cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Distinct Time-Resolved Roles for Two Catabolite-Sensing Pathways during Streptococcus pyogenes Infection

Many Gram-positive pathogens link the expression of virulence genes to the presence of carbon source substrates using overlapping pathways for global control of carbon catabolite regulation. However, how these pathways are integrated to control the behavior of the transcriptome in time- and compartment-specific patterns is typically not well understood. In the present study, global transcriptome profiling was used to determine the extent to which glucose alters gene expression in Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus) and the contributions of the CcpA and LacD.1 catabolite control pathways to the regulation of this response in vitro. This analysis revealed that the expression of as many as 15% of the genes examined was regulated and that CcpA and LacD.1 together contribute to the regulation of 60% of this subset. However, numerous patterns were observed, including both CcpA- and LacD.1-specific and independent regulation, coregulation, and regulation of genes by these pathways independently of glucose. In addition, CcpA and LacD.1 had antagonistic effects on most coregulated genes. To resolve the roles of these regulators during infection, the expression of selected transcripts representative of different regulatory patterns was examined in a murine model of soft tissue infection. This revealed distinct patterns of misregulation with respect to time in CcpA− versus LacD.1− mutants. Taken together, these data support an important role for carbohydrate in the regulation of the transcriptome in tissue and suggest that the CcpA and LacD.1 pathways are organized to function at different times during the course of an infection.
Assessing trust among IS personnel: a view of general trust, trust of management and inter-organizational trust

Trust is a central component in most relationships and a vital component in business transactions. This paper evaluates several trust levels for IS personnel. The general trust of people, trust of management and supervisors, and inter-organizational trust are evaluated. The study surveyed 168 information systems workers. The results indicate a low level of trust by information systems personnel in all aspects of trust. These results should be of notice for management in IS organizations because they must understand the perceptions of their employees as they conduct business both internally in their organization and in dealing with potential customers or clients.
Evaluation of pyridine-3-carboxylic acid as a drug carrier by utilizing multivariate methods, structure property correlations, and pattern recognition techniques.

Multivariate methods and molecular properties are utilized to show similarity of pyridine-3-carboxylic acid (nicotinic acid) to seven drugs that penetrate the central nervous system. Multivariate methods applied include cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, correspondence analysis, self organizing tree algorithm (SOTA) analysis, factor analysis, and principal component analysis. Numerical values of properties for nicotinic acid showed very high correlation with the values from dihydropyridine, barbital, metharbital, phenobarbital, methohexital, 4-aminohex-5-enoic acid, and (4-chlorophenyl)(5-fluoro-2-hydroxyphenyl)methanone. Descriptive statistics of property values for these drugs showed overlapping numerical values for partition coefficients, index of refraction, and nOnN. Principal component analysis and factor analysis of molecular properties showed that nicotinic acid is highly similar to dihydropyridine as well as to other members of this group of drugs. Applying cluster analysis utilizing standa...
Maternal IQ, the home environment, and child IQ in low birthweight, premature children.

The study examined the extent to which aspects of the home environment play a mediating role in the relation between maternal and child IQ. The procedure of establishing mediation developed by Baron and Kenny was followed using 608 low birthweight, premature infants from eight different sites. Regression analyses indicated that both maternal IQ and Infant/ Toddler HOME scores obtained at 12 months made significant contributions to 3 year child IQ scores. Maternal IQ and Early Childhood HOME scores obtained at 36 months also both made significant contributions to 3 year child IQ scores. There was a significant "indirect" or mediated affect associated with HOME scores at both time points. Structural equation models were used to confirm information developed in the regression analyses. The fit of the model was good for the total sample and for a sample of children and mothers whose IQs were both greater than 70. A stronger indirect effect was noted at three years as compared to one year.
Effect of interphase layers on the overall elastic and conductive properties of matrix composites. Applications to nanosize inclusion

For a composite with thin interface layers between inclusions and the matrix, the effective elastic properties and the effective conductivity (thermal or electric) are almost unaffected by the layers, provided (1) the layer thickness is much smaller than the inclusion sizes and (2) the contrast between the properties of the layers and either of the phases is not overly high. For composites with nanoparticles, the interface thickness may be comparable to the particle sizes. Therefore, the effect of interfaces on the overall properties may be substantial. The controlling parameters are (1) the ratio of the interface thickness to particle sizes and (2) variability of the properties across the interface thickness. Explicit expressions constructed in the present work show that the overall elastic/conductive properties are affected, mostly, by the interface thickness (normalized to the size of the core particle) and are much less sensitive to the extent of the variation and its exact character. Similarities and differences between the elasticity and the conductivity problems are discussed.
Does disclosure matter? Integrating organizational learning and impression management theories to examine the impact of public disclosure following failures:

The typically disparate literatures on organizational learning and impression management have both separately sought to examine how organizations respond following failure, with the former asking how organizations learn from these events and the latter investigating how organizations use public disclosures to manage perceptions following these events. This study integrates these perspectives to ask how disclosures might impact learning through failure. The study distinguishes between major and minor failures, asserting that public disclosures exert a distinct influence on learning through either form of experience. Related hypotheses are tested on failures arising within the US air-traffic control system. Although no support is obtained for predictions about major failures, the study finds that facilities can learn through minor failures but the process is impeded by public disclosures, suggesting the notable influence that these disclosures have over audiences� perceptions of the organization or its role in these events. This approach addresses a longstanding tension regarding why some organizations learn more effectively than others by emphasizing how organizations shape interpretations of their experience.
The phagosomal nutrient transporter (Pht) family.

Phagosomal transporters (Phts), required for intracellular growth of Legionella pneumophila, comprise a novel family of multispanning α-helical proteins within the major facilitator superfamily (MFS). The members of this family derive exclusively from bacteria. Multiple paralogues are present in a restricted group of Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria, but single members were also found in Chlamydia and Cyanobacteria. Their protein sequences were aligned, yielding a phylogenetic tree showing the relations of the proteins to each other. Topological analyses revealed a probable 12 α-helical transmembrane segment (TMS) topology. Motif identification and statistical analyses provided convincing evidence that these proteins arose from a six TMS precursor by intragenic duplication. The phylogenetic tree revealed some potential orthologous relationships, suggestive of common function. However, several probable examples of lateral transfer of the encoding genetic material between bacteria were identified and analysed. The Pht family most closely resembles a smaller MFS family (the UMF9 family) with no functionally characterized members. However, the UMF9 family occurs in a broader range of prokaryotic organism types, including Archaea. These two families differ in that organisms bearing members of the Pht family often have numerous paralogues, whereas organisms bearing members of the UMF9 family never have more than two. This work serves to characterize two novel families within the MFS and provides compelling evidence for horizontal transfer of some of the family members.
Intracellular Cholesterol Transport

Intracellular cholesterol transport is essential for the maintenance of cholesterol homeostasis. Many aspects of cholesterol metabolism are well-known, including its synthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum, its extracellular transport in plasma lipoproteins, its uptake by the low-density lipoprotein receptor, and its regulation of SREBP and LXR transcription factors. These fundamental pathways in cholesterol metabolism all rely on its proper intracellular distribution among subcellular organelles and the plasma membrane. Transport involving the ER and endosomes is essential for cholesterol synthesis, uptake, and esterification, whereas cholesterol catabolism by enzymes in mitochondria and ER generates steroids, bile acids, and oxysterols. Cholesterol is a highly hydrophobic lipid that requires specialized transport in the aqueous cytosol, involving either vesicles or nonvesicular mechanisms. The latter includes hydrophobic cavity transporters such as StAR-related lipid transfer (START) proteins. Molecular understanding of intracellular cholesterol trafficking has lagged somewhat behind other aspects of cholesterol metabolism, but recent advances have defined some transport pathways and candidate proteins. In this review, we discuss cholesterol transport among specific intracellular compartments, emphasizing the relevance of these pathways to cholesterol homeostasis.
Regulation of phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase by epidermal growth factor: Reduced association with the EGF receptor followed by increased association with protein kinase Cε

An important component of receptor-mediated intracellular signal transduction is the generation of lipid second messengers. Lipid second messenger production is a complex process involving a variety of regulatory enzymes that control the intracellular response to the extracellular signal. Phosphatidic acid (PA) is generated in response to phospholipase D and can be converted to other lipid second messengers including diacylglycerol (DG) and lysophosphatidic acid. PA is converted to DG by PA phosphohydrolase (PAP). We report here that PAP activity can be detected in epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor immunoprecipitates. Following treatment with EGF, there is a substantial reduction in the PAP activity that co-precipitates with the EGF receptor. The loss of EGF receptor-associated PAP activity occurs with a concomitant increase in PAP activity associated with the ϵ isoform of protein kinase C (PKC). The PAP activity associated with PKCϵ was dependent upon the PKC co-factors phosphatidylserine and DG but was independent of the kinase activity of PKCϵ. These data suggest a novel signaling mechanism for the regulation of lipid second messenger production and implicate PAP as an important regulatory component for lipid second messenger production in receptor-mediated intracellular signaling.
Output regulation for linear distributed parameter systems

