cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Stark Spectroscopic Study of N(3)-Methyl, N(10)-Isobutyl-7,8-Dimethylisoalloxazine in Nonpolar Low-Temperature Glasses: Experiment and Comparison with Calculations

Flavins have unique electronic properties that have led to their utilization in biological redox chemistry. Despite this there is relatively little experimental information about such basic electronic properties as dipole moments and polarizabilities for these molecules. We have explored the electronic structure of the ground and first two excited electronic states of an oxidized flavin in nonpolar organic glasses using Stark spectroscopy. The dipole moment change for the S0 → S1 transition is about 3 times smaller than the dipole moment change for the S0 → S2 transition. Dipole moment directions for these excited states have been calculated using the experimental results along with predictions from calculations. The experimental results are consistent with computational predictions of intramolecular charge transfer for the S0 → S2 transition. In addition, we have verified that there is a large change in polarizability for the S2 state vs the S0 and S1 states. Both excited-state polarizability changes sho...
Fatty Acid-Binding Protein E-FABP Restricts Tumor Growth by Promoting IFN-β Responses in Tumor-Associated Macrophages

Fatty acid-binding proteins (FABP) are known central regulators of both metabolic and inflammatory pathways, but their role in tumor development remains largely unexplored. Here, we report that host expression of epidermal FABP (E-FABP) protects against mammary tumor growth. We find that E-FABP is highly expressed in macrophages, particularly in a specific subset, promoting their antitumor activity. In the tumor stroma, E-FABP-expressing tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) produce high levels of IFN-β through upregulation of lipid droplet formation in response to tumors. E-FABP-mediated IFN-β signaling can further enhance recruitment of tumoricidal effector cells, in particular natural killer cells, to the tumor stroma for antitumor activity. These findings identify E-FABP as a new protective factor to strengthen IFN-β responses against tumor growth.
Why Don't You Analyze the Way I Analyze?

(2000). Why Don't You Analyze the Way I Analyze? Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance: Vol. 71, No. 1, pp. 22-25.
An analytical QoS model for IEEE 802.11-based single and multihop wireless networks

In this paper, a cross-layer analytical model is proposed to estimate Quality of Service (QoS) metrics such as delay, throughput and jitter in multi-hop wireless adhoc networks operating on IEEE 802.11-based MAC with CSMA/CA. The proposed model is useful for both evaluating quality of service or designing more efficient model-based control and management schemes. The model is developed in queuing theory paradigm which well investigates the stochastic behavior of data transmission in wireless adhoc networks. Unlike the existing works in literature, network layer processing time and advanced queue management schemes are included in the modeling process. Accuracy of the model is verified for both single and multi-hop scenarios by packet-level event-based simulations.
The high-dimension, low-sample-size geometric representation holds under mild conditions

SUMMARY High-dimension, low-small-sample size datasets have different geometrical properties from those of traditional low-dimensional data. In their asymptotic study regarding increasing dimensionality with a fixed sample size, Hall et al. (2005) showed that each data vector is approximately located on the vertices of a regular simplex in a high-dimensional space. A perhaps unappealing aspect of their result is the underlying assumption which requires the variables, viewed as a time series, to be almost independent. We establish an equivalent geometric representation under much milder conditions using asymptotic properties of sample covariance matrices. We discuss implications of the results, such as the use of principal component analysis in a high-dimensional space, extension to the case of nonindependent samples and also the binary classification problem.
Interleaved Swiss rectifiers for fast EV/PHEV battery chargers

Development of fast charging stations is expected to reduce the charging time required by Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). Fast charging stations require the rectification of the grid AC voltage to a DC voltage while maintaining high power factor (PF) and low total harmonic distortion (THD) on the grid side. Furthermore, the chargers must be able to provide a controllable DC output voltage to meet the voltage level requirement of the battery pack. This research effort is focused on the development of a battery charger based on parallel connection of Swiss rectifiers. An interleaved switching strategy is proposed that enables (i) cancellation of the AC-side current harmonics at switching frequency and (ii) reduction of DC-side current and voltage ripple. Performance of the interleaved paralleled Swiss rectifiers is evaluated under various operating conditions, based on time-domain simulation studies in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.
Domestic institutions and the credibility of international commitment: Japan and the United States

The domestic politics of great powers significantly influence the fate of such multilateral regimes at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Unless great powers can make credible commitments to support those regimes, few countries will offer more than token support. Domestic political constraints may bind national leaders to good faith adherence to multilateral regimes even if international circumstances do not compel adherence. Domestic politics also influence the ability of other countries to monitor national adherence to agreements. Case studies of U.S. and Japanese responses to multilateral regimes show how the nature of the national electoral system, the division of powers in the government, and the transparency of the national political system influence credibility and lead to special features of multilateral economic and security regimes.
Dissecting the role of CD4+ T cells in autoimmune diabetes through the use of TCR transgenic mice

