cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Saccharomyces spores are born prepolarized to outgrow away from spore‐spore connections and penetrate the ascus wall

How nonspore haploid Saccharomyces cells choose sites of budding and polarize towards pheromone signals in order to mate has been a subject of intense study. Unlike nonspore haploids, sibling spores produced via meiosis and sporulation by a diploid cell are physically interconnected and encased in a sac derived from the old cell wall of the diploid, called the ascus. Nonspore haploids bud adjacent to previous sites of budding, relying on stable cortical landmarks laid down during prior divisions, but because spore membranes are made de novo, it was assumed that, as is known for fission yeast, Saccharomyces spores break symmetry and polarize at random locations. Here, we show that this assumption is incorrect: Saccharomyces cerevisiae spores are born prepolarized to outgrow, prior to budding or mating, away from interspore bridges. Consequently, when spores bud within an intact ascus, their buds locally penetrate the ascus wall, and when they mate, the resulting zygotes adopt a unique morphology reflective of repolarization towards pheromone. Long-lived cortical foci containing the septin Cdc10 mark polarity sites, but the canonical bud site selection programme is dispensable for spore polarity, thus the origin and molecular composition of these landmarks remain unknown. These findings demand further investigation of previously overlooked mechanisms of polarity establishment and local cell wall digestion and highlight how a key step in the Saccharomyces life cycle has been historically neglected.
Decomposing Data Structure Commutativity Proofs with \(m\!n\)-Differencing

Commutativity of data structure methods is of ongoing interest in contexts such as parallelizing compilers, transactional memory, speculative execution and software scalability. Despite this interest, we lack effective theories and techniques to aid commutativity verification.
The Drug Debate: Data Exclusivity is the New Way to Delay Generics

The article discusses the protection regime for clinical trial data internationally and outlines the applicable protection regime. In doing so, this article outlines how the data exclusivity regime can operate in parallel with the patent regime to add a layer of protection for the data. Such protection operates at a regulatory level to delay the entry of generic medications. Internationally, the data exclusivity regime, which has become an important contemporary tool in trade negotiations with poorer nations, works to detrimentally affect access to medication.
What Do People Really Think of Me? Evaluating Bias in Interpersonal Predictions Over the Course of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Depression

Abstract Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) of depression is hypothesized to achieve its effects by correcting negative biases. However, little research has tested how biases change over the course of CBT. We focus on biases in interpersonal judgments and examine whether changes in biases occur in CBT and are associated with symptom improvements. A sample of 126 adults (60% women, mean age 31.7, 83% White) participated in CBT of depression. Observers provided ratings of patients participating in two interpersonal tasks on three occasions. Patients were asked to predict observers’ ratings. In a thin slice (TS) task, observers evaluated how patients came across in a brief segment in which patients talked about themselves. In a Standard Interaction Task (SIT), observers rated the social skills patients displayed in challenging role plays. The difference between patient predictions and observer ratings provided measures of bias in these interpersonal judgments. TS and SIT bias became significantly less pessimistic and more realistic over the course of CBT. Improvements in TS bias were associated with a faster reduction in symptoms, whereas there was a non-significant trend for improvement in SIT bias being associated with faster symptom reduction. Consistent with the CBT model, negative interpersonal biases became more realistic throughout a course of CBT for depression and at least some of the changes in bias were related to therapeutic outcomes. We encourage future researchers to continue examining for whom and under which conditions correcting such biases produces the greatest benefits.
Trauma-Informed Care: The Importance of Understanding the Incarcerated Women.

Numerous studies and research substantiate strong correlations between adverse childhood experience (ACE) scores and corrections. This study assessed the significance of trauma-informed care (TIC) ...
Male or female genital cutting: why 'health benefits' are morally irrelevant

The WHO, American Academy of Pediatrics and other Western medical bodies currently maintain that all medically unnecessary female genital cutting of minors is categorically a human rights violation, while either tolerating or actively endorsing medically unnecessary male genital cutting of minors, especially in the form of penile circumcision. Given that some forms of female genital cutting, such as ritual pricking or nicking of the clitoral hood, are less severe than penile circumcision, yet are often performed within the same families for similar (eg, religious) reasons, it may seem that there is an unjust double standard. Against this view, it is sometimes claimed that while female genital cutting has 'no health benefits', male genital cutting has at least some. Is that really the case? And if it is the case, can it justify the disparate treatment of children with different sex characteristics when it comes to protecting their genital integrity? I argue that, even if one accepts the health claims that are sometimes raised in this context, they cannot justify such disparate treatment. Rather, children of all sexes and genders have an equal right to (future) bodily autonomy. This includes the right to decide whether their own 'private' anatomy should be exposed to surgical risk, much less permanently altered, for reasons they themselves endorse when they are sufficiently mature.
Enabling Robust SOT-MTJ Crossbars for Machine Learning using Sparsity-Aware Device-Circuit Co-design

Embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) based crossbars have emerged as energy-efficient building blocks for machine learning accelerators. However, the analog computations in crossbars introduce errors due to several non-idealities. Moreover, since communications between crossbars are usually done in the digital domain, the energy and area costs are dominated by the Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC). Among the eNVM technologies, Resistive Random-Access-Memory (RRAM) and Phase-Change Memory (PCM) devices suffer from poor endurance, Write variability and conductance drift. Whereas magneto-resistive technologies provide superior endurance, write stability and reliability. To that effect, we propose sparsity-aware device/circuit co-design of robust crossbars using Spin-Orbit-Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junctions (SOT-MTJs). Note, standard MTJs have low $\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{F}\mathrm{F}}/\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}$ and low $\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}$, making them unsuitable for crossbars. In this work, we first demonstrate SOT-MTJs as crossbar elements With high $\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}$ and high $\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{F}\mathrm{F}}/\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}$ by allowing the read-path to have thicker tunneling-barrier, leaving the write path undisturbed. Second, through extensive simulations, we quantitatively assess the impact of various device-circuit parameters such as $\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}, \mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{F}\mathrm{F}}/\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}$ ratio, crossbar size, along With input and weight sparsity, on both circuit and application level accuracy and energy consumption. We evaluate system accuracy for Resnet-20 inference on CIFAR-10 dataset and show that leveraging sparsity allows reduced ADC precision, Without degrading accuracy. Our results show that an SOT-MTJ $(\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}=200\mathrm{k}\Omega$ and $\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{F}\mathrm{F}}/\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{N}}=7)$ crossbar array of size 32×32 could achieve near-software accuracy. The 64×64 and 128×128 crossbars show an accuracy degradation of 2% and 9.8%, respectively, from the software accuracy and an energy improvement of upto 3.8× and 6.3× compared to a 32×32 array with 4bit-ADC.
Embryogenesis without CTCF in flies and vertebrates.

CTCF is a conserved DNA- and RNA-binding protein with roles in genome folding and transcriptional regulation. Two recent studies investigated how CTCF knockout perturbs genome biology and derails embryogenesis in zebrafish and Drosophila melanogaster, revealing contrasting effects across species.
Radar Detection and Imaging of Buried Objects

An experimental ultrawideband (UWB) radar, designed and implemented by the Radar Division of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), is being used to develop techniques for the detection, imaging, and ultimately the identification of buried objects. This dual-frequency, dual-polarization, UWB radar has collected ultra-high resolution measurements (2-cm range resolution) of land mines and other objects in a laboratory setting. Initial free-space measurements are currently being used to develop and test imaging algorithms, as well as to explore the feasibility and limitations of various synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) configurations. In this paper we describe the buried-object test bed and demonstrate the ability of the UWB radar to image several different types of objects. At the conclusion of the free-space measurements and analysis, the objects of interest will be buried and measured in various media.
Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) and Sepsis

The human body reacts to various insults with a variety of complex reactions. The systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) refers to a diffuse state of inflammation resulting from many possible etiologies, including, but not limited to: infection, drugs, toxins, adrenal insufficiency, trauma, burns, ischemia, and pancreatitis. Activation of the immune system causes lymphocytes and macrophages to release a variety of cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, TNF alpha), enzymes, and vasoactive substances, whose function is to eradicate foreign organisms. Vast amplification of these same mediators may have several unwanted effects including rampant activation of the coagulation cascade, increased metabolism, and capillary permeability. When prolonged, this exaggerated immune system response constitutes the basis of SIRS.
From a Language to a Theory of Resistance: Critical Pedagogy, the Limits of "Framing," and Social Change.

In this article, Rebecca Tarlau attempts to build a more robust theory of the relationship between education and social change by drawing on the conceptual tools offered in the critical pedagogy and social movement literatures. Tarlau argues that while critical pedagogy has been largely disconnected from its roots in political organizing, social movement literature has shifted away from a theory of educational processes within movement building. Specifically, she suggests that the currently dominant “framing perspective” in the social movement literature is incredibly limited in its ability to analyze the pedagogical aspects of organizing. Conversely, while scholars of critical pedagogy are extremely convincing when critiquing U.S. schooling, the field is weaker when theorizing about how teachers using critical pedagogy can link to larger movements for social transformation. Critical pedagogues need more organizational thinking and social movement scholars need a more pedagogical focus. Tarlau suggests three conceptual frameworks for moving forward in this direction: the notion of social movements as pedagogical spaces, the role of informal educational projects in facilitating the emergence and strength of social movements, and the role of public schools as terrains of contestation that hold the possibility of linking to larger struggles for social justice.
Learning physical descriptions from functional definitions, examples, and precedents

