cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of three commercial tick removal tools

Objective To evaluate three commercially available tick removal tools against medium-tipped nontissue tweezers. Methods We evaluated three commercially available tick removal tools against medium-tipped tweezers. Three inexperienced users randomly removed attached American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis Say) and lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum L.) from laboratory rabbits in a university animal facility using all tools during one removal session. Results Tick damage occurring from removal and quantity of attachment cement were compared. No tool removed nymphs without damage and all tools removed adults of both species successfully. American dog ticks proved easier to remove than lone star ticks, whose mouthparts often remained in the skin. Conclusions Nymphal ticks were consistently removed more successfully with commercial tools when compared with tweezers but with more difficulty than adults were removed. The commercial tick removal tools tested are functional for removal of nymphs and adults and should be considered as viable alternatives to medium-tipped tweezers.
Bioengineered lysozyme in combination therapies for Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infections.

There is increasing urgency in the battle against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, and this public health crisis has created a desperate need for novel antimicrobial agents. Recombinant human lysozyme represents one interesting candidate for treating pulmonary infections, but the wild type enzyme is subject to electrostatic mediated inhibition by anionic biopolymers that accumulate in the infected lung. We have redesigned lysozyme’s electrostatic potential field, creating a genetically engineered variant that is less susceptible to polyanion inhibition, yet retains potent bactericidal activity. A recent publication demonstrated that the engineered enzyme outperforms wild type lysozyme in a murine model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection. Here, we expand upon our initial studies and consider dual therapies that combine lysozymes with an antimicrobial peptide. Consistent with our earlier results, the charge modified lysozyme combination outperformed its wild type counterpart, yielding more than an order-of-magnitude reduction in bacterial burden following treatment with a single dose.
The Medical and Psychiatric Evaluation of the Nonverbal Child

onverbal children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intelN lectual disabilities, or communication disorders who are nonverbal with co-occurring medical problems can present with a change in behavior and little other indication that they are experiencing illness or pain. For clinicians, first considering new or worsening medical problems in the nonverbal child or adolescent rather than a change in psychiatric statusmight lower the risk of ongoing suffering and impairment. Such consideration also, importantly, might decrease the likelihood of patient exposure to inappropriate psychiatric care, including hospital admission and unneeded psychotropic medication. Although child and adolescent psychiatrists are aware of and consider medical issues first in the differential diagnosis, we are increasingly reliant on other medical professionals to “medically clear” our patients for psychiatric care. The ability of the child psychiatrist to advocate for the medical assessment of behavior change in nonverbal patients is of particular importance given higher than expected rates of medical conditions in those with ASD or other developmental disorders. Specifically, children with ASD are 1.8 times more likely to have asthma, 1.6 times more likely to have eczema or skin allergies, 2.2 timesmore likely to have chronic severe headaches, and 3.5 times more likely to have chronic diarrhea or colitis compared with typically developing children. The medical evaluation of a behavior change can be more complicated with the nonverbal child and even challenging for pediatricians. Here we discuss 4 patient examples in various psychiatric treatment settings to illustrate how infection, foreign body insertion, medication side effects, and pain can present as aggression and irritability that would not have been managed appropriately without a primary medical focus in the initial psychiatric workup. In these examples, the diagnosis of a medical condition leading to an acute
Potential new brain stimulation therapies in bipolar illness: transcranial magnetic stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation

Abstract The advances in understanding the functional and structural anatomy of bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) outlined in the rest of this volume provide the background and rationale for attempting to manipulate these regions as potential antidepressant and anti-manic therapies. The idea of using circuit and device based approaches to regulating mood follows in the tradition of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In marked contrast to ECT, however, these new stimulation techniques represent an important new paradigm shift, with treatments that neither produce seizures nor require general anesthesia. The new techniques are safer, with fewer side effects, and are more focal than ECT in their entry into the brain. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) produces direct cortical brain stimulation by creating a powerful transient magnetic field. Five published randomized controlled trials suggest it has clinically significant acute antidepressant effects. One controlled study suggests that it may have antimanic effects as well. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) involves direct electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve in the neck, with propagation of the signal to the brainstem. One controlled and one open study in epilepsy patients with depression found antidepressant effects of VNS. An open study of VNS in treatment resistant unipolar and bipolar depression found acute antidepressant effects. These two device-based approaches to stimulating the brain offer promise as potential acute and even long-term treatments. Imaging studies suggest that TMS likely causes changes in mood regulating regions by stimulating limbic regions from the cortex down, while VNS influences this same circuit from the brainstem up. These two approaches are not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the US, although pivotal trials geared for eventual FDA approval are underway. Finally, the research determining whether and how these devices work to influence mood also promises to help unravel the pathophysiology of BPAD.
Direct current insulator-based dielectrophoretic characterization of erythrocytes: ABO-Rh human blood typing.

