cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Heat Kernel Measures and Critical Limits

This article is an exposition of several questions linking heat kernel measures on infinite-dimensional Lie groups, limits associated with critical Sobolev exponents, and Feynman–Kac measures for sigma models. The first part of the article concerns existence and invariance issues for heat kernel measure classes. The main examples are heat kernel measures on groups of the form C0(X,F), where X is a Riemannian manifold and F is a finite-dimensional Lie group. These measures depend on a smoothness parameter \(s\ \downarrow \ {\rm dim}(X)/2\). The second part of the article concerns the limit s ↓ dim(X)/2, especially dim(X) ≤ 2, and how this limit is related to issues arising in quantum field theory. In the case of X = S1, we conjecture that heat kernel measures converge to measures which arise naturally from the Kac–Moody–Segal point of view on loop groups, as \(s\ \downarrow \ 1/2\).
Exercise in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic rheumatoid disease that can involve many organ systems, the axial cervical spine, and almost all peripheral joints. Significant effects include fatigue, decreased aerobic capacity, muscle atrophy, diminished strength and joint motion, pain, and altered biomechanical joint function. Exercise has been proven to increase strength, joint motion, aerobic capacity, and function. Exercise programs should begin early in the disease process and should be individualized and periodically modified according to the disease stage and level of activity.
Acoustic Spectroscopy of Superfluid 3He in Aerogel in the Presence of a Magnetic Field

We have constructed a silver alloy cell to investigate low frequency sound propagation in 3He-filled aerogel at various magnetic fields. In this apparatus, two sound modes were observed in the superfluid phase. We observed both the first sound-like mode (fast mode) which is a compression wave also seen in the normal state and the second sound-like mode (slow mode) which is attributed to the out-of-phase oscillation of the superfluid and normal components of 3He clamped to the aerogel matrix. The values of Tc and ρs can be extracted from the analysis of these two modes. In addition, a Helmholtz resonance provides an in-situ signature of the bulk superfluid transition and allows us to also determine the bulk ρs. By measuring these quantities over a range of applied magnetic fields we hope to explore the P, T, H phase diagram of 3He in aerogel.
Our Town: Support for Housing Growth When Localism Meets Liberalism

Community resistance to new housing is a cause of housing supply shortfalls in cities around the United States. Citizens differ on the desirable rate and nature of housing growth. I argue that two types of political beliefs shape support for housing growth. Localism is the belief that the interests of established members of the local community should be privileged relative to those of newcomers and outsiders. Liberalism is the belief that economic outcomes should be equitable. I hypothesize that liberals' support for housing growth is moderated by the type of housing being produced. Localism, on the other hand, is negatively associated with support for housing growth, regardless of the type of development being proposed. I find empirical support for both hypotheses in a survey experiment and from rich observational data on land use ballot measures in San Francisco.
Disparities in Preventable Hospitalizations Among Public Housing Developments.

Introduction This study assesses preventable hospitalization rates among New York City residents living in public housing developments compared with all New York City residents and residents in low-income areas. Additionally, preventable hospitalization rates by development (one or multiple buildings in close proximity and served by the same management office) were determined. Methods The 2010–2014 New York City hospital discharge data were geocoded and linked with New York City Housing Authority records using building-level identifiers. Preventable hospitalizations resulting from ambulatory care–sensitive conditions were identified for public housing residents, citywide, and residents of low-income areas. Age-adjusted overall and ambulatory care–sensitive, condition–specific preventable hospitalization rates (11 outcomes) were determined and compared across groups to assess potential disparities. Additionally, rates were ranked and compared among public housing developments by quartiles. The analysis was conducted in 2016 and 2017. Results The age-adjusted rate of preventable hospitalization was significantly higher among public housing residents than citywide (rate ratio [RR]=2.67, 95% CI=2.65, 2.69), with the greatest disparities in hospitalizations related to diabetes (RR=3.12, 95% CI=3.07, 3.18) and asthma (RR=4.14, 95% CI=4.07, 4.21). The preventable hospitalization rate was also higher among residents of public housing than low-income areas (RR=1.33, 95% CI=1.31, 1.35). There were large differences between developments ranked in the top and bottom quartiles of preventable hospitalization (RR=1.81, 95% CI=1.76, 1.85) with the largest difference related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (RR=3.38, 95% CI=3.08, 3.70). Conclusions Preventable hospitalization rates are high among public housing residents, and vary significantly by development and condition. By providing geographically granular information, geocoded hospital discharge data can serve as a valuable tool for health assessment and engagement of the healthcare sector and other stakeholders in interventions that address health inequities.
Towards high-resolution multi-sensor gridded ACSPO SST product: reducing residual cloud contamination

