cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Depressive symptoms in the elderly: Association with total white blood cell count

Abstract 1. 1. The white blood cell (WBC) count in those with high depressive symptoms and non-depressed participants in the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) were compared. 2. 2. Of 3769 participants 10.8% had high depressive symptoms as assessed by the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale. The mean white blood cell count was higher in the high depressive symptoms group compared to the non-depressed group (6.8 ± 0.12 × 109 WBC /1 and 6.5 ± 0.03 × 109 WBC/1, respectively, p 3. 3. Because older adults frequently have disabling chronic conditions which could both influence their leukocyte count and cause depressive symptoms, models were developed which controlled for the potential confounding. Even after adjusting for potential confounders, high depressive symptoms were still associated with higher white blood cell counts.
Fundamental Mechanisms of Friction and Lubrication of Materials

The fundamental mechanisms of friction and lubrication are reviewed from an engineering perspective. The review integrates information from mechanical engineering, chemistry, and contact mechanics research results to provide a universal view of the area of tribology at this time. This view is to be contrasted by subsequent views from the molecular perspective.
News & Views: Cyberintrusion—Happening Much Closer to You Than You Might Think!

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)2 (www.ic3.gov), cybercrimes are rising rapidly. In 2009, 336 655 cybercrime complaints were submitted to IC3, a 22.3% increase compared with 2008. Of these complaints, 146 663 were referred to law-enforcement agencies for further investigation. These referred cases represented a combined financial loss of $559.7 million. Although many may think these crimes were the results of careless individuals who fell for those “you just inherited a million dollars” scams, the reality is that if you have Internet connection, hackers have probably already attempted to attack the information stored in your computer. According to a report by Perkel (1), an average of 27 000 hacking attempts were made per day during the first quarter of 2010 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center of the University of California. The report also provides some practical tips to …
Effective conductivity of suspensions of hard spheres by Brownian motion simulation

A generalized Brownian motion simulation technique developed by Kim and Torquato [J. Appl. Phys. 68, 3892 (1990)] is applied to compute ‘‘exactly’’ the effective conductivity σe of heterogeneous media composed of regular and random distributions of hard spheres of conductivity σ2 in a matrix of conductivity σ1 for virtually the entire volume fraction range and for several values of the conductivity ratio α=σ2/σ1, including superconducting spheres (α=∞) and perfectly insulating spheres (α=0). A key feature of the procedure is the use of first‐passage‐time equations in the two homogeneous phases and at the two‐phase interface. The method is shown to yield σe accurately with a comparatively fast execution time. The microstructure‐sensitive analytical approximation of σe for dispersions derived by Torquato [J. Appl. Phys. 58, 3790 (1985)] is shown to be in excellent agreement with our data for random suspensions for the wide range of conditions reported here.
Disparity in posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis among African American pregnant women

To determine whether African American women expecting their first infant carry a disproportionate burden of posttraumatic stress disorder morbidity, we conducted a comparative analysis of cross-sectional data from the initial psychiatric interview in a prospective cohort study of posttraumatic stress disorder effects on childbearing outcomes. Participants were recruited from maternity clinics in three health systems in the Midwestern USA. Eligibility criteria were being 18 years or older, able to speak English, expecting a first infant, and less than 28 weeks gestation. Telephone interview data was collected from 1,581 women prior to 28 weeks gestation; four declined to answer racial identity items (n = 1,577), 709 women self-identified as African American, 868 women did not. Measures included the Life Stressor Checklist, the National Women’s Study Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Module, the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, and the Centers for Disease Control’s Perinatal Risk Assessment Monitoring System survey. The 709 African American pregnant women had more trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and diagnosis, comorbidity and pregnancy substance use, and had less mental health treatment than 868 non-African Americans. Lifetime prevalence was 24.0% versus 17.1%, respectively (OR = 1.5, p = 0.001). Current prevalence was 13.4% versus 3.5% (OR = 4.3, p < 0.001). Current prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was four times higher among African American women. Their risk for PTSD did not differ by sociodemographic status, but was explained by greater trauma exposure. Traumatic stress may be an additional, addressable stress factor in birth outcome disparities.
How College Students Experience Intercultural Learning: Key Features and Approaches

Many colleges and universities in the United States aim to promote intercultural competence in their students. However, most research on this outcome has focused on the content of educational programs (what educators offer) rather than on how students experience intercultural learning. This qualitative inquiry from the Wabash National Study analyzed 207 intercultural experiences from 161 college students on 6 campuses to identify contexts, characteristics, and key features of how they experience intercultural learning. Using grounded theory approaches, we summarized student interviews over 2 years, conducted open and axial coding to identify themes, and evaluated the themes over time. Using this approach, we identified three major themes: (a) that intercultural learning occurred when students directly encountered others’ experiences; (b) that feeling safe enough to explore cultural differences was a key dimension of intercultural learning; and (c) that students used a variety of approaches that led to intercultural learning (from simply listening or watching to exploring how one’s personal identity related to intercultural understanding) and that these varied in degree of complexity and agency. Implications for practice are offered to help educators make decisions about how to promote intercultural effectiveness in collegiate settings.
Effect of chronic administration of doxorubicin on cardiac adenylate cyclase activity in mice

