cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Damage Quantification from the Column Space of Flexibility Changes

On the premise that damage is localized, as opposed to distributed, it follows that difference in the displacement field between the damaged and the reference state due any loading in sensor coordinates is in a subspace whose span is defined by the influence lines of the stress resultants at the damage locations. It is shown that the scaling factors for which the bases vectors combine to give the displacement difference are the amplitude of discontinuities collocated with the damage and that these discontinuities, together with the stress resultant at the same locations, provide means to evaluate the damage severity. The solution proves to be an attractive fixed point.
Purification of the β Subunit of the Chloroplast H+-Translocating ATPase of Spinach Thylakoids

A significant portion of the catalytic site of CF0-CF1 is located on the β subunit (for a review, see (1)). This enzyme contains three copies of the β subunit which suggests that there are three active sites. Experiments that involve isotope exchange (2), substrate trapping (3) and binding of Mn (4) suggest that at least two of the active sites are coupled. Soluble CF1 is a latent ATPase that can be activated by a variety of procedures (5), some of which are believed to require the exchange of disulfide bonds of the γ subunit (6).
Sensory and Autonomic Disturbances

T his chapter deals primarily with sensory disturbances of the limbs and trunk. Autonomic dysfunction often is associated with sensory loss but sometimes occurs alone. Chapter 17 discusses sensory disturbances of the face.
Simple model of two little Higgs bosons

We construct a little Higgs model using a simple global symmetry group SU(9) spontaneously broken to SU(8). The electroweak interactions are extended to SU(3)xU(1) and embedded in SU(9). At the electroweak scale, our model is a two Higgs-doublet model. At the TeV scale, there are additional states, which are responsible for the cancellation of one loop quadratic divergences. We compute the effects of heavy states on the precision electroweak observables and find that the lower bounds on the masses of heavy gauge bosons and fermions are between 1 and 2 TeV.
Gender, Relationships and Sexual Violence in the Lives of Women from Chuuk, Micronesia

Chuukese women’s sexual experiences provide a salient example of the ways in which sexual violence is a threat for women inside and outside intimate relationships throughout their lives. In this st...
Medical Evaluation of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an increasingly common sleep disorder defined by repetitive upper airway collapse during sleep that leads to intermittent hypoxia and fragmented sleep. Left untreated, it has been associated with an increase in all-cause mortality, motor vehicle accidents, decreased quality of life, as well as significant cardiovascular consequences such as hypertension and possible coronary artery disease. In this chapter, we will discuss the epidemiology and risk factors for OSA and the clinical presentation as well as outline the complications of untreated OSA. We will also discuss the diagnosis of OSA, including attended polysomnography and home sleep testing. The treatment of OSA will be discussed elsewhere.
Methylphenidate increases willingness to perform effort in adults with ADHD.

Abstract Background A reduced willingness to perform effort based on the magnitude and probability of potential rewards has been associated with diminished dopamine function and may be relevant to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Here, we investigated the influence of ADHD status and methylphenidate on effort-based decisions. We hypothesized that ADHD participants would make fewer high-effort selections than non-ADHD subjects, and that methylphenidate would increase the number of high-effort selections. Furthermore, we hypothesized there would be associations among ADHD severity and methylphenidate-related changes in effort-based and attentional performance across all participants. Methods and participants ADHD (n = 23) and non-ADHD (n = 23) adults completed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task in which participants select between low-effort and high-effort options to receive monetary rewards at varying levels of reward magnitude and probability. A test of attentional performance was also completed. Results Overall, participants made more high-effort selections as potential reward magnitude and probability increased. ADHD participants did not make fewer high-effort selections than non-ADHD participants, but ADHD participants showed greater methylphenidate-related increases in high-effort selections. ADHD participants had worse attentional performance than non-ADHD participants. ADHD severity was associated with methylphenidate-related changes in high-effort selections, but not changes in attentional performance. Conclusions These results indicate that methylphenidate increases the willingness to perform effort in individuals with ADHD, possibly due to disorder-related motivational deficits. This provides support for theories of insufficient effort allocation among individuals with ADHD. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier, NCT02630017 .
Photobiomodulation and mitochondria for traumatic brain injury in mouse models

Abstract This chapter covers two studies conducted in the Wu laboratory. Immediate early response gene (IEX-1) is an immediate early response gene involved in maintaining mitochondrial function. The first study looked at mice with IEX-1 deficiency, and asked whether a traumatic brain injury (TBI) inflicted on these mice would be more or less severe than it was in wild-type (WT) mice. IEX-1 KO mice suffered worse pathological and cognitive outcome after TBI than WT mice, and interestingly transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) was able to rescue these mice from the effects of the TBI. The second study looked at a combination of tPBM and the metabolic modulators (pyruvate and lactate). The combination of tPBM with either pyruvate or lactate, synergistically improved brain function both in vitro and in vivo in TBI mice.
Medical Rhetoric and the Sympathetic “Inebriet”: 1870–1930

