cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pretreatment of corn stover by combining ionic liquid dissolution with alkali extraction.

Pretreatment plays an important role in the efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass into fermentable sugars for biofuels. A highly effective pretreatment method is reported for corn stover which combines mild alkali-extraction followed by ionic liquid (IL) dissolution of the polysaccharides and regeneration (recovery of the polysaccharides as solids). Air-dried, knife-milled corn stover was soaked in 1% NaOH at a moderate condition (90°C, 1 h) and then thoroughly washed with hot deionized (DI) water. The alkali extraction solublized 75% of the lignin and 37% of the hemicellulose. The corn stover fibers became softer and smoother after the alkali extraction. Unextracted and extracted corn stover samples were separately dissolved in an IL, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (C4mimCl), at 130°C for 2 h and then regenerated with DI water. The IL dissolution process did not significantly change the chemical composition of the materials, but did alter their structural features. Untreated and treated corn stover samples were hydrolyzed with commercial enzyme preparations including cellulases and hemicellulases at 50°C. The glucose yield from the corn stover sample that was both alkali-extracted and IL-dissolved was 96% in 5 h of hydrolysis. This is a highly effective methodology for minimizing the enzymatic loading for biomass hydrolysis and/or maximizing the conversion of biomass polysaccharides into sugars. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012;109: 84–91. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Electronically Controlled Two-Dimensional Steering of In-Phase Coherently Coupled Vertical-Cavity Laser Arrays

Photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays can be designed to lase only in the in-phase array supermode. By electronically addressing the array elements independently, the relative phases between the emission from each element can be altered. The shift in relative phase results in the angular deflection of the central peak of the in-phase array supermode. We demonstrate highly controllable steering of a coherent laser beam produced by a 2 2 array of emitters.
Book Talks in Special Education Methods Courses: Using Literature to Influence, Inspire, and Prepare Teacher Candidates.

An investigation on the use of literature as part of the teacher preparation process probed the impact of book talks on teacher candidates’ attitudes toward people with disabilities. Candidates in a 4-year undergraduate program participated in book talks reflecting subjects relevant to course work. Books reflected various effects of disability, including the impact on individuals or their families. Data were collected from written reflections and survey responses. Qualitative analysis revealed that the assignment influenced an increase in positive attitudes toward individuals with disabilities reflecting insight, empathy, and respect. Furthermore, candidates benefitted from discussions with their peers and deepened their understanding of the impact of disability. Suggestions for future use of book talks in teacher education are also discussed.
Volcanic hazards to airports

Volcanic activity has caused significant hazards to numerous airports worldwide, with local to far-ranging effects on travelers and commerce. Analysis of a new compilation of incidents of airports impacted by volcanic activity from 1944 through 2006 reveals that, at a minimum, 101 airports in 28 countries were affected on 171 occasions by eruptions at 46 volcanoes. Since 1980, five airports per year on average have been affected by volcanic activity, which indicates that volcanic hazards to airports are not rare on a worldwide basis. The main hazard to airports is ashfall, with accumulations of only a few millimeters sufficient to force temporary closures of some airports. A substantial portion of incidents has been caused by ash in airspace in the vicinity of airports, without accumulation of ash on the ground. On a few occasions, airports have been impacted by hazards other than ash (pyroclastic flow, lava flow, gas emission, and phreatic explosion). Several airports have been affected repeatedly by volcanic hazards. Four airports have been affected the most often and likely will continue to be among the most vulnerable owing to continued nearby volcanic activity: Fontanarossa International Airport in Catania, Italy; Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska, USA; Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador; and Tokua Airport in Kokopo, Papua New Guinea. The USA has the most airports affected by volcanic activity (17) on the most occasions (33) and hosts the second highest number of volcanoes that have caused the disruptions (5, after Indonesia with 7). One-fifth of the affected airports are within 30 km of the source volcanoes, approximately half are located within 150 km of the source volcanoes, and about three-quarters are within 300 km; nearly one-fifth are located more than 500 km away from the source volcanoes. The volcanoes that have caused the most impacts are Soufriere Hills on the island of Montserrat in the British West Indies, Tungurahua in Ecuador, Mt. Etna in Italy, Rabaul caldera in Papua New Guinea, Mt. Spurr and Mt. St. Helens in the USA, Ruapehu in New Zealand, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, and Anatahan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (part of the USA). Ten countries—USA, Indonesia, Ecuador, Papua New Guinea, Italy, New Zealand, Philippines, Mexico, Japan, and United Kingdom—have the highest volcanic hazard and/or vulnerability measures for airports. The adverse impacts of volcanic eruptions on airports can be mitigated by preparedness and forewarning. Methods that have been used to forewarn airports of volcanic activity include real-time detection of explosive volcanic activity, forecasts of ash dispersion and deposition, and detection of approaching ash clouds using ground-based Doppler radar. Given the demonstrated vulnerability of airports to disruption from volcanic activity, at-risk airports should develop operational plans for ashfall events, and volcano-monitoring agencies should provide timely forewarning of imminent volcanic-ash hazards directly to airport operators.
Host and viral ecology determine bat rabies seasonality and maintenance

