cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of α-Lipoic Acid on Liver Oxidative Damage Induced by Hyperglycemia in GK Rats

[Objective]To investigate the protective effects of α-lipoic acid(α-LA) on sucrose-induced liver oxidative damages in Goto-Kakizaki(GK) rats.[Methods]Thirty-six eight-week-old male GK rats were randomly divided into 6 groups:1 negative control(no treatment),1 positive control(30% sucrose solution),and 4 experimental(30% sucrose solution+daily α-LA supplementation of 25,50,75,or 100mg/kg by gavage,respectively) groups.Nine weeks after the interference,changes in lipid peroxidation concentrations,antioxidases activity,and reactive oxygen species(ROS) levels in liver mitochondria were recorded.[Results]The levels of malondialdehyde(MDA) and ROS increased significantly(P0.05),and the activities of superoxidase dismutase(SOD) and glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px) in mitochondria of liver decreased remarkably in the positive control rats compared with those of the negative control rats(P0.05),which indicated that sucrose feeding obviously enhanced oxidative stress in the liver cells of GK rats.Compared with the positive control rats,the rats treated with 25 or 50mg/kg α-LA showed significant declines in the levels of MDA and ROS and increases in the activities of GSH-Px and SOD in mitochondria of rat liver(P0.05),and the above antioxidative effects were superior to the similar indicators in the rats with 75 and 100mg/kg α-LA interference.[Conclusion]α-lipoic acid within a certain range of concentration may have a protective effect on the oxidative damage in liver cells of sucrose-induced GK rats.
Total quality management in American industry.

The definition of total quality management is conformance to customer requirements and specifications, fitness for use, buyer satisfaction, and value at an affordable price. The three individuals who have developed the total quality management concepts in the United States are W.E. Deming, J.M. Juran, and Philip Crosby. The universal principles of total quality management are (a) a customer focus, (b) management commitment, (c) training, (d) process capability and control, and (e) measurement through quality improvement tools. Results from the National Demonstration Project on Quality Improvement in Health Care showed the principles of total quality management could be applied to healthcare.
Pediatric Inflammatory Neck Mass

The treatment of pediatric inflammatory neck masses depends upon the underlying etiology and may include both medical and surgical interventions. The most common causes of bacterial cervical lymphadenitis include Staphylococcus aureus (increasingly methicillin-resistant S. aureus), and Streptococcus pyogenes. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan can provide an accurate means of diagnosing whether an abscess is present which might need surgical drainage. Recent studies, however, have focused on the ability to diagnose abscesses using imaging studies that limit the patient exposure to radiation, including the use of ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and low-voltage CT scanning. Recent database studies have demonstrated trends in the incidence and management of deep neck abscesses from 2000 to 2009. The incidence of retropharyngeal abscesses has increased while the incidence of peritonsillar abscesses, parapharyngeal abscesses or combined space deep neck infections has remained the same. Rates of incision and drainage for retropharyngeal abscesses have decreased, while for peritonsillar abscesses rates of incision and drainage have increased with a corresponding decrease in tonsillectomy rates. Fusobacterial infections have been associated with peritonsillar abscesses and deep neck space infections in association with Lemierre syndrome. These infections are treated with culture-directed antibiotics and surgical drainage when indicated and the prognosis is generally good when identified early. Kawasaki disease (KD) is a potential non-infectious/idiopathic cause of inflammatory pediatric neck mass. In addition to cervical lymphadenopathy, patients with Kawasaki disease may present with retropharyngeal cellulitits or abscess. It is critical that the patient with KD be identified within 10 days of illness onset so the child can be treated with intravenous immunoglobulin which has unequivocally been shown to decrease the incidence of potentially life-threatening cardiac aneurysms.
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Effect of Elastocapillarity on Reinforcement of Soft Polymeric Materials by Liquid Inclusions

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study mechanical properties of polymeric nanocomposites of liquid inclusions in polymeric network matrix. The shear modulus of nanocomposite is shown to be a universal function of the elastocapillary number γNL/(GNR0), where γNL is the surface tension of the liquid/network interface, GN is the shear modulus of the network and R0 is the initial size of liquid inclusions. First, in the range of elastocapillary numbers, γNL/(GNR0) GN. In such composites, the surface energy of the deformed liquid inclusions stiffens the composite. When the elastocapillary number increases further, γNL/(GNR0) ≫ 1, the interfacial energy of network/l...
The R838S Mutation in Retinal Guanylyl Cyclase 1 (RetGC1) Alters Calcium Sensitivity of cGMP Synthesis in the Retina and Causes Blindness in Transgenic Mice.

