cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Deletion of Lipoteichoic Acid Synthase Impacts Expression of Genes Encoding Cell Surface Proteins in Lactobacillus acidophilus.

Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM is a well-characterized probiotic microorganism, supported by a decade of genomic and functional phenotypic investigations. L. acidophilus deficient in lipoteichoic acid (LTA), a major immunostimulant in Gram-positive bacteria, has been shown to shift immune system responses in animal disease models. However, the pleiotropic effects of removing LTA from the cell surface in lactobacilli are unknown. In this study, we surveyed the global transcriptional and extracellular protein profiles of two strains of L. acidophilus deficient in LTA. Twenty-four differentially expressed genes specific to the LTA-deficient strains were identified, including a predicted heavy metal resistance operon and several putative peptidoglycan hydrolases. Cell morphology and Manganese sensitivity phenotypes were assessed in relation to the putative functions of differentially expressed genes. LTA-deficient L. acidophilus exhibited elongated cellular morphology and their growth was severely inhibited by elevated Manganese concentrations. Exoproteomic surveys revealed distinct changes in the composition and relative abundances of several extracellular proteins and showed a bias of intracellular proteins in LTA-deficient strains of L. acidophilus. Taken together, these results elucidate the impact of LTA removal on the transcriptome and extracellular proteins of L. acidophilus, suggesting roles of LTA in cell morphology and ion homeostasis as a structural component of the Gram positive cell wall.
Taking distrust of science seriously: To overcome public distrust in science, scientists need to stop pretending that there is a scientific consensus on controversial issues when there is not.

We live at a time of unprecedented scientific and technological progress, and, yet, there is widespread confusion and concern about the impacts of scientific and technological advances on human health and the environment. Among the highly contested issues are genetically modified (GM) crops, vaccines, endocrine‐disrupting chemicals, pesticides, cell phone electromagnetic emissions, salt intake, obesity, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes, particulate air pollution, hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to extract natural gas, and climate change. It is fair to say that, on many issues, this confusion is not limited to the lay public but also affects government agencies, professional organizations, and the scientific community. One of the dangers of such widespread and persisting confusion about these issues is that it contributes to an increasing public distrust of science, since scientists are seemingly incapable of resolving these controversies. > Studies that link genetics and exposure to certain infectious agents to disease are much more robust than studies linking environmental exposures or dietary factors to disease During the past 5–10 years, much has been written about “distrust of science” and its root causes, with journalists, scientists, physicians, psychologists, and sociologists all contributing to this discussion. While this work contains valuable insights and perspectives on the problem, many authors make sweeping generalizations and lump together disparate questions that involve different methodologies and types of evidence. Reading this literature, it is striking how many commentators conflate controversies about vaccines and autism, GM crops, pesticides, and climate change, as if these were all instances of a single phenomenon. The failure to properly distinguish between these different controversies—and the science pertaining to them—has encouraged a tendency to emphasize the “scientific consensus”, and to assert that “in the end, science, if not individual scientists, tend to get it right”. It is also clear from this literature that many diverse factors are correlated …
EMS Dispatches during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy in New Jersey.

AbstractBackground: Hurricanes Irene and Sandy heavily impacted New Jersey. Investigating EMS dispatch trends during these storms may allow us to prepare for future disasters. Objectives: Our objectives to characterize the types of EMS dispatches immediately before, during, and after landfall compared to a control period. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at a large EMS dispatch center that provides first responders, Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Life Support (ALS), and critical care transport services to an area with approximately 20 receiving hospitals including a Level I Trauma Center. At peak staffing, there are 8–10 ALS vehicles, 25 BLS vehicles, and 3 critical care transport vehicles deployed. We included of the day of landfall and seven days before and after. We compared dispatch data to a control period in 2010 that mirrored Hurricane Sandy the dates of. Descriptive statistics and two way ANOVA were used to assess dispatch, gender and age differences. Results: We found Hurricane...
Caribou to Cod: Moravian Missionary Influence on Inuit Subsistence Strategies

German Moravian missionaries arrived in Labrador, Canada at the end of the 18th century. They intended to introduce Christianity to Inuit peoples without disrupting important aspects of traditional Inuit culture, such as hunting practices. Over time the Moravians began introducing more than just religion: European raw materials, manufactured products, and foods. As a result, Inuit were incorporated into a market economy in which the export of local goods produced by Inuit labor such as seal oil, dried fish, ivory, and fur were exchanged for iron tools, guns, cloth, and ceramics. Simultaneously, becoming part of a larger global economy meant changing aspects of the local subsistence economy. Inuit subsistence strategies were incorporated into a Moravian economic strategy, and ecological relationships changed as a result of colonial influences. Integration into a market economy also altered the spiritual intersection between Inuit and animals.
A Connectedness Primer for Healthcare Providers: Adolescents/Young Adult Cancer Survivors' Perspectives on Behaviors That Foster Connectedness During Cancer Treatment and the Resulting Positive Outcomes.

