cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Studies on nucleic acid reassociation kinetics: V. Effects of disparity in tracer and driver fragment lengths

Measurements are described of the kinetics of nucleic acid strand pair reassociation where the complementary strands are of different lengths and are present in different concentrations. Rate constants for the reaction of labelled fragments ("tracer") with excess complementary strands ("driver") were determined, both for driver fragment length greater than tracer fragment length and for the reverse case. Second order reactions and pseudo-first order reactions utilizing strand separated drivers and tracers were studied. The nucleic acids which served for this investigation were phiX174 DNA and RNA, plasmid RSF2124 DNA and E. coli DNA. Approximate empirical expressions relating driver and tracer fragment lengths with the observed rate constants were obtained for practical use. In long tracer-short driver reactions the observed rate constant for the tracer reaction increases proportionately with tracer length. In long driver-short tracer reactions the rate of tracer reaction is retarded. The latter result is unexpected and appears to represent a departure from standard interpretations of the renaturation reaction.
Bis(thioether)silanes: Synthesis and characterization of tin(IV) complexes with new dithioether ligands

The bis(thioether)silanes Me2Si(CH2SR)2 (abbreviated BtsR, where R = Me or Pri), the first two members of a new family of bidentate thioether ligands, have been readily prepared and fully characterized. The tin(IV) tetrahalide derivatives (BtsR)SnX4 (X = Cl, Br), which comprise the first four metal coordination complexes of these new sulfur-donor ligands, have also been isolated, and the X-ray structure of the tetrabromide derivative (BtsMe)SnBr4 confirms the chelating nature of the dithioether.
Pharmacological and toxicological properties of harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, venom.

Abstract The venom of Pogonomyrmex badius exhibits the highest toxicity to mice of any reported insect venom. Its ld 50 (i.p.) of 0·42 μg/g is comparable with the most toxic snake venoms. In mammals the venom exhibits strong central and peripheral neurotoxicity; in insects the venom appears devoid of specific neurotoxicity and is, in fact, only moderately toxic to wax moth larvae (LD 50 = 103 μg/g). Death of envenomated insects appears to be a result of the hydrolytic activity of the venom enzymes. The venom possesses a powerful direct hemolysin capable of lysing washed erythrocytes. In addition, it possesses strong indirect hemolytic properties (due to phospholipase A 2 ). Heparin, when mixed in large doses with the venom, does not reduce the toxicity of the venom; nor is heparin capable of reducing the activity of the direct hemolytic factor in the venom. No precipitation zones, indicative of an acid-base complex between heparin and venom, were observed on Ouchterlony diffusion plates.
Transthyretin amyloidosis (serine 44) with headache, hearing loss, and peripheral neuropathy

A 32-year-old man of Irish descent presented with severe progressive headache and sensorineural hearing loss. MRI/magnetic resonance angiography head scans were normal. A length-dependent sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy with autonomic dysfunction predated these symptoms. Systemic organ involvement and transthyretin (TTR) amyloid immunostaining of bone marrow and fat aspirate were documented. Direct DNA sequencing revealed both the normal TTT (phenylalanine) and a new variant TCT (serine) at position 44 of the TTR gene. This case expands the genotypic and phenotypic variability within TTR amyloidosis.
Inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase and growth of human colon carcinoma HT-29 cells and mouse leukemia L1210 cells by N-hydroxy-N'-aminoguanidine derivatives.

Abstract A series of N -hydroxy- N ′-aminoguanidine (HAG) derivatives were studied and compared for their effects on ribonucleotide reductase activity in cell-free extracts; on nucleic acid synthesis and the growth of human colon carcinoma HT-29 cells; and on mouse leukemia L1210 cells in culture. The HAG derivatives [RCHNNHC(NH)NHOH-tosylate] studied could be grouped as; (1) hydroxy-benzylidines; (2) methoxybenzylidines; and (3) nitrobenzylidines substituted at the R position. 2′-Hydroxybenzylidine-HAG, the lead compound, was relatively active in both HT-29 cells and L1210 cells (20 ± 5 and 13 ± 4 μ M for 50% inhibition of HT-29 and L1210 cell growth respectively). The monohydroxybenzylidene compounds were generally more active than the dihydroxy- and trihy-droxybenzylidene-HAG derivatives. The methoxybenzylidene-HAGs were as active as the monohy-droxybenzylidene-HAGs. 2′-Hydroxy-4′-methoxybenzylidene-HAG was much more active than 2′,4′-dihydroxybenzylidene-HAG. The mononitrobenzylidene-HAGs were more active than the dinitro-benzylidene-HAG compound. In general, L1210 cells were more sensitive to the effects of the HAG compounds than were HT-29 cells. There was good agreement between the concentration of drug required to inhibit the growth of HT-29 cells and that required to inhibit the growth of L1210 cells. There was also good correlation between the ability of HAG derivatives to inhibit ribonucleotide reductase activity and to inhibit tumor cell growth. Some derivatives, such as 2′,3′,4′- and 3′,4′,5′-trihydroxybenzylidene-HAG inhibited L1210 cell growth by 50% at lower concentrations (7.8 and 11.9 μM respectively) than the concentrations needed for 50% inhibition of HT-29 cell growth (196 and 234 μM respectively) and ribonucleotide reductase activity (122 and 188 μM respectively). The studies of nucleic acid synthesis in L1210 cells using [ 3 H]cytidine as a precursor showed that 2′,3′,4′-trihy-droxybenzylidine-HAG inhibited DNA synthesis at a lower concentration (29 μM for 50% inhibition) than was needed for the inhibition of RNA synthesis and formation of [ 3 H]deoxycytidine nucleotides in the acid-soluble fraction (320 and 820 μM for 50% inhibition respectively). These results indicate that 2′,3′,4′-trihydroxybenzylidine-HAG inhibits DNA synthesis in L1210 cells through other mechanisms rather than exclusively through the inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase activity.
Conformation and dynamics of biopharmaceuticals: transition of mass spectrometry-based tools from academe to industry.