Abstract Substitutions of Arg838 in the dimerization domain of a human retinal membrane guanylyl cyclase 1 (RetGC1) linked to autosomal dominant cone-rod degeneration type 6 (CORD6) change RetGC1 regulation in vitro by Ca2+. In addition, we find that R838S substitution makes RetGC1 less sensitive to inhibition by retinal degeneration-3 protein (RD3). We selectively expressed human R838S RetGC1 in mouse rods and documented the decline in rod vision and rod survival. To verify that changes in rods were specifically caused by the CORD6 mutation, we used for comparison cones, which in the same mice did not express R838S RetGC1 from the transgenic construct. The R838S RetGC1 expression in rod outer segments reduced inhibition of cGMP production in the transgenic mouse retinas at the free calcium concentrations typical for dark-adapted rods. The transgenic mice demonstrated early-onset and rapidly progressed with age decline in visual responses from the targeted rods, in contrast to the longer lasting preservation of function in the non-targeted cones. The decline in rod function in the retina resulted from a progressive degeneration of rods between 1 and 6 months of age, with the severity and pace of the degeneration consistent with the extent to which the Ca2+ sensitivity of the retinal cGMP production was affected. Our study presents a new experimental model for exploring cellular mechanisms of the CORD6-related photoreceptor death. This mouse model provides the first direct biochemical and physiological in vivo evidence for the Arg838 substitutions in RetGC1 being the culprit behind the pathogenesis of the CORD6 congenital blindness.
Analysis of tool use strategies in evolved neural circuits controlling an articulated limb

Tool use constitutes a range of complex behaviors that generally require a sophisticated level of cognition, and is only found in higher mammals and a number of avian species. In this paper, we will examine how different strategies for using a tool emerge during the simulated evolution of a two degree-of-freedom articulated limb in a reaching task environment. The limb is controlled by recurrent neural networks that are evolved using the NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) algorithm, which allows for evolution of the topology of the network. First, we evolve controllers using two different fitness functions. One of these involves only very broad fitness criteria, such as the distance to target, while the other relies on more task knowledge, such as the difference between the number of required and actual tool pickups. Second, we observe that these fitness functions favor evolution of two distinct tool use strategies, and that the more informed fitness function leads to superior performance. Third, we compare the topological structure of the evolved neural circuits in detail, and relate behavioral differences to significant topological differences. Our results allow us to determine when the correct network topology for a given behavior has been found during evolution using NEAT, after which further changes to topology do not substantially improve fitness.
Identifying Attitudes and Behaviors in Intimate Relationships: Psychometric Properties of the Relationship Evaluation and Analysis Link

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Relationship Evaluation and Analysis Link (REAL), a survey that assesses attitudes and behaviors in intimate relationships including Cognitive...
Laïcité et patrimonialisation du religieux au Québec

Cet article examine le processus de patrimonialisation du catholicisme au Quebec au cours des deux dernieres decennies. A travers l’analyse de cas et de debats saillants tels la commission Bouchard-Taylor sur les accommodements raisonnables, le projet de Charte des valeurs quebecoises propose par le Parti Quebecois, les debats autour du crucifix a l’Assemblee nationale et les poursuites et jugements de la cour sur la priere a Saguenay, nous etudions les formes discursives, materielles et legales par lesquelles les pratiques et symboles catholiques sont resacralises a titre d’elements de la nation quebecoise et de son histoire.
Basin Analysis and the Sedimentary Model (1963–1976)

Basin analysis in the past thirteen years has greatly expanded and has been transformed so that today there is a vast, diversified literature to which geophysicists and students of tectonics, especially plate tectonics, as well as sedimentologists and stratigraphers contribute. During these thirteen years developments have been so great that, if one had been a Rip Van Winkle asleep in a library, awakening today and having to catch up would be a staggering task. Seismic surveys yielding a seismic stratigraphy, magnetic and gravity surveys, more detailed bathymetric studies, and deep-sea drilling have greatly enhanced our understanding of the modern ocean basins and their relation to the continents so that today we know a great deal about continental margins and very much more about ocean basins.
Current Directions in English and Arabic PropBank

This chapter gives an overview of the infrastructure, annotation practices, and current challenges of both the English and Arabic PropBank corpora. More details about the Hindi and Urdu PropBanks can be found in chapter “ The Hindi/Urdu Treebank Project” (this volume). The focus of current efforts is on expanding the types of relations covered by PropBank. Previously, the annotation effort focused on event relations expressed solely by verbs. (A separate but related effort, NomBank, focused on nouns [26].) However, a complete representation of event relations within and across sentences requires expanding that focus to all syntactic realizations of event and state semantics, including expressions in the form of nouns, adjectives and multi-word expressions. This effort reflects a general desire to move to a deeper level of semantic understanding, abstracting away from language-particular syntactic facts. The chapter closes with a discussion of future directions for PropBank.
The Status Competition Model of Cultural Production

