cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Leading change: a patient services division's journey through the computerization and reorganization of their policies, procedures, and guidelines.

Most of us view policies, procedures, and guidelines as boring, regimented, unnecessary pieces of paper. Some, however, are required for hospitals by the Center for Medicare/Medicaid and The Joint Commission. They should be useful to bedside caregivers assisting them to provide safe quality care for patients. The purpose of this article was to discuss and present a model of change that was used by one hospital's Patient Service's division to improve their policy, procedure, and guideline system.
Abstract No. 175: Pre-Allograft Nephrectomy Embolotherapy (PNE); A Retrospective Review of Blood Loss and Transfusion Requirements

PURPOSE: Allogaft nephrectomy (AN) is a common procedure which is performed in approximately 30% of patients with allograft failure. The most common indication is immunologic rejection, but other indications include post biopsy hemorrhage, infection, thrombosis, and urologic complications. AN is technically challenging and can be associated with significant hemorrhage. The resulting transfusion requirement may lead to increased sentization; thus, future HLA matching is made more difficult. The purpose of this review is to determine if PNE decreases operative blood loss estimates and transfusion requirements during AN.
Transgastric Synthetic Mesh Migration, 9 Years after Liver Resection

Complications of synthetic mesh have been described in various hernia procedures including migration and erosion, but no previous report mentions this complication after liver resection. This case describes a patient who had undergone a left hepatic resection with mesh pledgets sutured along the cut edge of the liver. He remained complication-free until nine years later when he presented with weight loss and early satiety, and endoscopy revealed mesh within the lumen of the stomach. While still attached to the liver, the mesh had eroded into the lumen of the stomach and he ultimately required surgery to remove this. The use of synthetic mesh in hepatectomies and other abdominal procedures may require further consideration by surgeons regarding its relatively unknown tendency for migration and erosion.
Spectral analysis of tissues from patients with cancer using a portable spectroscopic diagnostic ratiometer unit

Spectral profiles of tissues from patients with breast carcinoma, malignant carcinoid and non-small cell lung carcinoma were acquired using native fluorescence spectroscopy. A novel spectroscopic ratiometer device (S 3 -LED) with selective excitation wavelengths at 280 nm and 335 nm was used to produce the emission spectra of the key biomolecules, tryptophan and NADH, in the tissue samples. In each of the samples, analysis of emission intensity peaks from biomolecules showed increased 340 nm/440 nm and 340 nm/460 nm ratios in the malignant samples compared to their paired normal samples. This most likely represented increased tryptophan to NADH ratios in the malignant tissue samples compared to their paired normal samples. Among the non-small cell lung carcinoma and breast carcinomas, it appeared that tumors of very large size or poor differentiation had an even greater increase in the 340 nm/440 nm and 340 nm/460 nm ratios. In the samples of malignant carcinoid, which is known to be a highly metabolically active tumor, a marked increase in these ratios was also seen.
A Procedure for Immobilizing Enzymes on Nylon

Abstract One widely used procedure -for immobilizing enzymes on nylon was first described by D.L. Morris, et. al. in 1975 (Biochem. J., 147, 153). This report describes the optimization of this procedure, leading to a reduction in reaction time from 20 hours to 80 minutes and concomitant increase in the activity of the open-tubular reactors by as much as a factor of four. Type 66 nylon reactors holding three different enzymes, glucose oxidase, catalase, and urease, were prepared by the modified procedure and tested in a segmented continuous flow instrument.
A Case for the Teaching of Latin to the Verbally Talented.

There is little doubt that the verbally gifted have been identified through traditional identification measures. In addition to the heavy verbal emphasis on intelligence tests, lists of characteristics of gifted populations have always included several traits that relate to high verbal ability: early reading, large vocabulary, high level reading comprehension, and verbal interests such as voracious reading on a wide variety of topics (Gold, 1962; Gallagher, 1975; Clarke, 1979). What has not occurred is a systematic study of appropriate program intervention strategies for such students, particularly at the highest levels of ability. This article argues for the inclusion of Latin as a specific verbal intervention to enhance the capabilities of talented students in vocabulary and linguistic competence in English. Furthermore, the paper will argue that the study of Latin directly addresses many of the characteristics of gifted students and meets the criteria for appropriate curriculum for them.
THE PAIN OF RACISM IN THE MAKING OF A ‘COOLIE DOCTOR’

Abstract Histories of Afro-Asian solidarity rarely dwell on intimacy, yet they tend to presume an affective reciprocity between people of African and Asian descent that has come to define postcolonial politics in its characteristically utopian form. In fact, there is every indication that the terms of endearment between African and Indian communities were strained at best across the landscapes of the decolonized and decolonizing world – and that narratives of fraternity are not the whole story of interracial contact, intimate or otherwise. This essay focuses on the life story of K. G. Naidoo (1906–99), a Tamil doctor known as Dr Goonam who treated Indian, coloured and African patients and whose practice drew her into the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Her autobiography, Coolie Doctor, is an intimate history of racial knowledge that challenges easy readings of solidarity or conflict between Indians and Africans in and around twentieth-century Durban. Goonam's text allows us to appreciate the embo...
Free transactions with Rio Vista

