cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty: treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in neurologically impaired pediatric patients

Bona fide obstructive sleep apnea is rare in the pediatric age group. Traditional surgical management for pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is adenotonsillectomy alone, however, severely affected children may require uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) or tracheostomy to relieve their obstruction. Children with OSA along with other medical maladies (e.g. cerebral palsy, down syndrome) pose an additional challenge to the otolaryngologist due to poor muscular tone and other medical problems which may complicate postoperative management. We report on 15 children (aged 23 months-13 years, mean 7.4 years), 12 with severe mental insufficiency, with documented OSA who underwent classical or modified UPPP. Twelve of 15 had clinical and/or objective improvement. We conclude that UPPP has a role in the management of neurologically-impaired children with OSA.
Radio/X-Ray Luminosity Relation for Advection Dominated Accretion: Implications for Emission-Line Galaxies and the X-Ray Background

Recent studies of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) have suggested the possible existence of a population of relatively faint sources with hard X-ray spectra; however, the emission mechanism remains unclear. If the hard X-ray emission is from the radiatively inefficient, advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) around massive black holes in galactic nuclei, X-ray luminosity and radio luminosity satisfy the approximate relation L(sub R) approx. 7 x 10(exp 35)(upsilon/15 GHz)(sup 7/5(M/10(exp 7)solar mass)(L(sub X) ergs/s)(sup 1/10 ergs/s, where L(sub R) = (upsilon)L(sub upsilon) is the radio luminosity at frequency upsilon, M is the mass of the accreting black hole, and 10(exp 40) less than or equal to L(sub X) less than or equal to 10(exp 42) ergs/s is the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity. These sources are characterized by inverted radio spectra I(sub upsilon) varies as upsilon(exp 2/5). For example, an ADAF X-ray source with luminosity L(sub X) approx. 10(exp 41) ergs/s has a nuclear radio luminosity of approx. 4 x 10(M/3 x 10(exp 7) solar mass) ergs/s at approx. 20 GHz, and if it is at a distance of approx. 10(M/3 x 10(exp 7) solar mass) Mpc, it would be detected as a approx. 1 mJy point radio source. High-frequency (approx. 20 GHz), high angular resolution radio observations provide an important test of the ADAF emission mechanism. Since L,, depends strongly on black hole mass and only weakly on X-ray luminosity, the successful measurement of nuclear radio emission could provide an estimate of black hole mass. Because the X-ray spectra produced by ADAFs are relatively hard, sources of this emission are natural candidates for contributing to the hard (greater than 2 keV) background.
Elasticity and Phase Behavior of DPPC Membrane Modulated by Cholesterol, Ergosterol, and Ethanol

Giant vesicles formed of 1,2-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and sterols (cholesterol or ergosterol) in water and water/ethanol solutions have been used to examine the effect of sterol composition and ethanol concentration on the area compressibility modulus (K(a)), overall mechanical behavior, vesicle morphology, and induction of lipid alkyl chain interdigitation. Our results from micropipette aspiration suggest that cholesterol and ergosterol impact the order and microstructure of the gel (L(beta)') phase DPPC membrane. At low concentration (10-15 mol%) these sterols disrupt the long-range lateral order and fluidize the membrane (K(a) approximately 300 mN/m). Then at 18 mol%, these sterols participate in the formation of a continuous cohesive liquid-ordered (L(o)) phase with a sterol-dependent membrane density (K(a) approximately 750 for DPPC/ergosterol and K(a) approximately 1100 mN/m for DPPC/cholesterol). Finally at approximately 40 mol% both cholesterol and ergosterol impart similar condensation to the membrane (K(a) approximately 1200 mN/m). Introduction of ethanol (5-25 vol%) results in drops in the magnitude of K(a), which can be substantial, and sometimes individual vesicles with lowered K(a) reveal two slopes of tension versus apparent area strain. We postulate that this behavior represents disruption of lipid-sterol intermolecular interactions and therefore the membrane becomes interdigitation prone. We find that for DPPC vesicles with sterol concentrations of 20-25 mol%, significantly more ethanol is required to induce interdigitation compared to pure DPPC vesicles; approximately 7 vol% more for ergosterol and approximately 10 vol% more for cholesterol. For lower sterol concentrations (10-15 mol%), interdigitation is offset, but by <5 vol%. These data support the idea that ergosterol and cholesterol do enhance survivability for cells exposed to high concentrations of ethanol and provide evidence that the appearance of the interdigitated (L(beta)I) phase bilayer is a major factor in the disruption of cellular activity, which typically occurs between approximately 12 and approximately 16 vol% ethanol in yeast fermentations. We summarize our findings by producing, for the first time, "elasticity/phase diagrams" over a wide range of sterol (cholesterol and ergosterol) and ethanol concentrations.
Flame suppression technique in ARC tracking of circuit boards

