cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessment of response to induction therapy and its influence on 5-year failure-free survival in group III rhabdomyosarcoma: the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study-IV experience--a report from the Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee of the Children's Oncology Group

Purpose Initial response to induction chemotherapy predicts failure-free survival (FFS) in osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma. For Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS) IV patients with group III rhabdomyosarcoma, we assessed whether reported response assessed by anatomic imaging at week 8 predicted FFS. Patients and Methods We studied 444 group III patients who received induction therapy, had response assessed at week 8 by anatomic imaging, and continued with protocol therapy. Induction chemotherapy was generally followed by radiation therapy (RT) starting after week 9. Response to induction therapy was determined at weeks 0 and 8. Local institutions coded response. Results Response rate for the entire cohort at week 8 was 77% (95% CI, 73% to 81%; complete response [CR], 21%; partial response [PR], 56%) but response had no influence on FFS (P = .57). Two hundred seventy-two patients received standard-timing RT at week 9 and thus only chemotherapy during induction. Response rate was 81% (95% CI, 76% to 86...
Physiologically based toxicokinetic models and their application in human exposure and internal dose assessment

Human populations may exhibit large interindividual variation in toxicokinetic response to chemical exposures. Rapid developments in dosimetry research have brought medicine and public health closer to understanding the biological basis of this heterogeneity. The toxicokinetic behavior of chemicals is, in part, controlled by the properties of the epithelium surrounding organs, some of which are effective barriers to penetration into the systemic circulation. Physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) models have been developed and used to simulate the mechanism of uptake into the systemic circulation, to extrapolate between doses and exposure routes, and to estimate internal dosimetry and sources of heterogeneity in animals and humans. Recent improvements to PBTK models include descriptions of active transport across biological membranes, carrier-mediated clearance, and fractal kinetics. The expanding area of toxicogenetics has provided valuable insight for delineating toxicokinetic differences between individuals; genetic differences include inherited single nucleotide polymorphisms, copy number variants, and dynamic changes in the methylation pattern of imprinted genes. This chapter discusses the structure of PBTK models and how toxicogenetic information and newer biological descriptions have improved our understanding of variability in response to toxicant exposures.
Use of mouse models to evaluate novel therapeutic approaches to treatment of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy the future is now.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is an inherited cardiomyopathy that is characterized by ventricular arrhythmias, an increased risk of sudden death, and abnormalities of right ventricular (RV) structure and function. The pathological hallmark of ARVD is myocyte loss with fibro-fatty
Surface Retreats Used among Four Genera of Terrestrial Salamanders in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Abstract Surface retreats (rocks, logs, and bark piles) provide important surface microhabitat for plethodontid salamanders; inconsistencies exist, however, among studies of retreat use by salamanders in natural habitats. I determined the relationships among 14 taxa (12 species, 2 hybrids) of plethodontid salamanders and retreat area and type as well as patterns of occurrence when multiple salamanders were found under the same retreat. Plethodontid salamanders in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park used both woody retreats (logs and bark piles) and larger retreats more often than expected. Additionally, the presence, number, area, and mass of salamanders were associated positively with retreat area; however, the variation explained by retreat area was low. Elevation was the best predictor of the relationship between salamanders and retreat area; low and mid elevations had a more positive relationship between salamanders and retreat area. When multiple salamanders were found under the same retreat, spe...
A New Framework

This document presents a new framework for the the study of the political economy of the budget process building on the very profuse available literature on budget processes, fiscal policy, and institutions in Latin America. It adds emphasis to the role of actors, the role of the budget process as facilitator of exchanges in the policymaking process, the differences between formal rules and actual practices, and other relevant budgetary outcomes beyond sustainability.
The Judicial Service of Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justices

This Article examines the service of Supreme Court justices who, in retirement, have sat on the lower federal courts. Of the thirty-four justices to assume senior status, nine have sat on the lower courts. Justice Tom C. Clark, for instance, participated in hundreds of cases on the courts of appeals and presided in district court over what would become one of the Supreme Court's most well-known antitrust cases. The Article also notes some interesting aspects of retired justices's service: those occasions when the Court has reviewed an opinion by a former colleague sitting in a court of appeals; Justice Marshall drawing a crowd in the Second Circuit; Justice Van Devanter presiding over criminal work in the Southern District; and retired justices sitting on the courts of appeals with future justices, as when Justice Reed sat with then-Judge Burger on the D.C. Circuit.
Not All Competitors are Created Equal: The Heterogeneity of MNE Competitors and its Competitive Consequences

