cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
NM1 Keratinocyte Line Is Cytogenetically and Biologically Stable and Exhibits a Unique Structural Protein

We have previously described a human keratinocyte line, NM1, which had been carried for more than 400 doublings, was trisomic for chromosome 8, and appeared to make a number of structural proteins characteristic of keratinocytes. This line has now been carried for more than 800 doublings and grows with the same vigor. It reaches confluence in 7 to 10 days and can be grown without a feeder layer for more than 15 passages. Its karyotype has remained 47,XY, +8. The current NM1 cells make readily detectable amounts of 67 kd and 48 kd keratins, and it has been established that the previously poorly resolved 58 kd band actually consists of 58 kd and 59 kd bands. We have also found that the apparent 56 kd band consists of the 56 kd and 56.5 kd bands. A unique basic polypeptide precursor of the cornified envelope has been discovered in the NM1 line. Although similar in charge to one in normal cells it is lower in molecular weight.
WLC31-3: Adaptive Modulation in MIMO Eigen beamforming with Outdated Channel State Information

Channel state information(CSI) at the transmitter, even imperfect, can improve the capacity of a multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) communication system and substantially reduce the receiver complexity. Eigenbeamforming has been proven to be the preceding scheme that not only achieves the channel capacity, but also minimizes the mean square error (MSE) at the output of the receiver in this case. This paper presents a novel adaptive modulation scheme that loads power and integer bits over the eigenmodes in a MIMO communication system according to outdated CSI at the transmitter. An un- coded narrowband system is considered in a time-varying and spatially uncorrelated fading channel. Simulations indicate that the proposed scheme provides a much higher spectral efficiency than the standard strategy which simply adds energy margin to achieve the target error performance.
GENDER, SOCIAL REPRODUCTION, AND WOMEN'S SELF-ORGANIZATION: Considering the U.S. Welfare State

This article argues that changes in the organization of social reproduction, defined to include the activities, attitudes, behaviors, emotions, responsibilities, and relationships involved in maintaining daily life, can explain historical differences in women's political self-organization. Examining the Progressive period, the 1930s, and the 1960s and 1970s, the authors suggest that the conditions of social reproduction provide the organizational resources for and legitimation of women's collective action.
Determination of a realistic error bound for a class of imperfect nonlinear controllers.

Error bound determined for class of nonlinear controllers designed by second method of Liapunov
Subjective assessment of right ventricle enlargement from computed tomography pulmonary angiography images

Driven by the evolution of technology Computed Tomography (CT) has become the methodology of choice to confirm or exclude the clinical suspicion of pulmonary artery embolism (PE) [1–6]. With its high temporal and spatial resolution, multi-detector CT has shown unique abilities in characterizing pulmonary embolisms with high sensitivity and specificity and is now serving as the sole reference standard for pulmonary embolism imaging in many institutions [7–9]. Most recent technological advancements, such as dual-energy imaging, further refine CT’s capabilities by allowing the visualization of iodine distribution throughout the lung parenchyma [10–12]. Solidified by significant scientific data and research efforts in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, the important question no longer concerns demonstrating CT’s clinical value in diagnosing pulmonary embolism, but optimizing the use in various clinical settings and patient categories. Based on results of investigative trials, such as Prospective Investigation of Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis (PIOPED) II, diagnostic algorithms and clinical pathways have been proposed to formulate the appropriate indication of CT in the rule-out of PE [5, 13–15]. In a quest to evolve CT’s competence beyond a pure as-is state interpretation into a tool for prognosis, applying the concept of evaluating the size and function of the right ventricle (RV) for risk assessment has been studied [16–18]. Initiated by the study of Reid et al., various studies compared right-ventricular measurements and ratios of right-ventricular diameters to left-ventricular (LV) diameters in a variety of image reconstructions, from true 4-chamber views to axial images [19–23]. Besides one-dimensional measurements, volumetric assessment of the right ventricle, although more timeconsuming, has been shown to be superior in the identification of high-risk patients [24]. In the current issue of the International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging, Kumamaru et al. investigate a straightforward approach for the quantification of the size of the right ventricle. They hypothesized that a clear-cut, subjective visual assessment of rightventricular sizes on axial CT pulmonary angiography images is highly correlated with quantitative measurements. To validate their hypothesis, Kumamaru et al. evaluated the accuracy of their straightforward methodology using axial images and compared their findings to the prognostic accuracy of more traditional, quantitative RV/LV diameter ratios. Without using measurement tools, Kumamaru et al. had two readers retrospectively analyze axial CT images of 200 patients diagnosed with acute PE by CT pulmonary angiography to subjectively determine Editorial comment on the article of Kumamaru et al. (doi: 10.1007/s10554-011-9903-5).
Scientific Statement: Socioecological Determinants of Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

