cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pupillographic analysis of morphine action in the rabbit: Role of the autonomic nervous system

Abstract Pupillary responses of albino rabbits were recorded using an infrared video pupillometer. The transient response to an i.v. injection of morphine (1–12 mg/kg) consists of three phases. Phase 1 is a brief mydriasis of 20 s duration. Phase 2 is a miosis that reaches a maximum within 2–4 min and is the only dose-related endpoint observed. Time-averaged pupil size is not decreased by morphine in a dose-related manner when measured 5 min after injection. Phase 3 is large amplitude fluctuation that reaches peak amplitude within 20 min and may last for several hours. Thus, dynamic pupillography reveals that the terms ‘miosis’ and ‘mydriasis’ may be insufficient to fully describe opiate-induced pupillary effects. All three phases are blocked by naloxone (0.1 mg/kg i.v.) and by topical pretreatment with scopolamine. These results are consistent with the theory that morphine alters pupil size by interaction with opiate receptors that are involved in the control of parasympathetic output to the iris.
The yeast Pma1 proton pump: a model for understanding the biogenesis of plasma membrane proteins.

Present address: Universite de Poitiers, Faculte des Sciences, Laboratoire de Genetique de la Levure, ESA 6161, IBMIG, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers cedex, France. * To whom correspondence should be addressed Tel: (203)737-1770 Fax: (203)785-7227 Email: carolyn.slayman@yale.edu Running title: Yeast Pma1 biogenesis Keywords: Pma1-H
Antibiotic Susceptibility of Haemophilus vaginalis (Corynebacterium vaginale) to 21 Antibiotics

A total of 56 strains of Haemophilus vaginalis were tested for their in vitro susceptibility to 21 antimicrobial agents by an agar dilution method. All strains were inhibited by 1 mug or less of penicillin, ampicillin, carbenicillin, and vancomycin per ml. The cephalosporins were less active; 4 mug of cefazolin per ml, 16 mug of cephalothin per ml, or 128 mug of cephalexin per ml was required to inhibit all strains. Kanamycin, gentamicin, tobramycin, and neomycin were relatively inactive against H. vaginalis. All strains were inhibited by 4 mug of streptomycin per ml and 2 mug of chloramphenicol per ml. Only 57% of the strains were inhibited by 4 mug of tetracycline per ml, whereas 43% were inhibited by 16 to 64 mug/ml. The combination sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim was relatively inactive against H. vaginalis. All strains tested exhibited minimal inhibitory concentrations of >/=128 mug when tested against colistin, nalidixic acid, and sulfadiazine. Erythromycin and clindamycin were the most active of the antibiotics tested; for all strains the minimal inhibitory concentrations were </=0.06 mug/ml.
Compound pascal distributions

In this paper, thePascal-Beta and thePascal-Gamma distributions have been derived by compounding the Pascal distribution with the Beta distribution and the Gamma distribution. These two compound distributions include Pascal-Uniform, Geometric-Beta, Geometric-Uniform, Pascal-Exponential, Geometric-Gamma and Geometric-Exponential as special cases. The methods of computing the moments of these compound distributions have been given. The moment estimators of the parameters of the Pascal-Beta distribution have been derived explicitly and the necessary condition has been pointed out for the asymptotic normality of these estimators. The essential expressions have been derived to obtain the maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of the Pascal-Beta distribution numerically. The moment estimators of the parameters of the Binomial-Beta distribution have been also derived explicitly. It has been pointed out that under certain conditions the Pascal-Beta distribution can be approximated by the Pascal distribution, the Geometric-Beta distribution can be approximated by the Geometric distribution, and the Binomial-Beta distribution can be approximated by the Binomial distribution. The paper also contains some discussions on the methods of obtaining the moment and maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of the Pascal-Gamma distribution.
A superposition technique for deriving mean photon scattering statistics in plane-parallel cloudy atmospheres

Abstract Photon transport in a multiple scattering medium is critically dependent on scattering statistics, in particular the average number of scatterings. A superposition technique is derived to accurately determine the average number of scatterings encountered by reflected and transmitted photons within arbitrary layers in plane-parallel, vertically inhomogeneous clouds. As expected, the resulting scattering number profiles are highly dependent on cloud particle absorption and solar/viewing geometry. The technique uses efficient adding and doubling radiative transfer procedures, avoiding traditional time-intensive Monte Carlo methods. Derived superposition formulae are applied to a variety of geometries and cloud models, and selected results are compared with Monte Carlo calculations. Cloud remote sensing techniques that use solar reflectance or transmittance measurements generally assume a homogeneous plane-parallel cloud structure. The scales over which this assumption is relevant, in both the vertical and horizontal, can be obtained from the superposition calculations. Though the emphasis is on photon transport in clouds, the derived technique is applicable to any multiple scattering plane-parallel radiative transfer problem, including arbitrary combinations of cloud, aerosol, and gas layers in the atmosphere.
Growth and properties of microcrystalline germanium carbide alloys grown using electron cyclotron resonance plasma processing

