cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nano-channel of viral DNA packaging motor as single pore to differentiate peptides with single amino acid difference

Detection, differentiation, mapping, and sequencing of proteins are important in proteomics for the assessment of cell development such as protein methylation or phosphorylation as well as the diagnosis of diseases including metabolic disorder, mental illness, immunological ailments, and malignant cancers. Nanopore technology has demonstrated the potential for the sequencing or sensing of DNA, RNA, chemicals, or other macromolecules. Due to the diversity of protein in shape, structure and charge and the composition versatility of 20 amino acids, the sequencing of proteins remains challenging. Herein, we report the application of the channel of bacteriophage T7 DNA packaging motor for the differentiation of an assortment of peptides of a single amino acid difference. Explicit fingerprints or signatures were obtained based on current blockage and dwell time of individual peptide. Data from the clear mapping of small proteins after protease digestion suggests the potential of using T7 motor channel for proteomics including protein sequencing.
Phosphoproteomic Analysis of the Amygdala Response to Adolescent Glucocorticoid Exposure Reveals G-Protein Coupled Receptor Kinase 2 as a Target for Reducing Motivation for Alcohol

Early life stress is associated with risk for developing alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in adulthood. Though the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this vulnerability are not well understood, evidence suggests that aberrant glucocorticoid and noradrenergic system functioning play a role. The present study investigated the long-term consequences of chronic exposure to elevated glucocorticoids during adolescence on the risk of increased alcohol-motivated behavior, and on amygdalar function in adulthood. A discovery-based analysis of the amygdalar phosphoproteome using mass spectrometry was employed, to identify changes in function. Adolescent corticosterone (CORT) exposure increased alcohol, but not sucrose, self-administration, and enhanced stress-induced reinstatement with yohimbine in adulthood. Phosphoproteomic analysis indicated that the amygdala phosphoproteome was significantly altered by adolescent CORT exposure, generating a list of potential novel mechanisms involved in the risk of alcohol drinking. In particular, increased phosphorylation at serines 296–299 on the α2A adrenergic receptor (α2AAR), mediated by the G-protein coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), was evident after adolescent CORT exposure. We found that intra-amygdala infusion of a peptidergic GRK2 inhibitor reduced alcohol seeking, as measured by progressive ratio and stress reinstatement tests, and induced by the α2AAR antagonist yohimbine. These results suggest that GRK2 represents a novel target for treating stress-induced motivation for alcohol which may counteract alterations in brain function induced by adolescent stress exposure.
Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Severe Acute Pancreatitis.

No, antibiotic prophylaxis does not decrease mortality in patients with severe acute pancreatitis, defined as pancreatitis associated with pancreatic necrosis.
A Wide Tuning Range Millimeter Wave CMOS LCVCO with Linearized Coarse Tuning Characteristics

A folded feed line structure is proposed to realize a millimeter-wave wide tuning range LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with linearized coarse tuning characteristics. A 5-bit segmented capacitor C-DAC is implemented with the proposed folded feed line structure on 45nm CMOS SOI technology and verified at 60 GHz. A combination of post layout and electromagnetic (EM) simulation results show that this technique reduces the fixed capacitance of the feed line parasitic by 47% at 60 GHz and improves the quality factor of the C-DAC by 57% compared to the conventional feed line structure. Moreover, the maximum error on the regularity of the coarse tuning C-DAC is reduced by S4% and the VCO tuning range is extended by 21% compared to the conventional structure.
Text Message Responsivity in a 2-Way Short Message Service Pilot Intervention With Adolescent and Young Adult Survivors of Cancer.

Objective: Within a 2-way text messaging study in AYAs who recently completed treatment for cancer, we sought to evaluate text message responsivity across different types of text messages. Methods: AYAs who recently completed treatment for cancer (n=26; mean age=16 years; 62% female, 16/26 participants) received 2-way text messages about survivorship health topics over a 16-week period. Using participants’ text message log data, we coded responsivity to text messages and evaluated trends in responsivity to unprompted text messages and prompted text messages of varying content (eg, medication reminders, appointment reminders, and texts about personal experiences as a cancer survivor). Results: Across prompted and unprompted text messages, responsivity rapidly decreased (P ≤.001 and =.01, respectively) and plateaued by the third week of the intervention. However, participants were more responsive to prompted text messages (mean responsivity=46% by week 16) than unprompted messages (mean responsivity=10% by week 16). They also demonstrated stable responsivity to certain prompted content: medication reminders, appointment reminders, goal motivation, goal progress, and patient experience texts. Conclusions: Our methodology of evaluating text message responsivity revealed important patterns of engagement in a 2-way text message intervention for AYA cancer survivors.
Shear Wave Propagation and Estimation of Material Parameters in a Nonlinear, Fibrous Material.