In this article, we examine the socioecological determinants—the biological, geographic, and built environment factors—that influence risk for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. A socioecological perspective looks beyond the individual to evaluate a multitude of influences, from the surrounding home, work, school, and community environments to social determinants and the influence of public policy on individual behavior (1). Figure 1, adapted from the Institute of Medicine socioecological model of childhood obesity, provides a good framework for understanding potential socioecological determinants of risk for type 2 diabetes. Figure 1 Levels and sectors of influence on obesity and diabetes risk (progress in preventing childhood obesity) (© 2007 the National Academies Press). SES, socioeconomic status. In November 2012, the American Diabetes Association Prevention Committee convened a writing group to review the evidence on socioecological factors contributing to recent increases in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Drawing from the work of the committee, in this article we review the overarching evidence-based contributions of socioecological factors to risk for type 2 diabetes. Rather than incorporate the entire universe of relational observations, this scientific statement is intended to evaluate the extent to which data indicate a contributing role of social and environmental factors to the current epidemic of type 2 diabetes. The world is in the midst of parallel and rapidly advancing epidemics—obesity and type 2 diabetes—that began in the latter half of the 20th century and continue to grow, unchecked. Current prevalence rates are staggering and are expected to continue to climb over the ensuing decades. In the U.S., one-third of adults and 16–18% of youth are obese (2), up from 5 to 6% three decades ago (Fig. 2). Increases in rates of type 2 diabetes have closely followed the increases in obesity. In the U.S., diabetes affects 8.3% of the population, including 18.8 million with diagnosed …
Increasing the speed of flexible electronics

Flexible electronics find a number of important applications that rigid chip based electronics are not able to easily fill in. Increasing the speed of flexible electronics dramatically expands its application and offer power saving advantages when it is operated at reduced speed. Semiconductor nanomembrane based flexible electronics provides high speed capabilities, resulting from the high material quality of its single crystalline active materials, and superior mechanical properties.
Large-scale mass spectrometric detection of variant peptides resulting from nonsynonymous nucleotide differences.

Each individual carries thousands of nonsynonymous single nucleotide variants (nsSNVs) in their genome, each corresponding to a single amino acid polymorphism (SAP) in the encoded proteins. It is important to be able to directly detect and quantify these variations at the protein level to study post-transcriptional regulation, differential allelic expression, and other important biological processes. However, such variant peptides are not generally detected in standard proteomic analyses due to their absence from the generic databases that are employed for mass spectrometry searching. Here we extend previous work that demonstrated the use of customized SAP databases constructed from sample-matched RNA-Seq data. We collected deep-coverage RNA-Seq data from the Jurkat cell line, compiled the set of nsSNVs that are expressed, used this information to construct a customized SAP database, and searched it against deep-coverage shotgun MS data obtained from the same sample. This approach enabled the detection of...
A reverse channel call admission control scheme based on total received power for CDMA systems supporting integrated voice/data services

In code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems, the number of users that each cell can support is limited by the total received power or interference received at each base station and can vary with time. The total received power can be used as an indicator of traffic load in call admission control. In this paper, we develop an algorithm to estimate the updated total received power due to a new call based on the current measure of the received power. Using this algorithm, we propose a call admission control (CAC) scheme with the purpose of maximizing the resource utilization and guaranteeing a minimum amount of resources for each type of traffic when congestion occurs. We model the system by a multi-dimensional Markov chain to evaluate the system performance.
Temporal perspectives in construction simulation modeling

Temporal perspectives play a vital role in shaping narratives. Such perspectives include models of time that support the practice of construction management. Although formal representations of time are rarely noticed, they strongly influence the variables and relationships that can be encoded in process models. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the distinct ways in which the time can be formalized and how they impact the understanding of project performance and productivity. It explores existing and new temporal representations on how they contribute to improving reasoning capabilities in construction processes. Existing models differ by whether they use time points or intervals to represent activities (e.g. activity-on-node networks versus Gantt bar charts) and how clearly they communicate changes during execution. While traditional approaches exhibit shortcomings, singularity functions have significant potential for further development and could benefit from conceptual integration with situational simulation toward a powerful and integrated temporal modeling scheme.
Year in Review 2014: Asthma

Asthma continues to be recognized as a well-known respiratory disease requiring complex management. Asthma is assessed and treated by clinicians across the continuum. The interest in evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management is ongoing and essential for aligning clinical practice with its changes. The purpose of this review is to provide updates from recent literature on asthma for clinicians.
Predicting the response of the injured lung to the mechanical breath profile.

