cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The cortisol awakening response and anterior cingulate cortex function in maltreated depressed versus non-maltreated depressed youth

Symptomatology of depression among children who have (vs. have not) experienced maltreatment is greater in severity, more resistant to conventional treatment, and associated with elevated risk for suicide. Recent evidence implicates perturbations in stress regulatory systems and heightened negative self-appraisals as factors that increase the severity of psychopathology experienced by depressed maltreated (vs. non-maltreated) youth. Likely explanatory mechanisms for these differences are disturbances in the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) and persistent negative self-referential biases supported by prefrontal cortex function including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The cortisol awakening response (CAR) and dACC activity during a self-appraisal task were assessed in maltreated and non-maltreated depressed youth. Hierarchical linear models were employed to model the CAR. Maltreatment group, dACC activity during positive and negative self-appraisals as well as other key predictors, were included in the models. Post hoc analyses explored explanations for significant differences. Results indicated that maltreated depressed youth exhibited a higher CAR compared to non-maltreated youth. At low levels of dACC activity during processing of negative self-descriptors maltreated and non-maltreated depressed youth's CAR did not differ. However, at elevated levels of dACC activity during processing of negative self-descriptors maltreated depressed youth exhibited significantly higher CAR compared to non-maltreated depressed youth.
Truth, Facts, and Possibilities in the Correspondence Theories of Wittgenstein, Moore, and Russell

Wittgenstein, in the Tractatus, Russell, in 1918–19, and Moore, in 1910–11, advocated a variant of a correspondence theory of truth that reveals basic problems faced by correspondence theories. To speak of a theory of truth is to speak of an ontological account or assay that specifies a ground of truth or truth maker. It isnot to speak of the mere introduction of a truth predicate into a schema in such a way as to avoidparadoxes or mimic the apparent univocal use of the phrase ‘is true’ in ordinary speech, while specifying a mechanism for handling molecular and quantified formulae. To offer a philosophical theory of truth is not merely to specify the truth condition for an atomic formula, ‘Fa’ for example, by a transcription such as ‘a has F’ or ‘a belongs to the class of things that are F’ or ‘π has f’, where ‘π’ and ‘f ’ are metalinguistic correlates of ‘a’ and ‘F’. This is not to deny that such concerns play a role in setting out a theory of truth; it is only to insist that to provide a philosophical account or analysis requires that one specify what a ground of truth is.
Are Credit Unions Less Efficient than Commercial Banks? An Empirical Analysis of Operating Efficiency

Credit Unions are different from banks. They have a different legal structure and a different purpose. Measuring their performance should be done in a way that fully considers their structure and purpose. This research focuses on the common misunderstandings of CUs. The literature review reveals with some detail how Credit Unions are different than banks. The consideration of ROA and ROE as they relate to Credit Unions is discussed. The empirical evidence presented focuses on operating efficiencies of CUs vs banks. The evidence shows that while Credit Unions are often criticized for being less efficient, their operating efficiency is actually not statistically significantly different than that of comparable sized commercial banks.
Trends in Post–Acute Care Use Among Medicare Beneficiaries: 2000 to 2015

This study uses MedPAR data to characterize trends in use of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) after acute care hospitalizations and trends in hospital and SNF/IRF lengths of stay among Medicare beneficiaries.
Socio-Ecological Characterization: A Framework for Ecosystem Management Information

Practical methods are needed to communicate information about the health and sustainability of ecosystems that are under increasing human pressure, and to evaluate choices from the combined perspectives of science, society, and management. Ecological characterization is an established approach that may be enhanced to meet these evolving needs. This chapter discusses the concept and content of ecological characterization, focusing selectively on improvements in the production and application of its resulting information products.
“I was going to offer $10,000 but…”: The effects of phantom anchors in negotiation

Abstract Negotiators commonly attach phantom anchors—retracted and aggressive figures—to their actual and less aggressive offers. For example, a seller might say, “I was going to ask for $10,000, but I can offer $8000.” Drawing from research on anchoring, we predict that offer-makers will economically benefit from offers with phantom anchors. Drawing from research on interpersonal perceptions, we test competing hypotheses indicating that phantom anchors might elicit perceptions of manipulativeness or benevolence, with economic implications. Finally, we explore situational conditions that could moderate these perceptions. Five studies show that negotiators using offers with (versus without) phantom anchors receive less aggressive counteroffers and more beneficial agreements in both distributive and integrative negotiations, but also seem more manipulative. Situations portraying the phantom anchor-actual offer combination as a true concession, however, dampen manipulativeness perceptions. Overall, the results suggest that phantom anchors represent a powerful yet risky and understudied value-claiming strategy in negotiations.
Detecting Glaucoma Progression Using Guided Progression Analysis with OCT and Visual Field Assessment in Eyes Classified by International Classification of Disease Severity Codes.

