cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Research and Design of General Electric Power Internet of Things System Platform Architecture

With the continuous development of the Internet of Things technology, its application industry is also expanding. This paper takes the power of the Internet of Things as the core and conducts research and design of a general-purpose power IoT system platform architecture. Through an in-depth analysis of the system platform architecture, its implementation path and application range are clarified, which provides technical support for the rapid development of the electric power Internet of Things.
Elimination of Metal Fencing by Optimizing Evaporator Dome Alignment

Successful metal liftoff requires a retrograde photoresist profile, or one created using a bi-layer process. Coupled with an evaporator setup for liftoff deposition, these ensure a discontinuity in metal coverage so that the unwanted field metal can be lifted off cleanly, without tearing or defects. An evaporator with an optimized liftoff configuration necessitates precise source-to-substrate alignment or defects will result. While a lot of development work has been reported on photoresist processes and liftoff techniques, a lack of publication on ideal evaporator geometry and proper setup suggests that the effects of source to substrate alignment have seldom been investigated or discussed. An evaporant flux with precise normality is essential to achieving clean metal liftoff. This paper examines how evaporator geometry influences the liftoff process. We will reveal the working principle of a special alignment tool and how the tool is used to keep the evaporator in precise alignment
The professional and personal impact of the coronavirus pandemic on US neurointerventional practices: a nationwide survey.

Background Little is currently known about the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on neurointerventional (NI) procedural volumes or its toll on physician wellness. Methods A 37-question online survey was designed and distributed to physician members of three NI physician organizations. Results A total of 151 individual survey responses were obtained. Reduced mechanical thrombectomy procedures compared with pre-pandemic were observed with 32% reporting a greater than 50% reduction in thrombectomy volumes. In concert with most (76%) reporting at least a 25% reduction in non-mechanical thrombectomy urgent NI procedures and a nearly unanimous (96%) cessation of non-urgent elective cases, 68% of physicians reported dramatic reductions (>50%) in overall NI procedural volume compared with pre-pandemic. Increased door-to-puncture times were reported by 79%. COVID-19-positive infections occurred in 1% of physician respondents: an additional 8% quarantined for suspected infection. Sixty-six percent of respondents reported increased career stress, 56% increased personal life/family stress, and 35% increased career burnout. Stress was significantly increased in physicians with COVID-positive family members (P Conclusions This is the first study designed to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on NI physician practices, case volumes, compensation, personal/family stresses, and work-related burnout. Future studies examining these factors following the resumption of elective cases and relaxing of social distancing measures will be necessary to better understand these phenomena.
Effects-Directed Studies of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluents

The history of effects-directed investigations of pulp and paper mill effluents has been driven primarily by the environmental effects associated with mill discharges. The first effect to confront the industry was acute toxicity to aquatic biota. Through a series of effects-directed studies in the 1970s and 1980s the causative agents were elucidated, subsequent regulations enacted, and effluent treatment technologies implemented to reduce the loadings of resin acids, chlorophenolics and other toxic compounds in mill discharges. Effects-directed investigations in the pulp and paper sector have since focused on other endpoints, primarily mutagenicity and endocrine disruption. Identification of these active substances has proven to be much more challenging due to the evolving complexities of effluent matrices and the intricacies of the responses themselves. Residual lignin in final effluents remains a significant barrier to the isolation and identification of low molecular weight bioactive substances. The evolution of analytical techniques (e.g., from XAD resins to SPE cartridges) coupled with new approaches (e.g., studying in-mill waste streams and fish tissue burdens of active substances) have nevertheless provided insights into the sources and identities of mutagens and endocrine disruptors. Active chemicals have been identified primarily using GC–MS with recent limited applications of LC–MS. A high proportion of substances originating from wood feedstocks have been identified or implicated in the effects studied. Differences in the patterns of effects between North and South American mill effluents may be reflective of the different tree species utilized. Careful selection of the endpoint used to direct such investigations, its reproducibility, robustness and linkages to whole organism responses and regulatory applications are emphasized.
Blue Moonlight Rising: Evictions, Alternative Accommodation and a Comparative Perspective on Affordable Housing Solutions in Johannesburg

The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality v Blue Moonlight Properties 39 (Pty) Ltd and Another (338/10) [2011] ZASCA 47 (30 March 2011) is a welcomed addition to the eviction jurisprudence in South Africa. Courts have jostled for years with the question of whether socio-economic rights should be enforced in the context of adequate housing and evictions. Today, the central questions in comparative constitutional law now deal with how courts should enforce such rights. In other words, what are the remedies for violations of socio-economic rights? The usual proposed remedies are coercive orders aimed at guaranteeing occupiers the denied rights directly, planning orders or procedural benefits. Amidst Blue Moonlight’s increased interest amongst academics, practitioners and jurists as an example of South Africa’s ‘new normality assumption’ and its realisation of procedural benefits to a person facing imminent eviction from private property, is a comparative housing policy yet to be discovered and considered in South Africa. A policy-oriented interpretation of the text of the lower court’s opinion in Blue Moonlight reveals the policy blueprint of several housing voucher programs currently operating in the United States that may serve as a new model for how to enforce socio-economic rights for occupiers facing imminent eviction — the Blue Moonlight remedy. Vouchers are a primary mechanism for providing affordable, safe and decent housing to the poor in the United States and ought to be considered by academics, policymakers, jurists and public officials as one of many potentially innovative solutions to Johannesburg’s housing woes.
Tuesday Morning Detective Work

