cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Prostate Cancer Cell-Adipocyte Interaction LEPTIN MEDIATES ANDROGEN-INDEPENDENT PROSTATE CANCER CELL PROLIFERATION THROUGH c-Jun NH2-TERMINAL KINASE

Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death among men in the United States, and acquisition of hormone resistance (androgen independence) by cancer cells is a fatal event during the natural history of prostate cancer. Obesity is another serious health problem and has been shown to be associated with prostate cancer. However, little is known about the molecular basis of this association. Here we show that factor(s) secreted from adipocytes stimulate prostate cancer cell proliferation. Leptin is one of the major adipose cytokines, and it controls body weight homeostasis through food intake and energy expenditure. We identify leptin as a novel growth factor in androgen-independent prostate cancer cell growth. Strikingly, leptin stimulates cell proliferation specifically in androgen-independent DU145 and PC-3 prostate cancer cells but not in androgen-dependent LNCaP-FGC cells, although both cell types express functional leptin receptor isoforms. c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) has been shown recently to play a crucial role in obesity and insulin resistance. Intriguingly, leptin induces JNK activation in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells, and the pharmacological inhibition of JNK blocked the leptin stimulation of androgen-independent prostate cancer cell proliferation. This suggests that JNK activation is required for leptin-mediated, androgen-independent prostate cancer cell proliferation. Furthermore, other cytokines produced by adipocytes and critical for body weight homeostasis cooperate with leptin in androgen-independent prostate cancer cell proliferation: interleukin-6 and insulin-like growth factor I demonstrate additive and synergistic effects on the leptin stimulation of androgen-independent prostate cancer cell proliferation, respectively. Therefore, adipose cytokines, as well as JNK, are key mediators between obesity and hormone-resistant prostate cancer and could be therapeutic targets.
Acid deposition effects on forest composition and growth on the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia

The northern and central Appalachian forests are subject to high levels of atmospheric acid deposition (AD), which has been shown in some forests to negatively impact forest growth as well as predispose the forest system to damage from secondary stresses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible contribution of AD to changes in composition and productivity of the Monongahela National Forest, and to evaluate soil-based indicators of acidification that might be useful for detecting AD-related forest changes. Soils adjacent to 30 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) sites were sampled and analyzed for a suite of acidity indicators. These indicators were correlated with the periodic mean annual volume increment (PMAVI) of the forest stands on FIA plots for the 10-yr period 1989–2000. PMAVI ranged from � 9.5 to 11.8 m 3 ha � 1 yr � 1 , with lower-than-expected growth (< 3m 3 ha � 1 yr � 1 ) on two-thirds of the
Stereoscopic Depth Perception and Exposure Delay between Images to the Two Eyes

Experiments show that there are limiting delay times between the exposures of test stimuli to one eye and then to the other, beyond which stereoscopic depth perception does not occur. In the present experiments these limiting delay times are determined under photopic conditions in several different ways, principally for variations in exposure times. The limiting delay times are used in a model to define a duration of cortical excitations in those areas of the cortex where stimuli from the two eyes are received and utilized for stereoscopic depth perception. The minimal limiting delay measured from the beginning of the exposure to one eye to the beginning of the exposure to the other eye (equivalent to duration of cortical excitation) was about 100 msec. This limiting delay then increased, slowly at first, with increase of exposure time up to about 250 msec. Increased luminance of test stimuli reduced the limiting delay times, but repetitive exposures increased these times, as would be expected.
Towards a Unified Goal-Oriented Language

There are several approaches in Requirements Engineering (RE) for obtaining requirements according to some specific decomposition criteria (e.g. viewpoints, goals). One of those is Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering (GORE), which has become increasingly popular in the recent years. GORE uses goals to elicit, develop, structure, specify, analyze, negotiate, document and modify requirements. However, the definition of a goal is very fragmented in the community with several different modeling languages, methods and non interoperable tools available making it more difficult to be more quickly accepted by industry. In this article we introduce our proposal for unifying into one modeling language a family of GORE languages named Unified Goal oriented Language (UGL). It presently incorporates the concepts of the main approaches, i.e., KAOS and I*, allowing us to specify models that interrelate concepts of their corresponding languages. This modeling language is based on the integration of the different languages metamodels.
A mutation in the catalytic subunit of yeast telomerase alters primer-template alignment while promoting processivity and protein-DNA binding.

