cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Medication monitoring in the elderly.

OBJECTIVE To review changes associated with aging that affect medication use and to outline medication-monitoring guidelines. DATA SOURCES Recent medical literature including journals and texts. STUDY SELECTION Determined by the author. DATA EXTRACTION By the author. DATA SYNTHESIS There are many changes that occur in the aging individual that may affect medication use. Alterations in organ function, especially that of the liver and kidneys, may potentiate drug effects. Appropriate use of serum-drug concentrations, used in conjunction with standard clinical observations, is an effective means of monitoring the patient. Medications with a high risk of toxicity in the elderly, such as phenytoin, theophylline, and digoxin, may be used with a much higher degree of safety if serum concentrations are obtained. Blood samples must be obtained at appropriate times to ensure accurate interpretation of the drug concentration. CONCLUSION When performed appropriately, serum-concentration monitoring of medications is a valuable method of reducing toxicity in the elderly.
Renewable and distributed resources in a post-Paris low carbon future: The key role and political economy of sustainable electricity

Abstract Three recent “roadmap” analyses outline routes to a low-carbon economy that model the decarbonization of the electricity sector and the pervasive electrification of the transportation and industrial sectors. Using independent cost estimates and sequentially “relaxing” the constraints on resource selection, this paper compares the resource costs of the resulting portfolios of assets needed to meet the need for electricity. It supports the claim that the long run costs of the 100% renewable portfolios are less than business-as-usual portfolios, and finds that the “environmental merit order” of asset selection is quite close to the “economic merit order.” Neither fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage nor nuclear power enters the least-cost, low-carbon portfolio. Rigorous least-cost constraints on decarbonization render the pollution constraint is superfluous. The paper evaluates the Paris Agreement on climate change in light of these findings. The Agreement is described as a progressive, mixed market economic model with a governance structure based on a polycentric, multi-stakeholder approach for management of a common pool resource. It also notes that the political economy of the Agreement is consistent with current academic analysis of policy responses to the challenges of climate change and management of a large, focal core resource system.
Evaluation of Tetrahydrobiopterin Therapy with Large Neutral Amino Acid Supplementation in Phenylketonuria: Effects on Potential Peripheral Biomarkers, Melatonin and Dopamine, for Brain Monoamine Neurotransmitters.

Background Phenylketonuria (PKU) is due to a defective hepatic enzyme, phenylalanine (Phe) hydroxylase. Transport of the precursor amino acids from blood into the brain for serotonin and dopamine synthesis is reported to be inhibited by high blood Phe concentrations. Deficiencies of serotonin and dopamine are involved in neurocognitive dysfunction in PKU.
Making sense of the replaceable beloved in Agnès Varda’s Le Bonheur

AbstractThis essay engages Agnes Varda’s Le Bonheur with the intellectual and sociocultural history of love and sexuality in Europe. The film’s philosophical exploration of the concept of the replaceable beloved posits Varda as a contributing voice to the longstanding discourse about the nature of love. Varda offers two frameworks for understanding the replaceable beloved. The first is that the replaceable beloved is a mechanism serving nature’s will to procreate and survive, an idea which has precedence with Arthur Schopenhauer’s ‘will to live.’ Secondly, the replaceable beloved is a phenomenon of consumer and media-driven culture in the postwar era, in which people, like objects, are dispensable and easily replaced. In her film and interviews, Varda conveys attitudes of both critique and acceptance toward the concept of the replaceable beloved. This continuous dialectic is essential to her dual objectives of unsettling viewers’ predetermined moral paradigms and invoking discussion and debate.
Organophosphate and Delayed Polyneuropathy

A 3-year-old boy was admitted to the North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY, with acute organophosphate (Dursban) roach poisoning.
Violation of an f -sum rule with generalized kinetic energy

Motivated by the normal state of the cuprates in which the integrated spectral weight of the optical conductivity or optical sum increases faster than a linear function of the particle density, we derive an $f$-sum rule for a system in which the kinetic-energy operator in the Hamiltonian is a general function of the momentum squared. Such a kinetic energy arises in scale invariant theories and can be derived within the context of holography. Our derivation of the $f$-sum rule is based on the gauge couplings of a nonlocal Lagrangian in which the kinetic operator is a fractional Laplacian of order $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. We find that the $f$-sum rule in this case deviates from the standard linear dependence on the particle density. We find two regimes. At high temperatures and low densities, the optical sum is proportional to $n{T}^{\frac{\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}1}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}}$ where $T$ is the temperature. At low temperatures and high densities, the optical sum is proportional to ${n}^{1+\frac{2(\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}1)}{d}}$ with $d$ being the number of spatial dimensions. The result in the low-temperature and high-density limit, when $\ensuremath{\alpha}l1$, can be used to qualitatively explain the behavior of the effective number of charge carriers in the cuprates at various doping concentrations.
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma invasion is inhibited by Activin A in ACVRIB-positive cells

