cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Health issues in the Arab American community. A review: depression and smoking

The association between depression and smoking has been well-documented in multiple countries and age groups. This review examines recent publications that address the magnitude of the association and its causal patterns (ie, due to lowered success of quitting in people with depression, depression causing smoking, smoking causing depression or third factor related to both smoking and depression). We conclude that the association may be multi-factorial with each of the causal directions possibly contributing to the observed association. Also, the association extends beyond depression to other mental disorders, including consumption of illegal drugs and non-medical use of prescription medications. Although the studies emphasize cigarette smoking, it is plausible to generalize the findings to other tobacco delivery systems involving deep inhalation, such as a hookah, due to the pharmacodynamics of nicotine. Although this review did not examine any studies specific to Arab Americans, the findings should generalize if smoking is stigmatized or, alternatively, as stigmatization increases. The good news is that even with the robust association between depression and smoking, people with depression can quit smoking and continue to be smoke-free. Because 44.3% of cigarettes in the United States are consumed by individuals with mental illnesses, mental illness deserves a prominent focus to allow our public health goal of reducing the prevalence of smoking to be reached.
Breaking Down While Building Up: Design and Decline in Emerging Infrastructures

This paper asks what can we learn from breaking down systems to understand the development of systems. Through ethnographic fieldwork around a large-scale infrastructure development project in the ocean sciences experiencing a scale downward and threat of further defunding, I highlight four often overlooked components of innovation and development that have important implications for the HCI community. The first debunks the mythical liquidation and restart of Western development's "fail fast, fail often" mantra by tracing the complexities of breaking down an infrastructure, highlighting that the end of a technology is entrenched in longer-lived social, political and organizational consequences. The second dives deeper into these social consequences, as formalized structures are broken down and new temporary and contingent working orders surface to fill their place. Third, I signal the critical consequences of the thoughtful practices of assessment and evaluation of both human and material resources that occur during the downturn of systems. Last, I discuss the deeply personal connections that amplify through processes of breaking down systems.
A Reinforcement Learning-Based Power Management Framework for Green Computing Data Centers

Various power management techniques have been exploited to reduce the energy consumption of data centers. In this work, we propose a reinforcement learning-based power management framework for data centers, which does not rely on any given stationary assumptions of the job arrival and job service processes. By carefully designing the state space, the action space, and the reward of a learning process, the objective of the reinforcement learning agent coincides with our goal of reducing the server pool energy consumption with reasonable average job response time. Real Google cluster data traces are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed reinforcement learning-based data center power management framework.
Rhetorical Places: From Classical Topologies to Prospects for Post-Westphalian Spatialities

Encounters in space offer rhetoricians important portals for understanding the fullness of what it means to be human. Spatial studies in rhetoric can catalyze an expansion of the discipline’s front...
Access and conscience: principles of practical reconciliation.

With good planning and good will, medical professionals’ right of conscience and patients’ rights to controversial services can be both protected and accommodated. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
An exploration of RFID information security and privacy

The application of RFID after years of development, there are many cases of the industries applied, and Tag is considered to be the next generation of Barcode. However, the RFID is via transmission of radio frequency manner, so hacker could obtain information through the analysis way of frequency signal. The personal privacy will be violated if used in the user's privacy information and transmission without any protective measures to protect. RFID data transmission and storage with hardware ways to achieve the security of information is the best way, but this had been in the problem of Tag costs and capacity. The study taking from the applications ways is to achieve RFID information security and privacy, and do the information securities between the low-cost Tag and the Reader. The study submitted an EPC specification and combined with XOR logical applications to achieve privacy by the way of discussion currently.
Teaching Reciprocal Space to Undergraduates via Theory and Code Components of an IPython Notebook

In this technology report, a tool is provided for teaching reciprocal space to undergraduates in physical chemistry and materials science courses. Reciprocal space plays a vital role in understanding a material’s electronic structure and physical properties. Here, we provide an example based on previous work in the Journal of Chemical Education literature, carry out a calculation of reciprocal space vectors by hand, and present a computational tool for applying this mathematical process to other systems. Along with this paper, we have provided the stand-alone Python program that converts real space vectors to reciprocal space vectors and have also provided an IPython notebook that combines theory with components of the full Python code so that instructors can use this tool in their physical chemistry or materials science lectures.
Recent progress in nanoelectrical characterizations of CdTe and Cu(In, Ga)Se 2

We report two recent nanoelectrical characterizations of CdTe and Cu(In, Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cells by developing atomic force microscopy-based nanoelectrical probes. Charges trapped at defects at the CdS/CdTe interface were probed by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) potential mapping and by ion-milling the CdTe superstrate device in a bevel glancing angle of ∼0.5o. The results show randomly distributed donor-like defects at the interface. The effect of K post-deposition treatment on the near-surface region of the CIGS film was studied by KPFM potential and scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM) resistivity mapping, which shows passivation of grain-boundary potential and improvement of resistivity uniformity by the K treatment.
Activated B-Cell DLBCL with Downstream Activation of Survival Signaling Requires PIM Kinase Activity to Maintain Oncoprotein Translation

