cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chronic Antiprogestin Therapy Produces a Stable Atrophic Endometrium With Decreased Fibroblast Growth Factor: A 1-Year Primate Study on Contraception and Amenorrhea

Abstract Objective: To describe the efficacy of mifepristone in the prevention of menstrual bleeding and ovulation, with similar observations in comparison groups. Design: Prospective experimental study. Thirty-two cynomolgus monkeys were divided equally into four treatment groups (n = 8). Treatment lasted for 1 year. Intervention(s): Group I received GnRH-agonist (GnRH-a) and in-sequence mifepristone, group II received mifepristone only, group III received GnRH-a only, and group IV received vehicle control. Main Outcome Measure(s): Serum estradiol and progesterone, menstrual bleeding, endometrial thickness, and endometrial expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) as determined by immunohistochemistry. Result(s): Weekly progesterone determinations showed that mifepristone-treated monkeys seldom ovulated (6 ovulations in 8 years), compared with the controls (100 ovulations in 8 years), while maintaining early to midfollicular levels of circulating serum estradiol. The GnRH-a–only group also rarely ovulated, but was chronically and severely hypoestrogenic. The mifepristone-only group showed scant menstrual bleeding (5 days in 8 years) as compared with the menstrual frequency in control animals (422 days in 8 years). Endometrial proliferation, as determined by biopsy, was similarly minimal for both the GnRH-a and mifepristone groups, and statistically less than in control monkeys. Both the mifepristone and GnRH-a treatments suppressed endometrial gland expression of the angiogenesis polypeptide bFGF. Conclusion(s): Chronic mifepristone induced anovulation along with virtual amenorrhea, which suggests the worth of this novel hormonal contraceptive.
Anomalous dynamic elastic-plastic response of a Galerkin beam model

Abstract A study of the anomalous motion of an elastic—plastic beam under short pulse loading is presented. The geometric nonlinearity due to axial end constraints is taken into account. We apply the Galerkin method to the governing partial differential equation of the transverse motion to obtain a general model of n degrees of freedom ( n DoF). The results of elastic—plastic deformation analysis and dynamic response for the 2DoF model of a pin-ended beam are presented. The regular and irregular motions of the 2DoF model for the pin-ended beam are examined by various methods including time history, phase diagram, Lyapunov characteristic exponent and power spectral density.
Effects of matrix polarity and ambient aging on the morphology of sulfonated polyurethane ionomers

Ethylene oxide units were incorporated into the backbone of Na+ sulfonated polyurethane ionomers in an attempt to induce aggregate dissociation at elevated, but observable, temperatures by reducing the incompatibility between ions and polymer. However, no dissociation could be observed by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) before the onset of degradation, even when the polyol was pure EO. At 100°C and above, the SAXS patterns for all samples were quite similar, indicating morphological similarity. However, after annealing for several days at room temperature, two of the specimens appeared to develop a greater degree of microdomain order as evidenced by a narrowing of the main peak at q* and the development of a shoulder at 2q*x.
Characterization of Liver Toxicity in F344/N Rats and B6C3F1 mice after Exposure to a Flame Retardant containing lower molecular weight Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers

Lower molecular weight polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), components of flame retardants, are found in the environment and in human and animal tissues. Toxicity studies were conducted in F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice by administering a flame retardant containing these lower molecular weight PBDEs (BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, and BDE153) by oral gavage 5 days/week for 13 weeks at doses of 0.01, 5, 50, 100 or 500mg/kg/day. Liver was the primary target organ in rats and mice. Treatment-related increases in liver weights, liver cytochrome P450 (1A1, 1A2, 2B) and UDPGT (rats only) levels, and liver lesions were seen in both rats and mice. Hepatocyte hypertrophy and vacuolization increased in incidence and severity with treatment, and occurred at levels of 50mg/kg and above in rats, and at 100mg/kg and above in mice. Liver Cyp 1A1, 1A2, and 2B levels were increased at exposure levels of 50mg/kg and above in rats and mice. In addition, treatment-related thyroid lesions occurred particularly in rats. The most sensitive parameter for PBDE toxicity was the increase in liver weights which occurred at 5mg/kg above in rats and 50mg/kg and above in mice. These results suggest that liver may be a target organ for carcinogenesis processes after long-term administration of PBDEs. A chronic PBDE study is currently being conducted by the National Toxicology Program.
Human adenylyl cyclase type 7 contains polymorphic repeats in the 3' untranslated region: investigations of association with alcoholism.

