cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of ceramic calcium–phosphorus ratio on chondrocyte‐mediated biosynthesis and mineralization

The osteochondral interface functions as a structural barrier between cartilage and bone, maintaining tissue integrity postinjury and during homeostasis. Regeneration of this calcified cartilage region is thus essential for integrative cartilage healing, and hydrogel-ceramic composite scaffolds have been explored for calcified cartilage formation. The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that Ca/P ratio of the ceramic phase of the composite scaffold regulates chondrocyte biosynthesis and mineralization potential. Specifically, the response of deep zone chondrocytes to two bioactive ceramics with different calcium-phosphorus ratios (1.35 ± 0.01 and 1.41 ± 0.02) was evaluated in agarose hydrogel scaffolds over two weeks in vitro. It was observed that the ceramic with higher calcium-phosphorus ratio enhanced chondrocyte proliferation, glycosaminoglycan production, and induced an early onset of alkaline phosphorus activity, while the ceramic with lower calcium-phosphorus ratio performed similarly to the ceramic-free control. These results underscore the importance of ceramic bioactivity in directing chondrocyte response, and demonstrate that Ca/P ratio is a key parameter to be considered in osteochondral scaffold design. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2694-2702, 2017.
Type of early bilingualism and its effect on the acoustic realization of allophonic variants: Early sequential and simultaneous bilinguals:

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions:This study examines the acoustic realization of phrase-initial voiced stops (/b, d, g/) and intervocalic voiced approximants ([β, ð, ɣ]) in Spanish by...
Re-Reading the Past from the end of Physics: Maxwell’s Equations in Retrospect

For the working physicist, the past and future of physics are thoroughly intertwined. With each set of goals the discipline has posed for itself comes a new gloss on prior accomplishments. As a result there is no unique or simple fashion in which the history of physics (as viewed by physicists) is related to their research priorities. In this brief essay I would like to illustrate some examples of the many ways in which the past is re-read, and then to speculate on some of the functions this constant reinterpretation plays.
Hepatology in a changing health care landscape: A call for health services research

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act followed by the physician payment reform, there is an urgent need to better understand the complex relationships between structure (including incentives), processes, and outcomes of health care and, based on this understanding, identify interventions that can ensure delivery of high-value care to patients with liver disease. As hepatologists, how do we systematically address these issues and ensure that we provide high-value care to our patients? These factors combine in the burgeoning field of health services research. This article seeks to describe how health services research influences the practice of hepatology, the tools and technologies it utilizes, as well as how interested individuals can seek to acquire knowledge and methodological training in health services research. Finally, we summarize the current state of health services research in hepatology and liver transplantation. (Hepatology 2018).
Design and evaluation of hybrid switched capacitor converters for high voltage, high power density applications

This work investigates the use of hybrid switched capacitor converter (HSCC) topologies with wide bandgap devices to achieve high efficiency DC-DC power conversion with high gain, high voltage outputs. This class of converter may be useful for several applications that include a medium voltage bus, such as solar PV, electric aircraft, or even all-electric ship architectures. Three converter prototypes are considered and evaluated in hardware, including a basic (unipolar) HSCC and two bipolar HSCC variants. The converter operation is discussed, and the bipolar prototypes are demonstrated to achieve high-gain, high-voltage output. Finally, the latest bipolar switched capacitor prototype is demonstrated to boost 480 V to 10 kV (Gain > 20) with 97.9% efficiency at 4.96 kW output power.
Cosserat elasticity of lattice shells with kinematically independent flexure and twist

A model of nonlinearly elastic surfaces composed of continuously distributed embedded fibers is formulated. This takes account of the elastic resistance of the fibers to extension, bending and twist. Twist is regarded as being kinematically independent of surface deformation, just as the twist in a spatial Kirchhoff rod is independent of the deformation of the curve of the rod.
Quantitative Response of Alexandrium catenella Cyst Dormancy to Cold Exposure

Many dinoflagellate cysts experience dormancy, a reversible state that prevents germination during unfavorable periods. Several of these species also cause harmful algal blooms (HABs), so a quantitative understanding of dormancy cycling is desired for better prediction and mitigation of bloom impacts. This study examines the effect of cold exposure on the duration of dormancy in Alexandrium catenella, a HAB dinoflagellate that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). Mature, dormant cysts from Nauset Marsh (Cape Cod, MA USA) were stored at low but above freezing temperatures for up to six months. Dormancy status was then determined at regular intervals using a germination assay. Dormancy timing was variable among temperatures and was shorter in colder treatments, but the differences collapse when temperature and duration of storage are scaled by chilling-units (CU), a common horticultural predictor of plant and insect development in response to weather. Cysts within Nauset meet a well-defined chilling requirement by late January, after which they are poised to germinate with the onset of favorable conditions in spring. Cysts thus modulate their dormancy cycles in response to their temperature history, enhancing the potential for new blooms and improving this species’ adaptability to both unseasonable weather and new habitats/climate regimes.
Minimum Distortion Point Tracking: Optimal Phase Shifting for Input- or Output-Parallel Connected DC-DC Converters

