cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Methamphetamine Administration Increases Proceptive Behavior by Activating Src Kinase and Upregulating Progesterone Receptor in the Medial Amygdala

Methamphetamine, a psychostimulant drug of abuse, increases sexual motivation both in humans and in rodent models. The activation of dopamine type-1 receptors (D1Rs) within the medial amygdala, in the presence of ovarian hormones (EB+P), are both necessary and sufficient for increases in proceptive, or sexually motivated, behaviors. Here, we demonstrate that methamphetamine increases progesterone receptor expression in the medial amygdala independently of D1R activation, and that lentiviral overexpression of the progesterone receptor was able to recapitulate the methamphetamine-induced enhancement of proceptive behaviors. Furthermore, we found that within the medial amygdala, these progesterone receptors show an increase in phosphorylation of serine 294 of the progesterone receptor in a region-specific manner. The involvement of this phosphorylation site suggests a role for cytosolic kinases, which may be responsible for enhanced progesterone receptor action. The phosphorylation of serine 294 is blocked by D1R antagonists, and by inhibiting cSrc and ERK1/2, downstream of D1R signaling, we identified that Src and ERK1/2 are required for enhanced proceptive behavior. Taken together, we propose that within the medial amygdala, methamphetamine enhances progesterone receptors sensitivity to its cognate ligand via interaction with cSrc kinase and ERK1/2, as well as an increase total progesterone receptors, thus leading to enhanced proceptive behaviors in the rat.
Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) and Emerging Markets: Consumer Convergence, MNCs, and Globalization: An Abstract

The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) industry continues to increase its sales and visibility in the USA and global markets. This industry is also a major player in emerging markets and developing countries. The topic of FMCGs in the marketing literature is particularly important because of consumer convergence, globalization, and MNCs’ well-known brands. No wonder well established MNCs are the main beneficiaries in this industry and its related segments. Major firms include P&G, Nestle, Unilever, AB InBev, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Philip Morris, Mondelez, and others. At the same time, there are many local and regional firms from emerging markets which remain active and profitable in these markets.
Salience of Medical Concepts of Inside Clinical Texts and Outside Medical Records for Referred Cardiovascular Patients

Outside medical records (OMRs) accompanying referred patients are frequently sent as faxes from external healthcare providers. Accessing useful and relevant information from these OMRs in a timely manner is a challenging task due to a combination of the presence of machine-illegible information and the limited system interoperability inherent in healthcare. Little research has been done on investigating information in OMRs. This paper evaluated overlapping and non-overlapping medical concepts captured from digitally faxed OMRs for patients transferring to the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and from clinical consultant notes generated at the Mayo Clinic. We used optical character recognition (OCR) techniques to make faxed OMRs machine-readable and used natural language processing (NLP) techniques to capture clinical concepts from both machine-readable OMRs and Mayo clinical notes. We measured the level of overlap in medical concepts between OMRs and Mayo clinical narratives in the quantitative approaches and assessed the salience of concepts specific to Cardiovascular Medicine by calculating the ratio of those mentioned concepts relative to an independent clinical corpus. Among the concepts collected from the OMRs, 11.19% of those were also present in the Mayo clinical narratives that were generated within the 3 months after their initial encounter at the Mayo Clinic. For those common concepts, 73.97% were identified in initial consultant notes (ICNs) and 26.03% were captured over subsequent follow-up consultant notes (FCNs). These findings implied that information collected from the OMRs is potentially informative for patient care, but some valuable information (additionally identified in FCNs) collected from the OMRs is not fully used in an earlier stage of the care process. The concepts collected from the ICNs have the highest salience to Cardiovascular Medicine (0.112) compared to concepts in OMRs and concepts in FCNs. Additionally, unique concepts captured in ICNs (unseen in OMRs or FCNs) carried the most salient information (0.094), which demonstrated that ICNs provided the most informative concepts for the care of transferred patients.
Vaccination Practices Among Obstetrician/Gynecologists for Non-pregnant Patients.

Introduction Many non-pregnant women see obstetrician-gynecologists as their sole source of medical care, yet little is known about vaccination practices of obstetrician-gynecologists for non-pregnant patients. The objectives were to assess, among a national sample of obstetrician-gynecologists, practices related to vaccine delivery in non-pregnant patients and factors associated with stocking and administering more than three different vaccines to non-pregnant patients. Methods E-mail and mail surveys were administered July–October 2015, with analyses performed during October–November 2015 and April–June 2018. Results The response rate was 73% (353/482). Human papillomavirus (92%); influenza (82%); and tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis vaccines (50%) were the vaccines most commonly assessed, with the remaining vaccines assessed by Conclusions Human papillomavirus; influenza; and tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis vaccines are the only vaccines routinely assessed and administered to non-pregnant patients by most obstetrician-gynecologists. Given their role as the sole source of care for many women, obstetrician-gynecologists could make a positive impact on the vaccination status of their non-pregnant patients.
Understanding Long-term Effects of Motivation Interventions in a Changing World

