cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Oral Acyclovir Is an Effective in Decreasing the Incidence of Bortezomib Associated Herpes Zoster in Patients with Multiple Myeloma.

Introduction: Bortezomib, a proteasome inhibitor is an effective antimyeloma therapy. We recently reported that multiple myeloma patients treated with bortezomib or bortezomib based regimen resulted in a higher incidence of herpes zoster (HZ). The exact etiology of this side effect remains unknown though our investigation demonstrated prolonged lymphopenia among patients treated with bortezomib. The high incidence of HZ among bortezomib treated patients prompted to prospectively investigate the role of antiviral prophylaxis in this patient population. Here we report for the first time the efficacy of acyclovir as prophylaxis for bortezomib associated HZ. Patients and Methods: We prospectively evaluated the impact of oral acyclovir (400mg PO twice daily for the duration of bortezomib therapy) on the incidence of HZ. All patients with multiple myeloma who were treated with bortezomib or bortezomib based regimens, and received prophylactic acyclovir were evaluable for this analysis. To compare the overall proportion of HZ among patients who received acyclovir prophylaxis and the historical control, Fisher exact test was used. Results: A total of 51 consecutive patients (27 M and 24 F) received acyclovir as prophylaxis. The median age was 61 (range 40–81 years), with advance stage MM noted in 86% (n=44) patients. Among these 69% had previously untreated MM while 31% had relapsed or refractory disease. Single agent bortezomib was given to 11 patients and 40 patients received bortezomib in combination with other antimyeloma agents (such as thalidomide, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, dexamethasone, cyclophosphamide and/or lenalidomide). The overall incidence of HZ was 0% among patients receiving the acyclovir prophylaxis vs. 13% in the historical control. There was a significant difference in the overall proportion of HZ among patients who received acyclovir prophylaxis and the historical control (p = 0.0026). Conclusion: This is the first report on the efficacy of acyclovir for the prevention of bortezomib associated HZ in MM patients. While bortezomib is an effective antimyeloma therapy, an important side effect with significant morbidity is reactivation of HZ. Here we demonstrate for the first time that this side effect can be effectively prevented by oral acyclovir. Our observation warrants further evaluation. Considering significant morbidity associated with HZ we recommend the routine use of prophylactic acyclovir (or other antiviral agents) for patients being treated with bortezomib or bortezomib-based therapies.
Stress-aware performance evaluation of 3D-stacked wide I/O DRAMs

3D-stacked wide I/O DRAM can significantly increase cell density and bandwidth while also lowering power consumption. However, 3D structures experience significant thermomechanical stress, which impacts circuit performance. This paper develops a procedure that performs a full performance analysis of 3D DRAMs, including latency, leakage power, refresh power, and area, while incorporating the effects of both layout-aware stress and layout-independent stress. The approach first proposes an analytic stress analysis method for the entire 3D DRAM structure, capturing the stress induced by TSVs, micro bumps, package bumps and warpage. Next, this stress is translated to variations in device mobility and threshold voltage, after which analytical models for latency, leakage power, and refresh power are derived. Finally, a complete analysis of performance variations is performed for various 3D DRAM layout configurations to assess the impact of layout-dependent stress.
The Trump Administration and environmental policy: Reagan redux?

Since assuming office, President Trump has initiated a broad rollback of President Obama’s environmental policies. Political commentators have already drawn comparisons between the Reagan and Trump Administrations’ approaches to the environment given their shared explicit attacks on environmental policy. In this paper, I probe this historical resonance through a comparison of Trump’s and Reagan’s environmental records, and find continuities in their ideologies and actions. Despite the Reagan Administration’s efforts, environmental laws and institutions were not dismantled during the 1980s due to the countervailing forces of congress, the public, and environmental advocacy groups. But, while environmental laws and institutions may have been resilient in the past, contemporary political conditions call into question this resilience. Partisan polarization in both congress and the public and changes in the Republican Party will likely preclude an environmental backlash similar to that experienced by Reagan. Instead, environmental advocacy groups and the courts will function as the primary bulwarks against environmental policy retrenchment. Despite their efforts, the Trump Administration is likely to have significant impacts on environmental policy through executive action.
Reliability and validity of the Alcohol Marketing Assessment Rating Tool (AMART).

