cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Primary Central Nervous System Vasculitis Triggered by Cytomegalovirus Encephalitis (P01.231)

OBJECTIVE: To describe a rare case of CNS vasculitis triggered by cytomegalovirus. BACKGROUND: Vasculitis of the central nervous system refers to inflammation of the vessel walls restricted to the brain and the spinal cord. DESIGN/METHODS: We present the case of a 67 year old lady who initially presented with fatigue, drowsiness and confusion. Brain MRI WWO contrast showed an old right parietal stroke, MRA showed “narrowing” of the main trunk of the left middle cerebral artery (MCA) and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was positive for cytomegalovirus (CMV). After antiviral treatment and high doses of steroids, the patient clinically improved. Over the next 6 months, she had 3 recurrent events with confusion, aphasia and weakness of the right upper extremity that partially responded to steroids. RESULTS: Multiple Brain MRIs, and repeat CSF analysis including CMV were normal. Repeat brain MRA did not show the previous "narrowing" of the MCA. Cerebral angiogram, paraneoplastic and autoimmune antibodies were negative. Patient was started on high doses of prednisone and gamma immunoglobulin with improvement. A follow up Brain MRI showed multiple small lacunar acute infarcts in the left corona radiata and subcortical white matter. The patient underwent meningeal and brain biopsy and pathology was suggestive of non-necrotizing vasculitis. No evidence was found for CMV on immunostaining. Cyclophosphamide was started with control of the disease. CONCLUSIONS: Our case is the first reported case in the literature of proven CMV encephalitis triggering a subsequent non-infectious CNS vasculitis probably secondary to an autoimmune response. The absence of findings in the initial MRIs of the brain in spite of an intermittently symptomatic patient and the subsequent development of ischemic infarcts supports the theory of intermittent focal hypoperfusion, finally leading to infarction. The high clinical suspicion even with lack of clear evidence of the disease process and empirical treatment led to a successful clinical recovery. Disclosure: Dr. Rosales has nothing to disclose. Dr. Garcia-Gracia has nothing to disclose. Dr. Salgado has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity from Belvoir Media Group as Consulting Editor of A Special Report published by the editors of Heart Advisor Cleveland Clinic STROKE: Advances in Prevention and Treatment of Cerebrovascular Disease. Dr. Salanga has nothing to disclose.
Steric interference from intrinsically disordered regions controls dynamin-related protein 1 self-assembly during mitochondrial fission

The self-assembling, mechanoenzymatic dynamin superfamily GTPase, dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1), catalyzes mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission. Distinct intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in Drp1 substitute for the canonical pleckstrin homology (PH) domain and proline-rich domain (PRD) of prototypical dynamin, which cooperatively regulate endocytic vesicle scission. Whether the Drp1 IDRs function analogously to the corresponding dynamin domains however remains unknown. We show that an IDR unique to the Drp1 GTPase (G) domain, the 'extended 80-loop', albeit dissimilar in location, structure, and mechanism, functions akin to the dynamin PRD by enabling stable Drp1 mitochondrial recruitment and by suppressing Drp1 cooperative GTPase activity in the absence of specific partner-protein interactions. Correspondingly, we find that another IDR, the Drp1 variable domain (VD), in conjunction with the conserved stalk L1N loop, functions akin to the dynamin PH domain; first, in an 'auto-inhibitory' capacity that restricts Drp1 activity through a long-range steric inhibition of helical inter-rung G-domain dimerization, and second, as a 'fulcrum' for Drp1 self-assembly in the proper helical register. We show that the Drp1 VD is necessary and sufficient for specific Drp1-phospholipid interactions. We further demonstrate that the membrane-dependent VD conformational rearrangement essential for the alleviation of Drp1 auto-inhibition is contingent upon the basal GTP hydrolysis-dependent generation of Drp1 dimers from oligomers in solution. IDRs thus conformationally couple the enzymatic and membrane activities of Drp1 toward membrane fission.
A vision-based architecture for long-term human-robot interaction

Advances in robotics research bring robots closer to real world applications. Although robots have become increasingly capable, productive interaction is still restricted to specialists in the field. In this paper, we propose an interactive architecture, based on visual capabilities, which allows robots to interact with people in a natural way, to deal with multiple users, and to be constantly aware of their surroundings. First, we endow our robot with visual capabilities, which allow it to detect when people are requesting to engage it in interaction. Second, we provide the robot with flexibility in dealing with multiple users, such as to accommodate multiple user-requests and task interruptions, over extended periods. The visual capabilities we propose allow the robot to identify multiple users, with multiple postures, in real-time and in dynamic environments, where both the robot and human users are moving. We demonstrate our approach on a Pioneer 3DX mobile robot, performing service tasks in a real-world environment.
The Focus on Women Veterans Who Use Veterans Administration Health Care: The Veterans Administration Women's Health Project

