cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Tibial plateau morphology in dogs with cranial cruciate ligament insufficiency

OBJECTIVE To identify possible biomechanical causes for the predominantly unilateral presentation of cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) insufficiency by comparing the computed tomographic (CT) features of the tibial plateau of CCL affected and contralateral sound stifles in dogs with unilateral CCL insufficiency. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study. ANIMALS Eighteen dogs, 36 stifles. METHODS Eighteen dogs with naturally occurring unilateral CCL insufficiency were included. Stifle CT and radiographs were performed at the time of diagnosis. Follow-up was performed at a minimum of 1 year from the original diagnosis to ensure that there was no evidence of contralateral CCL insufficiency. The medial tibial plateau angle (m-TPA), lateral TPA (and l-TPA), medial tibial plateau midsagittal radius of curvature (m-TPr), and lateral TPr (l-TPr) were measured from the CT images. Variables were compared with paired t tests. A Bonferroni correction was performed, and P < .006 was considered significant. RESULTS Mean m-TPr was steeper (P = .002) and m-TPr:l-TPr ratio was greater (P < .001) in affected stifles compared with contralateral sound stifles. No other variables differed between groups. Mean l-TPA was steeper than mean m-TPA (P < .001). CONCLUSION Tibial plateau convexity differed between the CCL affected and contralateral sound stifle in dogs with unilateral CCL insufficiency. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Medial tibial plateau convexity may play a role in the development of CCL insufficiency.
Anesthesia for Cerclage

This chapter discusses the anesthetic management for cerclage. It also explains the difference between prophylactic, therapeutic, and emergent cerclage.
A Study On Implementation of Cloud Computing Technology using Data Mining Algorithms

There are some implementation stuck and flexibility issues when standard data mining structure is utilized as a bit of appropriated figuring. In this paper, we introduce an information mining stage in context of Cloud Computing innovation. Separated and a standard information mining structure, this stage is altogether adaptable, has gigantic information managing capacitiesˈ is advantage masterminded, and has low equipment cost. This stage can bolster the outline and livelihoods of an expansive variety of dispersed information mining frameworks. In this paper we will think about on huge information mining and extraordinary process and data taking care of limits of dispersed registering give extreme help to information mining. Through the examination of the information mining and the appropriated registering development, in this paper, new idea to design the association rule mining algorithm along with MapReduce parallel processing architecture is introduced. An experimental investigation on this idea is carried out. In recent times, Aneka Cloud Strategy is becoming a well utilized cloud strategy worldwide and it will be discussed.
Insights from direct studies on human dengue infections

A close look at dengue viremia in humans resulted in a discovery that has rocked the dengue world. In PNAS, Raut et al. (1) cleverly manipulated viruses recovered from the blood of acute dengue virus type 1 (DENV1) infections and show that this virus differs structurally from DENVs grown in vitro. DENV1, -2, and -3 grown in cell culture consistently were poorly neutralized by polyclonal human monotypic DENV antibodies but strongly neutralized by human DENV cross-reactive antibodies (1). By contrast, DENV1 produced in vivo was neutralized strongly by homotypic antibodies but hardly at all by heterotypic DENV antibodies. For generations, researchers have measured neutralizing antibodies in sera from DENV-infected or vaccinated humans using DENV grown in cell cultures. Classic methods of measuring dengue-neutralizing antibodies to stratify dengue protection are now in serious jeopardy. We are now in the era of the human dengue challenge model. Attenuated DENV vaccine viruses and less well attenuated DENVs are being administered to susceptible adult volunteers (2). Challenge models could provide a source of primary DENV2, -3, and -4 infection to yield the samples needed to extend the pilot DENV1 studies reported here. Careful study of dengue-infected humans is not new. In experiments at the dawn of the 20th century, mosquito transmission and dengue viremia in humans were demonstrated by feeding Aedes aegypti on acute-phase blood. Infected mosquitoes, as well as acute-phase blood from infected volunteers inoculated into susceptibles, demonstrated the infectious nature of the organism and, as a dividend, generated dengue fever cases for clinical study (3⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓–9). Neutralization of DENVs by antibodies was first accomplished by mixing viremic human blood with serum from a convalescent patient and inoculating the mixture into a susceptible human (9). Subsequently, DENVs were adapted to grow in infant mouse brain, giving rise … [↵][1]1Email: halsteads{at}erols.com. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Female low dose tip syringes‐increased complexity of use may compromise dosing accuracy in paediatric patients