Summary: Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is an Immunological disorder wherein autoimmune-mediated destruction of islet cells in che pancreas results in persistent hyperglycemia. The non-obese diabetic mouse model of IDDM has revealed che importance of multiple factors that impact upon che disease process; however, understanding of primary immune mechanisms leading to IDDM remains elusive. The emergence of transgenic mouse models for IDDM has made importance contributions towards clarifying many of these factors, including the cell types, che various effector molecules and the genetic elements Involved in the pathogenesis of IDDM, In this review, we will focus on the primary mechanism and mediators of islet β-cell death, the impact of T-helper lymphocytes on disease progression and the potential role of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules in conferring susceptibility to IDDM.
The thermodynamics of vaporization of cerium

Abstract The vapor pressure of liquid cerium has been redetermined because the results of previous studies are not consistent with the thermodynamic properties of gaseous and liquid cerium. Both mass effusion and mass spectrometric measurements have been combined to yield the vapor pressure equation: log 10 {p( Ce / atm }=(5.500±0.029)−(21070±55)K/T, (1525 to 2225K) The mass effusion results were obtained by the total mass loss method and by neutron activation analysis of collected samples of the vapor. The mass spectrometric observations also demonstrated that oxygen contamination which vaporizes as CeO(g) could be reduced to an insignificant level only after approximately 20 per cent of the sample had been evaporated. The enthalpy of vaporization of cerium and its standard deviation at 2000 K evaluated from the temperature dependence of the vapor pressure is (96 420±250) cal mol−1, and that evaluated from the measured values of the vapor pressure combined with the free energy functions of liquid and gaseous cerium is (96 125±50) cal mol−1. The enthalpy of sublimation calculated at 0 K is (99 350±500) cal mol−1. The measured value of the entropy of vaporization and its standard deviation at 2000 K is (25.17±0.13) cal K−1 mol−1 compared with the value (25.00±0.15) cal K−1 mol−1 calculated from absolute entropies.
Spontaneous reactivation of phosphinylated human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase and human serum butyrylcholinesterase.

Abstract This report documents studies on the spontaneous reactivation of human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase and human serum butyrylcholinesterase following inhibition by organophosphinate esters. The spontaneous reactivation reactions were carried out at 26.0°C in 0.10 M phosphate buffer of pH 7.6. Based upon results at 24 h, human serum butyrylcholinesterase inhibited with 4-nitrophenyl methyl (4-methoxyhenyl) phosphinate was the most responsive (92.5% recovery) of the nine esters studied. Using the same criteria, the most active compound in the human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase studies was 4-nitrophenyl methyl (phenyl) phosphinate (74.2% recovery). With seven of the nine compounds examined the response was greater from the serum enzyme than from the erythrocyte enzyme.
Do Chaoborus larvae migrate in temporary pools

A diurnal vertical migration of larvae of Chaoborus punctipennis (Say) was observed in shallow temporary woodland pools in East Texas. In the laboratory, in 153 cm tall columns, the larvae underwent a much greater migration than possible in the shallow pools. We hypothesize that the migratory behavior and transparent body of Chaoborus larvae may have originally evolved in such shallow water habitats. These traits enabled Chaoborus to successfully invade the quite different adaptive zone of predation in the plankton of deep lakes.
Cooperative Multi-Agent Learning and Coordination for Cognitive Radio Networks

The radio spectrum is a scarce resource. Cognitive radio stretches this resource by enabling secondary stations to operate in portions of the spectrum that are reserved for primary stations but not currently used by the primary stations. As it is whenever stations share resources, coordination is a central issue in cognitive radio networks: absent coordination, there may be collision, congestion or interference, with concomitant loss of performance. Cognitive radio networks require coordination of secondary stations with primary stations (so that secondary stations should not interfere with primary stations) and of secondary stations with each other. Coordination in this setting is especially challenging because of the various types of sensing errors. This paper proposes novel protocols that enable secondary stations to learn and teach with the goal of coordinating to achieve a round-robin Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) schedule. These protocols are completely distributed (requiring neither central control nor the exchange of any control messages), fast (with speeds exceeding those of existing protocols), efficient (in terms of throughput and delay) and scalable. The protocols proposed rely on cooperative learning, exploiting the ability of stations to learn from and condition on their own histories while simultaneously teaching other stations about these histories. Analytic results and simulations illustrate the power of these protocols.
Dendritic degeneration in neostriatal medium spiny neurons in Parkinson disease

Dysfunction of neostriatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) is hypothesized to underlie late-stage motor complications of Parkinson disease (PD). The authors demonstrate shortened dendrite length of MSNs that was similar in four regions of neostriatum in late-stage PD. In contrast, MSN dendrite spine degeneration was unevenly distributed with the greatest loss in caudal putamen. The authors propose that these structural changes in MSN may contribute to late-stage motor complications of PD.
Neural networks for classified vector quantization of images

