cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ochratoxin A and its Reaction Products affected by Sugars during Heat Processing

Abstract Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a nephrotoxin produced by many species in two fungal genera of Aspergillus and Penicillium under virtually all agricultural environments. Hence, OTA occurs frequently in agricultural commodities and their downstream products worldwide. In this study, thermal stability of OTA in the presence of sugars commonly added to food products including glucose, fructose, and sucrose was investigated by analyzing their reaction products with HPLC–FLD and LC–MS/MS. Samples were heated at three different temperatures (100, 125, and 150 °C) in 10-min intervals for up to 60 min in the absence of food matrix. Analysis showed increased OTα and OTα-amide and decreased OTA isomer (14-R-OTA) formation when OTA was heated with sugars. Among the sugars tested, adding fructose resulted in significantly lower OTA levels than glucose, sucrose, or no sugar added control. Addition of fructose also shifted OTA degradation product profile to less toxic OTα-amide, instead of OTA isomer which has similar toxicity to OTA. These results suggest that added sugars influenced the levels of OTA and its degradation products formed during thermal processing, and may provide a means to reduce the toxicity of OTA in food.
ReDS: reputation for directory services in P2P systems

P2P systems rely on directory services for locating peers with the desired content and services. Directory services are themselves decentralized, such as with distributed hash tables (DHTs) that allow for efficient locating of objects without a centralized directory. As a system distributed over a diverse set of untrusted nodes, however, directory services must be resilient to adversarial behavior by such malicious insiders. While redundancy-based DHTs such as Salsa and Halo mitigate the effects of adversarial behavior, they incur substantial overhead due to redundant lookups. We propose Reputation for Directory Services (ReDS), a framework for using reputation management to enhance the security and reduce the costs of redundancy-based DHTs in the face of insider attacks. We present ReDS designs for both Salsa and Halo, and we show that peers can significantly boost the success rates of directory lookups by considering past performance. For example, our simulations show that Salsa-ReDS can reduce lookup failure rates by up to 94%. We find that applying ReDS effectively cuts the redundancy required by both Salsa and Halo in half to get comparable results.
Differential ampicillin/ceftriaxone susceptibility among diverse Enterococcus faecalis from infective endocarditis

Abstract Enterococcus faecalis is a leading cause of infective endocarditis (IE), especially among older patients with comorbidities. Here we investigated the genomic diversity and antimicrobial susceptibility of 33 contemporary E. faecalis isolates from definite or probable IE cases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) between 2018 and 2020. Isolates belonging to two multi-locus sequence types (STs), ST6 and ST179, were isolated from nearly 40% of IE patients. Both of these dominant STs carried known beta-lactam resistance-associated mutations affecting the low-affinity penicillin-binding protein 4 (PBP4). We assessed the ability of ampicillin and ceftriaxone (AC) both alone and in combination to inhibit genetically diverse E. faecalis IE isolates in checkerboard synergy assays and an in vitro one-compartment pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) model of AC treatment. ST6 isolates as well as an isolate with a mutation in the PP2C-type protein phosphatase IreP had higher ceftriaxone MICs compared to other isolates, and showed diminished in vitro synergy of AC. Additionally, both ST6 and ST179 isolates exhibited regrowth after 48 hours of humanized exposures to AC. Overall, we found evidence for diminished in vitro AC activity among E. faecalis IE isolates with PBP4 and IreP mutations. This study highlights the need to evaluate alternate antibiotic combinations in clinical practice against diverse contemporary E. faecalis IE isolates.
Effect of supplementation of red beetroot powder in quail diets

This study aims to determine the effects of different levels of supplements (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%) of red beetroot (B. vulgaris var. rubra L.) powder in the diets of laying quails on productive traits, egg quality, some blood parameters, yolk fatty acid profiles and cholesterol levels. A total of 112, 12-week-old female quails were used in the 4-week study. While the red beetroot powder (RBP) significantly affected egg yield, it was not effective on daily feed intake (DFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and egg weight (EW). Among the blood parameters, there were significant differences in terms of the triglyceride (TG), Ca and Na values among the trial groups. In terms of the egg yolk fatty acid profiles, there were significant differences among the palmitic acid and linolenic acid levels of the groups. The results obtained in terms of the egg yolk cholesterol levels showed that the RBP did not significantly affect the cholesterol levels. Consequently, considering its positive effects on some parameters like egg yield, egg yolk colour and palmitic and linolenic acid values, it may be recommended to add RBP to the diets of quails by up to 1%.
Mealtime emotional climate and child health: A systematic review