Humans create many apparently functionless artifacts such as paintings, novels, poems, films, and decorative blankets. From an evolutionary perspective, such creations appear somewhat puzzling. Why create artifacts that do not appear to contribute to survival? One recent explanation, the cultural courtship model, argued that such creations are used to signal genetic health to the other sex. In this way, cultural creators are potentially rewarded with higher quality mates. We propose an alternative (but not completely contradictory) model, the status competition model of cultural production, which argues that cultural displays often, but not exclusively, signal the possession of important cultural competencies to others in a coalition. Cultural creators are recompensed with prestige, which they can use to secure mates or invest in their kin and lineage. We examine evidence for and against these models and conclude that the status competition model can better explain cultural production than current theory.
Control of light-matter interaction using photonic hypercrystals

We demonstrate broadband enhancement of light emission from quantum dots, single photon emitters and 2D semiconductors using photonic hypercrystals (PHC). Both out-coupling and spontaneous emission rate are increased from the different emitters.
Effects of L-carnitine fed during gestation and lactation on sow and litter performance.

Multiparous sows (n = 307) were used to evaluate the effects of added dietary L-carnitine, 100 mg/d during gestation and 50 ppm during lactation, on sow and litter performance. Treatments were arranged as a 2 (gestation or lactation) x2 (with or without L-carnitine) factorial. Control sows were fed 1.81 kg/d of a gestation diet containing .65% total lysine. Treated sows were fed 1.59 kg/d of the control diet with a .23 kg/d topdressing of the control diet that provided 100 mg/d of added L-carnitine. Lactation diets were formulated to contain 1.0% total lysine with or without 50 ppm of added L-carnitine. Sows fed 100 mg/d of added L-carnitine had increased IGF-I concentration on d 60 (71.3 vs. 38.0 ng/mL, P<.01) and 90 of gestation (33.0 vs. 25.0 ng/mL, P = .04). Sows fed added L-carnitine had increased BW gain (55.3 vs 46.3 kg; P<.01) and last rib fat depth gain (2.6 vs. 1.6 mm; P = .04) during gestation. Feeding 100 mg/d of added L-carnitine in gestation increased both total litter (15.5 vs. 14.6 kg; P = .04) and pig (1.53 vs 1.49 kg; P<.01) birth weight. No differences were observed in pig birth weight variation. Added L-carnitine fed during gestation increased litter weaning weight (45.0 vs. 41.3 kg, P = .02); however, no effect of feeding L-carnitine during lactation was observed. No differences were observed in subsequent days to estrus or farrowing rate. Compared to the control diet, feeding added L-carnitine in either gestation, lactation, or both, increased (P<.05) the subsequent number of pigs born alive, but not total born. In conclusion, feeding L-carnitine throughout gestation increased sow body weight and last rib fat depth gain and increased litter weights at birth and weaning.
Optimizing intelligent agent's constraint satisfaction with neural networks

Finding suitable jobs for US Navy sailors from time to time is an important and ever-changing process. An Intelligent Distribution Agent and particularly its constraint satisfaction module take up the challenge to automate the process. The constraint satisfaction module's main task is to assign sailors to new jobs in order to maximize Navy and sailor happiness. We present various neural network techniques combined with several statistical criteria to optimize the module's performance and to make decisions in general. The data was taken from Navy databases and from surveys of Navy experts. Such indeterminate subjective component makes the optimization of the constraint satisfaction a very sophisticated task. Single-Layer Perceptron with logistic regression, Multilayer Perceptron with different structures and algorithms and Support Vector Machine with Adatron algorithm are presented for achieving best performance. Multilayer Perceptron neural network and Support Vector Machine with Adatron algorithm produced highly accurate classification and encouraging prediction.
Chip Power Scaling in Recent CMOS Technology Nodes

This paper tracks the scaling of total chip power at constant frequency (i.e., energy-per-operation) through the last few CMOS nodes. The focus is on high-performance microprocessors. To evaluate the progression of chip power, Intel’s Core-i7 (Intel’s highest performance consumer microprocessor manufactured in the highest performance CMOS technology node) was used as the benchmark. Core-i7 has been manufactured for eight generations starting in the 45-nm node and continuing through the 14++ node. This paper argues that in the more recent nodes, the total chip power at constant frequency (energy-per-operation) has scaled much less than that of the earlier CMOS nodes. The early 14-nm technology exhibited particularly poor power scaling, and in fact, the technology was improved by increasing the device current and relaxation of the contacted gate pitch in 14++. Early product data in 10 nm points to issue in dropping the chip power (at constant frequency) relative to the previous node (14++), which may challenge the power-performance justification for scaling to the 10 nm node and beyond. Improving chip power scaling (energy-per-operation) in upcoming nodes is critical as a key part of the value proposition for continued CMOS scaling, especially as applied to high-performance microprocessors.
Microbial Communities in Salt Marsh Systems and Their Responses to Anthropogenic Pollutants

