cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Effect of "Twitter" Posts on Students' Perceptions of Instructor Credibility.

Greater numbers of instructors are turning to social networking sites to communicate with students. This study examined whether posting social, scholarly, or a combination of social and scholarly information to Twitter has an impact on the perceived credibility of the instructor. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: a group that viewed social tweets, one that viewed scholarly tweets, and one that viewed a combination of social and scholarly tweets. Participants were then asked questions about the instructor’s perceived credibility. Results show that participants who viewed only the social tweets rated the instructor significantly higher in perceived credibility than the group that viewed only the scholarly tweets. No other significant differences were found among the groups. These results have implications for both teaching and learning, as there is an established link between perceived instructor credibility and positive learning outcomes.
AN INTERACTION ANALYSIS OF VERBAL INNOVATIVE DEVIANCE IN SMALL GROUPS

This analysis of verbal innovative deviance (VID) revealed that a significant proportion (27%) of group communication is deviant but not typically associated with a specific member or role. A process analysis of VID through successive phases of group decision making indicated that deviance appears to function differently in each phase, generating additional VID during Conflict and Emergence and appearing as a “norm” of group interaction during those periods. The process perspective revealed the changing function of VID in interaction patterns across time. The present study indicates that innovative deviance is susceptible to meaningful observation from the perspective of communicative behaviors.
Conference Summary & Outlook

This timely meeting (appropriately held in Torun, the “city of Copernicus”) provided an excellent venue for researchers to review the theoretical and observational progress in the intervening years, share recent results, and make preparations for progress in the quests to learn whether our Solar System is typical and to understand how our own Solar System relates to the rest of the Universe. It had been nearly six years since the last major scientific meeting focusing soley on multiple planet systems and planets in multiple star systems in Saas Fee, Switzerland during September of 2002 (Udry et al. 2006). Here I review some of the observational and theoretical progress in understanding multi-body systems reported in Torun.
Collective modes and quasiparticle interference on the local density of states of cuprate superconductors

The energy, momentum, and temperature dependence of the quasiparticle local density of states (LDOS) of a two-dimensional d(x2)-(y2)-wave superconductor with random disorder is investigated using the first-order T-matrix approximation. The results suggest that collective modes such as spin-charge-density waves are relevant low-energy excitations of the cuprates that contribute to the observed LDOS modulations in recent scanning tunneling microscopy studies of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox.
Population Dynamics and Stock Differentiation of Lake Whitefish in Northeastern Lake Michigan with Implications for their Management

Abstract Lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) were tagged and the commercial trap-net catch was sampled in northeastern Lake Michigan to differentiate discrete stocks and determine their vital statistics. Distribution of tag returns and statistical comparisons of certain population parameters suggested the existence of at least three discrete stocks in the study area. The stock inhabiting the North Shore area of eastern Lake Michigan was considerably larger in both numbers and biomass than the stock fished near Leland, Michigan. The Leland catch had a broader age composition and contained larger fish than the North Shore and Beaver Island samples. Exploitation and total mortality rates were similar in the North Shore and in the Leland fisheries. The more abundant North Shore stock showed slower back-calculated and instantaneous growth than the Leland stock. In terms of management, statistics of abundance, growth, and mortality clearly varied between different lake whitefish stocks within Lake Michigan,...
Overexpression and Characterization of the Human Peroxisomal Acyl-CoA Oxidase in Insect Cells

Human liver peroxisomes contain two acyl-CoA oxidases, namely, palmitoyl-CoA oxidase and a branched chain acyl-CoA oxidase. The palmitoyl-CoA oxidase (ACOX) oxidizes the CoA esters of straight chain fatty acids and prostaglandins and donates electrons directly to molecular oxygen, thereby producing H2O2. The inducibility of this H2O2-generating ACOX in rat and mouse liver by peroxisome proliferators and the postulated role of the resulting oxidative stress in hepatocarcinogenesis generated interest in characterizing the structure and function of human ACOX. We have constructed a full-length cDNA encoding a 660-amino acid residue human ACOX and produced a catalytically active human ACOX protein at high levels in Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) insect cells using the baculovirus vector. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated that the full-length 72-kDa polypeptide (component A) was partially processed into its constituent 51-kDa (component B) and 21-kDa (component C) products, respectively. Recombinant protein (approximately 20 mg/l x 10(9) cells) was purified to homogeneity by a single-step procedure on a nickel-nitrilo-triacetic acid affinity column. Using the purified enzyme, Km and Vmax values for palmitoyl-CoA were found to be 10 microM and 1.4 units/mg of protein, respectively. The maximal activities for saturated fatty acids were observed with C12-18 substrates. The overexpressed human ACOX protein was identified in the cytoplasm of the insect cells by immunocytochemical staining. Individual expression of either the truncated ACOX 51-kDa (component B) or the 21-kDa (component C) revealed lack of enzyme activity, but co-infection of the insect cells with recombinant viruses expressing components B and C resulted in the formation of an enzymatically active heterodimeric B+C complex which could subsequently be inactivated by dissociating with detergent.
Temperature-sensitive mutants of influenza virus. II. Attenuation of ts recombinants for man.

