cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Three-Level Intervention Pedagogy to Enhance the Academic Achievement of Indigenous Students: Evidence from QuickSmart

Indigenous students in the middle-school years experiencing difficulties in basic mathematics are a particularly vulnerable group. During these years gaps in performance between educationally disadvantaged students and their peers widen, potentially leading to ongoing economic and social disadvantage. This chapter reports on a teaching intervention referred to as QuickSmart, which has been particularly successful with Indigenous students who perform in the bottom 30 % of the achievement spectrum in Australia-wide tests. QuickSmart has been used in Australian schools since 2001. The pedagogical approach that underpins this numeracy program can be considered at three levels. The first is as an instructional program that withdraws pairs of students from their classroom instruction for three 30-min periods each week for a 30-week period. The second level constitutes pedagogical themes that are important within QuickSmart lessons. For example, the instruction offered in QuickSmart lessons builds on the pre-existing knowledge and understandings of students in order to encourage their self-belief through successful learning experiences and by focusing on what are considered foundational skills in mathematics. This approach is very suited to enhancing the learning of many Indigenous students. The third level of pedagogical emphasis relates to the benefits that flow from recruiting Indigenous teacher assistants as instructors and examining their involvement in the associated professional learning program. This chapter concludes with evidence drawn from the learning progress of Indigenous middle-school students who completed the QuickSmart numeracy program. These data show, based on effect-size statistics, cognitive growth for students of up to 2 years over the course of a 30-week program.
Musical Structure of the Internal Neural Language of the Brain: Using Music as the Rosetta Stone to Help Decode this Internal Language

This chapter presents concepts to decode the internal cortical language for higher brain function. It discusses mainly ideas and research to be done, along with some preliminary results. There are many possible mappings for the cortical data onto music. Since Mark's analysis involved data from one electrode, it seemed reasonable to use a simple music contour mapping for each time bin. The musical analogies might provide a crucial link between the trion model of higher brain function and the nature of music in higher cortex function. The analogies represent standard relationships found in different western musical styles and genres, for example, in classical music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A further analogy with music came from examining the temporal rotations of the symmetric family. Furthermore, decoding the neural language of higher brain function is not simply a straightforward matter of systematically examining various possibilities. The brain is far too complicated for such an unimaginative approach. It is suggested that qualitative musical mapping of the SAC data (MSAC) approach can add a very useful component to the arsenal of approaches, which would include quantitative symmetric analysis of cortical data (SAC) analysis.
Digital Monitoring, Estimation and Control of Emulsion Copolymerization

The application of Kalman filtering theory to address the problem of composition control in emulsion copolymerization is investigated. Two different filter designs were implemented carrying out standard state and noise-adaptive state estimation. Satisfactory digital monitoring of the process was obtained with both schemes. The filter estimates were utilized by a deterministic controller regulating the monomer addition rates of the two monomers into a reactor operating in semicontinuous fashion. The quality control strategy was based on a model developed for the vinyl acetate (VAc)/ butyl acrylate (BuA) comonomer system. Real-time experiments demonstrated the efficiency of the approach to minimize drastically the compositional drift.
Notes on the Financial Crisis and Bailout of 2008

This paper provides an overview of the financial crisis of 2008 and the public policies adopted to address the crisis within the United States.The first half of the paper suggests that the crisis was not a complete surprise, but reflects mistakes in regulations and other policies in the past decade or so, especially with respect to housing and financial markets. The second half of the paper analyzes the effects and efficacy of the polices adopted in the last few months to address the financial crisis.Although the paper is still in "note form" it provides a useful overview of the problems and efforts to ameliorate the problem that are not otherwise available to the best of my knowledge.An executive summary appears at the end of the notes.
The enzymatic phosphorylation of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid. II. Further properties of the 5'-hydroxyl polynucleotide kinase.

The specificity of the enzyme purified from T2-infected Escherichia coli which catalyzes the phosphorylation of 5'-hydroxyl ends of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid has been examined. The enzyme also catalyzes the phosphorylation of 5'-hydroxyl groups of polynucleotides as well as 3'-mononucleotides. There is no detectable phosphorylation of nucleosides and adenosine 2'-phosphate is virtually inactive as a phosphate acceptor. The enzyme is also capable of using guanosine, cytidine, and uridine triphosphates as well as adenosine triphosphate as the phosphorylating agent. The enzyme catalyzes the quantitative phosphorylation of available 5'-hydroxyl groups occurring in a variety of different DNA preparations. When used in conjunction with alkaline phosphatase, the enzymatic phosphorylation of DNA measures the total amount of 5'-hydroxyl and 5'-phosphate ends present in DNA. The 5'-hydroxyl polynucleotide kinase was used to measure the amount of 5'-hydroxyl ends formed in DNA degraded by sonic oscillation and alkali and heat denaturation. In all of the cases, virtually no additional 5'-hydroxyl groups were formed. The 5'-hydroxyl kinase has also been detected in nuclei of rat liver and the activity partially characterized.
Bispectrality of KP Solitons