Abstract As intervention science develops, researchers are increasingly attending to the long-term effects of interventions in academic settings. Currently, however, there is no common taxonomy for understanding the complex processes through which interventions can produce long-lasting effects. The lack of a common framework results in a number of challenges that limit the ability of intervention scientists to effectively work toward their goal of preparing students to effectively navigate a changing and uncertain world. A comprehensive framework is presented to aid understanding of how interventions that target motivational processes in education produce downstream effects years after implementation. This framework distinguishes between three types of processes through which interventions may produce long-term effects: recursive processes (feedback loops by which positive effects can build on themselves over time), nonrecursive chains of effects (“domino effects” in which proximal outcomes affect distinct distal outcomes), and latent intrapersonal effects (changed habits, knowledge, or perceptions that affect how students respond in different situations in the future). The framework is applied to intervention research that has reported long-term effects of motivation interventions, evidence for the processes described in this framework is evaluated, and suggestions are presented for how researchers can use the framework to improve intervention design. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the application of this framework can help intervention scientists to achieve their goal of positively influencing students’ lifelong trajectories, especially in times of change and uncertainty.
Comprehensive National Institutes of Health funding analysis of academic cardiac surgeons.

Abstract Objective To determine trends in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for cardiac surgeons, hypothesizing they are at a disadvantage in obtaining funding owing to intensive clinical demands. Methods Cardiac surgeons (adult/congenital) currently at the top 141 NIH-funded institutions were identified using institutional websites. The NIH funding history for each cardiac surgeon was queried using the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER). Total grant funding, publications, and type was collected. Academic rank, secondary degrees, and fellowship information was collected from faculty pages. Grant productivity was calculated using a validated grant impact metric. Results A total of 818 academic cardiac surgeons were identified, of whom 144 obtained 293 NIH grants totaling $458 million and resulting in 6694 publications. We identified strong associations between an institution's overall NIH funding rank and the number of cardiac surgeons, NIH grants to cardiac surgeons, and amount of NIH funding to cardiac surgeons (P Conclusions NIH-funded cardiac surgical research has had a significant impact over the last 3 decades. Aspiring cardiac surgeon-scientists may be more successful at top quartile institutions owing to better infrastructure and mentorship.
Video intervention to improve incident reporting among medical trainees

Introduction/objective Improving graduate medical trainee involvement with patient safety and incident reporting is an important task in teaching hospitals that has been recognised across the country and led to numerous efforts to address barriers to incident reporting. A variety of studies have started to define the reasons why trainees are not optimally involved and interventions that may be helpful. The present study aims to add to this literature by primarily addressing barriers that can be considered ‘non-technical’ such as fears surrounding potential professional repercussions after submitting a report, perceptions that reporting incidents is not useful, and concerns about anonymity. Methods Barriers to incident reporting were previously analysed at our institution. A video was produced to directly target the barriers discovered. A 2-hour educational session was delivered which included the video intervention. The educational session was part of the standard patient safety curriculum at our institution. Paper surveys were used to capture changes in perceived barriers to incident reporting. Baseline and postintervention surveys were analysed for changes using t-tests and a p value of Results Perceived knowledge about the reporting process significantly improved after the intervention (t=−4.49; p Conclusions This study demonstrates that targeting non-technical barriers to incident reporting with a video intervention is an effective way to improve perceived knowledge and attitude about incident reporting.
BVA has role in taking a stance on political decisions.

The letter from Bridget Gregory ( VR , 26 October 2019, vol 185, p 513) raises some interesting questions around whether the BVA should take a stance on Brexit. Joseph Woods also states that the BVA should not take a stance on a no-deal scenario ( VR , 2 November 2019, vol 185, p 543). Woods makes the valid point that over the past 25 years, many of our …
"You have to be clean:" a qualitative study of pubic hair grooming behaviours among women living in Italy.

The majority of pubic hair and genital self-image research describes women living in the USA, UK and Australia. This may leave attitudes and behaviours across other cultures and geographic regions ...
Nanostructure and Fracture Behavior of Carbon Nanofiber-Reinforced Cement Using Nanoscale Depth-Sensing Methods.