Not as many law students come to the reference desk as they once did, but sometimes they need help with very challenging questions. This brief essay recounts a search for a case that was made challenging by a typo in the original source and the fact that the case was settled. In the end, the student got the sources she needed, plus a lesson in creative research.
Molecular omics resources should require sex annotation: a call for action.

The most commonly used omics databases are a compilation of results from primarily male-only and sex-agnostic studies. The pervasive use of these databases critically hinders progress toward fully accounting for the biology of sex differences.
Parallel pathways for recruiting effector proteins determine centromere drive and suppression

Selfish centromere DNA sequences bias their transmission to the egg in female meiosis. Evolutionary theory suggests that centromere proteins evolve to suppress costs of this "centromere drive." In hybrid mouse models with genetically different maternal and paternal centromeres, selfish centromere DNA exploits a kinetochore pathway to recruit microtubule-destabilizing proteins that act as drive effectors. We show that such functional differences are suppressed by a parallel pathway for effector recruitment by heterochromatin, which is similar between centromeres in this system. Disrupting the kinetochore pathway with a divergent allele of CENP-C reduces functional differences between centromeres, whereas disrupting heterochromatin by CENP-B deletion amplifies the differences. Molecular evolution analyses using Murinae genomes identify adaptive evolution in proteins in both pathways. We propose that centromere proteins have recurrently evolved to minimize the kinetochore pathway, which is exploited by selfish DNA, relative to the heterochromatin pathway that equalizes centromeres, while maintaining essential functions.
Abstract 1720: MSK1 mediates PI3K inhibition resistance by induction of β-catenin phosphorylation in glioblastoma

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common malignant brain tumor in adults, represents a compelling disease for kinase inhibitor therapy because majority of these tumors harbor genetic alterations that result in aberrant activation of growth factor signaling pathways. PI3K/mTOR-pathway is dysregulated in over 50% of human glioblastomas (GBM) and represents an attractive target for therapy. One major challenge for single pathway PI3K inhibition targeting therapy is intrinsic resistance. To study the mechanism of intrinsic resistance to PI3K inhibition, we analyzed the pre- and post-treatment reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) data of both giloma cells and giloma initiating cells (GIC). Mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 (MSK1) was markedly induced after PI3K inhibitor treatment and it was linked with increase expression of β-catenin. We further found that MSK1 directly interacts with β-catenin and stabilizes β-catenin protein level. MSK1 also regulates β-catenin nuclear translocation and β-catenin transcriptional activity. More interestingly, using in vitro kinase assay, we identified MSK1 is a kinase that phosphorylates β-catenin. Finally, we showed that depletion of β-catenin potentiates PI3K inhibitors induced cytotoxity in a series of GICs. Taken together, our results suggest that MSK1/β-catenin signaling may serve as an escape survival signaling upon PI3K inhibition, and combination of PI3K inhibition and MSK1/β-catenin inhibition is required to induce lethal growth inhibition in human glioblastoma cells. Citation Format: Shaofang Wu, Jun Fu, Siyuan Zheng, Roel G. Verhaak, W. K Yung, Dimpy Koul. MSK1 mediates PI3K inhibition resistance by induction of β-catenin phosphorylation in glioblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1720. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1720
Recovering from Overload in Multicore Mixed-Criticality Systems

The multicourse revolution is having limited impact on safety-critical cyber-physical systems. The key reason is the "one out of m" problem: certifying the real-time correctness of a system running on m cores can necessitate pessimistic analysis that easily negates the processing capacity of the "additional" m -- 1 cores. In safety-critical domains such as avionics, this has led to the common practice of simply disabling all but one core. In this paper, the usage of mixed-criticality (MC) scheduling and analysis techniques is considered to alleviate such analysis pessimism. Under MC analysis, a single system with components of different criticality levels is viewed as a set of different per-criticality-level systems. More optimistic analysis assumptions are made when certifying lower criticality levels. Unfortunately, this can lead to transient overloads at these levels, compromising real-time guarantees. This paper presents the first multicourse MC framework that addresses this problem. This framework makes scheduling decisions in a virtual time domain that can be "stretched" until the effects of a transient overload have abated. Such effects dissipate more quickly if virtual time is "stretched" more aggressively, but this may reduce the quality of the work performed. This trade off is analyzed experimentally herein.
Weight-based discrimination and medication adherence among low-income African Americans with hypertension: how much of the association is mediated by self-efficacy?

