cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Patients undergoing infrainguinal bypass to treat atherosclerotic vascular disease are underprescribed cardioprotective medications: effect on graft patency, limb salvage, and mortality.

Abstract Introduction Established American Heart Association guidelines recommend the use of statin drugs, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and antiplatelet agents in patients with systemic atherosclerosis, such as those undergoing operative intervention to treat peripheral atherosclerotic disease. Many of these patients have not received treatment of coronary heart disease and have not been prescribed these medications. Whether statin drugs and ACE inhibitors confer an improvement in graft patency, limb salvage, and operative mortality is unknown. Methods Consecutive patients who underwent infrainguinal bypass between 1997 and 2002 were evaluated for demographic data, comorbid disease, medication use, as well as cumulative graft patency, limb salvage, and mortality. Univariate, multivariate logistical regression, and Kaplan-Meier analyses were performed. P Results Two hundred ninety-three patients (mean age, 64 years; 67% men) underwent 338 infrainguinal bypass procedures with autologous vein (n = 218), prosthetic grafts (n = 88), or composite prosthetic-vein grafts (n = 32). Limb salvage was the operative indication in 75% of procedures. Coexisting diseases included hypertension (70%), diabetes (52%), hyperlipidemia (37%), coronary heart disease (51%), congestive heart failure (14%), and active tobacco use (30%). Statin drugs were taken by 56% of patients, ACE inhibitors by 54% of patients, and antiplatelet agents or warfarin sodium (Coumadin) by 93% of patients. Postoperative graft surveillance was done in 39% of patients. Cumulative graft patency was 73%, limb salvage was 85%, and mortality was 9%, with a mean follow-up of 17 months. Factors independently associated with increased graft patency included statin drug use (odds ratio [OR], 3.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1-6.4), male sex (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.6-5.0), and graft surveillance (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.3-4.5). Factors associated with decreased amputation rate were statin drug use (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 6.15-0.77) and graft surveillance (OR, 0.23; 95% CI, 6.1-0.63). Factors associated with decreased mortality included graft surveillance (OR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.1-0.56), whereas congestive heart failure (OR, 6.5; 95% CI, 2.5-17) and hemodialysis-dependent renal failure (OR, 29; 95% CI, 6.1-140) were associated with increased mortality. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that only ACE inhibitors were associated with lower mortality ( P = .05) Conclusions Patients undergoing infrainguinal bypass are undertreated with respect to cardioprotective medications. ACE inhibitor use is associated with lower mortality, and statin drug use is associated with improved graft patency and limb salvage. Institution of consensus guidelines concerning these medications should be considered by all vascular specialists, including vascular surgeons.
Elevation of mouse kidney thiol content following administration of glutathione.

Abstract We have found that kidney glutathione and cysteine content in OH mice can be increased by intraperitoneal administration of either glutathione (GSH) or glutathione disulfide (GSSG). Kidney thiol content is maximal 20–60 min after administration of 1000 mg/kg glutathione and returns to normal values by 2 h. The same time-course of thiol perturbation was observed when acivicin, an inhibitor of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, was administered 15 min prior to GSSG administration. The increase in kidney thiols after GSSG administration appears to saturate, with little additional increase as the administered dose is increased above 750 mg/kg. There was no significant change in liver GSH or cysteine after GSSG administration. We suggest that glutathione administration may provide a strategy for selective radioprotection or chemoprotection of specialized cells which can effectively utilize systemic GSH precursors.
Portable SCADA Security Toolkits

The Internet and the demands of connectivity and convenience to access the control systems found in critical infrastructures have ushered newly discovered vulnerabilities that have been exploited by internal and external threats. These vulnerabilities of control systems could be exposed by even novice hackers through the use of non-sophisticated tools found on the Internet. These insecurities have been perpetuated by technology staff and even educators who are themselves unaware of the potential risks and consequences. We describe a cost-effective way of equipping educators with hands-on toolkits that can be used in their classrooms as security testing and learning kits.
Hydrogen storage in novel organometallic buckyballs.

Transition metal (TM) atoms bound to fullerenes are proposed as adsorbents for high density, room temperature, ambient pressure storage of hydrogen. ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ or ${\mathrm{C}}_{48}{\mathrm{B}}_{12}$ disperses TMs by charge transfer interactions to produce stable organometallic buckyballs (OBBs). A particular scandium OBB can bind as many as 11 hydrogen atoms per TM, ten of which are in the form of dihydrogen that can be adsorbed and desorbed reversibly. In this case, the calculated binding energy is about $0.3\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}/{\mathrm{H}}_{2}$, which is ideal for use on board vehicles. The theoretical maximum retrievable ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ storage density is $\ensuremath{\sim}9\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{wt}\text{ }%$.
Short-course antituberculous chemotherapy for pulmonary and pleural disease: 5 years' experience in clinical practice

