cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Rhythmicity of mating and oviposition inCallosobruchus subinnotatus (Pic) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae)

Mating and oviposition behaviors were studied inCallosobruchus subinnotatus. Copulation was most frequent during the late scotophase, 2–3 h before onset of photophase. The females were less willing to mate during photophase, which increased the time to initiate mating while decreasing the duration of mating. Females exhibited increased movement prior to mating, resting immediately after mating, and remained stationary for 6 h when oviposition commenced. Multiple mating by both males and females affected the number of eggs laid, duration of mating, and uncoupling time at the end of mating. Females that mated two or three times laid more eggs than females that mated once or more than three times. Females that remainedin copula for less than 18 min showed greater readiness to remate than those that remainedin copula longer. There was a gradual decrease in the number of eggs females could lay with an increase in the number of previous matings by males.
Effects of sulfate concentration in the overlying water on sulfate reduction and sulfur storage in lake sediments

We investigated the effects of sulfate concentration on sulfate reduction and net S storage in lake sediments using34S as a tracer. The water overlying intact sediment cores from the hypolimnion of Mares Pond, MA, was replaced with two Na234SO4 solutions at either ambient (70 μM) or elevated (260 μM) sulfate concentrations. The δ34S of the added sulfate was 4974 ‰. Over two months, the net sulfate reduction rate in the ambient sulfate treatment was zero, while the net rate for the high sulfate treatment was 140 μmoles/m2/d. The water overlying the cores was kept under oxic conditions and the sediment received no fresh carbon inputs, thus the net rate reported may underestimate the in situ rate. Gross sulfate reduction rates calculated by isotope dilution were approximately 350 μmoles/m2/d for both treatments. While the calculation of gross sulfate reduction rates in intact sediment cores can be complicated by differential diffusion of34S and32S, isotopic fractionation, and the possible formation of ester sulfates, we believe these effects to be small. The results suggest that sulfate reduction is not strongly sulfate-limited in Mares Pond. The difference in net sulfate reduction rates between treatments resulted from a decrease in sulfide oxidation and suggests the importance of reoxidation in controlling net S storage in lake sediments. In both treatments the CRS and organic S fractions were measurably labelled in34S. Below the sediment surface, the CRS fraction was the more heavily labelled storage product for reduced sulfides.
CFD TECHNOLOGY FOR HYPERSONIC VEHICLE DESIGN

Abstract Because of the recent national interest in hypersonic aircraft, CFD technology with hypersonic application has been and is under intensive development at Boeing. A substantial CFD capability now exists that can be applied to a wide range of hypersonic flows, including those with finite-rate chemistry effects. The paper describes this hypersonic CFD development progress. It includes a review of the code features required for hypersonic application, the development approach, progress and a discussion of the limitations of the current physical modeling.
Reduced fertility associated with fatty liver in high-yielding dairy cows

In a group of 20 high-yielding dairy cows, 10 with mild and 10 with severe fatty liver one week after calving, there was an association between fatty liver and reduced fertility. The 10 cows with severe fatty liver had a significantly longer calving interval to the next lactation compared to the cows with mild fatty liver. In addition there was a significant positive correlation between the amount of fat in the liver and calving interval. The results support the concept that liver dysfunction at calving adversely affects subsequent fertility.
PERCEIVED AGE, SOCIAL INTEGRATION, AND DISABILITY: A CASE STUDY OF AGING WOMEN

In this study, we used a qualitative case study design influenced by interpretive interactionism to explore how disability influences the perception of age and the social integration of three aging women. This study begins an important step toward understanding disability, aging, and social integration by bringing the reader into our conversation with three unique but similar women. These women expressed a perception of age younger than their chronological age; negative events associated with disability did not sway the women to perceive themselves as older than their stated age. Social integration varied depending upon their ability to find an environment that supported their chosen identity. Future studies are needed to provide further understanding of how women integrate the changes associated with disability into their social spheres during late adulthood.
Sentinel-Lymphknoten-Chirurgie bei urologischen Malignomen

Die Sentinel-Lymphknoten-Chirurgie bei urologischen Malignomen ist – obwohl ihr Ursprung wesentlich auf den Erfahrungen von Cabanas Ende der 70er Jahre beim Peniskarzinom beruht – eine vergleichsweise junge Disziplin. Uber erste positive Erfahrungen mit Hilfe der Gammasonden-gesteuerten Lymphknotenchirurgie bei urologischen Malignomen wird seit Ende der 90er Jahre fur das Prostata- und Peniskarzinom und im neuen Jahrtausend auch fur das Harnblasenkarzinom und den Hodentumor berichtet.
Drosophila Tempura, a novel protein prenyltransferase α subunit, regulates notch signaling via Rab1 and Rab11.

