cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
VISTATM: Visual Impairment Subtle Touch AidTM - a range detection and feedback system for sightless navigation.

We devised a low-tech, low-cost, robust, and minimally obtrusive navigational travelling aid to be paired with and bolster standard white cane use for people with visual impairments. The device combines ultrasonic range detection with proportional vibrational output. The navigational aid was devised using a sensing belt equipped with independent ultrasonic sensors for distance measurements. Sensors were mounted using adjustable mobile clips to allow for user variability. The sensing belt was connected to a stimulation belt affixed to the ribcage. The stimulation belt used vibrating motors with vibration proportional to the distance between the belt wearer and surrounding obstacles sensed by corresponding ultrasonic sensors. The device was validated through preliminary testing on blindfolded, but fully sighted, persons and one blind person (all authors) in navigating a novel environment without supplemental aid. Testing sessions varied from 45 to 90 min. In preliminary tests, the devised ultrasonic-sensor-belt and vibration-actuator-equipped belt combination was capable of informing users of surrounding obstacles in real-time while navigating a hallway with several turns.
Suzhi, Relevance, and the New Curriculum: A Case Study of One Rural Middle School in Northwest China

There have been ongoing discussions about the most recent curriculum reform in China. The new curriculum aims at a more quality-oriented (suzhi) education and producing more well-rounded citizens to meet the challenges of global competition. However, it is questioned how suzhi education is possible with entrance examination still being the sole sorting mechanism. A semester-long ethnography in a rural middle school in northwest China reveals how rural students face many challenges with the new curriculum. Based on interviews, analyses of textbooks, and observations of classroom teaching, the study examines how rural students question the relevance of their curriculum and further the meaning of formal schooling. In addition to the dichotomy between an exam-oriented and quality-oriented curriculum, students are also troubled by the dichotomy between general/academic education and relevant/practical education. The study raises concerns about the urban-centered curriculum and how the rural community's absence...
Functional Selectivity at Receptors for Cannabinoids and Other Lipids

CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors are associated with Gi/o proteins to activate signal transduction pathways that include inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, activation of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), and regulation of ion channels (CB1 only). Agonists for these receptors include structurally diverse cannabinoid, aminoalkylindole, and eicosanoid ligands. Arylpyrazole ligands generally behave as competitive antagonists and inverse agonists to block constitutive activity of the cannabinoid receptors. Allosteric regulators of the CB1 receptor have been identified. One mechanism for functional selectivity of these ligands to direct signal transduction is the ability of certain ligands to behave as agonists for some Gαi subtypes and as inverse agonists for other Gαi subtypes. Biochemical and modeling studies suggest that selectivity can be attributed to conformational changes initiated by interactions within the 7-transmembrane helical bundle that ultimately modulate either the juxtamembrane C-terminal domain to activate Gαi3 or Gαo, and intracellular loop 3 domains to activate Gαi1, Gαi2, or Gαs. Additional selectivity in signaling pathways is conferred by accessory proteins including CRIP1a, FAN, β-arrestin, and GASP1. Close physical association of the CB1 receptor with other pharmacologically distinct GPCRs, including D2 dopamine, opioid, orexin 1, and GABAB receptors, allows ligands acting on one partner to alter the efficacy of ligands for the partner receptors. These mechanisms of ligand-directed functional selectivity can be utilized in the design of pharmacological agents that initiate signal transduction pathways of therapeutic relevance.
Identifications, Volitions and the Case of Successful Psychopaths

While many profound philosophical questions arise about psychopaths, I wish to draw attention to two limitations in current debates. First, philosophers mainly deal with offender and forensic populations neglecting so-called ‘successful’ psychopaths. Second, philosophers mainly focus on the issue of empathy and responsibility, while relatively little attention is paid to volitional aspects. I address these two limitations together and argue that ‘successful’ psychopaths are volitionally constrained. In order to grasp and explore this deficiency, I argue in favour of a more refined and fine-grained understanding of identifications.
Does Direct to Consumer Advertising of Antidepressants Affect Visits to Physicians

