cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A 7-Year-Old Boy With Sudden Onset of Loud Snoring.

A 7-year-old boy was referred for evaluation of loud nightly snoring. Snoring started suddenly 2 weeks prior to presentation and grew progressively worse. Currently, the parents witnessed breathing pauses and gasping at night. The parents moved the child to a recliner to be able to breathe better, but the snoring and apneas persisted. There was no sleepwalking, night terrors, or nocturnal enuresis. During the day, the boy did not endorse symptoms of excessive sleepiness. The review of systems was negative for fever, weight loss, night sweats, sore throat, dysphagia, nasal congestion, ear pain, chest pain, shortness of breath, stridor, and abdominal pain. The child did not complain of throat discomfort. The parents noticed a sudden change in the child's voice and described it as "muffled, like speaking with cotton balls in his mouth." His school performance did not change. He had had a viral illness 2 weeks prior to presentation that was diagnosed as viral pneumonia. He was not on medications.
Acid Deposition and Forest Soils: Potential Impacts and Sensitivity

Acid deposition can alter soil properties and thus affect forest productivity and the quality of the water in associated aquatic ecosystems. Impacts on soil properties most likely to occur include nutrient additions to forest soils mainly as nitrogen and sulfur, increased rates of cation leaching, changes in the rate of soil acidification, increased mobilization of metals such as aluminum, changes in mineral weathering rates, altered soil biology, and the closely associated process of heavy metal deposition and accumulation. Assessing the sensitivity of forest soils to acid deposition requires a clear definition of the specific effect of concern, along with the realization that the mechanism of impact on forest productivity is not yet fully understood in the scientific community.
Whole-exome sequencing (WES) of HER2+ metastatic breast cancer (MBC) from patients (pts) treated with prior trastuzumab (T): A correlative analysis of TBCRC003.

536 Background: Although several large sequencing studies have elucidated the spectrum of genomic alterations in primary, treatment-naive HER2+ cancers, the genomic landscape in metastatic tumors after progression on anti-HER2 therapy remains largely unknown. Methods: We performed WES on baseline metastatic tumor biopsies from 57 pts enrolled on TBCRC003 (NCT00470704), a phase II study evaluating combined lapatinib (L) and T that included pts with varying degrees of prior T exposure. Tumors were analyzed for point mutations, insertions/deletions, and copy number alterations. Results: Across 57 tumors, the median depth of coverage was 99-fold (range 37-160). The median number of coding mutations per sample was 55 (Range: 1-716). Significant recurrently mutated genes were TP53 (n=30; 53%) and PIK3CA (n=19; 33%). The incidence of mutant TP53 and PIK3CA was not significantly different from 104 primary, treatment-naive HER2+ tumors sequenced in the TCGA study (53% and 28%, respectively). Comparing the 40 pts w...
Evaluation of Chemicals for Rust Control

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the evaluation of chemicals for rust control. The technical evaluation of chemicals for the control of cereal rusts has revealed a number of effective and potentially useful compounds, such as calcium sulfamate, sodium sulfanilate, and inorganic salts of nickel, oxycarboxin, triarimol, triazbutil, fenapanil, and triadimefon. Toxicologic and economic evaluations are as important as pathologic evaluation in the development of a successful chemical control. The number of applications and dosage required for effective control of wheat rusts has decreased from two to three sprays of 3.4 kg/hectare for calcium sulfamate and formulations of inorganic salts of nickel with zineb or maneb to single application of 0.14–0.28 kg/hectare for triazbutil and triadimefon. None of these compounds are registered at the present time for use on cereals in the United States because of the difficulties in toxicologic and economic evaluations. Concern about the consequences of chemical residues in and on cereal grains has been a deterrent in the registration process. Chemical control is feasible in the high-yielding areas of the Pacific Northwest, where yields range from 5 to 7 metric tons/hectare.
Types of Cultural Response

The problem of China, however multifarious and complicated it may seem at first sight, is in reality one of cultural conflict and control. It is the problem of how to bring about a satisfactory adjustment in a situation where an ancient civilization has been forced against its own will into daily and intimate contact with the new civilization of the West; where the old civilization has clearly proved itself hopelessly inadequate in solving the pressing problems of national existence, economic pressure, social and political disorder, and intellectual confusion and anarchy: and where, for reasons hitherto never fully understood or expounded, the new invading civilization has so far not yet succeeded in either grafting itself upon the traditional culture or being extensively adopted and assimilated as a base or a ferment in working out a new cultural equilibrium.
The Hierarchical Organisation of Cortical and Basal-Ganglia Systems: A Computationally-Informed Review and Integrated Hypothesis

