cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Can bioadhesive nanoparticles allow for more effective particle uptake from the small intestine

There has been increasing interest in developing bioadhesive nanoparticles due to their great potential as carriers for therapeutics in oral drug delivery systems. Despite decades of research, such a system still has not been successfully implemented. This paper demonstrates the enormous potential of such engineered systems: the incorporation of a bioadhesive coating, poly(butadiene-maleic anhydride-co-L-DOPA) (PBMAD), to non-bioadhesive nanospheres resulted in an enhancement of particle uptake in the small intestine from 5.8±1.9% to 66.9±12.9%. Direct correlation was obtained between bulk tensile strength, in vitro binding to everted intestinal sacs and quantitative in vivo uptake; this data suggests that bulk properties of polymers can be used to predict bioadhesive properties of nano- and microparticles. The differential distribution of the nanospheres to various tissues following uptake suggests surface chemistry plays a significant role in their localization within the body. The results of these studies provide strong support for the use of bioadhesive polymers to enhance nano- and micro-particle uptake from the small intestine for oral drug delivery.
Pregnant African American teenagers' expectations of their infants' temperament: individual and social network influences

Abstract Factors associated with pregnant teenagers' expectations of their infants' temperament were examined. A total of 126 pregnant African American teenagers were included in the study, all of whom were expecting their first baby. The teenagers' expectations for their infants' temperament was assessed using Mebert and Kalinowski's (1986) modified version of the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ). Pregnant teenagers who were anxious and/or depressed tended to expect their infants to have more difficult temperaments. In addition, those teenagers who were more satisfied with current support resources and perceived their maternal relationships as more warm and accepting tended to have more positive expectations of their infants' temperament. Finally, expectant teens who held more accurate beliefs and knowledge about infant development and milestones had more positive expectations of their infants. Implications of these findings for future research and intervention are discussed.
Convolutions of the pearson type VII distribution

Formulas for the convolution of two independent Pearson Type VII random variables are derived. This work follows up on that by Nadarajah and Dey [1] recently published in Computers and Mathematics with Applications.
Purification of Sepiolite and Palygorskite.

Methods of purifying sepiolite-paygorskite series were reviewed and discussed under the two purification categories: extraction of elements and elimination of minerals.A number of previous works focused on the extraction of elements from sepiolite by acid treatment because knowledge gained from basic studies on dissolution kinetics, structural changeand surface properties, and/or application studies for fillers and catalysts can be applied to such treatments.On the other handmethods for the elimination of impurity minerals have developed followiong more empirical approaches using elutiation and/or acid treatment.Recentlybasic works on selective dissolution of carbonate in sepiolite-ore has been developed. Importance of the pH control in accordance with a solubility diagram was emphasized.
The dynamics of risk-sensitive allocations

Abstract This paper describes Pareto optimal allocations when agents have risk-sensitive preferences as formulated by Hansen and Sargent (IEEE Trans. Automat. Control 40(5) (1995) 968–971). Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence and stability of steady states at which Pareto weights are time-invariant. When all agents are risk-sensitive with the same power reward function there is a unique interior steady state which is stable when the power is positive and unstable when the power is negative. When there is at least one agent with time-additive preferences eventually all risk-sensitive agents have zero Pareto weights.
Physiological and situational factors in psychopharmacological experiments.

Some psychological and physiological reactions to introduction of chlordiaze-poxide hydrochloride to an experimental situation involving a conformity trial were investigated. Groups of four subjects were selected with either considerable previous acquaintance (Friends) or little acquaintance (Strangers). In each group, two subjects were given an injection of the drug and two an injection of saline. Conformity to false group feedback was measured on a Crutchfield-Gerard apparatus and arousal was measured in terms of the plasma free fatty acid (FFA) level. Self-ratings of mood were obtained using the Nowlis Adjective Check List. It was found that the experimental manipulations of group composition or drug injection did not yield clear-cut results unless the subjects were divided according to initial ratings of anxiety. Subjects initially more anxious, who were administered the drug and who were tested as Strangers, showed greater conformity to group pressure and a continuous increase in physiological arousal. These conditions were interpreted as being cumulative sources of strain, under which subjects concentrate on monitoring themselves to the exclusion of attending to surrounding events.
Use of fluoroquinolones for empirical management of febrile neutropenia in pediatric cancer patients.

