cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The WRKY6 Transcription Factor Modulates PHOSPHATE1 Expression in Response to Low Pi Stress in Arabidopsis

Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY family comprises 74 members and some of them are involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. This study demonstrated that WRKY6 is involved in Arabidopsis responses to low-Pi stress through regulating PHOSPHATE1 (PHO1) expression. WRKY6 overexpression lines, similar to the pho1 mutant, were more sensitive to low Pi stress and had lower Pi contents in shoots compared with wild-type seedlings and the wrky6-1 mutant. Immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that WRKY6 can bind to two W-boxes of the PHO1 promoter. RNA gel blot and β-glucuronidase activity assays showed that PHO1 expression was repressed in WRKY6-overexpressing lines and enhanced in the wrky6-1 mutant. Low Pi treatment reduced WRKY6 binding to the PHO1 promoter, which indicates that PHO1 regulation by WRKY6 is Pi dependent and that low Pi treatment may release inhibition of PHO1 expression. Protein gel blot analysis showed that the decrease in WRKY6 protein induced by low Pi treatment was inhibited by a 26S proteosome inhibitor, MG132, suggesting that low Pi–induced release of PHO1 repression may result from 26S proteosome–mediated proteolysis. In addition, WRKY42 also showed binding to W-boxes of the PHO1 promoter and repressed PHO1 expression. Our results demonstrate that WRKY6 and WRKY42 are involved in Arabidopsis responses to low Pi stress by regulation of PHO1 expression.
The Textile Industries in Silesia and the Rhineland: A Comparative Study in Industrialization

The gradual yet cumulative advance of West European capitalism was in large part epitomized by the developments of its textile trades. They were the first to carry the seeds of economic change into the stagnant preserves of guild conservatism, and subsequently they again proved to be the pioneers of the new factory system. In Germany the sequence of economic change was not quite as uniform. Each German textile district emerged as a specific case of economic growth with contours of industrial evolution that manifested unique deviations from the broad pattern of development. The heterogeneity of the German lands, particularly marked before the advent of the railways, was both cause and effect of this diversity.
Stress Signaling in Paraquat-Induced Target Organ Toxicity

Paraquat is a rather toxic pro-oxidant herbicide, prompting multi-organ failure, including the heart, brain, and lung injuries, although the precise underlying mechanism(s) remains poorly understood. Up-to-date, a number of signaling machineries have been postulated for paraquat toxicity, such as accumulation of free radical species and development of oxidative stress. Paraquat is believed to serve as a potent ROS generator, resulting in detrimental biological effects through oxidative stress injury and mitochondrial dysfunction. In this mini-review we will recapitulate some aspects of paraquat toxicity in main body organs, including the lungs, brain, and heart. Cellular mechanisms behind paraquat toxicity will be discussed with a focus on oxidative stress, mitochondrial injury, and autophagy. Special attention will be given to the direct stress signaling and pro-inflammatory signaling cascades triggered by paraquat exposure in the herbicide-induced organ damage.
The Measurement and Significance of CO 2 -Gas Exchange Transients in Leaves

While studies on plants at the organellar and molecular level are yielding a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of photosynthesis, efforts at the whole plant and leaf levels strive to reveal which reactions limit photosynthesis and thus growth and dry matter accumulation. One of the tools available to the plant physiologist is the study of transient phenomena in gas exchange induced by an environmental perturbation of a preconditioned leaf. Sivak and Walker (1) have described the use of an array of gas exchange transients coupled to measurements of fluorescence to probe regulation of photosynthesis during induction of this process upon illumination of a previously darkened leaf. Studies of the effects of light flecks on photosynthesis are pertinent to photochemical efficiency in variable environments such as those found in dense leaf canopies and under-stories (2). The transient peak in the rate of release of CO2 observed upon darkening (3–6) or shading (7, 8) a preilluminated leaf has long been a basis for estimation of photorespiration.
“Wishing your Family, Chrysler, and the Government an Abundance of Happiness for Christmas and the New Year”: The Chrysler Bailout and the Strange Persistence of New Deal Liberalism

