cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bulk micromachining of a MEMS tunable Fabry-Perot interferometer: effect of residual silicon on device performance

A broadband tunable filter for the infrared spectral region is desired for use as a wavelength selective element in a miniature absorp- tion spectrometer. We present the design, fabrication, packaging, and characterization of a bulk micromachined Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) for meeting this need. A novel approach to fabricate a MEMS- based tunable resonant cavity using two separate wafers bonded using a ''lock-and-key'' spacer design is outlined, with the goal of realizing electrostatically actuated membranes from films predeposited on base substrates. This ability could enable the pursuit of MEMS devices without in-house chemical vapor deposition (CVD) capability, after overcoming the shortcomings of bulk micromachining. The FPI device was designed with a planar structure comprising two face-to-face bonded chips of over- all lateral dimension 10310 mm with deflection regions of 2 32 mm. The device employs electrostatic actuation to tune the output wavelength, for which finite element modeling predicted low (1 V) actuation voltages for movement of the membrane. Experimental results from device testing (mechanical) were found to differ from the theoretical predictions, prima- rily due to fabrication issues. Specifically, the device performance was found to be greatly influenced by the amount of residual silicon on the wafer chip following inductively coupled plasma (ICP) backside etching, with high voltages (;30 times higher than modeled) required for actua- tion of the device. Through a combination of modeling and experimental measurements, it is demonstrated that the ability to produce MEMS de- vices by releasing membranes from films predeposited on substrates is
VSL reconsidered: what do labor supply estimates reveal about risk preferences?

Abstract We propose and illustrate a theoretically consistent framework for linking estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL) to individual preferences. Our example suggests a method for using estimates of the labor supply elasticity to impute a VSL estimate.
Continuous path tracing by a cable-suspended, under-actuated robot: The Winch-Bot

A simple, under-actuated robotic winch, called the “Winch-Bot,” is developed for surface inspection of a large object. The Winch-Bot, placed over an object surface, has only one actuator for tracing a free geometric path in a vertical plane. The cable length is controlled in relation to the direction of the cable so that the inspection end-effecter hanging at the tip of the cable can follow the path dynamically despite the lack of full degrees of freedom. We analyze the tracing dynamics, address under what conditions a given geometric path can be traced (traceability conditions), and prove under what conditions the tracing motion is repetitive. A controller utilizing partial feedback linearization is proposed, and simulations are used to validate the explored traceability criteria and to confirm the controller's performance improvement.
PReS13-SPK-1321: Expanding clinical spectrum of autoinflammatory diseases

The term autoinflammation was initially introduced to denote a group of diseases that lacked the usual features of autoimmunity (high-titer autoantibodies and antigenspecific T cells), and were subsequently recognized as disorders of the innate immune system. Patients with autoinflammatory disorders present with chronic and recurrent bouts of systemic inflammation that are mediated by the cells of the innate immune system such as neutrophils and macrophages. The concept of autoinflammation started with hereditary recurrent fevers, but has grown substantially to include both monogenic and polygenic diseases. Hereditary recurrent fevers are the prototypic monogenic disorders, whereas Behcet disease, Crohn disease, gout, spondyloarthropathies, type-2 diabetes are all considered complex autoinflammatory diseases. The monogenic autoinflammatory diseases are inherited in an autosomal-recessive or autosomaldominant fashion, and many of disease-causing mutations are found in genes that regulate the IL-1 signaling pathway. More recently, new pathways such as the IL-36, immunoproteasome, HOIL-1 deficiency, and phospholipase Cg2 pathways have been identified in the pathogenesis of autoinflammation. Some of these new autoinflammatory diseases and relevant pathways will be discussed at the meeting. Despite major advances, a substantial number of patients have no mutations in the known autoinflammatory genes. The present challenge is how to find the as-yet undiscovered genes, considering that most cases are sporadic or occur in small families that are not suit-able for linkage analysis. New approaches and tools such as next-generation sequencing are the most likely methods to be successful. Such research might require collabora-tive studies in order to increase the number of patients presenting with a rare phenotype. Disclosure of interest None declared.
Micro Convergence and Macro Convergence: Factor Price Equalization and Per Capita Income

Factor price equalization implies the equality of prices of the same productive factors across countries owing to free trade. The present paper examines the relationship between factor price equalization and the equality of per capita (per worker) incomes in the contexts of the static Heckscher–Ohlin trade model and the dynamic two-sector neoclassical growth model. Factor price equalization is shown to be neither necessary nor sufficient for equality of per capita incomes across trading countries.
Colony morphology on agar is a sensitive indicator for growth effectors

Colonies of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells growing on agar exhibit changes in colony morphology and size in response to extremely low doses of hormones and growth factors. Computer-aided densitometric scanning of photographs of these colonies allows the quantitative measurement of these morphological changes. Correlation of these changes with dosage for a variety of growth effectors is a sensitive assay for the effects of these factors, both alone and in combination, and should be useful in comparing effects of agents with similar biological activities and in the search for variant cell types with altered responsiveness. Cells growing attached to solid substrates are often responsive to these low dosages and do not seem to mimic in vivo growth effector phenomena as well as colonies growing in three dimensions on agar.
Preliminary Study of a Germanium Three-Dimensional Camera for Positron Emitting Radioisotopes

