cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Accelerated plaque accumulation, associative learning deficits and up-regulation of α7 nicotinic receptor protein in transgenic mice co-expressing mutant human presenilin 1 and amyloid precursor proteins

Familial Alzheimer's disease-associated mutations in presenilin 1 or 2 or amyloid precursor protein result in elevated β-amyloid, β-amyloid accumulation, and plaque formation in the brains of affected individuals. By crossing presenilin 1 transgenic mice carrying the A246E mutation with plaque-producing amyloid precursor protein K670N/M671L transgenic mice (Tg2576), we show that co-expression of both mutant transgenes results in acceleration of amyloid accumulation and associative learning deficits. At 5 months of age with no detectable plaque pathology, amyloid precursor protein transgenic animals are impaired in contextual fear learning following two pairings of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli but appear normal following a more robust five-pairing training. At 9 months of age when β-amyloid deposition is evident, these mice are impaired following both two-pairing and five-pairing protocols. Mice carrying both transgenes are impaired in contextual fear conditioning at either age. All transgenic animal groups performed as well as controls in cued fear conditioning, indicating that the contextual fear learning deficits are hippocampus-specific. The associative learning impairments are coincident with elevated α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor protein in the dentate gyrus. These findings provide two robust and rapid assays for β-amyloid-associated effects that can be performed on young animals: impaired contextual fear learning and up-regulation of α7 nicotinic receptors.
Evaluation of neuroprotection by lithium and valproic acid against ouabain-induced cell damage.

Background The pathophysiology of manic-depression may be associated with dysregulation of ion homeostasis. Ouabain is a potent inhibitor of the sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase and has been purported to mimic abnormalities seen in acute mania. As manic episodes are believed to be neurotoxic and mood stabilizers have recently been implicated as neuroprotectants, it is of interest to determine if lithium and valproic acid antagonize ouabain-induced neurotoxicity. Methods Human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were differentiated for 12 days then pretreated with lithium or valproic acid for 24 h and then challenged with a 10 microM ouabain insult. Cellular damage was assessed with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, and apoptotic potential of ouabain was evaluated with DNA fragmentation. Results Ouabain significantly increased LDH release after 72 h of treatment. Lithium pretreatment at 1 mM diminished ouabain-induced LDH release. Valproic acid alone at 100 and 1000 micrograms/mL significantly increased LDH release from the cells. Furthermore, it significantly potentiated ouabain-induced LDH release. DNA fragmentation suggests that ouabain induces apoptosis. Conclusions Lithium at the therapeutic level of 1 mM limits the extent of cellular damage caused by 10 microM ouabain in SH-SY5Y cells as measured by LDH release. Valproic acid alone at the therapeutic concentration of 100 micrograms/mL induces LDH release and does not prevent ouabain-induced LDH release.
Insect cell nutrition: emphasis on sterols and fatty acids.

The requirements for, or the utilization of, vitamins, sugars, amino acids, and lipids, as determined with established insect cell lines, are reviewed. Also discussed is the importance of inorganic salt balance and osmotic pressure. Nutrient requirements, as determined in experiments with established cells, are compared to media formulations based on the analysis of insect hemolymphs and to the dietary requirements of insects. It is suggested that culture media formulated in strict agreement with hemolymph analysis may be unnecessarily complex and do not ensure maximum growth.
Glenohumeral mismatch affects micromotion of cemented glenoid components in total shoulder arthroplasty

Background The “rocking horse” phenomenon is considered the main cause of glenoid component loosening by eccentric loading of the glenoid rim. This study aimed to investigate the influence of increasing glenohumeral implant mismatch on bone-implant interface micromotion in a cemented all-polyethylene pegged glenoid biomechanical model. Methods Five glenoid sizes, 40 mm, 44 mm, 48 mm, 52 mm, and 56 mm, representing +2 mm, +6 mm, +10 mm, +14 mm, and +18 mm glenohumeral mismatch, respectively, were cyclically loaded according to ASTM Standard F2028-08 at a constant frequency of 2 Hz to a size-dependent humeral head subluxation translation. Additional glenoid components were cyclically loaded to their subluxation translations at a constant humeral head rate of 4.4 mm/s. Component micromotion was characterized as compression, distraction, and superior-inferior translation measured by differential variable reluctance transducers. Results During constant frequency tests, 52-mm and 56-mm glenoids were unable to complete cyclic testing because of catastrophic failure of the glenoid-implant interface and permanent glenoid deformation, probably due to increasing severity of testing parameters. When tested at a constant humeral head speed, 48-mm, 52-mm, and 56-mm glenoids had significantly increased glenoid distraction and glenoid translation at cycle 50,000 compared with cycle 1. Distraction and translation measurements for 52-mm and 56-mm glenoids were significantly greater compared with 40-mm, 44-mm, and 48-mm glenoids at 50,000 cycles. Conclusions In a biomechanical model, optimal glenohumeral mismatch in cemented pegged glenoid implants is multifactorial and has not been definitively established. However, our data suggest that a radial mismatch of less than +10 mm may decrease the risk of glenoid micromotion.
Electrocardiographic changes of sinus bradycardia and sinus node dysfunction among patients with therapeutic levels of lithium

