cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nanoscale obstacle arrays frustrate transport of EphA2-Ephrin-A1 clusters in cancer cell lines.

Juxtacrine signaling interactions between the EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase and its ephrin-A1 ligand contribute to healthy tissue maintenance and misregulation of this system is observed in at least 40% of human breast cancer. Hybrid live cell–supported membrane experiments in which membrane-linked ephrin-A1 displayed in supported membranes interacts with EphA2 in living cells have revealed large scale clustering of EphA2/ephrin-A1 complexes as well as their lateral transport across the cell surface during triggering. Here, we utilize 100 nm spaced hexagonally ordered arrays of gold nanodots embedded within supported membranes to present defined obstacles to the movement and assembly of EphA2 clusters. By functionalizing both the supported membrane and the nanodots with ephrin-A1, we perform a type of affinity chromatography on EphA2 signaling clusters in live cell membranes. Analysis of 10 different breast cancer cell lines reveals that EphA2 transport is most frustrated by nanodot arrays in the most di...
A Systematic Approach to Integral Snap-Fit Attachment Design

Traditional integral snap-fit attachment design focuses almost exclusively on the individual locking features, such as cantilever hooks, bayonet-fingers, compressive hooks and others. The positioning and orientation of other significant features on parts, such as those that facilitate or enhance engagement and eliminate unwanted degrees of freedom left by locking features, i.e. locating features and enhancements, are not considered. This paper builds on relatively new methodologies and guidelines for arranging all attachment features on plastic parts comprising snap-fit assembly. Classification of features into categories of locking features, locating features and enhancements of these is used as the basis for discussion. A systematic approach to attachment design is presented.
Effect of polyethylene glycol 4000 on dissolution properties of sulfathiazole polymorphs

The dissolution rates of the two polymorphic forms of sulfathiazole containing polyethylene glycol 4000 were significantly different in water. The effect of agitation on the dissolution rates also was studied. At higher stirring speeds, the dissolution rates of the stable form were affected more than the metastable form. A high concentration of polyethylene glycol 4000 seemed to affect the dissolution properties of the metastable polymorph more than the stable polymorph.
Spectral characteristics of vortex breakdown flowfields

Laser‐Doppler anemometer measurements upstream and in the wakes of vortex breakdowns of bubble and spiral types are described. Spectral analysis of the data indicates prominent oscillations in the wakes at less than 10 Hz. These oscillations correspond closely to theoretical predictions of the linearly most unstable normal modes of the time‐averaged mean flow profiles. The oscillations are more energetic, and vortex core expansions are greater for flows with a bubble form of vortex breakdown, which is therefore regarded as the stronger form of breakdown.
Lessons learned in instrument pilot testing with Mexican American caregivers of elders

Given the fast-growing Mexican American (MA) population, it is common for investigators to be pressured into using Spanish translated instruments developed for English-speaking populations. However, these translated instruments may have limited relevance for data collection without adequate assessment and vetting. The purpose of this paper is to present lessons learned from the pilot testing of instruments designed for use with Mexican Americans. Pilot testing of two instruments was conducted with 22 Mexican American family caregivers of older adults. Issues that emerged were classified into three categories-instrumentation, methodology, and demographic data. Within the area of instrumentation, six issues were identified-level of abstraction, concreteness, pronoun use, clarity, exclusiveness, and response format. Methodological concerns were focused on test-retest administration and inclusion criteria. Issues within the demographic data were concerned with marital status, country of birth, household size and income, and validity of self-rated scales. By addressing those concerns, investigators may be more likely to have culturally sensitive measures and greater generalization to relevant MA populations.
A Mathematical Model of Sickle Cell Genome Frequency in Response to Selective Pressure from Malaria

Because of the relative prevalence of hereditary sickle cell disease and the auxiliary role of the sickle cell gene in reducing the mortality of malaria, it is believed that P. falciparum has exerted selection pressure on human populations to increase the prevalence of this otherwise detrimental gene. A model incorporating three genotypes and two age cohorts is used to test the hypothesis that higher death rates due to malaria can exert selective pressure to increase the prevalence of the sickle cell gene. The model displays selection pressure for the carrier gene in the presence of increasing malaria death rates for either adults or children, showing both higher final frequencies of the gene as well as shortened time to reach these frequencies.
Cryptanalysis of RSA with private key d less than N/sup 0.292/

We show that if the private exponent d used in the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (1978)) public-key cryptosystem is less than N/sup 0.292/ then the system is insecure. This is the first improvement over an old result of Wiener (1990) showing that when d is less than N/sup 0.25/ the RSA system is insecure. We hope our approach can be used to eventually improve the bound to d less than N/sup 0.5/.
Evaluating Communicative Abilities of a Highly Unintelligible Preschooler

