cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Induction of sequence-specific DNA-binding factors by erythropoietin and the spleen focus-forming virus

The signal transduction mechanism of erythropoietin (Epo), which regulates growth and differentiation of erythroid cells, is still unclear. Recent studies showing the activation by various ligands of a group of proteins called Stat (signal transducers and activators of transcription) proteins raised the possibility that such proteins may also be involved in the Epo signal transduction pathway. In this report, we show that Epo induces factors that specifically bind to the sis-inducible element and the gamma response region of the Fc gamma receptor factor I gene in the Epo-dependent mouse erythroleukemia cell line HCD-57. These factors contain phosphotyrosine and antibodies against Stat1 and Stat3 proteins reacted with them. In HCD-57 cells infected with Friend spleen focus-forming virus, which now grow in an Epo-independent manner, the DNA-binding factors were constitutively activated even in the absence of Epo. These results suggest that the factors induced by Epo contain components identical or related to known Stat proteins. It is also suggested that continuous activation of these DNA-binding factors may be responsible for the ability of spleen focus- forming virus to abrogate the Epo-dependence of HCD-57 cells and cause erythroleukemia in susceptible mice.
Review: Design with the Other 90%: Cities

Design with the Other 90%: Cities Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at the United Nations Visitor Center, New York City 15 October 2011–9 January 2012 Museum of Contemporary Craft and Action Center at Mercy Corps, Portland, Oregon 17 August 2012–5 January 2013 Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 14 September 2012–7 January 2013 David J. Sencer CDC Museum, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta 4 February–24 May 2013 A street vendor in Durban partners with an architect and a “social art and architecture” collective to build a prototype mobile vending cart (Spaza-de-Move-on) that serves as table, chair, and storage. Mobile phone programs are used to provide access to HIV information and testing kits (Text to Change, Uganda), transfer money from migrant workers back to their families (M-Pesa in Kenya), and provide a job listing network (Babajob.com in Bangalore). Modified river boats in Bangladesh become floating schools, libraries, and health clinics in flood-prone districts. In Caracas an Integral Urban Project replaces precarious resident-built stairways that climb the steep hills to the informal settlements above the city with concrete stairs whose public landings provide new spaces of social interaction while carrying beneath them critical infrastructure (water, sewage electricity, gas, and water lines). Architects and engineers working with community partners fashion new building materials out of local and recycled materials—insulation panels in Pakistan using straw and sludge from a nearby paper factory; bamboo loofah wall panels in Paraguay; cow dung bricks in Indonesia; stabilized soil blocks in Uganda. Grassroots Mapping in Lima and Map Kibera in Nairobi combine local data gathering with sophisticated digital applications to facilitate comprehensive planning. Incremental Housing in Iquique, Chile, provides the serviced half of a house (structure, wet areas, stairs, roof), allowing the resident to complete the adjacent part gradually with limited means. Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit links outlying villages to the city center. Shack/Slum Dwellers International, a membership organization led by women operating in thirty-four countries, builds capacity among the urban poor with an emphasis on local credit and savings. These are some of the sixty projects from forty countries documented in Design with the Other 90%: Cities …
Geo-fingerprinting social media content

With the percentage of Twitter users approaching 20% of the US population by 2019, tweets provide a good sample of the public's sentiment and opinion. Consequently such data has been excessively used in commercial and research efforts. While works have analyzed the content of tweets in relation to the underlying social network of a discussion, somewhat less attention has been paid to the spatial distribution of messages and topics. This work tries to assess the locality of discussions using the concepts mentioned in tweets. Based on a global distribution of topics across the 48 contiguous states, we try to ascertain spatial topic dissimilarity by recursively subdividing the space into smaller and smaller partitions and using statistical testing to compare the distributions. Experimenting with a large Twitter dataset for the US, we can observe that locality of a discussion occurs at specific thresholds and that only 14 of the 49 most populous urban areas feature a unique discussion. Overall, this work establishes trends as to when locality in a discussion in social media occurs.
How Great Is the Threat to Religious Freedom, Really?

