cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
New Left Studies

A Memoir of the New Left: The Political Autobiography of Charles A. Haynie, by Aeron Haynie and Timothy S. Miller, eds., Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 2009, 149 pp., forward by Douglas ...
Data-driven characterisation of solar PV panel performance

Rising electricity prices alongside an increasing environmental awareness have sparked numerous initiatives from consumers to adopt clean energy resources. Additionally, consumers have begun to take a more proactive role in their own electricity generation. They are also more cognisant of how efficiently they generate and use energy. Several households and organisations around the world have embraced the use of solar panels as a means for generating clean and sustainable energy. Analysing data gathered from these panels can reveal valuable insights into their operating performance. In this paper, we develop a data-driven framework to shed light on the performance of photovoltaic (PV) panels and demonstrate its general applicability using three different data sets spanning several months obtained from panels situated in diverse geographies. We show how the framework can be used to infer the operational efficiency of solar panels for home owners and facility managers of commercial organisations alike.
"Still" as an additive particle in conditionals

This paper studies a hitherto unexplored reading of still as an additive particle, attested when it appears in the consequent of a conditional. A standard existing approach to the meaning of still is couched in terms of events. However, I show that prominent event-based analyses (such as Ippolito 2007) are incompatible with modal environments, raising the general issue of the cross-world identity of events (cf. Hacquard 2009). This issue can be avoided by being explicit about the ontological status of events. On the basis of this I build a revised version of Ippolito's (2007) event-based account of aspectual still . I argue that the additive reading of still is the result of an additive focus particle taking wide scope over the conditional. This reading is also attested in the well-studied case of semifactual conditionals, and hence this analysis contributes to the open question about the role of still in semifactual conditionals.
Tort Reforms and the Gender Distribution of Physicians

Exploiting variation in tort laws at the state level, this paper finds empirical evidence of gender differences in responding to malpractice lawsuit liability by physicians. We find that a cap on non-economic damages increases female physicians’ relative representation in reform states by 1.297 percentage points (or 3.2 percent) among young physicians. This result is robust to the inclusion of state economic conditions, demographics, and the gender distribution of physicians by their state of birth, state of medical education, and state of residency training. No gender differences are found among physicians who are 35 years of age or older.
Middle Fossa Approach for Resection of Vestibular Schwannomas: A Decade of Experience.

Background The middle cranial fossa (MCF) approach is a challenging surgical technique for the resection of small and intermediate sized, primarily intracanalicular, vestibular schwannomas (VS), with the goal of hearing preservation (HP). Objective To describe a decade-long, single institutional experience with the MCF approach for resection of VS. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of 63 patients who underwent the MCF approach for resection of VS from 2006 to 2016. Audiometric data included pure-tone average (PTA), low-tone pure-tone average (LtPTA), word recognition score, and American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) hearing classification at presentation and follow-up. Patients with postoperative serviceable (AAO-HNS class A-B) and/or useful (AAO-HNS class A-C) hearing were compared to those without HP. Facial nerve function was assessed using the House-Brackmann scale. Results The mean age and duration of follow-up were 50 ± 13 yr and 21 ± 21 mo, respectively. The mean tumor size was 10 ± 4 mm. The serviceable and usable HP rates were 54% and 50%, respectively. Some residual hearing was preserved in 71% of patients. Large tumor size (P = .05), volume (P = .03), and extrameatal tumor extension (P = .03) were associated with poor audiometric outcomes. The presence of a fundal fluid cap (P = .01) was a favorable finding. At definitive testing, LtPTA was significantly better preserved than traditional PTA (P = .01). Facial nerve outcomes, tumor control rates, and durability of audiometric outcomes were excellent. 47% of patients pursued aural rehabilitation. Conclusion In our series, the MCF approach for VS provided excellent rates of tumor and facial nerve function, with durable serviceable HP.
Counterterrorism Mining for Individuals Semantically-Similar to Watchlist Members

A key counterterrorism problem is how to identify people that should be added to a watchlist even though they have no direct communication with its members. One of the main ways a watchlist is expanded is by monitoring the emergence of new persons who establish contact with those on the list. Unfortunately, this severely limits the time horizon for managing risks of dark network behaviors because individuals are already actively involved with one another and more likely to be discussing and planning terrorist actions. In contrast, a wider time horizon results from identifying individuals who do not yet have communication with watchlist members, while they have highly similar semantic networks. Discussion forums are considered a primary source of intelligence about plans for dark behaviors. The research reported here develops a method for locating individuals in discussion forums who have highly similar semantic networks to some reference network, either based on watchlist members’ observed message content or based on other standards such as radical jihadists’ semantic networks extracted from messages they disseminate on the internet. This research demonstrates such methods using a Pakistani discussion forum with diverse content. Of those pairs of individuals with highly-similar semantic networks, 61% have no direct contact in the forum. It is likely that adding to watchlists individuals who have a high match to a reference semantic network lengthens the time horizon for identifying high risk dark behaviors.
Studying Labor Law and Human Resources in Rhode Island