Rabies is an acute viral infection that is typically fatal. Most rabies modeling has focused on disease dynamics and control within terrestrial mammals (e.g., raccoons and foxes). As such, rabies in bats has been largely neglected until recently. Because bats have been implicated as natural reservoirs for several emerging zoonotic viruses, including SARS-like corona viruses, henipaviruses, and lyssaviruses, understanding how pathogens are maintained within a population becomes vital. Unfortunately, little is known about maintenance mechanisms for any pathogen in bat populations. We present a mathematical model parameterized with unique data from an extensive study of rabies in a Colorado population of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) to elucidate general maintenance mechanisms. We propose that life history patterns of many species of temperate-zone bats, coupled with sufficiently long incubation periods, allows for rabies virus maintenance. Seasonal variability in bat mortality rates, specifically low mortality during hibernation, allows long-term bat population viability. Within viable bat populations, sufficiently long incubation periods allow enough infected individuals to enter hibernation and survive until the following year, and hence avoid an epizootic fadeout of rabies virus. We hypothesize that the slowing effects of hibernation on metabolic and viral activity maintains infected individuals and their pathogens until susceptibles from the annual birth pulse become infected and continue the cycle. This research provides a context to explore similar host ecology and viral dynamics that may explain seasonal patterns and maintenance of other bat-borne diseases.
'You Fall into Scylla in Seeking to Avoid Charybdis': The Second Circuit's Pragmatic Approach to Supervised Release for Sex Offenders

Although the advent of the Internet has created significant benefits for Americans, the Internet has facilitated additional criminal activities as well. Aside from providing a new avenue for confidence men and snake oil peddlers, the Internet has created a new spawning ground for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography. The interplay of the these two developments - the great benefits to society and the great benefits to criminals - has created a split among American courts over how to deal with access to the Internet for sexual offenders after their release from the correctional system. In an effort to promote rehabilitation, federal law requires a sentence of supervised release following imprisonment for certain crimes. As part of that sentence, the courts may impose various conditions on offenders, some mandatory, others discretionary. Peddlers and users of child pornography often receive discretionary conditions that restrict their access to the Internet or to computers in general. This Note examines how the circuit courts of appeals have approached the issue of Internet restrictions for sexual offenders on supervised release and argues that the pragmatic approach utilized by the Second Circuit most effectively addresses the primary goal of supervised release - rehabilitation of the offender. The Second Circuit allows the lower courts and probationary officers to harness technological advances for effective and reasonable monitoring of sexual offenders' computer uses. This type of monitoring avoids the opposing extremes: either prohibiting computer and Internet use altogether or not placing any restrictions on the use of the Internet or computers by sexual offenders. By doing so, this Note argues that the Second Circuit most effectively advances the purpose of supervised release as pronounced by Congress.
Practical and secure localization and key distribution for wireless sensor networks

In many applications of wireless sensor networks, sensor nodes are manually deployed in hostile environments where an attacker can disrupt the localization service and tamper with legitimate in-network communication. In this article, we introduce Secure Walking GPS, a practical and cost effective secure localization and key distribution solution for real, manual deployments of WSNs. Using the location information provided by the GPS and inertial guidance modules on a special master node, Secure Walking GPS achieves accurate node localization and location-based key distribution at the same time. We evaluate our localization solution in real deployments of MicaZ. Our experiments show that 100% of the deployed nodes localize (i.e., have a location position) and that the average localization errors are within 1-2m, due mainly to the limitations of the existing commercial GPS devices. Our further analysis and simulation results indicate that the Secure Walking GPS scheme makes a deployed WSN resistant to the Dolev-Yao, the wormhole, and the GPS-denial attacks, the scheme is practical for large-scale deployments with resource-constrained sensor nodes and has good localization and key distribution performance.
Brain Scanning in Cerebral Vascular Disease: A Reappraisal

The frequency of abnormal brain scans in patients with cerebral vascular disease admitted to a stroke intensive care unit has been evaluated in relation to diagnosis, time after onset of symptoms, effect of delayed imaging and the degree of clinical neurological recovery. In patients with completed thromboembolic infarction, 33% had abnormal scans including 39% of those with hemispheric lesions and 14% with posterior fossa lesions. Completed hemorrhagic infarction occurred in seven patients, and three (43%) had abnormal brain scans. Of 14 patients with either transient ischemic attacks or reversible ischemic neurological deficit, two (14%) had abnormal scans. Twenty-seven percent of brain scans in patients with completed thromboembolic infarction were abnormal in the first two days after infarction, a higher frequency than previously reported. Delayed images confirmed the initial interpretation that the scan was either normal or abnormal in 71% of the cases while in 10% of the cases only the delayed views were abnormal. The frequency of abnormal scans was significantly greater in patients who died or had a large neurological deficit at discharge than in patients with lesser residual deficit.
Cognitive Outcome After Pediatric Stem-Cell Transplantation: Impact of Age and Total-Body Irradiation

