cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Aprotinin restores the adhesive capacity of dysfunctional platelets

The post-operative coagulopathy associated with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is known to be predominantly related to platelet dysfunction. The use of the serine protease inhibitor aprotinin dramatically reduces CPB associated hemorrhage and is thought to act primarily through the inhibition of plasmin without directly influencing platelets. Our data indicate that there is a direct effect of aprotinin on platelet adhesion, which has not been previously reported. We found that when aprotinin was added to blood samples with poorly adhesive platelets, platelet adhesion significantly increased as measured by the percent coverage of denuded arterial segments in the Baumgartner perfusion chamber. In preliminary experiments using expired platelet concentrates or fresh whole blood, the addition of aprotinin induced a positive increase of 22+/-7.5 and 14+/-6.2 percentage point in platelet adhesion, respectively. A simulated CPB model that recirculated a unit of anticoagulated whole blood for 2 h was used (n=14) to induce a platelet adhesion defect similar to that seen in clinical CPB. At initiation of recirculation, platelet adhesion was 55+/-9.5% but dropped to 13+6.5% coverage after 2 h simulated CPB. The addition of aprotinin to the post-recirculation samples induced a significant restoration of platelet adhesion back to 38+/-11% coverage. When epsilon amino-caproic acid with soybean trypsin inhibitor was added to post recirculation samples, there was no similar effect on adhesion scores. To compare these findings with surgical CPB, we collected one blood sample at the beginning and two at the end of CPB from each of seven open-heart patients. Aprotinin was added to one of each of the post-CPB samples. Platelet adhesion at the onset of surgical CPB was only 39+/-11% in this patient group but dropped to 7+/-7% by the end. Similar to the model, the addition of aprotinin post-CPB restored adhesion to 29+/-11%. These results suggest some action of aprotinin other than its antiplasmin effect, and that platelet adhesion in general can be promoted by aprotinin.
Selective growth of nanodiamond films in microwave plasma

A patterned nanodiamond film is grown using microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A selective growth method compatible with traditional silicon processing is described. A diamond pattern of high quality and moderate resolution is achieved. The process utilized is simple to generate patterns without etching diamond. A rectifying junction is demonstrated using a p-type nanodiamond and p-type silicon heterojunction with rectifying ratio of two orders of magnitude. This simple patterning technique could be applied in the fabrication of diamond electronic and mechanical devices and biological sensors. The plasma emission spectra indicate the presence of both CH and C2 species, which are responsible for diamond growth.
Plume dispersion in a nocturnal drainage wind

Abstract A series of tracer experiments were conducted under nocturnal drainage wind conditions in a complex terrain setting in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado. Concurrent meteorological information including profiles of wind and temperature as well as gross turbulence fluctuations from fixed 2-m stations provided the basis to test plume growth and dilution prescriptions for this moderately complex site. Plume parameters exhibited slightly greater diffusion than would be indicated by simple stability-based prediction methods or the gross turbulence indicators. Two terrain-related mechanisms appear to contribute to the development of the plume. A meandering component immediately downwind of the confluence of two valleys gives the appearance of an abnormally wide time-integrated plume. Further downstream the mean wind direction stabilizes and the plume dimension reflects diffusive spread due to small-scale turbulence.
Abstract B19: Reasons for refusal to participate in an epidemiologic study of minority women

Purpose: It is widely believed that minorities are less willing than non-Hispanic whites to participate in biomedical research studies. However, to our knowledge, there are no data comparing refusal rates between African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. We assessed refusal rates and reasons for non-participation in an epidemiologic study of breast cancer in African-American and Mexican-American women. Methods: The multi-center ELLA Bi-National Breast Cancer Study compares patterns of breast cancer tumor markers between women of Mexican descent in both the United States and Mexico. At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), both Mexican-American and African-American women are screened and recruited by trained study personnel, and an in-person interview is conducted. For women refusing to participate, demographic and clinical characteristics and reasons for refusal are collected at the time of refusal. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between race/ethnicity and refusal to participate. The current study uses data only from MDACC. Results: Approximately 1,870 women were screened to determine eligibility. Of those, 914 were eligible, and 850 (93%) of the eligible women agreed to participate. The two most common reasons for refusal were lack of interest and being too overwhelmed with their breast cancer diagnoses, and 10% of the women stated that their families did not approve of their participation. Those refusing to participate were more likely to be African-American (p Conclusions: Overall, African-American and Mexican-American women were willing to participate in an epidemiologic breast cancer study, and our participation rates were higher than those previously reported for both African-Americans and Hispanics. Studies have shown that participation rates are higher among women and among cases, two factors potentially contributing to our low refusal rates. It is also possible that our study of only minority women led to low refusal rates among African-American and Mexican-American women. However, African-American women were more than twice as likely to refuse participation, and we must identify which factors influence the decision of minority women to participate in medical research studies. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2011;20(10 Suppl):B19.
Potentially Avoidable Pediatric Hospitalizations as Defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: What Do They Tell Us About Disparities in Child Health?

