cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Professional Dissonance and Burnout in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study.

Importance Burnout negatively affects physician health, productivity, and patient care. Its prevalence is high among physicians, especially those in primary care, yet few qualitative studies of burnout have been performed that engage frontline primary care practitioners (PCPs) for their perspectives. Objective To identify factors contributing to burnout and low professional fulfillment, as well as potential solutions, by eliciting the views of PCPs. Design, Setting, and Participants For this qualitative study, focus group discussions and interviews were conducted between February 1 and April 30, 2018, among 26 PCPs (physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) at a US academic medical center with a network of 15 primary care clinics. Participants were asked about factors contributing to burnout and barriers to professional fulfillment as well as potential solutions related to workplace culture and efficiency, work-life balance, and resilience. Main Outcomes and Measures Perceptions of the factors contributing to burnout and low professional fulfillment as well as potential solutions. Results A total of 26 PCPs (21 physicians, 3 nurse practitioners, and 2 physician assistants; 21 [81%] women) from 10 primary care clinics participated. They had a mean (SD) of 19.4 (9.5) years of clinical experience. Six common themes emerged from PCPs’ experiences with burnout: 3 external contributing factors and 3 internal manifestations. Participants described their workloads as excessively heavy, increasingly involving less “doctor” work and more “office” work, and reflecting unreasonable expectations. They felt demoralized by work conditions, undervalued by local institutions and the health care system, and conflicted in their daily work. Participants conveyed a sense of professional dissonance, or discomfort from working in a system that seems to hold values counter to their values as clinicians. They suggested potential solutions clustered around 8 themes: managing the workload, caring for PCPs as multidimensional human beings, disconnecting from work, recalibrating expectations and reimbursement levels, promoting PCPs’ voice, supporting professionalism, fostering community, and advocating reforms beyond the institution. Conclusions and Relevance In sharing their perspectives on factors contributing to burnout, frontline PCPs interviewed during this study described dissonance between their professional values and the realities of primary care practice, an authority-responsibility mismatch, and a sense of undervaluation. Practitioners also identified possible solutions institutions might consider investing in to resolve professional dissonance, reduce burnout rates, and improve professional fulfillment.
Superactive phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase with altered regulatory and catalytic properties.

One line of evidence supporting a role for 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PP-Ribose-P) in the regulation of the rate of purine synthesis de novo has come from the study of inherited abnormalities of the enzyme PP-ribose-P synthetase (E.C. 2.7.6.1) (1-7). PP-ribose-P synthetase catalyzes synthesis of PP-ribose-P from ATP and ribose-5-phosphate (Rib-5-P) in a reaction requiring Mg2+ and inorganic phosphate (Pi). The activity of the enzyme is inhibited by a variety of compounds including: purine, pyrimidine, and pyridine nucleotides (6,8-10); 2, 3-diphosphoglycerate (6,8); and the products of the reaction, AMP and PP-ribose-P (6,8).
Chapter 38 – Embryo Implantation

The process of implantation is a dynamic, complex reciprocal interaction between the embryo and uterus. The major events of this process include synchronized development of the preimplantation embryo into an implantation-competent blastocyst with preparation of the uterus to the receptive state, attachment of the blastocyst to the uterine luminal epithelium coincident with increased capillary permeability in the uterine vascular bed at the site of blastocyst apposition, localized differentiation of uterine stromal cells into decidual cells (decidualization) surrounding the implanting blastocyst, and controlled uterine invasion by embryonic trophoblasts. These events are executed by temporally and spatially regulated proliferation, differentiation, migration, and remodeling of the heterogeneous cell types of both the embryo and uterus. Ovarian estrogen and progesterone in collaboration with locally produced signaling molecules orchestrate these critical events. Genetic studies in mice have provided valuable clues to the implantation process with respect to specific growth factors, cytokines, lipid mediators, adhesion molecules, morphogens, and transcription factors. Emergence of new technologies will expand our knowledge regarding yet-to-be identified unique, complementary, and/or redundant molecular pathways in implantation, generating novel ideas and concepts for a process that is a gateway to pregnancy success and other reproductive health issues in women.
Theoretical and experimental study of dissolution mechanism of cellulose

Abstract Cellulose is one of the most abundant, sustainable and renewable materials on Earth. Accordingly, its utilization in different forms on different scales is in focus. Cellulose-based nanomaterials are considered to be one of the most exciting nanomaterials. Preparation of cellulose-based materials necessitates formation of cellulose-based solutions using environmentally hazardous solvents, which stems from the chemical nature of cellulose. In this work, an experimental and theoretical study of cellulose dissolution is described. As a model system, dissolution of cellulose in Schweizer's reagent is studied experimentally and theoretically as a model non-derivatizing method, elucidating and describing the physico-chemical aspects of the process. Dissolution of individual fibers pulled off banana woolery and cotton linters is studied experimentally. It is observed that a fiber can begin to swell before dissolution, even though it does not happen always. Then, the cross-sectional fiber size diminishes linearly in time, allowing direct measurement of the rate of cellulose dissolution. The theoretical model developed here links the rate of dissolution with the number of hydrogen bonds associated with hydroxyls on the surface of cellulose molecule required to be broken by chelating copper ions. This number is shown to be within the range of 1.28 × 1010–4.05 × 1010 cm−2, indicating that nanocellulose fibrils of length of 100–1000 nm are chipped off from cellulose during dissolution process. In concert with the dissolution rate, osmotically- driven flow of solvent towards the dissolving cellulose surface was also found.
Enhanced Stress Resilience Training in Surgeons: Iterative Adaptation and Biopsychosocial Effects in 2 Small Randomized Trials.