In "The Decline—and Fall?—of Religious Freedom in America," Bruce Abramson writes that religious liberty is "under threat" from "an increasingly hostile and energized secular culture" that rejects "classical American liberalism." In fact, the scope of the conflict he describes is at once more modest and potentially more sweeping. A judicially enforced, constitutional right of religious exemption has played a more limited role in the American story of religious liberty than Abramson suggests. And even within the context of religious accommodation, the disagreement is relatively limited, concerning the narrow class of cases in which providing a commercial service requires some personal participation in activities that are fraught with religious significance. Yet these cases have spawned heated debates between two large factions, secular and religious. If Madison was correct that "the best and only security for religious liberty" is a "multiplicity of sects," the emergence of these two "great sects" promises new strife.
Ajabu: Life Beyond Words (A Day in the ED)

Life is lovely, serene, and magical Fragile and tender Deep as the ocean Aromatic as the rainforests of South America Taunting you with its mystery and stubbornness Embrace it, tickle it Cause a baby to smile Know what you have Friends completing your soul A meditative rose Frozen in time Supple petals sensually succumb To the feeling you get after sneezing Unspoken words exhaled from lips Bodies seductively moving to circadian harmony Falling asleep on unmowed grass Smell of freshly cut grass
Dietary Variability in Redtail Monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti) of Kibale National Park, Uganda: the Role of Time, Space, and Hybridization

Studies of the diet of different groups of the same species allow us to understand intraspecific dietary variability. I collected dietary data from six neighboring groups of redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti) and three hybrid monkeys over 12 years at Ngogo and from one group at Kanyawara in Kibale National Park, Uganda and compared these results with previous studies of redtail diets elsewhere in Kibale and from the Kakamega Forest of Kenya. I scored feeding as a particular monkey ingesting a species-specific plant part, or catching insects from a species-specific substrate. A new feeding score was tallied for the same combination of parameters only after a 30-min interval or if the identity of one of the three parameters changed. I counted trees along transects in the home ranges of the two main study groups to calculate food selection ratios. I used chi-square tests to compare diets between groups and time periods and Spearman rank correlation coefficient tests for dietary correlates. These comparisons reveal considerable variation in plant parts and species eaten by redtails between months, years, and neighboring groups with overlapping ranges. Selection ratios show that some tree species are important sources of plant food, while others are more important as sources of invertebrates. The high incidence of insectivory by redtails demonstrates another ecological role they play in addition to seed dispersal. The intrademic variation in diets I describe for Kibale was often as great as and sometimes greater than the interdemic variation. The diets of the hybrid monkeys at Ngogo differed in some ways from their parental species, particularly in their greater consumption of invertebrates. Introgression may have led to some of these differences within and between redtail demes. The pronounced variability in redtail diets demonstrates why a typological perspective of species is unwarranted and that the validity of interspecific comparisons requires a thorough understanding of intraspecific variation.
Finite groups with many values in a column of the character table

In this paper, we classify all finite groups whose character tables have some column with pairwise distinct values.
Global phosphoproteomics of CCR5-tropic HIV-1 signaling reveals reprogramming of cellular protein production pathways and identifies p70-S6K1 and MK2 as HIV-responsive kinases required for optimal infection of CD4+ T cells

Viral reprogramming of host cells enhances replication and is initiated by viral interaction with the cell surface. Upon human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) binding to CD4+ T cells, a signal transduction cascade is initiated that reorganizes the actin cytoskeleton, activates transcription factors, and alters mRNA splicing pathways. We used a quantitative mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomic approach to investigate signal transduction cascades initiated by CCR5-tropic HIV, which accounts for virtually all transmitted viruses and the vast majority of viruses worldwide. CCR5-HIV signaling induced significant reprogramming of the actin cytoskeleton and mRNA splicing pathways, as previously described. In addition, CCR5-HIV signaling induced profound changes to the mRNA transcription, processing, translation, and post-translational modifications pathways, indicating that virtually every stage of protein production is affected. Furthermore, we identified two kinases regulated by CCR5-HIV signaling—p70-S6K1 (RPS6KB1) and MK2 (MAPKAPK2)—that were also required for optimal HIV infection of CD4+ T cells. These kinases regulate protein translation and cytoskeletal architecture, respectively, reinforcing the importance of these pathways in viral replication. Additionally, we found that blockade of CCR5 signaling by maraviroc had relatively modest effects on CCR5-HIV signaling, in agreement with reports that signaling by CCR5 is dispensable for HIV infection but in contrast to the critical effects of CXCR4 on cortical actin reorganization. These results demonstrate that CCR5-tropic HIV induces significant reprogramming of host CD4+ T cell protein production pathways and identifies two novel kinases induced upon viral binding to the cell surface that are critical for HIV replication in host cells.
Peptide-Nanoparticle Strategies, Interactions, and Challenges

