cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Involvement of the MAP kinase pathways in induction of GADD45 following UV radiation

The p53-regulated stress-inducible gene GADD45 has been shown to participate in cellular response to DNA damage, including cell cycle checkpoint, apoptosis, and DNA repair. However, the regulation of GADD45 expression is complex and may involve both p53-dependent and -independent pathways. Recent findings have demonstrated that the p53-independent induction of GADD45 is mainly regulated by the transcription factors Oct-1 and NF-YA, which directly bind to their consensus motifs located at the GADD45 promoter region. Here, we report that mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases are involved in the induction of the GADD45 promoter after DNA damage. Inhibition of JNK1 and ERK kinase activities either by expression of the dominant negative mutant JNK1 or by treatment with a selective chemical inhibitor of ERK (PD098059) substantially abrogates the UV induction of the GADD45 promoter. In contrast, a p38 kinase inhibitor (SB203580) has little effect on GADD45 induction by UV. In addition, the GADD45 promoter is strongly activated following expression of JNK1; Raf-1, which is an upstream activator of the ERK pathway; or MEK1, an upstream activator of both the ERK and the JNK pathways. Activation of the GADD45 promoter by MAP kinases does not require normal p53 function. Interestingly, the MAP kinase-regulatory effect appears to be mediated via OCT-1 and CAAT motifs since disruption of these sites abrogates activation of the GADD45 promoter by MAP kinases. Therefore, these findings indicate that the MAP kinase pathways are involved in the regulation of the p53-independent induction of the GADD45 promoter, probably via interaction with transcription factors that directly bind to OCT-1 and CAAT motifs.
Beam-in-Slab Low-Volume-Road Bridge System

Funding for the repair and replacement of structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges is a nationwide problem. This problem is magnified for the managers of low-volume-road (LVR) systems who have limited budgets; thus, innovative replacement alternatives are always being sought. The beam-in-slab bridge (BISB) is an alternative replacement bridge developed in Iowa. The bridge consists of W-beam sections spaced 24 in. (610 mm) on center, with concrete filling the void space between them. Spans up to 50 ft (15.24 m) can be constructed with this low-cost alternative. Field and laboratory testing confirmed that the system is capable of handling legal loads. Modifications to the BISB have been investigated to improve its structural efficiency to make it possible to use the system in longer spans. An alternative shear connector (ASC) has been developed to provide composite action in the BISB. The ASC consists of holes, either torched or drilled, through the web of the girder for the formation of concrete dowels that provide for composite action. Ongoing research promises more structural efficiency with the development of an arched formwork system, which will make possible wider girder spacings and reduced self-weight. Combining the ASC with the arched formwork should result in an essentially steel-free system that is relatively easy to construct. From initial results, it should be possible to construct spans up to 75 ft (22.86 m) to carry legal loads in Iowa with these modifications.
Promiscuous contacts and heightened dynamics increase thermostability in an engineered variant of the engrailed homeodomain

A thermostabilized variant (UVF) of the engrailed homeodomain (EnHD) was previously engineered by Mayo and co-workers. The melting temperature of the non-natural, designed protein is 50°C higher than the natural wild-type protein (>99 vs. 52°C), and the two proteins share 22% sequence identity. We have performed extensive (1 μs) all-atom, explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations of the wild-type and engineered proteins to investigate their structural and dynamic properties at room temperature and at 100°C. Our simulations are in good agreement with nuclear magnetic resonance data available for the two proteins [nuclear Overhauser effect crosspeaks (NOEs), J-coupling constants and order parameters for EnHD; and NOEs for UVF], showing that we reproduce the backbone dynamics and side chain packing in the native state of both proteins. UVF was more dynamic at room temperature than EnHD, with respect to both its backbone and side chain motion. When the temperature was raised, the thermostable protein maintained this mobility while retaining its native conformation. EnHD, on the other hand, was unable to maintain its more rigid native structure at higher temperature and began to unfold. Heightened protein dynamics leading to promiscuous and dynamically interchangeable amino acid contacts makes UVF more tolerant to increasing temperature, providing a molecular explanation for heightened thermostability of this protein.
Performance comparisons of channel estimation techniques in multipath fading CDMA

The problem of pilot-symbol-aided estimation of multipath fading channels in up-link code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems is considered. The transmitted symbol streams of each user are divided into time-slots; and each time-slot contains a number of pilot-symbols followed by information data symbols. Channel estimation is based on interpolation of the channel values corresponding to the pilot symbols in adjacent time-slots. Existing channel estimation techniques, including the weighted multislot average method and the wavelet expansion method, are studied. Two new channel estimation methods, namely, the robust channel interpolator, and the polynomial channel interpolator, are developed and are compared with these techniques. It is seen that the two new channel estimation methods significantly outperform the existing methods in multipath fading CDMA systems, for a wide range of Doppler values, and under various receiver schemes (with single or multiple receive antennas), such as the RAKE receiver, the interference cancellation receiver, and a receiver which performs iterative channel estimation and interference cancellation.
Modern concepts in immune recognition and lymphocyte activation: relevance for the development of useful vaccines

