cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Biodiverse Histoplasma Species Elicit Distinct Patterns of Pulmonary Inflammation following Sublethal Infection.

ABSTRACT Histoplasma is an endemic dimorphic fungus that can cause disease in healthy and immunocompromised individuals after the transition of inhaled spores into the facultative intracellular yeast form. There is substantial diversity among Histoplasma species, but it is not clear how this heterogeneity impacts the progression of pathology and cellular immune responses during acute respiratory infection, which represents the vast majority of histoplasmosis disease burden. After inoculating mice intranasally with a sublethal inoculum, we characterized the immune response to Histoplasma capsulatum (strain G186A) and Histoplasma ohiense (strain G217B) using comprehensive flow cytometric and single-cell analyses. Within 8 days after inoculation, H. ohiense induced a significantly higher infiltration of neutrophils and inflammatory monocytes into the lung compared to H. capsulatum. Microscopic analysis of infected lung tissue revealed that although the total number of fungi was similar within inflamed lung lesions, we observed different species-dependent intracellular yeast distribution patterns. Inoculation with gfp-expressing strains indicated that H. ohiense, but not H. capsulatum, was associated primarily with alveolar macrophages early after infection. Interestingly, we observed a significant reduction in the total number of alveolar macrophages 12 to 16 days after H. ohiense, but not H. capsulatum infection, despite similar intracellular growth dynamics within AMJ2-C11 alveolar macrophages in vitro. Together, our data suggest that H. ohiense, but not H. capsulatum, preferentially interacts with alveolar macrophages early after infection, which may lead to a different course of inflammation and resolution despite similar rates of fungal clearance. IMPORTANCE Acute pulmonary histoplasmosis in healthy individuals comprises most of the disease burden caused by the fungal pathogen Histoplasma. Fungal pneumonia is frequently delayed in diagnosis and treatment due to a prolonged period of quiescence early during infection. In this study, we used a murine respiratory model of histoplasmosis to investigate how different Histoplasma species modulate lung inflammation throughout the complete course of infection. We propose that a relatively low, sublethal inoculum is ideal to model acute pulmonary histoplasmosis in humans, primarily due to the quiescent stage of fungal growth that occurs in the lungs of mice prior to the initiation of inflammation. Our results reveal the unique course of lung immunity associated with divergent species of Histoplasma and imply that the progression of clinical disease is considerably more heterogeneous than previously recognized.
Fairness in Risk Assessment Instruments: Post-Processing to Achieve Counterfactual Equalized Odds

Algorithmic fairness is a topic of increasing concern both within research communities and among the general public. Conventional fairness criteria place restrictions on the joint distribution of a sensitive feature $A$, an outcome $Y$, and a predictor $S$. For example, the criterion of equalized odds requires that $S$ be conditionally independent of $A$ given $Y$, or equivalently, when all three variables are binary, that the false positive and false negative rates of the predictor be the same for two levels of $A$. However, fairness criteria based around observable $Y$ are misleading when applied to Risk Assessment Instruments (RAIs), such as predictors designed to estimate the risk of recidivism or child neglect. It has been argued instead that RAIs ought to be trained and evaluated with respect to potential outcomes $Y^0$. Here, $Y^0$ represents the outcome that would be observed under no intervention--for example, whether recidivism would occur if a defendant were to be released pretrial. In this paper, we develop a method to post-process an existing binary predictor to satisfy approximate counterfactual equalized odds, which requires $S$ to be nearly conditionally independent of $A$ given $Y^0$, within a tolerance specified by the user. Our predictor converges to an optimal fair predictor at $\sqrt{n}$ rates under appropriate assumptions. We propose doubly robust estimators of the risk and fairness properties of a fixed post-processed predictor, and we show that they are $\sqrt{n}$-consistent and asymptotically normal under appropriate assumptions.
Perioperative Errors Contributing to Implant Failure

Summary Perioperative errors potentially can lead to the failure of endosseous implants. Such errors are easily avoidable when appropriate attention is given to the regional anatomy and the application of sound surgical principles. Obeying the tenets of good surgical technique (inherent in all surgical operations) should not be difficult for the oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Errors made preoperatively, postoperatively, and in the restorative stages of implant reconstruction can lead to case failure. Intraoperative surgical misadventures that interfere with osseointegration or implant alignment are critical factors that determine treatment outcome.
Evaluation of equine corneal disease using ultrasound biomicroscopy