The ability to control and manipulate peptide-nanoparticle interactions is an important goal in achieving biofunctionalized materials with enhanced properties and precise nanostructures for use in sensing, catalysis, and biomedical applications. However, currently, there are many challenges to overcome in order to obtain better design and create these peptide-based functional nanomaterials. These include a need to better our understanding of the mechanisms/forces which drive peptide-nanomaterial interactions, improve characterization techniques to probe the peptide-nanoparticle interfaces, to design and identify new nanomaterial-binding peptides with greater affinities using a combination of advanced combinatorial techniques and next-gen sequencing, and to effectively utilize computational modeling to guide/predict peptide-nanomaterial binding. In this chapter, we describe these technical challenges and highlight recent examples of peptide-nanoparticle interactions, their resultant properties, and how some of these challenges are being addressed.
The Chemical Potential for Interacting Fermions in a Harmonic Potential

One of the key concepts in density functional theory is the chemical potential. For a fixed Hamiltonian in second-quantized form one may define a sequence of ground state energies E(N) for varying integral number, N, of electrons. Although this scheme does not serve to provide a definition of E(N) for non-integral N, the chemical potential is usually defined as $$ \mu = \partial {\text{E}}\left( {\text{N}} \right)\,\partial {\text{N}} $$ (1) and evaluated by a polynomial interpolation among the E(N) for nearby values of N.1–6
Facile continuous production of soy peptide nanogels via nanoscale flash desolvation for drug entrapment.

Abstract A facile continuous production of soy peptide nanogels was demonstrated using a multi-inlet vortex micromixer for the entrapment of active ingredients. The full flow regime in the micromixer was systematically studied to understand the flow impact on nanogel size, drug encapsulation efficiency and drug loading efficiency. Ibuprofen was chosen as a model drug to demonstrate encapsulation capability. The study showed that the nanogel size, drug encapsulation efficiency and drug loading efficiency did not alter significantly as long as the flow rates were in transition and turbulent regimes. The driving force behind the folding of peptides within the microenvironment is kinetic mixing with high flow rates, which dominates in comparison to molecular diffusion, nucleation, and growth. Moreover, the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of the soy peptides determined the drug encapsulation efficiency and the drug loading efficiency, which did not vary much under different manufacturing parameters. Both characteristics are beneficial to mass production of drug-entrapped peptide. In a 50% water-ethanol mixture, the encapsulation efficiency achieved 70% and the drug loading efficiency was up to 25% in transition and turbulent flow regimes. This work opens the avenues to continuous production of drug-entrapped soy peptide nanogels using a multi-inlet vortex micromixer.
IL-33/Regulatory T Cell Axis Triggers the Development of a Tumor-Promoting Immune Environment in Chronic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation's tumor-promoting potential is well-recognized; however, the mechanism underlying the development of this immune environment is unknown. Studying the transition from acute, tumor-suppressive to chronic, tumor-promoting allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) revealed how tumor-promoting chronic inflammation develops. Epidermis-derived interleukin (IL)-33 up-regulation and its induction of regulatory T cell (Treg) accumulation in the skin preceded the transition from acute to chronic ACD and triggered the tumor-promoting immune environment in chronic ACD. Mice lacking IL-33 were protected from chronic ACD and its skin cancer sequela compared with wild-type controls (P = 0.0002). IL-33's direct signaling onto Tregs was required for the development of the tumor-promoting immune environment in the skin. IL-33-Treg signaling was also required for chronic colitis and its associated colorectal cancer development in a colitis model (P < 0.0001). Significantly increased IL-33 and Tregs marked the perilesional skin and colon in patients with cancer-prone chronic inflammatory diseases. Our findings elucidate the role of the IL-33/Treg axis in creating a tumor-promoting immune environment in chronic inflammatory diseases and suggest therapeutic targets for cancer prevention and treatment in high-risk patients.
Tenderness variation among loin steaks from A and C maturity carcasses of heifers similar in chronological age.

Fifty-two Angus x Gelbvieh rotationally crossed virgin, ovariectomized, or single-calf heifers were slaughtered after 100 d on a high-concentrate diet. Heifers from each treatment were approximately 31, 33, or 35 mo of age, and they produced 31 A, 5 B, and 16 C maturity carcasses. Because of the small number, B maturity carcasses were not included in this study. Number of A maturity carcasses decreased as age increased. No differences (P > .05) in slaughter weight, total weight gain, dressing percentage, longissimus muscle area, or kidney fat percentage existed between carcass maturity groups, but C maturity heifers had 3.56 mm more fat (P .05). The A and C maturity heifers had similar amounts of collagen and hydroxylysyl-pyridinium crosslinks in metacarpal bone cortex and in longissimus muscle. Neither means for panel tenderness nor Warner-Bratzler shear values differed (P > .05) between maturity groups. Coefficients of variation for tenderness were slightly higher in steaks from C maturity carcasses, but CV for shear values between A and C maturity groups were similar. Because inconsistent meat tenderness is a recognized problem in the beef industry, more research on tenderness variability within maturity and marbling groups is needed. This information, in addition to pooled SEM and differences between means, should aid in finding ways to reduce beef tenderness variability.
LPS-Induced Immune System Stimulation Alters Urinary Volatiles and Behaviour in Growing Pigs