Adaptive immunity requires both specific recognition of an antigen and its translation into appropriate lymphocyte responses. This paper reviews the striking differences in B- and T-lymphocyte antigen recognition, details the pathways for conversion of protein antigens into peptide-major histocompatibility complex molecule ligands for T-cell receptors, and summarizes the roles of costimulatory signals in lymphocyte activation. This information is used to suggest new approaches for the rational design of vaccines
Making Sense of Mankind's Scholarly Knowledge and Expertise: Collecting, Interlinking, and Organizing What We Know and Different Approaches to Mapping (Network) Science

In this paper I discuss and compare different approaches to collecting, interlinking, organizing, and making sense of scholarly knowledge and expertise in a comprehensive and timely fashion. ‘Comprehensive’ refers to the need for collecting and interlinking multilingual, multidisciplinary records from multiple sources such as publications, patents, grants, and others to truly capture all relevant knowledge. By ‘timely’ I want to emphasize that there has to be a way to integrate the most recent—that is, today's—publications with existing holdings of scholarly knowledge and expertise. I then discuss the advantages and limitations of using search engines to access, and text mining and data mining to help extract, meaning from mankind's wisdom. Next I suggest the usage of semantic association networks as a viable and complementary alternative for interlinking and making sense of scholarly knowledge and expertise. The second part of the paper exemplifies and contrasts three approaches that can be used to delin...
Describing the clinical reasoning process: Application of a model of enablement to a pediatric case

Background and purpose: Clinical reasoning is a core tenet of physical therapy practice leading to optimal patient care. The purpose of this case was to describe the outcomes, subjective experience, and reflective clinical reasoning process for a child with cerebral palsy using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) model. Case description: Application of the ICF framework to a 9-year-old boy with spastic triplegic cerebral palsy was utilized to capture the interwoven factors present in this case. Interventions in the pool occurred twice weekly for 1 h over a 10-week period. Outcomes: Immediately post and 4 months post-intervention, the child made functional and meaningful gains. The family unit also developed an enjoyment of exercising together. Each individual family member described psychological, emotional, or physical health improvements. Discussion: Reflection using the ICF model as a framework to discuss clinical reasoning can highlight important factors contr...
An Adaptive Response Routing Mechanism to Improve DHT Performance in the Presence of NATs

Asymmetric network connectivity, frequently the result of NATs in the network environment, can significantly impact the selection of an appropriate DHT response routing technique. We show that neither response mechanism commonly used today (symmetric recursive or direct response) function well for all network NAT densities. We present an adaptive response routing algorithm for use in generic libraries or protocols where the deployment environment is not known in advance. Through worst-case analytical analysis and average-case simulation we show that our technique offers a significant performance advantage in environments (such as the Internet) where NAT densities are not known a priori.
Supervision of Psychotherapy: Models, Issues, and Recommendations

Current models and issues related to psychotherapy supervision are examined. These include ethical and legal issues, problems of interpersonal competence, and multicultural issues. As a part of this analysis, interviews about supervision with five prominent counseling psychologists are included to provide their perspectives. Implications for the field of counseling psychology are described, and a series of recommendations is presented.
Descriptions of image intensity structure via scale and symmetry

The authors describe an image analysis that provides a quasi-hierarchy of image regions in terms of which humans can quickly build object regions by an interactive approach. This hierarchy is generated by the ridge structure of the intensity surface corresponding to the image. These ridges, in turn, are defined by an intensity axis of symmetry (IAS), which forms a branching structure in which the branches correspond to image regions and the parent/child relationships indicate ridge/subridge structure. The parent/child relationships are computed by following the IAS structure through changes in spatial scale, with scale change achieved by a diffusion in which conduction may be related to edge strength. >
A two-dimensional recursive model for bilinear systems with applications to image reconstruction

A recursive model is obtained for two-dimensional shift-variant bilinear systems whose double impulse response is representable by a kth order degenerate sequence. The bilinear system may be quarter-plane or weakly causal. This formulation makes use of the structure of the matrix input-output characterization of the system to arrive at a recursive model. The model is based on a three-point recurrence formula, similar to that of the state-space model for n-dimensional linear shift-variant systems. A recursive algorithm is developed to reconstruct bilinearly degraded images. The advantage of the present model over the direct input-output characterization of bilinear systems is clearly established. The formulation proposed is evaluated using data obtained from real images. >
Wavelet-Based Data Perturbation for Simultaneous Privacy-Preserving and Statistics-Preserving

