cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Current spine surgery in North America : progress or violation ?

We physicians are the drivers, the people who select the patients, the people who do the operations, and the people who encourage the instrument companies; it is our responsibility to oversee both the effectiveness of treatment and its cost. The resources available to neurosurgery for improving care, controlling cost, and promoting research include the following. 1. The outstanding spinal neurosurgeons actively participating in excellent clinical care and research, neurosurgeons in training, and neurosurgeons committed to excellence. 2. A commitment by neurosurgery to improve the plight of the patients with spinal disorders. 3. Support from instrument and drug companies and national funding. 4. A medical wave of support for outcome studies and clinical trials. 5. A proven track record in doing clinical trials and a clear indication that others are in process. 6. The knowledge, abilities, and energies of neurosurgeons. Our liabilities include the following. 1. Irresponsible behavior by a few professionals. 2. The negative effects of competition with non-neurosurgical spinal surgeons. We must obtain their support in many of these clinical trials. 3. Inertia. It is much easier to take the path of least resistance, much easier to choose the course of economic incentive. Perhaps, out of all of this, spinal neurosurgery will lead the way to developing a better understanding of the natural history of degenerative diseases of the spine and the way to selecting patients properly on the basis of studies of the efficacy of appropriate surgery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Competing Interactions in DNA Assembly on Graphene

We study the patterns that short strands of single-stranded DNA form on the top graphene surface of graphite. We find that the DNA assembles into two distinct patterns, small spherical particles and elongated networks. Known interaction models based on DNA-graphene binding, hydrophobic interactions, or models based on the purine/pyrimidine nature of the bases do not explain our observed crossover in pattern formation. We argue that the observed assembly behavior is caused by a crossover in the competition between base-base pi stacking and base-graphene pi stacking and we infer a critical crossover energy of eV. The experiments therefore provide a projective measurement of the base-base interaction strength.
The glucocorticoid hormone signal transduction pathway in mice homozygous for chromosomal deletions causing failure of cell type-specific inducible gene expression.

Abstract Wild-type newborn mice are characterized by the ability of certain liver-specific genes encoding various enzymes and mapping on different chromosomes to respond to glucocorticoid induction. Newborn mice homozygous for deletions at and around the albino locus on chromosome 7 fail to develop this competence for hormone-inducible gene expression even through they do show normal constitutive expression of the same genes. Studies of the glucocorticoid hormone signal transduction pathway reported here show identical expression of glucocorticoid receptor mRNA and protein in deletion homozygotes and normal littermates. Furthermore, the receptor interacts normally with the 90-kDa heat shock protein hsp90. Elevated glucocorticoid hormone levels in newborn deletion homozygotes, most likely resulting from their stressed condition, provide an explanation for the reduced binding activities of receptors reported previously. The elimination of receptors and hormones as direct targets of the chromosomal deletion effects suggests that the failure of inducible gene expression might reside in defective competence of the affected structural genes to respond to the hormonal stimulus.
A near-optimal heuristic for the sequencing problem in multiple-batch flow-shops with small equal sublots

In this paper, we consider the lot-streaming problem of sequencing a set of batches, to be processed in equal sublots, in a flow-shop, so as to minimize makespan. A new heuristic procedure, called the bottleneck minimal idleness heuristic, is developed. Results of an experimental study are presented. It is shown that the proposed procedure generates solutions that are very close to the optimal solutions, and that the solutions generated are better than those obtained by using the fast insertion heuristic, considered to be a good heuristic for solving the flow-shop scheduling problem, when applied to the problem on hand.
Measuring the quality of dying and death: methodological considerations and recent findings.

Purpose of review While the need to improve the quality of dying and death in critical settings has been well accepted, there is less agreement on which measures and criteria are best used to assess it. In this article, we present methodological considerations and recent findings that pertain to the measurement of the quality of dying and death. Recent findings Research evaluating the quality of dying and death employs measures based on professionally determined criteria as well as measures relying on patient and family-centered standards. Professionally determined measures include assessments of resource consumption (e.g., length of stay, costs of care, technology utilization) and processes of care (e.g., do-not-resuscitate orders, family conferences). Studies of interventions designed to improve end-of-life care have shown positive changes in these outcomes. Patient and family-centered measures (e.g., quality of dying and death questionnaires, quality of end-of-life care questionnaires) have been used less often in intervention studies but, in descriptive studies, have shown important associations with factors related to a ‘good death’. Summary These findings suggest a need to integrate both types of measures in research on the quality of end-of-life experiences. This integration, with attention to important methodological issues, may represent a significant step toward improving patients' experiences at the end-of-life.
Separation of memory cell subpopulations by complement receptors: in vivo analysis

