cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Methylation-dependent DNA discrimination in natural transformation of Campylobacter jejuni .

Campylobacter jejuni, a leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis, is naturally competent. Like many competent organisms, C. jejuni restricts the DNA that can be used for transformation to minimize undesirable changes in the chromosome. Although C. jejuni can be transformed by C. jejuni-derived DNA, it is poorly transformed by the same DNA propagated in Escherichia coli or produced with PCR. Our work indicates that methylation plays an important role in marking DNA for transformation. We have identified a highly conserved DNA methyltransferase, which we term Campylobacter transformation system methyltransferase (ctsM), which methylates an overrepresented 6-bp sequence in the chromosome. DNA derived from a ctsM mutant transforms C. jejuni significantly less well than DNA derived from ctsM+ (parental) cells. The ctsM mutation itself does not affect transformation efficiency when parental DNA is used, suggesting that CtsM is important for marking transforming DNA, but not for transformation itself. The mutant has no growth defect, arguing against ongoing restriction of its own DNA. We further show that E. coli plasmid and PCR-derived DNA can efficiently transform C. jejuni when only a subset of the CtsM sites are methylated in vitro. A single methylation event 1 kb upstream of the DNA involved in homologous recombination is sufficient to transform C. jejuni, whereas otherwise identical unmethylated DNA is not. Methylation influences DNA uptake, with a slight effect also seen on DNA binding. This mechanism of DNA discrimination in C. jejuni is distinct from the DNA discrimination described in other competent bacteria.
Intimate partner violence and psychotic experiences in four U.S. cities.

Abstract Background A large body of research has established a relationship between trauma exposure, particularly during childhood, and psychotic experiences. Yet, there remains a general lack of research on adult trauma exposure, including intimate partner violence (IPV), as a risk factor for psychotic experiences. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between IPV and psychotic experiences in U.S. cities. Methods Data were collected from 1615 participants in four U.S. cities. Psychotic experiences were assessed through the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) psychosis screen along with adapted IPV measures. Results Findings revealed that experiencing at least one form of IPV was significantly associated with each of the four psychotic experiences assessed for both men and women. The strongest associations were found for threatening and sexual IPV; physical IPV was not significantly associated with psychotic experiences. Exposure to IPV was associated with more than a tripling of the odds of reporting at least one psychotic experience as opposed to none. Among those exposed to IPV there was between three- to five times the odds of reporting specific subtypes of psychotic experiences. Conclusion The results expand on prior findings linking psychotic experiences and childhood trauma exposure to include intimate adult exposures. Emotional and sexual IPV appear to be associated with elevated risk for psychotic experiences in adulthood. Even though IPV is more commonly reported by women in the U.S., such victimization appears to have similar associations with psychotic experiences regardless of gender.
La Nueva Argentina

Argentina's recent default is simply another chapter in a saga that stretches back over the past century. To ensure that default and economic recession don’t continue to be the norm in Argentina, its leaders and its people alike must seriously reevaluate the myth of Juan Peron and its relevance in the 21 st century world. In order to improve its financial position, Argentina must be willing to relinquish its past views on economic dogma.
Hepatitis B core antigen based novel vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus

Porcine epidemic diarrhea Virus (PEDV) is the causative agent of porcine epidemic diarrhea, which is a devastating viral disease and causes severe economic loss to the swine industry. Current vaccine options for PEDV include modified live viruses and killed live viruses. Though these vaccines have shown efficacy, some have side effects including viral shedding. This report details an E. coli based expression and purification process of multiple vaccine candidates for PEDV using Hepatitis B Core Antigen (HBcAg) as a backbone protein. Short linear peptide sequences from PEDV were inserted into the immunodominant region of HBcAg in a novel recombinant vaccine design against PEDV. These peptide sequences were successfully inserted individually as well as all together in a multivalent strategy. Each vaccine candidate was tested in vivo in an intranasal as well as an intraperitoneal administration. Although each candidate was able to elicit a strong immunogenic response specific for the inserted peptide sequences, only two out of five of the test candidates demonstrated an ability to elicit an immune response capable of virus neutralization when delivered via intraperitoneal administration in mice.
Tracking You through DNS Traffic: Linking User Sessions by Clustering with Dirichlet Mixture Model