It is by now well known that the wave functions of rational solutions to the KP hierarchy (those which can be achieved as limits of the pure n-soliton solutions) satisfy an additional eigenvalue equation for ordinary differential operators in the spectral parameter. This property is known as ``bispectrality'' and has proved to be both interesting and useful. In this note, it is shown that certain (non-rational) soliton solutions of the KP hierarchy satisfy an eigenvalue equation for a non-local operator constructed by composing ordinary differential operators in the spectral parameter with translation operators in the spectral parameter, and therefore have a form of bispectrality as well. Considering the results relating ordinary bispectrality to the self-duality of the rational Calogero-Moser particle system, it seems likely that this new form of bispectrality should be related to the duality of the Ruijsenaars system.
Paramutation in evolution, population genetics and breeding

Paramutation is a fascinating phenomenon in which directed allelic interactions result in heritable changes in the state of an allele. Paramutation has been carefully characterized at a handful of loci but the prevalence of paramutable/paramutagenic alleles is not well characterized within genomes or populations. In order to consider the role of paramutation in evolutionary processes and plant breeding, we focused on several questions. First, what causes certain alleles to become subject to paramutation? While paramutation clearly involves epigenetic regulation it is also true that only certain alleles defined by genetic sequences are able to participate in paramutation. Second, what is the prevalence of paramutation? There are only a handful of well-documented examples of paramutation. However, there is growing evidence that many loci may undergo changes in chromatin state or expression that are similar to changes observed as a result of paramutation. Third, how will paramutation events be inherited in natural or artificial populations? Many factors, including stability of epigenetic state, mating style and ploidy, may influence the prevalence of paramutation states within populations. Developing a clear understanding of the mechanisms and frequency of paramutation in crop plant genomes will facilitate new opportunities in genetic manipulation, and will also enhance plant breeding programs and our understanding of genome evolution.
Neuronal Dysfunction and Medical Therapy in Heart Failure: Can an Imaging Biomarker Help to “Personalize” Therapy?

123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) imaging is a tool for evaluating one of the fundamental pathophysiologic abnormalities seen in heart failure (HF), that of an upregulated sympathetic nervous system and its effect on the myocardium. Although this imaging technique offers information about prognosis for patients treated with contemporary guideline-based HF therapies and improves risk stratification, there are neither rigorous nor sufficient outcome data to suggest that this imaging tool can guide therapeutic decision making or better target subsets of patients with HF for particular therapies.
Beyond the Scanned Image: A Needs Assessment of Scholarly Users of Digital Collections

This paper presents an analysis of how humanities scholars use digital collections in their research and the ways in which digital collections could be enhanced for scholarly use. The authors surveyed and interviewed humanities faculty from twelve research universities about their research practices with digital collections and present analysis of the resulting responses. The paper also analyzes a sample of qualitative responses from the Bamboo Technology Project’s workshops with faculty, librarians, and technologists about the use and functionalities of digital materials for humanities research. This paper synthesizes these data analyses to propose the critical need for interoperability and data curation in digital collections to increase their scholarly use, and the importance of user engagement in development of digital collections.
"Mariposa de obsidiana": una poética surrealista de Octavio Paz

En este trabajo se senalan algunos aspectos especificos del dinamismo imaginativo de "Mariposa de obsidiana", poema en prosa que bien puede considerarse una poetica surrealista de Paz. Se trata de su primera publicacion en una revista surrealista: el Almanach surealiste du demi-siecle, preparado por Breton y Benjamin Peret. Se muestra como, en dos paginas, el poema de Paza condensa nociones claves de su escritura del medio siglo: la busqueda de vestigios de la otredad en lo legendario azteca, el encadenamiento de imagenes incongruentes que emanan de estados oniricos y la supremacia de la comunion erotica para restablecer un equilibrio cosmico, nostalgia utopica que fertiliza toda la obra poetica del escritor mexicano.
Tienen ventajas cognitivas los bilingües sobre los monolingües

Desde comienzos del s. XIX hasta aproximadamente los anos 60, se creia entre los investigadores que el bilingiusmo resultaba perjudicial para el pensamiento, ya que provocaba la reduccion por la mitad no solo del desarrollo intelectual sino tambien del espiritual. Esta ideologia se ha extendido ampliamente en los EEUU en el s. XX: el bilinguismo trae consigo mas desventajas que beneficios en terminos de cognicion. El bilinguismo se presenta como una carga sobre el cerebro, provocando confusion mental, inhibicion de la lengua mayoritaria, e incluso division de la personalidad.
Thalamocortical afferents of Lorente de Nó: medial geniculate axons that project to primary auditory cortex have collateral branches to layer I

The injection of anterograde tracers into the ventral division of the medial geniculate body (MGV) of both rats and rabbits labels terminal axons in layer I of auditory cortex as well as the more conventional terminal arbors in layers III/IV. Whether these layer I projections represent a separate lemniscal pathway to the molecular layer or arise as collaterals of axons terminating in III/IV has not been addressed. Focal injections of the anterograde tracers biocytin or biotinylated dextran amine were made into the MGV of young rabbits. Serial section reconstruction of single MGV axons in auditory cortex revealed that layer I axons were collaterals of thalamocortical afferents that formed multiple divergent patches within III/IV. MGV collaterals to layer I often coursed tangentially for several millimeters before terminating. In some cases, the layer I collaterals descended to arborize within a thalamocortical patch in layers III/IV. These results suggest considerable radial and tangential divergence in the auditory thalamocortical pathway and argue for an expanded role for layer I in the processing of specific sensory stimuli.
A comparison of the traditional Chinese versus transpositional zangfu organ association acupoint locations in the horse.

