cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unique insights into the intestinal absorption, transit, and subsequent biodistribution of polymer-derived microspheres

Polymeric microspheres (MSs) have received attention for their potential to improve the delivery of drugs with poor oral bioavailability. Although MSs can be absorbed into the absorptive epithelium of the small intestine, little is known about the physiologic mechanisms that are responsible for their cellular trafficking. In these experiments, nonbiodegradable polystyrene MSs (diameter range: 500 nm to 5 µm) were delivered locally to the jejunum or ileum or by oral administration to young male rats. Following administration, MSs were taken up rapidly (≤5 min) by the small intestine and were detected by transmission electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Gel permeation chromatography confirmed that polymer was present in all tissue samples, including the brain. These results confirm that MSs (diameter range: 500 nm to 5 µm) were absorbed by the small intestine and distributed throughout the rat. After delivering MSs to the jejunum or ileum, high concentrations of polystyrene were detected in the liver, kidneys, and lungs. The pharmacologic inhibitors chlorpromazine, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, and cytochalasin D caused a reduction in the total number of MSs absorbed in the jejunum and ileum, demonstrating that nonphagocytic processes (including endocytosis) direct the uptake of MSs in the small intestine. These results challenge the convention that phagocytic cells such as the microfold cells solely facilitate MS absorption in the small intestine.
Epidemiologic Patterns, Clinical Evaluation, and Long-Term Prognosis in Chronic Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure affects more than 2,000,000 Americans and is likely to increase in prevalence as our population ages. Clinical congestive heart failure should not be equated with cardiac dysfunction, as indexes of cardiac performance do not correlate with clinical manifestations. The clinical signs and symptoms of heart failure often lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity to permit accurate diagnosis. Objective tests, such as echocardiography and radionuclide angiography, are usually needed to establish the presence of left ventricular dysfunction, and exercise testing may be needed to quantitate symptomatic severity. Indexes of cardiac function do not correlate well with symptomatic status, and clinical assessment of severity of symptoms is often inaccurate. Therefore, exercise testing may be very useful in assessing symptomatic severity and in following patient progress. Prognosis in heart failure is very poor, with fewer than 50 percent of patients surviving five years from the time of initial diagnosis. Survival appears to relate more to the degree of cardiac dysfunction and less to the degree of symptomatic severity. Early recognition of heart failure in a latent stage and development of strategies aimed at preventing or delaying the onset of overt heart failure appear to offer the best chance of reducing mortality from heart failure.
Evolution of the amphibian tympanic ear and the origin of frogs

Recent anurans plus all but the most primitive temnospondyl labyrinthodont amphibians are proposed as a monophyletic taxon, based on shared stapedial characters which are derived with respect to all other tetrapods. Within temnospondyls, the mostly Lower Permian dissorophoids are proposed as most closely related to Recent anurans, based on interpretation of the dissorophoid dorsal quadrate process and the anuran tympanic annulus as sequential steps in a character transformation series. The otic features described here reinforce the concept of the amphibian tympanic ear as a prior “invention” with no genealogical relationship to amniote tympanic ears.
Deterministic Dicke-state preparation with continuous measurement and control

We characterize the long-time projective behavior of the stochastic master equation describing a continuous, collective spin measurement of an atomic ensemble both analytically and numerically. By adding state-based feedback, we show that it is possible to prepare highly entangled Dicke states deterministically.
Heat flux expressions that satisfy the conservation laws in atomistic system involving multibody potentials

Heat flux expressions are derived for multibody potential systems by extending the original Hardy's methodology and modifying Admal & Tadmor's formulas. The continuum thermomechanical quantities obtained from these two approaches are easy to compute from molecular dynamics (MD) results, and have been tested for a constant heat flux model in two distinctive systems: crystalline iron and polyethylene (PE) polymer. The convergence criteria and affecting parameters, i.e. spatial and temporal window size, and specific forms of localization function are found to be different between the two systems. The conservation of mass, momentum, and energy are discussed and validated within this atomistic-continuum bridging.
Driver relaxation impacts on bottleneck activation, capacity, and the fundamental relationship