Procedures to examine the communication abilities of a highly unintelligible 4-year-old during a 90-minute evaluation session are explained in this article. Phonology, metaphonology, speech rate, stimulability, and receptive language are evaluated formally and informally. A conversational speech sample is used to provide information for assessing intelligibility/understandability, fluency, voice quality, prosody, and mean length of response. Methods for determining treatment goals are discussed in the final section.
Book Review: Repairing the Athlete’s Image: Studies in Sports Image Restoration, edited by Joseph R. Blaney, Lance R. Lippert, and Scott J. Smith

Repairing the Athlete's Image: Studies in Sports Image Restoration. Joseph R. Blaney, Lance R. Lippert, and Scott J. Smith, eds. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2013. 415 pp. $85 hbk.Repairing the Athlete's Image will intrigue the multiple groups interested in the relationship between the media and the sports industry. Whether you are an educator, journalist, public relations practitioner, or in a position of responsibility within a sports organization, this text has something for you.Edited by Joe Blaney, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of communication at Illinois State University, Lance Lippert, associate professor of communication at ISU, and J. Scott Smith, a PhD student at the University of Missouri, Repairing the Athlete's Image identifies examples where athletes, coaches, or organizations disgraced themselves and then sought to restore their image through words and actions. More than one-dozen case studies (almost all involving Americans) dominate the text.Most of the authors who wrote the case studies employed Benoit's image restoration theory as they reviewed attempts at image rehabilitation. Summarizing briefly, Benoit suggests individuals needing to restore a public image have a variety of strategies available. They include denial, evasion of responsibility, reducing the offensiveness of the act(s), planned corrective actions, and mortification. This book reinforces that none of these strategies is guaranteed effective in every situation and that more than one needs to be used when reputations are damaged.My principal criticism of the book is that too many essays are thin, and therefore lack some combination of literature reviews, methodologies, identifiable research questions or hypotheses, or firm conclusions. This concern especially is evident in some of the initial chapters, which examine how selected athletes sought to salvage their professional identities after being linked to drug use or marital infidelity. For example, incorporating the first three chapters (all involving baseball players linked to steroids) into a single essay and including the missing items identified at the beginning of this paragraph would have made for a stronger presentation. At minimum, the strategies employed by the athletes and their effectiveness could have been compared, thus improving on the three standalone essays.I found the essay titled "Celebrating Spectator Sports in America: The Centrality of Press Conferences and Media Interviews to Sports Image Repair" to be the most important. Written by Peter Smudde and Jeffrey Courtright, the chapter explores how press conferences and one-on-one media interviews must be employed by anyone attempting to re-establish a positive identity or brand. …
Role of Free Flaps in the Management of Craniofacial Neurofibromatosis: Soft Tissue Coverage and Attempted Facial Reanimation

o o p Neurofibromatosis (NF) is a rare inherited disorder occurring in 1 of 3,000 births. Although NF has been previously classified into 9 different categories, the 3 main forms are neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2), and schwannomatosis. Ninety ercent of cases of NF are NF1 (von Recklinghausen isease). Histologically, the disease shows proliferaion of peripheral nerve elements (Schwann cells, erineural cells, fibroblasts), which are of neural crest rigin. The disease is inherited in an autosomal domnant pattern, with complete penetrance and variable xpressivity. The gene for NF1 is located on the long rm of chromosome 17. NF progresses slowly and irregularly, with accelerations noted during puberty and pregnancy. Tumors may initially appear at birth r at puberty and continue to develop through adultood. The head and neck are involved in 3% to 7% of all F cases. Similarly, craniofacial neurofibromatosis CN) is almost universally NF1 and commonly of the
Intuition and innumeracy.

The editors of Cell Biology Education requested a perspective on the math that biologists should know. As it happens, Science magazine just provided such perspective, superbly, when it published on Feburary 4 a number of thoughtful articles on math and biology. One, by Bialek and Botstein (2004) , describes what would amount to comprehensive curriculum reforms to better integrate mathematics into the teaching of undergraduate biology and biology into the teaching of natural sciences and math. Another, by May (2004) , covers some of the dangers practicing biologists face when attempting to use computational methods without a good understanding of the underlying mathematics. Here, I take those two articles as the starting context and raise only a few additional points. I argue that, even for biologists who lack mathematical skills, replacement of what is in some cases near–functional innumeracy with a better intuition about math and computers is possible and that doing so could have significant positive effects. I also make the case that significant gains in biological understanding may come from biologists taking onboard Twentieth-Century formalisms not now part of the canon of undergraduate mathematics.
Role of histone deacetylase Rpd3 in regulating rRNA gene transcription and nucleolar structure in yeast.