The appearance of complement receptors (CR) on memory B cells was used as a measure of memory cell maturation. At various times after priming, lymphocytes were separated by rosette formation (EAC-RFC) and Ficoll-Hypaque separation followed by transfer to carrier-primed, irradiated recipients. The relative contribution of the CR+ and CR− memory cells to the total memory cell response was then calculated using the amount of antibody produced, corrected for the yield and number of B cells in each fraction. Using this technique, the following results were obtained: (a) in agreement with other investigators, the mature memory cell population is composed of both CR+ and CR− cells; (b) early after immunization (2 and 4 weeks), the predominate memory cell population is CR−, while later (6 to 8 months) the CR+ cells can contribute an average of 50% of the response; (c) at all times tested, the CR− B cell population was greatly enriched for memory cell activity, and (d) the shift from CR+ to CR− by some of the memory cells seemed to accompany a change in cell size.
Conceptual development of the immune system as a sixth sense

Understanding how and why the immune and nervous systems communicate in a bidirectional pathway has been fundamental to the development of the psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) field. This review will discuss some of the pivotal results that found the nervous and immune systems use a common chemical language for intra and inter-system communication. Specifically the nervous and immune systems produce a common set of peptide and nonpeptide neurotransmitters and cytokines that provides a common repertoire of receptors and ligands between the two systems. These studies led to the concept that through the sharing of ligands and receptors the immune system could serve as a sixth sense to detect things the body cannot otherwise hear, see, smell, taste or touch. Pathogens, tumors, and allergens are detected with great sensitivity and specificity by the immune system. As a sixth sense the immune system is a means to signal and mobilize the body to respond to these types of challenges. The paper will also review in a chronological manner some of the PNI-related studies important to validating the sixth sense concept. Finally, the review will suggest ways to apply the new found knowledge of the sixth sense to understanding a placebo effect and developing new therapeutic approaches for treatment of human diseases.
Patterns of Forest Damage in a Southern Mississippi Landscape Caused by Hurricane Katrina

Understanding and predicting the ways in which large and intense hurricanes affect ecosystem structure, composition and function is important for the successful management of coastal forest ecosystems. In this research, we categorized forest damage resulting from Hurricane Katrina into four classes (none, low, moderate, heavy) for nearly 450 plots in a 153,000 ha landscape in southern Mississippi, USA, using a combination of air photo interpretation and field sampling. We then developed predictive damage models using single tree classification tree analysis (CTA) and stochastic gradient boosting (SGB) and examined the importance of variables addressing storm meteorology, stand conditions, and site characteristics in predicting forest damage. Overall damage classification accuracies for a training dataset (n = 337 plots) were 72 and 81% for the single tree and SGB models, respectively, with Cohen’s weighted linear κ values of 0.71 and 0.86. For an independent validation dataset (n = 112 plots), classification accuracy dropped to 57% (κ = 0.65) and 56% (κ = 0.63) for the single tree and SGB models. Proportions of agreement between observed and predicted damage were significantly greater (P < 0.05) than would be expected by chance alone for all damage classes with the training data and all but the moderate class for the validation data. Stand age was clearly the best predictor of damage for both models, with forest type, stand condition, site aspect, and distance to the nearest perennial stream also explaining much of the variation in forest damage. Measures of storm meteorology (duration and steadiness of hurricane-force winds; maximum sustained winds) were of secondary importance. The forest-wide application of our CTA model provided a realistic, spatially detailed map of predicted damage while also maintaining a relatively high degree of accuracy. The study also provides a first step toward the development of models identifying the susceptibility of forest stands to future events that could be used as an aid to incorporating the effects of large infrequent disturbances into forest management activities.
A need for critical evaluation of automatic microtitration machines.

Abstract A method for evaluation and standardization of microtitration machines using isotopically labeled protein is discussed.
The N -body problem of celestial mechanics

A selective survey of then-body problem of celestial mechanics is given where the emphasis is on the asymptotic behavior of all solutions ast→∞, the possible configurations the particles can assume in phase space and in physical space, and collision and non-collision singularities.
What can ecological science tell us about opportunities for carbon sequestration on arid rangelands in the United States

