cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of the menstrual cycle on proenkephalin peptide F responses to maximal cycle exercise

Proenkephalin peptide F [107–140] is an enkephalin-containing peptide found predominantly within the adrenal medulla and is co-packaged with epinephrine within adrenal medullary chromaffin granules. Peptide F has been shown to have the classic opioid analgesia effects along with immune cell interactions. This is only the second peptide F study in women, and in it we compare the responses of peptide F to a maximal cycle exercise test and recovery values over the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Eight untrained (directly documented in this study) women who were eumenorrheic performed a progressive maximal exercise test to volitional exhaustion on a cycle ergometer, once during the follicular phase, and once during the luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Blood was obtained pre-exercise, immediately post-exercise and at 0, 15, and 30 min into recovery. Typical exercise changes in response to the cycle tests were observed with blood lactate increases that remained elevated 30 min into recovery. No significant exercise-induced elevations were observed for peptide F concentrations with exercise nor were any differences observed between the two menstrual phases. Thus, the effects of the menstrual cycle on peptide F concentrations appear to be minimal under the conditions of this investigation. With high concentrations of peptide F observed at rest (approx. 0.2–0.3 pmol ml−1) pre-exercise arousal mechanisms may have obviated any exercise-induced response. In addition, inhibition via elevated epinephrine may have inhibited any post-exercise increases and finally adrenal medullary capacity for circulatory concentrations of peptide F may have been reached in such untrained women. Pre-exercise arousal mechanisms potentially related to analgesia may also be involved to prepare untrained women for the stress of maximal exercise.
Mixed Cerebrovascular Disease and the Future of Stroke Prevention

Stroke prevention efforts typically focus on either ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. This approach is overly simplistic due to the frequent coexistence of ischemic and hemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease. This coexistence, termed “mixed cerebrovascular disease”, offers a conceptual framework that appears useful for stroke prevention strategies. Mixed cerebrovascular disease incorporates clinical and subclinical syndromes, including ischemic stroke, subclinical infarct, white matter disease of aging (leukoaraiosis), intracerebral hemorrhage, and cerebral microbleeds. Reliance on mixed cerebrovascular disease as a diagnostic entity may assist in stratifying risk of hemorrhagic stroke associated with platelet therapy and anticoagulants. Animal models of hemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease, particularly models of cerebral amyloid angiopathy and hypertension, offer novel means for identifying underlying mechanisms and developing focused therapy. Phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors represent a class of agents that, by targeting both platelets and vessel wall, provide the kind of dual actions necessary for stroke prevention, given the spectrum of disorders that characterizes mixed cerebrovascular disease.
Musical Taste And Social Structure In Taiwan

AbstractResearch in the comparative cultural sociology of musical taste has been confined to Western societies. The present study tests hypotheses from Western research in a culturally different, East Asian society, Taiwan. The 1992 Taiwan survey asked a representative sample of the population which of ten types of music they liked or disliked. To a large extent, the Taiwan findings replicate those in the West. For example, high status, younger people are more likely to be omnivores, liking both highbrow and lowbrow music, while low status, older people tend toward the univore pole. The ten types of musical taste can be clustered into three more general, culturally distinct taste audiences.
Artificial urinary sphincter cuff erosionexperience with reimplantation in 38 patients

Abstract Artificial urinary sphincter cuff erosion has become rare but remains a dreaded consequence of sphincter implantation. Our experience indicates that with rational and systematic management of this problem, sphincter reimplantation can restore continence in many of these patients. During a ten-year period, 412 artificial sphincters were implanted at the Mayo Clinic Bladder neck or urethral erosion occurred in 64 patients (15.5 %). Ultimately, 38 patients had reimplantation, and the outcome was successful in 32 (84 %). After the advent of delayed activation, the incidence of cuff erosion decreased greatly—from a peak of 18 percent (12 of 66 cases) in 1977 to 1.3 percent (1 of 79 cases) in 1985.
The role of ultra high performance liquid chromatography with time of flight detection for the identification of synthetic cannabinoids in seized drugs

