cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Neuronal Activity in the Motor Thalamus during GPi-DBS in the MPTP Nonhuman Primate Model of Parkinson's Disease.

Abstract Background The motor thalamus is a key nodal point in the pallidothalamocortical “motor” circuit, which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other movement disorders. Although a critical structure in the motor circuit, the role of the motor thalamus in mediating the therapeutic effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the internal segment of the globus pallidus (GPi) is not fully understood. Objective To characterize the changes in neuronal activity in the pallidal (ventralis lateralis pars oralis (VLo) and ventralis anterior (VA)) and cerebellar (ventralis posterior lateralis pars oralis (VPLo)) receiving areas of the motor thalamus during therapeutic GPi DBS. Methods Neuronal activity from the VA/VLo (n = 134) and VPLo (n = 129) was recorded from two non-human primates made parkinsonian using the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. For each isolated unit, one minute of data was recorded before, during and after DBS; a pulse width of 90 µs and a frequency of 135 Hz were used for DBS to replicate commonly used clinical settings. Stimulation amplitude was determined based on the parameters required to improve motor signs. Severity of motor signs was assessed using the UPDRS modified for nonhuman primates. Discharge rate, presence and characteristics of bursts, and oscillatory activity were computed and compared across conditions (pre-, during, and post-stimulation). Results Neurons in both the pallidal and cerebellar receiving areas demonstrated significant changes in their pattern of activity during therapeutic GPi DBS. A majority of the neurons in each nucleus were inhibited during DBS (VA/VLo: 47% and VPLo: 49%), while a smaller subset was excited (VA/VLo: 21% and VPLo: 17%). Bursts changed in structure, becoming longer in duration and both intra-burst and inter-spike intervals and variability were increased in both subnuclei. High frequency oscillatory activity was significantly increased during stimulation with 33% of VA/VLo (likelihood ratio: p Conclusions Therapeutic GPi DBS produced a significant change in neuronal activity in both pallidal and cerebellar receiving areas of the motor thalamus. DBS suppressed activity in the majority of neurons, changed the structure of bursting activity and locked the neuronal response of one-third of cells to the stimulation pulse, leading to an increase in the power of gamma oscillations. These data support the hypothesis that stimulation activates output from the stimulated structure and that GPi DBS produces network-wide changes in neuronal activity that includes both the pallidal and cerebellar thalamo-cortical circuits.
What Is Sprawl And Why Should We Care About It

This chapter defines sprawl as development that (1) occurs in suburbs or at the fringe of a city, and/or (2) is oriented towards cars to the extent that car ownership is a necessity for most households. In addition, the chapter explains why sprawl is controversial; because people in sprawling areas must drive to most destinations, they generate pollution. Sprawl also harms public health by increasing automobile fatalities and reducing opportunities for people to exercise. In addition, sprawl reduces human liberty by making car ownership mandatory for a normal life, and is socially inequitable because the nondrivers immobilized by sprawl tend to be low income.
A general nonlocal theory and its approximations for slowly varying acoustic waves

Abstract In this study, the mechanics of particles, the mechanics of linear elastic continua, and the materials dispersion relations are considered in the framework of a general nonlocal theory which considers different attenuation functions for the distinct material coefficients. For slowly varying acoustic waves, i.e., weak nonlocal fields, this general nonlocal theory is reduced to the strain gradient theory and the couple stress theory. When compared to the general nonlocal theory, the nonlocal characters of the strain gradient and couple stress theories are discovered. Moreover, by fitting the experimental dispersion curves of materials, the nonlocal parameters and the material coefficients and length scales of these theories are reported for materials including diamond, graphite, silicon, silver, gold, copper, and platinum. It is revealed that, when the proper values of the material coefficients are determined, the strain gradient and the couple stress theory can capture the same phenomena as the nonlocal theory. Moreover, it is demonstrated that neither the strain gradient theory nor the couple stress theory can be merged with the nonlocal theory in a unified model. This demolishes the concept based on which the higher-order nonlocal strain gradient theory (Lim et al., 2015) was proposed.
Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection

Evelleen Richards's Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection is an ambitious undertaking, offering by far the most comprehensive account of the development of Charles Darwin's theory of sexual sel...
Mechanism of a Class C Radical S-Adenosyl-l-methionine Thiazole Methyl Transferase

The past decade has seen the discovery of four different classes of radical S-adenosylmethionine (rSAM) methyltransferases that methylate unactivated carbon centers. Whereas the mechanism of class A is well understood, the molecular details of methylation by classes B–D are not. In this study, we present detailed mechanistic investigations of the class C rSAM methyltransferase TbtI involved in the biosynthesis of the potent thiopeptide antibiotic thiomuracin. TbtI C-methylates a Cys-derived thiazole during posttranslational maturation. Product analysis demonstrates that two SAM molecules are required for methylation and that one SAM (SAM1) is converted to 5′-deoxyadenosine and the second SAM (SAM2) is converted to S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine (SAH). Isotope labeling studies show that a hydrogen is transferred from the methyl group of SAM2 to the 5′-deoxyadenosine of SAM1 and the other two hydrogens of the methyl group of SAM2 appear in the methylated product. In addition, a hydrogen appears to be transferred...
Landau–Ginzburg models for certain fiber products with curves

