cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural and dynamic heterogeneity in a telechelic polymer solution

We utilize molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the implications of micelle formation on structural relaxation and polymer bead displacement dynamics in a model telechelic polymer solution. The transient structural heterogeneity associated with incipient micelle formation is found to lead to a ‘caging’ of the telechelic chain end-groups within dynamic clusters on times shorter than the structural relaxation time governing the cluster (micelle) lifetime. This dynamical regime is followed by ordinary diffusion on spatial scales larger than the inter-micelle separation at long times. As with associating polymers, glass-forming liquids and other complex heterogeneous fluids, the structural ts relaxation time increases sharply upon a lowering temperature T; but the usual measures of dynamic heterogeneity in glassforming liquids (non-Gaussian parameter a2ðtÞ; product of diffusion coefficient D and shear viscosity h; non-Arrhenius T-dependence of tsÞ all indicate a return to homogeneity at low T that is not normally observed in simulations of these other complex fluids. The greatest increase in dynamic heterogeneity is found on a length scale that lies intermediate to the micellar radius of gyration and intermicellar spacing. We suggest that the limited size of the clusters that form in our (low concentration) system limit the relaxation time growth and thus allows the fluid to remain in equilibrium at low T: q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Fragmentation-Recombination Nazarov Cyclization: 3,4-Dimethylcyclopent-2-en-1-one

Crotonic acid Isopropyl (E)-but-2-enoate 3, 4-Dimethylcyclopent-2-enone Keywords: fragmentation; recombination; Nazarov cyclization; polyphosphoric acid catalyst; dimethylcyclopentenone; fluorosulfonic acid; bromination; alkyllithium reagent; triethylamine; unsaturated esters; lithium divinylcuprate
Analysis of a laser phased array using a distributed Y-junction analog

An analysis is presented of a semiconductor-laser linear phased array which uses a distributed, evanescent-coupled version of Y-junction branches to achieve mode discrimination. As in the Y-junction array, the in-phase fundamental mode has the inherently highest round-trip gain. The advantage of easier mask generation and fabrication for the distributed coupler is offset by its poorer discrimination against higher order modes. >
Effects of hyperoxia on type II cell Na-K-ATPase function and expression.

Alveolar fluid is resorbed using active Na+ transport primarily through basolateral sodium-potassium-adenosinetriphosphatase (Na-K-ATPase) and apical Na+ channels that are particularly dense on the alveolar type II (ATII) epithelial cells. During lung injury with pulmonary edema, continued or accelerated Na+ and fluid resorption is critical for a favorable outcome. However, little is known of how ATII cell Na+ transport is affected during injury. These experiments examined the effects of acute lung injury on ATII cell Na-K-ATPase activity and expression using an established model of rats exposed to 100% O(2) for 60 h. Na-K-ATPase activity of ATII cells isolated immediately after exposure was assessed by ouabain-sensitive (86)Rb+ uptake in intact cells and by ouabain-sensitive P(i) production by cell membranes. In the presence of 1 mM ouabain, ouabain-sensitive Rb+ uptake was not different between normoxic and hyperoxic cells, but the apparent Na-K-ATPase maximal velocity (Vmax) of hyperoxic cell membranes was 75 +/- 8% of normoxic membranes (P 0.05). On Northern blots of ATII cell total RNA, steady-state levels of both the alpha1- and beta1-subunit mRNA increased after hyperoxia (alpha1 = 2.5 +/- 1.3-fold; beta1 = 4.6 +/- 2.5-fold). Thus despite hyperoxic decreases in Na-K-ATPase Vmax and the amount of alpha1-protein, Rb+ uptake by Na-K-ATPase in intact cells was unchanged. The mRNA levels, protein amounts, and enzyme activity did not respond in parallel to hyperoxic injury, and the activity in intact cells correlated best with the amounts of the beta-subunit, the limiting component in de novo pump assembly in many tissues.
Policy Issues and Problems in Outdoor Recreation

N THIS paper a rationale based on economic logic is presented for the outdoor recreation field. If development in outdoor recreation is to continue, economic policy guidelines must be established-just as they have been established in some of the older natural resource fields. Already, many early arguments and claims for outdoor recreation are being challenged. Promotion of the outdoor recreation industry has been effective, but now is the time for society to justify this new industry in its economic accounts.
Membrane Protein Mobility and Orientation Preserved in Supported Bilayers Created Directly from Cell Plasma Membrane Blebs

