cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hyperconservation of the putative antigen recognition site of the MHC class I-b molecule TL in the subfamily Murinae: evidence that thymus leukemia antigen is an ancient mammalian gene.

“Classical” MHC class I (I-a) genes are extraordinarily polymorphic, but “nonclassical” MHC class I (I-b) genes are monomorphic or oligomorphic. Although diversifying (positive) Darwinian selection is thought to explain the origin and maintenance of MHC class I-a polymorphisms, genetic mechanisms underlying MHC class I-b evolution are uncertain. In one extreme model, MHC class I-b loci are derived by gene duplication from MHC class I-a alleles but rapidly drift into functional obsolescence and are eventually deleted. In this model, extant MHC class I-b genes are relatively young, tend to be dysfunctional or pseudogenic, and orthologies are restricted to close taxa. An alternative model proposed that the mouse MHC class I-b gene thymus leukemia Ag ( TL ) arose ∼100 million years ago, near the time of the mammalian radiation. To determine the mode of evolution of TL , we cloned TL from genomic DNA of 11 species of subfamily Murinae. Every sample we tested contained TL , suggesting this molecule has been maintained throughout murine evolution. The sequence similarity of TL orthologs ranged from 85–99% and was inversely proportional to taxonomic distance. The sequences showed high conservation throughout the entire extracellular domains with exceptional conservation in the putative Ag recognition site. Our results strengthen the hypotheses that TL has evolved a specialized function and represents an ancient MHC class I-b gene.
A stable, radioactive substrate emulsion for assay of lipoprotein lipase.

A method is described for the assay of lipoprotein lipase, using a stable, radioactive substrate emulsion. Fatty acid-labeled trioleoylglycerol was emulsified by homogenization in glycerol with lecithin as detergent. This anhydrous emulsion was stable for at least six weeks. Substrate solutions for enzyme assay were prepared by diluting the emulsion with buffer containing serum and albumin. The fatty acid produced on hydrolysis was isolated in a one-step liquid-liquid partition system. Incubations with extracts of acetone powders from adipose tissue displayed characteristics of lipoprotein lipase activity, i.e., serum dependence and inhibition by NaCl and protamine. The method is rapid (less than 1 hour), sensitive and reproducible, and suitable for routine use.
Observed climate change hotspots

We quantify climate change hotspots from observations, taking into account the differences in precipitation and temperature statistics (mean, variability, and extremes) between 1981–2010 and 1951–1980. Areas in the Amazon, the Sahel, tropical West Africa, Indonesia, and central eastern Asia emerge as primary observed hotspots. The main contributing factors are the global increase in mean temperatures, the intensification of extreme hot-season occurrence in low-latitude regions and the decrease of precipitation over central Africa. Temperature and precipitation variability have been substantially stable over the past decades, with only a few areas showing significant changes against the background climate variability. The regions identified from the observations are remarkably similar to those defined from projections of global climate models under a “business-as-usual” scenario, indicating that climate change hotspots are robust and persistent over time. These results provide a useful background to develop global policy decisions on adaptation and mitigation priorities over near-time horizons.
The Evolution of Transcranial Laser Therapy for Acute Ischemic Stroke, Including a Pooled Analysis of NEST-1 and NEST-2

Intravenous tissue plasminogen activator is the only proven therapy for acute ischemic stroke. Not enough patients are eligible for treatment and additional new therapies are needed. Recently, laser technology has been applied to acute ischemic stroke. This noninvasive technique uses near-infrared wavelengths applied to the scalp within 24 h of symptom onset. The mechanism is incompletely understood but may involve increased mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate production. Animal models demonstrated safety and efficacy warranting randomized controlled trials in humans. NEST-1 (phase 2) and NEST-2 (phase 3) confirmed the safety of transcranial laser therapy, although efficacy was not found in NEST-2. Pooled analysis of NEST-1 and NEST-2 revealed a significantly improved success rate in patients treated with laser therapy. Further phase 3 testing is planned and may create a new paradigm for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke.
Male and Female in New Guinea

Marilyn Strathem. The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. xv. 422 pp. $40 (cloth).
Toxicology and biochemistry of butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene

Butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene are used extensively as food antioxidants. It is estimated that man consumes ca. 0.1 mg/kg body wt daily of these antioxidants. At levels 500 times this level (50 mg/kg/day), both butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene appear to be free of any obviously injurious effects. However, at larger doses (500 mg/kg/day), both butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene result in certain pathological, enzyme, and lipid alterations in both rodents and monkeys, and butylated hydroxytoluene, in some cases, has been reported to have certain teratogenic and carcinogenic effects upon rodents. These alterations appear to differ markedly between rodents and monkeys, apparently as a result of differences which exist in the metabolism and excretion of butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene by these two species. However, in both animal species, the alterations appear to be physiological responses which are reversible upon removal of butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene from the diet. Long term chronic ingestion of butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene may be beneficial in sparing vitamin E and in modifying the acute toxicity of a number of mutagenic and carcinogenic chemicals.
Nuclear Strategies of Emerging Nuclear Powers: North Korea and Iran