Sea Surface Temperature (SST) products at NOAA are produced from multiple polar-orbiting and geostationary sensors using the Advanced Clear-Sky Processor for Ocean (ACSPO) enterprise system. Data of several high-resolution (~1 km) sensors onboard US and EUMETSAT polar-orbiting platforms are processed, including two VIIRSs (onboard NPP and N20), three AVHRR FRAC (onboard Metop-A, -B, and -C), and two MODISs (onboard Terra and Aqua). L1b data of each platform/sensor are processed independently, and two SST products generated: swath (L2P) and 0.02° mapped equal-grid L3U. All L2P and L3U are consistently reported in 10-min granules in a Group for High-Resolution SST (GHRSST) Data Specification Version 2 (GDS2) format, and assimilated in several gridded gap-free L4 analyses, which reconcile data from individual platforms, sensors and overpasses, and fill in cloud obscured regions by optimal interpolation. The L4 feature resolution is degraded, compared to input L2P/3U, with no measure provided of this degradation or identification which grids contain clear-sky observations versus those created by estimation (modeling). There is currently no global SST product based on real observations from all available platforms/sensors, without modeled data. As a result, users either have to rely on L4 products (without knowing what data come from real observations versus those modeled, and how much the satellite data have been smoothed), or deal with huge and ever growing data volumes from multiple L2P/3U data files, and learn how to fuse/aggregate those, themselves. In response to multiple users’ requests, NOAA started developing a new multi-sensor, high-resolution, sensor-agnostic gridded L3 SST product, with no modeled data added, which maximally preserves the original sensors’ resolution. In creating such collated and super-collated (L3C/S) products, several issues must be addressed, including minimizing the effect of residual cloud leakages, which are always present in the L2P/3U data, on the L3C/S product, while maximally preserving the feature-resolution present in the original satellite imagery. This aspect of data fusion is the focus of this study.
Proof of unconditional security of six-state quantum key distribution scheme

We prove the unconditional security of the standard six-state scheme for quantum key distribution (QKD). We demonstrate its unconditional security up to a bit error rate of 12.7 percents, by allowing only one-way classical communications in the error correction/privacy amplification procedure between Alice and Bob. This shows a clear advantage of the six-state scheme over another standard scheme---BB84, which has been proven to be secure up to only about 11 percents, if only one-way classical communications are allowed. Our proof technique is a generalization of that of Shor-Preskill's proof of security of BB84. We show that a advantage of the six-state scheme lies in the Alice and Bob's ability to establish rigorously from their test sample the non-trivial mutual information between the bit-flip and phase error patterns. A modified version of the degenerate quantum codes studied by DiVincenzo, Shor and Smolin is employed in our proof.
Protein and Peptide Biomaterials for Engineered Subunit Vaccines and Immunotherapeutic Applications.

Although vaccines have been the primary defense against widespread infectious disease for decades, there is a critical need for improvement to combat complex and variable diseases. More control and...
Exploring Integer Sum Reduction using Atomics on Intel CPU

Atomic functions are useful in updating a shared variable by multiple threads, barrier synchronizations, constructing complex data structures, and building high-level frameworks. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation and analysis of integer sum reduction, a common data parallel primitive. We convert the sequential reduction into parallel OpenCL implementations on a CPU. To understand the relationships between the kernel performance and the operations involved in reduction, we develop three microkernels that show the costs of one atomic addition to global memory from one work-item per work-group, a work-group barrier, and reducing within a work-group to local memory using one atomic addition per work-item. The sum reduction kernel with vectorized memory accesses can improve the performance of the baseline kernel for a wide range of work-group sizes. However, the vectorization efficiency shrinks with the growing work-group size. We also find that the vendor's default OpenCL kernel optimization does not improve the kernel performance. When the vectorization width is 16, the performance speedup of our manual vectorization over the vendor's auto-vectorization ranges from 1.03 to 16.7. We attribute the performance drop to the fact that the default kernel optimizations instantiate a large number of atomics operations.
Applying Swarm Intelligence to Distributed On-Chip Power Management

An on-chip power management technique is developed that makes use of particle swarm optimization (PSO) to improve the performance per watt of the circuit while maintaining the power integrity. On-line learning is applied to determine the optimum reference voltages of the on-chip voltage regulators set through the PSO to reduce the energy consumption of the system while preventing any timing failure due to process variation, voltage variation, temperature, and aging. The runtime adaptive voltage delivery technique is applicable to any processor architecture. Simulation results on a streaming multiprocessor similar to the NVIDIA GV100 GPU in a 7 nm FinFET technology indicate an average reduction of 35%, 40%, and 5% in, respectively, the power consumption, the threshold voltage drift, and the operating temperature as compared to existing techniques that implement static voltage guardbands.
Modulation of the antidepressant effects of ketamine by the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin.

Twenty-four hours after administration, ketamine exerts rapid and robust antidepressant effects that are thought to be mediated by activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). To test this hypothesis, depressed patients were pretreated with rapamycin, an mTORC1 inhibitor, prior to receiving ketamine. Twenty patients suffering a major depressive episode were randomized to pretreatment with oral rapamycin (6 mg) or placebo 2 h prior to the intravenous administration of ketamine 0.5 mg/kg in a double-blind cross-over design with treatment days separated by at least 2 weeks. Depression severity was assessed using Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Rapamycin pretreatment did not alter the antidepressant effects of ketamine at the 24-h timepoint. Over the subsequent 2-weeks, we found a significant treatment by time interaction (F(8,245) = 2.02, p = 0.04), suggesting a prolongation of the antidepressant effects of ketamine by rapamycin. Two weeks following ketamine administration, we found higher response (41%) and remission rates (29%) following rapamycin + ketamine compared to placebo + ketamine (13%, p = 0.04, and 7%, p = 0.003, respectively). In summary, single dose rapamycin pretreatment failed to block the antidepressant effects of ketamine, but it prolonged ketamine’s antidepressant effects. This observation raises questions about the role of systemic vs. local blockade of mTORC1 in the antidepressant effects of ketamine, provides preliminary evidence that rapamycin may extend the benefits of ketamine, and thereby potentially sheds light on mechanisms that contribute to depression relapse after ketamine administration.
Alterations in the gut microbiome by HIV-1 infection or a high-fat diet associates with systemic immune activation and inflammation in double humanized-BLT mice

