cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterizing genotype specific differences in survival, growth, and reproduction for field grown, rapid cycling Brassica rapa

Abstract Rapid cycling Brassica rapa (RCBr) develops rapidly, and has both small adult size and a brief life cycle. Yet, in spite of many investigations using RCBr, extremely few plant ecologists have used this plant in the field. This study is the first to describe the genotype specific variation in traits describing survival, growth, and reproduction for field grown, RCBr. I also identify traits associated with fitness. Five genotypes of RCBr were used: standard, anthocyaninless, yellow-green, anthocyaninless and hairless, and anthocyaninless and yellow-green. Plants were grown outside in a “common garden”. Eight plant traits were measured: life span, height, growth rate, leaf size, number of flowers and fruits, fruit set, and fitness. All traits, except life span, differed significantly among the five plant genotypes. Correlation analysis revealed that fitness increased as each of these of seven plant traits increased. This study demonstrates that RCBr can serve as a model organism in ecological field studies.
A Common System Approach to Aviation Data Communications

The present aviation voice communications link has evolved gradually with aviation. It was not originally designed to satisfy its current application as the primary link in military and civil control systems. As a result, as these systems have expanded the communications link has become less adequate. In the future, limitations of the communications link may become the controlling factor in the expansion of aviation. For this reason there is an urgent need for a clear definition of a general data communication subsystem approach for both civil and military application. For this definition to be complete all factors of aviation communication usage must be considered. This paper carefully reviews 1) previous studies and development of civil and military data links, 2) published requirements of different aviation users, 3) evaluation of the future expansion of civil and military requirements, 4) current digital and communications technology, 5) transition from the present system to an improved system, and 6) the economic aspects of system design. From the considerations of this review a specification and approach to a general purpose aviation data communications subsystem is drawn. This approach provides for both voice and automatic communications and can be evolved gradually from the existing voice network.
Finding Cohesive Clusters for Analyzing Knowledge Communities

Documents and authors can be clustered into "knowledge communities" based on the overlap in the papers they cite. We introduce a new clustering algorithm, Streemer, which finds cohesive foreground clusters embedded in a diffuse background, and use it to identify knowledge communities as foreground clusters of papers which share common citations. To analyze the evolution of these communities over time, we build predictive models with features based on the citation structure, the vocabulary of the papers, and the affiliations and prestige of the authors. Findings include that scientific knowledge communities tend to grow more rapidly if their publications build on diverse information and if they use a narrow vocabulary.
Coexistence of Equatorial Coupled Modes of ENSO

Abstract To study the regimes of leading ocean–atmosphere coupled modes of relevance to the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, a comprehensive eigenmode analysis of an intermediate coupled model linearized with respect to an array of basic states is performed. Different kinds of leading modes are found to coexist and become unstable under wide ranges of basic states and parameter conditions. In particular, the two most important modes have periods of around 4 and 2 yr. They are referred to as the quasi-quadrennial (QQ) and the quasi-biennial (QB) modes, respectively. The positive coupled feedback destabilizes and quantizes the near-continuous spectrum for the low-frequency modes of the upper-ocean dynamics, giving rise to these leading modes with distinct periodicities. The primary mechanism for the phase transition of the QQ mode is due to the slow oceanic dynamic adjustment of equatorial heat content, which is consistent with the simple conceptual recharge oscillator, whereas anomalous adve...
A naturally occurring, noncanonical GTP aptamer made of simple tandem repeats

Recently, we used in vitro selection to identify a new class of naturally occurring GTP aptamer called the G motif. Here we report the discovery and characterization of a second class of naturally occurring GTP aptamer, the “CA motif.” The primary sequence of this aptamer is unusual in that it consists entirely of tandem repeats of CA-rich motifs as short as three nucleotides. Several active variants of the CA motif aptamer lack the ability to form consecutive Watson-Crick base pairs in any register, while others consist of repeats containing only cytidine and adenosine residues, indicating that noncanonical interactions play important roles in its structure. The circular dichroism spectrum of the CA motif aptamer is distinct from that of A-form RNA and other major classes of nucleic acid structures. Bioinformatic searches indicate that the CA motif is absent from most archaeal and bacterial genomes, but occurs in at least 70 percent of approximately 400 eukaryotic genomes examined. These searches also uncovered several phylogenetically conserved examples of the CA motif in rodent (mouse and rat) genomes. Together, these results reveal the existence of a second class of naturally occurring GTP aptamer whose sequence requirements, like that of the G motif, are not consistent with those of a canonical secondary structure. They also indicate a new and unexpected potential biochemical activity of certain naturally occurring tandem repeats.
Fertility, Polygyny and Their Interrelations in Temne Society

