cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Summer population fluctuations, feeding, and growth of Hydra in an arctic lake1

During 1977, the population density of Hydra in the rocky littoral community in Toolik Lake, Alaska, increased from June to a maximum in late July or early August, then remained stable or decreased slightly through late August. The summer increase of Hydra corresponded to increases in the availability of copepods and Bosmina (the preferred prey) until late July. Hydra kept at lake temperatures in the laboratory with unlimited prey reproduced fast enough asexually to account for these increases: at 19°C the intrinsic rate of increase (r, biomass) was 0.53 g·g‒1·d‒1, and at 11°C, r = 0.31·d‒1. These rates, much higher than those for other Hydra at comparable temperatures, seem to be a metabolic adaptation to arctic conditions. Failure of the Hydra population to continue to increase while food resources increased in August is attributed to predation by Lymnaea, displacement by epilithic algal growth, endogenously controlled emigration from the rocky littoral, or some combination of these. Hydra appears to be the most important predator on Bosmina. Hydra at densities of 135·m‒2 on the rocky shoals could take 1,620 Bosmina · m‒2·d−1 during late July and early August 1977, about 10% per day consumption of the estimated lake standing crop of Bosmina. This is the first evidence that Hydra plays a major role in controlling a prey population.
Some asymptotic theory for the bootstrap in econometric models

Abstract In econometric modeling it is often reasonable to make specific assumptions about the distribution of the true errors in a model (e.g. that they come from a symmetric population), in which case it may be of interest to know if a prospective bootstrap method is asymptotically robust — that it gives valid results whether or not the assumptions actually hold for the true errors. This paper discusses methods for getting asymptotic results insuch situations.
Structure of the oligosaccharide chain of lipoglycan from Acholeplasma granularum.

Abstract The membrane associated lipoglycan from Acholeplasma granularum is a linear oligosaccharide attached to a diacylglycerol. The polymer has a monomeric weight of 20000 and is composed of glucose, galactose, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylfucosamine, glycerol and fatty acid esters. The proposed structure of the oligosaccharide chain is 12 repeating units of 9 sugars: Glcp(β1 → 2)-Glap(α1 → 4)-Glcp (α1 → 3,4)-FcNAc(α1 → 3)-Galp(β1 → 3)-Galp (α1 → 3)-Galp(α1 → 3,4)-GlcNAc(β1 → 3,4)-GlcNAc(β1 → 4)-[Glcp (β1 → 2)-Glcp(α1 → 4)-Glcp(α1 → 3,4)-FcNAc-(β1 → 3)-Galp (α1 → 3)-Galp(α1 → 3)-Gap(→1 → 3,4)-GlcNAc(β1 → 3,4)-GlcNAc(β1 β 4)]10-Glcp(β1 → 2)-Glcp(α1 → 4)-Glcp(α1 → 3,4)-FcNAc(β1 → 3)-Galp(α1 → 3)-Galp(α1 → 3)-Galp (α1 → 3,4)-GlcNAc(β1 → 3,4)-GlcNAc-diacylglycerol. The position of the linkages (3 or 4) on the amino sugars has not been resolved.
A deep cavitand catalyzes the Diels–Alder reaction of bound maleimides

A deep cavitand catalyzes Diels–Alder reactions of bound maleimides via activation of the dienophile by interaction with the organized hydrogen bonding network at the cavitand rim. Rapid in–out exchange of reactant and product allows efficient turnover. The increase in steric bulk of the reaction product lessens its binding affinity, reducing (and in some cases completely eliminating) product inhibition.
Nucleotide Control of Replication Initiation: NTPase Mechanisms of E.coli DnaB-DnaC Complex

In E. coli, interactions between the primary replicative helicase, DnaB protein and the replication factor, DnaC protein, are at the heart of the chromosomal DNA replication. To address the role of the DnaC in processes of the free energy transduction by the helicase, we have quantitatively examined DnaB-DnaC complex using fluorescence titration, analytical ultracentrifugation, and rapid chemical quench-flow techniques.In absence of nucleic acid, DnaC reduces intrinsic affinity and increases negative cooperativity in nucleotide binding to DnaB helicase. The ground-state effects are accompanied by the reduced rate of ATP hydrolysis by the helicase. In presence of DNA, DnaB in the DnaB-DnaC complex recovers its nucleotide binding capabilities and ATPase activity. These data suggest that recognition of the oriC by the DnaB - DnaC complex and/or its entry into the pre-primosome requires diminished NTPase activity of the helicase. Analysis of nucleotide binding to the DnaC protein, engaged in the DnaB - DnaC complex, indicates that prior to the recognition of the oriC sequence and/or pre-primosome assembly, the DnaC protein in the complex is in a conformational state, which does not bind ATP or ADP. So, the formation of the replisome and the pre-primosome seems to preferentially require the presence of DnaC in a state free of cofactors. Significant positive cooperativity of the binding process indicates that small fluctuations in ATP and/or ADP concentrations can induce an all-or-none allosteric transition of bound DnaC molecules into the conformation, which has an increased intrinsic affinity for the nucleotides. The presence of such an all-or-none allosteric transition, encompassing all bound DnaC molecules, indicates that recognition of the oriC and the pre-primosome assembly includes complex interplay between different conformations of the DnaB - DnaC complex. The physiological importance of the obtained results will be discussed.
Repression of human activation induced cytidine deaminase by miR-93 and miR-155

