cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A short synthesis of the tricyclo[3.3.21,4.0]decane ring system

Abstract An approach to the tricyclo[3.3.2 1,4 .0]decane ring system has been demonstrated. Acyloin ring closure gives a 1,2-disilyloxy alkene product of surprising stability.
White parents’ racial socialization and young adults’ racial attitudes: Moral reasoning and motivation to respond without prejudice as mediators:

This study examined relations between parental racial socialization messages (i.e., egalitarianism, racemute, and preparation for bias) and racial attitudes in a sample of 282 White young adults (a...
Testing for Primary Aldosteronism and Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist Use Among U.S. Veterans : A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background Primary aldosteronism is a common cause of treatment-resistant hypertension. However, evidence from local health systems suggests low rates of testing for primary aldosteronism. Objective To evaluate testing rates for primary aldosteronism and evidence-based hypertension management in patients with treatment-resistant hypertension. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting U.S. Veterans Health Administration. Participants Veterans with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (n = 269 010) from 2000 to 2017, defined as either 2 blood pressures (BPs) of at least 140 mm Hg (systolic) or 90 mm Hg (diastolic) at least 1 month apart during use of 3 antihypertensive agents (including a diuretic), or hypertension requiring 4 antihypertensive classes. Measurements Rates of primary aldosteronism testing (plasma aldosterone-renin) and the association of testing with evidence-based treatment using a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) and with longitudinal systolic BP. Results 4277 (1.6%) patients who were tested for primary aldosteronism were identified. An index visit with a nephrologist (hazard ratio [HR], 2.05 [95% CI, 1.66 to 2.52]) or an endocrinologist (HR, 2.48 [CI, 1.69 to 3.63]) was associated with a higher likelihood of testing compared with primary care. Testing was associated with a 4-fold higher likelihood of initiating MRA therapy (HR, 4.10 [CI, 3.68 to 4.55]) and with better BP control over time. Limitations Predominantly male cohort, retrospective design, susceptibility of office BPs to misclassification, and lack of confirmatory testing for primary aldosteronism. Conclusion In a nationally distributed cohort of veterans with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension, testing for primary aldosteronism was rare and was associated with higher rates of evidence-based treatment with MRAs and better longitudinal BP control. The findings reinforce prior observations of low adherence to guideline-recommended practices in smaller health systems and underscore the urgent need for improved management of patients with treatment-resistant hypertension. Primary funding source National Institutes of Health.
Cooperative and load-balancing auctions for heterogeneous multi-robot teams dealing with spatial and non-atomic tasks

In our research, we address the problem of coordination and planning in heterogeneous multi-robot systems for missions that consists of a set of spatially localized tasks. Conventionally, this problem has been framed as a task allocation problem that maps tasks to robots. However, all previous work assume that tasks are atomic procedures. In this work we relax this assumption and adopt a non-atomic model of tasks that enables robot accomplishing mission tasks in an incremental manner over disjoint periods of time, precisely to account for the possibility of having a task being serviced by multiple individual contributions over time. This model can be useful in search and rescue scenarios: the same portion of the environment can be explored at different times by different agents using different sensors. We propose a cooperative, load-balancing task allocation and scheduling algorithm based on sequential single-item auctions (CoLoSSI). Our approach explicitly considers the non-atomicity of tasks and promotes synergies between agents enabling cooperation while at the same time maintaining computational tractability. We also study a fully distributed implementation of the task allocation approach in sparse, communication-restricted scenarios, and propose an effective strategy to enhance its computational efficiency. A computational and simulation validation is also carried out, confirming the efficacy of the proposed approach for generating good quality mission plans with low computational effort.
School Connectedness and Bystander Intervention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Exclusion and Privilege Among African American Students

As researchers and practitioners begin to take a bystander approach toward preventing bullying, which involves a power imbalance between two students, it is important to acknowledge that predictors...
Identifying Student Responsibilities While Watching Mathematics Instructional Videos.

This study investigated the ways in which college algebra students watch mathematics instructional videos about completing the square with the goal of identifying student responsibilities within a particular video and across different videos. Guided by the theory of didactic situations that has defined implicit teacher and student responsibilities within the context of the face-to-face mathematics classroom, participants watched three different videos about completing the square and answered interview questions. Using categories previously identified by the didactic contract for the face-to-face classroom, this study expanded the types of student responsibilities identified specifically for video watching and found that participants, regardless of overall prior knowledge but who had prior knowledge of completing the square, held a responsibility to use the specific set of steps they were taught by their teacher to solve problems. Findings may be useful to both mathematics teachers and video creators.
A Lightweight Container Security Framework Adapted to the Power Cloud Platform

