cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of human menopausal gonadotropins as therapy for abnormal cervical mucus

Traditional therapies for abnormal cervical mucus, other than timed intrauterine insemination, are noteworthy for being ineffectual. Patients (n = 27) with documented abnormal Insler scores in repetitive cycles and failure to conceive with traditional treatments were screened with conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) for estrogen responsiveness of the cervix. Only 5 patients were found unresponsive. Seventeen patients with CEE-responsive cervices then were treated with human gonadotropins (hMG), initially 1 ampule days 5 to 11. If the mucus failed to improve, the hMG was increased to standard doses. Eight patients responded to 1 ampule hMG with improved mucus and conception. The remainder required 2 ampules hMG. In patient cycles with corrected cervical mucus, the viable fecundibility (f v ) was 0.35. This is significantly higher than predicted for this population (f v = 0.09; P
Neurotransmitter Systems and Social Behavior

This chapter surveys pharmacological studies of cholinergic, GABAergic, monoaminergic, and peptidergic regulation of aggressive, sexual, and maternal behaviors. The review is limited to a consideration of commonly studied mammals maintained under controlled laboratory conditions. Although there are significant roles of these transmitter systems that occur during perinatal and prepubertal periods, we deal predominantly with adult animals. Because aggressive, sexual, and maternal behaviors are conditioned by the actions of gonadal steroid hormones in discrete brain areas, additional emphasis is placed upon transmittersteroid interactions as they may relate to the expression or inhibition of these behaviors.
Endocannabinoid Signaling in the Striatum

Publisher Summary This chapter presents that endocannabinoid juxtacrine and paracrine signaling is widespread throughout the brain and body, representing one of the most prevalent lipid/fatty acid-based intercellular communication systems in mammals. The cannabinoid part of the name is derived from the cannabis sativa plant and the drugs, marijuana and hashish among others, made from this plant. It discusses that the receptors for these drugs are the major targets of a group of lipid derived signaling molecules known as the eCBs. Two arachidonoyl-containing fatty acids, arachidonoylethanolamide (AEA or anandamide) and 2-arachydonoyl glycerol (2-AG) are thought to produce the majority of eCB signaling. These two compounds are synthesized from arachidonate-containing membrane lipids via separate pathways consisting of several enzyme-catalyzed steps. The chapter also reviews that the CB1 receptor is the main mediator of eCB actions in the brain, and is responsible for the majority of the intoxicating effects of natural and synthetic cannabinoid drugs. Endocannabinoids can also activate the CB2 receptor that is mainly found in the periphery but is apparently also present in the central nervous system (CNS).
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Hm1, a Maize Gene for Fungal Resistance

The Hm1 (or Hm) gene of Zea mays L. conditions resistance to the fungus Cochliobolus carbonum Nelson race 1. This allele confers insensitivity to HC-toxin, a fungal-derived compound required for successful pathogenesis. Hm-mediated resistance in maize is genetically associated with the activity of HC-toxin reductase, an enzyme that inactivates the toxin by specific reduction of a critical carbonyl group. HC-toxin reductase activity is increased substantially in response to pathogen inoculation of resistant seedlings. In addition, HC-toxin reductase activity is detectable in crude extracts from several other monocot, but not dicot, species.
Augmented Reality, Surgical Navigation, and 3D Printing for Transcanal Endoscopic Approach to the Petrous Apex.

Otolaryngologists increasingly use patient-specific 3-dimensional (3D)–printed anatomic physical models for preoperative planning. However, few reports describe concomitant use with virtual models....
Optimal satellite orbit configuration for global ocean color product coverage

We develop a methodology to evaluate the current orbital configuration of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) and NOAA-20 satellites and to study various orbital configurations for the next VIIRS in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series from the perspective of maximizing the global daily ocean color retrievals. We focus on the coverage losses due to high sensor-zenith angle and high sun glint contamination and find that two sensors cannot avoid gaps in daily coverage. If JPSS-2 shares the same orbit with SNPP and NOAA-20, then phase shift of around 90° relative to SNPP and NOAA-20 would maximize daily ocean color retrievals.
Pituitary Endorphins: Recent Progress

Abstract A new pituitary endorphin is described, which is several times more potent than β c -endorphin on the guinea pig ileum bioassay. It has several novel features, including slow wash-out from the guinea pig ileum preparation, and resistance of the biological activity to destruction by cyanogen bromide. The peptide has been isolated. Its composition indicates that it is not contained within β -lipotropin. The pituitary plays an essential role in the hyperalgesic effect of naloxone. When hypophysectomized mice were placed on the hot plate, jump latencies were essentially unchanged from normal, but the hyperalgesic (latency-shortening) effect of naloxone seen in normal or sham-operated mice was abolished. These findings are not compatible with the view that tonic or evoked activity of endorphins acting on opiate receptors in the pain pathways modulates the noxious stimuli in such experiments. The presence of a pituitary hyperalgesic factor is suggested.
Shell-Free Copper Indium Sulfide Quantum Dots Induce Toxicity in Vitro and in Vivo