Objective:Current national responses to the monitoring and prevention of alcohol marketing to vulnerable populations, such as youth, typically rely on partial bans, co-regulation and industry self-regulation. Efforts to evaluate compliance with existing regulations are often cumbersome and resource intensive. We sought to develop a short questionnaire to assess compliance of alcohol advertising to existing alcohol industry self-regulated marketing codes.Methods:Questions for the Alcohol Marketing Assessment Rating Tool (AMART) were taken from a longer rating instrument that was originally developed to detect violations of a self-regulated alcohol marketing code. Secondary analysis of data from three studies of alcohol advertisements was performed to determine the reliability and validity of AMART at detecting code violations, using the longer form as the criterion. One sample was used as an exploratory set. Two samples were used to validate the questionnaire.Results:In the exploratory set, the reliability...
Substance Abuse and Suicide

The complex relationship between suicide and substance abuse has been observed in most nations worldwide. Research has revealed that the majority (90%) of those who do complete suicide have received a diagnosis of mental illness, substance abuse disorder, or both, throughout their treatment. Of the individuals that are suffering from a substance abuse disorder compared to the general population, men are twice as likely to die from suicide, while women are six times as likely. Advancing age, co-occurring affective disorders, and multiple attempts are just a few of the important risk factors to be noted for this specific population. Notably, patients with alcohol use or other substance use disorder should be screened for suicide risk and ideation and be offered appropriate medication management as well as psychological treatment. The emphasis of this chapter will be placed on alcohol, opioid, and cocaine use and their individual and perplexing relationship with suicidality in individuals.
Nutrition in Cardiac Rehabilitation

Healthy nutrition plays an essential role in improving the cardiovascular risk profile following a cardiac event. Recognizing the impact that healthy dietary behaviors can have on recovery, the American Heart Association stated that “. . .nutritional counseling should be provided to all participants in cardiac rehabilitation” (1). Research has shown that the combination of regular exercise and healthy nutrition together significantly slows the progression of coronary heart disease (2). Increasing fruit and vegetable intake and managing fat in the diet are also critical in the management of other heart disease risk factors such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemias of many varieties
Runtime Verification with Patching and Hardware Checkers

With this chapter we begin our discussion of the functional correctness solutions that can be pursued past the release of a new microprocessor design, when the device is already shipped and installed in an end-customer’s system. Error detection at this stage of the processor’s life cycle entails monitoring its behavior dynamically, by observing the internal state of the device with dedicated hardware components residing on the silicon die. In addition to error detection, runtime validation solutions, also called in-the-field solutions, must include an effective recovery and error bypass algorithm, to ensure minimal performance loss and forward progress of the system even in presence of bugs. To make the case for dynamic validation in this chapter, we first discuss the type, criticality and number of escaped design errors reported in several processors products.We then overview two major classes of runtime solutions: checker-based approaches and patching-based ones: themain difference between these two techniques lies in the underlying error detection mechanism. Checker-based solutions focus on verifying high-level system invariants, usually specified at design-time and then mapped to dedicated hardware components. Patching techniques address bugs of which the manufacturer becomes aware after product release and provide programmablemeans to describe these bugs so that the system can later identify their occurrence at runtime. We then contrast these two frameworks in terms of error coverage, usage flow and performance overhead, and present in detail some of the most popular academic and industrial solutions known today for each of the two classes.
Chest Staging in Testis Cancer Patients: Imaging Modality Selection Based Upon Risk Assessment as Determined by Abdominal Computerized Tomography Scan Results

We compared chest computerized tomography (CT) to chest x-ray as chest staging modalities in testis cancer patients on the basis of abdominal CT findings. We identified 92 patients who presented with negative staging abdominal CT scans and 52 with abnormal abdominal CT scans. Of these patients 42 and 32, respectively, underwent a chest x-ray and chest CT concurrently as part of the initial staging evaluation. Dictated x-ray reports were used to compare study findings. Findings on chest x-ray and chest CT were considered concordant if both studies identified similar chest abnormalities. Findings were considered discordant if either study failed to identify an abnormality noted on the other test. Patient outcome during followup, response to therapy or chest pathology was used to discriminate benign from malignant radiological abnormalities. Radiographic chest abnormalities (chest x-ray and/or chest CT) were identified in 12 of the 42 patients with negative abdominal CT scans. Three of these 12 studies represented metastasis with the remainder being benign. Imaging results were concordant in all 3 patients with chest metastasis and 5 of 9 with benign chest disease. Chest x-ray identified abnormalities not observed on chest CT in 1 patient, with chest CT identifying abnormalities not observed on chest x-ray in 3. Radiographic chest abnormalities (chest x-ray and/or chest CT) were identified in 15 of 32 patients who had a positive abdominal CT. All chest lesions identified in these patients were believed to represent metastatic disease. Chest x-ray failed to identify abnormalities present on chest CT in 4 of the 15 patients. The use of chest CT as a staging modality in abdominal CT negative patients failed to increase diagnostic sensitivity relative to chest x-ray alone. However, in 32 patients with abnormal abdominal CT scans the use of chest x-ray alone would have missed intrathoracic metastatic disease in 4. These data suggest that chest x-ray may be the preferred initial chest staging study for testis cancer patients with negative abdominal CT, while chest CT is mandated in patients with abnormal abdominal CT.
Highly Entangled α-Olefin Molecular Bottlebrushes: Melt Structure, Linear Rheology, and Interchain Friction Mechanism