THE purpose of this paper is to consider the relations between polygyny and reproduction in the light of the Temne cultural background.2 The opinions of previous writers have been divided concerning the effect of polygyny on reproduction. Culwick and Culwick (1938:379) insist that limited polygyny, where a man has two or three wives, has no effect. On the other hand, Gessain (1948:493) feels that the effect of polygyny may be so great that demographic measures based on a monogamous assumption are invalid for use in populations having a varying percentage of polygynous households. Boelaert (1947:44), in his study of depopulation among the Nkundo-Mongo peoples of the Belgian Congo, cites without supplying the reference the following statement by Ledent, who had studied this depopulation for over a decade:
Meeting the challenges of rising enrollments

FOR MOST OF THE LAST DECADE, the number of computer science majors declined signifi cantly at colleges and universities throughout the United States, in spite of continuing demand from industry for graduates in the fi eld. In the last few years, however, many institutions have witnessed a dramatic turnaround in enrollment, with many more students choosing to become CS majors, or at least exploring that possibility by taking introductory computer science courses.
The Tlg SNARE complex is required for TGN homotypic fusion

Using a new assay for membrane fusion between late Golgi/endosomal compartments, we have reconstituted a rapid, robust homotypic fusion reaction between membranes containing Kex2p and Ste13p, two enzymes resident in the yeast trans-Golgi network (TGN). Fusion was temperature, ATP, and cytosol dependent. It was inhibited by dilution, Ca+2 chelation, N-ethylmaleimide, and detergent. Coimmunoisolation confirmed that the reaction resulted in cointegration of the two enzymes into the same bilayer. Antibody inhibition experiments coupled with antigen competition indicated a requirement for soluble NSF attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins Tlg1p, Tlg2p, and Vti1p in this reaction. Membrane fusion also required the rab protein Vps21p. Vps21p was sufficient if present on either the Kex2p or Ste13p membranes alone, indicative of an inherent symmetry in the reaction. These results identify roles for a Tlg SNARE complex composed of Tlg1p, Tlg2p, Vti1p, and the rab Vps21p in this previously uncharacterized homotypic TGN fusion reaction.
Visual–spatial and anatomical constraints interact in a bimanual coordination task with transformed visual feedback

There is a debate in the literature about the influence of spatial and anatomical constraints on bimanual coordination dynamics. In the present experiment, participants swung hand-held pendulums about the wrist while attending to visual feedback about relative phase (superimposed phase plots of each pendulum) that was displayed on a screen. Participants were instructed to maintain in-phase or anti-phase coordination in the visual display. Visual-spatial and anatomical constraints were dissociated by introducing a phase shift in the visual display so that visual feedback differed from the movements being performed by the participants in 15 degrees increments from -180 degrees to +180 degrees. Analysis of mean relative phase and its variability suggested that visual-spatial and anatomical constraints interact in bimanual coordination dynamics.
Runtime and Jitter on a Laser-Triggered Spark-Gap Switch

The University of Missouri has completed a new facility, named Tiger, for pulsed-power experimentation. Tiger consists of a 2.8-MV 450-kJ Marx bank that charges up to four 7-nF intermediate storage capacitors (I-stores) in parallel. When charged, the storage capacitors are switched into a resistive load through an SF6-filled laser-triggered gas switch. This switch has been designed to study the factors affecting runtime and jitter of spark-gap switches. All experiments presented in this paper were performed with a single I-store. The test switch was operated from about 500 kV up to 1.25 MV, at switch pressures from 10 to 50 psig. A 30-mJ 266-nm Nd:YAG laser was focused between the switch electrodes to initiate breakdown in the switch. The University of Missouri has examined laser energy, percentage of self-break, and focal length to determine their relation to runtime and jitter. A short discussion of the Tiger facility is presented with experimental results of jitter and runtime tests. The end goal of this paper is to understand the factors contributing to increased jitter and runtime and, thereby, provide paths to improved switch performance.
Chromatic detection and discrimination analyzed by a Bayesian classifier.

Abstract Detection and threshold-level discrimination of Gabor patches were studied under the conditions of noise masking, in an attempt to isolate ‘higher-order’ or nonclassical color mechanisms. Detection contours in the equiluminant plane of cone contrast space were measured by varying test chromaticity in the presence of chromatic masking noise. Three equiluminant noise directions were used, in separate experiments. In the discrimination experiment, observers had to discriminate between pairs of stimuli that were fixed at their masked threshold contrasts. A Bayesian color classifier model was used to analyze the discrimination data, with no free parameters. There was no evidence of nonclassical color mechanisms in either the detection or discrimination data.
Who am I and who are you? Priming and the influence of self versus other focused attention

Recent research has demonstrated that primes can affect self-perceptions, and that subsequent behavior is typically in line with these changed self-perceptions. However, a wide range of other priming effects have been documented, including changes in person perception, motivation, and so forth. The conditions under which a given prime affects the self as opposed to creating one of these other outcomes remains unclear. The present research seeks to offer insight into this question by examining attentional factors as one determinant of whether the self or another target will be biased by a prime. Across two studies, manipulating attention to the self (or an irrelevant target) immediately following a prime produced assimilation in behavior (Experiment 1) and self-perceptions (Experiment 2) when participants thought about themselves, but not an irrelevant target. In addition, when participants thought about an unrelated target, perceptions of this target, but not the self, were changed (Experiment 2).
The impact of validation and invalidation on aggression in individuals with emotion regulation difficulties.