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are attractive fluorescent contrast agents for in vivo imaging due to their superior photophysical properties, but traditional QDs comprise toxic materials such as cadmium or lead. Copper indium sulfide (CuInS2, CIS) QDs have been posited as a nontoxic and potentially clinically translatable alternative; however, previous in vivo studies utilized particles with a passivating zinc sulfide (ZnS) shell, limiting direct evidence of the biocompatibility of the underlying CIS. For the first time, we assess the biodistribution and toxicity of unshelled CIS and partially zinc-alloyed CISZ QDs in a murine model. We show that bare CIS QDs breakdown quickly, inducing significant toxicity as seen in organ weight, blood chemistry, and histology. CISZ demonstrates significant, but lower, toxicity compared to bare CIS, while our measurements of core/shell CIS/ZnS are consistent with literature reports of general biocompatibility. In vitro cytotoxicity is dose-dependent on the amount of metal released due to particle degradation, linking degradation to toxicity. These results challenge the assumption that removing heavy metals necessarily reduces toxicity: indeed, we find comparable in vitro cytotoxicity between CIS and CdSe QDs, while CIS caused severe toxicity in vivo compared to CdSe. In addition to highlighting the complexity of nanotoxicity and the differences between the in vitro and in vivo outcomes, these unexpected results serve as a reminder of the importance of assessing the biocompatibility of core QDs absent the protective ZnS shell when making specific claims of compositional biocompatibility.
Planning for the storm: Considering renewable energy for critical infrastructure resilience.

Objective: Benchmark the economic value of renewable energy and battery storage systems to extend operation of certain critical infrastructure facilities in different markets. Design: This study uses the renewable energy optimization model to assess three critical facilities in North Carolina. Techno-economic results were then compared to analyses completed for critical facilities in California and New York to assess energy system cost effectiveness. Results: Though solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays are cost-effective across each of the three North Carolina facilities, adopting battery storage to enable PV to operate with existing diesel generators in a hybrid energy system reduces the economic value of the system. This is in contrast to more economically viable systems in California and New York. All of these systems also offer unquantified resilience benefits by extending operation from hours to weeks across the facilities. Conclusion: If decision makers were able to value the resilience benefits offered by each system or utility rate structures were changed to incentivize battery storage during normal operations, it would impact these assessments. Even so, this analysis provides decision makers a key set of cost benchmarks when considering how they might improve resilience at their critical operations.
Association Between Immune-Related Adverse Events and Clinical Outcomes to Programmed Cell Death Protein 1/Programmed Death-Ligand 1 Blockade in SCLC.

Abstract Introduction The development of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) has been associated with improved efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with urothelial cancer, melanoma, and NSCLC. Whether this association exists in patients with SCLC is currently unknown. Methods We conducted a multicenter retrospective study to evaluate the relationship between irAEs and immunotherapy efficacy in SCLC. To account for the lead-time bias resulting from the time-dependent nature of irAEs, the development of irAEs was considered as a time-varying covariate in univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models. Results Of the 183 patients treated with immunotherapy, 73 (39.9%) experienced at least one irAE. A total of 42 patients (22.9%) had grade 1 to 2 irAEs, whereas 31 patients (16.9%) had grade 3 to 4 irAEs. The median time of onset to the first irAE was 24 days (interquartile range: 14–55). The baseline clinicopathologic features were well-balanced between patients with and without irAEs. At a median follow-up of 24 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 17.0–31.6), the median progression-free survival was significantly longer in the irAE group than the non-irAE group (3.8 versus 1.3 mo, p Conclusions The development of irAEs is associated with improved clinical outcomes for immunotherapy in patients with advanced SCLC.
The Index-Fund Dilemma: An Empirical Study of the Lending-Voting Tradeoff

Institutional investors' role in shareholder voting is among the most hotly debated subjects in corporate governance. Some argue that institutions lack adequate incentives to effectively monitor managers; others contend that the largest institutions have developed analytical resources that produce informed votes. But little attention has been paid to the tradeoff these institutions face between voting their shares and earning profits—both for themselves and for the ultimate beneficiary of institutional funds—by lending those shares. Using a unique dataset and a recent change in SEC rules as an empirical setting, we document a substantial increase in the degree to which large institutions lend shares rather than cast votes in corporate elections. We show that, after the SEC clarified funds’ power to lend shares rather than vote them at shareholder meetings, institutions supplied 58\% more shares for lending immediately prior to those meetings. The change is concentrated in stocks with high index fund ownership; a difference-in-differences approach shows that supply increases from 15.6\% to 22.3\% in those stocks. Even when it comes to proxy fights, we show, stocks with high index ownership see a marked increase in shares available for lending immediately prior to the meeting. Overall, we show that loosening the legal constraints on institutional share lending has had significant implications for how index funds balance the lending-voting tradeoff.
Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Social and Legal Implications

