cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Immunoregulation in hypersensitivity pneumonitis. I. Differences in T-cell and macrophage suppressor activity in symptomatic and asymptomatic pigeon breeders.

Cell-mediated immunity delineates symptomatic from asymptomatic pigeon breeders better than the presence of precipitating antibodies or HLA haptotypes. We therefore investigatedin vitro lymphocyte function in asymptomatic and symptomatic pigeon breeders. Peripheral blood, T, B, and adherent numbers were equal in both groups. Although the response to an optimum dose of concanavalin A was similar in both groups, the asymptomatic group revealed a reduced response to an optimum concentration of phytohemagglutinin and pokeweed mitogen. This decreased mitogen-induced proliferation was abrogated if cells from asymptomatic patients were precultured in medium alone for 48 hr before stimulation. A similar preincubation procedure, however, decreased the response to subsequent mitogenic stimulation in the symptomatic patients. As this suggested the possibility of heightened immunosuppression in the asymptomatic group, suppressor cells were studied. The numbers of FCγ-bearing T cells were similar in both groups and did not differ from control values. In addition, concanavalin A-induced suppressor-cell activity did not differ in either group. Nonetheless, fresh T cells, adherent cells, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) preincubated with pigeon serum decreased the response of preincubated autologous PBMC to mitogens and antigens in asymptomatics. A similar suppression did not occur in autoch-thonous cocultures of PBMC from symptomatic patients. These data suggest that there may be cellular suppressor influences in the asymptomatic group which are absent or nonfunctional in the symptomatic patients. Although this may be useful in distinguishing between the groups, the relationship of these suppressor cells, if any, to the pathogenesis of hypersensitivity pneumonitis awaits further study.
Anomalous collective dynamics in optically driven colloidal rings.

characterized by non-integer exponents. The observed relationship between scaling in the microscopic trajectories and macroscopic collective uctuations is consistent with predictions for the onset of weak chaos within the experimentally accessible time window. Three identical spheres slowly sedimenting through a viscous uid in two or three dimensions generically tumble chaotically [1]. When the same spheres are driven steadily around a ring, by contrast, their motion is predicted to be purely periodic [2], with the reduction in dimensionality and the imposition of periodic boundary conditions [3] eectively eliminating the domain of chaotic dynamics. In this Letter, we demonstrate experimentally that quenched disorder can randomize this system’s trajectory through phase space, replacing the periodic steady state with a power-law distribution of Poincar e recurrences. The hydrodynamically coupled spheres’ collective motions also are characterized by power-law distributed ights. The observed non-integer scaling in the microscopic and macroscopic degrees of freedom and the relationship between the extracted scaling exponents are consistent with fractional or strange kinetics [4] in a system exhibiting weak chaos. Our system consists of colloidal polystyrene spheres 1.51 m in diameter (Polysciences, Lot No. 526826) dispersed in a layer of water 40 m thick between a glass microscope slide and a coverslip. Three of these spheres are conned
On the extrication of large objects from the ocean bottom (the breakout phenomenon)

An analytical theory is developed to describe how negative pressure, (or ‘mud suction’, as it is sometimes referred to) develops underneath a body as it detaches itself from the ocean bottom. Biot's quasistatic equations of poro-elasticity are used to model the ocean bottom, and a general three-dimensional time-dependent analysis of the problem is worked out first using the boundary-layer approximation recently proposed by Mei and Foda. Then, explicit leading-order analytical solutions are presented for the problems of extrication of slender bodies as well as axisymmetric bodies from the ocean bottom.
How readers experience characters’ decisions

When people read narratives, they have ample opportunities to encode mental preferences about characters’ decisions. In our present project, we examined how readers’ preferences for characters’ decisions structure their experiences of story outcomes. In Experiment 1, participants read brief stories and explicitly rated which of two potential decisions they thought the characters should make. The actual decision that each character made was either preferred or nonpreferred by readers. By the end of each story, readers learned whether there was a positive or negative outcome to these decisions. Decisions and outcomes either matched (e.g., a preferred decision followed by a positive outcome) or did not match (e.g., a nonpreferred decision followed by a negative outcome). Participants took longer to read outcome sentences when there was a mismatch. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding with a task that allowed more natural reading. These results provide converging evidence that readers encode responses to characters’ decisions and that these responses affect the time course with which they assimilate story outcomes.
A comparison of usability techniques for evaluating design

We report on a series of experiments designed to compare usability testing methods in a novel information retrieval interface. The purpose of this ongoing work is to investigate the problems people encounter while performing information retrieval tasks, and to assess evaluation methods by looking at the problem focus, the quality of the results and the cost effectiveness of each method. This ftrst communication compares expett evaluation using heuristics [15] with end user testing [24].
Task model for on-chip communication infrastructure design for multicore systems