Mechanical ventilation is a crucial component of the supportive care provided to patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Current practice stipulates the use of a low tidal volume (Vt) of 6 ml/kg ideal body weight, the presumptive notion being that this limits overdistension of the tissues and thus reduces volutrauma. We have recently found, however, that airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) is efficacious at preventing ventilator-induced lung injury, yet APRV has a very different mechanical breath profile compared with conventional low-Vt ventilation. To gain insight into the relative merits of these two ventilation modes, we measured lung mechanics and derecruitability in rats before and following Tween lavage. We fit to these lung mechanics measurements a computational model of the lung that accounts for both the degree of tissue distension of the open lung and the amount of lung derecruitment that takes place as a function of time. Using this model, we predicted how tissue distension, open lung fraction, and intratidal recruitment vary as a function of ventilator settings both for conventional low-Vt ventilation and for APRV. Our predictions indicate that APRV is more effective at recruiting the lung than low-Vt ventilation, but without causing more overdistension of the tissues. On the other hand, low-Vt ventilation generally produces less intratidal recruitment than APRV. Predictions such as these may be useful for deciding on the relative benefits of different ventilation modes and thus may serve as a means for determining how to ventilate a given lung in the least injurious fashion.
Two new glyptosternine catfishes (Teleostei: Sisoridae) from Vietnam and China

Pareuchiloglanis macropterus new species, is described from the Salween River (Nujiang) and Irrawaddy River drainages in southern China, and P. rhabdurus new species, is described from the Red River (Song Hong) drainage in northern Vietnam. Pareuchiloglanis macropterus can be distinguished from congeners by the following unique combination of characters: prepelvic length 37.0 42.2% SL; length of adipose-fin base 31.8 37.0% SL (dorsal-fin base 3.3 3.5 times in adipose-fin base); caudal peduncle length 17.6 20.0% SL; caudal peduncle depth 6.8 7.4% SL (2.4 3.0 times in caudal peduncle length); body depth at anus 9.5 12.6% SL; snout length 50.3 56.5% HL; interorbital distance 24.6 30.2% HL; 41 42 vertebrae; pectoral fin reaching to pelvic-fin origin; ventral limit of gill opening to level of third or fourth pectoral-fin element; posterior base of adipose fin notched and separate from caudal fin; and presence of pale patches on body. Pareuchiloglanis rhabdurus can be distinguished from congeners chiefly by a slender body (8.7% SL) and caudal peduncle (4.2% SL; 4.2 times in caudal peduncle length), as well as a combination of the following characters: length of adipose-fin base 34.7% SL; dorsal to adipose distance 12.2% SL; caudal peduncle length 17.6% SL; snout length 57.0% HL; interorbital distance 25.5% HL; adipose and caudal fins separate; and ventral limit of gill opening to base of first pectoral-fin element.
P2X7 receptors in rat parotid acinar cells: formation of large pores

1 Permeabilization of cells mediated by P2X7 receptors occurs to varied degrees in native and heterologous expression systems. Previous studies on P2X7 receptors in parotid acinar cells suggested that ATP does not permeabilize these cells. 2 Modification of the assay conditions showed that ATP permeabilizes freshly dissociated rat parotid acinar cells to the fluorescent dye YOPRO-1. 3 The pharmacological and physiological properties of this effect indicate that permeabilization is mediated by the P2X7 receptor. Adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) and 3′-O-(4-benzoyl)benzoyl adenosine 5′-triphosphate (BzBzATP) were effective agonists with EC50 values of 49.3 and 0.6 μM, respectively. 4 Permeabilization was best observed in low divalent cation concentrations and at physiological temperatures. Previous studies failed to detect permeabilization because of the sensitivity of this effect to temperature and divalent cations. 5 An important consideration in understanding the effect of divalent cations is that the fluorescence of YOPRO-1/nucleic acid complexes is directly quenched by addition of divalent cations. This must be considered if quantitative study of the interaction of divalent cations with P2X7 receptors is carried out using fluorescent DNA-binding dyes. 6 In summary, our data show that P2X7 receptors in parotid acinar cells can form large pores in the plasma membrane. This property likely contributes to signalling and may be cytotoxic and have particular significance in damaged or inflamed salivary glands.
Types of Apparel Mass Customization and Levels of Modularity and Variety Application of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

Mass-customization (MC) is a hybrid of mass production and customization, and it offers potential solutions for problems in the apparel industry. This theoretical study contemplates on the contradi...
Alkali ion–cryptand interactions and their effects on electrolyte conductivity

Combined theoretical and experimental studies are reported on alkali ion–cryptand interactions which affect charge transport in liquid electrolytes. Encapsulation of the cation by a cryptand cage can significantly improve the ionic conductivity, by reducing the fraction of time in which the cation is bound to its counterion. Comparison between experimental conductivities and NMR measurements of diffusion rates of Li and F in the amorphous LiMPSA electrolyte suggest that in the presence of the C222 cryptand, Li is bound to MPSA about 75% of the time. A hybrid classical/quantum methodology is used to model dynamics and electronic structure of a number of cryptand–alkali ion–MPSA and cryptand–ion–cryptand systems in an effort to extract general features which may be useful in designing electrolytes with improved performance.
Comorbid Substance Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