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created enteral device specifications to reduce tubing misconnections. The Global Enteral Device Supplier Association (GEDSA) supports a female design: standard and low dose tip (LDT). Concerns include increased complexity of use with adapters, dosing accuracy and workflow. No peer-reviewed studies have evaluated dosing accuracy of the complete female system with adapters. The objective of this study was to compare dosing accuracy of the female design to legacy syringes. METHODS An in vitro study was conducted at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy pharmaceutics laboratory. Assessments were completed for syringe size, dispense methods and volumes, and adapters when applicable. A gravimetric scale and specific gravity were used to calculate administration volumes. The primary outcome was frequency administration volume exceeded 10% expected amount. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A total of 576 tests were performed. The LDT resulted in significantly higher rates of unacceptable dosing variance compared to legacy (21.2% vs 7.4%, P = 0.003). Variance exceeding 10% occurred more frequently with LDT 0.5 and 1 mL syringes, medication cup dispensing (liquid or tablet) and inappropriate LDT adapter use. Unapproved adapter processes compared to FDA-approved processes held a higher likelihood of unacceptable dosing variance (28% vs 7.4%, P < 0.001). FDA-approved use of adapters with prefilled syringes compared to bedside administration may result in higher rates of dosing inaccuracy (18.8% vs 5.6%, P = 0.06). WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSIONS This study raises clinical concerns of dosing inaccuracies with the LDT syringes, particularly with 0.5 and 1 mL sizes. The use of adapters significantly increases the opportunity for inaccurate dosing.
Ten Years of Evidence: Was Fraud a Force in the Financial Crisis?

This article takes stock of ten years of academic research by synthesizing the large literature regarding the various players in RMBS securitization at the center of the U.S. housing and financial crisis. Underwriting banks facilitated wide-scale mortgage fraud by knowingly misreporting key loan characteristics underlying mortgage-backed securities. Under the cover of complexity, credit rating agencies catered to investment banks by issuing increasingly inflated ratings on both RMBS and CDOs. Originators who engaged in mortgage fraud gained market share as did CDO managers who catered to underwriters by accepting the lowest-quality MBS collateral. Appraisal targeting and inflated appraisals were the norm. RMBS and CDO prices indicate that the marginal AAA investor was unaware of pervasive mortgage fraud and rating inflation, but these factors were strongly related to future deal performance. The supply of fraudulent credit was not uniform, but clustered in certain geographic regions and zip codes. As these dubious originators extended credit to those who could not afford the loans, the credit expansion led to house price booms and subsequent crashes in these zip codes. Overall, there is substantial evidence that conflicts of interest, misreporting, and fraud were focal features of the financial crisis.
Assessing the structure of classical molecular optimal control landscapes

Abstract We consider laser-driven optimal control landscape of a molecule from a classical mechanical perspective. The goal of optimal control in the present work is to steer the molecule from an initial state to a target state, denoted by two distinct points in phase space. Thus, a particular control objective is given as the difference between the final achieved phase space point and the target. The corresponding control landscape is defined as the latter control objective as a functional of the control field. While previous examination of the landscape critical points (i.e., a suboptimal point on the landscape where there is a zero gradient) has shown that the landscape topology is generally trap-free, the structure of the landscape away from these critical points is not well understood. We explore the landscape structure by examining an underlying metric defined as the ratio R of the gradient-based optimization path length of the control field evolution to the Euclidean distance between a given initial control field and the resultant optimal control field, where the latter field corresponds to a point at the top of the landscape. We analyze the path length-to-distance ratio R analytically for a linear forced harmonic oscillator and numerically for a nonlinear forced Morse oscillator. For the linear forced harmonic oscillator, we find that R ⩽ 2 and reaches its minimum value of 1 (i.e., corresponding to “a straight shot” through control space) in the large target time limit, as well as at special finite target times. The ratio R is similarly small for Morse oscillator simulations when following a steepest-ascent path to the top of the landscape, implying that the landscape is quite smooth and devoid of gnarled features. This conclusion is exemplified for a path discovered with R ≃ 1.0 where simply following the initial gradient direction takes the climb very close to the top of the landscape. These findings are consistent with a variety of previous like simulations examining R in quantum control scenarios.
Development of Murine Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in the Absence of BAFF.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can develop in the absence of BAFF in an SLE-prone host. METHODS Starting with C57BL/6 mice that express a human BCL2 transgene (Tg) in their B cells (thereby rendering B cell survival largely independent of BAFF-triggered signals), we introgressed this Tg into NZM 2328 mice genetically deficient in BAFF (NZM.Baff-/- ) to generate NZM.Baff-/- .Bcl2Tg mice. Expression of human Bcl-2 and lymphocyte profiles were assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and serologic profiles were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Immunofluorescence and histologic analyses were performed to assess renal immunopathologic features in the mice, and clinical disease was assessed according to the outcomes of severe proteinuria and death. RESULTS In comparison to their non-Tg NZM.Baff-/- littermates (n ≥ 7), NZM.Baff-/- .Bcl2Tg mice (n ≥ 8) overexpressed Bcl-2 in their B cells and developed significantly increased percentages and numbers of B cells and plasma cells, serum levels of IgG autoantibodies, glomerular deposition of IgG and C3, and severity of glomerular and tubulointerstitial inflammation, culminating in severe proteinuria and death (all P < 0.05 versus NZM.Baff-/- littermates). The time course for development of SLE-like features in NZM.Baff-/- .Bcl2Tg mice was more rapid than has been previously observed in NZM 2328 wild-type mice (median age at death 4.5 months versus 7.5 months). NZM.Baff-/- .Bcl2Tg mice remained responsive to BAFF, since reintroduction of the Baff gene into these mice further accelerated the course of disease (median age at death 3 months). CONCLUSION The role of BAFF in the development of SLE-like disease may be dispensable as long as B cell survival is preserved via a BAFF-independent pathway. This may help explain the limited and variable clinical success with BAFF antagonists in human SLE. Thus, NZM.Baff-/- .Bcl2Tg mice may serve as a powerful murine model for the study of BAFF-independent SLE.
Synthesis of a carbon-11 radiolabeled BACE1 inhibitor