A microfluidic platform developed for quantifying the dependence of erythrocyte (red blood cell, RBC) responses by ABO-Rh blood type via direct current insulator dielectrophoresis (DC-iDEP) is presented. The PDMS DC-iDEP device utilized a 400×170 μm2 rectangular insulating obstacle embedded in a 1.46-cm long, 200-μm wide inlet channel to create spatial non-uniformities in direct current (DC) electric field density realized by separation into four outlet channels. The DC-iDEP flow behaviors were investigated for all eight blood types (A+, A−, B+, B−, AB+, AB−, O+, O−) in the human ABO-Rh blood typing system. Three independent donors of each blood type, same donor reproducibility, different conductivity buffers (0.52–9.1 mS/cm), and DC electric fields (17.1–68.5 V/cm) were tested to investigate separation dependencies. The data analysis was conducted from image intensity profiles across inlet and outlet channels in the device. Individual channel fractions suggest that the dielectrophoretic force experienced by the cells is dependent on erythrocyte antigen expression. Two different statistical analysis methods were conducted to determine how distinguishable a single blood type was from the others. Results indicate that channel fraction distributions differ by ABO-Rh blood types suggesting that antigens present on the erythrocyte membrane polarize differently in DC-iDEP fields. Under optimized conductivity and field conditions, certain blind blood samples could be sorted with low misclassification rates.
The interaction of methanol, acetone, and acetaldehyde with ice and nitric acid-doped ice: Implications for cirrus clouds

The uptake of methanol, acetone, and acetaldehyde by ice and nitric acid/ice surfaces representative of cirrus clouds has been measured using a Knudsen cell flow reactor equipped with FTIR spectros...
Effect of visual and vocal stimuli on breeding in the budgerigar (Melopsitacus undulatus)

Abstract Under conditions in which food, water and a nest box were provided to caged pairs of Budgerigars, vocalizations from other pairs stimulated male and female gonad development. Under these conditions the presence of four mirrors in a cage had an inhibitory effect on the rate of development of the ovary but not of the testis.
Polychlorinated biphenyl-induced VCAM-1 expression is attenuated in aortic endothelial cells isolated from caveolin-1 deficient mice

Exposure to environmental contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is a critical mediator for adhesion and uptake of monocytes across the endothelium in the early stages of atherosclerosis development. The upregulation of VCAM-1 by PCBs may be dependent on functional membrane domains called caveolae. Caveolae are particularly abundant in endothelial cell membranes and involved in trafficking and signal transduction. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of caveolae in PCB-induced endothelial cell dysfunction. Primary mouse aortic endothelial cells (MAECs) isolated from caveolin-1-deficient mice and background C57BL/6 mice were treated with coplanar PCBs, such as PCB77 and PCB126. In addition, siRNA gene silencing technique was used to knockdown caveolin-1 in porcine vascular endothelial cells. In MAECs with functional caveolae, VCAM-1 protein levels were increased after exposure to both coplanar PCBs, whereas expression levels of VCAM-1 were not significantly altered in cells deficient of caveolin-1. Furthermore, PCB-induced monocyte adhesion was attenuated in caveolin-1-deficient MAECs. Similarly, siRNA silencing of caveolin-1 in porcine endothelial cells confirmed the caveolin-1-dependent VCAM-1 expression. Treatment of cells with PCB77 and PCB126 resulted in phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2), and pharmacological inhibition of ERK1/2 diminished the observed PCB-induced increase in monocyte adhesion. These findings suggest that coplanar PCBs induce adhesion molecule expression, such as VCAM-1, in endothelial cells, and that this response is regulated by caveolin-1 and functional caveolae. Our data demonstrate a critical role of functional caveolae in the activation and dysfunction of endothelial cells by coplanar PCBs.
Lithiation of 2-fluoronaphthalene

Abstract The lithiation of 2-fluoronaphthalene in tetrahydrofuran (THF) has been carried out using n-butyllithium. Carboxylation of the lithiated fluoronaphthalene yields a mixture of 2-fluoro-1-naphthoic acid (54%) and 2-fluoro-3-naphthoic acid (46%) The use of tert-butyllithium changes the product ratio toward 3-lithiation.
The Costs of Downtime Incidents in Serial Multistage Manufacturing Systems

Downtime is arguably the single most significant contributor to system inefficiency in a multistage manufacturing system. Achieving near-zero downtime has been the ultimate goal of production operation management at the plant floor. Accurate estimation of the impact of each downtime incident is of great importance for deciding where to allocate limited resources among various manufacturing stages. In this paper, we focus on quantitative analysis of the impact of each individual downtime event in terms of permanent production loss and financial cost. We start from the transient analysis of a single downtime event and later extend to more generic scenarios where downtime incidents occur concurrently at different stages. Apart from the analytical study, a practical computation procedure using real-time production records can be readily derived and implemented at the plant floor. Case studies are conducted to demonstrate its potential in facilitating the decision making at plant floor on project identification, prioritization, and budget allocation in a multistage manufacturing system.
The impact of the mandatory seed law on Maine potato acreage, yield and price