Vesicular trafficking plays a key role in tuning the activity of Notch signaling. Here, we describe a novel and conserved Rab geranylgeranyltransferase (RabGGT)-α–like subunit that is required for Notch signaling-mediated lateral inhibition and cell fate determination of external sensory organs. This protein is encoded by tempura, and its loss affects the secretion of Scabrous and Delta, two proteins required for proper Notch signaling. We show that Tempura forms a heretofore uncharacterized RabGGT complex that geranylgeranylates Rab1 and Rab11. This geranylgeranylation is required for their proper subcellular localization. A partial dysfunction of Rab1 affects Scabrous and Delta in the secretory pathway. In addition, a partial loss Rab11 affects trafficking of Delta. In summary, Tempura functions as a new geranylgeranyltransferase that regulates the subcellular localization of Rab1 and Rab11, which in turn regulate trafficking of Scabrous and Delta, thereby affecting Notch signaling.
Bioaccumulation of sediment-associated fluoranthene in benthic copepods: uptake, elimination and biotransformation

Most polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) entering aquatic systems reside in sediments and in the storage lipids of the benthic biota. Massive amounts of PAHs reach estuarine systems and threaten their ecosystems. Copepods abound in the estuarine benthos, where they are an important component of food webs. The accumulation of sediment-associated [14C]fluoranthene was examined in adult females of two species of sediment-dwelling copepods, Schizopera knabeni and Coullana sp., collected from a Louisiana salt marsh. Accumulation was measured throughout a short- (24 h) and a long-term (10-day) exposure to concentrations in the sediment ranging from 0 to 1652 nmol (g dry wt.)−1. Fluoranthene apparent steady state body residue was reached very rapidly (<12 h) at all concentrations for both species. Lipid and organic-carbon-normalized bioaccumulation factors (BSAFs) calculated at day 1 were 0.57–0.80 for S. knabeni and 0.35–0.71 for Coullana sp. Fluoranthene body burden in female Coullana sp. changed dramatically during their reproductive cycle. A significant fraction of the fluoranthene residue was stored in the lipid-rich maturing eggs which were extruded into paired egg sacs. For S. knabeni, fluoranthene depuration occurred at similar rates in sediment and water (half life approximately 4.8 h), while it was faster in sediment than in water for Coullana sp. (half lives=4.2 and 7.4 h). Fluoranthene was biotransformed to polar compounds in both species. Metabolites accounted for approximately 12% of the 14C activity in the tissues following a 96-h sediment exposure in both species. Given that fluoranthene was taken up from spiked sediment very efficiently and reached steady-state levels in the tissues very rapidly, PAH-contaminated sediments may pose a risk for benthic copepods and their predators.
Comparative studies on native and acid-treated plasminogens.

Abstract Cohn 's Fraction III of human plasma was extracted with lysine containing saline, and the solution was freed from inhibitors, sodium chloride, and lysine by chromatography on a Sephadex column. The native plasminogen then obtained by freeze-drying was compared to Kline's plasminogen in regard to electrophoretic behavior, activity, and solubility. The peak of caseinolytic activity of the native plasminogen was determined at an enzyme:substrate ratio of 1:40 in mg, that of Kline's plasminogen at 1:200 to 1:300 in mg. While native plasminogen is easily soluble in the physiological pH range, Kline's plasminogen is insoluble in buffer solutions of about pH 7 . Neither preparation is a uniform protein as shown by electrophoresis. A partial transformation of native into Kline's plasminogen is brought about by a single acid treatment; for complete conversion, however, the whole procedure is necessary.
Negro Responses to Verbal and Non-Verbal Test Materials

(1942). Negro Responses to Verbal and Non-Verbal Test Materials. The Journal of Psychology: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 343-353.
Amodiaquine fails to cure chloroquine resistant Plasmodium falciparum in the Punjab.

Abstract We evaluated amodiaquine as a replacement drug for treating falciparum malaria in an area of Pakistani Punjab where chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum has recently emerged. Amodiaquine appeared to be 4 to 8 times more effective than chloroquine when P. falciparum isolates were tested in vitro. However, the recrudescence rate was greater than 50% after oral treatment with 20 mg/kg amodiaquine given over two successive days. This lack of therapeutic response from amodiaquine may have been due to selection of resistant parasites in the villages where the study was perfoormed through extensive use of chloroquine for presumptive malaria treatment during the preceding 18 months. We conclude that amodiaquine is not a suitable replacement for chloroquine for treating falciparum malaria in our study area despite in vitro sensitivity data suggesting that it would be efficacious. Baseline in vitro sensitivity to mefloquine is also reported.
Controlling Polymer-Surface Interactions with Random Copolymer Brushes

A simple technique for precisely controlling the interfacial energies and wetting behavior of polymers in contact with solid surfaces is described. End-functionalized statistical random copolymers of styrene and methylmethacrylate were synthesized, with the styrene fraction f varying from 0 to 1, and were end-grafted onto silicon substrates to create random copolymer brushes about 5 nanometers thick. For f < 0.7, polystyrene (PS) films (20 nanometers thick) rapidly dewet from the brushes when heated well above the glass transition temperature. The contact angle of the resulting polymer droplets increased monotonically with decreasing f . Similar behavior was observed for poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) films but with an opposite dependence on f . The interfacial energies of the random copolymer brushes with PS and PMMA were equal when f was about 0.6. Thus, precise control of the relative surface affinities of PS and PMMA was possible, demonstrating a way to manipulate polymer-surface interactions.
The biodegradability of polyester blends.