Purpose: Many healthcare providers (HCPs) struggle to communicate and connect with adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer that hinders their ability to adequately assess and address the psychosocial needs of AYA. The purpose of this article is to describe the key behaviors of HCPs AYA perceive as essential to fostering connectedness with them and the outcomes AYA experience from such connectedness. Methods: The sample for this empirical phenomenological study was nine AYA cancer survivors (aged 20–23 years) who were diagnosed in adolescence. In-person individual interviews were conducted using a broad, data-generating question and analyzed using an adapted Colaizzi's method. Results: The key behaviors of HCPs AYA perceive as essential to fostering connectedness include (1) exhibiting characteristics of knowing how to connect; (2) being watchful and attentive to AYA needs; (3) displaying a willingness to foster the relationship; (4) using humor; and (5) conveying respect, support, and caring. Outco...
Amicus Brief to U.S. Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Human Rights Commission

On October 30, 2017 the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project, a research initiative of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, filed a brief in Masterpiece Cakeshop. The brief was written in coordination with our colleagues at Muslim Advocates, on behalf of 15 religious minority groups and civil rights advocates. The brief argues that the broad interpretation urged by Masterpiece Cakeshop is bad for religious liberty itself - especially for religious minorities such as Muslims, Sikhs, and other minority religious groups. The Public Rights/Private Conscience Project's position is that the Court’s early religious liberty cases were built on equality principles and that the two are mutually reinforcing values - thus the Court should interpret religious liberty in ways that are equality-enhacing, not equality-diminishing. The Public Rights/Private Conscience Project is Directed by Elizabeth Reiner Platt; Professor Katherine Franke is the Faculty Director of the Project, and Director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law.
Rheumatologists' knowledge of contraception, teratogens, and pregnancy risks.

IntroductionRheumatologists are essential partners in planning and managing pregnancies in women with lupus. Whether they know the essentials of contraceptive and medical treatment in pregnancy, ho...
On the justification of rights

The concept of rights, long a staple of political thought, has undergone a revival since the Second World War and has again been subject to critical examination by philosophers. Indeed, the dozen or so years from 1966 to the present have seen an unusual number of important studies in the theory of rights. This philosophical interest has coincided with an increased awareness of rights, and their problematic character, both in the national political arena and in the world of international affairs. Witness the various rights movements of the sixties and seventies and the passage of civil rights legislation, with attendant judicial and bureaucratic monitoring, on the domestic side; internationally we have had the two United Nations Covenants (1966, entered into force 1976), the Helsinki agreement, the recent Belgrade and Madrid conferences, the rights movement in Socialist states, and of course the Carter administration’s expressed concern for human rights.
Family Therapy in Alcoholism

In 1972 a husband and wife were recruited as research subjects for an experimental treatment program being carried out under the auspices of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Steinglass et al., 1975). The couple, an alcoholic woman and her concerned husband were an attractive, well-educated, middle-class couple with three children.
Musings of a Robert Wood Johnson health policy fellow.

BACKGROUND: Changes in national health policy affect all health care providers. To increase its understanding and involvement in health care development, in 1973, the medical profession, through the Institute of Medicine, developed a formal program--the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Health Policy Fellowships Program--in the nation's capital. METHODS: Each year, since the mid-'70s, the RWJ Health Policy Fellowships Program provides "hands-on" health policy development experiences, to mid-career health professionals. Participants obtain an understanding of the health policy process at the national level, and an opportunity to contribute to the formulation of new policies and programs. RESULTS: The author describes his 1989-1990 RWJ Fellowship year. He reports that health professionals can and do contribute significantly in the development of national health policy. He also observes that there has been minimal participation by optometrists in the RWJ Health Policy Fellowship Program. During his fellowship, the author observed that the optometry profession was poorly understood and underrepresented at the national level. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for direct optometric involvement in national health policy development. The RWJ Health Policy Fellowships Program provides exemplary policy experiences. This and alternative methods to increase optometric involvement and participation in health policy development, are discussed.
Measurement of Recombination-Rate Coefficient of He + +

The rate of recombination of doubly ionized helium in the afterglow of a $C$ stellarator discharge is deduced from measured light intensities of He II and He I, emitted by recombining ${\mathrm{He}}^{++}$ and ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$. The electron temperature and the ${\mathrm{He}}^{++}$ and ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ and electron densities are determined from the Saha equations for the highly excited states and the condition of charge neutrality. The electron density is also measured directly with a 4-mm microwave interferometer. The rate of recombination of ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ is found to be in good agreement with previous measurements, at temperatures 0.25 eV. At higher temperatures, where ${\mathrm{He}}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{He}}^{++}$ are both present, the recombination rate is found to follow a ${Z}^{3}$ relationship. The measurements appear to be in quite good agreement with the calculations of Bates, Kingston, and McWhirter over the entire range of measurement.
Epinephrine prolongs duration of subcutaneous infiltration of local anesthesia in a dose-related manner. Correlation with magnitude of vasoconstriction.