By virtue of their participation in multiple competitive settings, MNEs confront competitors with different attributes and in different locations, creating variations that pose different competitive challenges. We classify MNE competitors by their nationality, geographic scope, and location, and maintain that the value of a focal MNE’s assets and the intensity of the competition it faces vary in relation to these competitors. These predictions are tested on a sample of US legal-services MNEs as the focal MNEs in relation to different sets of competitors. We find support for the anticipated variations across competitor groups, suggesting that varying competitive positions of MNEs across countries is an inherent feature of international competition.
Enhancing Capability in Launch, Entry, and Abort Style Spacesuits For ISS and Commercial Use

As the pending retirement of the Space Shuttle Transportation System draws closer and the focus on a replacement vehicle to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station increases, requirements for the suit that will be worn by the crew members that will fly this vehicle are also currently being written. These requirements will focus on the suits ability to operate in a variety of nominal and contingency environments which will likely require a high degree of functionality in both pressurized and unpressurized modes of operation. While many of these requirements have yet to be finalized several Launch, Entry, and Abort (LEA) type suits have been designed and fabricated by ILC Dover using requirement sets that focused on different specific suit designs and their accompanying technologies. These design elements serve to minimize suit mass, enhance both pressurized and unpressurized mobility, increase safety, and identify potential operational risks. The purpose of this paper is to introduce several of these design elements and some of their preliminary test and operational results.
Review: Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in Latin America by Felipe Hernández

Felipe Hernandez Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in Latin America . Basel: Birkhauser Architecture, 2010, 152 pp., 135 color and 144 b/w illus. $59.95 (hardcover), ISBN 9783764387693 Felipe Hernandez's handsomely illustrated survey presents a timely overview of architectural production in Latin America during the past decade. Hernandez positions his book as a critique of much of the existing literature on Latin American architecture. This, he argues, continues to focus reductively on the period between 1929 and 1960, and on the work of such internationally renowned “masters” as Mexico's Luis Barragan (1902–1988), Brazil's Oscar Niemeyer (b. 1907), or Venezuela's Carlos Raul Villanueva (1900–1975). The “golden age” these men represent was defined by the combination of economic efflorescence and the embrace of modern architecture by several Latin American states as central to their nation-building efforts. Hernandez demonstrates that the panorama of architectural production in Latin America is now significantly different. While renowned architects based in this vast region build, teach, and receive awards around the world, a privilege reserved for very few in the past, the scarcity of resources and state patronage in many contexts makes localized interventions—rather than the grand-scale schemes for which the “masters” are best known—the most common type of architectural venture today. Hernandez's five chapters explore projects and built works defined by these conditions, challenging the problematic ways in …
Visualising many-body electron dynamics using one-body densities and orbitals

As experimental techniques begin to probe electronic motions in increasing detail, the need is arising for compact and informative visualisations of simulations of such processes. The inherent challenge is that a full many-electron wavefunction is a high-dimensional object, representing the complicated correlations of strongly repulsive bodies in a small molecular volume. A general procedure is needed to distill this to a smaller amount of information that does not rely on any specific level of approximation. The result should allow for easy and intuitive interpretation while drawing out nontrivial aspects of the underlying many-body dynamics, such as the complex phase information inherent of a nonstationary state. Current visualisation schemes based on physical observables or the qualitative information contained in simple wavefunctions, such as time-dependent configuration-interaction-singles (TD-CIS) and time-dependent self-consistent-field (TD-SCF), are discussed. This information is compared to an an...
The Gospel According to Rice: The Next Asian American Christianity

This essay revisits and revises an earlier piece by the author on the relationship between Asian American identity and Christianity. This article explores the author's experiences teaching religion in an Asian American context and some of the theological questions it raises, in addition to sociological and historical concerns. Of particular interest is the place of Asia in the history and future of Christianity.
Electroluminescent Materials Can Further Enhance the Nighttime Conspicuity of Pedestrians Wearing Retroreflective Materials

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the nighttime conspicuity benefits of adding electroluminescent (EL) panels to pedestrian clothing that contains retroreflective elements. BACKGROUND: Researchers have repeatedly documented that pedestrians are too often not sufficiently conspicuous to drivers at night and that retroreflective materials can enhance the conspicuity of pedestrians. However, because retroreflective elements in clothing are effective only when they are illuminated by the headlamps of an approaching driver, they are not useful for pedestrians who are positioned outside the beam pattern of an approaching vehicle's headlamps. Electroluminescent materials-flexible luminous panels that can be attached to clothing-have the potential to be well suited for these conditions. METHOD: Using an open-road course at night, we compared the distances at which observers responded to pedestrians who were positioned at one of three lateral positions (relative to the vehicle's path) wearing one of two high-visibility garments. RESULTS: The garment that included both EL and retroreflective materials yielded longer response distances than the retroreflective-only garment. This effect was particularly strong when the test pedestrian was positioned farthest outside of the area illuminated by headlamps. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that EL materials can further enhance the conspicuity of pedestrians who are wearing retroreflective materials. APPLICATION: EL materials can be applied to garments. They may be especially valuable to enhance the conspicuity of roadway workers, emergency responders, and traffic control officers.© 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Language: en
Heterotopic bone formation in the corpus cavernosum: a complication of papaverine-induced priapism.

