cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Future Prospects of PET Instrumentation and Technology

In this chapter, we describe the push toward developing long axial field-of-view (FOV) systems that provide significantly high sensitivity and open for the first time the possibility of performing dynamic total-body PET (TB-PET) imaging. We discuss the design considerations in developing such systems and briefly describe the development of two such systems developed within the EXPLORER consortium. Early patient imaging results validate the superior performance of these systems due to the high sensitivity, not only enabling new clinical directions but also opening new pathways in PET research imaging.
National gender differences in the prescribing of opioid medications from 2006 to 2015.

Objective: To identify gender differences in opioid prescribing from ambulatory care settings and identify factors associated with prescribing of opioids for men and women. Design and participants: Retrospective analysis of data from The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015. Eligible patients were at least 18 years old on the date of the physician office visit. Data were collected on patient demographics and clinical factors. Data were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models to explore differences in opioid prescribing among men and women. Due to the large sample size, the significance level was set to p < 0.001. Main outcome measure: Opioid prescribing during an office visit. Results: A total of 322 957 ambulatory care visits for adults were included in the analysis representing 7.8 billion weighted visits nationally. In 771 601 088 (9.8 percent) visits, an opioid was prescribed. Women received an opioid prescription at 9.4 percent of visits compared to 10.4 percent of visits for men. Gender differences for factors including age, region, payment method, and pain diagnosis were observed (p < 0.001). Women had a higher number of visits with an opioid (449 277 925 vs 322 323 163), but men had higher odds of being prescribed an opioid (OR: 1.214; CI: 1.214-1.214). Conclusion: Men are more likely to be prescribed an opioid as compared to women, but women are being prescribed more opioids overall. Gender differences should be further explored to develop gender-specific interventions to reduce opioid prescribing.
Impact of ISK Voltage and Ca2+/Mg2+-Dependent Rectification on Cardiac Repolarization.

Abstract Cardiac small conductance Ca2+-activated K+ (SK) channels are activated solely by Ca2+, but the SK current (ISK) is inwardly rectified. However, the impact of inward rectification in shaping action potentials (APs) in ventricular cardiomyocytes under β-adrenergic stimulation or in disease states remains undefined. Two processes underlie this inward rectification: an intrinsic rectification caused by an electrostatic energy barrier from positively charged amino acids at the inner pore and a voltage-dependent Ca2+/Mg2+ block. Thus, Ca2+ has a biphasic effect on ISK, activating at low [Ca2+] yet inhibiting ISK at high [Ca2+]. We examined the effect of ISK rectification on APs in rat cardiomyocytes by simultaneously recording whole-cell apamin-sensitive currents and Ca2+ transients during an AP waveform and developed a computer model of SK channels with rectification features. The typical profile of ISK during AP clamp included an initial peak (mean 1.6 pA/pF) followed by decay to the point that submembrane [Ca2+] reached ∼10 μM. During the rest of the AP stimulus, ISK either plateaued or gradually increased as the cell repolarized and submembrane [Ca2+] decreased further. We used a six-state gating model combined with intrinsic and Ca2+/Mg2+-dependent rectification to simulate ISK and investigated the relative contributions of each type of rectification to AP shape. This SK channel model replicates key features of ISK recording during AP clamp showing that intrinsic rectification limits ISK at high Vm during the early and plateau phase of APs. Furthermore, the initial rise of Ca2+ transients activates, but higher [Ca2+] blocks SK channels, yielding a transient outward-like ISK trajectory. During the decay phase of Ca2+, the Ca2+-dependent block is released, causing ISK to rise again and contribute to repolarization. Therefore, ISK is an important repolarizing current, and the rectification characteristics of an SK channel determine its impact on early, plateau, and repolarization phases of APs.
Genome-wide analysis identifies a novel LINC-PINT splice variant associated with vascular amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) contributes to accelerated cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia and is a common finding at autopsy. The APOEe4 allele and male sex have previously been reported to associate with increased CAA in AD. To inform biomarker and therapeutic target discovery, we aimed to identify additional genetic risk factors and biological pathways involved in this vascular component of AD etiology. We present a genome-wide association study of CAA pathology in AD cases and report sex- and APOE-stratified assessment of this phenotype. Genome-wide genotypes were collected from 853 neuropathology-confirmed AD cases scored for CAA across five brain regions, and imputed to the Haplotype Reference Consortium panel. Key variables and genome-wide genotypes were tested for association with CAA in all individuals and in sex and APOEe4 stratified subsets. Pathway enrichment was run for each of the genetic analyses. Implicated loci were further investigated for functional consequences using brain transcriptome data from 1,186 samples representing seven brain regions profiled as part of the AMP-AD consortium. We confirmed association of male sex, AD neuropathology and APOEe4 with increased CAA, and identified a novel locus, LINC-PINT, associated with lower CAA amongst APOEe4-negative individuals (rs10234094-C, beta = −3.70 [95% CI −0.49—−0.24]; p = 1.63E-08). Transcriptome profiling revealed higher LINC-PINT expression levels in AD cases, and association of rs10234094-C with altered LINC-PINT splicing. Pathway analysis indicates variation in genes involved in neuronal health and function are linked to CAA in AD patients. Further studies in additional and diverse cohorts are needed to assess broader translation of our findings.
Spatiotemporal prediction of foot traffic