Background and Objectives. Epinephrine is frequently combined with local anesthesia to prolong analgesia. Determination of the minimal concentration and the dose of epinephrine that produces prolongation of analgesia is important in the face of epinephrine9s potential for systemic and local toxicity. The authors undertook this study to determine a dose-response curve of epinephrine on duration of analgesia of both 1% lidocaine and 0.25% bupivacaine after local infiltration. In order to determine whether epinephrine-induced vasoconstriction affected duration of analgesia, the authors correlated duration of analgesia with magnitude of local vasoconstriction as measured with laser Doppler flowmetry. Methods. Six volunteers were studied in a randomized double-blind manner. Ten skin wheals of 0.2 mL solution were subcutaneously injected into both forearms of each volunteer. The solutions consisted of 1% lidocaine with epinephrine concentrations of 0, 1:50,000, 1:200,000, 1:800,000, and 1:3,200,000, and 0.25% bupivacaine with the same epinephrine concentrations. Duration of loss of sensation to pinprick at each wheal was recorded. Skin wheals with 0.2 mL of these same solutions were also subcutaneously injected into the abdomen of the same 6 volunteers, and laser Doppler flowmetry readings of skin blood flow were measured for 6 hours after injection. Results. Epinephrine prolonged duration of analgesia for both lidocaine and bupivacaine in a dose-related manner (P Conclusions. Epinephrine prolongs duration of analgesia after local infiltration in a dose-related manner. Addition of epinephrine in concentrations of 1:50,000 or 1:200,000 increases duration of analgesia after local infiltration by approximately 200%. Addition of doses as dilute as 1:3,200,000 still increases duration of analgesia by approximately 100%. Duration of analgesia appears to correlate with magnitude of epinephrine-induced vasoconstriction using laser Doppler flowmetry. Based on study data, the use of epinephrine in concentrations from 1:200,000 to 1:3,200,000 is recommended for prolongation of analgesia after local infiltration.
The Immigrant Tides: Xenophobia in Western History Xenophobia as Neither Universal Nor Historically Invariable

Recent Western history is marked by waves of migration based on political and social changes, including histories of wars, colonization, and capitalist trade route developments. This chapter discusses this history as well as anti-immigrant reactions, legitimized through Inquisition, anti-Semitic movements, eugenics, colonialism, and capitalist globalization and political developments.
The Impact of European Trade with Southeast Asia on the Mineralogical Studies of Robert Boyle

This chapter considers An Essay About the Origine and Virtues of Gems, a lesser-known text by the English natural philosopher Robert Boyle (1627–1691) published in 1672. The chapter shows how gems fit into Boyle’s broader interests in the subterranean world and in East Indian travelogues. By demonstrating that Boyle consulted travel narratives for information about precious stones, I argue that the commercial mapping of gem deposits by Europeans in the hard-to-reach regions of mainland Southeast Asia contributed substantively to Boyle’s theory of gem formation. Boyle’s reliance on these sources helped him to make the connection between geographic location and chemical reactions and to understand that the chemical reactions that produced gems were place-specific.
Designing for implementation: user-centered development and pilot testing of a behavioral economic-inspired electronic health record clinical decision support module

Current guidelines recommend less aggressive target hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels based on older age and lower life expectancy for older adults with diabetes. The effectiveness of electronic health record (EHR) clinical decision support (CDS) in promoting guideline adherence is undermined by alert fatigue and poor workflow integration. Integrating behavioral economics (BE) and CDS tools is a novel approach to improving adherence to guidelines while minimizing clinician burden. We will apply a systematic, user-centered design approach to incorporate BE “nudges” into a CDS module and will perform user testing in two “vanguard” sites. To accomplish this, we will conduct (1) semi-structured interviews with key informants (n = 8), (2) a 2-h, design-thinking workshop to derive and refine initial module ideas, and (3) semi-structured group interviews at each site with clinic leaders and clinicians to elicit feedback on three proposed nudge module components (navigator section, inbasket refill protocol, medication preference list). Detailed field notes will be summarized by module idea and usability theme for rapid iteration. Frequency of firing and user action taken will be assessed in the first month of implementation via EHR reporting to confirm that module components and related reporting are working as expected as well as assess utilization. To assess the utilization and feasibility of the new tools and generate estimates of clinician compliance with the Choosing Wisely guideline for diabetes management in older adults, a 6-month, single-arm pilot study of the BE-EHR module will be conducted in six outpatient primary care clinics. We hypothesize that a low burden, user-centered approach to design will yield a BE-driven, CDS module with relatively high utilization by clinicians. The resulting module will establish a platform for exploring the ability of BE concepts embedded within the EHR to affect guideline adherence for other use cases.
Two novel mutations in exon 3 of PHOX2B gene: think about congenital central hypoventilation syndrome in patients with Hirschsprung disease.

Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) is characterized by alveolar hypoventilation increasing during sleep and affected patients are unable to perceive and respond to hypercarbia with increased ventilation and arousal during sleep. PHOX2B gene mutations are considered as responsible for CCHS. Most of patients with CCHS are heterozygous for polyalanine expansion mutations (PARMs) in exon 3, but 10% of patients with classic CCHS are heterozygous for non-polyalanine expansion mutations (NPARMs) of the PHOX2B gene. Data are collected on 3 patients affected by CCHS who referred to the Paediatric Pulmonology Unit of Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital (Rome, Italy) for a multidisciplinary follow-up program between 2000 and 2017. We describe three cases of patients affected by CCHS for which two novel mutations on exon 3 of PHOX2B gene were detected. The description of these novel mutations and related clinical phenotypes allows to expand the knowledge into NPARM spectrum. Since the presence of Hirschsprung disease is related to NPARMs and the number of alanine repeats, we suggest performing CCHS genetic investigation and periodical assessment also in patients without a clear history of CCHS but affected by Hirschsprung disease. Data are retrospectively collected.
Protective Effects of Educational Attainment Against Cigarette Smoking; Diminished Returns of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the National Health Interview Survey.

Introduction: Although educational attainment is protective against health risk behaviors such as smoking, the Minorities’ Diminished Return theory posits that these protective effects are smaller for ethnic minorities than majority groups. This study compared the effects of educational attainment on the smoking status of American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) and White adults. Methods: Data came from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS - 2015). A total number of 21 114 individuals entered the current analysis. The independent variable was years of schooling. The dependent variable was current smoking status. Age, gender, region, marital status, and employment were covariates. Ethnicity was the moderator. Results: Overall, educational attainment was inversely associated with current smoking. Ethnicity showed a significant interaction with educational attainment that suggested that the protective effects of educational attainment against smoking are smaller for AIAN than for Whites. Conclusion: In the United States, while educational attainment helps individuals stay healthy by avoiding high risk behaviors such as smoking, this effect is smaller for AIANs than Whites, resulting in additional risk of smoking in highly educated AIANs. To reduce ethnic disparities in tobacco use, it is important to go beyond SES inequalities and investigate why high SES ethnic minorities remain at high risk of tobacco use.
Physical and psychological conditions of parental chronic illness, parentification and adolescent psychological adjustment

Objective: We examined the differential predictive powers of physical and psychological impacts of parental physical illness, as well as both instrumental and emotional aspects of parentification, on adolescent distress.Design: Forty-seven parents with chronic physical illness and 132 adolescent children completed separate questionnaires that measured parental health conditions and adolescents' parentification, peer attachment, and psychological distress.Main findings: Ill parents' energy/fatigue level was not related to adolescent distress, but ill parents' emotional well-being was directly associated with adolescent distress. Adolescents' household responsibilities were not linked to their distress level; however, higher levels of emotional parentification appeared to affect their psychological adjustment. Higher quality of peer attachment was related to lower adolescent distress.Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of addressing and fostering physically ill parents' psychosocial adjustment and emotional availability, restoring a sense of normalcy in family adaptation processes, and facilitating emotional support for adolescents, including positive parent-child relationship and peer attachment.
Vascular Complications of Splenectomy in a Patient with Gastric Dieulafoy-like Lesions in Left-sided Portal Hypertension Secondary to Splenic Vein and Artery Thrombosis.

Due to lower clinical significance, the management of Dieulafoy and Dieulafoy-like lesions is less commonly reported than the management of their impending venous equivalent, variceal bleeding. Though Dieulafoy and Dieulafoy-like lesions are often benign, they can become life-threatening in certain clinical scenarios, especially with substantial changes in hemodynamic blood flow, which results in hemorrhage. Post-procedural hemodynamic blood flow should be carefully monitored in patients who receive procedures that drastically alter hemodynamic flow pressures. Factoring in the presence of Dieulafoy and Dieulafoy-like lesions might deepen the complexity of an intuitive surgical or interventional procedure for an experienced operator, and should, therefore, involve the cooperative effort between surgical, interventional, and diagnostic services to appropriately manage the patients. The case we present demonstrates the dire consequences of a routine splenectomy when a considerable change in hemodynamic pressure across benign Dieulafoy-like lesions occurs in a patient with both splenic artery and venous thrombosis.
Life cycle sustainability assessment of geothermal heating and cooling system: UIC case study