With technology scaling, Multiprocessor System on Chip (MPSoC) which consist of multiple processors connected via a Network on Chip (NoC) have become prevalent. Applications are mapped to MPSoC's by representing it in the form of a task graph. Task scheduling involves mapping task to processor cores so as to meet the deadline. For a given deadline, slack at each node is defined by the amount of time by which a task execution can be delayed without missing the deadline. With increase in the number of cores and high application parallelism, NoC is becoming a bottleneck due to the presence of large number of concurrent communications. Increasing network resources (links and routers) reduces the communication time but the area and power goes up. In this paper we present an application aware heuristic to synthesize a minimal network connecting a set of cores in an MPSoC in the presence of hard deadlines. Our approach is based on modeling communication between a pair of processors as tasks known as “Comtasks”. The network is generated by “scheduling” these comtasks onto a set of routers so as to obtain a network with minimum area which fills up the available slack. Moreover, we also identify the set of overlapping comtasks and generate a minimal network to allow the maximum set of overlapping comtasks to execute concurrently. We compared our approach with a greedy network generation heuristic and the results show 80% benefit in the router area.
Inspection Methods for Safeguards Systems at Nuclear Facilities

A project team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been developing inspection procedures and training materials for the NRC inspectors of safeguards systems at licensed nuclear facilities. This paper describes 1) procedures developed for inspecting for compliance with the Code of Federal Regulations, 2) training materials for safeguards inspectors on technical topics related to safeguards systems, such as computer surety, alarm systems, sampling techniques, and power supplies, and 3) an inspector-oriented methodology for evaluating the overall effectiveness of safeguards systems.
Preparative synthesis of C-(α-d-glucopyranosyl)-alkenes and -alkadienes: Diels-alder reaction

The reaction of 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-benzyl-1-O-(p-nitrobenzoyl)-alpha-D-glucopyranose with (E)-penta-2,4-dienyltrimethylsilane and boron trifluoride etherate in acetonitrile afforded stereoselectively (E)-5-(tetra-O-benzyl-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl)-1,3-pentadiene in good yield. The readily available penta-O-benzoyl-alpha-D-glucopyranose reacted with allyltrimethylsilane in the presence of boron trifluoride etherate in acetonitrile to give 3-(tetra-O-benzoyl-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl)-1-propene and its beta anomer in yields of 60% and 2.3%, respectively. Diels-Alder cycloaddition of maleic anhydride to diene 1 afforded the adduct cis,cis-3-(tetra-O-benzyl-alpha-D-glucopyranosylmethyl)cyclohex -4-ene- 1,2-dicarboxylic anhydride in high yield.
Electronic structure of carbon trioxide and vibronic interactions involving Jahn-Teller states.

The electronic structure of CO3 is characterized by equation-of-motion and coupled-cluster methods. C2V and D3h isomers are considered. Vertical excitation energies, transition dipoles, and the molecular orbital character of the excited states are presented for singlet and triplet manifolds. Ground-state equilibrium structures and frequencies are strongly affected by vibronic interactions with low-lying excited states. At D3h geometries, the vibronic interactions are enhanced by the Jahn-Teller character of the excited states. The curvature of the potential energy surface and the existence of the D3h minimum are very sensitive to the correlation treatment and the basis set. The correlation effects are stronger at D3h, in agreement with a smaller HOMO-LUMO gap.
On the weight hierarchy of geometric Goppa codes

The weight hierarchy of a linear code is the set of generalized Hamming weights of the code. In the paper, the authors consider geometric Goppa codes and provide a lower bound on their generalized Hamming weights similar to Goppa's lower bound on their minimum distance. In the particular case of Hermitian codes, exact results on the second and third generalized Hamming weights are given for any m except a few cases, where m is a parameter that governs the dimension of these codes. In many instances, the authors are able to provide considerably more information on their generalized Hamming weights. An upper bound relating the generalized Hamming weights of Hermitian codes to the pole numbers at a special point on the curve is also provided. Similar results are given in the case of codes from some subfields of the Hermitian function fields, which are also maximal. Finally, a nontrivial family of codes is also presented whose weight hierarchy is completely determined. >
The 2005 Benjamin Franklin medal in life sciences awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn

The Franklin Institute awarded the 2005 Franklin medal in life sciences to Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn for her pioneering work on understanding how the cell preserves the ends of chromosomes, telomeres, while replicating its DNA. Dr. Blackburn identified the sequence of telomere DNA, and found very simple repeat sequences that are interchangeable among many eukaryotic organisms. Subsequently, she discovered telomerase, the enzyme that ensures telomere maintenance, and demonstrated that telomerase has both RNA and protein components, with the RNA serving as the template for the reverse transcriptase. The dynamic nature of telomerase is linked to the replicative potential of the cell. Dr. Blackburn's work on telomeres has given new insights into aging and disease, including cancer.
Criteria for and statistics of electron diffusion regions associated with subsolar magnetic field reconnection