Purpose To examine the influence of age and conditioning with total-body irradiation (TBI) on the trajectory of cognitive functioning after treatment with pediatric hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (SCT). Patients and Methods Pediatric patients who were scheduled to undergo a SCT were eligible for the study, with 315 patients completing a baseline assessment. Of these, 183 patients (58.1%) were alive at 1 year after SCT and completed additional assessments at 1, 3, and 5 years after SCT. Half of the long-term sample (52.1%) received TBI during conditioning. Cognitive functioning was assessed via age-appropriate standardized measures. Results At baseline, there were no differences in intelligence quotient (IQ) based on age. At 5 years after SCT, the youngest patients (< 3 years old at baseline) who received TBI demonstrated a significantly lower IQ than those who did not receive TBI (P = .05). Longitudinal analyses (piecewise linear mixed-effects models with a knot at 1 year after SCT) revealed a si...
CONTROL OF VIRULENCE AND PATHOGENICITY GENES OF RALSTONIA SOLANACEARUM BY AN ELABORATE SENSORY NETWORK

▪ Abstract Ralstonia solanacearum causes a lethal bacterial wilt disease of diverse plants. It invades the xylem vessels of roots and disseminates into the stem where it multiplies and wilts by excessive exopolysaccharide production. Many of its key extracytoplasmic virulence and pathogenicity factors are transcriptionally controlled by an extensive network of distinct, interacting signal transduction pathways. The core of this sensory network is the five-gene Phc system that regulates exopolysaccharide, cell-wall-degrading exoenzymes, and other factors in response to a self-produced signal molecule that monitors the pathogen's growth status and environment. Four additional environmentally responsive two-component systems work independently and with the Phc system to fine-tune virulence gene expression. Another critical system is Prh which transduces plant cell-derived signals through a six-gene cascade to activate deployment of the Type III secretion pathway encoded by the hrp pathogenicity genes. Here I...
Corrigendum to “The treatment of restless legs syndrome with intravenous iron dextran” [Sleep Medicine 5 (2004) 231–235]

The authors and publisher regret to inform you that the list of authors and affiliations were incorrectly published for the above-mentioned article. The corrected version is as follows: Christopher J. Earley, Debbie Heckler, Alena Horska, Peter B. Barker, Richard P. Allen a. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA b. Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA Apologies for any inconvenience caused. Sleep Medicine 5 (2004) 613 www.elsevier.com/locate/sleep
Not Just Another Determinants Piece: Path Dependency and Local Tax Abatements

Although there is a large body of research attempting to identify the correlates of tax abatements, the question of why cities abate taxes at widely differing rates—or indeed, not at all despite state enabling legislation allowing them—has never been completely answered. Based on an examination of tax abatement data representing the history of abatements in Michigan, the article concludes that abatement patterns can be best understood when past abatement behaviors and the nature of the local employment base are included in the analysis. In the case of the number of abatements granted, it appears that both these forces—along with the general economy, governmental structural and process factors—are important in understanding abatement behavior. When the total value of abatements is considered, industrial mix appears most critical. Once municipalities start giving tax abatements they continue to do so. And, having concentrations of transportation-related industries and food/consumer products are traits that appear to lead to that initial push for abatements.
Blunting Half of the Double-Edged Sword: Potential Use of Interleukin–10 to Protect Bone Marrow-Derived Cells After Myocardial Infarction

See related article, pages 1280–1289 During a myocardial infarction (MI), tissue damage resulting from the ischemia and subsequent reperfusion injury triggers a complex combination of cellular responses,1 much of which is bone marrow–derived. Some of these responses involve a harmful inflammatory reaction to cytokines released by dying cardiomyocytes that can exacerbate the ongoing local structural damage. Other responses are beneficial, for example, the prohealing arm of the inflammatory response that replaces the necrotic and inflamed region with a fibrous scar. Still other beneficial effects are thought to be mediated by mobilized bone marrow cells (BMCs) of multiple lineages that aid in tissue healing.2,3 Much effort has gone into harnessing this endogenous cellular response by harvesting resident or mobilized bone marrow–derived cells and administering them to post-MI hearts,4–7 with the hope that the cells will regenerate myocardium via differentiation2,8 or will preserve at-risk myocardium by actively9 or passively10 releasing paracrine growth factors or secreting exosomes.11,12 However, the aforementioned inflammatory response can cause problems by creating an environment in the post-MI heart that may be inhospitable for naturally attracted and therapeutically administered BMCs alike. Moreover, the MI-induced inflammatory response transitions the BMCs themselves to a more proinflammatory state, interfering with their therapeutic abilities.13 In this issue of Circulation Research , Krishnamurthy and colleagues14 explore naturally occurring mechanisms of dampening the inflammatory response that could potentially augment the efficacy of cell therapy for MI. Their focus is on a particular subpopulation of BMCs, the endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). These cells, which were originally discovered in rodents, …
Stem cells as therapeutic vehicles for the treatment of high-grade gliomas.