Recombinant viruses were produced that contained the surface H3 antigen of influenza A/Hong Kong/1968 (H3N2) virus and a temperature-sensitive (ts) lesion derived from a ts mutant of influenza A/Great Lakes/1965 (H2N2) virus. Three recombinants, each bearing a genetically distinct ts lesion, were administered intranasally to volunteers who lacked serum neutralizing antibody for the H3 hemagglutinin. The ts recombinants exhibited a decreased virulence for man, but the level of attenuation varied. One of the recombinants, ts-1 [E], appeared to possess the degree of attenuation desirable for a virus to be used in a live vaccine. The majority of men who were infected by the ts-1 [E] recombinant did not develop symptoms. Those symptoms that did occur were mild. Infection with the ts-1 [El recombinant was extensive enough, however, to stimulate moderate levels of serum and nasal neutralizing antibodies and to induce complete resistance to influenzal disease produced by challenge with a virulent wild-type virus. The ts-1 [E] recombinant was genetically stable in man and failed to spread from infected individuals to susceptible cohorts who were in close contact. The use of a ts lesion that imposes a defined and desirable degree of attenuation upon influenza A virus and the transfer of this lesion to new antigenic variants of the virus offer some hope for the rapid development of a live vaccine for containment of pandemic disease.
Metal contaminants promote degradation of lipid/DNA complexes during lyophilization.

Oxidation reactions represent an important degradation pathway of nucleic acid-based pharmaceuticals. To evaluate the role of metal contamination and chelating agents in the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during lyophilization, ROS generation and the stability of lipid/DNA complexes were investigated. Trehalose-containing formulations were lyophilized with different levels of transition metals. ROS generation was examined by adding proxyl fluorescamine to the formulations prior to freeze-drying. Results show that ROS were generated during lyophilization, and both supercoil content and transfection rates decreased as the levels of metal-induced ROS increased. The experiments incorporating chelators demonstrated that some of these agents (e.g., DTPA, desferal) clearly suppress ROS generation, while others (e.g., EDTA) enhance ROS. Surprisingly, there was not a strong correlation of ROS generated in the presence of chelators with the maintenance of supercoil content. In this study, we demonstrated the adverse effects of the presence of metals (especially Fe2+) in nonviral vector formulations. While some chelators attenuate ROS generation and preserve DNA integrity, the effects of these additives on vector stability during lyophilization are difficult to predict. Further study is needed to develop potent formulation strategies that inhibit ROS generation and DNA degradation during lyophilization and storage.
Continuity and Change in the Practice of Clitoridectomy in Kenya: A Case-Study of the Abagusii

In Kenya, the Kuria, Suba, Meru, and Abagusii are among the contemporary cultural groupings which continue to believe in the importance of female circumcision. The ceremonies may have been partly abrogated or modified, but operations to cut off the tip of the clitoris of young girls are still carried out, not least in the expectation that the needed spirit of endurance will shape their character into adulthood. Although the primary objective of clitoridectomy is to initiate female children into womanhood, it is also performed in many African countries to ensure virginity, to enhance fertility and fecundity, and to promote cleanliness.
Blood Oxygen Level–Dependent (BOLD) MRI in Renovascular Hypertension

Establishing whether large vessel occlusive disease threatens tissue oxygenation and viability in the post-stenotic kidney is difficult for clinicians. Development of blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) MRI methods can allow functional evaluation of regional differences in deoxyhemoglobin levels within the kidney without requiring contrast. The complex renal circulation normally provides a gradient of oxygenation from a highly vascular cortex to much reduced levels in the deep sections of medulla, dependent upon adjustments in renal afferent arterioles, oxygen consumption related to solute transport, and arteriovenous shunting related to the juxtaposition of descending and ascending vasa recta. Studies with BOLD imaging have identified adaptation to substantial reductions in renal blood flow, volume, and glomerular filtration rate in post-stenotic kidneys that preserves medullary and cortical oxygenation during medical therapy. However, extreme vascular compromise overwhelms these adaptive changes and leads to cortical hypoxia and microvascular injury.
Adoption as deviance: Socially constructed parent‐child kinship as a stigmatized and legally burdened relationship

