cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Radiation-associated malignant tumors of the chest wall

Background: Malignant postirradiation cancers of the chest wall are uncommon, and data concerning results of treatment are sparse. We assessed patient characteristics as well as prognostic factors of these tumors compared with those arising de novo and analyzed treatment results of both groups. Methods: Records of 361 patients with primary malignant tumors of the chest wall admitted to our institution between 1949 and 1989 were reviewed retrospectively. Previous radiotherapy to the site of the tumor was noted with latency period and dose. Survival was calculated via the Kaplan-Meier method, and comparisons of survival were made by log-rank analysis. Results: In 351 patients with primary malignant tumors of the chest wall, 21 lesions (6%) arose in an irradiated field. Eighty-eight patients had chondrosarcoma (age range 5–86 years, median 49; male:female [M:F] ratio 1.3:1), two cases of which arose in an irradiated field; 38 patients had osteosarcoma (age range 11–78 years, median 42; M:F ratio 1.5:1), 11 cases (29%) of which arose in an irradiated field; 149 patients had soft-tissue sarcoma (age range 1–86 years, median 38; M:F ratio 2:1) seven cases (5%) of which arose in an irradiated field; 52 patients had Ewing's sarcoma (age range 2–39 years, median 16; M:F ratio 1.6:1) no cases of which arose in an irradiated field; and 24 patients had a solitary plasmacytoma (age range 37–75 years, median 59; M:F ratio 2.4:1) one case (5%) of which arose in an irradiated field. Prior radiotherapy had been performed for Hodgkin's disease (n=8), breast cancer (n=5), and various other indications (n=8). The maximum radiation dose administered ranged from 1,250 to 9,500 cGy (median 4,140). The latency period from previous irradiation to diagnosis ranged from 2 to 19 years (median 7). The primary therapy of all radiation-associated tumors was resection, except for three patients. There was no significant difference in survival between those malignant chest wall tumors arising in an irradiated field compared with those arising de novo. Conclusions: Twenty-nine percent of patients with primary osteosarcoma and 2–5% of patients with primary chondrosarcoma, soft-tissue sarcoma, or plasmacytoma of the chest wall seen at this institution have a tumor arising in the field of prior irradiation. Because the outcome after operative therapy appears to be similar, these patients should be offered identical treatment to those whose tumors arise de novo.
Modelling the effect of shelterbelts on maize productivity under climate change : An application of the EPIC model

Abstract The potential of shelterbelts to ameliorate climate change induced crop stress, particularly in semi-arid regions such as the North American Great Plains, is examined. Specifically, the microlimate effects of shelterbelts, synthesized from empirical studies in the literature, are inserted into the Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) crop model to simulate the response of dryland maize to shelter at The University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development Center (ARDC) near Mead, Nebraska. Though lack of extensive observed maize yield data precluded rigorous validation, the shelterbelt version of EPIC and a version simulating an unsheltered control were tested with 2 years of observed maize yield data from ARDC. EPIC underpredicted the observed ratio of shelter to open field maize yields as expected because not all benefits of shelter to crops can be incorporated into EPIC. However, the two versions correctly simulated the magnitude of difference in the shelterbelt to open field ratios between the 2 years. The two EPIC versions were then subjected to prescribed increments to temperature, and increments/decrements to precipitation and windspeed to examine differences in crop productivity between the two EPIC versions. The results show that simulated shelter increases dryland maize yields above corresponding unsheltered yields for almost all levels of climate change. The model results suggest that shelterbelts provide a night-time cooling that partially compensates the tendency of warming to shorten the growing season. They also suggest that evapotranspiration is reduced in shelter, thus reducing crop moisture stress. The positive effect of shelter on dryland maize at all levels of temperature increase is greatest for the most severe changes: maximum precipitation deficiency and greatest increase in windspeed. Despite methodological limitations, the findings suggest that shelterbelts may afford important protection from climate warming.
The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Series: A National Longitudinal Study of Health and Well-being

Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) is a national longitudinal study of health and well-being ( http://midus.wisc.edu/ ). It was conceived by a multidisciplinary team of scholars interested in understanding aging as an integrated bio-psycho-social process, and as such it includes data collected in a wide array of research protocols using a variety of survey and non-survey instruments. The data captured by these different protocols (comprising around 20,000 variables) represent survey measures, cognitive assessments, daily stress diaries, clinical, biomarker and neuroscience data which are contained in separate flat or stacked data files with a common ID system that allows easy data merges among them. All MIDUS datasets and documentation are archived at the ICPSR ( http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ ) repository at the University of Michigan and are publicly available in a variety of formats and statistical packages. Special attention is given to providing clear user-friendly documentation; the study has embraced the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata standard and produces DDI-Lifecycle compliant codebooks. Potential for secondary use of MIDUS is high and actively encouraged. The study has become very popular with the research public as measured by data downloads and citation counts (see Reuse Potential below).
Real-or-random Key Secrecy of the Otway-Rees Protocol via a Symbolic Security Proof