The problem of arc tracking in power electronic enclosures was studied through simple bench-top experiments aimed at understanding the phenomenon. Experiments were performed to isolate the causes of arc tracking on PCB boards with high-powered electrodes subjected to a Solventol/water mixture contamination. These experiments show that a minimum electrode spacing of 1 mm would be susceptible to arc tracking. A larger spacing of 3.2 mm appears to prevent arc tracking. In the event that arc tracking causes combustion, a passive flame suppression method is indicated. This method comprises of four layers of off-the-shelf expanded metal network. Tests show that the flame is quenched in about one minute, with minimum damage to the plastic enclosure.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
KRIPKE ON NECESSITY AND IDENTITY

Etude de la these de la necessite de l'identite des noms propres developpee par S. Kripke dans «Naming and necssity» (1980). Examinant les contextes modaux non-extensionnel du principe de l'echange des noms propres, l'A. evalue les premisses de l'argument de Kripke fonde sur la loi de Leibniz, d'une part, et sur la reference aux designateurs rigides, d'autre part. Soulevant la question de l'auto-evidence de l'affirmation et de la representation des caracteristiques du langage naturel par la theorie des modeles, l'A. montre que la paradigme standard de la verite s'applique aux noms propres dans des situations contrefactuelles
Plasmodium gallinaceum:Fluorescent Staining of Zygotes and Ookinetes to Study Malaria Parasites in Mosquito

We have developed a fluorescent labeling procedure for staining the mosquito stages of Plasmodium gallinaceum. PKH26, a lipophilic dye, is efficiently and permanently incorporated into the membranes of zygotes and ookinetes. Stained zygotes undergo normal development into ookinetes; the stain does not interfere with ookinete mobility or ability to adhere to the mosquito midgut lumen. Stained zygotes and ookinetes are comparable to untreated parasites in their ability to give rise to oocysts when fed to mosquitoes. This technique can be used to study the development of Plasmodium parasites in the complex cellular environment of the mosquito midgut after a blood meal. It may also be adapted to study other parasite-vector interactions.
Patterns of cerebral cortex mRNA expression

A pool of 163 clones, isolated by screening 60,000 members of a Macaca fascicularis cerebral cortex cDNA library with a cortex-minus-cerebellum subtracted probe prepared by the phenol enhancement method, was analyzed by Northern blot hybridization studies. One hundred fifty-three of these clones corresponded to 22 RNAs whose abundance was at least 2-fold higher in cerebral cortex poly(A)+ RNA samples than in samples of cerebellar poly(A)+ RNA. Seven of these RNAs, represented by 131 clones, were undetectable in cerebellum. Only 10 of the 163 clones proved to be false positives. The abundance of several of these cortex-enriched RNAs was altered in Alzheimer's disease brains. Several RNAs that were present in cerebral cortex but undetectable in cerebellum were generally enriched in telencephalon, although none was restricted to the cortex. One of the cortex enriched RNAs, whose nucleotide sequence is presented, encoded monkey preprocholecystokinin. Overall, this study provides insights into the powers and limitations of subtractive hybridization and into the patterns of gene expression in the central nervous system.
DisNet: A Framework for Distributed Graph Computation

With the rise of network science as an exciting interdisciplinary research topic, efficient graph algorithms are in high demand. Problematically, many such algorithms measuring important properties of networks have asymptotic lower bounds that are quadratic, cubic, or higher in the number of vertices. For analysis of social networks, transportation networks, communication networks, and a host of others, computation is intractable. In these networks computation in serial fashion requires years or even decades. Fortunately, these same computational problems are often naturally parallel. We present here the design and implementation of a master-worker framework for easily computing such results in these circumstances. The user needs only to supply two small fragments of code describing the fundamental kernel of the computation. The framework automatically divides and distributes the workload and manages completion using an arbitrary number of heterogeneous computational resources. In practice, we have used thousands of machines and observed commensurate speedups. Writing only 31 lines of standard C++ code, we computed betweenness centrality on a network of 4.7M nodes in 25 hours.
Advanced control flows for flexible graphical user interfaces or, growing GUIs on trees or, bookmarking GUIs

Web and GUI programs represent two extremely common and popular modes of human-computer interaction. Many GUI programs share the Web's notion of browsing through data- and decision-trees. This paper compares the user's browsing power in the two cases and illustrates that many GUI programs fall short of the Web's power to clone windows and bookmark applications. It identifies a key implementation problem that GUI programs must overcome to provide this power. It then describes a theoretically well-founded programming pattern, which we have automated, that endows GUI programs with these capabilities. The paper provides concrete examples of the transformation in action.
New insights on the mechanism(s) of the dominant negative effect of mutant thyroid hormone receptor in generalized resistance to thyroid hormone.