Linear viscoelastic response and melt microstructure of ultra-high molecular weight poly(α-olefins) (UHMW PO) with bottlebrush architectures, from poly(1-hexene) to poly(1-octadecene) synthesized by metal coordinative insertion polymerization, were measured as a function of side-chain length, Nsc. All these bottlebrush POs are highly entangled, with an average number of entanglements per chain, Z, greater than 50, which allows accurate determination of their rubbery plateau moduli, GN0, and their entanglement molecular weights, Me. Their plateau moduli scale with their side-chain lengths as GN0 ∼ Nsc–1.47, in agreement with the scaling theory for the dense bottlebrush limit that predicts GN0 ∼ Nsc–3/2. Melt structures of these bottlebrush poly(1-olefin)s and their melt structural changes with temperature were determined by wide-angle X-ray scattering. Concomitant with thermal expansion of these bottlebrush PO melts is a nonmonotonic change in backbone-to-backbone distance (d1) and a monotonic increase in ...
What Is Radical Political Economics

From interviews of Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) members, founders, and activists, I discuss what radical political economics means. I argue that the meaning should go back to its or...
Corporate Investment and Hotel Firm Value: Does Corporate Governance Matter in Financially Constrained Firms?:

Corporate investments are expected to create value for firms. Although some studies report evidence supporting such expectations, many studies document contradictory findings. However, it is not cl...
Implementation of a pharmacogenomics education program for pharmacists.

Purpose The development, implementation, and evaluation of a pharmacogenomics education program for pharmacists in a large, integrated multicampus health system are described. Summary Pharmacogenomics has been described as tailoring medications to each patient’s unique genetic sequence with the goals of minimizing harmful effects and optimizing therapeutic effects. Pharmacists are uniquely trained to lead the implementation of pharmacogenomics in clinical care. After assessment of pharmacists’ comfort with pharmacogenomics, different approaches were explored to develop, pilot test, and disseminate pharmacogenomics education across a multicampus academic medical center. Limited success with large-audience, single-lecture didactic education led to development and delivery of targeted, competency-based online modules using the institution’s academic virtual learning environment and course management system. Implementation steps included (1) collaboration with the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine to create an interprofessional development team and project charter, (2) galvanizing pharmacy leadership support across multiple campuses, (3) development of competency-based interactive modules, and (4) assessment of the quality of and learner satisfaction with the modules. Significant improvements in competency scores were observed with each module and across the multiple campuses. Satisfaction with the education program was assessed at the end of a 4-module series. Conclusion A pharmacogenomics educational program targeting pharmacists was developed through interprofessional collaboration and provided a novel opportunity to construct an educational infrastructure to support enterprise health-system campuses with limited educational resources.
Pneumomediastinum in a Heavy Weightlifter.

The presence of air in the mediastinal cavity (i.e., pneumomediastinum) is an uncommon condition. It is usually precipitated by an event such as penetrating trauma, barotrauma or increased intrathoracic pressure caused by severe vomiting or coughing. We present the case of a 32-year-old man who developed pneumomediastinum as a result of heavy weightlifting.
Characteristic Analysis of Modified Dolly Test: A Sensitivity Study of Initial Conditions on Rollover Outcomes

Rollover crashes are known as the most dangerous type of accidents throughout the world. They are associated with multi-directional velocities and accelerations which creates a complex dynamic behavior of the vehicle. Several experimental and numerical methods have been used to gain a better understanding of kinematics of the vehicle and occupants during the rollover crashes. Due to the complex nature of the rollover, any change in the initial conditions may significantly influence the rollover outcomes. The main goal of this study is to assess the effects of initial conditions on dynamic responses of the bus using a modified dolly rollover test procedure. Since the experimental rollover test is very expensive and to decrease the computational costs, the numerical model of cutaway bus was developed using lumped mass-spring-damper in PC-Crash software. First, the model was validated using the experimental data. Then, a series of simulations have been conducted with considering various initial conditions (inputs) such as initial velocity, friction of rollover surface, height of bus’s CG, and initial roll angle. The range of initial variables were selected based on Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) with uniform distribution. The simulation results were used to build the surrogate model using Kriging model for each rollover outcomes (outputs) including number of quarter turns, roll distance, deceleration rate, and maximum impact force. The sensitivity of the model to 400 set of input data was computed in MATLAB. The results of the sensitivity analysis indicate that the number of quarter turns and roll distance was highly affected by the initial velocity of the bus. Furthermore, the deceleration rate controlled mainly by friction and initial velocity and a negative correlation with the initial roll rate. No strong correlation between maximum impact force and any input parameters was observed. This led us to perform further research on exploring the effects of dynamic characteristics of the bus on maximum impact force.
Automatic Generation of Waypoint Graphs from Distributed Ceiling-Mounted Smart Cameras for Decentralized Multi-Robot Indoor Navigation