[1] The definition of “electron diffusion regions” and criteria for identifying them in magnetic field reconnection events are given. By employing these criteria and further constraints on the measured parallel electric field, 117 electron diffusion regions have been found in searching through 3 years of Polar satellite subsolar data. They exist in filamentary currents in which parallel electric fields and depressed plasma densities are found and where the electron beta is generally less than 1. The average parallel electric field in these events is about 30% of the average 38 mV/m perpendicular field. The size of these regions is the order of the electron skin depth or less. These electron diffusion regions are topological boundaries in the electron and magnetic field line flows because the components of E × B/B2 on their opposite sides are frequently different. These regions are found throughout the magnetopause but mainly at the magnetospheric separatrix. The divergence of the pressure tensor in the Generalized Ohm's Law may be the leading term that balances the parallel electric field if the observed large plasma density variations (and hence electron pressure variations) were spatial and not temporal. The picture resulting from this data is of a magnetopause that is highly structured and filamentary and very different from a linear, laminar, symmetric structure sometimes considered in theories or simulations. However, it is emphasized that events such as those described have been found in fewer than 20% of the magnetopauses examined, so the conventional picture may be more prevalent.
Embryonic stem cells lacking the epigenetic regulator Cfp1 are hypersensitive to DNA-damaging agents and exhibit decreased Ape1/Ref-1 protein expression and endonuclease activity.

Abstract Modulation of chromatin structure plays an important role in the recruitment and function of DNA repair proteins. CXXC finger protein 1 (Cfp1), encoded by the CXXC1 gene, is essential for mammalian development and is an important regulator of chromatin structure. Murine embryonic stem (ES) cells lacking Cfp1 (CXXC1−/−) are viable but demonstrate a dramatic decrease in cytosine methylation, altered histone methylation, and an inability to differentiate. We find that ES cells lacking Cfp1 are hypersensitive to a variety of DNA-damaging agents. In addition, CXXC1−/− ES cells accumulate more DNA damage and exhibit decreased protein expression and endonuclease activity of AP endonuclease (Ape1/Ref-1), an enzyme involved in DNA base excision repair. Expression in CXXC1−/− ES cells of either the amino half of Cfp1 (amino acids 1–367) or the carboxyl half of Cfp1 (amino acids 361–656) restores normal Ape1/Ref-1 protein expression and rescues the hypersensitivity to DNA-damaging agents, demonstrating that Cfp1 contains redundant functional domains. Furthermore, retention of either the DNA-binding activity of Cfp1 or interaction with the Setd1A and Setd1B histone H3-Lys4 methyltransferase complexes is required to restore normal sensitivity of CXXC1−/− ES cells to DNA-damaging agents. These results implicate Cfp1 as a regulator of DNA repair processes.
Isolation of open-circular DNA molecules by retention in agar gels

Abstract Agar solutions containing DNA were allowed to gel, then crushed into small pieces, mixed with buffered saline, stirred for several hours and centrifuged in order to collect the agar pieces. After four hours stirring, about 25% of the open-circular λ DNA was retained in the agar, while only 1.6% of the linear λ DNA and 0.8% of the linear T7 DNA were retained. It is likely that the circular molecules are topologically linked to the agar gel. The DNA retained in the agar could be recovered by sedimentation through sodium perchlorate density-gradients.
Regulated dimerization of the thyrotropin-releasing hormone receptor affects receptor trafficking but not signaling.

To investigate the function of dimerization of the TRH receptor, a controlled dimerization system was developed. A variant FK506 binding protein (FKBP) domain was fused to the receptor C terminus and dimerization induced by incubating cells with dimeric FKBP ligand, AP20187. The TRH receptor-fusion bound hormone and signaled normally. Addition of dimerizer to cells expressing the receptor-FKBP fusion dramatically increased the fraction of receptor running as dimer on SDS-PAGE. AP20187 caused dimerization in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, acting within 1 min. Dimerizer had no effect on TRH receptors lacking the FKBP domain, and its effects were blocked by excess monomeric FKBP ligand. AP20187-induced dimerization did not cause receptor phosphorylation, inositol phosphate production, or ERK1/2 activation, and dimerizer did not alter signaling by TRH. Induced dimerization did, however, alter TRH receptor trafficking. TRH promoted greater receptor internalization in cells treated with AP20187 but...
Isolation of Histoplasma capsulatum from feathers of chickens inoculated intravenously and subcutaneously with the yeast phase of the organism

Histoplasma capsulatum was isolated from the feathers of 3 of 4 chickens intravenously or subcutaneously inoculated with the yeast phase of this agent. Because of the lower temperature of feathers, the findings suggest that these integumenta merit further consideration in the establishing of foci of H. capsulatum in nature. The possible means by which this might occur are discussed.
Carrots of Many Colors Provide Basic Nutrition and Bioavailable Phytochemicals Acting as a Functional Food

