cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
FDG PET/CT in monitoring neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in cervical cancer patients

1853 Objectives To Evaluate FDG PET/CT in predicting the response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy(NAC) with palclitaxel combining cisplatin in cervical cancer patients. Methods Eleven new diagnosed cervical cancer patients (mean age 50.5±5.8 years) with FIGO stage Ib2 to IIA, who received 3 cycles of NAC, underwent PET/CT scans at baseline, after 2nd cycles, and the end of NAC. SUVmax of FDG PET/CT was calculated. SUVmax percentage changes between baseline and after 2nd cycles (ΔSUVmax(2nd cycle-baseline)), and between baseline and the end (ΔSUVmax(end-baseline))of NAC were compared with the pathologic response. Results 3 patients were considered pathologic response group (1 no residual tumor and 2 only microscopic diseases), and 8 patients were pathologic macroscopic disease. Cutoff ΔSUVmax(2nd cycle-baseline) value was 35% for predicting pathologic macroscopic disease from pathologic response group, with a sensitivity of 75%, a specificity of 100%, a positive predictive value of 100%, negative predictive value of 60%, and accuracy of 81.2%. And 75% cutoff ΔSUVmax(end-baseline) value for predicting pathologic macroscopic disease showed a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 33.3%, a positive predictive value of 80%, negative predictive value of 100%, and accuracy of 81.2%. Conclusions Metabolic response by FDG PET/CT at early stage can predict the pathologic macroscopic disease group, who ΔSUVmax(baseline-2nd cycle) Research Support This study was supported by grants CMRPG381121 from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linko
Newly Identified Retrotransposons of the Ty3/gypsy Class in Fungi, Plants, and Vertebrates

Long terminal repeat (LTR)-containing retrotransposons (LTR-retrotransposons) are a large class of interspersed repeats that multiply by a process that includes reverse transcription. The sequence similarities of LTR-retroelements have allowed several laboratories to characterize the phylogenetic relationships. The most significant regions of homology are seven motifs in reverse transcriptase (RT). Extensive analysis of the sequences among LTR-elements revealed two principal classes of LTR-retrotransposons that are named for their founding members discovered in yeast and drosophila, Ty3/gypsy and Ty1/copia. The phylogenetic analyses also suggest that the Ty3/gypsy class of retrotransposons is more closely related to the retrovirus family than is the Ty1/copia group. The study of transposons in complex hosts such as plants reveals qualitative differences in the population of elements compared with those in single-cell organisms. The vertebrate transposons are a sister clade to several groups of Ty3/gypsy elements from fungal and plant hosts. This relationship may be due to a horizontal transmission event between either fungi or plants and an early species of vertebrate. An alternative model for the evolution of env genes in retroviruses, errantiviruses, and members of the copia and BEL families is that the third open reading frame (ORF) originated independently in each of these classes. It may be that much of the success of LTR-retroelements is that, early in their evolution, they developed a replication pathway and a structure that readily adapts to the introduction of env-like genes.
Insect pest management in rice in the United States.

Rice is grown in the United States in varied locations where local environmental conditions impact cultural practices and insect diversity and abundance. Each location harbors a unique complex of insect pests which attack rice from seeding to harvest. However, the key insect pests are the rice water weevil (Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus), distributed throughout the rice growing areas of the United States, and the rice stink bug (Oebalus pugax), found only in the southern rice producing states. Insecticides are the main tactics of control but research is underway to develop alternative methods. Economic thresholds have been developed for these and other pests but research continues to refine the damage/insect density relationships in light of new high yielding varieties, associated cultural practices, and complex government subsidy programs. Entomologists must cooperate with researchers in other disciplines to solve these complicated problems and make the most of limited research dollars.
Samoan adolescents in American Samoa and Hawai'i: Comparison of youth violence and youth development indicators: A study by the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center

Abstract Samoan youths are critically under-studied in research on youth violence prevention and adolescent development. When Samoan adolescents are included in research investigations, they are typically obscured into the much larger aggregated categories of “Pacific Islanders” or “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” The present study is one of the first to examine Samoans exclusively and compare the differences between Samoan youths residing in American Samoa and those residing in Hawaiʻi. In an effort to gauge the acculturative processes of adolescents in American Samoan and Hawaiʻi, the present study compared these two groups' self-reports of violence, substance use, grade-point average, scholastic aspirations, importance of religion, ethnic identity, parenting discipline style, and family support. Overall, the results indicated higher rates among Samoan adolescents in Hawaiʻi as compared to those in American Samoa on one violence item and on substance use indicators (i.e., alcohol and marijuana). Samoan adolescents in American Samoa also reported higher levels of protective factors related to the importance of religion (especially for girls), ethnic identity, and family support. However, Samoan adolescents in Hawaiʻi had higher scholastic aspirations than those in American Samoa, despite having lower grade-point averages. In general, Samoan students who did not self-report engaging in violence had higher rates of protective factors as compared to those who indicated engaging in violence. Statistically significant interactions reflected more complex effects. The implications of these findings in conjunction with the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) are discussed in the context of Samoan culture, acculturation, and youth development.
Entanglement Hamiltonians for Chiral Fermions with Zero Modes