Membrane protein interactions with lipids are crucial for their native biological behavior, yet traditional characterization methods are often carried out on purified protein in the absence of lipids. We present a simple method to transfer membrane proteins expressed in mammalian cells to an assay-friendly, cushioned, supported lipid bilayer platform using cell blebs as an intermediate. Cell blebs, expressing either GPI-linked yellow fluorescent proteins or neon-green fused transmembrane P2X2 receptors, were induced to rupture on glass surfaces using PEGylated lipid vesicles, which resulted in planar supported membranes with over 50% mobility for multipass transmembrane proteins and over 90% for GPI-linked proteins. Fluorescent proteins were tracked, and their diffusion in supported bilayers characterized, using single molecule tracking and moment scaling spectrum (MSS) analysis. Diffusion was characterized for individual proteins as either free or confined, revealing details of the local lipid membrane h...
S132 Chronic Bronchitis, Pulmonary Function, and Occupational Exposure in Framingham Heart Study

Introduction Occupational exposure to dust, gases and fumes has been associated with chronic airway disease or poor lung function in several workforce based studies. However, workforce studies may underestimate such associations because of healthy worker effect confounding bias. We conducted a community-based study that used a more generalised populations of individuals and less susceptible to healthy worker effect. We investigated the associations between the self-reported occupational exposure and chronic bronchitis, as well as pulmonary function testing. Methods The study population is the Third-Generation cohort from Framingham Heart Study with a total of 3,894 participants. We used participants’ examination of FEV1, FEV1/FVC, chronic bronchitis (based on self reported symptoms) as outcomes. Occupational exposure was assessed by self-reported exposure to vapours, gas, dust, or fumes at work. Gender, age, height, pack-years, and smoking status were used as covariates in our analysis. We used linear mixed effect models for continuous outcomes and generalised estimating equations for dichotomous outcomes due to the family structure. Results There are 1,745 participants reporting occupational exposure at work and 2,149 participants reporting no occupational exposure. The association of occupational exposure on the FEV1 and FEV1/FVC was not significant in this cohort. However, self-reported occupational exposure was associated with a risk of chronic bronchitis after controlling for covariates (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.19 to 2.01). Current smoking was associated with a greater risk of chronic bronchitis after controlling for covariates (OR 3.20, 95% CI 2.37 to 4.32). Those with combined occupational and smoking exposure had a 5 fold increased risk of chronic bronchitis compared those with neither occupational nor smoking exposure. Conclusions Occupational exposure is significantly associated with chronic bronchitis. In addition to preventing smoking exposure, preventive strategies should be taken by clinicians and health policy-makers to reduce occupational exposures in workplace.
Westmoreland's War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam Gregory A. Daddis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Westmoreland's War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam Gregory A. Daddis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.Until now, the historical fate of General William Westmoreland can best be compared to that of British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, who, during World War I, commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from 1915 through the end of the war in 1918. Haig led his troops into the bloodbaths of the Battle of the Somme and Passchendaele. In the years after the Great War, Haig's command came to symbolize the murderous attritional warfare of the trenches; he was seen as one of the "donkeys" who sacrificed a generation of young British "lions" in the bloody mud of Flanders. In recent years, a new generation of scholars has attempted to rehabilitate Haig's reputation, arguing that he was a capable and, at times, even an innovative general, who was forced to work within constraints imposed by the new industrialized technologies of destruction which had been unleashed in 1914. William Westmoreland, who headed the United States's Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) from 1964 to 1968, receives much of the blame for American failure in the Vietnam War. Like Haig, he is derided as yet another military practitioner of attrition, fixating on body counts in a conflict where such bloody statistics were beside the point. Typical of this perspective is Lewis Sorley's Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam (2011). As the title of Sorley's book makes clear, he believes that Westmoreland lost a winnable war in Vietnam by focusing on conventional tactics rather than on counter-insurgency warfare. Westmoreland also figures prominently and unhappily in Thomas E. Ricks's The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today (2012), where he is an exemplar of what Ricks sees as the modern American general, bureaucratically savvy, but unable to produce military victories.Gregory A. Daddis, a colonel in the United States Army who teaches history at West Point, takes issue with the conventional wisdom in Westmoreland's War. He boldly contradicts the stereotypical picture of William Westmoreland. He does so in classic revisionist style by revisiting and reexamining the primary sources. A virtue of Daddis's book is his attention to the institutional culture of the United States Army during the early 1960s. He creates a context for his study of Westmoreland by analyzing trends in American military thinking in the early Cold War. …
In situ electron microscopy of ferroelectric domains

This article reviews current progress in research in ferroelectric switching phenomena using in situ electron microscopy. We focus on state-of-the-art instrumentation, analytical methods, experimental procedures, and image contrast mechanisms. Particular emphasis is on ferroelectric domain and domain wall structures that determine ferroelectric behaviors. The applicability of in situ microscopy to studying a wide range of switching phenomena, such as domain nucleation, domain wall motion, and domain wall pinning by various types of defects, in ferroelectric thin films is demonstrated. The underlying physics of these dynamic processes is also discussed.
Effect of desiccated thyroid and thiouracil on dental caries experience of adult rats.

