cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Urethral Substitution Using an Intestinal Free Flap: A Novel Approach

Purpose: Patients who have extensive stricture disease, those in whom hypospadias repair fails and those who sustain significant urethral trauma pose a reconstructive challenge for genitourinary surgeons. We developed an additional reconstructive option for men with a severely diseased urethra when grafting procedures and local tissue flaps have failed or are otherwise contraindicated.Materials and Methods: A genitourinary reconstructive team performed novel intestinal free flap substitution urethroplasty in 2 patients. A segment of jejunum is harvested on a vascular pedicle and plicated into an appropriate size urethral substitute. Microvascular anastomoses allow this segment to remain viable and functional. The technical aspects of repair and surgical considerations are detailed.Results: The 2 patients have a satisfactory functional and cosmetic outcome. At short followup the urethral lumen remained patent and the intestinal urethra remained viable and intact. Both patients have good urinary streams and...
Hypoxia controls iron metabolism and glutamate secretion in retinal pigmented epithelial cells

Abstract Background Blood-barrier systems are essential in controlling iron levels in organs such as the brain and eye, both of which experience hypoxia in pathological conditions. While hypoxia's effects on numerous iron regulatory and storage proteins have been studied, little is known about how hypoxia affects iron metabolism. Iron also controls glutamate production and secretion; therefore the effects of hypoxia on iron metabolism and glutamate secretion were studied in polarized retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells. Methods Primary canine RPE were cultured in Millicells to create polarized cell cultures. Iron uptake and efflux were measured in hypoxic and normoxic conditions. RPE were loaded with 59Fe-transferrin. Glutamate concentrations in the cell conditioned media were also measured. Results Hypoxia induced a large increase in iron efflux from RPE in the basolateral direction. Glutamate secretion occurred mainly in the basolateral direction which is away from the retina and out of the eye in vivo. Glutamate secretion was doubled under hypoxic conditions. Conclusions Hypoxia is known to induce oxidative damage. The current results show that iron, a key catalyst of free radical generation, is removed from RPE under hypoxic conditions which may help protect RPE from oxidative stress. Results obtained here indicate the importance of using polarized tight junctional cells as more physiologically relevant models for blood-barrier-like systems. General significance While the effects of hypoxia on iron efflux and glutamate secretion may be protective for RPE cells and retina, increased glutamate secretion in the brain could cause some of the damaging neurological effects seen in stroke.
Semiautomatic detection of DNA methylation at CpG islands.

or the unmethylated sequences using the SNaPshot™ kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). This kit uses the single base extension (SBE) principle to detect variations of single nucleotide polymorphisms. The extended products were then analyzed on an ABI Prism ® 3100 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems), and the status of DNA methylation was determined based on the relative peak heights of the extended products generated from methylated and unmethylated templates. In this report, we used the detection
Interlaminar shear strength of plain weave S2-glass/SC79 composites subjected to out-of-plane high strain rate compressive loadings

Abstract In this study a test methodology for measuring interlaminar shear strength of composites under both quasi-static and high strain rate loadings is developed. The test methodology is also able to study the effect of the Coulomb friction and the influence of interlaminar compressive stress acting on the failure plane. The material properties generated are used to evaluate various quasi-static and strain rate dependent failure criteria. This is accomplished by testing out-of-plane off-axis composite materials to determine the interlaminar shear strength (S13) and friction function (f) as a function of strain rate. Two different types of plane weave S2-glass/SC79 fabric composites were used in this investigation. Quasi-static v-notch shear test results for interlaminar shear strength are in excellent agreement with the results from the off-axis compression test method. The strain rate dependent behavior of the out-of-plane off-axis composites is investigated through a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) test for strain rates up to 1000 s−1. The test results show that both S13 and f are strain rate sensitive for these material systems. Finally a strain rate dependent shear failure criterion incorporating the influence of interlaminar compression and Coulomb friction is identified.
Observation of impurities in ice.

This paper presents a new method for determining the microstructural location of impurities in polycrystalline ice, which involves allowing the ice to sublimate under vacuum and then identifying the concentrated impurities using energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis in a low-vacuum scanning electron microscope. The method allows the presence of impurities in both the grain boundaries and the lattice of natural polycrystalline ice to be observed. Using this technique on natural ice, filaments consisting chiefly of NaCl were observed in some grain boundaries, small amounts of sulfur and chlorine were found in the grain interiors of the ice, and large concentrations of sulfur were observed in inclusions. Microsc. Res. Tech. 55:198–207, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
An Application of Health–Health Analysis: Crystalline Silica Regulation in California