What if nuclear aspirants get the bomb? How likely are they to use it? Which nuclear strategies might emerging nuclear powers adopt? These may seem like academic questions, but they are loaded with...
Direction-of-arrival estimation under sensor location uncertainty

The effect of modeling errors on the sensor output signals is analyzed and the distribution of the residual errors in the presence and absence of modeling errors is determined. Both conditional and unconditional models for source amplitudes currently in use are referred to. A new test for determining an aberrant sensor is introduced. Finally, it is incorporated in an iterative procedure where each iteration consists of a step of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation followed by a test for the presence of any aberrant sensors. The estimates of DOAs obtained through this iterative scheme are compared with those of other currently available algorithms. >
Film deposition on particles trapped in the sheath of reactive dusty plasma: effect of size distribution

We report our results on a radio-frequency plasma reactor used for thin-film deposition on particles. Deposition experiments in a reactive dusty plasma seeded with a bimodal distribution of seeds reveal that the mean film thickness is proportional to the deposition time. However, the deposition rate is not uniform for all particles. The distribution of deposition rates is obtained from measurements of the size distribution of the deposited films. The results show that the deposition rate exhibits a wide, approximately exponential distribution, which is attributed to spatial nonuniformities and gradients in the space between the electrodes. The conformity of the deposited films onto the surface of spherical seed particles is studied as a function of time. We find that the sphericity of the deposited film is generally good although deposition on the smallest seeds of this study (0.115 /spl mu/m in radius) show a higher incidence of nonspherical coatings.
Eigenparameter Dependent Inverse Sturm-Liouville Problems

Abstract Uniqueness of and numerical techniques for the inverse Sturm-Liouville problem with eigenparameter dependent boundary conditions will be discussed. We will use a Gel'fand-Levitan technique to show that the potential q in can be uniquely determined using spectral data. In the presence of finite spectral data, q can be reconstructed using a successive approximation method that involves solving a hyperbolic boundary value problem that arises in the the Gel'fand-Levitan analysis. We also consider a shooting method where the right endpoint boundary condition is used in conjunction with a quasi-Newton scheme to recover the unknown potential, q.
Self-Esteem Scores Among Deaf College Students: An Examination of Gender and Parents' Hearing Status and Signing Ability

Overall, research studies of self-esteem and deafness yield inconsistent findings. Some studies indicate a higher incidence of low self-esteem among deaf individuals than among hearing individuals (Bat-Chava, 1994; Mulcahy, 1998; Schlesinger, 2000). Other findings suggest that one must examine this complex phenomenon more closely to understand how deafness influences self-concept and self-esteem (Bat-Chava, 2000; Emerton, 1998; Foster, 1998; Munoz-Baell & Ruiz, 2000; Stone, 1998). This study asked whether self-esteem scores are significantly different among deaf college students compared across groups based on gender and parents' hearing status and signing ability. The construct of self-esteem was measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, administered using an American Sign Language-translated videotape. Results revealed that gender, age, and the interaction of parent by gender were nonsignificant. However, respondents who had at least one deaf parent and signed scored significantly higher than those with hearing parents who could not sign and those with hearing parents who could sign. Overall, self-esteem scores for all respondents were high. Implications for further study are discussed.
Amelioration of lytic abnormalities of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria with decay-accelerating factor

Abstract Purified decay-accelerating factor (DAF), from the stroma of normal human erythrocytes, was incorporated into the membranes of erythrocytes of patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), and its effect on the complement sensitivity of the cells was investigated. Reconstitution with exogenous DAF restored the ability of the affected PNH cells to resist assembly of the homologous C3 convertase, C4b2a, on their surfaces, and decreased the susceptibility of the cells to lysis in acidified serum. Conversely, treatment of normal erythrocytes with monoclonal or polyclonal anti-DAF antibodies abrogated the capacity of the normal cells to circumvent C4b2a assembly and rendered the cells sensitive to acid lysis. These findings show that the previously reported association of DAF deficiency with PNH is causally related to the lytic abnormalities of the cells and clarify the molecular basis for restriction of autologous convertase formation on normal human erythrocytes.
Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of a Truss Braced Wing Aircraft with Upgraded Aerodynamic Analyses