This paper introduces the notion of minimum distortion point tracking (MDPT): a control paradigm for input- or output-parallel connected dc-dc converters where switching waveforms are optimally phase shifted to minimize the total dc-bus ripple power. In a sense, MDPT generalizes the ubiquitous concept of interleaving in balanced multiphase dc-dc converters to a broad class of asymmetric input- or output-parallel connected dc-dc converters. Realizing power-quality improvement with control design implies that a drastic reduction in passive input or output filters can be achieved. This paper presents the mathematical characterization of the minimum distortion point (MDP) and a technique for MDPT. An experimental case study for three 600 W dc-dc converters demonstrates a 3× reduction in the bus voltage ripple, convergence to a static MDP in 40 ms, and the ability to dynamically track a time-varying MDP.
Political tribes and tribal scholarship: a review of Amy Chua’s Political tribes and Lilliana Mason’s Uncivil agreement

Amy Chua’s Political tribes and Lilliana Mason’s Uncivil agreement represent, each in their own way, the tip of the spear in what we might call ‘tribal psychologism.’ The attack is an important one...
Spatial and temporal variation in toadfish (Opsanus tau) and cusk eel (Ophidion marginatum) mating choruses in eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds in a shallow, temperate estuary

ABSTRACTPassive acoustic recordings were made at two sites over a four-month period in eelgrass beds in a shallow estuary (Shinnecock Bay, New York, USA). Recordings were dominated by mating calls ...
Depressive Symptoms, Perceived Stress, and Cortisol in School-Age Children With Type 1 Diabetes: A Pilot Study:

Despite adequate insulin regimens and concurrent treatments for Type 1 diabetes (T1D), many children have trouble achieving glycemic control, as evidenced by elevated HbA1c levels. Maternal and child depressive symptoms, as well as child perceived stress, are associated with less optimal glycemic control. Cortisol, a stress hormone, may mediate the relationships among depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and glycemic control. The purposes of this pilot study were to (1) examine the feasibility of collecting salivary samples to measure cortisol change in prepubertal school-age children diagnosed with T1D and (2) determine effect sizes for the relationships among maternal depressive symptoms and child depressive symptoms, perceived stress, cortisol levels, and glycemic control. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling from a pediatric endocrinology clinic in the southeastern United States. All data, including surveys, salivary samples, HbA1c, height, and weight, were collected the same day as a clinic visit. The study included 30 children, ages 6.9-12.2 years, and their mothers. Most children were female (70%) and Caucasian (76.7%), but the sample was socioeconomically diverse. HbA1c values ranged from 6.1% to 12.2%. Of the children, 18 showed normal declines in cortisol over 3 hr, while 12 had increases in cortisol. Results show recruitment, participation, and data collection are feasible in school-age children with T1D. Examination of relevancy thresholds for effect sizes between variables of interest supports the need for future research in a larger, more representative sample on research questions that include the role cortisol plays as a potential mediator among examined variables.
Risk and Risk Factors for Chronic Opioid Use Among Opioid-Naive Patients With Newly Diagnosed Musculoskeletal Pain in the Neck, Shoulder, Knee, or Low Back.

Background. Musculoskeletal pain is a common condition, raising the concern these patients may transition to chronic opioid use. However, the incidence of and risk factors for chronic opioid use among patients with new musculoskeletal pain are not fully understood.
Theories of God: Explanatory coherence in religious cognition

Representations of God in art, literature, and discourse range from the highly anthropomorphic to the highly abstract. The present study explored whether people who endorse anthropomorphic God concepts hold different religious beliefs and engage in different religious practices than those who endorse abstract concepts. Adults of various religious affiliations (n = 275) completed a questionnaire that probed their beliefs about God, angels, Satan, Heaven, Hell, cosmogenesis, anthropogenesis, human suffering, and human misdeeds, as well as their experiences regarding prayer, worship, and religious development. Responses to the questionnaire were analyzed by how strongly participants anthropomorphized God in a property-attribution task. Overall, the more participants anthropomorphized God, the more concretely they interpreted religious ideas, importing their understanding of human affairs into their understanding of divine affairs. These findings suggest not only that individuals vary greatly in how they interpret the same religious ideas but also that those interpretations cohere along a concrete-to-abstract dimension, anchored on the concrete side by our everyday notions of people.
Figuring out how life first took off is (much like) rocket science

