cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modification of lead toxicity and organ distribution by dietary sulfur amino acids in chicks (Gallus domesticus).

1. Chicks (Gallus domesticus) were fed a basal diet deficient in methionine and total sulfur amino acids with 0 or 1000 ppm added lead for 21 days. 2. Methionine or methionine and cystine addition improved growth regardless of dietary lead level. 3. Cystine addition alone improved growth only when lead was present. 4. Relative inhibition of growth by lead was greater with diets containing no added methionine. 5. Hepatic non-protein sulfhydryl concentration was increased by lead and all amino acid additions. 6. Organ lead concentrations were generally lower with added amino acids. 7. Dietary methionine appears to counteract lead toxicity more effectively than cystine.
The Human Rights Act 1998—how will it affect child law in England and Wales?

This article gives a brief introduction to the Human Rights Act 1998. It discusses some of the ways that it may affect child law proceedings, particularly care proceedings, in the future. It suggests aspects which professionals involved in such proceedings may wish to consider when called upon to assist the Court. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Release of soluble CD40L from platelets is regulated by glycoprotein IIb/IIIa and actin polymerization.

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa antagonists (abciximab, eptifibatide, and tirofiban) and other inhibitors on translocation of CD40L from intraplatelet stores to the platelet surface and on the release of soluble CD40L (sCD40L) from platelets. Background CD40L is a proinflammatory and prothrombotic ligand in the tumor necrosis factor family. Methods Platelet surface CD40L was measured by flow cytometry, and sCD40L was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Translocation of CD40L from intraplatelet stores to the platelet surface was not inhibited by GP IIb/IIIa antagonists. However, release of sCD40L from the surface of activated platelets was inhibited by GP IIb/IIIa antagonists in a dose-dependent manner, in concert with inhibition of PAC1 binding to platelets (a surrogate marker for fibrinogen binding). Release of sCD40L from activated platelets was also markedly reduced in Glanzmann platelets (deficient in GP IIb/IIIa). Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid was an effective inhibitor of sCD40L release, but only when added before platelet activation. Both cytochalasin D (an inhibitor of actin polymerization) and GM6001 (an inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases [MMPs]) inhibited the release of sCD40L from platelets when added before, as well as 3 min after, platelet activation. However, neither cytochalasin D nor GM6001 affected translocation of CD40L to the platelet surface. Conclusions The GP IIb/IIIa antagonists inhibit release of sCD40L from activated platelets. Release of sCD40L from platelets is regulated, at least in part, by GP IIb/IIIa, actin polymerization, and an MMP inhibitor-sensitive pathway. In addition to their well-characterized inhibition of platelet aggregation, GP IIb/IIIa antagonists may obviate the proinflammatory and prothrombotic effects of sCD40L.
Large interdomain rearrangement triggered by suppression of micro- to millisecond dynamics in bacterial Enzyme I

Enzyme I (EI), the first component of the bacterial phosphotransfer signal transduction system, undergoes one of the largest substrate-induced interdomain rearrangements documented to date. Here we characterize the perturbations generated by two small molecules, the natural substrate phosphoenolpyruvate and the inhibitor a-ketoglutarate, on the structure and dynamics of EI using NMR, small-angle X-ray scattering and biochemical techniques. The results indicate unambiguously that the open-to-closed conformational switch of EI is triggered by complete suppression of micro- to millisecond dynamics within the C-terminal domain of EI. Indeed, we show that a ligand-induced transition from a dynamic to a more rigid conformational state of the C-terminal domain stabilizes the interface between the N- and C-terminal domains observed in the structure of the closed state, thereby promoting the resulting conformational switch and autophosphorylation of EI. The mechanisms described here may be common to several other multidomain proteins and allosteric systems.
Urodynamic indices and pelvic organ prolapse quantification 3 months after vaginal delivery in primiparous women

Introduction and hypothesis This study aims to describe multichannel urodynamic indices and pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POP-Q) in primiparous women 3 months after vaginal delivery.
Optimal Conditions for the Enzymatic Determination of L-Lactic Acid

A simple enzymatic method for the determination of lactic acid with muscle lactic dehydrogenase is described. L(+) Lactate in amounts from 0.04 µM to 0.4 µM can be directly measured by following the formation of reduced diphosphopyridine nucleotide at 340 mµ. The effect of varying the concentrations of reactants in the test system was studied, and the optimal concentrations for stoichiometric conversion of lactate to pyruvate were determined. When lactic acid concentrations in plasma, liver, and heart muscle were determined by both enzymatic and chemical methods, identical results were obtained. The advantages of the present enzymatic procedure over chemical methods are discussed.
Repetitively pulsed atmospheric pressure discharge treatment of rough polymer surfaces: II. Treatment of micro-beads in He/NH3/H2O and He/O2/H2O mixtures