Abstract This study examines traffic behavior in the vicinity of a freeway bottleneck, revisiting commonly held assumptions and uncovering systematic biases that likely have distorted empirical studies of bottleneck formation, capacity drop, and the fundamental relationship (FR). This simulation-based study examines an on-ramp bottleneck using Newell’s lower order car following model with a driver relaxation factor added for the vehicles that enter or are immediately behind an entering vehicle (termed “affected vehicles”). The affected vehicles will tolerate a truncated headway for a little while after an entrance but slowly relax back to their preferred speed–spacing relationship. All other vehicles remain on their preferred speed–spacing relationship throughout. Simulating conventional detector measurements, we show that flow is supersaturated in any sample containing an affected vehicle with a truncated headway, i.e., the flow is higher than the underlying FR would predict. This systematic bias is not readily apparent in the detector measurements, during the initial queue formation speeds remain close to free speed and the supersaturated states can exceed the bottleneck capacity. As the affected drivers relax, the high flows become unsustainable so a queue initially forms downstream of the on-ramp (consistent with earlier empirical results) only later receding upstream past the on-ramp. This initial phase of activation often lasts several minutes. Without any evidence of queuing upstream of the ramp, the conventional point bottleneck model would erroneously indicate that the bottleneck is inactive. Thus, an empirical study or traffic responsive ramp meter could easily mistake the supersaturated flows to be the bottleneck’s capacity flow, when in fact these supersaturated flows simply represent system loading during the earliest portion of bottleneck activation. Instead of flow dropping “from capacity”, we see flow drop “to capacity” from supersaturation. We also discuss how the supersaturated states distort empirically observed FR. We speculate that these subtle mechanisms are very common and have confounded the results of many past empirical studies.
UNIFIED APPROACH TO MOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND MOLECULAR VIBRATIONS

First-order dimensional perturbation theory is used to construct a Hamiltonian for the H+2 molecule without the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The physical model that emerges has the three particles undergoing harmonic oscillations about a bent symmetric configuration. Despite its simplicity, the theory yields correct results for the ground-state energy, for the equilibrium internuclear distance, and for vibrational frequencies. Although the standard dimensional continuation of the Schrodinger equation leads to dissociation at large D, this model remains stable due to a quadratic polynomial in 1/D that is included in the potential energy. This Hamiltonian is a suitable starting point for a large-order perturbation expansion in 1/D. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Public perceptions of the ideal number of children for contemporary families

Demographic and family dynamics have been influenced by the recent downturn in average family size. This research examines perceptions of the ideal size for contemporary families and beliefs regarding factors which have contributed to families' decisions to have fewer children. Findings reveal that the two child family is the overwhelming standard chosen by respondents, and that this preference holds for virtually all demographic categories. Three of five reasons offered for smaller families today (expense of children, wives working and better birth control) were viewed as important by over 85% of those sampled.
Vasculitis Carcinomatosa Occurring in Association With Adenocarcinoma of the Stomach

Invasion of vascular walls by cancer cells is a well-known phenomenon in lymphoid malignancies. However, its occurrence in epithelial tumors is less well known. This report documents the occurrence of such invasion of vascular walls by an adenocarcinoma of the stomach in a 68-year-old woman. This rare event differs histopathologically from inflammatory vasculitis associated with malignant disease, lymphangitis carcinomatosa, and carcinomatous arteriopathy. In inflammatory vasculitis associated with malignant disease, the main histopathologic feature is fibrinoid necrosis and ordinary pan arteritis-like vasculitis. In lymphangitis carcinomatosa, the main feature is plugging of vascular lumina by tumor cells, a finding not encountered in our case, while in carcinomatosa arteriopathy, the main event is an obliterative fibrointimal hyperplasia, apparently resulting from arterial tumor emboli. In none of these three conditions has direct invasion of vascular walls by tumor cells been previously reported.
Improved Segmentation of Teeth in Dental Models

The identification of different teeth in a human dental model is an essential part of virtual treatment planning in digital orthodontics. An algorithm that is almost fully automatic is presented to segment a 3-dimensional dental model (a triangle mesh) into individual tooth objects, along with its implementation in a software tool that can be deployed in clinical settings. The proposed technique avoids the limitations of previous approaches by first separating gums from teeth and then separating individual teeth. The only user intervention needed in most cases is the one-time setting of a certain curvature threshold via an intuitive slider, coupled with real-time visual feedback. The method is found to be robust across a range of real-world models, even in the presence of malocclusions and noise.
A chimeric tyrosine/tryptophan hydroxylase. The tyrosine hydroxylase regulatory domain serves to stabilize enzyme activity.

The neurotransmitter biosynthetic enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) are each composed of an amino-terminal regulatory domain and a carboxylterminal catalytic domain. A chimeric hydroxylase was generated by coupling the regulatory domain of TH (TH-R) to the catalytic domain of TPH (TPH-C) and expressing the recombinant enzyme in bacteria. The chimeric junction was created at proline 165 in TH and proline 106 in TPH because this residue is within a conserved five amino-acid span (ValProTrpPhePro) that defines the beginning of the highly homologous catalytic domains of TH and TPH. Radioenzymatic activity assays demonstrated that the TH-R/TPH-C chimera hydroxylates tryptophan, but not tyrosine. Therefore, the regulatory domain does not confer substrate specificity. Although the TH-R/TPH-C enzyme did serve as a substrate for protein kinase (PKA), activation was not observed following phosphorylation. Phosphorylation studies in combination with kinetic data provided evidence that TH-R does not exert a dominant influence on TPH-C. Stability assays revealed that, whereas TH exhibited a t1/2 of 84 min at 37°C, TPH was much less stable (t 1/2=28.3 min). The stability profile of TH-R/TPH-C, however, was superimposable on that of TH. Removal of the regulatory domain (a deletion of 165 amino acids from the N-terminus) of TH rendered the catalytic domain highly unstable, as demonstrated by at 1/2 of 14 min. The authors conclude that the regulatory domain of TH functions as a stabilizer of enzyme activity. As a corollary, the well-characterized instability of TPH may be attributed to the inability of its regulatory domain to stabilize the catalytic domain.
The National Emphysema Treatment Trial: Summary and Update

