cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Seizures in Lung Transplant Recipients

Summary: Purpose: We wished to assess organ transplant recipients, who incur a significant risk for seizures. Method: We reviewed 85 lung transplants performed in 81 patients at the University of North Carolina hospitals between 1991 and 1994. All patients were reviewed for age, reason for transplant, detailed description of seizures, neurological examination, medications, and laboratory results, including cyclosporine level, EEG, and brain imaging. Results: Eighteen of 81 (22%) patients experienced seizures. Patients aged <25 years had the greatest risk of seizures and 15 of the 18 patients had cystic fibrosis. Sixteen of the 18 (89%) patients, by history, had partial-onset seizures. Eleven of the 18 (61%) patients had seizures ≤10 days after initiation of intravenous methylprednisolone for allograft rejection. Two patients had seizures associated with sustained hypertension; 1 of these patients was simultaneously being treated for rejection. Four patients had strokes (1 before transplant) and seizures. Two patients were receiving imipenem. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain demonstrated areas of increased T, signal in 8 of 9 patients. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate multiple etiologies for seizures in our transplant recipients. However, we believe that patients, especially those aged <25 years, being treated with intravenous methylprednisolone for rejection may be at increased risk of seizures. We hypothesize that the focal loss of blood-brain barrier (BBB) may play a significant role in the development of partial seizures in lung transplant recipients.
In search of the structure of a function: the eating behavior of free-living humans

h e i w b a d p t w How is it that a scientist comes to study eating behavior nd body weight regulation when he really is not particuarly interested in either? This sentiment often comes as a urprise to people. I once had a prospective graduate student ome to interview with me. When she entered my office, she id a double take and looked a bit startled. I asked what the atter was and she stammered that she was surprised beause she was expecting me to be obese. I asked her why he thought so and she answered that because I studied ating she assumed that I had a personal problem with it. he fact of the matter is I do not. I am actually one of the ucky ones who until recently could pretty much eat whatver I wanted and gain no weight. So why do I have an nterest in studying eating? First and foremost, I am a psychologist. If we look at the oot meaning of the word psychology, it roughly translates o the study of the mind. The human mind, its nature and echanism, has always fascinated me and the field of psyhology afforded me the opportunity to spend my career tudying it. Initially I thought the best way to study the mind as to focus on studying the organ of the mind, i.e., the ervous system. So I trained as a physiological psychologist nd spent my graduate career at the University of Massahusetts studying physiology and its relation to behavior. y initial research attempted to uncover the role of the rain’s limbic system in the control of behavior and mental rocesses. I employed the classic strategy of manipulating a neural tructure observing how the organism’s behavior was afected. This information was then used to infer what the unction of the structure might be. Putting aside the fact that n those days the manipulations were very crude, I realized hat there was a major logical flaw in the paradigm of ttempting to ascertain the function of a physical structure. he logic required that multiple measurements and manip-
weather modification activities in Japan

Japanese weather modification activities have been surveyed. The principal works have evolved in three stages. During the early program from 1947 to 1960, the research was carried out in the major universities with sponsorship derived from the electric power companies. Many technical developments concerning the generation, detection, and behavior of artificial ice nuclei took place during this period. Experimental work was concentrated on ground seeding programs. Around the end of this period, the lack of basic knowledge in cloud seeding was realized while the practical program, although curtailed in some areas, continued operation. Tokyo Metropolitan Office of City Water Supply started developing a comprehensive but routine seeding program in order to secure the water supply in dry seasons. The second period occurred between 1961 and 1967 when the Science and Technology Agency funded a five year project to the Japanese Artificial Rainfall Research Corporation for the purpose of obtaining more basic infor...
Nickels and Dimes Won’t Fix This The Future of Work and Pay in America

The global recession has made researchers and policy makers ask a broad set of questions about the future of work and pay in America. This article examines three recent books, Pollin et al.’s A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States (2008), Devault’s People at Work: Life, Power, and Social Inclusion in the New Economy (2008), and Bartik and Houseman’s A Future of Good Jobs? America’s Challenge in the Global Economy (2008) for insights on this issue. From diverse methodologies and disciplinary perspectives, each helps to highlight that the most basic of all economic fundamentals is good jobs with good wages. The current economic downturn provides researchers and policy makers with an opportunity to examine critically the cumulative damage done to the American middle class by policies that ignore these economic fundamentals in favor of policies that favor unearned income while promoting easy credit and debt to disguise downward mobility.
Administration of Safety in the Steel Industry

Research in a single steel company highlighted the existence of autonomous safety goals and the importance of innovative activity in their realization. A key communications function in the process of innovation is performed by means of an industry-wide organization of staff specialists. Some confirmation of the relevance and effectiveness of this system is given by an analysis of plant injury rates for the steel industry as a whole.
ASYNCHRONY OF DNA SYNTHESIS IN CHROMOSOMES OF HUMAN DIPLOID CELLS.