To further explore the complex relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders, the authors compared 30 women with PTSD in substance abuse treatment with 25 women without PTSD in substance abuse treatment on degree of addiction severity, psychopathology, and aftercare compliance. Women with PTSD were more likely to have been victims of sexual and physical abuse, particularly childhood abuse. They had significantly higher scores on the Addiction Severity Index, were more likely to have comorbid affective disorder, and less likely to comply with aftercare. These results suggest that screening for victimization and PTSD among women presenting for substance abuse treatment may have important prognostic and treatment implications.
Growth-mediated seasonal energy allocation patterns of young-of-year largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)

In temperate environments, seasonal selective sources of mortality (e.g., starvation and predation) may drive season-specific energy allocation patterns of young-of-year fish. However, when quantifying such phenomena, the effect of ration is rarely considered. We conducted two experiments to investigate the effect of ration on seasonal energy allocation patterns of age-0 largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) during summer and fall. In a laboratory experiment designed to evaluate short-term effects of ration on energy allocation, recent ration history strongly affected body dimensions and length-adjusted energy content. In outdoor raceways, young largemouth bass grew at different rates under different ration levels. In response, length-adjusted energy content, a size-independent index of condition, differed among raceway ration treatments during late summer. However, during fall, high- and low-growth treatment fish expressed similar length-adjusted energy content. Thus, while low-growth fish appeared to ...
Infant growth in length follows prolonged sleep and increased naps.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The mechanisms underlying infant sleep irregularity are unknown. This study tests the hypothesis that sleep and episodic (saltatory) growth in infant length are temporally coupled processes. STUDY DESIGN Daily parental diaries continuously recorded sleep onset and awakening for 23 infants (14 females) over 4-17 months (n = 5798 daily records). Multiple model-independent methods compared day-to-day sleep patterns and saltatory length growth. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Approximate entropy (ApEn) quantified temporal irregularity in infant sleep patterns; breastfeeding and infant sex explained 44% of inter-individual variance (P = 0.001). Random effects mixed-model regression identified that saltatory length growth was associated with increased total daily sleep hours (P < 0.001) and number of sleep bouts (P = 0.001), with breastfeeding, infant sex, and age as covariates. Infant size and illness onset were non-contributory. CLUSTER analysis identified peaks in individual sleep of 4.5 more h and/or 3 more naps per day, compared to intervening intervals, that were non-randomly concordant with saltatory length growth for all individuals (P < 0.05), with a time lag of 0-4 days. Subject-specific probabilities of a growth saltation associated with sleep included a median odds ratio of 1.20 for each additional hour (n = 8, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.29) and 1.43 for each additional sleep bout (n = 12, 95% CI 1.21-2.03). Increased sleep bout duration predicted weight (P < 0.001) and abdominal skinfold accrual (P = 0.05) contingent on length growth, and truncal adiposity independent of growth (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Sleeping and length growth are temporally related biological processes, suggesting an integrated anabolic system. Infant behavioral state changes may reflect biological mechanisms underlying the timing and control of human growth.
A 52-year-old man with malaise and a petechial rash.

Abstract Background: Capnocytophaga canimorsus is a Gram-negative, fusiform, rod-shaped organism that is part of the normal oral flora of dogs, cats, and other animals. A significant number of Emergency Department (ED) patients are surgically or functionally asplenic and may be at marked risk for overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI). OPSI has a mortality rate estimated to be up to 70%. The risk of sepsis is estimated to be 30–60 times greater after splenectomy, and C. canimorsus is one of the organisms that can cause catastrophic OPSI. Objectives: To describe a case of C. canimorsus septic shock in a post-splenectomy patient and review the epidemiology of OPSI, the role of the spleen in protecting the body from infection, and the potential role of early goal-directed therapy in the resuscitation of patients with OPSI. Case Report: A 52 year-old man with a past medical history significant for idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (status post-splenectomy), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (treated for cure), was brought to the ED with the chief complaints of light-headedness, malaise, and a rapidly spreading rash. He was found to be hypotensive, tachycardic, and tachypneic, and had a marked lactic acidosis. He was aggressively resuscitated with large volume fluid resuscitation and treated empirically with broad-spectrum antibiotics for septic shock of unclear etiology. His clinical course was complicated by acute lung injury and renal failure. Blood cultures grew C. canimorsus ; he was extubated on hospital day 7 and discharged home several days later in good condition. Conclusions: Patients status-post-splenectomy are at greatly increased risk for infection from encapsulated organisms and other organisms, including C. canimorsus , which is part of the normal oral flora of dogs, cats, and other animals. It can be spread to humans by bites, scratches, or less invasive forms of animal-human contact. C. canimorsus infection can lead to OPSI. Early recognition and aggressive clinical management, including early goal-directed therapy and rapid administration of antibiotics, may minimize the morbidity and mortality of this condition and other etiologies of severe sepsis and septic shock.
Comparison of Three Culture Methods for the Intensive Culture of Northern Quahog Seed, Mercenaria mercenaria

