cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Action of clofibrate and its analogs in rats dissociation of hypolipidemic effects and the induction of peroxisomal β-oxidation

Experiments were conducted to compare directly the effects of clofibrate (ethyl 2-(p-chlorophenoxy)isobutyrate) and its analogs on serum lipids and on the rate-limiting enzyme of the hepatic peroxisomal beta-oxidation pathway, fatty acyl-coenzyme A oxidase. Clofibrate feeding (5 g/kg diet) led to 8-10-fold increases in enzyme activity in 7 days. The enzyme remained elevated during the 28-day course of the experiment. The treatment did not lead to a lowering of serum cholesterol or triacylglycerol at any time during the experiment. In separate experiments rats were given clofibrate or one of five analogs by gastric intubation for 4 consecutive days. Four of the five analogs studied caused a significant lowering of serum triacylglycerol to about 50% of pretreatment level; another analog and clofibrate itself did not significantly affect serum triacylglycerol levels. None of the five analogs caused an induction of hepatic fatty acyl-CoA oxidase, while clofibrate treatment led to a 3-4-fold increase in enzyme activity. The results demonstrate a complete dissociation between the hypolipidemic action of these compounds and the induction of peroxisomal beta-oxidation. Thus it appears that the two phenomena are mechanistically unrelated.
How Law Shapes Experiences of Parenthood for Same-Sex Couples

abstractGay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) parents are increasingly common and visible, but they face a number of social and legal barriers in the United States. Using legal consciousness as a theoretical framework, we draw on data from 51 interviews with GLB parents in California and Nebraska to explore how laws impact experiences of parenthood. Specifically, we address how the legal context influences three domains: the methods used to become parents, decisions about where to live, and experiences of family recognition. Law and perception of the law make some pathways to parenthood difficult or unattainable depending on state of residence. Parents in Nebraska, where laws are less supportive, discussed having to “work within the system” available to secure their families while those in California described living in “a bubble” that gave same-sex parents legal protections less available in other parts of the country. Policy and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
A Comparison between Day and Night Diving in the Weddell Seal

Six adult Weddell seals, ranging in weight from 360 to 430 kilograms were released on separate occasions at a man-made ice hole in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Their voluntary diving behavior during the days and nights of the month of September was recorded. The seals spent 58 percent of their time diving in the day and 43 percent at night. The nature of the dives was strikingly different. The longest and deepest dives were recorded during the day. For every 100 hours of observation there were five dives > 50 minutes duration. No dives in excess of 50 minutes were observed at night. The deepest dive recorded in the daytime was 600 meters and the deepest at night was 230 meters. Dives of durations > 20 minutes are believed to be efforts to find other breathing holes. Such dives tend to be three times as deep in the daytime as at night. Finally, it was noted that at this time of year three times more seals were observed sleeping on the ice at night than in the day. It is concluded that vision is an important perceptive modality for under-ice orientation.
A beam chopper for use with a 60″ fixed frequency cyclotron

Abstract An easily removable deflecting system for the elimination of two out of every three rf beam bursts from a 60″ cyclotron is described. The system uses deflection plates which are part of a rf tank circuit. They are located where the beam emerges from the cyclotron and are driven at voltages exceeding 40 kV at a frequency one third that of the cyclotron.
Combined hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus infection and hepatocellular carcinoma in African Americans

Combined hepatitis C virus and hepatitis B virus infection and hepatocellular carcinoma in African Americans
Thin film Au-Sn bonding for optoelectronic integration

Eutectic bonding employing vacuum-deposited Au and Sn precursor layers, and based on a novel process, can effect quasi-monolithic hybridization of thin-film III-V devices with silicon substrates.
Office-Based Surveillance Ureteroscopy After Endoscopic Treatment of Transitional Cell Carcinoma: Technique and Clinical Outcome

Objectives The reference standard treatment for transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the upper tract remains nephroureterectomy. However, with improvements in endoscopic technology and techniques, endoscopic ablation of upper tract TCC has become a reality for highly selected patients. We report our present technique and 16-year experience of office-based ureteroscopy for surveillance of TCC after initial endoscopic ablation. Methods The office and hospital records of all patients undergoing office-based anesthesia-free ureteroscopy were retrospectively reviewed. The patient characteristics, tumor characteristics, ureteroscopic technique and findings, and complications were documented. Results Ten patients with a mean age of 68.8 years were treated with endoscopic ablation of upper tract TCC. A total of 67 (range 1 to 19 per patient) surveillance ureteroscopies in the office setting were performed. Office ureteroscopy revealed seven upper tract TCC recurrences in 5 patients. A thorough ureteroscopic examination in the operating room of these patients revealed that only 1 patient had more extensive disease than was recognized during the office-based ureteroscopy. All patients tolerated office-based ureteroscopy well, and each procedure was successfully completed with minimal patient discomfort. No acute complications were noted. One patient who experienced multiple recurrences and underwent ablation of extensive ureteral TCC developed a benign ureteral stricture. Conclusions The results of our study have shown that for the rare patient undergoing endoscopic management of upper tract TCC, office-based anesthesia-free ureteroscopic surveillance is a reasonable management strategy. The technique has been free of complications and appears to be as accurate as surveillance ureteroscopy performed in the operating room.
Altering Preferences for Leadership Style of Men and Women Undergraduate Residence Advisors through Leadership Training