Abstract Priapism is a recognized complication of intracavernous self-injection of vasoactive agents for the management of impotence. We report a case of heterotopic bone formation in the corpus cavernosum of a patient with papaverine-induced priapism. (J. Urol., 142: 1323–1324, 1989)
Ultrasonic Evaluation of Case Depth in Case-Carburized Steel Components

Performance of many engineering components depends to a large extent on their near surface characteristics, which in turn are affected by wear, corrosion, and fatigue in the presence of loading forces. One way to improve the engineering component’s performance is to tailor the surface properties using laser and electron beam processing, coatings, ion-implantation, and carburizing.
Species and Charge Transport

This chapter describes a general framework for species and charge transport, which assists us in understanding how electric fields couple to fluid flow in nonequilibrium systems. The following sections first describe the basic sources of species fluxes. These constitutive relations include the diffusivity, electrophoretic mobility, and viscous mobility. The species fluxes, when applied to a control volume, lead to the basic conservation equations for species, the Nernst–Planck equations . We then consider the sources of charge fluxes, which lead to constitutive relations for the charge fluxes and definitions of parameters such as the conductivity and molar conductivity. Because charge in an electrolyte solution is carried by ionic species (in contrast to electrons, as is the case for metal conductors), the charge transport and species transport equations are closely related – in fact, the charge transport equation is just a sum of species transport equations weighted by the ion valence and multiplied by the Faraday constant. We show in this chapter that the transport parameters D , µ EP , µ i , σ, and ∧ are all closely related, and we write equations such as the Nernst–Einstein relation to link these parameters. These issues affect microfluidic devices because ion transport couples to and affects fluid flow in microfluidic systems. Further, many microfluidic systems are designed to manipulate and control the distribution of dissolved analytes for concentration, chemical separation, or other purposes.
DNA Mismatch Repair in Mammals

In dividing cells, DNA replication is carried out by high-fidelity DNA polymerases that, in addition to nucleotide selectivity, possess exonucleolytic proofreading activities. Biosynthetic errors that escape proofreading are substrates for DNA mismatch repair (MMR), a repair pathway conserved from bacteria to humans. Loss of MMR results in a substantial increase in the rate of mutation and is the underlying genetic defect in Lynch syndrome hereditary colorectal cancer. Epigenetic silencing of key MMR genes contributes to a subset of spontaneous tumors. This review summarizes our current knowledge of the mechanism of MMR in mammalian cells, its role in DNA-damage signaling, and its contribution to the maintenance of genome stability and tumor suppression.
Failed Searches: Hiring as a cognitive decision making process and how applicant variety affects an employer’s likelihood of making an offer

Author(s): Leung, Ming D. | Abstract: Extant hiring research has generally focused on understanding outcomes for employees and not on outcomes for employers. I theorize on how employer cognitive hiring decision processes affect their likelihood of extending an offer of employment. I argue that greater variety in the job experiences of candidates in the applicant pool complicates employer comparison processes. Hiring is a two-stage process and I predict that comparison difficulties materialize among a winnowed down consideration set of candidates in this second stage. More experienced employers have less difficulty with variety because they have better constructed preferences. Regression analyses from an online market for contract labor on over 640,000 job postings by over 170,000 employers support my contentions. Greater variety in job experiences among job candidates in the applicant pool leads to a lower likelihood a job offer will be extended to any of them. This relationship is completely mediated by the variety in job candidates in the second stage consideration set. The more experience an employer has in hiring in a domain, the less of an issue variety becomes. Results utilizing an instrumental variable and several supporting analyses are also reported. Contributions to the study of evaluation in markets, hiring, and cognitive processes of categorization are discussed.
Defining Ethical Placemaking for Place-Based Interventions

As place-based interventions expand and evolve, deeper reflection on the meaning of ethical placemaking is essential.I offer a summary account of ethical placemaking, which I propose and define as an ethical ideal and practice for health and for health justice, understood as the capability to be healthy.I point to selected wide-ranging examples—an urban pathway, two long-term care settings, innovations in refugee health services, and a McDonald's restaurant—to help illustrate these ideas.
Gabapentin Therapy in Hemichorea Due to Stroke

A 13-year-old girl with subacute onset hemichorea of presumed ischemic origin was benefited by gabapentin therapy at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care, Worcester, MA.
Circulating cytokeratin-positive cells and tumor budding in colorectal cancer.

