples include all non-empty classes in the algebra of all Darboux-like functions and of their restrictions to the Baire class 2 maps.
Cryoballoon Versus High-Power, Short-Duration Radiofrequency Ablation for Pulmonary Vein Isolation in Patients With Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation: A Single-Center, Prospective, Randomized Study.

Background The efficacy of cryoballoon pulmonary vein isolation (Cryo-PVI) is equivalent to that of radiofrequency pulmonary vein isolation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety profile of Cryo-PVI and high-power, short-duration (HPSD) radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) in patients with AF. Methods We prospectively randomized 314 patients with paroxysmal AF (men, 71.3%; 59.9±10.9 years old) to either the Cryo-PVI group (n=156) or HPSD-RFCA group (n=158). Cavotricuspid isthmus ablation and linear ablation from the superior vena cava to the right atrial septum in addition to pulmonary vein isolation were carried out in the majority of patients in the HPSD-RFCA group. The primary end point was AF recurrence after a single procedure; secondary end points were the recurrence pattern, cardioversion rate, follow-up heart rate variability, and response to antiarrhythmic drugs. Results After a mean follow-up of 9.8±5.1 months, the clinical recurrence rate did not significantly differ between the two groups (log-rank P=0.840). The rate of recurrence as atrial tachycardia (P>0.999), cardioversion (P=0.999), and 3-month heart rate variability (high frequency; P=0.506) did not significantly differ. During the final follow-up, sinus rhythm was maintained without antiarrhythmic drugs in 70.5% of the Cryo-PVI group and 73.4% of the HPSD-RFCA group (P=0.567). No significant difference was found in the major complication rate between the two groups (3.8% versus 0.6%; P=0.066), but total procedure time was significantly shorter in the Cryo-PVI group (78.5±20.2 versus 124.5±37.1 minutes; P Conclusions In patients with paroxysmal AF, the Cryo-PVI is an effective rhythm-control strategy with a shorter procedure time compared with the HPSD-RFCA. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03920917.
Elliott Site (14GE303): a Preliminary Report

Initial work at the Elliott site, Geary County, Kansas, reveals three cultural components: Archaic (Munkers Creek?), Woodland, and Smoky Hill, spatially distributed over the site in five clusters. ...
Computational Atlases of Severity of White Matter Lesions in Elderly Subjects with MRI

MRI of cerebral white matter may show regions of signal abnormalities. These changes may be associated with hypertension, inflammation, or ischemia, as well as altered brain function. The goal of this work has been to construct computational atlases of white matter lesions that represent both their severity as well as the frequency of their occurrence in a population to achieve a better classification of white matter disease. An atlas is computed with a pipeline that uses 4T FLAIR and 4T T1-weighted (T1w) brain images of a group of subjects. The processing steps include intensity correction, lesion extraction, intra-subject FLAIR to T1w rigid registration, and seamless replacement of lesions in T1w images with synthetic white matter texture. Subsequently, the T1w images and lesion images of different subjects are registered non-rigidly to the same space. The decrease in T1w intensities is used to obtain severity information. Atlases were constructed for two groups of subjects, elderly normal controls or with mild cognitive impairment, and subjects with cerebrovascular disease. The lesion severities of the two groups have a significant statistical difference with the severity in the atlas of cerebrovascular disease being higher.
The vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP): VI. The 17-norleucine analog of the sequence 14–28☆

Abstract A pentadecapeptide amide with the C-terminal sequence (14–28) of the vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), but with the methionine residue in position 17 replaced by l -norleucine, was synthesized. The synthesis was carried out through stepwise chain lengthening, by the in situ technique. The norleucine-containing pentadecapeptide, l -arginyl- l -lysyl- l -glutaminyl- l -norleucyl- l -alanyl- l -valyl- l -lysyl- l -lysyl- l -tyrosyl- l -leucyl- l -asparaginyl- l -seryl- l -isoleucyl- l -leucyl- l -asparaginamide, was as active in relaxing different smooth-muscle preparations as the methionine-containing parent sequence.
On biaccessible points of the Mandelbrot set

This paper provides a description for the quadratic polynomials on the boundary of the Mandelbrot set M which are typical in the sense of harmonic measure. In particular, it is shown that a typical point on the boundary of M has a unique parameter ray landing on it. Applications of this result in the study of embedded arcs in M and the lamination associated with M are given.
Giant enhancement of light emission from nanoscale Bi2Se3

Bi2Se3 is a well-known room temperature topological insulator with a gapless surface state and ∼300 meV bulk band-gap, and as such has never been proposed to possess light-emitting properties. Here, we report prominent light emission in the visible region via photoluminescence (PL) measurements of chemical vapor deposition grown Bi2Se3 nanoplates with an average thickness and effective diameter of tens of nanometers. When excited using 488 nm (2.54 eV) laser light, these nanoscale Bi2Se3 platelets show a strong photoluminescence response in the Eph ∼ 2.1–2.3 eV region, with significant enhancement of light emission compared to bulk level emission. After annealing samples at 200 °C for 4 h, PL intensity increased by a factor of 2.4 to 3 for nanoscale Bi2Se3.
Multistep Pumping Schemes for Short-Wave Lasers