The Domain Name System (DNS), which does not encrypt domain names such as "bank.us" and "dentalcare.com", commonly accurately reflects the specific network services. Therefore, DNS-based behavioral analysis is extremely attractive for many applications such as forensics investigation and online advertisement. Traditionally, a user can be trivially and uniquely identified by the device's IP address if it is static (i.e., a desktop or a laptop). As more and more wireless and mobile devices are deeply ingrained in our lives and the dynamic IP address such as DHCP has been widely applied, it becomes almost impossible to use one IP address to identify a unique user. In this paper, we propose a new tracking method to identify individual users by the way they query DNS regardless of dynamic changing IP addresses and various types of devices. The method is applicable based on two observations. First, even though users may update IP addresses dynamically during different sessions, their query patterns can be stable across these sessions. Secondly, domain name look ups in sessions are different from users to users according to their personal behaviors. Specifically, we propose the constrained Dirichlet multinomial mixture (CDMM) clustering model to cluster DNS queries of different sessions into groups, each of which is considered being generated by a unique user. Compared with traditional supervised and unsupervised models, our model does not acquire any labeled user information that is very hard to obtain in real networks or the specification of the number of clusters, and meanwhile enforces the maximum number of session data in each cluster, which fits the DNS tracking problem nicely. Experimental results on DNS queries collected from real networks demonstrate that our method accomplishes a high clustering accuracy and outperforms the existing methods.
Mobile Phone Behavior

This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to the newly-emerging science of mobile phone behavior. It presents the unexpected complexity of human mobile phone behavior through four basic aspects of mobile phone usage (users, technologies, activities, and effects), and then explores four major domains of such behavior (medicine, business, education, and everyday life). Chapters open with thoughts on mobile phone usage and behavior from interviews with cell phone users, then present a series of scientific studies, synthesized knowledge, and real-life cases, concluding with complex but highly readable analyses of each aspect of mobile phone behavior. Readers should achieve two intellectual goals: gaining a usable knowledge of the complexity of mobile phone behaviour, and developing the skills to analyze the complexity of mobile phone usage - and further technological behaviors.
Visible light optical coherence microscopy of the brain with isotropic femtoliter resolution in vivo.

Most flying-spot optical coherence tomography and optical coherence microscopy (OCM) systems use a symmetric confocal geometry, where the detection path retraces the illumination path starting from and ending with the spatial mode of a single-mode optical fiber. Here we describe a visible light OCM instrument that breaks this symmetry to improve transverse resolution without sacrificing collection efficiency in scattering tissue. This was achieved by overfilling a water immersion objective on the illumination path while maintaining a conventional Gaussian mode detection path (1/e2 intensity diameter ∼0.82 Airy disks), enabling ∼1.1 μm full width at half-maximum (FWHM) transverse resolution. At the same time, a ∼0.9 μm FWHM axial resolution in tissue, achieved by a broadband visible light source, enabled femtoliter volume resolution. We characterized this instrument according to paraxial coherent microscopy theory and, finally, used it to image the meningeal layers, intravascular red blood cell-free layer, and myelinated axons in the mouse neocortex in vivo through the thinned skull.
Single institution validation of a modified graded prognostic assessment of patients with breast cancer brain metastases.

Aim The number of breast cancer brain metastases is a prognostic clinical variable in the modified graded prognostic assessment (GPA) Index for breast cancer. Patients & methods We retrospectively gathered data from 127 breast cancer patients who underwent radiation therapy for brain metastasis. Patients were stratified by both breast GPA and modified breast GPA scores, and survival was determined using the Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards model. Results & conclusion The Kaplan-Meier curve for patients under the breast GPA classification were not significant, but were significant under the modified breast GPA classification. The inclusion of number of brain metastases into the modified breast GPA index improved prognosis, thus validating the use of the modified breast GPA in prognosticating patient outcome.
Vaccine Hesitancy in Pediatric Primary Care Practices

Understanding how pediatric practices handle parental vaccine hesitancy is important as it impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of pediatric practices. In total, 21 semi-structured interviews with pediatric practice staff within a primary care network were conducted between May 2012 and March 2013. Thematic analysis focused on the barriers and challenges of vaccine hesitancy and strategies to reduce the burden at the practice level. Barriers and challenges of vaccine hesitancy included time constraints, administrative challenges, financial challenges and strained patient-provider relationships. Strategies to minimize the burden of vaccine hesitancy included training for vaccine counseling, screening for vaccine hesitancy prior to immunization visits, tailored vaccine counseling, and primary care provider visits for follow-up immunization. Pediatric practices reported many challenges when caring for vaccine-hesitant families. Multiple strategies were identified to reduce the burden of vaccine hesitancy, which future studies should explore to determine how effective they are in increasing vaccine acceptance in pediatric practices.
Hemophilia Gene Therapy

Abstract Successful gene therapy for hemophilia B (factor IX deficiency) has been achieved. This has culminated after nearly 20 years of basic and applied translational research. Improvements in vector technology, vector production, and an understanding of host immune response have facilitated positive outcomes in patients. New clinical trials using improved vector gene cassettes have begun that should yield even greater factor IX protein expression. Hemophilia has always been considered one of the bell-weather genetic disorders for the application of gene transfer due to the straightforward determination of endpoints: circulating blood factor levels and reduction of the bleeding phenotype as a direct consequence of increasing factor levels. In addition both factor IX and factor VIII proteins are not highly regulated and can be expressed in a variety of different tissues. Whereas a decade ago, increasing factor levels by 5% may have seemed a lofty goal, now there are expectations of achieving factor levels approaching that of normal individuals. In addition to the transfer of cDNAs, new methods for gene editing and gene repair loom on the horizon. In this review, we describe what led to these developments and considerations for the future.
The UMO (Undervalued Minus Overvalued) Factor

