cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modeling Fresh Organic Produce Consumption With Scanner Data: A Generalized Double Hurdle Model Approach

Previous studies using consumer surveys based on contingent valuations gave inconsistent or even contradictory results with respect to the impact of some consumer characteristics on organic foods consumption. Using actual retail-level data, this study provides an objective view of the consumers’ social economic characteristics related to the growth of the fresh organic produce market with a generalized double hurdle model. Market participation and conditional/unconditional consumption elasticities were computed for the generalized double hurdle model. [EconLit citations: C240, D120, Q110]. r 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Never in care: characteristics of HIV-infected crack cocaine users in 2 US cities who have never been to outpatient HIV care.

Background: There are very limited data available of the correlates of H1V-infected crack users who have never been to HIV care. Methods: Interviews were conducted at bedside with HIV-infected crack cocaine users who were recruited from the inpatient wards at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL, and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA, between August 2006 and July 2009. Participants were asked about their sociodemographic characteristics, drug use, drug/alcohol treatment history, use of HIV care, perceived social support, and mental health status. Multiple logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with never having been to HIV care. Results: Among 355 study participants, 21% reported never having been to a doctor or clinic for HIV care. Higher adjusted odds of never having been in care were associated with an annual income of less than $5000 [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 8.17, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.35 to 19.94], residence in Atlanta compared with Miami (AOR = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.36 to 4.83), no history of drug treatment (AOR = 4.13, 95% CI = 2.24 to 7.62), and not being helped into care at the time of HIV diagnosis (AOR = 2.83, 95% CI = 1.56 to 5.15). Conclusions: Our data show that a significant proportion of HIV-infected crack cocaine users in 2 city hospitals have never been to HIV care. Interventions at the time of HIV diagnosis and drug treatment participation may facilitate linkage to care.
Functional Consequences of Intrinsic Disorder in the NFkB-IkB Interaction

The NFκB transcription factor family controls a myriad of cellular functions including growth and differentiation and stress responses. Our work focuses on the NFκB(RelA/p50) heterodimer, which is more abundant in most cell types. In resting cells, NFκB is sequestered in the cytoplasm because the RelA nuclear localization signal (NLS) is masked by binding to an inhibitor protein, IκBα. Crystal structures of NFκB(RelA/p50) bound to DNA and to IκBα are available. Truncation of both proteins and measurement of binding affinities in vitro lead to the observation that the binding affinity of the NFκB(RelA/p50) to IκBα is extremely tight (KD 40 pM), and the binding energy is concentrated at the ends of the elongated protein-protein interface. IκBα binds to NFκB(RelA/p50) via its ankyrin repeat domain and biophysical characterization of this domain showed that the first four repeats are well-folded while the fifth and sixth repeats are weakly folded. NMR studies show that the NLS region of NFκB(RelA) is intrinsically disordered and folds on binding to the first three ankyrin repeats of IκBα. At the other end of the interface, the fifth and sixth repeats of IκBα fold upon binding to the dimerization domains of the NFκB(RelA/p50). Folding of the fifth and sixth repeats is important for switching the degradation mechanism of IκBα from a rapid ubiquitin-independent degradation of free IκBα to a signal-and ubiquitin-dependent degradation of the NFkB-bound protein. Intrinsic disorder of the fifth and sixth repeats is important for the ability of IκBα to facilitate dissociation of NF-κB from the DNA transcription sites and smFRET demonstrates that this novel function correlates with native state fluctuations in IκBα.Acknowledgments: NIH P01 GM071862.
Molecular Thermodynamics in the Design of Substitute Solvents

The use of physical properties and fluid behavior from molecular thermodynamics can lead to better decision making in the design of substitute solvents and can greatly reduce the expense and time required to find substitutes compared to designing substitute solvents by experiment. This paper systematically discusses the equilibrium and dynamic properties and the fluid behavior which are important for designing substitute solvents. For each property, it discusses the rationale for using the property, the current level of understanding from molecular thermodynamics, the general methodology for estimating the property for single chemicals, and suggested methods for liquid mixtures. In addition to bulk physical solvent properties such as viscosity, other solution properties such as activity coefficients are also important for designing substitute solvents. The use of limiting or infinite dilution activity coefficients in the context of substitute solvent design is discussed. Lastly, other requirements such as...
Crystal Structures of a Tetrahedral Open Pore Ferritin from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus

Ferritins are known as important iron storage/detoxification proteins and are widely found in living organisms. This report details the 2.1 A resolution native and 2.7 A resolution iron bound structures of the ferritin from the hyperthermophilic Archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus, and represents the first structure of a ferritin from an archaeon, or a hyperthermophilic organism. The A. fulgidus ferritin (AfFtn) monomer has a high degree of structural similarity with archetypal ferritins from E. coli and humans, but the AfFtn quaternary structure is novel; 24 subunits assemble into a shell having tetrahedral (2-3) rather than the canonical octahedral (4-3-2) symmetry of archetypal ferritins. The difference in assembly opens four large (approximately 45 A) pores in the AfFtn shell. Two nonconservative amino acid substitutions may be critical for stabilizing the tetrahedral form.
Differential effect of cyclo‐oxygenase inhibition on antigen‐ and ionophore‐induced release of slow reacting substance from fragmented guinea‐pig lung

