cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Differentiation-dependent expression of alpha-2,3-sialyltransferase in rabbit corneal epithelium.

PURPOSE. Lectin studies have shown that in the rabbit corneal epithelium, a-2,3 sialylation of O-linked glycans differentiates limbal and corneal epithelial cell phenotypes. Because sialic acid can be regulated at the level of the expression of sialyltransferases (STs), the purpose of the present study was to analyze the expression of a-2,3STs in this tissue. METHODS. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to generate ST cDNA from total rabbit corneal epithelium RNA using primers selected from the sequences of three previously cloned STs capable of catalyzing the transfer of sialic acid to O-linked oligosaccharides, human placental Galj3-l,3GalNAc-Galj3-l,4GluNAca-2,3ST (STZ), and mouse brain Gal/3-1,3GalNAca-2,3ST types I and II (ST3Gal I and ST3Gal II). Tissue distribution of mRNA was assayed by fluorescent in situ hybridization. A synthetic peptide whose sequence was deduced from a cloned cDNA fragment was synthesized and used to prepare an anti-ST goat antiserum. The molecular weights of immunodetectable polypeptides and their distribution in cryostat sections of the limbocorneal area were investigated by western blot analysis and indirect immunofluorescence, respectively. RESULTS. RT-PCR yielded cDNA of expected basepair length for STZ and ST3Gal II. The rabbit STZ cDNA was 86% identical with its human equivalent. Its mRNA was confined to the cornea, mainly in basal epithelial cells, and was not expressed in the limbus. Western blot analysis identified a band at 37 kDa whose binding was abolished by preincubation of the antiserum with the immunization peptide. Immunohistologic analysis revealed the presence of immunoreactive epitopes in all basal cells of the cornea but not in the limbus. CONCLUSIONS. STZ mRNA and the enzyme itself are expressed in the basal layer of the corneal epithelium but are absent in the limbus. This enzyme's de novo expression seems thus responsible for the differential expression of a-2,3 sialylation along the limbocorneal differentiation axes. At least one more a-2,3ST is also present in the epithelium. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Set. 1998;39: 905-912)
Ability of caregivers to read delayed hypersensitivity skin tests in children exposed to and infected by HIV

Abstract Objectives: To identify whether nonmedical home caregivers (parents, guardians) could accurately interpret the results of delayed hypersensitivity skin tests in children, thereby obviating the need for a return visit for a professional reading. Methods: Patients who were enrolled in the Pediatric Pulmonary and Cardiac Complications of HIV (P2C2HIV) study were given annual skin tests to tuberculin purified protein derivative, Candida, and tetanus as part of the study protocol. Caregivers were instructed verbally about how to read and measure erythema and induration. They were given written instructions to take home as well and were asked to return in 48 to 72 hours for the professional reading. On the morning of their return visit, they were to read the skin tests and record the results before coming to the clinic. Results: When compared with readings by professional staff, caregivers had a high percentage of false-negative readings for both Candida (24%) and tetanus (41%) skin tests. These false-negative readings did not correlate with age, gender, race, or educational level of the caregivers. Conclusions: The high percentage of false-negative readings by the caregivers emphasizes the need for professional reading of delayed hypersensitivity skin tests. J Pediatr Health Care. (2000). 14, 50–55.
A hybrid approach for efficient dataflow computing

A hybrid graph model for data-flow computation that integrates the concepts of 'tagged-token' graphs with those of 'static' graphs is presented. This model is based on partitioning the tagged-token graph into highly connected pieces that become a basic unit for activation and execution. A piece is activated in the same way as a tagged-token node. Execution of a piece consists of the firing of nodes within the piece according to static firing rules. An individual piece supports multiple concurrent activations by propagating successive wavefronts of tokens through the piece in a pipeline fashion. Pieces are restricted to being acyclic so that they can be pipelined. This hybrid model was developed to investigate the interaction of static and tagged-token data-flow computation. Hybrid computation is presented from the derivation of the model, through a discussion of the problems of pipelining certain kinds of graph node (e.g. merging operators and function invocators), to a logical description of a data-driven processor array implementing the model. >
Structural and optical characterization of indium and gallium indium sulfide films prepared by modulated flux deposition

Indium and gallium indium sulfide thin films were deposited on soda-lime glass substrates at 350 °C, in a wide range of sulfur delivery conditions, by Modulated Flux Deposition (MFD). Indium sulfide films were highly crystalline β-In2S3 (tetragonal) with Eg = 2.68 eV. Depending on the availability of sulfur, gallium indium-poor sulfide films consisted on metal-rich hexagonal β-GaS layers or stoichiometric amorphous films with Eg = 3.0–3.3 eV. Finally, gallium indium-rich sulfide films formed a mixture of β-In2S3 and β-GaS that became near amorphous as more sulfur was supplied; a bandgap energy of Eg = 2.44 eV was found. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Formal/Informal Dimension in Perceptions of Counselors' Dress:

The purpose of this report was to convey the consistent significance of counselors' dress in differentiating preferences for counselors among students from two races and three settings and to discuss the dimensions of dress associated with these preferences for counselors. Counselors' dress, the stimuli, were selected through procedures that avoided a priori use of the formal/informal dress dimension. Students consistently differed in their preferences for counselors wearing varying forms of attire. The results did not support the formal/informal dress dimension as a single explanation of students' differential preferences for counselors. Alternative clothing dimensions were recommended for stimuli in future research.
A randomized clinical trial of the intrapartum assessment of amniotic fluid volume: amniotic fluid index versus the single deepest pocket technique

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether an intrapartum assessment of amniotic fluid identifies a pregnancy that is at risk for an adverse outcome. Study design Parturients who were admitted for delivery were assigned randomly to have the amniotic fluid assessed either by amniotic fluid index or by the presence of a 2 × 1 pocket. Results The amniotic fluid index was obtained in 499 pregnancies, and the 2 × 1 technique was performed in 501. Oligohydramnios was diagnosed in 25% of amniotic fluid index pregnancies versus 8% with the use of the 2 × 1 pocket technique ( P P =.864) or who experienced variable ( P =.208) or late decelerations ( P =.210) that influenced delivery, fetal distress in labor ( P =.220), caesarean delivery for fetal distress ( P =.133), and admission to neonatal intensive care unit ( P =.686). Conclusion Neither the amniotic fluid index nor the 2 × 1 pocket technique that was undertaken as a fetal admission test identifies a pregnancy that is at risk for an adverse outcome.
Inguinal hernia in the newborn A 15-year review

Seventy consecutive neonates presented with inguinal hernia during a 15-year period. There were 69 males and 1 female. Fifty-one infants were born at full-term and 19 were premature. Sixty-one (87%) neonates presented as an emergency with incarverated inguinal hernia. Only 3 babies with incarceration required emergency operation and in the remaining 58 (95%) patients it was possible to reduce the incarcerated hernia manually and do an elective herniotomy. At follow-up, 3 (5%) of the boys who presented with incarceration were noted to have testicular atrophy. Contralateral inguinal exploration revealed a hernial sac or a patent processus vaginalis in 70% of babies. Two of the 6 boys who had an orchidopexy performed for cryptorchism at the time of herniotomy required a subsequent revision orchidopexy.
A Noninvasive Transcutaneous Alternative to Rectal Thermometry for Continuous Measurement of Core Temperature in the Piglet

A Noninvasive Transcutaneous Alternative to Rectal Thermometry for Continuous Measurement of Core Temperature in the Piglet
Another Successful Year for Clinical Nursing Research

This year, we launched our expansion to six issues per year! We have been able to accomplish this due to the increased number of strong manuscript submissions we have been receiving since we obtained an impact factor. We have also been successful at maintaining an impact factor over the last 3 years. We are currently ranked 62/106 in nursing with an impact factor of 0.870. This is due in part to the exceptional job our reviewers have done. We have also gone from receiving 50 manuscripts a year 6 years ago to over 130 a year. Due to this increased number of manuscripts, we have also had to make some changes in what type of manuscripts we are able to accept. Clinical Nursing Research’s (CNR) acceptance rate is now below 25%. Examples of manuscripts with less of a chance of being accepted for publication include under-powered studies, those not following the submission guidelines, international manuscripts that have not had a strong English edit, and manuscripts that do not focus on clinical research. Moving forward for next year, I would like to expand our panel of reviewers to enable us to decrease our review time for first decision from the current mean of 46 days to 30 days. This year, we started expediting decisions on submissions that were found not to be an appropriate fit or did not follow the submission guidelines. This allows authors to submit their manuscripts to a more appropriate journal in a more timely fashion. This past year, we have had manuscript submissions from 31 countries. We have published manuscripts from the following countries: Canada, China, Finland, Jordon, Korea, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States this past year. I hope to see this international representation again this year.
Continuation of the decline in prevalence of anemia in low-income infants and children in five states.