Women have served in every war and conflict in our history, but the effects of military duty on women are largely unknown. This article discusses the history of women in the military and presents findings from the Veterans Administration Women's Health Project. This study was designed to describe the health-related quality of life of women veterans who receive Veterans Administration ambulatory care. We assessed health status using the Short Form 36, an easily administered 36-item health survey that has been widely used and that has been shown to be reliable and valid. We compared Short Form 36 scores between veteran and nonveteran women. The results indicate that veteran women score lower on every scale compared with nonveteran women.
Isolation and Culture of Astrocytes from the Retina and Optic Nerve

Detailed methods for the preparation of optic nerve head (ONH) astrocytes from human donor eyes and retinal astrocytes from rat eyes are described. Included is the immunopanning method used for ONH astrocyte isolation as well as cell characterization. The isolation of purified retinal astrocytes is outlined as a method applicable to rodent and other mammalian retinas.
Factors differentiating elderly residential movers and nonmovers: a longitudinal analysis.

This paper identifies factors which differentiate elderly residential movers and non-movers. Longitudinal data were used in the analysis. Logistic regression results showed that length of residency, home ownership, use of community support services, and number of adult children each had an effect on relocation. Respondents who reported longer lengths of residency and those who owned a home were less likely to relocate. Those elders who utilized more community support services were also less likely to move. Conversely, elders with greater numbers of adult children were more likely to relocate. There was not a significant effect of health status on relocation.
MR thermometry-guided ultrasound hyperthermia of user-defined regions using the ExAblate prostate ablation array

Hyperthermia therapy (HT) has shown to be an effective adjuvant to radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. In order to be safe and effective, delivery of HT requires maintenance of target tissue temperature within a narrow range (40–44 °C) for 30–60 min, which necessitates conformal heat delivery and accurate temperature monitoring. The goal of this project was to develop an MR thermometry-guided hyperthermia delivery platform based upon the ExAblate prostate array that would achieve uniform stable heating over large volumes within the prostate, while allowing the user to precisely control the power deposition patterns and shape of the region of treatment (ROT). The HT platform incorporates an accelerated multi-slice real time MR thermometry pulse sequence and reconstruction pipeline. Temperature uniformity over a large contiguous area was achieved by multi-point temperature sampling with multi-focal feedback power control. The hyperthermia delivery system was based on an InSightec ExAblate 2100 prostate focused ultrasound ablation system, and HeartVista’s RTHawk real-time MRI system integrated with a 3 T MRI scanner. The integrated system was evaluated in experiments with a tissue-mimicking phantom for prolonged exposures with a target temperature increase of 7 °C from baseline. Five various shapes of the region of treatment, defined on a 5 × 5 grid (35 × 35 mm, 11–25 focal spots per shape), were implemented to evaluate the performance of the system. MR temperature images, acquired after steady state was reached, showed different patterns of heating that closely matched the prescribed regions. Temperature uncertainty of the thermometry acquisition was 0.5 °C. The time to reach the target temperature (2:58–7:44 min) depended on the chosen ROT shape and on the distance from transducer to focal plane. Pre-cooling with circulating water helped to reduce near-field heating. We have implemented a real-time MR thermometry-guided system for hyperthermia delivery within user-defined regions with the ExAblate prostate array and evaluated it in phantom experiments for different shapes and focal depths. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using a commercially available endorectal FUS transducer to perform spatially-conformal hyperthermia therapy and could lead to a new set of exciting applications for these devices.
User insights for design of an antihypertensive medication management application

Hypertension is the most common chronic disease affecting older adults (65+) in the United States. Unfortunately, many struggle to adhere to their antihypertensive medications as only about half diagnosed with the disease have it controlled. Therefore, there is a need for designing supportive medication management systems to aid this population with their antihypertensive medications, especially using increasingly adopted technologies such as smartphones. The preferences of older adults with hypertension must be considered when designing such systems for this population. Six older adults participated in structured interviews to inform the design of the Medication Education, Decision Support, Reminding and Monitoring System (MEDSReM). Results revealed management needs, design insights, and reminder preferences, as well as mostly positive opinions regarding technology use for medication management. These findings informed the development of MEDSReM with the goal of supporting older adults in successfully ma...
“Finding His Way Home”: Tracing Poe’s Solutions in Eureka

“‘Finding His Way Home’: Tracing Poe’s Solutions in Eureka,” by Harry Lee Poe, explores the places of which, in which, and from which Edgar Allan Poe carried out his description of the physical universe and spiritual universe from its beginning as a primordial particle until its end. This exploration traces the development of Western scientific thought from Athens to the major centers of thought in 1848 while exploring the universe from operations of the yet unknown subatomic world to the expansive universe of galaxies. In Eureka, Poe imagined what science would come to understand about the universe before science had the vocabulary, methodology, or technology to examine the universe empirically. Without the necessary tools of science available to him to couch his discussion in scientific terms or formulae, Poe was left to refer to Eureka cryptically as a prose poem.
Aspect based citation sentiment analysis using linguistic patterns for better comprehension of scientific knowledge

