cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
In vivo brain microdialysis as a formulation-screening tool for a poorly soluble centrally acting drug.

AbstractObjective: Efficacy of a formulation of a poorly soluble centrally acting drug was evaluated by measuring dopamine responses using in vivo brain microdialysis.Methods: Co-crystals (1:1) of carbamazepine and nicotinamide (CBZ–NCT) were complexed with cyclodextrins (γ-CDs) using supercritical fluid processing. Phase solubility and intrinsic dissolution were studied. Pharmacodynamic studies were performed on rats divided into three groups getting either CBZ–NCT in CD (20 mg/kg CBZ), pure CBZ solution or vehicle. A guide cannula was implanted to attach the microdialysis probe. Dialysate samples were analyzed for dopamine levels, which were compared between groups.Results: The optimized CBZ formulation (5% w/w in γ-CD) with solubility – 10 mg/mL showed stepwise increase in dopamine response (maximum 250% of baseline) compared to neat CBZ or vehicle (p < 0.05). The pharmacokinetics of the drug required 30 min to elicit CNS response, which peaked at about 1.5–2 h.Conclusion: Hence, brain microdialysis wa...
Analyzing International Letters in a Business Communication Class

In the global marketplace, professionals need to understand how cultural differences affect the writing and reading of business letters. Business commu nication courses can prepare students to meet this need by teaching students an effective, systematic method for analyzing the letters of the global economy. The method incorporates such characteristics as format, organization, rhetori cal strategies (ethos, pathos, logos), style, and writer's purpose. Through case studies in letter writing and analysis, students apply key communication prin ciples in an international context.
The effectiveness of a pressure clinic in preventing pressure sores

The role of a pressure clinic in reducing the incidence of pressure sores is described. Interface pressures are routinely measured to ensure that appropriate cushioning is provided. In patients most at risk, thermography is also valuable to ensure that the blood flow to the skin is not compromised. The implementation of such a clinic has proved successful and has resulted in a reduction of over 50% both in the incidence of sores and in the admission rate due to sores, when compared with studies from other spinal units.
Role of glucose and ketone bodies in the metabolic control of experimental brain cancer.

Brain tumours lack metabolic versatility and are dependent largely on glucose for energy. This contrasts with normal brain tissue that can derive energy from both glucose and ketone bodies. We examined for the first time the potential efficacy of dietary therapies that reduce plasma glucose and elevate ketone bodies in the CT-2A syngeneic malignant mouse astrocytoma. C57BL/6J mice were fed either a standard diet unrestricted (SD-UR), a ketogenic diet unrestricted (KD-UR), the SD restricted to 40% (SD-R), or the KD restricted to 40% of the control standard diet (KD-R). Body weights, tumour weights, plasma glucose, β-hydroxybutyrate (β-OHB), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) were measured 13 days after tumour implantation. CT-2A growth was rapid in both the SD-UR and KD-UR groups, but was significantly reduced in both the SD-R and KD-R groups by about 80%. The results indicate that plasma glucose predicts CT-2A growth and that growth is dependent more on the amount than on the origin of dietary calories. Also, restriction of either diet significantly reduced the plasma levels of IGF-1, a biomarker for angiogenesis and tumour progression. Owing to a dependence on plasma glucose, IGF-1 was also predictive of CT-2A growth. Ketone bodies are proposed to reduce stromal inflammatory activities, while providing normal brain cells with a nonglycolytic high-energy substrate. Our results in a mouse astrocytoma suggest that malignant brain tumours are potentially manageable with dietary therapies that reduce glucose and elevate ketone bodies.
Repeated measures study of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) DNA and antibodies in men seropositive for both HHV-8 and HIV.

Objective: To study the natural history and pathogenesis of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) infection in HHV-8-seropositive, immunosuppressed men. Design: Longitudinal study of 87 HHV-8- and HIV-seropositive men [42 with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)] during four visits over a 2 month period. Methods: Patients provided oral fluid and blood. HHV-8 antibody titers were measured with peptide-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for ORF65 and K8.1; HHV-8 DNA was detected with polymerase chain reaction ELISA. Results: HHV-8 DNA was present in oral fluid or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) at one or more of the four visits in 71% of men with KS and 56% of men without KS. The strongest correlate of HHV-8 DNA in PBMC was the presence of KS [odds ratio (OR), 8.7; 95% confidence interval (Cl), 3.4-22]. Detection of HHV-8 DNA in oral fluid or PBMC was often intermittent, but individuals who shed virus at one time point were more likely to shed at other times. Some men had incomplete epitope recognition in their anti-HHV-8 antibody response. High antibody titers were associated with the absence of circulating HHV-8, particularly for the ORF65 seroassay (OR, 0.16; 9.5% Cl, 0.05-0.51). Conclusions: Among HHV-8 seropositive men, circulating virus is common even in the absence of disease. The link between KS and HHV-8 DNA in PBMC suggests that anti-herpes drugs may impede KS development or progression. Seroassays should target multiple epitopes to achieve maximal sensitivity. HHV-8 replication may be limited by high antibody titers or other immune function for which antibodies are a marker.
Framing Quality: Annotated Video-Based Portfolios of Classroom Practice by Pre-service Teachers

