cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of inhibitors of deoxyhypusine synthase on the differentiation of mouse neuroblastoma and erythroleukemia cells

Abstract Deoxyhypusine synthase catalyzes the conversion of lysine to deoxyhypusine residue on the eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (eIF-5A) precursor using spermidine as the substrate. Subsequent hydroxylation of the deoxyhypusine residue completes hypusine formation on eIF-5A. Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) have been implicated in tumor growth and differentiation. Because deoxyhypusine/hypusine formation is one of the most specific polyamine-dependent biochemical events, we decided to use N1-guanyl-1,7-diaminoheptane (GC7), a potent inhibitor for deoxyhypusine synthase, to assess the role of hypusine formation on tumor growth and differentiation. GC7 suppressed the growth of N2a mouse neuroblastoma cells and DS19 murine erythroleukemia cells at micromolar concentrations. However, within a narrow concentration range, GC7 could promote the differentiation of mouse neuroblastoma cells in the presence of suboptimal amount of dibutyryl cAMP. In contrast, GC7 blocked the differentiation of DS19 cells induced with hexamethylene bisacetamide. Polyamine depletion by difluoromethyl ornithine (DFMO) has previously been shown to promote differentiation of neuroblastoma cells but inhibits erythrodifferentiation. Since our studies demonstrated that GC7 mimics the action of DFMO on tumor differentiation, it is likely that the effect of DFMO on tumor differentiation is mediated by hypusine formation and that GC7 represents a more specific inhibitor that can alter the differentiation program in certain tumor cells.
Elimination of nitrite interference in the determination of selenium by hydride generation

The levels of nitrite typically found in natural waters (<3 μM) can interfere significantly in the determination of selenium species by hydride generation. This interference was not found in the determination of arsenic and antimony by similar methods. Sulfanilamide reacts with nitrite to form a diazonium compound, which eliminates the interference.
Radiological evidence of spontaneous spinal arthrodesis in patients with lower lumbar spondylolisthesis.

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective review of a consecutive series of patients with radiological evidence of spondylolisthesis. OBJECTIVE To establish the incidence and characteristics of spontaneous spinal arthrodesis in the setting of lower lumbar spondylolisthesis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Spontaneous spinal arthrodesis of lumbar spondylolisthesis is a finding that is not discussed in the literature outside of isolated case reports. Identifying spontaneous spinal arthrodesis may impact the surgical plan, as patients with existing fusion may not require instrumentation and might require more work to reduce their spondylolisthesis. METHODS We reviewed a consecutive series of 1490 lumbar spine computed tomography scans from the year 2010 for radiological evidence of spondylolisthesis at either L4-L5 or L5-S1. Patients were excluded if they had undergone previous lumbar surgery. Scans were assessed for the presence of spontaneous fusion based on the following criteria: (1) a solid bridging anterior or posterior vertebral body osteophyte, (2) contiguous bone formation from one vertebral body to another, or (3) contiguous bone across the facet joints bilaterally. Patients were characterized by demographic variables, radiological characteristics including type of spondylolisthesis, and presenting symptomology. Differences between patients in the fused and nonfused cohorts were compared with univariate analysis. RESULTS A total of 86 separate instances of spondylolisthesis were identified, of which 18 (20.9%) had radiological evidence of spontaneous fusion. The most common site of fusion was in the bilateral facets, followed by directly in the intervertebral disc space, and bridging osteophytes adjoining the vertebral bodies. There were significant differences between patients in the fused and nonfused cohorts in terms of average age (fused: 74.3 ± 10.7 yr vs. nonfused: 63.3 ± 18.6 yr, P = 0.019), sex (fused: 88.9% female vs. nonfused: 57.4% female, P = 0.013), and rate of pars defects (fused: 11.1% vs. nonfused: 35.3%, P = 0.047). CONCLUSION In this study, 20.9% of patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis have radiological signs of spontaneous fusion. Further work is needed to better characterize the natural history and clinical-radiological correlation of spontaneous fusion in spondylolisthesis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 4.
Anisotropic Growth Processes On GaAs(100) And Ge(100)

We have used reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) to follow the growth of GaAs on misoriented GaAs(100), using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We find anisotropies in the step order, kink density and the growth oscillations as a function of substrate misorientation and direction of surface misorientation. For comparison in a simple system, growth of Ge on Ge(100) is also followed. On the singular Ge(100) surface, we observe strong RHEED oscillations accompanied by a strong anisotropy in the nucleation of the islands during growth. These islands show up as long intersecting streaks in the diffraction pattern when the electron beam is incident along the [010] direction. In the presence of As4, these anisotropic features become more striking and stronger RHEED oscillations are observed over a wider temperature range.
Clinical opportunities and challenges in targeting tumour dormancy