Economic analyses of environmental regulations of human carcinogens have generally focused on the cost per life saved of the proposed regulation. The work of Viscusi and Wildavsky has demonstrated that such an approach considers only one side of the issue. The relationship between the level of wealth and the health of the population is not addressed in the traditional analyses. This paper uses the results of the research by Viscusi and Lutter and Morrall as a foundation to examine the proposed regulation of respirable crystalline silica as a human carcinogen by California. The primary conclusion is that the costs in terms of the health effects of the regulations due to reduced wealth may be greater than the benefits associated with the regulation. Therefore, at this time it would be better to devote scarce resources toward further study to remove the uncertainty associated with the regulation of ambient concentrations of crystalline silica. The question as to how much insurance to buy in this uncertain case must consider both the benefits of the regulation and the costs in terms of reduced wealth.
Transient Convective Diffusion to a Rotating Disk Electrode as Monitored by Near‐Normal Incidence Reflection Absorption Ultraviolet‐Visible Spectroscopy

The time evolution of the integrated profile of a species generated at the surface of a rotating gold disk electrode by a potential step was monitored using UV-visible near-normal incidence reflection absorption spectroscopy. These experiments were conducted in aqueous K 4 [Fe(CN) 6 ] solutions using a potential step with a large enough magnitude to achieve, at steady state, diffusion-limiting current conditions for the oxidation of [Fe(CN) 6 ] 4- , with the monochromator set at 420 nm. At this wavelength the ferric species displays an absorption maximum whereas the ferrous counterpart is essentially transparent
The Access Context

Over the years, there has been significant research on how our users learn and use information and information systems. Studies look at how people build their own information systems, their own personal constructs for creating knowledge. Users are not passive, as we have learned, but give meaning to information base on these personal constructs. Information seeking is about filling gaps in those personal knowledge systems
Utilization of potatoes for life support systems in space. I - Cultivar-photoperiod interactions

The productive potential of four potato varieties considered as a food source for space stations and/or lunar colonies was assessed for plants grown for 15 weeks in walk-in rooms at 20 C under 12-, 16-, or 20-hr exposures to 400-micromol/sq m per sec photosynthetic photon flux. It was found that Norland potatoes yielded the greatest tuber fresh weight, producing 2.3, 2.4, and 2.9 kg/plant under 12-, 16, and 20-hr, respectively. The respective yields for the other three varieties were: Superior, 1.9, 1.5, and 1.8 kg/plant; Norchip, 1.8, 1.4, and 2.0 kg/plant; and Kennebec, 2.3, 0.2, and 0.8 kg/plant.
EFFECT OF SALICYLATE INFUSION ON PLASMA-INSULIN AND GLUCOSE TOLERANCE IN HEALTHY PERSONS AND MILD DIABETICS

Abstract Salicylate infusion into healthy controls and patients with mild diabetes mellitus caused a significant increase in immunoassayable plasma-insulin levels. However, only in the diabetics was this associated with significant decrease in the blood-glucose. Despite the increased plasma-insulin, there was no significant effect on plasma-free-fatty-acid levels. In both groups intravenous administration of glucose 2 hours after completion of a salicylate infusion was associated with improvement in glucose tolerance and an augmented plasma-insulin response. In the diabetics, the plasma-insulin response during the intravenous glucose-tolerance test was diminished. Al though these results clearly demonstrate that salicylates can increase plasma-insulin, it is not established that this is the mechanism of aspirin-induced hypoglycaemia.
A planning based approach to failure recovery in distributed systems

Failure recovery in distributed systems poses a difficult challenge because of the requirement for high availability. Failure scenarios are usually unpredictable so they can not easily be foreseen. In this research we propose a planning based approach to failure recovery. This approach automates failure recovery by capturing the state after failure, defining an acceptable recovered state as a goal and applying planning to get from the initial state to the goal state. By using planning, this approach can recover from a variety of failed states and reach any of several acceptable states: from minimal functionality to complete recovery.
The density and thermal structure of Pluto’s atmosphere and associated escape processes and rates

