cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
PathBot: A Radiology-Pathology Correlation Dashboard

Pathology is considered the "gold standard" of diagnostic medicine. The importance of radiology-pathology correlation is seen in interdepartmental patient conferences such as "tumor boards" and by the tradition of radiology resident immersion in a radiologic-pathology course at the American Institute of Radiologic Pathology. In practice, consistent pathology follow-up can be difficult due to time constraints and cumbersome electronic medical records. We present a radiology-pathology correlation dashboard that presents radiologists with pathology reports matched to their dictations, for both diagnostic imaging and image-guided procedures. In creating our dashboard, we utilized the RadLex ontology and National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) Annotator to identify anatomic concepts in pathology reports that could subsequently be mapped to relevant radiology reports, providing an automated method to match related radiology and pathology reports. Radiology-pathology matches are presented to the radiologist on a web-based dashboard. We found that our algorithm was highly specific in detecting matches. Our sensitivity was slightly lower than expected and could be attributed to missing anatomy concepts in the RadLex ontology, as well as limitations in our parent term hierarchical mapping and synonym recognition algorithms. By automating radiology-pathology correlation and presenting matches in a user-friendly dashboard format, we hope to encourage pathology follow-up in clinical radiology practice for purposes of self-education and to augment peer review. We also hope to provide a tool to facilitate the production of quality teaching files, lectures, and publications. Diagnostic images have a richer educational value when they are backed up by the gold standard of pathology.
Abstract 3347: Exploring the role of ASXL family of genes in enabling oncogenic AR-signaling in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in North American men. In recent years, there has been mounting evidence establishing the centrality of epigenetic mechanisms in PCa initiation and progression. Accordingly, various epigenetic genes have been described to collaborate with the androgen receptor (AR) in enabling its oncogenic transcriptional program and aberrantly restoring its activity in metastatic castration resistant PCa (mCRPC). Concordantly, our lab has recently described two epigenetic genes, BRD4 & MLL2, as key co-activators of the AR signaling complex. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of inhibiting the activity of these genes in advanced PCa. Thus, in a setting where invariably all metastatic PCa patients progress to evolve resistance to anti-AR therapy, epigenetic genes emerge as potent co-targets with the promise to improve patient outcomes. To To identify novel AR-collaborating genes, as part of a multi-institutional consortium, our lab had performed comprehensive molecular profiling of 150 mCRPC patient tumors. This study revealed multiple genetic aberrations in chromatin modifier genes. Interestingly, this list comprised of recurrent mutations in the ASXL family of genes in about ~5% of the cases. ASXL family members are epigenetic scaffolding proteins that assemble chromatin modifiers and transcription factors to specific genomic loci with histone modifications. Although intricately involved in the genesis of acute myeloid leukemia, hitherto, no study has comprehensively described the role of ASXL genes in PCa biology. Two members of this family, ASXL1 and ASXL2, are robustly expressed in PCa. Co-immunoprecipitation assays revealed that these proteins also reside in the AR-signaling complex. Notably, siRNA-mediated inhibition of these genes dramatically attenuated proliferation of AR-dependent PCa cells, but had minimal effect on non-neoplastic prostate cells. These preliminary results strongly implicate ASXL genes in the oncogenic re-programming of AR-activity and warrant further investigation towards exploring of their therapeutic value in currently incurable mCRPC. Citation Format: Abhijit Parolia, Xuhong Cao, Arul Chinnaiyan. Exploring the role of ASXL family of genes in enabling oncogenic AR-signaling in prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3347. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3347
Conduction Losses due to Part Fixturing During Laser Cladding

Fixturing of components during laser cladding can incur significant conductive thermal losses. However, due to the surface roughness at contact, interfacial conduction is impeded. The effective contact conductivity, known as gap conductance, is much lower than the contacting material conductivities. This work investigates modeling conduction losses to fixturing bodies during laser cladding. Two laser cladding experiments are performed using contrasting fixturing schemes: one cantilevered substrate with a minimal substrate-fixture contact area and one with a substrate bolted to a work bench, with a significant substrate-fixture contact area. Using calibrated gap conductance values, error for the cantilevered fixture model decreases from 20.5% to 6.49% in the contact region, while the bench fixtured model error decreases from a range of 60-102% to 11-45%. The improvement in accuracy shows the necessity of accounting for conduction losses in the thermal modeling of laser cladding, particularly for fixturing setups with large areas of contact.
The future of librarianship Challenging professional norms

In recent years, many librarians have critiqued the axiom that libraries are neutral within the larger institution they serve, noting that the “failings of libraries can be re-interpreted not as libraries failing to live up to their ideals and values, but rather as symptoms and evidence of [their] foundational and oppressive ideology." Yet in critiquing libraries, how do we also consider the role of the librarian?
Acromial Fractures in Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty: A Clinical and Radiographic Analysis:

BackgroundThe purpose of this study is to assess the incidence of acromial stress fractures in a population of reverse shoulder arthroplasties (RSA) and determine potential risk factors for fractur...
The Kinematics of Short Wave Modulation by Long Waves

The modulation of short wave spectra (defined as the variation of a given spectral component at either a fixed wave-number or a fixed frequency) due to a long wave is studied in the absence of overt wind effects. Simple action conservation is found to predict modulations dominated by effects other than actual short wave amplitude modulations.
Enhancement of cholera toxin-catalyzed ADP-ribosylation by guanine nucleotide-binding proteins.

