cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Correlation of Thermodynamic Data for Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions to Very High Ionic Strength Using INSIGHT: Vapor Saturated Water Activity in the System CaCl2-H2O to 250°C and Solid Saturation

Osmotic coefficients for the CaCl2-H2O system between 25 and 250°C and from the dilute region to solid saturation or beyond (i.e., to ≈ 12 mCaCl2 at the lowest temperature and ≈32 mCaCl2 at the highest) have been correlated using the following permutations and modifications of the basic Pitzer ion-interaction equation: (1) the basic Pitzer equation, (2) the Pitzer equation augmented by an ionic strength-dependent third virial contribution, (3) the Pitzer equation together with equilibria involving the formation of CaCl+ and CaCl20, and (4) the simultaneous combination of all of the above. The effectiveness, accuracy, and practicality of each approach are reviewed.
Challenges in classification of novel CFH variants in patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome

Abstract Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) characterized by dysregulation of the alternative pathway of complement. Heterozygous variants in complement and complement regulatory proteins may increase risk for aHUS and, to date, the highest frequency of disease-causing variants in aHUS has been identified in the CFH gene encoding complement factor H. Clinical laboratory classification of variants identified in CFH can be challenging, particularly in the case of novel variants. In this report, we describe 6 patients with aHUS found to have rare variants in CFH and highlight challenges faced with variant classification in rare disorders such as aHUS.
Rat-Bite Fever in the United States: An Analysis Using Multiple National Data Sources, 2001-2015.

Background Rat-bite fever is a rare disease associated with rat bites or direct/indirect rodent contact. Methods We examined rat-bite fever and rat-bite injury diagnoses in the United States during 2001-2015. We analyzed national, state, and Indian Health Service healthcare encounter datasets for rat-bite fever and rat-bite injury diagnoses. We calculated average-annual encounter rates per 1 000 000 persons. Results Nationally, the rat-bite fever Emergency Department visit rate was 0.33 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.19-0.47) and the hospitalization rate was 0.20 (95% CI, 0.17-0.24). The rat-bite injury Emergency Department visit rate was 10.51 (95% CI, 10.13-10.88) and the hospitalization rate was 0.27 (95% CI, 0.23-0.30). The Indian Health Service Emergency Department/outpatient visit rate was 3.00 for rat-bite fever and 18.89 for rat-bite injury. The majority of rat-bite fever encounters were among individuals 0-19 years of age. Conclusions Our results support the literature that rat-bite fever is rare and affects children and young adults. Targeted education could benefit specific risk groups.
Health insurers' operations in the face of health care reform: An analysis of the Supplemental Health Care Exhibit

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced significant changes to the health insurance marketplace in the United States. The act also imposed reporting requirements on insurers. The law has required insurers since 2010 to file yearly the Supplemental Health Care Exhibit (SHCE). The SHCE provides unique information on how health insurers operate. We analyze data in the SCHE to understand how insurers have complied with one of the major new regulations affecting health insurers' operations arising from the ACA—the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) Provision. This requires that insurers spend a minimum percentage of their premium revenue on medical claims, quality improvement expenses, and deductible fraud and abuse detection and recovery expenses. Our analysis of the 2010–2017 SHCE indicates that insurers' underwriting performance worsened in the early years of the ACA as they worked to increase MLRs to become ACA‐compliant. Analysis of the SHCE further reveals that insurers' profits from managing uninsured plans grew as the profitability of underwriting insured plans decreased. Future research on health insurer operations is warranted. The currently underutilized and data‐rich SHCE provides unique information that makes future research possible.
Comparative analysis of gene expression between Babesia bovis blood stages and kinetes allowed by improved genome annotation.

Abstract Throughout their life cycle, Babesia parasites alternate between a mammalian host, where they cause babesiosis, and the tick vector. Transition between hosts results in distinct environmental signals that influence patterns of gene expression, consistent with the morphological and functional changes operating in the parasites during their life stages. In addition, comparing differential patterns of gene expression among mammalian and tick parasite stages can provide clues for developing improved methods of control. Hereby, we upgraded the genome assembly of Babesia bovis, a bovine hemoparasite, closing a 139 kbp gap, and used RNA-Seq datasets derived from mammalian blood and tick kinete stages to update the genome annotation. Of the originally annotated genes, 1,254 required structural changes, and 326 new genes were identified, leading to a different predicted proteome compared to the original annotation. Next, the RNA-Seq data was used to identify B. bovis genes that were differentially expressed in the vertebrate and arthropod hosts. In blood stages, 28% of the genes were upregulated up to 300 fold, whereas 26% of the genes in kinetes, a tick stage, were upregulated up to >19,000 fold. We thus discovered differentially expressed genes that may play key biological roles and serve as suitable targets for the development of vaccines to control bovine babesiosis.
Museums and Atlantic Slavery