Emphysema is a chronic and debilitating disease in which affected patients must deal with diminished quality of life and poor functional status. Because contemporary medical therapy has had little impact on mortality rates, the National Emphysema Treatment Trial was designed to provide prospective randomized evidence for the efficacy of lung volume reduction surgery. This multicenter trial showed a mortality benefit and improved function in defined subgroups of patients based on the distribution of emphysema and baseline exercise tolerance. Patients with upper-lobe predominant disease and low exercise capacity achieved the most consistent gains in survival, exercise capacity, and quality of live in the long term with lung volume reduction surgery. Other subcategories of disease distribution and baseline exercise tolerance had variable results with surgery, emphasizing the importance of patient selection in achieving good outcomes.
Dermal β-catenin activity in response to epidermal Wnt ligands is required for fibroblast proliferation and hair follicle initiation

Dermal fibroblasts are required for structural integrity of the skin and for hair follicle development. Uniform Wnt signaling activity is present in dermal fibroblast precursors preceding hair follicle initiation, but the functional requirement of dermal Wnt signaling at early stages of skin differentiation and patterning remains largely uncharacterized. We show in mice that epidermal Wnt ligands are required for uniform dermal Wnt signaling/β-catenin activity and regulate fibroblast cell proliferation and initiation of hair follicle placodes. In the absence of dermal Wnt signaling/β-catenin activity, patterned upregulation of epidermal β-catenin activity and Edar expression are absent. Conversely, forced activation of β-catenin signaling leads to the formation of thickened dermis, enlarged epidermal placodes and dermal condensates that result in prematurely differentiated enlarged hair follicles. These data reveal functional roles for dermal Wnt signaling/β-catenin in fibroblast proliferation and in the epidermal hair follicle initiation program.
Reverse epidemiology of conventional cardiovascular risk factors in patients with chronic heart failure

Traditional risk factors of a poor clinical outcome and mortality in the general population, including body mass index (BMI), serum cholesterol, and blood pressure (BP), are also found to relate to outcome in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), but in an opposite direction. Obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and high values of BP have been demonstrated to be associated with greater survival among CHF patients. These findings are in contrast to the well-known associations of over-nutrition, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension with a poor outcome in the general population. The association between traditional cardiovascular risk factors and an adverse clinical outcome in CHF patients is referred to as "reverse epidemiology." The mechanisms for this inverse association in CHF is not clear. There are other populations with a similar risk factor reversal phenomenon, including patients with end-stage renal disease receiving dialysis, those with advanced malignancies, and individuals with advanced age. Several possible causes are hypothesized: the time discrepancy of the competing risk factors may play a role; the presence of the "malnutrition-inflammation complex syndrome" in CHF patients may explain the existence of reverse epidemiology; and a decreased level of lipoprotein molecules may distort their endotoxin-scavenging role, predisposing CHF patients with a low serum cholesterol level to inflammatory consequences of endotoxemia. It is possible that new goals for such traditional risk factors as BMI, serum cholesterol, and BP should be developed for CHF. Reverse epidemiology of conventional cardiovascular risk factors is observed in CHF and may have a bearing on the management of these patients; thus, it deserves further investigation.
Response of cat dorsal horn cells to variations of intensity, location, and area of cutaneous stimuli

Abstract The extracellular activity of cat dorsal horn cells was recorded. The stimulus consisted of a precisely controlled displacement of the clipped fur and skin of the ipsilateral hindlimb. The response to such a stimulus consisted of a transient onset discharge which was a function of hair movement and an adapting sustained discharge which was dependent on indentation of skin. The relation of the maintained discharge to the intensity of the stimulus, its location within the receptive field, and area of skin displaced by the probe was studied. Rate of firing was dependent on each of these three stimulus parameters. It was concluded that these cells would not be useful in signalling the precise location and intensity of cutaneous stimuli, but that they might serve as indicators of hair movement and total force delivered within the receptive field.
A Preliminary Study of the Volatile Compounds Produced by Leuconostoc oenos Isolated from an Oregon Wine

Summary Volatile compounds produced by Leuconostoc oenos in modified tomato juice broth were isolated in Porapak Q traps and subjected to gas Chromatographic and mass spectral analysis. Volatile compounds identified were 2-propanol, 2-methyl-1-propanol, butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, 1-pentanol and benzaldehyde. The organism also produced 5.6 mg acetoin per 100 ml of citrate broth.
Psychological perspectives of ecosystem health

