cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gender approach and democratic values in the context of the modern generation of military staff’s mentality shaping

Actuality. Modern Ukrainian society puts forward a set of professional and moral-ethical requirements for both individual servicemen and the system of military training in general. In this regard, there is a need for the preparation of qualitatively new management personnel for the military administration, headquarters, and structures for the moral and psychological support of all levels. That must be done in order to implement a significant range of socio-political and military reforms in order to democratize and optimize the Ukrainian army, taking into account both the best national, and the leading world experience.The purpose of article is emphasizing of gender approach and definition the completely term of modern military personnel mentality and demonstration of some peculiarities of mentality shaping process in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The methodological base of research are general scientific principles of integrity, objectivity and historicity, which allowed to reveal the specifics of the formation of the mental culture of servicemen in the process of practical training. Scientific novelty. According the author’s conception mentality of a serviceman is a dynamically developing system in which the unification of not only personal experience but also professional development takes place. The mentality of the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other components of the defense forces is an integrative professionally determined sociocultural property that determines the specifics of their worldview, the way of thinking, the peculiarities of the formation of collective and individual consciousness and professional behavior.Gender mentality is a socio-ethical component of the mentality of a serviceman that reveals the specifics of gender stereotypes and the way of thinking that in the conditions of the reformation and development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should be based on democratic values. Conclusion. This article will help you understand what democratic values form the ethical basis for the formation of a modern Ukrainian army that will meet the requirements of the time and will reveal the specificity of the gender mentality of the servicemen
On Kernel-Based Mode Estimation Using Different Stratified Sampling Designs

In the literature, the properties and the application of mode estimation is considered under simple random sampling and ranked set sampling (RSS). We investigate some of the asymptotic properties of kernel density-based mode estimation using stratified simple random sampling (SSRS) and stratified ranked set sampling designs (SRSS). We demonstrate that kernel density-based mode estimation using SRSS and SSRS is consistent, asymptotically normally distributed and using SRSS has smaller variance than that under SSRS. Improved performance of the mode estimation using SRSS compared to SSRS is supported through a simulation study. We will illustrate the method by using biomarker data collected in China Health and Nutrition Survey data.
Predicting Malware Attributes from Cybersecurity Texts

Text analytics is a useful tool for studying malware behavior and tracking emerging threats. The task of automated malware attribute identification based on cybersecurity texts is very challenging due to a large number of malware attribute labels and a small number of training instances. In this paper, we propose a novel feature learning method to leverage diverse knowledge sources such as small amount of human annotations, unlabeled text and specifications about malware attribute labels. Our evaluation has demonstrated the effectiveness of our method over the state-of-the-art malware attribute prediction systems.
Integration of Clinical Psychology into Hemodialysis Programs

What would happen to your life if your physician told you that you had end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or, in more common parlance, complete kidney failure? Your doctor would explain that, in order for you to survive, your blood must be cleansed of waste products by a mechanical device of some sort. The vast majority of the 100,000 or so ESRD patients use hemodialysis, a process in which the blood is circulated through an artificial kidney and then returned to the patient’s bloodstream via a fistula (a connection between an artery and a vein created surgically in the arm). Unfortunately, hemodialysis requires 4 to 7 hours per day (including transportation time if it is done outside the home) three times per week. The use of hemodialysis brings with it the constant threat of death and a substantial dependency on medical personnel and machinery for survival. Also, this process is far from equivalent to the manner in which people with functional kidneys have their blood cleansed. Bodily impurities and poisons remain in the bloodstream (uremia) at levels that can often produce severe reductions in physical energy, strength, and motivation. Dialysis also produces substantial reductions in sexual activities and a variety of more minor, but still rather troublesome, difficulties, such as headaches, nausea, cramping in the legs, sleep disturbances, skin irritations, and problems with access to the blood supply or other technical difficulties that pose considerable personal threat (Nichols & Springford, 1984).
Social determinants of self-reported pre-exposure prophylaxis use among a national sample of US men who have sex with men.

Purpose Various disparities exist in HIV transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM). Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been shown to decrease the acquisition of HIV, but there is variation in uptake within the MSM population. We aim to characterise PrEP use and correlates of self-reported PrEP use in a large national sample of urban MSM in the USA. Methods Using data from a geosocial-networking application, a national sample (n=3744) from the largest 50 metropolitan centres in the USA was obtained. Results We found 18.1% (95% CI 16.8 to 19.3) of profiles reported using PrEP, with decreased reported PrEP use in younger MSM aged 18–24 years (adjusted OR (aOR)=0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.7), obese MSM (aOR=0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.9), black MSM (aOR=0.6, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.9) and MSM in the South (aOR=0.7, 95% CI 0.5 to 0.9). Conclusion Significant disparities exist in PrEP reporting by age and among black, Southern US and obese MSM. More research is needed to better understand these disparities.
An Open-Label, Prospective Study Evaluating the Clinical and Immunological Effects of Higher Dose Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor in ALS.