Cholera toxin binds to the membrane of intestinal mucosal cells and activates adenylyl cyclase (Kimberg et al. 1971). The resultant increase in cyclic AMP and possibly other factors leads to the pathological disturbances in fluid and electrolyte flux observed in clinical cholera (Birnbaumer et al. 1990; Finkelstein 1973; Kelly 1986; Moss and Vaughan 1988a; Peterson and Ochoa 1989). Vibrio cholerae secretes cholera toxin as an 84-kDa oligomeric protein composed of one A (~ 27kDa) and five B (~ 11 kDa) subunits (Gill 1976a, 1977); the A subunit is proteolytically nicked to produce two polypeptides, A1 (~ 21 kDa) and A2 (~ 6 kDa) (Gill and Rappaport 1979), linked through a disulfide bond that on reduction generates the enzymatically active A1 protein (Gill and King 1975; Mekalanos et al. 1979b; Moss et al. 1979c). Intoxication of cells requires intact holotoxin; the B subunits are responsible for toxin binding to the membrane (Cuatrecasas 1973 a, b, c; Holmgren et al. 1973, 1974; van Heyningen et al. 1971) via specific interaction with the oligosaccharide moiety of the mono-sialoganglioside GM1 (galactosyl-N-acetylgalactosaminyl-[N-acetylneuraminyl]-galactosylglucosylceramide) (Fishman et al. 1978; Sattler et al. 1978; Schwarzmann et al. 1978).
Enhanced antitumor effect and lower viral reactivation with high doses of ex vivo expanded NK cells administered after haploidentical transplantation.

74Background: NK cells have potent antitumor and antiviral effects. We hypothesized that multiple infusions of high doses of mb-IL21 ex vivo expanded NK cells administered peri-transplant will enha...
Simulated patient encounter to assess and improve fellows' ability to manage chemotherapy infusion reactions.

TPS10541Background: Medical educators have adopted simulation-based exercises (SBEs) because studies of their use in the aviation industry and other technical fields have shown that they reduce hum...
The Next Generation of Photo-Detectors for Particle Astrophysics

We advocate support of research aimed at developing alternatives to the photomultiplier tube for photon detection in large astroparticle experiments such as gamma-ray and neutrino astronomy, and direct dark matter detectors. Specifically, we discuss the development of large area photocathode microchannel plate photomultipliers and silicon photomultipliers. Both technologies have the potential to exhibit improved photon detection efficiency compared to existing glass vacuum photomultiplier tubes.
Applied tele-audiology research in clinical practice during the past decade: a scoping review

The purpose of this scoping review was two-fold, (1) to provide information about the characteristics, type of service delivery, participant information and outcomes related to tele-audiology in cl...
Semantic Segmentation of Urban Buildings from VHR Remotely Sensed Imagery Using Attention-Based CNN

With the emergence of large scale Very High Resolution (VHR) remotely sensed imageries, more accurate urban building segmentation now become possible. Meanwhile, various appearances along with complicated background of the urban VHR imageries make accurate segmentation of urban buildings yet a very challenging task. In this study, we proposed DeepAttentionUnet, which is an end-to-end attention-based model following the basic structure of U-Net and being integrated with attention mechanism so that the model can automatically learn to focus on target building structure of different sizes and shapes. This model adopts attention mechanism to implicitly highlight useful features of buildings while suppressing irrelevant areas of input images and combines with residual learning method to ease training process by alleviating the degradation problem in the training process that often occurs in such applications. Our proposed DeepAttentionUnet was tested with a set of 0.075m resolution aerial images and was compared for performance under the exact same conditions with other two state-of-the-art segmentation networks, i. e. SegNet and U-Net, respectively. The experiment results suggested that in both quantitative and visual evaluation, our proposed model outperformed other two models in urban building semantic segmentation tasks in terms of F1 score, Kappa coefficient and overall accuracy, moreover, it also takes the advantage of having much less parameters compared with other two state-of-art models in comparison.
A Game of Jacks: Review Essay of John D. Caputo's Recent Works

This is a review essay by Richard Kearney celebrating the recent work of John D Caputo and responding to the companion review essay by Caputo on Kearney's work in this issue of PSC. The author crit...
Do China-Financed Dams in Sub-Saharan Africa Improve the Region’s Social Welfare? A Case Study of the Impacts of Ghana’s Bui Dam