Stem cells have generated great interest in the past decade as potential tools for cell-based treatment of human high-grade gliomas. Thus far, 3 types of stem cells have been tested as vehicles for various therapeutic agents: embryonic, neural, and mesenchymal. The types of therapeutic approaches and/or agents examined in the context of stem cell–based delivery include cytokines, enzyme/prodrug suicide combinations, viral particles, matrix metalloproteinases, and antibodies. Each strategy has specific advantages and disadvantages. Irrespective of the source and/or type of stem cell, there are several areas of concern for their translation to the clinical setting, such as migration in the adult human brain, potential teratogenesis, immune rejection, and regulatory and ethical issues. Nonetheless, a clinical trial is under way using neural stem cell–based delivery of an enzyme/prodrug suicide combination for recurrent high-grade glioma. A proposed future direction could encompass the use of stem cells as vehicles for delivery of agents targeting glioma stem cells, which have been implicated in the resistance of high-grade glioma to treatment. Overall, stem cells are providing an unprecedented opportunity for cell-based approaches in the treatment of high-grade gliomas, which have a persistently dismal prognosis and mandate a continued search for therapeutic options.
Cardiac testing for noncardiac surgery: past, present, and future.

The evaluation of risk is a fundamental part of the role of the anesthesiologist in the perioperative period. For elective surgery, this evaluation begins with identification of correctable elements of co-morbidity and appropriate intervention to reduce risk and/or improve outcome. Optimum anesthetic care requires a balance between sensitive detection of risk and cost-effective utilization of expensive resources. The preparation of the patient with known cardiovascular disease for noncardiac surgery is an excellent example of this dilemma. Formal risk-stratification has been a regular part of the daily practice of anesthesiology since the 1960s, with the assignment of an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification as a part of every anesthetic administered. Sponsored by the ASA and published by Dripps et al., ASA physical status assignment was designed to predict risk. Subsequent large-scale reviews have shown ASA physical status classifications to correlate with the incidence of major morbidity and mortality, although not in a manner that lends itself to predicting specific cardiac risk, or guiding cardiac testing for elective surgery. The desire to identify a means to predict perioperative cardiac risk has been driven by the observation that adverse cardiac events correlate with certain kinds of surgery, including carotid artery surgery, aortic aneurysm repair, and peripheral revascularization procedures. Recognizing that vascular surgery was highly associated with adverse cardiac events, Hertzer et al. advocated routine cardiac catheterization before vascular surgery, and achieved a very low mortality after major aortic surgery. Subsequent review of this approach revealed normal coronaries in only 8% of more than 1,000 patients scheduled for peripheral vascular surgery, with a significant incidence (14%) with severe correctable coronary artery disease that was not suspected by the clinical history. Coronary angiography led to coronary artery bypass graft procedures in 130 patients in this series who subsequently underwent aortic surgery, with less than 1% mortality. Screening with routine cardiac catheterization did not expand from these studies into a general risk prediction strategy due to the cost and morbidity associated with the procedures. Other approaches have included routine screening with exercise stress testing, dipyridamole-thallium imaging, and dobutamine stress echocardiography. Although some data are supportive, routine screening ultimately proves less than ideal for preoperative preparation for large populations of patients due to risk, cost, and logistics. In an attempt to combine patient factors with surgical issues, Goldman et al.
Supply response and dynamic factor demand of Dutch dairy farms

A dynamic equation system of factor demand, based on the adjustment cost hypothesis, is estimated using an incomplete panel of Dutch dairy farms. An instrumental variable estimator is used, based on first differences of the variables. The theoretical framework fits the data well. Investments are sensitive to price changes and technical change. Partly as a result of this, the influence of technical change on the demand for the variable input, the output supply and the demand for capital is important. However, the price elasticities of the output and the variable input are small, even in the long-run. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
Survey of Flight Data for Boundary-Layer Transition at Hypersonic and Supersonic Speeds

Published flight data for boundary-layer transition at hypersonic speeds is surveyed. The survey is limited to measurements reported in the open literature and carried out at hypersonic and high-supersonic speeds, on vehicles for which ablation is believed to be negligable or small. The purpose is to catalog work that may be suitable for validation of flowphysics models and advanced transition-estimation methods such as eN. Brief discussions are presented for each report. Known eN comparisons are also presented.
Targeted depletion of a mitochondrial nucleotidyltransferase suggests the presence of multiple enzymes that polymerize mRNA 3' tails in Trypanosoma brucei mitochondria.

