cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ca2+-permeable P2X receptor channels in cultured rat retinal ganglion cells.

ATP has been identified as an excitatory neurotransmitter in both the CNS and peripheral nervous system; however, little is known about the functional properties of ATP-gated channels in central neurons. Here we used a culture preparation of the postnatal rat retina to test the responsiveness of identified retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and putative amacrines to exogenous ATP and other purinoceptor agonists. Rapidly activating ATP-induced currents (IATP ) were exclusively generated in a subpopulation (;65%) of RGCs. The latter were identified by Thy1.1 immunostaining, repetitive firing patterns, and activation of glutamatergic autaptic currents. None of the putative amacrine cells was ATP-sensitive. IATP could be induced with ATP, ADP, and a,b-mATP but not with adenosine. It was antagonized by suramin. The current‐voltage relationship of IATP showed marked inward rectification. Dose‐response analysis yielded an EC50 of 14.5 mM, with a Hill coefficient of 0.9. Noise analysis of IATP suggested a mean single channel conductance of 2.3 pS. Retinal P2X purinoceptor channels exhibited a high permeability for Ca 21 .P Ca/PCs obtained from reversal potentials of IATP under bi-ionic conditions amounted to 2.2 6 0.7. In the majority of cells, the decay of IATP was biphasic. The degree of current inactivation during the first 2 sec of agonist application was highly variable. Heterogeneity was also found with respect to the sensitivity to ADP and a,b-mATP and the blocking action of suramin, suggesting expression of multiple P2X receptor subtypes. Our results indicate that activation of P2X receptor channels represents an important pathway for Ca 21 influx in post
THE EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION OF NARCOTIC DRUG EFFECTS AND WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS THROUGH HYPNOSIS.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of suggestion in the production of certain narcotic drug effects and in the narcotic abstinence syndrome. In addition, we were interested in determining the extent to which actual narcotic drug effects could be reversed through posthypnotic suggestion. The results of our study indicated that formerly addicted Ss, who had experienced at least one “cold turkey” withdrawal from narcotics, were able to attain a highly realistic suggested narcotic drug and withdrawal experience through hypnosis with appropriate physiological and behavioral changes, which they were unable to achieve in other control conditions. Moreover, when actual narcotic drags were administered, certain Ss were able to return to normal behavior following appropriate posthypnotic suggestions. Hypnosis was deemed to be essential in the production of all these effects.
Development of B-1 Cells: Segregation of Phosphatidyl Choline-specific B Cells to the B-1 Population Occurs After Immunoglobulin Gene Expression

Adult mice have two easily recognizable subsets of B cells: the predominant resting population of the spleen, called B-2, and those called B-1, which predominate in coelomic cavities and can express CD5. Some antibody specificities appear to be unique to the B-1 population. Cells expressing antibody specific for phosphatidyl choline (PtC) are the most frequent, comprising 2-10% of peritoneal B cells in normal mice. To understand the basis for the segregation of the anti-PtC specificity to this population, we have produced transgenic (Tg) mice expressing the rearranged VH12 and V kappa 4 genes of a PtC-specific B-1 cell lymphoma. We find that VH12-Tg and VH12/V kappa 4 double-Tg mice develop very high numbers of PtC-specific peritoneal and splenic B cells. These cells have the characteristics of B-1 cells; most are CD5+, and are all IgMhi, B220lo, and CD23-. In the peritoneum these cells are also CD11b+. In addition, adult mice have many splenic B cells (up to one third of Tg+ cells) that express the VH12 Tg but do not bind PtC, presumably because they express a V kappa gene other than V kappa 4. These cells appear to be B-2 cells; they are CD23+, CD11b-, IgMlo, B220hi, and CD5-. Thus, mice given either the VH12 Tg alone or together with the V kappa 4 Tg develop a large population of PtC-specific B cells which belong exclusively to the B-1 population. Since B-2 cells can express the VH12 and V kappa 4 gene separately, we interpret these data to indicate that the events leading to the segregation of PtC-specific B cells to the B-1 population in normal mice are initiated after Ig gene rearrangement and expression. These data are discussed with regard to hypotheses of the origin of B-1 cells. We also find that VH12-Tg mice have a marked decrease in the generation of Tg-expressing B cells in adult bone marrow, but not newborn liver. We speculate that this may be related to positive selection of VH12-expressing B cells during differentiation.
Occlusal Sealants: An Overview of Clinical Studies