With the rapid development of data mining technologies, preserving privacy in certain data becomes a challenge to data mining applications in many fields, especially in medical, financial and homeland security fields. We present a privacy-preserving strategy based on wavelet perturbation to keep the data privacy and data statistical properties and data mining utilities at the same time. Our mathematical analyses and experimental results show that this method can keep the distance before and after perturbation and it can preserve the basic statistical properties of the original data while maximizing the data utilities. Through experiments on real-life datasets, we conclude that this method is a promising privacy-preserving and statistics-preserving technique.
Feedback control: an invisible thread in the history of technology

The history of technology combines engineering with economic, social, and political factors. Technology seems to advance in waves. Small advances accumulate slowly until a critical level of technological success and economic advantage is achieved. Throughout technological history is found the idea of feedback control. Like all ideas, feedback control impacts technology only when it is embodied therein; it is not tied to any specific innovation or invention. The article describes innovations that either use feedback control or allow it to be exploited. They are simple but their impact on technology is profound. It is shown that they played a crucial role in facilitating the truly great waves of technological and scientific development. They are the escapement (a significant part of the paper is about mechanical clocks), the governor, the aileron, the gyro, and the amplifier.
Dynamic mechanical characterization of a mutable collagenous tissue: response of sea cucumber dermis to cell lysis and dermal extracts.

The dermis of the holothurian Cucumaria frondosa is a mutable collagenous tissue (MCT). In this study, the inner and outer regions of the dermis were separated and used to make two different tissue extracts. These extracts were applied to intact pieces of dermis, one invoking a stiff mechanical state and the other invoking a compliant state. The extracts were effective on tissues incubated in artificial sea water (ASW) and in those incubated in Ca(2+)-chelated ASW. Furthermore, the extracts were effective on both fresh tissues and tissues in which the cells had been lysed by freeze-thawing, indicating that the sites of action are in the extracellular matrix. Dynamic oscillatory shear tests and analyses were used to measure both the dynamic shear stiffness (G*) and the relative damping (tan delta ) of the tissue. These two parameters proved to be inversely related to each other (i.e. when G* increased, tan delta decreased). A theoretical viscoelastic model is constructed to interpret the results of these tests. It is concluded that changes in the mechanical state of the tissue involve interactions between elastic elements within the tissue rather than an alteration of its viscous components.
Flame-Retardant Electrical Conductive Nanopolymers Based on Bisphenol F Epoxy Resin Reinforced with Nano Polyanilines

Both fibril and spherical polyaniline (PANI) nanostructures have successfully served as nanofillers for obtaining epoxy resin polymer nanocomposites (PNCs). The effects of nanofiller morphology and loading level on the mechanical properties, rheological behaviors, thermal stability, flame retardancy, electrical conductivity, and dielectric properties were systematically studied. The introduction of the PANI nanofillers was found to reduce the heat-release rate and to increase the char residue of epoxy resin. A reduced viscosity was observed in both types of PANI–epoxy resin liquid nanosuspension samples at lower loadings (1.0 wt % for PANI nanospheres; 1.0 and 3.0 wt % for PANI nanofibers), the viscosity was increased with further increases in the PANI loading for both morphologies. The dynamic storage and loss modulii were studied, together with the glass-transition temperature (Tg) being obtained from the peak of tan δ. The critical PANI nanofiller loading for the modulus and Tg was different, i.e., 1.0...
Bilateral writing ability, cerebral organization, and hand posture.

Summary.-Among a group of 12 persons selected for the ability to write with ease with either hand, none were found to write using a hooked hand posture with either the right or left hand. Tests of verbal and rnanipulospatial abiliry indicated a normal balance of these two types of abilities, usually associated with the left and right hemispheres. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for cerebral organization and hand position in writing. The present report presents preliminary findings about cerebral lateralization of language function and hand posture in writing of persons who are able to write with ease with either hand. Despite the fact that much attention has been given to the topic of mixed 1aterality.or "mixed dominance" (Corballis & Beale, 1976), little attention has been given to the ability of certain individuals to write with ease with either hand. Such an ability presents some interesting problems in terms of laterality of cerebral function. For example, are both hands controlled by the same hemisphere, or is each controlled by the hemisphere contralateral to it? In the former case, does one hand display the hooked writing posture suggested to be characteristic of ipsilateral control of writing (Levy, 1973, 1974; Levy & Reid, 1976, 1978)? In the latter case, is there a tendency for such persons to display unusually high linguistic skills, or poor perceptual or manipulospatial skills, suggesting the possibility of strong bilateral cortical representation of language (Levy, 1974)? The present paper reports the results of a small study that bears on these questions. Individuals able to write easily with either hand were solicited by posted and classroom announcements requesting participation by "ambidextrous" persons. On the basis of their bilateral writing ability, 12 persons out of over 50 who volunteered were selected for the study. In this selection process, each volunteer was first asked if he was notably more comfortable writing with one hand or the other, or if he had a strong preference for one particular hand. If the answer to either of these questions was affirmative, he was not included in the study. Otherwise, he was then asked to copy a short paragraph, first with one hand and then with the other. (The left/right order chosen in each instance was random.) The authors noted writing speed and examined the script from each hand for smoothness and consistency of letter size and form. Ratings
Evaluation of Body Conformation, Composition, and Density as Traits for Indirect Selection for Dress‐out Percentage of Channel Catfish