Widely referred to as either “revenge porn” or “nonconsensual sharing of sexual imagery,” image-based sexual abuse targets millions of people around the world and causes much harm. This article covers the current state of social scientific knowledge on this key variant of digitized sexual violence and suggests new directions in empirical work. A rapidly growing body of research shows that image-based sexual abuse is committed mainly by men against women and it often co-occurs with offline forms of male-to-female assaults like rape, stalking, and beatings. Additionally, to further understand the scope of factors that contribute to the problems of online image-based sexual abuse online, researchers should examine the relationship between image-based sexual abuse and pornography consumption. Future studies should be specially designed to test theories that prioritize the concepts of gender, power, control, and patriarchy. Further, despite the creation of new legislation aimed at curbing image-based sexual abuse, the criminal justice system’s response has, thus far, been woefully inadequate. Hence, additional means of prevention and control are necessary. A multidisciplinary approach may involve mental health and sexual wellness awareness campaigns that include ethical behaviors in a digital space. Also, clinical assessment and treatment may be part of creating long-term changes at individual, interpersonal, and societal levels with psychosexual education that investigates core beliefs and harmful operating systems that facilitate image-based sexual abuse. Moreover, testing and providing empirically validated treatments for those who experienced sexual trauma and those who perpetrated and consumed digitized sexual abuse are warranted.
Nucleocytoplasmic Transport: Regulatory Mechanisms and the Implications in Neurodegeneration.

Nucleocytoplasmic transport (NCT) across the nuclear envelope is precisely regulated in eukaryotic cells, and it plays critical roles in maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that dysregulations of NCT are implicated in aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Huntington disease (HD). This is an emerging research field. The molecular mechanisms underlying impaired NCT and the pathogenesis leading to neurodegeneration are not clear. In this review, we comprehensively described the components of NCT machinery, including nuclear envelope (NE), nuclear pore complex (NPC), importins and exportins, RanGTPase and its regulators, and the regulatory mechanisms of nuclear transport of both protein and transcript cargos. Additionally, we discussed the possible molecular mechanisms of impaired NCT underlying aging and neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS/FTD, HD, and AD.
ProgRPGAN: Progressive GAN for Route Planning

Learning to route has received significant research momentum as anew approach for the route planning problem in intelligent transportation systems. By exploring global knowledge of geographical areas and topological structures of road networks to facilitate route planning, in this work, we propose a novel Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) framework, namely Progressive Route Planning GAN (ProgRPGAN), for route planning in road networks. The novelty of ProgRPGAN lies in the following aspects: 1) we propose to plan a route with levels of increasing map resolution, starting on a low-resolution grid map, gradually refining it on higher-resolution grid maps, and eventually on the road network in order to progressively generate various realistic paths; 2) we propose to transfer parameters of the previous-level generator and discriminator to the subsequent generator and discriminator for parameter initialization in order to improve the efficiency and stability in model learning; and 3) we propose to pre-train embeddings of grid cells in grid maps and intersections in the road network by capturing the network topology and external factors to facilitate effective model learn-ing. Empirical result shows that ProgRPGAN soundly outperforms the state-of-the-art learning to route methods, especially for long routes, by 9.46% to 13.02% in F1-measure on multiple large-scale real-world datasets. ProgRPGAN, moreover, effectively generates various realistic routes for the same query.
Position-based Hash Embeddings For Scaling Graph Neural Networks.

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) bring the power of deep representation learning to graph and relational data and achieve state-of-the-art performance in many applications. GNNs compute node representations by taking into account the topology of the node's ego-network and the features of the ego-network's nodes. When the nodes do not have high-quality features, GNNs learn an embedding layer to compute node embeddings and use them as input features. However, the size of the embedding layer is linear to the product of the number of nodes in the graph and the dimensionality of the embedding and does not scale to big data and graphs with hundreds of millions of nodes. To reduce the memory associated with this embedding layer, hashing-based approaches, commonly used in applications like NLP and recommender systems, can potentially be used. However, a direct application of these ideas fails to exploit the fact that in many real-world graphs, nodes that are topologically close will tend to be related to each other (homophily) and as such their representations will be similar. In this work, we present approaches that take advantage of the nodes' position in the graph to dramatically reduce the memory required, with minimal if any degradation in the quality of the resulting GNN model. Our approaches decompose a node's embedding into two components: a position-specific component and a node-specific component. The position-specific component models homophily and the node-specific component models the node-to-node variation. Extensive experiments using different datasets and GNN models show that our methods are able to reduce the memory requirements by 88% to 97% while achieving, in nearly all cases, better classification accuracy than other competing approaches, including the full embeddings.
A Prospective Clinical Trial Evaluating Stereotactic Magnetic Resonance Guided Adaptive Radiation Therapy (SMART) for Pancreatic Cancer.