Salt marshes are vegetated terrestrial systems that develop along coastlines in temperate to arctic environments, in areas where surface or groundwater mixes with flooding from coastal tides. These environments perform essential ecosystem services such as storm buffering, carbon-trapping, and the protection of estuarine waters through the removal of land-based nutrients. The sediments in these environments are chemically complex, with gradients of salinity, redox, and pH that give rise to some of the most abundant and diverse microbial communities yet characterized. However, the significant loss of marsh surface area over the past 150 years has raised concerns about the stability of these microbial communities and their ability to deliver ecosystem services in the future. Many reasons have been proposed for the loss in marsh surface area, including anthropogenic pollutants, changes in predator and herbivore ecology, and global sea level rise. This chapter examines the structure of baseline microbial communities and their role in salt marsh biogeochemical cycling—and how anthropogenic land-based pollutants may negatively affect the ecosystem services provided by these microbial communities.
Carbonic Anhydrase in Myelin and Glial Cells in the Mammalian Central Nervous System

During the past 10 years, immunocytochemical methods have been used for localization of carbonic anhydrase (CA) in glial cells and myelin in the mammalian central nervous system. Those immunocytochemical studies were, however, preceded by several decades of biochemical research, and the possible localization in the oligodendrocytes, which comprise one glial cell type, was first suggested over 45 years ago, after CA was assayed in homogenates of spinal cords and cerebra from seven species.1 At that time, large numbers of oligodendrocytes had been observed predominantly in myelinated regions, where they were often found in rows between myelinated axons. Later, the oligodendrocytes were shown to be the cells that myelinate axons in the central nervous system (reviewed in reference 50). The astrocytes, which are the other major glial cells of brain and spinal cord, are quite diverse in their structures and putative functions, which include the transport of ions, water, and other compounds and the formation of scar tissue within the brain after injury.23,33,40 In this chapter, the evidence for CA in myelin and in glial cells of both types will be discussed. Possible functions for the CA in myelin and glial cells will also be suggested. In another chapter, there is some discussion of localization in the peripheral nervous system and exceptions to the localization in glial cells in the mammalian central nervous system.36 The high levels of CA in the choroid plexus14 should also be noted.
Carotid stenting and endarterectomy and contralateral carotid occlusion

Abstract Background The presence of contralateral carotid occlusion (CCO) has been controversial throughout the history of carotid intervention. Some studies cite a higher stroke risk in the setting of CCO, whereas other studies document no difference in stroke risk. We investigated the risk of stroke after intervention in the setting of CCO in a large, national, validated dataset. Methods Data were obtained from the 2011-2014 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Initiative Project files using targeted carotid endarterectomy (CEA), carotid angioplasty, and carotid artery stenting (CAS) data. Patient and procedural characteristics, and 30-day postoperative outcomes were compared using Pearson χ2 tests for categorical variables and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests for continuous variables. Logistic regression was used for multivariable analysis. The primary outcome measure was the stroke rate, with a secondary outcome of major adverse cardiovascular events. Results During the study period, 11,948 CEA and 422 CAS procedures were available for study, with significantly fewer CEA (4.73% of all CEA) than CAS (9.95%; P Conclusions There is currently a bias that CCO confers a higher risk on patients undergoing carotid procedures and this notion is manifest in the proportion of CEA and CAS procedures done in the setting of CCO. Our study observes that CCO provides only a minor influence on periprocedural stroke risk and that other factors are more closely tied to outcomes of CEA and CAS.
Electrically tunable dynamic phase modulation enhanced second harmonic generation of dielectric metasurfaces

Taking advantage of the dynamic phase modulation arisen from the interaction of dc electrical and optical field, we create super-quadratic field dependent second harmonic generation (SHG) with ultra-high ON/OFF ratio of 15000 on a dielectric metasurface. © 2019 The Author(s)
Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer: Specialty Clinic Collaboration and the Electronic Medical Record Can Improve Bone Health Monitoring

AbstractIntroduction:Patients with prostate cancer on androgen deprivation therapy are at increased risk for iatrogenic osteoporosis, minimal trauma fractures and reduced bone density. We created a...
The ‘Truth About Pakistan’: Knowledge Production and Circulation in Think Tanks

This chapter explores the knowledge production processes in International Relations, within think tanks. The chapter initially focuses on the increased visibility of think tanks in policy-making processes. Think tanks, because of the nature of their organization have firmly established themselves as arbitrors of knowledge. The vicious cycle of knowledge production and reproduction enables a constant circulation of ‘truth’ on representational identities. The chapter demonstrates that think-tank-based journals are among International Relations journals which have produced the most work on Pakistan. Through them, the discursive construction and reproduction of Pakistan’s representational identity, not only continues to demonstrate similar patterns as those in academic journals but also because of their wider reach, the ‘truths’ presented as common sense are transmitted beyond universities and policy-makers to the general global audience. In that sense these journals play a vital role in naturalizing representational identities. Consequently, these journals become important cogs in the knowledge production machinery through which ‘Pakistan’ is marketed not only to local audiences, which include policy-makers, academics and policy experts but to the general International Affairs reader across the globe.
Pharmacokinetics of Cannabis Brownies: A Controlled Examination of Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and Metabolites in Blood and Oral Fluid of Healthy Adult Males and Females