Sf~mmry.-12 men and 12 women Residence Advisors were administered the T-P Leadership Questionnaire on two separate occasions. Two groups were formed; one served as a control and the other received leadership training prior to administration of the posttest. It was expected that preferences for leadership style would become more people-oriented after leadership training. Effects of sex of subject and exposure to training (trained and untrained) on scores from the T-P Leadership Questionnaire were examined. Separate scores were obtained for concern for task and concern for people. Significant treatment effects were obtained for the people-orientation measure. Male Residence Advisors showed a significant increase on the "people dimension" after leadership training. Compared with women, men showed a greater increase in people orientation. There was a significant interaction of sex of subject and training condition. Research on quality and style of leadership has focused on the relationship between these characteristics of a staff member's behavior and a wide range of personality and motivational factors (Biggs, 1971; Rand & Carew, 1970). An example of this approach is the study of ~atli~ and Green ( 1979). Subjects with some supervisory experience were administered The Leadership Opinion Questionnaire to assess preferences for leadership style and The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire to assess personality attributes. The sample was divided according to preferences for leadership style into those called balanced (supervisors equally concerned with structure or tasks and consideration or people) and those called unbalanced, i.e., those who were biased towards either structure or consideration. Those supervisors labeled "balanced" were significantly more tough-minded, practical, conservative, and group-dependent than supervisors labeled "unbalanced." Comparable findings were reported by Butters and Glade (1982) who studied men and women Residence Advisors using a correlational design to examine relationships among job satisfaction, style of leadership, and sex. The study identified relationships between (a) job satisfaction and sex, (b) preferences for leadership style and sex, and (c) job satisfaction and preferences for leadership behavior. On the consideration dimension of leadership style, men scored higher than women. Both men and women described themselves as significantly higher on the consideration dimension than the initiating struc
Model for the polyepoxide cyclization route to polyether antibiotics

Etude de l'epoxydation du trialkylsiloxymethyl-14 trimethyl-4,8,10 pentadecatriene-4,8,12oate de methyle en tetramethyl-5,9,11,15 triepoxy-5,6:9,10:13,14 oxacyclohexadecanone-2 suivie de cyclisation en [dihydroxy-1''',3''' methyl-2''' propyl]-5'' perhydro trimethyl-5,5',3'' terfuranne-2:2',5':2'' one-5. Cette etude est une approche de la synthese du fragment C9-C23 de la monensine B
The saphenous nerve: its course and importance in medial arthrotomy

Both lower extremities of 10 cadavers (20 specimens) were dissected to delineate the course of the saphenous nerve and its two major divisions (sartorial and infrapatellar branches). The course of the saphenous nerve followed the standard text description, except at the point in the sartorius muscle where the infrapatellar branch exited to become a subcutaneous structure. The location of this branch varied slightly in each cadaver but was the same for both lower extremities in the same cadaver. The location of the sartorial nerve and its relationship to the tendons of the pes anserinus was consistant in all 20 specimens. Since 69% of a group of 75 patients found altered sensation significant after routine sectioning of the infrapatellar nerve following medial meniscectomy, a group of surgeons at the University of Michigan is now protecting the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve at operation. Early results on a small number of patients indicate that no alteration in sensation occurs if the nerve is carefully retracted.
The Neurofibromatosis Type I Messenger RNA Undergoes Base-Modification RNA Editing

A functional mooring sequence, known to be required for apolipoprotein B (apoB) mRNA editing, exists in the mRNA encoding the neurofibromatosis type I (NF1) tumor suppressor. Editing of NF1 mRNA modifies cytidine in an arginine codon (CGA) at nucleotide 2914 to a uridine (UGA), creating an in frame translation stop codon. NF1 editing occurs in normal tissue but was several-fold higher in tumors. In vitro editing and transfection assays demonstrated that apoB and NF1 RNA editing will take place in both neural tumor and hepatoma cells. Unlike apoB, NF1 editing did not demonstrate dependence on rate-limiting quantities of APOBEC-1 (the apoB editing catalytic subunit) suggesting that different trans-acting factors may be involved in the two editing processes.
Early in Life Bladder Inflammation Alters Opioid Peptide Content in the Spinal Cord and Bladder of Adult Female Rats

