cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Is Everything Securities Fraud

Securities litigation is a virtually inevitable fact of life for any public company. Often, investors sue because the firm’s managers engaged in fraud that directly harmed the shareholders – say, by doctoring the firm’s financials, or lying about known business prospects. However, shareholders also sue their companies when those companies engage in conduct that primarily harms a different set of constituents. When a drug on the market proves to have dangerous side effects, a faulty car battery bursts into flames, or an oil rig explodes, it’s difficult to say that the most direct victims are the companies’ shareholders. Yet shareholders commonly sue under the federal securities laws based on precisely this kind of conduct, on the ground that the managers should have better disclosed the underlying facts, and investors were harmed by the resulting drop in stock price because they did not. In recent years, these cases, dubbed “event-driven securities litigation,” have become more common, and have drawn increasing criticism on the grounds that they are opportunistic and generally lack merit. However, there has so far been no comprehensive examination of these lawsuits. This paper seeks to fill the gap by investigating the prevalence and attributes of these lawsuits. In a sample from 2010-2015, I find that roughly 16.5% of securities class actions arise from conduct where the most direct victims are not shareholders. However, I find that these cases have roughly a 20% lower likelihood of being dismissed, and settle for significantly higher amounts. These lawsuits are also more likely to be brought against large defendant firms, more likely to involve an institutional investor as a lead plaintiff, and much more likely to involve a non-SEC investigation or inquiry than cases where the primary victims are shareholders. Many of these attributes are used in the literature as proxies for merit. However, I argue that the merit of these cases is not clear-cut. Further, from a policy perspective, while these cases may have deterrence value, they may not be an optimal means to monitor corporate misconduct that harms outsiders.
Variations in MHC class I antigen presentation and immunopeptidome selection pathways.

Major histocompatibility class I (MHC-I) proteins mediate immunosurveillance against pathogens and cancers by presenting antigenic or mutated peptides to antigen receptors of CD8+ T cells and by engaging receptors of natural killer (NK) cells. In humans, MHC-I molecules are highly polymorphic. MHC-I variations permit the display of thousands of distinct peptides at the cell surface. Recent mass spectrometric studies have revealed unique and shared characteristics of the peptidomes of individual MHC-I variants. The cell surface expression of MHC-I–peptide complexes requires the functions of many intracellular assembly factors, including the transporter associated with antigen presentation (TAP), tapasin, calreticulin, ERp57, TAP-binding protein related (TAPBPR), endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidases (ERAPs), and the proteasomes. Recent studies provide important insights into the structural features of these factors that govern MHC-I assembly as well as the mechanisms underlying peptide exchange. Conformational sensing of MHC-I molecules mediates the quality control of intracellular MHC-I assembly and contributes to immune recognition by CD8 at the cell surface. Recent studies also show that several MHC-I variants can follow unconventional assembly routes to the cell surface, conferring selective immune advantages that can be exploited for immunotherapy.
Abstract 635: Cholesterol Loading Increases the Size and Cholesterol Content of Nascent HDL Formed via the Interaction of Apo AI With Cellular ABCA1

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity and development of new therapies that address its underlying causes is an important public health priority. Although CVD neg...
Emerging applications of stimulated Raman scattering microscopy in materials science

Summary Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is a nonlinear Raman scattering process that can amplify Raman scattering by up to 108 times under modern microscopy configuration. SRS microscopy has emerged as a powerful chemical imaging technique due to its high chemical, spatial, and temporal resolution. While SRS microscopy was originally designed for biomedical applications, it has drawn increasingly more attention from the materials science community in recent years. The high-speed and high-chemical sensitivity of SRS are attractive for both high-throughput material characterizations and capturing transient dynamics in chemical transport and reactions. It has been explored in various topics, such as 2D materials, energy storage and conversion, and polymerizations with great success. In this review, we discuss principles, instrumentation, and current applications of SRS microscopy in materials science, followed by our perspectives on future exciting topics to be studied by SRS microscopy.
A novel Rayleigh-type viscoelastic Perfectly-Matched-Layer for wave propagation analysis: Formulation, implementation and application

Abstract The Perfectly-Matched-Layer (PML) has been recognized as a robust absorbing boundary condition and adopted in many research areas, such as electromagnetic, acoustic, and elastodynamic problems. In geotechnical engineering, the PML is widely utilized to mimic the soil domain’s semi-infinite extent, via efficiently absorbing the outgoing scattered waves, while regardless of their frequencies and directions. Up to date, most of the existing PMLs are designed for elastic soil media. In this research, we develop both two- and three-dimensional viscoelastic PMLs that incorporate the effects of Rayleigh damping. Detailed formulations of the viscoelastic PML are presented. The PML is then successfully implemented in ABAQUS through a user-defined element (UEL) subroutine. Comprehensive validation studies are conducted, including all 1D, 2D and 3D problems, homogeneous and layered half-space. Finally, as illustrations of applications of the proposed PMLs, we extract the impedance functions of two different foundation structures that embedded in/ rest on viscoelastic soil media with Rayleigh damping, by attaching the PML-truncated domain.
Property tax capitalization, a case study of Dallas County