Abstract Background While the translatability of gut microbiome studies utilizing animal models to humans has proven difficult, studying the gut microbiome directly in humans is also challenging due to the existence of many confounding variables. Therefore, we utilized double humanized mice, which have both an engrafted stable human-like gut microbiome and functional human immune system. With this model, we were able to determine the in vivo impact of HIV-1 infection or a high-fat diet (HFD) on gut human microbiome composition, and its relationship with human immune cell activation and systemic inflammation. Results Surgery was performed on NSG mice to create humanized bone-marrow, liver, thymus mice (hu-mice). In order to create double hu-mice, the hu-mice were treated with broad spectrum antibiotics to deplete murine gut bacteria and subsequently transplanted with human fecal material from healthy human donors. We characterized 262 fecal samples from hu-mice, double hu-mice, and human fecal donors to determine the impact of HIV-1 infection or HFD on the gut microbiome and systemic immune activation and inflammation. We found that HIV-1 infection altered the human-like gut microbiome of double hu-mice, which was associated with decreased human CD4 T cells and increased systemic inflammation and immune activation. Further, using a HFD we induced gut microbial dysbiosis in double hu-mice which corresponded with increased systemic immune activation and inflammation. Conclusions Here, we describe the changes in the human gut microbiome and human immune system due to HIV-1 infection or HFD using our double hu-mice model. HIV-1 infection led to changes in the composition of the human-like gut microbiome that was associated with human CD4 T cell loss and high levels of inflammation and immune activation. The HFD quickly changed the composition of the gut microbiome and led to systemic immune activation and inflammation. We further identified a subset of gut bacteria in HIV-1 infected and HFD fed double hu-mice that was closely associated with systemic inflammation and immune activation. This study demonstrated how double humanized mice can be used to study the complex in vivo interactions of the gut microbiome and human immune system in the context of both disease and diet.
Extracellular vesicular MicroRNA-27a* contributes to cardiac hypertrophy in chronic heart failure.

Abstract Under stress, the heart undergoes extensive remodeling resulting in cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy, ultimately contributing to chronic heart failure (CHF). Alterations in microRNA levels are associated with dysfunctional gene expression profiles involved in the pathogenesis of heart failure. We previously showed that myocardial infarction-induced microRNA-enriched extracellular vesicles (EVs) contribute to the reduction in antioxidant enzymes by targeting Nrf2 signaling in CHF. MicroRNA-27a (miRNA-27a) is the predominant microRNA contained in cardiac fibroblast-derived EVs contributing to oxidative stress along with hypertrophic gene expression in cardiomyocytes. In the present study, we observed that miRNA-27a passenger strand (miRNA-27a*) was markedly upregulated in the non-infarcted area of the left ventricle of rats with CHF and encapsulated into EVs and secreted into the circulation. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that PDZ and LIM domain 5 (PDLIM5) is one of the major targets of miRNA-27a*, playing a major role in cardiac structure and function, and potentially contributing to the progression of cardiac hypertrophy. Our in vivo data demonstrate that PDLIM5 is down-regulated in the progression of heart failure, accompanied with the upregulation of hypertrophic genes and consistent with alterations in miRNA-27a*. Moreover, exogenous administration of miRNA27a* mimics inhibit PDLIM5 translation in cardiomyocytes whereas a miRNA27a* inhibitor enhanced PDLIM5 expression. Importantly, we confirmed that infarcted hearts have higher abundance of miRNA-27a* in EVs compared to normal hearts and further demonstrated that cultured cardiac fibroblasts secrete miRNA27a*-enriched EVs into the extracellular space in response to Angiotensin II stimulation, which inhibited PDLIM5 translation, leading to cardiomyocyte hypertrophic gene expression. In vivo studies suggest that the administration of a miRNA-27a* inhibitor in CHF rats partially blocks endogenous miR-27a* expression, prevents hypertrophic gene expression and improves myocardial contractility. These findings suggest that cardiac fibroblast-secretion of miRNA27a*-enriched EVs may act as a paracrine signaling mediator of cardiac hypertrophy that has potential as a novel therapeutic target.
Departures of Rangeland Fractional Component Cover and Land Cover from Landsat-Based Ecological Potential in Wyoming, USA