We present 3 new cases of patients with mood disorders taking lithium in therapeutic doses. Each subject developed sinus node dysfunction manifested primarily as sinus bradycardia. We combine our 3 cases with 13 others from the literature to define the study population. Our findings, conclusions, and recommendations form the body of this report. When bradycardia develops and/or patients develop cardiovascular symptoms or signs, we recommend cardiologic consultation and consideration of Holter monitor recording. Psychiatrists treating patients with lithium should have a low threshold to seek cardiologic evaluation when questions about lithium's effect on the cardiovascular system arise. Depression 2:226–231 (1994/1995). © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Creep behavior and substructure in an AlLi alloy

Abstract The effect of stress on the creep behavior of an Al-2.1 wt% Li alloy was investigated in the solid-solution range at 773–853 K. In addition, the dislocation substructure that developed during creep was examined by means of transmission electron microscopy. The mechanical data show that under the experimental conditions used in this investigation, the creep curve exhibits an extensive normal primary stage before steady-state creep is reached; that after a stress reduction at the steady-state, the creep rate in the transient region is lower than the steady-state creep rate at the reduced stress; and that the stress exponent is ∼ 4.6. The substructural data reveal a strong tendency to form subgrains; this tendency is demonstrated by the presence of triple junctions of subboundaries at low stresses and by the observation of groups of well-developed subgrains at high stresses. The creep characteristics of Al-2.1 wt% Li are compared to those of Al and are examined in the light of suggestions and predictions regarding deformation processes in solid-solution alloys.
Outcome of laparoscopic ventral hernia repair in morbidly obese patients with a body mass index exceeding 35 kg/m2.

Background Laparoscopic ventral hernia repair (LVHR) for morbidly obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) exceeding 35 kg/m2 has not been well investigated.
Molecular nanomechanics of nascent bone: fibrillar toughening by mineralization

Mineralized collagen fibrils are highly conserved nanostructural building blocks of bone. By a combination of molecular dynamics simulation and theoretical analysis it is shown that the characteristic nanostructure of mineralized collagen fibrils is vital for its high strength and its ability to sustain large deformation, as is relevant to the physiological role of bone, creating a strong and tough material. An analysis of the molecular mechanisms of protein and mineral phases under large deformation of mineralized collagen fibrils reveals a fibrillar toughening mechanism that leads to a manifold increase of energy dissipation compared to fibrils without mineral phase. This fibrillar toughening mechanism increases the resistance to fracture by forming large local yield regions around crack-like defects, a mechanism that protects the integrity of the entire structure by allowing for localized failure. As a consequence, mineralized collagen fibrils are able to tolerate microcracks of the order of several hundred micrometres in size without causing any macroscopic failure of the tissue, which may be essential to enable bone remodelling. The analysis proves that adding nanoscopic small platelets to collagen fibrils increases their Young's modulus and yield strength as well as their fracture strength. We find that mineralized collagen fibrils have a Young's modulus of 6.23 GPa (versus 4.59 GPa for the collagen fibril), yield at a tensile strain of 6.7% (versus 5% for the collagen fibril) and feature a fracture stress of 0.6 GPa (versus 0.3 GPa for the collagen fibril).
The relationship of self‐concept and locus of control to the severity of injury in freshmen collegiate football players

In this study the relationship between self‐concept, locus of control, and the severity of injury in freshmen collegiate varsity football athletes was investigated. Subjects (N = 40) completed the Tennessee Self‐Concept Scale (TSCS) (Fitts, 1972) and Rotter's (1966) Internal‐External (I‐E) Locus of Control Scale. Pearson product‐moment correlations were calculated between scores on these tests and the severity of athletic injury as measured by total number of days of participation missed. Results showed a significant negative correlation between self‐concept and severity of injury and a significant positive correlation between locus of control and severity of injury. Results also showed that low self‐concept in combination with an external locus of control was significantly related to injury severity. More attention needs to be given to the psychological factors of injury incidence for athletes who may experience feelings of helplessness and low self‐concept such as freshmen collegiate athletes.
Dose-dependent effects of morphine exposure on mRNA and microRNA (miR) expression in hippocampus of stressed neonatal mice.