A number of approaches have been utilized for growing bivalve hatchery seed (1 mm) to a size suitable for field planting (< 8 mm) but few have been directly compared. This study evaluated the growth and survival of northern quahog seed in three different culture systems and two different stocking densities. The three systems were: 1) a stacked-tray unit with downward water flow; 2) traditional upweller culture units with water flowing upward without seed bed expansion; and 3) upweller culture units with water flowing upward at fluidization velocities to provide seed bed expansion. The two stocking densities were 1.0 and 3.0 g whole wet weight clam/cm2 respectively. During each trial period the seed clams were fed a 1% daily ration (% dry weight algae per wet weight clam per day) of the cultured diatom Chaetoceros muelleri. After 14 d of culture at the 1.0 g whole wet weight/cm2 stocking density, seed clams (4.4 ± 0.6 mm initial shell length) under fluidized-flow condition exhibited better growth (0.54/d), and a greater final shell length (5.9 ± 1.0 mm). At the high density stocking conditions, after 28 d of culture, seed clams (4.2 ± 0.6 mm initial shell length) in the fluidized-flow culture conditions again exhibited better growth rate (0.031/d) and a greater final shell length (6.0 ± 1.0 mm). The preliminary evaluation of fluidized-flow for seed clam culture in land-based nurseries indicates its potential as a suitable alternative to raceway, downwelling, or traditional forced-flow culture methods.
Multiple channel selfrouting crossbar switch

A selfrouting crossbar switch with multiple channels per input and output ports has been designed in 2 μm CMOS. It has a pipelined architecture which permits high speed path setup and arbitration. This crossbar is the building block for an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch fabric using multiple channel delta networks with shared output buffers.
Does Drinking Promote Risky Sexual Behavior? A Complex Answer to a Simple Question

The present review argues that, popular lore notwithstanding, the well-documented association between usual patterns of alcohol use and risky sex reflects multiple underlying processes that are both causal and noncausal (spurious) in nature. It is further argued that even alcohol's acute causal effects on sexual behavior are more variable than they are commonly assumed to be. Drinking can promote, inhibit, or have no effect on behavior, depending on the interplay of factors governing behavior in a particular situation and the content of individually held beliefs about alcohol's effects.
Sustainability assessments, engineering and the precautionary principle: the case of a transmission line

In order to maximize the sustainability of a natural resources project being promoted by an organization, socio-economic effects should not be considered in isolation but should instead be considered in the context of sustainability. In this paper, we discuss the environmental assessment of a transmission line in northern Labrador, Canada. Specifically we demonstrate the importance of the Precautionary Principle as a sustainability change mechanism in the project assessment for engineers and engineering firms. Through using the Precautionary Principle as a change and risk management mechanism, proponents such as natural resources companies and project engineers may better reach sustainability, corporate social responsibility as well as ethics strategies, objectives and goals.
Smart silicon sensors/actuators

Smart sensors and system integration concepts are different in nature and they complement each other. Smart sensors will bring about significant technical and commercial benefits that cannot be delivered by highly integrated systems. Motorola's broad technology portfolio is the prerequisite for a program that aims at building a full complement of smart sensors. The program utilizes micromachining, sensing, packaging, analog and digital signal processing and other technologies.
Parallel replicated simulation of Markov chains: implementation and variance reduction

We discuss a way of simulating M replications of a uniformizable Markov chain simultaneously and in parallel (the so-called parallel replication approach). Simulation is performed to estimate the expectation of some cumulative reward over a finite deterministic time horizon. Distributed implementation on a number of processors and parallel SIMD implementation on massively parallel computers are described. We investigate the adaptation of Fishman's rotation sampling approach (Fishman 1983a and 1983b) to our setting in order to reduce the variance of the estimators. It is pointed out that the algorithms can be used in conjunction with the Standard Clock simulation of uniformized chains at distinct parameters (Vakili 1992) to increase the effectiveness of the Standard Clock simulation.
Wound care and learning disabilities: use of the Avance NPWT system

