cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Relationship of the severity of citrus greasy spot, caused by Mycosphaerella citri, to ascospore dose, epiphytic growth, leaf age, and fungicide timing

ABSTRACT Greasy spot, caused by Mycosphaerella citri, produces leaf and fruit lesions and defoliates trees, resulting in reduced yields and fruit size. Techniques now available allow production of large numbers of ascospores and the quantification of epiphytic growth. The effects of ascospore dose, leaf age, and the timing of fenbuconazole sprays on epiphytic growth and disease severity was determined primarily on rough lemon seedlings in the greenhouse. Inoculation of leaves with 104 ascospores/ml resulted in rapid development of epiphytic growth and symptoms. At lower doses, epiphytic growth and symptoms developed more slowly and were less severe. There was a linear relationship between log10 of the ascospore dose and ratings of epiphytic growth and symptoms, and a linear relationship between the amount of epiphytic growth and symptom severity in greenhouse tests. On grapefruit trees treated with different fungicides in six field experiments, there also was a significant linear relationship between epip...
Topic Models: A Tutorial with R

This tutorial presents topic models for organizing and comparing documents. The technique and corresponding discussion focuses on analysis of short text documents, particularly micro-blogs. However, the base topic model and R implementation are generally applicable to text analytics of document databases.
Design and construction of a Cerenkov counter for in situ monitoring of 90Sr in groundwater

Migration of groundwater contamination from beneath the Hanford Site into the Columbia River creates a need for in situ 90Sr monitoring. The prototype monitor discussed here was designed for deployment downwell and provides near-real-time determination of the 90Sr concentration in a two-liter groundwater sample. This manuscript discusses the design, construction and preliminary results for a prototype monitor. Calibration and testing results of the as-built system show qualitative agreement between simulated predictions and experimental results. Downwell and laboratory tests demonstrate a sensitivity to 90Sr at concentrations below 8 pCi/l (0.3 Bq/1) at a 90% confidence level in measurement times of less than four hours.
Integrating Mental Health Parity for Homebound Older Adults Under the Medicare Home Health Care Benefit

Despite high rates of mental illness, very few homebound older adults receive treatment. Comorbid mental illness exacerbates physical health conditions, reduces treatment adherence, and increases dependency and medical costs. Although effective treatments exist, many home health agencies lack capacity to effectively detect and treat mental illness. This article critically analyzes barriers within the Medicare home health benefit that impede access to mental health treatment. Policy, practice, and research recommendations are made to integrate mental health parity in home health care. In particular, creative use of medical social work can improve detection and treatment of mental illness for homebound older adults.
Relationships between attachment behavior in the laboratory and the caretaking environment

Abstract How useful are observations of patterns of attachment behavior in a structured laboratory setting for making inferences about the quality of caretaking received by an infant in the home environment? To address this question a sample of 107 12-month-old infants who had participated in a longitudinal intervention project beginning before birth through 14 months of age were observed in a structured laboratory setting. Patterns of attachment behavior were compared to maternal caretaking variables observed in the home environment as well as to ratings of the quality of the infants' play. The results indicated that attachment behavior in the laboratory can be used to make inferences about the quality of caretaking in the home environment with confidence when a consistent and unambiguous pattern of either optimal or problematical attachment behavior is present, but not when the attachment behavior pattern is inconsistent or ambiguous.
Diagnostic Controversy: Gestational Diabetes and the Meaning of Risk for Pima Indian Women

ABSTRACT Gestational diabetes is the one form of this well known, chronic disease of development that disappears. After the birth of the child, the mother's glucose levels typically return to normal. As a harbinger of things to come, gestational diabetes conveys greater risk for later type 2 (previously “non-insulin dependent”) diabetes in both the mother and child. Thus, pregnant women have become a central target for prevention of this disease in the entire Pima population. Based on ethnographic interviews conducted between 1999 and 2000, I discuss the negotiated meanings of risk, “borderline” diabetes, and women's personal knowledge and experiences of diabetes, particularly during the highly surveilled period of pregnancy. I also highlight the heterogeneity of professional discourse pertaining to gestational diabetes, most notably the debate surrounding its diagnosis. Significantly, women's narratives reveal the same set of questions as is raised in the professional debate. Implications for diabetes pr...
Depression Among Couples in the United States in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence

This paper examines the relationship between intimate partner violence and depression. A multicluster random household sample of U.S. couples was interviewed as part of a five-year national longitudinal study (response rate = 72%). Depression was assessed with the CES-D. The multivariate analyses for men showed that the odds of depression did not vary significantly by type of male-to-female (MF) or female-to-male (FM) aggression. Men who engaged in infrequent binge drinking, compared to those who never binged, were less likely to be depressed, as were men with greater collective efficacy. For women, the multivariate analysis, showed that FM aggression (psychological: minor and severe, and physical) was associated with a greater likelihood of depression. Exposure to parental violence was also associated with depression. Women may experience depression as the result of psychological and physical aggression even if they are the perpetrators of such aggression.
Microfluidic sample preparation for immunoassays