Plasmas are increasingly being used to functionalize the surface of polymers having complex shapes for biomedical applications such as tissue scaffolds and drug delivering micro-beads. The functionalization often requires affixation of amine (NH2) or O-containing groups. In this paper, results are discussed from a two-dimensional computational investigation of the atmospheric pressure plasma functionalization of non-planar and porous surfaces of polypropylene with NHx and O-containing groups. For the former, the discharge is sustained in He/NH3/H2O mixtures in a dielectric barrier–corona configuration. Significant microscopic non-uniformities arise due to competing pathways for reactive gas phase radicals such as OH and NH2, and on the surface by the availability of OH to initiate amine attachment. The treatment of inside surfaces of porous polymer micro-beads placed on an electrode is particularly sensitive to view angles to the discharge and pore size, and is ultimately controlled by the relative rates of radical transport and surface reactions deep into the pores. The functionalization of micro-beads suspended in He/O2/H2O discharges is rapid with comparable treatment of the outer and interior surfaces, but varies with the location of the micro-bead in the discharge volume.
Trickle‐bed effectiveness factors for liquid‐phase reactants

Comparaison du facteur d'efficacite calcule exactement avec le modele de particules cubique, et du facteur d'efficacite calcule avec le modele de facteur de ponderation
Ultrafast laser-induced damage and the influence of spectral effects

Numerous studies have investigated the prerequisite role of photoionization in ultrafast laser-induced damage (LID) of bulk dielectrics. This study examines the role of spectral width and instantaneous laser frequency in LID using a frequency dependent multiphoton ionization (MPI) model and numerical simulation of initially 800 nm laser pulses propagating through fused silica. Assuming a band gap of 9 eV, MPI by an 800 nm field is a six-photon process, but when the instantaneous wavelength is greater than 827 nm an additional photon is required for photoionization, reducing the probability of the event by many orders of magnitude. Simulation results suggest that this frequency dependence can significantly impact the onset of LID and ultrashort pulse filamentation in solids.
Preconception Immunization with a Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Glycoprotein Vaccine Improves Pregnancy Outcome in a Guinea Pig Model of Congenital CMV Infection

The guinea pig (gp) model of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was used to evaluate a gpCMV glycoprotein vaccine. Hartley guinea pigs were immunized 3 times with 50 mg of lectin column‐purified glycoproteins prepared from gpCMV-infected or -uninfected tissue culture. Immunization with the gpCMV vaccine produced seroconversion in all animals. Animals then were placed with gpCMV-seronegative male animals and were challenged late in pregnancy with virulent salivary gland‐passaged gpCMV. Immunization with gpCMV glycoproteins significantly improved pregnancy outcome, with 54 of 63 pups live-born in immunized animals, compared with 21 of 48 in the controls ( ). In addition, virus was P ! .001 isolated from 24 of 54 live-born pups born to immunized mothers, compared with 16 of 20 live-born pups born to controls, indicating that immunization significantly reduced in utero transmission in surviving animals ( ). P ! .01 Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection occurs in 0.4%‐2.3% of all live births, resulting in 30,000‐40,000 infected infants in the United States annually [1, 2]. Of these infants, »10% are symptomatic at birth. The prognosis for these children is poor, with a mortality rate of »10% and a high rate of severe neurological sequelae—including microcephaly, seizures, mental retardation, and sensorineural hearing loss—developing in the survivors [3, 4]. In addition, »10%‐15% of infected infants who are asymptomatic at birth will nevertheless develop sequelae (the most common of which is sensorineural hearing loss), which are frequently progressive in nature [5]. Congenital CMV infection can occur both in children born to mothers who experience primary CMV infection during pregnancy and in those born to mothers who are seropositive for the virus before conception [4, 6]. In the latter instance, infection is believed to result most frequently from reactivation of the mother’s latent CMV infection, rather than from infection with a different virus isolate [7]. This suggests that the immune responses elicited after primary CMV infection provide substantial protection against secondary infection. Adler et al.
Phytohormone signalling pathways interact with sugars during seed germination and seedling development

Exogenous glucose delays seed germination in Arabidopsis thaliana not only in wild type (WT), but also in a number of mutants in hormone signalling pathways. This study demonstrates that the ABA Insensitive 3 (ABI3) gene in the ABA signalling pathway and the RGA-like 2 (RGL2) and SPINDLY (SPY) genes in the GA signalling pathways all play important roles in the glucose-induced delay of seed germination. Transcription of the ABI3 and RGL2 genes is up-regulated by glucose. This study also supports the idea that different sugars such as the hexose stereoisomers, glucose, and mannose, delay or inhibit seed germination via different branches of the hormone signalling pathways. Analysis of post-germination seedling development of wild-type plants indicates that exogenous glucose supplied after germination may have a concentration-dependent stimulatory effect on root and shoot growth. Comparison of WT and spy seedling growth on different glucose concentrations suggests that the stimulatory effect of glucose is partially exerted via the GA or cytokinin signalling pathways. The effects of glucose on plant growth and development may be stimulatory or inhibitory depending on the developmental stage. The inhibitory effect on seed germination seems to be accomplished via the activation of the ABA signalling pathway, through ABI3, and inactivation of the GA signalling pathway through RGL2 and SPY. On the other hand, the stimulatory effect of glucose on seedling growth may involve the GA and/or cytokinin signalling pathways.
Influence of Dietary Electrolyte Balance, Energy, and Amino Acid Supplementation on the Monensin Response in Chicks Fed Diets Varying in Protein Content