Volatile compounds from body fluids and secretions may indicate the health status of individuals to other conspecifics. We sought to identify urinary volatiles that might act as biomarkers indicative of the health status of growing pigs. Immune system stimulation (ISS) was induced in pigs (N = 5) by intramuscular (IM) injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 25 µg/kg BW). Urine samples were collected before (baseline) and after LPS treatment. The urinary headspace volatile compounds were identified using Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with GC-MS. Pig eye temperatures was measured using an infrared imaging technique, and behaviours (i.e. standing, feeding, drinking, moving, lying, sitting and active) were video-recorded and quantified 24 h before and after ISS. Data were analysed using mixed model ANOVA examining periods before and after LPS administration with pigs serving as their own control. Pig eye/body temperature increased post-ISS (at 6 h, P = 0.03) and correlated negatively with active behaviours (r = −0.64, P = 0.048). Relative to pre-ISS, pigs spent less time standing (P = 0.018), moving (P = 0.061) and active (P < 0.0001) during the post-ISS period. SPME-GC-MS revealed 7.2- and 4.3-fold increases in 3-Methylphenol (P < 0.0001) and 4-Ethylphenol (P = 0.005), respectively, in post-ISS urine compared with urine collected during the pre-ISS period. In conclusion, ISS reduced pig activity, and elevated (P < 0.01) urinary levels of 3-Methylphenol and 4-Ethylphenol. Behavioural changes and volatile molecules may be used as a non-invasive method for detection of fever, illness and health in farm and possibly other animals. Furthermore, the effects of 3-Methylphenol and 4-Ethylphenol on the behaviour of other pigs remain to be determined.
Humoral immune responses against gut bacteria in dogs with inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in dogs is associated with clinical signs of intestinal dysfunction, as well as abnormal lymphocytic and myeloid cell infiltrates in the small and/or large intestine. Thus, in many respects IBD in dogs resembles IBD in humans. However, the factors that trigger intestinal inflammation in dogs with IBD are not well understood and have been variously attributed to immune responses against dietary antigens or intestinal antigens. Previous studies in humans with IBD have documented increased production of IgG and IgA antibodies specific to intestinal bacteria, and this abnormal immune response has been linked to disease pathogenesis. Therefore, we investigated the humoral immune response against gut bacteria in dogs with IBD, using flow cytometry to quantitate IgG and IgA binding. Studies were also done to investigate the source of these antibodies (locally produced versus systemic production) and whether greater antibody binding to bacteria is associated with increased inflammatory responses. We found that dogs with IBD had significantly higher percentages and overall amounts of IgG bound to their intestinal bacteria compared to healthy dogs. Similarly, significantly higher percentages of bacteria were IgA+ bacteria were also found in dogs with IBD. Serum antibody recognition of gut bacteria was not different between healthy dogs and dogs with IBD, suggesting that anti-bacterial antibodies were primarily produced locally in the gut rather than systemically. Importantly, bacteria in the Actinobacteria phylum and in particular the genus Collinsella had significantly greater levels of antibody binding in dogs with IBD. Based on these findings, we concluded that antibody binding to commensal gut bacteria was significantly increased in dogs with IBD, that particular phyla were preferential targets for gut antibodies, and that anti-bacterial antibody responses may play an important role in regulating gut inflammation.
Population Decline of the Invasive Asian Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) and Dynamics of Associated Intertidal Invertebrates on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

A few moderately long-term studies have documented population dynamics of the invasive Hemigrapsus sanguineus (Asian Shore Crab) and species with which it interacts. One such study on Cape Cod reported exponential growth of the Asian Shore Crab through 2012, concurrent with declines in 2 resident species, but recent data at nearby sites suggest considerable geographic variation in population dynamics, with modest recovery of resident crab populations. We monitored the Cape Cod population for an additional 5 years to determine whether population growth of the Asian Shore Crab had slowed and whether there was any change in population dynamics of Carcinus maenas (Green Crab), Littorina littorea (Common Periwinkle), or Mytilus edulis (Blue Mussel). Asian Shore Crab density declined by nearly 90% since 2012. There was no evidence of recovery by the Green Crab, but the Blue Mussel experienced a brief but substantial increase in density in 2015, when both crab species displayed >70% reductions in density from the previous year. The pattern of population dynamics of the Asian Shore Crab from 2003 to 2017 is consistent with boom–bust dynamics, but it remains unclear whether the population will equilibrate near its current density or undergo recurrent boom–bust cycles.
Bilevel optimization strategy for interconnection of wind-photovoltaic power generation and EV charging and discharging