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are developing means to collect and identify fluid-based biological pathogens in the forms of proteins, viruses, and bacteria. To support detection instruments, we are developing a flexible fluidic sample preparation unit. The overall goal of this Microfluidic Module is to input a fluid sample, containing background particulates and potentially target compounds, and deliver a processed sample for detection. We are developing techniques for sample purification, mixing, and filtration that would be useful to many applications including immunologic and nucleic acid assays. Many of these fluidic functions are accomplished with acoustic radiation pressure or dielectrophoresis. We are integrating these technologies into packaged systems with pumps and valves to control fluid flow through the fluidic circuit.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Dynamics of muscle growth in the starling and japanese quail: A preliminary study

Abstract 1. 1. Instantaneous percentage growth rates of four muscle tissues (leg, pectoral, stomach, and heart) exhibited a general decline with age in the Starling and Japanese Quail. Patterns of decline in growth rate varied among tissues and between species in accordance with differences in the onset of mature function. 2. 2. The percentage of muscle cells that incorporated tritiated thymidine in 36-hr experiments was directly related to rate of tissue growth. 3. 3. Increase in cell size was noted in all tissues of the Starling during the week following hatching, but not in the Japanese Quail during the week preceding hatching. These are periods of rapid decrease in tissue growth rate in both species.
Nest-Site Characteristics Affect Daily Nest-Survival Rates of Northern Aplomado Falcons (Falco Femoralis Septentrionalis)

Abstract We modeled daily nest-survival rates (DSR) of a reintroduced population of Northern Aplomado Falcons (Falco femoralis septentrionalis; hereafter “falcons”) in southern Texas. Although falcons have nested in the region since 1995, the factors influencing reproductive success are not understood. Nest sites were classified into nest-type groups using a cluster analysis based on nest substrate and nest builder. Using an information-theoretic approach, we compared relative effects of nest age, study area, nest-type group, and physical nest-site characteristics. Our results were similar to previous studies of passerine nesting ecology, in that DSR varied throughout the nesting cycle: it was constant during incubation, declined at hatching and the early nestling phase, and increased through the remainder of the nestling phase. Nest type and nest height were important physical nest-site covariates, overhead cover was less important, and study area and nest initiation date were not influential. We note th...
The Effects of Gender Role Orientation on Team Schema: A Multivariate Analysis of Indicators in a U.S. Federal Health Care Organization

In this empirical study of 649 employees at a federally supported health care facility in the United States, the authors investigated the effects of individual gender role orientation on team schema. The results indicated (a) that nontraditional male and female employees perceived the greatest amount of group cohesion in their team schemas and (b) that both traditional and nontraditional male employees perceived greater problem-solving potential in their team schemas. Meaningful implications for team composition are discussed.
Review article: chemokines as orchestrators of autoimmune hepatitis and potential therapeutic targets.

Summary Background Chemokines contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune hepatitis by directing the migration and positioning of inflammatory and immune cells within the liver. Aim Describe the liver-infiltrating effector cell populations in autoimmune hepatitis, indicate the chemokines that influence their migration, describe the role of chemokines in hepatic fibrosis and identify chemokine-directed treatment opportunities. Methods Studies cited in Pub Med from 1972 to 2014 for autoimmune hepatitis, chemokines in liver disease, pathogenesis of autoimmune hepatitis and chemokine therapy were selected. Results T helper type 17 lymphocytes expressing CXCR3 and CCR6 are attracted to the liver by the secretion of CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11. These cells recruit pro-inflammatory T helper type 1 lymphocytes expressing CXCR3 and CCR5 by secreting CXCL10. Resident natural killer T cells expressing CXCR6 migrate in response to the local secretion of CXCL16, and they modulate the inflammatory response. T helper type 2 lymphocytes expressing CCR4 are attracted by CCL17 and CCL22, and they dampen the expansion of pro-inflammatory cells. Regulatory T cells expressing CXCR3 are attracted by the secretion of CXCL9, and they help dampen the pro-inflammatory responses. CCL2, CCL3, CCL5, CXCL4, CXCL10 and CXCL16 promote fibrosis by activating or attracting hepatic stellate cells, and CX3CL1 may prevent fibrosis by affecting the apoptosis of monocytes. Conclusions Chemokines are requisites for mobilising, directing and positioning the effector cells in immune-mediated liver disease. They are feasible therapeutic targets in autoimmune hepatitis, and the evaluation of monoclonal antibodies that neutralise the pro-inflammatory ligands or designer peptides that block receptor activity are investigational opportunities.
Mixing of a viscoelastic fluid in a time-periodic flow