In this Letter, we study the effect of topological zero modes on entanglement Hamiltonians and the entropy of free chiral fermions in (1+1)D. We show how Riemann-Hilbert solutions combined with finite rank perturbation theory allow us to obtain exact expressions for entanglement Hamiltonians. In the absence of the zero mode, the resulting entanglement Hamiltonians consist of local and bilocal terms. In the periodic sector, the presence of a zero mode leads to an additional nonlocal contribution to the entanglement Hamiltonian. We derive an exact expression for this term and for the resulting change in the entanglement entropy.
Seasonal Variation in Space Use by Nonbreeding Bald Eagles Within the Upper Chesapeake Bay

Abstract Access to food resources is essential to self-maintenance and reproduction and, for species of conservation concern, foraging areas are considered critical habitat. Human disturbance is an important factor restricting access to prey resources for Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and guidelines in the Chesapeake Bay have been developed to mitigate its impact. However, our ability to implement such guidelines has been limited by a lack of information on important foraging areas. We used Brownian bridge movement modeling to develop a population-wide utilization probability surface for Bald Eagles along shorelines within the upper Chesapeake Bay. We used locations (n = 320 304) for individuals (n = 63) tracked with GPS satellite transmitters between 2007 and 2011 in the analysis. We examined seasonal variation by developing utilization surfaces for summer and winter. Although shoreline use was widespread, segments receiving high levels of activity were relatively rare. Shoreline classified ...
Improving Attack Graph Visualization through Data Reduction and Attack Grouping

Various tools exist to analyze enterprise network systems and to produce attack graphs detailing how attackers might penetrate into the system. These attack graphs, however, are often complex and difficult to comprehend fully, and a human user may find it problematic to reach appropriate configuration decisions. This paper presents methodologies that can 1) automatically identify portions of an attack graph that do not help a user to understand the core security problems and so can be trimmed, and 2) automatically group similar attack steps as virtual nodes in a model of the network topology, to immediately increase the understandability of the data. We believe both methods are important steps toward improving visualization of attack graphs to make them more useful in configuration management for large enterprise networks. We implemented our methods using one of the existing attack-graph toolkits. Initial experimentation shows that the proposed approaches can 1) significantly reduce the complexity of attack graphs by trimming a large portion of the graph that is not needed for a user to understand the security problem, and 2) significantly increase the accessibility and understandability of the data presented in the attack graph by clearly showing, within a generated visualization of the network topology, the number and type of potential attacks to which each host is exposed.
Toward the comprehensive spectrochemical imaging of painted works of art: a new instrumental approach

This paper introduces novel technologies that will be instrumental in the development of new methods for the Raman spectrochemical imaging of painted works of art. We show that second-derivative preprocessing diminishes interference from fluorescence. Normalization and mean-centering of such second-derivative spectra cast them in the form of unit vectors, the displacement of which from library standards serves as a basis for the instantaneous on-line identification of artistic pigments and binders. Multivariate measures of displacement are shown to function well in difficult cases such as spectrally similar fatty acid media and pigments diluted to varying degrees in uncharacterized binders. A self-calibrating technique for background subtraction extracts pure component spectra from pigment–acrylic mixtures. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Methods of estimating ungulate populations in tropical forests

Summary Pellet group counts, drive counts and track counts were used to estimate population abundances of one small and four large species of duiker (Cephalophus sp.) in a moist evergreen forest in northeastern Zaire. Procedures to develop estimates based on line transect counts of pellet groups are described. The Fourier Series estimator proved to be useful for estimating densities of pellet groups. Comparisons were made between population abundance in heavily and lightly hunted areas, and between small and large species. The three census methods were consistent in showing no significant difference between animal abundance in the hunted populations or between abundances of the smaller species relative to the larger species. All methods showed potential as population indices for assessing trends of rare and elusive species in forest environments. Drive counts and pellet group counts may also be useful for estimating densities.
Analysis of the gut microbiota in the old order Amish and its relation to the metabolic syndrome.

