cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Regulation of hepA of Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 by elements 5' from the gene and by hepK.

In Anabaena spp., synthesis of the heterocyst envelope polysaccharide, required if the cell is to fix dinitrogen under aerobic conditions, is dependent on the gene hepA. A transcriptional start site of hepA was localized 104 bp 5′ from its translational initiation codon. A 765-bp open reading frame, denoted hepC, was found farther upstream. Inactivation of hepC led to constitutive expression of hepA and prevented the synthesis of heterocyst envelope polysaccharide. However, the glycolipid layer of the heterocyst envelope was synthesized. A hepK mutation blocked both the synthesis of the heterocyst envelope polysaccharide and induction of hepA. The predicted product of hepK resembles a sensory protein-histidine kinase of a two-component regulatory system. Analysis of the region between hepC and hepA indicated that DNA sequences required for the induction of hepA upon nitrogen deprivation are present between bp −574 and −440 and between bp −340 and −169 relative to the transcriptional start site of hepA. Gel mobility shift assays provided evidence that one or more proteins bind specifically to the latter sequence. The Fox box sequence downstream from hepA appeared inessential for the induction of hepA.
Greco’s Agent Reliabilism

John Greco's Putting Skeptics in their Place presents an illuminating perspective on the nature of the skeptical problem and how to respond to it. Building on Ernest Sosa's Virtue Epistemology, Greco develops an account of knowledge he calls, “Agent Reliabilism”. In this essay, I will take up several issues regarding the details of this account.
Glucose and insulin treatment of insulinoma cells results in transcriptional regulation of a common set of genes

Glucose and insulin are important regulators of islet beta-cell growth and function by activating signaling pathways resulting in transcriptional changes that lead to adaptive responses. Several immediate early genes have been shown to be rapidly induced by glucose-activated depolarization in islet beta-cells. The current studies address aspects of glucose-regulated transcription: 1) the number and characteristics of these genes, 2) if depolarization is the major mechanism, and 3) if glucose-stimulated insulin secretion is responsible, because insulin per se can activate transcription. Here, the expression profiles of glucose-responsive insulinoma cells 45 min after the addition of glucose, KCl to induce depolarization, or insulin were assessed by endocrine pancreas cDNA microarrays. Glucose activated more than 90 genes, representing diverse gene ontology functions, and most were not previously known to be glucose responsive. KCl activated 80% of these same glucose-regulated genes and, along with the effects of pretreatment with diazoxide, suggested that glucose signaling is mediated primarily via depolarization. There were >150 genes activated by insulin, and remarkably 71% were also regulated by glucose. Preincubation with a phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase inhibitor resulted in almost total inhibition of depolarization and insulin-activated transcriptional responses. Thus, through gene expression profiling, these data demonstrate that glucose and insulin rapidly activate a PI 3-kinase pathway, resulting in transcription of a common set of genes. This is consistent with glucose activation of gene transcription either directly or indirectly through a paracrine/autocrine effect via insulin release. These results illustrate that expression gene profiling can contribute to the elucidation of important beta-cell biological functions.
Scalable Grid Application Scheduling via Decoupled Resource Selection and Scheduling

Over the past years grid infrastructures have been deployed at larger and larger scales, with envisioned deployments incorporating tens of thousands of resources. Therefore, application scheduling algorithms can become unscalable (albeit polynomial) and thus unusable in large-scale environments. One reason for unscalability is that these algorithms perform implicit resource selection. One can achieve better scalability by performing explicit resource selection independently from scheduling in a "decoupled' approach. Furthermore, we hypothesize that one can achieve similar or even better performance as with the non-decoupled approach, which we call the "one step" approach, by selecting resources judiciously. Leveraging the Virtual Grid abstraction, we demonstrate that the decoupled approach is indeed both scalable and effective in large-scale and highly heterogeneous resource environments.
Curricular priorities for business ethics in medical practice and research: recommendations from Delphi consensus panels

No published curricula in the area of medical business ethics exist. This is surprising given that physicians wrestle daily with business decisions and that professional associations, the Institute of Medicine, Health and Human Services, Congress, and industry have issued related guidelines over the past 5 years. To fill this gap, the authors aimed (1) to identify the full range of medical business ethics topics that experts consider important to teach, and (2) to establish curricular priorities through expert consensus. In spring 2012, the authors conducted an online Delphi survey with two heterogeneous panels of experts recruited in the United States. One panel focused on business ethics in medical practice (n = 14), and 1 focused on business ethics in medical research (n = 12). Panel 1 generated an initial list of 14 major topics related to business ethics in medical practice, and subsequently rated 6 topics as very important or essential to teach. Panel 2 generated an initial list of 10 major topics related to business ethics in medical research, and subsequently rated 5 as very important or essential. In both domains, the panel strongly recommended addressing problems that conflicts of interest can cause, legal guidelines, and the goals or ideals of the profession. The Bander Center for Medical Business Ethics at Saint Louis University will use the results of the Delphi panel to develop online curricular resources for each of the highest rated topics.
Relative Return to Creel of Triploid and Diploid Rainbow Trout Stocked in Eighteen Idaho Streams

