cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Efferent Ductules: Structure and Functions

There have been three major reviews dealing with structure and function of the efferent ductules (Hamilton, 1975; Robaire and Hermo, 1988; Ilio and Hess, 1994). The first two reviews included efferent ductules along with other regions of the epididymis (Hamilton, 1975; Robaire and Hermo, 1988), due to the lack of sufficient information to warrant a separate chapter. Robaire and Hermo (1988) focused on efferent ductules of the rat and gave detailed morphology of the two epithelial cell types, ciliated and nonciliated. They also provided initial discussions of the major function associated with these ductules, namely fluid reabsorption. In 1994, Ilio and Hess, carried these discussions further by including numerous species and showing, for the first time, morphology of efferent ductules in the dog. Also, from 1988 to 1994, a large number of publications focused on the ultrastructure of these ductules in several species. From 1994 to 2000, there has been a greater focus on the correlation of structure and function, including the major discovery that sulfated glycoprotein-2 (SGP-2), a major secretory protein of Sertoli cells, is synthesized in the same nonciliated cell that is taking up SGP-2 by endocytosis from the ductule lumen (Igdoura et al, 1994; Hermo et al, 1995). A better understanding of efferent ductule physiology has also been uncovered using microcannulation techniques (Clulow et al, 1998). Finally, during this recent period, it was discovered that estrogens play a major role in the regulation of efferent ductule function, and that estrogen receptors are expressed in this region of the male tract to an extent that exceeds even the female reproductive tract (Hess et al, 1997a; Hess et al, 1997b). Based on these recent studies, there is strong evidence that the efferent ductules are essential for male fertility.
The Earths’s Trapped and Transient Space Radiation Environment

The earth’s space radiation environment is qualitatively reviewed in terms of (a) the medium, and (b) the particles.
The efficacy of psychosocial treatments in primary care: A review of randomized clinical trials☆

Depression and anxiety are the most common psychiatric disorders among ambulatory medical patients and are associated with significant functional disability. However, they remain underrecognized and/or inadequately treated. The AHCPR Depression Guideline Panel recently reviewed the efficacy of pharmacologic interventions for mood disorders in the primary care section, but there are as yet no comparable analyses of the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for primary care patients experiencing depression or anxiety. This review of randomized, controlled trials conducted in primary care settings generally supports the efficacy of psychosocial treatments (PSTs) provided to ambulatory medical patients with psychiatric disorders. However, methodologic deficiencies in these trials (i.e., diagnostic classification of study subjects, attrition patterns, and criteria for assessing treatment response) limit the generalizability of their findings to routine practice. Studies evaluating the effect of PSTs on health care cost and utilization found changes in physicians' prescribing practices, patients' use of psychotropic medication, and number of patient visits to primary care physicians. However, results varied across studies because of methodologic deficiencies similar to those noted previously. Suggestions are offered for improving the internal and external validity of randomized PST trials in primary care settings.
Investigating Reliability and Security of Integrated Circuits and Systems

Reliability and security are two important aspects of integrated circuits and systems. Both of them are under the umbrella of resilience. Traditionally, reliability and security issues are managed in a separate fashion. This work reviews the similarities and differences between the reliability and security of circuits and systems and provides a comprehensive survey on the existing efforts that jointly consider the reliability and security of memory, processors, embedded systems, and onchip communication network. Furthermore, this work introduces a general flow that guides circuit and system designers to cooperatively address the reliability vulnerabilities and potential security threats in a unified framework.
Dairy milk proteins attenuate hyperglycemia-induced impairments in vascular endothelial function in adults with prediabetes by limiting increases in glycemia and oxidative stress that reduce nitric oxide bioavailability.

Abstract Postprandial hyperglycemia (PPH) transiently impairs vascular endothelial function (VEF) in an oxidative stress-dependent manner by decreasing nitric oxide (NO•) bioavailability. Dairy milk and its proteins attenuate PPH, but whether this improves VEF is unknown. We hypothesized that dairy milk, mediated by its whey and/or casein proteins, improves VEF by attenuating PPH-induced oxidative stress that otherwise decreases NO• bioavailability. A randomized, cross-over trial was conducted in adults with prediabetes (n=23) who ingested glucose (75 g, GLU) alone or with 473 mL of non-fat dairy milk (MILK) or isonitrogenous (16.5 g) amounts of whey (WHEY) or casein (CASEIN) in 473 mL of water. Prior to and at 30 min intervals for 180 min postprandially, we assessed brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and measured biomarkers of glycemic control, oxidative stress, and NO• homeostasis. FMDAUC decreased to the greatest extent during GLU, which was similarly improved in dairy trials. Compared with GLU, AUCs for glucose, malondialdehyde, F2-isoprostanes, methylglyoxal, and endothelin-1 were similarly lower in dairy trials. Plasma arginine and NO• metabolites were greater but methylated arginine metabolites were lower in dairy trials compared with GLU. Postprandial insulin, lipids, and tetrahydrobiopterin redox status did not differ among trials. Thus, dairy milk, mediated by its whey and casein proteins, attenuates PPH-mediated impairments in VEF by limiting oxidative stress. This improves NO• bioavailability to the vascular endothelium by increasing arginine availability and limiting competitive inhibition on NO• biosynthesis by asymmetric dimethylarginine. These findings support observational studies that dairy milk lowers cardiovascular disease risk.
Project moon base science