In recent years, carbon nanofibers have been investigated as a suitable reinforcement for cementitious composites to yield novel multifunctional materials with improved mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and self-sensing behavior. Despite several studies, the interactions between carbon nanofibers and Portland cement hydration products are not fully understood, with significant implications for the mechanical response and the durability at the macroscopic lengthscale. Thus, the research objective is to investigate the influence of carbon nanofibers on the nanostructure and on the distribution of hydration products within Portland cement paste. Portland cement w/c = 0.44 specimens reinforced with 0.0 wt%, 0.1 wt%, and 0.5 wt% CNF by mass fraction of cement are cast using a novel synthesis procedure. A uniform dispersion of carbon nanofibers (CNF) via a multi-step approach: after pre-dispersing carbon nanofibers using ultrasonic energy, the carbon nanofibers are further dispersed using un-hydrated cement particles in high shear mixing and mechanical stirring steps. High-resolution scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that carbon nanofibers fill nanopores and connect calcium–silicate hydrates (C–S–H) grains. Grid nano-indentation testing shows that Carbon nanofibers influence the probability distribution function of the local packing density by inducing a shift towards higher values, η = 0.76–0.93. Statistical deconvolution analysis shows that carbon nanofibers result in an increase in the fraction of high-density C–S–H by 6.7% from plain cement to cement + 0.1 wt% CNF and by 10.7% from plain cement to cement + 0.5 wt% CNF. Moreover, CNF lead to an increase in the C–S–H gel porosity and a decrease in both the capillary porosity and the total porosity. Based on scratch testing, adding 0.1 wt% CNF yields a 4.5% increase in fracture toughness and adding 0.5 wt% CNF yields a 7.6% increase in fracture toughness. Finally, micromechanical modelling predicts an increase of respectively 5.97% and 21.78% in the average Young’s modulus following CNF modification at 0.1 wt% CNF and 0.5 wt% CNF levels.
Using the life grid interview technique in STEM education research

Qualitative interviewing is a common tool that has been utilized by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education researchers to explore and describe the experiences of students, educators, or other educational stakeholders. Some interviewing techniques use co-creation of an artifact, such as a personal timeline, as a unique way to elicit a detailed narrative from a respondent. The purpose of this commentary is to describe an interview artifact called a life grid. First used and validated in medical sociology to conduct life course research, we adapted the life grid for use in research on undergraduate STEM education. We applied the life grid interview technique to two contexts: (1) students in an advanced degree program reflecting on their entire undergraduate career as a biology major and (2) students in an undergraduate physics program reflecting on a multi-week lab project. We found that the life grid supported four important attributes of an interview: facilitation of the respondents’ agency, establishment of rapport between interviewers and respondents, enhanced depth of the respondents’ narratives, and the construction of more accurate accounts of events. We situate our experiences with respect to those attributes and compare them with the experiences detailed in the literature. We conclude with recommendations for future use of the life grid technique in undergraduate STEM education research. Overall, we find the life grid to be a valuable tool to use when conducting interviews about phenomena with a chronological component.
Surgical management of ovarian carcinosarcoma with inferior vena cava extension into the right atrium

Gynecological carcinosarcomas are aggressive tumors with rare occurrence and high rates of metastases. We present the case of a 49-year-old woman with vaginal bleeding and abdominal distension who was found to have a large ovarian carcinosarcoma invading the gonadal vein and inferior vena cava (IVC) and extending into right atrium (RA). She underwent gynecologic tumor resection, IVC cavotomy and en bloc resection of tumor/thrombus through the RA. Use of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography helped assess extent and mobility of mass in the RA to guide surgical approach. This case posed unique challenges with regard to management of induction, hemodynamics and coagulopathy.
A temperature compensated biaxial eFM accelerometer in Epi-seal process

Abstract This paper reports on the implementation of a vacuum-encapsulated bi-axial resonant accelerometer utilizing the electrostatic frequency modulation (eFM) technique. A novel flexure structure is designed to enable fully-decoupled in-plane displacement of the proof-mass to minimize cross-axis sensitivity. A differential readout scheme leveraging pairs of high quality factor (>12k) free-free beam resonators mitigates the first-order nonlinearities due to temperature effects and unwanted response to proof-mass spurious modes. The fabricated device measures a scale factor of 45.8 Hz/g with negligible cross-axis sensitivity (
An approach to identifying fibers and evolved compounds from flame resistant fabrics

Abstract Flame resistant (FR) fabrics have use in civilian, military, and industrial applications. This work describes the development of a methodology aimed at identifying the fiber composition of blended fabrics of unknown composition. Here, FR fabrics used in military uniforms, are studied using a combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS). Elemental analysis of the fabrics using XPS yielded a preliminary determination of the composition of the polymer(s) and aided in the identification of FR additives. TGA and Py-GC-MS experiments were used for subsequent compound identification. In TGA the temperature of mass loss events was compared to reference materials, and in Py-GC-MS the pyrolysis products of the blended FR fabrics were compared to those from a series of potential parent fibers. It was possible to discern the composition of the parent fibers and the type of FR treatment added to fabrics because the thermal decomposition chemistry did not significantly change by blending the fibers to make fabrics.
Inter-Generational Family Reconstitution with Enriched Ontologies