A preliminary feasability study of a camera for imaging of positron emitting radioisotopes based on two arrays of Ge detectors operated in coincidence has been carried out. Efficiency, effects of energy resolution, and timing characteristics have been studied. It has been found that Ge can compete favorably with NaI in efficiency if Compton signals can be admitted for imaging. Analysis of the effect of scattered radiation indicates the advisability of having some moderate energy resolution in the system. A method is devised which allows the use of the Compton signals of the Ge detectors in a summing mode and, therefore, maintain very good energy resolution. A study of the timing properties of small Ge detectors indicates that count rates as high as one order of magnitude more than those possible with NaI detector arrays should be possible. Also, for the first time, it appears realistically possible that tomography by time-of-flight techniques can be carried out with a camera. It is concluded that a small prototype camera section should be built and investigated further.
Off-specular x-ray scattering in Langmuir-Blodgett multilayers of a liquid-crystalline polymer

The effect of surface roughness on the static layer undulations of multilayer films of a side-chain liquid-crystalline polymer has been investigated by off-specular x-ray scattering. The roughness correlation length evaluated from the off-specular data is shown to vary inversely with the average roughness of the multilayer film. The features of the off-specular x-ray scattering are similar to those exhibited by inorganic heterostructural films.
Speech activity detection: An economics approach

This paper proposes an approach to frame-level speech activity detection based on the extended metaphor of an economics marketplace. As in a real marketplace, the simulated marketplace encourages features to specialize. Features that might not have impressive average performance across the entire data set might nonetheless perform very well on a subset of the data, and the marketplace capitalizes on this specialization by consulting the features only when their expertise is relevant. On an experimental data set, we show that the framework is able to effectively utilize the expertise of a set of voicing-related features. For the 50% of the data that fell within these features' realm of expertise, we observe an 83% reduction in false alarm errors and 19% reduction in miss detect errors compared to a baseline HMM-GMM system with MFCCs. Even when we consult these features for the entire data set, thus including the other 50% of data outside their realm of expertise, we still observe a 20% total reduction in equal error rate compared to the baseline system. Analysis of the marketplace transactions also yields useful insight into how the errors are distributed across the data and which types of features are most useful.
Xeric survival without drinking by hypopodes of Hemisarcoptes cooremani (Acari: Hemisarcoptidae)

Abstract Hemisarcoptes cooremani (Thomas) (Acari: Hemisarcoptidae) is native to the southern United States, from California to Florida. Parasitic stages of the mite's life cycle (i.e. larvae, protonymphs, tritonymphs and adults) have been used for the biological control of diaspidid scale insects which infest perennial vascular crops. A heteromorphic dispersal stage (hypopode) differs from all other stages in the life cycle in that it is well sclerotized. All other stages are relatively soft-bodied and sheltered from desiccation by the cap (and velum) of their invaded diaspidid prey. The hypopode lacks an oral cavity and foregut and is therefore prevented from imbibing water, as water becomes available from the environment, and as it awaits the arrival of its phoretic dispersal host (Chilocorus cacti). A water balance profile was constructed on the hypopode of H. cooremani to better understand how this stage survives extended periods of water stress in hot dry climates. A high dehydration tolerance was no...
A randomized, controlled study of an educational intervention to improve recall of auxiliary medication labeling and adherence to antibiotics

Purpose:To evaluate whether medication counseling with emphasis on auxiliary labels improves recall of auxiliary label information and adherence to medication schedules.Methods:A prospective, rando...
A terrain-covering algorithm for an AUV

An efficient, on-line terrain-covering algorithm is presented for a robot (AUV) moving in an unknown three-dimensional underwater environment. Such an algorithm is necessary for producing mosaicked images of the ocean floor. The basis of this three-dimensional motion planning algorithm is a new planar algorithm for nonsimply connected areas with boundaries of arbitrary shape. We show that this algorithm generalizes naturally to complex three-dimensional environments in which the terrain to be covered is projectively planar. This planar algorithm represents an improvement over previous algorithms because it results in a shorter path length for the robot and does not assume a polygonal environment. The path length of our algorithm is shown to be linear in the size of the area to be covered; the amount of memory required by the robot to implement the algorithm is linear in the size of the description of the boundary of the area. An example is provided that demonstrates the algorithm’s performance in a nonsimply connected, nonplanar environment.
Steady flows in the chromosphere and transition-zone above active regions as observed by OSO-8

Two years of data from the University of Colorado ultraviolet spectrometer aboard OSO-8 were searched for steady line-of-sight flows in the chromosphere and transition-zone above active regions. The most conspicuous pattern that emerges from this data set is that many sunspots show persistent blueshifts of transition-zone lines indicating velocities of about 20 km s−1 with respect to the surrounding plage areas. The data show much smaller shifts in ultraviolet emission lines arising from the chromosphere: the shifts are frequently to the blue, but sometimes redshifts do occur. Plage areas often show a redshift of the transition-zone lines relative to the surrounding quiet areas, and a strong gradient of the vertical component of the velocity is evident in many plages. One area of persistent blueshift was observed in the transition-zone above an active region filament. The energy requirement of these steady flows over sunspots is discussed.
Effects of stable flies (Diptera: Muscidae) on weight gain and feed efficiency of feedlot cattle.

