cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Progressive Dystrophic Pathology in Diaphragm and Impairment of Cardiac Function in FKRP P448L Mutant Mice

Mutations in the gene for fukutin-related protein represent a subset of muscular dystrophies known as dystroglycanopathies characterized by loss of functionally-glycosylated-alpha-dystroglycan and a wide range of dystrophic phenotypes. Mice generated by our lab containing the P448L mutation in the fukutin-related protein gene demonstrate the dystrophic phenotype similar to that of LGMD2I. Here we examined the morphology of the heart and diaphragm, focusing on pathology of diaphragm and cardiac function of the mutant mice for up to 12 months. Both diaphragm and heart lack clear expression of functionally-glycosylated-alpha-dystroglycan throughout the observed period. The diaphragm undergoes progressive deterioration in histology with increasing amount of centranucleation and inflammation. Large areas of mononuclear cell infiltration and fibrosis of up to 60% of tissue area were detected as early as 6 months of age. Despite a less severe morphology with only patches of mononuclear cell infiltration and fibrosis of ~5% by 12 months of age in the heart, cardiac function is clearly affected. High frequency ultrasound reveals a smaller heart size up to 10 months of age. There are significant increases in myocardial thickness and decrease in cardiac output through 12 months. Dysfunction in the heart represents a key marker for evaluating experimental therapies aimed at cardiac muscle.
Abstract A15: Chemopreventive efficacy of Phospho-Ibuprofen, Rosuvastatin and their combination on AOM-induced colon adenocarcinoma formation in F344 rats

Phospho-Ibuprofen (P-I) is a derivative of ibuprofen designed to reduce the traditional toxicities of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). P-I is studied for its anti-inflammatory and cancer properties in arthritis, breast cancer models and showed better gastrointestinal safety compared to NSAIDs. Statins has been effective for cholesterol lowering and protecting cardiovascular diseases in addition to its antineoplastic effects in preclinical and clinical observations. A promising strategy to enhance the cancer preventive efficacy of statins and NSAIDs in combination is to produce synergy without any unwanted side effects. Hence, experiments were designed to evaluate the chemopreventive efficacies of P-I and Rosuvastatin, which were administered individually and in combination on azoxymethane (AOM)-induced colon cancer formation in F344 rats. Male F344 rats (~30-45 animals/group) were fed AIN-76A diet and colon tumors were induced with two weekly doses of AOM (15 mg/kg body wt). Eight weeks after the AOM-treatment, groups of rats were fed AIN-76A diets containing ibuprofen (200 ppm), P-I (360 and 720 ppm), Rosuvastatin (50 and 100 ppm), or their low dose combinations for 40 weeks. Colonic tumors were evaluated histopathologically as invasive and noninvasive adenocarcinomas (AdCa) and modulating effects of P-I, and Rosuvastatin and combinations were studied on markers of colon tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis. Results: Administration of P-I at 720 ppm significantly suppressed AOM-induced colon non-invasive and invasive AdCa formation (multiplicity (Mean±SEM): Non-invasive AdCa: Untreated, 1.37±0.22; P-I treated, 0.70±0.14 (p 0.05) effect on AOM-induced AdCa multiplicity or incidence. Proliferation markers, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), Cdk2, Cdc25C and Cav1, in tumors of rats exposed to P-I, Rosuvastatin and/or combinations were significantly suppressed. Also, colonic tumors from rats fed combination diet showed significant suppression of Erk and pErk protein expression as compared to colon tumors from rats fed the control diet. This is the first report on the combination using low-dose P-I and Rosuvastatin, which significantly suppressed the colon adenocarcinomas. Our results suggest that low-dose P-I with Rosuvastatin might potentially be a useful combination for colon cancer prevention/treatment in high risk individuals. (Supported by NCI-CN-N01-53300). Citation Format: Naveena B. Janakiram, Altaf Mohammed, Yuting Zhang, Misty Brewer, Taylor Bryant, Laura Biddick, Stan Lightfoot, Vernon E. Steele, Chinthalapally V. Rao. Chemopreventive efficacy of Phospho-Ibuprofen, Rosuvastatin and their combination on AOM-induced colon adenocarcinoma formation in F344 rats. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2013 Oct 27-30; National Harbor, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2013;6(11 Suppl): Abstract nr A15.
Some Iterative Schemes for Decentralized Dynamic Systems Control

Abstract Some iterative schemes for controlling large decentralized dynamic systems are considered. These schemes are classified into two groups tatonnement processes and non-tatonnement processes according to some real-time information requirements. In non-tatonnement processes which are more appropriate for controlling dynamic systems, message exchange processes among agents as well as iterative control schemes must be considered. These are illustrated by a simple example.
Detection and Observables

Powerful detection methods and reliable observables are the cornerstones in the analysis of many-body quantum phases of ultracold atoms. By far the most detection techniques aim at direct imaging of atomic densities either in-situ or after time-of-flight expansion. On the basis of experimental images, observables are defined that characterize the quantum many-body state.
Discrepancies between ClinicalTrials.gov recruitment status and actual trial status: a cross-sectional analysis.