Abstract We report on the growth and properties of a new material, microcrystalline (Ge, C), which has potentially important optical, electrical and structural properties. The material was grown using a remote, low pressure electron cyclotron resosnance (ECR) plasma process on glass, stainless steel and c-Si substrates. The growth was done with hydrogen dilution and ion bombardment at temperatures of 350–400°C. We discovered that the optical absorption curve parallels that of c-Ge, with increased bandgaps as C is incorporated. We obtained up to 2% C incorporation, which increased the gap to 1.1 eV. At comparable bandgaps, the absorption coefficient of the (Ge, C) material is much larger than that of c-Si. Raman and X-ray measurements detected microcrystalline structure, and a dependence of grain size on the substrate used. The lattice constant contracted with C incorporation, approximately obeying Vegard’s law. Both undoped and n-doped materials were grown.
The American Council of Economic Advisers and the German Sachverstaendigenrat: A Study in the Economics of Advice

Introduction, 349. — Objectivity or maximization? 351. — Goals and their sources, 353. — Goals and instruments, 357. — Sources of influence, 365. — Maximizing effectiveness of advice, 369. — Analytical approaches, 375.
On the Temperature Dependence of Molecular Line Shapes Due to Linearly Coupled Phonon Bands

Simple closed-form expressions of line-shape functions are derived for models of a two-level chromophore linearly coupled to harmonic oscillator baths on the basis of an accurate approximation for the coth(x/2) function. The expressions are valid for arbitrary temperature and can be extended to a general spectral density given by a sum of algebraic terms with exponential damping factors. Detailed analyses for three typical spectral densities reveal, in the strong-coupling limit, general temperature dependences of the line widths, and in the weak coupling limit, important features of temperature dependence.
Maternal perceptions of and sensitivity toward very low birthweight infants with and without postnatal headmolding

Pour explorer l'attrait de nourrissons dont le poids de naissance etait tres bas (abrege VLBW) ayant eu un moulage crânien postnatal, 29 meres de mourrissons VLBW et 29 meres de nourrissons venus a terme ont evalue des photographies de nouveau-nes VLBW ayant eu un moulage crânien post-natal, de nouveau-nes VLBW sans moulage crânien post-natal, et de nouveau-nes arrives a terme. Dans une deuxieme etude la structure faciale et l'attrait du nourrisson ont ete evalues pour determiner le degre auquel la forme du crâne des bebes et l'attrait des nourrissons differait entre les VLBW et les nourrissons arrives a terme. Enfin, l'histoire du nourrisson, les mesures de la structure faciale et les scores d'attrait du nourrisson ont ete retrogrades sur les scores de reaction maternelle. Dans l'ensemble, les meres ont evaluees les photographies de nouveau-nes VLBW sans moulage crânien comme etant moins mignons. Cependant, les meres de nourrissons VLBW ont evalues les photographies de nouveau-nes VLBW ayant eu un moulage crânien comme plus mignons que ne l'avaient evalue les meres de nourrissons venus a terme. Pendant la premiere moitie de leur premiere annee, les nourrissons VLBW avaient des bouches plus etroites, leurs yeux etaient plus proches des cotes du visage, et l'on a note une tendance des nourrissons VLBW a avoir des tetes plus etroites. Cependant, les evaluations generales d'attrait des VLBW et des nourrissons a terme ne differaient pas. Une forme crânienne plus bebe (forme de la tete plus large, traits plus bebe) predisait de facon importante la reaction maternelle aux signaux du nourrisson dans une seance de jeu libre. Les resultats demontrent que les nouveau-nes VLBW ayant eu un moulage crânien sont plus vulnerables aux evaluations negatives d'attrait percu, que les differences dans la forme de la tete sont evidentes durant la seconde moitie de la premiere annee de l'enfant, et que la forme bebe de la tete est peut-etre un facteur qui affecte le degre auquel les nourrissons peuvent provoquer des reactions maternelles sensibles.
The relationship of nursing staff to the hospitalization of nursing home residents

Researchers have found registered nurse (RN) staffing unrelated to the prevention of hospitalizations of nursing home residents. Although most nursing home admissions are from hospitals, their studies involved residents who probably were not admitted from hospitals. In this study I examined data on 6,623 discharges of nursing home residents admitted or not admitted from a hospital. For patients with longer stays (>30 days), higher RN staffing levels in nursing homes reduced hospitalizations only for residents admitted from hospitals. Higher RN levels reduced hospitalizations more than higher licensed nurse levels or skill mix. Only among longer-stay residents not admitted from hospitals was RN staffing unrelated to hospitalizations. Researchers may have found RN staffing unrelated to hospitalizations because samples were primarily longer-stay residents not admitted from hospitals.
Ruffin v. Virginia and slaves of the state: A nonexistent baseline of prisoners' rights jurisprudence