Foot traffic is a business term to describe the number of customers that enter a point of interest (POI). This work aims to predict future foot traffic: the number of people from each census block group (CBG) that will visit each POI of a study region with potential applications in marketing and advertising. Existing techniques for spatiotemporal prediction of foot traffic use location-based social network data that suffer from sparsity, capturing only a handful of visits per day. This study utilizes highly granular foot traffic data from SafeGraph, a data company that collects mobility data regarding hundreds of millions of visits per day in the United States alone. Using this data, we explore solutions to predict weekly foot traffic data at the POI level. We propose a collaborative filtering approach using tensor factorization on the (POIs x CBGs x Weeks) data tensor. This approach provides us with a de-noised estimation of visits in previous weeks for all POI-CBG pairs. Using this tensor, we explore various time series prediction models: weekly rolling average, weighted weekly rolling average, univariate linear regression, polynomial regression, and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks. Our results show that of all the prediction models, the collaborative filtering step consistently improves prediction results. We also found that a simple weighted average consistently performed better than the more sophisticated approaches. Given this abundance of foot traffic data, this result shows that we can improve the spatiotemporal prediction of foot traffic data by harnessing collaborative filtering.
Helping the heart to heal with stem cells.

Bone marrow-derived angioblasts may be used to promote cardiac revascularization in the days following a myocardial infarction (pages 430–436 ).
CEO Visibility: Are Media Stars Born or Made?

Recent literature finds that a CEO’s media visibility is positively associated with job acquisition and pay premiums. However, the literature has been quiet about whether media coverage is naturally bestowed upon CEOs, or whether CEOs are able to influence media coverage. That is, are CEO media stars born or made? We examine the extent to which CEOs “self-promote” by naming or quoting themselves within press releases, and the effects of self-promotion on CEO media coverage and compensation. We find that CEO self-promotion is positively associated with the importance of news releases and is asymmetrically associated with good news more than bad news, which is consistent with CEO selfpromotion being an intentional act based on cost/benefit analysis. Turning to the external media, we find evidence consistent with CEO self-promotion leading to significantly greater media coverage of the CEO. Finally, we examine whether the value of external media coverage to CEOs varies based on whether or not the coverage is a result of self-promotion. Preliminary results show that both “organic” and “promoted” media coverage are positively associated with CEO compensation.
Building Social Networks

We examine the process of building social relationships as a non-cooperative game that requires mutual consent and involves reaching out to others at a cost. Players create their social network from amongst their set of acquaintances. Having acquaintances allows players to form naive beliefs about the feasibility of building direct relationships with their acquaintances. These myopic beliefs describe how the other players are expected to respond to the initiation of a link by a player. We introduce a stability concept called "monadic stability" where agents play a best response to their formed myopic beliefs such that these beliefs are self-confirming. The resulting equilibrium networks form subset of the set of pairwise stable networks.
An Evaluation of the Initial Treatment of Acute Asthma

Two treatment regimens for the initial treatment of acute asthma in 50 patients between the ages of 12 and 20 years seen in the emergency room were evaluated. The treatments were randomized such that 26 patients received 2.5 mg of the beta 2-agonist fenoterol by nebulizer and 24 patients received 0.3 mg of epinephrine followed by 0.75 mg of Sus-Phrine. Clinical assessment and spirometry were performed over a two-hour period. Both groups responded within ten minutes and peak improvement was reached within one hour. Peak expiratory flow and clinical score were better following fenoterol treatment in the first hour (P less than .05). The one-second forced expiratory volume and the forced expiratory flow in the middle half of the vital capacity were greater at 20 minutes with fenoterol (P less than .05). Those with more severe obstruction (forced expiratory volume less than 30%) receiving aerosol therapy also had significantly greater improvement in the first 20 minutes compared with those who received injections. Four patients failed to respond to epinephrine whereas all patients showed improvement with fenoterol (P less than .05). These results demonstrated that an inhaled beta 2-agonist is effective in the initial treatment of acute asthma in children, regardless of severity, and avoids the need for injections.
Site-directed deletion mutants of a carboxyl-terminal region of human dihydrofolate reductase.

