cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Barley Cbf3 Gene Identification, Expression Pattern, and Map Location

Although cold and drought adaptation in cereals and other plants involve the induction of a large number of genes, inheritance studies in Triticeae (wheat [ Triticum aestivum ], barley [ Hordeum vulgare ], and rye [ Secale cereale ]) have revealed only a few major loci for frost or drought tolerance that are consistent across multiple genetic backgrounds and environments. One might imagine that these loci could encode highly conserved regulatory factors that have global effects on gene expression; therefore, genes encoding central regulators identified in other plants might be orthologs of these Triticeae stress tolerance genes. The CBF/DREB1 regulators, identified originally in Arabidopsis as key components of cold and drought regulation, merit this consideration. We constructed barley cDNA libraries, screened these libraries and a barley bacterial artificial chromosome library using rice ( Oryza sativa ) and barley Cbf probes, found orthologs of Arabidopsis CBF/DREB1 genes, and examined the expression and genetic map location of the barley Cbf3 gene, HvCbf3 . HvCbf3 was induced by a chilling treatment. HvCbf3 is located on barley chromosome 5H between markers WG364b and saflp58 on the barley cv Dicktoo × barley cv Morex genetic linkage map. This position is some 40 to 50 cM proximal to the winter hardiness quantitative trait locus that includes the Vrn-1H gene, but may coincide with the wheat 5A Rcg1 locus, which governs the threshold temperature at which cor genes are induced. From this, it remains possible that HvCbf3 is the basis of a minor quantitative trait locus in some genetic backgrounds, though that possibility remains to be thoroughly explored.
When are Nonlinearities Important at Stall Inception

Recent experimental work has shown that in some compressors, the nonaxisymmetric disturbance leading to loss of stability appears as a localised phenomena, rather than a travelling sine wave which spans the entire circumference, suggesting that nonlinear effects appear very early in the evolution of the disturbance. In a regime dominated by nonlinear effects, the Fourier modes used to describe the spatial structure of non-axisymmetric disturbances, obtained from either experimental data or numerical data produced by a model, can interact very early in the rotating stall inception process. In this paper, we determine which parameters affect the rate of interaction of the various modes in a study of the Moore-Greitzer (MG) model. The relevant parameters are related back to the physics of compressors. Though the stall inception process may well be three-dimensional and involve physics not captured by the quasi two dimensional MG model, this study is of interest to those who wish to detect and control the magnitude of nonaxisymmetric disturbances, in order to decrease the stall margin in a compression system. Any control strategy which depends on eight detecting devices around the annulus of the compressor can resolve only the first three spatial Fourier modes. If disturbances leading to compression system instability develop as spikes, this approach will be completely unsuccessful at detecting the disturbances while they are still small enough to be controlled. The problem is further exacerbated by temporal nonlinearities, that is, the operating point may be linearly stable, but may lose stability to larger disturbances. It is observed in experiments and the Moore-Greitzer model that the compressor loses stability before the throttle is closed past the peak of the performance curve. Both spatial and temporal nonlinearities are discussed.Copyright © 1994 by ASME
A General 4-Port Solution for 110 GHz On-Wafer Transistor Measurements With or Without Impedance Standard Substrate (ISS) Calibration

This paper presents a general 4-port algorithm that can remove on-wafer parasitics from on-wafer measurements after impedance standard substrate (ISS) calibration of system errors, or remove both system errors and on-wafer parasitics in a single step without ISS calibration. On-wafer standards are fabricated on a 0.13 RF CMOS process, and experimental data are measured from 2 to 110 GHz using an HP 8510XF system. The impact of nonideal on-wafer load standards is examined using the deembedded transistor-parameters and the extracted small signal parameters. The errors remaining after the traditional open-short deembedding are numerically evaluated, which become significant above 50 GHz. The solved 4-port network for on-wafer parasitics is indeed reciprocal despite the assumptions of ideal OPEN and SHORT, thus allowing a mathematically simpler reciprocal 4-port solution. The general 4-port solution can also be directly applied to the measured raw S-parameters to remove both system errors and on-wafer parasitics in a single step. Single-step calibration leads to reasonably accurate transistor -parameters, despite the less accurate on-wafer standards compared to precision ISS standards.
The Interplay between the State, the Market, and Culture in Shaping Civil Society: A Case Study of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in South Korea