To suitably adapt to the challenges posed by reproduction and survival, animals need to learn to select when to perform different behaviours, to have internal criteria for guiding these learning processes, and to perform behaviours efficiently once selected. To implement these processes, their brains must be organised in a suitable hierarchical fashion. Here we briefly review two types of neural/behavioural/computational literatures, focussed, respectively, on cortex and on sub-cortical areas, and highlight their important limitations. Then we review two computational modelling works of the authors that exemplify the problems, brain areas, experiments, main concepts, and limitations of the two research threads. Finally we propose a theoretical integration of the two views, showing how this allows us to solve most of the problems found by the two accounts if taken in isolation. The overall picture that emerges is that the cortical and the basal ganglia systems form two highly-organised hierarchical systems working in close synergy and jointly solving all the challenges of choice, selection, and implementation needed to acquire and express adaptive behaviour.
Preventing School Violence by Promoting Wellness

This paper presents a framework for school-based health promotion and prevention programming that can serve to guide planning and action. Rather than separating specific prevention programs (such as violence prevention, substance abuse prevention, etc.) from more broad-based youth development efforts, this approach provides an integrated framework that: (a) identifies benchmarks of healthy development and strategies to support this development across contexts; (b) specifies additional factors that contribute to identified problems that are not directly linked to healthy development; and (c) provides for matching services to individual needs. Suggestions for application of this framework are discussed, with a particular focus on its application to the development of school-based Wellness Centers.
Long-Term Functional Outcome of Telestroke Patients Treated Under Drip-and-Stay Paradigm Compared with Patients Treated in a Comprehensive Stroke Center: A Single Center Experience

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare long-term functional outcome for patients who receive intravenous alteplase (tPA) at a primary stroke center (spoke) through telestroke c...
A Domain Engineering Framework Based on Probabilistic Ontologies for Automated Selection of Features to Reuse

As the complexity demanded for new systems increases, techniques for reusing existing systems or artifacts become a key factor for achieving both productivity and quality. In such context, domain engineering (aka software product line engineering) is a discipline which focuses on reusing domain knowledge in order to quickly produce a family of systems, especially software-intensive systems. The nature of domain engineering involves developing conceptual models to capture vocabulary and meta-information about some particular domain and to define common and varying characteristics—or features—among systems. Since ontologies are, by definition, formal specifications of knowledge about some domain, they are a natural candidate for representing conceptual models in domain engineering. In this work we use probabilistic ontologies to represent features, requirements, meta-information about reusable software solutions, and relationships among all of them with respective degrees of uncertainty, in order to be able to use a combination of description logic and Bayesian reasoning for identifying a subset of reusable solutions (software artifacts) that best fits with an emerging problem’s specification. A proof of concept in the domain of Insider Threat Inference Enterprise Modeling is presented.
Homogeneous phase synthesis of chitosan silica hybrid materials in ionic liquid medium and adsorption of Fe(III) from aqueous solutions

Two chitosan silica hybrid materials were prepared by a two-step process in 78–84% yields using the homogeneous phase reaction of 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl isocyanate with chitosan dissolved in 1-n-...
Reasons for Nondisclosure of Campus Sexual Violence by Sexual and Racial/Ethnic Minority Women

Sexual and racial/ethnic minority women may experience a number of unique barriers to disclosing experiences of campus sexual violence. To better understand these barriers, 5,911 online campus clim...
CO2 Capture Using Electrochemically Mediated Amine Regeneration

We describe the current status of our research on, and the development of, the Electrochemically Mediated Amine Regeneration (EMAR) process for the capture of CO2 from flue gases. The absorption st...
Joy as a Virtue: The Means and Ends of Joy:

To grasp human flourishing and thriving, we must understand joy. However, no theoretical models explain the complexity of joy as a fruit of the Spirit, nor fully account for its impact on human lif...
Evaluation of recent NCEP operational model upgrades for cool-season precipitation forecasting over the western conterminous United States

AbstractIn August 2018 and June 2019, NCEP upgraded the operational versions of the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) and Global Forecast System (GFS), respectively. To inform forecasters and mo...
In-field machine vision system for identifying corn kernel losses

Abstract Losses from the combine corn header result in decreased yield and profit. The development of improved corn headers to reduce losses is hampered by lack of sufficient tools for kernel loss assessment. A loss assessment system was developed that consisted of a residue clearing process to expose lost corn kernels on the ground, and a machine vision image system to quantify the exposed kernels. A mower deck was used to size-reduce and remove residue with minimal kernel displacement. The vision system consisted of an optical system for imaging the ground area and an image analysis program to identify lost kernels. The image analysis corn kernel detection system achieved an average precision of 0.90. A further assessment of system accuracy using random images from additional field tests resulted in an accuracy of 0.91. The combined residue clearing and machine vision systems achieved an overall system accuracy of 0.82 in field tests evaluating staged losses using known quantities of kernels. The loss analysis system was able to distinguish statistically significant (P
Constrained Adolescent Autonomy for Healthcare Should Include Participation in Survey Research.