Objectives To determine the accuracy of the recruitment status listed on ClinicalTrials.gov as compared with the actual trial status. Design Cross-sectional analysis. Setting Random sample of interventional phase 2–4 clinical trials registered between 2010 and 2012 on ClinicalTrials.gov. Primary outcome measure For each trial which was listed within ClinicalTrials.gov as ongoing, two investigators performed a comprehensive literature search for evidence that the trial had actually been completed. For each trial listed as completed or terminated early by ClinicalTrials.gov, we compared the date that the trial was actually concluded with the date the registry was updated to reflect the study’s conclusion status. Results Among the 405 included trials, 92 had a registry status indicating that study activity was either ongoing or the recruitment status was unknown. Of these, published results were available for 34 (37%). Among the 313 concluded trials, the median delay between study completion and a registry update reflecting that the study had ended was 141 days (IQR 48–419), with delays of over 1 year present for 29%. In total, 125 trials (31%) either had a listed recruitment status which was incorrect or had a delay of more than 1 year between the time the study was concluded and the time the registry recruitment status was updated. Conclusions At present, registry recruitment status information in ClinicalTrials.gov is often outdated or wrong. This inaccuracy has implications for the ability of researchers to identify completed trials and accurately characterise all available medical knowledge on a given subject.
Travel Characteristics and Pretravel Health Care Among Pregnant or Breastfeeding U.S. Women Preparing for International Travel

OBJECTIVE:To study characteristics and preventive interventions of adult pregnant and breastfeeding travelers seeking pretravel health care in the United States.METHODS:This cross-sectional study analyzed data (2009–2014) of pregnant and breastfeeding travelers seen at U.S. travel clinics participat
Rogue one: a story of tophaceous gout in the spine.

A 26-year-old man with history of extensive tophaceous gout presented to the referring facility with decreased bilateral lower extremity sensation and motor function that began acutely 1 week prior to admission and had progressed to urinary incontinence. The patient was admitted to the intensive care unit due to concern for sepsis secondary to epidural abscess. The patient was started on empiric vancomycin and cefepime. Neurosurgery did not recommend acute neurosurgical intervention given the lack of a compressive lesion. Aspiration of the paraspinal collection by interventional radiology subsequently showed crystals consistent with tophaceous gout. Given the high initial suspicion for gout and results of the paraspinal aspiration, the patient was started on prolonged steroid taper as well as allopurinol and colchicine. The patient eventually had partial neurological recovery with discharge to an inpatient rehabilitation facility for further physical therapy rehabilitation.
A New Method to Determine the Coupling Strength of the Interfaces in Seeded-Melt Textured YBa2Cu3Ox

A novel method in determining the coupling strength of the interfaces in seeded melt textured YBa2Cu3Cx has been established. Instead of measuring the transport critical current density across a boundary where many technical problems could occur, this new approach employs the magnetization measurements on a sample that contains a single interface. The coupling strength of any interfaces can be determined by comparing with a standard obtained from a sample without the interface. Some preliminary data are presented on determining the coupling strength of the domain boundaries in seeded-melt textured YBa2Cu3Cx(123).
Screening for Prediabetes and Diabetes

Screening populations at risk for a disease, applying interventions to halt or reverse the progression to overt clinical syndrome, and preventing future morbidity and/or mortality in a cost-effective manner have been a subject for extensive research for several decades for many common health problems. In 1968, the World Health Organization commissioned a report on screening by Wilson and Jungner entitled Principles and practice of screening for disease which has since become a classic and widely accepted doctrine in the science of public health [1]. Wilson and Jungner attempted to define screening criteria to guide the selection of conditions that would be suitable for screening, based on the following, among other, principles: (1) The condition sought should be an important health problem.
A new look at the dynamics of vortices with finite cores

The stability theory for wave-like disturbances in a pair of trailing line vortices developed by S. C. Crow has been modified to take account of finite core radii and appropriate distributions of vorticity within these cores. The difficulties encountered by Crow in calculating the self-induction effects of each vortex are avoided and, for a uniform distribution of vorticity within the cores, the self-induction function is expressible in terms of modified Bessel functions of the second kind. The essential features of Crow’s theory are, however, confirmed with small numerical changes — for example, the most unstable long waves which develop in the trail have a wavelength of 7.2b, where b is the separation distance of the two vortices (compared with Crow’s result of 8.4b).
Viscoacoustic reverse-time migration using a time-domain complex-valued wave equation