Objective To determine the effects of ESRT (an iteratively adapted and tailored MBI) on perceived stress, executive cognitive function, psychosocial well-being (ie, burnout, mindfulness), and pro-inflammatory gene expression in surgical (ESRT-1) and mixed specialty (ESRT-2) PGY-1 volunteers. Summary of background and data Tailored MBIs have proven beneficial in multiple high-stress and high-performance populations. In surgeons, tailored MBIs have been shown to be feasible and potentially beneficial, but whether mindfulness-based cognitive training can improve perceived stress, executive function, well-being or physiological distress in surgical and nonsurgical trainees is unknown. Methods In 2 small single-institution randomized clinical trials, ESRT, a tailored mindfulness-based cognitive training program, was administered and iteratively adapted for first-year surgical (ESRT-1, 8 weekly, 2-hour classes, n = 44) and mixed specialty (ESRT-2, 6 weekly, 90-minute classes, n = 45) resident trainees. Primary and secondary outcomes were, respectively, perceived stress and executive function. Other prespecified outcomes were burnout (assessed via Maslach Burnout Inventory), mindfulness (assessed via Cognitive Affective Mindfulness Scale - Revised), and pro-inflammatory gene expression (assessed through the leukocyte transcriptome profile "conserved transcriptional response to adversity"). Results Neither version of ESRT appeared to affect perceived stress. Higher executive function and mindfulness scores were seen in ESRT-1, and lower emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scores in ESRT-2, at pre-/postintervention and/or 50-week follow-up (ESRT-1) or at 32-week follow-up (ESRT-2), compared to controls. Pooled analysis of both trials found ESRT-treated participants had reduced pro-inflammatory RNA expression compared to controls. Conclusions This pilot work suggests ESRT can variably benefit executive function, burnout, and physiologic distress in PGY-1 trainees, with potential for tailoring to optimize effects.
Second Order Operators in the NASA Astrophysics Data System

Second Order Operators (SOOs) are database functions which form secondary queries based on attributes of the objects returned in an initial query; they can provide powerful methods to investigate complex, multipartite information graphs. The NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) has implemented four SOOs, reviews, useful, trending, and similar which use the citations, references, downloads, and abstract text. This tutorial describes these operators in detail, both alone and in conjunction with other functions. It is intended for scientists and others who wish to make fuller use of the ADS database. Basic knowledge of the ADS is assumed.
Factors influencing cumulative radiation dose from percutaneous intra-abdominal abscess drainage in the setting of inflammatory bowel disease

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at risk for intra-abdominal abscesses requiring CT-guided drainage. These patients are at baseline risk of high cumulative radiation exposure from imaging, which may be exacerbated by CT-guided drainage. This study aimed to determine the radiation dose associated with percutaneous drainage in the setting of IBD and identify risk factors associated with high exposure. An IRB-approved single-center retrospective study was performed to identify patients with IBD who underwent percutaneous abscess drainage over a 5-year period. An episode of drainage was defined from drain placement to removal, with all intervening procedures and diagnostic CT scans included in the cumulative radiation dose. The mean cumulative effective dose for a drainage episode was 47.50 mSv. The mean duration of a drainage episode was 68.7 days. Patients with a cumulative dose greater than 50 mSv required higher number of follow-up visits compared to patients with less than 50 mSv (6.9 vs. 3.5, p = 0.003*). Patients with higher cumulative dose were also more likely to require drain upsize (54% vs. 13%, p = 0.01*) or additional drain placement (63% vs 24%, p = 0.03*) compared to patients with lower dose. Intra-abdominal abscess drainage may be associated with significant cumulative radiation exposure. Requirement of drain upsizing or additional drain placement were associated with higher cumulative radiation dose, which may be related to more severe underlying inflammatory bowel disease.
Predictors of Women's Concern with Body Weight: The Roles of Perceived Self-Media Ideal Discrepancies and Self-Esteem