Polyadenylation plays an important role in regulating RNA stability in Trypanosoma brucei mitochondria. To date, little is known about the enzymes responsible for the addition of mRNA 3′ tails in this system. In this study, we characterize a trypanosome homolog of the human mitochondrial poly(A) polymerase, which we term kPAP2. kPAP2 is mitochondrially localized and expressed in both bloodstream and procyclic form trypanosomes. Targeted gene depletion using RNAi showed that kPAP2 is not required for T. brucei growth in either bloodstream or procyclic life stages, nor is it essential for differentiation from bloodstream to procyclic form. We also demonstrate that steady state abundance of several mitochondrial RNAs was largely unaffected upon kPAP2 down-regulation. Interestingly, mRNA 3′ tail analysis of several mRNAs from both life cycle stages in uninduced kPAP2 RNAi cells demonstrated that tail length and uridine content are both regulated in a transcript-specific manner. mRNA-specific tail lengths were maintained upon kPAP2 depletion. However, the percentage of uridine residues in 3′ tails was increased, and conversely the percentage of adenosine residues was decreased, in a distinct subset of mRNAs when kPAP2 levels were down-regulated. Thus, kPAP2 apparently contributes to the incorporation of adenosine residues in 3′ tails of some, but not all, mitochondrial mRNAs. Together, these data suggest that multiple nucleotidyltransferases act on mitochondrial mRNA 3′ ends, and that these enzymes are somewhat redundant and subject to complex regulation.
Accuracy of commercial 24-hour electrocardiogram analyzers for quantitation of total and repetitive ventricular arrhythmias

Abstract The accuracy of 2 commercial 24-hour electrocardiogram analyzers was tested for quantitation of ventricular premature complexes (VPCs). Scanner 1 was the Cardiodata Systems Mark III and scanner 2 was the Avionics Trendsetter DCG VII. Twenty four-hour electrocardiographic recordings from 19 consecutive ambulatory patients with frequent VPCs were analyzed by each device. Results were compared with those from hand counts of complete printouts of each of the 19 recordings. For total VPCs, scanner 1 had an average error of 13% (range 0 to 58%) and scanner 2 had an average error of 24% (range (1 to 80%). Scanner 1 had an error of more than 10% for 9 of the 19 recordings and scanner 2 more than 10% for 11 of the 19 recordings. For paired VPCs, scanner 1 had a mean error of 23% (range 4 to 77%), and scanner 2 of 56% (range 34 to 79%). For nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, scanner 1 had an average error of 20% (range 8 to 41%) and scanner 2 had an error of 56% (range 34 to 78%). Thus, when recordings from consecutive ambulatory patients with frequent VPCs were analyzed, neither device was consistently accurate for quantitation of total VPCs. Both analyzers had an unacceptable error for quantitation of repetitive VPCs. All currently available devices may have comparably large errors. This possibility is confirmed by recalculation of the reported data from a third scanner.
A Reappraisal of Trade Deficit and Income Inequality in the United States: 1985-2007

The recent resurgence of income inequality in the United States has spawned a wide-ranging discussion to its causes, which has often focused on America's historically high trade deficit in the past two decades. Our paper revisits this issue by investigating the latest trends in the U.S. income disparity from 1985 to 2007, and systematically examining the factors that might have influenced the income inequality. To better understand income disparity, three different measures are employed: Gini, Theil and Atkinson indices. Results show that, only in the cases of Gini and Theil, international trade explains a part of income inequality, but it surely cannot be the whole story. Other factors, such as the net migration rate, the changing role of women, and the sectoral distribution of employment also play important roles in accounting for America's income inequality.
Marginal contribution nets: a compact representation scheme for coalitional games

We present a new approach to representing coalitional games based on rules that describe the marginal contributions of the agents. This representation scheme captures characteristics of the interactions among the agents in a natural and concise manner. We also develop efficient algorithms for two of the most important solution concepts, the Shapley value and the core, under this representation. The Shapley value can be computed in time linear in the size of the input. The emptiness of the core can be determined in time exponential only in the treewidth of a graphical interpretation of our representation.
Purification of CREB to Apparent Homogeneity; Removal of Truncation Products and Contaminating Nucleic Acid

Abstract The cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is a mammalian transcription factor which regulates the expression of many cellular genes. CREB is commonly expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by heat-extraction followed by affinity chromatography. We have discovered that although this purification yields a reasonably pure product which is active in DNA-binding and functional assays, it contains a large amount of nucleic acid as well as CREB truncation products and other polypeptides. Consequently, this CREB is inadequate for use in biophysical studies including crystallography, and spectroscopic analysis such as analytical ultracentrifugation, FRET, and circular dichroism. We revised the purification protocol to incorporate expression in the Rosetta™ host strain, nuclease treatment, and denaturing/high salt size-exclusion chromatography. We typically obtain 10 mg of CREB per liter of culture media that is 99% homogenous, free of nucleic acid, and amenable to biophysical studies. Comparison of CREB from the original and revised protocols shows similar affinities for the cAMP response element (CRE) but small differences in their secondary structures when assayed by limited proteolysis and circular dichroism.
How Does the Chloride/Proton Antiporter ClC-3 Control NADPH Oxidase?

