cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Developing a consensual information base for identifying priorities for intervention in the South China Sea

Abstract The medium-term objective of the UNEP/GEF project entitled “Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand” was “to elaborate and agree at an intergovernmental level, the Strategic Action Programme encompassing specific targeted and costed actions for the longer-term, to address the priority issues and concerns”. This paper first describes the approach taken by the riparian countries of the South China Sea marine basin to arrive at a consensus on a common baseline of information and data to establish threats and to agree on priorities for intervention in the South China Sea. Case examples from the mangrove, fisheries and land-based pollution components of the South China Sea Strategic Action Programme (SAP) are provided to demonstrate the importance of establishing a consensual information base in: refining SAP targets; planning interventions for local benefit and high transboundary impact; and in developing analytical tools to inform the prioritisation of options for intervention in a shared water body. Initial priority problems and options for intervention contained in the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis and framework SAP prepared between 1996 and 1999 are compared with those contained in the SAP endorsed in 2008. It is concluded that without the development of such a consensual information base there would have been no objective way of ensuring that the selected issues and priorities for intervention in the South China Sea are of any significance from the perspectives of the countries involved, the water body itself, or of potential transboundary or global benefits.
Endothelin: an endothelium-derived vasoactive peptide.

Endothelin is a 21-amino-acid, vasoactive peptide. Sequence analysis of cloned cDNAs for porcine and human endothelin precursors showed that endothelin-1 (ET-1) is produced in the endothelial cells. The peptide, endothelin (ET), was first identified as a potent vasoconstrictor. It is one of the most potent endogenous vascular smooth-muscle constrictors, ten times more potent than angiotensin II, vasopressin, and neuropeptide Y. Shortly after the discovery of this vasoconstrictor peptide, it was revealed that endothelin also possesses vasodilator properties at doses lower than those necessary to produce vasoconstriction. However, controversy still exists over the mechanism(s) of action; prostacyclin and endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) have mainly been implicated as the source of the initial vasodepressor effect. ET also elicits markedly different regional hemodynamic response patterns. There is a heterogeneity in the observed vasodilation or vasoconstriction, depending on species and on vascular beds studied in the same species. Endothelin has been implicated in a number of pathologic situations, including tissue ischemia and vasospasm. ET seems to be produced more actively around the site of endothelial damage; the loss of balance between its vasodilator- and vasoconstrictor-induced responses could contribute to its pathophysiologic properties. Experimental results strongly support the concept that ET could be important in controlling vascular tonus, both in the healthy and the diseased vessel
Recognizing Drug-Induced Liver Injury: Current Problems, Possible Solutions:

Currently there are three major problems in understanding drug-induced liver injury (DILI): (1) reliably establishing whether the liver disease was caused by the drug, or by another process; (2) determining the true incidence of and clinical risk factors for drug-induced hepatotoxicity; and (3) elaborating the mechanisms by which injury occurs to hepatocytes and other liver cells. We have focused here on the first two problems, as issues that may be amenable to actions in the near future, but the third may take substantially longer to work out. The first problem requires sufficient information for medical differential diagnosis. There are no pathognomonic indicators of DILI; even liver biopsy is not diagnostic. Making the correct attribution of causality requires analyzing the temporal relationship of drug exposure to illness and excluding all other possible causes. The second problem, determining incidence, cannot be done entirely adequately using currently available methods, whether by clinical trials, by spontaneous adverse event reports, or by retrospective epidemiologic studies. There is need for prospective safety studies to establish the true incidence of DILI caused by a drug, to identify risk factors for it, and to collect biologic materials for analytic studies toward better understanding mechanisms of DILI.
Optical flow and scale-space theory applied to sea-ice motion estimation in Antarctica

Sea-ice motion in Antarctica is studied applying methods from computer vision and scale-space theory to a sequence of images obtained from scatterometer data. The proposed method can obtain a dense motion vector field for any specific observation scale. Spatial and temporal scales are used to focus on relevant geophysical features and events. A preprocessing stage involving spatial and temporal filtering at selected scales reduces noise and artifacts produced in the image generation phases, allowing reliable feature extraction and tracking at relevant scales. Optical flow (OF) methods provide a dense estimation of the motion field. The limitations and advantages of this approach are discussed. Optical flow sea-ice motion data are in agreement with sea winds data obtained independently and with very different methodologies. OF results are compared to data from wavelet methods.
Review of recent work on spatial hearing skills in children with bilateral cochlear implants