The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) indomethacin and mefenamic acid, at concentrations ranging from 3 microM to 18 microM, enhanced antigen-induced slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis (SRS-A) release from sensitized fragmented guinea-pig lung. In contrast, these agents had no effect on SRS-A release from nonsensitized guinea-pig lung induced by several concentrations of the calcium ionophore, A23187. Neither increasing preincubation time with the NSAID nor the use of sensitized tissue resulted in an enhancement of A23187-induced SRS-A release by indomethacin. NSAID did not alter histamine release by either stimulus. These results suggest that antigen and A23187 induce SRS-A release from different sources or by different mechanisms in guinea-pig lung.
Stomatal size in fossil plants: evidence for polyploidy in majority of angiosperms

Three published estimates of the frequency of polyploidy in angiosperms (30 to 35 percent, 47 percent, and 70 to 80 percent) were tested by estimating the genome size of extinct woody angiosperms with the use of fossil guard cell size as a proxy for cellular DNA content. The inferred chromosome numbers of these extinct species suggest that seven to nine is the primitive haploid chromosome number of angiosperms and that most angiosperms (approximately 70 percent) have polyploidy in their history.
The Impact of Board Diversity and Gender Composition on Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Reputation

This article explores how the diversity of board resources and the number of women on boards affect firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings, and how, in turn, CSR influences corporate reputation. In addition, this article examines whether CSR ratings mediate the relationships among board resource diversity, gender composition, and corporate reputation. The OLS regression results using lagged data for independent and control variables were statistically significant for the gender composition hypotheses, but not for the resource diversity-based hypotheses. CSR ratings had a positive impact on reputation and mediated the relationship between the number of women on the board and corporate reputation.
Nicotinamide and other inhibitors of ADP-ribosylation block deoxyglucose uptake in cultured cells

Nicotinamide was shown to inhibit deoxyglucose uptake in three diverse differentiated cell lines. In 3T3-L1 fat cells, nicotinamide equally inhibited basal and insulin stimulated deoxyglucose uptake. Inhibition by nicotinamide was non-competitive. A variety of inhibitors of ADP-ribosylation blocked deoxyglucose uptake while some analogs with no activity against ADP-ribose synthetase also had little effect on deoxyglucose uptake. These findings should be taken into account when inhibitors of ADP-ribosylation are used with intact cells.
The modification and analysis of vegetable oil for cheese making

Objectives of this study were (i) to incorporate short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in vegetable oils to obtain a bland product that could be used as a milk fat substitute in cheese making and (ii) to improve the methods for fatty acid analysis of vegetable oils modified with SCFA. Short-chain triglycerides (SCTG) were synthesized by esterifying SCFA with glycerol, and using a toluene azeotrope to remove the water of esterification. SCFA from two sources were used: (i) commercial acids and (ii) acids isolated by double distillation of milk fat methyl esters. The SCTG had a bitter, unacceptable flavor, but after interesterification with high-oleic sunflower oil (HOSO) and deodorization, the flavor was quite acceptable. SCTG were incorporated into HOSO at 100 and 120% of the levels found in the milk fat, by sodium methoxide-catalyzed interesterification. For fatty acid analysis, milk fat and simulated milk fat were converted to their decyl ester derivatives and analyzed by gas chromatography without further purification. The method was accurate and rapid for fatty acid analysis of fats containing a wide range of fatty acid chain lengths. All modified HOSO gave bland and acceptable flavors and had a SCFA composition close to that of milk fat. Results from using the modified HOSO in cheese making are reported in a later paper.
ROBUSTNESS ANALYSIS OF NEURAL NETWORKS WITH AN APPLICATION TO SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION

The robustness characteristics of multilayered feedforward neural networks (NNs) are analyzed using linear systems theory. Robustness of NN is dee ned as the NN’ s ability to perform within certain bounds of its nominal (without uncertainty ) performance in the presence of bounded uncertainty. An induced Euclidean matrix norm is used to deriveerrorboundsforNNwith activation functionsthatexhibit predominantly linearbehavior. Lyapunov stability theory is used to derive bounds on the nonlinear variations in NNs with activation functions that exhibit nonlinear behavior. A Monte Carlo simulation analysis is conducted to examine the robustness characteristics of fully and sparsely connected networks.Thefollowing conclusionsaredrawnon the basisoftheanalysis: 1 )sparsity intheNNconnectiontopologyishighlydesirabletoachieverobustness;2 )two-hidden-layernetworkswithanequal number of neurons in each layer exhibit very poor robustness; 3 )a fully forward connected network with sparsity is the most robust and accurate for a given number of neurons; and 4 ) for NNs with many neurons, activation functions with highly nonlinear regions exhibit poor robustness. A system identie cation of a nonlinear model is presented to reinforce the results of the robustness analysis.
ENZYME VARIANTS AND METABOLIC DIVERSIFICATION.