ConclusionsThe effect of feeding either desiccated thyroid or propylthiouracil was studied to determine if the former drug resulted in an anticariogenic effect and the latter produced a cariogenic effect in adult rats to the same degree as in weanling animals. Propylthiouracil resulted in significantly more caries than were found in weanling animals, but desiccated thyroid did not reduce the caries experience. Similar histologic changes were found in both thyroid and salivary glands in the adult rats as were found previously in weanlings.
An etiologic approach to obesity.

Emotional or social barriers to a healthy diet and physical activity are typical in obese patients. Counseling can help identity the barriers and improve either the situation or patients' response to it. Long-term success most often occurs when there is a cognitive shift from focusing on weight to focusing on health. Drugs can be a useful adjunct but cannot substitute for lifestyle modification.
Conceptual Graphs as Instructional Tools

Conceptual graphs are a method of diagraming knowledge structures. They are valuable in a variety of applications including design of instructional materials, student evaluation and diagnosis, and theoretical research. One problem has been the identification of methods for eliciting or measuring the “internal” knowledge structures to develop conceptual graphs.Several methods of mapping conceptual graphs have been used in various research domains (e.g., free recall, sorting, ordering, etc.). Most of these traditional methods suffer from serious drawbacks. To overcome these problems, a question probe method has been adapted from work done in the area of prose comprehension. The question probe technique is a method for systematically developing a set of “test questions”. The method allows for the direct development of conceptual graphs and quantitative comparison of the graphs.The question probe technique has been successfully used to systematically develop instructional materials, evaluate/diagnose student ...
Genetic Research Progress on Pre-Harvest Sprouting and Dormancy Rice

Rice pre-harvest sprouting affects yield and reduces quality of rice.Breeding rice varieties of pre-harvest sprouting tolerance is one of the most effective ways to solve pre-harvest sprouting.The paper reviews the main factors that affect the rice pre-harvest sprouting and seed dormancy,including seed maturity,alpha-amylase activity,endogenous hormones,soluble sugar,temperature,and humidity.In addition,the pre-harvest sprouting and dormancy related QTLs were summarized and analyzed in order to provide a reference for breeding rice varieties resistant to pre-harvest sprouting.
An Immunohistochemical Survey of SNARE Proteins Shows Distinct Patterns of Expression in Hematolymphoid Neoplasia.

Objectives: Five proteins from the soluble N -ethylmaleimide–sensitive factor activating protein receptor (SNARE) complex family were studied in normal hematopoietic cells in bone marrow; normal lymphocytes at different stages of maturation and differentiation in bone marrow, thymus, tonsil, and lymph node; malignant lymphomas; and leukemias. Methods: Sixty-eight reactive and 380 hematopoietic and lymphoid neoplasms were immunohistochemically stained for syntaxin 7 (STX7), vesicle-associated membrane proteins (VAMP2, VAMP7, VAMP8), and synaptosomal-associated protein 23 (SNAP23). Results: STX7 has potential for being a useful marker for distinguishing between normal B precursors (hematogones) vs B lymphoblasts, as well as between the “popcorn” cells of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma vs the Reed-Sternberg cells of classic Hodgkin lymphoma or the B cells of T-cell, histiocyte-rich B-cell lymphoma. VAMP2 is uniquely expressed by both reactive and malignant plasma cells, in contrast to B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. There is differential expression of SNARE proteins in normal and neoplastic lymphoid tissue depending on lymphocyte maturation stage. Conclusions: Differential SNARE protein expression in the lymphoid system may have potential use in diagnosis and may offer clues to lymphoma biology. VAMP2 is a promising new plasma cell marker.
High Stakes Testing for Politicians? The Effects of Local Test Scores on Mayoral Elections

In recent years, cities have been the epicenter of education reform movements, especially with regard to accountability. This paper examines whether mayors pay a price at the polls when test scores in their local public schools drop. In the post-No Child Left Behind era, schools are required to publicly report their scores, making it easier for citizens and the media to know how the schools are doing on these indicators. And though mayors’ policies are not likely to have immediate positive or negative effects on school performance, voters often hold incumbents responsible for events over which they have little control. The analysis is based on survey data conducted in advance of mayoral contests in 16 cities in the United States between 2007 and 2009 that have been matched with data on test scores in each city. The results suggest that voters do reward incumbents for improvements in test scores, but only in competitive races. Further, voters are not more likely to hold mayors accountable in cities where mayors have control over the schools.
Self-Defense and Risks

In this paper, I discuss certain issues related to one's right to use force against a risk of harm. With that in mind, I first try to find a common denominator between the harm and the risk of harm, and discuss whether a person who has the right not to be harmed in a certain way also has the right not to be subjected to the risk of this harm. I then consider how such factors as the magnitude of the risk (probability of harm) and the culpability of the risk creator affect one's right to use force in self-defense.
A One-Meter-Diameter, Ac Superconducting Coil and Fiberglass Cryostat for an Electromagnetic Geophysical Exploration System

