cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chronic pain management in the obese patient: a focused review of key challenges and potential exercise solutions.

In obese persons, general and specific musculoskeletal pain is common. Emerging evidence suggests that obesity modulates pain via several mechanisms such as mechanical loading, inflammation, and psychological status. Pain in obesity contributes to deterioration of physical ability, health-related quality of life, and functional dependence. We present the accumulating evidence showing the interrelationships of mechanical stress, inflammation, and psychological characteristics on pain. While acute exercise may transiently exacerbate pain symptoms, regular participation in exercise can lower pain severity or prevalence. Aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or multimodal exercise programs (combination of the two types) can reduce joint pain in young and older obese adults in the range of 14%–71.4% depending on the study design and intervention used. While published attrition rates with regular exercise are high (∼50%), adherence to exercise may be enhanced with modification to exercise including the accumulation of several exercise bouts rather than one long session, reducing joint range of motion, and replacing impact with nonimpact activity. This field would benefit from rigorous comparative efficacy studies of exercise intensity, frequency, and mode on specific and general musculoskeletal pain in young and older obese persons.
Histone Lysine Methylation Dynamics: Establishment, Regulation, and Biological Impact

Histone lysine methylation has emerged as a critical player in the regulation of gene expression, cell cycle, genome stability, and nuclear architecture. Over the past decade, a tremendous amount of progress has led to the characterization of methyl modifications and the lysine methyltransferases (KMTs) and lysine demethylases (KDMs) that regulate them. Here, we review the discovery and characterization of the KMTs and KDMs and the methyl modifications they regulate. We discuss the localization of the KMTs and KDMs as well as the distribution of lysine methylation throughout the genome. We highlight how these data have shaped our view of lysine methylation as a key determinant of complex chromatin states. Finally, we discuss the regulation of KMTs and KDMs by proteasomal degradation, posttranscriptional mechanisms, and metabolic status. We propose key questions for the field and highlight areas that we predict will yield exciting discoveries in the years to come.
Variable risk control via stochastic optimization

We present new global and local policy search algorithms suitable for problems with policy-dependent cost variance (or risk), a property present in many robot control tasks. These algorithms exploit new techniques in non-parametric heteroscedastic regression to directly model the policy-dependent distribution of cost. For local search, the learned cost model can be used as a critic for performing risk-sensitive gradient descent. Alternatively, decision-theoretic criteria can be applied to globally select policies to balance exploration and exploitation in a principled way, or to perform greedy minimization with respect to various risk-sensitive criteria. This separation of learning and policy selection permits variable risk control, where risk-sensitivity can be flexibly adjusted and appropriate policies can be selected at runtime without relearning. We describe experiments in dynamic stabilization and manipulation with a mobile manipulator that demonstrate learning of flexible, risk-sensitive policies in very few trials.
Correlates of Open- and Locked-Facility Placement in a Population of Decisionally Impaired Adults

Objectives. This study compares characteristics of public conservatees placed in locked facilities with those in less restrictive settings. Given the principle of the least restrictive alternative, the study seeks to identify factors, including the role of aging and advanced age, associated with restrictive placement within conservatorship. Methods. Management Information Systems data on 1,534 adult conservatees in Los Angeles County in July, 1993, are examined in cross-section. Models exploring individual and environmental characteristics of conservatees and linear, curvilinear, and multiplicative aging effects are tested on the probability that adults are placed in locked facilities versus all other placement types. Results. Locked facility placement is associated with being female, receiving SSI, a diagnosis of dementia, and being identified as a danger to oneself and to others. Locked-facility placement is associated with increasing age until age 60, when the effect becomes inversely related; the multiplicative effect of older age and impaired functioning is also inversely related. Discussion. The curvilinear nature of age and the interaction effect of Age X Functioning implies that increasing frailty in older adults makes locked facility-placement less likely. Further research is needed on whether alternative placement types, such as special care units with secured perimeters, can further reduce the need for locked facilities.
Do patients with ADHD have a harder time quitting cigarettes

