cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An Event-Based Approach for Model-Based Control and Parameter Identification in Networked Distributed Processes

This work focuses on the problem of resource-constrained stabilization of spatially-distributed systems modeled by PDEs with low-order dynamics, subject to sensor-controller communication constraints and process parametric variations. An approach that brings together event-triggered model-based control and event-based parameter re-identification is developed to maintain closed-loop stability in the presence of parametric drift, while simultaneously limiting the rate of sensor-to-controller information transfer. Initially, a model-based feedback controller with an event-triggered sensor-controller communication logic is designed on the basis of an approximate finite-dimensional model, and its implementation on the infinite-dimensional system is investigated. An event-based parameter re-identification and update strategy is incorporated within the model-based control strategy to avert the need for a permanent increase in the sensor-controller communication rate in response to the destabilizing influence of process drift. A key component of this strategy is the design of a moving-horizon communication frequency monitoring scheme that detects sustained increases in post-drift communication and triggers parameter re-identification whenever a certain model state update frequency threshold is breached. The close-dloop stability and communication requirements associated with the newly-identified model are analyzed and used to decide whether to update the model parameters. In the event of parameter updates, a new closed-loop stability threshold is obtained based on the updated model to trigger future sensor-controller communications appropriately. The development and implementation of the proposed approach are illustrated using a representative diffusion-reaction process example.
Safety and feasibility of transesophageal echocardiography in patients with prior esophageal surgery

Background Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a specialized form of cardiac ultrasound and has been associated with rare but serious complications. In patients with prior esophageal surgery, the risk of esophageal damage or the inability to perform a comprehensive and successful TEE warrants further evaluation. Methods Retrospective study of patients with prior esophageal surgery who underwent TEE between June 21, 2002 and October 15, 2019. Medical and echocardiographic records were reviewed for image quality and procedural complications. Post-procedure complications and 30-day all-cause mortality were collected. Evaluation by gastroenterology (GI), otolaryngology/ear, nose, throat (ENT), or thoracic surgery (TS) within 30 days of TEE was reviewed in detail. Results Ninety-five patients with prior esophageal surgery underwent 145 TEEs. The most commonly performed esophageal procedures were anti-reflux operations (89%). TEE image quality was degraded in 16% while transgastric imaging was not completed in 37% of cases. A comprehensive TEE was completed in 57% of patients with diagnostic study goals achieved in 96% of cases. Comments describing procedural difficulty were reported in 6% while comments on procedural complications occurred in 1% of cases. Post-procedure complications occurred in 1% of patients including hypotension and unplanned hospital/ICU admission. Conclusions Concern for esophageal damage and the inability to perform a comprehensive and diagnostic TEE may limit the usefulness of TEE in patients with prior esophageal surgery. While TEE-associated complications were rare in this series, a conservative approach with a thorough pre-procedure assessment, including multi-disciplinary evaluation when appropriate, is prudent in this complex cohort of patients.
Measuring Indirect External Threat: A Time Series Sentiment Analysis of NATO Resolutions

This article uses a text-as-data approach via Sentiment Analysis that addresses several flaws in existing measures of direct external security threats by identifying the level of indirect external security threat within the international system and creating a continuous measure of indirect external threat that varies over time. This measure is constructed using the text of NATO Parliamentary Assembly resolutions and demonstrate that indirect external threat is a crucial factor in explaining international behavior and conflict.
Electric Vehicles for Smart Buildings: A Survey on Applications, Energy Management Methods, and Battery Degradation

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have the highest promise for dramatically reducing transportation emissions. No other option has comparable emission reduction potential or as a promising pathway. Still, PEVs can offer more than green transportation. In particular, their onboard storage can further serve the society by providing an energy buffer to increase the reliability, affordability, and sustainability of electric services. These benefits are only achievable by fully exploiting the multifaceted flexibility provided by PEVs’ mobility, charging adaptability, and bidirectional flow of power, as well as adopting effective decision-making and control algorithms, while minding the likely unfavorable side effects, such as shortened battery life span. This work takes a closer look at different elements of this puzzle. The main subject of this survey is behind the meter energy management with vehicle to building (V2B). We focus on different V2B application ideas and review energy management methods in smart buildings with V2B integration. Recent findings on battery capacity fade resulting from the bidirectional flow of power and extra discharging cycles with V2B are reviewed, and the methods for integrating the battery degradation in energy management formulation are discussed. Finally, the main findings of this review and research gaps are summarized and clarified.
The Evolution of STING Signaling and Its Involvement in Cancer.

The cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)–stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway has been primarily characterized as an inflammatory mechanism in higher eukaryotes in response to cytosolic double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Since its initial discovery, detailed mechanisms delineating the dynamic subcellular localization of its different components and downstream signaling have been uncovered, leading to attempts to harness its proinflammatory properties for therapeutic benefit in cancer. Emerging evidence, however, indicates that a crucial primordial function of STING is to promote autophagy, and that downstream interferon (IFN) signaling emerged recently in its evolutionary history. Furthermore, studies suggest that this pathway is a crucial regulator of cellular metabolism that potentially couples inflammation to nutrient availability. We focus on the evolutionarily conserved functions of STING, and we discuss how a broader understanding of this pathway can help us to better appreciate its potential role in cancer and harness it for therapeutic benefit.
OpiTrack: A Wearable-based Clinical Opioid Use Tracker with Temporal Convolutional Attention Networks

Opioid use disorder is a medical condition with major social and economic consequences. While ubiquitous physiological sensing technologies have been widely adopted and extensively used to monitor day-to-day activities and deliver targeted interventions to improve human health, the use of these technologies to detect drug use in natural environments has been largely underexplored. The long-term goal of our work is to develop a mobile technology system that can identify high-risk opioid-related events (i.e., development of tolerance in the setting of prescription opioid use, return-to-use events in the setting of opioid use disorder) and deploy just-in-time interventions to mitigate the risk of overdose morbidity and mortality. In the current paper, we take an initial step by asking a crucial question: Can opioid use be detected using physiological signals obtained from a wrist-mounted sensor? Thirty-six individuals who were admitted to the hospital for an acute painful condition and received opioid analgesics as part of their clinical care were enrolled. Subjects wore a noninvasive wrist sensor during this time (1-14 days) that continuously measured physiological signals (heart rate, skin temperature, accelerometry, electrodermal activity, and interbeat interval). We collected a total of 2070 hours (t 86 days) of physiological data and observed a total of 339 opioid administrations. Our results are encouraging and show that using a Channel-Temporal Attention TCN (CTA-TCN) model, we can detect an opioid administration in a time-window with an F1-score of 0.80, a specificity of 0.77, sensitivity of 0.80, and an AUC of 0.77. We also predict the exact moment of administration in this time-window with a normalized mean absolute error of 8.6% and R2 coefficient of 0.85.
Fat intake, obesity, and cancer of the breast and endometrium.

Many studies indicate that obesity is associated with postmenopausal breast cancer and cancer of the endometrium. The mechanisms by which obesity contributes to cancer risk is not known, although increases in serum estrone from Δ4-androstenedione by the adipose tissue have been implicated in postmenopausal women. Blood estrogens increase with the degree of obesity and aging. In animal experiments the confounding of high fat, low carbohydrate, and high calorie diets needs to be defined. The effects of diet on estrogen metabolism; the relationship of fatty acids from animal, vegetable, and marine sources to tumor formation; and the mechanisms by which energy intake influences cancer risk need to be precisely defined. Any estimate of the contribution of heredity to the burden of human cancer is impossible until we have a better understanding of genetic and environmental interactions.
Ultrasonic Wave Propagation in a Tooth Phantom

Although ultrasonic energy has been used widely for general medical diagnostic purposes and as a tool for the nondestructive inspection of engineering components, a lack of understanding of the fundamental wave propagation phenomena in teeth has largely precluded its application to dentistry. This paper studies the physics of ultrasound/teeth interactions. Based on the authors’ experience with the detection of defec engineering materials using ultrasound and the development of finite element computer code to study the wave propagation, initial studies have already been made on a tooth phantom. Results indicate that this numerical model can indeed be used to study the complex ultrasound interactions with dental anomalies, such as pulpitis and abscesses, and that such results could be used to optimize the design of appropriate transducers and equipment for dentistry applications. The primary reason why this technique is important and should take place is that ultrasonography has a great advantage over the presently available X-ray technology in that it does put any strain on the patient nor does it cause any pain. Most importantly, ultrasonic waves are nonionizing which, when used at low sound intensity levels, do not cause any health risks to the patient nor to the operator.
Stalking the Squeeze: Understanding Commodities Market Manipulation

Commodities manipulations often have spectacular results. Not all dramatic upheavals in the commodities markets result from manipulation, however; indeed, sometimes when prices rise sharply the market is performing one of its most important functions, cushioning the impact of external forces that might otherwise have been far more disruptive.1 Thus, attempting to discern the line between a manipulated
Cytosolic Phospholipase A2 and Autotaxin Inhibitors as Potential Radiosensitizers

