cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pharmacologic Prophylaxis and Treatment of Stress Ulcers in Critically Ill Patients

Most clinicians agree that critically ill patients are at significant risk of developing stress-related ulcers and may have already developed mucosal lesions even if they are asymptomatic. Many options, including new pharmacologic advances, are available for the treatment and prophylaxis of stress-related ulcers; therefore, all critically ill patients should receive prophylaxis, even if they do not require treatment. Nutrition may play a significant role in the future in preventing stress-related ulcers. By improving stores of critical elements such as antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals before surgery, patients may lower the risk of developing stress ulcers. Critical care clinicians are critical in preventing and treating stress-related ulcers and should be vigilant in their patient care.
Galactic Cosmic-Ray Manganese: Ulysses High Energy Telescope Results

The Ulysses High Energy Telescope (HET) allows for a study of Galactic cosmic-ray manganese because of the telescope's excellent mass resolution and large collecting area. The manganese isotopes in the cosmic rays provide a means of studying the parameters of the cosmic-ray propagation in the Galaxy. Each of the isotopes probes a separate aspect of the propagation model.53Mn, a long-lived electron capture species, measures the time between the nucleosynthesis and acceleration of the cosmic rays. There is no evidence found for a source of 53Mn, but sensitivity to this is limited. The isotope 54Mn decays in the laboratory with τ1/2 = 312 days by electron capture, but in the cosmic rays, it has a β- decay mode with an unmeasured partial half-life. From the HET data, this partial half-life is found to be near 1 Myr, if the iron-group cosmic rays propagate like the lighter cosmic rays. This measurement raises the lower limit on the 54Mn β- partial half-life by a factor of ~3. The iron-group escape time from the Galaxy, even if the iron-group cosmic rays do not propagate as the lower charge cosmic rays, is found to be ~18τ. Finally, the stable 55Mn is found to have a source abundance, relative to iron, consistent with a solar system abundance at the source.
The influence of family environment and child temperament on work/family role strain for mothers and fathers

This study examined the additive effect of structural variables, child characteristics, and the family environment on mothers' and fathers' work/family role strain. Differences between mothers and fathers on these variables were also examined. The sample consisted of 36 dualearner families whose children had been in daycare from infancy through 4 years of age. Structural variables included work schedules and time spent with child for mothers only, fathers only, and both parents together with child. Child characteristics included temperament and health. Family environment variables included different components of the family environment (conflict, cohesion, expressiveness, organization, and control) and parenting daily hassles. Results showed that mothers' time with child and caregiving for child were greater than fathers'. Mothers reported more expressiveness in the family and more daily hassles with children than fathers. Mothers' level of role strain was also significantly higher than fathers'. For mothers, role strain was associated with hours away from home, child sociability, family conflict, and daily hassles resulting in an R2 of 0.57. Fathers' role strain was associated with family expressiveness, organization, and their wives' daily hassles resulting in an R2 of 0.37. Data suggest that mothers' and fathers' role strain may be driven by somewhat different factors. For women, aspects of the family and the child and work hours accounted for a considerable portion of the variance while for men, only aspects of the family environment were associated with their level of role strain. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synchronized diastolic coronary venous retroperfusion: Results of a preclinical safety and efficacy study

The safety and efficacy of a new clinical synchronized diastolic retroperfusion mechanical pump and autoinflatable balloon catheter was studied in 10 dogs during and after 6 hours of left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion. Eight other dogs served as the untreated control group. Infarct size measured by triphenyltetrazolium chloride, and expressed as a percent of area at risk, was significantly reduced by retroperfusion treatment (19 ± 18 versus 58 ± 36, p
Metabolic Energy Expenditure and Terrain Coefficients for Walking on Snow

Abstract Ten male subjects each walked at two speeds, 0·67 and 1·12 m s−1 (1·5 and 2·5 mph) on a level treadmill, and on a variety of snow depths. Energy expenditure increased linearly with increasing depth of footprint depression and was expressed, considering clothed weight, by the regression equation: energy expenditure (W kg−1 hor km−1 h−1) = 1·18 + 0·089 depression (cm). At 45 cm footprint depression as compared to a 0 cm depression, energy expenditure increased by a ratio of approximately 5 : 1. Although subjects were considered above average in terms of fitness [average [Vdot]O2max =51·4 ml kg−1 min−1 (n = 6)], all terminated walking due to exhaustion at an average footprint depth of 35·0 cm at a walking speed of 1·12m s−1. Practical limits for prolonged snow walking not exceeding approximately 50% [Vdot]O2max were developed with 20 cm being the maximal depth at 0·67 m s−1, and 10 cm at 1·12 m s−1 without snow shoes. At increased footprint depths, limiting factors for snow walking were the increasi...
Advancing the treatment of malignant glioma: act local, think global.