The development of sources that can generate coherent radiation at wavelengths much shorter than conventional lasers is an important goal of current research in many institutions. At Los Alamos, studies of the feasibility of gamma-ray lasers have been under way for several, years, and a new approach to making an X-ray laser has been recently conceived. We are seeking ways to reduce the pumping power requirements.
Femtosecond Heterodyne Transient-Grating Studies of Nonradiative Decay of the S2 (11Bu +) State of β-Carotene: Contributions from Dark Intermediates and Double-Quantum Coherences

Femtosecond transient-grating spectroscopy with heterodyne detection was employed to characterize the nonradiative decay pathway in β-carotene from the S2 (1(1)Bu(+)) state to the S1 (2(1)Ag(-)) state in benzonitrile solution. The results indicate definitively that the S2 state populates an intermediate state, Sx, on an ultrafast time scale prior to nonradiative decay to the S1 state. Numerical simulations using the response function formalism and the multimode Brownian oscillator model were used to fit the absorption and dispersion components of the transient-grating signal with a common set of parameters for all of the relevant Feynman pathways, including double-quantum coherences. The requirement for inclusion of the Sx state in the nonradiative decay pathway is the observed fast rise time of the dispersion component, which is predominantly controlled by the decay of the stimulated emission signal from the optically prepared S2 state. The finding that the excited-state absorption spectrum from the Sx state is significantly red-shifted from that of S2 and S1 leads to a new assignment for the spectroscopic origin of the Sx state. Rather than assigning Sx to a discrete electronic state, such as the (1)Bu(-) state suggested in previous work, it is proposed that the Sx state corresponds to a transition-state-like structure on the S2 potential surface. In this hypothesis, the 12 fs time constant for the decay of the S2 state corresponds to a vibrational displacement of the C-C and C═C bond-length alternation coordinates of the conjugated polyene backbone from the optically prepared Franck-Condon structure to a potential energy barrier on the S2 surface that divides planar and torsionally displaced structures. The lifetime of the Sx state would be associated with a subsequent relaxation along torsional coordinates over a steep potential energy gradient toward a conical intersection with the S1 state. This hypothesis leads to the idea that twisted structures with intramolecular charge-transfer character along the S2 torsional gradient are active in excitation energy-transfer mechanisms to (bacterio)chlorophyll acceptors.
A selective review of glutamate pharmacological therapy in obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.

Glutamate, an excitatory central nervous system neurotransmitter, is emerging as a potential alternative pharmacological treatment when compared to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-, dopamine-, and serotonin-modulating treatments for neuropsychiatric conditions. The pathophysiology, animal models, and clinical trials of glutamate modulation are explored in disorders with underlying inhibitory deficits (cognitive, motor, behavioral) including obsessive–compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania, excoriation disorder, and nail biting. Obsessive–compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and grooming disorders (trichotillomania and excoriation disorder) have emerging positive data, although only scarce controlled trials are available. The evidence is less supportive for the use of glutamate modulators in Tourette syndrome. Glutamate-modulating agents show promise in the treatment of disorders of inhibition.
Doubling Ty1 element copy number in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Host genome stability and phenotypic effects

Haploid yeast strains bearing approximately double the normal number of Ty1 elements have been constructed using marked GAL/Ty1 fusion plasmids. The strains maintain their high transposon copy number and overall genome structure in the absence of selection. The strains bearing extra Ty1 copies are surprisingly similar phenotypically to the parental strain. The results suggest that the limit to transposon copy number, if any, has not been reached. When these strains are crossed by wild-type strains (i.e., bearing the normal complement of Ty1 elements) or by strains of opposite mating type also bearing excess Ty1 elements, normal to very slightly reduced spore viability is observed, indicating that increasing the extent of transposon homology scattered around the genome does not result in significant increases in frequency of ectopic reciprocal recombination. The results suggest that yeast cells have evolved mechanisms for coping with excess transposon copies in the genome.
An advertising-inclusive production lot size model under continuous discount pricing

Abstract This article deals with the interaction of a deterministic production lot size inventory model with uniform replenishment rate and differential pricing conditions. We present a method for arriving at a production lot size formula, which takes into account the effect of varying marketing conditions on demand and the possibility of defective items in the production process. Additionally, based upon the previous studies, different model formulations are introduced to deal with the issue of defective items. The profile maximization problem for this model is derived for two quantity discount cases: hyperbolic-decreasing and linear-decreasing. A numerical example along with sensitivity analysis is provided to illustrate the results derived. Furthermore, an easy-to-use computer algorithm is developed to determine the optimal values of production lot-size and profit.
Dual-bridge DC/DC converter with wide-range ZVS and zero circulating current