AIM To investigate whether circulating cytokeratin-positive (CK+) cells in the mesenteric blood of resected colorectal specimens are prognostic and correlate with tumor budding. METHODS Fifty-six colorectal specimens were collected between 9/2007 and 7/2008. Blood from the mesenteric vein was drawn immediately after receiving the fresh and unfixed specimens in the pathology department. After separation of the mononuclear cells by Ficoll-Hypaque density-gradient centrifugation, cytological smears were immunocytochemically stained for CK18. Tumor budding was evaluated on slides stained for pan-cytokeratin. The identification of ≥ 30 buds/1.3 mm2 was defined as high grade budding. RESULTS CK+ cells and clusters were identified in 29 (48%) and 14 (25%) of the samples, respectively. Two cells were identified in one of three non-malignant cases. Clusters were found exclusively in malignant cases. The occurrence of CK+ cells or clusters was not associated with any of the evaluated clinicopathological factors, including surgical technique and tumor budding. Moreover, the occurrence of CK+ cells or clusters had no influence on the cancer-specific survival [75 mo (CI: 61; 88) vs 83 mo (CI: 72; 95) and 80 mo (CI: 63; 98) vs 79 mo (CI: 69; 89), respectively]. CONCLUSION CK+ cells and showed neither prognostic significance nor an association with tumor budding. It is very likely that CK18-staining is not specific enough to identify the relevant cells.
Toward Unified Control of a Powered Prosthetic Leg: A Simulation Study

This brief presents a novel control strategy for a powered knee-ankle prosthesis that unifies the entire gait cycle, eliminating the need to switch between controllers during different periods of gait. A reduced-order discrete Fourier transformation (DFT) is used to define virtual constraints that continuously parameterize periodic joint patterns as functions of a mechanical phasing variable. In order to leverage the provable stability properties of hybrid zero dynamics (HZD), hybrid-invariant Bezier polynomials are converted into unified DFT virtual constraints for various walking speeds. Simulations of an amputee biped model show that the unified prosthesis controller approximates the behavior of the original HZD design under ideal scenarios and has advantages over the HZD design when hybrid invariance is violated by mismatches with the human controller. Two implementations of the unified virtual constraints, a feedback linearizing controller, and a more practical joint impedance controller produce similar results in simulation.
Computing an expected hitting time for the 3-urn Ehrenfest model via electric networks

Abstract We study a three-urn version of the Ehrenfest model. This model can be viewed as a simple random walk on the graph represented by Z 3 M , the M -fold direct product of the cyclic group Z 3 of order 3, where M is the total number of balls distributed in the three urns. We build an electric network by placing a unit resistance on each edge of the graph. We then apply a series of circuit analysis techniques, including the series and parallel circuit laws and the Delta-Y transformation, to establish shorted triangular resistor networks. A recurrence relation is derived for the effective resistance between two corner vertices of the triangular resistor networks. The recurrence relation is then used to obtain an explicit formula for the expected hitting time between two extreme states where all balls reside in one of the three urns.
State budget periodicity and general expenditure volatility: An empirical analysis

This article aims to examine empirically the relationship between budget periodicity and expenditure volatility in state governments. Using a large panel dataset for fifty states over the years 1960-2012, after controlling for institutional, economic, and political factors, we find general expenditure of biennial states has been significantly less volatile than that of annual states. The finding suggests that a choice between annual and biennial budget period can emerge as a feasible and effective countercyclical strategy to overcome fiscal difficulties in the short run and promote fiscal stability in the long run.
Understanding problem solving behavior of 6–8 graders in a debugging game

Debugging is an over-looked component in K-12 computational thinking education. Few K-12 programming environments are designed to teach debugging, and most debugging research were conducted on coll...
The coordinating role of IQGAP1 in the regulation of local, endosome-specific actin networks

IQGAP1 is a large, multi-domain scaffold that helps orchestrate cell signaling and cytoskeletal mechanics by controlling interactions among a spectrum of receptors, signaling intermediates, and cytoskeletal proteins. While this coordination is known to impact cell morphology, motility, cell adhesion, and vesicular traffic, among other functions, the spatiotemporal properties and regulatory mechanisms of IQGAP1 have not been fully resolved. Herein, we describe a series of super-resolution and live-cell imaging analyses that identified a role for IQGAP1 in the regulation of an actin cytoskeletal shell surrounding a novel membranous compartment that localizes selectively to the basal cortex of polarized epithelial cells (MCF-10A). We also show that IQGAP1 appears to both stabilize the actin coating and constrain its growth. Loss of compartmental IQGAP1 initiates a disassembly mechanism involving rapid and unconstrained actin polymerization around the compartment and dispersal of its vesicle contents. Together, these findings suggest IQGAP1 achieves this control by harnessing both stabilizing and antagonistic interactions with actin. They also demonstrate the utility of these compartments for image-based investigations of the spatial and temporal dynamics of IQGAP1 within endosome-specific actin networks.
The Genetic Epidemiology of Age-Related Maculopathy