The reactivation of cancer cells following a seemingly successful treatment of the primary tumour with initial therapies (such as tumour excision or systemic therapy) is a well-known phenomenon. This metastatic rebirth is preceded by an interlude, termed dormancy, when cancer sleeps undetected for periods that can last years or even decades. Discoveries over the past 10 years have revealed the therapeutic potential of prolonging dormancy for maintaining a clinically asymptomatic state, or the permanent clearance of dormant residual disseminated cancer cells to affect a 'cure'. Here, we provide an overview of the mechanisms of dormancy and use genitourinary cancers as models to demonstrate how dormancy principles could be exploited clinically. Data from these models have yielded promising therapeutic strategies to address dormancy as well as diagnostics that could enable clinicians to monitor the dormant state of cancer in patients. This Review also aims to convey that dormancy, as a whole, likely results from coalescing contributions made by each of the three types of dormancy discussed (cellular, angiogenic and immunological). In our opinion, dormancy-directed therapies will prove most effective when the effect of these cumulative contributions are understood and targeted.
Approximating stationary measures of structured continuous-time Markov models using matrix diagrams

We consider the stationary solution of large ergodic continuous-time Markov chains (CTMCs) with a finite state space S, i.e., the computation of π as solution of π · Q = 0 subject to ∑iesπ[i] = 1, where Q coincides with transition rate matrix R except in its diagonal elements, Q[i, i] = - ∑jesR [i, j].
Advance Practice Nursing in Heart Transplantation

This article describes the role of the advanced practice nurse in the field of cardiac transplantation. A brief review of the history of cardiac transplantation is presented. The role of advanced practice nursing is evolving and changing to meet patients' needs in an increasingly complex health care environment. The advanced practice nurse is uniquely qualified to meet those needs in a variety of roles and settings. The advanced practice nurse maybe a clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, nurse mid-wife, or nurse anesthetist. Each role must include the element of clinical practice in order to be considered advanced practice nurse described in this article. The advanced practice nurse was a clinical nurse specialist in the role of cardiac transplant coordinator. This role comprises the sub-roles of educator, clinician, consultant, researcher, and administrator. The responsibilities and challenges of each sub-role are discussed. Suggestions for the direction of future practice are also presented.
The emergence of choice: Decision-making and strategic thinking through analogies

Consider the chess game: When faced with a complex scenario, how does understanding arise in one's mind? How does one integrate disparate cues into a global, meaningful whole? How do players avoid the combinatorial explosion? How are abstract ideas represented? The purpose of this paper is to propose a new computational model of human chess cognition. We suggest that analogies and abstract roles are crucial to understanding a chess scenario. We present a proof-of-concept model, in the form of a computational architecture, which accounts for many crucial aspects of human play, such as (i) concentration of attention to relevant aspects, (ii) how humans may avoid the combinatorial explosion, (iii) perception of similarity at a strategic level, (iv) a state of meaningful anticipation over how a global scenario may evolve, and (v) the architecture's choice as an emergent phenomenon from the actions of subcognitive processes.
Hybrid Procedures in Congenital Heart Disease: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome/Muscular Ventricular Septal Defect/Stenting of Pulmonary Arteries

Hybrid therapies have increased and offer a valuable alternative to standard catheter or surgical therapies in selected patient. These hybrid therapies often combine the best of both techniques, in particular for ventricular septal defect closure and intraoperative pulmonary artery stent placement. For patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the hybrid approach is an important alternative therapeutic strategy, providing similar results to conventional Norwood-type palliation. Further studies are needed and are underway to evaluate the neurodevelopmental outcome in these patients.
Load balancing in dynamic structured peer-to-peer systems

Most P2P systems that provide a DHT abstraction distribute objects randomly among "peer nodes" in a way that results in some nodes having Θ(log N) times as many objects as the average node. Further imbalance may result due to nonuniform distribution of objects in the identifier space and a high degree of heterogeneity in object loads and node capacities. Additionally, a node's load may vary greatly over time since the system can experience continuous insertions and deletions of objects, skewed object arrival patterns, and continuous arrival and departure of nodes.In this paper, we propose an algorithm for load balancing in such heterogeneous, dynamic P2P systems. Our simulation results show that in the face of rapid arrivals and departures of objects of widely varying load, our algorithm improves load balance by more than an order of magnitude for system utilizations as high as 80% while incurring an overhead of only about 6%. We also show that our distributed algorithm performs only negligibly worse than a similar centralized algorithm, and that node heterogeneity helps, not hurts, the scalability of our algorithm. Although many of these results are dependent on the workload, we believe the efficiency and performance improvement demonstrated over the case of no load balancing shows that our technique holds promise for deployed systems.
Immunoreactive corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) and vasopressin are colocalized in a subpopulation of the immunoreactive vasopressin cells in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus.