Abstract Recently, the vector quantization (VQ) technique has received considerable attention and has become an effective tool for data compression. It provides high compression ratios and simple decoding processes for digital images. However, studies of practical implementation of VQ have revealed some major difficulties such as edge integrity of the reconstructed images and computational complexity of codebook design. Over the past few years, a new wave of research in neural networks has emerged. Neural network models have provided an effective means of solving computationally intensive problems. This paper proposes the implementation of classified vector quantization for image compression with neural network models. In order to preserve the edge integrity and improve the efficiency of codebook design, the proposed method includes a multilayer perceptron model for edge classification and a self-organization model for codebook design. A system architecture is proposed, and simulation results demonstrate improvements in visual quality and input encoding.
On the comparison of a Kantorovich-type and Moore theorems

It was shown in Zhue and Wolfe (Nonlinear Anal. 15(2):229–232, 1990) that the hypotheses of the affine invariant Moore theorem for solving nonlinear equations using Newton’s method are always valid when those of the Kantorovich theorem due to Deuflhard and Heindl (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 16:1–10, 1980) hold but not necessarily vice versa. Here we show that this result is not true in general for a weaker version of the Kantorovich theorem shown recently by us in Argyros (Advances in the Efficiency of Computational Methods and Applications, World Scientific, Singapore, 2000; Int. J. Comput. Math. 80:5, 2002) and Argyros and Szidarovszky (The Theory and Applications of Iteration Methods, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1993).
Two‐dimensional hybrid model of wave and beam heating of multi‐ion solar wind plasma

[1] We study the heating and the acceleration of protons and heavy ions by waves in the solar wind, as well as the nonlinear influence of heavy ions on the wave structure, using a two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid model. Protons and heavy ions are treated kinetically by solving their equations of motion in the self-consistent electric and magnetic fields of the waves, while electrons are treated as a neutralizing background fluid. We use the 2-D hybrid code to investigate more realistic 2-D plasma model than previous 1-D simulation and analytical studies, which allows parallel as well as obliquely propagating waves and localized driver. Using the hybrid code, we consider for the first time the heating and acceleration of protons and heavy ions by a driven-input spectrum of Alfven/cyclotron waves and by heavy ion beam in the multispecies coronal plasma in two spatial dimensions. We find that the ion beam is more efficient in generating temperature anisotropy than the driven wave spectrum in our model. We discuss the observational implication of the results to the solar wind.
ANALYSIS OF GLUTATHIONE AND GLUTATHIONE DISULFIDE IN WHOLE CELLS AND MITOCHONDRIA BY POSTCOLUMN DERIVATIZATION HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH ORTHO-PHTHALALDEHYDE

A method is described for the detection of glutathione (GSH) and glutathione disulfide (GSSG) based on a HPLC postcolumn reaction with ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPT) at pH 12 followed by fluorescence detection. Although similar methods have been reported, the high pH of the postcolumn reaction adds considerable selectivity and sensitivity to the measurement of GSH and glutathione disulfide. The limit of detection approaches 100 fmol, which is sufficient to detect whole-cell glutathione disulfide in 10,000 cells or mitochondrial glutathione disulfide in 20 million cells. Using this method, glutathione and glutathione disulfide were measured in human lymphocytes, granulocytes, and cultured Jurkat T cells, as well as in the corresponding samples of mitochondria. The percentage of glutathione disulfide to total glutathione in whole-cell extracts was approximately 1%. In contrast, the percentage was relatively high in mitochondria, with the mitochondria of granulocytes having the highest (25%) followed by those of lymphocytes (15%) and finally by cultured Jurkat T cells (9%). This method extends the analysis of glutathione and glutathione disulfide to mitochondria obtained from a relatively small number of cells.
Precurrent self-prompting operants in children: “Remembering”

In Experiment I, one of three forms of collateral behavior was trained: Differential collateral behavior specific in form to one of two discriminative stimuli; Common collateral behavior of a single form regardless of the stimulus; or Nondifferential collateral behavior of either form regardless of the stimulus. Children were next given a short-delay matching-to-sample task in which the discriminative stimuli served as samples, and the children's previously trained collateral behavior terminated the delay and presented the comparison stimuli. Subjects engaging in sample-specific collateral behavior immediately acquired matching. Subjects engaging in sample-nonspecific collateral behavior failed to acquire matching or did so gradually. In Experiment II the minimal delay in the matching task was varied in a mixed sequence, first with collateral behavior required, and then with collateral behavior prohibited. When emitting collateral behavior Common and Nondifferential subjects showed delay-related decrements in matching while Differential subjects did not. When not emitting collateral behavior all subjects showed delay-related decrements in matching. Common and Nondifferential subjects matched more accurately when prohibited from emitting collateral behavior. Differential subjects matched more accurately when emitting collateral behavior. The results accord with Skinner's (1953, 1968) analysis of precurrent operants.
Carbon-13 Chemical Shift Tensors in Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds. 7.1 Symmetry Augmented Chemical Shift−Chemical Shift Correlation Spectroscopy and Single Crystal Study of Triphenylene