This paper studies the cooperative absorption mechanism of wind-photovoltaic power generation and electric vehicle interconnection. Markov decision process is used to model the two random events of wind-photovoltaic generation and electric vehicle charging and discharging. Based on this, a multi-objective bilevel optimal charging and discharging scheduling model is proposed for the interconnection of wind-photovoltaic generation and electric vehicle based on cluster. The upper dispatching agency considers the consumption of wind-photovoltaic power generation and the economy of grid side operation, and EV group institution takes charge-discharge fees with battery internal losses into account. When solving the problem, making full use of the correlation between the structural features and variables between the upper and lower layers, the basic strategy of information exchange between the upper and lower layers is constructed, and based on the hierarchical features and future situation simulation, the double-layer optimal scheduling strategy is obtained. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed optimization strategy is simulated and analyzed in IEEE 30 nodes system.
Borden: Skateboarding and the City: A Complete History

Why should planners care about skateboarding? In this engrossing history, University College London Professor Iain Borden argues that increasingly ubiquitous urban skateboarders are more than disor...
Dumpster diving in the emergency department: Quantity and characteristics of waste at a level I trauma center

Introduction Healthcare contributes 10% of greenhouse gases in the United States and generates two milion tons of waste each year. Reducing healthcare waste can reduce the environmental impact of healthcare and lower hospitals' waste disposal costs. However, no literature to date has examined US emergency department (ED) waste management. The purpose of this study was to quantify and describe the amount of waste generated by an ED, identify deviations from waste policy, and explore areas for waste reduction. Methods We conducted a 24-hour (weekday) ED waste audit in an urban, tertiary-care academic medical center. All waste generated in the ED during the study period was collected, manually sorted into separate categories based on its predominant material, and weighed. We tracked deviations from hospital waste policy using the hospital's Infection Control Manual, state regulations, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act standards. Lastly, we calculated direct pollutant emissions from ED waste disposal activities using the M+WasteCare Calculator. Results The ED generated 671.8 kilograms (kg) total waste during a 24-hour collection period. On a per-patient basis, the ED generated 1.99 kg of total waste per encounter. The majority was plastic (64.6%), with paper-derived products (18.4%) the next largest category. Only 14.9% of waste disposed of in red bags met the criteria for regulated medical waste. We identified several deviations from waste policy, including loose sharps not placed in sharps containers, as well as re-processable items and protected health information thrown in medical and solid waste. We also identified over 200 unused items. Pollutant emissions resulting per day from ED waste disposal include 3110 kg carbon dioxide equivalent and 576 grams of other criteria pollutants, heavy metals, and toxins. Conclusion The ED generates significant amounts of waste. Current ED waste disposal practices reveal several opportunities to reduce total waste generated, increase adherence to waste policy, and reduce environmental impact. While our results will likely be similar to other urban tertiary EDs that serve as Level I trauma centers, future studies are needed to compare results across EDs with different patient volumes or waste generation rates.
Spectroscopic Probe Molecule Selection Using Quantum Theory, First-Principles Calculations, and Machine Learning

Probe molecule vibrational spectra have a long history of being used to characterize materials including metals, oxides, metal-organic frameworks, and even human proteins. Furthermore, recent advances in machine learning have enabled computationally generated spectra to aid in detailed characterization of complex surfaces with probe molecules. Despite widespread use of probe molecules, the science of probe molecule selection is underdeveloped. Here, we develop physical concepts, including orbital interaction energy and the energy overlap integral, to explain and predict the ability of probe molecules to discriminate structural descriptors. We resolve the crystal orbital overlap population (COOP) to specific molecular orbitals and quantify their bonding character, which directly influences vibrational frequencies. Using only a single adsorbate calculation from density function theory (DFT), we compute the interaction energy of individual adsorbate molecular orbitals with adsorption site atomic orbitals across many different sites. Combining the molecular orbital resolved COOP and changes in orbital interaction energy enables probe molecule selection for improved discrimination of various sites. We demonstrate these concepts by comparing the predicted effectiveness of carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), and ethylene (C2H4) to probe Pt adsorption sites. Finally, using a previously developed machine learning framework, we show that models trained on hundreds of thousands of C2H4 spectra, computed from DFT, which regress surface binding-type and generalized coordination number, outperform those trained using CO and NO spectra. A python package, pDOS_overlap, for implementing the electron density-based analysis on any combination of adsorbates and materials, is also made available.
A Functional Coupling of Brain and Behavior During Social Categorization of Faces