ABSTRACT: Hippocrates, a philosopher who lived from 460 to 359 BC is often quoted as saying, “Let your food be thy medicine and your medicine be thy food.” Having lived just shy of a century at a time when life expectancies were much less, he must have understood the importance of a healthy diet. A diet high in fruit and vegetables has been linked to optimal health in a variety of studies. One vegetable that has gained popularity is the carrot due in part to the introduction of “cut & peel” convenience packages. Although most people in the United States know carrots as an orange vegetable that can be eaten raw or in a variety of cooked dishes, original carrots were yellow and purple. These carrot varieties are currently undergoing phenotypic recurrent selection to improve the profile of compounds considered to be beneficial. This process is called biofortification, which has increased provitamin A content by >40% since 1970. The most novel carrot produced to date is an orange–purple–red variety that not only contains provitamin A activity as α- and β-carotene, but also contains anthocyanins and the nonprovitamin A carotenoid lycopene, of which both are potent antioxidants. A functional food is one that provides benefit beyond basic nutrition. Biofortified carrots of many colors not only provide vitamin A, but may contribute to optimal health. Because supplements have not been shown to be overly beneficial, except for correcting deficiencies, whole food-based approaches to enhance health by utilizing functional foods such as biofortified carrots should be considered.
Dotting the I of an I-domain

Schoolmeester and colleagues report the development of a monoclonal antibody that binds specifically to the active conformation of the I-domain of the collagen-binding integrin α2β1, solving the dilemma of specifying the activation state of this integrin when it mediates platelet adhesion to
Local Geometric Projection-Based Noise Reduction for Vibration Signal Analysis in Rolling Bearings

This paper presents a noise reduction technique for vibration signal analysis in rolling bearings, based on local geometric projection (LGP). LGP is a non-linear filtering technique that reconstructs one dimensional time series in a high-dimensional phase space using time-delayed coordinates, based on the Takens embedding theorem. From the neighborhood of each point in the phase space, where a neighbor is defined as a local subspace of the whole phase space, the best subspace to which the point will be orthogonally projected is identified. Since the signal subspace is formed by the most significant eigen-directions of the neighborhood, while the less significant ones define the noise subspace, the noise can be reduced by converting the points onto the subspace spanned by those significant eigen-directions back to a new, one-dimensional time series. Improvement on signal-to-noise ratio enabled by LGP is first evaluated using a chaotic system and an analytically formulated synthetic signal. Then analysis of bearing vibration signals is carried out as a case study. The LGP-based technique is shown to be effective in reducing noise and enhancing extraction of weak, defect-related features, as manifested by the multifractal spectrum from the signal.Copyright © 2008 by ASME and US Government
Integrative study in physiology and medicine: Obstacles on the road to integration

A recent report of the Long-Range Planning Committee of the American Physiological Society identifies physiology with “integrative biology” and urges that physiologists make their field “a unique branch of biology that deals with synthesis and integration.” However, certain institutional, procedural, and psychological obstacles lie in the way of those who would embark upon this task. The hurdles to be overcome include the following: the erroneous belief that biomedical scientists are already integrative; the inapplicability of the powerful methods of areas of specialization to integrative study; the fear of failure; the identification of integrative biology with the study of function; the disregard of hierarchy; the undervaluation of the abstract; and the loss of a sense of mystery. These obstacles, though insidious, pervasive, and powerful, can be surmounted.
Wireless intelligent ATM network and protocol design for future personal communication systems

This paper presents the wireless intelligent ATM (WIATM) network, designed to provide wireless broadband integrated services. The WIATM network takes advantage of the ATM-cell relay paradigm for integrated services through a radio link with quality of service (QoS) guarantee. The design of the WIATM network architecture is an independent wireless network, which is consistent with the inherent cellular/PCS network architecture, as a wireless customer premises equipment/network (CPE/CPN) to access the ATM transport network in the B-ISDN infrastructure. An independent network architecture design separates the wireless access network from the ATM backbone network; this provides flexibility for wireless resource management with low rate source codecs with minimal tolerable QoS considered to increase the spectral efficiency, and mobility support by taking advantage of the functionalities of the IS-41 circuit-switching handoff procedures. The protocol design of the air interface is to meet the QoS requirements of wireless B-ISDN services and to be compatible with that of B-ISDN UNI. A hybrid concatenated error control scheme distributed through the protocol layers is used to target individual QoS requirements of different services. The convolutional coding and interleaving in the wireless physical layer protocol are used to guarantee QoS of voice services. A concatenated coding with additional 36 bit BCH code in the wireless ATM layer, which replaces the VCI/VPI of the ATM header field, improves the QoS up to the requirement of video services. The VCI/VPI field in WIATM is an overlapped routing information routing with the address control by radio port controller, and is thus not needed in the wireless ATM layer protocol. The retransmission scheme for data service only is added in the wireless data link layer, which is on top of wireless AAL, to meet its QoS requirement. Examples of signaling flows for call registration, call setup, and supporting handoff are shown in the design of the wireless network layer protocol. The AIN (advance intelligent network) signaling functionalities are considered for multimedia service control in the access network and interconnection to the ATM network. A parent-child creative basic call state model (BCSM) for wireless integrated services is introduced in both call origination and termination.
Binding and cross-linking of tmRNA to ribosomal protein S1, on and off the Escherichia coli ribosome.