FOR DECADES, astronomers have gazed up at the moon and dreamed about what they would do with its most unusual real estate. Because the moon is gravitationally locked to our planet, the same side of the moon always faces us. That means the lunar far side is the one place in the solar system where you can never see Earth—or, from a radio astronomer's point of view, the one place where you can't hear Earth. It may therefore be the ideal location for a radio telescope, as the receiver would be shielded by the bulk of the moon from both human-made electromagnetic noise and emissions from natural occurrences like Earth's auroras.
Nitrogen Sublimation as a Driver of Chemistry in Pluto-Analog Laboratory Ices: Formation of Carbon Suboxide (C3O2) and Various Salts

A number of planetary bodies, including Triton and Pluto, and a number of Kuiper Belt objects contain nitrogen ices on their surfaces. Nitrogen ices were also used in laboratory experiments as a matrix isolation material before noble gases could be condensed. Planetary bodies with nitrogen ices then may act as giant matrix isolation experiments, trapping reactive species onto the surface and concentrating them. Upon sublimation, these reactive species are much more likely to encounter each other or another molecule to react with. A pilot study was conducted to test the feasibility of testing the chemistry occurring during the sublimation of nitrogen ices. A high vacuum laboratory setup was used to create ices at ∼6 K (±0.5 K). Ices were deposited under microwave radiation to create radicals to simulate what might be present in the tenuous atmospheres of these planetary bodies. The ices consisted of a mixture of 1:1:100 carbon source + H2O + N2, where the carbon source was either CO or CH4. Reagents and pr...
Serverless Supercomputing: High Performance Function as a Service for Science.

Growing data volumes and velocities are driving exciting new methods across the sciences in which data analytics and machine learning are increasingly intertwined with research. These new methods require new approaches for scientific computing in which computation is mobile, so that, for example, it can occur near data, be triggered by events (e.g., arrival of new data), or be offloaded to specialized accelerators. They also require new design approaches in which monolithic applications can be decomposed into smaller components, that may in turn be executed separately and on the most efficient resources. To address these needs we propose funcX---a high-performance function-as-a-service (FaaS) platform that enables intuitive, flexible, efficient, scalable, and performant remote function execution on existing infrastructure including clouds, clusters, and supercomputers. It allows users to register and then execute Python functions without regard for the physical resource location, scheduler architecture, or virtualization technology on which the function is executed---an approach we refer to as "serverless supercomputing." We motivate the need for funcX in science, describe our prototype implementation, and demonstrate, via experiments on two supercomputers, that funcX can process millions of functions across more than 65000 concurrent workers. We also outline five scientific scenarios in which funcX has been deployed and highlight the benefits of funcX in these scenarios.
A primer on artificial intelligence for the paediatric cardiologist.

The combination of pediatric cardiology being both a perceptual and a cognitive subspecialty demands a complex decision-making model which makes artificial intelligence a particularly attractive technology with great potential. The prototypical artificial intelligence system would autonomously impute patient data into a collaborative database that stores, syncs, interprets and ultimately classifies the patient’s profile to specific disease phenotypes to compare against a large aggregate of shared peer health data and outcomes, the current medical body of literature and ongoing trials to offer morbidity and mortality prediction, drug therapy options targeted to each patient’s genetic profile, tailored surgical plans and recommendations for timing of sequential imaging. The focus of this review paper is to offer a primer on artificial intelligence and paediatric cardiology by briefly discussing the history of artificial intelligence in medicine, modern and future applications in adult and paediatric cardiology across selected concentrations, and current barriers to implementation of these technologies.
Conceptualising spirituality and religion as psychological processes: validation of the factor structure of the BMMRS

This study validated previous principal component analyses of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) that have been conducted with persons with diverse medical con...
Emotional and physical symptoms after gun victimization in the United States, 2009-2019.

Interpersonal firearm violence is a major public health problem in the United States. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of gun victimization on the likelihood of post emotional and physical symptoms as reported by victims. We focused on non-fatal violent crimes reported to the National Crime Victimization Surveys for 2009-2019 and ran a set of binary logistic regressions. For outcome measures, we used two dichotomous variables, whether the victim reported feeling at least one of the seven emotional symptoms included in the survey (i.e., anxious, angry, sad/depressed, vulnerable, violated, distrustful, unsafe) and whether they reported having at least one of the seven physical symptoms (i.e., headaches, sleep eating/drinking disorders, upset stomach, fatigue, high blood pressure, muscle tension). Our key independent variable was the type of weapons used by the offender: guns, other weapons, and no weapon. We controlled for demographics of the victim, as well as other aspects of the crime (e.g., age, race, sex of victim, multiple offenders, type of violent crime). Victims of crimes in which the offender used a gun were most likely to report both emotional and physical symptoms, followed by victims of crimes in which the offender used other weapons, and lastly by victims of unarmed offenders. Our findings suggest that the presence of a firearm during a violent crime results in an increased likelihood of subsequent emotional and physical repercussions.
Toward Machine Learning-Enhanced High-Throughput Experimentation