ObjectiveReview of recent studies on spatial-hearing abilities in children who use bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs); compare performance of children who use BiCIs with children who have normal hearing. MethodsResults from recent studies are reviewed in two categories. First, studies measured spatial hearing by using sound localization or identification methods, thereby focusing on localization accuracy. Second, studies that measured the ability of children to discriminate between sound source positions in the horizontal plane, thereby focusing on localization acuity where performance was quantified using the minimum audible angle (MAA). ResultsChildren with BiCIs have localization errors that vary widely. There is evidence that for many children errors are smaller when using two vs. one implant. In the bilateral condition, some children's performance falls within the range of errors seen in children with normal hearing (less than 30° root mean square), but most children have errors that are significant...
Perfect hashing functions for hardware applications

Perfect hashing functions are determined that are suitable for hardware implementations. A trial-and-error method of finding perfect hashing functions is proposed using a simple universal/sub 2/ class (H/sub 3/) of hashing functions. The results show that the relative frequency of perfect hashing functions within the class H/sub 3/ is the same as predicted by the analysis for the set of all functions. Extensions of the basic scheme can handle dynamic key sets and large key sets. Perfect hashing functions can be found using software, and then loaded into the hardware hash address generator. Inexpensive associative memory can be used as a general memory construct offered by the system services of high-performance (super) computers. It has a potential application for storing operating system tables or internal tables for software development tools, such as compilers, assemblers and linkers. Perfect hashing in hardware may find a number of other applications, such as high speed event counting and text searching. >
North American Monsoon and Convectively Coupled Equatorial Waves Simulated by IPCC AR4 Coupled GCMs

Abstract This study evaluates the fidelity of North American monsoon and associated intraseasonal variability in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) coupled general circulation models (CGCMs). Twenty years of monthly precipitation data from each of the 22 models’ twentieth-century climate simulations, together with the available daily precipitation data from 12 of them, are analyzed and compared with Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) monthly and daily precipitation. The authors focus on the seasonal cycle and horizontal pattern of monsoon precipitation in conjunction with the two dominant convectively coupled equatorial wave modes: the eastward-propagating Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and the westward-propagating easterly waves. The results show that the IPCC AR4 CGCMs have significant problems and display a wide range of skill in simulating the North American monsoon and associated intraseasonal variability. Most of the models reproduce the...
A neuro-fuzzy model for inflow forecasting of the Nile river at Aswan high dam

River flow forecasting is an essential procedure that is necessary for proper reservoir operation. Accurate forecasting results in good control of water availability, refined operation of reservoirs and improved hydropower generation. Therefore, it becomes crucial to develop forecasting models for river inflow. Several approaches have been proposed over the past few years based on stochastic modeling or artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. In this article, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model is proposed to forecast the inflow for the Nile River at Aswan High Dam (AHD) on monthly basis. A major advantage of the fuzzy system is its ability to deal with imprecision and vagueness in inflow database. The ANFIS model divides the input space into fuzzy sub-spaces and maps the output using a set of linear functions. A historical database of monthly inflows at AHD recorded over the past 130 years is used to train the ANFIS model and test its performance. The performance of the ANFIS model is compared to a recently developed artificial neural networks (ANN) model. The results show that the ANFIS model was capable of providing higher inflow forecasting accuracy specially at extreme inflow events compared with that of the ANN model. It is concluded that the ANFIS model can be quite beneficial in water management of Lake Nasser reservoir at AHD.
Physical and Emotional Abuse in Romantic Relationships Motivation for Perpetration Among College Women

Intimate partner violence is extremely common in college samples. To inform prevention and intervention efforts, understanding the motivation for engaging in partner aggression is critically important. The predominant view in the domestic violence field has been that women's use of intimate partner violence occurs in the context of self-defense. However, there has been a dearth of solid evidence to support this claim. The present study explored the motivations for the perpetration of minor and severe physical aggression and for three types of emotional abuse (restrictive engulfment, denigration, and dominance/intimidation) among college women. A detailed definition of self-defense was used and motivations for women who were sole perpetrators of physical violence as well as motivations for women who had been aggressed against in their romantic relationships were examined. Anger, retaliation for emotional hurt, to get partner's attention, jealousy, and stress were all common reasons for perpetrating partner violence among college women. Few women indicated that self-defense was a motive for their abusive behavior. The results suggest that prevention and intervention efforts to reduce partner violence perpetration by women should include anger and stress management.
Hybrid heterogeneous energy supply networks

Efficient energy supply, storage, and distribution are key technical challenges for design and operation of electronic systems. In particular, energy supply is the most scarce resource and constraint for mobile embedded systems where the supply lifetime, cost, weight, size, and portability are major concerns. With the advent of newer electrical energy supply and storage technologies, energy supplies with differing energy/power storage densities, cost, size, and recycling abilities are becoming available. Efficient system design requires an exact matching between the fluctuating load demands and the underlying energy resources. Combining the energy supplies in a hierarchical way creates a unique opportunity for efficient matching and variable load serving. Such a heterogeneous hybrid network of energy supply components could address a variety of power needs and serve a much broader range of system loads with a high efficiency. This paper presents a Hierarchial Architecture of Heterogenous Electrical Energy Supplies (HierArcHEES) that can be tuned to different load demands.
Locality-Optimized Mixed Static/Dynamic Scheduling for Improving Load Balancing on SMPs