Objectives : Much of the excessive morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease among African Americans results from low adherence to anti-hypertensive medications. Therefore, we examined the association between weight-based discrimination and medication adherence. Methods : We used cross-sectional data from low-income African Americans with hypertension. Ordinal logistic regression estimated the odds of medication non-adherence in relation to weight-based discrimination adjusted for age, sex, education, income, and weight. Results : Of all participants ( n =780), the mean (SD) age was 53.7 (9.9) years and the mean (SD) weight was 210.1 (52.8) lbs. Reports of weight-based discrimination were frequent (28.2%). Weight-based discrimination (but not weight itself) was associated with medication non-adherence (OR: 1.94; 95% CI: 1.41– 2.67). A substantial portion 38.9% (95% CI: 19.0%–79.0%) of the association between weight-based discrimination and medication non-adherence was mediated by medication self-efficacy. Conclusion : Self-efficacy is a potential explanatory factor for the association between reported weight-based discrimination and medication non-adherence. Future research should develop and test interventions to prevent weight-based discrimination at the societal, provider, and institutional levels. ( Ethn Dis . 2014;24[2]:162–168)
Clipless management of the renal vein during hand-assist laparoscopic donor nephrectomy

Background Laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy has become the preferred method of donor nephrectomy at many transplant centers. The laparoscopic stapling device is commonly used for division of the renal vessels. Malfunction of the stapling device can occur, and is often due to interference from previously placed clips. We report our experience with a clipless technique in which no vascular clips are placed on tributaries of the renal vein at or near the renal hilum in order to avoid laparoscopic stapling device misfires.
Intragenic suppression of a deletion mutation of the nonstructural gene of an influenza A virus.

The influenza A/Alaska/77 (H3N2) virus mutant 143-1 is temperature sensitive (ts) due to a spontaneous in-frame 36-nucleotide deletion in the nonstructural (NS) gene segment, which leads to a 12-amino-acid deletion in the NS1 protein. In addition, it has a small-plaque phenotype on MDCK cell monolayers. However, phenotypically revertant (i.e., ts+) viruses were isolated readily following replication of the 143-1 virus both in vitro and in vivo. In order to determine the genetic mechanism by which escape from the ts phenotype occurred, we performed segregational analysis and found that an intrasegmental suppressor mutation caused the loss of the ts phenotype. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed the presence of an intragenic mutation in each of the ts+ phenotypic revertant viruses, involving a substitution of valine for alanine at amino acid 23 of the NS1 protein. This mutation resulted in acquisition of the ts+ phenotype and also in the large-plaque phenotype on MDCK cells, characteristic of the wild-type A/Alaska/77 parent virus. This amino acid substitution is predicted to generate an area of alpha helix in the secondary structure of the amino-terminal portion of the NS1 protein of the revertant viruses which may compensate for loss of an alpha-helical region due to the deletion of amino acids 66 to 77 in the NS1 protein of the 143-1 virus.
Exchanging Kidneys — Advances in Living-Donor Transplantation

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first successful kidney transplantation from a living donor to his identical twin. Over the ensuing five decades, kidney transplantation has progressed f...
Neuropathy of nitroimidazole radiosensitizers: Clinical and pathological description

The dose limiting toxicity of the nitroimidazole radiosensitizers is peripherial neuropathy. Improved pharmacology of newer drugs has eliminated the encephalopathy. Peripheral neuropathies are predominently mild to moderate paresthesias of both hands and feet. Subjective changes occur with or without minimal objective changes on neurologic exam. All of the neuropathies occurred within 30 days of the last drug dose and are of variable duration. Sural nerve biopsies from patients indicate progressive axonal degeneration affecting both large and small caliber myelinated fibers. Axonal damage appears to be more severe in the distal portion of the nerves. More data are needed for correlation of clinical and pathological changes.
Response to Hugo Huber

(1) The reproach of relying almost exclusively on interviews partly misses the point, insofar as the study was largely concerned with the structural changes of the past 50 years and with the significance of the introduction of bridewealth in the context of this change. Thus I had to rely largely on the memories of old informants which, together with the Government and Courts records and the White Fathers' diary 1911-1947 offered unusually well documented background information on the changes in question.
HIV-related renal disease and the utility of empiric therapy—not everyone needs to be biopsied

Should renal biopsy be performed in all patients with both HIV infection and kidney disease? In this Viewpoint, Dr Szczech argues that, given its efficacy against conditions like HIV-associated nephropathy, antiretroviral therapy should be implemented before biopsy is considered. Only when suppression of viral replication fails to improve renal function does the case for biopsy become more compelling. In any event, much as with HIV-negative patients with renal disease, empiric therapy should be implemented before renal biopsy is undertaken.
The association of fecal impaction and urinary retention in elderly nursing home patients.