This work extends the geometric theory of output regulation to linear distributed parameter systems with bounded input and output operator, in the case when the reference signal and disturbances are generated by a finite dimensional exogenous system. In particular it is shown that the full state feedback and error feedback regulator problems are solvable, under the standard assumptions of stabilizability and detectability, if and only if a pair of regulator equations is solvable. For linear distributed parameter systems this represents an extension of the geometric theory of output regulation developed in Francis (1997) and Isidori and Byrnes (1990). We also provide simple criteria for solvability of the regulator equations based on the eigenvalues of the exosystem and the system transfer function. Examples are given of periodic tracking, set point control, and disturbance attenuation for parabolic systems and periodic tracking for a damped hyperbolic system.
Enhancing conservation science capacity in India: first decade of the Master's programme in wildlife biology and conservation

India is a mega biodiverse country but, with a human population of 1.2 billion and aspirations for further economic growth, conservation of this biodiversity faces huge challenges. A decade ago, identifying the need for strong academic programmes to train conservation professionals, the Wildlife Conservation Society collaborated with the National Centre for Biological Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research to initiate a Master's degree programme in wildlife biology and conservation, comprising cutting-edge course modules taught by practising scientists and conservationists, followed by a dissertation. The programme trains a cohort of 15 students every 2 years, and the fifth cohort graduated in September 2014. In all, 74 budding conservationists have graduated in the programme's first decade. Their field research has spanned multiple species and ecosystems in 20 Indian states, and alumni of the course now form the core of many academic and conservation institutions. The alumni have engaged in practical conservation initiatives, driving both policy and practice in India by setting high standards of research and science-based conservation. The sixth cohort of 15 students began their training in July 2014.
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TENT MAP

Discrete time dynamical systems generated by the iteration of nonlinear maps provide simple and interesting examples of chaotic systems. But what is the physical principle behind the emergence of these maps? In this note we present an approach to this problem by considering a class, Y, of 2–1 chaotic maps on [0, 1] that are symmetric and have symmetric invariant densities. We prove that such maps are conjugate to the tent map. In Y we search for maps that minimizes a functional that depends on y ∈ Y and fy, the probability density function invariant under y. We define a simple functional whose extremal value is achieved by the tent map.
Automatic a-priori generation of delay and noise macromodels and wiring rules for MCMs

The authors point out that the current approaches to generating wiring rules for high speed MCMs are unsatisfactory because they require intensive manual efforts to generate and they present an automated approach based on a-priori simulation-based characterization of the interconnect circuit configurations. The improved flexibility and accuracy provided by this approach, when compared with the rule of thumb approach, are demonstrated via an example. >
Research-Related Injury: Problems and Solutions:

The highly publicized deaths of research participants Ellen Roche and Jesse Gelsinger are stark reminders that risk is inherent in medical research and while untoward outcomes are infrequent when compared to individual and societal benefits, injury and even death will happen. Who is responsible for the welfare of research subjects and what are they owed? Why were they put at risk to begin with? Are obligations, if any, to research subjects dependent on the type of study in which they participate, in recognition that there may be personal benefit from participation in some studies? The issue of injury resulting from participation in research and answers to questions such as those just posed were last considered in depth nearly 20 years ago by the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research.
Community Nursing Centers: Models of Nurse Managed Care

Changes in health care that have resulted in an increase in community-based nursing practice and new models for nurse managed care are developing. One of these models is the academic community nursing center. The development and characteristics of academic community nursing centers are described, using examples from one academic nursing center. Strategies for development, administration, collaboration, and funding are outlined, including the changes needed in nursing education to prepare nurses for new roles in community-based care.
Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 gene ablation protects mice from ischemic renal injury.

Increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the subsequent DNA damage and excessive activation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of is...
The rate of intravenous cocaine or amphetamine delivery does not influence drug-taking and drug-seeking behavior in rats

We studied the influence of rate of intravenous infusion of cocaine or amphetamine on drug-taking and seeking behavior. First, drug-naive rats were tested for acquisition of self-administration of increasing doses of amphetamine or cocaine infused over 5 or 100 s. Second, self-administration of cocaine or amphetamine infused over 5?100 s was assessed on fixed or progressive-ratio (PR) reinforcement schedules. Finally, the ability of a single 5 or 100 s amphetamine or cocaine infusion to reinstate extinguished drug seeking was assessed. Although slower infusion rates produced a small effect on drug taking under continuous-reinforcement conditions, infusion rate did not alter drug taking on intermittent or PR reinforcement schedules, or the ability of cocaine or amphetamine to reinstate drug seeking. Taken together, our results suggest that variation in drug delivery rate over a range that we previously found alters the induction of behavioral sensitization, gene-expression and striatal dopamine activity, does not markedly alter drug-taking or seeking behavior.
Experiences with diabetes mellitus and implantable insulin pump therapy: a summary of interview data.