Mass spectrometry plays a very visible role in biopharmaceutical industry, although its use in development, characterization, and quality control of protein drugs is mostly limited to the analysis of covalent structure (amino acid sequence and post-translational modifications). Despite the centrality of protein conformation to biological activity, stability, and safety of biopharmaceutical products, the expanding arsenal of mass spectrometry-based methods that are currently available to probe higher order structure and conformational dynamics of biopolymers did not, until recently, enjoy much attention in the industry. This is beginning to change as a result of recent work demonstrating the utility of these experimental tools for various aspects of biopharmaceutical product development and manufacturing. In this work, we use a paradigmatic protein drug interferon β-1a as an example to illustrate the utility of mass spectrometry as a powerful tool not only to assess the integrity of higher order structure of a protein drug, but also to predict consequences of its degradation at a variety of levels.
The problem of contemporary analysis in history and psychology

An adduction and elucidation relative to the problem, especially as it is involved in contemporary historical analysis of an interdisciplinary character, of the relationships among the scientist-observer and the thing-, or things-, observed as well as the interactions between the scientist-observer and that which is observed and made the bases of theory construction, reveals that the classical nontransactional and nonsituational conception of objectivity must be re-evaluated.
Epistemological Dilemmas in the Assessment of Legal Decision Making

Neil Vidmar and Reid Hastie would surely be at the top of anyone's list of the leading scholars in the jury research community, David Schkade and John Payne are major figures in the broader judgment and decision-making community. All four are careful, sophisticated theorists and researchers. Any dispute involving the four of them is bound to be a productive one for the field. I will argue that their dispute brings into focus some fundamental and unresolved epistemological issues at the foundation of the study of legal decision making. In the abstract to their analyses of verdicts by 121 mock civil juries, Hastie, Schkade, and Payne (1998; henceforth HSP) list their first conclusion: "Most of the mock juries decided that the consideration of punitive damages was warranted, although appellate and trial judges had concluded that they were not warranted" (p. 287). The heart of Vidmar's critique of this claim appears in his title, "Juries Don't Make Legal Decisions!" (exclamation point in the original). Vidmar argues that there is "a fatal conceptual flaw in the experiment that renders it irrelevant to legal policy. Specifically, the experiment asked the jurors to make decisions about law, decisions that are in the exclusive province of the judge. Additionally, the authors created the impression that trial judges, as opposed to juries, were in agreement on the appropriateness of damages and would have 'got it right' if they had decided the cases. In point of fact that was not true in two of the four cases" (p. 705). In this commentary, I will explain why I think Vidmar's core argument has merit. HSP's attempt to compare mock jury verdicts to an external standard (also see Hastie, Penrod, & Pennington, 1983) is unconvincing because the comparisons are inherently ambiguous. But I will argue that for the field of legal decision making, that is cause for regret and concern—as analysts, we lose a great deal when we fail to find defensible external benchmarks. Moreover, I worry that Vidmar's essay downplays some more convincing evidence that HSP cite to bolster their arguments.
Gentrya, a new genus of scrophulariaceae from Mexico

A new genus and species,Gentrya racemosa (Scrophulariaceae, tribe Euphrasieae, subtribe Castilleiinae) from the Sierra Surutato in Sinaloa, Mexico, is described and illustrated. The relationships of the new genus toCastilleia andOrthocarpus are discussed.
T. Theodore Fujita: His Contribution to Tornado Knowledge through Damage Documentation and the Fujita Scale

