cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bipolar, anastral spindle development in artificially activated sea urchin eggs

The mitotic apparatus of the early sea urchin embryo is the archetype example of a centrosome-dominated, large aster spindle organized by means of the centriole of the fertilizing sperm. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that artificially activated sea urchin eggs possess the capacity to assemble the anastral, bipolar spindles present in many acentrosomal systems. Control fertilized Lytechinus pictus embryos and ammonia-activated eggs were immunolabeled for tubulin, centrosomal material, the spindle pole structuring protein NuMA and the mitotic kinesins MKLP1/Kinesin-6, Eg5/Kinesin-5, and KinI/Kinesin-13. Confocal imaging showed that a subset of ammonia-activated eggs contained bipolar "mini-spindles" that were anastral; displayed metaphase and anaphase-like stages; labeled for centrosomal material, NuMA, and the three mitotic kinesins; and were observed in living eggs using polarization optics. These results suggest that spindle structural and motor proteins have the ability to organize bipolar, anastral spindles in sea urchin eggs activated in the absence of the paternal centriole.
Design of Laminated Plates for Maximum Stiffness

An optimization procedure is proposed for the design of laminated fiber-reinforced plates having midplane symmetry and subject to flexure. Strain energy is taken as the objective function, while th...
Properties of a class of multilevel optimization algorithms for equality-constrained problems

A multilevel optimization approach termed MG/Opt is presented for the solution of equality-constrained optimization problems. The approach assumes that one has a hierarchy of models, ordered from fine to coarse, of an underlying optimization problem and that one is interested in finding solutions at the finest level of detail. In this hierarchy of models, calculations on coarser levels are less expensive, but also are of less fidelity, than calculations on finer levels. The intent of MG/Opt is to use calculations on coarser levels to accelerate the progress of the optimization on the finest level. Global convergence is ensured by requiring a single step of a convergent method on the finest level, plus a line search for incorporating the coarse-level corrections. The convergence results apply to a broad class of algorithms with minimal assumptions about the properties of the coarse models. Under additional assumptions, the coarse-level correction is guaranteed to result in improvement of the fine-level solution. Computational results demonstrate that the multilevel algorithm can dramatically accelerate convergence to the solution.
Developmental aspects of renal β-amino acid transport. III. ontogeny of transport in isolated renal tubule segments

Summary: Isolated renal tubules were prepared from newborn and adult Sprague-Dawley rats. They were used to study the uptake and accumulation of the β-ammo acid, taurine, by renal epithelium. Initial rate as well as steady-state kinetics were studied. Initial rate studies revealed heterogeneity of uptake in newborn and adult tubules. Slower uptake was present in the newborn in the low-affinity system. Slowed efflux was found in neonatal tissue. Newborn tubules in contrast to adult tubules demonstrated uptake under anaerobic conditions. Adult and newborn tissues showed decreased uptake of taurine when incubated with β-alanine. Physiologic taurinuria, be it in the rat or man, may be due to less rapid initial uptake and/or slowed efflux from renal epithelium. Speculation: β-Amino acid transport by newborn rat renal epithelium varies from that of adult rat renal epithelium. Although heterogeneity of uptake exists io both, newborn uptake by Pad efflux from renal epithelium is slower, aod iotracellular levels are higher in the newborn. Uptake differences may be exunined by luminal membraoe preparations; however, slowed efflux aod higher iotraceliular levels suggest studies on intracellular components and basal lateral membraoes are warraoted.
The Development and Validation of an Interactive Hypermedia Program for Teaching a Self-Advocacy Strategy to Students with Disabilities.

Educators agree that students with disabilities need to acquire self-advocacy skills. Despite the existence of validated methods to teach these skills, evidence suggests that they are seldom explicitly taught. Time and opportunities to teach these skills in both the general and special education setting are minimal. One possible solution is to use instructional technology.The purpose of this project was to develop and validate an Interactive Hypermedia Program (IHP) to teach a self-advocacy strategy to secondary-level students with disabilities. The strategy for which the IHP was developed and tested is the Self-Advocacy Strategy (Van Reusen, Bos, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1994). The instruction for the strategy was originally validated by Van Reusen, Deshler, and Schumaker (1989). With input from student, teacher, design, and technical consultants, the IHP was created. Students who had learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and other health impairments learned the strategy via the IHP or through live ins...
The Half-Life of Actinouranium

Values of the half-life of actinouranium are obtained from data on a Morogoro pitchblende and a uraninite from Great Bear Lake, analyzed by von Grosse and Marble, respectively. Computations were made with two extreme values, 0.03 and 0.04, for the actinium "branching ratio" $B$. Half-life values in ${10}^{8}$ years are:
An Early Theocritus Book (P. Oxy. 2064 + 3548): Placing Fragments

