cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cause or casualty: The role of mitochondrial DNA in aging and age-associated disease.

Abstract The mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) represents a tiny fraction of the whole genome, comprising just 16.6 kilobases encoding 37 genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and the mitochondrial translation machinery. Despite its small size, much interest has developed in recent years regarding the role of mtDNA as a determinant of both aging and age-associated diseases. A number of studies have presented compelling evidence for key roles of mtDNA in age-related pathology, although many are correlative rather than demonstrating cause. In this review we will evaluate the evidence supporting and opposing a role for mtDNA in age-associated functional declines and diseases. We provide an overview of mtDNA biology, damage and repair as well as the influence of mitochondrial haplogroups, epigenetics and maternal inheritance in aging and longevity.
A study of the largest Banyan tree of Rajasthan State at village Madri, tehsil Jhadol, post Nai, district Udaipur, Rajasthan

The largest Banyan tree of Rajasthan state is present in Madri village of Udaipur district. As many as 12 broken branches of this tree are lying on the ground in live condition which are growing outwards. This tree is devoid of prop roots. The crown spread of the tree is about 117 m in North-South direction and about 111 m in East-West direction. The periphery of stem is about 21.0 m at Breast Height (BH). This tree is very important from eco-tourism point of view. By massive advertisement and proper arrangements, tourists can be attracted towards this tree. This act would help to increase income of the Panchayat and would help to generate employment for local people. Being a heritage tree, it deserves conservation also.
Defense hormones modulate root microbiome diversity and composition in tomato

ABSTRACT Plant roots live closely associated with soil microbes. Understanding how roots defend against pathogenic microbes while associating with non-pathogenic microbes is critical to using root microbiomes for successful outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of the plant defense hormones ethylene (ET), jasmonic acid (JA), and salicylic acid (SA) to the tomato root microbiome. We used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to examine the root microbiome of four tomato genotypes defective in three hormone pathways. We found that ET and SA pathways, but not JA, were critical for root endosphere microbial alpha (α)-diversity. Root endosphere communities of ACD, deficient in a precursor of ET, and the SA-deficient NahG transgenic, had significantly less α-diversity than wild-type tomatoes. NahG and ACD root endosphere enrichment profiles were similar and driven by two taxa. In NahG, ACD, and in a panel of 24 wild-type tomatoes, the abundance of these two taxa was correlated with lower root endosphere α-diversity. The abundance of these taxa was also moderately negatively correlated with the level of SA in roots. Our results suggest that SA and ET pathways contribute to tomato root endosphere diversity by modulating the abundance of specific bacterial taxa.
Bridging the Gaps: Local Government and Nonprofit Collaborations

Local governments and nonprofit organizations often struggle to provide quality services to their residents and clients. One potential way for these organizations to overcome obstacles in service provision is to engage in joint programming and service delivery. In this study, we use original survey data collected from local government and nonprofit managers in the state of North Carolina to examine recent trends in collaboration between these sectors. Specifically, we explore the perceptions of these managers concerning the types of collaborations that work best, the types of collaborations that are least successful, and the factors that foster or hinder cooperation. We also explore the perceptions that these managers have about the other. We hypothesize that positive perceptions of the other sector, greater access to resources, operating in a more urbanized environment, and participation in past positive cross-sector collaboration experiences will all lead to increased collaboration between local governments and nonprofits. We find, however, that although an organization’s resources and managerial perceptions of the other sector do influence collaboration, having participated in a past successful collaboration does not necessarily lead to an increase in future partnerships.
Superior Gluteal Reconstruction for Severe Hip Abductor Deficiency.

Abstract Abductor tendon tears are one of the common causes of recalcitrant laterally based hip pain and dysfunction. In most cases, abductor tendon tears are associated with chronic nontraumatic tearing of the gluteus medius tendon. Restoring abductor function of the hip by primary repair of the gluteus medius tendon has been reported to have good and excellent outcomes. However, primary repair might not be as effective for chronic detachment of the gluteus medius tendon with a wide separation from the femoral footprint or severe tendon loss. The lack of tendinous foot for repair and the intrinsically degenerative condition of the tendon may create high tension at the repair site thereby predisposing to surgical failure. We believe that the use of soft-tissue allograft from the Achilles tendon or human dermal allograft may help strengthen the surgical site. We describe a superior gluteal reconstruction technique that is suitable for cases with abductor tendon tear with severe tendon loss.
Urban Spaces Sustainability. Applied Study to Curitiba’s Central District—Brazil