Abstract The effects of several dietary factors on the anorexigenic response to monensin in chicks fed corn-soybean meal diets varying in crude protein (CP) were investigated. In Trial 1, crossbred chicks (New Hampshire × Columbia) were fed a 16% CP diet with or without 160 mg/kg monensin and/or .53% potassium carbonate in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Monensin supplementation caused a 24.5% growth depression, and potassium carbonate had no effect on the monensin-induced depression. Trials 2 and 3 were designed to evaluate the effects of dietary energy level on the monensin response in commercial broiler chicks fed diets containing 24, 20, or 16% CP. As CP level was decreased, the depression in performance from 121 mg/kg monensin increased. Increasing the energy concentration of the 24 and 20% CP diets to that of the 16% CP diet had no consistent effect on the response of chicks to monensin. Trial 4 was conducted to determine the influence of amino acid (AA) supplementation on the monensin response in broiler chicks fed a low-protein diet. Supplementation of a 16% CP diet with an AA mixture (3% glutamic acid plus essential AA equal to the 24% CP diet) improved growth performance markedly. Deletion of methionine, arginine, and lysine from the AA mixture yielded performance well below that of chicks fed the unsupplemented 16% CP diet, indicating a severe AA imbalance. Monensin supplementation at 121 mg/kg caused a much greater growth depression in chicks fed 16% CP or 16% CP plus the complete AA mixture than in those fed 24% CP or the AA-imbalanced 16% protein diet. Thus, AA supplementation does not eliminate the monensin-induced growth depression that is exacerbated when low-protein diets are fed. The results also indicate that dietary AA balance may influence the response associated with addition of monensin to broiler diets.
Increased ApoB in Small Dense LDL Particles Predicts Premature Coronary Artery Disease

The relation between plasma lipoproteins and atherosclerosis has evolved over the past fifty years. Serum cholesterol levels were shown to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) in familial hypercholesterolemia in the early 20th century (see Frederickson1). This cholesterol was determined to be in a particular lipoprotein class2 now termed low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.3 LDL cholesterol has been shown to predict premature CAD in many studies,4 and a reduction in LDL cholesterol with statin therapy has been shown to decrease CAD events by up to 50% in primary5 and in secondary6 intervention trials. The National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel7 initially based recommendations for therapy to prevent CAD on LDL cholesterol levels. Later the measurement of HDL cholesterol was added to estimate risk.8 See page 553 Because treatment for LDL cholesterol levels only decreases the risk for premature CAD by about half, other lipoprotein factors have been sought to explain the …
“Bring Your Textbook!” Using Secondary Texts to Assess Reading Demands and Skills Required for Students with High-Incidence Disabilities

It is important for special educators to have a strong repertoire of diagnostic methods to determine how well students with high-incidence disabilities are accessing, reading, and remembering content from textbooks used in their middle and high school classes. Suggestions for using the diagnostic information to guide specialized instruction responsive to the students’ needs are identified.
The chemistry of graphene oxide

The chemistry of graphene oxide is discussed in this critical review. Particular emphasis is directed toward the synthesis of graphene oxide, as well as its structure. Graphene oxide as a substrate for a variety of chemical transformations, including its reduction to graphene-like materials, is also discussed. This review will be of value to synthetic chemists interested in this emerging field of materials science, as well as those investigating applications of graphene who would find a more thorough treatment of the chemistry of graphene oxide useful in understanding the scope and limitations of current approaches which utilize this material (91 references).
022 Warming Surgical Wounds: Effects on Healing and Wound Complications

Aims: Compare postoperative local warming to standard incision care on: 1) healing response and 2) incidence of wound complications. Methods: This two group randomized pilot study (N = 54) tested the wound healing effects of post-operative warming in patients having gastric bypass or colectomy procedures. Patients randomized to warming received their first 1-hour treatment in the post anesthesia recovery unit followed by 5 additional treatments in the first 48 hours after surgery. Healing response was evaluated by hydroxyproline and mRNA for pro α 1(I) collagen content of a subcutaneous ePTFE implant removed on postoperative day 9. Patients were followed for the first two postoperative clinic visits (6–8 weeks). CDC Surgical Site Infection Criteria were used to evaluate wound infection and complications. Results: Six warmed (22%) and 10 standard care (37%) patients experienced healing problems. Incidence of Wound Infection by CDC classification. Incidence of Wound Infection by CDC classification. Group Superficial Deep Incisional Organ Space Warming 2 3 1 Standard Care 4 4 2 Mean hydroxyproline levels did not differ, though there was a trend toward higher amounts in warmed patients (332 ± 185 ng/cm ePTFE vs. 286 ± 165 ng/cm). Differences in mRNA for pro α 1(I) collagen approached significance (Chi-Square 5.4, p = .06) with warmed patients showing more cells with abundant positive message. Conclusions. Clinical and cellular outcomes suggest local incision warming may benefit healing by reducing infection and influencing fibroblast collagen production.
Completing symplectic matrices