Abstract In this paper we describe a physical realization of a family of non-compact Kahler threefolds with trivial canonical bundle in hybrid Landau–Ginzburg models, motivated by some recent non-Kahler solutions of Strominger systems, and utilizing some recent ideas from GLSMs. We consider threefolds given as fiber products of compact genus g Riemann surfaces and noncompact threefolds. Each genus g Riemann surface is constructed using recent GLSM tricks, as a double cover of P 1 branched over a degree 2 g + 2 locus, realized via nonperturbative effects rather than as the critical locus of a superpotential. We focus in particular on special cases corresponding to a set of Kahler twistor spaces of certain hyperKahler four-manifolds, specifically the twistor spaces of R 4 , ℂ 2 ∕ Z k , and S 1 × R 3 . We check in all cases that the condition for trivial canonical bundle arising physically matches the mathematical constraint.
The Impact of the Complexing Agent on the Sensitivity of Collisional-Induced Dissociation Spectra to Fatty Acid Position for a Set of XYZ-Type Triglycerides.

Rationale The development of an automated platform for the positional analysis of triglycerides (TAGs) based on electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) continues to be pursued. This work evaluates the positional sensitivities of the collision-induced dissociation (CID) spectra of a representative set of XYZ triglycerides using sodium, lithium, and ammonium salts as complexing agents. Methods A set of triglycerides were synthesized and analyzed via ESI-MS/MS using an ion trap mass spectrometer. Using three different complexing agents, the product ion spectra of the corresponding precursor ions for twelve XYZ TAGs were collected, where X, Y, and Z represent C16:0 , C18:1(c-9) , C18:2(cc-9,12) , and C20:4(cccc-5,8,11,14) fatty acid chains. These data were then used to prepare ternary plots for four positional isomer systems to evaluate the positional sensitivity differences among the three different complexing agents RESULTS: The positional sensitivities for each of the four positional isomer systems were robust for the sodium and lithium adducts. The CID data for the sodium and lithium TAGs demonstrated an unfavorable loss of the fatty acid in the center position and showed a higher sensitivity to fatty acid position, when compared to the CID data for ammonium adducts, especially for the arachidonic acid containing triglycerides. Conclusions The data shows that that the relative abundances of the DAG product ions for the XYZ-type TAGs when using sodium and lithium complexing agents adducts are sensitive to fatty acid position and are consistent for the diverse array of TAGs studied in this work. This suggests that using sodium or lithium as the complexing agent may be advantageous for the development of an automated platform for the positional analysis of complex TAG mixtures based on ESI-MS/MS.
Assessment of the Quality of Sitting and Gait Patterns in Children with Down’s Syndrome

Clinical work with children with Down's syndrome resulted in a suggestion of a relationship between the external rotation and abduction of their hips, their excessive hip mobility in sitting, and their wide-based gait. This relationship was examined using data from 104 questionnaires completed by the parents of children with Down's syndrome. The clinical and demographic findings consistently documented the unusual sitting patterns of these children. How children were placed in the sitting position significantly influenced subsequent come-to-sit patterns but did not appear to influence subsequent walking patterns. Longitudinal studies of sitting patterns, hip mobility and gait are recommended. Therapeutic implications are that body rotation should be incorporated into motor intervention programs for children with Down's syndrome.
Spanish hotel chains alignment with the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism

Abstract The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (GCET) is the sectorial reference tool in sustainable and value-based management for tourism stakeholders. The objective of this research is to analyze the adoption of the code and the extent of its development so far. The content analysis of 115 Spanish hotel chain web pages allowed us to know the extent to which hotel chains are responding to the GCET's principles. The results show that adherence to the code improves the transparency of hotel chains and the differences found according to the geographic scope of the chains confirm that their actions depend on the socio-economic and cultural context of their setting. This study supports the promotion of this tool as a way to achieve sustainable economic development, since the Code acts as a guide for ethical and sustainable behaviour of organisations, clarifying stakeholders’ expectations.
Effect of Alcohol Intoxication on Bystander Intervention in a Vignette Depiction of Sexual Assault.