Activation Induced cytidine Deaminase (AID) targets the immunoglobulin genes of activated B cells, where it converts cytidine to uracil to induce mutagenesis and recombination. While essential for immunoglobulin gene diversification, AID misregulation can result in genomic instability and oncogenic transformation. This is classically illustrated in Burkitt's lymphoma, which is characterized by AID-induced mutation and reciprocal translocation of the c-MYC oncogene with the IgH loci. Originally thought to be B cell-specific, AID now appears to be misexpressed in several epithelial cancers, raising the specter that AID may also participate in non-B cell carcinogenesis. The mutagenic potential of AID argues for the existence of cellular regulators capable of repressing inappropriate AID expression. MicroRNAs (miRs) have this capacity, and we have examined the publically available human AID EST dataset for miR complementarities to the human AID 3'UTR. In this work, we have evaluated the capacity of two candidate miRs to repress human AID expression in MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells. We have discovered moderate miR-155 and pronounced miR-93 complementary target sites encoded within the human AID mRNA. Luciferase reporter assays indicate that both miR-93 and miR-155 can interact with the 3'UTR of AID to block expression. In addition, over-expression of either miR in MCF-7 cells reduces endogenous AID protein, but not mRNA, levels. Similarly indicative of AID translational regulation, depletion of either miR in MCF-7 cells increases AID protein levels without concurrent increases in AID mRNA. Together, our findings demonstrate that miR-93 and miR-155 constitutively suppress AID translation in MCF-7 cells, suggesting widespread roles for these miRs in preventing genome cytidine deaminations, mutagenesis, and oncogenic transformation. In addition, our characterization of an obscured miR-93 target site located within the AID 3'UTR supports the recent suggestion that many miR regulations have been overlooked due to the prevalence of truncated 3'UTR annotations.
Hardening options for neutron effects - An approach for tactical systems

This paper presents the results of an investigation of quantitative procedures for assessing the probability of failure (PF) of tactical military systems exposed to a neutron radiation environment. All assessments are made with a 90 percent confidence in the determined probability of failure. Two analytical models are developed for predicting the probability of failure of transistor circuits based on small quantity test data or manufacturer's specifications of gain (6) and gain bandwidth product (fT) . The formulation of these models incorporates the influence of circuit design margins. For circuits where the failure fluence is determined by a single device, a nomograph is presented for calculating PF as a function of fT, initial gain, fluence, and the circuit design margin. Examples are also provided for the use of the models for determining PF via Monte Carlo analyses for circuits including several transistors.
Influence of Chloride Anions on the Mechanism of Copper Electrodeposition from Acidic Sulfate Electrolytes

We investigate the influence of chloride Cl - ions in a broad range of chloride concentrations on the kinetics and mechanism of copper electrodeposition from sulfate-based acidic electrolytes. Chloride ions influence copper deposition through two competitive effects: at low Cl - concentration (few mM), chloride ions depolarize the Cu reduction process, while higher Cl - concentrations induce complexation of copper species and cause a cathodic polarization of the deposition process. Cu reduction proceeds through two parallel mechanisms, a direct two-step reduction and a chloride-mediated route, whose relative importance depends on the amount of chloride present. A transition between these two mechanisms can be identified both by steady-state and impedance methods; however, the chloride concentration at which it occurs depends on the time scale probed by the two techniques. Impedance measurements further demonstrate that the presence of chlorides changes the double-layer structure.
Incremental Forming of Large Thermoplastic Composites

Incremental forming is a new manufacturing method designed to create large thermoplastic composite laminate structures. These large laminates can be made utilizing small to medium sized equipment. The equipment and the operating parameters for successful incremental forming were developed. Thermoplastic laminate parts were made utilizing the incremental forming method and the properties were compared to parts of the same shape made using matched die molding. The areas of comparison were mechanical properties, physical qualities (surface quality), and uniformity of manufac ture The results revealed that the incremental forming process created parts of high mechanical integrity, excellent physical quality and good uniformity.
Symmetric and asymmetric charge transport in interacting asymmetric quantum impurities