Enriching ontologies can measurably enhance research in digital curation. We support this claim by using an enriched ontology to address a well known, challenging problem: record linkage of historical records for intergenerational family reconstitution. An enriched ontology enables extraction of birth, death, and marriage records via linguistic grounding, curation of record-comprising information with pragmatic constraints and cultural normatives, and record linkage by evidential reasoning. The result is an automatic and highly accurate reconstruction of family trees. Empirical evidence shows that conceptual modeling theory can be applied to important real-world problems and yield excellent results.
The Effects of Subliminally Presented Sexual and Aggressive Stimuli on Literary Creativity

Publisher Summary This chapter investigates the effects of subliminally presented sexual and aggressive stimuli on literary creativity. The remote associates test (RAT) is a test not of literary creativity per se but of the kind of flexibility in thinking, associative freedom, and ability to form connections between disparate elements. This test asks subjects “to form associative elements into new combinations by providing mediating connective links.” A test item consists of a set of three words drawn from “mutually remote associative clusters” and subjects must respond with a word that serves as an associative link between the three. RAT measure facilitates performance with sexual stimulation leading to the most creative performance. As for the metaphor measure, the aggressive activation leads to impaired performance, with a greater impairment for the noncreatives. The sexual activation leads to impaired performance for the noncreatives only: for the creative group performance is not significantly impaired.
Preservice Elementary Teachers and Explanation Construction: Knowledge‐for‐Practice and Knowledge‐in‐Practice

Effectively designed science learning environments revolve around students’ sensemaking through the use of evidence to ground explanations about natural phenomena. However, little research has been conducted to investigate elementary teachers’ learning to promote students’ sensemaking in elementary (K-5) classrooms. The purpose of this multiple-case study is to explore how preservice elementary teachers conceptualize and foster students’ construction of evidence-based explanations. Our findings show that when the preservice teachers had difficulty conceptualizing their ideas about explanation construction, they were also challenged to support students’ explanations constructed in the classroom. They frequently accepted evidence as a complete explanation and afforded their students opportunities to describe evidence rather than formulate evidence-based claims. Furthermore, each of the preservice teachers articulated rich and varied conceptions of ways to elicit students’ prior knowledge and scaffold new knowledge construction that were not evident in their enactments in the classroom. These findings, which complement and extend those of other studies focused on in-service elementary teachers, suggest that a lack of emphasis on sensemaking components of scientific practice could be an endemic issue across the teacher professional continuum for which elementary teachers require ongoing and multifaceted forms of support. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 97:310–330, 2013
Power systems for the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Mission

Mars Environmental Survey Mission (MESUR) is intended to be a low cost, near term mission to study the chemical composition of Martian surface, structure and circulation of Mars' atmosphere, and the structure and dynamics of Mars' interior. To meet the science objectives of the mission, a network of 16 landers will be placed at various latitudes and longitudes of Mars. The paper identifies various options for powering the landers and lists the attributes of each option. The current strategy is to precede the lander launch and deployment with an engineering demo mission called the Pathfinder which would demonstrate the landing strategy and the engineering subsystems. The paper briefly describes the challenges involved in the power system development for the Pathfinder mission.
Systematic Design for Roadway Interfaces with Application to Automated Highways

The economics of roadways, and their variability in demand, favor construction of multi-layered and inter-connected networks. Different network layers are designed to different standards and to perform somewhat different functions, though all provide the common function of mobility for a reasonably homogeneous class of vehicles. This paper investigates the geometric orientation of a two-layered roadway system, along with the placement of the interfaces that connect the roadway systems. The path for accessing a highway, and whether the highway is used at all, is derived as a function of the angular orientation and the spacing between highways and interfaces. The research utilizes analytical models, applied to an idealized rectangular grid of city streets. The objective is to use this idealization to investigate how strategic issues in roadway design affect system performance.
Native XML support in DB2 universal database

The major relational database systems have been providing XML support for several years, predominantly by mapping XML to existing concepts such as LOBs or (object-)relational tables. The limitations of these approaches are well known in research and industry. Thus, a forthcoming version of DB2 Universal Database® is enhanced with comprehensive native XML support. "Native" means that XML documents are stored on disk pages in tree structures matching the XML data model. This avoids the mapping between XML and relational structures, and the corresponding limitations. The native XML storage is complemented with XML indexes, full XQuery, SQL/XML, and XML Schema support, as well as utilities such as a parallel high-speed XML bulk loader. This makes DB2 a true hybrid database system which places equal weight on XML and relational data management.
Parent Characteristics and Early Coparenting Behavior at the Transition to Parenthood