Abstract Separation and mass spectrometric techniques are integral parts of forensic drug analysis for both screening and confirmation. The Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs (SWGDRUG), which is responsible for setting standards for drug analysis, requires for drug identification a Category A test such as mass spectrometry with an additional test from either Category B or C. If a Category A method is not used at least two uncorrelated tests from Category B must be included, for which separation techniques such as gas chromatography and liquid chromatography would qualify. The utility and validity of using ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) for the analysis of synthetic cannabinoids is presented. The separation of 32 solutes, including 23 controlled substances and nine non-controlled positional isomers of JWH-018, are compared using UHPLC with TOF detection and capillary GC with electron ionization (EI). For these solutes, the reversed phase UHPLC separation on three different 2.1mm×150mm×2.7μm superficially porous (SPP) columns (C18, Phenyl-Hexyl and Dimethylpentafluorophenylpropyl (PFP)) compared favorably with the capillary gas chromatography (GC) separation using an Elite-5MS column 0.25mm×30m×0.25μm. Principal component analysis revealed that all three UHPLC separations for the separation of the controlled substances are orthogonal to the capillary GC separation. It was also revealed by principal component analysis that the separation of JWH-018 and the nine non-controlled positional isomers for the various techniques were significantly more correlated than the separation of the controlled substances. Although most of the controlled synthetic cannabinoids gave unique TOF in-source collision-induced dissociation MS spectra and EI spectra, it was not possible to discriminate among the geometric isomers (CP47, 497, Epi CP47, 497; Cp47, 497 C8 homologue, Epi CP47, 497 C8 homologue). JWH-018 could be distinguished from the non-controlled isomers based on its EI spectra. In contrast, several of the non-controlled JWH-018 isomers give identical TOF in-source collision-induced dissociation MS spectra to JWH-018.
Advances in ungauged streamflow prediction using artificial neural networks

Summary In this work, we develop and test two artificial neural networks (ANNs) to forecast streamflow in ungauged basins. The model inputs include time-lagged records of precipitation and temperature. In addition, recurrent feedback loops allow the ANN streamflow estimates to be used as model inputs. Publically available climate and US Geological Survey streamflow records from sub-basins in Northern Vermont are used to train and test the methods. Time-series analysis of the climate-flow data provides a transferable and systematic methodology to determine the appropriate number of time-lagged input data. To predict streamflow in an ungauged basin, the recurrent ANNs are trained on climate-flow data from one basin and used to forecast streamflow in a nearby basin with different (more representative) climate inputs. One of the key results of this work, and the reason why time-lagged predictions of steamflow improve forecasts, is these recurrent flow predictions are being driven by time-lagged locally-measured climate data. The successful demonstration of these flow prediction methods with publicly available USGS flow and NCDC climate datasets shows that the ANNs, trained on a climate-discharge record from one basin, prove capable of predicting streamflow in a nearby basin as accurately as in the basin on which they were trained. This suggests that the proposed methods are widely applicable, at least in the humid, temperate climate zones shown in this work. A scaling ratio, based on a relationship between bankfull discharge and basin drainage area, accounts for the change in drainage area from one basin to another. Hourly streamflow predictions were superior to those using daily data for the small streams tested due the loss of critical lag times through upscaling. The ANNs selected in this work always converge, avoid stochastic training algorithms, and are applicable in small ungauged basins.
Apparent digestibility of neutral detergent fiber in elderly and young adults.

These experiments assessed the ability of the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) method to remove starch and nitrogen from food NDF residues, and nitrogen and endogenous secretions from fecal NDF residues; and compared indices of bowel function, including apparent NDF digestibility, of nine elderly subjects to those of six young women. Subjects consumed similar, controlled "how fiber" diets containing foods typically eaten in the United States. Nitrogen and starch contents of food composite NDF were determined in NDF obtained by the hog a amylase modification of the Van Soest procedure, whereas the nitrogen content of fecal NDF was determined using NDF obtained by the unmodified procedure. The modified Van Soest method adequately removed nitrogen and starch from food NDF, but fecal NDF contained nitrogen. Both groups digested the majority of the NDF, 63 and 70% for the elderly and young subjects, respectively. Apparent fiber digestibility, which was measured several times in each subject, increased to 69 and 75% for the two groups, respectively, when a correction was made for the nitrogen in the fecal NDF. Mean gastrointestinal transit time and frequency of defecation of the two age groups were comparable, whereas mean daily wet and dry stool weights of the elderly were larger than those of the young women. These results suggest that the bowel of the elderly may function as well as that of the young adult. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 34: 106 1-1070, 1981.
Combined hormonal and radiation therapy for lymph node-positive prostate cancer

Abstract Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of combined radiation and hormonal therapy in patients with prostate cancer metastatic to the pelvic lymph nodes. Methods Fifty consecutive patients with node-positive prostate cancer were evaluated by the Departments of Urology and Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania and offered combined hormonal and radiation therapy. All patients received pelvic radiation to 45 Gy, with a boost dose to the prostate to 65 to 71 Gy. Forty-five of the patients were treated with concurrent hormonal therapy consisting of diethylstilbestrol (2 patients), orchiectomy (18 patients), leuprolide (5 patients), or combined androgen blockade (20 patients); the other 5 patients declined hormonal therapy. Patients represented a group with locally advanced disease with a high incidence of T3 tumors (66%), high grade (74%; Gleason score more than 7), high prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (40%; more than 30.0 ng/mL), and a high incidence of gross (36%) or bilateral (30%) adenopathy and a high incidence of multiply involved lymph nodes (62%). Results Median follow-up of patients is 42 months (range, 10 to 102). All 5 patients declining hormonal therapy relapsed within 18 months and only 1 patient survived longer than 3 years. Among patients treated with combined hormonal and radiation therapy, the 6-year survival rate is 82%, the clinical disease-free survival at 6 years is 71 %, and the probability of survival free of recurrence, with a PSA less than 0.2 ng/mL, is 62%. Only two PSA recurrences occurred, both in patients who elected to discontinue hormone therapy. There was no synergistic toxicity observed as a result of combined therapy. Conclusions Combined hormonal and radiation therapy offers the potential for extended disease-free survival and may represent an effective treatment option for patients with locally advanced prostate cancer.
DISTURBANCE BY FIRE FREQUENCY AND BISON GRAZING MODULATE GRASSHOPPER ASSEMBLAGES IN TALLGRASS PRAIRIE