Platelet adenylyl cyclase activity has been proposed as a trait marker for alcoholism [Tabakoff et al. (1988): N Engl J Med 318:134–139; Parsian et al. (1996): Alcohol Clin Exp Res 20:745–751]. Human adenylyl cyclase type 7 (ADCY7) is a member of the adenylyl cyclase gene family, and it may be the major form of adenylyl cyclase expressed in human platelets. The published cDNA sequence of ADCY7 indicated the presence of potentially polymorphic regions in the 3′ untranslated region of ADCY7. PCR techniques combined with fluorescently labeled primers were used to amplify two separate tetranucleotide repeat regions [(AACA)n] in the 3′ untranslated region of ADCY7 from the genomic DNA of 62 unrelated individuals. The upstream (AACA)4-repeat was not polymorphic. Five different genotypes were found in the downstream (AACA)5–7 tetranucleotide repeat region. We also tested the association of the tetranucleotide polymorphism to alcohol dependence. When 30 alcoholic and 17 control individuals were compared, no difference was found in the ADCY7 tetranucleotide polymorphism between alcohol-dependent and control groups. Nevertheless, to our knowledge these are the first polymorphisms reported in an adenylyl cyclase gene. Adenylyl cyclases are important receptor-G protein-coupled effectors and are involved in numerous neuronal functions in the central nervous system. Whether variations in ADCY7 and possible variations in other members of this gene family are underlying other psychiatric disorders remains to be studied. Am. J. Med. Genet. 74:95–98, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
THE CARRIAGE OF IMMUNOLOGICAL MEMORY BY SMALL LYMPHOCYTES IN THE RAT

Lymphocytes were obtained from the thoracic duct of rats 1(1/2) to 15 months after primary immunization with a single dose of bacteriophage phiX 174. An intravenous injection of these lymphocytes conferred on heavily X-irradiated rats the ability to form antibody in a secondary-type manner after a first injection of phiX. Negligible responses were obtained after cell transfer if the recipients were not challenged with antigen. Thoracic duct cells from some immunized donors were incubated in vitro for 24 hr before transfer in order to destroy selectively the large, dividing lymphocytes. The responsiveness conferred on X-irradiated recipients by such "incubated" inocula was then compared with that given by equal numbers of "fresh" thoracic duct cells. In all such comparisons the recipients of the "incubated" cells gave higher and more rapid antibody responses. It was concluded that the cells in thoracic duct lymph which carried immunological memory were small lymphocytes.
The Comanche Empire

The Comanche Empire PEKKA HAMALAINEN New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008 Pp. 512, $23.00 (pbk), ISBN 978 0 3001 5117 6 Early in the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides remarked that...
An experimental and theoretical study of phase transitions in the polystyrene latex and hydroxyethylcellulose system

Abstract We present an experimental study of phase transitions induced in polystyrene latices by hydroxyethylcellulose and interpret the results by applying perturbation theory from statistical mechanics to an interaction potential derived from the volume exclusion mechanism of Akasura and Oosawa. The predictions agree semiquantitatively with the measured colloidal phase densities and the critical polymer concentration above which flocculation occurs for a wide range of ionic strengths. The theory also predicts the type of phase transition, i.e., fluid-solid or fluid-fluid, observed by Sperry. The agreement between experiment and theory demonstrates the predictive capability of the perturbation theory for weakly aggregating colloidal suspensions.
Effects of short periods of chilling and warming on potato sugar content and chipping quality

Two days of chilling (exposure to 1 C) had no detectable effect on chip color or sugar content of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers. Four days of chilling led to increases in sugars if potatoes were stored at 10 C or 19 C for 3 to 4 days after chilling ended. Longer chilling gave increases in sugars by the end of the chilling period, and returning tubers to 10 C or 19 C magnified the response. Glucose and fructose gave similar increases from chilling treatments, except that glucose levels were consistently greater. Sucrose was increased by chilling, but the response pattern did not always resemble that of the reducing sugars. Twenty-seven days of storage at 19 C after chilling lowered levels of reducing sugars late in the storage season but not in December. Cultivars differed in response to chilling. Kennebec tubers accumulated far more reducing sugars but much less sucrose than did Norchip tubers. Storage at 19 C after chilling lowered the sucrose content of Kennebec and Monona while raising that of Norchip.
Anger toward God: Social-cognitive predictors, prevalence, and links with adjustment to bereavement and cancer.

Many people see themselves as being in a relationship with God and see this bond as comforting. Yet, perceived relationships with God also carry the potential for experiencing anger toward God, as shown here in studies with the U.S. population (Study 1), undergraduates (Studies 2 and 3), bereaved individuals (Study 4), and cancer survivors (Study 5). These studies addressed 3 fundamental issues regarding anger toward God: perceptions and attributions that predict anger toward God, its prevalence, and its associations with adjustment. Social-cognitive predictors of anger toward God paralleled predictors of interpersonal anger and included holding God responsible for severe harm, attributions of cruelty, difficulty finding meaning, and seeing oneself as a victim. Anger toward God was frequently reported in response to negative events, although positive feelings predominated. Anger and positive feelings toward God showed moderate negative associations. Religiosity and age correlated negatively with anger toward God. Reports of anger toward God were slightly lower among Protestants and African Americans in comparison with other groups (Study 1). Some atheists and agnostics reported anger involving God, particularly on measures emphasizing past experiences (Study 2) and images of a hypothetical God (Study 3). Anger toward God was associated with poorer adjustment to bereavement (Study 4) and cancer (Study 5), particularly when anger remained unresolved over a 1-year period (Study 5). Taken together, these studies suggest that anger toward God is an important dimension of religious and spiritual experience, one that is measurable, widespread, and related to adjustment across various contexts and populations.
RESPONSE TO BYPASS ILEOSTOMY IN ULCERATIVE COLITIS AND CROHN'S DISEASE OF THE COLON