In terms of industrial decline, Chrysler was just another death rattle among the blast furnaces sputtering throughout the Midwest, the dimming hum of shuttering textile mills up and down the Piedmont, and Appalachian coal towns drying up into nothing. Yet, it was more than just layoffs and bankruptcies; it appeared to be the end of what the New Deal Order had accomplished in postwar America—stable employment and rising wages coupled with economic growth. Indeed, since World War II , Chrysler had been near the core of that very New Deal liberalism. Like its counterparts in mass-production industry, Chrysler had made its peace with organized labor and submitted to routinized collective bargaining. The seeds of that bargaining, especially in the auto industry, set the pattern for organized and unorganized workers across the nation. The tacit partnership of the federal government, big business, and organized labor that formed the core of New Deal liberalism established the pattern of collective bargaining, routinized industrial production, Cold War consensus, Democratic Party power, federal intervention into the economy, and affluence that would define postwar American life.
Abstract 1423: Effects of DFMO-based combination therapy in advanced stage neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extra-cranial pediatric tumor. The survival probability for NB patients with disseminated disease and chemo-resistant tumors are despairingly low. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms underlying NB metastasis and chemo-resistance will be critical for developing effective chemotherapeutic strategies for NB in the future. The goal of the present study was to determine the efficacy of DFMO-based combination therapy in NB with MYCN over-expression. MYCN is a transcription factor that directly regulates the expression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a polyamine biosynthesis enzyme that has been shown to be critical for the development of MYCN-amplified NB. Our previous studies have shown that the ODC inhibitor, alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), activates two opposing pathways in NB cells, one that induced G1 cell cycle arrest by regulating p27kip1 expression and phosphorylation, and a second pathway that activated Akt/PKB signaling to promote cell survival (Cancer Res, 2008, 68:9825-31). Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the efficacy of DFMO-based combinations with PI3K/Akt inhibitors for the treatment of NB. Intracellular polyamines were depleted with the ODC inhibitor α-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), and the effects of the PI3K and Akt inhibitors on NB cell proliferation, migration and invasion were examined in NB cells. Our results show that DFMO and PI3K/Akt inhibitors were able to significantly inhibit NB proliferation, migration and invasion. However, the inhibitory effects were significantly augmented when DFMO was combined with either the PI3K or Akt inhibitor. In addition, these inhibitors, when administered alone, were able to induce p27kip1 protein accumulation, an effect that was enhanced when DFMO was combined with either the PI3K or Akt inhibitor. These combination treatments appeared to be more effective in NB cells over-expressing MYCN. Furthermore, down-regulating Akt expression also attenuated the anti-apoptotic effect induced by DFMO. The results suggest that the combination of DFMO with PI3K/Akt inhibitors is particularly effective at inhibiting cell proliferation, migration and invasion of NB cells over-expressiong MYCN, and the mechanism by which these processes are regulated involve p27kip1. Overall, this study provides further evidence that targeting both the polyamine synthesis pathway and the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway simultaneously may be an effective treatment strategy for NB, particularly because this combination inhibits multiple steps in the malignant progression of NB. In addition, this drug combination appears to be more effective in cells over-expressing MYCN, suggesting that the efficacy of this combination treatment may be greater in advanced stage NB with MYCN gene amplification. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1423. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1423
Contesting method: Discussing the historical-critical approach to the Qur’ān in Lebanon

ABSTRACTThis article examines some recent deliberations over the application of historical-critical methods to the Qurʼān in Lebanon, mainly based on two examples: the debate over the Arabic translation by George Tamer of Theodor Noldeke’s History of the Qur’ān; and the contestations to historicizing approaches of Shi’ite Shaykh Shafīq Jarādī, director of the Sapiential Knowledge Institute, who has approached questions over hermeneutics and the history of the Qurʼān from the angle of Islamic (Ṣadrian) philosophy. Examination of Jarādī’s work suggests that understanding the Qurʼān as a literary or historical document presupposes not only a change in epistemology or method, but depends on how human nature and language are conceptualized. Based on these examples, the article explores the political and epistemological rationalities the critics and proponents of the historical-critical approach to the Qurʼān employ in their discussions. The article argues that methodological, historical, and hermeneutical disc...
The growth of learning communities in undergraduate medical education.

PurposeTo determine the presence and characteristics of learning communities (LCs) in undergraduate medical education.MethodThe authors updated an earlier Web-based survey to assess LCs in medical education. Using a cross-sectional study design, they sent the survey to an LC leader or dean at each A
Cytosystematic Evidence against Monophyly of the Peromyscus boylii Species Group (Rodentia: Cricetidae)

Although the Peromyscus boylii species group (Rodentia: Cricetidae) traditionally has been considered monophyletic, recent morphologic analyses indicate that the member taxa comprise two phenotypic groups (Carleton, 1977). The magnitude of phenetic differences between these groups suggests that the boylii group consists of two distinct lineages. However, investigators advocating a dual-lineage hypothesis have restricted ingroup analyses to boylii -group members and have assumed a priori that the group was monophyletic. Because non-monophyletic alternatives are possible, a more inclusive approach using non- boylii group members is needed. A cladistic analysis of the boylii species group was performed by use of chromosomal-banding data from 31 species of Peromyscus , including eight species (comprising 12 taxa) belonging to the boylii group. Based on these data, the most parsimonious reconstruction of the phylogenetic affinities within the subgenus does not support monophyly of the boylii group, and does not corroborate the dual-lineage hypothesis. The boylii group is fragmented into several clades and, like the truei group, appears to be polyphyletic.
Religious Control of Patient