Sealant application is a technic in which a rapid transfer of technology occurred from the research community, abetted by industry, to individual practitioners and public health personnel. Less than five years after publication of the results of the first clinical trial, sealant systems were commercially available. Since the first published report of the effectiveness of sealants in inhibiting occlusal caries, many other investigators have substantiated the dramatic caries-inhibiting potential and degree of retention that can be obtained with sealants. Despite the high degree of success and the universality of positive reports, there is a significant lag in the utilization of sealants both by dental practitioners and public health programs. One reason appears to be the perception that sealants are not cost-effective. This is a concept that the dental research community may have unwittingly fostered by conducting cost analyses on a technic that was still in its initial stages of development. It behooves the dental profession, both the public and private sectors, to accord sealants recognition for their proven effectiveness and retentive characteristics. At the same time, the dental profession should suspend judgment on their costs until reports of studies conducted specifically for this purpose appear.
Treatment of domain integrals in boundary element methods

A systematic and rigorous technique to calculate domain integrals without a volume-fitted mesh has been developed and validated in the context of a boundary element approximation. In the proposed approach, a domain integral involving a continuous or weakly-singular integrand is first converted into a surface integral by means of straight-path integrals that intersect the underlying domain. Then, the resulting surface integral is carried out either via analytic integration over boundary elements or by use of standard quadrature rules. This domain-to-boundary integral transformation is derived from an extension of the fundamental theorem of calculus to higher dimension, and the divergence theorem. In establishing the method, it is shown that the higher-dimensional version of the first fundamental theorem of calculus corresponds to the well-known Poincare lemma.The proposed technique can be employed to evaluate integrals defined over simply- or multiply-connected domains with Lipschitz boundaries which are embedded in an Euclidean space of arbitrary but finite dimension. Combined with the singular treatment of surface integrals that is widely available in the literature, this approach can also be utilized to effectively deal with boundary-value problems involving non-homogeneous source terms by way of a collocation or a Galerkin boundary integral equation method using only the prescribed surface discretization. Sample problems associated with the three-dimensional Poisson equation and featuring the Newton potential are successfully solved by a constant element collocation method to validate this study.
Financing Industrialization in Italy, 1894–1914: The Partial Transformation of a Late-Comer

Italy's rapid industrial growth, which began in the mid-1890's, was preceded and accompanied by important developments in her financial institutions, including in particular the establishment of several industrial credit banks on the German model. The role of such banks in French and German industrial growth before 1914 has been the subject of considerable study. It is the purpose of this article to examine the effects of these banks on the rate and direction of Italian development between 1894 and 1914, and to consider the relation between their near-monopoly of industrial credit and the emergence of concentration of ownership and control in the new and rapidly growing sectors of the industrial structure.
Transnational marriage and the Bangladeshi Muslim diaspora in Britain and the United States

Transnational marriage is a practice by which members of diasporas are united in matrimony with persons in the homeland. In this paper, I explore the history and development of transnational marriage in the Bangladeshi Muslim diaspora, specifically among British Bangladeshis and Bangladeshi Americans. A distinct history of migration and settlement has resulted in the particular prominence of transnational marriage in the British Bangladeshi community. In the British national context as well, unlike in the USA, the issue of transnational marriage has been politicised by concerns about forced marriage and the state regulations that have arisen in response to it. These differences of national context are reflected in the greater levels of general acceptance of the idea of transnational marriage among British Bangladeshis. At the same time, across both national settings, second- and third-generation Bangladeshi Muslims are actively engaged in constructing notions of the ‘new’ transnational marriage in which t...
Sporulation and δ-endotoxin synthesis by Bacillus thuringiensis

Bacillus thuringiensis is distinguished from the very closely related Bacillus cereus and Bacillus anthracis by the presence of several plasmid-encoded δ-endotoxin genes. These δ-endotoxins, synthesized as protoxins, are produced in large quantities during sporulation and are packaged into intracellular inclusions. Ingestion of the inclusions by insect larvae leads to protoxin solubilization and conversion to toxins each specific for one of several orders of insects. The toxins form cation-selective channels in the membrane of cells lining the larval midgut with subsequent lethality. In most cases, δ-endotoxin synthesis and sporulation are closely coupled. The latter process in B. thuringiensis is probably virtually identical to that in Bacillus subtilis with the additional use of mother cell sporulation forms of RNA polymerase for the synthesis of the δ-endotoxins. There are other more subtle plasmid-encoded functions or plasmid interactions related to regulating protoxin synthesis. Consideration of both plasmid and chromosomal genes is thus critical for defining this organism.
A parametric study of platform tolerance of RFID tag antennas and their performance enhancement with artificial magnetic conductors

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that has attracted considerable recent attention because the RFID system is efficient at tracking and managing commercial inventories using RF signals. In this system, a tag antenna that is attached to an object sends stored data to be acquired by a reader antenna. RFID systems are frequently used to control the inventory of consumer goods; hence, tag antennas may be mounted on objects with widely varying size and material composition. Therefore, it is essential to design the tags so that they are as small in size as possible. Also, for ease of attachment of the tag antenna to the object, it is highly desirable that the antenna be planar. In this paper, we have investigated two designs of passive tag planar-inverted F antennas (PIFAs). Additionally, recognizing that the RF properties of an object are dependent on its material composition, we have carried out a parametric study of the RF characteristics of these antennas when placed over several mounting materials, including cardboard, glass, plastic, and metal.
Rethinking Recidivism: A Communication Approach to Prisoner Reentry