Over the past two decades, topical negative pressure wound therapy has gained wide acceptance as a genuine strategy in the treatment algorithm for a wide variety of acute and chronic wounds (Bovill et al, 2008) and over 1000 peer-reviewed publications describing the clinical efficacy and safety of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) for all wound types have been published over this period (Vig et al, 2011). Wound care and learning disabilities are very rarely discussed as joint issues. This case study aims to highlight the successful use of topical NPWT on a patient with moderate learning disabilities and examines how wound management should be individualised to meet the needs of the patient.
An implementation of loop-shaping compensation for multidegree-of-freedom macro-microscaled telemanipulation

This brief describes the implementation of a telemanipulation control architecture on a three degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) scaled master-slave telemanipulation system. Specifically, feedback linearization enables the use of loop-shaping compensators to increase the transparency bandwidth of a 3-DOF macro-micro telemanipulator pair, while the stability robustness of the system is maintained. Experimental results contrast the transparency and stability robustness of the compensated with the uncompensated system. The enhanced performance of the former demonstrates the utility of the approach.
Human coronary arteriolar dilation to adrenomedullin: role of nitric oxide and K+ channels

Adrenomedullin (ADM) is a vasodilator produced by vascular endothelium and smooth muscle cells. Although plasma ADM levels are increased in patients with hypertension, heart failure, and myocardial...
Mechanical evaluation of humeral interlocking intramedullary nails

Implantation of an interlocking intramedullary nail has rapidly become the modality of choice for the management of various fractures of the humeral shaft; namely, those that are not minimally displaced, impacted and/or stable. The mechanical properties of the nail per se or the nail-bone construct are essential to the nail's satisfactory clinical performance. The present work is a critical review of this topic, using reports given in the opne literature. Whence, gaps and unresolved controversies in the current knowledge base are identified. Expositions on future work, based on the foregoing observations as well as uncharted topics, are presented.
Shapiro steps for skyrmion motion on a washboard potential with longitudinal and transverse ac drives

We numerically study the behavior of two-dimensional skyrmions in the presence of a quasi-one-dimensional sinusoidal substrate under the influence of externally applied dc and ac drives. In the overdamped limit, when both dc and ac drives are aligned in the longitudinal direction parallel to the direction of the substrate modulation, the velocity-force curves exhibit classic Shapiro step features when the frequency of the ac drive matches the washboard frequency that is dynamically generated by the motion of the skyrmions over the substrate, similar to previous observations in superconducting vortex systems. In the case of skyrmions, the additional contribution to the skyrmion motion from a nondissipative Magnus force shifts the location of the locking steps to higher dc drives, and we find that the skyrmions move at an angle with respect to the direction of the dc drive. For a longitudinal dc drive and a perpendicular or transverse ac drive, the overdamped system exhibits no Shapiro steps; however, when a finite Magnus force is present, we find pronounced transverse Shapiro steps along with complex two-dimensional periodic orbits of the skyrmions in the phase-locked regimes. Both the longitudinal and transverse ac drives produce locking steps whose widths oscillate with increasing ac drive amplitude. We examine the role of collective skyrmion interactions and find that additional fractional locking steps occur for both longitudinal and transverse ac drives. At higher skyrmion densities, the system undergoes a series of dynamical order-disorder transitions, with the skyrmions forming a moving solid on the phase locking steps and a fluctuating dynamical liquid in regimes between the steps.
Lymph Node Dissection in Prostate Cancer Surgery

Lymph node dissection performed during radical prostatectomy is the gold standard for determining lymph node invasion (LNI) in patients with prostate cancer. The role of pelvic lymph node dissection in patients with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer has been evaluated in depth to determine the need for lymph node removal, as well as the extent of how aggressively lymph nodes should be dissected in these patients. While imaging has not played a significant role in determining LNI in prostate cancer in the past, recent advances in PET/CT, MRI, and sentinel lymph node dissection have provided another modality to identify lymph node metastases with increasing success. Many studies have been done to evaluate the preoperative variables that can be used to predict the likelihood of lymph node invasion and determine nomograms for when pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) should be performed and whether that dissection should be limited or extended. Despite these studies, no one predictive model has been established as the gold standard, and multiple models are used in clinical practice today. The role of PLND and its effect on outcomes in prostate cancer patients has also been studied. It has been suggested that removal of lymph nodes in some cases of prostate cancer may improve clinical outcomes, decrease biochemical recurrence, and increase long-term survival rates. The introduction of minimally invasive surgery, particularly the use robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), has raised further questions about when PLND should be performed. The comparison of outcomes of PLND in RARP versus open prostatectomy has generated new questions about what the standard for PLND should entail.
Where Are the Women? Accounting for Discrepancies in Female Doctorates in U.S. Geography