Researchers have expended significant effort trying to delineate determinants of body image disturbance in young women, in part because of the potential of body image disturbance to precipitate eating disordered behavior. In this research we demonstrate that the extent of the discrepancy women perceive between their own attractiveness and body shape and images representative of ideal feminine attractiveness presented in advertising and the broader media (i.e., self-media ideal discrepancy) predicts how concerned they are with their weight (a measure of body image disturbance). Perhaps more importantly, we also show that perceived self-media ideal discrepancy is a construct independent of global self-esteem. Specifically, our results demonstrate that perceived self-media ideal discrepancy is related to women's weight concern even when self-esteem is statistically controlled. Implications for theory and clinical intervention are discussed.
New Evidence on the Information Content of Dividend Announcements

This study presents new evidence on the relationship between dividend announcements and stock price responses, and provides a more comprehensive empirical analysis than that previously found in the literature. We simultaneously test several competing theories regarding the information content of dividends using two types of announcements: dividend initiations and specially designated dividends. The results of our analyses provide strong support for the single signal, cash-flow signalling hypothesis and only weak support for the John and Lang (1991) multiple signal, cash-flow signalling model. Supporting evidence is also presented for the predictions of the free-cash flow hypothesis.
Examining Freeway Bottleneck Features During a Mass Evacuation

Traffic features were investigated for a bottleneck that was observed on a 30 mi northbound section of Florida’s Turnpike (SR-91) during the mass evacuation in advance of Hurricane Irma that occurr...
The Advent of the Modern Child and Student

It is ironic that a sickly boy mistreated by his stepmother and who was denied his beloved schooling by his family1 would paint a serene image of childhood laced with nostalgia, such as Seated Boy with a Portfolio (1857). Francois-Saint Bonvin (1817–1887) seems to have overcome the pain inflicted by his aloof parents who disapproved of his art career. The result was this peaceful vision of a child’s discovery of art. Perhaps he saw his boy, surrounded by objects familiar to an artist’s atelier, and felt sympathy and nostalgia. An intimate, familiar painting of an average boy, was not typical of most art on public view at this time. Official artistic taste was displayed yearly in an exhibition, the Paris Salon. The Salon and the state patronage that accompanied it favored large, highly finished paintings of historical or mythological themes that in many ways were polar opposites to this painting. Bonvin’s sensitive image of a boy he saw every day was not a Salon painting, but a private and humble image. Is this adolescent, who seems to be in a studio, a representative of the mid-nineteenth-century child? Does the image say anything about perceptions of childhood in that era?
Improving the Sensitivity of Matrix-Assisted Ionization (MAI) Mass Spectrometry Using Ammonium Salts

In matrix-assisted ionization (MAI), analyte incorporated in a small molecule matrix is introduced into an aperture linking atmospheric pressure with the vacuum of a mass spectrometer. Gas-phase analyte ions are spontaneously produced without use of a laser or high voltage. Here we investigate analyte and background ion abundances upon addition of ammonium salts to various MAI matrix/analyte solutions. Regardless of the ammonium salt or matrix used, chemical background ions are suppressed and/or analyte ion abundance improved for basic small molecules, peptides, and proteins. Background ion abundances increase with increasing inlet temperature, but are suppressed with addition of any of a variety of ammonium salts without much effect on the total ion abundances of the analyte ions. However, at lower inlet temperature using the matrices 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol, 1,2-dicyanobenzene, and 3-nitrobenzonitrile (3-NBN), analyte ion abundance increases and any chemical background decreases upon addition of ammonium salt. The improvement in sensitivity using 3-NBN with ammonium salt allows full acquisition mass spectra consuming as little as 1 fmol of ubiquitin. More complete peptide coverage for 100 fmol of a BSA tryptic digest, and increased sensitivity of drugs spiked in urine and saliva were observed after ammonium salt addition to the 3-NBN matrix.
Numeracy Infusion Course for Higher Education (NICHE), 2: Development of Students' Bayesian Reasoning Skill

Gerd Gigerenzer's technique of frequency representations for solving the medical diagnosis problem, mammography problem, and other Bayesian reasoning problems is summarized in this paper. Such a method has been introduced to community college students in an elementary statistics course. With repeated practice, many community college students can acquire the skill and avoid reported judgment errors that are commonly committed by medical professionals. However, weaknesses in basic skills such as percentage calculations prevent some students from obtaining the correct probability.
An optimized two-step solution for updating XML views

View updating is a long standing difficult problem. Given a view defined over base data sources and a view update, there are several different updates over the base data sources, called translations, that perform the update. A translation is said to be correct if it performs the update and at the same time does not update any portion of the view not specified in the update (no view side-effects). The view update problem finds a correct translation for a given view update if one exists. In the relational scenario, previous research has attempted to study the view update problem either by utilizing only the schema knowledge, or by directly examining the base data. While utilizing only the schema knowledge is very efficient, we are not guaranteed to find a correct translation even if one exists. On the other hand, examining the base data is guaranteed to find a correct translation if one exists, but is very time-consuming. The view update problem is even more complex in the XML context due to the nested hierarchical structure of XML and the restructuring capabilities of the XQUERY view specification. In this paper we propose a schema-centric framework, named HUX, for efficiently updating XML views specified over relational databases. HUX is complete (always finds a correct translation if one exists) and is efficient. The efficiency of HUX is achieved as follows. Given a view update, HUX first exploits the schema to determine whether there will never be a correct translation, or there will always be a correct translation. Only if the update cannot be classified using the schema, HUX will examine the base data to determine if there is a correct translation. This data-level checking is further optimized in HUX, by exploiting the schema knowledge extracted in the first step to significantly prune the space of potential translations that is explored. Experiments illustrate the performance benefits of HUX over previous solutions.
Cache Serializability: Reducing Inconsistency in Edge Transactions