Data pooled from three individual trials, with average stable fly populations of 2.58, 5.21, and 7.07 per leg, indicated a significant reduction in weight gains and a decrease in feed efficiency among feedlot cattle. Graphs of pooled data and previously reported data, converted to percentage loss on a per fly basis, indicated the economic threshold for stable flies (cost of treatment versus number of flies)is less than two stable flies per leg on feeder heifers.
A new perspective on ℋ 2 controller reduction

This paper considers ℋ 2 or LQG controller reduction from all (suboptimal) stabilizing ℋ 2 controller parametrization. It is shown that the closed-loop stability is guaranteed and performance degradation is limited if certain weighted controller reduction errors are small.
The Supreme Court and the Affordable Care Act: Milestone or Detour on the Road to Universal Coverage?

This commentary discusses the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and how the decision to allow states to opt out of expanding Medicaid could result in...
Reduction numbers, Rees algebras and Pfaffian ideals

Abstract Assuming that (R, m) is a Cohen-Macaulay local ring with infinite residue field and I is an ideal of R having analytic deviation 2, we provide a condition (in terms of a presentation matrix of I, and inspired by work of Vasconcelos) that forces bounds on the reduction number of I. We proceed to apply the condition to various situations. Our main application is to a certain family of 5-generated height 3 Gorenstein ideals of a regular local ring. This application is possible by making use of the structure theorem of Buchsbaum and Eisenbud to express these Gorenstein ideals in terms of the Pfaffians of a 5 × 5 skew-symmetric presentation matrix of I. The applications help to produce Cohen-Macaulay Rees algebra results.
Early women ichthyologists

This paper is a brief summary of some of the women who have worked in the field of ichthyology or studied the biology of fishes in a somewhat broader area. All of the women included were born prior to 1920. It does not include Ethelwynn Trewavas since her life and work are covered in a detailed article by David Noakes. The list of women covered here is not meant to be complete, especially with respect to eastern Europe or Asia, and I welcome suggestions of additional women along with biographical information about them for future work.
Growth of Synthrophomonas wolfei on unsaturated short chain fatty acids

The anaerobic fatty acid-degrading syntrophic bacterium, Syntrophomonas wolfei, was grown in pure culture with either trans-2-pentenoate, trans-2-hexenoate, trans-3-hexenoate, and trans, trans-2,4-hexadienoate as the substrate. Trans-2-pentenoate was fermented to acetate, propionate, butyrate, and valerate. Acetate, butyrate, and hexanoate were produced from the six-carbon mono- and di-unsaturated acids. Propionate was also product from the trans,trans-2,4-hexadienoate which suggested this compound was degraded by another pathway in addition to β-oxidation. The transient production of trans-2-hexenoate from trans-3-hexenoate suggested that the position of the double bound shifted from carbon-3 to carbon-2 prior to β-oxidation. The specific growth rate decreased with increasing carbon length and degree of unsaturation. Molar growth yields ranged from 8.4 to 17.5 mg (dry wt.) per mmol and suggested that energy was conserved not only from substrate-level phosphorylation, but also from the reduction of unsaturated substrate.
In Memoriam: David G. C. McCann, M.D., MPH, FAASFP, FAADM (September 29, 1960 ‐ August 7, 2011)

A commemoration of a great friend and contributor to World Medical & Health Policy journal.
Spatial Transformation of DWI Data Using Non-Negative Sparse Representation

This paper presents an algorithm to transform and reconstruct diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data for alignment of micro-structures in association with spatial transformations. The key idea is to decompose the diffusion-attenuated signal profile, a function defined on a unit sphere, into a series of weighted diffusion basis functions (DBFs), reorient these weighted DBFs independently based on a local affine transformation, and then recompose the reoriented weighted DBFs to obtain the final transformed signal profile. The decomposition is performed in a sparse representation framework in recognition of the fact that each diffusion signal profile is often resulting from a small number of fiber populations. A non-negative constraint is further imposed so that noise-induced negative lobes in the signal profile can be avoided. The proposed framework also explicitly models the isotropic component of the diffusion-attenuated signals to avoid undesirable artifacts during transformation. In contrast to existing methods, the current algorithm executes the transformation directly in the signal space, thus allowing any diffusion models to be fitted to the data after transformation.
Anti-erythrocyte antibodies, leukocytotoxins and human renal allograft survival