Abstract Background Positive mealtime emotional climate (MEC) has been linked to better nutrition, psychosocial, literacy and academic outcomes, and fewer behavior problems. However, MEC has been defined in a variety of ways across studies, limiting the ability to synthesize findings and plan future research. Objective To identify which child characteristics are associated with MEC and to determine how previous studies have measured MEC. Methods We searched three databases (1980–2020) for peer-reviewed articles measuring MEC. Inclusion criteria required at least one child-level outcome related to physical, nutritional, or developmental health; children aged 0–18 years old; and quantitative data using cohort, case-control, intervention, or experimental designs. We used a previously published taxonomy to categorize child/adolescent characteristics as correlates, non-correlates, unclear, or as having insufficient evidence, according to the amount of evidence linking them to MEC. Additionally, we extracted data about the measures and definitions of MEC from each included article. Results Out of 668 unique studies identified in the initial search after duplicates removed, 14 met inclusion criteria, and only three used the same measure of MEC. Healthful dietary intake, disordered eating behaviors, and weight/BMI were categorized as correlates of MEC, but links to unhealthy dietary intake are unclear. Several characteristics (e.g. temperament, academic success) were examined in one study only. Conclusions Future research should examine the relationship between MEC and child psychosocial child outcomes and utilize a preschool age group. These findings aid in conceptualizing how MEC has been defined and measured and illuminate the importance of MEC on children's health.
High Speed Computing, LANs, and WAMs

Optical fiber networks may one day offer potential capacities exceeding 10 terabits/sec. This paper describes present gigabit network techniques for distributed computing as illustrated by the CASA gigabit testbed, and then explores future all-optic network architectures that offer increased capacity, more optimized level of service for a given application, high fault tolerance, and dynamic reconfigurability.
Using Inside-Out Open Innovation to Recover Abandoned Pharmaceutical Compounds

Pharmaceutical drug development costs have risen rapidly over the past twenty years. However, the number of new molecular entities being approved has not increased. As pharmaceutical companies scale back their R&D in light of this deteriorating productivity, significant unmet medical needs remain unaddressed. Much of these rising costs can be traced to work on compounds that are abandoned before getting to market. There is a growing need to recover these abandoned compounds. The inside-out branch of open innovation provides a way to increase the performance of pharmaceutical firms, both in addressing unmet societal needs, and potentially in identifying new revenue sources and business models for a more distributed model of commercializing new drugs. This aspect of open innovation is not much discussed in the literature to date. The medical research community, in conjunction with a number of industry and nonprofit organizations, has started several projects to recover more abandoned compounds. These new initiatives are still at an early stage, and have not received much critical evaluation to date. Examining four of these initiatives, we find that they do extend the cognitive frames in the research phase, while doing less to extend those frames in the commercialization phase.
The Rôle of Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium in Cancer: A Review

I. Introduction Among the many angles from which the cancer problem has been attacked is the study of the role of inorganic substances. A large number of the chemical elements, starting with aluminum and on through the alphabet to zinc, have been considered as possibly playing a part in tumor growth, and importance has been ascribed to some of them. Common constituents of living tissue, as well as substances which are found in the body in very small amounts, or not at all, are among those alleged to have significance in cancer. It is possible that some inorganic substance which is present in the body only in traces may ultimately be found to be of importance in malignant disease; on the other hand, investigations have also been directed towards determining whether one, or more, of the fixed bases which constitute so large a fraction of the total mineral content of normal living matter plays a determining role in tumor growth. A voluminous literature abounds in reports asserting that the fixed bases of the body, i.e. sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, exert a significant influence on neoplasms. A retarding effect on tumor growth has frequently been ascribed to calcium and to magnesium, while an accelerating effect has been ascribed to potassium and to sodium. Importance has also been attached to the ratio of one base to another, especially to the potassium: calcium ratio. Around this phase of the problem a large literature has grown up. Much of the work is comparatively recent. The first papers in this field appeared a quarter of a century ago, but most of the contributions have been published during the past decade. Since no comprehensive review of this subject exists, 1 the literature has been critically surveyed and the material assembled in a convenient form. Studies designed to throw light upon the part played by these four elements in cancer cover a wide variety of approaches and deal with many aspects of the tumor problem. Thus, analyses have been reported for tumors and for the blood of tumor-bearing individuals. Attempts have been made to influence susceptibility to tumors and to affect tumor growth by treatment with salts of these metals. The substances have been administered in various ways: by mouth, by injection, by inclusion in the diet, and by immersion of tumors in salt solutions prior to inoculation.
CoDNS: improving DNS performance and reliability via cooperative lookups

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a ubiquitous part of everyday computing, translating human-friendly machine names to numeric IP addresses. Most DNS research has focused on server-side infrastructure, with the assumption that the aggressive caching and redundancy on the client side are sufficient. However, through systematic monitoring, we find that client-side DNS failures are widespread and frequent, degrading DNS performance and reliability. We introduce CoDNS, a lightweight, cooperative DNS lookup service that can be independently and incrementally deployed to augment existing nameservers. It uses a locality and proximity-aware design to distribute DNS requests, and achieves low-latency, low-overhead name resolution, even in the presence of local DNS nameserver delay/failure. Using live traffic, we show that CoDNS reduces average lookup latency by 27-82%, greatly reduces slow lookups, and improves DNS availability by an additional '9'. We also show that a widely-deployed service using CoDNS gains increased capacity, higher reliability, and faster start times.
Effects of brief ischemia on oxygen consumption, tissue oxygenation, and blood flow during recovery from ischemia in rat skeletal muscle (674.13)