Abstract The Fujita scale and extensive documentation of tornado damage are two of T. Theodore Fujita's most important legacies. The Fujita scale is the primary instrument for indirect estimates of tornado wind speed intensity used today. This paper reviews the development and application of the Fujita scale and points out the advantages and shortcomings of the scale, which Fujita clearly recognized. With regard to damage documentation, Fujita and his colleagues flew over more than 300 tornado damage swaths from 1965 to 1991. He had an uncanny ability to sort out damage indicators on the ground and come up with plausible flow patterns. He also had a unique ability to present his analysis in a clear, concise graphical form. The author collaborated with Fujita by means of ground surveys and engineering analyses while under contract with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Lessons learned from the Grand Island, Nebraska; Grand Gulf, Mississippi; and Bossier City, Louisiana; tornadoes are describ...
Distributed execution of functional programs using serial combinators

A general strategy for automatically decomposing and dynamically distributing a functional program is discussed. The strategy is suitable for parallel execution on multiprocessor architectures with no shared memory. It borrows ideas from data flow and reduction machine research on the one hand, and from conventional compiler technology for sequential machines on the other. One of the more troublesome issues in such a system is choosing the right granularity for the parallel tasks. As a solution, the authors describe a program transformation technique based on serial combinators that offers in some sense just the right granularity for this style of computing, and that can be fine-tuned for particular multiprocessor architectures. Simulation demonstrates the success of this approach.
Metabolic activity control of the L-lysine fermentation by restrained growth fed-batch strategies

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1992.
Across-plane thermal characterization of films based on amplitude-frequency profile in photothermal technique

This work develops an amplitude method for the photothermal (PT) technique to analyze the amplitude of the thermal radiation signal from the surface of a multilayered film sample. The thermal conductivity of any individual layer in the sample can be thereby determined. Chemical vapor deposited SiC film samples (sample 1 to 3: 2.5 to 3.5 μm thickness) with different ratios of Si to C and thermally oxidized SiO2 film (500 nm thickness) on silicon substrates are studied using the amplitude method. The determined thermal conductivity based on the amplitude method is 3.58, 3.59, and 2.59 W/m⋅K for sample 1 to 3 with ±10% uncertainty. These results are verified by the phase shift method, and sound agreement is obtained. The measured thermal conductivity (k) of SiC is much lower than the value of bulk SiC. The large k reduction is caused by the structure difference revealed by Raman spectroscopy. For the SiO2 film, the thermal conductivity is measured to be 1.68 ± 0.17 W/m⋅K, a little higher than that obtained by the phase shift method: 1.31 ± 0.06 W/m⋅K. Sensitivity analysis of thermal conductivity and interfacial resistance is conducted for the amplitude method. Its weak-sensitivity to the thermal contact resistance, enables the amplitude method to determine the thermal conductivity of a film sample with little effect from the interface thermal resistance between the film and substrate. The normalized amplitude ratio at a high frequency to that at a low frequency provides a reliable way to evaluate the effusivity ratio of the film to that of the substrate.
Temporal pattern of NFκB activation influences apoptotic cell fate in a stimuli-dependent fashion

The transcription factor NFκB is a critical immediate early response gene involved in modulating cellular responses and apoptosis following diverse environmental injuries. The activation of NFκB is widely accepted to play an anti-apoptotic role in cellular responses to injury. Hence, enhancing NFκB activation in the setting of injury has been proposed as one potential therapeutic approach to environmental injuries. To this end, we constructed a recombinant adenoviral vector (Ad.IκBαAS) expressing antisense IκBα mRNA that is capable of augmenting NFκB activation prior to and following four types of cellular injury [TNF-α, UV, hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) or pervanadate treatment]. Biochemical and functional analyses of NFκB activation pathways for these injuries demonstrated two categories involving either serine (S32/36) phosphorylation (TNF-α, UV) or tyrosine (Y42) phosphorylation (H/R or PV) of IκBα. We hypothesized that activation of NFκB prior to injury using antisense IκBα mRNA would reduce apoptosis. As anticipated, recombinant adenoviral IκBα phosphorylation mutants (Ad.IκBαS32/36A or Ad.IκBαY42F) preferentially reduced NFκB activation and enhanced apoptosis following injuries associated with either serine or tyrosine phosphorylation of IκBα, respectively. These studies demonstrate for the first time that an IκBαY42F mutant can effectively modulate NFκB-mediated apoptosis in an injury-context-dependent manner. Interestingly, constitutive activation of NFκB following Ad.IκBαAS infection reduced apoptosis only following injuries associated with IκBα Y42, but not S32/36, phosphorylation. These findings demonstrate that the temporal regulation of NFκB and the apoptotic consequences of this activation are differentially influenced by the pathway mediating NFκB activation. They also provide new insight into the therapeutic potential and limitations of modulating NFκB for environmental injuries such as ischemia/reperfusion and pro-inflammatory diseases.
Geostatistics applied to mine waste characterization at Leadville, Colorado, USA

