cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The villin-like protein encoded by the Drosophila quail gene is required for actin bundle assembly during oogenesis

Mutations in the Drosophila quail gene result in female sterility due to the disruption of cytoplasmic transport from the nurse cells into the oocyte late in oogenesis. Nurse cells from quail mutant egg chambers fail to assemble cytoplasmic actin filament bundles correctly. We have cloned the quail gene and found that it encodes a protein with homology to the vertebrate actin-regulating protein villin. Unlike vertebrate villin, which is restricted to specialized absorptive epithelial cells, the villin-like protein encoded by quail is germline specific in adult flies. Antibodies directed against the quail protein show a striking colocalization with filamentous actin in the nurse cells and the oocyte. Our results demonstrate that the villin-like product of quail is required for the formation of cytoplasmic actin filament bundles in nurse cells, possibly by regulating both the polymerization and organization of actin filaments as demonstrated for vertebrate villin in vitro.
Comparison of models for calculation of optical gain in gallium nitride

We discuss theoretical predictions for the gain spectra in GaN-based lasers from the point of view of adequate modeling, aimed at optimization of the laser structure and cavity parameters. The Coulomb enhancement effect is included, and it is shown that it leads to an increase of both the gain cross-section and the threshold current in edge-emitting lasers, due to shortening of carrier lifetime. The minimum threshold current density in such lasers with bulk active regions is estimated to be between 2 and 4 kA/cm2 at room temperature.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Optimization of driving lifetime durability in organic LED devices using Ir complex

Multilayer organic light-emitting device with phosphorescent guest emitter, tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium [Ir(ppy)3] doped in a host 4,4'-N,N'-dicarbazol-biphenyl (CBP) layer, exhibited very high luminous efficiency. A device having such phosphorescent guest emitter could not offer sufficiently long driving lifetime required by real products. On the other hand, phosphorescence in organic molecules rarely occurs at room temperature. We studied ways to increase driving lifetime by three types of experiments. First, we investigated to see whether the driving lifetime is dependent on guest molecule concentration. Second, we inserted Copper phtalocyanine (CuPc) between Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) anode and hole transport layer, 4,4'-bis[N- (naphthyl)-N-phenyl-amino]biphenyl (NPB) to prevent driving voltage from rising during constant current operation. Finally, we exchanged the hole blocking layer, which is 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BCP), for [(1,1'-biphenyl)-4-olato]bis(2-methyl-8- quinolinolato N1,08)aluminum (BAlq). Optimizing all of the above mentioned steps, we can expect the half decay lifetime of 20000 hours or over at an initial luminance of 100 cd/m2 by constant current driving.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Hierarchical Interactions Control CD4 Gene Expression during Thymocyte Development

CD4 gene regulation provides an ideal model for understanding the molecular events that drive T cell development. In this paper we use a transgenic approach to identify a CD4 LCR containing a stage-specific thymocyte enhancer (TE) and a region that protects against position effect variegation. Surprisingly, the TE acts indirectly through the previously defined proximal enhancer and is strongly induced upon commitment to the T cell lineage. We also describe a complex series of hierarchical control element interactions that orchestrate CD4 expression throughout thymopoiesis. These data provide a framework for understanding how CD4 gene expression is regulated in response to lineage commitment decisions.
Particle acceleration with lasers

Abstract Lasers have been considered for charged particle acceleration because of their high peak power and because intense field strengths can be obtained far from material surfaces. Several different mechanisms for transferring energy from a light beam to an electron beam are discussed. A novel accelerator structure, consisting of an open wave guide, is described. Desirable features of this design are that the interaction is in vacuum, particle motion is linear, acceleration gradient is high, there is high-energy transfer per stage, and the structure is simple with dimensions that are orders of magnitude larger than the laser wavelength. An energy increment of 1.6 GeV can be obtained in a distance of 1.6 m with a 25 TW laser.
Diffusive Movement Of A Processive Kinesin On Microtubules

Conventional kinesin-1 is a processive motor protein that moves unidirectionally on microtubules. We found that when full-length kinesin containing a HIS tag at its C-terminus is bound to an anti-HIS Quantum dot (Qdot), it shows diffusive movement on microtubules in the presence of either ATP or ADP. Diffusive behavior was first described for the depolymerizing kinesin-13, MCAK (Helenius et al., 2006). When bound to a carboxylated Qdot, the same kinesin construct moves processively in the presence of ATP, but does not interact with microtubules in ADP. Further investigation with a truncated construct lacking the last 75 amino acids (kinesin-ΔC) showed both unidirectional and diffusive movement on microtubules in solutions containing a mixture of ADP and ATP. The diffusion constant depends on the concentration of ADP/ATP. When tested in solutions containing only ADP, kinesin-ΔC shows purely diffusive movement. We interpret these data to imply that kinesin-1 diffuses on microtubules when it is in the inactive, folded conformation, and it moves processively when in its active, extended conformation. We speculate that in the folded state, kinesin with bound ADP retains a relatively high binding affinity for microtubules compared to extended kinesin, thus allowing it to diffuse.
Social significance of forehead rubbing in blacktailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