Recent literature suggests that the fields of machine learning (ML) and high-throughput experimentation (HTE) have separately received considerable attention from chemists and engineers, leading to the development of powerful reactivity models and platforms capable of rapidly performing thousands of reactions. The merger of ML with HTE presents a wealth of opportunities for the exploration of chemical space, but the integration of the two has yet to be fully realized. We highlight examples of recent developments in ML and HTE that collectively suggest the utility of their integration. Our analysis highlights the complementarity of the two fields, while exposing a number of obstacles that can and should be overcome to take full advantage of this merger and thereby accelerate chemical research.
Intrathecal Medications and Anesthetic Blockades

Intrathecal medications can be used in cases of refractory pain. However, due to the nature of these medications and the invasive nature of establishing treatment, providers must be very keen to stay up to date on these treatments. Patient selection also is a key component in obtaining successful pain relief from these modalities. Grouped with the question set, regional anesthetic techniques can be utilized to treat pain. While often used in the operative setting, they can also be used in chronic pain scenarios under the right circumstances.
The Use and Abuse of 'Light-Touch' Internet Regulation

The FCC recently repealed network neutrality regulations. In doing so, the agency claimed to be restoring the traditional “light-touch” deregulatory approach that had guided Internet policy successfully for decades. Today, this version of history—what I call the light-touch narrative—provides a key normative foundation for deregulatory policy. It also influences current interpretations of positive law. Indeed, the FCC’s legal authority to repeal network neutrality rules relies on statutory interpretations reflecting these historical assumptions. This article contends, however, that the light-touch narrative has become misleading because it relies on flawed understandings of the Internet’s history. It assumes that today’s Internet access providers are the legal equivalents of earlier data and dial-up service providers. As a result, policymakers are citing the deregulation of these earlier entities to justify deregulating modern access providers—an approach that is both normatively and legally problematic. To illustrate these problems, this article examines the origins and evolution of light-touch Internet regulation. It then explores the legal and policy implications of this history, particularly with respect to the FCC’s recent network neutrality repeal and its legal challenges.
Can a panoramic radiograph predict the inferior alveolar nerve canal's position, or canal compression, near third molar root apices?

Background: Injury to the inferior alveolar nerve can occur during surgical removal of the mandibular third molars (M3Ms), resulting in numbness of the mandibular teeth, chin, and lower lip. This occurs when the roots of M3M compress the inferior alveolar canal (IAC) against the lingual cortical plate. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) reveals the buccolingual relationship of the IAC and M3M, but the panoramic radiograph (PR) has not been evaluated to determine whether the plane film can reveal this relationship. Aims: The aim of the study is to determine whether PR could predict buccal or lingual IAC position or compression near M3M. Design: This retrospective study evaluated 200 M3M sites in 42 women and 67 men, aged 17–28 years. Ninety-one bilateral measurements were taken; 98 left and 102 right halves were analyzed. Methods: IAC position and degree of compression were interpreted from the CBCT. Utilizing imaging software, 13 different measurements were obtained. Statistical Analyses: Fisher's exact test, t-test, principal component analysis, and multivariate analysis were utilized. Results: Male and female canal positions significantly differed. Canal position was significantly different comparing partially erupted to erupted and fully bony impacted molars. Lingual canal position, versus buccal, was more frequently associated with moderate-to-severe IAC compression. “Anterior-posterior ramus at the occlusal plane” and “anterior ramus to anterior IAC at the occlusal plane” contributed most to the severity of IAC compression. Conclusion: The variables evaluated did not identify a significant relationship. A larger data set is needed to evaluate any role the dimension of the ramus has on IAC compression.
Evaluating the Underkeel Clearance of Historic Vessel Transits in the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River

Abstract The Army Corps of Engineers for decades has used two primary metrics to prioritize maintenance activities for coastal navigation projects: cargo tonnage at the project associated port and ...
The Middle of the Road: Results from the Aging Semantic Differential with Four Cohorts of Medical Students

OBJECTIVES: To explore the presence of negative stereotypical attitudes among medical students and the extent to which attitudes changed over time. DESIGN: Analysis of pre- and postexperience administration of attitude measures to four cohorts of medical students (two cohorts as quasi-controls and two cohorts as curriculum “treatment” groups). SETTING: The curriculum of a community-based medical school in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Four sequential cohorts of medical students. INTERVENTION: Experience in a required comprehensive vertically integrated curriculum. MEASUREMENTS: The Aging Semantic Differential (ASD), using an 85-year-old woman as the cue image. RESULTS: The reliability scores for all administrations were acceptable. The two control cohorts demonstrated no change in attitude scores, whereas the treatment cohorts reflected a slight shift toward more-positive scores. However, all cohorts had scores for all sittings that were in the neutral range; on average students routinely scored 70% of the 32 items neither positively nor negatively. CONCLUSION: These students seemed not to hold negative stereotypes as measured using the ASD. Although two of the 32 items prompted negative stereotyping, and six items elicited positive stereotyping, attitudes were neutral about older adults. Characteristics of the ASD itself or of the response set used in this study may have affected the results.
Parents of children with congenital heart disease prefer more information than cardiologists provide.