Purpose To compare the detection and rates of progressive retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell–inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) loss with spectral-domain (SD) OCT and visual field (VF) loss using Guided Progression Analysis (GPA; Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA) in glaucomatous eyes classified using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnosis codes. Design Retrospective cohort study. Participants Glaucoma patients with at least 3 years of follow-up and a minimum of 4 SD OCT and 5 reliable VF examinations. Methods Glaucoma severity was classified using ICD, 10th Edition, Clinical Modification, diagnosis codes. Rates of RNFL, macular GCIPL, and VF loss were calculated, and progression estimates were compared using generalized estimating equations and McNemar's tests. Main Outcome Measures Progressive RNFL, GCIPL, and VF loss assessed by GPA criteria. Results A total of 147 eyes of 116 patients (mean age, 69.9±8.5 years) were included with mean follow-up of 69.67±18.64 months. Overall, 38 of 147 eyes (25.9%) showed RNFL progression, 35 eyes (23.8%) showed GCIPL progression, and 20 eyes (13.6%) showed VF progression. Progression by all 3 methods was noted in 10 eyes (7.0%). Eyes with mild (n = 62) and severe (n = 46) glaucoma showed significantly more progression on SD OCT compared with VF (P Conclusions Spectral-domain OCT progression was significantly more common than VF progression in glaucomatous eyes classified with mild and severe disease. Structure and function should be monitored closely across the entire spectrum of glaucoma severity.
Integrative medicine therapeutic approaches to cancer care: patient preferences from focus groups

To understand patient preferences for integrative therapeutics and/or modalities during cancer care. Cancer patients currently going through treatment were recruited from the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Participants were asked to engage in 1 of 4 focus groups to understand preferences regarding integrative therapeutic modalities in cancer treatment. Focus group data were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Eighty-five percent of inter-coder reliability was achieved with four team investigators. Nineteen cancer patients participated in four focus groups with mixed cancer types (42% breast cancer), gender (53% female), and age (69% over age 60). Focus group analyses resulted in five themes with respect to preferences regarding integrative therapeutic modalities among cancer patients: (1) preference regarding accurate and congruent information; (2) preference regarding stress and symptom management; (3) preference regarding discussion of integrative therapies with healthcare providers (4) preference regarding support from family and friends; and (5) preference regarding personalized holistic care. Patients have a desire to discuss integrative therapeutic aspects of their cancer treatment with healthcare providers. Understanding patient preferences allows opportunity for oncology providers to increase awareness/education of integrative therapeutic modalities. Increased integrative therapeutic knowledge may best support recovery and increased quality of life. Qualitative research may facilitate understanding the scope of cancer patient preferences regarding the desire and use of integrative therapeutic modalities. A conceptual understanding of cancer patient preferences regarding integrative therapies and modalities may best inform successful direction and efficacy of treatment strategies.
Rehabilitation Practices in Patients With Moderate and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective To characterize the indications, timing, barriers, and perceived value of rehabilitation currently provided for individuals with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) based on the perspectives of providers who work in the ICU setting. Participants Members (n = 66) of the Neurocritical Care Society and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Design An anonymous electronic survey of the timing of rehabilitation for patients with TBI in the ICU. Main measures Questions asked about type and timing of rehabilitation in the ICU, extent of family involvement, participation of physiatrists in patient care, and barriers to early rehabilitation. Results Sixty-six respondents who reported caring for patients with TBI in the ICU completed the survey; 98% recommended rehabilitative care while patients were in the ICU. Common reasons to wait for the initiation of physical therapy and occupational therapy were normalization of intracranial pressure (86% and 89%) and hemodynamic stability (66% and 69%). Conclusions The majority of providers caring for patients with TBI in the ICU support rehabilitation efforts, typically after a patient is extubated, intracranial pressure has normalized, and the patient is hemodynamically stable. Our findings describe current practice; future studies can be designed to determine optimal timing, intensity, and patient selection for early rehabilitation.
An investigation of the micromechanisms of fatigue crack growth in structural gas turbine engine alloys

This paper presents an overview of fatigue fracture modes in selected structural alloys employed in gas turbine engines. These include the mechanisms of fatigue crack growth in the near-threshold, Paris and high-ΔK regimes obtained from Ti-6Al-4V, Inconel 718 and PWA 1472 (a single crystal nickel-based superalloy of similar chemical composition to Inconel 718). Fatigue fracture modes in these materials are shown to be strong functions of the stress intensity factor range, ΔK, and the maximum stress intensity factor, K max. Fatigue mechanism maps are also presented to show the parametric ranges of ΔK and K max corresponding to the different fatigue fracture modes.
Host-derived gene silencing of parasite fitness genes improves resistance to soybean cyst nematodes in stable transgenic soybean