Our task today is to celebrate, inaugurate, and educate. Lawyers demanded the education part of the talk because they love double counting whenever possible. The lawyers in our audience get Continuing Legal Education credits for attending. That's just one illustration of how to think like a lawyer -- kill as many birds with as few stones as possible.Lawyers are often accused of talking in an arcane language that no one else can understand. Labor-relations people are sometimes thought to be either pie-in-the-sky optimists or Marxist-inspired anarchists. Human-relations professionals are sometimes said to be hypocrites giving a fake smile to employees while looking solely at the bottom line. But these are just insults. I come to you tonight as someone who has been through a joint degree program myself. At times it is frustrating. At the very least, it teaches one how to deal with university bureaucracy. But at its best, someone who has advanced professional training in both law and in labor and human relations gets something better than what either can teach alone.
Depression and adult neurogenesis: Positive effects of the antidepressant fluoxetine and of physical exercise

Of wide interest for health is the relation existing between depression, a very common psychological illness, accompanied by anxiety and reduced ability to concentrate, and adult neurogenesis. We will focus on two neurogenic stimuli, fluoxetine and physical exercise, both endowed with the ability to activate adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, known to be required for learning and memory, and both able to counteract depression. Fluoxetine belongs to the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants, which represent the most used pharmacological therapy; physical exercise has also been shown to effectively counteract depression symptoms in rodents as well as in humans. While there is evidence that the antidepressant effect of fluoxetine requires its pro-neurogenic action, exerted by promoting proliferation, differentiation and survival of progenitor cells of the hippocampus, on the other hand fluoxetine exerts also neurogenesis-independent antidepressant effects by influencing the plasticity of the new neurons generated. Similarly, the antidepressant action of running also correlates with an increase of hippocampal neurogenesis and plasticity, although the gene pathways involved are only partially coincident with those of fluoxetine, such as those involved in serotonin metabolism and synapse formation. We further discuss how extra-neurogenic actions are also suggested by the fact that, unlike running, fluoxetine is unable to stimulate neurogenesis during aging, but still displays antidepressant effects. Moreover, in specific conditions, fluoxetine or running activate not only progenitor but also stem cells, which normally are not stimulated; this fact reveals how stem cells have a long-term, hidden ability to self-renew and, more generally, that neurogenesis is subject to complex controls that may play a role in depression, such as the type of neurogenic stimulus or the state of the local niche. Finally, we discuss how fluoxetine or running are effective in counteracting depression originated from stress or neurodegenerative diseases.
A Direct Estimate of the Effect of PM2.5 on Life Expectancy using Doubly Robust Quantile Regression

A Direct Estimate of the Effect of PM2.5 on Life Expectancy using Doubly Robust Quantile Regression Introduction: To date, studies of the impact of air pollution on survival have estimate hazard ra...
Abstract 189: Influenza-like Illness and Risk of Stroke in New York State

Background and Purpose: Influenza may be associated with stroke risk. We hypothesized that risk of ischemic stroke is increased after influenza-like illness (ILI), and that these effects are even g...
The Molecular Biology Database Collection: 2003 update.

The Molecular Biology Database Collection is an online resource listing key databases of value to the biological community. This Collection is intended to bring fellow scientists' attention to high-quality databases that are available throughout the world, rather than just be a lengthy listing of all available databases. As such, this up-to-date listing is intended to serve as the jumping-off point from which to find specialized databases that may be of use in advancing biological research. The databases included in this Collection provide new value to the underlying data by virtue of curation, new data connections or other innovative approaches. Short, searchable summaries and updates for each of the databases included in this Collection are available through the Nucleic Acids Research Web site at http://nar.oupjournals.org.
Estimating retinal vascular permeability from human fluorescein videoangiography data: optimization and sensitivity analysis of kinetic models

Diabetic retinopathy is a degenerative disease that can lead to irreversible blindness in patients with long-term diabetes. The mechanism of tissue damage is through inflammatory response to high blood sugar levels degrade blood vessels throughout the body, and in the retina, this can lead to microbleeds and damage to photoreceptors. It is hypothesized that a change in vascular permeability could be an early indicator of an eventual progression to retinopathy, yet no clinical methods exist to date that are capable of measuring vascular permeability accurately. We have developed mathematical models that aim to quantify blood flow and vascular permeability in the retina using clinically collectable fluorescein videoangiography data. Recently, the method was demonstrated to be effective identifying early levels of retina damage in a rat model of diabetic retinopathy. Here we present a sensitivity analysis in a simulation study and the first results from a clinical study involving 4 diabetic patients and 3 healthy controls. While there were no significant differences in measured blood flow between the groups, the “extraction fraction” (a surrogate parameter of vascular permeability) was found to be significantly higher in diabetic patients than controls (0.082 ± 0.041 vs. 0.001 ± 0.001, p < 0.001). These results highlight the potential for kinetic modeling applied to fluorescein videoangiography to identify early signs of retinopathy in diabetic patients, such that therapy can be enacted at an earlier stage of the disease when the damage is not irreversible.
Calciphylaxis: Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Treatment.