China has become an increasingly important financier of energy infrastructure development in the Global South, especially hydropower projects. Despite an increase in investigations on Chinese models of infrastructure financing in these regions, there is a lack of empirical research on the impacts of the China-financed infrastructure. Using data from Johns Hopkins SAIS CARI China-Africa Loan Database and the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program Database, we estimate the impacts of the China-financed Bui Dam in Ghana. We use two difference-in-differences models to identify change of the likelihood to have access to electricity, and to own several electric appliances among over 29,000 local households receiving electricity transmitted from Bui Dam. We found that after the Bui Dam's completion, the likelihood for households living in the treatment regions having access to electricity increased by about 4 percent. However, our models also show that urban households witness a much higher increase in their ownership of various electric appliances, suggesting that the Bui Dam's improvement of electrification may be predominant in the urban and rich households.
Distinguishing species-specific targeting practices within the main Hawaiian islands Deep 7 bottomfish fishery

Abstract The main Hawaiian islands Deep 7 bottomfish fishery is a multispecies fishery that uses hook-and-line gear to catch seven primary species and is currently managed and assessed as a single population. Management plans support, and recent assessment reviews recommend, assessing species on an individual basis. When fisheries catch multiple species, but information about abundance is desired for a single species, it is important to use data subsets that reliably inform abundance trends for that individual species. We use a previously unanalyzed dataset collected from a subset of Deep 7 bottomfish fishermen who reported targeting practices –including the species or group of species targeted, fishing practices, catches, and environmental variables– while fishing in the summer of 2016. Using three statistical classification methods, we show that targeting occurs, and is primarily for two groups: opakapaka (Pristipomoides filamentosus), and a combined group of ehu (Etelis carbunculus) and onaga (Etelis coruscans). Depth was a significant explanatory variable for targeting, statistically distinguishing shallower opakapaka targeting from deeper ehu/onaga targeting at 188 m. In the absence of information about depth, catch composition data can be used to distinguish between opakapaka and ehu/onaga groups nearly as well as when depth is included. Applying these methods to the full fisher reporting database revealed that an opakapaka group and an ehu/onaga group could be distinguished. Further information on targeting within the fisher reported data, or consistent information on depth if targeting preferences cannot be reported, would improve classification. Ultimately, any of the methods used herein can be applied to filter fishing events based on predicted targeting to produce more representative indices of abundance for use in single-species stock assessments.
Rapid three-dimensional quantification of voxel-wise collagen fiber orientation

Defining fiber orientation at each voxel within a 3D biomedical image stack is potentially useful for a variety of applications, including cancer, wound healing and tissue regeneration. Current methods are typically computationally intensive or inaccurate. Herein, we present a 3D weighted orientation vector summation algorithm, which is a generalization of a previously reported 2D vector summation technique aimed at quantifying collagen fiber orientations simultaneously at each voxel of an image stack. As a result, voxel-wise fiber orientation information with 4° to 5° accuracy can be determined, and the computational time required to analyze a typical stack with the size of 512x512x100 voxels is less than 5 min. Thus, this technique enables the practical extraction of voxel-specific orientation data for characterizing structural anisotropy in 3D specimens. As examples, we use this approach to characterize the fiber organization in an excised mouse mammary gland and a 3D breast tissue model.
Cervical epidural depth: correlation between needle angle, cervical anatomy, and body surface area.

Objectives. Prior to performing a cervical interlaminar epidural steroid injection (CIESI), knowledge of the depth from lamina to epidural space may assist in preventing cord injury. Methods. This is a prospective analysis of data including gender, age, weight, height, previous surgery, neck circumference, distances from tip of chin to sternal notch, occiput to C7 vertebral prominence, and ear lobe to tip of shoulder, pain score, angle from C7 vertebral prominence to the back, depth at which the Tuohy needle contacted T1 vertebral lamina and depth at which the epidural space was entered was conducted with 92 subjects, average age (±standard deviation [SD]) 41.3 ± 13.2 years underwent fluoroscopically guided C7-T1 intralaminar epidural steroid injections. Results. Depth to lamina was the best individual predictor with an r value of 0.86. Weight, neck circumference, and body mass index (BMI) positively correlated with depth to epidural space with r values of 0.66, 0.62, and 0.61, respectively. A linear regression model of depth to lamina for predicting depth to epidural space was accurate to within ±0.5 cm of the actual depth in 69% of subjects. However, when comparing predicted with actual depth to epidural space for individual subjects, the prediction was inaccurate by as much as 1.6 cm deep or 1.7 cm shallow. Conclusions. While statistically significant correlations do exist between both quantitative external body characteristics and depth to cervical epidural space and T1vertebral lamina to depth of cervical epidural space for fluoroscopically guided interlaminar epidural steroid injections at C7-T1, even the most optimal regression models do not permit clinical confidence in predicted depth to epidural space.
Measurements in the Thick Axisymmetric Turbulent Boundary Layer and the Near Wake of a Low-Drag Body of Revolution