Abstract This study examined parent characteristics as correlates of coparenting behavior in57 primiparous couples. Parents’ negative emotionality and perceptions of maternalacceptance in childhood, mothers’ beliefs about fathers’ roles, and observed maritalbehavior and family socioeconomic status were assessed during the third trimester ofpregnancy, and coparenting behavior was observed at 3.5 months postpartum. Coupleswho exhibited high-quality marital interaction showed higher supportive coparentingbehavior, but couples who showed lower quality marital interaction demonstratedhigher supportive coparenting behavior when mothers held more progressive beliefsabout fathers’ roles. Couples showed more undermining coparenting behavior whenfamily socioeconomic status was lower and when fathers were higher on negativeemotionality. Greater perceived maternal acceptance in childhood was only associatedwith lower levels of undermining behavior when prenatal marital interaction washigh in quality. Thus, the characteristics of both parents, especially in combinationwith preexisting marital behavior, are important determinants of coparenting behavior.Keywords
Differential Regulation of Ca2+ Release-activated Ca2+ Influx by Heterotrimeric G Proteins

The least understood aspect of the agonist-induced Ca2+ signal is the activation and regulation of the Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ influx (CRAC) across the plasma membrane. To explore the possible role of heterotrimeric G proteins in the various regulatory mechanisms of CRAC, continuous renal epithelial cell lines stably expressing alpha 13 and the constitutively active alpha qQ209L were isolated and used to measure CRAC activity by the Mn2+ quench technique. Release of intracellular Ca2+ by agonist stimulation or thapsigargin was required for activation of CRAC in all cells. Although the size of the internal stores was similar in all cells, CRAC was 2-3-fold higher in alpha 13- and alpha qQ209L-expressing cells. However, the channel was differentially regulated in the two cell types. Incubation at low [Ca2+]i, inhibition of the NOS pathway, or inhibition of tyrosine kinase inhibited CRAC activity in alpha 13 but not alpha qQ209L cells. Treatment with okadaic acid prevented inhibition of the channel by low [Ca2+]i and the protein kinase inhibitors in alpha 13 cells. These results suggest that expression of alpha qQ209L dominantly activates CRAC by stabilizing a phosphorylated state, whereas expression of alpha 13 makes CRAC activation completely dependent on phosphorylation by several kinases. G proteins may also modulate CRAC activity independently of the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation state of the pathway to increase maximal CRAC activity. Furthermore, our results suggest a general mechanism for regulation of CRAC that depends on coupling of receptors to specific G proteins.
On-line Boilerplate: Would Mandatory Website Disclosure of E-standard Terms Backfire?

This article analyzes whether mandatory website disclosure of e-standard terms, advocated by some as a potential solution to market failures when consumers contract over the Internet, potentially may backfire. By mandatory website disclosure, I do not mean a clickwrap presentation of terms, in which a consumer must click I agree or the like on a screen presenting the terms prior to the completion of a transaction in progress. Mandatory website disclosure would require a business to maintain an Internet presence and to post its terms prior to any particular transaction. The problem is not that website disclosure would increase the cost of doing business, which would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Businesses have been unable to demonstrate that displaying their terms on their websites would be costly. Nor should drafting rules that implement the law be too difficult. Businesses could be required to display their terms on their homepage or on another page reachable directly through a clearly identified hyperlink. Further, businesses could be required to prove the availability of their terms by furnishing relatively inexpensive archival records of their websites. Website disclosure may backfire, however, because it may not increase reading or shopping for terms or motivate businesses to draft reasonable ones but, instead, may make heretofore suspect terms more likely enforceable.
Spectra of the Wolf-Rayet Stars in 30 Doradus

The central cluster of the 30 Doradus complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) contains at least a dozen Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars of the nitrogen sequence according to Melnick (1978). In addition to the six stars previously identified by Feast, Thackeray and Wesselinck (1960), Melnick identified an additional six using an Echele spectrograph on the 1.52 m telescope at La Silla. I have obtained high resolution spectra of ten of these stars and would like to discuss the spectral types.
IgM plays an important role in induction of collagen‐induced arthritis

IgM is one major type of B cell receptor (BCR) expressed on most of the B cells from immature to mature stages. During normal B cell ontogeny, signals transduced through the IgM BCR play an important role in regulating B cell maturation and survival at multiple checkpoints. In addition, IgM BCR is also required for antigen-dependent differentiation and activation of B cells. However, whether IgM BCR-mediated signalling is important for the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases remains elusive. Using IgM-deficient mice, we examined the effect of absence of IgM on the development of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), an animal model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Compared to their wild-type littermates, IgM-deficient mice were either resistant to arthritis induction or developed significantly less severe arthritis. There was a significant decrease of autoantibody production in IgM-deficient mice, particularly IgG2a antibodies, which is believed to be pathogenic in CIA. Thus, although IgM(-/-) mice have relatively normal B cell development with IgD BCR replacing IgM BCR, the absence of IgM-mediated signals has a profound impact on the development of CIA, indicating that IgM plays an important role in the development and pathogenesis of autoimmune arthritis and IgM-mediated signalling is critical in the generation of pathogenic autoreactive antibodies.
Fistula in ano in infants and children: implications and management.