We present the first cryptographically sound security proof of the well-known Otway-Rees protocol. More precisely, we show that the protocol is secure against arbitrary active attacks including concurrent protocol runs if it is implemented using provably secure cryptographic primitives. We prove secrecy of the exchanged keys with respect to the accepted cryptographic definition of real-or-random secrecy, i.e., indistinguishability of exchanged keys and random ones, given the view of a general cryptographic attacker. Although we achieve security under cryptographic definitions, our proof is performed in a deterministic setting corresponding to a slightly extended Dolev-Yao model; in particular, it does not have to deal with probabilistic aspects of cryptography and is hence in the scope of current proof tools. The reason is that we exploit a recently proposed ideal cryptographic library, which has a provably secure cryptographic implementation, as well as recent results on linking symbolic and cryptographic key secrecy. Besides establishing the cryptographic security of the Otway-Rees protocol, our result also exemplifies the potential of this cryptographic library and the recent secrecy preservation theorem for symbolic yet cryptographically sound proofs of security.
The Effect of Sentence Context on the Stability of Phonemic and Semantic Memory Dimensions.

Phonemic and semantic memory dimensions of words presented in sentence or non-sentence context are examined with an eye toward evaluating the relationship between multistage models of memory and sentence word encoding. The former implicitly assume that short-term memories contain phonemic information while long-term memories contain semantic information. Results from a modified probe recognition task, in which the sound or meaning of a word is the unit of recognition, show that semantic information dissipates far more rapidly than phonemic, except within a sentence context. This is inconsistent with a hypothesis of semantic dominance of long-term memory.
The Snark is a Boojum: the continuing problem of drug resistance in the antiangiogenic era

ABSTRACT If your Snark be a Snark, that is right: Fetch it home by all means—you may serve it with greens, And it’s handy for striking a light... “But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day, If your Snark be a Boojum! For then You will softly and suddenly vanish away, And never be met with again!” Lewis Carroll The Hunting of the Snark
Studies concerning the regional lymph node in cancer. VI. Correlation of lymphocyte transformation of regional node cells and some histopathologic discriminants.

Regional nodes from patients with mammary carcinoma exhibited greater sinus histiocytosis and less lymph follicles than those from persons with colonic carcinoma. These latter tumors contained more lymphoid infiltrate, and their component cells had higher nuclear grades than breast carcinomas. Differences in the relationship of these histopathologic parameters with lymphocyte transformation of RLNCs in these two tumor types indicates the singularity of neoplasms of diverse origins. Lower nuclear grade and mild lymphoid infiltrate of mammary carcinoma were associated with nodal lymph follicle formation and the converse with the absence of such nodal structures. No significant differences in these histopathological discriminants were observed in patients with or without nodal metastases. Lymphocyte transformation of RLNCs from patients with mammary carcinoma was increased in those in whom their carcinomas were of low nuclear grade and contained only mild degrees of lymphoid infiltrate. These findings suggest that nuclear grade and lymphoid infiltrates may be differently related to tumor host responses than previously contended. No functional or other relationships could be discerned for sinus histiocytosis. Ultrastructurally, cells comprising this latter lesion appeared as banal macrophages. Activated lymphocytes appeared to represent the morphological analog of lymphocyte transformation.
Gridlock in the Government of the United States: Influence of Divided Government and Veto Players

David Mayhew’s Divided We Govern significantly challenged the conventional wisdom of the adversarial effect of divided government on government effectiveness in the United States. While the post-Mayhewian literature has been centred on legislative productivity as a measure of gridlock, gridlock is here defined as an ‘inability to change policy’. In this study, the preferences of the legislators, such as the filibuster, override and House median veto players are plotted in Euclidean space. The analysis focuses on the influence of the area of the winset, which is an intersection overlapped by the veto players’ indifference curves. There is a substantial impact of the area of the winset on the change in policy output point, which is measured by the ADA scores and by Poole’s Mean Winning Coordinate. Yet divided government has marginal or no effect on policy swing. The conclusion is that the preferences of veto players, but not party control of the government, have a substantial impact on gridlock in the United States.
Hematopoietic Stem Cells Can Be CD34+ or CD34-

Until recently, it was thought that the most primitive HSC have a fixed phenotype within a hierarchical differentiation system, and that changes in engraftment and renewal potential occur in a stepwise fashion linked with differentiation. In this review, we summarize the data from several different species and different animal models of hematopoietic stem cell function. Taking into account all of the published data, it becomes clear that the hematopoietic stem cell compartment contains more than one phenotypically identifiable population capable of self-renewal and long term pluripotent engraftment. It is clear that some stem cells express CD34, and others do not. The exact phenotypic progression between these cells needs to be further defined, because different in vivo and ex vivo manipulations may shift the stem cells from one phenotype to another, and this can complicate interpretation of experimental transplant data.
Local input-output decoupling of discrete-time non-linear systems