This document provides an overview of the UMO factor. It describes its motivation, construction, and how to obtain it and use it. Behavioral theories suggest that investor misperceptions and market mispricing will be correlated across firms. The UMO factor uses equity and debt financing to identify common misvaluation across firms. UMO is a zero-investment portfolio that goes long on firms that issue securities and short on firms that repurchase. UMO captures comovement in returns beyond that in standard multifactor models, substantially improves the Sharpe ratio of the tangency portfolio, and carries heavy weight in the tangency portfolio. Loadings on UMO strongly predict the cross-section of returns on both portfolios and individual stocks, even among firms not recently involved in external financing activities, and even after controlling for other standard predictors. UMO was proposed by Hirshleifer and Jiang (2010), who provide further evidence suggesting that UMO loadings proxy for the common component of a stock's misvaluation. For further details, see Hirshleifer, David, and Danling Jiang, "A Financing-Based Misvaluation Factor and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns," Review of Financial Studies (2010), 23(9), 3401-3436.
Dissecting Light Repression of the Asparagine Synthetase gene (AS1) in Arabidopsis

In plants, asparagine is a key amino acid used to mobilize assimilated nitrogen from sources to sinks. Inorganic nitrogen assimilated initially into glutamine is converted into asparagine under certain metabolic conditions (see Figure 1). Biochemical, physiological and molecular studies suggest that asparagine biosynthesis in plants is a dynamic process that is tightly regulated throughout development and by environmental factors such as light (Sieciechowicz et al., 1988; Lam et al., 1994; Tsai and Coruzzi, 1990,1991). Physiological studies on pea and Arabidopsis have shown that when plants are dark-adapted, asparagine levels are elevated and asparagine becomes the predominant amino acid transported in the phloem (Urquhart and Joy, 1982; Schultz, 1994; Lam et al., 1995). Asparagine has a higher nitrogen to carbon ratio than glutamine, hence it is a more economical nitrogen transport compound in plants grown in the dark, when carbon skeletons are limiting. As such asparagine is the preferred nitrogen transport compound in dark- adapted plants (see Figure 1). By contrast, asparagine synthesis is repressed by light as evidenced by changes in amino acid levels and gene expression studies.
CHAPTER 33 – The Role of Chemokine Receptors in HIV Infection of Host Cells

The discovery that HIV uses the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4 in conjunction with CD4 to infect cells helped explain viral tropism and pathogenesis. The expression pattern of CCR5 and CXCR4 coupled with their differential use by diverse virus strains largely explains HIV tropism, at least at the level of entry. Their discovery led directly to the identification of receptor-related polymorphisms that determine the genetic basis for the resistance to infection exhibited by some individuals and help explain the variable progression rates to AIDS of others. Subsequent structural studies have revealed the presence of highly conserved domains in the viral Env protein that are responsible for receptor binding and membrane fusion and that are real or potential targets for antiviral agents and neutralizing antibodies. The Env protein can also induce signaling via either CCR5 or CXCR4. While receptor signaling is not required for virus replication in transformed cell lines, it may modulate virus infection of primary cell types. The utilization of CCR5 and CXCR4 for the membrane fusion reaction is clear, but the role of signaling in the infection of primary cells is not and is clearly an area that requires further investigation.
Finding Frontiers in the U.S. Great Plains from the End of the Civil War to the Eve of the Great Depression

This chapter uses a new approach to studying patterns of spatial settlement to understand the forces that shaped the movement of the European-origin population into the semi-arid and arid natural region referred to as the Great Plains of the United States, between 1880 and 1940. Defining settlement as the process by which each of the roughly 500 counties in the region reached a population density threshold of four persons per square mile, the results evaluate hypotheses that suggest that the most important forces at work were a combination of structural attributes of the national process (population moving from east to west), climate (precipitation, temperature), other resources inside the region (irrigation, transportation, energy, employment in industry) and developments outside the region, such as the need to supply food to gold and silver miners working in the mountainous region to the west. The approach taken in the chapter includes a new strategy for working with changing county boundaries and a statistical method employing Cox proportional hazards models for repeated events. The results reveal a process of settlement diffusion in the Great Plains and demonstrate that variations in that diffusion process favoured areas well-suited to cropping, mining and manufacturing.
Abstract TP332: Utilizing a Neuro Intermediate Unit in Caring for Post-Thrombolysis Stroke Patients