This paper describes the propagation of shear waves in a Holzapfel-Gasser-Ogden (HGO) material and investigates the potential of magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for estimating parameters of the HGO material model from experimental data. In most MRE studies the behavior of the material is assumed to be governed by linear, isotropic elasticity or viscoelasticity. In contrast, biological tissue is often nonlinear and anisotropic with a fibrous structure. In such materials, application of a quasi-static deformation (predeformation) plays an important role in shear wave propagation. Closed form expressions for shear wave speeds in an HGO material with a single family of fibers were found in a reference (undeformed) configuration and after imposed predeformations. These analytical expressions show that shear wave speeds are affected by the parameters (μ0, k1, k2, κ) of the HGO model and by the direction and amplitude of the predeformations. Simulations of corresponding finite element (FE) models confirm the predicted influence of HGO model parameters on speeds of shear waves with specific polarization and propagation directions. Importantly, the dependence of wave speeds on the parameters of the HGO model and imposed deformations could ultimately allow the noninvasive estimation of material parameters in vivo from experimental shear wave image data.
Communities of Reception: Television Esthetics and Locality in Midcentury America

This historical study examines the cultural impact of local television communities in the United States from the 1950s through the 1970s. These signal-defined communities, although traditionally ad...
Rapid recovery of plant–pollinator interactions on a chronosequence of grassland-reclaimed mines

Reclamation of abandoned mines to grassland may benefit non-target wildlife like pollinators by providing conservation habitat. Co-colonization of wildflowers and pollinators has been used to measure ecological recovery in other disturbed herbaceous habitats. Revegetated surface coal mines in eastern North America are a unique system in which to study re-establishment of plant–pollinator interactions because they are field islands isolated by forest. Using a time series of 10 grassland-reclaimed mines (aged 20 years) in Ohio, USA, we evaluate whether former mines provide habitat for bees, seek insights into species accumulation as sites mature, and examine the consequences for bee conservation and plant–pollinator interactions. In 120 h of netting over two consecutive years, we documented 7749 bees of 139 species visiting 117 wildflower species. Bee richness did not differ between young and mature sites, suggesting that diverse communities established rapidly following reclamation and persisted. Bee species assemblage, however, differed between sites 10 years post-reclamation, and was influenced by vegetation and the amount of nearby forest. Plant–bee networks on sites > 10 years old had more links per species and greater network nestedness than new reclamations, suggesting the development of a core community of interacting species that stabilize pollination services over time. Reclamation grasslands are not typically considered high-quality pollinator conservation habitat, but we found that they harbor a diverse bee fauna similar to other regional meadow habitats. Reclaimed mines remain undeveloped for many years, and can accumulate pollinator species and export bees to the surrounding landscape.
Topological materials by molecular beam epitaxy

Topology appears across condensed matter physics to describe a wide array of phenomena which could alter, augment, or fundamentally change the functionality of many technologies. Linking the basic science of topological materials to applications requires producing high-quality thin films. This will enable combining dissimilar materials while utilizing dimensionality, symmetry, and strain to create or control the electronic phase, as well as platforms to fabricate novel devices. Yet, one of the longstanding challenges in the field remains understanding and controlling the basic material properties of epitaxial thin films. The aim of this Perspective article is to discuss how understanding the fundamental properties of topological materials grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is key to deepening the knowledge of the basic physics, while developing a new generation of topological devices. A focus will be on the MBE growth of intrinsic materials, creation, and control of superconducting and magnetic topological phases. Addressing these questions in the coming decade will undoubtedly uncover many surprises as new materials are discovered and their growth as high-quality thin films is refined.
60 k.y. record of extension across the western boundary of the Basin and Range province: Estimate of slip rates from offset shoreline terraces and a catastrophic slide beneath Lake Tahoe: Comment and Reply: COMMENT

[Kent et al.'s (2005)][1] article, which claims a 60 k.y. record of extension and slip rates across the western boundary of the Basin and Range province, fails to deliver on its promises because of conceptual errors, flawed procedures, omissions, and other problems. The basic premise of the paper,
Time-Restricted Eating Improves Quality of Life Measures in Overweight Humans

Time-restricted eating (TRE) reduces weight in humans, but its effects on quality of life have not been well characterized. By performing a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, we examined the effects of TRE (12-week intervention, 8 h eating window) vs. non-TRE (unrestricted eating) on quality of life (QoL) measures. Twenty subjects with overweight and prolonged eating window (mean (SD): 15.4 h (0.9)) were randomized to either 12 weeks of TRE (8 h eating window: (n = 11)) or non-TRE (n = 9). QoL data were collected with the 36-item Short Form Survey (SF-36) pre- and post-intervention. Given a two-way ANOVA model and post-hoc t-test analysis, the TRE group improved limitations due to emotional health post-intervention: +97.0 (10.0)) vs. baseline: +66.7 (42.2) (p = 0.02) and perceived change in health over the last year end intervention: +68.2 (16.2) vs. baseline: +52.3 (23.6) (p = 0.001) relative to baseline. The TRE group improved limitations due to emotional health TRE: +97.0 (10.0) vs. non-TRE: +55.6 (44.1) (p = 0.05) and perceived change in health (TRE: +68.2 (16.2) vs. non-TRE: +44.4 (31.6) (p = 0.04) relative to the non-TRE group at post-intervention (p < 0.025). In conclusion, 12 weeks of TRE does not adversely affect QoL and may be associated with modest improvements in QoL relative to baseline and unrestricted eating; these findings support future studies examining TRE compliance and durability.
Hyper-Convolution Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation.