Application performance can be degraded significantly due to node-local load imbalances during application execution. Prior work suggested using a mixed static/dynamic scheduling approach for handling this problem, specifically in the context of fine-grained, transient load imbalances. Here, we consider an alternate strategy for more general load imbalances where fine-grained, transient load imbalance may be coupled with coarse-grained load imbalance. Specifically, we implement a scheduling scheme in which we modify the data layout in mixed static/dynamic scheduling, and add an additional tuned constraint in the dequeue function of our scheduler. Through experimentation of an n-body particle simulation code on modern multi-core architectures, our technique gives a 19.4% performance gain over dynamic scheduling, and an overall 48.6% performance gain over standard static scheduling.
Regulation of STAT pathways and IRF1 during human dendritic cell maturation by TNF-α and PGE2

Maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) by TLR ligands induces expression of IFN- and au- tocrine activation of IFN-inducible Stat1-depen- dent genes important for DC function. In this study, we analyzed the regulation of STAT signal- ing during maturation of human DCs by TNF- and PGE2, which induced maturation of human DCs comparably with LPS but did not induce detectable IFN- production or Stat1 tyrosine phosphoryla- tion. Consistent with these results, TNF- and PGE2 did not induce Stat1 DNA binding to a standard Stat1-binding oligonucleotide. Instead, TNF- and PGE2 increased Stat1 serine phosphor- ylation and Stat4 tyrosine phosphorylation and ac- tivated expression of the NF-B and Stat1 target gene IFN regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), which con- tributes to IFN responses. TNF- and PGE2 in- duced a complex that bound an oligonucleotide derived from the IRF1 promoter that contains a STAT-binding sequence embedded in a larger pal- indromic sequence, and this complex was recog- nized by Stat1 antibodies. These results suggest that TNF- and PGE2 activate STAT-mediated components of human DC maturation by alterna- tive pathways to the IFN--mediated autocrine loop used by TLRs. J. Leukoc. Biol. 84: 1353-1360; 2008.
Changing power relationships in US food industry: brokerage arrangements for private label products

A shift in the distribution of power within the US food system has occurred over the last two decades. The dramatic increase in “street money” (such as slotting allowances) paid by manufacturers to retailers reflects this shift in power and increases the comparative advantage of large vs. small manufacturers and the entry barriers into manufacturing. The growth of “in-house brokers” (IHB) for private label products is seen as another instrument for street money. The characteristics and implications of IHB are explored. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Aldosterone Regulates the Na-K-2Cl Cotransporter in Vascular Smooth Muscle

Aldosterone increases cation transport and contractility of vascular smooth muscle, but the specific transporter involved and how it is linked to smooth muscle tone is unknown. Because the Na-K-2Cl cotransporter (NKCC1) contributes to vascular smooth muscle contraction and is regulated by vasoactive compounds, we sought to determine whether this transporter is a target of aldosterone in rat aorta. Treatment of adrenalectomized rats with aldosterone for 7 days resulted in a 63% increase in NKCC1 activity as measured by bumetanide-sensitive efflux of 86 Rb + . Treatment of normal aortas in culture with aldosterone for 3 and 7 days resulted in 29% and 47% increases in NKCC1 activity, respectively. Aldosterone had no acute effect on 86 Rb + efflux. Stimulation of NKCC1 was blocked by spironolactone, a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, but not by RU38486, a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist. Aldosterone did not augment the stimulation of NKCC1 by phenylephrine and did not increase NKCC1 mRNA as determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. We conclude that aldosterone regulates the Na-K-2Cl cotransporter in vascular smooth muscle through classic mineralocorticoid receptors but not through changes in the abundance of NKCC1 mRNA. This could account for the increase in Na + , K + , and Cl − fluxes previously observed in vascular smooth muscle from mineralocorticoid-treated animals and may contribute to increased vascular tone.
CompuP2P: a light-weight architecture for Internet computing

Internet computing is emerging as an important new paradigm in which resource intensive computing is integrated over Internet-scale networks. Over these large networks, different users and organizations share their computing resources, and computations take place in a distributed fashion. In such an environment, a framework is needed in which the resource providers are given incentives to share their resources. CompuP2P is a light weight architecture for enabling Internet computing. It uses peer-to-peer networks for sharing of computing resources. CompuP2P create dynamic markets of network accessible computing resources, such as processing power, memory storage, disk space, etc., in a completely distributed, scalable, and fault-tolerant manner. This paper discusses the system architecture, functionality, and applications of the proposed CompuP2P architecture. We have implemented a Java based prototype, and our results show that the system is light-weight and can provide almost a perfect speedup for applications that contain several independent compute-intensive tasks
A heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust F test using an orthonormal series variance estimator

