cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Transient Aphonia After Mediastinoscopy

The most common adverse event after cervical mediastinoscopy is recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury, which has an incidence of 0.6% [1]. We report the case of a 68-year-old man with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who experienced transient bilateral vocal cord paralysis after mediastinoscopy, which manifested in complete aphonia. This patient's ability to maintain his airway was carefully followed up, but neither endotracheal intubation nor tracheostomy was required. The vocal cord paralysis resolved without intervention after 5 hours. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case in which bupivicaine used at the end of a cervical mediastinoscopy diffused through the freshly dissected planes to paralyze both RLNs along the tracheoesophageal grooves.
Access to Health Care in South Texas

Adequate access to health care services, including preventive services and treatment for illnesses, is critical to achieving positive health outcomes. Two major limitations of adequate access to care are a lack of health insurance coverage and a shortage of health care providers in certain areas [1, 2].
Community effects of leadership development education: Citizen empowerment for civic engagement

For decades, Community Leadership Development (CLD) programs have been considered important to communities’ viability. But are CDL programs effective? Answering this question with a big “Yes,” the ...
Cross-border corporate insolvency in the era of soft(ish) law

Insolvency law (bankruptcy law to some) moves so quickly in the cross-border realm that this piece's discussion, started in 2015, is probably already outdated. Nonetheless, I publish it unrepentantly because it turns overdue attention to the role of soft law in this domain. Building on earlier work in which I address the role of incrementalism, I discuss the marked success of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and its cognate Insolvency Regulation in the EU (the latter now into its "Recast"). As predicted/hoped, the EU Recast, joining other contemporaneous reform projects, is building upon the scaffolding of legal doctrines erected by the Model Law. This is a success for soft law. Here, however, I am using "soft law" both to define the binding force of the international instrument and the substantive ambition of its insolvency law specificity. Soft law, thus defined, appears to have reigned triumphant.
HOMBRE: A randomized controlled trial to compare two approaches to weight loss for overweight and obese Latino men (Hombres con Opciones para Mejorar el Bienestar y bajar el Riesgo de Enfermedades crónicas; men with choices to improve well-being and decrease chronic disease risk).

Abstract Latino men bear a disproportionate burden of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.However, limited behavioral lifestyle intervention research has focused on Latino men. This trial compares two approaches to weight loss for overweight and obese Latino men: 1) HOMBRE is a culturally adapted intervention that provides individual choice of either self-directed online videos, coach-facilitated in-person groups, and coach-facilitated online groups; and 2) a minimal intensity intervention that uses online videos with a coach available, if solicited by the participant.Latino men with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of ≥27 kg/m2 and one or more cardiometabolic risk factors (n = 424) will be randomly assigned to receive one of the two approaches.The RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework guides the planned evaluations.The primary aim is to determine the effectiveness of the HOMBRE intervention (the “E” in RE-AIM) on clinically significant weight loss (≥5% of baseline weight) at 18 months. We hypothesize that a significantly higher proportion of HOMBRE participants will maintain ≥5% of weight loss compared with those in the minimal intensity intervention.Secondary aims are to determine the effectiveness of HOMBRE on cardiometabolic risk factors (e.g., blood pressure, waist circumference), health behaviors (e.g., diet and physical activity), and psychosocial well-being (e.g., quality of life and depressive symptoms) and to evaluate the other attributes of RE-AIM. These findings have real word applicability with value to clinicians, patients, and other decision makers considering effective diabetes prevention programs for Latino men in primary care.
Metabolism of Insect Hemocytes During Phagocytosis

Phagocytosis by ameboid blood cells is a protective mechanism generally ascribed to both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. In simplest terms, this process involves ingestion of a particle recognized as foreign by a phagocytic cell. The exact basis for the phenomenon of recognition of foreignness is of central importance to immunology but is not within the scope of this review. Phagocytosed microorganisms are enclosed in intracellular vacuoles to which other membrane-bound cytoplasmic granules (lysosomes) fuse. These lysosomes release bactericidal products and hydrolytic enzymes into the phagocytic vacuoles. Thereafter microorganisms may be killed and digested; however, for a variety of reasons, cellular bactericidal capacity may be incomplete in some cases. Certain pathogenic bacteria can remain viable within the phagocyte; others may survive because of cellular or biochemical defects.
Poly(Ethylene Glycol)s as Phase-Transfer Catalysts Synthesis of Derivatives

Polyethylene glycols (PEG’s) and their derivatives are finding a rapidly expanding range of chemical, biomedical, and industrial applications resulting from their low cost and useful properties such as solubility in aqueous and organic solvents, metal complexing ability, biological compatibility, and ease of chemical modification. The linear polymers have been employed as soluble matrices for liquid-phase peptide synthesis,2 ligands for water-soluble transition metal complexes,3 drug carriers,4 water-soluble cell fusion agents.5 Other reasons for the current interest in PEG’s include their reduction of enzyme immunogenicity,6 and their utility in aqueous two-phase polymer cell separations (phase partitioning).7
Novel and Highly Selective Antagonist Scaffold for Human Melanocortin 3 Receptor: Computer-Aided Design and Biological Evaluation