For individuals with difficulty regulating their emotions, aggression has been found to be a particularly problematic interpersonal behavior. Invalidation (i.e., rejection of one's emotional experience) is thought to play a role in the etiology of disorders of emotion regulation, and it may be a trigger for aggressive behaviors. The present study experimentally manipulated validation and invalidation after a sad mood induction among individuals with few versus many difficulties regulating their emotions. Subsequent aggression was measured using an in-laboratory behavioral task. RESULTS indicate that, among individuals with many difficulties regulating their emotions, validation led to significantly less aggression than did invalidation. However, among individuals with few difficulties regulating their emotions, aggressive behaviors were generally low and did not differ after validation as compared with invalidation. The findings suggest that validation of emotional experiences may help to prevent aggressive behaviors among individuals with difficulties regulating their emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record Language: en
Dynamic realizations of sufficient sequences

Let (U_{1},U_{2}, \cdots) be a sequence of observed random variables and (T_{1}(U_{1}),T_{2}(U_{1}, U_{2}), \cdots) be a corresponding sequence of sufficient statistics (a sufficient sequence). Under certain regularity conditions, the sufficient sequence defines the input/output map of a time-varying, discrete-time nonlinear system. This system provides a recursive way of updating the sufficient statistic as new observations are made. Conditions are provided assuring that such a system evolves in a state space of minimal dimension. Several examples are provided to illustrate how this notion of dimensional minimality is related to other properties of sufficient sequences. The results can be used to verify the form of the minimum dimension (discrete-time) nonlinear filter associated with the autoregressive parameter estimation problem.
Bone Marrow Stem Cells in Retinal Disease

Bone marrow contains populations of self-renewing, pluripotent stem cells, here termed bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs). Mobilized by vascular endothelial growth factor, these play a crucial role in the revascularization of ischemic tissues and organs. Research on mouse models has shown that bone marrow-derived cells contribute to revascularization and improvement in various ischemic tissues, and migrate naturally to damaged sites in the eye. The transplant of BMSCs holds promise for treating ischemic retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy. Current treatments to prevent severe vision loss associated with these diseases include panretinal photocoagulation, which decreases the production of angiogenic factors such as VEGF by ablating ischemic peripheral retina, and anti-VEGF intravitreal pharmacotherapy, which temporarily neutralizes VEGF. Unlike these current therapies, revascularization of ischemic retina with therapeutic angiogenesis could prevent sequelae of severe ischemic retinopathy and potentially improve retinal function in a durable, nondestructive manner.
Simultaneous motion parameter estimation and image segmentation using the EM algorithm

We propose and investigate a method to simultaneously segment an image in a sequence of images into regions of uncovered background, moving, and stationary pixels and estimate parameters of interest for the various regions. The basis of our method is the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for maximum-likelihood estimation. We view the intensity difference between image frames as the incomplete data and the intensity difference with the region identifier as the complete data.
Fusion of remotely sensed data for soil moisture estimation using relevance vector and support vector machines

A data assimilation DA methodology that uses two state-of-the-art techniques, relevance vector machines RVMs and support vector machines SVMs, is applied to retrieve surface 0–6 cm soil moisture content SMC and SMC at a depth of 30 cm. RVMs and SVMs are known for their robustness, efficiency and sparseness and provide a statistically sound approach to solve inverse problems and thus to build statistical models. Here, we build a statistical model that produces acceptable estimations of SMC by using inexpensive and readily available data. The study area for this research is the Walnut Creek watershed in Ames, south-central Iowa, USA. The data were obtained from Soil Moisture Experiments 2002 SMEX02 conducted at Ames, Iowa. The DA methodology combines remotely sensed inputs with field measurements, crop physiological characteristics, soil temperature, soil water-holding capacity and meteorological data to build a two-step model to estimate SMC using both techniques, i.e. RVMs and SVMs. First, the RVM is used to build a model that retrieves surface 0–6 cm SMC. This information serves as a boundary condition for the second step of this model, which estimates SMC at a depth of 30 cm. An exactly similar routine is followed with an SVM for estimation of surface 0–6 cm SMC and SMC at a depth of 30 cm. The results from the RVM and SVM models are compared and statistics show that RVMs perform better root mean square error RMSE = 0.014 m3 m−3 when compared with SVMs RMSE = 0.017 m3 m−3 with a reduced computational complexity and more suitable real-time implementation. Cross-validation techniques are used to optimize the model. Bootstrapping is used to check over/under-fitting and uncertainty in model estimates. Computations show good agreement with the actual SMC measurements with coefficients of determination R 2 for RVM equal to 0.92 and for SVM equal to 0.88. Statistics indicate a good model generalization capability with indexes of agreement IoAs for RVM equal to 0.97 and for SVM equal to 0.96.
Involvement of Bone Marrow Cells and Neuroinflammation in Hypertension