This study presents a sustainability assessment of geothermal heating and cooling system of three buildings at the University of Illinois at Chicago - Grant, Lincoln, and Douglas Halls based upon the triple bottom line sustainability framework and presents a comparison between geothermal and conventional heating and cooling systems. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate and quantify the environmental impacts for both geothermal and conventional systems. Similarly, economic impacts were evaluated by making a comparison between direct and indirect costs of both systems. Indirect costs were calculated using Stepwise 2006 incorporated in monetized LCA and compared that cost with social cost of carbon. Social impacts were quantified using Social Sustainability Evaluation Matrix (SSEM) which covers four major dimensions of society: social-individual, socio-institutional, socio-economic, and socio-environmental. An overall sustainability index for geothermal system and conventional system was calculated by evaluating environmental, economic, and social impacts using Integrated Value Model for Sustainability Assessment (MIVES) methodology. The results show that the geothermal heating and cooling system is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than the conventional system.
Accelerated SGD for Tensor Decomposition of Sparse Count Data

The rapid growth in the collection of high-dimensional data has led to the emergence of tensor decomposition, a powerful analysis method for the exploration of multidimensional data. Since tensor decomposition can extract hidden structures and capture underlying relationships between variables, it has been used successfully across a broad range of applications. However, tensor decomposition is a computationally expensive task, and existing methods developed to decompose large sparse tensors of count data are not efficient enough when being performed with limited computing resources. Therefore, we propose AS-CP, a novel algorithm to accelerate convergence of the stochastic gradient descent based CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) decomposition model through an extrapolation method. The proposed framework can be easily parallelized in an asynchronous way. Our empirical results on three real-world datasets demonstrate that AS-CP decreases the total computation time and scales readily to large datasets without necessitating a high-performance computing platform or environment. The advantage of AS-CP over several state-of-the-art methods is also shown through a machine learning task as the computed factors by AS-CP can help identify better clinical characteristics from EHR data.
Fundraising for Academicians

Fundraising is a key expectation for academic leaders at all institutional levels and philanthropy provides valuable resources to carry forward institutional priorities. But, fundraising can also be among the most daunting and seemingly unfamiliar tasks for academicians. Academic leaders who are successful fundraisers have realistic expectations for fundraising and know that high-level, individual fundraising requires a relational approach. By becoming versed in broad trends in philanthropic giving, academics acquire valuable knowledge to guide their decisions while also preparing to serve as guides and educators for donors. Alumni participation rates are often over-emphasized as a measure of fundraising success. In order to foster a balanced and fruitful approach to fundraising, it is important to examine data about alumni giving and the broader trends effecting giving by graduates.
Structural Coloration from Self-Limiting Films of Self-Assembled Dielectric Mie Scatters

We demonstrate structural coloration from self-limiting films of self-assembled nano to microspheres with accurate layer control. Colors originate from Mie scattering and multilayer structures cover broad colors, which are inferred from structures using neural networks.
Transmission-and-Distribution Dynamic Co-simulation Framework for Distributed Energy Resource Frequency Response

The rapid deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) in distribution networks has made it challenging to balance the transmission system and stabilize frequency. DERs have the ability to provide frequency regulation services; however, existing frequency dynamic simulation tools—which were developed mainly for the transmission system—lack the capability to simulate distribution network dynamics with high penetrations of DERs. Although electromagnetic transient simulation tools can simulate distribution network dynamics, the computation efficiency limits their use for large-scale transmission-and-distribution (T&D) co-simulation. This paper presents an efficient open-source T&D dynamic co-simulation framework for DER frequency response based on the HELICS platform and off-the-shelf T&D simulators. The challenge of synchronizing the simulation time between the transmission network and the DERs in the distribution network is solved through the detailed modeling of DERs in frequency dynamic models while DER power flow models are also preserved in the distribution networks, thereby respecting local voltage constraints when dispatching DER power for frequency response. DER frequency response (primary and secondary) is simulated in case studies to validate the proposed framework. Last, the accuracy of the proposed co-simulation model is benchmarked, and a large T&D system simulation (2k transmission and 1M distribution nodes) is presented to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall framework.
Teamwork in Volleyball

(1957). Teamwork in Volleyball. Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation: Vol. 28, No. 8, pp. 8-64.
Automated Refinement Checking for Asynchronous Processes

We consider the problem of refinement checking for asynchronous processes where refinement corresponds to stutter-closed language inclusion. Since an efficient algorithmic solution to the refinement check demands the construction of a witness that defines the private specification variables in terms of the implementation variables, we first propose a construction to extract a synchronous witness from the specification. This automatically reduces individual refinement checks to reachability analysis. Second, to alleviate the state-explosion problem during search, we propose a reduction scheme that exploits the visibility information about transitions in a recursive manner based on the architectural hierarchy. Third, we establish compositional and assume-guarantee proof rules for decomposing the refinement check into subproblems. All these techniques work in synergy to reduce the computational requirements of refinement checking. We have integrated the proposed methodology based on an enumerative search in the model checker Mocha. We illustrate our approach on sample benchmarks.
Do Acquisitions of Private Targets Create Higher Value? The Role of Intangible Assets Acquired