Introduction The natural melanotropin peptides, which include -, -, -melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), and adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), are derived by posttranslational processing of the pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene transcript. Each of them possesses a central “core” sequence His-Phe-Arg-Trp, which is essential for their agonist biological activity. It has been discovered that the melanocortin receptors (hMCR) and their ligands control a surprisingly large number of multifaceted biological actions including skin pigmentation, erectile function, blood pressure and heart rate, control of feeding behavior, and effects on memory and learning processes [1,2]. Of particular interest for pharmaceutical research are the hMC3R and the hMC4R, which have been implicated to play complementary roles in weight control [3]. Therefore, selective ligands for these receptors may provide a novel approach in the treatment of obesity, anorexia, weight loss, and related disorders. Recent reports [4] have shown that some 21-membered or larger cyclic lactam analogs of and -MSH are potent and hMC4R-selective agonists. At the same time, Kavarana et al. [5] have found that enhancing the hydrophobicity of the cyclic peptide combined with the increased ring size resulted in improved hMC3R selectivity. From these observations, we designed a series of novel cyclic -MSH analogs with the following general sequence: c[Nle-Xaa-D-Phe/D-Nal(2’)-Arg-TrpGlu]-NH2. We introduced a bulky hydrophobic residue (Nle ) in the close proximity to the pharmacophore (Xaa-D-Phe/D-Nal(2’)-Arg-Trp) to investigate the impact of steric hindrance on receptor selectivity. Also, a variety of amino acids with a broad range of hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties were placed in position 5 to further explore their complementary role in receptor selectivity (Fig. 1).
Surveying the Lands of Republican Indígenas: Contentious Nineteenth-Century Efforts to Abolish Indigenous Resguardos near Bogotá, Colombia

Nineteenth-century republicans across the political spectrum agreed: the Spanish monarchy produced ‘miserable Indians’. Abolishing tribute and privatising communal lands, known as resguardos in New Granada (roughly today's Panama and Colombia), would transform that wretched class into equal citizens. Drawing on late eighteenth-century privatisation efforts by the Spanish Crown, early republican leaders in Gran Colombia inaugurated an era seeking equal access to wealth from communal land for all indigenous community members. After Gran Colombia (the first Colombian Republic, 1819–30) dissolved into New Granada, Ecuador and Venezuela in 1830, New Granada's experiments with indigenous resguardo policies went further. By then, legislative efforts considered the needs of all resguardo members, including unmarried mothers and their illegitimate children. Complex laws, diverse ecological terrain and nuanced social realities required well-trained surveyors to ensure each eligible indigenous family received a fair share of land. Whereas indigenous communities in Pasto, Santa Marta and the Cauca river valley resorted to armed insurrection against liberal policies through the War of the Supremes (1839–42), those in the highlands near Bogota did not. Instead, these republican indigenas – with their greater access to the levers of power housed in the national capital – chose to engage in the reforms of a decentralising state. This article reveals how contentious experiments seeking republican equality within indigenous resguardos as a path towards abolishing the institution were consistently stymied by efforts to ensure that indigenous community governance and communal landholding remained intact.
Does disability matter in mathematics educational research? A critical comparison of research on students with and without disabilities

Using a Disability Studies in Education framework, this systematic review analyzed international research published in English (2013–2017) on the teaching and learning of mathematics from the prekindergarten to 12th-grade level, comparing research on students identified as having disabilities to research on students without disabilities. Coding articles (N = 2477) for methodology, participants, mathematical domain, and theoretical orientation, we found that research on students with disabilities was overwhelmingly quantitative (81%) and tended to use behavioral and medical theoretical orientations. Research on students without disabilities was both qualitative (42%) and quantitative (42%) and tended to use constructivist and sociocultural theoretical orientations. In addition, research on mathematical learning that included students with disabilities lacked sustained qualitative inquiry documenting learning processes of students with disabilities and rarely included the teacher as an explicit focus. Following Gervasoni and Lindenskov (2011), we contend that these pronounced differences in research contribute to the segregation of students with disabilities and low-achieving students in lower quality mathematics instruction and may lead to low expectations of the mathematical competence of students with disabilities. We call for increased attention to research that considers how disability is produced and enacted in the complex context of mathematics classrooms.
Genomic analysis for potential targetable mutations in relapsed and refractory germ cell tumors.