Abstract The original Strobel et al. (Strobel, D.F., Zhu, X., Summers, M.E., Stevens, M.E. [1996]. Icarus 120, 266–289) model for Pluto’s stratospheric density and thermal structure is augmented to include a radial momentum equation with radial velocity associated with atmospheric escape of N2 and in the energy equation to also include the solar far ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet (FUV–EUV) heating in the upper atmosphere and adiabatic cooling due to hydrodynamic expansion. The inclusion of radial velocity introduces important negative feedback processes such as increased solar heating leading to enhanced escape rate and higher radial velocity with stronger adiabatic cooling in the upper atmosphere accompanied by reduced temperature. The coupled set of equations for mass, momentum, and energy are solved subject to two types of upper boundary conditions that represent two different descriptions of atmospheric escape: Jeans escape and hydrodynamic escape. For the former which is physically correct, an enhanced Jeans escape rate is prescribed at the exobase and parameterized according to the direct simulation Monte Carlo kinetic model results. For the latter, the atmosphere is assumed to remain a fluid to infinity with the escape rate determined by the temperature and density at the transonic point subject to vanishing temperature and pressure at infinity. For Pluto, the two escape descriptions approach the same limit when the exobase coincides with the transonic level and merge to a common escape rate ∼1028 N2 s−1 under elevated energy input. For Pluto’s current atmosphere, the hydrodynamic approach underestimates the escape rate by about 13%. In all cases, the escape rate is limited by the solar FUV–EUV power input. Specific results for the New Horizons Pluto flyby July 2015 are escape rate ∼3.5 × 1027 N2 s−1, exobase at 8r0 ∼ 9600 km, with Jeans λ ∼ 5 for a reference Pluto atmosphere model. With Pluto’s highly elliptic orbit and variable solar activity affecting its atmosphere, Pluto’s escape rates’ range is (1–10) × 1027 N2 s−1, exobase radius is bounded by ∼(5–13)r0, and at the exobase Pluto is locked in the enhanced Jeans regime with λ ∼ (6–4). Finally, a systematic review of previous approximate hydrodynamic escape models is presented to compare the constraints which determine the escape rate in each model.
THE USES OF WALTER: WALTER BENJAMIN AND THE COUNTERFACTUAL IMAGINATION

Many authors, both scholarly and otherwise, have asked what might have happened had Walter Benjamin survived his 1940 attempt to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. This essay examines several implicitly or explicitly "counterfactual" thought experiments regarding Benjamin's "survival," including Hannah Arendt's influential "Walter Benjamin: 1892-1940," and asks why our attachment to Benjamin's story has prompted so much counterfactual inquiry. It also explores the larger question of why few intellectual historians ask explicitly counterfactual questions in their work. While counterfactuals have proven invaluable for scholars in diplomatic, military, and economic history, those writing about the history of ideas often seem less concerned with chains of events and contingency than some of their colleagues are—or they attend to contingency in a selective fashion. Thus this essay attends to the ambivalence about the category of contingency that runs through much work in intellectual history. Returning to the case of Walter Benjamin, this essay explores his own tendency to pose "what if?" questions, and then concludes with an attempt to ask a serious counterfactual question about his story. The effort to ask this question reveals one methodological advantage of counterfactual inquiry: the effort to ask such questions often serves as an excellent guide to the prejudices and interests of the historian asking them. By engaging in counterfactual thought experiments, intellectual historians could restore an awareness of sheer contingency to the stories we tell about the major texts and debates of intellectual history.
Public Intellectuals: Academics and Movements

An editor's grouping of books for review can be a significant act of political-intellectual creativity. That is the case here: I would not have thought to pair these books, but that pairing has led me to think about them, and about C. Wright Mills, in new ways. Tom Hayden and Zweigenhaft-Domhoff take Mills in opposite directions: Hayden has no footnotes or citations of any kind even for direct quotations, and does not engage with the mass of Mills's empirical evidence, but is instead interested only in the theory, the con ception of society advanced by Mills. Read ing Hayden's intellectual biography of Mills, a reader might not recognize that Mills sys tematically collected and presented huge quantities of empirical evidence. Hayden has a bibliography, grouped by interest or topic, not in alphabetical order, that lists 275 items. In writing Radical Nomad he clearly read widely, but when he presented quotations he did not see it as necessary to provide the au thor, never mind the page number. Richard Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff, on the other hand, replicate Mills's Power Elite empirical analyses with a focus on "diversity," meticulously and rigorously assessing the number of people from one or another group-Jews, women, blacks, Lati nos, Asian Americans, gay men and les bians-who are identifiable as members of the power elite. The power elite is defined as all those who occupy certain specified posi tions in the corporate elite, the cabinet, the military elite, Congress, and the Supreme Court. What Zweigenhaft and Domhoff do is very clear, rigorous, meticulously researched, open to inspection by others who can verify or refute it, or advance alternative definitions. They go beyond what Mills did in creative ways, for example, in their blind rankings of the skin color of samples of African American and Latino members of the power elite. Zweigenhaft and Domhoff not only do head counts, but also provide individual narratives for many of the key players. This is valuable and engaging research, and the book is both a good read and an invaluable resource for capsule information and a list of sources Radical Nomad: C. Wright Mills and His Times, by Tom Hayden. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. 226pp. $19.95 paper. ISBN: 9781594512027.
Color Contrast Perimetry: The Spatial Distribution of Color Defects in Optic Nerve and Retinal Diseases