Abstract The objective of this study was to examine the association of fecal impaction and urinary retention in an elderly nursing home population. Two-hundred and three nursing home patients with urinary dysfunction (77% female, median age: 85 years (range: 61–104)) underwent an evaluation which included rectal examination, measurement of residual urine, and cystometric studies. Bivariate analyses indicated that fecal impaction was not associated with urinary retention. However, dependency in transfer was directly associated with fecal impaction (OR=2.91; P=0.004), and with urinary retention (OR=3.13; P=0.017). There was no association between detrusor underactivity and fecal impaction. When urinary retention and fecal impaction occurred in the same patient, detrusor overactivity was the most common cystometric finding. Rather than implicating an anatomic or neurologic link between poor bladder emptying and poor bowel emptying, a third factor (e.g. immobility) causing both urinary retention and fecal impaction should be sought.
Gifts from an Archaeologist's Bookcase: John L. Cotter's Library:

Upon the death of John L. Cotter (1911-1999), renowned archaeologist, University of Pennsylvania, a portion of his library passed to the Clovis Archives. The ca. 3,500 holdings include books, monographs, abundant journals, and letter correspondence. The tomes are peppered by marginalia and book-marked notes, thus preserving insights into the scholar's mind over a 65-year career in both prehistoric and historical archaeology. Due to the collection's size and fragile state, organizing and conserving it have been works-in-progress. In sorting through Cotter's papers on Paleoindian research, two Clovis fluted points—carefully wrapped and bagged—were discovered wedged in a file holder. In this article we describe these artifacts, document their intriguing history, and speculate on their presence within Cotter's library.
The reasons for persistent hypercalcaemia after cervical exploration for presumed primary hyperparathyroidism

Of 500 consecutive patients who underwent cervical exploration for presumed primary hyperparathyroidism, 461 (92.2 per cent) were cured, as judged by an immediate return of serum calcium levels to normal. Thirty-nine patients (7.8 per cent) had persistent hypercalcaemia after the initial operation. The clinical profiles, operative and pathologic findings, surgical procedures performed and subsequent management of these 39 patients were reviewed. At reevaluation, 4 patients were noted to have been cured of their hyperparathyroidism. Twenty-one patients had persistent hyperparathyroidism: in 6, all 4 parathyroid glands had not been identified at the initial operation and in 15, hypercalcaemia persisted after the identification of 4 glands. One patient had recurrent hyperparathyroidism after the removal of a 720 mg adenoma and the identification of 3 normal parathyroid glands. Nine patients had nonparathyroid causes for the hypercalcaemia: 2 had occult malignant neoplasms, 6 had benign familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia and 1 had immobilization hypercalcaemia. In 4 patients the reason for the persistent hypercalcaemia remained unclear. We suggest a schema that may be used as a guideline in the investigation and management of patients with persistent hypercalcaemia after primary neck exploration for presumed hyperparathyroidism.
Hydrodynamic coupling in diffusion of quasi–one-dimensional Brownian particles

We report a study of the diffusion of weakly interacting colloidal spheres in a one-dimensional groove using digital video microscopy. At a time much shorter than the direct interaction time, τI, the spheres diffuse according to Fick's law. The packing fraction dependence of the short-time diffusion coefficient is much stronger than in unbound bulk fluids, indicative of an enhanced hydrodynamic coupling between particles in a groove. At a later time (but still shorter than τI) a subdiffusion (Δx2(τ) τγ, where γ < 1) evolves, suggesting that the hydrodynamic coupling induces the subdiffusion. Correlated motion of spheres is identified both in the trajectories of the spheres and in the magnitude of the velocity pair-correlation.
Real American children: The challenge for after-school programs

Several million American children are currently unsupervised during the hours between school and parents' leaving for and/or return from the workplace. Many families would prefer other arrangements, but cost or availability factors present insurmountable barriers. Although growing, the public response continues to fall far short of the need; in the meantime, private entrepreneurs are moving to fill the gaps in available services. But if these programs for school-aged children are to serve functions other than the aggrandizement of their sponsors, they must be focused on the real needs that exist among real American children. Among the real children in need of care are those who are impoverished, unsupervised, unfit physically, unprepared for the demands of school and workplace, hurried into premature adulthood, and/or disconnected from the social worlds around them. Professional child and youth care workers with experience in day care and residential settings have the preparation needed to take leadership roles in creating developmentally appropriate, effective programs to meet the emerging demands for school-age child care and to weave them into a fabric of youth-centered community services.
Cellular and theoretical chimeras: Piecing together how cells process energy