Museums and Atlantic Slavery explores how slavery, the Atlantic slave trade, and enslaved people are represented through words, visual images, artifacts, and audiovisual materials in museums in Europe and the Americas. Divided into four chapters, the book addresses four recurrent themes: wealth and luxury; victimhood and victimization; resistance and rebellion; and resilience and achievement. Considering the roles of various social actors who have contributed to the introduction of slavery in the museum in the last thirty years, the analysis draws on selected exhibitions, and institutions entirely dedicated to slavery, as well as national, community, plantation, and house museums in the United States, England, France, and Brazil. Engaging with literature from a range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, art history, tourism and museum studies, Araujo provides an overview of a topic that has not yet been adequately discussed and analysed within the museum studies field. Museums and Atlantic Slavery encourages scholars, students, and museum professionals to critically engage with representations of slavery in museums. The book will help readers to recognize how depictions of human bondage in museums and exhibitions often fail to challenge racism and white supremacy inherited from the period of slavery.
Learning cis-regulatory principles of ADAR-based RNA editing from CRISPR-mediated mutagenesis

Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing catalyzed by ADAR enzymes occurs in double-stranded RNAs. Despite a compelling need towards predictive understanding of natural and engineered editing events, how the RNA sequence and structure determine the editing efficiency and specificity (i.e., cis-regulation) is poorly understood. We apply a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated saturation mutagenesis approach to generate libraries of mutations near three natural editing substrates at their endogenous genomic loci. We use machine learning to integrate diverse RNA sequence and structure features to model editing levels measured by deep sequencing. We confirm known features and identify new features important for RNA editing. Training and testing XGBoost algorithm within the same substrate yield models that explain 68 to 86 percent of substrate-specific variation in editing levels. However, the models do not generalize across substrates, suggesting complex and context-dependent regulation patterns. Our integrative approach can be applied to larger scale experiments towards deciphering the RNA editing code.
Barriers and facilitators to shelter utilization among homeless young adults

Rates of shelter use among homeless youth are low compared to use of other supportive services, yet research on barriers to shelter use has been conducted in limited regions, specifically in West Coast or Midwest cities. Additionally, while studies have generally focused on barriers to shelter use, studies on what might facilitate shelter use are lacking. This study explores barriers and facilitators to shelter use among homeless young adults from a large city in the Southwest region. Focus groups were conducted with a diverse sample of 49 homeless young adults ages 18-24. Drawing on models of health service use, findings were categorized into two domains--attitudinal and access. Themes related to attitudinal barriers include stigma/shame and self-reliance/pride. Attitudinal facilitators include the desire to extricate themselves from street life and turn their lives in a new direction. Access-related themes include barriers such as a lack of shelters and services available to meet the needs of youth, adverse shelter conditions, staff attitudes that are not acceptable to youth, restrictive shelter rules, restrictive definitions of homelessness, and a desire to differentiate themselves from older homeless individuals. Certain characteristics or circumstances (e.g., being pregnant), having supportive others, and shelters' ability to connect them to other services emerged as access facilitators to shelter use. Implications for policymakers, service providers, and future research are discussed.
A method to maintain phase-change memory pre-coding data retention after high temperature solder bonding process in embedded systems

For the first time we demonstrate that a Phase Change Memory (PCM) packaged chip can hold pre-coded data after an industrial standard lead free solder bonding reflow process. Good “0” and “1” state distributions are retained in a 90nm 128Mb PCM chip after the soldering process. Furthermore, the tested chip endures more than 10 million write cycles after the pre-coding and high temperature process.
1 On-line methods in bilingual spoken language research

Abstract In this chapter, we review several methodological approaches to studying spoken language comprehension in bilinguals. In particular, we focus on those tasks that allow for closer scrutiny of sentence level processing, including gating ( Grosjean, 1980 , Grosjean, 1996 ), cued shadowing ( Bates & Liu, 1996 ), cross-modal lexical priming ( Swinney, 1979 ), and the auditory moving-window ( Ferreira, Henderson, Anes, Weeks, & McFarlane, 1996 ). Throughout the chapter, we offer suggestions as to how these techniques might be used to investigate a host of issues important to researchers in bilingualism, including but not limited to grammatical priming, ambiguity resolution, and contextual priming. We highlight the potential strengths and weaknesses of each paradigm and, whenever possible, offer suggestions as to future work that might be conducted using a particular experimental procedure. In the end, our hope is that the reader will come away with a stronger sense of the sorts of techniques that are available and are being used by researchers in the field of bilingual sentence processing.
MECHANISMS AND CONTROL OF EMBRYONIC GENOME ACTIVATION IN MAMMALIAN EMBRYOS