Scientific interest in carbon sequestration on rangelands is largely driven by their extent, while the interest of ranchers in the United States centers on opportunities to enhance revenue streams. Rangelands cover approximately 30% of the earth's ice-free land surface and hold an equivalent amount of the world's terrestrial carbon. Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, and savannas and cover 312 million hectares in the United States. On the arid and semi-arid sites typical of rangelands annual fluxes are small and unpredictable over time and space, varying primarily with precipitation, but also with soils and vegetation. There is broad scientific consensus that non-equilibrium ecological models better explain the dynamics of such rangelands than equilibrium models, yet current and proposed carbon sequestration policies and associated grazing management recommendations in the United States often do not incorporate this developing scientific understanding of rangeland dynamics. Carbon uptake on arid and semi-arid rangelands is most often controlled by abiotic factors not easily changed by management of grazing or vegetation. Additionality may be impossible to achieve consistently through management on rangelands near the more xeric end of a rangeland climatic gradient. This point is illustrated by a preliminary examination of efforts to develop voluntary cap and trade markets for carbon credits in the United States, and options including payment for ecosystem services or avoided conversion, and carbon taxation. A preliminary analysis focusing on cap and trade and payment for avoided conversion or ecosystem services illustrates the misalignment between policies targeting vegetation management for enhanced carbon uptake and non-equilibrium carbon dynamics on arid United States rangelands. It is possible that current proposed carbon policy as exemplified by carbon credit exchange or offsets will result in a net increase in emissions, as well as investment in failed management. Rather than focusing on annual fluxes, policy and management initiatives should seek long-term protection of rangelands and rangeland soils to conserve carbon, and a broader range of environmental and social benefits.
Implementation Of A Generic Blackboard Architecture

The development of general purpose expert system tools has led to a decrease in the development time of application oriented expert systems. Recently, the need for communicating expert systems has spurred interest in the blackboard architecture. Until blackboard systems are relatively easy to implement; however, their use will be restricted to knowledge engineers willing to write their system from the ground up. This paper describes the development of a blackboard architecture in the Generic Expert System Tool (GEST) developed by the Artificial Intelligence Branch of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. GEST has been developed as a general purpose tool applicable to a wide variety of application domains. Recently, GEST has been enhanced by incorporating a blackboard architecture which allows several GEST expert systems to cooperate with one another. This paper outlines GEST's _software architecture, including its knowledge representation schemes, control sturctures, and blackboard.
Information and energy flow in a simple nervous system

Abstract A quantal model developed earlier by the authors is recast in terms of common macroscopic variables and applied to the well-documented T, P, N/L, AE neuron network of a leech ganglion. The electrical potential of a neuron (φ) and the ion potentials ( φ a ) for Na + , K + , Cl − and Ca 2+ are featured, though it proves possible to reduce the resulting set of coupled non-linear diffusion equations to a single pair whose admissible solutions are defined by a simple algebraic dispersion relation. Less than 30 s is required to solve the system for a functional interval of 2·25 s on a CYBER 175 computer using a modified Runge-Kutta algorithm, the program for which is given. Irreversible effects are included but reversibility is stressed, since the neurons are seen to exchange energy with their environment only in the immediate neighborhood of firing peaks. Plasma oscillations, resulting from a disruption of the Debye layer, offer a sound physical mechanism whereby transient currents and ion exchanges of the observed magnitudes may be generated. The total energy H and information rate Γ I transferred across the neural membrane are also calculated in terms of φ and φ a . It is shown that while φ is determined primarily by the K + potential, Γ I depends mainly on the Ca 2+ potential together with its time derivatives, and H depends on both the K + and Ca 2+ potentials. This also makes it possible, not only to compare φ ( t ) solutions for each of the neurons in the incrementally-loaded network to experimental measurements of φ( t ) made for similar stimulus levels, but also to trace the correlated flows of energy and information through the system. Nearly all of the distinctive features of the experimental curves are reproduced, despite the presence of such complexities as wide variations in pulse frequencies and amplitudes, sudden suppression of firing in one neuron when another begins to fire, refractory phases of different durations, and facilitation building to plateau values only slightly less than peak amplitudes for the sensory neurons. While both the energy and information curves possess sharp maxima which coincide with the firing pulses of the potential curves, those for Γ I ( t ) are bimodal with rounded maxima that must represent transmissions associated with ion motions instead of polarization effects. In the case of the L and AE neurons, these curves exhibit a series of discrete energy/information packets that could easily produce the proportional increases in muscle tension actually observed.
Identity politics and the end of the Reagan era

On November 6, CNN exit polls seemed to confirm what many political scientists, pundits, and the Obama and Romney campaigns had said all along: the most important issue to voters in the 2012 presid...
Radiographic validity of transcranial Doppler cerebral blood flow velocity measurement

The validity of Transcranial Doppler cerebral blood flow velocity (TCD) as an index of cerebral blood flow hinges on the assumption that the insonated cerebral vessel diameters do not change (outside the circumstances of vasospasm). This assumption has been challenged 1 particularly when considering the sensitivity and specificity of TCD to pathological and anesthesia induced changes in CBF. Accordingly we examined changes in both TCD flow velocities and angiographically derived cerebral artery diameters, in patients undergoing elective cerebral artery aneurysmal coiling, with crossover from a vasoconstrictor to a vasodilator anesthetic.
Using social media data to understand and assess disasters