Objective To describe the clinical use of ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) to evaluate equine corneal disease. Methods Images were obtained using a 50-MHz probe ultrasound biomicroscopy system (Quantel Aviso) and Clear Scan® probe cover. Six horses with corneal disease were evaluated via UBM for lesion size, lesion depth, and continuity of Descemet's membrane. Horses were sedated and received auriculopalpebral nerve blocks and application of topical anesthetic prior to UBM. Results Ultrasound biomicroscopy was easily performed in all cases. UBM evaluation of three cases of corneo-limbal squamous cell carcinoma yielded information regarding lesion depth for planning of keratectomies using fixed-depth keratomes and subsequent β-radiation therapy. Corneal depth and continuity of Descemet's membrane were determined in two horses with stromal abscesses and allowed for planning of therapeutic options. In one horse with a corneal foreign body, UBM contributed to accurate assessment of the foreign body's stromal depth, which could not be assessed during ophthalmic examination due to extensive corneal cellular infiltrate. The information regarding corneal depth allowed for more accurate pre-surgical planning in patients with opaque corneal lesions. Conclusions Ultrasound biomicroscopy was easily performed and provided useful information regarding lesion depth and continuity of Descemet's membrane for patients with corneo-limbal squamous cell carcinoma, stromal abscesses, and a corneal foreign body, allowing for increased precision in pre-surgical planning and development of therapeutic protocols.
Visitors and values: A qualitative analysis of agritourism operator motivations across the U.S.

Owners of small- and medium-sized farms are increasingly interested in engaging in agritourism and direct sales in order to increase income, provide family employment, and educate the public about agriculture, among other reasons. Prior research on agritourism operator motivations largely focuses on economic goals and benefits, while acknowledging the strong influence of non-economic factors. However, more research is needed to better understand the nuances and breadth of non-economic motivations underlying agritourism operator decisions. In addition, research on U.S. agritourism tends to be at the state level, which raises questions about overall national trends and inter-study comparability. To address these gaps, we analyzed transcripts from semistructured interviews with small- and medium-sized farm owners engaged in agritourism from five states across the U.S. We examined the results through the theoretical lens of Allport’s “contact hypothesis” in order to further understand how agritourism helps operators meet stated goals. Our results suggest that consistent with previous literature, nonmonetary motivations are high priorities for farmers engaged in agritourism. In particular, motivations related to community engagement/leadership and quality-of-life emerged as forceful and reoccurring themes. We found that although Allport’s contact hypothesis holds some important explanatory power for understanding agritourism operators’ community-related goals—including reducing prejudice and increasing understanding between farmers and consumers in relation to agriculture—increased inter-group contact also has potential to create new conflicts between farmers and neighbors related to tourism. These findings have important implications for future research as well as for policies and programs aimed at supporting agritourism. Note Correction published on August 21, 2021, to replace references to Allport’s conflict hypothesis to the correct contact hypothesis.
Chapter 6 Radiative Effects of Clouds on Earth's Climate

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the radiative effects of clouds on Earth's climate. Suspensions of liquid water and ice in the atmosphere have a dramatic influence on the reflection and absorption of solar radiation and on the emission and absorption of terrestrial radiation. These radiative effects of clouds are important for the energy balance of Earth, and for physical, dynamical, chemical, and biological processes within the climate system. Cloud radiative effects reduce seasonal variations in the two hemispheres, because the cloud forcing reduces the amplitude of the annual cycle in hemispheric net radiation, primarily by reducing the absorption of solar radiation during summer. Cloud radiative effects change the overall planetary energy budget and are important in determining the distribution of energy between the atmosphere and the surface. Because the cloud-free atmosphere is relatively transparent to solar radiation and opaque to terrestrial radiation, the reflection of solar radiation by clouds affects the surface energy budget most directly, and the reduction in longwave cooling is felt primarily as a reduction in energy lost from the atmosphere. In this respect convective clouds are self-limiting to some extent, because their radiative effects reduce the radiative destabilization of the atmosphere that generates the need for convection.
Psychotropic Medication Consultation in Schools: An Ethical and Legal Dilemma for School Psychologists.

Abstract Assessing, consulting, and intervening with students being treated with psychotropic medications is an increasingly common activity for school psychologists. This article reviews some of the literature providing evidence for the greater need for training in school psychopharmacology. A legal and ethical case study is presented that highlights the complexity of medication issues for school psychologists. Training programs are encouraged to examine current curricular requirements to insure that graduates are exposed to evidenced-based treatments including pharmacological approaches. It is vital that school psychologists examine their own competencies as they work to ethically and legally consult with families and physicians to improve adaptive functioning in school-aged populations.
Comparison of jamming robustness of airborne networking waveforms