The effects of brief ischemia (5, 15, 30, and 60 s duration; Isch) on interstitial PO2 (PISFO2), arteriolar PO2 (PaO2), blood flow (Q) and O2 consumption (VO2) during the recovery period was observed in exteriorized spinotrapezius muscles of 29 male Sprague-Dawley rats (284 ± 20 g) for intravital microscopy. Phosphorescence quenching microscopy was used to obtain PISFO2, PaO2 and VO2. Arteriolar blood flow was calculated from arteriolar diameter and centerline RBC velocity obtained from an Optical Doppler Velocimeter. Ischemia was initiated by rapidly pressurizing an airbag attached to the microscope objective for a selected ischemic duration. The average baseline value of arteriolar blood flow was 5.8±0.8 µl/min; as expected, reactive hyperemia was observed during the recovery from Isch. Flow recovery (dQ/dt) was fastest [3.88±0.64 (µl·min-1)/s] after 60 seconds of Isch. Average baseline PISFO2 was 62±4 mmHg; PISFO2 decreased to 75%, 34%, 10% and 2% of baseline following 5, 15, 30 and 60 s of Isch, respe...
Increased subcortical neural activity among HIV+ individuals during a lexical retrieval task

Abstract Background Deficits in lexical retrieval, present in approximately 40% of HIV + patients, are thought to reflect disruptions to frontal–striatal functions and may worsen with immunosuppression. Coupling frontal–striatal tasks such as lexical retrieval with functional neuroimaging may help delineate the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying HIV-associated neurological dysfunction. Objective We examined whether HIV infection confers brain functional changes during lexical access and retrieval. It was expected that HIV + individuals would demonstrate greater brain activity in frontal–subcortical regions despite minimal differences between groups on neuropsychological testing. Within the HIV + sample, we examined associations between indices of immunosuppression (recent and nadir CD4 + count) and task-related signal change in frontostriatal structures. Method16 HIV + participants and 12 HIV − controls underwent fMRI while engaged in phonemic/letter and semantic fluency tasks. Participants also completed standardized measures of verbal fluency Results HIV status groups performed similarly on phonemic and semantic fluency tasks prior to being scanned. fMRI results demonstrated activation differences during the phonemic fluency task as a function of HIV status, with HIV + individuals demonstrating significantly greater activation in BG structures than HIV − individuals. There were no significant differences in frontal brain activation between HIV status groups during the phonemic fluency task, nor were there significant brain activation differences during the semantic fluency task. Within the HIV + group, current CD4 + count, though not nadir, was positively correlated with increased activity in the inferior frontal gyrus and basal ganglia. Conclusion During phonemic fluency performance, HIV + patients recruit subcortical structures to a greater degree than HIV − controls despite similar task performances suggesting that fMRI may be sensitive to neurocompromise before overt cognitive declines can be detected. Among HIV + individuals, reduced activity in the frontal–subcortical structures was associated with lower CD4 + count.
High-Quality Draft Genome Sequence of Francisella tularensis subsp. holarctica Strain OR96-0246.

ABSTRACT The bacterial pathogen Francisella tularensis was recently renewed as a tier-one select agent. F. tularensis subsp. tularensis (type A) and holarctica (type B) are of clinical relevance. Here, we report the complete genome of a virulent F. tularensis type B strain and describe its usefulness in comparative genomics.
Successes and challenges of a distant faculty model.

PURPOSE The planning, implementation, and evaluation of a 2-year pilot project for a distant faculty model is presented through the reflections of the distant faculty member and other stakeholders. A school of nursing with a 15-year history of offering distance education graduate programs served as the setting for this project. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the distant faculty model was successful. It is anticipated that new opportunities to explore the distant faculty role will exist as the university expands its current online campus initiatives. IMPLICATIONS This distant faculty model can be adopted by other schools of nursing interested in employing faculty at a distance and provides an opportunity to manage faculty shortage.
Politics Denied: Comments on Waismel-Manor and Lowi's “Politics in Motion”