A 20 year old orthodox Jewish student with congenital renal disease had several seizures which were attributed to advanced uremia but persisted in postponing dialytic therapy on the advice of his rabbi. When confronted with his rapidly declining weight and loss of muscle mass, the patient stated that all decisions pertaining to the management of his kidney failure were to be made by his religious leader. Telephone contact with the clergyman confirmed the reality that customary sect behavior called for dominant participation by the patient’s rabbi. Previously, the rabbi, who was reluctant to employ dialysis, preferred to wait as long as possible to"avoid artificial means of healing.” The Chief of Nephrology at the university hospital caring for the patient after his seizures rejected the rabbi as intermediary and advised that unless the patient and his immediate family were free to meet with the medical staff and plan a course of therapy, he would ask the patient to transfer to another facility.
Wetting characteristics of 3-dimensional nanostructured fractal surfaces

Abstract This article reports the fabrication and wetting characteristics of 3-dimensional nanostructured fractal surfaces (3DNFS). Three distinct 3DNFS surfaces, namely cubic, Romanesco broccoli, and sphereflake were fabricated using two-photon direct laser writing. Contact angle measurements were performed on the multiscale fractal surfaces to characterize their wetting properties. Average contact angles ranged from 66.8° for the smooth control surface to 0° for one of the fractal surfaces. The change in wetting behavior was attributed to modification of the interfacial surface properties due to the inclusion of 3-dimensional hierarchical fractal nanostructures. However, this behavior does not exactly obey existing surface wetting models in the literature. Potential applications for these types of surfaces in physical and biological sciences are also discussed.
Rethinking the Study of Volition for Clinical Use

Volition, the acquired voluntary control of our actions (at will), requires from birth to development and beyond a proper balance across multiple layers of the nervous systems. These levels range from the autonomic, to the automatic, to the voluntary control level, providing as well taxonomy with phylogenetic order of appearance in evolution. In the past few decades of movement research at the behavioral and systems levels, there has been a paucity of studies focusing on the possible contributions of involuntary movements to volitional control. Moreover, the work focusing on voluntary behavior has given us a valuable body of knowledge about constrained and highly over practiced activities while work involving unrestrained, naturalistic behaviors remains scarce. Perhaps in making theoretical assumptions about our data acquisition and analyses without properly empirically verifying, these assumptions have left us with a somewhat skewed notion of how we think the brain may be realizing the neural control of bodily motions; a notion that does not exactly correspond to the outcome of the extant empirical work assessing unrestrained movements as the nervous system acquires them and modifies skillful behaviors on demand. This chapter takes advantage of new technological advances and new analytics to invite rethinking some of the problems that we study in movement science by enforcing somewhat oversimplified assumptions on the data that we model, acquire, and analyze. I show that by relaxing our a priori assumptions of normality, linearity and stationarity in data from biophysical rhythms of the nervous systems, we would gain better insights into the motor phenomena. Further, we would shy away from a “self-fulfilling prophesy” paradigm with a tendency to a priori handcraft the outcome of our inquiry. The new lens to study natural movements and their control includes as well involuntary motions that take place largely beneath deliberate awareness. I present examples of solutions amenable to the habilitation and rehabilitation of volition in patient populations and discuss a new vision for movement science in light of making a seamless transition from volitional to intentional control of actions and thoughts.
Toward a material culture of Jewish loss

AbstractWhat can physical objects tell us about the Holocaust and the experience of survivors? Studies of Jewish restitution mostly focus on the political debates and negotiations for postwar compensation, as well as institutions and actors involved in these discussions. While individual claimants might be used as examples of particular trends in studies of restitution, we lack a matrix to chart the meaning of individual claims in relation to the overall scope of Jewish reparations. This paper explores the nature of individual property claims in an effort to sketch out a material culture of Jewish loss. Although material culture studies tend to explore how goods reflect everyday life and culture, this paper uses this approach to study the personal, political and socio-economic meanings of wartime theft and postwar restitution.
Influence of blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio on oncologic outcomes in peritoneal carcinomatosis of appendiceal origin.

e14184 Background: The Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a marker of systemic inflammatory response, is associated with prognosis in various cancers. The aim of this study is to evaluate the as...
Multipotent and Poly-therapeutic Fungal Alkaloids of Claviceps purpurea

Claviceps are a group of phytopathogenic ascomycetes which includes around 50 known species. Claviceps purpurea, Claviceps fusiformis, Claviceps paspali, Claviceps africana, and Claviceps lutea are the most common and well-characterized fungi. Ergot alkaloids and other constituents derived from Claviceps are beneficial for various clinical applications in humans and animals. However, they also contain certain chemicals that are extremely addictive, abusive, and lethal. Ergot derivatives exhibit interesting pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects. Their pharmacodynamic actions are attributed to their agonistic, partial agonistic, and antagonistic effects on different receptors pertaining to the monoaminergic neurotransmitters. Due to their binding (with or without intrinsic effects) ability on the receptors, they induce numerous pharmacological effects which have potential medical values. Methysergide, ergotamine, dihydroergotamine, ergometrine (ergonovine), pergolide, ergoloid mesylates, and bromocriptine are the most popular ergot-based drugs used globally for treating numerous diseases. These drugs have been used to treat inflammatory-, infectious-, neurological-, cardiovascular-, gastrointestinal-, endocrinological-, sexual-, and urological-related pathologies. Hence, they are considered as a multipotent and poly-therapeutic fungus.
High-purity cobalt … its properties