We study steady-state charge transfer across an interacting resonance-level model connected asymmetrically to two leads. For a linear energy dispersion relation of the leads, we calculate current-voltage characteristics of the model exactly employing the scattering Bethe ansatz of Mehta-Andrei and find symmetric transport showing the absence of diode effect. Next we study a lattice version of this model with a nonlinear dispersion for the leads using the Lippmann-Schwinger scattering theory. We find that the inclusion of nonlinearity in the leads' dispersion causes rectification for asymmetric junctions but does not rectify for asymmetric interactions and perfect junctions. The model in the latter case can be mapped into a model of a single noninteracting electron in higher dimensions.
Future therapies for food allergies

Food allergy is an increasingly prevalent problem in westernized countries, and there is an unmet medical need for an effective form of therapy. A number of therapeutic strategies are under investigation targeting foods that most frequently provoke severe IgE-mediated anaphylactic reactions (peanut, tree nuts, and shellfish) or are most common in children, such as cow's milk and hen's egg. Approaches being pursued are both food allergen specific and nonspecific. Allergen-specific approaches include oral, sublingual, and epicutaneous immunotherapy (desensitization) with native food allergens and mutated recombinant proteins, which have decreased IgE-binding activity, coadministered within heat-killed Escherichia coli to generate maximum immune response. Diets containing extensively heated (baked) milk and egg represent an alternative approach to food oral immunotherapy and are already changing the paradigm of strict dietary avoidance for patients with food allergy. Nonspecific approaches include monoclonal anti-IgE antibodies, which might increase the threshold dose for food allergen in patients with food allergy, and a Chinese herbal formulation, which prevented peanut-induced anaphylaxis in a murine model and is currently being investigated in clinical trials. The variety of strategies for treating food allergy increases the likelihood of success and gives hope that accomplishing an effective therapy for food allergy is within reach.
Quality-of-life issues in the management of epithelial ovarian cancer.

The importance of quality-of-life (QOL) measurements in cancer management is being increasingly appreciated. This is especially important in patients with advanced cancers. Over 80% of women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) will present with disease outside the ovary as there are no accurate screening tests, and symptoms usually do not develop until EOC has spread. Standard treatment includes debulking surgery followed by chemotherapy to which most women will have a complete response but only a minority of women with advanced disease will be cured. Fortunately, advances in surgical and chemotherapeutic management have improved overall survival with 45% of women of all stages living 5 years or longer. EOC may in many cases be considered a “chronic cancer,” which highlights the importance of QOL in management decisions. QOL may be affected by the disease itself as well as by surgical and chemotherapeutic treatments. Future studies of the care and treatment of EOC patients should include well-designed QOL evaluations.
Learning to rank firms with annual reports

The textual content of company annual reports has proven to contain predictive indicators for the company future performance. This paper addresses the general research question of evaluating the effectiveness of applying machine learning and text mining techniques to building predictive models with annual reports. More specifically, we focus on these two questions: 1) can the advantages of the ranking algorithm help achieve better predictive performance with annual reports? and 2) can we integrate meta semantic features to help support our prediction? We compare models built with different ranking algorithms and document models. We evaluate our models with a simulated investment portfolio. Our results show significantly positive average returns over 5 years with a power law trend as we increase the ranking threshold. Adding meta features to document model has shown to improve ranking performance. The SVR & Meta-augemented model outperforms the others and provides potential for explaining the textual factors behind the prediction.
Contracting for the involuntary treatment of the mentally ill: Legislative attitudes

This study describes legislators' attitudes about the propriety of contracting for the involuntary treatment of the mentally ill. Explanations are also offered concerning the pattern of the responses, as are factors that are most likely to affect legislators who view as proper such contracting.
Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 mRNA splicing pattern in infected persons is determined by the proportion of newly infected cells.

Plasma viremia during HIV-1 infection is regulated by a dynamic balance between viral replication and removal of infected cells and cell-free virus. Administration of novel potent antiretroviral drugs provides an opportunity to study the consequences of perturbing this equilibrium by blockingde novoinfections. In this study, we examined the expression of differentially spliced forms of HIV-1 mRNA, unspliced (US) and multiply spliced (MS), in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients treated with HIV protease inhibitors or combination therapy. In all nine patients studied, a significant reduction in the MS/US mRNA ratio was observed after 1 week of treatment, suggesting that the majority of HIV MS mRNA in the steady-state situation prior to therapy was expressed by cells which had been infected during the previous couple of days. This idea was supported by a detailed analysis of serial PBMC specimens collected from two of the patients during the first hours and days after initiation of therapy. In both cases, a substantial decrease in MS mRNA expression was evident already after 48 hr, whereas the expression of US mRNA at this time was virtually unaffected. These data indicate that the HIV mRNA splicing patternin vivois mainly determined by the relative proportion of newly infected cells and suggest that examination of this pattern could be useful in evaluating the potency of antiretroviral therapies and in studying dynamics of HIV-1 infection.
You Can Have That Dessert—Sometimes