The adoptive relationship between a child and adoptive parents lacks the social legitimacy of consanguinity, is often an ambiguous linkage for both parents and child, and in some regards may be accorded less than full legal validity and community acceptance as well. Because the adoptive relationship is socially marginal and stigmatized, and legally handicapped or “burdened,” it is, in effect, a deviant relationship. In America, the motivation to adopt has historically shifted from instrumental and economic to expressive and emotional. The public reaction to adoption has often tended to be critical and stigmatizing. The stigma of adoption derives from several sources, including: (a) the stigmatized motivational context of adoption, (b) the deviance of secrecy and deception, (c) the deviant origins of the adopted child, (d) invidious comparison and disvalued identity, (e) the dysfunctional behavior of some adoptees, (f) the legal inequities of adoption as social disvaluement, and (g) the decision of some ad...
Assessment of brain muscarinic acetylcholinergic receptors in living mice using a simple probe, [125I]-4-iododexetimide and [125I]-4-iodolevetimide

This study describes assessment of brain muscarinic acetylcholinergic receptors in living mice using a single-crystal radiation detection system, the high-affinity antagonist [125I]-4-iododexetimide, and the inactive enantiomer [125I]-4-iodolevetimide. Kinetics of radioligand binding, as well as perturbation by atropine displacement, can be determined using this simple probe technique.
Antibodies with specificities for D-xylose and for D-galacturonic acid residues of flaxseed polysaccharides.

Abstract Two sets of anti-carbohydrate antibodies, one with specificity for d -xylose residues of flaxseed polysaccharides and the other with specificity for d -galacturonic acid residues, have been isolated by affinity chromatography from the immune serum of rabbits immunized with a vaccine of the polysaccharides and Freunds complete adjuvant. A number of properties of the antibodies are described. Of special note is the finding that, like other anti-carbohydrate antibodies, the new antibodies are biosynthesized in multi-molecular forms.
Reasoning composite beliefs using a qualitative approach

A Bayesian network is a knowledge representation technique for use in expert system development. The probabilistic knowledge encoded in a Bayesian network is a set of composite hypotheses expressed over the permutation of a set of variables (propositions). Ordering these composite hypotheses according to their a posteriori probabilities can be exponentially hard. This paper presents a qualitative reasoning approach which takes advantage of certain types of topological structures and probability distributions of a Bayesian network to derive the partial ordering of composite hypotheses. Such an approach offers an attractive alternative to reduce the computational complexity of deriving a partial ordering in which consistency is guaranteed.
Shelter for the Cognitively Homeless

One of the main strands of the Cartesian tradition is the view that the mental realm is cognitively accessible to us in a special way: whenever one is in a mental state of a certain sort, one can know it just by considering the matter. In that sense, the mental realm is thought to be a cognitive home for us, and the mental states it comprises are luminous. Recently, however, Timothy Williamson has argued that we are cognitively homeless: no mental state is in fact luminous. But his argument depends on an excessively strong account of luminosity. I formulate a weaker conception of luminosity that is unaffected by Williamson’s argument and yet is substantial enough to satisfy those who wish to retain this part of the Cartesian tradition.
Passage of Juvenile Chinook Salmon and other Fish Species through Archimedes Lifts and a Hidrostal Pump at Red Bluff, California

Abstract Fish were passed through two large Archimedes lifts and a large Hidrostal pump at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's experimental pumping plant on the upper Sacramento River, California. Two of the pumps were run concurrently during trials to compare their effects on hatchery-reared juvenile chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. In each trial, control samples were released at pump outfalls, and treatment samples were inserted into the intake of each pump. Fish in samples were collected in downstream holding tanks. In 27 trials comparing the two Archimedes lifts, mean survival for paired control and treatment groups was 98.3–99.0% for both lifts. Effects from pump passage were not detected for either lift at α = 0.05. In 40 trials comparing the Archimedes lifts and Hidrostal pump, mean survival for paired control and treatment groups was 96.5–99.5% for both pump types. Effects of passage through these small pumps were detected: 0.9% for the Archimedes lifts and 2.4% for the Hidrostal pump. To exa...
The electrodynamics of correlated metals

Abstract The electrodynamic response of several heavy-fermion materials, such as CeAl3, UPt3 and CePd3, is reviewed with particular emphasis on low frequency coherent state effects. A narrow zero-frequency resonance is observed in the conductivity at millimeter-wave frequencies which is a manifestation of strong electron-electron interactions. The renormalized relaxation time, the renormalized plasma frequency (or equivalently the spectral weight in the zero-frequency mode) and the enhanced effective mass are derived from the frequency dependent response. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the electrodynamics and thermodynamics in heavy fermion systems.
Adenosine 3′, 5′-cyclic monophosphate in Schistosoma mansoni