This paper contributes to the understanding of disasters from the perspective of social media activities. We develop a measure based on Twitter activities that can be used to quantify the evolution of disasters and thus demonstrate temporal–spatial patterns of Twitter activities particularly near the coastline and in large urban areas during Hurricane Sandy. We also show a close relationship between hurricane damages and Twitter activities. Our findings suggest the potential of using social media activities for rapid damage assessment.
Multi-nucleon transfer spectroscopy in the shell model

Abstract Formulas for calculating multi-nucleon transfer spectroscopic amplitudes tailored for use with the Rochester-Oak Ridge shell-model computer programs are presented. Expressions are given for the evaluation of three- and four-particle coefficients of fractional parentage. Predictions of α-particle spectroscopic factors for 58 Ni + α → 62 Zn , 60 Ni + α → 64 Zn , and 40 Ca + α → 44 Ti are compared with experiment.
Electrical conductivity techniques for studying the kinetics of radiation-induced chemical reactions in aqueous solutions

Abstract This paper reviews the work of the author and his co-workers in the field of conductivity measurements on pulse-irradiated aqueous solutions. The first part deals with the development of various techniques. After a discussion of the general principles of transient conductivity measurements and some sources of error, the author describes (1) a rotating-sector apparatus used with an X-ray machine, (2) an arrangement for measurements at a 15-MeV linac and its adaptation to a 2·3-MeV Febetron accelerator and (3) a photoflash-conductivity apparatus. In the second part, applications of these techniques to the study of some radiation-chemical problems are reviewed. The problems dealt with are: (1) the diffusion coefficient of the hydrated electron, (2) formation and decay of H + and OH - and (3) formation and decay of O 2 - . Some previously unpublished results are reported.
The Effects of Receiving Help: Gender Differences in Motivation and Performance.

This study examined gender differences among Caucasian college students in reactions to receiving unsolicited help from a similar peer on an educational task. We found that women, but not men, were more likely to attribute their relatively poor performance to a lack of ability when they received help than when they did not. Also, women who received help performed better on a subsequent, unrelated task than women who did not receive help. In contrast, men who received help spent less time on the subsequent task and performed worse on it than men who did not receive help. Implications of the results for the threat to self-esteem model [A. Nadler (1986) “Self-Esteem and the Seeking and Receiving of Help: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives,” in B. A. Maher and N. B. Maher (Eds.), Progress in Experimental Personality Research (Vol. 14), New York, Academic Press] and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Abduction, experience, and goals: a model of everyday abductive explanation

Abstract Many abductive understanding systems generate explanations by a backwards chaining process that is neutral both to the explainer's previous experience in similar situations and to why the explainer is attempting to explain. This article examines the relationship of such models to an approach that uses case-based reasoning to generate explanations. In this case-based model, the generation of abductive explanations is focused by prior experience and by goal-based criteria reflecting current information needs. The article analyses the commitments and contributions of this case-based model as applied to the task of building good explanations of anomalous events in everyday understanding. The article identifies six central issues for abductive explanation, compares how these issues are addressed in traditional and case-based explanation models, and discusses benefits of the case-based approach for facilitating generation of plausible and useful explanations in domains that are complex and imperfectly ...
Ignition dynamics of fully reactive propellant in stagnation flow

The ignition dynamics of a reactive homogeneous propellant immersed in a hot, reactive, low subsonic flow is solved numerically for the stagnation point. The solution includes the entire ignition process from the onset of the flow to the attainment of steady burning under steady flow. The gas phase equations are of the nonsteady boundary-layer type, including freestream nonsteadiness. The reactive gas phase is coupled to the reactive condensed phase which has reactant depletion and surface regression. Ignition delay times and dynamics are calculated for variations in flow velocity, pressure, temperature, freestream oxidizer content, condensed phase activation energy and heat of reaction, and initial propellant temperature. The transition from one steady burning state to another after a pressure pulse is also investigated. Conditions are identified when dominance shifts from the condensed phase to the gas phase. Excursions of the condensed phase reaction front cause fluctuations of the surface temperature (hence, regression rates) before steady burning. In marginal cases (e.g., low initial propellant temperature), the excursions trigger a low-frequency, ignition-extinction sequence.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae-induced rash and mucositis as a syndrome distinct from Stevens-Johnson syndrome and erythema multiforme: a systematic review.