Earlier this year, the U.S. National Institutes of Health released an ominous report on obesity. The study suggested that without efforts to thwart the rise in obesity rates, the life expectancy for average Americans could fall by up to 5 years. Scientists speculate—and disagree—about the upper limit of human life in terms of years, and numerous studies in a variety of model systems have implied that calorie restriction can lengthen life. Now, the surprising results of a new long-term study show that caloric restriction did not enhance longevity in rhesus monkeys. Starting in 1987, 40 young monkeys were randomized to caloric restriction (CR) of ~25%, and 46 served as controls. Food portioning was also regulated in the control group, which prevented obesity. In a second cohort, CR was started later in life, at the age of 16 to 23 years. In the late-onset group, monkeys undergoing caloric restriction were not starved because their feeding behavior was largely unchanged after CR was initiated, but they weighed less, and their metabolic health was improved (for example, lower fasting cholesterol and glucose blood levels in old age diet onset) relative to controls. However, CR did not result in an increase in mean or maximum life span in either cohort. Furthermore, there were no differences in causes of death between the two diets. However, autopsy studies reported a lower incidence of cancer in monkeys with early-onset CR. The data from this prospective trial in primates were eagerly awaited. Some studies in mice and rats had shown a benefit of CR, whereas some did not. There was one other trial in monkeys at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center that reported an improved survival after CR. The design of the two studies differed in several aspects, perhaps most importantly in the unrestricted access to food in the control group in the Wisconsin study, which resulted in higher body weights in the non-CR monkeys. Thus, the jury is still out on whether very skinny, well-nourished people have a prolonged life span. It is clear, however, that obesity is a potent risk factor for a number of lethal diseases; so it is important not to misinterpret these mixed messages when perusing a dessert menu. J. A. Mattison et al ., Impact of caloric restriction on health and survival in rhesus monkeys from the NIA study. Nature , published online 29 August 2012 (10.1038/nature11432). [[PubMed]][1] [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22932268
Identifiability for dependent multiple decrement/competing risk models

Abstract In the study of multiple decrement lifetimes one considers a group of K lives. The group is said to survive at least as long as all members are living. In practise, the component lives are usually combined in annuity or insurance, or some other common undertaking, and frequently are related by blood, marriage or some joint undertaking which simultaneously exposes the individuals to common hazards and mortality risks. It follows that in general the joint survival function of the group should exhibit dependence between the component lives. The method of analysis now commonly used for multiple decrement analysis however assumes independence of the joint lives and joint life insurance payable upon the first death in the group is calculated using this assumption (cf. Jordan, 1975, Chapter 9).
The Piperaceae-A family profile

The Piperaceae, while not so large a family as a number of others are nonetheless to be considered a comparatively big one, conservatively estimated to contain at least 2000 or probably more species. Members of the family occur throughout the tropics of both hemispheres, with major concentrations and centers of dispersal occurring in Latin America and in Malaysia. In the United States only a few species of Peperomia are to be found, in southern Florida. There are some who hold the opinion that far too many species have already been described on the basis of insignificant microcharacters of little taxonomic value. One can readily agree that questionable species have been described in the past, but it can be pointed out that more recently a considerable number have been and are being reduced to synonymy, and there appears little doubt that more will eventually be so reduced. This situation, of course, as every one recognizes, prevails elsewhere and is not peculiar to the Piperaceae, although the exuberance of species-making in that family may have been over-acute at times. Unfortunately, too many species have been founded on fragmentary and inadequate or immature material. A more unfortunate situation is that a number of species have been redescribed from similar material found across boundary lines in political areas different from that of the original type. While it is a fact that there has been a marked reduction of older names to synonymy, it must, at the same time, be acknowledged that a considerable number of new ones have been more recently added. The reason for this should readily be understood when one recalls the tremendous amount of collecting which has been carried out in Latin America, especially by American and other collectors during the past two or three decades. These collectors penetrated into areas hitherto botanically little known and in what might be termed the heart of piperland, and brought out great quantities of material. Much of this has proven to be new to science. Anyone collecting in the tropics where members of the Piperaceae are abundant quickly becomes impressed with the number and variety of species and their often rather local distribution. It is believed that as intensive explorations of these more inaccessible areas continue that many additional species will be brought to light. Linnaeus, in his Species plantarum, in 1753, recognized 17 species in the family, all of which were included in the genus Piper. It was not until about 40 years later, in 1794, that Ruiz and Pavon introduced Peperomia as the second genus. The family name was first used by L. C. Rich in Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth 's Nova genera et species plantarum in 1815. During the next half century a number of additional genera, for the most part segregates of Piper, were described by Sprengel, Kunth, Miquel, and others. More recently several additional generic segregates have been made through the work of Trelease.
Early work on apoptosis, an interview with Richard Lockshin

