cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Body Compositional Changes and Growth Alteration in Chicks from Hens Fed Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Effects of feeding conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) to hens on progeny chick development and composition at hatch (NHC) and three weeks of age (TWC) were assessed. CLA (0 or 0.5%, composed of mixed isomers of cis-9,trans-11 or trans-10,cis-12-CLA) was fed to hens with either safflower (SO) or olive oil (OO) (3 or 3.5%) to assure successful hatch for 2 weeks prior to collection for incubation. Maternal CLA feeding had no effect on hatchability, but improved egg fertility (p < 0.05). Maternal feeding of CLA with SO increased 21 day-old progeny growth, while CLA with OO decreased growth (oil*CLA, p < 0.05). In 25 day-old chicks (TWC), but not NHC, maternal CLA decreased the proportion of total body water (p < 0.05) and increased body ash (p < 0.05). While monounsaturated fatty acids were decreased and saturated fatty acids increased in eggs and NHC from hens fed CLA, no differences in fatty acid composition were observed in chicks at 25 days of age from hens fed CLA. Maternal CLA feeding resulted in the presence of c9,t11 and t10,c12-CLA in NHC, but only c9,t11 in the TWC. In conclusion, hens fed CLA led to improved fertility and altered body composition at 3 weeks of age.
A prospective study of plasma vitamin D metabolites, vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms, and risk of hypertension in men

Purpose Laboratory studies have suggested that vitamin D inadequacy may be implicated in development of hypertension. Evidence from epidemiologic studies remains limited. We aim to examine the prospective associations of circulating vitamin D metabolites, vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms, and their interaction with risk of hypertension.
Risk factors for disruption in primary caregiving among infants of substance abusing women

Abstract Objective : To identify perinatal factors that are predictive of disruption in primary caregiving among infants of substance abusing women. Method : A randomized longitudinal cohort study. One hundred and fifty two mother/infant dyads were assessed for evidence of disruption of primary caregiving or neglect during the first 18 months of life, defined by mother's inability to provide care. Data analyzed included neonatal characteristics, urine toxicology at delivery, maternal history of drug use, maternal depression, social support, and social and health history. Results : Sixty-six infants (43.4%) had disruption in their primary care during the first 18 months of their life, 86 infants (56.6%) remained in the care of their mothers. Women who were younger, were heroin users, had two or more children, had other children in foster care, and reported depressive symptoms were least likely to provide ongoing primary care for their infant. Conclusions : Although all infants born to substance abusing women are at a high risk for disruption in the continuity of their primary caregiving, maternal demographic and psychosocial factors present at delivery can predict which infants are likely to experience an early disruption in their primary caregiving. Identifying these families can enable health care providers to monitor them more closely and, when appropriate, encourage support from the extended family.
The Interaction of Air Motion, Fuel Spray, and Combustion in the Diesel Combustion Process

This paper is pertinent mainly to combustion in open-chamber diesel engines employing air swirl. It is shown how an increase in air swirl rate can cause a marked loss of combustion efficiency unless fuel spray penetration is increased. High swirl reduces radial fuel spray penetration with central injection and the resulting excess fuel in the central area may be trapped by buoyancy forces following ignition, becoming isolated for as much as a tenth of a second in a chamber of four in. diameter. A brief explanation of fuel injection in terms of the mechanics of fluid jets is given and circumstances described in which buoyancy forces assist fuel-air mixing following ignition.
Cartilage interstitial fluid load support in unconfined compression following enzymatic digestion.

Interstitial fluid pressurization plays an important role in cartilage biomechanics and is believed to be a primary mechanism of load support in synovial joints. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of enzymatic degradation on the interstitial fluid load support mechanism of articular cartilage in unconfined compression. Thirty-seven immature bovine cartilage plugs were tested in unconfined compression before and after enzymatic digestion. The peak fluid load support decreased significantly (p<0.0001) from 84±10% to 53±19% and from 80±10% to 46±21% after 18-hours digestion with 1.0 u/mg-wet-weight and 0.7 u/mg-wet-weight of collagenase, respectively. Treatment with 0.1 u/ml of chondroitinase ABC for 24 hours also significantly reduced the peak fluid load support from 83±12% to 48±16% (p<0.0001). The drop in interstitial fluid load support following enzymatic treatment is believed to result from a decrease in the ratio of tensile to compressive moduli of the solid matrix.
Estimating mechanical reliability of silica optical fiber

The mechanical reliability of silica optical fiber is usually determined by extrapolating from the results of accelerated static fatigue tests using the subcritical crack growth model for fatigue which relates the time to failure, tf, to the applied stress, σa
Aggression in replacement grower and finisher gilts fed a short-term high-tryptophan diet and the effect of long-term human–animal interaction