Activation of transcription within the embryonic genome (EGA) after fertilization is a complex process requiring a carefully coordinated series of nuclear and cytoplasmic events, which collectively ensure that the two parental genomes can be faithfully reprogrammed and restructured before transcription occurs. Available data indicate that inappropriate transcription of some genes during the period of nuclear reprogramming can have long-term detrimental effects on the embryo. Therefore, precise control over the time of EGA is essential for normal embryogenesis. In most mammals, genome activation occurs in a stepwise manner. In the mouse, for example, some transcription occurs during the second half of the one-cell stage, and then a much greater phase of genome activation occurs in two waves during the two-cell stage, with the second wave producing the largest onset of de novo gene expression. Changes in nuclear structure, chromatin structure, and cytoplasmic macromolecular content appear to regulate these periods of transcriptional activation. A model is presented in which a combination of cell cycle-dependent events and both translational and posttranslational regulatory mechanisms within the cytoplasm play key roles in mediating and regulating EGA.
Effectiveness of using supply voltage as back-gate bias in ground plane SOI MOSFET

We show that GP-SOI MOSFETs are optimal for the DBB scheme offering high on-current and low design complexity without having power performance issues related to the forward-biased p-n junction current in bulk CMOS. It is also shown that GP-SOI can deliver the same performance as DG-SOI 90X lower standby leakage by dynamically switching the back-gate bias.
Regulatory Competition, Choice of Forum and Delaware’s Stake in Corporate Law

As Delaware corporate law confronts the twenty-first-century global economy, the state's legislators and jurists are becoming sensitive to increased threats to the law's sustained preeminence. The increased presence of federal laws and regulations in areas of corporate governance traditionally allocated to the states has been widely noted. The growth of federal corporate law standards may be undermining Delaware's confidence in the sustained prosperity of its chartering business - which has been a vital source of revenues and prestige for Delaware, its equity courts, and especially its corporate bar. The Delaware Court of Chancery appears to be concerned about the emigration of corporate law cases to other states' courtrooms, and is exercising its discretionary jurisdiction more expansively in parallel proceedings to deny defendants' motions to stay. There are even more aggressive measures that Delaware companies and lawmakers could take to restrict Delaware shareholders' choice of forum and keep these cases in Delaware. But Delaware has much to lose from trying to gain monopoly power over the adjudication of its corporate law. Indeed, in a system where corporate managers (or founders/controlling shareholders) select the state of incorporation - and hence effectuate the choice of Delaware corporate law - it is likely that allowing shareholder-plaintiffs freedom in forum selection has a salutary, modulating effect on Delaware corporate law. The ability of Delaware shareholder-plaintiffs to litigate elsewhere most likely plays a key role in preventing Delaware corporate law from becoming hostage to corporate defendants' interests.
Quantum dots for off-on biological labeling

Summary form only given. Quantum dots (QDs) possess discrete energy states within the conduction band (CB) and valence band (VB), which may decay radiatively or non-radiatively via a number of different processes. The addition to a colloidal solution of molecules with a reduction potential less negative than the QD CB (or an oxidation potential less positive than the QD VB) will cause a transfer of the electron (or hole) from the photoexcited state of the QD to the added molecule. Direct chemical conjugation of the molecule enhances this effect. The fluorescence is quenched in this process, as the electron/hole pair is no longer available to combine radiatively. Many experiments have been done using electron acceptors, which have been shown to quench fluorescence of QDs and used to determine the distribution and depths of intra-gap electron traps. Many fewer studies have been done with hole acceptors and the presence and distribution of hole traps remains essentially unknown. However, many useful biological molecules are hole acceptors, among them the DNA purine bases and the two redox-active amino acids, tyrosine and tryptophan. The redox potentials of the purine bases are very close to the band edges of QDs in neutral pH aqueous solution, and quenching is only seen with green- and blue-fluorescent QDs, not with yellow or red. Quenching is not reversed by exposure to ambient light for 1 wk or to a 100 W Hg lamp for 1 hr. Effects are independent of pH, except when pH shifts the redox potential above or below the band edge.
Uptake of liposomes by human retinal pigment epithelial cells in culture

Summary form only received as follows: The phagocytic uptake of several liposome compositions by human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in culture was examined. The endocytic uptake of different Iiposome preparations was quantitatively measured for RPE, RAW 264.7 and rabbit dermal fibroblasts. RAW 264.7 is a transformed macrophagic murine cell line used as a positive control while rabbit dermal fibrocytes are a cell line developed for in vivo animal models of PVR. Measurement of the internalization of a non-degradable radiolabeled cholesterol analog incorporated in the liposome bilayer was used to quantify the uptake of liposomes. Fluorescence microscopy was used to confirm the internalization of the vesicles. The composition of liposomes most avidly ingested by RPE most closely resembled shed rod outer segments (ROS). The most actively phagocytized liposomes like the ROS plasma membrane contained phosphatidylserine and lacked cholesterol. Additionally, a greater uptake of the large multiluminar vesicles ranging in size from 0.20 /spl mu/m to 2 /spl mu/m compared to smaller vesicles extruded through a 0.22 /spl mu/m filter demonstrated liposomal size influenced the uptake process. The larger vesicles were closer in size to naturally occurring ROS. Uptake by RPE was significantly lower than observed with RAW 264.7 cells, but greater than exhibited by rabbit dermal fibroblasts. These findings appear to have important implications regarding the use of liposomes as drug carriers for the treatment of proliferative vitreoretinopathy and the study of phagocytosis by RPE.
The influence of post-bond heat treatment on microstructural development in martensite-forming NiAl-NiTi transient liquid phase bonds employing copper interlayers