Background. Empiric antibiotic therapy has become a standard of care for the febrile neutropenic patient. Many clinical trials over the previous three decades have demonstrated that a variety of antibiotic combinations and more recently potent antibiotic monotherapies may preserve the patient through the critical time of fever and neutropenia. Recently attempts have been made to identify low risk patients who may not require traditional, intensive, hospitalized intravenous antimicrobial therapy. Therefore the need for new treatment alternatives for the febrile neutropenic pediatric cancer patient in particular revolves around the desire for less complex regimens, agents with minimal toxicity and expense and the option of an oral formulation for outpatient management. Objective. Fluoroquinolones, especially ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin, are examined in this paper as potential oral alternatives for managing the low risk neutropenic pediatric cancer patient population. Attention must be paid to their antibacterial spectra, however, and in some cases fluoroquinolones should be combined with a second agent for additional Gram-positive coverage. Results. Several studies, including one ongoing trial at the National Cancer Institute, have shown the potential benefits of oral fluoroquinolone therapy among low risk febrile neutropenic patients. Joint complaints in children after ciprofloxacin therapy in the National Cancer Institute trial thus far have been minimal, reversible and felt to be unrelated to ciprofloxacin treatment. Conclusion. The use of outpatient therapy, such as the fluoroquinolones, to manage febrile neutropenic episodes must be approached with caution and should be undertaken only in selected low risk patients.
Does culture influence how consumers process negative celebrity information? Impact of culture in evaluation of negative celebrity information

This study investigates the relationship between cultural orientation (individualistic or collectivistic culture) and consumers' attribution styles (dispositional and situational attributions) as well as the consequences of attribution styles on brand evaluation and purchase intention. The study also examines how people perceive different types of negative celebrity information (self-oriented and other-oriented negative information) and how their identification with a celebrity endorser affects their response to negative information. The findings suggest that culture influences how consumers – having been exposed to negative celebrity information – make attributions. Dispositional attributions lead to more negative brand evaluation as well as to negative purchase intention. Other-oriented negative information leads to, among Korean consumers, more negative brand evaluation. Finally, the study found that consumers highly identified with a celebrity endorser are less likely to be influenced by negative cele...
The changing shapes of active volcanoes: History, evolution, and future challenges for volcano geodesy

At the very heart of volcanology lies the search for the dplumbing systemsT that form the inner workings of Earth’s active volcanoes. By their very nature, however, the magmatic reservoirs and conduits that underlie these active volcanic systems are elusive; mostly they are observable only through circumstantial evidence, using indirect, and often ambiguous, surficial measurements. Of course, we can infer much about these systems from geologic investigation of materials brought to the surface by eruptions and of the exposed roots of ancient volcanoes. But how can we study the magmatic processes that are occurring beneath Earth’s active volcanoes? What are the geometry, scale, physical, and chemical characteristics of magma reservoirs? Can we infer the dynamics of magma transport? Can we use this information to better forecast the future behavior of volcanoes? These questions comprise some of the most fundamental, recurring themes of modern research in volcanology.
The effects of aortic infusion of ethylene oxide on renal function in the rat

The effect of ethylene oxide on kidney function was investigated in the intact rat. A method was developed for introducing aqueous solutions of ethylene oxide into the abdominal aorta above the renal arteries without opening the abdominal cavity; 40 ± 6% (SE) of an infusion introduced into the aorta above the renal arteries was estimated to enter directly into the renal arterial circulation. It was found that 0.1 and 1% ethylene oxide solutions infused above the renal arteries caused significant decreases in glomerular filtration rate (33 ± 3% and 29 ± 4%, respectively) and similar decreases in effective renal blood flow with no change in mean arterial pressure. Infusion of a higher concentration of ethylene oxide (10%) resulted in death of the animal. The calculated concentrations of ethylene oxide in renal arterial blood which caused significant decreases in glomerular filtration rate were between 0.45 and 4.5 μg/ml. Ethylene oxide had no effect on renal Na+ or K+ reabsorption. The effects of ethylene oxide are therefore principally on the renal vasculature and not on tubular function.
Context-Dependent Mutation Rates May Cause Spurious Signatures of a Fixation Bias Favoring Higher GC-Content in Humans

Understanding the proximate and ultimate causes underlying the evolution of nucleotide composition in mammalian genomes is of fundamental interest to the study of molecular evolution. Comparative genomics studies have revealed that many more substitutions occur from G and C nucleotides to A and T nucleotides than the reverse, suggesting that mammalian genomes are not at equilibrium for base composition. Analysis of human polymorphism data suggests that mutations that increase GC-content tend to be at much higher frequencies than those that decrease or preserve GC-content when the ancestral allele is inferred via parsimony using the chimpanzee genome. These observations have been interpreted as evidence for a fixation bias in favor of G and C alleles due to either positive natural selection or biased gene conversion. Here, we test the robustness of this interpretation to violations of the parsimony assumption using a data set of 21,488 noncoding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) SNPs project via direct resequencing of n = 95 individuals. Applying standard nonparametric and parametric population genetic approaches, we replicate the signatures of a fixation bias in favor of G and C alleles when the ancestral base is assumed to be the base found in the chimpanzee outgroup. However, upon taking into account the probability of misidentifying the ancestral state of each SNP using a context-dependent mutation model, the corrected distribution of SNP frequencies for GC-content increasing SNPs are nearly indistinguishable from the patterns observed for other types of mutations, suggesting that the signature of fixation bias is a spurious artifact of the parsimony assumption.
Picosecond Resonance Coherent Anti‐Stokes Raman Spectroscopy of Light‐ and Dark‐Adapted Bacteriorhodopsin