Background Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection is associated with extrapulmonary complications, including mucocutaneous eruptions. These eruptions, which have been termed either "Stevens-Johnson syndrome" or "erythema multiforme" in the literature, may differ from drug-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome or viral-associated erythema multiforme. Objective We sought to review the literature characterizing morphology and disease course of M pneumoniae-associated mucocutaneous disease. Methods A comprehensive literature search identified 95 articles with 202 cases. Results Patients were often young (mean age: 11.9 years) and male (66%). Cutaneous involvement ranged from absent (34%), to sparse (47%), to moderate (19%). Oral, ocular, and urogenital mucositis was reported in 94%, 82%, and 63% of cases, respectively. Treatments included antibiotics (80%), systemic corticosteroids (35%), supportive care alone (8%), and/or intravenous immunoglobulin (8%). Complications included mucosal damage (10%), cutaneous scarring (5.6%), recurrence (8%), and mortality (3%). Limitations Mild cases may not have been published; thus this review may have a bias toward more severe disease. Conclusion M pneumoniae-associated mucocutaneous disease has prominent mucositis and sparse cutaneous involvement, although cutaneous involvement varies. Because of the distinct morphology, mild disease course, and potentially important clinical implications regarding treatment, we propose a revision of the nomenclature system and suggest the term "Mycoplasma-induced rash and mucositis" for these cases.
Chord-based versus voxel-based methods of electron transport in the skeletal tissues

Anatomic models needed for internal dose assessment have traditionally been developed using mathematical surface equations to define organ boundaries, shapes, and their positions within the body. Many researchers, however, are now advocating the use of tomographic models created from segmented patient computed tomography(CT) or magnetic resonance (MR) scans. In the skeleton, however, the tissue structures of the bone trabeculae, marrow cavities, and endosteal layer are exceedingly small and of complex shape, and thus do not lend themselves easily to either stylistic representations or in-vivo CTimaging. Historically, the problem of modeling the skeletal tissues has been addressed through the development of chord-based methods of radiation particle transport, as given by studies at the University of Leeds(Leeds, UK) using a 44 - year male subject. We have proposed an alternative approach to skeletal dosimetry in which excised sections of marrow-intact cadaver spongiosa are imaged directly via microCT scanning. The cadaver selected for initial investigation of this technique was a 66 - year male subject of nominal body mass index ( 22.7 kg m − 2 ) . The objectives of the present study were to compare chord-based versus voxel-based methods of skeletal dosimetry using data from the UF 66 - year male subject. Good agreement between chord-based and voxel-based transport was noted for marrow irradiation by either bone surface or bone volume sources up to 500 – 1000 keV (depending upon the skeletal site). In contrast, chord-based models of electron transport yielded consistently lower values of the self-absorbed fraction to marrow tissues than seen under voxel-based transport at energies above 100 keV , a feature directly attributed to the inability of chord-based models to account for nonlinear electron trajectories. Significant differences were also noted in the dosimetry of the endosteal layer (for all source tissues), with chord-based transport predicting a higher fraction of energy deposition than given by voxel-based transport (average factor of about 1.6). The study supports future use of voxel-based skeletal models which (1) permit nonlinear electron trajectories across the skeletal tissues, (2) do not rely on mathematical algorithms for treating the endosteal tissue layer, and (3) do not implicitly assume independence of marrow and bone trajectories as is the case for chord-based skeletal models.
EFFECTS OF ENHANCEMENT SOLUTION RECYCLING ON MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF BEEF STRIP LOINS

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine whether recycling of the enhancement solution would increase the microbial load in the solution and in enhanced steaks, and whether sodium lactate (SL) or a sodium lactate/diacetate mixture would counteract this microbial buildup. Strip loins were cut into 7.5-cm-thick strip steaks, then inoculated with 104 cfu/mL Escherichia coli K12. Five steaks were injected to 110% over initial weight with each of three enhancement solutions: 0.4% salt + 0.4% phosphate (C; control), salt + phosphate + 3% SL or salt + phosphate + SL + 0.25% sodium diacetate. After injection, the enhancement solution runoff from the steaks was returned to the feed tank, and the injection process was repeated three more times recycling the solution each time. Total plate counts (TPCs) and coliform counts were determined on the enhancement solution runoff from the steaks, the enhancement solution in the feed tank and the enhanced steaks. Shelf life-enhancing ingredients had no inhibitory effects on the initial TPCs when compared with the control. The enhancement solution feed tank had significantly more total bacteria after each recycling round than during the previous recycling round. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Total plate counts (TPCs) in steaks were affected by both enhancement solution ingredients and by the number of times the enhancement solution was recycled. Steaks had higher TPCs after the solution had been recycled two or three times than prior to recycling or after the solution was recycled once. Steaks enhanced with the salt + phosphate (no shelf life enhancers) solution had higher TPCs than those enhanced with the solutions containing sodium lactate and sodium lactate/sodium diacetate. Using shelf life enhancers in enhancement solutions had positive effects on plate counts. Recycling, possibly because of microbial dilution, did not appear to result in buildup of microbes.
Io: Thermal models and chemical evolution