After the forrnal end of military rule in the late 1980s, a new type of voluntary association commonly called "citizens' organizations" emerged in Korean civil society. Pursuing progressive social change through legal and policy reforms, citizens' organizations became the voice of revived civil society in urban Korea and enjoyed public trust until the mid-2000s, when their influence began to wane. Using in-depth interviews and fieldwork data on the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), one of the most influential citizens' organizations, this paper examines how the specific social meanings of civil society informed the roles that the state and the market played in the rise and relative decline of the PSPD and how class and gender affected individual access to it. This focus on the interplay among culture, the state, and the market enables us to move beyond cultural relativism and liberal universalism concerning the theoretical and empirical debate on civil society.
Principles of X-Ray Energy-Dispersive Spectrometry in the Analytical Electron Microscope

The solid state x-ray detector or energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS) was developed in the late 1960s and rapidly found use on electron-beam instruments (Fitzgerald et al., 1968) because of its speed in collecting and simultaneously displaying x-ray data from a wide energy range. Its small size, but relatively large collection angle (see below), also gives it significant advantages over the traditional crystal or so-called wavelength-dispersive spectrometer (WDS), enabling it to interface easily to an AEM despite the severe space constraints of modern TEM stages. The drawbacks to the conventional EDS are its relatively poor energy resolution (∼150 eV) and its inability to detect x-rays from elements below Na (Z = 11) in the periodic table. These limitations, however, are not major practical handicaps in most analyses, and no modern AEM (since the EMMA series in about 1970) has had a crystal spectrometer interfaced to the column. Hence, we will consider the EDS only.
Functionalized polyaniline-based composite membranes with vastly improved performance for separation of carbon dioxide from methane

Polypropylene supported polyaniline membranes photografted with 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and glycidyl methacrylate to produce hydrophilicity and reactivity and then reacted with diamines to provide basicity, have been prepared and used for the separation of carbon dioxide and methane. After solvation with water, these membranes exhibited a permeability of around 3400 Barrers and a separation factor up to 490. Examination by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy confirmed the absence of undesired cracks and pinholes in these membranes. The primary amine groups were further modified with 2-ethyl-2-thiopseudourea to form guanidine functionalities producing membranes with a notable permeability of 3460 Barrers and a separation factor of 540. The presence of water in these membranes promotes permeation of carbon dioxide via the facilitated transport mechanism in which both the fixed carrier amine moieties and water play the major role.
The representation of economic value in the orbitofrontal cortex is invariant for changes of menu

Economic choice entails assigning values to the available options and is impaired by lesions to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Recent results show that some neurons in the OFC encode the values that monkeys (Macaca mulatta) assign to different goods when they choose between them. A broad and fundamental question is how this neuronal representation of value depends on the behavioral context. Here we show that neuronal responses in the OFC are typically invariant for changes of menu. In other words, the activity of a neuron in response to one particular good usually does not depend on what other goods are available at the same time. Neurons in the OFC encode economic value, not relative preference. The fact that their responses are menu invariant suggests that transitivity, a fundamental trait of economic choice, may be rooted in the activity of individual neurons.
Laboratory Biosecurity: A Survey of the U.S. Bioscience Community

Laboratory biosecurity practices, or measures to prevent the theft or sabotage of biological research materials, must coexist with biosafety. Within the United States, laboratory biosecurity, for a list of select agents, has been regulated through several Codes of Federal Regulation. In 2004 and 2005, Sandia National Laboratories conducted a survey of the U.S. bioscience community in conjunction with Reed Research Group, to assess the extent biosecurity is implemented in laboratories and the relationship between biosecurity and biosafety and good laboratory practices in regulated select and non-select agent laboratories. This paper describes the results of this survey.
Treating the instabilities in marching-on-in-time method from a different perspective (electromagnetic scattering)

A general method is presented to treat the instabilities which are frequently observed in the electromagnetic transient solutions using the marching-on-in-time method. The basic idea is to apply an finite impulse response (FIR) filter with a constant group delay during the course of marching-in-time. An electric field integral equation (EFIE) formulation for perfectly conducting bodies is used as a vessel to demonstrate the method. Sample numerical results are presented and discussed. The computed results, while showing good agreement with the data obtained from other methods, present great stability improvement. >
Concentrations and mass loadings of cardiovascular pharmaceuticals in healthcare facility wastewaters.