Objective We evaluated the safety and tolerability of higher-dose granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In addition, rates of disease progression and serum G-CSF levels and other immunological and hematological markers were measured. Methods Three patients with advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were treated with G-CSF subcutaneously at 5 μg/kg twice daily for 5 consecutive days monthly for 4-12 months. Patients were monitored for adverse effects, and disease progression was assessed with ALSFRS-R and other measures. Results Patients tolerated higher-dose G-CSF well with no serious adverse events. Adverse effects were mild to moderate with musculoskeletal pain and malaise being most often reported. No significant change in the rate of disease progression was noted for ALSFRS-R or other measures. Bone marrow progenitor cells were rapidly mobilized for a duration of approximately 9 days with transient and variable effect on cytokines. Conclusions Higher-dose G-CSF was well tolerated in this cohort with no apparent effect on disease progression up to 1 year.
Motivations for Selling Sex

This book reviews empirical literature on a number of psychological concepts related to selling sex. The goals of the book and the boundaries of what is included can be found in Chap. 1. In brief, this book focuses on private, in-person, consensual sex acts exchanged between a cisgender woman and a paying customer. Research on men, minors, and victims of sex trafficking are deliberately excluded, unless otherwise noted. The review favors peer-reviewed sources of research and is most inclusive of comparative studies. Qualitative findings are used illustratively. This chapter focuses on what motivates some women to sell sex. In this chapter, we review psychological research, being inclusive of both external influences and free will factors associated with starting to sell sex from the vantage point of the individual woman. The research reviewed in this chapter draws on three primary sources: self-reports from women describing why they started selling sex, comparative research examining differences between women who do and do not sell sex, and clinical theories about why women sell sex. Themes explored include financial factors, relational influences, substance abuse, clinical motivations, personal interest, and rational choice as motivations for selling sex. We conclude with an in-depth examination of research on childhood maltreatment as a potential precursor to selling sex.
Resource Mobilization’s Effect on the Social Construction of Identity on Twitter: A Case Study of J.J. Watt’s Hurricane Harvey Relief:

Social media provides an area for athletes to engage with a mass audience and, in turn, has users create a narrative about the athlete in a collaborative effort. Using a platform, such as Twitter, ...
Truss topology design and sizing optimization with guaranteed kinematic stability

Kinematic stability is an often overlooked, but crucial, aspect when mathematical optimization models are developed for truss topology design and sizing optimization (TTDSO) problems. In this paper, we propose a novel mixed integer linear optimization (MILO) model for the TTDSO problem with discrete cross-sectional areas and Euler buckling constraints. Random perturbations of external forces are used to obtain kinematically stable structures. We prove that, by considering appropriate perturbed external forces, the resulting structure is kinematically stable with probability one. Furthermore, we show that necessary conditions for kinematic stability can be used to speed up the solution of discrete TTDSO problems. Using the proposed TTDSO model, the MILO solver provides optimal or near optimal solutions for trusses with up to 990 bars.
RubiksNet: Learnable 3D-Shift for Efficient Video Action Recognition

Video action recognition is a complex task dependent on modeling spatial and temporal context. Standard approaches rely on 2D or 3D convolutions to process such context, resulting in expensive operations with millions of parameters. Recent efficient architectures leverage a channel-wise shift-based primitive as a replacement for temporal convolutions, but remain bottlenecked by spatial convolution operations to maintain strong accuracy and a fixed-shift scheme. Naively extending such developments to a 3D setting is a difficult, intractable goal. To this end, we introduce RubiksNet, a new efficient architecture for video action recognition which is based on a proposed learnable 3D spatiotemporal shift operation instead. We analyze the suitability of our new primitive for video action recognition and explore several novel variations of our approach to enable stronger representational flexibility while maintaining an efficient design. We benchmark our approach on several standard video recognition datasets, and observe that our method achieves comparable or better accuracy than prior work on efficient video action recognition at a fraction of the performance cost, with 2.9–5.9\(\times \) fewer parameters and 2.1–3.7\(\times \) fewer FLOPs. We also perform a series of controlled ablation studies to verify our significant boost in the efficiency-accuracy tradeoff curve is rooted in the core contributions of our RubiksNet architecture.
Update on the Role of Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Inhibitors in the DNA Repair-Deficient Pancreatic Cancers: A Narrative Review

Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common cancer found in the pancreas. It has a dismal prognosis and current therapeutic options, including surgical resection, provide only a temporary or limited response due to the development of treatment resistance. Methods: A narrative review of studies investigating poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) pathway inhibitors in metastatic PDAC to highlight recent advances. Results: Mutations in BRCA genes confer a higher risk of PDAC, while germ line mutations are found in 4-7% of individuals harboring pancreatic cancer. Although solid tumors with defective DNA damage repair defect (DDR) genes such as BRCA show heightened sensitivity to platinum agents, tumors can exploit the PARP pathway as salvage pathways. Therefore, blocking this pathway will trigger cell death in vulnerable tumor cells with BRCA/DNA repair deficiency. Several drugs with inhibitory activity on the PARP pathway have been approved for breast and ovarian tumors harboring germ line or somatic BRCA mutations. Based on these results, the phase III POLO study showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with placebo in BRCA mutant pancreatic tumors and highlighted the importance of germ line testing in everyone diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In addition, expansion of the PARP inhibitor indication beyond BRCA mutations to other genes involved in DDR such as ATM and PALB2 merits attention. Conclusion: PARP inhibitors represent a safe and efficacious treatment for a subset of PDAC patients with BRCA mutations. Ongoing trials are evaluating PARP inhibitors in PDAC patients with non-BRCA DDR gene deficiencies as well as PARP inhibitors in combination with other agents, notably immune checkpoint inhibitors to expand the group of patients that derive benefit from this treatment.
It’s Not Lupus! An Incidental Finding of Anomalous Right Coronary Artery Arising from the Pulmonary Artery in an Adolescent Rheumatology Patient

Coronary artery anomalies are a rare form of congenital heart disease. Most cases occur in association with other congenital heart disease, but isolated coronary anomalies occur in otherwise structurally normal hearts. Isolated anomalous right coronary artery arising from the pulmonary artery (ARCAPA) is a very rare phenomenon that is often diagnosed incidentally during evaluation for other diseases. It poses a challenging diagnostic puzzle due to its more insidious presentation with vague and nonspecific symptoms. This peculiar entity has not been extensively defined in the medical literature since it was first published appearance over a century …
Automated Fast-flux Detection using Machine Learning and Genetic Algorithms

Fast-flux is a technique employed by malicious bots to hide their origin by rapidly changing DNS entries. Although specific features are known to help detect malicious hosts, attackers are becoming more knowledgeable and can spoof these values to make the infected hosts resilient to detection. This paper presents an entirely automated fast-flux detection approach using machine learning and genetic algorithms without expert input. Such an automated approach helps detect the uniqueness in malicious hosts’ behavior from their network traffic even when their behavior changes. The presented approach makes fast-flux detection insusceptible to changes in infected hosts as long as a representative dataset is provided, making it more difficult for attackers to hide their hosts. Our approach was able to achieve more than 99% accuracy in classifying benign and malicious hosts.
Evaluation of an Auxiliary Volume Display for Multiplex Ventilation: A Simulation Study

Background: Studies have investigated multiplex ventilation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our previous study indicated failure of a multiplex circuit to ventilate patients with different lung mechanics in 67% of simulations (PMID: 32345741). Of the four safety problems that must be solved to safely ventilate two patients with one ventilator, individual tidal volume monitoring may be the most important. IngMar Medical designed a prototype auxiliary volume display (AVD-19) to display tidal volume delivery to two patients during multiplex ventilation. The AVD-19 is not currently approved for patient use. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the AVD-19. Methods: Two IngMar ASL 5000 breathing simulators were set to represent identical patients (same resistance and compliance). The mode of ventilation was pressure control continuous mandatory ventilation with set-point targeting (PC-CMVs) as in our previous study. The volume delivery was changed to each simulator with an adjustable flow diverter valve. As the volume distribution between patients was changed, the tidal volume to each lung simulator was recorded by the simulators and compared to the volumes displayed on the AVD-19. The volumes displayed on the AVD-19 were manually corrected to body temperature and pressure saturated conditions (BTPS). Results: The volume reading from the AVD-19 underestimates actual volume delivery with average error of -17%. However, ISO standard 80601-2-12 says that the accuracy of the delivered volume monitoring equipment shall be within ± 4.0 mL +15% for the actual delivered volume. Therefore, the accuracy range of the AVD-19 (-15 to -24%) was reasonable. Conclusions: This simulation-based study shows that the AVD-19 can display individual tidal volumes during multiplex ventilation, but for best accuracy would require an adjustment to correct for the error: VT dosage = desired (mL/kg) x ideal body weight x 0.83.
Global estimated Disability-Adjusted Life-Years (DALYs) of diarrheal diseases: A systematic analysis of data from 28 years of the global burden of disease study.