Abstract The present-day view of prisoners' rights jurisprudence during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is that prisoners were considered no more than “slaves of the state.” Yet, there are cases reported from this period indicating that courts would entertain claims of abuse of prisoners. The case cited for this language does not itself support the view that prisoners were regarded as no more than slaves of the state. This article discusses the impact upon current prisoners' rights jurisprudence of retaining this incomplete historical view of the legal status of prisoners. It calls for academic texts to attend to historical issues more accurately.
Epistemology of economics

Methodological disputes in economics have been with us since Mill and Senior fought over the nature of economic science in the first half of the 19th Century. Progress has been extremely slow, and there is good reason for this as the present essay hopes to show. Three important methodological positions are examined critically: the “ultra-empiricism” of T.W. Hutchison, the “moderate empiricism” of Milton Friedman, and the “extreme a priorism” of Lionel Robbins and Ludwig Von Mises. The argument between Guttierrez and Block inTheory and Decision over praxiology is discussed in connection with the last mentioned position. The paper concludes that “extreme a priorism,” though very much out of fashion is not without its resources. The work of the contemporary German philosopher, Paul Lorenzen, is enlisted to bolster this position.
Angiolymphoid Hyperplasia with Eosinophilia. A Report of Two Cases

Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia is a benign vascular neoplasm characterized by marked proliferation of large endothelial cells and an inflammatory infiltrate of lymphocytes, histiocytes, and eosinophiles. The condition must be differentiated from malignant vascular tumors and from several other benign conditions. Although lesions may be ablated by several means of treatment, there is a tendency to recurrence, but, even untreated, there is a tendency to eventual spontaneous regression.
Pulsed Instabilities in Solid-Propellant Rockets

Occurrences of pulsed instabilities in rocket combustion chambers have long posed irritating practical and puzzling theoretical questions. The term "triggering" was applied to the phenomenon in the 1960s to describe observations and computations of the unstable steep-fronted waves generated by sufficiently large pulses injected in linearly stable gas and liquid rockets. All such instabilities are classified as subcritical bifurcations in the theory of dynamical systems. Understanding the physical reasons for the existence of subcritical bifurcations in combustion chambers, and therefore the conditions under which they will occur, has been the subject of many investigations in the last three decades. It has long been recognized that the most likely causes of pulsed instabilities must be associated either with nonlinear gasdynamics or with nonlinear combustion processes. With numerical analysis of longitudinal oscillations, Baum and Levine have convincingly shown that nonlinear combustion is required. By suitable adjustment of parameters in a simple representation of the response of a burning solid, they have shown quite good agreement between computations and many experimental results. The results reported in this article are consistent with those of Baum and Levine, establishing the existence of pulsed instabilities when both nonlinear gasdynamics and nonlinear combustion processes are accounted for.
Transverse structures in spontaneous parametric down-conversion with orbital angular momentum

Coincidence structures carrying orbital angular momentum in Type-II spontaneous- parametric-down-conversion are obtained theoretically. Azimuthal symmetry breaking around the pump beam direction is reflected on these structures.
Effects of androgens on the insulin-like growth factor system in an androgen-responsive human osteoblastic cell line

Although androgens have significant effects on bone metabolism, the mediators of their effects are still unclear. As the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) have important effects on osteoblast proliferation and differentiation, we examined androgen effects on the IGF system in a conditionally immortalized human fetal osteoblastic cell line, hFOB/AR-6, which displays a mature osteoblastic phenotype and physiological levels of functional androgen receptors. The nonaromatizable androgen, 5adihydrotestosterone (5aDHT), and testosterone, but not dehydroepiandrosterone, increased IGF-I messenger RNA (mRNA) levels up to 4-fold in a dose (10 212 -10 26 M)- and time (2‐72 h)-dependent fashion. These changes were prevented by the specific androgen receptor antagonist, hydroxyflutamide. In addition, 5a-DHT decreased IGFBP-4 mRNA and protein levels by 2- and 4-fold, respectively, and increased IGFBP-2 and -3 mRNA and protein levels by 6- and 7-fold (for mRNA) and 3- and 5-fold (for protein), respectively. hFOB/AR-6 cells expressed the type-I IGF receptor, but this was not regulated by 5aDHT. 5aDHT and IGFBP-3 specifically increased hFOB/AR-6 cell proliferation, and a monoclonal antibody specific for IGF-I blocked this effect. Thus, androgens increase the expression of IGF-I, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3, but decrease levels of the inhibitory IGFBP-4 in an androgen-responsive human osteoblastic cell line. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that the effects of androgen on bone cells may be mediated at least in part by increases in IGF-I production and by differential regulation of IGFBPs. (Endocrinology 140: 5579 ‐5586, 1999)
Sum Rules for Spin Dependent Electroproduction: Test of Relativistic Constituent Quarks