The US is one of only two countries in which Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising is currently permitted. There are ongoing calls in Congress to ban the practice, because of concerns that it may lead to the inappropriate diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and to higher prices for medicines. In this paper, we study the influence of print DTCA for antidepressants by studying how they affect the decision to seek physician care. We add to the literature because prior work in this area has only been able to link market level (or national) advertising to individual level physician visits, whereas our exposure comes from individual measures of advertising exposure. Our main data set is the Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS), a nationally representative cross-sectional survey covering 2003-2007. I create my independent variable by linking reports in the NCS and magazine reading habits with data from other databases that tells me what ads appeared in those shows or magazines. NCS asks how often the respondent read a specific magazine. Respondents reported how many issues of each magazine they read of the past four issues; I extrapolate for the entire year from this, assuming that the reading pattern of the last 4 issues is indicative of behavior during that past year. Data on DTC print advertisements were taken from a database created at Cornell University containing a digital representation of every pharmaceutical advertisement that appeared between the time period in 26 of the top read consumer magazines in the United States, which in turn represents approximately 60% of readership data in the NCS. Among the 105,299 respondents to the NCS on whom I have data, the average exposure to antidepressant print ads is 5.43 advertisements. I examine the causal effect exposure to antidepressant advertisements number on the likelihood of visiting a healthcare practitioner (general/family practitioners, nurse practitioners, and internist) in the last 12 months in the NCS. I estimate a falsification test using a dependent variable that should not be affected by antidepressant ads, visits to podiatrists. The richness of the data allows me to specify a model in which the variation in ad exposure used to estimate the key parameters are orthogonal to unobservables about the individual that may be correlated with both ad exposure and with care seeking behavior, controlling for factors used by marketers in targeting ads.
Serial MRI After Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rats Dynamics of Tissue Injury, Blood-Brain Barrier Damage, and Edema Formation

Background and Purpose—With the advent of thrombolytic therapy for acute stroke, reperfusion-associated mechanisms of tissue injury have assumed greater importance. In this experimental study, we u...
Potassium-Dependant Mutants of Escherichia coli K-12

Mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 that grow more slowly in media containing low concentrations of K have been isolated. All independent mutants of this type which have been studied carry a mutation in a small region of the bacterial chromosome between the supE and gal loci. The growth rate of the mutants is the same as that of the parental strains in medium containing more than 1 mm K, but is only 50% that of the parent when the K concentration is reduced to 0.1 mm. The mutants do not appear to have a primary alteration in K transport, and are therefore referred to as K-dependent. The abbreviation kdp is proposed for this class of mutant.
Plasma β-carotene and retinol concentrations of children increase after a 30-d supplementation with the fruit Momordica cochinchinensis (gac)

BACKGROUND In rural Vietnam, vitamin A deficiency is a concern. Among the indigenous fruit and vegetables, Momordica cochinchinensis (gac) fruit has been identified as having the highest beta-carotene concentration. Locally, it is mixed with rice in a preparation called xoi gac. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess this beta-carotene- rich rice preparation as a source of provitamin A for children in rural Vietnam. DESIGN Preschoolers (n = 185) participated in a 30-d controlled supplementation trial. Children with low hemoglobin concentrations were assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a fruit group, who received xoi gac that contained 3.5 mg beta-carotene per serving; a powder group, who received rice mixed with 5.0 mg synthetic beta-carotene powder; and a control group, who received rice without fortification. RESULTS The mean increase in plasma beta-carotene concentrations in the fruit and powder groups was significantly greater than that in the control group (P < 0.0001). After supplementation, the mean plasma retinol concentration in the fruit group was significantly higher than that in the control (P = 0.006) and powder (P = 0.0053) groups. Among the children with initial hemoglobin concentrations <or=110 g/L, the mean increase in hemoglobin concentrations in the fruit group was marginally higher than that in the control group (P = 0.017) but was not significantly different from that in the powder group. CONCLUSIONS beta-Carotene from xoi gac is a good source of provitamin A carotenoids. Severely anemic children might particularly benefit from routine xoi gac consumption
Application of NIR chemometric methods for quantification of the crystalline fraction of warfarin sodium in drug product

AbstractMonitoring of the physical state of warfarin sodium (WS) in products is essential for minimizing product quality variability in order to ensure consistent clinical performance. This study reports the development of chemometric models for quantifying the crystalline and amorphous fractions of WS in commercial drug products using NIR spectroscopy. Formulations based on commercially available products with different API to excipient ratio were used for the study. For each content, two formulations containing either lactose monohydrate or lactose anhydrous as the predominant formulation excipient were prepared. Two formulations containing either 100% amorphous WS (AWS) or crystalline WS (CWS) were prepared and mixed in various ratios to obtain sample matrices containing AWS/CWS 0–100%. The uniformity of the samples was confirmed by near infrared chemical imaging. Data were mathematically pretreated by multiplicative signal correction and Savitzky–Golay second derivative. Principal component regression...
Planning a sample survey with a many-to-many frame structure: an empirical investigation of the effects of frame imperfections on estimates of population totals

When faced with a sampling frame that has an imperfect correspondence with the target population, the survey researcher must decide whether to use the frame as is or to expend the resources to correct its imperfections. One important consideration is the effects of the frame's imperfections on the precision of the estimate. Using simulation techniques, this paper explores the effects of frame imperfections on the precision of an estimate of a population total in simple and stratified random sampling. Some factors studied were the amount of imperfection in the frame, the nature of the correspondence between the frame units and population elements, the population coefficient of variation, and the correlation of the weights used to correct for the frame's imperfections with the measure of interest. Recommendations for planning the survey design are presented based upon our findings.
Relation of left ventricular volume and function over one year after acute myocardial infarction to infarct size determined by technetium-99m sestamibi.