Curitiba’s Central District is an active area, a centrality that has a concentration of metropolitan services and cultural offerings, with great access to public transport. It is undergoing constant changes in land use and occupation designed to lead to sustainability, social justice, ecological stability and economic prosperity. This analysis of the Curitiba’s Central District is based on the inventory of the natural system, the anthropic system and the urban metabolism in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals—SDG-, specifically the Goal No.11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. Curitiba’s Central District, a center of historical origin recognized by legal norms, is undergoing urban renewal processes that can lead to sustainability in different aspects: the uncovering of urban rivers, as a water management and public space project, as well as the provision of new housing, public spaces and mobility services, along with the local supply of vital resources and better waste management. Central District is in the process of taking advantage of its symbolic and functional relevance to reinvent itself and reach the ideal of “Curitiba, sustainable city”.
Vitamin C Intravenous Treatment In the Setting of Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: Results From the Randomized, Double‐Blinded, Placebo‐Controlled CITRIS‐AF Pilot Study

Background Catheter ablation is an effective treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF), but high levels of post‐procedure inflammation predict adverse clinical events. Ascorbic acid (AA) has shown pro...
Aging and Diabetes: Shifting the Risk Trajectory With High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponins

Diabetes is a serious health challenge for the aging population, contributing to morbidity and mortality primarily through increased risk for ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and stroke (1). Approximately 25–30% of adults over the age of 65 years have diabetes (2,3), and this proportion is expected to increase rapidly in the coming decades (4). Older individuals with diabetes also have higher rates of comorbidities including functional disability, accelerated muscle loss, chronic kidney disease, and coexisting cardiovascular risk factors compared with those without diabetes (3). Since multiple comorbidity among older adults with diabetes is common, individualized risk assessment to guide therapy using standard risk stratification tools has proven to be challenging. Therefore, new strategies are needed to improve risk assessment and inform use of novel and emerging therapies for patients with diabetes given important risk/benefit trade-offs between efficacy and adverse effects in the older adult population. Incorporation of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) into risk stratification and treatment decision algorithms is one such strategy that has the potential to improve personalized diabetes care. hs-cTn–based risk stratification (using both the hs-cTnT and hs-cTnI isoforms) has been extensively investigated in multiple population settings and for multiple outcomes including coronary artery disease, heart failure, stroke, and mortality (5–8). The association is strongest for heart failure and mortality and weakest for ischemic events (6). When measured in ambulatory individuals without cardiac symptoms, hs-cTn is a measure of subclinical myocardial injury and provides independent, additional prognostic information beyond other cardiac biomarkers and diagnostic tests such as electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy, N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide, and coronary artery calcium (9,10). Importantly, although hs-cTn is commonly elevated beyond the detectable threshold in older adults (∼2/3 will have a level …
Artificial Intelligent Multi-Access Edge Computing Servers Management

The advances of multi-access edge computing (MEC) have paved the way for the integration of the MEC servers, as intelligent entities into the Internet of Things (IoT) environment as well as into the 5G radio access networks. In this paper, a novel artificial intelligence-based MEC servers' activation mechanism is proposed, by adopting the principles of Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Bayesian Reasoning. The considered problem enables the MEC servers' activation decision-making, aiming at enhancing the reputation of the overall MEC system, as well as considering the total computing costs to serve efficiently the users' computing demands, guaranteeing at the same time their Quality of Experience (QoE) prerequisites satisfaction. Each MEC server decides in an autonomous manner whether it will be activated or remain in sleep mode by utilizing the theory of Bayesian Learning Automata (BLA). A human-driven peer-review-based evaluation of the edge computing system's provided services is also introduced based on the concept of Bayesian Truth Serum (BTS), which supports the development of a reputation mechanism regarding the MEC servers' provided services. The intelligent MEC servers' autonomous decisions' satisfaction is captured via a holistic utility function, which they aim to maximize in a distributed manner. Finally, detailed numerical results obtained via modeling and simulation, highlight the key operation features and superiority of the proposed framework.
A clinical score for neuroendocrine tumor patients under consideration for Lu-177-DOTATATE therapy

We developed a clinical score (CS) at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) that we hoped would predict outcomes for patients with progressive well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) receiving therapy with Lutetium-177 (177Lu)-DOTATATE. Patients under consideration for 177Lu-DOTATATE between March 1, 2016 and March 17, 2020 at VICC were assigned a CS prospectively. The CS included 5 categories: available treatments for tumor type outside of 177Lu-DOTATATE, prior systemic treatments, patient symptoms, tumor burden in critical organs and presence of peritoneal carcinomatosis. The primary outcome of the analysis was progression-free survival (PFS). To evaluate the effect of the CS on PFS, a multivariable Cox regression analysis was performed adjusting for tumor grade, primary tumor location, and the interaction between 177Lu-DOTATATE doses received (zero, 1-2, 3-4) and CS. A total of 91 patients and 31 patients received 3-4 doses and zero doses of 177Lu-DOTATATE, respectively. On multivariable analysis, in patients treated with 3-4 doses of 177Lu-DOTATATE, for each 1-point increase in CS, the estimated hazard ratio (HR) for PFS was 2.0 (95% CI 1.61-2.48). On multivariable analysis, in patients who received zero doses of 177Lu-DOTATATE, for each 1-point increase in CS, the estimated HR for PFS was 1.22 (95% CI 0.91-1.65). Among patients treated with 3-4 doses of 177Lu-DOTATATE, those with lower CS experienced improved PFS with the treatment compared to patients with higher CS. This PFS difference, based upon CS, was not observed in patients who did not receive 177Lu-DOTATATE, suggesting the predictive utility of the score.
Great-tailed grackles can independently direct their eyes toward different targets