A semistructured interview was used to elicit information from 23 implantable insulin pump recip ients regarding their concerns about having diabetes mellitus, their decision to receive an implantable insulin pump, and their experiences with the pump. Findings indicated that subjects had present and future concerns about having diabetes mellitus and that they wanted an implantable insulin pump primarily to achieve better control of their diabetes. Subjects said their health generally improved after pump implantation and that the pump had minimal inter ference with their social lives. Although 16 subjects identified concerns about the pump, all subjects said they would decide again for pump implantation.
Analysis of Daily Growth Patterns in Young-of-Year Male Dwarf Surfperch (Embiotocidae: Micrometrus minimus) Suggests Alternative Tactics: Breed or Grow after Birth

Abstract Discontinuous variation in daily growth patterns suggests that there are alternative life-history tactics among males of a coastal fish species. Male dwarf perch are known to be mature and reproductively active at birth, exhibiting a high level of material and behavioral expenditure on breeding early in life. Males experience a substantial cost of reproduction in reduced early growth and survival relative to females. Through analysis of daily growth increments in otoliths, we showed that young-of-year males from two populations exhibit a polymorphism in daily growth patterns. A distinctive episode of narrow growth increments and slow growth punctuated the summertime growth record of some males, whereas increment widths were more uniform and growth was more rapid in other males. Discriminant function analysis revealed that features of the daily growth record varied discontinuously, falling into two distinct groups. Early-born males were more likely to exhibit the slow growth pattern, and late-born...
Foundation Impedance Matrices by Substructure Deletion

A numerical formulation is presented for a mathematical model of those soil regions bearing flexible embedded structures of arbitrary geometry. The computational difficulties associated with a strict continuum solution for the unbounded foundation domain with an irregular surface geometry, are alleviated by “subtracting” the impedance contribution of the embedded region from the impedance matrix of a foundation with a horizontal surface. The procedure could be utilized for soil-structure analysis in seismic design.
Inkjet-printed, flexible, high performance, carbon nanomaterial based sensors for ammonia and DMMP gas detection

In this paper, we report the most sensitive inkjet printed reduced graphene oxide based ammonia sensor as well as the first inkjet printed carbon nanotube based dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) vapor sensor to date. The processes utilized to fabricate the sensors, including substrate surface modification, inclusion of porosity enhancing nanospheres and chemical functionalization, are outlined. The testing set-up and protocols are described and finally the measurement results are shown with displayed sensitivities of 8.5% for 30 ppm of ammonia and 5% for 2.5 ppm of DMMP. These results may set the foundation for fully inkjet printed, conformal, ‘zero-power’ and low cost ubiquitous wireless multi-gas motes.
Molecular and Physical Structure’s Designs of High Performance Polymeric Membranes

Nowadays, membrane separation such as reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration play an important role in the industrial separation technology. Recently, membrane materials and membrane morphology have been analyzed intensively and are becoming clearer. In consequence, it is becoming essential to design molecular and physical structures of membranes to develop high performance polymeric membranes.
Light induced, localized, and abrupt force relaxations in fibroblast cells on soft substrates

Exposure to fluorescent excitation light is known to adversely affect living cells. Here, we provide experimental evidence showing fibroblast cells relax abruptly during illumination with fluorescent excitation light. Cells were plated on polyacrylamide (PA) gels embedded with fluorescent microbeads. The beads served as fiducial markers to track substrate displacements induced by cell force. When the cells adhere, they apply traction forces to their underlying surface, causing the substrate to contract inward with respect to the cell boundary. We find that contractile cell forces are sporadically interrupted by abrupt force relaxation events, characterized by outward “jumps” in displacement (⩾ 30 nm in 0.5 s) of the underlying substrate during exposure to fluorescent light. Jumps occur more frequently on softer substrates. Additionally, the speed and direction of displacements of particles before and after jumps are conserved, suggesting that the jumps do not involve any change in cytoskeletal or adhesion structure of the cell, and are possibly mediated by disengagement and re-engagement of myosin motors with actin filaments. Interestingly, we find that the frequency of jumps is also modulated by the energy introduced by the excitation light source. We propose a mechanistic hypothesis to explain the observations.
The White Snail (Helix Pisana)at La Jolla, California