An investigation is presented of the influence of post-bond heat treatment on microstructural development in transient liquid phase bonds between L10 martensite-forming Ni-24 at% Al-16 at% Cr and nominally stoichiometric NiTi which transforms to monoclinic (distorted B19 type) martensite. The joints discussed in this article were prepared using 50 μm thick commercial purity copper (99.8 wt% Cu) interlayers and were bonded at 1150°C for 1 h. The resulting bonds were post-bond heat treated at 1000°C for times varying between 4 and 12 h and then characterized by edge-on transmission electron microscopy.
Validity of diagnostic codes and prevalence of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in a managed care population, 1996–2009

Background Few population-based studies have reported the prevalence of psoriatic disease. Objective We validated computerized diagnoses to estimate the prevalence of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Method We identified adults with ≥1 ICD-9 diagnosis codes of 696.0 (psoriatic arthritis) or 696.1 (psoriasis) in clinical encounter data during 1996–2009 and used chart review to confirm the diagnoses in random samples of patients. We then used the best performing case-finding algorithms to estimate the point prevalence of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Results The number of persons with a diagnosis for psoriasis (ICD-9 code 696.1) was 87 827. Chart review of a random sample of 101 cases with at least one dermatologist-rendered psoriasis code revealed a positive predictive value (PPV) of 90% (95% CI, 83–95) with sensitivity of 88% (95% CI, 80–93). Psoriatic arthritis (code 696.0) was recorded for 5187 patients, with the best performing algorithm requiring ≥2 diagnoses recorded by a rheumatologist or ≥1 diagnosis recorded by a rheumatologist together with ≥1 psoriasis diagnoses recorded by a dermatologist; the PPV was 80% (95% CI, 70–88) with sensitivity 73% (95% CI, 63–82). Among KPNC adults, the point prevalence of psoriasis, with or without psoriatic arthritis, was 939 (95% CI, 765–1142) per 100 000, and the overall prevalence of psoriatic arthritis, with or without psoriasis, was 68 (95% CI, 54–84) per 100 000. Conclusion Within an integrated health care delivery system, the use of computerized diagnoses rendered by relevant disease specialists is a valid method for identifying individuals with psoriatic disease. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Photorefractive multiple quantum wells for high-speed spatial light modulator applications

A simple analytical model to explain the spatial resolution of photorefractive MQW devices in terms of lateral drift of carriers has been developed and compared to a wide variety of experimental results. It appears that some low temperature grown (LTG) MQW experimental devices have reached their theoretical resolution limit of 4 /spl mu/m, but at the expense of increased sensitivity has been achieved by using undoped MQW (to promote longitudinal carrier screening) and distributing LTG trapping layers at several planes along the growth direction (to reduce lateral drift). These devices have achieved their theoretical resolution with increased sensitivity; models for their performance agree with experimental results.
Isochronal recovery of fast-neutron-irradiated metals

Abstract The isochronal recovery of Al, Ni, Cu, Ag. Au, Pt, Fe, Mo and Co, irradiated at 4.5K with fast neutrons has been studied resistometrically. For the face-centered cubic elements, Al, Ni, Cu, Ag, and Au, the magnitude of stage I recovery is inversely proportional to the atomic mass of these elements, which is in excellent agreement with recent calculations on the spatial distribution of lattice defects in fast neutron irradiated metals. The total irradiation-induced resistivity and hardness of neutron spectra have more of an influence on the details of the recovery stages than does the initial residual resistivity and the initial resistivity ratio. Stage II recovery, at least in Cu, can be explained best by the rearrangement and/or annihilation of defects that are released from the stress fields of the vacancy clusters that exist in fast neutron irradiated metals.
Beyond "Couch Potatoes": From Consumers to Designers and Active Contributors

The fundamental challenge for computational media is to contribute to the invention and design of cultures in which humans can express themselves and engage in personally meaningful activities. Cultures are substantially defined by their media and tools for thinking, working, learning, and collaborating. New media change (1) the structure and contents of our interests; (2) the nature of our cognitive and collaborative tools; and, (3) the social environment in which thoughts originate and evolve, and mindsets develop. Unfortunately, a large number of new media are designed from the perspective of seeing and treating humans primarily as consumers. In personally meaningful activities, the possibility for humans to be and to act as designers (in cases in which they desire to do so) should be accessible not only to a small group of "high-tech scribes," but rather to all interested individuals and groups. While the core message of the article applies to cultures, mindsets, media, technologies, and educational systems in general, my examples are mostly drawn from computational media, and more specifically from human computer interaction as a particular domain.
Nernst and Ettingshausen Effects in Germanium between 300 and 750°K

The Nernst and Ettingshausen effects in germanium single crystals of different conductivity type and with various impurity densities have been measured between 300 and 750\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K in magnetic fields of 9000 gauss; the Nernst effect also at 2100 gauss. The experimental results are compared with theoretical expressions for the Nernst and Ettingshausen coefficients and with previously reported values for the thermal conductivity, which links the two effects through the Bridgman relationship. The qualitative agreement is very good, quantitative discrepancies are explained in terms of deviations of the sample mobilities from the theoretically assumed pure low-field lattice mobilities and by uncertainties in the numerical values used for the theoretical calculations. A derivation of the Nernst constant in the range of negligible phonon-drag effect is given, based on the analogy between thermo- and photomagnetoelectric effects.
An appreciation of nurses as teachers: reflections of a clinical instructor.