Soybean expressing small interfering RNA of SCN improved plant resistance to SCN consistently, and small RNA-seq analysis revealed a threshold of siRNA expression required for resistance ability. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, is one of the most destructive pests limiting soybean production worldwide, with estimated losses of $1 billion dollars annually in the USA alone. RNA interference (RNAi) has become a powerful tool for silencing gene expression. We report here that the expression of hairpin RNAi constructs, derived from two SCN genes related to reproduction and fitness, HgY25 and HgPrp17, enhances resistance to SCN in stably transformed soybean plants. The analyses of T3 to T5 generations of stable transgenic soybeans by molecular strategies and next-generation sequencing confirmed the presence of specific short interfering RNAs complementary to the target SCN genes. Bioassays performed on transgenic soybean lines targeting SCN HgY25 and HgPrp17 fitness genes showed significant reductions (up to 73%) for eggs/g root in the T3 and T4 homozygous transgenic lines. Targeted mRNAs of SCN eggs collected from the transgenic soybean lines were efficiently down-regulated, as confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. Based on the small RNA-seq data and bioassays, it is our hypothesis that a threshold of small interfering RNA molecules is required to significantly reduce SCN populations feeding on the host plants. Our results demonstrated that host-derived gene silencing of essential SCN fitness genes could be an effective strategy for enhancing resistance in crop plants.
Stability and uniqueness properties of Taylor approximations of matrix functions

Abstract We consider Taylor approximations of matrix functions and establish bounds controlling the size of a perturbation in terms of the size of the Taylor remainder or, equivalently, the associated spectral shift function(s). This can be viewed as a stability property for the inverse problem of recovering the perturbation from the spectral shift function(s). From our bounds we derive a uniqueness result for spectral sums: if the trace of the Taylor remainder of order n ≥ 2 equals zero for a finite number of monomials, then the perturbation is zero. This uniqueness result is in contrast with nonuniqueness of the first order Taylor remainder. As an application we characterize equality of two graphs in terms of self-returning walks.
How to assess the impact of process improvement interventions with routinely collected longitudinal hospital data

Objective: To show how interrupted time series can be used to isolate and measure the impact of process improvement while accounting for confounders often present in complex hospital operations. Me...
Government Policy to Counter Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: Should Incentives to Develop New Antibiotics Be in the Mix?

In recent years there has been growing concern in the medical community about bacteria becoming increasingly resistant to existing ABs. Numerous recent reports authored by government agencies, international government organizations, and private advocacy groups have called for governments to do more to address the problem. Policies are being advocated to slow the growth of resistance by better controlling the spread of infection and using existing ABs more judiciously, and also to promote the development of more ABs. There is unquestionably a need for government actions to slow the growth of resistance, but beyond subsidizing basic research the case for government policies to promote the development of new antibiotics (ABs) is not straightforward. An AB developer can be expected to pursue all AB leads for which the expected discounted value of the AB’s sales exceeds the expected discounted value of development and manufacturing costs. As there are generally no notable external costs associated with AB development, an AB developer will make socially optimal AB development decisions provided the price that can be charged for a prospective AB is commensurate with AB’s social value. Hence any argument for government subsidies of AB development must identify reasons for why AB developers cannot charge prices that are commensurate with social value. The paper analyses AB price determination and the possibility that the unfettered private market will not pursue AB development projects with expected positive net social benefits. It is concluded that modest changes in U.S. government policy might be advisable. In particular, there may be some justification for extending the period of patent protection for ABs, and for reforming how Medicare reimburses hospitals for AB use. And if compelling evidence can be marshalled showing that AB use significantly reduces contagion, government-funded top-ups of AB prices might also be justified. The paper rejects the common policy prescription that AB developer profits somehow be wholly or partially “de-linked” from the number of treatments.
Emergent Treatment of Status Epilepticus

Status epilepticus is a neurologic emergency and can progress to refractory status epilepticus and super-refractory status epilepticus. Electroencephalography is the gold standard for diagnosis. There are many possible causes of status epilepticus, including both acute and chronic etiologies. Early clinical suspicion and prehospital care is important in order to properly treat these patients. In the hospital, managing a patient with status epilepticus requires a team effort. Though many tried and true therapies exist to treat this condition, there are many alternative treatments about which only limited data exist. Mortality remains high, and several scores have been developed to attempt to predict outcome in these patients. Additional research is needed to refine management for patients with status epilepticus.
25 Years of FUN

Dr. Julio J. Ramirez, the founding president of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN), shared the comments below on November 13, 2016 at the 25th Anniversary of FUN's founding, when Drs. Sally Frutiger, Stephen George, Julio Ramirez, and Dennison Smith were recognized with the Founders Award for their efforts in launching FUN in 1991.
Chapter 9 – Hormonal Regulation of Fuel Metabolism

