cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Doxorubicin Attenuates Serotonin-Induced Long-Term Synaptic Facilitation by Phosphorylation of p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase

Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline used widely for cancer chemotherapy. Its primary mode of action appears to be topoisomerase II inhibition, DNA cleavage, and free radical generation. However, in non-neuronal cells, DOX also inhibits the expression of dual-specificity phosphatases (also referred to as MAPK phosphatases) and thereby inhibits the dephosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), two MAPK isoforms important for long-term memory (LTM) formation. Activation of these kinases by DOX in neurons, if present, could have secondary effects on cognitive functions, such as learning and memory. The present study used cultures of rat cortical neurons and sensory neurons (SNs) of Aplysia to examine the effects of DOX on levels of phosphorylated ERK (pERK) and phosphorylated p38 (p-p38) MAPK. In addition, Aplysia neurons were used to examine the effects of DOX on long-term enhanced excitability, long-term synaptic facilitation (LTF), and long-term synaptic depression (LTD). DOX treatment led to elevated levels of pERK and p-p38 MAPK in SNs and cortical neurons. In addition, it increased phosphorylation of the downstream transcriptional repressor cAMP response element-binding protein 2 in SNs. DOX treatment blocked serotonin-induced LTF and enhanced LTD induced by the neuropeptide Phe-Met-Arg-Phe-NH2. The block of LTF appeared to be attributable to overriding inhibitory effects of p-p38 MAPK, because LTF was rescued in the presence of an inhibitor (SB203580 [4-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-methylsulfinylphenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)-1H-imidazole]) of p38 MAPK. These results suggest that acute application of DOX might impair the formation of LTM via the p38 MAPK pathway.
Rapid determination of flunitrazepam in alcoholic beverages by desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

Desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS), a novel ambient ionization technique, was used in this study for determining flunitrazepam in various alcoholic beverages. Using this technique, no pretreatment of the samples was necessary and identification of the drug was accomplished in individual samples in minutes. In addition, the acquired mass spectra provide the information of the identity of the drink based on the detected characteristic ions from the matrices. This study also demonstrates the capability of DESI-MS to perform quantitative analysis of simulated evidence samples with a limit of quantification of 3μg/mL. Furthermore it has been shown that this method can be used for high-throughput analysis whereby six samples were analyzed in a row within 6 minutes and no observable sample carry-over was noted. DESI-MS shows potential as a rapid, sensitive, and selective technique for forensic analysis of spiked beverages which are typical evidence of drug facilitated sexual assault and robbery cases.
Direct determination of neutrino mass

The sum of the masses of the three neutrino mass eigenstates is now constrained both from above and below, and lies between 55 and 6900 meV. The lower limit is set by neutrino oscillations and the fact that masses are non-negative. The upper limit is set by laboratory measurements on the beta decay of tritium. These determinations share a common characteristic of being essentially model independent, or "direct". The clustering on large scales in the universe depends on this quantity, and, within the framework of ?CDM cosmology, favors a mass sum below about 600 meV. In this article, the laboratory approach to neutrino mass via beta decay is emphasized, particularly an experiment now under construction, KATRIN, on the beta decay of tritium. Another candidate beta-active nuclide, 187Re, offers an advantage in phase space but calls for a very different experimental approach.
Impact of conversion to Critical Access Hospital status on hospital efficiency

Abstract This study examines the impact of Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program on hospital efficiency using a two-stage approach, where data envelopment analysis is used in the first stage to estimate cost, technical, and allocative efficiency scores of a sample of rural hospitals. Densities of efficiency scores of CAHs and prospectively paid rural hospitals are estimated and compared using a nonparametric kernel density estimator and a bootstrap-based test. In the second stage, efficiency scores are regressed on environmental variables using bootstrapped truncated regressions. Density analysis and results from bootstrapped truncated regressions show that CAHs are less cost and allocatively efficient compared to prospectively paid rural hospitals, without being less technically efficient. Relative to their pre-conversion selves, CAHs appear to be slightly less allocatively efficient, while they are slightly more technically efficient and no less cost efficient. Overall, our results suggest that the CAH Program may have decreased the allocative and cost efficiencies of those rural hospitals that converted to CAH status relative to prospectively paid rural hospitals, without significantly increasing their technical efficiency.
Unifying Electrostatic Mechanism for Phosphates and Sulfates in Cell Signaling

Prior proposals suggested the importance of electrochemistry in signal transduction and receptor-ligand activity. Electrostatic fields associated with ions and dipoles were assigned important roles. Little is known concerning the precise mode of action in cell signaling by widespread phosphorylation. According to the hypothetical framework, molecular electrostatic potential associated with phosphate anion is a key element as a link in the communication grid, possibly inducing favorable energetics in the electron transfer process. Similar involvement appears plausible for the sulfate anion. Supporting evidence for the electrostatic mechanism is presented. Representative literature on phosphorylation in the biological domain is reviewed with emphasis on cell signaling. The treatment includes phosphates from protein, lipids, and other molecules, plus the role of reactive oxygen species. Protein sulfation is also discussed.
Stereochemistry of β-diketone complexes of cobalt(III). VIII. Optical activity of (β-diketonato)bisethylenediaminecobalt(III) cations