A research-in-progress report on the basic properties of high-purity cobalt. Control of purity and process were found to be extremely important for accurate results.
National outcomes following single-level cervical disc arthroplasty versus anterior cervical discectomy and fusion

Background: To compare the differences in the thirty-day postoperative outcomes between cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). Methods: Patients undergoing primary single-level ACDF and CDA from 2010–2014 were identified by unique Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes within the American College of Surgeon’s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database. Primary outcomes included surgical and medical complications, length of hospital stay (LOS), unplanned readmission, return to operating room, and mortality all occurring within 30 days of the initial procedure. Patients were propensity score-matched to reduce selection bias and differences in preoperative characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression models were utilized to determine associations between covariates and primary outcomes of interest. Results: Propensity score-matching produced a cohort of 1,305 patients with 652 (50.0%) ACDF and 653 (50.0%) CDA patients. There were no statistically significant differences in the development of major surgical or medical complications between the groups. ACDF patients experienced a significantly longer LOS (2.3±14.8 vs. 1.1±1.0 days, P=0.034) and unplanned hospital readmission (1.8% vs . 0.2%, P=0.002). For ACDF patients, increased LOS [odds ratios (OR), 4.21; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.29–13.73; P=0.017] and increased readmission (OR, 12.17; 95% CI, 1.16–127.23; P=0.037) persisted in the multivariate model. Elevated ASA classification, preoperative anemia and elevated white blood cell count (WBC) were also associated with a significantly increased LOS. Conclusions: Although ACDF and CDA can be indicated for similar cervical pathologies, the latter can be performed safely and effectively with comparable perioperative risk of major complications. The increased readmission rate and LOS for patients undergoing ACDF may have significant impact on patient cost and outcomes.
Three members of a peptide family are differentially distributed and elicit differential state-dependent responses in a pattern generator-effector system.

Multiple isoforms of many peptides exert similar effects on neural circuits. In this study we show that each of the three isoforms of C-type allatostatin (AST-C) can exert differential effects, inc...
An API honeypot for DDoS and XSS analysis

Honeypots are servers or systems built to mimic critical parts of a network, distracting attackers while logging their information to develop attack profiles. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a honeypot disguised as a REpresentational State Transfer (REST) Application Programming Interface (API). We discuss the motivation for this work, design features of the honeypot, and experimental performance results under various traffic conditions. We also present analyses of both a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and a cross-site scripting (XSS) malware insertion attempt against this honeypot.
STRUCTURAL REGULARITY AND CRYSTALLINITY IN MACROMOLECULES

Abstract Structural regularity is a primary requisite for the crystallization of a polymer. Fulfillment of this requirement is dictated by the long-range order and symmetry that is characteristic of the crystalline state. It follows that, in order to crystallize, a polymer chain must consist of identical units regularly repeated throughout its length or over long sequences thereof. Stereochemical regularity must be maintained as well if a high degree of crystallization is to be realized. This latter assertion is vividly demonstrated in the epochal investigations of stereoregular vinyl polymers by Professor Giulio Natta, to whose memory this International Symposium is so fittingly dedicated, and by his collaborators and followers throughout the world. It finds illustration also in comparisons of polymers of biological origin with their synthetic analogs; the former generally are highly stereoregular, the latter ordinarily are not, vinyl polymers obtained by stereospecific polymerization excepted. Presence of structural or stereochemical irregularities in macromolecules lowers the melting point and decreases the degree of crystallinity. In the case of block copolymers the crystallizable blocks may be selectively crystallized; the melting point is little depressed if the blocks are long. These aspects find abundant illustration also in the polymers extensively investigated by Professor Natta and his colleagues. In order to trace the intricate connections between structural regularity and physical properties, it is necessary to comprehend the conformational preferences among the many conformations accessible to a polymer chain. Methods are well established for this purpose. Their application to vinyl polymer chains emphasizes the role of stereochemical structure in affecting the spatial form of the macromolecule and, hence, the properties of the polymer.
Role of Pinoline and Melatonin in Stabilizing Hepatic Microsomal Membranes against Oxidative Stress

