cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Randomized, Controlled Pilot Trial of Solifenacin Succinate for Overactive Bladder in Parkinson's Disease

Abstract Objective To evaluate the efficacy of solifenacin succinate in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suffering from overactive bladder (OAB). Background Urinary dysfunction is a commonly encountered non-motor feature in PD that significantly impacts patient quality of life. Design/methods This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 3-site study with an open label extension phase to determine the efficacy of solifenacin succinate in idiopathic PD patients with OAB. Patients were randomized to receive solifenacin succinate 5–10 mg daily or placebo for 12 weeks followed by an 8-week open label extension. The primary outcome measure was the change in the mean number of micturitions per 24 h period. Secondary outcome measures included the change in the mean number of urinary incontinence episodes and the mean number of nocturia episodes. Results Twenty-three patients were randomized in the study. There was no significant improvement in the primary outcome measure in the double-blind phase, but there was an improvement in the number of micturitions per 24 h period in the solifenacin succinate group compared to placebo at a mean dose of 6 mg/day (p = 0.01). In the open label phase, the mean number of urinary incontinence episodes per 24 h period decreased (p = 0.03), as did the number of nocturia episodes per 24 h period (p = 0.01). Adverse events included constipation and xerostomia, which resolved after treatment was discontinued. Conclusions In this pilot trial, solifenacin succinate treatment led to an improvement in urinary incontinence, despite persistence in other OAB symptoms.
Development and evaluation of conditions for the kinetic quantitation of acetoacetate in body fluids

Abstract This paper describes a detailed study of the kinetic behavior of reactions used in the quantitation of acetoacetate in body fluids. Reactions studied are those between acetoacetate and glycine to form a transiently stable enamine intermediate, reaction of the enamine intermediate with nitroprusside, and simultaneous reaction of acetoacetate, glycine, and nitroprusside (nitrosopentacyanoferrate(III). Variables studied include pH, temperature and concentrations of all reactants. The primary reaction between acetoacetate and glycine follows pseudo-first-order kinetics at high pH (ρ 8.6) at which the enamine is transiently stable; the other reactions deviate from first-order behavior at longer times because the reaction product is unstable. Several options involving nonlinear curve-fitting methods applied to all reaction sequences above and an initial-rate method applied to the combined reactions are evaluated. Also, the two-step and combined-reaction sequences are evaluated for quantitation of acetoacetate in urine and serum samples. For acetoacetate in the concentration range 0.5–4.25 mmol l −1 , the methods yield relative standard deviations in the range 1.0–1.8% with absolute standard deviations of 3.5–35 μmol l −1 .
Cytotoxic activity of aaptamines from suberitid marine sponges

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The Origin of Synergistic Symbiosis

Abstract A dominant theme in the history of life has been the evolutionary innovations of cooperative symbioses: the first genomes near the origin of life, integrated prokaryotic cells, the complex symbiotic communities that evolved into modern eukaryotic cells, lichens, mycorrhizae, and so on. In this paper, a mode l of cooperative symbiosis that shows a threshold condition for the evolution of cooperation is analyzed. The threshold is not easily passed, but cooperative evolution proceeds rapidly once a symbiosis overcomes the threshold. In the model presented here, each species has genetic variability for a symbiotic trait. The trait imposes a reproductive cost on its bearer but enhances the reproduction of its partner species. For example, in the origin of genetic systems, the trait may cause biochemical synergism for the rate of replication of primitive RNA strands as in Eigen and Schuster's hypercycle model. Models of growth are contrasted with synergism, which are most appropriate for the evolution of genetic systems and for mutualisms such as lichens, with the strategic and psychological applications of the Prisoner's Dilemma model.
Quantitative gas chromatographic method for the analysis of aliphatic hydrocarbons, terpenes, fatty alcohols, fatty acids and sterols in tobacco

Abstract A rapid and reproducible method is described for the analysis of the major tobacco lipids, including the C 25 C 34 paraffinic hydrocarbons, neophytadiene, phytol, docosanol, squalene, α-tocopherol, β-amyrin, cycloartenol, 24-methylenecycloartanol, palmitic acid, stearic acid, the unsaturated C 18 acids, cholesterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, sitosterol and solanesol. The method is based upon the short-column silicic acid chromatography of saponified lipids from a hexane extract of tobacco. The free lipids are separated into non-polar, polar and terpenoid fractions and quantitated by gas chromatography, with the use of internal standards. The applicability of the method has been demonstrated by the highly reproducigle analyses of a cigarette blend, conventional flue-cured tobaccos and two close-grown tobaccos. The method should also be applicable to analyses of lipids in other natural products, including foodstuffs.
TRANSFORMING ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING EDUCATION WITH INTERNET TECHNOLOGY

In light of today's dynamic health care delivery system, nursing education cannot be passive and still produce competent and effective registered nurses. Registered nurses must be able to communica...
Primary megacolon in young adults.