Abstract Male and female blacktailed deer rub their foreheads on twigs and branches of trees and bushes. This rubbing behaviour was studied in captive animals. Males rubbed more often than females; and in males the rubbing frequency increased in autumn. Females sniffed most often in autumn. There are exclusive and shared rubbing sites. Subordinate individuals rubbed less often, but sniffed more often, particularly at shared rubbing sites.
Surviving the transition: Central European bank executives’ view of environmental changes

Abstract Executives of ten large banks in three Central European transition economies were interviewed concerning their views of environmental changes. The study sought to identify environmental sectors that were important and uncertain for the bank executives. Central European bankers perceived customers, competitors, economic, and regulatory environmental sectors more uncertain than international and technological factors, sociocultural issues, and new entrants. We found that executives of banks with poor prior performance viewed environmental changes as threats rather than as opportunities.
Membrane Criticality Enriches Components at Sites of Adhesion

Giant plasma membrane vesicles isolated from living cells undergo large and dynamic critical fluctuations near room temperature. These results have led us to hypothesize that fluctuations persist to growth temperatures of 37°C. In this study, we demonstrate that criticality can greatly impact the organization of components at sites of adhesion between vesicles and a planar supported membrane. Adhesion is accomplished through biotin- streptavidin binding by either directly incorporating trace quantities of biotin-tagged lipids, or indirectly using a biotin conjugated Cholera Toxin B subunit that binds to the ganglioside GM1 incorporated into vesicles. Consistent with previous studies, we observe finite adhesion domains rich in the adhesion molecule (streptavidin) when a PEG lipid is incorporated into vesicles. When vesicle membranes contain coexisting liquid phases, the presence of the adhesion domain affects the localization of phase separated domains based on the partitioning of the adhesion molecules. For example, we observe enrichment of the disordered phase marker DiIC12 at the adhesion domain when the adhesion molecule is a lipid that prefers liquid-disordered phase regions. When vesicles have critical membrane compositions, DiI remains enriched at sites of adhesion at temperatures >15°C above the transition temperature. This occurs even though DiI is not directly involved in adhesion. Instead, DiI partitioning occurs likely because adhesion molecules gather fluctuations that are rich in the lipid probe. At these same temperatures, free-floating vesicles appear uniform on the micron-scale. We also observe DiI enrichment or depletion at the adhesion domain when giant plasma membrane vesicles are adhered to a supported bilayer at 37°C. This occurs even though measured critical temperatures are close to room temperature. Our results demonstrate that membrane criticality can significantly alter the organization of membrane components even when critical temperatures are well below growth temperatures.
An artificial-neural-networks-based in-process tool wear prediction system in milling operations

An artificial-neural-networks-based in-process tool wear prediction (ANN-ITWP) system has been proposed and evaluated in this study. A total of 100 experimental data have been received for training through a back-propagation ANN model. The input variables for the proposed ANN-ITWP system were feed rate, depth of cut from the cutting parameters, and the average peak force in the y-direction collected online using a dynamometer. After the proposed ANN-ITWP system had been established, nine experimental testing cuts were conducted to evaluate the performance of the system. From the test results, it was evident that the system could predict the tool wear online with an average error of ±0.037 mm. Experiments have shown that the ANN-ITWP system is able to detect tool wear in 3-insert milling operations online, approaching a real-time basis .
FOG: Fragment Optimized Growth algorithm for the de novo generation of molecules occupying druglike chemical space.

An essential feature of all practical de novo molecule generating programs is the ability to focus the potential combinatorial explosion of grown molecules on a desired chemical space. It is a daunting task to balance the generation of new molecules with limitations on growth that produce desired features such as stability in water, synthetic accessibility, or druglikeness. We have developed an algorithm, Fragment Optimized Growth (FOG), which statistically biases the growth of molecules with desired features. At the heart of the algorithm is a Markov Chain which adds fragments to the nascent molecule in a biased manner, depending on the frequency of specific fragment-fragment connections in the database of chemicals it was trained on. We show that in addition to generating synthetically feasible molecules, it can be trained to grow new molecules that resemble desired classes of molecules such as drugs, natural products, and diversity-oriented synthetic products. In order to classify our grown molecules, ...
Effects of anion size and disorder on spin resonance in the BEDT-TTF salts