UV irradiation of an in vitro translation mixture induced cross-linking of 4-thioU-substituted tmRNA to Escherichia coli ribosomes by forming covalent complexes with ribosomal protein S1 and 16S rRNA. In the absence of S1, tmRNA was unable to bind and label ribosomal components. Mobility assays on native gels demonstrated that protein S1 bound to tmRNA with an apparent binding constant of 1 × 108 M–1. A mutant tmRNA, lacking the tag coding region and pseudoknots pk2, pk3 and pk4, did not compete with full-length tmRNA, indicating that this region is required for S1 binding. This was confirmed by identification of eight cross-linked nucleotides: U85, located before the resume codon of tmRNA; U105, in the mRNA portion of tmRNA; U172 in pK2; U198, U212, U230 and U240 in pk3; and U246, in the junction between pk3 and pk4. We concluded that ribosomal protein S1, in concert with the previously identified elongation factor EF-Tu and protein SmpB, plays an important role in tmRNA-mediated trans-translation by facilitating the binding of tmRNA to ribosomes and forming complexes with free tmRNA.
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome in the emergency department: an update.

Abstract Background Among currently available surgical options for the first stage of surgery for infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), the hybrid procedure is relatively new and less well known among primary care and emergency physicians. This procedure involves placement of a stent within the ductus arteriosus to maintain systemic blood flow and bands around both pulmonary arteries to prevent pulmonary overcirculation. As the number of infants undergoing this procedure increases, emergency physicians will likely encounter them in their practice and should be familiar with their unique physiology and potential complications. Objectives Review various emergency department (ED) presentations and management of a patient after the hybrid procedure. Case Report A 4-month-old male infant with HLHS who had undergone an uncomplicated hybrid procedure in the neonatal period presented to a community ED with severe metabolic acidosis and poor perfusion. He was intubated and received mechanical ventilation with an inspired oxygen concentration of 60%. Initial capillary blood gas revealed PO2 59 torr, which, in the context of his clinical presentation, was suggestive of pulmonary overcirculation with “systemic steal.” Approximately 60 min after presentation to the ED, he experienced a bradycardic arrest. He expired 40 min later. Conclusion This case highlights the potential of infants who undergo the hybrid procedure for HLHS to present to the ED with high acuity and, accordingly, the importance of adding this disease process to the vast burden of knowledge facing ED physicians.
Music Affinity in Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome

Investigators at Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, report two patients with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) who have a strong affinity for music, not previously described as a feature of this syndrome.
Incarnations of Paul Celan's Todesfuge in the Paintings of Anselm Kiefer and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, Berlin

This paper explores connections between poetry, art and architecture, which emerge across works by the poet Paul Celan, the German artist Anselm Kiefer and architect Daniel Libeskind, in order to foreground the ways in which our creations may bridge written language and speech, touch and space. Transformations of Celan’s poem Todesfuge into the paintings Nuremburg and Sulamith by Anselm Kiefer and the architectural spaces of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, Berlin, not only ensure the life of the poem through translation but demonstrate how historical quotations emerge across varying material combinations and space. In particular, this paper explores how metonymic fragments and the interplay between presence and absence inherent to Celan’s poetics appear in the multivalent imagery and use of paint, straw and ash in Kiefer’s paintings, as well as in the interstitial “spatial voids” of Libeskind’s Museum. Understanding these connections demonstrates the critical potential of our artefacts: art, architecture, written and spoken language, to fluctuate between what is spoken and unsaid, what is seen and left unseen, between the visible and invisible.
The Origins and Development of International Fluvial Law in Africa: A Study of the International Legal Regimes of the Congo and Niger Rivers From 1885 to 1960

The importance of the role that rivers have played in man's social and economic advancement cannot be overemphasised. The earliest civilizations originated and flourished around what are still some of the world's most important river systems. These rivers were not only essential for the growth and improvement of agriculture, but they also provided possible channels of communication, thereby enabling the most ancient forms of contact and trade among the early riparian communities.
Organizational Dynamics of Technology-Based Innovation

This keynote address takes up the conference theme and argues for greater diversification and innovation—in method and topic—in Information Systems research and curricula design. Basing my arguments on my own—and others’—recent critiques of calls for a narrowing of our focus on the information technology artefact and IS design, I will highlight the expanding boundary of the field of Information Systems and what this means for the IS academy in terms of innovation and diversification in our research and teaching.
Metal‐Dependent Topologies and Water Aggregations in Copper and Nickel Carboxycinnamate Coordination Polymers with a Long‐Spanning Dipyridylamide Ligand