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of energy metabolism along with the hormonal regulations and hormonal interactions associated with this process. A constant supply of glucose and other energy-rich metabolic fuels to the brain and other vital organs must be available at all times despite wide fluctuations in food intake and energy expenditure. Storing excess carbohydrate, fat, and protein, principally in liver, adipose tissue, and muscle, and drawing on these reserves when needed achieve constant availability of metabolic fuel. The strategy of hormonal regulation of metabolism during starvation or exercise is to provide sufficient substrate to working muscles while maintaining an adequate concentration of glucose in blood to satisfy the needs of brain and other glucose-dependent cells. The principal hormones that govern fuel homeostasis are insulin, glucagon, epinephrine, cortisol, growth hormone (GH), thyroxine (T4), and the adipocyte hormone, leptin. The principal target organs for these hormones are adipose tissue, liver, and skeletal muscle.
Abstract P205: Finger Ring Provides Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping Status Based On Analysis Of Oscillatory Photoplethysmography

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is more useful for the diagnosis of various forms of hypertension including white coat and morning surge as well as other conditions that are associated with in...
Utility-Enhancing Flexible Mechanisms for Differential Privacy.

Differential privacy is a mathematical technique that provides strong theoretical privacy guarantees by ensuring the statistical indistinguishability of individuals in a dataset. It has become the de facto framework for providing privacy-preserving data analysis over statistical datasets. Differential privacy has garnered significant attention from researchers and privacy experts due to its strong privacy guarantees. However, the accuracy loss caused by the noise added has been an issue. First, we propose a new noise adding mechanism that preserves \((\epsilon ,\delta )\)-differential privacy. The distribution pertaining to this mechanism can be observed as a generalized truncated Laplacian distribution. We show that the proposed mechanism adds optimal noise in a global context, conditional upon technical lemmas. We also show that the generalized truncated Laplacian mechanism performs better than the optimal Gaussian mechanism. In addition, we also propose an \((\epsilon )\)-differentially private mechanism to improve the utility of differential privacy by fusing multiple Laplace distributions. We also derive the closed-form expressions for absolute expectation and variance of noise for the proposed mechanisms. Finally, we empirically evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanisms and show an increase in all utility measures considered, while preserving privacy.
Abstract 14365: Identification of MicroRNAs and Their Target Genes in Microvascular Disease in Diabetes

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with diabetes. Among coronary vascular defects, obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) is the primary cause of cardiac mortality....
What Segments Are the Best in Representing Contours

A pixel-by-pixel (iconic) computer representation of an image takes too much memory, demands lots of time to process, and is difficult to translate into terms that are understandable for human users. Therefore, several image compression methods have been proposed and efficiently used. The natural idea is to represent only the contours that separate different regions of the scene. At first these contours were mainly approximated by a sequence of straight-line segments. In this case, for smooth contours a few segments are sufficient to represent the contours; the more curved it is, the more segments we need and the less compression we get as a result. To handle curved edges, circle arcs are now used in addition to straight lines. Since the choice of segments essentially influences the quality of the compression, it is reasonable to analyze what types of segments are the best. In the present paper we formulate the problem of choosing the segment type as a mathematical optimization problem and solve it under different optimality criteria. As a result, we get a list of segment types that are optimal under these criteria. This list includes both the segments that were empirically proven to be efficient for some problems, and some new types of segments that may be worth trying.
Patterns of Infant Amygdala Connectivity Mediate the Impact of High Caregiver Affect on Reducing Infant Smiling: Discovery and Replication.

Abstract Background Behavioral research indicates that caregiver mood disorders and emotional instability in the early months following childbirth are associated with lower positive emotionality and higher negative emotionality in infants, but the neural mechanisms remain understudied. Methods Using resting-state functional connectivity as a measure of the functional architecture of the early infant brain, we aimed to determine the extent to which connectivity between the amygdala, a key region supporting emotional learning and perception, and large-scale neural networks mediated the association between caregiver affect and anxiety and early infant negative emotionality and positive emotionality. Two samples of infants (first sample: n = 58; second sample: n = 31) 3 months of age underwent magnetic resonance imaging during natural sleep. Results During infancy, greater resting-state functional connectivity between the amygdala and the salience network and, to a lesser extent, lower amygdala and executive control network resting-state functional connectivity mediated the effect of greater caregiver postpartum depression and trait anxiety on reducing infant smiling (familywise error–corrected p Conclusions We provide evidence of early objective neural markers that can help identify infants who are more likely to be at risk from, versus those who might be protected against, the deleterious effects of caregiver depression and anxiety and reduced positive emotionality.
Best Practices in Information Technology: How Corporations Get the Most Value from Exploiting Their Digital Investments

Why best practices, the shortcut to productivity and results the value if aligning I/T with business strategies receiving value from computers and the high priests of technology best practices applications, focusing on the essentials managing legacy systems and choosing the "right" architectures aligning business and information processing cultures in a techno-centric age making day-to-day operations work effectively, always staying in top management shape, winning the culture wars a strategy for managing the hunt for value, the focus on best practices beyond best practices. Appendices: how to take a snapshot of your I/T effectiveness applying quality management practices to I/T - the short course.
Colonoscopy in childhood.