1. 1.|Mammalian tissues have a characteristic distribution of two different enzymes (aldolases A and B) catalyzing the aldol cleavage of fructose diphosphate. 2. 2.|Aldolases A and B can be distinguished by (a) substrate specificity, (b) catalytic activity, (c) immunological properties, and (d) distinct peptides produced from the native aldolases by proteolytic enzymes. 3. 3.|Aldolases A and B, nevertheless, have generally similar molecular characteristics. Both enzymes are degraded by carboxypeptidase to products having residual activity. Under appropriate acidic conditions the enzymes reversibly dissociate into polypeptide subunits. 4. 4.|The distribution of aldolase A can be correlated with the prominence of the Embden-Meyerhof pathway for degradation of sugars, while aldolase B occurs in tissues with greater metabolic diversification. Aldolase A exists predominantly in rapidly growing cells, for example, hepatomas; liver cells cultivated in vitro also contain aldolase A, although the parent tissue contained predominantly aldolase B. In prenatal rat liver there is a gradual change from a predominance of aldolase A to a predominance of aldolase B during the 5–6 days prior to birth.
Powering the analytical glow discharge

The glow discharge may be powered by direct current (dc), radio frequency (rf) and pulsed discharge sources. Each has specific advantages and special features that should be considered by analysts using the various forms of glow discharge spectroscopy. This paper reviews some of the factors that contribute to the selection of a power source for the glow discharge.
Prolactin regulation of pim-1 expression: positive and negative promoter elements.

The lactogen-dependent rat Nb2 lymphoma is a useful model to investigate PRL signaling pathways that lead to regulation of gene transcription. A primary mechanism coupled to PRL receptor (PRLR) activation in Nb2 cells involves phosphorylation by Jak-family tyrosine kinases of one or more signal transducers and activators of transcription (Stat) factors which subsequently bind to γ-interferon activation sequences (GAS) within promoter regions of target genes. However, it is presently unclear whether this mechanism is operative as a means for regulating PRL-induced gene expression to the exclusion of other signaling pathways. Previously, we reported that PRL directly stimulated rapid expression of the protooncogene, pim-1, at the mRNA and protein levels in lactogen-dependent Nb2–11 cells. In the present study, experiments were conducted to evaluate signaling mechanisms by which PRL regulates transcription of pim-1. Toward this end, a 1,268-bp segment upstream of the transcription initiation site of the 5′-p...
In Vivo Vascular Engineering of Vein Grafts: Directed Migration of Smooth Muscle Cells by Perivascular Release of Elastase Limits Neointimal Proliferation

PURPOSE Saphenous vein bypass grafting for coronary revascularization procedures remains limited by accelerated neointima formation. It was hypothesized that creation of a modified chemotactic gradient in vivo could guide migration of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) peripherally instead of in a luminal direction and reduce intimal hyperplasia during vein graft arterialization. MATERIALS AND METHODS Surgical bypass vein grafting to femoral arteries was performed in adult male New Zealand White rabbits ( n = 8 per treatment group; five for 7 d and three for 28 d). Controlled-release microspheres delivering elastase or buffered polymer only were administered perivascularly at the vein graft site. At 7 days, five vein grafts per group were harvested and cross-sections were immunostained with anti–proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) to determine the number and distribution of proliferating SMCs. At 28 days, three vein grafts per group were harvested and intima-to-media (I/M) ratios were calculated after staining with Verhoeff von Gieson– Masson trichrome stain. RESULTS Significant early outward-directed elastin degradation resulted from elastase treatment. Concurrently, proliferating SMCs migrated peripherally. PCNA(+) cells in the outer half of the wall increased 2.37 fold compared to procedural controls ( P P = .0008) in neointima was observed relative to procedural controls. CONCLUSION Directional guidance of SMC responses through perivascular elastase release achieves favorable vein graft remodeling characteristics, including limited neointima development. This represents practical evidence that SMC migration can be directionally guided in vivo in a vein graft model and that plaque progression can be prevented by redistributing elastin without decreasing functional vein graft wall stability.
Interrater Reliability of Parent—Infant Interaction Scales

The interrater reliability of three different interaction scales—the Maternal Behavior Rating Scale, the Rating Scales of Mother-Child Interaction, and the Teaching Skills Inventory—were estimated with four different statistical techniques: Pearson correlations, percentages of agreement, comparisons of raters' means, and generalizability theory techniques. The estimates varied widely, both within and across the three interaction scales. The meanings of each statistical approach are discussed, and some suggestions are given to help a researcher decide which approach to use in particular circumstances.
Diel Movement and Habitat Use by Paddlefish in Navigation Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi River