Abstract Color contrast perimetry was used to evaluate central visual field defects in a group of 28 patients with visual loss resulting from optic nerve or retinal diseases. Kinetic. perimetry was performed using colored test objects of constant luminance, equated to a white surround of 10 ft lamberts. Colored test objects were varied in size and in extent of color saturation. Test object color saturation was varied from a white that matched the color and luminance of the adapting background toward either the blue or the red color maxima of a video tangent screen. All central visual field defects that were demonstrable by luminance contrast perimetry were also detected by color contrast testing, and no defects were found for color contrast detection that could not also be demonstrated by conventional luminance increment perimetry. Retinal diseases usually produced scotomas for both color and luminance contrast detection, while optic nerve disorders tended to produce global depressions of both color and luminance contrast sensitivity across the entire visual field in addition to scotomas. There was no systematic difference in visual field defects for either class of disease when comparing color contrast in the blue (tritan) versus the red (protan) axes of color space. The apparent tritan or protan/deutan axes of color confusion found by hue discrimination testing in acquired dyschromatopsias may be determined by the relative spatial distribution of defects in the central visual field rather than by selective impairment of neural mechanisms for color or luminance information processing.
Algae in red

Dunaliella: Physiology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology. Edited by M. Avron and A. Ben-Amotz. CRC Press: 1992. Pp. 240. a£109, $149.95.
Teacher Learning as Collective Creation: Thinking with the Theatre Arts.

Teacher learning groups represent an increasingly widely used strategy for teachers’ in-service professional development. While teachers have largely embraced participation in such groups, researchers have critiqued the effectiveness of the groups’ practices in supporting participants’ learning and their impact on instructional practice. This article presents a cross-domain study into teacher learning group practices. Drawing on practices for collective creation in theatre arts, the author constructs a model for generating instructional and conceptual resources within teacher learning groups. The model highlights three interacting elements: means, materials, and modes of engagement. To test its capacity as an analytical framework for activity in teacher learning groups, the article applies it to an episode from a primary school group. The article proposes use of the framework as a tool for teacher learning groups to structure critical self-reflection on their own practices. The article concludes with impl...
Mixed quantum-classical versus full quantum dynamics: Coupled quasiparticle-oscillator system

The relation between the dynamical properties of a coupled quasiparticle-oscillator system in the mixed quantum-classical and fully quantized descriptions is investigated. The system is considered as a model for applying a stepwise quantization. Features of the nonlinear dynamics in the mixed description such as the presence of a separatrix structure or regular and chaotic motion are shown to be reflected in the evolu- tion of the quantum state vector of the fully quantized system. In particular, it is demonstrated how wave packets propagate along the separatrix structure of the mixed description, and that chaotic dynamics leads to a strongly entangled quantum state vector. Special emphasis is given to viewing the system from a dyn- amical Born-Oppenheimer approximation defining integrable reference oscillators, and elucidating the role of the nonadiabatic couplings which complement this approximation into a rigorous quantization scheme.
Brain histamine receptors as targets for antidepressant drugs

A large number of structurally diverse drugs with clinical antidepressant properties share the ability to act as potent inhibitors of histamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase in cell-free preparations from mammalian brain. This common biochemical action may represent part of the molecular basis for the antidepressant properties of these compounds.
Radiation hardening of copper single crystals

Abstract The effect of nuclear radiation on the mechanical properties of copper has been studied. It has been found that the yield stress, which is substantially increased by the radiation, increases as the cube root of the flux. A strong temperature dependence of the yield stress of irradiated copper is observed with the yield stress being given by a function similar to σ = A — BT 1 2 above 40° K. A Luders band with slip lines of very large step height is associated with the enhanced yield stress at small strains. At large strains the phenomenon of overshoot is observed. The annealing kinetics of the radiation hardness have also been studied in the temperature range from 25° K to 700° K. Little or no annealing is observed in the region below 80° K. In the region from 80° K to 300° K approximately 20 % of the yield stress is recovered, with the remainder annealing in the range from 600° K to 700° K. These results have been discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms by which the hardening can occur. While by no means conclusive, these data support a dislocation locking mechanism. On the other hand a very close analogy exists between radiation hardening and the hardening which arises from the addition of impurities, e.g. the hardening in α brass. The correlation between work hardening and radiation hardening appears to be quite small.
Assessing Assessment: The Effects of Two Exam Formats on Course Achievement and Evaluation