An infinite set of approximate sum rules, reducing two kinematically independent structure functions to a single one, are proposed. They are derived by a combination of general short-distance analysis and arguments about matrix elements. The later arguments are shown to be consistent with other theoretical expectations for the structure functions.-
Aquaporin expression in developing human teeth and selected orofacial tissues

The aquaporin (AQP) family of membrane channel proteins function as selective pores through which water, glycerol, and other small solutes cross the cell plasma membrane. To date, 11 members of this transporter family, designated AQP0-10, have been cloned and characterized in humans. The AQPs are differentially expressed in temporospatial patterns, where different AQPs demonstrate distinct tissue distributions that may reflect differing cell membrane transport functions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate AQP expression in the developing human teeth by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. To access the generality of AQP expression, selected other orofacial tissues were studied by RT-PCR. The presence of all eleven human AQPs was screened in each tissue by RT-PCR. Positive amplification products were verified by direct DNA sequencing. AQPs 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 were identified by RT-PCR in developing teeth, and AQP1, 3, 5, and 6 were confirmed by Western blot analysis. AQP 4 was not detected by Western blot analysis, and we were unable to test for the recently identified AQP10 due to unavailability of antibodies. AQPs detected in other orofacial tissues by RT-PCR included gingiva (AQP3, 7, 10); Meckel's cartilage (AQP1, 3, 4, 5, 6); submandibular gland (AQP1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7); masseter muscle (AQP1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9,10); and infrahyoid muscle (AQP1, 3, 4,10). These results demonstrate that multiple aquaporins are expressed in developing teeth and in selected orofacial tissues.
Changes in gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex induced by sinusoidal visual stimulation in goldfish

The effects of sustained sinusoidal visual stimulation on the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and the optokinetic reflex (OKR) were investigated. Goldfish were held stationary inside a striped drum rotating sinusoidally about the vertical axis for 3 h. The VOR gain, the ratio of eye to head rotational velocities, was measured in the dark with passive sinusoidal rotation of the fish and showed modest increases that were greatest at the stimulation frequency. Furthermore, the fish generated spontaneous sinusoidal eye movements at approximately the stimulation frequency, and these movements summated with the response to other frequencies of vestibular stimulation in the dark. It is hypothesized that the pathways of OK and VO stimuli converge and that the animal increases gain in a common part when it attempts to stabilize the visual image by increasing its response to the OK signal. Thus increases in gain of both OKR and VOR are produced.
Environmental significance of nitrogenous organic compounds in aquatic sources

Abstract The presence of nitrogenous organic compounds in raw water sources for municipal supplies is of environmental concern because many of them exert significant chlorine demand, while some produce complex stable mutagenic products upon chlorination or are precursors to haloform formation. Seven N-organic compounds have been identified in municipal water concentrates (adenine, 5-chlorouracil, cytosine, guanine, purine, thymine, and uracil) at concentrations ranging from 20 to 860 μg/L. Eight compounds (adenine, cytosine, purine, pyrrole, thymine, tryptophan, tyrosine, and uracil) have been found in filtrates from cultures of either Anabaena flos aquae or Oscillatoria tenuis . Calculated CHCl 3 levels which might have formed at pH 7 in the water supplies were well below the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 0.1 mg/L proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for total trihalogenated methanes. Calculated levels of CHCl 3 which might have been formed under more alkaline conditions, however, were more than 10% of the MCL and were therefore significant. Calculated levels of combined forms of chlorine yielding falsely positive tests for free chlorine in some samples were slightly less or exceeded the 0.5 mg/L free chlorine residual generally taken as an acceptable level of disinfection. The demonstration of a parallel increase in organic nitrogen content with population density in two laboratory grown blue-green algal cultures, and the finding of elevated organic nitrogen values in a water supply sample collected during the occurrence of a blue-green algal bloom, suggested that summer algal bloom occurrence can add considerably to the organic nitrogen content and the trihalomethane potential of water supplies.
Partitioned latency insertion method (PLIM) with stability considerations

In this paper, we present a modular approach to the high frequency simulation of large networks by utilizing the latency insertion method (LIM) and considering the stability criteria of partitions of different latencies in the circuit. This results in a robust algorithm that is able to preserve the stability condition while improving the runtime of the overall transient simulation. An extension to the LIM to handle dependent sources is also presented, along with a generalized stability criteria for selecting a maximum stable time step.
Point-source suppression for atmospheric wave extraction from airglow imaging measurements

Spectroscopic images of atmospheric chemiluminescent airglow contain fundamental diagnostic information about the structure and dynamics of the upper atmosphere. However, westward movement of stars causes non-negligible contamination in the two-dimensional horizontal wavenumber spectra extracted from all-sky airglow images. The conventional star-removing scheme is not effective in attenuating the star artifacts in the spectra of emission intensities of gravity wave perturbation, hindering the subsequent calculation of the angular spectra and the momentum fluxes of the profiles. To address this problem, a gradient-based edge detection algorithm for locating and attenuating the undesired star signal is developed. Comparatively, this algorithm is more effective than the conventional star-removing methods. The algorithm is validated in the context of experimentally obtained spectra.
Single oral dose fluconazole compared with conventional clotrimazole topical therapy of Candida vaginitis