Oral cannabis products (a.k.a. "edibles") have increased in popularity in recent years. Most prior controlled pharmacokinetic evaluations of cannabis have focused on smoked cannabis and included males who were frequent cannabis users. In this study, 17 healthy adults (8 females), with no cannabis use in at least the past 2 months, completed 4 double-blind outpatient sessions where they consumed cannabis brownies containing Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) doses of 0, 10, 25 or 50 mg. Whole blood and oral fluid specimens were collected at baseline and for 8 h post-brownie ingestion. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) were used to measure THC and relevant metabolites. In whole blood, concentrations of THC and 11-hydroxy-THC (11-OH-THC) peaked 1.5-2 h after brownie consumption, decreased steadily thereafter, and typically returned to baseline within 8 h. Blood concentrations for 11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THCCOOH) and THCCOOH-glucuronide were higher than THC and 11-OH-THC and these metabolites were often still detected 8 h post-brownie consumption. Women displayed higher peak concentrations for THC and all metabolites in whole blood compared to men, at least partially owing to their lower body weight/body mass index. Detection of THC in oral fluid was immediate and appeared to reflect the degree of cannabis deposition in the oral cavity, not levels of THC circulating in the blood. THC concentrations were substantially higher in oral fluid than in blood; the opposite trend was observed for THCCOOH. Agreement between ELISA and LC-MS-MS results was high (i.e., over 90%) for blood THCCOOH and oral fluid THC but comparatively low for oral fluid THCCOOH (i.e., 67%). Following oral consumption of cannabis, THC was detected in blood much later, and at far lower peak concentrations, compared to what has been observed with inhaled cannabis. These results are important given the widespread use of toxicological testing to detect recent use of cannabis and/or to identify cannabis intoxication.
Resolving spatial complexities of hybridization in the context of the gray zone of speciation in North American ratsnakes (Pantherophis obsoletus complex)

Inferring the history of divergence between species in a framework that permits the presence of gene flow has been crucial for characterizing the "gray zone" of speciation, which is the period of time where lineages have diverged but have not yet achieved strict reproductive isolation. However, estimates of both divergence times and rates of gene flow often ignore spatial information, for example when considering the location and width of hybrid zones with respect to changes in the environment between lineages. Using population genomic data from the North American ratsnake complex (Pantherophis obsoletus), we connected phylogeographic estimates of lineage structure, migration, historical demography, and timing of divergence with hybrid zone dynamics. We examined the spatial context of diversification by linking migration and timing of divergence to the location and widths of hybrid zones. Artificial neural network approaches were applied to understand how landscape features and past climate have influenced population genetic structure among these lineages. We found that rates of migration between lineages were associated with the overall width of hybrid zones. Timing of divergence was not related to migration rate or hybrid zone width across species pairs but may be related to the number of alleles weakly introgressing through hybrid zones. This research underscores how incomplete reproductive isolation can be better understood by considering differential allelic introgression and the effects of historical and contemporary landscape features on the formation of lineages as well as overall genomic estimates of migration rates through time.
Cultivating Genius Through Historically Responsive Literacy

Today’s diverse classrooms require a comprehensive approach to pedagogy, curriculum, and instruction. Cultivating Genius by Gholdy Muhammad brings us a new framework to achieve this approach by int...
A Bayesian approach to predicting website revisitation on mobile phones

Mobile web browsing is highly recurrent, in that a large proportion of user's page requests are to a small set of websites. Despite this, most mobile browsers do not provide an efficient means for revisiting sites. Although significant research exists on prediction in the personal computer realm, little work has been done in the mobile realm where physical constraints of the device and mobile browsing behaviors are vastly different. The current research proposes a Bayesian model approach, based on a cognitive model of memory retrieval that integrates multiple cues in order to predict the next site a user will visit. These cues include frequency of site visitation, the recency of site visitation, and the context in which specific sites are accessed. The model is assessed using previously collected web logs from 24 iPhone users over the course of one year. Our model outperforms simpler models based on frequency or recency, which are sometimes implemented in desktop browsers. Potential applications of the model are discussed with the objective of increasing browsing efficiency on mobile devices. HighlightsPredicts website revisitation on mobile phones.Accounts for nearly 50% of site visits.Incorporates frequency, recency, and context (current site) to make predictions.Comparison of models to show contribution of each predictive cue.
Ted Nelson: A Critical (and Critically Incomplete) Bibliography

The goal of this bibliography is to put together a complete picture of Ted Nelson’s body of work as expressed in publication, including selections from ephemeral and non-print media.
Event-Triggering in Distributed Networked Systems with Data Dropouts and Delays