P. S. MOORHEAD and VITTORIO DEFENDI. From the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia It has been previously demonstrated (1) that the length of the period of DNA synthesis (S period) as measured by uptake of tritiated thymidine is approximately the same in several animal cells. Since the length of this period (with a range of 6/~ to 8 hours) appears to be independent of the spe- cies of the cell, the chromosome number, the cells of human diploid strains in long term cultiva- tion. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cell strains derived from embryonic sources which have maintained their diploid characteristics in long term continuous cultivation in vitro were used in these
3-D Imaging of Vehicles using Wide Aperture Radar

An image processing procedure is presented to construct a three-dimensional representation of a vehicle from a set of two-dimensional circular synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Given a previously generated digital elevation map, a third dimension is inferred from layover and polarization. With high data rates and circular flight paths, SAR scenes may be large relative to the standoff distance. Consequently, variations in elevation angles (with respect to terrain) across the scene become crucial for identifying signatures. The proposed 3D processing inverts elevated point layover to provide partial invariance to elevation angle and produces an unordered set of scattering centers with attributes including an azimuth attribute to preserve anisotropy. The proposed processing is demonstrated on both measured and simulated data.
Heat-conserving postures hinder escape: a thermoregulation–predation trade-off in wintering birds

Wintering birds may conserve body heat by adopting postures with minimal leg exposure or significant ptiloerection. However, maximally heat-conserving postures may hinder a bird’s ability to escape attack, leading to a trade-off between predation risk and thermoregulation. Such a trade-off implies that birds should use the most heat-conserving postures only at very cold temperatures. Feeding in a relatively low-risk environment should also facilitate the use of such heat-conserving postures. In this experiment, we examined the effect of thermoregulatory postures on the time to initiate escape in feeding dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) exposed to a sudden sharp noise. Birds using progressively more heat-conserving postures required significantly more time to initiate flight, with a 50% increase or more for certain cumbersome postures when compared with the most ‘‘flightready’’ posture. This increase in the time needed to become airborne likely leads to an increase in the predation risk during an attack. Although this increase in risk could not be quantified, the delays associated with the most heat-conserving postures could allow a hawk to approach approximately 1.7 m closer to its prey during an attack. Postures that limit escape were used to a greater degree when feeding near cover and in cold conditions, lending additional support to a predation-thermoregulation trade-off. However, the effect of flock size was inconsistent and no effect of the nearest neighbor distance on thermoregulatory posture was detected. Overall, the results of this study provide insight into the seemingly intuitive observation that birds use maximally heatconserving postures only under very cold winter conditions. Key words: antipredator behavior, escape flight, predation risk, thermoregulation, thermoregulatory posture, trade-off. [Behav Ecol]
Dust capture by the Saturnian magnetosphere

We examine the capture of interplanetary dust particles by Saturn using a simple two-dimensional code. The incoming grain's energy may be lost to the magnetosphere due to the grain's finite charging time as it passes through the magnetospheric plasma. We observe a preference for retrograde captures, with an approximately 2 : 1 ratio of retrograde to prograde captures. The computer simulations show that this asymmetry is due to the larger range of values of the Jacobi constant for retrograde orbits.
Atypical presentation of cerebral schistosomiasis four years after exposure to Schistosoma mansoni

Schistosomiasis is the second most socioeconomically devastating parasitic disease worldwide, affecting over 240 million people in 77 countries on 5 continents and killing 300,000 people annually in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Neuroschistosomiasis is caused by granuloma formation around eggs that lodge in the CNS, with Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma haematobium usually affecting the spinal cord and Schistosoma japonicum causing most reported cerebral disease. We report a case of a previously healthy 25-year-old woman native to the United States who presented with a single generalized tonic–clonic seizure without other neurologic symptoms four years after spending a semester in Ghana where she went swimming once in a river. Brain MRI showed areas of signal abnormality and mottled nodular linear enhancement in the left temporal and right posterior temporal/parietal lobes and right cerebellum without mass effect. A biopsy of the left temporal lesion showed prominent granulomas with dense mixed inflammatory infiltrates composed of eosinophils, plasma cells, and lymphocytes surrounding refractile egg shells containing characteristic embryonal cells and von Lichtenberg's envelope and displaying the pathognomonic spine shape of S. mansoni. Serum ELISA and antibody immunoblots confirmed exposure to S. mansoni. In summary, we describe the atypical combination of cerebral schistosomiasis due to S. mansoni, after a prolonged interval of four years, from a single known exposure.
Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity: Local and Global Mechanisms for Stabilizing Neuronal Function

