cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Different Fates of Alzheimer’s Disease Amyloid-β Fibrils Remodeled by Biocompatible Small Molecules

Amyloid fibrils implicated in numerous human diseases are thermodynamically very stable. Stringent conditions that would not be possible in a physiological environment are often required to disrupt the stable fibrils. Recently, there is increasing evidence that small molecules can remodel amyloid fibrils in a physiologically relevant manner. In order to investigate possible fibril remodeling mechanisms using this approach, we performed comparative studies on the structural features of the different amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates remodeled from Aβ fibrils by three biocompatible small molecules: methylene blue; brilliant blue G; and erythrosine B. Combined with circular dichroism (CD), immuno-blotting, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) results, it was found that brilliant blue G- and erythrosine B-treatment generate fragmented Aβ fibrils and protofibrils, respectively. In contrast, incubation of the Aβ fibrils with methylene blue perturbs fibrillar structure, leading to amorphous Aβ aggregates. Our findings provide insights on the molecular mechanism of amyloid fibril formation and remodeling and also illustrate the possibility of controlled changes in biomolecule nanostructures.
Identification of cerebellin2 in chick and its preferential expression by subsets of developing sensory neurons and their targets in the dorsal horn

The cerebellins are a family of four secreted proteins, two of which, Cbln1 and Cbln3, play an important role in the formation and maintenance of parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses. We have identified the chicken homologue of Cbln2 and, through the use of in situ hybridization, shown that it is expressed by specific subsets of neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and spinal cord starting shortly after those neurons are generated. In the developing spinal cord, Cbln2 is highly expressed by dI1, dI3, dI5, and dILB dorsal interneurons, to a lesser extent by dI2, dI4, dI6, and dILA dorsal interneurons, but not by ventral (v0 – v3) interneurons. After the spinal cord has matured and neurons have migrated to their final destinations, Cbln2 is abundant in the dorsal horn. In the DRGs, Cbln2 is expressed by TrkB+ and TrkC+ sensory neurons, but not by TrkA+ sensory neurons. Interestingly, regions of the spinal cord where TrkB+ and TrkC+ afferents terminate (i. e. laminae II, III, IV, and VI), exhibit the highest levels of Cbln2 expression. Cbln2 is also expressed by preganglionic sympathetic neurons and their targets in the sympathetic chain ganglia. Thus, the results show that Cbln2 is frequently expressed by synaptically connected neuronal populations. This, in turn, raises the possibility that if Cbln2, like Cbln1, plays a role in the formation and maintenance of synapses, it may somehow mediate bi-directional communication between discrete populations of neurons and their appropriate neuronal targets.
Impact of Individuals' Immigrant Status on Household Auto Ownership

In light of projected growth in immigration of the expected differences in auto ownership behavior between immigrants and the U.S.-born population, and of the importance of accurately forecasting car ownership for transportation planning purposes, empirical research on modeling the relationships between the socioeconomic characteristics of the household (including immigrant status) and auto ownership levels is critical. The current research contributes by developing car ownership models that incorporate the immigrant characteristics (time period of entry and duration of stay) of household members. Data from 1990 and 2000 were used to develop ordered-probit models for car ownership for single-adult and couple households. For each household type, the results indicate that after several socioeconomic variables are controlled for, both the duration of stay and the time period of entry have significant impacts on the propensity for car ownership. Broadly, the findings from this study support the assimilation theory, which states that the differences in behavioral patterns between immigrants and the native-born diminish with increasing duration of stay of immigrants in a foreign land. At the same time, strong cohort effects were also found. Specifically, the more recent immigrants appear to have a greater inherent preference for car ownership and consequently might be assimilating (i.e., reaching the car ownership levels of the native-born) faster. Single-adult households also appear to assimilate faster compared with couple households.
Intravascular persistence of Anaplasma platys, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, and Ehrlichia ewingii DNA in the blood of a dog and two family members.

Anaplasmosis, caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Anaplasma platys, and ehrlichiosis, caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia ewingii, the "Panola Mountain Ehrlichia" and Ehrlichia muris- like pathogens have been identified as emerging tick borne infectious diseases in dogs and human patients. Persistent intravascular infection with these bacteria is well documented in dogs, but is less well documented in human beings. Serology and PCR targeting multiple microbial genes, followed by DNA sequencing, was used to test sequential blood samples. Tissue culture isolation was attempted in two laboratories. A. platys, E. chaffeensis, and E. ewingii DNA was amplified from two Anaplasma and Ehrlichia seronegative family members and their dog, all lacking typical symptoms of anaplasmosis or ehrlichiosis. Following treatment with doxycycline, the dog and mother were Anaplasma and Ehrlichia spp. PCR negative. Sequential PCR testing provided molecular evidence supporting intravascular persistence of A. platys and Ehrlichia spp. in two humans and their dog. Diagnosticians and clinicians should consider the potential for co-infections due to these tick borne organisms.
Distributed prognostics using wireless embedded devices