See related article, pages 663–671 In this issue of Circulation Research , Miller and coworkers1 introduce new concepts that drastically change current understanding of NADPH oxidase (Nox) regulation. Nox enzymes are important ubiquitous generators of reactive oxygen species (ROS) involved in a surprisingly varied array of functions such as immune defense and vascular pathophysiology.2 In their article, Miller et al start by demonstrating that Nox1 is localized in endosomes of vascular smooth muscle cells, and that it is stimulated by cytokines to generate ROS inside these vesicles, eventually leading to activation of NFκB. This is an important demonstration of the intracellular activity of Nox1, and it is consistent with previous observations and speculations.2 The most important finding of this work, however, is that Nox1 activity and signaling require ClC-3, a chloride/proton exchanger also localized in endosomes. Indeed, the authors show that chloride channel inhibitors and knockout of ClC-3 abolish cytokine-induced generation of ROS in endosomes and ROS-dependent NFκB activation. This unexpected involvement of ClC-3 in Nox activation was first described in a recent article by the same group demonstrating that Nox2-mediated neutrophil functions are impaired in ClC-3 knockouts.3 The present study not only reveals the importance of ClC-3 in vascular tissue and its ability to control another Nox family member, but also challenges the prevalent theory of Nox activation. The most straightforward way to explain the effect of ClC-3, which is favored by Miller and coworkers, is that this antiporter prevents Nox-induced accumulation of negative charges in the endosomal lumen. This function is required because Nox2 is readily blocked by membrane depolarization.4,5 Before discussing the merits and implications of Miller’s model and why it is sure to raise controversy, we first need to briefly mention the molecules that control ion fluxes through endosomal membranes. …
Increased Land Use by Chukchi Sea Polar Bears in Relation to Changing Sea Ice Conditions

Recent observations suggest that polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using land habitats in some parts of their range, where they have minimal access to their preferred prey, likely in response to loss of their sea ice habitat associated with climatic warming. We used location data from female polar bears fit with satellite radio collars to compare land use patterns in the Chukchi Sea between two periods (1986–1995 and 2008–2013) when substantial summer sea-ice loss occurred. In both time periods, polar bears predominantly occupied sea-ice, although land was used during the summer sea-ice retreat and during the winter for maternal denning. However, the proportion of bears on land for > 7 days between August and October increased between the two periods from 20.0% to 38.9%, and the average duration on land increased by 30 days. The majority of bears that used land in the summer and for denning came to Wrangel and Herald Islands (Russia), highlighting the importance of these northernmost land habitats to Chukchi Sea polar bears. Where bears summered and denned, and how long they spent there, was related to the timing and duration of sea ice retreat. Our results are consistent with other studies supporting increased land use as a common response of polar bears to sea-ice loss. Implications of increased land use for Chukchi Sea polar bears are unclear, because a recent study observed no change in body condition or reproductive indices between the two periods considered here. This result suggests that the ecology of this region may provide a degree of resilience to sea ice loss. However, projections of continued sea ice loss suggest that polar bears in the Chukchi Sea and other parts of the Arctic may increasingly use land habitats in the future, which has the potential to increase nutritional stress and human-polar bear interactions.
Gender Complementarity and Gender Hierarchy in Purāanic Accounts of Creation

Dans les recits de creation proposes par les modeles Puranas, la complementarite entre les sexes tend a masquer les prejuges androcentriques. Cependant, on constate que les recits reconnaissent les contributions feminines a la cosmogonie. Au cours du processus cosmogonique, les Puranas temoignent de l'hegemonie masculine comme d'une chose naturelle. Les cosmogonies puraniques reservent donc un role a chaque sexe tout en endossant le principe de la superiorite masculine. Les recits tendent a legitimer le present de maniere a ce que celui-ci se conforme a la maniere dont les choses sont depuis le debut
Tuberculosis among newly arrived foreign spouses before obtaining citizenship, Taiwan, 2006-2011.