407Background: A large number of metastatic germ cell tumors (GCTs) are cured with platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients that have relapsed or refractory disease can be cured with salvage therapy i...
Gastroesophageal Reflux and the Neonatal Airway

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is popularly regarded as a disease of the stomach and esophagus, but it is better understood as a disease of the aerodigestive tract. While human infants universally exhibit gastroesophageal reflux, it becomes a “disease” essentially when the airways are damaged by gastric contents (acid, pepsin, milk, bacteria, bile acids). Meanwhile, positive feedback loops between the organ systems of the chest and abdomen probably exacerbate the disease in vulnerable infants, but also reveal clinical opportunities to interrupt the cycle. While a single diagnostic test for GERD does not exist, surgical amelioration of reflux is very effective protection for the airway. Best results may be achieved not just through the operation but through postoperative nutritional management that incorporates new constraints imposed by fundoplication.
A longer way in: Tryouts as alternative hiring arrangements in organizations

Abstract In this article we introduce and propose a research agenda on tryouts, a hiring arrangement in which individuals spend time in organizations performing job-related work prior to the chance to become regular, full-time employees. We define tryouts as a construct and discuss how tryouts differ from traditional, direct hiring. We provide a typology of alternative hiring arrangements that serve as tryouts and evidence for their utilization. We theorize that tryouts stem from changes in the nature of work, organizations, and labor markets in the 21st century. For labor market researchers, we raise questions about not only the consequences of tryouts—such as who is hired, what kinds of jobs they lead to for workers, and the social and economic awards attached to such jobs—but also about the motivations of individuals who engage in tryouts, how these motivations (and the consequences of tryouts) differ across demographic groups, and how tryouts may create multi-tiered hiring systems. For organizational scholars, we suggest that tryouts update theoretical conceptualizations of hiring, and lead organizational behaviors to commence during hiring that demand further attention. While worthy of study in their own right, we also discuss reasons that tryouts offer an “ontological laboratory” for assessing theories on organizations, labor markets, and the origins and remediation of workplace inequality.
An International Comparison of Corporate Leeway to Ward-Off Predators

Comparison of the legal regulations in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union governing company response to unsolicited takeover attempts and implementation of takeover defenses, in light of the Delaware Selectica case and the Cadbury/Kraft hostile-turned-friendly acquisition.
Endotyping chronic rhinosinusitis based on olfactory cleft mucus biomarkers.

Background Although chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is considered the most treatable form of olfactory dysfunction, there has been relatively little clinical attention focused on assessing endotypes as they pertain to olfactory loss. Objectives The goal of this study was to explore inflammatory endotypes in CRS using an unsupervised cluster analysis of olfactory cleft (OC) biomarkers in a phenotype-free approach. Methods Patients with CRS were prospectively recruited and psychophysical olfactory testing, Questionnaire of Olfactory Dysfunction (QOD-NS), and bilateral OC endoscopy were obtained. Mucus was collected from the OC and evaluated for 26 biomarkers using principal component analysis. Cluster analysis was performed using only OC biomarkers and differences in olfactory measures were compared across clusters. Results A total of 198 subjects (128 with CRS and 70 controls) were evaluated. Evaluation of OC biomarkers indicated 6 principal components, explaining 69.50% of the variance, with type 2, mixed type 1/T h 17-cell, growth factor, and neutrophil chemoattractant inflammatory signatures. A total of 10 clusters were identified that differed significantly in frequency of controls, and subjects with CRS with nasal polyps, and subjects with CRS without nasal polyps across the clusters (likelihood ratio test, χ 18 2 = 178.64 ; P Conclusions Clustering based solely on OC biomarkers can organize patients into clinically meaningful endotypes that discriminate between subjects with CRS and controls. Validation studies are necessary to confirm these findings and further refine olfactory endotypes.
Knowledge-Base Enriched Word Embeddings for Biomedical Domain.

Word embeddings have been shown adept at capturing the semantic and syntactic regularities of the natural language text, as a result of which these representations have found their utility in a wide variety of downstream content analysis tasks. Commonly, these word embedding techniques derive the distributed representation of words based on the local context information. However, such approaches ignore the rich amount of explicit information present in knowledge-bases. This is problematic, as it might lead to poor representation for words with insufficient local context such as domain specific words. Furthermore, the problem becomes pronounced in domain such as bio-medicine where the presence of these domain specific words are relatively high. Towards this end, in this project, we propose a new word embedding based model for biomedical domain that jointly leverages the information from available corpora and domain knowledge in order to generate knowledge-base powered embeddings. Unlike existing approaches, the proposed methodology is simple but adept at capturing the precise knowledge available in domain resources in an accurate way. Experimental results on biomedical concept similarity and relatedness task validates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Use of a MEMS Differential Pressure Sensor to Detect Ground, Ceiling, and Walls on Small Quadrotors

