cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
What is the rate of lumbar adjacent segment disease after percutaneous versus open fusion

Objective Adjacent segment disease (ASD) requiring treatment or re-operation is a common problem after surgery on the lumbar spine. The hypothesis of this retrospective study was that ASD occurs less often following lumbar spine fusion in patients who undergo percutaneous minimally invasive (MIS) instrumentation than in those in whom open instrumentation is used. Methods A case-control study was performed on consecutive patients who had undergone staged single or two level anterior lumbar interbody fusion for degenerative conditions followed by open or MIS instrumentation from 2002 to 2005 in our institution. ASD was defined as that necessitating additional procedures for new symptoms related to an adjacent lumbar dermatome. Results One hundred and seventeen patients met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 53 had been followed up by chart or medical record review for longer than one year. There were 23 patients in the MIS group and 30 in the open group. Of the 30 patients in the open group, 9 had developed ASD (30%). Of the 23 patients in the MIS group, 7 had developed ASD (30%). This difference is not statistically significant (P = 1.00). Conclusion Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no significant difference in incidence of ASD in patients who had underwent open versus percutaneous instrumentation following anterior lumbar interbody fusion.
Searching for Novel Biomarkers Using High Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Diffusion tensor imaging is capable of resolving large fiber bundles (e.g. the corpus callosum) and has been quite informative in understanding the overall structural connectivity of the brain. Recent data has shown that traditional resolution limitations can be exceeded in humans in vivo to submillimeter resolution. This chapter discusses these new techniques, and specific applications to small pathways such as the perforant path in the medial temporal lobe. High-resolution diffusion tensor imaging is a promising new tool that can be used to discover novel biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and other disorders. It allows for a much more detailed investigation of brain white matter than previously possible, perhaps offering clues into the first signs of synaptic deterioration that may precede frank neuronl loss. Although these methods are still in their infancy and many challenges have to be overcome before they can be used in a clinical fashion, results so far have been promising. Challenges and future directions are discussed in detail.
Monolithic GaInNAsSb vertical cavity surface emitting lasers at 1534nm

Electrically pulsed GaInNAsSb-based, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) at 1534 nm are reported. The lasers operated below -25C due to a gain-cavity misalignment. These are the first monolithic, C-band VCSELs on GaAs.
An automatic calibration system for smart antenna arrays

Experimental results have showed that beam patterns can achieve their theoretically expected performances only if the non-ideal array behavior is appropriately compensated. We have developed an automatic calibration system for smart antenna array. It is time saving, easy to operate and accurate. The test results show that the calibrated array has a much improved beam pattern comparing with the one without calibration and it is very close to the simulated pattern.
Q**2 Dependent Parametrizations of Parton Distribution Functions

We have used a large set of high-${Q}^{2}$ data on deep-inelastic scattering, dimuon mass distributions, and $\frac{J}{\ensuremath{\psi}}$ ${x}_{F}$ distributions to extract estimates of the ${Q}^{2}$-dependent quark and gluon distribution functions in nucleons. The ${Q}^{2}$ dependence of these functions is parametrized in a manner convenient for predicting a large variety of reactions for ${Q}^{2}\ensuremath{\simeq}4\ensuremath{-}200$ ${(\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/\mathit{c})}^{2}$ and for extrapolation to the ultrahigh values of ${Q}^{2}$ that will be probed by future accelerators in the TeV energy range.
A phenotype of early infancy predicts reactivity of the amygdala in male adults

One of the central questions that has occupied those disciplines concerned with human development is the nature of continuities and discontinuities from birth to maturity. The amygdala has a central role in the processing of novelty and emotion in the brain. Although there is considerable variability among individuals in the reactivity of the amygdala to novel and emotional stimuli, the origin of these individual differences is not well understood. Four-month old infants called high reactive (HR) demonstrate a distinctive pattern of vigorous motor activity and crying to specific unfamiliar visual, auditory and olfactory stimuli in the laboratory. Low-reactive infants show the complementary pattern. Here, we demonstrate that the HR infant phenotype predicts greater amygdalar reactivity to novel faces almost two decades later in adults. A prediction of individual differences in brain function at maturity can be made on the basis of a single behavioral assessment made in the laboratory at 4 months of age. This is the earliest known human behavioral phenotype that predicts individual differences in patterns of neural activity at maturity. These temperamental differences rooted in infancy may be relevant to understanding individual differences in vulnerability and resilience to clinical psychiatric disorder. Males who were HR infants showed particularly high levels of reactivity to novel faces in the amygdala that distinguished them as adults from all other sex/temperament subgroups, suggesting that their amygdala is particularly prone to engagement by unfamiliar faces. These findings underline the importance of taking gender into account when studying the developmental neurobiology of human temperament and anxiety disorders. The genetic study of behavioral and biologic intermediate phenotypes (or 'endophenotypes') indexing anxiety-proneness offers an important alternative to examining phenotypes based on clinically defined disorder. As the HR phenotype is characterized by specific patterns of reactivity to elemental visual, olfactory and auditory stimuli, well before complex social behaviors such as shyness or fearful interaction with strangers can be observed, it may be closer to underlying neurobiological mechanisms than behavioral profiles observed later in life. This possibility, together with the fact that environmental factors have less time to impact the 4-month phenotype, suggests that this temperamental profile may be a fruitful target for high-risk genetic studies.
The Environmental Impact of Immigration: An Analysis of the Effects of Immigrant Concentration on Air Pollution Levels