radiotherapy in the treatment of newly diagnosed malignant gliomas. Over the past decade they have treated 46 such patients, the majority of whom have had a glioblastoma multiforme. A subset of these patients could be evaluated for toxicity or complications related to the combination of Gliadel and radiotherapy with the conclusion that this combination is safe and well tolerated. It should be noted that half of these patients did deteriorate neurologically during radiotherapy but improved with an increase in steroid dosing. This is useful information as the group at Johns Hopkins has one of the longest and largest experience in the use Gliadel polymers. The authors importantly emphasize that the use of Gliadel may limit patient participation in future clinical trials. This is a critical consideration for any patient with a newly diagnosed malignant glioma as Gliadel, similar to most advances in the treatment of malignant brain tumors, has achieved only modest success with respect to tumor control. Local delivery of chemotherapeutic agents as well as a number of other biologic, immunologic, and genetic therapies is an area of active development in neurooncology. Polymer-based therapy is one technique to deliver chemotherapies or other agents that otherwise do not penetrate the blood-brain barrier to the surgical bed. However, this approach should be viewed with caution. Polymer-based therapies deliver high concentrations of drug close to the location where they are placed but significant diffusion into surrounding tissue does not occur. Furthermore, polymers placed in the center of a surgical resection are being placed in a location where the blood-brain barrier is already damaged and relatively permeable, whereas the target of therapy, residual microscopic tumor, is distant from the resection core, distant from the polymer and diffusing therapy, and behind an intact blood-brain barrier. Substances that normally do not penetrate the bloodbrain barrier and are, therefore, ideal candidates for polymer-based delivery may cause previously unrecognized neurologic toxicity. Positive-pressure microinfusion or convection enhanced delivery is another strategy being developed to deliver local therapies to malignant brain tumors but with a more specific intent to achieve diffusion of large molecules into brain parenchymacontaining residual microscopic tumor. These are all novel strategies worthy of trial against a frustrating target. It is reasonable to be hopeful that these approaches may yield further modest gains in the treatment of malignant gliomas. However, the real difficulty is that while most gliomas recur locally this is not a local disease. Viable tumor cells can be found at a significant distance from the primary tumor mass. Therefore, a real breakthrough in treatment will require further understanding of glioma biology with a novel therapeutic approach that can be administered systemically.
Protein kinase C inhibition by sphingoid long-chain bases: Effects on secretion in human neutrophils☆

Abstract Sphingoid long-chain bases (sphinganine and sphingosine) have recently been shown to inhibit protein kinase C both in vitro [Y. Hannun et al. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261 , 12604–12609] and in intact human neutrophils, in which they block activation of the superoxide-generating respiratory burst [E. Wilson et al. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261 , 12616–12623]. In the present study we have used sphingosine to investigate the pathways for agonist-induced secretion of neutrophil granule contents. Induction of secretion of the specific granule component lactoferrin by a variety of agonists [phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP), and calcium ionophore A23187] was completely inhibited by sphingosine with an ED 50 of 6 to 10 μ m . PMA-induced secretion of lysozyme (present in both the azurophilic and specific granules) was completely blocked with an ED 50 of 10 μ m , whereas fMLP-induced secretion was only about 50% inhibited. Secretion of the azurophilic granule proteins β-glucuronidase and myeloperoxidase was activated by fMLP and A23187, but not by PMA, and was not affected by sphingosine. The use of A23187 in the presence of sphingosine allowed differentiation between calcium activation of protein kinase C-dependent versus -independent pathways. The effect of sphingosine was not mediated by neutralizing intracellular acidic compartments, since treatment of neutrophils with inhibitory concentrations of sphingosine did not significantly alter the uptake of labeled methylamine. We conclude that at least two mechanisms participate in the regulation of specific and azurophilic granule secretion, respectively: a protein kinase C-dependent pathway and a calcium-dependent pathway which does not involve protein kinase C.
Flash Vacuum Thermolysis of η5-Oxocyclohexadienyl Complexes of Ruthenium To Give η5-Cyclopentadienyl Ligands

The previously reported η5-oxocyclohexadienyl complexes [Ru(C5Me5)(2−6-η-C5H5CO)] (5) and [Ru(C5Me5)(2−6-η-2,6-C5tBu2H3CO)] (6) have been prepared in better yields by treatment of [Ru(C5Me5)Cl]4 with the thallium salts of the corresponding phenols. Subjection of 5 to flash vacuum thermolysis (FVT) results in extrusion of CO and formation of the known cyclopentadienyl complex [Ru(C5Me5)(C5H5]; analogous FVT of 6 also results in extrusion of CO, but in addition to the expected product [Ru(C5Me5)(1,2-C5tBu2H3)] (7), the corresponding isomeric complex [Ru(C5Me5)(1,3-C5tBu2H3)] (8) is formed. Complexes 7 and 8 have been synthesized independently by solution phase chemistry in order to provide authentic samples for comparison; control experiments show that 7 and 8 do not interconvert under the thermolysis conditions and that no rearrangement of recovered starting material is observed.
Anger as a Frequent Factor in Custody Evaluation Complaints to Boards of Psychology

