cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
In Vivo Expression of B7-1 and B7-2 By Follicular Lymphoma Cells Can Prevent Induction of T-Cell Anergy But Is Insufficient to Induce Significant T-Cell Proliferation

Expression of B7 family costimulatory molecules on B cells defines their capacity to function as antigen presenting cells (APCs). B cells that do not express B7 costimulatory molecules induce T-cell tolerance. Therefore, the expression of B7 costimulatory molecules on malignant B cells might be critical for their recognition by anti–tumor-specific T cells. Here we show that virtually all germinal center (GC)-derived B-cell lymphomas including follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large cell lymphoma, but not mantle cell lymphoma or small lymphocytic lymphomas (SLL/CLL), express B7-1 (CD80) and B7-2 (CD86) on their cell surface in situ, although at extremely low levels. Despite their expression of low levels of B7-1 and B7-2, FL cells could not induce significant allogeneic T-cell proliferation. However, B7 costimulatory molecules on FL appeared to be functional because they were capable of increasing T-cell proliferation of preactivated T cells in a secondary allogeneic mixed lymphocyte response. Moreover, low B7 expression was sufficient to prevent the induction of alloantigen-specific anergy in vitro. Therefore, we postulate that whereas low-level expression of B7 is not sufficient to initiate a productive antilymphoma T-cell response, it might be sufficient to prevent T-cell tolerance in vivo.
History of Influenza

Because influenza is defined as much by its epidemiology as by its symptomatology, and because its causative virus rapidly and progressively changes, historical considerations are uniquely important in defining and evaluating this disease. The continual antigenic evolution of the virus is soon followed by specific and reciprocal changes in the immune status of infected human populations so that the pattern of influenza each year or decade reflects the experience of the community during the preceding one.
A Multiplexed DNA FISH strategy for Assessing Genome Architecture in C. elegans

Eukaryotic DNA is highly organized within nuclei and this genomic organization is important for genome function. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) approaches allow the 3D architecture of genomes to be visualized. Scalable FISH technologies, which can be applied to whole animals, are needed to help unravel how genomic architecture regulates, or is regulated by, development, growth, reproduction, and aging. Here, we describe a multiplexed DNA FISH Oligopaint library that targets the entire C. elegans genome at chromosome, three megabase, and 500 kb scales. We describe a hybridization strategy that provides flexibility to DNA FISH experiments by coupling a single primary probe synthesis reaction to dye conjugated detection oligos via bridge oligos, eliminating the time and cost typically associated with labeling probe sets for individual DNA FISH experiments. The approach allows visualization of genome organization at varying scales in all/most cells across all stages of development in an intact animal model system.
An Initial Scale-Factor Linear Polynomial Regression Model Approach for Hardware Performance on an HPC Compute-Node

High-Performance Computing (HPC) relies heavily on the overall performance and capabilities of the system used to implement it. The purpose of this research is to perform several benchmarks on Texas State University's LEAP Cluster and analyze the data collected from those tests to determine performance models. The tests used to collect this data will be various benchmarking programs such as High-Performance Linpack (HPL), IOZone, and CacheBench. Analysis of the performance evaluation for each benchmark was modeled with a scaled second-order linear polynomial regression and used to observe the performance when the workload was changed. Once the analysis was completed, the models were compared to the data obtained from the benchmark runs on the specific hardware devices. The models showed that scaling coefficients help to describe the performance of each hardware model. The work-in-progress is to continue to find scalable regression approaches that can improve the performance modeling fit.
Bilateral aniridia and congenital ureteral valve: Role of genetic testing

Background Congenital aniridia involves total or partial hypoplasia of the iris and is due to a deficiency in PAX6 gene expression. WAGR syndrome is comprised of Wilms tumor, aniridia, genitourinary abnormalities, and intellectual disability. Numerous genitourinary pathologies may be associated with WAGR syndrome, necessitating an evaluation of the genitourinary anatomy. The WT1 is vital for the development of kidneys, ovaries in females, and testes in males. WT1 gene mutations result in a WT1 protein with a decreased ability to bind to DNA, leading to uncontrolled growth, and cell division in the kidney which permits the development of Wilms tumor. A congenital ureteral valve is an exceedingly rare cause of obstructive uropathy. Results A renal and bladder ultrasound demonstrated a renal cyst. A voiding cystourethrogram revealed grade 3 vesicoureteral reflux, and a MAG3 renal scan showed ureteropelvic junction obstruction and hydronephrosis. A ureteral stent was inserted at 3 months of age after which the renal cyst resolved. The patient was urinary tract infection-free at 27 months of age. Genetic testing confirmed a heterozygous alteration in PAX6 (c.495delG, p.Thr166Leufs*41) and no abnormalities of WT1, excluding WAGR syndrome. Conclusion The genitourinary risks potentially associated with aniridia necessitate prompt genetic analysis to evaluate for WAGR syndrome.
Effects of intergenerational exposure interventions on adolescent outcomes: An application of inverse probability weighting to longitudinal pre-birth cohort data.