Obesity has been linked to the human gut microbiota; however, the contribution of gut bacterial species to the obese phenotype remains controversial because of conflicting results from studies in different populations. To explore the possible dysbiosis of gut microbiota in obesity and its metabolic complications, we studied men and women over a range of body mass indices from the Old Order Amish sect, a culturally homogeneous Caucasian population of Central European ancestry. We characterized the gut microbiota in 310 subjects by deep pyrosequencing of bar-coded PCR amplicons from the V1–V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Three communities of interacting bacteria were identified in the gut microbiota, analogous to previously identified gut enterotypes. Neither BMI nor any metabolic syndrome trait was associated with a particular gut community. Network analysis identified twenty-two bacterial species and four OTUs that were either positively or inversely correlated with metabolic syndrome traits, suggesting that certain members of the gut microbiota may play a role in these metabolic derangements.
‘The first step is the two‐step’: hegemonic masculinity and dancing in a country‐western gay bar

Gay men are often rendered feminized males according to masculine, heterosexual ideologies. This research demonstrates that gay men are actually more creative and active agents in their gender performance, simultaneously resisting and reinforcing dominant ideologies around gender and sexuality. One context where the creative agency of gay men is readily prevalent is in their leisure. Leisure contexts, used to shift the goalposts of cultural domination, are important locations where both social control of individuals and social strategies for change are prevalent. Using ethnographic methods, the author investigated a country‐western gay bar to identify those practices that reveal how gay men shape and assign meaning to the bar as a leisure context, the structures that exist to facilitate and/or prohibit gendered practices, and how gay men negotiate hegemonic and counter‐hegemonic gendered practices. This paper focuses on two‐step dancing, the most visible and popular activity that occurs in this country‐we...
Demonstration of Optically-Induced Three-Dimensional Photonic Lattices and Enhanced Discrete Diffraction

We report on the first experimental demonstration of reconfigurable three-dimensional photonic lattices by employing the optical induction technique. Enhanced discrete diffraction due to the waveguide modulation and coupling in such 3-D lattices is successfully observed.
The use of fluorescence markers to record prosthetic wear patterns

An application of fluorescence photography to demonstrate wear of the articulating surfaces of prosthetic hip joints. The physical nature and design of the hip prosthesis present considerable lighting difficulties when using conventional lighting methods to record fine abrasions on the articular surface--in particular, specular reflections from the light source. A fluorescent technique, using a fluorescent powder, was used to document wear patterns. This paper describes the technique of applying a fluorescent material to the articular surface of both the cup and the stem of a used prosthetic joint. The excess material is removed, leaving miniature particles lodged within the fine abrasions of the worn surface. The residue is irradiated with an ultraviolet (UV) source and the resultant fluorescence recorded onto conventional black and white film.
Sodium channels in the axolemma of unmyelinated axons: a new estimate

Abstract The saturable uptake of tritium-labeled saxitoxin by the rat left cervical sympathetic trunk, which consists almost entirely of unmyelinated fibers, indicates that the density of sodium channels on the axolemma of these fibers is about 200 channels/μm2.
Body size and the control of heat exchange in alligators

Abstract 1. 1.|The ratio of rates of heating and cooling in American alligators in maximum at a body mass of about 5 kg. 2. 2.|There may be an optimum body size for the control of heat exchange by blood flow in American alligators.
Lucent Figs and Suave Veal Chops: Sylvia Plath and Food

In popular mythology, poet Sylvia Plath is regarded as a tragic suicide and/or a feminist martyr. If you read her journals and letters, though, you learn that she loved to cook, loved to eat, and often devoted as much time to preparing meals for her husband Ted Hughes as she did to her writing. Cooking was, in fact, often a convenient distraction when she had writer's block, or did not want to prepare classes for teaching, or when she was pregnant and longed for no more intellectual challenge than reading recipes from her beloved Joy of Cooking or The Ladies’’ Home Journal . Plath's huge appetite and enjoyment of food and eating are evident in her sensuous descriptions of meals that sometimes resemble Keats's poetry for their voluptuous appreciation of textures, shapes, colors, tastes, and ambiance. Plath's investment in the role of domestic goddess came to an abrupt end with the breakup of her marriage. The final pages of the article explore Plath's underlying skepticism toward the traditional role of women she had outwardly seemed to embrace so enthusiastically. The Bell Jar 's heroine, Esther Greenwood, has a jaundiced view of love and marriage and falls ill of food-poisoning at a banquet prepared by Food Testing Kitchens at a magazine that sounds suspiciously like The Ladies’’ Home Journal . Poems in Ariel portray cooking as dangerous and kitchens as either scary or suffocating for women. In conclusion, the article looks at what we know about Plath's final days, where testimony confirming her hearty appetite seems oddly incongruous with evidence about the depth of her despair.
Chaos, spins and symmetries in nuclear structure

A pedagogic introduction to recent developments in “many-body quantum chaos” complicated dynamics at high level density in a finite quantum system with strong interaction between constituents, is given. Topics relating chaotic dynamics to the concept of symmetry are discussed: spectral statistics, extreme sensitivity to perturbations violating the symmetry, correlations between the states of different symmetry, and many examples of applications to nuclear structure. One of manifestations is the striking predominance of ground states with zero spin in a system with arbitrary but rotationally invariant two-body interactions.
A sequence of computing courses for liberal arts colleges