Prisoner reentry is one of the main criminal justice challenges confronting the United States, especially as the costs of recidivism and incarceration take increasing tolls on city and state budget...
Dynamic Gesture Recognition

In this paper we introduce our method for enabling dynamic gesture recognition for hand gestures. Like a number of other research work focusing on gesture recognition we use a camera to track the motions and interpret these in terms of actual meaningful gestures; however we emphasise the tracking of fingers as well as the hand in order to cover a much wider range of gestures. The recognition is processed as part of three key stages, with a fourth in development. The first stage processes the visual information from the camera, and identifies the key regions and elements (such as the hand and fingers), this classified information is passed to a 2D to 3D module that transforms the 2D classified information into a full 3D space applying it to a calibrated hand model using inverse projection matrices and inverse kinematics. Simplifying this model into posture curvature information we apply this to a hidden Markov model (HMM). This model is used to identify and differentiate between different gestures, even ones using the same finger combinations. We briefly discuss our current development in the application of context awareness to this scenario, which is used in combination with the HMM in order to apply a different semantic to each gesture. This is especially useful due to the huge overlap in semantics specifically appropriated to hand gestures
Diffusion of MMPs on the Surface of Collagen Fibrils: The Mobile Cell Surface – Collagen Substratum Interface

Remodeling of the extracellular matrix catalyzed by MMPs is central to morphogenetic phenomena during development and wound healing as well as in numerous pathologic conditions such as fibrosis and cancer. We have previously demonstrated that secreted MMP-2 is tethered to the cell surface and activated by MT1-MMP/TIMP-2-dependent mechanism. The resulting cell-surface collagenolytic complex (MT1-MMP)2/TIMP-2/MMP-2 can initiate (MT1-MMP) and complete (MMP-2) degradation of an underlying collagen fibril. The following question remained: What is the mechanism of substrate recognition involving the two structures of relatively restricted mobility, the cell surface enzymatic complex and a collagen fibril embedded in the ECM? Here we demonstrate that all the components of the complex are capable of processive movement on a surface of the collagen fibril. The mechanism of MT1-MMP movement is a biased diffusion with the bias component dependent on the proteolysis of its substrate, not adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis. It is similar to that of the MMP-1 Brownian ratchet we described earlier. In addition, both MMP-2 and MMP-9 as well as their respective complexes with TIMP-1 and -2 are capable of Brownian diffusion on the surface of native collagen fibrils without noticeable dissociation while the dimerization of MMP-9 renders the enzyme immobile. Most instructive is the finding that the inactivation of the enzymatic activity of MT1-MMP has a detectable negative effect on the cell force developed in miniaturized 3D tissue constructs. We propose that the collagenolytic complex (MT1-MMP)2/TIMP-2/MMP-2 represents a Mobile Cell Surface – Collagen Substratum Interface. The biological implications of MT1-MMP acting as a molecular ratchet tethered to the cell surface in complex with MMP-2 suggest a new mechanism for the role of spatially regulated peri-cellular proteolysis in cell-matrix interactions.
Partial Splenectomy for Hereditary Spherocytosis

The significant risks associated with total splenectomy have led to interest in the use of partial splenectomy as an alternative surgical therapy for children who have congenital hemolytic anemia. Partial splenectomy is designed to remove enough spleen to gain desired hematologic outcomes while preserving splenic immune function. Although preliminary data demonstrate successful laboratory and clinical outcomes after partial splenectomy in various congenital hemolytic anemias, conclusive data comparing the efficacy of partial splenectomy to total splenectomy are not reported. Based on preliminary data, a definitive clinical trial of partial splenectomy in children who have severe congenital hemolytic anemia may be warranted.
Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer

Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common form of malignancy in humans. The incidence of NMSC continues to increase despite increased awareness and sun-protective measures. If neglected or mismanaged, NMSC can cause significant morbidity and even death. The most common forms of NMSC on the head and neck include basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, sebaceous carcinoma, eccrine porocarcinoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, atypical fibroxanthoma, and microcystic adnexal carcinoma. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment (standard excision, Mohs micrographic surgery, curettage); however, other modalities exist, including radiation, topical immunomodulators, photodynamic therapy, and new systemic medications.
Optical diagnostics in a spark ignition engine for two-wheel vehicles

