cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The advanced photon source injector test stand: phase two

The high-power S-band feed subsystem and the versatile method of beamline construction have been combined to provide for further testing of a unique gun that incorporates three cavities and requires three separate S-band feeds. Completed in December 2002, this configuration of the injector test stand is intended to investigate performance of the ballistic bunch compression gun [J.W. Lewellen and S.V. Milton, "Preliminary Calculations of Ballistic Bunch Comrpession with Thermionic Cathode RF Guns", PRoc. SPIE - Int. Soc. Opt. Eng (Coherent Electron Beam X-Ray Sources: TEchniques and Applications) Vol. 3154, pp. 162-171(1997)]. If this gun proves to be desirable for injection at the APS, then the ballistic bunch compression gun together with the S-band feed subsystem and portions of the beamline will be relocated in the APS linac tunnel.
Readiness for Change: An Institutional Perspective

Drawing on a case study of an ongoing consolidation of two US school districts, this article examines the potential contribution that institutional theory can make to our understanding of change readiness. In so doing, it suggests that an institutional perspective provides three major opportunities for advancement in this area. First, it allows a shift from individual to collective cognitions, thereby offering the opportunity to apply the concept of readiness to new levels of analyses. Second, the article brings to the fore the interactive and recursive influences of institutions on the readiness for change of organizational constituents. Finally, in bringing attention to the role of discourse in institutional change processes, the role of power in creating change readiness is examined, an issue that is strikingly missing in the literature on change in general, and change readiness in particular.
Cognitive effects of risperidone in children with autism and irritable behavior

Abstract Objective: The objective of this research was to explore the effects of risperidone on cognitive processes in children with autism and irritable behavior. Method: Thirty-eight children, ages 5–17 years with autism and severe behavioral disturbance, were randomly assigned to risperidone (0.5 to 3.5 mg/day) or placebo for 8 weeks. This sample of 38 was a subset of 101 subjects who participated in the clinical trial; 63 were unable to perform the cognitive tasks. A double-blind placebo-controlled parallel groups design was used. Dependent measures included tests of sustained attention, verbal learning, hand-eye coordination, and spatial memory assessed before, during, and after the 8-week treatment. Changes in performance were compared by repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Twenty-nine boys and 9 girls with autism and severe behavioral disturbance and a mental age ≥18 months completed the cognitive part of the study. No decline in performance occurred with risperidone. Performance on a cancellation ta...
Acrylonitrile‐induced oxidative DNA damage in rat astrocytes

Chronic administration of acrylonitrile results in a dose-related increase in astrocytomas in rat brain, but the mechanism of acrylonitrile carcinogenicity is not fully understood. The potential of acrylonitrile or its metabolites to induce direct DNA damage as a mechanism for acrylonitrile carcinogenicity has been questioned, and recent studies indicate that the mechanism involves the induction of oxidative stress in rat brain. The present study examined the ability of acrylonitrile to induce DNA damage in the DI TNC1 rat astrocyte cell line using the alkaline Comet assay. Oxidized DNA damage also was evaluated using formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase treatment in the modified Comet assay. No increase in direct DNA damage was seen in astrocytes exposed to sublethal concentrations of acrylonitrile (0-1.0 mM) for 24 hr. However, acrylonitrile treatment resulted in a concentration-related increase in oxidative DNA damage after 24 hr. Antioxidant supplementation in the culture media (alpha-tocopherol, (-)-epigallocathechin-3 gallate, or trolox) reduced acrylonitrile-induced oxidative DNA damage. Depletion of glutathione using 0.1 mM DL-buthionine-[S,R]-sulfoximine increased acrylonitrile-induced oxidative DNA damage (22-46%), while cotreatment of acrylonitrile with 2.5 mM L-2-oxothiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid, a precursor for glutathione biosynthesis, significantly reduced acrylonitrile-induced oxidative DNA damage (7-47%). Cotreatment of acrylonitrile with 0.5 mM 1-aminobenzotriazole, a suicidal inhibitor of cytochrome P450, prevented the oxidative DNA damage produced by acrylonitrile. Cyanide (0.1-0.5 mM) increased oxidative DNA damage (44-160%) in astrocytes. These studies demonstrate that while acrylonitrile does not directly damage astrocyte DNA, it does increase oxidative DNA damage. The oxidative DNA damage following acrylonitrile exposure appears to arise mainly through the P450 metabolic pathway; moreover, glutathione depletion may contribute to the induction of oxidative DNA damage by acrylonitrile.
Demographic Differences in New Service Site Adoption Behaviour

Segmenting a target population so as to focus marketing efforts has been demonstrated to be effective by marketers of innovative manufactured goods. We apply this principle in estimatingcustomer adoption of a new service site, so that marketingcommunications can be more appropriately targeted. Weexamine sources of motivation for service adoption, specificallyformal marketing communications and word of mouthinformation, among the total market and then within key marketsegments, by applying a diffusion model to data on client use ofa new health service clinic. The results suggest that marketingcommunication decisions, particularly regarding media andmessage, can be targeted to reach innovative potential adopterswithin key market segments. Improved forecasts of adoptionpatterns for a second new service site further validate ourresults.
Formal Verification of e-Services and Workflows