Read-only caches are widely used in cloud infrastructures to reduce access latency and load on backend databases. Operators view coherent caches as impractical at genuinely large scale and many client-facing caches are updated asynchronously with best-effort pipelines. Existing solutions that support cache consistency are inapplicable to this scenario since they require a round trip to the database on every cache transaction. Existing incoherent cache technologies are oblivious to transactional data access, even if the backend database supports transactions. We propose T-Cache, a novel caching policy for read-only transactions in which inconsistency is tolerable (won't cause safety violations) but undesirable (has a cost). T-Cache improves cache consistency despite asynchronous and unreliable communication between the cache and the database. We define cache-serializability, a variant of serializability that is suitable for incoherent caches, and prove that with unbounded resources T-Cache implements this new specification. With limited resources, T-Cache allows the system manager to choose a trade-off between performance and consistency. Our evaluation shows that T-Cache detects many inconsistencies with only nominal overhead. We use synthetic workloads to demonstrate the efficacy of T-Cache when data accesses are clustered and its adaptive reaction to workload changes. With workloads based on the real-world topologies, T-Cache detects 43 -- 70% of the inconsistencies and increases the rate of consistent transactions by 33 -- 58%.
Characterization of chick bone collagen and compositional changes associated with maturation.

Abstract Collagen extracted from the diaphyseal region of the tibiae of normal and lathyritic chicks with 0.5 m acetic acid and 5 m guanidine hydrochloride at neutral pH has been studied with regard to chain organization and amino acid composition. Decalcification by dialysis against large quantities of 0.5 m acetic acid and subsequent exposure of the decalcified bones to fresh 0.5 m acetic acid followed by 5 m guanidine resulted in the solubilization of 85% of the total collagen in the bones from lathyritic animals. Collagen in the bones of control animals was almost entirely resistant to extraction with 0.5 m acetic acid, and less than 20% of the total collagen could be extracted in 5 m guanidine. These observations suggest a high degree of intermolecular cross-linking. Chromatography of the collagen extracted by both solvents from the bones of lathyritic animals on columns of carboxymethyl cellulose indicated that the extracts were composed almost entirely of single- and double-chain components. Carboxymethyl cellulose chromatography of the collagen extracted with 5 m guanidine from the bones of normal chicks revealed that only 30% of the dissolved collagen (5% of the total collagen) could be recovered as these components. Chromatography on an agarose molecular sieve column showed that the remainder could be accounted for in part by high molecular weight aggregates and in part by low molecular weight, degraded material. These results suggest that bone collagen fibrils are stabilized through the formation of intra- and intermolecular cross-links and that lathyrogens exert their effects by inhibiting cross-link formation, as previously shown for soft tissue collagens. The extractability of normal bone collagen in guanidine appears to result from degradation in the presence of the denaturing agent to yield a highly heterogeneous mixture. Carboxymethyl cellulose chromatography of acid-extracted collagen from the bones of lathyritic animals indicated that the bone collagen molecule contains two chains (α1) that are identical or similar and one chain (α2) that is unlike the other two. Their compositions are analogous to those of other vertebrate collagens. Amino acid analyses of the chromatographically separated α chains in successive extracts of collagen from the lathyritic bones indicated that during development there was a progressive decrease in hydroxylysine content, accompanied by an equivalent increase in lysine content, with no significant change in the content of any other amino acid. This observation was verified by amino acid analyses of the total bone collagen of normal chicks of various ages. The hydroxylysine content decreased by nearly one-half, from 11 to 6 residues per 1000, between the 1st and the 49th day after hatching. This result suggests that the hydroxylation of bone collagen lysyl residues is dependent in part upon factors extrinsic to the collagen molecule.
Outpatient therapy: Success and failure with dysplasia and carcinoma in situ

Abstract Between 1971 and 1980, 385 patients with colposcopic biopsy-proved cervical intraepithelial neoplasia were treated by either the colposcopist or the referring physician by means of cryosurgery, electrocautery, or biopsy excision. All were observed for a minimum of 1 year, 220 between 1 and 2 years, 50 between 3 and 4 years, and 23 for 4 or more years. Therapy failed in 29 in the first year ("failures" proved by tissue examination). The failure rate among the 35 patients with carcinoma in situ was 20%, 7 a rate significantly higher than that seen in 108 patients with severe dysplasia (7 or 6.5%) or in mild and moderate dysplasia (4.4% and 8.5%, respectively). There were 10 "recurrences" seen among those observed for more than 1 year after treatment. In eight instances the histologic severity of the recurrence was more severe than that of the original lesion. The comparative efficacy of cryosurgery and electrocautery and the success and failure rates for the colposcopists and other therapists who had not viewed the lesions prior to therapy are examined.
Effect of carnitine on mitochondrial oxidation of palmitoylcarnitine