Abstract Introductions of fertile nonnative hatchery trout have led to interspecific and intraspecific hybridization of native salmonid stocks throughout North America. Use of sterile triploid hatchery trout in stream-stocking programs could reduce genetic risks to native stocks while addressing public demand for consumptive fishing opportunity. Techniques to produce triploid salmonids are well developed, and triploid rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss are readily available from commercial sources. However, there is no published information on the return to creel of triploid trout in stream recreational fisheries. We purchased mixed-sex triploid and diploid rainbow trout eggs from a commercial supplier and reared the resulting fish to catchable size. Flow cytometry was used to verify triploid induction rates in the triploid group. Estimated cost to produce a triploid catchable rainbow trout was about 15% higher than for a diploid fish. We jaw-tagged and stocked 300 triploid and 300 diploid fish into each o...
Soluble CD27-Pool in Humans May Contribute to T Cell Activation and Tumor Immunity

The interaction between CD27 and its ligand, CD70, has been implicated in regulating cellular immune responses to cancer. In this article, we report on the role of soluble CD27 (sCD27) in T cell activation and its elevation in the serum of cancer patients after immunotherapy. In vitro, sCD27 is preferentially derived from activated CD4(+) T cells. Adding sCD27 to stimulated PBMCs increases T cell activation and proliferation, and is associated with the immunologic synapse-related proteins myosin IIA, high mobility group box 1, and the TCR Vβ-chain. The pool of serum sCD27 is shown to be greater in healthy donors than in cancer patients. However, metastatic cancer patients treated with immunotherapy showed a significant increase in the serum sCD27-pool posttherapy (p < 0.0005); there was also an increased trend toward an association between enhanced sCD27-pool posttherapy and overall survival (p = 0.022). The identification of sCD27 as an immune modulator associated with enhanced human T cell activation in vitro and in vivo provides a rationale for developing new immunotherapeutic strategies aimed at enhancing sCD27 for treating cancer and potentially other diseases.
Dark‐cure studies of cationic photopolymerizations of epoxides: Characterization of the active center lifetime and kinetic rate constants

We have characterized the effective rate constants for termination/trapping (k t/t ) and propagation (k P ) for solvent-free cationic photopolymerizations of phenyl glycidyl ether for conversions up to 50%. We have performed dark-cure experiments in which active centers are produced photochemically for a specified period of time until the initiating light is shuttered off, and then the polymerization rate is monitored in the dark. This method is especially well suited for characterizing cationic polymerizations because of the long active center lifetimes. Our analysis provides profiles of the instantaneous kinetic rate constants as functions of conversion (or time). For photopolymerizations of phenyl glycidyl ether initiated with iodonium photoinitiators, k t/t and k p remain essentially invariant for conversions up to 50%. For the photoinitiator (tolycumyl) iodonium tetrakis (pentafluorophenyl) borate (IPB), the values of k t/t at 50 and 60 °C are 0.027 and 0.033 min -1 , respectively. The corresponding values of k t/t for diaryliodonium hexafluoroantimonate (IHA) are 0.041 and 0.068 min -1 . The values of k p at 50 °C for IPB and IHA are 0.6 and 0.4 L mol -1 s -1 , respectively.
Legionella Infection and Cannabinoids

The opportunistic intracellular bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila is ubiquitous and widely distributed in the environment, including airconditioners’ cooling towers and recirculating warm or hot water plumbing in homes, industries, and institutions. This organism was first isolated and identified in 1976 following the outbreak of pneumonia among American legionnaires attending an annual convention in a downtown Philadelphia hotel, where approximately 200 of the 3,000 conventioneers developed a serious pneumonia, with about 25–30 deaths. Epidemiologists from CDC found that attendees at this convention were exposed to this bacterium from vents contaminated from the air-conditioning cooling towers located on the roof of the hotel. Epidemiologic studies revealed that those who developed pneumonia, especially those who succumbed to the disease, were less competent immunologically than the average conventioneer. Numerous subsequent studies established that a deficiency of normal immune responsiveness was an important risk factor for increased susceptibility, including individuals given immunosuppressive drugs for organ transplantation or those with an immunodeficiency disease such as AIDS. In the past two decades it has been well established that immunity to Legionella, which preferentially infects monocytes/macrophages, depends
Differences in basal energy expenditure and obesity.