Effective autonomous indoor flight requires an ability to sense and navigate ground, ceiling, and walls. While this can be accomplished in many ways including vision, one bio-inspired approach that is not well studied uses the detection of pressure changes when flying close to surfaces. As an example, an increase in pressure can be detected when a quadrotor flies close to the ground, a phenomenon known as ‘ground effect’. This work evaluates the viability of differential pressure measurements as a means of sensing ground, ceilings, and walls for small quadrotors. Extending existing models for thrust in ground effect, a model is derived to predict pressure changes due to ground effect in hover and tilt. The pressure response with ground effect is characterized across a range of distances, thrust levels, sensor locations, and quadrotor tilts using a Crazyflie 2.0 quadrotor and a small MEMS differential pressure sensor. Characterization experiments are also used to evaluate pressure measurements at varying distances from ceilings and walls, as well as the pressure behavior due to step changes in ground height. Manually controlled free flight tests are used to validate ground sensing in both nominal and visually challenging environments, as well as wall sensing in free flight.
A Dialogical Epilogue

In this Dialogical Epilogue, I address a series of both general and specific questions to some of the contributors of this volume. The intent is to seek clarification on or even contest one or more propositions presented in the various chapters. In the role of a “Consul of the Readers” I enter into a conversation with the book’s authors to discuss some of the fundamental questions to which Sentenza 238/2014 gives rise and that have, at best, received only indirect answers in the various chapters. I believe answering them will enhance the value of each contribution and of the book as a whole.
Patterned Photocrosslinking to Establish Stiffness Gradients and Local Anisotropies in Fibrous 3D Hydrogels

Cells are known to constantly interact with their local extracellular matrix (ECM) and respond to a variety of biochemical and mechanical cues received from the ECM. Nonetheless, comprehensive understanding of cell-ECM interactions has been elusive. Many studies rely on analysis of cell behavior on 2D substrates, which do not reflect a natural cell environment. Further, lack of dynamic control over local stiffness gradients and fiber alignment hinders progress in studies in naturally derived fibrous 3D cultures. Here, we present a cell-safe method of patterned photocrosslinking, which can aid in studying biological hypotheses related to mechanotransduction in 3D hydrogels. As previously described by our group, ruthenium-catalyzed photocrosslinking (RCP) of selected ECM regions promotes localized increase in stiffness mediated by focused blue laser light in a confocal microscope. In this study, we further demonstrate that RCP can induce localized strain stiffening and fiber alignment outside of the selected crosslinked region and induce stiffness anisotropy biased towards the direction of fiber alignment. MDA-MB-231 cells are shown to respond to RCP-induced changes in local ECM architecture and display more elongated morphology and higher directionality and speed of cell migration, as compared to control cells. Further, the effect of patterned crosslinking on a stiffness landscape is measured using multi-axes optical tweezers active microrheology (AMR) with backscattered laser beam illumination. AMR validates RCP as a suitable tool for creating distinct stiffness landscapes and differentiating the effect of contact guidance and durotaxis phenomena on cell migration, further underscoring the usefulness of RCP in cell-ECM studies.
Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way

This book is about wealth mobility, how some people get rich while others stay poor. The advantages of owning wealth and the nature of true wealth have long made questions about the wealthy appealing. In recent years, that interest has been amplified by economic changes and rising wealth inequality. Today, although the basic facts about wealth inequality are no longer a mystery, we still know little about who the wealthy are, how they got there, and what prevents other people from becoming rich. We know very little about the process of wealth mobility. This book explores wealth by investigating some of the most basic questions about wealth mobility. How much mobility is there? Has the nature of mobility changed over time? Is entrepreneurship important? How much does inheritance matter? What other factors encourage or prevent wealth mobility, and how do these change over the course of a person's life?
Photo‐induced oxidative cross‐linking as a method to evaluate the specificity of protein–ligand interactions*

The isolation of protein-binding synthetic molecules from combinatorial libraries or compound collections is now a common practice in chemical biology. An important, but underdeveloped, aspect of characterizing the binding properties of such molecules is their level of binding specificity. This is often evaluated by simply measuring the equilibrium binding affinity of the compound of interest with its target protein and comparing this value with its affinity to one or a few other purified proteins selected at random. These measurements may not reflect accurately the ability of the compound to seek out its target in a complex mixture of proteins such as a cell extract or serum. A more desirable alternative would be to develop solution assays that measure directly the binding of the molecule of interest to both target and competitor proteins in complex solutions. In this report, we evaluate a rapid and efficient photo-triggered cross-linking reaction for assessing binding specificity of synthetic molecules in protein mixtures. Using peptide-protein complexes, we demonstrate that this reaction provides an unbiased view of the peptide-protein contacts present in solution under a given set of conditions and thus is useful for assessing binding specificity. We also discuss the potential application of this chemistry to the related, but more difficult, problem of the identification of protein targets of bioactive molecules.
Information and transparency: learning from recovery act reporting experiences