The effects of carnitine on the metabolism of palmitoylcarnitine were studied by using isolated rat liver mitochondria. Particular attention was given to carnitine acyltransferase-mediated interactions between carnitine and the mitochondrial CoA pool. Carnitine concentrations less than 1.25mm resulted in an increased production of acetylcarnitine during palmitoylcarnitine oxidation. Despite this shunting of C2 units to acetylcarnitine formation, no change was observed in the rate of oxygen consumption or major product formation (citrate or acetoacetate). Further, no changes were observed in the mitochondrial content of acetyl-CoA, total acid-soluble CoA or acid-insoluble acyl-CoA. These observations support the concept, based on studies in vivo, that the carnitine/acylcarnitine pool is metabolically sluggish and the acyl-group flux low as compared with the CoA/acyl-CoA pool. Acid-insoluble acyl-CoA content was decreased and CoA content increased at carnitine concentrations greater than 1.25mm. When [14C]carnitine was used in the incubations, it was demonstrated that this resulted from acid-insoluble acylcarnitine formation from intramitochondrial acid-insoluble acyl-CoA mediated by carnitine palmitoyltransferase B. Again, the higher carnitine concentrations resulted in no changes in the rates of oxygen consumption or major product formation. The above effects of carnitine were observed whether citrate or acetoacetate was the major product of oxidation. In contrast, an increase in acetyl-CoA concentration was observed at high carnitine concentrations only when acetoacetate was the product. Since the rate of acetoacetate production was not changed, these higher acetyl-CoA concentrations suggest that a new steady state had been established to maintain acetoacetate-production rates. Since there was no change in acetyl-CoA concentration when citrate was the major product, a change in the activity of the pathway utilizing acetyl-CoA for ketone-body synthesis and the potential regulation of this pathway must be considered.
Design and construction of the donner 280-crystal positron ring for dynamic transverse section emission imaging

We describe the design and construction of a medical imaging system for the rapid, accurate, three-dimensional imaging of positron-labeled compounds in the human body. Our medical research goals include quantifying blood flow and metabolism in human heart muscle and brain. The system consists of (1) a large gantry containing lead shielding and a ring of 280 NaI(T1) detectors that completely encircles the patient; (2) 280 photomultiplier tubes, preamplifiers and timing discriminators; (3) circuits that determine whenever a crystal has detected a gamma ray in time coincidence (i.e. within 12 nsec) of any of the opposing 105 crystals and determine the addresses of the crystals involved; (4) 120K words of 12 bit memory for the simultaneous acquisition of data from eight portions of the cardiac cycle; and (5) a hardwired image reconstructor capable of filtering and backprojecting data from 140 views to form a 210 × 210 computed transverse section image in less than 2 sec.
In-situ reconfiguration for flexible distribution of energy and storage resources

Flexible Distribution of EneRgy and Storage Resources (FDERS) is a new framework recently proposed for integrating various distributed resources in a power system. It provides flexibility in rearranging the interconnected system resources into formations in order to achieve greater sustainability as observed in the V-shape formation of a bird flock or peloton formation of a cycling racing team. One of the characteristic features of FDERS is in enabling distributed resources reconfiguration in-situ, i.e., the resources demonstrate a different dynamic behavior relative to each other than their (original) physical `electrical' location otherwise would suggest. This paper presents various schemes for in-situ reconfiguration along with their advantages. It is achieved by means of developing novel techniques employing special functions of compensating reactances. These techniques help in achieving greater sustainability goals like optimal energy storage deployment, enhanced controllability, improved system robustness and increased lifetime of the distributed energy and storage resources. In-situ reconfiguration is demonstrated for within-parallel, parallel-to-series and series-to-parallel connections. Finally, a comparison is also presented between physical and in-situ and reconfigurations.
Measuring T cell immunity to influenza vaccination in children after haemopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Impaired immunity to infectious organisms contributes to the poor outcome after haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) (Ochs et al, 1995; Chakrabarti et al, 2002; Martelli & Reisner, 2002; Veys et al, 2003). Vaccination has been used to improve immune function but the optimal vaccination strategy has not been identified and little attention has been directed at assessing the T cell response to vaccines (Avigan et al, 2001). We describe here a sensitive technique for quantifying and characterizing antigen-specific T cells that was used to measure T cell immunity to influenza A in normal adults and children, and influenza vaccination response in paediatric HSCT patients.
Area, Color, and Brightness Difference in a Reversible Configuration