This paper presents upgraded aerodynamic analyses tools for the multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of truss-braced wing (TBW) transonic transport aircraft. The first upgrade focuses on determining the spanloads for minimum drag cruise condition that is robust enough to handle complex truss arrangements such as the 3-jury TBW configuration. The second upgrade is a toolkit built for improved natural laminar flow (NLF) prediction with normal sectional lift coefficient dependence. Using these upgrades, new MDO results are obtained for cantilever and TBW configurations. Results illustrate the importance of these upgrades, and set the requirements for further development efforts. The attractiveness of the TBW configuration is further confirmed.
Regional economic performance and net migration rates in Russia, 1993-2002

Soviet legacies and uneven economic distress make post-Soviet Russia an especially interesting case in which to assess the effects of economic performance on regional net migration rates. Random effects models of net regional migration in 77 Russian regions from 1993 to 2002 indicate that mean wages and unemployment levels have substantial and predictable effects. These effects have several dynamic aspects: changes in mean wages (but not changes in unemployment) exert effects independently of wage and unemployment levels, the effect of unemployment decreases over time, and the effect of wage levels appears to increase. Overall, the results suggest a tendency toward regional equilibrium with respect to employment following the initial shock of Soviet collapse and market reforms, but continuing disequilibrium with respect to wages.
Role of disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) in stress-induced prefrontal cognitive dysfunction

Recent genetic studies have linked mental illness to alterations in disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), a multifunctional scaffolding protein that regulates cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling via interactions with phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4). High levels of cAMP during stress exposure impair function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region gravely afflicted in mental illness. As stress can aggravate mental illness, genetic insults to DISC1 may worsen symptoms by increasing cAMP levels. The current study examined whether viral knockdown (KD) of the Disc1 gene in rat PFC increases susceptibility to stress-induced PFC dysfunction. Rats were trained in a spatial working memory task before receiving infusions of (a) an active viral construct that knocked down Disc1 in PFC (DISC1 KD group), (b) a ‘scrambled’ construct that had no effect on Disc1 (Scrambled group), or (c) an active construct that reduced DISC1 expression dorsal to PFC (Anatomical Control group). Data were compared with an unoperated Control group. Cognitive performance was assessed following mild restraint stress that had no effect on normal animals. DISC1 KD rats were impaired by 1 h restraint stress, whereas Scrambled, Control, and Anatomical Control groups were unaffected. Thus, knocking down Disc1 in PFC reduced the threshold for stress-induced cognitive dysfunction, possibly through disinhibited cAMP signaling at neuronal network synapses. These findings may explain why patients with DISC1 mutations may be especially vulnerable to the effects of stress.
Optimizing a Structural Constraint Solver for Efficient Software Checking

Several static analysis techniques, e.g., symbolic execution or scope-bounded checking, as well as dynamic analysis techniques, e.g., specification-based testing, use constraint solvers as an enabling technology. To analyze code that manipulates structurally complex data, the underlying solver must support structural constraints. Solving such constraints can be expensive due to the large number of aliasing possibilities that the solver must consider. This paper presents a novel technique to selectively reduce the number of test cases to be generated. Our technique applies across a class of structural constraint solvers. Experimental results show that the technique enables an order of magnitude reduction in the number of test cases to be considered.
Machines, modernity, and sugar: the Greater Caribbean in a global context, 1812–50*

This article examines the diffusion of evaporation technology along multi-centred and overlapping scientific, industrial, and commercial knowledge networks. It follows the circulation of vacuum pan (steam evaporator) technology in the Greater Caribbean, the North Atlantic, and the East Indies in order to understand the dual processes of invention and globalization. The article demonstrates that the tropical sugar plantation served as an experimental laboratory and, as such, vital inventions and engineering developments that took place in this space were subsequently incorporated into manufacturing designs in the North Atlantic, helping to modernize European industries in the process. As transient intermediaries, scientists, industrialists, and engineers modified and adapted vacuum pan technologies to meet the local demands of planters in the Greater Caribbean, thereby integrating this area into an increasingly globalized economy.
Deposition and Sintering of Particle Films on a Rigid Substrate

Experimental techniques for the deposition and sintering of ceramic particle films on a rigid substrate have been investigated. Three representative systems (SiO2, ZnO-Bi2O3, and Al2O3) were chosen to determine the validity of the conceptual processing model. Crack-free, sintered films 1 to 50 μm thick were produced using single or multiple deposition/sintering cycles.
Joint position sense during a reaching task improves at targets located closer to the head but is unaffected by instruction