This work addresses decentralized coordination of autonomous robots with assistance from overhead map-building and path planning cameras. We propose our solution, Decentralized Indoor Smart Mapping and Hierarchical Navigation (DISCMAHN). We propose an algorithm to generate a waypoint map for each overhead camera's region in real time. Furthermore, we propose a modified A* to perform fully-decentralized path planning. Waypoint generation was simulated to ensure it is both effective and efficient. Path planning was simulated on various, randomized environments to show effectiveness. Our method efficiently handles the cases where other robot navigation methods are otherwise weak and ineffective.
Epidemiology of Lumbar Spine Injuries in Men's and Women's National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Athletes

Background:Lumbar spine injuries (LSIs) are common in both men’s and women’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball players and can frequently lead to reinjuries and persistent ...
Submodel Decomposition for Solving Limited Memory Influence Diagrams (Student Abstract).

This paper presents a systematic way of decomposing a limited memory influence diagram (LIMID) to a tree of single-stage decision problems, or submodels and solving it by message passing. The relevance in LIMIDs is formalized by the notion of the partial evaluation of the maximum expected utility, and the graph separation criteria for identifying submodels follow. The submodel decomposition provides a graphical model approach for updating the beliefs and propagating the conditional expected utilities for solving LIMIDs with the worst-case complexity bounded by the maximum treewidth of the individual submodels.
Consumer Service throughout the Hotel Industry in Japan and the United States

Japan’s modern economic growth took off after the Pacific War in a relatively short period of time; and it has been acknowledged and admired. “Among nations of the world, Japan has been number two in economic size, only next to the United States” ("The Japanese Economy" 2002). Japan is a safe and promising country to expand a business, or do business in, for managers in the Hotel Industry. Nevertheless, the Japanese culture contrasts drastically with the United States’. Japan’s society has specific characteristics that have to be taken into consideration in order to provide a high quality consumer service, as it has to be adapted to the Japanese culture. Negligence to acknowledge and understand the cultural differences in the hospitality industry in Japan will surely lead to a weak customer service that will damage the business. In order to succeed in the Japanese hotel industry, managers need to understand the factors both environmental and personal that affect the quality of consumer service in different companies internationally. These influences are such as transformational leadership, service climate in comparison to service quality, and the person-environment in predicting job performance that results in the different levels of customer service. Culture is defined as the total aspect and way of life throughout any society. American culture is defined based on beliefs, actions, ideas, values and behaviors integrated through the understanding of the society. The culture derives from disciplines and history that is taught through American education. Such education through American schools provides students at a young age with knowledge and insight. Such a culture is made up of multiple ethnic groups in one geographic location that have all in different ways contributed to the American society. In America, students study the history of many religions where different racial and ethnic groups are appropriate to understand throughout their adolescent years.
A Model-Driven Framework for the Development of MVC-Based (Web) Application

Model-driven engineering is a renowned software engineering methodology for design and development of software systems with the help of various types of models. Model–View–Controller (MVC) is a popular and extensively used architectural pattern for Web application development process in different platforms. Literature review reveals that there are implementation-level deficiencies in the form of complicated structure, time taken for development and maintenance of MVC-based Web application in different MVC-based frameworks. In this article, we introduce a unique model-driven framework approach to simplify the use of MVC-based frameworks for Web application development. In our approach, we introduce a unique mechanism with the help of a UML Profile model and a model to text transformation engine to automatically generate the implementation of any (Web) application in three defined MVC-based frameworks; our approach is extensible to support more MVC frameworks. For ease, we have created an application with GUI to generate the required MVC-based framework code. The application/implementation of our unique approach is verified with two benchmark case studies; results show that we closely generate the MVC-based Web application source code which is flexible to add critical application business logic.
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among patients in two urban emergency departments.

BACKGROUND: Widespread vaccination is an essential component of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet vaccine hesitancy remains pervasive. This prospective survey investigation aimed to measure the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy in a patient cohort at two urban emergency departments (EDs) and characterize underlying factors contributing to hesitancy. METHODS: Adult ED patients with stable clinical status (Emergency Severity Index 3-5) and without active COVID-19 disease or altered mental status were considered for participation. Demographic elements were collected as well as reported barriers/concerns related to vaccination and trusted sources of health information. Data were collected in person via a survey instrument proctored by trained research assistants. RESULTS: A total of 1,555 patients were approached, and 1,068 patients completed surveys (completion rate = 68.7%). Mean (±SD) age was 44.1 (±15.5) years (range = 18-93 years), 61% were female, and 70% were Black. A total of 31.6% of ED patients reported vaccine hesitancy. Of note, 19.7% of the hesitant cohort were health care workers. In multivariable regression analysis, Black race (odds ratio [OR] = 4.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.62 to 6.85) and younger age (age 18-24 years-OR = 4.57, 95% CI = 2.66 to 7.86; age 25-35 years-OR = 5.71, 95% CI = 3.71 to 8.81) were independently associated with hesitancy, to a greater degree than level of education (high school education or less-OR = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.23 to 4.19). Hesitant patients were significantly less likely to trust governmental sources of vaccine information than nonhesitant patients (39.6% vs. 78.9%, p < 0.001); less difference was noted in the domain of trust toward friends/family (51.1% vs. 61.0%, p = 0.004). Hesitant patients also reported perceived vaccine safety concerns and perceived insufficient research. CONCLUSIONS: Vaccine hesitancy is common among ED patients and more common among Black and younger patients, independent of education level. Hesitant patients report perceived safety concerns and low trust in government information sources but less so friends or family. This suggests that strategies to combat hesitancy may need tailoring to specific populations.
The Effect of Competition on the Flowering Time of Annual Plants

