cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
From the Cover: Fenretinide, Troglitazone, and Elmiron Add to Weight of Evidence Support for Hemangiosarcoma Mode-of-Action From Studies in Mice.

Pharmaceuticals and chemicals produce hemangiosarcomas (HS) in mice, often by nongenotoxic, proliferative mechanisms. A mode-of-action (MOA) for hemangiosarcoma was proposed based on information presented at an international workshop (Cohen et al., Hemangiosarcoma in rodents: Mode-of-action evaluation and human relevance. Toxicol. Sci. 111, 4-18.). Five key elements of the MOA were articulated and included hypoxia, macrophage activation, increased angiogenic growth factors, dysregulated angiogenesis/erythropoiesis, and endothial cell proliferation. The goal of the current study was to add to the weight-of-evidence for the proposed MOA by assessing these key elements with 3 different compounds of varying potency for HS induction: fenretinide (high), troglitazone (intermediate), and elmiron (low). Multiple endpoints, including hypoxia (hyproxyprobe, transcriptomics), endothelial cell (EC) proliferation, and clinical and anatomic pathology, were assessed after 2, 4, and 13-weeks of treatment in B6C3F1 mice. All 3 compounds demonstrated strong evidence for dysregulated erythropoiesis (decrease in RBC and a failure to increase reticulocytes) and macrophage activation (4- to 11-fold increases); this pattern of hematological changes in mice might serve as an early biomarker to evaluate EC proliferation in suspected target organs for potential HS formation. Fenretinide demonstrated all 5 key elements, while troglitazone demonstrated 4 and elmiron demonstrated 3. Transcriptomics provided support for the 5 elements of the MOA, but was not any more sensitive than hypoxyprobe immunohistochemistry for detecting hypoxia. The overall transcriptional evidence for the key elements of the proposed MOA was also consistent with the potency of HS induction. These data, coupled with the previous work with 2-butoxyethanol and pregablin, increase the weight-of-evidence for the proposed MOA for HS formation.
Evaluation of Safety in Biomarker Driven Multiple Agent Phase IB Trial

Tyner and colleagues in the Center for Hematological Malignancies, Knight Cancer Institute, at the Oregon Health & Science University have recently developed a novel kinase-inhibitor assay and rapid mutation screening to identify molecularly targeted drugs to which patient leukemic cells are sensitive. As a proof of concept and feasibility trial, they proposed a phase IB trial focusing on feasibility and safety of an assay-based kinase-inhibitor treatment assignment in combination with the standard induction chemotherapy among newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia patients. Because each patient receives one of five kinase inhibitors in combination with standard chemotherapy, the sample size for each kinase inhibitor group is varied and limited. In addition, there is a different toxicity profile associated with each inhibitor, making safety assessment challenging. We will discuss a continuous toxicity monitoring plan in biomarker driven, multiple agent feasibility and safety trials, and evaluate its operating characteristics in a simulation study.
Phenotyping physicians with frequent malpractice claims

Medical errors and patient safety have been receiving significant attention since the landmark publication by Institute of Medicine in 2000. However, characteristics of physicians implicated in frequent medical errors were not studied systematically. We used National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) containing malpractice claims since 1990 to identify characteristics predictive of physicians with frequent malpractice claims. We separated all malpractice records for US physicians into two groups according to the total number of malpractice records (0: less than 5 records, 1: more than 4 records) and compared characteristics of the first malpractice record in each group. Overall, 137,590 unique records were analyzed. Four percent of physicians (5371) had 5 or more malpractice claims. Bivariate statistics, cross-correlation and principal component analysis were used to identify predictive features. Logistic regression was used for predictive modeling. Resulting model allowed prediction of physicians with frequent malpractice records based on the following characteristics of the first malpractice record: allegation type, practitioner age, number of years from graduation to the first malpractice claim.
A computationally efficient ductile damage model accounting for nucleation and micro-inertia at high triaxialities

Abstract The computational formulation of a micro-mechanical material model for the dynamic failure of ductile metals is presented in this paper. The statistical nature of porosity initiation is accounted for by introducing an arbitrary probability density function which describes the pores nucleation pressures. Each micropore within the representative volume element is modeled as a thick spherical shell made of plastically incompressible material. The treatment of porosity by a distribution of thick-walled spheres also allows for the inclusion of micro-inertia effects under conditions of shock and dynamic loading. The second order ordinary differential equation governing the microscopic porosity evolution is solved with a robust implicit procedure. A new Chebyshev collocation method is employed to approximate the porosity distribution and remapping is used to optimize memory usage. The adaptive approximation of the porosity distribution leads to a reduction of computational time and memory usage of up to two orders of magnitude. Moreover, the proposed model affords consistent performance: changing the nucleation pressure probability density function and/or the applied strain rate does not reduce accuracy or computational efficiency of the material model. The numerical performance of the model and algorithms presented is tested against three problems for high density tantalum: single void, one-dimensional uniaxial strain, and two-dimensional plate impact. The results using the integration and algorithmic advances suggest a significant improvement in computational efficiency and accuracy over previous treatments for dynamic loading conditions.
Unsupervised Learning Approach to Feature Analysis for Automatic Speech Emotion Recognition