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) promised strict accounting of all funds spent and the publication of that information to the public in relative real-time. The federal requirements for reporting Recovery Act funds relied heavily on the ability of recipients, primarily state governments, to capture, manage, and deliver the data required. This paper presents the experience of one state agency, in particular how they leveraged the reporting mandate to improve real-time informational capability for transparency and openness. The case, together with insights from a Recovery Act Knowledge Network, provides five recommendations to guide decision makers who seek to increase the capability of government to use information to further transparency agendas.
Between‐Meal Risedronate Does Not Alter Bone Turnover in Nursing Home Residents

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of between-meal weekly risedronate and daily calcium 630 mg and vitamin D 400 IU on bone turnover markers. DESIGN: Randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled trial. SETTING: Skilled nursing home (NH). PARTICIPANTS: Sixty skilled-NH residents (46 men, 14 women), mean age±standard deviation of 76±6, were randomized to receive risedronate 30 mg (n=31) or matching placebo (n=29) once weekly for 12 weeks. All received 315 mg calcium with 200 IU vitamin D twice daily. MEASUREMENTS: Bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSAP), N-telopeptide of type 1 collagen (NTx), 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), and parathyroid hormone were measured at baseline and 6 and 12 weeks. RESULTS: Risedronate reduced BSAP significantly more than placebo (P<.05) at 6 weeks but not at 12 weeks; no treatment effect on serum NTx was observed. Defining hypovitaminosis D as a serum 25OHD concentration below 32 ng/mL, 50 of 53 (94%) study participants were low at baseline (mean 25OHD 19 ng/mL). Vitamin D levels remained insufficient in 74% of participants after 12 weeks. CONCLUSION: In this NH population, weekly risedronate administered using a between-meal dosing schedule reduced serum BSAP at 6 weeks of treatment; this effect was not observed at 12 weeks. The overall lack of change in bone turnover markers suggests that this risedronate dose and schedule would not be expected to increase bone density or reduce fracture risk in this population. Hypovitaminosis D was common and not reliably corrected by 400 IU of vitamin D daily. Despite an extremely high osteoporotic fracture risk in NH residents, additional study is required to determine under which conditions pharmacological treatment is efficacious in this population and define approaches that assure vitamin D repletion.
Optimal decentralized control

The main objective of this paper is to present a solution of the longstanding problem of optimal decentralized control using the classical method of Lagrange. The key idea of the paper is to formulate decentralized information structure constraints as differential equations, which are added to the equations of motion to form a suitable set of constraints for minimization of a cost functional. The globally optimal solution is obtained by introducing Lagrange-Lyapunov functions as multipliers and applying Pontryagin's maximum principle. By assuming a Gaussian nature of the state evolution we provide a feedback control structure determined by Riccati-type equations, which is the basic feature of the classical result of Kalman, and is of major practical significance.
Estrogen Promotes Mammary Tumor Development in C3(1)/SV40 Large T-Antigen Transgenic Mice: Paradoxical Loss of Estrogen Receptorα Expression during Tumor Progression

Although several lines of epidemiological evidence suggest that estrogen exposure influences the incidence of breast cancer development, the mechanisms by which estrogen may stimulate the formation of breast cancer remain poorly understood. We have explored how alterations in estrogen exposure can influence the development of mammary cancer in the C3(1)/TAG transgenic model, where estrogen levels and estrogen receptor α (ERα) expression do not appear to modify the level of transgene expression. The C3(1)/TAG transgene becomes transcriptionally active in mammary ductal target cells at 3 weeks of age after the estrogen-induced differentiation of the mammary epithelial anlage to the ductal outgrowth stage. Complete maturation of the mammary ductal tree, however, is not required for cancer development because tumors arise in animals where ductal branching and terminal end bud formation have been prematurely arrested by ovariectomy. Mammary tumorigenesis in this model is promoted by increased estrogen exposure with the development of significantly more mammary intraepithelial neoplastic lesions and carcinomas associated with accelerated malignant conversion. The promotion of mammary tumors in this model appears to occur through an estrogen-induced proliferation and increase in the number of available target cells for transformation at the terminal ductal lobular units, as has been postulated to occur in women who receive hormone replacement therapy and/or by additional molecular mechanisms. We show, for the first time in a transgenic mouse model, that mammary tumor progression is associated with the loss of ERα expression, as has been often observed in human breast cancers with important clinical significance. Estrogen signaling may, therefore, serve different functions, depending upon the stage of tumorigenesis. ERβ expression is up-regulated during tumor progression, although the functional significance of this remains to be determined.
Why phase II trials in cervical chemoprevention are negative: what have we learned?