Abstract Blends of poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly ( l -lactic acid) (PLLA) with polyglycolic acid-co- l -lactic acid (PGLA) were prepared by three methods: compression moulding, coprecipitation and solvent evaporation of a methylene chloride-in-water emulsion of the polymers. The rates of hydrolytic chain scission of each component of the blends were determined by deconvolution of GPC traces of samples maintained in phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, 37°C, for up to 3000 h. The observed rates were dependent on the method of blending. For compression moulded blends, the rate of chain scission of PGLA was decreased and that of PCL and PLLA increased. A corresponding delay in the onset of weight loss was also observed. There was no evidence of blend miscibility.
Dynamics of herbivory in Belizean mangal

We report long-term observations on leaf herbivory in the mangroves Rhizophora mangle and Avicennia germinans , on the Placencia Peninsula of Belize. We labelled and traced leaves and recorded the amount of damage appearing over a period of 310 days. Herbivores had damaged 1–4% of total mean leaf area within the first 10 days, but damage rates levelled off thereafter, to a final total of 4–10% damage. Herbivores did not concentrate on leaves of younger age classes. Rhizophora mangle growing in the high tidal zone (HHW) exhibited the highest initial and total attack rates at all but the final sampling dates. We also documented the dynamics of injury expansion and necrosis following artificial injury to seedling and tree leaves. Artificial holes in leaves were associated with higher subsequent rates of herbivory that varied among leaf age classes, and particular damage types were more prevalent in previously injured leaves. Artificial holes expanded significantly more in young leaves of both species. Holes in young leaves of both species expanded by up to 45.1% in area over 50 days, consistent with a similar study in Australia. Substantial necrotic areas developed around the injury site; a secondary effect of damage not often considered in herbivory studies. We discuss the implications of hole expansion and necrosis in estimating error in herbivory measurements. Temporally dynamic studies of herbivory are especially needed in tropical systems that show non-deciduous phenologies and long-lived leaves.
David Duke and Black Threat: An Old Hypothesis Revisited

This analysis employs the 1990 U.S. Senate race between David Duke and Senator Bennett Johnston in Louisiana as an opportunity to reexamine the effects of racial threat on the political behavior of whites in the "new" South. Using the parish (county) as the unit of analysis we conduct a regression analysis of the effects of percent black and other control variables on white mobilization for Duke. Results indicate that the threat factor continues to be operative in the South: Despite controls for socioeconomic status, percent black is positively linked to levels of white support for Duke. However, given the current social and economic trends in the region, we conclude that the dynamic of racial threat is no longer capable of playing the central role in southern politics that it once did.
Lifshitz-van der Waals and Lewis Acid-Base Approach for Analyzing Surface Energy of Molecularly Thin Lubricant Films

The dispersive and polar components of surface energy, which are typically obtained from the two-liquid geometric method through contact angle measurement, have been extensively used to study the interfacial properties of perfluoropolyether (PFPE) lubricated media used in hard disk drive industry. In this paper, an alternative approach, Lifshitz-van der Waals and Lewis acid-base (LW/AB) theory, which provides additional information on the nature of lubricant/overcoat interaction, has been applied to the study of the surface energy of PFPE-coated media. Here, the surface energy is decomposed into Lifshitz-van der Waals (LW), Lewis acid, and Lewis base components. The results of Lewis acid and Lewis base components of surface energy suggest that the bonding of functional PFPEs with a carbon overcoat is a Lewis acid-base interaction; the overcoat is an electron donor and functional PFPEs are electron acceptors. It was also found that the LW surface energy has a sequence of Ztetraol<Zdol<AM2001<A20H<Z03 for films with the same thickness, which is in the reverse sequence as found in the bonded thickness of these PFPEs. A molecular-level bonding mechanism is proposed to explain the experimental results
Molecular biology of breast cancer metastasis: Inflammatory breast cancer: clinical syndrome and molecular determinants

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an aggressive form of locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) that effects approximately 5% of women with breast cancer annually in the USA. It is a clinically and pathologically distinct form of LABC that is particularly fast growing, invasive, and angiogenic. Nearly all women have lymph node involvement at the time of diagnosis, and approximately 36% have gross distant metastases. Despite recent advances in multimodality treatments, the prognosis of patients with IBC is poor, with a median disease-free survival of less than 2.5 years. Recent work on the genetic determinants that underlie the IBC phenotype has led to the identification of genes that are involved in the development and progression of this disease. This work has been aided by the establishment of primary human cell lines and animal models. These advances suggest novel targets for future interventions in the diagnosis and treatment of IBC.
Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Challenges in Managing Philanthropic Support for Public Services