Using a novel dataset that includes estimates of the fair value of the targets’ purchased tangible and intangible assets, we demonstrate that private targets have significantly more intangible assets than do public targets. We then develop a valuation model that is based on the fair values of the targets’ tangible and intangible assets and show that relative to public targets, private targets generate higher synergies in the acquisitions. However, the higher synergies in private target acquisitions are not the result of the target status but are driven by the larger amount of intangible assets acquired in those deals. We also find that the variance of synergies in private targets is much larger than that in acquisitions of public targets. Finally, our results are robust for known effects such as mode of payment and expected growth.
Identification of a region in the human vasoactive intestinal polypeptide gene responsible for regulation by cyclic AMP.

Abstract Transcription of the vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) gene is regulated by cAMP. To identify the nucleotide sequences in the human VIP gene responsible for this regulation, we constructed chimeric genes containing different portions of the 5'-flanking region of the human VIP gene fused to the structural sequence encoding the bacterial reporter enzyme chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT). The transcriptional activities of the fusion genes introduced into the rat pheochromocytoma cell line PC12 were assayed by measuring CAT activity in the cell lysates. Forskolin, an adenylate cyclase-activating agent, stimulated the expression of VIP-CAT fusion genes. Deletional analysis demonstrated that a region between -86 and -70 nucleotides upstream from the transcriptional origin of the human VIP gene was responsible for stimulation by forskolin. This region was able to confer cAMP-responsiveness to a gene that is not normally regulated by cAMP. Two copies of a 5 base pair motif, 5'-CGTCA-3', are required for activity of the VIP cAMP regulatory region. This motif is also present in the cAMP regulatory region of several other eukaryotic genes.
Parallelizable execution-driven simulation of threaded distributed memory parallel computations

Discrete-event simulation is an important tool used for the performance evaluation of parallel systems. The space of tradeoffs is large however, when attempting to balance model fidelity and simulation execution tame. The paper describes a simulator-TAPS (Threaded Application Parallel System Simulator)-that, in the context of threaded parallel computations, provides a spectrum of possibilities in this tradeoff space. TAPS is specifically designed to be parallelized; we discuss some crucial considerations regarding its parallelization.
FinQL: A Query Language for Big Data in Finance

This paper presents the design rationale and specifications for FinQL, a new, domain specific, query language that addresses the complexities of time series data, research idea articulation, and backtesting in finance. The language empowers end users by enabling them to write queries in a syntax similar to the natural language used in the domain. We present the underlying domain model, define the structure and syntax of FinQL, and show how it enables both longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis as well as some automation of the research process. We demonstrate the expressive power of FinQL through examples and extend it to activity-based and range-based series.
Serials automation: A look at financial considerations

The recent tendency to move away from centrally operated nationwide serials automation has stimulated a new thrust in the development of micro and mini computer based serials systems. For example, PERLINE, INNOVACQ, OCLCs Serials Control 350, and the Faxon Co.% MicroLinx immediately loom as possible alternatives or are at least illustrative of locally operated systems. Juxtaposed to the decision to acquire any of these or other developing systems is a series of financial considerations. Central to the choice, then, of a system are such factors as capital funding, data conversion or transfer, staff wages associated with implementing the system, additional new costs or possible savings associated with operating a new system, the purchase of supporting supplies and maintenance, and the possible costs of running two systems during a transition period.
Navigating Straight Waters: The Lived Experience of How Out, White, Gay Males Have Successfully Navigated the College Presidential Search Process

Lesbians and gays are one of the most ostracized and marginalized groups in the U.S. (Rankin, Weber, Blumenfeld, & Frazer, 2010). With a limited number of out, gay leaders to study, minimal research has been conducted on how gays have navigated their way into visible leadership positions (Fassinger, Shullman, & Stevenson, 2010; Snyder, 2006). This qualitative study examined the lived experience of how out, White, gay males have successfully navigated the presidential search process. The study utilizes the framework of social dominance theory, queer theory, and co-cultural theory in exploring the historical and current environment for lesbian and gays within the United States. This national study utilized a qualitative, phenomenological approach. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 participants. Study findings included: (a) most gay men have a nontraditional career pathway to the presidency; (b) while gay men are resilient in overcoming the dominant heteronormative culture impacts, dominant culture beliefs continue to play a significant role in the search process; (c) gay men believe that being out during the search process speaks to their integrity and character; and (d) gay men strategically utilize two communication approaches when communicating with the dominant culture in an effort to assess if the heteronormative environment will be affirming.
Generating long material gradients by convection and alternating flow in a microchannel