Resume Dans ce probleme il s'agit des contributions relatives de la superficie et de la couleur (avec et sans rendre egale la clarte) a la dominance de “figure.” La figure employee a ete l'adaptation d'une des figures de Rubin par Kohler. On a obtenu des notations des renversements par le kymo-graphion. Le criterium de dominance a ete la duree relative dans une periode definie pendant laquelle on a vu un systeme de champs comme “figure” comparee a la duree relative pendant laquelle on a vu l'autre systeme comme “figure.” Au moyen de varier la superficie des deux systemes, d'employer la couleur, et de rendre egale la clarte des couleurs, on a obtenu une expression quantitative de l'influence des differences de superficie, de couleur, et de clarte dans les renversements. Les resultats montrent que dans ce type de configuration (1) le systeme des plus petits champs est choisi comme “figure,” et une decroissance relative de la grandeur de ces champs les rend plus dominants. La dominance varie inversement d'un...
Activity of trabectedin (ET-743, Yondelis) in metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma.

Abstract Background. The ongoing search for more effective agents in the treatment of uterine leiomyosarcomas is warranted because of the poor prognosis related to these tumors. Case. A case of advanced, recurrent and refractory uterine leiomyosarcoma is presented that responded to trabectedin (ET-743) 1.2 mg/m2 intravenously over 24 h every 3 weeks after failing four prior regimens. A durable objective response lasting at least 8 months was documented. Conclusion. Trabectedin (ET-743) has activity in uterine leiomyosarcoma and warrants further investigation.
Suppression of Doxorubicin Cardiotoxicity by Overexpression of Catalase in the Heart of Transgenic Mice

Weak antioxidant capacity, particularly low catalase activity in the heart, may be a factor responsible for the high sensitivity of this organ to doxorubicin-induced oxidative damage. To test this hypothesis, a heart-specific promoter was used to drive the expression of murine catalase cDNA in transgenic mice. Fifteen healthy transgenic mouse lines were produced. Cardiac catalase activity was constitutively overexpressed in both atrium and ventricule, ranging from 2- to 630-fold higher than normal. This enzyme activity was not altered in liver, kidneys, lungs, and skeletal muscles. Other antioxidant components, including glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, metallothionein, and superoxide dismutase, were not altered in the catalase-overexpressing heart. Mice (7 weeks old) from several transgenic lines and from nontransgenic controls were treated intraperitoneally with doxorubicin at a single dose of 20 mg/kg and sacrificed on the 4th day after treatment. As compared to normal controls, transgenic lines expressing catalase activity 60- or 100-fold higher than normal exhibited a significant resistance to doxorubicin-induced cardiac lipid peroxidation, elevation of serum creatine phosphokinase, and functional changes in the isolated atrium. Interestingly, 200-fold or greater elevation of catalase activity did not provide protection. The results provide direct evidence for the role of catalase in doxorubicin cardiotoxic responses.
Cellular manufacturing systems design with alternate routing considerations

Abstract An approach considering alternate routing for designing cellular manufacturing systems is presented. Alternate routing in automated manufacturing of families of parts is encountered in many real life situations. This aspect in the design of cellular manufacturing systems is not adequately handled. Therefore, a mathematical programming approach with an example problem is presented in the paper.
Molecular dynamics at the nematic to smectic a phase transition: An ESR study

Abstract In an electron-spin-relaxation study of a spin probe dissolved in a liquid crystal, the linewidth parameters are observed to diverge in the nematic phase with critical exponent close to 1/3 as the nematic-smectic A transition is approached. This is interpreted in terms of a model wherein pre-transitional smectic fluctations modulate the spin-relaxation parameters of the probe.
Time-resolved fluorescence of hemoglobin species

We used time-resolved fluorescence in the pico- to nanosecond time range to monitor the presence of tetramers, dimers and monomers in carbonmonoxyhemoglobin (COHb) solutions and to investigate how their distributions change under different experimental conditions. Comparison of fluorescence lifetime computed from the atomic coordinates of COHb (Vasquez et al., 1996) with those experimentally measured allowed identification of molecular species present in the hemoglobin solution. It was possible to observe modification of the distribution of tetramers, dimers, monomers and species with disordered hemes produced by different experimental conditions. Protein concentration affected the detectable lifetimes, indicating increasing amounts of dimers and monomers at low protein concentrations, while the amount of inverted hemes was not modified. Titration with up to 1 M NaCl modified only the extent of dissociation of hemoglobin into dimers, without affecting heme inversion and monomer formation. Hyperbaric pressure increased the amounts of dimers and monomers. This is the first time that monomeric subunits of hemoglobin have been detected at neutral pH in the normal system.
Biodynamic performance of hyaluronic acid versus synovial fluid of the knee in osteoarthritis