Background Diarrheal disease (DD)-associated mortality has declined since 1990; however, the incidence of DD has experienced a less-pronounced decrease. Thus, it is important to track progress in managing DD by following loss of healthy years. A disability-adjusted life-year (DALY), which combines data on years-of-life lost (YLL) and years-lived with-disability (YLD), is a metric that can track such a burden. Methods and findings Using all 28 years of data in the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017, we compared DD DALYs among different demographic subsets including sex, age, country, and World Bank (WB) income level. We also evaluated DD DALYs as a function of the socio-demographic index (SDI), a measure of a region’s socio-demographic development. On a global level, DD DALYs have decreased by approximately 85.43% from 1990 to 2017. Incidence and prevalence have decreased by 1.53% and 4.45%, respectively. A dramatic decrease in DD DALYs were observed for WB low-income countries, but not for WB high-income constituents. The temporal decrease in DD DALY rates in WB low-income countries was likely driven by a decrease in YLL. Alternatively, temporal increases in both YLL and YLD may have contributed to the apparent lack of progress in WB high-income countries. Regardless of WB income classification, children under the age of five and the elderly were the most vulnerable to DD. In nearly every year from 1990 to 2017, DD DALYs for females were higher than those for males in WB high-income regions, but lower than those for males in WB low-income constituents. The reason for these differences is not known. We also observed that the rate of DD DALYs was highly correlated to SDI regardless of WB income classification. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the only temporal study of DD DALYs that encompasses all 28 years of data available from the GBD. Overall, our analyses show that temporal reductions in DD DALYs are not equivalent across regions, sexes and age groups. Therefore, careful attention to local and demography-specific risk factors will be necessary to tailor solutions in region- and demography-specific manners.
Glycosylation of Proteins in the Golgi Apparatus

Oligosaccharides are essential for interactions of cells with their environments. These complex carbohydrates are often found covalently attached to proteins embedded in eukaryotic cell membranes. Protein glycosylation is heterogeneous; this heterogeneity stems from the biosynthesis of these polymers. As proteins destined for secretion or cell-surface presentation traffic through the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus, they are modified with sugars in a stepwise fashion by enzymes called glycosyltransferases. The differential expression of these enzymes leads to a multiplicity of specific oligosaccharides both among and within cells because not all cells contain all enzymes and because not all substrate proteins will encounter every enzyme. Although myriad oligosaccharides are found attached to proteins, most of these diverse structures can be grouped into several classes of glycans. In this article, we will discuss some of the most common forms of Golgi protein glycosylation: mucin-type O-linked glycosylation, N-linked glycosylation, and the formation of glycosaminoglycans. In addition, we will briefly consider some less common, but essential, forms of glycosylation.
A comparison of suicide and undetermined deaths in psychiatric patients

Those people who had previously been patients of the Department of Mental Health of Missouri who died in the three year period 1972 through 1974 and whose deaths were designated as suicide or "undetermined whether purposely or accidentally inflicted," were identified by matching statewide death tapes against the DMH data base. The demographic characteristics of the two groups are compared to ascertain if the members of the undetermined group are essentially similar to the suicides, as has frequently been hypothesized. It is found that, in general, the similarities are in areas which would not have had a direct influence on the medical examiner/coroner's verdict, whereas, the differences do highlight areas which could cause an indecisive verdict. The significance of the undetermined deaths is discussed.
The bactericidal effects of Lactobacillus acidophilus , garcinol and Protykin® compared to clarithromycin, on Helicobacter pylori

Chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcers, gastric cancer and lymphoma. We evaluated the inhibitory effects of the probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1J, the antibiotic clarithromycin and the natural antioxidants garcinol and Protykin® (containing 50% trans-resveratrol) on Helicobacter pylori strain ATCC 49503. The findings of this study indicate that Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1J exerts a growth inhibitory effect on H. pylori at a ratio of 1:1 or higher in vitro. In the case of clarithromycin, garcinol and resveratrol, the bactericidal effect is time and concentration dependent. Clarithromycin completely inhibited growth at ≥ 62.5 μg/ml at 6 h and at ≥ 31.5 μg/ml at 12 h. For garcinol the highest concentration needed for complete inhibition was 31.5 μg/ml at 6 h and 3.9 μg/ml after 12 h incubation. For resveratrol, significant inhibition was noted at 1000 μg/ml at 12 h only. The bactericidal effect of garcinol was reduced by the addition of resveratrol at all concentrations ≤ 125 μg/ml at 6 and 12 h. We conclude from this study that Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1J inhibits H. pylori at 1:1 and higher ratios. Also, between the two antioxidants, garcinol is much more potent than resveratrol as a bactericidal agent against H. pylori, and that resveratrol may antagonize this effect. Finally, our study showed equivalent or better bactericidal activity of garcinol compared to clarithromycin against H. pylori at 6 and 12 h incubation, indicating a potential role for this antioxidant in treatment for H. pylori infection.
The Promises of Freedom: The Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment

This article, an expanded version of the author's remarks at the 2013 Honorable Clifford Scott Green Lecture at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, illuminates the history and the context of the Thirteenth Amendment. This article contends that the full scope of the Thirteenth Amendment has yet to be realized and offers reflections on why it remains an underenforced constitutional norm. Finally, this article demonstrates the relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment to addressing contemporary forms of racial inequality and subordination.
Does type of disability and participation in rehabilitation affect satisfaction of stroke survivors? Results from the 2013 Behavioral Risk Surveillance System (BRFSS)

Abstract Background Studies show that stroke survivors typically have lower life satisfaction than persons who have not been diagnosed with stroke. Objective To determine if significant differences in life satisfaction exist between stroke survivors with and without functional limitations and whether specific functional limitations, as well as participation in outpatient rehabilitation affect the odds of reported life satisfaction for stroke survivors. Method Chi square analysis was used to examine data from the 2013 BRFSS to determine the relationship of functional limitations as well as participation in rehabilitation services to life satisfaction for stroke survivors. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine what variables increased the odds of reported poor life satisfaction. Results Stroke survivors experiencing difficulty with cognition, depression and IADLs showed significantly lower life satisfaction than those who did not experience these functional limitations. Survivors exhibiting activity limitations had almost twice the odds of reporting poor life satisfaction and those experiencing limitations in cognition and IADLs had 2.88 times and 1.81 times the odds as others without these limitations of reporting poor life satisfaction, respectively. Participation in outpatient rehabilitation reduced the odds of reporting of poor life satisfaction by approximately one half. Conclusions Rehabilitation focused on addressing these functional limitations would increase life satisfaction for persons diagnosed with stroke. Future research on specific types of cognitive and daily living limitations would assist policy makers and referral sources in making appropriate referrals to rehabilitation.
On trade-off between noise and nonlinearity in WDM systems with distributed Raman amplification

We have analyzed the fundamental limits for the ratio of OSNR and the nonlinear weight in WDM systems with distributed Raman amplification. This limit is approached when the signal power variation along the fiber, signal-to-signal Raman scattering, and temperature dependent noise are minimized, and EDFA post-amplification is not used.
The problem of s-wave repulsion in pionic atoms

Abstract We explore the possibility that the s-wave repulsion needed to explain the anomalous strong interaction shifts and widths in pionic atoms, arises as a result of interaction at the quark level between pions and nucleons. We do indeed find a large repulsion between the pions and the nucleous which could possibly explain the expulsion of pionic wave functions from the interior region of the nucleus.
Development and application of a novel precession electron diffraction technique to quantify and map deformation structures in highly deformed materials—as applied to ultrafine-grained titanium

Abstract The increased spatial resolution of a new characterization technique, precession electron diffraction (PED), makes possible the very accurate and automated quantitative characterization of technically interesting materials that historically have been difficult to analyze due to their dimensions and/or degree of deformation, including specifically ultrafine-grained metallic structures with high dislocation densities. PED, when coupled with the novel post-processing techniques that have been rigorously developed and presented for the first time in this paper, such as applying a Kuwahara filter to improve the angular resolution of the technique, makes it possible to determine grain size, texture, the density and spatial distribution of geometrically necessary dislocations, crystal orientation gradients, and the character of grain boundaries at the relevant length scale (the nanoscale) for such ultrafine-grained materials. The methods detailed in this paper place the determination of key microstructural features on a quantitative, rather than qualitative footing. These techniques have been applied to a hexagonal close-packed α-titanium. The results include the correlation between defect structure and microstructure with a nanometer resolution, the identification of regions containing few geometrically necessary dislocations, the quantification of dislocation densities in cell walls, and the quantification of deformation type in a statistically meaningful fashion.
MR image-based tissue analysis and its clinical applications