The 35S rRNA genes at the RDN1 locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be transcribed by RNA polymerase (Pol) II in addition to Pol I, but Pol II transcription is usually silenced. The deletion of RRN9 encoding an essential subunit of the Pol I transcription factor, upstream activation factor, is known to abolish Pol I transcription and derepress Pol II transcription of rRNA genes, giving rise to polymerase switched (PSW) variants. We found that deletion of histone deacetylase gene RPD3 inhibits the appearance of PSW variants in rrn9 deletion mutants. This inhibition can be explained by the observed specific inhibition of Pol II transcription of rRNA genes by the rpd3Δ mutation. We propose that Rpd3 plays a role in the maintenance of an rRNA gene chromatin structure(s) that allows Pol II transcription of rRNA genes, which may explain the apparently paradoxical previous observation that rpd3 mutations increase, rather than decrease, silencing of reporter Pol II genes inserted in rRNA genes. We have additionally demonstrated that Rpd3 is not required for inhibition of Pol I transcription by rapamycin, supporting the model that Tor-dependent repression of the active form of rRNA genes during entry into stationary phase is Rpd3 independent.
Time-Resolved UV-Visible Studies of Rhodopsin Provide Experimental Test of Flexible Surface Model for Lipid-Protein Interactions

Time-resolved UV/Visible absorbance of the retinal chromophore of rhodopsin [1] delivers vital information about key GPCR activation steps in a membrane lipid environment [2]. Following rhodopsin photoexcitation, a minimum of four intermediates equilibrate on the millisecond-time scale [2,3]. The first equilibrium is between the protonated Schiff base (PSB) species Meta I480 and the deprotonated SB species Meta IIa and is pH independent. A second equilibrium entails spectrally silent conversion of Meta IIa to the Meta IIb substate. The final step is protonation of Glu134 of the ERY sequence in Meta IIb to yield Meta IIbH+ whose pKa characterizes the acid-base equilibrium [3]. Absorbance measurements on the microsecond-to-hundred millisecond-time scale allowed us to study effects of POPC, DOPC, or DOPC/DOPE mixtures on the first equilibrium constant K1 and on the pKa of the final equilibrium. Results were analyzed by singular-value decomposition and were fit by a linear combination of temperature-dependent basis spectra. Notably an increase in K1 was discovered due to either PE head groups or increased acyl chain unsaturation, whereas little change in pKawas evident. According to the flexible-surface model (FSM) rhodopsin becomes a sensor of negative spontaneous (intrinsic) curvature upon light activation [4]. Competition between the curvature elastic energy and the hydrophobic mismatch at the proteolipid boundary explains the influences of lipid-protein interactions [4]. Both the lipid acyl chains and polar head groups affect the Meta I-Meta II transition, revealing how protein energetics are affected by material properties of the lipid bilayer.[1] A.V. Struts et al. (2011) Nature Struct. Mol. Biol. 18, 392-394.[2] J. Epps et al. (2006) Photochem. Photobiol. 82, 1436-1441.[3] M. Mahalingam et al. (2008) PNAS 105 17795-17800.[4] A. V. Botelho et al. (2006) Biophys. J. 91, 4464-4477.
Implementation of adaptive grain signatures for transactional memories

Hardware signatures for Transactional Memory (TM) systems have been proposed as an efficient mechanism for conflict detection, an essential element in TM for maintaining correctness. A signature misses no conflicts, but could falsely declare conflicts even when no true conflict exists (false positives). In this paper, we show that some false positives can be helpful to the performance by triggering the early abortion of a transaction which would encounter a true conflict later anyway. We propose an adaptive grain signature to improve TM performance by dynamically changing the range of address keys based on the history. With architecture-level simulation and Verilog HDL implementation, we demonstrate that a TM system with our design frequently outperforms baseline TM systems, with marginal area overhead.
Gene Networks and Metacommunities: Dispersal Differences Can Override Adaptive Advantage

Dispersal is an important mechanism contributing to both ecological and evolutionary dynamics. In metapopulation and metacommunity ecology, dispersal enables new patches to be colonized; in evolution, dispersal counter-acts local selection, leading to regional homogenization. Here, I consider a three-patch metacommunity in which two species, each with a limiting quantitative trait underlain by gene networks of 16 to 256 genes, compete with one another and disperse among patches. Incorporating dispersal among heterogeneous patches introduces a tradeoff not observed in single-patch simulations: if the difference between gene network size of the two species is greater than the difference in dispersal ability (e.g., if the ratio of network sizes is larger than the ratio of dispersal abilities), then genetic architecture drives community outcome. However, if the difference in dispersal abilities is greater than gene network differences, then any adaptive advantages afforded by genetic architecture are over-ridden by dispersal. Thus, in addition to the selective pressures imposed by competition that shape the genetic architecture of quantitative traits, dispersal among patches creates an escape that may further alter the effects of different genetic architectures. These results provide a theoretical expectation for what we may observe as the field of ecological genomics develops.
LIPID METABOLISM IN EXPERIMENTAL PANCREATIC DIABETES II. THE BLOOD AND LIVER LIPIDSOF DOGS FED DURING TOTAL INSULIN DEPRIVATION1