In situations like the one presented here (Johnson et al. 2020), adolescent participants should be allowed to consent independently, without parental permission being required or even solicited.The...
Evaluating Security Specification Mining for a CISC Architecture

Security specification mining is a relatively new line of research that aims to develop a set of security properties for use during the design validation phase of the hardware life-cycle. Prior work in this field has targeted open-source RISC architectures and relies on access to the register transfer level design, developers’ repositories, bug tracker databases, and email archives. We develop Astarte, a tool for security specification mining of closed source, CISC architectures. As with prior work, we target properties written at the instruction set architecture (ISA) level. We use a full-system fast emulator with a lightweight extension to generate trace data, and we partition the space of security properties on security-critical signals in the architecture to manage complexity. We evaluate the approach for the x86-64 ISA. The Astarte framework produces roughly 1300 properties. Our automated approach produces a categorization that aligns with prior manual efforts. We study two known security flaws in shipped x86/x86-64 processor implementations and show that our set of properties could have revealed the flaws. Our analysis provides insight into those properties that are guaranteed by the ISA, those that are required of the operating system, and those that have become de facto properties by virtue of many operating systems assuming the behavior.
Institutions For Mental Diseases Medicaid Waivers: Impact On Payments For Substance Use Treatment Facilities

The Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion prohibits use of federal Medicaid funds to treat enrollees ages 21–64 in psychiatric residential treatment facilities that have more than sixtee...
3146 – INVESTIGATING THE UBIQUITIN E3 LIGASE, FBXO21, IN REGULATION OF HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELLS

The lifetime process of hematopoiesis is highly regulated through molecular pathways directing hematopoietic cell fate decisions such as self-renewal and differentiation in the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) population. The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) regulates many cellular processes through controlling protein levels by tagging them with polyubiquitin chains and promoting their degradation through the proteasome. The substrate recognition component of the UPS is the ubiquitin E3 ligase. Through investigating a specific family of ubiquitin E3 ligases, the Fbox family of proteins, which contains about 70 E3 ligases, we discovered that Fbxo21 was highly expressed in the HSPC population. Fbxo21 was more highly expressed in the HSPC population when compared to other Fbox genes. In addition, Fbxo21 expression was primarily in immature hematopoietic populations, whereas, more mature hematopoietic populations had limited expression. Western blot and qRT-PCR analysis confirmed high expression of FBXO21 in HSPC, and revealed low to no expression in mature myeloid populations. To determine the role of FBXO21 on HSPC maintenance, self-renewal, and differentiation, we generated shRNAs against Fbxo21. We found the silencing of Fbxo21 in HSPC leads to a loss of colonies and differentiation towards the mature myeloid lineage. These findings lead to the hypothesis that the ubiquitin E3 ligase FBXO21, and its substrates regulate hematopoietic stem cell maintenance and loss promotes myeloid differentiation. Deciphering the role of FBXO21 could expand the current known molecular mechanisms that regulate hematopoietic lineage specification and stem cell maintenance.
SPARSEMODr: Rapid simulations of spatially explicit and stochastic models of infectious disease

O_LISimulating the dynamics of realistically complex models of infectious disease is conceptually challenging and computationally expensive. This results in a heavy reliance on customized software and, correspondingly, lower reproducibility across disease modeling studies. C_LIO_LISPARSEMOD stands for SPAtial Resolution-SEnsitive Models of Outbreak Dynamics. The goal of our project, encapsulated by the SPARSEMODr package for R package, is to offer a framework for rapidly simulating the dynamics of stochastic and spatially-explicit models of infectious disease for use in pedagogical and applied contexts. C_LIO_LIWe outline the universal functions of our package that allow for user-customization while demonstrating the common work flow. C_LIO_LISPARSEMODr offers an extendable framework that should allow the open-source community of disease modelers to add new model types and functionalities in future releases. C_LI
High Frequency Injection Transient Disturbance Mitigation for Sensorless Control of Salient Pole Machines

Position sensorless operation of salient pole machines is a sought-after feature due to benefits such as increased reliability and reduced hardware costs. High frequency injection (HFI) schemes, exploiting rotor magnetic anisotropy, are typically applied to extract rotor position at low speeds. Normally, the injected high frequency component is not regulated in a closed-loop format to reduce control complexity. This can cause extended transients when HFI is enabled or disabled. In this paper, a compensation method is proposed to mitigate transition transients based on mathematical analysis of the machine model. The proposed compensation is verified via experimental data.
Identification of Black Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Polyphenols That Inhibit and Promote Iron Uptake by Caco-2 Cells

In nutritional studies, polyphenolic compounds are considered to be inhibitors of Fe bioavailability. Because they are presumed to act in a similar manner, total polyphenols are commonly measured via the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric assay. This study measured the content of polyphenolic compounds in white and black beans and examined the effect of individual polyphenols on iron uptake by Caco-2 cells. Analysis of seed coat extracts by LC-MS revealed the presence of a range of polyphenols in black bean, but no detectable polyphenols in white bean. Extracts from black bean seed coats strongly inhibited iron uptake. Examination of the eight most abundant black bean seed coat, non-anthocyanin polyphenols via Caco-2 cell assays showed that four (catechin, 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, kaempferol, and kaempferol 3-glucoside) clearly promoted iron uptake and four (myricetin, myricetin 3-glucoside, quercetin, and quercetin 3-glucoside) inhibited iron uptake. The four inhibitors were present in 3-fold higher total concentration than the promoters (143 ± 7.2 vs 43.6 ± 4.4 μM), consistent with the net inhibitory effect observed for black bean seed coats. The ability of some polyphenols to promote iron uptake and the identification of specific polyphenols that inhibit Fe uptake suggest a potential for breeding bean lines with improved iron nutritional qualities.
Apical Membrane Protein Sorting is Affected by Brefeldin A