Many species use eye movements to direct their overt attention toward specific targets within their environments. Some species can move each eye independently but we have a limited understanding of whether they can simultaneously monitor different targets with each eye. This study, therefore, tested whether a songbird can independently move its eyes towards two different targets. Captive great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus mexicanus) were simultaneously presented with one target in their left visual field and another target in their right visual field; the targets were both in the upper visual fields, both in the lower visual fields, or one target was in the upper visual field of one eye, while the other target was in the lower visual field of the other eye. The grackles correctly directed their left and right eyes toward the targets regardless of where the targets appeared at levels greater than chance. These results demonstrate that an avian species can perform simultaneous eye movements towards two different targets.
Curriculum Learning based approaches for robust end-to-end far-field speech recognition

Abstract Performance of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems is known to suffer considerable degradation when exposed to Far-Field speech data capture. Consequently, far-field ASR has received considerable attention in recent years. Motivated by our recent work using Curriculum Learning (CL) based strategies to improve Speaker Identification (SID) under noisy and degraded conditions, this study proposes a novel approach to improve far-field ASR using CL based approaches. Specifically, we propose using a CL based approach for training a Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (BLSTM) based ASR network trained using the Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) objective function. We initiate the training with comparatively easier near-field data, and include more diverse (difficult) far-field data progressively in the later stages of training. These proposed approaches are shown to significantly outperform the baseline BLSTM ASR system, and offer relative reductions in WERs of up to +7.3% and +10.1% for the dev and eval sets of the AMI far-field voice capture corpus.
Performance Analysis of OCDM for Wireless Communications

Orthogonal chirp division multiplexing (OCDM) was recently introduced as a new multi-carrier scheme based on the chirp spread spectrum (CSS) and shown to be more robust to interference caused by insufficient guard intervals. However, a thorough analysis of OCDM for wireless channels has not been conducted. Thus, this paper investigates the performance of OCDM affected by different impairments that are typical in a wireless channel and shows that uncoded OCDM performs better than OFDM and similar to single carrier block transmissions in multipath channels. Building on previous results, this study also shows that OCDM is more robust to time-burst interference (TBI) than its competitors and to narrow band interference (NBI) than OFDM because of spreading. However, OCDM is shown to suffer because of the loss of orthogonality caused by carrier frequency offset (CFO) and is analytically shown to have the same peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) as OFDM.
Diagnosis of Primary Fibrosarcoma of the Lung by Fine-Needle Aspiration and Core Biopsy A Case Report and Review of the Literature

○ Primary pulmonary sarcomas are uncommon neoplasms. Primary fibrosarcoma of the lung is extremely rare, and only 53 cases have been documented in the literature to date. To our knowledge, the diagnosis of primary lung fibrosarcoma by fine-needle aspiration cytology has never been reported. We report a case of pulmonary fibrosarcoma diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration cytology and core biopsy. The neoplasm consisted of interweaving fascicles of minimally atypical spindle cells with slender nuclei and scant cytoplasm. Positive immunohistochemistry for vimentin along with nonreactivity of tumor cells for keratin, S100 protein, desmin, α-smooth muscle actin, and CD34 supported the the diagnosis. The diagnosis was later confirmed by histologic and ultrastructural findings following lobectomy. A meticulous clinical search for a possible primary neoplasm elsewhere was unsuccessful, and lung was established as the primary site. Fine-needle aspiration cytology and core biopsy are reliable methods for establishing a diagnosis of fibrosarcoma.
Transonic Tones and Excess Broadband Noise in Overexpanded Supersonic Jets