Abstract Twenty patients with a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (15 anterior, 5 inferior) who received successful reperfusion therapy underwent tomographic imaging with technetium-99m (Tc-99m) sestamibi and radionuclide ventriculography at discharge, 6 weeks, and 1 year after AMI. Patency of the infarct-related artery after reperfusion (thrombolysis, 8 patients; coronary angioplasty, 12 patients) was confirmed by angiography in all patients. Tc-99m sestamibi perfusion defect at discharge (a measure of infarct size) was quantitated using previous methods and expressed as a percentage of the left ventricle (28 ± 19%, range 0 to 59%). This perfusion defect size correlated closely with ejection fraction at discharge (r = −0.87), 6 weeks (r = −0.81) and at 1 year (r = −0.78, all p
Titanium Implant Osseointegration Problems with Alternate Solutions Using Epoxy/Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Composite

The aim of the article is to present recent developments in material research with bisphenyl-polymer/carbon-fiber-reinforced composite that have produced highly influential results toward improving upon current titanium bone implant clinical osseointegration success. Titanium is now the standard intra-oral tooth root/bone implant material with biocompatible interface relationships that confer potential osseointegration. Titanium produces a TiO2 oxide surface layer reactively that can provide chemical bonding through various electron interactions as a possible explanation for biocompatibility. Nevertheless, titanium alloy implants produce corrosion particles and fail by mechanisms generally related to surface interaction on bone to promote an inflammation with fibrous aseptic loosening or infection that can require implant removal. Further, lowered oxygen concentrations from poor vasculature at a foreign metal surface interface promote a build-up of host-cell-related electrons as free radicals and proton acid that can encourage infection and inflammation to greatly influence implant failure. To provide improved osseointegration many different coating processes and alternate polymer matrix composite (PMC) solutions have been considered that supply new designing potential to possibly overcome problems with titanium bone implants. Now for important consideration, PMCs have decisive biofunctional fabrication possibilities while maintaining mechanical properties from addition of high-strengthening varied fiber-reinforcement and complex fillers/additives to include hydroxyapatite or antimicrobial incorporation through thermoset polymers that cure at low temperatures. Topics/issues reviewed in this manuscript include titanium corrosion, implant infection, coatings and the new epoxy/carbon-fiber implant results discussing osseointegration with biocompatibility related to nonpolar molecular attractions with secondary bonding, carbon fiber in vivo properties, electrical semiconductors, stress transfer, additives with low thermal PMC processing and new coating possibilities.
Impact of Allergic Rhinitis Treatment on Quality of Life

Allergic rhinitis is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the nasal passages. It affects approximately 20% of the population, is a significant health and economic burden, and severely impairs quality of life. Two main instruments, Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form health survey (SF-36) and Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ) have been used to assess quality of life in patients with allergic rhinitis. Antihistamines, corticosteroids, anticholinergic agents, decongestants, cromoglycates, and immunotherapy are used to treat patients with allergic rhinitis. Of these, antihistamines and intranasal corticosteroids are the most efficacious and frequently utilised medications. Studies have demonstrated improvements in quality of life with both of these medications in patients with allergic rhinitis.
Adhesion strength and inversely-determined nonlinear Young's moduli for die-attach adhesives

The use of loaded epoxy adhesives in the microelectronics industry is widespread. Integrated circuit (IC) chips are often adhesively bonded to die-pads, substrates, leadframes, and/or heatspreaders. In addition to silicon, a variety of adherends including IC passivation coatings (such as polyimide), copper and copper alloys (plated with precious metals and non-plated), aluminum, and ceramics (such as alumina (Al2O3)) are encountered in situations such as these. The adhesion strength as well as the mechanical properties of the adhesives used in these configurations are unfortunately not well known. In order to obtain an estimate of the values of the parameters that are of interest it is necessary to experimentally investigate the adhesives in the configuration under consideration. This was done for a number of commercially available loaded epoxy adhesives. A full factorial experimental study was conducted, using double lap shear test specimens (DLSTSs), in order to determine the effect of moisture and temperature on the adhesion strength of these adhesives. An Instron mechanical test system was used to generate force-displacement (F-d) curves for each of the adhesives that were studied. The adhesives that were examined consisted of both 'low stress' and high strength materials and they were obtained from four different vendors. The experimental results were also used in conjunction with a Finite Element (FE) model of the DLSTS in order to determine the non-linear Young's moduli of the adhesives as a function of strain, moisture, and temperature.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The CASA Nowcasting System

