cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hexokinase activity of rat intestinal mucosa: demonstration of four isozymes and of changes in subcellular distribution with fasting and refeeding.

The isozyme composition and subcellular distribution of hexokinase in intestinal mucosa were studies. Only 19% of total jejunal hexokinase was in the supernatant fraction whereas 44% of ileal activity was soluble. Four isozymes, including glucokinase, were demonstrated by cellulose acetate electrophoresis of intestinal mucosal supernatant fractions. The type IV isozyme we demonstrated in intestine closely resembled hepatic glucokinase, and thus only intestine and liver appear to contain this specific isozyme. Glucose feeding significantly increased hexokinase activity of the particulate fraction of jejunal mucosa but increased, only slightly, the supernatant activity. Alterations in the intracellular distribution of hexokinase were seen more clearly when serial time studies were done in fasted, glucose-refed rats. Refeeding was associated with a specific increase, seen at days 1 and 2, in particulate activity without alterations in supernatant activity. After 5 days of refeeding, however, comparable increases in particulate and supernatant fractions were seen. These studies indicate that the adaptive responses of jejunal mucosa to dietary alterations include specific changes in the intracellular compartmentation of hexokinase.
Reproduction and Fitness

Chapters 2 to 6 examined the ways in which inheritance is achieved. Chapters 7 to 10 are concerned with fitting genetics into the more general problem of reproduction and adaptation, and in showing how sexuality is of central significance in adapting the organism and its progeny to existence in an ever changing world.
Workforce Planning Models for Distribution Center Operations

Customer order fulfillment at distribution centers (DC) is increasingly necessitated by innovative strategies to maximize operational performance that are primarily driven by cost and service level under supply chain variability. In order to better understand the trade-offs, in this paper, a generic computational model is developed to estimate forklift travel times for DCs with any arbitrary floor space and loading docks. In particular, travel times are modelled as random variables and the moments of the probability distribution of travel times are estimated and used as inputs to analytical queueing model and discrete event simulation model. Results show that the analytical and simulation models are within 3% under different demand scenarios. These models are used to determine the impact of work-force capacity on key performance measures such as Truck Processing Time (TPT) and Labor Hours Per Truck (LHPT). The workforce capacity for different demand scenarios is determined using three different approaches - Target Utilization Level, Square Root Staffing (SRS) rule (adapted from call center staffing) and Optimization. The result from these models indicate that adapting workforce capacity to match varying demand can reduce cost by 18% while maintaining desired service level.
Long or redundant leaflet complicating transcatheter mitral valve replacement: Case vignettes that advocate for removal or reduction of the anterior mitral leaflet

Transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) procedures can be an alternative to surgical valve replacement for high surgical risk patients with bioprosthetic mitral valves, annuloplasty rings, or severe mitral annular calcification (MAC). TMVR can trigger acute left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction from permanent displacement of the native anterior mitral leaflet toward the left ventricular septum, more often among patients undergoing valve-in-ring and valve-in-MAC procedures. Although acute LVOT obstruction is well described in the literature, there are important additional complications of TMVR related to the length and/or redundancy of the anterior mitral valve that have been recognized after mitral valve surgery and have not been previously reported in the setting of TMVR. These additional complications include acute mitral regurgitation secondary to prolapsing native leaflet through the TMVR, frozen TMVR leaflet secondary to overhanging native leaflet and late LVOT obstruction in the neo-LVOT secondary to long native leaflet. Preprocedural planning with imaging (echocardiography and computed tomography) and measurement of anterior mitral leaflet length is critical important in understanding the risk for these complications. As transcatheter mitral valve technology proliferates, interactions with the anterior mitral leaflet after TMVR may be more frequent than initially anticipated. We believe that there is no advantage to an intact anterior leaflet and advocate removal or reduction of the leaflet prior to TMVR. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Outcomes of Isolated Tibial Endovascular Intervention for Rest Pain in Patients on Dialysis.

Background Tibial interventions for critical limb ischemia are frequent in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) presenting with critical ischemia. The aim of this study was to examine impact of ESRD on the patient-centered outcomes following tibial endovascular Intervention for rest pain. Methods A database of patients undergoing lower extremity endovascular interventions between 2006 and 2016 was retrospectively queried. Patients with rest pain (Rutherford 4) were identified. Patients with claudication (Rutherford 1 to 3) and tissue loss (Rutherford 5 and 6) were excluded. Patients were categorized by the presence or absence of ESRD. Patient-orientated outcomes of clinical efficacy (CE; absence of recurrent symptoms, maintenance of ambulation, and absence of major amputation), amputation-free survival (AFS; survival without major amputation), and freedom from major adverse limb events (MALEs; above ankle amputation of the index limb or major reintervention new bypass graft, jump/interposition graft revision) were evaluated. Results A total of 829 patients (56% male, average age 59 years; 658 nonhemodialysis [non-HD] and 171 HD) underwent isolated tibial intervention in one leg for rest pain. Technical success was 99% with a median of 2 vessels treated per patient. There was no difference in the distribution of Trans-Atlantic Inter-Society Consensus I lesions, but both the modified Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) runoff score and the pedal runoff score were worse in the HD group. The 30-day major adverse cardiac events and 30-day MALEs were equivalent in both groups. CE was 38 ± 9% and 19 ± 8% at 5 years for the non-HD and HD groups, respectively (P Conclusions Patients with ESRD who present with rest pain have equivalent short-term outcomes to those not on dialysis but do not achieve long-term satisfactory CE and AFS after isolated tibial intervention for rest pain.
Elucidating the Role of Supplementary Cementitious Materials on Shrinkage and Restrained-Shrinkage Cracking of Flowable Eco-Concrete