A review was made of 139 fiberoptic colonoscopies performed between 1975 and 1982 on 113 patients aged 1 month to 20 years. General anesthesia was used in four procedures. All others were done under sedation with meperidine (mean dose 2.9 mg/kg) and diazepam (mean dose 0.5 mg/kg). Indications were rectal bleeding in 52 patients; assessment and surveillance of known inflammatory bowel disease in 33 patients; and diagnostic evaluation of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and/or fever in 28 patients. The cecum was reached in 84% of diagnostic examinations. Comparison of findings on colonoscopy with barium enema in 75 patients showed agreement in 46, colonoscopic superiority in 25, and barium enema superiority in four. Bleeding sufficient to cause anemia was seen in 10/26 patients with polyps. Five minor complications and no major complications occurred. Flexible fiberoptic colonoscopy and polypectomy may be done usefully in childhood by physicians well versed and experienced with these procedures. Colonoscopy and biopsy changed the radiographic diagnosis from ulcerative colitis to Crohn9s disease in several cases and indicated greater extent of colonic disease in several cases of ulcerative colitis and Crohn9s disease. Colonoscopy is usually the most sensitive and accurate diagnostic tool for the evaluation of colonic disease, but barium enema and colonoscopy are complementary tests and barium enema should usually precede colonoscopy, with certain exceptions.
Associative neural networks as means for low-resolution video-based recognition

Techniques developed for recognition of objects in photographs often fail when applied to recognition of the same objects in video. A critical example of such a situation is seen in face recognition, where many technologies are already intensively used for passport verification and where there is no technology that can reliably identify a person from a surveillance video. The reason for this is that video provides images of much lower quality and resolution than that of photographs. Besides, objects in video are normally captured in unconstrained environments, often under poor lighting, in motion and at a distance. This makes memorization of an object from a single video frame unreliable and recognition based on a single video frame very difficult if even possible. This paper introduces a neuro-associative approach to recognition which can both learn and identify an object from low-resolution low-quality video sequences. This approach is derived from a mathematical model of biological visual memory, in which correlation-based projection learning is used to memorize a face from a video sequence and attractor-based association is performed to recognize a face over several video frames. The approach is demonstrated using a video-based facial database and real-time video annotation of TV shows.
In Situ Chemical Oxidation with Permanganate: Assessing the Competitive Interactions Between Target and Nontarget Compounds

The competitive interactions between target (e.g., dissolved trichloroethene) and nontarget (e.g., dissolved humic acid) compounds during chemical oxidation by permanganate were evaluated using syringe reactor experiments. The experiments were performed in phosphate buffered de-ionized water at ambient temperature (∼ 20°C). The dissolved humic acid exerted a significant and almost instantaneous permanganate demand reducing the mass of oxidant available for the destruction of the target compound. At the high humic acid concentration (246 mg/L as Total Organic Carbon), competition between the target and nontarget compounds for the available permanganate significantly reduced the rate of trichloroethene (TCE) degradation and the mass degraded. A pseudo first-order model was shown to effectively predict the rate of TCE degradation as long as sufficient permanganate was available to maintain an oxidant residual while overcoming the demand exerted from the target and nontarget compounds.
Health-care economics and peritoneal dialysis.

There is no question that the next decade will see an enormous growth in the worldwide dialysis population. Increasingly, old and sick patients will be accepted on dialysis, and the worldwide dialy...
Science as a Learner and as a Teacher: Measuring Science Self-Efficacy of Elementary Preservice Teachers.

Academic science achievement of U.S. students has raised concerns regarding our ability as a nation to compete in a global economy. Additionally, research has shown that many elementary teachers have weak science content backgrounds and had poor/negative experiences as students of science, resulting in a lack of confidence regarding teaching science. However, efforts to increase science self-efficacy (SE) in preservice teachers can help to combat these issues. This study looked at a sample of preservice elementary teachers engaged in a semester-long science content course, using Bandura's concept of SE as a conceptual framework. Our quantitative data showed significant increases in science SE on both subscales (personal efficacy and outcome expectancy). Our qualitative data showed that students communicated an increased sense of confidence with regard to the discipline of science. In addition, students reported learning science pedagogy through the instructor's modeling. Combining our findings resulted in several meta-inferences, one of which showed students growing as both confident learners of science and teachers of science simultaneously. We created a construct new to the literature to describe this phenomenon: “teacher-learner,” for students are both learning science and learning to teach science simultaneously through the content course experience, resulting in increased science SE.
Cultivation of mammalian cells as aggregates in bioreactors: effect of calcium concentration of spatial distribution of viability.

