cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
B 1 g -like pairing states in two-leg ladder iron superconductors

Motivated by the recent report of superconductivity in Fe-based ladder materials, we study the pairing state of a multiorbital $t$-$J$ model defined on two-leg ladders using the standard mean-field theory. We find that the superconducting order parameters change sign between the ${d}_{xz}$ and ${d}_{yz}$ orbitals in most of the phase diagram. By analogy with the two-dimensional Fe planes, we conclude that the leading pairing channel of this state belongs to the ${B}_{1g}$ symmetry class, which is distinct from the common ${s}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ gap with ${A}_{1g}$ symmetry. By smoothly interpolating from planes into ladders, we show that a first-order transition occurs between these two competing phases when the dimension of the system is reduced.
Mediastinal lymph node detection with endosonography

Eighty-two persons with chronic abdominal pain, submucosal or extrinsic masses, or achalasia and 20 volunteers without symptoms were prospectively examined with endosonography to assess the incidence and features of mediastinal lymphadenopathy. In 99 persons without malignant disease, 86% were found to have paraesophageal lymph nodes by endosonography. Overall, 352 lymph nodes were found, with a mean of 3.6 ± 2.8 SD lymph nodes per person (range, 0 to 14 lymph nodes). Increasing age and chronic pancreatitis were found to correlate with a greater number of lymph nodes. Otherwise, clinical features including quantity of tobacco use, height, weight, sex, and race did not correlate with a greater number of lymph nodes as assessed by regression analysis. The mean width and length among the lymph nodes was 4.9 ± 2.4 mm (range, 1 to 15 mm) and 9.9 ± 5.2 mm (range, 1 to 30 mm), respectively, with the largest lymph nodes occurring in the peritracheal and peribronchial regions. Of all subjects, 95% had a maximum lymph node width of 10 mm or less, but only 40% had a maximum lymph node length of 10 mm or less. The most common ultrasound features of these lymph nodes included a triangular or crescent-shaped and homogenous or centrally echogenic pattern. These ultrasound characteristics were distinct from those previously described in malignant lymph nodes, in summary, a high background prevalence of mediastinal lymph nodes exists as detected by endosonography and must be considered when performing esophageal or lung carcinoma staging examinations. Dependence on size thresholds for determining malignancy may be problematic because of variations among different geographic regions.
Toxicities in waterfowl

Waterfowl populations may serve as sentinel species for natural and man-made toxicological problems in the environment. Many toxins cause nonspecific clinical signs, acute mortality, and subtle or no pathological changes, which make toxicological investigations extremely difficult. The purpose of this report is to review the most common toxins causing problems in waterfowl populations, including heavy metals, pesticides, botulism, mycotoxins, algal toxins, and petroleum oil. Where applicable, clinical signs, diagnosis, pathology, and treatment will be discussed. Although most of the information in the literature is based on wild waterfowl populations or experimental toxicological investigations, the information is also applicable to captively managed waterfowl population.
Case Report: Pneumomediastinum Complicating Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia in a Patient with AIDS

ABSTRACT The destructive potential of Pneumocystis carinii infection in patients with AIDS has been amply documented. This report describes a homosexual man with P. carinii pneumonia (PCP) complicated by pneumato-coeles and pneumomediastinum. The pneumomediastinum almost completely resolved with successful antimicrobial therapy. Pneumomediastinum, like pneumothorax, should be anticipated in patients with AIDS and PCP.
THE NEWS VALUE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN VICTIMS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE MEDIA'S PRESENTATION OF HOMICIDE

ABSTRACT This article examines the presentation of homicide in the news. Police data for all homicides occurring in Indianapolis in 1995 were collected We then electronically searched and then collected all articles about these homicides presented in the city's major newspaper. We used several analysis to determine what characteristics (e.g., number of victims, sex, race) resulted in stories receiving more attention (more articles, more words). Results indicate that murders of white victims receive more attention in the news than murders of African-American victims. The implications for the devaluation of African-American victims are discussed.
Visual discrimination between spatially separated stimuli by cats with lesions of the superior colliculus-pretectum.

Abstract 1. (1) This study was designed to test the ability of cats with lesions of the superior colliculus-pretectum to discriminate between stimuli which are widely separated in space. 2. (2) Intact cats and cats learning or relearning after lesions of the superior colliculus-pretectum, were trained on light-dark (LD) and horizontal-vertical stripe (HV) discriminations in a V-maze, where the stimuli were widely separated in space, or in divided straight maze, where the stimuli were side by side. 3. (3) Two types of errors were scored: door-push errors when the cat pushed open the incorrect door; alley-entrance errors when the cat entered the incorrect alley, but turned and entered the correct alley without having pushed the incorrect door. 4. (4) In the V-maze as well as in the straight maze, cats with lesions of the superior colliculus-pretectum achieved criterional performance by alley-entrance and door-push scoring on LD and HV discriminations. Thus, cats with lesions of the superior colliculus-pretectum can locate or orient to widely separated visual stimuli well enough to discriminate between them from a distant choicepoint. 5. (5) Cats with lesions of the superior colliculus-pretectum generally committed a larger number and higher percentage of alley-entrance errors during learning than unoperated cats on either maze. However, commission of alley-entrance errors was not further increased in the V-maze, where the stimuli were widely separate in space. 6. (6) All unoperated cats committed alley-entrance errors as well as door-push errors suggesting that commission of alley-entrance errors may reflect a normal process in two-choice learning.
Catholic Hispanic Deacons and Hispanic Parishes Minister With Machismo or Caballerismo