Abstract In the magnocellular cells of the paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus, corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) immunoreactivity was observed in a subpopulation of vasopressin immunoreactive cells. No CRF immunostaining was observed in the supraoptic nucleus, a region with marked vasopressin staining.
Androgenic modulation of the activity of lumbar neurons involved in the rat bulbocavernosus reflex

The bulbocavernosus (BC) reflex, produced in the BC motor nerve in response to electrical stimulation of the contralateral pudendal sensory nerve, was investigated in intact, castrated, and testosterone-treated castrated male rats under urethane anesthesia. No significant group differences in the reflex latency, sensory or motor conduction velocity, or central delay were observed. A conditioning pulse to the pudendal sensory nerve caused suppression of the averaged antidromic field potential recorded in the contralateral spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB) after stimulation of the SNB axons in the BC motor nerve. The suppression occurred at 6- to 35-ms intervals between shocks to pudendal sensory nerve and BC motor nerve, and was markedly smaller in castrated males than in the other two groups. In contrast, a conditioning pulse to the contralateral BC motor nerve had no effect on the SNB antidromic field potential. These results indicate that androgen modulates the efficacy of synaptic transmission onto SNB motoneurons or other neurons involved in the BC reflex.
The influence of flavonoid sulfonates on the fluorescence and photochemistry of flavylium cations

— The effects of flavone sulfonic acid 9 andquercetin–5′-sulfonic acid 10 on the luminescence spectra of eight flavylium salts have been determined. The non-hydroxylated flavone 9 was found to enhance the luminescence of those flavylium salts, while the polyhydroxyflavonol 10 was shown to exert the opposite effect. These findings are rationalized in conjunction with prior observations on the enhancement and inhibition of the photodecomposition of anthocyanins exerted by 9 and 10, respectively.
A Market-Based Mechanism for Allocating Space Shuttle Secondary Payload Priority

This is an investigation into the design of a market-based process to replace NASA's current committee process for allocating Shuttle secondary payload resources (lockers, Watts and crew). The market-based process allocates budgets of tokens to NASA internal organizations that in turn use the budget to bid for priority for their middeck payloads. The scheduling algorithm selects payloads by priority class and maximizes the number of tokens bid to determine a manifest. The results of a number of controlled experiments show that such a system tends to allocate resources more efficiently by guiding participants to make resource and payload tradeoffs. Most participants were able to improve their position over NASA's current ranking system. Furthermore, those that are better off make large improvements while the few that do worse have relatively small losses.
Analyses and evaluations for composite-moment frames with SMA PR-CFT connections

This paper describes seismic performance and evaluation for composite-moment frames (C-MF) with a new type of bolted connections. The study is purely analytical and explores the effort needed to establish new connection parameters without large-scale physical testing. The innovative aspects of this research are in the use of partial restraint (PR) connections between steel beams and concrete-filled tube (CFT) columns that utilize a combination of low-carbon steel and shape memory alloy (SMA) components as the main force transfer elements in the connections. The intent is to utilize the recentering provided by super-elastic shape memory tension bars to reduce building damage and residual drift after a major earthquake, and the energy dissipation of low-carbon steel components in parallel. Accurate modeling and computational efficiency were achieved through the use of a simplified joint element which includes all connection strength and deformation components. Four- and six-story C-MF models were designed for a high seismic zone in the western USA. Two connection types and three column systems installed at these prototype frame models were investigated through nonlinear pushover and dynamic analyses. The C-MF models with new bolted connections were compared to those with traditional welded connections. The results of numerical analysis demonstrate that C-MF with new PR connections show superior structural performance as indicated by small residual deformation and better distribution of the demand over the height of the structure.
The Freshman Seminar Program: Experimental Evaluation of an Introduction to the Liberal Arts.

The Freshman Seminar program at the Pennsylvania State University attempts to improve the quality of liberal education by giving Freshman students a detailed introduction to a particular liberal arts discipline, improved advising, and an orientation to college life. The program was introduced on a trial basis and its effects investigated using a randomized experimental design. The outcomes measured were rate of retention in the College of Liberal Arts, grade point average, credit hours completed, ratings by instructors, and various attitudes, including those toward Penn State, advising, and the value of the liberal arts. Results suggest that the program led to more favorable attitudes but not to perceptible differences in performance or retention.
Reply to ‘‘Comment on ‘Differential equation for the spherical dipole matrix elements of hydrogen’ ’’

We thank P Braun (preceding Comment, Phys. Rev. A 46, 6108 (1992)) for clarifying how errors can arise in attempting to use the differential equation beyond its region of applicability. The principal results of our paper are correct for their stated domains.
Evidence for the transport of maltose by the sucrose permease, CscB, of Escherichia coli.