Considerable research has focused on how people derive information about others' social category memberships from their faces. Theoretical models posit that early extraction of task-relevant information from a face should determine the efficiency with which that face is categorized, but evidence supporting this idea has been elusive. Here, we used a novel trial-level data analytic approach to examine the relationship between two event-related potential components-the P2, indexing early attention to category-relevant information, and the P3, indexing stimulus evaluation-and the speed of overt categorization judgments. As predicted, a larger face-elicited P2 on a particular trial was associated with faster overt race or gender categorization of that face. Moreover, this association was mediated by P3 latency, indicating that extraction of more category-relevant information early in processing facilitated stimulus evaluation. These findings support continuous flow models of information processing and the long-theorized functional significance of face-elicited neurophysiological responses for social categorization.
Bioenergetics matter to metabolic health-from a fat progenitor view.

The response of adipose progenitors to metabolic states is a crucial, but poorly understood, determinant of metabolic health. The back-to-back papers by Joffin et al. (2021) and Shao et al. (2021) in this issue of Cell Stem Cell reveal how adipose-tissue-resident PDGFRβ+precursor cell fate is regulated by mitochondrial bioenergetic state and how such processes go wrong in obesity.
Spatially Resolved Proteomic Analysis of the Lens Extracellular Diffusion Barrier.

Purpose The presence of a physical barrier to molecular diffusion through lenticular extracellular space has been repeatedly detected. This extracellular diffusion barrier has been proposed to restrict the movement of solutes into the lens and to direct nutrients into the lens core via the sutures at both poles. The purpose of this study is to characterize the molecular components that could contribute to the formation of this barrier. Methods Three distinct regions in the bovine lens cortex were captured by laser capture microdissection guided by dye penetration. Proteins were digested by Lys C and trypsin. Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis followed by gene ontology and protein interaction network analysis was performed. Results Dye penetration showed that fiber cells first shrink the extracellular spaces of the broad sides followed by closure of the extracellular space between narrow sides at a normalized lens distance (r/a) of 0.9. Accompanying the closure of extracellular space of the broad sides, dramatic proteomic changes were detected, including upregulation of several cell junctional proteins. AQP0 and its interacting partners, Ezrin and Radixin, were among a few proteins that were upregulated, accompanying the closure of extracellular space of the narrow sides, suggesting a particularly important role for AQP0 in controlling the narrowing of the extracellular spaces between fiber cells. The results also provided important information related to biological processes that occur during fiber cell differentiation such as organelle degradation, cytoskeletal remodeling, and glutathione synthesis. Conclusions The formation of a lens extracellular diffusion barrier is accompanied by significant membrane and cytoskeletal protein remodeling.
Partisan Fairness and Redistricting Politics

Courts and scholars have operated on the implicit assumption that the Supreme Court's "one person, one vote" jurisprudence put redistricting politics on a fixed, ten-year cycle. Recent redistricting controversies in Colorado, Texas, and elsewhere, however, have undermined this assumption, highlighting the fact that most states are currently free to redraw election districts as often as they like. This essay explores whether partisan fairness - a normative commitment that both scholars and the Supreme Court have identified as a central concern of districting arrangements - would be promoted by a procedural rule limiting the frequency of redistricting. While the literature has not considered this question, scholars generally are pessimistic about the capacity of procedural redistricting regulations to curb partisan gerrymandering. In contrast, this essay argues that a procedural rule limiting the frequency of redistricting will promote partisan fairness by introducing beneficial uncertainty in the redistricting process and by regularizing the redistricting agenda.
Natural Radiation in the Geochemical Environment

Natural radiation is primarily from U and Th and their radioactive daughters, and from K and Rb. In addition, there is minor radiation from 14C and such species as 147Sm, 176Lu, and 187Re. There is also a very small amount of radiation (less than 0.04 mrem/yr) from radioactive species formed by atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. The radiation in rocks, however, is basically due to U, Th, actinide daughters of U and Th, and K and Rb. Only these sources will be discussed in this chapter.
Comparison of applicability of power theories to switching compensator control