GENERAL PURPOSETo provide information on the pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of calciphylaxis.TARGET AUDIENCEThis continuing education activity is intended for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses with an interest in skin and wound care.LEARNING
Minimal residual disease clinical monitoring and depth of response in multiple myeloma.

8026Background: MRD assessment is a known surrogate marker for survival in multiple myeloma (MM). Most data come from patients enrolled in clinical trials. We present a single institution’s experie...
The tail wagging the dog: positive attitude towards livestock guarding dogs do not mitigate pastoralists’ opinions of wolves or grizzly bears

While the re-establishment of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the American West marks a success for conservation, it has been contentious among pastoralists. Coincidentally, livestock guarding dogs (LGDs; Canis familiaris) have been widely adopted by producers of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) in the United States to mitigate livestock depredation by wild carnivores. We surveyed pastoralists to measure how experience with and attitudes towards LGDs related to attitudes towards livestock predators, and found positive responses regarding LGDs and negative responses regarding wolves and grizzly bears. The more respondents agreed that LGDs reduce the need for lethal management (p < 0.01) and prevent the spread of disease (p < 0.05), the more positive their opinion of wolves in the wild. Regarding wolves and livestock, respondents who disagreed with the statements that “LGDs do more harm than good” (p < 0.05) or “reduce the need for lethal management” (p < 0.001), were more likely to express more negative opinions of wolves. While results pertaining to a reduced need for lethal management may suggest LGDs have some ability to increase tolerance for wolves, the causal order of these effects is difficult to discern. A more positive attitude for wolves to begin with may predict more optimistic attitudes about the capacity of LGDs to reduce human–wildlife conflict. We found almost no support for the opinion that LGDs do more harm than good, even though attitudes towards wolves were generally negative. Respondents with up to 10 years’ experience using LGDs had more negative attitudes towards grizzly bears (p < 0.01) and respondents with more than 10 years’ experience using LGDs had the most negative attitudes towards grizzly bears (p < 0.001). Thus, while experience was the greatest predictor of attitudes towards grizzly bears, attitudes towards wolves were most correlated with the belief that LGDs offset the need for lethal management of carnivores. These results suggest that LGD use in the United States does not seem to have resulted in more positive attitudes about livestock predators amongst pastoralists.
Numerical stability in multifluid gas dynamics with implicit drag forces

Abstract The numerical stability of a conventional explicit numerical scheme for solving the inviscid multifluid dynamical equations describing a multicomponent gas mixture is investigated both analytically and computationally. Although these equations do not explicitly contain diffusion terms, it is well known that they reduce to a single-fluid diffusional description when the drag coefficients in the species momentum equations are large. The question then arises as to whether their numerical solution is subject to a diffusional stability restriction on the time step in addition to the usual Courant sound-speed stability condition. An analytical stability analysis is performed for the special case of a quiescent binary gas mixture with equal sound speeds and temperatures. It is found that the Courant condition is always sufficient to ensure stability, so that no additional diffusional stability restriction arises for any value of the drag coefficient, however large. This result is confirmed by one-dimensional computational results for binary and ternary mixtures with unequal sound speeds, which remain stable even when the time step exceeds the usual diffusional limit by factors of order 100.
Theoretical modeling of a thermal wave technique to determine the extent of the freezing region surrounding a cryoprobe

Cryosurgery is a clinical technique to ablate undesirable tissues by extreme freezing, exhibiting the merits of minimal invasion, fast recovery, and low cost. A low temperature cryoprobe is used to form a freezing region around the target tissue. Monitoring the extent of the freezing region is critical since including the target tissue within the surgery scope is necessary for precise treatment and minimal damage to the surrounding normal tissue. This paper investigates a thermal wave based monitoring technique similar to the 3ω method for thermal property characterization in order to measure the extent of the freezing region. The method takes advantage of the contrast in thermal properties between the frozen and unfrozen regions and employs different locations on the circumference of the probe for the thermal wave generator and thermal wave sensor. A two-dimensional analytical model in cylindrical coordinates was developed for the thermal wave and was validated by finite element simulations. The analytical model was then employed to determine the influence of several parameters on determining the freezing extent including modulation frequency, the wave generator width, the relative locations of the thermal wave generator and sensor, and the diameter of the cryoprobe. The results obtained indicate the feasibility of the proposed technique since the amplitude and particularly the phase of the thermal wave signal are sensitive to the position of the interface between the frozen and unfrozen regions. For frozen and unfrozen layers with water, thermophysical properties of the measurement sensitive region extend to diameters in the cm range.
Acral vascular syndrome during an immune checkpoint inhibitor