Objectives To determine whether pediatric cardiologists and parents of older children with congenital heart disease (CHD) share similar expectations regarding the education and counseling that should be provided to parents of children with CHD in both the prenatal and neonatal period. Design Consenting parents of older children with CHD (age >3 years) and cardiologists ranked the importance of education topics on a scale of 1 (unimportant) to 10 (very important). The rankings of parents and cardiologists were compared using Student's t-test. Results We had 38 cardiologists and 41 parents complete the questionnaire. There was a statistically significant difference in rankings between cardiologist and parents of children with CHD (P < 0.03). Parents consistently ranked topics as more important than cardiologists with a mean difference in rank score of 0.85 ± 0.3. In the prenatal period, the most significant differences between parents and cardiologists were noted for information related to the child's quality of life. For neonatal counseling, the most significant differences were noted for information regarding follow-up care and the parent's ability to describe the child's CHD to medical personnel. Conclusion Parents of older children with CHD would prefer to receive more counseling and education in the prenatal and newborn period than cardiologists perceive is wanted.
Development of a Model Course of Study for Travel-Tourism for a Two-Year Degree or Certificate

An investigatory study was made of the curricula of seven institutions offering travel-tourism courses, one in Africa, one in Canada, three in Europe and two in the United States. This was supplemented by personal interviews with faculty, directors, students and on-site inspections. It was found that there were similarities in the American institutions, however, all others were quite different. This resulted in the development of a model course of study in Travel-Tourism Administration.
Photophysics, aggregation and amplified quenching of a water-soluble poly(phenylene ethynylene)

The fluorescence, absorption and fluorescence quenching properties of an anionic poly(phenylene ethynylene) are investigated in H2O and MeOH solutions.
Live Cell Imaging of Viral Entry

Viral entry encompasses the initial steps of infection starting from virion host cell attachment to viral genome release. Given the dynamic interactions between the virus and the host, many questions related to viral entry can be directly addressed by live cell imaging. Recent advances in fluorescent labeling of viral and cellular components, fluorescence microscopy with high sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution, and image analysis enabled studies of a broad spectrum across many viral entry steps, including virus-receptor interactions, internalization, intracellular transport, genomic release, nuclear transport, and cell-to-cell transmission. Collectively, these live cell imaging studies have not only enriched our understandings of the viral entry mechanisms, but also provided novel insights into basic cellular biology processes.
Effects of zinc deficiency on protein synthesis and expression of specific mRNAs in rat liver.

Abstract The effects of zinc deficiency on protein synthesis and expression of specific mRNAs were assessed in rat liver. Zinc deficiency had no apparent effect on liver weight, protein content, or RNA content when these properties were compared with values obtained using pair-fed rats. However, zinc deficiency resulted in a lower rate of hepatic protein synthesis. The decreased rate of protein synthesis was due to a decrease in the rate of synthesis of proteins retained in the liver, with no apparent change in the synthesis of secreted proteins. Analysis of expression of specific gene products, as assessed by in vitro translation of total RNA followed by two.dimensional gel analysis, showed that the expression of only a few mRNAs was altered by zinc deficiency. The patterns of change in gene expression resulting from zinc deficiency varied from almost complete repression to full expression. In additional studies, cDNA clones to serum retinol-binding protein and transthyretin were used to examine the effect of zinc deficiency on the relative abundance of mRNA for these two proteins. The relative abundance of mRNA for transthyretin was specifically elevated as a result of zinc deficiency. In contrast, the relative abundance of mRNA for hepatic serum retinol-binding protein was increased in both zinc-deficient and pair-fed rats. Therefore, the observed change in mRNA for serum retinol-binding protein was apparently at least in part due to the inanition that accompanies zinc deficiency. Overall, the results suggest that zinc can regulate the synthesis of specific proteins in rat liver through changes in the relative abundance of specific mRNAs.
Effects of potassium channel-blocking agents on spontaneous discharges from neuromas in rats.

✓ Thirty-five Sprague-Dawley rats with saphenous neuromas underwent acute microfilament recording in the proximal nerve. The effect of the potassium channel-blocking agents, tetraethylammonium bromide (TEA) and 4-aminopyridine, on spontaneous activity in A fibers terminating in the neuroma was observed. The effects of gallamine were also tested. Of the two channel-blocking agents, TEA reliably increased spontaneous firing in active fibers and initiated spontaneous activity in some fibers with no spontaneous baseline discharge. 4-Aminopyridine had no effect on baseline activity of either spontaneously active or quiescent fibers; however, it inhibited spontaneous activity induced by prior TEA treatment. Gallamine application produced effects similar to TEA in that spontaneous activity was dramatically increased. These results imply that a tonic potassium conductance is present in regenerating fibers in the neuroma and that this conductance moderates the tendency toward hyperexcitability and spontaneous firi...
Murine cell surface glycoproteins: immunochemical analysis of a major differentiation alloantigen of phagocytic cells.