A combined thermal and chemical evolution model of Io is presented, outlining limits on the possible starting materials, heating history, chemical history, and present state of Io. Our best scenario starts with Io being accreted from material in a proto-Jovian nebula which condensed between 400-600 K. Radionuclides and tidal heating would lead to large-scale convection within Io and chemical reactions leading to the outgassing of water and methane. Reactions between Fe(0)-FeS and water, at least near the surface, go to completion, resulting in all Fe being oxidized with elemental sulfur producing a low-conductivity crust. In the deep interior, these reactions may not completely exhaust Fe metal, and an FeS-rich core may be formed.
PRIMITIVE BALLADS, MODERN CRITICISM, ANCIENT SKEPTICISM: MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME

O NE OF THE BEST selling volumes of Victorian verse, as Donald Gray has shown, was Thomas Babington Macaulay’s The Lays of Ancient Rome first published in 1842 ( Complete Writings 19: 167–279). For a generation after its publication, the Lays also generally enjoyed the praise of critics and poets. 1 But in 1860, just months after Macaulay had been interred in Poets’ Corner, Matthew Arnold offered up the Lays as a touchstone of the grandly bad. In his lectures On Translating Homer, Arnold said that “a man’s power to detect the ring of false metal in those Lays is a good measure of his fitness to give an opinion about poetical matters at all” (1: 211). Arnold’s put-down was echoed in later works such as Thomas Humphry Ward’s multi-volume anthology The English Poets (1880), which opened with Arnold’s essay “The Study of Poetry.” Ward cited the continuing popularity of the Lays, but he pointed out that “the higher critical authorities have pronounced against them, and are even teaching us to wonder whether they can be called poetry at all. They find in the Lays the same faults which mar the author’s prose — commonplaceness of ideas, cheapness of sentiment and imagery, made to prevail by dint of the writer’s irresistible command of a new rhetorical force; in a word, eloquent Philistinism” (4: 540).
Genetics of Cd36 and the Hypertension Metabolic Syndrome

Although genetic mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for complex traits related to hypertension is relatively straightforward, the identification of QTL at the molecular level has proven far more difficult. By combining techniques of gene mapping and gene expression profiling with studies in congenic and transgenic strains, a specific molecular defect in the Cd36 fatty acid transporter has been identified that contributes to the pathogenesis of 2 complex traits in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), namely, insulin resistance and disordered fatty acid metabolism. After mapping QTL linked to insulin resistance and dyslipidemia to the telomeric region of SHR chromosome 4, gene expression studies were used to identify candidate genes within the target chromosome segment that were differentially expressed in white adipose tissue between SHR congenic strains. This led to the identification of a major mutation in the SHR gene encoding Cd36, a fatty acid transporter involved in the transmembrane transport of long-chain fatty acids. The role for mutant Cd36 in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia was confirmed by rescuing the abnormal metabolic phenotypes through transgenic expression of wild-type Cd36 on the SHR background. These findings show that a primary defect in fatty acid transport can promote disordered carbohydrate metabolism in the SHR and show the power of advanced genome technologies for identifying QTL at the molecular level.
Addition of choice of complementary therapies to usual care for acute low back pain: a randomized controlled trial.

STUDY DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness and cost of usual care plus patient choice of acupuncture, chiropractic, or massage therapy (choice) compared with usual care alone in patients with acute low back pain (LBP). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Few studies have evaluated care models with facilitated access to and financial coverage for adjunctive complementary and alternative medicine therapies. METHODS: A total of 444 patients with acute LBP (<21 days) were recruited from 4 clinical sites and randomized into 2 groups: usual care or choice. Outcomes included symptoms (bothersomeness), functional status (Roland), and satisfaction between baseline and 5 weeks, and cost of medical care in the 12 weeks after randomization. RESULTS: After 5 weeks, providing patients with a choice did not yield clinically important reductions in symptoms (median -4, [interquartile range -7, -2] for usual care, and -5 [-7, -3] for choice; P = 0.002) or improvements in functional status (-8 [-13, -2] for usual care, and -9 [-15, -4] for choice; P = 0.15). Although there was a significantly greater satisfaction with care in the choice group, this came at a net increase in costs of 244 dollars per patient. This consisted of a 99 dollars reduction in the average cost to the insurer for medical care but an additional cost of 343 dollars, for an average of 6.0 complementary and alternative medicine treatments per patient. CONCLUSIONS: A model of care that offered access to a choice of complementary and alternative medicine therapies for acute LBP did not result in clinically significant improvements in symptom relief or functional restoration. This model was associated with greater patient satisfaction but increased total costs. Future evaluations of this choice model should focus on patients with chronic conditions (including chronic back pain) for which conventional medical care is often costly and of limited benefit.
Compensation Committee Composition as a Determinant of Ceo Compensation

Extant research examining the relationship between a firm's board and its CEO's compensation has focused primarily on the composition of the board-at-large. However, it may be the nature of the com...
Two- and three-dimensional prenatal sonographic diagnosis of hepatic cysts.