Morphine is used to sedate critically ill infants to treat painful or stressful conditions associated with intensive care. Whether neonatal morphine exposure affects microRNA (miR) expression and thereby alters mRNA regulation is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that repeated morphine treatment in stress-exposed neonatal mice alters hippocampal mRNA and miR expression. C57BL/6 male mice were treated from postnatal day (P) 5 to P9 with morphine sulfate at 2 or 5 mg/kg ip twice daily and then exposed to stress consisting of hypoxia (100% N2 1 min and 100% O2 5 min) followed by 2h maternal separation. Control mice were untreated and dam-reared. mRNA and miR expression profiling was performed on hippocampal tissues at P9. Overall, 2 and 5 mg/kg morphine treatment altered expression of a total of 150 transcripts (>1.5 fold change, P<0.05) from which 100 unique mRNAs were recognized (21 genes were up- and 79 genes were down-regulated), and 5 mg/kg morphine affected 63 mRNAs exclusively. The most upregulated mRNAs were fidgetin, arginine vasopressin, and resistin-like alpha, and the most down-regulated were defensin beta 11, aquaporin 1, calmodulin-like 4, chloride intracellular channel 6, and claudin 2. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis revealed that morphine treatment affected pathways related to cell cycle, membrane function, signaling, metabolism, cell death, transcriptional regulation, and immune response. Morphine decreased expression of miR-204-5p, miR-455-3p, miR-448-5p, and miR-574-3p. Nine morphine-responsive mRNAs that are involved in neurodevelopment, neurotransmission, and inflammation are predicted targets of the aforementioned differentially expressed miRs. These data establish that morphine produces dose-dependent changes in both hippocampal mRNA and miR expression in stressed neonatal mice. If permanent, morphine–mediated neuroepigenetic effects may affect long-term hippocampal function, and this provides a mechanism for the neonatal morphine-related impairment of adult learning.
Activity of Lipoprotein Lipase in Adipose Tissues from Steers

Abstract Mean lipoprotein lipase activities ( μ eq fatty acids released/h per g tissue) and lipid content (%) in adipose tissue of steers from brisket, perirectal, subcutaneous abdominal, and mesenteric areas were 32, 32, 30, 50, and 73, 77, 64, and 85. The enzyme activity was higher in mesenteric tissue than in the other sites which did not differ from each other. Mesenteric adipose tissue had higher and subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue had lower lipid content than did brisket and perirectal adipose tissue. Lipid content and enzyme activity were correlated .38.
Parallel text search methods

A comparison of recently proposed parallel text search methods to alternative available search strategies that use serial processing machines suggests parallel methods do not provide large-scale gains in either retrieval effectiveness or efficiency.
Best Responders: Post-Katrina Innovation and Improvisation by Wal-Mart and the U.S. Coast Guard

The unprecedented impacts of Hurricane Katrina provide an interesting study in how organizations innovate and improvise in the face of the unexpected. Most of the attention paid to organizational performance during the disaster has focused, understandably, on the systematic failures of FEMA. But were there any successes? Yes, in fact. Two of the stand-out responders were Wal-Mart and the United States Coast Guard—one a private-sector firm, the other a part of the federal government. Wal-Mart’s response was crucial in preventing an even worse outcome from the crisis than what was experienced. 1 Wal-Mart was the most notable among several private-sector firms that arrived quickly with the supplies that people needed to survive after being cut off from the most basic necessities. In turn, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued more than 24,000 people in the two weeks following the storm. While these two organizations are very different, they both succeeded in the demanding environment of post-Katrina response because they had created the right internal incentives for middle managers to take initiative and the right structures of communication to allow local information to determine the nature of the response.
Examining Educators’ Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices About Using Technology With Young Children

Technology has been shown to foster children’s motivation and interest in instructional materials. In addition, researchers have found that technology results in higher levels of student engagement and greater levels of comprehension. Researchers have also found that educators must have the knowledge and skills in technology necessary to effectively support their students. Much of the research examining educator knowledge and skills has centered at the K–12 level. The current study examines the technological knowledge, beliefs, and practices of educators in early childhood settings. Findings indicate that educators believe that it is important to integrate technology into daily lessons. However, findings also indicate that many teachers do not feel adequately prepared to use technology in early childhood settings; that there is a lack of technology currently available in early childhood settings; and that early childhood educators want more professional development on using technology that also reflects t...
Update in medical education for pediatrics: insights and directions from the 2010 literature