BACKGROUND There is great interest in understanding whether interventions on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption through pregnancy and early childhood affect adolescent body mass index (BMI). Without data from randomised trials, unbiased estimation of such effects might be achieved with observational data given sufficient and appropriate adjustment for both baseline and time-varying confounders. OBJECTIVES To illustrate the use of inverse probability (IP) weighting of marginal structural models (MSM) for estimating the effects of SSB consumption through pregnancy and early childhood on the mean early adolescent BMI z-score. METHODS Our baseline sample consisted of 1584 pregnant women from a pre-birth cohort. We defined 6 intervention intervals: early pregnancy, late pregnancy, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years. We fitted a MSM via a weighted linear regression with IP exposure and censoring weights to estimate the mean difference in BMI z-score under interventions: "maintain SSB consumption below (vs above) 0.5 servings/day in all intervals." RESULTS The estimated difference in mean BMI z-score under interventions maintaining SSB consumption at or below (vs above) 0.5 servings/day from pregnancy to 6 years was -0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI] -1.52, -0.08). The effect estimate in pregnancy, while fixing the exposure range in childhood, was -0.05 (95% CI -0.34, 0.23), and in early childhood, while fixing the range in pregnancy was -0.89 (95% CI -1.46, -0.11). The effect estimates were largely unchanged under sensitivity analyses to different implementation choices except for the choice of time interval length. CONCLUSIONS Under assumptions that include no unmeasured confounding and selection bias, and no model misspecification, results of this IP weighting application are in line with a lower mean BMI z-score in early adolescence under interventions ensuring lower, vs greater, SSB consumption in early life. This application provides a resource for researchers working with longitudinal birth cohort studies and interested in similar causal questions.
Do expert surveys underrate lower-income countries?

Abstract Perceptions of countries’ policy environments and innovation efforts drive important investment and regulatory decisions, but those perceptions may be biased. One particular concern is that evaluations of richer countries might be inflated compared to evaluations of poorer countries, as general stereotypes of national success spill over into assessments of research capability. Comparison of World Economic Forum survey assessments of businesses’ research spending with official spending figures reveals that, among countries spending comparable amounts on research, richer countries receive higher survey ratings. Richer countries’ educational outcomes are similarly rated higher than similarly performing poorer countries’. These findings suggest that perceptions may systematically disadvantage economically poorer countries, thereby misdirecting real-world investments and policy decisions derived from those rankings.
Integrated molecular, clinical, and ontological analysis identifies overlooked disease relationships

Existing knowledge of human disease relationships is incomplete. To establish a comprehensive understanding of disease, we integrated transcriptome profiles of 41,000 human samples with clinical profiles of 2 million patients, across 89 diseases. Based on transcriptome data, autoimmune diseases clustered with their specific infectious triggers, and brain disorders clustered by disease class. Clinical profiles clustered diseases according to the similarity of their initial manifestation and later complications, identifying disease relationships absent in prior co-occurrence analyses. Our integrated analysis of transcriptome and clinical profiles identified overlooked, therapeutically actionable disease relationships, such as between myositis and interstitial cystitis. Our improved understanding of disease relationships will identify disease mechanisms, offer novel therapeutic targets, and create synergistic research opportunities.
Educational Language Policy in Massachusetts: Discourses of the LOOK Act:

Within the United States, equity for English learners, while essential, has remained elusive. As such, language policy in education is a central issue. When An Act Relative to Language Opportunity ...
Exercise-induced pain threshold modulation in healthy subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The use of exercise is a potential treatment option to modulate pain (exercise-induced hypoalgesia). The pain threshold (PT) response is a measure of pain sensitivity that may be a useful marker to assess the effect of physical exercise on pain modulation. Aim: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the PT response to exercise in healthy subjects. Methods: We searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Lilacs, and Scopus using a search strategy with the following search terms: "exercise" OR "physical activity" AND "Pain Threshold" from inception to December 2nd, 2019. As criteria for inclusion of appropriate studies: randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies that enrolled healthy subjects; performed an exercise intervention; assessed PT. Hedge's effect sizes of PT response and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and random-effects meta-analyses were performed. Results: For the final analysis, thirty-six studies were included (n=1326). From this, we found a significant and homogenous increase in PT in healthy subjects (ES=0.19, 95% CI= 0.11 to 0.27, I2=7.5%). According to subgroup analysis, the effect was higher in studies: with women (ES=0.36); performing strength exercise (ES=0.34), and with moderate intensity (ES=0.27), and no differences by age were found. Confirmed by the meta-regression analysis. Conclusion: This meta-analysis provides evidence of small to moderate effects of exercise on PT in healthy subjects, being even higher for moderate strength exercise and in women. These results support the idea of modulation of the endogenous pain system due to exercise and highlight the need for clinical translation to the chronic pain population.
Body Schema in Autonomous Agents