ABSTRACT This paper will describe the process of identifying lead contaminated soil areas exceeding a certain threshold at a historical mining district using geostatistical tools. For this purpose, lead concentration samples coming from Leadville County, Colorado were chosen as the data sets to be examined. In order to check integrity of data files, posting of the data values at sample locations is performed on each of the four data sets available. Statistical analysis is used for identifying possible different populations within the study area Based on the statistical results, the data sets were subdivided into four different populations as they relate to residential domains. More detail geostatistical analysis of data set representing the City of Leadville domain (CL) is performed Variogram analysis is used to characterize spatial variability on the data sets within CL limits. Generation of variograms for such data sets and identification of their parameters such as sill, nugget, range, and anisotropy r...
Differential effects of kynurenine and tryptophan treatment on quinolinate immunoreactivity in rat lymphoid and non-lymphoid organs

Quinolinate is a tryptophan metabolite and an intermediary in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) synthesis in hepatocytes. Kynurenine is an upstream metabolite in the same biochemical pathway. Under normal physiological conditions, kynurenine is thought to be produced primarily in the liver as an NAD+ precursor. However, during immune stimulation or inflammation, numerous extrahepatic tissues convert systemic tryptophan to kynurenine, and its concentration subsequently rises dramatically in blood. The fate and role of extrahepatic kynurenine are uncertain. In order to begin addressing this question, the present study was performed to determine which cell types can produce quinolinate from either systemic tryptophan or kynurenine. By using highly specific antibodies to protein-coupled quinolinate, we found that intraperitoneal injections of tryptophan led to increased quinolinate immunoreactivity primarily in hepatocytes, with moderate increases in tissue macrophages and splenic follicles. In contrast, intraperitoneal injections of kynurenine did not result in any significant increase in hepatocyte quinolinate immunoreactivity, but rather led to dramatic increases in immunoreactivity in tissue macrophages, splenic white pulp, and thymic medulla. These findings suggest that hepatocytes do not make significant use of extracellular kynurenine for quinolinate or NAD+ synthesis, and that, instead, extrahepatic kynurenine is preferentially metabolized by immune cells throughout the body. The possible significance of the preferential metabolism of kynurenine by immune cells during an immune response is discussed.
Protein Tyrosine Kinase Wee1B Is Essential for Metaphase II Exit in Mouse Oocytes

Waves of cyclin synthesis and degradation regulate the activity of Cdc2 protein kinase during the cell cycle. Cdc2 inactivation by Wee1B-mediated phosphorylation is necessary for arrest of the oocyte at G2-prophase, but it is unclear whether this regulation functions later during the metaphase-to-anaphase transition. We show that reactivation of a Wee1B pathway triggers the decrease in Cdc2 activity during egg activation. When Wee1B is down-regulated, oocytes fail to form a pronucleus in response to Ca(2+) signals. Calcium-calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) activates Wee1B, and CaMKII-driven exit from metaphase II is inhibited by Wee1B down-regulation, demonstrating that exit from metaphase requires not only a proteolytic degradation of cyclin B but also the inhibitory phosphorylation of Cdc2 by Wee1B.
Injectable drug-eluting elastomeric polymer: a novel submucosal injection material

Background Biodegradable hydrogels can deliver therapeutic payloads with great potentials in EMR and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) to yield improvements in efficacy and foster mucosal regeneration. Objective To assess the efficacy of an injectable drug-eluting elastomeric polymer (iDEEP) as a submucosal injection material. Design Comparative study of 3 different solutions by using material characterization tests and ex vivo and in vivo porcine models. Setting Academic hospital. Interventions Thirty gastric submucosal cushions were achieved with saline solution (0.9%), sodium hyaluronate (0.4%), and iDEEP (n = 10) in ex vivo porcine stomachs. Four porcine gastric submucosal cushions were then created in vivo by using iDEEP. Main Outcome Measurements Maximum injection pressure, rebamipide release rate, submucosal elevation duration, and assessment of in vivo efficacy by en bloc resection. Results No significant difference in injection pressures between iDEEP (28.9 ± 0.3 psi) and sodium hyaluronate (29.5 ± 0.4 psi, P > .05) was observed. iDEEP gels displayed a controlled release of rebamipide up to 2 weeks in vitro. The elevation height of iDEEP (5.7 ± 0.5 mm) was higher than that of saline solution (2.8 ± 0.2 mm, P P Limitations Benchtop, ex vivo, and nonsurvival pig study. Conclusions A novel injection solution was evaluated for endoscopic resection. These results suggest that iDEEP may provide a significant step toward the realization of an ideal EMR and endoscopic submucosal dissection injection material.
Fail-safe ion chamber beam loss monitor system for personnel protection

Abstract A fail-safe beam loss monitor system has been designed for use in the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE) Radiation Security System (RSS). The latest version (Model III) has been in use since 1991. This system has been carefully designed to protect personnel from large radiation doses caused by errant beam conditions during beam transport. Due to limited shielding between the beam transport lines and occupied areas, personnel can safely occupy these areas only if the beam losses in the transport lines are sufficiently low. Although the usual solution is to increase the bulk shielding between the beam lines and the occupied areas, the physical dimensions of the site do not permit additional shielding to be added. In this paper we will discuss the design and implementation of the fail-safe beam loss monitor system.
SU-E-T-625: Robustness Evaluation and Robust Optimization of IMPT Plans Based on Per-Voxel Standard Deviation of Dose Distributions.