The modern view of addiction as a progressive brain disease originated in the sec­ond half of the 19th and early decades of the 20th centuries. Historians attribute the shift from a moral to a medical concept to the efforts of a small but well-organized band of physicians forming what is known as the Inebriety Movement in the United States and Great Britain. Members aimed to distribute the disease theory to a dis­interested and biased medical community, establish protocols for evidence-based treatments, and transfer the management of drinkers and drug users away from religious organizations and penal institutions to the care of trained practitioners. Members’ efforts to rhetorically achieve these goals on the pages of medical jour­nals has received scant attention in the scholarly community. Based on an analysis of 92 medical articles on addiction published between 1870 and 1930, I will reveal a complex, inclusive, and multimodal rhetoric employed to refigure “drunkards” and “underworld” drug “fiends” as patients and their confounding addictive behaviors as symptoms rather than signs of degeneracy. Before advanced under­standing of brain’s pleasure circuits and dopamine receptors, these early medical authors dramatically rendered the havoc that substances can play on those sys­tems. Recovering the narratives and patient tropes I find in these texts may be instructive as we try to find ways to erase persistent stigma surrounding addiction. My findings will hopefully encourage dialogue and new research pathways for scholars interested in the rhetorical history of addiction.
SQLCheck: Automated Detection and Diagnosis of SQL Anti-Patterns

The emergence of database-as-a-service platforms has made deploying database applications easier than before. Now, developers can quickly create scalable applications. However, designing performant, maintainable, and accurate applications is challenging. Developers may unknowingly introduce anti-patterns in the application's SQL statements. These anti-patterns are design decisions that are intended to solve a problem, but often lead to other problems by violating fundamental design principles. In this paper, we present SQLCheck, a holistic toolchain for automatically finding and fixing anti-patterns in database applications. We introduce techniques for automatically (1) detecting anti-patterns with high precision and recall, (2) ranking the anti-patterns based on their impact on performance, maintainability, and accuracy of applications, and (3) suggesting alternative queries and changes to the database design to fix these anti-patterns. We demonstrate the prevalence of these anti-patterns in a large collection of queries and databases collected from open-source repositories. We introduce an anti-pattern detection algorithm that augments query analysis with data analysis. We present a ranking model for characterizing the impact of frequently occurring anti-patterns. We discuss how SQLCheck suggests fixes for high-impact anti-patterns using rule-based query refactoring techniques. Our experiments demonstrate that SQLCheck enables developers to create more performant, maintainable, and accurate applications.
Aspect-oriented language for reactive distributed applications at the edge

This paper presents EdgeC, a new language for programming reactive distributed applications. It enables separation of concerns between expressing behavior and controlling distributed aspects, inspired by aspect-oriented language design. In EdgeC, developers express functionality with sequential behaviors, and data allocation, reactivity, consistency, and underlying network with orthogonal specifications. Through such separation, EdgeC allows developers to change functionality and control the shape of resulting distributed behaviors without cross-cutting code, simplifying deployment to the edge. Developers can reason about and test their applications as sequential executions, whilst EdgeC automatically synthesizes low-level distributed code. It handles, with the help of the EdgeC run-time, allocation, communication, concurrency, and coordination, across the specified, potentially non-uniform, network model. We introduce the main features of EdgeC, present the new compiler design, its prototype implementation, the resulting performance, and discuss the potential of the approach for simplifying development of reactive applications over nonuniform networks and achieving performance gains, compared to existing approaches.
Abstract 958: PARP-inhibition induces cancer immunogenic cell death in response to high levels of interferon-gamma in the tumor microenvironment

Background: We recently demonstrated that treatment with poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors sensitize BRCA1-deficient ovarian cancers to immune checkpoint blockade in preclinical models. The extended survival in response to this combination was associated with a significant increase in IFNg producing effector T cells in the tumor environment. In vitro experiments identified a significant interaction between PARP-inhibition and IFNg that promoted tumor cytotoxicity in a caspase-independent manner. We hypothesized that IFNg engages immunogenic cell death mechanisms in response to PARP-inhibition to promote immune-mediated tumor clearance. Methods: To distinguish cell death mechanisms in vitro, we exposed ovarian cancer cells to a PARP-inhibitor (10 microg/ml) and IFNg (2 ng/ml). Calreticulin translocation to the cell membrane and the release of high-mobility group protein 1 (HMGB-1) were assessed as characteristic features of immunogenic cell death. Innate cell activation was evaluated by analysis of dendritic cells in draining lymph nodes after vaccination. Evidence of immunogenicity was confirmed in vivo with vaccination studies. Results: Tumor cells treated with a PARP-inhibitor in combination with IFNg, but not the cells exposed to the PARP-inhibitor alone, demonstrated calreticulin translocation and HMGB-1 release. In vivo, vaccination using cells treated with both the PARP-inhibitor and IFNg protected animals from intraperitoneal tumor challenge. Vaccinated mice also rejected secondary and tertiary tumor challenges demonstrating durable protective memory. Vaccinated tumor cells were phagocytosed by DCs in draining lymph nodes and induced co-stimulatory ligand and MHC expression. Adoptive transfer of splenocytes from vaccinated animals confirmed that this protective effect was T cell-mediated. Conclusions: These results identify a novel mechanism by which PARP-inhibition drives immunogenic cell death in response to IFNg in the ovarian tumor environment. These effects can be leveraged to enhance tumor clearance in combination with immune therapy, and may present a strategy to circumvent adaptive treatment resistance associated with high levels of IFNg in the tumor microenvironment. Citation Format: Ichiko Kinjyo, Sarah F. Adams. PARP-inhibition induces cancer immunogenic cell death in response to high levels of interferon-gamma in the tumor microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 958.
Abstract P059: Association Of Uric Acid With Change In Arterial Stiffness And Blood Pressure Over Time In Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: The SEARCH For Diabetes In Youth Study