Abstract The complexes, [Coen 2 dik] 2+ , where dik equals the anion of 2,4-pentanedione, 2,4-hexanedione, 1-triluomethyl-1,4-butanedione, 1-carboxyethyl-2-propanone, and 1-carboxyethyl-acetophenone, were resolved using sodium (+)-arsenyltartrate. The absorption, ORD and CD spectra of (+)[Coen 2 dik] 2+ were recorded in the ultraviolet and visible region and the electronic transitions assigned. The absolute configuration of the complexes is assigned as Λ. The origin of the ultraviolet absorption of β-diketone complexes of cobalt(III) is discussed and a new assignment scheme is proposed.
New Directions in the Use of Remotely Sensed Data for Cumulative Impact Assessment

Consideration of cumulative effects as part of the environmental impact assessment process is seen as an essential element to ensure a complete determination of impact significance. These effects, ...
Packaging of plasmid DNA containing the cohesive ends of coliphage lambda.

Abstract High yields of ColE1::Tn3- cos λ plasmid genomes packaged in phage λ virions (2·10 9 per ml) are produced by thermal induction of E. coli W3350 ( λc I 857S7 ) lysogens carrying the plasmid DNA. The plasmid DNA is packaged in the linear form, with the right m′ terminus of λ being associated with the λ tail.
RESTRAINING AUTO IMPORTS : DOES ANYONE WIN?

The conventional wisdom suggests that import restraints help the protected domestic industry at the expense of consumers. In the longer term, however, trade restraint may encourage foreign firms to adopt new and more threatening business strategies, such as upgrading the quality of their products or moving plants to the United States. If these long-term dynamic effects of restraint are considered, trade restraints may prove harmful to the domestic industry as well as consumers.
Scanning Patterns in Real-Time Flir Displays

Scanning behavior was investigated in a target acquisition task using video-taped forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery. Comparisons in both target acquisition performance and scan patterns were made between trained FLIR operators and college students with no prior exposure to FLIR. For both groups the sequence of fixations and the distribution of fixation densities were different for each scene and dependent on its specific content. Subjects appeared to systematically explore areas within a scene in terms of some estimate of the probability of a target being present. The eye data may reflect group differences of two types. First, the priorities assigned by each group to various areas were apparently different and secondly, the FLIR operators apparently were able to make a "target, no target" decision more quickly at each fixation as reflected in the typically shorter fixation times. Language: en
Autonomous Coordination of Aircraft Formations Using Direct and Nearest-Neighbor Approaches

Two approaches are developed for autonomous coordination of aircraft formations. The development of the approaches relies on past work in the areas of distributed control (modal, robust, optimal, and decentralized). The formation coordination problem is divided into a tracking problem (changing the formation) and a regulation problem (maintaining the formation). How to separate the spatial parts of the tracking problem from the temporal parts is demonstrated. With respect to the regulation problem, it is shown that the goal of the regulation problem is to dampen uniformly the motion of the aircraft. It is pointed out that for fuel-optimality the closed-loop damping factors of the aircraft need to be less than π/2. Two types of decentralized coordination are examined: direct coordination (using inertial measurements) and nearest-neighbor coordination (using relative measurements). A perturbation analysis is developed for the efficient calculation of control gains that minimize power and uniformly dampen motion. A numerical example illustrates robust formation changes from nine-aircraft (3 × × 3) grids to V-type formations. Why the performance of direct coordination is generally better than the performance of nearestneighbor coordination and why implementing direct coordination is simpler than implementing nearest-neighbor coordination are explained. However, nearest-neighbor coordination can be used in collision avoidance, and so it must still be considered as a viable option.
A Prospective Case-Control Study of Lipoprotein(a) Levels and Apo(a) Size and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Stanford Five-City Project Participants

Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is formed by the assembly of LDL particles and a carbohydrate-rich protein, apolipoprotein(a) [apo(a)], which has a high degree of structural homology with plasminogen. While the majority of retrospective studies have found an association between Lp(a) level and cardiovascular disease (CVD), the few prospective studies to date have reported contradictory results. We conducted a nested case-control study using the participants in the Stanford Five-City Project, a long-term CVD prevention trial. Participants with an incident possible or definite myocardial infarction or coronary death were matched to a single control subject for age, sex, ethnicity, residence in a treatment or control city, and time of survey. This process yielded 134 case-control pairs, 90 male and 44 female, for whom plasma was available for analysis of Lp(a). Lp(a) values in nanomoles per liter were determined by an enzyme-linked immunoassay that measures Lp(a) independently of apo(a) size polymorphism. Apo(a) size isoforms were determined by SDS–agarose gel electrophoresis. Median Lp(a) level in male cases was almost double that in control subjects (41.8 versus 21.2 nmol/L; P <.01); in female cases, median Lp(a) was 34% higher than in control subjects (32.5 versus 21.2 nmol/L), but this difference was not statistically significant. Among the male cases, there was an increased frequency of small apo(a) isoforms, while no significant difference was found in apo(a) size between female cases and control subjects. The association between Lp(a) level and case-control status in men was independent of total, HDL, and non-HDL cholesterol levels, as well as apo(a) size isoform, cigarette smoking, blood pressure, and obesity. In men, the most efficient threshold value of Lp(a) concentration for separating cases and control subjects was 35 nmol/L; the odds ratio for being a case above this level compared with below was 2.84 (95% confidence interval: 1.53-5.27, P <.001). This study provides strong evidence that Lp(a) level is a prospective, independent risk factor for developing coronary artery disease in men and indicates that the size of apo(a) may also play a role. The lack of a significant association in women deserves further evaluation in larger studies.
Mild hypothermia protects auditory function during cochlear implant surgery.

Objective/hypothesis Loss of auditory function after cochlear implant (CI) electrode insertion occurs in two stages in the laboratory rat. An immediate loss is followed by a progressive loss over 7 days. Similar stages of acute and progressive neuronal loss occur after trauma in the central nervous system where hypothermia has been shown to have a protective effect. We hypothesize that hypothermia has a similar protective effect against loss of auditory function caused by CI electrode insertion trauma. Methods Thirty rats underwent surgery in one cochlea; the contralateral ear was an unoperated control. In the normothermia group, CI electrode insertion trauma was generated with rectal temperature maintained at 37 degrees C throughout the experiment. In the mild hypothermia group, electrode trauma was generated with rectal temperature lowered to 34 degrees C. In the surgical control group, mock surgery was performed at 37 degrees C. Multiple frequency auditory brainstem response (ABR) and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) testing of all ears was performed before surgery, immediately afterward, and on postoperative days 3, 5, and 7. Results Both ABR and DPOAE testing demonstrated partial loss of auditory function after electrode insertion trauma. However, the hypothermia group had significantly less functional loss in the immediate stage and no significant loss in the progressive stage. Conclusion Mild hypothermia protects auditory function during CI electrode insertion.
Mutations in the hepatocyte nuclear factor-1α gene in maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY3)

The disease non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is characterized by abnormally high blood glucose resulting from a relative deficiency of insulin. It affects about 2% of the world's population and treatment of diabetes and its complications are an increasing health-care burden. Genetic factors are important in the aetiology of NIDDM, and linkage studies are starting to localize some of the genes that influence the development of this disorder. Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), a single-gene disorder responsible for 2-5% of NIDDM, is characterized by autosomal dominant inheritance and an age of onset of 25 years or younger. MODY genes have been localized to chromosomes 7, 12 and 20 (refs 5, 7, 8) and clinical studies indicate that mutations in these genes are associated with abnormal patterns of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. The gene on chromosome 7 (MODY2) encodes the glycolytic enzyme glucokinases which plays a key role in generating the metabolic signal for insulin secretion and in integrating hepatic glucose uptake. Here we show that subjects with the MODY3-form of NIDDM have mutations in the gene encoding hepatocyte nuclear factor-1alpha (HNF-1alpha, which is encoded by the gene TCF1). HNF-1alpha is a transcription factor that helps in the tissue-specific regulation of the expression of several liver genes and also functions as a weak transactivator of the rat insulin-I gene.
Self-clustering recurrent networks

It is shown, based on empirical analyses, that second-order recurrent neural networks which are trained to learn finite state automata (FSAs) tend to form discrete clusters as the state representation in the hidden unit activation space. This observation is used to define self-clustering networks which automatically extract discrete state machines from the learning network. To address the problem of instability a network structure is introduced, whereby the network uses quantization in the feedback path to force the learning of discrete states. Experimental results show that the method learns FSAs just as well as existing methods in the literature but with the significant advantage of being stable on test strings of arbitrary length. >
Emotional and behavioural problems experienced by children living in single‐parent families: A pilot study

This study compared the prevalence of emotional and behavioural problems experienced by 10-11 year old and 14-15 year old children living in single-parent and two-parent families in South Australia. The 10-11 year old male children living in single-parent families were found to have significantly more emotional and behavioural problems than 10-11 year old male children living in two-parent families. In particular, the younger male children living in single-parent families experienced more externalizing behaviour problems than younger male children living in two-parent families. It is suggested that paediatricians and general practitioners need to be aware of children who are at particular risk for developing emotional and behavioural problems, and the approaches which may be employed to provide help.
The Colonial State and Wage Labor in Postwar Sierra Leone, 1945–1960: Attempts at Remaking the Working Class