Distributed prognostics is the next step in the evolution of prognostic methodologies. It is an important enabling technology for the emerging Condition Based Management/Prognostics Health Management paradigm. This paper provides an overview of such systems with details of the system architectures and the various possible design considerations. A distributed particle filter architecture for battery health management is developed and successfully implemented using embedded smart sensor devices with wireless communication capabilities.
ON THE EXPULSION OF BILE BY THE GALL BLADDER; AND A RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SPHINCTER ACTIVITY

After feeding a dog, forceful contractions of the gall bladder occur that are sufficient in strength to expel part of the contents of the viscus against a considerable pressure resistance. The pressure within the gall bladder of a healthy, unanesthetized dog fasted 24 to 48 hours is usually about equal to a column of bile 100 mm. high. After a few swallows of food there is a rapid increase in the pressure to more than 200 mm. with a gradual fall in it again, and repeated similar rises and falls occur thereafter. The gall bladder contractions responsible for these alterations are accompanied by a lessening in the resistance to the passage of bile to the intestine, a resistance which is maintained by the muscles at the lower end of the common duct. There would appear to be a reciprocal response on the part of the two structures to the one stimulus. The maximum pressure developing within the temporarily obstructed biliary tract in an animal with the gall bladder excluded about equals that of a column of bile slightly more than 300 mm. in height. The taking of food acts as a stimulus on the rate of bile secretion, but does not alter the maximum secretion pressure. When the gall bladder is connected with the duct system, obstruction does not lead until after some hours to the development of a pressure of more than 100 to 150 mm. within the biliary tract,—that is to say the pressure does not rise above the normal. Its failure to rise further is referable to the activity of the gall bladder to store and concentrate the bile as secreted. The physiological and clinical significance of these findings is discussed.
Ejection chain and filter-and-fan methods in combinatorial optimization

The design of effective neighborhood structures is fundamental to the performance of local search and metaheuristic algorithms for combinatorial optimization. Significant efforts have been made in the creation of larger and more powerful neighborhoods that are able to explore the solution space more extensively and effectively while keeping computation complexity within acceptable levels. The most important advances in this domain derive from dynamic and adaptive neighborhood constructions originating in ejection chain methods and a special form of a candidate list design that constitutes the core of the filter-and-fan method. The objective of this paper is to lay out the general framework of the ejection chain and filter-and-fan methods and present applications to a number of important combinatorial optimization problems. The features of the methods that make them effective in these applications is expected to provide insights into solving challenging problems in other settings.
Invited review: sex ratio and rheumatic disease.

Human illnesses affect men and women differently. In some cases (diseases of sex organs, diseases resulting from X or Y chromosome mutations), reasons for sex discrepancy are obvious, but in other cases no reason is apparent. Explanations for sex discrepancy of illness occur at different biological levels: molecular (e.g., imprinting, X-inactivation), cellular (sex-specific receptor activity), organ (endocrine influences), whole organism (size, age), and environmental-behavioral, including intrauterine influences. Autoimmunity represents a prototypical class of illness that has high female-to-male (F/M) ratios. Although the F/M ratios in autoimmune diseases are usually attributed to the influence of estrogenic hormones, evidence demonstrates that the attributed ratios are imprecise and that definitions and classifications of autoimmune diseases vary, rendering at least part of the counting imprecise. In addition, many studies on sex discrepancy of human disease fail to distinguish between disease incidence and disease severity. In April 2001, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences published Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter? (Wizemann T and Pardue M-L, editors). This minireview summarizes the section of that report that concerns autoimmune and infectious disease. Some thyroid, rheumatic, and hepatic autoimmune diseases have high F/M ratios, whereas others have low. Those that have high ratios occur primarily in young adulthood. Gonadal hormones, if they play a role, likely do so through a threshold or permissive mechanism. Examples of sex differences that could be caused by environmental exposure, X inactivation, imprinting, X or Y chromosome genetic modulators, and intrauterine influences are presented as alternate, theoretical, and largely unexplored explanations for sex differences of incidence. The epidemiology of autoimmune diseases (young, female) suggests that an explanation for sex discrepancy of these illnesses lies in differential exposure, vulnerable periods, or thresholds. Biologists have an opportunity to inform medical scientists about sex differences that explain different attack rates in specific diseases, and physicians offer biologists experiments of nature to test theories of sex.
Metabolic interrelations between gastric intrinsic hematopoietic factor and vitamin B12. II. Further assays of vitamin B12 in blood and urine of patients with pernicious anemia and following total gastrectomy by means of Escherichia coli mutant and Euglena gracilis technics.