Immune checkpoint inhibitors, including antiprogrammed death cell protein 1 (anti-PD-1) and anti cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (anti-CTLA-4), have been associated with a range of autoimmune-related side effects since their introduction in cancer treatment. Small vessel digital necrosis, referred to as the acral vascular syndrome, is a rare but serious complication that can result in loss of digits. Here we present a case report of acral vascular syndrome and review possible aetiologies. A 45- year-old woman with invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast presented to the emergency department during neoadjuvant treatment with carboplatin, docetaxel and pembrolizumab with complaints of severe pain in her right third digit. She had physical findings consistent with ischaemic necrosis and gangrene of the distal phalanx. Angiography demonstrated Raynaud's phenomenon in the distal portion of the digits. Laboratory testing showed a weakly positive RNA polymerase III antibody level. Her case resulted in surgical amputation of her affected digit after partial resolution of symptoms with prednisone, vasodilators and antibiotics.
Sensitivity of Convective Cell Dynamics and Microphysics to Model Resolution for the OWLeS IOP2b Lake-Effect Snowband

AbstractThe OWLeS IOP2b lake-effect case is simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with a horizontal grid spacing of 148 m (WRF-LES mode). The dynamics and microphysics of...
The Serotonin Neurotransmitter Modulates Virulence of Enteric Pathogens

Summary The gut-brain axis is crucial to microbial-host interactions. The neurotransmitter serotonin is primarily synthesized in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, where it is secreted into the lumen and subsequently removed by the serotonin transporter, SERT. Here, we show that serotonin decreases virulence gene expression by enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Citrobacter rodentium, a murine model for EHEC. The membrane-bound histidine sensor kinase, CpxA, is a bacterial serotonin receptor. Serotonin induces dephosphorylation of CpxA, which inactivates the transcriptional factor CpxR controlling expression of virulence genes, notably those within the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE). Increasing intestinal serotonin by genetically or pharmacologically inhibiting SERT decreases LEE expression and reduces C. rodentium loads. Conversely, inhibiting serotonin synthesis increases pathogenesis and decreases host survival. As other enteric bacteria contain CpxA, this signal exploitation may be engaged by other pathogens. Additionally, repurposing serotonin agonists to inhibit CpxA may represent a potential therapeutic intervention for enteric bacteria.
Community-Based Participatory Research: Engaging Youth to Provide Perspective on Risk and Protective Factors.

Background The Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) is administered biennially to adolescents; it covers knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about risk and protective factors. Purpose This study explored 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students' attitudes and beliefs about current trends regarding drugs, alcohol, and mental health. Methods We asked persons a series of questions in semi-structured focus groups (102 participants) while they were being presented with the PAYS data. Results Participants expressed significant insight on root causes of risk behaviors. They recommended a decreased emphasis on grades and class rank, and recommended addressing mental health stigma, educating about vaping and marijuana effects, and obtaining support from families, schools, and communities. Conclusion Youth expressed interest in being an integral part of the planning and decision-making efforts that impact them. Our results support the Whole School, Community, and Child (WSCC) model.
Carbon Nanotube Length Variation in Correlated CNFETs

Correlation of carbon nanotube FETs (CNFETs) due to aligned CNT growth was shown to improve functional yield of CNFET-based circuits under diameter and the number of CNTs variations. Circuits with correlated CNFETs were investigated based on the assumption that all transistors in correlated sets were identical, due to sharing the same sets of tubes. Therefore, all transistors in the correlated sets have the same failure probability and the same drive current. Though CNTs reach long lengths, not all grow to be equally long. CNTs grown on the substrate will reach various lengths due to early catalyst precipitation and varying CNT diameter. Thus, assuming 100% correlation in correlated-CNFETs is too optimistic. In this work we analyze the impact of variation in CNT length on functional yield and performance of CNFETs. Our results show that variation in tube length can increase failure probability of rows of correlated transistors by 85%. and increase variation in total delay by 1.51X when compared to correlated CNFETs without variation in CNT length. The impact of CNT length variation on gate delay with and without tube diameter and tube count variations is analyzed.
A Luminaire Comparison Method