Techniques such as structured programming and the use of a restricted set of control structures have transformed computer programming into a well-understood discipline. A sequence of courses in computing based on these principles has been developed and is described in this paper. The teaching of general principles of computing is in keeping with the liberal arts philosophy which stresses general ideas rather than specific applications.
Impact of Environmental Justice on Transportation: Applying Environmental Justice Maturation Model to Benchmark Progress

Presidential Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice (EJ) was signed in 1994, and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued regulatory guidelines for addressing EJ in transportation in 1997. Transportation agencies have since adopted a range of policies, programs, and activities to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects of their policies, programs, and activities on minority and low-income populations. On the basis of the relevant literature and structured interviews, this paper assesses how state DOTs are addressing EJ issues in their decision-making processes and identifies common and effective practices. The results show that several state DOTs have implemented public involvement programs and other procedures to assess the burdens of transportation investment. However, fewer agencies assess the equity of benefits, fewer assess outcomes of EJ actions, and fewer still link EJ analysis outcomes with future funding and policy decision...
Satellite radar altimetry

A brief review of the historical development and principles of satellite radar altimetry is presented, with special emphasis on the unique capability of the microwave altimeter to provide valuable information for global geoscientific studies. Altimeter data over the ocean are used to monitor mean sea levels, wave height, wind speeds, and surface topographical features. Over the ice sheets, the altimeter data are used to produce surface elevation maps, while repeated measurements are used to monitor volume changes. The success of earlier altimeter mission has promoted the development of future missions that will provide more accurate data sets. >
Degenerate four-wave mixing spectra in a two-level atomic system with phase-modulated time-delayed coherent fields

We study phase-conjugate degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) in an optically pumped, two-level atomic system (the 3s {sup 2}S{sub 1/2}, F=2, m{sub F}=2{yields}3p {sup 2}P{sub 3/2}, F=3, m{sub F}=3 transition in a diffuse, collision-free, thermal beam of sodium) using phase-modulated laser beams. In this investigation, we study the detailed line shape of the four-wave mixing signal as a function of the temporal delay between the probe field and the pump fields at different intensities of the cw pump waves and modulation frequencies. We show that phase modulation of the pump and probe beams leads to strong amplitude modulation of the phase-conjugate beam and report excellent agreement between our experimental observations of the DFWM spectra and the results of numerical calculations. Our numerical results suggest an enhancement of the 'local' DFWM signal when the sidebands of the phase-modulated laser are resonant with dressed-state transitions, but that this resonance is less obvious in the total signal generated. We also show that the complex line shapes depend sensitively upon the delay of the probe beam, with the peak DFWM signal occurring when the probe beam is advanced compared to the pump beam.
Interference detection and optimal tool selection in 3-axis NC machining of free-form surfaces

This paper presents a systematic tool-path generation methodology which incorporates interference detection and optimal tool selection for machining free-form surfaces on 3-axis CNC machines using ball-end cutters. In this method, the global and local interference is first detected and prevented, and then the optimal tools in terms of machining time are selected and tool paths are generated. A system of five algorithms is developed to determine the interference area. On the basis of these algorithms, the machining time of each available tool is estimated by considering tool size, scallop height, and accessible surface area. Finally, the combination of tools which possesses the minimum overall machining time is selected as the optimal tool sizes. Our case study has demonstrated the validity of the proposed methodology and algorithms.
Alterations in [3H]‐kainate receptor binding in the hippocampal formation of aged long‐evans rats

The present study used in vitro autoradiography to examine the density of [3H]-kainate (KA) binding in subregions of the hippocampal formation and certain cortical areas in young (7-8 months) and aged (27-29 months) Long-Evans rats. In addition, the topography of KA binding in the dentate molecular layer was examined for evidence of reactive reorganization in the aged brain. This investigation of age-related changes in [3H]-KA binding included correlations with the animals' spatial learning performance in a Morris water maze. The results showed an age-related decrease in the density of [3H]-KA binding in several regions of the hippocampal formation (CA3, CA1, hilus) and within related cortical areas (subicular complex, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex). In addition, an expanded zone of KA binding in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus was observed in the aged group. This expansion of KA binding may reflect sprouting due to a loss of perforant path input to the dentate. The results of additional correlational analyses, however, indicated that these changes in the density and topography of [3H]-KA binding were not strongly correlated with a decline in place learning ability.
Toward global optimization of neural networks: a comparison of the genetic algorithm and backpropagation

Abstract The recent surge in activity of neural network research in business is not surprising since the underlying functions controlling business data are generally unknown and the neural network offers a tool that can approximate the unknown function to any degree of desired accuracy. The vast majority of these studies rely on a gradient algorithm, typically a variation of backpropagation, to obtain the parameters (weights) of the model. The well-known limitations of gradient search techniques applied to complex nonlinear optimization problems such as artificial neural networks have often resulted in inconsistent and unpredictable performance. Many researchers have attempted to address the problems associated with the training algorithm by imposing constraints on the search space or by restructuring the architecture of the neural network. In this paper we demonstrate that such constraints and restructuring are unnecessary if a sufficiently complex initial architecture and an appropriate global search algorithm is used. We further show that the genetic algorithm cannot only serve as a global search algorithm but by appropriately defining the objective function it can simultaneously achieve a parsimonious architecture. The value of using the genetic algorithm over backpropagation for neural network optimization is illustrated through a Monte Carlo study which compares each algorithm on in-sample, interpolation, and extrapolation data for seven test functions.
Epstein-barr virus detection in neck metastases by polymerase chain reaction