We study the verification problem for e-service (and workflow) specifications, aiming at efficient techniques for guiding the construction of composite e-services to guarantee desired properties (e.g., deadlock avoidance, bounds on resource usage, response times). Based on e-service frameworks such as AZTEC and e-FLow, decision flow language Vortex, we introduce a very simple e-service model for our investigation of verification issues. We first show how three different model checking techniques are applied when the number of processes is limited to a predetermined number. We then introduce pid quantified constraint, a new symbolic representation that can encode infinite many system states, to verify systems with unbounded and dynamic process instantiations. We think that it is a versatile technique and more suitable for verification of e-service specifications. If this is combined with other techniques such as abstraction and widening, it is possible to solve a large category of interesting verification problems for e-services.
Helix stabilization through pyridinium–π interactions

Intramolecular cation–π interactions between a methyl pyridinium ion and a phenyl ring stabilize the folded structure of a phenyleneethynylene oligomer.
Multifractal properties of price fluctuations of stocks and commodities

We analyze daily prices of 29 commodities and 2449 stocks, each over a period of ≈ 15 years. We find that the price fluctuations for commodities have a significantly broader multifractal spectrum than for stocks. We also propose that multifractal properties of both stocks and commodities can be attributed mainly to the broad probability distribution of price fluctuations and secondarily to their temporal organization. Furthermore, we propose that, for commodities, stronger higher-order correlations in price fluctuations result in broader multifractal spectra.
The estimation of dimensionality in gene expression data using Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

Nonnegative matrix factorization and other decomposition methods have proven to offer significant advantages for the interpretation of genome-wide gene expression data. However, unlike analytic methods, they suffer from instability in the inferred factors or patterns as the dimensionality is changed. We present here two statistics, one mathematical and one biological, that estimate the dimensionality. We show that they provide close though not identical estimates, and that they provide strong evidence for elimination of some potential factorizations.
ADAM17 and CD56lowCD16low NK cells

Natural killer (NK) cells are important lymphocytes with potent anti-tumor and anti-viral functions. In recent years there has been a significant increase in knowledge about the mechanisms regulating NK-cell functions. Furthermore, NK cells play an important role in preventing relapse in patients
Solving Equations in the lambda-Calculus using Syntactic Encapsulation

Syntactic encapsulation is a relation between an expression and one of its sub-expressions, that constraints how the given sub-expression can be used throughout the reduction of the expression. In this paper, we present a class of systems of equations, in which the right-hand side of each equation is syntactically encapsulated in the left-hand side. This class is general enough to allow equations to contain self-application, and to allow unknowns to appear on both sides of the equation. Yet such a system is simple enough to be solvable, and for a solution (though of course not its normal form) to be obtainable in constant time. Keywords: lambda-calculus, programming calculi.
Optimizing synthesis with metasketches

Many advanced programming tools---for both end-users and expert developers---rely on program synthesis to automatically generate implementations from high-level specifications. These tools often need to employ tricky, custom-built synthesis algorithms because they require synthesized programs to be not only correct, but also optimal with respect to a desired cost metric, such as program size. Finding these optimal solutions efficiently requires domain-specific search strategies, but existing synthesizers hard-code the strategy, making them difficult to reuse. This paper presents metasketches, a general framework for specifying and solving optimal synthesis problems. metasketches make the search strategy a part of the problem definition by specifying a fragmentation of the search space into an ordered set of classic sketches. We provide two cooperating search algorithms to effectively solve metasketches. A global optimizing search coordinates the activities of local searches, informing them of the costs of potentially-optimal solutions as they explore different regions of the candidate space in parallel. The local searches execute an incremental form of counterexample-guided inductive synthesis to incorporate information sent from the global search. We present Synapse, an implementation of these algorithms, and show that it effectively solves optimal synthesis problems with a variety of different cost functions. In addition, metasketches can be used to accelerate classic (non-optimal) synthesis by explicitly controlling the search strategy, and we show that Synapse solves classic synthesis problems that state-of-the-art tools cannot.
Gene expression analysis of bone metastasis and circulating tumor cells from metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients

Characterization of genes linked to bone metastasis is critical for identification of novel prognostic or predictive biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Although bone marrow core biopsies (BMBx) can be obtained for gene profiling, the procedure itself is invasive and uncommon practice in mCRPC patients. Conversely, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which are likely to stem from bone metastases, can be isolated from blood. The goals of this exploratory study were to establish a sensitive methodology to analyze gene expression in BMBx and CTCs, and to determine whether the presence or absence of detectable gene expression is concordant in matching samples from mCRPC patients. The CellSearch® platform was used to enrich and enumerate CTCs. Low numbers of PC3 prostate cancer (PCa) cells were spiked into normal blood to assess cell recovery rate. RNA extracted from recovered PC3 cells was amplified using an Eberwine-based procedure to obtain antisense mRNA (aRNA), and assess the linearity of the RNA amplification method. In this pilot study, RNAs extracted from CTCs and PCa cells microdissected from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded BMBx, were amplified to obtain aRNA and assess the expression of eight genes functionally relevant to PCa bone metastasis using RT-PCR. RNAs were successfully extracted from as few as 1–5 PCa cells in blood samples. The relative expression levels of reference genes were maintained after RNA amplification. The integrity of the amplified RNA was also demonstrated by RT-PCR analysis using primer sets that target the 5′-end, middle, and 3′-end of reference mRNA. We found that in 21 out of 28 comparisons, the presence or absence of detectable gene expression in CTCs and PCa cells microdissected from single bone lesions of the same patients was concordant. This exploratory analysis suggests that aRNA amplification through in vitro transcription may be useful as a method to detect gene expression in small numbers of CTCs and tumor cells microdissected from bone metastatic lesions. In some cases, gene expression in CTCs and BMBxs was not concordant, raising questions about using CTC gene expression to make clinical decisions.
NOTE ON SCORING MIDPOINT RESPONSES IN EXTREME RESPONSE-STYLE SCORES

Hamilton (1968) reviewed the literature dealing with the extreme response style (ERS) as a personality measure. Of the several techniques of scoring ERS mentioned by Hamilton, the "deviation from the midpoint" technique seems most widely used when deriving ERS scores from Semantic Differential ratings (Mogar, 1960; Peak, Muney, & Clay, 1960; Neuringer, 1961). The common proced~ue is to assign a score of 0, 1, 2, or 3 to each response depending on the distance of the response from the midpoint. The purpose of this note is to take issue with the assumption that a midpoint response is least indicative of ERS. A case can be made that, on the contrary, midpoint responses are extreme responses and should be so scored. It may seem logically inconsistent to consider a midpoint (neutral) response as an extreme response but it is psychologically consistent to do just that. The psychological importance of an exueme response as it relates to personality is that it is one which is concrete, well-anchored, and low in ambiguity. A midpoint response, which is indicative of total neutrality, can be viewed as in this category. The question of whether midpoint responding is indicative of ERS can be answered empirically by determining whether the tendency to use the midpoint category is positively or negatively related to the tendency to use categories at either end of [he scale. Semantic Differential ratings which had been previously obtained for other purposes were reanalyzed in order to answer this question. Ratings were made by 74 college students (36 males and 38 females) of 18 concepts (animals, objects, parts of clothing, and parts of the body) on six Semantic Differential scales with high loadings on the potency factor. The tendency toward midpoint responding was measured by obtaining for each S the proportion of responses in the three middle categories which were midpoint responses. The proportion of all responses in the outer four categories that were in the two end categories was also computed. These two proportions were rransformed by means of an arcsin transformation. The product-moment correlation of the obtained values was .50 (n = 78; p < .01). This indicates
Electrophysiological properties of the acoustic middle ear and laryngeal muscle reflexes in the awake echolocating FM-bats,Myotis lucifugus

The basic electrophysiological properties of the acoustic middle ear and laryngeal muscle reflexes inMyotis lucifugus are described. The discharge patterns and impulse-count functions obtained from the two middle ear muscles and laryngeal muscles are similar to one another. The response latencies of these two groups of muscle not only depend upon the stimulus amplitude but also upon the duration. The latencies of the tensor tympani fibers ranged widely from 3.1 to 14.6 ms and have been divided into two subgroups for comparison with the stapedius fibers whose latencies were within 3.0–6.6 ms. All the laryngeal muscle fibers have monotonously narrow tuning curves of triangular shape but those of the two middle ear muscles are very broad and can be divided into two types according to their shape. However, both the middle ear and laryngeal muscle fibers have their BFs mainly within 30–50 kHz. The thresholds obtained from the two middle ear muscle fibers are comparable and are mainly distributed between 30 and 80 dB SPL, but those of the majority of laryngeal muscle fibers were between 50 and 85 dB SPL. On the average, the laryngeal muscle fibers are 5 dB more sensitive to 4-ms FM signals sweeping downward 10 kHz across their best frequencies than to pure tones, but this is not true for the fibers of the two middle ear muscles. Electrical stimulation of the superior laryngeal nerve elicits action potentials from the two middle ear muscles. The middle ear and laryngeal muscles are apparently coupled through sensory fibers in the superior laryngeal nerve.
Transient Simulations of Electrokinetic Nanowire Transport in Bounded Microfluidic Channels

The motion of a cylindrical nanowire is transiently modeled for two different boundary cases to determine whether or not steady motion is observed. The first case is a nanowire located concentrically at the center of a relatively narrow channel and angled at 45° with respect to the horizontal. The second case is a nanowire located eccentrically in a large channel and aligned with the horizontal. In both cases, the main particle motion is horizontal translation through the channel. In the concentric case, the nanowire translates horizontally while translating vertically and rotating in an oscillatory manner. The eccentric particle translates vertically upward and rotates away from the wall throughout it horizontal translation.© 2006 ASME
Genotypic analysis of diffuse, mixed cell lymphomas. Comparison with morphologic and immunophenotypic findings.

