cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Resolution and Reconstitution of the Mitochondrial Electron Transport System III. ORDER OF RECONSTITUTION AND REQUIREMENT FOR A NEW FACTOR FOR RESPIRATION

Abstract 1. Reconstitution of a complex of succinoxidase from individual partially purified components of the respiratory chain required the time-dependent interaction between all components except succinate dehydrogenase. Succinate dehydrogenase added after formation of the complex interacted rapidly and within seconds succinoxidase activity appeared. 2. An active succinoxidase was formed when cytochrome c and cytochrome oxidase were added after formation of the complex, but the assembly of these components did not correspond to the physiological patterns. Only when these components were present from the beginning, was the oxidation of succinate by the complex resistant to an antiserum against cytochrome c, a response characteristic for phosphorylating submitochondrial particles. 3. A new soluble protein factor was found to be required for the operation of the succinoxidase complex. The factor was retained on a Sephadex G-100 column and was separated from cytochrome c1. It appears to participate in electron transfer between cytochromes b and c1. 4. NADH oxidase was reconstituted by addition of a NADH-coenzyme Q reductase preparation (Complex I) to the succinoxidase complex. Electron micrographs of this NADH oxidase revealed particles resembling submitochondrial particles.
Antigenicity, function, and conformation of synthetic oligopeptides corresponding to amino-terminal sequences of wild-type and mutant matrix proteins of vesicular stomatitis virus.

The matrix (M) protein of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has a major antigenic determinant (epitope 1) that maps to a region extending from amino acids 19 through 43 and transcription-inhibition activity that maps to the first 43 N-terminal amino acids (J.R. Ogden, R. Pal, and R. R. Wagner, J. Virol. 58:860-868, 1986). The M protein of temperature-sensitive mutant tsO23(III) is devoid of epitope 1 and transcription-inhibition activity and substitutes glutamic acid for glycine at amino acid 21 as well as having amino acid substitutions at positions 111 and 227 (K. Morita, R. Vanderoef, and J. Lenard, J. Virol. 61:256-263, 1987). We undertook to map more precisely epitope 1 and the transcription-inhibition region of VSV M protein by means of synthetic oligopeptides generated by an automated solid-phase protein synthesizer. A pentadecapeptide designated PI(wt, Gly21), corresponding to amino acids 17 to 31 of wild-type (wt) M protein, strongly bound monoclonal antibody MAb2 (directed to epitope 1); however, an analogous pentadecapeptide with glutamic acid substituted for glycine at position 21, designated PII(tsO23, Glu21), completely failed to recognize MAb2. Polyclonal antibody raised in rabbits immunized with PI(wt, Gly21) reacted strongly with wt M protein, the homologous pentadecapeptide, and, to a lesser extent, PII(tsO23, Glu21). Anti-PII(tsO23, Glu21) failed to recognize PI(wt, Gly21) or wt M protein. Anti-PI(wt, Gly21) competed efficiently for binding of MAb2 to wt M protein and was as effective as MAb2 in reversing inhibition of VSV transcription by wt M protein. Neither PI(wt, Gly21) nor PII(tsO23, Glu21) exhibited any ability to inhibit VSV transcription. However, a lysine-rich oligopeptide, PII(Met1-Leu20), corresponding to the first 20 N-terminal amino acids of wt M protein, and polylysine itself did inhibit VSV transcription, albeit much less efficiently than native wt M protein. Monospecific polyclonal antibody directed to the 20-mer oligopeptide PIII(Met1-Leu20) reversed transcription inhibition by M protein in a dose-dependent manner almost identical to that of anti-PI(wt, Gly21) and epitope 1-specific MAb2. Examination by circular dichroism spectropolarimetry revealed significant differences in the conformation of the two pentadecapeptides attributable to the Gly in equilibrium Glu amino acid substitution at position 21.
Assessing the Need for a Research Ethics Remediation Program

With supplement funding to the Washington University CTSA, the Restoring Professionalism and Integrity in Research (RePAIR) program was developed at Saint Louis University to meet the remediation needs of institutions nationwide regarding investigators who violate research regulations. With the aim of determining the frequency and kinds of wrongdoing at leading research institutions in the United States, as well as institutional responses and levels of interest in a formal remediation program, an online questionnaire was distributed by email to a research integrity officer (RIO) and institutional review board (IRB) chair at all medical schools and comprehensive doctoral institutions in the United States (N = 194). One hundred sixty-one individuals responded (44%) representing 66% of institutions. For those institutions that had both RIOs and IRB chairs responding, 96% had investigated at least one case over the past 2 years; the modal individual response was 3–5 cases, with a range from 0 to more than 16 cases. The most common forms of wrongdoing were violations of procedure, informed consent, research integrity (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism), privacy, and conflict of interest policies. Most RIOs and IRB chairs expressed interest in the RePAIR program, despite concerns about costs and faculty resistance.
Of flies and men: insights on organismal metabolism from fruit flies