We present an experimental and computational investigation of mixing of a viscoelastic fluid in two-dimensional time-periodic flows generated in an eccentric cylindrical geometry. The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of fluid elasticity on the morphological structures produced by the advection of passive tracers in chaotic flows. The relevant dimensionless numbers that quantify the rheological differences with respect to the Newtonian fluid are the Deborah number (De), defined as the ratio of the fluid timescale to the flow timescale, and the Weissenberg number (We), defined as the product of the fluid timescale and the mean shear rate. The effects of elasticity are investigated in the limit of slow flows, De ≈ 0 and We < 0.1. The experimental window of We is limited to Newtonian behaviour on the low end and the transition to three-dimensional flow on the high end; experiments show that this window is small, 0.02 < We < 0.1. Typical values of the Reynolds number and the Strouhal number are O(0.001) and O(0.1), respectively.Results from experiments with a constant-viscosity elastic fluid and computations using the upper-convected Maxwell constitutive equation are presented. Even though the streamlines for the elastic flow are nearly indistinguishable from the Newtonian flow, small deviations in the velocity field produce large effects on chaotically advected patterns. Elasticity affects both the asymptotic coverage of a dyed passive tracer and the rate at which the tracer is stretched. In all cases the tracer undergoes exponential stretching, but on a longer timescale as the elasticity increases. According to flow conditions, elasticity might increase or decrease the degree of regularity; however, island symmetry does not seem to be affected. Similar phenomena are observed in both the experiments and computations; therefore, an analysis of the chaotic dynamics of the periodic flow using numerical techniques is possible.
Fracture energy of ice/metal interfaces

Ice-solid interfaces are of considerable interest in electrical and civil engineering and aviation. Efforts have been made to investigate the strength of ice-solid interfaces in terms of tensile, shear, and impact. This paper examines the fracture energy of ice/metal interfaces, in an attempt to utilize fracture mechanics to characterize the failure of ice/solid adhesion. A four point bending delamination specimen was used to measure the fracture energy of ice/Al and ice/steel joints. The fracture energy of an ice/steel interface was found to be lower than that of an ice/Al interface. The fracture mode was a mixture of cohesive and adhesive failure. The effects of impurities on interface fracture energy was significant.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Making Water the Exciting Way: A Classroom Demonstration of Catalysis

An understanding of the factors that govern the rate of chemical reactions has proven elusive for many students who begin a survey course in the chemical sciences. Inquiry-based curricula built upon an understanding of common student misconceptions related to chemical kinetics have proven to be a more effective means by which to develop student understanding than traditional lecture formats. To facilitate teacher-guided discussion regarding the subject of catalysis, we have developed a simple and safe demonstration, whereby the hydrogen and oxygen components evolved upon electrolysis of water are recombined at room temperature with the aid of a platinum/ruthenium catalyst. This demonstration is designed to draw students’ attention toward the dramatic change in reaction rate that can be affected by catalyst involvement and to provoke dialog regarding the mechanistic changes that accompany reaction catalysis.
Participation in Public Interest Groups Membership Motivations

This article tests the exchange theory of interest group membership and finds that it applies to the members of four public interest groups: the League of Women Voters, the Conservative Caucus, the...
Behavioral effects of chronic administration of psychoactive drugs to anxious patients.

The effects of chronic administration of (a) 1600 mg. meprobamate, (b) five Tranquil tablets (the maximum recommended daily dose), and (c) placebos were examined, in a counterbalanced partially blinded design. Thirty-two subjects, including 23 anxious patients, employed as their own controls, were given behavioral tests, psychiatric interviews, and ratings at the end of each 21 day treatment period.
Dissociation between conditioned emotional response and extended avoidance performance

Abstract The present experiments examined the dissociation between the strength of a shuttlebox avoidance response (AR) and one index of fear of the avoidance CS. Avoidance response strength was indexed by resistance to extinction of the AR and by changes in response latency, and fear of the CS was indexed by the conditioned emotional response (CER) technique. Experiments 1, 2A, and 3A all found that rats trained to a criterion of 27 consecutive avoidance responses (CARs) showed response strength comparable or superior to rats trained to a criterion of 9 CARs. Experiments 2B and 3A demonstrated that rats trained to 27 CARs showed less suppression of bar pressing during the avoidance CS (less CER) than rats trained to 9 CARs. Experiment 3A also found that, when extinguished in the shuttlebox to a moderate criterion (5 consecutive trials without a response) before CER testing, rats trained to 9 CARs showed some, although not complete, loss of CER, whereas rats trained to 27 CARs showed no loss of CER. In Experiment 3B rats that took 1 vs 2 days to reach a criterion of 27 CARs were compared for their AR strength and for their CER. Although rats taking 2 days to reach criterion showed somewhat greater resistance to extinction of the AR than rats reaching criterion in 1 day, this variable had no apparent effect on the CER. Implications of the present results for current theories of avoidance learning are discussed.
Control of Marangoni–Bénard convection

Abstract It is demonstrated that the critical Marangoni number for transition from the no-motion (conduction) to the motion state in the Marangoni–Benard problem of an infinite fluid layer heated from below and cooled from above can be increased through the use of feedback control strategies effecting small perturbations in the boundary data.
Catecholamines in the cuticles of four strains of the german cockroach Blattella germanica (L.) during sclerotization and melanization