A modification is made to the chemical shift−chemical shift, CS-CS, correlation spectroscopy method for measuring shift tensors. This new approach incorporates, in an iterative fashion, the redundancy of information available in the spectrum from congruent nuclei in the unit cell. The redundancy reduces the number of 2D spectra required to determine the full chemical shift tensor. The iterative procedure requires reasonably good starting shift values that may be derived from quantum chemical calculation of nuclear shielding parameters. These theoretical tensor estimates provide approximate spectral patterns used in assigning the experimental peaks. With this technique the 18 unique 13C tensors in a triphenylene unit cell, which describe 72 spectral peaks, were measured with a precision of 0.52 ppm in the tensor components with use of only three 2D spectra instead of the six normally used in the CS-CS method. The chemical shift tensor analysis indicates that, to relieve intramolecular strain, the molecule ...
Normal Values for Corrected Sinus Node Recovery Time in Adolescents

Sinus node recovery times have been used to evaluate sinus node function in adults and children. Normal values for corrected sinus node recovery time (CSNRT) are generally accepted as 275 and 500–550 msec in young children and adults, respectively. However, normal CSNRT values have not been determined for adolescent patients. Therefore, we mesured CSNRT in 29 consecutive patients, ages 12–17 years, who underwent electrophysiology testing as part of radiofrequency ablation. CSNRTs were performed by rapid atrial pacing for 30 seconds. Pacing cycle lengths were then shortened in 50-msec decrements to a minimum of 300 msec CSNRTs were determined by subtracting the patients' resting sinus cycle length from the maximal SNRT measured. The mean CSNRT was 323 ± 61 msec (mean ± SD, range 186–422 msec). A significant positive correlation between CSNRT and age was found. We conclude that the CSNRT value for the upper limit of normal in adolescents lies between the normal values previously determined for children and adults and is approximately 445 msec (mean + 2 SD). Because sinus node dysfunction is a well-recognized, long-term complication following surgical repair for complex congenital heart disease, this value becomes especially relevant as more children with congenital heart disease survive into adolescence.
Hydrologic Controls in Nitrate, Sulfate, and Chloride Concentrations

Nitrate-nitrogen, SO 4 , and Cl concentrations and discharge rates from a small, upland watershed in east central Pennsylvania were analyzed in the context of a layered aquifer. A pattern of greater NO 3 -N concentrations during periods of greater discharge was generally followed by declining concentrations during hydrograph recession. The coincident temporal pattern of NO 3 -N and discharge appears hydrologically controlled because both NO 3 -N and SO 4 exhibited similar patterns even though there are important differences in their behavior and reactivity in biologically controlled systems. Chemical concentration patterns in stream flow arose from flow through a two-layer geologic system in which NO 3 -N and SO 4 concentrations were different between layers
The Lived Experiences of Chronic Pain

Pain, Emily Dickinson noted, “has an element of blank/It cannot recollect/When it began, or if there were/A time when it was not.” The poem provides a window into the speaker’s phenomenology of illness, her lived experiences of pain. For her, pain is an immensity. It is so powerful that it literally blanks out the world. Indeed, chronic pain sufferers commonly report that pain can swell to inhabit a person’s existence. The lankness of pain also has a temporal dimension; its vastness ranscends time and space, such that even the pain itself has no emory of a time when it began or if there was ever a time hen it did not itself exist. Nor, the speaker explains, is there ny possibility of a future without pain. Its plane of existence s “infinite,” its future literally contains its past, primed to xperience the next episodes of pain. The personification of ain in the poem also is critical, as it reifies the pain as an actor, concept that is pervasive in ethnographies of chronic pain. In hese accounts, sufferers frequently refer to their pain as a onster or a tormentor (Figure). These facets of Dickinson’s poem—the immensity of pain, the eternity of pain, and the agency of pain—embody a phenomenology of pain. What does it feel like to live in pain? The
Psychological remotivation of the chronically ill medical patient: A quantitative study in rehabilitation methodology

Abstract The psychobehavioral effects of a comprehensive program of psychological remotivation directed to long-hospitalized, chronically ill medical patients were studied. The personnel of the hospital who had service responsibilities for the rehabilitation and treatment of these patients were drawn into the project. Matched experimental and control groups were compared before, during, and at the end of a 16 week comprehensive attempt at psychological remotivation of the experimental group. Three measurement methods were employed for the comparisons: a behavioral ward adjustment scale, an activity participation index, and a survey of morale and attitudes. All 3 methods showed significant rise in superiority of the experimental over the control group through the full 16 week course of the research project. It was demonstrated that it was possible to remotivate those in this experimental group of chronically ill medical patients; this was manifested by their increment in healthier ward behavior, morale, and zest for living.
The SPARCHS Project: Hardware Support for Software Security