The purpose of the present study was twofold. Our first purpose was to test whether joint position sense is similar under instructions to memorize hand position and instructions to memorize shoulder and elbow angles. We hypothesized that instructions to memorize hand position would produce smaller errors due to evidence suggesting that the CNS directly determines hand position but indirectly determines joint angles from proprioceptive information. Our second purpose was to assess biases in joint position sense at various joint angles in a sagittal workspace. We hypothesized that akin to previous single-joint investigations, the shoulder and elbow would demonstrate better joint position sense as joint angles approached 90° during our multi-joint task. Sixteen healthy and right-hand-dominant subjects participated in the present investigation. Subjects were required to actively position their right upper extremity to one of three targets for a memorization period. After returning to the rest position, subjects then actively repositioned back into the target. We did not find evidence of a substantial difference in joint position sense between instructions to memorize the hand position or joint angle. This finding, when considered in conjunction with other evidence, suggests that studies employing either a joint angle protocol or a hand estimation protocol likely produce results that are similar enough to be compared. Proprioception has been shown to be non-uniform across a two-dimensional horizontal workspace. The present investigation provides evidence that proprioception is also non-uniform across a two-dimensional sagittal workspace. Specifically, angular errors decrease as upper extremity joint angles approach 90° of flexion and endpoint errors decrease as targets are located increasingly closer to the head.
Editorial commentary in Radiologia Brasileira: multidetector-row computed tomography angiography for the diagnosis of anomalous pulmonary venous drainage: an initial experiment

A drenagem venosa pulmonar anomala (DVPA) e uma anomalia congenita rara em que uma ou mais veias pulmonares drenam para o atrio direito ou uma de suas tributarias, em vez do atrio esquerdo, criando um shunt esquerdo-direito. As indicacoes cirurgicas para DVPA parcial (DVPAP) dependem de informacoes detalhadas da anatomia das veias pulmonares e sistemicas, assim como da presenca de comunicacao interatrial associada e da quantificacao do shunt esquerdo-direito. Nos casos de DVPA total (DVPAT), o conhecimento do padrao exato da drenagem venosa pulmonar e tambem extremamente importante para um planejamento pre-operatorio apropriado. Classicamente, o diagnostico de pacientes pediatricos sintomaticos e realizado por meio de ecocardiografia transtoracica e confirmado por angiografia cardiaca. A angiografia cardiaca e um metodo invasivo que apresenta taxa de complicacao de 10% a 20% e taxa de mortalidade de aproximadamente 1% nessa populacao. O estudo realizado por Kimura et al. publicado nesta edicao da Radiologia Brasileira contribui a literatura em desenvolvimento sobre o valor da tomografia computadorizada com multidetectores (TCMD) para avaliacao nao invasiva de DVPA. Os autores descrevem o estudo de um grupo de 393 pacientes sintomaticos, a maioria deles na populacao pediatrica, submetidos a angiotomografia computadorizada multislice (ACM) car-
Theory Z, Institutional Economics, and the Theory of Strategy

Tomer’s (1983 and Chapter 7, this volume) discussion of the microeconomic foundations of Ouchi’s (1981) Type Z management is provocative not only because it begins to explore the underdeveloped relationship between microeconomics and management theory, but also because it discusses both of these theoretical traditions in an explicitly strategic context. In this response to Tomer, I will first continue to explore the relationship between management theory and microeconomics. After these specific comments, I will then turn to the more general issues raised by Tomer, i.e., the use of the theory of management and microeconomics to develop a theory of business strategy.
An embedded checklist in the Anesthesia Information Management System improves pre-anaesthetic induction setup: a randomised controlled trial in a simulation setting

Background Anaesthesiologists work in a high stress, high consequence environment in which missed steps in preparation may lead to medical errors and potential patient harm. The pre-anaesthetic induction period has been identified as a time in which medical errors can occur. The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has developed a Pre-Anesthetic Induction Patient Safety (PIPS) checklist. We conducted this study to test the effectiveness of this checklist, when embedded in our institutional Anesthesia Information Management System (AIMS), on resident performance in a simulated environment. Methods Using a randomised, controlled, observer-blinded design, we compared performance of anaesthesiology residents in a simulated operating room under production pressure using a checklist in completing a thorough pre-anaesthetic induction evaluation and setup with that of residents with no checklist. The checklist was embedded in the simulated operating room's electronic medical record. Results Data for 38 anaesthesiology residents shows a statistically significant difference in performance in pre-anaesthetic setup and evaluation as scored by blinded raters (maximum score 22 points), with the checklist group performing better by 7.8 points (p<0.01). The effects of gender and year of residency on total score were not significant. Simulation duration (time to anaesthetic agent administration) was increased significantly by the use of the checklist. Conclusion Required use of a pre-induction checklist improves anaesthesiology resident performance in a simulated environment. The PIPS checklist as an integrated part of a departmental AIMS warrant further investigation as a quality measure.
IN VITRO STUDIES ON ERYTHROPHAGOCYTOSIS.