The design, fabrication, and testing of a 1-m-diameter, ac superconducting coil for a superconducting geophysical exploration device have been completed. A large fiberglass cryostat with a novel high-electrical-Q superinsulation system was built and used for testing the coil. Calorimetric measurements of the ac superconductor loss have been made at three frequencies, and sensitivity tests of the prospecting capability of the coil have been made.
Knowledge sharing in a physician practice group: an exploratory case study

Existing research on physician knowledge sharing has been predominantly focused on functional collaboration across different medical specialties. This study represents an early effort to analyse empirically how peer physicians in the same practice group collaborate horizontally with each other to share clinical knowledge and improve care quality. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, and through semi-structured interviews to eight physicians of an anaesthesia practice group in a community hospital, this study indicates that when physicians have developed positive attitudes towards knowledge sharing, have received external encouragement from 'important others' and have received necessary infrastructural support, they appear to engage actively in knowledge sharing behaviours. Additional managerial recommendations on how to operationalise the research findings and encourage knowledge sharing are also discussed in the paper.
The Revolution Might Not Be Televised (But It Will Be Lived Streamed): Future Directions for Research on Police–Minority Relations

Fiery nationwide protests in response to a recent string of dubious police killings of unarmed Black men have sparked a renewed social movement, drawing increased attention to fragile police–minority relations and allegations of racial bias in the criminal justice system. A wealth of research exists concerning African American youths’ accounts of poor treatment at the hands of police. To a lesser extent, prior scholarship reveals the importance of looking beyond citizens’ direct police experiences to family, peer, and mainstream media accounts of negative police encounters. Scholarly examinations of social media regarding how individuals make sense of their own and others’ experiences with, and attitudes toward police are limited, however. This is surprising given that social media has become especially important for youths and represents a new mechanism for the American public to learn about unsettling police behaviors. Moreover, social media represents a largely untapped, but potentially rich data sourc...
An Animated Graphics Program for Solving Star-Sensor-Based Satellite Attitude Problems

Practical problems in satellite attitude determination can be difficult to solve. An effective tool for solving these problems is an animated computer graphics program. This program simulates the motions of a satellite in an interactive and visual manner. It displays the sky from the point of view of the satellite along with the fields of view of the satellite’s star sensors. It allows the user to vary interactively the parameters governing the motions of the satellite until the attitude problem is solved. The present paper describes this graphics program and how it is used to solve the problem of star-sensor-based satellite attitude acquisition.
Identification of Intrinsic Axon Growth Modulators for Intact CNS Neurons after Injury.

Functional deficits persist after spinal cord injury (SCI) because axons in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) fail to regenerate. However, modest levels of spontaneous functional recovery are typically observed after trauma and are thought to be mediated by the plasticity of intact circuitry. The mechanisms underlying intact circuit plasticity are not delineated. Here, we characterize the in vivo transcriptome of sprouting intact neurons from Ngr1 null mice after partial SCI. We identify the lysophosphatidic acid signaling modulators LPPR1 and LPAR1 as intrinsic axon growth modulators for intact corticospinal motor neurons after adjacent injury. Furthermore, in vivo LPAR1 inhibition or LPPR1 overexpression enhances sprouting of intact corticospinal tract axons and yields greater functional recovery after unilateral brainstem lesion in wild-type mice. Thus, the transcriptional profile of injury-induced sprouting of intact neurons reveals targets for therapeutic enhancement of axon growth initiation and new synapse formation.
Melvin M. Grumbach 1925-2016.

Generations of clinicians have been faced with often striking developmental and acquired hormonal syndromes associated with reproductive, growth, and metabolic phenotypes. These syndromes have included ambiguous genitalia, anomalies of sexual development, intersex forms, accelerated or delayed puberty, gigantism, and short stature. Although clinical phenotypes of these disorders have been well-established, elucidating their pathogenesis remained elusive until the mid-1950s. Drawing on his incisive application of novel diagnostic techniques to study neuroendocrine pituitary control, Mel Grumbach elucidated critical mechanisms underlying both normal physiology and pathogenesis of clinical syndromes, ranging from ontogeny of reproductive and growth axis control circuits, to effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulse generation and timing of puberty onset, to control of adrenal androgen production and virilizing syndromes, to male estrogen receptor mutation sequelae. Melvin M. Grumbach. Image courtesy of Susan Merrell (University of California, San Francisco). Mel, an icon of investigative endocrinology, passed away on October 4, 2016, at the age of 90. Born, raised, educated, and trained as a physician, pediatrician, and endocrinologist in New York, Mel spent the latter 50 years of his stellar career at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he founded much of the knowledge base for our understanding of endocrine control of human reproductive development and growth. At the onset of his remarkable career of endocrine discovery in the mid-20th century, structural identification of peptide hormones and regulation of pituitary function were yet obscure. Hypothalamic hormonal control of normal and diseased human pituitary function was not yet characterized, assays for measuring hormones in the clinic were not sophisticated and were technically laborious, and mechanisms underlying hormone action mediated by receptor signaling were unknown (1). By the end of Mel’s career, he had both intimately witnessed the explosion of hormone discovery and also actively participated in the unprecedented knowledge spurt unraveling genetic … [↵][1]1Email: melmed{at}csmc.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Peacekeeping in Peril: The First 65 Years