© 2009, AWHONN 107 f the first time in 18 years, my sleep is not interrupted by the startle of a 5:00 a.m. alarm clock calling me to begin my day as a clinical instructor on a busy postpartum unit of a large hospital. Gone is the urge to nestle under the blankets for just a few more minutes. Gone is that quiet prayer that today will be a good day for my students, that I will be supportive and effective in my role and provide good care to patients. Gone is my inaccurate perception, as I pull out of the driveway, that I’m the only person in my neighborhood awake at this hour (with the exception of new parents and those two dedicated women who run at this time of day). Gone is the need to be organized, to remember which students need what and what student I need to pay extra attention to. Gone is the day-long multitasking—striking the balance between providing support and setting expectations, aiming to work well with students, patients, families and staff. But more than that is gone. I feel a sense of disorganization, a disconnection from someAn Appreciation of Nurses as Teachers Reflections of a Clinical Instructor
Ethical Implications of Patients and Families Secretly Recording Conversations With Physicians

Withrecentadvances intechnology,smartphonescan become recording devices with the touch of a button. This technological capability gives patients and their families the ability to easily and surreptitiously record conversations with physicians. The frequency of such recordings or whether they even occur is unknown. The ubiquity of smartphones, however, suggests the potential for secret recordings to occur. As of January 2014, 58% of Americans owned a smartphone, including 83% of young adults.1 Although recording conversations with physicians may provide some benefit for patients and their families, secret recordings can undermine patient-physician relationships and ultimately affect the provision of health care. Federal lawprohibits recording a private conversation unless at least one party to the conversation consents to the recording.2 That party may include either thepersonoperatingtherecordingdeviceorothers.Several states, such as California and Florida, provide additional protections by requiring that all parties to a conversationconsent to the recording. In stateswithout the additionalprotections, apatientor familymembercould
Numerical investigation of negative refractive index metamaterials at infrared and optical frequencies

An analysis of the transmission properties of a slab of metallic split-ring resonators at near infrared and optical frequencies is presented. We focus on the influence of the parameters characterizing the intrinsic frequency dispersion of the metallic rings on the physical properties of recently introduced materials that exhibit a negative refractive index. It is demonstrated that, when a mesh of thin metallic wires is added, at the resonant frequency ω0∼150 THz the refractive index of the resulting metamaterial is negative within a frequency band ▵ω∼50 THz. The numerical analysis is performed using the transfer matrix formalism.
Cochlear Microphonics in the Jaundiced Gunn Rat

Abstract Introduction: Bilirubin toxicity causes brain damage and deafness. Brainstem auditory areas are damaged, but the effects of bilirubin toxicity on the peripheral auditory system are less well defined. As a first step in the study of cochlear physiology, we performed studies of scalp-derived cochlear microphonic (CM) responses in the jaundiced (jj) Gunn rat model of acute bilirubin toxicity. Materials and Methods: CMs were obtained from scalp needle electrodes in response to acoustically delayed 500-, 1,000-, 2,000-, 4,000-, 6,000-, and 8,000-Hz tonebursts delivered by overhead speakers, and brainstem auditory-evoked potentials (BAEPs) were obtained to clicks. At 18 days of age, one nonjaundiced (Nj) and two jj Gunn rats in each of four litters were anesthetized. CMs and BAEPs were performed before and 4 hours after either (1) sulfonamide was injected into jj rats to produce acute bilirubin toxicity, (2) jj controls were injected with saline, or (3) Nj controls were given sulfonamide. In a second experiment, 16-day-old jj-sulfa and Nj-saline littermates were studied with insert speakers at 60 and 75 dB hearing level (HL) at baseline and 6 hours later, and CM amplitude was analyzed with a fast fourier transformation. Results: No statistically significant differences were found by repeated measures analysis of variance in the CMs in either experiment between groups or after sulfonamide, despite BAEP changes of decreased amplitude of waves II and III and increased latency of I–II and I–III interwave intervals in jjs given sulfa. Conclusion: Alterations of CM after acute bilirubin toxicity did not occur at a time when there was electrophysiologic evidence of brainstem dysfunction. Although more subtle effects might be detected with a larger sample studied at longer intervals after the insult, CM seems insensitive or less sensitive to acute bilirubin toxicity than brainstem auditory function. These results suggest that retrocochlear tests of central auditory function may be more sensitive to the effects of hyperbilirubinemia than tests of peripheral auditory function in humans.
Why property dualists must reject substance physicalism