FLATT, JEAN-PIERRE. Differences in basal energy expenditure and obesity. Obesity. 2007;15:2546–2548. Objective: To assess the impact of differences in basal energy expenditure on adiposity. Research Methods and Procedures: Statistical analysis was performed on a published database giving anthropometric and energy expenditure measurements for 433 women and 335 men. Published equations derived by multiple regression analysis were used to predict basal metabolic rates in women and in men as a function of age, weight, and height. The differences between the observed and predicted rates (i.e., the residuals) were computed and expressed in terms of percentage deviation from the predicted rates of basal energy expenditure (BEE). In addition, individual body fat contents were computed using equations based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Study 3 data relating to body fat content determined by bioimpedance to BMI. Results: There is no correlation between percentage body fat content and deviations from predicted (which one would refer to as normal) BEE. Discussion: It can be concluded that relatively high or relatively low rates of BEE do not influence body weights and adiposity in a statistically identifiable manner. This contradicts and challenges the widely held view that low resting metabolic rates promote the development of obesity.
Sliding Mode Observer for Drag Tracking in Entry Guidance

A sliding mode state and perturbation observer is used in conjunction with a feedback linearizing drag tracking law for application to entry guidance. The observer estimates the drag and drag rate required by the tracking law and estimates the modeling error in the drag dynamics. The modeling error estimate is used in the drag tracking law to more exactly cancel the nonlinearities; thus rendering the drag tracking adaptive to o-nominal conditions. Mars entry simulations for a capsule-type lander are carried out to assess and compare the performance of the adaptive tracking law relative to straight feedback linearizing tracking law. The results show that the adaptive drag tracking guidance oers performance improvement.
Chaos-assisted tunneling in microlasers with partially chaotic resonators

We demonstrate that in lasers with non-integrable resonators, chaos-assisted tunneling leads to dramatic changes in the emission spectrum, removing the near-degeneracy of symmetry-related doublets and changing the lifetimes of high-Q modes by several orders of magnitude. Our theory is in quantitative agreement with numerical simulations.
CTX Prophages in Classical Biotype Vibrio cholerae: Functional Phage Genes but Dysfunctional Phage Genomes

CTXphi is a filamentous, lysogenic bacteriophage whose genome encodes cholera toxin, the primary virulence factor produced by Vibrio cholerae. CTX prophages in O1 El Tor and O139 strains of V. cholerae are found within arrays of genetically related elements integrated at a single locus within the V. cholerae large chromosome. The prophages of O1 El Tor and O139 strains generally yield infectious CTXphi. In contrast, O1 classical strains of V. cholerae do not produce CTXphi, although they produce cholera toxin and they contain CTX prophages integrated at two sites. We have identified the second site of CTX prophage integration in O1 classical strains and characterized the classical prophage arrays genetically and functionally. The genes of classical prophages encode functional forms of all of the proteins needed for production of CTXphi. Classical CTX prophages are present either as solitary prophages or as arrays of two truncated, fused prophages. RS1, a genetic element that is closely related to CTXphi and is often interspersed with CTX prophages in El Tor strains, was not detected in classical V. cholerae. Our model for CTXphi production predicts that the CTX prophage arrangements in classical strains will not yield extrachromosomal CTX DNA and thus will not yield virions, and our experimental results confirm this prediction. Thus, failure of O1 classical strains of V. cholerae to produce CTXphi is due to overall deficiencies in the structures of the arrays of classical prophages, rather than to mutations affecting individual CTX prophage genes.
Baroreflex control: central mechanisms

This is an intentionally provocative and speculative summary of recent literature on neural control mechanisms in baroreflexes, including computational modeling results and functional hypotheses for further investigation. The focus is on nonlinear neuronal mechanisms and connectivity patterns that may underlie experimental observations and that suggest either place coding of pressure or selective processing for dP/dt rather than P.
Effects of 6-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline (6-MeO-THbetaC) on audiogenic seizures in DBA/2J mice.

Abstract It was found previously that 6-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline (6-MeO-THβC) increased brain concentrations of the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) and decreased the concentration of its metabolite 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA) at the same time the compound attenuated audiogenic seizures (AGS) in DBA/2J mice. In the present study we determined the time-course and dose-response effects of 6-MeO-THβC for blockade of AGS. Drugs sharing common effects with 6-MeO-THβC were also tested. At a dose of 100 mg/kg, 6-MeO-THβC blocked AGS between 10 min and 12 hr after injection, with maximal inhibition at 1 hr at which time a dose-related decrease in AGS was also demonstrated. All of the drugs tested which blocked AGS, including 6-MeO-THβC, 5-Hydroxytryptophan, chlorimipramine and pargyline, have biochemical similarities suggesting that facilitating serotonin function may be responsible for seizure-attenuating effects.
Applying Social Constructionism in the Treatment of Patients Who Are Intractably Aggressive