ABSTRACTDuring seismic wave propagation, intrinsic attenuation inside the earth gives rise to amplitude loss and phase dispersion. Without appropriate correction strategies in migration, these effe...
Discussion of Initial Operational Changes by Small and Medium Size Businesses in Response to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) 2017

Congress and the president enacted the landmark Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) on December 22, 2017, the most sweeping change to the tax law since 1986. Tax laws such as this have a major impact on how business is conducted in the United States. This study does not attempt a comprehensive analysis of the changes in the U.S. tax code, but instead focuses on some key areas that affect most small and medium size business operators. Specifically this study examines how TCJA (2017) affects business operators in areas such as depreciation, net interest expenses, and entertainment. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been continuously issuing facts sheets and statements in regards to the TCJA (2017). The first half of this study is a brief literature review on the landmark changes to the U.S. tax for corporations in regards to depreciation, net interest expenses, and entertainment. The second half of this study is a report of field observations and discussions with business operators such as a landlord of apartment complexes, a hotel operator, and a physical therapist. Though this study does not provide macro or archival data to explain how business operators responded to the TCJA (2017), field observations and discussions suggest that the three business operators are renovating in response to full depreciation write off, reducing net interest expenses, and limiting entertainment expenses.
Bracing Regular Polygons As We Race into the Future

SummaryHow many rods does it take to brace a square in the plane? Once Martin Gardner's network of readers got their hands on it, it turned out to be fewer than Raphael Robinson, who originally posed the problem, thought. And who could have predicted the stunning solutions found subsequently for various generalizations of the problem?
Evoked potentials improve multimodal prognostication after cardiac arrest.

Abstract Aim Predicting recovery in comatose post-cardiac arrest patients requires multiple modalities of prognostic assessment. In isolation, absent N20 cortical responses in somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) are a specific predictor of poor outcome. It is unknown whether SSEP results, when assessed in the context of prior knowledge (demographic and clinical information), change the pretest predicted probability of recovery. Methods In a single center retrospective study, a cohort of 323 patients admitted to post-cardiac arrest service at a tertiary care center were classified into a group based on SSEP testing. We built adjusted logistic regression models including clinical examination findings on the day SSEPs were recorded to generate a pre-test outcome probability for awakening, withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) and survival to discharge. We then added the upper extremity N20 cortical response results to the model to obtain updated outcome probabilities. ROC curve was used to determine the additive effect of using SSEPs to the model. Survival to discharge, awakening, and WLST due to neurological reasons were designated as primary, secondary and tertiary outcomes, respectively. Results Analyses showed that evoked potentials are ordered in sicker patients. Adding SSEP to the model increased the proportion of patients with less than 1% and 5% chance of survival, as well as the proportion of patients with over 95% chance of WLST. AUC for survival increased from 0.85 to 0.93 when SSEP was included (p = 0.006). Conclusion Adding the N20 SSEP response results to prior knowledge changed the predicted probability of WLST and survival to discharge in comatose post-arrest patients.
The Route to Palatable Fecal Microbiota Transplantation

The community of symbiotic microorganisms that reside in our gastrointestinal tract is integral to human health. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been shown to be highly effective in treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) and is now recommended by medical societies for patients suffering from rCDI who have failed to respond to conventional therapy. The main challenges with FMT are its accessibility, acceptability, lack of standardization, and regulatory complexity, which will be discussed in this review. Access to FMT is being addressed through the development of frozen and lyophilized FMT preparations that can be prepared at stool banks and shipped to the point of care. Both access and patient acceptance would be enhanced by oral FMT capsules, and there is potential to reduce capsule burden by utilizing colonic release capsules, targeting the site of disease. This review compares the efficacy of different FMT routes of administration: capsules, nasal feeding tubes, enemas, and colonoscopic infusions. FMT is considered investigational by the Food and Drug Administration. In effort to improve access to FMT, physicians may perform FMT outside of an investigational new drug application for treating CDI infections not responsive to standard therapies. The majority of FMT studies report only minor adverse effects; however, there is risk of transmission of infections.
Spain in the Americas

This chapter provides an overview of colonial efforts by the Spanish in the Americas generally and in Chile particularly. Some comparison will be made with other indigenous groups, such as the Puebloans of the Southwestern United States and the Yucatec Maya of Mexico, in their resistance efforts against the Spanish. Primarily, the focus is on the successful imposition of institutions such as encomienda (land grant), reduccion (reduction, or forced resettlement), and repartimiento (reservation) elsewhere in the Spanish empire and the failure of these same institutions in southern Chile. I also include a discussion of the historical sources, from the earliest Spanish cronistas (chroniclers) to present-day historians. This discussion will further develop much of the critique described above, related to the need for interdisciplinary approaches to research the Che.
Venous thromboembolism following pegaspargase in adults receiving antithrombin supplementation.