A body schema is an agent’s model of its own body that enables it to act on affordances in the environment. This paper presents a body schema system for the Learning Intelligent Decision Agent (LID...
Thermal non-equilibrium in spray flash with vacuum vapor extraction

Abstract The spray flash is the core procedure in spray flash desalination, which is an intense phase-changing process with great potential in efficient low-temperature evaporation and high evaporation capacity. In a vacuuming spray flash with active vapor extraction and absence of external heating, the latent heat is self-supplied by the evaporating droplets, resulting in a temperature difference between continued cooling droplets and the hotter yield vapor along with the spray transport. Understanding such thermal non-equilibrium between vapor and droplets is curial and beneficial to desalination industry for improving evaporation efficiency and energy recovery. This paper aims to establish an integrated experiment-modeling-CFD methodology to study the spray flash and its thermal non-equilibrium under active vacuuming. In this work, various effects on the spray flash, including the polydispersion of atomized sprays, the heat conduction coupled evaporation of droplets, as well as the non-uniformity in vapor transport, are discussed. The proposed methodology is based on a Lagrangian-Eulerian modeling approach, which is calculated by a simplified process model and numerically solved via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of ANSYS FLUENT with user-defined functions (UDF), respectively. Two experimental systems are developed: One is for calibrating droplets' velocity and size distribution; the other is a lab-scale vacuum spray flash system for measuring the evaporative characteristics. A dimensionless corrective method for the lumped heat capacity model is proposed in order to improve the accuracy of discrete phase modeling in CFD simulation. Theoretical predictions by the process model and CFD simulation meet good agreements with experiments. Case studies of the operation parametric effects on flash characteristics are demonstrated via both modeling predictions and experimental measurements. The results indicate that the temperature difference between the extracted vapor and the discharged water can be effectively generated during the process. Such a gap is positively impacted by the operating vacuum level and the initial spray temperature. The reported thermal non-equilibrium phenomenon indicates highly efficient evaporation of spray flash in an active-vacuuming environment, and such potential could be further utilized in desalination.
Identifying and Analyzing Astronomers' Preferences for the Next Decade of NASA

The aim of this research is to survey preferences in the astronomy and astrophysics community as they relate to the next decade of NASA. Preferences are key for understanding how decisions are made by individuals that could aid in projecting community preferences and likely outcomes. The study was performed using a survey methodology and evaluated preferences regarding the decadal survey by prioritizing space-based astrophysics missions and research activities. Thematic analysis was implemented to determine themes within participants' open survey responses. Our results show strong community preferences for observational astronomy and science versatility, capability, and scientific return for the upcoming decadal period. Moreover, our findings also show consensus among subgroups in the community. We elaborate on community preferences by presenting results on mission concepts, mission capabilities, and primary science that NASA should strategically invest in.
Blindness Secondary to Orbital Giant Cell Granuloma Mass-Effect in Noonan Syndrome With Return of Vision Following Surgical Decompression.

ABSTRACT Noonan syndrome is a rare, autosomal dominant disorder encompassing multiple congenital defects, as well as association with solid tumor and lesion development. The authors present a 26-year-old female with known Noonan syndrome and ongoing complaint of worsening unilateral vision, progressing to vision loss due to lesion mass effect. Decompressive surgery was performed, restoring patient's vision to baseline immediately postoperative. The lesion was confirmed to be giant cell granuloma. In this paper we discuss the unique presentation of vision loss due to orbital giant cell granuloma in Noonan syndrome with postoperative return of vision; the importance of a multi-disciplinary team evaluation, thorough preoperative clinical and image-based work up, intraoperative findings, postoperative outcome, and complexity of definitive management.
Image Processing-based Method for Automatic Design of Patient-Specific Cranial Implant for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract Decompressive craniectomy (DC) is a surgical procedure where a portion of the skull (flap) is removed to relieve the built-up pressure from the patient’s brain due to swelling of the brain tissue after a traumatic injury to the head. Subsequently, another surgical procedure called cranioplasty is carried out to fix an implant or bone flap in patients who have undergone DC. In this paper, an automatic design methodology for additive manufacturing of a PSCI (patient-specific cranial implant) has been proposed. The input is the DICOM digital data from a CT scan and the output is the STL file geometry of the cranial implant. The proposed method has been tested and validated using real de-identified DICOM data, and the resultant implant was 3D printed and fit to the skull of a cadaver. The key contribution made in this paper is the complete automation of the design of a PSCI based on the skull’s unique geometry using a combination of image-processing and computational geometry techniques. Another important characteristic of the proposed method is that medical professionals need not have any technical expertise in additive manufacturing or part design for generating a PSCI.
Satellite imaging reveals increased proportion of population exposed to floods