Background: Historically stroke patients receiving intravenous tPA are admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). Providing post-tPA care in a non-ICU setting could result in cost reduction and allow allocation of ICU beds to other critically ill patients. We sought to determine if care can be provided safely and effectively for post-tPA patients in a Neuro Intermediate Unit (NIU). Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective case series study performed in a tertiary academic medical center with a comprehensive, accredited, stroke program. We analyzed ischemic stroke patients admitted to our NIU during a 24-month period. A standardized data collection form was used to abstract data from medical records. Results: During a 24-month period 104 patients were admitted for post-tPA stroke care. The sample is composed of 60 males and 44 females. The median age was 69.5 and the mean age was 67.96. The sample is composed of 72 (69%) White and 32 (31%) Black patients. The mean admission NIHSS was 9.32. The most common stroke risk factors were hypertension (76%), diabetes mellitus (25%), hyperlipidemia (51%), tobacco use (21%), atrial fibrillation (21%), prior stroke (26%), congestive heart failure (20%), and coronary artery disease (21%). Mean admission systolic blood pressure was 143.5 mm Hg. For blood pressure management, 18% of the patients received medication by intravenous push and 5.7% by continuous infusion to meet established goals. Gastrointestinal hemorrhage was seen in 1.9%, intracranial hemorrhage in 3.8%, and blood transfusions needed in 1.9%. Insulin drips were needed to control persistent hyperglycemia in 3.8%. Sepsis occurred in 0.96% patients. The rate of fatality was 3.8%. Excellent functional outcome as defined as Modified Rankin Score (mRS) less than 2 was seen in 46% of patients and minimal to no disability (mRS Conclusions: In this retrospective study, stroke patients receiving intravenous tPA admitted to an NIU had similar outcomes and complications to that described in previous data. Significant cost savings can be accomplished by admitting thrombolysis patients to an NIU without compromising patient safety. Specialized nursing care available in a stroke unit is a key component in improving patient outcome.
Reproducibility of H Maser Standards

Thermal noise limits the precision of H maser standards out to averaging times of order 104 seconds, beyond which it is limited by other factors despite attempts to stabilize everything that could cause a frequency shift. This paper examines the dependence of the hydrogen maser frequency on factors other than thermal noise, in order to provide a guide to improving stabilization efforts.
Making Sense of Prognostic Models in Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia

To evaluate established prognostic models in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and describe the challenges associated with their application in clinical practice. CMML is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorder with heterogeneous clinical and molecular features. Outcomes of CMML patients can vary from indolent disease with expected survival measured in years versus proliferative subtypes with rapid progression to acute myeloid leukemia and survival measured in months. Several prognostic scoring systems have been developed to risk stratify CMML patients. While all these models are valid, they demonstrate significant predictive heterogeneity. Significant intra-patient (applying different models in the same patient giving rise to different prognostic results) and intra-model (patients in a similar prognostic group by a given model can be reclassified to different risk groups by other models) heterogeneities exist when applying current CMML prognostic models in the clinic. A personalized prediction approach may open new opportunities in risk stratifying patients with CMML and other myeloid malignancies.
Equipment and Instrumentation for Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry

Radiochemistry facilities in both academic medical centers and commercial nuclear pharmacies consist of technologically advanced laboratories paired with sophisticated imaging and data analysis suites. These units are staffed by multidisciplinary teams of basic scientists, clinicians, technologists, staff scientists, and students and are equipped with state-of-the-art instruments for the daily production of radiopharmaceuticals as well as the performance of preclinical and clinical nuclear imaging and targeted radiotherapy experiments. In this chapter, we will use the lens of positron emission tomography (PET) to provide an overview of the major instrumentation and equipment needed to take a radiopharmaceutical from bench-to-bedside in a manner that is compliant with all pertinent regulations. We also turn our eyes to the future, imagining what the PET Center of tomorrow will look like once all the equipment is connected through the Internet of Things (IoT).
“They wouldn’t go to our school”: Unpacking the racialization of Latinx children through a civil rights lesson in a New South classroom

The purpose of this article, drawing on ethnographic data from several years of observation of Latinx children in schools throughout North Georgia, is to explore the racialization of Latinx EL chil...
Further Developments of the Santa Clara Ethics Questionnaire

Ethics and ethical decision-making are critically important for high-functioning communities, including those on college campuses. This brief paper provides further research support for the Santa Clara Ethics Questionnaire, a brief and no-cost 10-item questionnaire assessing general ethics. The questionnaire was administered to 329 university students along with several other measures to assess convergent and divergent validity. Results suggest that compassion, hope, and self-esteem predict about one-third of the variance in ethics scores. Implications for future research and use are discussed.
Context, Context, Context

Brummett and Salter (2019) attempt to tackle what many take to be one of the most thorny theoretical issues in clinical ethics, particularly with respect to ethics consultation, i.e., the “whether”...
A new mouse model of anti-GBM disease sheds light on maternal transfer of alloantibodies in glomerular disease