Neural circuits must maintain stable function in the face of many plastic challenges, including changes in synapse number and strength, during learning and development. Recent work has shown that these destabilizing influences are counterbalanced by homeostatic plasticity mechanisms that act to stabilize neuronal and circuit activity. One such mechanism is synaptic scaling, which allows neurons to detect changes in their own firing rates through a set of calcium-dependent sensors that then regulate receptor trafficking to increase or decrease the accumulation of glutamate receptors at synaptic sites. Additional homeostatic mechanisms may allow local changes in synaptic activation to generate local synaptic adaptations, and network-wide changes in activity to generate network-wide adjustments in the balance between excitation and inhibition. The signaling pathways underlying these various forms of homeostatic plasticity are currently under intense scrutiny, and although dozens of molecular pathways have now been implicated in homeostatic plasticity, a clear picture of how homeostatic feedback is structured at the molecular level has not yet emerged. On a functional level, neuronal networks likely use this complex set of regulatory mechanisms to achieve homeostasis over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales.
Message communications in a distributed real-time system with a polled bus

High-speed message communications is addressed. Each node in the system consists of multiple processors interconnected by a broadcast bus, but the individual nodes are interconnected by an arbitrary network. The concept of a poll number is proposed to control the access to an intranode bus, minimizing the probability of real-time messages missing their deadlines. When a task generates a time-constrained message, a poll number associated with the message is computed on the basis of the message deadline and the task priority. When the bus is free, the various tasks at a node which desire to use the bus write the poll number onto the bus and read it back, one bit at a time, starting from the most significant bit. If at any time the bit read back is different from the bit written, then that particular task drops out of the competition for the bus. The mechanism provides for not only decentralized control of the intranode bus, but also a high degree of flexibility in scheduling messages by different ways of generating poll numbers. The probability of a message missing its deadline in a token bus is found to be much higher than in a polled bus. >
Cell-type specific requirements for thiol/disulfide exchange during HIV-1 entry and infection

Background The role of disulfide bond remodeling in HIV-1 infection is well described, but the process still remains incompletely characterized. At present, the data have been predominantly obtained using established cell lines and/or CXCR4-tropic laboratory-adapted virus strains. There is also ambiguity about which disulfide isomerases/ reductases play a major role in HIV-1 entry, as protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) and/or thioredoxin (Trx) have emerged as the two enzymes most often implicated in this process.
A fiber optic connection system designed for automotive applications

A fiber optic connection system designed specifically to meet automotive requirements is presented. Application requirements are defined, potential solutions are reviewed, and a connection system designed to meet these requirements is presented. The design considerations discussed include fiber selection, electrooptical device packaging, optical receiver selection, light-emitting diode (LED) device selection, fiber alignment and termination, harness and vehicle assembly, and environmental compatibility. >
Optimum and Suboptimum Detector Performance for Signals in Cyclostationary Noise

The detection of known and partially known signals in additive white Gaussian uonstationary noise is considered, with primary attention to the ease where the time-varying noise intensity parameter N_{o}(t) is a periodic function. Optimum receiver structures are derived for three detection cases, namely completely known signals, sinusoids with random phase, and sinusoids with both random amplitude and phase. It is demonstrated that optimum receiver performance can be achieved only if proper synchronization to the noise intensity N_{o}(t) is accomplished. Large performance penalties can be demonstrated when an improperly synchronized receiver is used. Consequently, suboptimum receivers that ignore the noise intensity time variations and therefore require no synchronization, have been considered, and their performance compared to their optimum counterparts. Depending on the type of time-varying noise intensity being considered, results show that performance differences between optimum and suboptimum receivers can be negligible in some cases, and yet can be substantial in other cases. Several examples have been worked out using two different forms for N_{o}(t) and corresponding performance evaluations have been carried out and presented graphically in terms of receiver error probability as a function of signal-to-noise ratio.
Mechanisms for human spatial competence

Research spanning decades has generated a long list of phenomena associated with human spatial information processing. Additionally, a number of theories have been proposed about the representation, organization and processing of spatial information by humans. This paper presents a broad account of human spatial competence, integrated with the ACT-R cognitive architecture. Using a cognitive architecture grounds the research in a validated theory of human cognition, enhancing the plausibility of the overall account. This work posits a close link of aspects of spatial information processing to vision and motor planning, and integrates theoretical perspectives that have been proposed over the history of research in this area. In addition, the account is supported by evidence from neuropsychological investigations of human spatial ability. The mechanisms provide a means of accounting for a broad range of phenomena described in the experimental literature.
Cognitive Bias in Men's Processing of Negative Social Information: The Role of Social Anxiety, Toughness as a Masculine Role Norm, and Their Interaction