Hispanic deacons (n = 156) from across the United States completed measures on personal leadership style and their perceived sense of parish community along with demographic items. Most deacons (n ...
Instruction execution sequence confirmation

Acquiring extremely dependable results from computers requires attention to all of the stages from program and machine design through execution of the program. One of the smaller, but still important, stages is that of verifying that the sequence of instructions executed by the processor was exactly the sequence specified by the compiler. A surprisingly small addition to the logic of the processor (and code produced by the compiler) is sufficient to achieve this.
Magnetic quantum dots: synthesis, spectroscopy, and magnetism of Co2+ - and Ni2+-doped ZnO nanocrystals.

We report a method for the preparation of colloidal ZnO-diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots (DMS-QDs) by alkaline-activated hydrolysis and condensation of zinc acetate solutions in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Mechanistic studies reveal that Co2+ and Ni2+ dopants inhibit nucleation and growth of ZnO nanocrystals. In particular, dopants are quantitatively excluded from the critical nuclei but are incorporated nearly isotropically during subsequent growth of the nanocrystals. The smaller nanocrystal diameters that result upon doping are explained by the Gibbs−Thompson relationship between lattice strain and crystal solubility. We describe methods for cleaning the nanocrystal surfaces of exposed dopants and for redispersion of the final DMS-QDs. Homogeneous substitutional doping is verified by high-resolution low-temperature electronic absorption and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopies. A “giant Zeeman effect” is observed in the band gap transition of Co2+:ZnO DMS-QDs. MCD and Zeeman spect...
Evolution of Nitrogen Oxide(s) during In Vivo Nitrate Reductase Assay of Soybean Leaves

Studies were conducted to quantitate the evolution of nitrogen oxides (NO (x) ) from soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] leaves during in vivo nitrate reductase (NR) assays with aerobic and anaerobic gas purging. Anaerobic gas purging (N 2 and argon) consistently resulted in greater NO (x) evolution than did aerobic gas purging (air and O 2 ). The evolution of NO (x) was dependent on gas flow rate and on NO 2 − formation in the assay medium; although a threshold level of NO 2 − appeared to exist beyond which the rate of NO (x) evolution did not increase further. The loss of NO (x) from in vivo NR assays under gas purging explains partially, but not stoichiometrically, the decrease in NO 2 − accumulation in in vivo NR assay medium with young soybean leaves. The lack of stoichiometry between NO (x) evolution and apparent NO 2 − loss suggests that other mechanisms are also involved in loss of NO 2 − or inhibition of formation of NO 2 − during anaerobic and aerobic incubation conditions imposed on the in vivo NR assay of soybean. The mechanism of NO (x) evolution under the assay conditions imposed and the relevance of this phenomenon to intact plants remains unclear.
Effect of ground plane size on the performance of a class of microstrip antennas on microwave substrates

The paper quantitatively compares the effects of the sizes of finite, truncated, circular dielectric and ground plane on the performance of a probe-fed, rectangular microstrip antenna and probe-fed, single-layer, wideband U-slot antenna. The finite ground plane effects of these two antenna configurations are simulated using the commercially available, FDTD based, electromagnetic simulator, FIDELITY. It appears that the variation of the size of the finite ground plane seems to have a similar effect on both U-slot and rectangular patch antenna geometries.
Training therapists to perform interpersonal psychotherapy in clinical trials.

Abstract This article describes procedures to train psychotherapists for performance of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in clinical trials including use of a training manual, didactic seminars, and supervised casework. In two separate programs, training effects were measured by contrasting therapist skill ratings based on initial and subsequent cases. In one program, highly experienced psychodynamically-oriented psychotherapists were found to perform IPT at a high level on their first supervised case following review of the manual and completion of the didactic seminar. Their performance did not improve in subsequent training cases. In another program, therapists with less experience and differences in other characteristics were found to perform at an acceptable level in the first training case and to significantly improve performance with a second case. In no case did a therapist demonstrate unacceptable performance in later cases when performance was adequate with an initial case. Thus, while more extensive casework appeared to improve the performance of those with lower initial ratings, those with high initial ratings may not require prolonged training to perform this form of psychotherapy in clinical trials.
Stress analysis for a layer of finite length bonded to a half-space of identical material