Background: While most would agree that utilizing the literature to enhance individual educational practice and/or institutional success is the ideal method for improving medical education, methods to focus attention on the most relevant and valuable information have been heretofore lacking in the pediatric medical education literature. Methods: We performed a review of the medical education literature for the year 2010. Utilizing a similar strategy employed by others in Internal Medicine, we selected 12 high-yield education journals and manually reviewed the table of contents to select titles that would have grassroots applicability for medical educators. A broad search through PubMed was then completed using search terms adopted from prior studies, and titles from this search were similarly selected. The abstracts of selected titles ( n =147) were each reviewed by two of the authors, then all authors reached consensus on articles for full review ( n =34). The articles were then discussed and scored to achieve consensus for the 11 articles for inclusion in this paper. Results: Several themes emerged from reviewing these publications. We did not select topics or sections of interest a priori . The themes, grouped into four areas: supervision and leadership, hand-off communication, core competencies: teaching and assessment, and educational potpourri, reflect our community’s current concerns, challenges, and engagement in addressing these topics. Each article is summarized below and begins with a brief statement of what the study adds to the practice of pediatric medical education. Discussion: This review highlights multiple ‘articles of value’ for all medical educators. We believe the value of these articles and the information they contain for improving the methods used to educate medical students, residents, and fellows are significant. The organically derived thematic areas of the representative articles offer a view of the landscape of medical education research in pediatrics in 2010. Readers can use these individual articles as both tools to improve their practice, as well as inspiration for future areas of research. Keywords: medical education; pediatrics; supervision; communication; competency assessments; teaching (Published: 18 May 2012) Citation: Med Educ Online 2012, 17 : 14433 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v17i0.14433
Supercontinuum generation in optical fibers

In this paper, we studied SC generation in fiber lasers and in optical fibers pumped by different light sources which include fs and ps pulse sources, and continuous-wave (CW) amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light sources. First, we demonstrated SC generation with a 10dB spectral bandwidth of 430nm in a fiber ring laser with conventional nonlinear fiber. Second, we proposed and demonstrated a new and efficient approach to generation of a CW SC in optical fibers pumped by a CW ASE light. A bandwidth of 268nm (at -15dB level) with an average spectral density of 2.7mW/nm was demonstrated. Various approaches to flattening the spectrum and increasing the spectral width were also studied. The application of this SC source in WDM passive optical access networks (WDM-PONs) was investigated. Third, the approach of SC generation in a fiber combination of standard SMF and nonlinear DSF pumped by an all-fiber fs pulse Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) system was developed. A spectral bandwidth of over 1000nm was demonstrated. Finally, the generation of broad comb-like-spectral light based on the pulse compression of 40GHz optical pulses in a new nonlinear dispersion-decreasing fiber with high SBS threshold was studied. A continuum light source with over 125 channels and a channel spacing of 40 GHz was achieved. The use of this continuum light source as WDM source in WDM-PONs was investigated.
Development of respiratory function in the American locust Schistocerca americana. I. Across-instar effects.

SUMMARY We tested the hypothesis that oxygen delivery from the atmosphere to the tissues becomes more difficult as grasshoppers increase in body size throughout development due to increases in tracheal length. If this is true, then older, larger grasshoppers should have smaller safety margins [higher critical oxygen partial pressures ( P O 2 s)] for oxygen delivery than younger, smaller grasshoppers. We exposed grasshoppers of first, third and fifth instars and adults to decreasing levels of atmospheric O 2 and measured their ventilatory responses. Contrary to our prediction, we found that larger grasshoppers had critical P O 2 s eight times lower than juveniles due in part to their threefold lower mass-specific metabolic rates and their ability to quadruple convective gas exchange. Adults more than doubled abdominal pumping frequency and increased tidal volume by 25% as P O 2 decreased fourfold, whereas the youngest juveniles showed no such responses. This study indicates that juveniles may be more susceptible to hypoxia in natural situations, such as exposure to high altitude or restricted burrows. Also, larger size is not necessarily correlated with a smaller safety margin for oxygen delivery in insects.
Impact of educational intervention on confidence and competence in the performance of a simple surgical task.

Background: Many complex new procedures involve a learning curve, and patients treated by individuals who are new to a procedure may have more complications than those treated by a practitioner who has performed the intervention more frequently. Still, at some point on the learning curve, each indiv
Vitality of chondrocytes in the mandibular condyle as revealed by collagen formation. An autoradiographic study with 3H-proline†

Histological and autoradiographic studies using 3H-proline indicate that cartilaginous tissue in the mandibular condyle maintains morphologic and metabolic characteristics of an embryonic type of tissue. Cartilage cells in the condyle lack the specific arrangement and cellular homogeneity characteristic of more differentiated endochondral growth sites. Through dedifferentiation many chondrocytes in the mandibular condyle appear to outlive the hypoxic conditions that are reported to prevail within the mineralizing zone. Chondrocytes in this zone reveal only a minimal amount of 3H-proline uptake in comparison with the cells in the chondroblastic and premineralizing zones. The dedifferentiated chondrocytes appear to redifferentiate into more specialized cells, possibly osteoprogenitor cells, as they reveal a significant increase in 3H-proline incorporation in the vicinity of the ossifying front. These observations on proline metabolism support the concept that calcification in the condylar cartilage is not necessarily accompanied by degeneration and death of the chondrocytes.
Vascular tumors of the breast: mammographic, sonographic, and MRI appearances.