Abstract A pedagogical comparison of emergence-of-life research and rocket science is made in order to inform how environmental disequilibria at the ocean/crust interface on the early Earth – a 1 V battery – forced life's emergence as an inescapable mechanism for their dissipation. Likely fuels and oxidants to drive life into being were hydrogen plus methane, borne by rising alkaline hydrothermal solutions, juxtaposed with ocean waters containing dilute nitric plus carbonic acids carbureted along the outside of a spontaneously precipitated semipermeable metal hydroxide/sulfide mound. As a comparison, hydrogen and methane can also be used as fuels for rockets, with nitric acid as an oxidant, carefully distributed through the mixing head to the combustion chamber. Whereas a full burn is the goal of the rocket engineer, the first living entities were best served by incomplete reactions and thereby the production of metastable intermediates that could further interact to beat the first metabolic pathway to life. In this analogy the hydrothermal mound is broadly comparable to the rocket while individual engines comprise the variable valence and conformationally flexible mineral, green rust (∼[Fe2+4Fe3+2(OH12]2+[CO3.3H2O]2-) dosed with Ni, Co, Mo and W. With its internal layers of water and counter ions, we also compare the operations of green rust to a slow ramjet. This green rust ‘ramjet’ is driven by steep gradients in protons, electrons, anions and uncharged molecules, through the hydrous interlayers from either side of the mineral membrane separating the contrasting fluids and which green rust partly comprises. The mineral can rapidly reduce nitrate to ammonia and, therefrom, aminate pyruvate to the amino acid alanine. The higher amino acids may also be synthesized and polymers thereby act as primitive proteins, enzymes and cell walls. The main challenge now is to figure out how this green rust system, with its variable valence pattern of 2 ​+ ​and 3 ​+ ​cations, could govern growth and reproduction and, eventually, evolve toward a replicative world partly governed by nucleotides. Inanimate rockets of course, need their guidance systems installed, and most are fully autonomous.
Rationalization may improve predictability rather than accuracy

We present a theoretical and an empirical challenge to Cushman's claim that rationalization is adaptive because it allows humans to extract more accurate beliefs from our non-rational motivations for behavior. Rationalization sometimes generates more adaptive decisions by making our beliefs about the world less accurate. We suggest that the most important adaptive advantage of rationalization is instead that it increases our predictability (and therefore attractiveness) as potential partners in cooperative social interactions.
Going with the flow: Nudging attention online:

Theories explaining the impacts of online media often swing between the actions of empowered individuals and the distribution structures put in place by powerful corporations. To explicate how thes...
Detection of cytogenomic abnormalities by OncoScan microarray assay for products of conception from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded and fresh fetal tissues

The OncoScan microarray assay (OMA) using highly multiplexed molecular inversion probes for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci enabled the detection of cytogenomic abnormalities of chromosomal imbalances and pathogenic copy number variants (pCNV). The small size of molecular inversion probes is optimal for SNP genotyping of fragmented DNA from fixed tissues. This retrospective study evaluated the clinical utility of OMA as a uniform platform to detect cytogenomic abnormalities for pregnancy loss from fresh and fixed tissues of products of conception (POC). Fresh specimens of POC were routinely subjected to cell culture and then analyzed by karyotyping. POC specimens with a normal karyotype (NK) or culture failure (CF) and from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues were subjected to DNA extraction for OMA. The abnormality detection rate (ADR) by OMA on 94 cases of POC-NK, 38 cases of POC-CF, and 35 cases of POC-FFPE tissues were 2% (2/94), 26% (10/38), and 57% (20/35), respectively. The detected cytogenomic abnormalities of aneuploidies, triploidies and pCNV accounted for 50%, 40% and 10% in POC-CF and 85%, 10% and 5% in POC-FFPE, respectively. False negative result from cultured maternal cells and maternal cell contamination were each detected in one case. OMA on two cases with unbalanced structural chromosome abnormalities further defined genomic imbalances and breakpoints. OMA on POC-CF and POC-FFPE showed a high diagnostic yield of cytogenomic abnormalities. This approach circumvented the obstacles of CF from fresh specimens and fragmented DNA from fixed tissues and provided a reliable and effective platform for detecting cytogenomic abnormalities and monitoring true fetal result from maternal cell contamination.
Just a spoonful of ice cream helps the methods go down: A hands-on approach to experimental design, null hypothesis testing, and inferential statistics

Research methods for undergraduates or graduates.The aims of this activity are: (1) to clarify the basics of experimental design, (2) to illustrate the concept of levels of measurement, (3) to demo...
Financial hardship is associated with lower uptake of colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer screenings.