Cervical nodal metastasis from occult carcinomas represents a diagnostic challenge. This is a common presentation of undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (UNPC), but metastatic carcinomas from other sites must be considered. UNPC has the distinguishing feature of a close association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Since the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can detect EBV in archival tissues, it offers significant advantages over previous methods for the detection of viral genomes. Its extreme sensitivity allows analysis of small samples from needle aspirates. Using the polymerase chain reaction to amplify EBV sequences from archival tissues, 15 of 18 NPC samples were positive for EBV. Of these 18, 14 of 14 with UNPC were positive, 1 of 2 with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were positive, and 10 of 2 with adenocarcinoma were positive. All 6 UNPC metastatic to lymph nodes were positive. Carcinoma metastatic to cervical nodes from 17 of 17 non-UNPC occult primaries lacked EBV. This demonstrates the utility of EBV detection by the polymerase chain reaction in the evaluation of patients with metastases to neck nodes from occult primary carcinomas in order to identify cases of UNPC.
Neurogranin and synaptic plasticity balance

Learning-related modifications of synaptic transmission at CA1 hippocampal excitatory synapses are activity- and NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-dependent. While a postsynaptic increase in Ca(2+) is absolutely required for synaptic plasticity induction, the molecular mechanisms underlying the transduction of synaptic signals to postsynaptic changes are not clearly understood. In our recent study, we found that the postsynaptic calmodulin (CaM)-binding protein neurogranin (Ng) enhances synaptic strength in an activity- and NMDAR-dependent manner. Furthermore we have shown that Ng is not only required for the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP), but its mediated synaptic potentiation also mimics and occludes LTP. Our results demonstrate that Ng plays an important role in the regulation of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and synaptic function. Here, we summarize our findings and further discuss their possible implications in aging-related synaptic plasticity deficits.
Cephalometric evaluation of a labial vestibular extension procedure

Abstract Oriented lateral cephalometric roentgenograms proved to be satisfactory in the evaluation of the results of a new vestibular extension procedure used on 6 subjects. The surgical procedure involved repositioning of the mentalis and incisive muscles with fixation in the new position by sutures and a splint. This procedure obtained primary healing with little or no scar in the depth of the vestibule. Results after 6 months, with the lip in a relaxed position, showed an increased vestibular depth ranging from 4.5 to 12.1 mm., with a mean gain of 7.0 mm. The results with the lip in a functional position showed an increased depth ranging from 5.6 to 9.4 mm., with a mean gain of 7.1 mm. Thus, there was a significant increase in vestibular depth as a result of operation which was maintained over a 6-month period.
Superior efficacy but higher cost of plerixafor and abbreviated-course G-CSF for mobilizing hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) in AL amyloidosis.

Superior efficacy but higher cost of plerixafor and abbreviated-course G-CSF for mobilizing hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) in AL amyloidosis
Disposition of histamine, its metabolites, and pros-methylimidazoleacetic acid in brain regions of rats chronically infused with α-fluoromethylhistidine

In mammalian brain, histamine is known to be metabolized solely by histamine methyltransferase (HMT), forming tele-methylhistamine (t-MH), then tele-methylimidazoleacetic acid (t-MIAA). We previously showed that imidazoleacetic acid (IAA), a GABA agonist, and histamine's metabolite in the periphery, is present in brain where its concentration increased after inhibition of HMT. Also, when [3H]histamine was given intracerebro-ventricularly to rats, a portion was converted to IAA, a process increased by inhibition of HMT. These results indicated that brain has the capacity to oxidize histamine but did not show whether this pathway is operative under physiological conditions. To address this question, rats were infused for > 4 weeks with alpha-fluoromethylhistidine (alpha-FMHis), an irreversible inhibitor of histamine's synthetic enzyme, L-histidine decarboxylase. Compared with controls (untreated and saline-treated rats), brain levels of histamine, t-MH, and t-MIAA in all regions were markedly reduced in treated rats. As a percentage of controls, depletion of t-MIAA > t-MH > histamine in all regions, and regional depletions of histamine co-responded to its turnover rates in regions of rat brain. In contrast, levels of IAA were unchanged as were levels of pros-methylimidazoleacetic acid, an isomer of t-MIAA unrelated to histamine metabolism. Results suggest that in brains of rats, unlike in the periphery, most IAA may not normally derive from histamine. Because histamine in brain can be converted to IAA under certain conditions, direct oxidation of histamine may be a conditional phenomenon. Our results also support the existence of a very slow turnover pool of brain histamine and use of chronic alpha-FMHis infusion as a model to probe the histaminergic system in brain.
A Comparison of Texts and their Summaries: Memorial Consequences.