In order to provide the highest quality services when court-ordered to do child custody evaluations, it is important for mental health professionals, particularly psychologists who do psychological testing, to be clear about the ethical requirements associated with the child custody evaluation process. They should be impartial, thorough, and competent focusing on the best interest of the child. Mental health professionals have been accused of unethical and illegal behavior when doing such evaluations, in part, due to the anger associated with the outcome and/or the process. The ethical issues most associated with licensing board and ethics committee complaints and civil lawsuits focus on bias, informed consent, lack of symmetry, timeliness, finances, confidentiality, negligence, chemical dependency, multiple relationships, and failure to report/omissions.
Ultrastructure and biochemistry of the pineal organ in deep-sea lanternfishes (Myctophidae).

Pineal structural and biochemical adaptations in lanternfishes included: 1) few photoreceptor outer segment discs; 2) conventional synapses between photoreceptors and pineal neurons; and 3) low levels (0–60 pg/pineal) of serotonin compared to those (>1.0 ng/pineal) in the goldfish pineal organ. These findings suggest reduced photosensory and/or neuroendocrine functions in these deep-sea fishes.
PEDIATRIC NONINVASIVE NASAL VENTILATION

Noninvasive nasal ventilation is an effective but underutilized method of chronic respiratory support for patients with respiratory insufficiency due to neuromuscular disease. Noninvasive nasal ventilation corrects nocturnal hypoxia and hypercapnia, resolving symptoms of chronic alveolar hypoventilation. Noninvasive nasal ventilation can allow selected patients with acute respiratory failure to avoid intubation and it can facilitate endotracheal extubation. Practical guidelines and the rationale for pediatric noninvasive nasal ventilation therapy will be discussed in this review.
New Perspectives on Tudor Cultures. Edited by Mike Pincombe and Zsolt Almási . (Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. Pp. vii, 292. $67.99.)

The title of this collection of conference essays is a bit of a misnomer because the scholarship is confined almost exclusively to literary criticism, with little attention given to culture in a so...
Perspective taking and prejudice reduction: the mediational role of empathy arousal and situational attributions

This research was designed to examine whether perspective taking promotes improved intergroup attitudes regardless of the extent that stereotypic perceptions of outgroups are endorsed, as well as examining the mechanisms (attributional or empathy related) by which perspective taking motivates improved intergroup attitudes. Participants were presented with an interview segment where an African American interviewee discussed the difficulties experienced as a result of his membership in a negatively stereotyped group. Materials were presented in a 2 (perspective taking: other focused or objective focused) × 2 (target stereotypicality: confirming or disconfirming) between participants design. Findings revealed that the manipulation of target stereotypicality influenced subsequent stereotype endorsement; those exposed to a stereotype confirming target later endorsed more stereotypic perceptions of African Americans than did those exposed to a stereotype disconfirming target. However, perspective taking promoted improved intergroup attitudes irrespective of stereotypicality; those encouraged to adopt the perspective of the target later reported more favourable intergroup attitudes than did those who remained detached and objective listeners. Whereas empathy partially mediated the relation between perspective taking and intergroup attitudes, situational attributions were a stronger and more reliable mediator. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Real Boats Rock: A Transdisciplinary Approach for Teacher Preparation.

Building upon a successful teacher preparation program, we crafted a seamless curriculum of four methods courses-literacy, math, social studies, and science within a transdisciplinary framework. We...
Strain-hardening fiber cement optimization and component tailoring by means of a micromechanical model

Abstract It is well known that fibers can impart tensile ductility into fiber cement products. Specific rational guideline for engineering desirable fiber, matrix, and interface properties leading to optimized fiber cement product performance; however, is scarce. This paper discusses the theoretical basis for composite optimization of synthetic fiber reinforced cement that leads to maximum tensile ductility while minimizing the content of the expensive fiber component of fiber cement products. Specific tailoring of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber and polypropylene (PP) fiber and experimentally verified tensile ductility characteristics of the resulting fiber cement products are employed to illustrate the theoretical concepts. It is demonstrated that high product performance can be achieved with minimal amount of fibers via composite optimization. The theoretical tools developed are applicable to a wide range of fiber types and matrix types.
Single Molecule Kinetics of cAMP-Dependent Protein Kinase Monitored Continuously by a Carbon Nanotube Transistor