Abstract Homogenates of adult Schistosoma mansoni (blood flukes), isolated from the porto-mesenteric veins of infected mice, contain substantial activities of adenylyl cyclase, cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase, and a cyclic AMP stimulated protein kinase. The adenylyl cyclase, which is largely sedimentable at 10,000xg, is stimulated 20-fold by 10mM sodium fluoride and 1.4 to 2-fold by serotonin, glucagon, prostaglandins E1, E2 or B1. The phosphodiesterase, which is largely sedimentable at 10,000xg, is inhibited by both aminophylline and papaverine but is not influenced by 10mM sodium fluoride. The protein kinase, which is present in the 10,000xg supernatant is stimulated 4 to 8-fold by either cyclic AMP or cyclic GMP. There is a preference for cyclic AMP ( K 1 2 = 1.1×10 −7 M ) over cyclic GMP ( K 1 2 = 4.5×10 −6 M ). If intact worms are incubated in a glucose free medium there is a mobilization of glycogen stores which is preceded by a rise in cyclic AMP concentration. In a medium with 5mM glucose there is neither a rise in cyclic AMP nor mobilization of glycogen.
QFD optimizer: a novice friendly quality function deployment decision support system for optimizing product designs

Abstract A novice-friendly decision support system prototype for quality function deployment (QFD) called QFD Optimizer is developed based upon an integrated mathematical programming formulation and solution approach. QFD Optimizer not only helps a design team build a house of quality chart, but also supports them in understanding and analyzing the system interrelationships, as well as obtaining optimal target engineering characteristic values. QFD Optimizer was tested experimentally and in a real design setting on students and practitioners to ascertain its potential viability and effectiveness. The results suggest that it has the potential to help users find improved feasible designs yielding higher customer satisfaction (i.e., improving quality of design) more rapidly (i.e., reduce the design cycle time), compared with the current manual, ad hoc approach. QFD Optimizer can be used by novice as well as expert users, and leads to a better understanding of complex interrelationships between customer needs and the engineering characteristics and among the engineering characteristics. Hence, it can and has been used as an effective quality improvement training tool, and shows promise for application in practice. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
Interleukin-6 and its soluble receptor regulate the expression of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-5 in osteoblast cultures.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a cytokine produced by bone cells, is known to influence bone resorption by stimulating the development of osteoclasts from precursor cells and to have mitogenic actions on osteoblastic cells. Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are important local regulators of bone formation, and IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-5 stimulates bone cell growth and enhances the effects of IGF-I. We tested the effects of IL-6 in the presence and absence of its soluble receptor (sIL-6R) on IGFBP-5 expression in cultures of osteoblast-enriched cells from 22-day-old fetal rat calvariae (Ob cells). When tested individually, IL-6 and sIL-6R had a modest stimulatory effect on IGFBP-5 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels. In contrast, when IL-6 and sIL-6R were tested in combination, they caused a considerable increase in IGFBP-5 mRNA levels, and IL-6 at 100 ng/ml and sIL-6R at 125 ng/ml increased IGFBP-5 transcripts by 5- to 7-fold after 24 h. The effect of IL-6 and sIL-6R on IGFBP-5 transcripts was not blocked by indometha...
High performance implementation of the TFT

This paper reports on a high-performance implementation of the truncated Fourier transform (TFT). A general Cooley-Tukey like algorithm for the TFT is developed that allows the implementation to automatically adapt to the memory hierarchy. Then the algorithm introduces a small relaxation for larger transform sizes which trades off slightly higher arithmetic cost for improved data flow which allows full vectorization and parallelization. The implementation is automatically derived and tuned using the SPIRAL system for code generation and adaptation. The resulting arbitrary-size TFT library smooths out the staircase performance associated with power-of-two modular FFT implementations while retaining the performance associated with state-of-the-art FFT libraries. This provides significant performance improvement over approaches that pad to the next power of two even when using high-performance FFT libraries.
Scalable Index Update for Block-Level Continuous Data Protection

A block-level continuous data protection (CDP) system logs every disk update to a network storage server it protects, so as to support more flexible recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). To provide efficient access to historical snapshots, block-level CDP systems maintain multiple index structures, each of which needs to be updated whenever a disk block update operation is logged. Because these index structures are too large to be held in memory, updating their on-disk versions in real time becomes a major performance bottleneck that prevents existing CDP systems from scaling to large data backup applications. This paper describes the design and implementation of a high-performance index update mechanism that logs index updates, batches them in memory, and commits them using mostly sequential disk I/O. Sequential commit greatly reduces the cost of bringing in and writing back each on-disk index page. Update batching further amortizes this cost over multiple index update operations. Empirical performance measurements demonstrate that the proposed technique improves the index update throughput by more than an order of magnitude and reduces the performance overhead associated with index updates from 95% to under 15%.
Durkheim and Criminology: Reconstructing the Legacy

The article offers an overview of Emile Durkheim's substantial and surprisingly diverse legacy for criminology. This is shown to run the gamut from positivism through to social constructivism. Further, it includes insights into deviance, social control and the law. Although broad in scope and often brilliant, his contribution is perhaps insufficiently acknowledged. Reasons for this oversight are given, as are some indications of future directions for Durkheimian criminology.
Evaluating an Electrokinetically Driven Extraction Method for Measuring Heavy Metal Soil Contamination