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) from the C=C stretching band region of retinal, recorded with low-power, 7-ps (fwhm) laser excitation selected to be in electronic resonance with the retinal chromophore, is presented for light- and dark-adapted bacteriorhodopsin (BR) samples. By minimizing photochemistry with low-power excitation, the picosecond resonance CARS (PR/CARS) spectrum of BR-570 (13-trans, 15-anti-retinal) is obtained directly from the light-adapted BR sample. The PR/CARS spectrum of BR-548 (13-cis, 15-syn retinal) is derived from a quantitative analysis of PR/CARS data from dark-adapted BR which contains comparable amounts of BR-570 and BR-548. Band origin positions, lineshapes, relative intensities, and phase factors describing the electronic resonances are obtained from a quantitative fit of the PR/CARS spectra to third-order susceptibility (χ(3)) relationships. These PR/CARS data, the first reported for a molecular system as large as BR, demonstrate the experimental viability of CARS for recording the vibrational spectrum of a chromophore within a trans-membrane protein. In addition, the χ(3) analysis shows that a CARS spectrum of a mixture of isomeric chromophores can be quantitatively separated into CARS data assignable to its individual components. The significance of these results with respect to analyzing picosecond time-resolved CARS data from intermediates in the BR photocycle is discussed.
Variable charge transfer and band structure of graphite intercalation compounds: C8nAsF5

Abstract Using measurements of oscillatory magnetoresistance, the charge transfer in stage 2 AsF5-graphite is found to vary over the range f ≅ 30–45%. By following the change of Fermi surface areas with f, a more precise determination of the band structure is possible. The band parameters are nearly identical to those of pristine graphite.
Low-frequency inelastic light scattering from chalcogenide glasses and alloys

Polarized low-frequency Raman and Brillouin spectra of the chalcogenide glasses ${\mathrm{As}}_{2}$${\mathrm{S}}_{3}$, Ge${\mathrm{S}}_{2}$, Ge${\mathrm{Se}}_{2}$, and ${\mathrm{As}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ and the glass alloy system ${({\mathrm{As}}_{2}{\mathrm{S}}_{3})}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{(\mathrm{Ge}{\mathrm{S}}_{2})}_{x}$ have been measured using the near infrared 7525 or 7993 \AA{} lines of a krypton laser. The low-temperature $T\ensuremath{\sim}10$ K spectra of the four binary glasses indicate that the Raman coupling constant exhibits an ${\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}$ frequency dependence in the limit $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$. In addition it is demonstrated that the spectral distribution of the low-frequency low-temperature Raman coupling constant can be described by a model proposed by Martin and Brenig. By fitting the predicted spectra of the model to the experimentally obtained spectra, the structural correlation ranges of the glasses have been determined. It is found that the structural correlation ranges of the ${\mathrm{As}}_{2}$${\mathrm{S}}_{3}$ and ${\mathrm{As}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ glasses are 6.5 \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{} 1 \AA{}, while those of the Ge${\mathrm{S}}_{2}$ and Ge${\mathrm{Se}}_{2}$ glasses are 8.5 \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{} 1 \AA{}. These results are compared with values of structural correlations obtained from x-ray diffraction spectra and optic-mode Raman spectra. The depolarization spectra predicted from the Martin and Brenig model are found to deviate significantly from the observed low-frequency depolarization spectra of the chalcogenide glasses. At higher temperatures the low-frequency Raman spectra of all samples exhibit a feature apparently centered at 0 frequency shift which cannot be described by the model of Martin and Brenig. A similar feature termed the light scattering excess has been reported for the low-frequency Raman spectrum of fused silica. A recent model by Theodorakopoulos and J\"ackle describes the light scattering excess in terms of two-level defect states. The temperature dependence, depolarization ratio, and spectral distribution of the light-scattering excess are interpreted using this model and recent ultrasonic attenuation measurements. The composition dependence of both the structural correlation range and the light-scattering excess is presented for the alloy system of ${({\mathrm{As}}_{2}{\mathrm{S}}_{3})}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{(\mathrm{Ge}{\mathrm{S}}_{2})}_{x}$.
Risk and Protective Factors for Suicidal Thoughts Among Sexual Minority Youth: Evidence from the Add Health Study