Underground coal mining lighting is regulated in the United States. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is responsible for enforcing these regulations and for issuing approvals for electrical devices and machines. Companies submit standard test and evaluation (ST&E) documentation to MSHA when seeking approval on a machine with mounted lighting. Subsequent machine modifications, such as changing the type of light lamp from incandescent to light-emitting diode (LED), will require an update to an existing ST&E acceptance via the Revised Approval Modification Program (RAMP). Lighting technology has changed significantly over the years, where older technologies such as incandescent and fluorescent are being replaced by light-emitting diode (LED) technology that can use 75% less energy and have a useful life of 25 times that of an incandescent lamp. Today, there are thousands of obsolete compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) used in underground coal mines. Replacing the CFL with an LED lamp requires RAMP documentation for each ST&E and would require MSHA to review virtually thousands of RAMPS that would require an exorbitant amount of resources for those submitting the RAMPs and would create a backlog that would take MSHA potentially years to process. This problem is addressed by the Luminaire Comparison Method (LCM) that determines if the luminous intensity from a luminaire with a replacement lamp meets or exceeds the luminous intensity of the luminaire with a legacy lamp. If it does, then the replacement lamp is determined as equivalent and can be used in place of the legacy lamp. One RAMP can then replace multiple RAMPs that would be required without the method. Due to this advantage, the LCM is in use today. One company is working on 718 ST& E’s that will utilize the LCM. The company estimates it will save over $700,000 USD, and another company has already saved about $200,000 USD. It is projected that the LCM will save millions of dollars.
Expanding Digital Marketing Campaigns With Machine Learning Built Lookalike Audiences Having Varying Prior User Characteristics

Finding the right audience, also known as targeting, is a key exercise in many digital campaigns. Enterprise marketing applications (EMA) like Oracle CX provide filtering and querying capabilities to allow marketer initiated targeting in such campaigns. While such mechanisms are driven by marketer’s intuition, EMAs include certain out of box approaches such as behavioral (re)targeting to further automate audience targeting. We propose a new unsupervised machine learning-driven audience selection approach using lookalike technology build on top of such seed audience targeting. Specifically, we propose a segment-segment similarity audience lookalike mechanism to expand digital campaigns in multi-tenant EMAs where user characteristics vary per enterprise account. Additionally, our approach is a hybrid approach compared to existing methods lightening up training computations and speeding up lookalike inferences. We demonstrate with experimentation that this delivers 8–17% closer matches than statistical benchmark methods.
A Spectral Clustering Based Distributed Control of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) Integrated Power Distribution System

Motivated by the government's clean energy targets, the penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) is increasing. These DERs interconnections bring the added generation and storage capacity at the distribution level. Also, with the increasing implementation of smart inverters and Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS), the flexibility of the DERs can be leveraged to solve the distribution grid issues like over abnormal voltages, intermittencies, and thermal overloads. The proposed work focuses on the development of a robust distributed control architecture to control and optimally manage the load and PV variations using energy storage by creating the virtual clusters of the distribution grid.
Human cold habituation: Physiology, timeline, and modifiers

Habituation is an adaptation seen in many organisms, defined by a reduction in the response to repeated stimuli. Evolutionarily, habituation is thought to benefit the organism by allowing conservat...
Bangladesh: Religious Intolerance in Bangladesh

In this paper, we explore sectarian and communal intolerance in Bangladesh using a unique dataset derived from a 2017 nationally representative survey of Bangladeshi respondents. We find deep support for Sharia among Bangladeshi respondents, including its draconian physical punishments, as well as a strong preference for its use upon non-Muslims. Bangladeshi Muslims not only register high levels of communal intolerance, but they also evidence significant sectarian intolerance.
The Third International TrueFact Workshop: Making a Credible Web for Tomorrow

The Third International TrueFact Workshop: Making a Credible Web for Tomorrow is geared towards bringing academic, industry and government researchers and practitioners together to tackle the challenges in misinformation, data quality, truth finding, fact-checking, credibility analysis and rumor detection -- in heterogeneous and multi-modal sources of information including texts, images, videos, relational data, social networks and knowledge graphs.
High Power Pulsed 263 GHz Extended Interaction Amplifier

This paper presents test results on a new model of pulsed EIK amplifier operating at 263 GHz targeting applications in advanced weather radar, DNP enhancement of NMR systems and visual imaging for homeland security. This EIK delivered an output power greater than 70 watts, gain of over 30dB and a -3dB bandwidth greater than 1000 MHz.
Mechanisms of pain and their manifestations in head and neck cancer: Importance of classifying pain subtypes

Background Pain is an under-recognized complaint among head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors. Treatment is hindered by inadequate characterization of pain. Methods A secondary analysis from a prospective, longitudinal study was conducted to characterize pain prevalence, quality, and functional consequences in 77 HNC patients. Pain and pain-related outcomes were captured before treatment, at end-of-treatment, and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months post-treatment. Results Pain was most prevalent at end-of-treatment and declined over time. Chronicity of pain was established by 6 months post-treatment. Oral mucosal neuropathic pain was the most common chronic pain subtype at 12 months post-treatment. Widespread joint and muscle pain was also present at lower numbers. 40.2% of patients continued to require analgesics at 12 months. Conclusion Peripheral and central pain subtypes contribute significantly to chronic pain in HNC survivors. Preventive and treatment regimens should be tailored to specific pain subtypes for optimal symptom control.
The response of BHK21 cells to infection with type 12 adenovirus: V. Stimulation of cellular RNA synthesis and evidence for transcription of the viral genome