Malignant lymphoma, diffuse, mixed small and large cell type, as defined in the Working Formulation, is heterogeneous both morphologically and immunophenotypically and, in some cases, clonality may be difficult to determine. Because gene rearrangement analysis has been shown to be a sensitive method for determining clonality, the authors genotyped 20 cases and compared the results with histologic and immunophenotypic findings. Immunophenotypic studies demonstrated that all lesions were composed predominantly of T cells. In addition, in eight cases either a monoclonal B-cell population (five lesions) or an aberrant immunophenotype (two T, one B) was detected, supporting a malignant diagnosis. In seven of these eight lymphomas, genotypic analysis confirmed the presence of a population of clonal cells. One case with an abnormal T-cell phenotype was germline. In 12 cases the immunophenotypic results were uncertain ( i.e. , no clonal population or abnormal immunophenotype was identified). Genotypic analysis provided evidence of clonality in eight. In four cases with uncertain immunophenotypic results, a clonal population also could not be identified with the use of Southern blot analysis. Thus, the authors conclude that gene rearrangement analysis is a valuable tool in the study of diffuse mixed cell lymphomas and is complementary to immunophenotypic studies. In addition, the authors analyzed the major breakpoint region of the bcl -2 protooncogene on chromosome 18, either by Southern blot analysis and/or with the polymerase chain reaction. The authors identified the t(14;18)(q32;q21) translocation in seven B-cell lymphomas, five of which were not considered to be of follicular center cell type on the basis of morphologic findings. These results suggest that the histologic spectrum of follicular center cell lymphomas is greater than is appreciated in the literature.
The mathematical biophysics of some mental phenomena

In this paper some aspects of the mathematical biophysics of the central nervous system, which hitherto have not been treated, are discussed. First, a neurobiophysical mechanism for consciousness is suggested. It provides for the possibility of conscious and unconscious rractions. Next, a mechanism of memory, both on the conscious and subconscious level, is suggested. The gradual forgetting of remote events is ascribed to the inhibition of older memory traces by the more recent ones. On the average, an exponential decay of memory with time is thus obtained, although memory for unusually strong experiences follows a somewhat different law of decay. A homeostatic mechanism is then considered which regulates the level of accumulated excitation or inhibition. Such a mechanism, under certain disturbing conditions, will result in periodical fluctuations of the total cortical excitation with periods varying within a very wide range. Finally, a mechanism for foresight and desire of future events is suggested. The latter provides for the possibility of the formation of subconscious reactions and habits, which may be abolished by bringing them into consciousness.
Allergies Are Associated with Increased Disease Activity in Multiple Sclerosis (P2.187)

Objective: To assess the association between previous history of allergies and multiple sclerosis (MS) activity. Background: Studies exploring the association between allergic diseases and MS risk have shown conflicting results. However, the association between allergies and MS activity has not been investigated. Design/Methods: Patients enrolled in the Comprehensive Longitudinal Investigation of Multiple Sclerosis at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (CLIMB) study who completed a self-administered questionnaire on environmental, drug and food allergies were included in the analysis. Patients were classified into two groups: allergic (at least one known allergy was reported) or never-allergic (NA, no allergies were reported). Patients with clinically isolated syndrome or allergy to any disease modifying therapy were excluded. To compare the relapse rate since disease onset between both groups, we used a negative binomial regression model, adjusting for age at disease onset and sex and using disease duration (DD) as the offset parameter. Results: 922 (68[percnt]) allergic (21[percnt] males, mean age 49±12 years, mean DD 16±10 years) versus 427 (32[percnt]) NA patients (35[percnt] males, mean age 50±12, mean DD 16±11 years) were analyzed. Of the allergic patients, 238 (26[percnt]), 586 (64[percnt]) and 574 (62[percnt]) patients reported food, environmental and drug allergies, respectively. The adjusted relapse rate (ARR) was higher in the allergic group than in the NA group but this difference was not statistically significant (0.2516 vs. 0.2213; Wald p=0.1331). When we stratified by type of allergy, patients reporting any food allergy had a higher ARR than NA patients (0.2398 vs. 0.1893; Wald p=0.048). No significant differences in the ARR were found when comparing the environmental (p=0.1255) or drug (p=0.4339) groups with the NA group. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that patients who have food allergies have a more active disease than those without allergies. Exploration of allergy-associated immune mechanisms that modulate MS disease course is required. Disclosure: Dr. Diaz-Cruz has received research support from Merck Serono. Dr. Chua has nothing to disclose. Dr. Healy has received research support from Merck Serono, Novartis and Genzyme. Dr. Sattarnezhad has received research support from Merck Serono. Dr. Glanz has received research support from Merck Serono. Dr. Weiner has nothing to disclose. Dr. Chitnis has received personal compensation for activities with Novartis and Biogen. Dr. Chitnis has received research support from Merck-Serono and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
OPTIMAL POSITIVE END-EXPIRATORY PRESSURE (PEEP) IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN WITH ACUTE RESPIRATORY FAILURE