In recent years, due to the elastic container technical characteristics and active open source community support, container technology has become an important basic technology for the new digital infrastructure of power. Now, the container technology is very popular and widely used in power cloud platform, but the problem of power system security risk caused by container can’t be ignored. Aiming at the problem of container security, this paper proposes a lightweight container security enhancement framework. Based on the methods of lightweight hardware virtualization isolation, cloud trust, and transparent encryption and decryption of container data, we implemented the container framework in the power cloud platform. Experiments show that the mechanism has played a practical role and has little impact on the business in terms of performance.
Motor processivity and speed determine structure and dynamics of microtubule-motor assemblies

Active matter systems can generate highly ordered structures, avoiding equilibrium through the consumption of energy by individual constituents. How the microscopic parameters that characterize the active agents are translated to the observed mesoscopic properties of the assembly has remained an open question. These active systems are prevalent in living matter; for example, in cells, the cytoskeleton is organized into structures such as the mitotic spindle through the coordinated activity of many motor proteins walking along microtubules. Here, we investigate how the microscopic motor-microtubule interactions affect the coherent structures formed in a reconstituted motor-microtubule system. We explore key parameters experimentally and theoretically, using a variety of motors with different speeds, processivities, and directionalities. We demonstrate that aster size depends on the motor used to create the aster, and develop a model for the distribution of motors and microtubules in steady-state asters that depends on parameters related to motor speed and processivity. Further, we show that network contraction rates scale linearly with the single-motor speed in quasi one-dimensional contraction experiments. Finally, we demonstrate that competition between motors of opposite polarity can be tuned to create various structures. In all, this theoretical and experimental work helps elucidate how microscopic motor properties are translated to the much larger scale of collective motor-microtubule assemblies.
Electrical Profiles in GaN/Al 2 O 3 Layers with Conductive Interface Regions

Differential Hall-effect measurements are used to obtain profiles of the mobility, µ, and carrier concentration, n, in a 6-µm-thick GaN layer grown on Al2O3 by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). In the top 1-µm region (surface), µ ≈ 1000 cm2/V-s and n ≈ 3 × 1016 cm−3, whereas in the bottom 0.75-µm region (interface), µ ≈ 50 cm2/V-s and n ≈ 2 × 1019 cm−3. Throughout the layer, the carrier concentration correlates well with the O and Si concentrations, with [Si] dominant near the surface, and [O] dominant near the interface, proving the shallow-donor nature of O. The average mobility and carrier concentration in the top 5 µm, i.e., the “bulk” region, are close to the values deduced by a much simpler analysis, introduced previously.
Growth and inequality

Abstract How are growth and inequality related? Evidently, this question is of prime importance in the social sciences, as socioeconomic inequality is one of the major forces shaping the course of human history. Moreover, this question is of importance also in the physical sciences, as the notion of socioeconomic inequality can be applied to analyze physical growth. In this paper we consider general growth processes whose dynamics are governed by ordinary differential equations, and present a comprehensive inequality-based socioeconophysical study of their evolutions. From a social-sciences perspective, the results established describe the inequality that will be generated by different types of economic growth. From a physical-sciences perspective, the results established provide a socioeconomic classification of growth processes.
CHAPTER 21 – Endothelium

The first interactions between endothelium and dendritic cells (DCs) precursors occur when these precursors are recruited to tissues and extravasate across vascular endothelium. Vascular endothelium regulates the passage of leukocytes from blood to tissues via the coordinated and selective expression of chemokines and the expression of adhesive selectins and ligands for leukocytic integrins. Clearance of DCs from tissues as they carry processed antigen to lymphoid organs requires migration across an endothelial barrier in the ablumenal-to-lumenal direction. Monocyte-derived cells reverse transmigrate across cultured vascular endothelium in cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) or dermal microvascular endothelium grown on native human connective tissue, reconstituted collagen gels, or polycarbonate filters. There are several molecular markers that may identify subsets of blood cells that preferentially reverse transmigrate and become DCs.
Effects of molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of polyester based soft segments on the physical properties of linear polyurethane elastomers

Linear polyurethane elastomers were synthesized in dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) solution, starting from 4,4′-methylene diisocyanate 1,4-butanediol, and polyester diols of two different molecular weights (MW) and each with a series of molecular weight distributions (MWD). Diol samples of various MWD's were prepared by blending polyesters of different MW. Polyurethane elastomer films were cast from solution, and characterized with the effect of the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of the polyester diols on the physico-mechanical and morphological properties of the polyurethane elastomers investigated. Most properties studied depended strongly on the MW of polyester soft segments; the MWD influenced primarily the relaxation behaviour of the polyurethane samples. Our data indicates that these phenomena are related to variations of the amounts of high MW polyester diols. The dynamic-mechanical measurements and the polymer morphology studies indicate that a diffuse, mixed amorphous phase exists in these polymers; the amount of the phase depends on MW and MWD of the polyester segment, but the intrinsic properties are essentially independent of the MWD of the polyester segment.
Mining evolutionary dependencies from web-localization repositories: Special Issue Articles