Abstract Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, were processed and carcass traits such as head length, head width, body depth, girth, lipid percentage, head percentage, viscera percentage, specific gravity and body density evaluated as predictors and alternative traits for indirect selection of dressing percentage in live fish. Age, size, and sex had influence on the importance of these variables for predicting dressing percentage. Viscera percentage had the greatest phenotypic association with dressing percentage. No traits that could be measured from live fish were found that would predict viscera percentage. Body density had phenotypic correlations of -0.64 and -0.61 with dressing percentage in females and males, respectively, and was the best measurement for predicting dressing percentage in live catfish.
Contact physics of gold microcontacts for MEMS switches

This work presents a tribological study of gold metallic contacts regarding contact resistance, heat dissipation, and surface damage in the normal-force regime of tens to hundreds of /spl mu/N, which is typical of the contact forces from microactuation. The purpose of this work is to present the micromechanical switch designer with practical information on gold contact phenomena in this force regime, as most work in micrometallic contacts has focused on contact forces greater than 1 mN. Results indicate actuation forces of several hundred /spl mu/N are required for reliable fully-metallic contacts, with resistance and current carrying ability primarily dependent on morphology, thermal management, and nm-depth material properties of the contact electrodes.
Adjudicating Climate Change: State Action as Political Voice in Climate Change Policy: A Case Study of the Minnesota Environmental Cost Valuation Regulation

INTRODUCTION As the debate over global warming intensified during the Bush administration, state legislatures in the United States adopted regulations that conveyed their discontent with the failure of the national government to regulate carbon dioxide emissions adequately or to adopt the Kyoto Protocol. Even with the Obama administration's efforts at greater federal regulation, state activity continues. These subnational efforts by states range in stringency but often stop short of substantive regulation that burdens in-state business interests. Such weak or “symbolic” regulation nonetheless plays an important role in the global climate change debate by fostering political voice, creating a threat of future regulatory action, and legitimating climate change as a legally redressable harm. An individual state cannot make a significant impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels or arrest global warming. However, carbon dioxide regulation by states can make a strong statement about the political will to address global warming – a statement that has grown louder as individual state legislation encourages other states to act and in turn brings pressure to bear upon the federal government. There has been increasing interest among state policymakers in regulatory models that force polluting entities to internalize the societal costs of their carbon dioxide emissions. Electricity generation, which is responsible for 38% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, has been one target of state regulatory efforts.
Ethnopharmacological conservation: a key to progress in medicine

The perspicacity with which man in primitive societies takes advantage of his ambient vegetation has long been a source of admiration. Most of hisknowledge of plant uses, of course, must be the result of trial and error. Some of his discoveries of plant properties, however, are so complex that it seems to be almost impossible to expiain how they could have been accomplished. This complexity is nowhere more obvious than in the intricate recipes for the preparation of arrow poisons. There have long been two strongly divergent poles in our eval uat ion of ethnobotany. Some students are carried away in an enthusiastic assumption that native peoples every_ where have a special intuition in unlocking the secrets of the Plant Kingdom. Otherscast aside or at least denigrate ali aboriginal folk lore as not worthy of serious scientific consideration. Both viewpoints, of course, are unwarranted. The accomplishments of native peoples in understanding plant properties sothorough_ ly must be simply a result of a long and intimate association with their floras and their utter dependence on them. Consequently—and espec ial 1 y since so much aborig ina 1 knowledge is based on experimentation—it warrants careful and criticai attention on the part of modern scientific efforts. It behooves us to take advantage now of this extensive knowledge that still exists in many parts of the world, lest it be lost with the inexora ble onrush of civilization and the resulting extinction of one primitive culture after another. This experimenta11y acquired knowledge may not much longer be available. The denigration of aboriginal knowledge of the biodynamism of plants has even led certain specialists recently to assert that there is little or no correlation between native uses of medicinal plants and the chemistry of these species.This viewpoint is not borne out by the history of some of the most recently discovered drugs that have come originally from the Plant Kingdom—the so—called "Wonder Drugs" of the past hal fcentury. These numerous "Wonder Drugs" that have revolutionized modern medicai practices have almost ali first been isolated from plants employed for one purpose or another in primitive or ancient societies: the curare alkaloids; penicillin and other antibiotics; cortisone; reserpine; vincoleucoblastine; the Veratrum-alkalolds; podophy1lotoxin; stro
Off the beaten path: should women compete against men?