Abstract We estimate the degree to which local property taxes are capitalized into house prices using administrative data from the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD) from 2014 to 2016. Capitalization rates are measured using a hedonic price regression model. To control for unobservable neighborhood characteristics, we employ a border discontinuity research design, restricting our sample to homes within half-mile blocks of jurisdictional boundaries. With respect to school district taxes, we estimate that more than 70 percent of the increase in the present value of property tax liabilities resulting from a tax increase is capitalized into current house prices. The null hypothesis of full capitalization cannot be rejected. For city taxes, capitalization rates are even larger. We also estimate the willingness to pay for public schools, finding that a one standard deviation increase in test scores results in a roughly four-percent increase in house prices.
Evaluation of the Filum Terminale in Hereditary Equine Regional Dermal Asthenia

The objectives of this study were to describe the anatomy, histology, and ultrastructure of the equine filum terminale (FT) and to describe the FT in hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HER...
Declined offers for deceased donor kidneys are not an independent reflection of organ quality

Background Deceased donor kidney offers are frequently declined multiple times before acceptance for transplantation, despite significant organ shortage and long waiting times. Whether the number of times a kidney has been declined, reflecting cumulative judgments of clinicians, is associated with long-term transplant outcomes remains unclear. Methods In this national, retrospective cohort study of deceased donor kidney transplants in the United States from 2008 to 2015 (n=78,940), we compared donor and recipient characteristics and short- and long-term graft and patient survival outcomes grouping by the sequence number at which the kidney was accepted for transplantation. We compared outcomes for kidneys accepted within the first seven offers in the match-run, after 8–100 offers, and for hard-to-place kidneys distinguishing those requiring >100 and >1000 offers before acceptance. Results Harder-to-place kidneys had lower donor quality and higher rates of delayed graft function (46% among kidneys requiring >1000 offers before acceptance versus 23% among kidneys with ≤7 offers). In unadjusted models, later sequence groups had higher hazard of all-cause graft failure, death-censored graft failure, and patient mortality; however, these associations were attenuated after adjusting for Kidney Donor Risk Index (KDRI). After adjusting for donor factors already taken into consideration during allocation, and recipient factors associated with long-term outcomes, graft, and patient survival outcomes were not significantly different for the hardest-to-place kidneys compared with the easiest-to-place kidneys, with the exception of death-censored graft failure (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.16, 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.28). Conclusion Late sequence offers may represent missed opportunities for earlier successful transplant for the higher-priority waitlisted candidates for whom the offers were declined.
Supporting learning about games

On the surface, it seems like teaching about games should be easy. After all, students are highly motivated, enjoy engaging with course content, and have extensive personal experience with videogames. However, games education can be surprisingly complex. I explore the question of what it means to understand games by looking at the challenges and problems faced by students who are taking games-related classes. My results suggest that learning about games can be challenging for multiple reasons. Some of the more relevant findings include realizing that extensive prior videogame experience often interferes with students’ abilities to reason critically and analytically about games, and that students have difficulties articulating their experiences and observations about games. In response to these challenges, my research explores how we can use online learning environments to support learning about games by (1) helping students get more from their experiences with games, and (2) helping students use what they know to establish deeper understanding. I explore each of these strategies through the design and use of two online learning environments: GameLog and the Game Ontology Wiki. GameLog is an online blogging environment designed to help students reflect on their game playing experiences. GameLog differs from traditional blogging environments because each user maintains multiple parallel blogs, with each blog devoted to a single game. The Game Ontology wiki provides a context for students to contribute and participate legitimately and authentically in the Game Ontology Project. The Game Ontology Project is a games studies research project that is creating a framework for describing, analyzing and studying games, by defining a hierarchy of concepts abstracted from an analysis of many specific games. GameLog and the Game Ontology Wiki were used in three university level games-related classes by more than 250 students. Results show that students found that participating in these online learning environments was a positive learning experience. In addition to improving their relationships to videogames as a medium, it also helped students broaden and deepen their understanding of videogames. Students also felt it provided them with a vehicle for expression, communication, and collaboration. Students found that by reflecting on their experiences playing games they began to understand how game design elements helped shape that experience. Most importantly, they stepped back from their traditional role of “gamers” or “fans” and engaged in reasoning critically and analytically about the games they were studying. In the case of GameLog, I show how blogging, in particular blogging about experiences of gameplay, can be a useful activity for supporting learning and understanding about games. For the Game Ontology Wiki, I show how it is possible to design learning environments that are approachable to learners, allow them to contribute legitimately to external communities of practice, and support visibility and access to the practices of a broader community.
Limbic correlates of fearlessness and disinhibition in incarcerated youth: Exploring the brain–behavior relationship with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version