Interventions based on the philosophy of social constructionism can be used for the treatment of patients who are intractably aggressive. The interventions are aimed at disrupting common interactive patterns between the patient and treaters in the treatment milieu and replacing them with patterns that do not allow the intractable symptoms to disrupt treatment efforts. Two case examples illustrate the use of this approach with extremely violent inpatients with long histories of unsuccessful interventions. In both cases the treatment included discontinuing certain therapeutic or prosocial interventions; one case involved determining the patient's daily privilege level randomly. The author discusses the advantages and difficulties of such approaches, including the need for staff to reframe their own logical structure and to overcome resistance from different levels of the treatment system.
Effect of Clamping Pressure and Temperature on the Performance of a CuCl(aq)/HCl(aq) Electrolyzer

A significance performance limitation for a CuCl(aq)/HCl(aq) electrolytic cell is the ohmic losses associated with the contact resistance. The contact resistance between the flow field channels of the end plate and the carbon cloth electrodes plays a significant part in ensuring good electrical connection. The contact resistance is heavily dependent on the clamping pressure, and despite the link between compressionandelectrochemicalperformance,therearenopublished results related to optimum amount of pressure needed to assemble a CuCl(aq)/HCl(aq) electrolytic cell. While insufficient clamping pressuremayresultinhighelectricalresistanceattheelectrodes/flow-field channel interface, a high clamping pressure could lead to mechanical deformation of the MEA and uneven pressure distribution. An excessive compression pressure also increases the mass transport problems with a reduction in cell performance at high current densities. 9,10 In this study, an optimum value of the compression pressure resulting from torque on the bolts that clamp the cell was observed to be 20 Nm. Also, this study highlights the increase in performance of a CuCl(aq)/HCl(aq) electrolyzer by increasing the temperature from 40 to 80 ◦ C.
A Telemetering System for Securing Data on the Motility of Internal Organs

A telemetering system using an elongation sensor in conjunction with an implantable transmitter is described. The transmitter can be turned on and turned off by use of a pulsed radio-frequency source and has a useful life in excess of two months. The sensor is a newly developed device capable of giving a usable signal when elongated by as little as 0.05 mm. It is fabricated from commonly available material and can be constructed by any reasonably skilled technician.
Fast perfect weighted resampling

We describe an algorithm for perfect weighted-random resampling of a population with time complexity O(m + n) for resampling to inputs to produce n outputs. This algorithm is an incremental improvement over standard resampling algorithms. Our resampling algorithm is parallelizable, with linear speedup. Linear-time resampling yields notable performance improvements in our motivating example of sequential importance resampling for Bayesian particle filtering.
Leaky-wave long waveguide slot antennas: aperture fields, far field radiation, and mutual coupling

Analyses of the aperture fields, far-field radiation patterns, and mutual coupling of long leaky-wave waveguide slot antennas on the broadwall of rectangular waveguides are presented. The case of the longitudinal straight long slot mounted in an infinite ground plane is considered. The problem of a long but finite slot has been difficult to solve in the past with variational methods due to the lack of suitable trial functions. The moment method is applied to solve the problem. >
Identification of Proinflammatory Flagellin Proteins in Supernatants of Vibrio cholerae O1 by Proteomics Analysis

The genome of Vibrio cholerae contains five flagellin genes that encode proteins (FlaA–E) of 39–41 kDa with 61–82% identity among them. Although the existing live oral attenuated vaccine strains against cholera are protective in humans, there is an intrinsic residual cytotoxic and inflammatory component associated with these candidate vaccine strains. Bacterial flagellins are known to be potent inducers of proinflammatory molecules via activation of Toll-like receptor 5. Here we found that purified flagella from wild type V. cholerae 395 induced significant release of interleukin (IL)-8 from cultured HT-29 human colonic epithelial cells. Furthermore we found that filtered supernatants of KKV90, a ΔflaA isogenic strain unable to produce flagella, were still able to activate production of IL-8 albeit to significantly lower levels than the wild type, suggesting that other activators of proinflammatory molecules were still present in these supernatants. A comparative proteomics analysis of secreted proteins of V. cholerae 395 and KKV90 identified additional proteins with potential to induce IL-8 release in HT-29 cells. Secreted proteins in the range of 30–45 kDa identified by two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry revealed the presence of two additional flagellins, FlaC and FlaD, that appeared to be secreted 3- and 6-fold more, respectively, in the mutant compared with the wild type. Double isogenic mutants flaAC and flaAD were unable to trigger IL-8 release from HT-29 cells. In sum, we have shown that purified flagella and secreted flagellin proteins (FlaC and FlaD) are inducers of IL-8 release from epithelial cells via Toll-like receptor 5. This observation may explain, in part, the observed reactogenicity of cholera vaccine strains in humans.
The pressures and joys of academic life: Minority statuses and other considerations∗