The concentration of vitamin B 12 in blood serum and its excretion in the urine were assayed by the E. coli mutant technic in two patients after total gastrectomy and by use of the more sensitive Euglena gracilis method in four cases of pernicious anemia in relapse and 1 case of well controlled nutritional macrocytic anemia. Following parenteral administration of 100 µg. vitamin B 12 intramuscularly to two patients with total gastrectomy, much higher blood levels were observed within the first few hours than those reported by others under similar circumstances in normals. Following oral administration of vitamin B 12 together with a potent intrinsic factor concentrate from hog stomach, a rise in blood levels of vitamin B 12 was observed in patients with pernicious anemia. The normal serum levels of vitamin B 12 could not be maintained, however, for the entire duration of the oral treatment, in spite of the apparent hematologic and clinical remission. The urinary output of vitamin B 12 was in all instances less than 0.5 per cent of the total dose of vitamin B 12 ingested during the experimental period, in spite of an optimal or suboptimal hematopoietic response obtained. A similar situation existed in patients with total gastrectomy, as well as in the patient with controlled macrocytic nutritional anemia, when vitamin B 12 was ingested alone or with intrinsic factor concentrate. The intensity of the obtained hematopoietic response in patients with pernicious anemia indicates the absorption of much larger amounts of vitamin B 12 from the intestine than is indicated by the total urinary output of vitamin B 12 ; therefore the anchorage and retention of a large part of vitamin B 12 in the storage depots of the body after its absorption from the intestine must occur. A sharp increase in the urinary output of vitamin B 12 was observed during or immediately following the hematopoietic response in all patients with pernicious anemia treated orally with vitamin B 12 and intrinsic factor concentrate, i.e., coincident with or immediately following the reticulocyte peak in blood. Similar observation was reported by the authors in the previous series of investigations. Of many possible interpretations of this finding, the most plausible appears to be the metabolic release of free vitamin B 12 from its complex binding in the body during hyperactivity of the hematopoietic organs and its escape through the kidneys.
Destiny Is in the Details: Action Identification in the Construction and Destruction of Meaning

Any action can be identified in myriad ways, from a sequence of movements to the expression of goals, values, and self-concepts. Despite the uncertainty of action, people routinely identify their actions at a level that both enables effective performance and provides a foundation for higher-level meaning. Action identification theory holds that this is possible because of the interplay of two principles—one reflecting a desire for higher-level action understanding, the other reflecting the need to focus on lower-level details in order to perform the action. Over time and experience, the tension between these principles establishes an optimal level of identification—high level enough to provide meaning but low level enough to provide the details necessary for action implementation. Action experience and factors in the action context can upset this dynamic equilibrium, promoting recalibration of the optimal identification level. Meaning in life is thus not a static state, but rather a dynamic process.
Use of a Structured Approach to the Analysis of Management Options and Value of Information for a Recreationally Exploited Fish Population: A Case Study of Walleyes in Saginaw Bay

AbstractSaginaw Bay Walleyes Sander vitreus contribute to fisheries throughout Lake Huron including a recreational fishery and by-kill stemming from the state-licensed commercial fishery in the bay. Two critical uncertain states of nature exist concerning the true magnitude (catchability) of the by-kill and the future of Alewives Alosa pseudoharengus in Lake Huron, the latter being a strong determinant of Walleye recruitment. After consulting with fishery managers, a stochastic simulation model was developed and used to evaluate management options for the recreational fishery in the form of a decision analysis and the value of information for improved estimates of by-kill magnitude. Decision analysis sought to identify the maximum sustainable recreational harvest. Sustainable harvest was defined as the average across 250 stochastic simulations for each management option considered while penalizing any simulation year with a value of zero if sustainability criteria were exceeded. Decision analysis indicate...
The extraction of brain isozymes with solvents of varying polarity.

SummaryMouse brains were extracted with a variety of solutions composed of inorganic salts, organic solvents, or mixtures of each. During these experiments, it was noted that a differential effect of certain salts and solvents on isozyme patterns could be demonstrated. These effects of isozyme systems [lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and nonspecific esterase] could best be explained on the basis of lipid-enzyme complexes. Circumstantial evidence is provided for viewing LDH as a lipoprotein catalyst.
Nitrogen and Phosphorous Impurities in Diamond

In this paper we use a first-principles local density approximation-based approach to study the properties of the n-type impurities nitrogen and phosphorous in diamond. We determine impurity donor level positions of 0.90 eV and 1.09 eV, respectively for C:N and C:P, measured relative to the bottom of the conduction band. We also study the energetics of impurity atom relaxation along the direction in the diamond lattice. While experimental observations indicate a trigonal distortion about the impurity site, we find the on-center position for both impurity atoms to be stable against the simple relaxation.
Student performance and attitudes in a collaborative and flipped linear algebra course