A statistical analysis of the economic impact of Maine’s mandatory seed potato law was conducted. Results suggest that since the law was implemented, Maine potato yields increased, total Maine potato acreage decreased, Maine seed potato acreage increased, seed potato rejections from certification were reduced, seed potato prices increased, and commercial potato prices decreased. Attempts to estimate the impact on commercial potato quality were unsuccessful. The estimated impact of the Maine mandatory seed law on a typical 200-acre commercial potato grower was an average increase in profits of $14,700 per year since the law was implemented in 1981.
"On random phase" [comments on A. Papoulis]

With reference to the above-named correspondence by A. Papoulis [ibid., vol. 53, p. 526, May 1965] the commentor points out that in order to determine the density of the process z(t) = a sin (ωt + ϕ) it is not necessary to make the assumption that ϕ is independent of a. The necessary assumption (a much weaker one) is rather the stationarity of the conditional distribution ω(ϕ|a); it then follows that ϕ is independent of a and that the distribution of ϕ is uniform. This result was proved in 1958 by Bunkin and Gudzenko, as previously referred to by the commentor in the IRE PROCEEDIXGS [ibid., vol. 50, p. 1997, September 1962].
Effects of kinematic vibrotactile feedback on learning to control a virtual prosthetic arm

After a limb is lost a prosthesis can restore function. For maximum utility, prosthetic limbs should accept movement commands and provide force and motion feedback, which can be conveyed with vibrotactile feedback (VIBF). While prior studies have shown that force-based VIBF benefits control, the merits of motion-based VIBF are unclear. Our goal was to clarify the effectiveness of position- and velocity-based VIBF for prosthetic arm control. Healthy adults with normal limb function practiced a goal-directed task with a virtual myoelectric prosthetic arm. A linear resonant actuator on the wrist provided VIBF. Two groups with nine subjects each received amplitude modulated VIBF in addition to visual feedback while practicing the task. In one group, the VIBF was proportional to the virtual arm’s position, and in the other group, velocity. A control group of nine subjects received only visual feedback. Subjects practiced for 240 trials, followed by 180 trials with feedback manipulations for the VIBF groups. Performance was characterized by end-point error, movement time, and a composite skill measure that combined these quantities. A second experiment with a new group of five subjects assessed discrimination capabilities between different position- and velocity-based VIBF profiles. With practice all groups improved their skill in controlling the virtual prosthetic arm. Subjects who received additional position- and velocity-based VIBF learned at the same rate as the control group, who received only visual feedback (learning rate time constant: about 40 trials). When visual feedback was subsequently removed leaving only VIBF, performance was no better than with no feedback at all. When VIBF was removed leaving only visual feedback, about half of the participants performed better, instead of worse. The VIBF discrimination tests showed that subjects could detect virtual arm angular position and velocity differences of about 5 deg and 20 deg/s, respectively. Kinematic VIBF did not increase the rate of skill acquisition or improve performance when controlling a virtual myoelectric prosthetic arm, whether provided in isolation or coupled with visual feedback. VIBF had a deleterious effect on performance for some individuals, who may have had difficulty integrating kinematic VIBF information into their control strategies.
Interferon: benefit beyond hepatitis therapy?

In a randomized, controlled trial, 30 hepatitis C virus–infected men who underwent hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were subsequently randomized to receive either interferon α (n = 15) or no interferon (n = 15). Eighty percent of patients had HCV genotype 1b and 20% had genotype 2a. Patients in the treatment group were given interferon α (6 million IU i.m.) daily for 2 wk, then three times weekly for 14 wk, and finally twice weekly for 88 wk. The investigators were blinded to the treatment assignment. The median durations of follow-up were approximately 3 and 2.5 yr for the interferon and control groups, respectively. Three patients (15%) did not complete interferon therapy as a result of side effects. In addition, four patients (20%) with recurrence of HCC had their interferon stopped before the end of the study to allow treatment of the tumor. In the interferon group, two patients had sustained viral response and six had biochemical response. In a survival analysis that included all randomized patients (i.e., intention to treat), recurrent HCC was detected in five patients (30%) in the interferon-α group and in 12 control patients (80%) (p = 0.037). The difference in the rate of HCC between the groups became apparent only after the first 2 yr of follow-up. The authors concluded that interferon-α therapy appears to decrease the recurrence of HCC after resection in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.
Cerebrospinal immunoglobulin level changes and clinical response to treatment of Hashimoto's encephalopathy.