The traditional Chinese (TC) and transpositional (TP) methods of animal acupoint location result in different acupoint charts. Representative TC and TP equine zangfu organ shu-association acupoint charts are compared to each other and to a human chart. Despite their differences, practitioners of both methods appear to achieve equally effective therapeutic results - a phenomenon termed "traditional Chinese/transpositional equal efficacy" (TTEE). Common veterinary acupuncture practices, traditional Chinese medical theory, spinal cord anatomy, and a preliminary equine "association, segment" chart are proposed to explain TTEE. The differences between the charts indicate that all documented animal acupoint locations should be explicitly described.
Study of biological effects of varying mixtures of Cf-252 and gamma radiation on the acute radiation syndromes: Relevance to clinical radiotherapy of radioresistant cancer

Abstract Purpose: Data for the 30 day bone marrow syndrome (BM-50) and the 6–10 day gastrointestinal (GI-50) syndrome for a one and two fraction schedule and acute and low dose rate irradiation using pure and mixed Cf-252 and photon radiation are presented. Methods and Materials: The radiations of Cf-252 is a mixture of neutrons and gamma rays. We total body irradiated Balb/c mice of both sexes with acute Co-60, low dose rate Cs-137 and Cf-252 using a 1 sx and 2 × schedule. For low linear energy transfer radiations of Co-60 or Cs-137 there was expected to be an increase in the dose to produce the gastrointestinal and bone marrow syndromes with minimal change for Cf-252 neutrons. However, the radiations from Cf-252 are ∼ 65% neutrons and ∼ 35% photons and hence some repair may be expected. We further altered the proportion of photons in the Cf-252 radiation field by mixing Cs-137 with the Cf-252 sources and total body irradiated the mice to determine the effects on the syndromes. We determined the effects of mixing Cf-252 neutrons with different proportions of photons on the radiation syndromes. Results: There was increase in BM-50 and GI-50 doses with fractionated or low dose rate photon irradiations and the dose modifying factors were 1.3-1.4 for the GI syndrome and 1.2 for the bone marrow syndrome. For Cf-252 there was minimal fractionation effect for the GI-50 syndrome, which increased by a 1.1 for × 1 vs. × 2 fractions; for the BM-50 syndrome it rose by a 1.1 factor. For LDR Cs-137 the dose for the GI-50 syndrome rose by a 2.2 fold. For mixed neutron-photon radiation of 0%, 15%, 35%, and 65% η/γ mixtures, the dose to produce the BM-50 and GI-50 endpoints dropped sharply from 0 to 35% neutrons and remained flat thereafter. Conclusion: For major tissues such as the bone marrow and GI tract, Cf-252 behaved as high linear energy transfer for mixtures of neutrons and gamma rays of ∼ 35% neutrons when the radiation were delivered simultaneously at the low dose rates studied. There was little or no additional contribution to the effectiveness of the mixed radiations if neutrons contributed 35% or more of the dose.
Driver seat belt use indicates decreased risk for child passengers in a motor vehicle crash

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between driver restraint use and child emergency department (ED) evaluation following a motor vehicle crash (MVC). METHODS: This cohort study included child passengers aged 0-12 years riding with an adult driver aged 21 years or older involved in a MVC in Utah from 1999 to 2004. The 6 years of Utah MVC records were probabilistically linked to statewide Utah ED records. We estimated the relative risk of ED evaluation following a MVC for children riding with restrained versus unrestrained drivers. Generalized estimating equations were used to calculate relative risks adjusted for child, driver, and crash characteristics. RESULTS: Six percent (6%) of children riding with restrained adult drivers were evaluated in the ED compared to twenty-two percent (22%) of children riding with unrestrained adult drivers following a MVC (relative risk 0.29, 95% confidence interval 0.26-0.32). After adjusting for child, vehicle, and crash characteristics, the relative risk of child ED evaluation associated with driver restraint remained significant (relative risk 0.82, 95% confidence interval 0.72-0.94). Driver restraint use was associated with child restraint use, less alcohol/drug involvement, and lower relative risk of severe collision types (head-on, rollover). CONCLUSIONS: Driver seat belt use is associated with decreased risk of ED evaluation for child passengers in the event of a MVC. Language: en
The use of surface strain data and a neural networks solution method to determine lumbar facet joint loads during in vitro spine testing.