Flipped learning is gaining traction in K-12 for enhancing students’ problem-solving skills at an early age; however, there is relatively little large-scale research showing its effectiveness in promoting better learning outcomes in higher education, especially in mathematics classes. In this study, we examined the data compiled from both quantitative and qualitative measures such as item scores on a common final and attitude survey results between a flipped and a traditional Introductory Linear Algebra class taught by two individual instructors at a state university in California in Fall 2013. Students in the flipped class were asked to watch short video lectures made by the instructor and complete a short online quiz prior to each class attendance. The class time was completely devoted to problem solving in group settings where students were prompted to communicate their reasoning with proper mathematical terms and structured sentences verbally and in writing. Examination of the quality and depth of stu...
Early Azithromycin Treatment to Prevent Severe Lower Respiratory Tract Illnesses in Children—Reply

Dr Fleming-Dutra and colleagues express concerns about our study demonstrating the efficacy of early azithromycin use in the prevention of severe LRTI among children with prior severe LRTIs. We disagree with their conclusions. Our study was conducted to identify a treatment approach that could modify illness severity for a common clinical problem, severe LRTIs with wheezing, which has significant associated morbidity and lacks highly effective therapy. The burden of disease experienced by these children and their families was significant, with a mean of 4.5 severe LRTI episodes and nearly 2.5 urgent visits per patient per year. Most needed systemic corticosteroids at least once in the prior year. Although the symptom complex that triggered initiation of azithromycin or placebo often included upper respiratory tract symptoms, the goal of therapy was to prevent progression to severe LRTIs, defined as the attendant need for oral corticosteroids, not simply reducing “additional rescue albuterol” use, as described by Fleming-Dutra and colleagues. Oral corticosteroid use carries significant risks,1 although recent studies suggest minimal to no benefit in this age group.2,3 Therefore, failure to detect differences in the secondary measures (urgent care visits, pneumonia, emergency visits, or hospitalizations), which the study was not adequately powered to address, does not diminish the potential clinical importance of our findings.
Vasopressin potentiates ventricular and arterial reflexes in the conscious nonhuman primate.

The effect of arginine vasopressin (AVP) on the arterial baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) was studied in intact and sinoaortic-denervated (SAD) conscious, unrestrained monkeys. A baroreflex curve for mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) and HR was determined before and during intravenous infusion of AVP (2-4 mU.kg-1.min-1) and after the AVP vascular antagonist "Manning compound" [( d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)]AVP, 40 micrograms/kg), while AVP infusion was kept running. The sensitivity (slope) of the arterial baroreflex, as well as the reflex bradycardia induced by high blood pressure, increased significantly during AVP and returned to the control level after Manning compound. The effect of AVP on the Bezold-Jarisch reflex (induced by stimulating left ventricular receptors with 4 micrograms/kg veratridine injected in the left atrium) was also studied. The cardiovascular responses to veratridine were examined before and during AVP and after administration of Manning compound together with AVP infusion. AVP significantly potentiated the hypotension and the bradycardia produced by veratridine, whereas Manning compound blunted this potentiation. The ventricular reflex in SAD monkeys was significantly greater than in intact monkeys. We conclude that, in the conscious nonhuman primate, AVP potentiates the sensitivity of the baroreflex control of HR as well as the Bezold-Jarisch reflex. The potentiation of the Bezold-Jarisch reflex by AVP in the SAD animals is consistent with a central action, since the baroreceptors and ventricular receptors both have connections in the nucleus tractus solitarius. However, it does not rule out the possibility of peripheral actions on receptors or end organs.
Create or Appropriate? Strategic Alignment Preference in Incumbent-New Venture Alliances and Innovation Outcomes