We describe a 64-year-old male who presented with a 2-year history of behavioral and cognitive decline. Brain imaging showed nonenhancing hemispheric white matter lesions. Blood work revealed elevated thyroglobulin and thyroperoxidase antibody levels. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis was largely negative, except for an elevated protein and immunoglobulin G (IgG) level. Because of the absence of stroke, central nervous system (CNS) tumor, or infection, this patient fits into criteria of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy. His Mini-Mental State Examination score improved from 10 to 29 after initial immunotherapy. The patient remained stable over 6 months with monthly outpatient total plasma exchange, but symptoms recurred within 3 months when the outpatient therapy was discontinued. A follow-up CSF IgG level was found to be increased and the treatment was repeated with partial clinical improvement and decline in CSF IgG level. He then underwent high dose steroid treatment after which patients’ clinical condition ...
Endoscopic Compartment Release for Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome

Exertional compartment syndrome of the leg is a condition that can cause chronic debilitating pain in active persons during a variety of aerobic activities. Nonoperative treatments using stretching protocols and activity modifications are often unsuccessful, and thus several operative strategies have been used to treat this condition. A novel technique for endoscopically assisted fasciotomy for chronic exertional compartment syndrome is described. By use of a small laterally based incision and an arthroscope, polydioxanone sutures are passed percutaneously along the anterior and lateral compartments with the Spectrum suture-shuttling device (ConMed Linvatec, Largo, FL). These sutures are used to retract the skin and subcutaneous tissues over the respective compartments. This method allows excellent visualization of the intercompartmental septum, the superficial peroneal nerve, and all perforating vessels. The anterior and lateral compartments can be safely and completely released with this minimally invasive approach. The patient is allowed to return to full activity at 6 weeks postoperatively, because of the decreased soft-tissue disruption.
Empirical Methods for Detecting Regional Trends and Other Spatial Expressions in Antrim Shale Gas Productivity, with Implications for Improving Resource Projections Using Local Nonparametric Estimation Techniques

The primary objectives of this research were to (1) investigate empirical methods for establishing regional trends in unconventional gas resources as exhibited by historical production data and (2) determine whether or not incorporating additional knowledge of a regional trend in a suite of previously established local nonparametric resource prediction algorithms influences assessment results. Three different trend detection methods were applied to publicly available production data (well EUR aggregated to 80-acre cells) from the Devonian Antrim Shale gas play in the Michigan Basin. This effort led to the identification of a southeast–northwest trend in cell EUR values across the play that, in a very general sense, conforms to the primary fracture and structural orientations of the province. However, including this trend in the resource prediction algorithms did not lead to improved results. Further analysis indicated the existence of clustering among cell EUR values that likely dampens the contribution of the regional trend. The reason for the clustering, a somewhat unexpected result, is not completely understood, although the geological literature provides some possible explanations. With appropriate data, a better understanding of this clustering phenomenon may lead to important information about the factors and their interactions that control Antrim Shale gas production, which may, in turn, help establish a more general protocol for better estimating resources in this and other shale gas plays.
The complexity of living bodies and the structure of biological theories

It has been suggested that biological theories differ from physical theories because the subject matter of biology differs from the subject matter of physics especially in the fact that living bodies are more complex than nonliving bodies. It is shown that the interactional complexity of living bodies can only be expressed by invoking biological theories. The claim that living bodies are complex is, therefore, ultimately a claim about the nature of scientific theories rather than a claim about the nature of the subject matter of biology resting upon a presystematic judgement.
The Polish Assembler

A load-and-go resident assembler using approximately 2500 words in a 16-b computer is described. It was designed for writing system programs, and assembles sufficiently fast so that there is little incentive to keep programs in object form. The assembler is table driven and can be adapted to various computers relatively easily.
Environmental Inequality and the Urbanization of West Coast Watersheds

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Los Angeles, urban development decreased the poor's access to water and marine resources. Modernization in these cities either reduced services to the poor and to ethnic minorities, be they Native Americans, Asian Americans, or Hispanic Americans, or diminished these groups' ability to supplement their incomes by fishing or foraging. Industrial development, shipping channels, and sewers all contributed to a larger pattern of environmental racism and environmental inequity in the United States. This forum contributes to the study of environmental justice by exploring how marginalized peoples adapted to urban growth and the reallocation of resources in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Automatic recognition of SAR targets using directional filter banks and higher-order neural networks

This paper presents a new approach for the classification of SAR targets that combines maximally decimated directional filter banks with higher-order neural networks (HONNs). HONNs are neural networks that permit the input signals to be multiplied together in addition to the more common operations such as weighting, summing, and pointwise nonlinearities of typical neural nets. HONNs have long been proposed as image classifiers whose performance can be made invariant to geometric transformations of the input imagery by using a method for decreasing dimensionality such as coarse coding. Most past image classifiers using HONNs have been tuned for carefully thresholded binary images, which generally cannot be derived from low-contrast imagery such as SAR without a significant loss of information. As an alternative, we use a novel HONN implementation that accepts gray-level input pixels using directional filter banks. In order to do this, a new modified tree-structured directional filter bank structure is proposed in this paper, where each of the subbands has directional visual information from a given input. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated with imagery taken from the public MSTAR database.
PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS TO PARALLEL STATE SPACE SEARCH OF GAME TREES

Modifications have been proposed to state space search algorithms for pruning game trees in parallel.The performance of these modified algorithms is empirically shown to be better than the other known parallel pruning algorithms.
Enhancement of human MLR by very low concentrations of lipopolysaccharide and blocking of this enhancement by polymyxin B.