AbstractShort-term prediction (nowcasting) of high-impact weather events can lead to significant improvement in warnings and advisories and is of great practical importance. Nowcasting using weather radar reflectivity data has been shown to be particularly useful and the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) radar network provides high-resolution (0.5-km spatial and 1-min temporal resolution) reflectivity data that are amenable to producing valuable nowcasts. This paper describes the theory and implementation of a nowcasting system operating in the CASA Distributed Collaborative Adaptive Sensing network and shows that nowcasting can be reliably performed in such a distributed environment. In this context, nowcasting is used in a traditional sense to produce predictions of radar reflectivity fields up to 10 min into the future to support emergency manager decision making, and in a novel manner to support researchers and operational forecasters where 1–5-min nowcasts are used to steer the ...
Sertoli cells decrease microglial response and increase engraftment of human hNT neurons in the hemiparkinsonian rat striatum

Sertoli cells (SCs) provide immune protection and nutritive support to the developing germ cells in the testis. Sertoli cells have also been shown to provide immune protection to islets transplanted outside the testes. In this study, the ability of these cells to diminish the infiltration/activation of microglia into a neural graft implanted in the lesioned striatum of a hemiparkinsonian rat was investigated. Human neuron-like cells (hNT neurons) were implanted either alone or in combination with rat SCs. Three months later, the animals were sacrificed and immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the survival of the xenografted neurons as well as microglial infiltration/activation. Cotransplantation of the SCs with the hNT neurons increased graft survival and was associated with an increase in graft size. Furthermore, there were fewer microglia present in the grafted tissue of the cotransplantation groups. These results show that SCs retain their immunosuppressive ability even within the brain. As immune responses to grafted neural tissue within the central nervous system become better understood, this ability of the SCs to provide localized immunosuppression to the transplanted tissue may become more important. This is particularly true as the search for alternative sources of neural tissue to treat neurodegenerative diseases expands to encompass other species.
One-dimensional conduction-radiation heat transfer between parallel surfaces subject to convective boundary conditions

Application d'une extension de la methode d'approximation P 3 , pour le calcul du transfert de chaleur par conduction et rayonnement thermique dans un milieu gris, emissif, absorbant et diffusant limite par 2 plaques paralleles. Etude de l'influence de differents parametres sur le champ de temperature et la repartition du flux thermique
Multiple steady states in multicomponent countercurrent mass-transfer processes

Abstract Steady-state multiplicity under idealized conditions in a single column, or in a column section with fixed entry conditions at both ends, depends critically on whether the model postulate infinite or finite column length or mass-transfer rates. Like the multiplicity in a column with infinite mass-transfer rates, that in an infinitely long column with finite mass-transfer rate is exclusively a matter of phase-equilibrium and flow-rate and hold-up ratios and is independent of mass-transfer effects. Such a multiplicity does not exist if both the column length and mass-transfer rates are finite, but the approach to the unique steady state may be exceedingly slow (“creep”), a phenomenon known from asymmetric dynamics. Mathematically exact multiplicity in finite columns with finite mass-transfer rates requires an unusual mass-transfer behavior as well as entry conditions different from those for multiplicity in infinitely long columns or in finite columns with infinite mass-transfer rates.
Hadronic resonance spectrum may help in resolution of meson nonet enigmas

Abstract The identification of problematic meson states as the members of the quark model q q nonets by using a hadronic resonance spectrum is discussed. The results favor the currently adopted q q assignments for the tensor and 1 3F4 JPC = 4++ meson nontes, and suggest a new q q assignments for the scalar and axial-vector nonets which favor the interpretation of the f0(980), f0(1710) and f1(1510) mesons as non -q q objects. We also suggest that the 2 3 S 1 1 2 (1 − ) state should be identified with the K ∗ (1680) rather than K ∗ (1410) meson.
Reactions of Samoan burn patients and families to severe burns

Abstract Samoan families involved in a disastrous fire in a West Coast city in 1964, and medical and agency personnel who worked with fire victims were interviewed 5 years after the fire to determine individual, family, and community response to the fire and its aftermath. Medical personnel uniformly remarked on the extraordinary stoical response of patients to pain, death of loved ones, lasting disfigurement and related potential stressors. Samoans reported considerable initial distress, but, in contrast with published reports of American burn patients, there were few acute or lasting emotional problems. Specific Samoan cultural, social, and religious patterns which appear to have mitigated or even precluded widespread emotional problems are suggested. It is commonly acknowledged that cultural factors contribute significantly to responses to pain, injury, death and other universal potential stressors of man. This paper explores some of the broader aspects of what Mechanic has called “illness behavior” —the manner in which pain and symptoms are defined, labeled, perceived and reacted to. The fire described here resulted in 17 deaths and some 70 moderate to severe burn injuries. The survivors of this fire experienced a variety of potential stresses triggered by severe burn injuries, long hospitalization and recuperation periods, and resulting permanent physical disfigurement. Yet the Samoan response offers a remarkable contrast to that customarily reported in the literature.
Rotating Kirchhoff method for three-dimensional transonic blade-vortex interaction hover noise