Abstract The activated B-cell cell-of-origin subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ABC-DLBCL) requires NF-kB pathway activation to maintain the malignant phenotype. NF-kB activation is downstream of B-cell receptor (BCR) stimulation and can become constitutively turned on in ABC-DLBCL through mutations in multiple different BCR signaling intermediates. Drugs targeting upstream signaling proteins such as Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK, ibrutinib) or protein kinase C (PKC, AEB071) have shown promising results in other lymphomas driven by BCR activation and are under evaluation in ABC-DLBCL. Many ABC-DBCL cases, however, have mutations in mediators that are downstream from these targets, particularly coiled-coil domain mutations in CARD11 that stabilize NF-kB activation and A20 loss-of-function alterations that reduce protein turnover of oncogenic NF-kB intermediates. In this study we explore a potential role for PIM kinase inhibition in ABC-DLBCL and find the clinical pan-PIM inhibitor LGH447 has promising activity in particular against cells carrying these downstream mutations. We find some ABC cells were highly sensitive to LGH447 with IC50 10.0 µM (TMD8 and HBL-1). Strikingly, all ABC lines sensitive to LGH447 carry mutations in either CARD11, TNFAIP3 (encoding A20), or both, while insensitive typically lines lack such lesions. Insensitive lines including TMD8 and HBL-1 instead have upstream mutations in CD79B and are highly sensitive to the upstream inhibitors ibrutinib and AEB071. The PIM1-3 kinases inhibited by LGH447 have multiple targets mediating cell growth and survival, including several that activate cap-dependent protein translation activation. We find LGH447 is toxic to sensitive cells due to lost translational activation. Western blots show reduced phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 and 4EBP1, indicating loss of mTORC1 activity. In addition, LGH447, in a manner similar to the potent direct cap-dependent translation inhibitor silvestrol, causes knockdown of key translationally regulated oncoproteins, including c-MYC, MCL1, and Cyclin D3. We also directly monitored protein synthesis through O-Propargyl-puromycin (OP-PURO) incorporation and found a direct effect of LGH447 that was similar to silvestrol, although requiring higher concentrations. PIM’s effects on activation of protein translation therefore are required in LGH447-sensitive ABC-DLBCL cells but dispensable in insensitive cells. In conclusion, pan-PIM kinase inhibition provides a strong potential therapeutic opportunity in a subset of ABC-DLBCL. Cases that bypass upstream signaling to turn on NF-kB activation more directly also bypass pathways with redundant activation of cap-dependent translation, making them dependent on the therapeutically targetable PIM kinases to carry out this critical process. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Seismicity in Utah, 1850 through June 1965

abstract During 1850 through June 1965, at least 609 earthquakes occurred in Utah, of which at least 38 were damaging. Pertinent data of these earthquakes are listed, and an earthquake epicenter map of Utah is presented. The epicenter determinations of about 344 earthquakes (all felt) in Utah during 1850 through 1949 (Williams and Tapper, 1953) were non-instrumental. The epicenters and magnitudes and depths of focus (when determined) of the earthquakes during 1950 through June 1962 (77) were generally instrumental determinations taken from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, U. S. Department of Commerce (CGS). The epicenters of the earthquakes during July 1962 through June 1965 (188) were all instrumental and were obtained as follows: 23 were obtained from already-published CGS data; 165 were obtained by the University of Utah, of which 68 epicentral determinations were also made by the CGS. The comparisons of epicenter locations were generally good. Our epicenters were determined using a slightly modified Geiger9s method programmed on an IBM 7044 digital computer at the University of Utah. The computer program used unpublished travel-time curves (B. H. Atwell, 1967) computed from the earth crustal model of Berg and others (1960) for the Utah region and included depths-of-focus data at 10-km-depth intervals from 0 to 60 km. The data show recent earthquake activity in the Ephraim (1961), Cache Valley (1962), and Levan (1963) areas, and swarm activity in the lehman Caves (1963) area. During 1962-1964 Utah averaged about 60 earthquakes per year for which instrumental epicenter determinations were made.
Executive Replacement in Venture Capital-Backed Startups

We show that venture capitalists add value in struggling startups by replacing executives. Augmenting a large database of entrepreneurial ﬁrm executives with handcollected join/departure dates, we ...
Marketing Plan Development