THE OBSERVATION THAT the pancreas contains, besides insulin, a factor (or fac-tors) controlling lipid metabolism of blood and liver made necessary a reinves-tigation of the lipid changes that are to be ascribed to the absence of the anti-diabetic hormone per se. It was previously shown that no rise need occur in the cholesterol, phospholipids or fatty acids of the blood when depancreatized dogs re-ceive no insulin during the fasting state. Indeed, in those dogs in which a high lipid level had been established before cessation of insulin treatments, a fall in the concen-tration of alj lipid constituents followed the withdrawal of both food and insulin. The present study deals with the blood lipid changes resulting from insulin depriva-tion during nutritional states in which diets were fed containing a) raw pancreas and b) meat, but none of the glandular tissue.
Measurements of wave processes in isotropic and transversely isotropic elastic rocks

Abstract An experimental investigation was conducted to study wave processes in the interior of a large block of Bedford limestone modelling an isotropic half-space, and both in the interior and near the surface of two blocks of Colorado Yule marble representing a transversely isotropic half-space with the axis of elastic symmetry lying in planes parallel to the free surface. The blocks were loaded normal to the free surface by the transmission of pulses through an aluminum bar subjected on its distal end to central longitudinal impact of steel spheres projected from an air gun. The input pulse was monitored by an X-cut quartz crystal sandwiched between the rock surface and the loading bar, while the pulse propagation in the blocks was detected and recorded by specially designed embedded transducers. These consisted of PZT ceramic crystals mounted on the end of magnesium bars that were inserted into core-drilled holes and anchored with a mixture of aluminum oxide powder and epoxy. The normal stress components detected by these devices were compared with the predictions of a finite element method at stations near the impact point, and with those of an integral transform solution at more distant positions; satisfactory correspondence was found to exist in almost all instances. The body and surface wave measurements were also utilized to determine the five independent elastic constants of Yule marble required for the theoretical analyses. The values were determined by means of a least square approximation procedure and a minimization of an objective function derived from the phase velocity equation for a transversely isotropic material, subject to certain constraints. The results were found to be intermediate to two other sets of previously measured parameters for this material.
Human dignity in concept and practice

Dignity seems to be something that virtually all people want. It is a seminal expression of the human experience that gains authority through the convergent demands of people worldwide. Even so, the human dignity concept is in unhelpful disarray. Dignity is variously viewed as an antecedent, a consequence, a value, a principle, and an experience, from philosophical, legal, pragmatic, psychological, behavioral, and cultural perspectives. We ask which if any of these human dignity concepts will likely serve our global common interests best, as both common ground and policy diagnostic? We examine four broad themes: dignity as (1) a metaphysical justification for human rights and duties, (2) virtuous comportment or behavior, (3) a perspective of “other,” and (4) a subjective experience of the individual, contingent on a broad and equitable sharing of values. We recommend viewing dignity as a commonwealth of individually assessed well-being, shaped by relationships with others, affected by the physical world, and framed in terms of values. Viewed this way, the idea of dignity accommodates the priorities of both individualistic and communitarian cultures. Conceiving of human dignity as a commonwealth of subjectively experienced value production and enjoyment has many practical policy implications.
Perioperative care in functional endoscopic sinus surgery: a survey study

Background: Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) is largely viewed as the standard of care in the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) refractory to medical treatment. While there is an understanding regarding the importance of some form of routine postoperative FESS care, no consensus currently exists regarding what the specific management routine should include. The authors of this survey study did not intend to examine the efficacy of such treatment protocols, but rather to determine and report on the current practice patterns of perioperative FESS care among otolaryngologists. Methods: This survey study was designed in accordance with and approved by our institutional review board. The online-based survey was designed using the online product SurveyMonkey®. A total of 859 otolaryngologists were identified and email addresses were obtained from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) website directory. Responses were collected anonymously. Results: Our survey response rate was 32%. Multiple parameters of the otolaryngologists' perioperative care were collected. Among the data, some consistent patterns emerged: 93.2% of respondents use nasal saline irrigations postoperatively; 86.8% of otolaryngologists surveyed prescribe antibiotics in the immediate postoperative period; and office-based endoscopic sinus debridements are performed by a majority (87.9%) of those surveyed. Conclusion: This survey study demonstrates that current practices in perioperative FESS care can vary widely among otolaryngologists, and are not uniformly based on evidence-based outcomes research. Despite the lack of absolutes regarding the specific perioperative care in FESS, practice patterns emerge from the data regarding typical perioperative management among current otolaryngologists. © 2011 ARS-AAOA, LLC.
Microfluidic transendothelial electrical resistance measurement device that enables blood flow and postgrowth experiments.