Cancer screening uptake differs between groups in ways that cannot be explained by socioeconomic status alone. This study examined associations between material, psychosocial, and behavioral aspects of financial hardship and cancer screening behaviors. Surveys were mailed to 7,979 people ages 18–75 who were seen in the statewide health system in Indiana. Participants reported SES, feelings about finances, and whether they had to forgo medical care due to cost. This was compared to uptake of mammogram, colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy, and Pap testing in best-fit multivariable logistic regression analyses controlling for demographic and healthcare characteristics. A total of 970 surveys were returned; the majority of respondents were female (54%), non-Hispanic White (75%), and over 50 years old (76%). 15% reported forgoing medical care due to cost; this barrier was higher among Black than White participants (24% vs. 13%; p = 0.001). In a best fit regression model for colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy, those who reported they had to forgo medical care due to cost had lower odds of screening (aOR 0.41; 95% CI 0.22–0.74). Forgoing medical care due to cost was not significantly associated with Pap testing in bivariate analyses. For mammogram, forgoing medical care due to cost was significant in bivariate analyses (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.22–0.88), but was not significant in the multivariable model. Associations between financial hardship and cancer screening suggest the need to reduce barriers to cancer screening even among patients who have access to healthcare. Future research should explore barriers related to both healthcare and personal costs.
Examining the Direct and Indirect Effects of Mothers’ Rejection from the Ex-Spouse on Time to Repartnering

Individuals who feel rejected following relationship dissolution typically experience reductions in their health and wellbeing. Although feelings of rejection can be painful, the acquisition of a n...
Uncovering Latent Patterns of Investigation in Radiation Oncology Research from 2010-2020.

Purpose/Objective(s) In fiscal year (FY) 2020, the NIH spent over $36B on grants, of which $508M went to radiation oncology and diagnostic radiology departments. Given the enormity of this expenditure, it is imperative to better understand the funding distribution of research topics to gain insight into funding appropriateness. Multiple studies have performed categorization of grants (including an ASTRO Grant Funding Portfolio Analysis in 2017) but these approaches have been limited to manual analysis of small corpora. Due to the high annual number of grants, there is a need for automatic and systematic extraction of research topics from grants to enable evaluation of trends, productivity, and geographic distribution. Materials/Methods We analyzed 4346 R-type grants (excluding R25) awarded to Department of Radiation Oncology/Diagnostic Radiology funded by the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering from FY 2010-2020 using NIH ExPORTER. Preprocessing was done on ‘Project Terms’ to weight their importance using TF*IDF vectorization and principal component analysis. Spectral clustering was used to cluster the grants. The optimal cluster number was determined using scoring methods of intercluster distance. Manual validation was performed to verify cluster correctness. Results We found the optimal number of 12 clusters to best represent separation of the R-type grant research directions. These clusters represent clear topics such as oncogenesis, image reconstruction, and assay development. Notable trends include increased funding of radiation technology and hepatobiliary therapy clusters averaging +$1.2M and +$1.1M annual growth, respectively, over 10 years, and decreased funding of image reconstruction and MRI clusters averaging -$0.71M and -$0.67M annually. Further analysis shows that the DNA damage cluster is most geographically skewed, with 52% of the funding going to institutions in three cities (Dallas, Houston, New Haven). Prostate cancer is also heavily geographically skewed, with the most funded city (San Francisco) having triple the funds of the second highest (Baltimore). The number of published articles per grant also shows a bias, with the workshops/conferences and image reconstruction clusters having publication rates of 35.4 and 9.9, respectively. Radiation biology research is the biggest cluster and has a publication rate of 12.7, which is lower than average for NCI (16.3), and may reflect the pace of basic vs. applied research. Conclusion We propose an unsupervised machine learning framework to categorize grants by area of investigation, which is more efficient and systematic than manual labeling and more holistic than keyword searching. This clustering example suggests a trend from imaging-based towards therapy-based research over the past 10 years. We also identify biases in publication rate and geographic distribution of funds.
Technical Tips: The Eyes and Ears of Artifacts in Diagnostic Testing

ABSTRACT.Recognizing and eliminating artifacts are a daily part of my job as a neurodiagnostic technologist. Distinguishing between EEG and artifact is essential since it can impact the patient's diagnosis and treatment. I recently experienced an interesting situation that I had never previously encountered. My patient had a cochlear implant. This small device presented a challenge, but gave me the opportunity to put my troubleshooting skills to the test, and use some quick thinking to remove the artifact it created from the recording. It turns out this small device not only affected the EEG recording, but also another diagnostic test. I decided to do some research on the cochlear implant to find out how this tiny instrument affected the EEG recording as well as my patient's life, by allowing my patient to hear the world around him.
KNET: integrating hypermedia and normative bayesian modeling

Abstract KNET is a general-purpose shell for constructing expert systems based on belief networks and decision networks. Such networks serve as graphical representations for decision models, in which the knowledge engineer must define clearly the alternatives, states, preferences, and relationships that constitute a decision basis. KNET contains a knowledge-engineering core written in Object Pascal and an interface that tightly integrates HyperCard, a hypertext authoring tool for the Apple Macintosh computer, into a novel expert-system architecture. Hypertext and hypermedia have become increasingly important in the storage, management, and retrieval of information. In broad terms, hypermedia deliver heterogeneous bits of information in dynamic, extensively cross-referenced packages. The resulting KNET system features a coherent probabilistic scheme for managing uncertainty, an object-oriented graphics editor for drawing and manipulating decision networks, and HyperCard's potential for quickly constructing flexible and friendly user interfaces. We envision KNET as a useful prototyping tool for our ongoing research on a variety of Bayesian reasoning problems, including tractable representation, inference, and explanation.
How interpreters work: an overlooked topic in undergraduate computer science education