It is too hard to tell vision systems what things look like. It is easier to talk about purpose and what things are for. Consequently, we want vision systems to use functional descriptions to identify things, when necessary, and we want them to learn physical descriptions for themselves, when possible. This paper describes a theory that explains how to make such systems work. The theory is a synthesis of two sets of ideas: ideas about learning from precedents and exercises developed at MIT and ideas about physical description developed at Stanford. The strength of the synthesis is illustrated byway of representative experiments. All of these experiments have been performed with an implemented system.
How Immigration Impacts the Destination Economy: The Evidence

This chapter supplements the previous chapter by examining the available evidence on how immigration impacts the destination country’s labor markets. In this chapter, we discuss studies that use one of the three popular statistical modeling approaches to estimating the labor market effects of immigration: the spatial correlation method, the production function method, and the skill cell method. The spatial correlation method exploits geographic variation in immigrant concentrations and yields estimates from regressions of labor market outcomes on those concentrations. The production function method produces estimates of immigration’s impact through the estimation of factor price elasticities. The skill cell method partitions the national labor market into measured skill categories and estimates the impact of exogenous immigration to those categories. Studies applying the production function and spatial correlation methods show that immigration has little or no impact on native-born wages or employment, while the skill-cell method suggests more substantial impacts, at least in the short run.
Partial Resolution of the Enzymes Catalyzing Oxidative Phosphorylation XXVI. SPECIFICITY OF PHOSPHOLIPIDS REQUIRED FOR ENERGY TRANSFER REACTIONS

Abstract 1. Vesicles catalyzing 32Pi-ATP exchange and ATP-driven proton translocation were reconstituted with chemically defined phospholipids and mitochondrial membrane proteins which were virtually free of electron transport carriers. 2. Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine were both required for the reconstitution of vesicles with high exchange activity. The optimal ratio of the two phospholipids was variable depending on the source and composition of the phospholipids. With highly purified preparations a 3- to 4-fold excess of phosphatidylethanolamine over phosphatidylcholine yielded optimal rates. An equal molar ratio gave low exchange activity, which was markedly accelerated by low amounts of cardiolipin or another acidic phospholipid. Coenzyme Q10 was not required. 3. Synthetic preparations substituted for natural phospholipids. The presence of unsaturated fatty acyl groups in the phospholipid appeared to be essential for the reconstitution of active vesicles. Phospholipids with fully saturated acyl groups were actually inhibitory. On the other hand, phospholipids with unnatural side chains were active provided they contained unsaturated groups. 4. The morphology of the reconstituted vesicles as seen in electron micrographs varied with the different phospholipids used in reconstitution. 5. Optimal conditions of reconstitution of the components which were solubilized with cholate were studied with [carboxy-14C]cholate. Rapid removal of cholate by passage of the components through a Sephadex column resulted in inactive particles. Removal of cholate by dialysis over several hours was optimal. The reconstituted vesicles had a higher phospholipid content and lower proton permeability than sub-mitochondrial particles.
Experience with Health and Usage Monitoring Systems in Helicopters

Advisory Circular 29-2 C, Section MG-15, Airworthiness Approval of Rotorcraft Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS), provides guidance for achieving airworthiness approval for installation, credit validation, and instructions for continued airworthiness for a full range of HUMS applications. The state-of-the-art HUMS and recent advancements including usage monitoring, flight regime recognition, fault, and crack detection technologies have begun to allow the use of HUMS for the condition-based maintenance or maintenance credits. “Maintenance credit” means to give approval to a HUMS application that adds to, replaces, or intervenes in industry-accepted maintenance practices or flight operations. Additionally, the future use of HUMS can eventually allow the fatigue life of rotorcraft components to be extended or the life-limited components to be removed before its fatigue life is fully consumed. Therefore, HUMS technologies and their applications can be used to achieve the safety goal, maintain continued airworthiness, and improve operating costs of rotorcraft. This article provides the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) perspective of how HUMS are being used or may be used in rotorcraft to address safety and continued airworthiness issues. This article also describes a few FAA-critical research efforts to achieve the full implementation of HUMS for usage credits. Keywords: health and usage monitoring system (HUMS); usage monitoring; flight regime recognition; ground-based system (GBS); usage credits; safe life; damage tolerance; advisory circular; HUMS AC; fault detection
Optofluidic tuning of quantum cascade lasers

The authors demonstrate the compatibility of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with elastomer-based microfluidics and the tuning of QCLs using liquids with different refractive indices. They look to increasing sensitivity to liquids with ultra high-Q photonic crystal based QCLs.
Optimal Scheduling Algorithms for Tertiary Storage