AbstractThis study investigates the influence of composition and the resultant reaction of blended binders proportioned with a high volume of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) on shrinkag...
Dynamic trading with developing adverse selection

Abstract We study a dynamic trading game in which the information asymmetry between the agents develops over time. A seller and potential buyers start out symmetrically uninformed about the quality of a good, but the seller becomes informed after the game begins. We show that this developing adverse selection gives rise to novel trading dynamics. In particular, if the seller's learning speed is high, the equilibrium features “collapse-and-recovery” behavior: Both the equilibrium price and the trade probability first drop and then increase over time. While the trade surplus monotonically decreases as the learning speed increases, the seller's surplus may change non-monotonically.
The Man Who Began His Lectures with “Namely”

In 1936 I fell in love with Elisabeth Bergner. At that time I was a schoolboy of thirteen marching off each morning with Latin, French, and geometry books in my briefcase. Elisabeth Bergner was thirty-six. She was then at the height of her career as an actress. The difference of twenty-three years was an irrelevance. I fell in love with her much as I had fallen in love two years earlier with Mozart’s G-Minor Symphony. Both the symphony and the actress lay at the narrow edge between the animate and the abstract worlds.
Sample Core Competencies in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training: A Starting Point.

In an effort to improve the preparedness of residents to address health care needs, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education mandated that all Residency Review Committees (RRCs) incorporate the general competencies of patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice into their requirements. In response, the Psychiatry RRC mandated that child and adolescent psychiatry programs develop one competency for each of the six areas, effective January 1, 2001. To assist in this effort, the Work Group on Training and Education of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has developed sample core competencies for each area. These samples are meant to serve as potential models for consideration by training programs as they develop criteria tailored to their program’s unique resources and needs.
Mechanical Properties of Geopolymers Cured in Saline Water

An experimental study of the mechanical properties of fly ash-based geopolymer cured in saline water is presented. The resistance of building materials to saline water is of key important to the design and safety of civil infrastructure and constructions. The studied geopolymers were synthesized from the mixture of Class C fly ash and metakaolin with alkali activation, and cured immediately in saline water at ambient temperature. The ordinary Portland cement (e.g., even used as oil well cement) usually have poor performance when cured in saline water. However, fly ash-based geopolymer cements cured in saline water showed an increased unconfined compressive strength than the cured in fresh water. Chemical and compositional analyses, including the pH of the curing water, salinity or electrical conductivity of the curing water, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, were conducted to investigate the mechanisms for the improved performance of geopolymers cured in saline water. Results show that the increase in the strength of geopolymers cured in saline water is related to the leaching of reactants from the material and infiltration of saline water into the material.
Anharmonic Properties near Structural Phase Transitions

In these three lectures an attempt is made to describe, in a certain context, experimental evidence for anharmonic behavior near structural phase transitions (SPT’s): Theoretically, it is expected that systems with lower effective lattice dimensionality and shorter ranges of forces are, near TC, more dominated by correlated fluctuations (in space and time). Thus, intrinsic anharmonic behavior due to such correlated fluctuations is expected to become more pronounced, the lower the effective lattice dimensionality and the shorter the range of forces. The more important experiments on SPT’s carried out in the past decade are discussed in the above context. The manuscript is subdivided into three sections and progresses on the average, from higher to lower dimensionality and from earlier to more recent results.
SigLASSO: a LASSO approach jointly optimizing sampling likelihood and cancer mutation signatures

Multiple mutational processes drive carcinogenesis, leaving characteristic signatures on tumor genomes. Determining the active signatures from the full repertoire of potential ones can help elucidate the mechanisms underlying cancer initiation and development. This involves decomposing the frequency of cancer mutations categorized according to their trinucleotide context into a linear combination of known mutational signatures. We formulate this task as an optimization problem with L1 regularization and develop a software tool, sigLASSO, to carry it out efficiently. First, by explicitly adding multinomial sampling into the overall objective function, we jointly optimize the likelihood of sampling and signature fitting. This is especially important when mutation counts are low and sampling variance, high, such as the case in whole exome sequencing. sigLASSO uses L1 regularization to parsimoniously assign signatures to mutation profiles, leading to sparse and more biologically interpretable solutions. Additionally, instead of hard thresholding and choosing a priori, a discrete subset of active signatures, sigLASSO fine-tunes model complexity parameters, informed by the scale of the data and prior knowledge. Finally, it is challenging to evaluate sigLASSO signature assignments. To do this, we construct a set of criteria, which we can apply consistently across assignments.
OR8 A novel reactivity pattern with labscreen™ class I single antigen beads and its prevalence among SLE patients