Generalized resistance to thyroid hormone (GRTH) is a syndrome of hyposensitivity to triiodothyronine (T3) that displays autosomal dominant inheritance. The genetic defect commonly lies in the ligand-binding domain of one of the TRY8 alleles. Since there are two major thyroid hormone receptor (TR) isoforms, TRa and TRI, it is not known how the mutant receptor mediates a dominant negative effect. Previously, we showed that T3 caused dissociation ofTR homodimers and TRa/TR,8 dimers from several thyroid hormone response elements (TREs). Hence, we used the electrophoretic mobility shift assay to compare the effect of T3 on the DNA binding of mutant TRfi-1 (Mf-1) from a kindred with GRTH with normal TRfl. Mf-I bound better as a homodimer than TR.6, but dissociated from DNA only at high T3 concentrations. Both receptors heterodimerized with nuclear auxiliary proteins. They also dimerized with TRa and with each other. Surprisingly, T3 disrupted theDNA binding ofthe Mf-l /TR isoform dimers. Thus, mechanisms for the dominant negative effect by mutant TRs likely involve either increased binding to TREs by mutant homodimers that cannot bind T3 (hence cannot dissociate from DNA) and/or the formation of inactive mutant TR/nuclear protein heterodimers. (J. Clin. Invest. 1992. 90:1825-1831.)
The surgical obturator revisited

The rehabilitation of maxillectomy defects can be initiated at the time of resection through interactive treatment planning between the surgeon and maxillofacial prosthodontist. The purpose of this article is to familiarize the recent generations of head and neck surgeons and maxillofacial prosthodontists with the role of the surgical obturator and intraoperative techniques for optimal prosthesis design. The advantages of a surgical obturator and the consequences of not using a surgical obturator for maxillary resections are evaluated. Different types of defects are assessed from the initial presentation to completed design of cast and surgical obturator. The surgical and prosthetic techniques to aid fabrication of surgical obturators for three subjects with very different maxillary defects are shown. Emphasis is placed on the value and versatile functionality of a surgical obturator to initiate and promote successful rehabilitation of the maxillary defect.
Root respiration in North American forests: effects of nitrogen concentration and temperature across biomes

Root respiration rates have been shown to be correlated with temperature and root N concentration in studies of individual forest types or species, but it is not known how universal these relationships are across for- est species adapted to widely different climatic and eda- phic conditions. In order to test for broad, cross-species relationships, we measured fine root respiration, as O 2 consumption, over a range of temperatures on excised root samples from ten forested study sites across North America in 1997. Significant differences existed among study sites in root respiration rates, with patterns among sites in respiration rate at a given temperature corre- sponding to differences among sites in fine root N con- centrations. Root respiration rates were highly correlated with root N concentrations at all measurement tempera- tures (r 2 >0.81, P<0.001, for 6, 18 and 24°C). Lower root respiration rates in gymnosperms than in angiosperms were largely explained by lower fine root N concentra- tions in gymnosperms, and root N concentrations and respiration rates (at a given temperature) tended to be lower at warm sites (New Mexico, Florida, and Georgia) than at cool sites with short growing seasons (Michigan and Alaska). Root respiration rates increased exponen- tially with temperature at all sites. The Q10 for root respi- ration ranged from 2.4 to 3.1, but there were no signifi- cant differences among the forest types. The average Q10s for gymnosperms (Q10=2.7) and angiosperms (Q 10 =2.6) were almost identical, as were the average Q 10 s for roots of ectomycorrhizal species ( Q 10 =2.7) and arbuscular mycorrhizal species (Q10=2.6). In 1998, fine root respiration at the study sites was measured in the field as CO 2 production at ambient soil temperature. Respiration rates under field conditions were dependent on both ambient soil temperature and root N concentra- tion. Relationships between respiration (adjusted for temperature) and root N concentration for the field mea- surements were similar to those observed in the 1997 laboratory experiments. For root respiration in tree spe- cies, it appears that basic relationships with temperature and nitrogen exist across species and biomes.
A fully-integrated switched-capacitor 2∶1 voltage converter with regulation capability and 90% efficiency at 2.3A/mm 2

A switched-capacitor DC-DC voltage converter in 45nm SOI CMOS leverages on-chip trench capacitors to achieve 90% efficiency at an output of 2.3A/mm2 for 2V-to-0.95V conversion at 100MHz. Operation in step-up and step-down modes is demonstrated. Combined with stacked voltage domains, self-regulation capability enables further efficiency improvement.
Mutations in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae LSM1 gene that affect mRNA decapping and 3' end protection.

The decapping of eukaryotic mRNAs is a key step in their degradation. The heteroheptameric Lsm1p–7p complex is a general activator of decapping and also functions in protecting the 3′ ends of deadenylated mRNAs from a 3′-trimming reaction. Lsm1p is the unique member of the Lsm1p–7p complex, distinguishing that complex from the functionally different Lsm2p–8p complex. To understand the function of Lsm1p, we constructed a series of deletion and point mutations of the LSM1 gene and examined their effects on phenotype. These studies revealed the following: (i) Mutations affecting the predicted RNA-binding and inter-subunit interaction residues of Lsm1p led to impairment of mRNA decay, suggesting that the integrity of the Lsm1p–7p complex and the ability of the Lsm1p–7p complex to interact with mRNA are important for mRNA decay function; (ii) mutations affecting the predicted RNA contact residues did not affect the localization of the Lsm1p–7p complex to the P-bodies; (iii) mRNA 3′-end protection could be indicative of the binding of the Lsm1p–7p complex to the mRNA prior to activation of decapping, since all the mutants defective in mRNA 3′ end protection were also blocked in mRNA decay; and (iv) in addition to the Sm domain, the C-terminal domain of Lsm1p is also important for mRNA decay function.
Low profile LTCC inductor substrate for multi-MHz integrated POL converter