AMONG THE fantastic creatures that Homer described in the Iliad is the chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent. Biologically, the chimera is unimaginable-a quintessentially mythical creature. Yet as an improbable hybrid, it also served as a model for naming another, very real product of cellular biochemistry in the 1970s. Using a dramatic new experimental technique, chemists pieced together parts of cell organelles from different species.’ Though the fragments had been extracted from cells representing three different kingdoms, they functioned together to produce adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the unit of energy in the cell. The chimeric vesicles were striking-and persuasive, as well. They helped resolve a deep theoretical debate about how cells process energy at the stage of oxidative phosphorylation. The experimentally produced cellular chimeras are thus important landmarks in the history of bioenergetics. They are also relevant to the philosophy of experiment. In this case, they represent a special category of ‘capstone experiments’. The chimeras demonstrated that several domains of experiment could be pieced together (though none of the individual elements was itself novel). The notion of a chimera, or a mosaic of divergent components, also describes how the broader controversy itself was resolved. The episode illustrates that, contrary to many models of scientific change, theories or models may be pieced together into ‘conceptual chimeras’. The image of chimeras thus offers a common theme for several significant conclusions about the history of bioenergetics, the philosophy of experiment, and the dynamics of conceptual change.
Effect of external resistance on propagation of action potentials in cardiac muscle and visceral smooth muscle in PSpice simulation

Propagation of action potentials in cardiac muscle and visceral smooth muscle were simulated using the PSpice program. Excitation was transmitted from cell to cell along a strand of six cells (cardiac muscle) or ten cells (smooth muscle) not connected by low-resistance tunnels (gap-junction connexons). The entire surface membrane of each cell fired nearly simultaneously, and nearly all the propagation time was spent at the cell junctions, thus, giving a staircase-shaped propagation profile. The junctional delay time was about 0.2-0.5 msec in cardiac muscle and 2-6 msec in smooth muscle. A significant negative cleft potential develops in the narrow junctional clefts, and its magnitude depends on several factors, including the radial cleft resistance (R"j"c). The cleft potential (V"C) depolarizes the postjunctional membrane (post-JM) to threshold by a patch-clamp action. Therefore, one mechanism for the transfer of excitation from one cell to the next is by the electric field (EF) that is generated in the junctional cleft when the pre-JM fires. When the external resistance (R"o) was increased over a very wide range (e.g., the radial (r"o"r) and longitudinal (r"o"l) components increased over 10^6 times) (from 1 [email protected] to 1000 [email protected]), propagation still occurred. At R"j"c values between 5 [email protected] and 40 [email protected], the propagation velocity (@q) actually increased in cardiac muscle. At lower R"j"c: values (1, 0.1, [email protected]), propagation was not only facilitated at high R"o values, but also enabled because partial or complete block occurred at the lower R"o values. Similar results were found for smooth muscle. These data underscore the fact that propagation, in this simulation model, does not occur by means of local-circuit current. Instead, transmission across the junctional cleft occurs by the EF in the cleft.
Social Problems: A Focus for a New Branch of Public Health?

The biomedical theory that guides the work of public health departments does not explain the health impact of social problems like teenage pregnancies, unemployment or homelessness, but public health departments are increasingly concerned with such situations. One rationale is that social problems often have negative health consequences. Also, many public health professionals believe that stress-support theory, which is a widely accepted variant of the biomedical model, applies to these problems. But the fit is less than perfect and an alternative sociological model does better. A ‘structural ecology’ theory of health is outlined that explains how social problems cause ill health and how strong social structure improves population health. The alternative theory suggests the possibility of designing a new branch of public health, one that focuses on social problems rather than pathogens.
Detection of Abnormal Human Behavior Using a Matrix Approximation-Based Approach

Automatic detection of abnormal events is one of central tasks in video surveillance. In this paper we present a matrix approximation-based method to detect abnormal human behavior. In our model, a behavior pattern is represented by a motion matrix obtained through object tracking. We model typical motions associated with normal behaviors with a set of motion subspaces, computed through low-rank matrix approximation. Then, abnormal human behaviors are identified by the motion deviations from the representative subspaces. Our method does not require a complicated classification procedure, and can fast detect abnormal events in complex scenes. In addition, through the adaptive learning module, our model is built on the observed data, and can be expanded by incorporating new behavior patterns during the detection process. The results on simulated surveillance videos show the effectiveness of our method.
Current approaches to cutaneous gene therapy

Rapid advances in gene technology over the past decade have illuminated the molecular pathophysiology of many human diseases. Harnessing this knowledge for therapeutic purposes defines the field of gene therapy. Progresses in vector design, gene delivery, regulation of targeted gene expression and immune modulation have brought attempts at therapeutic molecular manipulation much closer to clinical use. For the field of gene therapy, the skin represents a uniquely attractive tissue site because of its accessibility and instant visualization, in addition to the large number of diseases that are principally amenable to cutaneous gene transfer. Although expression of cDNA for the treatment of autosomal recessive inherited genetic disorders has been the main advance in the field, other seminal techniques, including therapeutic trans-splicing, oligonucleotide antisense technology and RNA interference, have also emerged to target autosomal dominant mutations. Promising perspectives and challenging limitations of...
Robust detection of background noise in phonocardiograms