Abstract We studied diel movement and habitat use by paddlefish Polyodon spathula implanted with radio transmitters in Navigation Pool 8 of the upper Mississippi River. We radio-tracked five paddlefish during three randomly chosen 24-h periods each month in May, Aug, and Oct 1995. Paddlefish were located by boat one to three times every 3 h during each 24-h period. At each location, geographic coordinates were determined with a global positioning system receiver using the Precise Positioning Service, and depth was measured with a depth sounder. Location coordinates were plotted with ARC/INFO software on a Geographic Information System land–water coverage. Movement distances were calculated as the linear distance between sequential locations. Radio-tagged paddlefish usually remained in a secondary channel that had low current velocity during all seasons, whereas main channel, main channel border, tailwater, and backwater habitats were seldom used. Paddlefish strongly selected areas that were deep; about 62...
Calcium oxalate contribution to calcium cycling in forests of contrasting nutrient status

Abstract Calcium oxalate (Ca oxalate) is an insoluble biomineral that forms in plants and fungi, and occurs in soils across many types of ecosystems. Assessing how Ca oxalate may shape ecosystem Ca cycling requires information on the distribution of Ca oxalate among plant biomass, detritus, and mineral soil, and how it varies with ecosystem Ca status. We compared two Douglas-fir forests of contrasting ecosystem Ca availability, and found that Ca oxalate was partitioned similarly among plant biomass, detritus and mineral soil major ecosystem compartments at both sites, and total pools of Ca oxalate were greater in the high-Ca forest. However, the proportional importance of Ca oxalate was greater in the low-Ca than high-Ca forest (18% versus 4% of actively cycling ecosystem Ca, respectively). And calcium oxalate in mineral soil, which is of particular interest as a potential long-term Ca reservoir, was a larger portion of total available Ca (exchangeable Ca plus Ca oxalate Ca) in the low-Ca site than the high-Ca site (9% versus 1% of available soil Ca, respectively). Calcium oxalate was the dominant form of Ca returned from plants to soil as leaf litterfall at the high-Ca site, yet calcium oxalate disappeared rapidly from decomposing litter (0.28 yr−1 or faster) at both sites. We conclude that accumulation of Ca oxalate in forest ecosystems appears most closely related to overall Ca supply for live biomass pools, and that the accumulation of Ca oxalate in forest floor and mineral soil is limited by rapid microbial degradation of putatively unavailable Ca oxalate.
Spatial data-analysis of regional counts

Counts data from spatially continguous regions offer a challenge to the statistician both from the data analytic and the statistical modeling point of view. Important applications include epidemiological studies (e. g., cancer mortality over the counties of the USA) and Census surveys (e. g., undercount over the Census blocks of an urban area). It has long been recognized by time-series analysts that data close together in time usually exhibit higher dependence than those far apart. Time-series data analysis relies on methods of data transformation, detrending, and autocorrelation plotting. It is our intention in this article to generalize this approach to a spatial setting. To do this we consider a small spatial data set of 100 observations. Through the use of a square-root transformation, a weighted median polish and a variogram analysis of the median-polish residuals, we represent the transformed data as a trend plus stationary error. Thus we show how standard data-analytic techniques can be modified both to mitigate and to exploit the spatial relationships.
An in vitro assessment of the physical properties of novel Hyflex nickel-titanium rotary instruments

Peters OA, Gluskin AK, Weiss RA, Han JT. An in vitro assessment of the physical properties of novel Hyflex nickel–titanium rotary instruments. International Endodontic Journal, 45, 1027–1034, 2012. Abstract Aim To determine several properties including torsional and fatigue limits, as well as torque during canal preparation, of Hyflex, a rotary instrument manufactured from so-called controlled memory nickel–titanium alloy. Methodology The instruments were tested in vitro using a special torque bench that permits both stationary torque tests according to ISO3630-1 and fatigue limit determination, as well as measurement of torque (in Ncm) and apical force (in N) during canal preparation. Fatigue limit (in numbers of cycles to failure) was determined in a 90°, 5 mm radius block-and-rod assembly. Simulated canals in plastic blocks were prepared using both a manufacturer-recommended single-length technique as well as a generic crown-down approach. anova with Bonferroni post hoc procedures was used for statistical analysis. Results Torque at failure ranged from 0.47 to 1.38 Ncm, with significant differences between instrument sizes (P < 0.0001). Fatigue life ranged from 260 to 2565, with the shortest and longest lifespan for instruments size 20, .04 taper and size 25, .08 taper, respectively. Torque during canal preparation was significantly higher for small instruments used in the single-length technique but lower for the size 40, .04 taper, compared to a crown-down approach. No instrument fractured; 82% of the instruments used were plastically deformed; however, only 37% of these remained deformed after a sterilization cycle. Conclusions Hyflex rotary instruments are bendable and flexible and have similar torsional resistance compared to instruments made of conventional NiTi. Fatigue resistance is much higher, and torque during preparation is less, compared to other rotary instruments tested previously under similar conditions.
Recall of boxed material in textbooks

College students read sections of a textbook that included both regular and boxed material, and took a multiple-choice test over the material 24 h later. Subjects instructed to attend to boxed material scored significantly higher on questions covering this material than did subjects not so instructed.
Brief Report: On the Concordance Percentages for Autistic Spectrum Disorder of Twins

