cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Tyrosine phosphorylation of p190 RHOGAP by Fyn regulates oligodendrocyte differentiation

During development of the central nervous system, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells differentiate into mature myelinating cells. The molecular signals that promote this process, however, are not well defined. One molecule that has been implicated in oligodendrocyte differentiation is the Src family kinase Fyn. In order to probe the function of Fyn in this system, a yeast two hybrid screen was performed. Using Fyn as bait, p190 RhoGAP was isolated in the screen of an oligodendrocyte cDNA library. Coimmunoprecipitation and in vitro binding assays verified that p190 RhoGAP bound to the Fyn SH2 domain. Phosphorylation of p190 required active Fyn tyrosine kinase and was increased threefold upon differentiation of primary oligodendrocytes. Moreover, complex formation between p190 and p120 RasGAP occurred in differentiated oligodendrocytes. p190 RhoGAP activity is known to regulate the RhoGDP:RhoGTP ratio. Indeed, expression of dominant negative Rho in primary oligodendrocytes caused a hyperextension of processes. Conversely, constitutively activated Rho caused reduced process formation. These findings define a pathway in which Fyn activity regulates the phosphorylation of p190, leading to an increase in RhoGAP activity with a subsequent increase in RhoGDP, which in turn, regulates the morphological changes that accompany oligodendrocyte differentiation. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Neurobiol 49: 62–78, 2001
Clinical features of ileal pouch-anal anastomosis in African American patients with underlying ulcerative colitis.

Summary Background The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in African Americans appears to be increasing. The data on differences in disease behavior and severity between the races have been conflicting. Aim To evaluate the effect of race on outcome and natural history of patients with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis. Methods All African American patients with underlying ulcerative colitis and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis who were seen in our subspecialty Pouchitis Clinic from 2002 to 2008 were included. The control group consisted of Caucasian patients with ulcerative colitis and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis who were randomly selected from the same Pouch Registry at a ratio of 4:1. We compared pouch failure, Crohn’s disease of the pouch, and chronic pouchitis rates, as well as other 23 demographic and clinical variables between African American and Caucasian patients. Results A total of 12 African American patients and 48 Caucasian patients were evaluated in this case-control study. There were no significant differences in the frequency of pouch failure, Crohn’s disease of the pouch, or chronic pouchitis between the African American and Caucasian groups. However, African American patients were found to have a significantly shorter duration of inflammatory bowel disease (11.5 years vs. 17.0 years, P = 0.024) as well as significantly shorter duration of pouch (1.5 years vs. 4 years, P = 0.02). African Americans were also less likely to have pancolitis at the time of colectomy (83% vs. 100%, P = 0.037). Conclusions While there were no significant differences in pouch outcomes between the races, African American patients appeared to have more left-sided colitis at the time of colectomy, with a shorter duration of inflammatory bowel and ileal pouch. This finding suggests that the natural history of ulcerative colitis and disease course before and after restorative proctocolectomy may be different between these racial groups.
Characterization of Lactoferrin Interaction with Streptococcus mutans

Lactoferrin (LF) is an iron-binding glycoprotein common to exocrine secretions and the specific granules of neutrophils. Each molecule is capable of high-affinity coordinate-binding of two ferric ions with two bicarbonate or carbonic anions. The initial aspect of the present study was directed at determining the nature of anion involvement in LF bactericidal activity. It was found that selective anions were capable of inhibiting the expression of bactericidal activity by LF on S. mutans 10449. The ability to block LF expression was directly related to the capacity of the anion to serve as a coordinate ion in iron-binding by the transferrin molecules. These data support the hypothesis that the LF target site on the bacterial surface is anionic. There has been controversy in the literature regarding LF involvement in hydroxy radical generation. The second phase of these studies indicated that treatment of S. mutans with LF under anaerobic conditions abrogated the bactericidal effect of this molecule. LF-kil...
An endoscope utilizing tunable-focus microlenses actuated through infrared light

We report on a prototype endoscope with tunable-focus liquid microlenses actuated through infrared (IR) light integrated at its distal end. Tunable-focus microlenses scanning the areas of interest with minimal movements of the scopes themselves would greatly advance endoscopy. Multiple IR light-responsive hydrogel posts were used to tune the focal length of the microlens, which were formed by a curved water-oil meniscus. The fabrication and actuation of the hydrogel posts were realized through light transmitted via optical fibers. The focal length varied from 52 mm to 8 mm. Focused images were obtained from an image fiber bundle. A microlens array with larger depth of focus and view of field could be potentially utilized.
Lifetime Optimization for Wireless Sensor Networks Using the Nonlinear Battery Current Effect