Recombinant human kidney epithelial 293 cells were cultivated as aggregates in suspension. The concentration calcium ion, in the range of 100 muM to 1mM, affected the rate of aggregate formation. During the course of cultivation the size distribution of aggregates shifted and the fraction of larger aggregates increased. This effect was more profound in cultures with a high calcium concentration. Scanning and transmission microscopic examination of the aggregates revealed that cell packing was greater in the high calcium cultures and that ultrastructural integrity was retained in aggregates from both low and high calcium cultures. Confocal microscopy was applied to examine the viability of cells in the interior of the aggregates. High viability was observed in the aggregates obtained from exponentially growing cultures. Aggregates from the high calcium culture in the stationary phase exhibited lower viability in the interior. With its ease of retention in a perfusion bioreactor, aggregate cultures offer an alternative choice for large-scale operation.
Mapping legal requirements to IT controls

Information technology (IT) controls are reusable system requirements that IT managers, administrators and developers use to demonstrate compliance with international standards, such as ISO 27000 standard. As controls are reusable, they tend to cover best practice independently from what specific government laws may require. However, because considerable effort has already been invested by IT companies in linking controls to their existing systems, aligning controls with regulations can yield important savings by avoiding noncompliance or unnecessary redesign. We report the results of a case study to align legal requirements from the U.S. and India that govern healthcare systems with three popular control catalogues: the NIST 800-53, ISO/IEC 27002:2009 and the Cloud Security Alliance CCM v1.3. The contributions include a repeatable protocol for mapping controls, heuristics to explain the types of mappings that may arise, and guidance for addressing incomplete mappings.
Positron production in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract An experimental method has been developed which can predict the shape and intensity (within a factor of two) of the internal pair conversion positron spectra in heavy-ion nuclear reactions, independent of the production mechanism. To check the method, positron spectra have been measured from bombardments of 624 MeV 136Xe on targets of Th, Au and A1.
Oxidation hypothesis of atherogenesis: HDL inflammatory index and apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptides.

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the USA and worldwide. Optimizing the ratio and levels of low- and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) has been a major focus of treatments in preventing atherosclerosis. While these therapies have made significant contributions in reducing heart disease, many patients with normal lipid levels still continue to have significant coronary heart disease and crippling cardiac events. Recent research has brought to light the fact that HDL, widely touted to be protective against atherosclerosis, can actually promote atherogenesis in certain conditions. Disruption of anti-inflammatory properties of HDL may result in atherosclerosis in the presence of decreased, increased or unchanged serum HDL-cholesterol levels. The ability of HDL to prevent or promote atherogenesis can be assessed using a parameter termed the HDL inflammatory index. The next generation of emerging therapeutics, such as apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptides, will be aimed at improving the anti-...
Multiscale Modeling and Analysis of the Nitridation Effect of SiC/SiO2 Interface

We explain the role of nitrogen in simultaneously increasing the inversion channel mobility and reducing the threshold voltage of SiC MOSFET. A variety of computational techniques have been used to compute the atomic scale configuration of a nitridated SiC/SiO2 interface, and the corresponding change in Fermi level, inversion channel mobility, and threshold voltage. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been used to investigate the SiC/SiO2 interface to determine the nitrogen concentrations and chemical bonding. We elucidate the physics behind improved channel mobility due to NO anneal and demonstrate that the trade-off between threshold voltage and inversion channel mobility can be correlated to the extent of nitridation.
Prediction rule for diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia based on wall thickness measured on MR imaging.

Abstract MRI is seeing an increasing role in the evaluation of suspected arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD). Our aims were to establish wall thickness criteria for diagnosis of ARVD based on MR imaging measurements. A cross-sectional case-control retrospective study of 21 cardiac MR exams over a 3 year period identified five patients (two men, three women) of average age 43 years (range 36–48) who were diagnosed with ARVD and 16 patients (nine men, seven women) of average age 52 years (range 25–78) who were diagnosed with normal right ventricular wall motion. Patient demographic characteristics (age, sex) and right ventricular free wall thickness (RVFWT) were evaluated for predictive ability. Calculated RVFWT was (mean±SD, in mm); (4.4±1.4) for ARVD, and (7.8±2.9), controls with P P >0.05). RVFWT allowed for a prediction rule with Area under the receiver operator curve of 0.94 to be generated. In our study, measurement of the thickness of the right ventricular free wall using cardiac-gated MRI proved to be a statistically significant predictor of ARVD.
Conformational analysis of the conducting copolymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene-co-pyrrole)