Flooding affects more people than any other environmental hazard and hinders sustainable development1,2. Investing in flood adaptation strategies may reduce the loss of life and livelihood caused by floods3. Where and how floods occur and who is exposed are changing as a result of rapid urbanization4, flood mitigation infrastructure5 and increasing settlements in floodplains6. Previous estimates of the global flood-exposed population have been limited by a lack of observational data, relying instead on models, which have high uncertainty3,7–11. Here we use daily satellite imagery at 250-metre resolution to estimate flood extent and population exposure for 913 large flood events from 2000 to 2018. We determine a total inundation area of 2.23 million square kilometres, with 255–290 million people directly affected by floods. We estimate that the total population in locations with satellite-observed inundation grew by 58–86 million from 2000 to 2015. This represents an increase of 20 to 24 per cent in the proportion of the global population exposed to floods, ten times higher than previous estimates7. Climate change projections for 2030 indicate that the proportion of the population exposed to floods will increase further. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the satellite observations will improve our understanding of where floods are changing and how best to adapt. The global flood database generated from these observations will help to improve vulnerability assessments, the accuracy of global and local flood models, the efficacy of adaptation interventions and our understanding of the interactions between landcover change, climate and floods. Satellite imagery for the period 2000–2018 reveals that population growth was greater in flood-prone regions than elsewhere, thus exposing a greater proportion of the population to floods.
A randomized controlled trial of antibody response to 2019-20 cell-based inactivated and egg-based live attenuated influenza vaccines in children and young adults

Abstract Background Hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) titers to the live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV4) are typically lower than its counterpart egg-based inactivated influenza vaccines (IIV). Similar comparisons have not been made between LAIV4 and the 4-strain, cell-culture inactivated influenza vaccine (ccIIV4). We compared healthy children and young adult HAI titers against the 2019-2020 LAIV4 and ccIIV4. Methods Participants aged 4-21 years were randomized 1:1 to receive ccIIV4 (n =100) or LAIV4 (n=98). Blood was drawn prevaccination and on day 28 (21-35) post vaccination. HAI assays against egg-grown A/H1N1, A/H3N2, both vaccine B strains and cell-grown A/H3N2 antigens were conducted. Outcomes were geometric mean titers (GMT) and geometric mean fold rise (GMFR) in titers. Results GMTs to A/H1N1, A/H3N2 and B/Victoria increased following both ccIIV and LAIV and to B/Yamagata following ccIIV (p Conclusion The HAI response to ccIIV4 was greater than LAIV4 in this study of mostly older children, and day 0 HAI titers inversely predicted GMFR for both vaccines. For both vaccines, the A/H3N2 cell-grown antigen levels were lower than egg-grown, but the GMFR for cell-grown and egg-grown did not differ significantly within vaccine type. Clinical Trials No NCT03982069
Site-specific sequence repair of coronavirus defective interfering RNA by RNA recombination and edited RNA.

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), a coronavirus, contains an approximately 31 kb-long genomic RNA (8, 9). In MHV-infected cells, seven to eight species of virus-specific subgenomic mRNAs with a 3’-coterminal nested-set structure (6, 10) are synthesized; these are numbered 1 to 7, in decreasing order of size (6, 10). The 5’-end of MHV genomic RNA contains a 72- to 77-nucleotide-long leader sequence (5, 7, 22). An identical sequence is found at the 5’-end of each MHV mRNA species; in each, the leader sequence is fused with the mRNA body sequence, which starts from a consensus sequence at the intergenic sites (17, 21).
A NEW CARPET SOILING TEST

With the addition of a soil feeder, a laboratory carpet walker has been adapted to provide controlled soiling to evaluate carpet soil resistance. The degree of soiling is measured with a Hunter ColorQuest spectrocolorimeter.
Capital-Based Macroeconomics: Austrians, Keynes, and Keynesians

The recent revival of boom-bust business cycles and the world–wide slow recovery from 2009-2012 has renewed interest in the analysis of a money-production economy developed by Keynes and capital-structure based Austrian macroeconomics developed by Hayek, Mises, Rothbard, and most recently by Garrison. Both approaches identify time, money, banking, and financial markets, interest, and investment as the major sources of coordination failure leading to recession or depression. When compared to single aggregate modern macroeconomic models, both Keynes’s and the Austrians’ model, with their lower level of aggregation, provide a better understanding of how an economy goes wrong, However, the paper argues that Keynes’s model is flawed because it lacks a capital-structure foundation. Keynesian macroeconomic policy is generally unnecessary and if applied consistently destabilizes the economy. Austrian economics and its capital-based macroeconomics provide better guidance on cause, recovery, and more importantly, prevention.
Direct Democracy, Political Delegation, and Responsibility Substitution

This paper studies how adding direct democracy institutions to representative democracy affects politicians’ incentives and selection, and citizens’ welfare. While direct democracy allows citizens to correct politicians’ mistakes, it also reduces the incentives of elected representatives to search for good policies. This responsibility substitution reduces citizens’ ability to screen competent politicians when elections are the only means to address political agency problems. A lower cost of direct democracy induces a negative spiral on politicians incentives, which we represent by a disincentive multiplier. As a consequence, introducing initiatives or lowering their cost can make voters worse off.
The vitronectin-binding domain of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 plays an important functional role in lipopolysaccharide-induced lethality in mice.