This study was conducted to determine if the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's newly established pediatric quality monitors, which measure potentially avoidable hospitalizations, are useful in detecting disparities in health care delivery. Data for all hospital discharges in Tennessee in 2002 were evaluated for the 5 pediatric discharge monitors identified by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. These diagnoses were asthma, short-term complications of diabetes, gastroenteritis, urinary tract infection, and perforated appendix. Black children were more likely to be discharged with the diagnoses of asthma and short-term diabetes complications. Publicly insured children were more likely than commercially insured children to be discharged with each of the 5 potentially avoidable hospitalizations. The results show that black children and children insured by public programs have significantly different discharge rates for pediatric potentially avoidable hospitalizations than do white children or commercially insured children. This could be the result of less access to high-quality ambulatory care.
Creating a Statewide JSTOR Repository: Initial Steps Taken by the Florida State University System

In Florida, the State University Libraries deans have chosen to take a two-pronged approach to addressing limited physical capacity in their facilities: developing a statewide storage facility and deduplicating print serial titles. The initial efforts in the state have focused on titles included in the Journals in Storage electronic collections. Specifically, the collaboration between the University of Florida and Florida State University is the focus of this article. The background information, efforts made, lessons learned, and jobs still to be done will each be given more attention, with the intent of providing a starting point for other institutions considering similar initiatives.
Comparison of individual, pooled, and composite fecal sampling methods for detection of Salmonella on U.S. dairy operations.

The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of Salmonella for individual, pooled, and composite fecal samples and to compare culture results from each sample type for determining herd Salmonella infection status and identifying Salmonella serovar(s). During the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Animal Health Monitoring System Dairy 2007 study, data and samples were collected from dairy operations in 17 major dairy states. As part of the study, composite fecal samples (six per operation) were collected from cow areas, such as holding pens, alleyways, and lagoons, where manure accumulates. Fecal samples also were collected from individual cows (35 per operation), and fecal sample pools were created by combining samples from 5 cows (7 per operation). A total of 1,541 composite fecal samples were collected from 260 operations in 17 states, and 406 (26.3%) of these samples were culture positive for Salmonella. Among the 116 operations for which all three sample types were obtained, 41.4%...
Spectral scaling of static pressure fluctuations in the atmospheric surface layer: The interaction between large and small scales

Static pressure fluctuations measured in the atmospheric surface layer over a grass covered forest clearing are studied in the context of Townsend’s 1961 hypothesis regarding the effect of the outer region on the inner region. It is shown that large-scale pressure features are actively straining the inertial-scale pressure fluctuations, thus invalidating the direct extension of Kolmogorov’s 1941 hypothesis to the spectral scaling of pressure within the inertial subrange. A parameter describing the large scale pressure fluctuations is added to the set of variables responsible for inertial-range pressure differences and dimensional analysis is employed to derive an improved scaling law for pressure spectra which more closely matches these and previous experimental results. An examination of the Poisson equation for pressure is conducted and found to support the dimensional and experimental results.
Increased Na(+)-Ca(2+) exchanger in the failing heart.

Heart failure (HF) is a significant problem, affecting more than 2 million people in the United States alone.1 When severe, it is associated with a 50% 2-year mortality rate attributable to either contractile dysfunction or sudden death from ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.1 The underlying molecular mechanisms have not yet been defined, but there is considerable evidence from studies in experimental models of HF and in the failing human heart that alterations in intracellular Ca2+ handling could play a role in both the contractile abnormalities and arrhythmogenicity.2 3 Specifically, HF cardiac myocytes exhibit Ca2+ transients with decreased amplitude and prolonged Ca2+ decline.4 5 These changes have been associated with altered expression and function of several Ca2+ regulatory proteins. There has been considerable interest in alterations of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) function, particularly the SR Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) and its inhibition by phospholamban. Reduced SERCA mRNA has been noted in animal models of HF6 7 and in the failing human heart,6 8 9 but alterations in SERCA protein levels and SR Ca2+ uptake have been inconsistent and more controversial.10 11 The same is true for changes in phospholamban.9 10 11 12 More recently, additional attention has been focused on the Na+-Ca2+ exchanger (NCX). NCX is a transsarcolemmal protein that plays an important role in controlling levels of [Ca2+]i.13 NCX can operate in both a forward mode (Ca2+ out, Na+ in) and a reverse mode (Na+ out, Ca2+ in), and most evidence to date14 has suggested that it does so with a stoichiometry of 3:1 (ie, it exchanges 3 Na+ ions for every 1 Ca2+ ion). As a result, NCX is electrogenic, producing an …
Internal Fixation in the Management of the Burned Hand