In 1930 Hunt and Johnson published the remains of P. Oxy. 2064, a roll containing at least some of the poems attributed to Theocritus and dating from the late second century A.d. (A. S. Hunt and J. Johnson, Two Theocritus Papyri [London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1930], 3–19). The papyrus was important, even though very fragmentary (no column is preserved complete, and very few lines are wholly intact), since at its time of publication it was one of the three earliest witnesses to the text of Theocritus. Fragments of other early papyri of Theocritus have been published since then, but P. Oxy. 2064 has remained the most important known witness prior to the fifth century because of the spread of poems which the extant fragments show it to have contained. No other papyrus allows us to reconstruct the contents of an early Theocritus book to such an extent. In 1983 the editors of Oxyrhynchus Papyri published a further collection of Theocritus fragments from various papyri (P. Oxy. 3545–3552), among which were more remains from P. Oxy. 2064 edited by P. J. Parsons under the number P. Oxy. 3548 (Oxyrhynchus Papyri L [Graeco-Roman Memoirs, 70: London, 1983], 105–22).
Review of exemplar programs for adults with early-stage Alzheimer's disease

In response to the need to develop evidence-based best practices interventions and services for individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the authors conducted an interdisciplinary literature review of exemplar programs, defined as those including multimodal or unimodal interventions; shown to be appropriate for individuals in the early stages of AD; demonstrating promise to support, maintain, and improve independent functioning; and shown to have positive effects for a variety of outcomes, including quality of life. This article examines evidence from five kinds of programs: (a) multimodal interventions, (b) programs developed by the Southwest Florida Interdisciplinary Center for Positive Aging, (c) sleep enhancement interventions, (d) managed care programs, and (e) technology-based interventions. Evidence from the review suggests that a number of programs can support functioning and improve quality of life for adults living with the early stages of memory loss. The article concludes with recommendations to advance a national research agenda in this area.
Pediatric primary care physicians' practices regarding newborn hearing screening.

Objective: Approximately 2 to 3 out of 1000 infants are born with hearing loss in the United States each year. Pediatric primary care physicians (PCPs) can play an important role in ensuring that infants with hearing loss are identified early and provided appropriate services. In this study, pediatric PCPs were surveyed about their practices regarding early hearing detection and intervention. Methods: Responses from the 2008 DocStyles survey were used to examine patient, physician, and practice variables associated with actions consistent with the 2007 Joint Committee on Infant Hearing position statement, which includes follow-up protocols for medical home providers. Results: Pediatricians working in a group setting were more likely to receive hearing screening results than were those in individual practices or hospitals and clinics. Family/general physicians with heavier caseloads were more likely to receive hearing screening results for their pediatric patients than were those with lighter caseloads. Fe...
Encapsulant for fatigue life enhancement of controlled-collapse chip connection (C4)

Controlled collapse chip connection (C4), or flip chip connection, has been used since late 1960s as a reliable interconnection technology for semiconductors. Allowing area array type of interconnection, this method provides one of the best solutions for high density packaging. However, with trends migrating to larger DNP (distance to neutral point) chips and organic substrates, the fatigue life of solder joints need to be enhanced by encapsulation. To meet the stringent requirements of flip-chip encapsulation, low viscosity resins based on epoxy chemistry have been developed by IBM. These systems having low thermal expansion, low /spl alpha/-particle emission, excellent flow, and wetting characteristics can provide improved mechanical and environmental protection of the solder joints. This article describes the characterization of a liquid, silica filled system for maximum processability of C4 chips. Critical thermomechanical properties have been studied to ensure that both ceramic module and card assembly conditions can be sustained. Both rheological properties and cure kinetics were optimized to provide enhanced flow and coverage of the C4s. Other key properties such as, shelf life, thermal stability, solvent and moisture resistance as well as adhesion to various surfaces are addressed. >
Optical response of small-diameter semiconducting carbon nanotubes under exciton-surface-plasmon coupling

Abstract We analyze the optical response of small-diameter (≲1 nm) semiconducting carbon nanotubes under the exciton–surface-plasmon coupling. Calculated optical absorption lineshapes exhibit the significant line (Rabi) splitting ∼0.1–0.3 eV as the exciton energy is tuned to the nearest interband surface plasmon resonance of the nanotube so that the mixed strongly coupled surface plasmon–exciton excitations are formed. We discuss possible ways to bring the exciton in resonance with the surface plasmon. The exciton–plasmon Rabi splitting effect we predict here for an individual carbon nanotube is close in its magnitude to that previously reported for hybrid plasmonic nanostructures artificially fabricated of organic semiconductors deposited on metallic films. We believe this effect may be used for the development of carbon nanotube based tunable optoelectronic device applications in areas such as nanophotonics and cavity quantum electrodynamics.
Methods of and attitudes toward screening obstetrics and gynecology patients for domestic violence.