One hundred and twenty-four patients have been treated with 6-month regimens for pulmonary and pleural tuberculosis over 5 years; 118 patients have completed treatment as planned. No patient has relapsed of the 109 followed up for 15 months from the end of chemotherapy, or in the remaining nine patients still under observation. Significant drug side effects requiring alteration of treatment occurred in only three patients. Six-month regimens in routine practice are well tolerated and are highly effective.
Comment on "Correction to Fuchs' calculation of the electrostatic energy of a Wigner solid"

It is found that Hall's correction term exactly cancels another electrostatic term in the total energy of the Wigner solid. Although Hall's correction is appropriate for the calculation of the potential at the Wigner lattice site, it is Fuchs' expression which should be used in the total electrostatic energy of the Wigner solid. The origin of the controversy is clarified using physical arguments, and a simpler derivation of Hall's term is presented.
High-NA-based virtual point detectors for photoacoustic imaging

We demonstrated the focal point of a high-numerical-aperture (NA) ultrasonic transducer can be used as a virtual point detector. This virtual point detector detects omnidirectionally over a wide acceptance angle. It also combines a large active transducer surface and a small effective virtual detector size, thus the sensitivity is high compared with that of a real point detector, and the aperture effect is small compared with that of a finite size transducer. Phantom experiments are provided to demonstrate the applications of high-NA-based virtual point detectors in photoacoustic tomography and thermoacoustic tomography. The virtual point detector is also used to image the cerebral cortex of mice.
Catecholamines of supposed inhibitory hypophysiotrophic function suppress action potentials in prolactin cells

THE anterior lobe of the pituitary gland has a uniquely important function in the endocrine system, for its six different endocrine cell types constitute the major endocrine link between the brain and the rest of the body. The brain is known to control this remarkable composite gland through specialised neurones lodged in the hypothalamus that elaborate and release hypophysiotrophic factors; these are carried by the hypophysial portal blood vessels to act on their respective target cells through stimulation or inhibition of secretory activity1,2. However, the way in which these factors act at the cellular level is uncertain, although discharge of the various hormones of the anterior pituitary lobe is known to show calcium dependence and can be induced by depolarising concentrations of potassium3–5; this pattern of endocrine behaviour was first recognised in adrenal chromaffin cells6 and is consistent with the calcium hypothesis of stimulus–secretion coupling7, which, in chromaffin and some other cells, is associated with electrical excitability8–13. It is therefore of much interest that normal gland cells of the anterior pituitary lobe14,15, like their neoplastic counterparts16–18, have been found to generate action potentials with a calcium component indicative of influx of calcium ions; furthermore, the frequency of action potentials can be increased in some of these cells by thyrotropin releasing factor (TRF)14. This has prompted the suggestion that it may be through the initiation or modulation of action potentials that the brain, through the hypophysiotrophic factors, regulates secretion in the anterior pituitary14. However, the evidence which supports this scheme is scanty. The experiments with TRF were carried out on disaggregated anterior pituitary lobes of rats which contain six different endocrine cells, and the method did not allow identification of the cells stimulated by TRF; thus, it could only be supposed that they were the appropriate target cells14. Clearly, it is essential that evidence be obtained on the electrical behaviour of normal anterior lobe cells of defined type, and the effects thereon of specific and relevant hypophysiotrophic factors. Here we report that normal prolactin cells generate spontaneous action potentials which are suppressed by hypothalmic catecholamines known to inhibit prolactin secretion.
On the relationship of glutathione reductase to mushroom poisoning.

SummaryThe effects of two purified mushroom poisons, α-amanitin and phalloidin, on glutathione-reducing enzyme systems were investigated to determine if the decrease stability of glutathione and the pathological changes reported for erythrocytes of persons poisoned with mushrooms might result from inhibition of glutathione reductase by these cyclic sulfur-containing peptides. The poisons at levels up to 5 × 10−4M had little or no effect on the activity of pure glutathione reductase from yeast and did not appreciably alter the level of reduced glutathione in human erythrocytes stressed with acetylphenylhydrazine. We conclude that a direct inhibition by these particular compounds of any erythrocyte enzyme concerned with glutathione reduction is unlikely, and that the reported relationship between glutathione reductase and mushroom poisoning must involve other compounds or other mechanisms.
Evaluation of Copovithane as a Nonspecific Immunomodulator in Surgically Simulated Sepsis