Are women capable of competing against men in sporting events? If they aren’t, might there be good reasons to encourage them to make the attempt anyway? If they are, might there be good reasons to ...
The Loudness of Justice Thomas

In this Article, published in conjunction with my participation in the University of Detroit Mercy Law Review's symposium commemorating Justice Thomas's 20th year on the Supreme Court, I contest the notion of Justice Thomas as the Court's Quiet Man. Rather, I suggest that Justice Thomas's many provocative opinions demonstrate a judicial voice that is quite loud and commanding of attention, even if not especially or immediately influential. In exploring Justice Thomas's voice, I focus on his work in the areas of sentencing proportionality and individualization under the Eighth Amendment, giving special attention to his separate opinions in Graham v. Florida and Graham v. Collins. The Article concludes that Justice Thomas's voice in these areas highlights the difficulties of reigning Eighth Amendment orthodoxy. If taken seriously, his voice could reshape the way we think about the Constitution's relationship to modern criminal sentencing.
Entropy, information and compressive sensing in the quantum domain

I will discuss our recent efforts with single and double-pixel compressive sensing for applications in ghost imaging, low flux LIDAR, real-time object tracking, precision measurement and entanglement characterization.
Muscle chemoreflex causes renal vascular constriction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the muscle chemoreflex on vascular conductance in innervated and denervated kidneys. During each experiment, six dogs ran at 10 km/h for ...
End-to-end security of information flow in web-based applications

Web-based applications and services are increasingly being used in security-sensitive tasks. Current security protocols rely on two crucial assumptions to protect the confidentiality and integrity of information: First, they assume that end-point software used to handle security-sensitive information is free from vulnerabilities. Secondly, these protocols assume point-to-point communication between a client and a service provider. However, these assumptions do not hold true with large and complex vulnerable end point software such as the Internet browser or web services middleware or in web service compositions where there can be multiple value-adding service providers interposed between a client and the original service provider. To address the problem of large and complex end-point software, we present the AppCore approach which uses manual analysis of information flow, as opposed to purely automated approaches, to split existing software into two parts: a simplified trusted part that handles security-sensitive information and a legacy, untrusted part that handles non-sensitive information without access to sensitive information. Not only does this approach avoid many common and well-known vulnerabilities in the legacy software that compromised sensitive information, it also greatly reduces the size and complexity of the trusted code, thereby making exhaustive testing or formal analysis more feasible. We demonstrate the feasibility of the AppCore approach by constructing AppCores for two real-world applications: a client-side AppCore for https-based applications and an AppCore for web service platforms. Our evaluation shows that security improvements and complexity reductions (over a factor of five) can be attained with minimal modifications to existing software (a few tens of lines of code, and proxy settings of a browser) and an acceptable performance overhead (a few percent). To protect the communication of sensitive information between the clients and service providers in web service compositions, we present an end-to-end security framework called WS-FESec that provides end-to-end security properties even in the presence of misbehaving intermediate services. We show that WS-FESec is flexible enough to support the lattice model of secure information flow and it guarantees precise security properties for each component service at a modest cost of a few milliseconds per signature or encrypted field.
Identification and Genotyping of Clostridium perfringens Isolated from the Food Samples

Objective To determine the prevalence and genotypes of Clostridium perfringens(C.perfringens) isolated from food samples in Guangzhou area. Method The C.perfringens were isolated from the food samples and further identified by biochemical tests according to National Standard of Microbiological Examination of Food Hygiene. The C.perfringens virulence genes cpa, cpb, etx, iA, cpe and cpb2, which is emcoding the virulence factors α, β, e, ι, CPE and β2, respectively, were amplified by multiplex PCR using specific primers to determine the genotyes of the isolated strains. C.perfringens reference strain NCTC64609 was included as the positive control. Result 21 strains of C.perfringens were isolated from 142 food samples;frozen meat having the highest C.perfringens positive rate of 19.6%, followed by fresh meat and frozen meat dumping of 12.2% and 11.9%, respectively. Multiplex PCR results demonstrated that all strains had the expected specific band of 324 bp cpa gene fragment of C.perfringens, but specific cpb, etx and iA gene fragment did not appear. Thus all these strains can be classified as type A of C.perfringens. There were 19 strains of C.perfringens that carried the β2 virulence gene(accounting for 90.4%)and one strain was proved to be C.perfringens enterotoxin gene positive. Conclusion This preliminary investigation showed that contamination exists in food in Guangzhou area by type A C.perfringens carrying β2 toxin and which were CPE-positive.
Popout Attention with two foils: linear dependence and dimensional interaction.