Abstract Ileostomy, excluding intestinal contents from the colon, was done in sixteen patients with chronic inflammatory disease of the large intestine. Ten patients had Crohn's disease, five had ulcerative colitis, and one could not be classified. These designations were based on histological assessment. Clinical recovery followed operation in the Crohn's disease group; the only relapse to occur was in one of the two patients who had intestinal continuity restored. In the ulcerative colitis group, on the other hand, relapse was universal; four of the five patients required total colectomy. The response to bypass ileostomy suggests that there is a fundamental difference between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
Localization of nervonic acid β-oxidation in human and rodent peroxisomes: impaired oxidation in Zellweger syndrome and X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy

Studies with purified subcellular organelles from rat liver indicate that nervonic acid (C 24:1 ) is b -oxidized pref- erentially in peroxisomes. Lack of effect by etomoxir, inhibi- tor of mitochondrial b -oxidation, on b -oxidation of lignoceric acid (C 24:0 ), a peroxisomal function, and that of nervonic acid (24:1) compared to the inhibition of palmitic acid (16:0) oxi- dation, a mitochondrial function, supports the conclusion that nervonic acid is oxidized in peroxisomes. Moreover, the oxidation of nervonic and lignoceric acids was deficient in fi- broblasts from patients with defects in peroxisomal b -oxida- tion (Zellweger syndrome (ZS) and X-linked adrenoleukodys- trophy (X-ALD)). Similar to lignoceric acid, the activation and b -oxidation of nervonic acid was deficient in peroxisomes iso- lated from X-ALD fibroblasts. Transfection of X-ALD fibro- blasts with human cDNA encoding for ALDP (X-ALD gene product) restored the oxidation of both nervonic and ligno- ceric acids, demonstrating that the same molecular defect may be responsible for the abnormality in the oxidation of nervonic as well as lignoceric acid. Moreover, immunoprecipi- tation of activities for acyl-CoA ligase for both lignoceric acid and nervonic acid indicate that saturated and monoenoic very long chain (VLC) fatty acids may be activated by the same en- zyme. These results clearly demonstrate that similar to satu- rated VLC fatty acids (e.g., lignoceric acid), VLC monoun- saturated fatty acids (e.g., nervonic acid) are oxidized preferentially in peroxisomes and that this activity is impaired in X-ALD. In view of the fact that the oxidation of unsaturated VLC fatty acids is defective in X-ALD patients, the efficacy of dietary monoene therapy, "Lorenzo's oil," in X-ALD needs to be evaluated.— Sandhir, R., M. Khan, A. Chahal, and I. Singh. Localization of nervonic acid b -oxidation in human and ro- dent peroxisomes: impaired oxidation in Zellweger syndrome and X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. J. Lipid Res. 1998. 39: 2161-2171.
Conflicting Intuitions about Causality1

In this article I examine five kinds of conflicting intuitions about the nature of causality. The viewpoint is that of a probabilistic theory of causality, which I think is the right general framework for examining causal questions. It is not the purpose of this article to defend the general thesis in any depth but many of the particular points I make are meant to offer new lines of defense of such a probabilistic theory. To provide a conceptual framework for the analysis, I review briefly the more systematic aspects of the sort of probabilistic theory of causality I advocate. I first define the three notions of prima facie cause, spurious cause, and genuine cause. The technical details are worked out in an earlier monograph (Suppes, 1970) and are not repeated.
MicroRNAs Inducing Proliferation of Quiescent Adult Cardiomyocytes

In the United States, each year over 700,000 people suffer from a heart attack and over 25% of deaths are related to heart disease, making it the leading cause of death. Following ischemic injury a part of the heart muscle is replaced by a scar tissue, reducing its functioning capacity. Recent advancements in surgical intervention and pharmacotherapy only provide symptomatic relief and do not address the root cause of the problem which is the massive loss of cardiomyocytes (CM). Therefore, the development of novel therapeutic intervention for the repair and regeneration of ischemic myocardium remains an area of intense research. While existing CM in zebra fish and neonatal mice are known to proliferate and replenish the infarcted heart, it has been shown that adult mammalian CM lose this ability, thus preventing regeneration of the scar tissue. There have been many attempts to facilitate regeneration of ischemic heart but have met with limited success. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are one of the promising candidates towards this goal as they are known to play important regulatory roles during differentiation and tissue regeneration, and regulate genetic information by post-transcriptional modification as well as regulation of other miRNAs. While previous work by Eulalio et al., showed miRNAs inducing proliferation in neonatal CM (NCM), we here identify miRNAs inducing proliferation of rat adult-CM (ACM). This commentary while analyses recent work by Eulalio et al [1] also shows some new data with microRNAs in rat adult-CMs. Further work into the mechanism of these miRNAs can determine their therapeutic potential towards regenerating cardiac tissue post ischemic injury.
DOSIMETRY IN SUPPORT OF WHOLESOMENESS STUDIES