Beta-secretase (BACE1), a transmembrane aspartyl protease, can cleave membrane-bound β-amyloid precursor proteins (APPs) to initiate the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ). The inhibition of BACE-1 to limit the accumulation of neurotoxic Aβ peptides could offer a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). However, little is known about the distribution and density of BACE1 in the central nervous system. As a step toward filling this gap in knowledge, we have evaluated a potential radiotracer for the imaging of BACE1 using positron emission tomography (PET). A BACE1 inhibitor, 5, is reported with blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability and high binding affinity. To characterize the pharmacokinetics and distribution of 5 in the brain, we radiolabeled 5 with carbon-11. Using PET, we found that [11C]5 shows moderate uptake in the brain when administered intravenously to rodents and further work will be performed in animal models to test its application as a PET imaging probe for the central nervous system. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of PET at providing brain pharmacokinetic data for BACE1 inhibitors, crucial for the development of treatments for AD where CNS penetration is critical.
Triggering Passive Molecular Transport into Cells with a Combination of Inhomogeneous Magnetic Fields and Magnetic Nanoparticles

Microporation techniques facilitate the passive transport of molecules into cells via mechanical, electrical, or magnetic simulation. In this work, a combinatorial microporation technique is demons...
Aggify: Lifting the Curse of Cursor Loops using Custom Aggregates

Loops that iterate over SQL query results are quite common, both in application programs that run outside the DBMS, as well as User Defined Functions (UDFs) and stored procedures that run within the DBMS. It can be argued that set-oriented operations are more efficient and should be preferred over iteration; but from real world use cases, it is clear that loops over query results are inevitable in many situations, and are preferred by many users. Such loops, known as cursor loops, come with huge trade-offs and overheads w.r.t. performance, resource consumption and concurrency. We present Aggify, a technique for optimizing loops over query results that overcomes these overheads. It achieves this by automatically generating custom aggregates that are equivalent in semantics to the loop. Thereby, Aggify completely eliminates the loop by rewriting the query to use this generated aggregate. This technique has several advantages such as: (i) pipelining of entire cursor loop operations instead of materialization, (ii) pushing down loop computation from the application layer into the DBMS, closer to the data, (iii) leveraging existing work on optimization of aggregate functions, resulting in efficient query plans. We describe the technique underlying Aggify, and present our experimental evaluation over benchmarks as well as real workloads that demonstrate the significant benefits of this technique.
Finite-time formation control for multi-agent systems underlying heterogeneous communication typologies

In this paper, a finite-time formation control protocol for a double-integrator multi-agent system is studied via heterogeneous communication typologies. In detail, the communication topology to share position information and the communication topology to share velocity information can be different when controlling the agents to achieve the desired formation. Based on the Lyapunov method and LaSalle invariance principle, the proposed formation control protocol achieves the desired formation with heterogeneous typologies for both fixed-topology and switching topology cases. Different combinations of typologies vary the performance of the control system, such as convergence, or control cost. Therefore, with the proposed work, various choices will be available to satisfy different performance requirements for the multi-agent systems. In the end, simulation results are provided to verify the proposed formation control protocol.
Jimmy Carter and the Birth of the Marathon Media Campaign: by Amber Roessner, Baton Rouge, LA, Louisiana State University Press, 2020, 344 pp., $39.95 (hardback)

Before 2016, the election of Jimmy Carter as the 39th American president was the greatest electoral surprise of the twentieth century. A virtually unknown peanut farmer from Georgia unseated an inc...
Coordination Effectiveness During Public Health Emergencies: An Institutional Collective Action Framework

This article draws on the institutional collective action (ICA) framework and data from a survey of senior public health and emergency management professionals in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex fo...
The socioeconomic matrix of support for sharia: a cross-national study of Muslims’ attitudes

What explains the variation in support for the implementation of formal religious laws in societies? To address the question, we analyse the socioeconomic bases of support for sharia, Islamic law. ...
Laboratory Approach to Determine Roller Compacted Concrete Mixture Electrical Characteristics Using a New Time-Domain Reflectometry Interpretation Method:

This work deals with using time-domain reflectometry (TDR) to measure the electrical properties of roller compacted concrete (RCC). It is well known that TDR provides a non-destructive method to me...
Astronomy Meets the Periodic Table, Or, How Much Is There of What, and Why?