Purpose: Previous research suggests that a failure of opioid inhibition may contribute to chronic bladder pain. We determined how acute adult and/or prior early in life exposure to bladder inflammation alters the adult content of endogenous opioid peptides in the bladder, spinal cord and blood.Materials and Methods: Inflammation was induced by intravesical administration of zymosan. Female Sprague-Dawley® rats were exposed to anesthesia only or zymosan early in life (postnatal days 14 to 16) and anesthesia only or zymosan as adults (ages 12 to 17 weeks). Thoracolumbar and lumbosacral segments of the spinal cord, and blood and bladders were collected 24 hours after adult treatment. Opioid peptide content was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: Early in life bladder inflammation alone produced a chronic increase in dynorphin A (1–17) in the lumbosacral spinal cord. When early in life inflammation was followed by adult re-inflammation, spinal cord dynorphin remained unchanged but bladde...
Distribution of Culicoides Hollensis, C. Furens and C. Bermudensis in Relation to Plant Cover in a North Carolina Salt Marsh (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

The distribution of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in relation to plant cover in a North Carolina salt marsh was determined by sticky cylinder traps, emergence traps and soil sampling. All 3 methods showed essentially the same distribution pattern for C. hollensis (Melander & Brues) and C. furens (Poey) although the former was most abundant in tall (> 1.2 m) Spartina alterniflora Loiseleur (smooth cordgrass) and the latter in short (<0.3 m) S. alterniflora . These 2 species were rare in the areas of juncus roemerianus Scheele (black needle rush) and shrubs. C. bermudensis Williams was not caught on sticky traps, but the other methods showed that this species was restricted to areas of Distichlis spicata (L.) Greene (salt grass) and J. roemerianus .
Low-Energy Collisions of Pyrazine and d6-Benzene Molecular Ions with Self-Assembled Monolayer Surfaces: The Odd−Even Chain Length Effect

The low-energy reactive collisions of two independent probe ions, pyrazine and d6-benzene, illustrate an odd−even hydrocarbon chain length effect for a wide range of hydrocarbon self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surfaces. SAM surfaces prepared from alkanethiols ranging from CH3(CH2)10SH to CH3(CH2)17SH chemisorbed to polycrystalline gold are shown to exhibit an odd−even effect where the orientation of the terminal methyl group determines the reaction behavior of the thin film. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows the surfaces to be homogeneously covered and provides evidence for the presence of a thiolate (Au−SR) on the SAM surface. When 30 eV incident ions were used, the extent of hydrogen addition to the incident probe ion was larger for odd carbon chain length SAM surfaces when compared to the even chain length films. For an odd chain length SAM surface, the terminal methyl group exposes a C−H bond perpendicular to the surface, increasing hydrogen addition reactivity for the probe ions. The low-energy p...
Common Penile Problems

A variety of penile problems are commonly seen by primary care physicians. This article reviews the diagnosis, evaluation, and management of congenital conditions such as hypospadias, chordee, webbed and buried penis, duplicated urethra, ambiguous genitalia, and micropenis. Acquired emergent conditions, including minor trauma and paraphimosis, are also discussed, with a particular emphasis on initial evaluation and management. Conditions associated with erectile dysfunction, including priapism and Peyronie disease, are reviewed.
Light scattering by Prorocentrum micans: a new method and results.

Striking light-scattering behavior was observed from a marine dinoflagellate, Prorocentrum micans. Measurements of the angular dependence of the 16 Mueller matrix elements were performed on single cells with a polarization-modulation nephelometer by using a new method for cell immobilization. First the dinoflagellate cells were immobilized in a transparent silica gel containing alcohol, and then a second liquid was diffused into the gel to match the index of refraction of the gel network, thereby producing a transparent support medium that scatters less than one tenth the amount of light scattered by a single cell at 90 degrees . Measurements of scattering by a single cell revealed that all 16 matrix elements were significantly nonzero and different from each other. All matrix elements have an extremely rich, reproducible structure that is highly dependent on cell orientation. The matrix elements symmetrically across the diagonal were not equivalent. Striking features of the measurements are the large peak values of S(13), S(14), and other off-diagonal block elements. We believe that this is the first report of such scattering signals by single, suspended marine microorganisms.
Approximate Renormalization Group Based on the Wegner-Houghton Differential Generator

We give an approximate renormalization-group formulation which parallels that of Wilson. The group generator represents the momentum-independent limit of the differential generator of Wegner and Houghton. The eigenfunctions near the Gaussian point are computed for all spin dimensions $n$ and lattice dimensions $d$, including $d=2$. The nontrivial fixed-point Hamiltonian in dimensions near $d=\frac{2\mathcal{O}}{(\mathcal{O}\ensuremath{-}1)}$, together with the eigenvalues near that nontrivial fixed point, are found explicitly to first order in ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathcal{O}}\ensuremath{\equiv}\mathcal{O}(2\ensuremath{-}d)+d$ for all values of $n$ and the order $\mathcal{O}$. Odd-dominated Ising systems and corresponding expansions in ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathcal{O}\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}}$ are also treated.
Evaluating the Parentification Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties and Psychopathology Correlates