PEEP has become the mainstay m the treatment of hypoxemic acute respiratory failure (ARF). While PEEP improves oxygenation by decreasing intrapulmonary shunting, it may also impair cardiac output and hence decrease oxygen delivery (O2D) despite increased arterial oxygen content (CaO2). Since optimizing O2D is the goal of therapy in ARF, we sought to determine whether the level of PEEP which results in maximal O2D can be estimated using noninvasive measurements of lung compliance (C). We studied 14 normovolemic children, aged 2 wks to II yrs, with ARF due to pneumonia or ARDS. Indicator dilution cardiac index (CI), arterial O2 partial pressure (PaO2), CaO2, C, and O2D were determined at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 cm H2O PEEP. Tidal volume and FiO2 were held constant The level of PEEP (m±SD) at which O2D was maximal was 5.8±5.3 cm, and ranged from 0-15 cm in individual pts. PEEP of maximal C averaged 8.5±6 cm (range 0-15 cm) and was the same as PEEP of maximal O2D in 6 pts (43%) but higher (7 pts) or lower (1 pt) than PEEP of maximal O2D in the remainder; no consistent relationship between O2D and C was observed. PEEP of maximal CI was identical to PEEP of maximal O2D in all pts; higher levels of PEEP were associated with a significant decrease in CI, from 5.47±2 L/min/m2 at PEEP of maximal O2D to 4.39±2 L/min/m2 at PEEP 9 cm above that of maximal O2D. PEEP of maximal PaO2 averaged 12.2±4 cm (range 0-15 cm), and corresponded to PEEP of lowest O2D in 7 pts. At levels of PEEP above that of maximal O2D, PaO2 continued to increase significantly, from 115±40 torr at PEEP of maximal O2D to 145±75 torr at PEEP 9 cm above that of maximal O2D. We conclude that PEEP of maximal C does not reliably predict PEEP of best O2D in children with ARF. Because PaO2 continues to rise at levels of PEEP which cause significant decline in CI, maximizing PaO2 will not optimize O2D unless therapy to maintain CI is also employed.
Intracellular sources of ornithine for polyamine synthesis in endothelial cells

Polyamines are essential for proliferation of endothelial cells (EC) and angiogenesis. This study was conducted to identify the metabolic source(s) of ornithine for polyamine synthesis in EC, using Nω-hydroxy-nor-l-arginine (Nor-NOHA, an inhibitor of arginase) and gabaculine (an inhibitor of ornithine aminotransferase; OAT). Nor-NOHA inhibited arginase with an IC50 value of 10 µM for intact EC. Nor-NOHA (0.5 mM) alone inhibited arginase activity in EC by 98 %, increased total cellular concentrations of arginine by 14 %, and decreased total cellular concentrations of ornithine, putrescine and spermidine by 17, 65 and 74 %, respectively. Arginine and glutamine contributed to 73 and 26 % of the ornithine produced by EC, respectively. Gabaculine (1 mM) alone decreased the total cellular concentrations of arginine, ornithine, putrescine, and spermidine by 14, 96, 32, and 42 %, respectively. A combination of both Nor-NOHA and gabaculine completely blocked ornithine production in EC, resulting in no detectable cellular ornithine and almost complete depletion of cellular putrescine and spermidine. Addition of 0.5 mM ornithine restored the intracellular concentrations of polyamines in EC treated with Nor-NOHA plus gabaculine, indicating that Nor-NOHA and gabaculine did not inhibit ornithine decarboxylase activity. Our results suggest that the arginase and OAT pathways are the exclusive sources of ornithine in EC when there is little extracellular ornithine and that there is intracellular compartmentalization of arginine and ornithine for endothelial synthesis of polyamines. These novel findings may have important implications for improving placental vascular growth, wound healing, and cancer therapy.
Fokker-Planck linearization for non-Gaussian stochastic elastoplastic finite elements

Abstract Presented here is a finite element framework for the solution of stochastic elastoplastic boundary value problems with non-Gaussian parametric uncertainty. The framework relies upon a stochastic Galerkin formulation, where the stiffness random field is decomposed using a multidimensional polynomial chaos expansion. At the constitutive level, a Fokker–Planck–Kolmogorov (FPK) plasticity framework is utilized, under the assumption of small strain kinematics. A linearization procedure is developed that serves to update the polynomial chaos coefficients of the expanded random stiffness in the elastoplastic regime, leading to a nonlinear least-squares optimization problem. The proposed framework is illustrated in a static shear beam example of elastic-perfectly plastic as well as isotropic hardening material.
Fungal Infections in AIDS Histoplasmosis and Coccidioidomycosis