Chapters from college textbooks in diverse fields were compared with summaries constructed to convey the main points. A series of studies demonstrate consistent advantages for summaries. Summaries maintained their advantages at retention intervals of 20 minutes, 1 week, and 6 to 12 months. Summaries were superior both for questions directly taken from the text and for inference questions that required the subject to combine facts that had been studied. A transfer task looked at ability to learn new, related material as a function of how the previous material was learned. Summaries yielded better transfer. Reaction time differences showed the same pattern as percentage correct. Summaries maintained their superiority even when the main points in the text were underlined.
Performance evaluation of on-site colorimetric air sampling techniques.

(2001). Performance Evaluation of On-Site Colorimetric Air Sampling Techniques. Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene: Vol. 16, No. 12, pp. 1092-1096.
Control variates for screening, selection, and estimation of the best

Ranking and selection procedures (R&S) were developed by statisticians to search for the best among a small collection of populations or treatments, where the “best” treatment is typically the one with the largest or smallest expected(long-run average) response. R&S procedures have been successfully extended to address situations that are encountered in stochastic simulation of alternative system designs, including unequal variances across alternatives, dependence both within the output of each system and across the outputs from alternative systems, and large numbers of alternatives to compare. In nearly all cases the estimator of the expected response is a (perhaps generalized) sample mean of the output of interest. In this article we derive R&S procedures that employ control-variate estimators instead of sample means. Control variates can be much more statistically efficient than sample means, leading to R&S procedures that are correspondingly more efficient. We also consider the related problem of estimating the expected value of the best (as opposed to the selected) system design.
Vitamin E analytical procedure for cottonseed and its products.

A procedure for the analysis of cottonseed and its products for Vitamin E has been developed and improved. The present procedure generally gives good checks on duplicate analyses.
Effect of pregnancy on uterine and carotid artery response to norepinephrine, epinephrine, and phenylephrine in vessels with documented functional endothelium.

The effect of pregnancy on arterial sensitivity to vasoconstrictors is controversial. Some of the controversy may reflect methodologic differences. Vessel reactivity in vitro is altered by both the tension placed on the segment and the presence or absence of functional endothelium. We investigated the effect of pregnancy on guinea pig uterine and carotid arteries to norepinephrine, epinephrine, and phenylephrine. Each vessel segment was stretched to the optimal point along its length-tension curve, and functional endothelium was documented by acetylcholine-stimulated relaxation. A significant dose-response relationship was observed in each vessel for each agent (each p
Review of an article: Statin use and risk of diabetes mellitus in postmenopausal women in the Women's Initiative (2012). Culver AL, Ockene IS, Balasubramanian R, et al. (Arch Intern Med 2012;172(2):144-52)

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) conducted an observational study from 1993 to 1998 at 40 clinical centers to investigate whether the incidence of new onset diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with statin use among postmenopausal women. The WHI recruited 161 808 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years with ongoing follow-up. Statin use was captured at enrollment and year 3 in the study. Diabetes status was captured at enrollment and annually. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the risk of DM by statin use, with adjustments for propensity score and other confounding effects of other factors. To uncover effect modification, subgroups analyses were completed for race/ethnicity, obesity status and age group. At baseline there was no missing data in 153 840 women without DM. In this study 7.04% reported taking statin medication. There were 10,242 incident cases of self-reported DM over 1,004,466 person-years of follow-up. Statin use at baseline was associated with an increased risk of DM. This association remained after adjusting for other potential cofounders and was observed for all types of statin medications. The authors concluded the statin medication use in postmenopausal women is associated with an increased risk for DM. They suggest this risk may be a medication class effect. The authors recommend further study by type and dose of statin may reveal varying risk levels for new-onset DM in postmonopausal women.
Search for extinct natural radioactivity of 205Pb via thallium-isotope anomalies in chondrites and lunar soil

Thallium and Pb204 contents were determined by stable-isotope-dilution analysis in 16 chondrites, one achondrite, and Apollo 11 and 12 lunar fines. Meteoritic thallium contents vary over a large range, 0.02 to 100 ppb, corresponding to the fact that thallium is a highly fractionated volatile element. Lunar thallium contents are less than 5 ppb. The Tl205/Tl203 ratio was determined in most of the samples, with precision ranging from 0.03% to several percent depending mainly on the amount of thallium present. No variations from the terrestrial ratio were observed. The chondritic isochron slope for Pb205 (13.8-m.y. half-life) is less than or equal to 0.00009 (99% confidence level), corresponding to an interval of at least 60 m.y. and possibly exceeding 120 m.y. between the termination of s-process nucleosynthesis and the lead-thallium fractionations.
Personality vulnerability to stress-related sleep disruption: Pathways to adverse mental and physical health outcomes