This note describes in detail the components of a marketing plan and the process by which data are collected and the plan is developed. Its objective is to develop a sense of purpose and discipline in how one goes about the marketing plan development process and to assist in the gathering of data that will become part of the written plan. Excerpt UVA-M-0848 Aug. 11, 2013 MARKETING PLAN DEVELOPMENT Introduction The term marketing is often associated with advertising, sales promotion, or the random phone call from someone attempting to either conduct research or sell you something—usually around dinnertime. These activities are legitimate aspects of a marketing strategy, but they only represent one tactical stage in an overall process by which a marketing plan is developed and implemented. The purpose of this technical note is to describe in detail the components of a marketing plan and the process by which data are collected and the plan is developed. This note and the templates that accompany it have been developed over years in support of my second-year business-to-business marketing elective and executive education programs. My objective has always been to develop a sense of purpose and discipline in how one goes about the marketing plan development process and to assist in the gathering of data that will become part of the written plan. . . .
Quantifying Compliance and Reliance Trust Behaviors to Influence Trust in Human-Automation Teams:

Automation is utilized heavily in many domains to increase productivity. With new, more complex automation, like the self-driving car, humans will be required to forego direct task performance in f...
Dynamism: N’digbo and Communication in Post-modernism

This chapter explores Igbo communication as an aspect of Black communication. It is recognition that Black communication is varied and not unitary. It is also recognition that theorizing Igbo communication as an aspect of African communication is recognition of the dynamism of such communication. It is a recognition that such communication is not static but one that is indeed enduring and impacts communication of N’digbo (Igbo people). The chapter locates the source of Igbo theory of communication as traditional religion (Odinani), a religion that defined the way of live for N’digbo in a community where it was impossible to exist as a non-religious person because life itself was religion and thus the theory of communication is inevitably an outcome of the religion of the people. The chapter identifies key principles of Igbo communication and uses autoethnographic method to bring to life examples of this communication in different contexts that include conflict, bride price ceremony, family life, and sport.
Sheared Rotation Effects on Kinetic Stability in Enhanced Confinement Tokamak Plasmas, and Nonlinear Dynamics of Fluctuations and Flows in Axisymmetric Plasmas

Sheared rotation dynamics are widely believed to have signficant influence on experimentally observed confinement transitions in advanced operating modes in major tokamak experiments, such as the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) [D.J. Grove and D.M. Meade, Nuclear Fusion 25, 1167 (1985)], with reversed magnetic shear regions in the plasma interior. The high-n toroidal drift modes destabilized by the combined effects of ion temperature gradients and trapped particles in toroidal geometry can be strongly affected by radially sheared toroidal and poloidal plasma rotation. In previous work with the FULL linear microinstability code, a simplified rotation model including only toroidal rotation was employed, and results were obtained. Here, a more complete rotation model, that includes contributions from toroidal and poloidal rotation and the ion pressure gradient to the total radial electric field, is used for a proper self-consistent treatment of this key problem. Relevant advanced operating mode cases for TFTR are presented. In addition, the complementary problem of the dynamics of fluctuation-driven E x B flow is investigated by an integrated program of gyrokinetic simulation in annulus geometry and gyrofluid simulation in flux tube geometry.
Quantitative comparison of pre-therapy 99mTc-macroaggregated albumin SPECT/CT and post-therapy PET/MR studies of patients who have received intra-arterial radioembolization therapy with 90Y microspheres.

Abstract Objective The aim of our study was to compare yttrium -90 (90Y) dosimetry obtained from pre-therapy 99mTc-macroaggregated albumin (MAA) SPECT/CT versus post-therapy PET/MRI imaging among patients with primary or metastatic hepatic tumors. Materials and methods Prior to 90Y radioembolization (RE), 32 patients underwent a scan using MAA mimicking 90Y distribution. After RE with 90Y microspheres, the patients were imaged on a PET/MRI system. Reconstructed images were transferred to a common platform and used to calculate 90Y dosimetry. The Passing-Bablok regression scatter diagram and the Bland and Altman method were used to analyze the difference between dosimetry values. Results For MAA and PET/MRI modalities, the mean liver doses for all 32 subjects were 43.0 ± 20.9 Gy and 46.5 ± 22.7 Gy, respectively, with a mean difference of 3.4 ± 6.2 Gy. The repeatibility coefficient was 12.1 (27.0% of the mean). The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was high (ρ = 0.92). Although, there was a substantial difference in the maximum doses to the liver between the modalities, the mean liver doses were relatively close, with a difference of 24.0% or less. Conclusions The two main contributors to the difference between dosimetry calculations using MAA versus 90Y PET/MRI can be attributed to the changes in catheter positioning as well as the liver ROIs used for the calculations. In spite of these differences, our results demonstrate that the dosimetry values obtained from pre-therapy MAA SPECT/CT scans and PET/MRI post-therapy 90Y studies were not significantly different.
Predicting Dynamic Patterns of Short-Term Movement