Aggression can be a major problem for swine production as it negatively impacts the pigs' health and welfare. Increasing tryptophan (TRP) intake to raise brain serotonin (5-HT)—key for aggression control, and long-term positive social handling can reduce stress in pigs. Objective was to feed a short-term high-TRP diet to grower (3 months) and finisher (6 months) maternal gilts that were either socially handled or not and measure their behavioural activity and aggressiveness. Eight pens of six unrelated gilts were split into two blocks balanced for litter, social handling (non- vs. handled) and dietary treatment (control vs. high-TRP). Social-handling was applied three times per week, from day 45 until 6 months of age. At 3 months, two handled and two non-handled pens were assigned to control while the other four pens were assigned to the high-TRP diet fed ad libitum for 7 days (days 1-7). At 6 months of age, pen assignment to dietary treatments was swapped. Body weights and blood were taken at days 1 (pre-feeding) and 7. Blood samples were analyzed for TRP and 5- HT concentrations using high pressure liquid chromatography. Behaviour was recorded from days 1 to 5 and scan-sampling used to determine time-budget behaviours and postures in a 12-h period each day (06:00-18:00 h). Aggression evaluation in the home pen focused on counts of agonistic interactions, bites and head-knocks per interaction during three, 30-min intervals (08:00, 12:00, and 16:00 h) from days 1 to 5. Resident-intruder (R-I) test was carried out for a maximum of 300 s at days 6 and 7 to measure aggressiveness, predicted by the latency to the first attack and attack outcomes. A 2 � 2 factorial arrangement of dietary treatment and social handling within age was analyzed by repeated measures of mixed models and Tukey adjustments. The TRP-added diet raised blood TRP concentration of 3- and 6-month-old gilts by 180.7% and 85.2% respectively (P < 0.05), reduced behavioural activity and time spent standing, while increasing lying behaviour, mostly in grower gilts (P < 0.05). High-TRP diet reduced the number of agonistic interactions, and aggressiveness in 3-month- old gilts, which took longer to attack the intruder pig, and displayed fewer attacks on the first day of testing (P < 0.05). Long-term positive social handling improved growth performance and had a slight effect on behaviour (P < 0.05). Provision of enhanced TRP diet reduced behavioural activity and aggressiveness of grower gilts, and these results are likely mediated by activation of brain serotonergic system. Short-term high-TRP dietary supplementation may be used to reduce aggression at mixing in young pigs. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Secondary Structure of Bovine αS2-Casein: Theoretical and Experimental Approaches

Circular dichroism and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of bovine alphaS2-casein both report a 24 to 32% content of alpha-helix. A consensus of sequence based predictions for alpha-helix suggests a Lys77-Gln91 helix within the sequence (Ser61-Arg125). This motif is repeated at (Ser143-Leu207), and this region contains a longer Thr145-Leu177 predicted alpha-helix. A short, seven-member alpha-helix may also organize the N-terminal peptide that precedes the first phosphoserine [-Srp-]3 cluster. As was found for other caseins studied by these spectroscopic methods, a high degree of extended beta-sheet (approximately 30%) and turns (25 to 30%) are predicted for alphaS2-casein.
Experimental river diversion for marsh enhancement

The Nueces River is the primary source of freshwater inflow to Corpus Christi Bay and virtually the only source of freshwater inflow to the Nueces Delta. In association with reservoir development and operation within the Nueces Basin, the magnitude of freshwater inflow has been greatly reduced since 1958. Continually increasing salt concentrations in the soil and water have compromised the function of the delta as a viable component of the estuarine ecosystem. In 1993, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began a 5-yr diversion project to increase the opportunity for freshwater flow into the delta. With the excavation of two overflow channels, the minimum flooding threshold for the upper delta was significantly lowered, and more frequent diversions of freshwater from the Nueces River were enabled. During the 50-mo diversion period, the amount of freshwater diverted into the upper Nueces Delta was increased seven- fold. The average salinity gradient in the upper delta reverted to a more natural pattern, with average salinity concen- trations decreasing from the lower (bay) to upper (riverine) delta, and a corresponding improvement in abundance and diversity of both intertidal vegetation and benthic communities.
Loquacity and quantity of constructs as predictors of social perspective‐taking

Over the past decade, considerable attention has been devoted to cognitive complexity in the human communication literature. However, the extent to which loquacity, or simple amount of verbal response to stimuli, rather than cognitive processes, has been measured by indices supposed to measure complexity is questionable. One issue that emerges from this controversy concerns whether partialing out the variance in variables, such as social perspective‐taking, due to loquacity would lead to a low amount of shared variance between complexity and such variables. In the present study, cognitive complexity scores based on the Role Category Questionnaire correlated significantly with social perspective‐taking scores. However, the results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that cognitive complexity scores did not contribute significantly to the prediction when loquacity was entered as the first variable in the equation.
Malaria Theranostics using Hemozoin-Generated Vapor Nanobubbles