Membranous nephropathy and anti–glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis are characterized by the deposition of antibodies that recognize specific glomerular epitopes. These antibodies may develop in autoimmune diseases, after exposure to new antigens or after passive maternal transfer, such as in neonatal membranous nephropathy secondary to in utero transfer of anti–neutral endopeptidase protein Igs. In this issue of Kidney International, Abrahamson et al. reported a murine model of passive anti–glomerular basement membrane disease caused by antibody transfer from pregnant mice to their offspring.
Longitudinal associations between parent-child relationship quality and insomnia for aging parents: The mediating role of depressive symptoms

•A bidirectional link between parent-child relations and older parents' insomnia.•Depressive symptoms as the mechanism linking parent-child relations and insomnia.•Intervention programs needed for people with insomnia or relationship difficulties.
Transarterial Yttrium-90 Radioembolization of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Perfused by the Cystic Artery: Multi-institutional Feasibility Study.

Abstract Purpose To assess the safety and efficacy of transarterial yttrium-90 radioembolization via the cystic artery for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) adjacent to the gallbladder with cystic artery supply. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 17 patients treated at 4 institutions. Patients with HCC perfused by the cystic artery who received ablative-dose radioembolization were included. Median tumor size was 3.8 cm (range, 2.0–8.8 cm). Fourteen patients (82%) had Child–Pugh class A cirrhosis and 3 (18%) had class B cirrhosis. Adverse events, tumor response, and time to progression were analyzed. Results Median dose to the tissue perfused by the cystic artery was 340 Gy (range, 200–720 Gy). There were no occurrences of acute cholecystitis warranting invasive intervention. Four patients (24%) experienced transient right upper quadrant pain, with symptom resolution within 3 mo. Six patients (35%) exhibited gallbladder wall edema on follow-up imaging. Two (12%) and 0 grade 3/4 increases in alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin were observed, respectively. Follow-up imaging demonstrated complete response in 13 target tumors (76%) and partial response in 4 (24%). There were no cases of target tumor progression during a median follow-up of 9 mo (range, 3–72 mo). Conclusions Direct infusion of 90Y microspheres via the cystic artery appears to have an acceptable safety profile, without resulting in acute cholecystitis warranting invasive intervention. In selected patients with HCC in whom other treatments may be contraindicated and the tumor is supplied via the cystic artery, treatment with selective ablative radioembolization can be considered.
On the Frequency Evolution of X-Ray Brightness Oscillations during Thermonuclear X-Ray Bursts: Evidence of Coherent Oscillations

We investigate the time dependence of the frequency of X-ray brightness oscillations during thermonuclear X-ray bursts from several neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries. We find that the oscillation frequency in the cooling tails of X-ray bursts from 4U 1702-429 and 4U 1728-34 is well described by an exponential "chirp" model. With this model, we demonstrate that the pulse trains in the cooling tails of many bursts are highly phase coherent. We measure oscillation quality factors for the bursts from 4U 1728-34 and 4U 1702-429 as high as Q≡ν0/ΔνFWHM~4000. We use this model of the frequency evolution to search sensitively for significant power at the harmonics and first subharmonic of the 330 and 363 Hz signal in the bursts from 4U 1702-429 and 4U 1728-23, respectively, but we find no strong evidence of significant power at any harmonic or the subharmonic. We argue that the high coherence of the oscillations favors stellar rotation as the source of the oscillations. The lack of a subharmonic in the bursts from both 4U 1728-34 and 4U 1702-429 suggests that in these sources, the burst oscillation frequency is indeed the stellar spin frequency. We briefly discuss the frequency evolution in terms of the rotational motion of an angular momentum-conserving thermonuclear shell. We discuss how the limits on harmonic content can be used to infer properties of the neutron star.
Harnessing Interfacial Electron Transfer in Redox Flow Batteries

Summary Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have garnered increasing attention for their potential to enable the widespread adoption of renewable electricity. However, a critical need associated with the continued development of this technology involves designing electrode-electrolyte interfaces that exhibit rapid, stable electron transfer kinetics. This targeted review outlines key challenges associated with measuring and enhancing the electron transfer kinetics of established and emerging flow battery active materials. We discuss several promising opportunities for advancing flow battery science and technology using the tools of applied electroanalysis and catalysis science. These challenges and opportunities are broadly relevant for future research directed at advancing the commercial adoption of RFBs for grid-scale energy storage.
Silver Mediated Banert Cascade with Carbon Nucleophiles.