This paper describes the SPARCHS project at Columbia and Princeton Universities. Drawing inspiration from biological defenses, this project aims to enhance security with clean-slate design of hardware. The ideas to be explored in the project and current status are described.
Instability of the three-phase contact region and its effect on contact angle relaxation

Contact angle relaxation was measured for captive air bubbles placed on solid surfaces of varying degrees of heterogeneity, roughness, and stability, in water. The experimental results indicate that both advancing and receding contact angles undergo slow relaxation in these water-air-solid systems, due to instabilities of the three-phase contact line region. It is shown that the advancing contact angle decreases and the receding contact angle increases for many systems over a period of a few hours. Also, examples of reverse progressions are reported. Additionally, in extreme cases, the contact angle oscillates down and up, over and over again, preventing the system from stabilization/equilibration. Four different mechanisms are proposed to explain the contact angle relaxation. These include (i) pinning of the three-phase contact line and its slow evolution; (ii) the formation of microdroplets on the solid surface and their coalescence with the base of the gas bubble, which causes dynamic behavior of the t...
Fast computation of the 2D discrete wavelet transform

Interest in the discrete wavelet transform has grown explosively in the last five years, even though the underlying concepts are decades old and nearly identical transform techniques were being applied in industry 10 years ago. The most important aspect of the new work is the development of the underlying theory. Most if not all of the current applications of wavelets are software based, implying either slow execution times or very expensive computers. This paper shows the feasibility of using moderately-priced commercially-available image processing boards to carry out multi-band 2-dimensional (2D) wavelet transforms at real-time (30 images/sec) or faster-than-real-time rates. Implementations for both real and complex wavelets are shown. Word length and kernel size limitations are discussed, along with methods to overcome them. One-dimensional wavelets are mentioned as a special case of 2D wavelets. Because of the high speed and moderate cost of these implementations, much wider application of wavelets to industrial problems is now possible.
Safety and efficacy of the seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine: evidence from Northern California.

Pneumococcal disease remains a significant cause of morbidity among young children. A large-scale efficacy trial in the Northern California Kaiser Permanente system (the KP trial) demonstrated that a seven-valent conjugate vaccine (PCV) is safe and immunogenic in young children and effective in preventing both invasive pneumococcal disease caused by vaccine serotypes (97.4% efficacy) and episodes of otitis media (7.0% efficacy). Since the publication of the results of the KP trial in 2000, we have performed an additional analysis on the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of the vaccine in low birth weight (LBW) and preterm (PT) infants, and have examined the efficacy of the vaccine during 1 year of wide-scale post-licensure use. The vaccine was at least as immunogenic in LBW and PT infants as in normal-weight, full-term infants and was 100% effective, although the LBW and PT infants had higher rates of adverse events such as redness and swelling. LBW and PT infants receiving pneumococcal vaccine also had higher rates of adverse events, such as hives, than those receiving control meningococcal vaccine, but these reactions were not severe. When the PCV was used in the general population, the efficacy remained high and there was no corresponding increase in disease caused by nonvaccine serotypes. There was also evidence that vaccine administration led to herd immunity. Febrile illness was the only adverse event seen more frequently after vaccine administration than during a control period. Conclusion: the seven-valent conjugate vaccine is safe and effective for use in the general population.
Capsule Commentary on Gawron et al., Proton Pump Inhibitor Prescriptions and Subsequent Use in US Veterans Diagnosed with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

In this single-center study conducted at the Hines, IL, VA Hospital, Gawron et al.1 examined characteristics of initial and subsequent proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) prescribing in veterans within 30 days of an ICD-9 code for gastroesophageal reflux disease in the outpatient setting. They found that of these initial PPI prescriptions, 23.3 % were high dose, and the majority were for 90 days or more. Only 11.9 % of patients receiving an initial high-dose prescription and 3.3 % of patients overall had evidence of step-down therapy. Additionally, 83.8 % of patients received at least one refill, with a high medication possession ratio over 2 years. Taken together, these data suggest that few patients are receiving or successfully completing a trial of step-down or discontinuation of therapy. Unfortunately, because prescription data do not necessarily reflect the communication between physician and patient, we are unable to know whether the low rate of step-down or discontinuation of therapy represents a failure of physicians to recommend such a trial or a failure of patients to tolerate it. However, the findings of Inadomi et al.2 that many, if not most, patients can tolerate step-down therapy suggest that the former is more likely. Furthermore, the high medication possession ratio in this study suggests that continuous rather than on-demand use is predominant. These results draw attention to the main problem plaguing this highly effective class of medications: once patients are on PPIs, they tend to stay on them. While the reasons for this are manifold, research suggests that many of these prescriptions are unnecessary, and physicians all too often fail to assess the necessity of continued use.3,4 This study highlights the great need for the development of strategies to prompt periodic re-evaluation of the need for all medications on a patient’s medication list. The same sophisticated computerized system that makes ordering and refilling prescriptions at the VA so easy could also provide a solution, in the form of computerized clinical decision support. The most efficient and effective means of such comprehensive medication management—for PPIs and beyond—is not yet clear and will be an important focus of future studies.
Stimulation of neoplastic mouse lung cell proliferation by alveolar macrophage-derived, insulin-like growth factor-1 can be blocked by inhibiting MEK and PI3K activation