1. Two systems for the quantitative study of erythrophagocytosis in vitro are described. 2. The effects of a number of physical factors, cations, anticoagulants, and metabolic poisons in these systems are reported. 3. Existing views on the mechanism of action of factors influencing phagocytosis are briefly reviewed. The importance of the state of energy metabolism of the phagocyte is stressed. 4. The importance of physical, chemical, and metabolic aspects of erythrophagocytic systems is emphasized in connection with the use of erythrophagocytosis as a serologic tool in immunohematology.
The Vietnamese Double Gender Revolt: Globalizing Marriage Options in the Twenty-first Century

This article draws upon ethnographic materials from a larger study of transpacific arranged marriages between women in Vietnam and overseas Vietnamese men who live in Western coun-tries. In the larger project I studied sixty-nine recent marriages between couples who were in a "migration waiting period." That is, they married in Vietnam, but subsequently separated as the husbands returned to their places of residence and employment outside Vietnam to initiate paperwork for sponsoring the wives as immigrants. The bride phase of the project included sixtynine brides, and the groom phase included twenty-eight grooms. I also interviewed twenty-seven family members of brides and eight family members of grooms in order to understand the influence of kin networks on transpacific marriages. I conducted a total of 181 in-depth interviews with 129 individuals. I interviewed married couples, but except for a few cases, the couples were never in the same place. Thus, an unusual methodological choice in this project is...
EPA Pats Itself on the Back: EPA's Assessment of Its Own Clean Air Program

Government studies of regulations designed to protect health, safety, and the environment are inherently self-serving. The same agencies that evaluate performance also design and administer the very regulatory programs that they are evaluating. EPA's 1997 report on rules issued from 1970 to 1990 gave a "best estimate" of net benefits of $22 trillion-roughly the aggregate net worth of all U.S. households in 1990. (No professional economist independent of EPA takes that estimate seriously.) In the 1999 sequel to its 1997 report, EPA gave a "central" estimate of $83 billion for the net annual benefit in 2010. EPA's reports to Congress vividly illustrate the inadequacy of self-evaluations of federal regulatory programs. Congress should abandon the self-evaluation model and establish an independent analytical agency to review the costs and benefits of regulatory policies and programs.
Infestation rates of oriental fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) in 'Sunrise' papaya by visual and colorimetric ripeness indices

A field survey on the island of Kauai was done to determine the infestation rates of oriental fruit fly ( Dacus dorsalis Hendel) and melon fly ( D. cucurbitae Coquillett) in papaya ( Carica papaya L. ‘Sunrise’) based on varying levels of visual and “hot spot” colorimetric b indices of fruit ripeness. (The “hot spot” is the most yellow spot on the fruit’s skin surface.) The colorimetric b is a measure of yellowness obtained with the HunterLab LabScan Color Difference Meter. Melon fly never infested ‘Sunrise’ fruits at any stage of ripeness. In contrast, oriental fruit fly infested only one-quarter to fully ripe fruits. Mature green and color-break fruits, or those with values of b ≤ 18.4, were free of oriental fruit fly and melon fly infestations. Data suggest that two-stage hot-water immersion (double dip) treatment is still a viable quarantine treatment for ‘Sunrise’ papaya and that mature green and color-break fruits may be shipped to and marketed in the mainland United States without any treatment.
Hybridization Studies of Blattella germanica and Blattella asahinai (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae): Dependence of a Morphological and a Behavioral Trait on the Species of the X Chromosome

The forewings of Blattella asahinai Mitzukudo males are wider than those of male B. germanica (L.). Wing widths of F1 hybrid males and male backcross progeny corresponded to the frequencies of B. asahinai and B. germanica X chromosomes (lacking and carrying the nucleolar organizing region NOR [NOR], respectively). The frequency of male progeny with B. germanica X chromosomes was less than expected (<50%) in backcrosses of F1 hybrid females to B. germanica and also B. asahinai males. Meiotic irregularities were confined to those involving the X chromosome and the NOR-bearing segment carried on chromosome 12 in B. asahinai . In experiments on mating choice, F1 hybrid males from crosses of B. germanica females × B. asahinai males preferred B. germanica to B. asahinai females; F1 males from the reciprocal cross did not distinguish between females of the two species.
Probing Protein-Lipid Interactions at the Single Molecule Level