Abstract Let F be a field of characteristic ≠ 2, V a non-singular 2n -dimensional symplectic space over F , v 1 ,v 2 ,…,v 2n a basis for V , and Sp n (F) the collection of symplectic isometries of V with respect to this basis. We consider the following completion question: If A is any n×n F -matrix, must there be some D∈Sp 2n (F) with D= A ∗ ∗ ∗ . It is shown that for some particular important choices of bases, the answer is yes, but it does not hold in general.
Interactions with 3D isotropic and homogeneous radiation fields: a Monte Carlo simulation algorithm

Monte Carlo techniques have become important tools for many biomedical applications. Many of these involve simulations of radiation fields that rely on the isotropy and homogeneity of the radiation source. The current study proposes a general algorithm to simulate such a radiation field around a fixed object. The idea is to surround the object with a sphere and to limit the source of radiation to the surface of that sphere. To insure the isotropy of the radiation source, each point on the sphere surface as seen from the object defines a direction at which a unidirectional field of particles is created. The combination of all unidirectional fields approaching from all points on the source sphere creates the effect of an isotropic and homogeneous radiation source. The algorithm is first presented without mathematical detail. Next, the expressions for the position and direction of the particles that compose the field are derived using analytical geometry. The radius of the source sphere is the only parameter needed for this algorithm. The randomness of each particle is simulated by the choice of four random numbers. Two algorithms using these analytical results are proposed, and an example of a C program is given for each. Both algorithms can be easily adapted to any situation that involves the Monte Carlo simulation of radiation interactions of a fixed object immersed within an isotropic and homogeneous radiation field.
A strategy to quantitate global phosphorylation of bone matrix proteins.

Current studies of protein phosphorylation focus primarily on the importance of specific phosphoproteins and their landscapes of phosphorylation in the regulation of different cellular functions. However, global changes in phosphorylation of extracellular matrix phosphoproteins measured “in bulk” are equally important. For example, correct global phosphorylation of different bone matrix proteins is critical to healthy tissue biomineralization. To study changes of bone matrix global phosphorylation, we developed a strategy that combines a procedure for in vitro phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of fully mineralized bone in addition to quantitation of the global phosphorylation levels of bone matrix proteins. For the first time, we show that it is possible to enzymatically phosphorylate/dephosphorylate fully mineralized bone originating from either cadaveric human donors or laboratory animals (mice). Using our strategy, we detected the difference in the global phosphorylation levels of matrix proteins isolated from wild-type and osteopontin knockout mice. We also observed that the global phosphorylation levels of matrix proteins isolated from human cortical bone were lower than those isolated from trabecular bone. The developed strategy has the potential to open new avenues for studies on the global phosphorylation of bone matrix proteins and their role in biomineralization as well for other tissues/cells and protein-based materials.
Emerging Nanomedicine Approaches to Targeting HIV-1 and Antiretroviral Therapy.

The Institute for Lasers, Photonics & Biophotonics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA Center for Integrated Global Health Sciences, Translational Pharmacology Research Core, New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA Department of Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214-3013, USA *Author for correspondence: jlr8@buffalo.edu Hilliard L Kutscher1,2, Paras N Prasad1, Gene D Morse2 & Jessica L Reynolds*,3
Liquid chromatographic identification of common fish species

Description d'une technique de separation et de dosage des proteines sarcoplasmiques hydrosolubles extraites de 31 especes de poissons comestibles, avant ou apres congelation et a l'etat cru ou cuit. Cette methode est applicable aux poissons entiers ou en filets, frais ou congeles, ou a la chair broyee de poisson
Factors related to publication productivity in a sample of female health educators.