Collaborations between nonprofit and public sector organizations have become an increasingly important phenomenon in state and local public service delivery since the publication of the Winter Commission report in 1993. This article focuses on one of the less studied types of public–nonprofit collaborations, those in which philanthropic support from nonprofit organizations supplements the resources and activities of public agencies. Drawing on the case of “nonprofit-as-supplement collaborations” that support park services in New York City, this article documents the benefits and drawbacks associated with such collaborations. While they can provide increased resources and encourage management innovations, they also can lead to inequities in the availability and quality of services, the preponderance of particularistic goals over the broader public interest, and the politicization of previously bureaucratic decision making. The authors offer two strategies for public managers to realize more effectively the benefits yet mitigate the shortcomings of these collaborations.
Identifying sources of Operating System Jitter through fine-grained kernel instrumentation

Understanding the behavior and impact of various sources of operating system jitter (OS jitter) is important not only for tuning a system for HPC applications, but also for the ongoing efforts to create light-weight versions of commercial operating systems such as Linux, that can be used on compute nodes of large scale HPC systems. In this paper, we present a tool that helps in identifying sources of OS Jitter in a commodity operating system such as Linux and measures the impact of OS Jitter through fine grained kernel instrumentation. Our methodology comprises of running a user-level micro-benchmark and measuring the latencies experienced by the benchmark. We then associate each latency to operating system daemons and interrupts using data obtained from kernel instrumentation. We present experimental results that help identify the biggest contributors to the total OS Jitter perceived by an application on a commodity operating system such as Linux. Our results revealed that while 63% of the total jitter comes from timer interrupts, the rest comes from various system daemons and interrupts, most of which can be easily eliminated. The tool presented in this paper can also be used to tune ldquoout of the boxrdquo commodity operating systems as well as to detect new sources of operating system jitter that get introduced as software get installed and upgraded on a tuned system.
Relative Leader–Member Exchange Within Team Contexts: How and when Social Comparison Impacts Individual Effectiveness

A multilevel model was developed to examine how and when a focal individual's leader–member exchange (LMX) relative to the LMXs of coworkers within the team (relative LMX, or RLMX) influences individual in-role performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and job satisfaction. Results, based on a sample of 275 leader–member dyads within 35 teams of a beverage company, largely supported the hypotheses. Specifically, using multilevel polynomial regression analyses, the results showed that self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between RLMX and in-role performance and job satisfaction, and fully mediated the relationship between RLMX and OCB. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that team identification attenuated RLMX's direct effect on self-efficacy, and indirect effects on in-role performance and OCB and team supportive behavior attenuated RLMX's direct effect on self-efficacy and indirect effect on in-role performance.
Health-related quality of life after liver transplantation for adult recipients

1. Pretransplantation health-related quality of life scores are affected by the etiology of liver cirrhosis, with hepatocellular and cholestatic etiologies having higher health-related quality of life scores than alcohol or viral hepatitis etiologies. 2. Posttransplantation health-related quality of life scores are not affected by the etiology of the original liver cirrhosis, but transplant recipient scores continue to remain significantly lower than those of healthy patient controls. 3. During the first 6 months after liver transplantation, the majority of physical and mental components of health-related quality of life scores improve, but these increases are not sustained in the long term. 4. At 1 year after liver transplantation, emotional and mental health-related quality of life scores begin to decrease. 5. During postoperative years 1 to 5, episodes of acute cellular rejection and patient age over 60 years decrease physical function and overall general health-related quality of life scores. 6. Beyond 5 years after orthotopic liver transplantation, age over 60, osteoporosis, and episodes of chronic rejection decrease health-related quality of life scores through decreases in the physical function and bodily pain domains. 7. Hepatitis C as an indication for liver transplantation is an independent factor in decreasing posttransplantation health-related quality of life scores. 8. Further studies are necessary that include a complete evaluation of the effects of gender, socioeconomic status, education, and ethnicity in order to better understand factors influencing post-liver transplantation health-related quality of life scores. 9. The development of a health-related quality of life assessment tool specific to transplantation could help us to more accurately assess factors (such as immunosuppression) that alter posttransplantation health-related quality of life.
Tu1535 New Toys or Old? Comparing Approaches to EUS-Guided Trans-Enteric Stent Placement Into Symptomatic Walled-off Pancreatic Necrosis