A local treatment of the (restricted) block input-output decoupling problem is given. The major tools employed are the invariant and locally controlled invariant distributions which have recently been extended to the discrete time domain.
Does perioperative blood transfusion affect survival in patients with cervical cancer treated with radical hysterectomy

Objective: To determine if blood transfusions during or after radical hysterectomy adversely affect survival in patients with invasive cervical carcinoma. Methods: Two hundred eighty-three women with stage IA2-IIA cervical cancer were treated with radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy from 1980–1989. Thirteen were lost to follow-up, and five others received adjuvant chemotherapy. Among the remaining 265 patients, 131 were given blood transfusions during surgery or within 30 days, whereas 134 were not. The clinical and pathologic characteristics of these two groups were reviewed and analyzed statistically. Results: Transfused and nontransfused patients did not differ with respect to mean age (45.0 versus 43.4 years, respectively), stage, grade, cell type, depth of invasion, or prevalence of nodal metastasis. Transfused patients more frequently received adjuvant pelvic irradiation than did nontransfused (47 versus 33%, respectively, χ2 P Conclusion: Perioperative blood transfusion does not impact overall survival or time to recurrence after radical hysterectomy.
Collective Bargaining and Faculty Job Satisfaction

Estimates of the impact of union membership on job satisfaction suffer from nonrandom self-selection of employees into unions. In this paper, we circumvent this problem by examining the impact on satisfaction of collective bargaining representation, rather than of union membership. We use a two-stage technique that controls for nonrandom selection of faculty into institutions, and apply that to a panel of faculty at repeatedly observed four-year universities. We find that bargaining agreements increase satisfaction with compensation but reduce satisfaction with faculty workload. Bargaining has no statistically measurable impact on overall job satisfaction or on faculty's satisfaction with their authority to make decisions regarding their instructional duties.
Outage probability for decode-and-forward cooperative diversity with selective combining in cellular networks

This paper analyzes the outage probability for a decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative diversity system with selective combining, for the case of a log-normal Nakagami faded desired signal and log-normal Rayleigh faded co-channel interferers. The outage probability is compared to that of a dual-receive antenna system also with selective combining. The results of the analysis show that the proposed DF cooperative diversity system can result in a lower outage probability than the corresponding dual-receive antenna system, but only when the relay is located in a particular region of the cell with respect to the mobile station location.
Formation of anatase from titanium(IV) preasphaltenes complexes under coal liquefaction conditions

Abstract Solvent refined coal preasphaltenes from stable complexes with bis(cyclopentadienyl) Ti(IV) dichl-oride. On heating at 450 °C under 6.9 MPa H 2 atmosphere in tetralin, partial conversion of the BTD-preasphaltenes complex to anatase, Ti0 2 is observed. Preasphaltenes complexes of Ti may be involved in hydrodesulphurization catalyst deactivation by Ti0 2 in coal liquefaction processes.
Cytochemical localization of acid phosphatase in striated muscle

Normal skeletal and cardiac striated muscle from adult rats was incubated for the cytochemical detection of acid phosphatase activity with cerium as the capture metal. Results from these experiments show that normal striated muscle has a greater number of acid phosphatase-positive structures, which are presumed to be lysosomes, than has been indicated by several previous cytochemical studies.
Deconvolution of laser pulse profiles from 3D ladar temporal returns

3-D imaging LADAR systems that are capable of rapid frame acquisition may suffer from a loss of range resolution due to the duration of the pulse transmitted to the target. Because of the tradeoff between the requirement to produce sufficient illumination and the desire to obtain high range resolution, these systems may sacrifice range resolution in favor of improved signal to noise ratio of the detected signal. In this paper, deconvolution techniques are employed in order to obtain improved range resolution from a sequence of laser radar return images collected at extremely high speeds. The study pursued in this paper explores the degree to which range resolution can be improved in the presence of photon and speckle noise. Noise amplification in the deconvolution process serves to degrade the signal to noise ratio of the reconstructed laser radar return images. The performance of the reconstruction algorithm is quantified through the estimation of the probability of detection. It will be shown that both the probability of detection and range resolution can be improved in imaging laser radar systems.
Identifying a Kinase Network Regulating FGF14:Nav1.6 Complex Assembly Using Split-Luciferase Complementation