Understanding determinants of local species diversity remains central to developing plans to preserve biodiversity. In the continental United States, climate, grazing by large mammals, fire, and topography are important ecosystem drivers that structure North American tallgrass prairie, with major impacts on plant community composition and vegetation structure. Frequency of fire and grazing by bison (Bos bison), through effects on plant community composition and altered spatial and structural heterogeneity of veg- etation in tallgrass prairie, may act as bottom-up processes that modulate insect community species richness. As previously seen for plant species richness, I hypothesized that grazing had more impact than fire frequency in determining species richness of insect herbivore communities. I examined this prediction with grasshoppers at Konza Prairie, a representative tallgrass prairie site in which fire frequency and bison grazing are manipulated over long terms with landscape-level treatments. Topographic position (upland vs. lowland) and fire frequency (1-, 2-, 4-year intervals, and unburned) did not significantly influence grasshopper species richness or indices of diversity, while grazing had significant effects. On average, I found ;45% more grasshopper species and significantly increased values of Shannon H9 diversity at sites with bison grazing. Species abundances were more equally distributed (Shannon's Evenness Index) in grazed sites as well. No significant interactions among burning and grazing treatments explained variation in grasshopper species diversity. Grasshopper species richness respond- ed positively to increased heterogeneity in vegetation structure and plant species richness, and negatively to average canopy height and total grass biomass. Variation in forb biomass did not influence grasshopper species richness. A significant positive relationship between grasshopper species richness and overall grasshopper density was observed. Species rich- ness increased marginally as watershed area of treatments in grazed areas increased, but not in ungrazed areas. Disturbance from ecosystem drivers operating at watershed spatial scales exhibits strong effects on local arthropod species diversity, acting indirectly by mediating changes in the spatial heterogeneity of local vegetation structure and plant species diversity.
Newly marketed medications present unique challenges for nonrandomized comparative effectiveness analyses.

The vast majority of medicines that come onto the market have met US FDA requirements for efficacy and safety. Of those, only half may have randomized evi dence comparing the new agent to existing drugs, and of that group, only a small fraction may have fully evaluated a new drug’s relative effectiveness [1]. Clinicians, insurers, policy-makers and, ultimately, patients require timely results from postmarketing research to ascertain whether newly marketed drugs offer benefits in effectiveness and safety over existing standards of care. For this, nonrandomized (observational) studies using secondary healthcare data are key for assessment of drugs as they are used in routine care. The general methodological challenges of performing comparative effectiveness research with nonrandomized data are magnified during this early marketing phase [2]. Challenges arise from one or more of the following sources: bias in initial treatment effects due to the differential channeling of sicker patients who may have waited for the arrival of the new drug in hope of improved effectiveness or safety; bias and treatment effect heterogeneity due to changing patient characteristics of the early users of a new drug compared with the broadening user base over the longer term; and the consequences of the potentially slow uptake of a new drug, leading to small numbers of users and thus imprecise effect estimates [3]. Perhaps the most serious of these challenges is the bias due to the differential nature of the early users of a new drug compared with the users of an existing standard of care. Early users of a new drug are likely to be a mix of two types of patients: those with an existing diagnosis that failed an earlier therapy or suffered from intolerable side effects, and those whose insurers and physicians are willing to initiate a newly diagnosed patient on a novel therapy. With the first group, the channeling of sicker patients – those with more severe disease and a poorer prognosis – toward the new drug will introduce confounding bias similar to that found in usual pharmacoepidemiology studies [4], but probably with even greater magnitude. With the second group, biases may result from physician- and systemlevel factors that go beyond the patient’s condition and characteristics. Those patients with generous insurance plans or doctors attuned to new develop ments in the drug market may be differential with respect to socioeconomic status, quality of care and other factors known to affect patients’ risk of a variety of outcomes. On another level, this heterogeneity of the patient population may lead to a heterogeneity of treatment effects; those patients that have failed earlier therapies may be less likely to be treated effectively with the new medication (or any second-line therapy, for that matter). Although profound, these biases, in many instances,
Reducing drift in parametric motion tracking