Detailed measurements of pressure distributions, mean velocity profiles and Reynolds stresses were made in the thick, axisymmetric boundary layer and the near wake of a low-drag body of revolution. The data shed some light on the joint influence of transverse and longitudinal surface curvatures and pressure gradients on the boundary-layer development and on the manner in which an axisymmetric boundary layer becomes a fully developed wake. Apart from giving a complete set of data on such an important flow configuration, the measurements should provide a fairly rigorous test case for some of the recent turbulence closure models which claim a level of generality not achieved by the older phenomenological models.
Gender in U.S. Tariff Classification: A Lawful Practice with Better Alternatives

Gender classification in tariff laws is not a new phenomenon, but it has led to disparate results in tariff rates. These disparities result from both international efforts for harmonization and domestic pressures for protectionism and trade negotiations. Although the gender classifications and their respective tariff disparities have been challenged in U.S. courts on equal protection grounds, there has thus far been no success. Other countries provide examples of other methods of reducing both gender classification and disparity of tariff rates amongst these gender classifications through policy means instead of through the courts. Although U.S. courts are likely to find that gender classifications to be legal, the United States can follow the policy examples of other countries by reducing the amount gender classification and creating parity among duties rates in those that remain.
Changes in opioid receptor selectivity following processing of peptide E: Effect on gut motility

Abstract Peptide E is a μ-selective opioid peptide derived from proenkephalin A which contains [Met 5 ]-enkephalin at the amino end and [Leu 5 ]-enkephalin at the carboxyl end. Peptide E is further processed both centrally and peripherally to a [Leu 5 ]-enkephalincontaining fragment which was investigated to determine if processing leads to alterations in receptor selectivity. Peptide E-(15–25) inhibited electrically stimulated contractions in both the mouse vas deferens, longitudinal muscle, myenteric (IC 50 = 459 nmol/ L), and guinea pig ileum (IC 50 = 2630 nmol/L), indicating a sixfold δ-receptor selectivity. When administered intracerebroventricularly to mice, peptide E-(15–25) also produced potent analgesia which was completely antagonized by naloxone pretreatment, but the peptide had no effect on intestinal transit as measured by the radiochromium geometric center method. This is consistent with earlier findings that intracerebroventricular δ-opioid-selective agents are analgesic but do not inhibit intestinal transit. In vitro radioligand binding assays were performed using male Sprague-Dawley rat whole brain homogenates. The IC 50 for peptide E against [ 3 H]naloxone was 1.8 nmol/L compared with the δ-opioid ligand, [ 3 H] [d-Pen 2 , d-Pen 5 ]-enkephalin of 38.8 nmol/L. The IC 50 for peptide E-(15–25) against [ 3 H]naloxone was 497 nmol/L, but for [ 3 H] [d-Pen 2 , d-Pen 5 ]-enkephalin it was 50.6 nmol/L. Therefore, peptide E loses μ-opioid receptor affinity (1.8–497 nmol/L) after proteolytic processing and the loss of the amino terminal tyrosine but maintains a high δ-opioid affinity (38.8–50.6 nmol/L). These studies demonstrate that enzymatic peptide processing of peptide E to peptide E-(15–25) leads to a shift from μ to δ-receptor selectivity and a different spectrum of biological effects on gut motility.
Effects of aging and type 2 diabetes on resting and post occlusive hyperemia of the forearm; the impact of rosiglitazone

Both Diabetes and ageing are associated with reduced vascular endothelial function. The exact relationship between the 2 and any improvements from the insulin sensitizer rosiglitazone have not been explored. Thirty controls and sixteen subjects with type 2 diabetes participated in a series of experiments to examine the interrelationships between age, diabetes and endothelial cell function. In subjects with diabetes, the insulin sensitizer rosiglitazone (RSG), a drug also known to improve vascular function, was administered for 3 months to see how it altered these relationships. Resting forearm flows (RF) and blood flows after 4 min of vascular occlusion (PF) were measured as an index of endothelial cell function. RF, measured by venous occlusion plethysmography, was negatively correlated to both age and diabetes. Administration of RSG for 3 months was associated with an increase in the blood flow response to venous occlusion so that it was not significantly different than that of age matched controls. Total PF in control subjects, compared to subjects with diabetes, averaged 56.58 +/- 12.57 and 13.6 +/- 8.01 cc/100 cc tissue per min respectively, and were significantly different (p < 0.01). After 3 months on RSG, differences between PF in the two groups were no longer evident. These studies suggest a different mechanism causing a reduction in vascular reactivity with aging and diabetes.
Description of a new genus and thirteen new species of Ctenidae (Araneae, Ctenidae) from the Chocó region of Ecuador.