Transendothelial electronic resistance (TEER) measurements are performed across a cell layer immobilized on a microfluidic device that also enables the cell layer to interact with a flowing stream of red blood cells (RBCs). A bipolar pulsed square wave potential is applied across a monolayer of bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells, and the resulting current response is measured and integrated. The overall impedance of the cell layer provides an indicator of cell layer integrity. After cell seeding on the device, a decrease in TEER signal from 22.3 ± 1.6 μC to 3.5 ± 0.4 μC (corresponding to a resistance of 40.9 ± 2.9 Ω·cm2 to 259.1 ± 27.4 Ω·cm2) was observed after 8 h of cell growth. Intracellular nitric oxide (NO) production by the immobilized endothelial cells that had reached confluence was 34% higher than those cells that had not reached confluence, as indicated by the integrated TEER system. Importantly, this NO production by the confluent endothelium was stimulated by ATP released from RBCs flow...
Nonlinear ultrasonic assessment of precipitation hardening in ASTM A710 steel

We investigated several specimens of ASTM A710 steel containing copper-rich precipitates with variations in the final aging treatment. X-ray diffraction line-broadening and small-angle neutron-scattering experiments revealed the existence of the precipitates and associated coherency strain. We determined the nonlinear ultrasonic parameter β for each specimen by harmonic-generation experiments and measured the ultrasonic longitudinal velocity vL and attenuation αL. Although vL and aL showed no consistent trends, β increased with increasing strain. This correlation is compared to a microstructural model for harmonic generation that includes a contribution from precipitate-inned dislocations.
Semantic role labeling using dependency trees

In this paper, a novel semantic role labeler based on dependency trees is developed. This is accomplished by formulating the semantic role labeling as a classification problem of dependency relations into one of several semantic roles. A dependency tree is created from a constituency parse of an input sentence. The dependency tree is then linearized into a sequence of dependency relations. A number of features are extracted for each dependency relation using a predefined linguistic context. Finally, the features are input to a set of one-versus-all support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to determine the corresponding semantic role label. We report results on CoNLL2004 shared task data using the representation and scoring scheme adopted for that task.
Gas Turbine Fault Detection and Diagnosis Using Nonlinear Feature Extraction Methods

Accurate gas turbine fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) is essential to improving airline safety as well as in reducing airline costs associated with delays and cancellations. In this paper, we present FDD methods based on feature extraction methods using nonlinear principal component analysis (NLPCA) and curvilinear component analysis (CCA). The underlying principle of both methods is to find the most representative feature space corresponding to gas turbine normal and faulty operations. During operation, new sensor data is located in this feature space and then it is determined whether a particular fault is indicated. NLPCA is an extension of linear PCA methods to the nonlinear domain; therefore, it is intrinsically better suited to nonlinear domains such as the gas turbine engine. The CCA method is another approach to clustering having superior properties for determining cluster manifolds automatically compared to the popular selforganizing map (SOM) method of clustering. The developed methods are tested with snapshot data collected at takeoff, both normal and faulty, from a turbofan gas turbine propulsion engine and the results are presented.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
Noether equations and conservation laws

The purpose of the paper is to present a rigorous derivation of the relation between conservation laws and transformations leaving invariant the action integral. The (space-)time development of a physical system is represented by a cross section of a product bundleM. A Lagrange function is defined as a mapping\(L:\overline M \to R\) where\(\overline M \) is the bundle space of the first jet extension ofM. A symmetry transformation is defined as a bundle automorphism ofM, carrying solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equation into solutions of the same equation. An important class of symmetry transformations is that of generalized invariant transformations: they are defined by specifying their action on the Euler-Lagrange equation. The generators of generalized invariant transformations are solutions of a system of linear, homogeneous partial differential equation (Noether equations). The set of all solutions of these equations has a natural structure of Lie algebra. In a simple manner, the Noether equations give rise to differential conservation laws.
Computed Tomography of Vasogenic Cerebral Edema

The vasogenic cerebral edema associated with four different types of human lesions was studied by correlating the CT scan with the histologic pattern. The cerebral edema associated with cryogenic lesions in the rhesus monkey, considered to be the prototype of vasogenic edema, was also studied. It was concluded that the areas of diminished density observed around these cerebral lesions represents histologically recognizable cerebral edema. The density of this edematous tissue varied from 11 to 17 H. It was further concluded that these differences in density may be a reflection of the protein content of the edema fluid.
¿Quién le teme a los derechos fundamentales? Sobre el procedimiento de tutela de la reforma laboral

El articulo analiza como la reforma laboral busco tutelar los derechos fundamentales de las y los trabajadores. Para estos efectos revisa en forma concisa el escenario previo a la entrada en vigencia de la reforma y los cambios legislativos, para contrastarlos luego con la practica del sistema a traves del analisis critico de tres fallos de los tribunales laborales.
Do consumers' attitudes and preferences determine their FAFH behavior? An application of the theory of planned behavior