Rationale:Microglial activation in autonomic brain regions is a hallmark of neuroinflammation in neurogenic hypertension. Despite evidence that an impaired sympathetic nerve activity supplying the bone marrow (BM) increases inflammatory cells and decreases angiogenic cells, little is known about the reciprocal impact of BM-derived inflammatory cells on neuroinflammation in hypertension. Objective:To test the hypothesis that proinflammatory BM cells from hypertensive animals contribute to neuroinflammation and hypertension via a brain–BM interaction. Methods and Results:After BM ablation in spontaneously hypertensive rats, and reconstitution with normotensive Wistar Kyoto rat BM, the resultant chimeric spontaneously hypertensive rats displayed significant reduction in mean arterial pressure associated with attenuation of both central and peripheral inflammation. In contrast, an elevated mean arterial pressure along with increased central and peripheral inflammation was observed in chimeric Wistar-Kyoto rat...
Developing a high value care programme from the bottom up: a programme of faculty-resident improvement projects targeting harmful or unnecessary care

In the USA, healthcare costs are far greater than those in any other industrialised country.1 Currently, they comprise almost 18% of the gross domestic product and 30% of government expenditures.2 US healthcare costs encroach on all other areas of spending public and private. Cost drivers are multifactorial but up to 30% of Medicare spending is potentially avoidable without worsening health outcomes3 ,4 with overuse and misuse of tests and treatments accounting for approximately 10%. Physicians have a responsibility to ensure that the diagnostic tests and treatments they order are safe, effective and provide value.5 ,6 Hence, they can lead the effort to preserve scarce resources while promoting quality, reducing harm and controlling cost.7 Initial calls for action from the medical profession came following an Institute of Medicine report describing the need to reduce costs and improve outcomes.3 ,6 Initiatives were launched in the form of the National Physicians Alliance ‘Top 5’ in primary care8 and by the American College of Physicians High-value Cost Conscious Care Initiative.9 ,10 National attention was focused on this issue in April 2012, when the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation convened a group of nine national medical specialist organisations and Consumer Reports to mobilise the effort to reduce overuse or misuse of tests and procedures that provide little benefit or can cause harm.10 This ‘Choosing Wisely’ campaign has now been embraced by more than 70 specialty societies and 18 consumer-oriented organisations.10 However, processes to implement and sustain programmes in local, state and national settings are rarely described.11 We report here on our initial 2 years’ experience, which took a grass-roots approach to developing a high value care (HVC) programme. The goals of this project were to improve the care and experience …
Fidel Castro: A Machiavellian prince?

Does Fidel Castro qualify as a Machiavellian Prince? Much of The Prince deals with the problem of how a man can raise himself from private fortune or even obscure and abject origins to a position of undisputed political primacy as conqueror or founder of a new state or regime. Clearly, Fidel Castro accomplished that feat. The questions that concern us here are the following: Can Castro’s success be credited to Machiavellian methods in all or most important respects? Did he violate any of Machiavelli’s maxims? Since, as we shall see, although abiding by most precepts, he disregarded several, and scorned one particularly important admonition, what does that tell us about Machiavellism, on the one hand, and, on the other, the kind of “prince” Fidel Castro is?
Measuring and Comparing the Wage Trajectories of New and Small Firms in Different Sectors: Does Knowledge Intensity Play a Role?

The last chapter highlighted the description of the data sets and employed a non-parametric technique, the Hodrick-Prescott filter, in order to establish a dynamic view of the data. provides regression analysis to answer two important questions. The first step of the regression analysis is to obtain an estimate of the wage path for each cohort of firms. Next, using these estimates of the wage slopes, and interpreting them as the change in the wage associated with a group of firms over time, the hypothesis that the wage slopes between large and new small firms are statistically different from one another is tested. That is, the first question in this chapter will specifically test the hypothesis that the dynamic wage measures of new small firms are different than that of large firms while making a sectoral distinction of high and low knowledge firms.
History of Subsection Cb: Apiculture and Social Insects