For the last quarter-century, many political scientists—mostly dissidents within the discipline—have concurred with David Ricci’s conclusion in The Tragedy of Political Science that the discipline now serves “less as an instrument for solving problems than as a component part of the problem itself.” 1 Similarly, in Disenchanted Realists, Raymond Seidelman concluded that by the mid-1980s political scientists were at a “professional impasse” over the discipline’s focus, which signaled “an epitaph for political science as it has been practiced in the United States.” 2 Indeed, the political science discipline’s disengagement from politics and public policy became so striking by the end of the century that the New Republic asked its readers: “When did political science forget about politics?” The New Republic’s conclusion was that sometime after the publication of Ricci’s and Seidelman’s insightful critiques political scientists had changed from “an elite group of scholars characterized by a broad interest in politics and motivated explicitly by their desire to change the world around them” into a cloistered cabal of self-important “nerds.” The New Republic characterized the discipline’s retreat from politics into formal modeling and rational choice theory as a state of “irrational exuberance” over its growing detachment from solving the real problems faced by public officials and ordinary citizens just as the stock market detached from the “real economy” at the same time. 3 While the stock market’s irrational exuberance was temporarily corrected by the 2001 recession, the disciplinary elite in political science was challenged by the “Perestroika” movement. In 2000, many of the same discontents that led a previous generation of political scientists to organize the Caucus for a New Political Science (CNPS) resurfaced in the “Perestroika rebellion,” which denounced the American Political Science Association as an organization controlled by “East Coast Brahmins” to promote a “narrow parochialism and methodological bias toward the quantitative, behavioral, rational choice, statistical, and formal modeling approaches.” 4 When the younger Perestroika rebels were reminded that their criticism of the APSA was nothing
Self-administration of diazepam by the rat.

Male Charles River rats were offered diazepam either orally or by counterinjection over a 6-day period, with drug concentrations increasing every other day. Although diazepam intoxication was observed at all drug concentrations and with increasing severity as the drug concentration was increased, no decrease in intake ensued. This apparent lack of conditioned aversion formation was not due to diazepam-induced amnesia, since rats poisoned with lithium chloride after diazepam consumption showed no attenuation of conditioned aversion when compared to rats poisoned after drinking flavored water.
Power Control for Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

While FCC proposes spectrum sharing between a legacy TV system and a cognitive radio network to increase spectrum utilization, one of the major concerns is that the interference from the cognitive radio network should not violate the QoS requirements of the primary users. In this paper, we consider the scenario where the cognitive radio network is formed by secondary users with low power personal/portable devices and when both systems are operating simultaneously. A power control problem is formulated for the cognitive radio network to maximize the energy efficiency of the secondary users and guarantee the QoS of both the primary users and the secondary users. The feasibility condition of the problem is derived and both centralized and distributed solutions are provided. Because the co-channel interference are from heterogeneous systems, a joint power control and admission control procedure is suggested such that the priority of the primary users is always ensured. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.
Welcome message from the technical program co-chairs

The IEEE International Conference on Techniques for Practical Robotics Applications is a new conference aimed at catalyzing the development of enabling technologies and encouraging their adoption by robot designers. With an emphasis on practical applications and industrial participation, TePRA provides researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and robotics professionals a well-balanced platform between an academic conference and an exhibition while maintaining a serious review process. The 1st TePRA was held in 2008 and attracted more than 80 attendees from academia and industry. The conference, which was very well-received by the participants, featured a wide variety of technical papers and presentations, plenary speakers, and robot demonstrations.
A scalable mobile tele-consultation framework for enhancing healthcare access

Access to healthcare is extremely poor in almost every region within India due to a variety of factors including large populations, substantially low presence of health care experts, lack of medical resources and economic constraints. The situation is further worse in rural areas where access to doctors is largely absent. In this vision paper, we present a new scalable mobile tele-consultation model for significantly enhancing access to healthcare for patients in both urban and rural settings. Given the scarcity in the availability of doctors, our mobile consultation model can enhance the efficiency of the healthcare delivery system by allowing doctors to cover a much larger patient base within a limited time frame. Our tele-consultation system can also be tailored for a variety of common health conditions including basic health care queries, infectious diseases, HIV, diarrhea, virology and specialized health problems such as maternal care, child care, geriatric care, ophthalmology, cardiac issues etc. In this paper, we specifically describe how our tele-consultation framework can be applied to enhance care for the most pressing health problems in India.
On the role of burst buffers in leadership-class storage systems

The largest-scale high-performance (HPC) systems are stretching parallel file systems to their limits in terms of aggregate bandwidth and numbers of clients. To further sustain the scalability of these file systems, researchers and HPC storage architects are exploring various storage system designs. One proposed storage system design integrates a tier of solid-state burst buffers into the storage system to absorb application I/O requests. In this paper, we simulate and explore this storage system design for use by large-scale HPC systems. First, we examine application I/O patterns on an existing large-scale HPC system to identify common burst patterns. Next, we describe enhancements to the CODES storage system simulator to enable our burst buffer simulations. These enhancements include the integration of a burst buffer model into the I/O forwarding layer of the simulator, the development of an I/O kernel description language and interpreter, the development of a suite of I/O kernels that are derived from observed I/O patterns, and fidelity improvements to the CODES models. We evaluate the I/O performance for a set of multiapplication I/O workloads and burst buffer configurations. We show that burst buffers can accelerate the application perceived throughput to the external storage system and can reduce the amount of external storage bandwidth required to meet a desired application perceived throughput goal.
Differential Cherenkov counters for use at high momenta