In the development of genetic theories of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) various characteristics of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins are often considered. This paper sets forth a possible refinement in the interpretation of the MZ twin concordance percentages for ASD underlying such genetic theories, and, drawing the consequences from that refinement, a possible early environmental factor in the later development of ASD.
Analyzing the Nature of ECA Interactions in Children with Autism

Embodied conversational agents (ECA) offer platforms for the collection of structured interaction and communication data. This paper discusses the data collected from the Rachel system, an ECA developed at the University of Southern California, for interactions with children with autism. Two dyads each composed of a child with autism and his parent participated in an experiment with two modes: interactions with and without the ECA present. The goal of this work is to assess the naturalness of the data recorded in the ECA interaction. This analysis was carried out using a classification framework with a prediction variable of the presence or absence of the ECA in the interaction. The results demonstrate that it is possible to estimate whether or not a parent is interacting with the ECA using their speech data. However, it is not generally possible to do so for the child suggesting that the Rachel system is eliciting communication data that is similar to that elicited through interactions between the child and his parent. Index Terms: Embodied conversational agent, multimodal interface, audio-video recording, autism, children’s speech
A comparison study of advanced state observer design techniques

This paper presents a comparison study of performances and characteristics of three advanced state observers, including the high-gain observers, the sliding-mode observers and the extended state observers. These observers were originally proposed to address the dependence of the classical observers, such as the Kalman filter and the Luenberger observer, on the accurate mathematical representation of the plant. The results show that, over all, the extended state observer is much superior in dealing with dynamic uncertainties, disturbances and sensor noise. Several novel nonlinear gain functions are proposed to address the difficulty in dealing with unknown initial conditions. Simulation and experimental results are provided.
PMR SPECTROSCOPIC STUDIES OF LANTHANIDE AMINOCARBOXYLATE COMPLEXES

Based on PMR spectra at 60 MHz in which doublets were observed for the acetate protons at low temperature (1,2), it was proposed that EDTA is pentachelated for the lighter lanthanides and hexachelated for the heavier ones. We had observed (3) a single AB quartet pattern for the acetate protons of YEDTA and LuEDTA, confirming that all 4 acetate groups were equivalently bonded. Such an AB pattern is associated with short (on NMR scale) lifetimes for the metal-carboxylate bonds and long lifetimes for the metal-nitrogen bonds (4) confirming the bonding of both nitrogens in EDTA. The simplest interpretation is hexachelation.
An unusual koi herpesvirus associated with a mortality event of common carp Cyprinus carpio in New York State, USA.

Koi herpesvirus (KHV), a highly contagious and lethal virus that affects both koi (Cyprinus carpio koi) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio), was isolated in 1998 from two outbreaks of koi suffering mass mortality in New York State, USA, and in Israel. The disease had been described as early as 1996 in Europe. In July 2004, this virus was found associated with a mass mortality event in wild common carp in the Chadakoin River, New York, USA (42°07′N, 79°W). Affected fish typically showed marked hyperplasia of gill tissues, abdominal adhesions, and severe multifocal to diffuse external hemorrhages. The virus isolated in this outbreak was somewhat unusual in that it initially replicated well in fathead minnow cell cultures, which is typical of spring viremia of carp virus. Testing at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Ames, Iowa, USA, confirmed the virus's identity to be KHV. Koi herpesvirus is not currently on the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) list of notifiable diseases; however, it i...
TLR2 and TLR4 serve distinct roles in the host immune response against Mycobacterium bovis BCG

Toll-like receptor (TLR) proteins mediate cellular activation by microbes and microbial products. To delineate the role of TLR proteins in the development of host immune responses against mycobacteria, wild-type and TLR-deficient mice were infected with nonpathogenic Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). Two weeks after intraperitoneal challenge with BCG, few bacilli were present in the lungs of wild-type and TLR4(-/-) mice, whereas bacterial loads were tenfold higher in the lungs of infected TLR2(-/-) mice. BCG challenge in vitro strongly induced proinflammatory cytokine secretion by macrophages from wild-type and TLR4(-/-) mice but not by TLR2(-/-) macrophages. In contrast, intracellular uptake, intracellular bacterial growth, and suppression of intracellular bacterial growth in vitro by interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) were similar in macrophages from all three mouse strains, suggesting that BCG growth in the lungs of TLR2(-/-) mice was a consequence of defective adaptive immunity. Antigenic stimulation of splenocytes from infected wild-type and TLR4(-/-) mice induced T cell proliferation in vitro, whereas T cells from TLR2(-/-) mice failed to proliferate. Unexpectedly, activated CD4(+) T cells from both TLR-deficient mouse strains secreted little IFN-gamma in vitro compared with control T cells. A role for TLR4 in the control of bacterial growth and IFN-gamma production in vivo was observed only when mice were infected with higher numbers of BCG. Thus, TLR2 and TLR4 appear to regulate distinct aspects of the host immune response against BCG.
Mesenchymal stem cells promote mammary cancer cell migration in vitro via the CXCR2 receptor