Measuring the heavy metal burden of “old contamination” soils (soils with aged contamination) can be challenging. Many laboratory procedures are currently in use and these can yield a wide range of burden estimates for the same soil. The appropriate extraction method selection depends on the intended use of the information and on compatibility with the procedures used to generate the “reference” data to which results are compared. In this work, results for an extraction based on the electrokinetic mobilization of old contamination heavy metals were compared to the results of established single analyte and sequential extraction methods. Accomplishing extractions electrokinetically offers promise for simplifying processes and for evaluating the electrokinetic remediation potential of old contamination soils. On the brownfield soils tested, electrokinetic extraction identified an average of 82% of the soil’s Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn burden relative to Environmental Protection Agency Method 3050B extractions. Howev...
Acute management of Kawasaki disease

Abstract Since its first English language description by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1974, Kawasaki disease (KD) has become the leading cause of acquired heart disease among children in the United States [1] . The pathogenesis of KD involves a marked immune response to an unknown stimulus, resulting in high levels of cytokines, endothelial cell activation, and arteritis of the coronary arteries and occasionally other medium-sized muscular arteries. Patients in whom coronary ectasia, dilation, or aneurysm occur are at risk for coronary artery thrombosis, angina, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. Early in the illness, therapy is designed to reduce immune perturbations and severity of vasculitis. Ultimately, the aim of therapy is reducing the incidence of coronary sequelae. Aspirin therapy is initiated in the acute phase of KD at a dose of 80–100 mg/kg/day, divided into four daily doses. Many centers use high-dose aspirin only until the patient has been afebrile for 48 h, after which the dose is decreased to 3–5 mg/kg daily. Intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) has been shown to decrease the incidence of coronary artery aneurysms (CAA). A single high-dose (2 g/kg) is given at time of diagnosis and repeated if the patient is still febrile 36 h after initial infusion. There is a suggestion that pulsed-dose methylprednisolone, in addition to aspirin and IVIG as primary therapy results in faster resolution of fever, more rapid improvement in inflammatory markers, and shorter length of hospitalization. The effect, if any, on coronary artery abnormalities is not well established. A number of other therapies are also discussed in this review including plasma exchange, serine protease inhibitors, pentoxifylline, cytotoxic agents, tumor necrosis factor, and platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa.
Of Unidentified Lights

The article reviews the book “Comparable Worth and Wage Discrimination: Technical Possibilities and Political Realities,” edited by Helen Remick.
Dynamic elastic moduli of a suspension of imperfectly bonded spheres

An isotropic elastic material containing a random distribution of identical spherical particles of another elastic material is considered. The bonding between the spheres and the matrix is imperfect, so that slip may occur at interfaces when stress is applied to the medium. The shear stresses at the interface is assumed to be proportional to the amount of slip. The velocity and attenuation of the average harmonic elastic waves propagating through such a medium are calculated. The results are valid to the lowest order in frequency for wave lengths long compared with the radius of the sphere. The dynamic elastic moduli are obtained from these results and are compared with available results for welded contact. The variations in the P and S wave velocities for propagation across earthquake faults is discussed.
My dinner with Derrida, or spatial analysis and poststructuralism do lunch

Menu.This paper extends our previous efforts to (de)lineate contemporary divisions between poststructuralist and spatial analytic, or scientific, approaches in geography. We adopt the format of a dialogue between a hypothetical spatial analyst (SA) and a poststructuralist (PS). Their exchange covers, among other items, the differing stances of these approaches to epistemology, ontology, research questions and methods, and the concept of ‘context’. We also further develop the concept of the ‘epistemology of the grid’, which we define as the spatialization of categorical thought. We link this epistemology to two others, Cartesian perspectivalism and ocularcentrism, arguing that their realization in social practice is generative of social order.
Patterns of cell and fiber vulnerability in the mesostriatal system of the mutant mouse weaver. I. Gradients and compartments