The unsteady transonic full-potential rotor (FPR) code is used for the simulation of the transonic blade vortex interaction (BVI) near-field flow. The rotating Kirchhoff method is used for the extension to the acoustic far field. Two rotating Kirchhoff formulations are developed for the three-dimensional BVI far-field noise prediction. The first formulation (Morino's method) is for an observer rotating with the blade. This allows the direct comparison with computational fluid dynamics results. The second formulation (Farassat's method) is for a stationary observer and allows a direct comparison with acoustic experiments
Diel Variation in Near-Shore Great Lakes Fish Assemblages and Implications for Assessment Sampling and Coastal Management

ABSTRACT I compared fish assemblages captured in three different microhabitats (shoreline, pelagic near-shore, and benthic near-shore) during day and night fishing in different protection (inside bay or tributary vs. outside in Lake Ontario proper) and turbidity regimes of four near-shore areas of Lake Ontario. The effects of diel movement and availability to gear were clearly evident. Fish assemblages were consistently and significantly more diverse at night than during the day, with nighttime assemblages often being supersets of daytime assemblages. Evidence for a turbidity effect was much weaker than the effects of nocturnal movements and changes in availability to the gear associated with darkness. Nighttime sampling is more likely to capture the full array of species in near-shore areas of the Great Lakes than daytime sampling.
The Effects of Two Motivational Manipulations on the Neuropsychological Performance of Mildly Head-Injured College Students

Recently, much research has focused on the development and utilization of various motivational assessment techniques designed to identify malingered neuropsychological test performance. Other findings have suggested a strong link between the motivation of the subject and the degree to which the neuropsychological test results validly represent the individual's true level of functioning. However, the majority of the empirical work in this area has focused on only one end of the motivational spectrum, decreased motivation. In order to obtain a more complete assessment of the relationship between motivation and neuropsychological of test results, the present study involved an evaluation of the effects of motivational differences on test performance across three levels of motivation: high, low, and standard in 75 head-injured college students. Results supported past research showing significant decreases in test performance by participants given individual financial incentives ($25.00) to perform poorly. Additionally, the sensitivity of several malingering tests to this response set was supported. However, no reliable differences were found on neuropsychological or motivational tests between the group given financial incentives ($25.00) to perform well and the standard instruction group.
Interleukin-1 stimulates interleukin-6 release from rat anterior pituitary cells in vitro.

We have reported previously that anterior pituitary cells released interleukin-6 (IL-6) and that this release was stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), or agents that increased intracellular cAMP concentrations. We now report that IL-1 stimulates IL-6 release from anterior pituitary cells in vitro. IL-lα and IL-1β (0.04–25 ng/ml) significantly increased IL-6 release 3- to 4-fold in a concentration-related manner during 6-h incubations; however, there was no change in extracellular or intracellular cAMP concentrations. IL-lα and IL-1β (10 ng/ml), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP, 500 nM), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2,1 μM), and LPS (1 ng/ml) stimulated IL-6 release to a similar degree. In the presence of VIP and PGE2, IL-lα and IL-1β increased IL-6 release without any apparent further change in extracellular or intracellular cAMP. Conversely, LPS did not increase cAMP concentrations, and IL-1 did not significantly increase IL-6 release in the presence of LPS. The preexposure ...
Wren's Language of City Church Designs: A Formal Generative Classification

A parametric shape grammar that characterizes the plan designs of Wren's City churches is developed. The grammar formally specifies the generation of each design in its language and classifies them into four basic types. Each type is defined formally by a shape-rule lattice. Complex compositions are characterized as variations of these simple types. Variations on a type are specified formally as simple changes to the grammars' shape rules.
Environmental Correlates of Signal Crayfish, Pacifastacus Leniusculus (Dana, 1852), Density and Size at Two Spatial Scales in Its Native Range

ABSTRACT While much literature exists on the ecology and ecosystem impacts of signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana, 1852), as an invasive species, little information exists on the ecology of this species in its native range in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Signal crayfish (P. leniusculus leniusculus) were collected from the Umatilla River in northeastern Oregon, USA, where they are native. Collecting occurred during the summer at 13 sites spanning the longitudinal gradient of the river to examine the relationship between density and size of individuals and environmental factors at two spatial scales. At the reach scale (100+ m2) the density of young-of-year (YOY), and age 1+ female and male crayfish was positively associated with substrate size. Additionally, age 1+ female and male crayfish density was negatively associated with the amount of crop agriculture. Substrate size was also important in determining the density and size of crayfish at the microhabitat scale (<1 m2) with greater densities...
Uranium-series age of the Eel Point terrace, San Clemente Island, California