While students seem to have a satisfactory grasp on the concept of compilation, it is not the case for the concept of interpretation. Rather, pervasive confusions between interpreters and compilers exist among students. In this short paper, we (1) identify the common problems that students have with respect to interpreters; (2) clarify how interpreters work using an example; (3) revisit the problems to see how they can be resolved under the clarification; and (4) summarize the contributions of this paper. We hope that this paper can be used as a quick and concise reference in introducing students to interpreters and in dealing with the ensuing issues.
Social Interaction in Infants' Learning of Second-Language Phonetics: An Exploration of Brain-Behavior Relations.

Infants learn phonetic information from a second language with live-person presentations, but not television or audio-only recordings. To understand the role of social interaction in learning a second language, we examined infants’ joint attention with live, Spanish-speaking tutors and used a neural measure of phonetic learning. Infants’ eye-gaze behaviors during Spanish sessions at 9.5–10.5 months of age predicted second-language phonetic learning, assessed by an event-related potential measure of Spanish phoneme discrimination at 11 months. These data suggest a powerful role for social interaction at the earliest stages of learning a new language.
Nonheme Iron Proteins

The sections in this article are 1 Introduction 2 Synthetic Complexes 3 Catechol Dioxygenases 4 Purple Acid Phosphatases 5 Hemerythrin 6 Ribonucleotide Reductase 7 Summary and Future Directions 8 Biographical Sketch Related Articles
Physiological response of cardiac tissue to bisphenol a: alterations in ventricular pressure and contractility

Exposure to environmentally relevant doses of bisphenol A results in significant impairment of cardiac contractile performance in whole hearts from male and female rats. This effect may be attribut...
Conceptualizing Religion: Responses

I am very grateful to the commentators for the time and effort that they expended on my book. I do not imagine that it was easy to read. For over and beyond any unclarities generated by my prose, the perspective on categories celebrated in Conceptualizing Religion constitutes a departure from what most of us, from childhood on, have learned to accept as workable and conventional (if not actually mandated by a rational accommodation to the order of the world). To the extent that a certain disparity in viewpoints distances me from some of my readers, it imposes difficulties in following my argument. I appreciate the fact that the commentators have taken the book seriously enough to engage it. I respond to each of the commentators below, in alphabetical order.
Privacy-preserving linear programming

We propose a privacy-preserving formulation of a linear program whose constraint matrix is partitioned into groups of columns where each group of columns and its corresponding cost coefficient vector are owned by a distinct entity. Each entity is unwilling to share or make public its column group or cost coefficient vector. By employing a random matrix transformation we construct a linear program based on the privately held data without revealing that data or making it public. The privacy-preserving transformed linear program has the same minimum value as the original linear program. Component groups of the solution of the transformed problem can be decoded and made public only by the original group that owns the corresponding columns of the constraint matrix and can be combined to give an exact solution vector of the original linear program.
Anomalous plastic deformation at surfaces: Nanoindentation of gold single crystals

Nanoindentation data on single-crystal Au(111), Au(110), and Au(100) are presented and show an interesting yielding phenomenon---this yielding behavior is composed of a series of discrete yielding events separated by elastic deformation. The onset of this behavior is in agreement with calculations for the theoretical shear strength of gold. Good quantitative agreement is found between the experimental results and a model developed for the nucleation and multiplication of dislocations by a simple Frank-Read source under the indenter tip.
BWR transient analysis payoffs from LOCA research

Abstract The extensive reactor safety programs directed toward Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) responses have provided both advanced technology and successful programmatic approaches that have significant applicability to current reactor transient studies. Extension of the benchmark TRAC-BWR computer program is proving to be highly successful for the full range of BWR transient phenomena. Work in progress will extend this technology to accurate Engineering Analyzers and Training Simulators that operate on low cost desktop workstations. The payoffs of these developments for improved reactor design, analysis and operation are summarized.
Hurricane-Spawned Tornadoes

Abstract Hurricane-spawned tornadoes are most frequent at the time when hurricanes initially cross land and undergo rapid filling. This paper presents data composite information on all available rawinsonde and pibal reports surrounding this type of tornado genesis in the United States and Japan. Information has also been gathered on tropical storms entering land which did not produce tornadoes. The most important difference between storms which produce tornadoes and those which do not is a very large increase of the vertical shear of the horizontal wind between the surface and 4–5 thousand feet. This averages about 40 knots for the tornado cases, but is much less in the cases which do not produce tornadoes. Differences in vertical stability are observed to be small. An overland hurricane dissipation model is proposed whereby the boundary layer frictional inflow towards the hurricane center occurs without the usual ocean sensible heat gain and is not, as over the ocean, isothermal. Over land the inward spi...
Perinuclear microtubules in postnatal rat heart