Transactions and recoverable memories are powerful mechanisms for handling failures and manipulating persistent data. Unfortunately, standard recoverable memories incur an overhead of several milliseconds per transaction. This paper presents a system that improves transaction overhead by a factor of 2000 for working sets that fit in main memory. Of this factor of 2000, a factor of 20 is due to the Rio file cache, which absorbs synchronous writes to disk without losing data during system crashes. The remaining factor of 100 is due to Vista, a 720-line, recoverable-memory library tailored for Rio. Vista lowers transaction overhead to 5 μsec by using no redo log, no system calls, and only one memory-to-memory copy. This drastic reduction in overhead leads to a overall speedup of 150-556x for benchmarks based on TPC-B and TPC-C.
Beyond barriers: A reply to chapey, sacchett and marshall, scherzer, and worrall

Abstract The commentaries on functional assessment are insightfd, substantiated, and often provocative. What has been provided here is a suitable forum for debate, which moves beyond barriers and advances the issues brought forth in my discussion.
Lacunarity in a best estimator of fractal dimension

Abstract A best estimator derived by Takens for estimating the dimension of a strange attractor from a discrete set of points is shown to be sensitive to lacunarity in the fractal set.
A Review on Recent Advances in Doppler Radar Sensors for Noncontact Healthcare Monitoring

This paper reviews recent advances in biomedical and healthcare applications of Doppler radar that remotely detects heartbeat and respiration of a human subject. In the last decade, new front-end architectures, baseband signal processing methods, and system-level integrations have been proposed by many researchers in this field to improve the detection accuracy and robustness. The advantages of noncontact detection have drawn interests in various applications, such as energy smart home, baby monitor, cardiopulmonary activity assessment, and tumor tracking. While many of the reported systems were bench-top prototypes for concept verification, several portable systems and integrated radar chips have been demonstrated. This paper reviews different architectures, baseband signal processing, and system implementations. Validations of this technology in a clinical environment will also be discussed.
Treatment of refractory rheumatoid arthritis with a chimeric anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody. Long-term followup of CD4+ T cell counts.

Objective To evaluate CD4+ T cell counts of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients at 18 and 30 months after treatment with a chimeric anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody (MAb), cM-T412, in a phase I trial. Methods Of the 25 RA patients who received the MAb, 23 were available for followup at 18 and 30 months. Levels of circulating CD4+ T cells were measured by flow cytometry. Results Circulating CD4+ T cell levels in these 23 RA patients remained below normal at 18 and 30 months posttreatment. More profound CD4+ T cell depletion was noted in the higher-dose groups (300 and 700 mg). Conclusion Prolonged suppression of circulating CD4+ T cells was noted both in single-infusion and multiple-infusion groups 18 and 30 months after cM-T412 treatment. The depression was more pronounced in patients who received multiple infusions of cM-T412. The prolonged decrease in CD4+ T cell numbers suggests that the capacity to reconstitute CD4+ T cells in this patient population (treated with methotrexate) is limited. One patient, who was also receiving methotrexate and prednisone, died 18 months after receiving 100 mg of cM-T412. No other significant adverse effects, in particular, no opportunistic infections, were reported in these 23 RA patients at 18 and 30 months of followup.
SnapShot: Spinal Cord Development

Hb9 Er81 Er81 Pea3 Ia propriospinals Hb9 Ils1Glutamate CA>2Cerebellum Somatosensory relayGlutamate IA>2Cerebellum Somatosensory relayGlutamate CA D>2 GABA Glycine I A>D>2INsF/E?GABA Glycine???Acetylcholine MuscleMuscleContraction of musculatureGlutamate ? ? Glutamate C A>D>2 MN, V1, V2RhythmicityGlutamate C A>D>2 MN, V1, V2Rhythmicity
Measuring the Effect of Tourism Services on Travelers’ Quality of Life: Further Validation