Abstract Addition of 50 μg LPS/ml to as little as 5 pg of LPS/ml to the allogeneic human mixed leukocyte reaction (MLR) enhanced [ 3 H]thymidine incorporation 2–4-fold. The same concentrations of LPS had no effect on thymidine incorporation in cultures without the allogeneic cells. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test we used was sensitive only to 15 pg LPS/ml indicating that the MLR is more sensitive to LPS than the LAL test. A commercially available RPMI 1640 culture medium used by many investigators was found to contain concentrations of LPS that would significantly enhance the MLR. Polymyxin B blocked the MLR-enhancing effect of LPS while having no inhibitory or stimulating effect itself. We concluded that low concentrations of LPS are helpful in revealing MLR incompatibilities by enhancing the lymphocyte responses and that the addition of polymyxin B is essential in the study of factors affecting the MLR by eliminating any LPS contribution.
Effect of Glucose Concentration on Respiration of Rous Sarcoma and of Chorioallantoic Membrane

CRABTREE'S initial observation that glucose will depress the oxygen consumption of tumour cells has prompted further investigations of this phenomenon, most particularly in Ehrlich ascites cells1 and in reconstructed systems2. It has been recently reported3 that the virus-induced Rous sarcoma on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken embryos shows a ‘Crabtree effect’. The present communication reports the effect of glucose at various concentrations on the respiration of normal chorioallantoic membrane, and of Rous sarcoma growing on it, and extends the initial observations in this system to other parameters of glucose metabolism.
Hans Scholz’s Am grünen Strand der Spree . Witnessing and Representing the Holocaust

Am grunen Strand der Spree, published in 1955, never made it into the canon of post-war German literature. The article reassesses Scholz’s novel, which deals more directly with the Holocaust than Boll’s and Grass’ works against the background of Schlant’s book The Language of Silence. The novel’s most important episode, the diary of a German soldier, documents the development of German anti-Jewish measures in Eastern Europe from slave labor and starvation to mass killings. The diary transports its horrifying testimony with narrative and stylistic devices that attempt in vain to relativize the guilt of the writer (who considers himself a coward and a bystander) and try to lessen the impact of the witnessed events. Scholz shows how Holocaust testimony appears in German social discourse but is met with silence; he uses the diary as the starting point of a trajectory of emotional petrifaction and psychological denial.
The preparation and characterization of CdVO3 prepared at ambient and high pressure

Abstract The solid state reaction of VO 2 and CdO yielded a phase of unknown structure, which transforms to CdVO 3 (I) after treatment under 60–65 kbar pressure at 1200°C. The high-pressure product was characterized by crystallographic, electrical and magnetic properties. CdVO 3 (I) is an orthorhombic perovskite-type compound and a metallic conductor, exhibiting Pauli paramagnetic behavior. In contrast, the ambient pressure phase displays Curie-Weiss magnetic behavior above 77°K.
Thermodynamic properties of Pt nanoparticles: Size, shape, support, and adsorbate effects

This study presents a systematic investigation of the thermodynamic properties of free and γ -Al2O3-supported size-controlled Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and their evolution with decreasing NP size. A combination of in situ extended x-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (EXAFS),ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, and NP shape modeling revealed (i) a cross over from positive to negative thermal expansion with decreasing particle size, (ii) size- and shape-dependent changes in the mean square bond-projected bond-length fluctuations, and (iii) enhanced Debye temperatures (� D, relative to bulk Pt) with a bimodal size-dependence for NPs in the size range of ∼0.8–5.4 nm. For large NP sizes (diameter d> 1.5 nm) � D was found to decrease
Migration Selection, Protection, and Acculturation in Health: A Binational Perspective on Older Adults

In this article, we test for four potential explanations of the Hispanic Health Paradox (HHP): the “salmon bias,” emigration selection, and sociocultural protection originating in either destination or sending country. To reduce biases related to attrition by return migration typical of most U.S.-based surveys, we combine data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study in Mexico and the U.S. National Health Interview Survey to compare self-reported diabetes, hypertension, current smoking, obesity, and self-rated health among Mexican-born men ages 50 and older according to their previous U.S. migration experience, and U.S.-born Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites. We also use height, a measure of health during childhood, to bolster some of our tests. We find an immigrant advantage relative to non-Hispanic whites in hypertension and, to a lesser extent, obesity. We find evidence consistent with emigration selection and the salmon bias in height, hypertension, and self-rated health among immigrants with less than 15 years of experience in the United States; we do not find conclusive evidence consistent with sociocultural protection mechanisms. Finally, we illustrate that although ignoring return migrants when testing for the HHP and its mechanisms, as well as for the association between U.S. experience and health, exaggerates these associations, they are not fully driven by return migration-related attrition.
Micellar diastereoselectivity - tripeptide substrates