Abstract Electronic structure methods have been used to investigate conducting copolymers of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and pyrrole (Py). The calculations show the planar anti conformation and the syn conformers have extended conjugation. In the anti conformation the EDOT–Py dimer is calculated to have a lower reorganization energy (0.390 eV) than either homodimer (0.423 eV EDOT; 0.455 eV Py) and consequently is expected to have higher charge carrier mobility. The HOMO–LUMO gap of the copolymers is intermediate between the two homopolymers and for regular sequences varies monotonically as a function of the monomer content.
The BCL-2 Protein BAK Is Required for Long-chain Ceramide Generation during Apoptosis

The BCL-2 family members BAK and BAX are required for apoptosis and trigger mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP). Here we identify a MOMP-independent function of BAK as a required factor for long-chain ceramide production in response to pro-apoptotic stress. UV-C irradiation of wild-type (WT) cells increased long-chain ceramides; blocking ceramide generation prevented caspase activation and cell death, demonstrating that long-chain ceramides play a key role in UV-C-induced apoptosis. In contrast, UV-C irradiation did not increase long-chain ceramides in BAK and BAX double knock-out cells. Notably, this was not specific to the cell type (baby mouse kidney cells, hematopoietic) nor the apoptotic stimulus employed (UV-C, cisplatin, and growth factor withdrawal). Importantly, long-chain ceramide generation was dependent on the presence of BAK, but not BAX. However, ceramide generation was independent of the known downstream actions of BAK in apoptosis (MOMP or caspase activation), suggesting a novel role for BAK in apoptosis. Finally, enzymatic assays identified ceramide synthase as the mechanism by which BAK regulates ceramide metabolism. There was no change in CerS expression at the message or protein level, indicating regulation at the post-translational level. Moreover, CerS activity in BAK KO microsomes can be reactivated upon addition of BAK-containing microsomes. The data presented indicate that ceramide-induced apoptosis is dependent upon BAK and identify a novel role for BAK during apoptosis. By establishing a unique role for BAK in long-chain ceramide metabolism, these studies further demonstrate that the seemingly redundant proteins BAK and BAX have distinct mechanisms of action during apoptosis induction.
Understanding peroxynitrite biochemistry and its potential for treating human diseases.

It is a great pleasure to see these major contributions on peroxynitrite biochemistry to be collected in this series and to be permitted to share a few biased observations here. The Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics played a major role at a critical junction in my scientific career in 1992. For over a year, our work had been rejected after lengthy review times by Science, Nature and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. In contrast, the editors of Archives allowed us to publish a series of five papers that established peroxynitrite as a biological oxidant, showed how tyrosine nitration can be used to quantify peroxynitrite production and demonstrated that peroxynitrite was quite toxic to bacteria(1–5). The reviews from Archives were insightful rather than being judgmental as to whether the results were of sufficient interest. Rafael Radi has a similar experience with his Archives paper on the iron-independent oxidation of lipids induced by peroxynitrite (6). While judged “not of sufficient interest for the readers“ of journal X, the paper has now been cited over 1200 times. By having the space to fully describe the experimental work rather than being confined to cryptic footnotes, these papers has have received many more citations than other papers that my group has published in high profile journals. Journals such as Archives play an important role in allowing new hypotheses and data to be published of which the importance is not immediately recognized by journals focused on high impact. Access over the web such as by Pubmed gives equal exposure around the world. For new investigators, the difference in where you publish on your career may not be as great as you fear and the benefits of more fully explaining your research in multiple papers in the long run will carry greater weight.
Stratigraphic range determination for Pseudoglyphea foersteri Feldmann, Crisp and Pirrie 2002, from the Jurassic of Raasay

Recently, a new species of glypheoid lobster was described from the Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) of Raasay, in the Inner Hebrides (Feldmann et al. 2002). The paper had no sooner appeared than one of us, RF, received correspondences from Dr. Crispin Little, University of Leeds, and another of us, DE, Northern Arizona University, United States, indicating that both had collected similar specimens about which nothing had been published. Unlike the specimen that formed the basis for the type description, collected by Glen Crisp from a block of Scalpa Sandstone incorporated in a landslide, the specimens collected by Little and Elliott were collected in place. Furthermore, the specimen collected by Elliott contains some morphological detail that was not preserved on the holotype specimen. Thus, the purpose of this note is to provide detailed stratigraphic context for the occurrence of Pseudoglyphea foersteri Feldmann, Crisp and Pirrie, 2002, expand the geographical and geological range of the species, and add to our understanding of the morphology of the species. Stratigraphical and geographical range The holotype specimen of Pseudoglyphea foersteri, BM(NH) IC 291, was collected from a dislodged block of material in landslide debris along the eastern coastline of Raasay, just north from Hallaig, National Grid Reference NG 5861 4030, Island of Raasay (Feldmann et al. 2002, p. 24) (Figs. 1 & 2). It should be noted that the catalogue number of the holotype was incorrectly assigned and, therefore, the number IC 117 is incorrectly given in the original description. The number IC 291 herein reflects . . . We thank Dr. Crispin Little, School of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, for contacting us with details of a specimen, presumed to be of the same species, and for providing details of the discovery and identification. Dr. Andrew Ross, Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum located the specimens discussed and provided a useful review of the manuscript. Specimens were photographed by Phil Crabb, also of The Natural History Museum. Dr. Neil D. L. Clark, Hunterian Museum, provided locality information and the loan of the specimen collected by Crispin Little. Assistance on drafting the line illustrations was provided by Trevor S. Elliott.
A dynamic programming approach to efficient sampling from Boltzmann distributions