An almost unrestrained access to research plethora has emerged with a potential drawback: extracting relevant scientific publications is not a straightforward task anymore. The best way is to search on citation indexes, which also provide large number of pertinent papers and when a paper is focused even then it ascertains thousands of citations. In such a scenario, citation text could be a quintessential indicator in determining the importance and relevancy of paper for the researcher based on different aspects of the cited work such as technique, corpus, method, task, concept, measure, model and tool etc. This paper presents a novel approach to identify aspect level sentiments to reveal the hidden patterns from scholarly big data. The proposed methodology comprises of two levels. At first level, it extracts the aspects from the citation sentences using the pattern of opinionated phrases around the aspect. At the second level, it detects the sentiment polarity of the identified aspect considering nearby words and associates it with the corresponding aspect category based on a linguistic rule-based approach. We consider the words before, after and around the aspect using n-gram based features: ‘N-gram after’, ‘N-gram before’ and ‘N-gram around’. Our results reveal that ‘N-gram around’ feature performed better than other features and the SVM outperformed other considered classifiers for all N-gram models.
Abstract 216: Evolution of Medicare Formulary Coverage Changes for Antithrombotic Therapies after Guideline Revisions

Introduction: The 2014 ACC/AHA/HRS atrial fibrillation (AF) guideline recommends either warfarin or direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) as first-line antithrombotic therapies for patients with non-v...
Policy uncertainty and earnings management: International evidence

Abstract Policy uncertainty (PU) influences the financial and investment decisions of the firm. We use global data to extend the nascent empirical finance literature on policy uncertainty by examining corporate earnings management. We find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty is associated with earnings management. Firms increase (decrease) earnings management (EM) when policy uncertainty is high (low). Our results show that uncertainty induced earnings management is not influenced by national culture or other country-level institutional characteristics. Further, we find that policy uncertainty induced earnings management harms firm value. The observation implies that low-quality financial reporting impairs firm value. Our results withstand a battery of robustness tests, such as removing the effect of general economic uncertainty from the measure of PU and using other measures of earnings management.
The SOXE transcription factors-SOX8, SOX9 and SOX10-share a bi-partite transactivation mechanism.

SOX8, SOX9 and SOX10 compose the SOXE transcription factor group. They govern cell fate and differentiation in many lineages, and mutations impairing their activity cause severe diseases, including campomelic dysplasia (SOX9), sex determination disorders (SOX8 and SOX9) and Waardenburg-Shah syndrome (SOX10). However, incomplete knowledge of their modes of action limits disease understanding. We here uncover that the proteins share a bipartite transactivation mechanism, whereby a transactivation domain in the middle of the proteins (TAM) synergizes with a C-terminal one (TAC). TAM comprises amphipathic α-helices predicted to form a protein-binding pocket and overlapping with minimal transactivation motifs (9-aa-TAD) described in many transcription factors. One 9-aa-TAD sequence includes an evolutionarily conserved and functionally required EΦ[D/E]QYΦ motif. SOXF proteins (SOX7, SOX17 and SOX18) contain an identical motif, suggesting evolution from a common ancestor already harboring this motif, whereas TAC and other transactivating SOX proteins feature only remotely related motifs. Missense variants in this SOXE/SOXF-specific motif are rare in control individuals, but have been detected in cancers, supporting its importance in development and physiology. By deepening understanding of mechanisms underlying the central transactivation function of SOXE proteins, these findings should help further decipher molecular networks essential for development and health and dysregulated in diseases.
Use of CIF for powder diffraction data

The Crystallographic Information Framework (CIF) has been adapted for the storage of powder diffraction data and results with a set of definitions referred to as pdCIF. The history of pdCIF development and a short introduction to the syntax of CIF are presented, as well as details about pdCIF. The processes of creating and reading a pdCIF file are considered, and a survey is given of some of the available free and multi-platform software for these tasks.
Extraperitoneal single-port robot-assisted radical prostatectomy: initial experience and description of technique.