We develop a class of differential motion trackers that automatically stabilize when in finite domains. Most differential trackers compute motion only relative to one previous frame, accumulating errors indefinitely. We estimate pose changes between a set of past frames, and develop a probabilistic framework for integrating those estimates. We use an approximation to the posterior distribution of pose changes as an uncertainty model for parametric motion in order to help arbitrate the use of multiple base frames. We demonstrate this framework on a simple 2D translational tracker and a 3D, 6-degree of freedom tracker.
CMOS-Compatible Wafer-Level Microdevice-Distribution Technology

We present a novel cost-efficient heterogeneous device integration method based on the distribution principle. This robust, CMOS back end of the line (BEOL) compatible, wafer-scale device- selective transfer method for the batch fabrication of Systems-On-Chip is especially suitable for MEMS and ICs. The strategy for device selectivity during bonding and debonding is presented, and the demonstration of the technology is accomplished using AFM cantilevers as test vehicle. We have successfully selected a fraction of AFM devices from a single high-device-density "source" wafer and distributed them to populate many lower-device-density "receiver" wafers.
Model-space compensation of microphone and noise for speaker-independent speech recognition

Ambient noise (additive distortion) and microphone changes (convolutive distortion) are two sources of distortion that may severely degrade speech recognition performance in real operating environments. Simultaneously modeling the two distortion sources has been a great challenge for robust speech recognition. A method, called JAC (Joint compensation of Additive and Convolutive distortions), is presented. It uses two log-spectral domain components in speech acoustic models to represent additive and convolutive distortions. The method adapts HMM mean vectors with a noise estimate and a channel estimate. The noise estimate is calculated from the pre-utterance pause and the channel estimate is calculated using an EM algorithm from speech utterances produced in the distortion environment. Evaluated on a noisy speech database recorded in-vehicle with a hands-free distant microphone in several driving conditions, the algorithm reduces recognition word error rate in typical operating conditions by an order of magnitude.
SERF: integrating human recommendations with search

Today's university library has many digitally accessible resources, both indexes to content and considerable original content. Using off-the-shelf search technology provides a single point of access into library resources, but we have found that such full-text indexing technology is not entirely satisfactory for library searching. In response to this, we report initial usage results from a prototype of an entirely new type of search engine - The System for Electronic Recommendation Filtering (SERF) - that we have designed and deployed for the Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries. SERF encourages users to enter longer and more informative queries, and collects ratings from users as to whether search results meet their information need or not. These ratings are used to make recommendations to later users with similar needs. Over time, SERF learns from the users what documents are valuable for what information needs.In this paper, we focus on understanding whether such recommendations can increase other users' search efficiency and effectiveness in library website searching. Based on examination of three months of usage as an alternative search interface available to all users of the Oregon State University Libraries website (http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/), we found strong evidence that the recommendations with human evaluation could increase the efficiency as well as effectiveness of the library website search process. Those users who received recommendations needed to examine fewer results, and recommended documents were rated much higher than documents returned by a traditional search engine.
Evolving agents for personalized information filtering

Describes how techniques from artificial life can be used to evolve a population of personalized information filtering agents. The technique of artificial evolution and the technique of learning from feedback are combined to develop a semi-automated information filtering system which dynamically adapts to the changing interests of the user. Results of a set of experiments are presented in which a small population of information filtering agents was evolved to make a personalized selection of news articles from the USENET newsgroups. The results show that the artificial evolution component of the system is responsible for improving the recall rate of the selected set of articles, while learning from feedback component improves the precision rate. >
The Socio-cultural Context for Obesity Prevention and Treatment in Children and Adolescents: Influences of Ethnicity and Gender

Obesity prevention and treatment programs in children and adolescents attempt to establish and reinforce eating and physical activity behaviors that foster healthy growth and development for both physical and mental health (1, 2). Long-term effectiveness requires that contextual influences on food and eating, and physical activity and sedentary behavior, in the child’s immediate and surrounding environments be recognized and, where possible, accounted for in interventions. These influences include behaviors of family caregivers, school personnel, and day care providers. Particularly for younger children, these caregivers make decisions about what foods and physical activity options are available to children and which behaviors are encouraged, discouraged, allowed, modeled, or restricted. Eating and physical activity behaviors are strongly influenced by socio-cultural variables (i.e., norms, values, and beliefs) and social structural contexts (i.e., physical and economic characteristics, policies, and practices) in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and media environments. This chapter will consider the interactions of socio-cultural/environmental factors with race/ethnicity (referred to as “ethnicity”) and gender and will discuss their impacts on obesity risk in children. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the need to account for socio-cultural and environmental variables in efforts to improve the effectiveness of interventions.
The Helsinki Accord: A Growth Industry