Many future airborne networks will be built around the software-defined joint tactical radio system (JTRS). Because of the programmability of JTRS, planners of these networks will have a great deal of flexibility in their selection of waveforms. There can be a wide variation in the properties of the candidate waveforms, such as data rate, spectral efficiency, latency, and protection against jamming. In order to choose those waveforms which best meet mission needs, these capabilities must be understood. Because of the nodes' high altitudes and use of omnidirectional antennas, airborne networks can be particularly susceptible to jamming. In this paper, we investigate the performance of three representative waveforms in the presence of hostile jamming. One waveform is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a multicarrier modulation technique. The second uses single-carrier direct-sequence spread-spectrum modulation. Finally, a waveform based on the legacy Link 16 system, which uses a combination of frequency-hop and direct-sequence spread spectrum, is considered. Quantitative results comparing the performance of these waveforms against several jamming threats, including tone, partial-band, and frequency-follower jamming, are presented, and techniques to improve their robustness to the interference are considered.
Three-dimensional reconstruction

Three-dimensional reconstruction of cross-sectional imaging data is gaining increasing acceptance by clinicians. Some applications have been introduced in routine imaging. These applications are summarised and discussed. In order to yield a three-dimensional rendered image several steps such as preprocessing, segmentation, interpolation and rendering are necessary, and various modifications of each step are possible. The technical possibilities in each step are summarised and described.
An architecture for multischeming in digital libraries

In this paper we discuss the problem of handling many classification schemes within the context of a single digital library, which we term multischeming. This includes the tasks of representing which category describes an object in the digital library as well as understanding the browsing process which is performed by the user in this setting. We motivate this problem as related to digital library interoperability, and propose an architecture for representation of classification schemes in the digital library which solves it. We also discuss its implementation in the CITIDEL project.
Online migration for geo-distributed storage systems

We consider the problem of migrating user data between data centers. We introduce distributed storage overlays, a simple abstraction that represents data as stacked layers in different places. Overlays can be readily used to cache data objects, migrate these caches, and migrate the home of data objects.We implement overlays as part of a key-value object store called Nomad, designed to span many data centers. Using Nomad, we compare overlays against commonmigration approaches and show that overlays are more flexible and impose less overhead. To drive migration decisions, we propose policies for predicting the location of future accesses, focusing on a web mail application.We evaluate themigration policies using real traces of user activity from Hotmail.
Co-Insights framework for collaborative decision support and tacit knowledge transfer

An agent-based model for collaborative and collective insights in decision making.Beyond decision support, Co-Insights framework facilitates tacit knowledge transfer.Ant colony-based task-participant matching algorithm forms dynamic decision teams.Neural network algorithm discovers robust patterns in participant-tool matching.Developed algorithms improve decision making performance and decision quality. Abundant software tools use visual analytics (VA) techniques to support various decisions with the aim of boosting better insights. Large organizations, however, lose efficiency in selecting the right tools to support the persons who apply the tools to various decision tasks. Consequently, the creation and sharing of insights are far from optimal, leading consistently to sub-optimal decisions. In this work, the Co-Insights framework is introduced with automated collaboration support features to enable effective creation and sharing of distributed insights. A collaboration network (Co-Net) is established to model the collaborative decision making process in an organization. Two important features of the Co-Insights framework are developed: collaborative agent allocation analysis (CA3) for task-participant matching; and a robust mechanism for the recommendation of selected VA tools, by participant-tool matching. Thus, by better matching of tasks and tools with participants, the creation and sharing of insights are improved in any collaborative team for better decision making, accompanied with the tacit knowledge transfer to sustain the entire organization. To validate the effectiveness of these two main features, two experiments built on the Co-Net model are performed to test the newly developed algorithms. It has been found that CA3 significantly improves the matching scores by up to 35%, compared with conventional task-participant matching methods. The neural network based participant-tool matching mechanism yields robust results with 4% mismatches for 10% noise levels, and with 16% mismatches for 30% noise levels. Real case applications and implications are described, and further plans to extend this new framework are also outlined based on the reported experiments and evaluations.
Outcomes of Basic Versus Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergencies

Although advanced life support is used preferentially for emergency medical transportation, whether outcomes are better with basic life support is not known. To compare short- and long-term surviva...
Electric propulsion - Past history and future prospects

Studies of feasibility and flight mechanics of electric propulsion systems began around 1946. Conceptual systems design started in 1954, experimental developments in 1958; flight tests in 1964 and 1970 proved the functioning of electric thrusters in space. Further development of ion thruster systems has concentrated on bombardment ionization in the U.S., and on radiofrequency, bombardment, and surface contact ionization in West Germany, Great Britain, France and Russia. Electrothermal, plasma, and colloid thruster development has been pursued in many contries. Electric thrusters were used successfully during past years for satellite attitude control, and for prime propulsion of the Russian spacecraft Yantar. Further applications for attitude and position control of satellites are planned. Studies are presently underway for solar electric missions to planets, planetary moons, comets, asteroids, and toward the sun, and also for missions in near-earth space involving transfer, servicing, and repair of orbiting spacecraft.
Effect of Vehicle Dielectric Properties on Rectal Absorption of Acetaminophen