OBJECTIVE To examine factors related to success in academic publishing for women in health education and promotion. METHODS Ten participants, identified as productive authors, submitted a copy of their curriculum vita and completed a questionnaire related to publishing productivity. RESULTS Factors that contributed to successful publication included personal attributes, such as self-discipline and effective time management, and situational factors, such as talented collaborators, access to mentoring, and grant funding. Tips for maximizing productivity and enhancing collaborative efforts with colleagues are also presented. CONCLUSION Findings support correlates of productivity in faculty members that have been reported in other academic disciplines.
Associations between Ectomycorrhizal Fungi and Bacterial Needle Endophytes in Pinus radiata: Implications for Biotic Selection of Microbial Communities

Studies of the ecological and evolutionary relationships between plants and their associated microbes have long been focused on single microbes, or single microbial guilds, but in reality, plants associate with a diverse array of microbes from a varied set of guilds. As such, multitrophic interactions among plant-associated microbes from multiple guilds represent an area of developing research, and can reveal how complex microbial communities are structured around plants. Interactions between coniferous plants and their associated microbes provide a good model system for such studies, as conifers host a suite of microorganisms including mutualistic ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and foliar bacterial endophytes. To investigate the potential role ECM fungi play in structuring foliar bacterial endophyte communities, we sampled three isolated, native populations of Monterey pine (Pinus radiata), and used constrained analysis of principal coordinates to relate the community matrices of the ECM fungi and bacterial endophytes. Our results suggest that ECM fungi may be important factors for explaining variation in bacterial endophyte communities but this effect is influenced by population and environmental characteristics, emphasizing the potential importance of other factors — biotic or abiotic — in determining the composition of bacterial communities. We also classified ECM fungi into categories based on known fungal traits associated with substrate exploration and nutrient mobilization strategies since variation in these traits allows the fungi to acquire nutrients across a wide range of abiotic conditions and may influence the outcome of multi-species interactions. Across populations and environmental factors, none of the traits associated with fungal foraging strategy types significantly structured bacterial assemblages, suggesting these ECM fungal traits are not important for understanding endophyte-ECM interactions. Overall, our results suggest that both biotic species interactions and environmental filtering are important for structuring microbial communities but emphasize the need for more research into these interactions.
Current-induced spin polarization in anisotropic spin-orbit fields.

The magnitude and direction of current-induced spin polarization and spin-orbit splitting are measured in ${\mathrm{In}}_{0.04}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.96}$ As epilayers as a function of in-plane electric and magnetic fields. We show that, contrary to expectation, the magnitude of the current-induced spin polarization is smaller for crystal directions corresponding to larger spin-orbit fields. Furthermore, we find that the steady-state in-plane spin polarization does not align along the spin-orbit field, an effect due to anisotropy in the spin relaxation rate.
Oviposition, Fecundity, and Parasites of Neodiprion excitans from Belize, C.A.

Neodiprion excitans Rohwer females from Belize in Central America were not found to differ morphologically from females from southeastern North America, but differed in laying their eggs in rows in pine needles instead of singly as in southeastern North America. Fecundity was positively related to forewing length in newly-emerged females. Principal parasitic Hymenoptera from Belize included the egg parasite, Closterocerus cinctipennis Ashmead (Eulophidae), larval parasite, Perilampus sp. (Perilampidae), and a cocoon parasite, Dibrachys sp. (Pteromalidae). The parasitic fauna and fungal pathogens recovered from Belize and previously from Florida were very similar, despite geographic isolation of their sawfly hosts.
Marriage, Morals, and Politics in the Election of 1828

The foregoing verses, part of a longer piece of anti-Jackson doggerel entitled "Groanings," were created to deride Andrew Jackson's pique at losing the presidential election of 1828.1 "Groanings," of course, turned out to be a form of wishful thinking; Jackson won the election, garnering almost 56 percent of the popular vote. Yet this ribald projection of his defeat reveals a good deal about the campaign. Signed appropriately enough with the pseudonym Trash, it exemplifies a narrow but virulent strain of anti-Jackson rhetoric that drew on Rachel Jackson's marital problems with her first husband, Lewis Robards, and her allegedly illicit union with the general. Some supporters of John Quincy Adams were clearly convinced that the voters would shrink from electing a candidate so tainted by marital scandal, and although the voters did not respond as anticipated, the Jacksons were deeply distressed by the public scrutiny of their private life. Rachel Jackson was already in declining health, but there is little reason to discountJames Parton's assessment that the political exploitation of the Robards affair contributed to her death in December 1828. The new president neither forgave nor forgot the great personal price of the
RESEARCH ON CASING COLLAPSE IN SICHU-AN TRIASSIC SALT BED

Distribution of Triassic salt bed is very wide in Sichuan Area and the condition of salt rock creep resulting in casing collapse is existing.The paper determines firstly the change law of casing strength in the case of non-uniform load,and obtains the calculation method of casing strength,then,analyses the creepage law of salt rock bed,and gives creep collape load.On the basis of the principle of casing actual strength more than salt bed creep collapse load in non-uniform load,the safety in borehole casing ability be ensured.Application examples show that above technique thinking is feasible.
Performance Analysis of Spatial Modulation in Overlay Cognitive Radio Communications