The convolution operation is a central building block of neural network architectures widely used in computer vision. The size of the convolution kernels determines both the expressiveness of convolutional neural networks (CNN), as well as the number of learnable parameters. Increasing the network capacity to capture rich pixel relationships requires increasing the number of learnable parameters, often leading to overfitting and/or lack of robustness. In this paper, we propose a powerful novel building block, the hyper-convolution, which implicitly represents the convolution kernel as a function of kernel coordinates. Hyper-convolutions enable decoupling the kernel size, and hence its receptive field, from the number of learnable parameters. In our experiments, focused on challenging biomedical image segmentation tasks, we demonstrate that replacing regular convolutions with hyper-convolutions leads to more efficient architectures that achieve improved accuracy. Our analysis also shows that learned hyper-convolutions are naturally regularized, which can offer better generalization performance. We believe that hyper-convolutions can be a powerful building block in future neural network architectures solving computer vision tasks.
Posterior Probability Bias

Imagine you are trying to predict the outcome of a fair coin toss. You guess heads and flip your coin. It lands on heads. You decide to try your luck again, keeping with your guess of heads. Again, it lands on heads. You repeat this experiment five more times, continuing with your initial guess and it lands on heads three more times. Delighted that you are averaging more than the expected 50% probability, you decide to try once more; do you stick with your original guess of heads or change it?
Positive Feedback Trading in Chinese Stock Markets: Empirical Evidence From Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges

This paper examines investors’ trading behaviors in Chinese stock markets by studying five stock indices that cover Chinese common stocks in three stock exchanges — Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Our empirical results suggest that there exists a significant positive feedback trading effect in the Shanghai A-share, Shenzhen A- and B-share, and Hong Kong H-share markets. No significant positive feedback trading behavior was observed in the Hong Kong Red chip stock market. Consistent with prior literature, our empirical results suggest that the positive feedback trading effect in Chinese markets is asymmetrical between market upturns and downturns and that stock returns exhibit positive autocorrelation at a low volatility level and negative autocorrelation at a high volatility level. This finding is attributed to wealth-related variation in investors’ risk aversion level and to market segmentation in Chinese stock markets. In addition, we examine the impact of deregulation of the B-share market on trading behaviors and find that the asymmetric return autocorrelation pattern of the market has changed since the deregulation. This finding should be of interest to portfolio managers and policy makers.
Evacuation choice before and after major debris flows: The case of Montecito, CA

Abstract In 2018, a rare high magnitude debris-flows catastrophically impacted Montecito, resulting in human and material losses. Evacuations for rare natural hazards are complicated as residents have little or no experience with them. Therefore, understanding factors that influence evacuation choice for these rare debris-flows can help increase evacuation compliance and save lives. We employed mixed methods by using surveys and interviews. Data were collected after the disaster and addressed issues of evacuation behavior before and after the disaster. We employed Chi-squared, one-way Anova, and logistic regression to analyze the survey data, and we employed content analysis for the interviews. The evacuation choice did not significantly change before and after the disaster. Before the debris-flows, older respondents were more likely to evacuate. After, respondents who were worried about the debris-flows were more likely to evacuate. Residents who did not evacuate before and after the debris-flows based their decision on their home location and perceived risk. Before the debris-flows, impacted residents in the voluntary zone decided to remain due to the location of their residence (voluntary zone) and the influence of their social network. We recommend that municipalities carefully consider the type of natural hazard when defining evacuation zones and incorporate public awareness programs to educate and increase the risk perception of communities in hazardous areas, especially those threatened by rare natural hazards. In doing so, residents can rely on the knowledge learned from public awareness programs rather than their social network.
Unveiling Skeletal Fragility in Patients Diagnosed With MGUS: No Longer a Condition of Undetermined Significance?