The rectal absorption of acetaminophen from an aqueous suspension, a propylene glycol suspension, and a theobroma oil suppository was measured by urinary excretion. The results are discussed in terms of their relationship to the dielectric constants of the vehicles.
Stomatal responses to light in the facultative Crassulacean acid metabolism species, Portulacaria afra

Guard cell responses to light are mediated by guard cell chlorophyll and by a specific blue light photoreceptor. Gas exchange and epidermal peel techniques were employed to investigate these responses in the facultative Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) species, Portulacaria afra (L.) Jacq. In P. afra individuals performing C3 metabolism, red light stimulated an increase in leaf conductance in intact leaves and stomatal opening in isolated epidermal peels, indicating the presence in guard cells of the chlorophyll-mediated response to light. Under a background of continuous red illumination, conductance exhibited transient increases following pulses of blue but not red light, indicating that the specific stomatal response to blue light was also operative. In contrast, in CAM individuals, conductance in gas exchange experiments and stomatal opening in epidermal peel experiments were not stimulated by red light. In CAM plants, conductance did not increase following blue light pulses administered over a range of temperatures, vapor pressure differences (VPD), ambient CO2 concentrations and background red light intensities. These results indicate that P. afra does possess typical guard cell responses to light when performing C3 metabolism. The metabolic pathways mediating these responses are either lost or inhibited when CAM is induced.
Essential concepts in the optical properties of quantum dot molecules

Here we review the basic optical spectra of quantum dot molecules. We apply a simple and straightforward model to calculate charge stability regions in vertically coupled double dot molecules that are embedded in a Schottky diode. This model allows us to relate features in the optical spectrum to the diode structure. The underlying concepts allow one to design quantum dot molecules functionalized for optical operations.
New Product Entries and Product Class Demand

Because new products are critical to success and survival, the evaluation of new product ideas receives much attention. In the early stages of product development, concept evaluation models are used to predict market share and/or sales of hypothetical product concepts. These models have focused on consumer preferences, brand choice, and market share. Individual demand or usage rates have been considered exogenous. This paper presents a concept evaluation model which considers the effects of a new product on both market share and demand for the product class. A conceptual framework for the relationship between new product entries and product class demand is presented and then formulated into a mathematical model. An empirical application of the model illustrates some of the possible methods for model estimation and testing.
Customer satisfaction assessment for “internal” suppliers

Customer satisfaction assessment is now widely recognized as a vital input to any strategy for customer focused business performance improvement. The need to improve responsiveness and reduce overheads is focusing management attention on the major internal business functions such as IT. Argues that these functions, threatened with major cost reductions or outsourcing, are increasingly feeling the need to understand better their customers business needs and to assess how successful they are in satisfying them. Any customer satisfaction assessment tool must recognize the varying needs of individual “customers” within the “customer” organizations. Data collection must lead to prompt action: “event‐driven” assessments owned by “empowered” teams of service providers can help achieve this. Such a “fast cycle” satisfaction assessment/improvement process will not happen spontaneously: “selling”, training, culture change and management leadership are needed to embed action‐oriented customer‐satisfaction assessment in internal service providers.
Design considerations and recent advances in CMOS-based microsystems for point-of-care clinical diagnostics

The emerging field of point-of-care clinical diagnostics based on lab-on-a-chip microsystems is underway. CMOS technology, which is responsible for present revolution in computing and communications by pushing ever-smaller semiconductor devices, has recently been used for the implementation of low-power and small-size microsystems for point-of-care diagnostics. The design considerations, recent advances and future directions of these CMOS-based microsystems are discussed in this paper.
Affine-Projective Field Laws

The general topic of geometric unified field theories is discussed in the first section. Some reasons are given for pursuing such theories, and some criticisms are considered. The second section develops the fundamental equations of a purely affine theory which is invariant under projective transformations of the affine connection. This theory is a generalization of that of Schr\"odinger. Possible identifications for the space-time metric are considered in Sec. III. Sections IV and V deal with the limits of pure gravitation and electrodynamics. In the symmetric limit, Einstein's vacuum equations with cosmological term are recovered. The theory also contains a generalized electrodynamic set of equations which is very similar to the Born-Infeld set. In the weak-field approximation, a finite mass must be attributed to the photon. The problem of motion for charges is discussed here, and it is argued that criticisms of unified field theories because of a supposed inability to produce the Lorentz force law are probably not justified. Three more speculative sections deal with possible explanations of nuclear forces, the spin-torsion relation, and particle structure.
An exploratory study of news article clustering for web-based bio-surveillance