A significant number of adolescents in the United States continue to use tobacco (nicotine), mainly in the form of smoked cigarettes, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is linked to ever smoked and current smoking (Upadhyaya et al., 2005), as well as early initiation of smoking in adolescents. ADHD is a risk factor for smoking independent of other psychiatric comorbidity, including conduct disorder. In addition, nicotine has been shown to improve attention in smokers, nonsmokers, and adults with ADHD. There is preliminary evidence that adult smokers with ADHD may have greater difficulty quitting smoking (Pomerleau et al., 1995). Hence, some authors have even suggested a selfmedication hypothesis for nicotine use in patients with ADHD. Bupropion SR is efficacious in adult smokers (30%Y50% abstinence rates; Hurt et al., 1997) and has modest efficacy in improving symptoms of ADHD. Hence, we conducted and published a pilot open-label study of bupropion SR for smoking cessation in 16 adolescent smokers (Upadhyaya et al., 2004). In addition to nicotine dependence, 11 subjects in the study had comorbid ADHD. The point abstinence rate at week 4 was around 31%. Since that time, there has been at least one report of a dosedependent relationship between ADHD and smoking. Selfreported symptoms of ADHD were linked in a dosedependent manner with earlier onset and rate of smoking in a large national epidemiological study of adolescents (Kollins et al., 2005). Hence, we decided to reexamine the data from our 2004 pilot study to see whether the adolescent smokers in our study with comorbid ADHD had poorer outcomes compared to those without ADHD. Only 1 (9%) of 11 subjects with ADHD was able to abstain from smoking at week 4 compared to 4 (80%) of 5 subjects without ADHD. Although very preliminary, the results suggest that it may be more difficult for adolescents with ADHD to quit smoking cigarettes compared with adolescents without ADHD. This result is consistent with those from adult smokers with ADHD who are trying to quit smoking (Pomerleau et al., 1995). Given the high comorbidity of nicotine dependence in ADHD, further studies are needed to examine smoking cessation outcomes in adolescent and adult smokers with ADHD. If the preliminary observation that adolescent smokers with ADHD may have more difficulty quitting smoking is replicated, it would suggest that adolescent smokers with ADHD may need more tailored interventions for smoking cessation.
The Beauty of Anatomy: Visual Displays and Surgical Education in Early-Nineteenth-Century London

The early-nineteenth-century artist, anatomist, and teacher Sir Charles Bell saw anatomy and art as closely related subjects. He taught anatomy to artists and surgeons, illustrated his own anatomical texts, and wrote a treatise on the use of anatomy in art. The author explores the connections among visual displays representing human anatomy, aesthetics, and pedagogical practices for Bell and a particular group of British surgeon-anatomists. Creating anatomical models and drawings was thought to discipline the surgeon's hand, while the study of anatomy and comparative anatomy would discipline the artist's eye. And for Bell, beauty made drawings into better pedagogical tools.
In vitro O2 fluxes compared with 14C production and other rate terms during the JGOFS Equatorial Pacific experiment

We report rates of gross and net O2 production measured in vitro during JGOFS cruises in the equatorial Pacific in spring and fall, 1992. We scale O2 productivities to net and gross C production. We then compare the calculated rates with 14C production and with new/export production measured by various techniques. 14C productivities in samples incubated for 24 h are about 45% of gross carbon production rates calculated from gross O2 production. The difference is compatible with expected rates of the Mehler reaction, photorespiration, excretion, and community mitochondrial respiration. 14C production rates are similar to net carbon production rates in the upper half of the euphotic zone. At lower irradiances, where net C production can be zero or less, 14C productivities lie between net community production and gross primary production. Net carbon production rates in vitro are a factor of =4–20 times greater than estimates from drifting sediment trap and tracer transport studies. This difference probably reflects anomalous accumulation of POC in bottles because of the exclusion of grazers.
Plasma cholesteryl ester and phospholipid transfer proteins and their regulation.

Recently, there has been intense interest in the role of plasma lipid transfer proteins in lipoprotein metabolism. It has been postulated that a cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) plays a key role in “reverse cholesterol transport” by modulating the transfer of CE from high density lipoprotein (HDL) to chylomicrons, very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), lipoprotein remnants and low density lipoprotein (LDL).-’-These lipoprotein acceptors transport the CE to the liver. On the other hand, these CE acceptor lipoproteins are considered atherogenic particles and thus this CE transfer process could conceivably enhance atherosclerosis.
CGRP upregulation in dorsal root ganglia and ileal mucosa during Clostridium difficile toxin A-induced enteritis

We have previously reported that pretreatment of rats with capsaicin (an agent that ablates sensory neurons) or CP-96345 (a substance P receptor antagonist) dramatically inhibits fluid secretion an...
Dielectric Properties and Phase Transitions of Ferroelectric Sodium‐Strontium Niobates

Solid solution was observed in the system Na1-xSrx/2NbO3 between 0 ≤x≤ 0.50. Between 0 ≤x≤ 0.30 the structure at 25°C was that of a multiple-cell perovskite having a monoclinic subcell. Between 0.30 ≤x≤ 0.50 the subcell had tetragonal symmetry with c/a > 1. Compositions for which x < 0.10 were nonferroelectric in the virgin state. Application of an electric field of sufficient intensity transformed these compositions to a ferroelectric state as evidenced by the appearance of electrical hysteresis loops. A pseudorhombohedral phase existed over a limited temperature and compositional range at this point in the system. Poisson's ratio for these materials was about 0.22. High-temperature X-ray studies revealed several transitions in these materials. The structure of all these compositions transformed to a small-cell cubic perovskite when the subcell edge attained a length of 3.941 ± 0.002 A. This transformation temperature decreased with an increase in x in the system.
Mechanisms Underlying Burst and Regular Spiking Evoked by Dendritic Depolarization in Layer 5 Cortical Pyramidal Neurons