Abstract Objective: Our purpose was to define screenng behaviours of obstetrician-gynecologists and barriers to screening their patients for domestic violence. Study design: A questionnaire was developed to collect information on current practices and attitudes regarding screening for domestic violence. A randomly selected sample of obstetrician-gynecologists was surveyed. Respondents were also asked to rank a series of 19 potential barriers that may affect screening. Results: Of 6568 physicians sampled, 962 (14.6%) returned questionnaires. Of the respondents, 77.6% were male and 22.4% were female. Male physicians were less likely to screen for domestic violence (25.9% vs. 18.9%). Thirty-four percent said that they had no training in abuse. Physicians indicating they had received training in abuse were more likely to screen for domestic violence. The lack of education was identified as the most common barrier physicians have to screening. The feeling that abuse was not a problem in their patients (46%), lack of time to deal with abuse (39.2%), and frustration that the physician cannot help the victim (34.2%) were other barriers. Conclusion: The majority of obstetrician-gynecologists do not screen their patients for current or past domestic violence. If universal screening is to become a reality, educational tools and training materials are needed to overcome physician barriers.
Monte Carlo Simulation of Formic Acid Dimerization in a Carbon Dioxide Solvent

Monte Carlo simulations are used to quantify hydrogen bonding between formic acid molecules solvated in subcritical and supercritical carbon dioxide. We find that formic acid predominantly forms cyclic dimers at the conditions studied, in contrast to the chainlike configurations observed in the neat liquid phase. Previous experimental measurements of the dimerization constant are confirmed in the present work, showing large shifts in hydrogen bonding as the two-phase system become supercritical. At subcritical conditions, formic acid is preferentially solvated in the liquid CO2 phase, where the dimerization constant is low. As the system approaches the critical point, the formic acid molecules migrate toward the gas phase, where the dimerization is enhanced. Above the critical point of the mixture, formic acid is completely solvated in a single phase, allowing pressure-tunable dimerization. The results from these simulations prompt future investigations of more complex reactions solvated in supercritical ...
Coregistration of range and optical images using coplanarity and orientation constraints

A least-squares method simultaneously solves for the model-to-sensor-suite pose and sensor-to-sensor registration. The development is for a sensor-suite containing separate range and optical sensors. To address outliers and, more generally, match finding, a statistical method (median filtering) and a search method (local search) are developed. Sensitivity to Gaussian noise and the choice of initial pose estimates is investigated on synthetic data. Both of the matching methods are demonstrated on real data.
Modeling and Simulation of an Adiabatic Adsorber

Abstract An adiabatic fixed bed adsorber is modeled and simulated, and the effects of various parameters on its performance are investigated. The results of this study give an insight into the operating characteristics of the adsorption unit and should be useful in planning laboratory and field experiments and for interpreting the results of such experiments.
Machine Learning of Temporal Relations

This paper investigates a machine learning approach for temporally ordering and anchoring events in natural language texts. To address data sparseness, we used temporal reasoning as an over-sampling method to dramatically expand the amount of training data, resulting in predictive accuracy on link labeling as high as 93% using a Maximum Entropy classifier on human annotated data. This method compared favorably against a series of increasingly sophisticated baselines involving expansion of rules derived from human intuitions.
Mass Spectrometry of Secondary Ions: Polymers, Plasticizers and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

The mass spectrometry of secondary ions encompasses a number of techniques depending on the identity of the primary particle. Table 1 presents the various primary particles used to produce secondary ions and the name of the associated mass spectrometric technique. These new techniques were developed primarily for the study of nonvolatile and thermally labile compounds. Two of these techniques, SIMS and FAB, and their application to the analysis of polymers, plasticizers and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are the subject of this contribution.
Changes in Health Insurance and Payment for Substance Use Treatment

Based on data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse in 1994 (N=10,158) and 1998 (N=12,892) alcohol- or drug-using subsamples (aged 18–64) were compared to see if postwelfarereform reports of having employer-paid health insurance increased and Medicaid decreased by 1998 and affected participation in substance use treatment. By 1998, respondents were more likely to report having employer-paid insurance but reported source of payment for substance use treatment did not differ by year. In 1998, privately insured respondents were less likely to know if they had coverage for substance use treatment than in 1994. Of privately insured in treatment, 24% did not know if insurance covered treatment; most of these said they paid for treatment out-of-pocket. Despite reported increases in employer-paid insurance, uncertainty about its coverage of substance use treatment also increased and was associated with reports of not using it to pay for treatment.
The Dynamics of Snow and Ice Masses

On Earth today we enjoy a relatively comfortable climate, which is a fortunate consequence of the present extent of the global ice cover. Although more than two-thirds of the surface of Earth is covered by water, it is the water to ice conversion, and vice versa, that makes an important fraction of the globe habitable today. Hence, changes in the global scale dynamics of the ice cover capture scientific and public interest principally because of their role in global warming and ice-age events. It is in this sense that ice is the ultimate geomorphological fluid mechanic.
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of abarelix, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist, after subcutaneous continuous infusion in patients with prostate cancer.