Purpose/objective(s) The use of ablative stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in pancreatic cancer is constrained by nearby radiation-sensitive organs. Magnetic resonance (MR)-guided adaptive radiation therapy (SMART) is an innovation that offers superior anatomical imaging during treatment allowing for daily plan adaptation based on the volumetric images prior to each treatment. We report results of a prospective phase 1 trial (NCT04115254) assessing feasibility of SMART and describe early outcomes of patients with pancreatic cancer. Secondary objectives included analysis of 90-day toxicity, local control, and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) in patients undergoing SMART. Materials/methods In this prospective IRB approved study, patient eligibility criteria included: biopsy-proven diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, eligibility for SBRT, and ability to undergo and tolerate MRI imaging. Patients were ineligible if they had prior abdominal radiation, active ulcerative disease, or tumor invasion of the stomach, duodenum or bowel on endoscopy. Patients were monitored for acute and late grade ≥ 3 toxicity. PROMs included the FACT-HEP and PROMIS Physical and Mental Health batteries and were completed at baseline and during follow-up. Feasibility was defined as 1) enrolling patients and delivering SMART on the MR-Linac; 2) assessing tumor using MR guidance before, during and after MR-guided treatment and 3) generating adaptive plans. Results All 10 patients successfully completed SMART, receiving 40 Gy in 5 fractions with 48 of 50 fractions requiring adaptation to meet target or critical organ-at-risk metrics. The median follow up was 10.49 months (range 5.00 - 11.38). The median age was 72 (range 55 - 89), 60% were female, and 80% were white. Disease stages included 30% T1-T2, 10% T3, and 60% T4 disease, as well as 30% N0, 60% N1, 10% N2 disease, and 80% M0, 10% MX, and 10% M1. 90% of patients had other medical comorbidities. ECOG performance status was 0-1 in 90% of patients. There were no acute or late grade ≥ 3 treatment related toxicities. There were no local recurrences. The 6-month survival rate was 90% (95% CI 47.3-98.5) with two deaths due to progressive disease. The median change between baseline and follow-up within 6 months of treatment was -0.5 on FACT-HEP, -2.5 on PROMIS Physical, and -4.7 on PROMIS Mental Health (table 1). Conclusion We successfully demonstrated the feasibility and safety of SMART with daily adaptation in patients with pancreatic cancer. PROMs highlight that patients tolerated treatment well with minimal toxicity. Further investigation in dose escalation in pancreatic cancer is warranted.
Hard Carbon Derived from Avocado Peels as a High-Capacity, High-Performance Anode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Deriving battery grade materials from natural sources is a key element to establishing sustainable energy storage technologies. In this work, we present the use of avocado peels as a sustainable source for conversion into hard carbon based anodes for sodium ion batteries. The avocado peels are simply washed and dried then proceeded to a high temperature conversion step. Materials characterization reveals conversion of the avocado peels in high purity, highly porous hard carbon powders. When prepared as anode materials they show to the capability to reversibly store and release sodium ions. The hard carbon-based electrodes exhibit excellent cycling performance, namely, a reversible capacity of 352.55 mAh/g at 0.05 A/g, rate capability up to 86 mAh/g at 3500 mA/g, capacity retention of >90%, and 99.9% coulombic efficiencies after 500 cycles. This study demonstrates avocado derived hard carbon as a sustainable source that can provide excellent electrochemical and battery performance as anodes in sodium ion batteries.
Abstract 1213: Endogenous p53 affinity tagging with CRISPR

Several antimetabolites used for cancer treatment, including hydroxyurea (HU) and pemetrexed (PTX), stabilize tumor suppressor protein p53, but fail to induce the transcription of p53 downstream target genes. To understand the underlying mechanism for the deficiency of stabilized p53, we are quantitatively characterizing p53 posttranslational modification and its interaction partners with mass spectrometry (MS). To facilitate the purification of endogenous p53, we established an HCT116 human colon carcinoma cell line, in which one allele of endogenous p53 was tagged with a classic Tandem Affinity Tag (TAP) at the C-terminus, using adenovirus associated virus (AAV) mediated homologous recombination (HR). The purification of p53 from this cell exhibited severe losses at each step, compromising analysis by MS. Because of this limited yield from TAP purification, we performed a systematic tagging of p53 with 3xFLAG, Strep-II, and HALO tags, and their combinations, at both N- and C-termini. The latest CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/cas9 nuclease system provides major advantages for endogenous gene modification through HR. Efficient site-specific protein tagging (or mutation) requires a DNA break point in the immediate vicinity, limiting the choice of guide DNA (gDNA) positions possible. By extending the complementary sequence between CRISPR targeting RNA (crRNA) and trans-activating crRNA (tracrRNA) in the chimeric single guide RNA (sgRNA), we expanded the essential Protospacer Adjacent Motif (PAM) sequence of the S. pyogenes CRISPR II system from NGG to NAG with equal targeting efficiency. Cas9 nickase (both D10A, and H840A-N854A-N863A) generated more favorable HR rates compared to non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), while mitigating off-target effects, in comparison to wild type cas9. Utilizing our conditions, we achieved 2-8% (for different tags) endogenous p53 tagging in the background of 10-60% NHEJ from wild type cas9 and single sgRNA. With cas9 nickase and two sgRNA, we consistently achieved 0.2-2% specific p53 tagging in the background of 0.01-8% NHEJ, with higher efficiency for 5′ than 3′ single strand overhangs generated. We are currently generating single cell clones, selecting those tags most faithful to natural p53 expression levels, and testing p53 purification efficiencies with different tags. In conclusion, we optimized the CRISPR system, extensively characterized the individual steps in generating single cell clones for endogenous gene tagging, and will apply the optimal tag to purify p53 and its co-eluted binding partners for quantitative MS analysis. Citation Format: Chen Yang, Cortney L. Lawrence, Charles E. Lyons, Shirley M. Taylor, Richard G. Moran. Endogenous p53 affinity tagging with CRISPR. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1213. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1213
Tectonic processes during oblique collision: Insights from the St. Elias orogen, northern North American Cordillera