Abstract The problem in the plane theory of elasticity of an elastic layer bonded to an elastic half-space of the same material is considered. The formulation is achieved by means of integral transforms and the problem is reduced to the solution of a system of singular integral equations. A numerical solution is accomplished for the half-space and layer by use of the collocation scheme developed by Erdogan and Gupta.
Sulfur hexafluoride as a surrogate for volatilization of organics from indoor water uses

Degradation of indoor air quality by potentially toxic volatile organic chemicals is of growing concern. It has been shown that the use of contaminated potable water indoors, such as in showers and baths, can release these chemicals and cause inhalation exposures to the inhabitants that may be substantially higher than those from the direct ingestion of that water. In this paper, they describe a system for delivering controlled concentrations of SF/sub 6/ into water devices and present initial results of SF/sub 6/ volatilization studies with a full-size shower.
Polycystic ovary syndrome.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) refers to a heterogeneous group of gynecologic disorders with variable degrees of ovarian and adrenal hyperandrogenism. Although its precise definition remains elusive, the classic description in 1935 by Stein and Leventhal 49 was rigidly based on the clinical findings of amenorrhea, hirsutism, and bilaterally enlarged ovaries. Radioimmunoassays later demonstrated that the endocrinologic characteristics of PCOS included luteinizing hormone (LH) hypersecretion, hyperandrogenemia, and acyclic estrogen production. Developments in pelvic ultrasound enabled detailed morphologic descriptions of bilaterally enlarged cystic ovaries. 1 Although a concordance exists between these clinical or biochemical parameters and ultrasound appearance, PCOS remains clinically heterogeneous and indistinguishable from other endocrinopathies. Therefore, in 1990 the National Institutes of Health (NIH)–National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Conference on PCOS proposed that the new diagnostic criteria for this disorder should be hyperandrogenism and chronic anovulation, excluding other causes such as adult-onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), hyperprolactinemia, and androgen-secreting neoplasms. 15 Because these criteria are less stringent, some hyperandrogenic anovulatory women are included in this definition who would otherwise not fulfill the strict definition of classic PCOS.
Cultures of GH3 cells are functionally heterogeneous: thyrotropin-releasing hormone, estradiol and cortisol cause reciprocal shifts in the proportions of growth hormone and prolactin secretors

Utilization of reverse hemolytic plaque assays revealed that cultures of GH3 cells are not functionally homogeneous, but contain approximately twice as many GH as PRL secretors. Chronic treatment of these cultures with TRH, estradiol, or cortisol (factors that induce reciprocal alterations in the amount of GH and PRL released by entire cultures of GH3 cells) caused reciprocal shifts in the proportions of GH and PRL cells, without influencing the combined percentages of hormone-secreting cell types present. These results indicate that alterations in hormone release caused by these modulatory factors may in part be due to changes in the ratios of cells committed to the secretion of each hormone. Moreover, the reciprocal nature of these shifts suggests that an interconversion of one cell type to another may have occurred.
On L-fuzzy systems

Abstract The concept of L-fuzzy systems is introduced. A universal structure of a special kind of L-fuzzy system and new constructions, based on a given L-fuzzy system, called the sup-quotient and inf-quotient L-fuzzy systems, respectively, are given. Problems of comparison and stabilities of L-fuzzy systems are discussed.
Clinical applications of biofeedback training. A review of evidence.

The published reports on clinical applications of biofeedback training are summarized and critically reviewed. Only in the area of electromyogram feedback for muscle retraining, elimination of subvocal speech while reading, and elimination of tension headaches does the evidence support strong conclusions on the efficacy of biofeedback training.
Systems, tasks and perspectives: redefining the importance of technology in enhancing learning

At times, an over-emphasis can be put on the importance of technology in modern education. It is argued that technology can only have a real effect on education if strategic thinking and development systems are effective. The focus of development should be on educational tasks, which encourage cognitive interaction, consideration of perspectives and collaborative working. Two systems are described which show how technology is used in support of a task-based approach.
Community: Toward a variable conceptualization for comparative research

(1980). Community: Toward a variable conceptualization for comparative research. Social History: Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 105-129.
Family Practice Enhancements for Patients with Severe Mental Illness

Individuals with severe mental health disorders experience difficulty maneuvering the complexity encountered in primary care (PC). This study describes the impact of three components of primary care practice enhancements on: changes in missed appointments, changes in health outcomes, number of ER visits and hospitalization days, and perceptions of integrated care. Missed PC appointments: baseline to post practice enhancement changed from 42 to 11, statistically significant (p < .01). Changes in health outcomes: SF-12 scores had no significant change nor did ER utilization and hospitalization; however, outcomes are low-base rate and assessment period was short. Integration of care: liaison was most helpful in accessing and navigating PC, educating and reconciling medication lists. Behavioral health staff voiced relief regarding access and felt better informed. Strategies focusing on increasing communication, staff education, and reducing barriers to access and receipt of PC may improve integration and continuity of care.
The Radiographic Approach to Child Abuse