Age-related maculopathy is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. It is a major public health issue of increasing importance as populations become older. Currently considered untreatable, it ...
2-Substituted Aniline as a Simple Scaffold for LuxR-Regulated QS Modulation

The ability of the 2-substituted aniline motif to serve as a scaffold for designing potential LuxR-regulated quorum sensing (QS) modulators has been investigated, using docking experiments and biological evaluation of a series of 15 specially synthesized compounds. Aniline, 2-acetyl-aniline and 2-nitroaniline were considered, as well as their N-acylated derivatives. Docking experiments showed that the 2-substituted aniline motif fits within the LuxR binding site at the place of the lactone moiety of AHL, and the biological evaluation revealed QS antagonisitic activity for several compounds, validating the hypothesis that this scaffold acts on QS. Structure activity relationships are discussed regarding interactions with the key residues of the LuxR binding site, showing significant variations in the H-bonding pattern.
Biologics for the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting up to 20% of children and 10% of adults in industrialized countries [1, 2]. Clinical features of AD include xerosis, erythema, oozing, crusting, and lichenification. Pruritus is the hallmark symptom of the disease and is responsible for much of the well-documented disease burden for patients and their families [3].
Integrated access to big data polystores through a knowledge-driven framework

The recent successes of commercial cognitive and AI applications have cast a spotlight on knowledge graphs and the benefits of consuming structured semantic data. Today, knowledge graphs are ubiquitous to the extent that organizations often view them as a “single source of truth” for all of their data and other digital artifacts. In most organizations, however, Big Data comes in many different forms including time series, images, and unstructured text, which often are not suitable for efficient storage within a knowledge graph. This paper presents the Semantics Toolkit (SemTK), a framework that enables access to polyglot-persistent Big Data stores while giving the appearance that all data is fully captured within a knowledge graph. SemTK allows data to be stored across multiple storage platforms (e.g., Big Data stores such as Hadoop, graph databases, and semantic triple stores) — with the best-suited platform adopted for each data type — while maintaining a single logical interface and point of access, thereby giving users a knowledge-driven veneer across their data. We describe the ease of use and benefits of constructing and querying polystore knowledge graphs with SemTK via four industrial use cases at GE.
Pro-active attitudes and education strategies in early trilingual acquisition: referential avoidance and parental intervention at the one-word stage

This paper studies an input exploitation strategy employed by one trilingual Spanish-Portuguese-Hebrew child—Noam. It is concerned with the acquisition of early vocabulary and meaning. The study adopts a case-study methodology for data collection and analysis within the ‘qualitative research’ paradigm of child language research (Dromi, 1987). It discusses the application of ‘referential avoidance’ by this child, i.e. the excessive use of ‘expressive’ vocabulary instead of names for objects, it is also concerned with 'parental intervention’, a strategy —not unlike 'parentese’ (Snow & Ferguson, 1977; Gallaway & Richards, 1994)— employed by Noam ’s parents to increase the speed of acquisition of referential words. I argue that parental intervention can facilitate the acquisition of names for objects in multilingual children and others. Children exposed to low status minority languages, such as Spanish and Portuguese in Israel, may be unequal to the task of acquiring three lexicons simultaneously.
The Science of Broadening Participation in STEM: A Symposium Discourse Analysis

The 2016 Symposium on the Science of Broadening Participation (SoBP) was a major event held in recognition of the need for an assembled and curated body of knowledge ready for use for effective pol...
Complement: Practical Aspects

The complement system of serum proteins is responsible for several important inflammatory and immunologic reactions that participate in host defense mechanisms and some disease states. Chemical mediators of pathobiologic reactions are generated through a complex, regulated, activation sequence and promote immune adherence, opsonization, anaphylaxis, directed migration of phagocytes, and lysis of biologic members. The complement system is reviewed and its participation in selected disease states is discussed.
Operational experience and performance with the ATLAS Pixel Detector

Abstract The tracking performance of the ATLAS detector relies critically on its 4-layer Pixel Detector. It has undergone significant hardware and software upgrades to meet the challenges imposed by the higher collision energy, pile-up, and luminosity that are being delivered by the Large Hadron Collider. With the LHC recently surpassing instantaneous luminosities of 1 . 3 × 1 0 34 cm − 2 s − 1 , the key status and performance metrics of the ATLAS Pixel Detector are summarized. The operational experience and requirements to ensure optimum data quality and data taking efficiency are described, with special emphasis to radiation damage experience.
Mechanophores for Self‐Healing Applications