The purpose of this study was to examine the sugar recognition and transport properties of the sucrose permease (CscB), a secondary active transporter from Escherichia coli. We tested the hypothesis that maltose transport is conferred by the wild-type CscB transporter. Cells of E. coli HS4006 harboring pSP72/cscB were red on maltose MacConkey agar indicator plates. We were able to measure “downhill” maltose transport and establish definitive kinetic behavior for maltose entry in such cells. Maltose was an effective competitor of sucrose transport in cells with CscB, suggesting that the respective maltose and sucrose binding sites and translocation pathways through the CscB channel overlap. Accumulation (“uphill” transport) of maltose by cells with CscB was profound, demonstrating active transport of maltose by CscB. Sequencing of cscB encoded on plasmid pSP72/cscB used in cells for transport studies indicate an unaltered primary CscB structure, ruling out the possibility that mutation conferred maltose transport by CscB. We conclude that maltose is a bona fide substrate for the sucrose permease of E. coli. Thus, future studies of sugar binding, transport, and permease structure should consider maltose, as well as sucrose.
Application of spectral analysis techniques to the intercomparison of aerosol data – Part 4: Synthesized analysis of multisensor satellite and ground-based AOD measurements using combined maximum covariance analysis

Abstract. In this paper, we introduce the usage of a newly developed spectral decomposition technique – combined maximum covariance analysis (CMCA) – in the spatiotemporal comparison of four satellite data sets and ground-based observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD). This technique is based on commonly used principal component analysis (PCA) and maximum covariance analysis (MCA). By decomposing the cross-covariance matrix between the joint satellite data field and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) station data, both parallel comparison across different satellite data sets and the evaluation of the satellite data against the AERONET measurements are simultaneously realized. We show that this new method not only confirms the seasonal and interannual variability of aerosol optical depth, aerosol-source regions and events represented by different satellite data sets, but also identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each data set in capturing the variability associated with sources, events or aerosol types. Furthermore, by examining the spread of the spatial modes of different satellite fields, regions with the largest uncertainties in aerosol observation are identified. We also present two regional case studies that respectively demonstrate the capability of the CMCA technique in assessing the representation of an extreme event in different data sets, and in evaluating the performance of different data sets on seasonal and interannual timescales. Global results indicate that different data sets agree qualitatively for major aerosol-source regions. Discrepancies are mostly found over the Sahel, India, eastern and southeastern Asia. Results for eastern Europe suggest that the intense wildfire event in Russia during summer 2010 was less well-represented by SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) and OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument), which might be due to misclassification of smoke plumes as clouds. Analysis for the Indian subcontinent shows that here SeaWiFS agrees best with AERONET in terms of seasonality for both the Gangetic Basin and southern India, while on interannual timescales it has the poorest agreement.
Mapping an annual weed with colour-infrared aerial photography and image analysis

Silverleaf sunflower (Helianthus argophyllus, Torr and Gray) is an annual weed found on rangelands in south and southeast Texas. Colour-infrared aerial photography and computer image analysis techniques were evaluated for detecting and mapping silverleaf sunflower infestations on a south Texas rangeland area. Supervised and unsupervised image analysis classification techniques were used to classify photographs from two study sites. Supervised classification of the two photographs showed that silverleaf sunflower had mean producer's and user's accuracies of 95.2% and 91.3%, respectively. Unsupervised classification of the two photographs had mean producer's and user's accuracies for silverleaf sunflower of 65.7% and 80.1%, respectively. These results indicate that the supervised technique is superior to the unsupervised technique for mapping silverleaf sunflower infestations using colour-infrared aerial photos.
Fission tracks in a white inclusion of the Allende chondrite — Evidence for244Pu

Abstract Fossil fission tracks have been found in a coarse-grained white inclusion of the Allende chondrite. Tracks are present in excess of those produced by 238 U spontaneous fission and cosmic rays. The ratio of excess tracks to 238 U tracks is ∼20, intermediate to ratios previously observed in meteorites but much lower than might be expected in light of the high initial 244 Pu/U ratio measured in these inclusions from Xe isotope ratios.
Torsades de pointes precipitated by a Chinese herbal remedy

Abstract Torsades de pointes (TdP) is a form of ventricular tachycardia first described in 1966 by Dessertenne. 1 The term is used to describe a form of the arrhythmia in which the amplitude of the complexes and their vector continually changes in a twisting motion around the isoelectric line. Although the precise underlying pathophysiologic basis is unknown, TdP has been described in association with a number of predisposing factors, most commonly the presence of a previously prolonged QT interval. We describe an unusual case of TdP precipitated by a nonprescription "herbal" remedy, and emphasize that early recognition and appropriate management of this specialized form of ventricular tachyarrhythmia may be lifesaving.
Quantitative relationship between severity of pulmonary hypertension and LV diastolic function has been established.

We read with interest the article entitled “Correlation of Left Ventricular Filling Characteristics With Right Ventricular Overload and Pulmonary Artery Pressure in Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension” published in the July 17, 2002, issue of the Journal [(1)][1]. Dr. Mahmud and his
A proposed optical system for implementing the novel super-fast image processing scheme: the LPED method