ascular tumors of the breast are rare. Anatomically, breast tissue is located between the anterior and posterior layers of the superficial pectoral fascia [1]. Lesions located superficial to the anterior pectoral fascia in the subcutaneous fat are extraparenchymal in origin with or without dermal involvement. Subcutaneous vascular masses are generally benign [2, 3], whereas most intraparenchymal lesions
A quantitative analysis of dataflow program execution—preliminaries to a hybrid design

Abstract While the dataflow execution model can potentially uncover all forms and levels of parallelism in a program, in its traditional fine grain form it does not exploit any form of locality . Recent evidence indicates that the exploitation of locality in dataflow programs could have a dramatic impact on performance. The current trend in the design of dataflow processors suggests a synthesis of traditional nonstrict fine grain instruction execution and strict coarse grain execution in order to exploit locality. While an increase in instruction granularity favors the exploitation of locality within a single execution thread, the resulting grain size may increase latency among execution threads. We define fine grain intrathread locality as a dynamic measure of instruction level locality and quantify it using a set of numeric and nonnumeric benchmarks. The results point to a very large degree of intrathread locality and a remarkable uniformity and consistency of the distribution of thread locality across a wide variety of benchmarks. As the execution is moved to a coarser granularity it can result in an increase of the input latency of operands that would have a detrimental effect on performance. We evaluate the resulting latency incurred through the partitioning of fine grain instructions into coarser grain threads. We define the concept of a cluster of fine grain instructions to quantify coarse grain input and output latencies. The results of our experiments offer compelling evidence that a coarse grain execution outperforms a fine grain grain one on a significant number of numeric codes. These results suggest that the effects of increased instruction granularity on latency is minimal for a high percentage of the measured codes, and in large part is offset by available intrathread locality. Furthermore, simulation results indicate that strict or nonstrict data structure access does not change the basic cluster characteristics.
Information-preserving transforms: Two graph metrics for simulated spiking neural networks

We are interested in self-organization and adaptation in intelligent systems that are robustly coupled with the real world. Such systems have a variety of sensory inputs that provide access to the richness, complexity, and noise of real-world signals. Specifically, the systems we design and implement are ab initio simulated spiking neural networks (SSNNs) with cellular resolution and complex network topologies that evolve according to spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP). We desire to understand how external signals (like speech, vision, etc.) are encoded in the dynamics of such SSNNs. In particular, we are interested in identifying and confirming the extent to which various population-level measurements (or transforms) are information-preserving. Such transforms could be used as an unambiguous way of identifying the nature of the input signals, when given only access to the SSNN dynamics. Our primary objective in this paper is to empirically examine the extent to which a couple of graph metrics provide an information-preserving transform between the input signals and the output signals. In particular, we focus on the standard deviation of the time-varying distributions for local influence (weighted out-degree) and local impressionability (weighted in-degree), which provide insight into information encoding at the population-level in the dynamics of SSNNs. We report the encouraging results of an experiment carried out in the Language Acquisition and Robotics Group.
ATE system level calibration and its impact on cost, quality and schedule

It has been shown that ATE systems which are targeted at families of products can have a significant positive impact on the cost of test and capacity availability. In addition it has been shown that the quality (accuracy and repeatability) of the test system reduces the overall cost of test and rework. The historical challenge has been that test systems are traditionally targeted at an individual product and thus have acceptance criteria constrained to that individual product specification and not the performance envelope of the tester. This has two major unintended consequences when a test station is intended to be used for more than one product. First, the system specifications are typically developed around a “golden unit” methodology. Second, the specifications are not easily extended to other products of a similar type. In this paper we will propose an alternative method to provide system level specification and system measurement plane calibration which will extend the system's ability to be used for multiple products. This approach is measurement-centric, not device specification-centric. This philosophy has several major impacts on the cost, quality and schedule.
Microgeographic distribution of immature Ixodes dammini ticks correlated with that of deer

In order to determine whether the small-scale distribution of immature Ixodes dammini Spielman et al. corresponds closely to the activity patterns of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmerman), these relationships were examined in a site on Long Island, New York, U.S.A. We first determined the extent and temporal pattern of adult ticks feeding on deer by examining twenty-three resident deer tranquilized during September-December 1985. I. dammini adults infested deer throughout this fall period, most abundantly during October and November. With radio-telemetry collars attached to deer we determined the relative frequency that they occupied 0.25 ha quadrats of the study site. During the following summer, we examined white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus (Rafinesque), that inhabited these quadrats and removed immature ticks from each. 8975 larval and 163 nymphal I. dammini were removed from 208 mice trapped in forty-three such quadrats. The frequency of deer using these quadrats was positively correlated with both the number of larval and of nymphal ticks per mouse. These results suggest that risk of I. damminiborne zoonotic disease may be decreased by locally reducing deer density in sites that experience intense human activity.
Improving broadcast operations in ad hoc networks using two-hop connected dominating sets