1. Eleven young adults with primary megacolon are reported. Nine were males, and two were females. Ten of them were white, and one was colored. 2. In this series of patients, the symptoms were impressively mild. Only three had the diagnosis of megacolon made prior to studies carried out here. Seven of the 11 patients had minimal or no symptoms referable to the gastrointestinal tract. 3. The suggestion of megacolon noted on routine chest x-rays was particularly valuable in the accumuation of this series of patients. Diagnostic studies, were initiated on the basis of the chest x-ray in five of the patients. 4. One patient was presumed to have megacolon as the result of the observation of a dilated colon on x-ray films made in the study of the lumbar vertebrae. One patient was suspected of having megacolon when large fecal masses were palpated during a routine physical examination. 5. Pertinent literature is reviewed and applied to various interesting aspects of megacolon which were observed in this series of patients.
Bayesian Model for Predicting the Performance of Pavements Treated with Thin Hot-Mix Asphalt Overlays

Recent studies suggest that thin hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay is one of the most frequently used preservation techniques for HMA pavements. This preservation treatment is often applied to address functional problems, such as roughness, raveling and weathering, and friction loss. A novel probabilistic model is provided for predicting the international roughness index (IRI) values of asphalt pavements treated with thin HMA overlay. The model consists of two tightly coupled components. The first component is a set of artificial neural networks responsible for predicting the IRI value of the existing pavement if no treatment is applied, and the second one is a set of Bayesian regression models responsible for predicting the reduction in IRI value owing to applying the thin HMA overlay. The model considers key design and material characteristics of both the existing pavement and the thin overlay, and site factors. The developed Bayesian models have less than 5% outliers (i.e., data points falling within eithe...
Tactile and visual sense system interactions: a developmental study using reaction time models.

Interrelations of the visual and somatosensory systems were explored through the use of 2 reaction time (RT) models in the age range of 3-9 years. In the 1st model we examined the effects upon RT to light and to touch of a 3 min period of intervening stimulation in the modality other that that of the signal for response. In the 2nd model we examined the effects of prestimulation in one sense system upon RT to a subsequent stimulus in the other sense system. The evidence deriving from both models indicated clear developmental changes in the ways in the ways in which stimulation in one sense system affects RT to a signal presented in another system. The most general finding was a change from proximoceptive (somatosensory) to teloreceptive (visual) prepotency with increasing age.
Out-of-core construction and visualization of multiresolution surfaces

We present a method for end-to-end out-of-core simplification and view-dependent visualization of large surfaces. The method consists of three phases: (1) memory insensitive simplification; (2) memory insensitive construction of a multiresolution hierarchy; and (3) run-time, output-sensitive, view-dependent rendering and navigation of the mesh. The first two off-line phases are performed entirely on disk, and use only a small, constant amount of memory, whereas the run-time system pages in only the rendered parts of the mesh in a cache coherent manner. As a result, we are able to process and visualize arbitrarily large meshes given a sufficient amount of disk space; a constant multiple of the size of the input mesh.Similar to recent work on out-of-core simplification, our memory insensitive method uses vertex clustering on a rectilinear octree grid to coarsen and create a hierarchy for the mesh, and a quadric error metric to choose vertex positions at all levels of resolution. We show how the quadric information can be used to concisely represent vertex position, surface normal, error, and curvature information for anisotropic view-dependent coarsening and silhouette preservation.The run-time component of our system uses asynchronous rendering and view-dependent refinement driven by screen-space error and visibility. The system exploits frame-to-frame coherence and has been designed to allow preemptive refinement at the granularity of individual vertices to support refinement on a time budget.Our results indicate a significant improvement in processing speed over previous methods for out-of-core multiresolution surface construction. Meanwhile, all phases of the method are disk and memory efficient, and are fairly straightforward to implement.
Central sensitization: uncovering the relation between pain and plasticity.

Noxious skin stimuli which are sufficiently intense to produce tissue injury, characteristically generate prolonged poststimulus sensory disturbances that include continuing pain, an increased sensitivity to noxious stimuli and pain following innocuous stimuli. This could result from either a reduction in the thresholds of skin nociceptors (sensitization) or an increase in the excitability of the central nervous system so that normal inputs now evoke exaggerated responses. Because sensitization of peripheral receptors occurs following injury, a peripheral mechanism is widely held to be responsible for postinjury hypersensitivity. To investigate this I have now developed an animal model where changes occur in the threshold and responsiveness of the flexor reflex following peripheral injury that are analogous to the sensory changes found in man. Electrophysiological analysis of the injury-induced increase in excitability of the flexion reflex shows that it in part arises from changes in the activity of the spinal cord. The long-term consequences of noxious stimuli result, therefore, from central as well as from peripheral changes.
Structured Copper: A Pliable High Conductance Material for Bonding to Silicon Power Devices