The optimal flowering time for a population of annual plants can be moddelled as a continuous game. This paper utilizes Maynard Smith’s ESS concept reformulated in terms of a continuous game to examine the optimal flowering time for annual plants under competition for resources. It is shown that a population of plants experiencing competition from each other should evolve to a flowering time later than that expected for an isolated plant. The results are general in that a class of functions is used for the plant model rather than a specific function.
Targeted therapy of glioblastoma multiforme with paclitaxel and TNF-related-apoptosis-inducing-ligand (TRAIL): a synergistic chemotherapeutic-biologic approach

4872 Minor improvements in overall survival for patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) have only recently been achieved. The integration of newer biologic therapies may likely be necessary for major improvements to be realized. APO2L/TRAIL (TNF-related-apoptosis-inducing-factor), a member of the TNF-alpha family of death receptor ligands, induces apoptosis by binding KILLER/DR5 and activating the extrinsic death pathway. TRAIL has demonstrated synergistic anti-tumor effects when combined with a number of chemotherapeutic agents including 5-FU, irinotecan, and paclitaxel in tumor xenograft models. As a single agent, TRAIL has previously been demonstrated to induce modest levels of apoptosis in a number of GBM cell lines. Here we determined the efficacy of combination therapy with paclitaxel (taxol) plus TRAIL in a panel of human GBM cell lines (A172, SF268, SF767, T98G). Using endogenous wild-type and mutant p53-expressing cell lines in addition to inducible wild-type p53 and stable p53-shRNA-expressing GBM cell lines we also evaluated the effect of p53 status on TRAIL-induced apoptosis after taxol pre-treatment. Cells were treated with his-tagged recombinant TRAIL (50 ng/ml) for 24 hours with or without 24 hours of taxol (1 uM) pretreatment. In vitro, taxol induced M-phase arrest as demonstrated by phosphohistone-H3 FACS, and dose-dependent caspase-mediated cell death by FACS analysis of sub-G1 content, Coomassie colony formation and bioluminescence viability assays. The addition of TRAIL to taxol treatment resulted in a synergistic induction of cell death. Taxol induced caspase 3/7 activity in a dose-dependent manner and pre-treatment with either caspase-3 or caspase-8 inhibitors abrogated the combined apoptotic effect of taxol-TRAIL. Endogenous p53 status did not appear to affect sensitivity to taxol and/or TRAIL, however ectopic wild-type p53 expression induced a G1 arrest in T98G cells that was partially protective. Further studies are focused on validating this novel combination therapy in the pre-clinical in vivo setting. We have developed both flank and intracranial orthotopic models of GBM and are assessing the therapeutic effects on tumor proliferation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis by multimodality imaging, including 2-photon microscopy, bioluminescence and multispectral fluorescence imaging. These results establish a rationale for preclinical/clinical evaluation of APO2L/TRAIL in combination with taxol for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme.
The use of sleep aids among Emergency Medicine residents: a web based survey

Sleepiness is a significant problem among residents due to chronic sleep deprivation. Recent studies have highlighted medical errors due to resident sleep deprivation. We hypothesized residents routinely use pharmacologic sleep aids to manage their sleep deprivation and reduce sleepiness. A web-based survey of US allopathic Emergency Medicine (EM) residents was conducted during September 2004. All EM residency program directors were asked to invite their residents to participate. E-mail with reminders was used to solicit participation. Direct questions about use of alcohol and medications to facilitate sleep, and questions requesting details of sleep aids were included. Of 3,971 EM residents, 602 (16%) replied to the survey. Respondents were 71% male, 78% white, and mean (SD) age was 30 (4) years, which is similar to the entire EM resident population reported by the ACGME. There were 32% 1st year, 32% 2nd year, 28% 3rd year, and 8% 4th year residents. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) showed 38% of residents were excessively sleepy (ESS 11–16) and 7% were severely sleepy (ESS>16). 46% (95 CI 42%–50%) regularly used alcohol, antihistamines, sleep adjuncts, benzodiazepines, or muscle relaxants to help them fall or stay asleep. Study limitations include low response and self-report. Even with a low response rate, sleep aid use among EM residents may be common. How this affects performance, well-being, and health remains unknown.
IUGG quadrennial report overviews - Planetary Science 1979-1982