Online news articles provide rich and timely information for disease outbreak surveillance. Meanwhile, it is not trivial to search articles relevant to disease outbreaks among the large volume of online publications. In this study, we examined the use of text clustering techniques to organize online articles. To take into account surveillance analysts' expertise in clustering articles, we considered selection of informative word features in a supervised manner. Our experiments suggest that the supervised selection of features can significantly reduce the features size without affecting the utility of resulting clusters. In addition, we observed that the clustering algorithm could yield consistent results when a small number of selected features were used.
Inference for Exponential Order Statistic Models Based on an Integrated Likelihood Function

Abstract Methods of statistical inference are developed for the exponential order statistic (EOS) model, where only a subset of order statistics from a collection of N iid exponential random detection times is observable. When the rate parameter for detections is unknown, the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the unknown integer parameter N can be infinite with substantial probability. Inference for N is developed using a pseudolikelihood function obtained by integrating out the rate parameter. The estimator that maximizes this function, called the integrated likelihood estimator (ILE), is shown to be finite and to have better sampling properties than the MLE. Parameter-based asymptotics are developed for the case where N is large. Application of the methodology is illustrated using two datasets.
Increased cerebral uptake and oxidation of exogenous βHB improves ATP following traumatic brain injury in adult rats

There is growing evidence of the brain's ability to increase its reliance on alternative metabolic substrates under conditions of energy stress such as starvation, hypoxia and ischemia. We hypothesized that following traumatic brain injury (TBI), which results in immediate changes in energy metabolism, the adult brain increases uptake and oxidation of the alternative substrate β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB). Arterio-venous differences were used to determine global cerebral uptake of βHB and production of 14CO2 from [14C]3-βHB 3 h after controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury. Quantitative bioluminescence was used to assess regional changes in ATP concentration. As expected, adult sham and CCI animals with only endogenously available βHB showed no significant increase in cerebral uptake of βHB or 14CO2 production. Increasing arterial βHB concentrations 2.9-fold with 3 h of βHB infusion failed to increase cerebral uptake of βHB or 14CO2 production in adult sham animals. Only CCI animals that received a 3-h βHB infusion showed an 8.5-fold increase in cerebral uptake of βHB and greater than 10.7-fold increase in 14CO2 production relative to sham βHB-infused animals. The TBI-induced 20% decrease in ipsilateral cortical ATP concentration was alleviated by 3 h of βHB infusion beginning immediately after CCI injury.
Qualitative comparison of ACE/EPAM data from different detector heads: Implications for NOAA RTSW users

Abstract The NOAA space environment center (SEC) facilitates the tracking and near real-time data distribution of interplanetary magnetic field, solar wind, and energetic particle observations from the advanced composition explorer near the Earth’s first Lagrangian point. In early 2004, the SEC switched from one set of low energy ion observations to another of a similar energy range. To assist users who now must rely upon a different set of observations, this manuscript documents the similarities and differences between the two sets of data. Although the two sets of observations are very similar most of the time, there are occasionally significant differences that users need to be aware of and must account for, especially those using data for operational purposes.
Polls and Votes: The Trial-Heat Presidential Election Forecasting Model, Certainty, and Political Campaigns

This article revises, updates, and examines the background for a highly accurate model for forecasting the national two-party popular vote in presidential elections. The model provides a vote prediction in early September based on Gallup trial-heat or presidential preference polls and the (nonannualized) rate of economic growth in the second quarter of the election year. It is estimated over the 12 presidential elections from 1948 to 1992. The mean absolute error of the model's out-of-sample postdictions is less than 1 1/3 percentage point, and its actual error in predicting the 1992 vote was about half a percentage point. The article also assesses the reasons for confidence in the model, as well as an approach to gauging uncertainty in any specific forecast. The reasons presidential elections can be forecast at or before the beginning of the general election campaign also are explored. Finally, the forecasting model is applied to the 1996 presidential campaign between Clinton and Dole.
The pharmacology of a new nitric oxide donor: B-NOD.