The purpose of this study was to determine whether scores on two temperament dimensions (fearlessness and disinhibition) correlated differentially with gray matter volumes in two limbic regions (amygdala and hippocampus). It was predicted that the fearlessness dimension would correlate with low gray matter volumes in the amygdala and the disinhibition dimension would correlate with low gray matter volumes in the hippocampus after controlling for age, IQ, regular substance use, and total brain volume. Participants were 191 male adolescents (age range=13-19 years) incarcerated in a maximum-security juvenile facility. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis of the limbic and paralimbic regions of the brain was conducted. The temperament dimensions were estimated with items from the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV: Forth et al., 2003). Analyses showed that the fearlessness dimension correlated negatively with gray matter volumes in the amygdala and the disinhibition dimension correlated negatively with gray matter volumes in the hippocampus but not vice versa. These findings provide preliminary support for the construct validity of the fearlessness and disinhibition temperament dimensions and offer confirmatory evidence for involvement of the amygdala and hippocampus in fear conditioning and behavioral inhibition, respectively.
Video-assisted thoracoscopic stapled wedge excision for indeterminate pulmonary nodules

Between June 1991 and July 1992, 118 patients (57 men and 61 women) underwent video-assisted thoracoscopy for indeterminate pulmonary nodules. Median age was 64 years (range 30 to 85 years). Thoracotomy was performed in 33 patients (28.0%) after thoracoscopy only because the nodule could not be located in 17 patients, was too large to safely resect in 5, appeared malignant in 4, and for technical reasons in 7. Eighty-five patients underwent thoracoscopic wedge excision. Twenty-one (24.7%) of these 85 patients also had thoracotomy—15 to perform formal lung resection for bronchogenic carcinoma, 3 for nondiagnostic abnormalities, 2 to locate a second nodule, and 1 for stapler malfunction. The remaining 64 patients (54.2%) had only video-assisted thoracoscopic wedge excision. A single wedge excision was performed in 56 patients, two in 6, and three in 2. Pathologic examination of these 74 nodules revealed a granuloma in 30, metastatic cancer in 25, hamartoma in 7, lymphoma in 1, and other benign lesions in 11. There were no deaths and only 4 (6.3%) complications in these 64 patients. The 64 patients treated by thoracoscopy only were compared with a similar group of 64 patients who had wedge excision via thoracotomy without prior thoracoscopy. Postoperative analgesic requirements were less in the patients treated by thoracoscopy. Median hospitalization in the thoracoscopy group was 3 days compared with 6 days in the thoracotomy group (p J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1993;106:1048-52)
Design Spaces for Sociotechnical Systems

This conceptual paper is a step toward bridging the gap between thinking of systems as tools that are used and thinking of systems as sociotechnical systems with human participants. Its description of design spaces for sociotechnical systems applies a work system perspective. Its theory of sociotechnical design encompasses planned and unplanned change in those work systems. Its overall approach supports analysis and design at various levels of depth without implicitly biasing the result toward non-technical or technical aspects of the situation. The work system approach to sociotechnical design provides a path for going far beyond simple relationships between function and form. This paper summarizes aspects of that path, including: • Framework for summarizing work systems within organizations; • A theory of sociotechnical design; • Decomposition of work systems into subsystems and their interactions; • Parallel application of multiple design spaces organized around work system elements. The paper concludes by listing advantages of its approach to sociotechnical design.
The secrecy capacity of minimum bandwidth cooperative regenerating codes

Regenerating codes enable trading off repair bandwidth for storage in distributed storage systems (DSS). Due to their distributed nature, these systems are intrinsically susceptible to attacks, and they may be susceptible to multiple node failures. This paper analyzes storage systems that employ cooperative regenerating codes that are robust to passive eavesdroppers, and proposes codes achieving the secrecy capacity for the minimum bandwidth cooperative regenerating point. The achievability results correspond to exact repair, and secure file size upper bounds are obtained using mincut analyses over a suitable secrecy graph representation of DSS. The main achievability argument is based on appropriate precoding of the data using MRD (Gabidulin) codes to eliminate any information leakage to the eavesdropper.
Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks in the east-central Sierra Nevada, California: Correlation with Great Basin formations

Rock type, stratigraphic sequence, and associated fossils in metamorphic rocks exposed in roof pendants near Big Pine and Bishop, California, allow, for the first time, detailed correlation of Sierran metasedimentary rocks with Paleozoic formations in the Great Basin. The Big Pine pendant rocks are correlative with the Lower Cambrian Poleta Formation and represent shelf facies. Rocks of the eastern Bishop Creek pendant also represent predominantly shelf facies, and correlate with Ordovician and Silurian strata of the Inyo Range. These correlations place the early Paleozoic shelf margin west or northwest of the Bishop Creek pendant; they indicate that major structural features do not exist between the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin at this latitude and substantiate the model that depicts these rocks as Cordilleran miogeoclinal strata.
Squinting with the mind's eye: effects of stimulus resolution on imaginal and perceptual comparisons.