Incumbent inertia, defined as the inability to enact internal change in the face of significant external change (Ghemawat 1991; Gilbert 2005), leads to the downfall of incumbents in industries in which they once had a competitive stronghold. Incumbents that fail to enact internal change and innovate suffer from the capability-rigidity paradox (Leonard-Barton 1992; Atuahene-Gima 2005) in which more success leads to reinforcing commitment to a firm’s current course of action (Gilbert 2005). Firms are able to build competitive advantage via resource deployments and developing capabilities that allow them to outperform competitors (Day 1994), but capabilities that led to previous success may cause firms to become uncompetitive as the competitive landscape changes. Previous research suggests that firms are better able to overcome incumbent inertia by entering vertical alliances (i.e. different levels of the value chain). While the majority of horizontal alliance research focuses on firms that are similar in size and resources; in this study we suggest that the incumbent-new venture dyad is an exception to knowledge transfer and redundancy issues that plague horizontal partnerships. By entering into alliances with new ventures, incumbent firms can become more innovative and overcome incumbent inertia that affects firms entrenched in product and market positions. In a sample of 693 incumbent-new venture partnerships over a period of 4 years, this study investigates how the strategic emphasis of incumbents impacts the number of partnerships with new ventures and subsequently innovation outcomes. The results show that incumbent firms with a strategic emphasis on value creation enter more partnerships with new ventures to gain access to innovative ideas. In addition, an incumbent’s age and new venture’s legitimacy are investigated as to how they may impact the relationship between strategic emphasis and the number of partnerships with new ventures. As firms become older, the relationship between strategic emphasis and the number of partnerships with new ventures is strengthened. The results show that a new venture’s legitimacy has no impact on the relationship between strategic emphasis and number of partnerships. Finally, the results show that incumbents become more innovative when they enter into more partnerships with new ventures, a key to overcoming incumbent inertia.
Atlas of Metabolic Diseases Second edition

In a field where even experts may find that years have elapsed since they last encountered a child with a given disorder, it is essential for the clinician to have a comprehensive source of practical and highly illustrated information covering the whole spectrum of metabolic disease to refer to. The second edition of this highly regarded book, auth
Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and clinical efficacy of albuterol RespiClick(™) dry-powder inhaler in the treatment of asthma.

Introduction: Incorrect use of inhaler devices by patients with asthma is common and can adversely affect clinical outcomes. Devices that are straightforward to use are less likely to result in dos...
Postmigrational Evolution of Polymicrogyria

A first in vivo MRI documentation of the postmigrational postnatal evolution of a case of polymicrogyria is reported from the Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA.
Ethics and the Therapeutic Relationship in the Care of People Living with Paraphilic Disorders

The therapeutic relationship is the foundation of mental health practice and becomes the primary tool through which practitioners help elicit and sustain change in the lives of their patients. The principal goal of this relationship is to nurture a strong alliance that advances a patient’s health and overall well-being. Through the therapeutic alliance, practitioners work collaboratively with each patient to formulate a treatment plan that will address the problem or issue that is causing distress or impairment. Along this collaborative path, there may be many challenges, complex decisions, and intrusions upon the clinical care process. Throughout all, the clinician must be attentive to the therapeutic aims of the alliance, while also remaining attentive to the ethical considerations of respect, beneficence, and fairness (http://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/ethics).
Novel Direct Model for Machining Regenerative Chatter

Regenerative machining chatter or resonance in the machining process has traditionally been modeled with the stability lobe approach. This paper presents a new time based direct simulation model and compares it with traditional stability lobe modeling. The direct model has the ability to discriminate directional and time information, resulting in a number of advantages over frequency-based stability lobe analysis.Copyright © 2016 by ASME
Brown Adipose Tissue, Not Just a Heater.

Adipose tissues are distributed in multiple depots in the body of animals including human beings and rodents.1 In the past decades, the biology of adipose tissues has been intensely studied. Currently, it is well accepted that the existence of adipose tissues is essential to maintain normal physiological activities and health. However, excessive accumulation of adipose tissues in their original depots and ectopic accumulation of lipids especially in the liver and skeletal muscles lead to obesity and insulin resistance, which will further cause lethal cardiovascular complications.2 Mechanistically, it has been established that macrophage infiltration and oxidative stress in adipose tissues cause malfunction of the adipose tissue, resulting in the secretion of numerous inflammatory factors and adipocyte-derived hormones that negatively regulate functions of the target organs such as heart and blood vessels and eventually lead to cardiac and vascular diseases.3 Notably, adipose tissue may be originally differentiated from cells in the vasculature or share the same precursors with vasculature cells.4 Also, adipogenesis always is companied by angiogenesis of blood vessels.5 Thus, the relationship between adipose tissue and blood vessels is drawing much attention on aspects relating to both physiology and shared origin. See accompanying article on page 455 One of the primary functions of adipose tissue is to store extra triglycerides in the form of lipid droplets. However, the sizes and distributions of lipid droplets are considerably different in different adipose tissue depots. Most adipose tissues in the human body comprise adipocytes containing a single large lipid droplet with fewer mitochondria, which is called white adipose tissue (WAT) and is distributed in visceral and subcutaneous regions. It is well accepted that visceral WAT is positively associated with development of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and related complications, whereas subcutaneous WAT …
Functional Roles of the Interaction of APP and Lipoprotein Receptors