Purpose:Proton dose distributions, IMPT in particular, are highly sensitive to setup and range uncertainties. We report a novel method, based on per‐voxel standard deviation (SD) of dose distributions, to evaluate the robustness of proton plans and to robustly optimize IMPT plans to render them less sensitive to uncertainties. Methods: For each optimization iteration, nine dose distributions are computed ‐ the nominal one, and one each for ± setup uncertainties along x, y and z axes and for ± range uncertainty. SD of dose in each voxel is used to create SD‐volume histogram (SVH) for each structure. SVH may be considered a quantitative representation of the robustness of the dose distribution. For optimization, the desired robustness may be specified in terms of an SD‐volume (SV) constraint on the CTV and incorporated as a term in the objective function. Results of optimization with and without this constraint were compared in terms of plan optimality and robustness using the so called‘worst case’ dose distributions; which are obtained by assigning the lowest among the nine doses to each voxel in the clinical target volume (CTV) and the highest to normal tissue voxels outside the CTV. The SVH curve and the area under it for each structure were used as quantitative measures of robustness. Penalty parameter of SV constraint may be varied to control the tradeoff between robustness and plan optimality. We applied these methods to one case each of H&N and lung.Results: In both cases, we found that imposing SV constraint improved plan robustness but at the cost of normal tissue sparing. Conclusions: SVH‐based optimization and evaluation is an effective tool for robustness evaluation and robust optimization of IMPT plans. Studies need to be conducted to test the methods for larger cohorts of patients and for other sites. This research is supported by National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant P01CA021239, the University Cancer Foundation via the Institutional Research Grant program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and MD Andersonâ€™s cancer center support grant CA016672.
Analysis of high-loss viscoelastic composites

A theoretical study of the viscoelastic properties of composites is presented with the aim of identifying structures which give rise to a combination of high stiffness and high loss tangent. Laminates with Voigt and Reuss structures, as well as composite materials attaining the Hashin-Shtrickman bounds on stiffness were evaluated by the correspondence principle. Similarly, viscoelastic properties of composites containing spherical or platelet inclusions were explored. Reuss laminates and platelet-filled materials composed of a stiff, low-loss phase and a compliant high-loss phase were found to exhibit high stiffness combined with a high loss tangent.
The Oronasal Airways: The Definer and Ignored Respiratory Zone of the PM-10 Regulatory Convention

AbstractThe particle penetration properties of the nasal and oral airways are the defining feature of the PM-10 convention. This definition implicitly assumes that only particles able to penetrate these airways can produce particle-associated health effects. Though not stated explicitly, this definition implies that no health effects resulting from exposure to particles are associated with these airways. Some particles within the PM-10 envelope are deposited in the nasal and oral airways, as well as particles outside of the envelope (except for noninhalable particles). Evidence for health effects of particles deposited in the oronasal (ON) airways is scant, primarily because most epidemiological and clinical studies have focused on the intrathoracic airways. With improved techniques for detecting physiological changes andlor acutelchronic health effects in the ON airways, the role of these airways in providing data for regulation and control of particle exposure needs further examination. Surveys of the i...
Patterns of Primary and Secondary Therapy for Prostate Cancer in Elderly Men: Analysis of Data From CaPSURE®

Purpose: We examined patterns of primary treatment for prostate cancer in men 75 years or older.Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the multi-institutional CaPSURE database on the type of primary therapy performed in men younger than 75, or 75 years old or older. Primary therapy was defined as watchful waiting, radical prostatectomy, brachytherapy, brachytherapy plus external beam radiotherapy, external beam radiotherapy or primary androgen deprivation therapy. The chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression analysis were performed to identify predictors of the type of primary therapy and outcomes.Results: A greater proportion of patients 75 years or older were white, single, had multiple comorbidities, low income and low education, and were classified as being at high risk compared to those younger than 75 years (43% vs 25%). On multivariate analysis adjusted for sociodemographic factors, diagnostic risk category and the number of comorbidities at diagnosis patients 75 years or older w...
Unusual non-linearity effects observed in the analysis of 2,3,7,8-TCDD: Implications for quantitative accuracy

Abstract During the analysis of 2,3,7,8-TCDD calibration standards, we observed a positivebias, non-linear response caused by coeluting non-analytes. The expected factors such as chromatographic active sites and mass interferents were not the cause of the non-linearity; rather ion-source design features such as electron-entrance aperture size controlled mass spectrometer response. The varying response for analytes as a function of coeluting non-interfering materials may cause inaccurate quantitation of environmental extracts having significant levels of non-analytes.
The chaperone protein 14-3-3eta interacts with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha 4 subunit. Evidence for a dynamic role in subunit stabilization.