This study examined the associations among neuroticism (N), conscientiousness (C), and sleep quality in the context of a life transition. The interactive effects of N and C on the association between sleep quality and mental and physical well-being were also examined. Seventy-seven college freshmen (mean age = 19.5) completed personality measures at the beginning of the academic year, and measures of sleep quality, daily hassles, functional status, depression, and self-assessed health approximately 2 months later. N was negatively and C was positively related to sleep quality, and daily hassles mediated these associations. Poor sleep predicted greater depressive symptoms and poorer functional status for high-N/low-C participants, but not for other N and C profiles. Results suggest that conscientiousness moderates the extent to which high-N individuals are vulnerable to the adverse effects of poor sleep.
Imaging problems with femtosecond-pulse holography

Conventional holographic imagery can become severely degraded when the laser operates with extremely short pulses, e.g., in the femtosecond region. We describe the problems and indicate how to correct the defects producing the degradation. By the use of anamorphic optics and an interchannel coupling filter, the area of the point-spread function can be reduced by orders of magnitude. Experimental results are given.
Two-year outcome following transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt for variceal bleeding: Results in 90 patients

Abstract Background/Aims: Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a new therapy for variceal bleeding. Immediate technical and short-term clinical results have been reported. This study was undertaken to evaluate mid-term outcome after TIPS in patients who successfully underwent the procedure for variceal bleeding. Methods: Ninety patients were followed up prospectively by clinical examination and radiological shunt evaluation including Doppler sonography and transjugular portal venography. Results: The average follow-up in surviving patients was 2.2 years. The cumulative survival rate was 60% at I year and 51% at 2 years. The rate of cumulative rebleeding was 26% at 1 year and 32% at 2 years. A shunt abnormality was noted in all rebleeding patients. Rebleeding was successfully controlled in all but I of the patients who underwent shunt revision. Cumulative detection of stenosis or occlusion was 31% at 1 year and 47% at 2 years. Thirty-eight percent of shunt abnormalities were detected by routine surveillance. Percutaneous shunt revision was attempted in 22 patients and was successful in 21 (95%). Conclusions: Although mid-term primary patency is limited in many patients by the development of a shunt stenosis or occlusion, shunt function can be maintained in most patients by careful surveillance and periodic percutaneous intervention.
Modelling of reactors for plasma processing I. Silicon etching by CF4 in a radial flow reactor

Modelling of glow discharge (plasma) processes is illustrated by the formulation of a reaction engineering model for a radial flow, parallel plate plasma reactor. Features of the discharge structure are described along with a brief discussion of the modelling necessary to predict ion concentrations, electron density and energy. In the present case, electron density and energy are included as parameters in the reactor continuity balances. The industrially important etching of silicon in CF4 is used as an example. The modeling equations are solved by finite element methods and the model predictions are used to demonstrate the influence of operating parameters on etch rate magnitude and uniformity.
Effects of Gender and Age on Performance and Harvest Traits of Boer × Spanish Goats

Abstract Cameron. M.R., Hart, S.P., Sahlu, T., Gilchrist, C., Coleman, S.W. and Goetsch, A.L. 2001. Effects of gender and age on performance and harvest, traits of Boer × Spanish goats. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 20: 141–155. Sixty Boer × Spanish goats ware used to determine, effects of gender and age on performance and harvest triats. Wethers, females and males (16.8, 15.6 and 16.9 kg initial body weight, respectively) consumed a high concentrate diet from 116 to 340 d of age, with harvest at. 56-d intervals. Average dry matter intake for the entire experiment was lowest among genders for females (671, 534 and 682g/d; P<0.05) and average daily gain was greater for males and wethers than for females (119, 89 and 138 g/d for wethers, females and males, respectively; P<0.05). Dressing percentage was similar among genders and lowest among ages at. 116 d (41.7, 48.5, 49.9, 51.3 and 50.9% for 116, 172, 228, 281 and 340 d, respectively; P<0.05). internal fat mass was lower (P<0.05) for males than for wethers and fema...
Effects of long-term exposure to pentachlorophenol on the free amino acid pool and energy reserves of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pseudolimnaeus bousfield (crustacea, amphipoda)

The freshwater amphipod Gammarus pseudolimnaeus was exposed for 45 days to pentachlorophenol (PCP). The total concentration of free amino acids (FAA) decreased significantly after 5 days exposure to 0.77 or 1.25 mg PCP/liter. Exposure to PCP had no effect on the relative concentrations of individual amino acids exposed to 0.77, 1.06, or 1.25 mg PCP/liter. Whole body concentrations of glycogen, protein, and caloric content were significantly decreased after 15 days and lipid content after 30 days exposure to 0.77 mg PCP/liter. Since energy reserves and caloric content were not measured on the 5th day of PCP exposure, the relative sensitivity of FAA as a biochemical indicator of toxicant-induced stress cannot be compared directly. However, since reductions in growth and/or energy reserves can significantly influence the fecundity of amphipods, alterations in the FAA pool are indicative of future adverse effects on the organism. The use of alterations in the concentration of FAA is discussed with respect to its application as a biochemical indicator of toxicant exposure in freshwater invertebrates.
Fabrication and characterization of probes for combined scanning electrochemical/optical microscopy experiments.