Healthcare facilities are an under-characterized source of pharmaceuticals to municipal wastewaters. In this study, the composition and magnitude of sixteen cardiovascular active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and two cardiovascular API metabolites in wastewater effluents from a hospital, nursing care, assisted living, and independent living facility are presented. Each cardiovascular API was detected in at least one facility's wastewater. The hospital's wastewater had the most detected cardiovascular APIs with thirteen of the eighteen measured compounds positively confirmed and quantified. Maximum mean analyte concentrations within each healthcare facility's wastewater were: 11.3 µg L−1 atenolol for the independent living facility; 8.7 µg L−1 valsartan for the assisted living facility; 2.7 µg L−1 diltiazem for the nursing home facility; and 14.6 µg L−1 valsartan for hospital facility. Daily wastewater flow was combined with individual concentrations to estimate the cardiovascular API mass loadings leaving each facility through wastewater discharges to the municipal sewer system. The estimated daily mass loading of all measured cardiovascular APIs ranged from 0.87 g per day at the assisted living facility to 12.5 g per day at the hospital. The combined loading for all four facilities was 16.2 g per day. This presented research informs the risk management process by providing source characterization data for healthcare facility wastewaters containing commonly prescribed cardiovascular APIs.
Conditional Random Fields via Univariate Exponential Families

Conditional random fields, which model the distribution of a multivariate response conditioned on a set of covariates using undirected graphs, are widely used in a variety of multivariate prediction applications. Popular instances of this class of models, such as categorical-discrete CRFs, Ising CRFs, and conditional Gaussian based CRFs, are not well suited to the varied types of response variables in many applications, including count-valued responses. We thus introduce a novel subclass of CRFs, derived by imposing node-wise conditional distributions of response variables conditioned on the rest of the responses and the covariates as arising from univariate exponential families. This allows us to derive novel multivariate CRFs given any univariate exponential distribution, including the Poisson, negative binomial, and exponential distributions. Also in particular, it addresses the common CRF problem of specifying "feature" functions determining the interactions between response variables and covariates. We develop a class of tractable penalized M-estimators to learn these CRF distributions from data, as well as a unified sparsistency analysis for this general class of CRFs showing exact structure recovery can be achieved with high probability.
Triggering jitter of a gas switch at high voltage and low laser energy

Laser triggered gas switch experiments have been completed to determine the effect of laser parameters and laser targets on runtime and jitter. A New Wave Tempest 10, Nd:YAG laser capable of output at 266 nm, 532 nm, or 1064 nm was used to trigger the switch. The switch was pulsed charged with the Tiger pulsed power machine consisting of a 32 capacitor Marx bank and a 7 nF intermediate storage capacitor.
Postnatal development of the eustachian tube glands.

Objective: To delineate a possible difference in the function of the eustachian tube (ET) between infants and adults. Study Design: Morphometric and histopathological examination on the human temporal bones. Methods: The secretory glands in the ET were studied in serial histological sections through the cartilaginous portion of the human ET obtained from 32 individuals whose ages ranged from 1 day to 19 years. Of these, 26 were normal control cases and 6 were cases with otitis media (OM). Results: In both normal and OM groups, the distribution of the glands was predominantly in the medial side of the cartilaginous portion of the ET, and the volume of the ET glands was directly related to both the volume of the ET lumen and the patients' age. In normal cases, the relative proportion of the three types of acinar cells (mucous, serous, and mixed) varied among the different age groups. The cases in patients under 1 month of age had more mucous glands and fewer serous glands. In cases of the 1-month-old to 7-year-old age group, the three ET gland cell types came to be approximately equal. Relative proportion of the serous glands continuously increased with aging, and in cases of patients older than 7 years of age, serous glands were predominant over the other two components. Conclusion: It is assumed that the greater proportion of mucous glands and insufficient serous glands by 7 years of age reflects immature development, which may be one of the associated factors contributing to recurrent OM among infants.
A Generalized Three Species Model for Shape Memory Alloys

In this work, an existing three-species model for describing Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) behavior is generalized to incorporate more relevant effects like asymmetric hysteresis, two-way memory and different forms of hardening. Using the notion of multiple yield surfaces for describing different transformation paths within the existing thermodynamic framework, necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for describing phase transformation. A few case studies are provided to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed generalized model.
Microprocessor-based analysis of sympathetic nerve traffic

Two systems based on microcomputers with analog-to-digital (A/D) converters were developed to measure sympathetic nerve activity. The first utilized a relatively inexpensive computer and A/D converter and an analog technique to count nerve traffic "spikes" above a reference voltage. The second system, which required a more expensive microcomputer and A/D converter, used digital methods exclusively to count spikes and integrate nerve activity. These systems produced accurate and reliable indexes of nerve traffic. The digital system could also be used to store the nerve signal to magnetic disk, thereby allowing the later use of more complex analytical procedures and the possibility of comparing the results of different analyses performed upon a single data set.
c-myc enhances the cytotoxicity of small molecule activators of p53