I argue that property dualists cannot hold that minds are physical substances. The focus of my discussion is a property dualism that takes qualia to be sui generis features of reality.
Abstract A100: STAT3 as a novel cancer prevention target in colorectal cancer stem cells

Constitutive activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling is frequently detected in human cancer including colon cancer, and has emerged as an attractive molecular target for cancer prevention. Recent experimental evidence suggests that the existence of a small population of tumorigenic stem/progenitor cells may be responsible for tumor initiation, chemotherapy and radiation resistance, invasion, recurrence, and metastasis. An increasing body of evidence suggests that the cancer stem cell concept is also relevant to colorectal cancer. To date, however, whether STAT3 is activated in colon cancer stem cells or cancer-initiating cells and what the role of STAT3 signaling may play in these cancer stem cells is still unknown. If STAT3 is activated in colorectal cancer stem cells, inhibiting STAT3 may offer a promising opportunity to target colorectal cancer stem cells and prevent the recurrence of cancer. We utilized the colon cancer stem cells, which are characterized by an aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)-positive (ALDH+) and CD133-positive (CD133+) subpopulation. We demonstrated that ALDH+/CD133+ cells have capacity than ALDH-/CD133- cells to form more tumorspheres and to exhibit more potent tumor-initiating ability in mice. We then examined the STAT3 activation in these colon cancer cells. Interestingly, we observed that the ALDH+/CD133+ subpopulation of colon cancer cells expressed higher levels of phosphorylated STAT3, an active form of STAT3, compared to the ALDH-/CD133- subpopulation and un-separated colon cancer cells, suggesting that STAT3 is activated in colon cancer stem cells. We demonstrated that dietary agent, curcumin and a new curcumin analog, GO-Y030 can inhibit STAT3 phosphorylation, cell viability, and induced apoptosis in colon cancer stem cells. The inhibition of STAT3 was confirmed using a novel STAT3-selecitve curcumin analog, FLLL32, STAT3 ShRNA, as well as STAT3 inhibitors, LLL12 and Stattic. All these STAT3 inhibitors, inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation, cell viability, and tumorsphere growth in colon cancer stem cells. Furthermore, both GO-Y030 and LLL12 inhibited tumor growth of colon cancer stem cells in NOD/SCID mouse model in vivo. In Summary, this is the first report to demonstrate that persistent STAT3 phosphorylation is expressed in colon cancer stem cells. Our study is also the first attempt to target STAT3 in colon cancer stem cells and we demonstrated for the first time that colon cancer stem cells are indeed sensitive to the inhibition by small molecular STAT3 inhibitors, FLLL32, LLL12, Stattic, STAT3 shRNA, and curcumin analog, GO-Y030. Our results suggest that STAT3 is a novel prevention target in colon cancer stem cells and inhibition of activated STAT3 in cancer stem cells may offer an effective preventive approach for colorectal carcinoma. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(12 Suppl):A100.
Reassessment of benefit-risk ratio and treatment algorithms for antiarrhythmic drug therapy after the cardiac arrhythmia suppression trial.

The Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) has led to serious reconsideration of both the benefit—risk ratio of antiarrhythmic drug therapy and the appropriate therapeutic approach to various cardiac arrhythmias. Class IC drugs, such as encainide and flecainide, should not be used to treat asymptomatic postinfarction arrhythmias. Furthermore, because the CAST raises serious questions about the concept of treating asymptomatic but “potentially malignant” (prognostically important) arrhythmias guided by ambulatory monitoring, the prophylactic use of any of the antiarrhythmic agents (except beta blockers) must be considered inappropriate and potentially harmful until otherwise established by specific clinical trials. For prophylaxis of malignant ventricular arrhythmias (sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation), treatment may still begin with standard agents in classes IA, IB, or both, preferably guided by electrophysiologic testing alone or in combination with noninvasive testing. Class IC therapy may be most useful in those patients in this group who do not have such high-risk characteristics for proarrhythmia as a history of multiple myocardial infarctions (MIs), congestive heart failure, or low ejection fraction. Amiodarone is moderately effective for treating these arrhythmias but is reserved as second- or third-line therapy because of its potential organ toxicity. Sotalol, a beta blocker with class III activity, is often effective and relatively well tolerated in these patients and may become a preferred drug when approved. For symptomatic but nonmalignant ventricular arrhythmias, a more conservative approach is more appropriate than in the past, with therapy reversed for those with debilitating symptoms. An initial trial of beta blockade is often appropriate before class I agents are considered. Class IC therapy should be avoided in patients with a history of MI (especially recent or multiple MIs), and probably in other patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease (e.g., angina, heart failure). The CAST emphasizes the need for further experimental and clinical trials and the development of new agents based on a better understanding of the overall benefit—risk ratio. As this occurs, treatment algorithms will continue to evolve.
Mesenchymal stem cells facilitate fracture repair in an alcohol-induced impaired healing model.