Noise characteristics of convergent-divergent (C-D) nozzles in the overexpanded regime are the focus of this paper. The flow regime is encountered during takeoff and landing of certain airplanes and also with rocket nozzles in launch-pad environment. Experimental results from laboratory-scale single nozzles are discussed. The flow often undergoes a resonance accompanied by emission of tones (referred to as transonic tones). The phenomenon is different from the well-known screech tones. Unlike screech, the frequency increases with increasing supply pressure. There is a staging behavior odd harmonic stages occur at lower pressures while the fundamental occurs in a range of relatively higher pressures. A striking feature is that tripping of the nozzle s internal boundary layer tends to suppress the resonance. However, even in the absence of tones the broadband levels are found to be high. That is, relative to a convergent case and at same pressure ratio, the C-D nozzles are found to be noisier, often by more than 10dB. This excess broadband noise (referred to as EBBN) is further explored. Its characteristics are found to be different from the well-known broadband shockassociated noise ( BBSN ). For example, while the frequency of the BBSN peak varies with observation angle no such variation is noted with EBBN. The mechanisms of the transonic tone and the EBBN are not completely understood yet. They appear to be due to unsteady shock motion inside the nozzle. The shock drives the flow downstream like a vibrating diaphragm, and resonance takes place similarly as with acoustic resonance of a conical section having one end closed and the other end open. When the boundary layer is tripped, apparently a breakdown of azimuthal coherence suppresses the resonance. However, there is still unsteady shock motion albeit with superimposed randomness. Such random motion of the internal shock and its interaction with the separated boundary layer produces the EBBN.
6 – POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the in vitro amplification of specific sequences of nucleic acid. The basic steps of PCR are: the denaturation by heating of a template DNA molecule to be copied; the annealing of pairs of oligonucleotides of specific sequences (primers, typically 10-–14 nt long) chosen to be homologous to sequences within the template DNA molecule; and the extension by DNA polymerase from the primers to copy the template DNA molecule, dNTPs must be present in the reaction. These three steps are repeated many times (for many cycles) to amplify the template DNA. If in each cycle one copy is made of each of the strands of the template, the number of DNA molecules produced doubles each cycle. Because of this doubling, at the end of 20 cycles, more than one million copies of the template DNA are made. The first experiments in PCR used Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I inactivated by the heat treatment to denature DNA template molecules. The polymerase had to be added repeatedly to the reaction. What made this in vitro DNA amplification so efficient was the discovery of heat-stable DNA polymerases such as Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus. Applications of the PCR technique include: disease diagnosis, forensics, matching donor and recipient tissues for organ transplants, and in developmental biology. PCR is very sensitive and can be used to examine which genes are turned on in early development (which mRNAs are made). One potential drawback to PCR is that one must have some sequence information about the piece of DNA to be amplified to make the appropriate specific primers.
Property Tax Salience and Payment Delinquency

Despite only modest supporting evidence, shocks to households' personal finances are commonly cited as one of the principal causes of homeowner defaults. In this paper, I investigate the extent to which different component sources of annual variation in property tax obligations influence the probability and magnitude of property tax delinquency are likely precursor to mortgage default. Under Michigan's system of property tax limitations, rational homeowners should readily anticipate changes in tax liability, making such changes an unlikely cause of delinquency, regardless of the underlying source. Looking at tax payment records for the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan for the period 2006-2009, I instead find that a household's probability of making late payments, the tardiness of their payments, the amount by which they underpay, or the amount of their resulting interest penalties are all generally greater when changes in property taxes arise through less salient features of the Michigan tax system. This suggests that homeowners, especially new homebuyers, do not rationally anticipate their future tax bills and may instead bear a heavy cost for their inattention to the property tax system.
The Continuing Challenge of Delivering SE Content to CS Majors

During the last 20 years, the software engineering (SE) education community has focused much of its effort in developing undergraduate degree programs in the discipline. However, far more software is created and maintained by computer science (CS) graduates and other individuals who do not possess a degree in software engineering. Therefore, it is critical that the amount of space available in an undergraduate computer science curriculum to deliver content from the SE knowledge area be used in the most effective manner possible. Most computer science curricula confine their study of software engineering to a single course, sometimes not taken until a CS major's final year of study -- right before doing a one-term capstone project. Meeting the task of delivering such a course to the satisfaction of students, faculty and external stakeholders has been one that has been an ongoing challenge to many computer science programs. This talk will look at the evolution of the introductory software engineering course and discuss how that challenge might be met within the guidelines of the ACM/IEEE-CS Computer Science Curriculum 2013 (CS2013).
Wide-scale data stream management

This paper describes Mortar, a distributed stream processing platform for building very large queries across federated systems (enterprises, grids, datacenters, testbeds). Nodes in such systems can be queried for distributed debugging, application control and provisioning, anomaly detection, and measurement. We address the primary challenges of managing continuous queries that have thousands of wide-area sources that may periodically be down, disconnected, or overloaded, e.g., multiple data centers filled with cheap PCs, Internet testbeds such as Planetlab, or country-wide sensor installations. Mortar presents a clean-slate design for best-effort in-network processing. For each query, it builds multiple, static overlays and leverages the union of overlay paths to provide resilient query installation and data routing. Further, a unique data management scheme mitigates the impact of clock skew on distributed stream processing, reducing result latency by a factor of 8, and allows users to specify custom in-network operators that transparently benefit from multipath routing. When compared to a contemporary distributed snapshot querying substrate, Mortar uses a fifth of the bandwidth while providing increased query resolution, responsiveness, and accuracy during failures.
Combatting bacterial infections by killing persister cells with mitomycin C