Cardiac adenylate cyclase activity was examined in mice treated chronically with doxorubicin. Mice received a subcutaneous dose of either 2 or 4 mg/kg doxorubicin twice weekly for 5 weeks. Mice were sacrificed five weeks after the last injection. Basal cardiac adenylate cyclase activity was significantly elevated in both the 2 and 4 mg/kg DXR-treated groups over the control level. GTP, isoproterenol (plus GTP), NaF, and forskolin stimulated activities in both the 2 and 4 mg/kg DXR-treated groups were also significantly elevated over control levels.
Changes in cardiac glycoside activity produced by aminosugar addition.

In anesthetized dogs, structure activity relationships among three cardiotonic compounds were determined by comparing the cardiovascular effects of digotoxigenin (the genin) to digitoxigenin-galactose (a genin-neutral sugar combination) and to digitoxigenin-aminogalactose (ASI-222, a genin-aminosugar combination) using either bolus i.v. injections or constant i.v. infusions. We recorded the effects of these drugs upon cardiac rate, mean blood pressure, left ventricular dP/dt, cardiac index, systolic time intervals, tension-time index, therapeutic index, ventricular excitability and the ventricular refractory period. The addition of an aminosugar group to digitoxigenin or an amine group to galactose-digitoxigenin results in an agent with greater ability to reduce heart rate and to increase cardiac contractility and cardiac index without affecting the tension-time index. Moreover, the addition of an amino group significantly increased the therapeutic index and ventricular refractory period but reduced the toxic index (lethal dose/toxic dose) when compared to the neutral-sugar cardenolide and genin. Our data indicate that such a substitution confers greater potency, prolongs the duration of activity and results in a compound with a greater therapeutic index.
A Ligand for the Murine NK Activation Receptor Ly-49D: Activation of Tolerized NK Cells from β2-Microglobulin- Deficient Mice

Mouse NK cells express inhibitory NK receptors that recognize target cell MHC class I molecules and activation receptors that are less well defined. The Ly-49D activation receptor on C57BL/6 NK cells recognizes Chinese hamster ovary cells and triggers natural killing. In this study, we demonstrate that a Chinese hamster classical MHC class I molecule is the ligand for Ly-49D in a reporter gene assay system as well as in NK cell killing assays. Ly-49D recognizes the Chinese hamster class I molecule better when it is expressed with Chinese hamster β 2 -microglobulin (β 2 m) than murine β 2 m. However, it is still controversial that Ly-49D recognizes H-2D d , as we were unable to demonstrate the specificity previously reported. Using this one ligand-one receptor recognition system, function of an NK activation receptor was, for the first time, investigated in NK cells that are tolerized in β 2 m-deficient mice. Surprisingly, Ly-49D-killing activity against ligand-expressing targets was observed with β 2 m-deficient mouse NK cells, albeit reduced, even though “tolerized” function of Ly-49D was expected. These results indicate that Ly-49D specifically recognizes the Chinese hamster MHC class I molecule associated with Chinese hamster β 2 m, and indicate that the Ly-49D NK cell activation receptor is not tolerized in β 2 m deficiency.
Pretranslational Mechanisms Determine the Type of Potassium Channels Expressed in the Rat Skeletal and Cardiac Muscles

We have cloned a cDNA (RMK2) coding for a Shaker type delayed rectifier K+ channel from a rat skeletal muscle cDNA library. The clone encodes a putative protein of 602 amino acids, identical with a rat brain K+ channel Kv1 (Swanson, R., Marshall, R., Smith, J. S., Williams, J. B., Boyle, M. B., Folander, K., Luneau, C. J., Antanavage, J., Oliva, C., Burhow, S. A., Bennet, C., Stein, R. B., and Kaczmarek, L. K. (1990) Neuron 4, 929-939). Northern blot analysis showed that RMK2 is expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscle. RNase protection analysis showed that the 3'-noncoding regions of the brain, cardiac, and skeletal muscle RMK2 transcripts are identical. Cloning of the gene confirmed that the protein is encoded by a single exon (Swanson et al. (1990) Neuron 4, 929-939). We expressed RMK2 in Xenopus oocytes and showed that it encodes noninactivating delayed rectifier K+ channels, resistant to block by external tetraethylammonium, with a small unitary conductance of 8.0 picosiemens. Coinjection of RMK2 and RCK1 (RMK1) (Baumann, A., Grupe, A., Ackermann, A., and Pongs, O. (1988) EMBO J. 7, 2457-2463; Koren, G., Liman, E. R., Logothetis, D. E., Nadal-Ginard, B., and Hess, P. (1990) Neuron 4, 39-51) into Xenopus oocytes resulted in the expression of currents that have tetraethylammonium inhibition curves that differ from the linear combination of inhibition curves of the two types expressed individually. Thus, RMK2 and RCK1 (RMK1) can form heteromultimers. RNA blot hybridization analysis revealed that the RMK2 transcript is developmentally regulated in a different manner in the rat skeletal muscle, ventricle, and atrium.
Fibronectin Regulates Assembly of Actin Filaments and Focal Contacts in Cultured Cells via the Heparin-binding Site in Repeat III13