A confluence of circumstances led to astronomers proposing three new elements in the 1860s (nebulium 1864, helium 1868, and coronium 1869) though the names came a bit later. Two of these proved to be familiar elements under unfamiliar conditions. Despite this rather unpromising start, astronomical observations were in due course required and accepted to quantify the amounts of the elements in the universe and both observations and calculations to sort out where it had all come from. These latter endeavors are still in progress today.
Tuberculosis prevention: Cost-effectiveness analysis of isoniazid chemoprophylaxis

Isoniazid chemoprophylaxis is not recommended for all persons infected with tubercle bacilli. Because of the small but significant risk of isoniazid hepatotoxicity, chemoprophylaxis is reserved for only those at the highest risk of tuberculosis activation. To evaluate this policy, we performed a cost-effectiveness analysis of isoniazid chemoprophylaxis for two populations with positive tuberculin skin tests: recent tuberculin converters, who are at high risk for activation, and older tuberculin reactors, who have a low risk for activation and for whom chemoprophylaxis is not now recommended. The cost-effectiveness ratios found were stable, despite wide variations in model assumptions and probability estimates. For high-risk tuberculin reactors, chemoprophylaxis resulted in net medical care monetary savings, extended life expectancy, and fewer fatal illnesses. For low-risk tuberculin reactors, chemoprophylaxis resulted in positive, but small, health effects. Because the cost to gain these positive effects were also small, the resulting cost-effectiveness ratios were reasonable and in the realm of accepted prevention strategies: $12,625 to gain one year of life and $35,011 to avert one death. These findings suggest that the current policy is too restrictive and that many in the large population of low-risk tuberculin reactors should be considered for isoniazid chemoprophylaxis.
Productivity of Evergreen and Deciduous Temperate Forests

Temperate forests play a major role in the global carbon cycle. Their productivity is important to regional economies, and their associated ecosystem, compositional, and structural characteristics are simultaneously a foundation for much of the natural world in temperate climates and of great importance to human society. This chapter illustrates that a better understanding of the processes that combine to drive productivity and carbon cycling in temperate forests is needed. Enormous challenges still exist conceptually and quantitatively in understanding complex interactions, and in measuring forest patterns and processes at relevant landscape to regional scales. In the coming century, temperate forests will continue to play an expanding role as demands for fiber, ecological services (such as water supply and stream water quality, carbon storage, and others), other ecological benefits (wildlife, other biodiversity), and other human values (recreation, tourism, aesthetics, spirituality) increase with burgeoning global populations. Given that temperate forests are located in regions that are highly developed (and as a result, they have already been almost entirely disturbed by human use and abuse), their future status and extent may well signal whether continued human civilization at high population density is compatible with the sustainability of natural levels of primary production in any ecosystem type or biome. Temperate forests are important regionally for their ecological services, economic utility, and recreational, tourism, and aesthetic benefits. In a global context, temperate forests are important for their role in carbon cycle. However, the degree to which these forests are a net carbon source or sink is controversial.
Veils, Poems, Guns, and Martyrs: Four Themes of Muslim WomenÃ¢â¬â¢s Experiences in Shirin NeshatÃ¢â¬â¢s Photographic Work

Shirin NeshatA¢â¬â¢s compelling series of photographs, Unveiling (1993) and Women of Allah (1994), have provoked very favourable reactions from both critics and audience. Yet, the cultural stereotypes of the oppressed Muslim woman within which most critiques operate detract from the complexity of her work. While Neshat indeed prompts such critiques due to the fact that her photographs elaborate on the Western media images of Iranian women, a closer look at her imagery will reveal that Neshat disclaims any reductionist and totalizing views on Iranian womenA¢â¬â¢s experience.
Conceptually Based Vocabulary Intervention: Second Graders' Development of Vocabulary Words

An instructional strategy was investigated that addressed the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students through a conceptually based sign language vocabulary intervention. A single-subject multiple-baseline design was used to determine the effects of the vocabulary intervention on word recognition, production, and comprehension. Six students took part in the 30-minute intervention over 6–8 weeks, learning 12 new vocabulary words each week by means of the three intervention components: (a) word introduction, (b) word activity (semantic mapping), and (c) practice. Results indicated that the vocabulary intervention successfully improved all students’ recognition, production, and comprehension of the vocabulary words and phrases.
Loss of hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal after bone marrow transplantation

The quality of long-term hematopoietic engraftment after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has not been well characterized. Clinical autologous BMT involves removal of less than 5% of the total content of the recipient marrow followed by ablation of the remaining marrow and reinfusion. To study long-term consequences of transplanting limited numbers of BM stem cells further, we evaluated the hematopoietic reserve in recipient animals after transplantation of varying quantities of BM. Recipient animals demonstrated a donor BM cell dose- dependent decrease in stem cell content and self-renewal capacity that was not reflected in peripheral blood (PB) counts or BM cellularity. This decrease was observed after initial BM recovery and did not change with time after transplantation, demonstrating a permanent loss in BM self-renewal capacity. In addition, animals alive at 3 months, a time selected to allow BM recovery, also demonstrated a donor BM cell dose- dependent decrease in survival at 1 year. These results emphasize the importance of optimizing stem cell number in BMT.
Intergenerational Monetary Transfers to Adult Children and Stepchildren