Neal, Sirgy and Uysal (1999) developed a model and a measure to capture the effect of tourism services on travelers’ quality of life (QOL). They hypothesized that travelers’ overall life satisfaction is derived from satisfaction with the primary life domains (e.g., family, job, health). Specifically, overall life satisfaction is derived from two sources of satisfaction, namely satisfaction with non-leisure life domains and satisfaction with leisure life. Satisfaction with leisure life is derived from satisfaction with leisure experiences that take place at home and satisfaction with travel/tourism experiences. Satisfaction with travel/tourism experiences results from satisfaction with trip reflections of the traveler (e.g., what the traveler remembers regarding perceived freedomfrom control, perceived freedom from work, involvement, arousal, mastery, and spontaneity experienced during the trip) and satisfaction with travel/tourism services. Satisfaction with travel/tourism services was hypothesized further to be derived from satisfaction with the service aspects of travel/tourism phases – pre-trip services, en-route services, destination services, and return-trip services. The model was tested using a study of university faculty and staff. The original model was extended by hypothesizing the moderation effect of length of stay. Specifically, we hypothesized that the relationshipsin the model are likely to be more evident in relation to travelers who have more time to experience the tourism services than those who do not. A survey of 815 consumers of travel/tourism services who reside in Southwest Virginia was conducted. As predicted, the data confirmed hypotheses as established in the original model. Satisfaction with tourism services affects travelers’ QOL through the mediating effects of satisfaction with travel/tourism experiences, and satisfaction with leisure life. Furthermore, the moderating effect of length of stay was confirmed by the data. In sum, this replication and extension study provided additional validational support of the original tourism services satisfaction measure in relation to QOL-related measures.
The Effect of Hydrophobic Match on Transmembrane Protein Raft Affinity

It is believed that lipid rafts control protein-protein and lipid-protein interactions within cell membranes. However, how transmembrane (TM) proteins associate with rafts remains poorly understood. One proposed mechanism is that hydrophobic match/mismatch drives TM proteins into or out of rafts. We tested this hypothesis using perfringolysin O (PFO), a member of the cholesterol-dependent cytolysin family. Upon interaction with cholesterol, PFO inserts into membranes and forms a rigid TM beta-barrel. PFO interacts with rafts, so is a useful model protein to study the origin of TM protein raft affinity. PFO mutants with different length TM segments were generated with each β-strand in each of the two TM β-hairpins lengthened (l -PFO) or shortened (s-PFO) by two residues. Similar to wildtype PFO, these mutants showed cholesterol-dependent membrane binding and pore-formation activities, although with somewhat different properties. A pore detection assay carried out to determine if the pore-forming efficiency of PFO mutants was correlated to membrane width found that l-PFO shows higher pore formation activity in vesicles with thicker bilayers than did s-PFO. Microscopy studies in giant unilamellar vesicles confirmed that both PFO mutants could bind to vesicles with co-existing Lo/Ld domains: l-PFO tends to locate within thick Lo domains, while s-PFO appears at thin Ld domains. Energy transfer (FRET) experiments were also used to compare the raft affinity of wildtype and mutated PFO in vesicles containing ordered domains. Preliminary studies indicate in cholesterol-containing vesicles having wide Lo domains (distearoylphosphatidylcholine) and thin Ld domains (dimyristoleoylphosphatidylcholine), l-PFO showed higher raft affinity, whereas s-PFO shows little raft affinity. The raft affinity of l-PFO and s-PFO was reversed in vesicles containing thinner Lo domains (dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine/dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine) and thick Ld domains (dieicosenoylphosphatidylcholine). These studies suggest that hydrophobic match may have an important role in TM protein raft affinity.
An interactive graphical system for automated mapping and display of cardiac rhythms

Electrical cardiac mapping has been used to study the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias, to assist in clinical diagnosis of rhythm disorders, to guide interventional procedures, or to evaluate the effects of antiarrhythmic drugs. Manual determination of local activation times, the first step in constructing activation maps, is a time-consuming process that precludes the possibility of on-line interactive mapping during an electrophysiologic experiment or a clinical procedure. This report describes an interactive graphic user interface application that (1) automatically determines the activation sequences with good accuracy, (2) displays graphical presentations of activation maps within seconds, and (3) allows manual interactive adjustments. Five automated activation time detection algorithms, one for bipolar electrograms and four for unipolar electrograms, were evaluated and compared. High-density canine recordings were used to evaluate the accuracy of the system. Data included normal atrial activation (sinus rhythm) and abnormal reentrant atrial activation (atrial flutter).
Small Capitalization Companies: What Does Financial Analysis Tell Us about Them?

The study considers a broad range of accounting information and ratios for a group of small and large companies from 1965 through 1980. It seeks to answer the following questions: Are the financial ratios of small companies significantly different from those of larger companies? Are these differences commensurate with relative stock market performance? What are the implications for investors who may wish to invest in small companies, either individually or through mutual funds specializing in the stock of small companies?
ICU and Hospital Wide Improved Patient Outcome Following Critical Care Based Interventions To Eliminate Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections

ISSUE: Henry Ford Hospital, a 903 academic medical center in Detroit Michigan, experienced a marked increase in blood stream infections (BSI) in 2003. Addressing the BSI increase, required the involvement of a Henry Ford hospital multidisciplinary team that included administration (senior vice-president), physicians (surgery, medicine, anesthesia, interventional radiology, and emergency medicine), senior nursing representation, senior system analyst, and infection control practitioners.
Automated finite element analysis support for internet-based mass customisation