Fibroblasts, when plated on the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin (FN), rapidly spread and form an organized actin cytoskeleton. This process is known to involve both the central α5β1 integrin-binding and the C-terminal heparin-binding regions of FN. We found that within the heparin-binding region, the information necessary for inducing organization of stress fibers and focal contacts was located in a 29–amino acid segment of FN type III module 13 (III13). We did not find a cytoskeleton-organizing role for repeat III14, which had previously been implicated in this process. Within III13, the same five basic amino acids known to be most important for heparin binding were also necessary for actin organization. A substrate of III13 alone was only weakly adhesive but strongly induced formation of filopodia and lamellipodia. Stress fiber formation required a combination of III13 and III7–11 (which contains the integrin α5β1 recognition site), either as a single fusion protein or as separate polypeptides, and the relative amounts of the two binding sites appeared to determine whether stress fibers or filopodia and lamellipodia were the predominant actin structures formed. We propose that a balance of signals from III13 and from integrins regulates the type of actin structures assembled by the cell.
Comparative Metagenomics: Natural Populations of Induced Prophages Demonstrate Highly Unique, Lower Diversity Viral Sequences

To understand the similarities and differences between a free living viral population and its co-occurring temperate population, metagenomes of each type were prepared from the same seawater sample from Tampa Bay, FL. Libraries were prepared from extracted DNA of the ambient viruses and induced prophages from the co-occurring, viral-reduced microbial assemblage. Duplicate libraries were also prepared using the same DNA amplified by multiple displacement amplification. A non-viral-reduced, induced, amplified viral dataset from the same site in 2005 was reanalysed for temporal comparison. The induced viral metagenome was higher in identifiable virus sequences and differed from the other three datasets based on principal component, rarefaction, trinucleotide composition and contig spectrum analyses. This study indicated that induced prophages are unique and have lower overall community diversity than ambient viral populations from the same site. Both of the amplified contemporary metagenomes were enriched in single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viral sequences. Six and 16 complete, circular ssDNA viral genomes were assembled from the amplified induced and ambient libraries, respectively, mostly similar to circoviruses. The amplified ambient metagenome contained genomes similar to an RNA-DNA hybrid virus recently identified in a hot spring and to an ssDNA virus infecting the diatom Chaetoceros.
Cell-Specific Association and Shuttling of IκBα Provides a Mechanism for Nuclear NF-κB in B Lymphocytes

Mature B lymphocytes are unique in containing nuclear Rel proteins prior to cell stimulation. This activity consists largely of p50-c-Rel heterodimers, and its importance for B-cell function is exemplified by reduced B-cell viability in several genetically altered mouse strains. Here we suggest a mechanism for the cell specificity and the subunit composition of constitutive B-cell NF-kappaB based on the observed properties of Rel homo- and heterodimers and IkappaBalpha. We show that c-Rel lacks a nuclear export sequence, making the removal of c-Rel-containing complexes from the nucleus less efficient than removal of p65-containing complexes. Second, the nuclear import potential of p65 and c-Rel homodimers but not p50-associated heterodimers was attenuated when they were complexed to IkappaBalpha, leading to a greater propensity of heterodimers to be nuclear. We propose that subunit composition of B-cell NF-kappaB reflects the inefficient retrieval of p50-c-Rel heterodimers from the nucleus. Cell specificity may be a consequence of c-Rel-IkappaBalpha complexes being present only in mature B cells, which leads to nuclear c-Rel due to IkappaBalpha turnover and shuttling of the complex.
The UCD Advanced Canopy‐Atmosphere‐Soil Algorithm: Comparisons with observations from different climate and vegetation regimes

