cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
HES1 is a critical mediator of the SHH-GLI3 axis in regulating digit number

Sonic Hedgehog/GLI3 signaling is critical in regulating digit number, such that Gli3-deficiency results in polydactyly and Shh-deficiency leads to digit number reductions. Anterior-posterior SHH/GLI3 signaling gradients regulate cell cycle factors controlling mesenchymal cell proliferation, while simultaneously regulating Grem1 to coordinate BMP-induced chondrogenesis. SHH/GLI3 also coordinates the expression of additional genes, however their importance in digit formation remain unknown. Utilizing genetic and molecular approaches, we identified HES1 as a key transcriptional regulator downstream of SHH/GLI signaling capable of inducing preaxial polydactyly (PPD), required for Gli3-deficient PPD, and capable of overcoming digit number constraints of Shh-deficiency. Our data indicate that HES1, a direct SHH/GLI signaling target, induces mesenchymal cell proliferation via suppression of Cdkn1b, while inhibiting chondrogenic genes and the anterior autopod boundary regulator, Pax9. These findings fill gaps in knowledge regarding digit number and patterning, while creating a comprehensive framework for our molecular understanding of critical mediators of SHH/GLI3 signaling.
Melatonin-induced changes in the bovine vaginal microbiota during maternal nutrient restriction.

Altering the composition of the bovine vaginal microbiota has proved challenging, with recent studies deeming the microbiota dynamic due to few overall changes being found. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine if gestational age, endogenous progesterone, maternal nutrient restriction, or dietary melatonin altered the composition of the bovine vaginal microbiota. Brangus heifers (n = 29) from timed artificial insemination to day 240 of gestation were used; at day 160 of gestation, heifers were assigned to either an adequate (ADQ; n = 14; 100% NRC requirements) or restricted (RES; n = 15; 60% NRC requirements) nutritional plane and were either supplemented with dietary melatonin (MEL; n = 15) or not supplemented (CON; n = 14). Samples for vaginal microbiota analysis were taken on day 0 (prior to artificial insemination), day 150 (prior to dietary treatments), and day 220 of gestation (60 days post-treatment initiation) using a double guarded culture swab. The vaginal bacterial overall community structure was determined through sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene using the Illumina Miseq platform. Alpha diversity was compared via two-way ANOVA; beta diversity was compared via PERMANOVA. The linear discriminant analysis for effect size (LEfSe) pipeline was utilized for analysis of taxonomic rank differences between bacterial communities. Gestational age, progesterone concentration, and maternal nutritional plane did not alter alpha or beta diversity of the vaginal microbiota. However, gestational age resulted in compositional changes at the order, family, and genus level. Moreover, dietary melatonin supplementation did not alter alpha diversity of the vaginal microbiota but did alter beta diversity (P = 0.02). Specifically, melatonin altered the composition at the genus level and increased the prevalence of aerobic bacteria in the vaginal tract. To date, melatonin is the first hormone associated with altering the composition of the bovine vaginal microbiota.
Collaborative Multidisciplinary Design Optimization with Neural Networks.

The design of complex engineering systems leads to solving very large optimization problems involving different disciplines. Strategies allowing disciplines to optimize in parallel by providing sub-objectives and splitting the problem into smaller parts, such as Collaborative Optimization, are promising solutions.However, most of them have slow convergence which reduces their practical use. Earlier efforts to fasten convergence by learning surrogate models have not yet succeeded at sufficiently improving the competitiveness of these strategies.This paper shows that, in the case of Collaborative Optimization, faster and more reliable convergence can be obtained by solving an interesting instance of binary classification: on top of the target label, the training data of one of the two classes contains the distance to the decision boundary and its derivative. Leveraging this information, we propose to train a neural network with an asymmetric loss function, a structure that guarantees Lipshitz continuity, and a regularization towards respecting basic distance function properties. The approach is demonstrated on a toy learning example, and then applied to a multidisciplinary aircraft design problem.
Controls on soil microbial carbon use efficiency over long-term ecosystem development

Carbon use efficiency—the proportion of substrate carbon that is converted to microbial biomass—is an important control on many ecosystem properties including carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. Although CUE varies widely across terrestrial ecosystems, a coherent understanding of edaphic controls on CUE is lacking, thereby limiting the accuracy of global carbon models. The objective of this study was to determine how microbial CUE changes with long-term soil development and nutrient availability. Soil was collected across the chronosequence and fertility gradient at Jug Handle State Natural Reserve (the “Ecological Staircase”) in Mendocino County, CA. These soils exhibit a range in pH (3.29–6.59), litter quantity and quality (litter C:N, 32–70), and clay content (14.13–87.30%), while other factors such as modern-day climate, potential biota, and parent material are common to all sites. CUE varied significantly with soil and ecosystem development; the relationship was unimodal over geological time with CUE peaking at intermediate aged soils. Soil organic matter (SOM) content and pH were the most important variables each accounting for 30% of the variation in CUE across sites. Soil pH had a quadratic relationship with CUE, peaking at pH 4.7. Litter carbon to phosphorus (C:P) and nitrogen to phosphorus (N:P) ratios were also significant factors (Pearson’s r = 0.57 and 0.39 respectively). These results demonstrate that CUE changes in complex ways with soil fertility and long-term ecosystem development, and that edaphic factors such as SOM, pH, and litter quality need to be taken into account when predicting CUE for a given system.
Exploring physical therapy students' experience of peer learning in a student-run clinic