BACKGROUND Taiwan's criterion for admissions of new immigrants is a normal chest X-ray (CXR). Subsequent tuberculosis (TB) screening for new foreign spouses is mandatory before acquiring citizenship. OBJECTIVES To estimate the TB burden among new-entry foreign spouses and their close contacts. RESULTS Of 768 new foreign spouses with TB, of whom 98.6% were female, 721 (94.0%) had come from South-East Asian countries (Viet Nam, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand) or China. Rates of TB (40.3-176.2 per 100 000/year) among newly emigrant wives aged 20-49 years were 1.7- to 7.3-fold higher than among Taiwanese females of corresponding ages. TB prevalence among the 2698 close contacts of 768 foreign spouse index cases was 1.2%, according to a 2-year follow-up investigation. Respectively 87.9% (675/768) and 11.1% (85/768) of all TB cases had abnormal and normal CXRs; of these, 35.4% (239/675) of patients with an abnormal and 14.1% (12/85) of those with a normal CXR were smear-negative, culture-positive. CONCLUSIONS Foreign wives from endemic countries had a relatively high risk of TB. Regular TB screening of foreign spouses within at least 1-2 years of entry from TB-endemic regions, rather than after application for citizenship, is recommended. A more sensitive TB test could facilitate better diagnosis.
DISSECTIONS OF A PLANE OVAL

(1977). Dissections of a Plane Oval. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 84, No. 6, pp. 442-449.
The Capability for Suicide in Firefighters

Objective Suicide among firefighters is a critical mental health concern that remains under studied. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (IPTS) states that, to engage in lethal suicidal behaviors, an individual must possess thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and fearlessness about death (IPTS factors). Social cognitive theory may assist IPTS in explaining suicidal behavior. Method Participants for the study were 216 volunteers and career firefighters. The sample was almost exclusively male, non-Hispanic or Latino, and Caucasian with a mean age of 40.6. We examined the mediating effect of firefighter coping self-efficacy (FFCSE) and coping self-efficacy for trauma (CSE-T) in the relationship between critical incidents and the IPTS factors. Moderated mediation analyses were performed with separate conditional effects of each social support subscale on the indirect effect of each self-efficacy perception in the relationship between critical incidents and the IPTS factors. Results Mediation analysis indicated that FFCSE did not mediate the relationships; however, CSE-T did mediate the relationships between critical incidents and the IPTS factors. These significant indirect effects of CSE-T were moderated by social support from significant other. Conclusions CSE-T within the context of significant other support is important to consider in understanding firefighter mental health.
A semantics-oriented storage model for big heterogeneous RDF data

Increasing availability of RDF data covering different domains is enabling ad-hoc integration of different kinds of data to suit varying needs. This usually results in large collections of data such as the Billion Triple Challenge datasets or SNOMED CT, that are not just "big" in the sense of volume but also "big" in variety of property and class types. However, techniques used by most RDF data processing systems fail to scale adequately in these scenarios. One major reason is that the storage models adopted by most of these systems, e.g., vertical partitioning, do not align well with the semantic units in the data and queries. While Big Data distributed processing platforms such as the Hadoop-based platforms offer the promise of "unlimited scale-out processing", there are still open questions as to how best to physically partition and distribute RDF data for optimized distributed processing. In this poster, we present the idea of a semantics-oriented RDF storage model that partitions data into logical units that map to subqueries in graph patterns. These logical units can be seen as equivalence classes of star subgraphs in an RDF graph. This logical partitioning strategy enables more aggressive pruning of irrelevant query results by pruning irrelevant partitions. It also enables the possibility of semantic-query optimization for some queries such as eliminating joins under appropriate conditions. These benefits in addition to appropriate techniques for physically partitioning the logical partitions, translate to improved performance as shown by some preliminary results.
The Art and Science of Pediatric Cardiac Care: A Team Sport.

The history of surgery for congenital heart disease stretches back over more than seven decades. But it is really over the last few decades that the enormous challenge of medical and surgical care for patients with pediatric and congenital heart disease has brought about the emergence of a new subspecialty—that of pediatric cardiac intensive care. Among the articles included in this issue of World Journal for Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery (WJPCHS) are Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society (PCICS). The WJPCHS is pleased to share with our readers these original articles and state-ofthe-art reviews on topics of central importance to the advancement of quality care for patients with pediatric and congenital heart disease. Attendance at the most recent annual meeting of PCICS reflected the multidisciplinary nature of the field. The conference, held in Miami, Florida, hosted 606 attendees, comprising 50% physicians (cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and critical care specialists), 32% nurses, and 10% trainees. The program featured sessions aimed specifically at multidisciplinary issues related to the following topics:
CHAPTER 26 – Immunodeficiencies Caused by B-Cell Defects

This chapter discusses the clinical and molecular aspects of human immunodeficiency disorders arising from known mutations of genes, principally important for B-cell function. These comprise of two major phenotypes. In the agammaglobulinemias, B-cell development is completely blocked in the bone marrow and serum immunoglobulins are absent. In hyper immunoglobulin M (IgM) syndromes, B cells develop normally in the bone marrow and are found in normal numbers in the circulation, however they are not able to cooperate properly with T cells to generate complete antibody responses, or are intrinsically incapable of undergoing Ig class-switch recombination. The genetic defects of bone marrow B-cell development are identified in humans ,directly involve elements that are critical for signaling via Ig receptors expressed on B-cell precursors. The implications of this with respect to the evolution of the human immune system remain to be fully appreciated. It is doubtless that the study of naturally occurring human genetic mutations, targeted with the gene disruption methods in animal models, will continue to go hand-in-hand in the further understanding of the immune physiology.
Hyperuricemia-Related Diseases and Xanthine Oxidoreductase (XOR) Inhibitors: An Overview