One of the design challenges of wireless sensor networks is the tradeoff between network operation time and network coverage. Recent studies reveal that the useable battery capacity drops faster at a higher discharge current in a nonlinear fashion. To take advantage of this battery current effect, in this paper we explore a new sensor node deployment scheme to prolong the entire sensor network lifetime as well as each individual sensor node. The key idea of the proposed scheme is to assign a sensor node having higher traffic load to adopt lower transmission power level. In this way, batteries of all nodes in a given area are discharged at the same current, thus they are depleted at the same time. Extensive simulations have conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed sensor node deployment scheme. Compared with peer work on heterogeneous deployment, the useable battery capacity by using the proposed scheme can be improved by 26.67%, and the operating time per sensor node can be enhanced by 20.95%. Furthermore, the proposed deployment scheme can reduce the number of sensor nodes required to cover the given area, leading to a significant reduction of deployment cost.
Thermoelectric properties and antiferromagnetism of the new ternary transition metal telluride CrAuTe4

Abstract The new ternary transition metal telluride CrAuTe4 has been discovered through solid-state reaction of the elements. The crystal structure is solved in the monoclinic space group P2/m (No. 10) with lattice parameters a=5.4774(7) A , b=4.0169(6) A , c=7.3692(13) A , and β=90.604(10)°. The structure is related to that of the binary compound AuTe2, and a derivation of the structure of CrAuTe4 from AuTe2 is shown. Measurements of the thermopower, thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity, and magnetic susceptibility are presented. The compound undergoes a paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition at 255 K .
ROBERT TIGNOR, Capitalism and Nationalism at the End of Empire: State and Business in Decolonizing Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya, 1945–1963 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998). Pp. 426. $60.00.

The Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the Cold War have been accompanied by a declining interest in Marxian-inspired theories of political economy in the study of core–periphery relations. Concepts such as dependency and imperialism have been replaced by market forces and structural adjustment. Similarly, post-modernism's impact has been to erode interest in historical theories, especially those with a teleological bent. Thus, Robert Tignor's study, Capitalism and Nationalism at the End of Empire, is refreshing in raising issues that have not been central to the recent intellectual agenda in the study of non-Western societies.
Genetic evaluation of Addison's disease in the Portuguese Water Dog.

Addison's disease, also known as hypoadrenocorticism, has been reported in many individual dogs, although some breeds exhibit a greater incidence than the population as a whole. Addison's is presumed to be an autoimmune mediated hereditary defect but the mode of inheritance remains unclear. In particular, the heritability and mode of inheritance have not been defined for the Portuguese Water Dog although Addison's is known to be prevalent in the breed. The analyses present clear evidence that establishes Addison's disease as an inherited disorder in the Portuguese Water Dog with an estimate of heritability of 0.49 (± 0.16); there were no differences in risk for disease across sexes (p > 0.49). Further, the complex segregation analysis provides suggestive evidence that Addison's disease in the Portuguese Water Dog is inherited under the control of a single, autosomal recessive locus. The high heritability and mode of inheritance of Addison's disease in the Portuguese Water Dog should enable the detection of segregating markers in a genome-wide scan and the identification of a locus linked to Addison's. Though the confirmation of Addison's disease as an autosomal recessive disorder must wait until the gene is identified, breeders of these dogs may wish to keep the present findings in mind as they plan their breeding programs to select against producing affected dogs.
“The Fallacy of the Impartial Expert” Revisited

This article, in memory of Bernard Diamond, revisits his seminal editorial on the "Fallacy of the Impartial Expert." In a later article he formulated his thesis most succinctly: "There is no such thing as an impartial expert witness; the objectivity of the expert witness is largely a myth." I argue that the implications of his challenging assertion have as yet not been fully recognized. Ultimately, they also invite a revision of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law's Guidelines for the Practice of Forensic Psychiatry. The Guidelines should emphasize more than they do experts' commitment to honesty and to informing fact finders about the extent and limits of their scientific knowledge, the facts on which their opinions are based, as well as the scientific and value assumptions that underlie their testimony.
Modeling changes in farming systems with the adoption of improved fallows in southern Mali

Abstract Agricultural production in the Koutiala region, southern Mali, is based on cash sources (cotton and groundnut), cereal sources (maize, sorghum, millet), and a store of wealth (livestock). In these low-input farming systems, crop production is seriously constrained by soil fertility decline. Research is being conducted in the region to investigate the potential of improved fallows planted to leguminous agroforestry tree species to improve soil fertility and crop production. This paper examines the potential for the adoption of this technology on different household groups using linear programming-based modeling. The model revealed that an improved fallow would be an interesting venture only if fodder has a market value and if maize yields equal to or higher than the regional average yield of 2500 kg ha−1 can be achieved. Improved fallows are not financially attractive to farmers if they do not produce benefits other than soil fertility improvement measured in terms of crop yield. Any subsidy program which would prevent farmers from cutting the fodder, as secondary output before the end of the planned fallow length, would not have adoption potentials. A special fallow installation loan program, similar to the one that cotton enjoys, would make the venture viable.
Alternative Macrophage Activation and Metabolism