Sexual minority youth are at greater risk for suicidal thoughts compared to heterosexual youth: Directions for prevention and intervention are urgently needed. Few studies have examined a broad range of risk and protective factors that may explain this disparate risk. This study utilized the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine which protective and risk factors for suicidal thoughts behaved distinctly in sexual minority adolescents compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Although many risk factors did not differ for heterosexual and sexual minority adolescents, we found several that were statistically significant for predicting later suicidal thoughts for sexual minorities: personal and friends’ school connections, friendship activities, and maternal caring.
Additive commutators of rational 2×2 matrices

Abstract The expression of det ( AB-BA ) as a norm in both (Q( m ) and Q( n ) for 2×2 rational matrices with characteristic roots in Q( m ) , resp. Q( n ) , is studied here further, see [1]. A necessary and sufficient condition for this element to be also a norm in Q( m , n ) is obtained.
Too Ashamed to Report: Deconstructing the Shame of Sexual Victimization

This article deconstructs the shame of sexual victimization by highlighting shame as a culturally mediated response triggered by threats to victims’ gendered selves. An exploration of victims’ narratives from the National Crime Victimization Survey reveals that 13% of respondents who experience rape or sexual assault express shame (i.e., self-blame, humiliation, or fear of public scrutiny) in their narratives. Looking separately at women’s and men’s shame narratives, the study delineates the cultural ideologies regarding gender and sexuality that contribute to victims’ definitions of their situations as shameful, and ultimately, to their reluctance to report incidents to the police.
Wind generation controls for damping of inter-area oscillations

Inter-area oscillations are one of the factors that limit transmission capacity in large interconnected systems. In this paper we investigate the effects of increasing wind generation on inter-area modes and propose the use of additional control schemes for wind plants for mitigation of inter-area oscillations. Control schemes include droop control and inertial emulation, which are originally aimed at improving transient stability. The sensitivities of inter-area modes to droop control and inertial emulation gains are identified. Implementation of suggested controls schemes via collocated energy storage devices is also explored.
Humic acid effect on pyrene degradation: finding an optimal range for pyrene solubility and mineralization enhancement.

The addition of humic acid (HA) to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminated systems has been shown to enhance, inhibit, or have no effect on the biodegradation of these PAHs. In this study, the surfactant effects of Elliott soil HA (ESHA) at two pH values were tested. At pH 7.0, ESHA did not behave as a surfactant. At pH 11.8, ESHA acted as a surfactant, as displayed by a decrease in surface tension with increasing concentrations of ESHA. The effect of ESHA on pyrene solubility was tested by adding 0 to 800 μg ESHA/g soil to soil-slurries. Enhancement of pyrene apparent solubility demonstrated a dose- and time-related effect. Broader doses from 0 to 10,080 μg ESHA/g soil and three higher doses from 3,360 to 10,080 μg ESHA/g soil were tested for their effects on pyrene mineralization by indigenous soil microorganisms and a novel PAH-degrading Mycobacterium sp. KMS in soil microcosms, respectively. ESHA amendments between 20 and 200 μg ESHA/g soil were found to consistently increase pyrene mineralization by indigenous microorganisms, while the 10,080 μg ESHA/g soil produced inhibition and all other doses presented no effects. Pyrene degradation by M. KMS was significantly inhibited by the addition of the highest dose of ESHA.
Symplectic integration with floating-point arithmetic and other approximations

Abstract There is significant theoretical support for the use of symplectic integrators for the numerical solution of Hamiltonian systems. However, the theory does not apply to practical computations because of the failure to take into account the effects of roundoff errors, and other approximations such as the use of fast N -body solvers and the use of “not fully converged iterations” in implicit or semi-implicit integrators. Very often these effects grow exponentially with time and completely overwhelm the numerical results well before the integration is complete. By means of a simple and inexpensive modification of the integrator, we show that it is possible to maintain a symplectic integration with floating-point arithmetic and other approximations.
Adaptive two-band spectral subtraction with multi-window spectral estimation

An improved spectral subtraction algorithm for enhancing speech corrupted by additive wideband noise is described. The artifactual noise introduced by spectral subtraction that is perceived as musical noise is 7 dB less than that introduced by the classical spectral subtraction algorithm of Berouti et al. (1979). Speech is decomposed into voiced and unvoiced sections. Since voiced speech is primarily stochastic at high frequencies, the voiced speech is high-pass filtered to extract its stochastic component. The cut-off frequency is estimated adaptively. Multi-window spectral estimation is used to estimate the spectrum of stochastically voiced and unvoiced speech, thereby reducing the spectral variance. A low-pass filter is used to extract the deterministic component of voiced speech. Its spectrum is estimated with a single window. Spectral subtraction is performed with the classical algorithm using the estimated spectra. Informal listening tests confirm that the new algorithm creates significantly less musical noise than the classical algorithm.
Management of Breast Cancer in Very Young Women