Short-term human mobility has important health consequences, but measuring short-term movement using survey data is difficult and costly, and use of mobile phone data to study short-term movement is only possible in locations that can access the data. Combining several accessible data sources, Senegal is used as a case study to predict short-term movement within the country. The focus is on two main drivers of movement-economic and social-which explain almost 70 percent of the variation in short-term movement. Comparing real and predicted short-term movement to measure the impact of population movement on the spread of malaria in Senegal, the predictions generated by the model provide estimates for the effect that are not significantly different from the estimates using the real data. Given that the data used in this paper are often accessible in other country settings, this paper demonstrates how predictive modeling can be used by policy makers to estimate short-term mobility.
Changes of Levels of Serum Visfatin of Cord Blood and Maternal Blood in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Women

Objective To investigate the changes of the levels of serum visfatin in cord blood and maternal blood of gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM) women, and to analyzed the relationship among the birth weight, gender ratio and Ponderal index (PI) in GDM women's offspring. Methods This was a prospective observational study with institutional ethics approval and written maternal consent. A total of 36 cases of GDM were recruited in GDM group during January 2005 to December 2010. Meanwhile 40 normal pregnant women were recruited in control group. The levels of serum visfatin in maternal blood and cord blood were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Birth weight and height of neonates, maternal weight and height were determined, the Ponderal index(PI) of neonates and body mass index(BMI) of pregnant women were calculated. Results PI of neonates had significance difference between GDM group and control group (P < 0.05); levels of serum visfatin of maternal blood and cord blood of pregnant women in GDM group were significant higher than those in control group (P<05), and their correlation was positive (r=0.342, P<0.05). Levels of serum visfatin of cord blood between GDM group and control group were negative correlation with neonatal PI (r=-0.479, -0.336; P<0.05). Conclusion Levels of serum visfatin of maternal blood and cord blood in GDM group were significantly increased, and had negative correlation with neonatal PI were found. Suggesting that serum visfatin may be involved in the process of fetal intrauterine growth. Key words: gestational diabetes mellitus; visfatin; cord blood; Ponderal index
What makes the Death Penalty Arbitrary? (and Does It Matter If It Is)?

A common objection to the death penalty is that it is “arbitrarily” imposed. Indeed, the Supreme Court in the 1970s held the death penalty as it was then administered to be unconstitutional precisely because the states seemed to have no clear standards for who got death and who did not. In the most famous passage in that opinion (Furman v. Georgia), Justice Stewart wrote that the death penalty was “cruel and unusual” in the same way that being “struck by lightning” was “cruel and unusual.” It is thus surprising that the Court and those scholars who push this objection have done so little to articulate a coherent notion of “arbitrariness” against which the Court’s jurisprudence has fallen short. Too often hard issues are avoided by resort to metaphor or slogan (such as Justice Stewart’s lightning or the repeated refrain that we should execute only the “worst of the worst”). Thus critical questions remain unanswered: Can there be any arbitrariness in the imposition of the death penalty? Some scholars appear to believe that any arbitrariness would be impermissible, but the Court has not. And if some arbitrariness is permissible, at what point is there too much arbitrariness—so that it becomes intolerable? And what exactly is wrong with a penalty that is arbitrarily imposed? I hope to show in this Article that there are different kinds of arbitrariness, some worse than others. Some arbitrariness (“extrinsic arbitrariness”) may be more or less harmless, at least as a normative and constitutional matter. Some arbitrariness, too, may be the inevitable upshot of allowing discretion in various places in the law—discretion which we do not necessarily want to give up. In the case of the kind of arbitrariness that is bad (“intrinsic arbitrariness”) the Court’s death penalty jurisprudence post-Furman has been dedicated to getting rid of it. Those scholars who attack any level of arbitrariness as unacceptable need to say more about not only what they mean by “arbitrary” but how much arbitrariness (if any) would be acceptable. Without good answers to these questions, we may wonder if the objection to “arbitrariness” is actually a stand-in for opposition to the death penalty itself, rather than to how it is applied. At least, this paper concludes that the case for the arbitrariness objection has not yet been made with the strength it has, for too long, been taken to have.
Simultaneous Detection of mRNA and Protein in S. cerevisiae by Single-Molecule FISH and Immunofluorescence.

Single-molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization (smFISH) enables the detection and quantification of endogenous mRNAs within intact fixed cells. This method utilizes tens of singly labeled fluorescent DNA probes hybridized against the mRNA of interest, which can be detected by using standard wide-field fluorescence microscopy. This approach provides the means to generate absolute quantifications of gene expression within single cells, which can be used to link molecular fluctuations to phenotypes. To be able to correlate the expression of an mRNA and a protein of interest in individual cells, we combined smFISH with immunofluorescence (IF) in yeast cells. Here, we present our smFISH-IF protocol to visualize and quantify two cell cycle-controlled mRNAs (CLN2 and ASH1) and the cell cycle marker alpha-tubulin in S. cerevisiae. This protocol, which is performed over 2 days, can be used to visualize up to three colors at the time (i.e., two mRNAs, one protein). Even if the described protocol is designed for S. cerevisiae, we think that the considerations discussed here can be useful to develop and troubleshoot smFISH-IF protocols for other model organisms.
Pre-mRNA processing entropy in a mouse model of trauma