Abstract A new method for determining facet loads during in vitro spine loading using strain gauges and a neural networks solution method was investigated. A test showed that the new solution method was more robust than and as accurate as a previously presented graphical solution method for computing facet loads using surface strain. The technique was subsequently utilized to assess facet loads at L1–L2 during flexibility testing [7.5 N m pure moments in flexion (FL), extension (EX), right and left axial rotation (AR), and right and left lateral bending (LB)], and stiffness testing (FL-EX with 400 N compressive follower load) of six human lumbar spine segments (T12–L2). In contrast to other techniques, such as thin film sensors or pressure-sensitive film, the strain-gauge method leaves the facet joint capsule intact during data collection, presumably allowing more natural load transmission. During flexibility tests, the mean (±standard deviation) calculated facet loads (in N) were 46.1±41.3 (FL), 51.5±39.0 (EX), 70.3±43.2 (AR-contralateral side), 31.3±33.4 (AR-ipsilateral side), 30.6±29.1 (LB-contralateral side), and 32.0±44.4 (LB-ipsilateral side). During stiffness tests, the calculated facet loads were 45.5±40.4 (upright), 46.6±41.9 (full FL), and 75.4±39.0 (full EX), corresponding to an equivalent of 11.4%, 11.6%, and 18.8% of the compressive follower load (upright, full FL and EX, respectively). The error associated with this technique, which was below 11 N for loads up to 125 N, is comparable to that reported with other techniques. The new method shows promise for assessing facet load during in vitro spine testing, an important parameter when evaluating new implant systems and surgical techniques.
Transgenic Expression of Polyomavirus Middle T Antigen in the Mouse Prostate Gives Rise to Carcinoma

The middle T (MT) antigen of polyomavirus has provided fundamental insights into the regulation of mammalian cell growth in vitro and important animal models for the analysis of tumor induction. The mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-MT model of breast cancer has been important for probing the cellular signaling pathways in mammary tumorigenesis. MT itself has no intrinsic enzymatic activity but, rather, transforms by binding to and activating key intracellular signaling molecules, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) being the best studied of these. Thus, MT mimics a constitutively activated receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK). Our recent work suggests that MT signaling, like that of RTKs, is often quite dependent on cellular context in vitro. Here, we examine contextual effects on signaling in animal models as well. In this study, we generated transgenic mice in which MT is expressed in the mouse prostate under the control of an (ARR)2-Probasin promoter. All male transgenic mice displayed mouse prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (mPIN) in the ventral and dorsal/lateral prostate as early as 8 weeks of age. Notably, during the course of tumor development over time, invasive cancer, reactive stroma, and infiltration of inflammatory cells were seen. Transcriptional profiling analyses show regulation of multiple pathways, with marked upregulation of both the NF-κB and inflammatory pathways. Comparison of expression profiles of our MT prostate model with those from an MMTV-MT breast model (23) shows both tissue-specific and tissue-independent MT effects. The signature of genes regulated by MT in a tissue-independent manner may have prognostic value.
The effect of solvent mobility on Cr (NH3)2(NCS)4−photolysis

Abstract The photolysis yields and 2 E relaxation rates of Cr(NH 3 ) 2 (NCS) 4 − in ethanol, propanediol and glycerol have been obtained as a function of temperature. As in the case of acetone solutions there is a fast photoprocess that persists at low temperatures where independent measurements indicate no solvent motion. The onset of the slow photoreaction in ethanol begins only after solvent motions are fast on the time-scale of the 2 E level decay. In contrast, both the 2 E depopulation and the slow photolysis in propanediol and glycerol are induced by solvent movement. The 2 E relaxation rate and the photolysis yield increases in ethanol occur at the same temperature but the two processes are enhanced by different solvent motions in glycerol.
Ohmic Contacts to Heavily Carbon-Doped p+-GaAs Using Ti/Si/Pd

Low specific resistance ohmic contacts have been formed on heavily carbon doped GaAs using the Ti/Si/Pd system. Silicide formation was observed in the Pd/Si layers over the temperature range 400–700 C using RTA. Contact resistances as low as 0.061 Ω-mm and specific contact resistances as low as 3.2 × 10-6Ωcm2 were measured. Silicide/Ti/GaAs interfacial information was determined using TEM and Auger depth profiling.
Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) Associated with White-Tailed Deer Habitat and Livestock Operations in the Northern Great Plains

Twelve Culicoides species were collected from white-tailed deer habitat and cattle operations in the Northern Great Plains as part of an ongoing study of the geographical distribution and seasonal occurrence of C. variipennis and other species in North Dakota. C. variipennis, C. obsoletus , and C. stellifer were collected in both western and eastern counties. C. arboricola, C. hinmani, C. nanus , and C. palmerae are reported for the first time from North Dakota.
Fetal trisomy 13 distinguished by persistent fetal tachycardia

Recent reports [1,2] have demonstrated a strong association between the first-trimester ultrasound detection of fetal structural abnormalities and aneuploidy. Offering genetic counseling and invasive prenatal diagnosis to women carrying affected fetuses is now warranted. Accordingly, ultrasound could be a useful first-trimester screening modality for detecting women at increased risk of fetal aneuploidy [2]. However, further information concerning the efficacy of first-trimester ultrasonography must be obtained before ultrasound is routinely incorporated within an obstetrical screening paradigm [31. Our patient is a 34-year-old G3P2 who was referred for counseling and chorionic villus sampling (CVS) because of advanced maternal age (35) and a child with Down’s syndrome (47,XY, +
Carbon budget for a subtropical seagrass dominated coastal lagoon: How important are seagrasses to total ecosystem net primary production?