Subjects either viewed or visualized arrays that were divided into four quadrants, with each quadrant containing a set of stripes. In two experiments, one array contained only relatively narrow (highresolution) stripes, and one contained only relatively thick (low-resolution) stripes. The subjects compared sets of stripes in different quadrants according to their length, spacing, orientation, or width. When the subjects visualized the arrays, they required much more time to compare high-resolution patterns than low-resolution patterns; when the subjects saw the arrays, they evaluated both types of arrays equally easily. In addition, the results from the third experiment provide strong evidence that people use imagery in this task; in one condition, the subjects evaluated oblique sets of stripes, and in another condition, they evaluated vertical and horizontal stripes. In both imagery and perception, the subjects made more errors when evaluating oblique stimuli; in imagery, they also required more time to evaluate oblique stimuli. The results suggest that additional effort is required in imagery to represent visual patterns with high resolution. This finding demonstrates that, although imagery and perception may activate common brain regions, it is more difficult to represent high-resolution information in imagery than in perception.
EQUIVALENCE OF PERTURBATION-THEORY TECHNIQUES AND THE BETHE--SALPETER EQUATION FOR SUMMING FEYNMAN DIAGRAMS.

Polkinghorne's exact perturbation-theory equation for the leading Regge trajectory resulting from an infinite sum of ladder diagrams is shown to be mathematically equivalent to the partial-wave Bethe-Salpeter equation. Thus, the perturbation-theory equation can be used not only for the leading Regge trajectory, but for all secondary trajectories as well.
Joint Tactical Radio System: Tactical Network Planning and Management

The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is the tactical edge communications system and a key enabler for the Department of Defense's (DoD)'s migration toward a Net-Centric Warfare vision. JTRS provides a family of next generation, software-defined military radios that will support future battlefield tactical communications for all services. JTRS is the tactical edge supporting the GiG's net-centric environment; therefore the Network Management tool(s) for JTRS can not work as a stovepipe environment. Network Management at the tactical level must move towards a universal approach for Network Planning and Management. This is a change from today's tactical networks. The effectiveness of the JTRS portion of network centric warfare will depend largely on the operator's ability to plan complex mobile networks, share the network planning data across a joint battlefield, view network performance data and provide situational awareness data across the different tiers of the JTRS networks. The future JTRS network management tool must enable the war-fighter to operate in this net-Centric environment without overburdening the network planners and mangers with unachievable complexity.
Macrophage suppression by a low-molecular-weight fraction of murine spleen cell culture supernatant

Abstract Macrophage suppression has been reported to be mediated by a component of murine serum. The present investigation involves in vitro production of this macrophage modulator (suppressor) by concanavalin A-stimulated murine spleen cells. Spleen cell culture supernatant containing this suppressor, which has been called macrophage suppressor factor (MSF), caused a significant decrease in in vitro phagocytosis of Listeria monocytogenes by resident murine peritoneal macrophages. The molecular weight of MSF was determined by ultrafiltration to be less than 10,000, and the suppressor activity of MSF was not altered by heating at 100 °C for 30 min or storage at −70 °C for 6 months. MSF is resistant to treatment with Pronase E, but is, however, sensitive to acid hydrolysis. Activity of MSF in spleen cell culture supernatants from normal mice does not differ from that in supernatants from mice immunized with L. monocytogenes . It was determined that MSF is not affected by antigenic stimulation and is apparently produced constitutively.
Synthesis of α-halo and α-deuterio-β-lactams

A convenient synthesis of 3,3-dibromo-2-azetidinones involves the reaction of an imine with the trimethylsilyl ester of tribromoacetic acid and triphenylphosphine; reduction with η-Bu3SnH and ηBu3SnD can be controlled to lead to cis-3-bromo-2-azetidinones, and cis or trans 3-deuterio-2-azetidinones.
Identity of the calmodulin-binding proteins in bovine lens plasma membranes

Abstract Two bovine lens plasma membrane proteins have been identified that bind calmodulin in a Ca2−-dependent fashion. Electrophoretic analysis of lens membrane proteins photoaffinity-labeled with benzophenone[125I]calmodulin confirmed our previous observation [Louis, Johnson and Turnquist (1985) Eur. J. Biochem. 150, 271-8] that two major products are formed with Mr = 46 kDa and 36 kDa. Limited proteolysis of lens membrane proteins with chymotrypsin resulted in the formation of a 21-kDa-fragment that was derived from the hydrolysis of the major lens membrane protein MP 26; this correlated with the loss of the 46-kDa complex, and the formation of a 41-kDa photoaffinity-labeled complex. Use of the [125I]calmodulin gel overlay procedure confirmed that the 46-kDa and 41-kDa photoaffinity-labeled complexes reflect the interaction of calmodulin with both MP26 and its 21-kDa chymotryptic fragment, respectively. Proteolysis of lens membranes with higher concentrations of chymotrypsin resulted in the hydrolysis of the 18-kDa protein which correlated with the generation of a 12-kDa fragment; this paralleled the loss of the 36-kDa photoaffinity labeled complex and the formation of a 28-kDa-complex. The [125I]calmodulin gel overlay procedure demonstrated that the 36-kDa and 28-kDa photoaffinity-labeled complexes reflect the interaction of calmodulin with the 18-kDa lens membrane protein and its likely 12-kDa chymotryptic fragment, respectively, Identification of these calmodulin-binding proteins suggests that MP26 and the 18-kDa membrane protein are likely candidates for the proposed calcium sensitive, calmodulin-dependent gating of lens fiber cell junctions.
Hibernating Myocardium Has Reduced Blood Flow at Rest That Increases With Low-Dose Dobutamine