The University of California, Davis (UCD), Advanced Canopy-Atmosphere-Soil Algorithm (ACASA) is presented and its output is compared with a comprehensive set of observations at six diverse sites. ACASA is a multi-layer canopy-surface-layer model that solves the steady-slate Reynolds-averaged fluid flow equations to the third-order. These equations include an explicit representation of the steady-state, horizontally homogeneous, diabatic set of vector and scalar fluxes and flux transports. ACASA includes a fourth-order, near-exact technique to calculate leaf, stem, and soil surface temperatures and surface energy fluxes at various levels within the canopy. Plan! physiological response to micro-environmental conditions is also included using Ball-Berry/von Caemmerer-Farquhar formulations. Observed energy fluxes and microenvironmental conditions from a grass field in the Netherlands, deciduous and coniferous forests in Canada, tropical pasture and forest in Brazil, and an ancient temperate rainforest in the USA are compared with simulated values. Results indicate that simulated and observed estimates of monthly to annual means of all surface fluxes agree within 95% confidence thresholds for all six sites. Observed and simulated hourly estimates of net radiation are also in excellent agreement for all sites considered. Observed and simulated hourly sensible- and latent-heat flux estimates are in very good statistical agreement in most cases. Differences that exist between ACASA and observed sensible-and latent-heat flux estimates are of the same magnitudes as observational uncertainties. Estimates of observed and simulated hourly values of canopy and ground heal storage are within 95% statistical confidence limits of agreement with observations in most cases. Simulated and measured values of daytime intra-canopy mean wind speed, temperature, and specific humidity agree with 95% confidence within both a tropical and temperate rainforest at all levels. Results also indicate that, in general, ACASA produces flux estimates closer to observations with significantly less scatter than does the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme. Sensitivity tests show that reducing the vertical resolution, linearizing surface temperature calculations, and/or simplifying the treatment of surface-layer turbulence each altered mean sensible- and latent-heat flux estimates by amounts that are statistically significant in many cases. Results show that simplifying the model alters flux predictions in manners not simply related to vegetation character, and that using ACASA at its full complexity for all vegetation regimes is warranted. Increasing the vertical resolution beyond 20 layers improved flux predictions at tropical locations but had little impact elsewhere.
Treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with Corticosteroids: Comparison of Daily vs Alternate-day Therapy

We compared the efficacy of corticosteroid therapy initiated as an alternate-day regimen to that of a four-times-daily regimen in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this double-blind study, 44 patients with moderate to severe COPD (mean FEV 1 740 ± 310 ml) were hospitalized and randomly allocated to receive methylprednisolone, 8 mg qid, 64 mg qod, or placebo for a ten-day period. The mean FEV 1 and FVC improved significantly to a comparable degree in both steroid-treated groups, but not in the placebo-treated group. Eight of the 29 steroid-treated patients (28 percent) had improved FEV 1 of more than 25 percent compared with only one of the 15 placebo-treated patients. Those in the qod group also had notable improvement in SaO 2 . Although the correlation between the improvement after the administration of nebulized bronchodilators and that after corticosteroid therapy was significant, some patients had more than a 25 percent improvement in their FEV 1 with corticosteroids, but less than a 10 percent improvement after nebulized bronchodilators. We conclude that a substantial proportion of all patients with stable COPD will have a greater than 25 percent improvement in their flow rates with corticosteroid administration. Since the response to a qod regimen is comparable to that of a qid regimen, and since the qod regimen is associated with fewer side effects, we recommend that a qod regimen be tried initially.
Reduced and quenched polarizabilities of interior atoms in molecules

Polarizability is a key molecular property controlling induction and dispersion forces in molecules, and atomic polarizabilities in molecules are widely used elements both in qualitative schemes for understanding molecular interactions and in quantitative methods for modeling them. Unfortunately, experimental probes of local polarizability are not readily available. Here we predict the polarizability of individual atoms and functional groups in a variety of systems, and we draw both general and specific conclusions with broad consequences. We find that the polarizability of the same functional group (e.g., the carbonyl group) can differ substantially, depending on the position of this group in a molecule (e.g., in a protein). More specifically, we find that the polarizability of buried atoms and groups is screened and thereby diminished; thus the outermost atoms and functional groups (for example, those lying closer to the molecular van der Waals surface) are more polarizable than buried ones, even when acted on by the same electric field. These findings mitigate against attributing isolated system behavior to molecular fragments since their polarizability depends on their environment, and the methods used here provide a way to probe molecular polarizability with a finer grain than has previously been possible.
A Review of: “Alison I. Beach. Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Heidi Brayman Hackel. Reading Material in Early Modern England: Print, Gender, and Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Candy Gunther Brown. The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789–1880. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2004.”

These three recent books cover 800 years—but they ask similar questions about women as readers and authors: Who were these women? What did they read and write? What did they think about the texts t...
Calcium Channel Blockers in Veterinary Medicine

Calcium channel blockers are becoming increasingly popular in veterinary medicine for the treatment of systemic hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Calcium is vital to many cellular functions and thus stringent regulation of intracellular calcium concentrations is required. Pharmacologic manipulation of the regulatory mechanisms has the potential to alter cellular function in all body systems. In human medicine, calcium channel blockers are being evaluated for, among other things, use in treating glaucoma, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary hypertension, in renal transplantation, and for prevention of reperfusion injury. The potentially beneficial effects of these drugs have often been overshadowed by adverse effects including hypotension, inappetence, bradycardia, conduction abnormalities, and decreased cardiac output. With the introduction of sustained- release formulations (diltiazem) and 2nd generation calcium channel blockers (amlodipine) many of these effects have been attenuated or eliminated. This paper will review the functions of calcium and the calcium channels as well as discussing the classes and current and potential uses of the various calcium channel blockers.
Administration of phosphodiesterase inhibitors and an adenosine A1 receptor antagonist induces phrenic nerve recovery in high cervical spinal cord injured rats.