Patients who had gastric stromal tumor diagnosed by EUS before surgical resection from 1999 to 2007 were enrolled. The EUS images, procedure records and tissue histopathology were reviewed. All of them were positive for C-kit. Results: 57 male and 53 female patients were enrolled. 67% of the target population with lesions were found at gastric body. Lesion sizes range from 6.3mm to 150mm (mean SD : 39.73 22.49 mm). There is 19 patients (17.3%) falling into high risk group;12 patients (10.7%) in intermediate risk group; and 79 patients (71.8%) in low/very low group. Most lesions are between 2 5 cm (67 patients, 60.9%). 30 patients had cystic change of the lesion (27.3%). 6 patients had calcification in the lesion (5.5%) 27 patients (24.5%) had surface ulceration of endoscopic view. Most lesions had mitosis less than 5/50 HPF. In our study, we found that high risk GIST are highly associated to lesion size (P 0.0001); lesion with cystic change (P 0.015) and surface ulceration (P 0.036) other than lesion with calcification (P 0.667). We also found that mitosis is regarded to lesion size (P 0.0001) rather than other parameters. In our study, we found that age is not a factor for predicting malignancy potential(P 0.316). Conclusions: Our preliminary results support that gastric GIST with large size, cystic change and surface ulceration should need more aggressive management.
Hub facility location with fixed costs

In thep-hub location model, it is usual to ignore the fixed costs of opening facilities. In contrast, the simple plant location problem includes fixed facility costs and thereby makes thenumber of facilities one of the decision variables. This paper introduces fixed facility costs into a hub location model, thereby making the number of hubs a decision variable. As an initial effort toward solving the hub model with fixed costs, a two-step procedure is devised.Step 1 involves an estimate of a good upper bound on the solution, using heuristics.Step 2 involves the computation of a tight lower bound on the solution; as a by-product, an improvement of the best solution from Step 1 may be found. Computational results are discussed for sample problems.
Super Resolution Approaches for Photometrically Diverse Image Sequences

Super resolution (SR) is a well-known technique to increase the quality of an image using multiple overlapping pictures of a scene. SR requires accurate registration of the images, both geometrically and photometrically. Most of the SR articles in the literature have considered geometric registration only, assuming that images are captured under the same photometric conditions. This is not necessarily true as external illumination conditions and/or camera parameters (such as exposure time, aperture size and white balancing) may vary for different input images. Therefore, photometric modeling is a necessary task for super resolution. In this paper, we investigate super-resolution image reconstruction when there is photometric variation among input images.
Association of Vitiligo and Alopecia Areata With Atopic Dermatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Importance Previous studies found conflicting results as to whether atopic dermatitis (AD) is increased in patients with vitiligo and alopecia areata (AA). Objective To compare the prevalence of AD between patients with either vitiligo or AA and those without these disorders by performing a meta-analysis of observational studies. Data Sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and a manual search of 12 additional journals between 1946 and April 5, 2014. Study Selection Observational studies published in any language that compared the prevalence of AD among patients with and without either vitiligo or AA. Data Extraction and Synthesis Data were extracted by 2 independent investigators. Quality of evidence was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and Methodological Evaluation of Observational Research checklist. A meta-analysis of studies assessing AD, vitiligo, and/or AA was performed using a fixed-effects model to estimate pooled odds ratios (ORs). Subset analyses were performed for childhood vs adult-onset vitiligo and alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis vs patchy alopecia. Main Outcomes and Measures Self-reported and/or physician-diagnosed AD, vitiligo, and AA. Results In total, 16 studies of vitiligo and 17 studies of AA were included in the review. In the pooled analysis of the studies that included control patients without vitiligo (n = 2) and control patients without AA (n = 3), patients with vitiligo (Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel OR, 7.82; 95% CI, 3.06-20.00, P P P P = .04). Conclusions and Relevance Patients with either vitiligo, especially early-onset disease, or AA, especially alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis, have significantly increased risk for AD.
Phylogeny, Biogeography, and Infrageneric Classification of Harrisia (Cactaceae)

The genus Harrisia (Cactaceae) comprises 20 species native to South America and the Caribbean. To investigate relationships within the genus, plastid and nuclear markers were sequenced from Harrisia and related genera. Phylogenetic analyses recover a monophy- letic Harrisia that can be divided into two subgenera, four sections, and two series. Harrisia likely originated in the Andes and later dispersed into Brazil before further speciation in the Gran Chaco or the Caribbean. A key is given for the taxonomic classifications proposed for Harrisia. New combinations are H. subg. Eriocereus and H. sect. Roseocereus. New taxonomic names are H. sect. Adscendens and H. ser. Earlei.
Differentiation of neuroblastoma cells in culture.