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women age 40 and younger in developed countries, and although generally improving, survival rates for young women with breast cancer remain lower than for older women. Young women are more likely to develop more aggressive subtypes of breast cancer (more triple negative and more Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 [HER2]-positive disease) and present with more advanced stage disease. Previous research has demonstrated that young age is an independent risk factor for disease recurrence and death, although recent data suggest this may not be the case in certain tumor molecular subtypes. Recent preliminary evidence suggests potential unique biologic features of breast cancer that occurs in young women although this has yet to have been translated into treatment differences. There are clearly host differences that affect the management of breast cancer for young patients including generally being premenopausal at diagnosis, and fertility, genetics, and social/emotional issues in particular should be considered early in the course of their care. Despite an increased risk of local recurrence, young age alone is not a contraindication to breast conserving therapy given the equivalent survival seen in this population with either mastectomy or breast conservation. However, many young women in recent years are choosing bilateral mastectomy, even without a known hereditary predisposition to the disease. For those who need chemotherapy, multi-agent chemotherapy and biologic therapy targeting the tumor similar to the treatment in older women is the standard approach. Select young women will do well with hormone therapy only. Recent data from the TEXT and SOFT trials evaluating the optimal endocrine therapy for the first 5 years, and the ATTom and ATLAS trials demonstrating benefit from extended duration of tamoxifen (10 vs. 5 years), have further defined options for adjuvant endocrine therapy for young women with early breast cancer. Attention to adherence with endocrine therapy may be particularly important to improve outcomes in this population who are at increased risk of non-adherence compared to older women.
The aborted Green dam-youth escort censor-ware project in China: A case study of emerging civic participation in China's internet policy-making process

The educated and affluent Internet users in China have posed great threats to the stability and legitimacy of Chinese communist's regime where the access of non-government dominated information become a possibility. To restrain Chinese citizens' access to any Internet contents that are considered to undermine state control, China has developed and implemented one of the most sophisticated multi-layered Internet filtering systems in the world. These projects include the Golden Shield (or Jin Dun) and the Great Fire Walls of China that were implemented in the infrastructure to deter any undesirable or politically sensitive information. The case study collected discussions and discourses from newspapers, websites, and blogs in Mainland China and Hong-Kong, SAR. A thematic analysis method was used to identify recurrent themes (i.e., arguments, points of contention, and concerns) that Chinese Internet users have about the Green Dam censor-ware project. These themes were interpreted from Paltemaa and Vuori's (2009) theoretical framework that helps understand the evolution of technology and its role in Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) political control over China. Data demonstrate the dynamics among the roles of government institutions, Internet regulatory regimes, the Internet technology, and a rapidly emerging civil society in China.
Dosimetry and radiobiologic model comparison of IMRT and 3D conformal radiotherapy in treatment of carcinoma of the prostate.

Abstract Introduction Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has introduced novel dosimetry that often features increased dose heterogeneity to target and normal structures. This raises questions of the biologic effects of IMRT compared to conventional treatment. We compared dosimetry and radiobiologic model predictions of tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) for prostate cancer patients planned for IMRT as opposed to standardized three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT). Methods and materials Segmented multileaf collimator IMRT treatment plans for 32 prostate cancer patients were compared to 3DCRT plans for the same patients. Twenty-two received local-field irradiation (LFI), and 10 received extended-field irradiation (EFI) that included pelvic lymph nodes. For LFI, IMRT was planned for delivery of 2 Gy minimum dose to the prostate (≥99% volume coverage) for 35 fractions. The 3DCRT plans, characterized by more homogenous dose to the target, were designed according to a different protocol to deliver 2 Gy to the center of the prostate for 37 fractions. Mean total dose from 35 fractions of IMRT was equal to mean total dose from 37 fractions of 3DCRT. For EFI, both IMRT and 3DCRT were planned for 2 Gy per fraction to a total dose of 50 Gy to prostate and pelvic lymph nodes, followed by 2 Gy per fraction to 20 Gy to the prostate alone. Treatment dose for EFI-IMRT was defined as minimum dose to the target, whereas for EFI-3DCRT, it was defined as dose to the center of the prostate. TCP was calculated for the prostate in the linear-quadratic model for two choices of α/β. NTCP was calculated with the Lyman model for organs at risk, using Kutcher-Burman dose–volume histogram reduction with Emami parameters. Results and conclusions Dose to the prostate, expressed as mean ± standard deviation, was 74.7 ± 1.1 Gy for IMRT vs. 74.6 ± 0.3 Gy for 3D for the LFI plans, and 74.8 ± 0.6 Gy for IMRT vs. 71.5 ± 0.6 Gy for 3D for the EFI plans. For the studied protocols, TCP was greater for IMRT than for 3D across the full range of target sensitivity, for both localized- and extended-field irradiation. For LFI, this was due to the smaller number of fractions (35 vs. 37) used for IMRT, and for EFI, this was due to the greater mean dose for IMRT, compared to 3D. For all organs, mean NTCP tended to be lower for IMRT than for 3D, although NTCP values were very small for both 3D and IMRT. Differences were statistically significant for rectum (LFI and EFI), bladder (EFI), and bowel (EFI). For both LFI and EFI, the calculated NTCPs qualitatively agreed with early published clinical data comparing genitourinary and gastrointestinal complications of IMRT and 3D. Present calculations support the hypothesis that accurately delivered IMRT for prostate cancer can limit dose to normal tissue by reducing treatment margins relative to conventional 3D planning, to allow a reduction in complication rate spanning several sensitive structures while maintaining or increasing tumor control probability.
Human Uterine Leiomyoma Stem/Progenitor Cells Expressing CD34 and CD49b Initiate Tumors In Vivo