The Banert cascade of propargylic azides can be promoted by simple silver salts, and the triazafulvene intermediate can be intercepted by carbon nucleophiles. Various indoles (>25 examples, up to 92% yield) and electron-rich heterocycles were effective. The Mayr nucleophilicity parameter (N) was found to correlate to the reaction efficiency, which enabled the formation of Csp3-Csp2 and Csp3-Csp3 bonds under otherwise identical conditions from structurally dissimilar nucleophiles.
A stress-concentration-formula generating equation for arbitrary shallow surfaces

Abstract Analytical understanding of how stress concentrates is invaluable. An equation that generates stress concentration formulas is derived and shown to apply very well to a number of shallow irregularities on surfaces, for the plane stress conditions and to a first-order approximation. Under shallow conditions, for any first-order Holder-continuous surface function f ( x ) , the derived equation is: k t ( x ) = 1 - 2 H f ′ ( x ) , where H is the Hilbert transform and f ′ ( x ) is the spatial derivative of f with respect to the independent variable. It is shown that using this generating equation, well-known traditional results can be easily derived. Also, a number of other stress concentration formulas for various cases are generated. Furthermore, a second-order approximation is introduced, which shows the dependence of k t on not only the slope but also on the concavity of the surface. The approach used herein can be extended to finding closed-form solutions to other integral equations possessing similar kernels for applications such as the variation of the stress intensity factor due to an arbitrary crack front profile (work in progress).
Regulation of c-fos induction in lens epithelial cells by 12(S)HETE-dependent activation of PKC.

Purpose 12(S)-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12(S)HETE), a 12-lipoxygenase metabolite of arachidonic acid, is required for epidermal growth factor (EGF)-dependent DNA synthesis and c-fos induction in lens epithelial cells. The present study was undertaken to identify signal transduction events upstream of c-fos induction that may be regulated by 12(S)HETE. Methods The rabbit lens epithelial cell line, N/N1003A, was cultured in serum-free medium, with or without EGF. Activation of PKC and other selected enzymes was examined in the presence of the lipoxygenase inhibitor baicalein and/or exogenous 12(S)HETE. Relative abundance of PKC isoforms in subcellular fractions was determined by immunoblot analysis with isoform-specific antibodies. PKC activity in subcellular fractions was measured by peptide substrate phosphorylation, with and without pseudosubstrate peptide inhibitor. Phosphorylated enzymes were detected by immunoblot analysis. Relative levels of c-fos mRNA were determined by RT/PCR with internal standard. Results Baicalein blocked EGF-dependent translocation and activation of PKC, without affecting phosphorylation of Erk1/2. Of several PKC isoforms investigated (alpha, betaI, betaII, and gamma), only PKCalpha and betaII were significantly activated by EGF and inhibited by baicalein. 12(S)HETE, in combination with EGF, countered the effect of lipoxygenase inhibitors on PKC activation, and 12(S)HETE in the absence of EGF stimulated PKC translocation. Also of note, 12(S)HETE alone activated PKCgamma, an isoform that was not significantly activated by EGF. Inhibiting PKC activation with GF109203X blocked induction of c-fos by EGF but did not affect EGF-stimulated phosphorylation of Erk1/2, indicating that the effect of PKC on c-fos induction is independent of the Erk1/2 pathway. Conclusions In lens epithelial cells, 12(S)HETE-dependent activation of PKCalpha and betaII acts in concert with other EGF-dependent signals to induce c-fos mRNA.
Food Pathogen Detection

New methods for detecting food pathogens can quickly identify single microbes, but major hurdles must be overcome before they can be introduced to practical use.
Flora, not fauna: GM culture and agriculture.

Even narratives critical of new economic structures of globalization have come to focus on animals, often rare, genetically modified (GM) animals, in a world in which every year markets for GM plants and plant products grow astronomically, a propensity signaled by the adoption of the Monarch butterfly as a symbol of the anti-genetic-modification movement. This adoption suggests a broad representational problem: why do animals (and not plants) loom large in the transgenic imaginary while plants (and not animals) become the medium of daily encounters with transgenic organisms? This article explores this complex dynamic through the interconnected stories of GM potatoes, people, and insects in Ruth Ozeki's novel All Over Creation (2003), which closely follows the commercial introduction and unprecedented, rapid recall of the first bioengineered crop plant to be marketed. Although at key moments the novel invokes animal stories that limit the terms of GM debates, its structure significantly models the nonhierarchical, nonlinear relationships that distinguish the unfolding histories of genomic science and plant fictions alike, thereby indicating at least one way in which literary representations might revolutionize public discussion.
Sociogenomic Personality Psychology

In this article, we address a number of issues surrounding biological models of personality traits. Most traditional and many contemporary biological models of personality traits assume that biological systems underlying personality traits are causal and immutable. In contrast, sociogenomic biology, which we introduce to readers in this article, directly contradicts the widely held assumption that something that is biological, heritable, or temperamental, is unchangeable. We provide examples of how seemingly unchanging biological systems, such as DNA, are both dependent on environments for elicitation and can be modified by environmental changes. Finally, we synthesize sociogenomic biology with personality psychology in a model of personality traits that integrates this more modern perspective on biology, physiology, and environment that we term sociogenomic personality psychology. We end the article with a discussion of the future directions of sociogenomic personality psychology.
Quasicondensate Droplet Formation in Hydrogen