Obesity and its attendant metabolic disorders represent the great public health challenge of our time. Recent evidence suggests that onset of inflammation in metabolic tissues pathogenically links obesity to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In this review, we briefly summarize the extant literature, paying special attention to the central role of the tissue-associated macrophage in the initiation of metabolic inflammation. We argue that rather than representing simple inflammatory disease, obesity and metabolic syndrome represent derangements in macrophage activation with concomitant loss of metabolic coordination. As such, the sequelae of obesity are as much products of the loss of positive macrophage influences as they are of the presence of deleterious inflammation. The therapeutic implications of this conclusion are profound because they suggest that pharmacologic targeting of macrophage activation, rather than simply inflammation, might be efficacious in treating this global epidemic.
The Use of Trait Conceptions to Identify Other People's Behavior and to Draw Inferences about their Personalities

According to Trope's model, dispositional judgment results from two stages, behavior identification and dispositional inference. This article first reviews research on factors affecting behavior identification-behavior ambiguity, the order of situational and behavioral information, and awareness of alternative meanings of behavior-and then develops the dispositional inference stage theoretically. At this stage, perceivers evaluate the hypothesis that a target's disposition corresponds to his or her identified behavior by assessing an identified behavior's diagnosticity and integrating it with prior information. Diagnosticity derives from causal models of how situations affect individuals of differing dispositions; dispositional hypotheses may be evaluated systematically or heuristically. 7he analysis is then applied to intrinsic and extrinsic inducements, to state and trait inference, and to causal and noncausal (descriptive) inference.
FM interference mitigation in a finitely correlated environment using a decorrelating time-varying autoregressive model

A linear prediction error filter (PEF) formed from the coefficients of a time-varying autoregressive (TVAR) model can be used effectively for mitigating frequency modulated (FM) components in a minimally correlated desired signal and white noise. However, when the desired signal is a finitely correlated signal —such as a continuous phase modulated (CPM) signal —the linear PEF formed from the TVAR coefficients results in mitigation of the desired signal along with the interference. We propose a linear PEF formed from the coefficients of a decorrelating TVAR (DTVAR) model to address this issue. A time-varying decision aided compensator (TVDAC) is introduced to compensate for the distortion in the desired signal produced by the proposed PEF. Comparison of a time-varying linear PEF (TVLPEF) formed from DTVAR and TVAR coefficients for interference mitigation in a CPM communications system reveals notable performance gains at most moderate to high signal-to-interference ratios (SIRs).
Dynamics of primate P retinal ganglion cells: responses to chromatic and achromatic stimuli.

1The majority of primate retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) project to the parvocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). These P cells play a central role in early visual processing. 2An improved method of systems analysis has allowed us to explore the dynamics of the colour-opponent subregions of P-cell receptive fields with a single chromatic stimulus. The data show that the centre and surround subregions of the P-cell receptive field have similar temporal responses, but the surround is slightly delayed. The centre and surround demonstrate a large degree of chromatic selectivity. 3The responses of the centre and surround subregions were fitted with a linear model and the model was used to predict the responses of P cells to new chromatic and achromatic stimuli. Although linear models predict the chromatic responses well, simple linear combinations of centre and surround responses fail to predict P-cell responses to achromatic stimuli. 4The temporal responses of the different subpopulations of P cells, such as ON/OFF or L-centre/M-centre were not significantly different.
Expression and Function of Leptin Receptor Isoforms in Myeloid Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndromes: Proliferative and Anti-Apoptotic Activities

The receptor for the gene product of the obesity gene, leptin, was recently reported to be expressed on murine and human hematopoietic progenitor cells. Therefore, we studied the expression of the leptin receptor, OB-R, in normal myeloid precursors, human leukemia cell lines, and primary leukemic cells using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. In normal hematopoiesis, OB-R was expressed in CD34(+) cells. Normal promyelocytes (CD34(-)33(+) and CD34(-)13(+)) expressed only very low levels of the short, presumably nonsignaling isoform. Both the long and short isoforms of OB-R were expressed in 10 of 22 samples from patients with newly diagnosed primary or secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML), with a higher incidence of the long isoform in primary AML (87.6% v 28.6%; P =.01). The incidence of OB-R expression was higher in recurrent than in newly diagnosed AML (P <.001), and samples from four patients with refractory AML showed strong expression of both isoforms. Both OB-R isoforms were also expressed in newly diagnosed and recurrent acute promyelocytic leukemia cells but were essentially absent in samples of chronic or acute lymphocytic leukemia. In vitro growth of myeloid leukemic cell lines and of blasts from 14 primary AMLs demonstrated that recombinant human leptin alone induced low level proliferation, significantly (P <.05) increased proliferation induced by recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interleukin 3, and stem cell factor in a subset of AML and increased colony formation (P <.005). Also, leptin reduced apoptosis induced by cytokine withdrawal in MO7E and TF-1 cells. Serum leptin levels correlated only with body mass index (P <. 001) and gender (P =.03). Results confirm the reported expression of leptin receptor in normal CD34(+) cells and demonstrate the frequent expression of leptin receptors in AML blasts. While normal promyelocytes lack receptor expression, leukemic promyelocytes express both isoforms. We also demonstrate proliferative effects of leptin alone and in combination with other physiologic cytokines, and anti-apoptotic properties of leptin. These findings could have implications for the pathophysiology of AML.
A Staff Dialogue on Caring for a Cancer Patient Who Commits Suicide: Psychosocial Issues Faced by Patients, Their Families, and Caregivers