University faculty are faced with various forms of pressure. For example, one type of strain is generated by personal characteristics of the faculty, notably the ethnic and racial status of faculty, as well as other minority statuses such as gender, age, physical disability, and sexual orientation. Another demand is more organizational and less personal: This is the pressure to engage in “artificial” teaching and research. The prime motivators for poor teaching and inappropriate research is the desire for survival in academia and the need to achieve individualistic rewards allotted or ordained by university administration. In order to survive (be promoted, tenured, reappointed), faculty adopt mainstream teaching topics, seek external funding for research and do whatever it takes to increase and retain student enrollments at the cost of academic excellence. Probably all university settings impose obligations upon faculty. We argue that the degree and type of pressures experienced by faculty varies across u...
Link pipelining strategies for an application-specific asynchronous NoC

Wire latency across the links of a NoC can limit throughput, especially in deep submicron technology. Stateful pipeline buffers added to long links allow a higher clock rate, but this wastes resources on links needing only low bandwidth. In asynchronous (clockless) NoCs, link pipelining can be done to only those that will benefit from both increased throughput and buffering capacity, and is especially useful in heterogeneous embedded SoCs. We evaluate two strategies that determine where link pipeline buffers should be placed in the topology. The first compares available link bandwidth, based on physical wirelength, to the throughput needed by each source-to-destination path, for each link. The second adds buffers to a link such that its bandwidth is at least equal to the throughput of a core's network adapter. These strategies were integrated into our network optimization tool for an application-specific SoC. Simulations were based on its expected traffic patterns, floorplan-derived wirelength, and uses self-similar traffic generation for more realistic behavior. Results show improved large-message network latency and output buffer delay of the network adapter. There was a slight power increase with the addition of pipeline buffers, but our proposal is a complexity-effective improvement by the power*latency product metric. The results indicate the strategy of pipelining certain links provides more efficiency opposed to a ubiquitous addition of buffers.
p-th Power total variation regularization in photon-limited imaging via iterative reweighting

Recent work in l p -norm regularized sparsity recovery problems (where 0 ≤ p ≤ 1) has shown that signals can be recovered with very high accuracy despite the fact that the solution to these nonconvex optimization problems are not necessarily the global minima but are instead potentially local minima. In particular, l p -norm regularization has been used effectively for signal reconstruction from measurements corrupted by zero-mean additive Gaussian noise. This paper describes a p-th power total variation (TV p ) regularized op timization approach for image recovery problems in photon-limited settings using iterative reweighting. The proposed method iteratively convexities a sequence of nonconvex TV p subproblems using a weighted TV approach and is solved using a modification to the FISTA method for TV-based de-noising. We explore the effectiveness of the proposed method through numerical experiments in image deblurring.
Bankruptcy of a Professional Sports Franchise and the Implications for the Franchise and Its Players

I am going to take a slightly different approach regarding financial issues in professional sports. Rather than just address the financial challenges facing professional athletes, I will also explore the financial difficulties facing professional sports teams. A number of professional sports teams have filed for bankruptcy in recent years in connection with the sale or potential sale of the franchise. However, their motivations for filing for bankruptcy have varied. I will take a closer look at some of the recently completed bankruptcies involving professional sports teams, specifically: (a) the Chicago Cubs, (b) the Texas Rangers, (c) the Dallas Stars, and (d) the Phoenix Coyotes. I will discuss the motivations for each of those recent bankruptcies and how they differed. While all were in connection with sales,1 they all had different circumstances. I will also lend my experiences and insights to discuss ways in which a transaction for the sale of a professional sports team changes once the team enters bankruptcy, and how that affects the team. Specifically, I will offer my personal insight regarding a couple of these deals,
Philosopher Kings and International Tax

Tax flight treaties could help to solve the $50 billion-a-year problem that tax flight (the evasion of income taxes through the use of offshore tax havens) poses for the United States. Tax flight treaties would offer tax havens a substantial portion of the increased tax revenues that they could generate by providing the United States with the enforcement assistance it needs. Those payments, potentially representing as much as half of the added tax revenue produced by tax flight treaties (and in all probability an amount that is greater than any GDP gains attributable to eliminating waste and other economic distortions related to tax flight), would give tax havens both the resources and the incentive they need to develop the administrative capacity necessary to supply the United States with income tax information. It is likely that those treaties would reduce the United States' collective well-being (particularly if measured in simple GDP terms) by transferring wealth from U.S. tax cheats to the governments of tax havens. A simplistic philosopher king model of international tax law, the strong form of which assumes that governments engage in cross-border tax cooperation to boost their respective GDPs, would suggest that tax flight treaties could never be effective. However, the more sophisticated model developed by the international law scholar Oona Hathaway, her integrated theory, supports a more optimistic conclusion regarding the potential of tax flight treaties.
Concurrency Semantics for the Geiger-Paz-Pearl Axioms of Independence