It has been assumed that because seagrasses dominate macrophyte biomass in many estuaries they also dominate primary production. We tested this assumption by developing three carbon budgets to examine the contribution of autotrophic components to the total ecosystem net primary production (TENPP) of Lower Laguna Madre, Texas. The first budget coupled average photosynthetic parameters with average daily irradiance to calculate daily production. The second budget used average photosynthetic parameters and hourly in situ irradiance to estimate productivity. The third budget integrated temperature-adjusted photosynthetic parameters (using Q10=2) and hourly in situ irradiance to estimate productivity. For each budget TENPP was calculated by integrating production from each autotroph based on the producers’ areal distribution within the entire Lower Laguna Madre. All budgets indicated that macroalgae account for 33–42% of TENPP and seagrasses consistently accounted for about 33–38%. The contribution by phytoplankton was consistently about 15–20%, and the contribution from the benthic microalgae varied between 8% and 36% of TENPP, although this may have been underestimated due to our exclusion of the within bed microphytobenthos component. The water column over the seagrass beds was net heterotrophic and consequently was a carbon sink consuming between 5% and 22% of TENPP, TENPP ranged between 5.41×1010 and 2.53×1011 g C yr−1, depending on which budget was used. The simplest, most idealized budget predicted the highest TENPP, while the more realistic budgets predicted lower values. Annual production rates estimated using the third budget forHalodule urightii andThalassia testudinum compare well with field data. Macroalgae and microalgae contribute 50–60% of TENPP, and seagrass may be more important as three-dimensional habitat (i.e., structure) than as a source of organic carbon to the water column in Lower Laguna Madre.
Transition probabilities and stochastic equations for the mean field ising model

The microscopic transition rate is briefly calculated from quantum principles to derive the microscopic master equation. By introducing τp, the phenomenological time, and coarse graining Wp, the transition rate, a complete normalized phenomenological transition rate is obtained. The Langer form is then approximately obtained.
Computer Modeling of Nonsteady State Sodium Kinetics in Liver

The exchange of materials in biologic tissues can be quantitatively described by transport rate constants (k's). One way to determine these k's is from studies of tissue fragments with the aid of an isotope as tracer and digital computer simulation. Usual methods of solution require that the material of interest, tracee, remain at steady state during the in vitro outflow recording period. When Na kinetics is studied in liver fragments, it is found that this tissue keeps absorbing Na tracee from the in vitro medium, thus departing from in vivo and yielding a nonsteady state.
Determination of reaction amplitudes from experimental observables

For particle reactions with arbitrary spins a general prescription is outlined and illustrated for the selection of sets of experiments which can completely determine the reaction amplitudes. The prescription involves the inspection of simple numerical matrices, combined with an expedient diagrammatical scheme. (auth)
Ophthalmologic Effects of Psychotropic Medications

This article reviews the effects of psychotropic medications on the eye. Although some of these effects have been known for years, they have been largely ignored by psychiatrists. The ophthalmologic effects of antidepressants, neuroleptics, benzodiazepines, carbamazepine, and lithium in therapeutic doses and overdose are reviewed and their implications discussed. Recommendations are made for appropriate monitoring, treatment, and ophthalmologic referral of patients on these medications.
Optimal mortgage design when transaction costs constrain mobility

Abstract In the presence of transaction costs, purchasers of housing services plan multi-year stays in specific locations by optimizing with regard to present and future preferences, incomes, and prices. In equilibrium, the sum over time of the weighted differences between the marginal rate of substitution and price ratio equals zero. This resembles a public good equilibrium, and the “Lindahl Solution” would call for borrowers to use variable payment mortgages. In this paper we fully develop the concept of an optimal mortgage by using a dynamic model in which transaction costs contrain mobility. We find that variable payment mortgages benefit consumers through reduced transaction costs and benefit the lender through a larger housing purchase earlier in life. A simulation is conducted to validate and quantify these theoretical findings with measures of equivalent and compensating variations. Impediments to Lindahl-type variable payment mortgages are discussed, and solutions are proposed.
A new generation of coronary vasodilators in stress perfusion imaging.