The fruit fly Drosophila has contributed significantly to our general understanding of the basic principles of signaling, cell and developmental biology, and neurobiology. However, answers to questions pertaining to energy metabolism have been so far mostly addressed in more complex model organisms such as mice. We review in this article recent studies that show how the genetic tractability and simplicity of Drosophila are being used to identify novel regulatory mechanisms at the organismal level, and to query the co-ordination between energy metabolism and other processes such as neurodegeneration, circadian rhythms, immunity, and tumor biology.
Combining coordinates in simultaneous estimation of normal means

Abstract The problem of combining coordinates in Stein-type estimators, when simultaneously estimating normal means, is considered. The question of deciding whether to use all coordinates in one combined shrinkage estimator or to separate into groups and use separate shrinkage estimators on each group is considered. A Bayesian viewpoint is (of necessity) taken, and it is shown that the ‘combined’ estimator is, somewhat surprisingly, often superior.
An early warning system for detecting intruders in a territorial animal

. In red-capped cardinals, Paroaria gularis, territorial birds form an 'early warning system' that serves to alert territory owners to the presence of an intruder in the area. Territorial cardinals were relatively likely to detect immediately intruders that were just evicted from a neighbour's territory, probably as a result of the conspicuous patterns of behaviour used in evictions. Intruders that came from a non-adjacent territory were less likely to be detected immediately, and intruders that were undetected on a neighbour's territory had the lowest probability of being immediately detected. Intruders developed a strategy to counter the higher probability of detection after being evicted: intruders that were evicted tended to avoid entering an adjacent territory.
Assessment of nutritive value, quality, and stability of cruciferous vegetables during storage and subsequent to processing

Today the world is confronted with the need for additional food sources which should be easily available, cheap in cost, and high in nutritive value. This article is focused on these interests and critically reviews literature relating to cruciferous vegetables which are able to fulfill the needs. Among the horticultural considerations, the effects of variables such as cultivars, light intensity, growing season, climate and locations, soil fertility, and irrigation, on the nutritive value of these crops are examined. Statistical data from governmental and institutional studies are collected and analyzed to consider the production and performance aspects. Concerning the toxicological considerations, roles that the progoitrogenic thioglucosides play inside the body and the possible correlation between flavor and toxic components are elucidated. Emphasis has been placed on the effects of various handling, processing and storage processes on the nutritional retention of the product. Different processing metho...
A simple method for preventing retraction of an end colostomy.

A simple technique for performing a functional end sigmoid colostomy is reported. This procedure can help to prevent retraction of an end scoma in an ohese patient or any patient with a shortened mesentery.
Control of neural interfacing in peripheral nerves through regenerative molecular guidance

Regenerative peripheral nerve interfaces have been proposed as viable alternatives for the natural control of robotic prosthetic devices. However, random axonal pathfinding during peripheral nerve regeneration leads to mixed populations of sensory and motor neurons at the electrode interfaces preventing the precise identification of the modality nature of the recorded action potentials; motor or specific sensory sub-modalities. This study present evidence that supports the notion that type-specific neurotrophins can be used to preferentially entice and segregate the growth of defined axonal populations from transected peripheral nerves. Segregation of mixed sensory fibers from dorsal root ganglion neurons was evaluated in vitro by compartmentalized diffusion delivery of nerve growth factor (NGF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), to preferentially entice the growth of trkA+ nociceptive and trkC+ proprioceptive subsets of sensory neurons, respectively.
Influence of spatial and temporal laser beam smoothing on stimulated brillouin scattering in filamentary laser light.

Three-dimensional simulations are presented which calculate the time-dependent, self-consistent evolution of filamentation and stimulated Brillouin backscatter (SBBS) in nonuniform laser beams with intense hot spots. The simulations show significant reflectivity ( $g$1%) for modest average-intensity gain exponents (5--10). Many hot spots cooperate to produce a total SBBS amplification that increases with the plasma length as well as hot-spot length. Temporal beam smoothing with bandwidth comparable to the SBBS growth rate substantially reduces the nonuniform-laser-beam reflectivity.
A new undergraduate computer arithmetic software laboratory

An undergraduate computer engineering laboratory that supports a one-quarter computer arithmetic course is described. This course is required for the computer engineering degree and is taken as a technical option by many students in electrical engineering and computer science. The features of this state-of-the-art laboratory include a local area network of computers, remote access via the campus network, electronic mail, online documentation, and automatic program submittal, grading, and plagiarism detection. >
Generalized signals: an interrupt-based communication system for hypercubes