Objective. To examine whether there is a continuation of the decline in prevalence of anemia among low-income infants and children 6.0 to 59.9 months old from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. Study Design. Cross-sectional trend analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention9s Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System from the 5 states (Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont) that have been using the same laboratory method for anemia screening since 1984 or earlier. Results. The overall prevalence of anemia decreased substantially in each state from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s as follows: Colorado by 52%; New Mexico by 75%; Oklahoma by 67%; Utah by 57%; and Vermont by 48%. In each state, the prevalence of anemia declined for children of different age groups, birth weights, genders, type of pediatric care visit (screening or follow-up), and most race/ethnic groups. Conclusions. The decline in the prevalence of anemia initially observed in the 1980s continued well into the 1990s. This decline is likely attributable to better iron nutrition related to greater usage of iron-fortified products and possibly better iron bioavailability in some of the food products.
A comparison of two time intervals for test-retest reliability of health status instruments

Studies of test-retest reliability for health-related quality of life instruments have used varying intervals between test administrations. There is no evidence available to aid in the selection of the time interval between questionnaire administrations for a study of test-retest reliability for health status instruments. We compared the test-retest reliability at 2 days and 2 weeks for four knee-rating scales and the eight domains of the SF-36. Seventy patients with disorders of the knee who were in a stable state were randomly allocated to repeat the questionnaires at either 2 days or 2 weeks. There were no statistically significant differences in the test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient and limits of agreement statistics) for the two time intervals.
Quantitative evaluation of skeletal muscle defects in second harmonic generation images

Skeletal muscle pathologies cause irregularities in the normally periodic organization of the myofibrils. Objective grading of muscle morphology is necessary to assess muscle health, compare biopsies, and evaluate treatments and the evolution of disease. To facilitate such quantitation, we have developed a fast, sensitive, automatic imaging analysis software. It detects major and minor morphological changes by combining texture features and Fourier transform (FT) techniques. We apply this tool to second harmonic generation (SHG) images of muscle fibers which visualize the repeating myosin bands. Texture features are then calculated by using a Haralick gray-level cooccurrence matrix in MATLAB. Two scores are retrieved from the texture correlation plot by using FT and curve-fitting methods. The sensitivity of the technique was tested on SHG images of human adult and infant muscle biopsies and of mouse muscle samples. The scores are strongly correlated to muscle fiber condition. We named the software MARS (muscle assessment and rating scores). It is executed automatically and is highly sensitive even to subtle defects. We propose MARS as a powerful and unbiased tool to assess muscle health.
How Children Use Input to Acquire a Lexicon

The contributions of social processes and computational processes to early lexical development were evaluated. A re-analysis and review of previous research cast doubt on the sufficiency of social approaches to word learning. An empirical investigation of the relation of social-pragmatic and data-providing features of input to the productive vocabulary of sixty-three 2-year-old children revealed benefits of data provided in mother-child conversation, but no effects of social aspects of those conversations. The findings further revealed that the properties of data that benefit lexical development in 2-year-olds are quantity, lexical richness, and syntactic complexity. The nature of the computational mechanisms implied by these findings is discussed. An integrated account of the roles of social and computational processes to lexical development is proposed.
Advective effects of a reservoir flood on zooplankton abundance and dispersion

SUMMARY. 1. The diel vertical distribution and abundance of zooplankton in the Red River arm of Lake Texoma, Oklahoma-Texas, U.S.A., were examined between 25 January and 26 June 1982. 2. During periods of low river inflow, zooplankton vertical patchiness was related to wind stress. Zooplankton did not maintain distinct vertical patches under strong mixing. 3. In mid May heavy rainfall in the drainage basin increased discharge from the Red River and reduced water retention time in the reservoir. The Red River water mass entered the lake as a turbid, surface overflow plume. During this period of flooding most zooplankton populations declined and the distributions of remaining individuals deepened. Greatest population losses occurred between 0 and 7m, depths where most zooplankton had been concentrated prior to the flood. 4. A model of population dynamics based on depth specific rates of water exchange between the lake and the Red River, estimated from conductivity changes through time, accounted for the general pattern of change in zooplankton abundance and vertical dispersion.
Cutting Edge: Persistence of Transferred Lymphocyte Clonotypes Correlates with Cancer Regression in Patients Receiving Cell Transfer Therapy

The lack of persistence of transferred autologous mature lymphocytes in humans has been a major limitation to the application of effective cell transfer therapies. The results of a pilot clinical trial in 13 patients with metastatic melanoma suggested that conditioning with nonmyeloablative chemotherapy before adoptive transfer of activated tumor-reactive T cells enhances tumor regression and increases the overall rates of objective clinical responses. The present report examines the relationship between T cell persistence and tumor regression through analysis of the TCR β-chain V region gene products expressed in samples obtained from 25 patients treated with this protocol. Sequence analysis demonstrated that there was a significant correlation between tumor regression and the degree of persistence in peripheral blood of adoptively transferred T cell clones, suggesting that inadequate T cell persistence may represent a major factor limiting responses to adoptive immunotherapy.
International Human Rights Law, Global Economic Reforms, and Child Survival and Development Rights Outcomes