Context: Uterine leiomyoma is the most common benign tumor in reproductive-age women. Using a dye-exclusion technique, we previously identified a side population of leiomyoma cells exhibiting stem cell characteristics. However, unless mixed with mature myometrial cells, these leiomyoma side population cells did not survive or grow well in vitro or in vivo. Objective: The objective of this study was to identify cell surface markers to isolate leiomyoma stem/progenitor cells. Design: Real-time PCR screening was used to identify cell surface markers preferentially expressed in leiomyoma side population cells. In vitro colony-formation assay and in vivo tumor-regeneration assay were used to demonstrate functions of leiomyoma stem/progenitor cells. Results: We found significantly elevated CD49b and CD34 gene expression in side population cells compared with main population cells. Leiomyoma cells were sorted into three populations based on the expression of CD34 and CD49b: CD34+/CD49b+, CD34+/CD49b−, and CD34−/...
NO/redox disequilibrium in the failing heart and cardiovascular system

There is growing evidence that the altered production and/or spatiotemporal distribution of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species creates oxidative and/or nitrosative stresses in the failing heart and vascular tree, which contribute to the abnormal cardiac and vascular phenotypes that characterize the failing cardiovascular system. These derangements at the integrated system level can be interpreted at the cellular and molecular levels in terms of adverse effects on signaling elements in the heart, vasculature, and blood that subserve cardiac and vascular homeostasis.
Using Simulation to Investigate the Impact of Hours Worked on Task Performance in an Intensive Care Unit

BACKGROUND Past studies have indicated a positive correlation between shift length and the rate of medical errors. In situ simulation is an innovative way to study issues in quality of care. OBJECTIVES To explore the use of in situ simulation as an investigative method by using it to examine the effects of work length on completion rate of and accuracy at critical care nursing tasks. METHODS Participants were drawn from the nursing staff in the pediatric intensive care unit and were assessed by using a high-fidelity pediatric simulator 3 times during a 12-hour shift. Data recorded included demographic information, time to task completion, and number of steps correctly performed per task. RESULTS Twenty-eight nurses with a mean of 5.5 years of experience participated. Each nurse cared for a mean of 1.4 patients per shift. A significant decrease (P < .001) of 5.5 minutes was noted in mean completion time across assessment intervals (from 17.9 to 13.3, to 12.4 min). No significant changes in accuracy were noted. Some accuracy issues seemed attributable to simulation artifact, whereas the use of simulation enabled greater standardization in other aspects of the study. CONCLUSION Critical care nurses take significantly less time to complete tasks at the end of their shift than at the beginning. This, coupled with a lack of change in accuracy of task completion over time, suggests that nursing performance of simple tasks may improve over the course of a 12-hour shift. Simulation can be an effective means to address some quality improvement issues.
A Time-Series Framework for Supply-Chain Inventory Management

We consider a supply chain in which the underlying demand process can be described in a linear state space form. Inventory is managed at various points of the chain (members), based on local information that each member observes and continuously updates. The key feature of our model is that it takes into account the ability of the members to observe subsets of the underlying state vector, and adopt their forecasting and replenishment policies accordingly. This enables us to model situations in which the members are privy to certain explanatory variables of the demand, with the latter possibly evolving according to a vector autoregressive time series. For each member, we identify an associated demand evolution model, for which we propose an adaptive inventory replenishment policy that utilizes the Kalman filter technique. We then provide a simple methodology for assessing the benefits of various types of information-sharing agreements between members of the supply chain. We also discuss inventory positioning and cost performance assessment in the supply chain. Our performance metrics and inventory target levels are usually presented in matrix forms, allowing them to accommodate a relatively large spectrum of linear demand models, and making them simple to implement. Several illustrations for possible applications of our models are provided.
Are biotechnology and sustainable agriculture compatible