Hyaluronic acid (HA), a natural biomaterial present in healthy joints but depleted in osteoarthritis (OA), has been employed clinically to provide symptomatic relief of joint pain. Joint movement combined with a reduced joint lubrication in osteoarthritic knees can result in increased wear and tear, chondrocyte apoptosis, and inflammation, leading to cascading cartilage deterioration. Therefore, development of an appropriate cartilage model that can be evaluated for its friction properties with potential lubricants in different conditions is necessary, which can closely resemble a mechanically induced OA cartilage. Additionally, a comparison of different models with and without endogenous lubricating surface zone proteins, such as PRG4 promotes a well-rounded understanding of cartilage lubrication. In this study, we present our findings on the lubricating effects of HA on different articular cartilage model surfaces in comparison to synovial fluid, a physiological lubricating biomaterial. The mechanical testings data demonstrated that HA reduced average static and kinetic friction coefficient values of the cartilage samples by 75% and 70%, respectively. Furthermore, HA mimicked the friction characteristics of freshly harvested natural synovial fluid throughout all tested and modeled OA conditions with no statistically significant difference. These characteristics led us to exclusively identify HA as an effective boundary layer lubricant in the technology that we develop to treat OA (Singh et al., 2014).
Comparison of Effect Estimates from a Meta-Analysis of Summary Data from Published Studies and from a Meta-Analysis Using Individual Patient Data for Ovarian Cancer Studies

To determine the relative merits of two quantitative methods used to estimate the summary effects of observational studies, the authors compared two methods of meta-analysis. Each quantified the relation between oral contraceptive use and the risk for ovarian cancer. One analysis consisted of a meta-analysis using summary data from 11 published studies from the literature (MAL) in which the study was the unit of analysis, and the second consisted of a meta-analysis using individual patient data (MAP) in which the patient was the unit of analysis. The authors found excellent quantitative agreement between the summary effect estimates from the MAL and the MAP. The MAP permits analysis 1) among outcomes, exposures, and confounders not investigated in the original studies, 2) when the original effect measures differ among studies and cannot be converted to a common measure (e.g., slopes vs. correlation coefficients), and 3) when there is a paucity of studies. The MAL permits analysis 1) when resources are limited, 2) when time is limited, and 3) when original study data are not available or are available only from a biased sample of studies. In public health epidemiology, data from original studies are often accessible only to limited numbers of research groups and for only a few types of studies that have high public health priority. Consequently, few opportunities for pooled analysis exist. However, from a policy view, MAL will provide answers to many questions and will help in identifying questions for future investigation.
Interactions between adult and larval bluegill sunfish: positive and negative effects.

Adult fish may affect the growth and survival of conspecific larvae through a variety of pathways, including negative interactions via competition for shared limiting resources or via predation (i.e., cannibalism), and positive interactions due to the consumption of larval predators and via resource enhancement (i.e., presence of adults increases availability of larval prey). To examine the overall effect of adult bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) on larval bluegill, we conducted a field experiment in which we manipulated adult densities and quantified larval growth and survival, prey abundance, invertebrate predator abundance, and cannibalism. The presence of adult bluegill had a negative effect on final larval mass. This response was consistent with competition for zooplankton prey. Adult bluegill reduced the abundance of large zooplankton (e.g., Chaoborus and Daphnia), which were the dominant prey of bluegill larvae in the absence of adults. Larvae in the no-adult treatment also had significantly more prey in their stomachs compared to larvae in the presence of adults. Larval survival was maximized at intermediate adult densities and the overall production of larvae peaked at intermediate adult densities. The higher larval survival at intermediate adult densities is attributed to a reduction in invertebrate predators in treatments with adult bluegill; invertebrate predators experienced an 80% reduction in the presence of adult fish. Decreased larval survival at the highest adult density was not due to resource limitation and may be due to cannibalism, which was not directly observed in our study, but has been observed in other studies.
Inequality in America: The failure of the American system for people of color

This paper places racial inequality in the U.S. in the context of overol inequality. Not only is income maldistributed, but more importantly, productive property is highly concentrated in the hands of a few owners. Inequality of both income and property is even more severe for people of color. The paper contends that American capitalism is committed to inequality because the wealth of property owners depends upon impoverishment. Racial inequality is endemic to the system since capitalism spawns the colonial domination of people of color. Racism persists through assimilationism. The growth of a middle class of color does not negate racism since the middle class, regardless of race, is part of capitalist domination. The paper ends by suggesting how we ought to orient ourselves for social change.
Biennial review of planar chromatography: 2011–2013

The most important advances in planar chromatography published between November 1, 2011 and November 1, 2013 are reviewed in this paper. Included are an introduction to the current status of the field; student experiments, books, and reviews; theory and fundamental studies; apparatus and techniques for sample preparation and TLC separations (sample application and plate development with the mobile phase); detection and identification of separated zones (chemical and biological detection, TLC/mass spectrometry, and TLC coupled with other spectrometric methods); techniques and instruments for quantitative analysis; preparative layer chromatography; and thin layer radiochromatography. Numerous applications to a great number of compound types and sample matrices are presented in all sections of the review.
Preliminary findings of alterations in serum alkaline phosphatase activity in chickens during coccidial infections