Worldwide, lung cancer kills more people than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined. Alterations in macrophage number and function during lung tumorigenesis suggest that these immune effector cells stimulate lung cancer growth. Evidence from cancer models in other tissues suggests that cancer cells actively recruit growth factor-producing macrophages through a reciprocal signaling pathway. While the levels of lung macrophages increase during tumor progression in mouse models of lung cancer, and high pulmonary macrophage content correlates with a poor prognosis in human non-small cell lung cancer, the specific role of alveolar macrophages in lung tumorigenesis is not clear. After culturing either an immortalized lung macrophage cell line or primary murine alveolar macrophages from naive and lung-tumor bearing mice with primary tumor isolates and immortalized cell lines, the effects on epithelial proliferation and cellular kinase activation were determined. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) was quantified by ELISA, and macrophage conditioned media IGF-1 levels manipulated by IL-4 treatment, immuno-depletion and siRNA transfection. Primary macrophages from both naive and lung-tumor bearing mice stimulated epithelial cell proliferation. The lungs of tumor-bearing mice contained 3.5-times more IGF-1 than naive littermates, and media conditioned by freshly isolated tumor-educated macrophages contained more IGF-1 than media conditioned by naive macrophages; IL-4 stimulated IGF-1 production by both macrophage subsets. The ability of macrophage conditioned media to stimulate neoplastic proliferation correlated with media IGF-1 levels, and recombinant IGF-1 alone was sufficient to induce epithelial proliferation in all cell lines evaluated. Macrophage-conditioned media and IGF-1 stimulated lung tumor cell growth in an additive manner, while EGF had no effect. Macrophage-derived factors increased p-Erk1/2, p-Akt and cyclin D1 levels in neoplastic cells, and the combined inhibition of both MEK and PI3K ablated macrophage-mediated increases in epithelial growth. Macrophages produce IGF-1 which directly stimulates neoplastic proliferation through Erk and Akt activation. This observation suggests that combining macrophage ablation therapy with IGF-1R, MEK and/or PI3K inhibition could improve therapeutic response in human lung cancer. Exploring macrophage-based intervention could be a fruitful avenue for future research.
Accident rates for heavy truck-tractors in Michigan

Accident rates of heavy truck-tractors are modelled using log-linear methods. The accident data used are a census of truck-tractor involvements in Michigan from May 1987 to April 1988. Travel data used to calculate the rates were produced by a survey of truck-tractors in Michigan covering the same time period. Both the accident and travel data were limited to Michigan-registered tractors operating in Michigan. Log-linear models of casualty and property-damage-only accident rates were developed using number of trailers, road type, area type, and time of day as predictor variables. Overall, differences between tractors with one and two trailers were not significant. Tractors with no trailers (bobtails) have significantly higher accident rates. Characteristics of the operating environment were found to have larger effects on the accident rate than tractor configuration (except for the bobtail). Rates varied by a factor of up to 6.8, depending on the road type. Casualty accident risk at night was 1.4 times the risk during the day. The risk of a casualty accident in rural areas was 1.6 times that of urban areas.
Maximal steady-state multiplicity of two consecutive first-order reactions in a continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor

Presentation de l'analyse mathematique pour l'obtention des 7 solutions possibles. Les diagrammes de bifurcation sont presentes
System for screening objectionable images

As computers and the Internet become more and more available to families, access of objectionable graphics by children is increasingly a problem that many parents are concerned about. This paper describes WIPE(TM) (Wavelet Image Pornography Elimination), a system capable of classifying an image as objectionable or benign. The algorithm uses a combination of an icon filter, a graph-photo detector, a color histogram filter, a texture filter and a wavelet-based shape matching algorithm to provide robust screening of on-line objectionable images. Semantically-meaningful feature vector matching is carried out so that comparisons between a given on-line image and images in a pre-marked training data set can be performed efficiently and effectively. The system is practical for real-world applications, processing queries at a speed of less than 2s each, including the time taken to compute the feature vector for the query, on a Pentium Pro PC. Besides its exceptional speed, it has demonstrated 96% sensitivity over a test set of 1076 digital photographs found on objectionable news groups. It wrongly classified 9% of a set of 10,809 benign photographs obtained from various sources. The specificity in real-world applications is expected to be much higher because benign on-line graphs can be filtered out with our graph-photo detector with 100% sensitivity and nearly 100% specificity, and surrounding text can be used to assist the classification process.
Factors predicting early discharge and mortality in post-percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy patients