Copovithane (CPV), a synthetic polymer, has been shown to have antitumor activity and also to reduce mortality in experimental murine peritonitis. The purpose of this study was to compare CPV with muramyl dipeptide (MDP), an immunomodulator of proven efficacy in simulated surgical infection. Six groups of CBA/J mice were compared; they received intramuscular injections of normal saline (controls), MDP (100 micrograms), or CPV (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) 24 h prior to bacterial challenge. The challenge consisted of a Klebsiella-impregnated thigh suture. The first experiment assessed survival after bacterial challenge. The MDP and the CPV groups both had median survival times of 3 days, significantly longer than the control group (1 day, p less than .05). In the second experiment, animals were sacrificed at 6, 24, and 48 h following bacterial challenge, and blood and infected muscle were taken for quantitative bacteriology. At 6 h, there was no difference between groups. Both the MDP and CPV groups had significantly (p less than .05) lower blood bacterial counts than the control group at 24 and 48 h. Both the MDP and CVP groups had significantly lower local bacterial recovery than controls at 48 h (p less than .05), and local bacterial recovery of the MDP group was significantly lower than the control group at 24 h (p less than .05). CPV improved survival and reduced local and systemic bacterial recovery compared with controls. Although the effect of CPV was similar to MDP in this model, it consistently was of lower magnitude and had a narrow dose range.
Phenalenone pigments of the root system of Lachnanthes tinctoria

Abstract The root system of Lachnanthes tinctoria (Haemodoraceae) contains lachnanthoside, a glycoside of trihydroxy-9-phenylphenalenone; lachnanthofluorone, a red-fluorescent compound having a novel naphthoxanthenone structure; and a naphthalide related to the phenalenones.
Morphological effects of osmolarity on purified noradrenergic vesicles

Large dense core vesicles (LDV) were purified from bovine splenic nerve homogenates by the sucrose-D2O density gradient method. Vesicles were subjected to a 50% increase and decrease in osmolarity from the control 330 mosmol 1−1 by adjusting sucrose or potassium phosphate buffer during pre- and/or postfixation. Control vesicles with a mean diameter of 717 A readily swelled to ∼ 1050 A and shrunk to ∼ 600 A in the hypotonic and hypertonic media, respectively, with either sucrose or phosphate buffer. The dense core responded similarly but to a lesser degree. Prefixation in glutaraldehyde had little effect on vesicle sensitivity to subsequent tonicity change, nor did the fixativeper se exert an obvious osmotic effect. Thus, final vesicle size was largely determined by the OsO4 postfixation medium and principally by the vehicle rather than the fixative. In controls there was a mixture of spherical to oblate vesicles mostly filled with an electron-dense matrix. Upon swelling, more vesicles became spherical and nearly all had a prominent translucent halo between core and membrane. Upon shrinking, more vesicles became oblate, the halo was obliterated and the electron-density of the matrix increased. Frequency distributions of vesicle diameters at different tonicity clearly indicated that the diameter of LDV could overlap the 400–500 A range characteristic of small dense core vesicles; however, there was no suggestion of a population of the latter in the purified LDV fraction. Implications are discussed concerning the biochemical and morphological identification of ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ density peaks of noradrenaline and dopamine β-hydroxylase from mixed vesicle populations and the possible relevance of changes in vesicle shape to a functional statein situ.
Training a Neural Logic Network to predict financial returns: a case study

Companies in the S&P 500 produce quarterly financial statements that are closely studied by investors who forecast the stock market performance of those companies. This paper describes a Neural Logic Network (NLN) for predicting stock market returns based on financial ratios from financial statements. A learning algorithm modifies the NLN in trying to make its output for each stock better correspond with the future market returns of that stock. The input to the NLN is financial ratios taken from quarterly financial statements of companies in the S&P 500. The hypothesis is that the accuracy of financial prediction can be improved by incorporating knowledge into the learning process. This knowledge can be incorporated either as evolutionary knowledge or financial knowledge. Experiments are designed and implemented to test this hypothesis. The results show that evolutionary knowledge improved performance but financial knowledge did not. The specifics of the financial knowledge situation demonstrate some of the challenges of effectively importing financial knowledge into an evolutionary programme.
USING CULTURAL ALGORITHMS TO RE-ENGINEER LARGE-SCALE SEMANTIC NETWORKS

Evolutionary computation has been successfully applied in a variety of problem domains and applications. In this paper we discuss the use of a specific form of evolutionary computation known as Cultural Algorithms to improve the efficiency of the subsumption algorithm in semantic networks. We identify two complementary methods of using Cultural Algorithms to solve the problem of re-engineering large-scale dynamic semantic networks in order to optimize the efficiency of subsumption: top-down and bottom-up. The top-down re-engineering approach improves subsumption efficiency by reducing the number of attributes that need to be compared for every node without impacting the results. We demonstrate that a Cultural Algorithm approach can be used to identify these defining attributes that are most significant for node retrieval. These results are then utilized within an existing vehicle assembly process planning application that utilizes a semantic network based knowledge base to improve the performance and reduce complexity of the network. It is shown that the results obtained by Cultural Algorithms are at least as good, and in most cases better, than those obtained by the human developers. The advantage of Cultural Algorithms is especially pronounced for those classes in the network that are more complex. The goal of bottom-up approach is to classify the input concepts into new clusters that are most efficient for subsumption and classification. While the resultant subsumption efficiency for the bottom-up approach exceeds that for the top-down approach, it does so by removing structural relationships that made the network understandable to human observers. Like a Rete network in expert systems, it is a compilation of only those relationships that impact subsumption. A direct comparison of the two approaches shows that bottom-up semantic network re-engineering creates a semantic network that is approximately 5 times more efficient than the top-down approach in terms of the cost of subsumption. In conclusion, we will discuss these results and show that some knowledge that is useful to the system users is lost during the bottom-up re-engineering process and that the best approach for re-engineering a semantic network requires a combination of both of these approaches.
Financial Hardship: A Consequence of Survivorship?