Abstract High cervical spinal cord hemisection interrupts the descending respiratory drive from the medulla to the ipsilateral phrenic motoneurons, consequently leading to the paralysis of the ipsilateral hemidiaphragm. Previous studies have shown that chronic oral administration of theophylline, a phosphodiesterase inhibitor and an adenosine receptor antagonist, can restore function to the quiescent phrenic nerve and hemidiaphragm ipsilateral to hemisection. Both of these actions of theophylline result in an increase in 3′-5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). Furthermore, the chronic theophylline-mediated respiratory recovery persists long after the animals have been weaned from the drug. To date, the precise cellular mechanisms underlying the recovery induced by theophylline are still not known. Since theophylline has two modes of action, in the present study we tested whether chronic administration of pentoxifylline, a non-selective phosphodiesterase inhibitor, rolipram, a phosphodiesterase-4 specific inhibitor, and 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX), an adenosine A1 receptor antagonist, would induce recovery similar to that induced by theophylline in male Sprague–Dawley rats following a left C2 spinal cord lesion. Recovery of left phrenic nerve activity was assessed at 5 or 10 days after the last drug administrations to assess the persistent nature of the recovery. Pentoxifylline, rolipram and DPCPX, all capable of modulating 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) levels, brought about long-term respiratory recovery in the phrenic nerve ipsilateral to the left C2 lesion at 5 and 10 days after the last drug administration. Therefore, these results suggest that compounds capable of regulating cAMP levels may be therapeutically useful in promoting functional recovery following spinal cord injury.
Steady-state analysis of continuous adaptation in acoustic feedback reduction systems for hearing-aids

Acoustic feedback is a problem in hearing aids that contain a substantial amount of gain, hearing aids that are used in conjunction with vented or open molds, and in-the-ear hearing aids. Acoustic feedback is both annoying and reduces the maximum usable gain of hearing-aid devices. This paper studies analytically the steady-state convergence behavior of LMS-based adaptive algorithms when used in continuous adaptation to reduce acoustic feedback. A bias is found in the adaptive filter's estimate of the hearing-aid acoustic feedback path. Methods for reducing this bias and producing an improved estimate of the acoustic feedback path are analyzed and compared. It is shown that by the use of a delay in the forward or cancellation paths of the hearing aid plant, and for representative feedback paths, it is possible to reduce this bias by more than 15 dB.
Subnuclear Localization of C/EBPβ Is Regulated by Growth Hormone and Dependent on MAPK

Localization of transcription regulatory proteins in the nucleus is dynamically regulated, and may alter nucleoplasmic concentrations and/or assembly of multimolecular transcription regulatory complexes, which ultimately regulate gene expression. Since growth hormone (GH) regulates multiple transcription factors including C/EBPβ, the effect of GH on the subcellular localization of C/EBPβ was examined in 3T3-F442A preadipocytes. Indirect immunofluorescence shows that C/EBPβ is diffusely distributed in nuclei of quiescent cells. Within 5 min of GH treatment, the diffuse pattern dramatically becomes punctate. The relocalization of C/EBPβ coincides with DAPI staining of heterochromatin. Further, C/EBPβ and heterochromatin protein (HP)-1α colocalize in the nucleus, consistent with localization of C/EBPβ to pericentromeric heterochromatin. In contrast, C/EBPδ exhibits a diffuse distribution in the nucleus that is not modified by GH treatment. C/EBPβ is rapidly and transiently phosphorylated on a conserved MAPK consensus site in response to GH (Piwien-Pilipuk, G., MacDougald, O. A., and Schwartz, J. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 44557–44565). Indirect immunofluorescence using antibodies specific for C/EBPβ phosphorylated on the conserved MAPK site shows that GH also rapidly induces a punctate pattern of staining for the phosphorylated C/EBPβ. In addition, phosphorylated C/EBPβ colocalizes to pericentromeric heterochromatin. The satellite DNA present in heterochromatin contains multiple C/EBP binding sites. DNA binding analysis shows that C/EBPβ, C/EBPδ, and C/EBPα (p42 and p30 forms) can bind to satellite DNA as homo- or heterocomplexes in vitro. Importantly, GH rapidly and transiently increases binding of endogenous C/EBPβ from 3T3-F442A cells to satellite DNA. Further, the GH-promoted nuclear relocalization of C/EBPβ to pericentromeric heterochromatin was prevented by the MEK inhibitor U0126. This observation suggests that GH-dependent MAPK activation plays a role in the regulation of nuclear relocalization of C/EBPβ. Nuclear redistribution introduces a new level of transcriptional regulation in GH action, since GH-mediated phosphorylation and nuclear redistribution of C/EBPβ may be coordinated to achieve spatial-temporal control of gene expression.
Analysis of Interfacial Cracks in a TBC/Superalloy System Under Thermo-Mechanical Loading