The elaborate “remaking” of the African working class that took off in earnest in the period after 1945 has only recently begun to receive the attention of scholars working on African labor and working-class history. This process of remaking, as in nineteenth-century England, essentially involved the incorporation of the African working class into a system of industrial relations which would guarantee it a stake in society with regard to jobs, wages, housing, and general working conditions.
STEREOTROPISM IN RATS AND MICE

Typical stereotropic orientation toward a lateral surface of contact is obtained in young rats and mice, and with adult mice congenitally blind. Removal of vibrissae or tail or both does not essentially affect this response. Equal contact on both sides of the body prevents orientation toward either source of contact. Unequal contact areas on the two sides leads to orientation toward the more extensive contact. This behavior very exactly parallels the stereotropic conduct of arthropods, and thus provides a fairly complete instance of a tropism in mammals.
Magnesium Nutrition of Two Species of Sunflower

Helianthus annuus L., the common cultivated sunflower, and Helianthus bolanderi Gray subspecies exilis Heiser, a form endemic on serpentine soils, were grown in culture solutions with widely varying Mg levels. For comparable development, H. bolanderi exilis required higher levels of Mg in the solution than H. annuus, both in the range of visual deficiency symptoms and in higher ranges.With 0.5 mm Ca in the solutions, H. annuus reached a plateau in yield in the range of 0.25 to 2.0 mm Mg in the solution, then declined in weight markedly as Mg was increased further. This decline was probably caused by the marked "luxury" consumption of Mg. Conversely, H. bolanderi exilis increased steadily in yield as Mg was raised up to 10 mm and tolerated up to 50 mm Mg in the solution with only about 30% decline in yield. The increasing yield of H. bolanderi exilis in solutions of increasing Mg level is attributable to the steadily rising Mg content of the plants. A high level of external Mg is apparently needed to bring internal Mg to the sufficiency range. This characteristic of the species also serves to obviate luxury consumption of Mg, thus contributing to its tolerance of very high external levels of this ion.
Giant Choroidal Nevus: Clinical Features and Natural Course in 322 Cases

Purpose Evaluation of clinical features and natural course of giant choroidal nevi (diameter ≥10 mm). Design Retrospective observational case series. Participants We included 322 eyes of 322 patients. Methods Clinic-based study of tumor features, tumor outcome, and vision outcome. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to assess time to transformation into melanoma. Cox proportional hazards regressions evaluated clinical factors predictive of nevus transformation into melanoma and nevus-related decreased vision (defined as Main Outcome Measures Transformation of giant choroidal nevus into melanoma and nevus-related decreased vision. Results A medical record review of 4100 patients diagnosed with choroidal nevus identified 322 (8%) giant choroidal nevi. Median nevus basal diameter was 11 mm (range, 10–24). Median thickness was 1.9 mm (range, 0–4.4). Related retinal findings included drusen overlying nevus (n = 261 [81%]), subretinal fluid (n = 26 [8%]), orange pigment (n = 4 [1%]), retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) detachment (n = 6 [2%]), hyperplasia (n = 48 [15%]), fibrous metaplasia (n = 48 [15%]), atrophy (n = 63 [20%]), or trough (n = 6 [2%]). Kaplan–Meier analysis estimated transformation into melanoma in 13% at 5 years and 18% at 10 years. Multivariate analyses revealed factors predictive of transformation into melanoma including involvement or close proximity to the foveola ( P = 0.017) and acoustic hollowness ( P = 0.052). Nevus-related decreased vision was found in 2.2% of eyes at initial visit and 3.7% at final visit (median 41 and mean 61 months follow-up). Factors associated with nevus-related decreased vision at initial visit included subretinal fluid ( P = 0.001), involvement or close proximity to foveola ( P = 0.005), RPE detachment ( P = 0.033), and nevus-related choroidal neovascular membrane ( P = 0.044). Factors predictive of nevus-related decreased vision at final visit included involvement or close proximity to the foveola ( P = 0.001) and presence of symptoms at the initial visit ( P = 0.032). Conclusions Giant choroidal nevi can clinically resemble choroidal melanoma but show features of chronicity, such as overlying drusen and RPE alterations. Over time, 18% transformed into melanoma, underscoring the importance of life-long surveillance. Financial Disclosure(s) The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any of the materials discussed in this article.
Design and Implementation of a Real Time Planning System for Autonomous Robots