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is a common finding in clinical practice, affecting greater than 3% of adults aged 50 years and older. As originally described, the term MGUS reflected the inherent clinical uncertainty of distinguishing patients with a benign stable monoclonal plasma cell disorder from subjects destined to progress to malignancy. There is now clear epidemiologic evidence, however, that patients with MGUS suffer from a significantly increased fracture risk and that the prevalence of MGUS is increased in patients with osteoporosis. Despite this relationship, no clinical care guidelines exist for the routine evaluation or treatment of the skeletal health of patients with MGUS. Recent work has demonstrated that circulating levels of at least two cytokines (CCL3/MIP-1α and DKK1) with well-recognized roles in bone disease in the related monoclonal gammopathy multiple myeloma are also increased in patients with MGUS. Further, recent imaging studies using high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT have documented that patients with MGUS have substantial skeletal microarchitectural deterioration and deficits in biomechanical bone strength that likely underlie the increased skeletal fragility in these patients. Accordingly, this Perspective provides evidence that the "undetermined significance" portion of the MGUS acronym may be best replaced in favor of the term "monoclonal gammopathy of skeletal significance" (MGSS) in order to more accurately reflect the enhanced skeletal risks inherent in this condition.
Reporting and Non-Reporting Incentives in Leasing: Evidence from the Airline Industry

We examine the role that reporting and non-reporting incentives play in operating lease financing. Using a comprehensive dataset of publicly-traded and privately-held US airlines, we provide evidence that expanding financing capacity, accommodating volatile operations, and maximizing present value of tax deductions are important drivers of leasing decisions. Contrary to the common assertion, we find no evidence that reporting lower indebtedness, or “hiding” liabilities from investors, is a primary motive for lease usage, suggesting that reporting incentives play, at most, a secondary role. We discuss implications of these findings for standard setters and future research, and their relevance for proposed changes in financial reporting rules for leases.
A wide-dynamic-range, low-power photosensor array

A 32/spl times/32 array of photosensors with pulse frequency outputs uses standard 2 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. The photosensors use pulse-frequency encoding to achieve a linear dynamic range of 10/sup 6/ in optical energy. Power dissipation of the photosensor is proportional to the frequency of the pulse outputs, and under typical illumination and bias conditions, the entire 32/spl times/32 array dissipates >
Clinical Global Impression of Change in Physical Frailty: development of a measure based on clinical judgment.

Objectives: To expand the ability to assess physical frailty by developing a Clinical Global Impression of Change in Physical Frailty (CGIC-PF) instrument. Design: Qualitative and quantitative instrument development. Setting: Academic centers. Participants: Six expert panel members, 46 clinicians, 24 patients, and 12 caregivers. Measurements: Literature review and structured group processes with experts, clinicians, and consumers were used to generate an initial list of domains and indicators. Structured interviews with clinical experts in the area of frailty were used to establish relevance and feasibility of measurement of domains. Interrater reliability was assessed through a Web-based study. Geriatricians pilot tested the feasibility of the baseline CGIC-PF with 10 patients. Results: The CGIC-PF includes six intrinsic domains (mobility, balance, strength, endurance, nutrition, and neuromotor performance) and seven consequences domains (medical complexity, healthcare utilization, appearance, self-perceived health, activities of daily living, emotional status, and social status). Each domain has two to four clinical indicators. Change is scored on a 7-point scale from markedly worse to markedly improved. Average interrater reliability of the CGIC-PF for the Web-based cases was 0.97. Geriatricians completed a baseline CGIC-PF on their own patients in 10 minutes or less. Conclusion: The CGIC-PF is a structured assessment of change in physical frailty with defined content and process. It has strong face validity, reliability, and feasibility for use in clinical research. It may be useful as one criterion of change and as an anchor for change in other measures.
Management of acute kidney injury in children: a guide for pediatricians.

Acute kidney injury (AKI; previously called acute renal failure) is characterized by a usually reversible increase in the blood concentration of creatinine and nitrogenous waste products and by the inability of the kidney to appropriately regulate fluid and electrolyte homeostasis. The incidence of AKI in children appears to be increasing and the etiology of AKI over the past decades has shifted from primary renal disease to multifactorial causes, particularly in hospitalized children. Renal failure can be divided into prerenal failure, intrinsic renal disease including vascular insults, and obstructive uropathies. The history, physical examination, and laboratory studies including a urinalysis and radiographic studies can establish the likely cause(s) of AKI. Once intrinsic renal failure has become established, management of the metabolic complications of AKI requires meticulous attention to fluid balance, electrolyte status, acid-base balance, and nutrition. Many children with AKI will need renal replacement therapy to remove endogenous and exogenous toxins and to maintain fluid, electrolyte, and acid-base balance until renal function improves. Renal replacement therapy may be provided by peritoneal dialysis (PD), intermittent hemodialysis (HD), or hemofiltration with or without a dialysis circuit. Many factors — including the age and size of the child, the cause of renal failure, the degree of metabolic derangements, blood pressure, and nutritional needs — are considered in deciding when to initiate renal replacement therapy and which modality of therapy to use. The prognosis of AKI is highly dependent on the underlying etiology of the AKI. Children who have AKI as a component of multisystem failure have a much higher mortality rate than children with intrinsic renal disease. Recovery from intrinsic renal disease is also highly dependent on the underlying etiology of the AKI. Children who have experienced AKI from any cause are at risk for late development of renal failure long after the initial insult. Such children need life-long monitoring of their renal function, blood pressure, and urinalysis.
Hayek on Mill: The Mill-Taylor Friendship and Related Writings