Different optical techniques were applied to describe the thermal and chemical processes that occur in a SI small engine from the ported fuel injection and in-cylinder mixture formation to the combustion process and the exhaust emission. In PFI SI engines, the atomized fuel is sprayed towards the intake valves, where it may evaporate, puddle or rebound. Furthermore, a portion of the fuel may flow directly into the cylinder or impinge upon the port walls. These phenomena occur in varying degrees and depend upon the engine design, injector location and engine operation. Potentially the fuel can enter the cylinder in a poorly atomized state, leading to an increased unburned hydrocarbon emissions. This is particularly true during cold operation, when evaporation is low. In the small-motorcycle and scooter engines the fuel injection occurs in smaller intake manifold than light-duty vehicle engines, increasing the criticism of the fuel-wall interaction. The experimental investigations were performed in a single cylinder engine constituted by an elongated optically accessible piston and equipped with the head and injection system of a reference 4-stroke engine for small vehicles. High spatial resolution imaging was used to characterize the fuel injection phase. The cycle resolved visualization was performed to follow the flame propagation from the intake spark ignition to the exhaust phase. Natural emission spectroscopy measurements were applied in the ultraviolet-visible wavelength range to identify the chemical species that are markers of the combustion process and to follow the formation of pollutants.
Benign metastatic mixed tumours or unrecognized salivary carcinomas

‘Benign metastasizing mixed tumours’ are enigmatic lesions of the parotid gland. The authors, through the illustrations of a case and review of the literature, conclude that the tumours are unrecognized and currently unclassified malignancies.
A Job Dispatcher-Collector Made of FPGAs for a Centralized Voice server

It is the purpose of this paper to describe a specific application made of XILINX XC4000 series Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA's).
First-ionization potential of ruthenium, rhodium, and palladium by double-resonance ionization spectroscopy

The first-ionization potentials of ruthenium (Ru i), rhodium (Rh i), and palladium (Pd i) were determined, with significantly improved accuracy, to be 59 366.4(3), 60 160.1(4), and 67 242(1) cm−1, respectively, by double-resonance ionization spectroscopy performed on atomic beams produced by laser vaporization. The new values complete a reassessment of the first-ionization potentials of the second-row transition-metal series.
Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation and vertebral rotation in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

We have studied 34 consecutive patients receiving Cotrel- Dubousset instrumentation for a single and flexible thoracic scoliotic curve, evaluating the rib hump deformity from a single CT scan through the apical vertebra of the curve. Using two measures of rotation we found a mean improvement of 25% in the rotation of the vertebra after operation. Any, usually minor, deterioration occurred in the first six months postoperatively, and there was no significant further deterioration in 19 patients assessed over two years after surgery. Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation can produce a significant correction of vertebral rotation and of the associated rib hump deformity.
A parsimonious model for the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) encapsulated in products

Abstract Studies have demonstrated that near-field chemical intakes may exceed environmentally mediated exposures and are therefore essential to be considered when assessing chemical emissions across a product's life cycle. VOCs encapsulated in materials/products can be a major emission source in the use phase. Previous models describing such emissions require complex analytical or numerical solutions, which poses a great computational burden and lack transparency for use in high-throughput screening of chemicals. In the present study, we adapted a model which describes VOC emissions from building materials and subsequent removal by ventilation, and decoupled the material and air governing equations by assuming a pseudo-steady-state between emission and loss. Results of this decoupled model show good agreement with the original more complex model and the experimental data. The solution of this decoupled model for mass fraction emitted, which still consists of an infinite sum of exponential terms, is further reduced to a sum of only two exponentials with parameters which can be predicted from physiochemical properties using explicit equations. Results of this simple two-exponential model agree well with the original full model over a 15-year time period with R-square greater than 0.99 for a wide range of compounds and material thicknesses. Moreover, the chemical concentration at the material surface can be simply calculated from the derivative of this two-exponential model, which also agrees well with the surface concentration calculated using the original full model. The present parsimonious approach greatly reduces the computational burden, and can be easily implemented for high-throughput screening.
Invited PaperConflict Management In Linguistic Geometry:Applications To Engineering

To discover the inner properties of human expert heuristics, which were successful in a certain class of complex control systems, and apply them to different systems, we develop a formal theory, the Linguistic Geometry*. This research relies on the formalization of search heuristics of highly-skilled human experts. These heuristics allow to introduce (if necessary) artificial conflict and manage complex system as a two-player opposing pursuit-evasion game. The following decomposition of the complex system into the hierarchy of dynamic subsystems allows to solve otherwise intractable problems reducing the search. The hierarchy of subsystems is represented as a hierarchy of formal attribute languages. This paper includes a brief survey of Linguistic Geometry, and two comprehensive examples of conflict management in planning for autonomous aerospace robotic vehicles and in scheduling for power production plant maintenance. These examples demonstrate that Linguistic Geometry tools generate high quality solutions and provide dramatic search reduction in comparison with conventional search
Study of Components for $\hbox{MgB}_{2}$ RSFQ Digital Circuits