By using the large cytoplasmic domain of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) α4 subunit as a bait in the yeast two-hybrid system, we isolated the first cytosolic protein, 14-3-3η, known to interact directly with neuronal AChRs. 14-3-3η is a member of a family of proteins that function as regulatory or chaperone/ scaffolding/adaptor proteins. 14-3-3η interacted with the recombinant α4 subunit alone in tsA 201 cells following activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase by forskolin. The interaction of 14-3-3η with recombinant α4 subunits was abolished when serine 441 of the α4 subunit was mutated to alanine (α4S441A). The surface levels of recombinant wild-type α4β2 AChRs were ∼2-fold higher than those of mutant α4S441Aβ2 AChRs. The interaction significantly increased the steady state levels of the α4 subunit and α4β2 AChRs but not that of the mutant α4S441A subunit or mutant α4S441Aβ2 AChRs. The EC50 values for activation by acetylcholine were not significantly different for α4β2 AChRs and α4S441Aβ2 AChRs coexpressed with 14-3-3η in oocytes following treatment with forskolin. 14-3-3 coimmunopurified with native α4 AChRs from brain. These results support a role for 14-3-3 in dynamically regulating the expression levels of α4β2 AChRs through its interaction with the α4 subunit.
Geographic information systems for transportation: from a static past to a dynamic future

Geographic information systems for transportation earned its moniker of GIS-T because of active GIS-T research and applications carried out over the years. There were several GIS-T books and review papers published around the turn of the twenty-first century. As we are now 10 years into the new century, it is an appropriate time to assess the past accomplishments and look into the future of GIS-T. This article first discusses the ‘T’ in GIS-T with a review of the critical transportation issues identified by the US Transportation Research Board. Past GIS-T developments are then presented from three different perspectives of using GIS-T as a spatial database, using GIS-T as an analysis and modeling environment, and using GIS-T as a communication tool. Because of the static map layers view and the conventional GIS data models, past GIS-T developments are weak in handling dynamic movements, changes, and processes in transportation systems. Our world, on the other hand, has become increasingly dynamic because ...
Trends in Emerging On-Chip Interconnect Technologies

In deep submicron (DSM) VLSI technologies, it is becoming increasingly harder for a copper based electrical interconnect fabric to satisfy the multiple design requirements of delay, power, bandwidth, and delay uncertainty. This is because electrical interconnects are becoming increasingly susceptible to parasitic resistance and capacitance with shrinking process technology and rising clock frequencies, which poses serious challenges for interconnect delay, power dissipation and reliability. On-chip communication architectures such as buses and networks-on-chip (NoC) that are used to enable inter-component communication in multi-processor systems-on-chip (MPSoC) designs rely on these electrical interconnects at the physical level, and are consequently faced with the entire gamut of challenges and drawbacks that plague copper-based electrical interconnects. To overcome the limitations of traditional copper-based electrical interconnects, several research efforts have begun looking at novel interconnect alternatives, such as on-chip optical interconnects, wireless interconnects and carbon nanotube-based interconnects. This paper presents an overview and current state of research for these three promising interconnect technologies. We also discuss the existing challenges for each of these technologies that remain to be resolved before they can be adopted as replacements for copper-based electrical interconnects in the future.
CD200 is a novel p53-target gene involved in apoptosis-associated immune tolerance.

During apoptotic cell death, biochemical processes modify self-proteins and create potential autoantigens. To maintain self-tolerance in the face of natural cell turnover, the immune system must prevent or control responses to apoptosis-associated autoantigens or risk autoimmunity. The molecular mechanisms governing this process remain largely unknown. Here, we show that expression of the immunoregulatory protein CD200 increases as murine dendritic cells (DCs) undergo apoptosis. We define CD200 as a p53-target gene and identify both p53- and caspase-dependent pathways that control CD200 expression during apoptosis. CD200 expression on apoptotic DCs diminishes proinflammatory cytokine production in response to self-antigens in vitro and is required for UVB-mediated tolerance to haptenated self-proteins in vivo. Up-regulation of CD200 may represent a novel mechanism, whereby immune reactivity to apoptosis-associated self-antigens is suppressed under steady state conditions. (Blood. 2004;103: 2691-2698)
Effects of heme and nonheme iron on meat quality characteristics during retail display and storage

Iron is known to cause deleterious oxidative reactions in muscle food. The concentration of the two iron forms, heme and nonheme, varies in beef skeletal muscles of different physiological origin. We evaluated beef Longissimus dorsi (LD) and Psoas major (PM) muscles heme and nonheme iron concentrations to correlate those to fresh meat retail display color properties, discoloration, and lipid oxidation during a simulated retail display and storage. Iron forms concentrations were correlated with beef quality indicators such as instrumental color characteristics and lipid oxidation over a period of 9 days retail display and storage. Results indicated that concentrations of both the heme and nonheme iron were significantly lower (p < 0.05) on day 9 as compared to day 1. Heme iron concentration correlated moderately with redness (r = 0.72 and 0.44) and it correlated weakly with discoloration (r = −0.34 and −0.47) in LD and PM samples respectively. Nonheme iron concentration correlated weakly with redness (r = 0.31 and −0.02) and discoloration (r = 0.38 and 0.13) in the LD and PM respectively. The Lipid oxidation of both the LD and PM muscles increased (p < 0.05) with increase in retail display and storage time. However, lipid oxidation was noticeably higher in the PM muscle than the LD. The findings suggest that concentration of iron forms were not a strong predictor of time dependent color and quality changes in beef muscles.
Question-answering by a semantic network of parallel automata