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005 2805 Historically, cancer treatments have employed agents that act in relatively non-specific ways to reduce tumor size and burden. However, the non-specificity often leads to toxicity in normal tissues, which can have serious side effects in patients undergoing treatment. Many human cancers bear discrete molecular hallmarks that provide information regarding their etiology and may also present a target for chemotherapeutic intervention. The understanding of genetic and biochemical alterations leading to carcinogenesis allows rational design of drugs with maximal efficacy in tumors and minimal side effects in normal cells. Knowledge of tumor genotype may allow individuals to be treated with specifically tailored chemotherapeutics. The c-myc oncogene is implicated in the initiation or progression of over one third of human cancers. Activation of c-myc can induce proliferation or apoptosis in a context-dependent setting; consequently, cells defective for the activation of apoptosis are selected for during c-myc-induced tumorigenesis. The tumor suppressor p53, an inducer of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, is a critical block to c-myc-induced tumorigenesis in many mouse models. This is supported by data showing that p53, or its positive regulator p19Arf, are mutated or deleted respectively in murine tumors that overexpress c-myc. The p53 pathway can also be attenuated without genetic alterations in arf or p53 itself, due to overexpression of the p53 negative regulator, mdm2. Arf loss or mdm2 overexpression are also observed in human cancers that retain wild type p53. These same tumors often express high levels of c-myc. The ability to re-activate the tumor suppressor function of wild type p53 in such tumors could improve current cancer treatments and lead to development of novel chemotherapeutic agents. Activation of myc can lead to increased p53 activity via enhanced p53 mRNA transcription, or by upregulation of arf and subsequent inhibition of mdm2. We investigated the stabilization of p53 and its transcriptional activity following activation of c-myc in human fibroblasts. Our principal findings are that stabilization of p53 by c-myc does not require induction of DNA damage, upregulation of p14Arf, p53 mRNA transcription or relocalization of mdm2 as previously suggested. We also find that p53 transcriptional activation following treatment with the chemotherapeutic drug actinomycinD (ActD) is enhanced in cells with activated c-myc. Furthermore, the ability of the small molecule inhibitor of mdm2, Nutlin, to stimulate p53 transcriptional activation is also enhanced by c-myc. The co-operation between c-myc and both ActD and Nutlin leads to enhanced cytotoxicity in fibroblasts that did not require p14Arf. Together these data suggest that reactivation of the p53 pathway may be particularly effective in tumors that overexpress c-myc.
Non-Allergic Rhinitis

A 23 year-old female college student presents to her primary care clinic complaining of persistent runny nose and nasal congestion for more than 10 months a year over the past several years. She does not remember exactly when her symptoms began, and states that they occur daily regardless of her location or the time of day. She denies any fever, chills, mucopurulent drainage, cough, dyspnea, headache, ocular or nasal pruritis, or ocular symptoms. Past medical history shows no evidence of allergies, asthma, recurrent upper respiratory tract infections, chronic sinusitis, nasal or head trauma, or nasal surgery or trauma. She takes no medications except an occasional acetaminophen for headache when studying for several hours. She works as a part-time legal aid in an office building downtown. Family history and review of systems are unremarkable. Physical exam shows enlarged nasal turbinates, clear nasal discharge, moist and clear oropharynx with no erythema or exudates, clear tympanic membranes, no tenderness to palpation over the maxillary and frontal sinuses, and no cervical lymphadenopathy.
Sensitivity and Resistance of the Myocardium to the Toxicity of Isoproterenol in Rats

The toxicity of a chemical is not a colligative property of a substance; it is a function of the susceptibility of the organism upon which the chemical acts. The susceptibility is determined by the physiological state of the organism, as illustrated by the cardiotoxicity of isoproterenol.
An Urban Bird Community in Tucson, Arizona: Derivation, Structure, Regulation

Urban and suburban environments, commonly shunned by field ornithologists, provide a special opportunity for studying the formation and regulatory dynamics of avian communities, especially in recently developed areas such as the American West. The establishment of cities may be regarded as ecological experiments in which a relatively simple array of novel features and resources (lawns, ornamentals, buildings, telephone lines, traffic, etc.) are rather suddenly introduced into a restricted area from which many of the natural features have been removed. The new synthetic habitats lie open to invasion and colonization by any birds that can reach them, utilize their peculiar constellation of resources, and survive their special hazards. The structure and balance of the new community will reflect not only the nature of these local resources and features but also the interactions
Causes, Predictions and Decisions

Ginet has shown, to my satisfaction, that (3) is false. In defending the inference from (1) to (3) he appeals to an intermediate step (2): he briefly attempts to establish that if (1) is true, then (2) is true. It is essential to his argument that he establish this, for it does not at all follow from (1) alone that it is possible that I can know my own decision in advance; this conclusion does.follow, however, from (2). In this note I shall argue that (2) does not follow from (1) and moreover, that (2) is false. If this argument is sound, then premiss (B), the inference from (1) to (3), is false and Ginet's argument fails to prove that the will cannot be caused. But first some preliminaries. I will take 'know' in 'causal knowledge of the future' to be much like the ordinary strong sense of 'know': If it is true that someone has causal knowledge that the sun will rise tomorrow, then it must be the case that (1) he predicts this event with confidence, (2) on the basis of good evidence, and that (3) his prediction comes true. We must distinguish between predictions based on only some of the relevant causes, and which luckily may come true, and causal knowledge of the future, which is based on what one knows to be all the relevant causes. We often predict the likelihood or probability of our own future decisions, but this is vastly different from knowing our own decisions in advance.
Regulation of intracellular pH in two cell populations of inner stripe of rabbit outer medullary collecting duct.