Cervical cancer is an important cause of mortality in women worldwide, and the cervix is a well-established clinical, cytologic, and histopathologic model of carcinogenesis. The cervix is easily accessible for examination and biopsy, and colposcopy improves visualization. Identifying chemopreventives in cervical cancer requires rigorous study design: dose de-escalating phase I, IIa trials; placebo-controlled phase IIb trials; and multicenter phase III trials. Reduction in disease incidence and surrogate endpoint biomarkers (SEB) may be trial endpoints. The goal of chemoprevention studies is to prevent or delay the development of cancer. Each agent requires a phase I or IIa trial for each organ site. Phase I, IIa studies of micronutrients, retinoids, a-difluoromethylornithine, and indole-3-carbinol have demonstrated response rates of up to 70%, but results of placebo-controlled phase IIb studies have been disappointing and their findings confounded by the high regression rates in placebo-treated patients. Enhancement of research methods, including sufficient enrollment guided by power calculations, uniform biopsy at study entry and exit, and strict progression through trial design phases would ensure valid and reliable results. Because human papillomavirus (HPV) is the major etiologic agent, pretrial laboratory and animal studies should have demonstrated the efficacy of the chemopreventive agent to decrease HPV viral protein expression or HPV tumor induction. SEB modulation must be characterized in any trial’s earliest phases before use in phases IIb and III. Lessons learned in chemoprevention will serve as a basis for immunoprevention and vaccine trials.
Predictors of resilience and thriving among Latina/o undergraduate students.

Previous studies of Latina/o well-being indicate that supportive family members, religion or spirituality, and cultural values (e.g., familismo) aid in coping with adversities. The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of several factors (spirituality, hope, social support, and cultural values) in predicting resilience and thriving in Latina/o undergraduates (N = 121). Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the unique contributions of the predictors to resilience and thriving. Results demonstrated differences between resilience and thriving as evidenced by the fact that they have different predictor variables. For example, hope was a predictor variable for both constructs, but spirituality was a significant predictor only for thriving. Implications for research and practice and future directions are discussed.
Assessment of an automated surveillance system for detection of initial ventilator-associated events

Surveillance for initial ventilator-associated events (VAEs) was automated and compared with nonautomated review of episodes of mechanical ventilation. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of automated surveillance were very high (>93%), and automated surveillance reduced the time spent on detection of VAEs by >90%.
Substance P content in cultured neonatal rat vagal sensory neurons: the effect of nerve growth factor.

To begin to study the factors regulating the synthesis and release of substance P (SP) in the sensory vagus nerve, cultures of neonatal rat nodose ganglia were developed. In microexplant cultures, obtained from small fragments of nodose ganglia, SP was present in low amounts: after 3 weeks, 141 +/- 36 pg per well, 10 ganglia equivalents per well. To enhance neuron survival, nodose ganglia were enzymatically dissociated using neutral protease. Estimated survival at 5 days was 20-30%, with 800-1200 surviving neurons per plated ganglion, and decreased slowly thereafter. Specific SP immunostaining was present in 10-20% of neurons, mostly of small diameter (18-22 micron). SP content was low for 5 days then rose progressively after 14 days to 80-150 pg per plated ganglion. The addition of nerve growth factor (NGF, 100 ng/ml) to the culture medium did not alter neuron survival. However, SP content was doubled in the presence of NGF, or fell rapidly to one-half control levels following its withdrawal: e.g. following 12 days in culture with NGF 1185 +/- 176 pg/well vs NGF withdrawn day 8-12, 592 +/- 118 pg/well, mean +/- S.D., P less than 0.01. Somatostatin, present in one-sixth the amount of SP, was unaltered by NGF. In subsequent studies, plating of neurons onto previously dissociated rat atriacytes increased survival by 50% but did not alter SP content per surviving neurons. These studies demonstrate that SP is present in dissociated cultures of rat vagal sensory neurons; the quantities and estimated net synthesis rate correspond to previous observations in vivo. The studies also demonstrate that SP content but not neuron survival are regulated by NGF in nodose ganglion neurons. This model may prove valuable for the study of SP and other sensory neuropeptides in this important class of visceral afferent neurons.
Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection in neonates and young infants: Repair in the current era

Abstract Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection has been one of the more challenging congenital heart defects in newborns and young infants despite improvements in surgical technique, cardiac anesthesia, neonatal myocardial preservation, and postoperative care. Since 1981, 30 patients with total anomalous pulmonary venous connection have undergone primary total correction. Mean age at operation was 28 ± 6 days and mean weight, 3.3 ± 0.7 kg. Essential features of the surgical approach in these small patients included early surgical intervention, profound hypothermia with total circulatory arrest, cardioplegic myocardial preservation, and a wide posterior anastomosis. Operative mortality was 13% ± 6%. All four deaths were in patients having emergency operation within 24 hours of the surgical consult and requiring ventilator support preoperatively. The mean follow-up is 47 ± 7 months. There have been two late deaths, and the 7-year survival rate is 79% ± 8%. There have been two reoperations, and 91% ± 6% of the patients are reoperation free at 7 years. Only 1 of the 24 surviving patients is symptomatic. Growth in survivors is closely monitored. The height growth percentile is less than 5% in 15% ± 8% of survivors and the weight growth percentile, less than 5% in 17 ± 8%. During the past decade, with a consistent surgical approach to neonates and infants with total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, it has been possible to achieve low early mortality, low attrition, and excellent late results.
Flow-thermodynamics interactions in rapidly-sheared compressible turbulence