Kinetic stereoselectivities are reported for the micelle-catalyzed basic esterolyses of the four diastereomeric ,Z-(D or L)-Phe-(D or L)-Phe-(L)-Pro p-nitrophenyl esters.
Sparse functional stores for imperative programs

In recent years, the trend in program representations for imperative programs has been to make them more functional, or to make them more sparse. However, new sparse representations have been non-functional, and new functional representations have not been sparse in the presence of pointer operations. In this paper, we present a functional representation that is sparse even in the presence of pointer operations.Conventionally, a store is represented in a functional program representation by a single object—typically a mapping from locations to values. We show how such a store object may be fragmented into several objects, each representing part of the store. The result is a sparser representation, which has not only the usual benefit of directly linking producers to consumers, but which also for static program analysis often leads to smaller domains of abstract values for store objects. Store fragmentation corresponds to assignment factored SSA form (a factorization of SSA form introduced in this paper). We report on experiments with a thorough fragmentation based on a data flow points-to analysis and an intermediate level fragmentation based on an almost linear time complexity points-to analysis by type inference.
Comparison of transcription of chromatin by claf thymus and RNA polymerases

Abstract Kinetic parameters of transcription of DNA and chromatin by calf thymus and E. coli RNA polymerases were studied. Using calf thymus RNA polymerase, the theoretical maximum velocity (Vmax) for chromatin is similar to that for DNA. The concentration of chromatin required to reach one-half the maximum velocity (Km) is greater than the Km for DNA. Using E. coli RNA polymerase, the Km for chromatin is similar to the Km for DNA, whereas the Vmax for chromatin is much less than the Vmax for DNA. These differences suggest that calf thymus RNA polymerase binds to specific, selected sites on chromatin and transcribes at all of these sites. E. coli RNA polymerase binds to many non-selected sites and transcribes at some or all of them.
Slip process of stick–slip motion in the scratching of a polymer

Abstract The slip process of the stick–slip phenomena during scratching of a styrene–acrylonitrile copolymer was studied. It was found that during slip the indenter velocity starts from zero, increases to a maximum and then decreases to zero again. The scratch groove made during slip showed a non-uniform depth which increased with the decrease of scratch velocity. Although the scratch velocity and groove depth changed markedly during slip, the scratch force remained almost constant for most of the scratch distance. The effects of the normal load and driving speed on the slip behavior showed that the normal load mainly determined scratch force. The results are discussed in terms of a micromechanical model proposed to describe the slip process.
Effects of the selective noradrenergic neurotoxin DSP4 on cerebellar Purkinje neuron electrophysiology.

Abstract The effect of the adrenergic neurotoxin DSP4 on cerebellar electrophysiology was studied in the rat. DSP4, administered parenterally, depleted cerebellar norepinephrine by 76%. The depressant response of cerebellar Purkinje neurons to phencyclidine, a drug which acts on adrenergic presynaptic terminals to release NE, was markedly reduced after DSP4 pretreatment. In contrast with 60HDA, which increased firing rates of the Purkinje cells, DSP4 did not change the rate or pattern of Purkinje cell discharge. Taken together these results suggest that DSP4 may be a valuable tool for studying central adrenergic pathways, but that this drug has properties which differ from 60HDA.
Fish thymocyte viability, apoptosis and necrosis: in-vitro effects of organochlorine contaminants

Abstract The thymus is believed to be a central component of haematopoiesis and immune function in teleosts. Hence, chemically-elicited adverse effects to the thymus may result in immunomodulation and organ dysfunction. The objective of this research was to assess the levels of active (apoptotic) and passive (necrotic) cell death in untreated and organochlorine treated fish thymocytes. Lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) thymocytes were challenged with Aroclor 1254 (concentration range 1·5–10·5 μg ml −1 ) and alpha, beta, gamma, delta isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (concentration range 10–100 μ M ). The resulting maintenance or loss of viability was assessed by cytofluorometry (expression of phosphatidylserine and exclusion of propidium iodide) and confirmed with fluorescence microscopy. The results indicate that 20–60% of thymocytes in healthy fish undergo apoptosis, whereas thymocytes treated for 6–24 h with organochlorines exhibit increased levels of apoptotic cell death. This study demonstrates that given sufficient concentration, contact time and cellular receptors, organochlorines such as Aroclor 1254 and hexachloro-cyclohexanes may induce direct or indirect toxicity, altered functionality, or cell death to an organ important for fish immunocompetence.
Counterpoint: molecular analysis of the angiotensin II receptor.