RA Lockshin Richard Lockshin was born in Ohio, USA in 1937. He was educated in Ohio and Massachusetts, and received his B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His doctoral thesis, ‘Programmed Cell Death in an Insect,’ became the basis of five papers published in 1964 and 1965. After spending his postdoctoral years at the University of Edinburgh with CH Waddington, he joined the faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York, where he spent 10 years before moving to St. John’s University in 1975, where he was rapidly promoted to Professor and served 9 years as Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. He was one of the founders of the Gordon Conferences on Cell Death and the International Cell Death Society. Among his approximately 150 publications are Cell Death in Biology and Pathology, edited with Ivor Bowen, 1981; When Cells Die (1998 and 2004); and The Joy of Science (2007). He has won several awards for both teaching and research. He lives happily with his wife and partner Zahra Zakeri, and is very proud of his two daughters Miriam and Nora. Richard Lockshin was one of the first scientists working on apoptotic mechanisms. In particular, his early work was dedicated to the role of cell death in insect development, originating from his Ph.D. thesis in Harvard in 1963. But how did it all begin? What triggered his scientific interest in the field of cell death from his previous work? Now a large family of death-related proteins exists, with extremely promising clinical applications. Before the current era, the perception of homeostasis was ‘Cells die, and they are replaced through mitosis,’ reflecting the perception that death was an uninteresting, incidental, and stochastic event that was corrected by the organized correction of cell division. Today we realize that the emphasis should be on the first phrase, meaning that the death is organized and controlled. Here, Cell Death and Differentiation asks Rick, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, about the early work on apoptosis.
Nonuniform TEM transmission line. Part 1: Lossless and log-periodic properties

The nonuniform lossless TEM line, with frequency-independent per-unit-length inductance and capacitance, is studied by transforming the differential equation for voltage into Schrodinger form, in terms of a transformed voltage o and scattering potential U. The advantages of this formulation are outlined. An equivalence theorem for two lines is stated, based on the input-output-impedance relations. These relations for a cell are developed from expansions for o in terms of open-circuit and short-circuit functions of the cell. The input impedance is shown to be stationary with respect to small errors in these expansions, according to variational expressions for input impedance and admittance. The latter yield a simple formula for input impedance of a slightly nonuniform line. The periodicity theorem is stated and illustrated for a log-periodic line. Various semi-infinite log-periodic lines of frequency-independent inductance and capacitance are classified and illustrated by their l.f. behaviours. The analytic properties of expressions for the l.f. admittance are examined. The necessary and sufficient conditions for constant input conductance are discussed.
Development of Twitching in Sleeping Infant Mice Depends on Sensory Experience

Myoclonic twitches are jerky movements that occur exclusively and abundantly during active (or REM) sleep in mammals, especially in early development [1-4]. In rat pups, limb twitches exhibit a complex spatiotemporal structure that changes across early development [5]. However, it is not known whether this developmental change is influenced by sensory experience, which is a prerequisite to the notion that sensory feedback from twitches not only activates sensorimotor circuits but modifies them [4]. Here, we investigated the contributions of proprioception to twitching in newborn ErbB2 conditional knockout mice that lack muscle spindles and grow up to exhibit dysfunctional proprioception [6-8]. High-speed videography of forelimb twitches unexpectedly revealed a category of reflex-like twitching-comprising an agonist twitch followed immediately by an antagonist twitch-that developed postnatally in wild-types/heterozygotes, but not in knockouts. Contrary to evidence from adults that spinal reflexes are inhibited during twitching [9-11], this finding suggests that twitches trigger the monosynaptic stretch reflex and, by doing so, contribute to its activity-dependent development [12-14]. Next, we assessed developmental changes in the frequency and organization (i.e., entropy) of more-complex, multi-joint patterns of twitching; again, wild-types/heterozygotes exhibited developmental changes in twitch patterning that were not seen in knockouts. Thus, targeted deletion of a peripheral sensor alters the normal development of local and global features of twitching, demonstrating that twitching is shaped by sensory experience. These results also highlight the potential use of twitching as a uniquely informative diagnostic tool for assessing the functional status of spinal and supraspinal circuits.
Phase-conjugate backward stimulated emission from a two-photon-pumped lasing medium.