Uranium-series analysis of the coral Allopora californica Verrill from the 2nd, 32-m Eel Point terrace on San Clemente Island, California, has yielded an age of 127,000 ± 7,000 yr. The Eel Point terrace is thus correlative with numerous terrace localities on the southern California mainland, with coral reefs on Barbados and New Guinea dated about 120,000 yr, and with substage 5e of the marine oxygen-isotope record. A tectonic uplift rate of about 0.20 m/1,000 yr has been calculated assuming a sea level slightly higher than the present one at the time of terrace formation. Extrapolation of this uplift rate allows age estimates to be made for other terraces on the island.
PLATELETS AND THE SHWARTZMAN PHENOMENON

Studies are reported on the effect of immunologically induced thrombocytopenia upon the local and generalized Shwartzman phenomena. Intravenous injection of antiplatelet serum to rabbits produced profound but transient thrombocytopenia unaccompanied by significant changes in circulating leucocytes. Platelet antiserum alone given to rabbits prepared with thorotrast produced renal lesions characteristic of the Shwartzman reaction. Thrombocytopenia induced by platelet antiserum did not inhibit the cutaneous hemorrhagic lesion of the local Shwartzman phenomenon produced by sequential injections of endotoxin intracutaneously and intravenously. The implications of these observations in the pathogenesis of the local cutaneous and generalized Shwartzman reaction are discussed.
Corporate demand for insurance: Some empirical and theoretical results

While risk aversion explains individual consumer demand for insurance, it does not explain the corporate demand for insurance. Studies have suggested a variety of incentives that motivate corporations to purchase insurance. We find that the primary motivation for corporate insurance purchases can be explained by the bondholder's me-first rule. In return for insurance, bondholders will charge stockholders a lower cost of debt, thereby increasing firm value.
Nonlinear kinematic hardening rule parameters - relationship to substructure evolution in polycrystalline nickel

Abstract General cyclic plasticity results and detailed analyses of experimental data from constant plastic strain amplitude, completely reversed, tension–compression tests on polycrystalline nickel with two grain sizes are reported. These analyses focus on kinematic hardening behavior and are based on Armstrong–Frederick-type kinematic hardening rules and Masing-type assumptions. Juxtaposition of these analyses with observations of specimen surface relief and substructure evolution using TEM provides a context for discussion of mechanisms and modeling of nonlinear kinematic hardening and its relationship to heterogeneous microstructure in metals.
Curriculum Standards for the Education of Professional Substance Abuse Counselors.

ABSTRACT The present study examined the perceived need for CACREP-accredited counselor education programs to formalize curriculum standards for substance abuse counseling courses. The participants were university professors who are CACREP liaisons for currently accredited counselor education programs. A survey was conducted using questions constructed from a review of literature and subsequent feedback from counselor educators with substance abuse counseling and CACREP expertise. Results suggested that providing educational preparation for students aspiring to be substance abuse counselors should be implemented. More than half of those surveyed (56.6%) indicated that the establishment of such curriculum standards by CACREP is “important” (23.3%), “very important” (14.4%), or “extremely important” (18.9%).
Perceived Organizational Support And Leader-Member Exchange: A Social Exchange Perspective

Employees develop exchange relationships both with organizations and immediate superiors, as evidenced by research on perceived organizational support (POS) and leader-member exchange (LMX), respectively. Despite conceptual similarities between these two constructs, theoretical development and research has proceeded independently. In an attempt to integrate these literatures, we developed and tested a model of the antecedents and consequences of POS and LMX, based on social exchange theory. Results indicated that POS and LMX have unique antecedents and are differentially related to outcome variables, providing support for the importance of both types of exchanges.
ENZYMES IN ONTOGENESIS (ORTHOPTERA) : XIV. THE ACTION OF PROTEINS ON CERTAIN ACTIVATORS OF PROTYROSINASE.

1. Proteins, when added to activators (sodium oleate. Aerosol) of protyrosinase, greatly decrease the degree of activation. 2. Certain proteins adsorbed on activator micelles are markedly affected by temperature and are rendered more sensitive by ultraviolet light. 3. Ideas are expressed as to the possible nature of activating and inhibiting phenomena especially as they relate to the enzyme tyrosinase.
Sea-level rise: A review of recent past and near-future trends