An approach to mining repositories of web-based user documentation for patterns of evolutionary change in the context of internationalization and localization is presented. Localized web documents that are frequently co-changed (i.e., an evolutionary dependency) during the natural language translation process are uncovered to support the future evolution of the system. A sequential-pattern mining technique is used to uncover patterns from version histories. Characteristics of the uncovered patterns such as size, frequency, and occurrence within a single natural language or across multiple languages are discussed. Such patterns help provide an insight into the effort required in retranslation due to a change in the documentation. The approach is validated on the open source K Desktop Environment (KDE) system. KDE maintains documentation for over 50 different natural languages and presents a prime example of the problem. The technique accurately predicts which documents in KDE are retranslated or updated in future versions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Identification of a Negative Glucocorticoid Response Element in the Rat Type 1 Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide Receptor Gene

Glucocorticoids play important roles in lung development and function by modulating the expression of a variety of genes. The type 1 vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) receptor gene is highly expressed in the lung where it mediates VIP physiological functions. In this study, the effect of glucocorticoid on VIP receptor gene expression was examined. Dexamethasone (100 n) suppresses endogenous VIP receptor mRNA expression in cultured lung cells. Transient transfection of lung cells with fusion constructs containing various portions of the VIP receptor 5'-flanking sequences linked to the luciferase reporter gene shows that 126 base pairs (bp) of the VIP receptor upstream sequences are sufficient to mediate transcriptional repression by glucocorticoid. DNase I footprinting demonstrates that purified glucocorticoid receptor (GR) binds to the VIP receptor promoter between -21 and -36 bp relative to the transcription start site. Point mutations within this binding site not only abolish GR binding and GR-mediated transcriptional repression of the VIP receptor gene, but basal transcription is also reduced to background levels. Co-transfection of GR expression vector and the VIP receptor GR binding site linked to the thymidine kinase promoter and luciferase shows that this sequence is sufficient to confer glucocorticoid-mediated transcriptional repression to a heterologous promoter. These results indicate that the VIP receptor gene contains a negative glucocorticoid response element between -21 and -36 bp that may act to regulate both basal and glucocorticoid-mediated expressions of the VIP receptor gene in lung cells.
Relationship between household wealth inequality and chronic childhood under-nutrition in Bangladesh.

Household food insecurity and under-nutrition remain critically important in developing countries struggling to emerge from the scourge of poverty, where historically, improvements in economic conditions have benefited only certain privileged groups, causing growing inequality in health and healthcare among the population. Utilizing information from 5,977 children aged 0-59 months included in the 2004 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey , this study examined the relationship between household wealth inequality and chronic childhood under-nutrition. A child is defined as being chronically undernourished or whose growth rate is adversely stunted, if his or her z-score of height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the median of international reference. Household wealth status is measured by an established index based on household ownership of durable assets. This study utilized multivariate logistic regressions to estimate the effect of household wealth status on adverse childhood growth rate. The results indicate that children in the poorest 20% of households are more than three time as likely to suffer from adverse growth rate stunting as children from the wealthiest 20% of households (OR=3.6; 95% CI: 3.0, 4.3). The effect of household wealth status remain significantly large when the analysis was adjusted for a child's multiple birth status, age, gender, antenatal care, delivery assistance, birth order, and duration that the child was breastfed; mother's age at childbirth, nutritional status, education; household access to safe drinking water, arsenic in drinking water, access to a hygienic toilet facility, cooking fuel cleanliness, residence, and geographic location (OR=2.4; 95% CI: 1.8, 3.2). This study concludes that household wealth inequality is strongly associated with childhood adverse growth rate stunting. Reducing poverty and making services more available and accessible to the poor are essential to improving overall childhood health and nutritional status in Bangladesh.
Basic Market Structures

The basic market structures in economics are presented. Keywords: monopolistic competition; oligopoly, monopoly
A Note Concerning Multivariate Total Positivity on the Simplex

Although compositional data arise frequently in many different disciplines, relatively little is known about families of parametric densities that reside on a simplex, which is the natural sample space for such data. An exception to this is a recent paper by Gupta and Richards (1987) wherein the Liouville family is defined and discussed. They sought to characterize dependence properties within this new family using, among other ideas, multivariate total positivity. Further investigation reveals that their results are not very useful. In fact, it is shown that there does not exist a Liouville density, as defined by Gupta and Richards, that is also multivariate totally positive of order 2. Fat 2d flaws associated with an obvious alternative to their definition are discussed.
A taxonomy of seven‐day readmissions to an urban teaching hospital