The Oncologist 1999;4:122-127 Correspondence: Bruce A. Chabner, M.D., Hematology-Oncology Department, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Cox Building, Room 640, 100 Blossom Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2617, USA. Telephone: 617-724-3200; Fax: 617-724-3166; e-mail: chabner.bruce@mgh.harvard.edu Accepted for publication March 10, 1999. ©AlphaMed Press 1083-7159/99/$5.00/0 The Oncologist Schwartz Center Rounds
Metaphysics and Morals: Moore's Medicine for a Misunderstood Marriage

Contemporary Americans seem fascinated, indeed obsessed, with the continuing clash between law and psychiatry. Few legal policies have captured popular and professional attention as extensively as have the insanity defense, the diminished capacity defense, and the civil commitment process. This fascination should surprise no one, for in confronting these topics, we confront essential questions about human beings: Why do people act? When should they be held responsible for their actions? When should they be excused? The principles underlying law and psychiatry seem to supply widely disparate if not irreconcilable answers to these questions: Where the law sees a person with free will and rationality, psychiatry beholds a creature controlled by unconscious, conflicting mental forces producing behavior that is anything but rational. Law and Psychiatry repudiates this account. Michael Moore argues that the widespread view of law and psychiatry as fundamentally in conflict rests on superficial and simplistic analysis. It is his thesis that "the legal and psychiatric views of minds and persons do not contradict one another," and that "nothing in the psychiatric view of persons contradicts the law's presupposition that a person is an autonomous and rational agent" (at 2). Moore constructs this argument by painstakingly unpacking the philosophical presuppositions of the two disciplines. He seeks thereby to undermine what has become the conventional wisdom about law and psychiatry. Moore's analysis is minutely detailed and reflects considerable research in philosophy and psychoanalysis. At times the reader untrained in these fields
The impact of jointly evolving robot morphology and control on adaptation rate

Embodied cognition emphasizes that intelligent behavior results from the coupled dynamics between an agent's body, brain and environment. In response to this, several projects have jointly evolved robot morphology and control to realize desired behaviors. However, which aspects of a robot's morphology should be placed under evolutionary control remains an open question. Here it is shown that subjugating more of the robot's body plan to selection pressure may either slow or increase the rate of evolution, depending on the desired behavior. More specifically, it is shown that for the legged locomotion behavior evolved and described here, increasing the number of evolved morphological parameters slows adaptation. For a more complex behavior involving legged locomotion toward an object followed by manipulation of that object, increasing the number of evolved morphological parameters accelerates adaptation. This suggests that subjugating more of the robot's design to evolution may be of increasing utility for increasingly complex tasks.
Pathologic findings in lung allografts with anti-HLA antibodies

Background Despite data indicating a positive correlation between donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSAs) and early development of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) in lung allografts, the role of an antibody-mediated process in acute and chronic lung allograft rejection has not been elucidated. In this study we evaluated pathologic features of transplant lung biopsies in patients with and without DSAs. Methods Forty-one lung transplant biopsies from 41 patients at our institution were included in our study. The biopsy H&E slides were reviewed in a blinded fashion, and scored for presence of microvascular inflammation, acute rejection, bronchiolar inflammation and acute lung injury, as well as diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). Microvascular inflammation was graded by the presence of capillary neutrophils on a scale of 0 to 4 + . For immunohistochemical analysis, the pattern and intensity of staining for C4d and C3d deposition were evaluated in airways and alveolar capillaries. Results Histopathology suspicious for antibody-mediated rejection (AMR)—defined as≥2 + neutrophilic infiltration and/or DAD—were more common in DSA-positive cases than controls (11 of 16 vs 6 of 25, p p = 0.03). The combination of DSAs and histopathology suspicious for AMR was associated with both BOS ( p = 0.002) and mortality ( p = 0.03). Immunohistochemistry for C3d and C4d showed no correlation with each other, DSAs or histopathology. Conclusions Grade 2 + neutrophilic infiltration is the histopathologic finding most closely related to DSAs with graft dysfunction and development of BOS in lung transplant recipients and may be a marker for AMR.
Microarray and functional cluster analysis implicates transforming growth factor beta1 in endothelial cell dysfunction in a swine hemorrhagic shock model.