Fistula in ano in the pediatric population is a poorly understood, often undertreated condition of infancy and early childhood. It is considered generally that perianal fistulae are a consequence of an underlying perianal, cryptoglandular infection. Fistulae in ano in infants and children have certain characteristics including male predominance; manifestation at less than 12 months of age; multiple, but separate tracts in less than 20%; rarity of complex fistulae; and low incidence of recurrence that distinguishes this condition from adults.1 Until recently, fistula in ano occurring in infants and children has been all but ignored in the pediatric literature. Therefore, to gain further information on the natural history and treatment, we retrospectively identified 40 infants and children with idiopathic fistulae in ano, the majority of whom eventually underwent fistulotomy and partial sphincterotomy.
Bacteriophage treatment of a severe Escherichia coli respiratory infection in broiler chickens.

Abstract SUMMARY. A bacteriophage to a serotype 02, nonmotile Escherichia coli was isolated from municipal waste treatment facilities and poultry processing plants. A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of multiple vs. single intramuscular (i.m.) injections of bacteriophage to treat a severe E. coli respiratory infection. The birds were challenged at 7 days of age by injection of 6 × 104 colony-forming units (cfu) of E. coli into the thoracic air sac followed by an i.m. injection into the thigh with either heat-killed or active bacteriophage. There were 16 treatments with three replicate pens of 10 birds. There were four control treatments, which included untreated birds, birds injected with either heat-killed or active bacteriophage, and birds challenged only with E. coli. In the remaining treatments, birds were injected with heat-killed or active bacteriophage either once immediately after E. coli challenge or immediately after challenge and at 8 and 9 days of age, once at 8 days of age or at ...
Sorption and filtration of metals using iron-oxide-coated sand

Abstract Iron oxides are good adsorbents for uncomplexed metals, some metal-ligand complexes, and many metal oxyanions. However, the adsorbent properties of these oxides are not fully exploited in wastewater treatment operations because of difficulties associated with their separation from the aqueous phase. This paper describes experiments in which iron oxides were coated onto the surface of ordinary filter sand, and this composite media was used in a fixed bed configuration for simultaneous filtration of particulate matter and sorption of dissolved metals. The process was successful in removing uncomplexed and ammonia-complexed cationic metals (Cu, Cd, Pb, Ni, Zn), as well as some oxyanionic metals (SeO 3 , AsO 3 ), from simulated and actual waste streams over a wide range of metal concentrations. The adsorbent was stable during backwashing and regeneration operations, releasing most metals quantitatively; the exception was AsO 3 , which was not efficiently recovered by regeneration with either acid or base. The composite media is inexpensive to prepare and could serve as the basis of a useful metal removal and possibly metal recovery process in a variety of settings.
The Effects of Deception and Level of Obedience on Subjects' Ratings of the Milgram Study

Subjects read one of four versions of the Milgram (1964) obedience experiment. Both the degree of obedience and the amount of deception depicted in the descriptions were varied in a 2 X 2 design. Results showed no effects associated with deception in the subjects' ratings, nor any significant interactions between deception and obedience. However, subjects who read versions with a high level of obedience rated the experiment as more harmful to those who volunteered than subjects who read versions with a low level of obedience. It is suggested that the general public's judgment of the ethicality of psychological research may be in part determined by the results of that research.
Prolactinoma presenting as a failed vasectomy reversal.

Objective To present a case of prolactinoma presenting as a failed vasectomy reversal. Design Case report. Setting University-affiliated teaching hospital. Patient(s) A 46-year-old male with severe oligospermia after bilateral vasovasostomy and his 31-year-old female partner who had normal cycles. Intervention(s) Bromocriptine, carbegoline, and l IVF. Main Outcome Measure(s) Correction of hyperprolactinoma, improved semen analysis, and pregnancy achieved by assisted reproductive technologies. Result(s) Semen analysis showing low volume (0.65 mL) and severe oligospermia (16 sperm) with zero motility on presentation. Endocrine evaluation showed prolactin of 650 ng/mL, T 0.37 ng/mL, and FSH 2.0 mIU/mL. A head CT scan showed a 1.2 cm pituitary adenoma. This was managed initially with bromocriptine, but due to side effects he was switched to carbegoline. In 1 month his PRL decreased to 16.9 ng/mL. Testosterone and FSH normalized. Repeat semen analysis after 5 months showed a volume of 4.5 mL and a concentration of 15 million/mL with 1% motility. Antisperm antibodies were positive. Because of antisperm antibodies and oligoasthenospermia, intracytoplasmic sperm injection with ejaculated sperm and, later, testicular extraction, were attempted without success. Donor sperm was eventually used. Conclusion(s) This is the first reported case of prolactinoma as a cause of infertility after vas reversal and demonstrates that not all cases of suspected failed vasectomy reversals are due to recurrent obstruction.
Tips for Successful Open Surgical Reconstruction of Posterior Urethral Disruption Injuries