Despite growing interest in the impact of immigration on U.S. society, research has rarely examined the effects of immigration flows on the natural environment. The current study addresses this gap in research using data on 183 Metropolitan Statistical Areas drawn from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to empirically assess the relationships between contemporary immigration and seven measures of air pollution. In doing so, we seek to (1) broaden knowledge about the social consequences of immigration to include its potential effects on the environment, (2) address competing theoretical perspectives about immigration-environment relationships (i.e., population pressure/social disorganization versus ecological footprint/community resource perspectives), and (3) extend knowledge about the predictors and sources of environmental harm within local communities. In contrast to popular opinion and population pressure positions, our research indicates that immigration does not contribute to local air pollution levels across any of the seven pollution measures examined.
Electron Transport in the Pathway of Acetate Conversion to Methane in the Marine Archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans

ABSTRACT A liquid chromatography-hybrid linear ion trap-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry approach was used to determine the differential abundance of proteins in acetate-grown cells compared to that of proteins in methanol-grown cells of the marine isolate Methanosarcina acetivorans metabolically labeled with 14N versus 15N. The 246 differentially abundant proteins in M. acetivorans were compared with the previously reported 240 differentially expressed genes of the freshwater isolate Methanosarcina mazei determined by transcriptional profiling of acetate-grown cells compared to methanol-grown cells. Profound differences were revealed for proteins involved in electron transport and energy conservation. Compared to methanol-grown cells, acetate-grown M. acetivorans synthesized greater amounts of subunits encoded in an eight-gene transcriptional unit homologous to operons encoding the ion-translocating Rnf electron transport complex previously characterized from the Bacteria domain. Combined with sequence and physiological analyses, these results suggest that M. acetivorans replaces the H2-evolving Ech hydrogenase complex of freshwater Methanosarcina species with the Rnf complex, which generates a transmembrane ion gradient for ATP synthesis. Compared to methanol-grown cells, acetate-grown M. acetivorans synthesized a greater abundance of proteins encoded in a seven-gene transcriptional unit annotated for the Mrp complex previously reported to function as a sodium/proton antiporter in the Bacteria domain. The differences reported here between M. acetivorans and M. mazei can be attributed to an adaptation of M. acetivorans to the marine environment.
Nonparametric Greedy Algorithms for the Sparse Learning Problem

This paper studies the forward greedy strategy in sparse nonparametric regression. For additive models, we propose an algorithm called additive forward regression; for general multivariate models, we propose an algorithm called generalized forward regression. Both algorithms simultaneously conduct estimation and variable selection in nonparametric settings for the high dimensional sparse learning problem. Our main emphasis is empirical: on both simulated and real data, these two simple greedy methods can clearly outperform several state-of-the-art competitors, including LASSO, a nonparametric version of LASSO called the sparse additive model (SpAM) and a recently proposed adaptive parametric forward-backward algorithm called Foba. We also provide some theoretical justifications of specific versions of the additive forward regression.
Global Variations in Oceanic Evaporation (1958–2005): The Role of the Changing Wind Speed

Abstract Global estimates of oceanic evaporation (Evp) from 1958 to 2005 have been recently developed by the Objectively Analyzed Air–Sea Fluxes (OAFlux) project at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The nearly 50-yr time series shows that the decadal change of the global oceanic evaporation (Evp) is marked by a distinct transition from a downward trend to an upward trend around 1977–78. Since the transition, the global oceanic Evp has been up about 11 cm yr−1 (∼10%), from a low at 103 cm yr−1 in 1977 to a peak at 114 cm yr−1 in 2003. The increase in Evp was most dramatic during the 1990s. The uncertainty of the estimates is about ±2.74 cm yr−1. By utilizing the newly developed datasets of Evp and related air–sea variables, the study investigated the cause of the decadal change in oceanic Evp. The decadal differences between the 1990s and the 1970s indicates that the increase of Evp in the 1990s occurred over a global scale and had spatially coherent structures. Larger Evp is most pronounced...
Discovering Weakly-Interacting Factors in a Complex Stochastic Process