Independence between two sets of random variables is a well-known relation in probability theory. Its origins trace back to Abraham de Moivre's work in the 18th century. The propositional theory of this relation was axiomatized by Geiger, Paz, and Pearl. Sutherland introduced a relation in information flow theory that later became known as "nondeducibility." Subsequently, the first two authors generalized this relation from a relation between two arguments to a relation between two sets of arguments and proved that it is completely described by essentially the same axioms as independence in probability theory. This paper considers a non-interference relation between two groups of concurrent processes sharing common resources. Two such groups are called non-interfering if, when executed concurrently, the only way for them to reach deadlock is for one of the groups to deadlock internally. The paper shows that a complete axiomatization of this relation is given by the same Geiger-Paz-Pearl axioms.
Polyhydrated ionogen with MgBr2 accelerates in vitro respiratory epithelial healing.

BACKGROUND: Remucoslization of the sinonasal cavity after sinus surgery is critical for successful outcomes. Recently, a novel antiprotease and antifibroblast compound, polyhydrated ionogen (PHI) with MgBr2, showed improved wound healing in a rabbit maxillary sinus mucosal wound model. We set out to determine if this effect was reproducible in an in vitro respiratory epithelial culture system. METHODS: Fully differentiated mature murine nasal septal air-liquid interface cultures were injured by creating a full-thickness 400-mM-wide scratch through the monolayer. Cultures were then treated with nothing, saline, or PHI with MgBr2 for 1 hour on the apical surface. Twenty-four hours after the injury cultures were fixed and processed for immunofluorescence with type IV beta-tubulin and Hoechst stain. RESULTS: Initial injury resulted in a wound of 394 micromolar (377-411 micromoler; 95% CI; n = 8). After 24 hours with no intervention the wound closed to 161 micromolar (138-184 micromolar; 95% CI; n = 9) and treatment with saline resulted in a residual gap of 88 micromolar (60-116 micromolar; 95% CI; n = 9; p < 0.05) and treatment with PHI with MgBr2 resulted in a gap of only 30 micromolar (14-46 micromolar; 95% CI; n = 9; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Poor healing of the sinonasal mucosa after surgery with loss of ciliary function results in adverse clinical outcomes. In an in vitro sinonasal respiratory epithelial injury model, a one-time treatment with PHI with MgBr2 showed significantly improved wound healing compared with saline or nothing. This is a viable model to further investigate the mechanism by which PHI with MgBr2 improves sinonasal remucosolization.
The dry etching of group III-nitride wide-bandgap semiconductors

Fabricating device structures from the III-N semiconductors requires dry-etching processes that leave smooth surfaces with stoichiometric composition after transferring patterns with vertical sidewalls. Results obtained by standard methods are summarized, and the extent of concomitant ion bombardment damage is assessed. A new low-damage technique—low-energy electron- enhanced etching—that avoids ion bombardment altogether is described, and early results for III-N materials are summarized. Etching issues critical in forming contacts and fabricating laser facets and mirrors are highlighted, and some prospects for future work are also identified.
Video Super Resolution Reconstruction Based on Improved Particle Filtering Algorithm

In the super resolution reconstruction,a key step is the video motion estimation. Compared with other methods,matching algorithm based on features of video has higher robustness. How ever,the accuracy of this kind of methods is affected by the position and selection of feature points. To overcome this problem,this paper introduces the particle filtering into the motion estimation to reduce the matching error. The main disadvantage of the particle filtering is particle degeneracy. In this paper,an extended Kalman filtering is used to general the proposal distribution,and an Unscented Kalman Filtering( UKF) is used to refine particles. Experimental results show that,compared w ith other eight classic filtering algorithms,the proposed algorithm has much better performance,and for the super resolution reconstruction issue,the proposed algorithm can estimate the motion more accurately.
A study of graph partitioning schemes for parallel graph community detection

This paper presents a study of graph partitioning schemes for parallel graph community detection on distributed memory machines. We investigate the relationship between graph structure and parallel clustering effectiveness, and develop a heuristic partitioning algorithm suitable for modularity-based algorithms. We demonstrate the accuracy and scalability of our approach using several real-world large graph datasets compared with state-of-the-art parallel algorithms on the Cray XK7 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Given the ubiquitous graph model, we expect this high-performance solution will help lead to new insights in numerous fields.
Araujo, Ana Lucia. African Heritage and Memories of Slavery in Brazil and the South Atlantic World . Amherst, NY: Cambria, 2015. Print.