The Parentification questionniare (PQ; Jurkovic and Thirkield in Parentification questionnaire, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA, 1998), developed to assess various levels of parentification retrospectively, is one of the most widely used instruments in the clinical and research literature base. Yet, despite its frequent use, no studies of which we are aware have examined the psychometric properties of this instrument. Thus, this study fills a gap in the literature by examining the psychometric properties of the PQ with a sample of 143 racially diverse college students. The data were subjected to exploratory analysis using principal component analysis. Varimax orthogonal rotations were applied to the analyses. The final results supported a three-component solution (although with fewer items), consistent with Jurkovic’s three-factor multidimensional clinical framework for understanding parentification. We also examined the relations between the resultant scores of the PQ and scores from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis in Derogatis Brief symptom inventory: Administration, scoring, and procedures manual, National Computer Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, 1993), which captures mental health symptomatology. These results reflected significant correlations in theoretically expected directions. However, taken together, the three PQ factors significantly accounted for the variance in psychopathology scores in only two of the four regression models. The preliminary results from this study support the reliability and multidimensional nature of the PQ scores. Implications for family therapy and suggestions for future family systems research are discussed.
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic detection of cancer biomarkers in intact cellular specimens

We have developed a system for the direct spectroscopic identification of protein biomarkers in biological samples. By conjugating Raman dyes and biomolecular targeting agents to gold nanoparticles, we have produced highly selective optically encoded probes. The nanostructures are grown within a cellular sample to generate a surface that is highly active for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Both in vitro characterizations of SERS detection as well as the sensitive and specific detection of cancer biomarkers in cultured cancer cells have been demonstrated.
An Investigation of Nonequilibrium Effects in an Internal Combustion Engine

A theoretical analysis of the basic chemical kinetic processes which lead to the formation and partial decomposition of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide has been undertaken. A mathematical model of an Otto cycle engine has been formulated, programmed for the CDC 6600 computer, and used to determine species concentrations and thermodynamic properties at any point in the engine cycle. The validity of this model has been confirmed by the results of an experimental program conducted on a typical multicylinder automotive engine, and data available for a single cylinder CFR engine. In addition, the computerized model was used to describe the chemical and physical processes upon which existing control techniques for nitric oxide are based, and to investigate the potential of a new concept, fuel-rich combustion and secondary air injection, for minimizing nitric oxide and carbon monoxide emissions. A unique concept in controlling undesirable engine emissions, i.e., rich combustion followed by secondary air injection during the engine expansion, was shown to result in significant reductions in nitric oxide and carbon monoxide emissions without incurring an appreciable loss in thermal efficiency as compared to stoichiometric operation.
Excimer and Exciton Fusion of Blends and Molecularly Doped Polymers--A New Morphological Tool.

Exciton-exciton and exciton-excimer triplet fusion kinetics is monitored in medium molecular weight P1VN/PMMA solvent cast films with concentrations from 0.005 to 100% (weight), at temperatures of 77 to 300 K, via time resolved fluorescence and phosphorescence (10 ns to 10 sec). The heterogeneity exponent (h) is 0.5 for isolated P1VN chains, zero (classical) for pure P1VN and “fractal-like” throughout certain concentration regimes. However, h is not monotonic with blend concentration but rather oscillates between zero and 0.5. Correlation is made with morphology changes (phase separation, filamentation). As expected, the triplet exciton kinetics is dominated by short-range hops (about 5 A) and thus monitors the primary topology of the chains. At concentrations below 0.01%, the excitons are constrained to a truly one-dimensional topology. At higher concentrations there is a fractal-like topology. Similar studies were conducted on naphthalene-doped PMMA (1-20% weight). The lower concentration samples are neither segregated nor random solution phases.
Molecular bacterial community analysis of clean rooms where spacecraft are assembled

Molecular bacterial community composition was characterized from three geographically distinct spacecraft-associated clean rooms to determine whether such populations are influenced by the surrounding environment or the maintenance of the clean rooms. Samples were collected from facilities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC), and Johnson Space Center (JSC). Nine clone libraries representing different surfaces within the spacecraft facilities and three libraries from the surrounding air were created. Despite the highly desiccated, nutrient-bare conditions within these clean rooms, a broad diversity of bacteria was detected, covering all the main bacterial phyla. Furthermore, the bacterial communities were significantly different from each other, revealing only a small subset of microorganisms common to all locations (e.g. Sphingomonas, Staphylococcus). Samples from JSC assembly room surfaces showed the greatest diversity of bacteria, particularly within the Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The bacterial community structure of KSC assembly surfaces revealed a high presence of proteobacterial groups, whereas the surface samples collected from the JPL assembly facility showed a predominance of Firmicutes. Our study presents the first extended molecular survey and comparison of NASA spacecraft assembly facilities, and provides new insights into the bacterial diversity of clean room environments .
Developing domain-specific causal-explanatory frameworks: The role of insides and immanence.