The effects of different linear trihalide anions on electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra have been studied for single crystals of four BEDT-TTF salts plus one crystal containing mixed anions. Structural disorder is reflected in an increased low-temperature (residual) ESR linewidth for both s-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 and s-(BEDT-TTF)2I2Br and for (nominally!) s-(BEDT_TTF)2 (AuI2)0.82(I3)0.18 Suppression of the disorder transition in s-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 by application of shear stress to form the s∗-phase decreases the residual linewidth while increasing the onset of superconductivity from 1.5 to ≈8 K. Anion size (or equivalently unit cell size) has been shown to correlate with the superconducting transition temperature in these isomorphic salts, but we find no correlation between anion size and the ESR spin susceptibility, linewidth or microwave conductivity.
Comparing Partial Rank Order Correlations From Contingency Table Data

This article describes an asymptotic method for obtaining estimates of variance and covariance for partial rank order correlation coefficients based on contingency table data The approach used is an extension of the Grizzle, Starmer, and Koch technique for the analy sis of complex contingency tables The variance and co variance estimates may be used to test hypotheses concerning the partial correla tions
Age- and strain-related differences in murine spleen cell responses to different activation signals.

Abstract The effect of age on the response of splenocytes to activation with anti-CD3 mAb and a combination of anti-CD3 mAb and TPA, as evidenced by interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) production and cell proliferation, was examined in the C57BL/6 and DBA/2 murine strains. Depending on the mode of activation, there were age and strain differences in IL-2 and IL-4 production. With all modes of activation, cells from the old C57BL/6 mice produced less IL-2 than their young counterparts. In DBA/2 mice there was no age-related difference in IL-2 production with anti-CD3 mAb activation alone, whereas when the same cell population was activated with anti-CD3 mAb and TPA an age-associated decrease in IL-2 production occurred. In both strains, there was an age-related increase in IL-4 production with anti-CD3 mAb activation. After addition of TPA, however, there was an age-related decrease in IL-4 production. An age-related decline in the proliferation occurred with all modes of activation in both mouse strains. There were also strain-related differences in proliferation after the addition of forskolin, an inhibitor of Thl-cell function. While forskolin inhibited the proliferation of cells from the young C57BL/6 mice only, in the DBA/2 mice proliferation of cells was inhibited in both age groups. There were no strain-related differences in inhibition by anti-transferrin receptor (TrfR) mAb, although cells from the old mice were slightly more sensitive to this inhibition.
Coplanar grid patterns and their effect on energy resolution of CdZnTe detectors

Abstract This paper describes diagnostic techniques using depth and radial position-sensing methods that have been applied to identify and remove the non-symmetric effect of coplanar grid electrodes. Our experimental results show that the non-symmetric effect can degrade significantly the energy resolution of single polarity charge sensing CdZnTe detectors and can be minimized by balancing the weighting potentials of coplanar anodes. The coplanar electrode design has been modified based on the knowledge gained from this study and improvements in detector performance have been achieved.
Genetically encoded fluorescent reporters of histone methylation in living cells.

We report the design and characterization of two genetically encoded fluorescent reporters of histone protein methylation. The reporters are four-part chimeric proteins consisting of a substrate peptide from the N-terminus of histone H3 fused to a chromodomain (a natural methyllysine-specific recognition domain), sandwiched between a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-capable pair of fluorophores, cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Enzymatic methylation by a methyltransferase induces complexation of the methylated substrate peptide to the chromodomain, changing the FRET level between the flanking CFP and YFP domains. Reporters developed using the chromodomains from HP1 and Polycomb respond to enzymatic methylation at the lysine 9 and lysine 27 positions of histone H3, respectively, giving 60% and 28% YFP/CFP emission ratio increases in vitro or in single living cells. These reporters should be useful for studying gene silencing and X-chromosome inactivation wit...
Otolith chemistry of prey fish consumed by a fish predator: does digestion hinder Russian doll techniques?

The effect of digestion by a predatory fish (largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides )o n stable isotopic (δ 13 Ca ndδ 18 O) and trace elemental (Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca) compositions of prey fish (bluegill Lepomis macrochirus) otoliths was investigated in a laboratory experiment. Trace element and stable-isotopic signatures of L. macrochirus otoliths were not significantly altered for up to 16 h after L. macrochirus were consumed by M. salmoides. Prey fish otoliths recovered from predator digesta can retain environmental stable isotopic and trace elemental signatures, suggesting that determination of environmental history for prey fishes by stable-isotope and trace-element analysis of otoliths recovered from stomachs of piscivorous fishes will be feasible. © 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
In Vitro and In Vivo Characterization of CB-183,315, a Novel Lipopeptide Antibiotic for Treatment of Clostridium difficile