Helix pisana, a European snail, became established in California and measures were taken to eradicate it. In Europe this snail is a pest of citrus trees. Observations at La Jolla, California, verified this. It is also a possible pest among other cultivated plants. The average number of eggs per individual at La Jolla in December 1922, was 120. This is higher than the number given for Europe. The methods employed in eradication were; clearing the ground of vegetation, flaming the cleared areas, use of poison bait of calcium arsenate and bran, and hand-picking. The results were effective and very few Helix pisana are left after one year of eradication work.
Role of Ionic Strength in Salt Antagonism of Aminoglycoside Action on Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Studies were designed to determine whether ionic strength (Az) is a significant factor in salt inhibition of aminoglycoside action against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In both nutrient broth (a low A medium) and Mueller-Hinton broth (a relatively high u medium), protection of E. coli from dihydrostreptomycin or gentamicin action by MgCl2, NaCl, or Na2SO4 was attributed to ionic strength alone. The percentage of protection increased with ionic strength and was independent of the particular salt used. Antagonism of aminoglycoside action against P. aeruginosa appeared to involve both a specific, divalent cation-dependent mechanism, revealed in Mueller-Hinton broth, and a nonspecific, ionic strength effect, elicited by sodium salts in nutrient broth. With media of relatively low salt content, variation in ionic strength itself over a range of Ja of 0.02-0.14 significantly influences the effectiveness of aminoglycoside antibiotics against E. coli and P. aeruginosa. Culture media selected for testing of bacterial susceptibility to aminoglycoside antibiotics can have a profound influence on the results obtained. This fact is due largely to the ionic environment. Although many salts can reduce the effectiveness of aminoglycosides, it is generally thought that divalent cations are of primary importance in this regard. Most of the recent work in this area has been concerned with an
Impacts of distributed generation on power quality

This paper studies the impacts on power quality due to the interconnection of multiple distributed generators on a distribution utility feeder. For this purpose, a Florida-based distribution feeder was modeled and studied by integrating different types of distributed generation (DG) sources. Different scenarios were implemented in which solar and wind plants were modeled with high variability of load and generation to observe their impacts on system’s power quality. All the modeling and simulations were carried out using a high fidelity electromagnetic real-time transient simulation tool. Keywords— distributed generation, distribution system, power quality, solar energy, wind energy.
After Death: Big Data and the Promise of Resurrection by Proxy

With the advent of Big Data and the possibility of capturing massive personal data it is possible to simulate some aspects of a person's personality. The imitation game is based on the observation that it is possible to convince a person of a fake identity if sufficient information is available about the identity being faked. Imitation is however not limited to a person who is alive but also a person who is not alive; the question of simulating a deceased person for the purpose of having the simulation interact with a person is addressed. Various challenges and background considerations for such an endeavor are discussed. The goal of the paper is to open up discussion on this subject and examine its feasibility.
“A Dog’s Obeyed in Office”: Subverting Authority in Shakespeare’s King Lear and Grigori Kozintsev’s Korol’ Lir

In the Christmas holidays of 1609 an unlicensed play was staged at Gowlthwaite Hall, the home of Sir John Yorke, in the north Yorkshire village of Nidderdale. The players, a group of brothers named the Simpsons, were apparently recusants. So boisterous was this “seditious interlude,” involving an uproarious scene in which a devil carries off a Church of England minister on his shoulders, that it caused something of a riot and even attracted the attention of the local authorities.1 As Phebe Jensen has pointed out in her detailed analysis of the episode, the exposing of the interlude was not in fact the consequence of a Jacobean policy of zero-tolerance toward recusants but the result of a specifically local act of denunciation. Sir John’s anti-Papist neighbor, Sir Stephen Proctor, was able to smuggle one of his Protestant preachers into the house. Even though a servant had been placed at the door to screen out hostile observers, an interloper named Marmaduke Darnebrook managed to slip through and later denounced the interlude as “seditious” (Jensen, “Recusancy,” 103). Proctor brought the case before the Star Chamber, which led—two years later—to Sir John and his family being fined more than four thousand pounds. A few years later, unable to pay this staggering amount, Sir John and his wife, Lady Julyan, were imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and released only in 1617, at which time the total penalty was reduced to one thousand two hundred pounds, which was paid off in installments ending in 1631 (Jensen, “Recusancy,” 104).
Bouncing capability analysis on kangaroo imitation mechanism with nonlinear bouncing force

A kind of nonlinear bouncing force mechanism model for imitative kangaroo limbs was constructed.Let it be compared with the linear bouncing mechanism model in dynamics at the take-off stage.The two bouncing capabilities were analyzed,and by means of computer simulation and test of principle prototype to illustrate the correctness of analysis,thus provided theoretical basis for the manufacturing of bionic bouncing exploring robot.
Detection of circulating parasite antigens in canine dirofilariasis by counterimmunoelectrophoresis.