Narasaki R, Xu Z, Liang Z, Fung LCW, Donahue D, Castellino FJ, Ploplis VA. The vitronectin-binding domain of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 plays an important functional role in lipopolysaccharide-induced lethality in mice. J Thromb Haemost 2012; 10: 2678–21.
Portfolio Shifts, Asset Price Declines, and Liquidity Lock: Understanding the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis

This paper adds to the explanation of financial crises by employing the concepts of liquidity lock, portfolio shifting, and the wealth effect in the context of the 2007-9 financial crisis and of internationalized money manager capitalism. The paper reviews four major crisis theories and follows with a summary account of the recent financial crisis. The paper constructs a model in which portfolio shifts driven by perceived changes in risk and return are instrumental in creating liquidity lock. Sharp asset price changes affect net worth and aggregate demand, creating policy difficulties for economic leaders. The paper ends by addressing the competing options available to policymakers in late 2008 and 2009.
Conflict resolution in cooperative design

Design is increasingly becoming a cooperative endeavor carried out by multiple agents with diverse kinds of expertise. The development of tools and underlying theories for supporting cooperative design has lagged, however, behind the growing needs implied by this evolution. The goal of this thesis work is to provide a computational model for supporting a critical component of cooperative design; the run-time resolution of conflicts. Though the long-term goal is to support unrestricted conflict resolution among human agents, this thesis focuses on an important subset of this problem: the resolution of domain-level conflicts in routine design, using machine-based agents. This thesis proposes a model of conflict resolution in cooperative design that corresponds well to how human design experts actually perform cooperative design, based on analysis of their group problem solving activity. This model supports natural participation for human experts, both at development-time as domain experts asked to create machine-based agents, as well as at run-time as problem solving agents themselves. The conflict resolution model is elaborated into a detailed implemented computational theory that offers many insights into how the conflict resolution expert and design agents should operate. The model incorporates a considerable body of conflict resolution expertise applicable to a wide variety of domains, as well as techniques for acquiring further expertise and evaluating its completeness.
Obesity and breast cancer survival in ethnically diverse postmenopausal women: the Multiethnic Cohort Study

Breast cancer survival has been found to be lower in obese women, but few studies have evaluated ethnic variations in this association. This study examined all-cause and breast cancer-specific survival by body mass index (BMI) in the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) study for African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, Latino, and Caucasian women. Female MEC participants free of breast cancer, aged ≥50 years at cohort entry, and diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer during follow-up were included in the analyses (n = 3,842). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the effect of pre-diagnostic adult BMI (<22.5, 22.5-24.9, 25.0-29.9, ≥30 kg/m(2)) on the risk of mortality. Mean age at diagnosis was 68.8 years (range 50-89 years). During a mean follow-up of 6.2 ± 3.8 years after diagnosis, there were 804 deaths that included 376 breast cancer-specific deaths. After adjustment for breast cancer characteristics, including hormone receptor status, stage at diagnosis, and treatment, obese women had a higher risk of all-cause [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.54; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23, 1.91] and breast cancer-specific (HR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.00) mortality compared to women with high-normal BMI; however, being overweight did not affect survival. There was no evidence of ethnic differences in the BMI effect on all-cause (P (interaction) = 0.87) or breast cancer-specific (P (interaction) = 0.63) mortality. Our findings are consistent with the literature that maintaining moderate weight throughout adult life may be beneficial for breast cancer survival in women and this appears to hold for all ethnic groups.
Figure of Merit for Fault-Tolerant Space Computers

To aid the computer designer in addressing the proper reliability goals, an economic model is proposed in which any increase in cost for reliability is evaluated against the expected decrease in cost of failure. These criteria are applied in an example to optimize the memory configuration of a computer that has a five-year lifetime requirement in space. An internal figure of merit is developed that can be used by the computer designer when little specific spacecraft and mission data are available. A more general external figure of merit can be used when mission parameters are defined. This latter is useful both for the computer designer and the spacecraft systems engineer.
Theory of the acid-base hydrogen bonding interactions, contact angles, and the hysteresis of wetting: application to coal and graphite surfaces