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that is required for maintenance of linear chromosome ends (telomeres). In yeast, the Est2 protein reverse transcribes a short template region of the TLC1 RNA using the chromosome terminus to prime replication. Yeast telomeres contain heterogeneous G1–3T sequences that arise from incomplete reverse transcription of the TLC1 template and alignment of the DNA primer at multiple sites within the template region. We have previously described mutations in the essential N-terminal TEN domain of Est2p that alter telomere sequences. Here, we demonstrate that one of these mutants, glutamic acid 76 to lysine (est2-LTE76K), restricts possible alignments between the DNA primer and the TLC1 template. In addition, this mutant exhibits increased processivity in vivo. Within the context of the telomerase enzyme, the Est2p TEN domain is thought to contribute to enzyme processivity by mediating an anchor-site interaction with the DNA primer. We show that binding of the purified TEN domain (residues 1–161) to telomeric DNA is enhanced by the E76K mutation. These results support the idea that the anchor-site interaction contributes to telomerase processivity and suggest a role for the anchor site of yeast telomerase in mediating primer–template alignment within the active site.
An overview of automated macromodelling techniques for mixed-signal systems

On-chip and on-package integrated systems, such as systems-on-chip (SoCs) and systems-in-packages (SiPs), are composed of a complex mix of digital and mixed-signal circuit blocks. Verifying such systems prior to fabrication is challenging due to their size and complexity. Automated approaches towards extracting system-level macromodels from SPICE-level descriptions of circuit blocks is becoming an increasingly important component of sustainable methodologies for system verification. In this paper, we present an overview of recent algorithmic methods for extracting linear and nonlinear macromodels of mixed-signal circuits, and highlight the potential impact of such techniques.
Bargaining rationale for cooperative generic advertising

The beggar-thy-neighbour aspect of commodity advertising means that benefits to one commodity from advertising come at the expense of other commodities. The effect can be mitigated by cooperation among groups as shown by Alston, Freebairn and James (AFJ). A drawback to AFJ's analysis is that some cooperative outcomes require side payments from one producer group to another. This paper offers a bargaining solution as an alternative to cooperation in the case where cooperative side payments would be needed. We show that while bargaining without side payments is not as effective as cooperation at reducing beggar-thy-neighbour effects, it is a welfare improving alter­ native to non-cooperation and is likely more practical in many situations.
Predicting species distributions from herbarium collections: does climate bias in collection sampling influence model outcomes?

Aim Species distribution models and geographical information system (GIS) technologies are becoming increasingly important tools in conservation planning and decision-making. Often the rich data bases of museums and herbaria serve as the primary data for predicting species distributions. Yet key assumptions about the primary data often are untested, and violation of such assumptions may have consequences for model predictions. For example, users of primary data assume that sampling has been random with respect to geography and environmental gradients. Here we evaluate the assumption that plant voucher specimens adequately sample the climatic gradient and test whether violation of this assumption influences model predictions. Location Bolivia and Ecuador. Methods Using 323,711 georeferenced herbarium collections and nine climatic variables, we predicted the distribution of 76 plant species using maximum entropy models (MAXENT) with training points that sampled the climate environments randomly and training points that reflected the climate bias in the herbarium collections. To estimate the distribution of species, MAXENT finds the distribution of maximum entropy (i.e. closest to uniform) subject to the constraint that the expected value for each environmental variable under the estimated distribution matches its empirical average. The experimental design included species that differed in geographical range and elevation; all species were modelled with 20 and 100 training points. We examined the influence of the number of training points and climate bias in training points, elevation and range size on model performance using analysis of variance models. Results We found that significant parts of the climatic gradient were poorly represented in herbarium collections for both countries. For the most part, existing climatic bias in collections did not greatly affect distribution predictions when compared with an unbiased data set. Although the effects of climate bias on prediction accuracy were found to be greater where geographical ranges were characterized by high spatial variation in the degree of climate bias (i.e. ranges where the bias of the various climates sampled by collections deviated considerably from the mean bias), the greatest influence on model performance was the number of presence points used to train the model. Main conclusions These results demonstrate that predictions of species distributions can be quite good despite existing climatic biases in primary data found in natural history collections, if a sufficiently large number of training points is available. Because of consistent overprediction of models, these results also confirm the importance of validating models with independent data or expert opinion. Failure to include independent model validation, especially in cases where training points are limited, may potentially lead to grave errors in conservation decision-making and planning.
The Arabidopsis hrl1 mutation reveals novel overlapping roles for salicylic acid, jasmonic acid and ethylene signalling in cell death and defence against pathogens