Summary The paper develops a new heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust test in a time series setting. The test is based on a series long-run variance matrix estimator that involves projecting the time series of interest onto a set of orthonormal bases and using the sample variance of the projection coefficients as the long-run variance estimator. When the number of orthonormal bases K is fixed, a finite-sample-corrected Wald statistic converges to a standard F distribution. When K grows with the sample size, the usual uncorrected Wald statistic converges to a chi-square distribution. We show that critical values from the F distribution are second-order correct under the conventional increasing smoothing asymptotics. Simulations show that the F approximation is more accurate than the chi-square approximation in finite samples.
Optimizing capacity-heterogeneous unstructured P2P networks for random-walk traffic

Existing algorithms for utilizing high-capacity nodes in heterogeneous P2P systems (e.g., [4], [13], [20]) often require unrealistically large node degree and high maintenance overhead in P2P networks with highly diverse node capacities and high churn. In this paper, we propose an unstructured P2P system that addresses these issues. We first prove that the overall throughput of search queries in a heterogeneous network is maximized if and only if traffic load through each node is proportional to its capacity. We then propose a system that achieves this traffic distribution by biasing search walks using the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm [5], [12] without requiring any special underlying topology. We finish the paper by comparing our method with Gia [4], where we find in simulation that the former outperforms the latter under all studied conditions, two novel saturation metrics introduced in this paper, and such end-to-end parameters as query success rate, latency, and query-hits.
Relationship Between Endocervical Canal Length Between 15-24 Weeks Gestation and Obstetric History

The object was to determine whether there is a correlation between the obstetric history and the ultrasonographically determined endocervical canal length between 15 and 24 weeks gestation. A retrospective cohort study was performed in singleton pregnancies of multigravidas with normal and abnormal obstetric histories. They underwent sonographic evaluation for the determination of the endocervical canal length between 15 and 24 weeks gestation. The shortest endocervical canal length measurements between 15 and 20 weeks and also between 21 and 24 weeks of gestation were recorded. An ultrasound diagnosis of cervical incompetence was defined as progressive shortening of the endocervical canal length to > 2 cm or a single endocervical canal length measurement > 2 cm. A multivariable general linear regression model was used to correlate the relationship between endocervical canal lengths at 15–20 weeks and 21–24 weeks gestation in the current pregnancy with the earliest gestational age at delivery of prior pre...
Landowners and cat predation across rural-to-urban landscapes

Fluctuations of bird abundances have been attributed to such factors as supplemental feeding, landscape change, and habitat fragmentation. Notably absent from consideration, however, is the role of private landowners and their actions, such as owning free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus; cats allowed free access to the outdoors). To understand the impacts of cat predation on birds, we surveyed all 1694 private landowners living on three breeding bird survey (BBS) routes ( 120 km) that represent a continuum of rural-to-urban landscapes in Southeastern Michigan, where the majority (> 90%) of land is privately owned. Our data indicate that among the 58.5% of landowners that responded, one quarter of them owned outdoor cats. On average a cat depredated between 0.7 and 1.4 birds per week. A total of 23+ species (12.5% of breeding species) were on the list of being killed, including two species of conservation concern (Eastern Bluebirds and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds). Across the three landscapes there were 800 to 3100 cats, which kill between 16,000 and 47,000 birds during the breeding season, resulting in a minimum of 1 bird killed/km/day. While the number and density (no./ha) of free-ranging cats per landowner differed across the rural to urban landscapes, depredation rates were similar. Landowner participation in bird feeding showed no relationship with the number of free-ranging cats owned. Similarly, selected demographic characteristics of landowners were not significantly related to the number of free-ranging cats owned. Our results, even taken conservatively, indicate that cat predation most likely plays an important role in fluctuations of bird populations and should receive more attention in wildlife conservation and landscape studies. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reticle layout to maximize focus and throughput

Use of a two reticle (product and test) or a combination reticle (containing test and product on one reticle) strategy in production was considered. The quality of the resultant image (focus placement) and throughput were weighed.
Stress-induced voiding under vias connected to wide Cu metal leads

Stress-induced voiding is observed in Cu-based, deep-submicron, dual-damascene technologies where voids are formed under the via when the via connects to a wide metal lead below it. The voiding results from the supersaturation of vacancies that develops due to grain growth when the Cu is not properly annealed prior to being fully constrained. The driving force for voiding is shown to be stress migration with a maximum in voiding rate observed at /spl sim/190/spl deg/C. A diffusional model is presented which shows that the voiding mechanism is an issue primarily for vias connected to wide Cu leads. A thermomechanical stress exponent of 3.2 and a diffusional activation energy of 0.74 eV were determined for this stress-induced voiding mechanism.
Practical Methods Using Boronic Acid Compounds for Identification of Class C β-Lactamase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli

Detection of the resistance mediated by class C β-lactamases remains a challenging issue, considering that transferable plasmid-mediated class C β-lactamases are of worldwide concern. Methods for the identification of strains that produce extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) or metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) have been developed and applied for routine use in clinical microbiology laboratories, but no practical methods for identification of plasmid-mediated class C producers have been established to date. We therefore developed three simple methods for clinical microbiology laboratories that allow identification of plasmid-mediated class C β-lactamase-producing bacteria using a boronic acid derivative, 3-aminophenylboronic acid (APB), one of the specific inhibitors of class C β-lactamases. Detection by the disk potentiation test was based on the enlargement of the growth-inhibitory zone diameter (by greater than or equal to 5 mm) around a Kirby-Bauer disk containing a ceftazidime (CAZ) or a cefotaxime (CTX) disk in combination with APB. In a double-disk synergy test, the discernible expansion of the growth-inhibitory zone around the CAZ or the CTX disk toward a disk containing APB was indicative of class C β-lactamase production. A greater than or equal to eightfold decrease in the MIC of CAZ or CTX in the presence of APB was the criterion for detection in the microdilution test. By using these methods, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates producing plasmid-mediated class C β-lactamases, ACT-1, CMY-2, CMY-9, FOX-5, LAT-1, and MOX-1, were successfully distinguished from those producing other classes of β-lactamases, such as ESBLs and MBLs. These methods will provide useful information needed for targeted antimicrobial therapy and better infection control.
Is tissue interposition always necessary in transvaginal repair of benign, recurrent vesicovaginal fistulae?

Objective To evaluate and compare the outcomes of transvaginal repair of benign, primary, and recurrent vesicovaginal fistulas (VVFs) treated without tissue interposition because, historically, tissue interposition with a vascularized flap has been advocated in both transabdominal and transvaginal repairs of recurrent VVFs. Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted of 73 consecutive women with VVF and treated by a single surgeon (B.J.F.) between January 2003 and May 2012. Patients with a malignant etiology and/or prior irradiation were excluded as they required a more complex repair. All included VVFs were treated by a transvaginal approach with partial vaginal cuff excision without a tissue interposition. Patients were followed in our clinic postoperatively for 1 year and by telephone survey thereafter. Results Forty-nine patients met inclusion criteria: 25 primary and 24 recurrent. There was no statistical difference in patient age, fistula size, time to repair, or fistula etiology between the 2 groups. There has been no fistula recurrence in either group. Forty-one of 49 patients (84%) were discharged the same day as their surgery. Conclusion Benign, recurrent VVFs are not synonymous with other complex fistulas that typically require tissue interposition. Our study demonstrates that transvaginal repair of benign, recurrent VVFs without tissue interposition can be equally successful as primary repairs without tissue interposition. The number of prior repairs should not be an independent factor in the use of tissue interposition, as previously suggested. We advocate an individualized approach to each VVF, only using tissue interposition when appropriate.
The effects of batching on the power of the test for frequency domain methodology

The author considers an implementation of frequency domain methodology (FDM) where input factor levels are held fixed in batches. In addition, the simulation output series is batched and the corresponding batch means are used as observations in the FDM factor screening analysis. For a certain class of metamodels, steady-state results are provided. Results are also provided for batch sizes chosen to reduce serial correlation in output series, but not necessarily to achieve steady state. An example is presented which illustrates cases where fixed factor batching (FFB) improves the power of the FDM hypothesis test and cases where it does not. For cases where FFB is beneficial with respect to the power of the test, it is shown that batching to an intermediate batch size may be better than batching to achieve steady state. >
Alteration of some long-chain esters during gas-liquid chromatography.

SUMMARY It has been found that the methyl esters of some naturally occurring fatty acids or their autoxidation products are altered during gas-liquid chromatography. Conjugated trienoates undergo cis-trans isomerization. The esters of vicinally unsaturated hydroxy derivatives, with either ethylenic or acetylenic bonds, are dehydrated. Acetylation of the hydroxy group provides little or no protection against such changes. Unsaturated hydroperoxides, which are primary products of autoxidation, are similarly altered to more highly unsaturated derivatives. Conjugated dienoates and hydroxy esters which are not vicinally unsaturated are stable under the same conditions. It is considered that these changes are caused primarily in the flash heater because of high temperature but that metal catalysis, by component,s of the flash heater, promotes alterations involving dehydration and deacetylation. Examination of long-chain fatty materials by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) requires high temperatures, and thermal alteration of some components may be expected. Stoffel et al. (1) have shown that the common methylene-interrupted polyunsaturated esters may be safely analyzed by GLC. Since these esters, and those of the saturated and monounsaturated acids, are the only known esters derived from most animal lipid fractions, GLC presumably may be applied to fresh ester samples from these sources without fear of ambiguous results. Many vegetable oils, however, contain acids with conjugated unsaturation, acetylenic bonds, or functional groups containing oxygen. Until it is shown that these components are unaffected, or until the products of their alteration are known, GLC cannot be used indiscriminately for the analysis of vegetable oils of unknown composition. This paper describes alterations during GLC of the esters of several acids which occur naturally and in autoxidized oils.
Genotyping and Bioforensics of Ricinus communis

The castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae. In spite of its common name, the castor plant is not a true bean (i.e., leguminous plants belonging to the family, Fabaceae). Ricinus communis is native to tropical Africa, but because the plant was recognized for its production of oil with many desirable properties, it has been introduced and cultivated in warm temperate regions throughout the world (Armstrong 1999 and Brown 2005). Castor bean plants have also been valued by gardeners as an ornamental plant and, historically, as a natural rodenticide. Today, escaped plants grow like weeds throughout much of the southwestern United States, and castor seeds are even widely available to the public for order through the Internet. In this study, multiple loci of chloroplast noncoding sequence data and a few nuclear noncoding regions were examined to identify DNA polymorphisms present among representatives from a geographically diverse panel of Ricinus communis cultivated varieties. The primary objectives for this research were (1) to successfully cultivate castor plants and extract sufficient yields of high quality DNA from an assortment of castor cultivated varieties, (2) to use PCR and sequencing to screen available universal oligos against a small panelmore » of castor cultivars, (3) to identify DNA polymorphisms within the amplified regions, and (4) to evaluate these DNA polymorphisms as appropriate candidates for assay development (see Figure 1). Additional goals were to design, test and optimize assays targeting any DNA polymorphisms that were discovered and to rapidly screen many castor cultivars to determine the amount of diversity present at that particular locus. Ultimately, the goal of this study was to construct a phylogeographic tree representing the genetic relationships present among Ricinus communis cultivars from diverse geographic regions. These research objectives were designed to test the hypothesis that cultivated varieties of Ricinus communis from various geographic regions can be distinguished from one another based on differences present at the genetic level. In addition, the present study sought to determine the amount of diversity present among Ricinus communis cultivars.« less
Liver regeneration; preliminary report.

Summary1. Partial hepatectomy has been carried out in dogs with portacaval transposition, with normal hepatic blood supply, and with end to side portacaval shunts. 2. In dogs with portacaval transposition the hepatic venograms showed striking regeneration. 3. Percentile regeneration was somewhat less in these dogs than in Ithe normal but greater than in the dogs with end to side portacaval shunts. 4. These data discount the importance of portal blood per se in regeneration of the liver and lend support to the concept that the failure of hepatic regeneration in dogs with Eck nstulae is due in part at least to lack of venous blood flow.
The acute hemodynamic effects of left ventricular aneurysm.

Summary The acute hemodynamic effects of left ventricular aneurysm were studied in 26 normal dogs. Aneurysm of various sizes were constructed by suturing the urinary bladder of a donor animal to the ventricle and creating a communication between this sac and the ventricular cavity. Effective left ventricular function was depressed and cardiac output and mean aortic pressure fell in proportion to the size of the functioning aneurysm. All parameters, however, returned to near control levels when the aneurysm was occluded. The relationship of these experimental observations to the physiologic abnormalities observed in patients with left ventricular aneurysm is discussed.
Analysis of Undoped and Ag-doped High-Tc YBCO Superconducting Bolometers Fabricated Using a Novel Anti-Reflective Coating and Photolithographic Technique

Superconducting transition edge bolometers have been fabricated on Ag-doped and undoped YBCO layers on Si(100) substrates using a YSZ buffer layer. We have also fabricated bolometer devices using astacked-structure of undoped and Ag-doped YBCO material. These thin films were deposited using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). These devices were fabricated using a novel photolithographic/anti-reflective coating (ARC) process. The use of the anti-reflective coating shows no degradation in the overall quality of the superconducting film, but rather it serves as a barrier to moisture, and improves the overall optical collection efficiency of the bolometer device. At a bias of ImA, and chopping frequency of 100Hz, we have measured photoresponse as a function of device temperature, calculated responsivity, and estimated noise equivalent power (NEP) for each of the three device structures. Peak photoresponse, responsivity, and estimated NEP for the undoped bolometer device are 12μV, 0.6mV(W/cm2), and 2.03×103 W/cmHz1/2 respectively. Peak photoresponse, responsivity, and estimated NEP for the Ag-doped bolometer device are 50μV, 2.5mV(W/cm2), and 9.40×10−8 W/cmHz1/2 respectively. Peak photoresponse, responsivity, and estimated NEP for the stacked structure bolometer device are 70μV, 3.5mV(W/cm2), and 1.02× 10−7 W/cmHz1/2 respectively. These results are the first for Ag-doped YBCO bolometers, as well as for superconducting bolometers fabricated using our novel photoresist/anti-reflective coating method.
Thinking Back (and Forward) to Rousseau’s Emile