Aim Previously, a distinct class II Luminex-single antigen bead (SAB) pattern was described among patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) and attributed to antibodies targeting denatured antigens. In this study, we identify and describe a novel class I reactivity pattern shared among SLE patients. Methods Routine review of serum samples from transplant patients revealed a recurring pattern of reactivity on class I single antigen bead assays (One Lambda, Inc, lot 10). The pattern included the following beads: HLA-A∗33:03, -A∗36:01, -A∗80:01, -B∗54:01, -B∗53:01, -C∗06:02, -C∗07:02, -C∗18:02, -C∗14:02, -C∗03:03, -C∗03:04, and -C∗15:02. Further investigation was performed to determine the prevalence of this pattern and the specific characteristics of patients in which it occurred. Towards this end, all class I results performed in 2017 on renal transplant candidates/recipients were reviewed retrospectively for the presence of the above pattern. Patient diagnosis and demographic data was obtained from patient laboratory and hospital records. Results In total 5,992 samples from 3,027 patients were reviewed. We observed 105 (1.8%) samples from 58 patients displaying the class I pattern. Twenty-nine percent (n = 17) of these patients had no history of sensitization (e.g. blood transfusion, pregnancy, transplant) and only 29% of samples had distinct antibodies as identified by FlowPRA testing. Of the positive samples, 83% had reactivity against self-antigen involving 1 or more of the alleles in question, with HLA-C∗07:02 being the most common target (45%). Notably, 62% of these patients had a diagnosis of SLE. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first description of a distinct class I Luminex-SAB pattern with a prevalence in patients with SLE. This pattern was found in patients with no sensitization history, negative FlowPRA, and/or antibody to self-antigen(s). Epitope analysis failed to reveal a common determinant(s) to explain this pattern of reactivity. Given these findings, this pattern likely represents antibody targeting denatured antigen/unique peptide, molecular mimicry, autoimmunity, or a combination of some/all these factors.
Long-term outcome of kidney transplantation in AL amyloidosis

Therapies for AL amyloidosis have dramatically improved, leading to longer patient survival; however, more AL amyloidosis patients are reaching end-stage renal disease (ESRD). There are no clear guidelines regarding eligibility for kidney transplantation in patients with AL amyloidosis, and data on outcomes are limited. We evaluated the clinical and laboratory data of 49 patients who were followed in the Amyloidosis Center at Boston University and underwent kidney transplantation at a center in the United States between 1987-2017. During a median follow-up of 7.2 years (range 0-19), the median patient survival from diagnosis was 15.4 years, and from kidney transplantation was 10.5 years. One, three, and five-year graft survival were 94%, 89%, and 81%, respectively. Patients with hematologic complete response or very good partial response prior to kidney transplantation had significantly better patient survival than patients with partial response or no response, and the median time to graft loss was 10.4 years versus 5.5 years, respectively. This is the largest published series of kidney transplantation in patients with AL amyloidosis, suggesting that kidney transplantation can have a good outcome in carefully selected patients, particularly in those who have achieved a complete response or very good partial response at the time of kidney transplantation.
“Staring into the abyss”: veterans’ accounts of moral injuries and spiritual challenges

The concept moral injury is receiving increased attention, especially as it pertains to military trauma. In war, service members may both observe and directly experience horrific events that one ca...
Childhood maltreatment, behavioral adjustment, and molecular markers of cellular aging in preschool-aged children: A cohort study

Abstract Objective Childhood maltreatment is a major risk factor for the development of behavioral problems and poor physical and mental health. Accelerated cellular aging, through reduced telomere length and mitochondrial dysfunction, may be a mechanism underlying these associations. Methods Families with (n = 133) and without (n = 123) child welfare documentation of moderate-severe maltreatment in the past six months participated in this study. Children ranged in age from 3 to 5 years, were racially and ethnically diverse, and 91% qualified for public assistance. Structured record review and interviews were used to assess a history of maltreatment and other adversities. Telomere length and mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) were measured from saliva DNA using real-time PCR. Measures were repeated at a six-month follow-up assessment. Repeated measures general linear models were used to examine the effects of maltreatment and other adversities on telomere length and mtDNAcn over time. Results Maltreatment and other adverse experiences were significant positive predictors of both telomere length and mtDNAcn over time. Internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were also both significantly associated with telomere length, but only internalizing symptoms were associated with mtDNAcn. Conclusions This is the first study to show that mtDNAcn is altered in children with stress and trauma, and the findings are consistent with recent studies of adults. Surprisingly, children who experienced moderate-severe levels of maltreatment in the prior six months had longer telomeres, possibly reflecting compensatory changes in response to recent trauma. Telomere length and mtDNAcn were also associated with behavioral problems, suggesting that these measures of cellular aging may be causally implicated in the pathophysiology of stress-related conditions.
The use and meanings of prayer by recreational marathon runners