Various methods are used to generate the control reference signals for power electronics based compensators. With increased flexibility requirements and non-ideal grid conditions, the applicability of reference signal generation methods for compensation applications should be evaluated. Targeted compensation requires an understanding of power components that are present to enable priority based decisions with respect to the compensation. This paper compares the applicability of several reference signal generation methods for power electronics based compensators from a power theory perspective. Streszczenie. Wiele roznych metod stosuje sie dla generowania sygnalow porownawczych, potrzebnych do sterowania kompensatorow energoelektronicznych. Wraz ze wzrostem wymagan odnośnie uniwersalności kompensatorow pracujących w warunkach zaburzen sieciowych, przydatnośc roznych metod generowania sygnalow porownawczych do sterowania kompensatorow winna byc przedmiotem oceny. Kompensacja dedykowana, oparta na ocenie hierarchii wazności calow kompensacji, wymaga zrozumienia zjawisk energetycznych i skladowych mocy. Niniejszy artykul porownuje przydatnośc szeregu metod generowania sygnalow porownawczych z perspektywy teorii mocy. (Porownanie przydatności roznych teorii mocy do sterowania kompensatorow kluczujących)
Computers as Castles: Preventing the Plain View Doctrine from Becoming a Vehicle for Overbroad Digital Searches

The plain view doctrine is based on the practical logic that an officer need not turn a blind eye to evidence that is immediately apparent as incriminating when he is lawfully present, where the object can be seen, and where he has a legal right to access that object. However, in the context of digital searches, this basic logic is stretched to a point that directly conflicts with the original purposes of the Fourth Amendment. The immense amount of data present on computers makes these searches much more intrusive. Officers employ search methods and techniques to access files that involve more investigation than the plain view doctrine ever intended. The problems presented by new technology to placing reasonable limits on the scope of otherwise valid Fourth Amendment searches have caused many courts to defer to traditional methods of analysis, rather than prompting courts to devise a new approach that could better reflect the realities of how police conduct these searches. Certain courts—which this Note designates “traditionalist”—find no reason to change what is a physical doctrine in the digital context, but rather allow it to progress incrementally. This Note argues that courts have made no progress towards appropriately defining reasonableness in the context of digital searches, and that they should be imposing a heightened particularity standard for digital warrants, as well as additional prophylactic steps, as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and (to a lesser extent) Tenth Circuits have suggested. The traditionalist interpretation encouraged law enforcement authorities and training manuals to take advantage of this lax position, and plead general concerns common to all computer cases to justify broad search warrants. Moreover, the same general concerns that convince magistrates to draw such general warrants lead district court judges to defer to an investigator’s discretion. To remain consistent with the original spirit of the Fourth Amendment, as a bar against unfettered police discretion and arbitrary governmental action, courts must adopt a new approach.
Molecular weight distributions resulting from irreversible polycondensation reactions

The MW distribution in polycondensates for an arbitrary initial distribution can be derived from the rate equations by means of generating functions. This is illustrated for two cases: polycondensation of AB units with each other and polycondensation between AA and BB, where in both cases the reaction is between A groups and B groups. In the condensation of AB with itself it is found that an initial MW distribution which is a superposition of geometric ones leads to a product in which the MW distribution is again a superposition of geometric progressions, but the parameters determining this distribution depend on the initial conditions in a rather complicated manner. In the condensation of AA with BB, the discussion is limited to those cases in which initially there are no molecules that have A at one and B at the other end. Also, the MW distribution in the reaction product is considered only at the end of the process, when the reaction is complete. It is found, here again, that distributions which are superpositions of geometric progressions lead to a superposition of geometric progressions in the end product. Die Molekulargewichtsverteilung fur ein Polykondensat mit beliebiger Anfangsverteilung kann durch Anwendung der kinetischen Gleichungen mittels der erzeugenden Funktion abgeleitet werden. Das wird an zwei Beispielen gezeigt: Polykondensation von AB-Einheiten miteinander und Polykondensation zwischen AA- und BB-Einheiten, wobei in beiden Fallen die Kondensationsreaktion zwischen den Gruppen A und B stattfindet. Bei der Kondensation von AB-Einheiten miteinander, bei der die Anfangsverteilung eine Summe zweier geometrischer Funktionen ist, entsteht als Reaktionsprodukt wieder ein Kondensat mit einer Molekulargewichtsverteilung, die eine Summe zweier geometrischer Funktionen ist. Die Parameter, die diese neue Verteilung bestimmen, hangen in einer komplizierten Weise von den Parametern der Anfangsverteilung ab. Bei der Kondensation von AA-Einheiten mit BB-Einheiten ist die Berechnung auf Anfangsverteilungen begrenzt, bei denen kein Molekul eine Einheit A an einem und eine Einheit B am anderen Kettenende besitzt. Auserdem ist das Ergebnis nur fur vollstandig abgelaufene Reaktionen anwendbar. Hier wurde auch gefunden, das, wenn die Anfangsverteilung durch eine Summe zweier geometrischer Verteilungen darstellbar ist, die Endverteilung ebenfalls durch eine solche Summe wiedergegeben wird.
Growth and Poverty Reduction in Uganda, 1992-1999: A Multidimensional Analysis of Changes in Living Standards