Despite this success on the treatment front, we have done little in a concerted and well-planned fashion to investigate and address the problems of survivors. It is as if we have invented sophisticated techniques to save people from drowning, but once they have been pulled from the water, we leave them on the dock to cough and splutter on their own in the belief that we have done all that we can. —Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, physician, survivor of cancer, and founding president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.
Politics Understanding and Networking Ability as a Function of Mentoring The Roles of Gender and Race

Some have suggested that mentoring in organizations tends to focus on “learning the ropes,” or understanding organizational politics. This process is believed to result in building greater political skill and networking ability. The authors examined the relationships among mentoring, politics understanding, and networking ability. It was proposed that individuals experiencing the mentoring process would report higher levels of knowledge regarding understanding organizational politics, leading to greater networking ability. Specifically, the hypothesis that politics understanding mediated the relationship between mentoring and networking ability was tested with mediation analysis. The results provided strong support for the hypothesized relationship, demonstrating full mediation. Two additional hypotheses proposed a test of the “political skill deficiency” hypothesis, that the mediated relationships between mentoring, politics understanding, and networking ability would be moderated by gender and ethnicity...
Spark Plasma Sintering of an Infrared‐Transparent Y2O3–MgO Nanocomposite

A novel optically transparent ceramic nanocomposite Y2O3–MgO was produced using spark plasma sintering technique. Sintering parameters was optimized to obtain fully dense material while maintaining nanoscale grain size. The sintered nanocomposite has an excellent infrared transmission as a result of small grain size and homogeneous microstructure. Postsinter annealing can significantly improve the transmission. Overly larger grain size severely degrades the transmittance.
Evaluation of an AIDS Education Model for Women Drug Users in Jail

This paper reports outcome evaluation results of an AIDS education program for drug-using women in jail, of whom the majority were current drug injectors, had high-risk sexual partners, and never used condoms for insertive sex. The women participated in four small-group health/HIV education sessions. Education participants and controls were followed-up 7 months after their release from jail; the two groups did not differ significantly on drug- or sex-related HIV risk behaviors at follow-up. However, being in drug dependency treatment (primarily methadone maintenance) at follow-up was associated with reduced heroin use, crack use, drug dealing, and criminal activity. Although improved HIV education in jail is important, better networks of community resources, including more accessible community drug dependency treatment, also must be developed to support drug-dependent women after their release from jail.
Dyadic collaboration in shared health behavior change: the effects of a randomized trial to test a lifestyle intervention for high-risk Latinas.

Author(s): Sorkin, Dara H; Mavandadi, Shahrzad; Rook, Karen S; Biegler, Kelly A; Kilgore, David; Dow, Emily; Ngo-Metzger, Quyen | Abstract: ObjectiveThis study sought to evaluate the feasibility of a pilot, dyad-based lifestyle intervention, the Unidas por la Vida program, for improving weight loss and dietary intake among high-risk Mexican American mothers who have Type 2 diabetes and their overweight/obese adult daughters.MethodMother-daughter dyads (N = 89) were recruited from two federally qualified health centers and randomly assigned to either the Unidas intervention or to the control condition. The 16-week Unidas intervention consisted of the following: (a) four group meetings, (b) eight home visits, and (c) booster telephone calls by a lifestyle community coach. The control condition consisted of educational materials mailed to participants' homes. Participants completed surveys at T1 (baseline) and T2 (16 weeks) that assessed various demographic, social network involvement, and dietary variables.ResultsUnidas participants lost significantly more weight at T2 (p l .003) compared with the control participants. Furthermore, intervention participants also were more likely to be eating foods with lower glycemic load (p l .001) and less saturated fat (p = .004) at T2. Unidas participants also reported a significant increase in health-related social support and social control (persuasion control only) and a decrease in undermining.ConclusionsThe Unidas program promoted weight loss and improved dietary intake, as well as changes in diet-related involvement of participants' social networks. The results from this study demonstrate that interventions that draw upon multiple people who share a health-risk have the potential to foster significant changes in lifestyle behaviors and in social network members' health-related involvement. Future research that builds on these findings is needed to elucidate the specific dyadic and social network processes that may drive health behavior change.
Escherichia coli biotin holoenzyme synthetase/bio repressor crystal structure delineates the biotin- and DNA-binding domains.