Objective To describe our technique of extraperitoneal single-port (SP) robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and present our clinical experience with the first 10 cases. Patients and methods In all, 10 consecutive patients diagnosed with localised prostate cancer underwent extraperitoneal SP-RARP using the da Vinci SP® Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA). Exclusion criteria included previous surgery through an infra-umbilical midline incision, prostate size >100 g, or preoperative evidence of extraprostatic disease. All surgeries were performed by a single surgeon with previous experience of >3000 cases in robotic surgery. Demographics and perioperative information were collected including: operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), complications, length of stay, and days with Foley catheter. The extraperitoneal SP-RARP is performed as follows. Firstly, a 3-cm incision ~2 cm below the umbilicus is made. Dissection of the extraperitoneal space is achieved using a kidney shaped Spacemaker™ balloon (Covidien, Dublin, Ireland), placed through the infra-umbilical incision caudally reaching the retropubic space. Thereafter, the balloon is deployed; the space is created and verified under direct vision with a laparoscopic endoscope. A GelPOINT® mini advanced access platform (Applied Medical, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, USA) is inserted and a dedicated 25-mm multichannel port is placed with a 12-mm accessory laparoscopic port through the gel-seal cap into the same incision. The da Vinci SP surgical platform robot is docked with the patient in a supine position. RARP is performed replicating the technique previously described for multi-arm platforms or transperitoneal SP-RARP. No drain and no additional assistant ports were utilised. Results The patient's ages ranged between 48 and 70 years, and the mean preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was 9 ng/mL. No conversions or intraoperative complications were recorded. The median (interquartile range) operative time was 197.5 (185.5-229.7) min. EBL ranged between 50 and 400 mL, six patients were discharged on the same day as the surgery and the median time with a Foley catheter after surgery was 8 days. Conclusions Extraperitoneal SP-RARP is a feasible and safe surgical option to treat localised prostate cancer. In our early experience, promising results and possible advantages were found such as: a small single incision, no additional ports, no Trendelenburg positioning, minimal postoperative pain and use of opioids, and same day discharge. Further investigations need to be done to validate these advantages.
Achieving high energy density and high power density with pseudocapacitive materials

Batteries and supercapacitors serve as the basis for electrochemical energy-storage devices. Although both rely on electrochemical processes, their charge-storage mechanisms are dissimilar, giving rise to different energy and power densities. Pseudocapacitive materials store charge through battery-like redox reactions but at fast rates comparable to those of electrochemical double-layer capacitors; these materials, therefore, offer a pathway for achieving both high energy and high power densities. Materials that combine these properties are in demand for the realization of fast-charging electrochemical energy-storage devices capable of delivering high power for long periods of time. In this Review, we describe the fundamental electrochemical properties of pseudocapacitive materials, with emphasis on kinetic processes and distinctions between battery and pseudocapacitive materials. In addition, we discuss the various types of pseudocapacitive materials, highlighting the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic materials; assess device applications; and consider the future prospects for the field. Pseudocapacitive materials can bridge the gap between high-energy-density battery materials and high-power-density electrochemical capacitor materials. In this Review, we examine the electrochemistry and physical signatures of pseudocapacitive charge-storage processes and discuss existing pseudocapacitive materials.
Anesthesia Type is Associated with Decreased Cranial Nerve Injury in Carotid Endarterectomy

Abstract Objectives Anesthesia modalities for carotid endarterectomy continue to vary nationally. We evaluated and compared short-term outcomes after carotid endarterectomy with general (GA) or regional anesthesia (RA) in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Methods The 2011-2015 ACS NSQIP (American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program) Participant Use Data Files (PUF) with merged Vascular Procedure Targeted PUF for carotid endarterectomy were queried for patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. Postoperative complications, mortality and hospital length of stay in patients undergoing general or regional anesthesia were compared. Results A total of 14,447 patients were evaluated: 12,389 (85.7%) with GA and 2,058 (14.3%) with RA. The use of GA was inversely associated with patient’s age (88.0% in patients 22-64 years vs 83.4% in patients >=80 years, P Conclusions Iatrogenic nerve injury is a feared complication of carotid endarterectomy, especially in elective asymptomatic patients. RA reduces the rate of cranial nerve injury compared with GA. RA is also not inferior to GA for postoperative complications with the benefit of shorter operative times, lengths of hospital stay, and decreased 30-day readmission rates. Consideration should be given to more widespread adoption of this underutilized anesthesia modality.
FATTY ACIDS COMPOSITION AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL CONSTANTS OF PUNICA GRANATUM L. SEED OIL:

One of the important sources of essential fatty acids may be products of plant origin, in particular, oils extracted from seeds of wild and cultivated plants. One of these resources is wild-growing Punica granatum. The fatty acid composition of the lipid fractions of the seeds of wild-type pomegranate growing on the territory of Galalti, Siyazan region of the Azerbaijan Republic was assessed by gas chromatography after conversion to the methyl esters of the corresponding fatty acids. The highest oil yield – 12.92% was obtained by the extraction of the seeds at 60 °C for 8 h by Soxhlet extractor. Chromatographic analysis of the fatty oil of pomegranate seeds made it possible to establish the presence of 9 higher fatty acids. The main component of P. granatum seed oil was punicic acid (79.64%). Palmitic and stearic acids were found in small quantities. Content of these fatty acids were 3.29% and 2.43%, respectively. The least amount is accounted for by the share of myristic (0.03%) and heptadecanoic acids (0.03%).The analyses of physico-chemical constants and organoleptic properties of seed oil of P. granatum L. shows that the saponification numbers of wild-type pomegranate was 192.91 that indicates higher solubility of soap in water that can be made from it. The percentage of free fatty acids in our sample was 0.20% and the peroxide value – 3.03. The obtained results allow to consider the seed oil of this plant as good dietary fatty acid source. Thus, this study can provide valuable information for medicine and food industry for the development of drugs and food additives based on Azerbaijan wild-type pomegranate seed oil.
Behavioral Model Anomaly Detection in Automatic Identification Systems (AIS)