In 1988, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its prestigious prize for peace to United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Forces: at the time, UN ‘blue helmets’ were romantically lauded by the Committee a...
Modern local history in Spanish American historiography

This article considers the role of modern local history on the Anglophone Spanish American scholarship (1492-1825). Modern local history developed in the mid-twentieth century as a type of historical inquiry focused on the study of specific peoples, institutions, or processes in a defined locality. This essay identifies the topics, methodologies, and sources, employed by scholars of Spanish America, highlighting some recent examples from the viceroyalty of New Spain, specifically contemporary Mexico and Guatemala. It analyzes the appeal of this approach to ethnohistorians, scholars of indigenous peoples, as a means to reveal indigenous responses to colonial rule obscured by other approaches. It argues that modern local histories of Spanish America are a particularly important genre of the field because they complement the current movement towards global and transnational studies as they illustrate the local variations on the ground that support or complicate regional, viceregal, and transatlantic trends.
Mechanism, multiple forms and substrate specificities of flavin-containing mono-oxygenases

Enzymes bearing flavin prosthetic groups are quite common in all eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. The tricyclic ring of isoalloxizine is an exceptionally versatile molecule that in different microenvironments carries out a variety of different biological redox functions. Most of these are well known and the present discussion will be restricted to a subgroup of flavin-dependent mono-oxygenases that catalyse the oxidation of an exceptionally broad range of substrates via a mechanism distinctly different from all other mono-oxygenases or oxidases.
Microstructural Effects on SCC Initiation in PWR Primary Water for Cold-Worked Alloy 600

SCC initiation results in simulated PWR primary have been obtained on one mill annealed alloy 600 plate heat in the cold-worked condition. Twelve specimens with similar cold work levels were tested at constant load and three showed much shorter SCC initiation times ( 1200 h). Post-test examinations revealed that these three specimens all feature an inhomogeneous microstructure where the primary crack always nucleated along the boundary of large elongated grains protruding normally into the gauge. In contrast, such microstructure was either not observed or did not extend deep enough into the gauge in the other specimens exhibiting ~3–7× longer initiation times. In order to better understand the role of this microstructural inhomogeneity in SCC initiation, high-resolution microscopy was performed to compare carbide morphology and strain distribution between the long grains and normal grains, and their potential effects on SCC initiation are discussed in this paper.
A general modeling approach for the MMC averaged-value model in large-scale DC grid

Direct-current (DC) grid based on high-voltage direct-current transmission based upon modular multilevel converter (MMC-HVDC) and overhead lines is an effective solution for the wide-area coordination, complementarity and reliable delivery of the large-scale renewable energy sources, and therefore is an important application direction of VSC-HVDC charactered by high voltage and large capacity in the future. Aiming at the challenges of the applicability of the existing modular multilevel converter (MMC) models, such as the low simulation efficiency and accuracy when do the fault characteristic analysis of overhead lines and coordination between the line protection and control systems in DC gird, a general modeling approach for the MMC AVM (AVM) is proposed. As a result, the MMC AVMs based on half bridge submodule (HBSM), full bridge submodule (FBSM), clamped-double submodule (CDSM), hybrid submodule (HSM) and so on can be quickly built without extra difficulties. At the same time, the problem of low simulation efficiency and accuracy which is not high enough for the large-scale MMCs in DC grid is effectively solved. Finally, the precision and applicability of the MMC AVMs constructed with the help of the general modeling method proposed in this paper is verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation.
The benefit of perversity in taxation mechanisms for distributed routing

We study pricing as a means to improve the congestion experienced by self-interested traffic. When user price-sensitivities are unknown, it is not generally possible to incentivize optimal flows with static pricing. Nonetheless, recent work has derived non-trivial pricing that can be guaranteed never to be perverse; that is, for every network and every user population, the routing incentivized by these prices is never worse than un-influenced routing. In this paper, we ask two sides of a dual question: first, if tolls were allowed to create perverse incentives on some networks, could this improve worst-case outcomes overall? Second, how perverse are the tolls that minimize congestion in worst-case over all networks? Perhaps counterintuitively, we show that if a system operator is willing to risk creating small perversities on some networks, this can reduce worst-case congestion. Subsequently, we derive the tolls that minimize worst-case congestion over all parallel networks, and show that they always outperform the best non-perverse tolls. In other words, there is a tradeoff between perversity and efficiency: even on parallel networks, a taxation mechanism that optimizes worst-case performance does so by creating perverse incentives on some networks.
Reachability of Nonnegative Equilibrium States for the Semilinear Vibrating String