b h a a d ( c t a h p o Although the cardiovascular effects of adenosine have been tudied for almost 8 decades,1,2 it was not until 1990 that the rst report was published on the use of adenosine in stress yocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with radiotracers.3 In 995, adenosine (Adenoscan, Astellas, Deerfield, Illinois) was pproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for stress esting (adenosine, in the form of Adenocar (Astellas), was pproved earlier in 1990 for the treatment of supraventricular achycardia). At present, Adenoscan is used in approximately 0% of patients who undergo pharmacologic stress MPI, and asodilator MPI is the fastest growing segment, accounting for pproximately 40% of the roughly 8.5 million stress MPI tudies performed annually in the United States alone. Adensine is also used in other stress imaging modalities, such as -dimensional echocardiography and magnetic resonance imging, and in cardiac catheterization laboratories (either in ravenous or intracoronary) to study coronary hemodynamic ssessment, where for practical purposes it has replaced intraoronary papaverine.1,2 Adenosine is a naturally occurring ligand of 4 distinct ubtypes of cell membrane G-protein coupled recepors.1,2,4–6 The synthesis and elimination pathways are well escribed. The activation of A-2a receptors is responsible or coronary vasodilatation and an increase in myocardial lood flow (MBF). Unlike in exercise, the increase in MBF s not related to double product, and there is no indication hat combining exercise with adenosine causes the further ugmentation of MBF. A modest increase in heart rate is ost likely due to direct sympathetic stimulation, not to the odest decrease in blood pressure.5 This sympathetic stimlation is also the result of A-2a receptor activation. Actiation of the other receptor subtypes (A-2b, A-1, and A-3) s responsible for myriad consequences both desirable (such s cardiac protection) and undesirable (as side effects). hese side effects include atrioventricular block, bronchopasm, nonangina chest pains, shortness of breadth, marked ypotension, flushing, and headaches. Furthermore, adenoine needs to be infused with an infusion pump over 4 to 6 inutes in a dose that is adjusted for body weight. Adenoine is popular principally because the degree of coronary yperemia is predictable at or near maximum and because denosine has an extremely short half-life of about 1 secnd.1,2,7 For any new stress agent to be considered an lternative to adenosine, it must meet the challenges of afety, tolerability, potency, short duration of action, and ase of administration.
Google Knows Who is Famous Today -- Building an Ontology from Search Engine Knowledge and DBpedia

Modern search engines provide users with suggested query completions. These search suggestions are often ambiguous in nature and could refer to any number of homonyms. Previously we used a static ontology built from data in Wikipedia to address this issue. Here, we present a method for dynamically building an ontology of "famous people" based on mining the suggested completions of a search engine that are produced in response to partial user search queries. This is combined with data from DBpedia. We use this ontology to provide disambiguated search suggestions within a dynamic version of our previous Ontology-Supported Web Search system.
Distracted driving: prevalence, problems, and prevention

While the number of motor vehicle crashes has declined over the years, crashes resulting from distracted driving are increasing in the United States resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. The national public seems to be aware of the dangers associated with using technology while driving, but continues to engage in this dangerous behaviour, and may be unaware of or underestimate the impact of cell phone use on their own driving performance. Problems associated with distracted driving are not limited to novice or teenage drivers; multifaceted universal prevention efforts aimed at impacting large segments of the population may have the greatest impact. Legislation limiting drivers' cell phone use has had little impact, possibly due to low regulation and enforcement. Behaviour change programmes, improved vehicle safety, and public awareness campaigns have been developed as potential preventive efforts to reduce accidents caused by distracted drivers.
Mapping protein-protein interactions with combinatorial peptides.

Now that a number of genomes have been sequenced, attention has turned to understanding the complement of proteins encoded by the genome, which has been termed the ‘proteome’. One important aspect of analysis of the proteome is the identification of which proteins interact with each other; this information is invaluable in surmising the function of each protein and inferring what cellular pathway the protein may be a component of. While a variety of methodologies is widely used to map protein-protein interactions, such as affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry and yeast two-hybrid screening (both of which were covered at this meeting), an alternative approach is the use of phage-displayed combinatorial peptides. In phage-display, short oligonucleotides are inserted within a gene encoding a capsid (coat) protein of a bacteriophage, so that each viral particle displays a different peptide sequence. While it has been possible to clone and express short peptides attached to each of the five different capsid proteins of bacteriophage M13, the protein products of gene III and VIII are popular cloning sites for expression and display. Several excellent reviews of phage-display can be found elsewhere [6,22,5]. Over the past ten years, a considerable number of phage-displayed combinatorial peptide libraries have been generated [21]. With a library of recombinant phage particles in hand, it is possible to screen them by affinity selection with a variety of protein targets. Three rounds of selection (binding, elution, propagation) are typically sufficient to screen billions of different phage-displayed combinatorial peptides for those that bind to target proteins of interest. While there have been many recent publications of successful selection experiments, some of the more notable examples are the selection of peptide ligands which bind to receptors for erythropoietin [30], N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) [16], thrombopoietin [7], fibroblast growth factor [3], and estrogen [17]. When peptides are chemically synthesized corresponding to what is displayed by the selected phage, they generally bind with dissociation constant (Kd) values of 5 micromolar to 10 nanomolar to their cognate receptor, and typically have agonist or antagonist activities. Many different types of targets will yield phage after affinity selection, such as enzymes [12], growth factors [10,4], nucleic acids [2], and cells [20,13]. Comparative and Functional Genomics Comp Funct Genom 2001; 2: 304–306. DOI: 10.1002 / cfg.100
LEARNING STYLE AWARENESS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