Objective:Alcohol-related sexual violence remains a public health problem. Despite the popularity of sexual assault bystander intervention programs, these may be limited in addressing bystander int...
Measurement and verification of energy conservation measures using whole-building electricity data from four identical office towers

Abstract Reliable measurement and verification (MV coefficient of variation of the root-mean-square error, CV(RMSE) below 25%; normalized mean bias error, NMBE below 0.005%; standard error in the unstandardized regression coefficient estimating an ECM effect less than 50% of the regression coefficient itself). Further, these regression models were (in the large majority of cases) able to differentiate between multiple ECMs applied sequentially, and that, in some cases, effects as low as 5% were reported. Effect estimates of similar ECMs were similar across the buildings, but were generally substantially larger than the pre-retrofit engineering predictions of savings. ECM effect estimates using monthly and hourly data with equivalent regression formulations gave very similar estimates, differences in coefficients ranged between approximately 0–15%, with a mean of 7%. Estimates of ECM effects made using the full timespan of data were more sensitive, and generally larger, than estimates using only a single year of pre- and post-ECM data. However, visually identifying ECM effects in time-series data was challenging, which highlights the many sources of error in such an analysis.
Investigation of Computational Advantage of using Importance sampling in Monte Carlo Simulation

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of the composite system reliability evaluation using a cross-entropy based importance sampling method to improve computational efficiency of sequential Monte Carlo simulation (CE MCS). The sensitivity analysis studies how the computational performance of the method and reliability indices are affected by varying the system parameters like peak load and forced outage rates of the generators. The relationship between computation time, simulation parameters, coefficient of variance and number of system cores is also explored. The sequential Monte Carlo simulation is implemented using parallel computing techniques which reduces the computation time. A comparison study is carried out using Simple Monte Carlo method. These methods are tested on an IEEE RTS 79 test system.
Alcoholism and the Visually Impaired Client

Presents some basic facts about alcoholism and provides tips to the rehabilitation counselor about assessing whether the visually impaired client is an alcoholic and referring him or her to alcohol...
2.19 – Chromatin Remodeling

It is now apparent that xenobiotic exposures not only affect gene expression through DNA mutation and damage, but also via heritable modifications of the epigenome. To begin to understand the functions of the epigenome, we present an overview of chromatin modifications, including DNA methylation and histone modifications, and chromatin remodeling complexes. The various chromatin remodeling complex families, their mechanisms of action, and techniques to study chromatin remodeling will be discussed in detail. To illustrate these points, we turn to the nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily of transcription factors that are modulated by environmental endocrine disruptors in addition to their normal physiological ligands. We will review the underlying molecular mechanisms by which chromatin remodeling complexes can be recruited to nuclear hormone receptor targeted genes and are critical in activating or repressing gene expression. The evolving consensus that places chromatin-dependent mechanisms as central to understanding transcriptional regulation suggests that studies of epigenetics and chromatin are essential in order to understand the fundamental aspects of toxicology.
Neuropeptide FF and Its Receptors: Therapeutic Applications and Ligand Development

The endogenous neuropeptide FF (NPFF) and its two cognate G protein-coupled receptors, Neuropeptide FF Receptors 1 and 2 (NPFFR1 and NPFFR2), represent a relatively new target system for many therapeutic applications including pain regulation, modulation of opioid side effects, drug reward, anxiety, cardiovascular conditions, and other peripheral effects. Since the cloning of NPFFR1 and NPFFR2 in 2000, significant progress has been made to understand their pharmacological roles and interactions with other receptor systems, notably the opioid receptors. A variety of NPFFR ligands with different mechanisms of action (agonists or antagonists) have been discovered although with limited subtype selectivities. Differential pharmacological effects have been observed for many of these NPFFR ligands, depending on assays/models employed and routes of administration. In this Perspective, we highlight the therapeutic potentials, current knowledge gaps, and latest updates of the development of peptidic and small molecule NPFFR ligands as tool compounds and therapeutic candidates.
Anti-JCV antibody index does not change during ocrelizumab-treatment.

ObjectiveTo prospectively assess anti-JCV antibody index (AI) and its relationship to immunoglobulin levels in ocrelizumab-treated MS patients.MethodsMonocentric prospective observational study ove...
Systematic Mapping Study of Non-Functional Requirements in Big Data System

Big data has become the most popular and influential to exist in this competitive digital world. In this regard, the selection of suitable quality attributes in big data software architecture can play a million-dollar solution. In this paper, we work on gathering and understanding key non-functional requirements in the domain of big data systems. Using Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) as a research methodology, we find more than 40 different quality attributes related to big data systems. Then, we implement the ISO/IEC 25010:2011 quality model to map all these NFRs into 8 characteristics of ISO/IEC 25010:2011 model. Finally, we show performance efficiency, functional suitability, reliability, security, usability, and scalability are the most important quality attributes for a data-intensive system. Outcomes from this survey will assist software developers to understand NFRs for data-intensive systems and identify them long before implementing them into practice.
Dermatologic toxicities associated with radiation therapy in women with breast cancer.