Mechanisms underlying burst and regular spiking evoked by dendritic depolarization in layer 5 cortical pyramidal neurons. Apical dendrites of layer 5 pyramidal cells in a slice preparation of rat s...
FRACTIONAL APPROXIMATION BY NORMALIZED BELL AND SQUASHING TYPE NEURAL NETWORK OPERATORS

This article deals with the determination of the fractional rate of convergence to the unit of some neural network operators, namely, the normalized bell and "squashing" type operators. This is given through the moduli of continuity of the involved right and left Caputo fractional derivatives of the approximated function and they appear in the right-hand side of the associated Jackson type inequalities.
HOXA11 silencing and endogenous HOXA11 antisense ribonucleic acid in the uterine endometrium.

Hoxa11 is an essential regulator of embryonic uterine development and the cyclic development of the adult uterine endometrium. Hoxa11 is required for female fertility, as evidenced by targeted mutation. Here we demonstrate a naturally occurring Hoxa11 (mouse)/HOXA11 (human) antisense transcript present in the adult mouse and human endometrium. HOXA11 antisense transcript levels varied during the menstrual cycle, with peak antisense RNA levels occurring in the midproliferative phase, varying inversely with mRNA expression levels. HOXA11 protein levels correlated temporally with peak mRNA levels. In primary stromal cell culture, progesterone down-regulated HOXA11 antisense transcription, and this was followed by up-regulation of HOXA11 mRNA, suggesting a possible role for the antisense transcript in regulating mRNA expression. Attempts to block Hoxa11 function by transfection of the murine uterus with Hoxa11 antisense oligonucleotides failed to interrupt normal uterine function, suggesting that Hoxa11 antis...
MIEN1, a novel interactor of Annexin A2, promotes tumor cell migration by enhancing AnxA2 cell surface expression

Migration and invasion enhancer 1 (MIEN1) is a novel gene found to be abundantly expressed in breast tumor tissues and functions as a critical regulator of tumor cell migration and invasion to promote systemic metastases. Previous studies have identified post-translational modifications by isoprenylation at the C-terminal tail of MIEN1 to favor its translocation to the inner leaflet of plasma membrane and its function as a membrane-bound adapter molecule. However, the exact molecular events at the membrane interface activating the MIEN1-driven tumor cell motility are vaguely understood. MIEN1 was first studied using in-silico analysis on available RNA sequencing data of human breast tissues and its expression was ascertained in breast cells. We performed several assays including co-immunoprecipitation, wound healing, western blotting and immunofluorescence to decipher the molecular events involved in MIEN1-mediated tumor cell migration. Clinically, MIEN1 is predominantly overexpressed in Her-2 and luminal B subtypes of breast tumors, and its increased expression correlates with poor disease free survival. Molecular studies identified a phosphorylation-dependent activation signal in the immunoreceptor tyrosine based activation motif (ITAM) of MIEN1 and the phosphorylation-deficient MIEN1-mutants (Y39F/50 F) to regulate filopodia generation, migration and invasion. We found that ITAM-phosphorylation of MIEN1 is significantly impaired in isoprenylation-deficient MIEN1 mutants indicating that prenylation of MIEN1 and membrane association is required for cross-phosphorylation of tyrosine residues. Furthermore, we identified MIEN1 as a novel interactor of Annexin A2 (AnxA2), a Ca2+ -dependent phospholipid binding protein, which serves as an extracellular proteolytic center regulating plasmin generation. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) confirmed that MIEN1 physically interacts with AnxA2 and functional studies revealed that they mutually cooperate to accentuate tumor cell motility. Interestingly, our study identified that ectopic overexpression of MIEN1 significantly enhances Tyr23-phosphorylation on AnxA2, thereby stimulating cell surface translocation of AnxA2 and catalyzing the activation of its proteolytic activity. Our data show that the presence and interaction of both MIEN1 and AnxA2 in breast tumors are crucial drivers of cell motility. Our study has now deciphered a novel regulatory network governing the vicious process of breast tumor cell invasion-metastasis, and findings suggest MIEN1-AnxA2 as prospective targets to counter the deadly disease.
Sisyphus and Translational Stroke Research

After more than 1000 failures, we know that our methods for translating effective stroke treatments from the laboratory to the clinic do not work. New preclinical and clinical approaches conceived outside of the current paradigm exist and should be carefully considered. Now, Tymianski and colleagues report on results obtained during translation of a new neuroprotectant.
Filtering Antonymous, Trend-Contrasting, and Polarity-Dissimilar Distributional Paraphrases for Improving Statistical Machine Translation