Purpose: Next generation sequencing has expanded our understanding of many disease processes, including trauma and critical illness. Many studies focus identifying a small set of genes or proteins that are aberrantly expressed. Our objective was to determine whether global differences in pre-mRNA processing entropy, or disorder, could offer novel insights in the setting of critical illness. Methods: We used an established murine model of trauma that consisted of hemorrhagic shock and cecal ligation and puncture. In our first experiment mice exposed to trauma were compared to controls. In our second experiment, survival 14 days after exposure to trauma was studied. Using deep RNA sequencing we determined entropy values for every pre-mRNA processing event identified. We then used principal component analysis (PCA) to conduct unsupervised classification of the data. Results: Mice exposed to trauma separated from controls using PCA. Similarly, mice that did not survive 14 days post exposure clustered closely together on PCA. Conclusion: Our results suggest that there is a substantial difference in global pre-mRNA processing entropy in mice exposed to trauma vs. controls, and that pre-mRNA processing entropy may be helpful in predicting mortality. The method introduced here is easily transferrable to other disease processes and samples.
Application of Convolutional Neural Network Algorithms for Advancing Sedentary and Activity Bout Classification.

Background Machine learning has been used for classification of physical behavior bouts from hip-worn accelerometers; however, this research has been limited due to the challenges of directly observing and coding human behavior "in the wild." Deep learning algorithms, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), may offer better representation of data than other machine learning algorithms without the need for engineered features and may be better suited to dealing with free-living data. The purpose of this study was to develop a modeling pipeline for evaluation of a CNN model on a free-living data set and compare CNN inputs and results with the commonly used machine learning random forest and logistic regression algorithms. Method Twenty-eight free-living women wore an ActiGraph GT3X+accelerometer on their right hip for 7 days. A concurrently worn thigh-mounted activPAL device captured ground truth activity labels. The authors evaluated logistic regression, random forest, and CNN models for classifying sitting, standing, and stepping bouts. The authors also assessed the benefit of performing feature engineering for this task. Results The CNN classifier performed best (average balanced accuracy for bout classification of sitting, standing, and stepping was 84%) compared with the other methods (56% for logistic regression and 76% for random forest), even without performing any feature engineering. Conclusion Using the recent advancements in deep neural networks, the authors showed that a CNN model can outperform other methods even without feature engineering. This has important implications for both the model's ability to deal with the complexity of free-living data and its potential transferability to new populations.
Aging in nonhuman primates

Abstract Studies of aging have largely focused upon short-lived model organisms. In this chapter we highlight the importance of nonhuman primate models of aging, how they have contributed to our knowledge of domains of aging, and what we can learn using nonhuman primate models for testing potential therapeutics for aging intervention.
Conceptual lessons for containing an epidemic of questionable COVID-19 counterfactual comparisons.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided limitless opportunities to compare pandemic policies across countries and over time. When the aim is to assess the comparative success of these policies, the comparison requires thinking counterfactually about ‘what would have been’ in some unrealised hypothetical (counterfactual) scenario. Whether generating modelling projections,1 making data-driven comparisons across countries2 or attributing excess harms,3 causal inference often rests on counterfactual comparisons, even if those comparisons are only implicit. However, in the pandemic, counterfactual analyses that are overly simplistic, uninformative or outright flawed have been an epidemic in their own right. The examples I explore here are not the worst offenders and my aim is not to criticise them but to use them to illustrate cautionary lessons. By exploring the theory of counterfactuals and common problems with their use, we can learn to do better. Slow conceptual thinking is needed even in times of fast science. Counterfactuals have played a central role in discussions of causation in philosophy4 and in the health sciences5 and social sciences6 over the past 50 years. According to a framework popular in these disciplines, an intervention causes some outcome if that outcome represents a difference between two hypothetical scenarios in which only the intervention differs. Because the scenarios are mutually incompatible, at least one of them is ‘counterfactual’—that is, contrary to what actually occurs or ‘counter to fact’. Philosophers sometimes think about a counterfactual scenario as an imaginary world that is perfectly identical to the actual world except that the intervention is miraculously altered or manipulated with surgical precision. For instance, if the number of COVID-19 cases would be greater in a possible world that is identical to the real world but in which …
The Riemann Problem of a System for a Phase Transition Problem

We summarize the recent results concerning the Riemann problems of a hyperbolic-elliptic mixed type system related to a phase transition problem. Employing the entropy rate admissibility criterion and the entropy condition, we discuss two cases where the initial strains are given in the different phases and where they are given in the same phase.
Mast Cells are Essential for the Formation of Leukotrienes Initiating Early Inflammatory Responses