This paper describes a communication system designed to support highly asynchronous application or system software on a distributed-memory multicomputer such as a hypercube. The system is called generalized signals because it is based on the signal facility in System V UNIX, with enhancements to allow signals to carry data.Any processor can send a signal to any other processor at any time. When a signal arrives, the receiving processor traps to a user-specified subroutine; when this subroutine is finished the interrupted code is resumed. Signal interrupts happen in a controlled manner, thereby simplifying the programmer's task. There is a facility for protection of critical sections in user programs.The generalized signals system has been implemented on the NCUBE hypercube. This implementation is based on a modified version of NCUBE's VERTEX message-passing system. Generalized signals can coexist with VERTEX messages and the enhancements to VERTEX are transparent to ordinary programs.
Strength and sharp contact fracture of silicon

The fracture strength of Si is considered in the context of yield and reliability of microelectronic and microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices. An overview of Si fracture, including the strength of Si wafers, dice and MEMS elements, highlights the importance of understanding sharp contact flaws, with their attendant residual stress fields, lateral cracks and strength-limiting half-penny cracks in advanced Si device manufacturing. Techniques using controlled indentation flaws, including measurements of hardness, crack lengths, crack propagation under applied stress, and inert and reactive strengths, are applied in an extensive new experimental study of intrinsic, n- and p-type {100} and {110} Si single crystals and polycrystalline Si, addressing many of the issues discussed in the overview. The new results are directly applicable in interpreting the strengths of ground or diced Si wafer surfaces and provide a foundation for studying the strengths of MEMS elements, for which the strength-controlling flaws are less well-defined. Although the indentation fracture behavior of Si is shown to be quite anisotropic, the extensive lateral cracking greatly affects crack lengths and strengths, obscuring the underlying single crystal fracture anisotropy. No effects of doping on fracture are observed. Strength decreases in water and air suggest that Si is susceptible to reactive attack by moisture, although the effect is mild and extremely rapid. Strength increases of indented components after buffered HF etching are shown to be due to reactive attack of the contact impression, leading to residual stress relief.
Screening for coronary artery disease in diabetic patients: The DIAD study

The prevalence of silent myocardial ischaemia (SMI) in asymptomatic patients with type 2 diabetes is 22% by radionuclide stress testing. Moderate-large perfusion defects occur in 6%. Well-established cardiac risk factors generally failed to identify those patients with SMI, whereas the presence of cardiac autonomic dysfunction was a strong predictor. Aims/purpose CAD is the leading cause of death in patients with type 2 diabetes. 1 Due to its frequently silent nature, the first manifestation may be a large myocardial infarction, resulting in severe ventricular impairment or sudden death. Therefore, screening these high-risk patients prior to the development of symptomatic disease appears prudent. 1
A review of early-age properties of cement-based materials

This paper provides an overview of the early-age properties of cement-based materials, from a materials science perspective. The major physical and chemical processes occurring at early ages are reviewed and strategies for mitigating early-age cracking are presented.
Simultaneous determination of p-aminohippuric acid, acetyl-p-aminohippuric acid and iothalamate in human plasma and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography

A sensitive and specific high-performance liquid chromatographic assay was developed for the simultaneous determination of p-aminohippuric acid (PAH), acetyl-p-aminohippuric acid (aPAH), and iothalamate in human plasma and urine. Plasma samples were prepared by protein precipitation with acetonitrile followed by evaporation, reconstitution in mobile phase, and injection onto a C18 reversed-phase column. Urine samples were diluted with 3 volumes of mobile phase prior to injection. Column effluent was monitored by UV detection at 254 nm. The lower limits of quantification in plasma were 0.5 mg/l for PAH and aPAH, and 1.0 mg/l for iothalamate. The within-day and between-day coefficients of variation in plasma and urine were < or =7.8% for all analytes. This method is well suited for renal function studies using iothalamate and PAH, whether administered as a bolus dose or by continuous infusion, to measure glomerular filtration rate and effective renal plasma flow, respectively.
Toward a Broader Notion of Community

Both leading scientific journals and the popular press now regularly report the convincing evidence of massive environmental degradation and decline.Yet despite the seriousness of the problems, despite their anthropogenic nature, and despite their profound implications for present and future population health, such topics are rarely discussed in the leading public health journals.When these issues are mentioned, they are examined in the same limited framework as other questions in public health— questions of models and tests of independent causal associations dominate. This ap- proach will not suffice, for both scientific and ethical reasons. If public health scientists wish to sustain human health in the face of such crises, and to retain our integrity as scholars who speak truthfully about public health matters, we will have to broaden the notions of "health" and "community" to include nonhumans. I draw on recent schol- arship in moral philosophy and in the philosophy of science to support my argument. Scholars in the health professions must take seriously the words of theologian Andrew Linzey, who states that the attempt to place human well-being in a special and absolute category of its own is perhaps the primary cause of our ecological travail.
A Comparison of Dietary Intakes of Title III-C Participants on Home-delivered Meal and Non-Meal Days