Abstract Two studies investigate children's knowledge of internal parts and their endorsement of immanent causes for the behaviors of living and non-living things. Study 1, involving 48 preschoolers, showed that domain-specific knowledge of internal parts develops between ages 3 and 4. Study 2 included 43 4-year-olds, 30 8-year-olds, and 35 adults and showed that preschoolers do not endorse these internal parts as causally responsible for familiar biological events (e.g., movement, growth). Like adults and older children, however, preschoolers endorse an abstract cause, “its own energy,” for animals but not for machines. The results suggest that children recognize domain-specific internal parts as early as age 4 but that their causal attributions are not yet anchored in a detailed biological theory. Findings are discussed in terms of theory change and an essentialist assumption.
The “Beer Summit” and What's Brewing: Narratives, Networks, and Metaphors as Rhetorical Confinement in the Age of Obama

This article uses the Gates-Crowley-Obama “Beer Summit” to analyze narratives, networks, and metaphors as rhetorical confinements in the Obama era. The Beer Summit exemplifies a complicated cultural script, diverging slightly from the familiar pattern of analyzing textual backlash discourse as a dominant frame in which to understand racial discourse. This study explicates meaning in the discourse of the Beer Summit to interpret how agonistic rhetorical visions confine the rhetorical agency of President Obama. Specifically, the article explores Obama's rhetorical trope and range as that of a “unifier.” The presidency calls for its occupant to act as a unifier, but this article considers how Barack Obama's race is linked to his limited agency. Furthermore, to understand this confinement, this piece approaches the discourse through rhetorical networks and interprets tacit visual metaphors in social media.
The impedance of an elliptical printed-circuit antenna

A resonant circuit model for the input impedance of an elliptical printed-circuit antenna has been developed and the results compared with experimental data. The impedance and bandwidth were then calculated as a function of the size, eccentricity, and thickness of the radiator.
Big-Time Careers for the Little Woman: A Dual-Role Dilemma

An explanation is presented for differential career achievement in women and men. The analysis proposed is based on social psychological theories, such as role theory and social comparison and attribution theory, rather than on the genetic or personality theories which have been advanced in the past. The paper focuses on the situational factors which operate on women to shape their domestic and professional choices and behavior. These factors are analyzed from the perspectives of traditional housewives and mothers; career women; and women who attempt to combine the responsibilities of housewife, mother, and professional.
The Effects of Band Labels on Evaluators’ Judgments of Musical Performance

This study investigates the effects of band labels on evaluators’ judgments of musical performance. High school concert band members (n = 72), wind ensemble members ( n = 77), and band directors (n = 8) were randomly assigned to a band label or no label group. Only the band label group was given evaluation forms that specified the group playing the excerpt (“Wind Ensemble” or “Concert Band”). Participants evaluated 12 excerpts and were not made aware that 6 excerpts had actually been repeated twice under varying labels. A two-factor ANOVA showed two significant interactions between label and excerpt presentation order among concert band evaluators in the band label group.
FLUORESCENT PROBES OF CELL SIGNALING

Fluorescence has long been recognized as a powerful tool for probing biological structure and function. Because probe molecules can be very much more fluorescent than the constituents of most biological specimens, the signal for the exogenous fluorophores can be measured continuously and nondestructively with excellent spatial and temporal resolution in living cells (Waggoner 1 986). The earliest developed and most straight­ forward uses of fluorescent groups are simply as positional tags or markers. Examples are immunofluorescence labeling (Nairn 1 976), fluorescent analog cytochemistry (Taylor et al 1 986a), vital staining of organelles (Pagano & Sleight 1 985, Wang & Taylor 1988), assessment of cell mor­ phology or intercellular coupling with microinjected tracers (Stewart 1 98 1 ), measurement of distances between probes by fluorescence energy transfer (Stryer 1978, Uster & Pagano 1 986), and measurement of diffusion coefficients and exchange rates by photo bleaching recovery (Elson 1986). The common feature of such applications is that the main role of the fluorescent group is merely to signal its presence and location rather than to sense its environment. The main criteria for such fluorescent tags are simple: wavelengths of excitation and emission, brightness, photostability (Mathies & Stryer 1 986), size and charge. Therefore a few fluorophores (e.g. fluoresceins, rhodamines, naphthalimides, phycobiliproteins, nitro­ benzoxadiazole) tend to get used over and over, often attached by rather standardized techniques to different macromolecules. A second type of application of fluorescent probes involves attachment of the fluorophore to a purified macromolecule to sense conformational change of the latter (Y guerabide 1 972, Cooke 1982, Lakowicz 1 983). The
Modeling the buffer allocation strategies and flow control schemes in ATM networks

We present a unified model to analyze three different buffered allocation strategies, first-in-first-out (FIFO), statically allocated fully connected (SAFC), and statically allocated multi-queue (SAMQ), and two flow control schemes, local flow control and global flow control, under bursty traffic patterns. We also conduct comparisons between the local and global flow control schemes and among these three buffer allocation strategies. It has shown that the network can improve its performance by applying the local flow control and using the multi-queue buffered allocation strategy.
Response to May 2007 Article by Frank Giarratani, Gene Gruver, and Randall Jackson on Industry Agglomeration:

Ten new steel plants were constructed in the United States from 1989 to 2001, each taking advantage of new steel slab casting technologies that gave scrap-based minimills access to the flat-products market. This market had been served previously exclusively by ore-based integrated mills. Some of the new minimills were built in established steel industry agglomerations. Others were built in greenfield locations with little or no prior steelmaking activity. This research, based on direct observation and plant visits, brings new evidence to bear on the nature and importance of agglomeration economies associated with steel production by analyzing industry clusters related to the advent of slab casting by steel minimills. The authors find that industry clusters can plan an important role in the process of market entry; however, certain product and firm characteristics can shape the nature of industry agglomerations and their effect on firms and regions.
Rivalry between Germany and Italy in Croatia, 1942–1943

The Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), which came into being during Hitler's Blitzkrieg against Yugoslavia in April 1941, was nominally included in the Italian sphere of influence in the Balkans. It soon turned into an uneasy condominium, however, between its formal Italian mentors and the Germans. Italian influence was largely symbolic, while German officers, experts of all profiles, businessmen and officials were prominent in Zagreb from the outset. Mussolini was deeply mistrustful of German intentions, and suspected that Germany sought a leading role in Croatia in spite of Hitler's assurances to the contrary. Nevertheless, the Italians could not devise a strategy to bring their nominal Croatian proteges to heel.While there is no evidence of a German ‘grand design’ to undermine Italy's aspirations in the Balkans, it is certain that the Germans never intended to give up their leading role in the economic sphere. By early 1942 they secured control over all key natural resources of the NDH and most of its industrial capacity, often acting behind their Italian partners' backs in pursuit of their objectives.Also in 1942 the Wehrmacht made a strong bid to bring Croatian armed forces under its command and control. While this caused some intra-German disputes, and was resisted by the foreign ministry, it proved ultimately successful due to the rise of insurgency which threatened strategic interests of the Axis. Again, Italian claims to precedence were disregarded.The most serious dispute between Italy and Germany in the NDH concerned large joint antiinsurgency operations in the first half of 1943, and the Italians' refusal to give up their links with the Cetniks. The breakdown of Italo-German military co-operation in the NDH reflected a deeper malaise of the intra-Axis relationship. It was founded upon different assumptions and objectives, but such differences remained unstated. The rivalry between Germany and Italy in Croatia vividly reflected this deeper schism between the ultimate objectives of Mussolini and his brutal Teutonic friend.
Roles of the ITAM and PY Motifs of Epstein-Barr Virus Latent Membrane Protein 2A in the Inhibition of Epithelial Cell Differentiation and Activation of β-Catenin Signaling

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein 2A (LMP2A) is important for maintenance of latency in infected B lymphocytes. Through its immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM) and PY motifs, LMP2A is able to block B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling, bind BCR-associated kinases, and manipulate the turnover of itself and these kinases via a PY-mediated interaction with the Nedd4 family of ubiquitin ligases. In epithelial cells, LMP2A has been shown to activate the phosphatidylinositol 3'-OH kinase/Akt and beta-catenin signaling pathways. In the present study, the biological consequences of LMP2A expression in the normal human foreskin keratinocyte (HFK) cell line were investigated and the importance of the ITAM and PY motifs for LMP2A signaling effects in HFK cells was ascertained. The ITAM was essential for the activation of Akt by LMP2A in HFK cells, while both the ITAM and PY motifs contributed to LMP2A-mediated accumulation and nuclear translocation of the oncoprotein beta-catenin. LMP2A inhibited induction of differentiation in an assay conducted with semisolid methylcellulose medium, and the PY motifs were critical for this inhibition. LMP2A is expressed in the EBV-associated epithelial malignancies nasopharyngeal carcinoma and gastric carcinoma, and these data indicate that LMP2A affects cellular processes that likely contribute to carcinogenesis.
Use of divalent metal ions in the DNA cleavage reaction of topoisomerase IV

It has long been known that type II topoisomerases require divalent metal ions in order to cleave DNA. Kinetic, mutagenesis and structural studies indicate that the eukaryotic enzymes utilize a novel variant of the canonical two-metal-ion mechanism to promote DNA scission. However, the role of metal ions in the cleavage reaction mediated by bacterial type II enzymes has been controversial. Therefore, to resolve this critical issue, this study characterized the DNA cleavage reaction of Escherichia coli topoisomerase IV. We utilized a series of divalent metal ions with varying thiophilicities in conjunction with oligonucleotides that replaced bridging and non-bridging oxygen atoms at (and near) the scissile bond with sulfur atoms. DNA scission was enhanced when thiophilic metal ions were used with substrates that contained bridging sulfur atoms. In addition, the metal-ion dependence of DNA cleavage was sigmoidal in nature, and rates and levels of DNA cleavage increased when metal ion mixtures were used in reactions. Based on these findings, we propose that topoisomerase IV cleaves DNA using a two-metal-ion mechanism in which one of the metal ions makes a critical interaction with the 3 0 -bridging atom of the scissile phosphate and facilitates DNA scission by the bacterial type II enzyme.
Frequency selectivity of phase-locking of complex sounds in the auditory nerve of the rat *