Abstract Design considerations for the fabrication and operation of differential Cherenkov counters at FNAL energies are given. Two counters now in operation in the Single Arm Spectrometer Facility at Fermilab are described. Fabrication details are given.
Power, Oppression, Liberation, Religious Education

Institutions can sometimes be characterized by one word. The word for Wall Street, for instance, is money. The word for the Catholic Church is power. I first became aware of the power of the Cathol...
Scheduling threads for constructive cache sharing on CMPs

In chip multiprocessors (CMPs), limiting the number of offchip cache misses is crucial for good performance. Many multithreaded programs provide opportunities for constructive cache sharing, in which concurrently scheduled threads share a largely overlapping working set. In this paper, we compare the performance of two state-of-the-art schedulers proposed for fine-grained multithreaded programs: Parallel Depth First (PDF), which is specifically designed for constructive cache sharing, and Work Stealing (WS), which is a more traditional design. Our experimental results indicate that PDF scheduling yields a 1.3--1.6X performance improvement relative to WS for several fine-grain parallel benchmarks on projected future CMP configurations; we also report several issues that may limit the advantage of PDF in certain applications. These results also indicate that PDF more effectively utilizes off-chip bandwidth, making it possible to trade-off on-chip cache for a larger number of cores. Moreover, we find that task granularity plays a key role in cache performance. Therefore, we present an automatic approach for selecting effective grain sizes, based on a new working set profiling algorithm that is an order of magnitude faster than previous approaches. This is the first paper demonstrating the effectiveness of PDF on real benchmarks, providing a direct comparison between PDF and WS, revealing the limiting factors for PDF in practice, and presenting an approach for overcoming these factors.
Rapid nitrosamine formation from a tertiary amine: The nitrosation of 2-(N,N-Dimethylaminomethyl)pyrrole

Abstract 2-(N,N-Dimethylaminomethyl)pyrrole reacts instantaneously with nitrous acid at 25° to produce diemthylnitrosamine, maleimidemonooxine, formaldehyde and other products. The data implicate new mechanisms of tertiary amine nitrosation.
Use of “simple shooting” to obtain chaos

Abstract We discuss an elementary method of proving that certain smooth differential equations exhibit a kind of chaos. In some cases, such as a forced pendulum, the proof is simpler than an approach through Poincare maps and Melnikov theory. In other cases, new results are obtained. Even for the pendulum, there is a generalization of previous results because the forcing need not be periodic or almost periodic.
Revisiting old bones: coupled carbon isotope analysis of bioapatite and collagen as an ecological and palaeoecological tool

Isotopic studies of palaeoecological and ecological questions often use bone collagen or bioapatite as substrates, but rarely both. Substantial new information can be gained from the incorporation of isotopic values from both the organic and inorganic fractions of bone. Here we show that combining isotopic data from both substrates provides valuable and unique insights into (1) trophic relationships and dietary interactions; (2) differences in digestive physiologies and (3) identification of palaeontological or archaeological remains that lack diagnostic morphological characters. We present a range of new isotopic data collected from modern and fossil mammals, and investigate patterns within several published datasets. We define carbon isotope spacing variables, and then explore four diverse palaeoecological and ecological case studies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stress-Temperature Behavior of O3-TEOS Sub-Atmospheric CVD (SACVD) Oxide Films Deposited on Various Oxide Underlayers

A systematic evaluation of the stress-temperature behavior of O3-TEOS Sub-Atmospheric CVD (SACVD) oxide films used in IMD applications was performed in order to elucidate the surface dependence and mechanical stability of these films when deposited on different oxide underlayers such as PECVD TEOS-based, Silane-based, and thermally grown oxides. SACVD films were deposited at 360°C using different O3:TEOS molar flow ratios. The results obtained in this study indicate that the stress-temperature behavior of SACVD films deposited on PECVD Silane-based and TEOS-based oxides using N2O as the oxidizing agent is similar to that of the SACVD films deposited on silicon. However, a large stress hysteresis is obtained when SACVD films are deposited on PECVD TEOS-O2 and thermally grown oxide underlayers. This large stress hysteresis results from the surface dependence effects of the SACVD oxides on thermally grown and PECVD TEOS-O2 oxide underlayers. Also, this stress hysteresis can be reduced or eliminated by treating the oxide underlayer surface with an in-situ Ar, He, or N2 plasma. Furthermore, it was also found that the SACVD oxides deposited using higher O3:TEOS molar flow ratios are chemically and mechanically more stable.
Improved inflection points in the non-aqueous potentiometric titration of acid functionalities in lignin chemicals by using internal standardization and ion exchange