Catecholamines were extracted from the cuticles of four strains of the cockroach Blattella germanica at different times 48 h after adult ecdysis and analyzed by reverse phase HPLC with electrochemical detection. The wild (VPl), black (Bl), orange (or), and yellow (y) phenotypes differ in cuticular pigmentation, particularly in the extent of melanization. N-β-Alanyldopamine (NBAD) and N-β-alanylnorepinephrine (NBANE) were major o-diphenolic compounds in extracts from cuticle of all strains during the main period of sclerotization. N-Acetyldopamine (NADA) and N-acetylnorepinephrine (NANE) were minor the first day after ecdysis, but accumulated to higher levels thereafter. Dopamine (DA) concentrations were higher in the darker pigmented cuticles of strains Bl and or than in the lighter-colored cuticles of strains VPl and y. Extractable DA rapidly increased in VPl, Bl, and or cuticles shortly after ecdysis, reached peak levels 6–24 h later, and then decreased after melanization. Only small amounts of DA were detected in strain y cuticle, whereas NBANE concentrations were very high. Therefore, high DA levels in cuticle are correlated with melanization that occurs during the first few hours after adult ecdysis, whereas sclerotization is correlated with high levels of the N-β-alanylcatecholamines. Sclerotization appears to be delayed in strain Bl, since only low concentrations of the N-acylated catecholamines accumulate until after melanization is completed.
Resolved Spectroscopy of the Narrow-Line Region in NGC 1068. III. Physical Conditions in the Emission-Line Gas

The physical conditions in the inner narrow-line region (NLR) of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 are examined using ultraviolet and optical spectra and photoionization models. The spectra were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), through the 01 ? 520 slit, covering the full STIS 1200-10000 ? waveband. The slit was centered on a position 014 north of the optical continuum peak (or hot spot) at a position angle of 202?, bisecting the brighter part of the biconical emission-line region. We have measured the emission-line fluxes for a region extending 38 northeast (~270 pc) to 18 southwest (~130 pc) of this point. The emission lines on each side show evidence of two principal kinematic components, one blueshifted with respect to the systemic velocity and the other redshifted (the kinematics were discussed in a separate paper). Based on the photoionization modeling results, we find that the physical conditions vary among these four quadrants. (1) The emission-line gas in the blueshifted northeast quadrant is photoionized by the hidden central source out to ~100 pc, at which point we find evidence of another source of ionizing radiation, which may be due to fast (~1000 km s-1) shocks resulting from the interaction of the emission-line knots and the interstellar medium. Interestingly, this occurs at approximately the location where the knots begin to show signs of deceleration. (2) The gas in the redshifted northeast quadrant is photoionized by continuum radiation that has been heavily absorbed by gas within ~30 pc of the central source. We find no strong evidence of the effects of shocks in this component. (3) The redshifted emission-line gas in the southwest quadrant is photoionized by unabsorbed continuum from the central source, similar to that in the inner ~100 pc of the blueshifted northeast quadrant. Finally, (4) the emission-line spectrum of the blueshifted southwest quadrant appears to be the superposition of highly ionized, tenuous component within the ionization cone and gas outside the cone, the latter photoionized by scattered continuum radiation. There are several implications of this complicated physical scenario. First, the hidden active nucleus is the dominant source of ionizing radiation in the inner NLR. The absorption of continuum radiation along the line of sight to the redshifted northeast quadrant may result from the intersection of the ionization cone and the plane of the host galaxy. Finally, the evidence for shock-induced continuum radiation at the point where the emission-line knots begin to decelerate indicates that the deceleration is due to the interaction of emission-line knots with slower moving gas, such as the interstellar medium of NGC 1068.
Machine Hearing: An Emerging Field [Exploratory DSP]

If we had machines that could hear as humans do, we would expect them to be able to easily distinguish speech from music and background noises, to pull out the speech and music parts for special treatment, to know what direction sounds are coming from, to learn which noises are typical and which are noteworthy. Hearing machines should be able to organize what they hear; learn names for recognizable objects, actions, events, places, musical styles, instruments, and speakers; and retrieve sounds by reference to those names. These machines should be able to listen and react in real time, to take appropriate action on hearing noteworthy events, to participate in ongoing activities, whether in factories, in musical performances, or in phone conversations.
Delivery of STD/HIV preventive services to adolescents by primary care physicians