Background Osseous injuries are a major facet of child abuse and in most patients radiographic imaging plays a major role in diagnosis. While some injuries are typically produced as a result of excessive and inappropriate force other injuries are nonspecific in terms of their causation, but become suspicious when the history provided by the caretakers is inconsistent with the type of injury produced.
Analysis of quantum wire high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structure

Abstract An analytical model predicting the electrical characteristics of a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structure with a quantum well wire (QWW) channel is proposed. Electron energy levels in the quantum wire and electron wave functions inside and outside the quantum wire are computed. Analytical results on self-consistent calculation of the one-dimensional electron gas (1DEG) density, as well as current-voltage characteristics in the quantum wire channel, are presented. In particular, we have found that the magnitude of transconductance in QWW HEMTs is over two times higher than the 2D devices.
Time-Resolved O3 Chemical Chain Reaction Kinetics via High-Resolution IR Laser Absorption Methods

Excimer laser photolysis in combination with time-resolved IR laser absorption detection of OH radicals has been used to study O3/OH(v = 0)/HO2 chain reaction kinetics at 298 K, (i.e.,(k(sub 1) is OH + 03 yields H02 + 02 and (k(sub 2) is H02 + 03 yields OH + 202). From time-resolved detection of OH radicals with high-resolution near IR laser absorption methods, the chain induction kinetics have been measured at up to an order of magnitude higher ozone concentrations ([03] less than or equal to 10(exp 17) molecules/cu cm) than accessible in previous studies. This greater dynamic range permits the full evolution of the chain induction, propagation, and termination process to be temporally isolated and measured in real time. An exact solution for time-dependent OH evolution under pseudo- first-order chain reaction conditions is presented, which correctly predicts new kinetic signatures not included in previous OH + 03 kinetic analyses. Specifically, the solutions predict an initial exponential loss (chain "induction") of the OH radical to a steady-state level ([OH](sub ss)), with this fast initial decay determined by the sum of both chain rate constants, k(sub ind) = k(sub 1) + k(sub 2). By monitoring the chain induction feature, this sum of the rate constants is determined to be k(sub ind) = 8.4(8) x 10(exp -14) cu cm/molecule/s for room temperature reagents. This is significantly higher than the values currently recommended for use in atmospheric models, but in excellent agreement with previous results from Ravishankara et al.
The Relative Contributions of Methylmercury from Food or Water to Rainbow Trout (Salmo gairdneri) in a Controlled Laboratory Environment

Abstract Rainbow trout accumulated methylmercury linearly during 24 days when continually exposed to methylmercury. Exposure was by means of water solutions (0.07-1.33 μg Hg/liter), food consumption (8.0-380.5 ng Hg/g fish per day) or both. Methylmercury accumulated from one source had no influence on the rate of uptake from the second source. Methylmercury accumulated from both sources was quantitatively additive, which validates a frequently used assumption. Food consumption rate and therefore growth rate had no influence on the rate of mercury accumulation from water. Nearly 70% of the methylmercury ingested and 10% of the methylmercury passed over the gills was assimilated.
Automated text mining for requirements analysis of policy documents

Businesses and organizations in jurisdictions around the world are required by law to provide their customers and users with information about their business practices in the form of policy documents. Requirements engineers analyze these documents as sources of requirements, but this analysis is a time-consuming and mostly manual process. Moreover, policy documents contain legalese and present readability challenges to requirements engineers seeking to analyze them. In this paper, we perform a large-scale analysis of 2,061 policy documents, including policy documents from the Google Top 1000 most visited websites and the Fortune 500 companies, for three purposes: (1) to assess the readability of these policy documents for requirements engineers; (2) to determine if automated text mining can indicate whether a policy document contains requirements expressed as either privacy protections or vulnerabilities; and (3) to establish the generalizability of prior work in the identification of privacy protections and vulnerabilities from privacy policies to other policy documents. Our results suggest that this requirements analysis technique, developed on a small set of policy documents in two domains, may generalize to other domains.
Practical approximation to reaction probabilities from selected initial quantum states

Abstract A method for the economical of reasonable approximations to the probability of reaction from specified internal states of reactants is proposed for elementary exchange reactions. It requires the solution of the close coupling equations in the reactant channel only and the imposition of boundary conditions on a hypersurface at the transition state. A numerical comparison with the complete quantum calculation for the planar H + H 2 reaction is presented and the agreement is shown to be good.
A Miocene subcontinental plume in the Pacific Northwest: geochemical evidence

Most of the recent discussions on the number and kinds of components which can be distinguished in the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) magmas have used arguments developed from isotopic evidence. In this paper, we consider relative contents of excluded trace elements, interpreted by means of spidergrams and abundance ratios, and compare data from the CRBG and related lavas with those of selected oceanic basalts. Although many recent models for CRBG petrogeneses do not include a plume component, spidergrams for the American Bar flows of the Imnaha Basalt of the CRBG have broad humps at Ba, Th, and Nb (Ta). This feature suggests that an enriched mantle plume component is present in the American Bar magmas, an inference which is weakly confirmed by 87Sr/86Sr data. This plume may have been identical to that presently beneath Yellowstone. The inferred hot spot track lies almost directly east-west, and requires a vector of motion of the Pacific Northwest part of the North American plate significantly different from that inferred by Minster and Jordan (1978) [31]. Our proposed vector for the North American plate agrees, however, with that suggested by the Anahim Belt, a volcanic lineament in southern British Columbia that has been proposed as a hot spot track. This proposed vector requires alterations in current models for Pacific and North American plate movement during the Cenozoic.
Medication and nutrient administration considerations after bariatric surgery