Summary 1. An elevation of the intracellular level of cyclic AMP in neuroblastoma cells by prostaglandin E1 by an inhibitor of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase, or by analogues of cyclic AMP irreversibly induces many differentiated functions which are characteristic of mature neurones. These include formation of long neurites, increase in size of soma and nucleus associated with a rise in total RNA and protein contents, increase in activities of specific neural enzymes, loss of malignancy, increase in sensitivity of adenylate cyclase to catecholamines and blockade of cells in G1-stage of the cell cycle. 2. Other agents, including serum-free medium, X-irradiation, 6-thioguanine, cytosine arabinoside, methotrexate, 5-bromodeoxyuridine, nerve growth factor, glial extract and hypertonic medium can induce some of the differentiated functions which are induced by high intracellular cyclic AMP. 3. Morphological differentiation and differentiated biochemical functions can each be expressed in the absence of the other. 4. Many of the responses of normal embryonic nerve cells to cyclic AMP are similar to those of neuroblastoma cells. 5. A working hypothesis for the malignancy of nerve cells has been proposed. This states that an abnormal regulation of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activity which allows the expression of high amounts of this enzyme in neuroblastoma cells, may be one of the early lesions during a malignant transformation of nerve cells. 6. A new experimental therapeutic model for the treatment of neuroblastoma is proposed. This involves the administration of sodium butyrate followed by the injection of l-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-dopa) and prostaglandin E1 in the presence of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor. 7. Recent studies have elucidated the control mechanisms of some differentiated functions in neuroblastoma cells. Cyclic AMP may become an important biological tool to probe the regulation and expression of many other differentiated functions in these cells. In addition to neuroblastoma cells, other neuronal culture systems are now available for investigating the problems of differentiation and maturation in nerve cells.
Incumbency, National Conditions, and the 2008 Presidential Election

At the time of this writing (early August, 2008), the political landscape would appear to bode well for Barack Obama and spell almost certain disaster for John McCain. With presidential approval hovering in the high-20 and low-30% range for more than a year, and levels of economic satisfaction bottoming out, it “should” be a terrible year for the Republican Party in general and the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, in particular, at least if the retrospective model holds. One factor that could mitigate the impact of negative retrospections, however, is that George W. Bush himself is not on the ballot to absorb the full impact of the national angst; in fact, for the first time since 1952, neither the president nor vice president is on the ballot.
Innate immune defects correlate with failure of antibody responses to H1N1/09 vaccine in HIV-infected patients

Background Mechanisms underlying the failure of influenza vaccine–induced antibody responses in HIV-infected persons are poorly understood. Objective To investigate innate immune factors regulating B-cell function in HIV-infected persons and to correlate them with serologic responses to H1N1/09 vaccine. Methods We evaluated immunologic characteristics of 17 HIV-infected patients and 8 healthy controls (HCs) at 0, 7, and 28 days (designated T0, T1, and T2) following a single 15-μg dose of nonadjuvanted H1N1/09 influenza vaccine by using flow cytometry, ELISpot, and ELISA. All HCs and 9 patients (53%) seroconverted with >1:40 hemagglutination inhibition antibody titer at T2. Results In vaccine responders and HCs, serum levels of BAFF (B cell–activating factor) and APRIL (a proliferation-inducing ligand) increased from T0 to T2 in conjunction with increases in frequencies of memory B cells. Concurrently, receptors for these factors showed changes, with increases in expression of TACI (transmembrane activator and calcium modulator and cyclophilin ligand interactor) and decreases in BAFF receptor in memory B cells. IL-2 secreting cells and IgG antibody-secreting cells increased at T2 in vaccine responders and HCs in ex vivo H1N1 antigen–stimulated cultures. These immunologic responses were not evident at T1 and were deficient in vaccine nonresponder patients at T2. At T0, vaccine nonresponders had lower frequencies of BAFF receptor and TACI-expressing memory B cells than did responders. Conclusion Impaired memory B-cell responses, deficiencies in serum BAFF and APRIL, and alterations in their receptors on B cells were associated with failure of H1N1/09 influenza vaccine responses among virologically controlled HIV-infected patients.
Legends on the net: an examination of computer-mediated communication as a locus of oral culture

Building upon work that suggests an oral cultural dimension to cyberspace within real-time chat modes, this article supports that contention by examining traditional oral folklore as it exists within the textual context of the online environment. Specifically, this study is a formal analysis of online discussion groups devoted to the perpetuation and analysis of a particular type of oral folklore - urban legends - and the cultural significance of their existence in the online realm. As mediated human communication becomes more and more non-linear, decentralized, and rooted in multimedia, the distinction between orality and literacy becomes less evident and less important. The proliferation of urban legends online demonstrates the idea that cyberspace can serve as a locus for a primary oral culture and its attendant humanity and sociability in a simultaneously textual environment.
Genetics of Naphthalene Catabolism in Pseudomonads

In pseudomonads, naphthalene is catabolized in a series of reactions to salicylic acid, which is further degraded via the catechol meta-cleavage, ortho-cleavage, or gentisic acid pathway to Krebs cycle intermediates. The naphthalene catabolic genes have been located on self-transmissible plasmids, in most cases, and implicated to have chromosomal locations in other cases. The best-studied naphthalene catabolic plasmid is NAH7. It carries two operons, one of which enables the host to utilize naphthalene and the other to utilize salicylate as a carbon and energy source. The product of another NAH7 gene, nahR, is required to turn on both operons in the presence of the inducer, salicylate. Several different naphthalene and salicylate catabolic plasmids have been shown to share sequence homology with NAH7. These plasmids can undergo structural alterations involving insertions and deletions during conjugations and changes in nutritional conditions. Available evidence suggests that salicylate catabolic plasmids can form from the naphthalene catabolic plasmids by structural alterations of the plasmid DNA. The gene organization and regulation, as well as the genetic instability of the naphthalene catabolic plasmids, are reminiscent of the TOL plasmids and suggest that the naphthalene catabolic plasmids and other catabolic plasmids may have evolved in a short period of time by acquiring and modifying preevolved gene clusters from host chromosomes or other plasmids.
High-efficiency solar energy conversion through flux concentration and spectrum splitting