Over 90% of all goods in the world, at some point in their life, are carried on a vessel at sea. Currently, the maritime industry relies on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for collision avoidance, vessel tracking, and vessel awareness while operating at sea. AIS is a plaintext, unencrypted, unauthenticated protocol and, as such, is vulnerable to various types of attacks. Malicious actors can alter the AIS location of a vessel by spoofing a vessel or alter the channel the AIS receiver is using to send nefarious information to a vessel privately. With the advent of the Ocean of Things (OoT), vessels are sharing more information than vessel location alone at sea. As this information becomes critical for safe and efficient operation at sea, we in this work present a novel approach of applying machine learning to build behavior models for vessels at sea. These models allow vessels to detect anomalous communication from vessels nearby, thus enable vessels to determine the quality of the messages shared between each other and, more critically, identify malicious vessels' behaviors.
River Dynamics: Geomorphology to Support Management

Rivers are important agents of change that shape the Earth's surface and evolve through time in response to fluctuations in climate and other environmental conditions. They are fundamental in landscape development, and essential for water supply, irrigation, and transportation. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the geomorphological processes that shape rivers and that produce change in the form of rivers. It explores how the dynamics of rivers are being affected by anthropogenic change, including climate change, dam construction, and modification of rivers for flood control and land drainage. It discusses how concern about environmental degradation of rivers has led to the emergence of management strategies to restore and naturalize these systems, and how river management techniques work best when coordinated with the natural dynamics of rivers. This textbook provides an excellent resource for students, researchers, and professionals in fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, river science, and environmental policy.
A Learning-Based Power Management Method for Networked Microgrids Under Incomplete Information

This paper presents an approximate Reinforcement Learning (RL) methodology for bi-level power management of networked Microgrids (MG) in electric distribution systems. In practice, the cooperative agent can have limited or no knowledge of the MG asset behavior and detailed models behind the Point of Common Coupling (PCC). This makes the distribution systems unobservable and impedes conventional optimization solutions for the constrained MG power management problem. To tackle this challenge, we have proposed a bi-level RL framework in a price-based environment. At the higher level, a cooperative agent performs function approximation to predict the behavior of entities under incomplete information of MG parametric models; while at the lower level, each MG provides power-flow-constrained optimal response to price signals. The function approximation scheme is then used within an adaptive RL framework to optimize the price signal as the system load and solar generation change over time. Numerical experiments have verified that, compared to previous works in the literature, the proposed privacy-preserving learning model has better adaptability and enhanced computational speed.
There’s No Such Thing as a Gay Bar: Co-Sexuality and the Neoliberal Branding of Queer Spaces:

Gay bars have historically functioned as communal spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. Because of neoliberalism, LGBTQ+ acceptance continues to rise as “post-gay’’ discourses, coupled with the inclusio...
Re-Framing Disproportionality Research: Outline of a Cultural-Historical Paradigm

In this article, I propose a model to re-frame disproportionality research, which addresses key limitations in this literature. I present a brief overview of the problem and situate it in the historical context in which race and ability became intertwined. I then argue that a cultural-historical understanding of disproportionality requires sustained analytic attention to the historical link between race and ability, the role geographies of opportunity play in racial inequalities in special education, and the management of ecologies of difference in educational contexts.
Training and Incorporating Students in SARS-CoV-2 Case Investigations and Contact Tracing.

ObjectivesIn June 2020, Arizona had the fastest-growing number of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide. As part of the growing public health response, the University of Arizona St...
The role of phase separation on Rayleigh-Plateau type instabilities in alloys

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to investigate the role of phase separation (PS) on the Rayleigh-Plateau (RP) instability. Ni–Ag bulk structures are created at temperatures (...
The child behavior checklist can aid in characterizing suspected comorbid psychopathology in clinically referred youth with ADHD.

Abstract Objective To examine the utility of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to aid in the identification of comorbid psychopathological conditions affecting referred youth with suspected ADHD prior to the evaluation. The CBCL is an easy-to-use assessment tool that may provide invaluable information regarding the severity and characteristics of the presenting complaints. Methods The sample included 332 youths consecutively referred to an ADHD program for the assessment of suspected ADHD. Parents completed the CBCL, parent-rated ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Because of the established association between the CBCL Attention Problems scale and a structured diagnostic interview of ADHD, all youths analyzed had abnormal Attention Problems T-scores (≥60). Results Seventy-six percent of youths with elevated Attention Problems T-scores had ≥3 additional abnormal CBCL scales, suggesting they were likely affected with multiple comorbid psychopathological conditions. Moreover, 44% had ≥1 CBCL clinical scale with a T-score more severe than their Attention Problems T-score, suggesting the putative comorbid condition was more severe than the ADHD symptoms. Additional CBCL scale elevations were associated with more severe functional impairments as assessed by the ASRS, SRS, BRIEF, and CBCL competence scales. Conclusion The CBCL obtained before the clinical assessment identified high rates of comorbid psychopathology in youths referred for the assessment of ADHD. It provided detailed information about the types and severity of suspected psychopathological conditions impacting a particular youth, which is critical to guide the assessing clinician on likely differing needs of the affected child.
Nanoparticle promoted solution treatment by reducing segregation in AA7034