Cell membranes consist mostly of lipids and embedded proteins, forming a shell around the cell that controls information and material fluxes into and out of the cell. Protein-lipid interactions thus play a crucial role in numerous cellular mechanisms. Understanding these interactions would provide basic biophysical knowledge in addition to advance pharmaceutical developments, many of which target membranes. Despite their significance, protein-lipid interactions are not fully understood and have not yet been fully investigated from a mechanistic standpoint. In this study we investigated synthesized peptide constructs that insert into lipid bilayers via force spectroscopy. The constructs used here are based on SecA, a membrane-associated ATPase of the general secretory system. We investigated the first 10 amino terminal residues of SecA (SecA2-11) in three different arrangements to provide control experiments and guide interpretation. In one arrangement, two copies of SecA2-11 were covalently linked in series to the atomic force microscope tip, in another, they were linked in parallel. In all cases the constructs were brought into close proximity of a supported POPC lipid bilayer and the mechanical interaction between the peptide and lipid was recorded using single-molecule dynamic force spectroscopy. Investigating chemically similar yet geometrically different constructs provides important benchmarks for the interpretation of future studies involving longer constructs such as full length SecA.
Quantitative EEG Analysis of Terminating Slow Waves in Spike and Wave Activity in Untreated, Non-Absence, Primary Generalized Epilepsy (P04.015)

Objective: To analyze the terminating slow wave of spike and wave bursts recorded in patients with non-absence primary generalized epilepsy (PGE) to determine whether a threshold duration exists preventing prolongation of spike and wave runs. Background Quantitative EEG analysis studies have focused on spike and wave frequency and burst duration in PGE. Progressive prolongation of the after-going slow wave in runs of spike and wave has long been recognized but not quantified. The magnitude of cortical inhibition indicated by the duration of the terminating slow wave may help determine which factors inhibit prolonged, potentially dangerous, spike and wave bursts. Design/Methods: The EEGs of 3 patients diagnosed with non-absence PGE, untreated with AEDs were studied. Quantitative EEG analysis was performed on a minimum of 10 spike and wave discharges (SWD) recorded during wakefulness and sleep. The number of discharges and the wave durations in a run of SWDs were measured and averaged. The slow wave duration was measured from the positive turn between the fast and the slow component until the following positive turn. The preceding wave durations were calculated as a percentage of the terminating wave. Results: In a run of SWDs each successive wave progressively increased in duration. The average terminating wave duration was 47% longer than the preceding wave. Spike and wave runs were characterized by absolute slow wave durations of 0.1-0.15 msecs for the initial SWD and 0.2-0.65 msecs for the terminating slow wave. When single polyspike and wave discharges occurred, almost exclusively in slow wave sleep, slow wave durations were still 47% longer than the first slow wave of spike and wave runs. Conclusions: QEEG analysis of the after-going slow wave component of spike and wave bursts may provide insight into mechanisms of spike and wave burst termination. The technique could be helpful in predicting AED efficacy in PGE. Supported by: The FACES foundation. Disclosure: Dr. Fallil has nothing to disclose. Dr. Pacia has nothing to disclose.
Numerical analysis of mirage-image formation in presence of atmospheric turbulence and refractive gradient layer

An approach based on brightness function technique is applied for numerical analysis of mirage images formation that account for joint impact of atmospheric turbulence and refractive gradient layer.
Synergistic Benefit of Statin and Metformin in Gastrointestinal Malignancies.

Objectives:To evaluate whether statin use influences gastrointestinal cancer prognosis in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM).Methods:We reviewed all DM patients diagnosed at Roswell Park Cancer I...
The immediate hematologic effects of intravenous saccharated iron oxide.

1. Saccharated ferric oxide in colloidal suspension was administered intravenously on 17 occasions to 13 patients in doses of 100 to 1,000 mg. A prompt arterial leukopenia, followed within 30 to 90 seconds by a similar fall in the venous blood, was observed in all patients who received more than 200 mg. of iron. This leukopenia involved all white cell types. 2. The magnitude of the fall in leukocytes was directly proportional to the amount of material injected, and independent of the rate of injection under the conditions of the study. 3. There was no significant change in the platelet number in arterial or venous blood of 4 patients. In 2 patients an increased clotting power of venous blood containing large amounts of iron was observed only during the period of injection. 4. The colloidal nature of the material is probably the responsible factor in producing the leukopenia.
Neurobehavior and MRI in 22ql3.3 Deletion Syndrome

Neuromotor, sensory, language, communication and social development, and cerebral MRI and PET studies were performed in 8 children with 22ql3.3 deletion syndrome, at the National Institutes of Health, Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, and other centers in Paris, France.
Cashing in on the Holidays Searching for the Holiday Effect Among Some of Americas Top Retail Companies

Investors often analyze historical stock data to find an emerging pattern and establish a trading rule the holiday effect is one such pattern. Traders benefited from a predictable increase in stock prices during the holiday season and bought stocks on pre-holidays. However, recent scholarship has shown a disappearance in the holiday effect, and this study confirms that finding. Analysis of stock prices from five major retail companies from 2000 to 2013 shows drastic unpredictability in stock performance. Even if a trader minimizes risk by trading an equally weighted stock portfolio and makes optimal trades to maximize returns, his performance is usually worse than, and rarely better than, market performance. The study shows among Americas top retail companies, the holiday effect has vanished since 2000. Interestingly, the results indicate that the holiday effect may persist in the overall market, but more analysis is needed to confirm this assertion.
Relational Learning for Sustainable Health