ABO blood group compatibility is generally required for successful human kidney transplants and new data suggest donor-recipient incompatibility for the Lewis or multiple minor blood groups is detrimental. This is of special importance in the setting of liberal transfusions prior to transplant. To assess the impact of immunizing exposure to disparate blood groups of ABO-matched transfusions and kidney transplants, we studied the interrelationships of anti-erythrocyte antibodies, leukocytotoxins and graft survival in 42 kidney transplant recipients. Three hundred forty-four sera were screened for anti-erythrocyte antibodies using standard hemagglutination techniques and leukocytotoxins, using the antiglobulin method. Statistical analysis by computer used a 2 x 2 x 2 contingency table with model fitting. Only 13 of 42 patients had anti-erythrocyte antibodies at some time: anti-I (4); anti-Kell (1); cold panagglutinin (7); unidentifiable agglutinin (1). Of 42 patients, 16 had no detectable leukocytotoxins. By computer analysis, immunizations to blood group and HLA antigens were independent phenomena. Analysis showed that leukocytotoxins, but not anti-erythrocyte antibodies, were associated with poor graft survival. A computer generated probability of graft survival by antibody status is presented. We conclude that immunization to blood group antigens is not common, is largely non-specific, and is not detrimental to kidney graft survival.
Adapting the future: Promised land thirty years later

Abstract This article considers the 2001 film adaptation of Karel Schoeman's 1972 novel, Promised land. Where the novel imagines a futuristic South Africa in which the social order has been reversed, the film is set in the present day – a South Africa it seems to understand both more and less. I will argue that the adaptation reaffirms rather than challenges audience identity, labeling the rural, Afrikaner racist as a cultural other and deflecting attention away from larger structures of prejudice and exclusion. Gone is the condition of uncertainty the novel introduced, and gone also is Schoeman's call to individual self-reflection. The article will examine how formal qualities are employed in both film and novel to give and disrupt closure. I will argue that one of the novel's greatest strengths lies in its ability to make the reader identify not only with those who act, but also those who do not. Finally, the article is concerned with allegations of racism as they function within larger political discou...
The ethics of scholarly peer review: a review of the literature

This review summarizes the literature of a subset of the published research and commentary on peer review – the ethics of peer review. It attempts to track the various ethical issues that arise among the key participants in peer-review systems: authors, editors, referees, and readers. These issues include: bias, courtesy, conflict of interest, redundant publication, honesty, transparency, and training. It concludes that debates over such issues as open vs. blind reviews continue unresolved but that new technologies offer some prospects for resolving old issues while they also may create new challenges.
Severe Asthma Complicated by Bilateral Diaphragmatic Paralysis Attributed to Parsonage-Turner Syndrome

Progressive dyspnea that developed in a 52-year-old woman with a lifelong history of asthma did not respond to high-dose orally administered glucocorticoids. Initially, a diagnosis of allergic broncho-pulmonary aspergillosis or hypersensitivity pneumonia was suggested as the cause of the worsening dyspnea. Pulmonary function tests demonstrated severe airway obstruction; substantial improvement was noted after bronchodilator therapy. Maximal inspiratory pressure was decreased, and the diffusing capacity of the lungs was abnormal. Computed tomography of the chest showed no parenchymal or mediastinal abnormalities. During a sniff test, fluoroscopy of her diaphragm disclosed paradoxical motion of both hemidiaphragms during inspiration, consistent with bilateral hemidiaphragmatic paralysis. Parsonage-Turner syndrome was diagnosed. The dose of glucocorticoids was tapered. Follow-up of the patient by telephone contact in March 1994 (9 months after her initial examination at our clinic) revealed that the dyspnea was still severe.
Postural Tachycardia Syndrome

When a person stands up, he or she assumes that the body will automatically make any changes necessary to compensate for the increased gravitational stress this change of position brings. Indeed, standing causes gravity to try to pull nearly one quarter of the body’s blood downward toward the lower arms, legs, and abdomen, reducing the amount of blood available to keep the brain supplied with oxygen. To maintain a constant oxygen supply to the brain and upper body, standing is normally accompanied by an automatic increase in heart rate and the force with which the heart contracts and, most important, a tightening of the blood vessels in the lower part of the body. The combination of these 3 actions pushes blood upward against the force of gravity, thereby maintaining an uninterrupted flow of blood to the brain. The aspect of the nervous system that governs these …
Hypo-activation in the executive core of the sustained attention network in adolescent offspring of schizophrenia patients mediated by premorbid functional deficits.