Summary Defence against pathogens in Arabidopsis is orchestrated by at least three signalling molecules: salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET). The hrl1 (hypersensitive response-like lesions 1) mutant of Arabidopsis is characterized by spontaneous necrotic lesions, accumulation of reactive oxygen species, constitutive expression of SA- and ET/JA-responsive defence genes, and enhanced resistance to virulent bacterial and oomycete pathogens. Epistasis analyses of hrl1 with npr1, etr1, coi1 and SAdepleted nahG plants revealed novel interactions between SA and ET/JA signalling pathways in regulating defence gene expression and cell death. RNA gel-blot analysis of RNA isolated separately from the lesion + and the lesion ‐ leaves of double mutants of hrl1 revealed different signalling requirements for the expression of defence genes in these tissues. Expression of the ET/JA-responsive PDF1.2 gene was markedly reduced in hrl1 npr1 and in SA-depleted hrl1 nahG plants. In hrl1 nahG plants, expression of PDF1.2 was regulated by benzathiadiazole in a concentration-dependent manner: induced at low concentration and suppressed at high concentration. The hrl1 etr1 plants lacked systemic PR-1 expression, and exhibited compromised resistance to virulent Pseudomonas syringae and Peronospora parasitica. Inhibiting JA responses in hrl1 coi1 plants lead to exaggerated cell death and severe stunting of plants. Finally, the hrl1 mutation lead to elevated expression of AtrbohD, which encodes a major subunit of the NADPH oxidase complex. Our results indicate that defence gene expression and resistance against pathogens in hrl1 is regulated synergistically by SA and ET/JA defence pathways.
Improved affine resistant watermarking by using robust templates

This paper proposes an improved affine resistant watermarking over the template matching-based watermarking method. A one-way hash function is utilized to generate the highly secure embedding positions in the mid-frequencies against position attacks. A spread spectrum watermark is embedded into these positions in the frequency domain based on the local perceptual capability. Two structural template lines are then added in the polar coordinate system for detecting any combination of the geometrical distortions. The watermark is detected based on the correlation between the recovered and embedded watermarks. The experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the method against some common image processing operations such as JPEG compression, enhancement, and any combination of the geometrical distortions.
Pulling the Strings on Agreement: Anchoring, Controllability, and Graph Automorphisms

This work examines the controlled Laplacian (or agreement) over a network of interconnected dynamic units. This dynamics has recently been the focus of a large number of research work in the systems community. Most of the existing work in this area- however- consider the unforced agreement protocol. In the present paper, we consider the controlled version of this dynamics and introduce graph theoretic conditions for its system theoretic properties. In particular, we show how the symmetry structure of the network, characterized in terms of its automorphism group, relates to the network controllability. Some of the ramifications of such a characterization are then explored.
An analysis of direct sequence CDMA for mobile cellular systems

The performance of a code-division multiple-access (CDMA) cellular system for different RF modulation techniques, such as quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and differential phase-shift keying (DPSK), is analyzed. The analysis emphasizes how voice quality deteriorates with increasing system load and determines the maximum acceptable load and minimum acceptable E/sub b//N/sub 0/ for producing acceptable quality voice.
Intelligent tools for environmental tactical decision aids

Tactical decision makers use environmental support systems to determine tactical strategies for global operations. Premission and postmission analyses evaluate performance and provide new strategies for future mission effectiveness. High fidelity on-scene littoral environment descriptions must be available, accessible, and deliverable to mission analysts, combatant platforms, and other mission participants to make prevailing tactical decisions. Knowledge and understanding of dominant variabilities in the littoral environment and their impact on environmental support systems performance and effectiveness are major concerns for tactical decision makers. This paper discusses Coastal Scene Description Project tasks that implement and integrate data assimilation and fusion techniques, expert systems applications, environmental information system visualizations, and shore zone assessments with other tactical oceanography products to create an on-scene state of the environment. >
Affective engagement for facial expressions and emotional scenes: The influence of social anxiety

Pictures of emotional facial expressions or natural scenes are often used as cues in emotion research. We examined the extent to which these different stimuli engage emotion and attention, and whether the presence of social anxiety symptoms influences responding to facial cues. Sixty participants reporting high or low social anxiety viewed pictures of angry, neutral, and happy faces, as well as violent, neutral, and erotic scenes, while skin conductance and event-related potentials were recorded. Acoustic startle probes were presented throughout picture viewing, and blink magnitude, probe P3 and reaction time to the startle probe also were measured. Results indicated that viewing emotional scenes prompted strong reactions in autonomic, central, and reflex measures, whereas pictures of faces were generally weak elicitors of measurable emotional response. However, higher social anxiety was associated with modest electrodermal changes when viewing angry faces and mild startle potentiation when viewing either angry or smiling faces, compared to neutral. Taken together, pictures of facial expressions do not strongly engage fundamental affective reactions, but these cues appeared to be effective in distinguishing between high and low social anxiety participants, supporting their use in anxiety research.
Systematic review of the neotropical shovelnose catfish genus Sorubim Cuvier (Siluriformes: Pimelodidae)