We describe here a new compound, B-NOD, which, in vitro and in situ, releases nitric oxide (NO). Its activity in situ persists for more than 7 h, it does not cause a fall in blood pressure or an increase in heart rate and can be orally administered. It increases cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and prevents platelet aggregation. In vitro, its release of NO is augmented by the presence of living cells (blood platelets). B-NOD may be useful in a number of clinical conditions in which prolonged release of NO without hemodynamic effects are desirable. A combination of aspirin with B-NOD could be formulated in which the individual concentrations of aspirin and B-NOD may be useful in the long-term treatment of coronary artery disease and in clinical situations in which long-term release of NO may be beneficial.
Ensemble formulation of surface fluxes and improvement in evapotranspiration and cloud parameterizations in a GCM

The influence of some simple modifications to the physical parameterizations in the current GLAS climate GCM is examined. The aim of these modifications was to eliminate strong occasional bursts of 2 - δt oscillations in the PBL fluxes. The PBL of the current GLAS climate model was modified by invoking concepts of ensemble averaging of PBL eddies in a grid cell of the GCM. This resulted in smoothly varying bulk aerodynamic friction and heat transport coefficients. An arbitrary function to account for diffusion of moisture from stomatal cavities found in vegetation was also incorporated. Simultaneously some modifications to the cloud parameterizations were made. Two integrations, one with the old model and the other with the modified model, were made to simulate 47 days, starting from the NMC analysis for June 15, 1979. Their comparisons showed that the surface fluxes and cloudiness in the modified model simulations are far better. The planetary albedo in the modified model is also realistic. However, some weaknesses still persist, including an ITCZ (Inter-tropical convergence zone) that is too far northward in Sahelian Africa, polar regions that are too cold, and a rather strong ITCZ. It is pointed out that these weaknesses are primarily caused by model deficiencies, e.g., the cloud parameterization and the uniformly prescribed land surface roughness height. In another simulation with the modified model using a realistic value of surface roughness for deserts, the precipitation in the Sahara Desert reduced significantly, which effectively pushed the ITCZ southward to a more realistic location as compared to observations.
Multidimensional chemotopic responses to n‐aliphatic acid odorants in the rat olfactory bulb

In an effort to understand the means by which similar chemical odorants are encoded in the mammalian brain, we exposed rats to a homologous series of n-aliphatic acids and mapped the response of the entire olfactory bulb glomerular layer by using a high-resolution [14C]-2-deoxyglucose uptake technique. We found that these similar odorants evoked spatially clustered but distinct responses in the bulb that changed systematically with carbon chain length. In addition to these chemotopic responses, different odorants within the series evoked systematic differences along two other dimensions: amount of deoxyglucose uptake and extent of the glomerular layer showing high activity. Increases along these two dimensions also were correlated with increasing carbon number. The focal glomerular responses were mirrored by responses in deeper bulb layers. Decreasing the odorant concentration decreased the deoxyglucose uptake within focal regions. The focal regions of activity occurred in pairs involving both medial and lateral representations in the bulb, perhaps reflecting the paired medial and lateral projections of olfactory sensory neurons expressing specific types of odorant feature receptor proteins. The observed spatial pattern of response also may explain both the failure of some bulb lesions to interfere with behavioral olfactory responses and the success of other lesions in blocking olfactory responses. These data support a model of parallel, distributed processing of odorants along multiple dimensions. They also support the notion that analyses of the spatial relationships among odorant responses in the olfactory bulb can demonstrate aspects of the mechanism for odor chemical coding. J. Comp. Neurol. 409:529–548, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Regional sympathetic denervation after myocardial infarction in humans detected noninvasively using I-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine

Transmural myocardial infarction in dogs produces denervation of sympathetic nerves in viable myocardium apical to the infarct that may be arrhythmogenic. It is unknown whether sympathetic denervation occurs in humans. The purpose of this study was to use iodine-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG), a radiolabeled guanethidine analog that is actively taken up by sympathetic nerve terminals, to image noninvasively the cardiac sympathetic nerves in patients with and without ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction. Results showed that 10 of 12 patients with spontaneous ventricular tachyarrhythmias after myocardial infarction exhibited regions of thallium-201 uptake indicating viable perfused myocardium, with no MIBG uptake. Such a finding is consistent with sympathetic denervation. One patient had frequent episodes of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia induced at exercise testing that was eliminated by beta-adrenoceptor blockade. Eleven of the 12 patients had ventricular tachycardia induced at electrophysiologic study and metoprolol never prevented induction. Sympathetic denervation was also detected in two of seven postinfarction patients without ventricular arrhythmias. Normal control subjects had no regions lacking MIBG uptake. This study provides evidence that regional sympathetic denervation occurs in humans after myocardial infarction and can be detected noninvasively by comparing MIBG and thallium-201 images. Although the presence of sympathetic denervation may be related to the onset of spontaneous ventricular tachyarrhythmias in some patients, it does not appear to be related to sustained ventricular tachycardia induced at electrophysiologic study.
Nuclcophilic substitution reactions of 5-acetoxymethyl-and 5-p-nitrophenoxymethyluraeils †