Abstract Breast-conserving surgery with adjuvant radiation therapy has become the standard of care for women with early stage breast cancer, and as a result, a large number of patients are affected by the cutaneous sequelae of radiation therapy. These dermatologic toxicities may present during treatment or years later and can significantly impact patients’ quality of life. In this review, we discuss the clinical presentation, prevention, and management of radiation-induced cutaneous toxicities in women with breast cancer, including radiation dermatitis, radiation recall, radiation-induced morphea, radiation-induced fibrosis, and cutaneous malignancies in irradiated skin.
Durable SARS-CoV-2 B cell immunity after mild or severe disease

Abstract Multiple studies have shown loss of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies over time after infection, raising concern that humoral immunity against the virus is not durable. If immunity wanes quickly, millions of people may be at risk for reinfection after recovery from COVID-19. However, memory B cells (MBC) could provide durable humoral immunity even if serum neutralizing antibody titers decline. We performed multi-dimensional flow cytometric analysis of S protein receptor binding domain (S-RBD)-specific MBC in cohorts of ambulatory COVID-19 patients with mild disease, and hospitalized patients with moderate to severe disease, at a median of 54 (39-104) days after onset of symptoms. We detected S-RBD-specific class-switched MBC in 13 out of 14 participants, including 4 of the 5 participants with lowest plasma levels of anti-S-RBD IgG and neutralizing antibodies. Resting MBC (rMBC) made up the largest proportion of S-RBD-specific class-switched MBC in both cohorts. FCRL5, a marker of functional memory when expressed on rMBC, was dramatically upregulated on S-RBD-specific rMBC. These data indicate that most SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals develop S-RBD-specific, class-switched MBC that phenotypically resemble germinal center-derived B cells induced by effective vaccination against other pathogens, providing evidence for durable B cell-mediated immunity against SARS-CoV-2 after recovery from mild or severe COVID-19 disease. Graphical Abstract
Market for Software Vulnerabilities? Think Again

Software vulnerabilities and the lack of information security have been receiving a lot of media attention lately as attacks exploiting vulnerabilities cause significant economic damages. Since new software vulnerabilities are emerging everyday, disclosing information about them is a critical area of concern for policy makers. Traditionally, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has been acting as an infomediary between benign identifiers (who report vulnerability information voluntarily) and users of the software. After verifying a reported vulnerability, and obtaining the remediation in the form of a patch from the software vendor, the infomediary - CERT - sends out a public advisory to inform software users about it. Of late, firms such as iDefense have been proposing a different market-based mechanism where the infomediary provides monetary rewards to identifiers for each vulnerability disclosed to it. The infomediary then shares this information with its client base. Using this information, clients can protect themselves against attacks that exploit those specific vulnerabilities. The key question addressed in our paper is whether movement towards such a market-based mechanism for vulnerability disclosure leads to a better social outcome. Generally, an active market-based mechanism is expected to perform better than a passive CERT type mechanism. Surprisingly, we find that a market mechanism underperforms when benign users voluntarily provide vulnerability information. More importantly, we find that monopolist always has an incentive to misuse the vulnerability information such that it almost always reduces the social welfare. We extend our analysis and provide a new meachnism named Federally-Funded Social Planner that always performs better.
Background checks: the theories behind the process

The use of background checks has become more prevalent and is perceived as having crucial importance in hiring in the private sector, given the extent of employee crimes. In examining this phenomenon, security and administration scholars have promoted the general security necessity of such checks but have only focused on the application of legal and constitutional provisions relevant to the background check process. As a result, the security field has overlooked the theoretical bases for background checks and the theories addressing how background checks should be conducted. To address this gap, this article presents a qualitative meta-analysis of the theoretical literature from a variety of academic fields and identifies four overarching themes important for understanding background checks as a tool for hiring. Then, as an illustration, the article examines how well the regulation of background checks in the U.S. financial sector reflects theoretical findings, exposing critical gaps between research and practice. Thus, this analysis provides security practitioners with important guidance in how to effectively use background checks as a crime prevention tool.
Components of Assessments and Grading At Scale

One of the major criticisms of efforts towards offering education at scale has been the Trap of Routine Assessment, the risk that student assessment will suffer from becoming excessively simplified in service of automation and scale. In this research, we examine the ways that students in an at-scale graduate program in computer science were assessed during their degrees. The program in question has scaled to over 10,000 students in only a few years, but awards a traditional Master's degree, providing the opportunity to investigate whether scale was achieved by transitioning to more routine assessment or by bringing scale to traditional strategies. To do this, we investigate the syllabi of 52 classes offered through the program to identify the types of assessments used, and we survey teaching teams for their approaches to evaluating these assessments. We merge this data with historical enrollment data to gain an overall summary of the kinds of assessments and evaluations received during their degrees. We ultimately find the program's scale has been managed by scaling up traditional assessment and evaluation strategies as the majority of grades are generated by human teaching teams based on projects and homeworks, with a relatively smaller portion generated exclusively by automated evaluation of exams.
The Tower of Babel: Bridging the Divide Between Critical Race Theory and

Poor Black people tell stories. I hear their stories daily. I have heard them in the words of a cousin who came dangerously close to losing a daughter to gang warfare. I have heard them in the words of an inmate as he explained just how a Black man from the projects had ended up on death row. I have heard them in the words of a client at the Yale clinic: the poor Black woman who explained how she made ends meet with three children and an AFDC check of less than $500 a month. Disenfranchised Black people also write poetry. I have heard poems in the words of the aspiring rap artists who frequent my hairdresser's parlor. I have heard poetry in the Negro spirituals that my grandmother sings as she braids my hair. More privileged Black people tell stories and write poetry too. I have heard stories in the words of an uncle who was unable to buy a home in the suburbs, despite his college education and financial resources. I too used to tell stories. Now they tell me that I write theory.
The Mathematics of Encryption: An Elementary Introduction

