cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Improving Efficiency in the Nuclear Cardiology Laboratory: The Role of Stress-Only Imaging Coupled with Faster Acquisition Protocols and New Stressor Agents

Laboratory efficiency is an important benchmark to achieve whether imaging is hospital-based or in the private practice setting. The stressor and imaging protocols used and the camera systems available for imaging all play a pivotal role toward this end. A same-day low-dose rest/high-dose stress imaging protocol has been widely adopted in nuclear cardiology laboratories. However, recent studies indicate that rest imaging may be unnecessary in patients with a normal initial stress single photon emission CT (SPECT) study. Appropriate elimination of rest imaging would decrease costs, streamline patient evaluations, and significantly reduce radiation exposure. Several recent studies have validated the safety of stress-only imaging in patients who have an initially normal perfusion study. Combined with new pharmacologic stressor agents and camera systems that can complete imaging within minutes, laboratory efficiency and patient satisfaction should improve considerably. The following article will review these currently available advances in SPECT imaging.
Planning for transformation

The University of Wisconsin-Stout, recipient of the Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001, developed a planning system that has evolved into a comprehensive and collaborative process for visioning, developing and implementing goals, and tracking university performance.
The Effect of Simazine on the Incidence of American Gooseberry Mildew on Black Currants

SUMMARY In 1964, American gooseberry mildew on black currants in a trial in Northamptonshire increased in incidence and severity with increasing rate of application of simazine.
Carbonic Anhydrase, 5′-Nucleotidase, and 2′,3′-Cyclic Nucleotide-3′-Phosphodiesterase Activities in Oligodendrocytes, Astrocytes, and Neurons Isolated from the Brains of Developing Rats

: The activities of three myelin-associated enzymes, carbonic anhydrase, 5′-nucleotidase, and 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide-3′-phosphodiesterase (CNP), were measured in oligodendrocytes, neurons, and astrocytes isolated from the brains of rats 10, 20, 60, and 120 days old. The carbonic anhydrase specific activity in oligodendrocytes was three- to fivefold higher than that in brain homogenates at each age, and, at all the ages, low activities of this enzyme were measured in neurons and astrocytes. The oligodendrocytes and astrocytes from the brains of rats at all ages had higher activities of the membrane-bound enzyme 5′-nucleotidase than was observed in neurons. In oligodendrocytes from 10- and 20-day-old rats, the 5′-nucleotidase activity was two- to threefold the activity in the homogenates (i.e., relative specific activity = 2.0–3.0), and the relative specific activity of this enzyme in the oligodendrocytes declined to less than 1.0 at the later ages, concomitant with the accumulation of 5′-nucleotidase in myelin. The CNP activity was always higher in oligodendrocytes than in neurons, but not appreciably different from that in astrocytes from 20 days of age onward. The relative specific activity of CNP was highest in the oligodendrocytes from 10-day-old rats but was lower, at all ages, than we had observed in bovine oligodendrocytes. These enzyme activities in oligodendroglia are quite different in amount and developmental pattern from those reported previously for myelin.
A Systematic Review of the Evidence on Symptom Management of Cancer-Related Anorexia and Cachexia

Purpose/objectives To evaluate and synthesize the evidence regarding cancer-related anorexia and cachexia symptom management and make recommendations for future directions. Data sources Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CANCERLIT, CINAHL, Dissertation Abstracts, EBM Reviews--Best Evidence, EMBASE, and the Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects. Current overviews, clinical trials, systematic research reviews, and meta-analyses. Data synthesis All studies focused on increasing food intake. Nonpharmacologic clinical trials increased caloric and protein intake but resulted in no improvement in nutritional status, weight, tumor response, survival, or quality of life. Weight, appetite, and well-being were improved with megestrol acetate, but nutritional status was not improved. Some exercise studies demonstrated improvements in nutrition-related outcomes, but these were not primary research outcomes. Conclusions Symptom management of anorexia and cachexia should focus on decreasing energy expenditure or minimizing factors creating a negative energy balance, as well as improving food intake. Increased measurement sensitivity also is needed. Implications for nursing Improved nutritional assessment skills are needed with an emphasis on anticipated problems and current status.
Thermal Oxidation of III-V Materials and Heterostructures

Thermal oxide films formed on n-GaAs(100) and Al x Ga 1-x As (x = 0.25-0.80) from 450-500°C have been characterized by Auger electron spectroscopy and electron microscopy, and the relative oxidation rates of AlGaAs in GaAs-based heterostructures and InAlAs in InP-based heterostructures have been determined. The kinetics and mechanism of oxidation depend on the particular oxidant. Selective oxidation of Al-containing layers in device structures depends on the layer thickness but is independent of the dopant level, and is optimized by oxidation in moist nitrogen (95°C). Electrical measurements have been performed on oxidized InAlAs/InGaA, heterostructure diodes.
Geochemical Controls on the Production and Distribution of Methylmercury in Near-Shore Marine Sediments