This paper studies distributed networked systems with data dropouts and transmission delays. We propose an event-triggering scheme, where a subsystem broadcasts its state information to its neighbors only when the subsystem's local state error exceeds a specified threshold. This scheme is completely decentralized, which means that a subsystem's broadcast decisions are made using its local sampled data, the maximal allowable transmission delay of a subsystem's broadcast is predicted based on the local information, a subsystem locally identifies the maximal allowable number of its successive data dropouts, and the designer's selection of the threshold only requires information about an individual subsystem and its immediate neighbors. With the assumption that the number of each subsystem's successive data dropouts is less than the bound identified by that subsystem, if the bandwidth of the network is limited so that the transmission delays are always greater than a positive constant, the resulting system is globally uniformly ultimately bounded using our scheme; otherwise, the resulting system is asymptotically stable.
WHICH TEEN MOTHERS REQUEST EARLY NORPLANT REMOVAL? |[dagger]| 37

Repeat teen pregnancies occur commonly even when adolescents have access to contraceptives. While Norplant is attractive because it remains effective for 5 yrs, since even teen pregnancies are rarely entirely unwanted we hypothesized that teen mothers requesting early Norplant removal are at highest demographic risk for repeat conception. At the time of insertion we prospectively assessed the prevalence of risk factors for repeat pregnancy in a group of 210, ≤18 yr old, postpartum Norplant recipients. We followed 180(86%) of them for 2 yrs; 65 (36%) had their Norplants removed. Bivariate analyses revealed no differences between those who did and didn't have their Norplants out regarding: age (mean±sd: 17±1 yrs), birth-insertion interval (mean±sd: 11±10 wks), gravidity/parity(79% primiparous), or medicaid use (96%). Teens who had their Norplants removed had more risk factors for repeat pregnancy (p=.02). They were more apt to be Black (39% vs 16%; p=.001), to want another baby in 2 yrs (32% vs 12%;p=.003), to feel their boyfriend wanted another baby (18% vs 5%; p=.01), to be depressed while pregnant (22% vs 9%; p=.03), and to have ≥3 sibs (52% vs 36% p=.05). Everyone reported side-effects; moodiness was the most common(65%), followed by bleeding & headache. While multivariate analyses revealed that side-effects were the most important determinants of Norplant removal, the study hypothesis was also supported. The prevalence of repeat pregnancy risk factors remained a significant, independent predictor of Norplant removal. Post-Norplant contraceptives use was poor and conception occurred rapidly (mean±sd:7±7 mos). Coupled with our finding that at insertion, Norplant users who subsequently request early removal are at higher demographic risk for repeat conception these data suggest that lack of motivation to delay conception colors the decisions antedating Norplant removal more than previously thought. This change in our understanding of the relation between Norplant side-effects and removal implies that supporting teens' negative childbearing attitudes could be an important aspect of treating the side-effects which typically prompt early Norplant removal and lead to repeat teen pregnancies.
Chapter 25 Systems Biology and Kinase Signaling

Publisher Summary Systems Biology enables a better understanding of the complexity of cell signaling pathways and offers potential insight into targets for disease intervention. It has a solid foundation in both experimental cell biology and computational methods. It can explain the effect of feedback loops on signaling pathways and can be extended to modeling entire systems such as in the case of the ErbB receptors. The first level of complexity in the understanding of kinase signaling is to correctly assign the pathway topology of connections in the pathway. In most cases, researchers build kinase signaling pathway models based on historically well-defined canonical pathways. Computational methods have been applied to determine the connections in systems that are not well-defined by canonical pathways. This is either done by semi-automated and/or curated literature causal modeling or by statistical methods based on large-scale data from expression or proteomic studies. Many methods, including clustering, Bayesian analysis and principal component analysis have been used to find relationships and “fingerprints” in gene expression data.
Future of leisure: a Delphi application.

Abstract The Delphi Technique, an instrument that can be used to solicit, collate, and report judgments and estimations of a selected population regarding a future event, was used in this study in an attempt to identify possible and probable conditions of leisure at or near the year 2000. A panel of 36 AAHPER national and district board of governors voting members completed all three rounds of questionnaires. It was concluded that the Delphi Technique is a valid tool for obtaining consensus on conditions of leisure in the future. Meaningful criteria and implications regarding leisure at or near the year 2000 were established, and many possible and probable conditions of leisure in the future were identified.
ALTernative Telomere Maintenance and Cancer

Activation of a telomere maintenance mechanism (TMM) is permissive for replicative immortality and a hallmark of human cancer. While most cancers rely on reactivation of telomerase, a significant fraction utilizes the recombination dependent alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway. ALT is enriched in tumors of mesenchymal origin, including those arising from bone, soft tissue, and the nervous system, and usually portends a poor prognosis. Recent insights into the mechanisms of ALT are uncovering novel avenues to exploit vulnerabilities and may facilitate clinical development of ALT detection assays and personalized treatment decisions based on TMM status. Treatments targeting ALT may hold promise for a broadly applicable therapeutic modality specific to mesenchymal lineage tumors, something that has thus far remained elusive.
Wind Powering America

The US Department of Energy's Wind Energy program is working across the country to build on America's investment in wind over the last 30 years to capture the economic opportunities from wind development. Called Wind Powering America, this effort is aimed at addressing barriers to wind development at the national, state and local levels. The key focus is on supporting wind development as a means of bringing economic benefits to America from new, home grown jobs created to manufacture, install and maintain wind turbines, to tax revenues for towns and municipalities, to annual payments to rural landowners who lease their land for development.
Hematin- and peroxide-catalyzed peroxidation of phospholipid liposomes.