I. Introduction THOUGH Tigerstedt described the ability of a kidney extract to influence blood pressure in 1898 (1), it is within this century that the remarkable physiology and medical significance of the renin-angiotensin system has been delineated. Within the last 5 yr, two new developments have taken place, the synthesis of nonpeptidic antagonists of angiotensin II and, most recently, the isolation of complementary DNA encoding the vascular form of the angiotensin II receptor. These two developments are intellectually linked and complementary; they foreshadow future directions in understanding and manipulating the renin-angiotensin system. Here, we describe our research that led to the isolation of cDNA encoding the rat vascular angiotensin II receptor (2). Until the development of nonpeptidic antagonists of angiotensin II, pharmacological studies of angiotensin II receptors employed angiotensin II or other peptide analogs. Such studies demonstrated a heterogeneity of apparent receptors based on pharm...
Resonantly forced motion of two quadratically coupled oscillators

The resonant response of two quadratically coupled, weakly damped oscillators with natural frequencies ω1 and ω2, ω2≈2ω1, to sinusoidal forcing at frequency ω is analyzed inthe parametric domain ω - ω1 = sc(e1/2ω), where e is measure of the excitation. There is a finite neighborhood of ω = ω1, bounded by Hopf-bifurcation points, in which no stable harmonic motion is possible and the motions are either periodically modulated sinusoids (limit cycles) or chaotic. The analytical predictions are supported by numerical integration, which also reveals that the spectral domain of finite-amplitude limit cycles and chaotic motions overlaps that of stable harmonic motions. Stable harmonic motion (not necessarily unique) is possible throughout, and neither limit cycles nor chaotic motions occur in, the resonant neighborhood if the forcing is at 2ω.
Permutation enumeration of the symmetric group and the combinatorics of symmetric functions

Abstract In a recent paper, Brenti shows that enumerating a conjugacy class of Sn with respect to excedances produces polynomials which are unimodal and symmetric. He then shows that these polynomials arise naturally from the theory of symmetric functions. We give combinatorial proofs of Brenti's results; our combinatorial methods lead to numerous extensions, as well as to the definition of new combinatorial objects—border rim hook tabloids.
Reflections on the Origins of Writing New Perspectives on Writing Research

This article discusses how research on the origins of writing from such fields as anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, and history provides new perspectives on current writing research and on the teaching of writing. Four major issues are considered: (1) the functions of writing, (2) the influence of writing and writing systems on the writer, (3) the role of the writing topic on writing, and (4) writing and the decontextualization of knowledge. The implications of these issues for research on and the teaching of writing are considered.
Changing Patterns of Attendance at Religious Services in Canada, 1986-2008

According to the General Social Survey, the combined rate of weekly and monthly attendance at religious services in Canada has declined by about 20 points from 1986 to 2008. Approximately half of this decline stems from the increase in the proportion of people reporting no religion, who, for the most part, do not attend religious services. The other portion of this decline is attributable to eroding attendance rates among Catholics, particularly older Catholics, and Protestants in Quebec. Attendance rates for Protestants outside of Quebec show signs of increase. The reported increase in weekly attendance in Canada by the Project Canada surveys and cited by Bibby as a possible indicator of a religious renaissance is revealed as an artifact in the data due to an oversample of Protestants. I find another weighting problem in the Canadian Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating that leads to underestimates of aggregate religious attendance rates.
An Evaluation of Major League Baseball Offensive Performance Models

Abstract Numerous statistics have been proposed to evaluate offensive performance in baseball. Each statistic or estimator can be related to an explicit run production model. An evaluation of ten run production models is presented based on major league team run production in the period 1969–1976. The results are applied to evaluating individual players in both the American and National baseball leagues.
Studies of methane-oxidation kinetics

Following a brief evaluation of published rate constants for the initiation steps in methane oxidation, we present new results on methane pyrolysis using methane emission and also methane-absorption data obtained with a He−Ne laser beam at 3.392 μ. Our, rate-constant estimate for CH4 decomposition agrees well with previously published values of Hartig et al and of Roth and Just, thus removing a large existing uncertainty in this number. Substantially equivalent data are obtained for ignition delays using any one of the following emitters: OH, CH, C2, CO+O, CO, or H2O. Our ignition delays for CH4−O2−Ar mixtures correlate reasonably well with earlier results obtained below 2,200°K but are relatively lower at higher temperatures. The CO+O recombination radiation has been used to estimate the concentration product (CO)(O). Our results agree with earlier work by Jachimowski. Absolute concentration levels have been measured for excited states of OH, CH and C2 and show expected non-equilibrium populations. Concentration ratios for electronically excited states of CH and C2 with respect to OH are frequently greater than unity. The kinetic implications of these findings have not been investigated.
Magnetically perturbed mössbauer study of the products obtained by rapid crystallization of a schiff base iron(III) dimer