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) increases CVD risk, and early detection of CV changes could mitigate CVD risk. Increased arterial stiffness is an early marker of adverse CV health and precedes hy...
Management of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections of the eye and orbit: A retrospective case series.

Abstract Purpose To provide an update on different management approaches for Nontuberculous Mycobacterial (NTM) infections of the eye and orbit. Observations A total of 9 eyes from 8 patients were found to meet study criteria. Of these 9 eyes, 6 eyes (66%) involved Mycobacterium abscessus, 2 (22%) involved M. chelonae, and 1 (11%) involved M. fortuitum. In 8 (88%) eyes, NTM infection was treated with a combination of antibiotics and removal of involved foreign body or tissue (e.g. scleral buckle, intraocular lens, orbital implant, or granuloma). One case was observed on topical therapy alone due to low suspicion for clinically significant infection. In 1 patient, a second culture-positive infection was found in the contralateral eye requiring treatment. Conclusions and importance Depending on the clinical presentation, optimal treatment of ocular and orbital NTM infections may require combination anti-mycobacterial antibiotics (topical and systemic), surgical removal of implanted material or tissue, or both.
The scaling of kinetic and transport behaviors in the solution-phase chemistry of a plasma–liquid interface

The reactions at a plasma–liquid interface often involve species such as the solvated electron or the hydroxyl radical, which initiate the reduction or oxidation of solution-phase reactants (so-called scavengers) or are consumed by their own second-order recombination. Here, the mathematical scaling of the reaction–diffusion equations at the interface is used to obtain a characteristic time that can be used to determine the transition from highly efficient scavenger reduction or oxidation to lower efficiencies due to transport limitations. The characteristic time (tc) is validated using numerical solutions of the reaction–diffusion equations. When the scavenger kinetics are faster than second-order recombination, this characteristic transition time scales proportionally with the scavenger diffusivity (Ds) and the square of the scavenger bulk concentration (SB) and inversely proportional to the electron flux (J) squared; that is, tc = DsSB2F2/J2, where F is Faraday's constant. However, when the scavenger kinetics are comparable or slower than second-order recombination, this scaling does not hold. Extending this analysis to three-dimensional systems shows that the profile of the electron flux on the surface affects the spatial location where reactions are most effective. Finally, the assessment of the implications of these behaviors for the reactor design highlights how effectively controlling the electron flux and solution transport may be necessary to improve the efficiency of scavenger reactions.
Role of Advance Carbon Materials in the New Paradigm of Energy and Environment

A paradigm shift is happening in the way we utilize energy from fossil fuels and impact our environment. Significant damage to our environment has been done as evident by global warming and deteriorating air quality index. To reverse this, stringent environmental restrictions either have been imposed (e.g. Euro-6 norms for fuels) or are to be imposed in near future (e.g. CO2 taxation). To achieve and sustain these targets, new improved materials are required which on the one hand can be made synthetically from cheap raw materials and on the other can compete with the best materials being used today. Advanced materials made from carbon have the highest potential to fulfil all these objectives. This chapter tries to summarize the salient features, raw materials, manufacturing processes and typical specifications of some of the most important advanced carbon materials, e.g. specialty petroleum cokes, spherical graphite, carbon black, carbon fibre, carbon foam, carbon nanotubes and graphene.
Characterizing network dynamics of online hate communities around the COVID-19 pandemic