Keeping Bees in Man-Made Hives is an art that is probably 6000–8000 years old. Before the invention of man-made hives honey and wax were harvested from nests made by bees in trees and caves, and, in arid areas, from ground nests. Beekeeping probably began in Egypt, but we have only meager evidence for the existence of a system of colony management there; only three scenes depicting honey bees have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs (Crane 1983). One scene shows hives stacked in a way that is reminiscent of the mud hives found in Egypt today. The rush to introduce modern movable-frame beekeeping into Egypt today is such that few people are aware that mud hive beekeeping involved a system of swarm control, colony division, and special methods of harvesting the honey. It was a reasonably sophisticated system, and honey and beeswax were apparently abundant in that early empire. We know that both honey and beeswax played major roles in the economies of all of the civilizations that developed around the Mediterranean Sea. Sugar cane was not introduced into the area until about 1200 years ago. Beeswax was man's first plastic, and thus both honey and beeswax were in great demand and were important items in commerce in those early civilizations.
Dipole-magnet field models based on a conformal map

In general, generation of charged-particle transfer maps for conventional iron-pole-piece dipole magnets to third and higher order requires a model for the midplane field profile and its transverse derivatives (soft-edge model) to high order and numerical integration of map coefficients. An exact treatment of the problem for a particular magnet requires use of measured magnetic data. However, in initial design of beam transport systems, users of charged-particle optics codes generally rely on magnet models built into the codes. Indeed, if maps to third order are adequate for the problem, an approximate analytic field model together with numerical map coefficient integration can capture the important features of the transfer map. The model described in this paper is based on the fact that, except at very large distances from the magnet, the magnetic field for parallel pole-face magnets with constant pole gap height and wide pole faces is basically two dimensional (2D). The field for all space outside of the pole pieces is given by a single (complex) analytic expression and includes a parameter that controls the rate of falloff of the fringe field. Since the field function is analytic in the complex plane outside of the pole pieces, it satisfies two basic requirements of a field model for higher-order map codes: it is infinitely differentiable at the midplane and also a solution of the Laplace equation. It is apparently the only simple model available that combines an exponential approach to the central field with an inverse cubic falloff of field at large distances from the magnet in a single expression. The model is not intended for detailed fitting of magnetic field data, but for use in numerical map-generating codes for studying the effect of extended fringe fields on higher-order transfer maps. It is based on conformally mapping the area between the pole pieces to the upper half plane, and placing current filaments on the pole faces. An algorithm for computing the midplane field derivatives with the model is described. The model has been incorporated in the particle beam code Marylie/Impact as a special dipole-magnet type along with a tanh model with exponential falloff of the fringe field. Comparison of maps from the tanh model and the new model shows that significant differences in 3rd-order geometric terms can occur, apparently due to the extended fringe field in the new model.
A Sorting Mechanism for a Riffle-Pool Sequence

Transport of coarse, heterogeneous debris in a natural stream under a wide range of flows usually results in a remarkably stable, undulatory bed profile, which manifests an in transit sorting process of the bed material. In general, finer material representative of the bulk of the normal bed load resides in the deep sections, or pools, below flood stages. At high flows, pools may scour to immovable boulders or bedrock. Coarser material transported at more infrequent flows forms the shallow sections, or riffles. Above a flow threshold, the pool fill material is often scoured and deposited in part over the riffles (Lane and Borland, 1954; Andrews, 1977). Interactions among coarse particles in motion in turbulent flow tend to concentrate them in groups with the coarsest particles at the surface (Langbein and Leopold, 1968). Incipient accumulations of coarse particles may be perpetuated by altering the flow conditions which influence bed load transport. As flow increases, submergence of the riffle-pool bed topography modifies its effect on the local hydraulic conditions. At low flow, mean volocity and water surface slope are greater, and mean depth is less at a riffle than at a pool. Competence is greater at the riffle. As the stage increases, the water-surface profile tends to even out as the hydraulic gradient over a riffle decreases and that over a pool increases (Leopold and others, 1964). Corresponding values of velocity and depth tend to converge, although depth often less so (Richards, 1976; Lisle, 1976; Andrews, 1977). The convergence of respective values of water-surface slope over a riffle and pool and the greater depth of the pool cause mean shear stress, τ = γRSE (where γ is the specific gravity of water, R is the hydraulic radius or approximately the mean depth, and SE is the energy gradient), to increase more rapidly at the pool (Leopold and others, 1964). As a result, competence as measured by velocity or bottom shear stress should become more evenly distributed over a riffle and pool (Richards, 1976) or even reversed in. hierarchy at high flow (Gilbert, 1914; Keller, 1971).
Disappearance of DL-lactate-2-C14 from blood in normal and diabetic rats.