In this paper we describe the use of peer learning teams creating annotated video-based portfolios to improve the quality of teacher–child interactions of undergraduate majors in early childhood and family studies. We used the intentional teaching framework (Hamre et al. in Handbook of early education. Guilford Publications, New York, 2012a) to create a course that moved students through the process of “knowing,” “seeing,” “doing,” and “reflecting & improving.” Forty-four undergraduate early childhood students formed eleven peer learning teams of four. We started the course by teaching the teacher–child interaction skills that are considered to be high-quality and linked to positive child outcomes (knowing). After learning to reliably identify (seeing) high quality instruction using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, the students created video portfolios featuring their own adult-child interactions (doing). These portfolios, featuring short salient examples of six different dimensions of quality instruction, were posted to a website and shared with their peer learning team. Each team member then commented on the extent to which she or he believed the students’ example was high quality. The portfolios and the peer coaching learning team (PCLT) process have improved our ability to document change in interactions as well as the students’ abilities to see their own growth (reflecting & improving). Further, it allows us to tighten the connection between course content and practical application as well as providing us with an alternative to on-site supervision of practicum students, which can be challenging due to budget constraints. Finally, we hope that sharing this activity will encourage others to integrate video-based technology into their coursework as a means to demonstrate positive change in students’ learning.
Drug Testing and Public Personnel Administration

This article presents a discussion of the current status of drug testing programs at the federal, state and local levels and includes two Supreme Court rulings on this issue Major management concerns are addressed and suggestions are offered about the role of the personnel department in the drug testing arena
Rate theory of dislocation motion: Thermal activation and inertial effects

A rate theory of dislocation motion is developed which incorporates both thermal activation and inertial effects and that accounts for the enhanced plasticity in superconductors. The equations of Brownian motion are applied to dislocations and are shown to describe viscous effects in thermal activation and thermal fluctuations during inertial effects. The viscosity reduces the activation rate only for high values of the damping whereas inertial effects occur only at low values. For dislocations the damping is in the range where inertial effects, and not a change in the frequency factor, occur for pure samples in the superconducting state and for dilute alloys in both the normal and superconducting state. The enhanced plasticity is therefore explained by an increase in the average distance traveled by dislocations after thermal activation accounting for the dependence on both the viscosity and the temperature.
On Sparse Sets in NP-P

The main result of this note shows that there exist sparse sets in $NP$ that are not in $P$ if and only if NEXPTIME differs from EXPTIME. Several other results are derived about the complexity of very sparse sets in $NP-P$ and an interpretation of the meaning of these results is given in terms of the complexity of solving ``individual instances'''' of problems in $NP-P$.
CMOS-compatible dual-output silicon modulator for analog signal processing

A broadband, Mach-Zehnder-interferometer based silicon optical modulator is demonstrated, with an electrical bandwidth of 26 GHz and VπL of 4 V∙cm. The design of this modulator does not require epitaxial overgrowth and is therefore simpler to fabricate than previous devices with similar performance.
MRI-phased array evaluation using a human body model†

We develop methodology to evaluate MRI-phased array receivers using an anatomically and electromagnetically accurate human body model. The human body model accurately represents the different permittivity and conductivity values of various tissue types in the human body, at the frequency of interest. The phased array receiver is a posterior array with 16 coils, typically placed on the patient table for imaging. We obtain the electric and magnetic fields associated with each coil using the finite-difference time-domain method and estimate a simplified metric to evaluate the receiver array contribution to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) distribution. The results highlight SNR variation in the left–right direction, an artifact seen in imaging, but not apparent in quasi-static simulations with uniform phantoms. We use the results to compare two design variations of 16-coil phased arrays. In addition, we use the results to compare imaging methods that have potential to reduce the computational complexity of high channel count arrays by reducing the number of data streams used in image reconstruction. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part B (Magn Reson Engineering) 37B: 20–28, 2010
Catheter-directed thrombolysis for severe pulmonary embolism in pediatric patients.