American consumers spend almost half of their food dollars on food away from home (FAFH) despite potential harmful effects of eating out more frequently. This study examines how consumers' attitudes toward FAFH and their personal preferences influence their behavior of eating food away from home. This study differs from previous work by using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to model consumers' FAFH behavior. Empirical testing of consumers' FAFH behavior reveals several interesting and important findings. Results show that negative attitudes toward FAFH reduced consumers' frequency of eating out, whereas the availability of healthy food, good service, and convenience in restaurants increased consumers' frequency of eating out. The policy implications of such study findings are discussed. [EconLit citations: D120]. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Novel IL-21 signaling pathway up-regulates c-Myc and induces apoptosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas

Interleukin-21 (IL-21), a member of the IL-2 cytokine family, has diverse regulatory effects on natural killer (NK), T, and B cells. In contrast to other cytokines that are usually immunostimulatory, IL-21 can induce apoptosis of murine B cells at specific activation-differentiation stages. This effect may be used for treatment of B-cell malignancies. Herein we report that diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cell lines exhibit widespread expression of the IL-21 receptor (IL-21R) and that IL-21 stimulation leads to cell-cycle arrest and caspase-dependent apoptosis. IL-21 also induces apoptosis in de novo DLBCL primary tumors but does not affect viability of human healthy B cells. Furthermore, IL-21 promotes tumor regression and prolongs survival of mice harboring xenograft DLBCL tumors. The antilymphoma effects of this cytokine are dependent on a mechanism involving IL-21–activated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) up-regulating expression of c-Myc. This up-regulation promotes a decrease in expression of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL proteins triggering cell death. Our results represent one of the first examples in which the STAT3–c-Myc signaling pathway, which can promote survival and oncogenesis, can induce apoptosis in neoplastic cells. Moreover, based on IL-21's potency in vitro and in animal models, our findings indicate that this cytokine should be examined in clinical studies of DLBCL.
Subcellular distribution of tissue kallikrein and Na,K-ATPase α-subunit in rat parotid striated duct cells

Intracellular protein distribution and sorting were examined in rat parotid striated duct cells, in which tissue kallikrein is apical, and Na,K-ATPase is basolateral. Electron-microscopic immunogold cytochemistry, with both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, demonstrated these enzymes at opposite poles of the cells and in distinct intracellular sites. Kallikrein was found within apical secretory granules, whereas Na,K-ATPase was present on basolateral cell membranes. In addition, kallikrein was localized throughout cisternae of all Golgi profiles, whereas Na,K-ATPase (α-subunit) was found only in small peripheral vesicles and/or lateral cisternal extensions of a basal subset of Golgi profiles. These differences in the subcellular distribution of the two marker antigens were most clearly seen with double immunogold labelling. Our results suggest that kallikrein, an apical, regulated secretory protein, and Na,K-ATPase, a basolateral, constitutively transported membrane protein, are segregated at (or prior to) the level of the Golgi apparatus rather than in the trans-Golgi network (TGN), as was expected.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa protease IV enzyme assays and comparison to other Pseudomonas proteases.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa secretes multiple proteases that have been implicated as virulence factors and the detection of each specific enzyme can be difficult to determine. Unlike the three Pseudomonas enzymes that have been well characterized (elastase A, elastase B, and alkaline protease), the activity of protease IV in multiple assays has yet to be described. This study defines new assays for Pseudomonas proteases and compares protease IV activity to the activities of elastase A, elastase B, and alkaline protease. Six in vitro assays were studied: zymography, elastin congo red assay, staphylolytic assay, colorimetric peptide assay, solid-phase colorimetric peptide assay, and poly-l-lysine degradation. Casein zymography distinguished protease IV from elastase B and alkaline protease, and gelatin zymography differentiated all four proteases. The elastin congo red assay detected mainly elastase B while the staphylolytic assay was specific for elastase A. Protease IV activity was assayed specifically by the colorimetric assay and two new assays, the solid-phase colorimetric assay and degradation of poly-L-lysine in the presence of EDTA. Alkaline protease could be specifically assayed by poly-L-lysine degradation in the presence of N-alpha-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone. The results identified three specific assays for protease IV, a new assay specific for alkaline protease, and showed that protease IV has a distinct enzymatic specificity relative to the three other Pseudomonas proteases.
Pediatric Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Varicocelectomy

Abstract Purpose: We determined the feasibility and safety of robot-assisted laparoscopic varicocelectomy (RALV) in the pediatric population compared with laparoscopic varicocelectomy (LV). Patients and Methods: We identified all patients who underwent RALV since April of 2006. For each case, we selected two age-matched controls who underwent LV and compared the groups in terms of operative times, postoperative complications, and hospital charges. Statistics were determined using the Student t test and the Fisher exact test. Results: Four patients underwent RALV with a mean age of 15.3 years (standard deviation 1.3). All varicoceles were left-sided. Two patients had testicular size discrepancy at presentation (mean 24%). Mean operative times were 112 minutes for RALV vs 73 minutes for LV (P = 0.02). No intraoperative or postoperative complications were experienced in the RALV group. The mean total hospital charge—including facility, equipment, anesthesiology, and recovery room fees, but excluding surgeon'...
The Preparation and characterization of the dianion, 1,1′-bis(trimethylalumińyl)-1,1′,4,4′-tetrahydro-4,4′-dimethylbipyriate