An understanding of the acid-base behavior of coal surfaces is needed, if the wetting of coal by water and other liquids, and the separation processes such as floatation and oil agglomeration of coal, are to be exploited. The modern theory of the acidic and basic parameters of surface free energy, γ⊕ and γ⊖, as well as the apolar component γLW, is reviewed, together with the equations for contact angles in terms of these properties. Contact angles of water, glycerol and methylene iodide on 14 different coals, and on graphite, have been measured. The advancing angle data and the retreating angle data lead to two decidedly different sets of the parameters, γLW, γ⊕ and γ⊖. γLW r, based on retreating angles, is 10 mJ/m2 higher than γLW a, based on advancing angles; and both are independent of % carbon and % oxygen, i.e. of coal rank. γ⊕ r lies between 1.2 and 2.4 mJ/m2, and γ⊕ a is close to 0.2 mJ/m2, independent of composition. γ⊖ r and γ⊖ a exhibit downtrends with increasing carbon content. For each of the ...
Use of bone marrow-derived macrophages to model murine innate immune responses

The innate immune system is composed of neutrophils and monocyte/macrophages. As a cell type, bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMM) are easier to study than neutrophils since they are still capable of cell division and have a longer life span. However, in comparison with neutrophils, few methodological studies on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by such macrophages have been reported. Here we present studies on ROS production of this cell type under various conditions including the use of different priming and stimulating agents. In addition, we report that the de novo adhesion of BMM to tissue culture plates induces superoxide anion production and this can be further enhanced by stimulation with PMA. BMM are able to adhere to endothelial cells that have been activated by TNF-alpha exposure, and under these circumstances also generate ROS. We explored different methods to introduce gene products into BMM without activating them to avoid complicating subsequent studies of ROS production. Infection with lentiviral vectors was very efficient, allowed long-term expression and did not activate the BMM. We conclude that BMM are very suitable for the biochemical study of the oxidative burst.
Employing a transgenic animal model to obtain cementoblasts in vitro.

Background: Proper formation of cementum, a mineralized tissue lining the tooth root surface, is required for development of a functional periodontal ligament. Further, the presence of healthy cementum is considered to be an important criterion for predictable restoration of periodontal tissues lost as a consequence of disease. Despite the significance of cementum to general oral health, the mechanisms controlling development and regeneration of this tissue are not well understood and research has been hampered by the lack of adequate in vitro experimental models. Methods: In an effort to establish cementoblast cell populations, without the trappings of a heterogeneous population containing periodontal ligament (PDL) cells, cells were obtained from the root surface of first mandibular molars of OC-TAg transgenic mice. These mice contain the SV40 large T-antigen (TAg) under control of the osteocalcin (OC) promoter. Therefore, only cells that express OC also express TAg and are immortalized in vitro. Based ...
An investigation of time-reversal techniques in seismic landmine detection

A system is under development at the Georgia Institute of Technology that utilizes a seismic source to propagate Rayleigh waves through a medium such as soil. Non-surface-contacting electromagnetic sensors are used to detect the displacement of the medium created by interaction of the Rayleigh waves with a target, such as a landmine. The system has been tested in a relatively uncluttered medium and has yielded encouraging results, demonstrating that the system is effective for the detection of targets buried just below the surface. The system performs well in an uncluttered medium. However, when the medium is filled with a large number of scattering objects, the Rayleigh wave will be broken up by the scatterers in the medium to the point that the wave front no longer interacts with the target as it would in an uncluttered medium. This causes detection of a target to be uncertain or impossible. In an effort to extend the application of this system to a highly cluttered medium, the time reversal method is applied to the seismic system, and evaluated for focusing Rayleigh wave fronts at a desired location. Numerical and experimental results are presented for a propagation medium with no scatterers present, and with multiple scatterers present. Time-reverse focusing results are also compared to uniform excitation and time-delay beamforming methods.
Task reliability assessment in robotic systems

A new method for assessing the performance of a robotic system performing a high-precision task has been developed. The method utilizes an entropy-based formulation to provide a measure of the reliability of a robotic system with respect to a task specification. The derivation of the proposed technique is presented, including two alternative formulations that differ in terms of their complexity and level of approximation. Methods for combining these measures for complex robotic tasks are detailed. The new method is demonstrated in a case study involving a robotic assembly system, in which the entropy formulation is used to select an optimal system design from a set of alternatives. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Preschool Children's Use of Trait Labels to Make Inductive Inferences

One hundred one preschool children (ages 3 years 5 months to 4 years 10 months) participated in 3 studies examining the tendency to use verbal labels versus appearance information in making novel inductive inferences. A triad task analogous to that of S. A. Gelman and E. M. Markman (1986) was devised. Participants learned a different property for each of 2 children, and were asked which of the properties was true of a third child. One of the first 2 children was identified with the same label as the third child (e.g., both were labeled as shy) but looked different, and the other was identified with a different label than the third child but looked very similar. Results of Study 1 revealed that participants tended to use the trait labels, rather than superficial resemblance, in making psychological inferences. Studies 2 and 3 suggest that these results cannot be attributed to biases on the task. Study 4 provided a replication of the results of Study 1 in a context in which appearance information was explicitly pointed out and in which different trait labels were used.
Incentive effects and social class in children’s probability and discrimination learning