Background Catheter-directed thrombolytic (CDT) therapies for severe pulmonary embolism (PE) have been shown to be effective and safe when compared with systemic thrombolysis in adults. Pediatric studies assessing efficacy and safety of CDT for PE are lacking. Hence, our aim was to review CDT as a therapy for pediatric PE. Methods We retrospectively reviewed charts of patients aged Results Six CDT interventions were performed on 5 patients with PE (median age: 16.5 years). All patients presented with chest pain and dyspnea. The predisposing factors for thrombogenesis differed in all patients, and all had multiple risk factors. Five of six procedures (83%) were accompanied by ultrasound agitation with EKOS endowave infusion system (ultrasound-accelerated CDT [UCDT]), whereas 1 had CDT without ultrasound agitation. Complete resolution of PE occurred in 4 instances (67%) at 24 hr, whereas in 2 cases (33%), there was partial resolution. One patient with complete resolution underwent another successful UCDT after 4 months for recurrence. Clinical parameters (heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturations) and echocardiographic findings improved after treatment in all the patients. Median duration of hospital stay was 9 days with no mortality and treatment-related complications. All patients were discharged with long-term anticoagulation. Conclusions Our case series is the first that describes CDT/UCDT as an effective and safe therapy for pediatric patients with severe PE. CDT is known to accelerate fibrinolysis via focused delivery of thrombolytic agent to the thrombus site. For carefully selected patients, CDT/UCDT provides a useful treatment option for severe PE irrespective of the etiology, predisposing conditions, and associated comorbidities.
Delorme's procedure for complete rectal prolapse in severely debilitated patients : an analysis of 41 cases

PURPOSE: This study was designed to assess the results of a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the correction of complete rectal prolapse in a poor surgical risk group. METHODS: Over a ten-year period, 40 patients underwent 41 Delorme operations when advanced age and/or poor overall health mitigated against an abdominal approach. Mean age was 82 (range, 30–100) years. Eighty-eight percent were females. Surgery was performed in the prone jackknife position utilizing intravenous sedation and local anesthesia. RESULTS: Follow-up ranges from 1 year to 2 years (mean, 47 months). There have been 9 recurrences in 8 patients (22 percent). Mean time to recurrence was 13 months (range, 1 month to 6 years). One death occurred in an 81-year-old patient within 24 hours of surgery from cardiopulmonary arrest. Minor complications occurred in 25 percent of patients. CONCLUSION: Satisfactory prolapse repair was safely performed in 78 percent of this high-risk group. Pitfalls in performing this procedure relate primarily to associated perineal and colonic conditions. Most prominent among these conditions are weak or absent anal sphincter tone, perineal descent, and previous sphincter injury. Extensive diverticular disease may prohibit effective and complete proximal mucosectomy. An inadequate mucosectomy sets the stage for early recurrence of prolapse.
A common progenitor for haematopoietic and endothelial lineages in the zebrafish gastrula

The haemangioblast is a biopotential precursor of both blood and endothelial cells that has been hypothesized to exist for almost 100 years, but for which formal proof has been lacking. Vogeli et al. now provide in vivo evidence for its existence. High-resolution, single cell lineage studies of zebrafish embryos show that the haemangioblast is present in the early fish embryo, and also reveal new information about its structure and function. In vivo evidence details the existence of the haemangioblast: a bipotential precursor of both blood and endothelial cells that has been hypothesized to exist for almost 100 years, but for which formal proof has so far been lacking. It has been proposed that haematopoietic and endothelial cells share a common progenitor, termed the haemangioblast. This idea was initially conceived as a result of the observation that these two cell types develop in close proximity to each other within the embryo1,2. Support for this hypothesis was provided by studies on single-cell-derived colonies that can produce both haematopoietic and endothelial cells in vitro3,4,5,6,7. Although these data point towards the existence of a common progenitor for these two lineages, the presence of a bipotential progenitor cell has yet to be demonstrated in vivo. Through the construction of single-cell-resolution fate maps of the zebrafish late blastula and gastrula, we demonstrate that individual cells can give rise to both haematopoietic and endothelial cells. These bipotential progenitors arise along the entire extent of the ventral mesoderm and contribute solely to haematopoietic and endothelial cells. We also find that only a subset of haematopoietic and endothelial cells arise from haemangioblasts. The endothelial descendants of the haemangioblasts all clustered in a specific region of the axial vessels regardless of the location of their progenitors. Our results provide in vivo evidence supporting the existence of the haemangioblast and reveal distinct features of this cell population.
Filamentous phage DNA cloning vectors: A noninfective mutant nonh a nonpolar deletion in gene III