Many signaling or data forwarding operations (e.g., the route discovery process in on-demand routing protocols) involve the broadcasting of packets, which incurs considerable collisions in ad hoc networks based on a contention-based channel access protocol. We propose the three-hop horizon pruning (THP) algorithm to reduce the impact of broadcasting. THP can either compute a connected dominating set (CDS) or a two-hop connected dominating set (TCDS). Each node uses THP to select the smallest subset of its one-hop neighbors that use its two-hop neighbors to reach other nodes three hops away. When all nodes need to be covered (i.e., a CDS is needed), additional relays are selected to cover those two-hop neighbors left uncovered. We compare THP against the best-performing broadcasting algorithms, and show through extensive simulations that THP is more efficient. To show how THP can improve the route discovery process of an on demand routing protocol, we apply THP to AODV (the new variant is named AODV-THP), and also provide a version of THP that provides added redundancy. Simulation results show that, for networks with low mobility, AODV-THP improves over AODVs performance in all aspects: better delivery ratio, lower control overhead, fewer packet collisions, and smaller end-to-end delays.
Membrane Protein Structure Determination using Paramagnetic Tags

The combination of paramagnetic tagging strategies with NMR or EPR spectroscopic techniques can revolutionize de novo structure determination of helical membrane proteins. Leveraging the full potential of this approach requires optimal labeling strategies and prediction of membrane protein topology from sparse and low-resolution distance restraints, as addressed by Chen et al. (2011).
Diradical polymerization of styrene initiated by ethyl 1-cyano-2-(p-methoxyphenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylate with ZnCl2

Ethyl 1-cyano-2-(p-methoxyphenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylate (ECMC) with ZnCl2 initiates the free radical polymerization of styrene (St) at 80°C faster than without ZnCl2. A cycloadduct of St and ECMC is detected. The polymer shows a bimodal molecular weight distribution, and a molecular weight increase is observed with conversion. Based on these results, a diradical initiation and propagation mechanism is proposed.
Tubulin synthesis in sea urchin embryos: Almost all tubulin of the first cleavage mitotic apparatus derives from the unfertilized egg

Abstract Developing embryos of Stronglyocentrotus purpuratus were exposed to [ 14 C]leucine between fertilization and metaphase of the first cleavage division. At metaphase, mitotic apparatus was isolated from the embryos and tubulin was extracted from mitotic apparatus. The specific activity of the tubulin fraction was only 0.2 to 0.4 times the specific activity of whole embryo protein. We calculate from this result that no more than 0.4% of the tubulin of the first cleavage mitotic apparatus could be synthesized following fertilization.
Detection of bulimia in a primary care setting

Objective: To develop a screening tool for the identification of bulimia in ambulatory practice. Design: Administration of a 112-item questionnaire about eating and weight-control practices to women with known bulimia and to healthy control patients. Questions were compared with DSM-III-R criteria of bulimia as a “gold standard.” Setting: Self-help group for eating disorders and hospital-based primary care practice. Subjects: Thirty of 42 women with known bulimia met DSM-III-R criteria for current bulimia, and 124 of 130 control patients met the criterion of no history of an eating disorder. Main results: Thirteen individual questions discriminated between bulimic subjects and control subjects with a sensitivity and specificity of >75%. When these questions were entered into a stepwise logistic model, two questions were independently significant. A “no” response to the question “Are you satisfied with your eating patterns?” or a “yes” response to “Do you ever eat in secret?” had a sensitivity of 1.00 and a specificity of 0.90 for bulimia. The positive predictive value, based on a 5% prevalence, was 0.36. Conclusions: A set of two questions may be as effective as a more extensive questionnaire in identifying women with eating disorders, and could be easily incorporated into the routine medical history obtained from all women.
Direct interaction between caldesmon and cortactin

Actin polymerization and depolymerization plays a central role in controlling a wide spectrum of cellular processes. There are many actin-binding proteins in eukaryotic cells. Their roles in the remodeling of the actin architecture and whether they work cooperatively await further study. Caldesmon (CaD) is an actin-binding protein present in nearly all mammalian cells. Cortactin is another actin-binding protein found mainly in the cell cortex. There have been no reports suggesting that CaD and cortactin interact with each other or work as partners. Here, we present evidence that CaD binds cortactin directly by overlay, pull-down assays, ELISA, and by column chromatography. The interaction involves the N-terminal region of cortactin and the C-terminal region of CaD, and appears to be enhanced by divalent metal ions. Cortactin competes with both full-length CaD and its C-terminal fragment for actin binding. Binding of cortactin partially alleviates the inhibitory effect of CaD on the actomyosin ATPase activity. Not only can binding be demonstrated in vitro, the two proteins also co-localize in activated cells at the cortex. Whether such interactions bear any functional significance awaits further investigation.
The structure of exactly strongly consistent social choice functions