Paraphrases are useful for statistical machine translation (SMT) and natural language processing tasks. Distributional paraphrase generation is independent of parallel texts and syntactic parses, and hence is suitable also for resource-poor languages, but tends to erroneously rank antonyms, trend-contrasting, and polarity-dissimilar candidates as good paraphrases. We present here a novel method for improving distributional paraphrasing by filtering out such candidates. We evaluate it in simulated low and mid-resourced SMT tasks, translating from English to two quite different languages. We show statistically significant gains in English-to-Chinese translation quality, up to 1 Bleu from non-filtered paraphrase-augmented models (1.6 Bleu from baseline). We also show that yielding gains in translation to Arabic, a morphologically rich language, is not straightforward.
The Developing Shoulder Has a Limited Capacity to Recover After a Short Duration of Paralysis

Neonatal brachial plexus injuries during childbirth can cause shoulder paralysis in 1 out of every 250 births in the United States.1,2 Although 80% of these infants recover spontaneously and have no residual complications, a number of them have persistent paralysis and functional deficits.1,3,4 Surgeons are thus faced with a choice on if and when to intervene. However, the time course of persistent paralysis leading to permanent functional defects in the neonate is unclear.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Protease Inhibitor Effects on Torsion Measurements and Autolysis of Pacific Whiting Surimi

Beef plasma protein (BPP), egg white and potato extract were tested for their ability to inhibit proteolysis in fish mince and surimi made from Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus). Strong inhibition resulted from all three compounds in fish mince when measured by autolysis. However, when tested in surimi significant differences occurred among the compounds. BPP showed strongest inhibition of proteolytic effect followed by egg white and potato extract when measured by autolysis, gel electrophoresis and torsion. BPP was an effective inhibitor in surimi at a concentration as low as 1%.
Identifying the capability of overlapping computation with communication

Overlapping computation with communication is central to obtaining high performance on distributed-memory multiprocessors. This report explicates the overlapping capability of two distributed-memory multiprocessors: the EM-X and IBM SP-2. The well-known bitonic sorting algorithm is selected for experiments. Various message sizes are used to determine when, where, how much and why overlapping takes place. Experimental results indicate that both multiprocessors would yield up to 30% to 40% overlap of communication time when the message size is approximately 1K integers. EM-X is found to be message-size insensitive yielding high overlap for various message sizes, while SP-2 was effective for the window of message size 512 to 2K integers.
Towards a data-centric view of cloud security

Cloud security issues have recently gained traction in the research community, with much of the focus primarily concentrated on securing the operating systems and virtual machines on which the services are deployed. In this paper, we take an alternative perspective and propose a data-centric view of cloud security. In particular, we explore the security properties of secure data sharing between applications hosted in the cloud. We discuss data management challenges in the areas of secure distributed query processing, system analysis and forensics, and query correctness assurance, and describe our current efforts towards meeting these challenges using our Declarative Secure Distributed Systems (DS2) platform.
Functional consequences of progressive cone dystrophy-associated mutations in the human cone photoreceptor cyclic nucleotide-gated channel CNGA3 subunit

Progressive cone dystrophies are a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by early deterioration of visual acuity and color vision, together with psychophysical and electrophysiological evidence of abnormal cone function and cone degeneration. Recently, three mutations in the gene encoding the CNGA3 subunit of cone photoreceptor cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels have been linked to progressive cone dystrophy in humans. To investigate the functional consequences of these mutations, we expressed mutant human CNGA3 subunits in Xenopus oocytes, alone or together with human CNGB3, and studied these channels using patch-clamp recording. Compared with wild-type channels, homomeric and heteromeric channels containing CNGA3-N471S or CNGA3-R563H subunits exhibited an increase in apparent affinity for cGMP and an increase in the relative agonist efficacy of cAMP compared with cGMP. In contrast, R277C subunits did not form functional homomeric or heteromeric channels. Cell surface expression levels, determined using confocal microscopy of green fluorescent protein-tagged subunits and patch-clamp recording, were significantly reduced for both R563H and R277C but unchanged for N471S. Overall, these results suggest that the plasma membrane localization and gating properties of cone CNG channels are altered by progressive cone dystrophy-associated mutations, providing evidence that supports the pathogenicity of these mutations.
Inverse Realized Laplace Transforms for Nonparametric Volatility Density Estimation in Jump-Diffusions ∗

This article develops a nonparametric estimator of the stochastic volatility density of a discretely observed Ito semimartingale in the setting of an increasing time span and finer mesh of the observation grid. There are two basic steps involved. The first step is aggregating the high-frequency increments into the realized Laplace transform, which is a robust nonparametric estimate of the underlying volatility Laplace transform. The second step is using a regularized kernel to invert the realized Laplace transform. These two steps are relatively quick and easy to compute, so the nonparametric estimator is practicable. The article also derives bounds for the mean squared error of the estimator. The regularity conditions are sufficiently general to cover empirically important cases such as level jumps and possible dependencies between volatility moves and either diffusive or jump moves in the semimartingale. The Monte Carlo analysis in this study indicates that the nonparametric estimator is reliable and re...
A cost model for distributed shared memory using competitive update