This study examined the relationship between learning style awareness and academic achievement of community college students. The study was undertaken to determine if learning style awareness alone...
Ablation of atrial fibrillation at the time of cavotricuspid isthmus ablation in patients with atrial flutter without documented atrial fibrillation derives a better long-term benefit

AF Ablation in Patients With Only Documentation of Atrial Flutter. Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate whether isolation of the pulmonary veins (PVs) at the time of cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI) ablation is beneficial in patients with lone atrial flutter (AFL). Background: A high proportion of patients with lone persistent AFL have recurrent episodes of atrial fibrillation (AF) after CTI ablation. However, the benefit of AF ablation in patients with only documentation of AFL has not been determined. Methods: Forty-eight patients with typical lone persistent AFL (age 56 ± 6; 90% male) were randomized to CTI ablation (Group A; n = 25) or to CTI + PV isolation (PVI) (Group B; n = 23). In addition to PVI, some patients in group B underwent ablation of complex fractionated electrograms and/or creation of left atrial roof and mitral isthmus ablation line in a stepwise approach when AF was induced and sustained for more than 2 minutes. Mean follow-up was 16 ± 4 months with a 48-hour ambulatory monitor every 2 months. Results: There were no recurrences of AFL in either group. Six patients in group B (22%) underwent a stepwise ablation protocol. AF organized and terminated in 5 patients during ablation (83%). Complication rate was not significantly different among the groups. Twenty patients in group B (87%) and 11 patients in group A (44%) were free of arrhythmias on no medications at the end of follow-up (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Ablation of AF at the time of CTI ablation results in a significantly better long-term freedom from arrhythmias. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 22, pp. 34-38, January 2011)
Genetic sensitivity to 6-n-propylthiouracil and sensory responses to sugar and fat mixtures.

Abstract This study tested the hypothesis that genetic sensitivity to 6- n -propylthiouracil (PROP) is associated with greater sensitivity to sugar and fat in foods. Subjects were 118 young women from different ethnic backgrounds, mean age 26.9 years and mean body mass index (BMI) 23.4. The women were classified as nontasters ( n = 39), medium tasters ( n = 48), or supertasters ( n = 31) of PROP. Nontasters of PROP had thresholds of 1.8 × 10 −4 mol/L PROP or greater, whereas tasters had thresholds below 1.0 × 10 −4 mol/L PROP. PROP tasters were divided into medium tasters and supertasters, based on the ratio of intensity ratings of suprathreshold PROP solutions relative to NaCl solutions. Supertasters were defined as those with PROP/NaCl ratios of 1.90 or more. The pattern of sensory responses to sweetened dairy products of varying sugar and fat contents closely replicated data obtained in other studies. Genetic sensitivity to PROP was not associated with enhanced perception or altered hedonic response profiles for this range of 15 sugar/fat mixtures. Separating subjects into “likers” and “dislikers” of sweetened dairy products failed to reveal significant links to PROP taster status in this all-female sample.
Theory of electron--electron interaction effects on antishielding factors of negative ions

The influence of electron-electron interaction effects on nuclear quadrupole antishielding factors ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}$ is studied for the negative halide ions ${\mathrm{F}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, and ${\mathrm{Br}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$. Using a procedure developed earlier which utilizes the nuclear-quadrupole-moment-perturbed and external-point-charge-perturbed wave functions for the ions, obtained by the differential equation procedure for the zero-order antishielding factor ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{0}$, we have computed the consistency contributions ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{1}$ to be +2.28, -1.50, and -7.16 in ${\mathrm{F}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, and ${\mathrm{Br}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, respectively. The resulting values of ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}$ correct to first order in electron-electron interaction are then -19.29, -56.58, and -140.83. The appearance of negative signs for ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{1}$ in ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and ${\mathrm{Br}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ is seen to be due to large negative interactions between $p$ electrons belonging to different shells. This intershell effect is not present in ${\mathrm{F}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ ($1{s}^{2}2{s}^{2}2{p}^{6}$). The contributions to ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{1}$ for all three ions are analyzed in detail, and a comparison is made of ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{1}$ for ${\mathrm{F}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and the isoelectronic positive ion ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$. An explanation is proposed for the comparable values of the ratio $\frac{{({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{1}}{{({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{0}}$ found for these two ions, even though the ${\mathrm{F}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ ion is substantially more deformable with a larger value of ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{0}$. From the results of the present investigations, as well as earlier ones in related positive ions, it is felt that the consistency contribution ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{1}$ should, in general, be less than 15% of ${({\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\infty}})}_{0}$ for most ions.
Who gets diagnosed with asthma? Frequent wheeze among adolescents with and without a diagnosis of asthma.