Abstract The abortive infection of G1-arrested BHK21 cells with type 12 adenovirus (Ad12) has been shown to induce a 3- to 5-fold increase in the rate of uridine- 3 H incorporation into RNA, with a time course parallel to that of the induction of cellular DNA synthesis. Neither of these responses occurs in the absence of infectious virus. Uridine kinase activity is increased at the same time. Sucrose gradient analysis of the RNA has revealed that 45 S, 32-28 S, 18 S, and 4 S species of cellular RNA are all synthesized at an increased rate. Hybridization studies have demonstrated that Ad12-specific RNA is also synthesized. Its synthesis is first detectable at 10 hr and reaches a maximum at 12–14 hr after infection. It sediments in the 18 S region of the sucrose gradient and is presumably virus messenger.
Diminished Class II-Associated Ii Peptide Binding to the Juvenile Dermatomyositis HLA-DQα1*0501/DQβ1*0301 Molecule

HLA class II molecules bind and present peptide Ags to T cells, binding specific sets of peptides due to polymorphism in the peptide binding groove. Class II proteins associate with the invariant chain (Ii chain) and its derived class II-associated Ii peptide (CLIP). Ii chain association is important for normal trafficking of class II proteins to the peptide loading vesicles and for blocking premature access of peptides to HLA class II molecules during maturation. We have previously shown that juvenile dermatomyositis is associated with the HLA-DQA1*0501 allele. There is limited information available about the interaction of any DQ molecule with the Ii chain and little information about binding of individual peptides to HLA-DQalpha1*0501/DQbeta1*0301. We sequenced peptides eluted from the juvenile dermatomyositis-associated class II allele HLA-DQalpha1*0501/DQbeta1*0301. Surprisingly, we found no Ii chain or CLIP. Further examination of peptide binding to the HLA-DQalpha1*0501/DQbeta1*0301 molecule demonstrated poor CLIP binding. However, newly synthesized HLA-DQalpha1*0501/DQbeta1*0301 molecules do associate with intact Ii chain. Molecular modeling suggests that CLIP binds differently to HLA-DQalpha1*0501/DQbeta1*0301 than to DR molecules. The lack of CLIP association suggests that HLA-DQalpha1*0501/DQbeta1*0301 has access to peptides earlier in the processing pathway and so might encounter novel peptides that induce autoimmunity.
Concepts, Principles, and Applications of Selected Molecular Biology Techniques in Clinical Biochemistry

The myriad molecular techniques that have been developed and are undergoing refinement have advanced our knowledge of disease processes and made available strategies for detection. While the greatest impact of molecular techniques in the diagnostic laboratory has been in the realm of infectious diseases, techniques such as flow cytometry, FISH, and multiplex-nested PCR followed by direct DNA sequencing are increasing the scope of cancer detection and treatment. The facile typing of HLA-class II genes is a major advance in the matching of donors to recipients of organ transplantation. With advances in genosensor technology and robotic automation, molecular biology techniques are clearly poised to enter the diagnostic clinical biochemistry laboratory for multiple applications.
HIV Assembly and Budding: Ca2+ Signaling and Non-ESCRT Proteins Set the Stage

More than a decade has elapsed since the link between the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery and HIV-1 protein trafficking and budding was first identified. L domains in HIV-1 Gag mediate recruitment of ESCRT which function in bud abscission releasing the viral particle from the host cell. Beyond virus budding, the ESCRT machinery is also involved in the endocytic pathway, cytokinesis, and autophagy. In the past few years, the number of non-ESCRT host proteins shown to be required in the assembly process has also grown. In this paper, we highlight the role of recently identified cellular factors that link ESCRT machinery to calcium signaling machinery and we suggest that this liaison contributes to setting the stage for productive ESCRT recruitment and mediation of abscission. Parallel paradigms for non-ESCRT roles in virus budding and cytokinesis will be discussed.
Commuting Toeplitz operators with pluriharmonic symbols

Let dA(z) denote the Lebesgue volume measure on the open unit ball Bn °f cn, normalized so that the measure of Bn equals 1. The 13ergman space L2(Bn) is the EIilbert space consisting of holomorphic functions on Bn that are also in L2(Bn) dA). For f in L90(Bn), the Toeplitz operator Tf with symbol f is deSned by T(h) = P(fh): where P is the orthogonal projection from L2(BnndA) onto ol2tBesdA)n called the Bergman projection. Let dsr be the surface area measure on the unit sphere Sn For 1 < p < 007 H(S4) is the Banach space of holomorphic functions on Bn with the norm defined by
Diagnosis lost: Differences between children who had and who currently have an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis

Autism spectrum disorder diagnoses sometimes change due to misdiagnosis, maturation, or treatment. This study uses a probability-based national survey—the Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services—to compare currently diagnosed (n = 1420) and previously diagnosed (n = 187) children aged 6–17 years based on retrospective parental reports of early concerns about their children’s development, responses to those concerns by doctors and other healthcare providers, the type of provider who made the first autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, and the autism spectrum disorder subtype diagnoses received (if any). Propensity score matching was used to control for differences between the groups on children’s current level of functioning and other current characteristics that may have been related to diagnosis loss. Approximately 13% of the children ever diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were estimated to have lost the diagnosis, and parents of 74% of them believed it was changed due to new information. Previo...
Preventing Madoff-Style Ponzi Enabled by Jewish Reputation, Incompetent Regulators and Auditors

The worldwide reach, size ($50B) and durability (since 1960) of Madoff's alleged Ponzi is attributed to the high reputation of Jewish money managers, serious regulatory lapses including incompetence and possible conflicts of interest by FCC, SEC and other regulators and auditors. Madoff seems to have been an equal opportunity thief, who shamelessly made off with funds from close relatives and charities in his scheme. We discuss some ideas on preventing future Ponzi schemes by focusing on corruption, conflicts of interest and fraud. Legally permitted secrecy for the operators of hedge funds is clearly to blame here. We suggest reforms, which will immediately improve transparency in financial transactions and in accounting and audit reports. Since self-regulation does not work in the presence of conflicts of interest, beyond obvious disclosure requirements, divesting of custodial and brokerage operations from financial advisors is an immediately feasible reform. Such separation through divestiture can prevent future Ponzi schemes and minimize broker frauds. I also propose stricter regulation of off-shore entities. We also need to test all managers and regulators at financial institutions for a clear understanding of a few dozen tools and risk assessments in modern quantitative finance.
Synthesis of the Carbocyclic Core of Massadine.

The carbocyclic core of massadine has been synthesized relying on a stereoselective formal [3 + 2] cycloaddition of lithiumtrimethylsilyldiazomethane with α,β-unsaturated esters to form a Δ2-pyrazoline moiety followed by facile N–N bond cleavage. A unique feature of the current approach is the direct installation of the tertiary α-amino center and a β-cyano group in a cis arrangement on the resulting cyclopentane framework via a previously developed formal aminocyanation protocol.
Experimental approaches to the study of the past

Daniel Ingersoll, Johne E. Yellen and William MacDonald, eds. Experimental Archaeology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977. xviii + 423 pp. preface, introduction, figures, illustrations, index.
Efficient algorithms for minimizing tree pattern queries

We consider the problem of minimizing tree pattern queries (TPQ) that arise in XML and in LDAP-style network directories. In [Minimization of Tree Pattern Queries, Proc. ACM SIGMOD Intl. Conf. Management of Data, 2001, pp. 497-508], Amer-Yahia, Cho, Lakshmanan and Srivastava presented an O(n4) algorithm for minimizing TPQs in the absence of integrity constraints (Case 1); n is the number of nodes in the query. Then they considered the problem of minimizing TPQs in the presence of three kinds of integrity constraints: required-child, required-descendant and subtype (Case 2). They presented an O(n6) algorithm for minimizing TPQs in the presence of only required-child and required-descendant constraints (i.e., no subtypes allowed; Case 3). We present O(n2), O(n4) and O(n2) algorithms for minimizing TPQs in these three cases, respectively, based on the concept of graph simulation. We believe that our O(n2) algorithms for Cases 1 and 3 are runtime optimal.
Research Note: Hatching Time, Body Weight, and Thyroid Hormones in Male and Female Chicks from Lines Selected for High or Low Juvenile Body Weight

Abstract Comparisons between males and females were made for length of time from start of incubation to perinatal stages of hatching, body weight, and thyroid hormones in lines of chickens selected for high (HW) or low (LW) juvenile body weight. Although males appeared to pip through the air cell and through the shell earlier than females in Line LW, there were no consistent differences between the sexes in time to hatch in either line. Body weights and plasma triiodothyronine and thyroxine were not different for males and females at any stage.
Cost of prediction error in the economic order quantity formula

The relative cost of prediction error in the economic order quantity model that results from the incorrect prediction of parameter values for annual demand, purchase order cost and carrying cost is described as a function solely of the relative error in those parameter values, and is shown to be independent of the absolute magnitude of these parameters. This function is shown to have, over a certain range, an important contraction property so that the relative cost of prediction error will be (significantly) less than the relative error in the parameter value.
Mycoticin, a new antifungal antibiotic.