In mice carrying the autosomal recessive gene weaver, there is a massive postnatal loss of dopamine in the caudoputamen, the target of the nigrostriatal system, with relative (though not complete) preservation of dopamine in the ventral striatum, a target of the mesolimbic system. There is concomitant death of catecholaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, with much less cell death in the limbic midbrain area. In the study reported here, we have reexamined the mesostriatal system of weaver mice by means of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry in order to determine the local architecture of the defect within the striatum and substantia nigra. For the dorsal striatum, the most striking finding was the appearance in the weaver caudoputamen of small pockets of especially weak immunostaining within a larger dorsal zone of generally reduced TH-positive neuropil. These pockets were identified as striosomes by calbindin28k and met-enkephalin immunohistochemistry carried out on adjacent sections. In dorsal, central, and caudal sectors of the caudoputamen, there was also more generalized depletion of TH-immunoreactive neuropil. In the mid-brains of the mutants, the patterns of loss of TH-positive neurons appeared to correspond to these distributions of reduced immunostaining in the striatum. In the substantia nigra pars compacta, ventrally situated TH-positive neurons were especially affected, suggesting preferential depletion of TH-positive neurons projecting to striosomes. In addition, there was a central sector of nearly complete loss of TH-positive neurons in the substantia nigra para compacta and a marked depletion of TH-positive neurons in cell group A8 that, together, may have accounted for the diminution of TH-positive innervation of the striatal matrix. We conclude that the effects of the weaver gene discriminate among mesostriatal subsystems not only according to the regional affiliations of these subsystems within the dorsal and ventral striatum, but also according to the preferential association of the subsystems for the striosomal and matrical compartments of the caudoputamen. The depletion of TH-positive innervation was not confined to the dorsal striatum proper. The defect extended into the adjoining nucleus accumbens, where it appeared to affect the lateral "core" division, and included also a lateral part of the olfactory tubercle. Thus, as in the dorsal striatum, the defect in the TH-positive innervation of the ventral striatum closely follows the local architecture of this striatal region. Neuronal loss in the ventral tegmental area was not evident on qualitative analysis, but at the border between lateral cell group A 10 and medial cell group A9 there was obvious loss of immunostained neurons.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Calicivirus—An Emerging Contaminant in Water: State of the Art

There has been a noteworthy surge of interest with regard to the viruses known as human Caliciviruses (HuCVs) and their impact on water-borne disease. Recent epidemiologic studies in Europe combined with an active waterborne disease surveillance system in the United States has identified the Norovirus, a member of the HuCVs, as a prominent agent of waterborne disease. Current estimates suggest that upwards of 95–96% of nonbacterial gastroenteritis outbreaks of unidentified etiology may be due to HuCV. Moreover, there have been a number of documented waterborne outbreaks of Norovirus both in the United States as well as abroad. It is with the advent of advanced molecular techniques that we have begun to develop a strategy for the detection of this organism in various water matrices. However, because HuCV have not yet been cultured in the laboratory, it is difficult to conduct research on their fate in the environment and their removal or inactivation during water and wastewater treatment processes. Therefo...
Together with the farmers: social and rural medicine in Japan.

Japan emerged from feudalism a century ago. Farmers comprise 20 percent of the population of 110 million. The agricultural cooperative movement sponsors 118 hospitals in rural areas. Of these, the Saku Central Hospital is the largest, and provide leadership to a vigorous rural health movement. Its unique outreach program and its contributions to rural health are described, together with remarks about Japan's health sitution generally. There may be lessons here for American.
Design of GaN Doherty Power Amplifiers for Broadband Applications

This letter presents a modified Doherty power amplifier (DPA) architecture to release bandwidth limitation of the conventional DPA. The proposed DPA structure eliminates two quarter wavelength impedance inverters used in the conventional DPAs. Instead, both the carrier and peak amplifiers in the proposed DPA are matched to 70 Ω at the output ports, which enables an easier implementation of broadband matching networks. Broadband input matching network (IMN) and output matching network (OMN) are then designed to achieve wideband DPA with enhanced performance. To verify the design concept, a broadband DPA is designed, fabricated, and measured on a RT/Duroid 5880 substrate with 2.2 dielectric constant and 0.787 mm substrate thickness. In the working frequency bands (0.8 to 1.2 GHz), the designed DPA provides 50.8% to 78.5% power-added efficiency (PAE) at full output power, 30.3% to 40.1% PAE at 6 dB of output power back-off (OBO), 10.8 to 14.8 dB gain (the gain variation is within 2.6 dB over different input power levels at each specific frequency), and maximum output power between 40.2 and 42.9 dBm.
Evaluation of recombinant Salmonella expressing the flagellar protein fliC for persistence and enhanced antibody response in commercial turkeys