Optical phase conjugation of the two-photon-pumped frequency upconversion backward stimulated emission of a new dye solution has been demonstrated. When the 1064-nm pump intensity reaches a certain threshold value, a highly directional and phase-conjugate backward stimulated emission at ∼616-nm wavelength can be observed. After backward passage through an aberration plate placed in the input pump beam path, the introduced aberration influence (1.6–1.8 mrad) can be entirely compensated by backward stimulated emission with a final beam divergence of only 0.23 mrad. The net conversion efficiency from the absorbed IR pump energy to the backward visible stimulated emission energy can reach 10%.
Do Words Matter? Incongruent Responses to Inconsistently Worded AUDIT-C Alcohol Screening Instruments

The first 3 questions of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) are often used as a brief alcohol screening instrument. However, the implications of common modifications made to the original AUDIT questions and response options have not been considered. The authors examined existing data from a randomized controlled trial of 310 persons with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) that was testing the efficacy of 2 antiretroviral medication adherence interventions. Logistic regression was used to model the probability of participants having inconsistent AUDIT-C item responses. Three patterns of conflicting responses to the AUDIT-C items were identified. Common item modifications resulted in 14% (n = 48) of the parent study sample reporting conflicting responses across related AUDIT-C items. The odds of having conflicting data were 3 times greater in opioid users (odds ratio [OR] = 3.139, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.267-7.777, P = .01) and greater in persons with higher levels of conscientiousness (OR = 1.053, 95% CI = 1.006-1.103, P = .03). Inconsistent question format and response options may impede proper scoring and interpretation of the AUDIT-C. Further discussion and consensus building are needed on the psychometrically ideal version of the AUDIT-C.
An update on gene therapy in Parkinson's disease.

Gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD) may offer an alternative to current pharmacologic and surgical treatments; the former are limited by motor complications and non-motor adverse effects, and both by lack of neuroprotection. Three main strategies under investigation using gene transfer for targeted protein expression include improving availability of dopamine to the striatum with more continuous delivery, reducing activity in the subthalamic nucleus by locally inducing γ-aminobutyric acid expression, or protecting and restoring nigrostriatal neuronal function with trophic factor expression. This review summarizes the components of gene therapy for PD, the preclinical rationale for each strategy, data from the most recently published clinical trials using four different vector-gene agents, and challenges in moving gene therapy forward. Thus far, safety data from phase 1 trials have been encouraging for all four agents and one phase 2 trial suggests modest symptomatic efficacy, but definitive conclusions on efficacy cannot yet be drawn.
Regulation of a Physiological Parameter or In Vivo Drug Concentration by Integral Pulse Frequency Modulated Bolus Drug Injections

This paper describes the designs for two novel, nonlinear, discrete, drug injection controllers. The basis for these controllers is integral pulse frequency modulation (IPFM). An IPFM controller injects small boluses of a drug into a pharmacokinetic (PK) plant to achieve regulation of the plant output. Bolus injections are advantageous because they provide a precise knowledge of the times and the cumulative amount of drug injected, and they require a discrete-action pump suitable for digital control, miniaturization, and implantation.
Non-radioactive electron-capture detector

Abstract A non-radioactive electron-capture detector is described which uses a thermionic emitter as a source of electrons. The use of this source allows a unique mode of operation which has greatly enhanced sensitivity, yet at the same time allows a large dynamic range. A signal-to-noise ratio of 180 to 1 has been obtained at the 1-pg level, together with a dynamic range of six orders of magnitude. It appears that with this method it is possible to detect femtogram quantities.
Protein-Assisted Pericyclic Reactions: An Alternate Hypothesis for the Action of Quantal Receptors

Abstract The rules for allowable pericyclic reactions indicate that the photoisomerizations of retinals in rhodopsins can be formally analogous to thermally promoted Diels-Alder condensations of monoenes with retinols. With little change in the seven-transmembrane helical environment these latter reactions could mimic the retinal isomerization while providing highly sensitive chemical reception. In this way archaic progenitors of G-protein-coupled chemical quantal receptors such as those for pheromones might have been evolutionarily plagiarized from the photon quantal receptor, rhodopsin, or vice versa. We investigated whether the known structure of bacteriorhodopsin exhibited any similarity in its active site with those of the two known antibody catalysts of Diels-Alder reactions and that of the photoactive yellow protein. A remarkable three-dimensional motif of aromatic side chains emerged in all four proteins despite the drastic differences in backbone structure. Molecular orbital calculations supported the possibility of transient pericyclic reactions as part of the isomerization-signal transduction mechanisms in both bacteriorhodopsin and the photoactive yellow protein. It appears that reactions in all four of the proteins investigated may be biological analogs of the organic chemists' chiral auxiliary-aided Diels-Alder reactions. Thus the light receptor and the chemical receptor subfamilies of the heptahelical receptor family may have been unified at one time by underlying pericyclic chemistry.
Strategic Decisions in Government-Controlled Enterprises:

Government-controlled enterprises are an increasingly important phenomenon in many countries. Yet there have been relatively few efforts to study what is distinctive about these companies' behavior. This article purports to contribute to the understanding of how strategy is formed in such companies. Using a precise conceptual framework and extensive field work, the strategic decisions of these companies are systematically examined.
Swedish programs for children: A comprehensive approach to family needs