Automatic parallel processing occurs in visual search when a target differs from other display objects on a salient visual dimension, as when a target is red and other objects are all green, and the phenomenon is termed popout. When a second display object is also perceptually salient but task irrelevant (here termed a foil), popout is hindered. The present two studies assess the amount of harm (or benefit) to popout when there are two foils, on different dimensions. In particular it answers the question: Do the interference effects cancel or add? Both studies used a ring of twelve fixed-size green circles with embedded Gabors oriented randomly vertically or horizontally. Targets and foils were either a green square, a larger green circle, or a red circle. Each of these served as a target for one of the three sessions, with the others serving as foils. In one task the observer found the target and reported its Gabor orientation. The other task used targets only on one half the trials and the observer reported target presence or absence. In both tasks accuracy was uniformly high. Response times (RTs) were much faster for presence/absence than orientation. In both tasks RT interference (slowing) increased from one to two foils (for both presence and absence in task 2), the slowing mainly isolated to the slowest decile of RTs. There was also strong evidence of dimensional interactions: Size and shape mutually interfered, but did not much interact with color. In addition, color was most salient in the presence/absence study, but was second most salient in the Gabor orientation study, suggesting that time was needed to switch from attention to color to attention to a spatial dimension (i.e. Gabor orientation). Finally, RTs did not depend on the spatial separation of targets and foils within trial, but were faster when a target occupied the position of the target on the prior trial. We discuss the implications of these findings.
Proximal disruptor aided ligation (ProDAL) of kilobase-long RNAs

RNA with site-specific modification is a useful tool for RNA biology studies. However, generating kilobase (kb) -long RNA with internal modification at a site distant from RNA termini remains challenging. Here we report an enhanced splint ligation technique, proximal disruptor aided ligation (ProDAL), which allows adequate efficiency toward this purpose. The key to our approach is using multiple DNA oligonucleotides, 'proximal disruptors', to target the RNA substrate sequence next to the ligation site. The binding of disruptors helps to free the ligation site from intramolecular RNA basepairing, and consequently promotes more efficient formation of the pre-ligation complex and a higher overall ligation yield. We used naturally occurring 1.0 kb renilla and 1.9 kb firefly luciferase mRNA sequences to test the efficacy of our approach. ProDAL yielded 9-14% efficiency for the ligation between two RNA substrates, both of which were between 414 and 1313 nucleotides (nt) long. ProDAL also allowed similarly high efficiency for generating kb-long RNA with site-specific internal modification by a simple three-part ligation between two long RNA substrates and a modification-carrying RNA oligonucleotide. In comparison, classical splint ligation yielded a significantly lower efficiency of 0-2% in all cases. We expect that ProDAL will benefit studies involving kb-long RNAs, including translation, long non-coding RNAs, RNA splicing and modification, and large ribonucleoprotein complexes.
Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: reducing misdiagnosis via collaboration between an inpatient anticoagulation pharmacy service and hospital reference laboratory

Misdiagnosis of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is common and exposes patients to high-risk therapies and potentially serious adverse events. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of collaboration between an inpatient pharmacy-driven anticoagulation management service (AMS) and hospital reference laboratory to reduce inappropriate HIT antibody testing via pharmacist intervention and use of the 4T pre-test probability score. Secondary objectives included clinical outcomes and cost-savings realized through reduced laboratory testing and decreased unnecessary treatment of HIT. This was a single center, pre-post, observational study. The hospital reference laboratory contacted the AMS when they received a blood sample for an enzyme-linked immunosorbent HIT antibody (HIT Ab). Trained pharmacists prospectively scored each HIT Ab ordered by using the 4T score with subsequent communication to physicians recommending for or against processing and reporting of lab results. Utilizing retrospective chart review and a database for all patients with a HIT Ab ordered during the study period, we compared the incidence of HIT Ab testing before and after implementation of the pharmacy-driven 4T score intervention. Our intervention significantly reduced the number of inappropriate HIT Ab tests processed (176 vs. 63, p < 0.0001), with no increase in thrombotic or hemorrhagic events. Overall incidence of suspected and confirmed HIT was <3 and <0.005 %, respectively. Overall cost savings were $75,754 (US) or 62 % per patient exposed to heparin between the pre and post intervention groups. Collaboration between inpatient pharmacy AMS and hospital reference laboratories can result in reduction of misdiagnosis of HIT and significant cost savings with similar safety.
Conclusions, and Some Final Comments