Preface Historical introduction Classical cryptology: Methods Enigma and Ultra Classical cryptography: Attacks I Classical cryptography: Attacks II Modern symmetric encryption Introduction to public-channel cryptography Public-channel cryptography Error detecting and correcting codes Modern cryptography Primality testing and factorization Solutions to selected exercises Bibliography Index
Theory, Philosophy, and the Practice of Applied Behavior Analysis

The relevance of behavioral theory and philosophy to the practice of applied behavior analysis is not always immediately apparent, perhaps especially for those with less exposure to the philosophic...
The Mathematician, the Monk, and the Militant: Reflections on the Role of Criminal Law Theory

named only by reference to the man who embodies its virtues: Sandy Kadish, former Dean at Boalt Hall and reigning Dean, now as always, of the community of criminal law scholars. Dean Kadish is not only a most worthy heir to Herbert Wechsler, but he has filled a broader and deeper role, aiming not only to rationalize the criminal law but to connect it to the moral underpinnings that are crucial for its legitimacy and force. This
PC Database Systems - Present and Future

Successful PC DBMSs can fund a similar amount of engineering as traditional server-oriented DBMSs. Thus, PC DBMSs could evolve quickly into powerful, yet easyto-use challengers to traditional DBMSs. Could a large number of PC DB servers compete with DBMSs designed for larger machines? In the medium-to-long term, what features will distinguish highend DBMSs? What fraction of DBMS market revenue will they have?
Expanding the mother–child paradigm: An examination of dissertation research 1986–1994.

Reliance on the mother-child dyad as the primary context for understanding child development has caused fathers to be underrepresented in published research on child development and developmental psychopathology. In order to investigate whether this pattern was also evident in the work of future psychologists, we reviewed Dissertation Abstracts from 1986 through 1994. Results showed that fathers were the focus of significantly fewer dissertation studies (10.5%) than were mothers (59.5%) or both parents (30.0%). We argue that essentializing the mother-child bond is a political philosophy about the roles of men and women that places the discipline of psychology at risk for inadvertently becoming an apologist for the neoconservative political right. Specific suggestions for revising graduate training are presented. The social policy implications for continuing this trend into the next generation of psychologists are discussed.
Linear Representation of Network Traffic

We propose a representation of wireless workload patterns as large, sparse matrices and provide a method for stochastically generating experimental workloads from a given matrix. The essential property of the algebraic representation is that the summation of vectors naturally yields a faithful description of the aggregate behavior of the corresponding flows. This deceptively simple property allows us to express many common concepts from traffic modeling succinctly in terms of a few linear transformations. The algebraic representation has many benefits: (1) it makes the meaning of generally understood but vague concepts, such as "uniform behavior," mathematically precise and unambiguous; (2) it allows us to see clearly, through the lens of linear algebra, the implications of common modeling assumptions; (3) the implementation of traffic models becomes unprecedentedly simple and orthogonal, requiring only a handful of high-level matrix operations, which can be freely composed; (4) the vast body of algebraic theory and highly optimized numerical software may immediately be applied to traffic modeling. We use the paired differential simulation methodology introduced by the authors in previous work to experimentally demonstrate that the general matrix model accurately reproduces realistic network performance (Karpinski et al. 2007a, b). We use the same experimental methodology to explore the implications of various assumptions and simplifications that are commonly made in traffic modeling.
1998 Pricing Performance of Market Advisory Services for Corn and Soybeans

The purpose of this research report is to present an evaluation of advisory service pricing performance in 1998 for corn and soybeans. Specifically, the average price received by a subscriber to an advisory service is calculated for corn and soybean crops harvested in 1998. The average net advisory price across all 23 corn programs is $2.17 per bushel - seven cents below the market benchmark price. The net advisory prices for corn range from a minimum of $1.93 per bushel to a maximum of $2.51 per bushel. The average net advisory price across all 22 soybean programs is $5.82 per bushel - four cents less than the market benchmark. The net advisory prices for soybeans range from a minimum of $5.11 per bushel to a maximum of $6.58 per bushel.
Role of Glassy Interfaces in High Temperature Crack Growth in Sic Fiber Reinforced Alumina

Glassy alumina reinforced with continuous SiC fibers and pure alumina reinforced with SiC fibers, with and without a coating of a borosilicate glass, were studied. Constant displacement rate and constant load tests were conducted at approximately 1000 C. These tests were interrupted at various times to examine crack morphology changes with temperature and time- dependent effects on fiber-bridging of cracks. Cracks were found to open in a time-dependent fashion by fiber pullout prior to eventual failure. This behavior was modeled by a time-dependent interfacial slip caused by a glassy layer at the fiber/matrix interface. 5 references.
Ultrasonic Welded Resorbable Mesh (SonicWeld Rx System) in Reconstruction of Segmental Mandibular Defects: Technical Note and Report of 2 Cases