Behavior-based and person-based perspectives are integrated to summarize approaches for dealing with the human element of ecosystem health. Behavior is selected by its consequences, and therefore interventions are needed to decrease the natural reinforcing consequences (e.g., convenience, efficiency) of environment-destructive behaviors and to increase the reinforcing consequences of environment-protective behaviors. An ABC Model (for Activator-Behavior-Consequence) can be applied effectively to design intervention programs for benefiting the human behavior aspects of ecosystem health. However, intervention agents are needed to implement positive behavior-change techniques, and this requires people to actively care enough to emit other-directed (or altruistic) behaviors for the health of the ecosystem. Person factors which influence one's propensity to actively care include: self-esteem, belongingness, and empowerment, influenced by perceptions of self-efficacy (I can do it), personal control (I am in control), and optimism (I expect the best). Strategies are reviewed for increasing these person states or expectancies. The health of our ecosystem depends upon people changing their behaviors and attitudes regarding the environment. Behavior-based psychology offers the technology for changing behaviors and attitudes in desirable directions; person-based psychology offers the states or expectancies needed in people to increase their willingness to actively care for the environment. By applying the theory and principles from these subdisciplines of applied psychology, the critical human element of our ecosystem can be accounted for and managed effectively.
What do dissolution experiments tell us about natural weathering

Abstract Much information about the earliest stages of weathering comes from laboratory experiments where the mineral surface chemistry is rigorously controlled and the solution composition is maintained far from equilibrium with the solid. The experiments show that the pathways for dissolution are similar to those for ligand exchange around dissolved metal complexes. One difference is that the rates of mineral dissolution are controlled by the concentrations of surface species while rates of ligand exchange are proportional to bulk concentration. Nevertheless, the correlation is so strong that rates of olivine dissolution are predictable from the rates of solvent exchange around the corresponding divalent metal in solution. However, this level of resolution is achieved by maintaining unnaturally high fluid/mineral ratios and by taking great care to avoid precipitation of secondary minerals. Natural olivine weathers in intimate contact with secondary minerals. Reactions commonly proceed in clay-filled channels only a few tens of Angstroms in diameter and secondary minerals are topotactic with olivine. Primary and secondary minerals are so intimately intergrown in these channels that the olivine surface chemistry is undoubtably influenced by overlapping electrostatic double layers. Smectite growth may have proceeded at near-saturation with the fluid, but the solution is in gross disequilibrium with the olivine. There nevertheless remains some qualitative consistency between weathering in the laboratory and in the field. The ligand-exchange model for bond cleavage, for example, predicts that the presence of ferric iron at the mineral surface will retard weathering rates. Correspondingly, defect planes of oxidized olivine (to produce Fe 3+ and a vacancy) weather at a much slower rate than unoxidized material. Thus, the appropriate level of comparison of field and laboratory weathering is at the scale of reactivity trends; it is unreasonable to expect quantitative similarity in reaction rates.
The association of growth hormone parameters with skeletal muscle phosphocreatine recovery in adult men.

Peak stimulated GH and GH area-under-the-curve, on standard GH releasing hormone-arginine stimulation testing, and IGF-I are associated with skeletal muscle phosphocreatine recovery in adult men.
The Arts: A Source of Comfort and Insight for Children who are Learning about Death

The expressive arts - literature, film, song - are mediums for dramatic exposure of human experience with loss which reflect concerns present in the student of any age. Expression of the human spirit is not the exclusive province of the professional artist. Students can respond to the artists' perceptions through art expressions of their own (dialogue, drawing).This paper (1) identifies concerns, consolations and fears of artist and student; (2) illustrates materials and techniques for eliciting feelings and for their expression in aesthetic frameworks; (3) underscores the “mutuality,” - the universality and yet individuality of each mortal experience; (4) sees the arts as a mode of learning to be trusted in its own right; and (5) views the classroom as an appropriate setting for such sharing and study.
[D78] Tendon-driven testbed for haptic exploration and sensory event-driven grasp and manipulation

A remote actuation system was developed for the modular control of tendon-driven robot hands, such as the “BairClaw” introduced here. Motor-actuated tendons are routed over cantilever-based load cells for direct measurement of tendon tensions. Compression springs are used to maintain tendon tension and absorb unexpected loads. Tendons are routed to the robot hand through a low friction PTFE housing. The index finger of the BairClaw has four degrees-of-freedom (three flexion-extension, one adduction-abduction) and a Hall effect sensor-based joint angle measurement system. The BairClaw was designed around a biomimetic multimodal tactile sensor that can measure temperature, vibration, and skin deformation associated with forces and contact location. Importantly, the exoskeleton-like design of the BairClaw finger enables rich tactile sensing capabilities in concert with a functional distal interphalangeal joint. The testbed can be used for human-like haptic exploration and, when all BairClaw digits are complete, for sensory event-driven grasp and manipulation.
Alpha-contingent stimulation with binocular and monocular viewing