This paper presents a new DC/DC converter topology, which consists of two bridge inverters, a full-wave rectification circuit and a current-doubler output filter. Each inverter operates at 50% duty cycle and generates a symmetrical and isolated square output voltage. Phase-shift control is employed to control phase offset between the two bridge inverters. By shifting one bridge inverter's phase, the converter changes the two inverter output voltages' overlapping areas applying to the output filter to regulate its output voltage. One typical circuit configuration discussed in this paper is a dual half-bridge DC/DC converter. Each half-bridge inverter, like an open-loop Bus Converter, always operates at 50% duty cycle to achieve wide-range Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) and maximum efficiency, while the converter itself operates in a phase-shifted ZVS full-bridge mode with zero circulating current. For low output voltage regulation and converter startup, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control is used. The topology can also optimally utilize magnetic components and reduces semiconductor stress. A 1KW 385V/48V dual half-bridge DC/DC converter was designed to validate the concept of this new topology. Test results show the topology can achieve 96+% efficiency and maintain soft switching over a wide load range.
The transient response of insulated-gate field-effect transistors☆

Abstract The equations describing the current flow and charge distribution in insulated-gate field-effect transistors are developed. These include Ohm's law, the continuity equation and the trapping equation when it is assumed that only one trapping level is dominant. The boundary conditions at the source, at the drain and at the gate insulator-semiconductor surface are also included. The result is a set of non-linear partial differential equations, whose solution is obtained by numerical methods. The important physical properties of the gate insulator-semiconductor surface are: the initial lifetime of free carriers, the lifetime of a carrier in a trap, the density of trap sites, the initial ratio of trapped carriers to trap sites and the carrier mobility. The important geometrical properties of the device are the gate insulator thickness and the channel length. Solutions for various values of these parameters are given.
The Effect of Contaminated Sediments on Fecundity of the Brown Bullhead in Three Lake Erie Tributaries

Abstract Female brown bullhead ( Ameiurus nebulosus ) were collected from three Lake Erie tributaries (Ohio) from 8 to 25 May 1989, to determine the effects of contaminated sediments on reproductive potentials. Fish obtained from the Black and Cuyahoga rivers, which contain sediments with elevated concentrations of metals, PCBs, and PAHs, were compared with fish collected in Mud Brook, a tributary of the Huron River, which was selected as our reference site. Fecundity, egg diameter, fish length and weight, and the presence of external abnormalities were recorded for each fish. Brown bullhead from the contaminated sites were larger then those from the reference site and fecundity was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) different in all three river systems. Those from the most polluted river (Cuyahoga River) had the greatest number of eggs per individual female. The high frequency of external abnormalities observed on brown bullhead from the contaminated sites did not appear to have a detrimental influence on fecundity. These results suggest that fecundity of the brown bullhead was not adversely affected in ecosystems altered by the presence of contaminated sediments. Increased fecundity of the brown bullhead from impacted rivers may be the result of reduced competition for an abundant invertebrate food source and limited predation by other fish species whose numbers are largely depleted in these degraded systems.
Henry George and British Labor Politics

. Henry George, the American social reformer and Single Taxadvocate, made six visits to Britain in the last quarter of the 19th century, a period crucial in British labor politics. George became locked in contest for the minds and hearts of British working men and women, as well as all classes, with the advocates of Christian and moderate socialism and with Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the chief advocates of State socialism through political revolution. Though it was Marx's adopted country, George won out for a time, and it was his program for competitive capitalism, with socialization limited to industries unsuited for market discipline, which influenced development of a mixed economy. New research complementing E. P. Lawrence's traces George's decisive impact on the founders of the British labor parties, some leaders of which almost achieved George's fiscal program. But it was the Liberals who later fought for his full program.
30. Follow-up of Patients with Single Pulmonary Nodules and Negative 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Scans

Purpose: Positron Emission Tomography with 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG-PET) is becoming the noninvasive test of choice to evaluate patients with single pulmonary nodules (SPN). While positive scans yield a high sensitivity for malignancy, the significance of negative scans remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of negative 18FDG-PET in patients with SPN.Methods: From January 1998 to January 2000, 59 patients with non-calcified parenchymal SPN underwent 18FDG-PET evaluations. From a total of 14 pathologically proven tumors 12 patients had positive 18FDG-PET scans (sensitivity 86%, PPV 100%) with a mean SUV of 5.6. A total of 24 patients (41%) with negative 18FDG-PET scans were followed up with serial chest x-ray (CXR) and/or Computed tomography (CT) for a period of 6 to 24 months (mean 10.4 months). Histology specimens were available in 5 patients. Two patients had a second PET scan.Results: Nineteen of the 24 negative 18FDG-PET patients (79.2%) had no evidence of intrathoracic neoplasia at subsequent follow up by CT and/or CXR, for an overall NPV of 86.3%. Two patients (8.3%) had transthoracic needle biopsies that were positive for malignancy after the PET scan. The remaining 3 patients developed intrathoracic malignancies during the follow up period (6, 6, and 9 months respectively) by CT and/or CXR. Repeat 18FDG-PET scans were positive in 2 patients.Conclusion: 18FDG-PET appears to effectively characterize patients at low risk for malignant transformation of SPN discovered by CT. Blinded, randomized controlled trials are needed for further evaluation.