The large difference in thermal expansion between silicon and the high conductivity metals is a major problem to be solved in the packaging of high power silicon devices. One solution is by the use of structured copper which is made of many separate copper wires and can he directly attached to silicon without introducing large stresses. Methods of preparing structured copper are presented along with some examples of its application.
Failure Analysis Applications of Auger Electron Spectroscopy

The basic operation, advantages, and limitations of the Auger electron spectroscopy technique are discussed. Applications include simultaneous surface analysis and ion sputtering to produce a compositional-depth profile. This technique is used to study the soldering problem caused by diffusion of impurities to the surface during high temperature treatments. In analyzing wire bond problems, the elemental and chemical bonding information of the Auger signals is shown to provide identification of processing defects.
Palladium Nanoparticles Supported by Alumina Nanofibers Synthesized by Electrospinning

Palladium nanoparticles supported by alumina nanofibers have been successfully synthesized by electrospinning using palladium chloride incorporated into a solution of polyvinyl pyrrolidone and aluminum acetate. Palladium agglomerate sizes and the surface morphology of the electrospun nanofibers were determined by transmission electron microscopy. Palladium nanoparticles appeared to be well dispersed within the electrospun nanofiber structure. X-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman scattering spectroscopy techniques were used to identify the crystalline form and distinguish between oxidized and metallic palladium particles after heating and hydrogenation.
Core-based boundary claiming

The core (defined in the accompanying paper by Morse) provides a means for characterizing the middle/width behavior of a figure, that is, an object or component thereof, directly from the image intensities and in a way insensitive to detail. The figures in question are either complete objects, contained subobjects, object protrusions, or object intrusions. The core provides the ability to claim regions of the image as including either the boundary information of an object or its protrusion or intrusion cores. The angulation in scale space, spatial position, and scale of a figure's core allows one to move from the core to a boundary at the scale of the figure. The core of protrusion and intrusion subfigures of the figure in question will intersect this boundary at the scale of the core. Moreover, if each point on the boundary at the scale of the core is blurred in proportion to the scale of the corresponding point on the core, a collar is formed within which the boundary of the figure can be found. We show how to find the collar and how stably to find the boundary, given the collar, even in noisy or blurred objects. This ability leads to an accurate, robust, automatic method of object area computation, and the generalization of this approach to 3D also provides the basis for efficient surface rendering and volume rendering.
JETS in Active Galactic Nuclei

Radio jets are a common feature of radio-loud AGN, and provide a means for powering the luminous giant radio lobes which first marked the extreme activity in AGN. Some jets have complicated, filamentary structures, and many show evidence of bulk relativistic motion on small (pc) and possibly large (kpc) scales. A general picture has emerged in which all radio-loud AGN have relativistic jets, which are, or can appear to be, different for the various classes of AGN. Recent observations at wavelengths shorter than the radio, principally with space observatories like HST, IUE, GRO and Rosat, have provided a wealth of new information about the origin and structure of jets. High-resolution HST images of resolved jets like M87 indicate the likely importance of shocks that can accelerate radiating particles to very high energies. Detailed comparison of UV images with radio maps of comparable resolution reveals many similarities and some important differences in morphology. For the larger number of jets too small to be imaged from Earth, variability studies, with IUE and Rosat in particular, and the very high energy gamma-ray emission detected with GRO, have given new insight into the formation and internal energetics of jets. The recent multiwavelength monitoring campaign on the BL Lac object PKS 2155-304 and ongoing multiwavelength monitoring of other blazars offer the best hope of understanding the jets, and ultimately the central power source, in AGN.
High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Glycol Cellular Distribution and PEG-associated Cytoplasmic Vacuolation Is Molecular Weight Dependent and Does Not Require Conjugation to Proteins

Conjugation of therapeutic proteins with high molecular weight polyethylene glycols (HMW PEGs) is used to extend the half-life of biologics. To evaluate the effects of HMW PEGs in animals, we used an immunohistochemical procedure to study the tissue distribution and toxicity of unconjugated HMW PEGs in rats given 100 mg/kg (10K)PEG, (20K)PEG, or (40K)PEG intravenously. Both the PEG cellular distribution and the histology were different between groups. In (10K)PEG and (20K)PEG groups, PEG immunoreactivity was most prominent in the renal tubule epithelium and in alveolar macrophages and hepatic Kupffer cells and cellular vacuolation was absent. In contrast, rats given (40K)PEG had strong PEG immunoreactivity in splenic subcapsular red pulp macrophages, renal interstitial macrophages, and choroid plexus epithelial cells that was frequently associated with cytoplasmic vacuolation. While the vacuolation appeared to be an adaptive response, there was focal renal tubular epithelial degeneration associated with strong PEG immunoreactivity in one rat given (40K)PEG. These data indicate that both the tissue distribution and the vacuolation observed with unconjugated HMW PEGs are markedly influenced by the molecular weight of the PEG and that when vacuolation is observed it is likely an adaptive change that is associated with PEG cytoplasmic immunoreactivity.
Cotton Tolerance to Hoplolaimus columbus and Impact on Population Densities.