Cytoplasmic microtubules can be divided into two subpopulations: 1) those adjacent to the nucleus (perinuclear), and 2) those distributed between the myofilament bundles (nonperinuclear). Previous observations (Cartwright and Goldstein, '83) indicate total cytoplasmic microtubule numeric density increases to a maximum at 5-9 days and decreases to the steady value of the adult muscle. We have examined the numeric density (mean numbers of microtubule profiles per micron2 cross-sectional area) of the perinuclear subpopulation and compared it to the numeric density of the total cytoplasmic microtubule population in postnatally developing rat papillary muscle ages 1, 3, 5, 9, 21, and 42 days, and adult. The perinuclear region was defined as the area around the nucleus which extends to the 0.273 micron from the nuclear envelope. The density of perinuclear microtubules did not change with postnatal development. Our study suggests that perinuclear microtubules are a separate and relatively stable subpopulation of the total population of cytoplasmic microtubules and may serve a function different from that of the more variable nonperinuclear microtubules.
Optical memories implemented with photorefractive media

We consider holographic optical data storage systems implemented with photorefractive media. Our viewpoint emphasizes the close interaction between materials and device issues. First we discuss our current understanding of photorefractive physics as it pertains to the holographic data storage problem. Then we consider architecture issues, including angular, phase-encoded, and wavelength-multiplexing techniques, and several approaches to increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the recordings. Finally, we discuss materials issues related to crystal growth and how crystal quality impacts the performance of data storage systems. Both bulk and fibre crystal growth techniques are reviewed.
Attorney Advertising in the Wake of Bates V. State Bar of Arizona (1977): A Study of Judicial Impact

In this study the author seeks to understand responses to judicial policies where the consumer population (i.e., those most directly affected by the change in the policy status quo) have a variety ...
Research comparing the dyadic adjustment and sexual functioning concerns of diabetic and nondiabetic women.

The dyadic relationship and sexual functioning concerns of a group of diabetic women and a matched control group of nondiabetic women were compared. There was no statistically significant difference in overall dyadic adjustment between the two groups. Both diabetic and nondiabetic women were moderately well adjusted. However, diabetic women were significantly more concerned than nondiabetic women in the following six specific sexual functioning areas: (a) frequency of feeling sexual repulsion, (b) frequency of difficulty with vaginal lubrication, (c) frequency of difficulty reaching orgasm, (d) impact of genital discomfort, (e) frequency of performance anxiety, and (f) impact of performance anxiety. Therefore, health care professionals need to use the suggested holistic approaches in helping diabetic women overcome these sexual functioning concerns. Finally, the relationship between level of sexual functioning concerns and overall dyadic adjustment was not statistically significant for either group. This ...
Cutaneous inflammatory pseudotumor: a case report with immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies

An unusual case of inflammatory pseudotumor of the subcutaneous tissue in a 44-yr old black male who presented with a 4 cm soft tissue mass on the dorsum of right hand is described. The mass was sharply circumscribed and composed of a polymorphous infiltrate of plasma cells, eosinophils, lymphocytes and some giant cells mimicking Reed-Sternberg cells. The giant cells, corresponding ultrastructurally to primitive mesenchymal cells, were immunoreactive for vimentin and were negative for actin, desmin and histiocytic markers. The patient remained well with no sign of recurrence 8 mths postoperatively. The present case is compared with the (4) previously reported cases in literature. The histologic differentiation from other neoplastic and non–neoplastic lesions is discussed.
High-performance liquid chromatographic-fluorescence determination of traces of selenium in biological materials.

Abstract An improved method for the determination of selenium in biological materials has been developed. This work both extends and validates the procedure of Vezina and Bleau ( J. Chromatog. 426, 385–391, 1988) which is based on high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of the fluorophore formed by reaction of Se(IV) with 2,3-diaminonaphthalene. The mass detection limit is 48 pg selenium (3σ) and the concentration detection limits are 48 parts per trillion in biological fluids and 120 to 480 parts per trillion in dried biological materials. The linear dynamic range of the method has been extended up to approximately 800 ng. Relative standard deviations of 9.4 to 2.7% were observed in repeated analyses of standards in the range of 0.5 to 500 ng. The proposed method was validated with respect to 23 biological reference materials spanning an 1800-fold range of selenium concentrations and was found to be free of significant constant or proportional biases despite greatly different matrix compositions. This method offers an unsurpassed combination of sensitivity, accuracy, linear dynamic range, and freedom from matrix interferences and may be considered a reference method for the reliable determination of selenium in biological materials.
Comparative Morphometry of Freshwater Drum from Two Midwestern Localities