BACKGROUND Understanding the mechanism of unplanned hospital readmissions is necessary for accurate prediction and prevention. OBJECTIVE To identify specific mechanisms of unplanned readmissions through medical narratives obtained from chart reviews. DESIGN Retrospective chart review. SETTING Urban tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS Two hundred seventy patients accounted for 335 unplanned 7-day readmissions between July 2010 and July 2011. MEASUREMENTS Readmissions were classified into 1 of 5 distinct categories. RESULTS Readmitted subjects were more likely to have had a longer length of stay during the first admission compared to nonreadmitted patients. Readmissions due to unpredictable/unpreventable complications or unrelated events constituted the highest percentage at 46%. Readmissions due to patient factors such as substance abuse, signing out against medical advice, or nonadherence to the treatment plan constituted 31%. Readmissions designated as preventable accounted for 24%. Among preventable readmissions, the most common cause was incomplete management of the index diagnosis. The interobserver level of agreement across the 5 major categories was substantial. CONCLUSIONS We found through detailed chart review of patients readmitted within 7 days to an urban teaching hospital that the majority of readmissions were not avoidable and were often due to unpredictable or unpreventable complications of the primary diagnosis from the index hospitalization or to patient behaviors that contradicted the treatment plan. These results question the value of readmissions as a valid metric of quality and support future interventions in hospital systems to reduce preventable readmissions. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2015. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine
Effects of mean stress and stress concentration on fatigue behavior of short fiber reinforced polymer composites

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effect of mean stress on fatigue behavior of two short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites and the effect of stress concentration on fatigue behavior of an unreinforced and a short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic. Load-controlled fatigue tests were conducted on unnotched (smooth) specimens at R ratios of −1, 0.1, and 0.3 in different mold flow directions or fiber orientations and at a range of temperatures between −40 and 125 °C. Effect of mean stress on fatigue life was found to be significant at all temperatures. Several mean stress parameters including modified Goodman, Walker, and Smith–Watson–Topper were evaluated for their ability to correlate mean stress data. A general fatigue life prediction model was also used to account for the effect of mean stress, temperature, and fiber orientation. Notched fatigue tests of an unreinforced polymer and a short glass fiber thermoplastic composite were also conducted using plate type specimens with a central circular hole and with or without the presence of mean stress. Effect of stress concentration was found to be considerable, with or without mean stress and in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. The commonly used Neuber's rule for metallic materials, nonlinear finite element analysis, as well as critical distance approaches were utilized for notch deformation and fatigue life analyses.
Aspectos folklóricos en Cuentos de mi tía Panchita

Se intenta demostrar el caracter internacional, la realcion con la tradicion hispanica y el vinculo con la tradicion oral y literaria en los Cuantos de mi tia Panchita, de Carmen Lyra.
Evaluation of the BET Method for Determining Surface Areas of MOFs and Zeolites that Contain Ultra-Micropores

The BET analysis is commonly used for determining surface areas of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and zeolites that contain “ultra-micropores” (<7 A) even though it is often stated that the BET surface areas obtained for such small pores are not really meaningful in an absolute sense. In this study, nitrogen and argon isotherms in MOFs and zeolites (most of them having ultra-micropores) were predicted by grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations and used as pseudoexperimental data to evaluate the BET method for these structures. The BET surface areas calculated from the simulated nitrogen and argon isotherms agree well with the accessible surface areas obtained directly from crystal structures in a geometric fashion. However, this was only true when the BET analysis was performed using the appropriate pressure range based on published “consistency criteria”; the BET analysis underestimates the surface areas of all the selected MOFs and zeolites if it is done in the “standard” BET pressure range. Mor...
Emergency medicine and critical care of cattle

While food animal practitioners play an increasingly important role in health maintenance, productivity, animal management, and consulting, emergency care is still an area of primary veterinary involvement. Emergencies are a certainty in cattle practice and veterinarians are judged on their ability to respond, assess and react in a timely fashion. In putting together this edition of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice, we have recruited veterinary clinician authors to address some of the most commonly encountered medical, surgical, and reproductive emergency conditions that practitioners encounter. Recognizing the value of selected individual calves and cows, we also include selected aspects of critical care that are provided in some private practices and in referral hospitals. Conspicuous by its absence is a chapter dedicated to fluid therapy, but the topic was addressed in detail in the November 1999 Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice issue and updated in November 2003. By and large we have taken a systems-based approach to emergency care with separate chapters relating to abdominal, reproductive, and respiratory cases. Contemporary therapeutic approaches to emergency conditions are featured in the chapters on pain management, treatment of toxic cattle, blood/component therapy and toxicologic emergencies. The importance of cloned and transgenic calves and their unique needs prompted us to dedicate a chapter to this subject. We are extremely grateful to the contributing authors and indebted to John Vassallo and the editorial staff at Saunders/Elsevier for their expertise and patience. Sheila M. McGuirk, DVM, PhD Simon F. Peek, BVSc, MRCVS, PhD
The submitochondrial distribution of acid:CoA ligase (AMP) and acid:CoA ligase (GDP) in rat liver mitochondria