cAMP-dependent Protein Kinase (PKA) is a protein that plays a critical role in cell signaling by means of protein phosphorylation. In this work, the kinetics of PKA activity were monitored with the aid of a single-walled carbon nanotube transistor. Molecule-by-molecule processivity was directly recorded using an individual PKA catalytic subunit attached to this sensitive transducer. The binding of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and/or kemptide, a peptide substrate, both drove conformational changes that could be electrically monitored with sub-millisecond resolution over durations of 10 minutes or more. In environments containing either binding partner, binding and dissociation rates and rate variability were determined from many thousands of individual events. For ATP, the on-rate varies over a range of 20-1000 Hz due to dynamic disorder of the apoenzyme. In fact, single molecule monitoring allowed us to directly record periods of fast and slow binding. In the presence of both ATP and kemptide, more complicated signals resulted from PKA alternating between its apo, binary, and catalytically-active ternary complex. This three-state system was extensively monitored to determine its transition probability matrix and rates. Within our resolution of 0.1ms, the apoenzyme preferentially forms the ternary-complex, with only 27% of binding events pausing at the intermediate, binary complex. Our single molecule measurements observed a varying catalytic turnover rate of 5-100 Hz over 10 sec intervals with a time averaged rate of 30 Hz, consistent with the 20 Hz rate from ensemble measurements.
Modeling the effect of heavy vehicles on sign occlusion at multilane highways

The research presented in this paper is concerned with modeling the occlusion of ground-mounted traffic signs by heavy vehicles on multilane highways. It is part of a more extensive research effort to examine the different factors that determine the effect of heavy vehicles on the visibility of traffic signs. An analytical tool was developed where road geometry, traffic sign, and moving entities are simulated over space at any point in time. This tool dynamically models the movement and location of passenger cars and trucks on the facility upstream of the subject traffic sign and verifies the continuity of sightline between the subject driver and traffic sign. Besides roadway and sign geometry, the model accounts for other traffic conditions such as traffic level, percentage of trucks, lane utilization, and average speeds of passenger cars and trucks. The occlusion of ground-mounted traffic signs by heavy vehicles is estimated using two measures. The first measure is the probability of a traffic sign being occluded by heavy vehicles under certain traffic and geometric conditions. The second measure estimates the likelihood of a passenger car driver missing the sign based on the minimum time required for the driver to detect, recognize, and read the message.
Conformational changes of heparin in concentrated urea solution

Conformational changes of heparin in concentrated urea solutions were examined by viscosity and kinetic measurements. The viscosity results are treated using the relation ζsp/C = [ζ]x (1 + k/√C) in an effort to separate out the factors controlling the overall conformational changes –they are, electrostatic interaction and backbone configuration. In 10 M urea, kinetic studies of heparin viscosity revealed the following: (1) after the solution has been shaken for 2.5 hr at 25°C, both [ζ]x and k agree well with the corresponding values previously obtained in the solvents of low dielectric constants; and (2) at higher temperatures, the viscosity decreases from this value. The kinetic data suggest that the reaction consists of two consecutive processes. The first process is too fast to be followed adequately by viscosity. The second process follows first-order kinetics and the rate constants are proportional to temperature but inversely proportional to heparin concentration. The activation energy for the second process is 35 kcal/mole. For the first process, the parameter [ζ]x increases while k decreases. In the second process, both [ζ]x and k decrease. These kinetic viscosity results suggest that the relaxation of the electrostatic interaction at high dielectric constant will cause a rapid collapse of the ionic atmosphere with an expansion of back-bone configuration. Then, thermal motion will cause the heparin molecule to become more compact. A molecular model for the polyelectrolyte is postulated, which is a modified version of the Strauss-Ander model.
Body-based interaction for desktop games

Interaction for desktop games is mostly limited to keyboard and mouse input. We are investigating the benefits of adding body-based interaction to complement keyboard and mouse interaction in desktop gaming. We present a proof-of-concept implementation of body-based navigation for the game World of Warcraft, and a formative evaluation to test the feasibility of this kind of interaction. Our observations provide evidence that body-based interaction in addition to keyboard and mouse can help players perform more tasks at the same time and can be especially attractive and helpful to new players. Our study also revealed design consideration for this type of interaction.
Enabling FPGA support in Matlab based heterogeneous systems

FPGAs have been shown to provide orders of magnitude improvement over CPUs and GPUs in terms of absolute performance and energy efficiency for various kernels such as Cholesky decomposition, matrix inversion, and FFT among others. Despite this, the overall performance of many applications suffer when implemented entirely in FPGAs. Combining FPGAs with CPUs and GPUs provides the range of capabilities needed to support diverse computational requirements of applications. Integrating FPGAs into these systems challenges application developers with constructing hardware kernel implementations and interfacing from the low level hardware logic in the FPGA to the high speed networks that connect processors in the system. In this work we extend the compute capabilities of Matlab by incorporating support for FPGAs and automating the parallel code generation. We characterize the system and evaluate the performance gains that can be achieved by adding the FPGA for two compute intensive applications. We present performance results for medical imaging and fluid dynamics applications implemented in a CPU+GPU+FPGA system and achieved up to 40× improvement compared to the standard Matlab CPU+GPU environment.
Hydrodynamic instabilities in supernova remnants - Self-similar driven waves