The Pioneer Venus mission and the Voyager mission to Jupiter and Saturn are reviewed. Also discussed briefly are telescopic observations of the Uranian satellites, Triton, Pluto, and the asteroids, as well as studies with earth-bound radar. Pioneer Venus provided data on the particles and field environment, the surface, and the upper atmosphere. Voyager at Jupiter produced information on the Jovian atmosphere, Io, and the Galilean satellites, while Voyager at Saturn provided data on the planet's upper atmospheric thermal structure and composition, and its satellites. In addition, Voyager radio occultation data on Saturn's rings demonstrated that ring particles have an approximate power law size distribution from 1 cm to a maximum of 1-5 m.
Oogenesis in cultures derived from adult human ovaries

Ten years ago, we reported that in adult human females the ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) is a source of germ cells. Recently, we also demonstrated that new primary follicles are formed by assembly of oocytes with nests of primitive granulosa cells in the ovarian cortex. The components of the new primary follicles, primitive granulosa and germ cells, differentiated sequentially from the OSE, which arises from cytokeratin positive mesenchymal progenitor cells residing in the ovarian tunica albuginea. In the present study, we investigated the possibility that the oocytes and granulosa cells may differentiate in cultures derived from adult human ovaries. Cells were scrapped from the surface of ovaries and cultured for 5 to 6 days, in the presence or absence of estrogenic stimuli [phenol red (PhR)]. The OSE cells cultured in the medium without PhR differentiated into small (15 micron) cells of granulosa phenotype, and epithelial, neural, and mesenchymal type cells. In contrast, OSE cells cultured in the presence of PhR differentiated directly into large (180 micron) cells of the oocyte phenotype. Such cells exhibited germinal vesicle breakdown, expulsion of the polar body, and surface expression of zona pellucida proteins, i.e. characteristics of secondary oocytes. These in vitro studies confirm our in vivo observations that in adult human ovaries, the OSE is a bipotent source of oocytes and granulosa cells. Development of numerous mature oocytes from adult ovarian stem cells in vitro offers new strategies for the egg preservation, IVF utilization, and treatment of female infertility. In addition, other clinical applications aiming to utilize stem cells, and basic stem cell research as well, may employ totipotent embryonic stem cells developing from fertilized oocytes.
Controlling Creditor Opportunism

This paper addresses problems of creditor opportunism. “Distress investors” such as hedge funds, private equity funds, and investment banks are opportunistic when they use debt to obtain control of a financially troubled firm and extract improper gains at the expense of the firm and its other stakeholders. Examples include the misuse of private information to short-sell a borrower’s securities and creditor self-dealing. Creditors can act opportunistically because legal doctrines that historically checked such behavior – e.g., “lender liability” – have not kept pace with fundamental changes in the market for control of distressed firms. The recent Dodd-Frank financial reform is not likely to change this. Thus, creditor opportunism will remain a problem for courts to solve. This article makes three basic contributions. First, it develops a tractable definition of creditor opportunism and offers examples of its destructive capacity; second, it explains why existing doctrine cannot adequately identify or remedy such behavior; third, it develops a new and more robust model of good faith review that will enable courts to manage problems of creditor opportunism.
Summer surface waters in the Gulf of California: Prime habitat for biological N2 fixation

[1] We report significant rates of dinitrogen (N 2 ) fixation in the central basins of the Gulf of California (GC) during July-August 2005. Mixing model estimates based upon δ 15 N values of particulate matter in the surface mixed layer indicate that N 2 fixation provides as much as 35% to 48% of the phytoplankton-based nitrogen demand in the central Guaymas and Carmen basins. Microscopic analyses identify the responsible genera as the N 2 -fixing endosymbiont, Richelia intracellularis, with lesser contributions from the large nonheterocystous diazotroph Trichodesmium. Analyses of remotely sensed chlorophyll a and sea surface temperature indicate that primary production levels are elevated in regions of the GC where oceanographic conditions are ideal in summertime for the growth of N 2 -fixing organisms. These findings suggest that biological N 2 fixation must be taken into account when assessing past and present nitrogen dynamics in this environmentally important region.
Antipathetic relationships in child and adolescent development: A meta-analytic review and recommendations for an emerging area of study.