We study the application of spatial modulation (SM) in overlay cognitive radio (CR) networks, in which the primary and secondary networks work concurrently over the same spectrum band. We assume that the direct link between the primary transmitter and receiver is not available, i.e. broken, and that the CR transmitter assists the primary network as a relay to amplify-and-forward the transmitted symbols of the primary. SM is used in the secondary to split the transmission space into two amplitude-phase modulation (APM) and spatial domains. In the proposed scheme, the secondary transmitter retransmits the primary symbols in APM domain, while its own information is transmitted by the index of transmitting antenna, similar to space shift keying, without causing any interference to the primary receiver. We analyze the performance of the optimal detectors at both the primary and secondary receivers for the case of phase shift keying modulation in terms of the average symbol error rate (ASER). We also study the asymptotic behavior of the ASER at both the primary and secondary at high signal-to-noise ratios. Simulation results show that the SM can be effectively used in overlay CR systems.
Tight Relaxations for Nonconvex Optimization Problems Using the Reformulation-Linearization/Convexification Technique (RLT)

This paper provides an expository discussion on applying the Reformulation-Linearization/Convexification Technique (RLT) to design exact and approximate methods for solving nonconvex optimization problems. While the main focus here is on continuous nonconvex programs, we demonstrate that this approach provides a unifying framework that can accommodate discrete problems such as linear zero-one mixed-integer programming problems and general bounded-variable integer programs as well. The basic RLT approach is designed to solve polynomial programming problems having nonconvex polynomial objective functions and constraints. The principal RLT construct for such problems is to first reformulate the problem by adding a suitable set of polynomial constraints and then to linearize this resulting problem through a variable substitution process in order to produce a tight higher dimensional linear programming relaxation. Various additional classes of valid inequalities, filtered through a constraint selection scheme or a separation routine, are proposed to further tighten the developed relaxation while keeping it manageable in size. This relaxation can be embedded in a suitable branch-and-bound scheme in order to solve the original problem to global optimality via a sequence of linear programming problems. Because of the tight convexification effect of this technique, a limited enumeration or even the use of a local search method applied to the initial relaxation’s solution usually serves as an effective heuristic strategy. We also discuss extensions of this approach to handle polynomial programs having rational exponents, as well as general factorable programming problems, and we provide recommendations for using RLT to solve even more general unstructured classes of nonconvex programming problems. Some special case applications to solve squared-Euclidean, Euclidean, or l p -distance location-allocation problems are discussed to illustrate the RLT methodology.
Management of HIV-1 Infection in Children

Optimal management of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected children requires a commitment from the healthcare delivery system, healthcare providers, and affected families and caregivers. When adequate resources are available (as in most industrialised nations), an aggressive approach to early identification of at-risk populations, early diagnosis, and early and aggressive therapy is associated with marked health benefits and cost efficiency. Much of the morbidity and high costs associated with HIV-1 care are related to the management of HIV-1—related complications. Some, but not all, of these could be prevented or lessened by earlier identification of HIV-1 infection and use of antiretroviral therapy for prophylaxis against opportunistic infections. Prevention of any opportunistic infection is always preferable to treatment. The greatest optimism for those caring for HIV-1—infected children has been provided by the success of antiretroviral therapy in preventing mother-to-infant HIV-1 transmission. A goal of reducing perinatal transmission of HIV-1 in industrialised nations from 25% to 2% or less is very reasonable. The recent success in Thailand provides hope that less privileged areas of the world with high burdens of HIV-1 infection might also be capable of benefiting from intervention strategies that will be accessible to them.
The Story of Zero

The zero coding of referents or other clausal constituents is one of the most natural, communicatively and cognitively-transparent grammatical devices in human language. Together with its functional equivalent, obligatory pronominal agreement, zero is both extremely widespread cross-linguistically and highly frequent in natural text. In the domain of reference, zero represents, somewhat paradoxically, either anaphorically-governed high continuity or cataphorically-governed low topicality. And whether in conjoined/chained or syntactically-subordinate clauses, zero is extremely well-governed, at a level approaching 100% in natural text. The naturalness, cross-language ubiquity and well-governedness of zero have been largely obscured by an approach that, for 30-odd years, has considered it a typological exotica, the so-called "pro-drop" associated with a dubious "non-configurational" language type. The main aim of this book is to reaffirm the naturalness, universality and well-governedness of zero by studying it from four closely related perspectives: (i) cognitive and communicative function; (ii) natural-text distribution; (iii) cross-language typological distribution; and (iv) the diachronic rise of referent coding devices. The latter is particularly central to our understanding the functional interplay between zero anaphora, pronominal agreement and related referent-coding devices.
Framing fraught topics through tangible multi-display engagement with live news

We describe an art museum installation that employed tangible interface, peripheral interface, and ambient display modalities to engage with news content regarding politically charged topics. News content was sourced via Google News, and used as driver for both a kinetic sculpture and a screen-faced tangible interaction console. Tangible tokens represented several keywords such as "human rights" and "torture," in the context of a 2006 project engaging the U.S. "War on Terror." We describe our implementation and experiences from two gallery deployments, and reflect on the piece's engagement with sensitive material after a decade's passage.
The Electoral College and the Problem of Interdependence Cost