In this paper we present a method for detecting external and internal noises that can corrupt the phonocar-diogram (PCG). Using a reference signal from an accessory microphone placed on the stomach, the method first spectrally enhances this signal and then applies short-term log energy (STLE) to detect the noise. We also propose a robust method to determine a decision threshold to detect noise using the STLE. Our results show that spectral enhancement combined with STLE can efficiently detect noises, external and internal, that can corrupt the PCG.
High efficiency 33.3 GHz free electron laser amplifier with a reversed axial guide magnetic field

Abstract We report on a new regime of free electron laser operation using a helical wiggler field and a reversed axial guide magnetic field. The orientation of the axial field is such as to oppose the rotation of the electrons imparted by the helical field. The 33.3 GHz free electron laser amplifier is driven by a mildly relativistic electron beam (750 kV. 300 A. 30 ns) and generates 61 MW of radiation with a 27% conversion efficiency. The results are compared with those obtained when the axial guide field is in its conventional orientation where considerable loss of power and efficiency is observed.
Techniques of Extended Perfusion Using a Membrane Lung

Abstract Nine lightly sedated, chronically instrumented, trained dogs underwent venoarterial bypass for 5 hours. Three animals bled from the ascending aorta from flow probe erosion and 1 required resuscitation from air embolization during cannulation. The normal animals exhibited a reduction in pulse, respiration, systolic pressure, cardiac contractility, and external cardiac work. The sick animals were readily supported, those with aortic rupture by recycling the shed blood. Eight lightly anesthetized dogs were perfused for 24 hours. Four had arteriovenous perfusion and tolerated modest respiratory insufficiency. Four had venovenous perfusion and tolerated several hours of severe respiratory insufficiency. The glomerular filtration rate was about normal, but there was weight gain, hemodilution, and marked extracellular volume retention unless a diuretic was given. Blood volume control required maintenance of packed cell volume. Progressive acidemia was not a problem, and alkalization was not required. Blood trauma was acceptably small. Platelet counts seldom fell below 50%; white cell counts fell initially but exceeded the control levels at 24 hours; and plasma hemoglobin reached a peak at 12 to 18 hours and then fell to a final level of about 44 mg. per 100 ml. There were no coagulation disturbances.
Is antibiotic prophylaxis worthwhile in patients with transurethral resection of prostate

Abstract A study was undertaken to determine whether or not prophylactic antibiotics were effective in preventing infectious complications in patients with post-transurethral resection of the prostate. One hundred consecutive patients with negative urine cultures were randomized preoperatively into an oral antibiotic group and a nonantibiotic group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in postoperative bacteriuria or morbidity.
Greater GNN pattern bias in sequence elements encoding conserved residues of ancient proteins may be an indicator of amino acid composition of early proteins

The possibility that RNY pattern bias in extant sequences is a remnant of more pronounced bias of this type in early ancestors was investigated. To this end, conserved residues (those residues for which the inferred ancestral and known descendant amino acids are identical) and non-conserved residues of ancient proteins dating to the Last Universal Ancestor were identified within six species: two archaea, two eubacteria and two eukaryotes. Bias within sequence elements encoding each subset of residues, conserved and non-conserved, was then determined. In all species, GNN bias is greater within conserved than non-conserved sequence elements, whereas ANN is not. This difference is statistically significant in all six species examined. Since the relative mutability of the GNN-encoded amino acids does not explain the greater bias in conserved sequences, it is concluded that early sequences probably possessed a strong GNN bias. It is suggested that this bias may be a consequence of the GNN codons being the first introduced into the genetic code. Although NNY bias is also greater within conserved sequence elements of the six species, that difference is statistically significant in only half of them. Therefore, the evidence for early NNY bias remains inconclusive. The findings of this study do not support the proposal of Diaz-Lazcoz et al. (J. Mol. Biol. 250 (1995) 123) that the codons of the TCN four-codon block were the first assigned to serine during the evolution of the genetic code.
Abstract 4619: Protein palmitoylation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): DHHC5 palmitoyltransferase as a potential therapeutic target