Pegaspargase (PEG) increases venous thromboembolism (VTE) in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) potentially due to depletion of anticoagulation factors, including antithrombin (AT). The benefit and...
Presentation and Outcomes of Patients with ESKD and COVID-19.

Background The relative immunosuppression and high prevalence of comorbidities in patients with ESKD on dialysis raise concerns that they may have an elevated risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but outcomes for COVID-19 in such patients are unclear. Methods To examine presentation and outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with ESKD on dialysis, we retrospectively collected clinical data on 59 patients on dialysis who were hospitalized with COVID-19. We used Wilcoxon rank sum and Fischer exact tests to compare patients who died versus those still living. Results Two of the study's 59 patients were on peritoneal dialysis, and 57 were on hemodialysis. Median age was 63 years, with high prevalence of hypertension (98%) and diabetes (69%). Patients who died were significantly older than those still living (median age, 75 versus 62 years) and had a higher median Charlson comorbidity index (8 versus 7). The most common presenting symptoms were fever (49%) and cough (39%); initial radiographs most commonly showed multifocal or bilateral opacities (59%). By end of follow-up, 18 patients (31%) died a median 6 days after hospitalization, including 75% of patients who required mechanical ventilation. Eleven of those who died had advanced directives against intubation. The remaining 41 patients (69%) were discharged home a median 8 days after admission. The median initial white blood cell count was significantly higher in patients who died compared with those still living (7.5 versus 5.7×103/μl), as was C-reactive protein (163 versus 80 mg/L). Conclusions The association of COVID-19 with high mortality in patients with ESKD on dialysis reinforces the need to take appropriate infection control measures to prevent COVID-19 spread in this vulnerable population.
Drugs Affecting the Central Nervous System

Abstract This book is intended as a guide to help the clinician determine where a visual problem is a drug-induced ocular side effect. We continually review spontaneous case reports from the National Registry of Drug-Induced Ocular Side Effects, the World Health Organization, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the world literature. We have attempted to classify a suspected adverse event with our impression to causality (i.e. certain, probable, unlikely, conditional/unclassified). This chapter discusses drugs affecting the central nervous system including analeptics, anorexiants, antianxiety drugs, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, anti–multiple sclerosis drugs, antipsychotic drugs, depressants, genitourinary tract drugs, psychedelic drugs, sedatives, and hypnotics.
Global Solution to the Three-Dimensional Incompressible Flow of Liquid Crystals

The equations for the three-dimensional incompressible flow of liquid crystals are considered in a smooth bounded domain. The existence and uniqueness of the global strong solution with small initial data are established. It is also proved that when the strong solution exists, all the global weak solutions constructed in [16] must be equal to the unique strong solution.
Coupling ecological wastewater treatment with the production of livestock feed and irrigation water provides net benefits to human health and the environment: A life cycle assessment

Abstract Ecologically designed wastewater treatment systems (ex., Eco-Machines™) utilize a diverse ecosystem to treat wastewater to the same extent as conventional treatment, but require less energy and chemical inputs. The environmental benefits of Eco-Machines™ can be theoretically maximized by incorporating hyperaccumulating aquatic plants (ex., duckweed) to facilitate nutrient recovery and conversion into protein-rich biomass, which can then be harvested for a range of agricultural and bioenergy applications. Although it has been established that ecological wastewater treatment systems are more cost- and energy-efficient than conventional wastewater treatment systems, a systematic life cycle assessment (LCA) of an Eco-Machine™ coupled with its beneficial by-products has not been conducted. In this study, a series of LCAs were performed on different operational scenarios for a 1000 gallon per day, pilot-scale Eco-Machine™ that, in addition to producing irrigation-quality water, also produces duckweed biomass for aquaculture. The analysis revealed that Eco-Machines™ located in warm climates, which do not require a greenhouse or supplemental heating, use approximately a third of the energy and produce half of the greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional wastewater treatment systems in similar locations, while also providing benefits to human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources. In addition, increasing the growth area for duckweed using vertical farming techniques improves the overall impact of the system. This study suggests that with proper management, ecological wastewater treatment systems that upcycle nutrients and water into beneficial products can provide a net benefit to human health and the environment.
Disparate Limbo: How Administrative Law Erased Antidiscrimination