The ever growing needs of large multimedia systems cannot be met by magnetic disks due to their high cost and low storage density. Consequently, cheaper and denser tertiary storage systems are being integrated into the storage hierarchies of these applications. Although tertiary storage is cheaper, the access latency is very high due to the need to load and unload media on the drives. This high latency and the bursty nature of I/O traffic result in the accumulation of I/O requests for tertiary storage. We study the problem of scheduling these requests to improve performance. In particular we address the issues of scheduling across multiple tapes or disks as opposed to most other studies which consider only one or two media. We focus on algorithms that minimize the number of switches and show through simulation that these result in near-optimal schedules. For single drive libraries an efficient algorithm that produces optimal schedules is developed. For multiple drives the problem is shown to be NP-Complete. Efficient and effective heuristics are presented for both single and multiple drives. The scheduling policies developed achieve significant performance gains over naive policies. The algorithms are simple to implement and are not restrictive. The study encompasses all types of storage libraries handling removable media, such as tapes and optical disks.
Maximum a posteriori estimation of isotropic high- resolution volumetric MRI from orthogonal thick-slice scans

Thick-slice image acquisitions are sometimes inevitable in magnetic resonance imaging due to limitations posed by pulse sequence timing and signal-to-noise-ratio. The estimation of an isotropic highresolution volume from thick-slice MRI scans is desired for improved image analysis and evaluation. In this article we formulate a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation algorithm for high-resolution volumetric MRI reconstruction. As compared to the previous techniques, this probabilistic formulation relies on a slice acquisition model and allows the incorporation of image priors. We focus on image priors based on image gradients and compare the developed MAP estimation approach to scattered data interpolation (SDI) and maximum likelihood reconstruction. The results indicate that the developed MAP estimation approach outperforms the SDI techniques and appropriate image priors may improve the volume estimation when the acquired thick-slice scans do not sufficiently sample the imaged volume. We also report applications in pediatric and fetal imaging.
Regulation of STA1 gene expression by MAT during the life cycle of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Abstract STA1 encodes a secreted glucoamylase of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. diastaticus. Glucoamylase secretion is controlled by the mating type locus MAT; a and alpha haploid yeast cells secrete high levels of the enzyme, but a/alpha diploid cells produce undetectable amounts. It has been suggested that STA1 is regulated by MATa2 (I. Yamashita, Y. Takano, and S. Fukui, J. Bacteriol. 164:769-773, 1985), which is a MAT transcript of previously unknown function. In contrast, this work shows that deletion of the entire MATa2 gene had no effect on STA1 regulation but that deletion of MATa1 sequences completely abolished mating-type control. In all cases, glucoamylase activity levels reflected STA1 mRNA levels. It appears that STA1 is a haploid-specific gene that is regulated by MATa1 and a product of the MAT alpha locus and that this regulation occurs at the level of RNA accumulation. STA1 expression was also shown to be glucose repressible. STA1 mRNA was induced in diploids during sporulation along with SGA, a closely linked gene that encodes an intracellular sporulation-specific glucoamylase of S. cerevisiae. A diploid strain with a MATa1 deletion showed normal induction of STA1 in sporulation medium, but SGA expression was abolished. Therefore, these two homologous and closely linked glucoamylase genes are induced by different mechanisms during sporulation. STA1 induction may be a response to the starvation conditions necessary for sporulation, while SGA induction is governed by the pathway by which MAT regulates sporulation. The strain containing a complete deletion of MATa2 grew, mated, and sporulated normally.
Data processing in typing: typing rate as a function of kind of material and amount exposed.

The effects on performance of kind of material (text, random words, or random characters) and amount of material exposed (1, 2, 3, 6, or an “unlimited” number of characters) were jointly studied in a typewriting task. For the random characters, only a small increase in typing rate was observed beyond three characters exposed. For the words and text, rates were generally higher and continued to increase substantially up to the unlimited exposure condition. The results are discussed in terms of a parallel processor which employs unitary “higher-order responses”.
Biological characterization of a prolonged antileukemic effect of 5 azacytidine

A prolonged cytotoxic effect of 5-azacytidine (aza-CR) on leukemic colony-forming units (LCFU) was observed in mice with transplanted L1210 leukemia. LCFU showed rapid reaccumulation in the marrow 12 hr after injection of 0.1 mg of aza-CR per mouse. However, after 0.5 mg of aza-CR, repopulation was delayed for at least 6 days. Experiments were performed to determine the mechanism of this prolonged antileukemic effect. Suspensions of leukemic marrow prepared from mice treated 4 days previously with 0.5 mg of aza-CR were exposed to [3H]thymidine in vitro in order to kill cells in S phase. Suspensions exhibited a 40% reduction in LCFU, indicating the prolonged effect was not due to cell cycle progression delay. Mice given whole-body irradiation prior to receiving L1210 demonstrated the same delayed repopulation following the high dose of aza-CR as nonirradiated mice, suggesting that the effect was likely not due to an immune reaction. aza-CR, when given to normal mice as long as 2 days prior to leukemic transplantation, was able to prolong the survival of leukemic mice, but not when given at longer intervals. Administration of aza-CR to mice 1 day or 1 hr prior to leukemic transplantation resulted in decreased LCFU survival as well as delayed repopulation of LCFU; the rate of repopulation was not changed. This indicated a prolonged residual activity of the drug, but not sufficient to explain the total in vivo suppression. In contrast, administration of aza-CR to leukemic mice suppressed repopulation of a subsequent leukemic transplant for 4 days, even when the cells were given 2 days after the aza-CR. Cytidine was partially able to reverse the delayed repopulation of LCFU when given 1 day after aza-CR, but it was unable to reverse the phenomenon 2 days after aza-CR. Therefore, a high dose of aza-CR produces a prolonged antileukemic effect which is probably mediated by continued availability of an aza-CR metabolite. Since this effect is more pronounced in leukemic mice than in nonleukemic mice, the pharmacokinetics of high doses of aza-CR probably differ in normal and leukemic mice.
Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder: significance of central nervous system involvement.