This article provides an overview of the open surgical management of posterior urethral disruption injuries. The discussion includes the evaluation of the patient before surgery with a focus on urethral imaging and details of posterior urethroplasty surgical technique.
Role-Based Experiences, Media Perceptions, and Knowledge Transfer Success in Virtual Dyads

Knowledge transfer (KT) is the process through which one is affected by the experience of another. While many of the challenges of KT have been discussed in the literature (e.g., incentives, cognitive limitations), the challenge of KT in virtual settings has received limited attention. In this paper, our interest lies in exploring asymmetric KT where a sender has more knowledge about a topic than a receiver. We focus on a dyadic relationship between geographically dispersed sender and receiver units, supported by a multi-media technology environment. Drawing from the KT literature and Channel Expansion Theory, we specifically explore the evolution of and relationship between role-based experiences (e.g., with partner, topic, media) and media richness perceptions. Our results provide evidence that KT roles do matter relative to the acquisition of experiences and expansions in media richness perceptions. Despite some differences in acquired experiences, our results also suggest that KT partners converge in their perceptions of acquired experiences and evolve to shared (or congruent) perceptions of media richness. Finally, our results provide evidence that sender-receiver congruence in media richness perceptions influences KT success.
Improving exact algorithms for MAX-2-SAT

We study three new techniques that will speed up the branch-and-bound algorithm for the MAX-2-SAT problem: The first technique is a group of new lower bound functions for the algorithm and we show that these functions are admissible and consistently better than other known lower bound functions. The other two techniques are based on the strongly connected components of the implication graph of a 2CNF formula: One uses the graph to simplify the formula and the other uses the graph to design a new variable ordering. The experiments show that the simplification can reduce the size of the input substantially no matter what is the clause-to-variable ratio and that the new variable ordering performs much better when the clause-to-variable ratio is less than 2. A direct outcome of this research is a high-performance implementation of an exact algorithm for MAX-2-SAT which outperforms any implementation we know about in the same category. We also show that our implementation is a feasible and effective tool to solve large instances of the Max-Cut problem in graph theory.
Aerospace: Spaceborne imaging radars probe `in depth¿: New spaceborne radar sensors allow all-weather, day or night, high-resolution imaging of the earth's land and ocean surfaces

Discusses spaceborne radar sensors which allow all-weather, day or night high-resolution imaging of the earth's land and ocean surfaces. The newest of these systems is the synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) which can penetrate dry sands covering desert regions revealing ancient topography buried meters beneath the surface. A comparison of airborne and space radar techniques is given. The Seasat SAR and the shuttle imaging radar-A (SIR-A) sensors are almost identical. They consist of four major electronic subsystems-transmitter, receiver, power converter, and control logic. These sensors are also compared.
Female MRL.MpJ-Faslpr autoimmune mice have greater hearing loss than males

Abstract Although women make up approximately 60–70% of the patients with autoimmune hearing loss, little is known about the impact of gender on this cochlear disease. To explore this relationship of gender and autoimmune inner ear disease, an evaluation was made of cochlear function in male and female autoimmune MRL.MpJ- Fas lpr mice. Autoimmune disease and hearing loss onset occur at 3–4 months of age, so mice were tested with auditory brainstem response audiometry at 3, 6, and 9 months of age to identify potential gender differences in thresholds. Sera also were analyzed for differences in the autoimmune factors of immune complexes, anti-nuclear antibodies, and hematocrits. By 9 months of age the surviving mice showed a dramatic gender difference. Female mice had thresholds 25–45 dB higher than males at 4, 8, and 16 kHz, although male thresholds at 32 kHz had risen sufficiently to be statistically similar to those for females. No gender differences were seen in any of the systemic autoimmune factors. These findings of worse hearing in female autoimmune mice parallel a reported female preponderance in clinical immune hearing disorders. This potential gender influence in autoimmune inner ear disease must be better understood for effective evaluation and treatment of this disorder.
Tubular Bending and Pull-Out Forces in High-Curvature Well Bores

This paper is concerned with drag forces developed on tubulars in high-curvature well bores typically found in drainhole and horizontal drilling. The dog-leg severity of these types of boreholes are considerably higher than those typically found in conventional directional drilling. The objective of the study was to determine the significance of bending stiffness on drag forces in the pull-out mode. The method of analysis treats the tubular as a multi-spanned curved beam under tension and solves for radial displacements, slope, shear and bending moment over each span. Calculations show that bending stiffness is a minor factor provided there are no locally severe dog legs superimposed in the high-curvature well bore.
Commentary: Studying Usual Care in Child and Adolescent Therapy: It's Anything but Routine