Purpose. Medication and nutrient administration considerations after bariatric surgery are discussed. Summary. Bariatric surgery is categorized by surgical technique (i.e., restrictive procedure or a combination of restrictive and malabsorptive procedures). Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the most frequently performed bariatric surgery in the United States. Patients who have undergone this surgery are at risk for nutrient deficiencies. Several factors, such as pH and absorption sites, should be considered when providing these patients with appropriate supplementation. Drug solubility and surface area for absorption are also affected by gastric bypass procedures. By bypassing major portions of the small intestine, Roux-en-Y procedures drastically reduce the surface area for absorption. These changes may warrant manipulation in drug route or dose to ensure adequate delivery. Drugs with long absorptive phases that remain in the intestine for extended periods are likely to exhibit decreased bioavailability in these patients. The reduced size of the stomach after surgery can place patients at risk for adverse events associated with some medications. Medications implicated in such adverse events include nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, salicylates, and oral bisphosphonates. Drugs that are rapidly and primarily absorbed in the stomach or duodenum are likely to exhibit decreased absorption in patients who have had combination restrictive–malabsorptive procedures. Because reduced drug absorption may result in decreased efficacy rather than toxicity, increased patient monitoring for therapeutic effects can help detect potential absorption problems. Conclusion. Selection of appropriate nutrient salts can improve nutrient replacement in patients who have undergone bariatric surgery. Changes in dosage forms based on drug characteristics can improve bioavailability.
On the performance of concurrent tree algorithms

Abstract Various algorithms have been proposed to allow independent concurrent processes to access shared tree-structured objects, while guaranteeing that the object remains in a consistent state. Although algorithms can be classified as either “optimistic” or “conservative,” on the basis of their approach to concurrency control, it is very difficult to compare the expected performance of two concurrent algorithms that use different approaches. We demonstrate an approach to performance comparison that combines both analytical evaluation and detailed simulation. Our analysis predicts the frequency of highly time dependent activities, such as interference and recovery, that dominate performance of optimistic algorithms. Our simulation measures the performance of concurrent algorithms in a particular application, that of a central file server. The simulation results show that in general analytical techniques tend to overestimate the performance of conservative algorithms because inherent system bottlenecks are ignored, whereas they underestimate the performance of optimistic algorithms due to the difficulty of obtaining tight analytical bounds on time-dependent interactions. However, the results also show that our form of analysis gives predictions that much more closely match simulation results.
Genetically linked scientists. The one-two punch for NFATp knockout.

The comprehensive report in this issue by Ranger et al. ([1][1]) is a landmark contribution for several reasons: first, it identifies an important regulatory agent that functions in several diverse mesenchymal pathways; second, it shows that transcription factors that affect differentiation pathways
The structure of interfacial water on gold electrodes studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy

The molecular structure of the electrical double layer determines the chemistry in all electrochemical processes. Using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), we probed the structure of water near gold electrodes and its bias dependence. Electron yield XAS detected at the gold electrode revealed that the interfacial water molecules have a different structure from those in the bulk. First principles calculations revealed that ~50% of the molecules lie flat on the surface with saturated hydrogen bonds and another substantial fraction with broken hydrogen bonds that do not contribute to the XAS spectrum because their core-excited states are delocalized by coupling with the gold substrate. At negative bias, the population of flat-lying molecules with broken hydrogen bonds increases, producing a spectrum similar to that of bulk water.
Conversion of Worm-Shaped Antiferromagnetic Hematite to Ferrimagnetic Spherical Barium-Ferrite Nanoparticles for Particulate Recording Media

We used a modified, two-step hydrothermal process to produce worm-shaped antiferromagnetic hematite-barium iron oxide particles and converted them to 25-45 nm spherical ferrimagnetic barium-ferrite (S-BaFe) nanoparticles for high-density magnetic recording media application. Saturation magnetization and coercivity of the S-BaFe nanoparticles were 50.7 emu/g and 4311 Oe, respectively. The thermal stability of KuV/k B T ≈ 81 was estimated for the S-BaFe nanoparticles from time-dependent remanent coercivity measurements.
RNA-Seq Transcriptome Profiling Identifies CRISPLD2 as a Glucocorticoid Responsive Gene that Modulates Cytokine Function in Airway Smooth Muscle Cells