Abstract The zinc-rich aluminum alloy AA7034 offers the highest tensile strength among all commercial aluminum alloys. However, the commercial AA7034 alloy was produced by Rapid Solidification. At a slow cooling rate, the high-alloying of AA7034 produces coarse secondary phases, causing severe segregation at interdendritic regions, and difficulties in later solution treatment. Nano-treating, by introducing a small volume fraction of nanoparticles, was applied to AA7034 alloy to successfully modify the microstructure and promote solution treatment at a slow cooling rate of 0.25 K/s. Primary phases were refined and the volume fraction of eutectic phases was modified. A modified local solute redistribution equation (LSRE) was applied to show how nanoparticles change the volume fraction of the eutectic phase by altering the viscosity of the liquid and the permeability of the coherent solid network in the terminal stage of solidification. In particular, by adding 1.0 to 2.0 vol percent of nanoparticles, the eutectic phases were not only refined and much more homogeneously distributed, but also their volume fractions were reduced by 24.5% and 30.1% respectively after down-hill casting. The modified microstructures enabled by nanoparticles allowed an accelerated solution treatment as well. The dissolution of the refined and distributed secondary phases was more complete during solution treatment. The nano-treated AA7034 also exhibited high strength and reasonable ductility after extrusion and heat treatment. The nano-treating approach has great potential to make conventional casting applicable to the difficult-to-cast/heat-treatable alloys through refined microstructure and promoted solution treatment.
Why Does Genocide Occur

Since genocide is a topic crossing many academic disciplines there is no single theoretical explanation for why genocide occurs. The many different disciplines examining genocide have offered many different theories of genocide. These theories though can be categorized and grouped together in certain ways.
NLRP3 inhibition attenuates early brain injury and delayed cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Background The NLRP3 inflammasome is a critical mediator of several vascular diseases through positive regulation of proinflammatory pathways. In this study, we defined the role of NLRP3 in both the acute and delayed phases following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). SAH is associated with devastating early brain injury (EBI) in the acute phase, and those that survive remain at risk for developing delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) due to cerebral vasospasm. Current therapies are not effective in preventing the morbidity and mortality associated with EBI and DCI. NLRP3 activation is known to drive IL-1β production and stimulate microglia reactivity, both hallmarks of SAH pathology; thus, we hypothesized that inhibition of NLRP3 could alleviate SAH-induced vascular dysfunction and functional deficits. Methods We studied NLRP3 in an anterior circulation autologous blood injection model of SAH in mice. Mice were randomized to either sham surgery + vehicle, SAH + vehicle, or SAH + MCC950 (a selective NLRP3 inhibitor). The acute phase was studied at 1 day post-SAH and delayed phase at 5 days post-SAH. Results NLRP3 inhibition improved outcomes at both 1 and 5 days post-SAH. In the acute (1 day post-SAH) phase, NLRP3 inhibition attenuated cerebral edema, tight junction disruption, microthrombosis, and microglial reactive morphology shift. Further, we observed a decrease in apoptosis of neurons in mice treated with MCC950. NLRP3 inhibition also prevented middle cerebral artery vasospasm in the delayed (5 days post-SAH) phase and blunted SAH-induced sensorimotor deficits. Conclusions We demonstrate a novel association between NLRP3-mediated neuroinflammation and cerebrovascular dysfunction in both the early and delayed phases after SAH. MCC950 and other NLRP3 inhibitors could be promising tools in the development of therapeutics for EBI and DCI.
Wound infection caused by Branhamella catarrhalis.

Abstract Branhamella catarrhalis was isolated from sputum, tracheal secretions, and a nonhealing and infected thoracic surgical wound in a 59-year-old woman who had a history of a chronic, interstitial fibrosis and who had undergone an open lung biopsy procedure. The patient's upper respiratory tract was the likely source of the organism. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a wound infection caused by B. catarrhalis.
HENNIG86 and PAUP are reliable: A reply to Lorenzen and Sieg

