cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
THE EFFECT OF THE UNSTIRRED WATER LAYER (UWL) ON GLUCOSE OLIGOMER (GO) ASSIMILATION

GO's must pass through the UWL to be digested by brush border glucoamylase which progressively removes glucose units. In the absence of pancreatic amylase (PA), digestion appears rate-limiting for GO absorption. To assess whether the limited diffusivity of long chain GO's affects their assimilation, we evaluated the impact of thinning the UWL on GO uptake in rabbit jejunum proven free of PA. The tissue was mounted in Dietschy chambers, and the thickness of the UWL was adjusted to 140 or 400 um by varying the stirring rate of the mucosal buffer. The uptake of three 14C GO's [glucose (Degree of Polymerization, DP 1), DP 3-8, and DPAVG23] was assessed at cones of 180, 360, and 720 mg/dl. CONCLUSION: The barrier that the UWL presents to the assimilation of GO's is substantially greater for long chain GO's.
The French New Wave: a new look

The French New Wave: a new look NAOMI GREENE London, Wallflower Press, 2007 126 pp., illus., bibliography, filmography, index, £12.99 (paper) Reading the French New Wave: critics, writers and art c...
An Efficient Implementation of NC-OFDM Transceivers for Cognitive Radios

In this paper, we present an efficient implementation of a non-contiguous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (NC-OFDM) transceiver for cognitive radio systems. NC-OFDM is designed to transmit information in the presence of incumbent users, deactivating subcarriers located in the vicinity of these users to avoid interference. Given that the. core, component of an NC-OFDM transceiver is the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and that several of the subcarriers are deactivated, it is possible to reduce the execution time by "pruning" the FFT. We propose an algorithm that efficiently and quickly primes the FFT for NC-OFDM transceivers. Results show that the proposed algorithm substantially outperforms other FFT pruning algorithms when a medium to large number of subcarriers have been deactivated
Price wars triggered by entry

Abstract To attract customers who incur set-up (or switching) costs, new firms offer below-market prices when entering a market. The incumbent responds with discounts, resulting in a price war. Once new entrants have “locked in” their customers, the price warfare stops and all firms raise their prices. During the price war, the incumbent's price is not as low as the entrants'. After the price war, the market price is lower and output is greater than the pre-entry price and output. Entrants attract new buyers to the market and, depending on the size distribution of set-up costs, we show that some of the incumbent's customers switch to entrants. The model is shown to square with the price and output sequences observed in a price war that was the subject of a recent and prominent antitrust case in the cigarette market.
Detrimental effects of mechanical stretch on smooth muscle function in saphenous veins

Objective This study evaluated the smooth muscle functional response and viability of human saphenous vein (HSV) grafts after harvest and explored the effect of mechanical stretch on contractile responses of porcine saphenous vein (PSV). Methods The contractile responses (stress, 10 5 N/m 2 ) of deidentified, remnant HSV grafts to depolarizing potassium chloride and the agonist norepinephrine were measured in a muscle organ bath. Cellular viability was evaluated using a methyl thiazole tetrazolium (MTT) assay. A PSV model was used to evaluate the effect of radial, longitudinal, and angular stretch on smooth muscle contractile responses. Results Contractile responses varied greatly in HSV harvested for autologous vascular and coronary bypass procedures (0.04198 ± 0.008128 × 10 5 N/m 2 to 0.1192 ± 0.02776 × 10 5 N/m 2 ). Contractility of the HSV correlated with the cellular viability of the grafts. In the PSV model, manual radial distension of ≥300 mm Hg had no impact on the smooth muscle responses of PSV to potassium chloride. Longitudinal and angular stretch significantly decreased the contractile function of PSV by 33.16% and 15.26%, respectively ( P Conclusions There is considerable variability in HSV harvested for use as an autologous conduit. Longitudinal and angular stretching during surgical harvest impairs contractile responsiveness of the smooth muscle in saphenous vein. Avoiding stretch-induced injuries to the conduits during harvest and preparation for implantation may reduce adverse biologic responses in the graft (eg, intimal hyperplasia) and improve patency of autologous vein graft bypasses.
China's health system: determinants.

This paper seeks to examine and explain the changes in China's health policy since 1949. It attempts to clarify the role of various determinants in the health policy-making process in various stages of China's development and discover what forces propelled the shifts in health policies and campaigns. Various social, economic and political forces are discussed as they bear on the evolution of China's health policies, and the fate of Maoist vs. pragmatic tendencies in assessed.
Differential interactions of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with 5-HT1A and 5-HT2 receptors.