Abstract Adolescent offspring of schizophrenia patients (SCZ-Off) are vulnerable to psychiatric disorders. Assessing relationships between clinical and biological measures (such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) may elucidate pathways of vulnerability in this group. Here we assessed the relationship between clinically assessed premorbid function, and cortico-striatal activity during sustained attention in controls (HC: with no family history of psychosis) and SCZ-Off. Subjects ( n =39) were assessed using the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes and the Scale of Prodromal Symptoms. Based on the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) score, SCZ-Off were cleaved into "high" or "low" clinically functioning sub-groups (SCZ-Off HF , SCZ-Off LF respectively). During fMRI, subjects participated in a modified continuous performance task (CPT-IP). fMRI was conducted on a Bruker MedSpec 4T system (345 EPI scans; TR=2s; 24 slices; 3.8×3.8×4mm). Results show SCZ-Off LF evinced less activation than both HC and SCZ-Off HF in the executive core of the brain's attentional system (anterior cingulate, dorsal prefrontal cortex and caudate), but not visuo-spatial regions such as primary visual or superior parietal cortex. Differences were independent of behavioral performance, and reduction in activity was related to GAF score in a dose-dependent manner. Assessing the relationship between clinical measures and brain activity in domains such as attention provides a window into mechanisms of vulnerability in the developing adolescent brain.
On the Magnetic Theory of Supraconductors.

A long stretched supraconductive body (wire), placed longitudinally in a homogeneous magnetic field of slowly increasing strength H0 loses its supraconductivity when the field strength reaches a certain critical value Ho = Hc. Measurements by de Haas and Voogd [1] disclosed that the case is different when the direction of the wire is transverse: then the transition takes place at a value of the applied field H0 lower than Hc. By H0 is meant the field as it would be if the supraconductor were absent. When it is present, the strength H is in general different from H0 and varies from point to point, because the field cannot penetrate into the supraconductive material, so that the lines of induction are crowded at its surface. These conditions caused Von Laue [2] to enunciate the following hypothesis: A supraconductive body begins its transition into the normal state when the strongest part of the magnetic field H at its surface reaches the critical value H = Hc. Subsequent measurements by de Haas and co-workers on circular and elliptic cylinders [3] and on spheres4 confirmed Von Laue's rule, so that it must be regarded as firmly established experimentally. Recently it has gained added theoretical importance, having been made by Landau [5] the starting point of interesting considerations on the structure of supraconductors during the process of transition. The theoretical reasons for the dependence of the critical field Hc on the temperature were cleared up in a significant paper by Gorter and Casimir [6], in which these authors also attempted a theoretical derivation of Von Laue's rule. However, this part of their work is, in our opinion, unconvincing and open to certain objections. In view of the great importance of the subject it seemed desirable to study it more closely in order to remove all doubts which may arise. The purpose of the present paper is to supply this want and to modify the derivation of Von Laue's rule in such a way as to meet the objections.
Small-world properties emerge in highly compartmentalized networks with intermediate group sizes and numbers

Many recent studies have focused on two statistical properties observed in diverse real-world networks: the small-world property and compartmentalization [D. J. Watts and S. H. Strogatz, Nature 393, 440 (1998); M. Girvan and M. E. J. Newman, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 99, 7821 (2002)]. Models that include group affiliations have been shown to produce networks with high clustering coefficients, a necessary condition for small-world properties [M. E. J. Newman, Phys. Rev. E, 68, 026121 (2003); M. E. J. Newman and J. Park, Phys. Rev. E 68, 036122 (2003)]. However, the consequences of varying the number and size of groups in a network are not well understood. In order to investigate the consequences of group organization, we examined sets of networks that varied simultaneously in the size and number of groups, while maintaining the same overall size and average degree. Here we show that the small-world property arises in maximally compartmentalized and clustered networks that occur in the intermediate region between few, very large groups and many, very small groups.
Engineered Pendrin Protein, an Anion Transporter and Molecular Motor

Pendrin and prestin both belong to a distinct anion transporter family called solute carrier protein 26A, or SLC26A. Pendrin (SLC26A4) is a chloride-iodide transporter that is found at the luminal membrane of follicular cells in the thyroid gland as well as in the endolymphatic duct and sac of the inner ear, whereas prestin (SLC26A5) is expressed in the plasma membrane of cochlear outer hair cells and functions as a unique voltage-dependent motor. We recently identified a motif that is critical for the motor function of prestin. We questioned whether it was possible to create a chimeric pendrin protein with motor capability by integrating this motility motif from prestin. The chimeric pendrin was constructed by substituting residues 160–179 in human pendrin with residues 156–169 from gerbil prestin. Non-linear capacitance and somatic motility, two hallmarks representing prestin function, were measured from chimeric pendrin-transfected human embryonic kidney 293 cells using the voltage clamp technique and photodiode-based displacement measurement system. We showed that this 14-amino acid substitution from prestin was able to confer pendrin with voltage-dependent motor capability despite the amino acid sequence disparity between pendrin and prestin. The molecular mechanism that facilitates motor function appeared to be the same as prestin because the motor activity depended on the concentration of intracellular chloride and was blocked by salicylate treatment. Radioisotope-labeled formate uptake measurements showed that the chimeric pendrin protein retained the capability to transport formate, suggesting that the gain of motor function was not at the expense of its inherent transport capability. Thus, the engineered pendrin was capable of both transporting anions and generating force.
Semantic Differential Judgments of Cooperators, Competitors and Individualists at Zero-Acquaintance