SUMMARY Histoplasma capsulatum and Coccidioid.es immitis are two fungi that are regional in occurrence and cause opportunistic fungal infections in patients with AIDS. Many cases of histoplasmosis have been reported in patients months or years after they have been in an endemic area. These are obviously cases of reactivation of latent infections. With coccidioidomycosis, the cases have been reported from endemic areas, but some also appear to be reactivation infections, and we should anticipate such cases in nonendemic areas just as with histoplasmosis. The clinical presentations may be atypical, even mimicking acute bacterial sepsis. The diagnosis should be sought in any HIV- infected patient with an unexplained infection and residence or travel in an endemic area even in the remote past. Studies should include bone marrow examinations for histoplasmosis as well as skin biopsies with special stains and cultures for fungi for both infections. Sputum or bronchoscopy specimens have often been the source of a diagnosis in coccidioidomycosis. Serologic tests for antibody in both diseases yield inconsistently positive results in AIDS patients. Treatment of the acute infection should be with amphotericin B followed by maintenance suppressive therapy with ketoconazole or Amphotericin B.
Must We Mean What We Say?: Knowing and Acknowledging

It is, I believe, generally assumed—certainly it is natural to assume—that the philosophical appeal to ordinary language constitutes some sort of immediate repudiation of traditional philosophy, in particular of that continuous strain or motive within traditional philosophy which is roughly characterizable as skepticism (a strain or motive which most clearly includes elements of Cartesianism and of British Empiricism). This formulation is vague enough, and the assumption I refer to, if I am right that it is there, is itself vague enough. It would be the latest in the long history of altering relations which philosophy, as it alters, will draw between itself and common sense or everyday belief or the experience of the ordinary man. And the specific terms of criticism in which one philosophy formulates its opposition to another philosophy or to everyday beliefs is as definitive of that philosophy as any of the theses it may produce. I wish in what follows to suggest that so far as the appeal to what we should ordinarily say is taken to provide an immediate repudiation of skepticism, that appeal is itself repudiated. The usefulness, not to say the authority, of appeals to what we should ordinarily say, as philosophical data , depends upon their being met in independence of any particular philosophical position or theory. (This is, I take it, what the phrase “ordinary language” meant to its Oxford coiners: a view of words free of philosophical preoccupation.) It looks as if this is what is happening in appealing to ordinary language against skepticism: the skeptic has a particular philosophical view which positions his words oddly, whereas the ordinary language critic makes use only of what any unprejudiced man can see to be the straight truth. But this is partial, because it assumes that the skeptic need not be counted among those who can see that their words are in apparent conflict with what is ordinarily said and that he is not in full authority to settle, or account for, that conflict in ordinary terms.
Ferroelectric-specific peptides as building blocks for bioinorganic devices

Summary form only given. Combinatorial phage display methods have been used to identify a circularly constrained heptapeptide sequence, ISLLHST, that strongly associates with a perovskite ferroelectric, lead zirconium titanate, Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3 (PZT). The affinity and selectively of binding to polycrystalline MOCVD deposited PZT thin films supported on Si/SiO2/Pt substrates were determined by titering and immunofluorescence microscopy, and the peptide was shown to selectively bind PZT in the presence of Pt, Si, Au, and several different photoresists. Ferroelectric properties were determined by measurement of the P-E hysteresis loop on unmodified and phage bound PZT thin films, and no change in the coercive field, Ec , or the saturation polarization, Ps was observed after contacting the PZT with aqueous buffer or phage binding. Since this preliminary characterization indicates that the PZT is compatible with biological chemistry, work is currently underway to develop a gated nanofluidic device using this chemistry. This is being accomplished by using electron beam lithography to etch nanochannels (~100 nm in width) in photoresists deposited on these PZT substrates. The base of these channels can be modified using the PZT-specific peptide, and by incorporating metallic electrodes into this structure, the charge of the functionalized PZT can be manipulated, forming the basis for such a device
Anti-VEGF in diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Anti-VEGF intravitreal injections have revolutionized the treatment of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema in particular. This review focuses on agents used in anti-VEGF treatment and documents evidence for their efficacy over laser photocoagulation in the treatment of diabetic macular edema.Areas covered: This study documents data from major clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of the following anti-VEGF drugs: ranibizumab (Lucentis), bevacizumab (Avastin) and aflibercept (Eylea). We also discuss the ocular and systemic side effects of intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy as well as the future direction of anti VEGF therapy.Expert commentary: We describe some of the unknowns regarding anti-VEGF therapy including the lack of data on long term outcomes, the cost/benefit analysis over pan retinal laser treatment, and the heavy demand on patients for consistent follow up.
Does Option-Based Compensation Affect Payout Policy? Evidence from FAS123R