Hydrothermal reaction of the requisite metal nitrate, carboxycinnamic acid (H2cca), and the long-spanning dipyridylamide bis(4-pyridylformyl)piperazine (4-bpfp) generate crystalline coordination polymers whose topology depends critically on the metal coordination geometric preference. These two new phases were structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. {[Cu(cca)(4-bpfp)]·2.5H2O}n (1) manifests a non-interpenetrated 6-connected pcu net based on chain motifs featuring carboxylate-bridged {Cu2(OCO)2} dinuclear units, with embedded D(5) water molecule chains. {[Ni(cca)(4-bpfp)(H2O)2]·3H2O}n (2) displays an acentric twofold interpenetrated 4-connected 66 dia network topology with entrapped R(4)A(1) water molecule rings. Variable temperature magnetic studies performed on 1 revealed very weak antiferromagnetic coupling within its dinuclear units. Thermal properties of these two new materials are also discussed.
A regulatory program for excretory system regeneration in planarians

Planarians can regenerate any missing body part, requiring mechanisms for the production of organ systems in the adult, including their prominent tubule-based filtration excretory system called protonephridia. Here, we identify a set of genes, Six1/2-2, POU2/3, hunchback, Eya and Sall, that encode transcription regulatory proteins that are required for planarian protonephridia regeneration. During regeneration, planarian stem cells are induced to form a cell population in regeneration blastemas expressing Six1/2-2, POU2/3, Eya, Sall and Osr that is required for excretory system formation. POU2/3 and Six1/2-2 are essential for these precursor cells to form. Eya, Six1/2-2, Sall, Osr and POU2/3-related genes are required for vertebrate kidney development. We determined that planarian and vertebrate excretory cells express homologous proteins involved in reabsorption and waste modification. Furthermore, we identified novel nephridia genes. Our results identify a transcriptional program and cellular mechanisms for the regeneration of an excretory organ and suggest that metazoan excretory systems are regulated by genetic programs that share a common evolutionary origin.
International Deontology Defended: A Response to Russell Hardin

Donaldson argues that agreeing with Hardin to banish deontological justifications from international discussion amounts to abandoning the power of deontology to interpret political intent and to establish hard limits on political behavior. The moral language of deontology may not be sufficient for the moral interpretation of international affairs, he admits, but does turn out to be necessary.
The COMPLIANCE documentation aid.

The March/April 2005 commentary article by Gourlay et al. recommending a universal precautions approach in pain medicine may one day be regarded as one of the seminal works in the evolution of the specialty [1]. As stated in the article, the 10 steps of universal precautions in pain medicine should generate further debate, discussion, and discovery within the pain medicine and addiction medicine communities. I had the good fortune of attending Dr. Gourlay's presentation at the April 2004 “Pain & Addiction: Common Threads V” program, held in conjunction with the American Society of …
Blood Culture Associations in Children With a Diagnosis of Cellulitis in the Era of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Cellulitis is defined as an “acute spreading infection of the skin that extends deeper than erysipelas and involves the subcutaneous tissues.”1 In the last 2 decades, we have seen an increase in cellulitis and overall skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) diagnoses. During this time, the rate of emergency department (ED) visits for SSTI has doubled, and overall there has been a 50% increase in ambulatory visits.2,3 In addition, an exponential rise in community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections has occurred.4 The cause of cellulitis or nondrainable SSTI is frequently attributed to staphylococcal and streptococcal species, although this is complicated by the difficulty in obtaining culture proof of an organism.5–13 The inability to obtain proof of bacterial etiology in patients with cellulitis is typically due to the absence of a specific nidus of infection from which to culture. Leading edge cultures and fine-needle aspiration of the infected area have fallen from favor, but blood cultures continue to be used despite several studies illustrating that they tend to be low yield.11–17 Evaluative procedures of patients presenting with cellulitis may be physician-, hospital-, or region-dependent and tend to be variable. Previously published studies found that blood cultures in patients with cellulitis yield a low prevalence of bacteremia (0.7%–5%); however, most of these studies were completed before the recent surge in CA-MRSA and SSTIs.11–13 Due to increasing concern of CA-MRSA in cellulitis, antibiotic therapy directed toward methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) has become standard, although it is not clear that the rise in cellulitis is attributable to CA-MRSA.18 The objective of the current study was to determine the incidence of clinically relevant blood cultures in an era of increasing MRSA prevalence. Secondary objectives include demographic features associated with blood …
Organizational context and provider perception as determinants of mental health service use

This study refines and tests an individual client model of service use and contrasts it with a model of service provision based on gateway provider perspectives. Structural equation models demonstrate that provider variables account for more service use variation than client variables. The client model accounts for 24% of the variance in service use, while the provider model accounts for 55% of the variance. Youth self-reported mental health was not positively associated with increased services or with provider perception of youth mental health. The provider model demonstrates the critical role played by provider perceptions, which are influenced more by work environment than by client problems.
Seasonal photosynthetic gas exchange and water-use efficiency in a constitutive CAM plant, the giant saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea).