In Sweden, as in the United States, the family bears the primary responsibility for child rearing. The article reviews Sweden's social policy of services to individuals and groups and discusses the application of this policy in supportive programs which aid families with young children. The different kinds of child care options currently available in Sweden are described, as well as the supplementary benefits which families receive. Then the article considers program funding and the procedures used to develop services at the community level. A comparison is drawn between the Swedish model and child care and family services in the United States. It is concluded that the viability of American families would be strengthened by additional services to support them in their child rearing roles.
Avalanche transistor selection for long term stability in streak camera sweep and pulser applications

We have identified the Motorola 2N4014 and 2N5551 and the Raytheon R53944 as three transistor types that exhibit avalanche characteristics and have long term collector breakdown voltage stability superior to other transistors tested. Stability on all types has been improved by power burnin. An automatic avalanche transistor burnin tester has been constructed to allow power burnin of up to 1008 transistors at a time. The tester is controlled by an IBM Personal Computer (PC) and can be programmed to acquire data, unattended, at any desired rate or period. Data are collected from each run and stored on a floppy disk in ASCII format. The data analysis software, RS/1 , was used for analysis and display. Data runs were typically 3 to 4 months long, with readings taken weekly. The transistors were biased into the avalanche or Zener region by individual current sources set to about 20% of the self-avalanche current for each type of transistor. Motorola, Zetex and National transistors were operated at 100 microamperes (pA), and the Raytheon units were operated at 20 pA. The electric field causes migration of material in the high field region at the surface near the collector-base junction, creating the voltage instability.
DISCREPANCY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTITUDINAL FREEDOM

The present research varied threats to attitudinal freedom and initial receiver attitude at four discrepancy intervals from the position advocated in a persuasive communication: extreme agreement; moderate agreement; moderate disagreement; and extreme disagreement. Results indicated that receivers in moderate disagreement and extreme agreement shifted toward the recommended position, with no difference as a function of message threat level. In contrast, significant attitude change away from the position advocated in a threatening message occurred among receivers in moderate agreement and extreme disagreement. The significance of these results for the importance of the freedom to agree or disagree with a persuasive communication is discussed.
Tribology of natural fiber polymer composites

This book examines the availability and processing of natural fiber composites and their structural, thermal, mechanical and tribological properties.
Tolls and beyond--many roads to vaccine immunity.

Some adjuvants contain ligands that bind to a specific class of dendritic-cell receptors called toll-like receptors. Binding of ligand to toll-like receptors was thought to initiate the immune response and underlie the adjuvant effect. A recent study questions this assumption.
Concurrent enhancement of network throughput and fairness in optical burst switching environments

In this article, we propose and evaluate a preemption-based scheme for the concurrent improvement of network throughput and burst fairness in optical burst switched networks. The scheme uses a preemption weight consisting of two terms: the first term is a function of the size of the burst and the second term is the product of the hop count times the length of the lightpath of the burst. The second term is adjusted by a minimum function to prevent the problem of reverse unfairness. Extensive simulation tests showed that the application of the scheme results in higher throughput and at the same time improves the fairness coefficient. The scheme is further enhanced by combining it with a fairness-improving scheme previously proposed in the literature. Detailed performance tests are presented and analyzed.
Left ventricular mass, abdominal circumference and age: The Fels Longitudinal Study

Purpose To determine the relationship of abdominal circumference with increased left ventricular mass (LVM) from young adulthood into old age.
A CUDA implementation of the finite element-boundary integral method for electromagnetic scattering simulation

Summary form only given. Numerical analysis of electromagnetic scattering has been widely studied in the past. The method of moments (MoM) is suitable to simulate scattering from an object in an open region. In order to solve problems with complicated geometries and materials, the finite element method (FEM) is preferred. However, when solving unbounded problems with FEM, the use of absorbing boundary conditions or perfectly matched layers will result in truncation errors. To combine the advantages of both MoM and FEM, the finite element-boundary integral (FE-BI) method was developed and widely used (J. M. Jin, The Finite Element Method in Electromagnetics, Second Edition. New York: Wiley, 2002). This algorithm is not only able to deal with highly complicated geometry and material, but also able to eliminate the truncation error. However, since the MoM has O(N2) computational and storage complexities, the computational cost of the BI-related algorithm is still prohibitively high when solving large-scale scattering problems. To alleviate this problem, the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) has been incorporated into the FE-BI method (J. Liu and J. M. Jin, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 51, pp.1157-1167, Jun. 2003). Another important technique to accelerate the computation is to resort to parallel computers. Recently, the graphics processing unit (GPU), as one of many-core computing systems, has received intensive attention from the scientific computing community due to its low price, a massive number of processors, and the resulting high computational efficiency. In this work, we discuss the GPU implementation of the FE-BI algorithm for solving electromagnetic scattering problems. First, the assembly of the BI-related matrix is parallelized on GPU by NVIDIA's compute unified device architecture (CUDA). A massive number of threads are assigned to carry out the assembly, and each thread computes one element in the BI-related matrix. Second, both the direct and iterative solvers are implemented on GPU. For the direct solver, the Intel's math kernel library (MKL) is used for LU decomposition, and the CUSPARSE (a set of basic linear algebra subroutines used for handling sparse matrices) is employed to speedup forward and backward substitutions. For the iterative solver, the high performance CUDA Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) is utilized for the matrix-vector multiplication and the vector-vector multiplication. Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to validate the implementation and demonstrate the achievable computational speedup.
Treatment and recurrence patterns in endometrial stromal sarcomas and the relation to c-kit expression