Does option-based compensation have a causal influence on payout policy? To address this question we examine the adoption of mandatory expensing of stock options (via accounting standard FAS123R), a plausible exogenous shock to the use of option-based compensation. As FAS123R applies to all firms, our identification strategy exploits the fact that the reduction in option-based compensation in response to the accounting standard varies with the firm-specific expected accounting impact, as measured by the option expense disclosed in the footnotes prior to FAS123R. Using a difference-in-difference research design we do not find that (accounting-driven) reductions in option-based pay cause dividends to increase, repurchases to decrease or the payout composition to change, except for some increase in dividends among dividend-paying small firms. Our results contrast with the widely held belief that option-based pay has a significant causal influence on payout policy and cast doubts on its role in the shift from dividends to repurchases in recent decades.
Dark Artistry in The Island of Doctor Moreau

In William Morris’s utopian romance News from Nowhere (1890), Hammond explains to the protagonist Guest that in Nowhere’s community: ‘Each man is free to exercise his special faculty to the utmost, and every one encourages him in so doing.’1 While this is an appealing vision of creative freedom and shared community, H.G. Wells provides a dystopian counterpoint to Morris’s utopian system in Doctor Moreau, a man who has ‘exercise[d] his special faculty to the utmost’ to horrible effect. In The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), the title character’s special faculty is his attempt to transform animals into men through the contemporarily debated practice of vivisection. In this haunting landscape of pain and progress, boundaries between man and animal break down through man’s use of animal bodies as fuel for science, labour and, most intriguingly, art.
‘“La Choy Chinese Food Swings American?:”’ Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurship and American Orientalism Before World War II

AbstractThis article traces the early years of La Choy Food Products, a company that pioneered the mass production of Chinese food for home consumption in the early part of the twentieth century in...
Complete linear optical isolation at the microscale with ultralow loss (Conference Presentation)

Microscale resonators that simultaneously exhibit high-Q optical and mechanical resonances are routinely used to study the coupling between light and vibration. We have learned recently that Brillouin scattering (traveling-wave light-sound interactions) within simple dielectric whispering-gallery resonators can enable nonreciprocal optical transmission through a waveguide, which can be reconfigured optically and on demand. In this talk, we describe the basic theory and experimental demonstrations of Brillouin Optomechanics, and describe how it allows the breaking of time-reversal symmetry by means of traveling phonon modes. We experimentally demonstrate ultra-low loss optical isolation using a simple resonator system. Our results demonstrate that chip-scale optical isolation is much more accessible than previously thought. (invited by Prof. Xudong Fan)
Risk factors for hepatitis C seropositivity among young people who inject drugs in New York City: Implications for prevention.

Background Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a significant problem in the United States, with people who inject drugs (PWID) disproportionately afflicted. Over the last decade rates of heroin use have more than doubled, with young persons (18–25 years) demonstrating the largest increase. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study in New York City from 2005 to 2012 among young people who injected illicit drugs, and were age 18 to 35 or had injected drugs for ≤5 years, to examine potentially modifiable factors associated with HCV among young adults who began injecting during the era of syringe services. Results Among 714 participants, the median age was 24 years; the median duration of drug injection was 5 years; 31% were women; 75% identified as white; 69% reported being homeless; and 48% [95% CI 44–52] had HCV antibodies. Factors associated with HCV included older age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.99 [1.52–2.63]; p<0.001), longer duration of injection drug use (AOR, 1.68 [1.39–2.02]; p<0.001),more frequent injection (AOR, 1.26 [1.09–1.45]; p = 0.001), using a used syringe with more individuals (AOR, 1.26 [1.10–1.46]; p = 0.001), less confidence in remaining uninfected (AOR, 1.32 [1.07–1.63]; p<0.001), injecting primarily in public or outdoors spaces (AOR, 1.90 [1.33–2.72]; p<0.001), and arrest for carrying syringes (AOR, 3.17 [1.95–5.17]; p<0.001). Conclusions Despite the availability of harm reduction services, the seroprevalence of HCV in young PWID in New York City remained high and constant during 2005–2012. Age and several injection behaviors conferred independent risk. Individuals were somewhat aware of their own risk. Public and outdoor injection and arrest for possession of a syringe are risk factors for HCV that can be modified through structural interventions.
Methods for Assessing DNA Cytosine Modifications Genome-Wide

5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) are the most frequent cytosine modifications in mammalian DNA. Various approaches have been developed and employed to analyze DNA cytosine modification patterns in genomic DNA. These techniques are based on common principles, including methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes, sodium bisulfite conversion of genomic DNA, and affinity capture with either antibodies or proteins that bind specifically to methylated CpG sequences. For many applications, high-throughput sequencing approaches have replaced microarray platforms. These methods are useful to analyze the entire genome at various levels of resolution or can be designed to focus on the most critical genomic loci. In this chapter, we summarize and discuss several of these technologies in detail.
A sharp Pólya-based approximation to the normal cumulative distribution function