Kinases play fundamental roles in the brain. Through complex signaling pathways, kinases regulate the strength of protein:protein interactions (PPI) influencing cell cycle, signal transduction, and electrical activity of neurons. Changes induced by kinases on neuronal excitability, synaptic plasticity and brain connectivity are linked to complex brain disorders, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these cellular events remain for the most part elusive. To further our understanding of brain disease, new methods for rapidly surveying kinase pathways in the cellular context are needed. The bioluminescence-based luciferase complementation assay (LCA) is a powerful, versatile toolkit for the exploration of PPI. LCA relies on the complementation of two firefly luciferase protein fragments that are functionally reconstituted into the full luciferase enzyme by two interacting binding partners. Here, we applied LCA in live cells to assay 12 kinase pathways as regulators of the PPI complex formed by the voltage-gated sodium channel, Nav1.6, a transmembrane ion channel that elicits the action potential in neurons and mediates synaptic transmission, and its multivalent accessory protein, the fibroblast growth factor 14 (FGF14). Through extensive dose-dependent validations of structurally-diverse kinase inhibitors and hierarchical clustering, we identified the PI3K/Akt pathway, the cell-cycle regulator Wee1 kinase, and protein kinase C (PKC) as prospective regulatory nodes of neuronal excitability through modulation of the FGF14:Nav1.6 complex. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis shows convergence of these pathways on glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) and functional assays demonstrate that inhibition of GSK3 impairs excitability of hippocampal neurons. This combined approach provides a versatile toolkit for rapidly surveying PPI signaling, allowing the discovery of new modular pathways centered on GSK3 that might be the basis for functional alterations between the normal and diseased brain.
Obstetric simulation for medical student, resident, and fellow education

Simulation for training new providers is no longer the wave of the future, but the reality of the present. It provides significant activation and allows for both the integration of concepts with actual application and the ability to practice a wide range of procedural skills at an earlier stage of training than would otherwise be possible. It is also an optimal method to sharpen teamwork and communication skills that are critical to patient safety. These concepts are especially relevant in the field of obstetrics, where even routine deliveries may become life-threatening emergencies and the health of the mother and child are dependent on correct and timely interventions and teamwork. Almost all of the skills needed, even for advanced invasive procedures, in obstetrics can be taught with currently available simulators. In this report we will discuss the use of medical simulation for training obstetric providers from medical school through subspecialty level training.
Augmentation of Limb Perfusion and Reversal of Tissue Ischemia Produced by Ultrasound-Mediated Microbubble Cavitation

Background— Ultrasound can increase tissue blood flow, in part, through the intravascular shear produced by oscillatory pressure fluctuations. We hypothesized that ultrasound-mediated increases in perfusion can be augmented by microbubble contrast agents that undergo ultrasound-mediated cavitation and sought to characterize the biological mediators. Methods and Results— Contrast ultrasound perfusion imaging of hindlimb skeletal muscle and femoral artery diameter measurement were performed in nonischemic mice after unilateral 10-minute exposure to intermittent ultrasound alone (mechanical index, 0.6 or 1.3) or ultrasound with lipid microbubbles (2×108 IV). Studies were also performed after inhibiting shear- or pressure-dependent vasodilator pathways, and in mice with hindlimb ischemia. Ultrasound alone produced a 2-fold increase ( P <0.05) in muscle perfusion regardless of ultrasound power. Ultrasound-mediated augmentation in flow was greater with microbubbles (3- and 10-fold higher than control for mechanical index 0.6 and 1.3, respectively; P <0.05), as was femoral artery dilation. Inhibition of endothelial nitric oxide synthase attenuated flow augmentation produced by ultrasound and microbubbles by 70% ( P <0.01), whereas inhibition of adenosine-A2a receptors and epoxyeicosatrienoic acids had minimal effect. Limb nitric oxide production and muscle phospho-endothelial nitric oxide synthase increased in a stepwise fashion by ultrasound and ultrasound with microbubbles. In mice with unilateral hindlimb ischemia (40%–50% reduction in flow), ultrasound (mechanical index, 1.3) with microbubbles increased perfusion by 2-fold to a degree that was greater than the control nonischemic limb. Conclusions— Increases in muscle blood flow during high-power ultrasound are markedly amplified by the intravascular presence of microbubbles and can reverse tissue ischemia. These effects are most likely mediated by cavitation-related increases in shear and activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase.
Laserspray ionization-ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry: Baseline separation of isomeric amyloids without the use of solvents desorbed and ionized directly from a surface

The ability of laserspray ionization (LSI) to produce multiply charged ions by laser ablation from the solid state, directly from a surface, and at atmospheric pressure allows protein analysis on an ion mobility spectrometry (IMS)−mass spectrometry (MS) instrument (SYNAPT G2) having a mass-to-charge limit of 8000. The matrix, 2,5-dihydroxyacetophenone, lowers the thermal requirements for desolvation of matrix/analyte clusters to produce the highly charged LSI ions under gentle conditions to retain structural integrity of the proteins. Examples include cytochrome C and lysozyme. The solvent-free IMS gas-phase separation is used to baseline separate in the drift time dimension the isomeric solubility restricted β-amyloid (1−42) from the reversed (42−1). The LSI process is shown to be sufficiently soft to preserve structural integrity and permit separation according to the different shapes. These results suggest that LSI-IMS-MS potentially combines speed of analysis and imaging capability common to matrix-as...
Effect of epidural anesthesia and analgesia on perioperative outcome: a randomized, controlled Veterans Affairs cooperative study.