LPED method, or Local Polar Edge Detection method, is a novel method the author discovered and implemented in many image processing schemes in the last 3 years with 3 papers published in this and other SPIE national conferences. It uses a special real-time boundary extraction method applied to some binary images taken by an uncooled IR camera on some high temperature objects embedded in a cold environment background in the far field. The unique boundary shape of each high temperature object can then be used to construct a 36D analog vector (a 36 − “digit” number U, with each “digit” being a positive analog number of any magnitude). This 36D analog vector U then represents the ID code to identify this object possessing this particular boundary shape. Therefore, U may be used for tracking and targeting on this particular object when this object is moving very fast in a 2D space and criss-crossing with other fast moving objects embedded in the same field of view. The current paper will report a preliminary optical bench design of the optical system that will use the above developed soft-ware to construct a real-time, instant-detect, instant track, and automatic targeting high power laser gun system, for shooting down any spontaneously launched enemy surface-to-air-missiles from the near-by battle ground. It uses the total reflection phenomenon in the Wollastron beam combiner and real-time monitor screen auto-targeting and firing system to implement this “instant-detect, instant-kill, SAM killer system”.
Responses of tall fescue cultivars to an irrigation gradient

particularly in the Intermountain Region. This has led to an increased interest in upgrading privately owned Seasonal availability of water is a major consideration in the manpastures through more intensive management and use agement and selection of plant materials for irrigated pastures in the Intermountain West, USA. Objectives were to evaluate the forage of improved cultivars of perennial grasses. Essentially yield of 10 tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) strains and culti- no breeding work has been done to develop grass cultivars across five irrigation levels and to elucidate the effects of the vars for irrigated pastures in the western USA. In reendophytic fungus Neotyphodium coenophialum (Morgan-Jones & sponse to the need for grasses that are better adapted Gems) Glenn, Bacon & Hanlin on productivity and trends. A line- to these unique environmental conditions, the USDAsource irrigation system was used in a 2-yr study. Significant differ- ARS has initiated a breeding program to develop cultiences were detected among the tall fescue entries for dry matter yield vars of tall fescue for western irrigated pastures. (DMY), and differences were relatively consistent across water levels Tall fescue was introduced from Europe in the mid(WL) as indicated by the nonsignificant cultivar 3 WL interaction 1800s. Following its rapid expansion during the 1940s and significant correlations among WL. Trends in DMY across WL through the 1960s, it became the predominant coolwere largely curvilinear; however, linear trends were much more preseason perennial grass in the USA. It is particularly dominant during the late summer and fall. Stability parameters, based on regression of cultivar 3 WL 3 year means on their respective popular in the transition zone between the adaptative WL 3 year means, differed among cultivars in analyses including all areas of cool-season and warm-season grasses (Sleper harvests but were relatively uniform (b ∪ 1.0) for most cultivars later and West, 1996). Much of the popularity of tall fescue in the season. Differences in DMY between ‘Ky 31’ tall fescue infected can be attributed to its adaptation to a wide range of with the Neotyphodium endophyte and its endophyte-free counterpart soil, climatic, and management conditions. confirms earlier reports of the positive effect of this fungal organism on Tall fescue is a hexaploid (2n 5 6x 5 42) and crossforage yield in tall fescue, particularly in water-limited environments. fertilizing grass. Early breeding programs were based Seasonal distribution of yield was primarily determined by water on isolation of selected accessions or naturalized popuavailability during the late summer and fall. The relative consistency in lations. The release of two cultivars—Ky 31 and Alta— DMY of the cultivars across WL indicates that annual yield averaged were instrumental in the early expansion of the species
Pharmacy-specific quality indicators for asthma therapy.

Abstract Background Lack of appropriate drug therapy in asthma patients is a recognized quality problem leading to preventable emergency room visits, hospitalizations, or death. While indicators measuring pharmacotherapy quality on the level of prescribers and third party payers are widely used, no such indicators exist for pharmacies. Objective This study aimed to (1) develop quality indicators for asthma care applicable to retail pharmacies, (2) estimate the prevalence of inappropriate asthma drug therapy, and (3) explore variation in the quality of care across pharmacies. Methods We present a descriptive analysis of automated patient-specific dispensing data from February 1, 2000 to January 31, 2001 of beta-agonists and anti-inflammatory agents with a Food and Drug Administration–approved indication for asthma. Two quality indicators of potentially inappropriate drug therapy were applied: (1) the proportion of patients who obtained more than a 360-day supply (assuming maximum acceptable daily dose) of short-term beta-agonists (SABA) including all inhaler types, inhaler solutions, and syrups during the 12-month study and (2) the proportion of patients with 2 consecutive early refills of defined SABAs. Indicator values with 95% confidence intervals are reported for each pharmacy. Results Pharmacies had an average of 328 (range 169-534) patients who received SABAs. An average of 11 patients per pharmacy (3.4% of all patients who received SABAs) met the indicator 1 definition. The second indicator identified 8.2% (27) patients per pharmacy as short-term SABA overusers (range 3.9-11.9%). Of these, 48% did not receive any anti-inflammatory agents during the time frame when SABA overuse occurred. Conclusion Application of drug therapy quality indicators at the level of individual pharmacies using dispensing data is feasible and identifies opportunities for quality improvement. Indicator 2 is most appropriate for daily practice, because it allows for timely identification of potentially uncontrolled patients, and offers a balance between indicator sensitivity and positive predictive value.
Diurnal refuge-site selection by Brown Treesnakes ( Boiga irregularis ) on Guam