Sustainable healthcare is a global need and requires better value–better health–for patients at lower cost. Predictive models have the opportunity to greatly increase value without increasing cost. Concrete examples include reducing heart attacks and reducing adverse drug events by accurately predicting them before they occur. In this paper we examine how accurately such events can be predicted presently and discuss a machine learning approach that produces accurate such predictive models.
1027 Nettivihje – combating online child sexual abuse

Background Online sexual violence, exploitation and abuse of children are some of the worst forms of harm inflicted to children. Under the Convention of the Rights of Child and other international treaties (Lanzarote and Budapest Convention) all children have the right to be protected from harm. The directive (2011/93/EU) of EU Parliament and Commission clearly states that all EU countries have to prevent child sexual abuse, strengthen and promote national hotlines and make sure that online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is removed quickly both within and outside EU. Methods Save the Children Finland maintains Finnish Hotline (Nettivihje), which offers the public a way to anonymously report CSAM they suspect to be illegal. Nettivihje is also a member of International Association of Internet Hotlines network INHOPE which is an active and collaborative network of 51 hotlines in 45 countries worldwide. Nettivihje has been in operation since 2002 and in the beginning of the year 2015 it received the largest number ever reports per six month (2138). More than 30% of these reports were assessed as indecent sexual images of children or illegal CSAM. Results Nettivihje took part in the pilot phrase of the EU Commission’s “BIK NET project 2014” and is still actively involved in the development and implementation of the software solution IC-CAM ( I see child sexual material ). This solution has enhanced the global fight against CSA online and speeded up the notice-and- takedown times without jeopardising criminal investigations. The solution has streamlined the work, enabling process more CSAM reports to LEA and Interpol. This collaboration gives them more possibilities to identify and rescue child victims. Conclusions International co-operation promotes the child rights, protect abused children from further victimisation and ensures focus on child protection online. One single report to Nettivihje makes a word of difference.
Cytocompatibility of Magnesium Alloys with Human Urothelial Cells: A Comparison of Three Culture Methodologies

Magnesium (Mg) is a biodegradable metallic material, which has shown great potential for medical device applications. In this study, human urothelial cells (HUCs) were cultured in vitro with Mg-based substrates to investigate their cytocompatibility for potential urological device applications. Three different in vitro culture methodologies were explored to mimic different in vivo conditions, in an attempt to establish standard methods of evaluating cytocompatibility of Mg-based biomaterials for urological device applications. Direct culture is a suitable in vitro method when it is important to evaluate direct cell attachment on the biomaterial surfaces. Direct exposure culture is a desirable in vitro method for investigating the response of well-established cells in the body with newly implanted biomaterials. The exposure culture method is appropriate for evaluating cell–biomaterial interactions in the same environment, where they are not in direct contact with each other. The results showed differences ...
Changes in functional organization and white matter integrity in the connectome in Parkinson's disease.

Abstract Parkinson's disease (PD) leads to dysfunction in multiple cortico-striatal circuits. The neurodegeneration has also been associated with impaired white matter integrity. This structural and functional “disconnection” in PD needs further characterization. We investigated the structural and functional organization of the PD whole brain connectome consisting of 200 nodes using diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional MRI, respectively. Data from 20 non-demented PD patients on dopaminergic medication and 20 matched controls were analyzed using graph theory-based methods. We focused on node strength, clustering coefficient, and local efficiency as measures of local network properties; and network modularity as a measure of information flow. PD patients showed reduced white matter connectivity in frontoparietal-striatal nodes compared to controls, but no change in modular organization of the white matter tracts. PD group also showed reduction in functional local network metrics in many nodes distributed across the connectome. There was also decreased functional modularity in the core cognitive networks including the default mode and dorsal attention networks, and sensorimotor network, as well as a lack of modular distinction in the orbitofrontal and basal ganglia nodes in the PD group compared to controls. Our results suggest that despite subtle white matter connectivity changes, the overall structural organization of the PD connectome remains robust at relatively early disease stages. However, there is a breakdown in the functional modular organization of the PD connectome.
The development of attachment styles

Abstract Many of the enduring questions in attachment theory and research concern the origins of individual differences in attachment. Specifically, what makes some people more secure than others? How are those differences sustained across time? And what leads people to change? The purpose of this chapter is to review briefly theory and research on how attachment patterns develop and the processes that give rise to continuity and change. We also highlight some new directions in attachment research that have implications for how we understand continuity and change.
Rate splitting and superposition coding for concurrent groupcasting over the broadcast channel: A general framework