Abstract The interactions of the indolealkylamine N , N -dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with 5-hydroxytryptamine 1A (5-HT 1A ) and 5-HT 2 receptors in rat brain were analyzed using radioligand binding techniques and biochemical functional assays. The affinity of DMT for 5-HT 1A sites labeled by [ 3 H]-8-hydroxy-2-(di- n -propylamino)tetralin ([ 3 H]-8-OH-DPAT) was decreased in the presence of 10 −4 M GTP, suggesting agonist activity of DMT at this receptor. Adenylate cyclase studies in rat hippocampi showed that DMT inhibited forskolin-stimulated cyclase activity, a 5-HT 1A agonist effect. DMT displayed full agonist activity with an ec 50 of 4 × 10 −6 M in the cyclase assay. In contrast to the agonist actions of DMT at 5-HT 1A receptors, DMT appeared to have antagonistic properties at 5-HT 2 receptors. The ability of DMT to compete for [ 3 H]-ketanserin-labeled 5-HT 2 receptors was not affected by the presence of 10 −4 M GTP, suggesting antagonist activity of DMT at 5-HT 2 receptors. In addition, DMT antagonized 5-HT 2 -receptor-mediated phosphatidylinositol (PI) turnover in rat cortex at concentrations above 10 −7 M, with 70% of the 5-HT-induced PI response inhibited at 10 −4 M DMT. Micromolar concentrations of DMT produced a slight PI stimulation that was not blocked by the 5-HT 2 antagonist ketanserin. These studies suggest that DMT has opposing actions on 5-HT receptor subtypes, displaying agonist activity at 5-HT 1A receptors and antagonist activity at 5-HT 2 receptors.
Greater saphenous venous access as an alternative in children

In the pediatric population, obtaining venous access in high-risk neonates, severely ill children with cardiac anomalies or very young children (<10 kg) can be very challenging. In the literature to date, the greater saphenous vein has not been primarily used by interventional radiologists as an entry site for venous access in children. To demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of using the greater saphenous vein as a venous access site for the placement of peripherally inserted central catheters in children. This is a retrospective study from a large tertiary care children’s hospital from November 2010 to August 2012. Peripheral insertion of central venous catheters (PICC) using the greater saphenous vein was attempted in 86 children ranging in age from 3 days to 17 years (mean: 1.8 years). Indications included congenital heart disease, urinary tract infection, intravenous access, pneumonia, meningitis, total parenteral nutrition, sepsis and other infections. All procedures were performed by interventional radiologists. No insertion-related complications were identified. There was no follow-up planning, but no mechanical or infectious complications were brought to our attention. Of the 86 patients in whom PICC placement was attempted, placement was successful in 67 (78%). Forty-two PICCs were placed in the greater saphenous vein at the thigh level using US guidance and 25 at the ankle level using anatomical landmarks. The mean weight of the 67 patients who underwent successful placement was 9.98 kg, with 51 (76%) weighing <10 kg. The mean vessel diameter in placement failures was 1.35 mm compared to 1.83 mm in successful placement. Inability to obtain venous access was the cause of failure in all thigh access sites while inability to advance the catheter centrally was the cause of failure for all ankle access sites. A total of 1,060 catheter days (with a maximum dwell time of 97 days in one patient) were reviewed without complication. In children, the greater saphenous vein provides a safe, suitable alternative for venous access, particularly in very young children (<10 kg) and in a select group of older children who are not mobile. In the lower extremities, greater saphenous venous puncture and access may be a preferred initial access site in small children to preserve future venous access.
Emerging Therapies for Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells within the bone marrow characterized by bone loss, renal disease, and immunodeficiency. Recent advances in the understanding of MM pathogenesis have improved established conventional cytotoxic therapy as well as transplantation regimens. Despite these advances, median overall survival is only 3–5 years. Therefore new therapies are urgently needed. Besides thalidomide, whose antimyeloma activity has only recently been defined, a plethora of novel agents, including the thalidomide-derived immunomodulatory drugs and bortezomib, have been identified to directly target the tumor cell or its microenvironment, and thereby inhibit MM cell growth and survival, and to overcome drug resistance. After validation of their preclinical anti-MM activity, several clinical trials are now ongoing to test the efficacy of these novel therapeutics, administered alone or in combination with conventional or other novel therapeutics and bone marrow transplantation. This article reviews the development of MM therapy, from its initial description approximately 150 years ago to the novel therapy regimens of recent years, highlighting that MM may soon become a chronic disease.
A theoretical reassessment of the applicability of Kübler-Ross's stages of dying

Abstract This paper analyzes the applicability of Kubler-Ross's stages of dying (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) to the dying experiences of elderly patients, who present the most commonly encountered cases of death for family physicians.
Mission Accomplished: An Introduction to Formal Methods in Mobile Robot Motion Planning and Control

A new trend in the robotic motion planning literature is to use formal methods, like model checking, reactive synthesis and supervisory control theory, to automatically design controllers that drive a mobile robot to accomplish some high level missions in a guaranteed manner. This is also known as the correct-by-construction method. The high level missions are usually specified as temporal logics, particularly as linear temporal logic formulas, due to their similarity to human natural languages. This paper provides a brief overview of the recent developments in this newly emerged research area. A number of fundamental topics, such as temporal logic, model checking, bisimulation quotient transition systems and reachability controller design are reviewed. Additionally, the key challenges and possible future directions in this area are briefly discussed with references given for further reading.
Two-dimensional mechanical properties of rabbit skin. II. Experimental results.