This work proposes a system design for real time planning for autonomous robots and aims to develop a soccer team for robot-soccer competitions. The robotic soccer environment is multiagent and both cooperative and competitive goals are available. Domain independent planners are used in order to benefit from their advantages. The planner system is implemented in Java and uses the FastForward planner. The implementation was tested in the TeamBots environment against four different teams. The results show that after sufficient number of runs if the planning engine stores the top requested 1000 plans in the reactive planning module, it returns plans immediately 95 percent of the time which enables our system to behave as a real time planning system.
Waveform modelling of teleseismic S, Sp, SsPmP, and shear-coupled PL waves for crust- and upper-mantle velocity structure beneath Africa

SUMMARY We describe a waveform modelling technique and demonstrate its application to determine the crust- and upper-mantle velocity structure beneath Africa. Our technique uses a parallelized reflectivity method to compute synthetic seismograms and fits the observed waveforms by a global optimization technique based on a Very Fast Simulated Annealing (VFSA). We match the S, Sp, SsPmP and shear-coupled PL phases in seismograms of deep (200–800 km), moderate-to-large magnitude (5.5–7.0) earthquakes recorded teleseismically at permanent broad-band seismic stations in Africa. Using our technique we produce P- and S-wave velocity models of crust and upper mantle beneath Africa. Additionally, our use of the shear-coupled PL phase, wherever observed, improves the constraints for lower crust- and upper-mantle velocity structure beneath the corresponding seismic stations. Our technique retains the advantages of receiver function methods, uses a different part of the seismogram, is sensitive to both P- and S-wave velocities directly, and obtains helpful constraints in model parameters in the vicinity of the Moho. The resulting range of crustal thicknesses beneath Africa (21–46 km) indicates that the crust is thicker in south Africa, thinner in east Africa and intermediate in north and west Africa. Crustal P- (4.7–8 km s−1) and S-wave velocities (2.5–4.7 km s−1) obtained in this study show that in some parts of the models, these are slower in east Africa and faster in north, west and south Africa. Anomalous crustal low-velocity zones are also observed in the models for seismic stations in the cratonic regions of north, west and south Africa. Overall, the results of our study are consistent with earlier models and regional tectonics of Africa.
"A New Era": The Limits of Engineering Expertise in a Post-9/11 World

In early 2002, just months after the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Henry Petroski declared that the destruction of the towers "signaled the beginning of a new era in the planning, design, construction, and use of skyscrapers." Building professionals and their work have surely been affected by the events of that day. Ironically, one lesson reinforced by the fall of the towers is that engineers cannot control the entirety of any engineering project. This reality raises questions about professional responsibility as it relates to risk, vulnerability, and uncertainty. This paper discusses the implications of this new era for engineering practice and education.
Stock Index Futures Trading and Volatility in International Equity Markets

This article examines stock market volatility before and after the introduction of equity-index futures trading in twenty-five countries, using various models that account for asynchronous data, conditional heteroskedasticity, asymmetric volatility responses, and the joint dynamics of each country’s index with the world-market portfolio. We found that futures trading is related to an increase in conditional volatility in the United States and Japan, but in nearly every other country, we found either no significant effect or a volatility-dampening effect. This result appears to be robust to model specification and is corroborated by further analysis of the relationship between volatility, trading volume, and open interest in stock futures. An increase in conditional covariance between country-specific and world returns
Continuous Contour Mapping in Sensor Networks

A contour map is a useful data representation schema that can be used for monitoring tasks involving wireless sensor networks . This paper reports the development of an algorithm (CCM) for continuous contour mapping that is more energy-efficient than straightforward spatial or temporal suppression algorithms. A subset of contour nodes is chosen to report to the sink, such that no significant contour information is lost. Experiments are reported showing that, depending on node density, our algorithm provides an average reduction of 60% on the total amount of report data, compared to the baseline spatial suppression algorithm. This reduction is achieved while at the same time maintaining accuracy with respect to the monitored source.
Ion microprobe study of the pomozdino and peramiho eucrites

— Electron and ion microprobe measurements of major, minor, and trace element concentrations were made in individual grains of pyroxene, plagioclase, and Ca phosphates in Pomozdino and Peramiho, two eucrites previously classified as anomalous. Although Pomozdino pyroxene is highly magnesian, minor and trace element concentrations in both pyroxene and plagioclase of this meteorite are similar to those in other noncumulate eucrites. High incompatible element concentrations (similar to those in Stannern) coupled with mg# typical of cumulate eucrites confirm the anomalous character of this meteorite but do not allow us to distinguish unequivocally between different possible modes of origin. Peramiho has mg# and trace element concentrations similar to main group eucrites, indicating that this meteorite most probably belongs to this group. A previously reported low incompatible element concentration for Peramiho may be due to a sampling problem.
Characterizing the dynamic nature of the Yersinia pestis periplasmic proteome in response to nutrient exhaustion and temperature change