The genus Sorubim Cuvier, 1829, and two species, S . lima (Bloch & Schneider 1801) and S . trigonocephalus Miranda- Ribeiro, 1920, are redescribed based on the examination of type material and about 400 non-type specimens from ichthyological collections in Europe and North and South America. The five species of the genus are, in addition to S. lima and S. trigonocephalus , S. elongatus Littmann, Burr, Schmidt and Isern 2001, found in the Essequibo, Orinoco, and Amazon basins; S. cuspicaudus Littmann, Burr and Nass 2000, occurring in the Sinu, Cauca, and Magdalena rivers of Colombia and the Lago Maracaibo basin of Colombia and Venezuela; and S. maniradii Littmann, Burr and Buitrago-Suarez 2001, known from the upper and middle Amazon basin. Sorubim lima is the widest-ranging species, occurring in most of the major drainage basins of South America. Sorubim trigonocephalus is extremely rare in natural history collections and is currently known from only two major tributaries of the Amazon basin. Three species ( S. maniradii , S. elongatus , and S. lima ) occur syntopically. Species of Sorubim are diagnosed on the basis of body and head shape, differences in fin ray and gill-raker numbers, mental barbel position, and degree of pigmentation of the lateral stripe. At least two of the species ( S. lima and S elongatus ) make up part of the ornamental fish trade and are sold for food in local fish markets in South America. A key to adults of the five species is included.
Impacts of Kentucky bluegrass Invasion (Poa pratensis L.) on Ecological Processes in the Northern Great Plains

On the Ground For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong—H. L. Mencken Ecological impacts of Kentucky bluegrass invasion have gone unrecognized by land managers and researchers alike. Current management practices have contributed to increases in Kentucky bluegrass abundance. Invaded areas have altered the ecological processes of net primary productivity, hydrology, nutrient cycling, and species composition. Increased understanding of ecological processes and feedback mechanisms of invaded areas will allow managers to develop appropriate adaptive management strategies.
Using the Wii to Improve Balance in Older Adults: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACTAims: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Wii at improving balance in older adults without documented neurologic or orthopedic deficits. Methods: A thorough investigation of the CINAHL Plus with Full Text, ProQuest Medical Library, and SPORTDiscus with Full Text databases was completed. The search terms utilized while analyzing the databases were “Wii” AND “randomized” AND “balance” OR “postural control” AND “elderly” OR “older adults”. Results: Eight studies were included in the qualitative analysis. Participants in the Wii therapy groups generally demonstrated more improvement in postural control compared to participants in the control groups. Although there were no significant differences in postural control between the Wii therapy groups and the conventional therapy groups following the respective intervention, the Wii participants generally expressed greater enjoyment, interest, and motivation. Conclusions: Wii balance training may be considered an ...
The Economic Crisis - Challenge or Opportunity for Gender Equality in Social Policy Outcomes?: A Comparison of Denmark, Germany and the UK

This new working paper aims to assess the impact of the current financial and economic crisis on gender equality in terms of labour market and welfare outcomes. This paper undertakes an in-depth examination of three European countries with differing welfare state configurations and different prevailing gender regimes: Denmark (universal bread-winner model), Germany and the United Kingdom (dual earner/female part-time carer).
Ethics (Web Chapter)

This is a chapter on ethics, that will be a supplementary part of my introductory corporate finance textbook. The chapter seeks to ask interesting questions and to provoke students. These questions asked have no clear answers and are generally not politically correct. The chapter can serve as the basis for a class session or as the basis for an entire class.The chapter is 'not' representative of the remainder of the book (freely readable online). However, I believe that the subject is important - and too often simply ignored by us finance professors - so this chapter will remain freely available.
Blind super-resolution of sparse spike signals

In many applications, the observations can be modeled as a linear combination of a small number of scaled and shifted copies of a bandlimited point spread function, either determined by the nature or designed by the users. Examples include neural spike trains, returns in radar and sonar, images in astronomy and single-molecule microscopy, etc. It is of great interest to resolve the spike signal as accurate as possible from the observation. When the point spread function is assumed unknown, this problem is terribly ill-posed. This paper proposes a convex optimization framework based on minimization of the atomic norm for jointly spectrally-sparse ensembles to simultaneously estimate the point spread function as well as the spike signal with provable performance guarantees, by mildly constraining the point spread function lies in a known low-dimensional subspace with an unknown orientation. Numerical examples are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Program Directors' Perceptions of Professional Bachelor's Athletic Training Student Decisions to Persist and Depart

Context: Recent literature has focused on reasons for athletic training student persistence and departure. However, accredited professional bachelor's athletic training program (ATP) directors' opi...
Continuous polymer nanocoating on silica nanoparticles.