The role of mast cells (MC) and leukotrienes (LT) in immune injury was studied. MC deficiency markedly reduced neutrophil influx, plasma exudation, edema and hemorrhage. A 5-lipoxygenase antagonist blocked LT synthesis in both normal and MC-deficient mice. However, this drug inhibited the parameters of inflammation investigated only in normal and not in the MC-deficient mice. This suggests that MC are necessary for the synthesis of LT initiating these processes. The capacity of connective tissue MC to produce LT was confirmed.
Regulation of Mouse κ Opioid Receptor Gene Expression by Retinoids

The effect of retinoids on the expression of κ opioid receptor (KOR) gene was examined in normal and transgenic animals. KOR-lacZ transgene expression was specifically elevated in KOR-positive areas of the developing CNS by depleting vitamin A from animal diets. The endogenous KOR mRNA species, including all three isoforms, were also upregulated by depleting vitamin A in developing animals. Change in the expression of isoforms a and b is similar in prenatal stages but differs during postnatal development. Interestingly, upregulation of isoform c is most significant postnatally. The regulation of KOR gene by vitamin A was substantiated in a mouse embryonal carcinoma P19 culture system in which retinoic acid (RA), the most potent ingredient of vitamin A, was able to suppress the expression of all the three KOR isoforms and KOR protein. The RA-mediated suppression was blocked by an RA receptor antagonist and a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor. By using a reporter transfection assay in P19 cells, the potential genetic element responsible for RA-mediated suppression of KOR gene expression was located to intron 1 of the mouse KOR gene, which could also be blocked by HDAC inhibitor. Furthermore, suppression of KOR gene expression by RA in P19 cells appeared to be an indirect event and required protein synthesis. A role of RA in KOR gene regulation during developmental stages was discussed.
Potential of bacteriophage application as an intervention strategy against Salmonella in pigs

Bacteriophage (phage) lysate was used for reducing the dissemination of Salmonella in pigs. The phage lysate was administrated into pigs beginning 1 hour after challenge for 2-hour duration. Three hours postchallenge, pigs were killed and necropsied. The numbers of Salmonella were enumerated in various tissue samples. Administration of the phage lysate lowered the numbers of Salmonella by 2 logs compared with controls in the colon and cecum contents. It suggests that use of phage could be considered as an alternative intervention strategy against Salmonella in pigs at the preharvest stage with further studies.
Amino acid sequence homology between Piv, an essential protein in site-specific DNA inversion in Moraxella lacunata, and transposases of an unusual family of insertion elements.

Deletion analysis of the subcloned DNA inversion region of Moraxella lacunata indicates that Piv is the only M. lacunata-encoded factor required for site-specific inversion of the tfpQ/tfpI pilin segment. The predicted amino acid sequence of Piv shows significant homology solely with the transposases/integrases of a family of insertion sequence elements, suggesting that Piv is a novel site-specific recombinase. Images
A Prolog Specification of Giant Number Arithmetic.

The tree based representation described in this paper, hereditarily binary numbers, applies recursively a run-length compression mechanism that enables computations limited by the structural complexity of their operands rather than by their bitsizes. While within constant factors from their traditional counterparts for their worst case behavior, our arithmetic operations open the doors for interesting numerical computations, impossible with traditional number representations. We provide a complete specification of our algorithms in the form of a purely declarative Prolog program.
Juvenile Courts and Competency to Stand Trial

This article reviews the recent development of juvenile competency to stand trial (CST) policies across the United States in light of the inherent contradiction of this due process procedure in a separate juvenile court that is premised on the incompetence of youth. The article draws on existing CST legal doctrine and psycho-legal research to demonstrate the need for sociolegal research to better understand who gains access to the CST process, CST decisions, and how CST may influence subsequent case processing decisions. Utilizing CST as an adopted formal policy from criminal court and an exploratory case study, I demonstrate the difficulties facing how court actors manage the role of youthfulness and culpability for CST decision-making in contemporary juvenile courts. Overall, both quantitative and qualitative research is needed to examine whether court actors’ practice of CST serves to further deconstruct or reinforce the juvenile court’s rehabilitative ideal.
Why Do Conceptual Analysts Disagree

The practice of a priori conceptual analysis requires that the concept being analyzed be available in the analyst's mind. The difficulties of analysis and the existence of disagreements among analysts are explained by distinguishing the implicit knowledge we have of these concepts from the explicit knowledge we seek. This view of disagreement assumes that those who disagree are typically attempting to analyze a single shared concept. In this paper, reasons are developed for replacing this guiding assumption with the alternative assumption that members of a conceptual community often have similar, but not identical, concepts. Adopting this alternative requires that we rethink the nature and aims of conceptual analysis.
An exploratory algorithm to identify intra-host recombinant viral sequences