This research examines the effect of two testing strategies on academic achievement and summative evaluations in an introductory statistics course. In 2001, 63 students underwent an hourly midterm format; and in 2002, 68 students underwent a bi-weekly exam format. Other than the exam format, the class lectures and labs were identical in terms of content, structure, pace, and the cumulative final exam. Findings from the regression analyses show that students in the bi-weekly format performed better than the students in the hourly midterm format. On average, students who took the bi-weekly exams performed about 10 percentage points higher (one letter grade) on the exams during the semester and about 15 percentage points higher on the cumulative final exam compared to their peers who took hourly midterms. The benefits of the bi-weekly format were significantly greater among female students than male students. Finally, students in the bi-weekly format were less likely to drop the class and evaluated the class far more favorably.
Abstract IA22: miRNA and lung cancer: Early detection in high-risk subjects

Background: Lung cancer remains the major cause of cancer mortality in the world. In addition to primary prevention, earlier detection and more targeted treatments, tailored on the biological characteristics of the tumor and its microenvironment, could significantly reduce morbidity and mortality for this disease. The real efficacy of lung cancer screening by spiral-computed tomography (CT) in heavy smokers is still to be defined since, in spite of a proved capacity to detect small asymptomatic nodules, the frequency of false positive CTs as well as unnecessary treatments is very high if compared to the limited mortality reductions. The development of biomarkers able to identify tumors in a pre-clinical phase and to track the different aggressiveness of lung tumors is of paramount importance. microRNAs (miRNAs) represent a recently identified class of regulatory molecules and several studies showed that miRNA are involved in lung tumor development and progression and also circulate in plasma and serum of lung cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We analyzed miRNA profiles of lung tumors, normal lung tissues and plasma samples from cases with variable prognosis identified in two independent spiral-CT screening trials where multiple plasma samples, collected from one to four years before radiological detection of the disease were available. Results: We found miRNA expression profiles associated with aggressiveness of the disease and poor survival in tumors and also in normal lung tissues of the patients, thus proving the critical influence of a smoking-related lung microenvironment on tumor progression. Specific microRNA signatures were identified in plasma samples collected up to two years before spiral-CT detection of the disease, thus able to catch the earlier biological phases of disease development. We also defined a plasma signature that discriminates subjects according to aggressiveness of their future tumors, and in particular the occurrence of early metastatic but spiral-CT invisible lung tumors or small spiral-CT detected lesions with aggressive potential. Of interest plasma miRNas involved in the signatures of lung cancer risk and of aggressive disease more closely reflected miRNAs expressed in the normal lung rather than those characterizing the tumor samples of patients, supporting the concept that normal lung microenvironment has a critical influence on tumor development and aggressiveness. Conclusion: These results open up the prospective of using plasma miRNAs as non invasive lung cancer biomarkers.
Fauxbourdon in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: ‘Le secours d'une douce harmonie’

Numerous French treatises over several centuries have pointed to the use of fauxbourdon as a common and important method for the elaboration of liturgical chant. Although the term fauxbourdon has been closely identified with musical practices and compositions dating from the time of Du Fay, it continued to be used to describe a method of performing liturgical chant in France well into the twentieth century. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in particular, fauxbourdon was frequently referred to in treatises and accounts of chant performance, but the term itself was rarely described in any satisfying detail, making it difficult to know what the practice was actually like, and how it related to—or differed from—what we know about fauxbourdon’s earliest forms. Fortunately, a number of printed and manuscript sources from the late sixteenth to the eighteenth century—including dictionaries, treatises, ceremonials, and collections of music—include examples of composed fauxbourdon settings. An examination of these reveals both general and specific information about the practice that on occasion conflicts with contemporary definitions and descriptions, but also reveals a certain range of variation in what was included within the purview of the term.
A Case of Collapsing Glomerulopathy Secondary to Romidepsin Therapy in a Patient With Subcutaneous Panniculitis-Like T-Cell Lymphoma

We report a case of a 44-year-old female with subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma, who developed acute renal failure and nephrotic syndrome following treatment with romidepsin. Renal biopsy revealed collapsing variant of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), with good clinical response to high dose steroids. Although there is an association between paraneoplastic glomerulonephritides and lymphoma, in this case the temporal association and response to therapy, despite progression of the lymphoma, favor FSGS secondary to romidepsin therapy. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of collapsing FSGS secondary to romidepsin therapy. World J Nephrol Urol. 2014;3(1):41-48 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/wjnu132w
Spinning Gold: The Financial Returns to External Stakeholder Engagement

In response to the growing societal challenge to multinational corporations’ strategic pursuit of short-term economic returns, these organizations increasingly seek to buttress the political and so...
The Memory of Burke and the Memory of Pitt: English Conservatism Confronts its past, 1806–1829