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3-D) tissue analysis method and its applications in partial volume correction and change analysis. The method uses a stochastic model-based approach and consists of two steps: (1) unsupervised tissue quantification and (2) 3-D segmentation. Firstly, the MR image volume is modeled by the standard finite normal mixture (SFNM) distribution. It has been shown that the SFNM converges to the true distribution when the pixel images are asymptotically independent. Secondly, the tissue quantification is achieved through (1) model selection by minimum description length (MDL) criterion; (2) parameter initialization by optimal histogram quantization and (3) parameter estimation by a fast EM algorithm using the global 3-D histogram rather than conventionally the raw data. Finally, we develop a 3-D segmentation method using the maximum likelihood (ML) classification and contextual Bayesian relaxation labeling (CBRL). The CBRL is developed to obtain a consistent labeling solution, based on localized SFNM formulation by using neighborhood contextual regularities. The method has been applied to partial volume correction for PET brain images and change analysis for MR breast images.
Antibacterial properties of serum from the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

c Abstract Treatment of alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and human serum samples with Escherichia coli resulted in a time- and concentration-dependent inhibition of bacterial proliferation. When inoculated with E. coli, alligator serum exhibited 10-fold lower bacterial survival rates after 1 h than human serum. In addition, the antibacterial spectrum of alligator serum was shown to be much broader than that of human serum, with growth inhibition occurring in 100% of bacterial strains tested (compared to only 35% for human serum). Additional results showed that the antimicrobial activities of alligator serum could be completely inhibited by preincubation with proteases, indicating the proteinaceous nature of the antimicrobial activities. Furthermore, incubation of alligator serum at 56 8C for 30 min (classical human serum complement inactivation conditions) obliterated all antimicrobial properties of the alligator serum. The antibacterial activities occurred relatively quickly in vitro, with significant activity occurring within 5 min of inoculation with E. coli and maximal activity at 20 min. Also, the antimicrobial activity exhibited temperature dependence, with a substantial decrease in activity below 15 8C. These data suggest that the antimicrobial properties of alligator serum may be due to an active serum complement system. 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
High-order temporal coherences of chaotic and laser light

We demonstrate a new approach to measuring high-order temporal coherences that uses a four-element superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. The four independent, interleaved single-photon-sensitive elements parse a single spatial mode of an optical beam over dimensions smaller than the minimum diffraction-limited spot size. Integrating this device with four-channel time-tagging electronics to generate multi-start, multi-stop histograms enables measurement of temporal coherences up to fourth order for a continuous range of all associated time delays. We observe high-order photon bunching from a chaotic, pseudo-thermal light source, measuring maximum third- and fourth-order coherence values of 5.87 ± 0.17 and 23.1 ± 1.8, respectively, in agreement with the theoretically predicted values of 3! = 6 and 4! = 24. Laser light, by contrast, is confirmed to have coherence values of approximately 1 for second, third and fourth orders at all time delays.
Bacteremic Superinfections of Patients with Bacteremia: Occurrence, Bacteriology, Mortality, and Duration of Hospitalization at Boston City Hospital during 12 Selected Years between 1935 and 1972

During the course of hospitalization of 6,414 patients with bacteremic infections identified at Boston City Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts) during 12 selected years between 1935 and 1972, 6.0% developed verified bacteremic superinfections with organisms not isolated or identified in the primary bacteremic infection. Analysis of these cases reemphasizes the increasing occurrence of serious hospital-acquired infections despite the successive introduction and intensive use of a large number of effective antibacterial agents. The bacteremic superinfections, like the primary hospital-acquired bacteremias, increased in incidence over the years, particularly since 1961; they were more frequent and were associated with a higher mortality rate and longer duration of hospital stay in the primary hospital-acquired cases than in the patients in whom bacteremia was considered to be community-acquired. The organisms in superinfections were similar to those in primary hospital-acquired bacteremias. Superinfection was more frequent among the patients who died than among the survivors.
Ars Rhetorica en Communitas: Reclaiming the Voice of Passionate Expression in Electronic Writing

In this article I intend to share my experiences of teaching writingintensive courses at a large state university with the use of computers.' I want to present my positive experiences to the reader in such a way that will make you want to join me in exploring the myriad of possibilities of teaching with technology: ways that will free us, not constrict us-ways that will enhance learning and dialogue, not provide new ways of shutting down the inquisitive minds of students, but rather of expanding and enhancing all their possibilities and ours. Let me explain at the outset that the technologies I am advocating for teaching writing in writing-intensive literature and folklore courses are largely electronic mail formats and web sites for the distribution of assignments, for syllabi, for student "journal" writing, written assignments and peer reviews, and for the position of hypertext archives for class listservs.2 E-mail discussion listserv formats provide an easy way for everyone in the class to communicate automatically with every other member of the class, as well as with the instructor(s).3 Teachers, teaching assistants, tutors, and students can all be subscribed to the discussion listserv; whenever anyone on the list posts a memo addressed to the listserv, all persons subscribed to the list receive a copy of the entry. The listserv owner (generally, the teacher) controls who can be subscribed to the discussion list and who can participate in this electronic forum and how the discussion will operate. For example, in my descriptions below, I will illustrate how every student journal entry or writing assignment goes automatically to the computers of all the other students and myself. However, when I wish to communicate privately with a student or send her or him a graded paper, I can send that message only to that particular student simply by addressing the note to the individual student rather than to the entire list; similarly, when students are doing peer reviews of other students' papers, for privacy, they can post their comments only to the author of a paper, rather than to the entire class. In this paper I am advocating the use of the e-mail discussion list format because I believe in its capacity to better enable students to write well
Stress-strain isotherms for polymer networks at very high elongations