ABSTRACT Glyphosate-tolerant transgenic-cotton cultivars were evaluated for tolerance to Hoplolaimus columbus in field experiments conducted from 2001 to 2003. The studies were arranged in a split-plot design that included treatment with 1,3-dichloropropene at 42 liter/ha to establish fumigated versus nonfumigated subplots with cultivars as whole plots. Cotton cultivars were divided by relative maturity into two separate but adjacent experiments in order to facilitate cotton defoliation, with 10 early-maturity and 5 late-maturity cultivars. Fumigation was effective in suppressing H. columbus population densities and increased cotton lint yield. The cultivar-fumigation interaction was significant for early-season cotton cultivars but not for late-season cultivars. A tolerance index ([yield of nontreated/yield of treated] × 100) was used to compare cultivar differences. Both groups of cultivars expressed significant levels of tolerance to H. columbus, but late-season cultivars tended to yield more than earl...
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SWIMMING LESSONS, URBANISATION, AND DROWNING IN TAIWAN

Background Unintentional drowning remains a leading cause of injury-related death, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In 2004, approximately 388 000 people died from drowning, of which 96% occurred in LMIC. In 2001, the Taipei city government launched a school-based swimming programme aimed to reduce drowning. An evaluation of the impact of the swimming programme provides a better understanding to further prevent this global public health burden. Research Objectives 1. to examine the impact of a comprehensive school-based swimming programme on drowning; 2. to explore the association between urbanisation and drowning. Methods (1) Difference in differences (DID) is used to examine the impact of swimming programme on drowning; (2) time-series panel approach is used to assess the association between urbanisation and drowning mortality among 23 jurisdictions from 1980 to 2001. Results Swimming education was associated with a faster decline in drowning among policy-intervened groups. A ‘cross-over’ change, of which a policy-targeted group declined faster (from 6.7 to 1.7/100 000) and becomes lower in drowning compared to a non-intervened group (from 5.7 to 3.7/100 000, p value 0.023). Urbanisation was associated with the decline of drowning after controlling for medical services and household disposable income (p value=0.03 in fixed effect, multivariate regression model). Medical service was not associated with the drowning decline in Taiwan. Significance/Contribution to the Field This study provides empirical evidence supporting a protective effect of a school-based swimming programme. It explained urbanisation as a background influence on drowning in the last few decades before any deliberate intervention was promoted.
What Managers Want From Invasive Species Research Versus What They Get

We compared the published research on exotic invasive plants with research needs identified by practitioners who manage wildland invasions in California. We filtered the 2007–2011 contents of 20 journals to find 347 relevant articles, then classified them in four areas: topical relevance, spatial/temporal scale, management usefulness, and accessibility and timeliness. We found basic research to be heavily overrepresented compared to applied research, but authors of basic research papers typically gave at least some consideration to management implications of the work. The taxonomic coverage of the database was uneven, with four invaders accounting for nearly half the published work, and several high-priority species being absent. Small temporal and spatial scales, lack of information on management costs, and a long lag time before publication also hinder the usefulness of invasions research to managers. However, articles were widely available for free download, suggesting that access to research should not be among managers’ concerns.
Decrease of intracellular ATP content downregulated UCP2 expression in mouse hepatocytes.

Abstract Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) plays an important role in regulating energy metabolism. We previously reported that UCP2 expression in steatotic livers is increased which leads to diminished hepatic ATP stores and renders steatotic hepatocytes vulnerable to ischemic damage. In this study, reagents that inhibit the production of ATP were used to mimic an ischemic state in the liver in order to investigate the effects of decreased intracellular ATP levels on UCP2 expression in a murine hepatocyte cell line (HEP6–16). Carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP), an oxidative phosphorylation uncoupler, was found to decrease intracellular ATP levels in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Relatively high concentrations of FCCP from 8 to 80 μM were required to reduce the intracellular concentration of ATP. The inhibitory effect of FCCP on intracellular ATP was significantly potentiated by 2-deoxy- d -glucose, an inhibitor of glycolysis that when administered alone had no negative effect on cellular ATP levels in mouse hepatocytes. Decreased intracellular ATP levels were accompanied by lower UCP2 mRNA expression. Upon removal of FCCP and/or 2-deoxy- d -glucose and reculture with normal medium, ATP and UCP2 mRNA levels returned to normal within a few hours. Mitochondrial membrane potential in HEP6–16 cells was dissipated by 80 μM FCCP but not 8 μM FCCP, suggesting that the downregulation of UCP2 expression by FCCP was not related to mitochondrial potential changes. Consequently, the in vitro manipulation of ATP stores is consistent with the in vivo observations associated with ischemia/reperfusion injury.
On the verification of hypothesized matches in model-based recognition