Abstract : The transformation of chemical energy into mechanical energy is elementary in our lives, not only moving cars and airplanes, but pumping blood in our bodies and moving our eyeballs as we read these lines. The reverse action, defined as mechanochemistry, is to make chemical transformations using mechanical force, and finding simple examples may be challenging for people unfamiliar with the subject. An important step to ease the study of mechanochemistry of polymers was the development of mechanical stressing in solution, where chemical changes are distributed homogeneously through the chains. Moreover, classical analytical chemistry methods to analyze the chemical changes, such as spectrometers, laser light scattering and others could be used, giving the possibility to study molecular weight change and kinetics of the mechanochemical reactions. This important breakthrough came early and was achieved through the use of flow fields and ultra-sound cavitation that caused high shear stress on the chains through flow induced elongation. A key discovery that came from the study in solution was the observation that certain bonds cleave more easily than others. If one of these bonds is present in the main chain, close to its center (Figure 8.1), it can be selectively cleaved. This originated the concept of mechanophores -- bonds or chemical functionalities that are especially susceptible to undergoing a chemical change caused by mechanical stress. Mechanophores, when placed into a polymeric molecule where the mechanical force is highest, selectively undergo a chemical reaction. In this chapter we will describe how polymeric materials deal with mechanical stress, methods to mechanically stress materials in a controlled manner to study the chemical changes, and the development of mechanophores that direct mechanical energy to molecular constituents to produce positive effects on the material, such as self-healing.
LOWERING OF BRAIN EPINEPHRINE BY INHIBITION OF NOREPINEPHRINE N-METHYLTRANSFERASE IN RATS

Rat brain norepinephrine N-methyltransferase was inhibited in vitro and hypothalamic epinephrine was lowered in vivo in rats by 2,3-dichloro- and 2-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-α-methylbenzylamines, by 4-chloro-1-aminoindan, and by 8-chloro- and 7,8-dichloro-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-2-benzazepines. The lowering of hypothalamic epinephrine by 2,3-dichloro-α-methylbenzylamine was enhanced by piperoxan and antagonized by clonidine.
Elusive, Inclusive, or Conclusive? (Central) Auditory Processing Disorder

At age 4, Michelle was a cheerful and creative little girl, but something set her apart from her peers. She had an unremarkable birth history, had been relatively healthy, and achieved her early speech, language, and motor milestones within age expectations. Despite these positive indicators, her parents felt a nagging concern about her that they could not identify. Michelle's paternal uncle had a history of learning and behavior difficulties, but her parents felt that his problems were different than hers. As a preschooler, she was immature, inattentive, and impulsive compared with other children of her age. She had difficulty maintaining eye contact and following directions, and did not always respond when her name was called. She often lacked energy to complete physical activities expected for her age. Her parents' suspicions were somewhat confirmed when Michelle did not do well on the language and motor portions of a kindergarten screening. This prompted their quest to find out what was causing her developmental and social difficulties. Over the course of the next 5 years, she underwent two neuropsychological evaluations, three comprehensive Individualized Education Program (IEP) assessments, as well as informal assessments by academic tutors. None of the testing resulted in a satisfactory diagnosis.
Government capabilities as drivers of performance: path to prosperity.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between specific capabilities of Cyprus' government and performance and the impact of performance on Cypriots' prosperity. Via the resource-based view model (RBV), it was hypothesized that each capability (i.e., entrepreneurship, motivation, investment, and adaptation) is positively related to Cyprus' government achievement of higher performance. It was also hypothesized that performance is positively related to prosperity. Data collected from 200 Cypriot citizens, aged 18 or over. Using correlation analysis, the study shows that entrepreneurial and adaptive capabilities have a statistical strong positive relationship with performance. In turn, performance has a strong positive relationship with prosperity. Several implications can be drawn from this study's findings for democratic governments and interesting directions for future research are provided.
Interaction Energy and Configuration of Ledges on (001) Copper Surfaces

A computer model of the surface, consisting of a crystal with (001) terraces and either one or two ledges, has been constructed. Interaction between the atoms of the model has been described by means of a Morse potential. Given this force law and a previously developed zero-force atomic relaxation technique, it has been possible to establish the configuration of an isolated ledge, the attendant displacement field as well as the increase in energy which results upon introduction of a ledge on an otherwise perfect surface.
Reduced Esophageal Contractility Is Associated with Dysplasia Progression in Barrett's Esophagus: A Multicenter Cohort Study.