Abstract Reduction of trimethylaluminum·γ-picoline, (CH3)3Al·NC5H4CH3, with two equivalents of Li affords [LiO(C2H5)2]2+2[(CH3)3AlNC5H4CH3]2−2. NMR spectroscopic characterization of the latter is consistent with coupling at the γ positions, while visible spectroscopy is interpreted to indicate Aldπ ← NPπ bonding.
Dynamics of trapping-mediated dissociative chemisorption of molecular oxygen on reconstructed Ir(110)

Abstract We have measured the initial probability of dissociative chemisorption of molecular oxygen on the reconstructed Ir(110) surface as a function of incident energy, E i , and polar angle, θ i , for surface temperatures of 88, 400, and 1000 K using a supersonic molecular beam. Under these conditions, when the incident energy is less than 4 kcal/mol, the probability of chemisorption decreases with increasing incident energy, indicative of a trapping-mediated mechanism. This probability is insensitive to polar angle for all conditions reported here, indicating that the total incident energy, rather than the component of energy perpendicular to the surface (the normal energy), dictates the trapping.
Website application for calculating cesium-137 ingestion doses from consumption of locally grown foods in the Marshall Islands

Fallout deposition from the US nuclear weapons test program at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls (1946–1958) resulted in widespread nuclear fallout contamination of the northern Marshall Islands. About 85–90 % of the nuclear test-related dose delivered to resident populations is derived from ingestion of cesium-137 (137Cs) contained in locally grown tree-crop food products. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has developed a series of interactive internet applications to provide the public with an open access platform to learn more about radiological conditions in the Marshall Islands. The ingestion dose calculator application described here is one such feature whereby users can calculate hypothetical ingestion doses from 137Cs based on interactive user input matched to environmental data on the activity concentration of 137Cs contained in food plants such as coconut, breadfruit, Pandanus, and arrowroot. Users are asked to enter a date, an island and atoll location, a plant food type, and a daily intake amount (highlighted by the number of portions eaten per day in estimated gram equivalents). The application computes the user daily dose and the user equivalent annualized dose, and then compares the results with default settings based on dietary models developed for the Marshall Islands from independent dietary surveys. The default diets are based on a local plus imported food diet (or IA diet model) and an imported foods unavailable diet (or IUA diet model). Environmental data are decay corrected to the date entered by the user using an effective half-life of 137Cs of 8.5 years ( http://marshallislands.llnl.gov ).
Smoking treatment strategies, expectancy outcomes, and credibility in attention-placebo control conditions.

Assessed credibility of the rapid smoking procedure, covert sensitization a combined approach, satiation, and a relaxation technique in a group of 38 self-reported cigarette smokers. The results suggested that while sex is not a factor in credibility ratings, different treatment strategies do elicit varying degrees of confidence in terms of positive treatment expectances. Scheffe's method of posttest comparisons revealed that satiation was least preferred, while the relaxation procedure was rated the highest in credibility. The other aversive treatment strategies did not differ significantly from either the relaxation or satiation procedures. These findings are discussed as they relate to credibility as a nonspecific treatment variable that smoking researchers may effectively manipulate through a rating procedure in creating a more sound experimental design in attention-placebo control conditions.
Predictive Value of Heart Rate Recovery and Peak Oxygen Consumption for Long-Term Mortality in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease

Poor exercise capacity and abnormal heart rate (HR) recovery during exercise testing predict poor long-term outcomes. The relationship between these parameters in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) is unknown. Whether abnormal HR recovery adds to the prognostic value of poor exercise capacity in patients with CHD is unclear. A total of 282 patients (17% women) with stable CHD underwent cardiopulmonary treadmill testing at the end of Phase II cardiac rehabilitation and were followed for a mean of 9.8 +/- 2.9 years. Cox proportional hazards regression with adjustment for low peak oxygen consumption ([peak VO(2)] or=13 beats/min (13.6% vs 5.6%, respectively; p <0.05). In conclusion, in patients with stable CHD undergoing cardiac rehabilitation, the rate of HR recovery provides additional prognostic information beyond the peak VO(2). An abnormal HR recovery identifies a subset of patients at intermediate risk despite a preserved peak VO(2).
The acute toxicity of selected substituted phenols, benzenes and benzoic acid esters to fathead minnows Pimephales promelas