Interest in dosimetry procedures in the context of a large-scale processing situation exceeds the purely documentary aspects of this report. The numerous combinations afforded by the various types, strengths and configurations of irradiation sources and the possibilities for various conveyors and other facility design factors impacting on irradiation logistics render a completely general treatment of dosimetry procedures in such instances almost impossible. While the exact combination of these various factors represented by the irradiation facilities at NARADCOM may be duplicated nowhere else, the dosimetry procedures documented in this report offer both experience and solutions that might be more generally useful. Therefore, this report complements and supplements more general discussions found in the literature and cited in the text.
Adoption and Impacts of Interorganizational Business Process Standards: Role of Partnering Synergy

Notwithstanding potential benefits, such as quality of interorganizational relationships and operational and strategic gains, adoption of information technology (IT)-enabled interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) is still limited. Given that these standards are designed for interorganizational business processes, we suggest that adoption of these standards depends not only on the factors pertinent to a focal firm but also on factors that represent synergies between a focal firm and its trading partners. In this paper, building on the technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) framework and interorganizational theories, we propose a model that postulates that a set of TOE factors will have synergistic effects (i.e., interactions between a focal firm's and its partner's factors) on IBPS adoption. We tested our model in a study of 248 firms (124 dyads) in the high-tech industry implementing RosettaNet-based IBPS and found that three TOE factors (i.e., process compatibility, standards uncertainty, and technology readiness) had synergistic effects and two factors (i.e., expected benefits and relational trust) had direct effects on IBPS adoption. We also found that IBPS adoption led to greater relationship quality (i.e., partnering satisfaction) and operational efficiency (i.e., cycle time). Further, we found that IBPS adoption mediated the effect of TOE factors on partnering satisfaction and cycle time.
Cryogenic and Conventional Freezing of Chicken

Abstract Air blast, “Freon,” “Nitreon” and liquid nitrogen spray processes were employed in the freezing of chicken fryer halves. Drip loss, cooking loss, shear force, visual bone darkening measurements and sensory evaluations were made on halves after cooking. The pectoralis major muscle was used for shear measurement with a Warner-Bratzler tenderometer. Degree of bone darkening was scored by a sensory panel. Liquid nitrogen frozen halves had the least drip loss. Average cooking loss was highest for air blast frozen halves and lowest for non-frozen halves. Non-frozen halves showed lowest cooking loss, shear force values and bone darkening scores. Only minor differences between freezing methods were noted in shear values and bone darkening.
Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome in a patient taking phenytoin and levetiracetam: a case report

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome is a potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction with rash, fever, and internal organ involvement, often hepatitis, occurring most commonly two to eight weeks after initiation of a medication. The present case is an example of severe and potentially life-threatening hepatitis as a manifestation of drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome. We report a case of anti-epileptic-induced drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome in an 18-year-old African-American man who presented with a five-day history of rash, periorbital and upper extremity edema, hepatitis and fever. Laboratory findings revealed an atypical lymphocytosis, eosinophilia, and elevated serum transaminases. No drug allergies were reported at the time of presentation, but phenytoin and levetiracetam therapy had been initiated five weeks prior to hospital admission for new-onset seizures. Both medications were discontinued on hospital admission, and after three days of high-dose corticosteroid therapy the patient experienced resolution of both his symptoms and laboratory markers of inflammation. Given the significant mortality attributed to drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome, medical personnel should be aware of the potential for this severe hypersensitivity reaction and should ensure close follow-up and offer anticipatory guidance when beginning any new medication, particularly anti-epileptic therapy. Early recognition of drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome and initiation of appropriate therapy are imperative in limiting morbidity.
Inborn Errors of Metabolism of Acute Onset in Infancy

Pediatricians and neonatologists are frequently presented with ill neonates or older infants whose symptoms have an acute onset and a severe and/or recurrent character. The clinician faced with symptoms that are frequently nonspecific must differentiate among many disorders, usually considering infection, cardiac defects, central nervous system insults, or gastrointestinal problems. Not infrequently, an inborn error of metabolism (IEM) will mimic these more common conditions. Although each individual IEM is rare, throughout the course of a practice the clinician will cumulatively see many patients with such disorders, with various findings. According to a recent estimate, IEM account for as much as 20% of disease among full-term neonates not known to have been at risk.1 The neonatologist and/or pediatrician will be the first to evaluate an acutely ill neonate or infant, and he or she must be alert to the possibility of an IEM. The implications of failing to entertain such a diagnosis may be formidable. An IEM should be considered early and appropriate screening tests obtained concurrently with assessment of the likelihood of more common causes. The exact incidence with which IEM occur in the neonatal period or with acute symptoms in early to late infancy is not known. Cumulatively, IEM may represent more than 1 in 5000 live births.
Coupled solution of the species conservation equations using unstructured finite‐volume method