Students rated videotapes of Cooperative (J), Individualistic (O) and Competitive (R) targets describing their previous day. Some ratings represented the Evaluation dimension of social meaning, and others represented Dynamism. As predicted Js were rated more positively than Non-Js on all scales. This suggests a general positivity in cooperators’ nonverbal behavior. However, the discussion cites recent research showing that in some contexts cooperator detection may be based on negative nonverbal displays.
Antioxidant-rich berries exert modest bone protective effects in postmenopausal smokers without improving biomarkers of bone metabolism

Phenolic compounds from berries have shown bone protective effects in animal studies. We hypothesized that consumption of 45 g of blackberries or blueberries for 9 months will prevent smoking-induced bone loss in postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal smokers (n = 45) and nonsmokers (n = 20) were recruited. Smokers were randomly assigned to treatment groups: smoker control (n = 21); smoker + 45 g freeze-dried blackberries (n = 8); or smoker + 45 g freeze-dried blueberries (n = 16). We measured bone mineral density (BMD) at 0 and 9 months, urinary deoxypyridinoline, bone alkaline phosphate, osteocalcin, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and highly sensitive C-reactive protein at 0, 3, 6, 9 months. Bone loss of total body BMD was statistically significant in S-C and S-BL groups, but not in S-BB and NS groups (p = 0.0284). Findings indicated that blackberries but not blueberries modestly protected against smoking-induced bone loss in postmenopausal smokers.
Temperature and Vascular Volume Effects on Gastric Ulcerogenesis After Cord Transection

Gastric ulcers are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the critically ill, especially those with CNS injury. We used cervical spinal cord transection (CCT) in the rat to model these ulcers and examined the effect of core body temperature and vascular volume on gastric ulcerogenesis. Hypothermia significantly increased ulcerogenesis compared to euthermia, while maintained euthermia produced ulcer indices not different from sham surgery. Hypovolemia (10% blood volume withdrawal) significantly increased ulcerogenesis compared to hypervolemia (10% of blood volume crystalloid infusion) or sham surgery. These results support crystalloid infusion and maintenance of core body temperature in the clinical setting.
Insiders and Outsiders: Towards a Theory of Overseas Cultural Groups

Although overtly concerned with overseas cultural groups, this paper considers social systems in terms of ethnic boundaries, structures, variables and policies. Systems of ethnic status structuralization are outlined; a classification of historic ethnic status systems is proposed; correlates of ethnic identity are formulated; types of boundary patterns are associated with types of ethnic orientation; and the pressures toward ethnic solidarity are associated with degrees of societal specialization and division of labor. The orientation of the paper is historical, cross-cultural and structural. everal things must be immediately obvious S about the subject of this paper. First, what we shall call "insiderness" and "outsiderness" are not exclusively the properties of ethnic status aggregates, whether located overseas or not. Second, it must be equally obvious that any theory of "overseas cultural groups"-or "ethnic status aggregates," as I prefer to call them-must be regarded as a * Prepared for the Upstate New York Conference on Asian Studies, Albany, New York, October 1966. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.59 on Sun, 16 Oct 2016 04:25:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is associated with all‐cause and liver‐related mortality in a cohort of HIV‐infected patients with alcohol problems

Aims To assess the association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and overall and liver-related death in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with alcohol problems. Design We analyzed data from a cohort of HIV-infected adults with current or past alcohol problems enrolled between 2001 and 2003, searching for causes of death until 2010 using the National Death Index. Setting and participants Participants were HIV-infected adults with current or past alcohol problems, recruited in Boston, MA from HIV clinics at two hospitals, homeless shelters, drug treatment programs, subject referrals, flyers and another cohort study with comparable recruitment sites. Measurements The primary and secondary outcomes were all-cause and liver-related mortality, respectively. The main independent variable was hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA status (positive versus negative). Mortality rates and Kaplan–Meier survival curves were calculated by HCV status for both overall and liver-related mortality. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association between HCV infection and overall and liver-related death, adjusting for alcohol and drug use over time. Findings A total of 397 adults (50% HCV-infected) were included. As of 31 December 2009, 83 cohort participants had died (60 HCV-infected, 23 HCV-uninfected; log-rank test P < 0.001), and 26 of those deaths were liver-related (21 HCV-infected, five HCV-uninfected; log-rank test P < 0.001). All-cause and liver-related mortality rates were 4.68 and 1.64 deaths per 100 person-years for HCV-infected patients and 1.65 and 0.36 per 100 person-years for those without HCV, respectively. In the fully adjusted Cox model, HCV infection was associated with both overall [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.50–4.33, P < 0.01], and liver-related mortality (HR = 3.24, 95% CI = 1.18–8.94, P = 0.02]. Conclusion Hepatitis C virus infection is associated independently with all-cause and liver-related mortality in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with alcohol problems, even when accounting for alcohol and other drug use.
The Impact of Moral Theories on Cheating: Studies of Emotion Attribution and Schema Activation