Objective To test the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia and postoperative epidural analgesia decrease the incidence of death and major complications during and after four types of intraabdominal surgical procedures. Background Data Even though many beneficial aspects of epidural anesthesia have been reported, clinical trials of epidural anesthesia for outcome of surgical patients have shown conflicting results. Methods The authors studied 1,021 patients who required anesthesia for one of the intraabdominal aortic, gastric, biliary, or colon operations. They were assigned randomly to receive either general anesthesia and postoperative analgesia with parenteral opioids (group 1) or epidural plus light general anesthesia and postoperative epidural morphine (group 2). The patients were monitored for death and major complications during and for 30 days after surgery, as well as for postoperative pain, time of ambulation, and length of hospital stay. Results Overall, there was no significant difference in the incidence of death and major complications between the two groups. For abdominal aortic surgical patients, unlike the other three types of surgical patients, the overall incidence of death and major complications was significantly lower in group 2 patients (22%) than in group 1 patients (37%), stemming from differences in the incidence of new myocardial infarction, stroke, and respiratory failure between the two groups. Overall, group 2 patients received significantly less analgesic medication but had better pain relief than group 1 patients. In group 2 aortic patients, endotracheal intubation time was 13 hours shorter and surgical intensive care stay was 3.5 hours shorter. Conclusions The effect of anesthetic and postoperative analgesic techniques on perioperative outcome varies with the type of operation performed. Overall, epidural analgesia provides better postoperative pain relief. Epidural anesthesia and epidural analgesia improve the overall outcome and shorten the intubation time and intensive care stay in patients undergoing abdominal aortic operations.
Irradiation increases superoxide dismutase in rat intestinal smooth muscle

We investigated whether X-irradiation could induce the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) in intestinal muscle. Groups of rats received abdominal irradiation and the time course and dose response for SOD activity determined. Jejunal smooth muscle homogenates were analyzed for the activities of copper/zinc (CuZn) and manganese (Mn) SOD activity and for a mitochondrial marker enzyme, citrate synthase. A progressive rise in Mn SOD activity occurred at 20, 46, and 72 h after 1500 R. No significant changes in Cu-Zn SOD activity occurred at any time after 1500 R. At 20 h after 250 R of X-irradiation, Mn SOD activity increased but no further increase occurred at higher irradiation exposures. At the same time, CuZn SOD activity at 20 h after irradiation was greater than controls only at an exposure of 1000 R (p less than 0.05). Using Western blotting, we were able to clearly demonstrate an increase in immunoreactive Mn SOD protein in muscle samples 20 h after 1500 R. The rise in Mn SOD is not simply due to increase in mitochondrial numbers or increase in all mitochondrial enzyme activities because activity of the mitochondrial marker enzyme citrate synthase was decreased after X-irradiation. Transmission electron microscopic studies demonstrated damage to mitochondria after a dose of 3000 R. The data yield evidence that free radicals play a role in irradiation-induced intestinal smooth muscle injury.
Immunocompromised status in patients with necrotizing soft-tissue infection.

Importance There is a scarcity of research on immunocompromised patients with necrotizing soft-tissue infection (NSTI). Objective To evaluate the effect of immunocompromised status in patients with NSTI. Design and Setting Single-institution retrospective cohort study at a tertiary academic teaching hospital affiliated with a major cancer center. Participants Patients with NSTI. Exposure Treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute between November 25, 1995, and April 25, 2011. Main Outcome and Measure Necrotizing soft-tissue infection–associated in-hospital mortality. Results Two hundred one patients were diagnosed as having NSTI. Forty-six were immunocompromised (as defined by corticosteroid use, active malignancy, receipt of chemotherapy or radiation therapy, diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus or AIDS, or prior solid organ or bone marrow transplantation with receipt of chronic immunosuppression). At presentation, immunocompromised patients had lower systolic blood pressure (105 vs 112 mm Hg, P = .02), glucose level (124 vs 134 mg/dL, P = .03), and white blood cell count (6600/μL vs 17 200/μL, P Conclusions and Relevance Immunocompromised status in patients with NSTI in this study is associated with delays in diagnosis and surgical treatment and with higher NSTI-associated in-hospital mortality. At presentation, immunocompromised patients may fail to exhibit typical clinical and laboratory signs of NSTI. Physicians caring for similar patient populations should maintain a heightened level of suspicion for NSTI and consider early surgical evaluation and treatment.
The Relationship between Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Psychological Empowerment: A Quick Casual Restaurant Employee Correlation Study

This study identifies the relationship between leader-management exchange (LMX) and psychological empowerment and the role of selected demographics in the relationship between fast-casual restauran...
Placental expression of ceruloplasmin in pregnancies complicated by severe preeclampsia.