Abstract An experimental system for two-dimensional tests of soft tissue was developed. It can perform in vitro two-dimensional tests at different rates (up to 6·0 mm/sec) as well as two-dimensional relaxation and creep tests. Effect of the temperature on two-dimensional stresses and strains can also be measured. Data reduction is greatly improved with the help of on-line PDP 8 e computer.
Diffraction patterns of artificial two-dimensional crystals synthesized in situ in an environmental scanning transmission electron microscope.

Summary In this study, we demonstrated the use of electron-beam-induced deposition for synthesis of artificial two-dimensional crystals with an in situ scanning transmission electron microscope. The structures were deposited from W(CO)6 in an environmental scanning transmission electron microscope on a 30-nm-thick Si3N4 substrate. We present clear electron beam diffraction patterns taken from those structures. The distance between the diffraction peaks corresponded to the dot spacing in the self-made surface crystal. We propose using these arrays of dots as anchor points for making artificial crystals for diffraction analysis of weakly scattering or beam-sensitive molecules such as proteins.
Regulation of the Direct Fungicidal Action of Miconazole against Candida albicans ATCC 26790/Die Regulation der direkten fungiziden Wirkung von Miconazol auf Candida albicans ATCC 26790

Summary: The direct lethal action of l 10−5 M miconazole against Candida albicans ATCC 11651 depends upon, and is therefore regulated by, growth phase, pH, and whether any miconazole is present during lag phase when susceptibility develops. Certain of these studies were recently extended to C. albicans ATCC 26790 with nearly identical results, suggesting that such regulation is a general phenomenon. Zusammenfassung: Die direkte letale Wirkung von ≥ 10−5 M Miconazol gegen Candida albicans ATCC 11651 hangt ab und wird daher reguliert von der Wachstumsphase, dem pH-Wert und davon, ob uberhaupt Miconazol wahrend der lag-Phase anwesend ist, in der sich die Suszeptibilitat entwickelt Einige dieser Untersuchungen wurden jungst auf Candida albicans ATCC 26790 erweitert mit fast identischen Resultaten, was zu der Vorstellung fuhrt, das diese Regulation ein allgemeines Phanomen ist.
Temporal transitions in participation flow in an asynchronous discussion forum

This study examined the overarching issue of how temporal transitions, specifically duration of message flow, affects momentum or wellness of discussion in an asynchronous forum. Quantitative data representing time indicators in discussion activity included posting patterns related to duration (density, intensity, latency, and response count), Day-In topic, day of week, and time of day. Qualitative analysis identified notable spikes or irregularities (i.e., peaks and valleys) in the content level of postings. Results revealed that for open-ended topics (i.e., no specific end date imposed by the instructor), the momentum of forum discussion may be short-term, between 21 and 28days into the topic. Peaks and valleys subsequent to 31days were not significant to discussion vitality. Students posted mainly early to mid-week. Time of day had no direct influence on the vitality of the discussion. Strategies for applying temporal transitions in an online forum to motivate and sustain student participation are discussed.
In Situ Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy of Molecular Adsorbates at Electrode-Electrolyte Interfaces: A Comparison between Internal and External Reflection Modes

The vibrational properties of 2,5-dihydroxybenzyl mercaptan (DHBM) irreversibly adsorbed on gold electrodes have been examined in situ in aqueous 0.1 M HClO 4 by two different Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic techniques : (i) potential difference attenuated total reflection FT-IR (PD-ATR-FT-IR), using a thin layer of gold (∼4 nm) sputtered on a (thick layer) Au-patterned ZnSe internal reflection element as the electrode and (ii) PD-FT-IR (external) reflection absorption spectroscopy (PD-FT-IRRAS) on a solid Au electrode. The results obtained with both techniques, using the spectrum of the monolayer in the reduced state as a reference, were found to be nearly identical, displaying a set of negative- and positive-pointing features. The first set matched, within experimental error, the most prominent peaks observed in the ATR-FT-IR spectra of the DHBM monolayer using either pure water or 0.1 M HClO 4 as a reference. Furthermore, the positive-pointing features in the PD-FT-IR spectra, which correspond to the product of the electrochemical oxidation of irreversibly adsorbed DHBM, were consistent with the presence of a quinone-type moiety, as would be expected on the basis of chemical considerations. These observations indicate that, to the level of sensitivity of these two methodologies, the mode of adsorption and reactivity of DHBM (and probably a number of other species as well) is not appreciably affected by possible differences in the metal surface microstructure.
The I, i, and HI blood group antigens in extracts of human erythrocytes.