The incidence of Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) continues to rise, and risk stratification of patients with BE is needed. Impaired esophageal motility is associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease; however, whether esophageal dysmotility is a risk factor for dysplasia progression in BE is incompletely understood. This study aimed to characterize esophageal motility patterns in patients with BE and identify physiologic factors associated with dysplasia progression in BE. This multicenter retrospective study assessed data from adult patients with histologically confirmed BE who underwent high-resolution esophageal manometry from 1/2014 to 1/2018 at four tertiary care centers. Longitudinal data were collected when available among patients with non-dysplastic BE (NDBE) and separated as: no dysplastic progression or positive dysplastic progression. Multivariable logistic regression assessed for independent predictors of dysplasia progression. Among 193 patients, histology at index endoscopy identified 152 (79%) NDBE, 23 (12%) low-grade dysplasia, 14 (7%) high-grade dysplasia, and 4 (2%) EAC. Ninety-eight (51%) had abnormal esophageal motor function on manometry. Longitudinal data were available for 84 of 152 patients with initial NDBE. Twelve (14%) exhibited dysplastic progression to low-grade (6) or high-grade (6) dysplasia. Mean esophageal distal contractile integral was lower for patients that progressed [455 mmHg s cm (SD 515)] compared with patients who did not progress [987 mmHg s cm (SD 953); aOR 1.21 (95% CI 1.01, 1.44)]. In this retrospective study of 193 BE patients, the majority exhibited abnormal esophageal motor function. Reduced esophageal contractility was independently associated with dysplastic progression in BE. Characterizing esophageal physiology in BE may help to risk stratify patients.
Protection against HIV infection for medical trainees outside the United States.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The increase in HIV infection rates around the world has created concern among medical educators for the safety of students and residents taking overseas electives. In some areas, the HIV adult positivity rate is 15%-20% or higher. Medical schools and residency programs need to make policies to protect their trainees serving abroad. This paper provides background for such policies. A key element is communication among the student, his/her advisor, and the overseas faculty. The student needs a knowledge of universal precautions and will need to have protective equipment that is often not available in developing countries. Which equipment and medication are available and which are needed will vary and must be clarified in advance. Sexual contact with the local populace must be avoided. In case of an emergency, the student must have adequate evacuation insurance. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for determining the need for postexposure prophylaxis should be followed. Before the scheduled trip, students should assure themselves that enough medication will be available in the event of a mishap. If necessary, several days' worth of prophylactic medication should accompany each student. Having these medicines will allow the student to begin treatment immediately in the event of a high-risk exposure and then return to the United States for completion of workup and therapy. With proper planning and education, a student or resident can have a safe and rewarding experience in the developing world.
Let Me Tell You What I Want: Decisional Capacity, Neurogenic Speech and Language Impairments, and the Law

Patients of speech and language pathologists (SLPs) frequently encounter a variety of important clinical (diagnostic, therapeutic, and research-related), personal, family, residential, and financial decisions that need to be made in their lives. Valid decisions can be made only by people with adequate decisional capacity. Patients’ capacity thus is a crucial matter for SLPs in fulfilling their professional duties. The subject of decisional capacity is inherently interdisciplinary and encompasses a number of different components, among them medical, psychological, social, ethical, and legal considerations. This article concentrates on the legal aspects of decision making, because “[e]ven when the legal system is not formally involved in the competency evaluation of a particular individual, clinical practice and ethical conduct occur within and are informed by legal parameters.” Put differently, “Judicial decisions and statutory language inform clinical capacity criteria and assessments. Similarly, judicial and legal standards are derived from clinical capacity criteria and clinically based research.” Guided by a legal focus, the first section outlines the key conceptual foundations anchoring a discussion of decisional capacity generally. The paper then attempts to apply these conceptual foundations specifically to people with significant neurogenic speech and language impairments resulting from aphasia, dysarthia, cognitive deficits, hearing deficiencies, and visual problems. This population is especially at risk of not being involved in the decision making processes that affect their lives. In the ensuing section, the legal and practical consequences of insufficient decisional capacity for individuals with motor speech disorders and language disturbances are set forth.
Graph expansion and communication costs of fast matrix multiplication: regular submission

The communication cost of algorithms (also known as I/O-complexity) is shown to be closely related to the expansion properties of the corresponding computation graphs. We demonstrate this on Strassen's and other fast matrix multiplication algorithms, and obtain the first lower bounds on their communication costs. For sequential algorithms these bounds are attainable and so optimal.
THE C14N/C15N RATIO IN DIFFUSE MOLECULAR CLOUDS

We report the first detection of C15N in diffuse molecular gas from a detailed examination of CN absorption lines in archival spectra, obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph of the Very Large Telescope of stars probing local diffuse clouds. Absorption from the C15N isotopologue is confidently detected (at ) in three out of the four directions studied and appears as a very weak feature between the main 12CN and 13CN absorption components. Column densities for each CN isotopologue are determined through profile fitting, after accounting for weak additional line-of-sight components of 12CN, which are seen in the absorption profiles of CH and CH+ as well. The weighted mean value of C14N/C15N for the three sight lines with detections of C15N is 274 ± 18. Since the diffuse molecular clouds toward our target stars have relatively high gas kinetic temperatures and relatively low visual extinctions, their C14N/C15N ratios should not be affected by chemical fractionation. The mean C14N/C15N ratio that we obtain should therefore be representative of the ambient 14N/15N ratio in the local interstellar medium. Indeed, our mean value agrees well with that derived from millimeter-wave observations of CN, HCN, and HNC in local molecular clouds.
Balancing Vulnerability and Resilience in Damage Prognostication.