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) and the capacity to store large quantities of water are thought to confer high water use efficiency (WUE) and survival of succulent plants in warm desert environments. Yet the highly variable precipitation, temperature and humidity conditions in these environments likely have unique impacts on underlying processes regulating photosynthetic gas exchange and WUE, limiting our ability to predict growth and survival responses of desert CAM plants to climate change. We monitored net CO2 assimilation (Anet), stomatal conductance (gs), and transpiration (E) rates periodically over 2 years in a natural population of the giant columnar cactus Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro) near Tucson, Arizona USA to investigate environmental and physiological controls over carbon gain and water loss in this ecologically important plant. We hypothesized that seasonal changes in daily integrated water use efficiency (WUEday) in this constitutive CAM species would be driven largely by stomatal regulation of nighttime transpiration and CO2 uptake responding to shifts in nighttime air temperature and humidity. The lowest WUEday occurred during time periods with extreme high and low air vapor pressure deficit (Da). The diurnal with the highest Da had low WUEday due to minimal net carbon gain across the 24 h period. Low WUEday was also observed under conditions of low Da; however, it was due to significant transpiration losses. Gas exchange measurements on potted saguaro plants exposed to experimental changes in Da confirmed the relationship between Da and gs. Our results suggest that climatic changes involving shifts in air temperature and humidity will have large impacts on the water and carbon economy of the giant saguaro and potentially other succulent CAM plants of warm desert environments.
Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy

Disorders of the cardiopulmonary system are common in adults, especially older adults. Physical therapists participate in the care of patients with cardiopulmonary disorders in both specialty and general practices. Because the primary function of the cardiopulmonary system is to deliver oxygen to active tissues, the system plays an important part in movement. In the presence of disease or abnormality, the cardiopulmonary system often is the limiting factor to performing functional activities. Physical therapists are responsible for providing education on the prevention of cardiopulmonary diseases and for managing patients with both primary and secondary diagnoses involving the cardiopulmonary system. This special series was designed to provide current information on the prevention and management of patients with selected cardiopulmonary problems. This issue focuses on the cardiovascular system, including an introductory article that reviews how the heart, lungs, and vascular system function to deliver oxygen.…
The Hsp70-Ydj1 molecular chaperone represses the activity of the heme activator protein Hap1 in the absence of heme.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, heme directly mediates the effects of oxygen on transcription through the heme activator protein Hap1. In the absence of heme, Hap1 is bound by at least four cellular proteins, including Hsp90 and Ydj1, forming a higher-order complex, termed HMC, and its activity is repressed. Here we purified the HMC and showed by mass spectrometry that two previously unidentified major components of the HMC are the Ssa-type Hsp70 molecular chaperone and Sro9 proteins. In vivo functional analysis, combined with biochemical analysis, strongly suggests that Ssa proteins are critical for Hap1 repression in the absence of heme. Ssa may repress the activities of both Hap1 DNA-binding and activation domains. The Ssa cochaperones Ydj1 and Sro9 appear to assist Ssa in Hap1 repression, and only Ydj1 residues 1 to 172 containing the J domain are required for Hap1 repression. Our results suggest that Ssa-Ydj1 and Sro9 act together to mediate Hap1 repression in the absence of heme and that molecular chaperones promote heme regulation of Hap1 by a mechanism distinct from the mechanism of steroid signaling. Heme is central to oxygen sensing and utilization. Remarkably, heme directly regulates numerous molecular and cellular processes for systems that sense or use oxygen (33). In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, heme directly mediates the ef
Energetic Oxygen and Sulfur in the Jovian Magnetosphere

Observations of 1 to 20 MeV/nuc oxygen, sodium, and sulfur ions in the Jovian magnetosphere are reported. Measurements made by the cosmic ray subsystem on Voyager 1 and 2 were used to calculate abundances and energy spectra in the region from 5 to 20 Jovian radii. The phase space density of the oxygen ions calculated from the spectra has a positive radial gradient between 6 and 17 Jovian radii, indicating an inward diffusive flow. The diffusion coefficient upper limit at 9 Jovian radii is approximately 10 to the -5 power/s. This limit, combined with the analysis of Voyager plasma observations by Siscoe et al.1981, implies an upper limit to the mass loading rate near Io of approximately 10 to the 28th power ions/s. The energetic oxygen lifetime is within an order of magnitude of the strong pitch-angle diffusion lifetime in this region, with the largest total number of particles lost between 7.5 and 12.5 Jovian radii. It is shown that the losses are not due to geometric absorption by Io, absorption by dust grains, or energy loss in the plasma of the inner magnetosphere, and it is therefore postulated that the primary loss mechanism is pitch-angle scattering into the loss cone.
Identification of Novel Membrane-binding Domains in Multiple Yeast Cdc42 Effectors