Uric acid is the final oxidation product of purine metabolism in humans. Xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) catalyzes oxidative hydroxylation of hypoxanthine to xanthine to uric acid, accompanying the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Uric acid usually forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates in serum. Clinically, overproduction or under-excretion of uric acid results in the elevated level of serum uric acid (SUA), termed hyperuricemia, which has long been established as the major etiologic factor in gout. Accordingly, urate-lowering drugs such as allopurinol, an XOR-inhibitor, are extensively used for the treatment of gout. In recent years, the prevalence of hyperuricemia has significantly increased and more clinical investigations have confirmed that hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, and many other diseases. Urate-lowering therapy may also play a critical role in the management of these diseases. However, current XOR-inhibitor drugs such as allopurinol and febuxostat may have significant adverse effects. Therefore, there has been great effort to develop new XOR-inhibitor drugs with less or no toxicity for the long-term treatment or prevention of these hyperuricemia-related diseases. In this review, we discuss the mechanism of uric acid homeostasis and alterations, updated prevalence, therapeutic outcomes, and molecular pathophysiology of hyperuricemia-related diseases. We also summarize current discoveries in the development of new XOR inhibitors.
Vector-determined direction of apparent motion in multipath-multistimulus arrays

This paper reports the results of two experiments designed to compare vector theory and Korte’s third law accounts of perception of direction of motion in multipath stimulus arrays. The results indicate that durations of interstimulus interval (ISI) do not influence perception of direction of motion and consequently Korte’s third law does not apply. However, path selection phenomena were observed and were best described by vector theory; motion in multipath stimulus arrays followed the resultant of the vectors of the array. As in previous studies of path selection in multipath stimulus arrays, reference path arrays were presented in order to form a basis for judging shifts in direction of motion due to spatial-temporal factors. The results of the present study indicate that this strategy is flawed because the factors that govern path selection in the ambiguous multipath array also influence perception of direction of motion in the “reference” path arrays.
The Direct and Indirect Costs of Ultrasound-Guided Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Repositioning at a Large Academic Medical Center

Abstract Background To assess the technical success of ultrasound (US)-guided peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placement at a large academic medical center and evaluate the direct and indirect costs associated with malpositioned catheters. Methods This retrospective chart review consisted of 250 consecutive inpatients and 150 consecutive outpatients (N = 400, aged 58 ± 17 years, 225 men and 175women) who underwent US-guided PICC placement at a single center. Repositioning rates were compared between high-complexity (inpatient) and low-complexity (outpatient) groups using a χ 2 test and phi coefficient. Initial and final catheter tip position was assessed by radiography. Direct costs of repositioning were estimated using Medicare reimbursement rates. Indirect costs, including additional staff time, imaging, and delays in treatment, were assessed via a survey of PICC nurses and chart reviews. Results Initial PICC placement resulted in an optimal tip position in 34% of patients and an optimal or acceptable position in 84% of patients. Repositioning rates were significantly higher for inpatients with a low to moderate association between inpatient PICC placement and the need for repositioning (χ 2 = 9.603, P = .002; ϕ = 0.155, P = .002). In total, 77 catheters required repositioning, costing on average an additional $186.03 and 50 minutes of staff time per catheter as well as delaying catheter use in 23 patients for at least 24 hours. Conclusions PICC malpositioning is a significant source of inefficiency, especially for inpatient services, that should be addressed to reduce expenditures and maximize patients' perceptions of quality health care.
Spatial and Temporal Distributions of Organophosphate Ester Concentrations from Atmospheric Particulate Matter Samples Collected across Houston, TX

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) samples were collected from four ground-based sites located in the Houston, TX (September 21–28, 2013) and were analyzed for 12 organophosphate esters (OPEs; current-use plasticizers and flame retardants). Samples analyzed included daytime, nighttime, and 24 h PM of <2.5 μm aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) and total suspended particulate (TSP) samples. PM2.5 and TSP atmospheric ΣOPE concentrations varied over an order of magnitude and were statistically significantly different between urban and suburban and industrial sites. Additionally, significant temporal variability was also identified; for example, daytime atmospheric concentrations of 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP; 610 ± 220 pg m–3) measured in TSP samples were significantly higher than nighttime concentrations (280 ± 180 pg m–3; p = 0.03). Detailed discussions of the spatial and temporal distribution are given for Tris-(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCiPP), EHDPP, tri-n-butyl phosphate (TnBP), and triphenyl...