Polarized epithelial cells create and maintain plasma membrane domains with distinct protein compositions. The molecular mechanisms used by such cells to segregate newly-synthesized proteins and to deliver them to their appropriate places are not well understood. In the model Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell line, it appears that apical and basal membrane proteins travel through the same biosynthetic compartments as far as the trans Golgi network (TGN) and are then separated and delivered directly to their respective plasma membrane domains (Rindler et al., 1984; Matlin and Simons, 1984; Fuller et al., 1985).
The Continuum Theory of Stationary Dislocations

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the theoretical aspects of the continuum theory of stationary dislocations, as developed up to this time by various investigators. The theory discussed in the chapter is based on the classical theory of elasticity, which is in turn based on Hooke's law, an experimental law valid to a first approximation for small deformations of a continuous medium. The results discussed in the chapter may hardly be expected to give the correct answers when the atomic nature of matter is the underlying principle for a certain physical phenomenon, as may be the case when dislocations or other lattice defects approach each other to distances comparable to the basic interatomic distance. The chapter stresses the derivation of expressions for the energy of dislocations and shows some applications of the general formulas to particular cases.
Consumer Protection as Justification for Regulating Financial-Services Firms and Products

I first review regulations imposed to protect consumers of banking, securities, and insurance. Then I delineate and examine six regulatory goals: (1) to maintain consumer confidence in the financial system, (2) to assure that a supplier on whom consumers rely does not fail, (3) to assure that consumers receive sufficient information to make “good” decisions and are dealt with fairly, (4) to assure fair pricing of financial services, (5) to protect consumers from fraud and misrepresentation, and (6) to prevent invidious discrimination against individuals. In particular, I examine closely the rationale for the U.K. Financial Services Authority, created in 1998, because it might serve as a regulatory model. I conclude that capital regulation is useful for the second goal (failure), but regulations specific to financial services are neither necessary nor desirable for the other goals.
Microtubules, organelle transport, and steroidogenesis in cultured adrenocortical tumor cells: 2. Reversibility of taxol's inhibition of basal and ACTH-lnduced steroidogenesis is unaccompanied by reversibility of taxol-lnduced changes in cell ultrastructure

Abstract Taxol inhibits the basal and ACTH-stimulated steroidogenesis of cultured mouse adrenocortical tumor cells, presumably by preventing the arrival of cholesterol in mitochondria. In these cells, taxol polymerizes and rearranges microtubules, disperses SER masses, disrupts the Golgi, and impedes the formation of cholesterol-containing lysosomes. However, taxol's alterations in ultrastructure appear likely to permit both a microtubule-based organelle transport proposed to bring mitochondria of unstimulated cells close to alternate sources of cholesterol—the SER and lipid droplets—and postulated ACTH-caused increases in these encounters. Conceivably, taxol may prevent the transfer of cholesterol from the SER and lipid droplets to mitochondria, once the meetings are achieved. To investigate this possibility, we determined the reversibility of taxol's ultrastructural effects and inhibition of steroidogenesis. Primary cultured adrenal tumor cells were incubated for 4 hr with and without ACTH (10 mU/ ml), with taxol (50μg/ml), and with ACTH and taxol 50 simultaneously. Some cultures from each set were washed with fresh medium and re-incubated for l.5hr, with and without ACTH. Media taken from cultures at the ends of pre- and post-washout incubations were analyzed for the presence of secreted steroids. Sample cultures were fixed for electron microscopy at the ends of both incubations. Data derived from pre-washout incubations confirmed previous reports of taxol's ultrastructural changes and inhibition of steroidogenesis. When cells recovered from taxol in the absence of ACTH, the inhibition of steroidogenesis was completely reversed. In the presence of ACTH, ex-taxol-treated cells demonstrated a ‘rounding up’ and an increased steroid production that are characteristic responses to the hormone. However, in all cases, there was a persistence of taxol's alterations in organelle numbers and arrangements. Our findings establish that the ultrastructural effects of taxol which we recorded cannot prevent mitochondria of unstimulated and ACTH-stimulated adrenal tumor cells from gaining cholesterol. They strengthened the possibility that in pre-washout incubations, taxol allowed organelle motility to bring mitochondria adjacent to cholesterol-containing SER tubules and lipid droplets, but inhibited steroidogenesis by preventing the cholesterol transfer. Taxol might limit the availability of a protein required for the transfer, an effect not visible in our electron micrographs.
Autonomic runtime system for large scale parallel and distributed applications