In order to realize superconducting circuits using MgB2, an in-depth study was conducted to generate a baseline of parameters necessary for circuit design. With a transition temperature (Tc) of 39 K, devices and circuits can be made to operate at low temperatures to achieve higher operating frequencies, and at high temperatures to lower the cooling requirements. The Josephson junction critical current density (Jc) and the product of critical current (Ic) and normal resistance (Rn) are necessary design parameters along with the sheet inductance (Lsq) of a superconducting microstrip. The need for a shunt resistor is also required for low-temperature operation. This paper describes the current status of these parameters for the multilayer process of all-MgB2 Josephson junctions. The study includes the fabrication of Josephson junctions and DC SQUIDs to perform microstrip inductance measurements as well as research on materials suitable for an on chip resistor. The results have been used to design a Rapid Single Flux Quantum Toggle-Flip-Flop circuit operating at around 20 K.
Fatal attraction: How macrophages participate in tumor metastases

![Figure][1] Insight from Dmitry Gabrilovich Macrophages are critically important for the regulation of tumor growth and metastases. They contribute to tumor angiogenesis, tumor cell extravasation, and survival at the sites of metastases. Now, [Kitamura et al.][2], using mouse models of
Hate Crime in Canada: Growing Pains with new legislation

In Canada hating has never been illegal, but since 1970 acting upon this feeling is illegal. While hate has been part of the cultural, political, and social fabric of this sometimes "peaceable kingdom" (e.g., Friedenberg, 1979), it was only in the 1960s that a strong enough popular and legislative agenda developed to amend the Criminal Code of Canada, (hereafter the Code), to include a hate crime law. This legislative change was one of many reactions to a rise in right·wing ideology, racial discrimination, and violence in Canada.The study of hate crime in Canada has been covered under the umbrella terms of antisemitism, discrimination, freedom of expression and speech, immigration, prejudice, nationalism, nativism, racism. refugees, and right.wing activity. Already, a considerable amount of research has been conducted on this subject. This chapter is primarily a historical analysis of the introduction of hate crime legislation in Canada, the situations where charges were filed and well publicized, as well as those cases where hate crime charges were considered by authorities but avoided.
Hodge-Tate periods and p-adic abelian integrals.

The object of this paper is to present two results. The first is a new description of one of the maps involved in the Hodge-Tate decomposit ion of an Abelian variety with good reduction. This result complements recent work of Fontaine IF] and combined with it yields a new proof of this decomposition. The second result is a limit formula involving the integrals described in [C] for what may properly be called Hodge-Tate periods. We will now describe in more detail the contents of this paper. The notations used below are standard and are also explained in Sect. I. Let p be a fixed rational prime. Let II~p be the field of p-adic numbers and ~p the completion of a fixed algebraic closure of II~p. Let A be an Abelian variety defined over a complete discretely valued subfield K of Cp. Let /i denote the dual Abelian variety, and T(A) the p-Tate module of A. Set V(A) = T(A) | 1Igp as a G=Autr The theorem of Tate and Raynaud which describes the decomposit ion of V(A) is equivalent to the following assertion: There exist canonical G-equivariant ~2flinear maps,
EXPERIMENTAL ECOLOGICAL GENETICS IN PLANTAGO. VII. REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT IN POPULATIONS OF P. LANCEOLATA L.

The allocation of resources to the processes of growth, reproduction, and survival has been considered crucial to an understanding of life history evolution. Allocation patterns have been seen as the physiological basis of "trade-offs" between different life history stages and the presumption of such trade-offs has been an integral part of much of life history evolution theory (Pianka and Parker, 1975; Wilbur, 1977; Law, 1979). Moreover, allocation patterns themselves are often thought of as "life-history traits" and subject to selection forces similar to those acting on mortality and fecundity schedules (Gadgil and Bossert, 1970; Schaffer and Gadgil, 1975). The focus of many studies on resource allocation has been on the amount of resources devoted to reproductive parts relative to the amount devoted to vegetative parts, the proportion of the total resource budget devoted to reproduction being termed "reproductive effort." The connection with life-history is clear in that the allocation to reproductive tissues will be related to fecundity, and the allocation to vegetative tissues will be related to survivorship and/or future fecundity. In spite of the development of an extensive body of theory on life-history evolution (for review see Stearns, 1976), many of the basic questions regarding actual resource allocation patterns have remained largely unanswered (Hirschfield and Tinkle, 1975) even though they were first posited in relation to plant populations in the seminal paper of Harper (1967). In particular, only a few studies have addressed the problem of measuring the rel-
Hyperplastic, preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions found in 83 human pancreases.