Despite conservative opposition, in the late 1970s, Jimmy Carter turned the tide in favor of the Helsinki Accord by taking a strong stand in fostering U.S. participation in it. Korey focuses on the U.S. delegation to the Commission on Security and Cooperation (CSCE) in Europe and credits the success of the Helsinki Accord to U.S. adroit negotiation strategies, beginning with the Carter administration. By 1980, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev came to embrace the “humanitarianism” of the treaty. The Vienna review conference's (1986–89) effort peaked when a milestone was reached in the human rights process, linking it directly to security issues equally pertinent to the East and the West. The author contends that the United States' ardent participation in the monitoring of compliance was particularly effective in putting pressure on the Soviet Union to uphold the agreement within its territory, yielding enormous progress in human rights
A QUARTET OF SEMIGROUPS FOR MODEL SPECIFICATION, ROBUSTNESS, PRICES OF RISK, AND MODEL DETECTION

A representative agent fears that his model, a continuous time Markov process with jump and diffusion components, is misspecified and therefore uses robust control theory to make decisions. Under the decision maker’s approximating model, cautious behavior puts adjustments for model misspecification into market prices for risk factors. We use a statistical theory of detection to quantify how much model misspecification the decision maker should fear, given his historical data record. A semigroup is a collection of objects connected by something like the law of iterated expectations. The law of iterated expectations defines the semigroup for a Markov process, while similar laws define other semigroups. Related semigroups describe (1) an approximating model; (2) a model misspecification adjustment to the continuation value in the decision maker’s Bellman equation; (3) asset prices; and (4) the behavior of the model detection statistics that we use to calibrate how much robustness the decision maker prefers. Semigroups 2, 3, and 4 establish a tight link between the market price of uncertainty and a bound on the error in statistically discriminating between an approximating and a worst case model. (JEL: C00, D51, D81, E1, G12)
Studies of Surface-Adsorbed Fluorescently Labeled Casein and Concanavalin A Using Surface Plasmon-Coupled Emission

We report the use of surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE) as an analytical tool to study the photophysics of surface-adsorbed fluorescently labeled proteins. The study uses plasma etching of PMMA surface followed by deposition of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) for surface protein detection. PDDA increases the overall amount of the captured protein and also promotes dye aggregation. The photon-sorting properties of the SPCE process allows for wavelength separation of the individual components from the protein–dye aggregates. This has been exploited to study the fluorescence emissions from casein labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate and concanavalin A labeled with tetramethylrhodamine. Based on the current findings, the proteins can be used to measure background fluorescence or to monitor the microenvironments in fluoroimmunoassays on SPCE substrates.
Sources of Intraday Noise

We use a sample of intraday extreme stock price movements and assess the noise trading component of those movements. We find that the first and last periods of the day are when large stock price movements are triggered without public information. The reversals to positive stock price movements are more pronounced when the initial stock price movement was caused by a relatively high degree of institutional trading, and when there is a relatively low degree of trading activity for that stock. The reversals are more pronounced for the relatively large positive and negative intraday stock price movements. This implies that market participants view large intraday stock price deviations as noise when they are not backed by public information, and they quickly correct for these discrepancies.
What are the mechanisms driving the success of the US Silicon Valley

This paper explores the mechanisms driving the success of the US Silicon Valley. The study analyses the development of Silicon Valley, the government programmes in financing innovations and the specific characteristics/factors contributing to the success of the valley. It is argued that the capacity to foster clusters of innovation, an effective use of university resources, the supporting infrastructure, the culture of willingness to accept risk, and venture capital (VC) programmes are catalysts for the economic development at Silicon Valley. By using Porter's competitive Diamond Model as a basis to examine the activities in the US Silicon Valley, the study attempts to fill a gap in practical VC management research, which is practically nonexistent, and provide valuable insights for policy makers.
The SIMPLE Presence and Event Architecture

Current presence systems offer only basic services that are mostly useful for dial-up environments, while event services have not seen widespread deployment. We describe the SIP-based event architecture that is being developed within the SIMPLE working group, that supports richer functionality, multiple event sources and better privacy control.
Food in a future of 10 billion

Over the past two centuries, the human population has grown sevenfold and the experts anticipate the addition of 2–3 billion more during the twenty-first century. In the present overview, I take a historical glance at how humans supported such extraordinary population growth first through the invention of agriculture and more recently through the rapid deployment of scientific and technological advances in agriculture. I then identify future challenges posed by continued population growth and climate warming on a finite planet. I end by discussing both how we can meet such challenges and what stands in the way.
Diagnostic utility of B-type natriuretic peptide in critically ill patients with pulmonary edema: a prospective cohort study

Introduction Distinguishing pulmonary edema due to acute lung injury (ALI) or the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) from hydrostatic or cardiogenic edema is challenging in critically ill patients. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) can effectively identify congestive heart failure in the emergency room setting but, despite increasing use, its diagnostic utility has not been validated in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Babesia divergens and Plasmodium falciparum Use Common Receptors, Glycophorins A and B, To Invade the Human Red Blood Cell