An initial study aimed at elucidating the multidimensional aspects of the hydrodynamic instabilities in supernova remnants is presented. Self-similar solutions are found to exist for the interaction of a steep power-law density profile expanding into a relatively flat stationary power-law density profile. Consideration of the pressure and entropy profiles in the shocked 1D flows shows that the flows are subject to convective instability, by a local criterion. The growth rate for the instability becomes very large near the contact discontinuity between the two shocked regions. A linear analysis of the complete self-similar solutions shows that the solutions are unstable above a critical wavenumber and that the growth rate is greatest at the position of the contact discontinuity. The X-ray image of the remnant of SN 1572 (Tycho) shows emission from clumps of supernova ejecta, which is good evidence for instabilities in this remnant.
Coordinating concurrent development

Development of any large system or artifact requires the coordination of many developers. Development activities can occur concurrently. The goal of coordination is to enhance, not restrict, developer productivity, while ensuring that concurrent development activities do not clash with one another.This paper presents a formal model of concurrent development, in which development consists of a collection of modification activities that change files, and merges that combine the changes. We define a notion of consistency called coordination consistency that ensures that changes are not inadvertently destroyed and that the changes of each modification activity are correctly propagated to subsequent modification activities. We briefly present a set of protocols for concurrent development using a hierarchy of stores that ensure coordination consistency.
The role of supraorbital nerve biopsy in cutaneous malignancies of the periocular region

Purpose To describe clinical situations in which a biopsy or resection of the supraorbital nerve may play a role in patients in whom perineural invasion secondary to cutaneous head and neck malignancies is suspected. Methods The clinical records of 230 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) of the skin of the head and neck who were treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center between April 1994 and March 2001 were reviewed. Thirty-five patients were identified as having primary lesions on the forehead skin. Of these, 8 patients had microscopic or clinical evidence of perineural invasion. Four of these 8 patients had undergone a supraorbital nerve biopsy or resection in the course of their treatment. Although all 4 patients were classified as having had SCCA, 1 patient had a variant of undifferentiated SCCA that more appropriately should have been classified as lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma. The clinical history was reviewed in each case. The median follow-up time for this cohort was 47 months (range, 24 to 72 months). Results The 4 cases reported here illustrate that a supraorbital nerve biopsy can help confirm the diagnosis of perineural invasion, identify the extent of tumor infiltration, and help in staging of particularly aggressive cutaneous malignancies of the periocular region. Access to the proximal (orbital) portion of the nerve can be accomplished through an anterior orbitotomy. Conclusions A biopsy of the peripheral branches of the trigeminal nerve may be indicated as part of the staging or to confirm the diagnosis of perineural invasion in patients with SCCA or other locally aggressive cutaneous malignancies of the head and neck.
Ebstein's anomaly and life expectancy. Report of a survival to over age 79.

Abstract The case report of a woman with Ebstein's anomaly of the tricuspid valve living over 79 years is presented with postmortem data. The average life expectancy at birth of individuals with this disease determined from 219 cases was 37 years. It was 33 years for males and nearly 39 for females. The differences in survival rates between male and female patients at ages 10 and 15 was significant and favored the male.
Clinical response in psoriasis patients discontinued from and then reinitiated on etanercept therapy.

Background: Although continuous therapy with the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist, etanercept, has been shown to have a favorable benefit to risk profile in the treatment of moderate to sever...
Time course of response of starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) urinary bladder to prolactin and to salinity transfer.

Abstract A single injection of prolactin into seawater-acclimated flounder, Platichthys stellatus , caused a decrease in the permeability of the bladder to water (mucosa to serosa) with an increase in sodium absorption by the bladder and a decrease in urine osmolality and sodium concentration. A simultaneous increase occurred in plasma sodium and osmolality. Maximal effects were observed 2 days after the injection, and the effects disappeared after 4 days. Transfer of seawater fish to fresh water similarly resulted in a maximal decrease in bladder water permeability and in serum sodium concentration by 2 days after transfer. Serum sodium increased to the normal freshwater level by 14 days. Bladder water permeability increased significantly 2 days after transfer from fresh water to sea water, and attained the fully adapted level by 14 days, whereas plasma sodium increased maximally by 2 days after transfer and decreased to the normal level by 7 days. A change in pituitary prolactin content as determined by the xanthophore pigment-dispersion test was observed within 12 hr after salinity transfer. The parallelism between the time of response of serum and urine adjustments and urinary bladder permeability following prolactin treatment and that following changes in environmental salinity adds additional support for an osmoregulatory function for the urinary bladder in the starry flounder.
Abstract 2475: Zpo2 promotes aggressive breast cancer development through downregulation of GATA3