CB-183,315 is a novel lipopeptide antibiotic structurally related to daptomycin currently in phase 3 clinical development for Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). We report here the in vitro mechanism of action, spontaneous resistance incidence, resistance by serial passage, time-kill kinetics, postantibiotic effect, and efficacy of CB-183,315 in a hamster model of lethal infection. In vitro data showed that CB-183,315 dissipated the membrane potential of Staphylococcus aureus without inducing changes in membrane permeability to small molecules. The rate of spontaneous resistance to CB-183,315 at 8× the MIC was below the limit of detection in C. difficile. Under selective pressure by serial passage with CB-183,315 against C. difficile, the susceptibility of the bacteria changed no more than 2-fold during 15 days of serial passages. At 16× the MIC, CB-183,315 produced a ≥3-log reduction of C. difficile in the time-kill assay. The postantibiotic effect of CB-183,315 at 8× the MIC was 0.9 h. At 80× the MIC the postantibiotic effect was more than 6 h. In the hamster model of CDAD, CB-183,315 and vancomycin both demonstrated potent efficacy in resolving initial disease onset, even at very low doses. After the conclusion of dosing, CB-183,315 and vancomycin showed a similar dose- and time-dependent pattern with respect to rates of CDAD recurrence.
Sibling Relationships and Empathy Across the Transition to Adolescence

Although socioemotional competencies have been identified as key components of youths’ positive development, most studies on empathy are cross-sectional, and research on the role of the family has focused almost exclusively on parental socialization. This study examined the developmental course of empathy from age 7 to 14 and the within-person associations between sibling warmth and conflict and youths’ empathy. On three occasions across 2 years, mothers, fathers, and the two eldest siblings from 201 White, working- and middle-class families provided questionnaire data. Multilevel models revealed that, controlling for youths’ pubertal status and parental education, girls’ empathy increased during the transition to adolescence and then leveled off, but boys’ lower levels of empathy remained relatively unchanged. Moreover, controlling for parental responsiveness and marital love, at times when firstborns and second-borns reported more sibling warmth and less sibling conflict than usual, they also reported more empathy than usual. The within-person association between sibling warmth and empathy also became stronger over time. Findings highlight gender differences in empathy development and the unique role of siblings in shaping each other’s socioemotional characteristics during adolescence.
Phospholipid studies of marine organisms 9. New brominateddemospongic acids from the phospholipids of two species

Abstract Two Novel long chain fatty acids, (5Z, 9Z)-6-bromo-25-methyl-5,9-hexacosadienoic and (5Z, 9Z)-6-bromo-24-methyl-5,9-hexacosadienoic acids were found in the phospholipids of Petrosia ficiformis and P. hebes . Their structures were elucidated with the help of CI-EI7MS and a homogeneous hydrogenation catalyst.
Economic reform and political transition in Africa : the quest for a politics of development.

The 1980s were bracketed by crises in Africa, as protracted economic malaise was succeeded by a wave of political reform. Analysts have sought to understand the sources of economic decline as well as the political requisites for recovery in the region. Neoclassical and structuralist analyses have been challenged by state-centric views of economic change. The latter perspective emphasizes the need for capable developmental states as a basis for long-term adjustment, but a political theory of economic change is still lacking. Such a theory must address the institutional foundations of growth, as well as the shifting basis of social coalitions in African regimes. Political liberalization suggests the possibility of a new setting for economic reform, though the effects of political reform on institutions and coalitions remain ambiguous, and democratization cannot be regarded as a panacea for the region's developmental failure. Future research must look more closely at the interests and structures in transitional regimes, and scholars should adopt a more comparative vantage on Africa's challenges of reform.
Spectroscopic Studies of Water-soluble Sulfonated Calix(6)arene

Fluorescence and absorption studies of water-soluble sulfonated calix[6]arene (SCX6) are reported. Water-soluble calixarenes are potentially useful as host molecules for luminophores, and studies of their spectroscopic characteristics are therefore crucial. The absorption and fluorescence spectra of these molecules in aqueous solution were collected, analyzed, and compared with 4-hydroxybenzene sulfonate at different pHs. A red shift in the absorption spectrum and a change in the fluorescence spectrum of the calixarenes are observed upon an increase in pH from 2.0 to 13.0. Some of these spectroscopic changes are attributed to intramolecular hydrogen bonding between adjacent hydroxyl groups of SCX6 after proton disassociation. The formation of excimers between phenolic groups in the calixarene molecule is proposed. In addition, inner-filter effects of SCX6 are discussed. These inner-filter effects prove to be a disadvantage for the use of SCX6 as a host molecule for complexation studies by use of fluorescence probes whose absorption spectra overlap with those of calixarenes.
Sleep disorders in COPD