A general inner bound is given for the discrete memoryless broadcast channel with an arbitrary number of users and general message sets, a setting that accounts for the most general form of concurrent groupcasting, with up to exponentially many messages intended for any set of subsets of receivers. Achievability is based on superposition coding and rate-splitting, where each receiver jointly decodes both its desired messages as well as the partial interference assigned to it via rate-splitting. The proof of achievability builds on the techniques for the description and analysis of superposition coding recently developed by the authors for the multiple access channel with general messages.
An Improved Type-Inference Algorithm to Expose Parallelism in Object-Oriented Programs

The popularity of object-oriented (OO) programming has been on the rise. Unlike the procedural programming approach, OO programming provides a natural facility for modeling and decomposing a problem into self-contained entities called objects. The objects interact with each other through a message passing mechanism. At different program-points, the objects assume different implementation (or concrete) types, which are sets of classes or built-in types.
Polynomial memory pre distortion based on non uniform delays for wireless applications

With increasing importance of spectral efficiency an RF power amplifier (PA) needs to be highly linear for the communication system to meet stringent spectral emission requirements. There has been extensive research in memory nonlinear modelling and memory pre-distortion algorithms. All known solutions represent the equivalent discrete baseband PA memory model with a finite impulse response filter (FIR). This model is limited to modelling the long term memory effect as it requires a large number of taps, resulting in slow convergence of the memory pre-distortion algorithm. We suggest a new approach using sparse delay taps in the pre-distortion model. This solution optimally represents the memory effect of the inverse transfer function of the transmission path using a limited number of delay taps. In comparison to solutions where all adjacent delay taps are taken, this solution finds a select subset of the adjacent delay taps, performing digital pre-distortion with significantly less resources, rendering optimal performance over all subsets with the given number of delay taps. Less resources are used as each added delay tap used to represent the memory effect requires additional HW processing, die size and power consumption.
Influences of the heme-lysine crosslink in cytochrome P460 over redox catalysis and nitric oxide sensitivity

Ammonia (NH3)-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) derive total energy for life from the multi-electron oxidation of NH3 to nitrite (NO2-). One obligate intermediate of this metabolism is hydroxylamine (NH2OH), which can be oxidized to the potent greenhouse agent nitrous oxide (N2O) by the AOB enzyme cytochrome (cyt) P460. We have now spectroscopically characterized a 6-coordinate (6c) {FeNO}7 intermediate on the NH2OH oxidation pathway of cyt P460. This species has two fates: it can either be oxidized to the {FeNO}6 that then undergoes attack by NH2OH to ultimately generate N2O, or it can lose its axial His ligand, thus generating a stable, off-pathway 5-coordinate (5c) {FeNO}7 species. We show that the wild type (WT) cyt P460 exhibits a slow nitric oxide (NO)-independent conversion (kHis-off = 2.90 × 10-3 s-1), whereas a cross-link-deficient Lys70Tyr cyt P460 mutant protein underwent His dissociation via both a NO-independent (kHis-off = 3.8 × 10-4 s-1) and a NO-dependent pathway [kHis-off(NO) = 790 M-1 s-1]. Eyring analyses of the NO-independent pathways for these two proteins revealed a significantly larger (ca. 27 cal mol-1 K-1) activation entropy (ΔS‡) in the cross-link-deficient mutant. Our results suggest that the Lys-heme cross-link confers rigidity to the positioning of the heme P460 cofactor to avoid the fast NO-dependent His dissociation pathway and subsequent formation of the off-pathway 5c {FeNO}7 species. The relevance of these findings to NO signaling proteins such as heme-nitric oxide/oxygen binding (H-NOX) is also discussed.
Role of Peripheral Neuropathy in the Development of Foot Ulceration and Impaired Wound Healing in Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetic neuropathy is a heterogeneous disorder that encompasses a wide range of abnormalities. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is the most frequent neurological complication of diabetes mellitus. Key factor in DPN pathophysiology seems to be decreased nerve blood flow, which determines functional and morphological nerve changes. Peripheral neuropathy along with foot deformities, and acute or chronic repetitive trauma are the triad of factors that contribute ultimately to diabetic foot ulceration (DFU). DFU is a serious secondary complication of diabetes mellitus that can potentially lead to devastating lower-extremity amputations. Impaired wound healing has been implicated as a significant cause for chronic DFU, since diabetes mellitus causes major abnormalities in all the four different phases of wound healing (hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling). The treatment cornerstones of DFU include regular debridement, pressure offloading, revascularization when appropriate, adequate treatment of infection, and local wound care.
Healthcare resource use and costs associated with chronic kidney disease in US private insurance patients with multiple myeloma

ObjectivesWithin a median 1.2 years after patients have an initial diagnosis with multiple myeloma, up to 61% were diagnosed with renal impairment and 50% were diagnosed with chronic kidney disease...