Two-week-old broiler chickens were inoculated orally with various doses of avian Eimeria that infect different sections of the intestine. The coccidia used were E. acervulina (duodenum), E. maxima (jejunum), E. brunetti (ileum) and E. tenella (caecum). The measurements evaluated were weight gains, intestinal lesion scores and changes in serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP) activity 6 days after infection. SAP activity was inversely proportional to both oocyst dose and gross intestinal lesion score, and directly proportional to weight gains with infections of E. acervulina, E. maxima and E. tenella. However, no significant changes in the SAP activity were found in those birds infected with E. brunetti. Taken together, the data suggest that SAP activity may be a sensitive marker of the pathogenesis of certain coccidial infections, especially in the duodenum, jejunum and caecum, that may be used as an additional factor in evaluating coccidial control measures.
Short-term electrical load forecasting using a fuzzy ARTMAP neural network

Accurate electrical load forecasting is a necessary part of resource management for power generating companies. The better the hourly load forecast, the more closely the power generating assets of the company can be configured to minimize the cost. Automation of this process is a profitable goal and neural networks have shown promising results in achieving this goal. The most often used neural network to solve the electric load forecasting problem is the back-propagation neural network architecture. Although the performance of the back- propagation neural network architecture has been encouraging, it is worth noting that it suffers from the slow convergence problem and the difficulty of interpreting the answers that the architecture provides. A neural network architecture that does not suffer from the above mentioned drawbacks is the Fuzzy ARTMAP neural network, developed by Carpenter, Grossberg, and their colleagues at Boston University. In this work we applied the Fuzzy ARTMAP neural network to the electric load forecasting problem. We performed numerous experiments to forecast the electrical load. The experiments showed that the Fuzzy ARTMAP architecture yields as accurate electrical load forecasts as a back-propagation neural network with training time a small fraction of the training time required by the back-propagation neural network.
Business Policy Practices That Predict Sales of Tobacco

This pilot study with tobacco merchants asked how policy practices may influence sales of tobacco to youth. This study compared tobacco merchant new employee training and business policies and practices to business compliance data. Licensed tobacco merchants in a rural Minnesota county were mailed surveys regarding their new employee training and business policies practices. The returned surveys (75.9%, N = 44) were compared with tobacco compliance results that indicated if the business sold tobacco to youth during a county compliance check. The major finding from this study was that the survey respondents who did not sell tobacco to youth provided training on fake identification cards (68.0%, n = 17). Tobacco merchants who provided additional information on fake identification cards (40%,n = 6), chi(2)(2, n = 43) 6.66, p = .036, were more likely to not sell tobacco to youth than the merchants who did not provide fake identification card information.
Distributed Backlog-Driven Power Control in Wireless Networking

We address the problem of distributed power control for supporting packetized traffic in wireless ad hoc networks (e.g. 802.11 based wireless LANs). The interference experienced by a link coexisting with other links in a shared wireless medium is responsive to the actions of the transmitter on the link. Consequently, the evolution of seemingly independent queues at autonomously acting transmitters is tightly entangled through the shared wireless channel. Thus, an exact analysis of the distributed power control problem which also incorporates queuing dynamics is intractable. To establish a performance benchmark, we first design the optimal centralized backlog aware power control algorithm (Oracle) in a dynamic programming (DP) framework. We then propose a heuristic backlog aware distributed power control algorithm (BDD). The implementation of BDD is based on randomized selection from lookup tables which are computed offline at each transmitter. The computational complexity and memory requirements for BDD are independent of the network size and topology, making it attractive from a practical perspective. Experimental results demonstrate that BDD closely matches Oracle in performance and enhances system throughput by 20-30% compared to benchmark backlog insensitive power control algorithms (e.g. Foschini-Miljanic).
Timeless access - faculty development through computer conferencing

This paper will describe the phenomenon of training and development through the use of interactive computers. Following a description of the Electronic Information Exchange System, specific experiences of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the realm of professional faculty development as well as continuing education will be discussed. The actual experience in moderating a course will be described. General principles that are conducive to the successful use of the system will be considered as well as pitfalls for the unwary.
Visual information about rigid and nonrigid motion: A geometric analysis.

A mathematical analysis is presented that attempts to describe the available visual information about rigid and nonrigid motion and the three-dimensional structure of rigidly moving objects. Unlike other approaches, the analysis is based on the geometric relations among a set of trajectories defined over an extended region of space-time. Two experiments are reported in which observers viewed computer simulations of moving objects and were required to judge whether the observed motion appeared to be rigid or nonrigid. The results suggest that the mathematical limitations of a trajectory-based analysis of visual information are consistent with the perceptual limitations of actual human observers. Language: en
Introduction of the American Pediatric Society's 2006 John Howland Award recipient, Kurt Hirschhorn, M.D.

Introduction of the American Pediatric Society's 2006 John Howland Award Recipient, Kurt Hirschhorn, M.D.