Abstract Monitoring rangelands by identifying the departure of contemporary conditions from long-term ecological potential allows for the disentanglement of natural biophysical gradients driving change from changes associated with land uses and other disturbance types. We developed maps of ecological potential (EP) for shrub, sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), perennial herbaceous, litter, and bare ground fractional cover in Wyoming, USA. EP maps correspond to the potential natural vegetation cover expected by environmental conditions in the absence of anthropogenic and natural disturbance as represented by the greenest and least disturbed period of the Landsat archive. EP was predicted using regression tree models with inputs of soil maps and spectral data associated with the 75th percentile of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index in the Landsat archive. We trained our EP models with 2015 component cover maps on ecologically intact sites with relatively lower bare ground than expected. We generated departure of vegetation cover by comparing the EP and 2015 fractional cover. The departures represent land cover change from potential land cover and/or within-state changes in 2015. Next, we converted EP and 2015 fractional cover maps into thematic land cover and evaluated departure to determine if it was great enough to result in land cover change. The 2015 conditions showed reduced shrub, sagebrush, litter, and perennial herbaceous cover and increased bare ground relative to EP. Known disturbances, such as energy development, fires, and vegetation treatments, are clearly visible on the departure maps, but not on EP component maps. The most frequent departure from EP land cover was shrubland conversion to grassland. Land cover departures can be explained only in small part by known disturbance, and instead are ostensibly related to climate and land management practices. These drivers result in land cover departures that broadened the ecotone between shrubland and grassland relative to EP.
Atmospheric pressure gradients and Coriolis forces provide geophysical limits to power density of large wind farms

Abstract The geophysical limit to maximum land-area power density of large wind farms is related to the rate of replenishment of kinetic energy removed from the atmosphere by wind turbines. Although observations and numerical simulations have indicated an upper bound to the power density in the order of 1 W/m2, no theoretical foundation has yet been provided. Here, we study the role of atmospheric pressure gradients and the latitude-dependent Coriolis parameter in the power density of large-scale wind farms by means of both numerical atmospheric simulations and analytic expressions. We illustrate that energy transport to regional-scale wind farms is primarily governed by horizontal pressure gradients and their interaction with the Coriolis force and turbine-induced surface drag within the latitude-dependent Ekman layer. Higher pressure gradients and lower Coriolis parameters promote higher energy availability and, consequently, higher potential power density, suggesting that the power density of regional-scale wind farms is largely resource- and location-dependent.
Directly Cooling Gut Prevents Mortality in the Rat Model of Reboa Management of Lethal Hemorrhage.

Background Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) is a lifesaving technique for the management of lethal torso hemorrhage. Its benefit, however, must be weighed against the lethal distal organ ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). This study uses a novel direct gut cooling technique to manage the distal organ IRI. Methods A rat lethal hemorrhage model was established by bleeding of 50% of the estimated total blood volume via inferior vena cava. A novel TransRectal Intra-Colon (TRIC) temperature management device was positioned in the descending colon either to maintain intra-colon temperature at 37°C or 12°C. The upper body temperature was maintained at as close to 37°C as possible in both groups. A 2F Fogarty balloon catheter was inserted via the femoral artery into the descending thoracic aorta for the implementation of REBOA. After REBOA, the balloon was deflated, and the shed blood was returned. The temperature managements were continued for additional 180-270 min during the post-REBOA period. Results All rats subjected to REBOA management of lethal hemorrhage at 37°C had severe histopathological gut and abdominal organ IRI, severe functional deficits, and died within 24 h with 100% mortality. By contrast, directly cooling the colon to 10-12°C with the novel TRIC device abolished mortality, and dramatically improved ABG parameters, prevented the abdominal organ injury, and reduced the functional deficits during the 7-day post-REBOA period. Conclusions Directly trans-rectal colon cooling during REBOA management of lethal hemorrhage offers extraordinary functional improvement and amazing tissue protection, and abolishes mortality.
Nonmyeloablative, HLA-Mismatched Unrelated Peripheral Blood Transplantation with High-Dose Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide.

ABSTRACT High-dose post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy) is an effective platform for prevention of severe graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic bone marrow (BM) transplantation with mismatched unrelated donors (mMUDs). Previous studies evaluating PTCy with mMUDs favored BM allografts over peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) due to concerns that PBSCT may be associated with an increased risk of acute and chronic GVHD. In addition, haploidentical PBSCT is associated with high rates of cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which is another concern with mMUD PBSCT. This study was conducted to determine the feasibility and safety of using mMUD PBSCT with PTCy as GVHD prophylaxis. Patients who received mMUD PBSCT using a PTCy-based GVHD prophylaxis at Johns Hopkins Hospital as part of a prospective clinical trial of mMUD and non-first-degree relative haploidentical transplantation with PTCy (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01203722) were included. All patients underwent T cell-replete PBSCT between November 2012 and August 2020. Statistical analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and proportional subdistribution hazard regression model for competing risks. The 29 patients in the study had a median age of 54 years, with 10 patients (34%) age ≥60 years. Nineteen grafts (66%) were matched for 9/10 HLA loci, 6 (21%) were match for 8/10, and 4 (14%) were matched for 7/10. No primary or secondary graft failure occurred. The median time to neutrophil recovery (≥500/µL) was 17 days, and that to platelet recovery (≥20,000/µL) was 28 days. Full donor chimerism was achieved in all patients by day +60. The cumulative incidence (CuI) of grade II-IV acute GVHD at 180 days was 15% (90% confidence interval [CI], 3% to 26%). There were no cases of severe chronic GVHD, 3 cases of mild chronic GVHD, and 1 case of moderate chronic GVHD. The CuI of nonrelapse mortality (NRM) was 7% (90% CI, NA to 18%) at 1 year. Eighteen patients (62%) experienced mild CRS (grade 1-2), and 1 patient (3%) experienced severe CRS (grade 3-5). At 1 year, the CuI of relapse was 29% (90% CI, 8% to 50%), overall survival was 93% (90% CI, 85% to 100%), progression-free survival was 64% (90% CI, 46% to 88%), GVHD-free relapse-free survival was 41% (90% CI, 23% to 73%), and chronic GVHD-free relapse-free survival was 64% (90% CI, 46% to 88%). Our data indicate that mMUD PBSCT using PTCy-based GVHD prophylaxis is safe and feasible. All patients engrafted, and rates of NRM (7%) and acute GVHD (15%) at 1 year were low. There was only 1 case (3%) of severe CRS. Compared with previously published outcomes, mMUD PBSCT using PTCy-based GVHD prophylaxis has a safety and efficacy profile that may not be different from that of PBSCT from matched donors. These results further solidify that all patients who require blood or BM transplantation should be able to find an acceptable donor.
The role of cognitive absorption in the persuasiveness of multimedia messages