We examined temporal differences in sedimentary production of monomethylmercury (MMHg) at three sites in Long Island Sound (LIS). Sediment-phase concentrations of Hg species decreased from west to east in LIS surface sediments, following the trend of organic matter. However, Hg methylation potentials, measured by incubation with an isotopic tracer (200Hg), increased from west to east. 200Hg methylation potentials were enhanced in August relative to March and June, attributable to differences in activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Organic matter and acid-volatile sulfide influenced the distribution coefficient (KD) of inorganic Hg (Hg(II) = total Hg − MMHg) and inhibited 200Hg methylation in surface sediments. 200Hg methylation varied inversely with the KD of Hg(II) and positively with the concentration of Hg(II), mostly as HgS0, in LIS pore waters. Accordingly, we posit that a principal control on MMHg production in low-sulfide, coastal marine sediments is partitioning of Hg(II) between particle and di...
Measured and calculated effects of angle of attack on the transonic flutter of a supercritical wing

The effects of angle of attack between 0 and 4 degrees were studied. The results indicate that increasing angle of attack from zero can produce substantial changes in the transonic flutter characteristics that are favorable or unfavorable depending on Mach number and angle of attack. The bottom of the transonic flutter-boundary 'bucket' is shown to occur at lower Mach number as angle of attack increases. These flutter results correlate well with the effects of Mach number and angle of attack on aerodynamic behavior, especially on the development of transonic flow phenomena. The calculated flutter characteristics are in good agreement with the experimental data at zero angle of attack, but at nonzero angles of attack the experiments show sharply declining and backward-turning transonic flutter boundaries that are not indicated by the calculations. These may be caused by variations in static aeroelastic deformation.
Expectations from preceding prosody influence segmentation in online sentence processing

Previous work examining prosodic cues in online spoken-word recognition has focused primarily on local cues to word identity. However, recent studies have suggested that utterance-level prosodic patterns can also influence the interpretation of subsequent sequences of lexically ambiguous syllables (Dilley, Mattys, & Vinke, Journal of Memory and Language, 63:274–294, 2010; Dilley & McAuley, Journal of Memory and Language, 59:294–311, 2008). To test the hypothesis that these distal prosody effects are based on expectations about the organization of upcoming material, we conducted a visual-world experiment. We examined fixations to competing alternatives such as pan and panda upon hearing the target word panda in utterances in which the acoustic properties of the preceding sentence material had been manipulated. The proportions of fixations to the monosyllabic competitor were higher beginning 200 ms after target word onset when the preceding prosody supported a prosodic constituent boundary following pan-, rather than following panda. These findings support the hypothesis that expectations based on perceived prosodic patterns in the distal context influence lexical segmentation and word recognition.
Occurrence of N2,N2,7-trimethylguanosine in minor RNA species of a mammalian cell line.

SEVERAL low molecular weight methylated RNA species1 in Chinese hamster cells are distinct from tRNA, 5S rRNA, and 7S rRNA and, in addition, three of them contain a nucleoside not previously reported. We now present evidence that this unknown nucleoside, which is absent from cytoplasmic tRNA and the ribosomal RNA, is N2,N2,7-trimethylguanosine.
Moral Formation as Transformation: The Contribution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This essay was delivered during a panel discussion entitled "The Formation of the Religious Conscience after the Shoah: Bonhoeffer’s Spirituality for Today " during the conference Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Our Times: Jewish and Christian Perspectives , cosponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Hebrew College, and Andover-Newton Theological School, September 17, 2006. The author argues that Bonhoeffer can help us understand moral formation as personal and social transformation.
Adenoviral gene transfer of phospholamban in isolated rat cardiomyocytes. Rescue effects by concomitant gene transfer of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase.

Abstract Phospholamban forms an integral part of the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and regulates the activity of SR Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA2a). A number of studies have suggested a decrease in SERCA2a relative to phospholamban in heart failure. To test the hypothesis that changes in the relative abundance of phospholamban to SERCA2a could account for the pathophysiological abnormalities in Ca2+ handling observed in failing myocardium, we created a recombinant adenovirus designed to overexpress phospholamban (Ad.RSV.PL). In neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, Ad.RSV.PL increased the expression of phospholamban in a concentration-dependent fashion, reaching 280±43% at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10.0 plaque forming units (pfu)/cell at 48 hours. The relationship between Ca2+-ATPase activity and [Ca2+] was shifted rightward in membrane preparations from cardiomyocytes infected with Ad.RSV.PL. Intracellular Ca2+ transients measured in the neonatal cells infected with Ad.RSV.PL (MOI, 10 pfu/cell) were charac...
Everybody's Got a Little Mental Illness: Accounts of Illness and Self among People with Severe, Persistent Mental Illnesses

Accounts of the nature, cause, and course of mental illness and self-labeling are explored as interdependent domains with a cohort of individuals diagnosed as having major psychiatric disorders. Explanations and descriptions of mental illness and propensities to self-label are shown to be interrelated in a multidirectional, multidimensional manner. Normalizing talk and illness accounts that are both patterned and diverse, and both stable and variable over time, pervade the discourse of individuals in the cohort. Sociocultural factors, particularly social race, gender, and type of illness explanation, have a stronger association with self-labeling than clinical factors, such as formal diagnosis. The concepts of “illness-identity work” and “illness-identity talk” are developed as a means for exploring self and sickness among persons with chronic illnesses.
Cutaneous transformation of testosterone into 5 -androstane-3 ,17 -diol.