In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, defined as a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis), sleep quality and architecture are often altered. The very common nocturnal symptoms of cough, dyspnea, chest tightness, and wheezing disturb sleep and lead to daytime dissatisfaction and additional symptoms in these patients. Sleep is often fragmented, while rapid eye movement sleep is generally diminished in duration. Due to nocturnal symptoms and possibly the use of certain medications, some patients with COPD experience difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, symptoms that define insomnia. The known physiological changes that occur during sleep may have more profound consequences in COPD, such as persistent hypoxia and hypercapnia. The comorbid association of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and COPD (the “overlap syndrome”) may lead to more severe and persistent nocturnal hypoxemia and development of pulmonary hypertension, cor pulmonale, cardiac arrhythmia, and even sudden cardiac death. Diagnosing sleep abnormalities in patients with COPD is important, as it should address not only poorer sleep quality, but also co-existent sleep disordered breathing or other sleep conditions.
Trait distinctiveness and age specificity in self-referent information processing

College students and elderly adults made both self-descriptiveness and other-descriptiveness decisions for the same set of 80 trait adjectives. Half of the adjectives were appropriate descriptors of young adults rather than elderly adults, whereas the remainder were more appropriate as descriptors for elderly adults. Rating each trait twice made it possible to separate the items that were descriptive of both self and others (shared) from those that were descriptive of self only (unshared). Adjective endorsement by young adults showed age specificity for the shared (both) traits, particularly for the likable adjectives, but not for the unique (self-only) traits. The endorsement pattern of elderly adults showed no age specificity for either shared or unshared traits, though the elderly adults did access elderly items faster than young items.
Concurrent NetCore: from policies to pipelines

In a Software-Defined Network (SDN), a central, computationally powerful controller manages a set of distributed, computationally simple switches. The controller computes a policy describing how each switch should route packets and populates packet-processing tables on each switch with rules to enact the routing policy. As network conditions change, the controller continues to add and remove rules from switches to adjust the policy as needed. Recently, the SDN landscape has begun to change as several proposals for new, reconfigurable switching architectures, such as RMT [5] and FlexPipe [14] have emerged. These platforms provide switch programmers with many, flexible tables for storing packet-processing rules, and they offer programmers control over the packet fields that each table can analyze and act on. These reconfigurable switch architectures support a richer SDN model in which a switch configuration phase precedes the rule population phase [4]. In the configuration phase, the controller sends the switch a graph describing the layout and capabilities of the packet processing tables it will require during the population phase. Armed with this foreknowledge, the switch can allocate its hardware (or software) resources more efficiently. We present a new, typed language, called Concurrent NetCore, for specifying routing policies and graphs of packet-processing tables. Concurrent NetCore includes features for specifying sequential, conditional and concurrent control-flow between packet-processing tables. We develop a fine-grained operational model for the language and prove this model coincides with a higher-level denotational model when programs are well-typed. We also prove several additional properties of well-typed programs, including strong normalization and determinism. To illustrate the utility of the language, we develop linguistic models of both the RMT and FlexPipe architectures and we give a multi-pass compilation algorithm that translates graphs and routing policies to the RMT model.
Chemical mutagenesis in Triticum aestivum

Abstract Treatment of common wheat with ethyl methanesulfonate had effects strikingly different from those characteristically obtained in irradiation experiments. Of 558 M1 plants, 175 had recognizable mutant sectors, almost all of which were necrotic or chlorophyll-defective stripes in leaves. Such sectors are rarely seen following irradiation. Chromosome aberrations were relatively infrequent. In M2, one family segregated for a viable, simply recessive chlorina mutation, and several segregated lethal lutescent mutants. There were numerous other lethals, including three dwarfs with short, thick leaves. In addition to awn and spike mutants attributable to deficiency or duplication for known genes, there were a compactum-like dominant mutation, a mutant with one or a few central spikelets missing from each spike, and a type with the entire spike aborted except for one to three sterile spikelets. The production of distinctive mutations in common wheat by ethyl methanesulfonate is believed to involve changes in function of genes which are duplicated on other chromosomes of this hexaploid species. The change in function releases the genes from the masking action of their duplicates, while maintenance of the original function by the duplicates keeps the mutations from being automatic lethals.
Binocular vision outcomes following surgery for long-standing large angle exodeviation.

AbstractIntroduction: One goal of pre-operative sensorimotor testing is to determine fusion potential. Potential for recovery of binocularity following surgical repair of strabismus is inversely correlated to duration of misalignment. The purpose of this study was to determine binocular vision outcomes in long-standing, large-angle, constant exotropia, when the pre-operative sensorimotor exam predicts poor sensory outcome.Methods: Patients with constant exotropia >35Δ, present for ≥20 years, and scheduled to undergo strabismus surgery were recruited. Subjects were sorted into 3 groups based on pre-operative sensorimotor results. Group A had evidence of fusion pre-operatively, Group B demonstrated suppression on all tests, and Group C demonstrated paradoxical diplopia on at least one test.Results: Twenty patients were included: 11 in Group A, 5 in Group B, and 4 in Group C. Binocular vision was regained following surgery by 100% in Group A, 80% in Group B, and 50% in group C.Conclusion: Surgical realignmen...
The Inner-City Asthma Intervention asthma counselor program: a collaborative model between physician and social worker to help empower families.