Abstract Circulating Dirofilaria immitis antigen was detected in sera from 24 of 24 infected dogs by counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE). Parasite antigen was not detected in sera from uninfected dogs or dogs with Dipetalonema reconditum infection. In experimentally infected dogs, the antigen was first detectable 6.5–8.5 months after infection. Preliminary evidence suggests that the antigen is present in male and female adult worms but not in microfilariae. Sera from dogs with microfilaremic and amicrofilaremic infections contained statistically equivalent amounts of D. immitis antigen. However, a significant correlation was observed between serum parasite antigen content and the number of adult worms present in individual dogs at necropsy. Previous studies from several laboratories have shown that microfilarial counts and serum antibody titers are not related to adult worm counts in canine dirofilariasis or other filarial infections. Thus, CIE detection of D. immitis antigenemia represents a significant improvement over previously available diagnostic techniques because it is more sensitive than microfilarial tests, more specific than antibody tests, and the only test that has been related to infection intensity.
The Immune Response to Viruses

The two arms of the immune system, the innate and adaptive immune system, function together to provide long-term immunity against viruses. The innate immune system is activated immediately after infection and consists of nonspecific mechanisms to control viral replication while the adaptive immune system is being activated. Type 1 interferons are important antiviral cytokines produced during this time. Dendritic cells present antigen to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and helper T lymphocytes, which causes their activation. CTLs acquire the ability to kill virally infected cells, while helper T cells induce B cells to produce antibody. Together, the adaptive immune system provides an antigen-specific response that controls infection and creates immunological memory to prevent against reinfection with the same virus. However, many viruses have evolved mechanisms to avoid detection by or interfere with the host immune system.
Analysis of Dopamine and Its Effects in the Salamander Olfactory Bulb

The rat olfactory bulb contains a large number of putative dopaminergic neurons. In response to olfactory receptor cell excitation, the neurons appear to modulate the synaptic input from the receptor cell axons to their postsynaptic targets in the glomeruli [1,2]. To identify the sites and mechanisms of dopamine action in the olfactory bulb of the tiger salamander, we have examined the distribution of catecholaminergic neurons, catecholamine tissue levels, and the effects of dopamine (DA) and a DA receptor antagonist on field potentials evoked by stimulating the olfactory nerve (ON) and lateral olfactory tract (OT).
CHAPTER 45 – Acute Management of Hypercalcemia

Hypercalcemia is a treatable metabolic abnormality, which need not always be directly treated. It often precedes the diagnosis of an underlying disorder that should be given more initial attention than the hypercalcemia. However, hypercalcemia may present as a life-threatening disorder that demands vigorous therapy independent of knowledge of the cause of the underlying disorder. Thus principles of therapy relate importantly to two elements: (1) the underlying etiology, (2) the severity of the hypercalcemia. The magnitude of the hypercalcemia is a key consideration when the decision to treat is imminent. If the serum total calcium concentration is >14 mg/dl, a therapeutic plan to reduce the serum calcium is indicated, regardless of the presence of symptoms. The value of 14 mg/dl is based on the assumption that the serum albumin concentration is normal, but in hypercalcemic patients the serum albumin concentration may be increased because of dehydration or reduced because of chronic illness. A convenient rule is to adjust the serum total calcium concentration by 0.8 mg/dl for each 1 g/dl by which the serum albumin is increased or decreased.
Digging Deeper: Research Practices and Recommendations for Exploring Intersectionality and Social and Cultural Influences on Personality, Identity, and Well-Being

This chapter integrates theoretical and empirical feminist work in order to assist personality researchers in exploring the psychosocial processes that shape personality, identity, and experience. First, I suggest that researchers theorize why patterns specific to particular social groups may occur. Second, I suggest that researchers must carefully consider who is included in the population they are studying and should attend to heterogeneity within these groups. Drawing on intersectionality as a theoretical framework, I suggest exploring individual, structural, and cultural factors that may account for variation both between individuals within a social group as well as between groups. This approach provides rich and detailed information that may be otherwise overlooked. I highlight three strategies that have the potential to assist psychologists in examining patterns of gender and identity among diverse groups and I illustrate these suggestions by drawing on examples from the literatures on aging, race/ethnicity, body image, and biopsychology. Together, these approaches can assist personality psychologists in fully articulating and investigating differences in their own right and emphasize the need to investigate how experiences of gender and other social categories shape and influence individual’s personality and well-being.
Exploring the Relationship between School Growth Mindset and Organizational Learning Variables: Implications for Multicultural Education