The genus Chococtenus n. gen. is established for a group of Ctenidae with a unique ventral and spine-like retrolateral tibial apophysis, primarily found in the Choco-Tumbes-Magdalena corridor. Thirteen new species are described: Chococtenus otonga n. sp., C. neblina n. sp., C. cuchilla n. sp., C. fantasma n. sp., C. waitti n. sp., C. cappuccino n. sp., C. lasdamas n. sp., C. suffuscus n. sp., C. otongachi n. sp., C. kashakara n. sp., C. piemontana n. sp., C. luchoi n. sp. and C. duendecito n. sp. Ctenus acanthoctenoides Schmidt and Enoploctenus miserabilis (Strand) are transferred to Chococtenus.
Measuring international conflict: Developing cross‐country time‐series data

This paper develops a new time series of conflict data from 1948 to the present through statistical estimation of a pooled time‐series of the two most frequently used dyadic events data sets: Conflict and Cooperation Data Bank (COPDAB) (1948–1978) and World Events Interaction Survey (WEIS) (1966‐present). The resulting data series is the longest possible time‐series annual data of dyadic interaction based on daily events. The paper also provides an example of performing a Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis of conflict and trade in a three‐country setting, utilizing the integrated data. Compared to the COPDAB and WEIS data, the integrated data have a large degree of variation and produce forecasting results that are more complex than those from the COPDAB and WEIS separately.
Electrochemical parameters of energy transduction between repellent naphthoquinones and lipoprotein receptors in insect neurons

Energy exchange between 1,4-naphthoquinone repellents and protein from dendritic membranes of chemosensory neurons in the insect Periplaneta americana was investigated by polarography. Each 1,4-naphhoquinone at a saturating 5×10−5M shifted the in vitroU12 value of a standardized aliquot (100 μg/cm3) of isolated membrane protein by a characteristic (maximal) millivolt (mV) amount. Such mV amounts of maximal U12 shift induced by several 1,4-naphthoquinones showed linear relationships to both the maximal behavioral repellency and maximal inhibition of a standardized electroantennogram (EAG) caused by these repellents. Such linear relationships between these input and output parameters provided the necessary energy-transduction bases for information encoding in this chemoreception involved in the chemical senses of P. americana insects.
Lubrication regimes in contact lens wear during a blink

Abstract When the eyelid blinks down over a soft hydrogel contact lens, the tear film is partitioned or even consumed by the contact lens, introducing relative sliding on both sides against the corneal epithelium and the eyelid wiper. This work presents a numerical fluid model of the resulting pressures and sliding speeds in both pairs of sliding. Between the eyelid wiper and front curve surface, contact pressures ranged 12–18 kPa for initial eyelid wiper sliding speeds of 10–100 mm/s, with corresponding aqueous film thicknesses of 260–820 nm. Maximum contact lens deflection was 0.5%. Sliding with those conditions points to a hydrodynamic regime, while the base curve/cornea sliding more likely falls in the boundary regime. A lubrication curve is presented for hydrated contacts under ocular sliding and loading conditions.
Mutation of smooth muscle myosin causes epithelial invasion and cystic expansion of the zebrafish intestine.

Summary Zebrafish meltdown ( mlt ) mutants develop cystic expansion of the posterior intestine as a result of stromal invasion of nontransformed epithelial cells. Positional cloning identified zebrafish smooth muscle myosin heavy chain ( myh11 ) as the responsible gene. The mlt mutation constitutively activates the Myh11 ATPase, which disrupts smooth muscle cells surrounding the posterior intestine. Adjacent epithelial cells ectopically express metalloproteinases, integrins, and other genes implicated in human cancer cell invasion. Knockdown and pharmacological inhibition of these genes restores intestinal structure in mlt mutants despite persistent smooth muscle defects. These data identify an essential role for smooth muscle signaling in the maintenance of epithelial architecture and support gene expression analyses and other studies that identify a role for stromal genes in cancer cell invasion. Furthermore, they suggest that high-throughput screens to identify regulators of cancer cell invasion may be feasible in zebrafish.
Cytolytic activity of Bacillus thuringiensis proteins to insect and mammalian cell lines.

Abstract The toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis was measured in vitro by several assay methods. The chromium-release assay was more advantageous requiring less time and has less error and more accuracy than the trypan blue exclusion method, although no difference in cytotoxicity was observed between the two methods. Although less sensitive, the hemoglobin release assay was fast, simple, and an inexpensive method to determine hemolytic activity. The thymidine-release assay was significantly less sensitive showing no cytotoxicity at doses at which the assays above were sensitive. These assays show that the cytotoxic activity of the solubilized toxins is probably due to pore formation in cell membranes. B. thuringiensis israelensis parasporal bodies dissolved in 50 m m Na 2 CO 3 · HCl ( p H 10.5) showed higher cytotoxicity than parasporal bodies solubilized in 50 m m NaOH/10 m m EDTA ( p H 11.7), and both of these two solubilization procedures gave greater cytotoxicity than parasporal bodies dissolved in 0.1 m glycine · NaOH ( p H 10)/0.01 m EDTA/1 m m PMSF/with 0.1 m 2-mercaptoethanol or 0.1 m dithiothreitol. A predominant protein band of 25 kDa was observed with Na 2 CO 3 · HCl solubilization, whereas no distinctive protein band of a similar molecular weight was evident with glycine/EDTA/DTT solubilization. The solubilized toxin was toxic to cells derived from Aedes albopictus, Culex tarsalis , Mardin-Darby canine kidney fibroblasts, and Spodoptera frugiperda . The in vitro toxicity for the latter two cell types occurs at significantly higher doses than for Ae. albopictus cells. The in vitro Ae. albopictus assay gave a sharp dose-response curve with both the crude toxin and purified 25-kDa toxin, and the cytotoxicity was dependent on time of cell exposure to the toxin. However, the Ae. albopictus cells showed a lower sensitivity to purified 25-kDa toxin than crude toxins.
Correction of the ultraviolet light induced DNA-repair defect in xeroderma pigmentosum cells by electroporation of a normal human endonuclease