The emerging Gallium Nitride (GaN) based power device enables high frequency point-of-load (POL) converter with high current capability. This paper presents the low profile LTCC inductor substrate design and evaluation for multi-MHz 3D integrated POL module with GaN device. In the design process, the core thickness and loss of the inductor are main considerations. The impact of different frequency on the LTCC inductor substrate design is discussed. The LTCC inductors and some commercial discrete inductors are experimentally evaluated on a 12V to 1.2V 15A POL converter built with EPC's GaN devices. The comparison demonstrates that the LTCC inductor can dramatically improve the converter light load efficiency due to its nonlinear inductance, while maintain almost the same full load efficiency as the discrete inductor. Because of the low profile design, the power density of the POL module with LTCC inductor is much higher than that with discrete inductor. The 3D integrated POL module achieves 84.5% efficiency and 700W/in3 power density at 2MHz, 81.8% efficiency and 800W/in3 power density at 3MHz.
Photoluminescence and Photoluminescence Excitation Spectroscopy of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin Films

The role of intrinsic point defects on radiative recombination in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films was investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopies. Experiments were performed on device-grade polycrystalline layers and single crystal thin films. PL transitions identified by others as indicating a shallow state with an ionization energy of ∼16 meV is proposed to be a transition into band tail states rather than a distinct shallow defect. The presence of deep levels contributing to radiative recombination does not necessarily preclude the material from producing a high efficiency device and may suggest the absence of dominant non-radiative recombination pathways. The band edge width as measured by PLE and the separation of this edge from defect states are suggested to be potentially effective indicators of the quality of a material. Luminescence that appears to be connected with the absence of Na in the growth process persists in high Ga alloy, Na containing materials, suggesting that Na may become ineffective in passivating or eliminating certain defects in high Ga material.
Batch Analysis of Digital Images to Evaluate Turfgrass Characteristics

Techniques using digital image analysis have been recently developed to evaluate turfgrass stands for percent green cover and average color. Manually analyzing digital images may become cumbersome and tedious if turf field trials contain many plots or if images are collected at frequent intervals for analysis. The objective of the following work was to develop a user-friendly macro capable of automated batch analysis of an unlimited number of digital images. A macro named "Turf Analysis" was written to batch analyze images using SigmaScan Pro software. The macro, which requires less than 1 min of manual execution, performs percent cover and/or color analysis on an unlimited number of images and automatically saves the results into a spreadsheet file. The macro is freely available to download.
Cyclic guanosine 3':5'-monophosphate mimics the effects of light on a circadian pacemaker in the eye of aplysia

Environmental light regulates the phase of a circadian oscillator in the eye of Aplysia. We are attempting to define the events involved in transmitting light information from the environment to the circadian pacemaking mechanism in the eye. In this paper, we present several lines of evidence that cyclic guanosine 3':5'-monophosphate (cGMP) is involved in the photic entrainment pathway. Light increases the level of cGMP in eyes without having detectable effects on cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate (cAMP). An analogue of cGMP, 8-bromoguanosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP), can shift the phase of the circadian rhythm from the eye; the phase response curves for light and for 8-bromo cGMP are indistinguishable. Neither 8-bromo cAMP nor 8-bromo 5'-GMP mimics the effect of light or of 8-bromo cGMP on the rhythm. Light and 8-bromo cGMP appear to use convergent mechanisms for entrainment since the effects of these two treatments are nonadditive. Also, low Na+ solutions antagonize the effects of both treatments. Finally, the kinetics of phase shifting by 8-bromo cGMP are similar to the kinetics of phase shifting by light. In addition to perturbing the circadian rhythm, 8-bromo cGMP increases the frequency of spontaneous optic nerve impulses. The pattern of nerve impulses during 8-bromo cGMP treatment is the same as the pattern of impulses produced by light. The excitatory effect of 8-bromo cGMP, the low Na+ blockade of the effects of 8-bromo cGMP, and the involvement of membrane depolarization in phase shifting by light suggest that depolarization mediates the effect of 8-bromo cGMP on the rhythm.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Characterization of the N-terminal repeat domain of Escherichia coli ClpA—A class I Clp/HSP100 ATPase

The ClpA, ClpB, and ClpC subfamilies of the Clp/HSP100 ATPases contain a conserved N-terminal region of ∼150 residues that consists of two approximate sequence repeats. This sequence from the Escherichia coli ClpA enzyme is shown to encode an independent structural domain (the R domain) that is monomeric and ∼40% α-helical. A ClpA fragment lacking the R domain showed ATP-dependent oligomerization, protein-stimulated ATPase activity, and the ability to complex with the ClpP peptidase and mediate degradation of peptide and protein substrates, including casein and ssrA-tagged proteins. Compared with the activities of the wild-type ClpA, however, those of the ClpA fragment missing the R domain were reduced. These results indicate that the R domain is not required for the basic recognition, unfolding, and translocation functions that allow ClpA-ClpP to degrade some protein substrates, but they suggest that it may play a role in modulating these activities.
Temporal trajectories of wet deposition across hydro-climatic regimes: Role of urbanization and regulations at U.S. and East Asia sites