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory respiratory disease that affects over 300 million people worldwide. Glucocorticoids are a mainstay therapy for asthma because they exert anti-inflammatory effects in multiple lung tissues, including the airway smooth muscle (ASM). However, the mechanism by which glucocorticoids suppress inflammation in ASM remains poorly understood. Using RNA-Seq, a high-throughput sequencing method, we characterized transcriptomic changes in four primary human ASM cell lines that were treated with dexamethasone—a potent synthetic glucocorticoid (1 µM for 18 hours). Based on a Benjamini-Hochberg corrected p-value <0.05, we identified 316 differentially expressed genes, including both well known (DUSP1, KLF15, PER1, TSC22D3) and less investigated (C7, CCDC69, CRISPLD2) glucocorticoid-responsive genes. CRISPLD2, which encodes a secreted protein previously implicated in lung development and endotoxin regulation, was found to have SNPs that were moderately associated with inhaled corticosteroid resistance and bronchodilator response among asthma patients in two previously conducted genome-wide association studies. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting showed that dexamethasone treatment significantly increased CRISPLD2 mRNA and protein expression in ASM cells. CRISPLD2 expression was also induced by the inflammatory cytokine IL1β, and small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of CRISPLD2 further increased IL1β-induced expression of IL6 and IL8. Our findings offer a comprehensive view of the effect of a glucocorticoid on the ASM transcriptome and identify CRISPLD2 as an asthma pharmacogenetics candidate gene that regulates anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids in the ASM.
Improvements in the amplification of ultrashort pulses at megahertz repetition rates: characterization of a six-pass amplifier

We describe a multipass dye laser amplifier pumped by a cavity-dumped argon-ion laser for the amplification of ultrashort pulses at megahertz repetition rates. We present the operation and performance characterization of the system for the amplification of picosecond pulses from a synchronously pumped, cavity-dumped dye laser. We find that the multipass configuration of the amplifier provides conversion efficiencies of ~25% of the available energy provided by the pump laser. These results are consistent with appropriate models for the gain of the amplifier.
Mechanisms and Evolution of Virulence in Oomycetes

Many destructive diseases of plants and animals are caused by oomycetes, a group of eukaryotic pathogens important to agricultural, ornamental, and natural ecosystems. Understanding the mechanisms underlying oomycete virulence and the genomic processes by which those mechanisms rapidly evolve is essential to developing effective long-term control measures for oomycete diseases. Several common mechanisms underlying oomycete virulence, including protein toxins and cell-entering effectors, have emerged from comparing oomycetes with different genome characteristics, parasitic lifestyles, and host ranges. Oomycete genomes display a strongly bipartite organization in which conserved housekeeping genes are concentrated in syntenic gene-rich blocks, whereas virulence genes are dispersed into highly dynamic, repeat-rich regions. There is also evidence that key virulence genes have been acquired by horizontal transfer from other eukaryotic and prokaryotic species.
Probucol Enhances Selective Uptake of HDL-Associated Cholesteryl Esters In Vitro by a Scavenger Receptor B-I–Dependent Mechanism

Recently, the class B, type I scavenger receptor (SR-BI) has been shown to mediate the selective uptake of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesteryl esters (CEs), ie, lipid uptake independent of HDL holoparticle uptake. In vivo, this selective uptake delivers CEs to the liver for excretion and to steroidogenic tissues for hormone synthesis. Probucol, a hydrophobic antioxidant drug, lowers plasma cholesterol in humans and rodents and may inhibit progression of atherosclerosis and postangioplasty restenosis. In this study, the effect of probucol on HDL selective CE uptake was investigated in mice and in cells expressing SR-BI. Probucol feeding lowered plasma HDL cholesterol and markedly increased selective CE uptake from HDL in the liver and adrenal glands. However, probucol did not alter SR-BI protein levels in membranes from these organs. When incubated with control Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, HDL isolated from probucol-treated mice (P-HDL) and HDL from control mice (C-HDL) showed similar low selective uptake of CEs. However, when incubated with SR-BI-transfected CHO cells, P-HDL showed a 2-fold increase in selective uptake compared with C-HDL. In an adrenal cell line (Y1-BS1), which expresses SR-BI in an adrenocorticotropic hormone-inducible manner, P-HDL showed significantly greater selective CE uptake than did C-HDL, and the differential response was amplified by adrenocorticotropic hormone treatment. In contrast to P-HDL, incorporation of this compound into HDL in vitro did not result in stimulation of selective CE uptake by SR-BI-transfected CHO cells, even though a significant mass of probucol could be detected in the HDL preparation. The specific interaction of P-HDL with SR-BI in cell culture could be observed after only 24 hours of probucol feeding, when there were minimal changes in HDL size and composition. Thus, probucol or one of its metabolites increases selective CE uptake in vivo by modifying HDL in a way that causes enhanced interaction with SR-BI. The increased interaction of P-HDL with SR-BI in the liver and arterial wall may be partly responsible for the effects of probucol on atherosclerosis and restenosis.
In‐Plane Fracture Resistance of a Crossply Fibrous Monolith