The inner stripe of the outer medullary collecting duct (OMCDis) is a major site of HCO3- reabsorption and urinary acidification. Whether this nephron segment consists of a single or multiple cell ...
Purification of Plasmodium sporozoites enhances parasite-specific CD8+ T cell responses

Malaria infection caused by Plasmodium parasites continues to cause enormous morbidity and mortality in areas where it is endemic, and there is no licensed vaccine capable of inducing sterile protection. Hyperimmunization with attenuated whole sporozoites can induce sterile protective immune responses targeting preerythrocytic antigens. Most animal models of hyperimmunization rely on sporozoites dissected from mosquito salivary glands and injected without further purification. In BALB/c mice, repeated small doses of P. yoelii sporozoites progressively expand the population of sporozoite-specific CD8(+) T cells. In this study, large secondary doses of unpurified sporozoites unexpectedly led to contraction of sporozoite-specific CD8(+) T cell responses in sporozoite-primed mice. While sporozoite-primed CD8(+) T cells alternatively can be expanded by secondary exposure to Listeria monocytogenes expressing recombinant Plasmodium antigens, such expansion was potently inhibited by coinjection of large doses of unpurified sporozoites and by uninfected salivary glands alone. Purification of sporozoites away from mosquito salivary gland debris by density gradient centrifugation eliminated salivary gland-associated inhibition. Thus, the inhibitory effect appears to be due to exposure to uninfected mosquito salivary glands rather than sporozoites. To further assess the effect of salivary gland exposure on later sporozoite vaccinations, mice were immunized with uninfected salivary glands from a single mosquito. Compared to naive mice, salivary gland presensitization reduced subsequent liver burdens by 71%. These data show that a component(s) in mosquito salivary glands reduces liver infection, thereby limiting antigen dose and contributing to lower-magnitude T cell responses. These findings suggest that sporozoite immunogenicity studies be performed using purified sporozoites whenever feasible.
Sleep and aging in animals. Relationships with circadian rhythms and memory.

Aged animals exhibit a variety of changes in sleep and circadian rhythms. Recent studies have helped clarify the nature of these changes, and they suggest parallels to human age-related changes in sleep. Selective sleep parameters in old animals may be related to aspects of physiologic and cognitive function.
Revisiting Clinical Stallion Sexual Behavior: Applying Ethology in the Breeding Shed

Abstract An understanding of basic ethology and applied animal behavior science concepts can provide valuable insight into the most of the common breeding behavior problems of domestically managed stallions. Based on that insight, recommendations can be made for resolving or more efficiently managing those problems. The shy or intimidated breeder is presented as one example illustrating this approach. For many such stallions their behavior appears to reflect the key behavioral characteristics common among open-plains grazing prey species. For a subset, elements of their behavior with a mare can be recognized as the alternate male breeding strategy of sneak breeding. With this understanding, science-based management and handling changes can be made to reduce inhibition, build confidence and motivation, as well as promote specific natural male-female interactive behavior sequences that will enhance sexual arousal and response.
Genomic approaches to bone and joint diseases. Statistics in genetic epidemiology

There is a tremendous amount of study on common diseases or complex diseases to detect multiple genes and environmental factors or interactive effects to play a role in the development of those diseases. Genetic Epidemiology is a field of research, which focuses on the role of genetic factors and their interaction with environmental factors in the occurrence of disease in human populations. In this article, I overviewed the basics of probability theory and statistical inference based on likelihood function that we need in genetic study.
The Politicization of the Death Penalty after Independence

With Africa’s independence from colonial rule, the promise of the new constitutional orders faded as military coups, one-party states, and socialist regimes eroded the political legitimacy of the new countries. The death penalty became a political weapon to be used against people believed to be threats to the regime, isolating and intimidating opponents and cementing the power of the president. The economic austerity caused by Africa’s debt crisis and the atrocities committed by murderous regimes made the operation of capital punishment lawless. The three most egregious capital trials, of independence-era politician Orton Chirwa in Malawi, human rights attorney Koigi wa Wamwere in Kenya, and environmental justice advocate Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria, triggered serious international protest and isolated the ruling governments.
The Threat and Response to Infectious Diseases (Revised)