Abstract OBJECTIVE: Candida vaginitis is currently treated with a wide range of intravaginal preparations usually prescribed over several days. Fluconazole with its marked activity against Candida species and favorable pharmacokinetics offered a safe, effective, and convenient alternative to topical therapy in a single-dose regimen. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, prospective, single-blinded study of 429 patients with acute Candida vaginitis, comparing the efficacy and safety of a single oral 150 mg dose of fluconazole with 7-day clotrimazole 100 mg vaginal treatment. Posttherapy evaluations and mycologic eradication rates were conducted. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were seen between fluconazole and clotrimazole in the clinical, mycologic, or therapeutic responses. At the 14-day evaluation clinical cure or improvement was seen in 94% of fluconazole-treated patients and 97% of clotrimazole-treated patients. Mycologic and therapeutic cures were seen in 77% and 76% of the fluconazole and 72% of the clotrimazole groups, respectively. At the 35-day evaluation 75% of both groups remained clinically cured, and 56% of the fluconazole and 52% of the clotrimazole group were considered therapeutic cures. In both treatment groups patients with a history of recurrent vaginitis (3384) compared with those without a history of recurrent vaginitis (177266) were significantly less likely to respond clinically and mycologically ( p CONCLUSION: Fluconazole administered as a single 150 mg oral dose proved to be as safe and effective as 7 days of intravaginal clotrimazole therapy for Candida vaginitis. Therapy of vaginitis should be individualized, taking into consideration severity of disease, history of recurrent vaginitis, and patient preference.
MTCM design with nonlinear hierarchical space-time block codes

In many wireless communication systems, space-time block codes (STBC) alone are insufficient to provide the needed protection from the effects of a fading channel, and hence are more suitable as an inner code for a serially concatenated system. Serial concatenation introduces memory between STBCs indirectly. A direct approach, multiple trellis coded modulation (MTCM), can match the distance spectrum of constituent codes to the trellis structure and optimize coding gain. Full diversity is naturally maintained given the full rank of the constituent STBCs. Previous MTCM designs of STBC relied heavily on orthogonal codes. In this work, nonlinear hierarchical codes (NHC), with no constraint on the size and structure of each block code, serve as a natural candidate for set partitioning and expansion in MTCM design. Regular MTCM design procedures are proposed to exploit the layered structure of NHC which leads to optimized designs for various rates/block sizes/constellation sizes. Several factors which affect performance are analyzed and exploited to improve the overall performance. Set expansion is used to improve high rate MTCM designs. In each design, the performance/rate/complexity tradeoffs are gracefully balanced and optimized. With limited growth in complexity, the proposed designs can achieve more than 3.5 dB of gain over current MTCM designs.
Low-Frequency Modulation of the ENSO-Indian Monsoon Rainfall Relationship: Signal or Noise?

Abstract Running correlations between pairs of stochastic time series are typically characterized by low-frequency evolution. This simple result of sampling variability holds for climate time series but is not often recognized for being merely noise. As an example, this paper discusses the historical connection between El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and average Indian rainfall (AIR). Decades of strong correlation (∼−0.8) alternate with decades of insignificant correlation, and it is shown that this decadal modulation could be due solely to stochastic processes. In fact, the specific relationship between ENSO and AIR is significantly less variable on decadal timescales than should be expected from sampling variability alone.
Automating database schema evolution in information system upgrades

The complexity, cost, and down-time currently created by the database schema evolution process is the source of incessant problems in the life of information systems and a major stumbling block that prevent graceful upgrades. Furthermore, our studies shows that the serious problems encountered by traditional information systems are now further exacerbated in web information systems and cooperative scientific databases where the frequency of schema changes has increased while tolerance for downtimes has nearly disappeared. The PRISM project seeks to develop the methods and tools that turn this error-prone and time-consuming process into one that is controllable, predictable and avoids down-time. Toward this goal, we have assembled a large testbed of schema evolution histories, and developed a language of Schema Modification Operators (SMO) to express concisely these histories. Using this language, the database administrator can specify new schema changes, and then rely on PRISM to (i) predict the effect of these changes on current applications, (ii) translate old queries and updates to work on the new schema version, (iii) perform data migration, and (iv) generate full documentation of intervened changes. Furthermore, PRISM achieves good usability and scalability by incorporating recent advances on mapping composition and invertibility in the implementation of (ii). The progress in automating schema evolution so achieved provides the enabling technology for other advances, such as light-weight database design methodologies that embrace changes as the regular state of software. While these topics remain largely unexplored, and thus provide rich opportunities for future research, an important area which we have been investigated is that of archival information systems, where PRISM query mapping techniques were used to support flashback and historical queries for database archives under schema evolution.
The relation of age to the incorporation of tritiated thymidine into the thymus of fischer rats