The development of efficient parallel algorithms for large scale wildfire simulations is a challenging research problem because the factors that determine wildfire behavior are complex; they include fuel characteristics and configurations, chemical reactions, balances between different modes of heat transfer, topography, and fire/atmosphere interactions. These factors make static parallel algorithms inefficient, especially when large number of processors are used because we cannot predict accurately the propagation of the fire and its computational requirements at runtime. In this paper, we present an Autonomic Runtime Manager (ARM) to dynamically exploit the physics properties of the fire simulation and use them as the basis of our self-optimization algorithm. At each step of the wildfire simulation, the ARM decomposes the computational domain into several natural regions (e.g., burning, unburned, burned) where each region has the same temporal and special characteristics. The number of burning, unburned and burned cells determines the current state of the fire simulation and can then be used to accurately predict the computational power required for each region. By regularly monitoring the state of the simulation and analyzing it, and use that to drive the runtime optimization, we can achieve significant performance gains because we can efficiently balance the computational load on each processor. Our experimental results show that the performance of the fire simulation has been improved by 45% when compared with a static portioning algorithm that does not take into considerations the state of the computations.
Enhancing multicast communication to support protocol design

Designing protocols to support collaborative applications is a non-trivial task that must be aided with design methodologies and middleware support. Support for multicasting is an important requirement in collaborative applications and several multicast frameworks supporting different ordering semantics such as FIFO, causal and total ordering have been studied. In this paper, we study the ordering requirements imposed by the modular, compositional structure of a protocol on the underlying multicast communication service (MCS). Collaborative protocols often consist of multiple functions, and techniques for designing multifunction protocols can be used for their development. The modular structure of such multifunction protocols may impose certain ordering requirements on the underlying MCS. We propose a scheme that allows a protocol to specify its ordering requirements and a technique to implement these requirements using an underlying MCS. We show that protocol design and composition is simplified if the messages are delivered in the application-specified order. We also show that the underlying MCS can exploit the structured communication pattern imposed by the modular structure of a protocol to improve the performance.
The Correctness-Security Gap in Compiler Optimization

There is a significant body of work devoted to testing, verifying, and certifying the correctness of optimizing compilers. The focus of such work is to determine if source code and optimized code have the same functional semantics. In this paper, we introduce the correctness-security gap, which arises when a compiler optimization preserves the functionality of but violates a security guarantee made by source code. We show with concrete code examples that several standard optimizations, which have been formally proved correct, in-habit this correctness-security gap. We analyze this gap and conclude that it arises due to techniques that model the state of the program but not the state of the underlying machine. We propose a broad research programme whose goal is to identify, understand, and mitigate the impact of security errors introduced by compiler optimizations. Our proposal includes research in testing, program analysis, theorem proving, and the development of new, accurate machine models for reasoning about the impact of compiler optimizations on security.
Resistance of descending vasa recta to the transport of water.

The effect of varying intracapillary oncotic pressure on the rate of transcapillary volume flux in microperfused descending vasa recta (DVR) was studied during furosemide diuresis in the Munich-Wistar rat. At the papillary base, plasma protein concentration and hydraulic pressure were 5.7 +/- 0.1 g/dl and 11.7 +/- 0.7 mmHg in nonperfused DVR, respectively, and 5.6 +/- 0.1 g/dl and 9.4 +/- 0.4 mmHg in nonperfused ascending vasa recta (AVR), respectively. These results demonstrate that the papillary microcirculation does not remove water from the interstitium during furosemide diuresis and defines Starling forces in the pericapillary interstitium. Osmolality and urea concentration were 380 +/- 11 mosmol/kgH2O and 56 +/- 5 mM in DVR plasma at the papillary base, respectively, and 386 +/- 10 mosmol/kgH2O and 62 +/- 5 mM in DVR plasma at the tip, respectively. These results demonstrate abolition of corticomedullary small solute gradients. DVR were perfused at a rate of 10 nl/min with a buffer solution containing small-solute concentrations that matched those of plasma in nonperfused DVR. The buffer solution also contained 2 x 10(6) mol wt fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran (FITC-Dx, 5 mg/ml) and either 0.1 or 5.0 g/dl albumin. Microperfused DVR were punctured a second time downstream of the perfusion site for sample collection or servo-nulling pressure measurement. The rate of transmembrane volume flux, determined from the change in FITC-Dx concentration from perfusate to collectate, was 0.99 +/- 0.29 nl.min-1.mm-1 when perfusate contained 0.1 g/dl albumin and 0.00 +/- 0.23 nl.min-1.mm-1 with 5.0 g/dl albumin (P less than 0.01). Intracapillary hydraulic pressures were 21.7 and 20.4 mmHg during microperfusion of DVR with 0.1 and 5.0 g/dl albumin, respectively. These results demonstrate that transcapillary driving forces of 20 mmHg (5 g/dl albumin) influence transcapillary water movement across the DVR endothelium. For an average capillary diameter of 12.9 microns, DVR hydraulic conductivity is calculated to be greater than 1.4 x 10(-6) cm.s-1.mmHg-1.
The Transformation of the Urban Housing System in China