Diurnal refuge-site selection was studied in eleven free-ranging brown tree snakes ( Boiga irregularis ) in tropical forest on the island of Guam. These nocturnal and mostly arboreal snakes were tracked using implanted radio-transmitters. A vegetation survey of the study site was performed to determine if brown treesnakes non-randomly select certain plants for refuge-sites, and thermal profiles of representative refuge sites were obtained with Hobo data loggers. Brown treesnakes preferentially used Pandanus crowns for refuge-sites. Although Pandanus represents a small proportion (3.6%) of the forest, most snakes used Pandanus most of the time for refuge. The thermal characteristics of Pandanus were comparable to those of other refuge-sites. We speculate that features of Pandanus that provide basking opportunities and moist microhabitats may be important for brown treesnakes. As Pandanus is widely distributed throughout the natural range of the brown treesnake, this genus may represent an important refuge-site for this species.
Environmental Effects on Photoluminescence of Highly Luminescent CdSe and CdSe/ZnS Core/Shell Nanocrystals in Polymer Thin Films

We report our systematic studies of the environmental effects on the photoluminescence (PL) from colloidal CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in polymer thin films. The highly luminescent bare-core CdSe NCs were significantly more robust than the core/shell CdSe/ZnS NCs against photoannealing under inert environments, while the core/shell NCs are more resistant to photooxidation. For the case of bare-core NCs, we show the importance of the initial photoactivation as the proper treatment for subsequent studies, a step that is basically irrelevant in the case of core/shell NCs. By measuring the PL wavelength shift, PL line width, and PL intensity, we investigated the dynamic changes of the emission properties of these NCs under different environments, including argon, oxygen, air, water vapor, and wet oxygen, and under different excitation conductions to reveal the photoinduced nature of the interactions between the nanocrystal surface and the environment. Mechanisms related to photoactivation, photooxidation...
Financial and operational impact of a direct-from-PACU discharge pathway for laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients

Background We assessed the operational and financial impact of discharging laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) patients directly from the postanesthetic care unit (PACU) in comparison with post-transfer discharge from a hospital bed in a busy academic hospital. Methods We retrospectively compared 6 months of performance (bed utilization; recovery room and hospital length of stay; complications; readmissions; hospital costs, revenue, and margin) after implementation of PACU discharges (case patients) to the corresponding 6 months in the prior year (control patients). Results After implementation, 66% of LC case patients were discharged on the day of surgery, compared with 29% in the control group (P Conclusions PACU discharge of LC patients significantly reduces bed utilization, decreases in-hospital transfers, and allows congested hospitals to better accommodate patient care needs and generate additional revenue.
The asymmetry of sex-role perceptions

Women students rated themselves, their mothers, their fathers, their closest male peers, career women, and the perceptions of women they thought were held by their mothers, their fathers, and their closest male peers on twelve bipolar trait continua. Six scales were female-positive and six were male-positive. As hypothesized, the variability of the ratings was much greater on the male-positive scales than on the female-positive scales. The limited variability on the female-positive scales occurred because female-positive characteristics such as sensitivity, poise, and modesty tended to be attributed to all of the persons and perceptions of women being rated, while the ratings varied widely on the male-positive scales: Career women, fathers, and closest male peers were rated as aggressive, independent, dominant, and similar descriptions; selves and mothers were rated as neutral; and women were perceived to possess male-negative characteristics such as passivity, dependence, and submissiveness. Three groups were formed on the basis of the support for the aims of the women's liberation movement. The ratings by these groups interacted with some of the other variables.
Novel expert based approach to image analysis

The hands and minds of all painters are intimately involved in the creative process, making paintings intrinsically complex to analyze. Although tracing projected images is known to have become a common technique by the 19th century, earlier use of optics has been difficult to identify and analyze, hindered also by the lack of interaction between art historians and scientists. In spite of this difficulty, the painter David Hockney and I recently identified optical evidence within a number of paintings demonstrating artists as early as Jan van Eyck (c1425) used optical projections as aids for producing portions of their images. While making these discoveries, Hockney and I developed fundamentally new insights into image analysis. As discussed in this paper, I am now applying these new insights to problems in computerized image display and analysis.
Stereoselective Reactions of Allylic Hydroxy Phosphonates

The stereochemical outcome of the palladium catalyzed addition of nucleophiles to the carbonate derivative, the [3,3] rearrangement of the imidate and carbamate derivatives, and the epoxidation and cyclopropanation of hydroxy allylic phosphonates is presented.
THE RELATION BETWEEN ANTIANAPHYLAXIS AND ANTIBODY BALANCE : II. THE EFFECT OF SPECIFIC DESENSITIZATION UPON RESISTANCE TO INFECTION AND UPON ANTIBODY BALANCE.