Global mean sea level is a potentially sensitive indicator of climate change. Global warming will contribute to worldwide sea-level rise (SLR) from thermal expansion of ocean water, melting of mountain glaciers and polar ice sheets. A number of studies, mostly using tide-gauge data from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level, Bidston Observatory, England, have obtained rates of global SLR within the last 100 years that range between 0·3 and 3 mm yr−1, with most values concentrated between 1 and 2 mm yr−1. However, the reliability of these results has been questioned because of problems with data quality and physical processes that introduce a high level of spatial and temporal variability. Sources of uncertainty in the sea-level data include variations in winds, ocean currents, river runoff, vertical earth movements, and geographically uneven distribution of long-term records. Crustal motions introduce a major source of error. To a large extent, these can be filtered by employing palaeo-sea-level proxies, and geophysical modelling to remove glacio-isostatic changes. Ultimately, satellite geodesy will help resolve the inherent ambiguity between the land and ocean level changes recorded by tide gauges. Future sea level is expected to rise by ∼ 1 m, with a ‘best-guess’ value of 48 cm by the year 2100. Such rates represent an acceleration of four to seven times over present rates. Local land subsidence could substantially increase the apparent SLR. For example, Louisiana is currently experiencing SLR trends nearly 10 times the global mean rate. These recently reduced SLR estimates are based on climate models that predict a zero to negative contribution to SLR from Antarctica. Most global climate models (GCMs) indicate an ice accumulation over Antarctica, because in a warmer world, precipitation will exceed ablation/snow-melt. However, the impacts of attritional processes, such as thinning of the ice shelves, have been downplayed according to some experts. Furthermore, not all climate models are in agreement. Opposite conclusions may be drawn from the results of other GCMs. In addition, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is potentially subject to dynamic and volcanic instabilities that are difficult to predict. Because of the great uncertainty in SLR projections, careful monitoring of future sea-level trends by upgraded tide-gauge networks and satellite geodesy will become essential. Finally, because of the high spatial variability in crustal subsidence rates, wave climates and tidal regimes, it will be the set of local conditions (especially the relative sea-level rise), rather than a single global mean sea-level trend, that will determine each locality's vulnerability to future SLR.
Development of Lexical and Sentence Level Context Effects for Dominant and Subordinate Word Meanings of Homonyms

Nine-ten-and twelve-year-old children (N = 75) read aloud dominant, subordinate or ambiguous bias sentences (N = 120) that ended in a homonym (BALL). After the sentence (1,000 ms), children read aloud targets that were related to the dominant (BAT) or subordinate (DANCE) meaning of the homonym or control targets. Participants were also divided into three reading skill groups based on an independent measure of single word oral reading accuracy. There were three main developmental and reading skill findings. First, 9-year-olds and low skill readers showed lexical level facilitation in accuracy. Second, 9- and 10-year-olds or low and moderate skill readers showed lexical level facilitation in reaction time. Third, 12-year-olds or high skill readers showed sentence level facilitation in reaction time with high skill readers additionally showing sentence level inhibition in reaction time. These results show that lexical level context effects decreased and that sentence level context effects increased with development and skill. These results are discussed in terms of connectionist models of visual word recognition that incorporate distributed attractor principles.
Design of an Adapter for Ultrasound Transducer Under High Operating Temperatures and Pressures In a Slurry Bubble Column Reactor

This paper describes the design of an apparatus that enables ultrasound measurements in a slurry bubble column at industrially-relevant operating conditions of high temperatures and pressures. Preliminary results demonstrate that ultrasound measurements can be conducted at temperatures up to 200°C, at pressures up to 1.36 MPa, and at superficial gas velocities of up to 11 cms−1 in the nitrogen-Drakeol system.
The Rôle of the Senate in Treaty-Making: A Survey of Four Decades.

The action of the United States Senate upon the large majority of treaties laid before it has been comparatively perfunctory and without important result. Four-fifths of all the treaties submitted to the Senate have been approved by it without any change whatever. Twenty-one per cent have been altered in the Senate, for the most part by changes of words or clauses that later passed the scrutiny of both the President and the foreign powers concerned. Of the 152 treaties amended by the Senate, only one-fifth have been changed so seriously as to compromise or destroy the international agreement proposed. Likewise, the failure of 62 treaties to be approved by the Senate in any form has had serious consequences in not more than a fifth of the situations resulting.1 Moreover, while all kinds of treaties have incurred the Senate's displeasure, it has consistently emasculated only one type, i.e., those for the pacific settlement of disputes. It is upon the Senate's action on this class of treaties that opinion as to the usefulness of its role in treaty-making must divide. To those who believe that a policy of national isolation can and should be maintained, the record of the Senate is not disturbing; it is highly praiseworthy. To others who are convinced that a progressively developing machine civilization requires strong and effective international controls, the negations of the Senate are much more destructive than conservative.
Protégé: a tool for managing and using terminology in radiology applications.