The paper uses Constitutional Economics to criticize the U.S. Constitution; more specifically, the Electoral College. The paper makes the case that interdependence costs would be lower if the United States replaced the existing Electoral College system with national run-off elections.
An algorithm for the numerical evaluation of the associated Legendre functions that runs in time independent of degree and order

Abstract We describe a method for the numerical evaluation of normalized versions of the associated Legendre functions P ν − μ and Q ν − μ of degrees 0 ≤ ν ≤ 1 , 000 , 000 and orders − ν ≤ μ ≤ ν for arguments in the interval ( − 1 , 1 ) . Our algorithm, which runs in time independent of ν and μ, is based on the fact that while the associated Legendre functions themselves are extremely expensive to represent via polynomial expansions, the logarithms of certain solutions of the differential equation defining them are not. We exploit this by numerically precomputing the logarithms of carefully chosen solutions of the associated Legendre differential equation and representing them via piecewise trivariate Chebyshev expansions. These precomputed expansions, which allow for the rapid evaluation of the associated Legendre functions over a large swath of parameter domain mentioned above, are supplemented with asymptotic and series expansions in order to cover it entirely. The results of numerical experiments demonstrating the efficacy of our approach are presented, and our code for evaluating the associated Legendre functions is publicly available.
Checkpoint inhibition in pediatric hematologic malignancies

Immune surveillance comprising of adaptive and innate immune systems is naturally designed to eliminate cancer development; overexpression of inhibitory receptors and their ligands prevent this check and lead to evasion and hence cancer progression and metastasis. The use of tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) targeting these checkpoint regulators is promising and has led to this novel field of cancer immunotherapy. The first antibody directed against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), ipilimumab, showed promising results in clinical trials and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma in 2011. Since then, various other immune checkpoint inhibitors are being studied in preclinical and clinical trial phases, targeting programmed-death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), T cell lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), and others. Results from clinical trials are promising, and currently this approach has proven effective and safe in patients with solid tumors and some hematological malignancies in adults. In general, CTLA-4 and PD-1 inhibitors are well tolerated; however, the augmented immune response enabled by this class of agents is associated with a unique group of side effects called immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Experience in pediatrics using immune checkpoint inhibitors for hematological malignancies is limited to Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as in the ongoing Children's Oncology Group (COG) protocol ADVL1412. Therapeutic advances in childhood leukemia and lymphoma (TACL) consortium will initiate an early phase clinical trial with PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the next few months.
Resolving Braess-Like Paradoxes in General Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Coordinating medium access for a massive number of devices is challenging in general wireless ad hoc networks, such as cognitive radio networks and device-to-device (D2D) communication networks. To facilitate medium access, it is often desirable to gather some channel side information (CSI) at the transmitter side such as the channel availability in cognitive radio networks and the channel state information in D2D communication networks. In addition, since it is usually costly to gather the CSI for a large number of devices in a centralized way, distributed medium access control becomes attractive, where each user collects its own CSI to support autonomous and scalable data transmission. However, in the literature, there lacks a systematic way to understand the value of such CSI in the overall network performance. Game theory is often a natural choice for modeling the autonomous and strategic behavior of users. In this paper, we first formulate the multi-band random access game and design a polynomial time algorithm to identify the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium. Then, we propose a systematic framework to incorporate the CSI into the decision making based on the Bayesian game approach. We analyze how the knowledge of the CSI affects the equilibrium strategy and measure the value of this CSI knowledge by the utility difference. We resolve Braess-like paradoxes in general wireless ad hoc networks.
The character of scientists in the Nobel Prize speeches.

This essay describes the ethos (i.e. the character projected to specific audiences) of the 25 Nobel Lectures in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine given in 2013–2015 and the 15 Presenta...
The Acute Effects of Age and Particulate Matter Exposure on Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability in Mice

Exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) is associated with increased cardiac morbidity and mortality with the elderly considered to be the most susceptible. The purpose of this study was to determine if exposure to PM would cause a greater impact on heart regulation in older DBA/2 (D2) male mice as determined by changes in heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). D2 mice at the ages of 4, 12, and 19 months were instilled with 100 µg of PM or saline by aspiration. Before and after the aspiration, 3-min echocardiogram (ECG) samples for HR and HRV were recorded at 15-min intervals for 3 h along with corresponding measurements of homeostasis, such as temperature, metabolism, and ventilation. PM exposure resulted in an increase in HRV, declines in HR, and altered measures of homeostasis for a subset of the 12-mo mice. The PM aspiration did not affect cardiac or homeostasis parameters in the 4- or 19-mo mice. Our results suggest that a select group of middle-age mice are more susceptible to alterations in their heart rhythm after PM exposure and highlight that there are acute age-related differences in heart rhythm following PM exposure.
Difficult patient-physician relationships and the risk of medical malpractice litigation.