In thermal barrier coatings (TBC) residual stresses develop during cool down from processing temperature due to the thermal expansion mismatch between the different layers (substrate, bond coat, and TBC). These residual stresses can initiate micro cracks at the bond coat/TBC interface and can lead to debonding at the bond coat/TBC interface. The effect of voids or crack like flaws at the interface can be responsible for initiating debonding and accelerate the oxidation process. Effect of oxide layer growth between bond coat and ceramic layer (TBC) can be modeled as volume increase. In this work we represent this change in volume as an induced pressure across the interface. Mixed-mode fracture analysis of a thin circular delamination in an-axisymmetrically multi layer circular plate is developed. Geometrical nonlinearity is included in the analysis, since we have a large deflection case. The elastic deformation problem of a circular plate subjected to a clamped boundary condition at the edge of the delamination, an out of plane pressure load, and a compressive stress due to thermal mismatch between different layers, was solved numerically using a Rayleigh-Ritz method. The strain energy release rate was evaluated by means of the path-independent M-integral. The numerical results of this problem based on the energy method were verified using finite element method. Both methods correlate well in predicting the energy release rate for Mode I and Mode II, deflection, and postbuckling solutions. The energy release rates G, for both Mode I and Mode II using virtual crack extension method were evaluated. The specimen was cooled down from processing temperature of 1000 °C to 0 °C. The variation of the properties as a function of temperature was used for analysis. It was found that the use of temperature dependent properties in contrast to constant properties provides significantly different values of J-integral and G.© 1997 ASME
Permissible Behaviors in a Network of FSMs

A behavior is a set of input/output strings that can be produced or represented by a DFSM. An NDFSM will represent in general more than one behavior and more than one DFSM may represent the same behavior. Given a synchronous system of interacting FSMs and a specification, consider the problem of finding the complete set of permissible behaviors at a particular component of the system 1. The problem is illustrated in Figure 6.1, where M 1 is the FSM associated with the component to be optimized, M 2 represents the behavior of the rest of the system, and M gives the specification. In a variant of the problem, the roles of M 1 and M 2 are inverted. Figures 6.2-(a) and 6.2-(b) show how the variant is reduced to the original problem. Although x is a direct input to M 2 in Figure 6.2-a, one can view x as feeding through M 1 via a straight wire connection, as drawn in Figure 6.2-b; similarly the output z can be seen as passing through M 1.
Understanding city traffic dynamics utilizing sensor and textual observations

Understanding speed and travel-time dynamics in response to various city related events is an important and challenging problem. Sensor data (numerical) containing average speed of vehicles passing through a road link can be interpreted in terms of traffic related incident reports from city authorities and social media data (textual), providing a complementary understanding of traffic dynamics. State-of-the-art research is focused on either analyzing sensor observations or citizen observations; we seek to exploit both in a synergistic manner. We demonstrate the role of domain knowledge in capturing the non-linearity of speed and travel-time dynamics by segmenting speed and travel-time observations into simpler components amenable to description using linear models such as Linear Dynamical System (LDS). Specifically, we propose Restricted Switching Linear Dynamical System (RSLDS) to model normal speed and travel time dynamics and thereby characterize anomalous dynamics. We utilize the city traffic events extracted from text to explain anomalous dynamics. We present a large scale evaluation of the proposed approach on a real-world traffic and twitter dataset collected over a year with promising results.
Hurricane Katrina: Maternal Depression Trajectories and Child Outcomes.

The authors examined depression trajectories over two years among mothers exposed to Hurricane Katrina. Risk and protective factors for depression trajectories, as well as associations with child outcomes were analyzed. This study included 283 mothers (age at time 1, M = 39.20 years, SD = 7.21; 62 % African American). Mothers were assessed at four time points over two years following Hurricane Katrina. Mothers reported posttraumatic stress symptoms, hurricane exposure, traumatic life events, and social support at time 1. Depressive symptoms were modeled at times 2, 3, and 4. Youth reported their distress symptoms (posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety) at time 4. Latent class growth analyses identified three maternal depression trajectories among mothers exposed to Hurricane Katrina: low (61 %), resilient (29 %), and chronic (10 %). Social support was identified as a protective factor among mothers. Three main trajectories of maternal depression following Hurricane Katrina were identified. Social support was protective for mothers. Identified trajectories were not associated with children’s distress outcomes. These results have implications for disaster responses, screening efforts, and interventions targeted towards families. Future studies warrant the investigation of additional risk and protective factors that can affect maternal and child outcomes.
Effect of catching surface and tilt angle on bruise damage of sweet cherry due to mechanical impact