Summary Persister cells are a multi-drug tolerant subpopulation of bacteria that contribute to chronic and recalcitrant clinical infections such as cystic fibrosis and tubercu- losis. Persisters are metabolically dormant, so they are highly tolerant to all traditional antibiotics which are mainly effective against actively growing cells. Here,weshowthattheFDA-approvedanti-cancerdrug mitomycin C (MMC) eradicates persister cells through a growth-independent mechanism. MMC is passively transported and bioreductively activated, leading to spontaneous cross-linking of DNA, which we verify in bothactiveanddormantcells.WefindMMCeffectively eradicates cells grown in numerous different growth states (e.g. planktonic cultures and highly robust biofilm cultures) in both rich and minimal media. Additionally, MMC is a potent bactericide for a broad range of bacterial persisters, including commensal Escherichia coli K-12 as well as pathogenic species of E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We also demonstrate the efficacy of MMC in an animal model and a wound model, substantiating the clinical applicability of MMC against bacterial infections. Therefore, MMC is the first broad-spectrum compound capable of eliminating persister cells, mer- iting investigation as a new approach for the treatment of recalcitrant infections.
Rethinking the Industrial Revolution

This tome is an ambitious attempt to shed more light on one of the most intriguing and complex issues in history: the emergence of the Industrial Revolution (and, to a certain extent, the debate ar...
A new directable small bowel biopsy device.

A new small bowel biopsy device has been described which facilitates the procedure of taking small bowel biopsies and thereby shortens the procedure time to an average of less than 10 min
Impact of perinatal weight change on long-term obesity and obesity-related illnesses.

Objective:To estimate the impact of perinatal weight change on obesity, weight gain, and development of obesity-related illnesses 15 years after pregnancy.METHODS:Pregnancy-related factors and weights of 795 women were recorded at first prenatal visit and 6 months postpartum and were available throu
HSPB2 Is Dispensable for the Cardiac Hypertrophic Response but Reduces Mitochondrial Energetics following Pressure Overload In Mice

Background CryAB (HspB5) and HspB2, two small heat shock genes located adjacently in the vertebrate genome, are hypothesized to play distinct roles. Mice lacking both cryab and hspb2 (DKO) are viable and exhibit adult-onset degeneration of skeletal muscle but confounding results from independent groups were reported for cardiac responses to different stressful conditions (i.e., ischemia/reperfusion or pressure overload). To determine the specific requirements of HSPB2 in heart, we generated cardiac-specific HSPB2 deficient (HSPB2cKO) mice and examined their cardiac function under basal conditions and following cardiac pressure overload. Methodology/Principal Findings Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or sham surgery was performed in HSPB2cKO mice and their littermates (HSPB2wt mice). Eight weeks after TAC, we found that expression of several small HSPs (HSPB2, 5, 6) was not markedly modified in HSPB2wt mice. Both cardiac function and the hypertrophic response remained similar in HSPB2cKO and HSPB2wt hearts. In addition, mitochondrial respiration and ATP production assays demonstrated that the absence of HSPB2 did not change mitochondrial metabolism in basal conditions. However, fatty acid supported state 3 respiration rate (ADP stimulated) in TAC operated HSPB2cKO hearts was significantly reduced in compared with TAC operated HSPB2wt mice (10.5±2.2 vs. 12.8±2.5 nmol O2/min/mg dry fiber weight, P<0.05), and ATP production in HSPB2cKO hearts was significantly reduced in TAC compared with sham operated mice (29.8±0.2 vs. 21.1±1.8 nmol ATP/min/mg dry fiber weight, P<0.05). Although HSPB2 was not associated with mitochondria under cardiac stress, absence of HSPB2 led to changes in transcript levels of several metabolic and mitochondrial regulator genes. Conclusions/Significance The present study indicates that HSPB2 can be replaced by other members of the multigene small HSP family under basal conditions while HSPB2 is implicated in the regulation of metabolic/mitochondrial function under cardiac stress such pressure overload.
Unistellate spermatozoa of decapods: comparative evaluation and evolution of the morphology

Decapod unistellate spermatozoa are primarily characterized by the presence of a single appendage (spike) extending from the acrosome. Among decapods, this type of spermatozoon is found only in shrimps of the families Sicyoniidae, Penaeidae, and Solenoceridae (suborder Dendrobranchiata) and of the infraorder Caridea (suborder Pleocyemata). This review comparatively discusses the morphological diversity of unistellate spermatozoal ultrastructure among these decapods, as well as the role of the primary structures involved in the fertilization and spermatozoal capacitation. Furthermore, the use of the unistellate spermatozoal ultrastructure to support phylogenetic relationships and of the current phylogenetic evidences to investigate the evolution of spermatozoa of decapods is discussed. Morphologically, the main differences between caridean and dendrobranchiate unistellate spermatozoa are the shape of the main body (inverted cup-shaped, and spherical, bulged or elongate, respectively) and complexity of the acrosomal region. The latter is directly related to the type of fertilization. For example, dendrobranchiates have more complex acrosomal regions than that carideans, and fertilization involves a visible acrosome reaction, which is not observed in carideans. Ultrastructural changes of spermatozoa throughout capacitation are unknown in carideans, but for dendrobranchiates generally occur in the acrosomal vesicle and subacrosomal region throughout attachment of the spermatophore to the thelycum, enabling fertilization by the spermatozoa. Comparative evaluation of spermatozoal morphology and current phylogenetic evidences corroborates the hypothesis that the spermatozoal spike of carideans and dendrobranchiates is the result of convergent evolution.
Stimulation of Prostacyclin Production in Isolated Rat Adipocytes by Angiotensin II, Vasopressin, and Bradykinin: Evidence for Two Separate Mechanisms of Prostaglandin Synthesis