Natural materials exhibit anisotropy with variations in soluble factors, cell distribution, and matrix properties. The ability to recreate the heterogeneity of the natural materials is a major challenge for investigating cell-material interactions and for developing biomimetic materials. Here we present a generic fluidic approach using convection and alternating flow to rapidly generate multi-centimeter gradients of biomolecules, polymers, beads and cells and cross-gradients of two species in a microchannel. A poly(ethylene-glycol) hydrogel gradient and a porous collagen gradient were generated with continuous variations in material properties. A composite material with a gelatin/hyaluronic acid cross-gradient was generated that exhibited a continuous gradient in cell attachment. This simple yet generic fluidic platform should prove useful for creating anisotropic biomimetic materials and high-throughput platforms for investigating cell-microenvironment interaction.
Characterization of Limestones and Their Effects In Vitro and In Vivo in Dairy Cattle

Capacities of limestones of differing particle size to neutralize acid in vitro and to modify pH and utilization of feedstuffs in vivo were compared. Acid neutralization during pH-stat titrations was faster for fine than for coarse limestone, and mixed microbial cultures were more resistant to pH change when they contained fine calcium carbonate. Diets containing 25:75 corn silage to concentrates and .95% calcium from either coarse or fine limestone were fed to rumen-fistulated heifers. Total ruminal volatile fatty acid concentrations were higher for the fine limestone treatment. Ruminal volumes, dry matter disappearance, and ruminal fluid pH and dilution rate did not differ between fine and coarse limestone treatments. Ruminal fluid volume, osmolality, ratios of acetate to propionate, and concentrations of total volatile fatty acids were unaffected in rumen-fistulated Holstein cows fed 60:40 corn silage to concentrates and either .5% calcium (control) or 1.0% calcium from either coarse or fine limestone. Ruminal pH increased .07 to .10 units with limestone supplementation. Ruminal fluid dilution and particulate turnover rates were slower for the coarse limestone than the control treatment. Differences between coarse and fine limestones in vitro were observed under some conditions in vivo, but they were not consistent.
Evaluation of the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic criteria for sepsis in dogs

Objective To evaluate the ability of various individual criteria and grouped criteria to diagnose sepsis in dogs. Study design Prospective acquisition of clinical data. Animals or sample population Client-owned dogs; 30 septic and 320 nonseptic. Methods Rectal temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, white blood cell (WBC) count with percent bands, platelet count, and serum glucose concentration were obtained on day 0. True sepsis was determined on days 0 to 3 according to the following criteria: (1) histological, microbiological, and/or gross confirmation of infection, and (2) systemic illness caused by infection. Data were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U test and multiple logistic regression. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Results The mean temperature, heart rate, WBC count, and percent bands were greater, whereas the mean platelet count was less in septic compared with nonseptic dogs. There was no difference in respiratory rate or glucose concentration. WBC/bands were the best individual criterion for the diagnosis of sepsis (sensitivity 87%; specificity 69%). The sensitivity and specificity of the grouped criteria (> or = two of four; temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, WBC) varied according to ranges of normal used. Multiple logistic regression resulted in little improvement in the sensitivity/specificity of these diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of sepsis. Conclusions These criteria are useful for the diagnosis of sepsis when limits are used that result in a high sensitivity (e.g., 97%). The high sensitivity was associated with a low false-negative and a high false-positive rate; sepsis was overdiagnosed with these grouped criteria. Clinical relevance These criteria may be used for a sensitive, but nonspecific, diagnosis of sepsis in dogs.
Structural changes associated with the acid inactivation of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase.

Abstract Horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase is inactivated on exposure to acid solution. This loss of catalytic activity is accompanied by a “blue-shift” in the absorption spectrum of the protein with maxima at 287 and 294 mμ, characteristic of tyrosine and tryptophan residues. The tryptophan fluorescence of the protein is also quenched in acid solution. Acid difference spectra and fluorescence quenching are time-dependent in the pH 3.5–5.0 region, indicating that structural changes occur in the molecule under these conditions. Exposure of enzyme to acid results in an increased exposure of the tryptophan residues to solvent based on an increased fluorescence enhancement by 1,2-propanediol. There is a decrease in fluorescence polarization of 5-dimethylamino-1-naphthalenesulfonate-labeled enzyme, which is suggestive of a loosening of a portion of the molecule in acid solution.
Apex1 can cleave complex clustered DNA lesions in cells.