This research series began as a test of an emotion-attribution approach to moral behavior. However, in the early studies, college students who read about morality were subsequently more likely to cheat on a vocabulary test than were control subjects who read materials irrelevant to morality. We hypothesized that resentment toward the test constructors interacted with the moral schemas activated by the reading task. To reduce resentment, in Study III the vocabulary test was presented as the experimenter's doctoral research. As predicted, compared to controls, those subjects who read about morality cheated less. Study IV was a quasi-experiment that confirmed the hypothesized resentment differences between Study III and the earlier studies. In Study V, while two groups read about morality, one group read an internal emotion-attribution passage and the other read an external version; less cheating was observed in the internal condition than in the external or control conditions. The results indicate that even when moral schemas are elicited under conditions favoring moral behavior, those schemas will lead to reduced cheating most effectively under conditions in which subjects attribute their emotional arousal to their own behavior rather than to external causes. Issues of moral schema activation and emotion-attribution in moral behavior are discussed.
SPICE-based mixed-mode S-parameter calculations for four-port and three-port circuits

Mixed-mode s-parameters assist in the design and characterization of four-port and three-port differential RF/microwave circuits. A new method for extracting mixed-mode s-parameters for four-port and three-port circuits modeled with SPICE is presented in which the s-parameters are extracted from node voltages. This method is efficient for circuits that are designed in SPICE and is free from any assumptions or approximations. Furthermore, this method provides valuable information on the relationships between the extracted mixed-mode s-parameters and the circuit's operation. This method is verified for a differential transformer circuit.
Plumbagin inhibits prostate cancer development in TRAMP mice via targeting PKCε, Stat3 and neuroendocrine markers.

Plumbagin (PL), 5-hydroxy-2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone, is a quinoid constituent isolated from the roots of the medicinal plant Plumbago zeylanica L. (also known as chitrak). PL has also been found in Juglans regia (English Walnut), Juglans cinerea (whitenut) and Juglans nigra (blacknut). The roots of P. zeylanica have been used in Indian and Chinese systems of medicine for more than 2500 years for the treatment of various types of ailments. We were the first to report that PL inhibits the growth and invasion of hormone refractory prostate cancer (PCa) cells [Aziz,M.H. et al. (2008) Plumbagin, a medicinal plant-derived naphthoquinone, is a novel inhibitor of the growth and invasion of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Cancer Res., 68, 9024-9032.]. Now, we present that PL inhibits in vivo PCa development in the transgenic adenocarcinoma of mouse prostate (TRAMP). PL treatment (2 mg/kg body weight i.p. in 0.2 ml phosphate-buffered saline, 5 days a week) to FVB-TRAMP resulted in a significant (P < 0.01) decrease in prostate tumor size and urogenital apparatus weights at 13 and 20 weeks. Histopathological analysis revealed that PL treatment inhibited progression of prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) to poorly differentiated carcinoma (PDC). No animal exhibited diffuse tumor formation in PL-treated group at 13 weeks, whereas 75% of the vehicle-treated mice elicited diffuse PIN and large PDC at this stage. At 20 weeks, 25% of the PL-treated animals demonstrated diffuse PIN and 75% developed small PDC, whereas 100% of the vehicle-treated mice showed large PDC. PL treatment inhibited expression of protein kinase C epsilon (PKCe), signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 phosphorylation, proliferating cell nuclear antigen and neuroendocrine markers (synaptophysin and chromogranin-A) in excised prostate tumor tissues. Taken together, these results further suggest PL could be a novel chemopreventive agent against PCa.
Wireless token ring protocol-performance comparison with IEEE 802.11

The paper presents the performance advantage of wireless token ring protocol (WTRP) versus IEEE 802.11 in DCF mode. WTRP is a medium access control (MAC) protocol and is designed to provide quality of service in WLANs. WTRP supports guaranteed QoS in terms of bounded latency and reserved bandwidth which are crucial constraints of the real time applications and inapplicable in an IEEE 802.11 network. WTRP is a distributed MAC protocol and partial connection is enough for full connectivity. The stations take turn to transmit and are forced to suspend the transmission after having the medium for a specified amount of time. WTRP is robust against wireless medium imperfections. The DCF mode of IEEE 802.11, also a distributed MAC protocol, is based on contention among stations and is not homogeneous due to the existence of hidden terminals and random behavior. Consequently, QoS is not provided.
Salmonella Typhimurium type III secretion effectors stimulate innate immune responses in cultured epithelial cells.