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a global public health issue, as it is the eighth most common cancer worldwide. The mechanisms behind ESCC invasion and progression are still poorly understood, and warrant further investigation into these processes and their drivers. In recent years, the ligand Activin A has been implicated as a player in the progression of a number of cancers. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of Activin A signaling in ESCC. To investigate the role Activin A plays in ESCC biology, tissue microarrays containing 200 cores from 120 ESCC patients were analyzed upon immunofluorescence staining. We utilized three-dimensional organotypic reconstruct cultures of dysplastic and esophageal squamous tumor cells lines, in the context of fibroblast-secreted Activin A, to identify the effects of Activin A on cell invasion and determine protein expression and localization in epithelial and stromal compartments by immunofluorescence. To identify the functional consequences of stromal-derived Activin A on angiogenesis, we performed endothelial tube formation assays. Analysis of ESCC patient samples indicated that patients with high stromal Activin A expression had low epithelial ACVRIB, the Activin type I receptor. We found that overexpression of stromal-derived Activin A inhibited invasion of esophageal dysplastic squamous cells, ECdnT, and TE-2 ESCC cells, both positive for ACVRIB. This inhibition was accompanied by a decrease in expression of the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein fibronectin and podoplanin, which is often expressed at the leading edge during invasion. Endothelial tube formation was disrupted in the presence of conditioned media from fibroblasts overexpressing Activin A. Interestingly, ACVRIB-negative TE-11 cells did not show the prior observed effects in the context of Activin A overexpression, indicating a dependence on the presence of ACVRIB. We describe the first observation of an inhibitory role for Activin A in ESCC progression that is dependent on the expression of ACVRIB.
Brain Noradrenergic Neurons, Corticotropin-Releasing Factor, and Stress

The hallmark of the organismic state of stress, and the endpoint that has been utilized to determine whether a stimulus is stressful, is the release of adrenocorti-cotropin (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary. It has long been assumed that ACTH release is controlled by a hypothalamic releasing factor. Such a substance, corti-cotropin-releasing factor (CRF, a 41-amino-acid peptide), has recently been isolated, characterized, and synthesized by Vale and colleagues (1981). Substantial evidence, reviewed in this chapter, now suggests that in addition to its function as a releasing factor, CRF may act as a neurotransmitter. CRF-containing cell bodies and fibers have been localized in extrahypothalamic regions, and administration of CRF elicits physiological and behavioral effects that do not depend on the integrity the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. In these dual roles, CRF may act synergistically as a hypothalamo-pituitary releasing factor and as a neurotransmitter in extrahypothalamic circuits to mobilize the organism to respond to “stressful” situations.
Theory of using magnetic deflections to combine charged particle beams

Several radiation effects projects in the Ion Beam Lab (IBL) have recently required two disparate charged particle beams to simultaneously strike a single sample through a single port of the target chamber. Because these beams have vastly different mass–energy products (MEP), the low-MEP beam requires a large angle of deflection toward the sample by a bending electromagnet. A second electromagnet located further upstream provides a means to compensate for the small angle deflection experienced by the high-MEP beam during its path through the bending magnet. This paper derives the equations used to select the magnetic fields required by these two magnets to achieve uniting both beams at the target sample. A simple result was obtained when the separation of the two magnets was equivalent to the distance from the bending magnet to the sample, and the equation is given by: Bs= 1/2(rc/rs) Bc, where Bs and Bc are the magnetic fields in the steering and bending magnet and rc/rs is the ratio of the radii of the bending magnet to that of the steering magnet. This result is not dependent upon the parameters of the high MEP beam, i.e. energy, mass, charge state. Therefore, once the field of the bendingmore » magnet is set for the low-MEP beam, and the field in the steering magnet is set as indicted in the equation, the trajectory path of any high-MEP beam will be directed into the sample.« less
The influence of partitioning on Domain Decomposition convergence rates

This paper discusses the effects that partitioning has on the convergence rate of Domain Decomposition. When Finite Elements are employed to solve a second order elliptic partial differential equation with strong convection and/or anisotropic diffusion, the shape and alignment of a partition's parts significantly affect the Domain Decomposition convergence rate. Given a PDE, if b is the direction of convection or the prominent direction of anisotropic diffusion, then if one considers traversing the domain in the direction of b, partitions having fewer parts to traverse in this direction converge faster while partitions having more converge slower.
A CLIMATE DEPARTURE INDEX FOR THE STUDY OF CLIMATIC VARIABILITY

Three versions of a Climate Departure Index (CDI) are presented for studying how “normal” or “unusual” a particular year or event is compared to the long-term average for the region under consideration. Comparisons of a Simple CDI, Absolute Value CDI and Least-Squares CDI are made through the use of hypothetical examples and two case studies involving seasonal snowfall variations in northern New England and last spring-freeze date variations in the southeastern United States. Results clearly show that the Simple CDI is the inferior formulation owing to a compensation problem whereby above and below average sites within a region for a particular year cancel each other when computing the index value. Little difference in identifying extreme years was found between use of the Absolute Value CDI and Least-Squares CDI in the case studies examined. Nevertheless, a hypothetical example suggests that the least-squares approach for closeness of fit is the more appropriate method, thus making the Least-Squares CDI ...
Global Perspectives of Nanotechnology Education