Abstract We study an expansion of the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal random variable that results in a family of closed form approximations that converge at 0. One member of the family that has only five explicit constants offers the absolute error of 5.79 · 10 − 6 across the entire range of real numbers. With its simple form and applicability for all real numbers, our approximation surpasses either in computational efficiency or in relative error, and most often in both, other approximation formulas based on numerical algorithms or ad-hoc approximations. An extensive overview and classification of the existing approximations from the literature is included.
Nullors in finding/modifying transistor parameters, blindly

Rapid growth in electronic technology makes it difficult to keep track of the device modeling for linear analysis and design. This is particularly hard for MOS transistors. The problem is even more crucial for training engineering students, where they need to be able to hand calculate, put it into circuit format and estimate the design parameters. With transistors model parameters that may run into pages for today's nanotechnology, manually identify the model components and come up with linear equivalent circuits is not easy although it may be a routine data crunching procedure for a modern circuit simulator. One way to get around the problem is to follow two paths. First simulate, or experiment with, the circuit in its original (nonlinear) form, and keep it as the “model”. In the second step, adopt a proper linearizing scheme for the transistors manually, and then modify the model parameters based on the responses received from the model circuit. In our proposed method we do exactly this by using FNPs to modify the parameters in the linearized circuit until the response from the model and that of the linearized circuit fit together.
Voices of the Death Penalty Debate: A Citizen's Guide to Capital Punishment

This book offers a unique and comprehensive approach to the arguments for and against capital punishment, in the United States and internationally. Using the testimony of witnesses at the historic 2004-2005 New York Death Penalty Hearings, VOICES examines, in detail, the contemporary public policy debate about the theoretical justifications for the death penalty (retribution, deterrence), costs, abuses of prosecutorial discretion, jury functioning, problems of race and mental illness, executing the innocent, and international practices. VOICES presents the testimony of over 100 witnesses from diverse constituencies in the death penalty debate - academics, scientists, public interest groups, lawyers, murder victim families, exonerated death row inmates, writers, law enforcement, public officials and ordinary citizens - in a neutral, non-technical, and objective style that avoids advocacy and emphasizes citizen education. The author provides narrative commentary on the testimony to explain and place it in context. Introductory chapters provide information on death penalty facts and figures, and a primer on basic constitutional principles. The book’s accessibility and readability make it suitable for a wide variety of audiences ranging from law school and college courses to book clubs and the average reader. VOICES is a citizen’s guide that leads the reader to an informed position on this crucial matter of public policy. The Table of Contents, Introduction, and Chapter Six are available to download here.
Variations in Sensitivity and DNA Repair in Human Cells Exposed to Genotoxic Agents

The human population contains a few rare genetic disorders involving major increases in cellular sensitivity to radiation or carinogens, and a large number of disorders with small increases in cellular sensitivities. Major hypersensitivities are caused by DNA repair deficiencies in xeroderma pigmentosum cells, or by abnormalities in DNA replication in xeroderma pigmentosum variant, ataxia telangiectasia, and Cockayne syndrome cells. Small hypersensitivities are probably caused by a variety of biochemical abnormalities that are not directly related to DNA repair. Measurements of DNA repair currently available for use in large populations all have technical problems. The use of scintillation counting of repair synthesis in the presence of hydroxyurea needs to be carefully evaluated in relation to the inhibitory effects of hydroxyurea on the polymerization and ligation steps of repair.
Environmental Chemistry, Ecotoxicity, and Fate of Lambda-Cyhalothrin

Lambda-cyhalothrin is a pyrethroid insecticide used for controlling pest insects in agriculture, public health, and in construction and households. Lambda-cyhalothrin is characterized by low vapor pressure and a low Henry's law constant but by a high octanol-water partition coefficient (K(ow)) and high water-solid-organic carbon partition coefficient (K(oc)) values. Lambda-cyhalothrin is quite stable in water at pH 3 wk, its photolysis process is fast under UV irradiation, with a half-life < 10 min. The fate of lambda-cyhalothrin in aquatic ecosystems depends on the nature of system components such as suspended solids (mineral and organic particulates) and aquatic organisms (algae, macrophytes, or aquatic animals). Lambda-cyhalothrin residues dissolved in water decrease rapidly if suspended solids and/or aquatic organisms are present because lambda-cyhalothrin molecules are strongly adsorbed by particulates and plants. Adsorbed lambda-cyhalothrin molecules show decreased degradation rates because they are less accessible to breakdown than free molecules in the water column. On the other hand, lambda-cyhalothrin adsorbed to suspended solids or bottom sediments may provide a mechanism to mitigate its acute toxicity to aquatic organisms by reducing their short-term bioavailability in the water column. The widespread use of lambda-cyhalothrin has resulted in residues in sediment, which have been found to be toxic to aquatic organisms including fish and amphipods. Mitigation measures have been used to reduce the adverse impact of lambda-cyhalothrin contributed from agricultural or urban runoff. Mitigation may be achieved by reducing the quantity of runoff and suspended solid content in runoff through wetlands, detention ponds, or vegetated ditches.