According to documented studies, patients who have good relationships with their physicians are less likely to file complaints in the event of an adverse medical outcome. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
CS-29 Creation of a weighted SLICC SLE classification criteria and comparison with other SLE classification criteria

Background In previous validation work, the SLICC 2012 SLE classification criteria were more sensitive than the revised ACR-11 criteria, while both criteria had similar agreement with physician diagnoses. Both of these classification rules count each SLE manifestation equally. Our objective was to derive and test a classification rule which differentially weights the variable used in the SLICC classification rule. We also compared this rule to a recently proposed EULAR/ACR classification rule that also uses a weighted approach. [Costenbader KH, Johnson S, Aringer M. EULAR/ACR Classification Criteria Update for SLE. Presented at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November 4–8, 2017]. Methods The physician-rated patient scenarios used to develop the 2012 SLICC classification criteria were re-employed to devise a weighted classification rule. A multiple linear regression model was constructed with the 2012 SLICC criteria variables as predictors and the binary outcome (physician classification of SLE) as the outcome. Weights for each criteria were generated by multiplying each criteria’s coefficient by 100 and rounding to the nearest integer. The ‘Direct Coombs’ criteria was deleted for simplicity. Weights for remaining manifestations were: acute cutaneous (26), chronic cutaneous (12), oral ulcers (16), arthritis (9), serositis (16), renal without biopsy (9), neurologic (9), hemolytic anemia (1), leukopenia or lymphopenia (14), thrombocytopenia (15), alopecia (9), ANA (17), anti-dsDNA (19), anti-Sm (16), antiphospholipid antibodies (8), low complement (11). Classification cutoff was the score that maximized overall agreement (i.e., the sum of sensitivity and specificity) of the new weighted criteria with physician diagnosis. Patients with lupus nephritis or the new weighted classification rule of 56 or more with at least one clinical component and one immunologic component were classified as SLE. We evaluated the performance of this revised SLICC criteria on an independent set of patient scenarios and compared this to the performance of the older revised ACR criteria, the previous SLICC 2012 criteria, and the newly proposed EULAR/ACR criteria. Results Table 1 shows the performance of the four classification rules. There was no statistically significant difference between any pair of rules with respect to overall agreement with the physician diagnosis. Conclusions The two newly derived weighted classification rules did not perform better than the existing list-based rules in terms of over-all agreement. Since the list-based rules are easy to calculate, they may be preferred in most clinical settings. Acknowledgements Presented on behalf of SLICC. The Hopkins Lupus Cohort is funded by NIH AR 43727 and NIH AR 69572.
Setting Modes and Options

The user has some control over how REDUCE operates internally, and also over the form in which results are printed out. Most of these options are set or changed by using the ON and OFF commands. Instead of Options we sometimes speak of Modes, or speak of the ON and OFF commands as setting Switches. Some options (modes, switches) are normally ON; the user changes them by issuing an OFF command. The option then remains OFF until the user returns it to normal by issuing an ON command. For other options the normal mode is OFF, so the sequence of commands would be reversed.
Planar in-hand manipulation via motion cones:

In this article, we present the mechanics and algorithms to compute the set of feasible motions of an object pushed in a plane. This set is known as the motion cone and was previously described for...
Cigarette Smoking Behavior Among Menthol and Nonmenthol Adolescent Smokers

Abstract Purpose As cigarette rates have decreased, the proportion of menthol cigarette use among youth smokers has increased. Thus, it is important to monitor the menthol-associated behaviors among youth. The present study examined the associations between menthol cigarette use and smoking frequency, intention to continue smoking, and quit intention among youth. Methods We used data from the 2017 and 2018 National Youth Tobacco Surveys. Separate multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between menthol cigarette use and smoking frequency, intention to continue smoking, and intention to quit. Results Across both years, 1,707 youth reported past 30-day cigarette use, 50.7% of whom used menthol cigarettes. Menthol cigarette users had significantly higher odds of smoking at least 10 out of the 30 days before the survey than nonmenthol smokers (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.94). We found similar results in the stratified analysis by grade level. Menthol cigarette smokers in middle (aOR 2.36, 95% CI 1.01–5.49) and high school (aOR 1.41, 95% CI 1.09–1.82) were more likely to have smoked at least 10 out of the 30 days before the survey than nonmenthol smokers. Menthol cigarette users had higher odds of intention to continue smoking (aOR 1.54, 95% CI 1.08–2.19) than nonmenthol cigarette users. Menthol use was not significantly associated with intention to quit. Conclusions Compared with nonmenthol cigarette use, menthol cigarette use was associated with smoking more frequently as well as the intention to continue smoking among middle school and high school students.