The continued advancement of research and applications described in this book depends on the quality of the next generation of scientists and engineers who will lead the nanoetchnology revolution. This chapter first reviews the growth of nanotechnology education then describes the successful efforts of educators on six continents in developing the nanotechnology talents of their students. Examples of educational programs at the primary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels, for teacher training, vocational education training, and for informal education of the general public are each presented.
CAD/CAM and 3D-Printing Applications for Alveolar Ridge Augmentation.

CAD/CAM and 3D-printing are emerging manufacturing technologies in dentistry. In the field of alveolar ridge augmentation, graft customization utilizing these technologies can result in significant reduction of surgical time. A review of the literature on materials, techniques, and applications of CAD/CAM and 3D-printing available for alveolar ridge augmentation was performed. CAD/CAM applications for milling of customized block grafts of allogeneic, xenogeneic, and alloplastic origins have been reported, and currently only limited products are commercially available. 3D-printing applications are limited to alloplastic graft materials and containment shells, and have been mostly used in animal studies for optimizing biomaterials’ properties. While current data support the potential use of CAD/CAM and 3D-printing for graft customization for alveolar ridge augmentation procedures, additional research is needed on predictability and long-term stability of the grafted sites.
Vitamin D and Obesity

Today obesity is epidemic, affecting more than 600 million individuals worldwide, and vitamin D insufficiency is considered to be present in more than half of the world’s population. Overweight status and obesity contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer, and vitamin D deficiency, resulting in increased mortality. The main etiologic factor for obesity is the disturbed balance between energy intake and energy expenditure caused by the modern lifestyle. Adipose tissue is an important endocrine organ producing a variety of cytokines, immune-related proteins, lipids, and enzymes involved in steroid hormone metabolism. Adipose tissue is also the main storage depot for vitamin D and its metabolites, serving as an endogenous source of vitamin D during the winter season. Adipose tissue secretes cytochrome P450 enzymes that are crucial for vitamin D metabolism. Furthermore, adipose tissue is a target for vitamin D, which is required for the normal function of both adipose cells (adipocytes) and adipose immune cells. Thus, obesity-induced vitamin D deficiency has an impact on adipose secretory functions. Vitamin D modulates adipocyte differentiation through mechanisms dependent or independent on vitamin D receptor (VDR). Signaling mediators of vitamin D involve the nuclear corepressor (NCoR) and silencing mediator for retinoid and thyroid hormone receptors (SMRT) which affect chromatin remodeling and gene transcription. Although it is tempting to suggest that overweight status or obesity can be reversed by vitamin D supplementation, experimental data do not support such a notion. In this chapter we summarize the current knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of vitamin D action in adipose tissue supported by data from clinical observational and basic science experimental studies.
Severe Epigastric Pain with Nausea and Vomiting

A 41-year-old woman presents to the emergency department complaining of severe and continuous epigastric pain for the past 24 hours. The pain radiates straight through to her back. She has had progressive nausea with vomiting. The vomit is bile-stained and without blood. She has had similar but less severe episodes of abdominal pain in the past, usually after eating heavy meals, but they always resolved within a few hours. She is gravida two and para two, with last menses 2 weeks ago, and does not consume any alcohol. On exam, she is afebrile, heart rate is 115 beats/min, blood pressure of 128/86 mmHg, and respiratory rate is 18/min. Her abdomen is not distended. She has no surgical scars on her abdomen and no obvious masses visible. She has no bruising around her umbilicus or along her flank. Bowel sounds are hypoactive. She has marked tenderness to palpation in her epigastrium, without guarding or rebound. The remainder of her abdomen is soft and non-tender to palpation. No masses or organomegaly are appreciated. Laboratory examination reveals a white blood cell count of 17.2 × 103cells/μL (normal 4.1–10.9 × 103 cells/uL), amylase of 1545 u/L (30–110 u/L), lipase of 1134 u/L (7–60 u/L), ALT of 245 u/L (7–56 u/L), AST of 263 u/L (5–35 u/L), serum glucose of 156 mg/dl (65–110 mg/dL), and LDH 180 u/L (0–250 u/L). An abdominal series demonstrates gas throughout the small and large bowel and a focal dilated loop of proximal small bowel without air fluid levels. There is no free air under the diaphragm.
Genetic signatures of human cytomegalovirus variants acquired by seronegative glycoprotein B vaccinees