Abstract Monetary transfers from households to their adult, non-coresidential children and stepchildren may be related to the financial well-being of children or stepchildren. They may also be factors in older adults' decisions about retirement, have implications for public policy, and be related to whether or not older adults receive assistance from their adult children or stepchildren when they are in need of assistance. The purpose of this study was to describe transfers monetary transfers from households to adult children and stepchildren, as well as to identify important variables that predicted whether or not households had provided at least one gift to one of their children or stepchildren. Using data from 11,056 households in the Health and Retirement Study, this study found that monetary gifts to stepchildren, although less frequent and smaller than gifts to children, were substantial, especially for stepchildren who had at least one kinship relationship to the household, particularly if the kins...
New Directions in Financial Sector and Sovereign Risk Management

The global financial crisis that began in 2007 has forced a re-examination of macroeconomics, financial economics, regulation, and risk management. Traditional macroeconomics overlooks the importance of risk which makes it ill-suited to analyze risk transmission, contagion and how risks can build up and suddenly erupt in a full blown crisis. Risk management concentrates on analysis of risk at the level of the individual institution. What has been missing is comprehensive analysis of systemic financial risk and its links to sovereign risk. This essay illustrates how risk management tools and contingent claims analysis (CCA) can be applied in new ways to the financial system, to economic sectors and the national economy. CCA is a valuable tool to improve systemic financial sector and sovereign risk management. A new framework is developed to help the measurement, analysis and management of systemic risk with immediate practical application to the analysis of government risk exposures, their associated contingent liablitities, and potential destabilizing feedback processes between the financial sector and the sovereign balance sheet. In this regard, a new framework called “Systemic CCA” is described and an illustration of its application is given. This paper concludes with proposals on several new directions in managing financial sector and sovereign risk.
Dynamic thermal tomography for nondestructive inspection of aging aircraft

We apply dual-band infrared (DBIR) imaging as a dynamic thermal tomography tool for wide area inspection of a Boeing 737 aircraft (owned by the FAA/AANC at the Sandia hangar in Albuquerque, NM) and several Boeing KC-135 aircraft panels (used for the round robin experiment conducted at Tinker AFB, OK). Our analyses are discussed in this report. After flash-heating the aircraft skin, we record synchronized DBIR images every 40 ms, from onset to 8 seconds after the heat flash. We analyze selective DBIR image ratios which enhance surface temperature contrast and remove surface-emissivity clutter (from dirt, dents, tape, markings, ink, sealants, uneven paint, paint stripper, exposed metal and roughness variations). The Boeing 737 and KC-135 aircraft fuselage panels have varying percent thickness losses from corrosion. We established the correlation of percent thickness loss with surface temperature rise (above ambient) for a partially corroded F-18 wing box structure (with a 2.9 mm uncorroded thickness) and several aluminum plates (with 1.0, 1.1, 2.3, and 3.9 mm thicknesses) which had 6 to 60% thickness losses at milled flat-bottom hole sites.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
e-PPI: Locator Service in Information Networks with Personalized Privacy Preservation

In emerging information networks, having a privacy pre-serving index (or PPI) is critically important for locating information of interest for data sharing across autonomous providers while preserving privacy. An understudied problem for PPI techniques is how to provide controllable privacy preservation, given the innate difference of privacy concerns regarding different data owners. In this paper we present a personalized privacy preserving index, coined ∊-PPI, which guarantees quantitative privacy preservation differentiated by personal identities. We devise a new common-identity attack that breaks existing PPI's and propose an identity-mixing protocol against the attack in ∊-PPI. The proposed ∊-PPIconstruction protocol is the first without any trusted third party and/or trust relationships between providers. We have implemented our ∊-PPI construction protocol by using generic MPC techniques (secure multi-party computation) and optimized the performance to a practical level by minimizing the expensive MPC part.
The aurora kinase A regulates GSK-3β in gastric cancer cells