Abstract Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) is one of the most common causes of human foodborne illness in the United States. Previous research indicates that antibodies against the fliC protein can provide protection against Salmonella challenge in mice. To generate a vaccine that effectively protects poultry against multiple Salmonella serotypes, novel attenuated strains of SE were developed to express a fliC peptide sequence on the outer membrane protein lamB in association with an M2e (marker) epitope. In 3 separate trials, poults were immunized with 107 to 108 cfu/poult of the appropriate recombinant Salmonella strains (ΔSE-M2e or ΔSE-M2e-fliC) via oral gavage on the day of hatch and again on d 21 posthatch. Liver, spleen, and cecal tonsils were aseptically removed on d 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 posthatch for detection of Salmonella, and blood samples were obtained at these same time points for determination of an M2e-specific antibody response. In all 3 trials, the ΔSE-M2e-fliC strain exhibited significantly less invasion of the liver and spleen at d 7 and 14 when compared with ΔSE-M2e or SE phage type 13A (P
Regulation of the α-Crystallin Gene acr2 by the MprAB Two-Component System of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Coordinated regulation of molecular chaperones is an important feature of the bacterial stress response. The small molecular chaperone gene acr2 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is activated by exposure to several stresses, including heat and the detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). In this study, we show that acr2 is directly regulated by the MprAB two-component system, and that MprAB has both positive and negative effects on acr2 expression. mRNA analyses showed that acr2 expression levels were lower under SDS stress and control conditions but higher under heat shock in an mprAB deletion mutant than they were in the parental strain. Parental expression patterns were restored in an mprAB-complemented strain. Western blotting using an anti-Acr2 antibody showed that Acr2 protein synthesis correlated with mRNA levels. Primer extension identified one transcriptional start point (TSP) for acr2 in all three strains under control and stress conditions. Electrophoresis mobility shift assays revealed multiple MprA binding sites in the acr2 promoter, including one downstream and three upstream of the acr2 TSP, with one overlapping the binding sites predicted for SigE, SigH, and HspR. DNA footprinting confirmed that MprA protected large sections of the acr2 promoter region. Expression of several housekeeping genes under SDS stress also was evaluated, revealing the upregulation of large molecular chaperone genes and, unexpectedly, sigA, with slightly lower sigA mRNA levels detected in the mprAB deletion mutant than in the wild type. In contrast to Acr2, SigA protein synthesis did not correlate with mRNA expression. Overall, the data indicated that MprA has complex interactions with the acr2 promoter and indirect effects on major housekeeping genes.
Microarray platform consistency is revealed by biologically functional analysis of gene expression profiles

Background Several different microarray platforms are available for measuring gene expression. There are disagreements within the microarray scientific community for intra- and inter-platform consistency of these platforms. Both high and low consistencies were demonstrated across different platforms in terms of genes with significantly differential expression. Array studies for gene expression are used to explore biological causes and effects. Therefore, consistency should eventually be evaluated in a biological setting to reveal the functional differences between the examined samples, not just a list of differentially expressed genes (DEG). In this study, we investigated whether different platforms had a high consistency from the biologically functional perspective.
Neonatal Isoimmune Thrombocytopenia: The Natural Course and Management and the Detection of Maternal Antibody

Isoimmune neonatal thrombocytopenia purpura (INTP) is a disease caused by platelet destruction by maternally derived antibody. Six patients were investigated. Maternal derived platelet transfusions in two patients resulted in posttransfusion platelet counts of greater than 85,000/microliter, a normal platelet survival of 7 to 10 days, and an early discharge from the hospital. In four patients, random donor platelet transfusions administered in the first week caused a transient rise of between 7 and 30,000 platelets per microliter with a return to pretransfusion levels 24 to 48 hours later, confirming the ineffectiveness of this form of treatment. Corticosteroid therapy is not effective and because of its potential toxicity should not be recommended for use in INTP. Platelet antigen was identified in the parents, and maternal sensitization was proven by the presence of platelet specific antibody. Severity of the disorder was estimated by the initial platelet count and the duration in weeks for the platelet count to rise above 100,000/microliter. Lymphocytotoxicity and immune lysis, as measured by the 51Chromium release assay, did not show an obvious relationship with the severity of the disorder. In our patients, high scores in the platelet suspension immunofluorescence test related to a more severe disorder, but a larger series would be necessary to confirm this finding.
Pulmonary hypertension: considerations in the liver transplant candidate

Pulmonary hypertension is a potentially lethal complication of end-stage liver disease with a prevalence of 2%. In the setting of liver transplantation, the prevalence may be as high as 12%. Given the potential importance of this syndrome to the transplantation community, the purpose of this review is to summarize the current state of understanding of portopulmonary hypertension and to suggest potential management strategies for (1) liver transplant candidates with suspected pulmonary hypertension and (2) intraoperative pulmonary hypertension following liver allograft reperfusion.
Memory monitoring failure in confabulation: Evidence from the semantic illusion paradigm

Several prominent models of confabulation characterize the syndrome as a failure in controlled aspects of memory retrieval, such as pre-retrieval cue specification and post-retrieval monitoring. These models have been generated primarily in the context of studies of autobiographical memory retrieval. Less research has focused on the existence and mechanisms of semantic confabulation. We examined whether confabulation extends to the semantic domain, and if so, whether it could be understood as a monitoring failure. We focus on post-retrieval monitoring by using a verification task that minimizes cue specification demands. We used the semantic illusion paradigm that elicits erroneous endorsement of misleading statements (e.g., "Two animals of each kind were brought onto the Ark by Moses before the great flood") even in controls, despite their knowing the correct answer (e.g., Noah). Monitoring demands were manipulated by varying semantic overlap between target and foils, ranging from high semantic overlap to unrelated. We found that semantic overlap modulated the magnitude of semantic illusion in all groups. Compared to controls, both confabulators and non-confabulators had greater difficulty monitoring semantically related foils; however, elevated endorsement of unrelated foils was unique to confabulators. We interpret our findings in the context of a two-process model of post-retrieval monitoring.
A no-reference sharpness metric sensitive to blur and noise