Mass customisation is achieved by designing a family of products built around common platforms and addition/deletion of optional components to the platform. Designing a family of products requires analysis and evaluation of performance of the entire product family. In the past, products were mainly mass-produced. Hence, the use of CAD/CAE was restricted to developing and analysing individual products. To assist in customisation of products according to the customer's needs, CAD/CAE tools need to be explored further. In this paper, we investigate the development of an internet-based Mass Customization FEA (MCFEA) module to support automated analysis of user-customised products. Customer scaling and configuration specifications for family members are gathered using the internet. These specifications are then used to automatically generate 3D solid models of the product and then perform FEA to determine the feasibility of the customer-specified product. Development of the MCFEA module is illustrated using a family of bicycle frames.
Pagurodofleinia, a replacement generic name for Dofleinia McLaughlin & Asakura, 2004 (Crustacea: Decapoda), preoccupied by Dofleinia Wassilieff, 1908 (Cnidaria: Anthozoa)

It has been called to my attention that the generic name Dofleinia , established by McLaughlin and Asakura (2004) for Parapagurodes doederleini (Doflein, 1902), is a junior subjective homonym of Dofleinia Wassilieff, 1908 (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniidae). In accordance with Article 60 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999), I now propose Pagurodofleinia as a replacement name. The type species, Catapagurus doederleini Doflein, 1902, the gender (feminine), and the etymology (named for F. Doflein who first described the type species) remain as given by McLaughlin & Asakura (2004), as does the generic diagnosis.
Rapid one-solution differential staining with textile dyes: Pontacyl dark green B and Pontamine fast scarlet 4BA.

Nine textile dyes were evaluated as histological stains for benign and malignant tissues. A single solution of 2% Pontacyl dark green B (Acid Green 20, C. I. 20495), 20 ml; 4% Pontamine fast scarlet 4BA (Direct Red 72, C. I. 29200), 40 ml; 2% chrome alum, K2Cr (SO4)2·12 H2O, 40 ml, which was acidified with 4 ml of 2 N HCl to a pH of approximately zero, stained tissues differentially and intensely in 2 min. Pontamine fast scarlet 4BA was found to have great affinity for epithelial intercellular bridges which were noted in the benign tissue sections but not in the basal and squamous cell carcinomas. Pontacyl dark green B stained both the nucleus and nucleolus of all tissues.
Penalized-likelihood sinogram smoothing for low-dose CT

We have developed a sinogram smoothing approach for low-dose computed tomography (CT) that seeks to estimate the line integrals needed for reconstruction from the noisy measurements by maximizing a penalized-likelihood objective function. The maximization is performed by an algorithm derived by use of the separable paraboloidal surrogates framework. The approach overcomes some of the computational limitations of a previously proposed spline-based penalized-likelihood sinogram smoothing approach, and it is found to yield better resolution-variance tradeoffs than this spline-based approach as well an existing adaptive filtering approach. Such sinogram smoothing approaches could be valuable when applied to the low-dose data acquired in CT screening exams, such as those being considered for lung-nodule detection.
A finite deformation thermomechanical constitutive model for triple shape polymeric composites based on dual thermal transitions

Abstract Shape memory polymers (SMPs) have gained strong research interests recently due to their mechanical action that exploits their capability to fix temporary shapes and recover their permanent shape in response to an environmental stimulus such as heat, electricity, irradiation, moisture or magnetic field, among others. Along with interests in conventional “dual-shape” SMPs that can recover from one temporary shape to the permanent shape, multi-shape SMPs that can fix more than one temporary shapes and recover sequentially from one temporary shape to another and eventually to the permanent shape, have started to attract increasing attention. Two approaches have been used to achieve multi-shape shape memory effects (m-SMEs). The first approach uses polymers with a wide thermal transition temperature whilst the second method employs multiple thermal transition temperatures, most notably, uses two distinct thermal transition temperatures to obtain triple-shape memory effects (t-SMEs). Recently, one of the authors’ group reported a triple-shape polymeric composite (TSPC), which is composed of an amorphous SMP matrix (epoxy), providing the system the rubber-glass transition to fix one temporary shape, and an interpenetrating crystallizable fiber network (PCL) providing the system the melt-crystal transition to fix the other temporary shape. A one-dimensional (1D) material model developed by the authors revealed the underlying shape memory mechanism of shape memory behaviors due to dual thermal transitions. In this paper, a three-dimension (3D) finite deformation thermomechanical constitutive model is presented to enable the simulations of t-SME under more complicated deformation conditions. Simple experiments, such as uniaxial tensions, thermal expansions and stress relaxation tests were carried out to identify parameters used in the model. Using an implemented user material subroutine (UMAT), the constitutive model successfully reproduced different types of shape memory behaviors exhibited in experiments designed for shape memory behaviors. Stress distribution analyses were performed to analyze the stress distribution during those different shape memory behaviors. The model was also able to simulate complicated applications, such as a twisted sheet and a folded stick, to demonstrate t-SME.
Design of ceramic-capacitor VRM's with estimated load current feedforward