Over the last few years, the experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in dilute alkali-metal atoms [1] and atomic hydrogen [2] has stimulated studies of the formation and evolution of condensates [3]. The kinetics of the condensate formation from a nonequilibrium initial state to a final coherent state has been explored in many systems [4], and particularly in dilute atomic gases [5],[6]. Recently, effects of quasicondensates on the three-body recombination rate in a two-dimensional gas of atomic hydrogen have been observed [7]. The 1S-2S two-photon absorption lineshapes measured at MIT [2],[8] show distortions that may originate from the formation of metastable quasicondensate droplets [9].
Progress towards NRC's fountain clock FCs1

Summary form only given. Systematic improvements of NRC's cesium fountain clock prototype have resulted in a stability reaching /spl sigma//sub y/(/spl tau/)=1.5/spl times/10/sup -12/ /spl tau//sup -1/2/, the best ever obtained at NRC for a Cs standard. We are in the process of completing the construction of the cesium fountain clock.
Protein species and moonlighting proteins: Very small changes in a protein's covalent structure can change its biochemical function.

Abstract In the past few decades, hundreds of moonlighting proteins have been identified that perform two or more distinct and physiologically relevant biochemical or biophysical functions that are not due to gene fusions, multiple RNA splice variants, or pleiotropic effects. For this special issue on protein species, this article discusses three topics related to moonlighting proteins that illustrate how small changes or differences in protein covalent structures can result in different functions. Examples are given of moonlighting proteins that switch between functions after undergoing post-translational modifications (PTMs), proteins that share high levels of amino acid sequence identity to a moonlighting protein but share only one of its functions, and several “neomorphic moonlighting proteins” in which a single amino acid mutation results in the addition of a new function. Biological significance For this special issue on protein species, this article discusses three topics related to moonlighting proteins : Post-translational modifications (PTMs) that can cause a switch between functions, homologs that share only one of multiple functions, and proteins in which a single amino acid mutation results in the creation of a new function. The examples included illustrate that even in an average protein of hundreds of amino acids, a relatively small difference in sequence or PTMs can result in a large difference in function, which can be important in predicting protein functions, regulation of protein functions, and in the evolution of new functions.
Three‐dimensional odorant concentration measurements around actively tracking blue crabs

Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) and other aquatic organisms locate food and mates by tracking turbulent odorant plumes. The odorant concentration fluctuates unpredictably due to turbulent transport, and many characteristics of the fluctuation pattern have been hypothesized as useful cues for orienting to the odorant source. To make a direct linkage between tracking behavior and odorant signal properties, we developed a laserinduced fluorescence measurement system to quantify the instantaneous three-dimensional (3D) concentration field surrounding actively tracking blue crabs. The data suggest a connection between upstream walking speed and bursts of odorant concentration arriving at the antennule chemosensors, which are located near the mouth region. Specifically, we note rapid upstream walking speed when high concentration bursts arrive at the antennules location and a decrease in upstream walking speed in the absence of odorant filaments near the antennules. Additionally, we note transverse crab movements in apparent response to the transverse distribution of the odorant concentration field. Specifically, asymmetry of the odorant concentration distribution at the elevation of the leg chemosensors is associated with subsequent crab position adjustments in the transverse direction. The methods described here allow for powerful and direct tests of chemosensory navigation strategies in blue crabs, as well as other macroscopic aquatic animals.
Thermal conductivity and thermal expansion of graphite fiber-reinforced copper matrix composites

The high specific conductivity of graphite fiber/copper matrix (Gr/Cu) composites offers great potential for high heat flux structures operating at elevated temperatures. To determine the feasibility of applying Gr/Cu composites to high heat flux structures, composite plates were fabricated using unidirectional and cross-plied pitch-based P100 graphite fibers in a pure copper matrix. Thermal conductivity of the composites was measured from room temperature to 1073 K, and thermal expansion was measured from room temperature to 1050 K. The longitudinal thermal conductivity, parallel to the fiber direction, was comparable to pure copper. The transverse thermal conductivity, normal to the fiber direction, was less than that of pure copper and decreased with increasing fiber content. The longitudinal thermal expansion decreased with increasing fiber content. The transverse thermal expansion was greater than pure copper and nearly independent of fiber content.
E-Tif: An Electronic Terminology Interchange Format

This article begins by emphasizing the importance of terminology in this modern age of technical innovations and machine-based translation systems, establishing the need for a terminolgy interchange format, and distinguishing between lexicography and terminology. It then reviews previous attempts to establish terminology interchange formats and concludes with a forceful argument for a new system based on the TEI-based notions of elements and attributes.
Gabapentin and Pregabalin Can Interact Synergistically with Naproxen to Produce Antihyperalgesia