Abstract Four independent monoclonal antibodies derived from spleen cells of rats immunized with mouse NIH/3T3 cells were found to precipitate an 80,000-dalton plasma membrane glycoprotein, identified as a polymorphic differentiation antigen of murine mesenchymal cells. The homology of the four immunoprecipitated polypeptides was proven by analysis of partial proteolytic cleavage products. The genetic polymorphism detected by the four antibodies was shown to reside in a single antigenic site by several criteria: (i) The expression of the antigenic determinant among different strains of mice; (ii) cross-inhibition of antibody binding; (iii) precipitation of partial proteolytic cleavage fragments of the 80,000-dalton glycoprotein; (iv) the kinetics of heat inactivation. These antibodies thus define a single polymorphic site of a major phagocytic cell surface glycoprotein and provide the basis for genetic and functional characterization of this glycoprotein.
Therapy for patients with high grade astrocytoma using intraarterial chemotherapy and radiation therapy

BACKGROUND High grade astrocytomas account for approximately 40% of all primary brain tumors. The median survival is approximately 8–10 months for patients with glioblastoma multiforme and 36 months for patients with anaplastic astrocytoma. The results of systemic chemotherapy in the treatment of brain tumors have been reported to be less than satisfactory, mainly because of the blood-brain barrier impermeability for chemotherapeutic drugs. Intraarterial chemotherapy has been an attractive alternative with which to overcome this problem. METHODS Eighty-three patients with high grade astrocytoma (glioblastoma multiforme [63 patients] and anaplastic astrocytoma –[20 patients]) were treated with intraarterial (intracarotid and/or intravertebral) chemotherapy and radiation therapy between 1987 and 1997. Patients received cisplatin, 60 mg/m2, and etoposide, 40 mg/m2. Radiation therapy was delivered either after completion of the chemotherapy or concomitantly with the chemotherapy. RESULTS Thirty-four of 71 evaluable patients with high grade astrocytoma (48%) responded to the chemotherapy. The median survival for patients with glioblastoma multiforme who received chemotherapy prior to radiation therapy was 20 months versus 7 months for those patients who underwent concomitant chemotherapy/radiation therapy. Patients with anaplastic astrocytoma who received chemotherapy prior to radiation therapy had a median survival of 45 months compared with 12 months for patients who received concomitant chemotherapy/radiation therapy. The toxicity profile has been reported to be mild and well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS Intraarterial chemotherapy for patients with glioblastoma multiforme, delivered prior to radiation therapy, appears to result in a median survival three times longer than that achieved with concomitant chemotherapy/radiation therapy. In addition, patients appear to survive substantially longer than they do after radiation therapy with the addition of systemic chemotherapy. Side effects are reported to be acceptable. Cancer 2000;88:2350–6. © 2000 American Cancer Society.
Structure-based virtual screening of small-molecule antagonists of platelet integrin αIIbβ3 that do not prime the receptor to bind ligand

Integrin αIIbβ3 has emerged as an important therapeutic target for thrombotic vascular diseases owing to its pivotal role in mediating platelet aggregation through interaction with adhesive ligands. In the search for effective anti-thrombotic agents that can be administered orally without inducing the high-affinity ligand binding state, we recently discovered via high-throughput screening of 33,264 compounds a novel, αIIbβ3-selective inhibitor (RUC-1) of adenosine-5′-diphosphate (ADP) -induced platelet aggregation that exhibits a different chemical scaffold and mode of binding with respect to classical Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-mimicking αIIbβ3 antagonists. Most importantly, RUC-1 and its higher-affinity derivative, RUC-2, do not induce major conformational changes in the protein β3 subunit or prime the receptor to bind ligand. To identify additional αIIbβ3-selective chemotypes that inhibit platelet aggregation through similar mechanisms, we screened in silico over 2.5 million commercially available, ‘lead-like’ small molecules based on complementarity to the predicted binding mode of RUC-2 into the RUC-1-αIIbβ3 crystal structure. This first reported structure-based virtual screening application to the αIIbβ3 integrin led to the identification of 2 αIIbβ3-selective antagonists out of 4 tested, which compares favorably with the 0.003 % “hit rate” of our previous high-throughput chemical screening study. The newly identified compounds, like RUC-1 and RUC-2, showed specificity for αIIbβ3 compared to αVβ3 and did not prime the receptor to bind ligand. They thus may hold promise as αIIbβ3 antagonist therapeutic scaffolds.
Micropatterned substrates for studying astrocytes in culture

Recent studies of the physiological roles of astrocytes have ignited renewed interest in the functional significance of these glial cells in the central nervous system. Many of the newly discovered astrocytic functions were initially demonstrated and characterized in cell culture systems. We discuss the use of microculture techniques and micropatterning of cell-adhesive substrates in studies of astrocytic Ca2+ excitability and bidirectional neuron-astrocyte signaling. This culturing approach aims to reduce the level of complexity of the system by limiting the interacting partners and by controlling the localization of cells. It provides tight control over experimental conditions allowing detailed characterization of cellular functions and intercellular communication. Although such a reductionist approach yields some difference in observations between astrocytic properties in culture and in situ, general phenomena discovered in cell culture systems, however, have also been found in vivo.
Nutrient intake of obese female binge eaters.