Malaria remains a widespread and deadly infectious human disease, with increasing diagnostic and therapeutic challenges due to the drug resistance and aggressiveness of malaria infection. Early detection and innovative approaches for parasite destruction are needed. The high optical absorbance and nano-size of hemozoin crystals have been exploited to detect and mechanically destroy the malaria parasite in a single theranostic procedure. Transient vapor nanobubbles are generated around hemozoin crystals in malaria parasites in infected erythrocytes in response to a single short laser pulse. Optical scattering signals of the nanobubble report the presence of the malaria parasite. The mechanical impact of the same nanobubble physically destroys the parasite in nanoseconds in a drug-free manner. Laser-induced nanobubble treatment of human blood in vitro results in destruction of up to 95% of parasites after a single procedure, and delivers an 8-fold better parasiticidal efficacy compared to standard chloroquine drug treatment. The mechanism of destruction is highly selective for malaria infected red cells and does not harm neighboring, uninfected erythrocytes. Thus, laser pulse-induced vapor nanobubble generation around hemozoin supports both rapid and highly specific detection and destruction of malaria parasites in one theranostic procedure.
Crowdsourcing the ecosystem’s expectations: a decision-making process to manage the unmanageable

Purpose – The author warns that nowadays a company must learn to be “co-productive” with an app developer community, a supplier community, a content community, an advocacy community or a customer ecosystem in order to stay competitive through continuous innovation. Leaders need new tools to promote informed decisions. Design/methodology/approach – The article shows how companies monitoring dynamic ecosystem change can develop crowd-based reporting scorecards to guide decision making. Findings – Increasingly it is the innovations and expertise of the ecosystem, not the talents and resources of the firm, that are crucial to its future wealth generation. But many of the consequences of ecosystem change are, in fact, unmanageable in any traditional sense. An experimental way to identify the uncertainty produced by a dynamic ecosystem offers decision support. Practical implications – The uncertainty monitoring experiments described in this article can clarify the risk levels and the need for preparatory investments. They offer a high level view of the dynamics of the new market ecosystem environment. Originality/value – This article offers cutting-edge insights for managers struggling to make decisions about investments related to the dynamic ecosystem of users, suppliers, partners and customers in their companies’ markets.
A four-color beam smoothing irradiation system for laser-plasma interaction experiments at LLNL

A novel four-color beam smoothing scheme with a capability similar to that planned for the proposed National Ignition Facility has been deployed on the Nova laser, and has been successfully used for laser fusion experiments. Wavefront aberrations in high power laser systems produce nonuniformities in the energy distribution of the focal spot that can significantly degrade the coupling of the energy into a fusion target, driving various plasma instabilities. The introduction of temporal and spatial incoherence over the face of the beam using techniques such as smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) can reduce these variation in the focal irradiance when averaged over a finite time interval. We developed a multiple frequency source that is spatially separated into four quadrants, each containing a different central frequency. Each quadrant is independently converted to the third harmonic in a four-segment Type I/ Type II KDP crystal array with independent phase-matching for efficient frequency conversion. Up to 2.3 kJ of third harmonic light is generated in a 1 ns pulse, corresponding to up to 65% conversion efficiency. SSD is implemented by adding limited frequency modulated bandwidth to each frequency component. Smoothing by spectral dispersion is implemented during the spatial separation of the FM modulated beams to provide additional smoothing, reaching a 16% rms intensity variation level. The four- color system was successfully used to probe NIF-like plasmas, producing {lt} 1% SBS backscatter at {gt} 2x10{sup 15} W/cm{sup 2}. This paper discusses the detailed implementation and performance of the segmented four-color system on the Nova laser system.
Coupled vortex oscillations in mesoscale ferromagnetic double-disk structures

Coupled resonance modes in connected ferromagnetic double-dot structures have been investigated as a function of the overlap between the dots, both experimentally and via micromagnetic simulations. An asymmetry is observed in the frequency spectrum about zero field. Softening of the magnetization during vortex core precession when the cores are near the overlap region results in low-frequency modes and a splitting corresponding to different polarity combinations. A range of vortex resonance frequencies are identified that can be tuned by varying the overlap area. This study provides insight into the control of the dynamic response in coupled mesoscale magnetic structures.
Finding the repeat times of the GPS constellation

Single-epoch estimates of position using GPS are improved by removing multipath signals, which repeat when the GPS constellation does. We present two programs for finding this repeat time, one using the orbital period and the other the topocentric positions of the satellites. Both methods show that the repeat time is variable across the constellation, at the few-second level for most satellites, but with a few showing much different values. The repeat time for topocentric positions, which we term the aspect repeat time, averages 247 s less than a day, with fluctuations through the day that may be as much as 2.5 s at high latitudes.
A Case of Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma Involving Hypopharynx

Liposarcoma in larynx and hypopharyx is an extremely rare and dedifferentiated liposarcoma that has never been reported in Korean literature. The 48-year-old male patient was referred to ENT because of acute airway obstruction during gastrofiberscopic biopsy. The neck and chest CT scan showed pharyngeal mass extending esophagus and lateral neck. In operation, we found that pharyngeal and lateral neck mass were connected through pharyngeal wall. The mass was removed en bloc via open neck and lateral pharyngotomy approach. The postoperative pathologic examination revealed dedifferenciated liposarcoma. We report a very rare condition with a literature review. Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2009;52:627-30 Key WordsZZLiposarcoma·Hypopharynx.
Simulated western spruce budworm defoliation reduces torching and crowning potential: a sensitivity analysis using a physics-based fire model