Abstract Cell from patients with xeroderma pigmentosum, complementation group A (XPA), are known to be defective in repair of pyrimidine dimers and other forms of damage produced by 254-mm ultraviolet (UVC) radiation. We have isolated a DNA endonuclease, p 1 7.6, from the chromatin of normal human lymphoblastoid cells which recognizes damage produced by UVC light, and have introduced this endonuclease into UVC-irradiated XPA cells in culture to determine whether it can restore their markedly deficient DNA repair-related unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS). Introduction of the normal endonuclease, which recognizes predominantly pyrimidine dimers. but not the corresponding XPA endonuclease into UVC-irradiated XPA cells restored their levels of UDS to approximately 80% of normal values. Electroporation of both the normal and the XPA endonuclease into normal human cells increases UDS is normal cells to higher than normal values. These results indicate that the normal endonuclease can restore UDS in UVC-irradiated XPA cells. They also indicate that XPA cells have an endonuclease capable of increasing the efficiency of repair of UVC damage in normal cells.
Brain function as evolution

Abstract Ideas from computational psychology and the theory of self-organizing evolution are used to explore the relationship between neural processes and evolutionary processes. I argue that, although mind/brains are very different from ecosystems, there are two important dynamical processes which are common to both: namely, evolution by natural selection, and form creation by sexual reproduction.
Extreme sensitivity of the YORP effect to small-scale topography

Abstract Radiation recoil (YORP) torques are shown to be extremely sensitive to small-scale surface topography, using numerical simulations. Starting from a set of “base objects” representative of the near-Earth object population, random realizations of three types of small-scale topography are added: Gaussian surface fluctuations, craters, and boulders. For each, the expected relative errors in the spin and obliquity components of the YORP torque caused by the observationally unresolved small-scale topography are computed. Gaussian power, at angular scales below an observational limit, produces expected errors of order 100% if observations constrain the surface to a spherical harmonic order l ≲ 10 . For errors under 10%, the surface must be constrained to at least l = 20 . A single crater with diameter roughly half the object's mean radius, placed at random locations, results in expected errors of several tens of percent. The errors scale with crater diameter D as D 2 for D > 0.3 and as D 3 for D 0.3 mean radii. Objects that are identical except for the location of a single large crater can differ by factors of several in YORP torque, while being photometrically indistinguishable at the level of hundredths of a magnitude. Boulders placed randomly on identical base objects create torque errors roughly 3 times larger than do craters of the same diameter, with errors scaling as the square of the boulder diameter. A single boulder comparable to Yoshinodai on 25143 Itokawa, moved by as little as twice its own diameter, can alter the magnitude of the torque by factors of several, and change the sign of its spin component at all obliquities. Most of the total torque error produced by multiple unresolved craters is contributed by the handful of largest craters; but both large and small boulders contribute comparably to the total boulder-induced error. A YORP torque prediction derived from groundbased data can be expected to be in error by of order 100% due to unresolved topography. Small surface changes caused by slow spin-up or spin-down may have significant stochastic effects on the spin evolution of small bodies. For rotation periods between roughly 2 and 10 h, these unpredictable changes may reverse the sign of the YORP torque. Objects in this spin regime may random-walk up and down in spin rate before the rubble-pile limit is exceeded and fissioning or loss of surface objects occurs. Similar behavior may be expected at rotation rates approaching the limiting values for tensile-strength dominated objects.
Quantitative determination of cholesterol in auto-oxidation mixtures by thin-layer chromatography.

Abstract A method is presented for the quantitative detemination of cholesterol in the presence of its oxidation and degradation products arising from thermal and radiation induced decomposition. The samples are chromatographed on silica gel coated thin layer plates with a chloroform—acetone mixture. Cholesterol becomes visible upon spraying with water. The spot is scraped off and transferred with the wet silica gel into a centrifuge tube. After drying, glacial acetic acid containing ferric chloride is added, and color is developed with perchloric acid—phosphoric acid—ferric chloride reagent in the slurry. After centrifugation the absorption of the liquid is measured at 450 mμ. The method can be used for the determination of 20–200 μg cholesterol with less than 2% error.
A Reminder and a Suggestion

… concerned with the whole of man's life … dignity of a human being … develop harmoniously their physical, moral, and intellectual endowments … acquire a sense of responsibility in striving endlessly to form their own lives properly … foster a sense of values … to prepare for professional life … as they develop their own personality … stimulate students to act for themselves….
Search for 21C and constraints on 22C