PART I. John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor: Their Friendship and Subsequent Marriage 1. Harriet Taylor and Her Circle (1830) 2. Acquaintance and Early Crises (1830- 1833) 3. On Marriage and Divorce (about 1832) 4. Friends and Gossip (1834- 1842) 5. The Years of Friendship (1834- 1847) 6. A Joint Production (1847- 1849) 7. John Taylor's Illness and Death (1849) 8. Marriage and Break with Mill's Family (1851) 9. Illness (1851- 1854) 10. Italy and Sicily (1854- 1855) 11. Greece (1855) 12. Last Years and Death of Mrs. Mill (1856- 1858) Appendix I Poems by Harriet Taylor Appendix II An Early Essay by Harriet Taylor Appendix III Family Trees PART II. Related Writings 13. John Stuart Mill at the Age of Twenty- Five 14. J. S. Mill's Correspondence 15. The Dispersal of the Books and Papers of John Stuart Mill 16. J. S. Mill, Mrs. Taylor, and Socialism 17. Portraits of J. S. Mill 18. Preface to The Life of John Stuart Mill 19. Review of Mill and His Early Critics 20. Review of John Mill's Boyhood Visit to France 21. Introduction to Considerations on Representative Government 22. Introduction to The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1812- 1848 23. Related Correspondence
Creating Isoprenoid Diversity

Living things use isoprenoids as pigments, hormones, molecular signals, and pheromones. The many variations of isoprenoid are generated by versatile enzymes that synthesize multiple products. In their Perspective, Sacchettini and Poulter discuss what the new structures of three of these cyclases, reported on pages 1811, 1815, and 1820 of this issue, reveal about the mechanisms of isoprenoid formation.
Tumoral calcinosis presenting as a deformity of the thoracic spine: Case report

The authors describe a rare case of tumoral calcinosis (TC) of the thoracic spine in a 13-year-old boy with thoracic scoliosis. The patient presented with a 2-year history of back pain. He had no personal or family history of bone disease, deformity, or malignancy. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a heterogeneously enhancing mass involving the T-7 vertebral body and the left pedicle. Computed tomography findings suggested that the mass was calcified and that this had resulted in scalloping of the vertebral body. The lesion was resected completely by using a left T-7 costotransversectomy and corpectomy. The deformity was corrected with placement of a vertebral body cage and pedicle screw fixation from T-5 to T-9. Pathological analysis of the mass demonstrated dystrophic calcification with marked hypercellularity and immunostaining consistent with TC. This represents the third reported case of vertebral TC in the pediatric population. Pediatric neurosurgeons should be familiar with lesions such as TC, wh...
Cardiac Physiology of Pregnancy

Although the physiology of the heart and vascular system has not changed, there are many things we have learned and are still learning today. Research related to heart adaptations during pregnancy has been performed since the 1930s. Since the mid-1950s, researchers began to look at changes in the maternal cardiovascular system during exercise while pregnant. Research related to exercise during pregnancy and offspring heart development began and has continued since the 1970s. We will review the normal female cardiovascular system adaptations to pregnancy in general. Additionally, topics related to maternal cardiac adaptations to pregnancy during acute exercise, as well as the chronic conditioning response from exercise training will be explored. Since physical activity during pregnancy influences fetal development, the fetal cardiac development will be discussed in regards to acute and chronic maternal exercise. Similarly, the influence of various types of maternal exercise on acute and chronic fetal heart responses will be described. Briefly, the topics related to how and if there is maternal-fetal synchrony will be explained. Lastly, the developmental changes of the fetal cardiovascular system that persist after birth will be explored. Overall, the article will discuss maternal cardiac physiology related to changes with normal pregnancy, and exercise during pregnancy, as well as fetal cardiac physiology related to changes with normal development, and exercise during pregnancy as well as developmental changes in offspring after birth.
Demonstration of all-optical switching based on spatial soliton dragging

Summary form only given. In conclusion, we report the demonstration of all-optical switching in an AlGaAs planar optical waveguide based on the mutual dragging of two spatial solitons. For higher peak powers, or a longer sample, a larger switching contrast from soliton dragging should be possible.
Discrete Multi-Phase Particle Swarm Optimization

This chapter proposes the Discrete Multi-Phase Particle Swarm Optimization (DiMuPSO) algorithm, extending the PSO approach to problems coded with discrete binary representations. The main features of DiMuPSO are in utilizing multiple groups of particles with different goals that are allowed to change with time, alternately moving toward or away from the best solutions found recently. DiMuPSO also enforces steady improvement in solution quality, accepting only moves that improve fitness. Experimental simulations show that DiMuPSO outperforms a genetic algorithm and a previous discrete version of PSO on several benchmark problems.
Cross-validation of a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score-based model to predict mortality in patients with cancer admitted to the intensive care unit.