There is consensus that ischemia/reperfusion injury associated with preeclampsia (PE) promotes both placental damage and the release of factors leading to maternal endothelium dysfunction, a hallmark of this potentially life-threatening syndrome. These factors include plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1). The goal of this study was to further characterize placental factors involved in the pathophysiology of PE. Thus, DNA microarray gene profiling was utilized to identify mRNA differentially regulated in placentas from women with severe PE compared to both preterm (PC) and term control (TC) groups. Microarray studies detected an upregulation of mRNA for ceruloplasmin, a copper-containing iron transport protein with antioxidant ferroxidase properties, in PE compared to PC and TC placentas, respectively. Quantitative real-time PCR confirmed these results by demonstrating significant increases in ceruloplasmin mRNA in PE vs PC and TC placentas. Supporting previous reports, the expression of sFlt-1 and PAI-1 were also upregulated in PE placentas. Immunohistochemistry localized ceruloplasmin to the intervillous space in PE and PC placentas, whereas stronger syncytial staining was noted in PE. Western blotting confirmed a significant increase in ceruloplasmin levels in placental tissue in PE compared to PC groups. PCR identified the presence of mRNA for ceruloplasmin in primary cultures of syncytiotrophoblasts, but not villous-derived fibroblasts, suggesting that syncytium is the site of ceruloplasmin synthesis in placenta. Hypoxic treatment (1% O2) of syncytiotrophoblasts enhanced levels of ceruloplasmin mRNA approximately 25-fold, a significantly greater upregulation than that noted for PAI-1 and sFlt-1, suggesting that enhanced ceruloplasmin expression is a sensitive marker of syncytial hypoxia. We suggest that syncytial ceruloplasmin and its associated ferroxidase activity, induced by the hypoxia accompanying severe PE, is important in an endogenous cellular program to mitigate the damaging effects of subsequent reperfusion injury at this site.
Analysis of enterprise media server workloads: access patterns, locality, content evolution, and rates of change

Understanding the nature of media server workloads is crucial to properly designing and provisioning current and future media services. The main issue we address in this paper is the workload analysis of today's enterprise media servers. This analysis aims to establish a set of properties specific to the enterprise media server workloads and to compare them to well-known related observations about the web server workloads. We partition the media workload properties in two groups: static and temporal. While the static properties provide more traditional and general characteristics of the underlying media fileset and quantitative properties of client accesses to those files (independent of the access time), the temporal properties reflect the dynamics and evolution of accesses to the media content over time. We propose two new metrics characterizing the temporal properties: 1) the new files impact metric characterizing the site evolution due to new content and 2) the life span metric reflecting the rates of change in accesses to the newly introduced files. We illustrate these new metrics with the analysis of two different enterprise media server workloads collected over a significant period of time.
A Dense Linkage Map for Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Reveals Variable Chromosomal Divergence After an Ancestral Whole Genome Duplication Event

Comparisons between the genomes of salmon species reveal that they underwent extensive chromosomal rearrangements following whole genome duplication that occurred in their lineage 58−63 million years ago. Extant salmonids are diploid, but occasional pairing between homeologous chromosomes exists in males. The consequences of re-diploidization can be characterized by mapping the position of duplicated loci in such species. Linkage maps are also a valuable tool for genome-wide applications such as genome-wide association studies, quantitative trait loci mapping or genome scans. Here, we investigated chromosomal evolution in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) after genome duplication by mapping 7146 restriction-site associated DNA loci in gynogenetic haploid, gynogenetic diploid, and diploid crosses. In the process, we developed a reference database of restriction-site associated DNA loci for Chinook salmon comprising 48528 non-duplicated loci and 6409 known duplicated loci, which will facilitate locus identification and data sharing. We created a very dense linkage map anchored to all 34 chromosomes for the species, and all arms were identified through centromere mapping. The map positions of 799 duplicated loci revealed that homeologous pairs have diverged at different rates following whole genome duplication, and that degree of differentiation along arms was variable. Many of the homeologous pairs with high numbers of duplicated markers appear conserved with other salmon species, suggesting that retention of conserved homeologous pairing in some arms preceded species divergence. As chromosome arms are highly conserved across species, the major resources developed for Chinook salmon in this study are also relevant for other related species.
p53, through p21 (WAF1/CIP1), induces cyclin D1 synthesis.

Abstract Cells induced to accumulate the p53 tumor suppressor protein have been shown to arrest in G1. This arrest is characterized by accumulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (WAF1/CIP1) and of underphosphorylated forms of retinoblastoma protein. We show here that accumulation of the wild-type p53 protein in either human or murine cells markedly increases expression of cyclin D1. The induction of cyclin D1 can also be mediated by a target of p53, the p21 (WAF1/CIP1) inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases. The relationship between the induction of cyclin D1 and G1 arrest defines a new cellular response to p53.
AMOS TVERSKY AND THE ASCENT OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS

Amos Tversky investigated and explained a wide range of phenomena that lead to anomalous human decisions. His two most significant contributions, both written with Daniel Kahneman, are the decision-making heuristics—representativeness, availability, and anchoring—and prospect theory. Tversky’s concepts have broadly influenced the social sciences. In economics, they gave rise to the burgeoning field of behavioral economics. This field, skeptical of perfect rationality, emphasizes validation of modeling assumptions, integration of micro-level data on decisions (including experimental evidence), and adoption of lessons from psychology. Tversky’s contributions are reviewed, assessed using citation analysis, and placed in historical context. Fertile areas for behavioral economics research are identified.
Plant and animal pathogen recognition receptors signal through non-RD kinases.