Background Trauma leading to massive hemorrhage results in widespread tissue hypoxia, anaerobic metabolism, and production of inflammatory cytokines and oxidative molecules injurious to the vascular endothelium. Although trauma-related endothelial cell pathophysiology has been extensively studied, very little is known regarding gene transcriptional changes that occur during the event, particularly in endothelia. Thus, we employed fluorescent microarray analysis of gene transcription to elucidate critical pathways and gene products involved in endothelial dysfunction. Materials and Methods A trauma-hemorrhage/shock (T-H/S) model mimicking the physiologic changes seen in human trauma was performed on 10 Yorkshire swine, consisting of 35% blood volume hemorrhage followed by 6 h of full resuscitation. Aortic endothelium was analyzed by microarray and functional clusters were identified through the use of Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) software. Results Injured swine developed profound acidosis, coagulopathy, massive resuscitative fluid requirements, and microscopic changes of ischemia/reperfusion injury. While 1007 transcripts were down-regulated, 529 transcripts were up-regulated. DAVID functional clustering analysis revealed 21 significantly altered biological processes that were grouped into 12 distinct functional categories. The transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) family of genes was the most interrelated. In addition, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling members and leukocyte chemoattractants were also altered. Conclusions Our model identified two major signaling pathways, TGFβ and VEGF, which undergo early transcriptional changes in injured endothelial cells. Our results suggest that TGFβ and VEGF may play a crucial role in the development of endothelial cell injury leading to increased vascular permeability during shock-trauma.
Themes for improved teaching of image computation

This paper reports on recommendations and results from a panel discussion and a workshop devoted to the theme of education in areas that involve image computation. One specific set of contributions is in the area of integrating image computation into required core courses such as Introduction to Computing and Data Structures. Another area of specific contributions is the development of undergraduate elective courses on topics such as robotics and medical image analysis. A third area of contributions is the improvement of traditional image processing and computer vision courses.
Mast-cell responses in the development of asthma

Many cells participate in the pathogenesis of asthmatic inflammation. The mast cell is localized at the interface of the internal and external environment within the lung where it may respond to allergens and other exogenous stimuli. The activation of mast cells leads to the release of mediators that contribute to the early phase of asthmatic inflammation. Mast-cell-derived products may also contribute to the late-phase asthmatic response. This review summarizes the developmental biologic features of the mast cell, its receptor-mediated activation, and its range of preformed, newly synthesized, and induced mediators that contribute to asthmatic inflammation.
Reduced growth hormone signaling and methionine restriction: interventions that improve metabolic health and extend life span

Interventions that improve health are often associated with longevity. Reduced growth hormone signaling has been shown to increase life span in mice by over 50%. Similarly, reductions in dietary intake of methionine, in rats and mice, result in life-span extension. Many factors affect metabolic health, mitochondrial function, and resistance to stressors, each of which influence aging and life span. This paper presents a comparison of these two interventions, as well as the results of a study combining these interventions, to understand potential mechanisms underlying their effectiveness in enhancing healthy aging.
Achieving digital literacy through game development: an authentic learning experience

Purpose – This paper aims to argue that the process of making an original game develops digital literacy skills and provides an authentic learning experience as students create, publish and deploy interactive games. Teaching students to create computer games has become common in both K-12 and tertiary education to introducing programming concepts, increase student engagement and recruit majors and minors in technology fields. This study describes a project where first-year college students in an introductory technology concepts course use a visual game creation tool to develop original games to play on their computers and mobile devices. Design/methodology/approach – The author created a game development exercise which was implemented in three different sections of an introductory technology course. Students who participated were surveyed about their experiences. In addition, the author considers information technology (IT) skills and aspects of authentic learning which are achieved through this assignmen...
Medical mimics and differential diagnosis in adult ADHD.

When performing a diagnostic evaluation for an adult patient with possible adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), clinicians must pay particular attention to possible mimics. ADHD mimics are conditions responsible for the symptoms or impairments that superficially resemble, and may be confused with ADHD. These mimics may produce symptoms and impairments similar to those seen in adults with ADHD, but differ in etiology, course, or response to treatment of ADHD. When evaluating someone for ADHD, clinicians should first rule out the possibility of medical, psychiatric, and social mimics of ADHD.
The Global Tobacco Trade: Supply and Demand Constraints in the North and South