Frequency selectivity of single auditory nerve fibers in the auditory nerve of the rat was studied using pseudorandom noise as the stimulus. The noise was lowpass filtered ternary m-sequences. Period histograms of the discharges of single auditory nerve fibers, locked to the periodicity of the noise, were cross-correlated with one period of the noise to obtain estimates of the impulse response. These cross-correlograms were subsequently Fourier transformed to obtain estimates of the frequency transfer functions. Earlier results obtained using noise that was based on binary sequences as the stimulus showed a systematic dependence on stimulus intensity of the bandwidth and center frequency of the computer transfer functions. The results of the present study confirmed this dependence and showed that a linear model based upon first-order cross-correlations fit the histograms of response. It is concluded that phase-locked activity of single auditory nerve fibers accurately reproduces the half-wave rectified motion of the basilar membrane over a large range of sound intensities.
Political and economic determinants of private investment

This paper presents empirical evidence that links private investment to rate of return differential, risk aversion, and several types of political and economic risk. Estimating private investment equation for a panel of 25 developing countries over 21 years yields the following results: (i) socio-political instability characterized by nonviolent protests promotes private investment while violent uprisings hinder private investment; (ii) regime change instability characterized by constitutional government change promotes private investment while unconstitutional government change hinders private investment; and (iii) policy uncertainty characterized by variability of contract enforcement rights promotes private investment while variability of government political capacity hinders private investment. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ethical issues in fetal surgery.

Abstract Fetal surgery involves unique ethical issues because the interests of fetus and mother may conflict but, regardless, they are inextricably interconnected. Controversial questions currently include what kinds of surgery should be permitted, who should decide, and whether this surgery should be restricted to specialized centers. Clinical questions include the degree to which mothers should have decision-making authority, the extent, if any, to which mothers should be protected from pressure from family members, and whether physicians should be non-directive. This article discusses these questions and their answers’ competing rationales. It also presents recent data from attachment studies of mothers and infants and from neuroscience, which suggest that mothers and infants are more interdependent physiologically and psychologically than has been understood. The paper describes how these findings may apply to the mother and fetus long before it is born. The major implication of this analysis is that mothers should, perhaps, have greater decision making authority.
Optimal scheduling algorithm for distributed-memory machines

Task Scheduling is one of the key elements in any distributed-memory machine (DMM), and an efficient algorithm can help reduce the interprocessor communication time. As optimal scheduling of tasks to DMMs is a strong NP-hard problem, many heuristic algorithms have been introduced in the literature. This paper presents a Task Duplication based Scheduling (TDS) algorithm which can schedule directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) with a complexity of O(|V|/sup 2/), where |V| is the number of tasks in the DAG. This algorithm generates an optimal schedule for a class of DAGs which satisfy a simple cost relationship. The performance of the algorithm has been observed by its application to some practical DAGs, and by comparing it with other existing scheduling schemes in terms of the schedule length and algorithm complexity.
Protection Against Hypertension, Arteriolonecrosis and Death by Hog Renal Extracts in Experimental Malignant Hypertension

Since hog renin is effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of chronic experimental renal hypertension in the dog, probably through antirenin, a study was made of the prophylactic effect of crude and semipurified hog renins from cortex and from whole kidney on the hypertension, arteriolonecrosis, and course of experimental renal malignant hypertension in the dog. In the absence of medullary protein, protection against the hypertension was found to be well correlated with the antirenin titer. More importantly, the nonrenin fraction of crude hog renin from cortex significantly protected against the arteriolonecrotic lesions and death.
Animal-assisted therapy and Nutrition in Alzheimer's disease.

This study examined the influence of animal-assisted therapy, specifically fish aquariums, on nutritional intake in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Sixty-two individuals with AD who live...
Modeling simultaneous actions and continuous processes

Abstract A new methodology for the construction of world models is presented. The central feature of this methodology is a mechanism which makes possible the modeling of (1) simultaneous, interactive processes, (2) processes characterized by a continuum of gradual change, (3) involuntarily activated processes (such as the growing of grass) and (4) time as a continuous phenomenon. Considerable attention is given to the application of this methodology in robotics.
A Radiation Oncologist’s Guide to Contouring the Lacrimal Gland

The lacrimal gland was originally discovered by Galen, but in 1574 it was better described by Caracanus of Milan, Italy. Subsequently, it was discovered by Stensen in 1662 that the lacrimal gland formed tears. The lacrimal gland is 1 component of the lacrimal apparatus that handles tear formation and transport ending with tear delivery at the nasolacrimal duct. Tears are critical to moisten and lubricate the conjunctiva and cornea. Lack of tears, called keratoconjunctivitis, results in ocular surface damage as a result of the shearing forces of blinking. Tears also protect against infection and wash away noxious or damaging substances. The lacrimal gland is located superolateral to the globe. It is composed of 2 parts including a larger orbital region and a smaller region called the palpebral portion. The parts are separated by a lateral expansion of the levator palpebral superioris muscle. The 2 parts cannot be clearly distinguished on CT. It is small, with mean volume about
Ovulation inhibition with a long-acting injectable contraceptive