Abstract The three-dimensional structure of BirA, the repressor of the Escherichia coli biotin biosynthetic operon, has been determined by x-ray crystallography and refined to a crystallographic residual of 19.0% at 2.3-A resolution. BirA is a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein that also catalyzes the formation of biotinyl-5'-adenylate from biotin and ATP and transfers the biotin moiety to other proteins. The level of biotin biosynthetic enzymes in the cell is controlled by the amount of biotinyl-5'-adenylate, which is the BirA corepressor. The structure provides an example of a transcription factor that is also an enzyme. The structure of BirA is highly asymmetric and consists of three domains. The N-terminal domain is mostly alpha-helical, contains a helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif, and is loosely connected to the remainder of the molecule. The central domain consists of a seven-stranded mixed beta-sheet with alpha-helices covering one face. The other side of the sheet is largely solvent-exposed and contains the active site. The C-terminal domain comprises a six-stranded, antiparallel beta-sheet sandwich. The location of biotin binding is consistent with mutations that affect enzymatic activity. A nearby loop has a sequence that has been associated with phosphate binding in other proteins. It is inferred that ATP binds in this region, adjacent to the biotin. It is proposed that the binding of corepressor to monomeric BirA may promote DNA binding by facilitating the formation of a multimeric BirA-corepressor-DNA complex. The structural details of this complex remain an open question, however.
Acute exacerbation of multiple sclerosis presenting with facial metamorphopsia and palinopsia

We discuss the case of a patient with a known history of relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) who presented with the isolated complaint of altered visual perception in the absence of abnorma...
Impairment of left ventricular function by acute cardiac lymphatic obstruction

Objectives: We performed the following study to define the effects of acute cardiac lymphatic obstruction on left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function. Methods: Cardiac lymphatic obstruction was created in 8 pentobarbital-anesthetized dogs by identifying (Evans blue) and ligating the right and left epicardial lymphatics, the afferent and efferent lymphatics associated with the pretrachael and cardiac lymph nodes, and the thoracic duct. Left ventricular function was assessed by analysis of micromanometer-conductance catheter-derived LV pressure-volume relationships. Contractility was assessed by preload recruitable stroke work (PRSW). The active and passive phases of LV relaxation were assessed by the time constant of isovolumic relaxation (τ) and the end-diastolic pressure-volume relationship (stiffness), respectively. Results: PRSW decreased significantly and τ increased significantly from baseline at 1, 2, and 3 h after cardiac lymphatic obstruction ( n = 8), but stiffness did not change. Cardiac lymphatic obstruction had similar effects on LV function in a group of autonomically blocked dogs ( n = 5). Left ventricular function did not change in sham treated controls ( n = 8). Cardiac lymphatic obstruction induced a significant increase in LV wet/dry weight ratios (3.58 ± 0.01) when compared to the control group (3.53 ± 0.02). Histophatology of the myocardium in the lymphatic obstruction groups revealed significant lymphangiectasis and increased interstitial spacing when compared to controls. Conclusions: Acute cardiac lymphatic obstruction depresses contractility and active relaxation and causes mild LV myocardial edema, but does not alter diastolic stiffness.
Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power

Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power. By Randall L. Schweller. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 200p. $29.95. In this insightful and elegantly written book, Randall Schweller examines the phenomenon of underbalancing, which he defines as situations in which “threatened countries have failed to recognize a clear and present danger, or, more typically, have simply not reacted to it or, more typically still, have responded in paltry and imprudent ways” (p. 1). The study is motivated by the failure of many states throughout history to act in accordance with the cardinal prediction of structural realist theory that states will tend to balance against rising powers that threaten their survival, through the acquisition of arms and/or allies. Schweller argues that domestic political factors account for this discrepancy, enhancing or diminishing the ability and/or willingness of states to mobilize their national resources in response to systemic dangers.
Controlling Nanoparticle Aggregation in Colloidal Microwave Absorbers via Interface Chemistry