Background The aim of our study was to ascertain factors that favor early discharge and predict mortality in post-percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) patients. Methods Successive patients who underwent successful PEG placement during a 10-year period in a single New York City hospital were included in the study. Data was retrospectively extracted from hospital electronic medical records. Results Two hundred and eighty-four patients underwent successful PEG placement. Forty-six patients (16%) were discharged within 3 days of PEG placement (early discharge). Two hundred and thirty six patients (84%) remained in hospital from 4 to 244 days (median 13.5) after PEG insertion (late discharge). Twenty-six (9%) patients died in-house after PEG placement. A serum albumin level <2.2 g/dL (P=0.007) and presence of 2 or more co-morbidities (P=0.019) were predictors of late discharge. A dementia indication was twice as likely to result in an early discharge compared to a stroke indication (OR 2.39; 95% CI 1.07-5.36; P=0.033). Female sex, positive urine cultures and low serum albumin levels were independent predictors of in-house mortality. Conclusion Clinical and laboratory markers may predict post-PEG mortality as well as early patient discharge. Keywords Post-PEG mortality, co-morbidities Ann Gastroenterol 2014; 27 (1): 42-47
Electronic Resources Workflow: Design, Analysis and Technologies for an Overdue Solution

During the summer of 2013, a joint team involving Duke University Libraries and IBM spent three months configuring IBM Business Process Manager to improve electronic resources workflows in the Libraries’ Technical Services department. The resulting workflow showcases the application's ability to transform the management of online databases. This article will provide an overview of the “before” and “after” database workflow, with a demo of the new system and its integration points with other tools.
A Theoretical and Experimental Study of Counteracting Chromatographic Electrophoresis

Abstract Counteracting chromatographic electrophoresis (CACE) is a separation process that combines gel chromatography with electrophoresis. This process, originally developed by O'Farrell1, may be used for protein separation by causing a specific protein to accumulate at the interface between two bed packings of different internal porosity. In this paper a theoretical model for CACE has been developed. This model gives an accumulation criterion that specifies the operating conditions (i.e. applied field and flow rates), and the bed and protein parameters (i.e. external bed porosity, internal particle porosity, protein free mobility, and the ratio of the protein mobility in the get to that in free solution) that lead to accumulation in the column. This accumulation criterion was tested with experimental data for the accumulation of the colored proteins ferritin, myoglobin, and cytochrome-c. This data fit the criterion fairly well for all three proteins. The theoretical model was extended to consider the t...
Pseudorandom verification and emulation of an MPEG-2 transport demultiplexor

This paper describes two complementary approaches to performance verification for an MPEG-2 transport demultiplexor. The performance of such devices is difficult to verify during the design phase because of the many independent bus interfaces to which they may be connected and the numerous operating configurations that may be required. To address these problems, we have devised both a pseudorandom verification "environment," employing "controlled random" simulation, and a hardware-emulation platform based on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Actual hardware verification has shown the effectiveness of using these two methods together, and the overall approach can be applied to other design programs.
Corrosion behavior of carbon steels under tuff repository environmental conditions

Carbon steels may be used for borehole liners in a potential high-level nuclear waste repository in tuff in Nevada. Borehole liners are needed to facilitate emplacement of the waste packages and to facilitate retrieval of the packages, if required. Corrosion rates of low carbon structural steels AISI 1020 and ASTM A-36 were determined in J-13 well water and in saturated steam at 100{sup 0}C. Tests were conducted in air-sparged J-13 water to attain more oxidizing conditions representative of irradiated aqueous environments. A limited number of irradiation corrosion and stress corrosion tests were performed. Chromium-molybdenum alloy steels and cast irons were also tested. These materials showed lower general corrosion but were susceptible to stress corrosion cracking when welded. 4 references, 4 tables.
Low Stress Silicon Nitride and Polysilicon Films for Micromachining Applications

Reduced stress silicon nitride and undoped, as deposited, polysilicon films have been characterized on a variety of silicon based substrates within the confines of co-fabrication compatibility of micromechanical structures with VLSI processing. Average stress and stress uniformity through the films are shown to vary with substrate parameters.
ISCP: design and implementation of an inter-domain security management agent (SMA) coordination protocol