We investigated the influence of pinoline (0.01-1.5 mM) on microsomal membrane fluidity before and after rigidity was induced by oxidative stress. In addition, we tested the effect of pinoline in the presence of 1 mM melatonin. The fluidity in rat hepatic microsomes was monitored using fluorescence spectroscopy and it was compared to the inhibition of malonaldehyde (MDA) plus 4-hydroxyalkenals (4-HDA) production as a reflection of lipid peroxidation. Below 0.6 mM, pinoline inhibited membrane rigidity in a manner parallel to its inhibitory effect on MDA + 4-HDA formation. At concentrations between 1-1.5 mM, pinoline was less effective in stabilizing microsomal membranes than was predicted from its inhibition of lipid peroxidation. The addition of 1 mM melatonin enhanced the membrane-stabilizing activity of pinoline (0.01-0.6 mM). This cooperative effect was not observed for concentrations of pinoline between 1-1.5 mM. When pinoline was tested without induced oxidative damage, 1-1.5 mM pinoline maintained membrane fluidity at the same level as that recorded after induced lipid peroxidation. The results suggest that pinoline may be another pineal molecule that prevents membrane rigidity mediated by lipid peroxidation and this ability is enhanced by melatonin.
Preparation of λgt10 and λgt11 cDNA Cloning Vectors

Publisher Summary λgt10 and λgt11 are bacteriophage cloning vectors designed to generate cDNA libraries from eukaryotic mRNA. They are efficient in generating many clones from small amounts of DNA. These vectors also have an advantage over pBR plasmids for library formation, because screening and manipulating plaques offers many technical advantages compared to screening bacterial colonies. The vector λgt10 has a strong biological selection against lytic growth of non-cDNA-bearing bacteriophage in an appropriate host. Insertion of cDNA into λgt10 inactivates the phage repressor gene. When λgt10 is plated on a high-frequency lysogeny mutant of c600, only phage-bearing cDNA inserts form lytic plaques, while both insert-bearing and non-insert-bearing phage form plaques on a non-hfl c600 host. λgt11 lacks this selection but is a protein expression cDNA cloning vector. cDNA inserts in λgt11 are cloned into the carboxyl end of the β-galactosidase gene-coding region. The translation products of cDNA inserts may therefore be expressed as a β-gal-cDNA fusion protein.
Image-Guided Intervention in Gynecologic Oncology

Image-guided intervention in gynecologic oncology includes biopsy, aspiration and drainage, transcatheter treatment, and intraoperative guidance for surgical procedures. This chapter focuses on needle biopsy and aspiration, using ultrasound and CT guidance.
The ionophore oxyclozanide enhances tobramycin killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms by permeabilizing cells and depolarizing the membrane potential.

Objectives To assess the ability of oxyclozanide to enhance tobramycin killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and elucidate its mechanism of action. Methods Twenty-four hour biofilms formed by the P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 and cystic fibrosis (CF) isolates were tested for susceptibility to oxyclozanide and tobramycin killing using BacTiter-Glo™ and cfu. Biofilm dispersal was measured using crystal violet staining. Membrane potential and permeabilization were quantified using DiOC2(3) and TO-PRO-3, respectively. Results Here we show that the ionophore anthelmintic oxyclozanide, combined with tobramycin, significantly increased killing of P. aeruginosa biofilms over each treatment alone. This combination also significantly accelerated the killing of cells within biofilms and stationary phase cultures and it was effective against 4/6 CF clinical isolates tested, including a tobramycin-resistant strain. Oxyclozanide enhanced the ability of additional aminoglycosides and tetracycline to kill P. aeruginosa biofilms. Finally, oxyclozanide permeabilized cells within the biofilm, reduced the membrane potential and increased tobramycin accumulation within cells of mature P. aeruginosa biofilms. Conclusions Oxyclozanide enhances aminoglycoside and tetracycline activity against P. aeruginosa biofilms by reducing membrane potential, permeabilizing cells and enhancing tobramycin accumulation within biofilms. We propose that oxyclozanide counteracts the adaptive resistance response of P. aeruginosa to aminoglycosides, increasing both their maximum activity and rate of killing. As oxyclozanide is widely used in veterinary medicine for the treatment of parasitic worm infections, this combination could offer a new approach for the treatment of biofilm-based P. aeruginosa infections, repurposing oxyclozanide as an anti-biofilm agent.
UNIT 22.5 Pattern Discovery in Expression Profiling Data

In expression profiling studies, it is often necessary to identify groups of genes with similar expression profiles in a variety of samples, and/or groups of samples with similar expression profiles. Each profile can be expressed as a single data point in a space with the same number of dimensions as there are parameters in the profiles. In this way, pattern discovery among expression profiles is translated into pattern discovery in the spatial distribution of data points: the similarity between profiles is defined by the distance between the corresponding data points. Various multivariate analysis methods, such as clustering and dimensionality reduction methods, are used to summarize the data point distribution to help the investigator recognize major trends. As different methods may identify different features of the distribution, it is important to analyze a particular data set with multiple methods. Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biol. 85:22.5.1-22.5.15. © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Keywords: hierarchical clustering; K-means; dimensionality reduction; multivariate analysis; principal component analysis; self-organizing maps; Pearson correlation coefficient
‘She Made Herself up Provocatively for the Charming of the Eyes of Men’ (Jdt. 10.4): Cosmetics and Body Adornment in the Stories of Judith and Susanna:

The use of cosmetics and body adornment in order to decorate and beautify oneself is an almost universal part of the human experience. This was also true of the ancient Palestinian culture that gav...
Examining teacher stress-vulnerability in the US secondary school context

Understanding how teachers appraise their environments for potential demands and resources can inform education stakeholders interested in mitigating vocational stress. Using data from the United S...
Rate-Based Dynamic Shortest Path Algorithm for Efficiently Routing Multiple Flows in SDN

Efficient routing necessitates the underlying path selection algorithms to find a path that can satisfy certain Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements of a given flow while maximizing throughput and minimizing maximum link-load. In the case of routing multiple flows at the same time, finding such multiple paths even with just the bandwidth constraint is a well-known NP-hard problem and has been widely studied in the literature as the Unsplittable Flow Problem (UFP). Unfortunately, the existing approximation and heuristic solutions suffer from excessive computation time or low performance in maximizing throughput and minimizing maximum link-load. In this paper, we propose a new effective heuristic solution to find multiple paths that can satisfy bandwidth requirements of a given set of unsplittable flows while providing better throughput and load balancing in Software Defined Networks (SDN). We demonstrate the efficiency of our heuristic using simulations.
Human neural stem cells improve early stage stroke outcome in delayed tissue plasminogen activator-treated aged stroke brains

Abstract Introduction Clinically, significant stroke injury results from ischemia-reperfusion (IR), which induces a deleterious biphasic opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) remains the sole pharmacological agent to treat ischemic stroke. However, major limitations of tPA treatment include a narrow effective therapeutic window of 4.5 h in most patients after initial stroke onset and off-target non-thrombolytic effects (e.g., the risk of increased IR injury). We hypothesized that ameliorating BBB damage with exogenous human neural stem cells (hNSCs) would improve stroke outcome to a greater extent than treatment with delayed tPA alone in aged stroke mice. Methods We employed middle cerebral artery occlusion to produce focal ischemia with subsequent reperfusion (MCAO/R) in aged mice and administered tPA at a delayed time point (6 h post-stroke) via tail vein. We transplanted hNSCs intracranially in the subacute phase of stroke (24 h post-stroke). We assessed the outcomes of hNSC transplantation on pathophysiological markers of stroke 48 h post-stroke (24 h post-transplant). Results Delayed tPA treatment resulted in more extensive BBB damage and inflammation relative to MCAO controls. Notably, transplantation of hNSCs ameliorated delayed tPA-induced escalated stroke damage; decreased expression of proinflammatory factors (tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin (IL)-6), decreased the level of matrix metalloprotease-9 (MMP-9), increased the level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and reduced BBB damage. Conclusions Aged stroke mice that received delayed tPA treatment in combination with hNSC transplantation exhibited reduced stroke pathophysiology in comparison to non-transplanted stroke mice with delayed tPA. This suggests that hNSC transplantation may synergize with already existing stroke therapies to benefit a larger stroke patient population.
Breast cancer receptor subtypes in East Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

e19074Background: Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are determinants of both treatment and mortality for patients with breast c...
The Effect of the Medicaid Expansion on Dropout Rates

BACKGROUND This study investigates how the Medicaid Expansion of the Affordable Care Act affected state high school dropout rates. METHODS This study relies on a differences-in-differences estimation strategy that is common in program evaluation, especially in education. This method replicates in a regression framework a classic pre-test post-test comparison group quasi-experimental design. The analysis is conducted at the state level, which reduces the precision of the estimates. RESULTS States that adopted the Medicaid Expansion had a 0.658 percentage point greater reduction in dropout rates than non-Expansion states in the year of Medicaid implementation. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that if all the remaining non-Expansion states adopted Medicaid, there would be a decrease of over 92,500 youths who drop out of high school, representing a drop of 11.2% in the number of dropouts in these states. CONCLUSION The Medicaid Expansion of the Affordable Care Act is more than just a health insurance program; it is a dropout prevention program.
Characterization of the Rate of Aortic Dilation in Young Patients with Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm

Longitudinal changes in aortic diameters of young patients with thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) have not been completely described, particularly over long periods of follow-up. This retrospective study sought to characterize the rates of proximal aortic dilation in young patients, identify risk factors for TAA progression, and evaluate the predictive utility of early echocardiographic follow-up. Inclusion criteria were: (1) TAA or TAA-predisposing genetic diagnosis, (2) age 4). Among 141 included patients, mean age at first echocardiogram was 7.3 ± 3.5 years. Mean follow-up duration was 9.8 ± 3.5 years. Fifty five patients had a genetic syndrome, and 38 of the non-syndromic patients had bicuspid aortic valve (BAV). The rate of aortic dilation was significantly higher at the ascending aorta than other aortic segments. BAV and age > 10 years at first echocardiogram were associated with increased rate of ascending aorta dilation. At the ascending aorta, over 25% of patients had categorical increase in TAA severity between first and last echocardiograms, and such patients demonstrated higher rate of dilation within their first 2 years of follow-up. These longitudinal findings highlight progressive ascending aorta dilation in young patients, which may worsen around adolescence. This may help determine timing of follow-up and target ages for clinical trials.
Nonperturbative one-loop effective action for QED with Yukawa couplings