The threat from microorganisms is complex, and the approaches for reducing the challenges the world is facing are also multifaceted, but a combination approach including several simple steps can make a difference and reduce morbidity and mortality and the economic cost of fighting infectious diseases. This paper discusses the continually evolving infectious disease landscape, contributing factors in the rise of the threat, reasons for optimism, and the policies, technologies, actions, and institutions that might be harnessed to further reduce the dangers introduced by pathogens. It builds upon and updates the work of other authors that have recognized the dangers of emerging and re-emerging pathogens and have explored and documented potential solutions.
Towards a visible light network architecture for continuous communication and localization

Visible light communication (VLC) technology piggybacks on legacy illumination infrastructure, and creates a communication channel by modulating LEDs' light emission patterns. Existing VLC research mostly focused on improving single link communication capacity, or localizing a single static handset equipped with light sensors. In this paper, we advance this technology to the next layer, and propose an integrated visible light network (VLN) architecture that aims to realize continuous communication coverage and location tracking for indoor mobile devices. Our VLN architecture uses a powerline backbone together with a backend server to centrally control and coordinate ceiling-mounted LED access points (APs). The LED APs are dynamically clustered depending on the client location, and tightly synchronize and cooperate with each other, in order to enhance link quality and spatial diversity, thus smoothing the client's transition between cells and alleviating the impact of device motion, body shadowing, etc.. We have proto-typed the VLN architecture using customized hardware platform and an entire software-defined network stack. Preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of the VLN concept, and potential of the architectural design.
Abstract A065: Oscillatory genes in lymphocyte retention and egress

The adaptive immune system attacks cancer cells by initiating immune responses in lymphoid organs and egressing of activated effector cells into circulation to reach the tumor. Several G protein-coupled receptors have been reported to recruit lymphocytes to the lymphoid organ or to promote exit. However, how these signals crosstalk to ensure efficient lymphocyte recruitment and transit is not well understood. To further define how cell transit through the lymphoid tissue is controlled, we designed two parallel RNAseq to identify novel regulators for lymphocyte transit. We compared the transcriptome of naive B cells from the blood and peripheral lymph node. Also, by utilizing photoconvertible proteins, we isolated naive B cells that newly enter the lymphoid organ and those that have been dwelling for several hours. We identified multiple genes whose transcript levels were correlated with lymphoid dwelling time. One of the genes, KLF11, encoding a transcription factor, is expressed more highly in the blood than in the lymph node, and the expression decreases with the dwelling time in the lymphoid organ. Analysis of the KLF11 knock-out mouse identified strong lymphocyte transit and developmental defects, but we found the strong phenotypes segregated independently of the KLF11 knock-out allele. The phenotypes were the result of a mutated DOCK2 allele in the commercial B6 background. We have now generated a KLF11 knock-out with wildtype DOCK2. The progress of characterizing the function of KLF11 in lymphocyte recruitment and egress will be reported. Citation Format: Hsin Chen, Timothy Schmidt, Ying Xu, Erick Lu, Jason G. Cyster. Oscillatory genes in lymphocyte retention and egress [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A065.
Do School Facilities Matter?: The Case of the Peruvian Social Fund (Foncodes)

Can provider payment mechanisms solve some of the key problems in developing countries' health care systems by "getting the incentives right?" Perhaps. Reforms in developing countries' health care systems often focus on "getting the incentives right." They aim to use provider payments to optimize the use of scarce resources, transform clinical practice, and improve the quality of care. Gauri examines the extent to which provider payment mechanisms can achieve those objectives in developing countries. Because of data limitations, selection effects, and numerous confounding variables, a body of convincing empirical research on the effects of different payment mechanisms on provider behavior in developing countries is at least several years away. For that reason Gauri has written this paper in the spirit of an essay - an effort to glean practical knowledge from the partial theoretical and empirical findings that are available. He identifies four key problems in the health care systems of developing countries. First, public facilities, which provide most secondary and tertiary health care in most countries, offer poor-quality services. Second, providers cannot be enticed to rural and urban marginal areas, leaving large segments of the population without adequate access to health care. Third, the composition of health services offered and consumed is suboptimal. And fourth, coordination in the delivery of care -including referrals, second opinions, and teamwork - is inadequate. Gauri assesses the extent to which changes in provider payments might address each of these problems. He concludes that identifying the best policy instruments for addressing these problems requires further research. But on the basis of existing research, he recommends the following:  Experiments and pilot projects for improving public hospitals should focus on mission clarity and organizational simplification.  Programs for improving the composition of utilization should experiment with payments to consumers and with medical and nursing training.  Initiatives for attracting providers to rural areas should use explicit deferred compensation contracts to improve monitoring.  More research should be done on developing mechanisms for increasing medically indicated professional referrals. This paper - a product of Public Service Delivery, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to examine incentives for service delivery. The author may be contacted at vgauri@worldbank.org.
Adaptive initial beam search for sparse millimeter wave channels