Objective. 1) To describe the factors associated with not receiving an asthma diagnosis among children with frequent wheezing symptoms and 2) to determine risk factors for frequent wheezing in the population. Methods. The North Carolina School Asthma Survey provided self-reported questionnaire data on respiratory health from 122 829 children ages 12 to 18 years enrolled in 499 public middle schools in North Carolina during the 1999–2000 school year. Questions from the International Survey of Allergies and Asthma in Childhood were used to estimate the prevalence of asthma and wheezing-related illness and associated factors. Results. Factors independently associated with undiagnosed frequent wheezing versus asymptomatic children included female gender (odds ratio [OR]: 1.45; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.35–1.54), current smoking (OR: 2.60; 95% CI: 2.43–2.79), exposure to household smoke (OR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.50–1.70), low socioeconomic status (OR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.42–1.63), and African American (OR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.15–1.34), Native American (OR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.11-1.62), and Mexican American (OR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.17–1.48) race/ethnicity. Urban residence showed a weak negative association (OR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.85–0.96). A similar pattern of results was observed for analyses comparing odds of undiagnosed frequent wheeze versus diagnosed asthmatics. Report of allergies was less likely in frequent wheezers (70%) compared with diagnosed asthmatics (86%), but much higher than in asymptomatic children (36%). Thirty-three percent of children with undiagnosed frequent wheezing reported 1 or more physician visits in the last year for wheezing or breathing problems compared with 71% of children with diagnosed asthma, and 4% in asymptomatic children. The prevalence of any inhaler use in the past 12 months was 12% for undiagnosed frequent wheezers versus 78% for diagnosed asthmatics. The proportion of undiagnosed frequent wheezers with fair or poor self-rated health (23%) was slightly higher than diagnosed asthmatics (20%) and much higher than asymptomatic children (4%). Conclusions. In one of the largest adolescent asthma surveys ever reported in the United States, undiagnosed frequent wheezing was independently associated with female gender, current smoking, exposure to household smoke, low socioeconomic status, allergies, and African American, Native American, and Mexican American race/ethnicity. Children with undiagnosed frequent wheezing were not receiving adequate health care for their asthma-like illness. Clinicians who treat adolescents should consider asking adolescents specifically about wheezing. This information may assist primary care physicians in identifying children with undiagnosed asthma in need of treatment.
Gaming Space: Casinopolitan Globalism from Las Vegas to Macau

This study explores the spaces of globalization by the globalized businesses of gambling, entertainment, and resort operations. In particular, it re-examines how the real estate development, finance, and entertainment industries have allied in the early twenty-first century in two unusual spatial settings: a newly returned territory to the People's Republic of China (PRC), or the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR), and Clark County, Nevada in the United States of America (USA) with the city of Las Vegas at its core. Neither of these sites is known for its cosmopolitan sophistication, but socio-economic networks of the global gaming, resort, shopping, and entertainment industries are using the theme park motifs rooted in huge new casino properties to generate a simulated cosmopolitan allure, which could be characterized as ‘casinopolitanism’. This paper analyzes how the fantasy destination spaces built by gaming corporations unfold as packaged globalist cultural revolutions and casinopolitan modes o...
Accuracy vs. Speed: Scalable Entity Coreference on the Semantic Web with On-the-Fly Pruning

One challenge for the Semantic Web is to scalably establish high quality owl: same As links between co referent ontology instances in different data sources, traditional approaches that exhaustively compare every pair of instances do not scale well to large datasets. In this paper, we propose a pruning-based algorithm for reducing the complexity of entity co reference. First, we discard candidate pairs of instances that are not sufficiently similar to the same pool of other instances. A sigmoid function based thresholding method is proposed to automatically adjust the threshold for such commonality on-the-fly. In our prior work, each instance is associated with a context graph consisting of neighboring RDF nodes. In this paper, we speed up the comparison for a single pair of instances by pruning insignificant context in the graph, this is accomplished by evaluating its potential contribution to the final similarity measure. We evaluate our system on three Semantic Web instance categories. We verify the effectiveness of our thresholding and context pruning methods by comparing to nine state-of-the-art systems. We show that our algorithm frequently outperforms those systems with a runtime speedup factor of 18 to 24 while maintaining competitive F1-scores. For datasets of up to 1 million instances, this translates to as much as 370 hours improvement in runtime.
A rot Mutation Restores Parental Virulence to an agr-Null Staphylococcus aureus Strain in a Rabbit Model of Endocarditis

Mutations in rot restore in vitro toxin production to agr-negative strains of Staphylococcus aureus. We show that a rot mutation returns wild-type virulence to an agr mutant, as measured in experimental endocarditis infections by target organ bacterial counts. Implications of our data are discussed in terms of agr antagonist strategies.
Here in the USA

Significant changes in the medical environment in the United States pose difficult questions for small medical specialties such as nuclear medicine. How do we get our voice heard in the debates that surround the reform process? What type of information is required to demonstrate the efficacy of nuclear medicine procedures? The older measures of sensitivity and specificity do not carry the same weight in health planning circles as they do in science. Data demonstrating the impact on the outcome for the patient are preferred.