Dynamic Bayesian networks are structured representations of stochastic processes. Despite their structure, exact inference in DBNs is generally intractable. One approach to approximate inference involves grouping the variables in the process into smaller factors and keeping independent beliefs over these factors. In this paper we present several techniques for decomposing a dynamic Bayesian network automatically to enable factored inference. We examine a number of features of a DBN that capture different types of dependencies that will cause error in factored inference. An empirical comparison shows that the most useful of these is a heuristic that estimates the mutual information introduced between factors by one step of belief propagation. In addition to features computed over entire factors, for efficiency we explored scores computed over pairs of variables. We present search methods that use these features, pairwise and not, to find a factorization, and we compare their results on several datasets. Automatic factorization extends the applicability of factored inference to large, complex models that are undesirable to factor by hand. Moreover, tests on real DBNs show that automatic factorization can achieve significantly lower error in some cases.
Conformational Changes in the Spike Glycoprotein of Murine Coronavirus Are Induced at 37°C either by Soluble Murine CEACAM1 Receptors or by pH 8

The spike glycoprotein (S) of the murine coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) binds to viral murine CEACAM receptor glycoproteins and causes membrane fusion. On virions, the 180-kDa S glycoprotein of the MHV-A59 strain can be cleaved by trypsin to form the 90-kDa N-terminal receptor-binding subunit (S1) and the 90-kDa membrane-anchored fusion subunit (S2). Incubation of virions with purified, soluble CEACAM1a receptor proteins at 37 degrees C and pH 6.5 neutralizes virus infectivity (B. D. Zelus, D. R. Wessner, R. K. Williams, M. N. Pensiero, F. T. Phibbs, M. deSouza, G. S. Dveksler, and K. V. Holmes, J. Virol. 72:7237-7244, 1998). We used liposome flotation and protease sensitivity assays to investigate the mechanism of receptor-induced, temperature-dependent virus neutralization. After incubation with soluble receptor at 37 degrees C and pH 6.5, virions became hydrophobic and bound to liposomes. Receptor binding induced a profound, apparently irreversible conformational change in S on the viral envelope that allowed S2, but not S1, to be degraded by trypsin at 4 degrees C. Various murine CEACAM proteins triggered conformational changes in S on recombinant MHV strains expressing S glycoproteins of MHV-A59 or MHV-4 (MHV-JHM) with the same specificities as seen for virus neutralization and virus-receptor activities. Increased hydrophobicity of virions and conformational change in S2 of MHV-A59 could also be induced by incubating virions at pH 8 and 37 degrees C, without soluble receptor. Surprisingly, the S protein of recombinant MHV-A59 virions with a mutation, H716D, that precluded cleavage between S1 and S2 could also be triggered to undergo a conformational change at 37 degrees C by soluble receptor at neutral pH or by pH 8 alone. A novel 120-kDa subunit was formed following incubation of the receptor-triggered S(A59)H716D virions with trypsin at 4 degrees C. The data show that unlike class 1 fusion glycoproteins of other enveloped viruses, the murine coronavirus S protein can be triggered to a membrane-binding conformation at 37 degrees C either by soluble receptor at neutral pH or by alkaline pH alone, without requiring previous activation by cleavage between S1 and S2.
Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas Occurring in Two Brothers with Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome and Review of the Literature

Approximately 13% of patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), a primary immune deficiency, develop malignant tumors, the predominant form being non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Previously, only 4 cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma have been reported in WAS patients. Herein, we review the literature of WAS-related lymphomas and report 2 brothers with WAS who both developed lymphomas; one developed Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-driven diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and one developed EBV-negative classical Hodgkin's lymphoma. In contrast to many of the previously reported lymphomas in WAS patients, these lymphomas were extensively evaluated by means of molecular, flow cytometric, and immunohistochemical methods. Both brothers died shortly after diagnosis, despite aggressive therapy. The occurrence of 2 distinct forms of lymphomas in these brothers underscores the interplay between genetic susceptibility and environmental exposure in lymphoma pathogenesis.
Physician Duties in the Face of Deceitful Gamete Donors, Disobedient Surrogate Mothers, and Divorcing Parents

To be best able to respond if third parties in assisted reproduction contracts break their terms, physicians should familiarize themselves with the contracts, encourage all parties to self-disclose, and, failing that, disclose material information to the other party.
Dynamics of the Cumulus Cloud Margin: An Observational Study