Hate speech has long posed a serious problem for the integrity of digital platforms. Although significant progress has been made in identifying hate speech in its various forms, prevailing computational approaches have tended to consider it in isolation from the community-based contexts in which it spreads. In this paper, we propose a dynamic network framework to characterize hate communities, focusing on Twitter conversations related to COVID-19 in the United States and the Philippines. While average hate scores remain fairly consistent over time, hate communities grow increasingly organized in March, then slowly disperse in the succeeding months. This pattern is robust to fluctuations in the number of network clusters and average cluster size. Infodemiological analysis demonstrates that in both countries, the spread of hate speech around COVID-19 features similar reproduction rates as other COVID-19 information on Twitter, with spikes in hate speech generation at time points with highest community-level organization of hate speech. Identity analysis further reveals that hate in the US initially targets political figures, then grows predominantly racially charged; in the Philippines, targets of hate consistently remain political over time. Finally, we demonstrate that higher levels of community hate are consistently associated with smaller, more isolated, and highly hierarchical network clusters across both contexts. This suggests potentially shared structural conditions for the effective spread of hate speech in online communities even when functionally targeting distinct identity groups. Our findings bear theoretical and methodological implications for the scientific study of hate speech and understanding the pandemic’s broader societal impacts both online and offline.
Wide variation of winter-induced sustained thermal energy dissipation in conifers: a common-garden study

Low temperature in winter depresses rates of photosynthesis, which, in evergreen plants, can exacerbate imbalances between light absorption and photochemical light use. Damage that could result from increased excess light absorption is minimized by the conversion of excitation energy to heat in a process known as energy dissipation, which involves the de-epoxidized carotenoids of the xanthophyll cycle. Overwintering evergreens employ sustained forms of energy dissipation observable even after lengthy periods of dark acclimation. Whereas most studies of photoprotective energy dissipation examine one or a small number of species; here, we measured the levels of sustained thermal energy dissipation of seventy conifer taxa growing outdoors under common-garden conditions at the Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. (forty nine taxa were also sampled for needle pigment content). We observed an extremely wide range of wintertime engagement of sustained energy dissipation; the percentage decrease in dark-acclimated photosystem II quantum efficiency from summer to winter ranged from 6 to 95%. ﻿Of the many pigment-based parameters measured, the magnitude of the seasonal decrease in quantum efficiency was most closely associated with the seasonal increase in zeaxanthin content expressed on a total chlorophyll basis, which explained only slightly more than one-third of the variation. We did not find evidence for a consistent wintertime decrease in needle chlorophyll content. Thus, the prevailing mechanism for winter decreases in solar-induced fluorescence emitted by evergreen forests may be decreases in fluorescence quantum yield, and wintertime deployment of sustained energy dissipation likely underlies this effect.
A critical race theory test of W.E.B. DuBois’ hypothesis: Do Black students need separate schools?

Guided by a critical race theory framework, this study tested W.E.B. DuBois’ hypothesis that Black students need not attend integrated schools to succeed academically. DuBois offered this controver...
Future Issues in the Use of Health Status Assessment Measures in Clinical Settings

Compared to 10 years ago, there is considerable agreement that quality of life is an important aim in the provision of medical care and in the promotion of health. Research in recent years has rendered concrete, meaningful and feasible measures that have turned a vague abstract notion into useful ratings that can find their place alongside mortality, physiologic measures and symptoms in the spectrum of outcomes.
Novel Therapeutics for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

The last decade has seen significant developments in the use of combination systemic therapy for advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), with median survival approaching 1 year for select patients treated with FOLFIRINOX in the metastatic setting. However, it is sobering that these developments have been achieved with the use of traditional cytotoxics rather than from successes in the more modern fields of molecularly targeted therapies or immunotherapy. This article highlights several promising therapeutic approaches to PDAC currently under clinical evaluation, including immune therapies, molecularly targeted therapies, strategies for stromal depletion, and targeted therapy for genetically selected patients.
CMC Body Flaps for the X‐38 Experimental Space Vehicle

A pair of body flaps, made entirely of coated high performance ceramic composite, was manufactured for NASA's X-38 experimental re-entry vehicle V201. This vehicle is being built as a prototype of the Crew Return Vehicle, the lifeboat for the International Space Station. The body flaps were developed within the framework of the German space program TETRA. Each body flap is built up from four boxes with integral transverse stiffeners and flanges to bear the covers. They are joined with C/SiC screws. The size of one flap is approximately 1.6 m by 1.6 m. The forward ends have a precise cylindrical shape to engage with a ceramic fiber seal that prevents the hot air flow to the leeward side of the flaps. Each flap is attached to the vehicle structure with two ceramic hinge bearings. The actuator for the flap movements is attached to a bearing near the flap center. C/SiC with a wall thickness up to 19 mm was manufactured for these parts. A complete qualification body flap has been ground tested with a sequence of vibrational, thermal and pressure loads to simulate launch and re-entry. The results have demonstrated the component's capability for safe function up to 1600°C under high mechanical load. The C/SiC body flaps provide a considerable weight reduction compared to insulated metallic structures and -due to their high heat resistance - extended flexibility and safety margins for reusable re-entry vehicles and trajectories. The flight test is to verify these benefits.
Cultural Affinity and Lending Discrimination: The Impact of Underwriting Errors and Credit Risk Distribution on Applicant Denial Rates