Administrative law has a blind spot. It is blackletter doctrine that an agency’s failure to consider the impacts of its conduct can invalidate its decision as arbitrary and capricious. Judges have set aside agency action for failures to consider differential impacts on subgroups of businessowners, park visitors, and animals. Yet when it comes to differential impact based on race or ethnicity, courts have, by and large, refused to entertain claims. Whether you are a Black farmer denied a federal loan, a Latinx schoolchild exposed to dangerous pesticides, a Latinx U.S. citizen denied a passport, or a Black renter suffering from housing discrimination, modern administrative law offers precious little recourse. This Article uncovers how modern administrative law erased antidiscrimination principles. That story began with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when Congress punted on questions about disparate impact and the relationship between Title VI and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). But the plot thickened when the D.C. Circuit, in an opinion by then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, held that § 704 of the APA barred civil rights plaintiffs from bringing an APA challenge because Title VI provided an alternative “adequate remedy.” Subsequent courts have seized on the D.C. Circuit’s § 704 dodge, using it to channel antidiscrimination claims away from the APA. Worse, courts have reflexively applied § 704 to oust civil rights claims, even after the Supreme Court’s decision in Alexander v. Sandoval rendered Title VI demonstrably inadequate. Antidiscrimination’s erasure from the APA, built on a mistaken relic of statutory interpretation, has consigned civil rights plaintiffs to a paralyzing limbo, unable to make out the stringent intent showings required under increasingly inhospitable civil rights laws, but also barred from mounting APA claims against agency discrimination for violations of administrative law’s baseline guarantee of non-arbitrariness. Remedying disparate limbo is urgently needed, particularly as the nation enters a new round of soul-searching on government’s role in racial stratification, and as agencies at all levels take up new digital governance tools that raise vexing bias concerns. Yet understanding the current state of disparate limbo also holds vitally important lessons about the broader sweep of modern administrative law and its relationship to the American civil rights struggle. Indeed, doctrinal developments that are core to the field—most notably the emergence throughout the 1980s and 1990s of muscular “hard look” review and a more intrusive judicial role in administrative governance—may only have been feasible because courts simultaneously excised divisive issues of race from administrative law’s purview. Our account isolates a critical contingent moment when civil rights and administrative law diverged. In so doing, we place race, and the scrubbing of antidiscrimination from the APA, at the center of the construction of modern administrative law’s empire.
Racial/ethnic differences in knowledge and attitudes towards clinical trials among adults in the United States: An analysis of the 2020 U.S. HINTS.

e18573Background: Despite the use of clinical trials to provide gold-standard evidence of treatment and intervention effectiveness, racial/ethnic minorities are frequently underrepresented particip...
A Structural Model of the Relationship between Student-Faculty Interaction and Cognitive Skills Development among College Students.

Using structural equation modeling, this study attempted to untangle the underlying mechanisms among student–faculty interaction, classroom engagement, and cognitive skills development by examining the role played by students’ academic self-challenge and sense of belonging on the relationships among the variables. The study utilized data from the 2010 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey and a sample of 5169 senior students across 10 campuses. This study found that student–faculty interaction is related to greater levels of classroom engagement, which in turn facilitates students’ cognitive skills development and that students’ academic self-challenge and sense of belonging mediate the relationship between faculty interaction and classroom engagement. Thus, the findings suggest that the pathways from student–faculty interaction to a desired college outcome seem more complex than those hypothesized in traditional college impact theories or models. The study discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.
Type‐IV Collagens

Two sets of structurally distinct collagen components resembling type IV collagen have been isolated and purified from the pepsin digest of kidney cortex homogenates. C and D chains with the size of alpha chains were separated from disulfide-linked material on molecular sieves and were further purified by ion-exchange chromatography. The molecular gel filtration of the starting material also gave two high-molecular-weight collageneous fractions. The reduction of these fractions with dithiothreitol followed by carboxymethyl-cellulose chromatography resulted in the separation of two major peaks, one corresponding to C-1 and the second peak corresponding to D-1 and a 75 000-Mr components. These latter two components were further separated from each other by molecular sieve chromatography. In addition some smaller peptides (two 50 000-Mr and one 15 000-Mr peptides) were purified and analkyzed. By amino acid composition, chromatographic properties and cyanogen bromide peptide patterns on sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the C-1 and C chains and one of the 50 000-Mr components appear to be derived from the same chain by pepsin cleavage at different sites. Similarly, the D1 and D chains, and the 75 000-Mr, the second 50 000-Mr and the 15 000-Mr components are related to each other but are structurally distinct from the C-1 and C components. The presented data are consistent with the presence of two structurally distinct chains in basement membrane collageneous molecules.
Detection and geo-location of Sferics onboard Lightning Nano-Satellite (LiNSAT)