Extracts of stromata of human adult and newborn (cord) erythrocytes were prepared with n-butanol. The aqueous phase and butanol phase extracts were examined for the presence of blood group I, i, HI and H substances in inhibition of agglutination experiments. The recovery of HI activity in both the aqueous and butanol phase extracts of adult red cells but only in the aqueous phase of cord cells is reported here for the first time. The i specificity was present in the aqueous phase but not in the butanol phase of cord erythrocytes, also not previously reported. Although the recovery of I but not i substance in aqueous phase extracts of adult cells had been shown by other workers, examination of the butanol phase extracts for I and i substances had not been documented. In the present study, Ii substances were not demonstrable in any of the butanol phase extracts of adult and cord erythrocytes.
Failure of Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt Lamination Dies: A Corrosion Evaluation

Abstract Sudden failures of cemented tungsten carbide (WC)-cobalt punching dies are rare but expensive. Corrosion of the cobalt matrix, or cobalt leaching, by water-based lubricants usually is considered the cause of such failures. The validity of this mechanism was evaluated by measuring the corrosion behavior of cobalt, WC, and WC-15% Co die material in water and seven made-up lubricants. In the worst lubricant, the cobalt matrix corroded at an estimated rate of 0.01% sodium chloride [NaCl]), aerated water of pH 7, the rate could be 80 mpy. Such a rate still was not high enough to explain die failures because of the short contact time between lubricant and sliding surfaces during punching operations. Excessive adhesive wear caused by low lubricity and resulting in removal of large wear particles may have been responsible. Such particles wedged between sliding surfaces may have exerted forces sufficient to cause breakage of the dies.
ANTIBIOTICS FOR GRAM-POSITIVE BACTERIAL INFECTIONS: Vancomycin, Teicoplanin, Quinupristin/Dalfopristin, and Linezolid

Vancomycin is a safe, effective antibiotic for a variety of serious gram-positive infections. Because of emerging resistance in enterococci and staphylococci and the emerging threat of spread of vancomycin-resistant genes to other gram-positive organisms, judicious use of vancomycin should be promoted. Quinupristin/dalfopristin, a streptogramin antibiotic, and linezolid, an oxazolidinone, show promise against some strains of gram-positive bacteria that are resistant to vancomycin.
Acquisition of Chinese characters: the effects of character properties and individual differences among learners

Abstract Drawing upon research on the visual complexity effect and Dual Coding Theory, this study investigated a) the effects of character properties on, and b) the contribution of individual learner differences to Chinese character acquisition. Participants included 325 Chinese-speaking children in grades 1 through 3 in China. Using a novel character acquisition task, the study extended the scope of previous research by investigating the process of acquiring the meaning of new characters. Results showed that for all three grade-groups, a) characters with radicals and with less visual complexity were easier to acquire than characters without radicals and with greater visual complexity; and b) the effect of radical presence was more pronounced with characters with greater visual complexity. Visual analogical skill made a significant contribution to the acquisition of characters varying in properties, regardless of age. The contribution of radical awareness, however, varied with character properties and age.
Growth-hormone release by glucagon.

Abstract Significant increments in serum-growth-hormone levels were found within 2-3 hours of subcutaneous administration of 1 mg. glucagon to both men and women. The response to glucagon corresponded to some extent to the decline in glucose but the values of growth hormone bore no relationship to the magnitude of the decrease. In view of its reliability, safety, and convenience, glucagon seems to be a valuable agent for the assessment of pituitary release of growth hormone.
The EF-hand Ca2+-binding Protein p22 Associates with Microtubules in an N-Myristoylation–dependent Manner

Proteins containing the EF-hand Ca2+-binding motif, such as calmodulin and calcineurin B, function as regulators of various cellular processes. Here we focus on p22, an N-myristoylated, widely expressed EF-hand Ca2+-binding protein conserved throughout evolution, which was shown previously to be required for membrane traffic. Immunofluorescence studies show that p22 distributes along microtubules during interphase and mitosis in various cell lines. Moreover, we report that p22 associates with the microtubule cytoskeleton indirectly via a cytosolic microtubule-binding factor. Gel filtration studies indicate that the p22–microtubule-binding activity behaves as a 70- to 30-kDa globular protein. Our results indicate that p22 associates with microtubules via a novel N-myristoylation–dependent mechanism that does not involve classic microtubule-associated proteins and motor proteins. The association of p22 with microtubules requires the N-myristoylation of p22 but does not involve p22’s Ca2+-binding activity, suggesting that the p22–microtubule association and the role of p22 in membrane traffic are functionally related, because N-myristoylation is required for both events. Therefore, p22 is an excellent candidate for a protein that can mediate interactions between the microtubule cytoskeleton and membrane traffic.
Factorization-based segmentation of motions

The authors address the problem of motion segmentation using the singular value decomposition of a feature track matrix. It is shown that, under general assumptions, the number of numerically nonzero singular values can be used to determine the number of motions. Furthermore, motions can be separated using the right singular vectors associated with the nonzero singular values. A relationship is derived between a good segmentation, the number of nonzero singular values in the input and the sum of the number of nonzero singular values in the segments. The approach is demonstrated on real and synthetic examples. The paper ends with a critical analysis of the approach. >
Women and the Superintendency: Insights From Theory and History:

This article examines 20th-century longitudinal data on the American superintendency’s composition by sex. The authors analyze and discuss those data in the light of occupational sex segregation th...
An unbiased adaptive method for retrieval of sinusoidal signals in colored noise

The problem of retrieving narrowband or sinusoidal signals in additive noise, colored or white, is considered in this paper. A frequency-domain analysis leads to a notch filter estimator producing unbiased estimates of the sinusoidal frequencies. The notch filter lends itself naturally to a frequency decoupled realization i.e. cascaded form realization. This has desirable numerical consequences which is essential for resolving closely spaced spectral lines. The method also features an adjustable debiasing parameter ? whose proper adjustment results in a decent rate of convergence to highly accurate estimates. Based on some frequency-tracking simulations, the method also appears to possess good tracking capability.
Comparison of current BLAST software on nucleotide sequences

The computational power needed for searching exponentially growing databases, such as GenBank, has increased dramatically. Three different implementations of the most widely used sequence alignment tool, known as BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), are studied for their efficiency on nucleotide-nucleotide comparisons. The performance of these implementations is evaluated using target databases and query sequences of varying lengths and number of entries constructed from human genomic and EST sequences. In general, WU BLAST was found to be most efficient when the database and query composition are unknown. NCBI BLAST appears to work best when the database contains a small number of sequences, while mpiBLAST shows the power of database distribution when the number of bases per target database is large. The optimal number of compute nodes in mpiBLAST varies depending upon the database, yet in the cases studied, remains surprisingly low.
Crystal structure of the bacterial nucleoside transporter Tsx

Tsx is a nucleoside-specific outer membrane (OM) transporter of Gram-negative bacteria. We present crystal structures of Escherichia coli Tsx in the absence and presence of nucleosides. These structures provide a mechanism for nucleoside transport across the bacterial OM. Tsx forms a monomeric, 12-stranded β-barrel with a long and narrow channel spanning the outer membrane. The channel, which is shaped like a keyhole, contains several distinct nucleoside-binding sites, two of which are well defined. The base moiety of the nucleoside is located in the narrow part of the keyhole, while the sugar occupies the wider opening. Pairs of aromatic residues and flanking ionizable residues are involved in nucleoside binding. Nucleoside transport presumably occurs by diffusion from one binding site to the next.
Temporal patterns of mental model convergence: implications for distributed teams interacting in electronic collaboration spaces.

Objective: Our objective is to capture temporal patterns in mental model convergence processes and differences in these patterns between distributed teams using an electronic collaboration space an...
1.55-μm dual-polarization lasers implemented with compressive- and tensile-strained quantum wells

Active regions containing both compressive- and tensile-strained quantum wells can he used to fabricate dual-polarization lasers and polarization insensitive amplifiers. In this letter we present experimental and theoretical results of dual-polarization lasers operating at 1.55 /spl mu/m. A six quantum-well laser structure containing alternately placed compressive- and tensile-strained quantum wells was found to lase in both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations simultaneously. The temperature characteristics of these devices are analyzed theoretically and found to depend strongly on the choice of the barrier band gap. >
The Accuracy of Respondent-Coded Occupation

This study reports results from a methodological experiment conducted in a national survey to test the accuracy of respondent-coded occupation. For most uses, we conclude that such measures are sufficiently precise. There are, however, some systematic sources of error which the investigator should be aware of. D. Garth Taylor is a Study Director at the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago. POQ 40 (1976) 245-255 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.148 on Sun, 11 Sep 2016 04:21:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
The impact of function perturbations in Boolean networks

Motivation: A network is said to be robust relative to a certain network characteristic if a small change in network structure does not significantly affect the characteristic. From the perspective of network stability, robustness is desirable; however, from the perspective of intervention to exert influence on network behavior, it is undesirable. For Boolean networks, there are two fundamental types of robustness. One type pertains to perturbing the state of the network and the other to perturbing the rule-based structure. Results: This article explores the impact of function perturbations in Boolean networks from two aspects: (1) analysis: predict the impact on network state transitions and attractors via analytical approaches or identify a perturbation by observing its consequences; (2) synthesis: preserve or modify the network characteristics, especially attractors, by introducing a judicious change to the functions. The results are applied to achieve intervention that structurally alters the network to achieve a more favorable steady-state distribution and to identify the function perturbation that has led to altered observed behavior. The intervention procedure is applied to a WNT5A network to reduce the risk of metastasis in melanoma, and the identification procedure is applied to a Drosophila melanogaster segmentation polarity gene network to identify regulatory function perturbation. Contact: edward@ece.tamu.edu
Agenesis of the Trachea