Abstract A comparison of meristic and morphological characteristics in series of freshwater drum from the lower Ohio River, Kentucky, and Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, indicates that there are statistically significant differences in some measurements along the long axis of the body. However, there is a remarkable stability among meristic characteristics within the species that has persisted essentially in its present form since early postglacial times.
BAROREFLEX FUNCTION IN CHRONICALLY STRESSED BORDERLINE HYPERTENSIVE RATS

A number of previous studies have demonstrated that some aspect of baroreflex function is altered as hypertension develops. However, no studies have determined whether a chronic stressor can alter baroreflex function in the resting state. In the present study, male borderline hypertensive rats (BHR) were divided into three groups: control, stressed daily for 5 weeks, and stressed daily for 11 weeks. At the appropriate time, 7 different dosages of angiotensin II (AII) were given intravenously as a bolus injection. Heart rate (interbeat interval, or IBI) and mean arterial pressure were tracked for 90 subsequent beats. For each group, intercorrelations between pressure and IBI were obtained. In addition, overall means of pressure and IBI for each dosage were computed for each group and plotted. Higher dosages of AII were required to produce a significant correlation between pressure and IBI in the 5-week group compared to control. In the 11-week group, only the highest dosage yielded a significant correlation between pressure and IBI. When data were expressed in terms of the highest pressure and its corresponding IBI for each group, the 5-week-stress group had a shift in set point compared to control. The 11-week group showed a shift in set point and a reduction in gain compared to control animals. The similarity between these findings and those for other models of hypertension is discussed, with special emphasis on the potential role of the central nervous system.
Depressive Symptoms Moderate the Relation Between Internalized Homophobia and Drinking Habits

One factor that may place lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals at greater risk for alcohol abuse is internalized homophobia (Cochran & Cauce, 2006), yet very few studies have investigated this link. Previous findings have also been inconsistent, suggesting that a third variable may be moderating their relation. The current study is the first to investigate whether depressive symptoms moderate the relation between internalized homophobia and alcohol consumption. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed a significant moderator effect for depressive symptoms. Simple slopes analyses indicated that individuals who reported lesser depressive symptoms showed a significant negative relation between internalized homophobia and frequency of drinking per month (β = −.62, p < .05). In contrast, individuals who reported greater depressive symptoms showed no relation between these two constructs (β = −.01, ns). There was no effect of gender on this relation. These results indicate that those who are reportedly exper...
Spontaneously induced prophages in Lactobacillus gasseri contribute to horizontal gene transfer.

ABSTRACT Lactobacillus gasseri is an endogenous species of the human gastrointestinal tract and vagina. With recent advances in microbial taxonomy, phylogenetics, and genomics, L. gasseri is recognized as an important commensal and is increasingly being used in probiotic formulations. L. gasseri strain ADH is lysogenic and harbors two inducible prophages. In this study, prophage ϕadh was found to spontaneously induce in broth cultures to populations of ∼107 PFU/ml by stationary phase. The ϕadh prophage-cured ADH derivative NCK102 was found to harbor a new, second inducible phage, vB_Lga_jlb1 (jlb1). Phage jlb1 was sequenced and found to be highly similar to the closely related phage LgaI, which resides as two tandem prophages in the neotype strain L. gasseri ATCC 33323. The common occurrence of multiple prophages in L. gasseri genomes, their propensity for spontaneous induction, and the high degree of homology among phages within multiple species of Lactobacillus suggest that temperate bacteriophages likely contribute to horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in commensal lactobacilli. In this study, the host ranges of phages ϕadh and jlb1 were determined against 16 L. gasseri strains. The transduction range and the rate of spontaneous transduction were investigated in coculture experiments to ascertain the degree to which prophages can promote HGT among a variety of commensal and probiotic lactobacilli. Both ϕadh and jlb1 particles were confirmed to mediate plasmid transfer. As many as ∼103 spontaneous transductants/ml were obtained. HGT by transducing phages of commensal lactobacilli may have a significant impact on the evolution of bacteria within the human microbiota.
Influence of Distance on Attraction of Tobacco Horn worm and Corn Ear worm Moths to Radiations of a Blacklight Lamp

Tobacco horn worm moths, Manduca sexta (Johannson), made a 48% positive response to radiation emitted by a 15-w fluorescent black light lamp when the moths were behind a black-painted wire screen, 16-mesh per 2.54 em2, within 4.6 m of the radiation source. In parallel tests, 75% of the corn ear worm moths, Heliathis zea (Boddie), made a positive response when they were 6.1 m from the lamp. In a separate test, 96% of 28 M. sexta moths made a positive response after they went to the g-round within 1.2 m of a similar lamp installed at ground level. When the black-painted screen was between the moths and the radiation source, the limit of response was at 120.0–135.0 m for M. sexta and 60.0–90.0 m for H. zea .
EFFECTS OF NITROGEN SOURCES ON P‐LIMITED GROWTH OF ANABAENA FLOS‐AQUAE1