The scarcity of emotional speech data is a bottleneck of developing automatic speech emotion recognition (ASER) systems. One way to alleviate this issue is to use unsupervised feature learning techniques to learn features from the widely available general speech and use these features to train emotion classifiers. These unsupervised methods, such as denoising autoencoder (DAE), variational autoencoder (VAE), adversarial autoencoder (AAE) and adversarial variational Bayes (AVB), can capture the intrinsic structure of the data distribution in the learned feature representation. In this work, we systematically investigate four kinds of unsupervised feature learning methods for improving speaker-independent ASER. We show that all methods improve the performance regarding unweighted accuracy rating (UAR) and Fl-score over methods that use hand-crafted features or that do not perform feature learning on external datasets. We also show that VAE, AAE and AVB methods, which control the distribution of the latent representation, outperform DAE that does not control such distribution. This suggests the benefits of using variational inference methods to learn features from general speech for the speech tasks such as ASER that has very limited labeled data.
CX3CR1 Does Not Universally Mediate Microglia-Neuron Crosstalk during Synaptic Plasticity

Tissue macrophages play essential roles during organogenesis and maintenance of tissue homeostasis by adopting specialized, tissue-specific phenotypes. These phenotypes are dictated by their distinct origins (i.e., their lineage), as well as the microenvironmental cues they encounter in their
Comparison of Linear Temperature Corrections and Activation Energy Temperature Corrections for Electrical Resistivity Measurements of Concrete

Electrical resistivity measurements are increasingly being used as measurements for concrete acceptance in practice. It has been shown that these measurements are sensitive to temperature. This paper examines the influence of temperature on electrical resistivity measurements in concrete. Two temperature correction approaches that are commonly used by researchers and practitioners were evaluated: a linear temperature correction approach (α) and an activation energy–based temperature correction approach (Ea-cond). These approaches were compared with each other and their predictive capabilities were assessed using measured data from various concrete mixtures. It was found that for cases of low temperature sensitivity (low values of α or Ea-cond), the predictions obtained with α and with Ea-cond were similar. However, the Ea-cond approach was found to provide more accurate corrections (lower error) than corrections using α for measurements conducted at lower temperatures and for systems with higher temperature sensitivities (high values of α or Ea-cond). For saturated concrete specimens, both the linear (α) and activation energy (Ea-cond) approaches are acceptable, whereas the use of the Ea-cond approach provides better predictive capabilities in sealed concrete specimens, especially at low temperatures. The average values for Ea-cond were found to be 29.8 kJ/mol for sealed specimens and 15.8 kJ/mol for saturated specimens, and corresponding average values of α are 3.25 %/°C and 2.00 %/°C, respectively. The values for Ea-cond for saturated specimens are closer to what is expected of a pore solution on its own.
Instructional Approaches to Teaching a Korean Percussion Ensemble ("Samulnori") to Preservice Music Teachers and Preservice Classroom Teachers: An Action Research Study.

The purpose of this practical action research study was to explore how preservice music teachers, preservice classroom teachers, and a methods course instructor responded to the experience of rehea...
Central Pain: A Thalamic Deafferentation Generating Thalamocortical Dysrhythmia

The mechanism responsible for the generation of central (or phantom) pain, as opposed to that resulting from the activation of nociceptive input, has been a perplexing medical puzzle. The possibility that such pain is ultimately a disconnection neurological syndrome will be the topic of this short essay. Abnormal recurrent thalamocortical resonance of intrinsic origin will be proposed as a plausible underlying mechanism in central pain generation. Electrophysiological studies in rodents and in humans reveal the presence of continuous, low frequency (theta/delta) thalamocortical loop recurrent oscillations that are most probably related to sensory deafferentation. For example, magnetoencephalographic (MEG) studies in humans with central pain show that low frequency activity is localized to the somatosensory cortical representation of the pain location, and to the fronto-mesial cortex. Animal studies demonstrate that low frequency oscillations originating in thalamus support an associated “edge effect” at beta or gamma band frequency at the level of the cortex. Co-localization of low and high frequency activity has also been observed in MEG studies. It is concluded that such thalamo-cortical activation at the somatosensory level provides subjective localization while the thalamic fronto-mesial loop is responsible for the emotional pain sensation.
The role of drinking motives and perceived controllability of events in the association between college women's sexual assault victimization and binge drinking.