The public housing system, operated since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, has provided Chinese city dwellers with low-cost accommodation. However, the rapid growth of the urban population, the lack of urban development planning, the bias in capital investment, and, especially, the structure of the public housing system itself have caused a severe housing crisis in Chinese urban areas. In recent years, leaders have addressed this problem with a complex series of reforms. These reforms generally move the system toward greater reliance on market forces, but numerous difficulties have emerged in creating housing markets within a centralized political and economic system.
Supplementation of N-Acetylcysteine Normalizes Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Nuclear Factor κB Activation and Proinflammatory Cytokine Production During Early Rehabilitation of Protein Malnourished Mice

Increased sensitivity to septic shock has been reported in protein malnourished patients. In this study, we used an animal septic shock model to investigate effects of glutathione (GSH) levels on nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB) activation and proinflammatory cytokine production in protein malnutrition. We further investigated molecular mechanisms by which protein malnutrition influenced inflammatory responses. CD-1 mice were fed for 3 wk a normal protein (150 g/kg) diet or a protein-deficient (5 g/kg) diet, or for 2 wk a protein-deficient diet followed by 1 wk of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplementation. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was injected intravenously, and liver was collected at 0, 15 min, 1, 4, 24 and 48 h after LPS administration. Protein malnutrition significantly increased the activation of NFkappaB and transcription levels of its downstream genes interleukin-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Peak NFkappaB activation was inversely associated with GSH levels (r = -0.939, P < 0.0001) but positively correlated with the GSH disulfide/2GSH reduction potential (r = 0.944 P < 0.0001). We noted unusual NFkappaB p50/p50 homodimer translocation that was significantly elevated in tissue from protein malnourished mice, along with decreased peak levels of normal p65/p50 heterodimer translocation. Interestingly, mRNA levels of IkappaB-alpha were not affected by protein malnutrition. However, early supplementation of NAC to protein malnourished mice without replenishing with dietary protein restored GSH levels and reduction potential, and normalized NFkappaB activation and proinflammatory cytokine production. Taken together, these findings provide evidence supporting the role of GSH in NFkappaB activation and inflammatory response in protein malnutrition, and the use of NAC in early rehabilitation of protein malnutrition without a high protein diet.
Embedding of micro thin film strain sensors in sapphire by diffusion bonding

Advanced ceramics have been increasingly used for various manufacturing processes. The current sensors used in ceramic tools are difficult to reliably provide thermomechanical measurements in or near the ceramic tool–workpiece interface. Thin film micro sensors could be embedded—thus avoiding direct contact with workpieces—at critical locations without interfering with normal manufacturing operation of the ceramic tool. However, little research has been conducted in embedding of thin film sensors in ceramic materials. To initiate the study on ceramic embedded thin film sensors, palladium-13 wt% chromium (PdCr) material was used to fabricate thin film strain gauges (TFSGs) on sapphire substrates and a diffusion bonding process was used to embed the TFSGs into sapphire. The interface between the sapphire and embedded sensors was characterized by high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). The results clearly indicated a good chemical bonding between the host sapphire and embedded thin films with no inter-diffusion. Moreover, TEM images showed there were local stresses at the interface due to the chemical bonding. The functionality of the embedded micro TFSGs into sapphire was successfully characterized. This study clearly demonstrates the feasibility of fabricating and embedding micro thin film sensors for potential use in ceramic tools for various applications.
Piercing the veil of anonymous Online Financial Transactions

The Online Financial Transaction (OFT) services landscape has grown with the widespread commoditization of e-commerce. Though developed for legitimate commercial means, new technologies have created many ways to anonymously transfer funds over communication networks. Law enforcement agencies now face a unique and nearly insurmountable problem: cybercriminals are able to anonymously exchange financial resources and goods, hiding virtually all traces of evidence in a complex web of financial services. Consequently, OFTs pose a significant risk to law enforcement and intelligence agencies because such anonymous transactions have become difficult to monitor and provide new opportunities to the criminals who threaten our physical world. The focus of this capstone project was to increase the understanding of anonymous OFTs using a three step approach. The first step involved developing a standardized identity framework to classify levels of anonymity in online transactions. The second step was the creation of a comprehensive database of OFT services and the information each of these services collects during individual transactions. This database incorporates the Identity Elements framework and stores relationships between OFTs. This information is then used by a suite of client applications, the third step in our approach, to analyze financial transactions. Overall, the combination of an identity framework and analytic tools forms a better understanding of the potential threats posed by dynamic anonymous technologies, and is intended to grow to function as an active method used to catch and monitor criminals.
Tenderness of Freeze-Dried Chicken Treated with Proteolytic Enzymes

Abstract INTRODUCTION DURING the freeze drying process, cooked poultry meat becomes less tender, and this difference in tenderness is greatest in muscle from young birds (Wells and Dawson, 1966). The use of proteolytic enzymes in the rehydration solution can result in tender meat (Penny, 1960). Attempts to introduce the enzymes into carcass meat prior to cooking and freeze drying have resulted in nonuniform penetration and enzyme action and in some flavor changes. Auerbach (1960) reported that enzyme-treated meat may show over-tenderization and a mushy appearance on the exterior, but little or no effect on the interior of the sample. Lower enzyme concentrations were reported necessary in chicken meat than in beef to produce acceptable tenderness (Sosebee et al., 1963) and the desirable amounts of enzyme depended on initial meat tenderness (Wang et al., 1957). A concentration of 0.0002% ficin, bromelin or papain, and a concentration of 0.02% Rhozyme P-11 was needed…
Intracellular concentrations determine the cytotoxicity of adefovir, cidofovir and tenofovir.