Abstract For ƒ an anonymous exactly strongly consistent social choice function (ESC SCF) and x an alternative, define b x =b( f ) x to be the size of a minimal blocking coalition for x. By studying the correspondence between ƒ and {b( f ) x } , we establish the existence, uniqueness and monotonicity of ESC SCF's. We also prove the following conjecture of B. Peleg: A non–constant anonymous ESC SCF depends on the knowledge of every player's full preference profile.
Transcriptional Regulation of Endothelial Nitric-oxide Synthase by Lysophosphatidylcholine

Abstract We have shown that lysophosphatidylcholine (lyso-PC) increases endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS) expression at the transcriptional level (Zembowicz, A., Tang, J.-L., and Wu, K. K. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 17006–17010). To elucidate the mechanism by which lyso-PC increases the eNOS transcription, we identified Sp1 sites at −104 to −90 and PEA3 sites at −40 to −24 as being involved in lyso-PC-induced promoter activity. Site-directed mutagenesis of Sp1 sites resulted in a marked reduction of basal and lyso-PC-induced activity whereas PEA3 site mutation abrogated response to lyso-PC. Band shift assays revealed that lyso-PC augmented Sp1 binding activity. Pretreatment of cells or nuclear extracts with okadaic acid reduced the Sp1 binding activity. Furthermore, okadaic acid treatment abrogated the lyso-PC induced promoter augmentation. Lyso-PC increased the nuclear extract protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity, which was suppressed by okadaic acid treatment. These results suggest that lyso-PC up-regulates eNOS transcription by a PP2A-dependent increase in Sp1 binding activity.
Visible-light activatable organic CO-releasing molecules (PhotoCORMs) that simultaneously generate fluorophores

Novel organic photoCORMs based on micelle-encapsulated unsaturated cyclic α-diketones were designed and synthesized. These photoCORMs can be activated by visible light, have potentially low toxicity, allow the delivery of carbon monoxide to be monitored by fluorescence imaging techniques, and thus are useful tools for the study of the biological function of CO.
The Role of the Nurse Practitioner in Adult Day Care

During the past 25 years, nurse practitioners (NPs) have become health care providers in a variety of settings. Adult day care is one of the settings in which it is increasingly clear that there is a role for the NP. Nurse practitioners have the potential to provide increased comprehensive primary health care to clients participating in these programs.
Kluyveromyces lactis SEF1 and its Saccharomyces cerevisiae homologue bypass the unknown essential function, but not the mitochondrial RNase P function, of the S. cerevisiae RPM2 gene.

RPM2 is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae nuclear gene required for normal cell growth yet the only known function of Rpm2p is as a protein subunit of yeast mitochondrial RNase P, an enzyme responsible for the 5′ maturation of mitochondrial tRNAs. Since mitochondrial protein synthesis in S. cerevisiae is not essential for viability, RPM2 must provide another function in addition to its known role as a mitochondrial tRNA processing enzyme. During a search for RPM2 homologues from Kluyveromyces lactis, we recovered a K. lactis gene that compensates for the essential function but not the RNase P function of RPM2. We have named this gene SEF1 (Suppressor of the Essential Function). DNA sequence analysis of SEF1 reveals it contains a Zn(2)-Cys(6) binuclear cluster motif found in a growing number of yeast transcription factors. The SEF1 homologue of S. cerevisiae also compensates for the essential function of RPM2. The two proteins share 49% identity and 72% amino acid sequence similarity. The SEF1 sequence has been deposited in the GenBank data library under accession number U92898. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Risk Analysis and Capital Budgeting Techniques of U.S. Multinational Enterprises

The purpose of this study is to examine the capital budgeting strategies that are used by foreign subsidiaries of U.S.‐based multinational enterprises. While the results indicated a preference for sophisticated capital budgeting techniques as the primary method of analysis, the actual use of sophisticated capital budgeting techniques by foreign managers may not be as widespread as expected by financial theorists. Although it was found that certain environmental and company‐specific factors influenced the level of sophistication of capital budgeting practices used by U.S. foreign subsidiaries, the associations were small and had only minor explanatory significance. The results showed that foreign subsidiaries exposed to high levels of political and financial risk tended to use sophisticated capital budgeting strategies. Subsidiaries characterized by high levels of financial leverage and high cost of capital requirements also employed advanced capital budgeting strategies. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have many options available to them in terms of how they manage their foreign subsidiaries. Traditionally, most major policy decisions were made at the parent firm's headquarter office while foreign subsidiaries had few opportunities to influence major corporate decisions. Today, more companies are using a flexible approach which involves setting strategic goals at the home office and allowing local managers to implement their own specific policies. An important question in this study involved determining how effective local foreign managers were in implementing their capital budgeting processes. As U.S.‐based MNEs continue to expand their operations abroad, there is an increased need to examine which financial decision models are actually used by subsidiary managers to deal with the increased complexity of investing in foreign countries. Unlike traditional capital budgeting analysis, international analysis is a considerably more complex process. These complexities occur for a number of reasons including complicated cash flows estimates, changes in foreign exchange rates, different accounting systems, potential for blocked funds, and political risk considerations. These factors are rarely experienced by traditionally domestic U.S. firms. To maintain a competitive edge, MNEs must continue to use the most efficient approaches available to them. This study provides a detailed analysis of the capital budgeting practices that are actually being used by foreign subsidiaries of U.S.‐based MNEs. The paper is organized in the following manner. Section I provides a brief overview of the theoretical and practical issues of international capital budgeting analysis. Section II focuses on the areas of data collection, questionnaire design, and environment‐specific and company‐specific factors. Section III discusses usage of capital budgeting techniques, adjustment and assessment of project risk, and factors influencing capital budgeting policies. The final section presents some findings from this study.
Maximum-likelihood image restoration adapted for noncoherent optical imaging