This paper presents architecture of a lightning detector onboard Lightning Nano-Satellite (LiNSAT) in low-earth-orbit (LEO) and results of two terrestrial measurement campaigns to geo-locate and discriminate lightning types in the presence of noise sources. The LiNSAT will be launched with a three-satellite constellation to utilize a Time-of-Arrival (TOA) technique. Our main scientific objective is to investigate lightning events by the observation of VHF electro-magnetic signals (Sferics) and to derive the signatures of lightning. One of the important parameters is the lightning ash rate, which can be used as a proxy for locating severe weather activity. Another objective is to discriminate the discharges of lightning events evaluated by the inherent features and to differentiate cloud discharges from ground discharges that can be used to predict convective storm development. We conducted two measurement campaigns; one for artificial lightning produced in high voltage chambers and the second for natural lightning recorded at urban environments. We focused mainly on the received time series including noisy features and narrowband carriers to extract characteristic parameters. One of the major challenges of using a nano-satellite for such a scientific payload is to integrate the lightning experiment antenna, receiver and data acquisition unit into the small nano-satellite structure. The optimization in this mission is to use one of the lightning antennae integrated into the gravity gradient boom (GGB) that increases the sensitivity and directional capability of the satellite toward the nadir direction. The lightning detector onboard has to perform tasks like determination of pulse-width, pulse-count, pulse rise/ fall time etc; additionally detection of narrowband carriers and artifacts from the satellite itself (EMC). The model will work in experimental modes for the detection of lightning events by employing preset criteria. After successful detection of lightning transients, the dumped data will be post-processed on the ground to whiten, de-chirp and classify signals in time and frequency domains.
Ensuring Inter-Regional Equity and Poverty Reduction

The decentralization of revenue sources and expenditure responsibilities to subnational levels of government can increase the efficacy of speding, and increase participation in decision making by local constituents. It is also true, however, that decentralization can also result in inequities in service delivery among citizens of the same country depending on where they live. While decentralization need not cause these inequities, devolution of revenue sources combined with disparities in endowments of regions is likely to lead to disparties in fiscal resources at the subnational level. If left by themeselves, these disparities could lead either to lower levels of services in fiscally poor regions, and/or lead to higher tax rates for similar levels of government services in those regions. In turn, disparities in service delivery could thwart poverty alleviation efforts, as public services that are usually provided at the subnational level such as primary health and education are critical in empowering the poor. Disparities in the level and quality of these services could therefore eventually perpetuate inequalities in income levels, or at least delay conversion of incomes across regions. Moreover, large fiscal disparities could induce migration to regions that have higher revenues and better services, even though the migrant could have been more productively employed elsewhere. Finally, large disparities in public service undermine the sense of unity in a country. Such diversity coupled with increasing disparities across regions may constitute the basis for regional insurrections such as, for example, the Muslim regions of Mindanao in the Philippines and West Papua in Indonesia (Hill, 2000).
Influence of blood pressure changes with and without proteinuria upon outcome of pregnancy

Abstract A prospective study of 10,074 white gravidas and 2,880 black gravidas carried out during the years 1959 to 1967 has been analyzed with respect to the impact of elevated blood pressures and/or proteinuria upon pregnancy outcome. Edema was not considered because no evidence is available to indicate that its occurrence increases risk. The mean arterial pressure exhibited during the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy was found to be of significance, as well as the absolute levels of blood pressure attained prior to labor and delivery. The degree of rise in blood pressure was not of importance in itself. However, categories with significant proteinuria had greater increases in mean arterial pressure than did comparable categories without it. Significant proteinuria alone but especially with hypertension was also detrimental to pregnancy outcome. Eight categories incorporating early and late hypertension with and without proteinuria were created, and these were given descriptive diagnostic labels. Only “gestational hypertension”, as defined, proved to be essentially devoid of risk to the fetus. In all other non-normotensive categories there was an increase in the stillbirth rate, the perinatal mortality rate, the frequency of intrauterine growth retardation, and neonatal morbidity. In every category, each of these untoward events was greater in black than in white gravidas, and a higher percentage of blacks was noted in each of the hypertensive categories. It is believed that hypertension, significant proteinuria, or both are associated with decreased uteroplacental blood flow which is the common denominator for all of these deleterious effects. The study suggests that “gestational hypertension” occurring late but without proteinuria may or may not represent an early stage of “pre-eclampsia” but does not, at least, place the infant at any substantially increased risk.
Disruption of Type-I IFN Pathway Ameliorates Preservation Damage in Mouse Orthotopic Liver Transplantation via HO-1 Dependent Mechanism

Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) remains unresolved problem in clinical organ transplantation. We analyzed the role of Type-I interferon (IFN) pathway in a clinically relevant murine model of extended hepatic cold preservation followed by orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Livers from Type-I IFN receptor (IFNAR) knockout (KO) or wild-type (WT) mice (C57/BL6) were harvested, preserved at 4°C in UW solution for 20 h and transplanted to groups of syngeneic IFNAR KO or WT recipients. Liver graft but not recipient IFNAR deficiency was required to consistently ameliorate IRI in OLTs. Indeed, disruption of Type-I IFN signaling decreased serum alanine aminotransferase (sALT) levels (p < 0.001), diminished Suzuki's score of histological OLT damage (p < 0.01) and improved 14-day survival (from 42%[5/12] in WT to 92%[11/12] in IFNAR KO; p < 0.05). Unlike in WT group, IFNAR deficiency attenuated OLT expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, MCP-1, CXCL-10, ICAM-1; diminished infiltration by macrophages/PMNs; and enhanced expression of antioxidant HO-1/Nrf2. The frequency of TUNEL+ apoptotic cells and caspase-3 activity/expression selectively decreased in IFNAR KO group. Small interfering (si)RNA-directed targeting of HO-1 restored cardinal features of liver IRI in otherwise resistant IFNAR-deficient OLTs. Thus, intact Type-I IFN signaling is required for hepatic IRI, whereas HO-1 is needed for cytoprotection against innate immunity-dominated organ preservation damage in IFNAR-deficient liver transplants.
Acquisition and Generalization of Purchasing Skills Using a Video Enhanced Computer-Based Instructional Program:

This study evaluated stimulus generalization of purchasing skills learned in a computer simulation across settings. Three elementary school students with moderate intellectual disabilities used a c...
Results, Old and New, in Computed Tomography

Computed tomography (CT) entails the reconstruction of a function f from line integrals of f. This mathematical problem is encountered in a growing number of diverse settings in medicine, science, and technology, ranging from the famous application in diagnostic radiology to recent research in quantum optics. As a consequence, many aspects of CT have been extensively studied and are now well understood, thus providing an interesting model case for the study of other inverse problems. Other aspects, notably three-dimensional reconstructions, still provide numerous open problems.
A novel phenylcyclohex‐1‐enecarbothioamide derivative inhibits CXCL8‐mediated chemotaxis through selective regulation of CXCR2‐mediated signalling

Background and Purpose Since the CXC chemokine receptor CXCR2 and its cognate ligand CXCL8 (IL-8) critically regulate neutrophil trafficking during inflammation, they have been implicated in a number of inflammatory lung diseases. Several CXCR2 antagonists have been described and the blockade of CXCR2 has shown promise in pre-clinical disease models and early clinical trials. However, given its potential, there are fewer distinct classes of antagonists of CXCR2 than of other clinically relevant molecular targets. Thus, we sought to identify additional classes of compounds that alter CXCR2 function. Experimental Approach We used the CXCR2 TangoTM assay to screen an in-house library of highly diverse chemical compounds. CX4338 [2-(benzylamino)-4,4-dimethyl-6-oxo-N-phenylcyclohex-1-enecarbothioamide] was identified from our screen and additional studies to characterize the compound were performed. Receptor internalization and second-messenger assays were used to assess the effects of CX4338 on CXCR2-mediated signalling. Wound healing, transwell cell migration and LPS-induced lung inflammation in mice were used to determine the in vitro and in vivo effects of CX4338. Key Results CX4338 selectively inhibited CXCR2-mediated recruitment of β-arrestin-2 and receptor internalization, while enhancing CXCR2-mediated MAPK activation. Additionally, CX4338 inhibited CXCL8-induced chemotaxis in CXCR2-overexpressing cells and human neutrophils. In vivo, CX4338 significantly reduced neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage induced by LPS in mice. Conclusions and Implications A novel compound CX4338 inhibited CXCR2-mediated cell migration with a mechanism of action not previously reported. Also, selective inhibition of CXCR2-mediated β-arrestin-2 activation is sufficient to inhibit CXCL8-mediated chemotaxis.
Leveraging collaborative effort to infer intent

We describe method for intent inference in collaborative systems, and an application that makes use of intent inference to facilitate coordination. Our approach to intent inference is unique in that we derive intent by piggybacking on coordination specific communication that occurs in collaboration. We have developed an interface component that uses the output of our inference engine to support users' awareness of eachother's activities and offload some of the individual user's work.
PedGenie: an analysis approach for genetic association testing in extended pedigrees and genealogies of arbitrary size

We present a general approach to perform association analyses in pedigrees of arbitrary size and structure, which also allows for a mixture of pedigree members and independent individuals to be analyzed together, to test genetic markers and qualitative or quantitative traits. Our software, PedGenie, uses Monte Carlo significance testing to provide a valid test for related individuals that can be applied to any test statistic, including transmission disequilibrium statistics. Single locus at a time, composite genotype tests, and haplotype analyses may all be performed. We illustrate the validity and functionality of PedGenie using simulated and real data sets. For the real data set, we evaluated the role of two tagging-single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) in the DNA repair gene, NBS1, and their association with female breast cancer in 462 cases and 572 controls selected to be BRCA1/2 mutation negative from 139 high-risk Utah breast cancer families. The results from PedGenie were shown to be valid both for accurate p-value calculations and consideration of pedigree structure in the simulated data set. A nominally significant association with breast cancer was observed with the NBS1 tSNP rs709816 for carriage of the rare allele (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.10–2.35, p = 0.019). PedGenie is a flexible and valid statistical tool that is intuitively simple to understand, makes efficient use of all the data available from pedigrees without requiring trimming, and is flexible to the types of tests to which it can be applied. Further, our analyses of real data indicate NBS1 may play a role in the genetic etiology of heritable breast cancer.
Identification and characterization of voltage-sensitive calcium channels in neuronal clonal cell lines