Babesiosis has long been recognized as an economically important disease of cattle, but only in the last 30 years has Babesia been recognized as an important pathogen in humans. Invasion of erythrocytes is an integral part of the Babesia life cycle. However, very little information is available on the molecules involved in this process, in contrast to another hemoparasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Using invasion assays into normal red blood cells (RBCs), enzyme-treated cells, and clinically mutant cells, we showed that Babesia divergens uses neuraminidase- and trypsin-sensitive receptors to enter the RBCs, of which glycophorins A and B are the prominent ones. These results could have broad implications relating to evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of host cell entry in these related Apicomplexan parasites and pave the way toward a detailed molecular analysis of erythrocyte invasion in B. divergens.
Sensor Selection via Convex Optimization

We consider the problem of choosing a set of k sensor measurements, from a set of m possible or potential sensor measurements, that minimizes the error in estimating some parameters. Solving this problem by evaluating the performance for each of the (m k) possible choices of sensor measurements is not practical unless m and k are small. In this paper, we describe a heuristic, based on convex optimization, for approximately solving this problem. Our heuristic gives a subset selection as well as a bound on the best performance that can be achieved by any selection of k sensor measurements. There is no guarantee that the gap between the performance of the chosen subset and the performance bound is always small; but numerical experiments suggest that the gap is small in many cases. Our heuristic method requires on the order of m 3 operations; for m= 1000 possible sensors, we can carry out sensor selection in a few seconds on a 2-GHz personal computer.
A CLINICAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF CELIAC DISEASE BEFORE AND DURING A GLUTEN-FREE DIET.

Summary Peroral jejunal biopsies were obtained after a 12- to 14-hr fast from 9 control patients and from 4 patients with untreated celiac disease. In the normal jejunal mucosa, lipid stained by oil red O was distributed as a fine haze in the superficial epithelial cells and as distinct droplets in the lamina propria. In untreated celiac disease, lipid droplets were limited to the superficial epithelium and to a thin band in the region of the basement membrane; none were found in the deeper portions of the lamina propria. The superficial epithelial cells of the normal jejunal mucosa were shown to contain many enzymes identifiable by histochemical techniques. The histologically abnormal superficial epithelial cells in untreated celiac disease were deficient in acid phosphatase, succinic dehydrogenase, cytochrome oxidase, lactic dehydrogenase, leucine aminopeptidase, DPN-diaphorase, and TPN-diaphorase activity. ATPase activity was markedly decreased or absent. Serial jejunal biopsies were obtained after the institution of a gluten-free diet, and 2 subjects had repeated tests of intestinal absorption. Three to five days after gluten withdrawal, lipid droplets appeared in the lamina propria, and subsequently they disappeared from the superficial cells. Coincident with this change in lipid distribution, ATPase activity returned to the superficial epithelium. The activities of the other enzymes were not appreciably changed in the immediate postgluten withdrawal period. Fecal fat excretion gradually decreased parallel with the improvement in lipid distribution. The results of this study suggest that the defect in fat absorption in celiac disease is in the intracellular metabolism or transport of lipid, rather than in the uptake of lipid by the intestinal mucosa and that this defect may be attributable to a deficiency of ATPase activity in the superficial epithelium. It is considered likely that the absorptive failure results either from a defect in the intracellular synthesis of triglycerides or from an impairment in the formation of chylomicrons. A failure of release and transport of chylomicrons out of the cell and through the interstitial space of the lamina propria would appear to be of lesser importance.
Psychophysical Assessment of Chemosensory Disorders in Clinical Populations

This chapter focuses on two groups in whom clinical problems of smell function occur: the very young and the old. The intent here is to examine several of these problems and their psychophysical manifestations and then to examine what this work reveals about normal function and psychophysical assessment.
The design of particle swarm optimization guidance using a line-of-sight evaluation method

The proposed is an improved PSO guidance law, which is called IPSOG, for a missile.The principle of IPSOG is based on PSO algorithm and parallel navigation.Both Pbest and Gbest that are evaluated by LOS rate should close to zero in IPSOG.Compared the IPSOG with the PSOG, the IPSOG has better guidance performance. In this paper, an improved particle swarm optimization guidance (IPSOG) is proposed. The particle swarm optimization guidance (PSOG) is presented to solve nonlinear and dynamic missile guidance problems. However, the miss distance (MD) tends to be large. The objective function of the relative distance in the PSOG leads the missile to the current position of a target. Therefore, the PSOG is similar to pursuit guidance. In the IPSOG, a new objective function for the PSOG is introduced to improve the guidance performance. The line-of-sight (LOS) rate is taken as the objective function. The fitness function is then evaluated according to the defined objective function. Numerical simulation results show that the guidance performance of the IPSOG is better than the PSOG. Display Omitted
Comorbid mental illness and poor physical function among newly admitted inmates in Connecticut's jails.