Respiratory distress in the newborn requires emergent treatment. Many times, the physician can simply intubate the neonate, gaining airway control, and then proceed to find a cause for the distress among a differential diagnosis. Other times, emergent tracheotomy is performed because intubation is unsuccessful. We present a patient with agenesis of the trachea, a rare anomaly of the respiratory tract that is uniformly fatal, despite attempts at intervention.
Rapid Dephosphorylation of τ in Heat‐Shocked Fetal Rat Cerebral Explants: Prevention and Hyperphosphorylation by Inhibitors of Protein Phosphatases PP1 and PP2A

We heat shocked 21- and 35-day-old fetal rat cerebral explants at 45 degrees C for 18 min and performed immunocytochemistry and immunoblot analysis of sodium dodecyl sulfate extracts using the monoclonal anti-tau antibodies Tau-1, Tau-5, Tau-46, and PHF-1 and the peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique or 125I-labeled protein A. Tau-1 and PHF-1 recognize nonphosphorylated and phosphorylated epitopes, respectively, and both Tau-5 and Tau-46 recognize phosphate-independent epitopes. tau immunoreactivity was confined to neurons and increased in heat-shocked perikarya but not axons. At 0 h after heat shocking, there was dephosphorylation of tau exemplified by (1) faster migration of tau isoforms with resultant loss or attenuation of the 60- and 52-kDa tau isoforms recognized by all four anti-tau antibodies and concomitant accentuation of the fastest moving 50-kDa tau isoform recognized by Tau-1, Tau-5, and Tau-46; and (2) significant increase in the nonphosphorylated Tau-1 epitope with resultant decreases in the ratio of total (phosphorylated plus nonphosphorylated) tau to nonphosphorylated tau and the difference of total tau minus nonphosphorylated tau. tau was phosphorylated back to the control level by 12 h and remained so at 24 and 48 h after heat shocking. Treatment of explants with cycloheximide, a protein synthesis inhibitor, did not prevent the heat shocking-induced dephosphorylation of tau. Treatment of explants with the inhibitors of protein phosphatases PP1 and PP2A, okadaic acid or calyculin A, produced hyperphosphorylated tau polypeptides, prevented the heat shocking-induced dephosphorylation of tau, and intensified the immunoreactivity of the neurofilament subunit H with the only antiphosphoneurofilament antibody that reacts with intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles. In 35-day-old explants, in addition to the three 50-, 52-, and 60-kDa tau isoforms seen in 21-day-old explants, a 66-kDa tau polypeptide was also present.
A Method for the Design of Stable Lateral Inhibition Networks that is Robust in the Presence of Circuit Parasitics

In the analog VLSI implementation of neural systems, it is sometimes convenient to build lateral inhibition networks by using a locally connected on-chip resistive grid. A serious problem of unwanted spontaneous oscillation often arises with these circuits and renders them unusable in practice. This paper reports a design approach that guarantees such a system will be stable, even though the values of designed elements and parasitic elements in the resistive grid may be unknown. The method is based on a rigorous, somewhat novel mathematical analysis using Tellegen's theorem and the idea of Popov multipliers from control theory. It is thoroughly practical because the criteria are local in the sense that no overall analysis of the interconnected system is required, empirical in the sense that they involve only measurable frequency response data on the individual cells, and robust in the sense that unmodelled parasitic resistances and capacitances in the interconnection network cannot affect the analysis.
Binocular Rivalry and Visual Awareness in Human Extrastriate Cortex

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor stimulus-selective responses of the human fusiform face area (FFA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA) during binocular rivalry in which a face and a house stimulus were presented to different eyes. Though retinal stimulation remained constant, subjects perceived changes from house to face that were accompanied by increasing FFA and decreasing PPA activity; perceived changes from face to house led to the opposite pattern of responses. These responses during rivalry were equal in magnitude to those evoked by nonrivalrous stimulus alternation, suggesting that activity in the FFA and PPA reflects the perceived rather than the retinal stimulus, and that neural competition during binocular rivalry has been resolved by these stages of visual processing.
Using new technologies for communication and learning

This paper evolved during our efforts to implement distance education in a technologically impoverished region. Like other groups lost behind the so-called "Digital Divide," this constituency lacks both access and experience in using electronic devices. Even the most technologically savvy members of this audience, which is composed primarily of adult and continuing education graduate students, would be considered novices who have only basic computing access. Helping such an audience understand the technology and delivering useful educational experiences to them presents a significant challenge. This paper reviews how basic, perhaps rudimentary, designs were established and how they changed to accommodate emerging problems.
Holographic assembly of quasicrystalline photonic heterostructures

Quasicrystals have a higher degree of rotational and point-reflection symmetry than conventional crystals. As a result, quasicrystalline heterostructures fabricated from dielectric materials with micrometer-scale features exhibit interesting and useful optical properties including large photonic bandgaps in two-dimensional systems. We demonstrate the holographic assembly of two-dimensional and three-dimensional dielectric quasicrystalline heterostructures, including structures with specifically engineered defects. The highly uniform quasiperiodic arrays of optical traps used in this process also provide model aperiodic potential energy landscapes for fundamental studies of transport and phase transitions in soft condensed matter systems.
Development and validation of a technoeconomic analysis tool for early-stage evaluation of biorenewable processes