Narrow beamforming solutions for millimeter wave cellular networks require mobile and base stations to exhaustively search all angular space. This scanning is mandatory in order to detect the unique optimum beamforming and combining vectors prior to control and data signaling. However exhaustive search yields large computational complexity and increases beam discovery time and control plane latency. Hence this paper presents some novel adaptive search algorithms to accelerate initial beam acquisition in sparse millimeter wave channels in non-line of sight environments. Namely the beam search is formulated as an optimization problem, and fast search procedures are presented based upon Luus Jaakola, divide and conquer, and Tabu direct pattern methods. The proposed algorithms deliver significant performance improvements versus existing beam search solutions, i.e., 25–99%.
Organization Change in a University Hospital: A Six Year Evaluation Report of the HORIZONS Project

Many health care organizations are currently engaged in changing the design of their health care services delivery system. The issues of cost containment, quality, and access are prominent. This paper reports on the impact of the implementation of a new organization design at one university hospital. The organization change effort (named HORIZONS) was a five year project funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. In a changing health care environment, the project was undertaken with three goals in mind: (1) to maintain and enhance quality of patient care; (2) to improve the quality of working life; and (3) to accomplish this in a budget neutral manner. Initiated as a program to strengthen hospital nursing, the project became a patient-focused redesign effort encompassing both clinical and administrative affairs. The core ideas of the project approach included systems thinking, interactive planning and idealized design. This evaluation reports on the project's progress after six years.
Teilhard de Chardin’s oeuvre within an ongoing discussion of a gene drive release for public health reasons

Within the domain of public health, vector-borne diseases are among the most vehemently discussed issues. Recent scientific breakthroughs in genome editing technology provided a solution to this issue in the form of a gene drive that might decrease and even eradicate vector-borne diseases. Gene drives are engineered, and designed genes that can break typical inheritance rules and be passed to almost all of the carrier’s offspring. This genome editing and gene drive technology has become a powerful tool for ecological and environmental engineering, through which man can manipulate his surroundings, adjusting it to himself and directly mastering evolution and the ecosystem. Although the gene drive technology has been perceived as promising in the public health domain, ecological implications of its use are not to be underestimated. The primary aim of this paper is to overcome the ongoing discussion which mostly focuses on whether priority should be given to the environment or to public health, and to find an adequate answer and solution. In this quest to find the proper answer and solution, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s thought might be useful, especially his concepts of the biosphere and the noosphere which may provide some clarifications as to why we are at the moment so cautious with gene drive technology and how we need to move towards a better common future on earth.
A case of giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica misdiagnosed as temporomandibular dysfunction

Abstract We report the case of a 83-year-old man who presented with bilateral scalp ulcerations, temporomandibular joint pain, anorexia, and generalized discomfort. The aspecific presentation and timing of the symptoms led to a referral delay of 117 days. A temporal artery biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA). FDG-PET showed increased uptake at the large vessels, shoulders, and hips, suggesting concomitant polymyalgia rheumatica. Initiation of methylprednisolone resulted in resolution of the muscle-related complaints and healing of the ulcerations. This report highlights the importance of prompt diagnosis and the rarity of bilateral scalp necrosis in GCA, with an incidence of
Enhancing the Efficiency of Cross-cylinder Astigmatism Testing

The crossed cylinder was introduced by Stokes in 1849 and popularized three quarters of a century later by EDWARD JACKSON [1]. The crossed cylinder is most often used to refine axis and power of a presumptive cylinder determined by some method such as retinoscopy, and the testing involves the use of forced choice. Sensitivity is enhanced when differences in blur for paired stimuli are maximized for a given amount of error. Fogging is avoided since small amounts of accommodation are inconsequential and because the presence of any baseline blur diminishes contrast between paired presentations. Intentional overcorrection of the presumptive cylinder should be avoided [2,3].
Selection of Priority Natural Products for Evaluation as Potential Precipitants of Natural Product-Drug Interactions: A NaPDI Center Recommended Approach.