Leisure time has been shown to be conducive to many aspects of well-being, including spiritual well-being. Furthermore, prayer may be one behavior performed during leisure that enhances spiritual wellness. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the use and meanings of prayer by recreational marathon runners. Interviews were conducted with 10 marathoners representing 3 religions. Results revealed 5 themes: long-distance running as a space for the use of prayer, prayer to change one’s thoughts or outlook, requests to aid in physical performances, prayer for appreciation and thanks, and the effects of prayer on interactions with others in a running setting. These findings expand upon existing research, support previous suggestions regarding the spiritual aspect of leisure activities, and provide new directions for future research regarding prayer and leisure activities.
The Economic Case for Cloud-Based Computation for Robot Motion Planning.

Imagine a world in which robots are a part of everyday life, performing elegant and safe motions to accomplish complex tasks. To achieve this vision, robots will need access to extensive computational resources. Cloud-based computers have the potential to provide the needed computing power, while lowering robot cost, space, and energy requirements. Academia and industry are already exploring the cloud as a purveyor of data in a wide variety of applications, and have shown the benefit of the cloud for accelerating offline- and pre-computations.But what about interactive/online computation, as is often required by robot motion planning? This paper presents an economics-based argument that it is possible to extend a robot’s useful service life and battery-based operation time, improve its efficiency and profitability, and reduce its initial costs, by using the cloud in complex online and interactive computations. Gaining these benefits presents new, open research challenges, including: how to cost-effectively allocate cloud-based parallel computation, how to handle the unavoidable network-related bottlenecks, and how to design algorithms that distribute computation between the cloud and the robot.
Law, Power, and the COPs

Major reconfigurations of the United Nations climate convention occurred between 2009 and 2015, as countries struggled to define key terms that would bear consequentially on the distribution of responsibility among themselves, as well as their duties to each other. That legalistically framed debate, however, was always situated within and came ultimately to express stark differences in geopolitical power between formally equal negotiating parties. The evolution of the climate convention helps to illustrate how those differences are, in effect, mutually constitutive with the institutionalized socio-spatial and governmental separations of the international system, and climate changing fossil fueled development itself. At the same time, debates that unfolded in the course of that evolution illustrate the necessity of language in political struggle and some of the reasons why law so often supplies such a language.
Bee Visitation on Flowers in Maine, United States, Reveals the Relative Attractiveness of Plants Through Space and Time: Part I

Bee reservoirs can be effective in agricultural and habitat restoration projects, but the relative attractiveness of plants is not fully understood. To improve plant selection with better knowledge of spatial, temporal, and competition aspects, we tested up to 90 plant subjects from 2012 to 2015 at four sites in Maine. We recognized Apis mellifera L., Bombus ternarius Say, 1837, 'Most Bombus' (except B. ternarius), 'Halictidae' and 'Other Bees' (collectively the so-called 'bee groups') on open flowers in three 1-min periods per site and day, with numerous repeated observations per plant taxon. In 14,311 observations, we recorded 17,792 bees in 61 species. Most-visited plants included Asclepias tuberosa, Borago officinalis, Clethra alnifolia cv. Hummingbird (especially by A. mellifera), Melilotus officinalis, Origanum vulgare, Rosa palustris (especially before 1400 hours), Spiraea alba var. latifolia, and taxa in the family Asteraceae. Early-flowering shrubs were visited, especially by 'Other Bees'. Bee groups each ranked plants uniquely, with some overlap, and differed in most-visited of six plant taxa that we had included in all 4 yr and sites. For 'All Bees' among 84 plant taxa, the most-visited plants were M. officinalis (June), A. tuberosa (July), and C. alnifolia (August). Indicator Species Analysis revealed low bee fidelity to host plants for all but a few plant taxa. Apis mellifera differed from native bees in plants it visited intensively, with some overlap (e.g., A. tuberosa), and was associated with increased visitation on seven plant taxa by 'Most Bombus' and B. ternarius.
Comparison of Abbott ID Now, DiaSorin Simplexa, and CDC FDA Emergency Use Authorization Methods for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 from Nasopharyngeal and Nasal Swabs from Individuals Diagnosed with COVID-19.