SummaryThe metabolism of lactate in normal and diabetic rats has been studied using a single intravenous injection of DL-lactate-2-C14. The concentration of blood lactate was found to be about 15% higher in diabetic rats than in normal rats. The disappearance of labelled lactate from the blood was almost the same in diabetic as compared with that in normal rats. Diabetic rats showed depressed C14O2 production and increased incorporation of C14 in the blood glucose from DL-lactate-2-C14 as compared with normal rats. These results would indicate that the blood lactate is being used up and renewed at a very rapid rate even in diabetic state. However, in the diabetic state, it would appear that the lactate is being channeled to glucose formation rather than to oxidation.
Structural Efficiency of a Natural Composite

This study was initiated to investigate the structural efficiency of the “bessbeetle” (Odontotaenius Disjunctus) as compared to typical “man-made” or synthetic composites. This synthetic laminate is configured according to standard composites design practices. In fact, an orthotropic unidirectional T300 tape with circular fibers and 60% fiber volume fraction is used. The specific ply orientation of the symmetric man-made composite is [0/+45/-45/90]2S. The natural laminate studied is unsymmetric with the individual plies made of the same orthotropic unidirectional T300 tape but with different ply orientation. Contrary to previous beliefs the natural composite did not assume a balance of inplane and bending properties which in essence mimic the behavior of isotropic behavior. The results of the efficiency of the natural composite for tension did not show any noticeable advantages while the pure bending case resulted in higher values for the principal stresses in the unsymmetric laminate.
Abstract LB-286: Reconstitution of the human ovarian tumor-microenvironment in CD34-transplanted NOD-Scid-IL2Rγc null (NSG) mice

The use of stem cell-derived human immune system NSG mice and orthotopic tumors to recapitulate the human ovarian tumor microenvironment represents a significant improvement over existing mouse models of cancer. However, the careful phenotyping of a human ovarian tumor microenvironment in NSG mice has not been reported. We characterized the human ovarian tumor microenvironment in NSG mice reconstituted with a full human immune system using cord blood-derived CD34+ cell transplantation, and injected with human ovarian tumor cells. Our findings demonstrated human B cell and T cell infiltration in both orthotopic and subcutaneous tumors. Orthotopic tumors showed a 3 to 4-fold increase of human CD3+ cell infiltration in comparison with subcutaneous tumors or spleens from tumor bearing mice, however, the overall CD4/CD8 T cell ratio was similar in both tumor sites. Tumor-infiltrating T cells included effector memory TEM cells and Treg cells. Orthotopic tumor dissociates also contained significantly more human macrophages (TAMs) than subcutaneous tumors or spleens from tumor bearing mice. While all macrophages were found to have an M1-like phenotype, TAM subsets could be distinguished from splenic macrophages by CD40 or HLA-DR expression and TNFβ secretion. Furthermore, TAMs phenotypic differences observed in orthotopic tumors were associated with faster tumor growth kinetics and metastasis. Finally, we found that, in addition to the murine origin of the tumor stroma, a significant number of mouse neutrophils and macrophages were also present. We propose that humanized mice bearing human tumors could be a valuable tool for the preclinical evaluation of targeted therapies. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-286. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-LB-286
Investigation of notifiable communicable diseases report quality of hospitals in Hefei,2011-2013

Objective To analyze notifiable communicable diseases report quality of hospitals in Hefei and provide basis for improving communicable disease report. Methods All hospitals at municipal and county level,township hospitals and community health centers selected by sampling method were investigated. Communicable disease report quality was conducted by questionnaire. Results Communicable disease report quality of hospitals in Hefei was good. Average score was 93.39 points. 11 761 cases from 21 kinds of communicable diseases including B and C class were investigated. Of them,11 525cases were reported. The report rate was 97. 99% and timely report rate was 99. 23%. There were no significant differences of communicable disease report quality between hospitals at different levels.( chi-square = 3. 21,P 0. 05). But there were significant differences of the report quality between different counties. Conclusion General communicable disease report quality was good. But the report quality in some parts was lower. In order to improve communicable disease report quality and management,the training and supervision should be strengthened further.
Cross-clamping of the descending aorta. Hemodynamic and neurohumoral effects.

The effects of cross-clamping the descending aorta for 90 minutes were studied in 45 dogs divided into four groups. In all animals the left atrial, central venous, carotid artery, and femoral artery pressures, urine output, and thermal dilution cardiac output were constantly recorded, and blood samples were drawn every 30 minutes for the determination of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and plasma renin activity. During aortic cross-clamping, Group I dogs (n = 15) were placed on femoral vein-femoral artery cardiopulmonary bypass and Group II dogs (n = 15) were given intravenous sodium nitroprusside; in Group III dogs (n = 5) an external shunt from the ascending aorta to femoral artery was used, and in Group IV dogs (n = 10) no adjunct was employed. During aortic cross-clamping, the following hemodynamic parameters significantly increased: in Groups II, III, and IV, carotid artery pressure; in Group III, cardiac index; and in Groups III and IV, cardiac stroke work. While the descending aorta was cross-clamped, mean femoral artery pressure decreased in all groups: 47.5% in Group I, 79% in Groups II and IV, and 44.8% in Group III. During aortic cross-clamping, plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine levels markedly increased in Group IV, and plasma renin significantly increased in all groups. The hemodynamic findings on the fifth and seventh postoperative days were similar to those before cross-clamping of the aorta in all groups. There was no paraplegia in Groups I and III dogs, but 60% of group IV and 40% of Group II dogs were paralyzed.
The Spatial-Temporal Thinking Machine