Abstract Purpose This study aims to validate the performance of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score to predict death of critically ill patients with cancer. Material and methods We conducted a retrospective observational study including adults admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2008. We randomly selected training and validation samples in medical and surgical admissions to predict ICU and in-hospital mortality. By using logistic regression, we calculated the probabilities of death in the training samples and applied them to the validation samples to test the goodness-of-fit of the models, construct receiver operator characteristics curves, and calculate the areas under the curve (AUCs). Results In predicting mortality at discharge from the unit, the AUC from the validation group of medical admissions was 0.7851 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7437-0.8264), and the AUC from the surgical admissions was 0.7847 (95% CI, 0.6319-0.937). The AUCs of the SOFA score to predict mortality in the hospital after ICU admission were 0.7789 (95% CI, 0.74-0.8177) and 0.7572 (95% CI, 0.6719-0.8424) for the medical and surgical validations groups, respectively. Conclusions The SOFA score had good discrimination to predict ICU and hospital mortality. However, the observed underestimation of ICU deaths and unsatisfactory goodness-of-fit test of the model in surgical patients to indicate calibration of the score to predict ICU mortality is advised in this group.
Immunochemical detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and 1-hydroxypyrene in water and sediment samples

Abstract Several approaches were investigated to fully use an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for accurate measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their degradation products in surface water and sediment collected from the Pearl Harbor and James Campbell National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) in Hawaii. Water samples were extracted by solid phase extraction (SPE) while the sediments were extracted by supercritical CO2. Parent PAHs and 1-hydroxypyene, selected as a marker, were quantitatively recovered with supercritical CO2 from sediments that were mixed with 5% Na4EDTA. Use of Na4EDTA or Na2SiO3 significantly improved recovery of 1-hydroxypyrene in sediments. Na4EDTA was more effective than Na2SiO3. The concentrations of PAHs as benzo[a]pyrene equivalents determined by ELISA were slightly higher than those determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). ‘Overestimation’ by ELISA over GC-MS was attributed to, at least in part, the presence of PAH metabolites including 1-hydroxypyrene which were detected by ELISA, but not quantified by GC-MS.
Making Sense of Russian Foreign Policy: Guest Editors’ Introduction

Russian foreign policy in the Putin era has drawn particular attention, and even praise, from the realist school of international relations scholars. John J. Mearsheimer, for example, has written t...
Dye solubilization in polyelectrolyte—micelle complexes

Abstract The solubilization of the hydrophobic dye Solvent Orange 2 has been measured in soluble complexes formed between mixed anionic/nonionic micelles and a strong polycation. In the system studied, comprising mixed micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate and Triton X-100 with poly(dimethyldiallylammonium chloride), soluble complexes are formed over a range of micelle compositions, ionic strengths, and polymer concentrations. These parameters were adjusted to ensure that the predominant state of the surfactant was in the form of polymer-bound micelles. Under these conditions, neither the apparent CMC nor the net solubilization efficiency of the surfactant was different from the behavior of the polymer-free system. These results, taken together with turbidimetric titrations reported here, indicate that, despite the evident interaction between the polyion and the micelle, complex formation does not significantly alter the free energy of micellization, and does not produce major changes in structure of the micelle.
The phase structure of aperiodic SiO2 as a function of network topology

Abstract We understand the structure of SiO 2 in terms of local properties, the indecomposable rings of its network. A ring is defined by us to be indecomposable if it does not arise by the successive traversal of other smaller rings. The phase structure of glassy SiO 2 can be understood and characterized in terms of these indecomposable rings.
Functional outcomes of persons with brain tumors after inpatient rehabilitation