Recently Lorenzen and Sieg (1991) criticized cladistic computer programs as unreliable because they fail to find “all most parsimonious trees of relationships” and they find “wrong” ones. These authors suggest criteria which a “perfect parsimony program” should meet. Their analysis is flawed because of their: 1. peculiar definition of parsimony and relationship, 2. use of an outdated version of PAUP, and 3. misinterpretation of the programs' output. It is shown that PAUP and HENNIG86 by and large meet their criteria and find all most parsimonious cladograms for the hypothetical data set used by Lorenzen and Sieg. Zusammenfassung In einer kurzlich publizierten Arbeit charakterisieren Lorenzen und Sieg kladistische Computer-Programme als nicht zuverlassig, weil sie nicht nur nicht alle sparsamsten Stammbaume finden, sondern zudem auch falsche Stammbaume produzieren. Lorenzen und Sieg schlagen Kriterien vor, die von “perfekten kladistischen Programmen” erfullt werden sollen. Ihre Kritik ist verfehlt, weil sie letztlich das Resultat einer 1. ungebrauchlichen Definition vom Sparsamkeitsprinzip und Verwandtschaftsdiagramm ist, 2. in ihrer Studie eine veraltete Version von PAUP benutzt haben und 3. die Ergebnisdateien der Programme falsch ausgewertet haben. Es wird gezeigt, das PAUP und HENNIG 86 die von Lorenzen und Sieg aufgestellten Kriterien weitestgehend erfullen und alle sparsamsten Stammbaume fur den hypothetischen Datensatz finden, den Lorenzen und Sieg in ihrer Arbeit verwendeten.
Neuron doctrine and electrophysiology.

The neuron doctrine, which we chiefly owe to Cajal (1), was unquestionably a giant stride forward in the understanding of the substratum of nervous function. It forms the basis of all modem work on the nervous system. It asserts that the nerve cell and its processes, together called the neuron, form the cellular units of the nervous system which are directly involved in nervous function; that all nerve fibers are neuronal processes; that the neuron and all its extensions develop embryologically from a single neuroblast; and that the neuron is a trophic unit, all its processes being dependent upon the nucleated cell body for their maintenance and regeneration. Although this is not inherent in the original anatomical concept, the neuron has classically come to be regarded as a functional unit, and it is here that newer information forces a reappraisal.
Deification, Demonization and Dispossession: Reconciliation and the Hopeful Sizwe

Many regard South Africa’s reconciliation process as a model for a search for peace in and among nations. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission played an admirable part in this. However, problems remain in continuing and completing this reconciliation project. For many the failure to secure social justice through reconciliation remains one challenge. At issue is also how South Africans deal with their fractured and painful past. This article revisits issues of culpability and responsibility by asking whether a primary obstacle towards reconciliation might be that South Africans, instead of taking personal and collective responsibility for reconciliation, have hidden behind two major and completely opposite South African figures: Nelson Mandela and Eugene De Kock. It is argued that the ‘deification’ of Mandela and the ‘demonization’ of De Kock pose an important obstacle for the acceptance of culpability and responsibility for addressing historic wrongs with a view to true reconciliation.
Self-Control and Impulsiveness in Nondieting Adult Human Females: Effects of Visual Food Cues and Food Deprivation

Self-control can be defined as the choice of a larger, more delayed rein-forcer over a smaller, less delayed reinforcer, and impulsiveness as the opposite. Previous research suggests that exposure to visual food cues affects adult humans’ self-control. Previous research also suggests that food deprivation decreases adult humans’ self-control. The present experiment used 11 adult human females who were not currently dieting to explore the interactive effects of visual food cues and food deprivation on choice behavior in a self-control paradigm. The results demonstrate that exposure to visual food cues, in conjunction with food deprivation, has significant effects on self-control for food reinforcers in adults who are not dieting. Specifically, when food cues were absent, participants demonstrated significantly more self-control when deprived than when not deprived. No significant differences were found when food cues were present.
Calculation of the effect of slit size on emittance measurements made by a two-slit scanner

Parallel slit-slit devices are commonly used to measure the transverse emittance of a particle beam, selecting a portion of the beam with the front slit and measuring the angular distribution with the rear. This paper calculates the effect of finite slit sizes on measured emittance and Twiss functions in the case of Gaussian spatial and angular distributions of the oncoming beam. A formula for recovering the true emittance from the measured values is derived.
Causes of Fluctuating Mortality in Romania

During the post-communist transition, Romanians experienced some of the highest mortality rates in eastern Europe, some of the greatest fluctuations in life expectancy and some of the greatest delays in recovery. This study examines the shifts in cause-specific mortality underlying these fluctuations. Using demographic methods to understand the peaks and troughs in life expectancy during the past twenty years, we explore several explanations for these fluctuations: changes in exposure and behaviour associated with the social, economic and political changes; changes in health care affecting amenable causes of death and the progression of the epidemiologic transition. Throughout this period, there is a continuing shift from infectious towards chronic diseases mortality. Psycho-social stress during the period of transition affected survival, evidenced by increases in suicides and differences in mortality between men and women. Amenable causes of death took a greater toll on life expectancy, and increases in tuberculosis and congenital heart abnormality mortality provide evidence of a weakening of health services. However, decreases in vaccine-preventable mortality demonstrate that the health system did not fully fail. Policy changes also affected survival, including decreasing abortion-related mortality and, after initial increases in accidental mortality, new improvements, especially in traffic fatalities.
The Mechanism of Action of Sucrose Phosphorylase: ISOLATION AND PROPERTIES OF A β-LINKED COVALENT GLUCOSE-ENZYME COMPLEX