The in-plane fracture resistance of a crossply Si3N4/BN fibrous monolith in the 0°/90° and ±45° orientations is examined through tests on notched flexure specimens. The measurements and observations demonstrate the importance of fiber pullout following fiber fracture. The mechanical response is modeled using a crack-bridging approach. Two complementary approaches to evaluating the bridging law are developed: one based on a micromechanical model of fiber pullout and the other based on the load versus crack mouth opening displacement response of the flexure specimens following fracture of all fibers. Both approaches indicate that the bridging law follows an exponential form, characterized by a bridging strength and an effective pullout length. An assessment of the bridging model is made through comparisons of simulations of the load–displacement response with those measured experimentally.
Potentially Harmful Side-Effects: Medically Unexplained Symptoms, Somatization, and the Insufficient Illness Narrative for Viewers of Mystery Diagnosis

Illness narrative has often been found to play a positive role in both patients' and providers' efforts to find meaning in the illness experience. However, illness narrative can sometimes become counterproductive, even pathological, particularly in cases of medical mystery--cases wherein biopsychosocial factors blur the distinction between bodily dysfunction and somatizing behavior. In this article, the author draws attention to two examples of medical mystery, the clinical presentation of medically unexplained symptoms, and the popular reality television program Mystery Diagnosis, to demonstrate the potentially harmful effects of illness narrative. The medical mystery's complex narrative structure reflects and tends to reinforce providers' and patients' mistaken assumptions, anxieties, and conflicts in ways which obstruct, rather than facilitate, healing.
The Maturing of Diversity Initiatives on American Campuses

America's corporations have embraced the value of diversity, and higher education is following suit as it recognizes its unique responsibility to educate students for a diverse world. Over the past three decades, the academy has been engaged in a democratic experiment to create more inclusive campuses grounded in scholarship about the previously excluded majority of humankind. Our understanding of diversity has matured as we realize diversity is not just about adding to what is but about transforming the relations between the parts, and in the process reconceiving the whole. Some of the emerging curricular models, goals for student learning, and characteristics of the ideal dynamic in a diversity classroom are presented in this article.
Evaluating the impact of context-sensitivity on Andersen's algorithm for Java programs

Program analysis and program optimization of Java programs require reference information that estimates the instances of classes that may be accessed through dereferences. Recent work has presented several approaches for adapting Andersen's algorithm [1]---the most precise flow-insensitive and context-insensitive points-to analysis algorithm developed for C--- for analyzing Java programs (e.g., [5, 9, 12]). Studies in our previous work [6] indicate that this algorithm may compute very imprecise reference information for Java programs.
The use of large shipboard barrels and drifters to study the effects of coastal upwelling on phytoplankton dynamics1, 2

During the OPUS (Organization of Persistent Upwelling Structures) study of the upwelling center at Point Conception, California, large (380 liter) plastic shipboard enclosures (barrels) were tested as experimental tools to study phytoplankton processes in isolation from variability in circulation and grazing. Barrels were filled with water from the upwelling center during different stages of the upwelling cycle. Upwelling was simulated in one barrel series and the phytoplankton response to additional nutrients and shading was examined. Measurements of 15N uptake (VNO,-) and nitrate reductase activity (VNR) made in the barrels are reported in the context of a “conveyor-belt” hypothesis in which upwelled algae go through a “shift-up” in metabolism followed by a “shiftdown.” The results showed the same trends as those obtained with Lagrangian sampling along drifter tracks initiated at the same time and place as the barrels. Our hypothesis that the initial nutrient concentration has an effect on the rate of shift-up (defined as acceleration of VNO,- or VNR) was substantiated by a positive correlation between acceleration of the rates, V/NO,- and VNR, and nitrate concentration. At the upwelling center at 15’S, Peru, a similar observation was based both on VNO,- acceleration from drogue and holdover experiments and on silicate concentration.
Physiological characterization of SusG, an outer membrane protein essential for starch utilization by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.

Results from previous studies had suggested that Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron utilizes starch by binding the polysaccharide to the bacterial surface and subsequently degrading the polymer by using cell-associated enzymes. Most of the starch-degrading activity was localized to the periplasm, but a portion appeared to be membrane associated. This raised the possibility that some breakdown might occur in the outer membrane prior to exposure of the polysaccharide to the periplasmic polysaccharide-degrading enzymes. In this study, we show that SusG, an outer membrane protein which has been shown genetically to be essential for starch utilization, has enzymatic activity. Results of protease accessibility experiments support the hypothesis that SusG is exposed on the cell surface. Results of [14C]starch binding assays, however, show that SusG plays a negligible role in binding of starch to the cell surface. Consistent with this, SusG has a relatively high Km for starch and by itself is not sufficient to allow cells to grow on starch or to bind starch. Hence, the main role of SusG is to hydrolyze starch, but the binding of starch to the cell surface is evidently mediated by other proteins presumably interacting with SusG.
The PTEN tumor suppressor is a negative modulator of androgen receptor transcriptional activity.