Several classes of lipid mediators are initially derived through the action of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzymes on phospholipids that release fatty acids and lysophospholipids. Both fatty acids and lysophospholipids have biological functions relevant to cancer progression. Fatty acids are metabolized to prostanoids by cyclooxygenase and leukotrienes by lipoxygenase, while lysophospholipids are metabolized to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) by autotaxin (ATX). These metabolites modulate cellular differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, and senescence, thereby contributing to the homeostatic control of tissue growth, remodeling, and vascularization. Tumor cells subvert these cellular functions to grow locally and to metastasize to distant sites. The deregulation of cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase in various cancers supports role for the aberration of these two pathways in tumorigenesis. Pharmacological studies in humans have demonstrated the benefits of eicosanoid pathway intervention in certain cancers. In recent years the importance of the tumor microenvironment (TME) has become increasingly salient with respect to both tumorigenesis and response to therapy. We have focused on characterizing the role of the lysophospholipid molecules generated by PLA2, such as lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and its further metabolites, such as LPA, in the response of the vascular system to ionizing radiation. In normal endothelial cells, ionizing radiation rapidly induces cPLA2 activity, leading to the activation of pro-survival pathways like Akt and ERK. Inhibition of cPLA2 leads to radiosensitization and inhibition of endothelial cell-specific functions, such as cell migration, cell invasion, and tubule formation. Combined treatment with radiation and cPLA2 inhibitors resulted in delayed tumor growth. Inhibition of the extracellular enzyme involved in the generation of LPA from LPC, ATX, also inhibits endothelial-specific functions and leads to tumor radiosensitization. Finally, experiments conducted with cPLA2 knockout mice indicated that the cPLA2 deficiency within the host component resulted in delayed tumor growth and impaired tumor vascularization. The cPLA2 from the normal TME is an important mediator of tumor development and progression. Radiation-induced modifications in the TME that result in increased angiogenesis are novel targets for inhibiting pro-survival pathways in the tumor. The concurrent inhibition of inflammatory responses in normal tissues would lead to significant therapeutic gain.
A silicon model of an adapting motoneuron

We have designed, fabricated, and tested an analog VLSI neuron model that exhibits many of the input-output properties characteristic of mammalian motoneurons. The circuit, which is based on an integrate-and-fire architecture, demonstrates a user-controllable recruitment threshold, a non-zero start frequency, and continuous rate adaptation across its operating range. The degree and rate of adaptation can be independently controlled. The model is suitable for use in large arrays, allowing simulation of motor pools.
Efficient 3D forward modeling of GPR scattering from rough ground

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a viable tool for fast and high fidelity subsurface identification of buried landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The greatest barrier in GPR surveying systems is the obscuring effect of rough surface clutter. The finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) method can be used to calculate the scattering of the rough terrain. A full 3D FDFD analysis is required but is computationally burdensome when the GPR antennas are distant from the target region. We present an efficient hybrid forward-model to predict the scattering from randomly rough ground surface. In particular, this method models the additive clutter which can then be removed from the observed GPR signals. Our developed forward-looking model compares well with direct FDFD results. The developed model can be used readily for lossy and frequency-dispersive soils.
Hemoperitoneum: A red flag in CAPD

This paper describes two episodes of hemoperitoneum complicating continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). One patient developed bloody dialysate during an attack of acute cholecystitis, wh...
Monitoring process-scale reactions using API mass spectrometry

We present results using an unmodified nebulized assisted electrospray ionization (ESI) interface to observe a process-scale organic reaction (26 wt % in reactants) in real time. The approach offers distinct advantages over optical methods because unambiguous MW information can be obtained. The approach uses a series of pumps, which, after sampling the reactor, (1) quench the reaction, (2) reduce the concentration (3000×), and (3) add a proton-donating buffer for ionization. The approach is demonstrated with a piperidine-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation reaction in toluene with informative results. The particular softness of ESI affords the formation of protonated parent ions almost exclusively. Reactions are tracked following [M + H]+ ion signatures as a function of time. In addition to providing information about kinetic rates, mechanistic information was obtained via the observation of the Mannich base intermediate of the reaction. Use of the data in regard to absolute ion intensities as well as futu...
Finding Intellectually Talented Youths and Helping Them Educationally

This is a discussion of the first 14 years (1971-1985) of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) at The Johns Hopkins University and the spread of its influence across the country. Many youths who reasoned exceptionally well mathematically were identified, studied further, and aided.
Lost Childhoods in a New China: Child-Citizen-Workers at War, 1937–1945

This article examines the emerging discourse of child-citizen-workers in wartime China and demonstrates how this concept of children’s citizenship was put into practice in work training programs within wartime children’s homes. This article argues that the idea of child-citizen-workers grew from three pre-war antecedents that converged and were greatly accelerated by China’s war with Japan: the new idea of an autonomous sphere of childhood articulated during the early Republican period; a progressive education movement to introduce labor training and experiential learning as essential elements of modern education; and Nationalist state-building and activist efforts at family reform, which viewed traditional parents with distrust and increasingly intervened in family life. The second half of the article focuses particularly on orphans, who were considered potentially unstable social elements due to their position outside the control of families, and whose lack of parental protection made them available for appropriation. This article demonstrates that the war opened up a space in which Guomindang state-builders, working with educators and childcare workers, attempted to restructure orphans lives within wartime child welfare institutions to realize a vision for China’s future: the ideal of child-citizen-workers habituated toward sacrifice for the nation.
Transfer‐matrix theory of the crystal–columnar transition in polymeric liquid crystals