ABSTRACT Interface chemistry can be implemented to modulate the aggregation and dispersion of nanoparticles in a colloidal solution. In this experimental study, we demonstrate the controlled aggregation of superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles in organic and aqueous solutions. With decrease in solution pH, individual nanoparticles (12-14 nm) reproducibly cluster to form ~52 nm monodisperse aggregates in toluene. Spin-spin (T2) proton relaxation measurements of the micellated clusters before and after ag gregation show a change in the molar relaxation rate from 303 sec -1 mol to 368 sec -1 mol -1 for individual and clustered nanoparticles, respectively. DNA-mediated aggregation of micellated nanoparticles in the colloidal solution is also demonstrated where the number of single-stranded DNA per particle determines the ultimate size of the nanoparticle aggregate. Keywords: Nanoparticle, magnetite, colloid, DNA, microwave, relaxation 1. INTRODUCTION Microwave absorbing materials for military applications have been investigated since the advent of radar systems. The majority of these systems, including Salisbury screens, Jaumann absorbers, radar absorbing paints, and particle laden polymeric layers, are passive in nature. There is some work with active surfaces such as va riable impedance surfaces or other tunable microwave absorbers [1] and can be thought of as switched Jaumann absorbers. Furthermore, there is at least one system described in the literature [2] that modifies the change of the permittivity of an absorbing layer by introduction of a high permittivity liquid into a porous matrix of lower permittivity. The electrostatic actuation of conducting polymers can also be utilized to actively modify the absorption characteristics via application of a low strength DC bias field. The work of Wright and coworkers [3] has examined the absorptivity of polyethylene oxide polymer absorber that contains both polyanilinetetraflouroborate and silver. More recent work with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and copper metal in a polyethylene LiBF
Rumen–reticulum characteristics, scaling relationships, and ontogeny in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Scaling relationships between body mass and gut capacity are valuable to predicting digestive efficiency. Interspecific scaling relationships between body mass and gut capacity have consistently estimated a slope of 1.0; however, intraspecific scaling relationships between body mass and gut capacity have been highly variable. We examined the influence of demands of growth and production on scaling relationships of body mass and rumen-reticulum characteristics in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) because little is known about how juvenile and subadult ruminants accommodate increased digesta masses. We sampled 108 animals over a 2-year period and assessed the influence of body mass, time of kill, crude protein (%), and acid detergent fiber (%) in the rumen, lactation, sex, and back fat on rumen-reticulum organ mass, rumen-reticulum capacity, wet mass of the digesta, and the dry mass of the digesta. Juvenile and subadult white-tailed deer had rumen-reticulum organ masses, capacity, and digesta masses that were similar to adults because body mass and rumen-reticulum scaling relationships all had scalars similar to 1.0. Thus, under the confines of our study, ontogeny plays only a minor role in the physiological characteristics of the rumen-reticulum and the scaling relationships of body mass and rumen-reticulum capacity.
Acceptance of Evolution Increases with Student Academic Level: A Comparison Between a Secular and a Religious College

Acceptance of evolution among the general public, high schools, teachers, and scientists has been documented in the USA; little is known about college students’ views on evolution; this population is relevant since it transits from a high-school/parent-protective environment to an independent role in societal decisions. Here we compare perspectives about evolution, creationism, and intelligent design (ID) between a secular (S) and a religious (R) college in the Northeastern USA. Interinstitutional comparisons showed that 64% (mean S + R) biology majors vs. 42/62% (S/R) nonmajors supported the exclusive teaching of evolution in science classes; 24/29% (S/R) biology majors vs. 26/38% (S/R) nonmajors perceived ID as both alternative to evolution and/or scientific theory about the origin of life; 76% (mean S + R) biology majors and nonmajors accepted evolutionary explanations about the origin of life; 86% (mean S + R) biology majors vs. 79% (mean S + R) nonmajors preferred science courses where human evolution is discussed; 76% (mean S+R) biology majors vs. 79% (mean S + R) nonmajors welcomed questions about evolution in exams and/or thought that such questions should always be in exams; and 66% (mean S + R) biology majors vs. 46% (mean S + R) nonmajors admitted they accept evolution openly and/or privately. Intrainstitutional comparisons showed that overall acceptance of evolution among biologists (S or R) increased gradually from the freshman to the senior year, due to exposure to upper-division courses with evolutionary content. College curricular/pedagogical reform should fortify evolution literacy at all education levels, particularly among nonbiologists.
The Conditions Favoring Matrilocal Versus Patrilocal Residence

This paper describes the results of a series of cross-cultural tests of several different explanations of matrilocal versus patrilocal residence. The first explanation tested was the traditional assumption that division of labor determines residence. The results did not support that assumption. The results of other tests suggest rather that patrilocal residence is favored by internal warfare, whether or not such warfare interferes with a normally patridominant division of labor; and matrilocal residence appears to be favored by purely external warfare if such warfare compels the women to do at least as much subsistence work as the men.
Evaluation of a questionnaire to assess sedentary and active behaviors in the Southern Community Cohort Study.

Background:Low physical activity (PA) is linked to cancer and other diseases prevalent in racial/ethnic minorities and low-income populations. This study evaluated the PA questionnaire (PAQ) used in the Southern Cohort Community Study, a prospective investigation of health disparities between African-American and white adults. Methods:The PAQ was administered upon entry into the cohort (PAQ1) and after 12–15 months (PAQ2) in 118 participants (40–60 year-old, 48% male, 74% African-American). Test-retest reliability (PAQ1 versus PAQ2) was assessed using Spearman correlations and the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Criterion validity of the PAQ was assessed via comparison with a PA monitor and a last-month PA survey (LMPAS), administered up to 4 times in the study period. Results:The PAQ test-retest reliability ranged from 0.25–0.54 for sedentary behaviors and 0.22–0.47 for active behaviors. The criterion validity for the PAQ compared with PA monitor ranged from 0.21–0.24 for sedentary behaviors and from 0.17–0.3...
MAGIC Tool: integrated microarray data analysis