Abstract Objective To compare the 6-month change in selected nutrients and number of binge days (from 7-day food records) between obese binge eaters randomly assigned to either a behavioral self-management (BSM) or waiting list control (WLC) group. Within each of the 2 groups, the average intake of selected nutrients on binge and nonbinge days at baseline and at 6 months were compared. Design A randomized, controlled, intervention study with assessments at entry and 6 months later. Subjects Forty-six women in the BSM group and 36 in the WLC group completed the 6-month measurement. Participants were 25 to 50 years of age, 30 to 90 pounds overweight, did not have a history of physical or psychological illnesses, and scored 20 or greater on the binge eating scale. Intervention Participants in the BSM intervention received 6 months of weekly, 1-hour classes taught by registered dietitians. Participants in the WLC group were not contacted during the 6 months. Outcome measures The main outcome measures were change in energy consumed (kilocalories); percentage of energy from fat, protein, and carbohydrate; grams of fiber/1,000 kcal; and change in the number of self-reported binge days. Statistical analyses Weight at 6 months was compared using a 2-sample t test. The change in the number of binge days at 6 months and the amount of change in selected nutrients by group was compared using the 2-sample t test. The paired t test was used to compare the average nutrient intakes on binge and nonbinge days within groups. Results No significant difference was found in the 6-month change between groups in any of the selected nutrients. The BSM group reported a greater reduction in binge days between baseline and 6 months compared with the WLC group (mean 1.0 vs 1.7, P Conclusions Our results suggest that collecting dietary information from participants identified with binge eating disorder is challenging. Dietitians who conduct behavioral weight management programs may require additional training in identifying and understanding the psychological characteristics of participants with binge-eating disorder. J Am Diet Assoc. 2001;101:209-215.
Net anthropogenic phosphorus inputs: spatial and temporal variability in the Chesapeake Bay region

We estimated net anthropogenic phosphorus inputs (NAPI) in the Chesapeake Bay region. NAPI is an index of phosphorus pollution potential. NAPI was estimated by quantifying all phosphorus inputs and outputs for each county. Inputs include fertilizer applications and non-food phosphorus uses, while trade of food and feed can be an input or an output. The average of 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002 NAPI for individual counties ranged from 0.02 to 78.46 kg P ha−1 year−1. The overall area-weighted average NAPI for 266 counties in the region was 4.52 kg P ha−1 year−1, indicating a positive net phosphorus input that can accumulate in the landscape or can pollute the water. Large positive NAPI values were associated with agricultural and developed land cover. County area-weighted NAPI increased from 4.43 to 4.94 kg P ha−1 year−1 between 1987 and 1997 but decreased slightly to 4.86 kg P ha−1 year−1 by 2002. Human population density, livestock unit density, and percent row crop land combined to explain 83% of the variability in NAPI among counties. Around 10% of total NAPI entering the Chesapeake Bay watershed is discharged into Chesapeake Bay. The developed land component of NAPI had a strong direct correlation with measured phosphorus discharges from major rivers draining to the Bay (R 2 = 0.81), however, the correlation with the simple percentage of developed land was equally strong. Our results help identify the sources of P in the landscape and evaluate the utility of NAPI as a predictor of water quality.
Capacity Allocation Using Past Sales: When to Turn-And-Earn

Consider a supplier selling to multiple retailers. Demand varies across periods, but the supplier's capacity and wholesale price are fixed. If demand is high, the retailers' needs exceed capacity, and the supplier must implement an allocation mechanism to dole out production. We examine how the choice of mechanism impacts retailer actions and supply chain performance. In particular, we analyze turn-and-earn allocation, a method commonly used in the automobile industry. This scheme bases current allocations on past sales and thus enables retailers to influence their future allocations; they compete for scarce capacity even if they do not compete for customers. We show that turn-and-earn induces the retailers to increase their sales when demand is low and the supplier's capacity is otherwise underutilized. Supplier profits thus increase. The impact on the supply chain depends on how restrictive capacity is. With mildly tight capacity, the retailers' higher sales rate does not significantly lower their profits but does reduce the cost of idle capacity. Supply chain performance improves. With extremely tight capacity, the retailers' intense competition dissipates more profits than the supplier gains, and supply chain performance suffers. Consequently, turn-and-earn does not generally coordinate the system. It is best characterized as a means for the supplier to increase her profits at the expense of the retailers and potentially even the supply chain. Furthermore, these results hold even if the retailers can hold inventory in anticipation of scarce capacity.
General sweep mathematical morphology