The five research questions identified in Chapter 4 are answered in this chapter. It is argued that the cyphering tradition inculcated among students an “ownership” of the mathematics they studied, and that many students who prepared cyphering books proudly used these as reference books for the rest of their lives. The chapter closes with a list of researchable questions, associated with the cyphering tradition, for future investigation.
Neuroimaging of Glioneuronal Tumors

Abstract Glioneuronal tumors are rare primary brain tumors composed of both glial and neuronal elements. In most cases they are benign tumors that are often cured with surgical resection alone. Radiation therapy is sometimes used to treat residual or aggressive tumors. The role of chemotherapy for these tumors is not well defined or is not indicated in most cases. This chapter reviews the available literature on these rare tumors and describes the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of each tumor subtype. This chapter aims to serve as a framework for management of these tumors from diagnosis through treatment.
Arguing for One’s Species

Suppose the earth were to be invaded by a species of powerful aliens. These aliens, for reasons which will no doubt become almost immediately clear in the embarrassingly unsubtle and thinly veiled story to follow, we can call namuhs. The intentions of these creatures are in no way benevolent, at least not towards us. In fact, they make it very clear that their primary purpose in invading this planet has to do with food. They plan to cultivate and farm the earth’s planetary fauna, which has a galaxy-wide reputation as being of excellent nutritional value. In particular, at the top of their list of desirable food species is the human race, the meat from which is regarded as one of the tastiest in this part of the galaxy. We might call this the Independence Day scenario, after the rather successful film with a similar story line. Actually, in the film, it is not clear if the aliens intend to eat humans; simply killing us seems to cohere better with the overall story line. (Therefore, it might have been better to have called it the lifeforce scenario, after Tobe Hooper’s significantly lower budget, less successful, but still cult 1983 movie, although even here the aliens didn’t plan to eat us exactly, but only appropriate our lifeforce. In the end, the wider circulation of the former won out, and the Independence Day scenario it is.)1
Phase Diagram for the Kondo Lattice

The finite temperature properties of the Kondo lattice model, assumed to represent the magnetic properties of γ-Ce and Ce inter-metallic compounds are discussed in terms of a Ginzburg Landau functional formalism for a 1-dimensional psuedo-spin analog model.
Cross-Case Analysis and Discussion

After a holistic review of the cases, various common themes emerged. These themes are outlined and discussed in this chapter and took the form of various interpretations of how teachers can and can’t (or should and shouldn’t) present themselves publicly. This chapter includes relevant survey findings to enhance the cross-case analysis.
Synthesis and Measurement of Cohesive Mechanics in Polydopamine Nanomembranes

Polydopamine (PDA) is a complex biomimetic material exhibiting advantageous properties of both melanin polymers and biological adhesives. These concomitant features have prompted an increasing interest in exploiting PDA for bioelectronics, smart coatings, and functional membranes. The ability to apply the rich biochemistry of melanins in structurally durable contexts will help accelerate their practical implementation and the design of next-generation materials. Here, this paper presents approaches for manipulating the adhesion and cohesive mechanics of PDA nanomembranes. Visual recording of PDA film delamination from SiO2 substrates reveals accelerated delamination (spanning orders of magnitude from 12 h to 1 min) with increasing pH and monovalent salt concentration. Delamination is retarded for films synthesized from higher dopamine concentrations, and it is completely prevented in the presence of Ca2+. Delaminated nanomembranes exhibit orientation-dependent underwater adhesion to polydimethylsiloxane elastomer. Elastic moduli of PDA nanomembranes are quantified by compressive thin film buckling, and the measured value of 2.0 ± 0.9 GPa supports compositional simulations of PDA. Crosslinking of primary amines within the nanomembranes by genipin is successful in increasing the modulus to 7.9 ± 2.5 GPa. These results demonstrate that the adhesive stability and elastic modulus of PDA films/nanomembranes can be controlled by synthesis and postprocessing techniques.
The Evolution of Trauma Systems

By any measure, injury is a serious public health problem. Worldwide, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among the young (aged 15–29 years), responsible for over a million deaths per year [1]. In the United States, unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for persons under the age of 45 years and is among the top ten causes of death for all decades of life [2], a pattern that has not changed significantly in decades (Fig. 1.1). Overall, injury is responsible for almost a third of all years of potential life lost. Moreover, it is a substantial economic burden [3]. In real numbers, highway transportation-related events in the United States were responsible for about 2.2 million injuries and 33,000 deaths in 2010 [4]. And yet, there is no focused public health policy at the federal level to address the problem of injury in a systematic fashion. Moreover, state and regional approaches are nonuniform, ranging from the very robust to the nonexistent. This lack of policy-level response is not universal. By comparison, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak drew tremendous headlines and produced a massive public health response worldwide, despite accounting for only about 23,000 identified cases and about 9,800 deaths worldwide in its first year, according to CDC statistics [5] (Fig. 1.2). Over 50 years after Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society [6] was published by the National Academy of Science, injury remains the “neglected epidemic [6]” of modern society.
Managing inpatient clinical nutrition services: a comprehensive program assures accountability and success.