Are recent trends in international law supporting child rights and promoting neoliberal economic reforms complementary or contradictory? To answer this question, we identify the component parts of child rights mobilization, recent global economic reforms, and child rights outcomes to theorize the particular relationships among them. Focusing on child survival and development rights in 99 poor and middle-income countries from 1983 to 2001, we find that countries' acquiescence to established international law concerning economic rights influences the successful implementation of most of these rights, while the ratification of child rights treaties does not show an effect during the period studied. National links to child rights nongovernmental organizations are also associated with improved child rights outcomes, as is being selected to receive a loan from the World Bank (for reducing child labor and increasing immunizations). We find weak support for the hypothesis that the implementation of loan conditionalities is more deleterious for rights that are costlier to implement. We also find that achieving the goal of neoliberal economic reforms—trade openness—results in less successful implementation of most child rights outcomes considered. Finally, in a related analysis, we find that the ratification of child rights treaties, as well as the adoption and implementation of structural adjustment agreements, enhances the presence of child-related organizations within countries.
Preconditioning: a paradigm shift in the biology of myocardial ischemia

The discovery of preconditioning (PC) has arguably been the single most important development in the field of ischemic biology in the past 20 years. The significance of this phenomenon transcends cardiovascular medicine, since it is ubiquitously observed in virtually every tissue of the body. This article reviews the pathophysiology and molecular basis of myocardial PC, with particular emphasis on the late phase of this cardioprotective adaptation. The article also discusses the exploitation of late PC for the development of novel gene therapy strategies aimed at inducing a permanently preconditioned cardiac phenotype (prophylactic cardioprotection). Besides its conceptual interest, deciphering the mechanism of late PC has considerable therapeutic reverberations, since transfer of the genes that underlie late PC would be expected to emulate the salubrious effects of this response of the heart to stress.
A GA-based Systematic Message Scheduling Method for Time-Triggered CAN

CAN has been developed to become the most popular control network solution employed in the automotive industry. Time-triggered CAN (TTCAN), which achieves time-triggered behavior by implementing time-division multiple access on the CAN network standard, is an option that will form the basis of a new generation of advanced safety critical distributed systems. Considering several performance metrics, such as bandwidth utilization, an optimal message schedule must be constructed for a given message set. In this paper, we analyzed differences between sets of messages and constructed system matrix that the schedule is generated based on it. Moreover, an optimization problem is how to make event-triggered messages gain the maximum transmission times by minimizing the transmission times occupied by time-triggered messages. A GA-based systematic message scheduling method is proposed to optimize the scheduling table. We have evaluated the proposed scheduling method using experiments.
Economic Geography: Places, Networks and Flows – By Andrew Wood and Susan Roberts

Wood and Robert’s book presents an introduction to economic geography by attempting to address recent questions in the field related to globalization, uneven development, the knowledge-based econom...
Financial Distress and Corporate Risk Management: Theory & Evidence

This paper extends the current theoretical models of corporate risk-management in the presence of financial distress costs and tests the model's predictions using a comprehensive dataset. I show that the shareholders optimally engage in ex-post (i.e., after the debt issuance) risk-management activities even without a pre-commitment to do so. The model predicts a positive relation between leverage and hedging for moderately leveraged firms, which reverses for highly leveraged firms. Consistent with the theory, empirically I find a non-monotonic relation between leverage and hedging. Further, the effect of leverage on hedging is higher for firms in highly concentrated industries.
Sex and Gender Differences in Group Communication: Impact on the Facilitation Process

This article examines the potential impact of the sex and gender composition of small groups on tile facilitation process. It explores the theory and research that yield insights into how sex or gender influenices leadership emergence, examining the comparative effectiveness of female and male leaders and considering the conceptual relationship between leadership and facilitation. By reviewing past research on sex differences in leadership emergence, stereotypic perceptions of gender differences in leadership style and speech, and the gender bias of many tasks used in small group research, it argues that facilitators would benefit from studying and understanding such important theoretical constructs as role theory, structural theory, expectation states theory, and attribution theory, so as to approach the group facilitation process more thoughtfully and strategically. The article further challenges traditional task-oriented views of leadership and concludes by affirming the equal potential of males and fe...
AWE: an animated work environment for working with physical and digital tools and artifacts

We discuss the design, development, and testing of animated work environment (AWE), a novel, programmable, AWE supporting everyday human activities at work, at home, or at school in an increasingly digital society. A physical example of the emerging genre of "architectural robotics," AWE features a programmable, reconfigurable "wall," three horizontal, mobile work-surfaces, and embedded information technologies. AWE is the result of an iterative design process involving surveys, task analyses, virtual and physical prototyping, and usability testing accomplished by a transdisciplinary team of engineers, architects, sociologists, and human factors psychologists. Usability testing has demonstrated AWE's potential to enhance working life: AWE adapts to variations in complex activities involving users working in one physical place with physical and digital tools and artifacts.
Determining Sufficient Measurement Opportunities When Using Multiple Cut Scores