Abstract Title III-C of the Older Americans Act was established to provide older persons, 60 years and older (spouses of any age are eligible), with low-cost, nutritious, congregate and home-delivered meals. One important area to be addressed concerning participants receiving home-delivered meals is whether the recipients' diets are meeting the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for the age group, 51 years and older. Trained interviewers collected data, including twenty-four hour dietary recalls, in two home interviews with 101 older adults receiving home-delivered meals. Information from the twenty-four hour recalls was entered into the Nutritionist III software package (1988). The SPSS statistical package (1994) was used to analyze data. Nutrient Adequacy Ratios (NARs) and Mean Adequacy Ratios (MARs) (Krebs-Smith & Clark, 1989; Guthrie & Scheer, 1981) were determined for the following nutrients: protein, calcium, vitamin A, iron, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folacin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, and zinc. NARs and MARs were calculated for home-delivered meal and non-meal days. T-tests were used to determine whether participants received significantly higher NARs and MARs on home-delivered meal days in comparison to non-meal days. Percentages were calculated for responses to non-dietary questions. Degree of nutritional risk was determined by the following: Low Nutritional Risk (MAR > .66), Moderate Nutritional Risk (MAR .50 – .66), and High Nutritional Risk (MAR 1.00 was determined for each of the twelve nutrients on both days. MARs indicated that most participants were at low nutritional risk on home-delivered meal days (92%) and non-meal days (78%) . Mean NARs revealed that the diets of participants were better on home-delivered meal days in comparison to non-meal days for the following nutrients: protein, calcium, iron, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, folacin, and vitamin B-12 (p
On the performance of multi-layer superposition coding scheme under constrained jamming

In this paper we employ a game theoretic approach to formulate communication between two nodes over a packetized, wireless AWGN channel in the presence of an adversary. We define a constrained, two-player, zero-sum game between a transmitter/receiver pair and a jammer with maximum and average power constraints. We consider the case where the transmitter and the receiver use an adaptive m-layer (m ≥ 2) superposition coding scheme to communicate. We use capacity/rate as a performance measure and define the preference/utility function based on the capacity of the discrete AWGN channel. In our game model, transmitter's goal is to maximize the achievable expected performance of the communication link, defined by a utility function, while the jammer's goal is to minimize the same utility function. We provide analytical and numerical results for transmitter's and jammer's optimal strategies and prove the existence of a threshold such that when the jammer's average power exceeds this threshold, the expected payoff of the transmitter at the Nash equilibrium (NE) is the same as if the jammer uses his maximum power all the time.
Structure and Variability of Internal Tides in Luzon Strait

AbstractThe Luzon Strait is the generation region for strong internal tides that radiate westward into the South China Sea and eastward into the western Pacific. Intrusions of the Kuroshio and strong mesoscale variability in the Luzon Strait can influence their generation and propagation. Here, the authors use eight moorings and two numerical models to investigate these relationships by quantifying the coherence of the diurnal and semidiurnal internal tides in the Luzon Strait. This study finds that the level of coherence of internal tide generation, energy, and energy flux is quite variable, depending on the specific location within the Luzon Strait. Large-scale spatial patterns in internal tide pressure and velocity exist across the region, shaped by the bathymetry, mean flow, and stratification. Internal tide coherence is lower (<30%) near large gradients in this pattern (predominantly along the eastern ridge), which are shifted by the variable Kuroshio and mesoscale fields. At other locations within t...
Concurrent Path Selection Algorithm in Statistical Timing Analysis

Circuit timing is becoming more and more uncertain under greater process variation as technology scales. Given the fault probability of each timing path and their statistical correlation from a statistical timing framework, the path selection problem for delay faults has a nature similar to the problem of designing a portfolio of stocks or assets or determining the size of bets in gambling to minimize risk. This observation allows us to develop a very different path selection approach from the conventional ones. If selection of k paths is required in a set of paths, we partition the set into two path sets and determine how many paths should be selected in each path set out of the k paths based on the probabilities of each path set containing faulty paths. We recursively continue this process, which results in the paths to be targeted during tests. The partitioning is easily performed because the paths are already grouped into the depth-first search tree based on their suffix or prefix. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively use the correlation to generate high-quality path sets. In addition, we study the issues that occur after automatic test pattern generation on the selected paths, and discuss possible solutions to them.
Relationship between subcellular cadmium distribution in prey and cadmium trophic transfer to a predator