Aurora kinase A (AURKA) is located at 20q13, a region that is frequently amplified in gastric cancer. In this study, we have investigated the role of AURKA in regulating glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3β and β-catenin/TCF complex in gastric cancer cells. Our results demonstrate a significant increase in the phosphorylation of GSK-3β at Ser 9 following the overexpression of AURKA in AGS cells. The immunoprecipitation with antibodies specific for AURKA and GSK-3β indicated that the two proteins coexist in the same protein complex. The recombinant human AURKA protein phosphorylated the GSK-3β protein at Ser 9 in a concentration-dependent manner, in vitro. The phosphorylation of β-catenin (Ser33/37/Thr41) by GSK-3β is known to target β-catenin towards degradation. In line with our findings, the increase in phospho-GSK-3β level was accompanied by a significant decrease in β-catenin phosphorylation (Ser33/37/Thr41) and accumulation of β-catenin protein. The knockdown of AURKA reversed the phosphorylation of GSK-3β and the β-catenin protein levels. The immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated colocalization of AURKA and GSK-3β proteins and a significant increase in the nuclear β-catenin levels in cells overexpressing AURKA. The β-catenin/TCF transcription activity was measured using the pTopFlash and its mutant pFopFlash luciferase reporter vectors. Indeed, AURKA overexpression led to a significant increase in the pTopFlash reporter activity, whereas kinase dead AURKA mutant (D274A) had no effect. Consistent with these findings, we detected a significant mRNA up-regulation of several direct targets of the β-catenin/TCF transcription complex (cyclin D1, c-MYC, c-MYC-binding protein, CLDN1, FGF18 and vascular endothelial growth factor), and a two-fold increase in the proliferation rate in AURKA overexpressing cells. We conclude that the AURKA/GSK-3β interaction is important in regulating β-catenin, underscoring a novel oncogenic potential for AURKA in gastric tumorigenesis.
The Use of a Custom-Built Coulometric Karl Fischer Instrument for the Determination of Water Content in Chocolate

A Karl Fischer (KF) coulometric titration method was designed and optimized for the quantitative determination of water in chocolate. A number of essential KF experimental parameters were investigated and assessed, including a study of polar extraction solvents, extraction times, interfering side reactions, and a comparison of pyridine-free KF coulometric reagents. The optimized protocol was found to be applicable to a wide variety of chocolate samples. Typical coulometric titration times for the chocolate samples were between 1 and 5 min, translating to water contents from 0.18 to 0.38 % w/w. With this contribution, the quantification of water in chocolate using KF titration methods is now a simple, safe, and reliable process, comparable in terms of precision and accuracy to any commercially available KF coulometric apparatus.
Regulation of Post-translationally Modified Microtubule Populations During Neonatal Cardiac Development

Microtubules have been implicated in a number of muscle-specific functions, including sarcomerogenesis and the regulation of heart cell beating rate. Post-translationally modified microtubules (MTs) have been correlated, in other cell types, with MTs of increased stability and possibly distinct functions. This study was begun in order to determine whether neonatal heart development is associated with changes in MT populations, as a prelude to assaying their role in cardiac development and function. Biochemical and morphological studies were performed on heart tissues and cells, over the developmental range from embryonic Day 19 through neonatal Day 20, as well as on fully grown adults. The specific activity of the detyrosinating enzyme, tubulin carboxypeptidase, was high in early neonatal hearts but then decreased progressively to adulthood. Levels of tyrosinated, detyrosinated, and total tubulin varied in a complex manner over the same time period, while levels of acetylated tubulin in detergent-extracted homogenates were low in all age groups. Immunofluorescence analysis of heart sections revealed non-uniform levels of Glu and acetylated tubulin between cells over that period. Cultured, neonatal day 3 myocytes exhibited much more prominent populations of both Glu and acetylated MTs than were present in the co-isolated non-myocytes, while cell cultures from older animals showed more restricted staining for both MT types. The immunostaining pattern forγ-tubulin, a marker for MT-organizing centers, was diffuse in the cardiomyocytes throughout this period, while the staining in the non-myocytes was much more focused and punctate. These results reveal that individual MT populations are present in developing heart tissue, and may be required for specific functions during myocyte differentiation.
Soil testing in the united states

Abstract There has been a marked change in the soil testing procedures used in the United States by state soil testing laboratories since the early 1950's. In the Coastal Plain states of the south and east, the Double Acid extraction procedure is used for P, K, Ca, and Mg determinations. Bray P1 is the most frequently used method for P extraction except for the alkaline soils of the west where the Olsen method is used. Neutral normal ammonium acetate is the most frequently used extractant for K, Ca, and Mg determinations. The Morgan extraction procedures for P, K, Ca, and Mg, commonly used in the 1950's, is used by only a few states in the northeast and west. Although similar extraction reagents are used in many sections of the United States, there is considerable variance among states regarding weighed versus volume sampling, soil to solution ratio, shaking speed and time, and extraction vessel size and shape. For soil water pH, there is little variance in method as most states are using a 1:1 soil to so...
Immunogenic potential of carpal implants.

Abstract This study investigated whether a cellular or a humoral-mediated immunologic response to silicone carpal prostheses could be detected in animals previously sensitized to silicone. Silicone carpal protheses were emulsified in Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA). This emulsion was injected into guinea pigs weekly for 6 weeks. Controls received only FCA. Four weeks later a carpal prosthesis was implanted. Histology showed the implanted prosthesis encapsulated by fibrous tissue in sensitized animals, with a mononuclear infiltrate within the fibrous periprosthetic capsule consistent with a cellular immune response. Skin testing of the sensitized animals showed a true correlate response to the silicone antigen challenge, whereas no response was observed in the control group. The passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reaction in sensitized animals was positive, emphasizing that the antigen—antibody response was passively transferred. Tissue adjacent to the silicone implant in sensitized animals revealed an IgG deposition around the silicone particles by the fluorescent antibody technique. Control animals showed none of these reactions. These results indicate that microparticulate matter from carpal implants can possibly initiate both a cellular immunologic response and the production of a circulating antibody.
Don't Build It and They Will Come: Creating Space for Wholeness, Meaning, and Purpose in Higher Education