Many educational testing programs report examinee performance at more than two levels of proficiency. Whether these assessments have the capacity to support these multiple inferences, though, is a topic that has not been widely discussed. This study proposes a method for evaluating the minimum number of measurement opportunities for reporting students’ performance at multiple achievement levels and describes an application of the method for reading and mathematics assessments that are used by some school districts in Nebraska. Analyses were based on judgments collected from 110 teachers about characteristics of items and tasks from multiple assessments in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8, and in high school. Results suggested that there were generally enough items on the mathematics assessments to classify students into two or three performance levels, but rarely enough to make the four classifications that the state reported. Items on the reading assessments were generally distributed across the proficiency levels and tended to allow reporting for all four classification levels. These findings have implications for both practitioners and policymakers in how scores are interpreted.
A Physically-Based Dynamic Model for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Summary form only given: This paper presents a physically-based dynamic model for tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), based on the electrochemical and thermodynamic characteristics inside SOFC. The diffusion, material conservation, electrochemical and thermodynamic equations are used to develop the SOFC model. The effect of temperature on the steady-state (V-l and P-l) characteristics of the SOFC model has been studied, and the model responses have been obtained for constant fuel flow as well as constant fuel utilization operating modes. The dynamic characteristics of the model are investigated in small, medium and large time scales, from milliseconds to minutes. The model has been implemented in MATLAB/Simulinkreg and used to investigate the distributed generation applications of SOFCs.
Probing the stoichiometry of β2-adrenergic receptor phosphorylation by targeted mass spectrometry

Background Protein phosphorylation of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) is central to the myriad of functions that these ubiquitous receptors perform in biology. Although readily addressable with the use of phospho-specific antibodies, analysis phosphorylation at the level of stoichiometry requires receptor isolation and advanced proteomics. We chose two key sites of potential phosphorylation of human beta2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR residues S355 and S356) to ascertain the feasibility of applying targeted mass spectrometry to establishing the stoichiometry of the phosphorylation.
Influence of temporal heterogeneity in nitrogen supply on competitive interactions in a desert shrub community.

Soil nutrients in arid systems are supplied to plants in brief pulses following precipitation inputs. While these resource dynamics have been well documented, little is known about how this temporal heterogeneity inXuences competitive interactions. We examined the impacts of the temporal pattern of N supply on competitive intensity and ability in an N-limited desert shrub community. At our Weld site, the three codominant shrubs, Atriplex confertifolia, A. parryi, and Sarcobatus vermiculatus, diVer in seasonal growth patterns, with A. confertifolia and S. vermiculatus achieving higher growth rates earlier in the growing season than A. parryi. We predicted that these timing diVerences in maximum growth rate may interact with temporal variation in N supply to alter competitive abilities over time. Seed- lings of the two Atriplex species were planted either indi- vidually in Weld plots or as target plants surrounded by neighbor seedlings. After one year of establishment, the same amount of 15 N was applied to plots either as early spring pulses, mid spring pulses or continuously through the second growing season. Competitive eVects were observed under continuous and pulsed N supply. Averaged across all target-neighbor treatments, competitive intensity was »1.8-fold greater when N was pulsed compared to when N was supplied continuously, but overall, the out- come of competitive interactions was not inXuenced by N pulse timing. While the timing of resource supply did not diVerentially inXuence the competitive abilities of coexis- ting species in this system, the temporal pattern of resource supply did alter the intensity of competitive interactions among species. While additional studies in other systems are needed to evaluate the generality of these results, this study suggests that competitive intensity may not necessar- ily be a direct function of productivity or resource availabil- ity as traditionally assumed. Instead, the intensity of competitive interactions in resource-poor systems may depend upon the temporal pattern of resource supply.
The cytoplasmic domain mediates localization of furin to the trans-Golgi network en route to the endosomal/lysosomal system

To investigate the mechanisms of membrane protein localization to the Golgi complex, we have examined the intracellular trafficking of epitope-tagged forms of the mammalian endopeptidase, furin, in stably transformed rat basophilic leukemia cells. Our studies show that furin is predominantly localized to the trans-Golgi network (TGN) at steady state, with smaller amounts present in intracellular vesicles. Biochemical and morphological analyses reveal that furin is progressively delivered to a lysosomal compartment, where it is degraded. Analyses of furin deletion mutants and chimeric proteins show that the cytoplasmic domain is both necessary and sufficient for localization to the TGN in various cell types. Interestingly, deletion of most of the cytoplasmic domain of furin results in a molecule that is predominantly localized to intracellular vesicles, some of which display characteristics of lysosomes. To a lesser extent, the cytoplasmically deleted molecule is also localized to the plasma membrane. These observations suggest the existence of an additional determinant for targeting to the endosomal/lysosomal system within the lumenal and/or transmembrane domains of furin. Thus, the overall pattern of trafficking and steady state localization of furin are determined by targeting information contained within more than one region of the molecule.
High-dose antioxidant supplements and cognitive function in community-dwelling elderly women