For voltage regulator module (VRM) designs with ceramic output capacitors, the capacitor size has to be chosen sufficiently large to allow for the use of relatively large inductor values. This enables operation at conventional switching frequencies, while meeting load transient response specifications. Due to the small effective series resistance (ESR) time constant of ceramic capacitors, this may result in designs with output capacitor ESR substantially lower than the desired output impedance. This is in contrast to conventional VRM implementations with electrolytic capacitors, where the desired output impedance is closely related to the output capacitor ESR. In ceramic capacitor designs with conventional feedback control, the required loop bandwidth is inversely proportional to the output capacitor size. The feedback bandwidth is limited by stability constraints linked to the switching frequency. The use of load current feedforward can extend the useful bandwidth beyond the limits imposed by feedback stability constraints. Load current feedforward is used to handle the bulk of the regulation action, while feedback is used only to compensate for imperfections of the feedforward and to ensure tight DC regulation. An experimental converter demonstrates tighter output regulation with estimated load current feedforward, than with pure feedback control.
Advanced vector polarization shaping and applications of ultrafast laser pulses

We demonstrate complete control over the polarization, phase and amplitude state of an ultrafast laser pulse using a single, linear spatial light modulator. Characterization and applications of vector pulse shaping will also be discussed.
Safety and Efficacy of Daptomycin in the Treatment of Gram-Positive Pathogens

Daptomycin is an antibacterial agent with activity against Gram-positive organisms and is a reliable option for the treatment of invasive Gram-positive infections. Daptomycin has been approved for the treatment of complicated skin and skin-structure infections and bacteremia including right-sided endocarditis. In methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia and endocarditis, it has been shown to be noninferior to conventional treatment with vancomycin with or without an aminoglycoside. It has also been used successfully in the treatment of soft-tissue infections. Little experience is available on the treatment of bone and joint infections, although initial data are encouraging. Daptomycin has rapid bactericidal activity that is associated with its unique mechanism of action on the cell membrane. It has favorable pharmacokinetic properties allowing once-daily dosing. Toxicity is rare with currently recommended dosing. With the rising antimicrobial resistance in Gram-positive infections, the use of daptomycin is expected to increase in the following years. However, as a consequence of its increased use, daptomycin resistance may emerge as a significant problem. The current data suggest that daptomycin has a relevant role in the therapeutic armamentarium of physicians for the treatment of Gram-positive infections.
Coming in from the Cold: Constructivism and Emotions

A variety of constructivists have begun to address emotions in IR, viewing emotional events and memories as important dimensions to the social construction of identity. But it is not clear that constructivist tools, designed in most cases for interpreting discursive representations, are equipped to study affective phenomena. This article offers a critical assessment of constructivism’s ability to theorize affects — nonconscious and embodied emotional states — in global politics. Using as an example the ontology developed by Alexander Wendt, the article suggests that common presuppositions in orthodox constructivism in fact obstruct the study of affect and its role in social and political life. To grasp the depth, intensity, and fugitivity of emotional phenomena, constructivism needs to rethink its attachments to reflective agency, ideational processes, and symbolic meaning. Through a brief discussion of the American response to 9/11, the final section develops several propositions on the role of affect in forging political identities.
A rotation‐free quadrilateral thin shell subdivision finite element

We present a rotation-free, subdivision-based, isoparametric quadrilateral finite element for the analysis of doubly-curved thin shells. The element is a generalization of spline-based C1 finite elements to curved domains, and general mesh connectivity. It uses semi-local basis functions that span the two-neighbourhood of a node. The traditional difficulty with this class of elements comes from the fact that these basis functions depend on the valence of the nodes of the element. For elements with 4-valence nodes the basis functions are bicubic polynomials, but there are no simple closed-form expressions for them when the nodes have general connectivity patterns. In the paper, we show how the basis functions for the general case may be efficiently evaluated as linear combinations of translation and scaling transformations of the bicubic polynomials. The performance of the resulting element is illustrated on a hemispherical shell model problem. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The potential of agrivoltaic systems

Abstract In order to meet global energy demands with clean renewable energy such as with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, large surface areas are needed because of the relatively diffuse nature of solar energy. Much of this demand can be matched with aggressive building integrated PV and rooftop PV, but the remainder can be met with land-based PV farms. Using large tracts of land for solar farms will increase competition for land resources as food production demand and energy demand are both growing and vie for the limited land resources. This land competition is exacerbated by the increasing population. These coupled land challenges can be ameliorated using the concept of agrivoltaics or co-developing the same area of land for both solar PV power as well as for conventional agriculture. In this paper, the agrivoltaic experiments to date are reviewed and summarized. A coupled simulation model is developed for both PV production (PVSyst) and agricultural production (Simulateur mulTIdisciplinaire les Cultures Standard (STICS) crop model), to gauge the technical potential of scaling agrivoltaic systems. The results showed that the value of solar generated electricity coupled to shade-tolerant crop production created an over 30% increase in economic value from farms deploying agrivoltaic systems instead of conventional agriculture. Utilizing shade tolerant crops enables crop yield losses to be minimized and thus maintain crop price stability. In addition, this dual use of agricultural land can have a significant effect on national PV production. The results showed an increase in PV power between over 40 and 70 GW if lettuce cultivation alone is converted to agrivoltaic systems in the U.S. It is clear, further work is warranted in this area and that the outputs for different crops and geographic areas should be explored to ascertain the potential of agrivoltaic farming throughout the globe.
Canopy air temperatures and evapotranspiration from irrigated and stressed soybeans