The development of standard terminologies such as RadLex is becoming important in radiology applications, such as structured reporting, teaching file authoring, report indexing, and text mining. The development and maintenance of these terminologies are challenging, however, because there are few specialized tools to help developers to browse, visualize, and edit large taxonomies. Protege (http://protege.stanford.edu) is an open-source tool that allows developers to create and to manage terminologies and ontologies. It is more than a terminology-editing tool, as it also provides a platform for developers to use the terminologies in end-user applications. There are more than 70,000 registered users of Protege who are using the system to manage terminologies and ontologies in many different domains. The RadLex project has recently adopted Protege for managing its radiology terminology. Protege provides several features particularly useful to managing radiology terminologies: an intuitive graphical user interface for navigating large taxonomies, visualization components for viewing complex term relationships, and a programming interface so developers can create terminology-driven radiology applications. In addition, Protege has an extensible plug-in architecture, and its large user community has contributed a rich library of components and extensions that provide much additional useful functionalities. In this report, we describe Protege’s features and its particular advantages in the radiology domain in the creation, maintenance, and use of radiology terminology.
Role of phorbol ester receptors in the 12-0-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced down-regulation of colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) binding to murine peritoneal exudate macrophages

Treatment of murine peritoneal exudate macrophages (PEM) by tumor-promoting phorbol esters (TPA) results in a rapid loss of binding activity to radioactive-labeled colony-stimulating factor ([125I]-CSF-1) on the cell surface. The inhibitory effect of TPA on PEM is transient; treated cells recover full [125I]-CSF-1 binding activity in less than 6 hr at 37 degrees C either in the presence or after the removal of added TPA. The role of phorbol ester receptors in the induction of [125I]-CSF-1 binding inhibition was studied. The biologically active ligand [3H]-phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate ([3H]-PDBu) bound specifically to cultured murine PEM. At 0 degree C, stable and equilibrium binding occurred after 2-3 hr. Scatchard analysis revealed linear plots with a dissociation constant and receptor number per cell of 20.9 nM and 3.9 X 10(5)/cell, respectively. Treatment of PEM with biologically active phorbol esters at 37 degrees C rapidly inhibited the binding activity of [3H]-PDBu on cell surface (down-regulation) and rendered these cells refractory to the TPA-induced [125I]-CSF-1 binding inhibition by the subsequent TPA treatment. The inhibition of phorbol ester binding activity on TPA-treated PEM is caused by a reduction in the total number of available phorbol ester receptors rather than by a decrease in receptor affinity as judged by Scatchard analysis. The disappearance of [3H]-PDBu binding activity is reversible and transient. However, unlike CSF-1 receptors the restoration of phorbol ester receptors on TPA-treated PEM is a very slow process; a prolonged incubation of up to 72 hr after the removal of TPA was required for PEM to regain fully its [3H]-PDBu binding activity. Furthermore, the degree of TPA-induced CSF-1-receptor down-regulation is closely associated with the number of available phorbol ester receptors present on PEM at the time of treatment. Thus, the refractoriness to TPA diminished as the phorbol ester receptors on PEM recovered. A 72-hr incubation time at 37 degrees C was needed for PEM to lose their refractoriness and again become fully sensitive to TPA-induced CSF-1-receptor down-regulation. This study provides evidence that the loss of CSF-1-receptors induced by TPA treatment requires the presence of phorbol ester receptors and proceeds presumably via a co-internalization of both CSF-1 and phorbol ester receptors; the refractoriness to TPA is thereby induced by a transient loss of available phorbol ester receptors.
The effects of fenfluramine and fluoxetine on the acquisition of the conditioned avoidance response in rats.

This study tested a behavior-suppressing punishment system and how its activity may be altered by agents known to interrupt or enhance serotonergic (5-HT) transmission. Holtzman male albino rats were tested for shuttle box avoidance acquisition and intertrial responding either 1 or 8 h following daily injections of fenfluramine (FEN) or fluoxetine (FXT). When the drug-test interval was 1 h, a time when both drugs are presumably potentiating 5-HT activity, avoidance acquisition and intertrial responding were impaired. When testing occurred 8 h after drug treatment, a time when 5-HT levels are unaltered by FXT and are maximally reduced by FEN, these drugs had no effect on avoidance acquisition, but FEN produced an increase in intertrial responses whereas FXT did not. These results support the proposal of an inhibitory 5-HT system. Furthermore, these data demonstrate that FEN is capable of exerting a biphasic action on intertrial responding and suggest that the time interval between drug administration and behavioural testing is a crucial variable when investigating FEN.
Organizational culture, critical success factors, and the reduction of hospital errors

Abstract The problem of errors in patient care is a critical issue facing hospitals today. An Institute of Medicine [To err is human, building a safer health system. Washington DC: National Academy Press.] study estimates that medical errors are linked to more than 98,000 deaths annually, and that 58% of these error-related deaths are preventable. This paper investigates how organizational culture and specific management techniques (termed critical success factors (CSFs) in this paper) may lead to the reduction of medical errors in US hospitals. We draw on several different streams of literature, including medical safety, total quality management (TQM), and organizational culture, to develop a conceptual framework for the reduction of hospital errors. The results of a survey of more than 500 hospitals suggest that some characteristics of organizational culture are more likely to be associated with error reduction than other characteristics. In addition, the implementation of a set of CSFs is associated with error reduction as well. We conclude with implications and suggestions for future research.