Metastatic breast cancer is the major cause of poor prognosis and death in women. The transcription factor GATA3 is a key mediator of luminal cell fate determination and homeostasis in adult mammary gland. Loss of GATA3 has been associated with development of metastatic mammary tumors. Here we describe a novel role for transcriptional repressor, Zeppo2 (zinc finger elbow-related proline domain protein2; Zpo2) (ZNF503) in promoting metastatic breast cancer through modulation of GATA3. We demonstrate that Zpo2, through its interaction with repressor of GATA (ROG) is capable of modulating GATA3 transcription in mammary epithelial cells. Overexpression of Zpo2 results in upregulation of EMT associated genes, decreased cell-cell adhesion and increased cellular invasiveness in 3D cultures. Additionally, overexpression of Zpo2 in mammary tumor cells results in enhancement of tumor growth and increased metastasis in orthotopic transplant models. Furthermore, to investigate the importance of Zpo2 in human breast cancer metastasis, we utilized a series of new patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models (primary human xenograft models). The PDX models ranged from poorly metastatic to highly metastatic as was observed in the (affected) original patients. Interestingly, higher Zpo2 expression levels correlate with more aggressive xenograft tumor models. Collectively, our data suggests that Zpo2 plays a potentially significant role in initiating aggressive breast cancer by modulating GATA3 in mammary epithelial cells. Citation Format: Payam Shahi, Euan M. Slorach, Jonathan Chou, Devon Lawson, Ying Yu, Zena Werb. Zpo2 promotes aggressive breast cancer development through downregulation of GATA3. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2475. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2475
Contrast enhancement and assessment in Raman chemical imaging of a breast tissue model system

In continuing efforts to develop a Raman `optical biopsy' technique, the lipid and protein distribution in an animal model system was differentiated without the use of invasive contrast agents. Tissue component discrimination is based on the unique vibrational spectra intrinsic to lipids and proteins. Component discrimination is possible using ratiometric image analysis techniques. However, chemical image contrast is enhanced when processing techniques are employed that use more the Raman spectrum than simply one or two Raman spectral bands. Contrast enhancement is quantitated by using an edge detection technique to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of multivariate processing.
Improved rates of colorectal cancer screening in an equal access population

Abstract Background National colorectal cancer (CRC) screening averages 50% to 60%. We aimed to identify screening prevalence in select Department of Defense (DOD) beneficiaries with equal access to care. Methods December 2007 cross-sectional data of patients over 50 years of age included patient demographics, screening modality, and compliance. Results Of 17,252 patients (52% male; mean age 63.2 ± 8.1 years), 12,229 (71%) were up-to-date with national screening guidelines. Modalities included colonoscopy (83.0%), flexible sigmoidoscopy with fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) (32.2%), and air-contrast barium enema (0.7%). African American or Hispanic background (70% African American, 68% Hispanic vs 73% Caucasian), younger patients (66.1% 65 years), and male gender (69.9% vs 72.1%; all P Conclusions Although ethnicity-, gender-, and age-related disparities were observed, screening rates are improved in an equal access healthcare system.
A multi-stage compartmental model for HIV-infected individuals: II – Application to insurance functions and health-care costs

Stochastic population processes have received a lot of attention over the years. One approach focuses on compartmental modeling. Billard and Dayananda (2012) developed one such multi-stage model for epidemic processes in which the possibility that individuals can die at any stage from non-disease related causes was also included. This extra feature is of particular interest to the insurance and health-care industries among others especially when the epidemic is HIV/AIDS. Rather than working with numbers of individuals in each stage, they obtained distributional results dealing with the waiting time any one individual spent in each stage given the initial stage. In this work, the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on several functions relevant to these industries (such as adjustments to premiums) is investigated. Theoretical results are derived, followed by a numerical study.
Gender and Environmental Concern: Insights from Recent Work and for Future Research

Research on environmental concern in the past few decades consistently finds that women express slightly greater environmental concern than men. This pattern is robust across samples, nations, time, and facets of environmental concern measured. In a recent suite of articles analyzing data from a few nationally representative data sets for the U.S. general public, we examine explanations for gender differences in environmental concern derived from gender socialization theory. We explain our key findings here, before providing five insights for supporting a comprehensive research agenda on gender and environmental concern. These range from specific suggestions on conceptual measurement and analytical techniques to more general ones for improving our social science data infrastructure.
Analysis of regularity in skin pigmentation and vascularity by an optimized feature space for early cancer classification