Abstract A filamentous phage derivative, fKN16, has been constructed from the tetracyclineresistance transducing phage fd-tet by deleting a 507-base-pair (bp) segment of phage gene III. In accord with the importance of the gene III protein in infection, the infectivity of fKN16 phage is less than 10 −8 that of fd-tet phage. In contrast to most gene III amber mutants, which are polar on the downstream phage genes VI and I, fKN16 should be a nonpolar mutant since its 507-bp deletion spans an integral number of coding triplets. And indeed, two phage traits that may depend on gene VI and I function—the level of phage production and packaging into unit-length virions—appear to be normal in fKN16. High phage production coupled with very low infectivity make fKN16 suitable as a vector for DNA cloning experiments requiring a high level of biological containment. The characteristics of fKN16 as a vector were investigated in detail, using Hind III fragments of phage λ DNA as model foreign DNA. fKN16 may also be useful in studying the role of the gene III protein in the filamentous phage life cycle.
The NORMAP Methodology: Lightweight Engineering of Non-functional Requirements for Agile Processes

Agile software development methodologies, such as Scrum, have become very popular in quickly delivering quality Functional Requirements (FRs). However, agile methodologies have not sufficiently identified, modeled, and linked Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) -- such as security and performance -- with FRs in early requirements phases. This research presents a lightweight engineering of NFRs for agile processes. The proposed Non-functional Requirements Modeling for Agile Processes (NORMAP) Methodology identifies, links, and models Agile Loose Cases (ALCs) with Agile Use Cases (AUCs) and Agile Choose Cases (ACCs). A lightweight adapted version of the NFR Framework was developed including 25 important NFRs. Further, a risk-driven agile requirements implementation sequence and a visual tree-like view were developed. The methodology was validated through developing a Java-based modeling simulation tool and two case studies.
Ciliary body melanoma masquerading as chronic uveitis

PURPOSE: To report a case of ciliary body melanoma that masqueraded as chronic uveitis. METHODS: A patient experienced persistent unilateral panuveitis and elevated intraocular pressure. Inflammation and pressure worsened after cataract extraction and lens implantation. Diagnostic vitrectomy was non-revealing. RESULTS: Repeat vitrectomy and lens implant removal revealed a ciliary body mass, suggestive of melanoma. Ultrasonography and clinical evaluation by the retinal oncologists supported this diagnosis. The uveitis persisted despite aggressive medical treatments, including methotrexate. Proton beam irradiation of the melanoma led to resolution of uveitis and restoration of normal intraocular pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Ciliary body melanoma can present as chronic uveitis and refractory glaucoma.
The Russian Orthodox Church and ‘Patriotic’ Support for the Stalinist Regime during the Great Patriotic War

AbstractSoviet wartime propaganda and contemporary Russian work on the activities of the Orthodox Church during the war promote the Church’s claim that it was motivated by patriotism, a point it used to claim legitimacy in the USSR and now in contemporary Russia. In contrast, this paper argues that the hierarchs and laity of the Patriarchal Church were not essentially motivated by patriotism or the desire to show loyalty to the Soviet regime in 1941, but instead acted to use the war to achieve three goals: first and most important, to become relevant in the everyday life of the Soviet people by promoting Christian beliefs and values; second, to earn legitimacy in the eyes of anti-clerics and non-believers by lending moral and practical support to the war effort; and finally, to obtain legal standing by showing its trustworthiness and loyalty through displays of Russian (not Soviet) patriotism consonant with its historic role, all the while without endorsing communist ideology. The hierarchs orchestrated a...
Range compensation for backscattering measurements in the difference-frequency nearfield of a parametric sonar.

Measurement of acoustic backscattering properties of targets requires removal of the range dependence of echoes. This process is called range compensation. For conventional sonars making measurements in the transducer farfield, the compensation removes effects of geometrical spreading and absorption. For parametric sonars consisting of a parametric acoustic transmitter and a conventional-sonar receiver, two additional range dependences require compensation when making measurements in the nonlinearly generated difference-frequency nearfield: an apparently increasing source level and a changing beamwidth. General expressions are derived for range compensation functions in the difference-frequency nearfield of parametric sonars. These are evaluated numerically for a parametric sonar whose difference-frequency band, effectively 1–6 kHz, is being used to observe Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in situ. Range compensation functions for this sonar are compared with corresponding functions for conventional son...
Arson: Tracking the Culprit in Alzheimer's Disease

By focusing on the lesions in Alzheimer's disease, and regarding them as either critical or irrelevant, researchers may have missed much regarding the origin and pathogenesis of this disease. In this article we consider that the lesions are so obvious not only because they are pathognomonic for Alzheimer's disease, but also because they represent a major departure from normal physiology. We suggest that these myriad pathological changes are homeostatic compensatory mechanisms to aging.
Covering Urban Unrest: The Headline Says It All

The headline of a newspaper account of a racial urban riot was manipulated to depict the event as either labor conflict or neutral in terms of social context. The results indicate that reader perce...
Scientific rigor through videogames

Hypothesis-driven experimentation – the scientific method – can be subverted by fraud, irreproducibility, and lack of rigorous predictive tests. A robust solution to these problems may be the ‘massive open laboratory' model, recently embodied in the internet-scale videogame EteRNA. Deploying similar platforms throughout biology could enforce the scientific method more broadly.
‘Ass‐kicking’ Women: Doing and Undoing Gender in a US Livestock Auction