Model-based recognition methods generally use ad hoc techniques to decide whether or not a model of an object matches a given scene. The most common such technique is to set an empirically determined threshold on the fraction of model features that must be matched to data features. Conditions under which to accept a match as correct are rigorously derived. The analysis is based on modeling the recognition process as a statistical occupancy problem. This model makes the assumption that pairings of object and data features can be characterized as a random process with a uniform distribution. The authors present a number of examples illustrating that real image data are well approximated by such a random process. Using a statistical occupancy model, they derive an expression for the probability that a randomly occurring match will account for a given fraction of the features of a particular object. This expression is a function of the number of model features, the number of data features, and bounds on the degree of sensor noise. It provides a means of setting a threshold such that the probability of a random match is very small. >
The Role of the Escape Swim Motor Network in the Organization of Behavioral Hierarchy and Arousal in Pleurobranchaea1

SYNOPSIS. The escape swimming pattern generator of the notaspid opisthobranch Pleurobranchaea drives a high threshold, override behavior. The pattern generator is integrated with neural networks of other behaviors so as to coordinate unitary behavioral expression and to promote general behavioral arousal. These functions are separately produced by different swim network elements. One set of swim premotor neurons, the A1/A10 ensemble, A3 and IVS, generate the swim pattern and, through corollary activity, suppress potentially conflicting feeding behavior by exerting broad inhibition at major feeding network interneurons. A second set of swim neurons, the serotonergic As1‐4 neurons, provides intrinsic neuromodulatory excitation to the swim pattern generator that sustains the escape swim episode through multiple cycles. The As1‐4 also provide neuromodulatory excitation to important modulatory, serotonergic cells in the feeding motor network and locomotor network, and may have a general regulatory role in the distributed serotonergic arousal network of the mollusk. The As1‐4 appear to be also necessary to both avoidance and orienting turning, and are therefore likely to be critical, multi-functional components upon which much of the organization of the animal’s behavior rests. What general relevance to the study of behavior has the study of escape swimming in a mollusk? Indeed, one whose major attributes are marked simplicity of form and brain? It is that even with its limited equipment, the predatory sea-slug Pleurobranchaea californica manages to solve the complex problems of foraging and reproduction that challenge much more brainy creatures, and the lessons emerging from study of this and other simple experimental systems are changing our understanding of how behavior is organized in the nervous system. Comparative studies tell us that our complexities of body form and of brain and behavior simply serve a larger repertory of sub-routines aimed at solving the same general problems of survival and genetic con1 From the Symposium Swimming in Opisthobranch Mollusks: Contributions to Control of Motor Behaviour presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, 4‐8 January 2000, at Atlanta, Georgia.
Combined equal and unequal element spacings for low sidelobe pattern of a symmetrical array with equal-amplitude elements

Numerical computations were made for a low-sidelobe-level 20-element symmetrical linear array whose equal-amplitude elements were spaced mostly equally (but some unequally) to yield aperture illumination densities along the array that approximate a truncated Gaussian distribution. It is argued that this design approach of using both equal and unequal interelement spacings and variations from the array analyzed should be investigated for large arrays and optimized for low sidelobe performance. Another design alternative for a large array is to have different size clusters of equally space elements with the intercluster spacings varied to attain desired tapered average illumination densities. >
Experiences in Applying Adaptive Control to Thermal Processes in Buildings

Application of a self-tuning controller to heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) processes is reported. Adaptive control techniques are attractive in HVAC applications because process characteristics change widely due to variations in weather and building occupancy. Successful implementation of adaptive control techniques is limited by current practices in building instrumentation. Control actuators exhibit significant non-linearities while sensing is inadequate to compensate for load disturbances. A self-tuning control system consisting of an auto-tuner, recursive least squares estimator and a performance monitor is both easily configured and sufficiently robust for unsupervised operation.
Do Traditional Admissions Criteria Reflect Applicant Creativity

College admissions decisions have traditionally focused on high school academic performance and standardized test scores. An ongoing debate is the validity of these measures for predicting success in college; part of this debate includes how success is defined. One potential way of defining college success is a student's creative accomplishments. We tested the hypothesis that traditional admissions criteria fail to capture adequately the creativity of applicants by asking 610 college applicants to complete several creativity tasks. These included divergent thinking, caption-writing, an essay, and self-report measures of creativity in numerous domains. Creativity scores were compared to data from the college application, including high school rank, standardized test scores, and admissions interview scores. Results showed that traditional admissions criteria were only weakly related to creativity. Indeed, students who report the highest creative self-efficacy can be perceived as weaker applicants according to traditional criteria. Findings are discussed in light of the goals of higher education to increase diversity of the student body and the abilities of its students.
New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. II: The Central Region and the Lower Ninth Ward