The present report describes 2 patients who underwent mandibular reconstruction after segmental mandibulectomy for benign pathology. The potential of an ultrasonic-aided biodegradable system for containment of a nonvascularized bone graft is discussed.
Understanding Difference Blindness: Minimization of Casteism in the Sikh Community

This paper focuses on the discourse of difference by examining how casteism, caste-based inequality, and caste relations get defined by Sikhs in everyday life. Based on semi-structured, in- depth interviews conducted in Punjab, India, I examine the way in which people talk about caste, their caste vocabularies, their caste-based narratives, and their definitions of casteism. At the center of this discussion is the question of how definition - the power to name - determines perception, and ultimately, prescription. Examining the constitution of casteism through discourses of difference, specifically difference-blind discourse, enables one to make sense of the simultaneous acknowledgement and denial of caste difference among Sikhs. Respondents define casteism in a narrow way predicated on ritual purity and pollution associated with untouchability, which enables them to recognize specific forms of discrimination while obscuring other forms. Narrowing the concept of casteism to the practice of untouchability is highly advantageous for general-caste Sikhs because it locates casteism as a problem of the past, renders most Sikhs innocent, blocks governmental efforts to reduce caste inequality, and naturalizes caste relations. What is at stake in this paper is the very definition of casteism—how one determines what “counts” as discriminatory.
Torsade de Pointe Atypical Ventricular Tachycardia Complicating Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

We report the findings in a patient in whom prolongation off the Q-T interval and torsade de pointe ventricular tachycardia occurred as a complication off intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The dysrhythmia did not recur after treatment with propranolol. Prolongation off the Q-T interval occurs frequently in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, causing a predisposition to torsade de pointe ventricular tachycardia. Propranolol, by blocking excessive sympathetic stimulation and shortening the Q-T interval, may be effective therapy for ventricular dysrhythmias associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Association of preoperative depression and survival after resection of malignant brain astrocytoma

Abstract Background Clinical depression has been shown to negatively influence the morbidity and mortality of multiple disease states. It remains unclear if clinical depression affects survival after surgical management of malignant brain astrocytoma. We set out to determine whether patients with a diagnosis of clinical depression before surgery experienced decreased survival independent of treatment modality or degree of disability. Methods One thousand fifty-two patients undergoing surgical management for malignant brain astrocytoma (WHO grade 3 or 4) performed at a single institution from 1995 to 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. The independent association of depression prior to surgery and subsequent survival was assessed via multivariate proportional hazards regression analysis. Results Surgical management consisted of primary resection in 605 (58%) patients, secondary resection in 410 (39%), and biopsy in 37 patients (3.5%). Pathology was WHO grade IV in 829 (79%) and grade III in 223 (21%). Forty-nine patients (5%) carried the diagnosis of depression at the time of surgery. Mean age and KPS on admission was 51 ± 16 and 80 ± 10 years, respectively. Two hundred ninety patients (28%) received Gliadel (BCNU MGI Pharma, Inc., Bloomington, MN, USA) wafer implantation and 274 (26%) received postoperative temozolomide (concomitant in 102, delayed adjuvant in 172 patients). Subsequent resection was performed at the time of recurrence in 135 (13%) patients a mean of 10 ± 6 months after surgery. Adjusting for all variables associated with survival in this model, age ( P P P P P P = .048), postoperative temozolomide therapy ( P P P Conclusion In our experience, patients who are actively depressed at the time of surgery were associated with decreased survival after surgical management of malignant astrocytoma, independent of degree of disability, tumor grade, or subsequent treatment modalities. In our opinion, the presence of an association between preoperative depression and survival warrants further investigation.
Motion sickness considered as a movement disorder

Le mal des transports comme trouble de la motriciteLe mal des transports est generalement associe avec le deplacement des vehicules, physiques ou virtuels. Cependant, les symptomes associes au mal des transports apparaissent aussi dans d’autres situations. Dans le cadre des theories classiques, les symptomes observes dans ces autres situations ne sont pas interpretes comme relevant du mal des transports, et sont attribues a d’autres causes. Dans cet article, je passe en revue les situations caracterisees par l’apparition de symptomes s’apparentant au mal des transports, et je suggere qu’elles partagent une etiologie commune, au niveau d’instabilite s du controle postural. La theorie de l’instabilite posturale affirme que les symptomes du mal des transports sont la consequence d’instabilites dans le controle du corps et de ses parties. De ce point de vue, toute circonstance entrainant une instabilite du controle postural peut generer des symptomes de mal des transports. J’affirme que l’instabilite posturale peut apparaitre dans les vehicules physiques ou virtuels mais aussi dans d’autres situations. Je suggere que les symptomes associes avec ces situations peuvent etre cause s par l’instabilite posturale et que dans ce sens ils peuvent constituer des cas de mal des transports. Pour cette raison, il serait approprie de considerer le mal des transports comme un cas de trouble de la motricite, aigu mais transitoire.
Intra-uterine growth restriction differentially regulates perinatal brain and skeletal muscle glucose transporters.