Abstract. The production of bio-based chemicals has received tremendous attention in recent years, but little has been done to understand the broad patterns of the economics of different processes for making these molecules. The diversity of potential chemicals simultaneously makes such an understanding both important and difficult to glean during these early-stages. By using cost correlations and standard scale-factors, a spreadsheet-based early-stage cost estimation tool was developed. The tool, named BioPET (Biorenewables Process Evaluation Tool), allows users to specify up to seven primary unit operations (fermentation, separation, three catalytic stages, and purification), and basic defining inputs for each operation. With these inputs, BioPET computes an estimated minimum selling price for the pathway of interest. Validation of BioPET was conducted by comparing results to literature values and a commercial economic analysis tool for three molecules: ethanol, succinic acid, and adipic acid. BioPET produced virtually identical prices to SuperPro Designer ® for the three chemicals, although the costs were not identically distributed amongst the categories; BioPET produced estimates that were within 40% of other literature values at low feedstock costs, and within 5% at high feedstock costs.
EM-based iterative receiver for coded MIMO systems in unknown spatially correlated noise: Research Articles

We present iterative channel estimation and decoding schemes for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) Rayleigh block fading channels in spatially correlated noise. An expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is utilized to find the maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of the channel and spatial noise covariance matrices, and to compute soft information of coded symbols which is sent to an error-control decoder. The extrinsic information produced by the decoder is then used to refine channel estimation. Several iterations are performed between the above channel estimation and decoding steps. We derive modified Cramer–Rao Bound (MCRB) for the unknown channel and noise parameters, and show that the proposed EM-based channel estimation scheme achieves the MCRB at medium and high SNRs. For a bit error rate of 10-6 and long frame length, there is negligible performance difference between the proposed scheme and the ideal coherent detector that utilizes the true channel and noise covariance matrices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Physical activity and childhood obesity

ABSTRACTMore than one-third of American children and teenagers are considered overweight or obese. Unfortunately, obesity is often a persistent and dangerous health condition that is costly to manage. It is one of the leading causes of preventable death and combating the condition has become a national priority. To this end the two most common recommendations are: eat a healthier diet and increase physical activity. Using data from both the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Children and Young Adult files, this study examines the relationship between physical activity and the persistence of childhood obesity. More specifically, Cox-proportional hazard techniques are used to quantify the impact a child’s physical activity has on the likelihood that they exit an overweight or obese state. Results indicate that being physically active reduces the probability that an overweight or obese child remains overweight or obese. Strikingly, there is not a significant difference between...
"Tensions Between Government, Industrial Innovation, and Energy Efficiency in China"

In recent years, the Chinese government, motivated by rapidly increasing energy demand and limited oil and natural gas reserves, has promoted policies for energy efficiency and research investments in new energy-saving technologies. At the same time, China has also become home to distinct forms of industrial innovation, which often occur downstream in technology commercialization and redefinition (Brandt & Thun, 2010; Breznitz & Murphee, 2011; Ernst & Naughton, 2008). Some evidence suggests that these two themes could be synergistic; that is, despite having less stringent requirements in WTO negotiations (WTO, 1979), developing nations like China that receive large amounts of foreign investment may be able to successfully reduce pollution while contributing to industrial innovation (Wheeler, 2001). Given this context, this symposium unpacks the tensions between China’s governmental structure and policies, opportunities for industrial innovation by local and multinational firms, and the implications for en...
Trajectories of care: spouses coping with changes related to mild cognitive impairment.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) refers to non-normative changes in memory and cognition. While researchers are beginning to address the social consequences of MCI, no investigations have tracked how married couples respond to MCI over time as symptoms stabilize or become more severe. Guided by life course and symbolic interactionist tenets, we examined how 40 older couples in the United States adjusted to daily life after one partner was diagnosed with MCI and how their marital roles and relationship changed over a three- to four-year period. Data were collected from 2004 through 2010. All couples experienced an initial period of transition in coping with MCI where they made adjustments in their daily lives and interactions. Following this adjustment period, four trajectories of care emerged depending on the extent of the older adult’s decline and the spouse’s response. We conclude that changes associated with MCI affect role identity and have consequences for spousal relationships.
Influence of Water on Protein Transitions: Morphology and Secondary Structure

Fibrous protein secondary structural transitions are affected by bound water. A family of specially designed recombinant spider silk-like block copolymers with a gradient of block length, hydrophobilicity, and degree of crystallinity was biosynthesized and characterized to demonstrate the effect of water on the protein structural transitions. These proteins were inspired by the genetic sequences found in the dragline silk of Nephila clavipes, comprising an alanine-rich hydrophobic block, A, a glycine-rich hydrophilic block, B, and a C-terminus or a His-tag, H. Because the A-block is hydrophobic and the B-block is hydrophilic, the spider silk-like block copolymers behave as amphiphilic molecules and self-assemble into various structures in water solution. We employ time-resolved Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to assign the origin of specific secondary structural transitions during heating. A transition from random coils to β-turns dominates during a lower temperature glass transition (of pl...
Epidemiology of Psoriasis