Melanin pigmentation of the skin and the underlying blood vasculature is strongly correlated as biomarkers for the progressive stages in skin cancer. With the surge in keen interest among private and public organizations for research and development of optical scanners for imaging the skin and early cancer detection, it is also crucial from the patient usage point of view to have a reliable diagnostic algorithm that supports the underlined medical instrumentation. Here, we describe an optimally discriminative feature space to create a linearly separable cluster for each class of skin sample data points that are inherently seen to be highly random in nature. The dermoscopic skin lesion images utilized to train the system belong to three classes; namely, benign, dysplastic nevi, and malignant. Features are extracted from the spatial and spectral appearance of a skin lesion and its respective Fourier domain representation. Feature attributes are clustered in a three dimensional space with a classification accuracy of 93.3%. Thereby this method has high potential for device independent skin anomaly detection.
The Role of Calcium Activated Protease Calpain in Experimental Retinal Pathology

The purpose of this review is to present the recent evidence linking the family of ubiquitous proteases called calpains (EC 3.4.22.17) to neuropathologies of the retina. The hypothesis being tested in such studies is that over-activation of calpains by elevated intracellular calcium contributes to retinal cell death produced by conditions such as elevated intraocular pressure and hypoxia. Recent x-ray diffraction studies have provided insight into the molecular events causing calpain activation. Further, x-ray diffraction data has provided details on how side chains on calpain inhibitors affect docking into the active site of calpain 1. This opens the possibility of testing calpain-specific inhibitors, such as SJA6017 and SNJ1945, for human safety and as a site-directed form of treatment for retinal pathologies.
Late adolescents' perceptions of their relationships with their parents: Relationships among deidealization, autonomy, relatedness, and insecurity and implications for adolescent adjustment and ego identity status

Questionnaire data from 376 undergraduates (mean age=19.3 years) were used to test a model describing interrelationships among deidealization, relatedness, autonomy, and insecurity in late adolescents' relationships with their parents. As expected, deidealization predicted greater autonomy and less relatedness (i.e., more disengagement), greater disengagement predicted greater insecurity, and greater insecurity predicted less autonomy. However, disengagement from parents proved to be a “double-edged sword” in that it was linked not only to insecurity, but also to feelings of greater separateness and self-directedness in relation, to parents. Additional analyses identified significant associations between the adolescent/parent relationship variables and the adolescents' psychological health and ego identity status.
Diagnosis and Current Treatments for Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction: A Review

The sacroiliac joint (SIJ) is a common pain generator for individuals with low back pain. Diagnosis and treatment of sacroiliac joint dysfunction is often a challenge due to the complex anatomy and biomechanics of the joint. In addition, patient presentation is often nonspecific. The purpose of this review article is to provide a concise overview of the relevant anatomy, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and the current conservative as well as interventional treatments for SIJ dysfunction.
Who should treat pyloric stenosis: the general or specialist pediatric surgeon?

Abstract Recent reports suggest that children under 3 years of age are best operated on by a specialist pediatric surgeon. In the United Kingdom, hypertrophic pyloric stenosis traditionally has been treated by adult general surgeons. Should this change? In 1991, a retrospective review of 10 years' experience with pyloric stenosis, managed by general surgeons in a large district general hospital, was published. In 1989, an accredited pediatric surgeon, who largely took over the management of pyloric stenosis, was appointed to the staff. His results with 70 children over a 5-year period (series 2) were reviewed retrospectively and compared with the previously published general surgical series of 170 children (series 1). There was no significant difference in the gender, age, or weight distribution between the two series. There was a marked difference in the rates of wound infection (15.5% in series 1; 2.8% in series 2; P P P
Role of Cellular Cholesterol Metabolism in Vascular Cell Calcification

Vascular calcification impairs vessel compliance and increases the risk of cardiovascular events. We found previously that liver X receptor agonists, which regulate intracellular cholesterol homeostasis, augment PKA agonist- or high phosphate-induced osteogenic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells. Because cholesterol is an integral component of the matrix vesicles that nucleate calcium mineral, we examined the role of cellular cholesterol metabolism in vascular cell mineralization. The results showed that vascular smooth muscle cells isolated from LDL receptor null (Ldlr−/−) mice, which have impaired cholesterol uptake, had lower levels of intracellular cholesterol and less osteogenic differentiation, as indicated by alkaline phosphatase activity and matrix mineralization, compared with WT cells. PKA activation with forskolin acutely induced genes that promote cholesterol uptake (LDL receptor) and biosynthesis (HMG-CoA reductase). In WT cells, inhibition of cholesterol uptake by lipoprotein-deficient serum attenuated forskolin-induced matrix mineralization, which was partially reversed by the addition of cell-permeable cholesterol. Prolonged activation of both uptake and biosynthesis pathways by cotreatment with a liver X receptor agonist further augmented forskolin-induced matrix mineralization. Inhibition of either cholesterol uptake, using Ldlr−/− cells, or of cholesterol biosynthesis, using mevastatin-treated WT cells, failed to inhibit matrix mineralization due to up-regulation of the respective compensatory pathway. Inhibition of both pathways simultaneously using mevastatin-treated Ldlr−/− cells did inhibit forskolin-induced matrix mineralization. Altogether, the results suggest that up-regulation of cholesterol metabolism is essential for matrix mineralization by vascular cells.
The design and application of the PowerPC 405LP energy-efficient system-on-a-chip