Employing Western blot analysis, we investigated the effect of maternal uterine artery ligation causing uteroplacental insufficiency with asymmetrical intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) upon fetal (22d) and postnatal (1d, 7d, 14d and 21d) brain (Glut 1 and Glut 3) and skeletal muscle (Glut 1 and Glut 4) glucose transporter protein concentrations. IUGR was associated with a ∼42% decline in fetal plasma glucose (p<0.05) and a ∼25% decrease in fetal body weights (p<0.05) with no change in brain weights when compared to the sham operated controls (SHAM). In addition, IUGR caused a ∼45% increase in fetal brain Glut 1 (55 kDa) with no change in Glut 3 (50 kDa) protein concentrations. This fetal brain Glut 1 change persisted, though marginal, through postnatal suckling stages of development (1d–21d), with no concomitant change in brain Glut 3 levels at day 1. In contrast, in the absence of a change in fetal skeletal muscle Glut 1 levels (48 kDa), a 70% increase was observed in the 1d IUGR with no concomitant change in either fetal or postnatal Glut 4 levels (45 kDa). The change in skeletal muscle Glut 1 levels normalized by d7 of age. We conclude that IUGR with hypoglycemia led to a compensatory increase in brain and skeletal muscle Glut 1 concentrations with a change in the brain preceding that of the skeletal muscle. Since Glut 1 is the isoform of proliferating cells, fetal brain weight changes were not as pronounced as the decline in somatic weight. The increase in Glut 1 may be protective against glucose deprivation in proliferating fetal brain cells and postnatal skeletal myocytes which exhibit `catch-up growth', thereby preserving the specialized function mediated by Glut 3 and Glut 4 towards maintaining the intracellular glucose milieu.
Fine-particle magnetism in nanocrystalline FeCuNbSiB at elevated temperatures

Abstract Magnetic interactions between the nanocrystalline particles in FeCuNbSiB are studied above the Curie temperature of the intergranular amorphous phase. It is shown that with increasing volume fraction of nanocrystalline particles, the interparticle interaction increasingly suppresses superparamagnetic fluctuations and the transition to superferromagnetic behavior is observed.
Effects of cyclic spouse separation on conception times

Abstract The lengthening of conceptive delays under conditions of natural fertility by cyclic spouse separation is investigated as a problem in renewal processes. Separations are “complete” if they reduce the conditional monthly probability of conception, or fecundability, to zero, and “incomplete” if they merely reduce it, from f to r say. Earlier work respecting cyclic separation by Menken (1979) is extended with formulas for the mean and variance of conceptive delays conditional on T , the ordinal month of the cycle of separation and nonseparation when the woman passes from anovulation into the fecundable state. A simple expression relating fecundabilities f and r and the conditional proportions P s ( T ) and P s -( T ) conceiving during separation and nonseparation is obtained.
Molecular Imaging of Neuroendocrine Tumors

Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are a heterogeneous group of tumors that arise from neuroendocrine cells. These tumors may arise from various organs, including lung, thymus, thyroid, stomach, duodenum, small bowel, large bowel, appendix, pancreas, adrenal, and skin. Most are well differentiated and have the ability to produce biogenic amines and various hormones. NET usually occur sporadically but they also be associated with various familial syndromes. For the vast majority of NET, surgical resection is the treatment of choice whenever feasible. Localization of NET prior to surgery and for staging and follow-up relies on both anatomic and functional imaging modalities. In fact, the unique secretory characteristics of these tumors lend themselves to imaging by molecular imaging modalities, which can target specific metabolic pathways or receptors. Neuroendocrine cells have a variety of such target receptors and pathways for which radiopharmaceuticals have been developed, including [(123)I/(131)I]-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG), [(111)In]pentetreotide, [(68)Ga] somatostatin analogs, [(18)F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), [(11)C/(18)F] dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), [(11)C] 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) (99m)Tc pentavalent dimercaptosuccinic acid ([(99m)Tc] (V) DMSA, and [(18)F] fluorodopamine (FDA). Here, we review the molecular imaging approaches for NET using various radiopharmaceuticals.
Performance of the Cornell 10 GeV Electron Synchrotron

The overall performance of the Cornell 10 GeV machine is summarized and brief mention is made of maintenance problems and improvements made during this, the first year of operation.
Relativistic sum rule for the total binding energies of nuclei

Abstract A relativistic form of the Koltun sum rule is derived. The possibility that the neglected relativistic terms may account for the experimental failure of the non-relativistic form of the sum rule is discussed.
The effect of intermittent alcohol vapor or pulsatile heroin on somatic and negative affective indices during spontaneous withdrawal in Wistar rats.