Background. Few data exist regarding central nervous system (CNS) involvement in patients with posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD). The purpose of this study was to review the Israel Penn International Transplant Tumor Registry (IPITTR) experience with CNS involvement by PTLD. Methods. Nine hundred ten PTLD cases from the United States were reported to the IPITTR and reviewed for CNS involvement. Results. One hundred thirty-six transplant recipients with PTLD (15%) had CNS involvement. The highest incidence of CNS involvement occurred in pancreas (3 of 11; 27%) and kidney transplant recipients (76 of 429; 18%). Fifteen cases occurred in children and 121 cases in adults. For both children and adults, isolated CNS disease was associated with better survival when compared with multiple-site involvement (children: 29% vs 0%; adults: 12% vs 6%; P <.05). Three-year survival in PTLD patients with CNS involvement was 9.4% and without CNS involvement was 49.4% (P <.01). Radiation therapy alone appeared to provide the best survival rates (25%). Conclusions. CNS involvement in transplant recipients with PTLD carries an ominous prognosis; however, isolated CNS involvement has a better prognosis than CNS plus extracranial involvement. Radiation therapy alone provides the best results, but this may be a reflection of isolated CNS disease.
The effects of temperature and pressure on the lifetime of benzophenone emission

Abstract The variation in the lifetime of flash-excited gaseous benzophenone with pressure and temperature indicates that (1) self-quenching is a relatively inefficient process for the long-lived emission, k sq = 9 × 10 5 M −1 s −1 (estimated from solution data) at 25°C and 1.2 × 10 7 M −1 s −1 at 170°C and (2) the lifetime decreases with increasing temperature as a result of photochemical and photophysical decay pathways which have significant activation energies. The importance of diffusion to the walls on lifetime measurements is discussed.
Accidental extubations during respiratory management in a children's hospital.

An investigation was conducted on the frequency of accidental extubations at Shizuoka Children’s Hospital during the past 12 years. The study was performed on 150 randomly selected patients who received respiratory support for more than 24 hr. Fifteen accidental extubations occurred in 9 patients. Most of them (87%) occurred in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and the rate was 1 per 54 days of intubation. The time at which these accidents happened varied, although they were more common during the day-time. The reasons of accidental extubation could not be specified in two-thirds of the cases. It became clear that more immature babies were more likely to suffer accidental extubation, perhaps reflecting the fact that most of the immature babies in the NICU were intubated orally, and that a larger proportion of them required a longer period of respiratory support. Therefore, early weaning from respiratory support is recommended if it is possible. In conclusion, increased surveillance and more secure methods of taping of endotracheal tubes are crucial for preventing life-threatening accidental extubations during respiratory support.
Characterization of a MEN1 ortholog from Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is a familial cancer syndrome characterized by tumors of the parathyroid, entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine and pituitary tissues and caused by inactivating mutations in the MEN1 gene. Menin, the 610-amino acid nuclear protein encoded by MEN1 , binds to the transcription factor JunD and can repress JunD-induced transcription. We report here the identification of a MEN1 ortholog in Drosophila melanogaster , Menin1 , that encodes a 763 amino acid protein sharing 46% identity with human menin. Additionally, 69% of the missense mutations and in-frame deletions reported in MEN1 patients appear in amino acid residues that are identical in the Drosophila and human protein, suggesting the importance of the conserved regions. Drosophila Menin1 gene transcripts use alternative polyadenylation sites resulting in 4.3 and 5-kb messages. The 4.3-kb transcript appears to be largely maternal, while the 5-kb transcript appears mainly zygotic. The binding of Drosophila menin to human JunD or Drosophila Jun could not be demonstrated by the yeast two-hybrid analysis. The identification of the MEN1 ortholog from Drosophila melanogaster will provide an opportunity to utilize Drosophila genetics to enhance our understanding of the function of human menin.
MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF THE CRYPTOCOCCUS NEOFORMANS ADE2 GENE, A SELECTABLE MARKER FOR TRANSFORMATION AND GENE DISRUPTION