We tested the hypothesis that exposure-related alterations in the subcellular Cd distribution in prey relate to changes in Cd absorption by a predator. Oligochaete worms,Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri were exposed for 1 wk or 6 wk to 0.5 μg Cd 1−1, 47 μg Cd 1−1, or 140 μg Cd 1−1 (including109Cd as a tracer) and relationships between oligochaete subcellular Cd distribution and Cd absorption by a predator, the grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio), were determined. Concentration and duration of Cd exposure had direct effects on oligochaete subcellular Cd distribution. Changes in oligochaete subcellular Cd distribution were characterized by increases in both the amount and proportion of Cd bound to the cytosolic fraction. The induction of Cd-binding proteins (e.g., metallothioneins) were suspected to be responsible for these changes. We found 1∶1 relationships between the amount and percentage of Cd in oligochaete cytosol and the amount and percentage of Cd adsorbed by shrimp. These results demonstrate that only metal bound to the soluble fraction of prey is available to higher trophic levels, and that factors influencing subcellular metal distribution in prey will directly alter metal trophic transfer to predators.
More honest foundations for data analysis

Abstract Such foundations have to include not assuming that we always know what in fact we never know — the exact probability structure involved. We have to face up to bouquets of alternative challenges — of alternative probability structures that are relevant, yet extreme. And we have to focus on bouquets of alternative procedures, most, if not all, of which are not the results of formal optimisation. To select a procedure for use on a given sort of data set most carefully, we need to assess performance over combinations of procedures and challenges, often minimaxing over challenges. Such assessment will rarely be possible without simulation, perhaps of an analogous situation. Selection of bouquets of challenges will involve experience, direct and extrapolated, as will selection of bouquets of procedures. Thus it will not be wrong for different experts of the greatest experience to choose different analyses of the same data. Moreover, the bouquets conventionally considered for any class of problem will evolve over time, thus changing preferred procedures. These are customary characteristics of other branches of engineering — data analysis, to be practical, has to be engineering, not science. Model development, for real world description, not for inference, is a procedure of successive approximations where assumptions can be vital. Sound inference, on the other hand, demands facing alternative possibilities, as illustrated by diverse challenges.
Processing, Switching, and Communication of Knowledge

The domain of knowledge 1 is more encompassing than that of wealth and materials. For dealing with utility of knowledge, all factors (its scarcity, its total utility, its marginal utility, specifically its diminishing marginal utility, its utilitarian value, its exchange value, etc.) that influence the evaluation need to be considered. From a communication perspective, knowledge can be traced backward and extrapolated forward, much like scientific parameter(s). From a structural perspective, we propose that the processing of knowledge be based on the most basic and fewest truisms. These truisms are, in turn, based on reality and they permit the characterization of information and knowledge. To this extent, computational processing does not depend on the philosophic writings of earlier economists. However, the truisms are validated from a longer-term philosophic interpretation of how these truisms have survived so that they can be expanded and reused in scientific and computational environments. This approach permits machines to process knowledge based on the content of a particular piece of information and to enhance content, the presentation and the wealth of knowledge that the information communicates.
Urban design morphology and thermal performance

Abstract Climate specialists provide us today with much data on urban climatology; but it is urban design professionals who need to apply and translate this data into a design tool. This paper summarizes an urban design view of the relationship between urban design morphology and the thermal performance of the city. Its message: is that each climatic region necessitates a distinct urban form and configuration which can contribute to make a city or neighborhood cooler or warmer, as is needed. It is the urban designer's responsibility to provide these forms based on the study of the character of the local climate.
HCV Infection of the Transplanted Liver: Changing CD81 and HVR1 Variants Immediately After Liver Transplantation

The second envelope protein at hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) has been implicated in contributing to hepatitis C virus (HCV)-host cell interactions and CD81 (a multifunctional protein) has been demonstrated to act as a cell surface receptor for HCV and may interact directly with HVR1. The purpose of the current study was to determine if certain HVR1 quasispecies variants more effectively associate with and infect allografts after liver transplantation than other HVR1 variants and whether CD81 receptor expression changes after transplantation. Blood and allograft samples were obtained from the peritransplant period in seven patients. Clones of RT-PCR product were directly sequenced to identify HVR1 quasispecies variants. Explanted liver and serial allograft biopsies in recipients with HCV were examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for CD81 expression. Examination of HVR1 sequences demonstrated that only a fraction of the quasispecies variants recovered from each patient's blood sampled immediately prior to transplantation associated with and infected the allografts. Genetic diversity at HVR1 decreased with reperfusion but did not significantly decrease with infection. Expression of CD81 varied during the immediate post-transplant period. In conclusion, HVR1 quasispecies variants differentially associate with, and infect allografts, after liver transplantation. Additionally, allografts express variable amounts of CD81 after transplantation.
Stabilizing the international monetary system