Continuous polymer coating of nanoparticles is of interest in many industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, and electronics. Here we introduce a polymer coating/precipitation technique to achieve a uniform and controllable nanosize polymer coating on nanoparticles in a continuous manner. The utility of this technique is demonstrated by coating Aerosil silica nanoparticles (SNPs) of diameter 12 nm with the polymer Eudragit RL 100. Both hydrophilic and hydrophobic SNPs were successfully coated. After determining the cloud point of an acetone solution of the polymer containing a controlled amount of the nonsolvent water, the solid hollow fiber cooling crystallization (SHFCC) technique was employed to continuously coat SNPs with the polymer. A suspension of the SNPs in an acetone–water solution of the polymer containing a surfactant was pumped through the lumen of solid polypropylene hollow fibers in a SHFCC device; cold liquid was circulated on the shell side. Because of rapid cooling-induced sup...
Genetic Analysis of Culex pipiens Populations in the Central Valley of California

In the Central Valley of California two subspecies of the mosquito Culex pipiens exist— C. p. quinquefasciatus in the warm southern regions and C. p. pipiens in cooler northern regions. The criterion used to distinguish subspecies is a measurement of the male genitalia, the DV/D ratio. The geography of the Central Valley causes a unique temperature pattern which is not a simple south-north gradient. Based on DV/D measurements, the subspecies of C. pipiens track this unique temperature gradient. Three of 10 allozyme loci had electrophoretically detectable alleles which paralleled the morphological cline. One of the three (Pgm) exhibited a cline which reversed at the same point where the temperature and DV/D reverse, i.e., just north of Sacramento. Further analysis revealed that the genes controlling DV/D are independent of Pgm . It seems likely that natural selection directly or indirectly affects Pgm allele frequencies. Some populations along the cline contained males which ranged in their DV/D from C. p. quinquefasciatus to C. p. pipiens with up to 50% intermediate between the usual criterion separating the subspecies. We concluded that these intermediate populations, possibly of hybrid origin, are stable, freely interbreeding units. This last conclusion has important implications for the systematic status of intermediate groups of the C. pipiens complex found elsewhere in the world.
What should the GP tell the mother of a cross-eyed child?

The general practitioner must be aware of the fears of the mother of a cross-eyed child. He should emphasize that cross-eyed children develop, learn and perform normally. When a deviation is present, early referral is important. The mother should be assured that in most cases cross-eye is correctable.
Consistency versus Responsiveness: Do Members of Congress Change Positions on Specific Issues in Response to Their Districts?

While democratic theory suggests that representatives should be willing to adjust their issue positions to adapt to new circumstances, politicians face serious political risks from “flip flopping.”...
European funds in Brussels: from principles to practices

The present article focuses on the way in which the Brussels Region uses European Structural Funds – in particular the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – in view of carrying out several economic and social projects in its territory. It attempts to analyse the evolution of ERDF programmes in Brussels from 2000 to 2013 and takes a critical look at the so-called “regional policy” in this area. The latter is having a hard time getting through the institutional barriers and is characterised by strong inequalities between stakeholders – during the elaboration of programmes as well as in the implementation of projects – despite approaches based on partnership and integration which characterise the European Funds. By taking the European Funds in Brussels as an example, this article examines the logic of “concrete public action”, between strategic policy and incremental process, and between formal procedures and the concrete practices of stakeholders.
1/2 CREEP FRACTURE IN CERAMIC POLYCRYSTALS I. CREEP CAVITATION EFFECTS IN POLYCRYSTALLINE ALUMINA

Fine grained polycrystalline alumina has been deformed in creep at high temperatures, to examine the evolution of cavities at grain boundaries. Cavities with equilibrium and crack-like morphologies have been observed, distributed non-uniformly throughout the material. The role of cavities during creep has been described. A transition from equilibrium to crack-like morphology has been observed and correlated with a model based on the influence of the surface to boundary diffusivity ratio and the local tensile stress. The contribution of cavitation to the creep rate and total creep strain has been analyzed and excluded as the principal cause of the observed non-linear creep rate,
Utilizing Concurrency: A New Theory for Memory Wall

In addition to locality, data access concurrency has emerged as a pillar factor of memory performance. In this research, we introduce a concurrency-aware solution, the memory Sluice Gate Theory, for solving the outstanding memory wall problem. Sluice gates are designed to control data transfer at each memory layer dynamically, and a global control algorithm, named layered performance matching, is developed to match the data transfer request/supply at each memory layer thus matching the overall performance between the CPU and memory system. Formal theoretical analyses are given to show, with sufficient data access concurrency and hardware support, the memory wall impact can be reduced to the minimum. Experimental testing is conducted which confirm the theoretical findings.
The Impact of Therapeutic Antibodies on the Management of Digestive Diseases: History, Current Practice, and Future Directions

The development of therapeutic antibodies represents a revolutionary change in medical therapy for digestive diseases. Beginning with the initial studies that confirmed the pathogenicity of cytokines in inflammatory bowel disease, the development and application of therapeutic antibodies brought challenges and insights into their potential and optimal use. Infliximab was the first biological drug approved for use in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The lessons learned from infliximab include the importance of immunogenicity and the influence of pharmacokinetics on disease response and outcomes. Building on this foundation, other therapeutic antibodies achieved approval for inflammatory bowel disease and many more are in development for several digestive diseases. In this review, we reflect on the history of therapeutic antibodies and discuss current practice and future directions for the field.
IMPACT OF MEDICAL LIABILITY REFORM ON CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE TESTING AND INTERVENTION