Rationale Once dependent on alcohol or opioids, negative affect may accompany withdrawal. Dependent individuals are hypothesized to “self-medicate” in order to cope with withdrawal, which promotes escalated alcohol and drug use.
Voltammetric measurement of Michaelis–Menten kinetics for a protein in a lipid film reacting with a protein in solution

Abstract Rotating disc voltammetry data for the reaction of myoglobin, a model “enzyme” in a thin lipid film, with ferredoxin was shown to fit the Michaelis–Menten kinetic model, but did not fit a simple linear EC’ model. Advantages of this thin-film method are a lipid bilayer environment similar to that of membrane bound enzymes, the tiny amounts of proteins required, and simplicity of instrumentation compared to alternative methodology. The apparent KM for ferredoxin reduction by reduced myoglobin was 112 μM, kcat was 102 s−1, and kcat/KM was 9.1 × 104 M−1 s−1 indicating relatively fast kinetics. Results suggest that this method should be amenable to kinetic studies of enzymes in lipid films with protein reaction partners in solution.
ACOUSTIC ATTENUATION PERFORMANCE OF CIRCULAR EXPANSION CHAMBERS WITH OFFSET INLET/OUTLET: I. ANALYTICAL APPROACH

Abstract The inlet and outlet locations of expansion chambers can significantly affect the acoustic attenuation performance of the silencer, due to their control over the excitation and suppression of higher order modes. By combining the continuity conditions of the acoustic pressure and particle velocity with the orthogonality relations of Fourier–Bessel functions at the inlet and outlet discontinuities, the present study develops a three-dimensional analytical approach to determine the transmission loss of circular expansion chambers with offset inlet and outlet ducts. The results obtained from the present approach are compared with the classical one-dimensional predictions and the earlier multidimensional works.
The Electronic Resources Librarian position: a public services phenomenon?

The development of the Electronic Resources Librarian position is reviewed using criteria listed in job advertisements from American Libraries. The research reveals that these positions have more public service attributes associated with them than was originally anticipated. A set of key characteristics is identified over a seventeen year time period.
Model reduction of strong-weak neurons.

We consider neurons with large dendritic trees that are weakly excitable in the sense that back propagating action potentials are severly attenuated as they travel from the small, strongly excitable, spike initiation zone. In previous work we have shown that the computational size of weakly excitable cell models may be reduced by two or more orders of magnitude, and that the size of strongly excitable models may be reduced by at least one order of magnitude, without sacrificing the spatio-temporal nature of its inputs (in the sense we reproduce the cell's precise mapping of inputs to outputs). We combine the best of these two strategies via a predictor--corrector decomposition scheme and achieve a drastically reduced highly accurate model of a caricature of the neuron responsible for collision detection in the locust.
The formation and decomposition kinetics of alkylidynes on Pt(111)

Abstract The formation and decomposition kinetics of ethylidyne and propylidyne on Pt(111), were studied using static secondary ion mass spectrometry and temperature programmed desorption. For the maximum amounts of dissociatively adsorbed ethylene and propylene formed during adsorption at 200 K and subsequent temperature programmed desorption, the following activation energies ( E ) and pre-exponential factors ( A ) are determined: (a) for ethylidyne formation: E = 17±1 kcal mol −1 and A = 1×10 12±1 s −1 ; (b) ethylidyne decomposition: E = 27 ±2 kcal mole −1 and A = 6×10 11±1 s −1 ; (c) propylidyne formation: E = 17.5 ± 2 kcal mol −1 and A = 7×10 12±1 s −1 ; and (d) propylidyne decomposition: E = 22.5±2 kcal mol −1 and A = 4×10 11 ± 1 s −1 .
SU-FF-T-400: The Application of a Simplified Framework for the Treatment of Left Breast Cancer Using Deep Inspiration Breath-Hold (DIBH) for Reduced Heart Dose

Purpose: A simplified framework for deep inspiration breath‐hold (DIBH) was developed and used for patient simulation. This report presents the details of using the framework for left breast patient treatment.Materials and methods: For each patient, two plans were made, one with the free breathing CT and the other with the DIBH CT.Organ structures (left breast, heart and left lung) were contoured separately on each set of CT.Dose volume histograms (DVH) and dose statistics were used for comparison. Before treatment, the framework was set to patient in the same way as for simulation. Patient setup was made at DIBH such that P point's SSD (anterior) matches that from the simulation DIBH CT. Portal images were taken at DIBH and compared to DRRs generated from the DIBH CT for setup. Because the RPM inside the treatment room and that inside the simulation room had different setups, in case the DIBH amplitudes were different, the two gating threshold lines can be shifted and overlaid to the captured DIBH signal before treatment. The RPM system can guide the linac to turn on or off the radiation automatically. Results: Comparing the two plans based on two CT sets, it was found that the left breast dose coverage was similar. While the absolute DVH for left lung was higher with DIBH, the relative DVH was similar or even lower because of the much enlarged lung volume. The heart volume did not change much but the dose was appreciably reduced. One breath hold was generally enough for the treatment of each beam. We did find that the DIBH portal images matched better to DRRs generated from DIBH CT than with free breathing CT.Conclusion: The framework was successfully applied for the treatment of three left breast patients with reduced heartdose.