Abstract Thirty-one patients who completed 24 monthly injections with a long-acting injectable estrogen-progestogen contraceptive were followed with basal body temperature and regular urinary pregnanediol determinations until return of ovulatory function was established. Selected patients were studied for plasma gonadotropin patterns and for pituitary reserve by Metopirone tests. Sixteen patients who had received 24 consecutive montly injections required from 12 to 42 weeks to establish spontaneous ovulation. Three patients who received clomiphene citrate after 20 weeks of anovulation promptly ovulated and subsequently maintained regular ovulation. Six patients who discontinued the injections prior to 2 years demonstrated a correlation between the number of injections and the length of posttreatment anovulation. Six patients who received their injections bimonthly during the last 6 months of treatment returned to ovulatory cycles within 8 to 16 weeks. These patients had unacceptable irregularity of their withdrawal flow while taking injections bimonthly. Serial determinations of FSH and LH by radioimmunoassay on selected patients showed depression of FSH and lack of an LH peak during the period of anovulation, but normal patterns once ovulation recurred. All patients studied showed normal response to Metopirone tests after discontinuation of the drug. All patients ultimately returned to normal ovulatory cycles.
“Look at my house!” Home and mobile home ownership among Latino/a immigrants in Florida

This article investigates an understudied topic, namely the meaning of owning a mobile home among first- and second-generation Latino/a immigrants in the USA. In mainstream North American culture, living in a mobile home is stigmatized and not typically associated with membership in the middle class. However, in this paper, I argue that Latino/a research participants, individually and collectively, construct a counter-narrative in which mobile home ownership functions as a symbolic marker of upward social mobility and personal success. I conclude that investigating the meaning of mobile home ownership within the context of immigration facilitates new insights regarding the conceptions of home and home making in general. The paper is based on an analysis of 22 in-depth interviews conducted in four mobile home parks near Florida’s Central Gulf Coast. These interviews, completed between 2008 and 2010, were part of a larger study on issues of identity, community, and disaster in Florida mobile home parks.
Biogeochemistry: Better living through mercury

Mercury is a toxic element with no known biological function. Laboratory studies demonstrate that mercury can be beneficial to microbial growth by acting as an electron acceptor during photosynthesis.
Effect of Co-Solutes on Model Reaction Equilibria: Might Changes in the Free Energy of Bulk Water be the Underlying Cause?

Studies that characterize binding interactions in the presence of other solutes are necessary for understanding molecular interactions in vivo, including drug interactions. Unfortunately the binding equations of classical thermodynamics were derived for ideal dilute solutions, whereas biological solutions deviate greatly from the ideal assumption. This work examines model binding reactions in the presence of various co-solutes at molar concentrations using isothermal titration calorimetry and solubility measurements. The results are analyzed with original equations that acknowledge the participation of water molecules in the balanced reaction. The thermodynamic framework treats the free energy of bulk water as a variable that depends on the chemistry and concentration of the co-solute. A major concept behind this approach is the idea that changes in reaction equilibria (K values or transfer free energies) may be attributed to changes in the desolvation energy of the reactants; an equilibrium can shift in either direction, depending on whether the co-solute increases or decreases the average free energy of the bulk water because this term is a defining component of the desolvation energy. The outcomes of this work are consistent with the hypothesis that co-solutes do not need to interact directly with one of the reactants in order to alter the equilibrium, though preferential interactions between solute and reactant may be apparent in many systems.
Domain structure and sequence distribution in dentin phosphophoryn

Phosphophoryn (PP) is a protein unique to the mineralized matrix of dentin. It also has a unique composition, with aspartic acid and phosphoserine comprising greater than 85% of all amino acid residues. Because of this unique composition and high content of phosphoserine, it has been difficult to apply direct peptide sequencing procedures effectively. However, to understand its function, and to prepare suitable probes for screening cDNA libraries, some sequence distribution information is required. To this end, using bovine (b) and rat incisor (ri) PPs, partial mild acid hydrolysis has been used to cleave at the aspartic acid residues and generate free amino acids and small peptides. The nature of the released amino acids and peptides has been determined. Peptides have also been generated by limited digestion with trypsin. Some of the peptides have been purified by h.p.l.c. techniques and sequenced. About 90% of the bPP and riPP were resistant to trypsin, and the large resistant fragment was sharply depleted of the non-aspartic acid and non-phosphoserine [(P)Ser] residues. All peptides isolated were acidic, but the remaining residues (other than aspartic acid and serine) appeared to be collected in regions flanking the trypsin-resistant core. These data show directly the presence of regions [Asp]n, [(P)Ser]m and [Asp-(P)Ser-Asp]k as prominent sequence features. A domain structure model is proposed.