Bone metastasis is a common event during breast cancer progression. Recently, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been implicated in the metastasis of primary mammary cancer. Given that bone is the native environment for MSCs, we hypothesized MSCs facilitate the homing of circulating mammary cancer cells to the bone. To test this hypothesis, we examined in vitro whether bone derived MSCs from FVB mice could influence the migration of syngeneic murine mammary cancer cell lines derived from the polyoma virus middle-T (PyMT) model of mammary gland tumorigenesis. Our data show that conditioned media derived from MSCs significantly enhanced the migration of PyMT mammary cancer cell lines. Analysis of conditioned media using a cytokine array revealed the presence of numerous cytokines in the MSC conditioned media, most notably, the murine orthologs of CXCL1 and CXCL5 that are cognate ligands of the CXCR2 receptor. Further investigation identified that: (1) CXCL1, CXCL5 and CXCR2 mRNA and protein were expressed by the MSCs and PyMT cell lines and; (2) neutralizing antibodies to CXCL1, CXCL5 and CXCR2 or a CXCR2 small molecule inhibitor (SB265610) significantly abrogated the migratory effect of the MSC conditioned media on the PyMT cells. Therefore, in vitro evidence demonstrates that bone derived MSCs play a role in the migration of mammary cancer cells, a conclusion that has potential implications for breast to bone metastasis in vivo.
Religion, “Westernization,” and Youth in the “Closed City” of Soviet Ukraine, 1964–84

We enjoyed our trip to this city very much! For us, it was like traveling to a real West. In contrast to our home town, L'viv is open to visits from foreigners. So on L'viv's streets we even met American and Canadian tourists who spoke their native language. For me, it was the first time in my life when I saw foreigners and heard them speaking real English, my favorite language, the tongue of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Deep Purple. The best result of our trip was the visit our entire class made (secretly) to L'viv's black market, where seven members of our tourist group, myself included, and our Komsomol ideologist Natasha, bought new British records of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar from Polish tourists. It was great because Ian Gillan, our favorite vocalist from the hard rock band Deep Purple, sings in this rock opera. The Polish tourists also recommended that we buy crosses because we were Gillan's fans, and Gillan sang the part of Christ in the opera.1
Reliability in detection of hemorrhage in acute stroke by a new three-dimensional gradient recalled echo susceptibility-weighted imaging technique compared to computed tomography: a retrospective study.

Purpose To compare the sensitivity of magnetic resonance (MR) susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) with conventional MR sequences and computed tomography (CT) in the detection of hemorrhage in an acute infarct. Materials and Methods A series of 84 patients suspected of having acute strokes had both CT and MR imaging (MRI) scans with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and SWI. The SWI sequence is a new high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique that amplifies phase to enhance the magnitude contrast. Results Thirty-eight of 84 cases showed abnormal DWI consistent with acute infarct. Of the 38, SWI showed evidence of hemorrhage in 16 cases, compared to eight cases with spin echo (SE) T2, seven cases with fluid attentuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), and only five cases with CT. In a subset of 17 cases of acute infarct who had both two-dimensional gradient recalled echo (2D-GRE) T2*-weighted imaging and SWI, in addition to conventional MRI, evidence of hemorrhage was seen in 10 cases using SWI, compared to seven cases with 2D-GRE T2*. Conclusion SWI proved to be a powerful new approach for visualizing hemorrhage in acute stroke compared to CT and conventional MRI methods. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2004;20:372–377. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Time-Dependent Broadband Pricing: Feasibility and Benefits

Charging different prices for Internet access at different times induces users to spread out their bandwidth consumption across times of the day. Potential impact on ISP revenue, congestion management, and consumer behavior can be significant, yet some fundamental questions remain: is it feasible to operate time dependent pricing and how much benefit can it bring? We develop an efficient way to compute the cost-minimizing time-dependent prices for an Internet service provider (ISP), using both a static session-level model and a dynamic session model with stochastic arrivals. A key step is choosing the representation of the optimization problem so that the resulting formulations remain computationally tractable for large-scale problems. We next show simulations illustrating the use and limitation of time-dependent pricing. These results demonstrate that optimal prices, which "reward'' users for deferring their sessions, roughly correlate with demand in each period, and that changing prices based on real-time traffic estimates may significantly reduce ISP cost. The degree to which traffic is evened out over times of the day depends on the time-sensitivity of sessions, cost structure of the ISP, and amount of traffic not subject to time-dependent prices. Finally, we present our system integration and implementation, called TUBE, and proof-of-concept experimentation.
Abdominal aortic endografting: fixation and sealing.