Background: Physicians often report practicing “defensive medicine,” including ordering marginally beneficial tests and interventions to reduce their malpractice liability risk. Yet, most economic studies find no decrease in spending after malpractice reform. Methods: This study uses a random 5
Abstract 336: Conservation of Cardiac L-type Ca2+ Channels and Their Modulation in Drosophila: a Novel Genetically Pliable Channelopathic Model

Misregulation of L-type Ca 2+ channels (LTCCs) underlies numerous cardiac pathologies. For example, heart failure features blunted protein kinase A (PKA) upregulation of the LTCCs. However, studying LTCC regulation in mammalian systems is challenging due to complex physiology and lack of genetic manipulability while recombinant channels expressed in heterologous systems, which lack key auxiliary elements, poorly represent the native context. Drosophila , however, has a simple heart with many conserved genes and is genetically pliable. Thus, we pinpointed the signature of Ca 2+ channels (CCs) in the fly cardiac tubes. First, RNAi-mediated selective knockdown of Dmca1D, homologous to the human LTCCs, abolished cardiac contraction (B, as compared to ctrl in A), establishing this channel isoform as the primary CC in fly hearts. Second, we successfully isolated viable single fly cardiomyocytes (C, inset) and recorded robust Ca 2+ currents using patch clamp electrophysiology (C), a feat never before accomplished for the fly cardiac system. Moreover, recording Ca 2+ currents in distinct hypomorphic CC lines, we confirmed the CC type in the fly heart. We also observed pharmacological responses of the CCs that were strikingly similar to those seen in humans. Current through Dmca1D is blocked by a dihydropiridine, nifedipine (C), and is readily upregulated by forskolin, a downstream activator of the PKA pathway (C). In all, we have established the existence of a conserved compendium of cardiac CCs in fly heart tubes, suggesting that Drosophila may serve as a robust and effective platform to study the pathophysiology of diseases involving cardiac CCs and to devise therapeutic strategies.
Distinguishing Active Site Characteristics of Chlorite Dismutases with Their Cyanide Complexes

O2-evolving chlorite dismutases (Clds) efficiently convert chlorite (ClO2–) to O2 and Cl–. Dechloromonas aromatica Cld (DaCld) is a highly active chlorite-decomposing homopentameric enzyme, typical of Clds found in perchlorate- and chlorate-respiring bacteria. The Gram-negative, human pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae contains a homodimeric Cld (KpCld) that also decomposes ClO2–, albeit with an activity 10-fold lower and a turnover number lower than those of DaCld. The interactions between the distal pocket and heme ligand of the DaCld and KpCld active sites have been probed via kinetic, thermodynamic, and spectroscopic behaviors of their cyanide complexes for insight into active site characteristics that are deterministic for chlorite decomposition. At 4.7 × 10–9 M, the KD for the KpCld–CN– complex is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than that of DaCld–CN– and indicates an affinity for CN– that is greater than that of most heme proteins. The difference in CN– affinity between Kp- and DaClds is predominantly du...
Advanced ovarian cancer treated in pregnancy and detected by cell-free DNA aneuploidy screening.

Cancer affects approximately one in 1000 pregnancies. Three to six percent of antepartum adnexal masses typically detected during routine obstetrical ultrasounds are malignant. Germ cell ovarian malignancies are most common, followed by stromal and epithelial cancers (Cordeiro & Gemignani, 2017). About one third of women have extra-ovarian spread at diagnosis (Blake et al., 2015). As more women delay childbearing, the incidence of ovarian cancer in pregnancy may increase. This warrants greater understanding of the optimal treatment of this complex condition. Additionally, the utilization of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) screening for fetal aneuploidy has dramatically increased among women over 34. Careful interpretation of test results is of utmost importance, as false positive abnormal fetal aneuploidy screening results can signify occult malignancy. Here, we present a case of high grade serous ovarian cancer detected by cfDNA fetal aneuploidy screening six weeks prior to the clinical diagnosis of stage IVA disease.
Basic Concepts in Functional Biomechanics

Biomechanics is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes principles of mechanics applied to the human body in order to improve treatment of musculoskeletal injuries. Four basic topic areas of biomechanics will be explored in this chapter and include statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, and applications.
Range of Peak Head Velocity in Video Head Impulse Testing for Pediatric Patients.