A time study of the incorporation of tritiated thymidine into the thymus of Fischer rats ranging from 15 days to one year of age has been made. The data obtained from both autoradiographic and histological analyses indicate that the mitotic activity in the thymus of young animals is much higher than in old animals. The medium thymocyte, by virtue of its higher relative proliferative capacity, is responsible for the greater portion of cellular production during the intense pre-pubertal growth phase of the thymus. A decrease in proliferative capacity of medium thymocytes occurs between 60 and 90 days of age, which appears to initiate the onset of age involution of the thymus. The data further indicate that small thymocytes are cells which do not undergo division.
TGF-β Induces Acetylation of Chromatin and of Ets-1 to Alleviate Repression of miR-192 in Diabetic Nephropathy

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), such as miR-192, mediate the actions of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β) related to the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney diseases. We found that the biphasic induction of miR-192 expression by TGF-β in mouse renal glomerular mesangial cells initially involved the Smad transcription factors, followed by sustained expression that was promoted by acetylation of the transcription factor Ets-1 and of histone H3 by the acetyltransferase p300, which was activated by the serine and threonine kinase Akt. In mesangial cells from Ets-1-deficient mice or in cells in which Ets-1 was knocked down, basal amounts of miR-192 were higher than those in control cells, but sustained induction of miR-192 by TGF-β was attenuated. Furthermore, inhibition of Akt or ectopic expression of dominant-negative histone acetyltransferases decreased p300-mediated acetylation and Ets-1 dissociation from the miR-192 promoter and prevented miR-192 expression in response to TGF-β. Activation of Akt and p300 and acetylation of Ets-1 and histone H3 were increased in glomeruli from diabetic db/db mice compared to nondiabetic db/+ mice, suggesting that this pathway may contribute to diabetic nephropathy. These findings provide insight into the regulation of miRNAs through signaling-mediated changes in transcription factor activity and in epigenetic histone acetylation under normal and disease states.
Photonic rf processing systems

We introduce a multichannel RF correlator that is capable of simultaneously computing the correlations between a given input signal and a set of stored reference waveforms. The system relies on angularly multiplexed volume holograms to store the reference waveforms and is a new example of an emerging class of RF systems that use photonics to solve complex problems. Preliminary experimental data derived from a demonstration system are presented and discussed.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Symptom management of brain tumor patients

Objectives To review the symptoms frequently observed with brain tumors, focusing on the descriptions, causes, treatments, and nursing implications. Data sources Research and review articles and textbooks. Conclusion Patients with brain tumors commonly have symptoms caused by the tumor or treatment. Treatment approaches for these symptoms will help the patient cope with those impairments caused by the symptoms. Implications for nursing practice The nurse can help move the patient toward a good quality of life by being aware of the symptoms and setting a plan to manage the symptoms with a patient and caregiver. Periodic reassessment is required to maintain continuity of care.
Vulnerabilities on the Lagging-Strand Template: Opportunities for Mobile Elements

Mobile genetic elements have the ability to move between positions in a genome. Some of these elements are capable of targeting one of the template strands during DNA replication. Examples found in bacteria include (a) Red recombination mediated by bacteriophage λ, (b) integration of group II mobile introns that reverse splice and reverse transcribe into DNA, (c) HUH endonuclease elements that move as single-stranded DNA, and (d) Tn7, a DNA cut-and-paste transposon that uses a target-site-selecting protein to target transposition into certain forms of DNA replication. In all of these examples, the lagging-strand template appears to be targeted using a variety of features specific to this strand. These features appear especially available in certain situations, such as when replication forks stall or collapse. In this review, we address the idea that features specific to the lagging-strand template represent vulnerabilities that are capitalized on by mobile genetic elements.
Inferred Positive Phototropic Activity in Human Photoreceptors

The Stiles-Crawford (S.-C.) function, a measure of the directional sensitivity of the retina, was used to infer the alignment characteristics of the sampled retinal elements. One assumes that the peak of the photopic S.-C. function reflects the central alignment tendency of retinal elements sampled, and that the shape of the function reflects, among other factors, distributive qualities. Here two tests were performed to determine whether the function sampled reflected positive phototropic activity. The natural eye pupil was dilated and artificial pupils were substituted having specified eccentricity from the centre of the natural pupil. This was achieved with a displaced iris contact lens. After a series of complex experiments, it was finally shown that the peaks of the S.-C. function shifted towards the displaced aperture of the contact lens. As a second test, individuals were occluded uniocularly with a black patch for periods of time up to 10 days. This caused remarkable flattening of the measured S.-C. function. That flattening occurred in determinations of both photopic and scotopic S.-C. functions. Comparable effects were not seen in the second eye or if a diffuser was substituted for the black patch. Change and recovery in both experiments occurred within 3-5 days. On the basis of these experiments it is inferred that there is an active mechanism behaving in a positive phototropic manner present in the human retina.
Mobility, non-familial activity, and fertility.