Abstract Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the most common congenital infection worldwide, and a frequent cause of hearing loss or debilitating neurologic disease in newborn infants. Thus, a vaccine to prevent HCMV-associated congenital disease is a public health priority. One potential strategy is vaccination of women of child-bearing age to prevent maternal HCMV acquisition during pregnancy. The glycoprotein B (gB) + MF59 adjuvant subunit vaccine is the most efficacious tested clinically to date, demonstrating approximately 50% protection against HCMV infection of seronegative women in multiple phase 2 trials. Yet, the impact of gB/MF59-elicited immune responses on the population of viruses acquired by trial participants has not been assessed. In this analysis, we employed quantitative PCR as well as multiple sequencing methodologies to interrogate the magnitude and genetic composition of HCMV populations infecting gB/MF59 vaccinees and placebo recipients. We identified several differences between the viral dynamics of acutely-infected vaccinees and placebo recipients. First, there was reduced magnitude viral shedding in the saliva of gB vaccinees. Additionally, employing a panel of tests for genetic compartmentalization, we noted tissue-specific gB haplotypes in the majority of vaccinees though only in a single placebo recipient. Finally, we observed reduced acquisition of genetically-related gB1, gB2, and gB4 genotype “supergroup” HCMV variants among vaccine recipients, suggesting that the gB1 genotype vaccine construct may have elicited partial protection against HCMV viruses with antigenically-similar gB sequences. These findings indicate that gB immunization may have had a measurable impact on viral intrahost population dynamics and support future analysis of a larger cohort. Author Summary Though not a household name like Zika virus, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) causes permanent neurologic disability in one newborn child every hour in the United States - more than Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and neural tube defects combined. There are currently no established effective preventative measures to inhibit congenital HCMV transmission following acute or chronic HCMV infection of a pregnant mother. However, the glycoprotein B (gB) vaccine is the most effective HCMV vaccine tried clinically to date. Here, we utilized high-throughput, next-generation sequencing of viral DNA isolated from patients enrolled in a gB vaccine trial, and identified several impacts that this vaccine had on the size, distribution, and composition of the in vivo viral population. These results have increased our understanding of why the gB/MF59 vaccine was partially efficacious and will inform future rational design of a vaccine to prevent congenital HCMV.
Scale-dependent impacts of urban and agricultural land use on nutrients, sediment, and runoff.

Abstract We coupled a spatially-explicit land use/land cover (LULC) change model, Dinamica EGO, (Environment for Geoprocessing Objects), with the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model (CBWM) to project the impact of future LULC change on loading of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS) as well as runoff volume in the watersheds surrounding Virginia's Shenandoah National Park in the eastern United States. We allowed for the dynamic transition of four LULC classes, Developed, Forest, Grasses (including both pasture and hayfields) and Crops. Using 2011 as a baseline scenario and observed differences in LULC between 2001 and 2011, we estimated the temporal and spatial patterns of LULC change as influenced by physiographic and socio-economic drivers 50 years in the future (2061). Between transitions of the four LULC classes, the greatest absolute change occurred between the gain in total Developed land and loss in total Forest. New Developed land was driven primarily by distance to existing Developed land and population density. Major findings on the effect of LULC change on watershed model outputs were that: the impact of LULC change on pollutant loading and runoff volume is more pronounced at finer spatial scales; increases in the area of Grasses produced the greatest increase in TP loading, while loss of Forest increased TN, TSS, and runoff volume the most; and land-river segments with a greater proportion of Developed or a smaller proportion of Forest in the 2011 scenario experienced a greater change in runoff than other land-river segments. Results of this study illustrate the potential impact of projected LULC change on nutrient and sediment loads which can adversely impact water quality. Studies like this contribute to a broader understanding of how ecosystem services such as fresh water respond to LULC change, information relevant to those in planning and watershed management.
The Patricks’s Hockey Empire: Cultural Entrepreneurship and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1911–1924

AbstractAt the turn of the twentieth century, two brothers started a professional ice hockey league in the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Their league would go on to challenge for the supremacy of the...
Not Your Grandma's Goobers: Designing the Future of Peanut Breeding

ABSTRACT The peanut producer has realized a 130% increase in yield since 1969, with production averaging 4,563 kgha−1 nationwide for the US in 2017. Advances in agricultural engineering, agricultur...
Chronic oxytocin administration as a tool for investigation and treatment: A cross-disciplinary systematic review

Oxytocin (OT) subserves various physiological, behavioral, and cognitive processes. This paired with the ability to administer OT with minimal and inconsistent side effects has spurred research to explore its therapeutic potential. Findings from single-dose studies indicate that OT administration may be beneficial, at least under certain circumstances. The state of the field, however, is less clear regarding effects from chronic OT administration, which more closely resembles long-term treatment. To address this gap, this review synthesizes existing findings on the use of chronic OT administration in animal and human work. In addition to detailing the effects of chronic OT administration across different functional domains, this review highlights factors that have contributed to mixed findings. Based on this review, a basic framework of interrelated regulatory functions sensitive to chronic OT administration is offered. The paper also identifies future research directions across different contexts, populations, and outcomes, specifically calling for more systematic and standardized research on chronic OT administration in humans to supplement and expand what is currently known from preclinical work.
Extreme-depth-of-focus imaging with a flat lens