When sucrose phosphorylase reacts with sucrose, a covalent glucose-enzyme complex can be isolated. In one case, the complex was isolated by rapidly denaturing the enzyme under acidic conditions. In the other case, the complex was isolated by chemically modifying the protein with NaIO4 after addition of the substrate. The NaIO4-modified complex maintains the ability to transfer the glucosyl group to acceptors with an acceptor specificity that resembles the native enzyme. The rate of reaction is approximately 1/20,000 that of the native enzyme. Pepsin digestion of both types of complexes produces positively charged, glucose-containing fragments, presumably peptides. The linkage between glucose and peptides as well as between glucose and enzyme is extremely base labile. For the glucosyl-peptides, t½ of glucose release at pH 6.0 is 80 min at 25°. When glucose is released from glucosyl peptides in 75% methanol, only glucose and no methyl glucoside is formed. It was concluded that glucose must be linked to the peptide through an oxygen atom contributed by the peptide and that the C-1 glucose oxygen bond was not broken during solvolysis. The glucose released from the peptides has the β configuration. Therefore, formation of the glucose-enzyme complex proceeds with inversion of configuration at the C-1 atom of the glucosyl moiety of sucrose. This fact, together with the isolation of a glucose-enzyme complex, provides support for the hypothesis that sucrose phosphorylase functions through a double replacement mechanism with intermediate formation of a β-linked glucose-enzyme complex.
Identification of Propionate as a Degradation Product of Phytanic Acid Oxidation in Rat and Human Tissues

Abstract Previous studies have shown that the major pathway for degradation of phytanic acid (3,7,11,15-tetramethylhexadecanoic acid) in rat liver and human skin fibroblasts involves an initial α decarboxylation. Identification of a series of homologous catabolic products led to the postulation of a pathway continuing via successive subsequent β oxidations. This would be expected to yield propionate fragments at the points of methyl substitution. In the present studies, [14C]propionate was characterized and quantified as a transient intermediate accumulating during degradation of [U-14C]phytanate in a particulate fraction of rat liver. Definitive demonstration of propionate as a major product was obtained using mutant lines of human fibroblasts from patients with inherited disorders blocking propionate oxidation (propionic acidemia and methylmalonic acidemia). Up to 5% of the added [U-14C]phytanate accumulated as [14C]propionate or [14C]methylmalonate in such cultures, actually exceeding the yield of 14CO2. Little or no propionate accumulated when [1-14C]palmitate was added as substrate excluding resynthesis. This evidence for direct generation of propionate from phytanate strongly supports the pathway involving α oxidation followed by successive classical β oxidation.
Complete cDNA sequence of a human dioxin-inducible mRNA identifies a new gene subfamily of cytochrome P450 that maps to chromosome 2.

Previously, levels of a novel human mRNA, detected by a recombinant cDNA designated clone 1, were shown to be increased 50-fold in response to treatment of a keratinocyte cell line with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), in part as a function of increased rates of gene transcription (Sutter, T.R., Guzman, K., Dold, K.M., and Greenlee, W.F. (1991) Science 254, 415-418). Here we report the complete corresponding 5.1-kilobase cDNA sequence. A single open reading frame that predicts a protein of 543 amino acid residues was determined by computer-assisted analysis of the cDNA sequence. This predicted protein identifies a new gene subfamily of cytochrome P450, cytochrome P4501B1 (CYP1B1), that maps to human chromosome 2. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA indicates that the human CYP1B subfamily is likely to contain only this single gene. Northern blot analysis of RNA isolated from primary cultures of normal human epidermal keratinocytes showed approximately 100-fold increased levels of the CYP1B1 mRNA after treatment with 10 nM TCDD for 24 h. Low levels of constitutive CYP1B1 mRNA were detected in 15 different human tissue samples. These results indicate that CYP1B1 is expressed in many normal human tissues and advance our understanding of the complexity of a gene family of cytochromes P450 whose expression is altered by TCDD.
Different age distribution patterns of human, nematode, and Arabidopsis duplicate genes

We studied the age distribution of duplicate genes in each of four eukaryotic genomes: human, Arabidopsis thaliana, Caenorhabditis elegans, and Drosophila melanogaster. The four distributions differ greatly from each other, contrary to the previous proposal of a universal L-shaped distribution in all eukaryotic genomes studied. Indeed, only the distribution in humans is L-shaped. The distribution in Arabidopsis is consistent with the hypothesis of an ancient genome duplication with no recent burst of duplication events, while the distribution in C. elegans is nearly uniform. We also applied a nonparametric method to the human distribution to show that the rate of loss of duplicate genes decreases over time, contrary to the proposal of an exponential decay. One possible explanation of the decreasing rate of loss of duplicate genes over time could be rapid functional divergence between duplicate genes, providing an advantage for the retention of both duplicates.