Testosterone-4-14C was incubated with human skin in vitro. In addition to previously identified cutaneous metabolites, a new metabolite, 5α-androstane-3β,17β-diol, was isolated and identified by chromatography, oxidation to a product with the mobility of androstanedione, and reverse isotopic dilution. This metabolite constituted approximately 11% of the extracted radioactivity, the remainder consisting of previously identified metabolites (57%), testosterone (21%) and unidentified polar material (10%). The previously reported 3α-epimer, 3α-androstanediol, was produced in slightly greater amount (15%). In view of its activity in maintaining cell height and secretion of prostatic tissue in organ culture, the cutaneous formation of 3β-androstanediol may be of physiological significance.
The role of calcium in the induction of ornithine decarboxylase in rat HTC cells

Abstract The possible role of calcium ions in the induction of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) in rat hepatoma cells in culture (HTC) has been investigated by manipulating cellular calcium levels as follows: a) use of the calcium chelating agent EGTA to inhibit induction of ODC by dibutyryl cyclic AMP (cAMP), b) addition of Ca ++ to reverse the inhibition of cAMP induction of ODC by EGTA, c) use of a calcium ionophore in the presence of Ca ++ to induce ODC. In each case there was positive evidence for the participation of Ca ++ in the induction of ODC.
Congress and the Polarity Paradox: Party Polarization, Member Incivility and Enactment of Landmark Legislation, 1891–1994

This research demonstrates that a polarity paradox exists in the enactment of landmark laws by the U.S. Congress. Moderate conflict facilitates the production of landmark laws whereas movement to the polar extremes of conflict—toward low or high conflict—inhibits it. The number of landmark laws passed by a Congress is low when polarization between the parties is low, particularly if uncivil interpersonal conflict within the parties is low, and when polarization between the parties is high, particularly if uncivil interpersonal conflict between the parties is high. Movement away from these polar extremes toward moderate conflict yields increased landmark productivity.
Antisocial personality disorder is associated with increased severity of gambling, medical, drug and psychiatric problems among treatment-seeking pathological gamblers.

Aims To evaluate systematically whether pathological gamblers with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) experience increased severity of gambling, medical, psychiatric, substance use and psychosocial problems compared to pathological gamblers without ASPD. Participants, design and measurements Pathological gamblers (n = 237) entering an out-patient treatment study for pathological gambling completed the ASPD section of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV (DSM-IV) Personality Disorders, California Psychological Inventory–Socialization Scale, Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and gambling questionnaires. Setting Pathological gambling research clinic. Findings Thirty-nine (16.5%) pathological gamblers met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ASPD. Compared to pathological gamblers without ASPD, pathological gamblers with ASPD were younger, more likely to be male and divorced/separated, and had fewer years of education. They also began gambling earlier in life, reported increased severity of gambling, medical and drug problems, and scored higher on the paranoid ideation, somatization and phobic anxiety subscales of the BSI. Further, logistic regression identified male gender, history of illicit drug use and severity of gambling and medical problems as independent predictors of ASPD. Conclusions These results underscore the importance of assessing a wide range of behaviors and personality indices, including ASPD, among treatment-seeking pathological gamblers.
Cognitive Symptoms in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder and Their Implications for Clinical Practice

Context The literature regarding cognitive symptoms in major depressive disorder (MDD) is vast and often contradictory. To provide clinicians with a concise understanding of these prevalent and disabling symptoms, this overview describes what is known regarding cognitive symptoms in patients with MDD, the limitations of the current literature, and the implications of these data for current and future clinical practice. Evidence acquisition PubMed searches were conducted to identify studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews evaluating cognitive function (not cognitive bias) in patients with MDD. Search terms used in combination with MDD were cognition, cognitive dysfunction, memory, psychomotor processing, and executive function. Searches were limited to articles available in the English language and those published between April 2007 and March 2012. Additional studies and those describing screening tools were identified using reference lists and PubMed "related citations." Ongoing trials were identified by searching for cognitive dysfunction and MDD at www.ClinicalTrials.gov. Relevant articles were obtained and reviewed by the author. Results Small sample size and inconsistent assessment tools were identified as major limitations of studies assessing clinical characteristics and risk factors for cognitive symptoms. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews were used to mitigate this limitation. Conclusions Cognitive symptoms of depression are prevalent and associated with earlier illness onset and longer episode duration. They can have an adverse impact on the treatment course of MDD as well as on functional recovery in depression. Further studies are needed to help determine whether certain treatments can be more effective than others at targeting these symptoms.
Susceptibility of Radiation Chimeras to Experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection

SummaryLethally X-irradiated B6D2F1 mice treated with syngeneic bone marrow cells were found to be no more susceptible to Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge 43 days post-irradiation than unirradiated control animals. Allogeneic CF-1 chimeras proved to be substantially more susceptible to experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection 43–46 days post-irradiation but at 175–177 days post-irradiation only a slight increase in susceptibility over control animals of the same age was observed.
Nano Wheat Fields Prepared by Plasma-Etching Gold Nanowire-Containing Membranes

The template method is a general approach for preparing nanomaterials, in particular nanowires and nanotubes. The ability to control the dimensions of the nanowires and tubes obtained is an important feature of the template method. Diameter can be controlled at will by varying the diameter of the pores in the template membrane. The lengths of the nanostructures can be controlled by varying the thickness of the template membrane. We report here a new approach for effectively controlling the lengths of template-synthesized nanostructures. This method is illustrated with gold nanowires deposited within the pores of a polycarbonate template membrane. When these nanowire-containing membranes are exposed to an O2 plasma, the polymer at the membrane surface is selectively removed, thus exposing the ends of the Au nanowires. The length of the exposed nanowire can be controlled at will by varying the plasma etch time. The protruding ends of the Au nanowires resemble wheat fields.
Hydrogen absorption mechanism and location in intermetallic compounds

The purpose of this review is to acquaint the reader with the new field of ternary hydrides and to expose him to its relevance to modern energy technology. Studying their fundamental properties is one fascinating aspect in view of their novel and unusual nature. The methods of hyperfine interactions have an important role to play in their microscopic understanding, as we have illustrated through a few examples. The absorption mechanism of hydrogen has been shown to be closely related to the nature of surface overlayers and their catalytic activity. Similar measurements will be of importance also in many of the other catalytic reactions used in industry. The microscopic nature of hyperfine interaction tools also helps in determining the hydrogen site occupancy. In addition, such methods can in principle yield dynamic information which are useful in investigating relevant properties such as diffusion rates of hydrogen.
Sediment particle size in the Hudson River Estuary

The particle sizes in bottom and suspended sediments from the ocean upstream for 80 km in the Hudson River Estuary were analysed. Several modes at 4, 8 and 30 μm were prevalent throughout the estuary. The average size of particles in bottom samples varied from 150 μm near the ocean to 15–20 μm in Haverstraw Bay. The bottom sediment size appears to be controlled by two components; (1) sand from the ocean and (2) the particles in the flocs.
DNA-barcoding evidence for widespread introductions of a leech from the South American Helobdella triserialis complex

Morphological examination and a molecular phylogenetic analysis of leeches from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Hawaii show that these specimens are members of a species in the South American Helobdella triserialis species complex. Though it has been seen before, this leech was not recognized as an invasive species. Rather, it was first described as Helobdella striata from Germany later renamed Helobdella europaea and then independently described as Helobdella papillornata from Australia. Because the appropriate name for this leech from its South American endemic locale, Helobdella (triserialis) lineata, is preoccupied by a North American species, we formally recognize H. europaea as the valid taxon name. Although this invader is not a bloodfeeder it may be expected to have an impact on native annelid and mollusk faunas.
Generalized2 sequential machine maps

The introduction of syntax directed translations and transformations into formallanguage theory presents a very interesting area with considerable promise of application to questions of syntax and semantics of programming languages. The concept of generalized sequential machine (gsm) mapping (already of importance in language theory) is developed here in its natural extension to trees (or expressions). That generalized concept of gsm mapping encompasses most of the previously defined concepts relating to translations and transformations.
On the first-order Edgeworth expansion for a Markov chain

Abstract We consider the first-order Edgeworth expansion for summands related to a homogeneous Markov chain. Certain inaccuracies in some earlier results by Nagaev are corrected and the expansion is obtained under relaxed conditions. An application of our result to the distribution of the mle of a transition probability in the countable state space case is also considered.
Creep rupture behavior of Grade 91 steel

Abstract Grade 91 steel is considered a potential structural material for advanced nuclear reactors. The creep deformation behavior of Grade 91 steel was studied in the temperature range of 600–700 °C and at stresses of 35–350 MPa. The data were analyzed in terms of Monkman-Grant relation and Larson–Miller parameter. Creep damage tolerance factor and stress exponent were used to identify the cause of creep damage. The fracture surface morphology of the ruptured specimens was studied by scanning electron microscopy to elucidate the failure mechanisms. Fracture mechanism map for Grade 91 steel was developed based on the available material parameters and experimental observations.
Induction of audiogenic seizure susceptibility by focal infusion of excitant amino acid or bicuculline into the inferior colliculus of normal rats.