A lens performs an approximately one-to-one mapping from the object to the image plane. This mapping in the image plane is maintained within a depth of field (or referred to as depth of focus, if the object is at infinity). This necessitates refocusing of the lens when the images are separated by distances larger than the depth of field. Such refocusing mechanisms can increase the cost, complexity, and weight of imaging systems. Here we show that by judicious design of a multi-level diffractive lens (MDL) it is possible to drastically enhance the depth of focus by over 4 orders of magnitude. Using such a lens, we are able to maintain focus for objects that are separated by as large a distance as $\sim {6}\;{\rm m}$∼6m in our experiments. Specifically, when illuminated by collimated light at $\lambda = {0.85}\;{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}}$λ=0.85µm, the MDL produced a beam, which remained in focus from 5 to 1200 mm. The measured full width at half-maximum of the focused beam varied from 6.6 µm (5 mm away from the MDL) to 524 µm (1200 mm away from the MDL). Since the side lobes were well suppressed and the main lobe was close to the diffraction limit, imaging with a horizontal × vertical field of view of ${40}^\circ \times {30}^\circ $40∘×30∘ over the entire focal range was possible. This demonstration opens up a new direction for lens design, where by treating the phase in the focal plane as a free parameter, extreme-depth-of-focus imaging becomes possible.
The Role of the Other: How Interaction Partners Influence Identity Maintenance in Four Cultures

Since its inception, identity theory has emphasized the crucial role of relationships with others in shaping social behavior. Sheldon Stryker’s original formulation of identity theory gave a central role to social networks in determining structural commitment to identities. Research in the identity theory tradition explicitly considers interactional partners as occupants of counter-roles and as sources of reflected appraisals. Implicitly, identity theory research also considers the identities and actions of others as environmental input into the identity verification process. Affect control theory offers a somewhat more elaborated specification of the influence of interaction partners in the identity control process. Others serve both as a source of impression-change in social situations, and as a resource for identity maintenance as the objects of new actions. Recent cross-cultural work in the affect control theory tradition points to important cultural variations in that influence of the other in identity maintenance. In high context cultures like Egypt and Morocco, for example, the identity and actions of one’s interaction partner play an even larger role in shaping one’s identity-situated behavior than in low context cultures like the United States. In this chapter, we present a series of simulations that illustrate the impact of interaction partners on identity maintenance in the United States, China, Egypt, and Morocco.
Low-resistance electrical contact between epitaxially grown thermoelectric oxide material (Ca2CoO3)0.62CoO2 and iridium

Abstract For the integration of the thermoelectric and magneto resistive active material (Ca2CoO3)0.62CoO2 (Ca3Co4O9) into silicon technology it is mandatory to provide, apart from diffusion barriers and epitaxial growth, electrical contacts with minimal electrical resistance between this oxide and the metal contact. Epitaxial Ca3Co4O9 thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on yttria stabilized zirconia (Y2O3)0.09(ZrO2)0.91 (YSZ) and Ir metallized YSZ buffered single crystalline (001)-Si substrates. X-ray diffraction pole figures of these multilayer systems reveal that the Ca3Co4O9 thin film exhibit a 12-fold in-plane rotational symmetry grown on a (001)-Ir and (001)-YSZ surface, but mutually rotated by 15 ∘ . Ir-Ca3Co4O9 thin film electrical contacts were fabricated by lateral structuring and overgrowth to allow 4-wire measurements for determining the pure Ir-Ca3Co4O9 contact current-voltage characteristic and the area specific contact resistance (ASR). We demonstrate, that the Ca3Co4O9/Ir/YSZ and Ca3Co4O9/YSZ layer system allows to realize low ASR, low in-plane electrical resistivity of the Ca3Co4O9 thin film while maintaining a high Seebeck coefficient.
Operation Performance Assessment and Non-optimal Reasons Traceability for Melting Process of Fused Magnesium Furnace

A method of operation performance assessment based on the combination of fuzzy classification and Gaussian mixture model is proposed to assess the operation performance for the smelting process of electrofused magnesium furnace. And a method of non-optimal cause tracing based on the combination of contribution diagram and case-based reasoning is used to trace the non-optimal causes. For the qualitative data, the fuzzy classification method is used to transform the qualitative division into the quantitative division. Then, the posterior probability of the Gaussian mixture model of each running state of the online data is calculated to get the evaluation results. When the evaluation result is not optimal, the contribution rate of each variable is compared to obtain the non-optimal variable, and the non-optimal reason is found by case search. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the simulation platform of electrofused magnesium furnace.
Deriving Velocity Fields of Submesoscale Eddies Using Multi-Sensor Imagery