Abstract ABSTRACT.Marciniak CM, Sliwa JA, Heinemann AW, Semik PE. Functional outcomes of persons with brain tumors after inpatient rehabilitation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2001;82:457-63. Objective: To assess the extent of functional gains measured before and after inpatient rehabilitation in patients who have primary or metastatic brain tumors, and to identify whether the tumor type, recurrent tumor, or ongoing radiation influences outcomes. Design: Retrospective, descriptive study. Setting: A free-standing university-affiliated rehabilitation hospital. Participants: A referred sample of 132 persons, all with functional impairments from a brain tumor and discharged from inpatient rehabilitation during a 3-year time period. Intervention: Comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation. Main Outcome Measures: Functional status and rate of functional improvement (gain) as measured by the FIM™ instrument and FIM efficiency. Results: Mean FIM efficiencies ± standard deviation for motor (.82 ±.69) and cognitive (.15 ±.24) functions were equivalent across primary and metastatic tumor types (F =.42, df = 3,103, p = NS; F=.45, df = 2,104, p = NS, respectively); patients with metastatic disease had a significantly shorter length of stay at 18 ± 12.3 days ( t 30,6 = 2.3, p =.03). Patients who received radiation during rehabilitation had a significantly greater (F = 4.1, df = 1,105, p df = 1,85, p =.018), which reflected a significantly smaller FIM motor change. Conclusions: Metastatic or primary brain tumor type does not affect the efficiency of functional improvement during inpatient rehabilitation. Patients receiving concurrent radiation therapy make greater functional improvement per day than those not receiving radiation. Patients with recurrent tumors make significantly smaller functional motor gains than those completing inpatient rehabilitation after the tumor's initial diagnosis. © 2001 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Bigeminy in Ventricular Interpolation

T he occurrence of a premature beat between two consecutive conducted sinus beats is termed an interpolated premature systole or extrasystole.1 An interpolated premature ventricular systole can effect the conduction of the subsequent sinus beat by concealed retrograde penetration into the His-Purkinje system or AV node or both. This retrograde concealed penetration can result in a prolongation of the PR interval, with normal or aberrant intraventricular conduction of the first postextrasystolic sinus beat. The aberrant intraventricular conduction of the first postectopic sinus beat may mimic the occurrence of ventricular couplets (two premature yen-
Preparing Business Students for Real‐world Writing

Employers today complain that college graduates are not sufficiently prepared, in terms of their writing skills/business communication for work in the business environment. Looks at the inadequacies of courses, examining both the traditional and non‐traditional approaches to teaching business writing. Concludes with a number of suggestions for improving the preparation of students for the corporate workplace, for example “situational” writing tasks; collaborate assignments; real‐world job titles; integrated assignments; grammar and punctuation; and writing under pressure of time.
When magic bullets miss their mark.

The exquisite specificity of the adaptive immune response underlies much of the promise of cancer immunotherapy. Ironically, however, this same specificity represents an Achilles heel if the antigenic target mutates to no longer be recognizable by the ensuing immune response. In this issue, 2
Development of Nitrolysis for Excess Sludge Treatment: A Factorial Study

This research is focused on developing a process called nitrolysis for treatment of excess sludge from wastewater processing. In this process, the excess sludge is treated with nitric acid (up to 11 wt%) at an elevated temperature (>160°C) and pressure (100 psig). The result of this treatment is a substantial conversion of the excess sludge to soluble organic. This conversion reduces the viscosity and solids content of the excess sludge stream, thus reducing the disposal costs. The products of the reaction include biodegradable organics that may be recycled to the wastewater treatment process. Other products include potentially recoverable organic acids such as acetic acid. These acids are produced at about 0.15 g/g of dry excess sludge that reacts. This study investigates the operating parameters that could improve the conversion of excess sludge to products and/or biodegradable soluble organics. The parameters used in this study included temperature, acid concentration, sludge concentration, and reaction time. An initial factorial study of these parameters indicated that the acid and sludge concentrations were the most influential in the conversion process. Increasing the acid concentration would convert more of the excess sludge to product. Although the initial study did not show a change in conversion above 160°C, decreasing the temperature below 160°C showed a significant decrease in the excess sludge conversion from 75% to 22%. The lower acid concentration also showed a significant drop in conversion, decreasing from >60% at 11.2 wt% acid to 10% at 0.4 wt% acid. Chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon tests were used to verify the material balance around the reactor with better than 90% closure. These tests also demonstrated that the initial hydrolysis step in the biomass degradation is very rapid (<5 min).
Selective Inhibition of Deactivated Mitochondrial Complex I by Biguanides

Biguanides are widely used antihyperglycemic agents for diabetes mellitus and prediabetes treatment. Complex I is the rate-limiting step of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC), a major source of mitochondrial free radical production, and a known target of biguanides. Complex I has two reversible conformational states, active and de-active. The deactivated state is promoted in the absence of substrates but is rapidly and fully reversed to the active state in the presence of NADH. The objective of this study was to determine the relative sensitivity of active/de-active complex I to biguanide-mediated inhibition and resulting superoxide radical (O₂(•⁻)) production. Using isolated rat heart mitochondria, we show that deactivation of complex I sensitizes it to metformin and phenformin (4- and 3-fold, respectively), but not to other known complex I inhibitors, such as rotenone. Mitochondrial O₂(•⁻) production by deactivated complex I was measured fluorescently by NADH-dependent 2-hydroxyethidium formation at alkaline pH to impede reactivation. Superoxide production was 260.4% higher than in active complex I at pH 9.4. However, phenformin treatment of de-active complex I decreased O₂(•⁻) production by 14.9%, while rotenone increased production by 42.9%. Mitochondria isolated from rat hearts subjected to cardiac ischemia, a condition known to induce complex I deactivation, were sensitized to phenformin-mediated complex I inhibition. This supports the idea that the effects of biguanides are likely to be influenced by the complex I state in vivo. These results demonstrate that the complex I active and de-active states are a determinant in biguanide-mediated inhibition.
Aerodynamic design optimization using Euler equations and variational methods