The biological fates of the key initiator of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the amyloid precursor protein (APP), and a family of lipoprotein receptors, the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins (LRPs), and their molecular roles in the neurodegenerative disease process are inseparably interwoven. Not only does APP bind tightly to the extracellular domains of several members of the LRP group, their intracellular portions are also connected through scaffolds like the one established by FE65 proteins and through interactions with adaptor proteins such as X11/Mint and Dab1. Moreover, the extracellular domains of APP and LRPs share common ligands, most notably Reelin, a regulator of neuronal migration during embryonic development and modulator of synaptic transmission in the adult brain, and Agrin, another signaling protein which is essential for the formation and maintenance of the neuromuscular junction and which likely also has critical, though at this time less well defined, roles for the regulation of central synapses. Furthermore, the major independent risk factors for AD, Apolipoprotein (Apo) E and ApoJ/Clusterin, are lipoprotein ligands for LRPs. Receptors and ligands mutually influence their intracellular trafficking and thereby the functions and abilities of neurons and the blood-brain-barrier to turn over and remove the pathological product of APP, the amyloid-β peptide. This chapter will review and summarize the molecular mechanisms that are shared by APP and LRPs and discuss their relative contributions to AD.
A Pilot Study of Classroom-Based Cognitive Skill Instruction: Effects on Cognition and Academic Performance

Cognitive skills are associated with academic performance, but little is known about how to improve these skills in the classroom. Here, we present the results of a pilot study in which teachers were trained to engage students in cognitive skill practice through playing games. Fifth-grade students at an experimental charter school were randomly assigned to receive cognitive skill instruction (CSI) or instruction in geography and typing. Students in the CSI group improved significantly more than the control group on a composite measure of cognitive skills. CSI was more effective for students with lower standardized test scores. Although there was no group effect on test scores, cognitive improvement correlated positively with test score improvement only in the CSI group. Beyond showing that cognitive skills can be improved in the classroom, this study provides lessons for the future of CSI, including changes to professional development and challenges for scalability.
Loss of NHERF-1 expression prevents dopamine-mediated Na-K-ATPase regulation in renal proximal tubule cells from rat models of hypertension: aged F344 rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Dopamine decreases Na-K-ATPase (NKA) activity by PKC-dependent phosphorylation and endocytosis of the NKA α1. Dopamine-mediated regulation of NKA is impaired in aging and some forms of hypertension...
Stories of Grief and Loss: How College Students Learned to Listen

To those who have suffered the pain of loss, grief is learned first hand. Although subjective and internal, grief is a definitive experience (Zisook S, Shear K, World Psychiatry 2:67–74, 2009; Howarth RA, J Ment Health Couns 1:4–10, 2011). But how do we learn about grief if we have not experienced it ourselves? Many medical and psychology students plan a career working with people who die and their grieving survivors. How will they learn about their patients’ experiences? In a college course on death and bereavement, students were given an assignment to interview an individual who had lost someone close and write a paper from the interviewee’s perspective. They were provided the type of questions to ask and training in empathic listening (Salem R, The benefit of empathic listening. http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/empathic-listening. Accessed 10 May 2015, 2003). The resulting papers were emotionally touching to read and the best papers were analyzed according to the death experience reported by the bereaved, the grief process experienced by the bereaved, and by the type of paper written about this experience. This paper also explores an important question for medical and psychological training: can a person learn to understand an experience they have not themselves had?
Methodology for Experimental Studies of Young Children in Natural Settings

A method for the experimental study of young children in natural settings is described. These settings include the home, institution, school, and clinic as well as the behavior of parents, peers, and professional workers. Dominant stimulus and response events are assessed in preliminary observations which typically involve written accounts of the child’s behavior and the conditions under which it occurs. Subsequently, a behavioral code which specifies these events is constructed. The adequacy of the code is then tested and revised until independent observers reliably agree on the occurrence of the events. The training of observers, methods of calculating reliability coefficients, and the frequency of observations are discussed. The experimental design is a single subject strategy in which data are collected on individual children under four or more conditions to evaluate the functional relationships between behavior and environmental stimuli. During the first of these conditions, the baseline period, the field situation is left unchanged. Next, the variable of interest is manipulated to assess its effect on the behavior being observed. When response frequency has again stabilized, the conditions are changed to those that were in effect during the baseline period. In the fourth phase, the conditions of the first experimental period are reinstated. Ways of analyzing the data and interpreting the findings are also discussed.
Hydrodynamic thermal transport in suspended graphene ribbons