Hibernating myocardium1 2 3 was defined by Hearse4 as “exquisitely regulated tissue successfully adapting its activity to prevailing circumstances.” Ross5 has described it as perfusion-contraction matching−which it is; however, in the normal heart and probably also in one with infarction and a high degree of interstitial fibrosis and of myocytes with myolysis or loss of sarcomeres, there is also a match between perfusion and contraction.6 7 Ross also suggested that “acute” experimental studies of hibernation be called short-term hibernation. In 1986, Braunwald and Rutherford8 endorsed the concept of HM, believed it was an appropriate use of the term, and confirmed its occurrence in patients. As a result, the subsequent decade has seen (1) a great deal of basic and clinical research in this area, (2) a reassessment of the definition of ischemia,4 (3) development and assessment of tests for diagnosis of HM, and (4) better treatment of patients. However, much work still needs to be done. In the current issue of Circulation, the group from UCLA9 who have made major contributions to HM present data that contribute to an understanding of the response to dobutamine and document reduced resting MBF in HM. Their conclusion that functionally impaired though normally perfused myocardium frequently exists in patients with coronary artery disease is problematic. In the early 1970s, with use of inotropic agents (epinephrine, isoproterenol, and postextrasystolic potentiation) and contrast ventriculography, it was documented that resting wall motion abnormalities may improve10 11 12 and that this improvement was predictive of subsequent improvement with coronary bypass surgery.13 14 15 The study of Sun and coworkers9 from UCLA, using the inotropic agent dobutamine and two-dimensional echocardiography, confirms that patients with perfusion-metabolism mismatch (HM) determined by PET have an inotropic and an attenuated coronary vasodilator reserve, …
Fish brain cholinesterase: its inhibition by carbamates and automatic assay.

Abstract 1. 1. A rapid automatic system has been developed to assay the normal brain AChE of the shiner perch ( Cymatogaster aggregata Gibbons) which is also suitable for the demonstration of in vivo and in vitro inhibition by cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticide. 2. 2. The acetylthiocholine-hydrolyzing activity of the shiner perch brain was found to be maily AChE; much less activity was attributed to non-specific esterases and ChE. 3. 3. The optimal conditions of assay were determined and some characteristics kinetic parameters are reported ( K m , optimal pH, temperature and substrate concentration). 4. 4. The AChE activity of the shiner perch brain was found to be activated by Na + , K + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Mn 2+ ions and to be inhibited by Ni 2+ , Cu 2+ , Pb 2+ , Hg 2+ and Fe 3+ ions. 5. 5. Some activation of the AChE activity was noted with 1-butanol. 6. 6. Differences were noted in the relative I 50 values of some cabamate insecticides found for fish brain AChE versus that reported for insect AChE.
Reversible findings of restricted diffusion in 5-flourouracil neurotoxicity

A 35-year-old woman presented with neurotoxicity correlated to an i.v. regimen of 5-fluorouracil as episodes of acute confusional state and abnormalities of symmetrically restricted diffusion in the periventricular white matter and corpus callosum. On discontinuing the medication, the areas of severely restricted diffusion had entirely resolved, with minimal residual T2 signal abnormality. In this case, immediate discontinuation of the chemotherapeutic agent apparently reversed the patient's symptoms and findings on MRI. The scant information available in the published literature regarding this phenomenon is reviewed with regard to 5-fluorouracil.
Poorer frontolimbic white matter integrity is associated with chronic cannabis use, FAAH genotype, and increased depressive and apathy symptoms in adolescents and young adults

Background The heaviest period of cannabis use coincides with ongoing white matter (WM) maturation. Further, cannabis-related changes may be moderated by FAAH genotype (rs324420). We examined the association between cannabis use and FAAH genotype on frontolimbic WM integrity in adolescents and emerging adults. We then tested whether observed WM abnormalities were linked with depressive or apathy symptoms.
Are menstruating women protected from heart disease because of, or in spite of, estrogen? Relevance to the iron hypothesis.