[1] Oblique convergence in the St. Elias orogen of southern Alaska and northwestern Canada has constructed the world's highest coastal mountain range and is the principal driver constructing all of the high topography in northern North America. The orogen originated when the Yakutat terrane was excised from the Cordilleran margin and was transported along margin-parallel strike-slip faults into the subduction-transform transition at the eastern end of the Aleutian trench. We examine the last 3 m.y. of this collision through an analysis of Euler poles for motion of the Yakutat microplate with respect to North America and the Pacific. This analysis indicates a Yakutat-Pacific pole near the present southern triple junction of the microplate and predicts convergence to dextral-oblique convergence across the offshore Transition fault, onland structures adjacent to the Yakutat foreland, or both, with plate speeds increasing from 10 to 30 mm/yr from southeast to northwest. Reconstructions based on these poles show that NNW transport of the collided block into the NE trending subduction zone forced contraction of EW line elements as the collided block was driven into the subduction-transform transition. This suggests the collided block was constricted as it was driven into the transition. Constriction provides an explanation for observed vertical axis refolding of both earlier formed fold-thrust systems and the collisional suture at the top of the fold-thrust stack. We also suggest that this motion was partially accommodated by lateral extrusion of the western portion of the orogen toward the Aleutian trench. Important questions remain regarding which structures accommodated parts of this motion. The Transition fault may have accommodated much of the Yakutat-Pacific convergence on the basis of our analysis and previous interpretations of GPS-based geodetic data. Nonetheless, it is locally overlapped by up to 800 m of undeformed sediment, yet elsewhere shows evidence of young deformation. This contradiction could be produced if the overlapping sediments are too young to have accumulated significant deformation, or GPS motions may be deflected by transient strains or strains from poorly understood fault interactions. In either case, more data are needed to resolve the paradox.
The Effects of Rate of Change in Body Weight on Tissue Development and Meat Quality of Youthful Bulls

Forty-eight Angus bulls about 13 mo of age were used to study the effects of rate of change in live weight on muscle fiber, collagen and sensory characteristics of meat. Bulls were fed a finishing diet before treatment, and assigned to three treatments: negative, zero or positive weight gain for 30 or 60 d prior to slaughter. Treatments were imposed by adjusting feed intake. Seventy-two hours after slaughter, carcasses were observed for quality and yield grade characteristics and longissimus muscle samples were obtained for fiber type, collagen and sensory characterization. Carcass lean at the 12th rib interface became darker in color (P less than .01), softer (P less than .05), coarser textured (P less than .01) and more physiologically mature (P less than .01) when bulls were fed an additional 30 d. Increases in average daily gain improved lean texture (P less than .05), but had insignificant effects on lean color. Marbling scores and percentages of kidney and pelvic fat increased (P less than .01) with length of time fed. Quantities of carcass fat were reduced by reducing daily weight gains through restricting dietary intake. Neither length of time fed nor rate of change in live weight affected (P greater than .05) muscle fiber characteristics. Increased age of bulls tended (P greater than .05) to be associated with an increase in red muscle-fiber quantity. Length of time fed or rate of change in live weight did not affect collagen characteristics or tenderness of meat.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Eruptive vellus hair cysts: a systematic review.