According to school growth mindset theory a school’s organizational structure influences teachers’ beliefs in their collective ability to help all students grow and learn; including those from diverse cultural, religious, identity, and socioeconomic demographics. The implicit theory of growth mindset has been quantified for a school’s culture on the What’s My School Mindset scale. This exploratory study was an initial effort to examine the content validity of the school growth mindset construct using SPSS to perform correlation analysis with multicultural relevant, organizational learning variables from the literature that were shown to explain improved school outcomes. Regression analysis tested the hypothesis that the independent variables would explain variations in a school’s growth mindset mean. Data was collected from a random stratified sample of middle and high school teachers (n = 64) and administrators (n = 5) in a large northwestern state. Responses were collected on the 19-question Likert-style WMSM survey. The overarching research question was, Is there a relationship between principal openness to change, faculty openness to change, work locus of control, and a school growth mindset? The results revealed organizational learning variables significantly correlated with a growth mindset culture and explained significant variations in the WMSM mean. The results have positive implications for providing school administrators with a way to measure their school’s culture and to provide feedback to teachers that can challenge their beliefs and inform improvements in culturally responsive teaching practices.
Near-infrared meta-gain media based on hyperbolic metasurfaces(Conference Presentation)

We propose modification to gain spectra of semiconductor quantum heterostructures by incorporation of nanostructured metal, paving the way for tailor made “meta-gain” media. We show that the wavelength dependence of the principal direction of energy propagation in media with hyperbolic dispersion leads to blue-shifting of peak photoluminescence (PL), and thereby optical gain, relative to emission from the bare semiconductor. Additionally we show that emission spectra from metal-semiconductor hyperbolic metasurfaces depends strongly upon the polarization of an external optical pump. The simultaneous co-optimization of pump properties and optical and electronic densities of states provides a platform for not only compensating losses in metallic metamaterials, but also designing emission spectra beyond that provided by the constituent quantum heterostructures.
Simulation-Based Evaluation of Hybridization Network Reconstruction Methods in the Presence of Incomplete Lineage Sorting

Hybridization events generate reticulate species relationships, giving rise to species networks rather than species trees. We report a comparative study of consensus, maximum parsimony, and maximum likelihood methods of species network reconstruction using gene trees simulated assuming a known species history. We evaluate the role of the divergence time between species involved in a hybridization event, the relative contributions of the hybridizing species, and the error in gene tree estimation. When gene tree discordance is mostly due to hybridization and not due to incomplete lineage sorting (ILS), most of the methods can detect even highly skewed hybridization events between highly divergent species. For recent divergences between hybridizing species, when the influence of ILS is sufficiently high, likelihood methods outperform parsimony and consensus methods, which erroneously identify extra hybridizations. The more sophisticated likelihood methods, however, are affected by gene tree errors to a greater extent than are consensus and parsimony.
Nasolacrimal Duct Probing

Congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction occurs in approximately 5 % of newborns. The blockage occurs most commonly at the valve of Hasner located at the distal end of the nasolacrimal duct. The rate of spontaneous resolution is estimated to be at 90 % within the first year of life. However, if obstruction does not resolve on its own or with massage, probing may be indicated to ensure patency and even manually open the nasolacrimal passage.
When to Consider the Possibility of a Fungal Infection: An Overview of Clinical Diagnosis and Laboratory Approaches.

Fungal infections are an important and increasingly prevalent cause of disease in certain patient populations. These infections can occur both in immune-compromised and immune-competent individuals. Because the number of patients who are immunocompromised is steadily growing, it is vital for clinicians to consider fungal disease in the differential diagnosis of these patients. This article reviews the epidemiology and approach to diagnosis of a variety of fungal infections.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Adolescents

Post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents is similar to that in adults, with differences primarily stemming from divergent stressors, developmental themes, and family issues. Treatment involves debriefing, brief psychotherapy, and “pulsed” long-term intervention using an admixture of psychodynamics, cognitive-behavioral, and pharmacologic treatments.
Lasing in disordered media

We review our recent work on lasing in active random media. Light scattering, which had been regarded detrimental to lasing action for a long time, actually provided coherent feedback for lasing. We also trapped laser light in micrometer-sized random media. The trapping was caused by disorder-induced scattering and interference. This nontraditional way of light confinement has important application to microlasers. The threshold of random laser can be reduced by incorporating some degree of order into an active random medium. Our calculation result shows that by optimizing the degree of order one can dramatically reduce the threshold of random laser to the values comparable to htose of photonic bandgap defect lasers.
Pyridostigmine for the treatment of gastrointestinal symptoms in systemic sclerosis.