Agricultural biotechnology has been largely opposed by advocates in the sustainable agriculture movement, despite claims by the technology’s proponents that it holds the promise to deliver both production (economic) and environmental benefits, two legs of the sustainability stool. We argue in this paper that participants in this polarized debate are talking past each other because assumptions about biotechnology and sustainability remain simplistic and poorly defined. Genetically engineered (GE) herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant crop varieties are the most visible current forms of agricultural biotechnology, and thus the form of biotechnology that many in the sustainability movement react to. However, these crops represent a biotechnology option that has paid insufficient attention to the integrated and systemic requirements of sustainable agriculture. In particular, common definitions of sustainable agriculture reinforce the need to include consideration of socio-economic distributive or equity effects into any assessment of sustainability. However, the frameworks that have been proposed to assess the potential for GE crops to enhance sustainable agriculture generally neglect this essential socio-economic dimension. We present an analysis that augments the sustainability frameworks to include the full suite of environmental, economic and social impacts. A review of the latest science on each impact category reveals that crop biotechnology cannot be fully assessed with respect to fostering a more sustainable agriculture due to key gaps in evidence, especially for socio-economic distributive effects. While the first generation of GE crops generally has made progress in reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint and improving adopting farmers’ economic well-being, we conclude that these early products fall short of the technology’s capacity to promote a more sustainable agriculture because of the failure of those developing and promoting the technology to fully engage all stakeholders and address salient equity issues. To realize the sustainability potential of biotechnology will require fundamental changes in the way public and private research and technology development and commercialization are structured and operated. We identify new approaches in these areas that could make this powerful biological science more compatible with sustainable agriculture.
An algorithm for EMG noise detection in large ECG data

Large collections of electrocardiogram recordings (ECG) are valuable for researchers. However, some sections of the recorded ECG may be corrupted by electromyogram (EMG) noise from muscle. Therefore, EMG noise needs to be detected and filtered before performing data processing. In this study, an automated algorithm for detecting EMG noise in large ECG data is presented. The algorithm extracts EMG artifact from the ECG by using a morphological filter. EMG is identified by setting a threshold for the moving variance of extracted EMG. The algorithm achieved 100% detection rate on the training data. The algorithm was tested on 150 test signals from three sets of test signals (50 signals in each set). Set 1 was created by adding EMG noise to EMG-free ECG signals, set 2 was manually selected ECG sections which contain EMG noise, and set 3 contained randomly selected ECG signals. Sensitivity was 100%, 94%, and 100% on sets 1, 2, and 3, respectively. All sets had 100% specificity. The algorithm has computational complexity of O(N).
Akaike's information criterion and recent developments in information complexity

In this paper we briefly study the basic idea of Akaike's (1973) information criterion (AIC). Then, we present some recent developments on a new entropic or information complexity (ICOMP) criterion of Bozdogan (1988a, 1988b, 1990, 1994d, 1996, 1998a, 1998b) for model selection. A rationale for ICOMP as a model selection criterion is that it combines a badness-of-fit term (such as minus twice the maximum log likelihood) with a measure of complexity of a model differently than AIC, or its variants, by taking into account the interdependencies of the parameter estimates as well as the dependencies of the model residuals. We operationalize the general form of ICOMP based on the quantification of the concept of overall model complexity in terms of the estimated inverse-Fisher information matrix. This approach results in an approximation to the sum of two Kullback-Leibler distances. Using the correlational form of the complexity, we further provide yet another form of ICOMP to take into account the interdependencies (i.e., correlations) among the parameter estimates of the model. Later, we illustrate the practical utility and the importance of this new model selection criterion by providing several real as well as Monte Carlo simulation examples and compare its performance against AIC, or its variants. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.
On the interpretation for radiation from simple current distributions

We have considered the radiation from two simple filamentary current distributions: traveling-wave and uniform. For an excitation that is a Gaussian pulse of characteristic time /spl tau/, the total energy radiated by the distributions, U/sub rad/, was shown to behave as ln(/spl tau//sub a///spl tau/) for the traveling-wave distribution, and as /spl tau//sub a///spl tau/ for the uniform distribution, where /spl tau//sub a/=h/c is the time for light to travel the length of the filament. An examination of numerical results shows that two physical interpretations can be used for the radiation. Radiation can be considered to arise at the two ends of the filament in the form of spherical wavefronts centered at the ends. The overlap of these wavefronts, which changes with the ratio /spl tau//sub a///spl tau/, is the cause of the observed dependencies for U/sub rad/. An alternative explanation is that radiation occurs along the entire length of the filament. Destructive interference of the radiation from different points on the filament then causes the radiation to be insignificant except at the times corresponding to radiation from the ends of the filament.
Joint source/channel coding for image transmission with JPEG2000 over memoryless channels