Abstract The paper focuses on one key difference between the international monetary system of the 1960s and the one prevailing today. In the 1960s, the dollar was the main reserve currency, and governments not wanting to accumulate dollars had only one obvious option—buying gold from the US. Treasury. Today, they have a different option—using dollars to buy euros. There is as yet no firm evidence that Asian central banks are switching from dollars to euros, but a less radical change in their behavior could pose serious problems. They may go on buying dollars to keep their currencies from appreciating but then return to the foreign-exchange market to sell the dollars for euros. The euro would then appreciate sharply, and US interest rates would rise because of the fall in the foreign demand for US government debt. These unwanted effects could be avoided by either of two innovations: (1) The ECB could establish a special facility to accommodate the demand for euros; its liabilities would comprise euro-denominated claims issued off-market to other central banks, and its assets would comprise US government debt. The ECB would incur an exchange-rate risk unless the US Treasury were willing to issue euro-denominated debt in exchange for dollar-denominated debt acquired by the ECB. (2) Central banks could deposit unwanted dollars with a facility administered by the IMF; its liabilities would comprise SDR-denominated claims, and its assets would comprise US government debt indexed to the dollar value of the SDR. The first proposal would confer a large reserve-currency role on the euro. The second would confer that role on the SDR, and it would preclude future instability resulting from subsequent shifts between the dollar and the euro.
“White Box” Epidemiology and the Social Neuroscience of Health Behaviors The Environmental Affordances Model

Crucial advances have been made in our knowledge of the social determinants of health and health behaviors. Existing research on health disparities, however, generally fails to address a known paradox in the literature: While blacks have higher risk of medical morbidity relative to non-Hispanic whites, blacks have lower rates of common stress-related forms of psychopathology such as major depression and anxiety disorders. In this article we propose a new theoretical approach, the Environmental Affordances Model, as an integrative framework for the origins of both physical and mental health disparities. We highlight early empirical support and a growing body of experimental animal and human research on self-regulatory health behaviors and stress coping that is consistent with the proposed framework. We conclude that transdisciplinary approaches, such as the Environmental Affordances Model, are needed to understand the origins of group-based disparities to implement effective solutions to racial and ethnic ...
Impacts of High Occupancy Toll lane operations on High Occupancy Vehicle travelers

Providing quality travel conditions to High Occupancy Vehicles (HOVs) is essential for travel demand control and High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane system operations. In most HOT lane systems converted from previous HOV lane facilities, physical barriers or double white lines are utilized to separate HOT lane from General Purpose (GP) lanes. Only specified merging areas are available for both HOVs and Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOVs) to access or exit HOT lane. These spatial restrictions as well as the interruption of flow progression caused by the increased weaving movements may deteriorate HOV travel conditions. Quantitative analysis on HOVs travel condition under different traffic conditions is very important for understanding the HOT lane impact on HOV travel and for optimizing overall HOT lane system operations. This study concentrates on investigating HOV travel conditions in the HOT lane system with various HOV proportions under different traffic conditions. A simulation-based HOT lane operation analysis is conducted. A microscopic traffic simulation software tool, VISSIM, is utilized and an external module to enable dynamic HOT lane operations is developed. The Washington State Route (SR) 167 HOT lane system is simulated. The research findings indicate that under current traffic demands HOT lane system can improve overall HOV travel conditions due to the overall system performance enhancement. However, negative impacts of HOT lane systems on HOV travelers become significant with increased traffic demands. This study demonstrates quantitative impacts of HOT lane systems on HOV travelers and provides in-depth analysis for HOT lane performance evaluations.
Climatic impacts on the vegetation of eastern North America during the past 2000 years

Pollen diagrams from seven lakes with annually laminated sediments sampled at 40-year intervals are analyzed to isolate the climatic effects from other effects on the long-term dynamics of vegetation during the past 1000–2000 years along a transect from Maine to Minnesota. Principal components analysis is used to reduce the dimensionality of the pollen data. The pollen records from all lakes show long-term trends, medium frequency oscillations, and higher frequency fluctuations. The long-term trend is associated with the neoglacial expansion of the boreal forest. The mechanism causing this replacement is a change in frequency of air masses in the area. The medium-frequency oscillations are also associated with climate changes, the most recent of which is the ‘Little Ice Age’. The climate-related mechanism causing the medium-frequency changes may be changes in disturbance frequency. The higher frequency fluctuations may also be related to disturbance. This analysis of pollen diagrams into time scales of variation has enabled the separation of climate from other factors affecting vegetation dynamics. By comparing the principal components across a transect of sites it proved possible to interpret the climatic effects on vegetation at most sites and not only at range boundaries and ‘sensitive’ sites.
Acquired immunity to Plasmodium berghei yoelii in mice

Abstract Acquired immunity to malaria was investigated in mice which had recovered from a primary infection with P. b. yoelii . It was found that antibody synthesis and protection persisted at least 17 months, although both decreased somewhat during this interval. Strong cross-protection was exhibited against a virulent isolate of the parent strain but not against the type species, P. b. berghei . It was not possible to detect persisting antigen or persisting infectious organisms in immune mice; both blood-induced and sporozoite-induced infections were followed from this standpoint.
Do infectious agents cause interstitial cystitis