Abstract Dominant global patterns of urbanization and industrialization contribute to large-scale modification of the drivers for hydrologic and biogeochemical processes, as evident in Asia, Africa, and South America which are experiencing rapid population and economic growth. One manifestation of urbanization and economic development is decreases in air quality, increases in dry/wet deposition fluxes, and growing adverse impacts on public health and ecosystem integrity. We examined available long-term (1980–2010) observational data, gathered at weekly intervals, for wet deposition at 19 urban sites in the U.S., and monitoring data (2000–2009) available for 17 urban sites at a monthly scale in East Asia. Our analyses are based on data for four constituents (SO 4 2− , NO 3 − , Ca 2+ , and Mg 2+ ); differences in atmospheric chemistry and terrestrial sources of these constituents enabled a robust comparative analysis. We examined intra-annual variability and the long-term temporal trajectories of wet deposition fluxes to discern the relative role of anthropogenic and stochastic hydro-climatic forcing. Here, we show that: (1) temporal variability in wet deposition fluxes follows an exponential probability density function at all sites, evidence that stochasticity of rainfall is the dominant control of wet deposition variability; (2) the mean wet deposition flux, μ Ω (ML −2 T −1 ), has decreased in the U.S. over time since enactment of the Clean Air Act, with μ Ω having become homogenized across varying hydro-climatic regimes; and (3) in contrast, μ Ω values for East Asian cities are 3–10 times higher than U.S. cities, attributed to lax regulatory enforcement. Based on the observed patterns, we suggest a stochastic model that generates ellipses within which the μ Ω temporal trajectories are inscribed. In the U.S., anthropogenic forcing (regulations) is dominant in the humid regions, while variability in hydro-climatic forcing explains inter-annual variability in arid regions. Our stochastic analysis facilitates projections of the temporal trajectory shifts in wet deposition fluxes as a result of urbanization and other land-use changes, climate change, and regulatory enforcement.
GDRouter: interleaved global routing and detailed routing for ultimate routability

Improving detailed routing routability is an important objective of a global router. In this paper, we propose GDRouter, an interleaved global routing and detailed routing algorithm for the ultimate routability i.e., detailed routing routability. The newly proposed router makes the global routing aware of detailed routing routability by correctly setting global capacity to reduce the inconsistency between the two stages. The final result contains both the detailed routing guided global routing and deailed routing solutions. Fast and efficient academic global routing and detailed routing tools FastRoute [1] and RegularRoute [2] are interleaved in GDRouter. In the Initial Capacity and Routing Weight Esitmation (ICRWE) phase, the weight for each global and detailed routing grid is calculated to make GDRouter aware of pin distribution based on a Gridded Voronoi Diagram method. Then the algorithm generates initial global capacity based on both local usage and global segment usage. In particular, Spine routing is utilized to estimate local usage. And a virtual routing i.e. fast implementations of FastRoute and RegularRoute, is performed to estimate global segment usage. The initial global capacity is applied in Full Routing phase to obtain detailed routing routability i.e., number of unassigned global segment. To further improve routability, in the following Iterative Test Routing (ITR) phase, GDRouter incrementally applies the interleaved global routing and detailed routing to adjust the global capcity based on detailed routing solution. To save runtime, GDRouter quits the loop if detailed routing routability stops improving or it reaches maximum iteration. Experimental results reveal that the newly proposed algorithm is capable of enhancing detailed routing routability. In particular, GDRouter reduces number of unassigned global segments by 90% for ISPD98 [3] derived testcases and around 60% for ISPD05/06 [4, 5] derived testcases with 2.9× runtime overhead.
Murine osteoblast interleukin 4 receptor expression: upregulation by 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3

The immune cytokine interleukin 4 has newly recognized effects on skeletal metabolism. While the interaction of many cells ultimately determines bone mass, we have examined the possibility that the osteoblast may be an IL-4 target in bone by characterizing IL-4 receptor (IL-4R) expression by MC3T3-E1 (MC3T3) murine osteoblastic cells. Based on 125I-IL-4 binding, MC3T3 cells express large numbers of IL-4 receptors (125I-IL-4 Bmax = 3,000-7,500 sites/cell, 125I-IL-4 K = 13-40 pM) with an affinity similar to the IL-4 receptor expressed by an IL-4-responsive T cell line. Monoclonal anti-IL-4R antibodies (M1) blocked specific MC3T3 125I-IL-4 binding and MC3T3 total cell RNA contained full-length IL-4R mRNA as detected by reverse transcription DNA amplification utilizing IL-4R primers and Northern blot analysis. Functionally, IL-4 treatment of MC3T3 cells resulted in increased cellular proliferation (10-20%) and inhibition of alkaline phosphatase levels (20-40%). While parathyroid hormone (PTH) exposure did not influence IL-4R levels, vitamin D3 treatment augmented MC3T3 125I-IL-4 binding, in a time-dependent manner, up to threefold after a 24 h exposure with a metabolite specificity indicating the involvement of the vitamin D receptor. Equilibrium binding studies showed that the impact of 1,25 (OH)2 D3 on MC3T3 125I-IL-4 binding was due to an increased IL-4R Bmax. Cycloheximide treatment inhibited 1,25 (OH)2 D3-induced IL-4R upregulation, suggesting that protein synthesis was required. Furthermore, the steroid increased steady-state IL-4R mRNA levels in both a time- and concentration-dependent manner. The IL-4R message half-life was not altered by 1,25 (OH)2 D3, suggesting that increased IL-4R mRNA expression resulted from increased IL-4R gene transcription. Taken together, these findings raise the possibility that IL-4's influence on mineral metabolism could be mediated by osteoblasts and that the effectiveness of this cytokine may be influenced by vitamin D3's impact on IL-4R expression.
Plane Infinitesimal Waves in Elastic Sheets with Bending Stiffness