Some polymer networks show an anomalous increase in the modulus or reduced stress at very high elongations. This behavior has now been investigated definitively by determining stress-strain isotherms for both crystallizable and noncrystallizable networks, prepared using several curing techniques (carried out so as to yield a wide range in degree of cross-linking). The networks were studied unfilled at a number of temperatures, and at several degrees of swelling. The results clearly implicate strain-induced crystallization as the origin of the upturn in the modulus, and thus demonstrate that the wide spread interpretation of this upturn in terms of limited chain extensibility is incorrect.
Should rural residents with colon cancer travel to urban hospitals for colectomy

METHODS: We used Medicare claims data to compare mortality rates with colectomy for cancer in rural vs. urban hospitals in the US from 1994 to 1999. Urban and rural designations were based on Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes. Multiple logistic regression was used to describe the relationship between mortality (combined in-hospital and 30 day) and rural/urban hospital location, controlling for patient and hospital characteristics.
Acousto-photonic imaging

We are developing a new technique for imaging in optically diffuse media, by combining photon-migration imaging [Boas, et. aL], with ultrasound modulation [Wang et. al.].
Phase diagrams of liquid helium mixtures and metamagnets: Experiment and mean field theory

The phase behavior at low temperature, in particular the critical and tricritical properties, of liquid 3He4He mixtures and certain types of metamagnets — a class of highly anisotropic antiferromagnets, such as FeCl2 etc. — is investigated. Since both systems exhibit two successive phase transitions, one of which is a λ-type of transition while the other is a first order transition, special attention is given to the similarity in the behavior of the two systems. In part A first the experimental and earlier theoretical work are briefly reviewed. Then the phase behavior of each system is calculated on the basis of a simple model treated in mean field approximation. The results obtained are in general qualitative agreement with experiment. For the helium mixtures an isotopic mixture of hard-spheres following Fermi and Bose statistics is used, while for the metamagnet a two sublattice spin 12 Ising model with nearest neighbor and next-nearest neighbor interactions is employed. A simple physical argument for the analogous behavior of the two models is given. In part B, in an attempt to obtain a deeper understanding of the similarity of the two systems, the Hamiltonians of the two models are extended to include symmetry breaking fields: a particle source field for the helium mixtures and a staggered magnetic field for the metamagnet. The phase diagrams and critical behavior of the two models in an extended thermodynamic space that includes the symmetry breaking fields are discussed in mean field theory. We find that although the two models (treated in the mean field approximation) are very similar, there are differences near T = 0°K and in some of the critical exponents.
Raman spectra of methyl derivatives of 5'-adenosine monophosphate, tubercidin, inosine, uridine and cytidine. Perturbation of nucleoside vibrations by electrophilic attack at different sites

Abstract Raman spectra have been obtained for 1-methyladenosine-5′-phosphate in H2O and D2O over a wide pH range, and its rearrangement in mild alkali to N6-methyladenosine-5′-phosphate has been followed. Similarly, the spectra of tubercidin (7-deazaadenosine) and 1-methyltubercidin were measured and the latter molecule also was observed to rearrange to the N6-derivative in base. The spectra of 7-methylinosine and of 1,7-dimethylinosine were obtained over a wide pH range in H2O and D2O as were the spectra of 3-methyluridine and 3-methylcytidine. The effect of methylation at different sites on the acidity and the spectra of nucleosides is discussed and compared with the effects of electrophilic attack by the proton, mercury(II) and platinum(II). The ring modes above 1500 cm−1 were observed to vary systematically depending upon the strength of the electrophile. The application of vibrational spectra to the assignment of the sites of electrophilic attack on nucleotides is discussed.
Of Other Scapes: Archaeology, Landscape, and Heterotopia in Fascist Sicily

Foucault’s concept of the “heterotopia” has been applied broadly throughout the humanities and social sciences. Archaeologies of the recent past are well-suited to examine these “other spaces”: blurring the line between past and present while juxtaposing archaeological, archival, and ethnographic data, they can draw attention to the gaps, contradictions, and alternate orderings that make up the world around us. Using the extensive agricultural land reforms and building programs undertaken by Italy’s Fascist government in Sicily in the 1940s as an example, I extend the heterotopia concept to an analysis of archaeological landscapes, critically exploring the benefits and limitations of a heterotopic perspective in archaeological contexts.
(Mis)Representations of Female Slaves in Golden Age Spain: Mariana de Carvajal's Recovery of the Black Female Slave in La industria vence desdenes