A technique that combines scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) and optical microscopy (OM) was implemented with a new probe tip. The tip for scanning electrochemical/optical microscopy (SECM/OM) was constructed by insulating a typical gold-coated near-field scanning optical microscopy tip using electrophoretic anodic paint. Once fabricated, the tip was characterized by steady-state cyclic voltammetry, as well as optical and electrochemical approach experiments. This tip generated a stable steady-state current and well-defined SECM approach curves for both conductive and insulating substrates. Durable tips whose geometry was a ring with <1 μm as outer ring radius could be consistently fabricated. Simultaneous electrochemical and optical images of an interdigitated array electrode were obtained with a resolution on the micrometer scale, demonstrating good performance of the tip as both an optical and an electrochemical probe for imaging microstructures. The SECM feedback current measurements were succ...
The fine structure of the secretory cells of the uterus (shell gland) of the chicken

The secretory processes in the shell gland of laying chickens were the subject of this study. Three cell types contribute secretory material to the forming egg: ciliated and non-ciliated columnar cells of the uterine surface epithelium, and cells of tubular glands in the mucosa. The ciliated cells as well as the non-ciliated cells have microvilli, which undergo changes in form and extent during the secretory cycle. At the final stages of shell formation they resemble stereocilia. It is postulated that the microvilli of both cells are active in the production of the cuticle of the shell. The ciliated cell which has both cilia and microvilli manufactures secretory granules which arise from the Golgi complex in varying amounts throughout the egg laying cycle. Granule production reaches its greatest intensity during the early stages of shell deposition. The ciliated cell probably supplies proteinaceous material to the matrix of the forming egg shell. The non-ciliated cell has only microvilli. Secretory granules, containing an acid mucopolysaccharide, arise from the Golgi complex. Some granules are extruded into the uterine lumen where they supply the egg shell with organic matrix. Others migrate towards the supranuclear zone. Here a number of them disintegrate. This is accompanied by the formation of a large membraneless space, which is termed “vacuoloid.” Subsequently the vacuoloid regresses and during regression an extensive rough endoplasmic reticulum with numerous polyribosomes of spiral configuration appears. It is suggested that material in the vacuoloid originating from the disintegrating granules is resynthesized and utilized for the formation of secretory product. The uterine tubular gland cells have irregular, frondlike microvilli. During egg shell deposition, these microvilli form large blebs and are probably related to the elaboration of a watery, calcium-containing fluid.
Dynamics and Measurement of Smokes. I Size Characterization of Nonspherical Particles

Aerodynamic, volume equivalent, and mobility equivalent diameters are the cornerstones of a practical approach to the dynamics of nonspherical aerosol particles. Together, they also compose the relevant set of equivalent diameters for particle deposition and characterization by aerodynamic, electric mobility, or diffusion methods. The relationships between D AE, D VE, and D ME are discussed on the basis of a review of the dynamic shape factor concept, including the effect of slip. Emphasis is given to aggregates, especially in chainlike configurations.
Non-Gaussian density fluctuations from entropically generated curvature perturbations in ekpyrotic models

We analyze the non-Gaussian density perturbations generated in ekpyrotic/cyclic models based on heterotic M theory. In this picture, two scalar fields produce nearly scale-invariant entropic perturbations during an ekpyrotic phase that are converted into curvature modes after the ekpyrotic phase is complete and just before the big bang. Both intrinsic nonlinearity in the entropy perturbation and the conversion process contribute to non-Gaussianity. The range of the non-Gaussianity parameter ${f}_{\mathrm{NL}}$ depends on how gradual the conversion process is and the steepness of the scalar field potential during the ekpyrotic phase. Although a wider range is possible, in principle, natural values of the ekpyrotic parameters combined with a gradual conversion process lead to values of $\ensuremath{-}50\ensuremath{\lesssim}{f}_{\mathrm{NL}}\ensuremath{\lesssim}+200$, typically much greater than slow-roll inflation but within the current observational bounds.
The Metal—Nonmetal Bond in the Solid State

Undoubtedly, the most useful tools for understanding chemical bonds in molecules or solids are those that serve to correlate the wealth of structural and physical data known to chemists. This means that the Zintl concept and the simple ideas of the electron pair bond handed down by Lewis, Pauling and others will and should have a prominent role in the way chemists think about chemical bonds. Bearing this in mind our discussion below will begin with a review of the kinds of solid state compounds that can be best understood with the Zintl viewpoint.