On 27 January 1806, in a house of commons newly integrating the momentous events of Trafalgar, Nelson's death, and Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz, the obsequies of William Pitt commenced. Lord Lascelles proposed that the late prime minister be honoured as had been his father twenty-eight years before, with a public funeral. The motion eventually passed but the inter-party wrangle that it caused was unseemly. William Windham, who had served as Pitt's Secretary at War between 1794 and 1801, wondered why such unusual honours were proposed for Pitt, given both the precarious situation of the current war (so unlike the Great Commoner's contribution to British glory) and the fact that Edmund Burke's death in 1797 had elicited no such designs. ‘In every point of comparison that could be made,’ said Windham, ‘Mr Burke stood upon the same level with Mr Pitt, and I do not see the reason for the difference.’ In retrospect, it may appear odd that any leading politician thought Burke was entitled to a state funeral. He had been neither war leader nor prime minister, the usual recipients of public funerals. Few others in the political nation in 1797, whig or Pittite, shared Windham's judgement on this matter. That Windham thought the Pittites should have shared his judgement was the source of his bitterness in his speech to the House. If Burke's acknowledged enemies, the Foxite whigs, had opposed public honours for Burke, Windham would not have been surprised,But that was not the case; it was not from them that the objection came, but from gentlemen on the other side of the house [Pittites], who took Mr Burke as the leader of their opinions, who cried him up to the skies, who founded themselves upon what he had done, but who were afraid, that if they consented to such honours, it would appear as if they approved of all the sentiments of that great man some of which were, perhaps, of too high a tone for them to relish.
Non Hodgkin's lymphoma associated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis: rare case of long term remission with chemotherapy: a case report

Although membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis has been reported to occur in association with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, information concerning the long term effects of treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on the associated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis is limited. The current report describes a patient who presented with the abrupt onset of hypertension, mixed nephritic/nephrotic syndrome and acute renal failure. Kidney biopsy was consistent with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, type 1. Bone marrow biopsy performed in the evaluation of periaortic lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, and thrombocytopenia confirmed the diagnosis of low grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The patient's renal function improved and proteinuria resolved after initial treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with chemotherapy. During eleven years of follow up, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis has remained in remission, as confirmed by repeatedly negative urinalyses, normal blood pressure and absence of clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of nephritic/nephrotic syndrome. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis has been known to be associated with both chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, particularly with B cell lymphocytic type non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There is limited information available concerning the effects of treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on the progression of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma associated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. In the few reported cases we found, long term follow up after initial resolution of the membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis was lacking. This report presented a rare case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma associated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, that continued to be in remission during eleven years of follow up after initial chemotherapy treatment of lymphoma.
Membrane architecture of mitochondria in neurons of the central nervous system

Electron tomography was used to help redefine the membrane architecture of mitochondria in neurons of the brain. Investigations were conducted on unexplored questions of structural homogeneity between mitochondria in the four intensely studied regions of the brain and in the functionally distinct neuronal sub-compartments. These mitochondria have the majority of cristae composed of both tubular and lamellar segments with the tubes arranged more peripherally and the lamellae more centrally located. Cristae that are entirely tubular were not commonly seen and those that are entirely lamellar were rare. It was determined that cristae connect through narrow, sometimes very long tubular regions to the peripheral surface of the inner membrane. A structurally distinct type of contact site was revealed in brain mitochondria, which we named the bridge contact site. These bridges may play a role in the structural integrity of the outer and inner membrane systems. It was found that the membrane architecture in the various brain regions and neuronal compartments was strikingly uniform, including consistently tubular crista junctions. The functional consequences of this junctional architecture are discussed in relation to the segregation of proteins between the inner boundary membrane and the cristae membranes, and in relation to the model of microcompartmentation of macromolecules inside cristae.
Analyses of Reproductive Interactions That Occur after Heterospecific Matings within the Genus Caenorhabditis

Formation of zygotes in internally fertilizing organisms requires a number of successful interactions between oocytes and sperm within a receptive female reproductive tract. These interactions are usually assumed to be species-specific. For most species, it is either not possible to inseminate females with sperm from a different species or not possible to observe the consequences of such an insemination because the female is opaque. Nematodes of the genus Caenorhabditis are optically transparent and prior work indicates copulation between individuals of two different species is possible. We have used a series of vital stains and other cytological methods to analyze sperm after cross-species mating. We present here a series of analyses of the postcopulatory, prefertilization interactions among three Caenorhabditis species and find that reproductive biology is conserved, to varying degrees, among all three species. This approach allows investigation into which in vivo interactions between sperm and both oocytes and the somatic gonad have been maintained during the reproductive isolation that accompanies speciation.
Study of the open and closed loop characteristics of a tractor and a single axle towed implement system