A major challenge facing clinical dietitians today is justifying inpatient clinical nutrition services. To meet this challenge, a comprehensive program for the delivery and management of clinical nutrition services was developed at Yale-New Haven Hospital. It is based on seven nutritional risk factors—age, diagnosis/treatment, diet, metabolic or mechanical problems, significant lab values, pertinent medications, and weight for height. These risk factors are used to categorize patients into one of seven classifications. In essence, this classification system is the screening tool used to provide the foundation for standards of practice and nutrition assessment and intervention. The inherent advantage of such a program is that it identifies patients at high nutritional risk, regardless of wide variations in patient population or diagnosis. It also provides standardized criteria for evaluating quality of care, patient acuity, and productivity and staffing. Clinical nutrition services can then be measured for both quality and quantity. Because protein-calorie malnutrition poses a serious threat to cost containment and quality patient care, this type of program can appeal to hospital administrators, physicians, and site visitors alike. It can serve as an adaptable model for the delivery and management of inpatient clinical nutrition services in a wide variety of health care facilities.
Functionalized lignin biomaterials for enhancing optical properties and cellular interactions of dyes

We report a library of functionalized lignins and demonstrate their utility as nanocontainers for organic dyes in biologically relevant applications. Kraft lignin was modified via SN2 reaction at the phenolic –OH group utilizing a mild base, potassium carbonate, and various alkyl halides, several bearing additional functionalities, with dimethylsulfoxide as solvent. The resulting phenoxy ethers were characterized by 1H-NMR and IR spectroscopy, as well as DLS and SEM to evaluate their morphology and supramolecular organization. Lignin modified with long-chain hydrocarbon tails was found to effectively encapsulate DiD, a cyanine dye, decrease aggregation, enhance optical transitions and exert a photoprotective effect. The dye–lignin assemblies were also examined as imaging agents, via confocal microscopy, and found to accumulate intracellularly with no leaching of the dye to hydrophobic subcellular components observed. Lignin functionalized with short chain carboxylic acids interacts with ligands directed at the norepinephrine transporter (NET), suggesting applications in sequestration of neuroactive compounds.
The Political Sustainability of the Progressive Enlargement Model of European Regionalism: The EU’s Eastern Enlargement

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a systematic analysis of the forces working for and against the political sustainability of the EU’s enlargement policy. Sustainability analysis offers an alternative to conventional theorizing of the process conceptualized as policy stability and institutional continuity. The chapter draws on Eric Patashnik’s work on political sustainability in the case of policy reform and nonincremental change. Building on the historical record of prior EU enlargements, it examines the continued implementation of the policy in the aftermath of the East-European accession (2004–2007). The chapter concludes with an overall assessment of the risks of policy reversal and provides an evaluation of the usefulness and limitations of the political sustainability approach.
Translation of fetal short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) imaging into clinical practice: A pilot study

Fetal short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) imaging has demonstrated 64–85% increases in CNR and 17–29% increases in contrast relative to conventional B-mode imaging. However, despite its proven technical efficacy, the viability of fetal SLSC in the clinical setting remains unknown. The aims of this study were: 1) To demonstrate the feasibility of real-time SLSC imaging on existing hardware and 2) to evaluate expert-user preference between SLSC and B-mode within the clinical workflow.
Atlas table: a dynamic innovative support device for the coming obesity epidemic

With obesity rates increasing rapidly, the Atlas table, a modular table overlay, was developed to address the unmet medical need of the inability of current interventional tables to support patients weighing more than 450 lbs. Current procedural tables have a posted weight limit of 500 lbs. In practice, this limit is 450 lbs due to the permanent installation of a 50 lb dye injector at the foot of the table. Instability is reported in patients in the range of 250–450 lbs, resulting in the need to modify how the table is placed over the base. Additional weight and mobility limitations exist due to the cantilever beam design of the existing table that allows movement of the C-arm fluoroscope to move around the entire table. A clinical device should bear all of the weight of an 800 lb patient, without failing during emergency chest compressions, which makes the weight capacity necessary 1200 lbs. This must be accomplished without obstructing the movement of the C-arm of the existing table or requiring a more than 2% increase in radiation. Our table overlay design features a lightweight, radiolucent tabletop and four modular height-adjusting legs that move with the existing table and do not require separate controls. The legs clamp to the radiolucent tabletop securely but not permanently so that they can be moved when needed, with buttons that swing out and cause the table to raise or lower by being trigger by contact from the existing table. The proposed design safely holds and lifts 1200 lbs.