Objective To examine peak head velocity in video head impulse testing of pediatric patients and its effect on vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain. Study design Retrospective case review. Setting Tertiary referral center. Patients Pediatric patients ages 3 to 18 years old who underwent video head impulse testing during clinical evaluation of dizziness and/or imbalance. Intervention(s) Conducted video head impulse test (vHIT) in horizontal, left anterior-right posterior (LARP), and right anterior-left posterior (RALP) planes. Main outcome measure(s) Peak head velocity and mean VOR gain for individual semicircular canals in different age groups. Results For the horizontal plane, vHIT peak head velocity greater than 150 degrees/s was achieved in 43 to 63% of 219 patients. In contrast, vHIT peak head velocity greater than 150 degrees/s was achieved in only 3 to 14% for the LARP and RALP planes. Analyses of differences in mean VOR gains among three ranges of peak head velocity (100-125 degrees/s, 126-150 degrees/s, and >150 degrees/s) by paired-t tests were not significant (p > 0.05) within individual patients. Mean VOR gains of three vertical canals in younger patients were significantly lower with higher peak head velocities compared with older children (p Conclusions Peak head velocities of greater than 150 degrees/s may not be feasible in a large proportion of children and adolescents, especially in LARP and RALP planes. However, such high velocities may not be necessary in the pediatric population since VOR gain values obtained at lower peak head velocities of 100 to 150 degrees/s were found to be comparable to those observed at higher velocities.
Hegel’s Concepts of Necessity

Permit me to begin with an autobiographical note. Early in my philosophical studies in Gottingen, Nicolai Hartmann brought home to me the importance of studying the modalities, and also the need for unraveling the many different senses in which the modal categories are used without adequately keeping them apart. In his modal theory, Hartmann returned as much to Stoic logic as to Hegel.1 Much later in life, when I began to read and teach Hegel’s Phenomenology, I was struck by the fact that while Hegel intends the series of “shapes” of spirit he portrays to be a necessary sequence, the precise sense of that necessity remains unthematised. I felt certain that the necessity of the sequence could not be logical, for other sequences, slight deviations in that sequence, for example, were quite possible and easily conceivable. And yet I was willing to concede that there must be some sense of ‘necessity’ in which Hegel was right. The third remark is this: one hears ad nauseam that, on Hegel’s view, world and history are determined by the “bloodless categories” of his logic, that in this necessary framework there is no room for freedom, for the accidental, the contingent and the unpredictable (the only freedom that is possible being recognition of necessity). And yet I felt certain that this could not be Hegel’s view — not only in the Phenomenology but also in the Logic. (Much later, this conviction was confirmed by Dieter Henrich’s essay on the place of Zufall in Hegel’s thought2, in which Henrich shows not only that Hegel’s system makes room for Zufall, but that only Hegel’s system can do that.) In the following I make an attempt arising from these concerns to think through Hegel’s concept of necessity.
Computer-Controlled X-Ray and Neutron Diffraction Experiments

The use of on-line computers for control and acquisition of data from x-ray and neutron diffractometers has continuously improved and expanded. Systems vary from a small 4K core computer to a time-sharing system with a medium or large computer. The choice of a single time-shared computer or an individual standalone system must be based on one’s own particular environment. As large high-speed electronic computers became available, increasingly complex chemical and magnetic structures have been analyzed and solved; this has created a demand for rapid, reliable, and versatile means of obtaining diffraction data. Since small computers have been developed at reduced cost and with increased storage capacity, they must be considered for use in diffraction experimentation. Therefore, in x-ray and neutron scattering, small computers are needed for data acquisition and large computers are needed for data analysis.
Relative Pose Estimation using Range-only Measurements with Large Initial Uncertainty

In this paper, a relative frame localization problem is addressed for pairs of vehicles with significant initial pose uncertainties. A relative frame Extended Kalman filter (EKF) is developed for the case where vehicles share odometry (body-frame delta position values), and are capable of getting inter-vehicle range measurements. The extended Kalman filter is not robust to large initial errors in this nonlinear system, therefore a Multi-Hypothesis approach is used to accommodate the unknown, up to approximate range, initial relative pose (relative position and orientation). This formulation provides a lightweight and robust relative initialization approach that identifies an accurate relative pose and would be appropriate for relative guidance, initialization of more complex (multi-vehicle) navigation approaches, or shared, synthetic aperture-like measurement processing. Results are presented for both simulated and hardware implementations of the filter.
Subsampling to Enhance Efficiency in Input Uncertainty Quantification