To investigate whether the tumor suppressor gene PTEN affects the activity of the androgen receptor (AR), we monitored the expression of the apoptotic gene HA-Bax (inserted in an adenovirus where it is driven by the AR-responsive promoter ARR2PB) in the presence or absence of dihydrotestosterone, in PTEN (+) or (�) prostate cancer cell lines, infected with an adenovirus containing wild-type PTEN (Av-CMV-PTEN) or a control LacZ-expressing construct. Our results showed that AR transcriptional activity was antagonized by PTEN expression. This antagonism was not cell line dependent, as it was observed in both LNCaP and LAPC-4 cells, or promoter dependent, as it was observed for a reporter gene (HA-Bax) driven by an exogenous androgen-responsive promoter (the ARR2PB promoter), and for a native gene (prostate-specific antigen; PSA) driven by an endogenous AR-responsive promoter. Additional experiments performed with viruses containing constitutively active (Adeno-myrAkt) or dominant negative (Adeno-dnAkt) forms of Akt demonstrated that Akt, a protein kinase whose activation is known to be inhibited by PTEN, mediated the observed antagonism between PTEN and AR transcriptional activity. Recently, two putative Akt phosphorylation sites have been identified in the AR sequence. Site-directed mutagenesis was utilized to convert these two serine into alanine residues. The resulting construct, named CMV-AR S213A&S791A was transfected in AR (�) and PTEN (�) PC-3 cells in the presence or absence of Av-CMV-PTEN and of two reporter plasmids (GRE2E1b-Luc and PSA P/E-luc) containing the luciferase gene driven by well-characterized androgen responsive promoters. These experiments demonstrated that, similarly to the wild-type molecule, AR S213A&S791A was transcriptionally inhibited by PTEN, suggesting that Akt does not have an effect on AR transcription by direct phosphorylation, but probably by affecting the availability of a downstream molecule whose main mechanism of action is that of modulating AR transcription. The data presented here suggest that loss of PTEN function may facilitate activation of AR signaling and progression to androgen independence in prostate cancer.
The synthetic human parathyroid hormone-related protein is inhibited by a parathyroid hormone antagonist in rats in vivo

The structure of a novel protein, parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), secreted by human tumors associated with hypercalcemia has recently been determined. Administration of a synthetic fragment of this protein in vivo reproduces features of the clinical paraneoplastic syndrome of humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy and produces biologic responses closely similar to those obtained with parathyroid hormone (PTH). A PTH antagonist designed to reversibly occupy PTH receptors inhibited major actions of the tumor peptide in vivo, including phosphaturia, urinary cAMP excretion, and increased serum ionized calcium. These studies indicate that PTHrP and PTH mediate their bioactivities through shared receptors in vivo and establish a potential specific mechanism-based approach utilizing PTH antagonists for the therapy of tumor-associated hypercalcemia.
Anisotropic heat and water transport in a PEFC cathode gas diffusion layer

A nonisothermal, two-phase model was developed to investigate simultaneous heat and mass transfer in the cathode gas diffusion layer GDL of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell PEFC. The model was applied in two-dimensions with the in-plane i.e., channel-to-land and through-plane i.e., catalyst layer-to-channel directions to investigate the effects of anisotropy of GDL. For the first time, the anisotropy in the GDL properties was taken into account and found to be an important factor controlling the temperature distribution in the GDL. The maximum temperature difference in the GDL was found to be a strong function of GDL anisotropy. A temperature difference of up to 5°C at a cell voltage of 0.4 V was predicted for an isotropic GDL while it reduced to 3°C for an anisotropic GDL. Significant effect of temperature distribution on liquid water transport and distribution was also observed. In addition, the latent heat effects due to condensation/evaporation of water on the temperature and water distributions were analyzed and found to strongly affect the two-phase transport.
Marital status and suicide in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study

OBJECTIVES—The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of marital status on the risk of suicide, using a large nationally representative sample. A related objective was to investigate the association between marital status and suicide by sex. METHODS—Cox proportional hazards regression models were applied to data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, based on the 1979-1989 follow up. In estimating the effect of marital status, adjustments were made for age, sex, race, education, family income, and region of residence. RESULTS—For the entire sample, higher risks of suicide were found in divorced than in married persons. Divorced and separated persons were over twice as likely to commit suicide as married persons (RR=2.08, 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) 1.58, 2.72). Being single or widowed had no significant effect on suicide risk. When data were stratified by sex, it was observed that the risk of suicide among divorced men was over twice that of married men (RR=2.38, CI 1.77, 3.20). Among women, however, there were no statistically significant differentials in the risk of suicide by marital status categories. CONCLUSIONS—Marital status, especially divorce, has strong net effect on mortality from suicide, but only among men. The study showed that in epidemiological research on suicide, more accurate results would be obtained if samples are stratified on the basis of key demographic or social characteristics. The study further observed that failure to control for relevant socioeconomic variables or combining men and women in the same models could produce misleading results. Keywords: suicide; marital status; socioeconomic status; effect modification