Objectives Our objective was to evaluate the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of abarelix after continuous subcutaneous infusion of 50 μg · kg−1 · d−1 in patients with prostate cancer and to identify a plasma concentration of abarelix that may provide a sustained pharmacodynamic effect. Methods This was a multicenter, open-label trial to evaluate abarelix, administered as a continuous subcutaneous infusion for up to 84 days (12 weeks) in 36 men with clinically localized or regional prostate cancer. All patients were treated at a dosage of 50 μg · kg−;1 · d−1 for at least 28 days (4 weeks). The pharmacokinetic characteristics and the pharmacologic activities of abarelix on testosterone, prostate-specific antigen, dihydrotestosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone during and after treatment with abarelix were measured. Results After a continuous subcutaneous infusion of 50 μg · kg−1 · d−1, abarelix concentrations peaked with the median observed time to reach peak concentration at approximately 28 days. The mean observed maximum plasma drug concentration and average plasma concentration were 56.1 and 48.6 ng/mL, respectively. The mean observed half-life of abarelix was 10.0 days. Mean testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone inhibition of 94.2%, 88.7%, 79.7%, and 82.8%, respectively, were achieved by study day 15 (14 days after dosing started), and inhibition continued to be maintained until the last dosing day. For the prostate-specific antigen levels, mean inhibition of 52.5% was achieved by 28 days after dosing started. The inhibition progressively increased and peaked at 81.9% on the final day of dosing. The inhibition for prostate-specific antigen was extended to 94.6% during the final follow-up visit (28 to 35 days after treatment ended). The median prostate gland volume reduction at treatment exit was 35%. The population pharmacodynamic estimates (percent coefficient of variation) of the 50% inhibitory concentration, maximum organ extraction ratio, and slope and sigmoidicity of the effect-concentration curve of abarelix to testosterone were 3.47 ng/mL (12.4%), 94.9 (1.3%), and 2.92 (16.2%), respectively. Conclusions The results show that abarelix given as a subcutaneous infusion of 50 μg ·kg−1 · d−1 is sufficient to produce clinically significant effects on the basis of prostate gland volume reduction and the suppression of gonadotropins. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2003) 73, 304–311; doi: 10.1016/S0009-9236(02)17637-5
Enriching Mutant Sequences by Modulating the Denaturation Time during PCR

To the Editor: For minor and major DNA alleles, coamplification at lower denaturation temperature-PCR (COLD-PCR)1 selectively enriches minority alleles from mixtures of wild-type and mutation-containing sequences without a priori knowledge of the type or position of a mutation within a sequence (1). Since its inception (2), COLD-PCR has been employed in a variety of applications, including cancer, prenatal diagnostics, infectious diseases, and crop development (3). In COLD-PCR, mutation-containing sequences are enriched either because they have reduced melting temperatures ( T m) due to the type of mutations present (fast-COLD-PCR) or because they form heteroduplexes with wild-type DNA (full-COLD-PCR). In both cases the resulting T m difference is exploited for preferential denaturation and replication of mutated sequences by employing a critical denaturation temperature ( T c) for a given DNA sequence. The T c of an amplicon usually lies approximately 1 °C below the melting temperature ( T m) (4, 5). Because the critical denaturation temperature needs to be controlled precisely during PCR, a thermocycler with a high degree of accuracy and precision in temperature control is desirable, i.e., to within about ±0.2 °C. Unfortunately, this excludes several commonly used PCR machines. For example, the ECO real-time PCR machine from Illumina and the Lightcycler 1536 real-time PCR system from Roche are programmable to 1 °C increments, and the temperature of …
High-efficiency quasi-phase-matched waveguide device fabricated in KTiOPO 4 by electric-field poling

Potassium titanyl phosphate (KTiOPO4, KTP) is a very promising material for the development of a compact blue light source based on frequency doubling because of its large nonlinear coefficient and high optical- damage threshold. For generation of wavelengths shorter than 497 nm, type-II birefringent phase matching cannot be used1 and quasi-phase matching must be used instead, Quasi phase matching can be achieved by periodically reversing the sign of the d33 nonlinear coefficient, and this can be accomplished through periodic inversion of the ferroelectric domains of the material. Previously, an ion-exchange technique has been used to produce segmented waveguides having periodic domain inversion.2,3 However, this technique has several draw'- backs: (i) the domain-inverted region may not be as deep as the waveguide, (ii) the reliability and reproducibility of the ion-exchange process are questionable, and (iii) the processing parameters that give good domain inversion may not yield an optimized waveguide. Hence, an alternative technique that overcomes these difficulties is desirable. Here we report what we believe to be the first QPM waveguide device fabricated in KTP by using an electric-field-poling technique that produces deep domains4 and permits independent optimization of the linear and nonlinear properties of the device.
Urinary retinol excretion and kidney function in children with shigellosis