Substrate and inhibitor binding to dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) primarily involves residues in the amino-terminal half of the enzyme; however, antibody binding studies performed in this laboratory suggested that the loop region located in the carboxyl terminus of human DHFR (hDHFR; residues 140-186) is involved in conformational changes that occur upon ligand binding and affect enzyme function (Ratnam, M., Tan, X., Prendergast, N.J., Smith, P.L. & Freisheim, J.H. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 4800-4804). To investigate this observation further, site-directed mutagenesis was used to construct deletion mutants of hDHFR missing 1 (del-1), 2 (del-2), 4 (del-4), and 6 (del-6) residues from loops in the carboxyl terminus of the enzyme. The del-1 mutant enzyme has a two-amino acid substitution in addition to the one-amino acid deletion. Deletion of only one amino acid resulted in a 35 decrease in the specific activity of the enzyme. The del-6 mutant enzyme was inactive. Surprisingly, the del-4 mutant enzyme retained a specific activity almost 33 that of the wild type. The specific activity of the del-2 mutant enzyme was slightly higher (38 wild-type activity) than that of the del-4 mutant. All three active deletion mutants were much less stable than the wild-type enzyme, and all three showed at least a 10-fold increase in Km values for both substrates. The del-1 and del-2 mutants exhibited a similar increase in KD values for both substrate and cofactor. The three active deletion mutants lost activity at concentrations of activating agents such as KCl, urea, and p-hydroxymercuribenzoate that continued to stimulate the wild-type enzyme. Antibody binding studies revealed conformational differences between the wild-type and mutant enzymes both in the absence and presence of bound folate. Thus, although the loops near the carboxyl terminus are far removed from the active site, small deletions of this region significantly affect DHFR function, indicating that the loop structure in mammalian DHFR plays an important functional role in its conformation and catalysis.
Simulating the ISM in Global Disk Galaxies

Until recently, simulations that modeled entire galaxies were restricted to an isothermal or fixed 2- or 3-phase interstellar medium (ISM). This obscured the full role of the ISM in shaping the observed galactic-scale star formation relations. In particular the Kennicutt relation suggests that star formation rates depend in a simple way on global galactic quantities, such as mean gas mass surface density and dynamical time. Contrary to this, observations of nearby star-forming regions, including images from the Spitzer telescope, show that all the way down to ``local-scales'' ($\sim$ parsecs) star formation is a highly clustered process with the gas existing at a wide range of densities and multiple phases, and seemingly decoupled from the larger-scale Galaxy. Many different physical processes appear to be influencing the star formation rate, including heating and cooling of the gas, ``turbulent'' energy injection from outflows, winds and supernova blastwaves, ionization, and magnetic field support. Here we present results from global simulations of disk galaxy star formation that include a fully multiphase ISM and compare to simpler isothermal models. We also investigate the effect of background heating. We discuss the process of giant molecular cloud formation as one of the possible links between the galactic and local scales of star formation.
A Compact, Modular, Teleoperated Robotic Minimally Invasive Surgery System

Compared to traditional open surgery, minimally invasive surgical procedures reduce patient trauma and recovery time, yet the dexterity of the surgeon is reduced due to the small incisions, long instruments, and limited indirect visibility of the operative site inside the patient. Robotic surgical systems, teleoperated by a surgeon from a master control console with joystick-type manipulation interfaces, have been commercially developed yet their adoption into standard practice has been limited up to the present for reasons which may include size, complexity, and cost. The goal of our research is to improve the effectiveness of robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery by developing much smaller, simpler, and less intrusive robotic manipulators for surgery. We have developed a prototype teleoperated robotic surgery system which is modular, compact, and can be sterilized by autoclave. Its simplicity and small size are advantageous for reliability, safety, quick setup times, and ease of use. The system is sufficiently small to be mounted to the sides of the operating table and placed directly above the abdomen of the patient. It is portable for use in remote and hazardous environments and it is easily integrated into operating rooms. The design and configuration of our system are described and preliminary motion trajectory experimental results are given in the paper
Effects of ecotropic murine retroviruses on the dual-function cell surface receptor/basic amino acid transporter

The widely expressed Na(+)-independent transporter for basic amino acids (system y+) is the cell surface receptor (ecoR) for ecotropic host-range mouse retroviruses (murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs)), a class of retroviruses that naturally infects only mice or rats. Accordingly, expression of mouse ecoR cDNA in mink CCL64 fibroblasts yields cells (CEN cells) that have y+ transporter activity above the endogenous background and that bind and are infected by ecotropic MuLVs. The effect of ecotropic MuLV infection on expression of y+ transporter was analyzed in mouse and in mink CEN fibroblasts. Chronic infection with ecotropic MuLVs caused 50-70% loss (down-modulation) of mouse y+ transporter in plasma membranes, detected as a reduced Vmax for uptake and outflow of L-[3H]arginine with no effect on Km values. Down-modulation was specific for mouse y+ and did not affect other transporters or the endogenous mink y+, suggesting that it results from specific interaction between mouse y+ and the viral envelope glycoprotein gp70 in the infected cells. Because this partial loss of mouse y+ from cell surfaces is insufficient to explain the complete interference to superinfection that occurs in cells chronically infected with ecotropic MuLVs, alternative explanations for interference are proposed. In contrast to the y+ down-modulation caused by chronic infection, binding of extracellular envelope glycoprotein gp70 at 37 degrees C resulted in noncompetitive inhibition of amino acid import by mouse y+ but had no effect on export through this same transporter or on any transporter properties of mink y+. The effects of gp70 on transport kinetics suggest that it slows the rate-limiting step of the amino acid import cycle, a conformational transition of the empty transporter in which the binding site moves from the inside back to the outside of the cell, and that gp70 has no effect on the rate-limiting step of the amino acid export cycle. Infected cells retain substantial y+ activity. Moreover, the virus binding site on ecoR is in a mobile region that changes conformation during the amino acid transport cycle.
Why Sugar Is Added to Food: Food Science 101