Potentiometric titration methods were developed for the acid functionalities in lignin chemicals. The inflection points for carboxylic acid and phenolic hydroxyl, which are normally diffuse and inexact for polymeric compounds such as the lignin chemicals, were sinificantly improved by the addition of an internal standard, p-hydroxybenzoic acid. This improved response is demonstrated by the addition and subtraction of titration curves of the mixture and the individual components. Because acid functionalities in lignosulfonates are present as the acid salts, the methods include such s teps as acidification and a batch cation-exchange technique to liberate the free acids. Three nonaqueous titration methods developed for determining the two weak acids and the sulfonic acid in lignin chemicals are described.
Introduction: Contributions to the Discipline of Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive organizational scholarship is the study of that which is positive, flourishing, and life-giving in organizations. Positive refers to the elevating processes and outcomes in organizations. ...
Comparing undergraduate degrees in information technology and information systems

This paper explores some aspects of the relationship between information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) curricula. In particular, it presents a discussion of an existing BS in Information Systems (BSIS) and how it might relate to a proposed BS in Information Technology (BSIT). The IS degree is one of the many BSIS programs located outside of business schools. It closely follows the IS 2002 model curriculum and it is accredited by ABET under the new IS accreditation criteria. The IT degree also is intended to be patterned after draft model curricula, draft accreditation criteria, and existing four year IT degrees.The paper focuses on similarities and differences between IT and IS degree programs. It considers how the curriculum for one degree might enrich the other degree. The paper also explores the issue of accreditation for degree programs in IT and IS, and how those criteria might affect differences between the degrees.
Characterization of hemolysis and hemoxidation activities by Treponema denticola.

This study determined the presence of two hemolytic activities in the oral treponeme, Treponema denticola, strains ATCC 35404 (TD-4), ATCC 33520, GM-1, and MS25. These activities, referred to as hemolytic and hemoxidative (HeA, HeO, respectively), were found to be both secreted into the extracellular environment, and cell associated. The extracellular activity was associated with small molecules with relative molecular weights of 10 kDa, and were cysteine dependent. The HeO activity of the fractionated material observed was due to the oxidation of hemoglobin to methemoglobin, and preceded the HeA lysis of the RBCs by approximately 2 h. Heating at 80 degrees C and treatment with proteinase K resulted in the complete destruction of these activities in the fraction > 10 kDa, while lipase at high concentration (800 micrograms/ml) reduced the HeA and HeO activities in the extracellular fraction by approximately 50%. Proteinase inhibitors had a variable effect on HeA and HeO activities in both extracellular and cell-associated fractions. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy revealed a progressive destruction of the RBC membrane, with membrane protrusions formed early in the interaction, which progressed to irregular holes in the membrane, and the complete loss of membrane integrity.
Rotation and impurity transport in a tokamak plasma with directed neutral-beam injection

The authors have extended their previous collisional-regime theory for rotation and impurity transport in a tokamak plasma with strong, directed NBI and strong rotation (v ≈ vth) to the plateau regime. The paper gives a summary of a kinetic theory derivation of the parallel viscous force in the strong rotation ordering and a self-consistent formalism for calculating ion and impurity rotation velocities and radial transport fluxes, as well as the radial electric field and the poloidal variation of the impurity density upon which the former strongly depend. Calculations for model problems representative of ISX-B and PLT are presented. The predicted impurity transport exhibits features that are in agreement with experimental observations.
A study of gas/aerosol chemical reactions by microdroplet Raman spectroscopy: The bromine/1-octadecene reaction

Abstract The chemical reaction between a microdroplet of the olefin, 1-octadecene, and the reactive halogen, bromine vapor, has been studied by means of Raman spectroscopy and simultaneously by gravimetric analysis. A single droplet was levitated electrodynamically in a flow reactor, and a bromine/nitrogen stream flowed through the chamber. The effects of morphological resonances on the Raman emission are shown to be a complicating factor in the interpretation of the Raman signals from microdroplets, but the Raman data are in agreement with the gravimetric measurements. Analysis of the kinetics data indicates that the reaction can be modeled as third order in dissolved bromide concentration and first order with respect to the octadecene concentration. This result is consistent with earlier studies of bromine/olefin reactions.
A unique psoriasis biologics clinic serving underprivileged patients in the United States.

P soriasis is the most prevalent autoimmune disease in the United States, affecting approximately 7.7 million people. As the economic impact of psoriasis correlates with the increased severity of the disease, it is of pivotal importance to provide patients who have psoriasis with comprehensive and continuous medical services. This is especially true for people with an underprivileged socioeconomic status as studies have suggested that these patients are more likely to have severe psoriasis and are less likely to be able to afford the most efficacious treatments, including costly biologic therapies. Although the implementation of the Affordable Care Act allows people who previously had no health insurance or lost their insurance to now have access to health coverage, the treatment options available for patients with psoriasis depend on their insurance plans and what they can afford to pay, making access to expensive biologics challenging. Although biologic therapies have significantly improved the lives of patients with psoriasis because of their efficacy, convenience, and tolerability, they are considerably more expensive than conventional systemic immunomodulating therapies such as methotrexate and cyclosporine. Thus, the high cost of biologics poses an almost insurmountable obstacle for low-income patients with no health insurance or with restrictive reimbursement plans. To overcome this financial hurdle and broaden the access to modern psoriasis care, the Monthly Biologics Center for Indigent Patients with Psoriasis was established at Jackson Memorial Hospital at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, which serves as the primary full-service provider of indigent
Olfactory bulbectomy and nursing behavior in rat pups (Wistar DAB).