Abstract Women with a history of sexual assault are at elevated risk for engaging in binge drinking. The aims of the current study are to investigate two types of drinking motives (coping and social) that potentially underlie the sexual assault-binge drinking link in a sample of female college drinkers (N = 691; 37.6% sexual assault prevalence), and to determine the extent to which the relationships between sexual assault history and each type of drinking motive depend on women's assumptions about the controllability of events. Conditional process analysis results indicated that women who experienced sexual assault (vs. those who did not) were more likely to report both coping and social drinking motives, which in turn, were both positively associated with increased binge drinking. Consistent with our hypothesis, results showed the relationship between sexual assault history and coping drinking motives was moderated by perceived controllability of events. Specifically, sexual assault victims reported high coping motives regardless of controllability of events. Nonvictims only reported high coping motives when their perceived controllability of events was low – comparable to coping motives of victims. This integrative approach affords a more comprehensive understanding of the context in which college women's binge drinking occurs, and offers insight into processes that could be targeted in interventions.
The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Sustained Weight Loss Following Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery

The aim of the study was to investigate the role of the gut microbiota in weight regain or suboptimal weight loss following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). The gut microbiota composition in post-RYGB patients who experienced successful weight loss (SWL, n = 6), post-RYGB patients who experienced poor weight loss (PWL, n = 6), and non-surgical controls (NSC, n = 6) who were age- and BMI-matched to the SWL group (NSC, n = 6) were characterized through 16S rRNA gene sequencing. To further investigate the impact of the gut microbiota on weight profile, human fecal samples were transplanted into antibiotic-treated mice. Orders of Micrococcales and Lactobacillales were enriched in SWL and PWL groups compared to the NSC group. No significant difference was observed in the gut microbiota composition between PWL and SWL patients. However, transfer of the gut microbiota from human patients into antibiotic-treated mice resulted in significantly greater weight gain in PWL recipient mice compared to SWL recipient mice. A few genera that were effectively transferred from humans to mice were associated with weight gain in mice. Among them, Barnesiella was significantly higher in PWL recipient mice compared to SWL and NSC recipient mice. These results indicate that the gut microbiota are at least functionally, if not compositionally, different between PWL and SWL patients. Some taxa may contribute to weight gain after surgery. Future studies will need to determine the molecular mechanisms behind the effects of the gut bacteria on weight regain after RYGB.
The Israeli Miracle: Innovation and Economic Growth

Israel, a small country in Asia, transitioned from a labor-intensive economy to become a nation with the second largest startup ecosystem in the world. What have propelled this extraordinary growth that made the state of Israel one of the most important entrepreneurial and technology-driven economies? This paper provides some background on the Israeli economy and a detailed analysis of the main drivers for this marvel transformation. It describes the impacts of change in population due to immigration, large capital injections, and economic transition from basic production of growing citrus and polishing diamonds to current state of the art technologies.
Is Maternal Income in Childhood Associated With Adolescent Health and Behavioral Outcomes

Maternal income increases immediate investment in children for food, child care, and health care, but whether maternal income influences longer term health and behavioral outcomes is unknown. Using...
Propagation of Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’ from Cuttings

Abstract The effect of rooting medium, indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), and node position were studied on rooting of tender purple fountaingrass, Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’. Three-hundred single-node...
Dry Etching of Silicon Materials in SF6 Based Plasmas. Roles of N2O and O2 Gas Additives.

The silicon etch rate has been measured as a function of gas feed composition (SF6/N2O and SF6/O2 mixtures), gas pressure, and RF power, and the etched surfaces have been characterized by XPS.
Freezing resistance, safety margins, and survival vary among big sagebrush populations across the western United States

PREMISE Physiological responses to temperature extremes are considered strong drivers of species' demographic responses to climate variability. Plants are typically classified as either avoiders or tolerators in their freezing-resistance mechanism, but a gradient of physiological-threshold freezing responses may exist among individuals of a species. Moreover, adaptive significance of physiological freezing responses is poorly characterized, particularly under warming conditions that relax selection on cold hardiness. METHODS Freezing responses were measured in winter and again for new foliage in spring for 14 populations of Artemisia tridentata collected throughout its range and planted in a warm common garden. The relationships of the freezing responses to survival were evaluated in the warm garden and in two colder gardens. RESULTS Winter and spring freezing resistance were not correlated and appeared to be under differing selection regimes, as evident in correlations with different population climate of origin variables. All populations resisted considerably lower temperatures in winter than in spring, with populations from more continental climates showing narrower freezing safety margins (difference in temperatures at which ice-nucleation occurs and 50% reduction in chlorophyll fluorescence occurs) in spring. Populations with greater winter freezing resistance had lower survivorship in the warmest garden, while populations with greater spring freezing resistance had lower survivorship in a colder garden. CONCLUSIONS These survivorship patterns relative to physiological thresholds suggest excess freezing resistance may incur a survival cost that likely relates to a trade-off between carbon gain and freezing resistance during critical periods of moisture availability. This cost has implications for seed moved from cooler to warmer environments and for plants growing in warming environments.
Perceived Discrimination, Ethnic Identity, and Mental Distress Among Asian International Students in Korea:

This study explored the associations between perceived discrimination, ethnic identity, and mental distress among 118 Asian international college students in Korea. Perceived discrimination and eth...
An innovating business model for the higher education sector: A platform-based approach to university career services:

With a changing landscape of higher education institutions (HEIs), the authors explore the concepts of a platform business model in the context of university career services. Through an inductive, ...
The Power of Play: Game Creation to Enhance Student Learning

Student engagement can be a constant challenge for faculty, and in recent years, there has been an explosion of recognition of the value of active-learning assignments. In my class, I have tried to take active learning a step further. Pulling on the work of entrepreneurship literature, I have introduced an assignment that not only has students play games but create them. Studies have shown the value of creation, play, failure and reevaluation in instilling students not only with substantive knowledge but also with soft and critical thinking skills that will serve them well in any discipline. In this paper, I shall examine the benefits of game creation for students, the requirements and administration costs of such a project for the supervising faculty, as well as assessment processes applicable to such creative endeavors.
Thermal Actuation of Bi-Phase Droplets

The previous chapters discussed how multi-phase droplets interact with light, in particular how the droplets control light. This chapter focuses instead on how light, or the heat produced by the absorption of light, can control droplets. Experimentally, these multi-phase droplets can be manipulated (rotation and some translation) with relatively low temperature gradients induced by a focused near-infrared laser in an aqueous medium. The motion of the droplets can be attributed to thermal Marangoni flows within the droplets, due to the local heating from the focused laser.
A trans-holocene approach to assess maritime development on the California Channel Islands archipelago: A case study from Eel Point, San Clemente island

Abstract The Channel Islands of California have received much attention from researchers, in part, due to the long occupation history of the islands that spans at least 13,000 years. The Northern Channel Islands have played an important role in our understanding of early coastal adaptations and development of complexity among maritime adapted peoples; however, this is only part of the picture. The Southern Channel Islands, located approximately 90 km south of the Northern Channel Islands, have a similar occupational history to their northern counterparts, but exist in a very different environmental and geographic context. Occupants on each island would have faced marine and terrestrial environments that could be vastly different based on issues such as fluctuating sea temperatures, fresh water accessibility, and plant, animal, and marine shell seasonality. The coastal adaptations along all the Channel Islands reflected these differences. Understanding variation on the Channel Islands archipelago can be realized by comparing and contrasting multiple types of environmental and material data from trans-Holocene sites, archaeological deposits that present continuous data sequences over a wide time span of the Holocene. One such site from San Clemente Island in the southern portion of the archipelago is Eel Point. Previous excavations at this site resulted in a rich array of cultural material; however, recent research has shown major portions of the collections have not yet been processed, are unanalyzed, or are under-analyzed. Specifically the groundstone and archaeobotanical assemblages have not been comprehensively analyzed or reported on, but are integral to understanding not only subsistence strategies, but also technological development and island paleo and historical ecology. These data form the basis for an inter-island comparative approach to understand long-term human-environmental interactions and impacts to ancient ecosystems on the Channel Islands archipelago. This study focuses on leveraging these under-analyzed and unanalyzed data to present on the variation in adaptions on the archipelago and to demonstrate the relevance of multi-island studies for considering the cultural impacts of climatic change in Mediterranean environments.
Delivery of end-of-life care in an emergency department-based intensive care unit.

Objective Intensive care unit (ICU) admissions near the end of life have been associated with worse quality of life and burdensome costs. Patients may not benefit from ICU admission if appropriate end-of-life care can be delivered elsewhere. The objective of this study was to descriptively analyze patients receiving end-of-life care in an emergency department (ED)-based ICU (ED-ICU). Methods This is a retrospective analysis of patient outcomes and resource use in adult patients receiving end-of-life care in an ED-ICU. In 2015, an "End of Life" order set was created to standardize delivery of palliative therapies and comfort measures. We identified adult patients (>18 years) receiving end-of-life care in the ED-ICU from December 2015 to March 2020 whose clinicians used the end-of-life order set. Results A total of 218 patients were included for analysis; 50.5% were female, and the median age was 73.6 years. The median ED-ICU length of stay was 13.3 hours (interquartile range, 7.4-20.6). Two patients (0.9%) were admitted to an inpatient ICU, 117 (53.7%) died in the ED-ICU, 77 (35.3%) were admitted to a non-intensive care inpatient service, and 22 (10.1%) were discharged from the ED-ICU. Conclusions An ED-ICU can be used for ED patients near the end of life. Only 0.9% were subsequently admitted to an ICU, and 10.1% were discharged from the ED-ICU. This practice may benefit patients and families by avoiding costly ICU admissions and benefit health systems by reducing ICU capacity strain.
Complications and Outcomes of Salvage Cystectomy after Trimodality Therapy.