A thorough histologic examination of the pancreas was performed on autopsy material from 83 military veterans aged 35–88 years. Hyperplastic, preneoplastic and neoplastic alterations were recorded by severity, multiplicity, location, and age. From this material, two patients had clinically known primary, and three had secondary (metastatic), pancreatic cancer. The following occult malignant lesions were found: two early cancers (one adenocarcinoma and one adenosquamous cell carcinoma), one ductal carcinoma in situ and seven ductular carcinomas in situ . Among patients with ductular carcinoma in situ , three had pancreatic cancer and the remaining four had cancers of other sites (ethmoid, ear, colon, prostate). One patient who was clinically diagnosed as having lung cancer with selective metastases to the pancreas was found to have pancreatic adenosquamous cell carcinoma with lung metastases. Hence, the incidence of neoplastic exocrine lesions was around 10%. In addition, hyperplasia of the ductal and ductular epithelium (in 57% and 39% of the patients, respectively), squamous cell metaplasia of the ductules (in 48% of the cases), as well as endocrine tumors (islet cell adenoma, 10%; mixed ductular-insular adenoma, 3%) were found. Most lesions occurred in the pancreatic head, a few in the tail; These data and other reports lead to the conclusion that, first, the overall incidence of pancreatic cancer appears to be higher than previously reported. Malignant lesions seem to remain clinically occult, either because patients die of other diseases or because of the significantly long latency between premalignant lesions and clinically recognizable invasive cancer. Second; the ductular cells appear to be the progenitor cells of a variety of. tumor types, including squamous cell cancer and islet cell tumors, as in the authors’ experimental model.
Modulation of P2X3 and P2X2/3 Receptors by Monoclonal Antibodies

Purinergic homomeric P2X3 and heteromeric P2X2/3 receptors are ligand-gated cation channels activated by ATP. Both receptors are predominantly expressed in nociceptive sensory neurons, and an increase in extracellular ATP concentration under pathological conditions, such as tissue damage or visceral distension, induces channel opening, membrane depolarization, and initiation of pain signaling. Hence, these receptors are considered important therapeutic targets for pain management, and development of selective antagonists is currently progressing. To advance the search for novel analgesics, we have generated a panel of monoclonal antibodies directed against human P2X3 (hP2X3). We have found that these antibodies produce distinct functional effects, depending on the homomeric or heteromeric composition of the target, its kinetic state, and the duration of antibody exposure. The most potent antibody, 12D4, showed an estimated IC50 of 16 nm on hP2X3 after short term exposure (up to 18 min), binding to the inactivated state of the channel to inhibit activity. By contrast, with the same short term application, 12D4 potentiated the slow inactivating current mediated by the heteromeric hP2X2/3 channel. Extending the duration of exposure to ∼20 h resulted in a profound inhibition of both homomeric hP2X3 and heteromeric hP2X2/3 receptors, an effect mediated by efficient antibody-induced internalization of the channel from the plasma membrane. The therapeutic potential of mAb12D4 was assessed in the formalin, complete Freund's adjuvant, and visceral pain models. The efficacy of 12D4 in the visceral hypersensitivity model indicates that antibodies against P2X3 may have therapeutic potential in visceral pain indications.
Chemical Polishing Technology of Medical Surgery Suture Needle

With considering the problems existing in chemical polishing of stainless steel medical surgery suture needle,the influence of polishing solution composition and processing parameters on the polishing quality and corrosion resistance of suture needle were investigated.Through experimental tests,optimum chemical polishing parameters under which the needle had a better polishing effect,higher corrosion resistance and lower cost were obtained.
Giant cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma requiring emergent embolization.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), a subset of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC), is a common form of skin malignancy. National cancer registries have traditionally not tracked cSCC, but its 2012 incidence within the US white population was estimated to be within 186,157 and 419,543.1 NMSCs greater than 5 cm in size are labeled as giant NMSC. These giant NMSCs usually arise owing to long-term neglect of a slow-growing lesion and pose significant challenges in treatment.2 Here, we present a case of a giant cSCC in a 70-year-old woman that is unique in several aspects, including its emergent presentation and clinical features that made the cSCC standard treatment impossible. We also describe the clinical course of a novel treatment for cSCC: embolization of the blood supply.
Scholarly, Educational, and Commercial Treatment of Playing for Time by Fania Fénelon

In this chapter Eischeid details major works which utilize or discuss Fenelon’s memoir and explores its pervasive presence across all levels of Holocaust scholarship, writing, and research. Also included is a discussion of the greatest fallacies from Fenelon’s memoir which are perpetuated in multiple highly respected resources and the use of Fenelon’s memoir as a pedagogical tool. Its popularity in the non-academic arena and ongoing commercial sales of the work are also addressed.
Nucleation and Growth of Cubic Diamond in Shock Wave Experiments