Dozens of in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) have received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but how well these assays perform using clinical specimens has hardly been studied
3 – Atmospheric Thermodynamics

Publisher Summary Thermodynamics plays an important role in the quantitative understanding of atmospheric phenomena ranging from the smallest cloud microphysical processes to the general circulation of the atmosphere. This chapter introduces some fundamental ideas and relationships in thermodynamics and applies them to a number of simple, but important, atmospheric situations. The chapter deals with the ideal gas equation and its application to dry air, water vapor, and moist air. The chapter provides an important meteorological relationship, known as the hydrostatic equation. The chapter also focuses on the relationship between the mechanical work done by a system and the heat that the system receives, as expressed in the first law of thermodynamics. The chapter concludes with the details on the concept of the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy.
An Anniversary for Bernoulli's "Ars Conjectandi

An exposition of Jacques Bernoulli's contribution to an oft-visited problem: finding formulas for the sum of the kth powers of the first n positive integers, formulas seen in beginning calculus cou...
Combined hearing screening and genetic screening of deafness among Hakka newborns in China

Abstract Objective Hearing loss (HL) can severely impact the quality of human life. To explore strategies for clinical interventions, we investigated hearing screening coupled with genetic testing of deafness among Hakka newborns. Methods The testing was performed on 4205 newborns who born in Heyuan of Guangdong province between December 2018 and November 2019. Hearing screening used otoacoustic emission(OAE) coupled with automatic auditory brainstem response(AABR). A total of 13 hot spot mutations in GJB2, SLC26A4, mtDNA, and GJB3 genes were screened using PCR accompanied by flow-through hybridization technology. Results Among the 4205 newborns, the number of 47 individuals who failed the hearing testing accounted for 1.12％(47/4205). The genetic screening displayed that 176 individuals(4.19%,176/4205) discovered to carry more than one mutant site. The gene carrier frequency of GJB2, SLC26A4, GJB3, and mtDNA was 2.24%, 1.76%, 0.19%, and 0.07% respectively. The most carried mutations were GJB2 c.235del (2.05%), followed by SLC26A4 c.IVS7-2A > G(1.38%). A total of 216 (5.14%, 216/4205) high-risk children detected by combined hearing screening and genetic screening of deafness. Pairwise comparison (1.12% vs 4.19% vs 5.14%) showed significant differences for the positive rate of detection(χ 2 = 11.045, P 0.05). Conclusions Among Hakka newborns in Heyuan, the carrier rate of GJB2 c.235delC was the highest. Combining with two screening methods will effectually increase the detection rate of neonatal deafness and play an essential role in clinical intervention.
End-to-End Radio Fingerprinting with Neural Networks

This paper presents a novel method for classifying radio frequency (RF) devices from their transmission signals. Given a collection of signals from identical devices, we accurately classify both the distance of the transmission and the specific device identity. We develop a multiple classifier system that accurately discriminates between channels and classifies devices using normalized in-phase and quadrature (IQ) samples. Our network uses residual connections for both distance and device classification, reaching 88.33% accuracy classifying 16 unique devices over 11 different distances and two different times, on a task that was previously unlearnable. Furthermore, we demonstrate the efficacy for pre-training neural networks for massive data domains and subtle classification differences.
Workplace Privacy: We'll Be Watching You

Examining both current and historical aspects of information, privacy, and the work place, this article examines the perspective of both the employee and employer about workplace privacy. The crucial role that technology now plays in the process is also reviewed as are appropriate constitutional provisions, federal and state statutory provisions, and finally the tort theories of privacy developed initially by Justice Brandeis and Samuel Warren. Technology, employer and employee expectations, and workplace privacy are all examined with an appropriate analysis used to determine whether an employer's conduct has indeed violated an employee's privacy.
How educational are “educational” apps for young children? App store content analysis using the Four Pillars of Learning framework

Experts have expressed concerns about the lack of evidence demonstrating that children’s “educational” applications (apps) have educational value. This study aimed to operationalize Hirsh-Pasek, Zo...
Intention and Attention in Image-Text Presentations: A Coherence Approach

In image-text presentations from online discourse, pronouns can refer to entities depicted in images, even if these entities are not otherwise referred to in a text caption. While visual salience may be enough to allow a writer to use a pronoun to refer to a prominent entity in the image, coherence theory suggests that pronoun use is more restricted. Specifically, language users may need an appropriate coherence relation between text and imagery to license and resolve pronouns. To explore this hypothesis and better understand the relationship between image context and text interpretation, we annotated an image-text data set with coherence relations and pronoun information. We find that pronoun use reflects a complex interaction between the content of the pronoun, the grammar of the text, and the relation of text and image.
The distinct role of the four voltage sensors of the skeletal CaV1.1 channel in voltage-dependent activation