Purpose: To document the rates of STD/HIV preventive services delivered to adolescents by primary care physicians in California, and to identify variation owing to physician and practice-related factors. Methods: A stratified random sample of California internists, family physicians, obstetrician-gynecologists, and pediatricians was drawn from the AMA Masterfile and surveyed by mail about their practices with regard to STD/HIV prevention for 15–18-year-old adolescent patients. Sixty percent of eligible physicians responded; the final sample was 1217 physicians. Results: Results showed that 40% of physicians reported screening all of their adolescent patients for sexual activity and 31% reported educating all of their adolescent patients about STD/HIV transmission. For their sexually active adolescent patients, 36% of physicians always provided STD/HIV education, 17% always screened for number of previous sexual partners; 12% always screened for sexual orientation; and 10% always screened for frequency of casual sex. Four percent of the physicians reported that they always provided condoms for their sexually active adolescent patients; 81% never provided condoms. Higher levels of preventive services delivery were associated with female physician gender, specialization in obstetrics-gynecology, and more recent date of medical school graduation. Physicians practicing in health maintenance organizations reported providing significantly higher rates of preventive services to sexually active adolescents than did physicians in private practice. Conclusions: Primary care physicians provide STD/ HIV preventive services to adolescents at rates far below those recommended by current guidelines. Areas where additional research would be informative are highlighted.
Comparison of the effects of two anesthetic agents on the production of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in dogs.

Abstract Inhalation of 8 per cent oxygen produced pulmonary hypertension in only 13 of 22 dogs anesthetized with pentobarbital. Conversely, each of the dogs anesthetized with a mixture of droperidol and fentanyl developed hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (p = 0.0055), with an increased in the average mean pulmonary artery pressure from 9.7 ± 0.55 (S.E.) to 13.2 ± 0.77 mm. Hg. The average calculated pulmonary arteriolar resistance increased from 280 to 353 dynes-sec.-cm. −5 without significant change in the pulmonary arterial wedge pressure. This analgesic-neuroleptic combination provides satisfactory anesthesia for studies of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in dogs.
Single and Repeated Environmental Stress: Effect on Plasma Oxytocin, Corticosterone, Catecholamines, and Behavior

Abstract HASHIGUCHI, H., S. H. YE, M. MORRIS AND N. ALEXANDER. Single and repeated environmental stress: Effect on plasma oxytocin, corticosterone, catecholamines, and behavior. PHYSIOL BEHAV 61 (5) 731–736, 1997.—Rat studies were done to further characterize an environmental model of stress designated shaker stress (SS). Plasma oxytocin (OT), corticosterone (CS), norepinephrine (NE), and epinephrine (E) were measured before and after 5 or 30 min of SS applied one time or applied 10 times over a 2-week period. The major findings were partial adaptation of plasma E within 30 min of acute SS, adaptation of plasma CS baselines but not responses to chronic SS, and complete adaptation of plasma OT responses to chronic SS. Poststress behavior during chronic SS was affected in the following ways: freezing time habituated, defecation and rearings increased, and grooming and teeth chattering remained relatively constant. The results show that SS produces consistent patterns of hormonal and behavioral responses; some aspects of the patterns are similar to those elicited by other environmental stresses, whereas some aspects are unique to SS. We conclude that rats do not adapt to repeated SS but rather that most hormonal and behavioral defense mechanisms are renewable on a daily basis.
Determinants of Food Security and Diet Among Rural and Urban Latino/Hispanic Immigrants

ABSTRACT Rural migration and food insecurity of Latino immigrants is high. The goal of this study was to examine food insecurity among Latino immigrants in a rural region (N = 119) in comparison to urban Latinos (N = 166). The objectives were to examine, identify, and compare determinants of food security, weight status, and diet between urban and rural Latinos. Household surveys were conducted by 2 trained bilingual/bicultural interviewers. Data on food security, body mass index, self-reported weight change since US arrival, diet, and barriers to healthy eating were collected. Rural Latinos were more likely to be overweight and have low food security than urban Latinos. Difficulty eating healthy and increased time in the United States were the primary determinants of low food security and poor diet among rural Latinos. Rurality and food insecurity pose a barrier for Latino immigrants and must be addressed further.
Site of Action of Copper in Photosynthesis

EARLY observations on the presence of copper in chloroplasts1 and the inhibition of photosynthesis by several reagents which are regarded as specific copper antagonists2 established the concept that this element is perhaps a functional component of the photosynthetic system. Recent findings on the presence of a cytochrome photo-oxidase in chloroplasts3 and the subsequent isolation of a copper-protein (plastocyanin) with characteristics identical to those of cytochrome photo-oxidase4 provide additional support for a specific role of copper in photosynthesis.
Increased hexosamine biosynthesis and protein O-GlcNAc levels associated with myocardial protection against calcium paradox and ischemia