The effect of olfactory bulbectomy in nursing behavior was studied in rat pups (Wistar DAB). Pups from letters letters were bilaterally bublectomized (BX) at 2 7 and 11 days of age. Those treated on Days 2 and 7 consisted of 3 BX pups 2 surgical control (SC) pups and 2 handling control (HC) pups. Those treated on Day 11 consisted of 1 or 2 BX 1 or 2 incompletely bulbectomized pups (IBX) 2 SC pups and 2 HC pups. These and 3 additional nontreated letters were observed on Days 4 7 10 13 and 16. Fewer BX pups survived through Day 10 than SC HC IBX and nontreated pups. Differential treatment of the BX pups by females or littermates was not seen. Mammary glands of the females were functional but the BX pup stomachs had little or no milk. BX pups spent less time nursing and more time away from the female and their littermates than did the other pups. The survival may be improved if the olfactory bulbectomy were performed at a later age because animals have more days of nursing experience in a normal situation and because they may be able to compensate for the lass of olfaction with the use of another sensory system.
Fast and robust method to compute colon centerline in CT colonography

We developed a method for generating the centerline of a colon in CT Colonography that is computationally fast, and robust to collapsed regions. Patients underwent CT Colonography after standard pre-colonoscopy cleansing. The colonic lumen was segmented using an existing anatomy-based approach, and a distance map of the colonic lumen was computed using a distance transform. The centerline was computed as follows: Local maxima representative for the centerline were sparsely extracted from the distance map. Iteratively, each pair of maxima satisfying a set of connection criteria were connected, creating a graph-like structure containing a main centerline with additional branches. Branches were later removed and the resulting centerline was stored. Centerlines of the colon were computed, and also manually and independently drawn by two radiologists, for 33 CT Colonographic data sets. The data sets were chosen to give a wide spectrum of colons, ranging from cases with good segmentation and extension to cases with collapsed regions and numerous extra-colonic components such as small bowel. On average, 94% of the human-generated centerlines were correctly identified by the computer-generated centerlines. The average displacement between the human- and computer-generated centerlines was 4.0 mm. Average centerline computation time was less than 4 seconds.
Interleukin-6 promoter haplotypes and interleukin-6 cytokine responses.

ABSTRACTGenetic variations contribute to differences in the inflammatory response and are markers for disease risk and outcomes. We studied three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (−597 G→A, −572 G→C, and −174 G→C) in the IL-6 promoter to determine associations with ex vivo LPS-stimulated IL-6 product
Studies of stereochemical control using α-lithiosulfinyl carbanions

The stereoselectivity in reactions of a series of α-lithiosulfinyl carbanions with aldehydes has been unambiguously established. Steric effects and intramolecular chelation of the associated cation are important factors contributing to the observed outcome.
Mitogen-induced Expression of the Fibroblast Growth Factor-binding Protein Is Transcriptionally Repressed through a Non-canonical E-box Element

The fibroblast growth factor-binding protein (FGF-BP) stimulates FGF-2-mediated angiogenesis and is thought to play an important role in the progression of squamous cell, colon, and breast carcinomas. 12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induction of the FGF-BP gene occurs through transcriptional mechanisms involving Sp1, AP-1, and CCAATT/enhancer-binding protein sites in the proximal FGF-BP gene promoter. The level of TPA induction, however, is limited due to the presence of a repressor element that shows similarity to a non-canonical E-box (AACGTG). Mutation or deletion of the repressor element led to enhanced induction by TPA or epidermal growth factor in cervical squamous cell and breast carcinoma cell lines. Repression was dependent on the adjacent AP-1 site, without discernible alteration in the binding affinity or composition of AP-1. We investigated the following two possible mechanisms for E-box-mediated repression: 1) CpG methylation of the core of the E-box element, and 2) binding of a distinct protein complex to this site. Point mutation of the CpG methylation site in the E-box showed loss of repressor activity. Conversely, in vitro methylation of this site significantly reduced TPA induction. In vitro gel shift analysis revealed distinct and TPA-dependent binding of USF1 and USF2 to the repressor element that required nucleotides within the E-box. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation assay showed that USF, c-Myc, and Max proteins were associated with the FGF-BP promoter in vivo. Overall, these findings suggested that the balance between trans-activation by AP-1 and repression through the E-box is an important control mechanism for fine-tuning the angiogenic response to growth factor-activated pathways.
Localization of stress protein-70 in ovine corpora lutea during prostaglandin-induced luteolysis.