We examine the impact of underwriting errors on marginal loan denial rates when these errors or average creditworthiness differ across racial groups. We find that the noise in evaluating applicant credit risk can have a differential impact on marginal borrowers across racial groups. Consequently, discrimination can go undetected in an examination of relative loan denial rates when it is present. We also show that discrimination can be “detected” where none exists. Furthermore, we argue that it is likely that the errors a bank makes in assessing applicant credit risk are a consequence of its skill or affinity, which, in turn, is shaped by the underwriting experiences in the bank’s market. A resulting implication is that banks that develop affinities in serving different market segments may have substantially different denial rate experiences across racial groups. This observation can shed light on the puzzling result that minority-owned banks tend to perform poorly in studies of lending discrimination. We conclude that underwriting errors call into question the reliability of the “fair-lending” guidelines used to assess all banks.
Characterization of Molecular Species Carrying Gross Cell Surface Antigen

The Gross cell surface antigen (GCSA), associated with expression of endogenous Gross-type murine leukemia virus (G-MuLV) in tissues of mice, is defined by the cytotoxic reaction of a C57BL/6 antiserum, anti-AKR spontaneous leukemia K36, with cells of the Gross virus-induced C57BL/6 leukemia, Emale symbolG2. Sequential lactoperoxidase-catalyzed radioiodination of Emale symbolG2 cells, Nonidet P-40 lysis, precipitation with anti-K36 serum, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis identified molecules with properties of polyproteins encoded by the gag region of the viral genome. These cell surface species could also be labeled by in vitro culturing of Emale symbolG2 with radioactive glucosamine. The viral specificity of these molecules and their participation in the GCSA typing system were established as follows. (i) Absorption of anti-K36 serum with GCSA(+), but not GCSA(-), leukemias led to a marked decrease in precipitation of these proteins. (ii) The same Emale symbolG2 cell surface proteins were also precipitated by antisera against the MuLV virion proteins p30 and p15. (iii) Anti-K36 was shown to possess antibodies against Gross virus p30 and p15. (iv) "Clearing" the Emale symbolG2 lysate of molecules reactive with anti-p30 or anti-p15 sera removed molecules reactive with anti-K36 serum. (v) Absorption of anti-K36 serum with disrupted G-MuLV virions or with Gross p30 or p15 removed GCSA cytotoxic antibodies; partial absorption was achieved with disrupted Rauscher-MuLV (R-MuLV) or with R-MuLV p30, and no absorption was found with R-MuLV p15. These data show that Emale symbolG2 cells express, on their surfaces, MuLV core polyproteins that apparently can be glycosylated and on which the determinants of GCSA are located.
Person count localization in videos from noisy foreground and detections

This paper formulates and presents a solution to a new problem called person count localization. Given a video of a crowded scene, our goal is to output for each frame a set of: 1) Detections optimally covering both isolated individuals and cluttered groups of people; and 2) Counts of people inside these detections. This problem is a middle-ground between frame-level person counting, which does not localize counts, and person detection aimed at perfectly localizing people with count-one detections. Our problem formulation is important for a wide range of domains, where people appear frequently under severe occlusion within a crowd. As these crowds are often visually distinct from the rest of the scene, they can be viewed as “visual phrases” whose spatially tight localization and count assignment could facilitate higher-level video understanding. For count localization, we specify a novel framework of iterative error-driven revisions of a flow graph derived from noisy input of people detections and foreground segmentation. Each iteration creates and solves an integer program for count localization based on iterative revisions of the flow graph. The graph revisions are based on detected violations of basic integrity constraints. They in turn trigger learned modifications to the graph aimed at reducing noise in input features. For evaluation, we introduce a new metric that measures both count precision and localization of our approach on American football and pedestrian videos.
UNPLANNED HOSPITAL READMISSIONS FOLLOWING HEARTMATE® II IMPLANTATION: FREQUENCY, RISK FACTORS, AND IMPACT ON SURVIVAL

The Heartmate® II (HM2) left ventricular assist device (LVAD) improves survival and quality of life for patients with end-stage heart failure. Whether these improved outcome measures are similarly accompanied by a reduction in unplanned hospital readmissions is unknown. We systematically
NEMTronics: Symbiotic integration of nanoelectronic and nanomechanical devices for energy-efficient adaptive computing

Heterogeneity, programmability and parallelism are expected to be the key drivers for future nanoelectronics systems. The proposed work builds on these key drivers to achieve an energy-efficient, adaptive, and reliable computing framework. The primary intellectual merit of this effort lies in the heterogeneous integration of two fundamentally different state variables - charge-based electronics and electromechanical. We exploit the complementary capabilities of the two layers - high-performance operation of nanoscale FET and ultralow-power and harsh environment operation of NEMS - to merge the benefit of both. The layers are used in a symbiotic manner where each addresses the limitations of the other. The leakage/programmability issues in FET layer are addressed by exploiting the near-zero leakage and low ON-resistance of NEMS switches. The reliability and drivability issues of NEMS layer are addressed by FETs. The innovative memory based computing architecture exploits the density advantage of nanoscale memory to reduce the programmable interconnect overhead of traditional reconfigurable computing. It enables realizing custom computing functions in a core-based architecture to improve energy efficiency through hardware acceleration. The fundamental questions on the effectiveness of nanomechanical computing and the physics of its interaction with charge-based nanoelectronics are investigated.
Pharmacodynamic effects of the murine p75-Fc fusion protein in mice.