Background: Experimental data suggest that oxygen free radicals are probably involved in the deterioration of cognitive processes. Objective: Our objective was to investigate the relation of highdose antioxidant supplements to cognition. Design: Information on the use of specific supplements containing vitamins E and C was collected biennially via mailed questionnaires beginning in 1980 from 14 968 community-dwelling women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study. From 1995 to 2000, telephone tests of cognitive function [Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status (TICS), delayed recall of the TICS 10-word list, immediate and delayed recall of a short paragraph, a test of verbal fluency, and a digit span backwards test] were administered to the women, who were 70‐79 y of age at that time. We used linear and logistic regression models to calculate multivariateadjusted mean differences in test scores and relative risks of a low score for specific supplement users compared with nonusers. Results: Long-term, current users of vitamin E with vitamin C had significantly better mean performance, as judged by a global score that combined individual test scores, than did women who had never used vitamin E or C (P = 0.03); there was a trend for increasingly higher mean scores with increasing durations of use (P = 0.04). These associations were strongest among women with low dietary intakes of � -tocopherol. Benefits were less consistent for women taking vitamin E alone, with no evidence of higher scores with longer durations of use. Use of specific vitamin C supplements alone had little relation to performance on our cognitive tests. Conclusion: The use of specific vitamin E supplements, but not specific vitamin C supplements, may be related to modest cognitive benefits in older women. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77:975‐84.
Understanding Organizational Transformation Using a Dissipative Structure Model

Organizational transformation, qualitative and fundamental changes in an organization, occurs as a result of an organization's adaptive mechanisms being overwhelmed by internally or externally induced contingencies. Current approaches to change derived from equilibrium models are not adequate to describe the transformation phenomena. An emerging paradigm, dissipative structure, provides an alternative perspective on transformation by proposing that non-equilibrium conditions provide the opportunity for a new organizational order, resulting in an increased ability to manage complexity. Conditions, processes, and functioning of organizations from this perspective are discussed.
Declining annual streamflow distributions in the Pacific Northwest United States, 1948–2006

[1] Much of the discussion on climate change and water in the western United States centers on decreased snowpack and earlier spring runoff. Although increasing variability in annual flows has been noted, the nature of those changes is largely unexplored. We tested for trends in the distribution of annual runoff using quantile regression at 43 gages in the Pacific Northwest. Seventy-two percent of the stations showed significant (a = 0.10) declines in the 25th percentile annualflow,withhalfofthestationsexceedinga29%decline and a maximum decline of 47% between 1948 and 2006. Fewer stations showed statistically significant declines in either median or mean annual flow, and only five had a significant change in the 75th percentile, demonstrating that increases in variance result primarily from a trend of increasing dryness in dry years. The asymmetric trends in streamflow distributions have implications for water management and ecology well beyond those of shifted timing alone, affect both rain and snow-dominated watersheds, and contribute to earlier timing trends in highelevation watersheds. Citation: Luce, C. H., and Z. A. Holden (2009), Declining annual streamflow distributions in the Pacific Northwest United States, 1948 – 2006, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L16401, doi:10.1029/2009GL039407.
Effect of volatilization of stabilizers and oxidation products on polypropylene lifetimes

Three methods of measuring thermal oxidative stability of polypropylene have been compared. The oxygen absorption and the sealed tube tests give comparable results. The polymer lifetimes in circulating oven-aging tests differ significantly from those obtained by the first two methods. The oven-aging lifetime is aparently influenced to a large extent by the volatilization of the added stabilizer and of the oxidation products, the former decreases whereas the latter increases the polymer lifetime. The optimum composition of a synergistic stabilizer system was found to vary with the test method.
Src-family and Syk Kinases in Activating and Inhibitory Pathways in Innate Immune Cells: Signaling Cross Talk

The response of innate immune cells to growth factors, immune complexes, extracellular matrix proteins, cytokines, pathogens, cellular damage, and many other stimuli is regulated by a complex net of intracellular signal transduction pathways. The majority of these pathways are either initiated or modulated by Src-family or Syk tyrosine kinases present in innate cells. The Src-family kinases modulate the broadest range of signaling responses, including regulating immunoreceptors, C-type lectins, integrins, G-protein-coupled receptors, and many others. Src-family kinases also modulate the activity of other kinases, including the Tec-family members as well as FAK and Pyk2. Syk kinase is required for initiation of signaling involving receptors that utilize immunoreceptor tyrosine activation (ITAM) domains. This article reviews the major activating and inhibitory signaling pathways regulated by these cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases, illuminating the many examples of signaling cross talk between pathways.
In-depth Analysis of Tandem Mass Spectrometry Data from Disparate Instrument Types