The statistical–mechanical problem of the transition between crystalline and columnar phases in a main-chain liquid–crystalline polymer is treated in a simple model in which only longitudinal motions of the polymer chains are permitted. A mean-field approximation for the interchain potential is used to obtain a self-consistent equation for the crystalcolumnar transition temperature. When applied to typical homopolymers this theory correctly predicts transition temperatures above the degradation temperature; when applied to a crude model of a random copolymer a temperature in the observed range is predicted.
The White in M.S.U. Synthetic Cornish Is Sex Linked Silver

ABSTRACT A BLACK laced white Cornish “mutation” was obtained at Michigan State University in 1951. Its ancestry was described by Henderson (1952). From the appearance of the black laced white “mutant” and its pedigree, the white portion of the phenotype was presumed to be Silver. Because of the White Laced Red Cornish in the ancestry of the “mutant” and the possibility of Inhibitor white there was room for doubt that the white was sex linked in all cases. Subsequent matings of this phenotype with Dark Cornish and Red varieties have produced several additional mutants in which the “white” is Silver and sex linked, Henderson (1954) and Henderson and Coleman (1957). The results of mating females of six typical Silver (Ss) phenotypes with non-Silver males are indicated in Table 1. The non-Silver (ss) sires were variously Black Laced Red Cornish, Red Leghorns, or Red Cornish. MATINGS AND PHENOTYPES OF DAMS All progeny . . .
A Pseudo Excitation Method for Vehicle Vibration Analysis in Uneven Speeds

The vehicle riding comfort has become one of important factors of vehicle quality and receives more increasing attention. The driving smoothness of vehicles has immediate influence on the riding comfort of vehicles. In this study, the mechanical model and mathematics model of the 1/2 five degrees of freedom of a vehicle were established, as well as the pseudo- excitation model of road conditions for the front wheel and the rear wheel. By the pseudo- excitation method, the equations of the transient response and the power spectral density were established. After numerical simulation to vehicle vibration response of uneven driving, the results show that the pseudo- excitation method is more convenient than the traditional method and effectively solves the smoothness computation of vehicles while the pseudo- excitation method is used to analyze vehicle vibration under non-stationary random vibration.
Identification and characterization of novel renal sensory receptors

Recent studies have highlighted the important roles that “sensory” receptors (olfactory receptors, taste receptors, and orphan “GPR” receptors) play in a variety of tissues, including the kidney. Although several studies have identified important roles that individual sensory receptors play in the kidney, there has not been a systematic analysis of the renal repertoire of sensory receptors. In this study, we identify novel renal sensory receptors belonging to the GPR (n = 76), olfactory receptor (n = 6), and taste receptor (n = 11) gene families. A variety of reverse transcriptase (RT)- PCR screening strategies were used to identify novel renal sensory receptors, which were subsequently confirmed using gene-specific primers. The tissue-specific distribution of these receptors was determined, and the novel renal ORs were cloned from whole mouse kidney. Renal ORs that trafficked properly in vitro were screened for potential ligands using a dual-luciferase ligand screen, and novel ligands were identified for Olfr691. These studies demonstrate that multiple sensory receptors are expressed in the kidney beyond those previously identified. These results greatly expand the known repertoire of renal sensory receptors. Importantly, the mRNA of many of the receptors identified in this study are expressed highly in the kidney (comparable to well-known and extensively studied renal GPCRs), and in future studies it will be important to elucidate the roles that these novel renal receptors play in renal physiology.
The rotorfermentor. I. Description of the apparatus, power requirements, and mass transfer characteristics

A novel fermentation device, the rotorfermentor, is described and some experimental results are presented on power requirements and oxygen mass transfer characteristics of the rotorfermentor. This fermentation device is designed to achieve high cell concentrations in batch and continuous cultures. Basically, the rotorfermentor consists of a rotating microporous membrane which is enclosed within a stationary fermentor vessel. The metabolic products in the broth are continuously removed by filtration through the rotating microporous membrane while the growing cells can be retained inside the fermentor. This dual function of cell growth and concentration with the simultaneous removal of metabolic products is the essential characteristic of the rotorfermentor.
Condensation nuclei counts on the slopes of Little Whiteface Mountain in New York State

Concentrations of condensation nuclei were measured on the slopes of the Little Whiteface Mt. between 1200 and 3670 feet altitude in July 1963. On the average the concentration decreases exponentially with altitude and shows a strong dependence on wind direction. In addition, the influence of local contamination from a car park and a large domestic heating furnace on nuclei counts was studied and it was found that even downwind at a distance of about 1000 feet (or 350 m) the contamination by these sources is negligible.
Magnetic induction and plasma impedance in a cylindrical inductive discharge