Middle- and lower-class preschool children were presented a three-choice problem in which the responses were reinforced on either a 100-0-0 or a 75-25-0 schedule with incentives that differed in value. Higher levels of performance occurred for middle- than for lower-class Ss and for Ss receiving continuous reinforcement. Incentive effects were found only when the two levels of incentive were present within a single problem for lower-class Ss. The role of incentive contrast is discussed.
A Reply to “A Replication of “Counting Chickens When They Hatch” (Economic Journal 2012)”:

The regressions in Clemens et al. (2012) are fully replicable with open-access data and code. Roodman (2015) alters the regression specifications in that paper by adding twice-lagged aid, after which he cannot reject the null hypothesis of a zero effect of aid on growth. We show, with Roodman’s data and code, that his altered specifications have very low power to reject the null–roughly 0.1 to 0.2. In other words, there is an 80-90% chance that Roodman’s altered regressions fail to reject the null by construction. This renders the exercise uninformative about the robustness of the findings in Clemens et al. (2012) or, more generally, about the effect of aid on growth.
Wallace State's New Rules of Business: Affirming the Truths of Intentional Transformation

Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, took the Community College Futures Assembly challenge for the 2006 Bellwether Award from FAST COMPANY's release of The Rules of Business: Timeless Truths from the Best Minds in Business to identify its own substantive question for this year's competition: “The New Rules of Business” support an organization that values a culture of intentionality. How has your community college met the challenge to create a culture of intentionality that fosters and supports excellence in teaching and learning? Inspired by the timeless truths that the editors use to structure the book, Wallace State's New Rules of Business affirm these truths while defining five rules of learning-centered strategic planning, shared governance, and fiscal responsibility.
Geodesic symmetries of homogeneous Kähler Manifolds

D'Atri and Nickerson [6], [7] have given necessary conditions for the geodesic symmetries of a Riemannian manifold to preserve the volume element. We use their results to show that ifG is a compact simple Lie group,T is a maximal torus ofG, andG/T is not symmetric, then anyG-invariant Kahler metric onG/T does not have volume-preserving geodesic symmetries. From the Kahler/de Rham decomposition of a compact homogeneous Kahler manifold [8], our result extends to the invariant Kahler metrics on a quotient of a compact connected Lie group by a maximal torus. In proving these results we compute directly the Ricci tensor of anyG-invariant Kahler metric onG/T forG compact connected andT a maximal torus ofG. The result is an explicit formula giving the value of the Ricci tensor elements in terms of the root structure of the Lie algebra ofG.
Evidence for a ground-state triplet in 45Ti

Abstract Measurements of γ rays following the 45 Sc(p,n) 45 Ti reaction together with neutron time-of-flight data provide convinging evidence for the existence of a ground-state triplet in 45 Ti at 0, 36.7, and 40.2 keV.
Molecular diversity and evolution of myticin-C antimicrobial peptide variants in the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis.

Mussels have diverse groups of cysteine rich, cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) (defensins, mytilins, myticins, and mytimycin) that constitute an important component of their innate immune defence. Despite the identification and characterization of these AMPs in mussels, the underlying genetic mechanisms that maintain high diversity among multiple variants of the myticin-C isoform are poorly understood. Using phylogeny-based models of sequence evolution and several site-by-site frequency spectrum statistical tests for neutrality, herein we report that positive selection has been the major driving force in maintaining high diversity among the allelic-variants of the myticin-C AMP of Mytilus galloprovincialis. The statistical tests rejected the hypothesis that all polymorphism within myticin-C loci is neutral. Although a majority of the codons constrained to purifying selection (rate of amino acid replacement to the silent substitution, omega 1), thus indicating adaptive evolution of certain amino acids. Direct interaction of these peptides with the surrounding pathogens and/or altered/new pathogens in the changing environment is the likely cause of molecular adaptation of certain amino acid sites in myticin-C variants.
The role of the laser in laryngotracheal reconstruction

The laser lends itself to several potential applications in management of laryngotracheal stenosis. These may be divided into two applications: primary, when the laser is used to address the obstruction directly, and secondary, when the laser is applied after the laryngotracheal reconstruction procedure to manage complications. A variety of lasers has been explored for use in the treatment of laryngotracheal stenosis. The three lasers most commonly used for the airway are the CO 2 , neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd:YAG), and the potassium-titanyl-phosphate (KTP) systems. The CO 2 laser has been the mainstay in the management of most airway lesions because of surgeon familiarity and its precise cutting properties. The Nd:YAG system has the advantage of transmission through flexible fibers and delivery by either contact or noncontact mode. Because of its preferential absorption by hemoglobin, the KTP laser may have even greater advantages when used to address granulation tissue, which is often friable and tends to bleed. Techniques for primary application of the laser are detailed for partial stenoses or webs, laryngomalacia, and bilateral true vocal cord paralysis or fixation. In addition, techniques are discussed for the use of the laser in a secondary role for the management of postoperative granulomas and cicatrix. With advances in laser technology and endoscopy, the laser will continue to be of central importance in laryngotracheal reconstruction.
The intracellular nucleotides of Astasia longa.