Plants and animals mediate early steps of the innate immune response through pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs). PRRs commonly associate with or contain members of a monophyletic group of kinases called the interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK) family that include Drosophila Pelle, human IRAKs, rice XA21 and Arabidopsis FLS2. In mammals, PRRs can also associate with members of the receptor-interacting protein (RIP) kinase family, distant relatives to the IRAK family. Some IRAK and RIP family kinases fall into a small functional class of kinases termed non-RD, many of which do not autophosphorylate the activation loop. We surveyed the yeast, fly, worm, human, Arabidopsis, and rice kinomes (3,723 kinases) and found that despite the small number of non-RD kinases in these genomes (9%–29%), 12 of 15 kinases known or predicted to function in PRR signaling fall into the non-RD class. These data indicate that kinases associated with PRRs can largely be predicted by the lack of a single conserved residue and reveal new potential plant PRR subfamilies.
Frozen Section Micro-Incineration

A method for micro-incineration of frozen sections is described. Material containing diffusible or soluble salts is cut on the freezing microtome and the sections are placed into xylol and mounted out of xylol onto Corex D slides previously filmed with glycerin-gelatin medium. Material containing non-diffusible or insoluble salts can be fixed in 10% formalin before sectioning. Sections of the fixed material are dehydrated thru 50, 70, and 95% ethyl alcohol and mounted out of absolute alcohol onto Corex D slides previously fumed with glycerin-gelatin medium. After mounting by either procedure the sections are incinerated in an electric furnace and the temperature of incineration is dependent on the type of tissues to be incinerated and the character of the salts present. The method is time saving and when no fixation is required the whole procedure can be carried out in one hour.
A method for teaching continuous quality improvement to student pharmacists through a practical application project

Abstract Objective To provide future pharmacists with the skills and knowledge they need to use the continuous quality improvement (CQI) process to solve problems in a variety of practice settings. Material and methods At the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, the theory of CQI is presented to third-year pharmacy students in two lectures, followed by a practicum assignment. Student groups select a pharmacy, medical, or other identified problem and devise a solution through application of CQI principles. A member of each group presents the completed project to the class and a panel of CQI experts who judge project quality. Practice innovation Students apply learned CQI principles through a problem-based practicum assignment in which they create a plan to solve a real health care or non–health care problem. Main outcome measure Student learning was assessed through the project presentation and examination questions. A voluntary formative evaluation examined student attitudes toward the CQI module, applicability of CQI to pharmacy practice, and the most effective strategy for learning CQI concepts. Results Mean scores for presentations were 93%, reflecting a high level of ability to apply CQI principles. In the formative evaluation, 80% of students reported that lectures were informative or necessary; however, all responding students reported learning more through practicum experience as opposed to the lecture alone. Ninety-seven percent of students were able to provide examples of CQI opportunities in their career interest area. Conclusion This structured learning opportunity teaches students a systematic approach to identifying and solving system problems by applying CQI principles.
Ceca–Cyclophosphamide, Etoposide, Carboplatin and Cytosine Arabinoside–A New Salvage Regimen for Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

In an effort to develop more effective therapy for patients with refractory or relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia (R-AML) we combined three drugs with proven activity in AML, that are not typically used in induction regimens, with cytosine arabinoside (ara-C). Twenty-five patients (3 primary refractory, 22 relapsed) were treated. Patients received 3 days of "CECA" therapy as follows: cyclophosphamide (CTX) 1 g/m2 i.v. over 2 hrs., etoposide (VP-16) 200 mg/m2 i.v. over 3 hr, carboplatin (CBP) 150 mg/m2 i.v. over 24 hours and ara-C 1 g/m2 over 2 hr. Peripheral circulating blasts cleared in 24 cases (96%), and marrow aplasia was achieved in 19 (76%). There were 3 complete remissions (CR), 1 patient died before day 14, 5 died aplastic 14 or more days from the start of therapy, 5 had primary resistant disease, and 10 had secondary resistance i.e., leukemia reappearing after developing aplasia and 1 was lost to follow up 6 weeks into therapy. Two of the patients achieving CR received allogeneic BMT in CR (at 18 and 22 weeks): one died of fungal infection on day 50 and the other, who had CNS involvement at relapse, is alive 24 months post transplant. Toxicity was tolerable: one patient each developed grade III diarrhea and mucositis, another had grade III cardiac toxicity, a fourth developed a grade IV bilirubin elevation. Single, 2, and 3 or more infectious episodes occurred in 10, 5 and 4 patients respectively. This regimen showed definite anti-leukemic activity: the 3 patients achieving CR were among 23 patients with a 1%, 10% or 20% expectation for second CR attainment. The CECA regimen should be investigated in better prognosis salvage groups.
Variation in the Susceptibility of Bacteroides fragilis Group Isolates from Six Chicago Hospitals