Plane infinitesimal wave propagation is examined in elastic sheets whose strain energy depends on both the first and second derivatives of the deformation. The resulting acoustic-tensor analysis produces dynamical-stability conditions. These are compared to material-stability conditions found previously using equilibrium considerations. A particular solution is demonstrated for the special case of wave propagation in an isotropic elastic sheet subjected to an underlying uniform homogeneous deformation.
Theory and experiments in bilateral teleoperation over the Internet

We investigate the discrete-time implementation of passivity-based control of bilateral teleoperators. The usual scattering formalism which, in continuous time, guarantees passivity for any constant delay, is extended in several important ways to the discrete domain, in particular to the case where communication between the master and slave robots occurs over a packet-switched network. We first show that passivity can be maintained in the face of varying delay and packet loss but that it depends fundamentally on the mechanism used to handle missing packets. Passivity alone is not sufficient to guarantee good performance. Therefore, we also introduce a novel buffering and interpolation scheme, which not only preserves passivity but has been shown through simulation and experiments to improve tracking performance and transparency in a single-degree-of-freedom teleoperator system.
Teach Public Relations Where it Belongs: In the Marketing Department:

The majority of marketing majors in American colleges must be satisfied with a single public relations course, usually conducted by faculty outside the Marketing Department and the School of Business. This article describes the background of this pervasive problem and suggests a curriculum which would allow business faculty without a professional PR background to use previously acquired writing, analytical and other critical skills to overcome the inherent time and instructional constraints.
Surface degradation of wood by ultraviolet light

Wood is beautiful but sensitive to light. Because of the chromophoric system at its surface, ultraviolet light cannot penetrate it deeper than 80 μm. Surface characteristics of ultraviolettreated wood were analyzed by infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy. Analyses of infrared spectra revealed that ultraviolet-treated wood is rich in carboxylic and carbonyl chromophoric groups and poor in aromatic functional groups. Ultraviolet spectral studies suggest that water-soluble low molecular weight fractions of degraded products from the wood surface are mainly derived from lignin. These degradation products contained carbonyl conjugated phenolic hydroxyl groups and had a weight-average molecular weight of about 900, confirmed by gel permeation chromatography.
The Utilization Of International Information For Global Marketing competitiveness: An Empirical Investigation

Using samples of academic researchers, business executives, and government policy makers, this study empirically examined the utilization of international information (economic and business data) for global marketing competitiveness. In addition, the study examined the form of data used by each sample. The importance and form of the international data are analyzed across the samples, and implications for the results of this study are explored. Finally, conclusions are drawn.
A Comparison of Two Low-Stakes Methods for Administering a Program-Level Biology Concept Assessment

Concept assessments are used commonly in undergraduate science courses to assess student learning and diagnose areas of student difficulty. While most concept assessments align with the content of individual courses or course topics, some concept assessments have been developed for use at the programmatic level to gauge student progress and achievement over a series of courses or an entire major. The broad scope of a program-level assessment, which exceeds the content of any single course, creates several test administration issues, including finding a suitable time for students to take the assessment and adequately incentivizing student participation. These logistical considerations must also be weighed against test security and the ability of students to use unauthorized resources that could compromise test validity. To understand how potential administration methods affect student outcomes, we administered the Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment (MBCA) to three pairs of matched upper-division courses in two ways: an online assessment taken by students outside of class and a paper-based assessment taken during class. We found that overall test scores were not significantly different and that individual item difficulties were highly correlated between these two administration methods. However, in-class administration resulted in reduced completion rates of items at the end of the assessment. Taken together, these results suggest that an online, outside-of-class administration produces scores that are comparable to a paper-based, in-class format and has the added advantages that instructors do not have to dedicate class time and students are more likely to complete the entire assessment.
Persistent photoconductivity spectrum of GdBa2Cu3O6.3 in the IR to UV region

We measured the spectral dependency of persistent photoconductivity (PPC) in GdBa2Cu3O6.3 from the near infrared to the ultraviolet energy range. For a photon energy of 4.1 eV there is a strong enhancement in the excitation efficiency. Photons with this energy create electron-hole pairs close to oxygen vacancies in the Cu−O chain layers. This increases the probability of the excited electron to get trapped at an oxygen vacancy, and thus leads to a strong enhancement of the excitation efficiency of the PPC.
Inhibition of the phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) enzyme reverses memory deficits produced by infusion of the MEK inhibitor U0126 into the CA1 subregion of the rat hippocampus