Cognitive approaches to social anxiety focus on a person's tendency to make biased judgments for threat-relevant stimuli. This notion was tested relative to whether men's adherence to a toughness male role norm moderates the relation between social anxiety and biased judgments for negative interpersonal events. For negative interpersonal events not involving male role norms, results indicated that only social anxiety was related to probability estimates, while for cost estimates there was a unique association for social anxiety and a significant social anxiety by toughness interaction such that men who were high in both made greater cost estimates. For events involving explicit male role norms, social anxiety and toughness evidenced unique relationships with probability estimates. For cost estimates, in addition to unique associations for social anxiety and toughness, there was a significant interaction, which showed that men high in both characteristics gave the highest cost ratings.
Robust compliant motion for manipulators, part II: Design method

A controller design methodology to develop a robust compliant motion for robot manipulators is described. The achievement of the target dynamics (the target impedance is introduced in Part I) and preservation of stability robustness in the presence of bounded model uncertainties are the key issues in the design method. State-feedback and force-feedforward gains are chosen to guarantee the achievement of the target dynamics, while preserving stability in the presence of the model uncertainties. In general, the closed-loop behavior of a system cannot be shaped arbitrarily over an arbitrarily wide frequency range. It is proved that a special class of impedances that represent our set of performance specifications are mathematically achievable asymptotically through state-feedback and interaction-force feedforward as actuator bandwidths become large, and we offer a geometrical design method for achieving them in the presence of model uncertainties. The design method reveals a classical trade-off between a system's performance over a bounded frequency range and its stability relative to model uncertainties via multivariable Nyquits criteria. Two classes of such uncertainties are dealt with. While the first class of model uncertainties is formed from the uncertainties in the parameters of the modeled dynamics, the high-frequency unmodeled dynamics form the second class of model uncertainties. The multivariable Nyquist criterion is used to examine trade-offs in stability robustness against approximation of desired target impedances over bounded frequency ranges.
Enhancement of vaccine-mediated antitumor immunity in cancer patients after depletion of regulatory T cells

In this study, we investigated whether elimination of CD4+/CD25+ Tregs using the recombinant IL-2 diphtheria toxin conjugate DAB(389)IL-2 (also known as denileukin diftitox and ONTAK) is capable of enhancing the immunostimulatory efficacy of tumor RNA-transfected DC vaccines. We show that DAB(389)IL-2 is capable of selectively eliminating CD25-expressing Tregs from the PBMCs of cancer patients without inducing toxicity on other cellular subsets with intermediate or low expression of CD25. DAB(389)IL-2-mediated Treg depletion resulted in enhanced stimulation of proliferative and cytotoxic T cell responses in vitro but only when DAB(389)IL-2 was omitted during T cell priming. DAB(389)IL-2 significantly reduced the number of Tregs present in the peripheral blood of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients and abrogated Treg-mediated immunosuppressive activity in vivo. Moreover, DAB(389)IL-2-mediated elimination of Tregs followed by vaccination with RNA-transfected DCs significantly improved the stimulation of tumor-specific T cell responses in RCC patients when compared with vaccination alone. Our findings may have implications in the design of immune-based strategies that may incorporate the Treg depletion strategy to achieve potent antitumor immunity with therapeutic impact.
Delayed Diagnosis of US Females with Cystic Fibrosis

This study was conducted to examine a patient's age and condition at the time of diagnosis as one potential factor contributing to the "gender gap" in cystic fibrosis. The study population consisted of 11,275 US patients diagnosed during 1986-1998 and reported to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Registry in the same or the following calendar year. Parallel analyses were performed for Wisconsin patients identified prospectively during 1985-1994 to obtain more detailed information on their condition at diagnosis. Analyses of the registry data showed that females identified because of symptoms other than meconium ileus were diagnosed at significantly older ages (median, 12.7 months) than were males (median, 8.7 months) (p < 0.001). The delay in diagnosis for females was most evident among patients presenting with respiratory symptoms only (median, 40.7 vs. 22.3 months; p < 0.001). Analyses of Wisconsin patients demonstrated no significant gender differences in cough and wheezing experiences or in chest radiographic severity scores between males and females during their first 10 years of life, although a disproportionately high number of males were referred for diagnostic sweat testing. A delay in diagnosis of females with cystic fibrosis was discovered, suggesting either differential recognition of respiratory symptoms or a gender bias.
The impact of prolonged flood-irrigation on leaf gas exchange in mature pecans in an orchard setting

Woody perennials subjected to root oxygen-stress often respond with varying levels of reduced assimilation and leaf gas exchange. Yet in most of these studies, seedlings grown in pots were subjected to experimental conditions that rarely exist in nature for mature trees. To determine if flooding mature orchard-grown pecan (Carya illinoiensis (Wangh) K. Koch) results in a similar depressed photosynthetic rate (Pn), transpiration (E), and stomatal conductance (gs) as found in potted seedling studies, 27 year-old trees were continuously flooded for 35 days during which gas exchange measurements were compared with non-flooded controls. Flood-treated trees exhibited a continuous decline in Pn, gs, and E without any apparent recovery throughout the treatment period, and progressively higher levels of intercellular CO2 (Ci). Flooded trees also exhibited widespread interveinal ‘bronzing’ in subtle blotchy patterns, sporadic adaxial interveinal scorching, and simultaneously put on a flush of new growth, not seen in the control trees. Mechanisms are considered relating a putative disruption in carbohydrate export to the reduced levels of photosynthesis
A hierarchical, HMM-based automatic evaluation of OCR accuracy for a digital library of books