The high compression efficiency and various features provided by JPEG2000 make it attractive for image transmission purposes. A novel joint source/channel coding scheme tailored for JPEG2000 is proposed in this paper to minimize the end-to-end image distortion within a given total transmission rate through memoryless channels. It provides unequal error protection by combining the forward error correction capability from channel codes and the error detection/localization functionality from JPEG2000 in an effective way. The proposed scheme generates quality scalable and error-resilient codestreams. It gives competitive performance with other existing schemes for JPEG2000 in the matched channel condition case and provides more graceful quality degradation for mismatched cases. Furthermore, both fixed-length source packets and fixed-length channel packets can be efficiently formed with the same algorithm.
Calibrating Notch/TGF-β Signaling for Youthful, Healthy Tissue Maintenance and Repair

Tissue regenerative capacity declines with age largely because of deteriorated responses from stem and progenitor cells. Eventually, tissue death is no longer countered by the tissue regeneration since stem cell responses become inadequate, which leads to a broad structural and functional decline of organ function. These unfortunate outcomes are attributed to age-related changes in the local organ and systemic cues, which govern endogenous stem cell regenerative potential. Thus, central to understanding the aging process itself, and to combating age-related degeneration, is identifying the systemic and locally-regulated molecular factors that control stem cell behavior and change with age in ways that preclude tissue repair. Along this line, recent work demonstrates that in the case of skeletal muscle, aged myofibers inhibit their own regeneration by shifting the cellular biochemical balance from active Notch to excessive TGF-β/pSmad3 signaling. However, experimental activation of Notch, or inhibition of pSmad3, restores this signaling imbalance and rejuvenates muscle regeneration (Carlson et al. 2008). This chapter focuses on how age-related changes in TGF-β/pSmad3 and Notch pathways influence muscle stem cells, discusses endocrine effects on stem cell aging, and speculates on whether forced, tunable-calibration of canonical signaling pathways to their “youthful” intensity could be used to promote and maintain healthy tissue regeneration, and optimal stem cell homeostasis, regardless of the chronological age.
Detailed Mesometeorological Studies of Air Pollution Dispersion in the Chicago Lake Breeze1

Abstract The lake-breeze circulation on the Great Lakes is often as vigorous as its oceanic counterpart. This paper shows that lake breezes frequently exert drastic control on mesoscale air pollution patterns in urbanized shore-line areas, in this case, Chicago, Ill. Observational data were gathered from a surface mesonetwork, surface and satellite cloud photography, a chain of pilot balloons normal to the shore, optically tracked constant-level balloons, and aircraft measurements of suspended particulate concentrations in several size ranges. On the 2 late summer days studied, the lake breezes were extremely well developed. Inflow depths ranged from 500 to 1000 m, with peak inflow velocities of 6–7 m/s. Beginning at the shore-line between 0800 and 0900 LST, the breezes penetrated inland over 40 km. Clearly defined return flow layers were present both days. Eulerian wind field measurements from serial pilot, balloon releases were used to make cross sections of the u wind component. Computed one-dimensiona...
Osteogenic induction by osteosarcoma and normal bone in mice.

1. Osteogenic induction across a Millipore filter barrier by normal mouse calvarias and mouse osteosarcoma was demonstrated in mice. 2. The amount of external bone induction was considerably greater with two-week and eight-week-old mouse calvarias than with newborn calvarias, but the incidence of bone induction dropped sharply with eight-week calvarias. 3. The amount of external bone induction by the mouse osteosarcoma was from fifteen to seventy-five times greater than that by the normal bone. 4. External induction did not occur with any chamber in which bone was not growing or with any chamber containing rat calvaria or human osteosarcoma.
Cystic Fibrosis Transitions of Care: Lessons Learned and Future Directions for Cystic Fibrosis

Advances in cystic fibrosis (CF) care transformed the condition from one considered lethal by age 7 into a chronic illness (median lifespan, >40 years). With the growing numbers of adults with CF voicing their preference for care in age appropriate settings, the CF community met the challenge by developing an adult-focused care system modeled on the highly successful pediatric CF centers. Adult CF programs ensure lifelong CF specialty care. Preparation for transfer occurs in a process of "transition." This article reviews progress in transition-related care and provides recommendations for research and clinical practice to improve the transition process.