Although 30% of 662 burn patients had some hand involvement, only 6% had severe hand injury. Seventeen patients (2.5%) were managed by early internal fixation. Severe hand injury was closely associated with severe burns. Most hand injuries were managed successfully with early splinting, active range of motion, and good wound management. In the severe hand burns, early internal fixation of the proximal interphalangeal joints was valuable in preventing the typical claw contracture of dorsal third-degree hand burns. The metacarpal phalangeal joints were pinned at grafting, and all pins removed at five to seven days after grafting. This was found to be safe, with very few complications, and essentially no risk or mortality. Claw deformity was successfully prevented, and very good motion of joints was maintained.
Evaluation of New 3-Mercaptopropionate Thiols for Thiol-ene Photopolymerization Coatings Using Experimental Design

Three 3-mercaptopropionate thiols, 1,6-Hexane bis(3-mercaptopropionate) (HD-SH), trans-1,4-Cyclohexanedimethyl bis(3-mercaptopropionate) (CHDM-SH), and 4,4′-Isopropylidenedicyclohexane bis(3-mercaptopropionate) (HBPA-SH) were formulated with 1,3,5-triallyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione (TATATO) and photoinitiator. The formulations were photopolymerized via thiol-ene photopolymerization. A ternary experimental design was employed to elucidate the influence the three thiols on the thermomechanical and coatings properties of thiol-ene photopolymerizable materials. Tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation-to-break, glass transition temperature (Tg), and crosslink density (XLD) were investigated. Coating properties including pencil hardness, pull-off adhesion, MEK double rubs, and gloss were also investigated. Relative reaction conversion was determined by photo differential scanning calorimeter (PDSC). Thiol-ene photopolymerizable materials containing HBPA-SH resulted in improving tensile strength, tensile modulus, Tg, and pencil hardness but lowering of crosslink density and relative conversion. This was attributed to steric and rigidity of the double cycloaliphatic structure. The inclusion of CHDM-SH into the systems resulted in the synergistic effect on elongation-to-break and pull-off adhesion. The HD-SH generally resulted in a diminution of thermomechanical and coating properties, but improved the crosslink density. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009
Air pollution removal by urban trees and shrubs in the United States

A modeling study using hourly meteorological and pollution concentration data from across the coterminous United States demonstrates that urban trees remove large amounts of air pollution that consequently improve urban air quality. Pollution removal (03, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO) varied among cities with total annual air pollution removal by US urban trees estimated at 711,000 metric tons ($3.8 billion value). Pollution removal is only one of various ways that urban trees affect air quality. Integrated studies of tree effects on air pollution reveal that management of urban tree canopy cover could be a viable strategy to improve air quality and help meet clean air standards.
Evaluation of highly bound drugs: interspecies, intersubject, and related comparisons.

Free (unbound) drug is generally the pharmacologically relevant param eter for drug exposure. Thus, comparisons among species, among individuals, and in other situations such as cell culture or drug metabolism experiments in vitro should be based on free drug. Although the traditional focus has been on the absolute value for free drug, the applications for the data in this study are primarily comparative. Therefore, the authors evaluated direct dialysis of one plasma sample versus another. At equilibrium, the total concentration of valproate in human plasma was 3-fold higher than in rat plasma. The total concentration of monoacetyl dapsone was 10-fold higher in human plasma than in rat plasma and 18-fold higher in human plasma than in dog plasma. These results confirm predictions derived from conventional dialysis of each plasma sample separately versus buffer. These data can be interpreted directly, without interspecies correction factors for binding, especially for the most important cases—drugs that are highly protein-bound.
Gesture, Play, and Language Development of Spanish-Speaking Toddlers with Developmental Language Disorders: A Preliminary Study.

The purpose of this preliminary study was to (a) examine relationships between the symbolic and language skills of a mixed (developmental language disordered [DLD] and typical language [TL]) Spanis...
Common Cause of Mortality in Trauma but Manageable Nonetheless.

Information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to expert clinicians (Drs Eachempati and Salemi), who respond to the information, sharing their reasoning with the reader (regular type). A discussion by the authors follows. An obese but otherwise healthy 53-year-old man was unloading a delivery van when he was struck from behind by a slow-moving garbage truck, pinning him between the 2 vehicles. The patient was lying supine on the ground when emergency medical services arrived. He was alert and oriented with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 15. The patient was complaining of pain in his right upper extremity and numbness in his left foot. His initial vital signs were notable for a heart rate of 100 bpm; his blood pressure was 150/90 mm Hg; and his breathing was elevated at 22 breaths per minutes. The patient denied loss of consciousness and had no neck, back, or chest pain. Per emergency medical services, the patient’s midchest appeared erythematous and his left lung field was coarse on auscultation, and he had a small abrasion on his left knee. The rest of his in-the-field examination was unremarkable. A cervical collar was placed, and the patient was placed on a back-board for transport. The patient’s vital signs remained stable en route per the emergency medical services’ report, although he became increasingly anxious and repeatedly removed both his cervical collar and a nonrebreather mask that had been placed empirically. On arrival in our trauma bay, the patient was found to be in shock: pulse rate, 129 bpm; blood pressure, 69/51 mm Hg; respiratory rate, 20 breaths per minute; and O 2 saturation, 80% on room air. He remained awake with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 15 but now was complaining of difficulty breathing and of right-sided chest and back pain. His …
Circulatory Dynamics and the Effects of Respiration During Ventricular Asystole in Dogs with Complete Heart Block