An inductive radio frequency discharge in the cylindrical configuration is modelled as a transformer with the inductive coil taken as the primary circuit and the plasma as the secondary circuit. The mutual inductance between the primary and secondary circuit, the self-inductance of the plasma and the impedance of the plasma are determined theoretically and related to the properties of the plasma evaluated using a global (volume-averaged) discharge model for argon plasma. The azimuthal electric field and the axial magnetic field profile within an inductive discharge in the cylindrical configuration are determined assuming a parabolic electron density profile.
Application of localized molecular orbitals to the solution of semiempirical self-consistent field equations

When conventional matrix algebra is used to solve the semiempirical self-consistent field equations for large systems, the time required rises as the third power of the size of the system. A consequence of this is that self-consistent calculations of large systems such as enzymes are impractical. By using localized molecular orbitals instead of matrix methods, the time required for these systems can be made almost proportional to the size of the system. In partial geometry optimizations, the time required depends only upon the size of the fragment being optimized and is almost independent of the size of the whole system. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Till Death Do Us Part: Marital Status and U.S. Mortality Trends, 1986 – 2000

Although the association of being married and a lower mortality rate has been well established, most previous research on marital status and mortality did not consider potential change in this relationship over time. In this study, I adopted a survey cohort perspective to examine both overall and cause-specific mortality trends by marital status from 1986 to 2000 in the United States. On the basis of data from the National Health Interview Survey-Longitudinal Mortality Follow-up (N = 517,314), I found that mortality generally decreased or remained stable for the married from the 1986 to 2000 NHIS cohort, except for diabetes deaths. There is evidence showing divergent mortality trends between the married and unmarried, especially the widowed. Race and gender variations are examined.
Social Science Methods for Twins Data: Integrating Causality, Endowments, and Heritability

Twins have been extensively used in economics, sociology, and behavioral genetics to investigate the role of genetic endowments on a broad range of social, demographic, and economic outcomes. However, the focus in these literatures has been distinct.: The economic literature has been primarily concerned with the need to control for unobserved endowments--including as an important subset, genetic endowments--in analyses that attempt to establish the impact of one variable, often schooling, on a variety of economic, demographic, and health outcomes. Behavioral genetic analyses have mostly been concerned with decomposing the variation in the outcomes of interest into genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared environmental components, with recent multivariate analyses investigating the contributions of genes and the environment to the correlation and causation between variables. Despite the fact that twins studies and the recognition of the role of endowments are central to both of these literatures, they have mostly evolved independently. In this paper we develop formally the relationship between the economic and behavioral genetic approaches to the analyses of twins, and we develop an integrative approach that combines the identification of causal effects, which dominates the economic literature, with the decomposition of variances and covariances into genetic and environmental factors that are the primary goal of behavioral genetic approaches. We apply this integrative ACE-beta approach to an illustrative investigation of the impact of schooling on several demographic outcomes such as fertility and nuptiality and health.
The Usefulness of Lumbosacral Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Management of Isolated Dysfunctional Elimination

Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging is sometimes used to rule out spinal pathology in patients with dysfunctional elimination, although its usefulness in this setting is unclear. We determined the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging in children with isolated dysfunctional elimination, and normal cutaneous, neurological and orthopedic examinations.Materials and Methods: We reviewed the records of children with dysfunctional elimination who underwent lumbosacral magnetic resonance imaging and identified those who were neurologically normal and who had normal cutaneous back examinations. Our primary goal was to determine the rate at which magnetic resonance imaging identified a spinal abnormality in this population. Univariate analysis was performed to assess the association of several clinical variables with a radiographic abnormality on magnetic resonance imaging.Results: Between 2000 and 2009 a total of 49 lumbosacral magnetic resonance imaging studies were performed in 29 females and 18 males with a...
Isolation of sealed plasma membrane vesicles from Phytophthora megasperma f. sp. glycinea. II: Partial characterization of Ca2+ transport and glyceollin effects

Abstract Calcium uptake was examined in sealed plasma membrane vesicles isolated from the plant pathogenic fungus, Phytophthora megasperma f. sp. glycinea. Calcium uptake was ATP-dependent and by the addition of various ionophores in the presence of ATP, it was shown that Ca 2+ transport was mediated by a nH + Ca 2+ antiport. Further evidence for this antiport mechanism included Ca 2+ uptake driven by an imposed pH gradient and the observation that calcium could dissipate a steady-state pH gradient across the vesicle membrane. Transport mediated by the nH + Ca 2+ antiport was optimal at pH 7.0, and demonstrated saturation kinetics for Ca 2+ with a K m of about 7 μ m . Glyceollin, a soybean phytoalexin, was found to inhibit Ca 2+ transport consistent with its ability to increase H + conductance. In the presence of glyceollin, calcium leakage from Phytophthora membrane vesicles also increased. This study provides basic information about calcium transport in a plant pathogenic fungus as well as demonstrating a possible mode of action of a phytoalexin.
The Thyroid and the Hypothalamus–Pituitary–Ovarian Axis in American Tree Sparrows (Spizella arborea)