Although there have been noticeable improvements in recent years, geography continues to be a predominantly male discipline. The percentage of women receiving PhDs in geography has tracked lower than the U.S. average of female PhDs. Previous studies of women's contribution to geography have focused on personal accounts or on the study of some of the most prominent practitioners, with a few studies using basic data on PhDs awarded and Association of American Geographers membership to determine trends. This article provides a comprehensive overview of doctoral degrees in geography by gender, over time, and across all universities in the United States by examining an alternative database, that of doctoral dissertations. The analysis yields three separate types of results. First, historical and contemporary variations among U.S. universities are examined. Second, data indicate that male and female doctoral students differ in the sex of their advisor. Third, a simple regression model explains some of the discr...
Tools for tunneling from metastable vacua

If the universe is trapped and cooled in a metastable false vacuum state, that state will eventually decay by bubble nucleation and expansion. For example, many extensions of the standard model incorporate new scalar fields $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}$ whose potential has a local minimum at $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\varphi}}=0$ but a global minimum elsewhere, to which the vacuum will eventually tunnel. I calculate the lifetime of the false vacuum, and the field profile of the bubble after tunneling, for any potential that is approximately a polynomial of degree $l~4$ near the false vacuum. Essentially exact results are given for a single field; for multiple fields a strict lower bound is placed on the tunneling rate.
Roughness Considerations for the HIFiRE-1 Vehicle

*The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) program is a hypersonic flight test program executed by the Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) and Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization (DSTO). The test geometry consists of a 7-degree half angle cone with 2.5 mm bluntness followed by a cylinder and flare. The experiment test window is between Mach 7.2 and 7.4. The emphasis of flight one is aerothermodynamics, and boundary layer transition is the primary experiment. This makes it critical to specify allowable roughnesses and trips. No theory is available for estimating allowable roughness heights, so correlations must be used. This paper describes several correlations for distributed nose tip roughness and discrete frustum roughness. Generally, the correlations all give reasonable results about the same order of magnitude, but show considerable spread. Correlations based on integral parameters require fairly realistic walltemperature distributions in order to get integral values correct. When making roughness estimates, several correlations should be examined, and decisions on trips and roughness must be made using judgment based on how near one is to a specific criterion. Assessment of roughness effects is essentially an exercise in uncertainty management and risk mitigation.
The Design of Computer-Based Instruction: Techniques from Function Allocation

Computer-based instruction (CBI) has been depicted as being of limited success; its primary area of success is described as teaching about computers and computer use. Regardless of the accuracy of this viewpoint, it points to a need for improving the design of CBI. This paper outlines how techniques of function allocation can be used in designing CBI. Examples of employing the techniques are presented, with highlights of evaluation studies.
Saliva testing--a nontraditional diagnostic tool.

Objective To demonstrate the advantages of saliva testing over more common methods of determining concentrations of hormones, drugs, and viral antibodies in blood. Data sources Recent professional journals, product literature, bibliographies, and conference proceedings. Study selection Not applicable. Data extraction Survey of literature. Data synthesis In the past 10 years, saliva has been used increasingly to determine concentrations of steroid hormones, HIV antibodies, drugs of abuse, and therapeutic drugs in blood. Benefits of using saliva rather than blood or urine for diagnostic testing include convenience and economy of specimen collection, ease of multiple sampling, and low risk of exposing laboratorians to hazardous samples. Conclusion Saliva testing is possible with currently available laboratory technologies. If benefits of saliva testing are to be fully realized, laboratorians must provide physicians with data showing correlations of analyte concentrations in saliva, blood, and urine.
Staff Development: Whose Responsibility?

Abstract This paper explores the question of who can be considered responsible for staff development. It argues that the major focus of any staff development initiative is to change the behaviour of individuals. In the light of this it considers the role of various agencies in relation to staff development. It concludes that effective staff development is achieved when ownership and responsibility are vested in the individual.
Influence of the Central Metal Ion on the Desorption Kinetics of a Porphyrin from the Solution/HOPG Interface

The changes in desorption kinetics that result from incorporating a metal ion into a porphyrin ring are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Desorption studies of cobalt(II) octaethylporphyrin (CoOEP) and free base octaethylporphyrin (H2OEP) at the 1-phenyloctane/HOPG interface were performed in the 20–110 °C temperature range. These studies of mixtures of CoOEP and H2OEP have shown that the resulting monolayer compositions are stable for more than one year at 20 °C, and are controlled by kinetics to above 100 °C. Quantitative temperature and time dependent surface coverage studies were performed on both CoOEP and H2OEP at 90, 100, and 110 °C. The desorption activation energies for both porphyrins were found to be (1.25 ± 0.05) × 102 kJ/mol. The rate of desorption and the rate of adsorption for CoOEP are similar to the corresponding rates for H2OEP, indicating that replacing the central protons with a cobalt ion has only a minor influence on adsorption. Thus, the adsorption strength is dominate...
Relaxation Treatment for Migraine

Relaxation training was compared to two control placebo psychological methods of treatment in 99 children and adolescents with frequent migraine at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa, Canada.
The seven transdisciplinary habits of mind of creative teachers: An exploratory study of award winning teachers