Pharmacokinetic interactions between natural products (NPs) and conventional medications (prescription and non-prescription) are a longstanding but understudied problem in contemporary pharmacotherapy. Consequently, there are no established methods for selecting and prioritizing commercially available NPs to evaluate as precipitants of NP-drug interactions (NPDIs). As such, NPDI discovery remains largely a retrospective, bedside-to-bench process. This Recommended Approach, developed by the Center of Excellence for Natural Product Drug Interaction Research (NaPDI Center), describes a systematic method for selecting NPs to evaluate as precipitants of potential clinically significant pharmacokinetic NPDIs. Guided information-gathering tools were used to score, rank, and triage NPs from an initial list of 47 candidates. Triaging was based on the presence and/or absence of an NPDI identified in a clinical study (≥20% or
Principles of Radiation Therapy

Radioactivity was first described by Henri Becquerel and Pierre and Marie Curie in the late 1890s. Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays in 1895, and subsequent physics and biology research revealed the therapeutic properties of radiation. X-rays were first used to treat cancer in 1897. Soon after, the concept of brachytherapy was developed when radium was implanted into tumors for therapeutic effect. Low-voltage x-ray machines were built in the 1920s for the external treatment of superficial tumors. External beam radiation therapy was further refined in 1953 with the development of linear accelerators (linacs) that could produce megavoltage electron and x-ray photon beams using pulsed microwaves and an electron gun. Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), stereotactic radiosurgery, and charged particle therapy focus therapeutic dose while minimizing damage to surrounding normal structures. In this chapter we will review the basic principles of radiation therapy and its application as the definitive, adjuvant, salvage, and palliative management of a variety of ophthalmic cancers.
The Use of Bone Allograft Transplants in the Management of Bone Tumors

The use of allograft skeletal parts in the management of patients with segmental bone loss as a result of tumor or trauma, has been a procedure of considerable interest to a number of investigators.(18,19,29,30,31,39) In consideration of the theoretical immunological issues and the known high complication rate (22,38), allografting ought to be considered as, perhaps, a less than optimal solution for the patient with massive bone loss. Despite these problems, however, the system has become an increasingly popular method of dealing with major skeletal defects as created by trauma or resection for musculoskeletal tumors. Furthermore, in recent years, allografting has become an important part of the armamentarium of the total joint surgeon who finds the technique useful in the treatment of loss of bone stock as a result of failure of metallic devices. Part of the explanation of this seeming paradox requires that one review the current alternatives available for the treatment of major skeletal loss.
Knowledge evaluation: Other evaluations: minimum description length

This article describes the MDL principle that selects the model minimizing the total number of bits needed to encode the model and the data given the model. The article also explores the connection of the MDL principle to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) hypothesis and the Occam's razor principle. Finally, it describes how the MDL principle is applied to the decision tree pruning problem.
230Th dating of coral abraders from stratified deposits at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, Cook Islands: Implications for building precise chronologies in Polynesia

Abstract Polynesian archaeology has relied primarily on 14C dating to establish the timing and tempo of human colonization of the eastern Pacific, ensuing cultural development, and human-environmental interactions. Despite advancements in 14C dating including accelerator mass spectrometry, selection of short-lived plant remains to avoid in-built age, and the use of Bayesian models to refine 14C-based chronologies, large uncertainties introduced during calibration to calendar ages can severely limit the resolution of 14C dates in this context. 230Th dating of coral abraders, a common artifact in many Polynesian archaeological sequences, can potentially provide much more precise dates. We report 25 230Th dates for Acropora and Porites coral abraders from a well-studied, stratified archaeological sequence at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia (site MAN-44, Cook Islands), develop screening criteria to identify reliable 230Th dates from buried contexts, and compare the results with a recent Bayesian 14C chronology for the site. Visual characteristics (gray color, microcrystalline sugary texture) can aid identifying altered corals before analysis but are non-diagnostic of the suitability of samples for dating. Some corals that were fully remineralized to calcite preserved suitable U and Th isotopic compositions and produced ages in agreement with 14C and pristine aragonitic coral 230Th dates, suggesting that unlike subaerially exposed corals, buried corals may be susceptible to mineral alteration without perturbing the U-series isotopic systematics, possibly due to burial under reducing conditions. In general, corals with reliable 230Th dates preserve initial (234U/238U) ratios in equilibrium with seawater and have (230Th/232Th) ratios > 10. Reliable dates at MAN-44 cluster within layers, preserve stratigraphic order, and agree with the previous 14C chronology. Precise 230Th dates (median ± 7.4 yr, all errors 2σ) from coral abraders support early Polynesian arrival on Mangaia (by 1011.6 ± 5.8 CE) and the arrival of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) no later than 1361–1466 CE, indicating that trans-Pacific voyaging had introduced this South American native plant to the Cook Islands by the mid-15th century. With suitable samples, 230Th dating of corals from stratified sequences has great potential for developing refined chronologies for Polynesian and other Pacific archaeological sites.