The synthesis of a number of 5-acetoxymethyl- and 5-p-nitrophenoxymethyluracils and their nucleophilic substitution reactions with sodium methoxide and sodium borohydride are reported. These reactions all appear to involve intermediates with carbonium ion character, the formation of which are dependent upon structural features of the heterocycle. Most facile reactions occur when the 1-position of the heterocycle can accommodate a negative charge to assist in the formation of highly reactive 5-methenyluracil (VII) intermediates. Where ionization is precluded, as with 1-methyl derivatives (IVb, VIb) displacements are retarded but may be assisted by addition of a nucleophilc to the 6-position of the heterocycle. Analogous 1,3-dialkylpyrimidines may react with nucleophiles at the 4-carbonyl group to give anomalous products. Biological connotations of these reactions are discussed.
Lack of evidence of substantial hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence decline in Egypt in the last 20 years

Background: Egypt has the highest hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence in the world. Numerous HCV prevalence studies have published various estimates from different Egyptian communities, suggesting that Egypt, relative to the other nations of the world, might be experiencing an intense ongoing HCV transmission. Objective: To investigate the trend in HCV prevalence among the general population in Egypt with respect to time. Methods: We conducted a time-trend analysis to assess the trend in HCV prevalence using a multivariate linear regression model and adjusting for the different sub-groups in the general population. Data used for this analysis were extracted from relevant studies identified via a systematic review of HCV in Egypt. Results: Our results suggest that there is no evidence of a statistically significant decline in HCV prevalence over time (p-value: 0.572). HCV prevalence in the general population declined at a rate of only -0.11% per year (95% CI: -0.49 to 0.27). Conclusions: Our results do not support a decline in HCV prevalence over the last two decades even though Egypt's population has nearly doubled in the past two to three decades. This suggests that substantial HCV transmission might be still ongoing today. Policymakers, and public health and medical care stakeholders need to introduce and implement further prevention measures targeting the routes of HCV transmission in this country.
Vaccination or Immunization? The Impact of Search Terms on the Internet

With steadily rising use of the Internet as a source of health information, public health authorities have expressed concern about the increasing visibility of unscientific information promulgated on the Internet by opponents of childhood vaccination. Searches were made on the four most popular Internet search engines using different combinations of the terms, "vaccination," "immunization," "immunisation," "immunize," "immunise," "vaccine," and "shots." Thirty results were tabulated for each search engine. Searching with the keyword "vaccination" resulted in a significantly higher percentage of antivaccination websites as compared with searches with all other keywords. Of all child-related websites retrieved, the single keyword "vaccination" yielded 40% provaccination sites and 60% antivaccination sites. By contrast, the single keyword "immunization" yielded 98% provaccination sites and 2% antivaccination sites. Using a combination of the words "vaccination" and "immunization" produced results between these two extremes. Thus, any use of the term "vaccination" during an Internet search is likely to expose a parent to a significant amount of antivaccination information. Recommendations are discussed for future research and methods to reduce the impact of misinformation on health consumers using the Internet.
Interpersonal Expectations for Marijuana Behavior

Interpersonal expectations for marijuana behavior were investigated by means of open-ended questions. Users and nonusers were asked how the use and nonuse of marijuana affect people's relationships, and their spontaneous replies were assembled into 22 categories. These categories were then cross-tabulated with behavioral, social, experiential, and attitudinal variables. The findings indicated that frequency of marijuana use and favorable-ness in drug attitude are the key variables that influence the degree to which different categories of interpersonal expectations are mentioned. Current users most often believe that social improvement is a consequence of use but have few specific expectations for nonuse. Former users and nonusers with unfavorable drug attitudes emphasize that social impairment and personal impairment follow from use and mainly expect user rejection for nonuse. Nonusers favorable to marijuana tend to anticipate no change in relationships as a result of use and see social impairment and pe...
Bis[2,3-butanedione dioximato(1–)-N,N'](pyridine){[(R)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-8-indolizinyl]methyl}cobalt(III)

The title compound, [Co(C9H12N)(C4H7N2O2)2(C5H5N)], has the expected structure with the C-bonded heterocyclic ligand trans to pyridine. The Co—C bond lengths in the two independent molecules [2.032 (5) and 2.009 (6) A] are near the lower end of the range found for related compounds and do not account for the observed thermal instability.
Inhibition of microbial arsenate reduction by phosphate.