Using in-depth interviews with farm operators and participant observation at a livestock auction, this article explores how women in conventional agriculture in the USA ‘do gender’ in a male-dominated world. In particular the ways that space, both public and private, alters the performance of gender are analysed. Given that agriculture in the USA has traditionally been tied to masculinity and that more and more women are entering the field, the article examines the strategies women employ to negotiate the tension between being women and being farmers. The findings suggest that in general women's success is intricately tied to their ability to reproduce the masculinity that spells success for their male counterparts. These women dress in masculine clothing, swear and are ‘tough as nails’. Furthermore, women's mere presence as farm operators does not necessarily subvert the relationship between masculinity and agriculture. In many ways this notion is reinforced by the presence of these women and so the performance of gender ultimately reinforces rather than subverts the ties between hegemonic masculinity and agriculture.
Win-win professional development: Providing meaningful professional development while meeting the needs of all stakeholders

Teacher professional development can be poorly executed with little regard to the needs of adult learners, and this can create barriers to successful transfer of knowledge into practice. In order to create a successful professional development program, a group of educators engaged in a collaborative effort with a local university to offer on-site graduate courses in technology integration that was geared toward the specific needs of teachers in our district. By offering graduate courses covering district technology at reduced tuition held after hours on school grounds, we created a win-win situation for our staff and administration. Such a program can be replicated in other environments with continuing education credits or other recertification units to offer win-win professional development for K-12 educators.
Spontaneous coronary lesions in howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya)

Summary The main coronary arteries were studied in free-ranging howler monkeys ( Alouatta caraya ). Values for plasma cholesterol and blood pyridoxine levels were determined. The coronary arteries showed in numerous instances, segmental lesions consisting of subintimal cell proliferation, accumulation of acid mucopolysaccharide, and degenerative changes in the internal elastic lamella. The coronary plaques were common in older monkeys but relatively rare in the younger animals. The occurrence of coronary lesions bore no relation to sex nor to the presence or absence of pregnancy. No correlation between the lesions and hypercholesterolemia or low pyridoxine blood levels could be established.
Distribution of GABAergic cells in the inferior colliculus that project to the thalamus.

A GABAergic component has been identified in the projection from the inferior colliculus (IC) to the medial geniculate body (MG) in cats and rats. We sought to determine if this GABAergic pathway exists in guinea pig, a species widely used in auditory research. The guinea pig IC contains GABAergic cells, but their relative abundance in the IC and their relative contributions to tectothalamic projections are unknown. We identified GABAergic cells with immunochemistry for glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) and determined that ~21% of IC neurons are GABAergic. We then combined retrograde tracing with GAD immunohistochemistry to identify the GABAergic tectothalamic projection. Large injections of Fast Blue, red fluorescent beads or FluoroGold were deposited to include all subdivisions of the MG. The results demonstrate a GABAergic pathway from each IC subdivision to the ipsilateral MG. GABAergic cells constitute ~22% of this ipsilateral pathway. In addition, each subdivision of the IC had a GABAergic projection to the contralateral MG. Measured by number of tectothalamic cells, the contralateral projection is about 10% of the size of the ipsilateral projection. GABAergic cells constitute about 20% of the contralateral projection. In summary, the results demonstrate a tectothalamic projection in guinea pigs that originates in part from GABAergic cells that project ipsilaterally or contralaterally to the MG. The results show similarities to both rats and cats, and carry implications for the role of GABAergic tectothalamic projections vis-a-vis the presence (in cats) or near absence (in rats and guinea pigs) of GABAergic interneurons in the MG.
Reliability growth modeling from fault failure rates

A variety of reliability growth models provide quantified measures of test effectiveness in terms that are directly relevant to project management [Lyu96], but at the cost of restricting testing to representative selection, in which test data is chosen to reflect the operational distribution of the program's inputs. During testing, data is collected on the observed times between program failures (or, similarly, numbers of failures within a time interval). These observations are fitted to one of various models, which can then be used to estimate the current reliability of the program.
The U.S. Beer Industry: Concentration, Fragmentation, and a Nexus with Wine

The U.S. Beer industry has undergone two periods of major structural change in the post-World War II period. The first period, 1950–1980, was one of consolidation in which concentration increased dramatically. Since this period, combinations among leading brewers took place that would not have passed antitrust scrutiny earlier. The second period, from 1980 on, is one of fragmentation, marked by the entry of many craft brewers and increased product heterogeneity. The fragmentation has brought about consumption complementarities between wine and beer that never existed before. The wine and beer industry both face distributional inefficiencies sustained by state regulatory provisions that were a consequence of ending prohibition in the United States. Each of these topics is explored in this paper. (JEL Classification: L66, M37)
Detection algorithms in implantable cardioverter defibrillators