This chapter discusses ideas and dreams of building a computer that can think and reason based on the spatial-temporal reasoning methods used in the brain. The enormous impact that electronic computers have had on our lives is well known. If one could combine the speed of the present computer with the ability of the brain to think using families of symmetry patterns developing in space and time, a whole new era would be here. Moreover, cortical columns are organized in a very highly structured manner to form a cortical area. It is this higher-level architecture that has been examined in order to explore the further consequences of the concepts concerning computation by symmetry operations. It is suggested that a hardware analog-digital implementation of this higher-level cortical area architecture of trion cortical columns should be “straightforward” owing to the localized and structured connectivity, and the discreteness of the firing levels. It is noted that, high-speed parallel computations would allow one to look for symmetry operations in a cortical area.
Use of Attenuated Salmonella Vectors for Oral Vaccines

Publisher Summary A number of attenuated mutants of Salmonella are able to interact with the lymphoid tissues in Peyer's patches, but not able to cause systemic disease. Some of these mutants are effective as live vaccines (i.e., able to protect against infection with the virulent Salmonella parent) and are candidates for use as carriers for other virulence determinants. Different mutants have been employed for this purpose, including galE mutants, which lack the enzyme uridine diphosphate (UDP)-galactose-4-epimerase, and aroA mutants, which have specific nonreverting deletions in the common aromatic biosynthetic pathway leading to chorismic acid. The number of reported uses of this system of antigen delivery for the development of both humoral and cell-mediated immunity increases daily.
Improved Transformation Method for Alternaria Brassicicola and Its Applications

Alternaria brassicicola is a filamentous fungus that causes black spot ­disease on most plants in the Brassicaceae, including cultivated Brassica species and weedy Arabidopsis. Since the concept of transformation constructs of linear minimal elements was developed [1], we have optimized protoplast production by reducing melanin accumulation in fungal mycelium. We have used this method either to delete targeted genes or to insert exogenous genetic information in almost any location of research interest.
Biotic Interactions Shape the Ecological Distributions of Staphylococcus Species.

ABSTRACT Many metagenomic sequencing studies have observed the presence of closely related bacterial species or genotypes in the same microbiome. Previous attempts to explain these patterns of microdiversity have focused on the abiotic environment, but few have considered how biotic interactions could drive patterns of microbiome diversity. We dissected the patterns, processes, and mechanisms shaping the ecological distributions of three closely related Staphylococcus species in cheese rind biofilms. Paradoxically, the most abundant species (S. equorum) is the slowest colonizer and weakest competitor based on growth and competition assays in the laboratory. Through in vitro community reconstructions, we determined that biotic interactions with neighboring fungi help resolve this paradox. Species-specific stimulation of the poor competitor by fungi of the genus Scopulariopsis allows S. equorum to dominate communities in vitro as it does in situ. Results of comparative genomic and transcriptomic experiments indicate that iron utilization pathways, including a homolog of the S. aureus staphyloferrin B siderophore operon pathway, are potential molecular mechanisms underlying Staphylococcus-Scopulariopsis interactions. Our integrated approach demonstrates that fungi can structure the ecological distributions of closely related bacterial species, and the data highlight the importance of bacterium-fungus interactions in attempts to design and manipulate microbiomes. IMPORTANCE Decades of culture-based studies and more recent metagenomic studies have demonstrated that bacterial species in agriculture, medicine, industry, and nature are unevenly distributed across time and space. The ecological processes and molecular mechanisms that shape these distributions are not well understood because it is challenging to connect in situ patterns of diversity with mechanistic in vitro studies in the laboratory. Using tractable cheese rind biofilms and a focus on coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CNS) species, we demonstrate that fungi can mediate the ecological distributions of closely related bacterial species. One of the Staphylococcus species studied, S. saprophyticus, is a common cause of urinary tract infections. By identifying processes that control the abundance of undesirable CNS species, cheese producers will have more precise control on the safety and quality of their products. More generally, Staphylococcus species frequently co-occur with fungi in mammalian microbiomes, and similar bacterium-fungus interactions may structure bacterial diversity in these systems.
Understanding issues of college persistence for undocumented Mexican immigrant women from the new Latino Diaspora: a case study