BACKGROUND: Participation in a student-run pro bono clinic (SRPBC) provides opportunities for students to develop professional skills, engage with the community, and provide an often-underserved population with needed care. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This paper describes the results of a mixed-method analysis of student experiences in an SRPBC. A survey with both Likert-type and write-in elements was administered to three cohorts of students enrolled in a doctoral program of physical therapy. Students were prompted to provide their perspective on the value of the clinic experience with respect to professional development, academic relevancy, and personal growth. RESULTS: The analysis discovered that perspective value of the clinic in the areas of personal growth and academic relevancy differed by cohort. Specifically, 1st-year students reported that they benefitted immensely by learning from their peers, especially in the use of outcome measures. Second-year students did not report the same benefits. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that even though students from different cohorts work together in the same clinic, they may experience the clinic very differently. This observation provided the basis for changes to the SRPBC to enhance leadership and conflict management skills of the 2nd-year students.
Disruptions in Place Attachment

A study of disruptions in psychological processes can provide unique insight into their predisruption functioning as well as the disruptions themselves and their consequences. Place attachment processes normally reflect the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional embeddedness individuals experience in their sociophysical environments. An examination of disruptions in place attachments demonstrate how fundamental they are to the experience and meaning of everyday life. After the development of secure place attachments, the loss of normal attachments creates a stressful period of disruption followed by a postdisruption phase of coping with lost attachments and creating new ones. These three phases of the disruption process are examined with respect to disruptions due to burglaries, voluntary relocations, and disasters, with special attention to the Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, flood and the Yungay, Peru, landslide. Underlying the diversity of disruptions, dialectic themes of stability-change and individuality-communality provide a coherent framework for understanding the temporal phases of attachment and its disruption.
jitSim: a simulator for predicting scalability of parallel applications in presence of OS jitter

Traditionally, Operating system jitter has been a source of performance degradation for parallel applications running on large number of processors. While some large scale HPC systems such as Blue Gene/L and Cray XT4, mitigate jitter by making use of a specialized light-weight operating system on compute nodes, other clusters have attempted using HPC-ready commodity operating systems such as ZeptoOS (based on Linux). However, as large systems continue to be designed to work with commodity OSes, OS jitter still remains an active area of research within the HPC community. While, it is true that some of the specialized commodity OSes like ZeptoOS have relatively low OS jitter levels, there is still a need to have a quick and easy set of tools that can predict the impact of OS jitter at a given configuration and processor number. Such tools are also required to validate and compare any new techniques or OS enhancements that mitigate jitter. Emulating jitter on a large "jitter-free" platform using either synthetic jitter or real traces from commodity OSes has been proposed as one useful mechanism to study scalability behavior under the presence of jitter. However, this requires access to large scale jitter free systems, which are few in number and not so easily accessible. As new systems are built, that should scale up to a million tasks and more, the emulation approach is still limited by the largest jitter free system available. In this paper we present jitSim - a simulation framework for predicting scalability of parallel compute intensive applications in presence of OS jitter using trace driven simulation. The jitter simulation framework can be used to quickly simulate the effects of jitter that is characteristic of a given OS using a given trace. Furthermore, this system can be used to predict scalability up to any arbitrarily large number of task counts. Our methodology comprises of collection of real jitter traces, measurement of network latency, message passing stack latency, and shared memory latency. The simulation framework takes the above as inputs and then simulates multiple parallel tasks starting at randomly chosen points in the jitter trace and executing a compute phase. We validate the simulation results by comparing it with real data and demonstrate the efficacy of the simulation framework by evaluating various jitter mitigation techniques through simulation.
Resistant-starch formation in high-amylose maize starch