Cryptococcus neoformans is an important fungal pathogen of man. The incidence of cryptococcal disease has increased dramatically in patients immunocompromised because of HIV infection, organ transplantation, or treatment with cytotoxic chemotherapy or corticosteroids. This organism is an excellent model for molecular dissection of fungal pathogenesis and virulence factors. Here we report the nucleotide sequence of the C. neoformans serotype D genomic ADE2 gene, which encodes a phosphoribosylaminoimidazole carboxylase required for purine biosynthesis. Importantly, this version of the ADE2 gene has been used as the selectable marker for virtually all gene disruptions by transformation and homologous recombination in C. neoformans. We compare the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the ADE2 gene and product to other highly related adenine biosynthetic genes and enzymes from other yeasts and fungi. We also describe a series of convenient ADE2 cassettes for gene disruption construct preparation. Finally, we have identified the ade2 mutations in strains M001 and M049, adenine auxotrophic mutants derived from the serotype A strain H99. These mutant strains have served as recipients for targeted gene disruptions using the ADE2 gene. These studies should facilitate transformation and gene disruption approaches using the ADE2 selectable marker in this important human fungal pathogen.
Catching errors with patient-specific pretreatment machine log file analysis

Abstract Purpose A robust, efficient, and reliable quality assurance (QA) process is highly desired for modern external beam radiation therapy treatments. Here, we report the results of a semiautomatic, pretreatment, patient-specific QA process based on dynamic machine log file analysis clinically implemented for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments delivered by high energy linear accelerators (Varian 2100/2300 EX, Trilogy, iX-D, Varian Medical Systems Inc, Palo Alto, CA). The multileaf collimator machine (MLC) log files are called Dynalog by Varian. Methods and Materials Using an in-house developed computer program called "Dynalog QA," we automatically compare the beam delivery parameters in the log files that are generated during pretreatment point dose verification measurements, with the treatment plan to determine any discrepancies in IMRT deliveries. Fluence maps are constructed and compared between the delivered and planned beams. Results Since clinical introduction in June 2009, 912 machine log file analyses QA were performed by the end of 2010. Among these, 14 errors causing dosimetric deviation were detected and required further investigation and intervention. These errors were the result of human operating mistakes, flawed treatment planning, and data modification during plan file transfer. Minor errors were also reported in 174 other log file analyses, some of which stemmed from false positives and unreliable results; the origins of these are discussed herein. Conclusions It has been demonstrated that the machine log file analysis is a robust, efficient, and reliable QA process capable of detecting errors originating from human mistakes, flawed planning, and data transfer problems. The possibility of detecting these errors is low using point and planar dosimetric measurements.
Effects of cryogenic blocking of pulvinar upon visually evoked responses in the cortex of the cat

Abstract Visually evoked responses on the suprasylvian and marginal gyri were markedly diminished in amplitude by cooling of the pulvinar. Both the early and late components of the evoked response on the suprasylvian gyrus were affected but only the afterdischarge or late components on the marginal gyrus were reduced. The latter effect was shown to be mediated by the suprasylvian gyrus. Cooling of the B layer of the lateral geniculate, which we have previously shown to be a source of visual input to the pulvinar, reduced both the early and late components of the responses on the suprasylvian and marginal gyri, whereas cooling of the A layer caused a reduction of only the primary response components on the marginal gyrus. These results are interpreted as demonstrating two visual input systems to the cortex, one via direct geniculostriate pathways and another from the B layer of the lateral geniculate via the pulvinar to the suprasylvian gyrus. The former is mainly responsible for the primary response components of the marginal gyrus and the latter for the afterdischarge or late components.
Turf issues: How do we resolve them and optimize patient selection for intervention and ultimately patient care?

Turf issues exist largely because of emerging endovascular technologies. Vascular surgeons must develop skills with catheters, guidewires, and imaging techniques. Turf battles will result from unrestrained competition. Center/partnerships between vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists will minimize these turf battles and facilitate cross-training, which will improve the functioning of both specialists. These center/partnerships will, therefore, provide the best, most cost-effective care. Finally, all specialists who are interested in vascular disease must recognize the dangers of overproduction of competing specialists. More importantly, their leaders and specialty societies must make a serious effort to deal with this problem fairly.
Why are rings regularly shed in the western equatorial Atlantic but not in the western Pacific