Abstract 1. 1. ATP dependent acyl-CoA synthetase is localized mainly in the outer mitochondrial membrane fraction with a small activity present in the inner membranematrix fraction. The specific activity of the enzyme present in the outer membrane is much greater than that present in the inner membrane, approx. 26:1 after correcting for microsomal and outer membrane contamination in the inner membrane fraction. The synthetase in the outer membrane fraction is easily removed from the membrane by treatment of the mitochondria with digitonin and subsequent centrifugation. Treatment with digitonin also causes a 40% loss in total enzymic activity in the mitochondria. 2. 2. GTP dependent acyl-CoA synthetase is absent from the outer membrane of the mitochondria and is exclusively associated with the inner membrane-matrix fraction. The enzyme appears to be equally associated with the matrix and membranous residue of the inner membrane-matrix fraction. The specific activity of the GTP dependent enzyme of the inner membrane-matrix fraction is approx. 4.0% of the specific activity of the ATP dependent enzyme present in the outer membrane. 3. 3. Based on the rates of acyl-CoA formation from palmitate, it is suggested that activation of long chain fatty acids is not the rate limiting step in β-oxidation, chain elongation or incorporation of acyl-CoA compounds into phospholipids in the mitochondria.
Nature of vibrational coupling in helical peptides: an isotopic labeling study.

Infrared (IR) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra were measured for a series of isotopically (13C on two or more amide CO) labeled, 25 residue, α-helical peptides of the sequence Ac−(AAAAK)4AAAAY−NH2 that were also studied in the previous paper. Theoretical IR and VCD simulations were performed for correspondingly isotopically labeled Ac−A24−NHCH3 constrained to an α-helical conformation by use of property tensor transfer from density functional theory (DFT) calculations on Ac−A10−NHCH3. The simulations predicted and experiments confirmed that the vibrational coupling constants between i, i + 1 and i, i + 2 residues differ in sign, thus leading to a reversal of the 13C VCD pattern and explaining the large shift in the 13C amide I frequency as reported in the previous paper. The sign of the coupling constant remained consistent for larger label separation (with the exception of i, i + 4) and for more labels with uniform separation. Such effects confirm that the isotopically labeled group vibra...
Selenium and hepatic microsomal hemoproteins.

The microsomal share of liver homogenate 75Se after injection of a tracer dose of 75SeO32− was three times greater in rats fed a selenium-deficient diet than in rats fed a selenium-adequate diet. Basal levels of microsomal cytochromes P-450 and b5 were unaffected by selenium deficiency. However, induction of these cytochromes by phenobarbital was markedly inpaired in selenium-deficient rats, whereas liver weight increase and NADPH cytochrome c reductase induction were not impaired. These data indicate that selenium is essential for phenobarbital induction of microsomal hemoproteins.
Scattering of phonons by a vortex in a superfluid

Recent work gives a transverse force on an isolated moving vortex which is independent of the normal fluid velocity, but it is widely believed that the asymmetry of phonon scattering by a vortex leads to a transverse force dependent on the relative motion of the normal component and the vortex. We show that a widely accepted derivation of the transverse force is in error, and that a careful evaluation leads to a much smaller transverse force. We argue that a different approach is needed to get the correct expression.
A telemeter for monitoring the electrocardiograms of freely moving mice.

Abstract Telemetry was used to monitor the electrocardiogram (ECG) of a freely moving mouse in three behavioral situations—shock avoidance runway, open field, and home cage. A small, inexpensive, easily fabricated telemeter was used to monitor the ECG. The circuit and characteristics of the telemeter are described as well as the harness, electrode placement, receiver and antennae. Experimental records are presented showing that the only period when the ECG was unreadable was during shock in the shock avoidance runway.
Synthesis of sydnones as potential therapeutic agents.

A number of new 3-alkyl sydnones have been prepared as potential therapeutic agents. A preliminary pharmacological evaluation indicated that these compounds were central nervous system stimulants. The partition coefficients between chloroform and water were determined and a correlation was found between this and the millimole dosage per kilogram in the sydnones with nonfunctional side chains. Ultraviolet and infrared data are reported for the sydnones.
A clinical approach to the use of methotrexate for sarcoidosis