General sweep mathematical morphology provides a new class of morphological operations, which allow one to select varying shapes and orientations of structuring elements during the sweeping process. Such a class holds syntactic characteristics similar to algebraic morphology as well as sweep geometric modeling. The conventional morphology is a subclass of the general sweep morphology. The sweep morphological dilation/erosion provides a natural representation of sweep motion in the manufacturing processes, and the sweep opening/closing provides variant degrees of smoothing in image filtering. The theoretical framework for representation, computation and analysis of sweep morphology is presented in this paper. Its applications to the sweeping with deformations, image enhancement, edge linking, and shortest path planning for rotating objects are also discussed.
Can bacteremia be predicted in surgical intensive care unit patients

Objectives To determine which clinical features are associated with bacteremia in a SICU. To determine if infections are identified prior to bacteremia via culturing of other body fluids. To determine if antibiotic regimens are changed after the results of the blood culture were obtained.
An Initial Investigation of Employee Stress Related to Caring for Elderly and Dependent Relatives at Home

It is recognised that a sustainable competitive advantage is a necessary condition for a firm to survive and prosper. Specifically, companies need to embark on real, substantive business initiatives that will accrue to the company an asymmetrical, firm‐specific resource that will not be perfectly imitable by competitors, to borrow from Barney’s (1986) parlance. Barney’s notion of imperfect imitability is see as crucial in ascertaining the long run efficacy of any potential source of competitive advantage. A sustainable competitive advantage is one which is of value, is rare, has few if any substitutes, and in particular is not easily copied (Barney, 1986). The acquisition of such a sustainable competitive advantage is seen as the whole point of planning and executive business level strategies.
The Practical Hearing Aids Skills Test—Revised

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to revise the Practical Hearing Aid Skills Test (PHAST; Desjardins & Doherty, 2009) for clinical use. Method The original PHAST 5-point rating scale was...
The ellipsoid algorithm using parallel cuts

We present an ellipsoid algorithm using parallel cuts which is robust and conceptually simple. If the ratio fo the distance between the parallel cuts under consideration and the corresponding radius of the current ellipsoid is less than or equal to some constant, it is called the “canonical case.” Applying our algorithm to this case the volume of the next ellipsoid decreases by a factor which is, at worst, exp $$\left( { - \frac{1}{{2(n + 2)}}} \right).$$ For the noncanonical case, we first add an extra constraint to make it a canonical case in a higher-dimensional space, then apply our algorithm to this canonical case, and finally reduce it back to the original space. Some interesting variants are also presented to show the flexibility of our basic algorithm.
Coordination of 1,4-Diazabutadiene Ligands to Decamethylytterbocene: Additional Examples of Spin Coupling in Ytterbocene Complexes

The paramagnetic 1:1 coordination complexes of (C5Me5)2Yb with a series of diazabutadiene ligands, RN=C(R')C(R')=NR, where R= CMe3, CHMe2, adamantyl, p-tolyl, p-anisyl, and mesityl when R'=H, and R= p-anisyl when R'= Me, have been prepared. The complexes are paramagnetic, but their magnetic moments are less than expected for the two uncoupled spin carriers, (C5Me5)2Yb(III, 4f13) and the diazabutadiene radical anions (S=1/2), which implies exchange coupling between the spins. The variable temperature 1H NMR spectra show that rotation about the R-N bond is hindered and these barriers are estimated. The barriers are largely determined by steric effects but electronic effects are not unimportant.
Antibodies recognise specific structures of triple-helical polynucleotides built on poly(A) or poly(dA)

ANTIGENIC determinants of nucleic acids may comprise individual bases or base sequences, as in denatured DNA, or specific conformational features, as in helical forms1. Experimentally induced antibodies have shown selective reactivity toward double-stranded RNA2–6, RNA–DNA hybrids4, or distinct features of poly(G) · poly(C)7 or poly (dG) · poly(dC)4. Some of these antibodies can be used to identify double-helical RNA in virus-infected cells8,9 and to quantitate it in RNA extracted from such cells10, or to distinguish between double-stranded RNA and RNA–DNA hybrids in mixtures of enzyme reaction products11. Triple-helical poly(A) · 2poly(U) can also be distinguished from double-helical forms2,9. Triple-helical regions can form where continuous purine sequences occur12, and they might be involved as intermediates or as recognition sites in transcription13,14. Thus antibodies that recognise triple-helical nucleic acids are important in the definition of conformation-dependent antigenic determinants, as a model for protein recognition of specific nucleic acid sites, and they may identify such sites in naturally occurring nucleic acids. We describe here such antibodies that can differentiate three-stranded structures built on poly(A) from others built on poly(dA).
A multivariate analysis of some operant variables used in behavioral pharmacology.