ABSTRACTThis article examines the ways in which Rousseau’s Emile continues to speak to us in the twenty-first century. In the first part, I examine the concept at the heart of Rousseau’s theory of education: “negative education” or the process of de- or unsocializing individuals and of putting them in touch with the nature of things rather than with the various distortions produced by traditional education. I then describe and reflect upon a course that Emile inspired me to teach, one in which I remained silent for the entire semester. I conclude with a much broader exploration of the light this text sheds on our current educational landscape.
Risks and Benefits of Antiarrhythmic Therapy

Drug treatment of cardiac arrhythmias is not uniformly effective and frequently causes side effects. Recently, new data have become available that more clearly delineate the risks of antiarrhythmic-drug therapy. At the same time, establishing a benefit of treatment with these drugs has proved difficult. The potential benefits of antiarrhythmic therapy -- reductions in mortality or in symptoms related to arrhythmias -- as well as the potential risks are outlined in Table 1. In this review I shall consider the available data defining these risks and benefits (which have usually been delineated in specific groups of patients using specific drugs), the risk . . .
Degree of concordance between single balloon enteroscopy and capsule endoscopy for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding after an initial positive capsule endoscopy finding

Introduction:In patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OBGIB) capsule endoscopy (CE) is the initial diagnostic procedure of choice. Often patients undergo single balloon enteroscopy (SBE) with both diagnostic and therapeutic intention after CE. Although SBE offers a therapeutic benefit, long procedure times, complexity, and invasiveness are drawbacks. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic correlation between these two modalities after an initial positive CE finding.Methods:We performed a retrospective review of 418 patients who underwent CE at our institution from January 2010 to May 2014. A total of 95 patients were analyzed after selecting patients that underwent SBE originally after a positive CE result for the evaluation for OGIB. Agreement beyond chance was evaluated using the κ coefficient. A p value less than 5% was considered statistically significant.Results:The mean age of our population was 65.8 ± 12.2 and it was female predominant: 57/95 (60%). The most frequent positive findings were ...
Development of microfluidic devices for in situ investigation of cells using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(Conference Presentation)

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has immerged as a power analytical and sensing technique for many applications in biomedical diagnosis, life sciences, food safety, and environment monitoring because of its molecular specificity and high sensitivity. The inactive Raman scattering of water molecule makes SERS a suitable tool for studying biological systems. Microfluidic devices have also attracted a tremendous interest for the aforementioned applications. By integrating SERS-active substrates with microfluidic devices, it offers a new capability for in situ investigation of biological systems, their dynamic behaviors, and response to drugs or microenvironment changes. In this work, we designed and fabricated a microfluidic device with SERS-active substrates surrounding by cell traps in microfluidic channels for in situ study of live cells using SERS. The SERS-active substrates are quasi-3D plasmonic nanostructure array (Q3D-PNA) made in h-PDMS/PMDS with physically separated gold film with nanoholes op top and gold nanodisks at the bottom of nanowells. 3D finite-difference time-domain (3D-FDTD) electromagnetic simulations were performed to design Q3D-PNAs with the strongest local electric fields (hot spots) at the top or bottom water/Au interfaces for sensitive analysis of cells and small components, respectively. The Q3D-PNAs with the hot spots on top and bottom were placed at the up and down stream of the microfluidic channel, respectively. Each Q3D-PNA pattern was surrounded with cell trapping structures. The microfluidic device was fabricated via soft lithography. We demonstrated that normal (COS-7) and cancer (HpeG2) cells were captured on the Q3D-PNAs and investigated in situ using SERS.
A Pressure Strength Tester Based on MSP430

This paper presents an application of MSP430 to test the pressure strength of iron ore pellet. Digital filtering and comparative technique in software design are used to eliminate instantaneous interference.
Estimating the partition function by discriminance sampling

Importance sampling (IS) and its variant, annealed IS (AIS) have been widely used for estimating the partition function in graphical models, such as Markov random fields and deep generative models. However, IS tends to underestimate the partition function and is subject to high variance when the proposal distribution is more peaked than the target distribution. On the other hand, "reverse" versions of IS and AIS tend to overestimate the partition function, and degenerate when the target distribution is more peaked than the proposal distribution. In this work, we present a simple, general method that gives much more reliable and robust estimates than either IS (AIS) or reverse IS (AIS). Our method works by converting the estimation problem into a simple classification problem that discriminates between the samples drawn from the target and the proposal. We give extensive theoretical and empirical justification; in particular, we show that an annealed version of our method significantly outperforms both AIS and reverse AIS as proposed by Burda et al. (2015), which has been the state-of-the-art for likelihood evaluation in deep generative models.
Epidermal Growth Factor Preserves Myelin and Promotes Astrogliosis after Intraventricular Hemorrhage