This paper presents a new "cost" analysis model for distributed shared memory (DSM) using a competitive update protocol. The cost metric of interest is the overhead of message passing necessary to implement DSM. This approach is based on segment model proposed previously (Kim et al., 1996, 1997). The input parameter for the cost analysis model is the probability density function of the number of remote updates in a segment. This distribution can quite accurately characterize many applications. The proposed model is validated by comparing analytical results obtained using the model to experimental results. The competitive update protocol for shared memory is defined using a parameter called the "update limit" (or threshold). Using the proposed model, we compute the optimal update limit for the competitive update protocol.
Relationships Between Ethnic Minority Psychological Associations and Counseling Psychology: Three New Frameworks

In this rejoinder the authors respond to the three reactions to the major contribution, “Ethnic Minority Psychological Associations: Connections to Counseling Psychology,” provided by Chung and Wu, Neville, Flores, and Dobson, and Yakushko, Wang, and Warrior. In their thoughtful reactions, these current and past leaders of the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) furthered the dialogue and offered additional insights into the relationship between Ethnic Minority Psychological Associations (EMPAs) and SCP. In the authors’ rejoinder they focus on (a) the commonalities across these reactions and (b) the unique contribution of each reaction. Each of the reactions offered a new framework (or analogy) for how the EMPAs and SCP can work together to advance a social justice agenda.
The Role of Sonography in Diagnosing and Treating Female Infertility

The most common forms of female infertility and the role of sonography in both the diagnosis and management of female infertility are discussed. A descriptive cause of each disorder is offered, followed by current and experimental sonographic methods of treatment.
Copyrighting Media Labor and Production A Case of Chinese Television

This article examines the role of copyright in production and labor relations within media institutions. Specifically, it examines China Central Television’s (CCTV’s) copyright reform and argues that developmental strategies and market conditions may diminish or promote copyright’s role in commercial media. In CCTV’s case, two factors contributed to the insignificance of copyright in the 1990s, namely, the reliance on advertising as the major revenue source and CCTV’s centralized power in the television sector. Yet the circumstances changed in the 2000s with the slowdown of advertising growth, which brought copyright to the forefront of CCTV’s market reform. During the process, the dominating role of CCTV vis-a-vis non-unionized media workers resulted in copyright reform that was slanted toward corporate interests. The implications of the path of CCTV’s copyright reform are highly relevant for understanding media and copyright growth in contemporary China and in other media systems undergoing contested pr...
Price Discovery in the U.S. Treasury Market

This paper is the first to characterize the tatonnement of high-frequency returns from U.S. Treasury spot and futures markets. In particular, we highlight the previously neglected role of the futures markets in price discovery. The lower-bound estimate of bivariate information shares for 30-year Treasury futures typically exceeds 50% from 1998 on. Standard liquidity measures, including the proportion of trades and relative bid-ask spreads, explain daily information shares. These conclusions still hold when one controls for days of macroeconomic announcements. Finally, a 5-dimensional cointegrated system explains a high percentage of Treasury returns. In that system, the 30-year futures contract and the 5-year spot market dominate price discovery.
Bad Corporate Marriages: Waking Up in Bed the Morning After

This paper examines corporate risk taking behavior in the wake of unsuccessful merger activities. We find that relative to other firms, firms that made bad acquisitions take both more systematic risk and more idiosyncratic risk. Moreover, higher risk is associated with greater value destruction and stronger corporate governance. The increased risk can be traced to increased cash flow volatility, increased leverage, decreased asset liquidity, more investment in R&D, and more equity-based executive compensation. These findings are in line with the behavioral approach suggesting that in the domain of losses, decision makers generally become more tolerant of risk.
Generalizability and Effectiveness of Butterfly Phlebotomy in Reducing Hemolysis.