Cigarettes are no ordinary agricultural product and serve as an interesting background study on agricultural within the on-going Doha Development Round in the World Trade Organization (WTO). For their addictive nature they have been restricted, discouraged and even banned entirely, in at least one country, but still the trade in tobacco and processed cigarettes thrives. This paper acknowledges that much of the world’s tobacco production takes place in the South and tries to determine who currently gains from this trade and who would gain if the so-called “Three Pillars” of improved market access, lower domestic support and lower export subsidies were actually realized in the agricultural negotiations. In trying to find an answer to this question, the role of the secretive “leaf dealer” is examined - these are the multi-billion dollar buyers and exporters of raw leaf. They play a relatively unique role in the global supply chain of the golden leaf and seem to garner much of the profit from it while at the same time avoiding much of the wrath of the rising global anti-smoking movement
LS-GKM: a new gkm-SVM for large-scale datasets

Summary: gkm-SVM is a sequence-based method for predicting and detecting the regulatory vocabulary encoded in functional DNA elements, and is a commonly used tool for studying gene regulatory mechanisms. Here we introduce new software, LS-GKM, which removes several limitations of our previous releases, enabling training on much larger scale (LS) datasets. LS-GKM also provides additional advanced gapped k-mer based kernel functions. With these improvements, LS-GKM achieves considerably higher accuracy than the original gkm-SVM. Availability and implementation: C/C ++ source codes and related scripts are freely available from http://github.com/Dongwon-Lee/lsgkm/, and supported on Linux and Mac OS X. Contact: dwlee@jhu.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Fetal topography of bovine rhodopsin mRNA suggests retinotopographically determined gene expression.

Purpose. To understand the developmental processes in the differentiating bovine retina, topographic accumulation of rhodopsin mRNA in staged fetal and adult retinas was analyzed. Methods. Isolated retinas were spread on a nylon membrane with the photoreceptor cells facing the membrane and dissected into 25-mm square tissue segments, sometimes with as many as 150 segments/eye. Subsequent to disruption of the tissue in each segment, rhodopsin and β-actin mRNA levels were quantitated with a solution hybridization assay. Slight variations in RNA extraction efficiency and retinal segment size were corrected using β-actin mRNA as an internal standard. Results. Analysis of multiple fetal and adult bovine retinas revealed a relatively static central-to-peripheral gradient of rhodopsin mRNA level that appears at the time of transcriptional induction (6 to 6.5 months of gestation) and persists into adulthood. After induction of rhodopsin mRNA expression, increase of rhodopsin mRNA levels was detected simultaneously in all retinal segments. Furthermore, the rate of increase in rhodopsin mRNA levels in peripheral and central regions was identical. Conclusions. Fetal induction of rhodopsin mRNA expression occurs simultaneously in all photoreceptor cells across the retina, but the levels are set according to a topographically predetermined pattern. This suggests that regulation of accumulation of rhodopsin mRNA during development is determined according to spatial coordinates before gene induction, most likely in a nonphotorecepcor retinal cell type. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1995 ;36 :2008- 2019.
Real-time-implementable relative cost min-max optimal control via a dynamic-programming-like method

Classical optimal control methods require complete information of the dynamic processes, which means that for a system with unpredictable but measurable disturbances, the optimal control and minimum cost can only be calculated after the process is finished. In some applications, the absolute value of the cost may be of less interest than the relative cost, which is defined as the ratio between the actual cost and the posteriori optimal cost. This paper proposes a relative cost min-max (RCM) optimal control method for a general discrete-time nonlinear dynamic system, with its disturbance sequence being assumed to belong to a finite admissible set. The RCM optimal control policy only uses the known finite admissible set, the current and past information of the disturbance, and can guarantee the minimum relative cost in the worst case. As the relative cost is not an accumulative value like the conventional cost, the Principle of Optimality cannot be directly applied to this problem. A theorem similar to the Principle of Optimality is proved in this paper and based on this theorem a dynamic-programming-like backward induction method is presented to solve the RCM optimal control problem. An example of a nonlinear system is given to illustrate the proposed method.
Education of Managers of Refrigerated Warehouses in the United States of America: Education des exploitants d'entrepôts frigorifiques aux Etats-Unis

Depuis le debut de l'entreposage frigorifique aux Etats-Unis (vers 1880) jusqu'a 1940 environ, il n'existait pas d'action manifeste en vue de l'education ou de l'amelioration des operations d'entreposage ou de manipulation des denrees perissables. L'Association Professionnelle de l'Industrie s'est reunie periodiquement pour etudier les problemes courants, mais les connaissances semblent insuffisantes.
Skew Curves Setting Up a Null System in Space

One of the most striking projective theorems concerning the twisted cubic is that any three osculating planes of the cubic meet in a point coplanar with their points of osculation. Thus the twisted cubic sets up, in this manner, a null system in space. Let us more generally define an n-curve as a curve such that: (A) the points of osculation of all osculating planes to the curve through a point are coplanar with the point, (B) the osculating planes of a set of coplanar points of the curve are copunctual at a point on their plane. An n-curve, then, also sets up a null system in space, and the twisted cubic is but a particular n-curve.
Systematizing Public Education in Archaeology