We show that the set of nonnegative equilibrium-like states, namely, like (yd,0) of the semilinear vibrating string that can be reached from any nonzero initial state (y0,y1) eH10 (0,1)×L2(0,1), by varying its axial load and the gain of damping, is dense in the “gnonnegative” part of the subspace L2(0,1)×{0} of L2(0,1)× H-1(0,1). Our main results deal with nonlinear terms which admit at most the linear growth at infinity in y and satisfy certain restriction on their total impact on (0,∞) with respect to the time-variable.
The Elastic Field of Point Defects

Unlike dislocations, which are linear defects of the crystal lattice, point defects are lattice imperfections having all dimensions of the order of one atomic spacing. The point defect may be a vacant site in the atomic lattice, called a vacancy, a foreign atom replacing one atom of the lattice, called a substitutional atom, or an atom situated between the normal sites of the lattice, called an interstitial atom. An interstitial atom is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic, according as it is of the same nature or of different nature with the atoms of the host lattice. Sometimes, two or more point defects can build characteristic arrangements which are thermodynamically stable, i.e. their self-energies are smaller than the sum of the self-energies of the individual point defects.
The Obese ( ob/ob ) Mouse and the Discovery of Leptin

Early theories describing appetite regulation and energy expenditure suggested the lipostatic theory, which hypothesized that some peripheral signal, probably from adipose tissue, would feedback to central satiety centers to modulate food intake and body weight. However, the experimental techniques needed to validate this hypothesis were lacking at that time. Subsequently, two strains of obese mutants, the ob/ob mouse and later the db/db mouse, were discovered 50 and 40 years ago, respectively, and proved invaluable to studying the regulation of food intake, energy expenditure and obesity. Prior to the development of today’s more sophisticated techniques for studying biological and biochemical processes, the use of parabiosis, the surgical attachment of two animals with a shared blood supply, provided valuable insights into the obesity. Information gained from studies of these strains of mice, especially in parabiotic studies with normal counter parts, provided evidence for a humoral factor involved in appetite regulation and initiated the search for its identity. Friedman et al discovered leptin in 1994, and demonstrated that this hormone, the product of the obese (ob) gene, was produced in white adipose tissue and served as the peripheral signal to the central nervous system of nutritional status. After leptin’s discovery, the obese mouse model continued to play an invaluable role in the validation of leptin as the missing factor in the ob/ob mouse and served as a principal model to delineate the many facets of leptin physiology.
Advances in Gastrointestinal Radiology

The past few years have seen dramatic changes in the practice of gastrointestinal radiology, primarily because of the development of new techniques and their application to the solid organs, hollow viscera and functional evaluation of the gastrointestinal tract. Some of these technical developments have been spawned by a new breed of aggressive and involved radiologists practising what is now called “interventional radiology.” [1] The application of the needle and catheter to the solid organs of the abdomen has led to more complete and more streamlined investigation and treatment in many abdominal conditions.
Pilot study evaluating surface temperature in dogs with or without fear-based aggression

Abstract The use of a standardized physiological measure in veterinary behavior evaluations would improve both accuracy of the diagnosis and monitoring of the treatment response. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a noninvasive, remote assessment tool used primarily in research to evaluate changes in surface body temperature resulting from underlying physiological processes. IRT has not been examined widely in a veterinary behavior clinic setting, and its clinical validity requires testing. In this pilot study, patient data were reviewed retrospectively from a veterinary teaching hospital's behavior clinic population to determine if surface eye temperature as measured by IRT differed in dogs with fear-based aggression compared to dogs with various other behavioral diagnoses. Forty-six dogs were subdivided into groups with fear-based aggression toward unfamiliar people (n = 32) or no fear-based aggression but with other behavioral diagnoses (n = 14) to compare surface eye temperature and behavioral responses in the clinic setting. The potentially provocative stimulus was the presence of unfamiliar people in the consultation room (clinician and student). The primary outcomes of interest were change in surface eye temperature and behavioral responses between 2 time points 45 minutes apart during the 60-minute consultation. It was hypothesized that in contrast to dogs with fear-based aggression, IRT-measured mean surface eye temperature in dogs without fear-based aggression would decrease between the 2 time points. Instead, surface eye temperature increased in both groups of dogs without significant difference between the groups (P = 0.16). Dog's posture and proximity to the owner in the consultation room at the start of the evaluation also were not significantly different between the 2 groups. However, 27% of the fear-based aggressive dogs compared with 0% of the dogs with other diagnoses exhibited aggressive reactions to unfamiliar people who stood up to leave the consultation room at the end of the visit. Study design factors likely contributed to the negative findings. First, the study population was derived from clinic behavior patients, and dogs in both groups had multiple behavioral diagnoses that may have impacted their response to stress in the clinic setting. In addition, all dogs were tethered during the consultation visit, and this may have triggered underlying anxiety in both groups of dogs. A future study that addresses these study design factors would be needed to determine whether IRT-measured surface eye temperature in a clinical setting is a helpful measure.
A Bayesian robust Kalman smoothing framework for state-space models with uncertain noise statistics