N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) (10 to 20 nmol) or bicuculline (15 to 50 pmol) in 0.5 μl was infused bilaterally into the inferior colliculus or the deep layers of superior colliculus (DLSC) in normal rats, and the response to high intensity acoustic stimulation was examined. Thirty-five percent of rats receiving NMDA infusions and 42% of animals receiving bicuculline infusions into the inferior colliculus exhibited sound-induced seizures exclusively that were behaviorally similar to audiogenic seizures displayed by genetically epilepsy-prone rats. Rats receiving microinjections into the DLSC did not display sound-specific seizures. A combined pattern of spontaneous and sound-induced seizures was seen in some rats with both drugs and loci of microinjection. These data and previous studies support a role for increased excitant amino acid action and decreased efficacy of GABA in the inferior colliculus as important mechanisms involved in genetic susceptibility to audiogenic seizures.
Automatic architecture refinement techniques for customizing processing elements

In this paper, we propose an approach for designing high- performance energy-efficient processing elements (PEs) using statically- scheduled nanocode-based architectures. Our approach is based on bottom-up refinement/trimming techniques that optimize a given datapath irrespective of whether it was designed manually or generated automatically. The optimizations can also preserve parts of the netlist specified by the designers, and hence, allow reuse of design efforts and can lead to predictable convergence. In this paper, we show that trimming unused and underutilized resources of typical general-purpose datapaths can lead to 30-40% average energy savings, without any performance loss. However, general-purpose architectures often compromise parallelism to make the design implementable. With our trimming approach, we can afford to have a base architecture that is not intended for implementation and has more parallelism, and then apply refinement to make it implementable. For our benchmarks, we achieved up to 1.8 times (avg. 25%) and 2.6 times (avg. 40%) performance improvement, compared to two general-purpose architectures (i.e. a 4- issue VLIW and a DLX), respectively. Additionally, the energy consumption is reduced by up to 5 times (avg. 2 times) compared to the trimmed general-purpose architectures.
Diverse Patterns in the Development of Depressive Symptoms Among Emerging Adults

This article examines depressive symptoms over a 4-year period in a racially diverse community sample of 1,143 18- to 22-year-old emerging adults using latent growth and mixture modeling and data collected at three time points. Participants were high school seniors randomly chosen from nine public schools in a metropolitan region in the Northeastern United States. Mixture analyses yielded four distinct groups: one large group with low, stable rates of depression, a smaller group who began with higher levels of depression that then declined steeply, a group who began with moderate levels that steeply increased, and a small group with high stable rates of depressive symptoms. We examined risks for depressive symptoms including poverty status, African American race, Hispanic ethnicity, gender, and trauma history, controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) as represented by maternal education. Some risks predicted membership in more than one symptom group, lending support to the idea that emerging adulthood is a period of diverse outcomes, in which previous circumstances may predict to multiple pathways, and established risk factors do not always lead to poor outcomes.
Suboptimal adherence to doxycycline and treatment outcomes among men with non-gonococcal urethritis: a prospective cohort study.

Objective Doxycycline, one of two recommended therapies for non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU), consists of a 7-day course of therapy (100 mg BID). Since suboptimal adherence may contribute to poor treatment outcomes, we examined the association between self-reported imperfect adherence to doxycycline and clinical and microbiologic failure among men with NGU. Methods Men aged ≥16 years with NGU attending a Seattle, WA, sexually transmitted diseases clinic were enrolled in a double-blind, parallel-group superiority trial from January 2007 to July 2011. Men were randomised to active doxycycline/placebo azithromycin or placebo doxycycline/active azithromycin. Imperfect adherence was defined as missing ≥1 dose in 7 days. Urine was tested for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Mycoplasma genitalium (MG), and Ureaplasma urealyticum -biovar 2 (UU-2) using nucleic acid amplification tests. Clinical failure (symptoms and ≥5 PMNs/HPF or discharge) and microbiologic failure (positive tests for CT, MG, and/or UU-2) were determined after 3 weeks. Results 184 men with NGU were randomised to active doxycycline and provided data on adherence. Baseline prevalence of CT, MG and UU-2 was 26%, 13% and 27%, respectively. 28% of men reported imperfect adherence, and this was associated with microbiologic failure among men with CT (aRR=9.33; 95% CI 1.00 to 89.2) and UU-2 (aRR=3.08; 95% CI 1.31 to 7.26) but not MG. Imperfect adherence was not significantly associated with clinical failure overall or for any specific pathogens, but it was more common among imperfectly adherent men with CT (aRR=2.63; 0.93–7.41, p=0.07). Conclusions Adherence may be important for microbiologic cure of select pathogens. Factors other than adherence should be considered for CT-negative men with persistent NGU.
Internal fit of pressed and computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing ceramic crowns made from digital and conventional impressions