Avoiding too much sugar is an accepted dietary guidance throughout the world. The U.S. Nutrition Facts panel includes information on total sugars in foods. A focus on added sugars is linked to the concept of discretionary calories and decreasing consumption of added sugars or free sugars as a means to assist a consumer to identify foods that are nutrient-dense. On March 14, 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed that including "added sugars" declaration on the Nutrition Facts panel would be another tool to help consumers reduce excessive discretionary calorie intake from added sugars. Through deductive reasoning, labeling added sugars is one tactic to potentially curb the obesity epidemic in the United States. This review discusses the functions of sugar in food and shows that the methods used to replace added sugars in foods can result in no reduction in calorie content or improvement in nutrient density. Without clear benefit to the consumer for added sugars labeling, this review highlights the complex business obstacles, costs, and consumer confusion resulting from the proposed rule.
Introduction to Medical Entomology

As the 20th Century draws to a close about 6 billion people live in the world. Over 40% inhabit areas, mostly in the tropics, where they were at risk to malaria, a mosquitoborne disease. About 120 million new clinical cases of malaria occur each year, with over 1 million deaths among young children in Africa alone. About 300 million people probably are infected with the malarial parasite at any given time (World Health Organization 1990). In every year for the past 2 decades there has been an epidemic of dengue, another mosquitoborne disease, in some part of the world, with each epidemic resulting in thousands of cases, many of them fatal in children (Fig. 1.1). Arthropods continually attack cattle, a primary source of food for many people of the world.
Isolation and physiological action of (+)-carnitine.

Abstract 1. 1. A microorganism has been isolated which will utilize only the levo form of carnitine from a racemic mixture. This has been used to effect the isolation and subsequent crystallization of (+)-carnitine. 2. 2. (+)-Carnitine will not replace (−)-carnitine in the diet of T. molitor.
Evolutionary dynamics of revolution: Opinion modeling in society based on graphs and rules

Individuals are not electrons. But in some situations, they behave very much alike. When it comes to many social and political questions, individuals' complex attitudes and beliefs must be boiled down to a simple yea (“spin up”) or nay (“spin down”). Although human societies, like physical materials, are very complex, some of their properties can be determined by understanding the interactions that occur between individuals (“atoms”). In particular, the spread of a particular political opinion throughout a society can be modeled as the macroscopic manifestation of the myriad exchanges occurring at the local level between individuals and their neighbors. This model can in future studies be used to gain a qualitative foothold on the evolution of public opinion in various countries for or against the government.
Variations in the rotation rate of Venus due to orbital eccentricity modulation of solar tidal torques

[1] The rotational state of Venus is presumably determined by a balance between two different solar tidal torques: an atmospheric thermal tide yields a torque which acts in the same direction as the retrograde rotation of Venus and a gravitational solid body tide yields a torque which opposes the current rotation. The strengths of these opposing torques both depend on the eccentricity of the orbit of Venus but with different sensitivities. Thus variations in the orbital eccentricity cause fluctuations in the rotation rate at which the tidal torques balance. If Venus is considered to be a single rigid body, the rotational velocity will change by amounts equivalent to ∼1 km/yr at the equator, over timescales of 106 years. Allowance for differential rotation between the core, mantle, and atmosphere increases the range over which the solid surface rotation rate varies. For plausible values of the strength of viscous coupling at the atmosphere-mantle boundary and the core-mantle boundary the variations in solid surface rotational velocity can be 2–3 times larger than in the rigid coupling case. When these long-period forced variations in rotation rate are considered, the present rotation rate of Venus is seen to be close enough to a resonant spin-orbit interaction with the Earth that it may occasionally pass through that resonance.
Gene therapy for the management of pain: part II: molecular targets.