Acute infections including diarrhea are associated with an increased risk of vitamin A deficiency. Urinary retinol excretion during such infections may contribute to this risk. The mechanism accounting for urinary retinol loss has not been clearly defined. This study attempted to determine whether urinary retinol loss in children with acute infection is associated with impaired kidney function particularly impaired tubular protein reabsorption. Urinary retinol excretion and kidney function were examined in 66 hospitalized children 5 mo to 5 y of age with acute Shigella dysentery. Urinary retinol loss occurred in 59% of children and was substantial (> 0.1 µmol/d) in 8% of them. Children with more severe disease excreted higher concentrations of urinary retinol; those with a body temperature = 40°C excreted a mean of 0.10 ± 0.18 µmol/d compared with 0.005 ± 0.008 µmol/d for other children (P 0.10 µmol/d (15% of the daily metabolic requirement). Impaired tubular reabsorption of low-molecular-weight proteins such as RBP transporting retinol appeared to be the cause of this urinary retinol loss. (authors)
The Ethics of Tachistoscopy

(1959). The Ethics of Tachistoscopy. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 212-215.
A Rapid Chemical Method for Detecting PPLO Contamination of Tissue Cell Cultures

SummaryA rapid, simple and routine chemical method for detection of PPLO contamination in cell cultures is reported. The method is based on the presence of arginine deiminase activity in all tissue culture PPLO strains, but absence from all mammalian tissue and PPLO-free cell cultures. In a total of 73 cell cultures examined, the detection of PPLO determined by presence of arginine deiminase activity agreed entirely with the most sensitive cultural procedure which requires 14 days.
Artificial neural networks approaches for multidimensional classification of acute lymphoblastic leukemia gene expression samples

Accurate classification of human blood cells plays a decisive role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been consistently used as a trusted classification tool for this type of analysis. In the present case study, two approaches are implemented on two different parametric data clusters in a multidimensional space using ANNs trained with cross-validation. Beckman-Coulter Corporation supplied flow cytometry data of numerous patients as training sets for the first approach to exploit the physiological characteristics of the different blood cells provided. The goal was to establish a programming tool for the identification of different white blood cell categories of a given blood sample and provide information to medical doctors in the form of diagnostic references for the specific disease state that is considered for this study, namely Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Successful initial results of this first approach have been published. The second approach is focusing on the gene expression profiling of ALL to classify its six subtypes. Generated by the oligonucleotide microarrays, this data provides additional insights into the biology underlying the clinical differences between these leukemia subgroups. With the application of the hypothesis space, along with the learning bias, the system is also trained to assess the inherent problem of data overlap and be able to recognize abnormal blood cell patterns. An analysis of the systems regarding computational load and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) was conducted. The algorithms as proposed provide solutions to data overlap from our initial results. And by applying ANNs, the classification accuracy of the first approach is remarkably improved up to 100% and 92% for the second approach.
Social Class-Based Affirmative Action in High Places: Democratizing Dean Selection at America's Elite Law Schools

Education reformers have argued for some time that America’s law schools should seek greater demographic diversity among their students, faculty, and administrators. These reformers say this increased diversity will enhance the learning environment by exposing those involved to more perspectives on important questions and issues. Diversity advocates argue that recruitment and placement policies should be redesigned so the major demographic characteristics of law students, faculty, and administrators more closely resemble those of the public. This project examines diversity in relation to the socioeconomic origins of deans at America’s top fifty law programs. The survey results show that notwithstanding gains on other demographic fronts, deans at these elite programs disproportionately come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. The discussion closes by offering specific steps law schools can take to ensure greater socioeconomic integration among their deans.
Examining the key dimensions of mobile banking service quality: an exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the key dimensions of mobile banking (m-banking) service quality. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employ the critical incident technique to unveil the key dimensions of m-banking service quality as perceived by m-banking customers, and to identify critical satisfiers/dissatisfiers among the identified dimensions. Findings – The analysis reveals a total of 17 dimensions of m-banking service quality: m-banking application quality (content, accuracy, ease of use, speed, aesthetics, security, diverse mobile application service features, and mobile convenience), and m-banking customer service quality (reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, credibility, access, communication, understanding the customer, and continuous improvement). Of these, five dimensions, such as mobile convenience, accuracy, diverse mobile application service features, ease of use, and continuous improvement, are considered as the main sources of customer satisfaction/...
Recurrent genetic defects in classical Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines

Genetic analysis of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) has been hampered by the paucity of Hodgkin cells in biopsies and their poor growth in vitro. However, a wealth of information has been obtained from cHL cell lines. Here we report results of whole-exome sequencing and karyotypic analysis of five cHL cell lines. Four genes with potentially pathogenic single nucleotide variants (SNV) were detected in three cell lines. SNV were also detected in seventeen HL-related genes and three mitosis-related genes. Copy number variants were detected in four HL-related genes in all five cell lines. Given the high degree of aneuploidy in HL, mitosis-related genes were screened for defects. One mitotic gene (NCAPD2) was amplified in all five HL cell lines, and two genes (FAM190A, PLK4) were amplified in four cell lines. These results suggest that genomic instability of HL may be due to defects in genes involved in chromosome duplication and segregation.
Large-scale Semantic Profile Extraction

Web-search engines usually can be outperformed by specialized systems optimized for a specific domain or type of data. Halevy et al in [1] demonstrate a use case for a specialized spatial search of Google Fusion Tables, whereby the user searches for bike trails in the San Francisco Bay Area and can see the result on a Google map. The same query submitted to the general-purpose Google Web-search engine returns many irrelevant search results. Relevance of returned search results is a key property for any search-engine and hence an important and appreciated problem in Databases, Information Retrieval and Websearch [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Users of any search-engine strongly prefer to get the most relevant search results first; otherwise, they have to spend time curating search-results. Content providers on the Web and in other settings usually exhibit a specific focus for their postings. For example, information at http://www.nasdaq.com is usually in the financial domain, Britney Spears is mostly tweeting about the music, and Business Wire often publishes about acquisitions. It is rare for a source to cover a wide variety of topics. In this paper, we introduce and demonstrate a data structure designed to capture a semantic sketch of a data source, along with algorithms and similarity measures that can be used to extract, populate, and match similar profiles. For example, a newspaper Business Wire often publishes about acquisitions and therefore has this Named Entity type highly ranked in its profile (see Table 1). We run our experiments on a corpus of 45 million Web pages Web45M, provided by the Web aggregator Recorded Future [10], extract ≈ 1.4 million profiles, and leverage them to outperform general-purpose Web-search on certain types of queries. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 defines the semantic profile and describes the algorithms to extract semantic profiles. Section 3 describes a large-scale storage engines used to run the experiments. Section 4 introduces the similarity measures useful to match and find information sources that are alike. Section 5 demonstrates how the profiles can be used to improve general-purpose Web-search engines as well as for expert mining. We finish in Section 6 by discussing related and future work.
Applications and Special Topics

We have consistently implied that most physical systems can be associated with mathematical objects which we have called dynamical systems (autonomous case) or processes (nonautonomous case). It follows that the techniques described in Chapters III and IV can be very useful in analyzing the time behavior of autonomous physical systems; in Sections III.6 and IV.6 we also mentioned that these techniques admit nonautonomous extensions. With increasing frequency, these methods and ideas are being applied to concrete problems in physics, economics, and engineering. We shall describe a small sample of such applications in the first five sections of this chapter.
Probabilistic Modeling of Aircraft Trajectories for Dynamic Separation Volumes

With a proliferation of new and unconventional vehicles and operations expected in the future, the ab initio airspace design will require new approaches to trajectory prediction for separation assurance and other air traffic management functions. This paper presents an approach to probabilistic modeling of the trajectory of an aircraft when its intent is unknown. The approach uses a set of feature functions to constrain a maximum entropy probability distribution based on a set of observed aircraft trajectories. This model can be used to sample new aircraft trajectories to form an ensemble reflecting the variability in an aircraft's intent. The model learning process ensures that the variability in this ensemble reflects the behavior observed in the original data set. Computational examples are presented.
Functional Nature of the Cadential Six-Four

In this article I support the idea that the cadential six-four is not a mere dominant with two non-chord tones, but a unique bi-functional chord which embodies a conflict between tonic and dominant. This concept allows the explanation of all possible appearances of the cadential six-four in the music literature.
Hospital Unit Understaffing and Missed Treatments: The Moderating Effect of Teamwork.

Hospitals throughout the U.S. are facing increasing demand and employee shortages. This capacity issue has led to understaffing in some hospital areas. The current study examines the impact of understaffing in hospital-unit respiratory care and the impact to missed treatment rates. The moderating effect of teamwork is also considered.
Urban resilience for whom, what, when, where, and why?