Mechanical impact force of fruits is determined by drop height and catching surface.Sufficient sickness of cushion material is required to reduce bruise damage.Fruit bruise damage area is affected heavily by drop height and catching surface.Tilt angle of catching surfaces reduces fruit bruise damage substantially. Fruit bruise damage induced by mechanical impact is the most critical obstacle for the application of mechanical harvesting on fresh-market sweet cherries. One of main sources of fruit bruise is the mechanical impact by fruit catching surfaces occurring in fruit collection during mechanical harvesting. The goal of this research was to investigate the effect of cushion material, fruit drop height, and tilt angle of catching surface on fruit bruise damage. Three catching surfaces with five tilt angles from 0? to 60? were used to catch fruits freely dropped from heights of 0.3-2.1m. The impact force and deformation of cushion materials was measured by a force sensing unit and a high speed camera, respectively. Results showed that maximum impact force increased linearly with drop height and was reduced by cushion materials with sufficient thickness. The fruit damage percentages of cushion material 1 and 2 were 25.0-89.0% and 72.0-100.0% less than that of non-cushion material at drop height of 0.3-2.1m at 0? tilt angle, respectively. Results also shown catching surfaces with tilt angle reduced bruise damage substantially. Damage percentage of catching surfaces at 60? tilt angle was around 75.0% less than that at 0? non-cushion and cushion material when fruit were dropped from 1.5m. The results show that catching surfaces with cushion materials at a tilt angle of 60? might be a promise for mechanical harvesting of fruits with low fruit bruise damage.
Statelessness in the GCC: Gender Discrimination Beyond Nationality Law

Looking at the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, this article discusses three ways in which discrimination in the basis of gender and birth status can create statelessness — beyond nationality law. First, preventing civil registration on the basis of birth status creates a strong risk of statelessness for non-marital children. Second, discrimination against women and non-marital children also limits avenues to verify the paternity of non-marital children. Finally, governmental restrictions that prevent citizens from marrying foreigners can lead to statelessness because children born to forbidden unions may be treated as non-marital children.
Effect of a Documentation Improvement Program for an Academic Otolaryngology Practice

Importance Physicians recognize the value of accurate documentation to facilitate patient care, communication, and the distribution of professional fees. However, the association between inpatient documentation, hospital billing, and quality metrics is less clear. Objectives To identify areas of deficiency in inpatient documentation and to instruct health care professionals on how to improve the quality and accuracy of clinical records. Design, Setting, and Participants A single-arm pre-post study was conducted from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014, among 17 attending and 12 resident physicians treating 1188 patients at an academic medical center. Data from 1 year prior to the intervention were compared with data for 10 months following the intervention. All increases were analyzed as a percentage increase after the intervention relative to before the intervention. Interventions Areas for improvement were identified, and all physicians in the department received education on inpatient coding and documentation. Main Outcomes and Measures The capture rate for complications or comorbidities and major complications or comorbidities, the case mix index (the average diagnosis related group relative weight for a hospital or department), and severity of illness and risk of mortality scores. Results A total of 1188 inpatients were included in the analysis: 743 in the preintervention period and 445 in the postintervention period. Review of our documentation identified major areas of comorbidity that were frequently underreported. Inadequate nutrition diagnoses (moderate malnutrition, severe protein-calorie malnutrition) were most often underreported. In addition, we found inadequate documentation supporting the presence of neck metastases. Among 1188 patients, the case mix index increased 5.3% (from 2.81 to 2.96) after the intervention, but this was not a statistically significant difference ( P = .21). The normalized case mix index increased 21.7% (from 37.3 to 45.4; P P P P = .01). Conclusions and Relevance After educational sessions, multiple measures of patient acuity increased significantly owing to improved documentation of common comorbid conditions. Although physicians intuitively appreciate the importance of good documentation, education on the technical aspects of coding can significantly improve the quality and accuracy of clinical records.
Bibliographical Note on the Use of the Word Mass in Current Textbooks

(1918). Bibliographical Note on the Use of the Word Mass in Current Textbooks. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 1-15.
Shape Design Optimization of B-Spline-Based Flume Sections

[Abstract] This paper presents a design optimization of parametric B-Spline-based flume section models, which have been developed for this research. A B-Spline-based flume section model consists of sets of control points, which are defined as design variables for optimization. Sets of differential equations based on Lagrange’s equations of motion are derived that describe the motion of an object moving down the flume. These ordinary differential equations are solved using the code Mathematica. An analytical shape design sensitivity analysis (DSA) methodology is employed to support optimization of these BSpline-based flume section models.
Heat-Stable Antigen May Be an Early Marker of Extrathymic Murine Intestinal Intraepithelial Lymphocytes

Using a system of bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic repopulation of irradiated euthymic and athymic mice, we have examined the early stages of extrathymic T-cell development within the murine small intestine epithelium. During a period of active extrathymic T-cell development, two distinct populations of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) were present. One consisted of CD3+ lymphocytes with phenotypic properties of mature IEL. The other population consisted of a transient IEL subset that increased in abundance between days 5 and 14 post-BM transfer, and then declined. The majority of transient IEL in both types of mice expressed the heat-stable antigen, of which some cells coexpressed CD3 but were void of other markers common to mature T cells. Studies using freshly extracted IEL from normal nonirradiated mice found that approximately 3% to 5% of the IEL had phenotypic properties similar to the transient IEL observed during repopulation of radiation chimeras, indicating that such IEL are present within the gut epithelium of normal, nonirradiated mice. Identification of this IEL subset should greatly facilitate studies of extrathymic IEL development.
Establishing an institutional therapeutic apheresis registry