Public education in archaeology today is at a crossroads. Over the last 30 years, it has grown exponentially and is now widely recognized as one of the most effective ways to preserve the past for the future. However, it remains a loose conglomeration of approaches lacking coherence and consistency. There is little discussion of the best practices to use in specific situations and little assessment of effectiveness. One result is that practitioners often reinvent the wheel; another is that we are not reaching the diverse audiences we need to engage to assure archaeology’s future. As a profession, we are losing ground to the continued encroachment of looting and vandalism—the very activities education seeks to forestall. We can either keep doing what we are doing and hope for the best, or we can begin to systematize our efforts. This article introduces a special issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice dedicated to systematizing public education in archaeology by contextualizing and assessing contemporary practices. The article provides a framework for thinking about the issues and proposes solutions, while discussing the contributions of the issue’s authors. Its purpose is to initiate discussion, not to provide the final word on the problem.
Crowd Powered Media Delivery: Facilitating Ubiquitous Device-To-Device File Transfers

Device-to-device file transfers are pervasive in many emerging markets, but users typically only share content with close friends or informal media vendors. We seek to facilitate ubiquitous device-to-device file transfers beyond one's immediate social network. This extended abstract outlines the research challenges we need to address and our initial plans for addressing them.
Calibrator For Alternating Voltage, Current And Power

A computer-controlled calibrator capable of delivering AC sinusoidal and distorted voltage, current and power, with an accuracy of several parts per milion, is described. A combination of feedback and error-feedforward control strategy, together with the current comparator technique for very accurate ratio measurements, is implemented. The ppm stability of the calibrator permits the use of a multiplexing program for monitoring of several instruments over a long period of time.
Physics-based 3D game design as a first course in computing

There is a digital divide in America that starts in public school and extends through the workforce. This paper describes a new approach to bridging that divide by introducing novice students to Computer Science through the use of a Physics-based 3D Game Design course using Blender, a free and open source tool for Modeling, Animation, and Game Design. The complexity of the Blender interface is moderated by the use of Gamekits which are complete games together with a lesson that encourages students to explore one particular aspect of the game system. In the process of learning to create games, the students also gain experience working with an Agent-based programming model and an Object-Oriented coding environment with local variables and message passing. Experience using this approach in five courses over the past five years indicates that most undergraduate novice programmers are able to use this Professional Game Design system to create sophisticated games and to build a solid understanding of the Blender visual programming model.
Proteomic features linked to tenderness of aged pork loins

There is considerable evidence that the protein component of fresh pork makes a major contribution to tenderness. In particular, the proteomic profile can be linked to postmortem events including pH decline, tissue oxidation, and protein degradation. The objectives for this study were to determine differences in sarcoplasmic proteomes that contribute to tenderness variation in aged pork longissimus dorsi muscles (LM). A defined set of pork loins selected to be similar in pH, color, and lipid yet different in tenderness were used. Pork loins were assigned to tenderness groups based on their star probe values; a high star probe group (HSP; n=12 mean star probe 7.75 kg) and low star probe group (LPS; n=12 star probe 4.95 kg) Samples were selected for proteomic experiments based on star probe values, and selected samples were within specified ranges for ultimate pH (5.54-5.86), marbling score (1.0-3.0), and percent total lipid (1.61-3.37%). Two-dimensional difference in gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and mass spectrometry were used to examine sarcoplasmic protein abundance and potential modifications. Proteins spots that were significantly different across groups were selected for identification. Results from 2D-DIGE showed that HSP samples had significantly more abundant metabolic, stress response, and regulatory proteins in the sarcoplasmic fraction compared with LSP samples. The stress response protein peroxiredoxin-2 was more abundant in HSP samples as determined by 2D-DIGE ( ≤ 0.01; 2 spots) and western blot assay ( = 0.02). Low star probe samples showed significantly more degradation of the structural protein desmin in 2D-DIGE ( < 0.01) and western blot assay ( < 0.01). These results demonstrate that extreme proteolytic differences influenced measured tenderness of LSP and HSP samples and that soluble desmin and peroxiredoxin-2 may be used as biomarkers to differentiate between tough and tender aged pork products.
Journeying to the White Coat Ceremony: A description of the people, situations and experiences that inform student visions of the physician they hope to become.