The effect of hydroperoxides on hematin-catalyzed initiation and propagation of lipid peroxidation was examined utilizing soybean phosphatidylcholine liposomes as model membranes. Polarographic and spectrophotometric methods revealed a bimodal pseudocatalytic activity for hematin. A slow initiation phase of peroxidation was observed in the presence of low peroxide concentrations, whereas a fast propagative phase was observed at higher peroxide levels. Peroxide levels were manipulated enzymatically by the combination of phospholipase A2 and lipoxidase or by the direct addition of linoleic acid hydroperoxide, cumene hydroperoxide, or hydrogen peroxide. In addition, the effect of two different techniques for liposome preparation, i.e., sonication and extrusion, were compared on the basis of peroxidation kinetics. High pressure liquid chromatography analysis showed that sonicated liposomes contained higher levels of endogenous peroxides than the extruded ones. These sonicated liposomes also exhibited more rapid peroxidation following hematin addition. Extruded liposomes were more resistant to hematin-catalyzed peroxidation but became better substrates when exogenous hydroperoxides were added. All three peroxides reacted with hematin during which decomposition of peroxide and irreversible oxidation of hematin took place. Spectral analysis of hematin indicated that a higher oxidation state of hematin iron may be transiently formed during reaction with hydroperoxides and accounts for the propagation of lipid peroxidation when reactions proceed in the presence of soybean phosphatidylcholine liposomes. Of the three peroxides studied, linoleic acid hydroperoxide was most efficient in supporting hematin-catalyzed lipid peroxidation. The relevance of our findings is discussed in terms of the concentration dependence for lipid peroxides in determining the rate and extent of radical propagation chain reactions catalyzed by heme-iron catalysts such as hematin. Variation of hematin and linoleic hydroperoxide concentrations may provide an efficient and reproducible method for inducing and manipulating the rates and extent of lipid peroxidation through facilitation of the propagative phase of lipid peroxidation. In addition, we address a problem inherent to in vitro studies of heme-catalyzed lipid peroxidation where preparations of peroxide-free membranes should be of concern.
Misincorporation by Wild-Type and Mutant T7 RNA Polymerases: Identification of Interactions That Reduce Misincorporation Rates by Stabilizing the Catalytically Incompetent Open Conformation†

We have characterized the misincorporation properties of wild-type (wt) T7 RNAP and of 45 T7RNAP point mutants. The wt enzyme selects strongly against incorporation of an incorrect nucleotide. From the measured rates of misincorporation, an average error frequency of 1 in 2 x 10(4) is estimated. RNAs bearing 3'-mismatches are extended more slowly than correctly paired 3'-termini, and mismatches one or two bases away from the RNA 3'-end can also slow extension severely even when the 3'-base is correctly paired. Though it has been reported that T7RNAP has a 3' --> 5' nuclease activity, we were unable to detect any endogenous T7RNAP RNase activity in elongation complexes. Pyrophosphorolysis was detected but does not appear to contribute to proofreading. Therefore, unlike other RNAPs, T7RNAP fidelity appears to depend entirely on discrimination against incorporation of the incorrect nucleotide and not on post-misincorporation proofreading. Alanine substitution of the H784 side chain, which interacts with the 3' RNA.template base pair, increases both misincorporation and mismatch extension, while substitutions at G640, F644, and G645 increase misincorporation, but not mismatch extension. The latter three amino acids are in a part of the RNAP which interacts with the templating base and with the base immediately 5' to the templating base. Mutation of these amino acids not only increases misincorporation, but also eliminates pausing during promoter clearance. The effects of these mutations and the interactions observed in a crystal structure of a transcribing complex indicate that these mutations disrupt interactions which limit misincorporation rates by stabilizing the catalytically incompetent open conformation of the RNAP.
A Meta-Analysis of the Relative Effects of Tabular and Graphic Display Formats on Decision-Making Performance

The results of 21 between-subjects experiments assessing the relative effects of tabular and graphic formats of data presentation on decision-making accu- racy were quantitatively reviewed using the meta-analysis procedure developed by Hunter, Schmidt, and Jackson (1982). Sampling error and differential range restriction accounted for variability in the average differences between tabular and graphic presentations, and there was no difference in the effects of the two presentation formats. These results counter recent assertions that task complexity moderates the effect of presentation format. The findings should also discourage further investigation of the effects of tabular and graphic formats using the conventional methodology.
Endotoxin and AKI: Macrophages Protect after Preconditioning