Since recombination leads to the generation of mosaic genomes that violate the assumption of traditional phylogenetic methods that sequence evolution can be accurately described by a single tree, results and conclusions based on phylogenetic analysis of data sets including recombinant sequences can be severely misleading. Many methods are able to adequately detect recombination between diverse sequences, for example between different HIV-1 subtypes. More problematic is the identification of recombinants among closely related sequences such as a viral population within a host. We describe a simple algorithmic procedure that enables detection of intra-host recombinants based on split-decomposition networks and a robust statistical test for recombination. By applying this algorithm to several published HIV-1 data sets we conclude that intra-host recombination was significantly underestimated in previous studies and that up to one-third of the env sequences longitudinally sampled from a given subject can be of recombinant origin. The results show that our procedure can be a valuable exploratory tool for detection of recombinant sequences before phylogenetic analysis, and also suggest that HIV-1 recombination in vivo is far more frequent and significant than previously thought.
Consumers’ Perspectives on Successful and Unsuccessful Experiences in a Drug Treatment Court

This study focused on the program experiences of 190 men and women who chose to participate in a drug treatment court in lieu of incarceration in California. Participants had committed non-violent criminal offenses related to drug abuse. The program required 18 months of community-based treatment in conjunction with court supervision including frequent drug testing and 6 months of abstinence for successful program completion. Interviews were conducted in 2007/2008 with 94 participants who had successfully completed treatment and 96 who had not. Open-ended questions addressed reasons for entering and remaining in treatment and supports and obstacles to program completion. Responses were coded using ethnographic content analysis. Factors associated with successful program completion are discussed.
Oversight of elective early term deliveries: avoiding unintended consequences

The national movement to eliminate elective delivery at 1 million births in the past 5 years suggests the existence of a number of potential pitfalls that should be considered in policy development, enforcement, and compliance monitoring. Attention to these details will ensure continued patient benefit from these policies without endangering those fetuses in whom early term delivery is warranted medically.
Chylomicron assembly and catabolism: role of apolipoproteins and receptors.

Chylomicrons are lipoproteins synthesized exclusively by the intestine to transport dietary fat and fat-soluble vitamins. Synthesis of apoB48, a translational product of the apob gene, is required for the assembly of chylomicrons. The apob gene transcription in the intestine results in 14 and 7 kb mRNAs. These mRNAs are post-transcriptionally edited creating a stop codon. The edited mRNAs chylomicrons from the shorter apoB48 peptide remains to be elucidated. In addition, the roles of proteins involved in the assembly pathway, e.g. apobec-1, MTP and apoA-IV, needs to be studied. Cloning of enzymes involved in the intestinal biosynthesis of triglycerides will be crucial to fully appreciate the assembly of chylomicrons. There is a need for cell culture and transgenic animal models that can be used for intestinal lipoprotein assembly. The catabolism of chylomicrons is far more complex and efficient than the catabolism of VLDL. Even though the major steps involved in the catabolism of chylomicrons are now known, the determinants for apolipoprotein exchange, processing of remnants in the space of Disse, as well as the mechanism of uptake of these particles by extra-hepatic tissue needs further exploration.
On the Stability of Performance Assessments

This study examined the stability of scores on two types of performance assessments, an observed hands-on investigation and a notebook surrogate. Twenty-nine sixth-grade students in a hands-on inquiry-based science curriculum completed three investigations on two occasions separated by 5 months. Results indicated that: (a) the generalizability across occasions for relative decisions was, on average, moderate for the observed investigations (.52) and the notebooks (.50); (b) the generalizability for absolute decisions was only slightly lower; (c) the major source of measurement error was the person by occasion (residual) interaction; and (d) the procedures students used to carry out the investigations tended to change from one occasion to the other. Cognitive research, curriculum reform, and limitations of multiple-choice testing have all motivated the search for alternative methods for assessing science achievement (e.g., Frederiksen, 1984; Frederiksen & Collins, 1989; Linn, 1986; Nickerson, 1989; Shavelson, Baxter, Pine, Yure, Goldman, & Smith, 1991c; Shavelson, Carey, & Webb, 1990; Shepard, 1989; Smith, 1991; Wiggins, 1989a, 1989b). One alternative to multiple-choice testing, congruent with curricular reform and constructivist learning theories, is hands-on performance assessments. In science, for example, a performance assessment provides students with laboratory equipment, poses a problem, and allows them to use these resources to generate a solution. This hands-on test is administered on a one-to-one basis, and performance is judged in real time as experts watch students do science. Scores for these hands-on assessments reflect not only the adequacy of students' solutions but also the procedures used to arrive at their solution (Baxter, Shavelson, Goldman, & Pine, 1992). Observed hands-on assessment is not practical on a large-scale basis due to costs of equipment, personnel, and testing time. In practice, students typically conduct an investigation and record, in a notebook, their experimental procedures, results, and conclusions (Tamir, 1974). These notebooks can then be scored in roughly the same manner as the actual performance (e.g., Baxter et al., 1992; Shavelson, Baxter, Pine, & Yure, 1991b). Shavelson, Baxter, and Pine (1991a) developed and examined the psychometric properties of three observed hands-on science investigations, and their corresponding notebooks: paper towels (determine which of three paper towels absorbs the most and least water), electric mysteries (determine the circuit components hidden in six black boxes), and bugs (determine the preferences of sow bugs for various environments). Over a 2-year period more than 300 fifth- and sixth-grade students, some experienced and some inexperienced in hands-on science curriculum, were administered a battery of performance assessments, a traditional multiple
The nuclear protein Sam68 is cleaved by the FMDV 3C protease redistributing Sam68 to the cytoplasm during FMDV infection of host cells