Purpose:Salvage cystectomy is required for some patients with intravesical recurrence after trimodality therapy. We compared postoperative outcomes between salvage cystectomy post-trimodality thera...
Optimal choice of multiple line-of-sight measurements determining plasma hotspot velocity at the National Ignition Facility.

The measurement of plasma hotspot velocity provides an important diagnostic of implosion performance for inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility. The shift of the fusion product neutron mean kinetic energy as measured along multiple line-of-sight time-of-flight spectrometers provides velocity vector components from which the hotspot velocity is inferred. Multiple measurements improve the hotspot velocity inference; however, practical considerations of available space, operational overhead, and instrumentation costs limit the number of possible line-of-sight measurements. We propose a solution to this classical “experiment design” problem that optimizes the precision of the velocity inference for a limited number of measurements.
Revelation in Judaism

This chapter treats revelation in the Jewish tradition. In that tradition the revelation of the law given to Moses is foundational. The revelations given to other prophets, including the major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, are treated, as are revelations in which there are dialogues with God and revelatory visions given to the prophets. Also treated is contemporary rabbinical understanding of revelation and its form in the Jewish community.
A brand culture approach to Chinese cultural heritage brands

This research represents an effort to fill the gap between brand development studies focusing expressly on Western brands and their markets and culture-specific global brand development in emerging markets, such as China. Case studies are presented of two Chinese brands, Shanghai Tang and Shang Xia, which use cultural heritage in their branding strategy. A consumer perspective sheds light on how consumers co-create brand meaning for cultural heritage brands, and clarifies concepts of brand culture, cultural heritage and brand heritage. A brand culture approach offers new perspectives on how brand actors co-create, circulate and re-configure existing meanings of brands and cultures, and how Chinese brands become vehicles for meaning co-creation across national boundaries. Implications include the benefits of being prepared to compete with a new type of Chinese brand that taps into China’s rich cultural heritage, instead of relying on cheap mass production; connecting to ideas of Chineseness and drawing upon shared cultural knowledge to build brand values; engaging with cultural tensions, rather than sidestepping them; providing employees with in depth training about the cultural aspects of the brand in order to align branding strategy with what we have called operational identity; and engaging the co-creative stakeholders that play important roles in cultural heritage brands.
Observation of fast O2(a1Δ) quenching in the O/O2/O3 system

In the present study we have observed rapid quenching of O 2 ( a 1 D) in O( 3 P)/O 2 /O 3 mixtures. Oxygen atoms and singlet oxygen molecules were produced by the 248 nm laser photolysis of ozone. The kinetics of O 2 ( a 1 D) quenching were followed by observing the 1268 nm fluorescence of the O 2 a 1 D-X 3 S transition. The temporal profiles of oxygen atoms O( 3 P) were monitored by means of the O+NO chemiluminescent reaction. The mechanisms of fast O 2 ( a 1 D) quenching in the presence of O atoms are discussed.
Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen, and Formate Metabolism during Methanogenesis from Acetate by Thermophilic Cultures of Methanosarcina and Methanothrix Strains.

CO and H2 have been implicated in methanogenesis from acetate, but it is unclear whether they are directly involved in methanogenesis or electron transfer in acetotrophic methanogens. We compared metabolism of H2, CO, and formate by cultures of the thermophilic acetotrophic methanogens Methanosarcina thermophila TM-1 and Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1. M. thermophila accumulated H2 to partial pressures of 40 to 70 Pa (1 Pa = 0.987 × 10-5 atm), as has been previously reported for this and other Methanosarcina cultures. In contrast, Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1 accumulated H2 to maximum partial pressures near 1 Pa. Growing cultures of Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1 initially accumulated CO, which reached partial pressures near 0.6 Pa (some CO came from the rubber stopper) during the middle of methanogenesis; this was followed by a decrease in CO partial pressures to less than 0.01 Pa by the end of methanogenesis. Accumulation or consumption of CO by cultures of M. thermophila growing on acetate was not detected. Late-exponential-phase cultures of Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1, in which the CO partial pressure was decreased by flushing with N2-CO2, accumulated CO to 0.16 Pa, whereas cultures to which ca. 0.5 Pa of CO was added consumed CO until it reached this partial pressure. Cyanide (1 mM) blocked CO consumption but not production. High partial pressures of H2 (40 kPa) inhibited methanogenesis from acetate by M. thermophila but not by Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1, and 2 kPa of CO was not inhibitory to M. thermophila but was inhibitory to Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1. Levels of CO dehydrogenase, hydrogenase, and formate dehydrogenase in Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1 were 9.1, 0.045, and 5.8 μmol of viologen reduced min-1 mg of protein-1. These results suggest that CO plays a role in Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1 similar to that of H2 in M. thermophila and are consistent with the conclusion that CO is an intermediate in a catabolic or anabolic pathway in Methanothrix sp. strain CALS-1; however, they could also be explained by passive equilibration of CO with a metabolic intermediate.
Towards a Microblogs Data Management System