vWe compared the effects of three vasoactive peptides (angiotensin II, vasopressin, and bradykinin) and norepinephrine on the production of prostaglandin I2 [prostacyclin (PGI2)] and PGE2 by isolated rat adipocytes. Angiotensin II, vasopressin, and bradykinin stimulated PGI2 production but had minimal or no effect on PGE2 production or triglyceride lipolysis in isolated rat adipocytes, while norepinephrine stimulated PGI2 production, PGE2 production, and triglyceride lipolysis. The arachidonic acid that serves as substrate for PGI2 production in adipocytes in response to the vasoactive peptides appears to be derived from the cellular phospholipids rather than the triglycerides in these triglyceride-laden cells. The adipocyte contains two separate mechanisms for PG production: 1) a catecholamine- stimulated mechanism for the production of PGI2 and PGE2 that is activated concomitantly with triglyceride lipolysis, and 2) a mechanism activated by vasoactive peptides for the stimulation of PGI2 production inde...
Optimizing replacement of dairy cows: modeling the effects of diseases.

Abstract We modified an existing dairy management decision model by including economically important dairy cattle diseases, and illustrated how their inclusion changed culling recommendations. Nine common diseases having treatment and veterinary costs, and affecting milk yield, fertility and survival, were considered important in the culling decision process. A sequence of stages was established during which diseases were considered significant: mastitis and lameness, any time during lactation; dystocia, milk fever and retained placenta, 0–4 days of lactation; displaced abomasum, 5–30 days; ketosis and metritis, 5–60 days; and cystic ovaries, 61–120 days. Some diseases were risk factors for others. Baseline incidences and disease effects were obtained from the literature. The effects of various disease combinations on milk yield, fertility, survival and economics were estimated. Adding diseases into the model did not increase voluntary or total culling rate. However, diseased animals were recommended for culling much more than healthy cows, regardless of parity or production level. Cows in the highest production level were not recommended for culling even if they contracted a disease. The annuity per cow decreased and herdlife increased when diseases were in the model. Higher replacement cost also increased herdlife and decreased when diseases were in the model. Higher replacement cost also increased herdlife and decreased the annuity and voluntary culling rate.
Doppler echocardiography. The localization of cardiac murmurs.

A range-gated pulsed Doppler flowmeter has recently been developed that measures the average velocity of blood flow within a small tear-drop shaped (4 mm by 2 mm) sample volume. Unlike the continuous wave Doppler, the distance from the transducer face to the sampling site can be continuously varied by a range adjustment knob. Twenty patients with cardiac murmurs were evaluated in a noninvasive laboratory by brief cardiac physical examination, abbreviated phonocardiogram, complete echocardiogram, and localization of the murmurs by Doppler echocardiography. The localization depends on the detection of turbulent flow or jets at the sampling site. The murmurs included the diastolic rumble of mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, the murmur of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, aortic stenosis, aortic insufficiency, diastolic rumble of tricuspid stenosis, augmented right ventricular filling sound in atrial septal defects, pulmonic stenosis, pulmonic insufficiency, and high velocity flow through the obstruction in ccarctation of the aorta.
Myocardial Infarction and Atrial Arrhythmias

In each of 11 necropsied patients with myocardial infarction and atrial arrhythmias, a coronary occlusion was found proximal to the origin of the sinus node artery and there was infarction of the sinus node. The multiple factors influencing the onset of atrial arrhythmias during acute myocardial infarction are discussed. Infarction of the sinus node is only one of these factors. Other important ones are ischemia of the AV node, vagal and vagomimetic reflexes, atrial distention, and circulating chronotropic substances. By combination of a knowledge of the anatomy and pathology of the human coronary arteries with the observation of atrial arrhythmias during acute myocardial infarction, an accurate diagnosis of the point of coronary occlusion can often be made.
Assessment and Intervention for the Problem Behaviors of an Adult at Home