Abstract Statement of problem No studies have evaluated the internal adaptation of pressed and milled ceramic crowns made from digital impressions. Purpose The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the internal fit of pressed and milled ceramic crowns made from digital and conventional impressions. Material and methods Thirty polyvinyl siloxane (PVS) impressions and 30 Lava COS impressions made of a prepared dentoform tooth (master die) were fabricated. Thirty crowns were pressed in lithium disilicate (IPS e.max Press), and 30 crowns were milled from lithium disilicate blocks (IPS e.max CAD) (15/impression technique) with the E4D scanner and milling engine. The master die and the intaglio of the crowns were digitized with a 3-dimensional laser coordinate measurement machine. The digital master die and intaglio of each crown were merged. The distance between the die and the intaglio surface of the crown was measured at 3 standardized points. One-way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis (α=.05). Results One-way ANOVA revealed that the internal gap obtained from the Lava/press group (0.211 mm, ±SD 0.041) was significantly greater than that obtained from the other groups ( P Conclusions The combination of the digital impression and pressed crown produced the least accurate internal fit.
Effects of Barium and Bicarbonate on Glial Cells of Necturus Optic Nerve Studies with Microelectrodes and Voltage-sensitive Dyes

We have studied the effects of Ba++, a known K+ channel blocker, on the electrophysiological properties of the glial cells of Necturus optic nerve. The addition of Ba++ reversibly depolarized glial cells by 25-50 mV; the half maximal deplorization was obtained with a Ba++ concentration of approximately 0.3 mM. In the presence of Ba++, the sensitivity of the membrane to changes in K+ was reduced and there was evidence of competition between K+ and Ba++ for the K+ channel. These effects, which were accompanied by a large increase in the input resistance of the glial cells, indicate that Ba++ blocks the K+ conductance in glial cells of Necturus optic nerve. With the K+ conductance reduced, we were able to investigate the presence of other membrane conductances. We found that in the presence of Ba++, the addition of HCO3- caused a Na+-dependent hyperpolarization that was sensitive to the disulfonic stilbene SITS (4-acetamido-4'-isothiocyanostilbene-2, 2'-disulfonic acid). Removal of Na+ resulted in a HCO3- -dependent, SITS-sensitive depolarization. These results are consistent with the presence in the glial membrane of an electrogenic Na+/HCO3- cotransporter in which Na+, HCO3-, and net negative charge are transported in the same direction. In Cl- -free solutions, the Ba++-induced depolarization increased, suggesting a small permeability to Cl-. Using voltage-sensitive dyes and a photodiode array for multiple site optical recording, the distribution of potential changes in response to square pulses of intracellularly injected current were recorded before and after the addition of increased and the decay of amplitude as a function of distance decreased. Such results indicate that Ba++ increases the membrane resistance more than the resistance of the intercellular junctions.
Religious Dimensions of Political Conflict and Violence

This paper seeks to develop a nuanced and qualified account of the distinctive ways in which religion can inform political conflict and violence. It seeks to transcend the opposition between particularizing stances, which see religiously informed political conflicts as sui generis and uniquely intractable, and generalizing stances, which assimilate religiously informed political conflicts to other forms of political conflict. The paper specifies the distinctively religious stakes of certain political conflicts, informed by distinctively religious understandings of right order, as well as the distinctiveness of religion as a rich matrix of interlocking modalities and mechanisms that—in certain contexts—can contribute to political conflict and violence even when the stakes are not distinctively religious. At the same time, the paper shows that many putatively religious conflicts are fundamentally similar to other conflicts over political power, economic resources, symbolic recognition, or cultural reproduction.
Backward optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers

Degenerate backward optical parametric oscillators and amplifiers have been considered, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. When the pump intensity is four times the threshold pump intensity, the conversion efficiency reaches a maximum value. On the other hand, for nondegenerate optical parametric oscillators, the conversion efficiency always increases as the pump intensity increases. This behavior is different from those for forward optical parametric oscillators. In either configuration, the oscillation can occur without an external feedback. There is, however, a distributed feedback provided through the opposite propagation directions of the signal and idler. The threshold pump intensities for the oscillators can be achieved by the lasers currently available based on quasi-phase matching in several structures. As the input intensity for the backward parametric wave increases, the gain for this wave decreases dramatically if the pump intensity is on the order of the threshold or higher. When the input intensity is much larger than the threshold pump intensity, there is almost no gain regardless of the level of the pump intensity.
Housing Tenure, Expenditure, and Satisfaction Across Hispanic, African-American, and White Households: Evidence From the American Housing Survey