Antipathetic relationships, or relationships based on mutual dislike, have received less attention than other aspects of children's peer relations. The present meta-analytic review summarizes the existing literature (26 studies consisting of over 23,000 children and adolescents) to illuminate the prevalence of antipathetic relationships and their associations with maladjustment. Results indicate that 35% of children have an antipathetic relationship and that antipathetic relationships are associated with externalizing and internalizing problems, low academic achievement, low prosocial behavior, victimization and rejection by peers, and lower positive peer regard (e.g., social preference) and friendships. Gender differences in antipathetic relationships are trivial, and antipathetic relationships are equally often same and mixed gender. Collectively, the findings indicate the importance of studying antipathetic relationships, and several directions for future research are described.
An Experimental Test of Selectorate Theory

This article uses a laboratory experiment to test one of the main predictions of selectorate theory, that is, that democratic leaders invest more resources in public goods than autocratic leaders. ...
The Challenges of Petascale Architectures

In 2008, the first petaflops systems went into operation. Such systems will eventually mature into petascale systems capable of 1,000 times more general computation than robust terascale systems. To achieve this, we need architectures that are inextricably intertwined with both technology and applications. This article looks at the architectural trail that allowed such systems to be built, focusing on how they interact with application characteristics.
A test of a cognitive mediational theory of systematic desensitization

Abstract Goldfried proposes that the causal factor in systematic desensitization is cognitive mediation leading to self-control of anxiety. In the present study, Goldfried's method successfully reduced the frequency of phobic spider dreams in a 24-yr-old female client. When a spider dream subsequently occurred it was markedly less fearful. Since cognitive preparation is considered to be minimal during sleep, the results seem opposed to Goldfried's theory and suggest the operation of other processes, such as counterconditioning.
Barriers to international supply chain management in Iranian flower industry

Article history: Received October 28, 2014 Received in revised format 2 February 2015 Accepted 4 February 2015 Available online February 4 2015 The main purpose of this study was to determine the major barriers to international supply chain management in Iranian flower industry. The results of the research revealed that the most important barrier is lack of investment in Iranian flower distribution sector. The results also indicated that the second most important barrier to international supply chain management in Iranian flower industry might be the rules that limit the presence of international distributors in the country’s flower industry. According to this research’s findings it can be concluded that it is useful to allow foreign investors to invest in this sector in order to improve the efficiency of supply chains and to ease the introduction of modern supply chain technologies to Iranian flower industry. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 5 © 201
Biocompatibility of intraocular lenses.

Purpose The choice of intraocular lens (IOL) implanted by cataract surgeons has significant implications for the effectiveness of the operation and the subsequent need for capsulotomy. Methods Comparison of pertinent peer-reviewed literature published from 1996 through 2001 obtained from a MEDLINE literature search on biocompatibility indicators and IOLs. This review pertains to routine, uncomplicated cataract surgery, and thus, the findings may not be relative to complicated surgeries. Currently available IOLs were not included in this review if no published data on the IOL were available. However, representative lenses from all the major biomaterial classes were included. Results Overall results of a comparison of published accounts of posterior capsular opacification, Nd:YAG capsulotomies, anterior capsular opacification, aqueous flare, cellular reaction, capsular adhesion, and capsular stability show a polyacrylic elastomer to be the most highly biointegrated IOLs by the human eye. Conclusions Most evidence published in peer-reviewed journals suggests a clear IOL choice for cataract surgeons. In the field of implantable medical devices, one device in a category does not usually provide consistently superior performance of its intended function. The ability of the biomaterial to maintain a clear optical axis not only by suppressing the proliferation of lens epithelial cells, and thus inhibiting posterior capsular opacification formation and obviating the need for an Nd:YAG capsulotomy, but also by adhering to and stabilizing the capsular bag is, to date, unmatched by any other IOL available.
Reflections on U.S. Policies Regarding 'Effective Regulation and Discipline' and Foreign Lawyer Mobility: Has the Time Come to Talk About the Elephant in the Room?

The ABA has adopted four model policies that address, in one way or another, the issue of foreign lawyer mobility. These policies are the ABA Model Foreign Legal Consultant Rule, which is commonly known as the FLC rule, the ABA Model Rule for Temporary Practice by Foreign Lawyers, which is commonly known as the FIFO rule, ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5, which permits foreign lawyers to serve as in-house counsel, and the ABA Model Rule on Pro Hac Vice Admission. All four of the ABA’s foreign lawyer mobility recommendations include a requirement that the mobile foreign lawyer is “subject to effective regulation and discipline by a duly constituted professional body or a public authority.” In other words, these rules set forth requirements regarding the nature of the regulatory system in the foreign lawyer’s home jurisdiction. A number of U.S. states have included this requirement in their foreign lawyer mobility provisions, but a number have not. (Some countries have a somewhat comparable provision in their foreign lawyer mobility rules, but other countries do not.) Although the ABA model rules and a number of state rules include this requirement, neither the ABA Model Rules nor any of the state rules have defined what it means for a foreign lawyer to come from a system with “effective regulation and discipline.” Nor is there any evidence that this requirement has been enforced in those states that have included this requirement. This article suggests that the “effective regulation and discipline” requirement has been an elephant in the room that no one has been willing to talk about. The article argues that the time has come to confront this issue head-on. It asserts that either efforts should be undertaken to define and enforce this requirement or that the requirement should be abandoned. The article reviews two “threshold” issues that jurisdictions might want to consider when deciding whether to adopt or retain an “effective regulation and discipline” requirement. It also identifies resources that might be consulted for “benchmarking” purposes if and when U.S. regulators decide to add “meat to the bones” by defining and enforcing the “effective regulation and discipline” requirement found in foreign lawyer mobility provisions.
Focus: a new multilayer graph model for short read analysis and extraction of biologically relevant features