The failure of the New Orleans regional flood protection systems, and the resultant catastrophic flooding of much of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, represents the most costly failure of an e...
In Vitro Evaluation of Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Reconstruction With Bicuspid Valved Polytetrafluoroethylene Conduit

Conduits available for right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction eventually become stenotic and/or insufficient due to calcification. In order to reduce the incidence of reoperations we have developed and used a bicuspid valved polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) conduit for the RVOT reconstruction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the hemodynamic performance of the new design using a pediatric in vitro right heart mock loop. PTFE conduit has been used for the complete biventricular repair of 20 patients (age 1.7±6 years) with cyanotic congenital defects. To account for the large variability of conduit sizes, 14, 16, 22, and 24-mm conduit sizes were evaluated using an in vitro flow loop comprised of a pulsatile pump with cardiac output (CO) of 1.2-3.2L/min, bicuspid valved RVOT conduit, pulmonary artery, venous compartments, and the flow visualization setup. We recorded the diastolic valve leakage and pre- and post-conduit pressures in static and pulsatile settings. In vitro valve function and overall hemodynamic performance was evaluated using high-speed cameras and ultrasonic flow probes. Three-dimensional flow fields for different in vivo conduit curvatures and inflow regimes were calculated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to further aid the conduit design process. The average pressure drop over the valved conduits was 0.8±1.7mm Hg for the CO range tested. Typical values for regurgitant fraction, peak-to-peak pressure gradient, and effective office area were 23±2.1%, 13±2.4mm Hg, and 1.56±0.2 cm(2) , respectively. High-speed videos captured the intact valve motion with asymmetrical valve opening during the systole. CFD simulations demonstrated the flow skewness toward the major curvature of the conduit based on the pulmonic curvature. In vitro evaluation of the bicuspid valved PTFE conduit coincides well with acceptable early clinical performance (mild insufficiency), with relatively low pressure drop, and intact valve motion independent from the conduit curvature, orientation or valve location, but at the expense of increased diastolic flow regurgitation. These findings benchmark the baseline performance of the bicuspid valved conduit and will be used for future designs to improve valve competency.
Detection of Legionella pneumophila in biofilms containing a complex microbial consortium by gas chromatography—mass spectrometry analysis of genus-specific hydroxy fatty acids

A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method was used to detect Legionella pneumophila in biofilms in potable water containing a complex microbial consortium. The unique 3-hydroxy and 2,3-dihydroxy fatty acids of the L. pneumophila lipopolysaccharides (LPS) were detected in both the planktonic phase of the continuous culture model and in the biofilms forming on both copper and polyethylene substrata. The technique confirmed that lower numbers of Legionella colonised and grew on copper in comparison to polyethylene and offers promise for routine detection of Legionella in biofilms in the environment.
Molecular targets of dietary agents for prevention and therapy of cancer

While fruits and vegetables are recommended for prevention of cancer and other diseases, their active ingredients (at the molecular level) and their mechanisms of action less well understood. Extensive research during the last half century has identified various molecular targets that can potentially be used not only for the prevention of cancer but also for treatment. However, lack of success with targeted monotherapy resulting from bypass mechanisms has forced researchers to employ either combination therapy or agents that interfere with multiple cell-signaling pathways. In this review, we present evidence that numerous agents identified from fruits and vegetables can interfere with several cell-signaling pathways. The agents include curcumin (turmeric), resveratrol (red grapes, peanuts and berries), genistein (soybean), diallyl sulfide (allium), S-allyl cysteine (allium), allicin (garlic), lycopene (tomato), capsaicin (red chilli), diosgenin (fenugreek), 6-gingerol (ginger), ellagic acid (pomegranate), ursolic acid (apple, pears, prunes), silymarin (milk thistle), anethol (anise, camphor, and fennel), catechins (green tea), eugenol (cloves), indole-3-carbinol (cruciferous vegetables), limonene (citrus fruits), beta carotene (carrots), and dietary fiber. For instance, the cell-signaling pathways inhibited by curcumin alone include NF-kappaB, AP-1, STAT3, Akt, Bcl-2, Bcl-X(L), caspases, PARP, IKK, EGFR, HER2, JNK, MAPK, COX2, and 5-LOX. The active principle identified in fruit and vegetables and the molecular targets modulated may be the basis for how these dietary agents not only prevent but also treat cancer and other diseases. This work reaffirms what Hippocrates said 25 centuries ago, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
Stigma, liminality, and chronic pain: Mind-body borderlands

In this article, I employ the concept of "liminality" to answer the question, why is pain, something invisible and experienced by everyone, so often stigmatizing in its chronic form? Various authors' work on liminality argues that "betwixt and between," ambiguous beings are seen by those around them to threaten prevailing definitions of the social order. I show that certain features of chronic pain result in the perception of sufferers as transgressing the categorical divisions between mind and body and as confounding the codes of morality surrounding sickness and health, turning them into liminal creatures whose uncertain ontological status provokes stigmatizing reactions in others.
The effects of morphological transitions on hydrogen bonding in polyurethanes: Preliminary results of simultaneous DSC–FTIR experiments