The method of alpha-contingent stimulation was evaluated under conditions of (1) binocular viewing, (2) monocular viewing, dominant eye, and (3) monocular viewing, non-dominant eye. Twelve normal young adults with normal vision and unequivocal alpha rhythms were tested. There was no evidence against generalizing the alpha contingent stimulation (ACS) method to monocular modes of viewing. The same methodological advantages, e.g. reduced random variability of the latency and duration of alpha blocking, were observed for all modes of viewing, which extends the range of possible applications of ACS method.
‘Their Coats were Tied Up like Men’: Women Rebels in Antigua's 1858 Uprising

This paper presents the story of the 1858 riot and its primary causes, including Antigua's economic downturn since emancipation in 1834 and the dissatisfaction which black working people had with the post-slavery social order. The disturbance originated between dockworkers from both Antigua and Barbuda competing for jobs in Antigua's capital, but expanded to involve hundreds of working-class Antiguans assailing Barbudans, white planters, Portuguese immigrants, and black and mixed-race policemen. As many Antiguan women formed the forefront of the uprising, the article concentrates on the gendered dimensions of the violence, from the brutal acts Antiguan women perpetrated against Barbudan women to their masculinisation in the press and the trial, being alleged to have dressed and carried themselves ‘like men’ during the fray. The study raises critical questions about the hardships of Antiguan freedwomen in the post-slavery period seeking to maintain their lives and livelihoods, and how those hardships drove...
Guided wave temperature compensation with the scale-invariant correlation coefficient

One of the greatest challenges toward developing guided wave structural health monitoring technology is the necessity to distinguish benign effects from those caused by damage. Variations in temperature, one of the most prominent benign effects, are known to stretch or scale ultrasonic signals in time. Several techniques have been proposed to compensate for the effects of temperature, but they tend to be computationally expensive, require locally convex conditions, or lack robustness to modeling error. In this paper, we present a new technique, based on the Mellin and scale transforms, which takes advantage of available fast algorithms for computing and compensating stretch-based operations. Using experimental data, we show our technique to be accurate, robust, and algorithmically faster than other existing techniques.
A framework for interactive multiple criteria group decision support

An interactive framework is developed for multiple criteria group decision support. Decision makers are asked to specify aspiration and reservation levels to establish a preferred range for the value of each objective for each decision maker. Group and individual solutions are generated as a function of these levels. Decision makers are asked to react to current solutions by revising their aspiration and reservation levels and additional solutions are generated. The framework is both simpler and more flexible than previous approaches.
The Utilization of Molasses and Urea in the Rations of Growing Dairy Cattle

Summary Growth studies have been conducted with 80 dairy heifers over a 2-year period to determine the value of molasses when fed at high levels of supplementation and to study more adequately the utilization of urea with molasses as the source of carbohydrate supplement when fed with low quality hay to growing dairy animals. Digestion and balance studies were also conducted with eight bull calves in two replicates of a 4 × 4 Latin square design. All the animals with one exception were fed about as much low-quality mixed hay, predominantly timothy, as they would consume, and this was supplemented as follows: Ration 1, molasses and urea; Ration 2, corn and soybean oil meal; Ration 3, molasses and soybean oil meal; Ration 4, molasses, corn and urea. In every trial but one, the animals that received the soybean oil meal rations with either corn or molasses gained significantly more than the urea-supplemented animals. Molasses apparently was not an adequate carbohydrate for the utilization of urea by the rumen microflora when fed with little or no starchy carbohydrate. When a small amount of corn was fed with urea and molasses, an increase in daily gain was noted which was not statistically significant. The nitrogen balance data have shown that adequate synthesis of protein from urea did not occur in these rations. Molasses and soybean oil meal did not produce as rapid gains as did corn and soybean oil meal. This may be attributed to the low digestibility of the protein in the molasses rations which were carefully adjusted to supply adequate, but no surplus, protein for a normal ration. Molasses also depressed the digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, ether extract, and crude fiber. When good quality legume hay replaced the poor quality timothy hay in a molasses-urea ration, excellent gains were obtained, showing that high levels of molasses can produce satisfactory gains when sufficient or excess protein supplied by the hay is available.
ASSESSING THE NEED FOR TREATMENT IN THE ARRESTEE POPULATION

ABSTRACT Data from the National Institute of Justice's Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) program have indicated consistently very high levels of recent illicit drug use in the population of adults arrested for felonies in urban areas. However, a number of conceptual and methodological flaws seriously limit the policy relevance of the DUF results. The present study corrects many of the methodological problems and focuses on substance dependence rather than recent use. Estimates of the prevalence of dependence on alcohol and illicit substances are presented and the correlates of dependence in a sample of adult arrestees are identified. The findings suggest that the need for treatment is very high in the arrestee population. The multivariate analysis suggests that although the need for treatment is consistently present, the nature of the problem varies by jurisdiction. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.
Aquaporins in avian kidneys: function and perspectives