Pressure-flow changes during ventricular asystole (but with atrial activity present) were studied in 11 dogs with complete heart block. The influence of respiration on these parameters was evaluated during spontaneous breathing, intermittent positive pressure respiration, and apnea. During spontaneous breathing, the pulmonary artery pressure initially fell below the right atrial pressure following the onset of ventricular asystole. Both pressures then showed a gradual rise which was accompanied by flow of blood into the pulmonary artery (estimated to be 121 to 139 ml./min.). The mean pressure in the left atrium became greater than that in the pulmonary artery, concomitant with a gradual rise in the end-expiratory intrathoracic pressure. Despite this mean pressure change, flow from the pulmonary artery to the left atrium was demonstrated. Analysis of the instantaneous pressures during the atrial cycle showed that flow could occur during early atrial diastole in both phases of respiration and throughout atr...
ON THE LIMITS OF GLM FOR SPECIFICATION TESTING: A COMMENT ON GURMU AND TRIVEDI

In this comment on Gurmu and Trivedi's "Variable Augmentation Specification Tests in the Linear Exponential Family," I show how their generalized linear model (GLM) approach relates to other work in econometrics on specification testing in the linear exponential family. In addition to shedding light on the relationship between the statistics and econometrics literatures on testing in quasi-likelihood frameworks, this comparison reveals some important limitations of GLM as a general framework for devising specification tests.
The Current State of Medical Malpractice in Urology

Medical malpractice can present an unwelcome professional, emotional, and economic burden to the practicing urologist. To date, there is a paucity of data specific to urologic malpractice in the literature. We performed a comprehensive literature search to identify and evaluate recent studies related to urologic malpractice. We also analyzed 6249 closed urologic claims from the largest available specialty-specific data set gathered by Physician Insurers Association of America from 1985 to 2012. The resulting comprehensive review seeks to raise awareness of current trends in the malpractice environment specific to urologic surgery while also helping urologists identify opportunities for risk management and improved patient care.
Willie Lee Glass: A Lady of Remarkable Influence

Willie Lee Campbell Glass was a Black educator and home economist whose career spanned almost four decades from 1933 through the 1970s. As the first Black state consultant for home economics with the Texas Education Agency, Glass was a leader in the development of programs that prepared classroom teachers for desegregation. Using wit and diplomacy, she paved the way for many women and African Americans as a respected professional in the field of home economics/family and consumer sciences education. Glass focused on serving others and making young Black students feel good about themselves. Her life provides important information related to the history of the profession and a model for family and consumer sciences students, educators, and administrators.
Surround, Background, Context: Response

These essays struck me because of their overlapping concerns with foreground/background, center/surround, and boundaries of several kinds: between disciplines, modes of interpretation, genres, classes, and spaces. Discussing various aspects of late nineteenth-century visual culture, these studies reveal the ways in which, through changing technologies of production and reproduction, photography, painting, and architecture became venues for different historical actors to explore new kinds of identities and to participate in the construction and deconstruction of traditional boundaries of class, gender, and race. In doing so, however, these new forms also created profound anxieties, often expressed in the periodical press in terms of taste or vulgarity (note the etymology of the latter word: from the Latin for the common people). By studying such debates through specific examples, practices, and works, these papers give us a very useful way of understanding the connection between visual form on the one hand and, on the other, the commercial and class contexts of Victorian Britain. New forms of representation, new technologies, and an expanding market allowed for the participation of those previously excluded from visual culture, and this democratization (or vulgarization) provoked cultural elites to react: to attempt to redraw the boundaries of taste, propriety, morality, and decorum, the bywords of class demarcation (Dowling 1–24). Such cultural conflicts were closely connected to debates over political participation in the period of the 1867 and 1885 Reform Acts, which extended the vote to working-class men (and, one might add, to debates over the status of the Empire and
Management of the bleeding patient receiving new oral anticoagulants: a role for prothrombin complex concentrates