The classical Kalman smoother recursively estimates states over a finite time window using all observations in the window. In this paper, we assume that the parameters characterizing the second-order statistics of process and observation noise are unknown and propose an optimal Bayesian Kalman smoother (OBKS) to obtain smoothed estimates that are optimal relative to the posterior distribution of the unknown noise parameters. The method uses a Bayesian innovation process and a posterior-based Bayesian orthogonality principle. The optimal Bayesian Kalman smoother possesses the same forward-backward structure as that of the ordinary Kalman smoother with the ordinary noise statistics replaced by their effective counterparts. In the first step, the posterior effective noise statistics are computed. Then, using the obtained effective noise statistics, the optimal Bayesian Kalman filter is run in the forward direction over the window of observations. The Bayesian smoothed estimates are obtained in the backward step. We validate the performance of the proposed robust smoother in the target tracking and gene regulatory network inference problems.
Immigrant and Refugee Adolescent Care: Challenges and Opportunities

There are increasing numbers of adolescents from immigrant backgrounds in the United States. Providers caring for immigrant youth and their families need to be well versed in strategies to reach, build trust, and promote access to care for this population. Providers also need to be able to adopt family-centered approaches to engage, encourage, and empower immigrant adolescents and their family members and to promote shared decision-making between them. The chapter will describe strategies and approaches to best engage immigrant adolescents and their families in clinical care. A clinical vignette illustrates how healthcare providers caring for immigrant adolescents can use a family-centered approach. Additionally, the chapter highlights unique considerations in working with immigrant youth and their families, including the importance of understanding each patient’s migration history, common legal and advocacy concerns, and specific clinical challenges in caring for this community.
A General Method for Estimating Bulk 2D Projections of Ice Particle Shape: Theory and Applications

AbstractThe orientation of falling ice particles directly influences estimates of microphysical and radiative bulk quantities as well as in situ retrievals of size, shape, and mass. However, retrie...
Development of an injury risk curve for pelvic fracture in vertical loading environments.

Objective: Pelvis injury mechanisms are dependent upon loading direction (frontal, lateral, and vertical). Studies exist on the frontal and lateral modes; however, similar studies in the vertical m...
Combining a Simple Method for DNA/RNA/Protein Co-Purification and Arabidopsis Protoplast Assay to Facilitate Viroid Research.

Plant–viroid interactions represent a valuable model for delineating structure–function relationships of noncoding RNAs. For various functional studies, it is desirable to minimize sample variations by using DNA, RNA, and proteins co-purified from the same samples. Currently, most of the co-purification protocols rely on TRI Reagent (Trizol as a common representative) and require protein precipitation and dissolving steps, which render difficulties in experimental handling and high-throughput analyses. Here, we established a simple and robust method to minimize the precipitation steps and yield ready-to-use RNA and protein in solutions. This method can be applied to samples in small quantities, such as protoplasts. Given the ease and the robustness of this new method, it will have broad applications in virology and other disciplines in molecular biology.
S27 of IFNα1 Contributes to Its Low Affinity for IFNAR2 and Weak Antiviral Activity

Type I interferons (IFNs) signal by forming a high affinity IFN-IFNAR2 dimer, which subsequently recruits IFNAR1 to form a ternary complex that initiates JAK/STAT signaling. Among the 12 IFNα subty...
Exosome microRNA signatures in patients with complex regional pain syndrome undergoing plasma exchange