Recognition of conserved bacterial products by innate immune receptors leads to inflammatory responses that control pathogen spread but that can also result in pathology. Intestinal epithelial cells are exposed to bacterial products and therefore must prevent signaling through innate immune receptors to avoid pathology. However, enteric pathogens are able to stimulate intestinal inflammation. We show here that the enteric pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium can stimulate innate immune responses in cultured epithelial cells by mechanisms that do not involve receptors of the innate immune system. Instead, S. Typhimurium stimulates these responses by delivering through its type III secretion system the bacterial effector proteins SopE, SopE2, and SopB, which in a redundant fashion stimulate Rho-family GTPases leading to the activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase and NF-κB signaling. These observations have implications for the understanding of the mechanisms by which Salmonella Typhimurium induces intestinal inflammation as well as other intestinal inflammatory pathologies.
Question Order Effects in Taste Testing of Beverages

The effect of order position has been demonstrated in marketing research, sometimes compromising survey results. This paper studies the influence of order position in product taste trials of carbonated beverages using a sequential monadic design. The authors measure attitude ratings across product trials rather than across products to examine the effect of order position on preference ratings.
Adsorptive and fluid phase endocytosis by cultured rabbit corneal endothelium

In addition to maintaining corneal transparency via a pump-leak mechanism, the corneal endothelium plays an active role in the transport of certain proteins to supply nutrients for the stroma and to remove metabolites. In order to investigate transcellular transport mechanisms across the endothelium, we exposed cultured rabbit corneal endothelial cells to tracers that are commonly used to describe various forms of endocytosis. The cells were incubated on their apical surfaces in solutions containing different HRP conjugated lectins (concanavalin A and lens culinaris = alpha-D-mannose, alpha-D-glucose; peanut agglutinin = alpha-D-galactose), cationized ferritin (CF), native ferritin (NF), and HRP alone for 5-60 min and processed for EM cytochemistry. At early times, the lectins and CF were seen bound to the apical plasma membrane, thus indicating adsorptive endocytosis. The NF and the lectins in the presence of their competing sugar as well as HRP showed little or no surface binding, thus being markers for fluid phase endocytosis. At later times, large amounts of lectins and CF were located in round, tubular, or U-shaped vesicles of various sizes, large vacuoles, multivesicular bodies, and in other cytoplasmic compartments. Very little or no uptake was observed with NF, or when the lectins were used in presence of their competing sugars. HRP was seen in moderate amounts only in round or oval shaped vesicles. This study suggests that adsorptive endocytic pathways play a major role in transcellular transport through the corneal endothelium, whereas the transport of macro-molecules via fluid phase endocytosis is more limited. In addition, our observations suggest that adsorptive endocytic tracers undergo various intracellular fates and also appear to be transported through the cells at different rates.
Statistical multiplexing with priorities: tail probabilities of queue lengths and waiting times

We consider the problem of estimating tail probabilities of waiting times and queue lengths in statistical multiplexing systems with two classes of sources-one with high priority and the other with low priority. The priority discipline is assumed to be nonpreemptive. Exact expressions for the transforms of these quantities are derived assuming that packet or cell streams are generated by Markovian arrival processes (MAPs). Then we numerically investigate the large-buffer asymptotic behavior of the waiting-time distribution for low-priority sources and show that these asymptotics may be non-exponential.
Glucose deprivation in tuberous sclerosis complex-related tumors.

Cancer cells possess unique metabolic phenotypes that are determined by their underlying oncogenic pathways. Activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling cascade promotes glycolysis and leads to glucose-dependence in tumors. In particular, cells with constitutive mTORC1 activity secondary to the loss of TSC1/TSC2 function are prone to undergo apoptosis upon glucose withdrawal in vitro, but this concept has not been tested in vivo. This study examines the effects of restricting glucose metabolism by pharmacologic and dietary means in a tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) tumor xenograft model. Tumor-bearing mice were randomly assigned to receive unrestricted carbohydrate-free ("Carb-free") or Western-style diet in the absence or presence of 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) in one of four treatment groups. After 14 weeks, tumor sizes were significantly different among the four treatment groups with those receiving 2-DG having the smallest tumors. Unexpectedly, the "Carb-free" diet was associated with the largest tumors but they remained responsive to 2-DG. PET imaging showed significant treatment-related changes in tumor 18fluorodeoxyglucose-uptake but the standard uptake values did not correlate with tumor size. Alternative energy substrates such as ketone bodies and monounsaturated oleic acid supported the growth of the Tsc2-/- cells in vitro, whereas saturated palmitic acid was toxic. Correspondingly, tumors in the high-fat, "Carb-free" group showed greater necrosis and liquefaction that contributed to their larger sizes. In contrast, 2-DG treatment significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation, increased metabolic stress (i.e., ketonemia) and AMPK activity, whereas rapamycin primarily reduced cell size. Our data support the concept of glycolytic inhibition as a therapeutic approach in TSC whereas dietary withdrawal of carbohydrates was not effective.
Transgastric instrumentation and bacterial contamination of the peritoneal cavity

Introduction Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is a rapidly evolving technique providing access to the peritoneum utilizing an endoscope via a natural orifice. One of the most significant requirements of this technique is the need to minimize the risk of clinically significant peritoneal contamination. We report the bacterial load and contamination of the peritoneal cavity in patients requiring a gastrotomy Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LSRYGB).