Abstract Soil-water stress as it affects the plant-water status and crop production is becoming increasingly important. When soil-water stress is severe, partial closure of the stomates causes a repartitioning of the incident energy, often resulting in increased temperatures. The effect of soil-water stress on air temperatures within a soybean canopy was studied and the increased air temperatures related to decreased evapotranspiration and plant-water stress. One treatment of soybeans was trickle-irrigated when the matric potential at the 15-cm depth was equal to −0.2 bar. Air-temperature profiles were measured in both irrigated and nonirrigated field-grown soybeans, using calibrated thermistors. Evapotranspiration was measured using a portable chamber. Plant-water status was evaluated indirectly through the use of LVDT's (linear variable displacement transducers). The measured stem-diameter changes were related to the air temperature differences in the irrigated and nonirrigated canopies. The data showed as soil-water stress became more severe, canopy air temperatures within nonirrigated soybeans increased above those within the irrigated soybean canopy. The above-canopy minus the within-canopy temperature difference between the irrigated and nonirrigated plots increased during peak radiation with little difference at night. When the plant-wilt symptoms indicated severe stress, evapotranspiration decreased 40–70% when within-canopy air temperatures increased. This increase in the canopy air temperature was related to stem-diameter shrinkage and may be an indirect measure of the plant-water status under field conditions.
Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor use in cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE:To conduct a retrospective drug utilization evaluation comparing the use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) at a university medical center with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) CSFs Practice Guidelines.METHODS:Patients who received G-CSF from June 1, 1996, to December 31, 1996, were identified through the pharmacy computer system and the medical records were reviewed for a randomly selected sample of 26% of the 289 patients identified. Outpatient, inpatient, and electronic medical records were reviewed for the indication, dosage, day of initiation, day of discontinuation, and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) monitoring plan for each course of G-CSF; these records were subsequently compared with the ASCO guidelines.RESULTS:The use of G-CSF after chemotherapy was evaluated in 51 patients who received a total of 182 courses of G-CSF. The goal of chemotherapy was curative in 61% of courses. Sixty-five percent of G-CSF courses were prescribed for primary prophylaxis. Of t...
GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century . By Robert J. Steinfeld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xi, 329. $59.95, cloth; $22.95, paper.

Published in 1991, Robert J. Steinfeld's The Invention of Free Labor was something of a milestone in the relationship between the fields of legal and economic history. Through a detailed comparative study of employment law in England and America across several centuries, Invention showed that meaning of â€œfree laborâ€ was by no means self-evident to historical players. The clearest evidence for this proposition is that law and practice were very different in two self-proclaimed free-labor societies, England and the U.S. North. In England criminal prosecutions for breach of employment were common until 1875, whereas they had all but disappeared in America by the time of the Revolution. Beyond its substantive conclusions, Invention was noteworthy as a rare example of legal history that looked to empirical evidence from outside the courtroom in an effort to understand the law in historical context.
Identification of single units in multi-unit recordings from peripheral nerves

The authors are developing a computer-based method for identifying individual action potentials in multiunit peripheral nerve recordings. Threshold-level, sinusoidal stimuli are used to elicit phase-locked activity from single units. These action potentials are digitized, and a template is constructed using various waveform parameters. Once templates have been generated for all the units, the program is used in a sorting mode in which action potentials are detected and digitized, and parameter values are measured and compared to the template values. The output of the program is an indication of the instantaneous firing rate of each identified unit as a function of time. In principle, the sorting could be done online in real time. >
Cross-cultural analysis of migration rates: effects of geographic distance and population size.

A model is developed that treats migration rates among populations as a function of the geographic distance between them and the size of both sources and recipient population....Methods of parameter estimation and hypothesis testing using maximum likelihood are outlined. These methods are applied to migration matrix data from 13 samples obtained from the literature representing a wide range of ecological settings. All samples show a significant effect of geographic distance on migration and all but one show a significant effect of differential population size. All but one sample show an overall tendency for migration to be negative density-dependent; that is the relative migration rate is greater from larger populations to smaller populations than the reverse. (EXCERPT)
Type checking concurrent I/O

In parallel programming languages multityped data structures may be shared by two or more processes. Process I/O to these structures is assumed to be physically interleaved but logically parallel. This article addresses a syntactic mechanism to specify a type for such structures and extends an example language and its type-checking algorithm to these structures.
Motion planning using binary space partitioning