Overproduction of inflammatory mediators, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF), is key to the development and maintenance of inflammatory processes. Etanercept is a soluble TNF receptor fusion protein used in the treatment of various chronic inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. This study investigated the effects of murine p75-Fc, a soluble TNF receptor protein, on TNF-induced IL-6 production in mice. Six groups of mice received either murine p75-Fc (0.15, 0.50, 1.5, 5, and 15 mg/kg) or phosphate-buffered saline. Three days later, mice were injected intravenously with 10 μ g of murine TNF and blood samples were taken after 3 hours. Serum IL-6 and TNF were measured by ELISA. Mice treated with 5 and 15 mg/kg murine p75-Fc demonstrated complete inhibition of TNF-induced IL-6 production. Murine p75-Fc (1.5 mg/kg) resulted in a partial but significant reduction of TNF-induced IL-6 production. No TNF was detected in 5 and 15 mg/kg murine p75-Fc-treated mice, except one in the 5 mg/kg dose group. In conclusion, murine p75-Fc completely inhibits TNF-induced IL-6 production in mice.
Modulation of presynaptic gamma aminobutyric acid release by prostaglandin E2: Explanation for epileptogenic activity and dysfunction in autonomic cardiac neural discharge leading to arrhythmias?☆

Abstract Sudden unexplained death accounts for 5–17% of deaths in the epileptic population. It has no known etiology by definition but autonomic dysfunction has been mentioned as a possible progenitor. A review of the literature was begun to ascertain a possible mechanism by which epileptogenic activity and autonomic dysfunction may be induced in these patients. Prostaglandin E 2 is implicated as a possible gamma aminobutyric acid neurotransmitter inhibiting agent responsible for epileptogenic activity and autonomic dysfunction leading to arrhythmias in epileptic patients who suddenly die from unexplainable causes.
Long-term tracking of neutrally buoyant tracer particles in two-dimensional fluid flows

An experimental technique has been developed to produce and to track neutrally buoyant particles in a two-dimensional fluid flow. The key aspect of the technique is the ability to track particles for extended intervals (over an hour), which is essential for quantitative studies of transport and mixing. The approach is composed of two stages. In the first stage, digital image processing hardware partially processes the images, reducing the data rate to 50 kbyte/s (typically) and allowing several hours of data to be stored on a conventional computer disk. In the second stage, programs extract particle trajectories from the reduced data. The approach is tested in an experiment on planetary-type flows in a rotating annulus. In an appendix, a technique is discussed for fabricating wax or crayon particles with arbitrary density.
Triple-Point Pressure Evaporation of Impacted Droplets

The spray evaporator is a heat rejection device used for thermal control of spacecraft. An expendable evaporant is used to cool a transport fluid by means of evaporative cooling. The evaporant is sprayed at vacuum conditions onto a warm, highly conductive surface and is evaporated. The vapor is then vented to space. An important aspect of the evaporator is the way in which the droplets impact and evaporate on the warm evaporator surface in a near-vacuum environment. A high-speed photographic study was made to observe the impact and evaporation of water droplets at pressures below the triple-point pressure of water. The droplets ranged in size from 5<V to 600j* in diameter. Surface temperatures ranged from 140°F to 35°F. It was determined from observations of the high-speed films that the degree of solidification before impact determines the impact mechanism to a large degree, and that the surface temperature determines the evaporation and wetting mechanism, while the other prameters have only a secondary effect on the system.
Interplays between gut microbiota and gene expression regulation by miRNAs

The gastrointestinal tract is one of the most colonized organs and harbors a large microbial population (1014 bacteria) that has co-evolved with us establishing a finely tuned symbiosis (Ley et al., 2008). As a result of their occurrence in complex mixtures, their combined genomes or metagenome, contain 150-fold more genes respect to humans, therefore providing us with novel functions (Qin et al., 2010). Increasing evidences show that the disruption of this symbiosis may lead to pathologies such as obesity or to an increased risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (Ott et al., 2004). Since the intestine is constantly exposed to an almost limitless number of foreign antigens (i.e., food-derived materials, commensal microbes, pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites), it is of fundamental importance that an appropriate immune homeostasis in the gut mucosa is established and maintained. This requires a highly sophisticated immunological regulatory systems achieved by the cooperative interaction of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and mucosal cells of the immune response (Goto and Kiyono, 2011). The IECs comprise columnar epithelial cells, Paneth cells, endocrine cells and goblet cells (van der Flier and Clevers, 2009) and consist in the first physical barrier between the host and the external environment. Owing to many signals transmission from epithelial cells to the various innate and acquired types of mucosal cells of the immune response, these cells regulate each other resulting in intestinal immunological homeostasis.
Thermodynamics of aminoglycoside binding to aminoglycoside-3'-phosphotransferase IIIa studied by isothermal titration calorimetry