This paper advocates for the need to build a Microblogs Data Management System (MDMS) as an end-to-end data management system to support indexing, querying, and analyzing microblogs, e.g., Tweets, comments, or check-in's. We identify a set of characteristics for microblogging environments that are distinguishing from any other data management environment. Then, we propose a system architecture for the first Microblogs Data Management System, which includes indexing, querying, and recovery components. The indexing component is responsible for indexing recent data in memory, indexing older data in disk, and synchronizing the flow of data from memory to disk without affecting the query response time. The querying component is responsible for retrieving the query answer from both memory and disk storage as well as employing online selectivity estimation techniques tuned to the behavior of microblogs data. The recovery module allows for efficiently storing and processing incoming microblogs in memory without worrying about data loss.
Suppressor T cells regulating the cell-mediated immune response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be generated by immunization with anti-bacterial T cells

We previously demonstrated that immunization with low (10 micrograms) doses of high m.w. polysaccharide from the gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa generates T cells that suppress the ability of antibacterial T cells (Tab) to protect against bacterial infection. The current studies indicate that Ts cells with properties identical to those elicited by low dose polysaccharide immunization can be generated by immunization with Tab. Tab-elicited Ts cells can abrogate in vivo induction and in vitro and in vivo expression of antibacterial T cell activity. Tab-elicited Ts are Ag-specific and H-2 restricted in their suppressor activity. Non-immune T cells fail to elicit suppressor activity. These studies provide additional evidence that the protective T cell response to P. aeruginosa is controlled by a network of T cells that are probably recognizing idiotypic determinants on P. aeruginosa-immune T and B cells.
Studies on the permeability change produced in coliform bacteria by ethylenediaminetetraacetate.

Ethylenediaminetetraacetate added to washed cells in tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane buffer increases the surface permeability of all coliforms tested, including nine strains of Escherichia coli, one strain of Aerobacter aerogenes, and four species of Salmonella. Although this treatment increases passive permeability, two transport systems tested were unaffected. The permeability change is complete within 15 sec after EDTA addition at both 4° and 37°. Mg++ and metals of greater affinity than Mg++ for EDTA prevent the permeability change; Na+ and K+ do not. Those ions that prevent EDTA action cannot immediately reverse it. As treated cells metabolize, they repair their permeability barrier, restoring it completely in a period equivalent to two-thirds of a doubling time. Tests of the conditions necessary to permit repair suggest that repair requires energy metabolism but does not require protein synthesis, RNA synthesis, or surface mucopeptide synthesis. The results support the hypothesis that EDTA causes the permeability change by binding a metal, probably Mg++, and that the cell surface then undergoes a steric or chemical change that requires energy metabolism for its reversal.
Exploring the HDL likelihood surface.

Using random initial parameter estimates, three segregation analysis models of the inheritance of HDL2 in the Berkeley GAW8 data set were maximized 5000 times each. Initial parameter estimates were assumed to be uniformly distributed on intervals formed by parameter boundaries. The three models were unrestricted, environmental, and Mendelian regressive type A models. Likelihood ratio tests of the global maxima rejected the Mendelian model and accepted the environmental model. However, tests using local maxima accepted the Mendelian model and both rejected and accepted the environmental model. Patterns among the initial parameter estimates of convergent runs were examined to develop empirical rules to increase the frequency of convergence
Comparison of Lower-Tropospheric Temperature Climatologies and Trends at Low and High Elevation Radiosonde Sites