The widespread, native defoliator western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman) reduces canopy fuels, which might affect the potential for surface fires to torch (ignite the crowns of individual trees) or crown (spread between tree crowns). However, the effects of defoliation on fire behaviour are poorly understood. We used a physics-based fire model to examine the effects of defoliation and three aspects of how the phenomenon is represented in the model (the spatial distribution of defoliation within tree crowns, potential branchwood drying and model resolution). Our simulations suggest that fire intensity and crowning are reduced with increasing defoliation compared with un-defoliated trees, regardless of within-crown fuel density, but torching is only reduced with decreasing crown fuel density.Agreatersurfacefireintensitywasrequiredtoignitethecrownofadefoliatedcomparedwithanun-defoliatedtree of the same crown base height. The effects of defoliation were somewhat mitigated by canopy fuel heterogeneity and potential branchwood drying, but these effects, as well as computational cell size, were less pronounced than the effect of defoliationitselfonfireintensity.Ourstudysuggeststhatareasheavilydefoliatedbywesternsprucebudwormmayinhibit the spread of crown fires and promote non-lethal surface fires. Additional keywords: canopy bulk density, CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamic model, critical surface fire intensity, Douglas-fir,fire behaviour,fuelmoisture,surface fireintensity, WFDS,wildland-urbaninterface fire dynamicsimulator.
Graphene electronics for RF applications

Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, has recently attracted great interest among physicists and engineers. The combination of the unique properties of this material, with new device concepts and nanotechnology may overcome some of the main limitations of traditional radio-frequency (RF) electronics in terms of maximum frequency, linearity and power dissipation. In this paper, we review the recent progress on graphene-based electronic devices for RF applications. In particular, the growth and technology of graphene transistors with an ƒ T .L G product of 24 GHz.µm will be discussed. These devices have shown excellent potential for high speed RF applications and frequency multiplier circuits with cut-off frequencies of more than 1.4 GHz have been demonstrated. The future challenges facing this rising technology and its feasibility for a new generation of applications in RF communications and circuits are also discussed.
Lightweight, compact superconducting power sources for solid state high energy lasers

The air force is considering advanced compact electrical power systems for many future airborne DEW concepts to capitalize on the advantages of electrical DEW. High output electrical generators, employing superconductor wire technology, are being investigated as a possible solution. Generators with high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire would be significantly lighter weight and more compact than conventional copper wire-wound generators for this high level of power.
Test Pattern Generation for Stuck-Open Faults Using Stuck-At Test Sets in CMOS Combinational Circuits

In this paper we investigate two aspects regarding the detection of stuck-open (SOP) faults using stuck-at test sets. First, we measure the SOP fault coverage of stuck-at test sets for various CMOS combinational circuits. The SOP fault coverage is compared with that of random pattern test sets. Second, we propose a method to improve the SOP fault coverage of stuck-at test sets by organizing the test sequence of stuck-at test sets. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of a competing method. Experimental results show that the proposed method leads to smaller test sets and shorter processing time while achieving high SOP fault coverage.
Overlap and partitioning of the ecological and isotopic niches

Recently, it was proposed that stable isotope patterns can be used to quantify the width of the ecological niche of animals. However, the potential effects of habitat use on isotopic patterns of consumers have not been fully explored and consequently isotopic patterns may yield deceptive estimates of niche width. Here, we simulated four different scenarios of a consumer foraging across an isotopically heterogeneous landscape to test the combined effects of habitat and diet selection on the widths of the isotopic niche. We then modeled the actions of a naive researcher who randomly sampled consumers from the simulated populations, and used these results to assess the overlap and partitioning of the isotopic and the ecological niches when habitat-derived differences among isotope signatures are not considered. Our results suggest that populations of dietary specialists exhibited broader isotopic niches than populations composed of dietary generalists, and habitat generalists exhibited narrower isotopic niche widths compared with populations of individuals that foraged in specific habitats. The conversion of isotopic niches to ecological niches without knowledge of foraging behavior and habitat-derived isotopic differences transformed an informative δ-space into ‘a blurry p-space’. Therefore, knowledge of habitat-derived differences in stable isotope values and understanding of habitat use and individual foraging behavior are critical for the correct quantification of the ecological niche.
Automated Microarray Organism Detection with a Non-Gaussian Maximum Likelihood Model