This work explores a method for path planning for a robot in an environment that consists of stationary and moving obstacles. The technique uses binary partitioning of the environment by the obstacles to establish and analyze the spatial relationship between robot and obstacles. Hyperplanes are used to obtain recursively a disjoint set of D-dimensional cells, with each cell designated as belonging to either the interior or the exterior of the set. An overt idea of binary space partitioning as a representation of polytopes is given. Thus, the space-time configuration of free space is viewed as disjoint polytopes; each point in space-time is considered a map into a unique polytope. A traversal of the tree is used to obtain a linear order which gives the collision probability with the environment. Adjacent polytopes between the start and goal polytopes are then utilized to obtain a trajectory. Current implementation for a 2D static environment is discussed. >
Rift Valley fever virus clearance and protection from neurologic disease are dependent on CD4+ T cell and virus-specific antibody responses

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) causes outbreaks of severe disease in people and livestock throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Human RVFV infections generally manifest as a self-limiting febrile illness, but in some individuals, the disease can progress to a fatal encephalitis or hemorrhagic syndrome. Little is known about the host characteristics that predispose development of more severe disease. Early in infection, interferon-mediated antiviral responses are critical for controlling RVFV replication, but the roles of downstream adaptive immune responses in determining clinical outcome have not been examined. Here, using a C57BL/6 mouse disease model, we evaluated the roles of B cells and T cells in RVFV pathogenesis. Given the profound inhibition of the innate response by the viral NSs protein and rapid course of wild-type infection, we utilized an attenuated RVFV lacking NSs to examine host responses following primary infection. Experiments utilizing B-cell-deficient mice or targeted T cell depletions of wild-type mice demonstrated that B cells and CD4(+) T cells, but not CD8(+) T cells, were critical for mediating viral clearance, even in the presence of a functional innate response. One-third of CD4-depleted mice developed severe neurologic disease following infection, in contrast to virus-infected mock-depleted mice that showed no clinical signs. CD4(+) T cells were required for robust IgG and neutralizing antibody responses that correlated with RVFV clearance from peripheral tissues. Furthermore, CD4-depleted mice demonstrated significantly stronger proinflammatory responses relative to controls, suggesting CD4(+) T cells regulate immune responses to RVFV infection. Together, these results indicate CD4(+) T cells are critical determinants of RVFV pathogenesis and play an important role in preventing onset of neurologic disease.
Theorizing Criminal Justice Evaluation and Research

Theories of the criminal justice process continue to develop and mature, as do theories of crime; however, less need has been perceived for theory in evidence-based policy evaluations. The authors ...
Research during fellowship: walking the tight rope.

“The practical man is the adventurer, the investigator, the believer in research, the asker of questions; the man who refuses to believe that perfection has been attained…. It is always safe to assume, not that the old way is wrong, but that there may be a better way.” —Henry R.
Creep Behavior of Cation Solid Solution Alloys

Recently, it has been observed that the creep behavior of alkali halide solid solution alloys which exhibit complete solid solubility is similar to that observed in metallic solid solution alloys.1, 2 For example, the following characteristics were observed in the KCl-NaCl and KCl-RbCl systems: i) the alloys exhibited a reduced primary stage compared to the pure components, ii) the stress exponent for the alloys was close to 3 compared to 5 for the pure components, iii) the creep transient after a stress reduction for the alloys was faster than the steady-state creep rate at the reduced stress whereas, the creep rate after a stress reduction for the pure components was initially slower than the steady-state creep rate at the reduced stress and iv) the rate-controlling creep mechanism was viscous dislocation glide for the alloys versus dislocation climb for the pure components. The KCl-NaCl and KCl-RbCl systems previously investigated are anion solid solution alloys. For the case of alkali halides it is also possible to form cation solid solution alloys, for example, KCl-KBr, as well. This allows for an opportunity to observe if cation alkali halide solid solution alloys also exhibit characteristics similar to those manifested by metallic and anion alkali halide solid solution alloys.
The Moderating Influence of Political Involvement on Voters' Attitudes toward Attack Ads

The purpose of this study was to determine whether voters' attitudes toward political ads are moderated by their level of political involvement. Two studies were conducted, both during national and state elections. The results were consistent. Low-involvement voters view political ads in general, and negative "attack" ads in particular, more favorably than do individuals who are highly involved with politics. In contrast, voters who are highly involved with politics are more skeptical of political ads, even those that promote their preferred candidate. As a result, among high-involvement individuals, the use of attack ads might be counterproductive.
Parameter identification for systems with redundant actuators

Many current and future aircraft axe open-loop unstable, and have many control surfaces. When some of these control surfaces are damaged, the remaining control surfaces may still be capable of controlling the aircraft, if the controller is reconfigured quickly enough.
Physiological Bone Remodeling: Systemic Regulation and Growth Factor Involvement