Increased hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) flux and elevated levels of protein O-linked-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) decrease calcium influx into isolated cardiomyocytes. Increased O-GlcNAc levels also increase tolerance of cells to stress. Therefore, the goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that increasing HBP flux and protein O-GlcNAc levels in the intact heart will increase the tolerance to tissue injury resulting from the calcium paradox and ischemia. We used two strategies that have been shown to increase HBP flux in the intact heart, namely a brief period of streptozotocin-induced diabetes and acute pretreatment of the isolated perfused heart with glucosamine. Isolated perfused rat hearts were exposed to the calcium paradox or to ischemia and reperfusion. Both diabetes and glucosamine significantly improved recovery in the isolated perfused rat heart following the calcium paradox with left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) returning to ~80% of baseline compared to 0% in controls (P<0.05), and lactate dehydrogenase release being reduced by approximately fivefold (P<0.05). In the diabetic group, azaserine, which inhibits the HBP, restored the sensitivity to the calcium paradox. Glucosamine treatment also improved functional recovery following ischemia/reperfusion (LVDP: 47+/-9% vs. 95+/-4%, P<0.05) and this was associated with a threefold increase in O-GlcNAc levels (P<0.05). Alloxan, an inhibitor of O-GlcNAc-transferase, blocked both the protection seen with glucosamine and the increase in O-GlcNAc. These data demonstrate that activation of the HBP with glucosamine may be a novel strategy for inducing cardioprotection, and that this appears to be mediated by an increase in protein O-GlcNAc levels.
Lipoprotein (a): Perspectives from a lipid-referral program

Background Lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] has a strong association with coronary disease (CHD). We evaluated the implications of implementing a niacin strategy in persons above low risk by the Framingham risk score (FRS). Methods Patients referred to a university lipid management program from January 2004 to June 2010 had an Lp(a) level measured at initial evaluation. Factors associated with an increase in Lp(a) and predictors of a high risk Lp(a) (≥50 mg/dL) were assessed. FRS and Lp(a) levels were used to assess eligibility for niacin with an Lp(a) ≥50 mg/dL. Results A total of 692 patients (57% male, mean age 52 ± 14 years) had a mean Lp(a) of 32 ± 40 mg/dL. In a multiple logistic regression model, African-American race, female gender, presence of CHD, and lower triglyceride levels were significant predictors of high risk Lp(a). Ten percent were determined to be intermediate and 44% high risk by FRS. A total of 9% of intermediate- and 26% of high-risk patients had an Lp(a) ≥50 mg/dL, and 84% were not taking niacin. A total of 19% of moderate- and high-risk patients were eligible for initiation of niacin based upon values ≥50 mg/dL. If niacin were also used for an high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels ≤40 mg/dL, only 5.1% additional patients would require niacin. Conclusion High-risk levels of Lp(a) are associated with female gender, African- American race, and CHD. 19% of moderate and high risk patients would be candidates for treatment with niacin if the indication is a cutpoint Lp(a) ≥50mg/dL.
The role of nitrogen status in regulating transient ammonium uptake and nitrogen storage by macroalgae

Abstract The NH + 4 uptake kinetics of Enteromorpha spp. (Link), Ulva lactuca (L.) and Gracilaria tikvahiae (McLachlan) were determined immediately after collection from the field, after acclimation to high and low N fluxes, and after N starvation. Transient uptake by all algae grown at low N flux or starved for N was more rapid than uptake by algae grown at high N flux. Enteromorpha spp. took up NH + 4 more rapidly than the other species at all N concentrations and treatments. Uptake did not always follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics; uptake was often a linear function of concentration at higher concentrations. High uptake rates during periods of high N availability could be important in supporting N-limited growth in environments with episodic N supply. G. tikvahiae, Enteromorpha spp., and U. lactuca were able to grow for 14, 10, and 9 days in N-free medium, respectively. These results indicated that differences in N storage capacity between species may be important in structuring algal assemblages in environments with episodic N supply.
Housing instability and incident hypertension in the CARDIA cohort.

Housing instability, a growing public health problem, may be an independent environmental risk factor for hypertension, but limited prospective data exist. We sought to determine the independent association of housing instability in early adulthood (year 5, 1990–1991) and incident hypertension over the subsequent 15 years of follow-up (years 7, 10, 15, and 20) in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study (N = 5,115). Because causes of inadequate housing and its effects on health are thought to vary by race and sex, we hypothesized that housing instability would exert a differential effect on incident hypertension by race and sex. At year 5, all CARDIA participants were asked about housing and those free of hypertension were analyzed (N = 4,342). We defined housing instability as living in overcrowded housing, moving frequently, or living doubled up. Of the 4,342 participants, 8.5 % were living in unstable housing. Across all participants, housing instability was not associated with incident hypertension (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 1.1; 95 % CI, 0.9–1.5) after adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic status, substance use, social factors, body mass index, and study site. However, the association varied by race and sex (p value for interaction, <0.001). Unstably housed white women had a hypertension incidence rate 4.7 times (IRR, 4.7; 95 % CI, 2.4–9.2) that of stably housed white women in adjusted analysis. There was no association among white men, black women, or black men. These findings suggest that housing instability may be a more important risk factor among white women, and may act independently or as a marker for other psychosocial stressors (e.g., stress from intimate partner violence) leading to development of hypertension. Studies that examine the role of these psychosocial stressors in development of hypertension risk among unstably housed white women are needed.
Effect of Lead Acetate on Nitrite Production by Murine Brain Endothelial Cell Cultures