One technique that has been studied to improve the performance and reduce the cost of solar cell power supplies is to concentrate the solar flux, which increases the conversion efficiency slightly, and greatly reduces the necessary solar cell area, Another is to split the solar spectrum into bands and convert the energy in each band by a cell optimized for that band. Both of these techniques have practical difficulties, and it has not been established that either would be superior to the present conventional way of using solar cells. The combination of these two techniques has apparently not been studied. It is suggested that the combination would preserve the separate advantages of each technique and at the same time eliminate the worst of their practical difficulties.
Electoral Accountability for State Legislative Roll Calls and Ideological Representation

Theories of electoral accountability predict that legislators will receive fewer votes if they fail to represent their districts. To determine whether this prediction applies to state legislators, I conduct two analyses that evaluate the extent to which voters sanction legislators who cast unpopular roll-call votes or provide poor ideological representation. Neither analysis, however, produces compelling evidence that elections hold most state legislators accountable. I discover that legislators do not face meaningful electoral consequences for their ideological representation, particularly in areas where legislators receive less media attention, have larger staffs, and represent more partisan districts. In a study of individual roll-call votes across 11 states, I furthermore find a weak relationship between legislators’ roll-call positions and election outcomes with voters rewarding or punishing legislators for only 4 of 30 examined roll calls. Thus, while state legislators wield considerable policymaking power, elections do not appear to hold many legislators accountable for their lawmaking.
Teaching About Disability in Psychology An Analysis of Disability Curricula in U.S. Undergraduate Psychology Programs

Historically, psychology education about disability focused narrowly on psychiatric and cognitive disabilities. Furthermore, disability tends to be viewed from the medical model, rather than the so...
Messenger RNA decay of macrophage colony-stimulating factor in human ovarian carcinomas in vitro

Objective Recently, the importance of the macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) and its receptor (encoded by the c-fms proto-oncogene) in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer has been recognized. Overexpression of CSF-1 denotes poor prognosis. Macrophage colony-stimulating factor may be one of a group of inflammatory cytokines, whose 3' untranslated region (UTR) contains AU-rich stretches and whose expression may be largely dependent on mRNA decay. The purposes of this study were to investigate the effect of protein synthesis inhibition on CSF-1 transcript expression, to help determine whether there is a role for labile intermediary proteins in the regulation of CSF-1 expression, and to explore the transcriptional or post-transcriptional mechanisms that could underlie such overexpression of CSF-1 transcripts by protein synthesis inhibitors. Although regulation of CSF-1 gene expression has been investigated in hematopoietic cells, such studies have not been carried out in any epithelial cancer. Methods Northern blot analyses for CSF-1 expression were performed on total cellular RNA extracted from primary and established ovarian cancer cell lines in the absence or presence of proteins synthesis inhibitors with different modes of action. The probe for the AU-rich exon 10 of CSF-1 was prepared by amplification of the terminal 143 bp of the 3' UTR of human CSF-1 by polymerase chain reaction. Transcription rates were assessed in the presence or absence of cycloheximide (CH) in nuclei of ovarian cancer cells by run-off analyses. The effect of CH on CSF-1 mRNA half-life was measured by actinomycin D chase experiments in SKOV3 cells. Results We demonstrate that CSF-1 mRNA was expressed by all of a panel of primary and established ovarian cancer cell lines. There are at least three CSF-1 transcripts expressed by ovarian cancer cells; we demonstrate that the 4.2-kb CSF-1 transcript contains exon-6 sequences, which are spliced from the 3.4- and 1.9-kb transcripts, whereas both the 4.2- and 3.4-kb CSF-1 transcripts contain the 3' AU-rich exon 10. Treatment with several different protein synthesis inhibitors resulted in marked overexpression of CSF-1 transcript levels, suggesting a potential role for labile proteins in the regulation of CSF-1 expression. The predominant effect of CH is on the two CSF-1 transcripts that contain exon 10. Although CH does not change the rate of CSF-1 gene transcription, measurement of CSF-1 mRNA stability reveals a prolongation of CSF-1 transcript half-life by CH from 4.5 hours to significantly greater than 6 hours in ovarian cancer cells. Conclusions Augmented CSF-1 transcript stability underlies the marked overexpression of CSF-1 seen with protein synthesis inhibitors. Our results suggest the involvement of a labile regulatory protein that contributes to CSF-1 mRNA decay in ovarian cancer cells. Our data suggest further that exon 10 (not the spliced exon-6 sequences) of the CSF-1 transcript may contain an instability determinant.
A Brief History of the Field of National Security Law