Abstract We propose cognitive absorption as a mental state that influences the processing of multimedia messages such as animations. An experiment was designed to assess (1) whether cognitive absorption is experienced when individuals view whiteboard animations; (2) the relationship between cognitive absorption and message elaboration; (3) the relationship between cognitive absorption and outcomes such as perceived argument strength, knowledge, and attitudes related to key concepts relevant to clinical trial participation. The study involved 927 cancer patients and survivors who were exposed to either whiteboard animations or brochures. Several interesting findings emerged. First, individuals experienced greater cognitive absorption while viewing the animations than when reading brochures. Second, cognitive absorption was associated with a systematic elaboration of the information provided by the animations. Third, cognitive absorption mediated the effect the animations had on individuals’ perceived argument strength and attitudes, but not knowledge. Theoretical explanations for the educational and persuasive effects of animations are provided.
OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCES OF JET TRANSPORTS

Examination of normal acceleration, airspeed and altitude data from the operation of turbine powered transports
The Hsc70 co-chaperone CHIP targets immature CFTR for proteasomal degradation

The folding of both wild-type and mutant forms of the cystic-fibrosis transmembrane-conductance regulator (CFTR), a plasma-membrane chloride-ion channel, is inefficient. Most nascent CFTR is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum and degraded by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. Aberrant folding and defective trafficking of CFTRDeltaF508 is the principal cause of cystic fibrosis, but how the endoplasmic-reticulum quality-control system targets CFTR for degradation remains unknown. CHIP is a cytosolic U-box protein that interacts with Hsc70 through a set of tetratricorepeat motifs. The U-box represents a modified form of the ring-finger motif that is found in ubiquitin ligases and that defines the E4 family of polyubiquitination factors. Here we show that CHIP functions with Hsc70 to sense the folded state of CFTR and targets aberrant forms for proteasomal degradation by promoting their ubiquitination. The U-box appeared essential for this process because overexpresion of CHIPDeltaU-box inhibited the action of endogenous CHIP and blocked CFTR ubiquitination and degradation. CHIP is a co-chaperone that converts Hsc70 from a protein-folding machine into a degradation factor that functions in endoplasmic-reticulum quality control.
Chapter Fourteen Models for vacuolar sequestration of anthocyanins

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the transport of flavonoids and anthocyanins from the cytoplasm to the vacuole, which contains by far the largest storage pool of anthocyanins. Therefore, vacuolar sequestration affords an excellent model for the study of the transport phenomena of these compounds in the cell. Transposon-inactivated and other mutant alleles produce a dramatic effect: When these particular glutathione- S -transferases (GSTs) are absent, the pigment does not reach its final destination—the vacuole—but forms a brownish color in the cytoplasm. Even single-cell somatic revertants resulting from transposon excision are bright purple, indicating that bronze2 (BZ2) and AN9 can restore vacuolar sequestration late in tissue development. Similarly, particle bombardment into mature, brown BZ2 aleurone tissue results in purple cells; this suggests that some free anthocyanin remains in the cytoplasm and can be sequestered.
Serum from human burn victims impairs myogenesis and protein synthesis in primary myoblasts