A new public high-amylose maize line, GEMS-0067, has been developed by USDA-ARS Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) Project. GEMS-0067 maize line is a homozygous mutant of amylose-extender (ae) gene and high-amylose modifier (HAM) gene(s). GEMS0067 starches consist of 83.1-85.6% apparent amylose and 39.4%-43.2% resistant starch (RS), which are larger than the ae single-mutant starches (61.7-67.7% and 11.5%-19.1%, respectively) and normal maize starch (~30% and <1%, respectively). Maize ae-mutant starches consisted of spherical and elongated granules (up to 32%), which differed from normal maize starch, consisting of spherical and angular granules. The objectives of this study were to understand the mechanism of the RS formation in the maize ae-mutant starches, the crystalline structures of the maize ae-mutant starches, the formation of RS and elongated starch granules during the kernel development, and how dosage of the HAM gene(s) affected the structures and properties of endosperm starch of maize ae-mutant. We analyzed the structures and properties of the RS residues that remained after enzymatic hydrolysis of the maize ae-mutant starches at 95-100 C (AOAC method 991.43). The RS residues consisted of mainly partially hydrolyzed amylose and intermediate component (IC) and were more concentrated in the elongated starch granules and the outer layer of the spherical granules. The RS residues displayed the B-type polymorph and had gelatinization temperatures above 100 C. These results suggested that long-chain double-helical crystallites of amylose/IC were present in the native maize ae-mutant starches. The amylose/IC crystallites maintained the semi-crystalline structures at 95-100 C and were resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis at 95-
Negritud, Creolidad, Antillanidad: de generaciones a transformaciones

En este ensayo sostengo que el acto de leer Elogio de la creolidad requiere una reconstruccion de un contexto definido por historias literarias y teoricas a cuyo desarrollo contribuyo este manifiesto, pero las cuales, a su vez, permitieron una exploracion profunda del sentido del concepto contenido en este manifiesto. Asi, del mismo modo que Creolidad creo conciencia de una identidad antillana en ciernes, el discurso que intentaba describirla debe percibirse tambien como un proceso de lectura plural constante, que empieza “teoricamente” con Elogio de la creolidad, pero ni se limita ni termina con el. Tambien sostengo aqui que el examen transformacional y generacional de estas teorias por parte de los tres creolistas no fue ni totalizador, ni exhaustivo, ni imparcial, ni falto de ambivalencia y exceso respecto al asunto de la lengua creole, la literatura y la busqueda de la Palabra verdadera (“la Parole vraie”).
A phase 2 study of bevacizumab with cisplatin plus intensity-modulated radiation therapy for stage III/IVB head and neck squamous cell cancer.

BACKGROUND: For patients with stage III through IVB head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), concurrent high-dose cisplatin plus radiation therapy is a widely accepted standard of care. HNSCC tumors that express high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor have been associated with a worse prognosis, and bevacizumab may sensitize tumors to cisplatin and radiation. METHODS: Planned treatment consisted of definitive intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) (total, 70 grays) with concurrent cisplatin (50 mg/m2 on days 1, 2, 22, 23, 43, and 44) and bevacizumab (15 mg/kg on days 1, 22, and 43). The primary endpoint was 2-year progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) was a secondary endpoint. RESULTS: Forty-two previously untreated patients (34 men and 8 women; median age, 55 years; range, 27-75 years) with stage III through IV HNSCC without distant metastasis (oropharyngeal carcinoma, 39 patients; laryngeal carcinoma, 3 patients) were treated. Human papillomavirus (HPV) status by was determined by in situ hybridization (HPV positive, 16 patients; HPV negative, 14 patients, unknown HPV status, 12 patients). The toxicities (determined according to version 3.0 of Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Common) that were experienced by all patients (any grade) were mucositis, lymphopenia, leukopenia, throat pain, fatigue, and anemia. There were 2 treatment-related deaths, including 1 sudden death and 1 death from aspiration pneumonia. The median follow-up was approximately 31.8 months (range, <3 to 51 months). The 2-year PFS rate was 75.9% (95% confidence interval, 63.9%-90.1%), and the 2-year OS rate was 88% (95% confidence interval, 78.6%-98.4%). Among 32 patients for whom post-treatment Head and Neck Performance Status Scores were obtained (median, 5.6 months after completing radiation therapy), scores of 100 for eating, speech, and diet, respectively, were recorded among 75%, 84%, and 50% of patients. BACKGROUND: The addition of bevacizumab to high-dose cisplatin plus IMRT did not appear to increase toxicity to unacceptable levels among patients with HNSCC, and the efficacy results were encouraging. Cancer 2012. © 2012 American Cancer Society.
Integrated and distributed Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) data in shipboard environments