The treatment goals for elective endovascular and open surgical repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms are identical. Anyone attempting to remedy this condition desires longterm freedom from aneurysm rupture in association with minimal morbidity and mortality for the intervention required. The methods by which these objectives are achieved differ significantly between open and endovascular procedures. This article will address the means by which endografts achieve proximal fixation and sealing, two concepts that are paramount in durable endovascular aneurysm repair. The surgical anastomosis, when properly constructed, is the most secure way to fixate graft material to a section of normal arterial wall. This serves to prevent flow outside of the designated conduit and to secure the graft material in place. Although this is conceptually straightforward, individuals who treat this condition maintain a healthy respect for the potentially complex anatomy of the proximal neck. The ability to make adjustments while sewing the proximal anastomosis is extremely advantageous. Similar situations can be encountered during endovascular aortic repairs, but we are frequently unable to modify the device or technique once the procedure has been initiated. Consequently, the preoperative imaging and planning is critical to successful endovascular grafting. Appropriate patient selection, the conceptual design of an endovascular graft, and detailed planning of the operation must be completed before arrival in the operating room. Most assessments of acute technical and clinical success of endovascular grafting have been quite favorable, but complex analyses of longterm durability raise concerns that dwarf the early favorable results. The inevitable deterioration of the arterial system associated with age and accelerated by aneurysmal disease, in conjunction with morphologic changes associated with sac shrinkage, requires endovascular prostheses to adapt to altering anatomy. Endograft design must be tailored to specific anatomic factors that must be determined preoperatively, and acute success, with respect to proximal fixation and sealing methods, must be coupled with materials that will accommodate anatomic changes.
Preparing Engineers for the Workplace through Service Learning: Perceptions of EPICS Alumni

Background Service-learning programs that emphasize engineering design have been posited to bolster the professional preparedness of engineering alumni. However, we know little about how such programs actually prepare engineers for the workplace. Nor does prior literature fully explain how characteristics of these programs affect professional preparation. Purpose This study investigates how alumni perceive the impact of one service-learning program, Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), in preparing them for the workplace. We seek to provide empirical and theoretical foundations about how this program affected the alumni's perceptions of how they were prepared for professional practice. Design/Method This investigation was an embedded, sequential mixed-methods study, which began by administering a survey to 523 participants. On the basis of survey responses, we interviewed 27 participants and conducted a thematic analysis of transcripts to describe how participants related their EPICS experiences to the workplace. Results The findings describe how alumni perceived the role of EPICS in preparing them for the workplace. The thematic analysis reveals how alumni perceived the nature of their preparation through three themes: EPICS was a bridge from education to practice, EPICS provided a means for gaining workplace experience, and EPICS developed a variety of professional skills. Conclusions Grounded in alumni perspectives, this study demonstrates a strong link between participating in service-learning activities and navigating the complexity of the workplace. Finally, we identify three key characteristics of EPICS that are transferable to other institutions.
Air Permeability of Elastomers by Diffusion Tests

Abstract The permeability of various tread compounds to air was measured in a modified Warburg diffusion apparatus. Measurements were made at 30° C, with air applied at 48 psi. pressure, on molded disks approximately 0.025 inch thick and an area of 12.57 sq. in. The tests were reproducible within 4 per cent on control specimens. The compounds investigated showed permeabilities intermediate between the low values for Butyl and the high values for natural rubber. The permeability decreased with increasing combined styrene contents and with a decrease of temperature of polymerization for polybutadiene and low-styrene copolymers. It was unaffected by variation over a large range in polymer Mooney viscosity, gel content, and dilute-solution viscosity. A slight and almost linear decrease of permeability was found with increases in time of cure and carbon black loading for the stocks. In terms of the 300 per cent modulus, an increase of 100 psi. was accompanied by a 2 per cent decrease in permeability. Processin...
Mixing and Demixing of Cu-Mo

Ion beam mixing of Cu/Mo multilayer samples and demixing of Cu-Mo alloy samples were examined as functions of temperature and ion mass. Even at liquid nitrogen temperature, the mixing of one component in other was very small under 1.0 MeV Kr irradiation. The maximum solubility was about 10%. Irradiation of homogeneous Cu-Mo alloys under the same conditions, moreover, led to phase separation. These conclusions were deduced from bulk X-ray diffraction measurements and corroborated by EXAFS examination. The maximum solubility obtained by irradiating multilayer samples occurred at about 600 K. At lower or higher temperature, the solubility of Cu in Mo-rich phase was lower. A model based on the ballistic difflusion explains these results.
Polarized Opinions on Racial Progress and Inequality: Measurement and Application to Affirmative Action Preferences

This study presents new measures of opinion about progress toward racial equality and provides a multifaceted rationale for preferring the new measures to the old ones. To reduce several sources of measurement error and improve analytic bite by breaking progress into its constituent elements, surveys should ask about past, present, and ideal conditions, not “progress.” These questions reveal racially polarized opinions: Black and White Americans agree on the goal of equality and agree that conditions were worse in the past, but Blacks think conditions were much worse than Whites do. They especially differ in opinions on current conditions and thus in how much change is required to achieve the goal of equality. Blacks see much more current inequality than Whites do. These opinions help explain preferences for affirmative action (AA). Contrary to previously published findings, reactions to AA do not depend on opinions on progress but depend strongly on something related but distinct: how much current racial conditions differ from the ideal. Implications for theories of policy preferences, racial attitudes, progress, and equality are discussed.
STINGing the Tumor's immune evasion mechanism