A number of projects are creating searchable digital libraries of printed books. These include the Million Book Project, the Google Book project and similar efforts from Yahoo and Microsoft. Content-based on line book retrieval usually requires first converting printed text into machine readable (e.g. ASCII) text using an optical character recognition (OCR) engine and then doing full text search on the results. Many of these books are old and there are a variety of processing steps that are required to create an end to end system. Changing any step (including the scanning process) can affect OCR performance and hence a good automatic statistical evaluation of OCR performance on book length material is needed. Evaluating OCR performance on the entire book is non-trivial. The only easily obtainable ground truth (the Gutenberg e-texts) must be automatically aligned with the OCR output over the entire length of a book. This may be viewed as equivalent to the problem of aligning two large (easily a million long) sequences. The problem is further complicated by OCR errors as well as the possibility of large chunks of missing material in one of the sequences. We propose a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based hierarchical alignment algorithm to align OCR output and the ground truth for books. We believe this is the first work to automatically align a whole book without using any book structure information. The alignment process works by breaking up the problem of aligning two long sequences into the problem of aligning many smaller subsequences. This can be rapidly and effectively done. Experimental results show that our hierarchical alignment approach works very well even if OCR output has a high recognition error rate. Finally, we evaluate the performance of a commercial OCR engine over a large dataset of books based on the alignment results.
Myb proteins inhibit fibroblast transformation by v-Rel

Genes that cause cancer have been divided into two general classes – oncogenes that act in a dominant fashion to transform normal cells into a malignant state, and tumor suppressor genes that act in a dominant fashion to prevent such transformation. In this report, we demonstrate that both the v-myb retroviral oncogene, which causes leukemic transformation of hematopoietic cells, and the c-myb proto-oncogene can also function as inhibitors of fibroblast transformation by the v-rel oncogene. These results imply that the myb genes can function either as oncogenes or as tumor suppressors in different cellular contexts.
Teaching Evolution through the Hardy-Weinberg Principle: A Real-Time, Active-Learning Exercise using Classroom Response Devices

Teaching population genetics provides a bridge between genetics and evolution by using examples of the mechanisms that underlie changes in allele frequencies over time. Existing methods of teaching these concepts often rely on computer simulations or hand calculations, which distract students from the material and are problematic for those with high math anxiety. We outline an exercise that engages students and provides real-time feedback through the use of classroom response devices. This exercise has been used with success and employs a conceptual-change approach to teach the fundamental, yet often misunderstood, concept of biological evolution.
Molecular Imprinting by 4-Hydroxybenzoic Acid: A Two-Site Model

4-Hydroxybenzoic acid (4HBA) imprinted polymer was synthesized with the functional monomer, acrylamide, and the crosslinking agent, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, in acetonitrile. Hydrogen bonding between the template and the monomer not only controls the template molecules in and out of the binding sites, but also contributes to special binding sites in the resulting polymer resin. Batch analyses showed that the 4HBA-imprinted polymer has a special affinity for the para-substituted hydroxybenzoic acid, but not for its meta-substituted isomer (3HBA), nor for benzoic acid (BA). The binding behavior of 4HBA can be interpreted with a simple two-site model with one kind of site in the resin being special for 4HBA and the other kind being general with similar affinities for 4HBA, 3HBA, and BA. These general binding sites found in both the imprinted resin and the non-imprinted reference resin have greater affinity, but are less numerous than the sites unique to the imprinted resin.
Slow-light effect in dual-periodic photonic lattice

We present analytical and numerical studies of a photonic lattice with short- and long-range harmonic modulations of the refractive index. Such structures can be prepared experimentally with holographic photolithography. In the spectral region of the photonic bandgap of the underlying single-periodic crystal, we observe a series of bands with anomalously small dispersion. The related slow-light effect is attributed to the long-range modulation of the photonic lattice that leads to formation of an array of evanescently coupled high-Q cavities. The band structure of the lattice is studied with several techniques: (i) transfer matrix approach; (ii) an analysis of resonant coupling in the process of band folding; (iii) effective-medium approach based on coupled-mode theory; and (iv) the Bogolyubov-Mitropolsky approach. The latter method, commonly used in the studies of nonlinear oscillators, was employed to investigate the behavior of eigenfunction envelopes and the band structure of the dual-periodic photonic lattice. We show that reliable results can be obtained even in the case of large refractive index modulation.
Effects of Suessen Heat Setting Variables on Streaks in Finished Nylon Carpet