The information and communication requirements of 21st Century Navies present dynamic and demanding challenges in the critical area of distributed and synchronized navigation and timing. Information must be integrated from diverse sources and be widely and easily distributed to user systems and platforms while maintaining integrity and security. The Navigation Sensor System Interface (NAVSSI) is a system that continues to expand to meet such ever increasing and demanding ship navigation and war fighting information requirements of today and tomorrow's United States and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) navies. NAVSSI is the pre-eminent source of precise, real-time, integrated Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) data for the United States and Spanish navies with Japan and South Korea scheduled to receive systems in the near future. NAVSSI is designed to integrate the inputs from various navigation sensors and distribute the integrated navigation solution to shipboard weapon and combat support systems. Since NAVSSI gathers inputs from different shipboard sensors and then distributes the resulting navigation data, it has many "user interface" systems that receive the data. These users have stringent requirements for navigation and timing accuracy. In order to provide a highly accurate and robust navigation solution, NAVSSI has implemented the Navigation Source Integration (NSI) algorithm. This algorithm is based on the integration of the best sources of navigation data (generally GPS and INS). In addition, NAVSSI outputs four different time forms with accuracies between one hundred nanoseconds and ten milliseconds depending on user interface system needs. As a result of higher levels of integration and interoperability requirements, Network Centric Warfare (NCW) has introduced new technological challenges, where once stand-alone systems are now networked together and therefore pose new security issues such as cross-domain connectivity. NAVSSI as a single common source of distributing PNT data on board Navy surface ships, faces the Information Security (IS) challenge of connecting to both classified and unclassified security domains. The strict timing requirements of PNT data, further constrain the scope of available IS products that can be deployed while maintaining these security boundaries. While the US Navy has specified that unclassified PNT data can cross from Black unclassified domain to Red classified domain, NAVSSI has the responsibility to ensure that it cannot be used to transfer other than PNT data, or provide connectivity for other types of networking and data communication services. This paper will discuss how the NAVSSI implementation satisfies the requirements for computing timely, integrated and accurate PNT data, its distribution, and means for maintaining security.
The Question Remains after Raytheon v. Hernandez: Whether No-Rehire Rules Disparately Impact Alcoholics and Former Drug Abusers

In Raytheon v. Hernandez, the United States Supreme Court dealt with an employer's no-rehire rule that was challenged on the basis that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Because of procedural error on the plaintiffs part, the issue of whether Raytheon's rule had a disparate impact upon members of the plaintiffs protected class went unanswered. However, the Court made clear that generally the disparate impact test will apply under the ADA. How do no-rehire rules have a disparate impact upon the disabled? Let us look at Raytheon's rule, for example. Their no-rehire rule (which incidentally was not a written rule) could result in a disparate impact upon the disabled or those with a record of disability, both of which are protected under the ADA. The problem with the policy is that the individuals banned from rehire include those who have worked for the company in the past and were terminated for, or resigned because of, workplace misconduct. Where this misconduct related to alcohol or drug use, and the former employee is thereafter rehabilitated, ADA issues and protections abound. The argument is simply that a former employee should be able to apply for a position for which he/she is qualified, despite prior problems, where he/she is fully rehabilitated. The Raytheon policy was tougher on former employees than it was on new applicants. This was so because applicants who tested positive for illegal drug or alcohol use were permitted to reapply within a set period of time whereas former employees were totally banned for their previous misconduct.
Idiotypic Interactions in the Treatment of Human Diseases

The importance of the idiotypic network in the regulation of the immune response of experimental animals has been amply established. The role of the idiotypic anti-idiotypic interactions in the regulation of the human immune response to antigen has been less extensively studied. In this review we will discuss data obtained from our laboratory 011 the role the idiotypic network plays in the regulation of human immunity in health and in disease states.
Effects of adhesion on the effective Young's modulus in glass slide/glue laminates

In Part I of this study we experimentally explored the effects of adhesion area, number of glue spots, and bond thickness on the effective Young's modulus in glass slide/glue composite specimens having adhesion areas ranging from 0%–100%. In this paper, the Young's modulus data are analysed further as a function of bond thickness in glass slide/glue laminates having 100% adhesion area and are compared with predictions from two existing models, a rule of mixtures model and a dynamic beam vibration model. Based on the experimental results obtained in Part I, a model has been obtained for glass slide/glue composite specimens by applying several boundary conditions. The resulting expression predicts the elastic modulus of a three-layer composite specimen bonded by an adhesive. The model developed describes well the experimental results obtained in Part I.
Lactate kinetics in sepsis and septic shock: a review of the literature and rationale for further research

Over the last two decades, there have been vast improvements in sepsis-related outcomes, largely resulting from the widespread adoption of aggressive fluid resuscitation and infection control. With increased understanding of the pathophysiology of sepsis, novel diagnostics and resuscitative interventions are being discovered. In recent years, few diagnostic tests like lactate have engendered more attention and research in the sepsis arena. Studies highlighting lactate’s prognostic potential for mortality and other outcomes are ubiquitous and largely focus on the early stage of sepsis management, defined as the initial 6 h and widely referred to as the “golden hours.” Additional investigations, although more representative of surgical and trauma patients, suggest that lactate measurements beyond 24 h from the initiation of resuscitation continue to have predictive and prognostic utility. This review summarizes the current research and evidence regarding lactate’s utility as a prognosticator of clinical outcomes in both early and late sepsis management, defines the mechanism of lactate production and clearance, and identifies areas warranting further research.
Finances, Family, Fashion, Fitness, and … Freedom? The Changing Lives of Urban Middle-Class Vietnamese Women