The utility of DNA microarrays for bioagent detection and classification will only be fully realized when hybridization intensities can be accurately related to sequence and abundances of constituent DNA molecular fragments in the sample. To move toward this goal, we have developed a procedure that is robust to suboptimal image quality and a maximum likelihood-based processor to estimate the concentration of bioagent targets in a reaction. The signal models used for the maximum likelihood processing are based on the physics of DNA microarray hybridization. An adaptive background signal model was included to manage the wide variation of background clutter expected in a typical bioagent detection scenario.
Scientific Presentation Award: The combination of axillary ultrasound and ultrasound-guided biopsy is an accurate predictor of axillary stage in clinically node-negative breast cancer patients

Abstract Background The study aim was to determine the accuracy of axillary ultrasound (AUS) and fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB)/needle core biopsy in axillary breast cancer staging. Methods We reviewed 256 patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer who underwent AUS ± FNAB/needle core biopsy. AUS-guided FNAB/needle core biopsy was compared with histopathology to determine sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value. Results AUS-guided FNAB/needle core biopsy and final pathology were positive in 72 of 256 patients (28%). In 125 of 256 cases (49%), the AUS and final pathology were negative. Two of 110 patients had a false-positive FNAB (1.8%); both received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Nine patients (8%) had a false-negative FNAB/needle core biopsy; the median size of lymph node metastasis was 3 mm. The sensitivity and specificity of AUS-guided FNAB/needle core biopsy was 71% and 99%, respectively, with a negative predictive value of 84% and a positive predictive value of 97%. Conclusions AUS-guided FNAB/needle core biopsy is accurate in predicting the status of the axilla in 70% of clinically node-negative breast cancer patients. This technique is minimally invasive with a low complication rate and can obviate the need for staged lymph node procedures.
Regression models for public health surveillance data: a simulation study.

Objectives: Poisson regression is now widely used in epidemiology, but researchers do not always evaluate the potential for bias in this method when the data are overdispersed. This study used simulated data to evaluate sources of overdispersion in public health surveillance data and compare alternative statistical models for analysing such data. If count data are overdispersed, Poisson regression will not correctly estimate the variance. A model called negative binomial 2 (NB2) can correct for overdispersion, and may be preferred for analysis of count data. This paper compared the performance of Poisson and NB2 regression with simulated overdispersed injury surveillance data. Methods: Monte Carlo simulation was used to assess the utility of the NB2 regression model as an alternative to Poisson regression for data which had several different sources of overdispersion. Simulated injury surveillance datasets were created in which an important predictor variable was omitted, as well as with an incorrect offset (denominator). The simulations evaluated the ability of Poisson regression and NB2 to correctly estimate the true determinants of injury and their confidence intervals. Results: The NB2 model was effective in reducing overdispersion, but it could not reduce bias in point estimates which resulted from omitting a covariate which was a confounder, nor could it reduce bias from using an incorrect offset. One advantage of NB2 over Poisson for overdispersed data was that the confidence interval for a covariate was considerably wider with the former, providing an indication that the Poisson model did not fit well. Conclusion: When overdispersion is detected in a Poisson regression model, the NB2 model should be fit as an alternative. If there is no longer overdispersion, then the NB2 results may be preferred. However, it is important to remember that NB2 cannot correct for bias from omitted covariates or from using an incorrect offset.
Multicenter evaluation of the Sepsityper™ extraction kit and MALDI-TOF MS for direct identification of positive blood culture isolates using the BD BACTEC™ FX and VersaTREK(®) diagnostic blood culture systems.

Aims (i) Evaluation of delayed time to blood culture extraction by the Sepsityper kit and impact of shipping pellets off-site for MALDI-TOF MS analysis. (ii) Comparison of Sepsityper and laboratory-developed extraction methods from a literature review. Methods and Results Using two blood culture systems (BD BACTEC and VersaTREK), we extracted 411 positive blood cultures using the Sepsityper kit to mimic a potential protocol for institutions without a MALDI-TOF MS. Extracted pellets were shipped and analysed on the Bruker UltraflexIII. Successful extraction of 358 (87 center dot 1%) samples was determined by the presence of detectable proteins. MALDI-TOF MS correctly identified 332 (80 center dot 8%) samples. Conclusions Delayed time to extraction did not affect Sepsityper extraction or MALDI-TOF MS accuracy. The extracted pellets remain stable and provide accurate results by MALDI-TOF MS when shipped at room temperature to off-site reference laboratories. Significance and Impact of the Study This is the first study to show that institutions without a MALDI-TOF MS can take advantage of this innovative technology by shipping a volume of blood to an off-site laboratory for extraction and MALDI-TOF MS analysis. We also performed a literature review to compare various extraction methods.
Immunoglobulin Concentrations in Serum and Tissues of Vitamin A-Deficient Broiler Chicks After Newcastle Disease Virus Vaccination