In civil cases alleging psychic injuries, forensic psychiatrists are asked to diagnose the injury and assign or apportion causal factors. If a plaintiff was damaged or an employee injured, the relevant inquiries are the nature and severity of the injury, the steps needed to remedy it, and the
A comparison of fallers and non-fallers in the frail elderly

Falls are a significant, but often preventable problem among elders. To identify possible risk factors for falls, this study examined differences between frail elders reporting falls and those reporting no falls in the past year. From a sample of 831 frail elders, defined as older persons with activity of daily living (ADL) limitations, 347 (42%) reported one or more falls. Subjects reporting one or more falls in the past year had more motor, functional, psychological, and cognitive impairment than non-fallers. In-home assessment and intervention help prevent falls in frail elders.
Deconvolution Method for Specific and Nonspecific Binding of Ligand to Multiprotein Complex by Native Mass Spectrometry

In native mass spectrometry, it has been difficult to discriminate between specific bindings of a ligand to a multiprotein complex target from the nonspecific interactions. Here, we present a deconvolution model that consists of two levels of data reduction. At the first level, the apparent association binding constants are extracted from the measured intensities of the target/ligand complexes by varying ligand concentration. At the second level, two functional forms representing the specific and nonspecific binding events are fit to the apparent binding constants obtained from the first level of modeling. Using this approach, we found that a power-law distribution described nonspecific binding of α-amanitin to yeast RNA polymerase II. Moreover, treating the concentration of the multiprotein complex as a fitting parameter reduced the impact of inaccuracies in this experimental measurement on the apparent association constants. This model improves upon current methods for separating specific and nonspecifi...
Chemically Reacting Nonequilibrium Boundary Layers

Publisher Summary This chapter begins with the formulation of the governing equations and a brief discussion of the chemical kinetics. It follows with the various cases of nonequilibrium surface reactions assuming that the gas phase reaction is frozen. The nonequilibrium gas phase reaction will then be considered for surfaces either nonreacting or in equilibrium. The chemical reactions associated with the interaction of gases in motion and solid or liquid surfaces have interested engineers for ages. In the discussion of the chemically reacting boundary layers, this chapter presents analyses which are rather general in nature such that they may also be useful in studying other problems of nonequilibrium boundary layers than those considered herein. The emphasis has been placed on the basic behaviors and solutions of the boundary layer problems rather than on the particular engineering solutions. The chapter also explores about the experimental verification of the various analyses presented and describes an approximate treatment of simultaneous nonequilibrium surface and gas phase reactions.
Discrete Walsh-Hadamard transform vector quantization for motion-compensated frame difference signal coding

Theoretical performance analysis and test simulations showed that the DWHT (discrete Walsh-Hadamard transform) is as good as the DCT (discrete cosine transform) for the encoding of low-correlation MCFD (motion-compensated frame difference) signals. However, the straightforward algorithm for the DWHT makes it a better choice than the DCT. The transform vector quantization (TRVQ) technique is employed for low bit rates. It is also observed that the robustness of the VQ (vector quantization) technique for the MCFD signals is much better than that of the VQ of the still frame images. >
Characterization of Keratins from Rat Cervical Epithelial Cells in Vivo and in Vitro

Abstract The keratins expressed in cultured rat cervical epithelial cells were analyzed by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and monoclonal antikeratin antibodies and were compared with those expressed in the rat cervix in vivo in the presence and absence of estrogen stimulation. The cervical epithelium in vivo responds to estrogen stimulation with alterations in keratin composition. In response to estrogen, the epithelium undergoes proliferation and stratification and begins expressing increased amounts of two basic M r 57,000 and 58,000 keratins and two acidic M r 51,000 and 52,000 keratins. Cultured rat cervical epithelial cells were found to express only small amounts of the basic M r 57,000 and 58,000 keratins and the two acidic M r 51,000 and 52,000 keratins characteristic of the estrogen-stimulated cervix. In addition to the keratins found in the cervical epithelium in vivo , rat cervical epithelial cells in vitro begin expressing two M r 55,000 and 56,000 keratins of the basic keratin family (type II) and an acidic component with a molecular weight of 40,000. Although these components are not detected in the rat cervix in vivo , they migrate similarly on two-dimensional electrophoretic gels to proteins expressed by the rat endometrial epithelium in vivo . These findings indicate that alterations in keratin expression could serve as markers for studying the effects of steroid hormones on the differentiation of rat cervical epithelial cells in vitro and during the development of squamous metaplasia.
The Variable Solar Radio Spectrum

This paper reviews recent experimental and theoretical work concerning the slowly-varying component of solar radio emission, microwave bursts, and the four main spectral types of bursts observed in the meter and decimeter bands. Observational techniques are briefly summarized.