Prompted by evidence of a linkage between the thyroid gland and seasonal reproduction in obligately photoperiodic American tree sparrows (Spizella arborea), we measured circulating T4 (L-thyroxine), hypothalamic cGnRH-I (chicken gonadotropin-releasing hormone, variant I), pituitary and plasma LH (luteinizing hormone), and ovarian mass in euthyroid females moved from short to long days. Our purpose was to correlate temporal changes in T4 and cGnRH-I with each other and with pituitary and plasma LH and ovarian mass. T4 increased early during photostimulation and peaked at Week 1 or 2 on 20L:4D (20 hr light:4 hr dark per day). Hypothalamic cGnRH-I also increased during photostimulation and peaked between Weeks 2 and 4. Pituitary and plasma LH peaked at Weeks 4 and 1, respectively, and ovarian mass increased significantly by Week 6. In a separate study, we charted the progression of postnuptial molt. Molt of the primary remiges began at Week 9, proceeded rapidly through Week 15, and was complete by Week 18. In view of a demonstrated role for the thyroid gland in the control of seasonal reproduction in female tree sparrows and the time-dependent effects of thyroidectomy after photostimulation in male tree sparrows, the observation that circulating T4 increases early during photostimulation suggests the possibility of a causal relationship between the thyroid gland and the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis, hence a thyroid-hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis.
Advances in psoriasis therapy

Over the last 6 years at least five new treatments for psoriasis have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States. In addition, drugs approved by the FDA for other indications are being introduced for the treatment of psoriasis. New uses of older drugs, new combinations of treatments, and new phototherapeutic modalities are enabling clinicians to offer patients safer and more effective treatments. New vehicles for topical delivery of older treatments have created more cosmetically elegant preparations that are better accepted by patients. New developments in biotechnology have allowed the targeting of specific steps in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, providing hope for easier, safer, and more effective treatments in the future. This article discusses new developments in topical therapy, phototherapy, oral therapy, and injectable therapy for psoriasis.
Requirement of Dynactin p150Glued Subunit for the Functional Integrity of the Keratinocyte Microparasol

The keratinocyte microparasol, composed of a perinuclear microtubular/melano–phagolysosomal complex, protects the nucleus from UV-induced DNA damage. We have previously demonstrated that cytoplasmic dynein is the motor involved in the perinuclear-directed aggregation of phagocytosed melanosomes. Dynactin, of which p150Glued is the major subunit, can link directly to microtubules and links organelles to dynein at different domains. To further define the mechanism of the microparasol, we transfected siRNA targeted against p150Glued into human keratinocytes cultured with 0.5 mm fluorescent microspheres and performed time-lapse analysis, confocal immunolocalization, and Western immunoblotting after 24 and 48 hours. Western blots revealed a significant knockdown of the p150Glued subunit. The knockdown decreased p150Glued colocalization with microtubules and decreased perinuclear positioning of the convergent microtubular framework. It also inhibited perinuclear aggregation of phagocytosed fluorescent microspheres and reduced mean centripetal microsphere displacement. The findings provide evidence that dynactin p150Glued plays an important role in the functional integrity of the keratinocyte microparasol.
Does body mass index affect preoperative prostate specific antigen velocity or pathological outcomes after radical prostatectomy

Purpose: Several studies suggest that obesity may be associated with more aggressive prostate cancer. Similarly the rate of serum prostate specific antigen change is associated with adverse tumor features and prostate cancer specific mortality rates after radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy. We examined the associations among obesity, prostate specific antigen velocity and adverse tumor features in men treated with radical prostatectomy.Materials and Methods: A total of 587 men with documented preoperative height and weight measurements underwent radical prostatectomy. Prostate specific antigen velocity and other clinicopathological features were compared among men with a body mass index of less than 25, 25 to 29.9 and 30 or greater.Results: Although Gleason score and prostate volume were similar among groups, there was a significantly lower proportion with organ confined disease and fewer low volume tumors as body mass index increased. Of patients with a body mass index of 30 or greater 52% had a...
Privacy-preserving trust verification

Distributed and open environments require flexible, scalable and extendible trust verification mechanisms to access resources. To address this, the use of digital credentials as a means for making access decisions has been promoted. The resource owner needs to verify if the requester's credentials satisfy the security policy of the owner. However, such verification becomes a challenging problem when either the requester does not wish to disclose her credentials before the verification is complete, or the owner wishes to keep its security policy confidential from the requester, or both. In addition, the requester may associate a score to each of her credentials based on her perceived level of privacy. Earlier proposals to address this problem limit the owners policy to be a set of credentials. However, real world policies are more complex than a simple set. In this paper, we present three alternative privacy preserving trust verification solutions that protect both the owner's policy and requester's credentials, while at the same time allowing more expressive owner's policies that can be specified as a tree structure. We analyze their computational complexity, communication cost and the amount of disclosure.
Wave heating of the solar chromosphere