In order to enhance the STING dependent type I interferon (IFN) response, we formulated cyclic dinucleotides (CDN) with cancer vaccines to develop STINGVAX. Interestingly, tumors from STINGVAX treated mice demonstrated dramatic PD-L1 upregulation. When combined with PD-1 blockade, STINGVAX induced regression of established tumors that did not respond to PD-1 blockade alone.
Vertical MoS2/hBN/MoS2 interlayer tunneling field effect transistor

Abstract Gate induced interlayer tunneling field effect transistor (iTFET) is studied analytically considering vertical heterostructure of boron nitride (BN) layer sandwiched between two monolayers of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). The device structure in comparison to recently reported work shows subthreshold slope close to 60 mV/decade and operation at upper GHz.
OncoMiner: A Pipeline for Bioinformatics Analysis of Exonic Sequence Variants in Cancer

With recent developments in high-throughput sequencing technologies, whole exome sequencing (WES) data have become a rich source of information from which scientists can explore the overall mutational landscape in patients with various types of cancers. We have developed the OncoMiner pipeline for mining WES data to identify exonic sequence variants, link them with associated research literature, visualize their genomic locations, and compare their occurrence frequencies among different groups of subjects. This pipeline, written in Python on an IBM High-Performance Cluster, HPC Version 3.2, is accessible at oncominer.utep.edu. It begins with taking all the identified missense mutations of an individual and translating the affected genes based on Genome Reference Consortium’s human genome build 37. After constructing a list of exonic sequence variants from the individual, OncoMiner uses PROVEAN scoring scheme to assess each variant’s functional consequences, followed by PubMed searches to link the variant to previous reports. Users can then select subjects to visualize their PROVEAN score profiles with Circos diagrams and to compare the proportions of variant occurrences between different groups using Fisher’s exact tests. As such statistical comparisons typically involve many hypothesis tests, options for multiple-test corrections are included to control familywise error or false discovery rates. We have used OncoMiner to analyze variants of cancer-related genes in 14 samples taken from patients with cancer, six from cancer cell lines, and ten from normal individuals. Variants showing significant differences between the cancer and control groups are identified and experiments are being designed to elucidate their roles in cancer.
A Biologically Distinctive Subgroup of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia with Characteristic Nuclear Morphology and a High Frequency of FLT3 Mutation.

Acute myelogeneous leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous group of diseases. Mutations of the fms -like tyrosine kinase-3 ( FLT3) gene of internal tandem duplication (ITD) type have been identified as one of the most frequent molecular defects in AML. However, even within FLT3 mutated/ITD positive cases, there is heterogeneity in clinical outcomes. In this study, we describe a biologically distinctive subgroup of AML in which blasts exhibit prominent nuclear invagination with frequent fishmouth-like nuclear indentation and had tendency of high frequency of FLT3 /ITD. We identified 23 AML, FAB-M1 cases with fishmouth morphologic feature (study series, SS) diagnosed between 1998 and mid-2005 at our institution, which represents approximately 20% of AML, M1 cases and 1% of the entire AML cases. The age-matched control series (CS) of 20 AML, M1 cases without this nuclear feature were established to compare the incidence of FLT3 mutations, cytogenetics (CG), immunophenotype by multiparameter flow cytometry and clinical outcome. All the laboratory tests were performed on the bone marrow (BM) samples except one case using peripheral blood. As illustrated in the table, AML cases with fishmouth-like nuclear morphology are significantly associated with female gender and lack of expression of CD34 and HLA-DR. There is statistical trend toward high frequencies of normal cytogenetics (68% diploid by conventional karyotyping) and FLT3 mutation of ITD type (86%) in the study series. The white cell count, bone marrow blast percentage (82–98%, median 90% in SS vs. 76–97%, median 85% in CS) and expression of CD13, CD33 and CD117 are not significantly different. Electron microscopic examination demonstrated condensed collections of mitochondriae within the indented/invaginated nuclear pockets. Complete remission rate was higher in AML cases with fishmouth-like nuclear morphology (73% vs. 40%, p=0.032). However, there was no difference in the overall survival rate between these two groups (1-year survival of 38% in SS vs. 39% in CS). In conclusion, AML cases with fishmouth-like nuclear morphology may represent a rare but distinctive AML subgroup with specific clinical, immunophenotypic and genetic features. Further prospective studies of larger cohorts of patients are required to confirm the prognosis of this entity.
Gradient-based Regularization Parameter Selection for Problems With Nonsmooth Penalty Functions

ABSTRACTIn high-dimensional and/or nonparametric regression problems , regularization (or penalization) is used to control model complexity and induce desired structure. Each penalty has a weight parameter that indicates how strongly the structure corresponding to that penalty should be enforced. Typically, the parameters are chosen to minimize the error on a separate validation set using a simple grid search or a gradient-free optimization method. It is more efficient to tune parameters if the gradient can be determined, but this is often difficult for problems with nonsmooth penalty functions. Here, we show that for many penalized regression problems, the validation loss is actually smooth almost-everywhere with respect to the penalty parameters. We can, therefore, apply a modified gradient descent algorithm to tune parameters. Through simulation studies on example regression problems, we find that increasing the number of penalty parameters and tuning them using our method can decrease the generalizati...