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) leads to reduced myelination and astrogliosis of the white matter in premature infants. No therapeutic strategy exists to minimize white matter injury in survivors with IVH. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) enhances myelination, astrogliosis, and neurologic recovery in animal models of white matter injury. Here, we hypothesized that recombinant human (rh) EGF treatment would enhance oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) maturation, myelination, and neurological recovery in preterm rabbits with IVH. In addition, rhEGF would promote astrogliosis by inducing astroglial progenitor proliferation and GFAP transcription. We tested these hypotheses in a preterm rabbit model of IVH and evaluated autopsy samples from human preterm infants. We found that EGF and EGFR expression were more abundant in the ganglionic eminence relative to the cortical plate and white matter of human infants and that the development of IVH reduced EGF levels, but not EGFR expression. Accordingly, rhEGF treatment promoted proliferation and maturation of OPCs, preserved myelin in the white matter, and enhanced neurological recovery in rabbits with IVH. rhEGF treatment inhibited Notch signaling, which conceivably contributed to OPC maturation. rhEGF treatment contributed to astrogliosis by increasing astroglial proliferation and upregulating GFAP as well as Sox9 expression. Hence, IVH results in a decline in EGF expression; and rhEGF treatment preserves myelin, restores neurological recovery, and exacerbates astrogliosis by inducing proliferation of astrocytes and enhancing transcription of GFAP and Sox9 in pups with IVH. rhEGF treatment might improve the neurological outcome of premature infants with IVH. GLIA 2016;64:1987-2004.
Synthesis of multivalent glycopeptide conjugates that mimic an HIV epitope

Recently, we reported a directed evolution method which enabled us to discover sequences of glycopeptides that bind with picomolar affinity to HIV antibody 2G12 and are of interest as HIV vaccine candidates. In this manuscript, we describe the syntheses of several of these large (~11-12 kDa) glycopeptides by a combination of fast flow peptide synthesis and click chemistry. We also discuss the optimization of their attachment to carrier protein CRM197, affording antigenic and immunogenic conjugates ready for animal vaccination.
Animal Play: Problems and Perspectives

Social play behavior is receiving increasing attention from ethologists and other scientists who are interested in social development and social organization. To date, however, few quantitative data have been amassed concerning play, and it is not uncommon to read about unsupported contentions being accepted as fact. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize some aspects of play behavior, and to show that more rigorous quantitative analyses are needed in order for interested workers to gain a fuller understanding of this category of behavior.
Meaningful Thresholds for the Volume-Outcome Relationship in Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Background: Increasing evidence supports the finding that patients undergoing a total knee arthroplasty with high-volume physicians and hospitals achieve better outcomes. Unfortunately, the existing definitions for high-volume surgeons and hospitals are highly variable and entirely arbitrary. The aim of this study was to identify a set of meaningful hospital and surgeon total knee arthroplasty volume thresholds. Methods: Using 289,976 patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty from an administrative database, we applied stratum-specific likelihood ratio (SSLR) analysis of a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to generate sets of volume thresholds most predictive of adverse outcomes. The outcomes considered for surgeon volume included 90-day complication and 2-year revision. For hospital volume, we considered 90-day complications and 90-day mortality. Results: SSLR analysis of the ROC curves for 90-day complication and 2-year revision rates by surgeon volume identified four volume categories: 0 to 12, 13 to 59, 60 to 145, and ≥146 total knee arthroplasties per year. Complication rates decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in progressively higher-volume categories. Revision rates followed a similar pattern, but did not decrease between surgeons performing 60 to 145 arthroplasties per year and those performing ≥146 arthroplasties per year. SSLR analysis of 90-day complication and 90-day mortality rates by hospital volume also identified four volume categories: 0 to 89, 90 to 235, 236 to 644, and ≥645 total knee arthroplasties per year. Complication rates decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in progressively higher-volume categories, but the rates did not decrease between hospitals performing 236 to 644 arthroplasties per year and those performing ≥645 arthroplasties per year. Mortality rates for hospitals with ≥645 total knee arthroplasties per year were significantly lower (p < 0.05) than those below the threshold. Conclusions: Our study supports the use of SSLR analysis of ROC curves for risk-based volume stratification in total knee arthroplasty volume-outcomes research. SSLR analysis established meaningful volume definitions for low, medium, high, and very high-volume total knee arthroplasty surgeons and hospitals. This should help patients, surgeons, hospitals, and policymakers to make decisions with regard to the optimal delivery of total knee arthroplasty. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.