We investigate the behavior of flow variables, thermodynamic variables and their interaction in rapidly sheared (S) homogeneous compressible turbulence using rapid distortion theory (RDT). We subject an initially isotropic and incompressible flow field to homogeneous shear-rate of various strengths quantified by a gradient Mach number (M g ) based on characteristic wavenumber. Our objective is to characterize the behavior of flow/thermodynamic fluctuations and their linear interactions during the course of turbulence evolution. Even though the mean shear-rate is held constant, the gradient Mach number progressively diminishes with time as the relevant wavenumber increases due to the mean deformation. The evolution exhibits three distinct phases which we categorize based on the character of pressure as: (i) Pressure-released (PR) stage which is observed when $${St < \sqrt{M_{g0}}}$$ and pressure effects are negligible; (ii) Wave-character (WC) stage wherein $${\sqrt{M_{g0}} < St < M_{g0}}$$ and the wave character of pressure is in evidence; and (iii) Low-Mach number (LM) stage when St > M g0, where M g0 is the initial gradient Mach number. In the PR regime we find that the thermodynamic fluctuations evolve from their initial state but velocity fluctuations grow unhindered by pressure fluctuations. In the WC regime, the pressure fluctuations become significant and flow-thermodynamic interaction commences. This interaction brings about equipartition of dilatational kinetic energy and thermodynamic potential energy. The interaction also results in stabilization of turbulence, and the total kinetic energy growth comes to a near standstill. Ultimately in the LM stage, kinetic energy starts increasing again with the growth rate being very similar to that in incompressible RDT. However, the thermodynamic fluctuations continue to grow despite the gradient Mach number being substantially smaller than unity. Overall, the study yields valuable insight into the linear processes in high Mach number shear flows and identifies important closure modeling issues.
Sputter deposition of nm-thick films for passivation of organic pellicles

Abstract Pellicles are critical to the 157 and 193 nm lithography technology. The polymeric pellicles are prone to contamination of environment, which may shorten their lifetimes. In this paper, authors passivated pellicles with various nm-thick thin films deposited by the room-temperature sputtering method. The pellicles were investigated for its light transmission efficiency and surface bond structure change. The environmental influence test was carried out by exposing the pellicle to a high-humidity, high-temperature condition. The result showed that a proper coating layer could protect the pellicle from environmental contamination while keeping the light transmittance loss low.
A new reverse analysis to determine the constitutive response of plastically graded case hardened bearing steels

Abstract A new reverse analysis is presented that determines the plastic response of both nongraded and plastically graded materials (PGMs) without the need for traditional tension or compression tests. The method utilizes the concepts of expanding cavity model for strain hardening materials, Tabor’s rule of converting Vickers hardness to flow stress, representative plastic strain induced by indentation, and finite element modeling of the macro indentation process. A unique flow curve is determined when the experimentally measured increase in micro Vickers hardness matches that predicted by the proposed method within the plastic zone of a macro Vickers indent. The method is validated for a nongraded stainless steel first and then extended to determine the gradient in flow curves of plastically graded, case-hardened M50 NiL material, a widely used bearing steel. Such knowledge of the plastic response of the case hardened region will help optimize the design of case hardened bearings with longer rolling contact fatigue life and higher thrust load capabilities.
Patterns of growth in cold-seep vestimenferans including Seepiophila jonesi: a second species of long-lived tubeworm

Seepiophila jonesi is a vestimentiferan tubeworm (Siboglinidae: Polychaeta) inhabiting the cold seeps of the upper slope of the Gulf of Mexico. It commonly co-occurs with Lamellibrachia luymesi, which is among the most long-lived non-clonal animals known. The growth pattern of S. jonesi is best described by a model including a size-specific probability of growth and an average growth rate that does not vary with individual size. This model, based on growth data from in situ staining and collection approximately 1 year later, predicts that S. jonesi is very slow growing and may attain ages comparable with L. luymesi. The efficacy of this model in describing L. luymesi growth rate was assessed, but the previously employed model of declining growth rate with individual size provided the better fit to the empirical data. Comparisons of both S. jonesi and L. luymesi growth rates among sites and among aggregations within a site indicate that there is some degree of habitat variability contributing to differences in growth rates. However, position of the anterior end of the worm within an aggregation did not have a significant effect on growth rate in comparisons among groups of L. luymesi from different distances from the center of an aggregation. The evolution of longevity in these species of vestimentiferans was favored by the relative stability of the seep habitat and sulfide sources, in contrast to the hydrothermal vent environment inhabited by relatively short-lived and fast-growing vestimentiferan species.
Cell-Mediated Immune Response in Rubella Infections