Many security mechanisms and protocols have been developed to handle security problems in various circumstances. This trend has created a heterogeneous security environment for today's global Internet. Although most security functions and modules can be managed "individually" through SNMP, very little has been researched in coordinating a set of distributed security modules to provide and manage an "end-to-end" security service. In order to support service management for network security, in this paper, we developed the ISCP protocol (inter-domain security management agent coordination protocol) to communicate security capability and policy information among the security management agents in each policy domain. ISCP is designed with good scalability, interoperability, extensibility and security. Performance evaluation using our ISCP prototype implementation is also presented.
Lunar Features and Lunar Problems

The major features of the Moon (marcs, highlands, craters, fractures) are briefly reviewed to encourage geologists to participate in the solution of lunar problems—problems involving the interpretation of varied land forms, the rock types and their distribution, potential ore deposits, and lunar tectonics. Special attention is given the fracture systems, the origin of the lava filling many closed craters, and the origin of the central peak complexes.
Steering vector estimation in uncalibrated arrays

This paper presents an iterative algorithm for estimating the signal steering vectors and associated power levels received by an array of uncalibrated isotropic sensors. The inputs are assumed to consist of narrowband, uncorrelated directional signals in the presence of additive white noise. An iterative algorithm is employed to successively search for estimates that simultaneously satisfy a signal subspace and an orthogonality condition. These conditions are shown to be both necessary and sufficient for identification of the underlying steering vectors in the case when the data covariance matrix is known exactly, i.e. for the case of infinite data observation. The iterative method employs minimum distance criterion (projections) to successively map the solution between three constraint sets until a stable point is determined. Two examples are presented which illustrate the application of the algorithm in direction finding and beamforming. >
The Surveillance Society: Information Technology and Bureaucratic Social Control

Advanced electronic technologies “dramatically increase the bureaucratic advantage” in the workplace, marketplace, and government by enabling—and encouraging—increasingly automatic methods of surveillance of the individual that the U.S. legal system cannot control.
Investigations on markedness, syncretism and zero exponence in morphology

The inventories of subject clitics in northern Italian varieties are affected by widespread morphological changes. One of these changes is syncretism. In addition, many dialects display defective paradigms where some of the clitics are missing. The clitics that undergo syncretism and the clitics that are missing tend to be the same: the first person singular and plural, the second plural, and, less frequently, the third plural. Working in the framework of Distributed Morphology, I argue that these clitics are the target of markedness constraints that trigger repair operations leading to either syncretism or the removal of forms from a paradigm. In particular, I propose two such operations: one is feature deletion, which deletes a marked feature specification. This operation is always followed by feature insertion, which inserts the opposite value of the deleted feature specification (this operation leads to syncretism). The other one is obliteration, which deletes a morphosyntactic node and leads to underspecified morphosyntactic representations (this operation leads to paradigmatic gaps). I investigate how these operations affect the morphological exponents in PF, creating syncretisms and gaps in exponence.
Corporate Tax Integration: A View from the Treasury Department

Abstract “Integration” of the corporate and individual income taxes refers to any plan in which corporate income is taxed only once, rather than taxed both when earned and when distributed to shareholders as dividends. A consensus is emerging from the ongoing studies, both within the Treasury and outside, that such integration is desirable.
CS-023 (R-115685), a novel carbapenem with enhanced in vitro activity against oxacillin-resistant staphylococci and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

OBJECTIVE: To compare the in vitro activities of the carbapenem, CS-023, four representative beta-lactam antibiotics and levofloxacin, against 970 Gram-positive or Gram-negative US clinical isolates. METHODS: Susceptibilities of bacteria chosen for their varying levels of resistance to the comparator agents were determined by NCCLS microdilution methodology. RESULTS: CS-023 exhibited activity comparable to that of imipenem against most Gram-positive isolates, but was approximately 8-fold more potent against oxacillin-resistant staphylococci. It was comparable to meropenem against most Gram-negative isolates, but was 4- to 8-fold more potent against five isolates of meropenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. CONCLUSIONS: If tissue and body fluid concentrations >8 mg/L can safely be achieved, further studies of CS-023 are warranted to determine its clinical efficacy.
Cerebrospinal fluid hydrodynamics in type I Chiari malformation

Abstract Purpose: The objective of this study was to review past studies that have used engineering analysis to examine cerebrospinal fluid hydrodynamics in cranial and spinal subarachnoid spaces in both healthy humans and those affected by type I Chiari malformation. Methods: A PubMed search of literature pertaining to cerebrospinal fluid hydrodynamics was performed with a particular focus on those that utilized methods such as computational fluid dynamics or experimental flow modeling. Discussion: From the engineer’s perspective, type I Chiari malformation is an abnormal geometry of the cerebellum that causes increased resistance to cerebrospinal fluid flow between the intracranial and spinal subarachnoid space. As such, understanding the hydrodynamics of cerebrospinal fluid in the craniospinal subarachnoid space has long been thought to be important in the diagnosis and management of type I Chiari malformation. Hydrodynamic quantification of cerebrospinal fluid motion in the subarachnoid space ...