Presents a review of the evolution of tachycardia fibrillation detection algorithms designed for implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) including those that have been incorporated into first, second, and third generation devices. The major emphasis of this review is an overview of the development of new and innovative means for improved detection in next-generation devices. Time-domain and frequency-domain methods of electrogram analyses are described, limitations are cited and promising new proposals for increased specificity which address the false shock incidence are presented.
Lipid Signaling in T-Cell Development and Function

Second messenger molecules relay, amplify, and diversify cell surface receptor signals. Two important examples are phosphorylated D-myo-inositol derivatives, such as phosphoinositide lipids within cellular membranes, and soluble inositol phosphates. Here, we review how phosphoinositide metabolism generates multiple second messengers with important roles in T-cell development and function. They include soluble inositol(1,4,5)trisphosphate, long known for its Ca(2+)-mobilizing function, and phosphatidylinositol(3,4,5)trisphosphate, whose generation by phosphoinositide 3-kinase and turnover by the phosphatases PTEN and SHIP control a key "hub" of TCR signaling. More recent studies unveiled important second messenger functions for diacylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, and soluble inositol(1,3,4,5)tetrakisphosphate (IP(4)) in immune cells. Inositol(1,3,4,5)tetrakisphosphate acts as a soluble phosphatidylinositol(3,4,5)trisphosphate analog to control protein membrane recruitment. We propose that phosphoinositide lipids and soluble inositol phosphates (IPs) can act as complementary partners whose interplay could have broadly important roles in cellular signaling.
Achieving design enlightenment: Defining a new user experience measurement framework

By using self-reported metrics, user researchers, designers, and usability experts can pinpoint the aspects of a user experience that require modification during, rather than after, the development process. Comparative data are potentially the most valuable to designers and researchers because these data provide insight into users' perceptions and expectations about specific aspects of the user experience. In this paper we extend the theory of expectation disconfirmation and suggest that, by collecting comparative data on users' perceptions and experiences as they relate to the specific experience goals of a project, project teams can make the right choices and trade-offs when it comes to designing the user experience. We also suggest specific methodologies from the field of education research that can inform project teams' decisions at the outset of product design projects.
A gamma-tubulin-related protein associated with the microtubule arrays of higher plants in a cell cycle-dependent manner

An antibody specific for a conserved gamma-tubulin peptide identifies a plant polypeptide of 58 kDa. gamma-Tubulin antibody affinity purified from this polypeptide recognizes the centrosome in mammalian cells. Using immunofluorescence microscopy, we determined the distribution of this gamma-tubulin-related polypeptide during the complex changes in microtubule arrays that occur throughout the plant cell cycle. We report a punctate association of gamma-tubulin-related polypeptide with the cortical microtubule array and the preprophase band. As cells enter prophase, gamma-tubulin-related polypeptide accumulates around the nucleus and forms a polar cap from which early spindle microtubules radiate. During metaphase and anaphase, gamma-tubulin-related polypeptide preferentially associates with kinetochore fibers and eventually accumulates at the poles. In telophase, localization occurs over the phragmoplast. gamma-Tubulin-related polypeptide appears to be excluded from the plus ends of microtubules at the metaphase plate and cell plate. Its distribution during the cell cycle may be significant in light of differences in the behavior and organization of plant microtubules. The identification of gamma-tubulin-related polypeptide could help characterize microtubule organizing centers in these organisms.
Water balance attributes for off-host survival in larvae of the winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus; Acari: Ixodidae) from wild moose

ABSTRACTTo explore how the one-host tick Dermacentor albipictus survives off-host, we determined water balance characteristics of eggs and larvae. In contrast to eggs, larvae lost water fast, absorbed water vapour and died from a low amount of water loss. Placing mated females under near water-saturated conditions yielded larvae that absorbed and survived only at high relative humidities. We observed larvae forming clusters. Water loss rate of larvae decreased as group size increased. In response to day length, larvae lost water slower under long day than short day conditions. Larvae could switch quickly between fast water loss rate (short day) and slow water loss rate (long day) within a day, independent of the photoperiodic experience of the egg or mother. Long day exposure had no effect on water relations, incubation and survival of eggs. We conclude that eggs are modified for water conservation. Larvae survive by having a water balance maternal effect; i.e. capacity for water vapour absorption in the ...
The Functionality of Four Bullying Involvement Classification Schemas: Prevalence Rates and Associations with Mental Health and School Outcomes