The PowerPCÂ® 405LP system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor, which was developed for high-content, battery-powered application space, provides dynamic voltage-scaling and on-the-fly frequency-scaling capabilities that allow the system and applications to adapt to changes in their performance demands and power constraints during operation. The 405LP operates over a voltage supply range of 1.95 to 0.9 V with a range of power efficiencies of 1.0 to 3.9 MIPS/mW when executing the Dhrystone benchmark. Operating system and application software support allow the applications to take full advantage of the energy-efficiency capabilities of the SoC. This paper describes the organization of the SoC design, details the capabilities provided in the design to match the performance and power consumption with the need of the application, describes how these capabilities are employed, and presents measured results for the PowerPC 405LP processor.
Interspinous Ligament Calcification in a Collegiate Gymnast

A 21-year-old collegiate gymnast presented with midline pain at the thoracolumbar junction upon back extension and a "gritty" sensation at that level. Ultrasound revealed an area of hyperechogenicity, representing a calcification, within the interspinous ligament at the area of maximal tenderness at the T12-L1 level. Under ultrasound guidance, multiple fenestrations were made into the calcification and a mixture of lidocaine and triamcinolone was injected. The patient experienced immediate improvement in her symptoms, and resolution occurred during the subsequent 6 weeks; she was able to make a gradual return to gymnastics. Interspinous ligament calcification in a young athlete has not been previously reported.
Smart-pixel module development for free-space optical interconnects

Over the years, the distances at which optical interconnect technology is considered competitive with copper has been steadily decreasing. For instance, initial implementation of fiber optic communication was in long distance telecommunications. Eventually fiber optic links began to appear in local area network backbones over distance scales from 100 meters to 2km. Most recently, there has been an acceptance that fiber optic interconnects are competitive inside servers or switches, at distances on the order of 10 meters. Therefore one might ask at what level optical interconnects will be applied in the future. Will they be cost effective inside a box (1 meter?). Could they even provide an interconnect function between chips on a board or MCM (1-10 cm)? As interconnect distances become progressively shorter, the cost limitations become more and more severe.
Ab initio study of K adsorption on graphene and carbon nanotubes : Role of long-range ionic forces

We present a first-principles study of potassium atom adsorption on graphene and carbon nanotubes. Our calculations are carried out using density functional theory combined with the pseudopotential approximation. This study is, in part, inspired by inconsistent results reported for this system in literature. The adsorption energy of potassium atom on graphene obtained in previous studies ranges from $0.44\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{to}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}2.0\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$. We find that the reported disagreements can be explained by long-range electrostatic interactions between potassium and graphene. To illustrate this point, we present a simple classical model describing the interaction between the potassium atom and the graphene surface. The adsorption energies predicted by the model appear to be in good agreement with our first-principles calculations. In contrast, we find that the energy of potassium adsorption on carbon nanotubes depends on the nanotube surface curvature and chirality. This result suggests that the mechanism of interaction between potassium and carbon nanotubes may be different from that for the potassium-graphene system.
Teaching Elementary Students How to Interpret the Past

(2005). Teaching Elementary Students How to Interpret the Past. The Social Studies: Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 2-8.
Effect of Picrotoxin on Electrical Excitability of the Respiratory Center

SummaryA technique has been described whereby electrical stimulation of the respiratory center can be employed to directly determine the influence on the respiratory center of various drugs affecting respiration. Picrotoxin has been shown to produce a marked and prolonged increase in the sensitivity of the inspiratory center of the cat to direct electrical stimulation. It is believed that the technique which has been described can be used to advantage to contribute additional information to our knowledge of drugs affecting respiration.
Mathematics of linear‐temperature programmed, first order kinetics in peroxide catalyzed polymerizations

A mathematical solution for the Arrhenius temperature dependency for the first-order decomposition of organic peroxide catalysts has been used to prepare computer-generated data for concentration vs time when a linearly rising temperature program is used. The resulting plots, of a double exponential nature, are used to show the effects of heating rates and type of organic peroxide on peroxide concentration and polymerization reactions.