TREATMENT of chronic pain, particularly of neuropathic etiology, is extremely difficult and resistant to many available pharmacologic therapies. Current analgesic agents may be limited with regard to analgesic efficacy or side effects. Newer and experimental pharmacologic agents may also have significant limitations. By targeting a specific receptor or other specific protein targets, a gene therapy approach to the treatment of pain may provide greater analgesic efficacy without the limitations associated with current pharmacotherapy. Advances in the field of gene therapy, along with significant increases in our understanding of the neurobiology of nociception and knowledge of the fundamental genetic structure of many nociceptive targets, have made gene therapy for the management of pain a conceivable reality. In part I of this review, we introduced the basic concepts of gene therapy with an emphasis on the available tools (e.g., viral vectors and antisense oligonucleotides) and strategies for upregulating antinociceptive or downregulating pronociceptive targets. In part II, we summarize current knowledge regarding the nociceptive role, molecular biology, and antisense and knockout data of several novel nociceptive targets for gene therapy. We base our selection of the targets included in this review on the three aforementioned criteria. The targets selected are the best characterized and, in our opinion, most likely amenable to the gene therapeutic approach. A simple but feasible strategy and potential gene therapy targets for the management of pain are summarized in figure 1. However, the list is admittedly incomplete, and the readers are referred to other recent reviews cited in part I of this review for a broader perspective on potential targets for the management of pain.
An Elasticity Solution for the Global Buckling of Sandwich Beams/Wide Panels With Orthotropic Phases

There exist several formulas for the global buckling of sandwich plates, each based on a specific set of assumptions and a specific plate or beam model. It is not easy to determine the accuracy and range of validity of these rather simple formulas unless an elasticity solution exists. In this paper, we present an elasticity solution to the problem of global buckling of wide sandwich panels (equivalent to sandwich columns) subjected to axially compressive loading (along the short side). The emphasis on this study is on the global (single-wave) rather than the wrinkling (multiwave) mode. The sandwich section is symmetric, and all constituent phases, i.e., the facings and the core, are assumed to be orthotropic. The buckling problem is formulated as an eigenboundary-value problem for differential equations, with the axial load being the eigenvalue. The complication in the sandwich construction arises due to the existence of additional “internal” conditions at the face-sheet/core interfaces. Results are produced for a range of geometric configurations, and these are compared with the different global buckling formulas in the literature. DOI: 10.1115/1.3173758
Direction perception in complex dynamic displays: The integration of direction information

Abstract We created random-dot cinematograms in which each dot's successive movements were independently drawn from a Gaussian distribution of directions of some characteristic bandwidth. Such a display, comprising many different, spatially intermingled local motion vectors, can produce a percept of global coherent motion in a single direction. Using pairs of cinematograms, direction discrimination of global motion was measured under various conditions of direction distribution bandwidth, exposure duration, and constancy of each dot's path. A line-element model gave an excellent account of the results: (i) over a considerable range, discrimination was unaffected by the cinematogram's direction distribution bandwidth; (ii) only for the briefest presentations did changes in duration have an effect; (iii) so long as the overall directional content of the cinematogram remained unchanged, the constancy or randomness of individual dots' paths did not affect discrimination. Finally, the line-element model continued to give a good account of the results when we made additional measurements with uniform rather than Gaussian distributions of directions.
Heritability of Cold Tolerance in Red Drum

Abstract Heritability (h 2) of cold tolerance was estimated for red drum Sciaenops ocellatus, an economically important sciaenid fish in the southern USA. Nineteen families were generated via environmentally induced spawning of multiple sets of five broodfish (three dams × two sires) and were mixed in three common-garden replicate tanks for cold tolerance challenge. All offspring were assigned postmortem to parents based on genotypes at nuclear-encoded microsatellites. The cold tolerance trial was initiated when offspring were 230–251 d old (total length mean ± SD = 182 ± 26 mm). Temperature was decreased progressively from 25°C to 3°C over a 30-d period and was maintained at an average of 3.1°C until all fish expired. Mortality began when temperature reached 5°C. Cold tolerance of individual fish was quantified based on survival time and a cooling-degree-hours (CDH) index. The h 2of cold tolerance was estimated using an animal mixed model and a restricted maximum likelihood algorithm. The h 2 (mean ± SE)...
Static compression induces zonal-specific changes in gene expression for extracellular matrix and cytoskeletal proteins in intervertebral disc cells in vitro

Compressive stimuli associated with weight-bearing and loading of the intervertebral disc are believed to be important regulators of disc cell metabolism. In this study, changes in gene expression levels for extracellular matrix and cytoskeletal proteins were quantified in disc cells in an alginate culture system subjected to static unconfined compression (25% compressive strain) after different time periods (2, 18 and 30 h). Differences in gene expression were observed between anulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus cells following static compression for the matrix proteins studied here. Anulus fibrosus cells responded to mechanical deformation at the 30-h time point, with increasing gene expression for types I and II collagen, aggrecan, biglycan, decorin and lumican. In contrast, nucleus pulposus cells were not responsive to mechanical loading with changes in gene expression for these matrix proteins at any time. Our results also show that anulus fibrosus cells, but not nucleus pulposus cells, responded to static compression with increased expression of vimentin mRNA as well as increased polymerization of vimentin subunits. The results of the current study illustrate that fibrochondrocytes of the anulus fibrosus may regulate biosynthesis at the transcriptional level following mechanical deformation in an alginate construct. In contrast, the biological response of nucleus pulposus cells to these same stimuli is not detectable. These differences may be attributed to the presence of a notochordal cell population in the immature nucleus pulposus studied here, with a more diffuse and stiff cytoskeleton that may restrict deformations or shape changes upon compressive loading.
Sterling and oil discoveries: The mystery of nonappreciation