The pathophysiological response to a severe burn injury involves a robust increase in circulating inflammatory/endocrine factors and a hypermetabolic state, both of which contribute to prolonged skeletal muscle atrophy. In order to characterize the role of circulating factors in muscle atrophy following a burn injury, human skeletal muscle satellite cells were grown in culture and differentiated to myoblasts/myotubes in media containing serum from burn patients or healthy, age, and sex-matched controls. While incubation in burn serum did not affect NFκB signaling, cells incubated in burn serum displayed a transient increase in STAT3 phosphorlyation (Tyr705) after 48 h of treatment with burn serum (≈ + 70%; P < 0.01), with these levels returning to normal by 96 h. Muscle cells differentiated in burn serum displayed reduced myogenic fusion signaling (phospho-STAT6 (Tyr641), ≈-75%; ADAM12, ≈-20%; both P < 0.01), and reduced levels of myogenin (≈-75%; P < 0.05). Concomitantly, myotubes differentiated in burn serum demonstrated impaired myogenesis (assessed by number of nuclei/myotube). Incubation in burn serum for 96 h did not increase proteolytic signaling (assessed via caspase-3 and ubiquitin levels), but reduced anabolic signaling [p-p70S6k (Ser421/Thr424), -30%; p-rpS6 (Ser240/244), ≈-50%] and impaired protein synthesis (-24%) (P < 0.05). This resulted in a loss of total protein content (-18%) and reduced cell size (-33%) (P < 0.05). Overall, incubation of human muscle cells in serum from burn patients results in impaired myogenesis and reduced myotube size, indicating that circulating factors may play a significant role in muscle loss and impaired muscle recovery following burn injury.
Short-Range Mechanical Properties of Skeletal and Cardiac Muscles

Striated muscles are disproportionately stiff for small movements. This facet of their behavior can be demonstrated by measuring the force produced when the muscle is stretched more than about 1% of its initial length. When this is done, it can be seen that force rises rapidly during the initial phases of the movement and much less rapidly during the latter stages of the stretch. Experiments performed using chemically permeabilized skeletal and cardiac muscles show that the initial stiffness of the preparations increases in proportion with isometric force as the free Ca2+ concentration in the bathing solution is raised from a minimal to a saturating value. This is strong evidence that the short-range mechanical properties of activated muscle result from stretching myosin cross-bridges that are attached between the thick and thin filaments. Relaxed intact muscles also exhibit short-range mechanical properties but the molecular mechanisms underlying this behavior are less clear. This chapter summarizes some of the interesting features of short-range mechanical properties in different types of muscle preparation, describes some of the likely underlying mechanisms and discusses the potential physiological significance of the behavior.
Multiple mRNA species with distinct 3′ termini are transcribed from the β 2 -microglobulin gene

Multiple mRNA species with distinct 3′ termini are transcribed from the β2-microglobulin gene
The Addition and Deletion Effects of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index on Option Markets

This paper presents the behavior of option markets of S&P 500 index changes for the first time. The same as the underlying stock markets, we found abnormal returns from AD+1 to CD except for put options of addition stocks. We found evidence supporting the liquidity hypothesis and information hypothesis of stock markets from option side. We derived the mean implied risk-neutral probability density function from a group of stocks for the first time. We found evidence of arbitrage activities and inside trading activities for the index changes. We found S&P would like to delete stocks which have left-shift implied RNDs and add stocks which have right-shift implied RNDs, which means the index changes are not information-free for the markets.
Use of mendelian pressure in a multi-objective genetic algorithm

Significant work has been conducted in developing techniques for multi-objective problem (MOP) optimizations. This paper investigates the use of a Mendel-like dominance scheme for improving the efficiency of a MOP genetic algorithm. This paper shows, for the selected MOP test suite, that the mendelian GA outperforms a simple GA.
Transcriptome Analysis of Pig In Vivo, In Vitro–Fertilized, and Nuclear Transfer Blastocyst-Stage Embryos Treated with Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Postfusion and Activation Reveals Changes in the Lysosomal Pathway

Abstract Genetically modified pigs are commonly created via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Treatment of reconstructed embryos with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) immediately after activation improves cloning efficiency. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the transcriptome of SCNT embryos treated with suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), 4-iodo-SAHA (ISAHA), or Scriptaid as compared to untreated SCNT, in vitro–fertilized (IVF), and in vivo (IVV) blastocyst-stage embryos. SAHA (10 μM) had the highest level of blastocyst development at 43.9%, and all treatments except 10 μM ISAHA had the same percentage of blastocyst development as Scriptaid (p<0.05). Two treatments, 1.0 μM ISAHA and 1.0 μM SAHA, had higher mean cell number than No HDACi treatment (p<0.021). Embryo transfers performed with 10 μM SAHA- and 1 μM ISAHA-treated embryos resulted in the birth of healthy piglets. GenBank accession numbers from up- and downregulated transcripts were loaded into the Database for Annota...
Habitat Eradication and Cropland Intensification May Reduce Parasitoid Diversity and Natural Pest Control Services in Annual Crop Fields

California’s central coast differs from many agricultural areas in the U.S., which feature large tracts of monoculture production fields and relatively simple landscapes. Known as the nation’s salad bowl, and producing up to 90% of U.S. production of lettuces, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, this region is a mosaic of fresh vegetable fields, coastal meadow, chaparral shrubs, riparian and woodland habitat. We tested for relationships between the percent cover of crops, riparian and other natural landscape vegetation and the species richness of parasitic wasps and flies foraging in crops, such as broccoli, kale and cauliflower, and interpreted our results with respect to the decrease in natural habitat and increase in cropland cover prompted by a local microbial contamination event in 2006. Our key results are that: (1) as cropland cover in the landscape increased, fewer species of parasitoids were captured in the crop field, (2) parasitoid richness overall was positively associated with the amount of riparian and other natural vegetation in the surrounding 500m, (3) different groups of parasitoids were associated with unique types of natural vegetation, and (4) parasitism rates of sentinel cabbage aphid and cabbage looper pests were correlated with landscape vegetation features according to which parasitoids caused the mortality. Although individual species of parasitoids may thrive in landscapes that are predominantly short season crops, the robust associations found in this study across specialist and generalist parasitoids and different taxa (tachinid flies, ichneumon wasps, braconid wasps) shows that recent food safety practices targeting removal of natural vegetation around vegetable fields in an attempt to eliminate wildlife may harm natural enemy communities and reduce ecosystem services. We argue that enhancing biological diversity is a key goal for transforming agroecosystems for future productivity, sustainability and public health.
Obliterative bronchiolitis after lung and heart-lung transplantation

Obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) has emerged as the main cause of morbidity and mortality in the long-term follow-up after lung and heart-lung transplantation. The pathogenesis of OB is multifactorial, with acute rejection and cytomegalovirus infection being the main risk factors for the development of OB. The final common pathway of all inciting events seems to be an alloimmune injury, with subsequent release of immunologic mediators and production of growth factors leading to luminal obliteration and fibrous scarring of the small airways. Analyzing the 14 years of experience in 163 patients at Stanford University, we found a current incidence of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome or histologically proven OB within the first 3 years after lung and heart-lung transplantation of 36.3%, with an overall prevalence of 58.1% after heart-lung and 51.4% after lung transplantation. Both pulmonary function indices (forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume in 1 second) and transbronchial biopsies have proven helpful in diagnosing bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome or OB at an early stage. Early diagnosis of OB and improved management have achieved survival rates in patients with OB after 1, 3, 5, and 10 years of 83%, 66%, 46%, and 22%, compared with 86%, 83%, 67%, and 67% in patients without OB. Recently, different experimental models have been developed to investigate the cellular and molecular events leading to OB and to evaluate new treatment strategies for this complication, which currently limits the long-term success of heart-lung and lung transplantation.
Glomerular hemodynamics in cyclosporine nephrotoxicity following uninephrectomy.

Glomerular hemodynamics in cyclosporine nephrotoxicity following uninephrectomy. Experiments were performed to determine the cause of the reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in cyclosporine nephrotoxicity during compensatory renal growth Sprague-Dawley rats were uninephrectomized and given daily injections of cyclosporine (30 mg/kg, i.m.) or vehicle (olive oil), and studied 7 or 14 days later. In cyclosporine treated rats GFR was lower seven days (1.34 ± 0.10 vs. 1.68 ± 0.07 ml/min) and 14 days (1.19 ± 0.08 vs. 1.58 ± 0.04, P f ) was lower in cyclosporine treated rats compared to controls [0.039 ± 0.002 vs. 0.075 ± 0.013 nl/(sec·mm Hg), P f , and that cyclosporine can reduce GFR without causing renal vasoconstriction.
Delayed lung maturation in the macrosomic offspring of genetically determined diabetic (db/+) mice.

ABSTRACT: We studied a genetically determined diabetes in pregnancy, the heterozygous diabetes (db/+) mouse. We found that fetal mice from these pregnancies are macrosomic with increased body, lung, and placenta wt, have altered organ protein, DNA and phospholipid content, and exhibit abnormal carbohydrate metabolism with increased liver and glycogen content. We further studied the effect of increased substrate availability and utilization on lung growth and maturation in (db/+) fetal mice, by measuring lung phospholipid synthesis as represented by the incorporation of the radiolabeled precursors, [3H]choline and [14C]glycerol, in fetal lung at 18 days’ gestation (term=19). Diabetic fetuses incorporated significantly more [3H]- choline into disaturated phosphatidylcholine than controls (1.32 ± 0.10 x 10-2 versus 0.78 ± 0.05 x 10-2 nmol/g protein/min, mean ± SE; p<0.001), but significantly less [14C]glycerol into phosphatidylglycerol than controls (3.18 ± 0.38 versus 4.91 ± 0.53 nmol/g protein/min, mean ± SE;p<0.002), and their phosphatidylglycerol/phosphatidylinositol synthesis ratios were decreased (1.81 ± 0.18 versus 3.17 ± 0.14; mean ± SE; p< 0.001). Diabetic fetal lungs appeared morphologically less mature than controls at 18 days' gestation, as shown by a significantly decreased air space density (0.27 ± 0.01 versus 0.43 ± 0.02, mean ± SE; p<0.001) and alveolar epithelial cell/total tissue ratio (0.54 ± 0.02 versus 0.66 ± 0.03, mean ± SE; p<0.01). The increased synthesis of lung disaturated phosphatidylcholine in diabetic fetal mice may reflect the enhancement of body and lung growth in these macrosomic fetuses. Lung maturation, as represented by phosphatidylglycerol synthesis, the phosphatidylglycerol/phosphatidylinositol ratio, and morphologic indices, was abnormal in diabetic fetuses. The diabetic mouse is a useful model for studying the mechanisms resulting in enhanced growth and concomitant alterations in lung maturation in the infant of a diabetic mother.
Correlation between Sequence-dependent Glycosylase Repair and the Thermal Stability of Oligonucleotide Duplexes Containing 1,N 6-Ethenoadenine