Ease of dosing and simplicity of monitoring make new oral anticoagulants an attractive therapy in a growing range of clinical conditions. However, newer oral anticoagulants interact with the coagulation cascade in different ways than traditional warfarin therapy. Replacement of clotting factors will not reverse the effects of dabigatran, rivaroxaban, or apixaban. Currently, antidotes for these drugs are not widely available. Fortunately, withholding the anticoagulant and dialysis are freqnently effective treatments, particularly with rivaroxaban and dabigatran. Emergent bleeding, however, requires utilization of Prothrombin Complex Concentrates (PCCs). PCCs, in addition to recombinant factor VIIa, are used to activate the clotting system to reverse the effects of the new oral anticoagulants. In cases of refractory or emergent bleeding, the recommended factor concentrate in our protocols differs between the new oral anticoagulants. In patients taking dabigatran, we administer an activated PCC (aPCC) [FELBA] due to reported benefit in human in vitro studies. Based on human clinical trial evidence, the 4-factor PCC (Kcentra) is suggested for patients with refractory rivaroxaban- or apixaban-associated hemorrhage. If bleeding continues, recombinant factor VIIa may be employed. With all of these new procoagulant agents, the risk of thrombosis associated with administration of factor concentrates must be weighed against the relative risk of hemorrhage.
Detection of nerve agent hydrolytes in an engineered nanopore

We report a stochastic nanopore sensing method for the detection of organophosphorus nerve agent hydrolysis products. By employing an engineered α-hemolysin single pore embedded in a planar lipid bilayer as the stochastic sensing element and β-cyclodextrin as a host molecule, trace amounts of soman and cyclosarin hydrolytes could be detected, with detection limits of 53 nM and 102 nM, respectively. Importantly, sarin, tabun, and VX hydrolysis products, as well as other common pesticides, do not interfere with detection of the analytes. The method offers the potential as a rapid and sensitive sensing technique for use in on-site analysis of nerve agents in environmental monitoring applications at the single-molecule level.
Purification and Characterization of a Novel Thermostable Lipase from Aspergillus Flavus

This newly isolated lipase can be considered as a good candidature in synthesis reactions such as esterification, transesterification and interesterification which are used in industrial and biotechnological applications.
Acquired Natural Enemies of the Weed Biological Control Agent Oxyops vitiosa (Colepotera: Curculionidae)

ABSTRACT The Australian curculionid Oxyops vitiosa Pascoe was introduced into Florida in 1997 as a biological control agent of the invasive tree Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) S. T. Blake. Populations of the weevil increased rapidly and became widely distributed throughout much of the invasive tree's adventive distribution. In this study we ask if O. vitiosa has acquired natural enemies in Florida, how these enemies circumvent the protective terpenoid laden exudates on larvae, and what influence 1 of the most common natural enemies has on O. vitiosa population densities? Surveys of O. vitiosa populations and rearing of field-collected individuals resulted in no instances of parasitoids or pathogens exploiting weevil eggs or larvae. In contrast, 44 species of predatory arthropods were commonly associated (>5 individuals when pooled across all sites and sample dates) with O. vitiosa. Eleven predatory species were observed feeding on O. vitiosa during timed surveys, including 6 pentatomid species, 2 formicid...
Will There Ever Be a Food and Drug Administration–Approved Device for Transcatheter Paravalvular Leak Closure?

Paravalvular leaks (PVLs) have been a recognized problem after surgical valve replacement since prosthetic valves were first implanted for aortic and mitral valve disease 5 decades ago.1 Although the reported incidence varies considerably, it is generally estimated that a PVL of some magnitude is present in ≈7% to 17% of mitral and 2% to 10% of aortic valve replacement prostheses.2–5 Most PVLs are small and inconsequential, but anywhere from 1% to 5% of aortic or mitral valve replacement procedures are complicated by a clinically relevant PVL.2–5 Although the use of transcatheter devices to close prosthetic PVLs was described >20 years ago,6 this procedure remained relatively rare until recently, but with the availability of nitinol mesh devices designed for occlusion of various other communications, transcatheter PVL closure has become a regular, although still somewhat uncommon, procedure for many structural interventional cardiologists.4,5,7–12 Moreover, as transcatheter aortic valve replacement has become increasingly widespread, and paravalvar regurgitation has been recognized as one of its most frequent and significant complications,13 an entirely new domain has opened up, namely, management of PVLs after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Literature on PVL device closure comprises a handful a modest-sized, single-center series and many more single or small case reports.4,5,7,14–20 Based on these series, device closure is technically unsuccessful in 5% to 35% of cases, for various reasons, including inability to cross the defect with a wire or delivery catheter, dislodgement/embolization of the device, incomplete closure of the defect, or interference by the device with the prosthetic valve. Even if the device is delivered, remains in place, and reduces flow, the treatment may be clinically inadequate, sometimes because of persistent or new hemolysis, and …
Becoming Muslim in Mainland Tanzania, Felicitas Becker : book review