Abstract This paper analyzes the impact of North Sea oil discoveries on the value of sterling by looking at market reactions to announcements of oil discoveries. It shows there is no evidence for the common view that oil discoveries led to an appreciation of sterling. It also explores alternative explanations for the nonappreciation of sterling.
Pn junctions in polycristalline-silicon films

Abstract Junction diodes have been fabricated in chemically deposited polycrystalline-silicon films. The current-voltage characteristics indicate the predominance of recombination-generation current. Minority carrier lifetimes of about 2 × 10−11 sec and 2 × 10−10 sec have been measured in 2 and 8 μm-thick films, respectively. The capacitance-voltage relation has been found to be frequency dependent. The capacitance decreases more rapidly with voltage at higher frequencies, consistent with the inability of trapped carriers to respond to high-frequency excitation.
Divine Gifts to the Secular Desert

Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon, John Milbank, Routledge 2003 (0-415-30525-x), pp. xiii +242, Pb £17.99, Hb £55
Opioid inhibition of formalin-induced changes in plasma extravasation and local blood flow in rats

Hindpaw injection of dilute formalin produces brief (Phase 1) and persistent (Phase 2) nociceptive responses in the rat. We recently showed that systemically-administered remifentanil during Phase 1 interacted with peripheral opioid receptors to delay the onset and termination of Phase 2 (Taylor et al., 1997b). To test the hypothesis that opioid inhibition of proinflammatory events during Phase 1 contributed to this delay, we evaluated the effects of remifentanil on the time course of formalin-induced inflammation. We found that formalin increased paw thickness (edema), plasma extravasation and local blood flow within minutes of its injection, i.e. during Phase 1. Each of these responses was blocked during remifentanil administration (30 microg/kg i.v. bolus, followed 90 s later with a 15 microg/kg/min infusion for 13.5 min), indicating that opioids inhibit Phase 1 inflammation. Opioid blockade of the blood flow response could be reversed with a peripherally-acting opioid antagonist, naloxone methiodide, indicating that remifentanil acted upon peripheral opioid receptors. Although the administration of remifentanil during Phase 1 did not reduce the magnitude of inflammatory responses during Phase 2, it did delay the onset and termination of edema during Phase 2. As this corresponds to the effects of remifentanil on nociceptive responses during Phase 2, we suggest that opioid analgesics act upon peripheral sites to inhibit inflammation during Phase 1, leading to a delay in the temporal profile of inflammatory (and likely nociceptive) responses during Phase 2.
Crystal omentation and sample preparation effects on sputtering and lattice damage in 100 kev self-irradiated copper

Abstract Sputtering yields and angular distributions have been measured as functions of sample preparation techniques and incident ion-beam orientation with respect to the crystal axes for 100 keV Cu-ion beams on Cu crystals and polycrystalline samples. The angular distributions have structure requiring an n th order cosine with two Gaussians superimposed to fit the data; strong peaking is observed near the backscatter direction. The yield is dependent on the beam to crystal and beam to polycrystalline-rod axis orientation, on the grain size of the polycrystals and on sample-preparation techniques. Yield measurements vary by as much as a factor of 4. Lattice-damage differences, measured with alpha particle channeling, are much smaller and seem to be saturated by fluences of the order of 1 × 10 16 /cm 2 .
Induction of the transcription factors NF-κB, AP-1 and NF-AT during B cell stimulation through the CD40 receptor

To address elements that might uniquely characterize CD40 mediated signaling, the nuclear expression of three transcription factors was evaluated following B cell stimulation by CD40L and by anti-Ig antibody. Cross-linked CD40L was found to induce nuclear expression of NF-kappa B, AP-1 and NF-AT with a time course and intensity similar to that produced by anti-Ig. Examination of NF-kappa B in more detail demonstrated that the CD40 mediated expression of DNA binding complexes correlated with induction of trans-activating activity which again attained similar levels following cross-linking of CD40 and slg. Despite the marked similarity in transcription factor induction triggered through CD40 and slg, differences in the intracellular signaling pathways utilized were apparent in that protein kinase C (PKC) depletion did not affect CD40 mediated induction of NF-kappa B even as induction by anti-Ig was abolished. These results suggest that a 'final common pathway' or convergence of transcription factor induction may exist for two distinct receptors, each of which is individually capable of triggering cell cycle progression, despite the use of separate intracellular signaling pathways that differ at the level of PKC. Although transcription factor induction was similar for CD40L and anti-Ig early on, subtle differences in expressed NF-kappa B and AP-1 nucleoprotein complexes were apparent at 24 h. Such differences may play a role in determining the variant effects on B cells of stimulation through these two receptors.
Stability of stagnant viscous films on a solid surface