Bone remodeling is essential for adult bone homeostasis. It comprises two phases: bone formation and resorption. The balance between the two phases is crucial for sustaining bone mass and systemic mineral homeostasis. This review highlights recent work on physiological bone remodeling and discusses our knowledge of how systemic and growth factors regulate this process.
Further Development of the FFT-based Method for Atomistic Modeling of Protein Folding and Binding under Crowding: Optimization of Accuracy and Speed

Recently, we (Qin, S.; Zhou, H. X. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2013, 9, 4633–4643) developed the FFT-based method for Modeling Atomistic Proteins–crowder interactions, henceforth FMAP. Given its potential wide use for calculating effects of crowding on protein folding and binding free energies, here we aimed to optimize the accuracy and speed of FMAP. FMAP is based on expressing protein–crowder interactions as correlation functions and evaluating the latter via fast Fourier transform (FFT). The numerical accuracy of FFT improves as the grid spacing for discretizing space is reduced, but at increasing computational cost. We sought to speed up FMAP calculations by using a relatively coarse grid spacing of 0.6 A and then correcting for discretization errors. This strategy was tested for different types of interactions (hard-core repulsion, nonpolar attraction, and electrostatic interaction) and over a wide range of protein–crowder systems. We were able to correct for the numerical errors on hard-core repulsion a...
Chlorpyrifos-methyl: Doses that Protect Hard Winter Wheat Against Attack by Stored-Grain Insects

Chlorpyrifos-methyl was applied to cleaned, hard winter wheat as a water emulsion at doses ranging from 1–10 ppm AI. The effectiveness of residues in samples withdrawn at intervals during a 12-mo storage showed that initial applications of 3 or more ppm AI controlled rice weevils, Sitophilus oryzae (L.), granary weevils, S. granarius (L.), and maize weevils, S. zeamaiz Motschul-sky. In contrast, a dose as high as 8 ppm was required to kill ca. 90% of the lesser grain borers, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), 83% of the confused flour beetles, Tribolium confusum , Jacquelin duVal, and 98% of the red flour beetles, T. castaneum , (Herbst) 12 mo after application.
Understanding the Dysfunction of Na+/K+-ATPase in Rapid-Onset Dystonia Parkinsonism and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

The Na+/K+-ATPase is a membrane bound P-type ATPase that exchanges Na+ and K+ ions across the plasma membrane in expense of ATP hydrolysis. It maintains for electrical excitability, neurotransmitter transport, volume regulation, and other vital cellular functions. The four isoforms of the Na+/K+-ATPase α-subunit have a cell-specific and developmentally regulated expression pattern. There are different isoforms of the Na+/K+-ATPase expressed in neurons and glial cells. Alterations of Na+/K+-ATPase activity due to global loss or isoform specific mutational effect are evident in different neurological disorders. Mutations in the ATP1A3 gene which encodes Na+/K+-ATPase α3 subunits, cause Rapid-Onset of Dystonia Parkinsonism (RDP), a rare movement disorder characterized by sudden onset of dystonic spasms and slowness of movement. It is evident that Na+/K+-ATPase α2 subunits are upregulated in spinal cord of sporadic and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. The α2-Na+/K+-ATPases are also enriched in astrocytes expressing mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), which causes familial ALS. Here we focused to understand the physiological and molecular fundamentals associated with dysfunction of Na+/K+-ATPase in RDP and ALS.
Overcoming limitations of FRET measurements.

Keywords: fluorescence; Forster resonance energy transfer; FRET; microscopy; spectroscopy; imaging; spectral imaging; lifetime; FLIM
Rewarding Innovation with Patent-Buyout Options

When the difficulty of a research and development problem is uncertain and the quality of the technology produced is nonverifiable, simple prize mechanisms are likely to be ineffective and inefficient. In this setting, prize administrators may want to use an incomplete contracting approach, specifying ex ante a set of partial patent-buyout (or licensing) offers that may be made to the innovator ex post. Because the terms of licensing agreements are verifiable and a prize administrator’s willingness to make such offers depends on the quality of the new technology, this approach may help to address the difficulties involved in specifying criteria for a prize award. A second advantage of this approach is to limit the award of prizes to situations where they are needed; an innovator who can appropriate a large return on R&D investment by virtue of a patent will be less willing to give up part of that intellectual property right in exchange for a prize. Optimal mechanisms are found to elicit the same quality technology from the most productive innovators as from moderately productive ones, highlighting the importance of designing prize mechanisms to promote sequential innovation, especially by ensuring that knowledge generated by earlier efforts is widely disseminated and that intellectual property protection of first-generation technologies does not impede the commercialization of follow-on innovations of substantially higher quality.
The Technology of Power Line Communication in Home Control Networ

An integrated chip ST7536 is introduced, by which signal transmission over low voltage electric power lines can be implemented. A method is presented to design the home control network based on the chip. Designs of software and hardware are illustrated particularly. It is proved available through applications.