The effects of dry heat setting conditions on streaks in finished carpets made from nylon 66 staple yams are considered. Two different polymers were subjected to con trolled variation in heat-set temperature, residence time, and chamber steam pressure on a Suessen machine according to a factorial design. Yarns from some of the items were made into finished carpets, and other items were implanted into these carpets using two adjacent creel positions. Streak intensity grades were assigned to these im plants, and then an empirical model was fit to the data relating streak intensity to the differences between the background and implant items in heat setting conditions. Streaks caused by variation in heat setting conditions are associated with differences in dye uptake rather than with physical or textural differences between tuftlines. If the Suessen is operated at a nominal temperature of 200°C, then surprisingly large dif ferences in heat setting conditions are required in order to cause an objectionable st...
Theory of vibratory mobilization on nonwetting fluids entrapped in pore constrictions

Quantitative dynamics of a nonwetting ganglion of residual oil entrapped in a pore constriction and subjected to vibrations of the pore wall can be approximated by the equation of motion of an oscillator moving under the effect of the external pressure gradient, inertial oscillatory force, and restoring capillary force. The solution of the equation provides the conditions under which the droplet experiences forced oscillations without being mobilized or is liberated from its entrapped configuration if the acceleration of the wall exceeds an unplugging value. This solution provides a quantitative tool for estimating the parameters of vibratory fields needed to liberate entrapped, nonwetting fluids. For typical pore sizes encountered in reservoir rock, wall accelerations must exceed at least several m∕ s2 and even much higher levels to mobilize the droplets of oil; however, in the populations of ganglia entrapped in natural porous environments, many may reside very near their mobilization thresholds and may...
A Psychometric Theory of Evaluations of Item and Scale Translations Fidelity Across Languages

A psychometric theory of equivalence of meanings of items and item responses in original and target language versions of psychological scales is developed. Equivalence of translated items is defined in terms of probabilities of a specified response being evoked by two stimuli among individuals with the same amount of the latent trait assessed by the items. In the case of translated items that form psychological scales, the stimuli are the source and target language versions of the item. The specified responses are correct or positive responses to these measurement items. The extent to which items are equivalent across the different language versions can be evaluated within the framework of item response theory (Lord & Novick, 1968). Methods of equating scales containing culturally general, etic, items and culturally specific, emic, items are outlined. These techniques can be used to increase the cultural relevance of scales by generating and including emic concepts while permitting comparisons across cult...
Control of reduced diphosphopyridine nucleotide oscillations in beef heart extracts. 3. Purification and kinetics of beef heart phosphofructokinase.

Abstract Phosphofructokinase was purified extensively from beef heart and studied kinetically at pH 6.25 and low hexose-monophosphate concentrations to observe its behavior under conditions similar to those prevailing in cell-free extracts with oscillatory control. Adenosine 5′-triphosphate was a very powerful inhibitor at this pH, and the inhibition was prevented by AMP, ADP, and FDP. Adenosine 5′-monophosphate induced an activation even when the ATP concentration was kept below its inhibitory value. The results indicate that the DPNH oscillations observed in cell-free extracts are probably due to the variable activity of phosphofructokinase under the influence of the adenine nucleotides and fructose 1,6-diphosphate.
A Search for the Anthropology of Islam: Abdul Hamid El-Zein

“Zein,” as friends and colleagues knew him, practiced an interpretive anthropology that, like the writing of history, is a craft in which the best work is realized only after long years of field experience, study, and the development of concepts and themes through teaching and writing. Zein's sudden death on 13 August 1979 at the age of 44 cut short his work just as it began to achieve its fullest form.Zein's professional career was divided between two remarkably distinct periods. The first of these lasted for roughly the decade prior to 1966, during which he mastered the conventions of what might be called a standard, functionalist anthropology and applied them to ethnographic research in Egypt. The second period began in 1966 with his participation in the formative period of symbolic anthropology at the University of Chicago.
Identification of an Atg8-Atg3 Protein–Protein Interaction Inhibitor from the Medicines for Malaria Venture Malaria Box Active in Blood and Liver Stage Plasmodium falciparum Parasites

Atg8 is a ubiquitin-like autophagy protein in eukaryotes that is covalently attached (lipidated) to the elongating autophagosomal membrane. Autophagy is increasingly appreciated as a target in diverse diseases from cancer to eukaryotic parasitic infections. Some of the autophagy machinery is conserved in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. Although Atg8’s function in the parasite is not well understood, it is essential for Plasmodium growth and survival and partially localizes to the apicoplast, an indispensable organelle in apicomplexans. Here, we describe the identification of inhibitors from the Malaria Medicine Venture Malaria Box against the interaction of PfAtg8 with its E2-conjugating enzyme, PfAtg3, by surface plasmon resonance. Inhibition of this protein–protein interaction prevents PfAtg8 lipidation with phosphatidylethanolamine. These small molecule inhibitors share a common scaffold and have activity against both blood and liver stages of infection by Plasmodium falciparum. We have derivatized t...
Inhibition of the acute ethanol-induced fatty liver by pyrazole.