Abstract Human semantic memory is modeled as a network with a finite automation embedded at each node. The nodes represent concepts in the memory, and every arc bears a label denoting the binary relation between the two concepts that it joins. The process of question-answering is formulated as a mathematical problem: Given a finite sequence of labels, find a path in memory between two given nodes whose arcs bear that sequence of labels. It is shown that the network of automata can determine the existence of such a path using only local computation, meaning that each automaton communicates only with its immediate neighbors in the network. Furthermore, any node-concept along the solution path can be retrieved. The question-answering algorithm is then extended to incorporate simple inferences based on the equivalence of certain sequences of relational labels. In this case, it is shown that the network of automata will find the shortest inferable solution path, if one exists. Application of these results to a semantic corpus is illustrated. The two semantic topics of negation and quantification receive special treatment. Careful study is made of the network structure required to encode information relating to those topics and of the question-answering procedures required to extract this information. The notions of a negated relation and a negated question are introduced, and a negation-sensitive path-searching algorithm is developed that provides for strong denials of queries. For sentences involving universal and existential quantifiers, it is shown how the terminal can translate a first-order language question into a sequence of network queries. In both areas, the network model makes reaction-time predictions that are supported by several experimental findings. Extensions of the model that would permit the encoding and retrieval of propositional information are mentioned.
Sociology’s Suicide : A Forensic Autopsy?

For decades Durkheim’s theory of suicide has been tested and found wanting. Yet, rather than being consigned to the dust-bin of history, it lives on and is pointed to as an exemplar of the powers of sociological theory and research. If this rationalizing and/or dismissal of so many falsifications of the theory were an isolated phenomenon, it might be evidence of some lemming-like propensity for suicide or a disciplinary death-wish, among a few sociologists. But it appears to be a much more widespread and common occurrence. In this paper we explore some possible explanations of this ‘falsification denial’—‘The Social Misconstruction of Reality’ (Hamilton 1996), ‘When Prophecy Fails’ (Festinger et al. 1956), ‘Underdetermination’ (Duhem 1954; Quine Journal of Philosophy 67:178–183, 1970, Erkenntnis 9:313–328, 1975; Lakatos 1970), and ‘Boundary Maintenance’ (Erikson 1966), and we outline some of the more important and pernicious consequences of this falsification denial for the discipline and future of sociology.
Domestic Interests, Ideas and Integration: Lessons from the French Case

Both the major approaches to European integration, ‘intergovernmentalism’ and ‘neofunctionalism’, model integration as reflecting the demands of domestic interest groups. Where scholars qualify this basic model, they typically see integration diverging gradually and unintentionally from its expectations. This article tests the interest-group model against research into French policy-making across the history of integration, and argues that French policies never clearly reflected this interest-group baseline. Instead, French choices for today's European Union (as opposed to widely different historical alternatives) can only be explained with reference to French elites' ideas about Europe. Additionally, national leaders' ideas have set the main conditions for the success or failure of supranational entrepreneurship in Europe's ‘grand bargains’.
Physician and Parent Perceptions of End-of-Life Experience in Children with Advanced Heart Disease

Purpose To describe and identify associations between parent and physician perceptions regarding end-of-life (EOL) care and suffering in children with advanced heart disease (AHD). Methods and Materials The Survey about Caring for Children with Heart Disease at EOL was developed and mailed to parents of children with AHD who experienced in-hospital deaths between 2007-2009. Patients’ cardiologists were also surveyed. Spearman correlation coefficients and Fisher’s exact tests were performed. Results There were 31 parent/physician survey pairs. Patient age at death was a median of 6.5 mo (4 d–20yrs); 84% had congenital heart disease. At EOL, 90% of patients were intubated and 30% were on mechanical circulatory support. Length of last hospital stay was 26 d (1-193 d). Cardiologists expected long-term survival at diagnosis in 36% of patients. Nearly 50% of parents and physicians felt that the child had suffered ‘a great deal,’ ‘a lot,’ or ‘somewhat’ at EOL with no association in perceptions between them. While half of parents felt they “sometimes” received conflicting information from different members of the care team, only 25% of physicians felt that parents perceived care team conflict. In 12 of 28 cases, physicians reported that the parents were prepared for the way the child died while the parents reported feeling unprepared. The majority of parents (93%) felt that quality of care during the last month of the child’s life was ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ compared to only 78% of physicians. Conclusions Both parents and physicians perceive suffering at EOL in children who die of AHD. Although parents feel quality of care is excellent, physicians overestimate the degree of parent preparedness for their child’s death. There is no association between parent and physician perceptions of the EOL experience. Prospective studies are necessary to improve EOL care for children with AHD.
Voluntary Subjects’ Participation in Research: Cognitive Style as a Possible Biasing Factor