The possibility that infectious agents play a role in the etiology of interstitial cystitis (IC) has been investigated for a number of years. Early studies were directed toward attempts to cultivate bacteria and fungi on routine culture media and microscopic examinations of urine or bladder tissue specimens for the presence of microorganisms. In more recent years, this approach has been expanded to include sophisticated culture techniques to search for the presence of fastidious and unusual organisms that would not be detected by routine culture methods. Similarly, the presence of viruses has been sought by incubating specimens from interstitial cystitis patients in mammalian cell cultures to detect cytopathic effects. None of these approaches has provided convincing evidence that micro-organisms or viruses are associated with IC. The latest attempts to search for the presence of bacteria have made use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify bacterial 16S rRNA genes that would be present if bacteria were present in bladder tissue or urine of IC patients. This approach allows bacteria to be detected and even identified without culture. However, the results from the great majority of bladder biopsy samples analyzed by these molecular techniques have been negative. PCR strategies have also been used to search for the presence of certain viruses in IC specimens, again without success. At this time, the results from laboratory culture, light and electron microscopy, and various molecular strategies to detect micro-organisms and viruses in IC specimens all argue against an infectious etiology for IC.
Radionuclide loss from marine sediment

HIGH resolution γ-ray spectroscopy was used to study the concentration of radionuclides in marine sediment in Montsweag Bay, central coastal Maine, USA (the site of the Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Reactor) as a function of residence time. Loss of γ-ray emitting radionuclides with time is discussed in terms of a simple exponential description and in terms of a mechanistic model based on diffusion. Decay constants and diffusion constants for several reactor-associated γ-ray emitting radionuclides are presented.
A language facility for designing interactive database-intensive applications

This paper describes TAXIS, a language for the design of Interactive Information Systems (e.g., credit card varification, student-course registration and airline reservations). TAXIS offers (relational) database management facilities, a means of specifying semantic integrity constraints and an exception-handling mechanism, integrated into a single language through the concepts of class, property and the ISA (generalization) relationship. The paper includes a description of the main constructs of TAXIS and illustrates their usefulness with examples.
Science Signaling Podcast: 20 April 2010

This is a conversation with Seth Berger and Ravi Iyengar about a Research Article published in the 20 April 2010 issue of Science Signaling.
Functional characterization and visualization of a GABAA receptor-GFP chimera expressed in Xenopus oocytes

The GABAA receptor is a ligand-gated chloride channel belonging to the superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels of which the nicotinic acetylcholine (nACh) receptor is prototypic. In the central nervous system the GABAA receptor mediates fast neuronal inhibition. To facilitate the study of this receptor, a GABAA receptor-green fluorescent protein (GABAAR-GFP) chimera was constructed by fusing green fluorescent protein (GFP) to the C-terminus region of the GABAA receptor alpha1 subunit. When expressed in Xenopus oocytes, this chimera responded in a manner indistinguishable from the wild-type GABAA receptor with respect to agonist potency, receptor desensitization, allosteric modulation, rectification, and ion selectivity of the channel. The addition of GFP to the GABAA receptor alpha1 subunit did not appear to alter the assembly or efficiency of expression of the GABAA receptor complex. The GABAAR-GFP chimera generated a strong fluorescent signal that was restricted to the animal pole of the oocyte plasma membrane. This signal was readily detectable using either epifluorescence or laser confocal microscopy. To confirm the extracellular location of the GFP portion of the chimera, non-permeabilized oocytes were immunolabeled with an anti-GFP antibody. Fluorescence microscopy showed that GFP was located extracellularly since it was accessible to the GFP antibody. These results confirm the predicted extracellular location of the C-terminus of the GABAA receptor alpha1 subunit and also demonstrate that GFP retains its fluorescent property when expressed extracellularly. The usefulness of the GABAAR-GFP chimera in receptor trafficking was investigated using non-hydrolyzable GTP analogues since GTP binding proteins participate in protein transport in oocytes. Microinjections of GTP-gamma-S but not GDP-beta-S reduced both GABA-gated chloride currents and cell surface GFP fluorescence in oocytes expressing the GABAAR-GFP chimera indicating that the chimera undergoes internalization upon stimulation of oocyte GTP-binding proteins. The results of the present study show that the GABAAR-GFP chimera is functionally similar to the wild-type GABAA receptor and can be used to study receptor trafficking in living cells. This is the first demonstration of a ligand-gated ion channel-GFP chimera for an ion channel belonging to this superfamily and also is the first example of the fusion of GFP to an extracellular domain of an integral membrane protein.
Generating well-shaped Delaunay meshed in 3D