Noncoherent optical-imaging systems are identified as potential applications for the maximum-likelihood image-restoration methods that are currently being studied for various modalities of nuclear-medicine imaging. An analogy between the quantum-photon measurements of such an optical system and that of a gamma camera allow for this new application. Results of a computer simulation are presented that support its feasibility. One important property revealed by this simulation is that the maximum-likelihood method demonstrates the ability to extrapolate the Fourier spectrum of a band-limited signal. This ability can be partially understood in that this algorithm, similar to some of the other spectral-extrapolation algorithms, constrains the solution to nonnegative values. This observation has implications on the potential of superresolution, the restoration of images from a defocused optical system, and three-dimensional imaging with a microscope.
Nuclear respiratory factor 1 co‐regulates AMPA glutamate receptor subunit 2 and cytochrome c oxidase: tight coupling of glutamatergic transmission and energy metabolism in neurons

Neuronal activity, especially of the excitatory glutamatergic type, is highly dependent on energy from the oxidative pathway. We hypothesized that the coupling existed at the transcriptional level by having the same transcription factor to regulate a marker of energy metabolism, cytochrome c oxidase (COX) and an important subunit of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid glutamate receptors, GluR2 (Gria2). Nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) was a viable candidate because it regulates all COX subunits and potentially activates Gria2. By means of in silico analysis, electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and promoter mutational assays, we found that NRF-1 functionally bound to Gria2 promoter. Silencing of NRF-1 with small interference RNA prevented the depolarization-stimulated up-regulation of Gria2 and COX, and over-expression of NRF-1 rescued neurons from tetrodotoxin-induced down-regulation of Gria2 and COX transcripts. Thus, neuronal activity and energy metabolism are tightly coupled at the molecular level, and NRF-1 is a critical agent in this process.
The effect of large body size on the temperature regulation of the Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis

Abstract 1. 1. Field measurements of the body temperature of the Komodo monitor, Varanus komodoensis, were normally between 36 and 40°C during the day, a range that is midway between shaded air temperatures and radiant temperatures in the sun. 2. 2. At night, the temperature differential of reptiles depends upon body weight. 3. 3. Large lizards often have appreciable temperature differentials because of their thermal inertia, relatively low thermal conductances, and inability to come to a thermal equilibrium over night. 4. 4. Larger reptiles, such as the Galapagos tortoise, have still larger differentials, because they have very low conductances produced by an integument that acts like a thermal barrier. 5. 5. These relationships lead to the conclusion that dinosaurs probably were inertial homoiotherms.
La tríada de la atleta: un fenómeno metabólico

The Female Athlete Triad (Triad) is a syndrome in which low energy availability triggers a broad range of endocrine mechanisms that conserve energy expenditure, and thereby impairs reproductive and skeletal health. Energy availability is the amount of dietary energy remaining after exercise training for all other physiological functions each day. The specific kind of reproductive dysfunctions caused by low energy availability are functional hypothalamic menstrual disorders. To ensure that affected athletes receive appropriate care, endocrine tests are required to diagnose these disorders by the exclusion of other types of menstrual disorders unrelated to the Triad. In addition, low energy availability impairs skeletal health by uncoupling bone turnover, in which the rate of bone resorption increases while the rate of bone formation declines. The result is a progressive loss or failure to accrue bone mass, which increases the risks of stress fractures and osteoporosis. Low energy availability originates in one or more of three sources: restrictive eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa; intentional efforts to lose body weight or body fat to improve athletic performance or appearance; and the inadvertent suppression of appetite by exercise and diets containing a high percentage of carbohydrates. It is necessary to know the origin of low energy availability in a particular athlete in order to intervene effectively with her. The key behavior modification for preventing and treating the Triad is to increase energy availability, either by increasing dietary energy intake, reducing exercise energy expenditure, or both. Guidelines for doing so are provided.