The effect of all-trans retinol and retinoic acid (RA) on the local and systemic immune system of broiler chicks was examined. Chicks fed diets supplemented with .2 micrograms retinol/g of diet had significantly greater serum immunoglobulin IgG, IgM, and IgA concentrations 5 wk after primary vaccination with live B1 strain of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) than did chicks fed 2 micrograms retinol/g of diet. Eight days after a second vaccination with an inactivated La Sota strain of NDV, serum, intestinal, and tracheal IgG and IgM concentrations were higher in chicks fed a diet without retinol or retinoic acid (RA) than in chicks fed either 2 micrograms of retinol or RA/g of diet, respectively. Despite an increase in serum immunoglobulin concentration, serum antibody titer in response to the second NDV vaccination was significantly lower in chicks fed a vitamin A-deficient diet than in chicks fed adequate retinol and RA-supplemented diets. Eight days after revaccination, IgA concentrations in bile were also significantly lower in vitamin A-deficient chicks than in controls. Serum IgG, IgM, IgA, biliary IgA, and antibody responses were greater in chicks fed diets supplemented with 2 micrograms of RA/g of diet than in chicks fed an equivalent amount of vitamin A in the form of retinol.
Regulation of Cardiac Allograft Rejection by T Lymphocytes

Abstract Cardiac allograft rejection is diagnosed by routine, surveillance endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). EMB is an invasive and expensive procedure that detects ongoing, rather than impending, rejection, and may be influenced by sampling error due to nonuniform distribution of myocardial lesions. T cells are the principal regulators of allograft rejection; therefore, identifying T cell functions that are associated with cardiac allograft rejection should provide insight for the development of noninvasive monitoring techniques that may augment and reduce the frequency of EMB. Experiments that define the protective and deleterious activities of Th1 and Th2 T cell subsets are clearly warranted, and will direct the potential use of cytokine manipulating therapies aimed at inducing tolerogenic T cell responses . (Trends Cardiovasc Med 1996;6:168–173).
TSV-based, modular and collision detectable face-to-back shared bus design

In this paper, we present a shared backbone bus solution specially tuned for modular 3DIC post-silicon-stacking. The proposed solution allows multiple parallel TSV-based channels to be placed and shared among various stacked components, which is uniquely supported by the dense connection pitch of the Face-to-back TSV bonding technology. To support the plug-n-play features, a distributed arbitration and collision detection structure is designed and evaluated. A demo of 16-channel shared bus is synthesized and verified under .13 μm technology. The conservative power estimate is 0.20 pJ/bit and bandwidth per area is 0.984 Tbps/mm2.
Hepatic autophagy after severe burn in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress.

Introduction Previous studies showed liver dysfunction after severe burn, and that this is associated with activation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Autophagy is a catabolic process to maintain cellular organelle balance; ER stress is associated with autophagy signaling cascades. We thus sought to determine whether autophagy signals were associated with damage in the liver after burn, and further whether burn associated ER stress activates autophagy signals in hepatocytes.
L-PhGPx expression can be suppressed by antisense oligodeoxynucleotides

Phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (PhGPx) directly reduces hydroperoxides of phospholipid and cholesterol to their corresponding alcohols. There are two forms of PhGPx: L-PhGPx localizes in mitochondria and S-PhGPx in cytosol. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides can inhibit specific protein expression. We tested the hypothesis that antisense oligodeoxynucleotides could be designed to inhibit PhGPx expression and thereby sensitize cells to lipid peroxidation induced by singlet oxygen. We chose P4 cells, a cell line established from L-PhGPx cDNA transfected MCF-7 cells, as our cell model. Lipid peroxidation was induced by singlet oxygen generated by Photofrin and visible light. We found that the antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (5' GCCGAGGCTCATCGCGGCGG 3') was effective in suppressing L-PhGPx mRNA, PhGPx protein, and activity. This antisense oligodeoxynucleotide did not interfere with S-PhGPx. When cells were exposed to singlet oxygen, lipid hydroperoxides were produced in the cells. L-PhGPx was able to remove these hydroperoxides; this removal was inhibited by antisense treatment. The inhibition of L-PhGPx by the antisense oligodeoxynucleotides also resulted in increased membrane damage as measured by trypan blue dye exclusion. These data demonstrate that PhGPx expression can be manipulated by antisense techniques.
High-performance implementation of in-network traffic pacing

Optical packet switching networks promise to provide high-speed data communication and serve as the foundation of the future Internet. A key technological problem is the very small size of packet buffers that can be implemented in the optical domain. Existing protocols, for example the transmission control protocol, do not perform well in such small-buffer networks. To address this problem, we have proposed techniques for actively pacing traffic to ensure that traffic bursts are reduced or eliminated and thus do not cause packet losses in routers with small buffers. In this paper, we present the design and prototype of a hardware implementation of a packet pacing system based on the NetFPGA system. Our results show that traffic pacing can be implemented with few hardware resources and without reducing system throughput. Therefore, we believe traffic pacing can be deployed widely to improve the operation of current and future networks.
Supervising para-professional tutors in a remedial reading program1.