The classificatory power afforded by the conjoint measurement of lever-pressing response rate and response duration was compared with a univariate analysis based exclusively on response rate. Operant behavior was measured following chlorpromazine, haloperidol, chlordiazepoxide, and pentobarbital, all of which produce similar dose-related decreases in rate of responding on simple fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. The multivariate technique of linear discriminant analysis indicates that both response rate and response duration provide useful and nonredundant information regarding the drug effect, separating the four drugs into three distinct classes: neuroleptic, chlordiazepoxide, and pentobarbital.
Optimism and Pessimism as Mediators of the Relations Between Self-Discrepancies and Distress Among Asian and European Americans.

The authors examined the role of undesired self-discrepancies in predicting emotional distress among Asian and European Americans, whether undesired self-discrepancies are stronger predictors of distress for Asian than for European Americans, and whether optimism and pessimism mediate the relations between ideal, ought, and undesired self-discrepancies and emotional distress. Self-identified Asian/ Asian American (n = 140) and European American (n = 189) college students completed measures of self-discrepancies, optimism/pessimism, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Results show that for both Asian Americans and European Americans, greater similarity to the undesired self is equally predictive of symptoms of depression, whereas distance from the undesired self is more predictive of social anxiety for Asian Americans than for European Americans. Furthermore, pessimism fully mediates the relations between undesired self-discrepancies and depressive symptoms for both Asian Americans and European Americans, although pessimism was a stronger predictor of depression for European Americans than for Asians/Asian Americans.
Evolution of bioconvective patterns in variable gravity

Measurements are reported of the evolution of bioconvective patterns in shallow, dense cultures of microorganisms subjected to varying gravity. Various statistical properties of this random, quasi-two-dimensional structure have been found: Aboav's law is obeyed, the average vertex angles follow predictions for regular polygons, and the area of a pattern varies linearly with its number of sides. As gravity varies between 1 g and 1.8 g, these statistical properties continue to hold despite a tripling of the number of polygons and a reduced average polygon dimension by a third. This work compares with experiments on soap foams, Langmuir monolayer foams, metal grains, and simulations.
Use of the Teager-Kaiser Energy operator for muscle activity detection in children

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the usefulness of the Teager-Kaiser Energy (TKE) operator to assess surface electromyographic (sEMG) activity from the hip and trunk muscles during pediatric gait in children with and without cerebral palsy (CP). Muscle activity was recorded from the trapezius, erector spinae, rectus abdominus, external oblique, gluteus maximus and medius, rectus femoris, and semitendinosus bilaterally in ten children with typical development (TD) and five children with CP ages 44.4 ± 18.6 months. Duration of muscle activity was calculated as a percentage of the gait cycle, and compared to two common onset detection methods, a standard deviation (SD) amplitude threshold method, and the visual inspection from two raters (R1, R2). Relative and absolute agreement was determined using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman plots. Of the two automated methods, the TKE method demonstrated better agreement with visual inspection (0.45–0.89) than the SD (0.11–0.76) method. The Bland-Altman plots indicated a smaller bias and 95% confidence interval for the TKE method in comparison to the raters (TKE to R1: −5, 113%; TKE to R2: 4, 95%; SD to R1: −24, 170%; SD to R2: −15, 151%). The use of the TKE operator may better detect sEMG activity in children than the standard amplitude method.
Response, survival, and toxicity after iodine-131–metaiodobenzylguanidine therapy for neuroblastoma in preadolescents, adolescents, and adults†

BACKGROUND: Adolescent and adult patients with neuroblastoma appear to have a more indolent disease course but a lower survival rate compared with their younger counterparts. The majority of neuroblastoma tumors specifically accumulate the radiolabeled norepinephrine analogue iodine-131–metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG). Therefore, 131I-MIBG has become increasingly used as targeted radiotherapy for patients with recurrent or refractory neuroblastoma. The objective of the current study was to characterize the toxicity and activity of this therapy in older patients. METHODS: The authors performed a retrospective analysis of 39 consecutive patients aged ≥10 years with recurrent or refractory neuroblastoma who were treated with 131I-MIBG monotherapy at the University of California at San Francisco under phase 1, phase 2, and compassionate access protocols. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were aged ≥18 years at the time of MIBG treatment initiation, whereas 23 patients were ages 10 to 17 years. The median cumulative administered dose of 131I-MIBG was 17.8 millicuries (mCi)/kg. The majority of treatments led to grade 3 or 4 hematologic toxicities (graded according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events [version 3]) that were similar in frequency among age strata. Three patients subsequently developed a hematologic malignancy or myelodysplasia. The overall rate of complete plus partial response was 46%. Patients aged ≥18 years at the time of first MIBG treatment had a significantly higher response rate compared with patients ages 10 to 17 years (56% vs 39%; P = .023). The median overall survival was 23 months with a trend toward longer overall survival for the subgroup of patients aged ≥18 years (P = .12). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the current study suggest that 131I-MIBG is a highly effective salvage agent for adolescents and adults with neuroblastoma. Cancer 2011;. © 2011 American Cancer Society.