The nonmagnetic interior of supergranulation cells has been thought since the 1940s to be heated by the dissipation of acoustic waves. But all attempts to measure the acoustic flux have failed to show sufficient energy for chromospheric heating. Recent space observations with TRACE, for example, have found 10% or less of the necessary flux. To explain the missing energy it has been speculated that the nonmagnetic chromosphere is heated mainly by waves related to the magnetic field. If that were correct, the whole chromosphere, magnetic as well as nonmagnetic, would be heated mainly by waves related to the magnetic field. But contrary to expectation, the radiation emerging from the nonmagnetic chromosphere shows none of the signatures of magnetic waves, only those of acoustic waves. Nearly all the heating of the nonmagnetic chromosphere must therefore be due to acoustic waves. In the magnetic network on the boundary of supergranulation cells, on the other hand, the small filling factor of the magnetic field in the photosphere implies that only a small fraction of the wave flux that travels upward to heat the chromosphere can be channeled by the magnetic field. Hence, while some of the energy that is dissipated in the magnetic network is in the form of magnetic waves, most of it must be in the form of acoustic waves. Thus, the quiet solar chromosphere, instead of being heated mainly by magnetic waves throughout, must be heated mainly by acoustic waves throughout. The full wave flux heating the quiet chromosphere must travel through the photosphere. In the nonmagnetic medium, this flux is essentially all in the form of acoustic waves; TRACE registers at most 10% of it, perhaps because of limited spatial resolution.
Optical coherence Doppler tomography quantifies laser speckle contrast imaging for blood flow imaging in the rat cerebral cortex

A dual-imaging modality is demonstrated for high-resolution quantitative imaging of local cerebral blood flow in the rat cortex by combining simultaneous spectral-domain Doppler optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) and full-field laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI). Preliminary studies in tissue flow phantom and cocaine-induced cerebral blood flow changes indicated that by correlating coregistered cortical arterial blood flow, the relative measurement of flow changes by LSCI could be accurately calibrated by the absolute flow imaging provided by SDOCT (least square fit, r(2) approximately 0.96). Quantitative LSCI of cerebral blood flow is crucial to the quantitative analyses of the spatiotemporal hemodynamics of functional brain activations and thus improved understanding of neural process.
Phototaxis and other sensory phenomena in purple photosynthetic bacteria

The mechanisms employed by purple photosynthetic bacteria to convert light to utilizable chemical energy have been a major focus of research over the past 50 years. Utilization of light by photosynthetic bacteria for other purposes, however, has received relatively little attention. The recent discovery of phototaxis by Rhodospirillum centenum provides new opportunities for biochemical and molecular biological analysis of sensory processes in purple bacteria.
Psychological response of patients cured of advanced cancer

Psychologic testing was performed in 22 patients with advanced cancer (breast, endometrium, testis, lymphoma) who had undergone a complete remission that had been maintained for 5 to 20 years since the last therapy. The reaction to the probability of being cured was measured. The patients' overall attitude was very positive towards life and the future. They had a greater appreciation of time, life, people, and interpersonal reactions. They were less concerned about the nonessentials of life. It appeared that recovery from advanced cancer was a good experience for character development.
Role of spermatozoal platelet-activating factor in fertilization

Platelet-activating factor (PAF), a potent lipid mediator of inflammation, has been shown to play a role in both the implantation and viability of mammalian embryos. We examined whether human and mouse spermatozoa release PAF during in vitro incubation and assessed the effect of exogenous PAF and the PAF receptor antagonist WEB 2086, a thieno-triazolodiazepine, on mouse in vitro fertilization (IVF) rate. PAF biological activity was detected in 11 samples of leukocyte-free, purified human spermatozoa (28 pg PAF/10(6) cells/24 hr) and 5 samples of epididymal mouse spermatozoa (7.8 pg PAF/10(6) cells/3 hr). Exogenous PAF (10(-8) and 10(-6) M) increased (p less than 0.01) the fertilization rate 2- and 3-fold, respectively of mouse oocytes by mouse epididymal spermatozoa. 10(-4) M PAF, however, reduced sperm motility and decreased (p less than 0.05) the fertilization rate. 10(-6) M WEB 2086, decreased IVF to approximately 50% of the control fertilization rate (42% vs. 89%). WEB 2086 treatment also promoted the attachment of supernumerary spermatozoa to both fertilized and unfertilized oocytes. The fertilization rate in the presence of WEB 2086 returned to control levels when zona-pellucida-free oocytes were employed, indicating that WEB 2086 did not interfere with the spermatozoal acrosome reaction. These data suggest that PAF, of spermatozoal origin, may be important in mammalian fertilization.
Effects of Omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation on Equine Synovial Fluid Fatty Acid Composition and Prostaglandin E2