Abstract The western equatorial Atlantic is characterized by the formation and shedding of 3–4 large anticyclonic rings per year. These rings originate from the North Brazil Current which, in response to the vanishing wind stress curl (over the ocean interior), retroflects and turns eastward at around 4°N. After their formation and shedding the rings propagate toward the northwest along the South American coast carrying an annual average of about 4Sv. As such, the rings constitute an important part of the meridional heat flux in the Atlantic. The same cannot be said, however, of the western equatorial Pacific. Here, the situation is entirely different even though the South Equatorial Current retroflects at roughly the same latitude as its Atlantic counterpart, the North Brazil Current. Although the South Equatorial Current retroflection is flanked by two quasi-permanent eddies (the so-called Halmahera and the Mindanao eddies), these eddies are an integral part of the current itself and are not shed. Consequently, they are not associated with any meridional heat flux. An important question is, then, why the two oceans behave in such a fundamentally different way even though the source of the rings, the retroflected currents, are very similar in the two oceans. To answer this question, the two oceans are compared using recently developed analytical and numerical models for the western equatorial oceans. It is first pointed out that, according to recent developments in the modelling of the western equatorial Atlantic, the North Brazil Current retroflection rings are formed, shed and drift to the west because, in the Atlantic, this is the only way by which the momentum flux of the approaching and retroflecting current can be balanced. In this scenario, the northwestward flow force exerted by the approaching and retroflecting North Brazil Current (analogous to the force created by a rocket) is balanced by the southwestward force exerted by the rings as they are formed (analogous in some sense to the kickback associated with a firing gun). On the other hand, in the western equatorial Pacific, the formation and shedding of rings is unnecessary because the southward flowing Mindanao Current provides an alternative mechanism for balancing the northward momentum flux of the South Equatorial Current. This implies that it is the absence of a counter current (such as the Mindanao) in the western Atlantic that causes the formation and shedding of North Brazil Current rings. A remaining difficulty with the above scenario is that most colliding and retroflecting currents (i.e. the Mindanao and South Equatorial currents) are not “balanced” in the sense that they cannot be stationary but rather must drift along the coast. It is shown that, in the case of the western Pacific, the long-shore migration is arrested by the Indonesian Throughflow which allows the “unbalanced” fraction of the approaching currents to leak out into the Indian Ocean. This resolves the above difficulty and allows the retroflection to be approximately steady.
Extrinsic Germanium Photoconductor Material: Crystal Growth and Characterization

Ge:Ga and Ge:Be extrinsic photoconductors are used in the 50 to 200 and 30 to 50 ..mu..m wavelength range respectively as optimized detectors for far-infrared astronomy applications. Reproducible materials synthesis and comprehensive materials characterization are required for the development of focal plane detectors which reach the high sensitivity which is theoretically possible under the very low background flux conditions of space-based observation. Ge:Ga, Ge:Be, and Ge:Zn photoconductor materials have been grown using the Czochralski technique under high purity conditions. Residual impurities can be controlled to levels of approx.10/sup 10/ cm/sup -3/, leading to greater control of free carrier lifetime and mobility, and more reproducible detector performance. Characterization of the material with variable temperature Hall effect and infrared spectroscopy shows that Be- and Zn-doped crystals grown under a H/sub 2/ atmosphere can contain hydrogen-related complexes which affect detector performance by decreasing the resistivity of the material at low temperatures. The growth of Ge:Be presents a special case in which the oxygen content of the melt environment is a critical factor in determining reproducibility of Be doping and device performance.
Long-Term Survival After Multidisciplinary Management of Resected Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Introduction Actual 5-year survival rates of 10–18% have been reported for patients with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC), but the use of multimodality therapy was uncommon in these series. We evaluated long-term survival and patterns of recurrence in patients treated for PC with contemporary staging and multimodality therapy.
Phosphodiesterase inhibition downregulates intestinal injury and inducible nitric oxide synthase activity after hemorrhagic shock

Objective. Previous work suggests that supplementation of Ringer's lactate (RL) resuscitation with pentoxifylline (PTX) abrogates distant organ injury after hemorrhage. The aim of this work was to determine whether PTX can effectively attenuate resuscitation-induced intestinal injury and pro-inflammatory mediator production. Material and methods. Male Sprague–Dawley rats underwent 60 min of hypotension followed by resuscitation with RL or RL + PTX (25 mg/kg). The ileum was examined for injury. Nitric acid and pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and phosphorylation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB and signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)-3 were evaluated using Western blotting. Results. RL resuscitation led to a marked increase in all parameters over the control. The addition of PTX significantly reduced histologic injury and levels of iNOS, NO, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and cytokine-induced ne...
On the Statistics of Channel Models for UWB Ranging

Ranging and geolocation with impulse radio- ultrawideband (IR-UWB) systems can be achieved by estimation of the time-of-arrival (TOA) of a received signal. Certain channel parameters may have significant impact on the TOA estimation accuracy. In this paper, a generic list of such parameters is presented and their statistics are obtained through computer simulations using IEEE 802.15.4a channel models. The effects of different channel environments and receiver structures on the statistics are investigated.
Energetic particle effects as an explanation for the low frequencies of Alfvén modes in the DIII-D tokamak

During beam injection in the DIII-D tokamak, modes with lower frequencies than expected for toroidicity induced Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) are often observed. The experimental `TAE' frequency is often ≈0.8 of the nominal theoretical frequency of the TAE, fTAE, while the typical frequency of beta induced Alfven eigenmodes (BAEs) is (0.2-0.4)fTAE. An analysis is presented of an unstable discharge with a high n stability code, HINST, that includes the effect of energetic ions on mode frequency. The analysis shows that the experimental `TAE' and `BAE' could be resonant branches of the TAE and the kinetic ballooning mode, respectively.
Experimental and theoretical studies of single frequency PCF amplifier with output of 400 W