Objectives Clinical studies have shown alcohol to be a risk factor for traumatic orthopaedic injuries and for nonunion. Data from animal studies suggest that alcohol exposure inhibits fracture healing. This report presents a novel rodent model of impaired fracture healing caused by repeated alcohol exposure. Using this model, we examined the regenerative effects of an intravenously administered population of isolated and expanded MSCs on fracture healing.
Modeling gynodioecy: Novel scenarios for maintaining polymorphism

Nuclear-cytoplasmic gynodioecy is a breeding system of plants in which females and hermaphrodites co-occur in populations, and gender is jointly determined by cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) genes and nuclear restorers of male fertility. Persistent polymorphism at both CMS and nuclear-restorer loci is necessary to maintain this breeding system. Theoretical models have explained how nuclear-cytoplasmic gynodioecy can be stable for certain assumptions. However, recent advances in our understanding of the genetics, population biology, and molecular mechanisms of sex determination in nuclear-cytoplasmic gynodioecious species suggest the utility of new models with different underlying assumptions. In this article, we examine different negative pleiotropic fitness effects of nuclear restorers (costs of restoration) using genetic and population assumptions based on recent literature. Specifically, we model populations with two CMS types and separate nuclear restorer loci for each CMS type. Under these assumptions, both overdominance for fitness and frequency-dependent selection at nuclear-restorer loci can support nuclear-cytoplasmic gynodioecy. Costs of restoration can be either dependent or independent of the cytoplasmic background. Seed fitness costs are more vulnerable to fixation of CMS types than pollen costs. Survivorship costs are effective at maintaining polymorphism even when total reproductive effects are low. Overall, our models display differences in the stability of nuclear-cytoplasmic gynodioecy and predicted population sex ratios that should be informative to researchers studying gynodioecy in the wild.
A new species of the genus Gracixalus (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Southern Guangxi, China.

A new species of the genus Gracixalus is described from Nonggang National Nature Reserve, based on eleven specimens from evergreen karst forests in Sino-Vietnamese border region of southern China. The new species, Gracixalus nonggan-gensis sp. nov. , is medium sized species of Gracixalus that can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: SVL ranging from 29.9–35.3 mm in males and 33.6–38.0 mm in females; vomerine teeth absent; distinct tympanum as wide as the disc of finger III; the lower part of the tympanum with many small tubercles; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the tip of the snout; dorsum smooth yellowish-olive in life with a wide, dark-green irregular mark; throat, chest and belly white with light grey-blue tint and brown marbling; broad, dark olive, transverse stripes on limbs; finger webbing absent, toes one-third webbed; male with internal subgular vocal sac. Based on a 16S ribosomal RNA mi-tochondrial gene fragment, G. nonggangensis sp. nov . forms a monophyletic group embedded within the genus Gracixalus .
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ACOUSTIC CAVITATION

Although there is no basis in present knowledge to indicate that human subjects have been harmed in diagnostic applications of ultrasound, there is clear evidence of damage to lower organisms with temporal maximum intensities somewhat less than those available from certain diagnostic devices. Where exposures of this kind have caused clear effects, the mechanism of action appears to be related to the phenomenon of cavitation. It now remains to determine whether these observations have relevance for medical practice.
Early-stage cervical adenocarcinoma treated by surgical intent: the role of para-aortic lymph node dissection.

Objective. Previous reports suggest that cervical adenocarcinomas have a unique pattern of spread and are more apt to metastasize to para-aortic lymph nodes. The purpose of this study was to further define the node of para-aortic lymph node dissection in early-stage cervical adenocarcinoma treated by surgical intent. Methods. Institutional review board approval was obtained to perform a computerized search of the data of all women diagnosed with cervical adenocarcinoma between 1982 and 2000. Hospital charts were retrospectively reviewed. Follow-up was obtained from the tumor registry, medical records, and correspondence with health care providers. Results. Three hundred (87%) of 345 early-stage (FIGO IA1‐ IIA) cervical adenocarcinoma patients were primarily treated by surgical intent. Two hundred seventy-six underwent pelvic and para-aortic node dissection (n 5 69) or pelvic node dissection only (n 5 207); 24 had no lymph node dissection. The median number of lymph nodes removed was 13 pelvic (range, 1‐58) and 3 paraaortic (range, 1‐17). Three (4%) of 69 patients had para-aortic nodal metastases. Each had either grossly evident para-aortic adenopathy (n 5 2) or an adnexal metastasis. Thirty-six of 40 women developing recurrent disease had at least some component of pelvic recurrence; 4 had only extrapelvic disease. Three patients undergoing para-aortic node dissection developed an isolated extrapelvic recurrence despite originally negative para-aortic nodes (n 5 2) or treatment by extended-field radiation for para-aortic metastases. One woman undergoing only pelvic node dissection had an isolated extrapelvic recurrence despite originally negative nodes. Conclusions. Early-stage cervical adenocarcinoma primarily treated by surgical intent has a very low risk of para-aortic metastases. These were detected only when there was gross evidence of nodal or adnexal disease. © 2002 Elsevier Science
Personal photo enhancement using prior images

We describe a framework for improving the quality of personal photos by using a person's favorite photographs as examples. We use common faces across images to automatically perform both global and face specific corrections. Our system achieves this by using face detection to align faces between "good" and "bad" photos such that properties of the good examples can be used to correct a bad photo. We illustrate the power and generality of our approach by presenting a novel deblurring algorithm, and we show corrections that perform sharpening, super-resolution, in-painting of over and under-exposure regions, and white-balancing.
Barium and strontium leaching from aged glass particle/resin matrix dental composites.