Cyclic AMP-specific phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), which is an integral component of NMDA receptor-mediated cAMP signaling, is involved in the mediation of memory processes. Given that NMDA receptors also mediate MEK/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK, ERK) signaling, which is involved in synaptic plasticity, and that some PDE4 subtypes are phosphorylated and regulated by ERK, it was of interest to determine if PDE4 is involved in MEK/ERK signaling-mediated memory. It was found that rolipram, a PDE4-selective inhibitor, reversed the amnesic effect in the radial-arm maze test of the MEK inhibitor U0126 administered into the CA1 subregion of the rat hippocampus. Consistent with this, rolipram, either by peripheral administration or direct intra-CA1 infusion, enhanced the retrieval of long-term memory impaired by intra-CA1 infusion of U0126 using the step-through inhibitory avoidance test. The same dose of rolipram did not affect U0126-induced reduction of phospho-ERK1/2 levels in the CA1 subregion. However, in primary cultures of rat cerebral cortical neurons, pretreatment with U0126 increased PDE4 activity; this was correlated with the U0126-induced reduction of phospho-ERK1/2 levels. These results suggest that MEK/ERK signaling plays an inhibitory role in regulating PDE4 activity in the brain; this may be a novel mechanism by which MEK/ERK signaling mediates memory. PDE4 is likely to be an important link between the cAMP/PKA and MEK/ERK signaling pathways in the mediation of memory.
Effect of Thermal Interface on Heat Flow in Carbon Nanofiber Composites

The thermal transport process in carbon nanofiber (CNF)/epoxy composites is addressed through combined micromechanics and finite element modeling, guided by experiments. The heat exchange between C...
High-field, High-resolution MR Imaging of the Human Indusium Griseum

Drs. Nakada and Jinkins have expressed seemingly differnet interpretations for the imaged structures labels in [Figure 1][1] from Dr. Nakada's paper [(1)][2]. Dr. Nakada identifies the labeled structure as the indusium griseium (IG), whereas Dr. Jinkins believes these elevations represent the medial
Ranunculaceae herbage and downy mildew in the Gansu province

There are three kinds of parasitic Peronospora and two kinds of Plasmopara affecting Ranunculaceae herbage in Gansu, all of which occur sporadically in high, cold and wet grassland
Sequence for T_1 and T_2 mapping in low field magnetic resonance imaging

A new sequence which requires relatively simple hardware is developed to measure the basic T1 and T2 in low field magnetic resonance imaging(MRI).The three radio frequency pulses with specifically designed gradients are implemented so that T1 and T2 can be simultaneously sampled in both stimulated echo and spin echo.All the experiments,including phantom and human studies,were carried out on a 0.3 T scanner.The total scan time is reduced by 50% in comparison with traditional methods combining spin echo and inversion recovery.The results show that this method is feasible for the use in low field MRI.
Expansion of the area vasculosa of the chick after removal of the ectoderm.

The role of the ectoderm in the expansion of the mesoderm in the area vasculosa of the chicken embryo was studied. The basement membrane of the ectoderm was found to constitute a substratum for the expansion of both layers of mesoderm, since ( a ) the somatic mesoderm, particularly at its margin, adheres to the basement membrane, and ( b ) the somatic and splanchnic mesoderm adhere to each other throughout most of the area opaca. Following removal of the ectoderm from the outer surface of the basement membrane, movement of the underlying mesoderm along its inner surface stopped. Mean expansion of the mesoderm in these cases was zero. Following removal of both ectoderm and basement membrane, expansion of the underlying mesoderm was normal in amount. Experimental changes in the ectodermal substratum can thus stop movement of the associated mesoderm, but the role which the substratum normally plays in mesodermal expansion remains unclear.
Predictors of first-contact care in a poor urban community.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to identify predictors of first-contact care in a population of poor urban residents. METHODS Information from a community health needs survey was used for the study. The sample included adult residents in five urban census tracts with a large proportion of Puerto Rican Hispanics. Potential predictors included social characteristics, source of health insurance, perceived health status, number of chronic diseases, use of alternatives to medical care, smoking status, and problems with alcohol use. RESULTS A total of 826 household interviews were completed for a participation rate of 78% among eligible households. Individuals with no health insurance were six times more likely to lack a source of first-contact care, compared with those who have traditional indemnity insurance. Those who only had Medicaid were four times more likely to lack a source of first-contact care. Respondents involved in Medicaid-managed care programs had similar access to first-contact care as those with commercial insurance. Individuals who reported problems with alcohol were three times more likely to lack a source of first-contact care. CONCLUSIONS Health insurance is an important predictor of access to first-contact care for poor urban residents. Those who identify problems with alcohol and African-Americans have additional difficulty with access to first-contact care.
Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias: Genetics and Clinical Features

Voluntary movement in humans is mediated by the pyramidal motor system, a tortuous central nervous system pathway comprising long corticospinal and lower motor neurons. The hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a heterogeneous group of neurological disorders with the defining feature of lower extremity spasticity and weakness, resulting from a length-dependent axonopathy of corticospinal upper motor neurons. HSPs are among the most genetically diverse neurological disorders, with nearly 60 distinct genetic loci; over 30 genes have already been identified. The HSPs can exist in pure forms or with a number of associated neurological and extra-neurological features. Recent studies elucidating the pathogenesis underlying HSPs have highlighted the importance of basic cellular functions, especially membrane traffic, organelle shaping, and lipid/cholesterol metabolism, in axonal development and maintenance. A small number of converging cellular pathogenic themes have been identified for the most common HSPs, and some of these pathways represent compelling targets for future therapies.
A disease spectrum for ITPA variation: advances in biochemical and clinical research