The influence of morphological transitions on the hydrogen-bonding behavior of polyurethanes is investigated by simultaneous measurements of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The materials examined are a noncrystalline polyurethane hard segment, a crystallizable polyurethane hard segment, and a segmented polyurethane block copolymer containing crystallizable hard segments. Integrated absorbance data show that the hydrogen-bonding behavior is insensitive to crystalline transitions within the hard segment microdomains, but that it does reflect morphological transitions in the block copolymer that are associated with intersegmental mixing. In addition, the spectral data show conclusive evidence for reversal of the urethane reaction at high temperatures.
Development of the Semiconductor Hydrodynamic Transport Model: Review and Recent Progress

In this talk, the development of the so-called hydrodynamic equation (HDE) for the study of transport phenomena in semiconductors is reviewed along two seemingly different approaches. One is that of Stratton [I] which utilizes the relaxation time approximation (RTA). The other takes various moments of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), as was employed by Blotekjw [2]. Besides reviewing the various assumptions and approximations involved in each method, we also attempt to clarify some confusion regarding the differences between the HDE and the energy transport equation [3]. We then report the most recent progress achieved in obtaining a closed set of HDE for silicon device analysis with the aid of self-consistent Monte-Carlo (MC) device simulation data.
Properties of sulfatides in factor-XII-dependent contact activation.

Incubation of normal human plasma with low amounts of sulfatides resulted in the initiation of intrinsic coagulation and the appearance of kallikrein activity. The optimal initiation of procoagulant and kallikrein amidolytic activity was dependent on the presence of factor XII, high molecular weight kininogen, and prekallikrein. Since the activated partial thromboplastin clotting times in prekallikrein- deficient plasma approach normal values upon prolonged incubation with kaolin, this phenomenon of autocorrection was studied and found to be even more pronounced in the presence of sulfatides. Autocorrection was essentially completed in 5 min in the presence of sulfatides, whereas a preincubation of 15–20 min was required in the presence of kaolin. The limited proteolysis of 125I-factor XII in plasma during incubation with activating material or during clotting was determined. Cleavage of factor XII was more rapid and more extensive in the presence of sulfatides than in the presence of kaolin. In prekallikrein-deficient plasma, factor XII cleavage was completed within 5 min in the presence of sulfatides and within 15 min in the presence of kaolin. Thus, the appearance of factor-XII-dependent coagulant activity correlates with the limited proteolysis of factor XII when normal or prekallikrein- deficient plasma is activated by sulfatides or kaolin.
Ab initio reaction rate constants computed using semiclassical transition-state theory: HO + H2 → H2O + H and isotopologues.

A new algorithm [Nguyen, T. L.; Stanton, J. F.; Barker, J. R.Chem. Phys. Lett. 2010, 9, 499] for the semiclassical transition-state theory (SCTST) formulated by W. H. Miller and co-workers is used to compute rate constants for the isotopologues of the title reaction, with no empirical adjustments. The SCTST and relevant results from second-order vibrational perturbation theory (VPT2) are summarized. VPT2 is used at the CCSD(T) level of electronic structure theory to compute the anharmonicities of the fully coupled vibrational modes (including the reaction coordinate) of the transition structure. The anharmonicities are used in SCTST to compute the rate constants over the temperature range from 200 to 2500 K. The computed rate constants are compared to experimental data and theoretical calculations from the literature. The SCTST results for absolute rate constants and for both primary and secondary isotope effects are in excellent agreement with the experimental data for this reaction over the entire tempe...
Bayesian Classification Procedures in Analyzing Customer Characteristics

Traditionally, discriminant functions have been used to classify individuals according to a linear function of the individuals’ measured characteristics. This article develops a Bayesian classifica...
Entrapment and Terrorism on the Left: An Analysis of Post-9/11 Cases

Previous literature has analyzed entrapment in post-9/11 jihadi terrorism cases, but has neglected similarly compelling entrapment claims among left-wing terrorism defendants. The Article bridges this gap through an in-depth analysis of the four post-9/11 left-wing terrorism cases involving an informant or undercover agent. Based on a review of these cases, the Article concludes that at least three of the four cases had strong entrapment claims, and that realistically, none of the defendants in the four cases would have committed any terrorist offense without government prompting. A comparative analysis of different types of domestic terrorism finds broad similarities in the characteristics of entrapment claims in jihadi, left-wing and right-wing terrorism cases. However, jihadi entrapment cases are far more numerous, left-wing and jihadi entrapment claims are considerably stronger and more prevalent than right-wing claims, and left-wing terrorism cases feature certain informant tactics rarely if ever found in other cases. The Article situates the left-wing entrapment claims in the context of wider government attempts to target left-wing activists, and provides an initial analysis of the main factors leading to questionable sting operations in left-wing terrorism cases.
Design optimization of environmental protection equipment and introduction of new technology