Applied researchers increasingly report the use of paraprofessionals to implement key program components. However, despite such apparent advantages as increased availability and lower salaries, problems in maintaining acceptable levels of on-the-job performance in these workers have been reported. This study assessed the effects of a supervisory package on the work behavior of five paraprofessional tutors in a remedial reading program. The package consisted of written handouts and instructions, tests of tutor understanding, a video tape, mention of tutor performance by supervisors, and publicly posted feedback on work performance. One randomly chosen tutor received feedback each day on (1) his degree of completeness in tutoring one student's answers to comprehension-check questions, (2) his accuracy in tabulating that student's data sheet, and (3) his promptness in beginning the first student's tutorial session. The supervisory package produced marked improvement in completeness, some improvement in accuracy, but no improvement in promptness. Application of the supervisory package seemed practical, as an average of nine daily tutorial sessions (approximately 270 min of tutoring) required a total daily average of only 28 min of supervision. It was concluded that completeness performance by nondegreed, paraprofessional tutors was closely related to the extent to which they were supervised. Despite the fact that no improvement was observed in tutor promptness, and only partial improvement was observed in tutor accuracy, the improvement to near-perfect levels in tutor completeness suggests that further research is warranted to develop supervisory packages that might ensure the reliable and efficient use of paraprofessional workers.
Teaching With(out) Technology: Secondary English Teachers and Classroom Technology Use.

Technology plays an integral role in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom today, yet teachers and teacher educators continue to develop understandings of how technology influences pedagogy. This qualitative study explored how and why two ELA teachers used different technologies in the secondary English classroom to plan for and deliver instruction. Analysis revealed that the English teachers, one novice and one experienced teacher, valued integrating technologies into their instruction and experienced similar challenges in that integration. The novice teacher believed that technologies played a primary role and centered her instruction on the available technologies, while the experienced teacher viewed technologies as having a secondary role, choosing to integrating technologies only if they added to her instruction.
Gene discovery in Carcinus maenas and Homarus americanus via expressed sequence tags

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were produced for normalized cDNA libraries prepared from several tissues of 2 marine crustaceans, the green shore crab Carcinus maenas and the American lobster Homarus americanus. Tissues represented in the Carcinus library were anterior and posterior gills, hypodermis, heart, hepatopancreas, antennal gland, brain, testis, and skeletal muscle, obtained from animals acclimated to 35 and 10‰ salinity. Tissues represented in the Homarus library were gill, epipodite, branchiostegite, heart, ovary, testis, antennal gland, skeletal muscle, hepatopancreas, and brain, obtained from intermolt and post-molt animals. Directional libraries from oligo-dT-primed cDNA were constructed in the pCMVsport6.1 vector and normalized by self-subtraction at 2 different Cot values. Randomly picked clones were single-pass sequenced from the 5' end. Raw sequence data were trimmed and prepared for submission to dbEST using phred, cross-match, and blastx protocols embedded within trace2dbest software. A total of 4604 Homarus and 12 401 Carcinus ESTs produced 540 and 2651 clusters, respectively, as determined by TIGR Gene Index Clustering software. Gene Ontology analysis with reference to a Drosophila melanogaster database using GOblet revealed 187 positive hits (35%) with the Homarus clusters and 1037 positive hits (39%) with the Carcinus clusters. Combining the number of assembled sequences with the number of singlets obtained after cluster analysis suggested that transcripts representing as much as 25% of the total number of genes in Carcinus have been isolated.
New Cycles of Technology

The Consumer Electronics Show allows us to appraise the gifts technology has given us over the past year and prepare for a new season of innovation. The Web extra at https://youtu.be/iu5p7ToMH6c is an audio recording of author David Alan Grier expanding on his Errant Hashtag column, in which he talks about how the most successful consumer goods are those that have been able to build new markets and organize those markets' customers.
Caught Between the Gang Wars of Cold War Economics

Most immigrants will tell you of the horror stories surrounding their survival. The Cold War which was metaphorically a gang war between the United States of America and the Soviet Union caused many to suffer. Containing the spread of communism and promoting free market economies was the main goal for the United States. However, for the Soviets it was building an empire. Political leadership corruption, greed, the lack of labor and environmental laws developing and third world countries, workers were not afforded the protections of U.S. workers because of their comparative advantage. (Samuelson, 1969) Latin American countrymen were ignorant of the depth of politics and the need for economic sustainability that influenced their country. This left the citizens feeling exploited and antagonistic towards the United States. (Belli, 2011) However, geopolitical goals, corrupt leaders and public ignorance caused the citizens to choose the wrong side of the gang war that left them as casualties. They chose to side with the Soviet Union which was an enemy of the United States versus siding with the United States and petitioning congress about real concerns regarding their welfare. There is a saying about gang wars, “If you are not for us, then you are against us and when you side with our enemies you become our enemy.” Caught between the gang wars of the Cold War economics is the subject of this paper.
More or Less Equal