In this analysis of fertility data from a sample of non-Catholic faculty couples in an American university, temporal patterns and variations in education, employment, marriage, and parenthood of the husbands and wives are discussed in reference to (1) the social mobility-fertility hypothesis and (2) a non-familial activity-fertility hypothesis.
The Prediction of Equilibrium Thermal Comfort from Physical Data on Fabrics

The effect of clothing on thermal comfort depends mainly on three factors: the physical properties of the fabric, the air spaces between the body and the fabric, or between the fabrics themselves, and the characteristics of the environment, such as its effective radiative temperature and the temperature, velocity, and relative humidity of the air. All these factors are considered in the development of a theory which permits, in principle, the prediction of the equilibrium thermal comfort associated with any fabric under any specified set of conditions, on the basis of "thermal resistivities" which may be measured with laboratory apparatus. The step-by-step solution of a typical problem concerning the relative comfort ratings of several fabrics is pre sented as an example of the method.
Survival analysis of longitudinal microarrays

Motivation: The development of methods for linking gene expressions to various clinical and phenotypic characteristics is an active area of genomic research. Scientists hope that such analysis may, for example, describe relationships between gene function and clinical events such as death or recovery. Methods are available for relating gene expression to measurements that are categorized or continuous, but there is less work in relating expressions to an observed event time such as time to death, response or relapse. When gene expressions are measured over time, there are methods for differentiating temporal patterns. However, methods have not yet been proposed for the survival analysis of longitudinally collected microarrays. Results: We describe an approach for the survival analysis of longitudinal gene expression data. We construct a measure of association between the time to an event and gene expressions collected over time. Statistical significance is addressed using permutations and control of the false discovery rate. Our proposed method is illustrated on a dataset from a multi-center research study of inflammation and response to injury that aims to uncover the biological reasons why patients can have dramatically different outcomes after suffering a traumatic injury (www.gluegrant.org). Contact: dfinkelstein@partners.org
On the implementation of 2-D separable-in-denominator recursive filters

Realization and implementation of a class of two-dimensional (2-D) separable-in-denominator recursive digital (SDRD) filters are discussed in this paper. First, we present five modular structures of 2-D SDRD filters which possess a high degree of modularity, parallelism and regularity in their building blocks for easy hardware and software implementation. Second, we analyze the performance of each realization in term of computational complexity and data throughput delay for both parallel and serial processing. This work provides a comprehensive framework on the selection of realization structures and implementation techniques for any 2-D SDRD filters.
Maternal Report of Advice Received for Infant Care

BACKGROUND: Advice has been associated with increased adherence to recommended infant care practices, and may represent a modifiable factor to promote infant health. METHODS: As tratified, 2-stage, clustered design, with oversampling of black and Hispanic mothers, was used to survey a nationally representative sample of 1031 mothers of infants aged 2 to 6 months. Survey questions assessed advice received from doctors, birth hospital nurses, family, and media regarding immunization, breastfeeding, sleep position, sleep location, and pacifier use. Weighted frequencies of no advice and advice consistent with recommendations were calculated to obtain prevalence estimates. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess factors associated with receipt of recommendation consistent advice. RESULTS:Although doctors were the most prevalent source of reported advice, ∼20% of mothers reported no doctor advice for breastfeeding or sleep position, and more than 50% reported no advice regarding sleep location or pacifier use. Reported advice from nurses was generally similar to doctors. The prevalence of any advice from family or media was 20% to 56% for nearly all care practices, and advice given was often inconsistent with recommendations. The only factors that were consistently associated with receipt of recommendation consistent advice were race/ethnicity and parity; black and Hispanic mothers and first-time mothers were more likely to report recommendation consistent advice. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers commonly report receiving either no advice or recommendation inconsistent advice from each of the 4 sources we studied. By identifying care practices with low prevalence of recommendation consistent advice from potentially important advisors, our findings highlight opportunities for future intervention.
Peripheral lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge promotes microglial hyperactivity in aged mice that is associated with exaggerated induction of both pro-inflammatory IL-1β and anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokines

In the elderly, systemic infection is associated with an increased frequency of behavioral and cognitive complications. We have reported that peripheral stimulation of the innate immune system with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) causes an exaggerated neuroinflammatory response and prolonged sickness/depressive-like behaviors in aged BALB/c mice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which LPS-induced neuroinflammation was associated with microglia-specific induction of neuroinflammatory mediators. Here, we show that peripheral LPS challenge caused a hyperactive microglial response in the aged brain associated with higher induction of inflammatory IL-1beta and anti-inflammatory IL-10. LPS injection caused a marked induction of mRNA expression of both IL-1beta and IL-10 in the cortex of aged mice compared to adults. In the next set of studies, microglia (CD11b(+)/CD45(low)) were isolated from the brain of adult and aged mice following experimental treatments. An age-dependent increase in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II mRNA and protein expression was detected in microglia. Moreover, peripheral LPS injection caused a more pronounced increase in IL-1beta, IL-10, Toll-like receptor (TLR)-2, and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) mRNA levels in microglia isolated from aged mice than adults. Intracellular cytokine protein detection confirmed that peripheral LPS caused the highest increase in IL-1beta and IL-10 levels in microglia of aged mice. Finally, the most prominent induction of IL-1beta was detected in MHC II(+) microglia from aged mice. Taken together, these findings provide novel evidence that age-associated priming of microglia plays a central role in exaggerated neuroinflammation induced by activation of the peripheral innate immune system.
In re Roslin Institute: Products of Nature and Source Limitations

The Federal Circuit’s recent opinion in In re Roslin Institute 2 is the court’s first decision on the patent-eligibility of natural products after the Supreme Court’s Myriad decision, which denied patent-eligibility to isolated genomic DNA. The holding itself is probably not significant; cloned animals have little commercial significance at present. But the court’s requirement that inventions be “markedly different” from their natural sources casts doubt the patent-eligibility of other biotechnological inventions, such as isolated human stem cells. This comment addresses two issues with the Federal Circuit’s analysis in Roslin: the court’s interpretation of Chakrabarty 3 and Funk Brothers, 4 and Roslin’s requirement that structural or functional differences between natural and synthetic products must be explicitly recited by the claims. Unaltered by the hand of man: Judge Dyk’s opinion in Roslin unfortunately perpetuates the view, now found in the PTO’s Myriad guidelines, that Chakrabarty requires a claimed invention to be “markedly different” from a natural product for patent-eligibility under § 101. Myriad itself imposed no such requirement: the Court found BRCA cDNAs patent-eligible without determining that they were “markedly different” from natural sequences. And though Myriad reiterated the “markedly different” language from Chakrabarty, Chakrabarty’s discussion of “products of nature” was entirely dictum. Only the question of whether living organisms were patent-eligible was before the Court in Chakrabarty; the “product of nature” rejection in the case had not been sustained by the Patent Office Board of Appeals. The Chakrabarty Court noted the claimed bacteria differed “markedly”
‘Buffers’ against crime? Exploring the roles and limitations of positive relationships among women in prison

A considerable amount of research focuses on the detrimental influence that relationships pose for women offenders while relatively little attention has been given to the potential positive impact of relationships in their lives. This study investigates how women offenders’ positive relationships work as ‘buffers’ against their criminal involvement, as well as why some positive influences do not elicit long-term change in women. We examine various forms of relationships (both romantic and non-romantic) that female offenders develop and explore the mechanisms by which these relationships might influence their behavior. Life history interviews conducted with 60 incarcerated women revealed that women’s family members, friends, significant others, and children provided support, social capital, motivation, and opportunities which can buffer women from criminal behavior, but that women’s drug use, disadvantage, interest in, pride or shame, and desire to make positive changes limited the effectiveness of these r...
Rat venular pressure-diameter relationships are regulated by sympathetic activity

The hypothesis that the pressure-diameter relationship of intestinal venules in rats is primarily determined by sympathetic nervous system activity was tested. The pressure-diameter relationship of...
Robust mean field games for coupled Markov jump linear systems

ABSTRACTWe consider robust stochastic large population games for coupled Markov jump linear systems (MJLSs). The N agents’ individual MJLSs are governed by different infinitesimal generators, and are affected not only by the control input but also by an individual disturbance (or adversarial) input. The mean field term, representing the average behaviour of N agents, is included in the individual worst-case cost function to capture coupling effects among agents. To circumvent the computational complexity and analyse the worst-case effect of the disturbance, we use robust mean field game theory to design low-complexity robust decentralised controllers and to characterise the associated worst-case disturbance. We show that with the individual robust decentralised controller and the corresponding worst-case disturbance, which constitute a saddle-point solution to a generic stochastic differential game for MJLSs, the actual mean field behaviour can be approximated by a deterministic function which is a fixed-...
Density corrected sparse recovery when R.I.P. condition is broken

The Restricted Isometric Property (R.I.P.) is a very important condition for recovering sparse vectors from high dimensional space. Traditional methods often rely on R.I.P or its relaxed variants. However, in real applications, features are often correlated to each other, which makes these assumptions too strong to be useful. In this paper, we study the sparse recovery problem in which the feature matrix is strictly non-R.I.P. We prove that when features exhibit cluster structures, which often happens in real applications, we are able to recover the sparse vector consistently. The consistency comes from our proposed density correction algorithm, which removes the variance of estimated cluster centers using cluster density. The proposed algorithm converges geometrically, achieves nearly optimal recovery bound O(s2 log(d)) where s is the sparsity and d is the nominal dimension.