The need for an effective method of treatment of the superficial and systemic mycoses is, without a doubt, an outstanding problem in medical mycology today. The remarkable success achieved in treatment of bacterial infections with antibiotics has led numerous workers to search for antifungal properties of similar compounds. Among these were two of the authors (Ruth C. Burke and J. H. Swartz) who in 1950 began to investigate the antifungal properties of a number of promising agents including various drugs, plants, bacteria and fungi. Although several antifungal agents were studied, one fungus in particular showed such promise that work was concentrated on isolating and testing its active principle. A crystalline material was obtained and tested against a number of representative bacteria, yeasts, molds and protozoa. This material shows notable activity in vitro against many of the pathogenic yeasts and molds. At the present time a complete in vivo evaluation is impossible due to rapid inactivation and moderately high toxicity of the crystalline material. These two problems are now under consideration and it is hoped that they will be solved in the near future permitting a more thorough evaluation of the product. We are hopeful that resolving the problem of rapid inactivation will, at the very least, permit use of the compound in treatment of the superficial mycoses. In the present paper we would like to discuss several of the interesting properties exhibited by the antibiotic which has been named mycoticin.
Flow cytometric quantitation of calcium-dependent and -independent mitogen-stimulation of T cell functions in whole blood: inhibition by immunosuppressive drugs in vitro

We have optimized assays to measure mitogen-stimulated rat lymphocyte activation in whole blood and have used these assays to quantitate the potencies of immunosuppressive drugs with different mechanisms of action. To define the optimal conditions for measuring T cell functions in whole blood, the effects of different concentrations of mitogens that activate T cells through calcium-dependent and -independent pathways were measured over time. Proliferation was measured by tritium-labeled thymidine ([3H]-TdR) incorporation and by flow cytometric analysis of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)/DNA content. Furthermore, we detected the increases in percent expression of cell-surface activation antigens (CD25, CD134, CD71, CD11a and CD54). Concanavalin A (Con A) stimulated maximum lymphocyte proliferation and expression of T cell surface activations by 72-96 h, which was 48 h later than stimulation by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) plus anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody (mAb) or PMA plus ionomycin (IONO). Addition of sirolimus, tacrolimus, cyclosporine or the active metabolite of leflunomide, A77 1726, to mitogen-stimulated whole blood produced drug concentration-dependent inhibitions of lymphocyte proliferation and expression of cell surface activation antigen expression. From these data, we determined drug potencies (inhibitory concentration of 50%, IC(50)) and drug concentrations causing maximum inhibition of T cell functions (I(max)). We developed simple and reproducible assays to measure different lymphocyte functions in whole blood cultures. These assays were used to investigate the mechanisms of different immunosuppressive drugs. These methods can be exploited to measure T cell functions in blood collected from subjects treated with immunosuppressants in vivo.
Do elderly patients have a worse outcome in response to platinum-based therapy for metastatic urothelial cancer?

Do elderly patients have a worse outcome in response to platinum-based therapy for metastatic urothelial cancer?
On-line computer text processing: A tutorial

The use of an on-line computer system for preparing manuscripts affords the scholar many advantages. This tutorial discusses text editing, file and output processing systems, and how they may be used for producing and disseminating scientific documents.
Generation of a Highly Effective Corrosion Barrier on LiH Surfaces

The kinetics of LiH powder/water reactions indicate a corrosion resistant layer can readily be generated on LiH by exposure to a mixture of CO2 and H2O. Specifically, LiH powder corrodes very rapidly even in low ppm concentration of water, but samples pretreated in CO2/H2O mixtures exhibit a lengthy ‘delay’ before the onset of a very slow (relative to untreated material in the same corrosion conditions) corrosion reaction. The longer the pretreatment, the longer the delay prior to corrosion onset and the ‘slower’ the ultimate corrosion rate. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that the CO2/H2O pretreatment creates a thin (ca. 1000 nm) carbonate layer. Surprisingly, a review of the kinetics of LiH corrosion for both treated and untreated material shows a very low activation energy for corrosion. This suggests that diffusion through a ‘barrier layer’ is rate controlling even on ‘pristine’ material. This implies earlier measures of true ‘neat’ reaction kinetics of hydride powders may not be entirely a...
Multi-break arc interaction in the energy balance region

It is postulated that the performance of a multi-break interrupter can be better than that expected from an extrapolation of the test results on a single-break unit. A computer model was developed to study the interaction processes in the energy balance region under short line fault conditions, using a Mayr model differential equation to model arc behavior. This nonlinear equation and the equations representing the electrical network and fault condition were solved for variations in selected parameters and expected unbalances in the voltage distribution across the interrupter units. Comparisons were made between the simulation of a circuit breaker with two interrupting breaks and one with a single break and an equivalent voltage stress. In the neighborhood of criticality, the two-break configuration interrupted the fault current, whereas the single break failed. It was shown experimentally that for equivalent voltage stresses, a two-break interrupter reached the dielectric reignition phase, while the single-break reignited thermally. This supports a concept of sharing between breaks. >
Numerical simulation of January 28 cold air outbreak during GALE part II: The mesoscale circulation and marine boundary layer

A two-dimensional (2-D) mesoscale numerical model is applied to simulate the January 28 cold-air outbreak over the Gulf Stream region during the Intensive Observation Period-2 (IOP-2) of the 1986 Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE). The model utilizes a turbulence closure which involves the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and dissipation (e) equations and combines the level 2.5 formulations of Mellor and Yamada (1982) for better determination of the eddy Prandtl number.