Background The Inner-City Asthma Intervention (ICAI) asthma counselor program was modeled after interventions proven to be effective by the National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study (NCICAS) with inner-city children with asthma. The objective of the ICAI program was to translate and implement the NCICAS intervention into the real-world setting. Objective To describe the unique pairing of a master's degree-level social worker asthma counselor (AC) and physician program manager (PM) as they collaborate to implement a successful chronic disease intervention program. Methods A case-study design was used to describe the asthma counselor program collaboration at our site. This information was supplemented by additional qualitative data from the final report submitted by the Alliance of Community Health Plans to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from questionnaire data and enrollment and retention data compiled by Wood et al. Results A master's degree level trained social worker functioned as an AC and successfully collaborated with a physician PM to help combat one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. This is evident when evaluating administration, recruitment, education and system issues, and community outreach. Conclusions The AC/PM partnership is a blueprint of how a successful collaboration may be duplicated by future social worker-physician teams. An effective program needs to address administrative issues, patient recruitment, ongoing team education, patient retention, and community outreach. Practical examples of each element are described.
Extended and multivariate Tukey lambda distributions

SUMMARY The symmetrical Tukey lambda distributions are obtained by simple transformations of a uniformly distributed variable. Systems of multivariate distributions can be formed by applying these transformations to sets of variables having a joint Dirichlet distribution. Since no more than one of such a set of variables can have a uniform distribution, though all have beta distributions, we are led to study distributions of transforms of variables having standard beta distributions. These distributions are termed extended Tukey lambda distributions. Properties of these distributions are studied. Properties of the multivariate distributions are also described and a numerical illustration is presented.
Scanning mutagenesis reveals roles for helix n of the bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase thumb subdomain in transcription complex stability, pausing, and termination.

Deletions within the thumb subdomain (residues 335–408) of T7 RNA polymerase decrease elongation complex stability and processivity, but the structure of a T7RNAP initial transcription complex containing a 3-nucleotide RNA reveals no interactions between the thumb and the RNA or DNA. Modeling of a longer RNA in this structure, using a T7DNAP-primer-template structure as a guide, suggests that the phosphate ribose backbone of the RNA contacts a stretch of mostly positively charged side chains between residues 385 and 395 of helix N of the thumb. Scanning mutagenesis of this region reveals that alanine substitutions of Arg391, Ser393, and Arg394 destabilize elongation complexes and that substitutions at 393 and 394 increase termination of transcripts 5 or more bases in length. The α-carbons of all 3 of these residues lie on the side of helix N, which faces into the template-binding cleft of the RNA polymerase, and modeling suggests that they can contact the RNA 4–5 bases away from the 3′-end. Alanine substitutions of other residues within 385–395 do not have marked effects on transcription complex stability, but alanine substitutions of Asp388 and Tyr385 reduce pausing and termination at the T7 concatemer junction. Both of these side chains lie on the outer side of helix N, pointing away from the template binding cleft. The thumb subdomain of T7RNAP therefore has roles both in transcription complex stabilization and in pausing and termination at the T7 concatemer junction.
A thermally reworkable UV curable acrylic adhesive prototype

The thermal decrosslinking behavior of an acrylic polypropylene oxide polymer network was studied in the presence of various basic and non-basic species. The study determined that the basic species facilitated the decrosslinking of the polymer network, whereas the non-basic species showed no discernable decrosslinking behavior. This study also determined that the decrosslinking temperature of this polymer system could be controlled by the specific properties of the basic severing species. These systems have uses as reworkable adhesives that allow recycling of any components held together by the polymer material.
Pneumoperitoneum and the plain film: the need to see all of the abdomen

Even with the advent of CT, the plain film should not be neglected for the diagnosis of pneumoperitoneum. However, supine views must encompass the entirety of the peritoneal cavity, especially its uppermost areas, because those are the most likely sites of free air deposition. In actuality, the recumbent plain film so positioned is exquisitely sensitive, approaching CT in its diagnostic incisiveness.
Effects of exposure to benzene in vivo on the murine mononuclear phagocyte system.