Abstract Accumulation of heat shock (stress) protein-70 (HSP-70) was assessed in corpora lutea of sheep obtained after in vivo administration of a luteolytic dose of prostaglandin (PG) F 2 α. A quantitative immunofluorescence technique was used to localize inducible HSP-70 production to specific cell-types. The number and intensity of immunostained large luteal cells increased within 2 h of injection of PGF 2 α. A drop in luteal progesterone concentrations (functional regression) was not manifested until 4 h post-treatment. A dramatic increase in intensely-stained mononuclear leukocytes was observed in luteal tissues at 16 h, when glandular weights had begun to diminish (structural regression). Stress proteins could mediate intracellular protein processing and cell-surface autoimmune mechanisms underlying luteal regression.
An improved method for determination of serum and plasma triglycerides.

Abstract A method is described for the determination of serum or plasma glyceride content. The method is a modification of that described by Blankenhorn et al. Lipids are extracted with a mixture of acetone-ethanol and triglycerides separated from phospholipids by means of Florisil chromatography. The major modifications are: (1) conditioning the Florisil columns with eluting solvent to avoid the necessity for adjusting the moisture content of Florisil; (2) removal of cholesterol and fatty acids from the saponified mixtures by partitioning with petroleum ether. These two modifications bring about a significant improvement in accuracy and precision of triglyceride analyses.
Haemophilus influenzae infection of a prosthetic knee joint in a patient with CLL: a vaccine preventable disease

A 71-year-old man was admitted with a 2-day history of the hot and swollen right knee in December 2012. He had undergone a primary cemented right total knee replacement (TKR) in 2002. He also had a history of chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL), haemolytic anaemia and splenomegaly, and was in partial remission following chemotherapy in 2008. He underwent arthroscopic washout of right TKR on admission. Blood cultures on admission and joint fluid specimen grew Haemophilus influenzae (Hi). The isolate was identified as a non-encapsulated Hi strain by the reference laboratory. Non-encapsulated Hi strains rarely cause invasive disease. CLL with splenomegaly may have predisposed our patient to severe invasive disease. A recently licensed 10-valent pneumococcal vaccine conjugated to the immunogenic outer membrane protein D of Hi could potentially prevent invasive Hi disease. Routine vaccination should be considered in all patients with prosthetic joints and predisposing comorbidities.
Induction of Ferritin Synthesis in Human Lung Epithelial Cells Treated with Crocidolite Asbestos

Crocidolite asbestos is a known human carcinogen containing 27% iron by weight. It has previously been shown that iron was mobilized intracellularly from crocidolite after treatment of human lung epithelial cells (A549) and that the toxicity of the fibers was directly related to how much mobilized iron was in the < 10,000 MW (low-molecular-weight, LMW) fraction [C. C. Chao, L.G. Lund, K. R. Zinn, and A. E. Aust (1994) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 314, 384-391]. The data here show that iron mobilization from crocidolite began immediately after treatment of the A549 cells and increased linearly with time. However, the synthesis of ferritin, an iron storage protein, did not begin until after 4 h of treatment, reaching a sustained maximum after 12 h. Mobilized iron was preferentially incorporated into the nonferritin-protein fraction up to 7 h after treatment, when the amount of iron mobilized was low and before significant accumulation of newly synthesized ferritin had occurred. This suggested that these cultured cells needed additional iron for synthesis of iron-requiring proteins and that iron mobilized from crocidolite could be utilized directly for this purpose. Subsequent to this, additional mobilized iron was incorporated into newly synthesized ferritin. Even though iron from crocidolite was incorporated into newly synthesized ferritin or into other proteins, the amount of iron from crocidolite in the LMW fraction remained constant during the 24 h. Thus, it appeared that synthesis of ferritin may not have fully protected the cells from the toxic effects of iron mobilized from crocidolite.
Methods of Conflict Resolution at the Bedside

(2001). Methods of Conflict Resolution at the Bedside. The American Journal of Bioethics: Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 45-46.
Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models

Previous studies of the so-called frontier production function have not utilized an adequate characterization of the disturbance term for such a model. In this paper we provide an appropriate specification, by defining the disturbance term as the sum of symmetric normal and (negative) half-normal random variables. Various aspects of maximum-likelihood estimation for the coefficients of a production function with an additive disturbance term of this sort are then considered.
All-optical buffering of 40-Gb/s data packets

Ultrafast slotted, time-division-multiplexed (TDM) multiaccess networks will utilize optical buffers at user nodes to hold data packets until they are transmitted and to hold received packets until they are demultiplexed or rate converted. We demonstrate the loading and unloading of a compensating optical fiber loop buffer storing packets of 40-Gb/s data for over 300 circulations.