Abstract Previous experiments on DNA sequence context reported that base modification, replication, and repair are affected by the nature of neighbor bases. We now report that repair by mammalian alkylpurine-DNA-N-glycosylases (APNG) of 15-mer oligonucleotides with a central 1,N 6-ethenoadenine (eA), flanked by 5′ and 3′ tandem bases, is also highly sequence dependent. Oligonucleotides with the central sequences -GGeAGG- or -CCeACC- are repaired 3–5-fold more efficiently than those containing -AAeAAA- or -TTeATT- when using human or mouse APNG. Melting curves of the same duplexes showed that oligomers with G·C/C·G neighbors were less denatured than those with A·T/T·A neighbors at 37 °C. This sequence-dependent difference in denaturation correlates with the relative thermodynamic stability of oligomers with G·C/C·G or A·T/T·A neighbors. The dependence of repair on thermal stability was confirmed by enzyme reactions performed over 0–45 °C. Under these conditions, repair of eA flanked by G·C/C·G was dramatically increased at 37 °C with continuous increase up to 45 °C, in contrast to that with flanking A·T/T·A pairs, which was in agreement with the degree of denaturation of these duplexes. These results indicate that the thermodynamic stability conferred by base pairs flanking eA plays an essential role in maintaining the integrity of the duplex structure which is necessary for repair.
Adhesion molecule expression in CD5-negative/CD10-negative chronic B-cell leukemias: Comparison with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and CD5-positive B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia

The classification of CD5-negative/CD10-negative chronic B-cell leukemias (CD5-/CD10- CBL) can be problematic. Most of these cases may represent leukemic non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) other than B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (BCLL); nonetheless, some investigators still advocate the term "CD5-negative BCLL." Because adhesion molecule (AdMol) expression patterns reflect the biology of lymphoid neoplasms, we studied a series of 106 B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders, including CD5+ BCLL (n = 56), NHL other than BCLL (n = 35), and CD5-/CD10- CBL (excluding hairy cell leukemia and prolymphocytic leukemia) with no prior history of NHL (n = 15) for expression of components of the very late antigen-4 complex (alpha4/beta1 integrin (CD49d/CD29)), components of the mucosal addressin-cell adhesion molecule receptor (alpha4(CD49d)/beta7 integrin), and L-selectin (CD62L). CD62L expression was significantly greater in CD5+ BCLL than in NHL (P < .001). Conversely, CD29, CD49d, and beta7-integrin expression were significantly greater in NHL than in CD5+ BCLL (P < .001 for each marker). These differences persisted when only blood and bone marrow samples were analyzed, with the exception of differences in CD62L expression, which approached, but did not reach, statistical significance (P = .08). The group of CD5-/CD10- CBL displayed an AdMol profile similar to NHL and was significantly different than CD5+ BCLL in expression of beta7 integrin, CD29, CD49d, and CD62L (P range < .001-.011). In summary, CD5-/CD10- CBL display an AdMol profile resembling NHL and significantly different from CD5+ BCLL, supporting the growing notion that "CD5-negative BCLL" generally represents leukemic NHL rather than a variant of true CD5+ BCLL.
Air Weapons Systems Analysis

Continuous demands for improved performance plus broad technological advances have greatly increased the difficulties of determining the optimum design specifications for complex weapons systems. Difficulties arise from 1 the far-reaching effects of the initial specifications, 2 the long time interval between initial specifications and operational readiness, 3 the large number of major parameters involved and their complex interrelationships. A method for determining the design objectives most likely to optimize systems performance is described, the system a strategic-type bomber. This approach considers the bomber in terms of its military mission and the individual bomber characteristics in terms of their contributions to mission performance. Current results of past analysis are illustrated by the contemporary strategic bombers of the U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R.---the final arbiters of the soundness of weapons-systems analysis and the engineering decisions based thereon.
Dispersion Relations for the Weinberg pi pi Amplitudes

Symmetrized, forward dispersion relations with good convergence properties are used to provide a unitary extrapolation of the Weinberg (current algebra) amplitudes to the physical low-energy region. The extrapolated phase shifts tend to agree with experiment up to about 550 MeV. The dispersion integral unitarization increases Weinberg's $I=0$ scattering length from 0.21 to 0.24. We show that attempts to extrapolate data from above 400 MeV down to threshold using the effective-range formula lead to spurious (high) estimates of the Weinberg scattering lengths. A true test of the Weinberg hypothesis would require consistent data around 325 MeV.
Interaction between the MJO and Polar Circulations

AbstractA tropical–polar connection and its seasonal dependence are examined using the real-time multivariate Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) (RMM) index and daily indices for the annular modes, the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO). On the intraseasonal time scale, the MJO appears to force the annular modes in both hemispheres. On this scale, during the cold season, the convection in the Indian Ocean precedes the increase of the AO/AAO. Interestingly, during the boreal winter (Southern Hemisphere warm season), strong MJOs in the Indian Ocean are related to a decrease of the AAO index, and AO/AAO tendencies are out of phase. On the longer time scales, a persistent AO/AAO anomaly appears to influence the convection in the tropical belt and impact the distribution of MJO-preferred phases. It is shown that this may be a result of the sea surface temperature (SST) changes related to a persistent AO, with cooling over the Indian Ocean and warming over Indonesia. In the Southern Hemisp...