Healthy premenopausal women are largely protected from ischemic heart disease, but, remarkably, so are women with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) (Figure 1). Thirty-year-old men with heterozygous FH have an excess of cardiovascular events in comparison with unaffected men. In sharp contrast, their 30-year-old sisters who have heterozygous FH have disease rates that are not readily distinguishable from those of unaffected women (Figure 2). In Figure 2, women younger than 40 years with FH had slightly lower incidences than unaffected women. After menopausal age, women with FH demonstrate susceptibility to heart disease, with an incidence increase that quickly surpasses that of their unaffected male relatives. Other than a delayed onset of clinical disease, women who have heterozygous FH have a life-long lipid phenotype identical to or, perhaps, slightly more severe than that of men with heterozygous FH. According to the estrogen hypothesis, this impressive protection is lost because healthy women, and women with FH, become estrogen-deficient after menopause. It follows that replacement of the missing protective element with hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) should eliminate susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. However, HRT did not reduce cardiovascular events or atherosclerosis in randomized trials. The magnitude of the effects in the randomized trials is trivial in relation to the large protective effect of the factor that benefits both healthy women and women with FH. With the failure of the estrogen-based explanation for the protection of menstruating women, the pattern of disease in healthy women and in women with heterozygous FH emerges as an important anomaly that is not accounted for by changes in traditional risk factors. Cardiovascular protection despite a grossly unfavorable lipid phenotype suggests not only that the protective factor is powerful, but also that it does not operate through a lipid-related mechanism. This pattern argues against the earlier view that estrogen is the protective factor because of the effects of estrogen on the lipid profile. Randomized trials of HRT in women without FH show that estrogen or the combination of estrogen and a progestin significantly improves lipid profiles, but fails to protect against atherosclerosis or cardiovascular events.
The effects of eye fixation and stimulus and response location on the contingent negative variation (CNV)

Abstract Vertex and parietal cortical slow waves and horizontal and vertical eye movement were recorded from 16 male subjects. Each subject was run in four constant-foreperiod reaction time conditions, in which the location of the auditory stimulus (speaker position above or below; to the subject's left or right) and the presence or absence of an eye focusing light was varied. Eye movements were unrelated to stimulus location, but were correlated with the position of the response key. Eye fixation resulted in reduced eye movement; however, it markedly reduced the cortical potential (CNV), unless the fixation light also served as the imperative stimulus. The relationship of eyeblinks and eye movement to the CNV was shown to be complex, and no method provided perfect correction for this artifact. The study also demonstrated the biphasic character of the cortical potential during the RT foreperiod. An early negative phase is apparently related to signal stimulus orientation, and habituates over trials; a separate, later negativity, appearing just before the imperative stimulus, appears to be the true CNV.
Excess body fat in men decreases plasma fatty acid availability and oxidation during endurance exercise

The effect of relative body fat mass on exercise-induced stimulation of lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation was evaluated in 15 untrained men (5 lean, 5 overweight, and 5 obese with body mass indexe...
The Bolt Bearing Response and Tensile Deformation Capacity of Plates Made from a Titanium Alloy

In this article, the bearing capacity and elongation characteristics of bolt holes in a titanium alloy (i.e., Ti-6Al-4V) deformed in uniaxial tension is presented and discussed. The specific role played by bolt hole confinement on bearing capacity is highlighted. The nature of final fracture is examined and the intrinsic features present on the fracture surface are rationalized in concurrence with macroscopic mechanical response. The behavior of the candidate alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) is compared with conventionally preferred and chosen candidate materials steel and aluminum alloys. An empirical relationship suitable for purpose of structural design is proposed.
Computational design of SiO-based spectral selective radiating film

Silicon-monoxide (SiO) film on aluminum (Al) substrate is known as one of the spectral selective radiating materials that utilizes selective infrared emission through the atmospheric window (8-13 micrometers ). Nevertheless, the radiative cooling power of them is rather low comparing to that of black body which is ranging from 60 to 100 W/m2, depending on the model of the atmosphere and the humidity. In other words, the sky radiator must have a considerably large are film with homogeneous thickness. This is the reason why it is difficult to put the radiative cooling idea to practical use. To attempt a solution of this problem, we have examined some silicon composite films and/or their multilayers on aluminum substrate by numerical calculation. The main results are following: (1) (SiO + Si)/SiO film with adequate thickness shows the best result to obtain the high power radiative cooling. The radiative cooling power at room temperature (300 K) is expected to be about 20% larger, and the obtainable temperature drop to be about 10% larger than that of SiO single film on Al. (2) The difficulty of deposition of the coating with large area and homogeneous thickness can be overcome by use of porous SiO stacked film whose optical properties are not so influenced by the film thickness. If we couple the above mentioned materials with cover films of high reflectance for solar radiation and high transmittance in atmospheric window region, the radiative cooling may be more realistic even under direct daylighting.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Studies on the Experimental Production and Prevention of Bloat in Cattle. III. The Effect of Vegetable Oil and Animal Fat on Acute Legume Bloat