For terrestrial vertebrates, water economy is a prerequisite for survival, and the kidney is their major osmoregulatory organ. Birds are the only vertebrates other than mammals that can concentrate urine in adaptation to terrestrial environments. Aquaporin (AQP) and glyceroporin (GLP) are phylogenetically old molecules and have been found in plants, microbial organisms, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Currently, 13 AQPs/aquaGLPs and isoforms are known to be present in mammals. AQPs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11 are expressed in the kidney; of these, AQPs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 are shown to be involved in fluid homeostasis. In avian kidneys, AQPs 1, 2, 3, and 4 have been identified and characterized. Also, gene and/or amino acid sequences of AQP5, AQP7, AQP8, AQP9, AQP11, and AQP12 have been reported in birds. AQPs 2 and 3 are expressed along cortical and medullary collecting ducts (CDs) and are responsible, respectively, for the water inflow and outflow of CD epithelial cells. While AQP4 plays an important role in water exit in the CD of mammalian kidneys, it is unlikely to participate in water outflow in avian CDs. This review summarizes current knowledge on structure and function of avian AQPs and compares them to those in mammalian and nonmammalian vertebrates. Also, we aim to provide input into, and perspectives on, the role of renal AQPs in body water homeostasis during ontogenic and phylogenetic advancement.
Watersheds and Vegetation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

This paper describes major watershed systems and broad patterns of vegetation within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, explains the geographic links between these sys- tems, andproposes factors that could be used to measure the integrity (condition and naturalness) of watersheds and vegetation The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem can be geo- graphically defined as the Yellowstone Plateau and eleva- tions in the 14 surrounding mountain ranges above the 2130-meter (7000-foot) contoul: certain lower elevations need to be included to account for some ecologicalprocesses. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the headwaters for three major continental-scale river systems: the Missouri- Mississippi, Snake-Columbia, and Green-Colorado. Features, processes, and materials of watersheds provide structure and key functions to ecosystems of Greater Yellowstone. Changes in elevation--and the accordant changes in precipitation, temperature, land forms, and the stream network-exert the strongest control on the distribution of plant species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The condition and natural- ness of watmheds and vegetation remain to be quantified but both decline with distance away from the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem due to timber harvest, oil and gas exploration and development, mineral exploration and development, reservoir operations, flood control, agri- cultural development, and livestock grazing.
Overexpression of bcl-2 Protects Prostate Cancer Cells from Apoptosis in Vitro and Confers Resistance to Androgen Depletion in Vivo

Normal (nonneoplastic) human prostatic secretory epithelial cells do not express the bcl-2 protein. However, a recent immunohistochemical survey of neoplastic human prostate tissues showed that a fraction of primary untreated prostate adenocarcinoma cells expressed this apoptosis-suppressing oncoprotein at significant levels (Colombel et al., Am. J. Pathol., 143: 390-400, 1993). Additionally, a number of hormone-refractory prostatic adenocarcinomas obtained from hormonally-treated patients (subsequent to surgical or drug castration therapy) were examined and were found to be uniform in their elevated expression of bcl-2 oncoprotein. The results of this preliminary survey imply that bcl-2 expression distinguishes a subgroup of primary human prostate cancers and that the expression of this protein might be a factor enabling prostate cancer cells to survive in an androgen-deprived environment. The current study was undertaken to determine the degree to which overexpression of bcl-2 can protect human prostate cancer cells from apoptotic stimuli in vitro and in vivo. Human prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) were transfected with a neomycin-selectable eucaryotic expression vector containing cDNA encoding human bcl-2. Transfected clonal variants that express bcl-2 protein (LNCaP/bcl-2) were unaltered with regard to their basal growth rate in 10% serum-containing medium, or with regard to their expression of the differentiated human prostate cell gene products prostate-specific antigen or androgen receptor protein. The bcl-2-transfected clones were altered, however, with regard to their growth rate in charcoal-stripped serum lacking dihydrotestosterone. Additionally, in contrast to the parental or control-transfected cell lines, LNCaP/bcl-2 cells were highly resistant to a variety of apoptotic stimuli in vitro including serum starvation and 10 nM phorbol ester (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate) supplementation of the medium. Lastly, the overexpression of bcl-2 by these prostate cancer cells altered their tumorigenic potential in a nude mouse assay. s.c. injections of 10(6) LNCaP/bcl-2 cells into male nude mice resulted in earlier and larger tumor formation compared to an equivalent injection of parental or control-transfected LNCaP cells. When these variant cell lines were injected into castrated male nude mice, only the LNCaP/bcl-2-transformed cells gave rise to tumors. Moreover, LNCaP/bcl-2 tumors grown in intact male nude mice were refractory to the growth-inhibiting effects of castration demonstrated by parental LNCaP cells. Data obtained in this study demonstrate that the bcl-2 oncoprotein can protect prostate cancer cells from apoptotic stimuli in vitro and suggest that such protection correlates with the ability to form hormone-refractory prostate tumors in vivo.
Measurement of Porosity in Ceramic Coatings by Thermogravimetric Volatilization of Liquids