Initiation of skeletal muscle contraction is triggered by rapid activation of RYR1 channels in response to sarcolemmal depolarization. RYR1 is intracellular and has no voltage-sensing structures, but it is coupled with the voltage-sensing apparatus of CaV1.1 channels to inherit voltage sensitivity. Using an opto-electrophysiological approach, we resolved the excitation-driven molecular events controlling both CaV1.1 and RYR1 activations, reported as fluorescence changes. We discovered that each of the four human CaV1.1 voltage-sensing domains (VSDs) exhibits unique biophysical properties: VSD-I time-dependent properties were similar to ionic current activation kinetics, suggesting a critical role of this voltage sensor in CaV1.1 activation; VSD-II, VSD-III, and VSD-IV displayed faster activation, compatible with kinetics of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release. The prominent role of VSD-I in governing CaV1.1 activation was also confirmed using a naturally occurring, charge-neutralizing mutation in VSD-I (R174W). This mutation abolished CaV1.1 current at physiological membrane potentials by impairing VSD-I activation without affecting the other VSDs. Using a structurally relevant allosteric model of CaV activation, which accounted for both time- and voltage-dependent properties of CaV1.1, to predict VSD-pore coupling energies, we found that VSD-I contributed the most energy (~75 meV or ∼3 kT) toward the stabilization of the open states of the channel, with smaller (VSD-IV) or negligible (VSDs II and III) energetic contribution from the other voltage sensors (<25 meV or ∼1 kT). This study settles the longstanding question of how CaV1.1, a slowly activating channel, can trigger RYR1 rapid activation, and reveals a new mechanism for voltage-dependent activation in ion channels, whereby pore opening of human CaV1.1 channels is primarily driven by the activation of one voltage sensor, a mechanism distinct from that of all other voltage-gated channels.
Potassium channels in the regulation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell proliferation and apoptosis: pharmacotherapeutic implications.

Maintaining the proper balance between cell apoptosis and proliferation is required for normal tissue homeostasis; when this balance is disrupted, disease such as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) can result. Activity of K+ channels plays a major role in regulating the pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (PASMC) population in the pulmonary vasculature, as they are involved in cell apoptosis, survival and proliferation. PASMCs from PAH patients demonstrate many cellular abnormalities linked to K+ channels, including decreased K+ current, downregulated expression of various K+ channels, and inhibited apoptosis. K+ is the major intracellular cation, and the K+ current is a major determinant of cell volume. Apoptotic volume decrease (AVD), an early hallmark and prerequisite of programmed cell death, is characterized by K+ and Cl− efflux. In addition to its role in AVD, cytosolic K+ can be inhibitory toward endogenous caspases and nucleases and can suppress mitochondrial cytochrome c release. In PASMC, K+ channel activation accelerates AVD and enhances apoptosis, while K+ channel inhibition decelerates AVD and inhibits apoptosis. Finally, inhibition of K+ channels, by increasing cytosolic [Ca2+] as a result of membrane depolarization-mediated opening of voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels, leads to PASMC contraction and proliferation. The goals of this review are twofold: (1) to elucidate the role of K+ ions and K+ channels in the proliferation and apoptosis of PASMC, with an emphasis on abnormal cell growth in human and animal models of PAH, and (2) to elaborate upon the targeting of K+ flux pathways for pharmacological treatment of pulmonary vascular disease.
Cost-effective radiation hardening technique for combinational logic

A radiation hardening technique for combinational logic circuits is described. The key idea is to exploit the asymmetric logical masking probabilities of gates, hardening gates that have the lowest logical masking probability to achieve cost-effective tradeoffs between overhead and soft error failure rate reduction. The technique, which decouples the physical from the logical aspects of soft error susceptibility of a gate, uses a gate (transistor) sizing technique that is both efficient and accurate (in comparison to SPICE). A full set of experimental results demonstrate the cost-effective tradeoffs that can be achieved.
Strain Mismatch and Deformation of Slip Cast Alumina Bodies: The Effects of Solids loading, Dispersant Concentration, and Binder Concentration

A technique to identify strain mismatch in bodies of alumina prepared by slip casting has been developed. The strain mismatch, which manifests itself as deformation of an originally flat beam into the shape of an arc, can be quantified by determining the curvature of the sample. The curvature observed here for samples prepared from alumina ranges from -I to +3 l/m. The direction and magnitude of the curvature could be correlated with the composition of the slurries (volume percentage solids, dispersant concentration, and binder concentration) used to prepare the slip cast samples.
Medical expenditures of adult cancer survivors aged <65 years in the United States.