Abstract A search for the neutron-unbound nucleus 21 C was performed via the single-proton removal reaction from a beam of 22 N at 68 MeV/u. Neutrons were detected with the Modular Neutron Array (MoNA) in coincidence with 20 C fragments. No evidence for a low-lying state was found, and the reconstructed C 20 + n decay-energy spectrum could be described with an s -wave line shape with a scattering length limit of | a s | 2.8 fm , consistent with shell-model predictions. A comparison with a renormalized zero-range three-body model suggests that 22 C is bound by less than 70 keV.
A classification of the minimal ring extensions of an integral domain

Abstract Let R be any integral domain. The minimal (commutative unital) ring extensions S of R are, up to R-algebra isomorphism, of three nonoverlapping types: (i) the domains S that contain R and are minimal ring extensions of R; (ii) the idealizations R ( + ) R / M arising from maximal ideals M of R; and (iii) the direct products R × R / M arising from maximal ideals M of R. Distinct maximal ideals of R lead to nonisomorphic idealizations (respectively direct products) in case (ii) (respectively case (iii)). If R is not a field, then distinct domains S arising in case (i) within the same quotient field of R are not isomorphic as R-algebras. If R is a field K, then the domains S arising in (i) are the minimal (necessarily algebraic) field extensions of K; in this case, distinct such fields S 1 , S 2 are K-algebra isomorphic if and only if S i = K ( α i ) where α 1 , α 2 are roots of the same irreducible polynomial in K [ X ] .
Dysautonomia in dogs: a retrospective study

Dysautonomia was diagnosed in 11 young (median age, 14-months), predominantly medium- to large-breed dogs from 1988 to 1995. Clinical signs caused by autonomic dysfunction of the urinary, alimentary, and ocular systems were most common. Dysuria, mydriasis, absence of pupillary light reflexes, decreased tear production, dry mucous membranes, weight loss, and decreased anal tone were present in over 75% of affected dogs. Ocular pharmacological testing with a dilute (0.1%) solution of pilocarpine was used to demonstrate iris sphincter receptor function in all dogs. A low-dose (0.0375 mg/kg s.c.) bethanechol test and pharmacological testing with phenylephrine and epinephrine also demonstrated cholinergic and adrenergic receptor function in 4 dogs. All dogs died or were euthanized as a results of autonomic dysfunction. Neuronal depletion, with associated gliosis and minimal inflammation were noted histologically in the autonomic ganglia of each dog. The pelvic, ciliary, celiac, cranial cervical, and cranial and caudal mesenteric ganglia were affected in all dogs. The cause of autonomic failure in these dogs was not determined.
‘Inside the Moment of Managing’: Wittgenstein and the Everyday Dynamics of Our Expressive-Responsive Activities

It is easy to ignore small, concrete, and idiosyncratic details as unimportant in our inquiries into management processes. Indeed, at the moment, we feel that if we are to improve them and to avoid mistakes, then we must still seek a better understanding of them in the same way that we seek a better understanding of all else in the world around us in the proposing of theories of the supposed ‘hidden’ causes responsible for the outcomes of the management process, and in seeking and discussing evidence in favor of (and against) such explanatory theories. In other words, we adopt the same mode of inquiry toward other people (and other living things) as toward inert, physical objects. Wittgenstein’s philosophy, however, is oriented toward showing us that if we fail to distinguish between the relations we can have with living beings as compared to those with dead things, then we can mislead ourselves in ways that can have disastrous consequences for us. With respect to the process of managing, instead of achie...
Equilibrium modeling of clinoptilolite-analcime equilibria at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is being investigated to determine its suitability to host a potential high-level radioactive waste respository. An important reason for its choice as a potential repository site was the presence of thick zeolite-rich horizons in the altered volcanic tufts that compose the mountain. Clinoptilolite is the most abundant zeolite at Yucca Mountain and may be important in radionuclide retardation and in determining hydrologic properties. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the geochemical conditions affecting its long-term stability. For example, it has been suggested that long-term, repository-induced heating of the rocks at Yucca Mountain may lead to the transformation of clinoptilolite to analcime, thereby significantly affecting the hydrologic properties and retardation capabilities of the rock.
Western Dress Styles Adopted by Korean Women

The association between various forms of a product—13 styles of western dress for women introduced into Seoul, Korea, before 1972—and the quantity adopted by 495 Korean women, grouped by age, education, and occupation, was delineated in this study. Three garments—the blouse, overcoat, and separate gathered skirt—were owned by over 80 percent of all women. Of the Korean women over 60 years of age, born in the Yi era prior to 1910, over half owned three western styles: the gathered skirt, separate blouse, and overcoat; of women 30 to 60 years of age, born during the Japanese Colonialism period (1910 to 1945), over half in addition owned the one-piece beltless dress and the spring coat; of women 18 to 30 years of age, educated in western-type democracy, over half owned 10 styles of dress. Age and education were significantly associated with the quantity and variety of 12 western styles owned, while occupation was significantly associated with only three styles—suits, pants or shorts, and tight skirts. Quantity plus variety of western styles owned by Korean women can be called “levels of adoption” and may be used to identify three levels of acculturation with western ideas.
Differential expression of exons 10 and 11 in normal tau and tau associated with paired helical filaments