Damon, a 37-year-old man with severe retardation (IQ = 39), lived at home with his mother and, for the past 15 years, had worked in a sheltered workshop. Incidents of problem behavior had been rare both at home and at work. Two weeks before this study started, Damon's behavior changed suddenly. When asked to get up in the morning to get ready for work, he yelled, “No” and threw things at his mother. If she persisted, his behavior escalated into hitting, kicking, and swearing. This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase, which combined descriptive and experimental (analogue) methods, indicated that Damon's problem behaviors were escape motivated, but did not indicate the specific activities or conditions from which Damon wanted to escape. The second phase included additional descriptive assessment with the workshop staff, and hypothesis development and hypothesis testing and intervention within naturally occurring routines at home. These procedures identified that Damon's problem behaviors did ...
Surface reconstruction at metal|solid polymer electrolyte interfaces: Au(111)|Nafion® interface

Abstract The structure of the Au(111) surface in contact with a recast Nafion® film has been studied as a function of potential by using grazing incident angle X-ray diffraction. The high penetration depth of X-ray makes it possible to probe the electrode surface covered by a 1 to 3 μm thick Nafion® film. The Nafion®-coated Au(111) electrode surface is not reconstructed at open circuit potential. However, the (23× 3 ) reconstruction can be generated at sufficiently negative potentials. In comparison with the Au(111) electrode in NaClO 4 solution, the lifting of reconstruction is shifted positively by about 0.2 V. This fact supports the view of the primary effect of surface charge on the Au(111) reconstruction lifting. Adding chloride to the solution shifts the phase transition potential negatively after several hours, indicating a moderate ion permselectivity of the Nafion® film in NaCl solution. These results demonstrate that the Nafion® coating is stable over a large potential range and is suitable for studying surface properties and the effects of ion distribution on surface electrochemical processes at single crystal surfaces. © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.
Social support: a key variable for health promotion and chronic disease management in Hispanic patients with rheumatic diseases

Chronic diseases, including rheumatic diseases, can cause immense physical and psychosocial burden for patients. Many Hispanics suffering with arthritis face activity limitations. Social support, or the functional content of relationships, may be important to consider when examining treatment and outcomes for Hispanic individuals. Participants were recruited from an urban community health center (CHC) as part of a larger health behavior study. A cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed methods analysis was conducted to explore the role of social support in the sample. Only Hispanic/Latino patients (n = 46) were included in this analysis. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish. The majority of the sample (87%) perceived some presence of social support in their lives. The two most commonly cited types of social support were emotional and instrumental. The two most common sources of social support were family members other than spouses (52.2%) and spouses (32.6%). Body mass index (BMI) was significantly correlated with the number of perceived sources of support. The presence or absence and the role of social support in supporting optimal health outcomes should be considered for Hispanics with chronic rheumatic diseases. Involving family members and spouses in the plan of care for this population could facilitate health promotion and chronic disease management.
Precision of hyaline cartilage thickness measurements

Measurement of cartilage thickness in vivo is an important indicator of the status of a joint as the various degenerative and inflammatory arthritides directly affect the condition of the cartilage. In order to assess the precision of thickness measurements of hyaline articular cartilage, we undertook a pilot study using MR imaging, plain radiography, and ultrasonography (US). We measured the cartilage of the hip and knee joints in 10 persons (4 healthy volunteers and 6 patients). The joints in each patient were examined on two separate occasions using each modality. In the hips as well as the knee joints, the most precise measuring method was plain film radiography. For radiographs of the knees obtained in the standing position, the coefficient of variation was 6.5%; in the hips this figure was 6.34%. US of the knees and MR imaging of the hips were the second best modalities in the measurement of cartilage thickness. In addition, MR imaging enabled the most complete visualization of the joint cartilage.
Localization of Near-Field Sources in Spatially Colored Noise

This paper presents near-field localization of unintended emitting radio-controlled (RC) sources in a colored noise environment using a uniform linear array antenna. Existing localization methods for RC devices perform satisfactorily under white noise, but they ignore multipath fading or correlation among the sources. Therefore, a suite of novel schemes, referred to as 2-D multiple signal classification (MUSIC)-smooth sparse arrays and 2-D MUSIC-whitened noise, is proposed to bring correlation together among the sources, multipath fading, and color noise effects during near-field location estimation. Experimental evaluation of the proposed methods and the original smooth 2-D MUSIC compares both schemes while demonstrating their effectiveness.
Use of CERES-Maize to study effect of spatial precipitation variability on yield

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine the usefulness of on-farm precipitation measurement, through determining spatial and temporal precipitation variability and its effect on corn yield. CERES-Maize (DSSAT version 3.5) was used with three precipitation data sources, for an Indiana farm—an on-farm National Weather Service (NWS) station, the nearest non-urban NWS station with electronic reporting (27 km from the farm), and a weighted mean of the three nearest such stations (27–35 km away)—to simulate 31 years of crop yield on 1-ha grid cells. Described as a percentage of the mean, spatial precipitation variability among the three data sources by corn phenological phase was 21–104%, while temporal (year-to-year) variability was 20–49%. The difference in simulated yield based on spatial precipitation variability was 15.8%, while year-to-year yield variability was 21.5%. The apparent yield difference based on spatial precipitation variability was of the same order as year-to-year variability, which suggests having on-farm precipitation data may be necessary for accurate yield modeling.
Automation of data acquisition in transient photoconductive decay experiments