Abstract Flow-through acute toxicity tests were conducted with 24 organic compounds using fathead minnows Pimephales promelas as test organisms. The tested toxicants consisted of 11 substituted phenols, four substituted benzenes and nine esters. The 96-h LC 50 values determined for these compounds when tested against fathead minnows ranged from 0·135 mg litre −1 for nonylphenol to 117 mg litre −1 for nitrobenzene. Adverse sublethal effects were observed in fathead minnows at exposure concentrations below the 96-h LC 50 value with 14 of the 24 compounds tested. Acute toxicity tests were also conducted with 2,3,4,5-tetrachlorophenol using rainbow trout Salmo gairdneri ; with 1,4-dinitrobenzene, 2-ethoxyethylacetate, ethyl salicylate and phenyl salicylate using both channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus and snails Aplexa hypnorum ; and with 4-nitrophenol using channel catfish. The 96-h LC 50 for rainbow trout when tested against 2,3,4,5-tetrachlorophenol was 0·205 mg litre −1 , while 96-h LC 50 values for channel catfish ranged from 0·673 to 44·8 mg litre −1 with 1,4-dinitrobenzene and 2-ethoxyethylacetate, respectively. Snail 96-h LC 50 values ranged from 4·24 mg litre −1 for 1,4-dinitrobenzene to 65·2 mg litre −1 for 2-ethoxyethylacetate.
Two topological phases in optics by means of a nonplanar Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Experiments on two of the recent manifestations of Berry's phases in optics and their mutual influence are reported. The first is the phase that arises from a cycling in the directions of a beam of light, so that the tip of the spin vector of a photon in this beam traces out a closed curve on the sphere of spin directions. The second is Pancharatnam's phase that arises from a cycling in the polarization states of the light while keeping the direction of the beam of light fixed, so that the tip of the Stokes vector traces out a closed curve on the Poincar\'e sphere. What happens when the two phases are combined in the same experiment is examined. We find that the two phases are additive if we use the notion of a generalized Poincar\'e sphere. The classical theory of the effect based on the Jones calculus is presented, as well as a general analysis of Berry's phases for Maxwell's equations. The signs of these phases have been determined experimentally, and they agree with theory.
The 3-point Steiner problem on a cylinder

The 3-point Steiner problem in the Euclidean plane is to find the least length path network connecting three points. In this paper we will demonstrate an algorithm for solving the 3-point Steiner problem on the cylinder.
The 'primeless pump': a novel technique for intraoperative blood conservation.

Abstract Purpose: Hemodilution during cardiopulmonary bypass may lead to anemia requiring intraoperative transfusions. Prime removal from the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit was used to limit dilution and intraoperative transfusions. Methods: The technique of prime removal consists of arterial and then venous side evacuation of crystalloid prior to cardiopulmonary bypass. The effectiveness of this technique, to maintain a higher hematocrit and reduce intraoperative transfusions, was studied prospectively in two consecutive groups of patients undergoing coronary revascularization (controls versus primeless). Results: Intraoperative hematocrits were significantly higher ( P versus the control group (19%) ( P =0.003). Prime removal is of particular benefit in anemic (hematocrit≤35%) and/or small patients (body surface area≤2 m 2 ). Conclusion: The technique of prime removal is simple, safe and cost-effective, reducing intraoperative transfusions, especially in small and/or anemic patients. It could be part of blood conservation strategies in most adult cardiac operations.
Infant Sucking and Tensional Behavior

* Accepted for publication by Arnold Gesell of the Editorial Board, and received in the Editorial Office on March 1, 1938. 1 The study was conducted at the State Farm for Women, Niantic, Conn. The writer is especially grateful to Miss Elizabeth Munger, Superintendent, Miss Elsie Shearer, Assistant Superintendent, and Dr. Helen Ferguson for their interest and support in carrying on the experiment. The writer also acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. Arnold Gesell for his assistance in the initiation of arrangements for the investigation. Dr. Clark Hull not only gave technical assistance but furnished part of the apparatus. The members of Dr. Hull's informal seminar made suggestions concerning the interpretation of the results.
Semiactive nonlinear control of a building with a magnetorheological damper system

Abstract This paper proposes a linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based systematic design methodology for nonlinear control of building structures equipped with a magnetorheological (MR) damper. This approach considers stability performance as well as transient characteristics in a unified framework. First, multiple Lyapunov-based controllers are designed via LMIs such that global asymptotical stability of the building structure is guaranteed and the performance on transient responses is also satisfied. Such Lyapunov-based state feedback controllers are converted into output feedback regulators using a set of Kalman estimators. Then, these Lyapunov-based controllers and Kalman observers are integrated into a global nonlinear control system via fuzzy logic. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a three-story building structure employing an MR damper is studied. The performance of the nonlinear control system is compared with that of a traditional linear optimal controller, i.e., H2/linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG), while the uncontrolled system response is used as the baseline. It is demonstrated from comparison of the uncontrolled and semiactive controlled responses that the proposed nonlinear control system design framework is effective in reducing the vibration of a seismically excited building structure equipped with an MR damper. Furthermore, the newly developed controller is more effective in mitigating responses of the structure than the H2/LQG controller.