Aircraft observations of shallow to moderately deep cumulus clouds are analyzed with the purpose of describing the typical horizontal structure of thermodynamic and kinematic parameters near the cumulus margin from the cloud center into the ambient clear air. The cumuli were sampled in a broad range of environments in three regions: the tropical Atlantic Ocean in winter, the Sonoran Desert during the monsoon, and the arid high plains of Wyoming in summer. The composite analysis of 1624 cumulus penetrations shows thattheverticalmassflux,temperature,buoyancy,thebuoyancyflux,andtheturbulentkineticenergyalltend toreachaminimumnearthecloudedge.Mostofthesevariables,andalsotheliquidwatercontent,thedroplet concentration, and the mean droplet size, generally decrease in value from within the cumulus toward the cloud edge, slowly atfirst and rapidly close to the cloud edge. Thesefindingscorroborate recent observational and modeling studies and provide further evidence for significant evaporative cooling in laterally entraining and detraining eddies in the cloud margin, a transition zone within ;200 m (or ;10% of the cloud diameter) ofthecloudedge.Thiscoolingexplainsthetendencyfordownwardaccelerating,buoyantlydrivensubsidence in the cloud margin.
Adaptive robot control: A new perspective

Various estimation schemes were proposed in [Li and Slotine, 1987] to identify the unknown parameters of the loads or links of robot manipulators. It was also suggested that these schemes could be used to generate new adaptation laws by combining them with the earlier adaptive controller of [Slotine and Li, 1986]. This new perspective of driving parameter estimation by both the tracking errors of the joint motion and the prediction errors of the joint torque is detailed in this paper. Global asymptotic tracking convergence is shown for a class of new adaptive controllers based on this approach, regardless of the excitation of the desired trajectories. Further, the adaptive controller which uses the modified exponentially forgetting least square estimation scheme is shown to guarantee global exponential convergence of the tracking and parameter errors if the excitation of the desired trajectories is strong enough. The superior performance of the new adaptive controllers is demonstrated in computer simulations.
Methods to assess students' acquisition, application and integration of basic science knowledge in an innovative competency-based curriculum.

Background: The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine was designed to encourage medical students to pursue careers as physician investigators. Our faculty decided that assessment should enhance learning and adopted only formative assessments to document student performance in relation to nine broad-based competencies. No grades are used to judge student performance throughout the 5-year program. Instead, assessments are competency-based, relate directly to performance standards, and are stored in e-Portfolios to track progress and document student achievement. The class size is limited to 32 students a year. Aims: Schools with competency-based curricula must provide students with formative feedback to identify performance gaps and monitor progress. We describe a systematic approach to assess medical knowledge using essay-type questions (CAPPs) and multiple choice questions (SAQs) to provide medical students with weekly, formative feedback about their abilities to acquire, apply and integrate basic and clinical science concepts. Method: Processes for developing performance standards, creating assessment items, training faculty, reporting student performance and monitoring outcomes are described. A case study of a Year 1 course is presented with specific examples of CAPPs and SAQs to illustrate how formative assessment data are interpreted and reported in students’ e-Portfolios. Results: Preliminary evidence suggests that CAPPs and SAQs have a positive impact on students’ education, a justifiable cost in light of obtained benefits and growing acceptance among stakeholders. Two student cohorts performed significantly above the population mean on USMLE Step 1, which suggests that these assessment methods have not disadvantaged students. More evidence is needed to assess the reliability and validity of these tools for formative purposes. Conclusions: Using assessment data for formative purposes may encourage application and integration of knowledge, help students identify performance gaps, foster student development of learning plans and promote student responsibility for learning. Discussion provides applications for institutions with larger classes to consider.
The PBA vs Piscataway: A Case Study Statistics In The Workplace

The State of New Jersey Public Relations Employment Commission recently rendered a decision in a dispute over the Piscataway Police Department’s procedure for promoting individuals to the rank of sergeant. One important component of the case was how to properly interpret the results of a 1999 sergeant’s promotion exam. This paper gives a brief history of the promotional process and offers the data and statistical analysis submitted by both the Plaintiff (Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association- PBA) and the Police Administration. The case provides an excellent tutorial for beginners and practitioners on how to properly apply some elementary, but powerful, statistical concepts.
Muscle atrophy contributes to quadriceps weakness after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Objectives Quadriceps weakness persists after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Muscle atrophy and activation failure may contribute. This study examined the roles of atrophy and activation failure in quadriceps weakness after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
Benefit-Cost Analysis

I’d like to concentrate on three topics related to global climate change. Previous presentations have contained very important lessons on the timescales involved in global warming and the value of investing in additional information before taking action. I would like to draw out and emphasize these lessons.
Bayesian characterization of uncertainty in species interaction strengths