Because of the significant growth in the number of Hispanic households in the United States, this article pools the 1998, 2002, and 2004 standard metropolitan statistical area samples of the American Housing Survey to compare the housing situations of Hispanic, African-American, and White households. We first consider the likelihood of ownership and housing costs (for both owners and renters) across race/ethnicity for all households and also households that were recent movers. We then analyze differences in ordinal rankings of structural and neighborhood quality. We find that factors that determine good structural and neighborhood quality appear to be consistent across all household types; that is, American households agree on what makes good housing. Several unique issues are identified for the Hispanic households in the sample; for example, crowding, high debt levels, and high annual housing costs per square foot for owners. On a positive note, rent subsidies appear to have a significant effect on lowering rental payments for all households. Furthermore, owners consistently rank both their structural housing characteristics and neighborhood quality higher than renters do.
Spiritual Competency Scale Further Analysis

This article describes a follow-up analysis of the Spiritual Competency Scale, which initially validated ASERVIC’s (Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling) spiritual ...
Boundaries and Role Conflict When Work and Family are Colocated: A Communication Network and Symbolic Interaction Approach

As virtual workplaces and homework programs become more common, workers often find themselves inhabiting multiple worlds and multiple roles simultaneously. For these individuals, boundary transitions are both more frequent and more challenging. This paper expands current theory on work-related boundary transitions by: (1) conceptualizing role conflict in the logic of dynamic communication networks, and (2) reconceptualizing ritual and routine behavior in boundary transitions as not simply aids to mental transitions but also as communicative and symbolic performance that is oriented toward other role senders. Underlying the framework is the concept of time-space paths (Giddens, 1979; Heidegger, 1996) as critical elements of role boundary identification and demarcation. This paper contributes to a better understanding of boundary issues for homeworkers by using a communication framework and emphasizing the agency that homeworkers have to mold others' expectations.
The Influence of Topography on the Stability of Shelfbreak Fronts

In an attempt to understand the degree to which the stability of a shelfbreak front, characterized by continuous horizontal and vertical shear, is affected by topography, a linear stability analysis was conducted for a range of frontal jets and bottom-slope configurations. Three-dimensional perturbations superposed on a continuously stratified shelfbreak front were investigated using linearized, hydrostatic primitive equations. For all model runs in the study, the frontal instability mode, which is the fastest-growing mode for a baroclinic flow, was not influenced by the bottom: Retrograde, prograde, and flat-bottom jets all share the same stability characteristics. In contrast, weakly baroclinic jets are strongly influenced by bottom topography. The presence of a bottom slope stabilizes prograde jets and destabilizes retrograde jets, a difference attributed to the orientation of the isopycnals relative to the bottom slope. Temporal and/or downstream changes in the bottom slope and/or background stratification are shown to produce sizeable changes in the instability of a weakly baroclinic jet.
A Flexible Architecture and Object-oriented Model for Space Logistics Simulation

This paper summarizes the motivation for and the resulting development of a flexible object-oriented software model for simulation and analysis of space exploration campaign logistics. The software model was designed to be applicable to several widely-varying use case scenarios including International Space St ation resupply, support for a long-term lunar outpost and global lunar exploration, and Martian exploration by human and robotic agents. The model includes analysis capability fo r exploration sustainability topics including reusability, reconfigurability, commonality, and repairability. Key additional features include modular demand models that are easily interchanged, element-level models for finegrained demand integration, and reconfigurable system operational states to dynamically change demand models. Other capabilities include generalized impulsive burn maneuvers, surface transportation, abstracted flight transportation, improved support for multidestination scenarios, and multi-user collaboration via online databases.
Inactivation of glutathione peroxidase by peroxynitrite.

Abstract Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) is inactivated on exposure to peroxynitrite under physiologically relevant conditions. Stopped-flow kinetic studies show that the reaction between peroxynitrite and GSH-Px is first-order in each of the reactants, with an apparent second-order rate constant of 4.5 ± 0.2 × 10 4 M −1 s −1 per monomer unit of enzyme. In good agreement with this value, GSH-Px inactivation experiments afford an apparent second-order rate constant of 1.8 ± 0.1 × 10 4 M −1 s −1 per monomer unit of enzyme. The hydroxyl radical scavengers mannitol, DMSO, and benzoate (at 100 mM) afford only 8–12% protection of the enzyme, while addition of 25 mM bicarbonate results in 55% protection. The minimal protection by hydroxyl radical scavengers indicates, as expected, that hydroxyl radicals are not involved in the inactivation. Protection by bicarbonate occurs because peroxynitrite is rapidly trapped by CO 2 to form the adduct nitrosoperoxycarbonate (ONOOCO − 2 ), and/or other reactive species that preferentially decompose to nitrate rather than react with GSH-Px. The close agreement between the rate constants obtained from enzyme inactivation and from stopped-flow kinetics experiments suggests that the mechanism of the reaction between peroxynitrite and GSH-Px involves the oxidation of the ionized selenol of the selenocysteine residue in the enzyme's active site (E-Se − ) by peroxynitrite. This reaction does not simply involve formation of the selenenic acid, E-SeOH, because E-SeOH is an intermediate in the catalytic cycle of the enzyme, and thus its formation cannot explain the inactivation we observe. Thus, the ionized selenol in the active site is transformed into a form of selenium that cannot easily be reduced back to the selenol.
Scaling Robotic Systems for Dismounted Warfighters