National data suggest that Latina immigrant women fare better educationally than their nonimmigrant counterparts in bachelor degree attainment, but does not account for how immigration status impacts college persistence. Using a borderlands theoretical framework, this study examines factors associated with college persistence among a sample of undocumented Mexican immigrant women from a small rural community in the Rocky Mountain region. Chicana feminist epistemological techniques are used to analyze data collected from in-depth interviews and field observations. In addition, a trenzas de identidades multiples (braids of multiple identities) perspective was used helped conceptualize and categorize persistence factors surrounding and intersecting with culture, family, educational resources, and immigrant experiences; six themes emerged from this study: (a) support and challenges from their home system; (b) unraveling the notions of dual socialization; (c) microaggressions against newcomers; (d) learning and unlearning from the language acquisition process; (e) dilemmas, stressors, and motivation associated with undocumented status; and (f) creating successful academic spaces and social networks in college. Recommendations for K-12 administrators, Latino/a community members, higher education, and policy are discussed as well as recommendations for future study.
Nuclear medicine techniques in septic arthritis and osteomyelitis

Imagers are consulted to confirm the presence of acute osteomyelitis, to evaluate disease activity and chronic osteomyelitis, and to confirm the presence of a sequestrum in active chronic osteomyelitis. Scintigraphy remains the most sensitive and specific modality for the diagnosis of acute osteomyelitis and the evaluation of activity of chronic osteomyelitis. Computed tomography is the best examination for the confirmation of the presence of sequestra. In this article, the authors review the various radionuclide techniques, their applications in the different clinical settings, and the way in which they correlate with other imaging techniques.
BBookX: building online open books for personalized learning

We demonstrate BBookX, a novel system that automatically builds in collaboration with a user online open books by searching open educational resources (OER). This system explores the use of retrieval technologies to dynamically generate zero-cost materials such as textbooks for personalized learning.
Discovery of Novel Antimicrobial Peptides from Varanus komodoensis (Komodo Dragon) by Large-Scale Analyses and De-Novo-Assisted Sequencing Using Electron-Transfer Dissociation Mass Spectrometry

Komodo dragons are the largest living lizards and are the apex predators in their environs. They endure numerous strains of pathogenic bacteria in their saliva and recover from wounds inflicted by other dragons, reflecting the inherent robustness of their innate immune defense. We have employed a custom bioprospecting approach combining partial de novo peptide sequencing with transcriptome assembly to identify cationic antimicrobial peptides from Komodo dragon plasma. Through these analyses, we identified 48 novel potential cationic antimicrobial peptides. All but one of the identified peptides were derived from histone proteins. The antimicrobial effectiveness of eight of these peptides was evaluated against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), with seven peptides exhibiting antimicrobial activity against both microbes and one only showing significant potency against P. aeruginosa. This study demonstrates the power and promise of our bioprospecting approach to cation...
Response to Comment on American Diabetes Association. Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2017. Diabetes Care 2017;40(Suppl. 1):S1–S135

We thank Sonne and Hemmingsen (1) for their thoughtful critique of the American Diabetes Association’s Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2017 (Standards of Care) (2). As they point out, the Standards of Care now highlight a prediabetes screening tool that was developed in 1995 (3), revised in 2012 (4), and most recently validated in 2016 (5). The Standards of Care also recommend regular monitoring for those with prediabetes, intensive lifestyle intervention for diabetes prevention, and consideration of metformin therapy for selected individuals with prediabetes (6). We acknowledge that the use of three different diagnostic tests to define prediabetes identifies heterogeneous groups. Although values above the diagnostic threshold for each of the tests have been associated with increased risk of progression to type 2 diabetes (T2D) (7,8), the thresholds for the individual …
Turmoil in the Individual Insurance Market — Where It Came From and How to Fix It

Claims that the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance market is in a death spiral reflecting design flaws are misdiagnoses. The market structure is sound and has greatly expanded coverage; the President and Congress have created needless turmoil.
Shear wave liver elastography

Chronic liver disease is a substantial world-wide problem. Its major consequence is increasing deposition of fibrous tissue within the liver leading to the development of cirrhosis with its consequences of portal hypertension, hepatic insufficiency, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The stage of liver fibrosis is important to determine prognosis, surveillance, prioritize for treatment, and potential for reversibility. The process of fibrosis is dynamic and regression of fibrosis is possible with treatment of the underlying conditions. Previously, the only method of staging the degree of fibrosis was liver biopsy. The recent development of ultrasound elastography techniques allows a non-invasive method of estimating the degree of liver fibrosis. Transient elastography (TE) is a non-imaging elastographic technique, while point shear wave (p-SWE) and 2D-SWE combine imaging with elastography. The evidence at this time suggests that p-SWE is as accurate as but more reliable than TE, while 2D-SWE is more accurate than TE. This review discusses the background of chronic liver disease, the types of ultrasound elastography, how to perform an examination, and how to interpret the results.