Abstract One of the mechanisms by which lead may cause a perturbation in the nervous system is the alteration of endothelial cell function. This study investigated the effect of lead acetate on constitutive and cytokine-induced production of nitrite, a marker of nitric oxide, in brain microvascular endothelial cells. Nitric oxide synthase may be a target for lead and changes in its function can result in a cascade of physiological effects seen in vivo . Concentrations of 10, 100, and 1000 nM lead acetate, in the presence or absence of 100 ng lipopolysaccharide/ml, 400 U interferon-γ/ml and 100 U tumor necrosis factor-α/ml, were added to confluent cultures of brain microvascular endothelial cells. Concentrations of lead acetate as low as 10 nM decreased constitutive levels of nitrite by 50% without inhibiting the inducible levels. Addition of 1 μM lead acetate had no effect on [ 3 H]L-leucine incorporation, lactate dehydrogenase release, or cellular morphology, indicating that the effect was selective. Increasing the concentration of extracellular calcium to 2 mM abolished the inhibitory effect of lead acetate on the constitutive production of nitrite. These studies suggest that low concentrations of lead are capable of inhibiting nitrite produced by the calcium-dependent constitutive form of nitric oxide synthase while the calcium-independent, inducible form of nitric oxide synthase is not affected. These data provide another testable hypothesis for the as yet undetermined mechanisms of lead neurotoxicity.
Effects of temperature change on acid-base regulation in skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) blood.

Abstract 1. 1. The effects of temperature change (in vitro) on acid-base balance of skipjack tuna blood were investigated. 2. 2. By examining the relationship between blood pH and temperature (in vitro) under conditions of constant CO2 tension (open system), it was observed that dpH/dT = −0.0131 U/°C. 3. 3. This value falls well within the range of in vivo values reported for other ectothermic vertebrates, and is only slightly different than results obtained in vitro under conditions of constant CO2 content (closed system; dpH/dT = −0.0165 U/°C). 4. 4. It is concluded that changes in pH following temperature changes can be accounted for solely by the passive, in vitro behaviour of the chemical buffer system found in the blood, so that active regulatory mechanisms of pH adjustment need not be postulated for skipjack tuna.
Mining Surprising Periodic Patterns

In this paper, we focus on mining surprising periodic patterns in a sequence of events. In many applications, e.g., computational biology, an infrequent pattern is still considered very significant if its actual occurrence frequency exceeds the prior expectation by a large margin. The traditional metric, such as support, is not necessarily the ideal model to measure this kind of surprising patterns because it treats all patterns equally in the sense that every occurrence carries the same weight towards the assessment of the significance of a pattern regardless of the probability of occurrence. A more suitable measurement, information, is introduced to naturally value the degree of surprise of each occurrence of a pattern as a continuous and monotonically decreasing function of its probability of occurrence. This would allow patterns with vastly different occurrence probabilities to be handled seamlessly. As the accumulated degree of surprise of all repetitions of a pattern, the concept of information gain is proposed to measure the overall degree of surprise of the pattern within a data sequence. The bounded information gain property is identified to tackle the predicament caused by the violation of the downward closure property by the information gain measure and in turn provides an efficient solution to this problem. Furthermore, the user has a choice between specifying a minimum information gain threshold and choosing the number of surprising patterns wanted. Empirical tests demonstrate the efficiency and the usefulness of the proposed model.
BK USING STAGGERED FERMIONS: AN UPDATE

Abstract Improved results for B K are discussed. Scaling corrections are argued to be of O (α 2 ), leading to a reduction in the systematic error. For a kaon composed of degenerate quarks, the quenched result is B K = 0.825±0.027±0.023 .
Plug-and-play open architecture integration of mechatronic systems for agile manufacturing

A plug-and-play open architecture language environment for integration of mechatronic systems for agile manufacturing will be presented in this paper. This new language environment is designed to be computer platform independent, mechatronic device independent, and mechatronic system independent. The language environment is a salient extension and enhancement of Unix/Windows/C computing environment, popularly used by engineers and scientists all over the world. The language environment for real-time operation of mechatronic systems is a superset of interpretive C programming language implemented as a shell. We have designed and implemented this interpretive language environment with security provisions for cross-platform network computing. The mechatronic systems under this new integration paradigm, therefore, can be remotely operated thousands of miles away from the physical site across the network. An experimental rapid prototype system has been developed to verify our principles and algorithms on open architecture integration of mechatronic system. Hardware from different vendors can be easily plugged into the prototype system and the user can readily play it without changing application programs written in the superset of C. The new integration language environment is available for downloading on the WWW at the URL address.
Violation of causality in relativistic quantum theory

We show that states of systems which, in a very general sense, are approximately localized at time $t=0$ in a finite region, with exponentially bounded tails outside, violate Einstein causality at later times. Implications are discussed.
Enhanced bioturbation on the down‐drift flank of a Turonian asymmetrical delta: Implications for seaway circulation, river nutrients and facies models