As robot usage becomes more widespread, there is a pressing need to develop smaller, lighter robotic control systems that have good training transfer from larger systems; do not overload the operator cognitively or physically; and enable good performance across a variety of settings. This article describes four experiments designed to investigate options for scaling robot controllers for dismounted use. The authors evaluated many different controller characteristics, chosen from consideration of available options and guided by factors expected to affect operator performance in realistic missions. These factors included camera display screen size, comparisons of handheld versus head-mounted displays and split screen displays versus toggle- driven and multimodal displays, and three approaches to reducing the size of the control interface. Each configuration examined was chosen on the basis of theory- based expectations and availability of technology. Participants were 108 soldiers from various military occupational specialties with ages ranging from 21 to 38. Results demonstrated the following fruitful methods for reducing controller size: reducing driving displays to between 3.5 and 6.5 inches, using handheld displays (HHDs), adding a tactile belt to a toggle screen for driving and map reading, and miniaturizing existing control size. All recommended options for reducing controller size had no adverse impact on cognitive requirements or performance.
Active CMOS Array Sensor for Time-Resolved Fluorescence Detection

Surface-based sensing assays based on fluorescence-based detection have become commonplace for both environmental and biomedical diagnostics. Traditional array scanners are expensive, large, and complex instruments. This paper describes the design of an active CMOS biosensor substrate for fluorescence-based assays that enables time-gated, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy without the need for an external reader. The array is sensitive to photon densities as low as 1.15times108/cm2, has a dynamic range of over 74 dB, and has subnanosecond timing resolution. Sensitivity is achieved through subsampling and averaging
Incorporating stimulus-responsive character into filamentous virus assemblies

Controlling interactions between building blocks, in either guided- or self-assemblies, is becoming increasingly important for the creation of functional materials. We have focused our attention on the well-known model assembly, the filamentous bacteriophage, where our strategy is to selectively alter surface features by focusing on spatially distinct capsid proteins. Towards introducing stimulus-responsive behavior in these flexible, rod-like particles, we have introduced elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) motifs of isoleucine and tyrosine “guest” residues by recombinant DNA methods. Our hypothesis is that modification of the major coat capsid protein would be greatly amplified by the 2700 copies per particle. Characterization of ELP-phage particles was carried out by microbiological assays, zeta potential, dynamic light scattering, and calorimetry. Bacteria producing ELP-phage particles grow more slowly and surprisingly, ELP-modified phages display a significant reduction in viral infectivity. For the lengths of ELP inserts studied, modified phages do not aggregate from solution as monitored by DLS. However, the hydrodynamic size of the phages depends on the details of the ELP motif. Zeta potential measurements reveal the particles are electrostatically stabilized, and this contributes in part to the energetic barrier against aggregation. Preliminary calorimetric data indicate subtle thermal transitions in the range 35–45 °C, suggesting that the ELP motif may collapse without triggering macroscopic aggregation. The results are consistent with the classical picture of critical solution phenomena at low concentrations, where to drive phase separation, solvent quality must be increasingly poor. Apart from being model systems to study basic questions of self-assembly, extending these modular systems is likely to result in improved understanding and control over self-assembly in various applications.
The Delivery of Ambulatory Care to the Poor: A Literature Review

The authors review the literature on the delivery of ambulatory care to the urban poor by isolating the crucial variables affecting the supply and demand for such services and organizing the literature around these concepts. The state of health of the poor, perception of health, and cost of care are examined as factors influencing demand. Then the consequences of various policies designed to intervene in the market are considered. Since little systematic date have been collected on the costs and benefits of these programs, the authors conclude by discussing an alternative to the current system of delivering ambulatory care to the poor and raise several issues for future research.
Analytically computing the flux linked by a switched reluctance motor phase when the stator and rotor poles overlap

This paper develops an analytical model for the flux linked by a phase of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) starting with the basic laws for magnetic fields. Thus this model is not empirical nor does it require any data from the machine being modeled or any finite-element analysis results. The model is applicable to rotor positions where the stator and rotor poles overlap, and it includes iron saturation. This paper gives a detailed development of the analytical model including the approximations that are inherent to it and the justification for them. The analytical model for the flux linked by a phase is used to find the analytical equations of motion for the SRM. It is also used to obtain an analytical expression for the SRM's coenergy. Differentiating the coenergy with respect to rotor position, holding the current constant gives an analytical expression for the torque. Finally, this paper compares the analytical model's predictions to measured data from experimental machines.