Islam has been in existence on the shores of East Africa for centuries. However, up until the end of the nineteenth century, most people of the interior were not Muslims. The situation has changed dramatically over the last century, and in present day southeast Tanzania, approximately eighty per cent of the population are now Muslim. What are the motivating factors leading to this conversion and how did this affect ritual practice, social relationships and the negotiation of space? These are the questions Felicitas Becker seeks to answer in her ambitious and carefully constructed book.
Reduction of Rat Liver Carcinogenicity of α-Nitrosomorpholine by a-Deuterium Substitution

Groups of 30 males Sprague-Dawley rats were given 4-nitrosomorpholine-3,3,5,5-d in their drinking water at concentrations of 0.35 and 0.07 X 10(-3) M for 30 weeks. Two similar groups of rats were simultaneously given unlabeled 4-nitrosomorpholine (NM) at the same malar concentrations; all animals were observed throughout their lives. Those receiving the alpha-deuterium-labeled compound had significantly fewer liver tumors than did the corresponding animals receiving the unlabeled compound. The difference in potency appeared to be at least fivefold, a magnitude consistent with a primary kinetic isotope effect on the carcinogenic action of NM. Thus breakage of a bond linking a hydrogen (deuterium) atom with carbon adjacent to the nitrosamino function may be involved in a rate-limiting step of carcinogenesis by NM.
Atrial Fibrillation In Athletes: The Role Of Exercise

There is growing evidence that atrial fibrillation (AF) is prevalent in athletes and even in individuals participating in intense long term exercise at a non-competitive level. Several causes have been described for these phenomena including atrial remodeling, atrial fibrosis, inflammation, autonomic activation, body fluid changes and changes in blood volume and pressure. This article reviews the epidemiology, pathophysiological mechanisms and management options of AF in regards to exercise.
Support communities involved in disease studies

Lack of continued help for poor families involved in Huntington’s-disease research has sown resentment and mistrust, says Ignacio Munoz-Sanjuan.
Catalytic radical reduction in aqueous solution via oxidation of biologically-relevant alcohols.

Metalloenzymes that normally perform catalytic antioxidant or radical-degrading functions, as well as small-molecule complexes that mimic them, can also exert pro-oxidant or radical-forming effects depending on the identity of the terminal reductant. Because nitroxyl radicals function as redox active cocatalysts in the aerobic oxidation of alcohols, we hypothesized that catalytic radical reduction could be achieved via the oxidation of biologically-relevant alcohols. Herein we report an organoruthenium complex (Ru1) that catalyzed reduction of 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzo-thiazoline-6-sulfonate) radical monoanion (ABTS˙−) to ABTS2− in phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.4) using MeOH, EtOH, i-PrOH, serine, threonine, glucose, arabinose, methyl lactate or dimethyl malate as the terminal reductant. Replacing either the C–H or O–H groups of a –CHOH– moiety resulted in the loss of ABTS˙− reducing ability. Moreover, in conjunction with an alcohol terminal reductant, Ru1 was able to inhibit the oxidation of ABTS2− by H2O2 and horseradish peroxidase, even after multiple successive challenges with excess H2O2 or ABTS˙−. Collectively, these results demonstrate that Ru1 inhibits the oxidative formation of and catalyzes the reduction of radicals in aqueous solution via oxidation of biologically-relevant alcohols.
The effects of late-Quaternary climatic changes and glacioisostatic rebound on lake level fluctuations and benthos of Lake Michigan

Past lake stages of Lake Michigan are the result of water level stillstands and fluctuations initiated by the withdrawal of the Wisconsin glacial ice sheet (approximately 10,000-5000 years before present). Dominance diversity, evenness, and community profiles were used to determine the effects of these fluctuations on ostracode populations and to reconstruct the paleoenvironment of glacial Lake Michigan. Results indicate that ostracode community diversity was low, and evenness was high during this period. Few species of ostracodes could tolerate the cold temperatures and oligotrophic conditions of the prehistoric lake system. This assemblage consists of Candona subtriangulata and C. crogmaniana. Community profiles changed with fluctuations in water level. One significant change in diversity indices is recorded between the oldest lake stage (Algonquin) and the stratigraphically overlying, shallowest stage (Chippewa). Increase in diversity was probably a result of increasing nutrient availability and salinity, two by-products of erosional processes and evaporation initiated when the lake level declined and the climate warmed. These changes in diversity and abundance may imply an increase in primary productivity. As much as 32% of lake-bottom sediments were exposed during the Chippewa water level minimum. This exposure of land and the resulting decrease in lake surface may have affected local and regional climate. Glacioisostatic rebound of channel openings caused the lake level to rise to an extreme high (Nipissing stage). With increasing water levels, ostracode profiles changed and suggest that the hypolimnion decreased in salinity and dissolved 02. Although statistical analysis of diversity indices does not support significant changes in the environment between Winnetka and Lake Forest Members, this analysis may have been biased by small sample numbers.
Influence of aldosterone and angiotensin II on endotoxin shock in the primate.