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Post-translational palmitoylation of intracellular proteins is mediated by protein palmitoyltransferases (PAT) belonging to the DHHC family, which share a common catalytic Asp-His-His-Cys (DHHC) motif. According to a genome-wide siRNA screen scoring for growth suppression in over 50 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines, DHHC family members are strikingly over-represented. Among the tested DHHC palmitoyltransferases, knockdown of DHHC5 showed cell growth inhibition in many cell lines in the initial screen. To further investigate the growth suppression in response to DHHC5 depletion, transient and stable knockdowns of DHHC5 were undertaken in a dozen of NSCLC cell lines identified in the genome-wide screen using siRNAs and lentiviral shRNAs. Such knockdown was also performed in three immortalized human lung bronchial epithelial cell lines (HBECs). The gene expression and protein levels of DHHC5 were analyzed by RT-PCR and immunoblotting, both of which showed efficient knockdown levels. Cell proliferation and anchorage-dependent/independent colony formation assays indicated that DHHC5 knockdown led to cell growth arrest and decreased cell clonogenicity in most of the tested NSCLC cell lines in vitro, but not in the HBECs. H1299, H358 and H2009 cell lines were particularly dependent on DHHC5 expression and the growth-suppression phenotype of DHHC5 stable knockdown H1299/H358/H2009 cells was rescued by overexpression of DHHC5. The catalytically inactive DHHC5 mutant was not able to provide rescue. In vivo tumor formation assays were then carried out by injecting H1299 and H358 control cells and DHHC5 stable knockdown cells subcutaneously into NOD/SCID mice. DHHC5 knockdown led to absence or dramatically decreased tumor xenograft formation. Furthermore, a Tet-On inducible system with TRIPZ shRNA lentiviral delivery was established in H1299. Mouse xenografts using this H1299 Tet-on inducible cell line showed similar results. As DHHC5 function is needed for optimal lung cancer cell growth, it will be important to identify physiologically relevant substrates in order to develop inhibitors of DHHC5 function. Future plans include microarray and protein kinase array analysis to distinguish possible signaling pathways in which DHHC5 may be involved, as well as palmitoyl-protein profiling of normal and knockdown DHHC5 cell lines by mass spectrometry. Citation Format: Hui Tian, Jui-Yun Lu, Chunli Shao, Kenneth Huffman, Ryan Carstens, John D. Minna, Sandra L. Hofmann. Protein palmitoylation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): DHHC5 palmitoyltransferase as a potential therapeutic target. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4619. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4619
The effect of extra bound cytochrome b5 on cytochrome P-450-dependent enzyme activities in liver microsomes

Abstract Binding of increasing amounts of detergent-purified cytochrome b 5 to rabbit liver microsomes produces a progressive inhibition of NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase activity which is accompanied by a similar inhibition of NADPH-supported benzphetamine demethylation. In contrast, NADH-cytochrome P-450 reductase activity in the enriched microsomes is markedly enhanced and this stimulation is accompanied by a similar increase in NADH-peroxidase activity, suggesting that cytochrome b 5 in these two reactions functions as an intermediate electron carrier to cytochrome P-450.
Potassium deficiency in rats: Effects on thermal tolerance

1. 1. Three groups (N = 12/group) of rats (475 g) were fed a nutritionally complete (C) potassium-deficient (−K), or potassium-supplemented (+K) diet for 14 days, followed by passive exposure (unrestrained) to heat stress (41.5°C) until core temperature reached 42.5–42.6°C. 2. 2. Circulating K+ levels were significantly (P < 0.01) reduced in the −K group before and after exposure to the severe heat stress. 3. 3. Mean thermal tolerance was 178 min for the C and 149 min for the +K groups (P = NS), but was significantly (P < 0.01) reduced in the −K group (86 min). 4. 4. Despite similar rates of water loss (0.20, 0.18, 0.17 g/min, respectively), rates of heat gain were significantly different among the 3 groups (0.024, 0.032, 0.055°C/min, P < 0.01). 5. 5. These results suggest that factors other than evaporative heat dissipation, perhaps metabolic heat production, may be contributing to the decreased thermal tolerance in the −K group.
Improving liquid state machines through iterative refinement of the reservoir

Liquid state machines (LSMs) exploit the power of recurrent spiking neural networks (SNNs) without training the SNN. Instead, LSMs randomly generate this network and then use it as a filter for a generic machine learner. Previous research has shown that LSMs can yield competitive results; however, the process can require numerous time consuming epochs before finding a viable filter. We have developed a method for iteratively refining these randomly generated networks, so that the LSM will yield a more effective filter in fewer epochs than the traditional method. We define a new metric for evaluating the quality of a filter before calculating the accuracy of the LSM. The LSM then uses this metric to drive a novel algorithm founded on principals integral to both Hebbian and reinforcement learning. We compare this new method with traditional LSMs across two artificial pattern recognition problems and two simplified problems derived from the TIMIT dataset. Depending on the problem, our method demonstrates improvements in accuracy of from 15 to almost 600%.
Introducing objects and parallelism to an imperative programming language