The aminoglycoside-3'-phosphotransferase IIIa (APH(3')-IIIa) phosphorylates aminoglycoside antibiotics and renders them ineffective against bacteria. APH(3')-IIIa is the most promiscuous aminoglycoside phosphotransferase enzyme, and it modifies more than 10 different aminoglycoside antibiotics. A wealth of information exists about the enzyme; however, thermodynamic properties of enzyme-aminoglycoside complexes are still not known. This study describes the determination of the thermodynamic parameters of the binary enzyme-aminoglycoside and the ternary enzyme-metal-ATP- aminoglycoside complexes of structurally related aminoglycosides using isothermal titration calorimetry. Formation of the binary enzyme-aminoglycoside complexes is enthalpically driven and exhibits a strongly disfavored entropic contribution. Formation of the ternary enzyme-metal-ATP-aminoglycoside complexes yields much smaller negative ¢H values and more favorable entropic contributions. The presence of metal-ATP generally increases the affinity of aminoglycosides to the enzyme. This is consistent with the kinetic mechanism of the enzyme in which ordered binding of substrates occurs. However, the observed ¢H values neither correlate with kinetic parameters kcat, Km, and kcat/Km nor correlate with the molecular size of the substrates. Comparison of the thermodynamic properties of the complexes formed by structurally similar aminoglycosides indicated that the 2'- and the 6'-amino groups of the substrates are involved in binding to the enzyme. Thermodynamic properties of the complexes formed by aminoglycosides differing only at the 3'-hydroxyl group suggested that the absence of this group does not alter the thermodynamic parameters of the ternary APH(3')-IIIa-metal-ATP-aminoglycoside complex. Our results also indicate that protonation of ligand and protein ionizable groups is coupled to the complex formation between aminoglycosides and APH(3')-IIIa. Comparison of ¢H values for different aminoglycoside-enzyme complexes indicates that enzyme and substrates undergo significant conformational changes in complex formation.
Dynamics of galectin-3 in the nucleus and cytoplasm.

Abstract This review summarizes selected studies on galectin-3 (Gal3) as an example of the dynamic behavior of a carbohydrate-binding protein in the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells. Within the 15-member galectin family of proteins, Gal3 (Mr ∼ 30,000) is the sole representative of the chimera subclass in which a proline- and glycine-rich NH2-terminal domain is fused onto a COOH-terminal carbohydrate recognition domain responsible for binding galactose-containing glycoconjugates. The protein shuttles between the cytoplasm and nucleus on the basis of targeting signals that are recognized by importin(s) for nuclear localization and exportin-1 (CRM1) for nuclear export. Depending on the cell type, specific experimental conditions in vitro, or tissue location, Gal3 has been reported to be exclusively cytoplasmic, predominantly nuclear, or distributed between the two compartments. The nuclear versus cytoplasmic distribution of the protein must reflect, then, some balance between nuclear import and export, as well as mechanisms of cytoplasmic anchorage or binding to a nuclear component. Indeed, a number of ligands have been reported for Gal3 in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus. Most of the ligands appear to bind Gal3, however, through protein–protein interactions rather than through protein–carbohydrate recognition. In the cytoplasm, for example, Gal3 interacts with the apoptosis repressor Bcl-2 and this interaction may be involved in Gal3's anti-apoptotic activity. In the nucleus, Gal3 is a required pre-mRNA splicing factor; the protein is incorporated into spliceosomes via its association with the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) complex. Although the majority of these interactions occur via the carbohydrate recognition domain of Gal3 and saccharide ligands such as lactose can perturb some of these interactions, the significance of the protein's carbohydrate-binding activity, per se, remains a challenge for future investigations.
Status of display systems in the A-10A aircraft

The report scope covers the displays and controls at the pilot's crewstation on the current model Air Force A-10A and OA-10A aircraft. A description of an electronic display and an electronic control panel that have come to be of concern to the Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC) are included in the Funded Display Replacement Programs discussion. The display, which is a monochrome cathode ray tube (CRT), and the control panel were designed some 30 years ago. Thus, it is necessary to insert new technologies to maintain the capability heretofore provided by those now out of favor with the commercial sector. With this paper we begin a look at the status of displays in the A-10, which may remain in inventory until about 2030 according to current plans. From a component electronics technology perspective, such as displays, the A-10 provides several 10-year life cycle cost (LCC) planning cycles to consider multiple upgrades. Lessons learned from these projects can be applied both to other displays in the A-10 and other aging Department of Defense (DoD) weapon systems.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Cyclic AMP‐Dependent Protein Kinase Regulates Basal and Cyclic AMP‐Stimulated but Not Phorbol Ester‐Stimulated Transcription of the Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene

To define the precise role of cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (PKA) in transcriptional regulation of the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene, we performed transient cotransfection analyses of a reporter construct containing the upstream 2,400 bp sequence of the rat TH gene with expression plasmids encoding a heat-stable specific inhibitor of PKA (PKI), a mutant regulatory subunit of PKA, or the catalytic subunit of PKA. Inhibition of PKA activity by expression of either PKI or mutant regulatory subunit blocked cAMP-stimulated induction and reduced basal transcription of the TH-reporter construct. Expression of the catalytic subunit of PKA induced the expression of the TH-reporter construct up to 50-fold in a dose-dependent manner. Primer extension analysis confirmed that PKA-mediated induction of TH-reporter expression occurred at the correct transcription initiation site. Expression of PKI did not affect induction following phorbol ester treatment, suggesting that PKA and protein kinase C (PKC) induce TH transcription by independent mechanisms. Finally, a double mutation within the cAMP response element (CRE) of TH2400-CAT diminished its basal and forskolin-stimulated transcription to the level of the promoterless plasmid, pBLCAT3, but did not alter the induction following treatment with phorbol ester, indicating that the CRE is not required for PKC-mediated transcriptional induction. Our results indicate that PKA, via the CRE, plays a crucial role for basal and cAMP-inducible transcription of the TH gene.
Bow-tie retrodirective rectenna

A novel bow-tie retrodirective rectenna designed at 5.8 GHz is proposed. The new retrodirective rectenna combines a traditional rectenna with a retrodirective array. The new retrodirective rectenna array can automatically steer its main beam towards the power source and hence is not sensitive to the power incident angle changes. It can provide a constant DC output voltage within ±10° and 90% DC output voltage within ±30°. The conversion efficiency of the arrays is 84% when the power density is 10 mW/cm2.
An experimental magnetic printer

This paper reviews the magnetic characteristics of a high speed (120 inches per second) experimental magnetic printer investigated during the late 1950's. Even though the printer has not been marketed, its high paper throughput may still result in interest in the concepts involved. At the very least, the descriptions of the magnetic components, the recording process, and the recorded spots will still be of interest in today's technology. The experimental magnetic printer made use of magnetic styli in conjunction with a NiCo drum surface to record information in the form of a dot matrix. Stylus heads using either permeable return paths or non-permeable return paths were examined as well as NiCo surfaces which had been erased so as to be left in either a remanent or a demagnetized state. The recorded information was inked either by cascading magnetic toner (below 90 inches per second) or by accelerating the magnetic toner by means of a roller and then pressure transferred to paper or card stock where the ink was fixed. This paper is intended as an overview of the experimental high speed printer and the magnetic technology involved as it may extend on discussions already existing in the literature.
The Effect of Capsulectomy on Hip Joint Biomechanics.

Background:Capsulectomy is performed during hip arthroscopic surgery in young adult patients with hip pain to improve intraoperative visualization. The stability of the hip joint after anterior cap...
Critical speeds and the response of a spinning disk to a stationary load using Mindlin plate theory

The critical speeds of a moderately thick circular spinning disk are determined using the Mindlin plate theory, which includes shear deformation and rotational inertia. A combination of analytical and numerical methods is used to calculate the four lowest critical speeds for a centrally clamped uniform circular disk and for different thicknesses and clamping ratios. Comparisons between the critical speeds and the corresponding critical speeds for the classical theory, which neglects shear deformation and rotational inertia, are made. The displacement response at the position of the applied force is also determined for different thickness and clamping ratios and compared with the corresponding results from the classical case.
Hardware Development For Gravity Probe-B

Gravity Probe-B (GP-B), also known as the Stanford Relativity Gyroscope Experiment, will test two fundamental predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity by precise measurement of the precessions of nearly perfect gyroscopes in earth orbit. This endeavor embodies state-of-the-art technologies in many fields, including gyroscope fabrication and readout, cryogenics, superconductivity, magnetic shielding, precision optics and alignment methods, and satellite control systems. These technologies are necessary to enable measurement of the predicted precession rates to the milliarcsecond/year level, and to reduce to 'near zero' all non-General Relativistic torques on the gyroscopes. This paper provides a brief overview of the experiment followed by descriptions of several specific hardware items with highlights on progress to date and plans for future development and tests.
English Language Proficiency and the Earnings of Young Immigrants in U.S. Labor Markets

This paper studies the English language proficiency levels of immigrants to the United States as determined from scores on a standardized test explicitly designed to measure reading proficiency. The data are disaggregated by area of origin and year of immigration. The connection between English deficiency levels and wages is then examined. In contrast to previous studies, it is found that English deficiency unambiguously depresses the wages of immigrants below what their other human capital characteristics suggest they should earn in the U.S. labor market. At the same time, the data show that, among the sample of young adults examined, there is a remarkable correlation between learning of English and time lived in the United States. The study indicates that policies encouraging the acquisition of English as a second language may provide a high dividend in the form of economic progress among immigrants.