It has been shown that antianaphylaxis is not caused by a partial saturation of cellular or humoral antibodies by the following facts. 1. Guinea pigs passively sensitized with anti-horse or antipneumococcus serum and specifically desensitized do not manifest as great a reactivity upon resensitization with the same antiserum as upon the original sensitization. 2. Guinea pigs passively sensitized with anti-Friedlander Type B serum or antipneumococcus Type II serum and specifically desensitized do not attain the same degree of reactivity as normal animals when passively sensitized with anti-horse serum. 3. Guinea pigs passively sensitized with anti-Friedlander Type B serum and desensitized with the specific carbohydrate remain as resistant to infection with Friedlander's bacillus Type B as undesensitized guinea pigs. Since in this case, at least, it is agreed that type-specific immunity and type-specific hypersensitiveness are due to the same type-specific antibody, a change in anaphylactic response should be accompanied by a change in immune response, provided this change depends on antibody balance. 4. A determination of the antibody content of the serum of sensitized as well as of desensitized guinea pigs by mouse protection tests indicates that a loss of reactivity in desensitized animals cannot be adequately accounted for on the basis of depletion of circulating antibody. These experiments suggest that hypersensitiveness and resistance are different manifestations of the same antigen-antibody reaction while antianaphylaxis is a state of refractoriness which is due neither to excess of circulating antibody nor to antibody depletion, but is the result of secondary changes the true nature of which is still not definitely established.
Increasing the Mode-Spacing of Stabilized Frequency Combs with Optical Filter Cavities

We explore methods and limitations for increasing the mode spacing of a 1 GHz optical frequency comb using a Fabry-Perot filter cavity. Applications to optical and microwave waveform generation are highlighted.
Thermal Infrared Exploitation for 3D Face Reconstruction

Despite the advances in face recognition research, current face recognition systems are still not accurate or robust enough to be deployed in uncontrolled environments. The existence of a pose and illumination invariant face recognition system is still lacking. This research exploits the relationship between thermal infrared and visible imagery, to estimate 3D face with visible texture from infrared imagery. The relationship between visible and thermal infrared texture is learned using kernel canonical correlation analysis(KCCA), and then a 3D modeler is used to estimate the geometric structure from predicted visual imagery. This research will find it's application in uncontrolled environments where illumination and pose invariant identification or tracking is required at long range such as urban search and rescue (Amber alert, missing dementia patient), and manhunt scenarios.
Transplantation characteristics of murine neoplasms after long-term frozen storage.

Abstract Freezing of 34 murine neoplasms for 9 to 12 years in liquid nitrogen showed that (1) all the tumor lines were viable, although the mean survival time (MST) of 16 of these lines was prolonged when the neoplasms were injected directly from the frozen ampule into the appropriate recipients, (2) in most instances, when those lines with prolonged MST when injected from ampule to animal were then injected into a second generation of animals, the MST was similar to or lower than that seen after 1 hr of freezing, (3) and all tumor lines made resistant to chemotherapeutic agents remained resistant to these agents.
Hetereogeneity in skeletal response to full-length parathyroid hormone in the treatment of osteoporosis

In the PaTH trial, among the 119 women randomized to parathyroid hormone PTH(1–84) and 60 to alendronate, we found much greater variation in BMD and markers in response to PTH(1–84) compared to alendronate. No baseline participant characteristic consistently predicted increased bone density response to PTH(1–84), although women with larger changes in 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D during therapy had larger increases in BMD. We examined variability in BMD and markers of bone turnover in response to treatment with PTH(1–84) or alendronate in the PaTH trial. Differences in SD were examined using Levine’s test for homogeneity of variance. Change in BMD across quartiles of participant characteristics was examined using ANOVA. We found much greater variation in response to PTH(1–84) compared to alendronate. The SD for change in cancellous spine BMD (by QCT) was 32% on PTH(1–84) compared to 13% on alendronate (p < 0.0001). The higher variability in the PTH(1–84) group was due to substantial numbers of women with large increases in BMD on PTH(1–84). Similarly, the SD of changes in markers of formation and resorption were significantly higher on PTH(1–84) than on ALN. No baseline participant characteristics predicted increased bone density response to PTH(1–84) therapy. However, change in 1,25-OH2D explained 16% of the variance in BMD response to PTH(1–84). There is significant variability in the skeletal response to PTH(1–84), which exceeds that observed with alendronate. Changes in 1,25-OH2D were related to larger gains in BMD. This finding may have implications for elucidating either the pathway by which PTH affects the skeleton or traits that result in particular responsiveness to PTH therapy.
Light induced changes in anthocyanin concentration, activity of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and flavanone synthase and some of their properties in Brassica oleracea

Abstract Seedlings of red cabbage, Brassica oleracea cv Red Danish, germinated in the dark, rapidly produced anthocyanins upon illumination. The anthocyanin production increased up to six days of illumination time. The activity of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase increased rapidly in illuminated seedlings to a maximum at 8 hr and declined thereafter to dark levels. During this period the activity of flavanone synthase, the first enzyme responsible for the establishment of C15 flavonoid skeleton, paralleled that of the anthocyanin concentration. The crude flavanone synthase has a pH optimum at around 8, a molecular weight of ca 120 000, and is able to utilize only p-coumaryl-CoA as co-substrate for the production of flavonoids.
Acid-catalyzed oxygen-transfer reactions of ortho-alkenyldimethylbenzylamine oxides