A no-reference objective sharpness metric detecting both blur and noise is proposed in this paper. This metric is based on the local gradients of the image and does not require any edge detection. Its value drops either when the test image becomes blurred or corrupted by random noise. It can be thought of as an indicator of the signal to noise ratio of the image. Experiments using synthetic, natural, and compressed images are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of this metric. Its statistical properties are also provided.
Picophytoplankton responses to changing nutrient and light regimes during a bloom

The spring bloom in seasonally stratified seas is often characterized by a rapid increase in photosynthetic biomass. To clarify how the combined effects of nutrient and light availability influence phytoplankton composition in the oligotrophic Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, phytoplankton growth and acclimation responses to various nutrient and light regimes were recorded in three independent bioassays and during a naturally-occurring bloom. We show that picoeukaryotes and Synechococcus maintained a “bloomer” growth strategy, which allowed them to grow quickly when nutrient and light limitation were reversed. During the bloom picoeukaryotes and Synechococcus appeared to have higher P requirements relative to N, and were responsible for the majority of photosynthetic biomass accumulation. Following stratification events, populations limited by light showed rapid photoacclimation (based on analysis of cellular fluorescence levels and photosystem II photosynthetic efficiency) and community composition shifts without substantial changes in photosynthetic biomass. The traditional interpretation of “bloom” dynamics (i.e., as an increase in photosynthetic biomass) may therefore be confined to the upper euphotic zone where light is not limiting, while other acclimation processes are more ecologically relevant at depth. Characterizing acclimation processes and growth strategies is important if we are to clarify mechanisms that underlie productivity in oligotrophic regions, which account for approximately half of the global primary production in the ocean. This information is also important for predicting how phytoplankton may respond to global warming-induced oligotrophic ocean expansion.
The effects of initial electron velocities and space charge in secondary emission

This paper treats a secondary emitter as a fixed-temperature thermionic emitter with an equivalent work function which depends for its value upon the current density of the incident primary electrons. This permits Langmuir's treatment of the parallel-plane thermionic diode to be applied to secondary emission. The resulting equations account quantitatively for observed secondary-emission effects caused by space charge and initial electron velocities. The paper concludes with a discussion of three specific electron devices in which secondary-emission effects due to space-charge and initial electron velocity are important.
A very elegant transcatheter strategy for complicated mitral valve replacement associated with severe mitral annular calcification.

DISCUSSION MAC can pose a significant challenge for even the most experienced surgeons and multiple techniques have been proposed to address this challenging problem.Novel atrial sliding plasties, anterior leaflet transposition, and autologous or xenograft patch plasty have been reported. These extensive procedures require prolonged myocardial ischemic and cardiopulmonary bypass times, however, and they are associated with a not insignificant risk of circumflex artery injury, atrioventricular dissociation, and calcific embolization. The patient had severe MAC with a severely narrowed mitral orifice, limiting surgical options. Because of the patient’s advanced age, concomitant severe aortic stenosis,
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Structure of a Novel Globular Domain in RBM10 Containing OCRE, the Octamer Repeat Sequence Motif

The OCtamer REpeat (OCRE) has been annotated as a 42-residue sequence motif with 12 tyrosine residues in the spliceosome trans-regulatory elements RBM5 and RBM10 (RBM [RNA-binding motif]), which are known to regulate alternative splicing of Fas and Bcl-x pre-mRNA transcripts. Nuclear magnetic resonance structure determination showed that the RBM10 OCRE sequence motif is part of a 55-residue globular domain containing 16 aromatic amino acids, which consists of an anti-parallel arrangement of six β strands, with the first five strands containing complete or incomplete Tyr triplets. This OCRE globular domain is a distinctive component of RBM10 and is more widely conserved in RBM10s across the animal kingdom than the ubiquitous RNA recognition components. It is also found in the functionally related RBM5. Thus, it appears that the three-dimensional structure of the globular OCRE domain, rather than the 42-residue OCRE sequence motif alone, confers specificity on RBM10 intermolecular interactions in the spliceosome.
In situ UV disinfection of a waveguide-based photobioreactor.

Compact waveguide-based photobioreactors with high surface area-to-volume ratios and optimum light-management strategies have been developed to achieve high volumetric productivities within algal cultures. The light-managing strategies have focused on optimizing sunlight collection, sunlight filtration, and light delivery throughout the entire bioreactor volume by using light-directing waveguides. In addition to delivering broad-spectrum or monochromatic light for algal growth, these systems present an opportunity for advances in photobioreactor disinfection by using germicidal ultraviolet (UV) light. Here, we investigated the efficacy of in situ, nonchemical UV treatment to disinfect a heterotrophic contaminant in a compact photobioreactor. We maintained a >99% pure culture of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 for an operating period exceeding 3 weeks following UV treatment of an intentionally contaminated waveguide photobioreactor. Without UV treatment, the culture became contaminated within only a few days (c...