Sepsis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients, with AKI serving as an ominous prognostic factor. According to the current literature, the pathogenesis of AKI-induced sepsis, albeit being poorly understood, is thought to be multifactorial.[1][1] Consequently,
Variation of gamma glutamyl transpeptidase activity and lectin binding in the course of carcinogenesis of the respiratory tract epithelium

Gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) activity and fluorescein-labeled lectins Concanavalin A (Con A) and Ricinus communis-120 binding sites were studied in lesions produced by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene during chemical carcinogenesis using syngeneic heterotopic rat tracheal transplants. Although all types of lesions showed positive GGT activity and lectin binding, prominent differences were observed between the different types of lesions. Compared with regular squamous metaplasia, dysplastic-neoplastic lesions showed much stronger reaction for GGT and lectins; normal and hyperplastic mucociliary epithelium showed intermediate reactions. Although the relationship between keratinization, cell surface changes, GGT activity and lectin binding are not completely clear, lectins seem to be good markers of dysplastic and neoplastic lesions of the respiratory tract epithelium.
Bayesian random effects selection in mixed accelerated failure time model for interval-censored data.

In many medical problems that collect multiple observations per subject, the time to an event is often of interest. Sometimes, the occurrence of the event can be recorded at regular intervals leading to interval-censored data. It is further desirable to obtain the most parsimonious model in order to increase predictive power and to obtain ease of interpretation. Variable selection and often random effects selection in case of clustered data become crucial in such applications. We propose a Bayesian method for random effects selection in mixed effects accelerated failure time (AFT) models. The proposed method relies on the Cholesky decomposition on the random effects covariance matrix and the parameter-expansion method for the selection of random effects. The Dirichlet prior is used to model the uncertainty in the random effects. The error distribution for the accelerated failure time model has been specified using a Gaussian mixture to allow flexible error density and prediction of the survival and hazard functions. We demonstrate the model using extensive simulations and the Signal Tandmobiel Study®. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
FBN1 exon 2 splicing error in a patient with Marfan syndrome

Mutations in FBN1 cause the autosomal dominant condition, Marfan syndrome. A single-base mutation that results in a skipping of exon 2 of FBN1 was found in a Marfan patient. By sequencing this proband's entire FBN1 gene and comparing the mutated DNA sequence with proband's unaffected family numbers, we confirmed this alteration was the causative mutation. The skipping of exon 2 creates a frameshift and premature termination codon, and forms a truncated fibrillin-1 composed only of 55 amino acids of N-terminus plus 45 nonsense amino acids. The mRNA transcription levels of the mutated FBN1 allele and the deposition of fibrillin-1 into extracellular matrix in fibroblast cells culture were assessed.
Role of the nervous system in the arrhythmias produced by coronary occlusion in the cat.

Abstract The importance of the nervous system in the arrhythmias generated by occlusion of the left coronary artery of the cat was investigated. This was carried out by (1) monitoring the spontaneous electrical activity in sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiac nerves and (2) determining the influence of ablation of the nervous system on time taken for death to occur and on incidence of ventricular fibrillation. It was found that coronary occlusion increased the spontaneous firing in cardiac-bound autonomic fibers and that the enhanced neural activity was correlated in time with electrocardiographic changes consisting of ventricular arrhythmias. Removal of the central nervous system and both vagi conferred protection against arrhythmogenesis. Animals with no neural input to the heart (as indicated by the nerve recordings) survived more than twice as long after coronary occlusion and showed a significant reduction in the incidence of ventricular fibrillation. These results suggest that the nervous system plays an important role in the generation of arrhythmias produced by coronary occlusion in the cat.
Perceptions of the CIS graduate's workstyle: undergraduate business students versus CIS faculty

Student interest in computer-related careers has declined dramatically in recent years. One possible explanation for this decline is incorrect perceptions of the workstyle associated with the positions held by CIS graduates. A study was conducted which compared the perceptions held by entering freshmen undergraduate business majors with those of CIS faculty. The study showed that: (1) in general there was less agreement among the faculty than among the students, (particularly pertaining to issues which distinguish entry level programmers from entry level analysts), and (2) there were several issues on which the students' views differed appreciably from those of the faculty (particularly pertaining to salaries and technical aptitude). The results suggest that: (1) faculty need to be cognizant of the broad range of entry level positions available to the CIS graduate, and (2) recruiting efforts need to focus on correcting students' misperceptions of starting salaries and pre-requisite background for entry level positions.
Routine HIV Testing, Public Health, and the USPSTF — An End to the Debate

On the basis of a systematic examination of new evidence on clinical and public health benefits of early identification of HIV infection, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will soon release recommendations endorsing routine HIV testing in adults and adolescents.