Abstract To determine if supplementation of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid ( -3 LCPUFA) alters synovial fluid fatty acid composition and prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) concentration of mature, healthy horses. Twenty, nonpregnant light breed mares were assigned into one of three daily dietary treatments. Group 1 (MARINE) received 38 g total of the -3 LCPUFA alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, 2 g), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 7.6 g), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 26.6 g) via a marine-derived supplement; group 2 (FLAX) received 38 g of -3 ALA via a flaxseed supplement; and group 3 (CONT) did not receive additional -3 LCPUFA. Blood was taken at baseline, 30, 60, and 90 days of supplementation and plasma separated. After 90 days of supplementation, 3 mL of synovial fluid was obtained through arthrocentesis. Plasma and synovial fluid were analyzed to identify fatty acid profiles and determine PGE 2 concentration. MARINE synovial fluid fatty acids contained higher of EPA and DHA compared with the CONT group and higher DHA levels compared with FLAX group. Eicosapentaenoic acid was not detected in synovial fluid from the FLAX group. Prostaglandin E 2 did not differ ( P > .05) among horses; however, the MARINE group tended ( P = .10) to have lower synovial PGE 2 concentration compared with CONT horses. The presence of EPA and DHA only in MARINE synovial fluid and plasma suggests that direct supplementation of EPA and DHA is needed to modify fatty acid composition. A tendency for lower synovial PGE 2 in healthy horses receiving oral EPA and/or DHA merits further investigation in the -3 supplementation effect on prostaglandin production.
Multicloud: Multigrid convergence with a meshless operator

The primary objective of this work is to develop and test a new convergence acceleration technique we call multicloud. Multicloud is well-founded in the mathematical basis of multigrid, but relies on a meshless operator on coarse levels. The meshless operator enables extremely simple and automatic coarsening procedures for arbitrary meshes using arbitrary fine level discretization schemes. The performance of multicloud is compared with established multigrid techniques for structured and unstructured meshes for the Euler equations on two-dimensional test cases. Results indicate comparable convergence rates per unit work for multicloud and multigrid. However, because of its mesh and scheme transparency, multicloud may be applied to a wide array of problems with no modification of fine level schemes as is often required with agglomeration techniques. The implication is that multicloud can be implemented in a completely modular fashion, allowing researchers to develop fine level algorithms independent of the convergence accelerator for complex three-dimensional problems.
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic investigation of protein stability in the lyophilized form

Upon the removal of water, proteins undergo a major, reversible rearrangement of their secondary structure, as revealed by FTIR spectroscopy. We have found herein that for recombinant human albumin (rHA) the extent of this structural change does not depend significantly either on the composition of the aqueous solution prior to lyophilization (protein concentration, pH, and the presence of excipients such as dextran or NaCl) or on the mode of dehydration (lyophilization, spray drying, or rotary evaporation), even though these factors profoundly affect rHA's solid-state stability against moisture-induced aggregation. In all cases, the alpha-helix content of rHA drops from 58% in solution to 25-35% in the dehydrated state, the beta-sheet content rises from 0 to 10-20%, and unordered structures increase from 40% to 50-60%. We have also investigated another model protein, hen egg-white lysozyme, and confirmed that it too undergoes a significant alteration of the secondary structure upon lyophilization. The extent of this structural reorganization has been found to be insensitive to the pH of the aqueous solution prior to lyophilization from pH 1.9 to 5.1, even though the thermal transition temperature (Tm) in aqueous solution over this range varies by 30 degrees C.
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae inhibits autolysis and fratricide of Streptococcus pneumoniae in vitro

Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) and nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) are common commensals of the human airway and major bacterial pathogens of otitis media (OM) and other upper airway infections. The interaction between them may play an important role in the pathogenesis of polymicrobial infections. Although previous studies suggested NTHi could promote pneumococcal survival and biofilm formation, how NTHi affects pneumococcal activities has not been defined. Our data in the present studies indicated that the outcome of the interaction between SP and NTHi was in a cell-density-dependent manner and the enhancement of pneumococcal survival happened at the later stages of culturing. Using quantitative PCR, we found that the expression of pneumococcal genes regulating autolysis and fratricide, lytA and cbpD, were significantly down-regulated in co-culture with NTHi. We further observed that influence of NTHi was not on direct cell-to-cell contact, but that this contact may contribute to the interaction between these two microorganisms. These results suggest that pneumococcal survival and biofilm formation can be enhanced by down-regulating pneumococcal cell wall hydrolase production thereby inhibiting pneumococcal autolysis and fratricide in the presence of NTHi.