The authors discuss the importance of creating space for wholeness, meaning, and purpose in higher education, and we describe a program committed to the development of such space
New Modalities of Transdermal Testosterone Replacement

Hypogonadism, irrespective of its etiology, has a negative impact on various physiologic parameters. These parameters may improve with testosterone replacement therapy. Before 1990, intramuscular testosterone esters were the principal modality of testosterone replacement in men with hypogonadism. Although effective, they have a non-physiologic pharmacokinetic profile. Recently, transdermal preparations of testosterone have become widely available. These include a scrotal patch, non-scrotal patches and, the most recent development, a gel. Several studies have shown that transdermal testosterone replacement is physiologic, efficacious and has a good safety profile. Transdermal testosterone replacement improves bone mass and lean body mass, decreases fat mass, and improves mood and sexual function. There are no harmful effects on the prostate and lipids. Acne, polycythemia, and gynecomastia are less common with this form of therapy than with the intramuscular esters.
A general method for the synthesis of 1-substituted (or unsubstituted)-4-carbomethoxy-2-imidazolin-5-ones

Abstract A general method for the synthesis of the title compounds by employing the reagent methyl N -(dicarbomethoxymethyl)methanimidate is described. The preparation, properties and reactions of the reagent are also reported.
Performance of Silver Nano Particles as an Electronics Packaging Interconnects Material

Silver nano particle materials are investigated for use in microelectronics packaging as an innovative lead-free interconnect material. The nano particle materials were evaluated in terms of mechanical, electrical, metallurgical, and reliability performance. The silver nano particles are around 8 nm in diameter and are sintered at a temperature of 230 C to form material nearly indistinguishable from the bulk metal. Sintering behaviors are examined to see how the nano particles form grains with different sintering process conditions; resistivity is measured to estimate the electrical performance of the sintered nano particles; adhesion tests are conducted for measuring the adhesion strength of the processed silver nano particle materials with other packaging materials; leakage current measurement is performed to see the silver electro-migration effect; frequency response is measured for RF applications, and thermal shock tests are conducted to evaluate the electronics packages of electronics packages using the silver nano particle interconnect materials.
Lipoprotein receptor-mediated induction of matrix metalloproteinase by tissue plasminogen activator.

Although thrombolysis with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is a stroke therapy approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, its efficacy may be limited by neurotoxic side effects1,2. Recently, proteolytic damage involving matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been implicated. In experimental embolic stroke models, MMP inhibitors decreased cerebral hemorrhage and injury after treatment with tPA3,4. MMPs comprise a family of zinc endopeptidases that can modify several components of the extracellular matrix5,6. In particular, the gelatinases MMP-2 and MMP-9 can degrade neurovascular matrix integrity. MMP-9 promotes neuronal death by disrupting cell-matrix interactions7, and MMP-9 knockout mice have reduced blood-brain barrier leakage and infarction after cerebral ischemia8. Hence it is possible that tPA upregulates MMPs in the brain, and that subsequent matrix degradation causes brain injury. Here we show that tPA upregulates MMP-9 in cell culture and in vivo. MMP-9 levels were lower in tPA knockouts compared with wild-type mice after focal cerebral ischemia. In human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells, MMP-9 was upregulated when recombinant tPA was added. RNA interference (RNAi) suggested that this response was mediated by the low-density lipoprotein receptor–related protein (LRP), which avidly binds tPA9 and possesses signaling properties10. Targeting the tPA-LRP signaling pathway in brain may offer new approaches for decreasing neurotoxicity and improving stroke therapy.
Constraint satisfaction as a theory of sentence processing

Various problems with the constraint satisfaction model are discussed. It is argued that the empirical evidence presented in support of the model does not concern predictions of the model that diverge from those of depth-first (one analysis at a time) models. Several methodological problems are also noted. As a theory of sentence processing, the model is inadequate. It fails to account for the assignment of local structure, global structure, structure involving discontinuous dependencies, long-distance dependencies, and adjunct phrases. It makes incorrect predictions about the timing of syntactic analysis. Further, because syntactic structure is available only through activation of syntactic projections stored in the lexical entry of words, the model leaves entirely unexplained the myriad psycholinguistic findings demonstrating independence of lexical and syntactic structure (in Event Related Potential studies, code-switching, pure syntactic priming, etc). Finally, the model is not restrictive or explanatory, providing an account that largely consists ofpost hoc correlations between frequency counts or subjects ratings of sentences and processing time data for the same sentences.
Measurement of the B-meson B-quark Cross-sections At Root-s=1.8 Tev Using the Exclusive Decay B(0)-]j/psi-k-asterisk(892)0