Extant models predict delta front environments down-drift of river mouths as unfavourable for organisms because of the physico-chemical stresses caused by sediment and fresh water influx. This study, however, finds evidence for near-optimal living conditions down-drift of contemporaneous mouth bars and distributary channels, as well as at the tops of abandoned lobes, in part of the asymmetrical ‘Notom Delta’ complex of the Ferron Sandstone (Turonian, south-eastern Utah, USA). Presented herein is a sedimentological and ichnological model using thirty-two detailed measured sections along a 16 km transect through two continuously exposed, ca 10 m thick allomembers containing delta front, mouth bar and distributary channel facies. Azimuths from sedimentary structures show south-eastward deflection of near-shore palaeocurrents relative to the inferred north–south shoreline, as well as minor reversal of flow. Two end-member trace fossil suites are recognized in delta front sandstones: (i) a stressed suite of low abundance, low diversity, diminutive traces reflecting mobile deposit feeding, resting and locomotion behaviours; and (ii) a comparatively unstressed, high abundance, moderate diversity suite with a regular, heterogeneous distribution of deep, vertical or U-shaped suspension-feeding burrows which, in places, thoroughly homogenize the sandstones. The down-drift side of the delta was colonized by suspension feeders during seasonal reversal of the seaway gyre when mud plumes were swept northward or when river-derived nutrients were sufficiently concentrated relative to fresh water and sediment input. During normal seaway circulation, very high sedimentation rates and mud-laden, wave-dampened waters down-drift of the river mouths heightened the preservation potential of the pervasively bioturbated facies. Up-drift of the river mouths, these bioturbated facies were either not preserved or not developed until the lobe was abandoned. This alternative model for delta planform asymmetry contributes to the refinement of facies models for deltaic systems and provides a framework for predicting the distribution of bioturbation-enhanced porosity and permeability in lobe-deflected deltas.
Post-challenge glucose predicts coronary atherosclerotic progression in non-diabetic, post-menopausal women.

AIMS: We sought to determine whether fasting or post-challenge glucose were associated with progression of coronary atherosclerosis in non-diabetic women. METHODS: We performed a post-hoc analysis of 132 non-diabetic women who underwent 75-g oral glucose tolerance testing. The primary outcome of interest was progression of atherosclerosis determined by baseline and follow-up coronary angiography, a mean of 3.1 +/- 0.9 years apart. We analysed the association of change in minimal vessel diameter (DeltaMD) by quartile of fasting and post-challenge glucose using mixed models that included adjustment for age, systolic blood pressure, total : high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, current smoking, lipid-lowering and anti-hypertensive medication use and other covariates. RESULTS: At baseline, participants had a mean age of 65.7 +/- 6.7 years and a mean body mass index of 27.9 +/- 8.5 kg/m(2). Although there were no significant differences in atherosclerotic progression by fasting glucose category (P for trend across quartiles = 0.99), there was a significant inverse association between post-challenge glucose and DeltaMD (in mm) (Q1 : 0.01 +/- 0.03; Q2 : 0.08 +/- 0.03; Q3 : 0.13 +/- 0.03; Q4 : 0.11 +/- 0.03; P for trend = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In post-menopausal women without diabetes, post-challenge glucose predicts angiographic disease progression. These findings suggest that even modest post-challenge hyperglycaemia influences the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic progression.
Influence of dark phase restricted high fat feeding on myocardial adaptation in mice

Prolonged high fat feeding is associated with myocardial contractile dysfunction in rodents. However, epidemiological data do not necessarily support the concept that fat-enriched diets adversely affect cardiac function in humans. When fed in an ad libitum manner, laboratory rodents consume chow throughout the day. In contrast, humans typically consume food only during the awake phase. Discrepancies between rodent and human feeding behaviors led us to hypothesize that the time of day at which dietary lipids are consumed significantly influences myocardial adaptation. In order to better mimic feeding behavior in humans, mice were fed (either a control or high fat diet) only during the 12-hour dark phase (i.e., no food was provided during the light phase). We report that compared to dark phase restricted control diet fed mice, mice fed a high fat diet during the dark phase exhibit: 1) essentially normal body weight gain and energy balance; 2) increased fatty acid oxidation at whole body, as well as skeletal and cardiac muscle (in the presence of insulin and/or at high workloads) levels; 3) induction of fatty acid responsive genes, including genes promoting triglyceride turnover in the heart; 4) no evidence of cardiac hypertrophy; and 5) persistence/improvement of myocardial contractile function, as assessed ex vivo. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ingestion of dietary fat only during the more active/awake period allows adequate metabolic adaptation, thereby preserving myocardial contractile function. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Focus on cardiac metabolism".
Specialized Accreditation of Business Schools: A Comparison of Alternative Costs, Benefits, and Motivations

Abstract In this study, the authors surveyed 122 deans and chairs of business schools to examine the costs and benefits of specialized accreditation and the schools' motivation for seeking it. The respondents represented nonaccredited schools and ones accredited by any of the three business accrediting associations. The authors discuss the benefits of accreditation and its relationship to program goals, program competitiveness, and student learning. Their results showed significant differences across the four categories representing schools accredited by each of the three associations and the nonaccredited institutions.