Lack of in vitro to in vivo translation is a major challenge in safety prediction during early drug discovery.One of the most common in vitro assays to evaluate the probability of a compound to cause adverse effects is a cytotoxicity assay. Cytotoxicity of a compound is often measured by dose–response curves assuming the administered doses and intracellular exposures are equal at the time of measurement.However, this may not be true for compounds with low membrane permeability or those which are substrates for drug transporters as intracellular concentrations are determined both by passive permeability and active uptake through drug transporters. We show here that three antiviral drugs, adefovir, cidofovir and tenofovir exhibit significantly increased cytotoxicity in HEK293 cells transfected with organic anion transporter (OAT) 1 and 3 compared to a lack of cytotoxicity in HEK293 wildtype cells. A further look at the media and intracellular drug concentrations showed that 24 h after dosing, all three drugs had higher intracellular drug concentrations than that of media in the HEK-OAT1 cells whereas the intracellular drug concentrations in the wildtype cells were much lower than the administered doses. Comparing cytotoxicity IC(50) values of adefovir, cidofovir and tenofovir based on administered doses and measured intracellular concentrations in HEK-OAT1 cells revealed that intracellular drug concentrations have significant impact on calculated IC(50) values. Tenofovir showed much less intrinsic cytotoxicity than adefovir and cidofovir using intracellular concentrations rather than media concentration. Our data suggest that for low permeable drugs or drugs that are substrates for drug transporters, the choice of cellular model is critical for providing an accurate determination of cytotoxicity.
Kinetics and Mechanisms of the Acid Degradation of the Aldopentoses to Furfural

The acid degradation of the aldopentoses to furfural and the degradation of furfural were followed spectrophotometrically and are first-order functions of HCI and pentose concentration. The aldopentose is largely transformed to furfural with small parallel reactions (7–25%). The furfural is subsequently degraded by specific hydrogen ion-catalyzed solvolysis to nonchromophoric products. The heats of activation were the same for the aldopentoses, 30 kcal./mole. The order of reactivities were ribose > xylose ∼ lyxose > arabinose and in the ratio 5.4:2.2:2.2:1. The steric positioning of the hydroxyls in the reactive forms were the controlling factor. Free rotation of the hydroxyls in the open-chair form negates any steric requirements for this form. No correlation between steric factors and observed reactivities could be found for the furanose forms. The most plausible explanation of the order and magnitudes of the reactivities is that the rate-determining step is dehydration of the 3-OH, 2H or 4-OH, 5-H in those pyranose conformers amenable to axial-axial dehydration. The relative rates of dehydration are functions of the equilibrium concentrations of these reactive conformers and a specific reactivity which is a stereochemical function of the numbers of axial hydroxyls of such conformers. This explanation and the data are consistent with a positive entropic effect which implies that the transition state involves ring opening.
Studies of the oxovanadium-organophosphonate system: Formation of pyrodiphosphonate and pyrophosphophosphonate units through metal-mediated ligand condensations. The crystal and molecular structures of (Ph4P)2[VO{RP(O)2OP(O)2 R}2] (R=Me, Ph) and (Ph4P)2(n-Bu4N)[(VO)6V{t-BuP(O)2OPO3}6]