The effects of N2, nitrate and ammonia as N sources were investigated in P-limited and nutrient-sufficient cultures of Anabaena flos-aquae (Lyngb.) Breb. The maximum growth rate (μm) was highest at 1.34 d−1 with ammonia, compared to 1.18 with nitrate and 0.95 d−1 with N2. There was no difference in P requirement between N2 and nitrate cultures. Under P-limited conditions, the increase in cell P with growth rate (μ) was identical. With N2 as the N source, cell-N concentrations in P-limited cells increased with μ as did cell P, and the cellular N:P ratio remained the same (14) within the range of μ examined. With nitrate, however, cell N concentrations were high and independent of n, except at a low μ. It appears that this organism fixes atmospheric N2 only at the minimum concentration required to maintain a μ. The acetylene reduction rate increased with μ in both N2- and nitrate-grown cells, but the rate was lower in nitrate. Under P-limitation, there was no difference in net C-fixation rate per cell between N2 and nitrate cultures at a given μ. However, the rate per unit of chlorophyll a (chl a) was higher in N2 than in nitrate cultures, and the rate was independent of μ with N2 but was a linear function of nitrate supplied. The maximum C-fixation rate in nutrient sufficient cells was highest with ammonia, followed by nitrate and N2. The cellular chl a concentration was correlated with the total cell-N concentrations regardless of H and the source of N.
Optics Education in the United States: Programs and Opportunities

Educational programs and opportunities available in optics and optics-related areas are discussed, and comparisons with traditional programs in physics and engineering are presented.
High-performance multicapillary gas separation columns with MPG stationary phases

This paper reports the development of microfabricated multicapillary columns (μMCC) with self-assembled stationary phases for high-performance gas separation. The fabrication process merging a double-doped MEMS fabrication process and nanotechnology provides highly reproducible and conformal gold deposition inside 250µm-deep, 30µm-wide, 25cm-long µMCC with 16 channels. This technique also affords excellent bonding and coating yields (∼95%). To evaluate chromatographic performance, μMCCs were functionalized by self-assembly of octadecanethiol (C 18 H 37 SH) to form monolayer-protected-gold (MPG) surface. These columns demonstrated 7300 plates/m, the highest reported on μMCCs, and separated a complex gas mixture containing compounds with wide range of boiling points.
Time-of-flight neutron total scattering data analysis implemented in the software suite ISAW

Abstract Analyzing time-of-flight neutron total scattering data involves many instrument-dependent corrections, including: detector deadtime, normalization of detector counts to beam monitor counts, time-of-flight to momentum transfer Q rebinning, use of vanadium (or an equivalent standard) data for both calibration and data-merging purposes, as well as attenuation, multiple scattering, and inelastic effects. Here we review and discuss these methods in the application to data analysis of the Glass, Liquid and Amorphous Materials Diffractometer at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source. The implementation in the Integrated Spectra Analysis Workbench (ISAW) software suite is discussed in detail.
The HSV 1 genome in quiescently infected NGF differentiated PC12 cells can not be stimulated by HSV superinfection.

This study reports that quiescent herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 genomes, persisting in long-term infected nerve growth factor (NGF) differentiated PC12 cells, were not stimulated by superinfection with a HSV-1. We have previously shown that HSV-1 can establish long term, quiescent infections in NGF differentiated PC12 cells. To determine if virion associated factors or virus induced gene products could trans-activate the quiescent viral genomes, long term infected PC12 cell cultures were superinfected at a high moi (moi of 20) with a recombinant HSV 17α47/lacZ that contains the lacZ gene within the alpha 47 locus. Progeny virus and gene expression from the resident ‘quiescent’ viral genomes were not detected following superinfection with recombinant 17α47/lacZ. The failure to stimulate the quiescent genome appears to be related to the inability of the super infecting virus to induce any gene expression from its own genome following entry into the long term NGF treated PC12 cells. Interestingly, both p...
Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray acceleration in newly born magnetars and their associated gravitational wave signatures

Newly born magnetars are good candidate sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. These objects can in principle easily accelerate particles to the highest energies required to satisfy the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray scenario ($E\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{20\ensuremath{-}21}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$), thanks to their important rotational and magnetic energy reservoirs. Their acceleration mechanism, based on unipolar induction, predicts however a hard particle injection that does not fit the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum. Here we show that an adequate distribution of initial voltages among magnetar winds can be found to soften the spectrum. We discuss the effect of these distributions for the stochastic gravitational wave background signature produced by magnetars. The magnetar population characteristics needed to fit the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum could lead in most optimistic cases to gravitational wave background signals enhanced of up to four orders of magnitudes in the range of frequency 1--100 Hz, compared to the standard predictions. These signals could reach the sensitivities of future detectors such as DECIGO or BBO.