The prevalence of co-occurring mental illness and poor physical functioning among inmates, and whether there are differences according to age or gender, is largely unknown. Of the 315 new inmate ad...
Electrical Stimulation and Digitalis Drugs Repetitive Response in Diastole.

SummaryIn the nondigitalized animal, a unipolar stimulus to the endocardium or myocardium discharged during diastole resulted in a single response unless energies greater than 5 J were used. During digitalization employing ouabain, the diastolic threshold energy for a repetitive ventricula response (RVR) was reduced by 6 orders of magnitude. RVR was first noted after 70% of the toxic dose of ouabain had been given and consisted of 2 ventricular ectopic beats. With advancing degrees of digitalization, a single stimulus evoked paroxysms of ventricular tachycardia. The most sensitive part of the cardiac cycle followed immediately after inscription of the T wave. As toxicity was approached, the zone of lowered threshold extended throughout most of the diastolic interval.
Continuity and Change in Social Distance: Studies from the Arab East—A Research Report

Drastic political and economic changes have taken place in the Arab East over the last several decades but studies examining continuity or change in basic social values among various groups in the area are almost nil. In the study of inter-ethnic attitudes, however, Bogardus Social Distance Scale (BSD) data collected among very similar groups of university students in Beirut, Lebanon, by Stuart Dodd in 1933 and E. Terry Prothro and Levon Melikian in 1952 provide valuable baselines for subsequent inquiries. This report continues and expands this earlier research by providing BSD responses made by comparable respondents in November 1974, a period of relative calm in Lebanon and the Levant, but only six months before the eruption of the Lebanese civil war.
Training for the Unknown: The Role of Feedback and Similarity in Detecting Zero-day Attacks☆

Abstract Human cognitive and analytical capabilities are needed and are indispensable to success in cyber defense. However, the high volume of network data challenges the process of detecting cyber-attacks, especially zero-day attacks. Training along with detailed and timely outcome feedback is a major factor in improving performance. It supports attributes identification and rule formation, which are crucial to the detection of attacks. To understand the role of feedback during training and how it influences the detection of novel attacks, we developed a simplified Intrusion Detection System and trained 160 participants to perform as analysts. During training, participants classified network events representing a specific cyber-attack, and received feedback at the end of each trial. Detailed feedback used color schemes informing of hits, misses, false-alarms, and correct-rejections. Aggregated feedback provided numerical summaries regarding performance. After training, participants classified events that were similar or part of a novel attack. Results show that detailed feedback accelerated learning and improved detection accuracy compared to aggregated feedback. Participants who received aggregated feedback failed to learn the role of certain network attributes and how to integrate them into detection rules. Surprisingly, aggregated feedback improved detection in the novel attack. The novelty of a situation caused an increase in decision scrutiny, while familiar decision situations limited the depth of information search and evaluation. Analyst should learn to abstract information and look broadly at outcome feedback to improve their ability to detect novel attacks. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving cyber security.
Breeding Season among Mammals in the Lowland Rain-Forest of North Borneo

Two recent expeditions of the Chicago Natural History Museum (Davis and Inger, 1950; Inger, 1956) collected mammals in the lowland evergreen rainforest of eastern North Borneo. The collecting localities lay between 4° and 6° N. latitude, from Sandakan south to the Kalabakan River. The reproductive organs of each female collected were examined in the field and instances of pregnancy and lactation were recorded. No attempt was made to estimate the stage of pregnancy but all pregnant uteri were preserved. Except for the first week of June, when both parties were shifting localities, the expeditions were active in the field from April 9 to August 19 in 1950 and from April 22 to August 12 in 1956. Excluding bats and most of the larger mammals with very long gestation periods (elephant, rhinoceros, sambar deer, temadau, pig, bear, and orangutan), the data cover 25 genera distributed among the following five orders: primates, 6; rodents, 8; insectivores, 1; carnivores, 8; artiodactyls, 2. A total of 201 adult females was examined, and 51 pregnancies recorded. Detailed data for each species will appear in a general report on the mammals of North Borneo being prepared by D. D. Davis. Environmental conditions in this area are relatively constant throughout the year. There is no marked dry season and the forest is always green. Rainfall varies considerably over fairly short distances but the mean monthly rainfall at Sandakan, averaged over a period of 23 years, is probably representative of eastern North Borneo (Fig. 1). The annual …
Case 48-1988: A 52-Year-Old Man with Caroli's Disease and Recurrent Obstructive Jaundice, Fever, and Bacteremia

Presentation of Case A 52-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of Caroli's disease associated with recurrent obstructive jaundice, fever, and bacteremia. He was well until 28 ...
Long-Term Outcomes of Kidney Transplant Recipients with Bladder Dysfunction: A Single-Center Study.