The periplasmic proteome of Yersinia pestis strain KIM6+ was characterized using differential 2-DE display of proteins isolated from several subcellular fractions. Circa 160 proteins were designated as periplasmic, including 62 (putative) solute-binding proteins of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters (SBPs) and 46 (putative) metabolic enzymes. More than 30 SBPs were significantly increased in abundance during stationary phase cell growth, compared to the exponential phase. The data suggest that nutrient exhaustion in the stationary phase triggers cellular responses resulting in the induced expression of numerous ABC transporters, which are responsible for the import of solutes/nutrients. Limited availability of inorganic phosphate (P(i)) also caused dramatic proteomic changes. Nine proteins were functionally linked to the mobilization and import of three small molecules (P(i), phosphonate and glycerol-3-phosphate) and accounted for nearly half of the total protein mass in the periplasm of P(i)-starved cells. When cells were grown at 26 degrees C versus 37 degrees C, corresponding to ambient temperatures in the flea vector and mammalian hosts, respectively, several periplasmic proteins with no known roles in the Y. pestis life cycle were strongly altered in abundance. This included a putative nitrate/sulfonate/bicarbonate-specific SBP (Y1004), encoded by the virulence-associated plasmid pMT1 and increased in abundance at 37 degrees C.
The application of engineered liver tissues for novel drug discovery.

Introduction: Drug-induced liver injury remains a major cause of drug attrition. Furthermore, novel drugs are being developed for treating liver diseases. However, differences between animals and humans in liver pathways necessitate the use of human-relevant liver models to complement live animal testing during preclinical drug development. Microfabrication tools and synthetic biomaterials now allow for the creation of tissue subunits that display more physiologically relevant and long-term liver functions than possible with declining monolayers.Areas covered: The authors discuss acellular enzyme platforms, two-dimensional micropatterned co-cultures, three-dimensional spheroidal cultures, microfluidic perfusion, liver slices and humanized rodent models. They also present the use of cell lines, primary liver cells and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocyte-like cells in the creation of cell-based models and discuss in silico approaches that allow integration and modeling of the datasets fro...
A Note on the Interdependence between Hypothesis Generation and Information Search in Conducting Analytical Procedures

This study examines the linkage among the initial hypothesis set, the information search, and decision performance in performing analytical procedures. We manipulated the quality of the initial hypothesis set and the quality of the information search to investigate the extent to which deficiencies (or benefits) in either process can be remedied (or negated) by the other phase. The hypothesis set manipulation entailed inheriting a correct hypothesis set, inheriting an incorrect hypothesis set, or generating a hypothesis set. The information search was manipulated by providing a balanced evidence set to auditors (i.e., evidence on a range of likely causes including the actual cause - analogous to a standard audit program) or asking them to conduct their own search. One hundred and two auditors participated in the study. The results show that auditors who inherit a correct hypothesis set and receive balanced evidence performed better than those who inherit a correct hypothesis set and did their own search, as well as those who inherited an incorrect hypothesis set and were provided a balanced evidence set. The former performance difference arose because auditors who conducted their own search were found to do repeated testing of non-errors and truncated their search. This suggests that having a correct hypothesis set does not ensure that a balanced testing strategy is employed, which, in turn, diminishes part of the presumed benefits of a correct hypothesis set. The latter performance difference was attributable to auditors' failure to generate new hypotheses when they received evidence about a hypothesis that was not in the current hypothesis set. This demonstrates that balanced evidence does not fully compensate for having an initial incorrect hypothesis set. These findings suggest the need for firm training and/or decision aids to facilitate both a balanced information search and an iterative hypothesis generation process.
Symbolic nearest mean classifiers

The minimum-distance classifier summarizes each class with a prototype and then uses a nearest neighbor approach for classification. Three drawbacks of the original minimum-distance classifier are its inability to work with symbolic attributes, weigh attributes, and learn more than a single prototype for each class. The proposed solutions to these problems include defining the mean for symbolic attributes, providing a weighting metric, and learning several possible prototypes for each class. The learning algorithm developed to tackle these problems, SNMC, increases classification accuracy by 10% over the original minimum-distance classifier and has a higher average generalization accuracy than both C4.5 and PEBLS on 20 domains from the UCI data repository.
Type II diabetes disparities in diverse women: the potential roles of body composition, diet and physical activity

The rates of diabetes in the USA are rapidly increasing, and vary widely across different racial/ethnic groups. This paper explores the potential contribution of body composition, diet and physical activity in explaining diabetes disparities across women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. For body composition, racial/ethnic groups differ widely by BMI, distribution of body mass and quantity and type of adipose tissue. Dietary patterns that vary across race/ethnicity include consumption of meat, added sugars, high-glycemic carbohydrates and fast food. Additionally, physical activity patterns of interest include aerobic versus muscle-strengthening exercises, and the purpose of physical activity (leisure, occupation, or transportation). Overall, these variables provide a partial picture of the source of these widening disparities, and could help guide future research in addressing and reducing diabetes disparities.
DSP education by fixed-point implementation & measurement