Exposure to benzene has been shown to decrease resistance to challenges by Listeria monocytogenes or tumor cells in mice. Alterations of T-lymphocytes have been suggested as one probable cause. Macrophages are also critical participants in resistance to Listeria and to tumor cells. We have previously shown that exposure of macrophages in vitro to benzene metabolites, but not to benzene, inhibited several functions of macrophages that are critical for host resistance. The present studies were conducted to determine the effects of exposure to benzene in vivo on the murine mononuclear phagocyte system. Treated animals received daily subcutaneous injections of benzene (800 mg/kg) for 5 days. Macrophages were obtained by lavage from the peritoneal cavity after ip injection of sterile eliciting agents. Enumeration, peroxidase histochemistry, and a series of functional assays were performed. Animals exposed to benzene displayed a decreased number of macrophages elicited by peptone injection. Specific alterations of macrophage functions included a 50% decrease of Fc-receptor-mediated phagocytosis and 70% inhibition of tumor cell cytolysis but an enhancement of TPA-stimulated H2O2 release. There was no effect on interferon-γ stimulated expression of Ia antigen. The observations that the elicited macrophage populations were composed of newly immigrated cells and that benzene treatment was terminated 3 days before the functional analyses were performed suggest that benzene was affecting monocytes in the blood and precursor cells in the bone marrow. Alterations of macrophage functions in injection controls suggested that determining the primary effect of exposure to benzene may be complicated by the inflammation induced by treatment at the site of injection. These studies demonstrate in vivo toxicity of benzene for the murine mononuclear phagocyte system.
A review of recent experiments on step-to-step “hand-off” of the DNA intermediates in mammalian base excision repair pathways

The current “working model” for mammalian base excision repair involves two sub-pathways termed single-nucleotide base excision repair and long patch base excision repair that are distinguished by their repair patch sizes and the enzymes/co-factors involved. These base excision repair sub-pathways are designed to sequester the various DNA intermediates, passing them along from one step to the next without allowing these toxic molecules to trigger cell cycle arrest, necrotic cell death, or apoptosis. Although a variety of DNA-protein and protein-protein interactions are known for the base excision repair intermediates and enzymes/co-factors, the molecular mechanisms accounting for step-to-step coordination are not well understood. In this review, we explore the question of whether there is an actual step-to-step “hand-off” of the DNA intermediates during base excision repair in vitro. The results show that when base excision repair enzymes are pre-bound to the initial single-nucleotide base excision repair intermediate, the DNA is channeled from apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 to DNA polymerase β and then to DNA ligase. In the long patch base excision repair sub-pathway, where the 5′-end of the incised strand is blocked, the intermediate after polymerase β gap filling is not channeled from polymerase β to the subsequent enzyme, flap endonuclease 1. Instead, flap endonuclease 1 must recognize and bind to the intermediate in competition with other molecules.
Effects of glutaminase inhibition on release of endogenous glutamic acid.

Abstract The effects of four inhibitors of glutamine hydrolysis on synaptosomes derived from several regions of the brain were studied. The calcium-specific release of endogenous glutamic acid was determined in the presence of varying concentrations of 6-diazo-5-oxo-norleucine (DON), N-ethyl-maleimide (NEM), 2-chloroadenosine (2-CA) or haloperiodol. Both DON and NEM reduced the calcium-specific release in a concentration-dependent manner, equally in all regions tested. 2-Chloroadenosine also decreased release and the effect was most evident in the amygdala. As reported earlier, haloperidol blocked release of glutamic acid only in the amygdala. In synaptosomes from the amygdala, both DON and NEM failed to affect the calcium-specific release of aminobutyric acid (GABA), glycine or serotonin at concentrations which reduced release of glutamate by 50%; NEM, but not DON, elevated the release of dopamine. Dopamine itself affected neither the release of glutamate nor its blockade by haloperidol even in extremely large concentrations.
Analysis of survival after laparoscopic management of endometrial cancer.

Abstract Study Objective To assess the effect of laparoscopic surgery on the survival of women with early-stage endometrial cancer and to analyze the factors that affect survival. Design Retrospective cohort study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). Setting Tertiary teaching hospital. Patients Women with clinical stage I and II endometrial cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics staging, 1971) from January 1993 through June 2003. Intervention Demographic, surgical, perioperative, and pathologic characteristics of women treated with laparoscopy or laparotomy were compared by use of Fisher’s exact test or the Student t test. Recurrence-free and overall survival was calculated by use of the Kaplan-Meier method. Stratified analyses were performed with the log-rank test for factors affecting survival (surgical stage, histologic study, and grade). Measurements and Main Results Sixty-seven and 127 women were treated with laparoscopy and laparotomy, respectively. Median follow-up was 36.3 months for the laparoscopy group and 29.6 months for the laparotomy group. The complication rates in the 2 groups were comparable. Women undergoing laparoscopy had shorter hospital stay and less morbidity related to infection. The 2- and 5-year estimated recurrence-free survival rates for the laparoscopy and laparotomy groups (93 % vs 91.7% and 88.5% vs 85%, respectively), as well as the overall 2- and 5-year survival rates (100% vs 99.2% and 100% vs 97%, respectively) were similar. Conclusions Laparoscopic surgery in women with early-stage endometrial carcinoma resulted in survival rates similar to laparotomy, although a small sample size precludes definitive conclusions. A larger randomized comparison of the 2 techniques is needed to validate these findings.
Optical and acoustical monitoring of femtosecond laser-induced intracellular contrast agents: initial cell culture studies