Abstract Background/purpose Symptoms of gastrointestinal dysmotility are common among patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and the management of severe cases is often limited by a relative lack of effective interventions. The objective of this case series was to review our experience with pyridostigmine as a treatment for patients with SSc and symptomatic gastrointestinal disease. Methods This study evaluated rates of symptom improvement, side effects, medication adherence, and dose ranges for SSc patients prescribed pyridostigmine for refractory gastrointestinal symptoms over a 10-year period at a quaternary referral center. Patients were defined as responders if they remained on pyridostigmine for at least 4 weeks and clinical benefit was documented by the recorded response of the patient or by the treating physician Results Of 31 patients treated with pyridostigmine for at least 4 weeks, 51.6% reported symptomatic improvement. Constipation was the most commonly improved symptom based on prevalence prior to therapy (noted by 6/20 patients suffering with constipation). Fifteen of 31 patients reported adverse effects, most commonly diarrhea. Throughout the duration of follow-up (median 126 days, range: 28–506 days), pyridostigmine was continued by 81.3% of patients who reported symptomatic benefit and 58.1% of patients overall. Conclusions Pyridostigmine holds promise for the treatment of various gastrointestinal symptoms in SSc patients, particularly in patients with refractory constipation. Though side effects may limit its use, most patients who experienced benefit chose to continue therapy.
Heterozygosity–behavior and heterozygosity–fitness correlations in a salamander with limited dispersal

Inbreeding and genetic drift can decrease genetic heterozygosity, and this low heterozygosity can depress fitness, resulting in heterozygosity–fitness correlations (HFCs). HFCs are typically small in magnitude, a result often attributed to power of the analyses. Animal behaviors often affect fitness and are often heritable to some degree. We hypothesized that heterozygosity influences behavior, which, in turn, potentially influences fitness. Specifically, in red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, which have limited dispersal and the potential for inbreeding, we tested whether heterozygosity, as estimated from six microsatellite loci, affected home range size, juvenile growth, and survival. We found that salamanders with higher heterozygosity had larger home ranges and grew faster, which is indicative of reproductive success. However, we found no effects of heterozygosity on survival. We conclude that, because activity in P. cinereus is tightly linked to food uptake and mass gain, heterozygosity influences growth via effects on foraging behavior. Future research should investigate how the relationship between heterozygosity, behavior, and fitness may be affected or mediated by endocrine or immune systems.
Identifying Information-Rich Subspace Trends in High-Dimensional Data.

Identifying information-rich subsets in high-dimensional spaces and representing them as order revealing patterns (or trends) is an important and challenging research problem in many science and engineering applications. The information quotient of large-scale high-dimensional datasets is significantly reduced by the curse of dimensionality which makes the traditional clustering and association analysis methods unsuitable. Most interesting patterns cannot be revealed using global methods which consider the entire data and feature spaces during their analysis. Identifying some interesting patterns in large scale high-dimensional data is usually accomplished using popular techniques such as dimensionality reduction, feature selection and subspace clustering. Though these methods are successfully able to identify the groupings in the feature subsets and localized neighborhood data subspaces, none of these methods extract the latent patterns that are present in local information-rich subsets of the data. In this paper, we seek an information-revealing representation of the data subsets and features that may contain local patterns. We formalize the problem of identifying ‘subspace trends’ in high-dimensional datasets focusing on information-rich subsets and develop a new algorithm to extract such subspace trends. We demonstrate our results on both synthetic and real-world datasets and show the superiority of the proposed methodology over traditional clustering and dimensionality reduction techniques.
Real-Time Thickness Measurement of Metal Oxide Film Growth

The use of Dynamic Imaging Microellipsometry (DIM) for mapping and measuring oxide film thickness during growth has been demonstrated. The DIM system facilitates the analysis of oxide film characteristics by determining the polarization properties of a beam of light reflected from an oxide film/substrate system. While the principles of DIM are much the same as those for conventional ellipsometry there are significant differences. These differences, most notably, the use of a CCD video camera as a detector coupled with image processing capabilities, permit the production of spatially resolved ellipsometric “images” at high repetition rates. Using the high spatial and temporal resolution of the DIM system, a sequence of ellipsometric images have been generated showing the growth of cuprite (0Cu 2 O) on copper. This data clearly demonstrates the capability of DIM for measuring dynamic changes in oxide film thickness.