Small ocean eddies are observed in fine-resolution satellite imagery within the coastal regions and ice margins of the world's oceans. The derivation of surface velocity fields of these features would enable geophysical estimates of the kinematic energy contained within the eddies, leading to improved understanding of the role these eddies play in ocean circulation. In this paper, we develop a method to derive surface velocity fields of small ocean eddies using fine resolution, multi-sensor imagery obtained over short time intervals. We consider the evolving image to be embedded in a deformable medium, and perform image matching using nonlinear viscous fluid registration model. We employ sum of squared differences and mutual information as matching functionals. The physical continuum equation is solved using an efficient multigrid full approximation scheme. We test our method using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image pairs and show that it produces promising results.
Adaptive Fault Tolerance

Adaptive Fault Tolerance (APT) is a novel fault tolerance approach applicable to adaptive systems which makes use of the inherent adaptive process as an automatic fault tolerance mechanism [1.14]. Adaptive fault tolerance is motivated as follows. Under normal operating conditions adaptive systems, such as adaptive echo cancelers, adaptive equalizers, and adaptive controllers, adjust their own system parameters to reduce a specified error criterion. Hardware failures in such systems would presumably hamper their ability to minimize the error criterion to the greatest possible extent. However, they will continue to adapt their system parameters to reduce this error to the greatest possible extent despite the occurrence of hardware failures. Since this is the case, it may be possible to design a system that makes use of the ongoing adaptive process to automatically compensate for certain types of hardware failures.
Comparison of [14C]choline and [18F]fluoro-4-thia-palmitate (FTP) uptake in hypoxic 9L glioma cells

1120 Objectives Increased choline transport and phosphorylation is recognized as hallmarks of various cancers but our recent studies have shown that choline uptake can be significantly blunted in hypoxic tumor regions. Complimentary radiotracers are needed to delineate viable hypoxic cancer cells. In this study, the fatty acid oxidation (FAO) probe, [18F]FTP, was preliminary evaluated for its uptake potential in hypoxic cancer cells in relationship to choline. Methods 9L cells were incubated with [14C]choline (74KBq) and [18F]FTP (95KBq) for incubation periods (5-120min) following 24h normoxia (21%O2) or hypoxia (1%O2). For uptake studies, at the end of incubation, cells were washed with chilled PBS, lysed in 0.3N NaOH/1% SDS and then counted for radioactivity. A Folch-type extraction procedure was used to separate the radioactivity into aqueous, organic and protein-bound fractions. Results In 9L cells, hypoxia stimulated initial transport rate of both [18F]FTP and choline, as seen in the early uptake period. By 2h, a reduced rate of phosphorylation of choline under hypoxic conditions resulted in lower overall accumulation (4.14±0.20 versus 5.44±0.73 %dose/106 cells, p 94% radioactivity was found in the aqueous phase, consistent with the fate being nonmetabolized choline or phosphocholine. In hypoxia, significantly higher [18F]FTP accumulations were seen in both organic and protein-bound phases, suggesting enhancement of both transport and FAO-dependent mitochondrial trapping. Conclusions Hypoxia enhanced choline transport but decreased choline kinase-dependent accumulation of [14C]choline in 9L cells. Hypoxia enhanced both transport and FAO-dependent accumulation of [18F]FTP. These results encourage further evaluation of [18F]FTP as a cancer imaging probe that exhibits uptake that is not compromised within moderately hypoxic cells. Research Support NIH HL63371, CA 10862
Underdetermination Skepticism and Skeptical Dogmatism

The Mundane World Hypothesis ( mwh) says that we have material bodies, we have brains located inside our bodies, we have sense organs which process visual information, the direct cause of our perceptual judgments is typically macroscopic material objects, and we live in a material world. Skeptics using underdetermination arguments argue mwhhas no more epistemic merit than some skeptical competitor, e.g., that we are in the Matrix. Since such competitor hypotheses are equipollent, we are not justified in believing mwh. This paper takes the underdetermination skeptic’s premises to a more radical conclusion: skeptical dogmatism, which is the view that mwhis probably false based on the idea that there are many equipollent competitors to mwh.
Recent advances in our understanding of human host responses to tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains one of the world's greatest public health challenges: 2 billion persons have latent infection, 8 million people develop active tuberculosis annually, and 2–3 million die. Recently, significant advances in our understanding of the human immune response against tuberculosis have occurred. The present review focuses on recent work in macrophage and T-cell biology that sheds light on the human immune response to tuberculosis. The role of key cytokines such as interferon-γ is discussed, as is the role of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in immune regulation in tuberculosis, particularly with regard to implications for vaccine development and evaluation.
Food-borne virus:detection in a model system.