Background Long-term outcomes of kidney transplantation recipients with bladder dysfunction or prior bladder surgery are not well characterized. Material and methods Electronic records of 1753 recipients of kidney-alone transplant between January 2000 and December 2008 were reviewed. We found that 1652 recipients had normal bladder function, 80 had bladder dysfunction, and 21 had bladder substitute or urinary diversion. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and multivariable regression modeling were performed to determine survival outcomes. Results Kaplan-Meier graft survival (p=.11) and patient survival (p=.18) were lower in recipients with bladder surgery but not statistically significant. Multivariate analysis demonstrated inferior graft survival (HR 3.57, 95% CI 1.06-12.1, p =0.04) and a trend towards inferior patient survival (HR 3.19, 95% CI .71-14.5, p=0.13) in reci-pients with bladder surgery. The major cause of graft failure was chronic rejection for normal function (17.1%) and bladder dysfunction (28.5%), and infection for bladder surgery (28.5%). Post-operative urinary infectious and surgical complications were higher in recipients with bladder dysfunction (35%) and substitutes (52.3%) compared with normal function (12.8%). Conclusions Kidney transplant recipients with prior bladder surgery have an increased risk of graft failure and an increased risk of infectious urinary complications. These risks should be considered in recipient selection and post-transplant management.
Transcriptional control of sexual development in Cryptococcus neoformans

Developmental processes are essential for the normal life cycles of many pathogenic fungi, and they can facilitate survival in challenging environments, including the human host. Sexual development of the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans not only produces infectious particles (spores) but has also enabled the evolution of new disease-related traits such as drug resistance. Transcription factor networks are essential to the development and pathogenesis of C. neoformans, and a variety of sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins control both key developmental transitions and virulence by regulating the expression of their target genes. In this review we discuss the roles of known transcription factors that harbor important connections to both development and virulence. Recent studies of these transcription factors have identified a common theme in which metabolic, stress, and other responses that are required for sexual development appear to have been co-opted for survival in the human host, thus facilitating pathogenesis. Future work elucidating the connection between development and pathogenesis will provide vital insights into the evolution of complex traits in eukaryotes as well as mechanisms that may be used to combat fungal pathogens.
The effect and mechanism of Yangxue Shengfa Capsules on hair growth in mice

Objective To investigate the effect of Yangxue Shengfa Capsules on hair growth of mice,and to detect the possible mechanism of hair growth promotion by using vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).Methods C57BL/6 mice were chosen as experimental animals. Hair re-growth was observed,and the number of hair follicles,capillary and VEGF in hairless zone were determined on 9 and 19 day after the depilation. Results Yangxue Shengfa Capsules shortened significantly the time of skin darkening. Compared with model group,there was significant increase in hair follicle number and skin blood vessels as well as the integrated optical density (A) of VEGF in Yangxue Shengfa group. Conclusion Yangxue Shengfa Capsules can promote hair growth by increasing A of VEGF,hair follicle number and skin blood vessels.
Acupuncture Combined with Massage, Functional Exercise on Scapulohumeral Periarthritis Randomized Parallel Controlled Study

[Objective] To observe the curative effect of acupuncture combined with massage, functional exercise on scapulohumeral periarthritis. [Methods] Using randomized controlled methods, 136 cases of inpatient and outpatient were randomly divided into two groups. The control of massage, rehabilitation treatment group of 68 cases, 1 /d. The treatment group of 68 cases of acupuncture: Acupuncture Jianyu, Jianjing, Jianzhen, shoulder, Quchi, Waiguan, Yang Ling, Ashi points, with 2 inch or 1.5 inch needle after routine disinfection of acupuncture, lift and thrust line reducing method, was left after the gas 30min, 1 times /d; pain on Taiyin meridian too yuan; follow the Shaoyang meridian and Zhu; follow the sun with Hou Xi; Yang plus three. The moxibustion with moxa stick: about 2cm sheathed on the needle handle, after burning for 1 strong, lit according to the patient's skin feel distance adjustment, continuous 3 strong after the needle, 1 /d. Massage, rehabilitation treatment with the control group. Continuous treatment with 15d for 1 courses. Observation of clinical symptoms, therapeutic effect, adverse reaction of pain. 1 courses of treatment, the curative effect. [Results] The treatment group cured 51 cases, effective in 15 cases, effective 2 cases, invalid 0 cases, the total effective rate was 97.06%. The control group cured 39 cases, effective in 16 cases, effective 13 cases, invalid 0 cases, the total effective rate was 80.88%. The treatment group was better than control group(P 0.01). Treatment of pain in two groups were improved(P 0.01), the treatment group was better than the control group(P 0.05). [Conclusion] Acupuncture combined with massage for treatment of periarthritis of shoulder, functional exercise effect is significant, worthy of promotion.