Objectives The objective was to test the hypothesis that exclusive use of butterfly needles for phlebotomy, compared with sample collection via intravenous (IV) catheter, will reduce rates of sample hemolysis. Methods This was an observational study of hemolysis rates before and after implementation of a “butterfly-only” phlebotomy protocol. Weekly hemolysis rates, generated by the central laboratory, were collected and the proportion of hemolyzed specimens before and after protocol implementation were compared. Results Prior to institution of the butterfly-only protocol, 11.3% of specimens sent from the emergency department were reported as hemolyzed. During the postintervention period, only 4.3% of specimens were hemolyzed for a proportionate decrease of 62% and an absolute decrease of 7.0% (95% confidence interval = 6.6% to 7.3%). Conclusions Use of a butterfly-only phlebotomy protocol cuts hemolysis rates by more than half when compared with IV catheter phlebotomy.
Surface degradation in graphite/polyimide composites at elevated temperature

Results are presented from an investigation into the degradation mechanisms of IM7/K3B laminates degraded by long isothermal exposures to the temperatures found in skins of supersonic aircraft. Methods used were microscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA), and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS). Microscopy revealed a discolored zone growing into specimens as aging time increased. DSC showed increases in glass transition temperature (Tg) and evidence of chemical and physical aging. SIMS indicated that polymer degradation occurs in the interphase region.
Thermally induced conformational transitions in nascent branched amphiphilic peptide capsules

Branched amphiphilic peptide capsules (BAPCs) are biocompatible, bilayer delimited polycationic nanospheres that spontaneously form at room temperature through the coassembly of two amphiphilic branched peptides: bis(FLIVI)-K-K4 and bis(FLIVIGSII)-K-K4. BAPCs are readily taken up by cells in culture, where they escape and/or evade the endocytic pathway and accumulate in the perinuclear region, persisting there without apparent degradation or extravasation. Drugs, small proteins, and solutes as well as α particle emitting radionuclides are stably encapsulated for extended periods of time. BAPC formation at room temperature proceeds via a fusogenic process and after 48 h a range of BAPCs sizes are observed, from 50 nm to a few microns in diameter. It was previously reported that cooling BAPCs from 25 to 4 °C and then back to 25 °C eliminated their fusogenic property. In this report, biophysical techniques reveal that BAPCs undergo thermosensitive conformational transitions as a function of both time and tem...
Aortic Pressure and the Diastolic Volume Law of Energy Output in Cardiac Contraction

ConclusionsWhen very small changes in diastolic ventricular volume are measured one cannot disregard the coronary perfusion pressure as a factor in determining the volume of blood in the coronary vessels. Since the volume of blood in the superficial vessels has no influence upon the fiber length, and the quantity in the deeper vessels has a lesser influence than does the volume within the ventricles, it is obvious that corrections in the measured external diastolic ventricular volume must be made in order to compare energetic conditions at various perfusion pressures. The quantitative results obtained here are of the right order of magnitude to account completely for the small discrepancies found by Kiese and Garan in energy liberation at various aortic pressures. It is believed that the present results invalidate the conclusion that the aortic pressure is a determining factor in the energy liberation by heart muscle. The best evidence therefore indicates that the conditions of loading, other than those d...
A free ride on the information highway: gratis software for enhancing end user productivity

ABSTRACT The concept of gratis software is anything but new. Not to be confused with free software and the efforts of the Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org, this article reviews selected productivity software for the IBM-compatible PC and Windows operating system that is both obtainable and useable without payment. Included in this selection are: operating systems, office productivity, e-mail, document viewers, compression, system, antivirus, and Web browsers. The selected titles offer the possibility for building a complete suite of productivity applications around software that is freely available for personal use.
Plasminogen Activator Activity of Rat Lysosomes

SummaryRat tissues have been fractionated in order to assay their plasminogen activator activity. Mitochondria, microsomes, and the final supernate separated from rat liver were essentially equal in this activity suggesting that the soluble plasminogen activator in the cell homogenate had equilibrated among them. Lysosomes showed significantly greater plasminogen activator activity than the other fractions. The plasminogen activator release from lysosomes could be increased by sonification and freezing and thawing. When the lysosomes of a series of six tissues were compared, lung lysosomes were richest in plasminogen activator. The activator activity was approximately the same for lysosomes of rat spleen, kidney, liver, brain, and lymph node. Proteolytic activity of rat liver cell fractions was less than 1/4 that measured in the presence of plasminogen. Fibrinolytic activity of cell fractions measured with heated fibrin clots was negligible.
Beyond the river: the benefits of cooperation on international rivers

Management of international rivers can be a cause of conflict or cooperation between states. Benefits of cooperation include benefits to the ecological river, the economic river, the political river and the catalytic river. The challenges are in balancing the trade-offs between states.
Tailoring Electronic Structure Through Alloying: The AgnCu34–n (n = 0–34) Nanoparticle Family

Electronic structures of the free-standing core–shell (Cu@Ag) AgnCu34–n (n = 0–34) nanoalloy family are studied as a function of stoichiometry using ab initio total energy electronic structure calculations. Our calculations show that progressive alloying significantly alters the coordination distribution, bond lengths, formation energies, and the electronic densities of states. Changes in coordination and elemental environment are reflected in the electronic densities of states, which broaden or narrow as a result of hybridization between the Cu and the Ag atoms. The densities of states of Ag atoms in Ag-rich nanoparticles show large broadening when a single Cu atom is introduced, followed by substantial deviation of the position of the center of d states from that of the pristine (Ag34) nanoparticle. Such deviation is found to persist for nonsymmetric nanoparticles. The calculated HOMO–LUMO gaps vary between 0.2 and 0.9 eV within the family. The magnitude of the gaps is found to be strongly dependent on ...
Colloidal Quantum Dots: Think Outside the (Particle-in-a-)Box