Acoustical monitoring of laser-induced optical breakdown can be used as an important tool for diagnostics and therapeutics in living cells. Laser-induced intracellular microbubbles provide measurable contrast when detected with high-frequency ultrasound, and the bioeffects of these bubbles can be controlled to be within two distinct regimes. In the nondestructive regime, a single, transient, detectable bubble can be generated within a cell, without affecting its viability. In the destructive regime, the induced photodisruption can kill a target cell. To generate and monitor this range of effects in real time, we have developed a system integrating a femtosecond pulsed laser source with optical and acoustical microscopy. Experiments were performed on monolayers of Chinese hamster ovary cells. A Ti:Sapphire laser (793 nm wavelength, 100 fs pulse duration) was pulsed at 3.8 kHz and tightly focused to a 1 μm spot within each cell, and a high-frequency (50 MHz) ultrasonic transducer monitored the generated bubble with continuous pulse-echo recordings. The photodisruption was also observed with bright field optical microscopy, and cell viability was assessed after laser exposure using a colorimetric live/dead stain. By controlling laser pulse fluence, exposure duration, and the intracellular location of the laser focus, either nondestructive or destructive bubbles could be generated.
Testing Neighborhood, Information Seeking, and Attitudes as Explanations of Environmental Knowledge Using Random Forest and Conditional Inference Models

This article tests the explanatory power and interactions among five alternative explanations of environmental knowledge: (1) local information availability, (2) neighborhood characteristics, (3) environmental attitudes, (4) personal empowerment, and (5) information seeking. Using random forest and conditional inference trees, the article analyzes survey responses and finds that attitudes about personal empowerment and frequent information seeking are the strongest predictors of knowledge. The study offers random forest and conditional inference trees as statistical tools for complex data sets and studies that test hypotheses generated from multiple theories. We discuss the influence of knowledge differences over inclusive sustainability discussions.
Equivalence in colonoscopy results between gastroenterologists and general surgery residents following an endoscopy simulation curriculum.

Background In 2011, multiple gastroenterology societies published a position statement expressing concern over the American Board of Surgery guidelines regarding endoscopy education. Their position asserted that the American Board of Surgery's guidelines were inadequate to produce competency and the requirements should be similar to those adopted by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. This assertion failed to take into account the increasing use of simulation in surgical and endoscopic education. Methods Surgery residents were required to complete a self-paced endoscopy simulation curriculum. A retrospective review of all patients undergoing colonoscopy at a single institution over a 6-month period was then undertaken. Specifically, the quality measures associated with colonoscopy including the cecal intubation rate and the adenoma detection rate (ADR) were compared between those colonoscopies that were performed by faculty gastroenterologists and general surgery residents. Results In total, 818 colonoscopies were performed during the study period—598 were performed by the gastroenterology service (GI) and 220 were performed by general surgery residents on the surgery service (GS). Baseline characteristics of the groups were similar. Cecal intubation rates for GI and GS were 98.4% and 93.5% respectively. ADRs were similar between the groups (GI—29.8% in men and 15.3% in women; GS—26.8% in men and 18.7% in women). GI was found to perform biopsies at a higher rate than GS: 0.92 vs 0.62 (not significant, NS). GS had a higher rate of adenomas biopsied: 0.42 vs 0.32 (NS). Conclusions Following endoscopy simulation training, general surgery residents, under the supervision of surgical staff, are capable of achieving quality measures equivalent to those of staff gastroenterologists at a single institution. The ADRs and cecal intubation rates seen in this study are consistent with those previously identified in the literature.
Dynamics of Radiation Damage

Radiation damage events at low and moderate energies (up to 400 ev) are studied by machine calculations in a model representing copper. Orbits of knock-on atoms are found and the resulting damaged configurations are observed to consist of interstitials and vacancies. Thresholds for producing permanently displaced atoms (i.e., interstitials) are about 25 ev in the $〈100〉$ direction, 25 to 30 ev in the $〈110〉$ direction, and around 85 ev in the $〈111〉$ direction. Collision chains in the $〈100〉$ and $〈110〉$ directions are prominent; at low energies the chains focus, at higher energies they defocus. Above threshold, the chains transport matter, as well as energy, and produce an interstitial at a distance. The range of $〈110〉$ chains has been studied in detail. Localized vibrational modes associated with interstitials, agitations qualitatively like thermal spikes, ring annealing processes, and a higher energy process somewhat like a displacement spike have been observed. Replacements have been found to be very numerous.The configurations of various static defects have also been studied in this model. The interstitial is found to reside in a "split" configuration, sharing a lattice site with another atom. The crowdion is found not to be stable, and Frenkel pairs are stable only beyond minimum separations, which are found to be very much dependent on orientation.