The management of patients with sarcoidosis has been the subject of many papers in this1 and other journals.2-5 The large number of papers are, in part, because of the difficulty in defining who should be treated for this disease and with what. The most commonly used pharmaceutical class for sarcoidosis has been corticosteroids, both topically and systemically.6 The use of systemic steroids for sarcoidosis was the subject of a trial by the British Thoracic Society1 which concluded that there were some patients who required no treatment and some who would need immediate treatment because of the severity of the disease. In between was a group of patients with persistent disease who appeared to benefit from treatment with corticosteroids. One of the points made was that some patients needed treatment for long periods of time. The term “chronic sarcoidosis” has been used by Dr Geraint James to describe patients with disease for more than two years.7He noted that some features of sarcoidosis such as lupus pernio and neurological disease were associated with a low rate of remission, while other features such as erythema nodosum were associated with a high resolution rate by two years. Several other manifestations of the disease have been associated with chronic disease: bone cysts, cor pulmonale, pulmonary fibrosis,8 and nephrolithiasis.9 Based on the type and duration of symptoms one can classify patients as acute or chronic.10A third group is also evident—namely, those who are refractory to corticosteroid therapy. This includes some neurosarcoidosis patients, patients who develop organ failure, and those who die despite corticosteroid treatment.11 12 Treatment for sarcoidosis is often dependent on the patient’s own manifestation. A patient with anterior uveitis may be a candidate for topical steroids alone, but a patient with neurological disease …
Competition among shoreline plants: Responses to watershed liming

Abstract A series of neighbor removal experiments was used to evaluate the impact of the first large-scale North American watershed liming on competitive interactions among shoreline plants. The perennial grass Calamagrostis pickeringii , a group of perennial sedges ( Rhynchospora alba, R. capitellata and R. fusca ), the deciduous shrub Myrica gale , and the evergreen shrub Chamaedaphne calyculata were selectively removed in pairwise combinations from limed and unlimed areas of an Adirondack lackeshore. The following year, growth responses (density, cover, flowering, and twig production) of these and other shoreline taxa revealed no evidence of interspecific competition among graminoids, although shrubs suppressed forbs and graminoids. Liming enhanced the growth of some forbs, inhibited the growth of several graminoids, and altered the competitive status of only three forbs. The competitive release of Hypericum spp. from Calamagrostis was greatest in limed plots, while the competitive release of Drosera intermedia from Rhynchospora , and the release of Hypericum canadense from Myrica , were greatest in unlimed plots. The results suggest that the herbaceous wetland community along this shoreline is characterized by weak competitive interactions that have been minimally impacted by watershed liming during these 2 years.
Dosimetric benefit of a new ophthalmic radiation plaque.

Purpose To determine whether the computed dosimetry of a new ophthalmic plaque, EP917, when compared with the standard Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS) plaques, could reduce radiation exposure to vision critical structures of the eye. Methods and Materials One hundred consecutive patients with uveal melanoma treated with COMS radiation plaques between 2007 and 2010 were included in this study. These treatment plans were generated with the use of Bebig Plaque Simulator treatment-planning software, both for COMS plaques and for EP917 plaques using I-125. Dose distributions were calculated for a prescription of 85 Gy to the tumor apex. Doses to the optic disc, opposite retina, lens, and macula were obtained, and differences between the 2 groups were analyzed by standard parametric methods. Results When compared with the COMS plaques, the EP917 plaques used fewer radiation seeds by an average difference of 1.94 ( P P Conclusion EP917 plaques deliver less overall radiation exposure to critical vision structures than COMS treatment plaques while still delivering the same total therapeutic dose to the tumor.
The molecular basis of mesomorphic phase transitions in phospholipid systems

Abstract The demonstrated existence and possible physiological relevance of mesomorphic phase transitions in cellular membranes suggests that a theoretical understanding of lipid phase behavior is biologically relevant. As a step in this direction, the gel to liquid crystal phase transition of phospholipid bilayers is examined. A qualitative mechanism involving configurational coupling of the lipid hydrocarbon chains is proposed to explain the transition. The predictions of the mechanism which pertain to the structure of the liquid crystal are explored and found to be in accord with the present experimental view of this phase.
Interpenetrating polymer networks containing gelatin modified with PEGylated RGD and soluble KGF: Synthesis, characterization, and application in in vivo critical dermal wound

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biocompatibility and the efficacy in wound healing of a gelatin-based interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-ylated RGD and soluble KGF-1 (RGD-IPN+KGF). IPNs were applied to full-thickness wounds on a rat model. Wound healing was assessed through histological grading of the host response and percent area contraction at 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks. A control IPN containing unmodified gelatin (unmod-IPN) and a conventional clinical bandage were applied to similar wounds and also evaluated. During the first week of healing, the unmod-IPN and conventional dressing wound showed a greater amount of contraction than that of RGD-IPN+KGF. However, by 3 weeks the extent of wound contraction was comparable between treatments. The RGD-IPN+KGF treated wound demonstrated lower macrophage and fibroblast densities at 3 weeks as compared to unmod-IPN treated wounds. RGD-IPN+KGF acted as a tissue scaffold while preventing the entry of foreign bodies, advantages not seen with the conventional dressing. The extent of cellularity and extracellular matrix organization was higher for wounds healed with RGD-IPN+KGF than those healed with unmod-IPN. These results indicate that both soluble and immobilized bioactive factors can be incorporated into our IPN platform to enhance the rate and the quality of dermal wound healing.
β -Adrenoreceptors determine affinity but not intrinsic activity of adenylate cyclase stimulants