In stochastic simulation, input uncertainty refers to the output variability arising from the statistical noise in specifying the input models. This uncertainty can be measured by a variance contribution in the output, which, in the nonparametric setting, is commonly estimated via the bootstrap. However, due to the convolution of the simulation noise and the input noise, the bootstrap consists of a two-layer sampling and typically requires substantial simulation effort. This paper investigates a subsampling framework to reduce the required effort, by leveraging the form of the variance and its estimation error in terms of the data size and the sampling requirement in each layer. We show how the total required effort can be reduced from an order bigger than the data size in the conventional approach to an order independent of the data size in subsampling. We explicitly identify the procedural specifications in our framework that guarantee relative consistency in the estimation, and the corresponding optimal simulation budget allocations. We substantiate our theoretical results with numerical examples.
Threat-related attention bias in socioemotional development: A critical review and methodological considerations

Cross-sectional evidence suggests that attention bias to threat is linked to anxiety disorders and anxiety vulnerability in both children and adults. However, there is a lack of developmental evidence regarding the causal mechanisms through which attention bias to threat might convey risks for socioemotional problems, such as anxiety. Gaining insights into this question demands longitudinal research to track the complex interplay between threat-related attention and socioemotional functioning. Developing and implementing reliable and valid assessments tools is essential to this line of work. This review presents theoretical accounts and empirical evidence from behavioral, eye-tracking, and neural assessments of attention to discuss our current understanding of the development of normative threat-related attention in infancy, as well as maladaptive threat-related attention patterns that may be associated with the development of anxiety. This review highlights the importance of measuring threat-related attention using multiple attention paradigms at multiple levels of analysis. In order to understand if and how threat-related attention bias in real-life, social interactive contexts can predict socioemotional development outcomes, this review proposes that future research cannot solely rely on screen-based paradigms but needs to extend the assessment of threat-related attention to naturalistic settings. Mobile eye-tracking technology provides an effective tool for capturing threat-related attention processes in vivo as children navigate fear-eliciting environments and may help us uncover more proximal bio-psycho-behavioral markers of anxiety.
PULMONARY EMBOLISM RESPONSE TEAM IMPLEMENTATION IMPROVES AWARENESS AND EDUCATION AMONG THE HOUSE STAFF

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a heterogenous group, who present a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) was established to standardize care of acute PE. The impact of PERT on house staff education is not known We conducted an anonymous survey among the house
Designing a “Thinking System” to Reduce the Human Burden of Care Delivery

Cancer patients interact with clinicians who are distributed across locations and organizations. This makes it difficult to coordinate care and adds to the burden of cancer care delivery. Failures in care coordination can harm patients. The rapid growth in the number of cancer survivors and the increasing complexity of cancer care has kindled an interest in new care delivery models. Information technology (IT) is an important component of care delivery. While IT can potentially enhance collaborative work among people distributed across locations, organizations and time, the current design and implementation of health IT adds to the human burden and often makes it a part of the problem instead of the solution. A new paradigm is needed, therefore, to drive innovations that reframe health IT as an enabler (and a component) of a “thinking system,” in which patients, caregivers, and clinicians, even when distributed across locations and time, can collaborate to deliver high-quality care while decreasing the burden of care delivery. In a thinking system, the design of collaborative work in health care delivery is based on an understanding of complex interplay among social and technological components. We propose six core design properties for a thinking system: task coordination; information curation; creative and flexible organizing; establishing a common ground; continuity and connection; and co-production. A thinking system is needed to address the complexity of coordination, meet the rising expectation of personalized care, relieve the human burden in care delivery, and to deliver the best quality care that modern science can provide.
Count Your Blessings.

Count Your Blessings Thanks to Sidney Farber and others like him, 4-year-old Avery has good odds of surviving her leukemia. But more 1-to-4-year-olds in the United States are murdered every year th...
Introduction to the special issue on human rights in higher education

In recent decades, the interdisciplinary field of human rights studies has blossomed. Research on all aspects of human rights has proliferated across a wide range of academic fields, including the ...
Computed tomography imaging characteristics of canine nasal chondrosarcoma.

Objectives To describe the CT appearance of canine nasal chondrosarcoma and compare calcification patterns with those described in humans. Materials and methods CT examinations of dogs with biopsy-confirmed nasal chondrosarcoma were retrospectively reviewed and evaluated, including description of calcification patterns. Results Major findings are consistent with the previously described CT appearance of canine nasal tumours. Additionally, calcification patterns described as features of human nasal chondrosarcomas were also identified. Clinical significance Findings may help prioritise differential lists of destructive nasal masses seen on CT in dogs.
Yesterday's Contemporaneity: Finding Temporality in the Past

Editorial Statement for volume eight of Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture.
The Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice

The Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice The full health implications of the climate crisis may be more immense and insidious than we have imagined. Although dedicated climate and health research i...
Criminalization, legal moralism, and abolition

A statement like ‘a person who commits a crime can be prosecuted, convicted, and punished by the government’ is comprehensible only with a host of assumptions, each of which may be questioned. For ...
Double diversity optical coherence tomography

This article provides theoretical analysis for a new generation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanners to overcome some main limitations of the technology. In the new design, exposure and d...