Drawing on more than 15 years of ongoing ethnographic research in Ho Chi Minh City, this chapter explores the dilemmas of freedom, constraint, anxiety, and morality experienced by middle-class women with respect to finances, family, fashion, and fitness. Although many women welcome the chance for self-determination afforded by new forms of production and consumption, and this might signal a retreat of the state from involvement in private life, this chapter demonstrates that market-oriented economic policies have enabled the Vietnamese government and communist party to interpellate women as consumer-citizens in new commercial arenas.
Influence of film thickness, molecular weight, and substrate on the physical properties of photoresist polymer thin films

The influence of film thickness, molecular weight, and substrate on the glass transition temperature and coefficient of thermal expansion for poly(methyl methacrylates) thin films, a traditional electron beam resist material, has been studied in detail. Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry was used to measure the change in film thickness and polymer refractive index for polymer film thicknesses ranging from approximately 30 nm to 650 nm. The Tg for the polymer thin films was determined using changes in the rate of film thickness expansion as a function of temperature. It was observed that the film Tg exhibits a strong dependence on both the film thickness, the polymer molecular weight, and the substrate used. The Tg of poly(methyl methacrylates) films on hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) coated silicon surfaces decreased with decreasing film thickness below a critical film thickness of approximately thirteen times the radius of gyration of the polymer. The Tg of poly(methyl methylacrylate) films on silicon native oxide surfaces increased with decreasing film thickness below a critical film thickness of approximately six times the radius of gyration of the polymer. The coefficient of thermal expansion also exhibited dependence on film thickness, molecular weight, and substrate used. It was found that the Tg of polymer thin films can be modeled using a “master” curve based on reduced variables, where Tg is normalized by the its bulk value and film thickness is normalized by the polymer radius of gyration. Master curves based on this scaling have successfully been generated for the two different polymer-substrate systems used in this work. The possible implications of this phenomena for ultrathin resist film behavior is also discussed.
Isotropic chest CT examination: diagnostic quality of reformats.

AIM To evaluate the image quality of axial and coronal reformats obtained from isotropic resolution 40-channel chest computed tomography (CT) examinations. METHODS AND MATERIALS Thirty consecutive patients with intravenous contrast-enhanced chest CT examinations using a 40-channel CT machine were enrolled for the study. The raw data were reconstructed into two sets of source axial images: 0.9mm section width and 0.45mm reconstruction interval (isotropic resolution) and 4mm section width with 3mm reconstruction interval (anisotropic resolution; group A). The isotropic data set was reformatted into axial and coronal stacks (groups B and C, respectively) with 4mm section width and 3mm interval. Three independent readers evaluated stacks A to C using a three-point scale for resolution of right lower lobe segmental bronchi, edge sharpness of major and minor fissures, respiratory motion artefact, reconstruction artefact, noise and overall image quality. RESULTS The sharpness of fissures scored significantly higher with the coronal reformats (group C) compared with the axial image sets (groups A and B) ( p p CONCLUSION Isotropic imaging of the chest allows creation of reformats with similar image quality as similar thickness axial source images. These reformats are probably of sufficient quality to form the basis of clinical interpretation.
An isothermal flow calorimeter designed for high temperature, high pressure operation

Abstract An isothermal flow calorimeter suitable for measuring either endothermic or exothermic heats of mixing from 373 to 673 K and from 0.1 to 40.5 MPa is described. An automatically controlled pulsed heater and a highly stable heat leak path are used to maintain the reaction zone at a constant temperature. Energy effects from 0.15 to 120 J min −1 can be measured to an accuracy of ±0.8% at a constant temperature and pressure. The calorimeter was tested by measuring the heat of mixing of water—ethanol at 413 K and 1 MPa and was found to produce data in good agreement with previously measured values.
Non-contact cooling using radiative heat transfer at nanoscale gaps

We demonstrate cooling of a SiO 2 membrane using near-field radiative heat transfer between the membrane and a SiO 2 coated probe. Such a scheme can be used for non-contact cooling and precision measurement of near-field radiation.
Core excited states in 40Ca

Abstract An extension of the usual models for dealing with core-excited states in light nuclei is proposed. The case of 4p-4h excitations in 40 Ca is considered, and the J = T = 0 levels calculated. It is shown that 4p-4h states, which are usually neglected, can have rather low excitation energies, and therefore it might be unnecessary to include more complicated configurations to explain low-lying J = 0 states in 40 Ca.
Pancreas modelling by a deterministic optimisation method

Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterised by abnormally high glucose concentration, insulin dysfunction and resistance which may lead to health problems such as cardiovascular disease. This paper presents a mechanistic pancreas model of insulin dynamics which incorporates experimental physiological data. This model will provide an efficient and accurate way to determine the specifics of a metabolic problem in the pancreas. We use Intravenous Glucose Tolerance Test (IVGTT) data from the literature to identify the model parameters by implementing a deterministic optimisation method called DIRECT (DIviding RECTangles). Different data sets are used for optimisation and validation.
The Kinase Domain Alters the Kinetic Properties of the Myosin IIIA Motor

Myosin IIIA is unique among myosin proteins in that it contains an N-terminal kinase domain capable of autophosphorylating sites on the motor domain. A construct of myosin IIIA lacking the kinase domain localizes more efficiently to the stereocilia tips and alters the morphology of the tips in inner ear hair cells. Therefore, we performed a kinetic analysis of myosin IIIA without the kinase domain (MIII DeltaK) and compared these results with our reported analysis of myosin IIIA containing the kinase domain (MIII). The steady-state kinetic properties of MIII DeltaK indicate that it has a 2-fold higher maximum actin-activated ATPase rate (kcat = 1.5 +/- 0.1 s-1) and a 5-fold tighter actin affinity (KATPase = 6.0 +/- 1.4 microM, and KActin = 1.4 +/- 0.4 microM) compared to MIII. The rate of ATP binding to the motor domain is enhanced in MIII DeltaK (K1k+2 approximately 0.10 +/- 0.01 microM-1.s-1) to a level similar to the rate of binding to MIII in the presence of actin. The rate of ATP hydrolysis in the absence of actin is slow and may be rate limiting. Actin-activated phosphate release is identical with and without the kinase domain. The transition between actomyosin.ADP states, which is rate limiting in MIII, is enhanced in MIII DeltaK. MIII DeltaK accumulates more efficiently at the tips of filopodia in HeLa cells. Our results suggest a model in which the activity and concentration of myosin IIIA localized to the tips of actin bundles mediates the morphology of the tips in sensory cells.
Collaborative inhibition in spatial memory retrieval

Collaborative inhibition refers to the finding that pairs of people working together to retrieve information from memory—a collaborative group—often retrieve fewer unique items than do nominal pairs, who retrieve individually but whose performance is pooled. Two experiments were designed to explore whether collaborative inhibition, which has heretofore been studied using traditional memory stimuli such as word lists, also characterizes spatial memory retrieval. In the present study, participants learned a layout of objects and then reconstructed the layout from memory, either individually or in pairs. The layouts created by collaborative pairs were more accurate than those created by individuals, but less accurate than those of nominal pairs, providing evidence for collaborative inhibition in spatial memory retrieval. Collaborative inhibition occurred when participants were allowed to dictate the order of object placement during reconstruction (Exp. 1), and also when object order was imposed by the experimenter (Exp. 2), which was intended to disrupt the retrieval processes of pairs as well as of individuals. Individual tests of perspective taking indicated that the underlying representations of pair members were no different than those of individuals; in all cases, spatial memories were organized around a reference frame aligned with the studied perspective. These results suggest that inhibition is caused by the product of group recall (i.e., seeing a partner’s object placement), not by the process of group recall (i.e., taking turns choosing an object to place). The present study has implications for how group performance on a collaborative spatial memory task may be optimized.
Corn Yield and Residual Soil Nitrate as Affected by Time and Rate of Nitrogen Application

Efficient use of N fertilizer for corn (Zea mays L.) production is important for increasing economic return to the grower and for minimizing the potential impact on water quality. Time and rate of application are important management tools for improving N efficieny. This experiment was conducted for 3 yr on two nonirrigated southern Minnesota soils--a Mt. Carroll silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic Mollic Hapludalf) and a Webster clay loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Haplaquoll)--to evaluate the effect of time and rate of N application on corn yield. N uptake and residual soil NO3(-1)-N. Nitrogen as (NH4)2SO4 was applied in a factorial arrangement of N rate (low and high) and time of application (at planting (PL), eight-leaf stage (8L), or split evenly between the two times (SP)). A zero N control and a very high N rate at PL were also included. Nitrogen rates were 75, 150, and 225 kg ha-1 on the Mt. Carroll, and 100, 200, and 300 kg ha-1 on the Webster. Grain and total dry matter (DM) yield, and plant uptake of N were increased by N application in five of six site years, in most cases up to the high N rate. Delayed N application (8L or SP vs. PL) resulted in either no effect or a slight decrease in DM and in variable effects on N uptake, depending on the year and location. Residual NO3(-1)-N in the 1.5 m profile ranged from 150 to 400 kg ha-1 for most treatments in the fall but was 50 to 70% lower the following spring. Residual NO3(-1) in the fall was consistently increased by delayed application of the high N rate from the PL to 8L stage, with most of the increase occurring in the upper 0.6 m of the profile. The decrease in residual NO3(-1) from fall to spring, attributed in part to leaching beyond the sampled zone, minimized the potential carryover effect for the next year's production and indicated a potential for greater environmental impact where N application was delayed. Dry matter production, N uptake, and residual NO3(-1)-N were affected by unusually dry periods in midsummer of all 3 yr, especially at the Webster site.
The Application of Advanced Computational Methods to the Modeling of PBMR Source Terms

The pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) is a high temperature gas-cooled reactor which uses helium gas as a coolant. The PBMR design relies on the excellent heat transfer properties of graphite and a fuel design that is inherently resistant to the release of the radioactive material up to high temperatures. The safety characteristics of the PBMR concept are excellent. However, a very strong safety case will have to be made if a new generation of reactors is to be successfully introduced to a concerned public. Until recent developments in computational fluid dynamics methods, computer speed, and data storage, the coupled thermal-hydraulic, chemical, and mass transport phenomena could not be treated in an integrated analysis. This paper addresses one aspect of the interplay between the details of fluid flow and aerosol transport within the complex geometry of the pebble bed core. A very large quantity of graphite dust is produced by the interaction among the pebbles. The potential for the deposition of radionuclides on the surface of dust particles and their subsequent transport as aerosols is substantial. This effort focuses on the inertial deposition of these aerosols within the pebble bed. Inertial deposition in the low Reynolds number regime of laminar flow in pebble beds has been explored previously, but with less powerful computational techniques. Some experimental data are also available in this regime. No analyses or experimental data are available in the high Reynolds number turbulent regime in which the PBMR operates. This paper describes results of analyses of inertial deposition obtained with the FLUENT computational fluid dynamics code. The objective of the analysis is to obtain an expression for deposition within an asymptotic unit cell, removed from the boundary conditions at the entrance to the array. The results of analyses performed at different velocities and fluid densities in the turbulent regime were correlated against a modified Stokes number. The deposition correlation is well represented by the integral form of the normal distribution. Deposition for the time-averaged flow was found to be insensitive to the flow model. In the laminar regime, FLUENT results were found to be in agreement with earlier published results and experimental data. The stochastic behavior of eddies was also simulated within FLUENT using the k–e model. Eddy-enhanced deposition results in greater deposition at all aerosol sizes in comparison with the time-averaged results, with significant deposition of aerosols predicted for small aerosol sizes. However, it is likely that these results are quite sensitive to the modeling of turbulence and they must be considered preliminary.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
Contextual interference: Contributions of practice

Abstract The present experiment extends the findings of Shea and Morgan (1979) and Lee and Magill (1983) by determining the impact of manipulating contextual interference in 50, 200, and 400 acquisition trials on retention of a rapid force production task assessed under both random and blocked contexts. Acquisition performance was interior for the random acquisition groups as compared to the blocked groups with little differences between the 50, 200, and 400 acquisition groups' performance at comparable stages of practice. However, the retention data indicated that subjects who completed 400 random acquisition trials performed better on both random and blocked retention than subjects who learned under blocked contexts. Increasing the number of blocked acquisition trials did not improve retention under blocked contexts and had a negative effect on retention assessed under random contexts. Apparently, the benefits of blocked practice (low contextual interference) occur early in practice with response production becoming increasingly more rigid and inflexible. On the other hand, the benefits of random practice (high contextual interference) surface after initial practice.
Cherry Blossoms destroyed by Squirrels

THE very general interest exhibited in your columns some time since in regard to the destruction of flowers by birds, leads me to report the following observation.
Similarity of endowments and the factor price equalization condition

We give a geometric interpretation of the lens condition, proposed by Deardorff as a shortcut for checking the factor price equalization (FPE) condition. We identify the conditions under which the lens condition implies the FPE condition. If the FPE zone is not a neighborhood of the diagonal allocations, however, the lens condition is irrelevant despite the implication since the FPE condition (hence the lens condition) is unlikely to be satisfied in that case. We give precise conditions under which the lens condition is equivalent to the FPE condition and simultaneously, the FPE zone is a neighborhood of the diagonal allocations.
New Insights Into Gestational Glucose Metabolism: Lessons Learned From 21st Century Approaches

Pregnancy presents a unique physiological challenge that requires changes coordinated by placentally and non–placentally derived hormones to prepare the mother for the metabolic stress presented by fetal development and to ensure appropriate nutrient allocation between mother and fetus. Of particular importance is the maintenance of normal glucose metabolism during pregnancy. Here, we describe physiological changes in glucose metabolism during pregnancy and highlight new insights into these adaptations that have emerged over the past decade using novel methodologies, specifically genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and metabolomics. While GWAS have identified some novel associations with metabolic traits during pregnancy, the majority of the findings overlap with those observed in nonpregnant populations and individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Metabolomics studies have provided new insight into key metabolites involved in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Both of these approaches have suggested that a strong link exists between GDM and T2D. Most recently, a role of the gut microbiome in pregnancy has been observed, with changes in the microbiome during the third trimester having metabolic consequences for the mother. In this Perspectives in Diabetes article, we highlight how these new data have broadened our understanding of gestational metabolism, and emphasize the importance of future studies to elucidate differences between GDM and T2D.
Ultrasound accelerates functional recovery after peripheral nerve damage.