We derive the one-loop effective action for scalar, pseudoscalar, and electromagnetic fields coupled to a Dirac fermion in an extension of QED with Yukawa couplings. Using the Schwinger proper-time formalism and zeta-function regularization, we calculate the full nonperturbative effective action to one loop in the constant background field approximation. Our result is nonperturbative in the external fields, and goes beyond existing results in the literature which treat only the first nontrivial order involving the pseudoscalar. The result has an even and odd part, which are related to the modulus and phase of the fermion functional determinant. The even contribution to the effective action involves the modulus of the effective Yukawa couplings and is invariant under global chiral transformations while the odd contribution is proportional to the angle between the scalar and pseudoscalar couplings. In different limits the effective action reduces either to the Euler–Heisenberg effective action or the Coleman–Weinberg potential. We also comment on the relationship between the odd part of the effective action and the chiral anomaly in QED.
Secure Data Integrity in VANETs based on CS-DC Scheme

Wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs) have become increasingly popular in our everyday business and personal lives. Thus, users should be aware of the security risks associated with wireless technologies such as Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) which rely on nodes forwarding each other's packets. Then, without any security measures in place, any node is capable of compromising integrity of the data it forwards. In this paper, we integrated Hamming code into Compressive Sensing-Data Compression (CS-DC) scheme to detect and drop any malicious data quickly for protecting data integrity in VANETs and also, reducing the cost of communication overhead and avoiding Road Side Unit (RSU) deception. The performance of the proposed scheme shows the capability of protecting data integrity and the improvement of data transmission criteria and reduction of communication overhead in the presence of malicious nodes in VANETs.
Management Earnings Guidance as a Commitment Device

This paper examines whether issuing management earnings guidance motivates a firm to raise its performance. We hypothesize that managers understand failing to attain a forecast reflects poorly on them and would ex post motivate management and employee effort. Thus, managers choose to issue guidance ex ante to commit themselves to exert this effort. Consistent with this commitment, management then hone their firm’s production function to raise firm performance. In our analyses, we find evidence supporting this hypothesis: management issue guidance and raise performance at firms where commitment should be most beneficial for the firm, such as where (i) employee effort is impactful, (ii) performance is credibly measured, and (iii) capital markets strongly reward increased performance. Further, we find that firms alter their operating activities, rather than manage their accruals, to increase performance. The enhancement in firm performance from using managerial earnings guidance as a commitment device is accomplished by reductions in operating leverage and is strongest among firms issuing moderately aggressive forecasts. Excessively aggressive forecasts, on the other hand, yield no performance benefit. Inconsistent with concerns that forecasting causes myopia and incentivizes short-term real earnings management, performance increases persist for several years.
Forward vs. Reverse Gear: The Politics of Proliferation and Resistance in the Italian Fascist State

Gender serves as a useful category for historical analysis of the project of Italian fascist state-building, how it proceeded and how it became trapped in its own paradox. Fascist policies played upon nonnative and limited gender stereotypes of women as mothers and prolific bearers of children, yet in the process the dictatorship constructed women as political subjects for the first time in the history of the Italian state. This paper focuses on the fascists' demographics campaign-the Duce's politics of proliferation-and identifies the places in which subjects of fascism consciously chose to. act in opposition to fascist ideologies. Resistance is discussed in terms of everyday acts of noncompliance with fascist directives regarding reproduction. The strategies of legitimation that the fascists used are explored.
Natural Disasters, Nuclear Disasters, and Global Governance

This chapter uses the analytical framework of transnational legal ordering (TLO) developed by Halliday and Shaffer and applies it to the area of law and disasters. In contrast to the increasingly transnational legal nature of social ordering highlighted by Halliday and Shaffer, it argues that the emergence of transnational regulatory networks and cross-border principles or policies in the area of disaster management has been uneven and incomplete. Although there are many factors that help to explain why the law/disasters area has resisted the trend toward “transnationalization,” two stand out. One is the relative dearth of national laws and policies governing disaster management, which means that unlike other areas in which TLOs have emerged, there is an inadequate foundation of nation-specific laws and norms on which to build a transnational edifice. The second, closely related reason is that governments tend to “go it alone” when it comes to disaster management. Disasters can be difficult to predict, can carry an extraordinarily high price tag, can be geographically specific, and can affect people who lack the political clout to demand an official response. Rather than treating disaster management as an area of reciprocal risk in which the needs and interests of various countries are interdependent, therefore, nations generally manage disasters on an ad hoc, individual basis.
Effect of Vagotomy on Pancreatic Secretion Stimulated by Endogenous and Exogenous Secretin