This Perspective discusses recent work on mechanisms by which organic ligands affect the electronic structure and exciton dynamics of colloidal quantum dots (QDs). Much of the work described here uses some combination of steady-state absorption, transient absorption, steady-state photoluminescence, and transient photoluminescence spectroscopies to characterize QD–ligand complexes. Ligands affect the ground-state electronic structure of QDs via mixing of the frontier orbitals at the QD–ligand interface and influence the dynamics of excitonic decay by mediating charge trapping or by participating in charge transfer. This Perspective highlights strategies to address the various forms of structural and chemical heterogeneity of QD ensembles in identifying the mechanisms of these ligand-mediated processes. Finally, four-wave mixing techniques are discussed as promising methods for direct measurement of ligand-mediated nonradiative dissipation of the QD exciton.
Enterprise Performance Synthetic Measurement by Non-Financial Indexes

New non-financial indexes are put forward because present ones are not over-all. The new indexes include operating strategic object, regulations constructing, product quality, technique innovating and operator's quality. The new non-financial indexes system of enterprise performance measurement and the measuring model are established here. An illustration is given.
Effect of sampling rate and filter settings on High Frequency Oscillation detections.

Abstract Objective High Frequency Oscillations (HFOs) are being studied as a biomarker of epilepsy, yet it is unknown how various acquisition parameters at different centers affect detection and analysis of HFOs. This paper specifically quantifies effects of sampling rate (FS) and anti-aliasing filter (AAF) positions on automated HFO detection. Methods HFOs were detected on intracranial EEG recordings (17 patients) with 5 kHz FS. HFO detection was repeated on downsampled and/or filtered copies of the EEG data, mimicking sampling rates and low-pass filter settings of various acquisition equipment. For each setting, we compared the HFO detection sensitivity, HFO features, and ability to identify the ictal onset zone. Results The relative sensitivity remained above 80% for either FS ⩾2 kHz or AAF ⩾500 Hz. HFO feature distributions were consistent (AUROC Conclusions We recommend at least FS ⩾2 kHz and AAF ⩾500 Hz to detect HFOs. Additionally, HFO peak frequency is not robust at any setting: the same HFO event can be variably classified either as a ripple ( 250 Hz) under different acquisition settings. Significance These results inform clinical centers on requirements to analyze HFO rates and features.
Braess's paradox, fibonacci numbers, and exponential inapproximability

We give the first analyses in multicommodity networks of both the worst-case severity of Braess’s Paradox and the price of anarchy of selfish routing with respect to the maximum latency. Our first main result is a construction of an infinite family of two-commodity networks, related to the Fibonacci numbers, in which both of these quantities grow exponentially with the size of the network. This construction has wide implications, and demonstrates that numerous existing analyses of selfish routing in single-commodity networks have no analogues in multicommodity networks, even in those with only two commodities. This dichotomy between single- and two-commodity networks is arguably quite unexpected, given the negligible dependence on the number of commodities of previous work on selfish routing. Our second main result is an exponential upper bound on the worst-possible severity of Braess’s Paradox and on the price of anarchy for the maximum latency, which essentially matches the lower bound when the number of commodities is constant. Finally, we use our family of two-commodity networks to exhibit a natural network design problem with intrinsically exponential (in)approximability: while there is a polynomial-time algorithm with an exponential approximation ratio, subexponential approximation is unachievable in polynomial time (assuming P ≠ NP).
Internal Reflectance IR Spectroscopy of Langmuir Monolayer Films at the Air-Water Interface

We report here the vibrational spectroscopic study of monomolecular films at the air-water interface, by using internal reflection infrared spectroscopy. Unlike previous external reflectance IR methods developed in our laboratory, this method uses attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy to study monolayer films. The internal reflectance approach offers several advantages for the study of Langmuir monolayers at the air-water interface, including (i) improved S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio resulting from multiple reflections, and (ii) the ability to form supported planar bilayer films of defined chemical structure and orientation. One method under design in our laboratory uses a Ge internal reflection element derivatized with octadecyltrichlorosilane. Using this design, the study of spread Langmuir phospholipid monolayer films in this ATR geometry results in a supported, oriented, planar membrane bilayer with hydrated polar head groups. Preliminary studies reveal that this method of analyzing phospholipid Langmuir films at the air — water interface produces results consistent with previous ATR-IR studies of transferred Langmuir-Blodgett phospholipid monolayers.
Effects of resource distribution on overwinter foraging by mice in agricultural fields and the implications for maize volunteer control