The purpose of this study was to develop methods for detection and quantitation of food-borne virus. Samples (25 g) of cottage cheese, contaminated with various quantities of coxsackievirus type A9, comprised the model system. Two of the methods presented have at least a 50% probability of detecting virus at levels below 5 plaque-forming units/25-g sample. Noteworthy aspects of these methods include use of a glycine-NaOH buffer (pH 8.8) containing approximately 1 m MgCl2 as the diluent in which the sample is slurried, treatment of the slurry with Freon TF and bentonite to facilitate centrifuge clarification, and concentration of the clarified sample extract by a two-stage process employing polyethylene glycol followed by ultracentrifugation. Virus in the final 0.5-ml sample concentrate was detected and quantitated by the plaque technique in rhesus monkey kidney cell cultures. Processing of the sample requires approximately 2 days, and the inoculated cultures may have to be observed for as long as 7 days thereafter. If these levels of sensitivity are desired, and if 12 samples per day are tested on a routine basis, the cost savings achieved by employing these methods rather than testing sample extracts without concentration may range from 75 to 90%.
Stresses in a fiber-reinforced elastic sheet containing a circular hole.

of a Thin Circular Cylindrical Shell," Journal of the Aerospace Sciences, Vol. 28, 1961, pp. 602-609. 7 Agamirov, V. L. and Volmir, A. S., "Behavior of Cylindrical Shells under Hydrostatic Dynamic Loading and Axial Compression," Journal of the American Rocket Society, Jan. 1961, pp. 98-101. 8 Bertram, J. E. and Sarachik, P. E., "Stability of Circuits with Randomly Time Varying Parameters," Proceedings of the International Symposium on Circuit and Information Theory, Los Angeles, California, 1959, IRE Transactions, CT-6, 1959, pp. 260-270. 9 Lepore, J. A. and Stoltz, R. A., "Stability of Linear Dynamic Systems under Stochastic Parametric Excitations," Developments in Mechanics, Vol. 6, 1971, pp. 571-585.
Enhanced Chlorine Efficacy against Bacterial Pathogens in Wash Solution with High Organic Loads

Chlorine is widely used as a sanitizer in commercial fresh-cut produce wash operations. However, chlorine reacts rapidly with organic materials, leading to potential pathogen survival when chlorine concentration nears depletion. This study evaluated a new process aid, T128, for its capacity to enhance chlorine efficacy against Escherichia coli O157:H7 in solutions with high organic loads. Chlorine solutions were prepared with either T128 or citric acid (control) to adjust pH. Survival of E. coli O157:H7 was assayed during washing of increasing amounts of shredded lettuce, or addition of lettuce juice as organic load. The application of T128 significantly reduced survival of E. coli O157:H7 when free chlorine in solution decreased to levels approaching depletion. In the presence of T128, no pathogen survival was observed with the free chlorine concentration as low as 0.05 mg/L, while 0.4 mg/L free chlorine was required to kill pathogens in the absence of T128 in the wash solution. Practical Applications The foodborne illness outbreaks that plague the fresh-cut produce industry are a testament to the need for a more effective sanitizer to prevent pathogen survival and cross contamination in commercial produce wash systems with large influxes of organic matter. This paper reports the investigation of the effect of a new process aid, T128, on reducing the survival of E. coli O157:H7 in wash solutions in which chlorine is near depletion due to high organic load, and thus the potential to improve the safety margin of fresh-cut process control.
The problem of control in the weak state

How does a decentralized, fundamentally weak state achieve a measure of control over societal changes without losing its essential character? That is the question that government, academic, and business leaders in the United States faced in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Before about 1880, most Americans in positions of influence were deeply committed to weak governments, divided sovereignty, and individual self-determination. The federalist structure of autonomous local, state, and national governments, patronage party politics, and a strong court system upholding individual rights contributed to and reinforced this commitment. But in the 1880s and 1890s influential Americans awoke to constant civil unrest and growing inequality in a society transformed by urbanization and industrialization, and began to realize the necessity of controlling the direction and consequences of change. In those years, and continuing at least to 1920, such Americans undertook the task of rethinking democracy. As a consequence of this crisis, the United States embarked upon an unprecedented and still continuing period of state building. This process, as Stephen Skowronek has shown, resulted in a "national administration" that remains wedded not only to the ideals, but also to the institutions of the weak state.'
Globalization, Job Creation and Inequality: The Challenges and Opportunities on Both Sides of the Offshoring Divide

This essay analyzes issues surrounding the impact of offshoring, an iconic manifestation of globalization in its present stage, on job creation and inequality on both sides of the geo-economic divide, focusing simultaneously on the US, the leading country involved in services offshoring, and on India, the primary beneficiary of this process. The paper traces the evolution of offshoring through different stages: from manufacturing to services, and more recently, offshoring of innovative activity and R&D. Some of the questions raised by this exercise are: What are the dilemmas involved in economically feasible yet socially responsible approaches, which can help reconcile what may seem to be contradictory and conflicting objectives on the two sides? What issues come up while trying to promote job creation in developed countries and broader social development in the developing countries, in the context of offshoring?
Inflammatory pseudotumor associated with HIV, JCV, and immune reconstitution syndrome.