Abstract Intracellular nucleotides of the achlorotic flagellate Astasia longa were fractionated by anion-exchange chromatography from cultures grown logarithmically at 14.5 ° and 28.5 °C, the two temperatures used for the synchronization of cell division of the protozoa, and also from synchronized cultures after the burst of division. No large changes in the relative quantities of the various nucleotides were observed under these conditions, but the total pool size increased markedly after the burst of division. Thirty-four nucleotides were obtained in sufficient quantity to be examined, and twelve of these were identified. These include two possible precursors of NAD, thereby suggesting the pathway of biosynthesis of NAD in Astasia. Some properties of the other twenty-two nucleotide components were established by spectral analysis and by paper chromatography, and some were tentatively identified.
Structure−Function Studies of PANDER, an Islet Specific Cytokine Inducing Cell Death of Insulin-Secreting β Cells†

PANDER (pancreatic derived factor, FAM3B) is a novel cytokine, present in insulin secretory granules, that induces apoptosis of α and β cells of mouse, rat, and human islets in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and may be implicated in diabetes. PANDER has the predicted secondary structure of 4 α-helical bundles with an up−up−down−down topology, and two disulfide bonds. Eleven mutated PANDERs were constructed and expressed in β-TC3 cells to identify the essential region of PANDER involved in β-cell death. β-Cell function was assessed by assays of cell viability and insulin secretion. Based on quantitative real-time RT-PCR all mutant PANDERs had similar mRNA expression levels in β-TC3 cells. Immunoblotting showed that ten of eleven mutant PANDER proteins were synthesized and detected in β-TC3 cells. A mutant PANDER with no signal peptide, however, was not expressed. Truncation of helix D alone caused a 40−50% decrease in PANDER's activity, while truncation of both helices C and D resulted in a 75% loss of...
Estimation of true size distribution of partially aligned same-shape ellipsoidal particles

Abstract 1. The relations for estimating true size characteristics, volume fractions and volume densities of the same-shape in-plane aligned triaxial ellipsoidal have been compiled. 2. The measurements on planes perpendicular to the plane of alignment allow for estimations of all true size characteristics. The two necessary aspect ratios are the largest and the smallest observed aspect ratios and the true size distribution can be obtained from the measured distribution of the section diameters. 3. Measurements on planes parallel to the plane of alignment are not sufficient for finding all true characteristics. They allow however for the estimation of the true size distribution, volume fraction and one of the true aspect ratios. 4. Alternative; expressions for estimating average aspect ratios were also derived. They should be useful for finding aspect ratios when triaxial-ellipsoid is an approximation of the particle shapes.
Electrotactile two point discrimination as a function of frequency, pulse width and pulse time delay

The feasibility of frequency modulated two-point discrimination as a design concept for electrocutaneous sensory substitution displays has been investigated further. Two new parameters have been tested on human subjects for their effect on the two-point threshold: pulse width and pulse time delay (phase shift). The pulse width study has shown that 100-μsec pulses resulted in the lowest threshold for spatial stimulation while 10-μsec pulses yielded the lowest threshold for temporal stimulation. It was also shown that pulse phase shifts of 0 to 180° result in different threshold values. Phase shifts of 0 to 135° showed slight threshold improvement. The 180° phase shift yielded substantial improvement.
Controlled growth of ZnO nanowires and their optical properties

This article surveys recent developments in the rational synthesis of single-crystalline zinc oxide nanowires and their unique optical properties. The growth of ZnO nanowires was carried out in a simple chemical vapor transport and condensation (CVTC) system. Based on our fundamental understanding of the vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) nanowire growth mechanism, different levels of growth controls (including positional, orientational, diameter, and density control) have been achieved. Power-dependent emission has been examined and lasing action was observed in these ZnO nanowires when the excitation intensity exceeds a threshold (∼40 kW cm–2). These short-wavelength nanolasers operate at room temperature and the areal density of these nanolasers on substrate readily reaches 1 × 1010 cm–2. The observation of lasing action in these nanowire arrays without any fabricated mirrors indicates these single-crystalline, well-facetted nanowires can function as self-contained optical resonance cavities. This argument is further supported by our recent near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) studies on single nanowires.
Theoretical Foundations of the New Leadership: Gilligan, Deming, and Nemerowicz & Rosi

This essay identifies three core sources that have contributed significantly to new leadership theory and examines their content using methods from the field of literary theory. The main discovery to emerge in this process is that a critique of individualism connects these very diverse works. Included in this analysis is (1) Carol Gilligan's writing on the psychological and moral development of women; (2) W. Edwards Deming's organizational theories associated with Total Quality Management; and (3) the early work of Gloria Nemerowicz and Eugene Rosi on the subject of leadership education. The essay also discusses the ideological aspects of new leadership theory.