Summary: Several programs are now available for analyzing the large datasets arising from cDNA microarray experiments. Most programs are expensive commercial packages or require expensive third party software. Some are freely available to academic researchers, but are limited to one operating system. MicroArray Genome Imaging and Clustering Tool (MAGIC Tool) is an open source program that works on all major platforms, and takes users 'from tiff to gif'. Several unique features of MAGIC Tool are particularly useful for research and teaching. Availability: http://www.bio.davidson.edu/MAGIC Contact: laheyer@davidson.edu
Vitreous Disease and the Technique, Safety and Toxicity of Intravitreal Chemotherapy for Retinoblastoma

The clinical heterogeneity of vitreous seeds can be distinguished into three classes (dust, spheres, and clouds). New evidence suggests that this classification system can be predictive of response to intravitreal melphalan.
Characterization of Tire Emissions Using an Indoor Test Facility

Abstract A tire emission facility has been built in which several tire-wear modes can be simulated while the gaseous, airborne particulate, and sedimentary particulate emissions are collected. The facility was shown to produce tire temperatures and wear rates typical of operating tires. This approach to tire-emission research has many advantages over previous attempts to study tire emissions. The emission rate of gases and airborne particulate matter was nearly independent of wear rate and accounted for only 1–20% of the total emissions. The balance of the emissions were large particles which would be expected to settle on or very close to roadways. Chemical analysis of these large particles showed that approximately 30% of the SBR is unvulcanized, compared to only 1–2% in the tread. The total organic content of the particles was unchanged. This degradation of the rubber leads to enhanced oxygen absorption rates. However, the full significance of the increased rate of oxidation is not known.
Lexical Categories: Adpositions as functional categories

Throughout this book, I have assumed that adpositions (prepositions and postpositions) are not lexical categories, but rather functional categories. As such, they have more in common with determiners, pronouns, Pred, and complementizers than they do with nouns, verbs, and adjectives. It is therefore a good thing that my theory of lexical categories has no natural place for them. While this view of adpositions is far from unprecedented, it runs contrary to the more standard generative treatment, championed by Jackendoff (1977: 31–33), in which adpositions constitute a fourth lexical category, filling out the logical space of possibilities defined by the two binary-valued features +/−N and +/−V. In this appendix, I briefly outline some arguments in favor of classifying adpositions with the functional categories, focusing on evidence from incorporation patterns. I also claim that adpositions create a projection that has neither a referential index nor a theta-role. As a result, PPs do not make good arguments or good predicates, but make excellent modifiers. P can thus be thought of as an adjective-like functional category, much as determiner/pronoun is a noun-like functional category and Pred is a verb-like functional category. The properties I have discussed throughout this book as defining the lexical categories can thus be seen also to provide a partial typology of the functional categories. Evidence that adpositions are functional There has always been some uneasiness about including adpositions as a lexical category. The popularity of treating them as such has perhaps been caused more by the theoretical attraction of having all combinations of the features +/−N and +/−V be attested than by compelling empirical considerations.
Typhoid Fever Acquired in a Medical Technology Teaching Laboratory

To our knowledge, acquisition of typhoid fever from a medical technology teaching laboratory has not been previously reported. Most cases of laboratory-acquired typhoid fever during the past decade have been acquired from cultures used for proficiency testing in clinical microbiology laboratories. We describe the case of a 22-year-old medical technology student who developed typhoid fever three weeks after participating in a laboratory exercise in which Salmonella typhi was studied as an unknown isolate. Her typhoid fever was complicated by ileal perforation and recurrent intra-abdominal abscesses. We suggest that less virulent serotypes of Salmonella in lieu of S typhi be used for instruction in medical technology teaching laboratories.
Abstract 1604: Development of breast cancer patient-derived xenograft models as preclinical tool for drug discovery

Based on gene expression profile and hormone receptor status breast cancer is usually classified into the following subtypes, luminal A, luminal B, Her2 overexpressed, basal, normal-like, and the newly identified subtype, claudin-low. For a long time sub-cutaneous and orthotopic xenograft of established human cancer cell lines have served as the primary in vivo models for drug evaluation preclinically, however their prognostic value to clinical trials has not been to our satisfaction. In an effort to overcome the limitations of traditionally used cell line models and to develop preclinical models that better represent the diversity of human breast cancer, we generated a series of human -in-mouse orthotopic xenograft models using primary tumor specimens from patients. These models are characterized in depth, including tumor histology, genomics, gene expression profiles, and chemosensitivities to standard of care compounds. They will serve as great tools to breast cancer research and discovery. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1604. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1604
Syntactic errors in speech