SummarySince pyrazole specifically inhibits liver alcohol dehydrogenase and impairs the metabolism of ethanol, studies were undertaken in rats to evaluate the influence of inhibition of ethanol metabolism on the development of an acute ethanol-induced fatty liver. In agreement with previous observations, 20 hr after ethanol administration a 5-fold increase in hepatic triglyceride concentration occurred. In marked contrast, the pyrazole- and ethanol-treated group showed complete inhibition of ethanol-induced hepatic triglyceride accumulation. The prevention of the ethanol-induced hepatic triglyceride accumulation occurred in the presence of enhanced blood ethanol concentrations in the pyrazole group. The carbon tetrachloride-induced fatty liver and plasma hypotrigly-ceridemia was not modified by pyrazole, denoting specificity in the pyrazole inhibition of ethanol-induced hepatic injury. These findings demonstrate that pyrazole can completely prevent the development of the ethanol-induced fatty liver in the...
Information and communication technology, and economic growth in Nigeria: a time series analysis

Information and communication technology (ICT) is a general purpose technology that has the potential of playing an important role in economic growth, and other dimensions of social and political development in developing countries. Using quarterly data and Johansen techniques, the study found significant impacts of ICT investment on economic growth. Although other variables have positive impact on economic growth, the results implies that if Nigeria seeks to enhance its economic growth, the country needs to further implement specific policies that facilitate investment in ICT.
Clinical significance of blood gas analysis in peripheral arteriovenous automatic synchronous exchange transfusion

Objective To analyse blood gas analysis in peripheral arteriovenous automatic synchronous exchange transfusion in order to explore safer and more effective treatment method. Methods 48 cases of children with high blood bilirubin in the process of automatic change were tested blood gas analysis,electrolyte and blood sugar every 30 minutes.Before and after exchange transfusion,the liver and kidney function,myocardial enzyme,electrolyte,blood glucose was summarized and analysed respectively. Results Before and after exchange transfusion,the liver and kidney function, myocardial enzyme of metabolic acidosis children was compared respectively,with statistical difference(P0.05).Before and after exchange transfusion,the liver and kidney function,myocardial enzyme of non-metabolic acidosis children was compared respectively,with no statistical difference(P0.05).Before and after exchange transfusion,electrolyte,blood glucose of children was compared respectively,with no statistical difference(P0.05).Conclusion Regularly check blood gas analysis in the process of change,timely correcting,can reduce the change caused by external causes in the process of hypoxia injury,reduce the complication such as multiple organ damage,shorten hospitalization time.
Histopathological Findings in Adrenoleukodystrophy Autopsy Report of a Boy Aged 11 Years and 11 Months

Clinical and pathohistological findings of a boy who died of adrenoleukodystrophy at the age of 11 years and 11 months are reported. Special features are the advanced diffuse demyelination of cerebral and cerebellar white matter as well as the “burnt-out” stage of myelin breakdown with fibrous gliosis. The leukodystrophic process is accompanied by secondary loss of axons with marked atrophy of grey matter in the whole of the brain stem, dentates and cerebellar cortex of the Purkinje cell type. The degeneration of nerve fibres is considered as a complex mechanism, which is not restricted to the Wallerian type. — Only free cholesterol was shown by histochemical tests in the preserved myelin sheaths. Free and esterified cholesterol was found in the adrenal cortical cells. The lack of detactable cholesteryl esters in the sparse sudanophilic macrophages was unexpected. This finding may be attributed to the sensitivity of the histochemical method or to interference by achromogenic 7-ketocholesterol.
Temporal evolution of structure in uniaxially stretched PET/PEI blends during constrained annealing: A real time birefringence study

Abstract Structure evolution that took place during the constrained annealing of uniaxially constrained width oriented Poly (ethylene terephthalate) and Poly (ether imide) blend films was studied using real time spectral birefringence measurement technique and off line differential scanning calorimetry, wide and small angle X-ray scattering and mechanical testing. At lower deformations, heat setting generally lead to complete elimination of birefringence due to relaxation in blends containing as little as 10% PEI. At high deformation levels, annealing leads to initial relaxation nearly to optical isotropy followed by reversal and increase in birefringence associated with development of crystallization. The ultimate birefringence decreases with increasing PEI content as it disrupts crystallization. Latter behavior indicates that despite achieving near optical isotropy during initial relaxation phase, these films still contain oriented nuclei that facilitate the oriented crystallization of the PET phase at longer annealing times as evidenced by the off line WAXS and SAXS experiments.
Distributive justice, corruption, and entrepreneurial behavior