Abstract Introduction. Endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESS) are a rare gynecologic malignancy. The optimal management of this cancer remains unclear, although previous reports have failed to demonstrate a clear benefit to adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation. With the successful application of directed biological therapy in other sarcomas, a review of the behavior and biology of this disease is warranted. Objectives. To review outcomes and patterns of failure in patients with endometrial stromal sarcoma diagnosed over 31 years at our institution and the relationship to protooncogene c-kit expression. Materials and methods. Hospital records and pathology were reviewed for 28 patients with endometrial stromal sarcomas [19 low-grade (LGESS) and 9 high-grade (HGESS)] treated between 1972 and 2003. Archival tissue samples from 16 patients were available and stained with CD 117 (c-kit) antibody (1:25 dilution). Staining intensity was graded 1+ to 3+ and distribution of the cellular staining as focal (10–30% of the cells), intermediate (30–60% of the cells), or diffuse (>60% of the cells). Positive tumors had more than 10% of cells comprising the neoplasm display immunoreactivity. Results. We found a significant difference in 5-year overall survival between LGESS and HGESS ( P = 0.001). There was no significant difference in overall survival for patients with local versus advanced disease ( P = 0.53) or in overall survival for those who underwent lymphadenectomy and those who did not ( P = 0.92). 50% of patients received postoperative radiation with no difference in disease-free or overall survival ( P = 0.68 and P = 0.53). Ten patients relapsed (36%, four HGESS and six LGESS). Seven of sixteen (43.8%) tumor samples expressed detectable c-kit. Five of seven (71%) were HGESS, and the other two (22%) were LGESS tumors. The median survival of patients with c-kit-positive versus c-kit-negative tumors was 12 and 47 months, respectively. Conclusions. This study confirms the superior overall prognosis of LGESS relative to HGESS, despite the similar rates of relapse. Although hard to assess, due to population heterogeneity and small numbers, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation appear to be of limited benefit. Expression of c-kit was common, especially in high-grade lesions and may represent a potential therapeutic target.
Lysis and viability of cultured mammalian cells exposed to 1 MHz ultrasound

Abstract HeLa and CHO cells were exposed for 1 to 15 min to 1 MHz ultrasound at intensities up to 30 W/cm 2 . The threshold for cell lysis was approximately 1 W/cm 2 with the maximum effect at 10 W/cm 2 . Among the intact cells there was a decreased viability as determined both by trypan blue exclusion and by colony-forming ability; the intensity vs. response curve was similar to that fur cell lysis. Preliminary evidence also suggests that a decrease in proliferation rate and an increased incidence of giant cells occur for the remaining intact and viable cells.
Pulse Compression and Sea Level Tracking in Satellite Altimetry

An account is given of the pulse-compression technique, in which a radar altimeter transmits a relatively long pulse and processes the returned signal in a way equivalent to transmitting a very short one and measuring the returned power in a sequence of range gates. The effective short pulse enhances the range resolution that would be obtained from the actual long pulse. Pulse compression and sea-level tracking are important to the overall error budget for altimetric estimates of sea level. Attention is presently given to the high degree of accuracy required for the NASA TOPEX altimeter scheduled for launch in mid-1992.
Maximizing scarce service resources in a rural mental health clinic: should alcoholics be treated in separate programs?

One hundred nineteen patients at rural community mental health centers were divided into three diagnostic groups and compared to determine if alcoholic and nonalcoholic patients differ significantly in terms of psychopathology. The three diagnostic groups were (1) primary diagnosis of alcoholism (N = 34), (2) primary diagnosis of emotional disturbance (N = 39), and (3) “other” diagnoses (N = 46). These groups were compared with respect to demographic variables, alcohol drinking patterns, psychopathology, and attitude toward treatment. The alcoholic patient group tended to be single, male, and inpatients; while the nonalcoholic group tended to be married, female, and outpatients. These groups differed significantly with respect to alcohol consumption and drinking patterns and effects, but did not differ significantly with respect to their attitudes toward mental illness or their MMPI profiles. The results of the “other” diagnostic group generally fell between those of the alcoholic and nonalcoholic groups,...