SummarySevere endotoxin shock in monkeys resulted in hypotension, oliguria or anuria, hyperkalemia and death. No characteristic electrocardiographic findings were elicited. Aldosterone and angiotensin II were employed alone and in combination in attempts to reverse the shock. The most favorable results were obtained with a combination of the steroid and pressor drug. As in canine endotoxin shock, aldosterone markedly potentiated the pressor action of angiotensin II. Optimum results were correlated with the amount of aldosterone administered.
Image analysis of urediniospores that infect Mentha

Urediniospores of isolates of two principle groups of races of Puccinia menthae have similar mor- phological appearance when examined with SEM. Native spearmint rust infects Mentha spicata but not M. x piperita. Peppermint rust infects M. X piperita but not M. spicata. Prism image analysis was used to quantify morphological differences between the two types of mint rust urediniospores. Eighteen morpho- logical parameters of either size or shape were mea- sured for sample populations of 138 native spearmint rust spores and 244 peppermint rust spores. Descrip- tive statistics by sample of the means, minimums, maximums, standard deviations, and variances were obtained for each of the characteristics evaluated. Tu- key honestly significant difference (HSD) was used to identify characteristics with significantly different means at the 95% confidence level. The native spear- mint and peppermint rust urediniospores differed with 15 characteristic morphometries; breadth, width and inscribed radius did not differ. Image analysis was a useful tool to morphologically differentiate be- tween urediniospores of two groups of races of P menthae.
2016 Frank Newman Speller Award: Understanding High-Temperature Corrosion—Key to Energy Efficiency?

High-temperature applications demand materials that have a variety of properties, such as high strength, toughness, creep resistance, fatigue resistance, as well as resistance to corrosion and oxid...
MM4DM: How Multimedia Enrolls Decision-Making Processes in the Era of Cognitive Computing

The increasing momentum towards cognitive computing unlocks a diverse set of opportunities and challenges for the multimedia research area. In fact, with a different approach from the one present in the traditional artificial intelligence systems, cognitive computing glimpses a human-machine collaboration, where a more symbiotic interaction is required. The main goal of the Multimedia for Decision-Making (MM4DM) tutorial is to discuss how the multimedia research area enrolls decision-making processes in the era of cognitive computing. In this context, this tutorial discusses topics of multidisciplinary interest, always from a multimedia perspective, aiming to inspire heterogeneous participation of researchers from industry and academia.
Light scattering in pseudopassive media with uniformly balanced gain and loss

We introduce a class of metamaterials with uniformly balanced gain and loss associated with complex permittivity and permeability constants. The refractive index of such a balanced pseudopassive metamaterial is real. An unbounded uniform pseudopassive medium has transport characteristics similar to those of its truly passive and lossless counterpart with the same real refractive index. However, bounded pseudopassive samples show some unexpected scattering features which can be further emphasized by including such elements in a photonic structure.
Markov Decision Processes for Screening and Treatment of Chronic Diseases

In recent years, Markov decision processes (MDPs) and partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) have found important applications to medical decision making in the context of prevention, screening, and treatment of diseases. In this chapter, we provide a review of state-of-the-art models and methods that have been applied to chronic diseases. We provide a tutorial about how to formulate and solve these important problems emphasizing some of the challenges specific to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Then, we illustrate important considerations for model formulation and solution methods through two examples. The first example is an MDP model for optimal control of drug treatment decisions for managing the risk of heart disease and stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes. The second example is a POMDP model for optimal design of biomarker-based screening policies in the context of prostate cancer. We end the chapter with a discussion of the challenges of using MDPs and POMDPs for medical contexts and describe some important future directions for research.
Lower Mental Component Scores are Associated with Lower Return-to-Work Rates after Patellofemoral Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation:

Objectives:Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is a well established treatment for articular cartilage defects of the knee. However, few studies have examined return-to-work rates among ACI p...
Early Homo, plasticity and the extended evolutionary synthesis

The Modern Synthesis led to fundamental advances in understandings of human evolution. For human palaeontology, a science that works from ancestral phenotypes (i.e. the fossil record), particularly important have been perspectives used to help understand the heritable aspects of phenotypes and how fossil individuals might then be aggregated into species, and relationships among these groups understood. This focus, coupled with the fragmentary nature of the fossil record, however, means that individual phenotypic variation is often treated as unimportant ‘noise’, rather than as a source of insight into population adaptation and evolutionary process. The emphasis of the extended evolutionary synthesis on plasticity as a source of phenotypic novelty, and the related question of the role of such variation in long-term evolutionary trends, focuses welcome attention on non-genetic means by which novel phenotypes are generated and in so doing provides alternative approaches to interpreting the fossil record. We review evidence from contemporary human populations regarding some of the aspects of adult phenotypes preserved in the fossil record that might be most responsive to non-genetic drivers, and we consider how these perspectives lead to alternate hypotheses for interpreting the fossil record of early genus Homo. We conclude by arguing that paying closer attention to the causes and consequences of intraspecific phenotypic variation in its own right, as opposed to as noise around a species mean, may inspire a new generation of hypotheses regarding species diversity in the Early Pleistocene and the foundations for dispersal and regional diversification in Homo erectus and its descendants .
Annotation guided collection of context-sensitive parallel execution profiles