Scholarship on racial equality issues is usually limited to examination of cases and issues exclusively within one of a few categories. For example, scholarship on affirmative action focuses on affirmative action cases; scholarship on school desegregation focuses on school desegregation cases. This article compares decisions across the spectrum of racial equality issues and challenges the generally accepted notion that there is one uniform equality standard, one set of rules and assumptions, and one approach. Placing the cases in three categories - minority plaintiffs challenging discrimination, white plaintiff challenging affirmative action, and white plaintiffs challenging remedial measures - the article further develops a "dual system thesis," concluding that there are two distinct sets of rules, assumptions and approaches, one that makes it near impossible to establish a case of violation of equal protection, the other that makes it quite easy. Further, the article offers an explanation of how this has been accomplished in decisions that purport to follow one set of rules and assumptions and to embody one approach.
Investigating Progression in Substance Use Initiation Using a Discrete-Time Multiple Event Process Survival Mixture (MEPSUM) Approach

The order and timing of substance initiation has significant implications for later problematic patterns of use. Despite the need to study initiation from a multivariate framework, survival analytic methods typically cannot accommodate more than two substances in one model. The Discrete-Time Multiple Event Process Survival Mixture (MEPSUM; Dean, Bauer, & Shanahan, 2014) model represents an advance by incorporating more than two outcomes and enabling establishment of latent classes within a multivariate hazard distribution. Employing a MEPSUM approach, we evaluated patterns of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis initiation in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N=18,923). We found four classes that differed in their ages and ordering of peak initiation risk. Demographics, externalizing psychopathology, and personality significantly predicted class membership. Sex differences in the association between delinquency and initiation patterns also emerged. Findings support the utility of the MEPSUM approach in elucidating developmental pathways underlying clinically relevant phenomena.
Peanut Oil Stability and Physical Properties Across a Range of Industrially Relevant Oleic Acid/Linoleic Acid Ratios

ABSTRACT High oleic cultivars are becoming increasing prevalent in the peanut industry due to their increased shelf life compared to conventional cultivars. High oleic peanuts are typically defined as having oleic acid/linoleic acid (O/L) ratios ≥ 9, whereas most traditional varieties have O/L ratios near 1.5-2.0. In practice, this ratio can vary substantially among commercial material; accordingly, the goal of this study was to gain an understanding of the shelf life and physical properties of 16 model oil blends with O/L ratios systematically prepared from 1.3 to 38.1. Across these samples, % oleic acid, % linoleic acid, refractive index, density and dynamic viscosity were all highly (R2 > 0.99) linearly correlated. Increasing concentrations of oleic acid and corresponding decreases in linoleic acid were associated with decreasing oil density, decreasing refractive index, and increasing viscosity. Oxidative stability index (OSI), an established method for predicting relative oil shelf life, increased mo...
Clonal VDJ recombination of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene by PCR in classical Hodgkin's disease.

Although Hodgkin’s disease (HD) has been a subject of much investigation, fundamental questions remain unanswered regarding its lineage and clonality. The authors used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to investigate whether clonal Variable-Diversity-Joining recombination of the immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) chain gene, a phenomenon that characterizes clonal B-cell proliferations, exists in nodular sclerosing (NSHD) and mixed cellularity (MCIID) Hodgkin’s disease (so-called “classical” Hodgkin’s disease). The isolation of DNA from paraffin-embedded tissue sections allowed for direct correlation of PCR results with the cell populations that were analyzed. Thirty-two cases were studied. These included 12 cases in which the Reed-Sternberg (RS) cells expressed the B-cell antigen, CD20, and 10 cases that were classified as syncytial variant of NSHD (3 CD20+, 7 B-cell antigen negative). Overall, clonal patterns of VDJ PCR products were found in 14 of 32 (44%) cases. These clonal patterns were identified in 7 of 12 (58%) cases of CD20+ classical HD and in 7 of 20 (35%) cases of Bantigen- negative classical HD. Clonal patterns were found in 3 of 10 cases of syncytial variant of NSHD, including 2 of 3 (67%) CD20+ cases and 1 of 7 (14%) B-cell antigen-negative cases. The results of this study provide support that a subset of HD represents a clonal B-cell neoplasm, and indicate that clonal IgH VDJ sequences are more frequently found in CD20+ HD.
Use of Isotropically Tumbling Bicelles to Measure Curvature Induced by Membrane Components

Isotropically tumbling discoidal bicelles are a useful biophysical tool for the study of lipids and proteins by NMR, dynamic light scattering, and small-angle X-ray scattering. Isotropically tumbling bicelles present a low-curvature central region, typically enriched with DMPC in the lamellar state, and a highly curved detergent rim, typically composed of DHPC. In this report, we study the impact of the partitioning and induced curvature of a few molecules of a foreign lipid on the bicelle size, structure, and curvature. Previous approaches for studying curvature have focused on macroscopic and bulk properties of membrane curvature. In the approach presented here, we show that the conical shape of the DOPE lipid and the inverted-conical shape of the DPC lipid induce measurable curvature changes in the bicelle size. Bicelles with an average of 1.8 molecules of DOPE have marked increases in the size of bicelles, consistent with negative membrane curvature in the central region of the bicelle. With bicelle c...