BACKGROUND: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to provide national estimates of medical expenditures for all adult cancer survivors aged <65 years. Most studies of expenditures for cancer survivors in this age group have been based on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and were limited to “affected survivors.” METHODS: MEPS expenditure data for 2001 to 2007 were linked to data identifying all survivors from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which is the MEPS sampling frame. The sample was comprised of adults ages 25 to 64 years. Propensity-score matching was used to estimate the effects of cancer on average total and out-of-pocket expenditures for all services and separately for prescriptions. Probit models were used to estimate effects on the probability of exceeding different expenditure thresholds. RESULTS: Mean annual expenditures on all services in 2007 were $16,910 ± $3911 for survivors who were newly diagnosed with cancer, $7992 ± $972 for survivors who had been diagnosed in previous years, and $3303 ± $103 for other adults. Fifty-three percent of survivors were not identified in MEPS but only by linking to NHIS. Expenditures for all survivors averaged approximately $9300 compared with $13,600 for “affected survivors.” For previously diagnosed survivors, the increase in mean expenditures attributable to cancer was approximately $4000 to $5000 annually. On average, relatively little of the increase was paid out of pocket, but cancer nearly doubled the risk of high out-of-pocket expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: Previous MEPS analyses overstated average expenditures for all survivors. Nevertheless, the current results indicated that the increase in expenditures attributable to cancer is substantial, even for longer term survivors, and that cancer increases the relative risk of high out-of-pocket expenditures. Cancer 2011;. © 2010 American Cancer Society.
Similarities and differences in low- to middle-latitude geomagnetic indices

[1] Several versions of low- to middle-latitude geomagnetic indices are examined throughout a 24 year interval and during storm time with respect to a normalized epoch timeline based on several key storm features. In particular, we conduct a quantitative comparison of the storm time superpositioning of the Dst, SYM-H, and 1 min U.S. Geological Survey Dst indices using error analysis and employing descriptive statistics to assess the similarities and differences between them. The events are then categorized by storm intensity and examined as a function of the storm phase. While the indices are highly correlated with each other, dramatic deviation between the indices exists at certain storm epoch times. In particular, the error increases at storm peak and especially for more intense storms. The differences at storm peak are, on average, 20% of the peak value of the indices. These differences arise from the choice of magnetometer stations to include in each index and the various methodologies used to compile the individual perturbation measurements into a global value. The conclusions are that multiple indices should be considered when determining low- to middle-latitude magnetic perturbations and that the difference between the indices should be considered as an error estimate on these values.
Field variation of the penetration depth in ceramic Y1Ba2Cu3Oy.

The radio-frequency penetration depth is found to increase quadratically with applied dc magnetic field $B$, i.e., $\ensuremath{\Delta}{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{eff}}=k(T){B}^{2}$, between 4.2 and 85 K in samples of ceramic ${\mathrm{Y}}_{1}{\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{y}$. The parameter $k(T)$ rises steeply with increasing temperature $T$, and even at 4.2 K is orders of magnitude larger than a Ginzburg-Landau prediction. Instead, the ${B}^{2}$ dependence and the large values of $k$ can be quantitatively explained in terms of the dc flux dependence of the high-frequency response of a Josephson junction network, with typical junction area about 6 \ensuremath{\mu}${\mathrm{m}}^{2}$. The analysis provides an explanation of the observed correspondence between ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{eff}}(T)$, $k(T)$, and the threshold field for irreversible flux entry.
2. Child Psychiatric Nursing in the Comprehensive Residential Treatment of Emotionally Disturbed Children

Professional nurses provide therapeutic care for emotionally disturbed children at the Child Guidance Home, Cincinnati, Ohio. In-service training and supervision from her own discipline offer the nurse support and develop her capabilities for collaboration with the treatment team. In a master's degree program in child psychiatric nursing at the College of Nursing and Health, University of Cincinnati, the residential treatment center is the principal field area for learning skills in therapeutic care of individuals and groups of emotionally disturbed children.
Tidal-front entrainment and retention of fish larvae on the southern flank of Georges Bank

Abstract From a grid of stations across the southern flank of Georges Bank in May 1997, larval haddock and cod were observed to be concentrated across the tidal front in a band 10–20 km wide. Several cross-bank CTD and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) sections indicated a narrow ( 35 m), cross-isobath residual flow (0.6–1.2 cm/s).
Effects of endothelin on blood vessels of the brain and choroid plexus

Endothelin is a recently described vasoactive peptide produced by endothelial cells. Receptors for endothelin are found throughout the brain, and are particularly dense in the choroid plexus. Effects of endothelin on cerebral blood flow and blood flow to the choroid plexus are not known. In this study, we examined effects of endothelin (100 and 1000 ng/kg i.v.) on regional blood flow (microspheres) and cerebral microvascular pressure in anesthetized rabbits. Endothelin (1000 ng/kg) produced only a 4 +/- 2 mm Hg (mean +/- S.E.M.) increase in systemic blood pressure, and had no effect on cerebral blood flow or cerebral microvascular pressure. In contrast, endothelin produced a marked decrease in blood flow to the choroid plexus and dura mater. Blood flow to choroid and dura remained significantly decreased 1 h after administration of the peptide. Endothelin also reduced blood flow to the kidney and small intestine, but the decreases tended to be less than in choroid plexus or dura mater. Thus, circulating endothelin, at doses that have no effect on cerebral blood vessels, has marked effects on blood flow to the choroid plexus. These findings suggest that circulating or locally produced endothelin may contribute to regulation of brain fluid balance through effects on choroid plexus and production of cerebrospinal fluid.
Measured and computed point spread functions for an indirect water immersion objective used in three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy

Living cells and other non-embedded biological specimens present a challenge in high- resolution microscopy because of their relatively low refractive index. It is well known that when oil-immersion objectives are used to look into these specimens, spherical aberration resulting from the index mismatch causes axial as well as transverse broadening of the 3D point spread function. Both effects reduce 3D resolution significantly, and cause the microscope to be axially shift-variant, thus complicating 3D deconvolution-based computational refinement. Axial shift variance should be much less a problem when water immersion objectives are used. With the aim of improving image data and our ability to refine it computationally, we have evaluated an apochromatic 40X/1.2 NA indirect water- immersion objective having an adjustable corrector for coverslip thickness. This work involves comparison of measured and computed 3D point spread functions, and comparison to the data acquired with an oil-immersion lens system. We show that focus-dependent spherical aberration is greatly reduced in the water-immersion system.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Determining the operative line of resection for image-guided emphysema surgery using a laser scanner and non-rigid registration.

Background Although many diseases such as emphysema are diagnosed with preoperative imaging modalities, this information is rarely utilized in the operating room. A method that relates the preoperative images to the non-rigid organ in physical space would aid a surgeon to determine the line of resection. Methods We used a three-dimensional (3D) laser scanner to obtain intraoperative images of the lung and overlayed it with preoperative CT images, using a non-rigid image registration method. Results The non-overlapping registration error of the system was 1.91 ± 0.28% without organ deformation and 2.69 ± 0.28% with 9% organ deformation. When 83% of the organ was visible, the registration error was 2.99 ± 0.42%. Conclusion A novel image overlay system using a 3D laser scanner and a non-rigid registration method was implemented and its accuracy evaluated. By using the proposed system, we successfully related the preoperative images with an open organ in the operating room. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Vesicoureteric reflux in sibships.

Summary— A family with 4 of 6 siblings manifesting vesicoureteric reflux is presented. Reflux could not be demonstrated in preceding and succeeding generations in this family. Genetic analysis suggests that most instances of familial vesicoureteric reflux arise secondary to expression of autosomal dominant single genes with incomplete penetrance. Screening of sibships for reflux might be most appropriately carried out by urine analysis, culture and ultrasound imaging.
Injectable Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels to Attenuate Post-Infarction Left Ventricular Remodeling

Several investigators have been successful in reducing the adverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling and expansion that exists in response to myocardial infarction (MI) via the use of various restraints, such as knitted polypropylene meshes [1] and injectable materials [2]. A recent finite element model simulation of the theoretical impact of injection of a material into the myocardium after MI confirmed the suspected stress reduction potential of intramyocardial infarct stiffening with an acellular, non-contractile material. As peak LV wall stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of post-infarct LV remodeling, this approach to LV wall stress reduction has significant therapeutic potential [3].© 2009 ASME
Genomic organization, 5' flanking enhancer region, and chromosomal assignment of the cell cycle gene, p55Cdc.

p55Cdc is a mammalian homologue of a family of cell cycle proteins from widely divergent species, which contains WD repeats and has been implicated in cell cycle-regulated ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. p55Cdc is highly expressed in proliferating but not in differentiated or growth-arrested cells. The expression, phosphorylation, and degradation of this protein have been shown to be cell cycle-regulated. We analyzed a 5.3-kb genomic region that contains the entire rat p55Cdc gene. The gene contains 10 exons ranging in size from 97 to 373 bp. The promoter region has a TATA box, four E-box consensus sequences, and potential binding sites for cell cycle-specific transcription factors. In transient transfection assays, a construct containing a 1000-nucleotide p55Cdc promoter region upstream of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene demonstrated a 12-fold increase in transcriptional activity. Finally, using radiation hybrid mapping techniques, we localized this gene to the human chromosome, 9q13–21.
A Systems Model of Signaling Identifies a Molecular Basis Set for Cytokine-Induced Apoptosis

Signal transduction pathways control cellular responses to stimuli, but it is unclear how molecular information is processed as a network. We constructed a systems model of 7980 intracellular signaling events that directly links measurements to 1440 response outputs associated with apoptosis. The model accurately predicted multiple time-dependent apoptotic responses induced by a combination of the death-inducing cytokine tumor necrosis factor with the prosurvival factors epidermal growth factor and insulin. By capturing the role of unsuspected autocrine circuits activated by transforming growth factor-alpha and interleukin-1alpha, the model revealed new molecular mechanisms connecting signaling to apoptosis. The model derived two groupings of intracellular signals that constitute fundamental dimensions (molecular "basis axes") within the apoptotic signaling network. Projection along these axes captures the entire measured apoptotic network, suggesting that cell survival is determined by signaling through this canonical basis set.