The steady-state behavior of thermal transport in bulk and nanostructured semiconductors has been widely studied, both theoretically [4] and experimentally [1], with an intense focus on 2-dimensional materials such as graphene and graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) in recent years. The effect of ribbon size (width and length) and temperature on steady-state thermal conductivity is now well understood. On the other hand, fast transients and frequency response of thermal conduction, sometimes called dynamical thermal conductivity has been given less attention. The response of thermal conductivity to rapidly varying heat sources may become more crucial in the future, especially with the constant growth in the clock frequencies in microprocessors and increase in giga- and terahertz applications of semiconductor devices. It has been theoretically predicted in 3-D materials that thermal conductivity in response to a time-varying temperature gradient starts decaying when the frequency of the applied heat source (Ω) exceeds a certain cut-off frequency uc, which was found to be related to the inverse of the average phonon relaxation time T C . The phonon relaxation time in bulk semiconductors such as silicon is short, on the order of 2–10 ps, leading to thermal conductivity that is independent of frequency up to very high ii c exceeding 10 GHz. In contrast, 2-D materials like graphene have much longer phonon relaxation times, especially below room temperature. Therefore, in suspended graphene and wide graphene ribbons, Ω c can be expected to be much lower than that of silicon. Moreover, the presence of strong momentum-conserving normal phonon-phonon processes, overshadowing the momentum-destroying umklapp processes in graphene results in hydrodynamic transport [2] where heat does not diffuse but rather propagates in a wavelike fashion, giving rise to the second sound phenomenon[7].
Measuring Community Integration of Lusophone West African Immigrant Populations Through Needs Assessment, Human Security, and Realistic Conflict Theory

This article describes the process of developing and validating an immigrant community integration factor score from three different indicators based on three theories: human security, needs assessment, and realistic conflict. Over twenty days in May/June of 2015, fifty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with Bissau-Guinean immigrants on Boa Vista and Santiago Islands of Cabo Verde in West Africa to pilot test this instrument. Questions asked measured study participants’ needs assessment, human security levels, and conflict experiences. These findings demonstrate the applicability of combining these three indicators into an aggregate integration score, validated through confirmatory factor analysis using partial least squares path modeling. This article shows how the immigrant community integration factor score accounts for the situational context, in this case, increasing population and resource pressures leading to tension, conflict, and outbursts of violence before various institutional and policy interventions calmed the situation. While this study serves as a test case, we are confident that the validated integration score can serve as an effective proxy for measuring the level of comprehensive community integration not along individual acculturation indices, but according to broader human security and conflict potential at the community level.
Minimizing performance degradation induced by interfacial recombination in perovskite solar cells through tailoring of the transport layer electronic properties

The performance of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells is investigated using one-dimensional drift-diffusion device simulations. We study the effects of interfacial defect density, doping concentration, and electronic level positions of the charge transport layer (CTL). Choosing CTLs with a favorable band alignment, rather than passivating CTL-perovskite interfacial defects, is shown to be beneficial for maintaining high power-conversion efficiency, due to reduced minority carrier density arising from a favorable local electric field profile. Insights from this study provide theoretical guidance on practical selection of CTL materials for achieving high-performance perovskite solar cells.
Improving temporal modulation sensitivity in cochlear implant users

The present study investigated the limitations of temporal modulation sensitivity in cochlear implant (CI) users. Adult users of Cochlear Nucleus devices were tested by presenting sounds through their clinical processors using an auxiliary cable and using direct electrical stimulation provided through a custom research processor. Threshold and comfort current levels were determined by adjusting the phase duration of 10 Hz amplitude modulated pulse trains of 400 ms duration at a given stimulation rate. After mapping the participants, modulation detection thresholds were measured by means of a 3 alternative forced choice procedure which adaptively adjusted the modulation depth to determine the threshold in dB relative to full modulation. Participants completed the task using a graphical user interface to indicate which interval was different. Modulation frequencies from 10 to 800 Hz were tested at various stimulation rates on basal and apical electrodes in both psuedomonopolar and bipolar modes of stimulation. Preliminary findings indicate that modulation sensitivity drops off with increases in modulation frequency. Performance was significantly better with direct stimulation as compared to through the clinical processor and better at higher modulation frequencies than previous findings from CI users. Outcomes will have implications for the development of next generation CI devices.
Articulation Comparisons in Medical Technology Education

Articulation programs for medical laboratory technicians have received much attention recently because of the personnel shortage. The statewide articulation program of the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, has been operational since 1974. Thirtythree medical laboratory technician students have used the articulation program, and 32 of these students have taken the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Board of Registry medical technologist examination. Data indicate a first-time passing rate of 81%. Thirtytwo students who used the traditional pre-medical technology curriculum were paired with the students who used the medical laboratory technician curriculum according to entering senior-year grade point average. Data indicated a first-time passing rate of 78% for those in the pre-medical technology curriculum. Analysis using the X2 test revealed no significant difference between the first-time passing rates of the two groups (P>.05).
High-Performance Regimes in DIII-D