Observations of rapid retreat of tropical mountain glaciers over the past two decades seem superficially at odds with observations of little or no warming of the tropical lower troposphere during this period. To better understand the nature of temperature and atmospheric freezing level variability in mountain regions, on seasonal to multidecadal time scales, this paper examines long-term surface and upper-air temperature observations from a global network of 26 pairs of radiosonde stations. Temperature data from high and low elevation stations are compared at four levels: the surface, the elevation of the mountain station surface, 1 km above the mountain station, and 2 km above the mountain station. Climatological temperature differences between mountain and low elevation sites show diurnal and seasonal structure, as well as latitudinal and elevational differences. Atmospheric freezing-level heights tend to decrease with increasing latitude, although maximum heights are found well north of the equator, over the Tibetan Plateau. Correlations of interannual anomalies of temperature between paired high and low elevation sites are relatively high at 1 or 2 km above the mountain station. But at the elevation of the station, or at the two surface elevations, correlations are lower, indicating decoupling of the boundary layer air from the free troposphere. Trends in temperature and freezing-level height are generally upward, both during 1979–2000 and during longer periods extending back to the late 1950s. However, some negative trends were found at extratropical locations. In many cases, statistically significant differences were found in trends at paired high and low elevation stations, with tropical pairs revealing more warming (and greater increases in freezing-level height) at mountain stations than at low elevations. This result is consistent with both the observed retreat of tropical glaciers and the minimal change in tropics-wide tropospheric temperatures over the past two decades. Overall, the analysis suggests that, on diurnal, seasonal, interannual, and multidecadal time scales, temperature variations at mountain locations differ significantly from those at relatively nearby (a few hundred kilometers) low elevation stations. These differences are greatest at the two surface levels, but can persist up to 2 km above the mountain site. Therefore, to determine the nature of climate variability at high elevation sites requires local observations, since large-scale patterns derived from low elevation observations may not be representative of the mountain regions. Conversely, temperature change in mountain regions should not be viewed as necessarily representative of global surface or tropospheric trends.
Sequential Protein Synthesis Following Vaccinia Virus Infection

Abstract Inhibition of HeLa cell protein synthesis and the sequential synthesis of viral proteins were followed by pulse-labeling infected cells with 14C-phenylalanine. Proteins were resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The viral origin of native proteins was confirmed by immunodiffusion. The inhibition of host protein synthesis and the synthesis of early viral proteins occur 1 to 3 hr after infection. This early sequence of events also occurs in the presence of 5-fluorodeoxyuridine, an inhibitor of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis. Other viral proteins are synthesized at a later time. Those proteins which are not made in the absence of viral deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis can be further subdivided into intermediate and late classes. The intermediate protein is synthesized before the late proteins but does not appear to be a precursor of them. Many more viral polypeptides were resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis after solubilization of the entire cytoplasmic fraction with sodium dodecyl sulfate. Virion and nonvirion proteins were identified. Kinetic experiments suggested that certain structural proteins as well as certain nonstructural proteins are made early, whereas others of both classes are made primarily at later times.
An evaluation of Linear Cumulative damage (miner's law) using kinetic crack growth theory

Taking a basis set of creep failure functions as specifying the failureproperties for a class of materials, various damage laws can be used topredict failure under any type of stress history. A particularlyconvenient form is that of Miner's law also known as Linear CumulativeDamage. However, such damage laws are entirely empirical and ofuncertain value. A kinetic crack growth theory developed for polymers isused to evaluate Linear Cumulative Damage. LCD is found to be generallyunsatisfactory. However, there is an important sub-class of cases whereit does perform well, and this can be of importance in an acceleratedtesting methodology for polymers.
Image-derived and arterial blood sampled input functions for quantitative PET imaging of the angiotensin II subtype 1 receptor in the kidney.

Purpose: The radioligand {sup 11}C-KR31173 has been introduced for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the angiotensin II subtype 1 receptor in the kidney in vivo. To study the biokinetics of {sup 11}C-KR31173 with a compartmental model, the input function is needed. Collection and analysis of arterial blood samples are the established approach to obtain the input function but they are not feasible in patients with renal diseases. The goal of this study was to develop a quantitative technique that can provide an accurate image-derived input function (ID-IF) to replace the conventional invasive arterial sampling and test the method in pigs with the goal of translation into human studies. Methods: The experimental animals were injected with [{sup 11}C]KR31173 and scanned up to 90 min with dynamic PET. Arterial blood samples were collected for the artery derived input function (AD-IF) and used as a gold standard for ID-IF. Before PET, magnetic resonance angiography of the kidneys was obtained to provide the anatomical information required for derivation of the recovery coefficients in the abdominal aorta, a requirement for partial volume correction of the ID-IF. Different image reconstruction methods, filtered back projection (FBP) and ordered subset expectation maximization (OS-EM), were investigated for themore » best trade-off between bias and variance of the ID-IF. The effects of kidney uptakes on the quantitative accuracy of ID-IF were also studied. Biological variables such as red blood cell binding and radioligand metabolism were also taken into consideration. A single blood sample was used for calibration in the later phase of the input function. Results: In the first 2 min after injection, the OS-EM based ID-IF was found to be biased, and the bias was found to be induced by the kidney uptake. No such bias was found with the FBP based image reconstruction method. However, the OS-EM based image reconstruction was found to reduce variance in the subsequent phase of the ID-IF. The combined use of FBP and OS-EM resulted in reduced bias and noise. After performing all the necessary corrections, the areas under the curves (AUCs) of the AD-IF were close to that of the AD-IF (average AUC ratio =1 ± 0.08) during the early phase. When applied in a two-tissue-compartmental kinetic model, the average difference between the estimated model parameters from ID-IF and AD-IF was 10% which was within the error of the estimation method. Conclusions: The bias of radioligand concentration in the aorta from the OS-EM image reconstruction is significantly affected by radioligand uptake in the adjacent kidney and cannot be neglected for quantitative evaluation. With careful calibrations and corrections, the ID-IF derived from quantitative dynamic PET images can be used as the input function of the compartmental model to quantify the renal kinetics of {sup 11}C-KR31173 in experimental animals and the authors intend to evaluate this method in future human studies.« less
TH-C-103-11: Accelerated Barrier Optimization Compressed Sensing (ABOCS) for CT Reconstruction with Improved Convergence