This article introduces equity theory to the economic growth literature to examine whether a relationship exists between perceptions of distributive justice and the productivity of entrepreneurial behavior. Using survey responses from 317 entrepreneurs in India, we find that productive entrepreneurship is positively related to distributive justice perceptions but negatively related to perceptions that corruption is pervasive. In contrast, nonproductive forms of entrepreneurship are negatively related to distributive justice but positively related to corruption. Unexpectedly, the findings also show that corruption mediates the relationship between distributive justice and legal entrepreneurial behavior while distributive justice mediates the relationship between corruption and illegal entrepreneurial behavior. We conclude with a discussion of the study’s findings and their implications for entrepreneurship and economic growth.
Survival Analyses and Prognosis of Plasma-Cell Myeloma and Plasmacytoma-Like Posttransplantation Lymphoproliferative Disorders

Abstract Background Multiple myeloma/plasmacytoma-like posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD-MM) is a rare complication of solid organ transplantation. Case series have shown variable outcomes, and survival data in the modern era are lacking. Patients and Methods A cohort of 212 PTLD-MM patients was identified in the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients between 1999 and 2011. Overall survival (OS) was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the effects of treatment and patient characteristics on OS were evaluated by Cox proportional hazards models. OS in 185 PTLD-MM patients was compared to 4048 matched controls with multiple myeloma (SEER-MM) derived from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data. Results Men comprised 71% of patients; extramedullary disease was noted in 58%. Novel therapeutic agents were used in 19% of patients (more commonly during 2007-2011 vs. 1999-2006; P = .01), reduced immunosuppression in 55%, and chemotherapy in 32%. Median OS was 2.4 years and improved in the later time period (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.64, P = .05). Advanced age, creatinine > 2 g/dL, white race, and use of OKT3 were associated with inferior OS in multivariable analysis. OS of PTLD-MM patients is significantly inferior to SEER-MM patients (aHR, 1.6, P P P = .5; interaction P = .08). Conclusion Age at diagnosis, elevated creatinine, white race, and OKT3 were associated with inferior survival in patients with PTLD-MM. Survival of PTLD-MM is inferior to SEER-MM, although significant improvements in survival have been documented.
Supercooled Liquid Water In Winter Storms: A Preliminary Climatology from Remote Sensing Observations

Drawing from a remote sensing data base obtained from winter storm research programs in Colorado and Utah, the occurrence of supercooled liquid water over mountain barriers is examined. Combined polarization lidar and dual-channel microwave radiometer data reveal that liquid water was nearly always presenting the storms studied. Moreover, the highest frequency of occurrence and liquid water amounts were most often associated with relatively warm cloud base temperatures and Ku-band radar reflectivity factors between 0 and -10 dBZ at the liquid cloud base position. A preliminary climatology of super cooled liquid water in southern Utah reveals a bimodal distribution of liquid cloud base heights, representing of convective clouds (-3.0 km MSL) and generally prefrontal stratiform clouds (~4.5 km MSL). Although the liquid water associated with the efficient natural generation of precipitation may not always be detected by any single probe, the conditions which could be expected to yield a favorable seeding response can be identified through joint remote sensing observations.
Improving Guideline-Based Care of Acute Asthma in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Rapid repetitive administration of short-acting β-agonists (SABA) is the most effective means of reducing acute airflow obstruction in asthma. Little evidence exists that assesses process measures (ie, timeliness) and outcomes for asthma. We used quality improvement (QI) methods to improve emergency department care in accordance with national guidelines including timely SABA administration and use of asthma severity scores. METHODS: The Model for Improvement was used and interventions were targeted at 4 key drivers: knowledge, engagement, decision support, and workflow enhancement. Time series analysis was performed and outcomes assessed on statistical process control charts. RESULTS: Asthma severity scoring increased from 0% to >95% in triage and to >75% for repeat scores. Time to first SABA (T1) improved by 32.8 minutes (47%). T1 for low severity patients improved by 17.6 minutes (28%). T1 for high severity patients improved by 3.1 minutes to 18.1 minutes (15%). Time to third SABA (T3) improved by 30 minutes (24%). T3 for low severity patients improved by 42.5 minutes (29%) and T3 for high severity patients improved by 21 minutes (23%). Emergency department length of stay for low severity patients discharged to home improved by 29.3 minutes (15%). The number of asthma-related visits between 48-hour return hospitalizations increased from 114 to 261. The admission rate decreased 6.0%. CONCLUSIONS: We implemented standardized asthma severity scoring with high rates of compliance, improved timely administration of β-agonist treatments, demonstrated early improvements in Emergency department length of stay, and reduced admission rates without increasing unplanned return admissions.