SIGNIFICANT progress has recently been made toward defining and understanding the molecular basis of hormone sensitivity in the β-adrenoreceptor-adenylate cyclase system. Through the use of biochemical1,2 and genetic3,4 techniques it has become apparent that this system is comprised of at least three separate components: the β-adrenoreceptor, which is responsible for the binding of β-adrenergic agents; the catalytic unit of the enzyme adenylate cyclase, responsible for the conversion of ATP to cyclic AMP; and a nucleotide regulatory component or components which seems to possess a GTPase activity5 and to be required for coupling of the β-adrenoreceptor to the adenylate cyclase enzyme6. As has been demonstrated by Orly and Schramm7 and confirmed by Schwarzmeier and Oilman8 in cell fusion experiments, these components interact to produce the hormone-responsive adenylate cyclase system and this interaction occurs even when the separate functions are donated by heterologous cell types. Frog and turkey erythrocytes each possess a catecholamine-responsive adenylate cyclase. Although similar in some respects these two well-studied systems differ markedly with respect to their drug affinities and intrinsic activities. Intrinsic activity is defined as the maximal ability of a drug to stimulate a biological or biochemical response. To elucidate the role of the β-adrenoreceptor in the expression of these properties, we report here the use of cell fusion techniques to construct a hybrid which possesses the β-adrenoreceptor of the turkey erythrocyte and the adenylate cyclase of the frog erythrocyte. The characteristics of this hybrid indicate that although the receptor determines relative drug affinities (for example, β1 compared with β2 subtypes of receptor), it is a component distal to the receptor which determines relative drug intrinsic activities.
The distribution and excretion of S35 sodium sulfate in the albino rat.

Summary Bile fistula rats given S35 sodium sulfate intravenously excreted 89% of the injected sulfur within 24 hr. Seventy-five per cent of the sulfur was recovered in the urine, 10% in the bile, and 4% in the feces. Determinations for sulfur were made on segments of the gastrointestinal tract at intervals after injections. The results reveal that in the bile fistula animals sulfur enters the upper third of the small intestine and moves through the intestines to be eliminated in the feces. The suggestion is made that sulfate passes directly from the blood or tissue fluid into the upper small intestine.
Periportal hepatotoxicity due to allyl alcohol: A myriad of proposed mechanisms

It has long been recognized that periportal and centrilobular regions of the liver lobule differ in their sensitivity to many hepatotoxins. For example, carbon tetrachloride damages centrilobular regions while allyl alcohol damages periportal areas of the liver lobule (1). One determinant of the selective susceptibility of different areas of the liver lobule to chemically induced injury is believed to be the sublobular distribution of enzymes involved in detoxification, or activation to more toxic metabolites (2–4). In addition to sublobular enzyme activity, substrate delivery and the availability of necessary cofactors can influence the zone-specific toxicity of some chemicals. Furthermore, it has been proposed that oxygen gradient across the liver lobule is an important determinant of zonal hepatotoxicity. Thus, studies regarding the zone-specific nature of hepatotoxicants require that a variety of complex interrelated metabolic processes be considered, and so far exact mechanisms responsible for zone-selective hepatotoxicity are not completely understood.
New developments concerning corporate communications

To meet the challenges of global competition, American managers are forcing to re think the way they do business and re‐evaluate the way they communicate. Effective corporate communication plays an essential role to make American companies become fast, flexible and competitive. This article covers two major areas of the new developments of corporate communication: changing corporate communication flow and bridging culture differences by cross‐cultural communication.
Single spatial mode 3 [micro sign]m diode lasers with continuous-wave output power of 15 mW at room temperature

Single spatial mode GaSb-based type-I quantum well diode lasers with 3 μm emission and continuous-wave output power above 15 mW at room temperature are reported. The devices with 5.5 μm-wide ridge waveguides were fabricated by selective wet etching technique.
Effects of surface activation on the structural and catalytic properties of ruthenium nanoparticles supported on mesoporous silica

Using colloid-based methods to prepare supported catalytic metallic nanoparticles (NPs) often faces the challenge of removing the stabilizer used during synthesis and activating the catalyst without modifying the particles or the support. We explored three surface activation protocols (thermal oxidation at 150 ° C, thermal reduction at 350 ° C, and argon-protected calcination at 650 ° C) to activate ruthenium NPs supported on mesoporous silica (MSU-F), and assessed their effects on the structural and catalytic properties of the catalysts, and their activity by the aqueous phase hydrogenation of pyruvic acid. The NPs were synthesized by polyol reduction using poly-N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (PVP) as a stabilizer, and supported on MSU-F by sonication-assisted deposition. The NPs maintained their original morphology on the support during activation. Ar-protected calcination was the most efficient of the three for completely removing PVP from particle surfaces, and provided the highest degree of particle crystallinity and a metal dispersion comparable to commercial Ru/SiO2. Its catalytic performance was significantly higher than the other two protocols, although all three thermally activated catalysts achieved higher activity than the commercial catalyst at the same Ru loading. Post-reaction analysis also showed that the supported catalyst activated at 650 ° C retained its morphology during the reaction, which is an important requirement for recyclability.
Depressive realism: Effects of depression severity and interpretation time