A coupled solver was developed to solve the species conservation equations on an unstructured mesh with implicit spatial as well as species-to-species coupling. First, the computational domain was decomposed into sub-domains comprised of geometrically contiguous cells—a process similar to additive Schwarz decomposition. This was done using the binary spatial partitioning algorithm. Following this step, for each sub-domain, the discretized equations were developed using the finite-volume method, and solved using an iterative solver based on Krylov sub-space iterations, that is, the pre-conditioned generalized minimum residual solver. Overall (outer) iterations were then performed to treat explicitness at sub-domain interfaces and nonlinearities in the governing equations. The solver is demonstrated for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometries for laminar methane–air flame calculations with 6 species and 2 reaction steps, and for catalytic methane–air combustion with 19 species and 24 reaction steps. It was found that the best performance is manifested for sub-domain size of 2000 cells or more, the exact number depending on the problem at hand. The overall gain in computational efficiency was found to be a factor of 2–5 over the block (coupled) Gauss–Seidel procedure. All calculations were performed on a single processor machine. The largest calculations were performed for about 355 000 cells (4.6 million unknowns) and required 900 MB of peak runtime memory and 19 h of CPU on a single processor. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Einfluß der Qualität des Nahrungseiweißes auf Hydrolasen des Verdauungstraktes. 2. Mitt. Einfluß der Qualität verschiedener Nahrungsproteine auf die Pankreasproteasen im Dünndarmlumen und auf die Resorption eines Eiweißhydrolysates

Die proteolytische Aktivitat im Lumen des Dunndarmes wird durch verschiedene Nahrungsproteine (RP) unterschiedlich beeinflust. Wir bezogen alle Werte auf eine Diat, deren RP-Trager Casein, erganzt mit 4% Methionin, war (Casein-Standard-Diat). Weizen II, Raps und Sojaextraktionsschrot beeinflusten als Nahrungs-RP-Trager die Verdauungsleistung positiv (161 bzw. 156 bzw. 153%). Weizen I entsprach dem Casein-Standard-Weizenkleber; Hefe und Gelatine bewirkten eine signifikante Abnahme der proteolytischen Aktivitat (70 bzw. 40 bzw. 23%). Eine Erganzung von Maiskleber mit den limitierenden Aminosauren beeinfluste zwar deutlich Zuwachs und PER, nicht aber die Verdauungsleistung. Die Resorptionsleistung wird gegenuber der Standard-Diat nur bei Einsatz von Raps und einem Casein/Gelatine-Gemisch im Verhaltnis 1: 2 als Nahrungs-RP signifikant gesenkt (71,5 bzw. 72,5 und 85,5%). Bei weiteren Nahrungs-RP (Casein, Vollei, Soja, Weizen und den Gemischen Casein/Gelatine (1: 2) und Casein/Weizenkleber (1:2)) konnten Unterschiede zur Casein-Standard-Diat nicht beobachtet werden.
RAnking With Relative Comparisons For Evaluating Supermarket Location Cities

Nowadays, choosing potential cities where to open new stores (especially supermarkets) and expand business plays a very important role for leading retailers due to the influence of huge and long-term investment. However, it is very time consuming for decision makers or experienced analysts to go through the whole city data and determine which city is better for a new supermarket. In the computer aided decision making scenario, retailers would like computers to model the data well enough to give a considerable rank result when some information is provided. In the real world new supermarket potential city selection problem, we find out that analysts can usually give some partially ordered information (i.e., for two cities, which city is better) and some relative comparison information (i.e., for three cities, the rank of city B is more close to city A than city C is to A) with high confidence. So in this paper, we propose a novel ranking model, which can deal with these two kinds of information together to evaluate the rank of cities. The promising experimental results in real world application data demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods for evaluating rank of cities for choosing new supermarket location cities.
Efficient composite data flow analysis applied to concurrent programs

FLAVERS, a tool for verifying properties of concurrent systems, uses composite data flow analysis to incrementally improve the precision of the results of its verifications. Although FLAVERS is one of the few static analysis techniques for concurrent systems that has the potential to handle large scale systems, it sometimes can still be very expensive to use. In this paper we experimentally compare the cost of two versions of this approach for solving composite data flow analysis problems. The first version, product-based, uses the more straightforward approach, and the second, tuple-based, is built around the idea of reducing analysis space requirements at the expense of analysis time. We demonstrate experimentally, by analyzing properties of actual concurrent programs, that the tuple-based version is comparable in time to the product-based version but for large composite data flow problems it requires several orders of magnitude less space.
Using modern mathematics as an FOSD modeling language