Efforts to enhance the quality of mental health care provided to children and youth require an understanding of the nature and impact of existing clinical services. The Practice and Research: Advancing Collaboration (PRAC) study described by Garland, Hurlburt, and Hawley (2006) is currently documenting the diverse treatment practices used in community settings. The study reflects the use of a hybrid design that integrates methods commonly used in treatment outcome and services research paradigms. This article discusses some of the key issues, directions, and challenges associated with efforts designed to enhance the quality of usual care illustrated in their article. Suggestions are made to encourage integrative investigations in the context of practice-based research networks devoted to promoting effective child and adolescent treatment.
Simple and compound leaves: reduction or multiplication?

Flowering plants can have either simple or compound leaves. Compound leaves have an interesting evolutionary history, and arose independently in the ferns, cycads and flowering plants. The compound structure may be a consequence of simple leaves that are subdivided into separate leaflets; inherently different from simple leaves, and intermediate between shoots and leaves; or the leaf ground state, with suppression and reduction leading to simple leaves. The knox genes have been extensively studied to determine their role in leaf initiation and development. Preliminary evidence indicates that the simple and compound leaf types, though superficially similar at the time of initiation, have differences that arise in the preprimordium stage in the shoot apical meristem. Compound leaves in peas and tomato probably have independent origins from an ancestrally simple state in the basal angiosperms. Genetic and molecular analyses of leaf morphogenesis in diverse organisms will help determine whether independent origins of compound leaves gave rise to similar structures.
ezRAD: a simplified method for genomic genotyping in non-model organisms

Here, we introduce ezRAD, a novel strategy for restriction site–associated DNA (RAD) that requires little technical expertise or investment in laboratory equipment, and demonstrate its utility for ten non-model organisms across a wide taxonomic range. ezRAD differs from other RAD methods primarily through its use of standard Illumina TruSeq library preparation kits, which makes it possible for any laboratory to send out to a commercial genomic core facility for library preparation and next-generation sequencing with virtually no additional investment beyond the cost of the service itself. This simplification opens RADseq to any lab with the ability to extract DNA and perform a restriction digest. ezRAD also differs from others in its flexibility to use any restriction enzyme (or combination of enzymes) that cuts frequently enough to generate fragments of the desired size range, without requiring the purchase of separate adapters for each enzyme or a sonication step, which can further decrease the cost involved in choosing optimal enzymes for particular species and research questions. We apply this method across a wide taxonomic diversity of non-model organisms to demonstrate the utility and flexibility of our approach. The simplicity of ezRAD makes it particularly useful for the discovery of single nucleotide polymorphisms and targeted amplicon sequencing in natural populations of non-model organisms that have been historically understudied because of lack of genomic information.
Relationship between stimulus amplitude, stimulus frequency and neural damage during electrical stimulation of sciatic nerve of cat.

The relation is investigated between stimulus frequency, stimulus pulse amplitude and the neural damage induced by continuous stimulation of the cat's sciatic nerve. The chronically implanted electrodes were pulsed continuously and the effects of the electrical stimulation were quantified as the amount of early axonal degeneration (EAD) present in the nerves seven days after the continuous stimulation. The primary effect of stimulating at 100 Hz rather than 50 Hz was to cause an increase in the slope of the plot of the amount of EAD versus stimulus lower. There was a small amount of EAD in three of the nerves stimulated at 20 Hz, but there was no detectable correlation between the amount of EAD and the stimulus amplitude. This suggests that continuous electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves at a low frequency induce little or no neural damage, even if the stimulus amplitude is very high. A preliminary presentation of the results has been made elsewhere (Agnew et al., 1993)
Densities and Viscosities of Binary and Ternary Mixtures of Ethanol, 2-Butanone, and 2,2,4-Trimethylpentane at T = (298.15, 308.15, and 318.15) K

Densities and viscosities of the ternary mixture ethanol + 2-butanone + 2,2,4-trimethylpentane and the binary mixtures ethanol + 2-butanone, ethanol + 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, and 2-butanone + 2,2,4-trimethylpentane were measured at T = (298.15, 308.15, and 318.15) K and atmospheric pressure over the whole composition range. Densities were determined using a vibrating-tube densimeter. Viscosities were measured with an automatic Ubbelohde capillary viscometer. Excess molar volumes VE and deviations in viscosity Δη for the mixtures were derived from experimental data. The binary data were correlated with liquid composition by using the Redlich−Kister equation. For the ternary data, several polynomial equations have been tested to minimize the set of parameters for adequate correlation.