Speech errors can be used to examine the nature of syntactic processing in speech production. Using such evidence, Fay (1980a, 1980b) maintains that deep structure and transformations are psychologically real. However, an interactive activation model that generates surface syntactic structures directly can account for all the data. Most syntactic errors are substitutions: The target phrase structure is replaced by a semantically related structure. Blends of two syntactic structures are also common. Transformations cannot account for much of the data and are not necessary to explain any of them. While it is impossible to prove that transformations do not exist, syntactic theories that do not include transformations have the potential to be psychologically valid.
Abstract 2159: Molecular characterization of ERG mediated CXCR4 transcriptional regulation

Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL CXCR4 is a chemokine receptor, which has been shown to be expressed in several types of tumor cells, and mediate invasion and metastasis. CXCR4 expression is transcriptionally regulated in cancer cells and is associated with aggressive phenotypes of prostate cancer. Previously, we and others have shown that ERG transcription factor regulates CXCR4 expression in prostate cancer cells. In prostate cancer patients ERG is expressed via chromosomal alterations resulting in fusion of androgen responsive TMPRSS2 promoter with the coding sequence of ERG transcription factor and systemic androgens regulate ERG expression. We further show that in TMPRSS2-ERG fusion positive prostate cancer cells androgens regulate CXCR4 expression via activating ERG transcription factor expression. The CXCR4 promoter contains several putative ERG/Ets transcription factor binding sites. We hypothesize that ERG binds to selective ERG/Ets binding sites in the CXCR4 promoter and activates CXCR4 expression. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assay experiments with each of the individual ERG/Ets binding sites with VCaP cell nuclear extracts and in vitro translated ERG protein, sequential ERG/Ets binding site deletions in CXCR4 promoter reporters, chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments with anti-ERG antibodies in TMPRSS2-ERG positive VCaP cells, and chemoinvasion studies with VCaP cells we show that: (a) ERG expressed in VCaP cells selectively interacts with specific ERG/Ets bindings sites in the CXCR4 promoter; (b) several Ets factor family members are expressed in VCaP cells; (c) in vitro translated ERG binding with ERG/Ets elements in CXCR4 promoter further confirms that selective ERG/Ets sites in CXCR4 promoter are active in binding with ERG; (d) ERG binds with CXCR4 gene promoter in VCaP cells; (e) androgens regulate CXCR4 expression in TMPRSS2-ERG fusion positive cells; and (f) androgen induced CXCR4 is active in chemoinvasion of prostate cancer cells. These data suggest that androgens regulate CXCR4 expression via ERG transcription factor expression and ERG factor may regulate CXCR4 expression by binding to the specific ERG/Ets responsive elements and activating CXCR4 transcription. These findings may provide a link between TMPRSS2-ERG translocations and enhanced metastasis of tumor cells via CXCR4 function in PC cells. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2159. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2159
Assessment on Uncertainty of Colony Count Determination in Non-fermented Bean Products

[Objective] To evaluate uncertainty in colony count determination in Non-fermented bean products,so as to elevate the accuracy of test results.[Methods] Using daily determination results,the statistical method of uniting standard deviation was applied to determine the uncertainty of colony count.[Results] The expand uncertainty was 0.0069,and the method was fit for each sample result.[Conclusion]In daily work,samples can be classified,and then conducted statistical analysis according to the daily determination data.To evaluate uncertainty of each product fit the requirements of IS0/IEC 17025,2005.
Responding to a Request for Physician-Assisted Death--Reply.

We agree with Dr Galishoff that the question of how physicians should be involved in the end of a human life is of great importance to the medical profession and to the ethical discourse about the rights of patients and responsibilities of physicians. There are strong moral principles and deeply felt arguments on both sides of this question. As supporters of legal access to physician-assisted death, we especially emphasize the following principles: (1) patient autonomy—the interests and will of the dying patient who has no good choices, which is most fundamental1; (2) the imperative to assist a patient to find relief from suffering the individual finds unacceptable2; and (3) nonabandonment—the commitment of a clinician to care for a patient throughout the dying process.
The Metropolitan Military Homeownership Resistance to Military Family Housing in Southern California, 1979-1990

Despite its dependence on military investment, large segments of the Sunbelt have always expressed ambivalence toward military housing. From 1941 to 1973, real estate interests served as the primary resistance to the construction of military housing; however, during the 1970s, due to economic changes, tax revolts, New Right fiscal and social policies, and the transformation to the all-volunteer force (AVF), opposition to military housing transferred from real estate interests to homeowners. From 1979 to 1990, the Navy’s attempt to construct military family housing in San Diego encountered angry homeowners who resented the tax exempt status of housing and accused military households of overburdening school infrastructure, reducing property values, and spreading social dysfunction. Demographic changes resulting from the AVF yielded more families and greater ethnic and racial diversity, which failed to align with suburban norms and thereby marginalized service households socially and politically.