Little is known about the experiences that influence entering medical students’ internal concepts of themselves as future physicians. During orientation to medical school, students were asked to write stories in response to the cue, “Tell a story about a person or experience that inspired you to consider a career of service in medicine.” Qualitative methodology was employed to analyze 190 student stories. Thematic analysis identified descriptive details about content and allowed comparison between the students’ and School’s expectations. Inspirational settings, contexts, and individuals were identified. Nine different inspirational events were described. Student and School expectations for the kinds of physicians they hoped to become were generally consistent. The study demonstrates that students do indeed bring to medical school visions of the kinds of physicians they hope to become. Linking that vision with medical school activities including the White Coat Ceremony provides a bridge between medical school and students’ earlier lives, thus explicitly linking orientation to professional formation.
Laser remote sensing network to measure water vapor in the lower atmosphere

Water vapor and its variability is known to be a significant driver of weather and climate. It is a major factor in the development of severe weather and the most potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere influencing both the environment and the energy sector. However water vapor is spatially and temporal heterogeneous and therefore difficult measure. To address this well-documented monitoring inadequacy, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Montana State Univeristy (MSU) are developing a test network of five laser remote sensing instruments to continuously measure high-vertical-resolution water vapor in the lower atmosphere. The micro-pulse differential absorption lidar instruments are low-cost, operate unattended, eye-safe, and have been demonstrated to be accurate.
Squamous cell carcinoma.

Irregular aggregates of neoplastic keratinocytes arising from the epidermis and invading the dermis.
A Massively Parallel Framework for Very Large Scale Linear State Estimation

This paper presents a new computational framework for implementing a robust linear static state estimator that uses only synchronized phasor measurements. Robustness is achieved by an estimator minimizing the L1 norm of the measurement residuals. The proposed computational approach assumes the availability of an adequate number of processors which can run simultaneously. Multiple copies of the system will be created each having a different zone partitioning. A set of processors will be assigned to the zones of each system copy. Starting with the original zone partitioning of the system (based on geography or control areas), an automatic zone partitioning method is developed which will guarantee minimum required redundancy levels around every boundary bus in at least one copy of the system for bad data rejection. The proposed design makes it possible for the state estimators of every zone on every system copy to run in parallel using a multicore high-performance computer. This will make the overall computational time independent of the system size. The proposed estimator is successfully simulated using different power systems with 30, 140, and 2917 buses.
Structural Basis for Enhanced Hiv-1 Neutralization by a Dimeric Immunoglobulin G Form of the Glycan-Recognizing Antibody 2G12

The human immunoglobulin G (IgG) 2G12 recognizes high-mannose carbohydrates on the HIV type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein gp120. Its two antigen-binding fragments (Fabs) are intramolecularly domain exchanged, resulting in a rigid (Fab)2 unit including a third antigen-binding interface not found in antibodies with flexible Fab arms. We determined crystal structures of dimeric 2G12 IgG created by intermolecular domain exchange, which exhibits increased breadth and >50-fold increased neutralization potency compared with monomeric 2G12. The four Fab and two fragment crystalline (Fc) regions of dimeric 2G12 were localized at low resolution in two independent structures, revealing IgG dimers with two (Fab)2 arms analogous to the Fabs of conventional monomeric IgGs. Structures revealed three conformationally distinct dimers, demonstrating flexibility of the (Fab)2-Fc connections that was confirmed by electron microscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and SPR binding studies. We conclude that intermolecular domain exchange, flexibility, and bivalent binding to allow avidity effects are responsible for the increased potency and breadth of dimeric 2G12. In addition, we present this as the first known crystal structure of an IgG dimer.
Temporally Resolved IR Thermography of a Running Engine

The use of IR videothermography for nondestructive evaluation has typically been limited to situations where the thermal event of interest can be captured within a single video field time (16 ms). For many applications a shorter time scale would be required to make whole field IR video imaging a viable NDE technique. We have developed a method to acquire temporally well-resolved images of repetitive thermal events at frequencies as high as 4 kHz. Our system uses an off-the-shelf commercial imager (Inframetrics IR 600), a video processor board, and a microcomputer.
Mobility Analysis and Type Synthesis with Screw Theory: From Rigid Body Linkages to Compliant Mechanisms

Mobility analysis is one of fundamental problems in kinematics and an important tool in type synthesis of linkages. In this paper, we will review screw theory as a mathematical tool for mobility analysis of overconstrained linkages and compliant mechanisms. Established by Ball in late 1800, screw theory has become one of the fundamental theories for characterizing instantaneous kinematics of spatial movements. In mid to late 1960, Waldron was one of the first modern kinematicians who systematically developed screw theory and its applications to the constraint analysis and synthesis of overconstrained linkages. Due to the screw theory, several overconstrained spatial linkages have been invented and designed, including the well known Waldron six-bar loop overconstrained linkage. In recent years, mobility analysis has been extended to compliant mechanisms which achieve motion through deflection of flexure joints. By the concept of relative compliance/ stiffness, we can also define mobility of compliant mechanisms similar to their rigid body counterparts. This paper will summarize some recent work on applying screw theory to mobility analysis and synthesis of compliant mechanisms.