We report on experimental and theoretical investigations of single frequency high power PCF amplifiers. A model describing the interplay among laser gain, thermals effects, and SBS was developed to study the power limitations of single frequency amplifiers in general, and PCF amplifiers in particular. A distributed noise term was used to initiate the SBS process with the Stokes light spanning multi-frequency channels. The use of thermal and acoustic gradients in conjunction was considered and indicated marginal improvement. In the set of experiments, slope efficiencies as high as 77% were obtained with a maximum output of 427 W. The linewidth was measured and yielded values that were less than 10 KHz. A pump-probe measurement of the Brillouin gain spectrum revealed secondary peaks lying at the highfrequency side. Measurements conducted on a novel PCF, specifically designed to utilize thermal and acoustic gradients in conjunction, showed the existence of two primary gain peaks.
Intracellular distribution of vitamin A esterase activity in rat liver.

Abstract 1. 1. Various cell fractions from livers of vitamin A-depleted rats were obtained by using the differential centrifugation technique. Their relative ability to hydrolyze vitamin A acetate was also studied. 2. 2. The activity was quantitatively localized in the microsomal fraction, whereas the nuclear, mitochondrial, and supernatant fractions were inactive.
Teaching families to evaluate age-appropriate toys

Nurses should stress to parents that they need not purchase the most frequently advertised or expensive toy to promote their child's growth and development skills. As parents develop an understanding of normal growth and development and how to evaluate and stimulate their child's development through the use of toys, they will be able to select and create appropriate toys that will not frustrate or overstimulate the child. This approach will enable all parents, regardless of income, education, and resourcefulness, to promote and stimulate their child's gross and fine motor skills, social development, and cognitive development through the use of toys.
A physically based method for triangulated surface flattening

This paper introduces a new method of generating 2D flat patterns from a 3D triangulated surface by opening the bending configuration of each winged triangle pair. The flattening can be divided into four steps. First, a 3D triangulated surface is modeled with a mass-spring system that simulates the surface deformation during the flattening. Second, an unwrapping force field is built to drive the mass-spring system to a developable configuration through the numerical integration. Third, a velocity redistribution procedure is initiated to average velocity variances among the particles. Finally, the mass-spring system is forced to collide with a plane, and the final 2D pattern is generated after all the winged triangle pairs are spread onto the colliding plane. To retain the size and area of the original 3D surface, a strain control mechanism is introduced to keep the springs from over-elongation or over-shrinkage at each time step.
Mercuric Cyanide Poisoning and its Treatment in Dogs.

SummaryMercuric cyanide has a dual mechanism of poisoning. In dogs receiving this poison intramuscularly, the cyanide radicle may be detoxified by intravenous injection of sodium nitrite and sodium thiosul-fate, one after the other; and the mercury radicle, by prompt injection of BAL. The latter can be given first by intravenous injection, and repeated by intramuscular injection. The LD50 of mercuric cyanide in dogs without treatment is 2.71 ± 0.17 mg per kg; and that with nitrite-thiosulfate therapy and BAL injections, 8.66 ± 0.66 mg per kg.
Probing protein interaction chemistry through crystal growth: structure, mutation, and mechanism in subtilisin s88

Abstract Observations of systematic variation in the shapes of protein crystals have unique potential to report chemical effects on protein–protein interactions, because diffraction can be used to image the detailed structure that links an easily controlled “cause” (change in chemical conditions) with an easily observed “effect” (change in crystal shape). Crystal shape correlates directly with the relative growth rates of the various faces. By studying cases of known structures in which crystal shape varies systematically with some solution parameter (pH, ionic strength, concentration of a specific solute, etc.), it is sometimes possible to correlate that parameter with its effect on a particular crystal contact. Such correlations provide the basis for models of how solution parameters affect protein–protein interactions. We have applied this technique in a model system involving a subtilisin BPN′ variant. Crystal shape varies systematically with pH and ionic strength, an effect that has been traced to a specific interaction in one crystal contact. Mutation of an Asp sidechain in this contact (to Asn) eliminates the morphology variation effect, confirming the key role of this residue in the observed shape effect, and enabling the mechanism to be placed in a mathematical framework.
Taxonomy of the Strigiphilus cursitans Group (Ischnocera: Philopteridae), Parasites of Owls (Strigiformes)

The Strigiphilus cursitans group of chewing lice is analyzed, including a thorough review of group characters, reconsideration of the group's composition, redescription of its constituent taxa, and a key for identification of those taxa. Twenty-one species are redescribed, one of which is divided into three subspecies. Thirteen synonymies are given, seven of which are new. A neotype is designated for S. syrnii (Packard).