Considerable effort has been devoted to the estimation of species interaction strengths. This effort has focused primarily on statistical significance testing and obtaining point estimates of parameters that contribute to interaction strength magnitudes, leaving the characterization of uncertainty associated with those estimates unconsidered. We consider a means of characterizing the uncertainty of a generalist predator's interaction strengths by formulating an observational method for estimating a predator's prey-specific per capita attack rates as a Bayesian statistical model. This formulation permits the explicit incorporation of multiple sources of uncertainty. A key insight is the informative nature of several so-called non-informative priors that have been used in modeling the sparse data typical of predator feeding surveys. We introduce to ecology a new neutral prior and provide evidence for its superior performance. We use a case study to consider the attack rates in a New Zealand intertidal whelk predator, and we illustrate not only that Bayesian point estimates can be made to correspond with those obtained by frequentist approaches, but also that estimation uncertainty as described by 95% intervals is more useful and biologically realistic using the Bayesian method. In particular, unlike in bootstrap confidence intervals, the lower bounds of the Bayesian posterior intervals for attack rates do not include zero when a predator-prey interaction is in fact observed. We conclude that the Bayesian framework provides a straightforward, probabilistic characterization of interaction strength uncertainty, enabling future considerations of both the deterministic and stochastic drivers of interaction strength and their impact on food webs.
Organ Donation/Acceptance by Orthodox Jews

A 47 year old attorney manifests life threatening congestive heart failure due to idiopathic cardiomyopathy. Conservative management is able to sustain a bed and chair existence but constant oxygen administration is required and the patient is obviously agonal. An urgent heart transplant is advised and the patient, an orthodox Jew agrees. The cardiac surgeon recalls that the patient refused permission to use his son’s organs following a fatal automobile accident three years earlier on the grounds that ”Jewish law requires that a body be intact to be acceptable to God.” Annoyed at the refusal to permit organ donation, the surgeon declines to list the patient for a heart transplant. “You can’t have it both ways,” the surgeon states.
A Pilot Survey of First-Year Medical Student Skills after Summer International Health Electives

Introduction While international health electives (IHEs) are recognized as a viable means of teaching cultural competency, inspiring student idealism, and encouraging pursuit of primary care specialties, the medical literature has few surveys about student perceptions of pre-clinical IHEs.
The Critical Voice and the Evolution of American Communication Policy

It has been said that the job of just about everybody on K Street is to put forward the private interests of their clients and patrons in terms that sound like they actually represent the public interest. The field of communication policy has witnessed some considerable rhetorical talent in this regard. There are some other voices in this particular contested field of policy debate (most of whom cannot afford K Street) who scrape together some resources from public contributions and/or from the academy and foundations and aspire to represent the public at large. Historically the actual public at large has not been paying much attention (with the occasional exception of issues of cable rates and, of course, pornography.) John Oliver, however, has recently demonstrated a most interesting exception to this general rule. Those of a critical voice frequently decry the abuses of monopoly, oligopoly, corporate power and capitalism itself and speak and publish actively. They are routinely invited as a voice to oppose mergers and comment critically on policies at various hearings. But do they make a difference when policies are finally enacted? It is a challenging and difficult question which I think would engage the TPRC community. I would like to propose panel or perhaps plenary panel on this topic. There are four engaged Washington-based critical voices, sometimes known as the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Gene Kimmelman, Mark Cooper. Andrew Schwartzman and Jeff Chester who have been active for a number of years. I would propose inviting several of them, perhaps all. And other activists I would propose include: Robert McChesney, Eli Noam, Gigi Sohn, Charlie Firestone, Marc Rotenberg and Susan Crawford. If this strikes the conference committee as appropriate and not overly broad, I would be happy to work with the committee to develop a suitable balance representing the different dimensions of this sphere. W. Russell Neuman New York University wrn210@nyu.edu
Intermittency in Preplanned Elbow Movements Persists in the Absence of Visual Feedback

Doeringer, Joseph A. and Neville Hogan. Intermittency in preplanned elbow movements persists in the absence of visual feedback. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 1787–1799, 1998. It has been observed for nearly...
Oxygen Sensing Difluoroboron Dinaphthoylmethane Polylactide

Dual emissive properties of solid-state difluoroboron β-diketonate-poly(lactic acid) (BF2bdk-PLA) materials have been utilized as biological oxygen sensors. Dyes with red-shifted absorption and emission are important for multiplexing and in vivo imaging, thus hydroxyl-functionalized dinaphthoylmethane initiators and dye-PLA conjugates BF2dnm(X)PLA (X = H, Br, I) with extended conjugation were synthesized. The luminescent materials show red-shifted absorbance (∼435 nm) and fluorescence tunability by molecular weight. Fluorescence colors range from yellow (∼530 nm) in 10–12 kDa polymers to green (∼490 nm) in 20–30 kDa polymers. Room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) are present under a nitrogen atmosphere. For the iodine-substituted derivative, BF2dnm(I)PLA, clearly distinguishable fluorescence (green) and phosphorescence (orange) peaks are present, making it ideal for ratiometric oxygen-sensing and imaging. Bromide and hydrogen analogues with weaker relat...
Abstract 2835: Discovery of novel inhibitors for ECT2 as a novel therapeutic strategy for lung cancer