ABSTRACTIn academic and policy discourse, the concept of urban resilience is proliferating. Social theorists, especially human geographers, have rightfully criticized that the underlying politics of resilience have been ignored and stress the importance of asking “resilience of what, to what, and for whom?” This paper calls for careful consideration of not just resilience for whom and what, but also where, when, and why. A three-phase process is introduced to enable these “five Ws” to be negotiated collectively and to engender critical reflection on the politics of urban resilience as plans, initiatives, and projects are conceived, discussed, and implemented. Deployed through the hypothetical case of green infrastructure in Los Angeles, the paper concludes by illustrating how resilience planning trade-offs and decisions affect outcomes over space and time, often with significant implications for equity.
Protein Patterning with Programmable Surface Chemistry Chips

Programmable surface chemistry has been achieved by depositing thermally responsive polymer (plasma polymerized N-isopropylacrylamide, ppNIPAM) onto arrays ofmicro-fabricated metallic heaters. Activating a single heater causes a localized change in the device surface chemistry from non-fouling to fouling in aqueous environment. Various proteins were used to demonstrate localized immobilization of proteins on the surface ofcoated micro-heater arrays. Additional uses ofthis technique include applications such as cell patterning, tissue engineering, self-assembly, etc.
Body Mass Index and Locoregional Recurrence in Women with Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

Higher body mass index (BMI) has been associated with increased distant recurrence and decreased survival for women with breast cancer. However, the relationship between BMI and locoregional recurrence (LRR) has been less well studied and was therefore the subject of this investigation. The study identified 878 women with early-stage invasive breast cancer who underwent breast-conservation therapy (BCT) between June 1997 and October 2007. Time from diagnosis to LRR was calculated using a competing risk analysis with contralateral breast cancer (CBC), distant metastases (DM), and death as the competing risks. Gray’s competing risks analysis, which included an interaction term between menopausal status and BMI, was used to identify significant risk factors for the development of LRR. After a median follow-up period of 10.8 years, LRR was diagnosed as a first event for 45 women. In a multivariable analysis, BMI was positively associated with LRR but only in premenopausal women. Specifically, when these women were compared with normal- and underweight women, both the overweight women (hazard ratio (HR), 2.97; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.04–8.46; p = 0.04) and the obese women (HR, 3.36; 95 % CI 1.07–10.63; p = 0.04) showed a higher risk of LRR. A similar association between BMI and disease-free survival was noted for premenopausal but not postmenopausal women. For premenopausal women with invasive breast cancer who undergo BCT, BMI is an independent prognostic factor for LRR. If confirmed, these findings suggest that more aggressive treatment strategies may be warranted for these women.
Complications and Mortality Following One to Two-Level Anterior Cervical Fusion for Cervical Spondylosis in Patients Above 80 Years of Age.

Study design A retrospective database review. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the complication and mortality rates in patients 80 years of age and older who were treated with anterior cervical fusion surgery and to compare these rates against those of other elderly patients. Summary of background data Cervical spondylosis is frequently observed in the elderly and is the most common cause of myelopathy in older adults. With increasing life expectancies, a greater proportion of patients are being treated with spine surgery at a later age. Limited information is available regarding outcomes following anterior cervical fusion surgery in patients 80 years of age or older. Methods Medicare data from the PearlDiver Database (2005-2012) were queried for patients who underwent primary one to two-level anterior cervical spine fusion surgeries for cervical spondylosis. After excluding patients with prior spine metastasis, bone cancer, spine trauma, or spine infection, this cohort was divided into two study groups: patients 65 to 79 (51,808) and ≥80 years old (5515) were selected. A cohort of matched control patients was selected from the 65 to 79-year-old and 90-day complication rates and 90-day and 1-year mortality rates were compared between cohorts. Results The proportion of patients experiencing at least one major medical complication was relatively increased by 53.4% in patients aged ≥80 years [odds ratio (OR) 1.63]. Patients 80 years of age or older were more likely to experience dysphagia (OR 2.16), reintubation (OR 2.34), and aspiration pneumonitis (OR 3.17). Both 90-day (OR: 4.34) and 1-year (OR 3.68) mortality were significantly higher in the ≥80 year cohort. Conclusion Patients 80 years of age or older are more likely to experience a major medical complication or mortality following anterior cervical fusion for cervical spondylosis than patients 65 to 79 years old. Dysphagia, aspiration pneumonitis, and reintubation rates are also significantly higher in patients 80 years of age or older. Although complication rates may be higher in this patient population, carefully selected patients could potentially derive much benefit from surgery and should not be screened out solely on the basis of age. Level of evidence 4.
Patterns of personal health practice: men and women in the United States.