Under solvothermal conditions and in the presence of oxovanadium species. organophosphonates undergo self-condensation reactions or condensation with phosphate to yield pyrodiphosphonate {RP(O)2OP(O)2 R}2, or organophos-phonatophosphate units {RP(O)2OPO3}3-. In this fashion, the reactions of (Ph4P)[VO2Cl2] withRPO3H2 (R=CH3,Ph) and Et3N in CH3CN at 110°C yielded (Ph4P)2 [VO{RP(O)2P(O)2 R}2](R = CH3(1), Ph (2)). However, the reaction of {Ph4P}[VO2Cl2],t-BuPO3H2 and (n-Bu4N)H2PO4 in acetonitrile at 125°C produced an unusual mixed valence V(IV)/V(III) cluster (Ph4P)2 (n-Bu4N)[(VO)6V{Me3CP(O)2OPO3}6] ⊎3CH3CN (3). Compounds1 and2 exhibit mononuclear molecular anions with the V(IV) center in the common square pyramidal coordination mode. The organodiphosphonate ligands adopt a bidentate coordination mode. The molecular anion of3 consists of a shell constructed of six V(IV) square pyramids linked by pentadentate {Me3CP(O)2OPO3}3- groups. Each organophosphonatophosphate ligand bridges four {VO5}square pyramids of the shell and directs the fifth oxygen donor toward the interior of the cluster, so as to bond to an octahedral V(III) located at the center of the cluster cavity. Crystal data:1, C26H26O5.5P3V0.5: triciinic Pl,a=10.836(2)A,b=ll.418(2)A,c=11.486(2)A,α=82.58(2)°,s=75.29(2)°,γ=75.61(2)°,V=1328.1(7)A3,Z=2, Dcalc=l.362gcm-3;2, C36H32O6.5P3V0.5: monoclinic P21/c,a=12.823(3)A,b=14.318(3)A,c=18.581(4)A,s=94.76(3)°,V=3999.7(13)A3,Z=4, Dcalc=l.342gcm-3 3, C94H139N4O42P14V7, triclinic Pl,a=13.589(3)A,b=17.835(4)A,c=38.915(8)A,α=81.64(2)°,s=81.58(2)°,γ=82.87(2)°,V=9180(3)A3,Z=3, Dcalc=l.512gcm-3.
Some approximate microfield distributions for multiply ionized plasmas: A critique

This paper provides a critical comparison of several approximate microfield distributions. Included are versions of the nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor approximations together with two approximations based on independent-perturber models. Where appropriate, results from a more complete theory will be used as reference. Monte Carlo results will be used in circumstances where the validity of the reference results are uncertain.
Intensive agriculture and land use at Roman Gordion, central Turkey

Few archaeobotanical studies of Roman agricultural practices and their environmental impact in Anatolia (modern Turkey) have been published. New data from Roman levels at Gordion, a multi-period urban centre in central Anatolia, indicate that free-threshing wheat, most likely Triticum aestivum (bread wheat), was the focus of agricultural practice, in contrast to earlier periods when a more diverse agricultural system included greater amounts of barley and pulses. Evidence for increased levels of irrigation and wood fuel use relative to dung, along with regional overgrazing, provide further evidence for significant change in land-use practices during the Roman period. The emphasis on T. aestivum cultivation coupled with extensive grazing had significant environmental implications, leading to severe overgrazing and soil erosion on a regional scale. Historical sources and limited data from other Roman period sites suggest that similar patterns of agriculture may have been practiced across central Anatolia during the Roman period. We propose that this may have been due to externally imposed demands for taxation or military tribute in the form of wheat, and conclude that these demands led to the adoption of an unsustainable agricultural system at Gordion.
Constructing continuous functions holomorphic off a curve

Abstract We give new proofs of a theorem of A. Browder and J. Wermer and a theorem of A. Davie which characterize the plane sets K for which AK is a Dirichlet algebra. The use of functional analysis in the original proofs is replaced by a construction involving bounded solutions of the \ t6 equation. In particular, this gives an explicit construction of nonconstant functions in these spaces.
Characterization of the P-type and V-type ATPases of cholinergic synaptic vesicles and coupling of nucleotide hydrolysis to acetylcholine transport

Both phosphointermediate- and vacuolar-type (P- and V-type, respectively) ATPase activities found in cholinergic synaptic vesicles isolated from electric organ are immunoprecipitated by a monoclonal antibody to the SV2 epitope characteristic of synaptic vesicles. The two activities can be distinguished by assay in the absence and presence of vanadate, an inhibitor of the P-type ATPase. Each ATPase has two overlapping activity maxima between pH 5.5 and 9.5 and is inhibited by fluoride and fluorescein isothiocyanate. The P-type ATPase hydrolyzes ATP and dATP best among common nucleotides, and activity is supported well by Mg2+, Mn2+, or Co2+ but not by Ca2+, Cd2+, or Zn2+. It is stimulated by hyposmotic lysis, detergent solubilization, and some mitochondrial uncouplers. Kinetic analysis revealed two Michaelis constants for MgATP of 28 microM and 3.1 mM, and the native enzyme is proposed to be a dimer of 110-kDa subunits. The V-type ATPase hydrolyzes all common nucleoside triphosphates, and Mg2+, Ca2+, Cd2+, Mn2+, and Zn2+ all support activity effectively. Active transport of acetylcholine (ACh) also is supported by various nucleoside triphosphates in the presence of Ca2+ or Mg2+, and the Km for MgATP is 170 microM. The V-type ATPase is stimulated by mitochondrial uncouplers, but only at concentrations significantly above those required to inhibit ACh active uptake. Kinetic analysis of the V-type ATPase revealed two Michaelis constants for MgATP of approximately 26 microM and 2.0 mM. The V-type ATPase and ACh active transport were inhibited by 84 and 160 pmol of bafilomycin A1/mg of vesicle protein, respectively, from which it is estimated that only one or two V-type ATPase proton pumps are present per synaptic vesicle. The presence of presumably contaminating Na+,K(+)-ATPase in the synaptic vesicle preparation is demonstrated.