The Epithelial Cell Transforming sequence 2 (ECT2) proto-oncogene is a Guanine Exchange Factor (GEF) for RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42 and is essential to the regulation of cytokinesis. ECT2 contains the Dbl homology and pleckstrin homology (PH) domains, which are the hallmarks of GEFs. ECT2 is over-expressed in primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors, and injection of ECT2 transfectants into nude mice efficiently induces tumor formation. High level of ECT2 expression is associated with poor prognosis for patients with NSCLC. Knock down of ECT2 expression by small interfering RNAs effectively suppresses lung cancer cell growth, suggesting a specific role of ECT2 in lung cancer development. Taken together, ECT2 may represent an attractive molecular target for inhibiting lung tumor growth. Our studies are based on the hypothesis that ECT2 plays an important role in lung cancer progression and is a novel target for the development of drugs to treat lung cancer. We have built a model for ECT2 PH domain using protein homology modeling. Docking of new compounds selected from commercial drug-like libraries has led to the identification of novel inhibitors of ECT2 PH domain. We have identified several compounds that bind ECT2 PH domain in the low micromolar range (KD Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2835. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2835
Medical image registration and application to atlas-based segmentation

A fundamental problem in medical image analysis is the integration of information from multiple images of the same subject, acquired using the same or different imaging modalities and possibly at different time. An essential aspect of this problem is image registration, which is the task of finding geometric relationships between corresponding points in multiple images of the same scene. Various registration methods have been proposed over recent years, among which registration strategies based on maximization of mutual information have been proved to be promising methods and have been widely used in multi-modality image registration. However, applying mutual information (MI) to original intensities only takes statistical information into consideration, while spatial information is completely neglected. In the first part of this dissertation, a novel approach is proposed to incorporate spatial information into MI through gradient vector flow (GVF). With this approach, MI now is calculated from the GVF-intensity (GVFI) map of the original images instead of their intensity values. The algorithm is implemented and applied to multi-modality brain image registration to test the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the success rate of our method is higher than that of traditional MI-based registration. In many applications, a rigid transformation is insufficient to describe the spatial relationship between two images. Thus, elastic transformations, or non-rigid transformations are often required in image registration. In the second part of this dissertation, we present a generalized gradient-guided non-rigid registration strategy. The derivation procedure is similar to that by Lucas and Kanade, but in a more general manner. In experiments, we compare the proposed method and other gradient-guided methods in the literature, using both synthetic and real images. It is shown that methods combining gradients from both source and target images usually perform better. In the third part, we apply previously described registration methods to atlas-based brain magnetic resonance (MR) image segmentation. A pre-labelled image or atlas is first registered to the subject image to be segmented, and the deformation field for each voxel is derived. Then the structures delineated in the atlas are projected onto the subject image by applying the deformation field to the atlas mask. We validate our results using the datasets from IBSR. Quantitative comparisons using various criteria show that the proposed method is better than or comparable to published methods.
Neurolymphomatosis of the peripheral nervous system: a case report and review of the literature

Neurolymphomatosis is a rare neurological syndrome in lymphomas. It is reported as infiltration of peripheral nerves by lymphoma. It is important to distinguish neurolymphomatosis from other types of neuropathies, particularly infectious and inflammatory conditions. However, it is difficult to isolate a cancer-related inflammatory vasculitis and mononeuritis multiplex without definitive histopathologic examination. In this report, we describe a case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma involving the peroneal nerve and presenting as neurolymphomatosis.
Exploiting nonlinear amplitude-frequency dependence for temperature compensation in silicon micromechanical resonators

Resonators used in frequency-reference oscillators must maintain a stable frequency output even when subjected to temperature variations. The traditional solution is to construct the resonator from a material with a low temperature coefficient, such as AT-cut quartz, which can achieve absolute frequency stability on the order of ±25 ppm over commercial temperature ranges. In comparison, Si microresonators suffer from the disadvantage that silicon's temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) is approximately two orders of magnitude greater than that of AT-cut quartz. In this paper, we present an in situ passive temperature compensation scheme for Si microresonators based on nonlinear amplitude-frequency coupling which reduces the TCF to a level comparable with that of an AT-quartz resonator. The implementation of this passive technique is generic to a variety of Si microresonators and can be applied to a number of frequency control and timing applications.
Modification of Polymers Containing Lewis Base Functional Groups via Condensation with Lewis Acids

Polymer modification can be effected via many routes. Our work currently involves the condensation of polymers containing Lewis Bases (nucleophiles) with mono and dihalo acid chlorides containing metals (1–14) as illustrated below.
Solving transient acoustic boundary value problems with equivalent sources using a lumped parameter approach