A 37-year-old HIV-positive African woman developed severe chronic diarrhea. Her CD4+ T cell count was 25 cells/mm3. Within 1 month of initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) her plasma HIV viral load became undetectable and CD4+ T cell count rose to 96 cells/mm3, and continued to rise over the following months. Two months after the initiation of HAART she developed vertigo, loss of balance, incoordination, slurred speech, and tremor of the neck and limbs. Neurological examination revealed ocular abnormalities, dysarthria, and monotonic speech. She had bilateral limb dysmetria, past-pointing and endpoint tremor, impaired heel-knee-shin testing, head tremor, and a wide based, ataxic gait. Initial brain MRI revealed a confluent, nonenhancing area of signal abnormality predominantly involving the inferior right cerebellar hemisphere and extending to the posterior vermis, right cerebellar peduncle, and inferomedial aspect of the left cerebellar hemisphere. Six months later, MRI revealed progression of the cerebellar lesion, with nodular enhancement along the inferomedial aspect of the right cerebellar hemisphere. The patient remained clinically stable. MRI 8 months later revealed a large cystic ring-enhancing lesion in the location of the previously noted high signal intensity lesions of the cerebellum, with compression of the posterior fourth ventricle (figure, A). Figure MRI and histologic examination of the cerebellum (A) Gadolinium-enhanced T1 FLAIR MR image demonstrating a large cystic ring-enhancing lesion in the context of high signal intensity lesions of the cerebellum. (B) Excisional biopsy of the cerebellum demonstrating bizarre multinucleated giant …
A chemical theory analysis of the solution thermodynamics of oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen in lead-rich LiPb mixtures

Abstract The large non-idealities which are seen in LiPb solution thermodynamics are treated by postulating the existence of stable LiPb molecules in solution and strong surface tension effects around all dissolved impurity compounds. The equilibrium constant for LiPb formation obeys the following temperature dependence: In K eq = −1.44+ 7000 T Formulations which derive from these assumptions are used to calculate cold-trap solubilities for hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. The minimum cold-trap concentrations (mole fraction) in LiPb eutectic are 4.8 × 10 −5 for hydrogen, 2.5 × 10 −4 for nitrogen and 5.1 × 10 −6 for oxygen; these values are rather lower than the solubilities observed in pure lithium. The same formulations are used to calculate the Sieverts constants for hydrogen and nitrogen in lead-rich LiPb solution; these results agree with the experimentally observed constants. The surface tension interactions are assumed to equal the sum of the energy required to form a hole in the fluid and the energy which is released when the impurity compound is inserted within that hole. The method used here for estimating the latter energy is, I believe, exceptional in its rigor and its predictive capacity. Its use, however, is limited to liquid alloys of metals which, like LiPb, do not form heterometallic oxides and nitrides.
Epithelial cell function during blastocyst implantation

In response to the ovarian secretion of progesterone and estrogen during early pregnancy, the mammalian uterus develops the capacity to perform complex cellular activities which occur before and after blastocyst implantation. Luminal epithelial cells participate in regulation of the metabolism of the blastocyst through the control of its humoral environment, provide an appropriate matrix for changes to occur at the interface between trophoblast and epithelium, and appear to transmit information from the blastocyst to the underlying stroma to initiate decidualization. With the completion of these functions during implantation in rodents, the epithelial cells self-destruct and are removed by phagocytic activity of the trophoblast. Control of both the endocytotic and secretory activity of luminal epithelial cells and their eventual self-destruction would require regulation of the Golgi-endoplasmic reticulum-lysosomes system within these cells. Progesterone secretion during early pseudo- pregnancy increases levels of cathepsin D, a lysosomal proteinase, in luminal epithelial cells by increasing the rate of enzyme synthesis. Progesterone pretreatment of ovariectomized rats followed by estradiol treatment results in the development of uterine sensitivity to deciduogenic stimuli. The number of proteins which are synthesized by luminal epithelial cells in response to estradiol to achieve this sensitivity has been determined. Epithelial cytosol proteins from rats treated with medroxyprogesterone acetate (3·5 mg sc) or medroxyproges- terone acetate plus estradiol (200 ng sc) were separated by two dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The synthesis of two proteins increased after 8 h of estradiol treatment and the synthesis of another three was increased by 12 h. The increased synthesis of these proteins could be related to changes in the capacity of the luminal epithelial cell for prostaglandin synthesis. The epithelial capacity for prostaglandin synthesis increases during pseudopreg- nancy to maximum levels at the time of maximum sensitivity to deciduogenic stimuli. Epithelial prostaglandin synthetic capacity may also depend upon the accumulation of prostaglandin precursors within these cells. Estradiol treatment of medroxyprogesterone acetate pretreated ovariectomized rats increased the arachidonic acid content and composition of epithelial phosphatidyl choline but the increases were not statistically significant. These changes in protein and lipid synthesis controlled by progesterone and estrogen would appear to contribute to the cellular activities of the luminal epithelium during early pregnancy.