Abstract Current data indicate that clustered DNA damage generated by ionizing radiation contains 2–5 damages within 20 bps. The complexity of clustered damage is also believed to increase as the linear energy transfer of the radiation increases. Complex lesions are therefore biologically relevant especially with the use of carbon ion beam therapy to treat cancer. Since two closely opposed AP site analogs (furans) are converted to a double strand break (DSB) in cells, we hypothesized that breakage could be compromised by increasing the complexity of the cluster. We have examined the repair of clusters containing three and four lesions in mouse fibroblasts using a luciferase reporter plasmid. The addition of a third furan did reduce but not eliminate cleavage, while a tandem 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8oxoG) immediately 5′ to one furan in a two or three furan cluster decreased DSB formation by a small amount. In vitro studies using nuclear extracts demonstrated that the tandem 8oxoG was not removed under conditions where the furan was cleaved, but the presence of the 8oxoG reduced cleavage at the furan. Interestingly, a cluster of an 8oxoG opposite a furan did not form a DSB in cells. We have shown that Apex1 can cleave these complex clustered lesions in cells. This therefore indicates that Apex1 can generate complex DSBs from clustered lesions consisting of base damage and AP sites. Repair of these complex DSBs may be compromised by the nearby oxidative damage resulting in potentially lethal and biologically relevant damage.
Implications of ribozyme kinetics for targeting the cleavage of specific RNA molecules in vivo: more isn't always better.

Abstract Kinetic and thermodynamic factors that determine specificity of RNA cleavage by ribozymes are illustrated with examples from recent work with a ribozyme derived from the group I intron of Tetrahymena thermophila pre-rRNA. The conclusions also apply to other ribozymes, to antisense oligonucleotide experiments, and to RNA and DNA cleavage agents that can recognize a single-stranded or double-stranded region of variable length. At first, adding bases to a ribozyme's recognition sequence is expected to increase cleavage of the target RNA relative to cleavage of other RNAs. However, adding more bases ultimately reduces this discrimination, as cleavage occurs essentially every time the target RNA or a mismatched RNA binds the ribozyme. This occurs despite the weaker binding of the mismatched RNA because dissociation becomes too slow (binding is too strong) to allow the ribozyme to "choose" between cleavage of the target RNA and a mismatched RNA. In summary, more (base pairing) isn't always better, because maximal discrimination requires equilibrium binding prior to cleavage. The maximum discrimination that can be obtained is expected to be greater with an A + U-rich recognition sequence than with a G + C-rich recognition sequence. This is because the weaker A.U base pairs (relative to G-C base pairs) allow recognition to be spread over a larger number of bases while preventing binding that is too strong. Finally, creating an A-rich ribozyme rather than a U-rich ribozyme avoids the loss in discrimination expected with U-rich ribozymes from the formation of U.G wobble pairs in addition to the "targeted" Watson-Crick U.A pair.
C-Nucleoside Analogues of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN)

Abstract 5-(β-D-Ribofuranosyl)nicotinamide (lie) and 6-(β-D-ribo-furanosyDpicolinamide (IId) and their corresponding o-isomers (III) were synthesized from ribonolactone. The C-nucleoside lie was further converted to its 5′-monophosphate Up which is isosteric to NMN Ip).
Lateral interactions between standard cells using pattern matching

This paper proposes a novel method of identifying interactions between neighboring standard cells via fast-CAD pattern matching. Studies of cell-to-cell interactions for both metal 1 and poly layouts are made for selected samples from libraries for 130 and 90 nm generations provided under an NDA agreement by ST Microelectronics. Both simulation and pattern matching are utilized to identify and quantify hot-spots. The physical basis for pattern matching is described. In validating pattern matching compared to full simulation, changes in linewidth for a fixed defocus setting varied quadratically with pattern match factor and can be modeled by a parabolic equation with an r-squared value of 0.77. Results demonstrate that there is a considerable best-to-worst variation of 4-7% in the linewidth among neighbors, which is produced through a focus swing of 0.58 Rayleigh Units (RU). The focus swing is oscillatory with cell separation distance, and a slight shift in spacing on the order of 0.5 λ /NA can mitigate lateral interaction effects.
Nuclear transition currents and vorticity

Abstract In high-energy electron-nucleus scattering, a new quantity for characterizing the additional information about the structure of a nuclear transition contained in the current distributions is defined, the vorticity density. It is symmetrical between the states involved in the transition, and it is completely unconstrained by the transition charge distribution. It is evaluated and discussed for single-particle harmonic oscillator transitions, for hydrodynamic collective transitions, and then for 3− transitions in 208Pb as described by the random phase approximation. Its relationship to collectivity is discussed.
Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism ; the genetic defect : a hypothesis based on human and animal prototypes

X-linked hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) in humans may involve the genes responsible for the development and migration of GnRH neurons from the olfactory placode to the hypothalamus. The evidence for this includes the lack of hyperprolactinaemia in cases of X-linked HH, the associated abnormalities in the context of contiguous gene syndromes involving Xp deletions, and pertinent anatomical findings. The genetic defect in human HH appears, therefore, to be different from that found in the hpg mouse model.