Picornavirus infection can lead to disruption of nuclear pore traffic, shut-off of cell translation machinery, and cleavage of proteins involved in cellular signal transduction and the innate response to infection. Here, we demonstrated that the FMDV 3C(pro) induced the cleavage of nuclear RNA-binding protein Sam68 C-terminus containing the nuclear localization sequence (NLS). Consequently, it stimulated the redistribution of Sam68 to the cytoplasm. The siRNA knockdown of Sam68 resulted in a 1000-fold reduction in viral titers, which prompted us to study the effect of Sam68 on FMDV post-entry events. Interestingly, Sam68 interacts with the internal ribosomal entry site within the 5' non-translated region of the FMDV genome, and Sam68 knockdown decreased FMDV IRES-driven activity in vitro suggesting that it could modulate translation of the viral genome. The results uncover a novel role for Sam68 in the context of picornaviruses and the proteolysis of a new cellular target of the FMDV 3C(pro).
STRUCTURE OF THE CARBOXY-TERMINAL FRAGMENT OF THE APO-BIOTIN CARBOXYL CARRIER SUBUNIT OF ESCHERICHIA COLI ACETYL-COA CARBOXYLASE

The biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP) is a subunit of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, a biotin-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the first committed step of fatty acid biosynthesis. In its functional cycle the biotin carboxyl carrier protein engages in heterologous protein-protein interactions with three distinct partners, depending on its state of posttranslational modification. Apo-BCCP interacts specifically with the biotin holoenzyme synthetase, BirA, which results in the posttranslational attachment of biotin to an essential lysine residue on BCCP. Holo-BCCP then interacts with the biotin carboxylase subunit, which leads to the addition of the carboxylate group of bicarbonate to biotin. Finally, the carboxybiotinylated form of BCCP interacts with transcarboxylase in the conversion of acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA. The determinants of protein-protein interaction specificity in this system are unknown. One hypothesis is that posttranslational modification of BCCP may result in conformational changes that regulate specific protein-protein interactions. To test this hypothesis, we have determined the NMR solution structure of the unbiotinylated form of an 87 residue C-terminal domain fragment of BCCP (apoBCCP87) from Escherichia coli acetyl-CoA carboxylase and compared this structure with the high-resolution structure of the biotinylated form that was recently solved by X-ray crystallographic techniques. Although the overall folding of the two proteins is highly similar, small structural differences are apparent for residues of the biotin-binding loop that may be important for mediating specific protein-protein interactions.
The Effects of Group Size on Cognitive Effort and Evaluation

Students rated a poem and an editorial believing that they alone were responsible, that they were one of four persons responsible, or that they were one of sixteen persons responsible for evaluating the communications. As predicted, group mem bers reported putting less effort into the assessment than indi viduals, and this diffusion of effort followed an inverse power function. In addition, individuals evaluated the communications more favorably than persons who thought they shared the evalu ation responsibility.
Pasteur's Quadrant: Preparing Training Programs for “Use-Inspired” Surgical Research

Ensuring that scientific research is an integral element of surgical residency training is critical to the future viability of the field. The ability to nurture surgeon-scientists, invoke them to ask pertinent questions, design experiments, and translate these findings into clinical applications will set this specialty apart from competing fields. Involving residents and younger faculty in this process of translational research is crucial to develop academic leaders and improve patient care. It is as critical as it is complex. Here, we propose that this objective can be attained only if academic departments of surgery recognize its value, create a solid framework of support, encourage partnerships, and above all provide the patient and essential mentorship that residents and young faculty need to pursue meaningful surgical research. To provide usable frameworks, a unique 2-dimensional quadrant termed "Pasteur's Quadrant" is generated based on the original work of Stokes. Briefly, it creates 4 quadrants that separate pure basic science or discovery (X-axis) from applied research or innovation (Y-axis). In doing so, it also defines a median-research that satisfies both goals: scientific advancement AND clinical improvement. This novel use-inspired method of categorizing research provides guidelines to select research programs prudently. Using the Pasteur's Quadrant approach to the conduct of resident-performed surgical research offers several advantages: It is clinically applicable; it advances goals of fundamental scientific research; it is provocative, productive, and retains high visibility; and it makes it attractive to funding agencies and industry alike. Lastly, it charts a vibrant course for their main beneficiaries, residents and academic surgical programs.