Analysis and design of a digital filter, implemented with fixed-point arithmetic, provides students with opportunities to apply and integrate a large variety of concepts. They also learn about various applications and trade-offs. Evaluating the performance of the resulting nonlinear system against the desired response presents interesting choices regarding the utility of various discrete-time measurement approaches. As digital filters are often subsystems in an analog processing chain, it makes sense to measure digital filter performance using analog domain measurements. Measuring performance in real time brings out timing issues not encountered in the discrete-time performance measurements. The re-development of a useful framework for the implementation of such a design experience, using a modern USB-interfaced processor, has provided the additional learning experience that assembly language programming still has its place.
Microhardness of Thin SIO2 Films On Silicon.

Hardness properties of CVD SiO2, films deposited on silicon substrates are investigated by microindentation techniques. It is found that the hardness of these films is sensitive to the thermal histories and doping and is less influenced by the residual stress levels.
Research Progress on Concern and Support of Patients with HIV /AIDS

The transmission and epidemic situation of the HIV/AIDS has caused serious harm to the social economy.Considering to the financial burden of the HIV/AIDS patients,the "emotion cure method" cannot be neglected.Tightening up the management,the concern and the treatment to the infected individuals will be the most important measure in preventing AIDS,as well as the main way to improve the patients ' life quality.Since the late 1980s to early 1990s,the community-based support and care program had been carried out in some western countries,it had formed a practical system to concern the infected individuals with more extensive range.frica is the heaviest disaster area of HIV/AIDS.The local government,NGO,individual,groups,special organs are joining the community-based support and care program to give the infected individuals adequate humanitarian support from the spiritual and material.China formulated the "Four Frees and One Care" policy in 2003,to call upon the society to pay more concern to the HIV/AIDS patients,and great progress has been made in preventing the AIDS.
Medical Savings Accounts and Risk Segmentation

proposal. Gone is the aspect of MSAs that would use tax-sheltered contributions and earnings to accumulate savings for retirement or to replace Medicare-the gist of Goodman’s original proposal that gave it its distinctive features. Not that Goodman has abandoned those ideas, but he has not brought Pauly around to them in this paper. So, in the end, Pauly has not endorsed MSAs, only tax-neutrality, while Goodman, at least temporarily, has set aside his abhorrence of managed care. Nevertheless, between the two, we may have the most technically appealing and politically feasible of all market-based, incremental reform ideas. As with almost all of Pauly’s proposals, this one is technically flawless, but that is in part because he and Goodman duck the tough questions of how exactly to construct the transition rules and how to prevent gaming and opportunism as particular groups and individuals decide whether and how to convert to the new tax credit.
Data Mining in Psychiatric Research

Mathematical sciences and computational methods have found new applications in fields like medicine over the last few decades. Modern data acquisition and data analysis protocols have been of great assistance to medical researchers and clinical scientists. Especially in psychiatry, technology and science have made new computational methods available to assist the development of predictive modeling and to identify diseases more accurately. Data mining (or knowledge discovery) aims to extract information from large datasets and solve challenging tasks, like patient assessment, early mental disease diagnosis, and drug efficacy assessment. Accurate and fast data analysis methods are very important, especially when dealing with severe psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia. In this paper, we focus on computational methods related to data analysis and more specifically to data mining. Then, we discuss some related research in the field of psychiatry.
Nursing care for patients undergoing transoral robotic surgery.

Abstract Otorhinolaryngologists began developing new operative techniques to minimize open surgical resections of the head and neck. While striving to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with head and neck surgery and decrease the many psychosocial issues facing these patients, a new procedure defined as Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) was developed. With the development of new surgical techniques, nursing care must also change to meet the needs of the patient. As the TORS procedure becomes fully defined, so is nursing's role in the care of the patient. This paper aims to define TORS and discuss the nursing care of the patient undergoing this new surgical procedure.
Population genomics of Sociable Weavers Philetairus socius reveals considerable admixture among colonies

The evolution of sociality often leads to genetic structuring among groups and alters the evolutionary forces that the groups experience. Describing the genetic structuring of social species is, therefore, necessary to understand the selective forces that act on a species. While recent work has used genomic methods to investigate population structure in eusocial insects, relatively little genomic work has examined population structure in the largest non-human mammal and avian clades. We delimited population genetic structuring in Sociable Weavers (Philetairus socius), a passerine that lives in large, stable, perennial colonies, using the genotyping-by-sequencing approach to generate a dataset of several thousand SNPs. We used the SNPs to estimate genetic structuring within and among eight nests. While we document relatively low levels of genetic structuring among nests, the structuring was not explained by distance between nests. We also found significantly higher structuring among male Sociable Weavers compared to female weavers, suggesting that female Sociable Weavers are more prone to dispersal in this species. Not all nests represent distinct genetic groups according to Bayesian clustering analysis, which is unsurprising given the low differentiation among nests, especially compared to other social species. In almost all colonies there was less heterozygosity than expected, possibly due to reproductive skew within each colony.
Stabilizing operations on the foot; a study of the indications, techniques used, and end results.