The present study used the 2009–2010 sample of the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children Survey (N = 12,642) to investigate the incremental validity of four competing bullying involvement classification schemas, which differ as a function of relative rates of endorsing victimization and perpetration behaviors at school: the standard four-group model, an alternative four-group model, a nine-group model, and a sixteen-group model. The prevalence rates and associations with concurrent mental health and school functioning outcomes were explored for each of the four bullying involvement classification schemas, which were derived using a categorical analytic approach that relied on the same two self-report items—one targeting victimization and one targeting perpetration—in the HBSC self-report survey. Results indicated substantially different prevalence rates among the four schemas and that schemas which differentiated between higher frequencies of perpetration and victimization involvement were associated with greater odds of being at risk of psychological distress, psychological well-being, academic performance, and attitudes toward school. Findings also suggested that a continuous approach to deriving bullying involvement classifications may be useful, yet preliminary post hoc analyses indicated that this approach would yield redundant results given the parameters of the present study. Implications for school mental health practice and future research are discussed.
Magnesium Links to Asthma Control

Asthma is a significant public health burden that affects 25.6 million people in the United States [1] and more than 200 million people worldwide [2]. The disease is a major cause of illness and disability. Annual costs due to asthma in the United States have been estimated at more than $20 billion in direct costs for medications and physician and hospital visits and in indirect costs such as lost productivity. In 2008, asthma accounted for 14.2 million lost workdays [3]. Asthma is a disease characterized by episodes of reversible narrowing of the airways in response to a wide range of endogenous and environmental triggers. It occurs in individuals who are predisposed to develop the disease as a result of genetic and environmental factors. Symptoms, caused by inflammation and smooth muscle contraction in the bronchioles, can vary from mild chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing or wheezing to respiratory failure and death [4]. Currently, there is no cure for asthma. The disease is managed by taking appropriate medication and minimizing contact with environmental triggers such as air pollution, tobacco smoke, pets, dust mites, cockroach allergens, and mold. Other common causes of asthma exacerbations include respiratory infections, stress, and even exercise [5].
Speech networks at rest and in action: interactions between functional brain networks controlling speech production

Speech production is one of the most complex human behaviors. Although brain activation during speaking has been well investigated, our understanding of interactions between the brain regions and n...
The Refounding Process in Business

When a company takes on a change in targets, a change in the markets it satisfies, or a change in products, that triggers the re-founding process — a more complex process than the typical process c...
The Governorship-Senate Connection: A Step in the Structure of Opportunities Grows Weaker

Ambition theory posits a relationship between the office goals of politicians and theirpolitical behavior. The goals are assumed to be structured by a hierarchy of offices. Any change in the relationships among offices would affect our expectations of the behavior of those in the offices. This article reports on one such change. The linkage between the governorships and seats in the U.S. Senate is apparently growing weaker. A theory of progressive ambition is used to specify a set of variables that affect governors' decisions to run for the Senate. The change in the governors' tenure potential-namely, the increase in the length of their terms and the number of terms the governors are allowed to serve-is shown to be the variable that has affected governors' decisions to run for the Senate.
Defeating Depression: The Healing Power of the Therapeutic Relationship

Major depressive disorder is common, affecting about 7% of the population at any given time and with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 16.2%. Onset is often during adolescence, with young adults and females most commonly affected. The course is often one of a chronic pattern of recurrence. The disorder has underpinnings in family genetic history and neurobiological changes (1, 2). The cost of depression for the individual, family, and society is enormous—estimated at $83.1 billion in the United States in 2000 (3). Investigators have demonstrated that the therapeutic alliance, the collaborative bond between clinician and patient, is a potent factor in determining a positive response to the treatment of depression. This has been found to be true for specific psychotherapies as well as across theoretically and technically different psychotherapies, pharmacotherapy, or both (4–9). This strong relationship suggests that a positive rapport confers healing qualities, and without this rapport, even pharmacotherapy is less effective (4). A positive doctor-patient relationship has also been shown to improve treatment adherence. This is particularly salient in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Guidelines set forth by the American Psychiatric Association and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research recommend continued treatment with antidepressants for at least four to nine months after depressive symptoms resolve to prevent relapse (10, 11). Despite these guidelines, up to 68% of patients have been reported to discontinue antidepressantmedicationwithin threemonths of starting treatment. More frequent visits and higher quality of the doctor-patient relationship may improve longer-term adherence, thus improving prognosis. Effective physician-patient communication that included a frank discussion about adverse medication effects throughout treatment decreased the likelihood that medication was prematurely discontinued (12–14). Building Rapport With Depressed Individuals
Campus-Based Financial Aid Programs: Trends and Alternative Allocation Strategies

Two federal campus-based financial aid programs, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) and the Federal Work-Study Program (FWS), combine to provide nearly US$2 billion in funding to...
Embodied Energy and GHG Emissions from Material Use in Conventional and Unconventional Oil and Gas Operations