Markov chain methods for Boltzmann sampling work in phases with decreasing temperatures. The number of transitions in each phase crucially affects terminal state distribution. We employ dynamic programming to allocate iterations to phases to improve guarantees on sample quality. Numerical experiments on the Ising model are presented.
The Semiquantitative Determination of Impurities in High-Purity Molybdenum Metal by Optical Emission Spectrography

Abstract A method is reported for the determination of Ni, Co, Bi, Al, V, Ti, Cu, Si, Pb, Cr, Mg, Sn, and Fe in molybdenum metal by optical emission spectrography. The procedure consists of dissolving the metal in HNO3 and HCl, evaporating to dryness, and igniting at 500–550°C to MoO3. The MoO3 is mixed with an equal weight of GeO2, which acts as an inert collector, and ignited at 700–750°C to volatilize the MoO3. This double ignition method concentrates the impurities on the GeO2 thereby placing the trace elements within the range of the spectrograph. The residue is excited in a d c are at 10 amps and the spectra are recorded on a photographic emulsion.
Aluminum leakage from REDY sorbent cartridge.

Although hemodialysis (HD) is able to keep patients with endstage renal disease (ESRD) alive, it does not completely reverse many of the sequellae of chronic renal failure. Hemofiltration (HF) based on convective transport principles similar to that of the natural kidney has been shown to have important advantages over HD. Studies have demonstrated that HF can result in: stabilization of blood pressure during treatment [1]; better control of hypertension between treatments [2]; improvement in uremic symptomatology [3]; improvement in uremic neuropathy [4]. One important drawback to HF as practiced today is the need to replace the large quantities of ultrafiltrate produced by an equal amount of sterile, pyrogen-free electrolyte solution. This procedure is costly and requires precise monitoring to avoid surfeits and deficits. To overcome this major drawback of HF, we examined a method of recycling ultrafiltrate by cleansing it with a sorbent system.
Towards coarse-grained mobile QoS

Supporting Quality of Service is an important objective for future mobile and wireless systems, and requires resource reservation and admission control to achieve. In this paper, we introduce a novel coarse grained approach to admission control termed Virtual Bottleneck Cell. Our approach is designed to scale to many users and handoffs, while simultaneously controlling “hot spots” and system bottlenecks. The key technique is to hierarchically control the virtual system, ensuring QoS objectives are satisfied without requiring models or accurate predictions of the users’ future locations. We develop a simple analytical model to study the system and illustrate several key components of the approach. Finally, we perform simulations in a two-dimensional network to compare the performance obtained with Virtual Bottleneck Cell with alternate schemes, including the optimal off line algorithm.
Post-translational protein translocation into thylakoids by the Sec and ΔpH-dependent pathways

Two distinct protein translocation pathways that employ hydrophobic signal peptides function in the plant thylakoid membrane. These two systems are precursor specific and distinguished by their energy and component requirements. Recent studies have shown that one pathway is homologous to the bacterial general export system called Sec. The other one, called the DeltapH-dependent pathway, was originally considered to be unique to plant thylakoids. However, it is now known that homologous transport systems are widely present in prokaryotes and even present in archaea. Here we review these protein transport pathways and discuss their capabilities and mechanisms of operation.
Determination of traces of organic compounds in the atmosphere: role of detectors in gas chromatography

Abstract The degree of toxicity of organic compounds is often related to molecular structure, not necessarily to class of compound, so that reliable air-quality monitoring requires selective, sensitive detection of traces of specific compounds, usually in complex mixtures in the atmosphere. Gas chromatography offers the major approach to such analyses. Responses of flame ionization, electron capture and thermionic detectors to types of structures and compounds are discussed. Relative sensitivity data and retention times are given for 34 organic compounds: substituted nitrobenzenes, benzonitriles, benzaldehydes, anisoles, toluenes, xylenes and acetophenones.