An equivalent source method is developed for solving transient acoustic boundary value problems. The method assumes the boundary surface is discretized in terms of triangular or quadrilateral elements and that the solution is represented using the acoustic fields of discrete sources placed at the element centers. Also, the boundary condition is assumed to be specified for the normal component of the surface velocity as a function of time, and the source amplitudes are determined to match the known elemental volume velocity vector at a series of discrete time steps. Equations are given for marching-on-in-time schemes to solve for the source amplitudes at each time step for simple, dipole, and tripole source formulations. Several example problems are solved to illustrate the results and to validate the formulations, including problems with closed boundary surfaces where long-time numerical instabilities typically occur. A simple relationship between the simple and dipole source amplitudes in the tripole source formulation is derived so that the source radiates primarily in the direction of the outward surface normal. The tripole source formulation is shown to eliminate interior acoustic resonances and long-time numerical instabilities.
Exploring descriptive norms of parent-child communication about pornography among parents of middle-schoolers in the US

AbstractExposure to pornography is becoming a reality for many adolescents. Open, frequent, and direct communication about pornography is needed, yet few investigations have explored this area. In aims of providing groundwork for future parent–child pornography communication investigations, the theory of normative social behavior was used to conduct 33 in-depth interviews with parents of at least one middle-school-aged child in the US. Interviews focused on descriptive norms related to societal beliefs about pornography, adolescent exposure to pornography, and the courses of actions that most parents undertake when adolescents are exposed to pornography. Articulated perceptions suggest that most parents view adolescent exposure to pornography as negative although exposure to pornography is becoming more normative for adolescents. Obstacles such as parental fear, discomfort, and a lack in sexual and technological communication openness/knowledge were conveyed. Recommendations related to strengthening paren...
Response to a Cold Pressor Test during Physical Training

Abstract Members of the 1958–59 varsity basketball team at Santa Barbara and a control group of physical education majors not in training were tested each three weeks during a 17-week season of basketball competition on their response to a step test and to a cold pressor test. The results indicated that significant step test recovery pulse rate changes were made by the basketball players after three weeks of training. Maximum changes were found to occur after 17 weeks of training. The diastolic pressure response to the cold pressor test increased significantly (7 mmHg.) after six weeks of training and this was maintained for 17 weeks. The results indicated that a possible increased sensitivity or tone of the peripheral vessels resulted from physical training.
Experimental nutrient enrichment of forest streams increases energy flow to predators along greener food-web pathways.

Nutrient enrichment is a key stressor of lakes and streams globally, affecting the relative availability of important basal resources such as algae and detritus. These effects are controlled by responses of autotrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms that subsequently affect primary consumers and higher level predators. Despite the potential for propagation of these bottom-up effects, few studies have examined how nutrients affect “green” (autotrophic) versus “brown” (heterotrophic) energy pathways to predators via changes in the quantity or type of prey consumed. We studied the pathways by which nutrient enrichment affected two predatory salamander species (Desmognathus quadramaculatus and Eurycea wilderae) using detailed diet analyses before and during 2-year nutrient additions to five headwater forest streams. The streams were continuously enriched with different concentrations of dissolved nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), creating relatively greater N or P concentrations and distinct N:P ratios (2:1, 8:1, 16:1, 32:1 and 128:1) in each stream. Nutrient addition resulted in greater prey number, size and biomass consumed by D. quadramaculatus, an effect driven more by P than by N additions. Some of these effects were greater in the second year of enrichment and were greater for larger individuals. Shifts in the prey composition of D. quadramaculatus included increases in algivores and decreases in detritivores, tracking observed treatment effects on basal resource quantity (e.g. algivore abundance in guts was related to algal biomass, which increased with enrichment, and detritivore abundance in guts was related to detrital standing stocks, which declined with enrichment). For E. wilderae diets, there was limited evidence for increased prey size and number, or for alteration of prey composition with enrichment despite evidence of increased larval growth. We hypothesise that body size differences between the two salamander species partially explain their different dietary responses to enrichment. Our results show that nutrient addition, primarily of P, affected the quantity and composition of predator diets in our nutrient-poor streams. These effects on diet were consistent with concurrent studies showing that P enrichment resulted in faster growth of salamanders and occurred partly via effects on algal biofilm or “green” food-web pathways, despite the dominance of detrital or “brown” resources in our heavily shaded forest stream sites. Thus, nutrient enrichment can promote algae- versus detritus-based energy-flow pathways in nominally light-limited stream ecosystems, with associated changes in food-web characteristics and function.
Sex-Dependent Associations of Serum Uric Acid with Brain Function During Aging.