Objective Axonal injury in the peripheral nervous system is common, and often it is associated with severe long-term personal and societal costs. The objective of this study is to use an animal model to demonstrate that transcutaneous ultrasound can accelerate recovery from an axonotmetic injury. Methods The sciatic nerve of adult male Lewis rats was crushed in the right midthigh to cause complete distal degeneration of axons yet maintain continuity of the nerve. Beginning 3 days after surgery, various transcutaneous ultrasound treatments or sham treatments were applied 3 days per week for 30 days to the crush site of rats that were randomly assigned to two groups. In the preliminary experiments, there were three animals in each ultrasound group and two control animals. In the final experiment, there were 22 animals in the ultrasound group and 20 animals in the control group. Recovery was assessed by use of a toe spread assay to quantify a return to normal foot function in the injured leg. Equipment included a hand-held transducer that emitted continuous-wave ultrasound. The most successful ultrasound protocol had a spatial peak, time-averaged intensity of 0.25 W/cm2 operated at 2.25 MHz for 1 minute per application. Results Rats subjected to the most successful ultrasound protocol showed a statistically significant acceleration of foot function recovery starting 14 days after injury versus 18 days for the control group. Full recovery by the ultrasound group occurred before full recovery by the control group. Conclusion Transcutaneous ultrasound applied to an animal model of axonotmetic injury accelerated recovery. Future studies should focus on identification of the mechanism(s) by which ultrasound creates this effect, as a prelude to optimization of the protocol, demonstration of its safety, and its eventual application to humans.
Service-Learning: Historical Roots, Present Forms, and Educational Potential for Training Health Educators

Abstract Service-learning is a relatively new pedagogical technique with tremendous potential to improve both instruction in health education and health in a community. Several often-used definitions and descriptions of service-learning, however, greatly underrepresent the usefulness of this method for health educators. This article is intended as an introduction to service-learning for those who teach health or the methods of health promotion. It shows that there are two major types of service-learning and that one is especially appropriate for training health educators. It also gives examples of how the method may be used for a wide variety of academic objectives often pursued in training health educators.
Patient‐adaptive reconstruction and acquisition in dynamic imaging with sensitivity encoding (PARADISE)

MR imaging of the human heart without explicit cardiac synchronization promises to extend the applicability of cardiac MR to a larger patient population and potentially expand its diagnostic capabilities. However, conventional non-gated imaging techniques typically suffer from low image quality or inadequate spatio-temporal resolution and fidelity. Patient-Adaptive Reconstruction and Acquisition in Dynamic Imaging with Sensitivity Encoding (PARADISE) is a highly-accelerated non-gated dynamic imaging method that enables artifact-free imaging with high spatio-temporal resolutions by utilizing novel computational techniques to optimize the imaging process. In addition to using parallel imaging, the method gains acceleration from a physiologically-driven spatio-temporal support model; hence, it is doubly accelerated. The support model is patient-adaptive, i.e., its geometry depends on dynamics of the imaged slice, e.g., subject’s heart-rate and heart location within the slice. The proposed method is also doubly adaptive as it adapts both the acquisition and reconstruction schemes. Based on the theory of time-sequential sampling, the proposed framework explicitly accounts for speed limitations of gradient encoding and provides performance guarantees on achievable image quality. The presented in-vivo results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the PARADISE method for high resolution non-gated cardiac MRI during a short breath-hold.
Oversimplifications I: Physicians Don't Do Public Health

*The views in this article are the author's alone and should not be construed as policy statements of the American Medical Association.
Fire plumes and ceiling jets

Expressions describing plume and ceiling jet flows available from the research literature have been presented and reviewed. These expressions can be used to predict convective heat transfer from these flows and the rate of development of a layer of combustion products above a fire in an enclosure. A number of examples of the use of these expressions have been given in which radiation heat transfer and internal resistance to heat transfer have been ignored for simplicity. These simplifying assumptions are likely to be violated in many applications considering structural failure and material ignition. However, in problems involving detector activation the simplifying assumptions used in the examples are generally correct. Inclusion of radiation and conduction in the analysis does not invalidate the expressions presented here, but will generally complicate the calculations if not make numerical solutions necessary.