Environmental impacts embodied in oilfield capital equipment have not been thoroughly studied. In this paper, we present the first open-source model which computes the embodied energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with materials consumed in constructing oil and gas wells and associated infrastructure. The model includes well casing, wellbore cement, drilling mud, processing equipment, gas compression, and transport infrastructure. Default case results show that consumption of materials in constructing oilfield equipment consumes ∼0.014 MJ of primary energy per MJ of oil produced, and results in ∼1.3 gCO2-eq GHG emissions per MJ (lower heating value) of crude oil produced, an increase of 15% relative to upstream emissions assessed in earlier OPGEE model versions, and an increase of 1–1.5% of full life cycle emissions. A case study of a hydraulically fractured well in the Bakken formation of North Dakota suggests lower energy intensity (0.011 MJ/MJ) and emissions intensity (1.03 gCO2-eq/MJ) ...
Mode of condition-oriented overhaul in thermal power plant

The basic idea of condition-oriented maintenance was introduced, and the general measures and the working contents about implementing condition-oriented overhaul were given according to the practice of condition-oriented maintenance to power equipment in thermal power plant. The comprehensive technology system, which includes status monitoring, fault diagnosis, maintenance management and integration with condition parameter of equipment etc., which is suitable for the mechanism of condition-oriented overhaul, was also presented.
Heart on the right may sometimes be 'right'.

When a 76-year-old man presented with right-sided chest pain, his ECG suggested dextrocardia.
Frequency of Disparities in Laboratory Testing After Statin Initiation in Subjects ≥65 Years

Laboratory testing is important for the safety of older adults initiating statins, but there has been little examination of laboratory testing disparities by race/ethnicity, age, gender, Medicaid eligibility, and multimorbidity. The study's purpose was to examine disparities in guideline-concordant baseline laboratory testing and abnormal laboratory values among a retrospective cohort of 76,868 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries from 10 states in the eastern United States who had dyslipidemia and initiated a statin from July 1 to November 30, 2011. Guideline-concordant assessment of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was defined as evidence of an outpatient claim for either test within 180 days before or 14 days after the date of the index statin fill. In 2011, baseline laboratory testing rates were 89.3% for ALT and 88.8% for AST. Older adults were somewhat more likely to have ALT and AST testing if they were dually enrolled in Medicaid (relative risk 1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00 to 1.02) or had multiple chronic conditions (relative risk 1.03, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.06 for 2 to 3 conditions; odds ratio [OR] 1.08, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.11 for 4 to 5 conditions; OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.17 for 6+ conditions), compared with 0 to 1 conditions. Non-Hispanic blacks were less likely to receive baseline testing (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.96 to 0.98) than non-Hispanic Whites, and male beneficiaries were somewhat less likely to receive testing than female beneficiaries (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.98 to 0.99). Abnormal values were rare. In conclusion, ALT and AST assessment after statin initiation was commonly done as recommended, and there were negligible disparities in testing rates for beneficiaries.
Authoring directed gaze for full-body motion capture

We present an approach for adding directed gaze movements to characters animated using full-body motion capture. Our approach provides a comprehensive authoring solution that automatically infers plausible directed gaze from the captured body motion, provides convenient controls for manual editing, and adds synthetic gaze movements onto the original motion. The foundation of the approach is an abstract representation of gaze behavior as a sequence of gaze shifts and fixations toward targets in the scene. We present methods for automatic inference of this representation by analyzing the head and torso kinematics and scene features. We introduce tools for convenient editing of the gaze sequence and target layout that allow an animator to adjust the gaze behavior without worrying about the details of pose and timing. A synthesis component translates the gaze sequence into coordinated movements of the eyes, head, and torso, and blends these with the original body motion. We evaluate the effectiveness of our inference methods, the efficiency of the authoring process, and the quality of the resulting animation.
“Savor the earth to save it!”—The pedagogy of sustainable pleasure and relational ecology in a place-based public culinary culture

ABSTRACTSustainability has become a keyword in popular discourses in the age of the celebrity chef. As such, chefs and other actors working in the visible spaces and venues of a shared US public culinary culture have become powerful spokespersons for sustainable food production, consumption, and localization. Unlike catastrophist discourses of environmentalisms' of the past, however, this new discourse is often framed in terms of a politics of pleasure that redefines deliberate and considered hedonism as a kind of transformative eco-culinary engagement. In self-assigned missionary roles, chefs and other prepared food producers are often engaging in a very deliberate pedagogical project that link sensuality and sustainability. Likewise, and equally important to these efforts, is the centrality of regard—that is, attempts among chefs to re-embed exchange relations between producers and consumers, often serving as the critical interlocutors in such reassertions. This article is an exploration of how such pro...