We report the results of the first systematic review of the worldwide literature on eruptive vellus hair cysts (EVHC). It is likely that EVHC are less rare than it may appear from the scarcity of related publications in the literature. EVHC may be present at birth and may appear at any age, although they show a clear trend towards occurring during the first 3 decades of life. A strong clue to the heavy influence of genes on the occurrence of EVHC is provided by the numerous reports of families in whom two or more members were affected. EVHC lesions present clinically in a rather monomorphous fashion, i.e. round, dome-shaped, skincolored, asymptomatic, soft-tender papules with a smooth surface and grouped or disseminated in a symmetric pattern. EVHC may affect any cutaneous area, even if the upper part of the body and some distribution patterns are particularly frequent and recognizable, i.e. cephalic, upper trunk around the midline, upper limb including axillae, and proximal lower limb. Such a distribution is likely not random and seems to grossly overlap with that of pilosebaceous and apocrine units. Like clinical morphology, the histologic features of EVHC papules are rather monomorphous, indeed, the diagnostic hallmark being the presence of vellus hair shafts within the cystic space. Peculiar subgroups (familial, late-onset, unilesional, and associated with steatocystoma multiplex) are also identified and discussed. In conclusion, EVHC are basically a cosmetic concern to patients but represent a chronic and difficult-totreat condition. On the basis of our review, future studies are warranted, mainly concerning (i) further nosographic framing involving genetic and tissue analysis, (ii) implementation of non-invasive diagnostic procedures, and (iii) therapeutic trials of interventions shown to achieve some effectiveness.
The costs of Medicare patients in nursing homes in the United States: A multiple output analysis

Abstract The reluctance of nursing homes to admit Medicare beneficiaries is well recognised. A possible explanation is that under the current Medicare reimbursement policy, nursing homes do not have adequate incentives to increase admissions. This paper examines that hypothesis. Using a national sample of nursing homes, Medicare-specific marginal costs were estimated from a flexible form of the cost function. In most cases, Medicare-specific marginal costs were well above Medicare reimbursement rates. From an investigation of economies of scale and economies of scope, it appears that reimbursements may be sufficient only in nursing homes that specialise in Medicare beneficiaries. Unless Medicare reimbursements are brought in line with costs, access of Medicare beneficiaries to the nursing homes will remain limited.
Thermal Shock Behavior of Single Crystal Oxide Refractive Concentrators for High Temperatures Solar Thermal Propulsion

Single crystal oxides such as yttria-stabilized zirconia (Y2O3-ZrO2), yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Y3Al5O12, or YAG), magnesium oxide (MgO) and sapphire (Al2O3) have been considered as refractive secondary concentrator materials for high temperature solar propulsion applications. However, thermal mechanical reliability of the oxide components in severe thermal environments during space mission sun/shade transitions is of great concern. In this paper, critical mechanical properties of these oxide crystals are determined by the indentation technique. Thermal shock resistance of the oxides is evaluated using a high power CO, laser under high temperature-high thermal gradients. Thermal stress fracture behavior and failure mechanisms of these oxide materials are investigated under various temperature and heating conditions.
A long-distance record breaker

An instrument on board the Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting high above the Earth's atmosphere, has discovered the most distant galaxy ever recorded, at a redshift of 6.68. The observation of this galaxy at a time when the Universe was only 5% of its present age may help improve existing theories of galaxy formation.
No “Kindlin,” it’s all about HSC balance

![Figure][1] Insight from Paul Frenette Integrins are known to promote the quiescence of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), but the precise mechanism has been unclear. In this issue, [Ruppert et al.][2] use mice deficient in Kindlin-3 (K3), an intracellular protein that regulates
Meaningful Professional Development: A Personal Journey

This article shares a personal story of the evolution of professional development in practice in K--12 schools from three states over a 30 year period. The article begins with reference to general subject area life awarded teaching credentials and concludes with the addition of language addressing prekindergarten, specifically the inclusion of younger children in state educational priorities in the early drafts of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It suggests that as professional standards and credentials become more well-defined in the early childhood profession, the value and status of the early childhood profession as a whole will be raised.
Learning strategy is influenced by trait anxiety and early rearing conditions in prepubertal male, but not prepubertal female rats.

Abstract Rodents solve dual-solution tasks that require navigation to a goal by adopting either a hippocampus-dependent place strategy or a striatum-dependent stimulus – response strategy . A variety of factors, including biological sex and emotional status, influence the choice of learning strategy. In these experiments, we investigated the relationship between learning strategy and anxiety level in male and female rats prior to the onset of puberty, before the activational effects of gonadal hormones influence these processes. In the first experiment, prepubertal male rats categorized as high in trait anxiety at 26 days of age exhibited a bias toward stimulus–response strategy at 28 days of age, whereas age-matched females exhibited no preference in strategy regardless of anxiety level. In the second experiment, male and female rats were separated from their dams for either 15 or 180 min per day during the first 2 weeks of life and tested on a battery of anxiety and cognitive tasks between 25 and 29 days of age. Prolonged maternal separations for 180 min were associated with impaired spatial memory on a Y-maze task in both prepubertal males and females. Furthermore, prolonged maternal separations were linked to elevated anxiety and a bias for stimulus–response strategy in prepubertal males but not females. Alternatively, brief separations from dams for 15 min were associated with intact spatial memory, lower levels of anxiety, and no preference for either learning strategy in both sexes. These results provide evidence of sex-specific effects of trait anxiety and early maternal separation on the choice of learning strategy used by prepubertal rodents.
Mammalian iron metabolism and its control by iron regulatory proteins.