Abstract Although discussions of thinking skills often revolve around students and learners, it is equally important to consider habits of mind and thinking skills for successful and creative teachers. Teachers are primary mediators of thinking and learning for their students, and understanding how excellent teachers function and use thinking skills is an important, albeit often underserved, area of research. Amid the expansion of research and discussion around thinking skills in general, one approach that has garnered interest in recent years is the idea of “transdisciplinary” thinking—which entails effective approaches to thinking and working, that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Existing research has shown that the most successful creative thinkers in the sciences tend to use a set of meta-level cognitive “transdisciplinary” skills. While others have suggested this transdisciplinary skill set as a framework for teaching, it has not yet been formally studied with regard to teachers, particularly those deemed as “effective” or “creative”. This article discusses a qualitative study that investigated the use of seven transdisciplinary thinking skills among highly accomplished and nationally award winning teachers. National teacher of the year award winners and finalists were interviewed with regard to their use of transdisciplinary thinking skills in their teaching beliefs and practices. Results exemplify how such skills are used by such effective, creative teachers in a diverse range of ways, with broader implications for future study and practice.
A lossy compression scheme for pre-beamformer and post-beamformer ultrasound data

We present a framework for lossy compression of ultrasound RF data. The proposed scheme can be deployed either before or after the receiver beamformer. It performs a two-dimensional decorrelation in both the lateral and axial directions. The decorrelation in the lateral direction is done using a Karhun-loeve like transform, e.g., DCT or Hadamard. The decorrelation in the axial direction is done using customized orthogonal wavelet packets that are optimized for a particular ultrasound probe. The effectiveness of the compression algorithm for both pre-beamformer and post-beamformer compression is established by evaluating the performance on a set of simulated ultrasound signals.
Meta-analysis reveals a lack of sexual dimorphism in human amygdala volume.

Abstract The amygdala plays a key role in many affective behaviors and psychiatric disorders that differ between men and women. To test whether human amygdala volume (AV) differs reliably between the sexes, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of AVs reported in MRI studies of age-matched healthy male and female groups. Using four search strategies, we identified 46 total studies (58 matched samples) from which we extracted effect sizes for the sex difference in AV. All data were converted to Hedges g values and pooled effect sizes were calculated using a random-effects model. Each dataset was further meta-regressed against study year and average participant age. We found that uncorrected amygdala volume is about 10% larger in males, with pooled sex difference effect sizes of g=0.581 for right amygdala (κ=28, n=2022), 0.666 for left amygdala (κ=28, n=2006), and 0.876 for bilateral amygdala (κ=16, n=1585) volumes (all p values
Selective Inhibition of JAK2 Driven Erythroid Differentiation of Polycythemia Vera Progenitors

Myeloproliferative disorders (MPDs), diagnosed in 15,000 individuals annually, are characterized by overproduction of lineage-committed blood cells, thrombotic events, occasionally marrow fibrosis or progression to acute myelogenous leukemia and frequently a point mutation (V617F) in the JAK2 kinase. Mutant JAK2 expression results in erythrocyte overproduction in almost all cases of polycythemia Vera (PV). We investigated the molecular mechanisms driving erythroid skewed differentiation and the capacity of a selective JAK2 inhibitor (TG101348) to normalize PV progenitor differentiation. Both JAK2 V617F+ transduced cord blood and PV progenitor erythroid colony formation was potently inhibited by TG101348 (300 nM). Bioluminescent immunocompromised mouse transplantation studies revealed that TG101348 (150 mg/kg) treatment significantly reduced human erythroid engraftment by both PV and JAK2 V617F+ cord blood progenitors. Moreover, the imbalance between GATA-1 and PU.1 transcripts typical of JAK2 V617F+ progenitors normalized after treatment with TG101348. In addition, TG101348 inhibited both JAK2-mediated STAT5 phosphorylation and AKT-regulated GATA-1 phosphorylation in an erythropoietin responsive cell line suggesting a dual mechanism for the erythroid inhibitory effects of TG101348. Because of selective inhibition of JAK2 V617F+ progenitors both in vitro and in vivo, TG101348 may be an effective molecularly targeted inhibitor of JAK2 V617F+ driven MPDs in clinical trials.
Always choose second best: Tracking a moving target on a graph with a noisy binary sensor

In this work, we consider the problem of using a noisy binary sensor to optimally track a target that moves as a Markov Chain in a finite discrete environment. Our approach focuses on one-step optimality because of the apparent infeasibility of computing an optimal policy via dynamic programming. We prove that, under mild assumptions, always searching in the second most likely location minimizes one-step variance while maximizing the belief about the target's location over one step. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of our strategy and suggest the policy performs well over arbitrary horizons.