Modeling languages are a fundamental part of automated software development. MDD, for example, uses UML class diagrams and state machines as languages to define applications. In this paper, we explore how Feature Oriented Software Development (FOSD) uses modern mathematics as a modeling language to express the design and synthesis of programs in software product lines, but demands little mathematical sophistication from its users. Doing so has three practical benefits: (1) it offers a simple and principled mathematical description of how FOSD transforms, derives, and relates program artifacts, (2) it exposes previously unrecognized commuting relationships among tool chains, thereby providing new ways to debug tools, and (3) it reveals new ways to optimize software synthesis.
Structure and innervation of the sensory organs on the snout of the star-nosed mole

The star-nosed mole possesses a conspicuous specialization of its snout in the form of 22 fleshy appendages that fan out from around the nostrils. These appendages are used by the mole to explore its underground environment and are repeatedly brought into contact with objects of interest to the mole. This report describes the structure, innervation, and distribution of the sensory organs on the star of the star-nosed mole and briefly describes the behavioral use of the star. Each of the 22 appendages of the star is covered with a continuous array of Eimer's organs. These sensory receptors are modifications of the epidermal surface that take the form of bulbous papillae. Each Eimer's organ contains a column or stack of epidermal cells accompanied by nerve processes that originate from myelinated fibers in the underlying dermis. These neural processes travel through the cell column and form terminal swellings just below the outer layer of keratinized epidermis. Each Eimer's organ also contains a single Merkel cell-neurite complex within the cell column and a single lamellated corpuscle immediately below the cell column in the connective tissue of the dermis. There are approximately 30,000 Eimer's organs on the snout of this mammal, making this structure perhaps the most sensitive tactile organ yet discovered for its size. The segregation of these organs to individual appendages, not unlike the fingers of primates, affords an intriguing model for the study of somatosensory systems in mammals.
JMASM9: Converting Kendall’s Tau For Correlational Or Meta-Analytic Analyses

Expanding on past research, this study provides researchers with a detailed table for use in meta-analytic applications when engaged in assorted examinations of various r-related statistics, such as Kendall’s tau ( ) and Cohen’s d, that estimate the magnitude of experimental or observational effect. A program to convert from the lesser-used tau coefficient to other effect size indices when conducting correlational or meta-analytic analyses is presented.
Estimation of fracture height using microseismicity associated with hydraulic fracturing

The ratio of horizontal‐to‐vertical (H/V) particle velocity in background microseismic radiation associated with hydraulic fracturing is substantially higher in the dilatant, low‐velocity fractured zone than it is outside. This provides a useful diagnostic for determining the height of the fractured zone. Numerical synthesis of guided wave phenomena within the low‐velocity fractured zone accounts for much of the observed behavior, but measured H/V patterns are not totally consistent with either pure tensile or pure shear sources. A composite model containing both tensile‐compressional sources and asperity shear failures appears to satisfy the main observations better than either source type does alone. This composite is consistent with current models of earthquake aftershock sequences, which also have different mechanisms at the edges and in the interior of a fracture zone (tensile and shear, respectively). The H/V phenomenon is consistent with a predominance of energy with shear‐wave polarization traveli...
Adolescent social defeat decreases spatial working memory performance in adulthood

Background Adolescent social stress is associated with increased incidence of mental illnesses in adulthood that are characterized by deficits in cognitive focus and flexibility. Such enhanced vulnerability may be due to psychosocial stress-induced disruption of the developing mesocortical dopamine system, which plays a fundamental role in facilitating complex cognitive processes such as spatial working memory. Adolescent rats exposed to repeated social defeat as a model of social stress develop dopaminergic hypofunction in the medial prefrontal cortex as adults. To evaluate a direct link between adolescent social stress and later deficits in cognitive function, the present study tested the effects of adolescent social defeat on two separate tests of spatial working memory performance.
Human SP-A genetic variants and bleomycin-induced cytokine production by THP-1 cells: effect of ozone-induced SP-A oxidation

Surfactant protein A (SP-A) plays a role in innate host defense. Human SP-A is encoded by two functional genes (SP-A1 and SP-A2), and several alleles have been characterized for each gene. We asses...
Disaster care: psychological considerations

Disasters are tragic events that disrupt the normal functioning ofa community and overwhelm personal and community resources. The people who experience or simply witness traumatic events can be affected emotionally and develop a range of physical and emotional responses, which in turn can produce psychological, social, and physiological dysfunction. The challenge for health care providers is to recognize the range of emotions and to be able to identify when professional help is indicated. This article provides an overview of the human stress response and describes sources of stress that follow disasters, acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and interventions and resources used to care for victims after disasters.
Building the evaluation capacity of a school district

The author tells in this case study how she worked to bring and sustain practical evaluation work on the school district and school building levels.
Mathematical Simulation and Parametric Study of Flow of a Microbicidal Gel Between Elastic Boundaries