In 1959 the announcement that the presence of diamond had been detected in a sample of shock-compressed graphite was met with skepticism; it was pointed out that the calculated shock temperature was much too low to permit nucleation and growth of diamond during the microsecond available at pressure. Jamieson subsequently confirmed the presence of diamond and suggested a diffusionless mechanism, c-axis compression of rhombohedral graphite [1]. However, subsequent experiments yielded diamond far in excess of the amount of rhombohedral graphite present in the initial material. Furthermore, when shock temperature and shock pressure were varied independently, yields of diamond were found to depend more strongly on calculated shock temperature than on shock pressure, over the shock pressure range from 15 to 150 GPa. The calculated shock temperatures associated with good diamond yields were only about 1500 C, too low for nucleation and growth to be plausible.
Hydrogel-reinforced polypyrrole electroactuator

Robust electroactuators that are lightweight, power-efficient and capable of generating high forces at a low actuation voltage are of great demand in the design of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) for biomedical applications. In this work, electroactive composite films of alginate hydrogel and polypyrrole/polyethylene glycol (PPy/PEG) are synthesized and characterized as actuators for driving an implantable insulin micropump. A porous and flexible alginate hydrogel back layer is used to mechanically reinforce the PPy/PEG film by enhancing the actuator's resistance to its generated tension but without increase of its overall rigidness. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals that the PPy/PEG grows through the alginate hydrogel layer, thus forming a well-integrated composite and eliminating the possibility of delamination in long term applications. Mechanical test proves this alginate-PPy/PEG composite film to be more stretchable than the PPy/PEG film, and electroactuation test in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) demonstrated a large deformation at +2 V in 60 s. Taken together, our work here indicates great promise for this new type of composite actuator to be used in biomedical MEMS.
MERTZ: a quest for a robust and scalable active vision humanoid head robot

We present the design and construction of MERTZ, an active-vision humanoid head robot, with the immediate goal of having the robot runs continuously for many hours a day without supervision at various locations. We address how the lack of robustness and reliability lead to limitations and scalability issues in research robotic platforms. We propose to attend to these issues in parallel with the course of robot development. Drawing from lessons learned from our previous robots, we incorporated various fault prevention strategies into the electromechanical design. We have implemented a preliminary system, integrating sensorimotor, vision, and audio in order to test the full range of all degrees of freedom and enable the robot to engage in simple visual and verbal interaction with people. We conducted a series of experiment where the robot ran for $2 hours within 9 days at different public spaces. The robot interacted with a large number of passersby and collected at least 100,000 face images of at least 600 individuals within 4 days. We learned various lessons involving the robustness of current design and identified a set of failure modes. Lastly, we present the long term research direction for the robot.
Mechanical Properties of Star Block Polymer Thermoplastic Elastomers with Glassy and Crystalline End Blocks

The mechanical properties of thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) consisting of 6-arm star block polymers with glassy, crystalline, or composite crystalline–glassy physical cross-linking (hard) domains were investigated and compared to the analogous linear triblock or pentablock polymers. The 6-arm stars exhibited qualitatively similar solid-state morphologies and phase behavior to their linear counterparts, as demonstrated by small-angle X-ray scattering and differential scanning calorimetry. Consequently, the architecture had minimal impact on the small-strain behavior in uniaxial extension at room temperature. As the applied strain increased, the star polymers exhibited more pronounced strain hardening than the corresponding linear TPEs, resulting in an increase in the ultimate strength of 20% for the polymers with crystalline end blocks and 30% when the end blocks were glassy. Each of the three star polymers exhibited superior recovery (i.e., lower residual strain) and lower hysteresis than the correspondi...
A Comparison of Preconditioning Techniques for Parallelized PCG Solvers for the CCFD Problem

Parallel algorithms for solving sparse symmetric matrix systems that might result from the cell-centered finite difference (CCFD) scheme are compared. Parallelization is based in partitioning the mass matrix such that each partition is controlled by a separate process. These processes may then be distributed among a networked cluster of processors using the standard Message-Passing Interface (MPI). MPI software allows for multiple, simultaneous processes to coordinate and exchange information for some central purpose. In this study, partitioning of the mass matrix is based in decomposing the CCFD domain into non-overlapping subdomains; each subdomain corresponds to a partition of the mass matrix. The subdomain partitions are numbered alternately, using a red/black numbering scheme. Partitions are linked by the CCFD coefficients corresponding to cell edges that coincide with subdomain boundaries internal to the domain. A major portion of this work examines the best way to handle connectivity information between partitions. Algorithms considered in this study are based in the preconditioned conjugate gradient scheme (PCG) and differ only in the preconditioning used. Parallelization of the PCG solver entails running essentially identical conjugate-gradient loops on separate processes for every subdomain partition. These loops must exchange information globally to calculate inner products and locally for sharing connectivity information between partitions. The classic incomplete Cholesky preconditioner with zero fill (IC(0)) is used as the standard for comparison. Another preconditioning scheme considered is based principally in an approximate block Gaussian (BG) iterative solution to the problem. In both these preconditioners, arrays containing connectivity information are passed between processes corresponding to adjacent partitions. Because of this need to pass connectivity information, the incomplete Cholesky preconditioner is limited, in practice, to a zero fill application. This limitation can be partially alleviated by using a BG iteration as a preconditioner, which requires approximate solves of individual matrix partitions. These approximate solves can be carried out using any number of preconditioners, including IC(0); however, BG iteration involves an additional level of approximation, giving the result that BG iteration with approximate IC(0) solves is less efficient than using simple IC(0) as the preconditioner in the parallel PCG algorithm. Preconditioners based in the Jacobi scheme are also considered as they require no connectivity information. These preconditioners represent a trade off between lower communication costs at the expense of increased work to obtain convergence. We are presently exploring variants of these methods for use as preconditioners in the parallelized conjugate gradient scheme; we expect to report on the results of this work.
Labware for Secure Mobile Software Development (SMSD) Education