Mass spectrometric analyses of protein digests produce large numbers of fragmentation spectra that are not identified by routine database searching strategies. Some of these spectra could be identified by development of improved search engines. However, many of these spectra represent fragmentation of peptide components bearing modifications that are not routinely considered in database searches. Here we present new software within Protein Prospector that allows comprehensive analysis of data sets by analyzing the data at increasing levels of depth. Analysis of published data sets is presented to illustrate that the software is not biased to any instrument types. The results show that these data sets contain many modified peptides. As well as searching for known modification types, Protein Prospector permits the detection and identification of unexpected or novel modifications by searching for any mass shift within a user-specified mass range to any chosen amino acid(s). Several modifications never previously reported in proteomics data were identified in these standard data sets using this mass modification searching approach.
Design and simulation on data-forwarding security in sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are the emerging information technology for monitoring equipment and ambient conditions of production lines in modern factories. A salient feature of wireless sensor networks is that nodes can relay sensing data to a factory data centre in a multihop fashion. Existing security solutions to sensor networks focus on hop-by-hop encryption and message authentication, as the wireless medium is of an open nature. From an end-to-end perspective, a challenging security problem arises when computer hackers compromise some nodes in a network and these adversarial nodes modify or drop data packets destined to a data centre. In this paper, we propose the Secure Quasimultipath Forwarding (SQF) scheme with the novel idea of dynamic en route retransmission upon encountering adversary nodes. Modelling techniques are employed to study the impact of the data-forwarding security design on packet delivery latency and energy consumption. The simulation results demonstrate that SQF circumvents adversaries with a several-fold reduction in sensor node energy consumption, compared to the existing multipath routing method.
Pipelined approach to inverse plant plus jacobian control of robot manipulators

Pipeline techniques are used to assign the computation modules required in Inverse Plant plus Jacobian Control of robot manipulators to a multiple set of processors. With example execution times for each of the modules, the compute time, initiation rate, and CPU utilization are used to evaluate the performance. For three processors, with more than 90% CPU utilization, the compute time is reduced by more than 25% and the initiation rate is almost tripled over that of a single processor.
Induction by l-Tryptophan and an Analogue, α-Methyl-dl-Tryptophan, of the Enzymes Catabolizing l-Tryptophan in Pseudomonas

An investigation was made of the pattern of induction of the enzymes that metabolize l-tryptophan through kynurenic acid (the quinoline pathway) in Pseudomonas fluorescens. The first four enzymes in the pathway were not induced in the same proportions or in the same time courses. This lack of coordinate induction excludes a mechanism of regulation of these enzymes at a single site as proposed in the operon model. The enzymes were induced in a sequential pattern in the order of their position on the pathway, when they became the limiting reactions. The nonmetabolizable analogue, α-methyl-dl-tryptophan, caused a measurable elevation in the levels of the first three enzymes of the same pathway. Evidence is presented that growth of the cells in the presence of α-methyl-dl-tryptophan caused the accumulation of endogenous tryptophan, and that induction by the nonmetabolizable analogue is induction by the endogenous tryptophan.
Communicative Language Teaching: State of the Art

This paper looks briefly at the beginnings of what has come to be known as communicative language teaching (CLT), then discusses current issues and promising avenues of inquiry. The perspective is international. CLT is seen to be not a British, European, or U.S. phenomenon, but rather an international effort to respond to the needs of present-day language learners in many different contexts of learning. Not long ago, when American structuralist linguistics and behaviorist psychology were the prevailing influences in language teaching methods and materials, second/foreign language teachers talked about communication in terms of language skills, seen to be four: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skill categories were widely accepted and provided a ready-made framework for methods manuals, learner course materials, and teacher education programs. They were collectively described as active skills, speaking and writing, and passive skills, reading and listening. Today, listeners and readers are no longer regarded as passive. They are seen as active participants in the negotiation of meaning. Schemata, expectancies, and top-down/bottom-up processing are among the terms now used to capture the necessarily complex, interactive nature of this negotiation. Yet full and widespread understanding of communication as negotiation has been hindered by the terms that came to replace the earlier active/passive dichotomy. The skills needed to engage in speaking and writing activities were described subsequently as productive, whereas listening and reading skills were said to be receptive. While certainly an improvement over the earlier active/passive representation, the terms productive and receptive fall short of capturing the interactive nature of communication. Lost in this productive/receptive, message sending/message receiving representation is the collaborative nature of meaning making. Meaning
Selective targeting of gain-of-function KCNQ1 mutations predisposing to atrial fibrillation