Abstract Objectives. This study characterizes the loss of Ba and Sr from glass particle/resin-matrix dental composites during simulated aging. Methods. X-ray wavelength dispersive spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry were used to analyze the Ba and Sr content from the surfaces of three commercial dental composites after aging for 4 and 8 months in humid air, artificial saliva, water, and 50% ethanol. Results. Aging in artificial saliva caused the greatest leaching of Ba or Sr for all the specimens, compared with either lesser or no leaching for aging in ethanol and water. Differences in leaching were observed between the different composites. Composites aged in artificial saliva also picked up elements in the saliva solution and displayed crystallite formation on the surface. Samples aged in ethanol displayed cracking which was not observed for water or artificial saliva. Significance. Dental composites display ion leaching from their surfaces over periods of four to eight months. Three mechanisms are proposed to explain differences in leaching for the various composites and aging solutions. Surface mineralization is also proposed to occur as a self-repair mechanism in artificial saliva.
Looking at the server side of peer-to-peer systems

Peer-to-peer systems have grown significantly in popularity over the last few years. An increasing number of research projects have been closely following this trend, looking at many of the paradigm's technical aspects. In the context of data-sharing services, efforts have focused on a variety of issues from object location and routing to fair sharing and peer lifespans. Overall, the majority of these projects have concentrated on either the whole P2P infrastructure or the client-side of peers. Little attention has been given to the peer's server-side, even when that side determines much of the everyday-user's experience. In this paper, we make the case for looking at the server-side of peers, focusing on the problem of scheduling download requests at the server-side of P2P systems with the intent of minimizing the average response time experienced by users. We start by characterizing server workload based on extensive trace collection and analysis. We then evaluate the performance and fairness of different scheduling policies through trace-driven simulations. Our results show that average response time can be dramatically reduced by more effectively scheduling the requests on the server-side of P2P systems.
Modeling of the phototransduction cascade in vertebrate rod photoreceptor

The molecular mechanisms of phototransduction in the rod photorecptor cell have been reasonably well established but have not been represented in the form of a system model. In this work, we formulated a basic system model structure by representing the major biochemical reactions in the phototransduction cascade as a seventh-order system of kinetic equations with the ERG a-wave as a measurable output. The model structure was tested for its usefulness in describing the ERG a-wave under different experimental conditions. Wild type, NOB1, and photorecptor-damaged (by light or drug) mice were stimulated with two light patterns of three intensities. The model structure could very well describe the ERG a-waves for various subject-stimulus combinations tested. Estimated parameter valuse were applicable to new subjects if they were not expected to change. A variable model parameter could not only differentiate photorecptor-damaged subjects from healthy ones but also indicated the level of damage. Longer-term simulation by the model showed expected photoreceptor responses for the termination and modulation phases. The model structure showed much promise as a basic form of representation for the phototransduction kinetics in rods.
Physical mapping of chromosome 17 cosmids by fluorescence in situ hybridization and digital image analysis

We used fluorescence in situ hybridization and digital image analysis to localize cosmids along human chromosome 17. Seventy-one cosmids were selected at random from a chromosome 17 library constructed from a partial Sau3AI digest of flow-sorted chromosomes from a mouse-human hybrid cell line. Sixty-three of these (89%) gave a signal only on chromosome 17. The 40 cosmids producing the most distinct hybridization signals in metaphase and interphase cells were precisely mapped using digital image analysis. An additional 20 cosmids, previously mapped by linkage analysis, were also mapped. The order of these probes determined by metaphase mapping was consistent with the order determined by linkage analysis.
Comparison of direct Fick and thermodilution cardiac output techniques at high flow rates.

Abstract Several studies have demonstrated an excellent correlation between the thermodilution and direct Fick methods of determining cardiac output (CO). 1–4 There is generally close agreement between these 2 methods in both animal experiments and patients with a variety of cardiovascular disorders, for a range of CO from 2 to 13 liters/min. However, there are few data assessing the accuracy of the thermodilution technique in patients without left ventricular dysfunction, where exercise CO could approach the theoretical maximum of 25 to 30 liters/min. Therefore, the present study compared these 2 CO techniques at rest and during exercise in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) representing the low end of the spectrum, and in patients with systemic hypertension in whom cardiac reserve was near normal.