Epidemiologie investigations are likely to be the source of much of the most important and clinically relevant information about psoriasis and its treatment. Well-controlled epidemiologic studies are essential in the identification of risk factors for the development and exacerbation of psoriasis, as well as for the assessment of risks and benefits of therapy. Many important topics remain inadequately studied.
Evidence of heterovalent europium in zoned Llallagua apatite using wavelength dispersive XANES

Eu L 3 X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy was conducted with a wavelength dispersive (WDS) spectrometer to determine the valence state of europium in a natural, Mn-and REE-rich apatite from Llallagua, Bolivia. Europium exists in both the divalent and trivalent states in the Llallagua apatite with a Eu 2+ /Eu 3+ ratio between 0.12 and 0.22. With the enhanced energy resolution of WDS the Eu L α 1 fluorescence line can be resolved from the Mn K α line, allowing for significant reduction of background in the EuL 3 absorption edge region and resolution of the Eu XAS, which is difficult by conventional methods because of fluorescence peak interference. The anomalous partitioning behavior of Eu in these samples (Rakovan and Reeder 1996) can be explained by the observed presence of Eu 2+ and Eu 3+ and is consistent with the suggested size effect on intrasectoral zoning of REEs in apatite.
Conclusion: The Future of the Death Penalty in Africa

The death penalty in Africa is part of a much larger world-historical decline in capital punishment, and the continent falls somewhere between Europe and Latin America’s near-total abolition and the committed retention of East Asia and the Islamic world. The conclusion discusses the prospects of a continent-wide moratorium, the promise of African regional tribunals, and the role of NGOs in bringing human rights litigation. Finally, no discussion on the death penalty is complete without addressing alternatives, such as life imprisonment and mandatory minimum sentencing, as abolition requires consideration of the relative costs, effectiveness, and goals of other forms of criminal punishment.
Non-Ablative Fractional Laser to Facilitate Transdermal Delivery.

The advances in laser technology have led to its rapidly expanding applications in dermatology. This study aims at the novel use of a non-ablative fractional laser to enhance transdermal permeation of diclofenac sodium and sumatriptan succinate. The effects of the laser on skin were characterized visually with dye binding, scanning electron microscopy, pore permeability index, and histology. In vitro transdermal permeation of drugs through laser treated and untreated human dermatomed skin was analyzed over 24 h and quantified by HPLC. Drug transport through untreated skin resulted in transdermal delivery of 72.61 μg/cm2 ± 50.35 and 22.80 ± 0.64 μg/cm2 of diclofenac sodium and sumatriptan succinate, respectively. Laser treatment of skin significantly increased (p < 0.005) delivery of diclofenac sodium to 575.66 ± 207.18 μg/cm2 and sumatriptan succinate to 498.32 ± 97.54 μg/cm2. This is a first of its kind study that demonstrates the use of 1410 nm non-ablative fractional laser to enhance transdermal permeation of 2 small molecular weight drugs.
The overlapped radial basis function-finite difference (RBF-FD) method: A generalization of RBF-FD

Abstract We present a generalization of the RBF-FD method that computes RBF-FD weights in finite-sized neighborhoods around the centers of RBF-FD stencils by introducing an overlap parameter δ ∈ ( 0 , 1 ] such that δ = 1 recovers the standard RBF-FD method and δ = 0 results in a full decoupling of stencils. We provide experimental evidence to support this generalization, and develop an automatic stabilization procedure based on local Lebesgue functions for the stable selection of stencil weights over a wide range of δ values. We provide an a priori estimate for the speedup of our method over RBF-FD that serves as a good predictor for the true speedup. We apply our method to parabolic partial differential equations with time-dependent inhomogeneous boundary conditions – Neumann in 2D, and Dirichlet in 3D. Our results show that our method can achieve as high as a 60× speedup in 3D over existing RBF-FD methods in the task of forming differentiation matrices.
Family history of cancer and clinical outcome in pediatric oncology.

9525 Background: We previously reported in a small study (n=363) that children diagnosed with cancer who have a family history of cancer (FHC) may have worse prognosis than those without FHC, specifically children diagnosed with Hodgkin Disease (HD) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (Eichstadt et al., ASCO 2009). The Utah Population Database (UPDB), a unique resource, includes a Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registry (the Utah Cancer Registry) record-linked to extensive genealogies for 6.5 million people in which most Utah families are represented. A majority of pedigrees include ≥3 generations and several span 7+ generations. The UPDB provides an accurate, objective assessment of FHC. We expanded our original study by examining cancer mortality of 4,482 pediatric cases (age ≤18) diagnosed from 1966-2009 with adequate follow-up (median 9.5 years) and family information. Methods: We compared survival from cancer-caused mortality for pediatric cases diagnosed from 1966-2009 with FHC ...