Voltage-sensitive calcium channels ( VSCCs ) have been identified in three clonal cells. These are the neuroblastoma X Chinese hamster brain hybrid ( NCB -20), the neuroblastoma X glioma hybrid (NG108–15), and the neuroblastoma ( N4TG1 ). Depolarization of NCB -20 cells with 50 mM KCl or 50 microM veratridine (VE) produced a 2- to 3-fold increase in net 45Ca2+ uptake. In NCB -20 cells, this voltage-sensitive 45Ca2+ uptake was inhibited selectively by organic calcium antagonists such as nitrendipine, cinnarizine, verapamil, and diltiazem (IC50 values = 6.4, 750, 1800, and 4500 nM, respectively). High K+-induced uptake was unaffected by 4-aminopyridine, tetraethylammonium, and tetrodotoxin (TTX), whereas VE-induced 45Ca2+ uptake was completely blocked by 3 microM TTX. In contrast to NCB -20 cells, NG108–15 cells showed a much smaller response to depolarizing stimuli. Following differentiation of NG108–15 cells by chronic treatment with 10 microM prostaglandin E1 and 50 microM 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, depolarization induced a large increase in voltage-sensitive 45Ca2+ uptake. This induction was apparent after 24 hr and increased linearly for 96 hr. VSCC activity was also induced by 1.5% dimethyl sulfoxide and by other agents that increase intracellular cAMP, such as forskolin (1 microM) and cholera toxin (1 microgram/ml). Voltage-sensitive 45Ca2+ uptake in differentiated NG108–15 cells was inhibited by nitrendipine, D-600, and diltiazem (IC50 values = 7, 690, and 1600 nM). Our results suggest that VSCCs in neuronal clonal cell lines can be altered by cellular differentiation. In contrast to those VSCCs involved in neurotransmitter release, the VSCCs described here appear to be blocked by organic calcium channel antagonists at very low concentrations.
The importance of budgeting in clinical trials and how a budget can prevent billing errors

Academic medical centers have paid millions of dollars in fines to the government over the past decade due to incorrect research billing. Combined with a decrease in federal funding, an increase in industry-sponsored studies and sites looking to cut costs, the financial management of clinical trials has been thrown into the spotlight, an area that historically has received little attention. Until recently, academic medical centers focused solely on the actual research taking place, with little thought placed on the financial aspects associated with the research. However, as medicine and research have become more complex, the financial processes to
Comparing the information conveyed by envelope modulation for speech intelligibility, speech quality, and music quality

This paper uses mutual information to quantify the relationship between envelope modulation fidelity and perceptual responses. Data from several previous experiments that measured speech intelligibility, speech quality, and music quality are evaluated for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. A model of the auditory periphery is used to generate envelope signals, and envelope modulation fidelity is calculated using the normalized cross-covariance of the degraded signal envelope with that of a reference signal. Two procedures are used to describe the envelope modulation: (1) modulation within each auditory frequency band and (2) spectro-temporal processing that analyzes the modulation of spectral ripple components fit to successive short-time spectra. The results indicate that low modulation rates provide the highest information for intelligibility, while high modulation rates provide the highest information for speech and music quality. The low-to-mid auditory frequencies are most important for intelligibility, while mid frequencies are most important for speech quality and high frequencies are most important for music quality. Differences between the spectral ripple components used for the spectro-temporal analysis were not significant in five of the six experimental conditions evaluated. The results indicate that different modulation-rate and auditory-frequency weights may be appropriate for indices designed to predict different types of perceptual relationships.
An ISS and AES study of alkali induced sintering of an iron oxide monolayer adsorbed on Pt(111)

Abstract An iron oxide monolayer adsorbed on Pt(111) is used as a model system for studying sintering of transition metal oxides. At 1 monolayer (ML) iron oxide coverage only iron and oxigen peaks are observed by ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS). This persists up to 1050 K at which time the iron oxide monolayer decomposes and platinum appears in the ISS spectrum. When 4 ML of sodium oxide, lithium oxide, or potassium oxide are deposited on the iron oxide, only alkali peaks are observed by ISS indicating that the alkali resides in the outermost layer. Heating the sodium oxide covered surface to 850 K induces sintering of the iron oxide monolayer, evidenced by the appearance of a platinum peak in the ISS experiment. Lithium oxide or potassium oxide sinters the iron oxide to a lesser extent than sodium oxide. One monolayer of sodium oxide is found not to induce sintering of the iron oxide adsorbed on Pt(111). A model is proposed in which sintering requires dissolution of iron oxide in an alkali phase.