Accurate automatic guidance of towed implements is important for performing agricultural field operations and for gaining the ultimate benefit from such systems. The study of open and closed loop system responses of a vehicle-implement system can be helpful in the design of practical guidance controllers. Open loop analysis of the kinematic and dynamic models revealed that the higher order dynamics captured by the tractor and implement dynamic model had an impact on simulated responses at higher operating velocities and on higher input frequencies. In addition, a dynamic model with tire relaxation length dynamics was also studied. The various model responses were compared with the experimental responses. Closed loop system characteristics were studied by using a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller. The tractor position and heading and implement heading states along with respective rate states were fed back to close the loop. Steering dynamics were also added to the dynamic model closed loop analysis, which helped to achieve a realistic closed loop steering angle history. The closed loop system dynamics became faster as the forward velocity was increased. The open and closed loop response analysis performed in this work provided an understanding about the system at various forward velocities, which will help to design and develop efficient and robust tractor and towed implement guidance controller.
Pilot scale fiber separation from distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) using sieving and air classification

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), the coproduct of fuel ethanol production from cereal grains like corn, is mainly used as cattle feed and is used at low inclusion levels in poultry and swine diets because of high fiber content. Elusieve process, the combination of sieving and air classification (elutriation), was developed in laboratory scale to separate fiber from DDGS to result in a low fiber product which would be more suitable for poultry and swine. In this pilot scale study, DDGS was sieved at a rate of 0.25 kg/s (1 ton/h) into four sieve fractions using a sifter and the three largest sieve fractions were air classified using aspirators to separate fiber on a continuous basis. Results were similar to laboratory scale. Nearly 12.4% by weight of DDGS was separated as Fiber product and resulted in two high protein products that had low fiber contents. Payback period for the Elusieve process in an existing dry grind plant processing corn at the rate of 2030 metric tonnes/day (80,000 bushels/day) would be 1.1 yr.
BioLemmatizer: a lemmatization tool for morphological processing of biomedical text

The wide variety of morphological variants of domain-specific technical terms contributes to the complexity of performing natural language processing of the scientific literature related to molecular biology. For morphological analysis of these texts, lemmatization has been actively applied in the recent biomedical research. In this work, we developed a domain-specific lemmatization tool, BioLemmatizer, for the morphological analysis of biomedical literature. The tool focuses on the inflectional morphology of English and is based on the general English lemmatization tool MorphAdorner. The BioLemmatizer is further tailored to the biological domain through incorporation of several published lexical resources. It retrieves lemmas based on the use of a word lexicon, and defines a set of rules that transform a word to a lemma if it is not encountered in the lexicon. An innovative aspect of the BioLemmatizer is the use of a hierarchical strategy for searching the lexicon, which enables the discovery of the correct lemma even if the input Part-of-Speech information is inaccurate. The BioLemmatizer achieves an accuracy of 97.5% in lemmatizing an evaluation set prepared from the CRAFT corpus, a collection of full-text biomedical articles, and an accuracy of 97.6% on the LLL05 corpus. The contribution of the BioLemmatizer to accuracy improvement of a practical information extraction task is further demonstrated when it is used as a component in a biomedical text mining system. The BioLemmatizer outperforms other tools when compared with eight existing lemmatizers. The BioLemmatizer is released as an open source software and can be downloaded from http://biolemmatizer.sourceforge.net .
INCREASED BODY FLUID PURINE LEVELS DURING HYPOTENSIVE EVENTS. EVIDENCE FOR ATP DEGRADATION

Tissue ischemia leads to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) breakdown with elevation of body fluid ATP metabolites. This study tests the hypothesis that there is a direct relationship between periods of hypotension and body fluid uric acid and oxypurine levels in 19 prospectively studied patients. Significant elevations in urine oxypurine/creatinine clearance were found during periods of hypotension as compared with nonhypotensive periods (p less than 0.05). During severe episodes of hypotension, the serum urate level was significantly elevated as well (p less than 0.05). The increase in these body fluid products of ATP degradation may reflect cellular ischemia during hypotensive periods. There was a weak correlation (r = -0.31, p less than 0.001) between the systolic blood pressure and urine oxypurine/creatinine clearance. However, variability in the appearance of body fluid ATP breakdown products during episodes of hypotension suggests the interplay of multiple factors in the degradation of ATP. The use of ATP degradation products to quantitate the physiologic significance of clinical events remains tantalizing but not proved.
A comparison of univariate, bivariate, and trivariate whole-genome linkage screens of genetically correlated electrophysiological endophenotypes