This paper reports the measurement of the [ital B] meson and [ital b] quark cross sections through the decay chain [ital B][sup 0][r arrow][ital J]/[psi] K[sup *](892)[sup 0], [ital J]/[psi][r arrow][mu][sup +][mu][sup [minus]], [ital K][sup *](892)[sup 0][r arrow][ital K][sup +][pi][sup [minus]], using 4.3 pb[sup [minus]1] of data collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab in [ital [bar p]p] collisions at [ital qrts]=1.8 TeV. We obtain [sigma][sub [ital B]]=1.5[plus minus]0.7(stat)[plus minus]0.6(syst) [mu]b for [ital B][sup 0] mesons with transverse momentum [ital P][sub [ital T]][gt]9.0 GeV/[ital c] and rapidity [vert bar][ital y][vert bar][lt]1.0. Using this result, we find [sigma][sub [ital b]]=3.7[plus minus]1.6(stat)[plus minus]1.5(syst) [mu]b for [ital b] quarks with [ital P][sub [ital T]][gt]11.5 GeV/[ital c] and rapidity [vert bar][ital y][vert bar][lt]1.0. The [ital b] quark cross section is compared to next-to-leading order QCD calculations and previous measurements.
Development of an interchangeable-engine generator set

At the end of World War II, the need for reduction in the number of general-purpose engine generators, as well as associated equipment, for military requirements was evident. Assigned the responsibility of solving the difficult problem, the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, is developing a family of generator sets in which the 30-kw interchangeable-engine generator set presents a logical approach to one of the major problems.
Forage Evaluation. III. Comparison of Several Methods of Evaluating Two Alfalfa Hays Fed to Lactating Cows

Abstract Early-cut and late-cut alfalfa hays were fed as the only sources of energy to two groups of Holstein heifers throughout their first lactations. Various formulas based upon crude protein and fiber contents of the hays were applied to estimate total digestible nutrients (TDN). Estimated net energy (ENE) values were derived from TDN values. Intakes of energy based on these different values were compared to energy requirements from Morrison's ENE and the National Research Council TDN standards. There is evidence to suggest that low condition of animals consuming late-cut hay caused an over-estimation of maintenance requirements which, in turn, caused relative deviations to be different from those seen in the groups consuming early-cut hay. Considering all facts, the formulas of Meyer and Lofgreen (16) to estimate TDN and the formula of Moore et al. (18) for converting TDN values to ENE values yielded estimates of energy contents of the hays which gave the best concurrence between energy intakes and energy requirements. The ENE system was favored over the TDN system.
Increased biosynthesis of lipoxygenase products by UVB-irradiated guinea pig epidermis: Evidence of a cyclooxygenase inhibitor

The present studies demonstrate that incubation of arachidonic acid (AA) with a 20,000 g homogenate (containing both microsomal and cytoplasmic fractions) from UVB-irradiated guinea pig epidermis (24-72 h) resulted in decreased transformation of the [14C]AA into the cyclooxygenase products (PGD2, PGE2, and PGF2 alpha) while the incorporation of 14C into lipoxygenase products (15-HETE and 12-HETE) increased. An investigation into the selective inhibition of the cyclooxygenase pathway revealed that the in vitro transformation of [14C]AA into [14C]-cyclooxygenase products by the 100,000 g particulate fraction prepared from normal unirradiated guinea pig epidermis was inhibited by the 100,000 g cytoplasmic extract prepared from a 24-h postirradiated guinea pig epidermis. These latter data imply that an endogenous inhibitor of the cyclooxygenase pathway is generated and released into the cytoplasm during UVB irradiation and it is likely that this selective inhibition of the cyclooxygenase pathway may contribute at least in part to the increased lipoxygenase products in the 24-h postirradiated skin specimens and possibly the recognized prolonged UVB-induced inflammatory process.
An Object-Pass Filter For Image Processing

An object-pass filter for image processing is defined as a filter that passes or enhances objects in an image that are larger than a minimum threshold and smaller than a maximum threshold. Objects outside the pass band, i.e. too large or too small, are suppressed by replacing the pixel gray scale level with zero. An object-pass filter that is realizable in today's technology is presented. It is shown that an object-pass filter can be realized with cascaded sort-selection filters, which select the Nth largest element in a neighborhood of elements. The object-pass filter's pass region can be determined by selecting the appropriate sort-selection filter window sizes. Due to recent advances in sort-selection filter architectures and VHSIC level technology, such an object-pass filter can be built using three of the recently developed Harris custom VHSIC Phase I level chips. Such a configuration can process imagery at a rate of better than 10 Mpixels/second. Simulation results are shown for object-pass filtering on binary images and also on several forward looking infrared images.
Manifesting the invisible axion at low energies

Abstract We discuss the low energy properties of the invisible axion in an effective field theory language. We study the most general model in which the strong CP problem is solved by a Peccei-Quinn symmetry spontaneously broken at a large scale. We distinguish carefully between the model dependent derivative couplings of the axion associated with physics at the large scale, and the model independent nonderivative couplings that derive from the QCD anomaly. The derivative couplings may include flavor changing effects. The effects that produce a nonzero ḡq and a long range force between baryons are included in the model independent nonderivative couplings.