Research in DIII-D places a major emphasis on developing a scientific basis for high-performance steady-state operation for use in burning plasma tokamaks. This work has resulted in a long history of studies of high-performance regimes. Several of these regimes are described. H-mode, the first high-performance regime, is characterized by the formation of a transport barrier in the boundary region. The VH- and QH-modes, both variations of the H-mode, were both first identified through pioneering work on DIII-D. Although internal transport barriers (ITBs) had been observed previously, advanced diagnostics implemented on DIII-D and elsewhere allowed the physics of these phenomena to be elucidated. This work led to the combination of a VH-mode edge and an ITB core, which exhibits the highest fusion performance obtained in DIII-D. ITBs can also be combined with the QH-mode edge to produce the quiescent double barrier regime, characterized by nearly stationary high-performance plasmas. Like the ITB, high-l{sub i} plasmas also exhibit performance improvements deeper in the core, in this case due to increased poloidal magnetic field. Although many of these regimes exhibit high-fusion performance only transiently, they provide important platforms for developing an understanding of the physics of transport and magnetohydrodynamic stability and provide the basismore » for extending to longer duration and evaluating compatibility with steady state.« less
Movement Disorder as the Clinical Presentation of Porphyria: A Case Report (P03.056)

OBJECTIVE: This case report demonstrates that porphyria may have other neurologic manifestations besides the commonly known. BACKGROUND: Porphyria is a group of metabolic disorders caused by deficiency of different enzymes in the heme biosynthetic pathway. The major manifestations of acute hepatic porphyria are neurologic including abdominal pain, neuropathy, and seizures. DESIGN/METHODS: This is the case of a 22 years-old man that presented for evaluation of tremor. RESULTS: The patient had an 8 month history of fluctuating gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal cramps and constipation. After worsening of his gastrointestinal complaints, he developed episodes of confusion, generalized weakness, and tremor. A bilateral asymmetric postural tremor with bradykinesia and dysdiadokokinesia and right foot dystonia were observed during evaluation. Workup revealed normal blood cell count, liver function, thyroid studies, RPR, HIV, and Lyme. Brain MRI and nerve conduction studies were essentially normal. However, urine studies for coproporphyrin, porphobilinogen, and 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) were elevated consistent with the diagnosis of porphyria. CONCLUSIONS: We must be aware of other possible clinical presentations of porphyria to initiate treatment early and diminish complications related to the disease. Disclosure: Dr. Rundle-Gonzalez has nothing to disclose. Dr. Huang has nothing to disclose.
Large Bandwidth-Efficient FFTs on Multicore and Multi-socket Systems

Current microprocessor trends show a steady increase in the number of cores and/or threads present on the same CPU die. While this increase improves performance for compute-bound applications, the benefits for memory-bound applications are limited. The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is an example of such a memory-bound application, where increasing the number of cores does not yield a corresponding increase in performance. In this paper, we present an alternate solution for using the increased number of cores/threads available on a typical multicore system. We propose to repurpose some of the cores/threads as soft Direct Memory Access (DMA) engines so that data is moved on and off chip while computation is performed. Overlapping memory accesses with computation permits us to preload and reshape data so that computation is more efficient. We show that despite using fewer cores/threads for computation, our approach improves performance relative to MKL and FFTW by 1.2x to 3x for large multi-dimensional DFTs of up to 2048^3 on one and two-socket Intel and AMD systems.
Estimating amperometric spike parameters resulting from quantal exocytosis using curve fitting seeded by a matched-filter algorithm

Abstract Background Quantal exocytosis of oxidizable neurotransmitters can be detected as spikes of amperometric current using electrochemical microelectrodes. Measurements of spike parameters indicate the maximal transmitter flux, flux duration, and amount of transmitter released from individual vesicles. Automated analysis algorithms need to reject spikes that overlap in time. In addition, many spikes are preceded by small amplitude “foot” signals, attributed to slow release of transmitter through a fusion pore. Accurate pre-spike baseline determination is essential for estimating fusion-pore duration and the amount of transmitter released through the fusion pore. New Method We developed an estimation approach that is based on fitting a multi-exponential function to the data. Our previously described matched-filter algorithm is used to identify the sections of data to fit and provides seed values to facilitate convergence of the iterative fit. The new estimation algorithm includes overlap rejection, a two-step fitting procedure and a novel baseline estimation procedure. Results Histograms of spike parameters demonstrate excellent agreement of the new approach with manually computed parameters. Comparison with Existing Methods Parameter estimates generated using the new approach are closer to blind manual estimates than commonly used existing methods. The improved performance is due to better detection of valid spikes and rejection of overlapping spikes. Moreover, since the complete time course of the spike is fit to a function, more complete information about the spike time course is captured. Conclusions The matched-filter seeded algorithm reliably rejects overlaps and estimates spike and foot signal parameters in a fully automated manner.