A triangular mesh in 3D is a decomposition of a given geometric domain into tetrahedra. The mesh is well-shaped if the aspect ratio of every of its tetrahedra is bounded from above by a constant. It is Delaunay if the interior of the circum-sphere of each of its tetrahedra does not contain any other mesh vertices. Generating a well-shaped Delaunay mesh for any 3D domain has been a long term outstanding problem. In this paper, we present an efficient 3D Delaunay meshing algorithm that mathematically guarantees the well-shape quality of the mesh, if the domain does not have acute angles. The main ingredient of our algorithm is a novel refinement technique which systematically forbids the formation of shivers, a family of bad elements that none of the previous known algorithms can cleanly remove, especially near the domain boundary — needless to say, that our algorithm ensure that there is no sliver near the boundary of the domain.
B-myb Alters the Response of Myeloid Precursor Cells to G-CSF

The human B-myb gene encodes a cell cycle-regulated DNA-binding phosphoprotein which functions as a transcription factor with an important role in cell cycle progression, survival, and differentiation. Recently, it has been demonstrated that ectopic murine B-myb expression blocked the ability of 32Dcl3 cells to proliferate in response to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and accelerated the induction of terminal differentiation. In contrast, we report that while 32Dcl3 cells overexpressing human B-myb do display some markers of myeloid differentiation earlier than parental cells, including the expression of myeloperoxidase mRNA and the appearance of band myelocytes in G-CSF-induced cultures, the induction of late markers of differentiation is inhibited. The expression of lactoferrin mRNA is absent and the appearance of terminally differentiated polymorphonuclear cells is severely impaired in B-myb-expressing 32Dcl3 cells. Furthermore, continuous exposure to G-CSF results in the outgrowth of a culture which expresses increased levels of B-myb RNA and is dependent on G-CSF for proliferation while retaining responsiveness to interleukin-3. These data suggest that the B-myb gene is involved in early transcriptional events during myeloid differentiation, but that its expression prevents terminal differentiation.
A synopsis of Phragmotheca (Bombacaceae), with two new species and a new subspecies

Recent botanical exploration in Panama and northwestern South America allows a more complete account ofPhragmotheca than was previously possible. Of the six taxa now recognized,Phragmotheca mammosa subspp.mammosa andamazonica, andP. ecuadorensis are newly described and illustrated here. A key to the species, descriptions of all taxa, comments on habitat and phenology, and photographs of staminal thecae and leaf trichomes are provided. Seedlings of “durian morphology”, previously known in the family only from paleotropical members, are reported fromP. mammosa.
Formation of y + 10 and y + 11 ions in the collision-induced dissociation of peptide ions.

Tandem mass spectra of peptide ions, acquired in shotgun proteomic studies of selected proteins, tissues, and organisms, commonly include prominent peaks that cannot be assigned to the known fragmentation product ions (y, b, a, neutral losses). In many cases these persist even when creating consensus spectra for inclusion in spectral libraries, where it is important to determine whether these peaks represent new fragmentation paths or arise from impurities. Using spectra from libraries and synthesized peptides, we investigate a class of fragment ions corresponding to yn-1 + 10 and yn-1 + 11, where n is the number of amino acid residues in the peptide. These 10 and 11 Da differences in mass of the y ion were ascribed before to the masses of [+ CO – H2O] and [+ CO – NH3], respectively. The mechanism is suggested to involve dissociation of the N-terminal residue at the CH-CO bond following loss of H2O or NH3. MS3 spectra of these ions show that the location of the additional 10 or 11 Da is at the N-terminal residue. The yn-1 + 10 ion is most often found in peptides with N-terminal proline, asparagine, and histidine, and also with serine and threonine in the adjacent position. The yn-1 + 11 ion is observed predominantly with histidine and asparagine at the N-terminus, but also occurs with asparagine in positions two through four. The intensities of the yn-1 + 10 ions decrease with increasing peptide length. These data for yn-1 + 10 and yn-1 + 11 ion formation may be used to improve peptide identification from tandem mass spectra.
Distribution and Cardiovascular Risk Correlates of Plasma Soluble Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 Levels in Asymptomatic Young Adults from a Biracial Community: The Bogalusa Heart Study

Purpose That circulating soluble form of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) is associated with an increased risk for coronary artery disease is well recognized. However, information is scant regarding the distribution and cardiovascular (CV) risk correlates of sICAM-1 in asymptomatic young adults. Methods Plasma sICAM-1 was measured in 1,184 black and white persons in the Bogalusa Heart Study cohort (70% white, 43% male), aged 24 to 44 years. CV risk was assessed in terms of CV risk factors, status of parental CV disease, and composite carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). Results sICAM-1 levels displayed race difference (whites > blacks, p black), smoking, CRP, and waist circumference. Furthermore, there was a smoking by waist circumference interaction in that smoking attenuated the magnitude of correlation between waist circumference and sICAM-1. Levels of sICAM-1 adjusted for age, race, sex, and smoking increased with number of metabolic syndrome components (p for trend Conclusion These findings underscore the potential value of plasma sICAM-1 as an additional biomarker for CV risk among asymptomatic young adults.