1. An evaluation of 305 foot stabilizations, based on anatomical and functional end results, shows that stabilization was successful in 82 per cent. of the cases. Residual deformity or pseudarthrosis accounted for fifty-one of fifty-five failures. Over two-thirds of the residual deformities resulted from undercorrection at the time of operation. Listed in order of frequency, removal of the plaster before solid fusion had occurred, failure to align the foot with the ankle joint, pseudarthrosis, and loss of position in plaster or at the change of plaster were much more common as the causes of recurrence of deformity than muscle imbalance. 2. The results were more successful when three joints were resected. Mid-tarsal wedge osteotomy resulted in the highest percentage of failure and did not correct the foot varus. 3. Stabilization done on children up to and including eight years of age produced 47 per cent. of failures. In the group from nine to eleven years, inclusive, the results were as good as those in the series as a whole. 4. Varus and drop-foot were the most frequent deformities that remained undercorrected. Stabilization, with the exception of panarthrodesis, cannot be expected to correct drop-foot. 5. Pseudarthrosis occurred in 18 per cent. of the cases. Approximately one-fifth of the patients had such severe pain that a rating of failure was mandatory. In the fifty-six pseudarthroses, 89 per cent. were at the talonavicular joint. 6. Three-quarters of the revision procedures produced satisfactory results, indicating that repeated intervention was justified. 7. Measurement of the foot which had been operated upon disclosed that it averaged eleven-sixteenths of an inch shorter than the foot which had not been operated upon. The same foot-length discrepancy was present in eighty patients who had been operated upon before the age of twelve years. 8. These operations have been employed for many conditions, but by far the most common, in order of frequency, were poliomyelitis, spastic paralysis, Friedreich's ataxia, congenital club-foot, and painful flat-foot.
Countably Compact and Sequentially Compact Spaces

Publisher Summary The chapter presents the basic theory, examples, and techniques of countable compactness and sequential compactness. A space X is called sequentially compact if every sequence in X has a convergent subsequence. A space X is called countably compact if sequence in X has a cluster point. A space X is called totally countably compact if every sequence f in X has a subsequence f | A whose range is contained in a compact subset of X. A space X is called ω-bounded if for every sequence f in X, the range of f is contained in a compact subset of X. The properties of filter bases can be defined as follows: (1) they can be sequentially compact, wherein every countably filter base has a finer countable filter base that is convergent; (2) they can be countably compact, wherein every countable filter base has an adherent point, (3) they can be ω-bounded, in which every filter base on a countable set has an adherent point, and (4) they can be totally countably compact, wherein every countable filter base has a finer countable filter base which is total.
Patient considerations in the management of chronic constipation: focus on prucalopride.

Chronic constipation is a common condition that significantly impacts health care utilization, productivity, and quality of life. Laxatives are commonly used, although often insufficient in restoring normal bowel function or providing adequate relief. There remains a significant need for the development of novel agents to optimize treatment of this condition. This review provides an overview of the preclinical and clinical trial data, supporting the efficacy and safety of prucalopride, a highly selective 5-HT4 receptor agonist that has been approved by the European Medicine Agency for the treatment of chronic constipation in adults who have failed standard laxative therapy. Unlike older 5-HT4 agonists, prucalopride has not been associated with adverse cardiovascular side effects or QT prolongation owing to its high selectivity and affinity for the 5-HT4 receptor without clinically significant cross-reactivity at the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channel or 5-HT receptor subtypes that have previously been implicated in adverse cardiovascular events and arrhythmias. Careful safety assessments have documented the relative safety and tolerability of this agent in various patient groups. Focus has also been placed on demonstrating efficacy with regard to bowel function, symptoms, and patient-reported outcomes such as the Patient Assessment of Constipation-Symptoms and the Patient Assessment of Constipation Quality of Life scores to support the use of prucalopride as a safe and effective therapeutic option for the management of chronic constipation.
A Florentine in in Paris: The Caselli pantelegraph and its successors, 1859–1871

The world's first commercial facsimile service began between Paris and Lyon in 1865, reflecting a conjunction of good design, superb craftsmanship, need for a faster alternative to Morse telegraphy, and imperial patronage. Although technological and economic shortcomings stopped Abbe Caselli's pantelegraphs in 1867, the French telegraph administration tested other fax systems to increase the speed and accuracy of telegram service. Facsimile machines proved faster than conventional Morse machines, but the automatic printing telegraph was even faster and less expensive. Other countries faced similar challenges with telegraphy, but patronage and craftsmanship distinguished facsimile in France.