A simple gravimetric method was developed to determine the open porosity in ceramic coatings. The coating`s pore space was filled with a liquid and the weight loss on volatilization of the liquid was measured in a thermogravimetric analyzer. This thermogravimetric volatilization of liquids (TVL) method was used to characterize the porosity in titania coatings, alumina/aluminum phosphate coatings, and free-standing films of alumina. Several liquids were used; ethylene glycol and 1,3-propanediol gave the best results due to their low volatilities at room temperature. The measured porosities of the ceramic coatings ranged from 30% to 80% and the pore sizes (as determined by SEM and mercury porosimetry) ranged from 0.1 to 15 {micro}m. The standard deviation of the TVL measurement was smaller for thicker coatings (e.g., {ge}20{micro}m). Porosities determined by TVL were within typically 5--10% of those determined by mercury intrusion porosimetry on identical samples. Characterization of a series of alumina/aluminum phosphate coatings showed a decrease in porosity consistent with expectations based on density and SEM observations. TVL is nondestructive, can be used for small volumes of sample, and when combined with SEM, provides a good means to characterize coating porosity and pore structure.
A Synthetic Lethal Screen Identifies a Role for Lin-44/Wnt in C. elegans Embryogenesis.

Funding was provided by a Major Starter Award (PI Brian D. Ackley) through the Kansas Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103418, K-INBRE PI Dr. Douglas Wright. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Automated minimization of steric clashes in protein structures.

Molecular modeling of proteins including homology modeling, structure determination, and knowledge-based protein design requires tools to evaluate and refine three-dimensional protein structures. Steric clash is one of the artifacts prevalent in low-resolution structures and homology models. Steric clashes arise due to the unnatural overlap of any two nonbonding atoms in a protein structure. Usually, removal of severe steric clashes in some structures is challenging since many existing refinement programs do not accept structures with severe steric clashes. Here, we present a quantitative approach of identifying steric clashes in proteins by defining clashes based on the Van der Waals repulsion energy of the clashing atoms. We also define a metric for quantitative estimation of the severity of clashes in proteins by performing statistical analysis of clashes in high-resolution protein structures. We describe a rapid, automated, and robust protocol, Chiron, which efficiently resolves severe clashes in low-resolution structures and homology models with minimal perturbation in the protein backbone. Benchmark studies highlight the efficiency and robustness of Chiron compared with other widely used methods. We provide Chiron as an automated web server to evaluate and resolve clashes in protein structures that can be further used for more accurate protein design. Proteins 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Estimation and noisy source coding

The minimum-mean-squared-error encoding of a noisy source is considered within the context of alphabet-constrained data compression. Just as in the block-coding formulation, the optimum source coder consists of an optimum estimator followed by optimum source coding of the resulting estimates. However, unlike the block approach, the alphabet-constrained viewpoint admits estimators based on the past history of source observations outside the current block of interest. If delayed encoding is allowed, the estimator is an optimum smoother. For Gauss-Markov sources, the encoding performance is characterized in terms of the estimation error covariance, and it is demonstrated that for moderate block sizes, significant reduction in mean-squared error can be achieved compared to the block coder performance. Extensive experiments are reported for vector quantization of noisy speech using the Y.L. Linde, A. Buzo, and R.M. Gray (IEEE Trans. Commun., vol.COM-28, p.84-95, 1980) training mode vector quantizer. The results indicate that the alphabet-constrained estimator, which is a Kalman filter, is superior to the block estimator, and, in particular, that adaptivity is critical for good performance over a variety of speech sources. >
Reactivity of human Lyme borreliosis sera with a 39-kilodalton antigen specific to Borrelia burgdorferi.

Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis, a spirochetal illness with a variety of acute clinical manifestations that may lead to debilitating neurological and arthritic complications. Diagnosis is difficult because symptoms mimic a variety of unrelated clinical conditions, spirochetes cannot always be isolated from infected patients, and current serological tests are frequently inconclusive because of the presence of cross-reacting non-B. burgdorferi antibodies. To identify antigens specific to B. burgdorferi that could be used in the serodiagnosis of Lyme borreliosis, we screened a Borrelia DNA expression library in Escherichia coli for antigens reactive with human Lyme borreliosis sera. One clone carried a 6.3-kilobase EcoRI chromosomal fragment (pSPR33), which encoded two species-specific antigens with molecular masses of 28 (P28) and 39 (P39) kilodaltons (kDa). These two antigens were immunologically distinct from OspA, OspB, and the 41-kDa flagellin. Ninety-four serum specimens from patients having Lyme borreliosis were tested for reactivity with P39. All of 33 the serum specimens with immunofluorescence assay titers of greater than or equal to 1:256, 13 of 17 serum specimens with titers of 1:128, and 14 of 44 serum specimens with titers of less than or equal to 1:64 reacted with P39. Notably, many sera reactive to P39 did not appear to react with the 41-kDa flagellin. Therefore, antibody to P39 could be mistaken for antibody to the 41-kDa flagellin in tests of human sera by Western blot (immunoblot). Twenty-five control serum specimens, which included sera from syphilitic, relapsing fever, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients as well as from 10 normal individuals, did not react to P39. Our data suggest that P39 may be a useful antigen for the serological confirmation of Lyme borreliosis. Images
The nucleus corporis pontobulbaris of the North American opossum

The nucleus of the pontobulbar body (PBu) in the North American opossum is located, for the most part, adjacent to the motor root of the trigeminal nerve. Material prepared by degeneration and autoradiographic methods shows that the PBu receives projections from the facial motor-sensory cortex, red nucleus, spinal cord and cerebellum. The latter fibers probably take origin within the fastigial nucleus. Each of the afferent connections ends in a restricuted part of the PBu, but there is considerable overlap. Use of the horseradish peroxidase technique reveals that the PBu projects to the spinal cerebellum (anterior lobe, pyramis and paramedian lobules), to visual-auditory areas of the vermis and to the lobus simplex as well as to crus I and II of the hemispheres. Although there is some topography to such projections, it is not sharply defined and many regions of the PBu contain labelled neurons after injections of horseradish peroxidase into widely separate areas of the cerebellar cortex. Because of its embryogenesis and position, the PBu is often considered part of the dorsolateral basilar pons. It appears from our material, however, that the organization of PBu afferent and efferent connections is different from that of the adjacent basilar pons, and arguments for considering the PBu a separate precerebellar nucleus are presented.
Association of hospitalist presence and hospital-level outcome measures among Medicare patients.

BACKGROUND Hospitalists have been shown to lower patient costs through better resource utilization and decreased length of stay, but it is unclear whether hospitalists are associated with quality of care. We examined the association between the presence of hospitalists and 30-day predicted excess all-cause hospital mortality and readmissions among Medicare patients admitted to a hospital with any of 3 conditions: heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia. METHODS Using national hospital-level, case mix-adjusted, risk-standardized, 30-day all-cause excess mortality and readmission data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we used descriptive and bivariate statistics to illustrate trends across hospitals. Using multivariable ordinary least squares regression to control for hospital-level characteristics, we then estimated the association between the presence of hospitalists and predicted hospital mortality and readmission. RESULTS After multivariable adjustment, the presence of hospitalists was associated with lower probability of readmission for all 3 target conditions. No significant associations for any of the target conditions were found in all-cause mortality models. CONCLUSIONS Hospitalists are already integral to the delivery of inpatient care at most institutions. This study, however, showed an association at the national level of the presence of hospitalists with an important and timely quality measure: reduction of readmission rates. Future research is indicated to explore specific causation pathways for the impact of hospitalists on quality of care. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2014;9:1–6. © 2013 Society of Hospital Medicine
Chinese teachers’ evaluation criteria as reflected in narrative student evaluations: Implications for psychological services in schools

To increase school psychologists’ understanding of school contextual culture in China, this study used a qualitative research method to investigate 30 Chinese elementary school teachers’ evaluation...
Heat or mass transfer in a fluid in laminar flow in a circular or flat conduit

Accurate solutions to the Graetz equation and to the similar equation for flow between two parallel plates are presented including the first ten or eleven eigenvalues and important derivatives. The first six eigenfunctions are also presented at intervals of 0.05 from y = 0 to y = 1.
The Unintended Consequences of Congressional Action: Judicial Conviction Rates after Congressional Sentencing Reform

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 created the United States Sentencing Commission, which had the responsibility to promulgate sentencing guidelines. These guidelines created a range of determinate sentences for all categories of federal offenses and were binding on all federal judges. In a curious aftermath of legislation designed to toughen the response of courts to crime, scholars have noticed that federal judges’ conviction rates have fallen since the 1980s (Leipold 2004). This unexpected trend raises the possibility that the outcome of the Sentencing Act is opposite of what Congress intended. When faced with mandatory sentencing guidelines, judges sometimes try cases in which they believe the defendant to be guilty, but the legally mandated sentence is too harsh given the circumstances. In these cases, judges may choose to acquit. Since these defendants would have been convicted in the absence of guidelines, aggregate conviction rates should be lower when guidelines are in effect than otherwise. We te...