A large number of desulfurization,denitration,and dust precipitation equipments were installed in the coal-fired power plants in our country.However,the investment in environmental protection equipment correspondingly increases energy consumption and investment.In order to minimize the operation cost and investment of environmental protection equipment to the greatest extent,the environmental protection equipments were optimized in design.In addition,some new technologies were used to help to save energy.However,in operation,some other problems appear correspondingly.Some negative problems in operation caused by applying SCR,SNCR,SNCR+SCR in denitration equipment,applying non-GGH in desulfurization equipment,non-bypass flue,combination of boosting fan and induced fan,natural draft cooling towers with flue gas injection,and unified electric-bag composite dust-collector were analyzed.Aiming at these problems,the in-depth analysis and discussion were necessary to find the solution and reduce potential security risks in operation.It helps in designing environmental protection equipment in the future and ensures the long-term stable operation of units.
Timing the early treatment of Class II, division 1 malocclusion--clinical and research considerations.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between timing of emergence of the permanent teeth and sagittal occlusal changes in children enrolled in a prospective clinical trial of Class II, division 1 treatment. The children, ages 7.2-13.3 years, met strict inclusion criteria and were assigned at random to treatment with either a headgear or a Frankel functional appliance. Relationships between maxillary and mandibular first molars and canines, as well as overjet, were measured with digital calipers on casts made every 2 months and mounted on a SAM II articulator. The emergence of a permanent tooth was scored on a scale from 1 to 3, depending on the eruptive level of the tooth from cutting through the gingiva (1) to reaching the occlusal table (3). Specifically, emergence of the second premolars (PM2) and permanent second molars (M2), the most adjacent teeth to the first molars, was evaluated as it interacted with the development of the sagittal occlusion. Treatment of the distocclusion was as effective in late childhood as in mid-childhood. Within each appliance group, the emergence of PM2 and M2 did not affect the amount of progress toward Class I significantly (p > 0.05), indicating that improvement from distocclusion to neutrocclusion with each appliance is not influenced by the timing of emergence of these teeth. Although these findings support a one-phase treatment starting in the late mixed dentition, earlier intervention in mid-childhood may be required in the presence of several developmental conditions, or when the dental and skeletal development deviate significantly in the individual patient.
Oxygen Reduction Mechanism of Monometallic Rhodium Hydride Complexes.

The reduction of O2 to H2O mediated by a series of electronically varied rhodium hydride complexes of the form cis,trans-RhIIICl2H(CNAd)(P(4-X-C6H4)3)2 (2) (CNAd = 1-adamantylisocyanide; X = F (2a), Cl (2b), Me (2c), OMe (2d)) was examined through synthetic and kinetic studies. Rhodium(III) hydride 2 reacts with O2 to afford H2O with concomitant generation of trans-RhIIICl3(CNAd)(P(4-X-C6H4)3)2 (3). Kinetic studies of the reaction of the hydride complex 2 with O2 in the presence of HCl revealed a two-term rate law consistent with an HX reductive elimination (HXRE) mechanism, where O2 binds to a rhodium(I) metal center and generates an η2-peroxo complex intermediate, trans-RhIIICl(CNAd)(η2-O2)(P(4-X-C6H4)3)2 (4), and a hydrogen-atom abstraction (HAA) mechanism, which entails the direct reaction of O2 with the hydride. Experimental data reveal that the rate of reduction of O2 to H2O is enhanced by electron-withdrawing phosphine ligands. Complex 4 was independently prepared by the addition of O2 to trans-RhI...
Coulomb Excitation Techniques in Mössbauer Methodolog

The 57.03-keV state of Ge73 has been populated by Coulomb excitation and the recoiling excited nuclei implanted into chromium, iron, copper, and germanium. The incident particles were 25-MeV Nuclear and solid state properties of Ge73 have been determind by studying the de-excitation gamma rays by Mossbauer techniques. The present measurements yield a mean lifetime of (2.25 ± 0.18) × 10−9 sec and a spin of 7/2+ for this state. The isomer shift between pure germanium and GeO2 is (+1.0 ± 0.1) mm/sec. Electron densities calculated for these two cases lead to the result that the excited states radius is larger than that of the ground state and the fractional charge is ΔR/R = +1.0 ± 10−3. The recoilless fraction measured for alloys of germanium in iron and chromium have been compared with those for germanium implanted into the two materials, The result are discussed in terms of a simple impurity model, The technique ofCoulomb recoil implantation not only extends the number of nuclei, Ge73 being only an example, available for Mossbauer measurements, but also provides a new tool for investigation of very dilute alloys systems and radiation damage due to charged particles in matter.