The antimicrobial susceptibility of isolates of the Bacteroides fragilis group from six hospitals in the Chicago area varied from one institution to another, this variation was similar to the geographic variation documented in a national survey. A total of 365 B. fragilis group isolates were tested against 10 antibiotics. Imipenem, piperacillin/tazobactam, ampicillin/sulbactam, ticarcillin/clavulanate, and cefoperazone/sulbactam had excellent activity against all members of the B. fragilis group, with little interhospital variation. Cefoxitin and ceftizoxime had very good activity, also with little variation among hospitals. Clindamycin, cefotetan, and cefmetazole had the lowest level of activity, with unusually high-level resistance confined to three of the six hospitals
Toward A Speaker-Independent Real-Time Affect Detection System

The ability to detect the human affective states is rapidly gaining interests among researchers and industrial developers since it has a broad range of applications. This paper reports the advances of human affect detection from acoustic signals in Motorola Labs. We focus on two parts of affect detection: emotion detection and conversational engagement detection. The emotion detection part is the major component of our system. The system is based only on acoustic information, that is to say, there is no recognizer and no linguistic or semantic information available. Given the truth that speech is a short-time stationary signal, we employ the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to capture the variation and trend of acoustic signal structures caused by affective states. The affect-sensitive segmental features such as pitch, energy, zero crossing rate and energy slope are extracted to capture the finer structures of acoustic signals. Each state of the HMM is modeled by a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), which captures the range, mean, median and variability of above affect-sensitive measures. Besides testing the algorithm in the LDC databases, we implement a real-time conversation monitor, which can recognize and express the eight basic human emotions and can detect the conversational engagement level.
On evaluating the trade-offs between broadcasting and multicasting in ad hoc networks

Multicasting in ad hoc networks has received a lot of attention for the important application of disseminating information to multiple recipients. Most multicast protocols require the creation and maintenance of a structure (such as a tree or a mesh) for distributing information to the group members. In contrast, broadcast schemes are simple schemes which aim to distribute the information to all or a fraction of the nodes in the network without having a structural framework. While the creation/maintenance of the structure could potentially be cumbersome and heavyweight, multicast does offer benefits in terms of restricting the number of nodes that perform rebroadcasts. We argue that it is not a given that multicast is a better choice for group communications in all possible scenarios and that there could be circumstances wherein the use of a simple broadcast based technique would be more advantageous. In support of this claim, we study various scenarios to evaluate and quantify the trade-offs between broadcasting and multicasting. In particular, we perform simulation experiments using the on-demand multicast routing protocol and the simple broadcast algorithm as candidate protocols for multicasting and broadcasting, respectively. These protocols have been shown to be the elite protocols in their classes in prior work. Our results demonstrate that multicasting is preferable only under conditions of moderate mobility and with multicast group sizes smaller than 40%.
Perceived interactions between the dream and the waking divisions of consciousness.

Perceived interactions between the dream division of consciousness and waking consciousness were investigated by asking subjects to attribute their moods to one of ten possible causes and to rate the influence of their dreams for twenty-eight days. Over time, some subjects occasionally evaluated dreams as the dominant cause of their moods. Across subjects and days, 11 percent of recalled dreams were perceived by subjects as the most influential cause of their moods as compared to other causes and 35 percent of recalled dreams were considered moderately influential. The present findings present preliminary evidence for modest perceived interactions between the dream division of consciousness and waking consciousness in natural settings as well as modest individual and sex differences in either the ability or practice of utilizing these perceived interactions.
Event-related variations in alpha band activity during an attentional task in preadolescents: Effects of morning nutrition.

Abstract Objective Event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/ERS) methodology was used to study interactions between nutrition, brain function, cognition and behavior in children who ate or skipped breakfast after overnight fasting. Methods Healthy preadolescents performed a cued visual Go/No-Go RT task after overnight fasting (Phase 1) and again (Phase 2) after eating breakfast ( n =30) or continuing to fast ( n =30). ERS and ERD determinations (8–10, 10–12Hz; frontal, central, parietal, occipital sites) and measures of sleep (overnight actigraphy) and blood glucose (finger sticks) were obtained. Results Feeding increased blood glucose, but the groups were similar in sleep amount and response accuracy. Between-phase comparisons showed slower RT and increased alpha synchronization in fasting subjects, but little change in those who ate breakfast. Phase 2 group differences emphasized greater frontal early ERS and late frontal–central ERD in Fed subjects. Conclusions In preadolescents a brief extension of overnight fasting resulted in significant changes in brain activity and behavior that were effectively countered by eating breakfast. Delaying breakfast until mid-morning appeared to have introduced fasting effects that attenuated responses in Fed subjects. Significance These findings show the sensitivity of brain function and behavior to subtle variations in nutritional status and argue for greater consideration of nutritional variables in neurobehavioral studies.