Summary The influence of animal and vegetable fats on ruminal motility, eructation, and bloat has been investigated in dairy cattle receiving freshly harvested alfalfa tops under laboratory and feed-lot conditions. Five eructation and rumen motility trials were conducted on a nonlactating cow having a transected trachea and a ruminal fistula. It was found that the administration of vegetable oil before alfalfa feeding prevented the development of bloat symptoms. Oil administered during the development of bloat increased the rate of eructation and the volume of gas expelled and reduced intrarumen pressure within 15 min. In the feed-lot trials, eight intact cows, selected for bloat susceptibility, were fed freshly chopped alfalfa with and without the addition of fat. Three types of feeding regimes were followed using reversal type experiments: (1) alfalfa alone; (2) alfalfa containing vegetable oil added at the rate of 1 ml. per pound, and (3) a prefeeding of a concentrate mixture containing various levels of animal tallows followed by alfalfa. The incidence and severity of bloat were estimated with a tympanometer. Fat intakes in excess of 0.06 lb. per head per feeding period prevented bloat for the period immediately following their administration. Bloat prevention was accompanied by a marked and statistically significant increase in alfalfa consumption. These effects did not carry over to the subsequent feeding period, even at intakes of 0.5 lb. of tallow per head. It is concluded that foaming of the rumen ingesta is an important factor in the etiology of acute legume bloat. Rumen motility studies indicate that there is a sufficient number of secondary (eructation) contractions occurring during the development of bloat to relieve the pressure, if the cardia can be cleared of foam. Animal and vegetable fats prevent acute legume bloat by exerting such an effect.
Lesions and virus accumulation in inoculated transgenic tobacco plants expressing the coat protein gene of tobacco mosaic virus.

The objective of this work was to identify steps in virus infection which were inhibited in transgenic tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) that express the coat protein (CP) gene of the U, strain of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). These plants were shown to be protected against disease development after inoculation with U,-TMV (P. Powell Abel, R. S. Nelson, B. De, N. Hoffman, S. G. Rogers, R. T. Fraley, and R. N. Beachy, 1986, Science 232, 738-743). Experiments were also conducted to allow comparison between the protection observed for the transgenic plants and cross-protection. In addition to protection against U1-TMV, the CP-expressing transgenic plants were protected against symptom development of infection after inoculation with a severe TMV strain, PV230, a strain which is immunologically related to the U1 strain. The numbers of chlorotic lesions produced on inoculated leaves of CID-expressing transgenic Xanthi plants infected with PV230 were 30%-or-less of those on leaves of control plants. Likewise necrotic lesion numbers produced on inoculated leaves of CP-expressing transgenic Xanthi 'nc' plants infected with U1 were 5%-or-less of those on leaves of control plants. Virus accumulation in the inoculated leaves of the CP-expressing Xanthi plants was substantially lower than that in leaves of control plants and thus correlated well with the lesion numbers. These results indicate that the delay in disease development includes prevention of virus accumulation in the inoculated leaves. Furthermore, there was a substantial reduction in accumulation of virus in the first leaf above the inoculated leaves in transgenic plants compared with control plants. Inoculation with viral RNA rather than virus largely overcame the protection, leading to the conclusion that the presence of the CID on virus particles in the challenge inoculum was necessary for maximum protection. As shown by these studies, expression of the TMV-CP coding sequence in transgenic plants mimics several of the characteristics of classical cross-protection previously reported by other researchers. We therefore refer to the protection observed for the transgenic plants as "genetically engineered cross-protection."
Pharmacogenetic characteristics of the eosinophilia‐myalgia syndrome

This study tested the hypothesis that patterns of xenobiotic metabolism in patients with eosinophiliamyalgia syndrome (EMS) differed from healthy control subjects. We determined the genotypes of 27 EMS patients with EMS and 114 control subjects for the cytochrome P450 CYP2D6 polymorphism. The metabolic phenotypes of patients with EMS for S-mephenytoin hydroxylation (n = 17) and dapsone acetylation (n = 19) were determined and compared with 29 healthy control subjects. The incidence of the CYP2D6 poor metabolizer genotype (mutant/mutant) was 0.185 in patients with EMS and 0.061 in control subjects (Mantel-Haenszel, χ2 = 7.213, p = 0.007). The mephenytoin S/R ratios were 0.39 ± 0.23 in patients with EMS versus 0.18 ± 0.13 in control subjects (p≤ 0.005). There was no difference in dapsone acetylation between the two groups. A pattern of xenobiotic metabolism may play a role in the pathogenesis of EMS, but the precise role that it plays remains unclear. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1994) 56, 398–405; doi:10.1038/clpt.1994.154
The bagworm, Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis: a model system for studying the principles of insect population dynamics.