Abstract The ratio of arsenite (As III ) to arsenate (As V ) in soils and natural waters is often controlled by the activity of As-transforming microorganisms. Phosphate is a chemical analog to As V and, consequently, may competitively inhibit microbial uptake and enzymatic binding of As V , thus preventing its reduction to the more toxic, mobile, and bioavailable form – As III . Five As-transforming bacteria isolated either from As-treated soil columns or from As-impacted soils were used to evaluate the effects of phosphate on As V reduction and As III oxidation. Cultures were initially spiked with various P:As ratios, incubated for approximately 48 h, and analyzed periodically for As V and As III concentration. Arsenate reduction was inhibited at high P:As ratios and completely suppressed at elevated levels of phosphate (500 and 1000 μM; P inhibition constant ( K i ) ∼ 20–100 μM). While high P:As ratios effectively shut down microbial As V reduction, the expression of the arsenate reductase gene ( arsC ) was not inhibited under these conditions in the As V -reducing isolate, Agrobacterium tumefaciens str. 5B. Further, high phosphate ameliorated As V -induced cell growth inhibition caused by high (1 mM) As pressure. These results indicate that phosphate may inhibit As V reduction by impeding As V uptake by the cell via phosphate transport systems or by competitively binding to the active site of ArsC.
Effects of fuels reductions on plant communities and soils in a Piñon-juniper woodland.

Over the past decade, a variety of fuels reduction strategies have been implemented across western US forests to lower the risk of high severity fires. In two separate studies, we evaluated the short-term effects (<two growing seasons) of hand thinning (lop & scatter, pile burn) and mechanical mastication on understory plant communities and soil resources in an upland Pinon-juniper woodland. All treated sites were compared to a nearby untreated control site. After one growing season, understory plant cover was 4–5.5 times greater in hand-thinned treatments (lop & scatter pile burn), while understory cover in mastication treatments was 15 times greater following two growing seasons, compared to untreated controls. Bromus tectorum, an invasive annual grass, was present in all treated sites and absent from controls. Soil aggregate stability, an indicator of overall soil quality, was lower in the pile burn and mastication sites. Nitrogen fixation potential was low across all sites, but lowest in two treated sites (lop & scatter and mastication). This study suggests that different fuels reduction techniques generally have positive effects on total understory plant cover, but treatments that involve burning of slash materials may have more negative effects on site stability than alternative treatment options.
Case report of orbital violation with placement of ethmoid drug-eluting stent.

Background Delivery of topical therapy is a mainstay in the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Ethmoid sinus stenting has recently been introduced as a minimally invasive mechanism to deliver medication. We review available literature on ethmoid stenting and present a case report involving orbital violation and a fixed, dilated pupil. Methods Case report and literature review. Results A 37 year-old female underwent endoscopic placement of bilateral ethmoid sinus drug-eluting stents for CRS at an outside facility. Postoperatively she complained of right-sided ocular pain and pressure. She was seen in the emergency setting on post-operative day (POD) 2 and had a dilated right pupil. A computed tomography (CT) scan was performed and read as normal. The left stent was removed successfully on POD 19; the right could not be removed in the outpatient setting secondary to pain. The patient was transferred to our facility on POD 21. The CT from POD 2 was reviewed and demonstrated violation of the lamina papyracea and orbit with the stent abutting the lateral orbital wall. On POD 24, the patient underwent medial orbital decompression and successful stent removal but continues to have a dilated pupil in the affected eye. Conclusion This is the first reported case of orbital violation with placement of an ethmoid drug-eluting stent. The literature shows feasibility in cadaveric studies but the practitioner must be diligent in placement. Ethmoid sinus stenting is an option for topical treatment of ethmoid sinusitis but practitioners must be cognizant of potential risks when counseling patients. © 2011 ARS-AAOA, LLC.
The super-Halley method using divided differences

Abstract Semilocal convergence results are provided for the super-Halley method in a Banach space at the first part of this study. In the second part, the monotone convergence is examined in a partially ordered topological setting.
Predissociation dynamics of He79Br2 and Ne79Br2; test of product state propensity rules

Abstract Product state distributions for the predissociation of the van der Waals molecules He 79 Br 2 and Ne 79 Br 2 in their respective B excited electronic states are reported. The partitioning of energy between the rotational and translational degrees of freedom observed for these molecules, and also that previously reported for HeCl 2 and NeCl 2 , is compared to that predicted by Ewing's propensity rules for vibrational energy transfer. For this set of molecules the rules correctly predict that the V-T channel must account for most of the excess available energy but underestimate the participation of the V-R channel in the dissociation.
Do Student-Generated Rational Sets of Examples Facilitate Concept Acquisition?

Abstract The effects of type of individual generating study examples (teacher vs. student) and type of examples generated (rational set vs. nonrational set) on coordinate concept acquisition were investigated in a 2 × 2 analysis of covariance design. The main effects and the interaction effect for the posttest measure of concept acquisition were not statistically significant. However, pairwise comparisons revealed that the posttest scores were significantly lower (p < .05) for the group hypothesized to learn best, namely, students who created their own examples using the rational set generator. Several possible explanations for these results, including the compatibility of the rational set generator with all coordinate concept groups and time needed by students to use the generator appropriately, are discussed.