Purpose: Recently, we proposed an algorithm of accelerated barrier optimization compressed sensing (ABOCS) for iterative CT reconstruction. The previous implementation of ABOCS uses gradient projection (GP) with a Barzilai‐Borwein (BB) step‐size selection (GP‐BB) to search for the optimal solution. Despite the high computational efficiency of each iteration, the algorithm does not converge stably due to its non‐monotonic behavior. We further improve the convergence of ABOCS using a modified Nesterov method and investigate the ABOCS performance on patient data. Methods: To implement the Nesterov method for ABOCS, we first modify the objective function to make it continuous and differentiable. The traditional Nesterov algorithm requires Lipschitz and strong convex constants of the objective as inputs. These two parameters, however, are difficult to calculate in the ABOCS optimization framework, especially due to the large‐size and ill‐posed system matrix in the CT reconstruction as well as the singularities in the total‐variation term. We therefore apply the unknown‐parameter Nesterov (UPN) approach to adaptively estimate the parameters during the optimization. Results: Comparison studies are carried out on studies of computer simulation, physical phantom and head‐and‐neck patient. In all of these studies, the ABOCS results using UPN show more stable and faster convergence than those of the GPBB implementation. As shown in the simulation study, UPN achieves the same image quality as that of GPBB, but reduces the iteration numbers by 50%. In the Catphan600 phantom study, a high‐quality image with relative reconstruction error (RRE) less than 3% compared to the full‐view Result is obtained using UPN with 17% projections (60 views). Using 25% projections (91 views), the proposed method reduces the RRE from 21% as in the FBP results to 7.3% on the head‐and‐neck patient. Conclusion: As compared to GPBB, our new method significantly improves the convergence with higher stability and less iterations.
The multiple functions of cytochrome c and their regulation in life and death decisions of the mammalian cell: From respiration to apoptosis.

Abstract Cytochrome c (Cyt c ) is essential in mitochondrial electron transport and intrinsic type II apoptosis. Mammalian Cyt c also scavenges reactive oxygen species (ROS) under healthy conditions, produces ROS with the co-factor p66 Shc , and oxidizes cardiolipin during apoptosis. The recent finding that Cyt c is phosphorylated in vivo underpins a model for the pivotal role of Cyt c regulation in making life and death decisions. An apoptotic sequence of events is proposed involving changes in Cyt c phosphorylation, increased ROS via increased mitochondrial membrane potentials or the p66 Shc pathway, and oxidation of cardiolipin by Cytc followed by its release from the mitochondria. Cyt c regulation in respiration and cell death is discussed in a human disease context including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and sepsis.
Broad clinical utilization of NOTES: is it safe?

Background Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) has been the focus of several studies as a less invasive alternative to conventional laparoscopy to access and treat intracavitary organs. For the last 5 years, much has been accomplished with animal studies, yet the clinical utilization of this novel technique is still modest. After 2 years of experience in the laboratory, we started our clinical experience. We report our experience with clinical utilization of NOTES procedures from 2007 to 2010.
Impaired Negative Selection in CD28-Deficient Mice

Abstract T cell antigen receptors (TCR) expressed on developing T cells can react with self-peptides presented by proteins encoded by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Depending on the relative strength of these interactions, thymocytes are either negatively selected as potentially autoreactive and deleted or positively selected to become mature T cells. Developmental selection may also be regulated by signals in addition to those mediated through the TCR. In peripheral T cells, the CD28 receptor plays an important role in enhancing the survival and expansion of T cells activated by TCR engagement. Therefore, we have investigated the role of CD28 in regulatingthe selection of thymocytes using CD28-deficientmice. Surprisingly, we found a 50% increase in cell number in the thymi of CD28-deficient compared towildtype mice, suggesting that CD28 might play arole in negative selection. Negative selection of double-positive thymocytes was found to be significantly reduced in response to either antigen or antibody crosslinking of the TCR complex in CD28-deficient animals. This was not due to a generalized defect in thymocyte survival as thymocytes from CD28-deficient and wildtype mice displayed similar sensitivity to apoptosis initiated by either γ-irradiation or dexamethasone. In contrast to its role in T cell activation and survival in the peripheral immune system, the CD28 receptor appears to participate in the intracellular signaling events that result in negative selection in the thymus.