This investigation examined the dimensionality of personal health practices among 1,171 men and 1,854 women included in a national probability sample of adults 20 to 64 years of age living in the coterminous United States. Data on a wide range of personal health behaviors were collected in the 1979 National Survey of Personal Health Practices and Consequences. I used gender-specific factor analyses to uncover the underlying domains of 10 different types of health behavior. I identified four subsets of personal health practices: (1) passive-risk behavior (i.e., low levels of leisure-time physical activity, poor dental care, poor nutritional habits, infrequent seat belt use, and poor use of preventive medical services); (2) active-risk behavior (i.e., cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and coffee consumption); (3) sleeping behavior; and (4) behavior related to maintaining desirable weight. Internal consistency analyses assessed the stability of the two primary subsets of behavior for different gender, age, and education groups. Women were relatively stable in their tendencies toward both passive-risk and active-risk behavior, regardless of age or education. Older men had more consistent involvement in passive-risk behavior but less consistent active-risk behavior. With higher education, men were more consistent in both passive-risk and active-risk behavior, reflecting more positive health practices.
Receipt of Tobacco Direct Mail Coupons and Changes in Smoking Status in a Nationally Representative Sample of US Adults.

Introduction Direct-to-consumer tobacco marketing, including direct mail and email coupons, is a potentially influential marketing strategy. We examined the associations between receipt of tobacco direct mail/email coupons and trajectories of smoking behavior among US adults. Methods Data were from the US Population Assessment on Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study adult sample (n = 32160) collected during 2013-2014. Participants self-reported their smoking status (every day, some days, not at all) 12 months prior to the survey (T0) and at the time of the survey (T1). Three smoking trajectories were identified: nonsmokers progressing to current smokers, current smokers continuing to smoke, and among current smokers at T0, progressing to or continuing with daily smoking. Participants also reported receipt of direct mail/email tobacco coupons in the 6 months preceding T1 (yes/no). Weighted multiple logistic regression models were used to test the associations between receiving direct mail/email tobacco coupons and different smoking trajectories adjusted for demographic characteristics. Results One in eight (12.4%) US adult nonsmokers and 36.2% adult smokers at T0 reported receiving tobacco coupons. Receipt of tobacco coupons was negatively associated with poverty status. Receipt of tobacco coupons was associated with increased odds of progression to current smoking (AOR = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.45 to 2.12), continuation of smoking (AOR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.09 to 1.65), and current smokers' progression to or continuation with daily smoking (AOR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.50 to 1.91). Conclusions Direct-to-consumer tobacco coupons may promote progression of smoking among nonsmokers, and continuation of smoking and progression to daily smoking among smokers in US adults. Implications Distributing direct mail coupons is a strategy employed by tobacco companies to promote their products. We found, in a US national study, that many adults received tobacco coupons, and receiving these coupons was associated with subsequent progression of smoking among nonsmokers, and continuation of smoking and daily smoking among smokers. Scrutiny over the use of direct mail coupons and its effects on population health is warranted. Future research is needed to evaluate the effect of different interventions to reduce the impact of these coupons on smoking behaviors.
Laparoscopic Splenectomy for Massive Splenomegaly: Does Size Matter?

Abstract Background: Laparoscopic splenectomy (LS) has become the most common approach for elective splenectomy, but use of LS for patients with massive splenomegaly (MS) remains controversial. By ...
LENS ASSAYS ON DIABETIC AND GALACTOSEMIC RATS RECEIVING DIETS THAT MODIFY CATARACT DEVELOPMENT.

Cataract formation is delayed or prevented in diabetes and galactosemia by diets rich in fat and protein. This is accomplished in the presence of high levels of blood sugar and lens sugar alcohols. Diabetic rats on a high-fat diet for 235 days had lenses that were clear to the naked eye, whereas control animals developed cataracts in a median time of 65 days. The lens protein level of treated animals was about 90 per cent of normal. There was no evidence of lens swelling; however, the concentration of lens amino acids ivas low.
Copolyesters based on bibenzoic acids

Abstract Novel copolyester thermoplastics based on 4,4′-bibenzoate and 3,4′-bibenzoate moieties with ethylene glycol were synthesized via melt polycondensations. Crystallization behavior was modified by the additional incorporation of terephthalate or isophthalate units into the backbones. Copolyester compositions were verified by 1H NMR spectroscopy and molecular weights were assessed using inherent viscosity (ηinh). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed single-step weight losses in the range of 360–400 °C. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine melting points and glass transition temperatures over a wide range of copolyester compositions. Observation of thermal data was used to identify amorphous windows in composition ranges containing 3,4′BB and 4,4′BB moieties. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) provided information about thermal transitions and sub-T g relaxations. Mechanical data were obtained using tensile testing to expand structure-property- morphology relationships. Permeability analysis helped to understand how monomer symmetry affects oxygen diffusivity and solubility in selected amorphous film and biaxially oriented copolyester samples.
Rate of Progression of Aortic Stenosis and its Impact on Outcomes in Patients With Radiation-Associated Cardiac Disease: A Matched Cohort Study.

AbstractObjectives: The aim of this study was to study differences in progression of aortic stenosis (AS) in patients with mediastinal radiotherapy (XRT)-associated moderate AS versus a matched coh...