We describe the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional multiplanar sonographic diagnosis and characterization of isolated hepatic cysts in 2 fetuses. Two-dimensional imaging of a fetus at 36 weeks' gestation revealed 2 right upper quadrant cystic masses anterior to the gallbladder, demonstrating no peristalsis or blood flow. Postnatal sonographic examination confirmed 2 simple hepatic cysts. Two- and three-dimensional sonograms suggested 2 hepatic cysts in a 23-week-old fetus that resolved by 33 weeks' gestation. In reporting 2 unusual cases of prenatally diagnosed fetal hepatic cysts, we also demonstrate the diagnostic use of 3-dimensional multiplanar imaging. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound, 2009
Fault tolerant aggregation in heterogeneous sensor networks

Fault tolerance and scalability are important considerations in the design of sensor network applications. Data aggregation is an essential operation in sensor networks. Multiple techniques have been proposed recently to tackle the issues of scalability and fault tolerance of aggregation in sensor networks. In this article, we analyze the impact of using a few of the more reliable, though expensive, nodes-such as the Intel XScale-called microservers, in addition to the standard motes, on the fault tolerance and scalability of the aggregation algorithms in sensor networks. In particular, we propose a simple model that captures the essence of tree aggregation in such heterogeneous sensor networks. We validate this theoretical model with simulation results. We also study the effective impact on the sustainable probability of failure, and perform cost-benefit analysis. We also show how hybrid aggregation can be utilized instead of tree, to improve the performance of aggregation in heterogeneous sensor networks. We show that our work can be applied for effectively optimizing the use of expensive hardware while designing fault-tolerant, distributed sensor networks.
Pressure and temperature dependences of the ionic conductivities of cubic and orthorhombic lead fluoride (PbF2)

Abstract A detailed study of the effects of temperature and hydrostatic pressure on the ionic conductivity of PbF 2 in both the cubic (Fm3m-O h 5 ) and orthorhombic (Pmnb-V 2 h 16 ) phases was performed with some emphasis on the changes in conductivity accompanying the transition between the two phases. Both phases exhibit relatively high conductivities and become supersonic conductors at high temperatures. As a function of temperature, the conductivity in both phases exhibits a number of activated regions (or stages). Measurements on a variety of samples with different impurities, along with earlier published data, have allowed a determination of the conduction mechanism in the various stages. The activation energies for the motion of F − ion vacancies and interstittals as well as the formation energies of Frenkel defects in the two phases were determined. These energies are relatively small, compared, e.g. with other crystals having the fluorite structure (Fm3m-O h 5 ), and this can be explained in terms of the large dielectric constants and relatively soft phonons in PbF 2 . The conductivity decreases with pressure in all stages, primarily as a result of the increase in activation energies. The pressure results allow a determination of the activation volumes associated with the various conduction mechanisms. The magnitudes of these volumes (∼2–7 cm 3 /mole) are consistent with values determined from either the strain energy model or an approximate dynamical model. Differences in the activation volumes for the different conduction mechanisms and between the two phases can be qualitatively understood on the basis of the details of the crystal structures.
Applications of organic geochemistry to paleolimnological reconstructions: a summary of examples from the Laurentian Great Lakes

The organic matter content of lake sediments contains information that helps to reconstruct past environmental conditions, evaluate histories of climate change, and assess impacts of humans on local ecosystems. The elemental, isotopic, and molecular compositions of organic matter buried in sediment provide evidence of the biota that have lived in a lake and its catchment area, and they serve as proxies of organic matter delivery and accumulation. Sedimentary records from the North American Great Lakes provide examples of applications of organic geochemistry to paleolimnological reconstructions. The records of these lakes date from retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet around 12 ka, include the mid-Holocene Hypsithermal, and show consequences of recent human changes. Low Corg/Ntotal ratios indicate that most of the sediment organic matter in the Great Lakes is from algal production, yet changes in biomarker molecule compositions also show that varying amounts of land-plant organic matter have been delivered to the lakes. Elevated algal productivity that accompanies nutrient enrichments of lake waters is recorded as excursions to less negative δ13C values in the organic matter of sediments that were deposited in the 1960s and 1970s. Increased organic carbon mass accumulation rates mirror the isotopic excursions in most parts of the Great Lakes. Accumulations of petroleum residues and pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments identify fluvial and eolian delivery of organic matter components to different parts of the Great Lakes. Emerging applications of multiple and novel organic geochemical proxies to paleolimnological reconstructions are promising, yet some potentially important measurements remain underutilized.
Sr isotopic fractionation in Ca-Al inclusions from the Allende meteorite

True relative Sr isotopic compositions, determined by double spiking on Ca–Al inclusions from the Allende meteorite show up to 1.5‰ per mass unit mass fractionation relative to the Earth and bulk chondrites. All abnormal inclusions are light-isotope enriched. A lack of isotopically heavy Sr in inclusions would place constraints on the time, place and mechanism of origin of these objects.
Estimates of selection and gene flow from measures of cline width and linkage disequilibrium in heliconius hybrid zones.