A review of the past 50 years of national security law, this book captures the history, growth, and development of the Committee, the nation, and the world in this ever-changing area of the law. Spanning the Cold War through the Sept. 11, 2011 attacks, this anthology records the past and present. The book provides insight and guidance to U.S. national security law practitioners, policymakers, the bar and the American public about unforeseen threats and opportunities, and brings insight into how debates from past history can influence our future.
The Metallicity of Low-Redshift Lyα Forest Clouds

?????Using archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Faint Object Spectrograph spectra of 15 quasars, we measure an average metallicity for Ly? forest absorption clouds between redshifts of 0.3 and 0.8. A composite spectrum of all Ly? systems shows an average rest equivalent width of ~0.06 ? for C IV ?1548.20. This is a factor of 10 larger than the value found by Lu at redshifts between 1.7?3.0 using spectra with comparable resolution. Our results show that [C/H] ~ -1.6 ? 0.1 at z ~ 0.5 if C+3 is the dominant form of carbon and line clustering and extremely narrow or wide lines do not significantly affect our column density estimates. Allowing for these effects, we find [C/H] -1.9. If line clustering is comparable in the low- and high-redshift forest, we estimate [C/H] -1.3. Our derived [C/H] is an order of magnitude larger than values derived at z ~ 2.4. It is unlikely that this difference is solely the result of ionization or line-clustering differences. We conclude that the average metallicity has increased either because of a new population of Ly? absorbers at low redshift and/or because of star formation directly or indirectly enhancing the metals in the Ly? clouds. Using 97 Ly? lines with rest equivalent widths greater 0.32 ?, we confirm the results of previous surveys that show that the number density of absorbers at z 1.6.
A Note on Long-Run Models of Economic Growth

This technical note prepares students to use and analyze economic models of long-run growth. The technical note is particularly useful in introduction the Solow Neoclassical growth model for discussing growth in emerging markets and developed economies.
On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics

Stalin was the unchallenged dictator of the Soviet Union for so long that most historians have dismissed the officials surrounding him as mere yes-men and political window dressing.On Stalin's Team overturns this view, revealing that behind Stalin was a group of loyal men who formed a remarkably effective team with him from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. Drawing on extensive original research, Sheila Fitzpatrick provides the first in-depth account of this inner circle and their families. She vividly describes how these dedicated comrades-in-arms not only worked closely with Stalin, but also constituted his social circle. Stalin's team included the wily security chief Beria; Andreev, who traveled to provincial purges while listening to Beethoven on a portable gramophone; and Khrushchev, who finally disbanded the team four years after Stalin's death. Taking readers from the cataclysms of the Great Purges and World War II to the paranoia of Stalin's final years,On Stalin's Team paints an entirely new picture of Stalin within his milieu-one that transforms our understanding of how the Soviet Union was ruled during much of its existence.
Molecular, cellular, and plant mechanisms of ABA control of stomatal aperture size

The physical basis for stomatal opening is simple: the flanking pair of guard cells accumulate solutes, notably K+ salts (Outlaw, 1983; Zeiger, 1983). In response, the cells take up water osmotically and swell, which enlarges the pore between them. Closing is the reverse: cellular solutes dissipate. The motor that drives solute fluctuations is the H+-extruding ATPase, an electrogenic pump (stomatal reviews: MacRobbie, 1988; Raschke et al.1988; Mansfield et al. 1990; general reviews: Serrano,1989; Briskin, 1990). Understanding how this pump and the associated secondary processes are regulated is of paramount importance to the plant’s physiology, as water is usually the most limiting resource for terrestrial plants. It will become apparent that this regulation is multifaceted; some signals are processed by the guard cells themselves, whereas others are involved in the integration, overall, of the plant’s responses to the environment.
Processing of multilayer microcrystalline and nanocrystalline diamond thin films using Ar-rich microwave plasmas

This article lays the foundation for the development of microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition process conditions for synthesizing multilayered microcrystalline and nanocrystalline diamond (MCD and NCD) thin films. The effects of gas composition and the diamond seeding medium are correlated with the film morphology and diamond phase purity. Results of process optimization experiments using single-layer diamond deposition indicate that for high gas-phase Ar content (≥90%) the film quality improves with reduced Ar content and with increasing thickness reaching a plateau above a thickness of ∼2 μm. Multilayer diamond deposition experiments with two different seeding media (25 nm and 1 μm) clearly show that it is feasible to selectively synthesize alternating MCD (60% Ar) and NCD (95% Ar) layers with good control of film quality and morphology, thereby setting the stage for development of multilayered diamond thin films with tailored properties for thermal management applications.