Abstract The problem of enhancing objects with parallelism has been in the focus of numerous research projects in the recent years, but a satisfactory and commonly accepted solution has not appeared yet. A major problematic point seems to be providing inheritance for parallel objects. The general objective of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the language design issues in the area of parallel object-oriented programming (OOP) and, in particular, to design a framework for parallel OOP with multiple inheritance. What makes our proposed framework different from the other parallel OOP languages is its easy to use and efficient multiple inheritance for parallel objects. Our framework is easy-to-use because it is designed as a minimal parallel and OOP enhancement of the imperative programming paradigm—a paradigm which is relatively simple, very popular, and well understood. It is efficient for the same reasons and because the implementation of dynamic binding in our proposed multiple inheritance scheme does not require run-time method tables. Dozens of known serial and parallel OOP languages employ run-time method tables which may impose significant space and time overhead, particularly in a parallel environment.
Viscous heating of expanding fireballs

The effect of a finite mean free path on the expansion stage of central collisions between heavy nuclei is studied in a nonrelativistic fluid dynamical approach. A gas of point particles with localized interactions is used. Kinetic theory then provides the thermal conductivity and viscosity coefficients in terms of the nucleon-nucleon cross section. About 10% additional entropy is generated during the expansion stage of central collisions at a beam energy of 800 MeV/A due to viscous heating of the system. Surprisingly there is only a weak dependence on the mass of the colliding nuclei. These results are in substantial agreement with recent intranuclear cascade calculations, although at present the fluid dynamical results are slightly ambiguous due to an uncertainty in the breakup criterion.
Conjugate heat transfer analysis using a simplified household refrigerator model.

Air circulation and heat transfer in a simplified household refrigerator model was numerically studied. Three refrigerator configurations were analyzed and compared to highlight the influence of inner structures. The results show that radiation enhances heat transfer between evaporator and inner walls, resulting in a higher temperature gradient across the insulation foams and a higher heat loss rate. Radiation also weakens the natural convection but increases the air circulation between shelves. A vertical temperature stratification is observed in the fresh food compartment for all configurations. The shelves and food strengthen air circulations between the shelves and inner walls, which increases vertical temperature gradient and decreases the temperature homogeneity in the compartment.
Destruction of contrast microbubbles during ultrasound imaging at conventional power output

Abstract Inhomogeneous opacification of cardiac chambers has been frequently observed after intravenous administration of long-persisting echocardiographic contrast agents. We observed this phenomenon to be most pronounced at high acoustic powers with incomplete opacification of the left ventricular apex and left ventricular outflow tract. Reducing the acoustic energy to which the contrast was exposed by decreasing transmit power or intermittently suspending insonification resulted in homogenous opacification of the entire left ventricular cavity. We systematically examined the effect of varying insonification power on the persistence of three investigational ultrasound contrast agents in both in vitro and in vivo models. We found an inverse relationship between the insonifying power and the persistence of the contrast agents. Contrast intensity decay could be reduced either by decreasing exposure to ultrasound by minimizing the transmit power of the system or by intermittently suspending ultrasound generation (triggering). Minimization of ultrasound contrast exposure to ultrasound energy thus improves echocardiographic contrast duration and homogeneity. (J Am Soc Echocardiogr 1997;10:783-91.)
WorkSpace and the study of Chagas' disease

Chagas' disease afflicts more than 18 million people throughout South and Central America. Some areas of North America have also seen an increased incidence in recent years. The Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) parasite, which causes the disease, is most often transmitted by Triatomid bugs living in close proximity to humans. The T. cruzi parasite depends heavily on a small molecule called trypanothione to protect itself against damage from free radicals produced during normal metabolism. The concentration of trypanothione in the cell is carefully maintained by an enzyme called trypanothione reductase (TR). Drugs that inhibit TR should cause the parasite to die. Human cells have a similar enzyme-substrate pair: glutathione and glutathione reductase (GR). Fortunately, the enzyme GR differs electrostatically from TR, so there is hope of developing a drug that will be safe for human cells. The molecular structures of both TR and GR are known from ongoing X-ray crystallography studies. Both enzymes are dimers, that is, they consist of two equivalent domains, each having its own active site (the place where glutathione or trypanothione binds). One surprising feature of this system is a long tunnel passing through the center of the dimer and connecting the active sites of the two domains. While this is a naturally interesting feature to explore in a VR environment, the goal of the research is to evaluate the binding ability of particular drugs. For purposes of early testing, we chose chlorpromazine, an antidepressant drug. Large doses of the drug are known to kill the parasite, but are also toxic to the human host. It is possible that minor structural changes to this molecule would improve the selectivity and potency of the drug. For purposes of testing our VR environment, we present only a token calculation on chlorpromazine.
Measuring Assistive Technology Outcomes in Schools Using Functional Assessment.

Assistive technology is used to help maximize the educational outcomes of students with disabilities. However, few schools or districts effectively measure the outcomes of assistive technology. This article describes activities of Project OATS (Outcomes of Assistive Technology in the Schools), including identification and piloting of existing assessment instruments for possible use as an outcome measure; examining the validity of an existing instrument called the School Function Assessment (SFA), and field testing the School Function Assessment-Assistive Technology Version, an adaptation of the SFA.