Serum uric acid (SUA) is an abundant natural antioxidant capable of reducing cellular oxidation, a major cause of neurodegenerative disease. In line with this, SUA levels are lower in Alzheimer’s disease; however, the association between SUA and cognition remains unclear. Results from studies examining the effects of SUA on cognition may be difficult to interpret in the context of normal versus pathological aging. This study examined sex-specific associations of baseline SUA with cognition during aging. Data from dementia-free participants initially aged 26–99 (N = 1,451) recruited for the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), were used in the current analyses. SUA was assessed using blood samples collected during research visits. Cognition was measured using five composite scores (verbal memory, attention, executive function, language, and visuospatial ability). At the first study visit, compared with women, men were older, more likely to be White, had more years of education, higher baseline SUA levels, and higher cardiovascular risk scores. Higher baseline SUA was associated with attenuated declines in attention (β = 0.006; p = 0.03) and visuospatial abilities (β = 0.007; p = 0.01) in men. There was a trend to suggest higher baseline SUA in men was associated with attenuated declines in language, but this finding did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.09). There were no significant findings with SUA and cognition in women. In this sample of cognitively healthy, community-dwelling adults, we found that higher SUA levels at baseline were associated with attenuated declines in attention and visuospatial abilities in men. SUA was not associated with cognition or change in cognition over time in women.
Olympus Mons volcano, Mars: A photogeologic view and new insights

Abstract The volcano Olympus Mons is probably the best known extraterrestrial volcano. In the past decade, an unprecedented selection of high-resolution images with a spatial resolution of up to 25 cm/pixel has been collected, and these images now allow detailed morphologic analysis of the entire volcano. The summit comprises a nested caldera with six overlapping collapse pits. There are numerous wrinkle ridges and graben on the caldera floor, and topographic data indicate that the location of these features is controlled by subsidence of the central portion of the floor. Examination of the caldera walls reveals numerous layers interpreted to be lava flows. No clear evidence for eruption sites on the flanks of the volcano exist; rather, many previously identified sources of lava appear to be break-outs from flows up-slope which are controlled by local breaks in slope. The vents for these eruptions were most likely within the summit caldera but have been removed by the set of six large collapse events that have produced the 60 × 80 km diameter caldera, which are collectively called the “Olympus Paterae”. The origin of the basal escarpment surrounding the volcano remains enigmatic, but it is probably related to the origin of the surrounding lobate materials collectively called the Olympus Mons aureole. In places, this escarpment is >5 km high, but the elevation of the back-wall varies from ∼1 km to ∼8 km relative to the Mars datum. Inspection of kilometer-scale blocks within the aureole indicates that this material is not composed of lava flows, suggesting that the base of Olympus Mons consists of fragmented material comparable to the hyaloclastite material forming the base of Hawaiian volcanoes. Numerous additional features on Olympus Mons are discussed, including two large impact craters near the summit of the volcano, glacial deposits on the lower western flanks, channels and small shields around the base of the volcano, and ridges north of the escarpment which may have formed via the emplacement of dikes into ice-rich materials. Comparison with other Martian volcanoes may also help the analysis of Olympus Mons; the morphology of the basal escarpment of Apollinaris Patera suggests that erosion by wind or water may be restricted to the lowest elevations on Mars. If the basal materials of Olympus Mons are unconsolidated, then Olympus Mons may have been similar to Alba Mons or Tyrrhena Mons during the early phases of volcano growth. Certain basaltic volcanoes on Earth may serve as good analogs for features seen on Olympus Mons; the summit of Masaya volcano, Nicaragua, displays similar features to Olympus Patera at the summit caldera of Olympus Mons.
MULTILEVEL INVESTIGATIONS OF SYSTEMATICALLY VARYING SLOPES: ISSUES, ALTERNATIVES, AND CONSEQUENCES

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the issues, alternative, and consequences of mul;tilevel investigations of systematically varying slopes. Generally, the situations of interest are large-scale non-experimental studies of educational effects. The focus may be on either the program—for example, curricular innovation, school type—the school, the classroom/teacher, or some combination, as the sources of educational effects. Regardless, the intent is to identify the antecedents of student performance and attitude and estimate the magnitude of their effects. The typical study involves two-stage sampling. Either a sample, which can be random, representative, or convenience, of schools is drawn and students are sampled randomly or on a stratified random basis from within schools. Alternatively, a sample of classrooms is chosen, either randomly or exhaustively within a sample of schools, and all the students within the classrooms comprise the total study sample. In either case, this situation yields data with dependencies among observations within the first-stage sampling units; that is, there are correlations among individuals in the same macro units.
Lack of Uptake of Prophylactic Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine among Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Seen at a Regional Medical Center

Background/ObjectiveWomen with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are at increased risk for cervical neoplasia likely due to infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) and should be considered for HPV vaccination. We sought to determine the frequency of HR-HPV infection and uptake of HPV
Subtalar instability : diagnosis and treatment options

Summary The clinical symptoms of chronic subtalar instability are similar to those in patients with lateral ankle instability. Therefore, the exact diagnosis of the subtalar instability remains challenging. Conservative treatment of subtalar instability includes physical therapy. If conservative treatment fails, surgical options include ankle arthroscopy and anatomic reconstruction of lateral ligaments.