Several ortho-alkenyldimethylbenzylamine oxides were found to rearrange in strong acid media to mixtures of aminophthalans and conjugated aminoketones
Preclinical Evaluation of Engineered Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus for the Treatment of Neuroblastoma

Despite intensive research efforts and therapeutic advances over the last few decades, the pediatric neural crest tumor, neuroblastoma, continues to be responsible for over 15% of pediatric cancer deaths. Novel therapeutic options are needed for this tumor. Recently, investigators have shown that mice with syngeneic murine gliomas treated with an engineered, neuroattenuated oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 (oHSV), M002, had a significant increase in survival. M002 has deletions in both copies of the γ134.5 gene, enabling replication in tumor cells but precluding infection of normal neural cells. We hypothesized that M002 would also be effective in the neural crest tumor, neuroblastoma. We showed that M002 infected, replicated, and decreased survival in neuroblastoma cell lines. In addition, we showed that in murine xenografts, treatment with M002 significantly decreased tumor growth, and that this effect was augmented with the addition of ionizing radiation. Importantly, survival could be increased by subsequent doses of radiation without re-dosing of the virus. Finally, these studies showed that the primary entry protein for oHSV, CD111 was expressed by numerous neuroblastoma cell lines and was also present in human neuroblastoma specimens. We concluded that M002 effectively targeted neuroblastoma and that this oHSV may have potential for use in children with unresponsive or relapsed neuroblastoma.
Damage-coupled FLD of Sheet Metals for Warm Forming and Nonproportional Loading

A method of forming limit prediction for sheet metals at high tem- peratures and under nonproportional loading is presented. The method takes into account the strain-softening behaviors of the material at elevated temperatures. A localized necking criterion based on an isotropic damage-coupled acoustic tensor is developed and employed to determine the forming limits of strain-softening materials. The damage evolution equation is developed within the thermo-mechan- ical framework. A closed-form expression of the forming limit strains is derived by coupling the damage evolution equation into the localized necking criterion. A com- puter program, incorporating the incremental theory of plasticity, the damage evo- lution equation and the localized necking criterion, is developed to compute the forming limit strains under several nonproportional loading paths. A series of the uniaxial tensile tests is performed to measure the relevant mechanical properties of AA6061 at the elevated temperature of 450 � C. The material damage variables are determined from the measured elastic modulii from a series of loading and unloading paths. The damage evolution equation of AA6061 at 450 � C is formulated based on the test data. The computed limit strains are compared with the test results under various loading paths and a good agreement is observed. It is found that the critical damage value is independent on the stress states and loading paths. It may be con- cluded that the application of the material damage as a reliable criterion of localized necking including the nonproportional loading cases.
ROMAN OPINIONS ABOUT THE TRUTHFULNESS OF DREAMS

Let us start by considering a remarkable text. At the very beginning of the second half of his account of the reign of Nero, Tacitus tells at some length a tale about the emperor and a dream (Ann. 16.1-3): one Caesellius Bassus, ‘origine Poenus, mente turbida’, dreamt that there was a cavern full of treasure on his estates. He was so confident about the dream that (without identifying the cavern) he sailed from Africa to Rome, where he convinced the emperor; Nero accordingly expected new revenue and spent still more extravagantly. Later, before the disappointed and desperate Caesellius committed suicide, ‘posita vaecordia’, he expressed surprise, claiming that his dreams had never before been false (‘non falsa antea somnia sua … admirans’). An alternative version said that he did not commit suicide but merely had his property confiscated. Tacitus is in any case most disapproving, and tells the story at unusual length with the obvious intention of suggesting that Nero was as insane as Caesellius.
Detecting OOV Names in Arabic Handwritten Data

This paper presents a novel approach to detect Arabic OOV names from OCR'ed handwritten documents. In our approach, OOV names are searched for using approximate string match on character consensus networks (cnets). The retrieved regions are re-ranked using novel features representing the quality of the match and the likelihood of the detected region to be an OOV name. Our features that encode word boundary information into the approximate match algorithm significantly improve mean average precision (MAP) by 12.2% (absolute gains) for rank cut-off 100 (48.2% vs. 36.0%) and 11.9% for cut-off 1000 (47.0% vs. 35.1%) over the baseline system. Discriminative reranking based on maximum entropy classification using novel features, such as the probability of a retrieved region being an OOV name (called OOV name probability) from a conditional random field model, further improve MAP by 2.3% (absolute gains) for cut-off 100 and 3.0% for cut-off 1000. The improvements are consistent in DET (Detection Error Tradeoff) curves. Our results show that character cnet based OOV name search benefits clearly from the approximate match using word boundary information and the reranking algorithm. Our experiments also show that OOV name probability is very useful for reranking.