Studying the relative behavior of an application’s threads is critical to identifying performance bottlenecks and understanding their root causes. We present context-sensitive parallel (CSP) execution profiles, that capture the relative behavior of threads in terms of the user selected code regions they execute. CSPs can be analyzed to compute execution times spent by the application in interesting behavior states. To capture execution context, code regions of interest can be given static and dynamic names using a versatile set of annotations. The CSP divides the execution time of a multithreaded application into a sequence of time intervals called frames, during which no thread transitions between code regions. By appropriate selection and naming of code regions, the user can obtain a CSP that captures all occurrences of arbitrary behavior states. We provide the user with a powerful query language to facilitate the analysis of CSPs. Our implementation for collection of CSPs of C++ programs has low overhead and high accuracy. Collection of CSPs of full executions of 12 Parsec programs incurred overhead of at most 7% in execution time. The accuracy of CSPs was validated in the context of common performance problems such as load imbalance in pipeline stages and the presence of straggler threads.
Repair of the Torn Earlobe

Ear piercing has been practiced since the time of ancient civilizations, not only to call attention to female beauty but also to make statements about social status. More recently, popular cultural trends have resulted in an increased incidence of multiple ear piercing and male ear piercing. As a result, earlobe tears are an increasingly commonplace complaint among patients presenting to the cosmetic surgeon.
Kininase one-an'-a-half: the newest member of the kininase family.

A kininase I-like enzyme (carboxypeptidase) was purified to homogeneity from human urine and compared to the 48,000 mol. wt. (48K) active subunit of carboxypeptidase N. The urinary carboxypeptidase had a mol. wt. of 73,000 in gel filtration and 76,000 in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It had a pH optimum of 7.0 and differed from the 48K subunit in stability, susceptibility to trypsin, and enzymatic activity. The urinary enzyme did not cross-react with antibody to carboxypeptidase N in “Western blotting”. Urine from a patient genetically deficient in plasma carboxypeptidase N (21% of normal) contained normal levels of urinary carboxypeptidase with similar properties to that from pooled human urine.
Summary of Session 9: Strain Rate, Thermal, Time and Fatigue Effects

“Growth of Discrete Cracks in Concrete Under Fatigue Loading” by Dirk A. Hordijk, TNO-Institute of Building Materials and Structures, The Netherlands, and Hans W. Reinhardt, Stuttgart University, Federal Republic of Germany.
Direct Numerical Simulations of Supersonic Interfacial Flows

Gas-liquid interfaces, when subject to accelerations and/or velocity gradients, are unstable to infinitesimal perturbations—a classical subject that is well understood, mainly via linear theory, but individually for each class of such flows (Rayleigh- Taylor, Kelvin-Helmholtz, and Richtmeyer-Meshkov). Approximate, analytical, weakly non-linear and even non-linear methods exist for some cases, but again only for the rather idealized problems that involve accelerations normal to the interface or velocity gradients in flows parallel to the interface. While these inform qualitatively about systems found in practice, absent are understanding and capability to treat superposition of mechanisms in arbitrary flows, as for example those arising in the presence of accelerating, oblique or curved interfaces.More severely, absent are such methods that can accommodate compressible and shock-wave-bearing flows. This is the subject addressed by the numerical work summarized in this paper—the supporting experiments were carried out in a large-scale shock tube, they include Newtonian as well as viscoelastic liquids, and the quantification includes the resulting particle size distributions [1]. The canonical problem is aerobreakup of liquid drops [1], and applications of significant current interest include de-icing of airplane wings, internal-combustion, rocket, and pulse-detonation engines, and dissemination of liquid agents in the atmosphere.
Surgical Issues in the Management of Carcinoma of the Cervix in Pregnancy

The management of cervical cancer in pregnancy can require a multidisciplinary approach involving perinatologists, neonatologists, and gynecologic cancer treatment specialists. The diagnosis frequently can be obtained through biopsy alone, with therapy instituted based on the age of the fetus. Microinvasive carcinoma requires a cone biopsy for diagnosis, but may be managed conservatively throughout pregnancy with excellent survival. Radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy may be a preferable therapeutic option to radiation in Stage I and Stage IIA disease; radiation therapy may be used in poor surgical risk, early-staged patients, and is the treatment of choice in Stage IIB or greater disease. The roles of staging laparotomy and laparoscopy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy have yet to be defined.