Abstract The Schiff base dimer [Fe(salen)Cl]2 as well as products obtained by its rapid crystallization from nitromethane and pyridine have been studied using ordinary and magnetically perturbed Mossbauer spectra. The spectra were determined form room temperature to 4.2° K and in longitudinal fields up to 26 kilo-Gauss. For the dimer, the principal component of the electric field gradient tensor (V22) is negative with an intermediate value of asymmetry parameter (η) and internal field equal to applied field. The products resulting from rapid crystallizations of the dimer show positive V22, approximate axial symmetry and large internal hyperfine fields in accord with their formulation as essentially monomeric in nature. Broad perturbed spectra for these samples confirm the presence of a high degree of magnetic anisotropy. A perculiar temperature dependence of the spectral line widths and peak height ratios indicate sample inhomogenity and contamination by the dimer. The magnetically perturbed spectra agree with the results of previous x-ray investigations which show solvent uncoordinated.
Assimilation of Simulated Float Data in Lagrangian Coordinates

Abstract We implement an approach for the accurate assimilation of Lagrangian data into regional general ocean circulation models. The forward model is expressed in Lagrangian coordinates and simulated float data are incorporated into the model via four-dimensional variational data assimilation. We show that forward solutions computed in Lagrangian coordinates are reliable for time periods of up to 100 days with phase speeds of 1 m/s and deformation radius of 35 km. The position and depth of simulated floats are assimilated into the viscous, Lagrangian shallow water equations. The weights for the errors in the model and data are varied and the assimilation results react appropriately. We show the effect of different spatial and temporal samplings of float data on all Lagrangian trajectories in the computational domain. At the end of the assimilation period, results from the Lagrangian shallow water equations could be interpolated and used as initial and boundary conditions in an Eulerian general ocean circulation model.
Murine Aortic Aneurysm Produced by Periarterial Application of Calcium Chloride

A murine abdominal aortic aneurysm model was developed by applying calcium chloride periarterially. A 13.6 mEq/10 ml calcium chloride solution was applied to the abdominal aorta of nine mice. Three mice were randomly selected at the end of the first, second, and third weeks postoperatively, and their vessel diameters were measured. The vessel diameter at the end of the first week postoperatively was 0.39 ± 0.03 mm (mean ± SD) pretreatment and 0.41 ± 0.03 mm posttreatment (5.3% increase, P > 0.05). The vessel diameter at the end of the second week postoperatively was 0.48 ± 0.03 mm pretreatment and 0.78 ± 0.20 mm posttreatment (64% increase, P < 0.05). The vessel diameter at the end of the third week postoperatively was 0.57 ± 0.14 mm pretreatment and 1.16 ± 0.43 mm posttreatment (110% increase, P < 0.05). Nine other murine abdominal aortas were treated with sodium chloride, and their vessel diameters were measured in similar 7-day intervals. No measurements in this group were statistically significant when comparing pretreatment to posttreatment vessel diameters. A larger number of inflammatory infiltrates was observed in the intima and media layers of calcium-chloride-treated mice. Underlying mechanisms for this model include disrupting the elastic network within the media by calcium precipitations and activating the inflammatory response. We conclude that periarterial application of calcium chloride is a convenient and reliable model for creating abdominal aortic aneurysms in mice.
Dynamic collision-induced dissociation (DCID) in a quadrupole ion trap using a two-frequency excitation waveform: II. Effects of frequency spacing and scan rate

Dynamic CID of selected precursor ions is achieved by the application of a two-frequency excitation waveform to the end-cap electrodes during the mass instability scan of a quadrupole ion trap (QIT) mass spectrometer. This new method permits a shorter scanning time when compared with conventional on-resonance CID. When the excitation waveform consists of two closely-spaced frequencies, the relative phase-relationship of the two frequencies plays a critical role in the fragmentation dynamics. However, at wider frequency spacings (>10 kHz), these phase effects are diminished, while maintaining the efficacy of closely-spaced excitation frequencies. The fragmentation efficiencies and energetics of n-butylbenzene and tetra-alanine are studied under different experimental conditions and the results are compared at various scan rate parameters between 0.1 and 1.0 ms/Th. Although faster scan rates reduce the analysis time, the maximum observed fragmentation efficiencies rarely exceed 30%, compared with values in excess of 50% achieved at slower scan rates. The internal energies calculated from the simulations of n-butylbenzene at fast scan rates are ∼4 eV for most experimental conditions, while at slow scan rates, internal energies above 5.5 eV are observed for a wide range of conditions. Extensive ITSIM simulations support the observation that slowing the scan rate has a similar effect on fragmentation as widening the frequency spacing between the two excitation frequencies. Both approaches generally enhance CID efficiencies and make fragmentation less dependent upon the relative phase angle between the excitation waveform and the ion motion.
A New Species of Euchirella and the Male of Euchirella Splendens Vervoort, With Notes On Euchirella Truncata Esterly (Copepoda, Calanoida) 1)

Eine neue Art, Euchirella pseudotruncata und das Mannchen von Euchirella splendens Vervoort, 1963, werden beschrieben von Material aus dem Golf von Mexico. E. truncata Esterly, 1911, ein naher Verwandter der neuen Art, wird wiederbeschrieben vom Typus-individuum (San Diego Region, U.S.A.) unter Herausstellung von Charakteristika, welche fur die Unterscheidung von der neuen Art nutzlich sind.