A much needed transatlantic study on Africa and Brazil has finally come alive. Beyond the core contribution of Melville Herskovits to the legacy of Africa in the New World, Araujo assembles in this formidable volume, established Atlantic scholars who collectively focus on African heritage in Brazil and by extension, on the connections between memories of slavery on both sides of the Atlantic.
Electron Microscope Autoradiography

The opportunity to accurately localize radioactive substances in tissues at the cellular level became available with the introduction of relatively low energy beta-emitters, combined with the techniques of autoradiography. The major advantage offered by autoradiography is the ability to infer the location of individual molecules on the basis of the proximity of a reduced silver grain to this molecule. Therefore, attempts to increase the resolution of the method have utilized approaches that bring the two sites closer together. This paper will review some of the factors that relate to the theory and application of autoradiography when used with both light and electron microscopy.
MURINE T CELL-SPECIFIC IA ANTIGENS: HELPER T LYMPHOCYTES EXPRESS A UNIQUE I-A-ENCODED MOLECULE

Genetic and environmental influences determine an animal’s capacity to respond immunologically to a foreign stimulus. The murine major histocompatibility complex (H-2) linked immune response (Ir) genes provide a model wherein the molecular basis for immune regulation can be examined (1). Cellular interactions, cell-mediated antiviral immunity, self-nonself discrimination, and immune suppression are H-2I region controlled traits (1).
On the Phenotypic Plasticity of Leaf Photosynthetic Capacity

Most of ecological and evolutionary theory considers environments which are static or changing on long-time scales relative to organism lifespans. Despite the recent flowering of interest in randomly varying environments as they affect population growth (Turelli, 1977) and population genetics in fine-grained environments (Templeton and Rothman, 1978), the theory remains far removed from an analysis of the direct response of organisms to environmental variation within their lifespan. My purpose here is to consider the effects of variation of a single environmental factor, light, on plant growth and attempt to draw some evolutionary conclusions. Here I specifically am interested in the potential for an organism to adapt to environmental variation within its lifespan, a phenomenon known as phenotypic plasticity. This refers to the capacity of a genotype to engender a range of potential phenotypes, depending upon environmental conditions during development. This capacity is generally ignored in genetics and population models, yet such plasticity is very important to understanding how plants function (Bradshaw, 1965; Harper, 1977). Most terrestrial plants are stuck in one location for the majority of their lifespan, and thus have to take the environment as it comes. Unlike animals, which have the capability through movement to spatially average the surrounding environment, plants can only respond to environmental variation within their lifespan through a flexible phenotype.
Multilingualism and Identity: Articulating 'African-ness' in an American High School.

This paper draws on qualitative research that examines the language practices and learning experiences of ten adolescent multilingual immigrant and refugee English Learners (ELs) from the Democrati...
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE (PLAQUENIL) CARDIOTOXICITY: AN UNCOMMON COMPLICATION OF A COMMON MEDICATION

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a common anti-rheumatic medication, can be cardiotoxic and cause systolic or diastolic heart failure (HF). A 65 year old man presented with acute decompensated HF. He had a history of rheumatoid arthritis, and had been treated with hydroxychloroquine for the last 8 years.
Social-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: Normative, NICU Considerations, and Application in NICU Follow-Up Programs for At-Risk Infants and Their Families

Experienced NICU clinicians are familiar with the dramatic change in social interactions seen in their newborn patients as premature infants progress toward their due dates or near- or full-term infants progress from acute illness to recovery. The interactions gradually increase in frequency and become more sophisticated as the infant matures and/or stabilizes. Talking to the infant evolves from minimal to encouraging to fun, while the infant’s ability to respond evolves from minimal to aware to engaging. These changes—both infant and caregiver—are both cause and effect of the infant’s social-emotional development.
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS OF THE PERCEPTRON, MADALINE, AND BACKPROPAGATION FAMILY

ABSTRACT Fundamental developments in feedforward artificial neural networks from the past thirty years are reviewed. The central theme of this paper is a description of the history, origination, operating characteristics, and basic theory of several supervised neural network training algorithms including the Perceptron rule, the LMS algorithm, three Madaline rules, and the backpropagation technique. These methods were developed independently, but with the perspective of history they can all be related to each other. The concept which underlies these algorithms is the “minimal disturbance principle”, which suggests that during training it is advisable to inject new information into a network in a manner which disturbs stored information to the smallest extent possible. Learning algorithms used in artificial neural networks are probably not representative of learning processes in living neural systems. However, study of these algorithms may give neurobiologists and psychologists some clues of what to look for when studying cognition, pattern classification, and locomotion.
Cu 2 ZnSn(S,Se) 4 and Related Materials

Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 and related multinary compounds in the kesterite crystal structure are considered promising light-absorbing materials for thin-film photovoltaic (PV) device technology because of their earth abundance, desired opto-electronic properties, and non-toxic nature of constituent elements. In the past few years, spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) has been applied to characterize the optical functions and related physical properties of this new class of PV absorber materials. This chapter presents SE-determined optical function spectra of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 and related compounds and discusses associated scientific and technical issues. Detailed information on the measurement strategies is also provided, so that interested readers can adopt the same methods for their own studies.
(329) Epigenetic Aging is Associated with Clinical and Experimental Pain in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Gerontological research reveals considerable interindividual variability in biological aging, which has motivated research efforts to identify ‘aging biomarkers’ that are better predictors of disease risk and residual lifespan when compared to chronological age alone. Emerging evidence using the epigenetic clock as an aging biomarker supports highly reliable individualized predictions about future health and function. The current study focuses on the estimation of “epigenetic age” analyses in blood samples of older adults (60-83 years old) with and without chronic pain to determine whether an epigenetic age biomarker is associated with the presence and burden of chronic pain. A subset of participants (n=29) in the NEPAL study underwent a blood draw, and completed demographic, psychological, and pain assessments, including quantitative sensory testing (n=29). We estimated Horvath's epigenetic clock and calculated the difference between epigenetic age and chronological age that has been previously reported to predict overall mortality risk. Older individuals without chronic pain (n=9) had significantly “younger” epigenetic age compared to those with chronic pain (n=20,p 0.05). Epigenetic age difference was not generally associated with demographic or psychological function (p's>0.05). Our findings suggest that chronic pain is associated with greater epigenetic aging in relatively healthy, community-dwelling older individuals and future studies with larger samples are needed to confirm our findings. An aging biomarker such as the epigenetic clock may help identify people with chronic pain at greater risk of functional decline and poorer health outcomes.
Functional Imaging of the Motor System

Human functional imaging identifies a broad distribution of brain systems involved in volitional behavior. This set of brain systems includes classic cortical and subcortical areas of the motor system. A subset of motor areas demonstrates differential activity as a function of motor kinematics, preparation versus execution, task complexity, and the integration of feedback for guiding movement. Changes of brain activity when new skills are acquired occur within motor circuits. There is strong overlap of activity in premotor and parietal areas for execution or observation of similar actions.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation and therapeutic inhibitors

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous human virus which infects almost all humans during their lifetime and following the acute phase, persists for the remainder of the life of the individual. EBV infects B lymphocytes leading to their immortalisation, with persistence of the EBV genome as an episome. In the latent phase, EBV is prevented from reactivating through efficient cytotoxic cellular immunity. EBV reactivates (lytic phase) under conditions of psychological stress with consequent weakening of cellular immunity, and EBV reactivation has been shown to occur in a subset of individuals with each of a variety of cancers, autoimmune diseases, the autoimmune-like disease, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalitis and under other circumstances such as being an inpatient in an intensive care unit. Chronic EBV reactivation is an important mechanism in the pathogenesis of many such diseases, yet is rarely tested for in immunocompetent individuals. This review summarises the pathogenesis of EBV infection, EBV reactivation and its role in disease, and methods which may be used to detect it. Known inhibitors of EBV reactivation and replication are discussed, including drugs licensed for treatment of other herpesviruses, licensed or experimental drugs for various other indications, compounds at an early stage of drug development and nutritional constituents such as vitamins and dietary supplements.
Clinical Course of Nonfunctional Pituitary Microadenoma in Children: A Single-Center Experience.

Context Pituitary lesions consistent with microadenomas are increasingly discovered by MRI. Sparse data are available on the long-term clinical and imaging course of such lesions in children. Objective The aim of this study was to define the clinical and imaging course of pituitary lesions representing or possibly representing nonfunctioning microadenomas in children to guide clinical management. Design Retrospective observational study. Methods The clinical data warehouse at a tertiary care academic children's hospital was queried with the terms "pituitary" AND "microadenoma" and "pituitary" AND "incidentaloma." The electronic health records of the identified subjects were reviewed to extract data on the clinical and imaging course. Results A total of 78 children had nonfunctioning pituitary lesions incidentally discovered during clinical care, of which 44 (56%) were reported as presumed or possible microadenomas. In the children with microadenoma (median age 15 years, interquartile range 2), a majority (70%) underwent imaging for nonendocrine symptoms, the most common being headache (n = 16, 36%). No significant increase in the size of the microadenoma or cysts or worsening of pituitary function was seen over the average clinical follow-up of 4.5 ± 2.6 years. Four cases of drug-induced hyperprolactinemia resolved with discontinuation of the offending medication. Conclusions Asymptomatic pituitary lesions representing cysts, microadenomas, or possible microadenomas follow a benign course in children. In the absence of new endocrine or visual symptoms, repeat MRI may not be needed, and if performed, should be done in no less than a year. When possible, it is prudent to discontinue hyperprolactinemia-inducing medications before imaging.