We used a maximum-likelihood based multipoint linkage approach implemented in SOLAR to examine simultaneously linkage for three electrophysiological endophenotypes from the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism: TTTH1, TTTH2, and TTTH3. These endophenotypes have been identified as markers of alcohol dependence susceptibility. Data were from 905 individuals in 143 families. Measured covariates considered included sex, age at electrophysiology data collection, habitual smoking status, and the maximum number of drinks consumed in a 24-hour period. Comparisons were made among genome-wide univariate, bivariate, and trivariate linkage analyses using genotypes based on microsatellite markers supplied by the Center for Inherited Disease Research, and genotypes based on single-nucleotide polymorphism markers provided by Illumina. All LODs were corrected to a standard equivalent to 1 degree of freedom. Using the trivariate approach and the microsatellite-based genotypes, we estimated a maximum multipoint linkage signal of LOD = 2.66 on chromosome 7q at 157 cM. Analyses using the Illumina SNP genotypes produced similar results, yielding a maximum multipoint LOD of 2.95 on 7q at 174 cM. These regions of interest correspond to those identified in the univariate and bivariate linkage screens. Our results suggest that trivariate multipoint linkage analyses have utility in the further characterization of chromosomal regions potentially containing genes influencing the phenotypes being examined. Based on a comparison of the number of LOD scores achieving statistical significance, our results suggest that the microsatellite- and Illumina SNP-based genotypes have similar utility for detecting genomic regions of interest.
Economists and the gains from trade

This paper examines William H. Hutt's work in terms of two early books, Economists and the Public (1936) and A Plan for Reconstruction (1944). Hutt is presented as a consistent reductionist, who concentrated attention on the elementary principle of mutuality of gains from trade. This concentrated attention led him to reject any and all observed restrictions on voluntary exchange as inefficient and, hence, damaging to welfare.
Impaired endothelin-induced vasoconstriction in coronary arteries of Zucker obese rats is associated with uncoupling of [Ca2+]i signaling

Although insulin resistance (IR) is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease, little is known about the regulation of coronary vascular tone in IR by endothelin-1 (ET-1). We examined ET-1 an...
Playing at learning: why knowledge creation needs fun

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1997) assert their theory of knowledge creation blends both Western and Japanese philosophy. Although they incorporate several major tenets of rational philosophy, they overlook important criticisms that impact their model. This paper explores one element of their theory-the "enabling condition" of intention-and suggests some limitations to their approach that can be overcome by recognizing play as an enabler of (the Japanese word) "ba" and consequently an enabler for knowledge creation.
Different digital paths to the keg? How exposure to peers' alcohol-related social media content influences drinking among male and female first-year college students

Abstract Despite speculation that peers' alcohol-related content on social media sites (SMS) may influence the alcohol use behaviors of SMS frequenting college students, this relationship has not been investigated longitudinally. The current prospective study assesses the relationship between exposure to peers' alcohol-related SMS content and later-drinking among first-year college students. Among 408 first-year students, total exposure to peers' alcohol-related content on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat during the initial 6 weeks of college predicted alcohol consumption 6 months later. The rather robust relationship persisted even after students' and close friends drinking were accounted for, indicating that alcohol references on SMS do not simply reflect alcohol use behaviors that would otherwise be observed in the absence of SMS and be predictive of later alcohol use. Findings also illuminate important gender differences in the degree to which peers' alcohol-related SMS content influenced later drinking behavior as well as psychological mediators of this relationship. Among females, enhancement drinking motives and beliefs about the role of alcohol in the college experience fully mediated the relationship between SMS alcohol exposure and later drinking. Males, however, evidenced a much stronger predictive relationship between SMS alcohol exposure and second semester drinking, with this relationship only partially explained by perceptions of drinking norms, enhancement drinking motives, and beliefs about the role of alcohol in the college experience. Implications of these findings for college drinking prevention efforts and directions for future research are discussed.
Combined high pressure and thermal processing on inactivation of type E and nonproteolytic type B and F spores of Clostridium botulinum.

The aim of this study was to determine the resistance of multiple strains of the three nonproteolytic types of Clostridium botulinum (seven strains of type E, eight of type B, and two of type F) spores exposed to combined high pressure and thermal processing. The resistance of spores suspended in N-(2-acetamido)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid (ACES) buffer (0.05 M, pH 7) was determined at a process temperature of 80°C with high pressures of 600, 650, and 700 MPa using a laboratory-scale pressure test system. Spores of C. botulinum serotype E strains demonstrated less resistance than nonproteolytic spores of type B or F strains when processed at 80°C and 600 MPa for up to 15 min. All C. botulinum type E strains were reduced by >6.0 log units within 5 min under these conditions. Among the nonproteolytic type B strains, KAP 9-B was the most resistant, resulting in reductions of 2.7, 5.3, and 5.5 log, coinciding with D-values of 7.7, 3.4, and 1.8 min at 80°C and 600, 650, and 700 MPa, respectively. Of the two non...
Evaluation and management of peripheral edema.

Edema can be treated systematically and comprehensively, based on an understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms involved. This approach encourages accurate diagnosis while ensuring safety and cost-effectiveness.