A unified theoretical framework is developed to study the stability of stagnant films having a wide range of thicknesses and located on a solid surface immersed in a viscous fluid. The stability of films having thicknesses smaller than the distance over which the London dispersion forces are effective is determined by an “effective” surface tension σeff (the sum of the surface tension and a term due to the difference between the forces acting upon an element of volume at the liquid-fluid interface of the thin film and of the corresponding bulk liquid). The films are unstable and will rupture when σeff < 0. The time for rupture is evaluated as a function of the surface viscosity, the surface elasticity, and the viscosity ratio. The derived equations are also valid for large film thicknesses. In the latter cases, the effective surface tension is equal to the surface tension and the films are always stable.
Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine/Glutamate Interaction Switches Modes to Generate Desire versus Dread: D1 Alone for Appetitive Eating But D1 and D2 Together for Fear

The medial shell of nucleus accumbens (NAc) and its mesolimbic dopamine inputs mediate forms of fearful as well as of incentive motivation. For example, either appetitive and/or actively fearful behaviors are generated in a keyboard pattern by localized glutamate disruptions in NAc (via microinjection of the AMPA receptor antagonist DNQX) at different anatomical locations along a rostrocaudal gradient within the medial shell of rats. Rostral glutamate disruptions produce intense increases in eating, but more caudally placed disruptions produce increasingly fearful behaviors: distress vocalizations and escape attempts to human touch, and a spontaneous and directed antipredator response called defensive treading/burying. Local endogenous dopamine is required for either intense motivation to be generated by AMPA disruptions. Here we report that only endogenous local signaling at D(1) dopamine receptors is needed for rostral generation of excessive eating, potentially implicating a direct output pathway contribution. In contrast, fear generation at caudal sites requires both D(1) and D(2) signaling simultaneously, potentially implicating an indirect output pathway contribution. Finally, when motivation valence generated by AMPA disruptions at intermediate sites was flipped by manipulating environmental ambience, from mostly appetitive in a comfortable home environment to mostly fearful in a stressful environment, the roles of local D(1) and D(2) signaling in dopamine/glutamate interaction at microinjection sites also switched dynamically to match the motivation valence generated at the moment. Thus, NAc D(1) and D(2) receptors, and their associated neuronal circuits, play different and dynamic roles in enabling desire and dread to be generated by localized NAc glutamate disruptions in medial shell.
Characterization of estrogen-responsive epithelial cell lines and their infectivity by genital Chlamydia trachomatis.

Abstract Chlamydial attachment and infectivity in vitro and ascending disease and sequelae in vivo have been reported to be enhanced/modulated by estrogen. Endometrial carcinoma cell lines Ishikawa and HEC-1B and the breast cancer lines MCF-7 and HCC-1806 were examined for Chlamydia trachomatis E infectivity. Estrogen receptor (ER) presence was confirmed by Western blot and qRT-PCR analyses. FACS analysis was used to determine the percent of plasma membrane-localized ERs (mERs), and their activity was tested by estrogen binding and competitive estrogen antagonists assays. Chlamydiae grew in all cell lines with HEC (90%) >> MCF-7 (57%) > Ishikawa (51%) >> HCC-1806 (20%). The cell line ER isoform composition was re-defined as: ERα + ERβ + for MCF-7, HCC-1806 and Ishikawa; and ERβ only for HEC-1B. HeLa cells were also tested and found to express ERβ, but not ERα. A small percentage of both ERs were surface-exposed and functionally active. The endometrium-predominant ERβ isoform was found in all cell lines, including those most representative of the common sites of C. trachomatis infection. Thus, the role of chlamydial attachment/infectivity will now be analyzed in ERβ + and—isogenic HEC-1B cells.
Automated measurement of pulmonary artery in low-dose non-contrast chest CT images

A new measurement of the pulmonary artery diameter is obtained where the artery may be robustly segmented between the heart and the artery bifurcation. An automated algorithm is presented that can make this pulmonary artery measurement in low-dose non-contrast chest CT images. The algorithm uses a cylinder matching method following geometric constraints obtained from other adjacent organs that have been previously segmented. This new measurement and the related ratio of pulmonary artery to aortic artery measurement are compared to traditional manual approaches for pulmonary artery characterization. The algorithm was qualitatively evaluated on 124 low-dose and 223 standard-dose non-contrast chest CT scans from two public datasets; 324 out of the 347 cases had good segmentations and in the other 23 cases there was significant boundary inaccuracy. For quantitative evaluation, the comparison was to manually marked pulmonary artery boundary in an axial slice in 45 cases; the resulting average Dice Similarity Coefficient was 0.88 (max 0.95, min 0.74). For the 45 cases with manual markings, the correlation between the automated pulmonary artery to ascending aorta diameter ratio and manual ratio at pulmonary artery bifurcation level was 0.81. Using Bland-Altman analysis, the mean difference of the two ratios was 0.03 and the limits of agreement was (-0.12, 0.18). This automated measurement may have utility as an alternative to the conventional manual measurement of pulmonary artery diameter at the bifurcation level especially in the context of noisy low-dose CT images.
Theory of the Hall coefficient of polycrystals: Application to a simple model for La2-xMxCuO4 (M=Sr, Ba).