Antibodies were raised to two synthetic peptides with amino acid sequences encoded by a variable region of exons 10 and 11 of the tau gene. The affinity-purified antibodies, designated E-10 and E-11, were used to determine whether PHF-tau and normal tau differ in variants containing three or four repeats in the microtubule-binding domain, respectively. Normal adult human brain was shown by gel electrophoresis to contain six isoforms of tau. All of the isoforms reacted with E-11, whereas only four of them with slower electrophoretic mobility were recognized by E-10. Fetal brain tau was readily recognized by E-11 but reacted poorly with E-10. In PHF preparations, E-11 bound to all three polypeptides of PHF-tau of 68 kD, 64 kD, and 60 kD and reacted intensely with a material smearing from the top of the gel to about the 50-kD region. In contrast, E-10 only weakly recognized the two higher molecular weight PHF-tau polypeptides of 68 kD and 64 kD, as well as smeared material, and the binding was not affected by phosphatase treatment. Using recombinant tau with four repeats as a reference, the immunoreactivity of E-10 with PHF-tau was estimated to be approximately 5% of that of E-11. By comparison, the immunoreactivity of E-10 with four isoforms of normal tau was comparable to that of E-11. These results indicate that the ratio of three vs. four repeat variants in PHF-tau is higher than in normal tau and suggest that Alzheimer disease may be associated with the disproportional expression of fetal (or juvenile) forms of tau. Alternatively, the weak reactivity of PHF-tau with E-10 antibody could be due to post-translational modifications other than phosphorylation. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Changes in Al and Fe crystallinity and P sorption capacity in a flood-plain forest soil subjected to artificially manipulated flooding regimes in field mesocosms

Changes in noncrystalline Fe and P sorption capacity in soils subjected to flooding and draining for rice cultivation sparked interest in how periodic flooding in natural riparian wetlands influences soil chemistry and P retention. We examined monthly changes in soil oxalate-extractable Al and Fe, NaOH-extractable Al, DCB-extractable Fe, and P sorption capacity as a function of flooding regime in artificially manipulated field mesocosms installed in a floodplain forest along the Ogeechee River, near Savannah, GA. We hypothesized that: (1) flooding would cause increases in both oxalate-extractable (noncrystalline) Al and Fe concentrations and P sorption capacity, and, (2) this effect would be augmented by increased flooding duration and periodicity. Flooding resulted in increases in oxalate-extractable Al in flooded-drained and periodically flooded soils, decreases in crystalline Fe in all flooding treatments, and an increase in P sorption capacity in flooded-drained soils. However, consistent trends were not observed across all treatment regimes. Potential confounding factors include a lack of synchronicity of experimental and natural flooding cycles, spatial variability of soil chemistry, and increased soil wetness in the treatment field, variables that should be considered in future attempts at elucidating relationships between flooding, soil chemistry and wetland function.
Pharmacodynamic analysis of stress erythropoiesis: change in erythropoietin receptor pool size following double phlebotomies in sheep

A feedback receptor regulation model was incorporated into a pharmacodynamic model to describe the stimulation of hemoglobin (Hb) production by endogenous erythropoietin (EPO). The model considers the dynamic changes that take place in the EPO receptor (EPOR) pool under phlebotomy-induced anemia. Using a 125I-rhEPO tracer the EPO clearance changes are evaluated longitudinally prior to and following phlebotomy-induced anemia indirectly to evaluate changes in the EPOR pool size, which has been shown to be linearly related to the clearance. The proposed model simultaneously captures the general behavior of temporal changes in Hb relative to EPO plasma clearance in five lambs (r = 0.95), while accounting for the confounding variables of phlebotomy and changes in the blood volume in the growing animals. The results indicate that under anemia the EPOR pool size is up-regulated by a factor of nearly two over baseline and that the lowest and highest EPOR pool sizes differ by a factor of approximately four. The kinetic model developed and the data-driven mechanism proposed serves as a starting point for developing an optimal EPO dosing algorithm for the treatment of neonatal anemia. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Domain-Based Characterization of Density Inhomogeneities in Compressible Supercritical Fluids

We develop a location-based coarse-graining method for characterizing solvent density inhomogeneities and use it to investigate a two-dimensional supercritical Lennard-Jones fluid. The strength of this method is that it treats any high- and low-density domains present in the fluid equivalently, rather than focusing on the high-density “clusters” alone. As the critical region is approached, we find that the distribution of local densities found in this fluid becomes quite broad, while, more globally, the high- and low-density domain structure changes from singly continuous to bicontinuous. Concurrently, these domains grow in size, as expected from the divergence of the correlation length; yet, we find that the correlation length is a very poor indicator of this change, greatly underestimating the length of large domains. This result is in part due to the very asymmetric topology of the domains, which, we find, is relatively invariant to changes in thermodynamic conditions or to the proximity of the critica...