Human ITPase (encoded by the ITPA gene) is a protective enzyme which acts to exclude noncanonical (deoxy)nucleoside triphosphates ((d)NTPs) such as (deoxy)inosine 5′-triphosphate ((d)ITP), from (d)NTP pools. Until the last few years, the importance of ITPase in human health and disease has been enigmatic. In 2009, an article was published demonstrating that ITPase deficiency in mice is lethal. All homozygous null offspring died before weaning as a result of cardiomyopathy due to a defect in the maintenance of quality ATP pools. More recently, a whole exome sequencing project revealed that very rare, severe human ITPA mutation results in early infantile encephalopathy and death. It has been estimated that nearly one third of the human population has an ITPA status which is associated with decreased ITPase activity. ITPA status has been linked to altered outcomes for patients undergoing thiopurine or ribavirin therapy. Thiopurine therapy can be toxic for patients with ITPA polymorphism, however, ITPA polymorphism is associated with improved outcomes for patients undergoing ribavirin treatment. ITPA polymorphism has also been linked to early-onset tuberculosis susceptibility. These data suggest a spectrum of ITPA-related disease exists in human populations. Potentially, ITPA status may affect a large number of patient outcomes, suggesting that modulation of ITPase activity is an important emerging avenue for reducing the number of negative outcomes for ITPA-related disease. Recent biochemical studies have aimed to provide rationale for clinical observations, better understand substrate selectivity and provide a platform for modulation of ITPase activity.
Exploratory Analysis of Marketing and Non-marketing E-cigarette Themes on Twitter

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) have been gaining popularity and have emerged as a controversial tobacco product since their introduction in 2007 in the U.S. The smoke-free aspect of e-cigs renders them less harmful than conventional cigarettes and is one of the main reasons for their use by people who plan to quit smoking. The US food and drug administration (FDA) has introduced new regulations early May 2016 that went into effect on August 8, 2016. Given this important context, in this paper, we report results of a project to identify current themes in e-cig tweets in terms of semantic interpretations of topics generated with topic modeling. Given marketing/advertising tweets constitute almost half of all e-cig tweets, we first build a classifier that identifies marketing and non-marketing tweets based on a hand-built dataset of 1000 tweets. After applying the classifier to a dataset of over a million tweets (collected during 4/2015 – 6/2016), we conduct a preliminary content analysis and run topic models on the two sets of tweets separately after identifying the appropriate numbers of topics using topic coherence. We interpret the results of the topic modeling process by relating topics generated to specific e-cig themes. We also report on themes identified from e-cig tweets generated at particular places (such as schools and churches) for geo-tagged tweets found in our dataset using the GeoNames API. To our knowledge, this is the first effort that employs topic modeling to identify e-cig themes in general and in the context of geo-tagged tweets tied to specific places of interest.
The Missing Rhetorical History Between Quintilian and Augustine

Current histories of rhetoric neglect the early Christian period (ca. 30–430 CE) in several crucial ways–Augustine is overemphasized and made to serve as a summary of Christian thought rather than an endpoint, the texts of church fathers before 300 CE are neglected or lumped together, and the texts of the New Testament are left unexamined. An alternative outline of early Christian rhetoric is offered, explored through the angles of political self-invention, doctrinal ghostwriting, apologetics, and fractured sermonization. Early Christianity was not a monolithic religion that eventually made peace with classical rhetoric, but as a rhetorical force in its own right, and comprised of more factions early on than just the apostolic church.
The German Circumcision Controversy — And Beyond

This paper examines continuing debate over non-therapeutic circumcision. The period 2012-2104 saw controversy over ritual circumcisions in Germany, which was precipitated by a court decision characterizing such a circumcision as a criminal offense. The decision was legislatively overruled in late 2012, though public comment persisted. In an article published in 2015, I argued that secularization, cultural norms, and anti-minority sentiment were all factors in the legal, political and religious controversy. Melanie Adrian, Debra DeLaet, Brian D. Earp and Robert Darby have responded to my article in an online symposium organized and published by the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law in April 2017. In reply, I argue that anti-minority sentiment does not seem to have pride of place over the other factors (Adrian). I also argue that sex and gender are not a fourth independent factor in the German controversy, but rather are already embedded in German cultural norms (DeLaet). Earp and Darby shed light on psychosexual harm from non-therapeutic circumcision, but I suggest that it is difficult to establish how many, or what percentage of, boys and men experience such harm. Their proposal for a classification of male genital cutting (MGC), which is an enterprise similar to the WHO campaign against female genital cutting (FGC), is intriguing but would be aided by a more careful investigation into the nature of the foreskin. Earp and Darby do, however, further the case that non-therapeutic circumcision should not be dismissed as harmless or as consistent with the rights of male minors.