Cellular iron homeostasis is maintained by iron regulatory proteins 1 and 2 (IRP1 and IRP2). IRPs bind to iron-responsive elements (IREs) located in the untranslated regions of mRNAs encoding protein involved in iron uptake, storage, utilization and export. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in understanding how IRPs are regulated by iron-dependent and iron-independent mechanisms and the pathological consequences of IRP2 deficiency in mice. The identification of novel IREs involved in diverse cellular pathways has revealed that the IRP–IRE network extends to processes other than iron homeostasis. A mechanistic understanding of IRP regulation will likely yield important insights into the basis of disorders of iron metabolism. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cell Biology of Metals.
Profiling, Prediction, and Capping of Power Consumption in Consolidated Environments

Consolidation of workloads has emerged as a key mechanism to dampen the rapidly growing energy expenditure within enterprise-scale data centers. To gainfully utilize consolidation-based techniques, we must be able to characterize the power consumption of groups of co-located applications. Such characterization is crucial for effective prediction and enforcement of appropriate limits on power consumption-power budgets-within the data center. We identify two kinds of power budgets (i) an average budget to capture an upper bound on long-term energy consumption within that level and (ii) a sustained budget to capture any restrictions on sustained draw of current above a certain threshold. Using a simple measurement infrastructure, we derive power profiles-statistical descriptions of the power consumption of applications. Based on insights gained from detailed profiling of several applications both individual and consolidated-we develop models for predicting average and sustained power consumption of consolidated applications. We conduct an experimental evaluation of our techniques on a Xen-based server that consolidates applications drawn from a diverse pool. For a variety of consolidation scenarios, We are able to predict average power consumption within 5% error margin and sustained power within 10% error margin. Our sustained power prediction techniques allow us to predict close yet safe upper bounds on the sustained power consumption of consolidated applications.
Levels of Neurohypophyseal Peptides in the Rat during the First Month of Life. II. Response to Physiological Stimuli

Levels of vasopressin, oxytocin, and neurophysin were measured by RIA in the hypothalamus, pituitary, and plasma of infant rats (2-30 days old). At all ages, ip injection of a hypertonic solution of 5 g/100 ml NaCl produced a marked increase in levels of vasopressin and neurophpysin in plasma, up to 21 microU/ml and 51 ng/ml, respectively. After dehydration, there was a decrease of 26-38% in the levels of neurohypophyseal peptides in the pituitary. Depletion of neurohypophyseal peptides from the pituitary was greater after 24 h of dehydration in younger rats (26%) than in older rats (7%). Levels of vasopressin in plasma were less than 1.7 microU/ml after dehydration in younger rats but were greater in older rats. Immaturity of the neurohypophysis may contribute to the inability of newborn rats to withstand prolonged dehydration.
Clathrin Coat Disassembly by the Yeast Hsc70/Ssa1p and Auxilin/Swa2p Proteins Observed by Single-particle Burst Analysis Spectroscopy

The role of clathrin-coated vesicles in receptor-mediated endocytosis is conserved among eukaryotes, and many of the proteins required for clathrin coat assembly and disassembly have orthologs in yeast and mammals. In yeast, dozens of proteins have been identified as regulators of the multistep reaction required for endocytosis, including those that regulate disassembly of the clathrin coat. In mammalian systems, clathrin coat disassembly has been reconstituted using neuronal clathrin baskets mixed with the purified chaperone ATPase 70-kDa heat shock cognate (Hsc70), plus a clathrin-specific co-chaperone, such as the synaptic protein auxilin. Yet, despite previous characterization of the yeast Hsc70 ortholog, Ssa1p, and the auxilin-like ortholog, Swa2p, testing mechanistic models for disassembly of nonneuronal clathrin coats has been limited by the absence of a functional reconstitution assay. Here we use single-particle burst analysis spectroscopy, in combination with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, to follow the population dynamics of fluorescently tagged yeast clathrin baskets in the presence of purified Ssa1p and Swa2p. An advantage of this combined approach for mechanistic studies is the ability to measure, as a function of time, changes in the number and size of objects from a starting population to the reaction products. Our results indicate that Ssa1p and Swa2p cooperatively disassemble yeast clathrin baskets into fragments larger than the individual triskelia, suggesting that disassembly of clathrin-coated vesicles may proceed through a partially uncoated intermediate.
A prospective study of the reliability and convergent validity of three physical activity measures in a field research trial.