We calculate the low-field Hall coefficient R/sub H/ of a polycrystalline sample of an anisotropic metal, using the effective-medium approximation. For a quasiplanar metal, with a single band of carriers, we find R/sub H/ = (4/5R/sub H//sup 0/; where R/sub H//sup 0/ = 1/(nqc) is the free-electron Hall coefficient for a density of n carriers of charge q. With both electron and hole carriers, we obtain to first order in the ratios m/sub h//sub x//m/sub hz/ and m/sub e//sub x//m/sub ez/, R/sub H/ = (4/51/n/sub h/ec(1-(n/sub e//n/sub h/) Q/sub x//sup 2/)/(1+(n/sub e//h/sub n/)Q/sub x/)/sup 2/ (1+4m/sub hx//m/sub hz/(1 -(n/sub e//n/sub h/)Q/sub x/Q/sub z/) )/(1-(n/sub e//n/sub h/)Q/sub x//sup 2/)), where n/sub h/ and n/sub e/ are the number densities of holes and electrons, m/sub h//sub x//m/sub hz/ the ratio of in-plane to out-of-plane hole masses, and Q/sub i/ is the ratio of electron-to-hole mobilities in the ith direction. The model agrees well with experimental results of Penney, Shafer, Olson, and Plaskett for La/sub 2-//sub x/Sr/sub x/CuO/sub 4/ as a function of x at t = 50 K.
Diffraction contrast in reflection electron microscopy—II. Surface steps and dislocations under the surface

Abstract The double line contrast of the surface step REM image has been observed and interpreted successfully by using the simple diffraction contrast theory. A surface step model has been proposed. Calculations based on the model suggest that under some optimum conditions the splitting of the in-focus contrast of a surface step can provide a measurement of the strain field associated with the surface step. A similar but much more diffused line contrast has also been observed and can be explained as arising from dislocations lying beneath, but parallel to, the surface.
The Moist Available Energy of a Conditionally Unstable Atmosphere.

Abstract The concept of “moist available energy,” defined by Lorenz, is applied to study the potential energy available for cumulus convection in a conditionally unstable atmosphere. A modified version of Lorenz's parcel-moving algorithm is applied to the GATE data to determine the time variations of the moist available energy of the observed tropical atmosphere. Lorenz's algorithm is found to be somewhat impractical, and a new algorithm based on mass exchanges is proposed. Implications for cumulus parameterization are discussed.
Numerical analysis of a catalytic radiant burner: effect of catalyst on radiant efficiency and operability

Abstract In this paper we study a new class of porous direct-fired radiant burners which burn part of the fuel catalytically. The burner consists of a multiple-layer porous medium, with one layer that is partially coated with an oxidizing catalyst. Simulations are performed to investigate the effect of platinum catalyst loading, location of catalyst layer, and its thickness on burner performance for single layer and bilayer porous media. Significant efficiency gains are found, but only when the catalyst was placed on the downstream edge of the porous medium. The porous medium was generally not hot enough to cause significant deterioration of the catalyst. Only a thin layer of catalyst is required for efficiency improvements. Enlarging the catalytic zone into cold temperature regions has almost no effect on burner performance. Heat release due to the catalyst occurs inside the porous medium, thus resulting in a higher radiant efficiency.
A morphological study of luciocephalus pulcher, with notes on gular elements in other recent teleosts.

The monotypic perciform suborder Luciocephaloidei possesses the following, previously unknown, salient morphological characters: a third joint, the nasopalatopterygoid, between neurocranium and suspensorium; a toothless and dorsally exposed prevomer; no pharyngeal processes on either parasphenoid or basioccipital; a tympanum-covered foramen exoccipitale in the saccular bulla as a hearing organ; a gular ossification; a craniovertebral joint with small exoccipital condyles widely separated from the basioccipital condyle; and a large physoclystic swimbladder with a notable caudal extension. The seemingly functionless gular-like mental ossification is considered a paleomorphic structure with a neogenetic development. Attenuation in longitudinal growth is evident in the derivatives and dermal additions of the mandibular arch and nasal capsule while other regions of the head have remained independent. The primary adaptive significance of the attenuation in the growth of the entire preorbital region is the accomodation of oral incubation. Secondarily the elongate jaws increase both the speed and grasping range of the bite in prey catching. The degree of jaw protrusion depends mainly on the length of the maxillary. The exaggerated length of the ascending processes of the premaxillaries may be the result of a positive differential growth rate within one growth field. The meaning of the preponderance of parallel-fibered cranial muscles is discussed in respect to holding functions, greatest possible excursion of the insertion with minimum loss of force, and muscle fiber length. Based on the overall morphology, the monotypic suborder Luciocephaloidei is retained.