Cultures of lymphocytes from rubella-susceptible persons did not respond to stimulation with purified rubella antigen whereas those from persons who had experienced natural infection responded strongly to specific antigenic stimulation. The response of cultures of lymphocytes from vaccinees is weaker than that of naturally infected persons, and it appears that the response of lymphocytes from congenitally infected children depends on their gestational age at the time of interuterine infection. Vaccination or revaccination of immune subjects elicits a fast booster-type cell-mediated immune response. This property is useful for detecting the immune status of women exposed to rubella during pregnancy whose rubella history is unknown and whose humoral immune response is negative.
Sex ratios and skew models: the special case of evolution of cooperation in polistine wasps.

Abstract: Cooperative breeding often involves reproductive dominance hierarchies. Such hierarchies have been proposed to form and to be maintained through an equitable skew in reproduction for both dominants and subordinates. The general form of skew models also predicts that cooperation can be stable only if cooperation greatly increases group reproductive success or subordinates are greatly constrained in their reproductive prospects relative to dominants. Neither, however, seems to be generally present in the colony initiation phase of temperate polistine wasps, although the behaviors of individuals within such groups are often consistent with skew model predictions. This apparent contradiction can be resolved in the context of a special case of the skew models that incorporate mother‐offspring conflicts over sex ratios. Data suggest that all the needed preconditions are present for cooperating foundresses to gain an added benefit through producing male‐biased investment ratios. Therefore, the special ...
Generalized solutions of beams with jump discontinuities on elastic foundations

The bending solutions of the Euler–Bernoulli and the Timoshenko beams with material and geometric discontinuities are developed in the space of generalized functions. Unlike the classical solutions of discontinuous beams, which are expressed in terms of multiple expressions that are valid in different regions of the beam, the generalized solutions are expressed in terms of a single expression on the entire domain. It is shown that the boundary-value problems describing the bending of beams with jump discontinuities on discontinuous elastic foundations have more compact forms in the space of generalized functions than they do in the space of classical functions. Also, fewer continuity conditions need to be satisfied if the problem is formulated in the space of generalized functions. It is demonstrated that using the theory of distributions (i.e. generalized functions) makes finding analytical solutions for this class of problems more efficient compared to the traditional methods, and, in some cases, the theory of distributions can lead to interesting qualitative results. Examples are presented to show the efficiency of using the theory of generalized functions.
Numerical prediction of three-dimensional fiber orientation in Hele-Shaw flows

A numerical technique is developed to determine the three-dimensional fiber orientation in complex flows. The fiber orientation state is specified in terms of orientation tensors, which are used in several constitutive models. This method is applied to quasi-steady state Hele-Shaw flows in order to predict the flow-induced fiber orientation during injection molding at zero volume fraction limit. At the inlet, a number of fibers are introduced at a specified rate into the flow and each fiber location is traced during the mold filling. Along these determined paths, the independent components of fourth order orientation tensors are solved, describing the orientation state. The numerical grid generation technique, which is suitable for complex mold shapes, is employed for the flow solution. Orientation ellipsoids are calculated from the second order tensors and are used to present the fiber orientation results. The numerical solutions are obtained for channel and converging flows. Planar, longitudinal, and transverse orientation results are generated from the orthogonal projections of the orientation ellipsoids.
Origin, structure and motifs of naturally processed MHC class II ligands.

Abstract In the past few years a considerable number of naturally processed MHC class II ligands have been identified and sequenced. Most of them derive from endogenous sources, predominantly from plasma membrane proteins. Generally, they display variability in length but exhibit characteristic patterns of invariant amino acid positions, which reflect the allele-specific binding requirements. As a general feature, class II ligands also often contain a pattern of proline residues interpreted as a ‘processing motif’.
OFFICIAL HATE CRIME STATISTICS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE “EPIDEMIC HYPOTHESIS”

ABSTRACT The popular press and many of those who write and speak on the topic of hate crime suggest that hate crime has become an “epidemic.” Such claims are often based on anecdotal information and images of hate crime instilled in the public's collective conscience through media accounts. This research attempts to shed light on this issue through an examination of official bias crime statistics. While it is true that bias crime statistics on a national level tabulated by the Uniform Crime Reports consist of only “reported” offenses, the data is the most comprehensive effort undertaken to measure the number of hate crimes within the United States. With eight full years of data from 1991 through 1998, this study investigates the “epidemic hypothesis”. This hypothesis suggests that hate crimes in recent years have increased dramatically. The findings do not support the hypothesis that hate crimes have increased during the data analysis period. Thus, the findings debunk the popular social construction of th...