This study examined the theory of depressive realism, which posits that depressed people often are more accurate in perceptions and judgments than nondepressed people. Two possible qualifications to this theory were examined: (1) severity of depression moderates the effect, and (2) length of processing time will impact the presence of bias in depressed people, that is, negative bias will develop over time. College students were presented with a bogus personality profile that actually consisted of items previously rated as neutral in desirability. Participants rated these profiles for desirability initially and then again three days later. Results indicated a significant effect of depression severity on desirability rating. Nondepressed and mildly depressed students found their profiles to be more positive than the moderately/severely depressed students, with both groups having scores in the positive range. However, those participants who were moderately/severely depressed showed a negative bias in their ratings. No support was found for the effect of different times of interpretation.
The impact of digital libraries on cognitive processes: psychological issues of hypermedia

Abstract Digital library research has focused on the construction of large-scale databases that provide users with hypermedia search and examination tools. Digital library construction has resulted in impressive, albeit sometimes overwhelming content, in a multimedia environment. As such, research should turn to examining the role of the human processor in digital library experiences. Cognitive psychologists have examined the comprehension processes involved in human information processing, and critically, how information is stored in memory. These findings can be applied to issues inherent in the conceptualization and implementation of digital libraries. This article reviews relevant findings from cognitive research on text comprehension, memory, and spatial cognition with the aim of describing how these concepts apply to the design and functionality of digital libraries. Further, we describe ways in which interdisciplinary collaborations between cognitive psychology and digital library research will be mutually beneficial. Digital libraries can serve as rich test-beds for cognitive theories, while cognitive theories can inform design specifications for digital libraries.
Adenosine inhibits basal forebrain cholinergic and noncholinergic neurons in vitro.

Adenosine has been proposed as a homeostatic “sleep factor” that promotes the transition from waking to sleep by affecting several sleep–wake regulatory systems. In the basal forebrain, adenosine accumulates during wakefulness and, when locally applied, suppresses neuronal activity and promotes sleep. However, the neuronal phenotype mediating these effects is unknown. We used whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in in vitro rat brain slices to investigate the effect of adenosine on identified cholinergic and noncholinergic neurons of the magnocellular preoptic nucleus and substantia innominata. Adenosine (0.5–100 μM) reduced the magnocellular preoptic nucleus and substantia innominata cholinergic neuronal firing rate by activating an inwardly rectifying potassium current that reversed at −82 mV and was blocked by barium (100 μM). Application of the A1 receptor antagonist 8-cyclo-pentyl-theophylline (200 nM) blocked the effects of adenosine. Adenosine was also tested on two groups of electrophysiologically distinct noncholinergic magnocellular preoptic nucleus and substantia innominata neurons. In the first group adenosine, via activation of postsynaptic A1 receptors, reduced spontaneous firing via inhibition of the hyperpolarization-activated cation current. Blocking the H-current with ZD7288 (20 μM) abolished adenosine effects on these neurons. The second group was not affected by adenosine. These results demonstrate that, in the magnocellular preoptic nucleus and substantia innominata region of the basal forebrain, adenosine inhibits both cholinergic neurons and a subset of noncholinergic neurons. Both of these effects occur via postsynaptic A1 receptors, but are mediated downstream by two separate mechanisms.
Subject Selection Bias in Alcoholics Volunteering for a Treatment Study

Baseline differences in alcoholism problem severity were compared between alcoholics who did and did not volunteer to participate in a treatment effectiveness study. A positive relationship was found between self-reports of alcohol-related problems and the degree of research participation. Group differences were also revealed in the rate of treatment completion. Possible explanations and solutions for this volunteer bias are discussed.
Does Moving Disrupt Campaign Activity

Findings from cross-sectional studies cannot tell us whether moving leads to changes in civic activity, because such studies do not observe the same individual’s participation before and after moves. This paper treats both moving and participation as dynamic processes, analyzing data that cover 18 years within lives of two generations of Americans. The results suggest that our general understanding about who participates cannot account for the patterns evident in even the simplest of descriptions of this phenomenon. Moving is shown to disrupt moments of campaign activity. However, the specific patterns of this disruption across generations and types of acts lead to more questions about the mechanism by which moving interferes with the political activity of ordinary Americans.