The role of the vagus nerve in the control of pancreatic secretion was studied in 3 dogs having chronic pancreatic, gastric, and duodenal fistulae. Pancreatic volume, bicarbonate, and protein outputs were determined before and after vagotomy in response to various doses of exogenous and endogenous secretin. Endogenous secretin was released by infusion at constant volume rate of different concentrations of HCl into the duodenal cannula. Vagotomy decreased basal protein output and the protein response to low levels of duodenal acidification. Basal volume and bicarbonate outputs were unaffected by vagotomy. Significant decreases in volume and bicarbonate response to duodenal acidification (1.5 and 6.0 mEq of HCl per hr) occurred following vagotomy, but these disappeared at high rates of acid infusion (24.0 mEq of HCl per hr). Vagotomy caused a significant increase in volume and bicarbonate output in response to low doses of secretin (0.5 and 1.0 U per kg-hr). With higher doses of secretin (2.0 and 4.0 U per kg-hr) there was no difference following vagotomy. From these results we have tentatively concluded that: (1) the vagus facilitates the release of secretin in response to low levels of duodenal acidification; (2) vagotomy results in an increased sensitivity of the pancreas to low doses of secretin; and (3) vagotomy decreases basal protein output, indicating that the vagus may play a direct role in the stimulation of enzyme secretion.
The Temporal Order of Depression and Anxiety

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses about the temporal order of depression and anxiety. Popular notion of good health is concerned more with physical efficiency than it is with mental state, and the primacy of the goal of physical well-being is in accord with the development of medical science and modern technology. The care of the sick has over time been chiefly directed toward the correction of physical malfunction or organic impairment. In this chapter, the psychological model is discussed which shows functional relationships among psychological components, mental disorders, and healthy and health damaging behaviors. It is theoretical, incorporating prominent features of established theories of depression and anxiety, but it does not purport to describe the specifics of any one position. It is intended to be of general application, independent of any one school's notion of genesis, symptomology, or treatment. The model supports the notion that cognition is essential in the genesis of depression and anxiety. It was empirically demonstrated that depression may well be a critical intervening variable between self-assessment and trait anxiety, the sequence being self-assessment, depression, trait anxiety.
Surface‐to‐volume ratio mapping of tumor microstructure using oscillating gradient diffusion weighted imaging

Purpose To disentangle the free diffusivity (D0) and cellular membrane restrictions, by means of their surface-to-volume ratio (S/V), using the frequency-dependence of the diffusion coefficient D(ω), measured in brain tumors in the short diffusion-time regime using oscillating gradients (OGSE). Methods In vivo and ex vivo OGSE experiments were performed on mice bearing the GL261 murine glioma model (n = 10) to identify the relevant time/frequency (t/ω) domain where D(ω) linearly decreases with ω−1/2. Parametric maps (S/V, D0) are compared with conventional DWI metrics. The impact of frequency range and temperature (20°C versus 37°C) on S/V and D0 is investigated ex vivo. Results The validity of the short diffusion-time regime is demonstrated in vivo and ex vivo. Ex vivo measurements confirm that the purely geometric restrictions embodied in S/V are independent from temperature and frequency range, while the temperature dependence of the free diffusivity D0 is similar to that of pure water. Conclusion Our results suggest that D(ω) in the short diffusion-time regime can be used to uncouple the purely geometric restriction effect, such as S/V, from the intrinsic medium diffusivity properties, and provides a nonempirical and objective way to interpret frequency/time-dependent diffusion changes in tumors in terms of objective biophysical tissue parameters. Magn Reson Med, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Aggregate Recovery in Reclaimed Coal Mine Soils of SW Virginia

Sustainability of mined-land reclamation is of growing importance, with over 600,000 ha of the Appalachian coal region disturbed since 1977. Long-term evaluation of soil under various reclamation strategies is also important. Aggregation and organic matter (OM) influence both soil structure and function and can be of use in evaluating reclaimed systems. The objective of this study was to examine these two parameters in a long-term experiment (27 years) where various types (control-CON, topsoil-TS, sawdust-SD and biosolids-BS) and rates of soil amendments (biosolids: BS-22, BS-56, BS-112 and BS-224 Mg ha−1) have been applied. Macroaggregates (>250 µm) comprised >95% of total aggregation across all treatments, indicating the importance of this size class for soil development. Macroaggregate carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools contributed more to stabilization of OM in these soils than microaggregate pools. All BS treatments contained higher concentrations of aggregate C (96·8–127 g C kg−1 aggregate) and N (6·80–8·22 g N kg−1 aggregate) relative to CON; however, mass of C and N did not vary among application rates. Though few differences were expressed in C and N pool sizes among treatments, there was some indication that amendments impact reclaimed sites early in soil development (~ < 10 years), while vegetation may exert more dominance in subsequent years. It is important to select appropriate management strategies to favor not only the establishment of desirable vegetation but also preservation of soil macroaggregate structure to improve long-term nutrient supply, physical soil properties and potential C-sequestration in reclaimed soils. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.