As part of a larger research project1 ( 1 ), 15 1 male and 261 female college freshmen and sophomores were screened with the Group Embedded Figures Test which is a measure of cognitive style based on relative field dependence ( 3). Those scoring field-dependent (lower quartile) and field-independent (upper quattile) on the test were eligible to be in the treatment sample. Scores in the lower quartile ranged from 0 to 7 (M = 4.05), scores in the upper quartile from 14 to 18 (M = 15.33). Testing covered three days which led to attrition of the eligible sample. Fifteen eligible subjects were omitted when treatment groups were equalized by number and sex (8 field-dependent, 7 field-independent) and five were omicted for not responding to a demographic questionnaire ( 3 field-dependent, 2 field-independent) . Of the remaining eligible subjects, more field-dependent subjects did not participate for the thee days of the study than did field-independent subjects. There was a loss of 72 of the 158 eligible field-dependent subjects (45.6%) but only 20 of the 102 eligible field-independent subjects (19.6%) chose voluntarily not to participate. Field-independent subjects may be more intellectually curious and less intimidated by participation in experiments than field-dependent subjects. Numerous references (2, 3) indicate that differences in field dependence are related to individual differences in body concept, sense of separate identity, controls and defenses used, aspects of intellectual functioning; types of psychopathology, and personality measures. The question arises as to whether there is proportionally greater voluntary participation in other data-collecting situations by field-independent subjects which leads to biased results and limits generalizability.
Visual discrimination of motion: Stimulus relationships at threshold and the question of luminance-time reciprocity

Quantitative descriptions, derived from an earlier empirical study, of threshold relationships among the principal stimulus variables for motion discrimination are presented, with emphasis on evaluating the influence of stimulus energy content. The present findings are compared with those of R, H. Brown (1955, 1957, 1958), who reported the applicability of luminance-time reciprocity to motion threshold for exposures shorter than 0.1 sec. It is demonstrated that such reciprocity is atypical of motion threshold, and that it represents limitations imposed by the requirements of target visibility rather than by motion discrimination itself. It is also shown that Brown’s data are predictable from the present equations.
Interstitial linear keratitis

A 15-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man had linear, nonmigratory corneal inflammations in the anterior stroma. The recurrent lesions extended from corneoscleral limbus to corneoscleral limbus within the palpebral aperture. They healed spontaneously with some scarring and minimal vascularization but without loss of vision. The cause could not be determined and serologic tests for syphilis were negative in both cases.
HPRT gene alterations in umbilical cord blood T-lymphocytes in newborns of mothers exposed to tobacco smoke during pregnancy

Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke has been associated with an increased risk of pediatric malignancies, yet the transplacental induction of genetic alterations by tobacco smoke carcinogens and their implication to childhood diseases remain poorly understood. We characterized mutations in the HPRT gene in umbilical cord blood T-lymphocytes of self-reported 103 never-smoking mothers and 104 smoking mothers (54 mothers smoked throughout and 50 mothers quit smoking during pregnancy). The results showed the illegitimate V(D)J recombinase-mediated deletion of HPRT exons 2–3 was the most prominent alteration occurring in 48.2% (26/54) of mutants from neonates of the smoking mothers who smoked during pregnancy, compared with 28.0% (14/50) from those of smoking mothers who quit smoking during pregnancy (p = 0.035, Fisher's exact test), 34.9% (36/103) from never-smoking mothers (p = 0.08), or 32.7% (50/153) of those of neonates born from the latter two groups of mothers combined (p = 0.043). There was no significant difference in the frequency of this deletion between neonates of the never-smoking mothers and the smoking mothers who quit smoking during pregnancy (34.9% versus 28.0%, respectively, p = 0.39). The results show an increase in illegitimate V(D)J recombinase-mediated deletion of HPRT exons 2–3 in cord blood T-lymphocytes of newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy, compared with the group of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy, implying an increase in illegitimate V(D)J recombinase-mediated alteration, a genetic recombination event associated with childhood malignancies, may be induced in utero during pregnancy by maternal exposure to tobacco smoke-derived genotoxicants.
Single-Cell Proteins

Both photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic microorganisms, grown on various carbon and energy sources, are used in fermentation processes for the production of single-cell proteins. Commercial-scale production has been limited to two algal processes, one bacterial process, and several yeast and fungal processes. High capital and operating costs and the need for extensive nutritional and toxicological assessments have limited the development and commercialization of new processes. Any increase in commercial-scale production appears to be limited to those regions of the world where low-cost carbon and energy sources are available and conventional animal feedstuff proteins, such as soybean meal or fish meal, are in short supply.