This poster addresses the needs of pedagogical learning materials for Secure Mobile Software Development(SMSD) education and challenges of building SMSD capacity. In this poster, we present an innovative authentic learning approach for SMSD through real-world-scenario case studies. The primary goal of this learning approach is to create an engaging and motivating learning environment that encourages students in learning emerging security concepts and practices such as mobile software developments. It provides students with hands-on laboratory practices on real-world mobile app developments and security. Each module consists of a series of progressive sub-labs: a pre-lab, lab activities, and a student add-on post-lab. The preliminary feedback from students is positive. Students have gained hands-on real world experiences on mobile security with Android mobile devices, which also greatly promoted students' self-efficacy and confidences in their mobile security learning.
T Cell Subset Responses in Varied Immunodeficiency Syndromes

Patients with common varied immunodeficiency syndromes (CVID) are heterogeneous as regards the number and function of T cells in their blood (1,2). A minority of CVID patients has strong suppressor activity in in vitro functional tests and many have a relative increase of cells in blood which bear the suppressor-cytotoxic phenotype, T8+ (3). A primary increase in suppressor cells may contribute to hypogammaglobulinemia in some patients with thymoma (4) but in the majority of CVID patients it is unclear whether the increase in T8+ cells is primary or whether it results from antigen stimulation. We therefore examined the possibility that antien stimulation might maintain increased numbers or proportions of T8+ cells in CVID patients by determining the phenotype of their T cell blasts in cultures stimulated with tetanus toxoid. The rationale for this approach derives from the observation that soluble antigens normally elicit proliferation by T4+ cells while cell-associated antigens (such as allogenic cells) elicit responses by both T4+ and T8+ cells.
Shock equation of state of LiH 6 to 1.1 TPa

Using laser-generated shock waves, we have measured pressure, density, and temperature of LiH on the principal Hugoniot between 260 and 1100 GPa (2.6--11 Mbar) and on a second-shock Hugoniot up to 1400 GPa to near fivefold compression, extending the maximum pressure reached in non-nuclear experiments by a factor of two. We observe the onset of metal-like reflectivity consistent with temperature-induced ionization of the Li 2s electron, and no sign of additional changes in ionization up to the maximum pressure. Our measurements are in good agreement with gas gun, Z-machine, and underground test data and are accurately described by quantum molecular dynamics simulations. The results confirm the validity of equation of state models built on an average-atom description of the electron-thermal contribution to the free energy and a density-dependent Gr\"uneisen parameter to describe shock response of LiH over this pressure range.
Programming quantum annealing computers using machine learning

Commercial quantum annealing (QA) machines are now being built with hundreds of quantum bits (qubits). These are used as analog computers, to solve optimization problems by annealing to an unknown ground state (the solution), given the Hamiltonian for that problem. We propose and develop a new approach, in which we use machine learning to do the inverse problem: to find the Hamiltonian that will produce a given, desired ground state. We demonstrate successful learning to produce a desired fully entangled state for a two-qubit system, then bootstrap to do the same for three, four, five and six qubits; the amount of additional learning necessary decreases. With these new capabilities the computing possibilities for QA arrays are greatly expanded.
Shilla Growth Guidance Technique for Early Onset Scoliosis

Surgical treatment for patients with early onset scoliosis (EOS) is frequently necessary, particularly for those patients who have significant deformity (>60°),have failed bracing or casting due to frailty or deformity progression, or have curves too stiff to modulate with non-operative methods. Surgical treatment of EOS can broadly be categorized as utilizing vertebral distraction, growth guidance, or tethering of the spine to accomplish and maintain the correction over time. The concept of growth guidance is based upon the knowledge that the child’s spine has a preprogrammed “normal” rate and pattern of growth, and, once the vertebral endplates are properly directed, vertebral growth occurs and therefore spinal height will be achieved. This chapter summarizes the indications, surgical technique, and outcomes of the Shilla growth guidance method. We present the case of a 3 year-old male child treated successfully for EOS with Shilla rods in place for 5 years without further surgery, achieving stable control of his deformity while allowing continued spinal growth.