Abstract This investigation sought to determine the test-retest reliability and convergent validity of three commonly used physical activity measures. The Stanford Physical Activity Recall, the Caltrac Activity Monitor, and a daily physical activity log were administered to 45 subjects over a 3-week period. The results indicated high levels of test-retest reliability for the Stanford and the daily log; low test-retest reliability was obtained for the Caltrac. Convergent validity was also high between the Stanford and daily log but was low for both of these measures with the Caltrac: These results suggest that the Stanford Physical Activity Recall may be the self-report measure of choice for large studies due to its high reliability and convergent validity with a more time-consuming daily log, as well as its cost- and time-efficiency. Based on the results, it is recommended that the Caltrac activity sensors not be used for field studies of physical activity until the logistical problems of their use in clinical trials are solved.
Laser-based ultrasonics for QNDE applications

Surface and plate acoustic waves are commonly used to nondestructively investigate the near-surface region of a solid component for cracks and other defects. An attractive method of generation and detection of ultrasonic signals is laser based ultrasonics (LBU). Because it is non-contact, LBU can be implemented for inspection of limited access components using optical fibers, requiring only a small cross-sectional area for access. The work presented here employs optical fibers to remotely generate and detect ultrasound with energy focused into a selected narrow frequency band. The generation system uses a binary diffraction grating to separate the single laser beam into 10 equal but spatially separated laser beams which are focused into 10 individual fibers, thereby maximizing optical throughput to the component surface. In addition, a low noise fiberized Sagnac interferometer for ultrasonic signal measurement is discussed. The main advantage of this interferometer is improved signal-to-noise ratio, which has been achieved using an optical frequency shifting technique for biasing to quadrature and for elimination of parasitic interference between sampling beams and other unwanted beams in the interferometer. The Sagnac interferometer is truly path-matched, and as such is insensitive to low frequency thermal fluctuations and vibration noise. An acousto-optic modulator is included in the Sagnac loop, and serves a two-fold purpose: frequency shifting and quadrature biasing. Experimental results are presented for both the fiber-optic ultrasound generating array and the Sagnac interferometer.
Field and greenhouse investigations of the effect of increasing salt stress on the anatomy of Jaumea carnosa (Asteraceae), a salt marsh species.

The effects of salt stress on water balance, growth and anatomy of Jaumea carnosa (Asteraceae) were investigated under field conditions and in greenhouse hydroponic culture experiments. In salt marshes near Santa Barbara, California, soil salinities at root zone varied from 0.37-2.33 osmoles during a 1-yr study period. These salinities were used to plan hydroponic experiments in a nested experimental design of five salinity treatments. The plants were propagated from rhizome cuttings and were grown in aerated full-strength Hoagland's solution plus varying amounts of NaCl (range 0.0-2.0 osmoles). Optimum growth was recorded at 0.3 NaCl osmole and the limit of salt tolerance was between 1.2 and 2.0 osmoles. The range of salinity tolerance established for the species in hydroponic experiments was very similar to the range recorded in the root zone in field samples. Dry matter production was significantly lower in plants grown without NaCl than in those grown at 0.3 NaCl osmole. There were no significant differences in saturation water deficit between plants grown at 0.3 and 0.6 NaCl osmole, but the saturation water deficit in plants grown at 1.2 NaCl osmoles was significantly higher than that of plants grown at the lower salt concentrations. As salinity increased both in field conditions and in hydroponic experiments, measurements of anatomical features revealed changes in few of the structural features often associated with salinity stress. With increasing salt concentrations, decreases in internodal length, leaf area, cell size, and stomatal frequency were measured. Diameter of the internode and stele, and thickness of the leaf and stem cuticle showed no significant variations under conditions of increasing salinities. In field samples significant increases in salt concentrations at the root zone during the study did not result in significant increases in leaf succulence. Similarly there were no corresponding increases in leaf succulence with increasing salt concentrations in the hydroponic culture experiments.
Early debt extinguishment transactions and auditor materiality judgments: A bounded rationality perspective

Abstract Critics have characterized bond refundings and in-substance defeasances as managerial tactics that artificially inflate reported earnings during periods of rising interest rates, and various accounting and auditing pronouncements suggest that such transactions be subjected to more stringent materiality criteria. Extending work that interprets audit judgment formation as a cognitive phenomenon, this study examines hypothesized relationships between materiality judgments and the size and nature of these debt transactions, client earnings trend, and experience of the auditor. Proceeding beyond this cognitive orientation, the study then interprets judgment formation as a social-behavioral phenomenon by examining the applicability of the bounded rationality perspective to auditing. The results obtained from an experiment involving 212 practitioners at the ranks of partner, manager and senior suggest that the size of item, earnings trend and nature of transaction influence materiality judgments, as mitigated by an auditor's experience. Further, quantitative and qualitative, interview-based evidence suggests the usefulness of viewing audit judgment processes as boundedly rational, social-behavioral phenomena.
Increased production of 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid by placentae from pregnancies complicated by pregnancy-induced hypertension

Placentae from pregnancies complicated by pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) secrete significantly more 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-HETE) than gestation-matched controls. 15-HETE and its hydroperoxy precursor can inhibit prostacyclin biosynthesis and may thus contribute to the pathological sequelae of PIH.