Therapeutic plasma exchange (PE) or plasmapheresis is an extracorporeal procedure employed to treat immunological disorders. Exosomes, nanosized vesicles of endosomal origin, mediate intercellular communication by transferring cargo proteins and nucleic acids and regulate many pathophysiological processes. Exosomal miRNAs are potential biomarkers due to their stability and dysregulation in diseases including complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a chronic pain disorder with persistent inflammation. A previous study showed that a subset of CRPS patients responded to PE. As a proof-of-concept, we investigated the PE-induced exosomal miRNA changes in six CRPS patients. Plasma cytokine levels were measured by HPLC and correlated with miRNA expression. Luciferase assay following co-transfection of HEK293 cells with target 3′UTR constructs and miRNA mimics was used to evaluate miRNA mediated gene regulation of target mRNA. Transient transfection of THP-1 cells with miRNA mimics followed by estimation of target gene and protein expression was used to validate the findings. Comparison of miRNAs in exosomes from the serum of three responders and three poor-responders showed that 17 miRNAs differed significantly before and after therapy. Of these, poor responders had lower exosomal hsa-miR-338-5p. We show that miR-338-5p can bind to the interleukin 6 (IL-6) 3′ untranslated region and can regulate IL-6 mRNA and protein levels in vitro. PE resulted in a significant reduction of IL-6 in CRPS patients. We propose that lower pretreatment levels of miR-338-5p in poor responders are linked to IL-6 levels and inflammation in CRPS. Our data suggests the feasibility of exploring exosomal miRNAs as a strategy in patient stratification for maximizing therapeutic outcome of PE.
Loss of Consciousness Following Head Trauma

A 40-year-old male motorcyclist is brought to the emergency department by paramedics after rear-ending a car at highway speeds. He was wearing a helmet but was thrown from his motorcycle. He was initially awake in the field but then quickly became unconscious. His airway is patent, and his respirations are shallow and irregular. His blood pressure is 190/90 mmHg, heart rate is 60/min, and respiratory rate is 20/min and irregular. In response to sternal rub, the patient moans and withdraws his right upper and lower extremity, but he does not move the left upper or lower extremity, and he does not open his eyes. His Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is 7. His right pupil is 6 mm and nonreactive, while his left is 3 mm and reactive to light. There is no obvious head injury or laceration. There is no discharge from the nose or ears; however, there is right hemotympanum. The oropharynx is clear. The remainder of the physical examination is normal.
The new TV dinner: effects of television programming content on eating and attitudes towards exercise

Evidence exists for a negative influence of exercise/weight-loss television on explicit attitudes towards exercise. However, it is unclear if this is specific to viewing intense exercise or the overweight/obese status of the viewed exercisers. Additionally, exposure to exercise cues can induce people to eat more, reflecting compensatory eating in response to exercise cues rather than actual exercise. In this study, we examined the relative influence of viewing overweight/obese versus normal weight exercisers on eating (calories consumed) and attitudes towards exercise. 102 college students were randomized to view: 1) overweight/obese individuals engaging in vigorous exercise; 2) normal weight individuals engaging in vigorous exercise; or 3) no-exercise video with participants of various weight statuses (control condition). Participants subsequently completed a taste test assessing calories consumed; a computerized, implicit attitudes-towards-exercise task; and an explicit attitudes-towards-exercise questionnaire. Participants with higher BMIs and those viewing normal weight exercisers (vs. overweight/obese exercisers) ate significantly more. No significant effects were found for the interaction between BMI and video or for explicit or implicit attitudes towards exercise. This study extends findings of the impact of viewing vigorous exercise to eating behaviors. If replicated under naturalistic conditions, findings have implications for health promotion initiatives and television programming impacting overeating.
Spatial pattern formation in reaction–diffusion models: a computational approach

Reaction–diffusion equations have been widely used to describe biological pattern formation. Nonuniform steady states of reaction–diffusion models correspond to stationary spatial patterns supported by these models. Frequently these steady states are not unique and correspond to various spatial patterns observed in biology. Traditionally, time-marching methods or steady state solvers based on Newton’s method were used to compute such solutions. However, the solutions that these methods converge to highly depend on the initial conditions or guesses. In this paper, we present a systematic method to compute multiple nonuniform steady states for reaction–diffusion models and determine their dependence on model parameters. The method is based on homotopy continuation techniques and involves mesh refinement, which significantly reduces computational cost. The method generates one-parameter steady state bifurcation diagrams that may contain multiple unconnected components, as well as two-parameter solution maps that divide the parameter space into different regions according to the number of steady states. We applied the method to two classic reaction–diffusion models and compared our results with available theoretical analysis in the literature. The first is the Schnakenberg model which has been used to describe biological pattern formation due to diffusion-driven instability. The second is the Gray–Scott model which was proposed in the 1980s to describe autocatalytic glycolysis reactions. In each case, the method uncovers many, if not all, nonuniform steady states and their stabilities.
Option Compensation and Optimism Bias in Management Earnings Forecasts

We examine the relation between the option compensation received by corporate managers and the extent of optimistic bias in their earnings forecasts. Specifically, we are interested in the extent to managers with a high amount of option compensation tend to have a self-serving optimism. We examine whether there is evidence consistent with the argument that managers have a self-serving interest to issue optimistic forecasts since their compensation is a function of stock price and higher earnings usually result in a higher share price. We hypothesize that management’ optimism (optimistic bias in their earnings forecasts) increases as their stock option compensation increases. Our empirical evidence indicates that highly compensated managers are associated with the likelihood of issuing upwardly biased (i.e. more optimistic) earnings forecasts.