Background Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in adults. We hypothesized that gain-of-function KCNQ1 mutations previously associated with familial atrial fibrillation have distinct pharmacological properties that may enable targeted inhibition. Methods and Results Wild-type (WT) KCNQ1 or the familial atrial fibrillation mutation KCNQ1-S140G was heterologously coexpressed with KCNE1 to enable electrophysiological recording of the slow delayed rectifier current ( I Ks) and investigation of pharmacological effects of the I Ks selective blocker HMR-1556. Coexpression of KCNQ1-S140G with KCNE1 generated potassium currents (S140G- I Ks) that exhibited greater sensitivity to HMR-1556 than WT- I Ks. Enhanced HMR-1556 sensitivity was also observed for another gain-of-function atrial fibrillation mutation, KCNQ1-V141M. Heteromeric expression of KCNE1 with both KCNQ1-WT and KCNQ1-S140G generated currents (HET- I Ks) with gain-of-function features, including larger amplitude, a constitutively active component, hyperpolarized voltage dependence of activation, and extremely slow deactivation. A low concentration of HMR-1556, which had little effect on WT- I Ks but was capable of inhibiting the mutant channel, reduced both instantaneous and steady state HET- I Ks to levels that were not significantly different from WT- I Ks and attenuated use-dependent accumulation of the current. In cultured adult rabbit left atrial myocytes, expression of S140G- I Ks shortened action potential duration compared with WT- I Ks. Application of HMR-1556 mitigated S140G- I Ks–induced action potential duration shortening and did not alter action potential duration in cells expressing WT- I Ks. Conclusions The enhanced sensitivity of KCNQ1 gain-of-function mutations for HMR-1556 suggests the possibility of selective therapeutic targeting, and, therefore, our data illustrate a potential proof of principle for genotype-specific treatment of this heritable arrhythmia.
The elusive rotor electrogram footprint.

This editorial refers to ‘Focal impulse and rotor modulation using the novel 64-electrode basket catheter: electrogram characteristics of human rotors’ by T. Lin et al., doi:10.1093/europace/euv282. Complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAEs) are currently being used by many laboratories as targets for atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation based on the unproven assumption that they represent the sources that maintain AF. While some published data suggest that fractionated electrograms might be related to AF drivers, many published examples show no relationship. Recently, a randomized trial Substrate and Trigger Ablation for Reduction of Atrial Fibrillation (STAR AF) 2 demonstrated no extra benefits of additional CFAE ablation over pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) alone in patients with persistent AF.1 Complex fractionated atrial electrograms are often recorded remote from AF sources confirming that electrogram fractionation reflects multiple and diverse mechanisms associated with structural, electrical, and autonomic remodelling, as well as far-field signal detection.2 Around the 1960s, an experiment that was seemingly unrelated to cardiac electrophysiology demonstrated rotors in a chemical reaction called the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction.3 Originally termed ‘reverberators’ in the former USSR, stable rotors were subsequently demonstrated in computer simulations that used reaction–diffusion equations that were similar to those used to simulate cardiac action potentials.3 This led to the idea that rotors could exist in the heart and underlie the mechanism of functional re-entry and fibrillation, which was later demonstrated to be the case thanks to the use of voltage-sensitive dyes and high-speed CCD cameras that allowed for high-resolution optical recordings (∼500 µm2 per pixel in the sheep heart) of membrane voltage changes underlying fibrillatory activity.4 Since then, the combined use of modern mapping tools and algorithms in …
Interference with Cellular Gene Expression

This chapter focuses on new advances in understanding viral inhibition of host gene expression at four levels: transcription, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, translation initiation, and manipulation of mRNA granules that store or process mRNA. Blockage of host gene expression serves multiple functions of liberating ribonucleotides, charged amino- acyl tRNAs, and ribosomal machinery for viral use and also restricting expression of innate immune response polypeptides that could counter viral replication. Further, blockage of host gene expression can hamper premature cell apoptosis and promote cell lysis after viral assembly. Recently, viral interference with RNA metabolism has been shown to extend to spliceosome assembly. Interestingly, in contrast to enteroviruses, cardioviruses appear to inhibit mRNA export, and this difference may be due to the different mechanisms utilized by these viruses to inhibit nuclear transport. In addition to the cleavages of eIF4G and PABP, which have major functional consequences, picornavirus infection leads to the proteolytic processing of other accessory translation factors that likely contribute to host cell translation shutoff. Mechanistically, various cellular stresses, such as oxidative stress, heat shock, or nutrient deprivation, induce SG formation by driving phosphorylation of eIF2α, which causes generalized translational arrest, and accumulation of mRNPs with stalled 40S ribosome subunits in stress granules (SGs). In the future, a more complete understanding of the mechanisms by which these fascinating viruses manipulate host gene expression and linkage to specific pathologies could lead to the rational design of novel antiviral drugs and therapies to combat these viruses and limit or interrupt disease progression.
How the (Pediatric) Heart Works When It Contracts: Application of Left Ventricular “Isovolumic Acceleration” as a Load-Independent Index of Contractility⁎

Pediatric cardiologists, indeed all cardiologists, are often confronted with the challenge of clinical decision-making based, in part, on assessment of systolic function. Because most indexes of systolic (or diastolic) function are load-dependent, the availability of load-independent indexes