The application of a time-shared IBM 1800 Data Acquisition and Control Computer to data acquisition and reduction in transient photoconductive decay experiments is described. These experiments present an interesting problem in laboratory automation, since they involve high data rates (data periods frequently on the submillisecond scale), a free-running independent variable (time), and a mode of operation in which it is possible to a mass large quantities of data in a relatively short time. Techniques are described wherein these transient data are collected in real time while the computer simultaneously monitors many timer-based, slower-scanning experiments. The computer is shown to facilitate a variety of otherwise formidable data manipulation and analysis tasks. In addition to improving the quality of the data obtained, automation of these measurements provides data analysis and display of physical results within minutes after each data logging run, permitting the experimenter to interact closely with the data in a fashion not possible under manual operation.
The publishing dynamics of catastrophic events

This article studies the effect that two major disasters, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, had on the publishing world. We expect consumer publishing to concentrate on major events as they unfold. The technical and scholarly publishing world, however, is believed to progress and develop in conjunction with the growth of science, as established in bibliometric laws. Articles about these disasters were tracked in four bibliographic databases representing scholarly, technical-scholarly, technical, and consumer literature. Several analyses of the data revealed that each body of literature responds in its own way to disasters and anniversaries of events affect publishing, other than government-sponsored research. More focused databases have a more highly correlated response to disasters than broad-based databases. Comparison to two previously published studies of fast-growing literatures reveals that while some measures are consistent, disasters experience participation from a larger number of researchers with publications spread across a broader base of journal titles.
Predictors of response to cognitive behavioral treatment for bulimia nervosa delivered via telemedicine versus face‐to‐face

Objective: This study presents the results of a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to evaluate response to cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for patients with bulimia nervosa (BN), delivered via telemedicine (TV-CBT) or face-to-face (FTF-CBT). Method: Data were gathered on 116 adults treated with CBT for BN. Response to treatment (i.e., percent reduction in binge eating and purging behavior) were examined at weeks two, four, six, and eight. ROC analysis was completed to predict abstinence at end of treatment (EOT) as well as 3-month and 1-year follow-up for the entire sample and by treatment group (TV-CBT versus FTF-CBT). Results: ROC analyses revealed that abstinence at EOT and 1-year follow-up was predicted by percent reduction in binge eating behavior whereas abstinence at 3-month follow-up was predicted by percent reduction in purging behavior. Results showed differences in predictors of treatment response when ROC analyses were completed for the entire sample and by treatment group. Discussion: Results suggest that evaluating percent reduction in binge eating and purging at weeks two, four, six, and eight of treatment is a clinically useful tool for predicting treatment response at EOT, 3-month, and 1-year follow-up. © 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2009
Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron Thermalization Distribution in Liquid Hydrocarbons: Effects of Inverse Collisions and of an External Electric Field

A Monte Carlo simulation has been developed for electron thermalization in a liquid hydrocarbon taking n-hexane as a paradigm. For the first time, both the effect of the geminate cation and that of an external electric field have been included in the predicted electron thermalization distance distribution (ETDD). Also for the first time, both energy losing (direct) and energy gaining (inverse) collisions of the epithermal electron are included in a manner that ensures the equality of their rates, averaged over the Maxwellian distribution, in the long-time limit. Parametric values have been rationalized from the experimental data. Comparison with a free-ion yield experiment in n-hexane at 300 K indicates that about one-third of total epithermal collisions involve the energy exchange of quanta related to intermolecular motion. These energy exchange collisions partition between energy losing to energy gaining processes approximately as 3:2 in the initial stage of thermalization. The important features of the...
Collinearity, Ridge Regression, and Investigator Judgment:

Several recent articles have suggested that ridge regression may provide an "optimal" procedure for dealing with the problems created by highly collinear regressors in linear models. In this articl...
Incorporation of thymidine into highly polymerized DNA in male accessory sex glands.

Abstract 1. 1. One mg of testosterone stimulated the synthesis of DNA in the seminal vesicle and ventral prostate of intact 3-week-old rats in 2–4 days. Testosterone caused a greater cell enlargement than cell proliferation in these growing tissues. 2. 2. Forty-eight hr after administration of H 3 -thymidine 1 mg of testosterone was injected and the animals were killed at varying time intervals thereafter. Highly polymerized DNA was extracted from the tissues by phenol-sodium dodecyl-sulfate and sodium chloride. 3. 3. The specific activity of the DNA in the seminal vesicle, ventral prostate, liver and thymus decreased very rapidly in 1 week without treatment with testosterone. 4. 4. The specific activity of the DNA in the ventral prostate decreased 30–40 per cent below the control level 2 days after administration of testosterone, whereas the specific activity of the DNA in the seminal vesicle showed a less marked change in spite of the large increase in the amount of DNA.