With the current trend towards pest management systems to control insects it is essential that students in entomology understand the principles of insect population dynamics. These elementary units should be prime constituents of every course in general entomology, economic entomology, insect ecology, and biological control. Unfortunately, students are often instructed on the principles of population dynamics in the classroom and not from direct experience in the field where the learning process should take place.
Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

ABSTRACTPurpose: After the pioneering period when only few teams were performing the procedure, the laparoscopic approach to radical prostatectomy has become widespread with several technical varia...
Lysyl Hydroxylase 3-mediated Glucosylation in Type I Collagen: MOLECULAR LOCI AND BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE*

Recently, by employing the short hairpin RNA technology, we have generated MC3T3-E1 (MC)-derived clones stably suppressing lysyl hydroxylase 3 (LH3) (short hairpin (Sh) clones) and demonstrated the LH3 function as glucosyltransferase in type I collagen (Sricholpech, M., Perdivara, I., Nagaoka, H., Yokoyama, M., Tomer, K. B., and Yamauchi, M. (2011) Lysyl hydroxylase 3 glucosylates galactosylhydroxylysine residues in type I collagen in osteoblast culture. J. Biol. Chem. 286, 8846–8856). To further elucidate the biological significance of this modification, we characterized and compared type I collagen phenotypes produced by Sh clones and two control groups, MC and those transfected with empty vector. Mass spectrometric analysis identified five glycosylation sites in type I collagen (i.e. α1,2-87, α1,2-174, and α2-219. Of these, the predominant glycosylation site was α1-87, one of the major helical cross-linking sites. In Sh collagen, the abundance of glucosylgalactosylhydroxylysine was significantly decreased at all of the five sites with a concomitant increase in galactosylhydroxylysine at four of these sites. The collagen cross-links were significantly diminished in Sh clones, and, for the major cross-link, dihydroxylysinonorleucine (DHLNL), glucosylgalactosyl-DHLNL was diminished with a concomitant increase in galactosyl-DHLNL. When subjected to in vitro incubation, in Sh clones, the rate of decrease in DHLNL was lower, whereas the rate of increase in its maturational cross-link, pyridinoline, was comparable with controls. Furthermore, in Sh clones, the mean diameters of collagen fibrils were significantly larger, and the onset of mineralized nodule formation was delayed when compared with those of controls. These results indicate that the LH3-mediated glucosylation occurs at the specific molecular loci in the type I collagen molecule and plays critical roles in controlling collagen cross-linking, fibrillogenesis, and mineralization. Background: Type I collagen is the most abundant organic component in bone, providing form and stability. Results: Lysyl hydroxylase 3-mediated glucosylation occurs at specific sites in collagen, including cross-linking sites, and suppression of this modification results in defective collagen and mineralization. Conclusion: The data indicate the critical importance of this modification in bone physiology. Significance: Alterations of this collagen modification may cause bone defects.
Effects of red cell permeability on transcapillary tracer transport: The case of negligible back diffusion

Estimates of capillary tracer permeability calculated using multiple indicator data depend upon the particular model adopted to describe blood tissue exchange. The model proposed by Crone (1963) is appropriate when some of the injected tracer diffuses into the tissue but does not return appreciably to the bloodstream before data collection is terminated. Under these conditions extraction of tracer by the tissue depends on a single dimensionless parameter, αcap, defined as the ratio of capillary permeability surface area to water flow. The effects of finite red cell tracer permeability on the Crone model estimate of capillary permeability are examined in the present study. The results indicate that even when back diffusion from the extravascular space is negligible, significant errors in the Crone model estimate can be expected when capillary permeability is relatively high and the ratio of red cell to capillary permeability is less than unity. However, when an aliquot of blood is equilibrated with tracer prior to injection and the dimensionless capillary permeability is relatively low (i.e. αcap ≦ 0.25 for a haematocrit≦50%), the whole blood Crone model estimate of αcap will be within 10% of the actual value, irrespective of red cell permeability. Red cell-plasma exchange for commonly used tracer-organ combinations should not significantly affect Crone estimates of capillary permeability under normal physiological conditions, but may be important in low flow situations.
Selective laser sintering of alumina with polymer binders

The selective laser sintering (SLS) process is used to prepare test bars from Al2O3/polymer binder powders. Finds that binder‐coated A12O3 particles formed bars that were approximately twice as strong as could be formed from mixtures of alumina and polymer binder at the same binder level and processing conditions. In mixed systems, bar strengths increased nearly in proportion to increases in polymer binder content over the 20‐40 per cent volume binder range. Parts made in any particular laser scanning mode showed optimum values for strength and density as the laser energy density was systematically increased from 2‐8cal/cm2. Suggests that optima result from the counteracting influences of energy density on binder fusion and thermal degradation. The optimum energy density is mode or geometry sensitive and shifts to lower values as the laser scanning vector is reduced. Concludes that this behaviour is probably the result of the lower heat losses. Equivalently better utilization of laser energy is associated with the shorter scan vectors. Some of the SLS fabricated bars were infiltrated with colloidal alumina, fired to remove the binder, and sintered at 1,600°C to achieve alumina bars with 50 per cent relative densities, interconnected porosity, and strengths between 2 and 8MPa.