Hybrid zones can yield estimates of natural selection and gene flow. The width of a cline in gene frequency is approximately proportional to gene flow (sigma) divided by the square root of per-locus selection (square root of s). Gene flow also causes gametic correlations (linkage disequilibria) between genes that differ across hybrid zones. Correlations are stronger when the hybrid zone is narrow, and rise to a maximum roughly equal to s. Thus cline width and gametic correlations combine to give estimates of gene flow and selection. These indirect measures of sigma and s are especially useful because they can be made from collections, and require no field experiments. The method was applied to hybrid zones between color pattern races in a pair of Peruvian Heliconius butterfly species. The species are Mullerian mimics of one another, and both show the same changes in warning color pattern across their respective hybrid zones. The expectations of cline width and gametic correlation were generated using simulations of clines stabilized by strong frequency-dependent selection. In the hybrid zone in Heliconius erato, clines at three major color pattern loci were between 8.5 and 10.2 km wide, and the pairwise gametic correlations peaked at R approximately 0.35. These measures suggest that s approximately 0.23 per locus, and that sigma approximately 2.6 km. In erato, the shapes of the clines agreed with that expected on the basis of dominance. Heliconius melpomene has a nearly coincident hybrid zone. In this species, cline widths at four major color pattern loci varied between 11.7 and 13.4 km. Pairwise gametic correlations peaked near R approximately 1.00 for tightly linked genes, and at R approximately 0.40 for unlinked genes, giving s approximately 0.25 per locus and sigma approximately 3.7 km. In melpomene, cline shapes did not perfectly fit theoretical shapes based on dominance; this deviation might be explained by long-distance migration and/or strong epistasis. Compared with erato, sample sizes in melpomene are lower and the genetics of its color patterns are less well understood. In spite of these problems, selection and gene flow are clearly of the same order of magnitude in the two species. The relatively high per locus selection coefficients agree with "major gene" theories for the evolution of Mullerian mimicry, but the genetic architecture of the color patterns does not. These results show that the genetics and evolution of mimicry are still only sketchily understood.
Grass Trumps Trees with Fire

Ecologists have long assumed that forests, savannas, and grasslands change gradually over space and time, with tree cover responding linearly to gradients in precipitation, aridity, fire disturbance, and grazing pressure. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that these biomes are self-reinforcing and that transitions between them can be nonlinear, governed by feedbacks at local and regional scales ( 1 – 3 ). Two reports in this issue, by Staver et al. on page 230 ( 4 ) and by Hirota et al. on page 232 ( 5 ), find evidence for these feedbacks and transitions at the global scale. These results suggest that global climate change will be substantially influenced by nonlinear behaviors and feedbacks between biophysical and human systems.
Wandering off the Road to the End of Child Labor

In conventional development discourse, western concern for overworked children follows a root/branch mapping: the ‘root cause’ of child labor is seen as poverty, and child labor, in turn, becomes a cause of economic vulnerability and ‘lost childhood’. Such analysis fails to consider the ways in which children's subjectivities and practical work have already been shaped by neoliberal discourses. This article contributes to an emerging critique of conventional western notions of childhood in relation to global capitalist development by re-visiting the category of child labor, through a Deleuzian lens. The analysis will employ images of working children and policy texts to explore the ways in which they territorialize the working child. In particular, the author draws upon the metaphor of the rhizome and notions of becoming, in an effort to open an alternative cartography of children's work, exploring what work the category of child labor does in international policy discourse and what's at stake in its unse...
Effects of Co-Products and Breed of Sire on the Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Rates of Ultrasound Backfat and Marbling Deposition in Feedlot Cattle

ABSTRACT Recently, high prices have driven producers to replace corn partially or totally with more affordable ingredients. A total of 1,256 DNA-validated progeny from Angus (n = 241), Simmental (n = 599), Simmental × Angus (SA; n = 296), and 75% Simmental (75S; n = 120) sires were used to evaluate the effects of feedlot nutrition and sire breed on the performance, carcass characteristics, and rates of ultrasound backfat and marbling deposition in feedlot cattle. Diets included corn or a corn co-product: dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), fresh wet distillers grains, wet corn gluten feed, stored wet distillers grains, or dried corn gluten feed. Dry matter intake for steers fed the co-product diets increased by approximately 8% compared with that of steers fed the high-corn diet. Steers fed the corn co-product diets had greater (P 0.05) in the amount of marbling deposited per centimeter of backfat (184 marbling score units/cm of backfat). This study indicates that co-product diets had less effect on performance and carcass quality than did breed of sire.