Abstract Seed predation may be an important ecosystem service for controlling glyphosate–resistant crop volunteers, which are a growing management concern in conventional cropping systems that rely heavily on pesticide based management. In the Midwest USA, prairie deer mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus ) are important seed predators, removing unwanted weed seeds and waste grain from the soil surface all year round. In this study, we examined how the spatial distribution of experimental maize ( Zea mays ) seed patches influenced overwinter foraging, mouse populations and waste grain removal in conventional crop fields. We predicted that (1) individual mice will increase foraging on maize waste grain in fields with many small maize seed patches compared to fields with a few large maize seed patches (functional response) and (2) more mice will forage in fields with many small seed patches than in fields with a few large seed patches (numerical response). We found mouse functional responses were not influenced by the spatial distribution of maize seed patches nor did mice respond numerically to seed addition in general. Mice did, however, remove 59–66% (94–106 kg ha −1 ) of the maize seeds, providing a valuable ecosystem service. Our work shows that prairie deer mice are able to remove large amounts of waste grain from the soil surface over winter, supporting the hypothesis that overwinter seed predation by mice can drastically reduce volunteer maize densities in conventional crop fields. Future research should further examine what management practices (such as practicing no-till) increase mouse abundance and foraging efficacy, so that management strategies that maximize seed predation can be developed.
Does collaborative tree planting between nonprofits and neighborhood groups improve neighborhood community capacity

Abstract In the past decade, urban tree canopy cover goals and tree-planting initiatives have proliferated among local governments and nonprofit organizations across the globe. While research has documented many benefits new trees will provide, less has considered whether active participation of city residents in urban forestry activities might also benefit urban neighborhoods. This paper examines nonprofit tree-planting programs in four cities in the Midwestern and Eastern United States to determine whether and to what extent neighborhood participation in a nonprofit tree-planting project might increase ties between residents, social cohesion, and shared trust in that neighborhood. We leveraged a unique dataset of ecological and social information about tree-planting neighborhoods and matched comparison (non-tree planting) neighborhoods (total neighborhoods = 197; total survey respondents = 1551). The evidence for a social effect of nonprofit tree-planting programs is mixed. When asked directly, neighborhood residents reported observing positive changes. Linear regression analysis reveals significantly higher neighborhood ties reported by individuals in planting neighborhoods. However, we find no significant relationship between tree planting and social cohesion or trust. In single-city models, planting's association with neighborhood ties and social cohesion is only significant in one city, and associations with trust are not significant in any city. Models that aggregate responses at the neighborhood level find no significant association of tree planting. Findings suggest that tree planting may increase neighborhood ties, but that increases in social cohesion and/or trust are not guaranteed.
Prior knowledge influences interpretations of eyewitness confidence statements: “The witness picked the suspect, they must be 100% sure.”

When an eyewitness identifies a suspect from a lineup, it is important to know how certain they are about the decision. Even though eyewitnesses are likely to express certainty with words, past res...
Renal, Fluid, and Electrolyte Facts and Formulas

Fluid and electrolyte balance is a challenging area of acute and critical care. In addition, renal problems are common, and their management incorporates a number of useful formulas and facts.
The time for next-generation molecular genetic diagnostics in nephrology is now!

Global and disease-group genetic testing is replacing single-gene molecular diagnostics. Bullich et al. demonstrate that gene panel analysis can result in a high yield of genetic diagnoses in cystic and familial glomerular populations. As the complexity of defining specific inherited kidney diseases becomes more apparent, a broader role for panel-based genomic testing in nephrology is now warranted. The resulting firm diagnosis can inform family planning decisions and aid prognostics and patient management.
Foreign Body Removal in the Craniomaxillofacial Complex: Indications, Techniques, and Treatment:

Foreign body migration in the deep spaces of the neck is particularly concerning due to the increased risk of damage to the great vessels and nerves. In addition, migration often cannot be easily p...
The Phytochemistry of Cherokee Aromatic Medicinal Plants

Background: Native Americans have had a rich ethnobotanical heritage for treating diseases, ailments, and injuries. Cherokee traditional medicine has provided numerous aromatic and medicinal plants that not only were used by the Cherokee people, but were also adopted for use by European settlers in North America. Methods: The aim of this review was to examine the Cherokee ethnobotanical literature and the published phytochemical investigations on Cherokee medicinal plants and to correlate phytochemical constituents with traditional uses and biological activities. Results: Several Cherokee medicinal plants are still in use today as herbal medicines, including, for example, yarrow (Achillea millefolium), black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa), American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), and blue skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora). This review presents a summary of the traditional uses, phytochemical constituents, and biological activities of Cherokee aromatic and medicinal plants. Conclusions: The list is not complete, however, as there is still much work needed in phytochemical investigation and pharmacological evaluation of many traditional herbal medicines.