Topical microbicides, the next generation prevention tool for HIV and other sexually transmitted pathogens, hold great promise if the target vaginal or rectal epithelium is coated effectively. A microbicide consists of an active ingredient within a polymeric delivery vehicle (e.g. polymeric liquid or ‘gel’). Most research in the field of microbicides has been limited to the development of an active ingredient and many microbicidal trails have failed in the past. Thus, there is a need to design a delivery vehicle that optimizes the efficacy of a microbicidal agent. The effectiveness of the gel depends on the gel’s rheological properties as well as the vaginal tissue properties, vaginal geometry, and external forces like gravity. A good design must take these factors in to consideration and a better understanding of the gel’s flow behavior over the epithelium is important before proceeding with clinical trials.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Virtual Grouping based adaptive actuator failure compensation for MIMO nonlinear systems

A new control design technique called virtual grouping is presented to handle actuator redundancy and failures for multiple-input-mutliple-output (MIMO) systems, enlarging the set of compensable actuator failures. An adaptive compensation scheme is thus developed for a class of nonlinear MIMO systems to ensure closed-loop signal boundedness and asymptotic output tracking despite unknown actuator failures. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the adaptive design.
Intensive care unit nurses’ perceptions of safety after a highly specific safety intervention

Background: It is unknown if successful changes in specific safety practices in the intensive care unit (ICU) generalise to broader concepts of patient safety by staff nurses. Objective: To explore perceptions of patient safety among nursing staff in ICUs following participation in a safety project that decreased hospital acquired infections. Method: After implementation of practices that reduced catheter-related bloodstream infections in ICUs at four community hospitals, ICU nurses participated in focus groups to discuss patient safety. Audiotapes from the focus groups were transcribed, and two independent reviewers categorised the data which were triangulated with responses from selected questions of safety climate surveys and with the safety checklists used by management leadership on walk rounds. Results: Thirty-three nurses attended eight focus groups; 92 nurses and managers completed safety climate surveys, and three separate leadership checklists were reviewed. In focus groups, nurses predominantly related patient safety to dangers in the physical environment (eg, bed rails, alarms, restraints, equipment, etc.) and to medication administration. These areas also represented 47% of checklist items from leadership walk rounds. Nurses most frequently mentioned self-initiated “double checking” as their main safety task. Focus-group participants and survey responses both noted inconsistency between management’s verbal and written commitment compared with their day-to-day support of patient safety issues. Conclusions: ICU nurses who participated in a project to decrease hospital acquired infections did not generalise their experience to other aspects of patient safety or relate it to management’s interest in patient safety. These findings are consistent with many adult learning theories, where self-initiated tasks, combined with immediate, but temporary problem-solving, are stronger learning forces than management-led activities with delayed feedback.
The Effects of Stress on Cognitive Aging, Physiology and Emotion (ESCAPE) Project.

Despite evidence that psychological stress is an important risk factor for age-related cognitive loss, little research has directly evaluated psychological and physiological mediators of the relationship between stressful experiences and cognitive function. A key objective of the ESCAPE (Effects of Stress on Cognitive Aging, Physiology, and Emotion) project is to evaluate whether engaging in stress-related unconstructive repetitive thought (URT) is a pathway through which stressful experiences negatively affect cognitive health over the short- and long-term. Over the short-term, we hypothesize that engaging in URT will deplete attentional resources and result in worse cognitive performance in daily life. Over the long-term, we expect that the effects of chronic stress, from repeated exposure to stressors and regular engagement in URT, will be apparent in dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and inflammation. Over time, stress-related physiological dysregulation will result in accelerated cognitive decline. This study utilizes a prospective longitudinal measurement-burst design. A systematic probability sample of participants aged 25 to 65 is recruited from residents of the Bronx, NY. Consenting participants complete a baseline assessment and follow-up waves at 9, 18, and 27 months post-baseline. At each wave, participants complete a 14 day measurement burst of brief surveys and cognitive assessments delivered via study smartphones during daily life. Participants provide saliva samples four times each day for five days during the measurement burst and fasting blood samples at the end of each burst from which cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), circulating inflammatory markers, and stimulated inflammatory responses to lipopolysaccharide in whole blood are determined. This study takes a multi-pronged approach to assessing stress (i.e., early adversity, chronic strains, major events, daily hassles), psychological mediators (e.g., URT), biological mechanisms (i.e., HPA function, inflammation) and outcomes across different time-scales (i.e., momentary cognitive performance, cognitive decline across years). The systematic probability sample is locally representative and can be compared with national norms on key markers of health and well-being. The findings will improve our understanding of how environmental, psychological, and physiological stress-related influences accumulate to affect cognitive health and identify potential targets (e.g., URT, inflammation) for prevention and intervention promoting cognitive health.
What is the role for carbon cycle science in the proposed EPA power plant rule