The Rho-type GTPase Cdc42 is a central regulator of eukaryotic cell polarity and signal transduction. In budding yeast, Cdc42 regulates polarity and mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling in part through the PAK-family kinase Ste20. Activation of Ste20 requires a Cdc42/Rac interactive binding (CRIB) domain, which mediates its recruitment to membrane-associated Cdc42. Here, we identify a separate domain in Ste20 that interacts directly with membrane phospholipids and is critical for its function. This short region, termed the basic-rich (BR) domain, can target green fluorescent protein to the plasma membrane in vivo and binds PIP2-containing liposomes in vitro. Mutation of basic or hydrophobic residues in the BR domain abolishes polarized localization of Ste20 and its function in both MAP kinase–dependent and independent pathways. Thus, Cdc42 binding is required but is insufficient; instead, direct membrane binding by Ste20 is also required. Nevertheless, phospholipid specificity is not essential in vivo, because the BR domain can be replaced with several heterologous lipid-binding domains of varying lipid preferences. We also identify functionally important BR domains in two other yeast Cdc42 effectors, Gic1 and Gic2, suggesting that cooperation between protein–protein and protein–membrane interactions is a prevalent mechanism during Cdc42-regulated signaling and perhaps for other dynamic localization events at the cell cortex.
Representing Wholeness: Learning via Theatrical Productions

To facilitate learning in a complete way means engaging in a holistic experience of learning that includes both artistic and discursive forms of representation.This requires the learner to be wholl...
An Apprximation of the Impulse Response of a Transmission Line

A method is developed which permits the impulse response of a characteristically terminated transmission line to be determined to any desired accuracy if R, L, G, C , and length are known. Data is given for a five percent approximation and an example shows how the method may be used to determine the G[z] of the line.
Terahertz wave excitation from preexisting air plasma

Terahertz (THz) wave generation process in air plasma was studied using femtosecond laser pulse pairs. The effect of preexisting air plasma was investigated using two optical geometries: collinear and orthogonal pumping geometry. When the air plasma is excited in collinear geometry, the power of the generated THz wave shows asymmetric dependence on the relative delay of these pulses. The asymmetry depends on the relative intensities of these pump pulses, and it disappears when the pulses have equal intensities. In the orthogonal pumping geometry, the power of the THZ wave generated by the main pump pulse decreases in the presence of the preexisting plasma generated by the prepulse, and it recovers as the relative delay between the prepulse and main pulses becomes longer. Possible mechanisms of the results are discussed in terms of the dynamics of free electrons in the air plasma.
Segmentation via annealed motion estimates

A segmentation and motion estimation are two problems that require accurate estimation for many applications in computer vision and image analysis. In this paper, an algorithm that is based on motion information and restored spatial information to segment the scene is presented. This algorithm has minimum dependency on noisy data and the motion vectors are estimated using a deterministic mean field annealing (MFA) framework. The algorithms results are very good using synthetic and real world sequences.
Long-Term Locomotor Training for Gait and Balance in a Patient With Mixed Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal Degeneration

Background and Purpose: Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) are slowly progressive tauopathies characterized by impaired balance, disturbances in gait, and frequent falls, among other features. Wheelchair dependence is an inevitable outcome in people with these disorders. Insufficient evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of exercise in the management of people with these disorders. This case report describes a program of exercise and long-term locomotor training, using a treadmill (both with and without body-weight support), to reduce falls and improve the balance and walking ability of a patient with mixed PSP and CBD features. Case Description: Six years after diagnosis with mixed PSP and CBD features, the client, a 72-year-old dentist, was seen for physical therapy for asymmetric limb apraxia, markedly impaired balance, and frequent falls during transitional movements. Intervention: Over a 2.5-year period, intervention included routine participation in an exercise group for people with Parkinson disease (mat exercise and treadmill training) and intermittent participation in individual locomotor training on a treadmill. The exercise group met for 1 hour, twice weekly. The individual treadmill sessions lasted 1 hour, once weekly, for two 14-week periods during the follow-up period. Outcomes: Over the 2.5-year period, fall frequency decreased, and tests of functional balance showed improved limits of stability (functional reach tests) and maintained balance function (Berg Balance Scale). Tests of walking performance showed only slight declines. A 4-wheeled walker was introduced and accepted by the client early in the intervention period. The client, with supervision, remained ambulatory with this wheeled walker in the community. Discussion: In this case report of a person with mixed PSP and CBD features, a physical therapy intervention, which included locomotor training using a treadmill and a long-term exercise program of stretching and strengthening, appears to have improved some dimensions of balance, slowed the rate of gait decline, prevented progression to wheelchair dependence, and decreased falls. Contrary to the expected decline in function, this client maintained independent mobility over a 2.5-year period. An ongoing, intensive program of exercise and locomotor training may help people with PSP and CBD maintain upright balance, decrease falls, and decrease the rate of decline of ambulation.