With the increasing number of applications in which a group of organisms associated with a common environment are sequenced, there is an urgent need for a new model for representing the sequenced short reads in a way that takes the nature of these organisms into consideration. In addition to facilitating the assembly process, such new models should allow for easy extraction of other useful biological information from the short reads, including conserved regions among the input genomics, sequence motifs, and other information critical to the recognition and/or classification of the organisms. We present Focus, a new multilayer graph model for short read analysis and extraction of biologically relevant features. The proposed model can be viewed as a data-mining tool that takes advantage of the multilayer graph representation of the reads to extract useful information about the associated genomes/organisms. While not primarily an assembly tool, we assessed Focus using known assemblers with excellent results. We also applied Focus in a case study on a HIV read dataset and were able to successfully extract biologically relevant graph features.
Inflation Uncertainty, Real‐Interest‐Rate Uncertainty, and the Liquidity Premium on Government Bonds

This paper shows that the components of uncertainty about nominal interest rates, real-rate uncertainty and inflation uncertainty, have different effects on the liquidity premium. An increase in inflation uncertainty should increase the equilibrium liquidity premium because investors reduce the effect of inflation uncertainty on the riskiness of their portfolios by holding more short-term bonds. In contrast, an investor can reduce the effects of uncertainty about future ex-ante real rates on portfolio return by matching more closely the maturity dates of the bonds held with the date on which the portfolio is to be liquidated for consumption purposes. Thus, the effect of an increase in real-rate uncertainty on the equilibrium liquidity premium is ambiguous, depending on the relative magnitudes of long-term and short-term saving and the proportions of short-term and long-term bonds issued by the government.
VERTEX RAINBOW COLORINGS OF GRAPHS

In a properly vertex-colored graph G, a path P is a rainbow path if no two vertices of P have the same color, except possibly the two end-vertices of P. If every two vertices of G are connected by a rainbow path, then G is vertex rainbow-connected. A proper vertex coloring of a connected graph G that results in a vertex rainbow-connected graph is a vertex rainbow coloring of G. The minimum number of colors needed in a vertex rainbow coloring of G is the vertex rainbow connection number vrc(G) of G. Thus if G is a connected graph of order n ≥ 2, then 2 ≤ vrc(G) ≤ n. We present characterizations of all connected graphs G of order n for which vrc(G) ∈ {2,n−1,n} and study the relationship between vrc(G) and the chromatic number χ(G) of G. For a connected graph G of order n and size m, the number m − n + 1 is the cycle rank of G. Vertex rainbow connection numbers are determined for all connected graphs of cycle rank 0 or 1 and these numbers are investigated for connected graphs of cycle rank 2.
Influence of Cement Composition on Expansions Observed in Standard and Modified ASTM C1260 Test Procedures

This paper presents the results of a laboratory study conducted to determine the influence of cement composition on the expansions observed in standard and modified ASTM C1260 tests. Also, the effectiveness of selected mitigation measures for alkali-silica reactivity was studied by using a modified ASTM C1260 test. Two different cements with substantially different alkali levels were used in combination with a Class F fly ash and a Class C fly ash. The results obtained from tests with 89 different sources of fine aggregate were analyzed. The results from this study indicate that cement composition has a distinct influence on the expansion levels observed in the ASTM C1260 study. For a majority of the aggregates tested in this study (88%), the use of a specific cement low in alkali content resulted in higher expansion than a cement with a relatively higher alkali content, regardless of the level of reactivity of the aggregate in the standard ASTM C1260 tests. Class F fly ash was found to be more effective than Class C fly ash in reducing the expansions in the modified ASTM C1260 tests. However, the cement used in the mixture influenced the percent reduction in expansion offered by both Class F fly ash and Class C fly ash. The use of low-alkali cement with Class F and Class C fly ashes yielded larger reductions in percent expansion.
Migration of ribosomes along the axons of the chick visual pathway

The axoplasmic migration of ribosomes has been detected in the visual system of the chick. Monocular injection of radioactive uridine or an amino acid mixture was followed by sedimentation analysis in sucrose or cesium sulfate density gradients, of ribosomes prepared from the retinae of injected eyes and the left and right optic lobes. By this means both RNA and protein components of ribosomes were found to migrate from the retina to the innervated contralateral optic lobe. Following denervation of the distal nerve segment by eye removal, the stability of the transported RNA was reduced, suggesting its presynaptic location. The transport of RNA was not significantly imparied by intraocular injection of inhibitors of informational RNA or mitochondrial RNA synthesis prior to injection of radioactive uridine but was depressed by a low dose of actinomycin D.