On June 2, 2014, the United States Environmental Protection Agency proposed goals and guidelines aimed at lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants in the United States. Should it be successfully implemented, US power plant CO2 emissions would be reduced approximately 30 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030. Rather than a single national reduction goal, the proposed rule specifies reduction targets unique to each US state but leaves the means by which states meet those targets, flexible to individual state conditions. Regardless of the policy mixture adopted in each US state, quantification of CO2 emissions at the level of individual power plants will be a critical need. Recent research examining power plant CO2 emissions has noted potentially large uncertainties at the individual facility level, uncertainty that remains poorly understood. At the same time, carbon scientists working on aspects of monitoring, reporting and verification of anthropogenic CO2 emissions have developed a mixture of measurement and modeling capabilities as part of the development of a “carbon monitoring system”, that could assist in assessing how well independent emissions quantification is performing currently and identify a path towards improved monitoring. Equally important is an assessment of uncertainty at the various space and time scales the EPA proposed rule implies. Application of these recent scientific capabilities to the needs of the EPA’s proposed rule could offer a cogent, near-term example of how scientific research can directly enable better decision-making. This paper provides a review of the proposed rule and what role scientific research could play in the evolution of the rulemaking and its application in the future.
Historicizing the ‘New Wars’: The case of Jihad in the early years of Islam:

Despite the transformative potential of the �New Wars� paradigm, what might be labeled the �first generation� of scholarship has been subject to a range of cross-disciplinary conceptual and empirical challenges that have called into question many of its key findings. While there is much that is valid in these critiques of the New Wars thesis, ultimately it is premature to conclude that they have fatally undermined the New Wars paradigm as a heuristically useful framework for inquiring into the (changing) character of violent political conflict. All of this suggests that what is needed now is not the abandonment of the New Wars paradigm, but a longer-term historical perspective that can help us avoid many of the conceptual errors that plague the extant literature.
Introduction for "Safety Considerations for Retroviral Vectors: A Short Review"

Retroviral vectors are becoming standard tools in cell biology as well as potential therapeutic agents for human disease. Many investigators have come to believe that retroviral vectors are safe, b...
A Study on the Effectiveness of Underfill in the High Bandwidth Memory with TSV

HBM-High Bandwidth Memory- has 128 GB/s band width and construction of stacked memory device with TSV –Through Silicon Via-. Stacked structure is basically composed of base die which has a logical circuit to control memory cell and 4 high stacked memory devices. HBM package size is around 5 mm × 7mm, smallest form factor and attached to the Si interposer by micro bump joining. Also stacked DRAM dies have 20 μm diameter micro-bumps and underfill material for supporting mechanical strength of stacked HBM structure. In this study, we investigate the stress evolution of underfill material to the thinned die of HBM and also verify the environmental reliability of HBM.
Effects of Larval Age on the Susceptibility of Almond Moths and Indianmeal Moths to Bacillus thuringiensis

Larvae of the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker), were highly susceptible to Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner in their diet if exposure began during the 1st stadium; they were less susceptible if exposure began dunng the later stadia. Larvae of the Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hubner), also were highly susceptible if exposure began during the 1st or 2nd stadium, but only the last (4th) stadium showed low susceptibility. B. thuringiensis caused a large increase in the development time of E. cautella larvae but caused little increase in that of P. interpunctella . The bacterium had no discernible effect on the sex ratio or reproductive capacity of moths that developed from surviving larvae.
Intramedullary screw fixation of Jones fractures.

Background: Jones fractures of the fifth metatarsal can be stabilized using intramedullary screw fixation techniques. A range of screw diameters from 4.5 mm to 6.5 mm can be used, but the optimal s...
VLSI Photonics for High-Performance Data Centers

After over four decades of technology development and commercial application, photonics proves to be the best information carrier for long-haul communications. A huge effort has been taking and is still increasing to miniaturize such a photonic communication system to serve the same purpose when conventional metal interconnect in CMOS comes to its physics and practical limit. Along the road to siliconize photonics up to a much larger scale in order to design, fabricate, and test photonic links based on advanced CMOS technology, new architectures and device geometries are created and explored. In this chapter, we reviewed the development in architecture design, CMOS transceivers, and hybrid III–V-on-Si transceivers, particularly progress in HP, to unfold a technology roadmap of VLSI photonics application for data center from an industrial perspective.
An Analysis of the Interactive Effects Between HS 300 Index Futures Market and Its Spot Market

With the VEC model and EGARCH model,an econometrical test was taken on the interactive effects of arbitrage between HS 300index futures market and its spot market.The results showed that the selling of futures contracts in arbitrage trading led to a decline in futures'prices,but its spot prices were not driven by the buying of spot contracts due to the limited transactions,which meant the convergence of basis between HS 300index futures market and its spot market was not caused by the negative feedback effects between them but by the futures price responding faster to information than the spot price.Thus,it can be concluded that the arbitrage between HS 300index futures market and its spot market played a boosting role rather than a buffering role in the asymmetric volatility of the spot market.