Apheresis was first performed as a therapeutic procedure in the 1950s. The first national therapeutic apheresis (TA) registry was established in Canada in 1981 and other national registries followed, including two attempts at establishing an international TA registry. There is no national registry in the United States. Our large, academic, tertiary hospital has a very active TA service. We created a TA database to track all procedures performed by the apheresis service by transferring data from paper appointment logs and the electronic medical records into a Microsoft Access database. Retrospective data from each TA procedure performed at UAB from January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2012 were entered, including the type of procedure, indication, date, and patient demographics. Microsoft Excel was used for data analysis. During the 10-year period, our TA service treated 1,060 patients and performed 11,718 procedures. Of these patients, 70% received therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), 21% received extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP), 4.5% received red cell exchange (RCE), 4.2% received leukocytapheresis, and 0.6% underwent platelet depletion. Among the procedures, 54% were TPEs, 44% were ECPs, 1.3% were RCEs, 0.5% were leukocytaphereses, and 0.1% were platelet depletions. According to the current literature, national and international TA use is underreported. We believe that the UAB TA registry provides useful information about TA practices in our region and can serve as a model for other institutions. Furthermore, data from multiple institutional registries can be used for clinical research to increase the available evidence for the role of TA in various conditions. J. Clin. Apheresis 31:516-522, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Should we build wind farms close to load or invest in transmission to access better wind resources in remote areas? A case study in the MISO region

Abstract Wind speeds in remote areas are sometimes very high, but transmission costs to access these locations can be prohibitive. We present a conceptual model to estimate the economics of accessing high quality wind resources in remote areas to comply with renewable energy policy targets, and apply the model to the Midwestern grid (MISO) as a case study. We assess the goal of providing 40 TWh of new wind generation while minimizing costs, and include temporal aspects of wind power (variability costs and correlation to market prices) as well as total wind power produced from different farms. We find that building wind farms in North/South Dakota (windiest states) compared to Illinois (less windy, but close to load) would only be economical if the incremental transmission costs to access them were below $360/kW of wind capacity (break-even value). Historically, the incremental transmission costs for wind development in North/South Dakota compared to in Illinois are about twice this value. However, the break-even incremental transmission cost for wind farms in Minnesota/Iowa (also windy states) is $250/kW, which is consistent with historical costs. We conclude that wind development in Minnesota/Iowa is likely more economical to meet MISO renewable targets compared to North/South Dakota or Illinois.
Realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox with a nondegenerate parametric amplifier

Over the past three decades, numerous demonstrations of the violation of Bell’s inequalities have been reported in optical experiments based upon observations of polarization correlations for photon pairs. Without exception, these measurements as well as those in other systems have involved discrete variables for which the Bell inequalities are applicable. By contrast, an experiment to demonstrate the original proposal by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR)1 for a system of observables with a continuous spectrum has not previously been realized. From many possible theoretical avenues, we have followed the suggestion of Reid and Drummond2 to achieve a demonstration of the EPR paradox for continuous variables by employing a subthreshold optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operated in a frequency-degenerate but polarization-nondegenerate mode.
Energy Demand and Solar Electricity

The natural connection we humans already have with sunlight in our daily lives is presented in Chapter 1 where we consider how much energy we demand not just to remain alive but also to live life in our increasingly technology-dense societies. From this, the electricity demand in the USA and also globally is examined, and the amount of electricity generated from photovoltaic modules is compared to other electricity generation technologies such as coal-fired power plants and wind turbines.
A Factorial Design Applied to the Extrusion Foaming of Polypropylene/Wood-Flour Composites:

A factorial design was performed to determine the statistical effects of material compositions and extrusion processing variables on the foamability of polypropylene (PP)/wood-flour composites. Two...
Updating metacognitive control in response to expected retention intervals

In five experiments, we investigated whether expected retention intervals affect subjects’ encoding strategies. In the first four experiments, our subjects studied paired associates consisting of words from the Graduate Record Exam and a synonym. They were told to expect a test on a word pair after either a short or a longer interval. Subjects were tested on most pairs after the expected retention interval. For some pairs, however, subjects were tested after the other retention interval, allowing for a comparison of performance at a given retention interval conditional upon the expected retention interval. No effect of the expected retention interval was found for 1 min versus 4 min (Exp. 1), 30 s versus 3 min (Exp. 2), and 30 s versus 10 min (Exps. 3 and 4), even when subjects were given complete control over the pacing of study items (Exp. 4). However, when the difference between the expected retention intervals was increased massively (10 min vs. 24 h; Exp. 5), subjects remembered more items that they expected to be tested sooner, an effect consistent with the idea that they traded off efforts to remember items for the later test versus items that were about to be tested. Overall, this set of results accords with much of the test-expectancy literature, revealing that subjects are often reluctant to adjust encoding strategies on an item-by-item basis, and when they do, they usually make quantitative, rather than qualitative, adjustments.