Background Gabapentin and pregabalin are anticonvulsants with antihyperalgesic effects in animal models of neuropathic and inflammatory nociception. This study characterized the manner in which gabapentin or pregabalin interacts with naproxen to suppress thermal hyperalgesia and inflammation in the carrageenan model of peripheral inflammation. Methods Gabapentin, pregabalin, naproxen, or a fixed-dose ratio of gabapentin + naproxen or pregabalin + naproxen was administered orally to rats after the induction of inflammation by intraplantar injection of lambda-carrageenan in one hind paw. Nociceptive thresholds were determined by the radiant heat paw-withdrawal test. Paw edema was measured by plethysmometry. Drug plasma concentrations were determined by a liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy-mass spectroscopy method. Results Gabapentin, pregabalin, and naproxen alone reversed thermal hyperalgesia with ED50 values of 19.2, 6.0, and 0.5 mg/kg, respectively. Mixtures of gabapentin + naproxen in fixed-dose ratios of 50:1, 10:1, or 1:1 interacted synergistically to reverse carrageenan-induced thermal hyperalgesia. However, 1:50 gabapentin + naproxen produced only additive effects. No combination of gabapentin + naproxen decreased paw edema in a manner greater than additive. Plasma concentrations of gabapentin and naproxen were unaltered by the addition of the other drug. The mixture of 10:1 of pregabalin + naproxen interacted synergistically to reverse thermal hyperalgesia on the inflamed hind paw, whereas mixtures of 1:1 or 1:10 produced additive effects. Conclusions These data suggest that gabapentin + naproxen and pregabalin + naproxen can interact synergistically or additively to reverse thermal hyperalgesia associated with peripheral inflammation. Therefore, the use of gabapentin or pregabalin in low-dose combinations with naproxen may afford therapeutic advantages for clinical treatment of persistent inflammatory pain.
Investigation of Tibetian Plateau varnish: new findings at the nanoscale using focused ion beam and transmission electron microscopy techniques.

School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, ArizonaSummary: Dual-beam focused ion beam microscopy(FIB/SEM) preparation of rock varnish for high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) has enabled us to characterize unreportednanostructures. Fossils, unreported textures, andcompositional variability were observed at the na-noscale. These techniques could provide a methodfor studying ancient terrestrial and extra-terrestrialenvironments to better understand geological pro-cesses at the nanoscale. SCANNING 33: 78–81,2011. r 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Key words: geology, FIB, STEM, EDS, Tibet,nanoscale
Culture and Technology: Implications for Multicultural Teacher Education.

American classrooms are experiencing a rapid growth in cultural and ethnic diversity, as well as an increase in educational classroom computing. Because culture directly affects classroom organisat...
Corneille as Self-Critic

(2001). Corneille as Self-Critic. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 101-110.
Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty

Seventeenth-century Korea was a country in crisis--successive invasions by Hideyoshi and the Manchus had rocked the Choson dynasty (1392-1910), which already was weakened by maladministration, internecine bureaucratic factionalism, unfair taxation, concentration of wealth, military problems, and other ills. Yu Hyongwon (1622-1673, pen name, Pan'gye), a recluse scholar, responded to this time of chaos and uncertainty by writing his modestly titled Pan'gye surok (The Jottings of Pan'gye), a virtual encyclopedia of Confucian statecraft, designed to support his plan for a revived and reformed Korean system of government.Although Yu was ignored in his own time by all but a few admirers and disciples, his ideas became prominent by the mid-eighteenth century as discussions were underway to solve problems in taxation, military service, and commercial activity. Yu has been viewed by Korean and Japanese scholars as a forerunner of modernization, but in "Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions" James B. Palais challenges this view, demonstrating that Yu was instead an outstanding example of the premodern tradition.Palais uses Yu Hyongwon's mammoth, pivotal text to examine the development and shape of the major institutions of Choson dynasty Korea. He has included a thorough treatment of the many Chinese classical and historical texts that Yu used as well as the available Korean primary sources and Korean and Japanese secondary scholarship. Palais traces the history of each of Yu's subjects from the beginning of the dynasty and pursues developments through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He stresses both the classical and historical roots of Yu's reform ideas and analyzes the nature and degree of proto-capitalistic changes, such as the use of metallic currency, the introduction of wage labor into the agrarian economy, the development of unregulated commercial activity, and the appearance of industries with more differentiation of labor.Because it contains much comparative material, "Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions" will be of interest to scholars of China and Japan, as well as to Korea specialists. It also has much to say to scholars of agrarian society, slavery, landholding systems, bureaucracy, and developing economies.Winner of the John Whitney Hall Book Prize, sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies
Dogmatism and Problem Solving: An Examination of the Denny Doodlebug Problem:

This study examined the Denny Doodlebug (DD) problem (a task requiring that S reject a number of the standard operating procedures of daily life and that he organize a new set of assumptions into a...