Despite the number of recent Golden Age studies that examine feminine figures, the majority of research has been dedicated to analyzing the bourgeois woman and her function as a counterpart to the male figure. However, the lavish lifestyle characteristic of this time period is not sustained through the efforts of bourgeois characters, but rather, through the labor and collaboration of ancillary characters, such as female slaves, that tend to go unperceived by critics. The present article explores the inadequacies existent in Spanish Golden Age representations of black female slaves illustrated by several male authors, and proposes that works written by female authors of the same time period provide a more complete vision of the domestic and social importance of slave women. In order to investigate this proposal more fully, this article explores Mariana de Carvajal's novella La industria vence desdenes (1637), and suggests that Carvajal’s detailed representations of the black female slave’s contributions to domestic affairs distinguish her work from other novellas of the same time period. In this text, the female slave’s multifaceted role unfolds as she acts as a caregiver, domestic servant, cultural ambassador, and intermediary between bourgeois figures. In order to form a base from which readers can fully appreciate Carvajal’s contributions to the representations of the domestic slave, the first part of this study provides preliminary information concerning the historical and literary presence of the black female slave in Golden Age Spain as well as illustrations of this figure in works written by Carvajal’s contemporaries.
Pallidal and cerebellar afferents to pre-supplementary motor area thalamocortical neurons in the owl monkey: A multiple labeling study

In the present study, we determined where thalamic neurons projecting to the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) are located relative to pallidothalamic and cerebellothalamic inputs and nuclear boundaries. We employed a triple-labeling technique in the same owl monkey (Aotus trivirgatus). The cerebellothalamic projections were labeled with injections of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase, and the pallidothalamic projections were labeled with biotinylated dextran amine. The pre-SMA was identified by location and movement patterns evoked by intracortical microstimulation and injected with the retrograde tracer cholera toxin subunit B. Brain sections were processed sequentially using different chromogens to visualize all three tracers in the same section. Alternate sections were processed for Nissl cytoarchitecture or acetylcholinesterase chemoarchitecture for nuclear boundaries. The cerebellar nuclei primarily projected to posterior (VLp), medial (VLx), and dorsal (VLd) divisions of the ventral lateral nucleus; the pallidum largely projected to the anterior division (VLa) of the ventral lateral nucleus and the parvocellular part of the ventral anterior nucleus (VApc). However, we also found zones of overlapping projections, as well as interdigitating foci of pallidal and cerebellar label, particularly in border regions of the VLa and VApc. Thalamic neurons labeled by pre-SMA injections occupied a wide band and were especially concentrated in the VLx and VApc, cerebellar and pallidal territories, respectively. Labeled thalamocortical neurons overlapped cerebellar inputs in the VLd and VApc and overlapped pallidal inputs in the VLa and the ventral medial nucleus. The results demonstrate that inputs from both the cerebellum and globus pallidus are relayed to the pre-SMA.
Pluronic-PEI copolymers enhance exon-skipping of 2'-O-methyl phosphorothioate oligonucleotide in cell culture and dystrophic mdx mice

A series of small-size polyethylenimine (PEI)-conjugated pluronic polycarbamates (PCMs) have been investigated for the ability to modulate the delivery of 2′-O-methyl phosphorothioate RNA (2′-OMePS) in vitro and in dystrophic mdx mice. The PCMs retain strong binding capacity to negatively charged oligomer as demonstrated by agarose gel retardation assay, with the formation of condensed polymer/oligomer complexes at a wide-range weight ratio from 1:1 to 20:1. The condensed polymer/oligomer complexes form 100–300 nm nanoparticles. Exon-skipping effect of 2′-OMePS was dramatically enhanced with the use of the most effective PCMs in comparison with 2′-OMePS alone in both cell culture and in vivo, respectively. More importantly, the effective PCMs, especially those composed of moderate size (2k–5kDa) and intermediate hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (7–23) of pluronics, enhanced exon-skipping of 2′-OMePS with low toxicity as compared with Lipofectamine-2000 in vitro or PEI 25k in vivo. The variability of individual PCM for delivery of antisense oligomer and plasmid DNA indicate the complexity of interaction between polymer and their cargos. Our data demonstrate the potential of PCMs to mediate delivery of modified antisense oligonucleotides to the muscle for treating muscular dystrophy or other appropriate myodegenerative diseases.