Abstract An optimization methodology which uses the conservative field variables, is developed to solve a design optimization problem in fluid dynamical distributed parameter systems. This approach which is completely based on the variational method, is employed to derive the costate partial differential equations (pdes) and their transversality (boundary) conditions from the continuous pdes of the fluid flow. The costate equations coupled with the flow field equations are solved iteratively to get the functional derivative coefficients. Then, these derivative coefficients combined with the flow field variables are used to find the boundary shape which extremizes the performance index (functional). To demonstrate the method through examples, the shape of the nozzle is optimized for the maximum thrust. For this maximization problem, inlet and outlet flow conditions that depend on the upstream and downstream Mach numbers respectively are considered. In order to build confidence in the optimization procedure, high convergences of the state and costate equations were sought and the numerical and analytical solutions (in the form of pressure distributions) of the state equations are compared. In the purely supersonic flow case, the gain in thrust is remarkably high. Even in the supersonic-inlet–subsonic-outlet and the purely subsonic cases, the improvement of the thrust is found to be substantial. As demonstrated through the cases investigated, a new achievement is that the present variational shape optimization approach is capable of resolving flows with shocks.
Highly-conserved small-subunit residues influence Rubisco large-subunit catalysis

The chloroplast enzyme ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) catalyzes the rate-limiting step of photosynthetic CO2 fixation. With a deeper understanding of its structure-function relationships and competitive inhibition by O2, it may be possible to engineer an increase in agricultural productivity and renewable energy. The chloroplast-encoded large subunits form the active site, but the nuclear-encoded small subunits can also influence catalytic efficiency and CO2/O2 specificity. To further define the role of the small subunit in Rubisco function, the 10 most conserved residues in all small subunits were substituted with alanine by transformation of a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant that lacks the small subunit gene family. All the mutant strains were able to grow photosynthetically, indicating that none of the residues is essential for function. Three of the substitutions have little or no effect (S16A, P19A, and E92A), one primarily affects holoenzyme stability (L18A), and the remainder affect catalysis with or without some level of associated structural instability (Y32A, E43A, W73A, L78A, P79A, and F81A). Y32A and E43A cause decreases in CO2/O2 specificity. Based on the x-ray crystal structure of Chlamydomonas Rubisco, all but one (Glu-92) of the conserved residues are in contact with large subunits and cluster near the amino- or carboxyl-terminal ends of large subunit α-helix 8, which is a structural element of the α/β-barrel active site. Small subunit residues Glu-43 and Trp-73 identify a possible structural connection between active site α-helix 8 and the highly variable small subunit loop between β-strands A and B, which can also influence Rubisco CO2/O2 specificity.
The equivalence theorem in the abelian Higgs theory

Abstract The equivalence theorem relates the high energy scattering amplitudes of longitudinal vector bosons to the amplitudes for the corresponding unphysical Goldstone bosons. The theorem recieves renormalization-scheme and gauge dependent quantum corrections. In the abelian Higgs theory, it is shown that the theorem can be formulated in such a way that quantum corrections vanish to all orders in perturbation theory.
Suboptimum maximum likelihood estimation of structural parameters from multiple-excitation vibration data

In this paper an effective stochastic and multiple-excitation single-response approach to structural dynamics identification is introduced. The proposed approach accounts for many previously unaccounted for aspects of the problem, as it is based on: A proper, special-form, scalar ARMAX-type representation of the structural and noise dynamics; a new Suboptimum Maximum Likelihood (SML) discrete estimation algorithm (Fassois and Lee, 1990); systematic and efficient modeling strategy and model validation procedures; as well as accurate modal parameter extraction that is compatible with the employed model structure and excitation signal forms. In addition to its comprehensiveness, the proposed approach overcomes the well-known limitations of deterministic time-domain methods in dealing with noise-corrupted data records, while also circumventing some of the major difficulties of existing stochastic schemes by featuring guaranteed algorithmic stability, elimination of wrong convergence problems, very modest computational complexity, and minimal operator intervention. The effectiveness of the approach is verified through numerical simulations with noise-corrupted vibration data, and structural systems characterized by well-separated and closely-spaced vibrational modes. Comparisons with the classical Frequency Domain Method (FDM) are also made, and the approach’s advantages over deterministic methods are demonstrated through comparisons with the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA). Experimental results, where the proposed approach is used for the modal analysis of a flexible beam from laboratory data, are also presented.