This paper examines Uganda's progress on poverty reduction when poverty is measured in multiple dimensions. In particular, I consider poverty measures that are defined across household expenditures per capita or household assets, children's health status, and in some cases, mother's literacy. The comparisons are robust to the choice of poverty line, poverty measure, and sampling error. In general, I find that multidimensional poverty declined significantly in Uganda during the 1990s, although results for the latter half of the decade are more ambiguous. While there was clear progress in the dimension of expenditures and assets, improvement in children's height-for-age z-scores is less certain for the 1995-2000 period. I also make poverty comparisons for individual regions and urban and rural areas in the country. Rather surprisingly, progress on multivariate poverty reduction is less clear in Central region and in urban areas.
On the Security of Delegation in Access Control Systems

Delegation is a mechanism that allows a user Ato act on another user B's behalf by making B's access rights available to A. It is well recognized as an important mechanism to provide resiliency and flexibility in access control systems, and has gained popularity in the research community. However, most existing literature focuses on modeling and managing delegations. Little work has been done on understanding the impact of delegation on the security of existing access control systems. In particular, no formal notion of security with respect to delegation has been proposed. Many existing access control systems are designed without having delegation in mind. Simply incorporating a delegation module into those systems may cause security breaches. This paper focuses on the security aspect of delegation in access control systems. We first give examples on how colluding users may abuse the delegation support of access control systems to circumvent security policies, such as separation of duty. As a major contribution, we propose a formal notion of security with respect to delegation in access control systems. After that, we discuss potential mechanisms to enforce security. In particular, we design a novel source-based enforcement mechanism for workflow authorization systems so as to achieve both security and efficiency.
Natality Seduced: Lyotard and the Birth of the Improbable

It is in the nature of beginning that something new is started which cannot be expected from whatever may have happened before. This character of startling unexpectedness is inherent in all beginnings and in all origins....The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes amount to certainty; the new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle. The fact that man is capable of action means that he is able to perform what is infinitely improbable. And this again is possible because each man is unique, so that with each birth something uniquely new comes into the world. With respect to this somebody who is unique it can be truly said that nobody was there before. Arendt thus sees in the uniqueness of each individual the potential to perform the improbable, that is, to alter the world in spite of its seeming certainty and intransigence.
Achieving Zero-Knowledge Robustly

We introduce the notion of robust transformations of interactive proof systems. A robust transformation takes an interactive proof system (P, V), and produces a new interactive proof system, (P*, V*), such that the power of P* is within a polynomial factor of that of P. We show that, given an ideal protocol for secure circuit evaluation, there exists a robust transformation that converts interactive proof systems to zero-knowledge interactive proof systems.
Proceedings of the 15th ACM international conference on Information and knowledge management

We welcome you to the 15th ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge (CIKM 2006). This year CIKM received a record 537 submissions! From these we accepted 81 (15%) as full papers. Due to the quality of submissions, we additionally accepted 56 posters. Such highly competitive selection puts CIKM in a small group of prominent conferences. This is also reflected in the quality of the research program, for which we are extremely pleased.As in past CIKM conferences, the assembled program spans the areas of databases (DB), information retrieval (IR), and knowledge management (KM). This year, the DB track papers address issues on data streams, skyline, ranking and similarity computations, as well as query processing, and indexing. The IR track covers traditional topics, but also has papers on estimation, personalization, and summarization. The KM track focuses on data, text and web mining, and management of knowledge. The submission process was organized into the three corresponding tracks with corresponding Program Committees. There was also a separate industry track whose papers were reviewed by members of the program committees. In total we received 119 submissions in the DB track, 245 in the IR, 154 in the KM, and 19 submissions in the industrial track.CIKM has matured to become a truly international conference, attracting submissions from all around the world. This year, less than half of the submitted papers were from North America (48%), while Asia and Europe followed with 24% and 20%, respectively. We also had 18 submissions from South America, 17 from Australia, and 4 from Africa. The author coordinates spanned more than 35 countries!
Differential Mortality and the Racial Composition of the Electorate

I set forth a conceptual model for the impact of mortality differentials between Blacks and Whites from 1970 to 2004 on the racial composition of the electorate in the presidential election of 2004. I use data from the Multiple Cause of Death files, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Election Pool General Election Exit Polls, and the U.S. Elections Project in order to carry out four calculations: (1) The total number of excess deaths among Blacks due to mortality gaps between 1970 and 2004, (2) the probability that the excess deceased would have turned out to vote in the presidential election of 2004 had they survived, (3) the total number of hypothetical Black survivors should they had the mortality rates of Whites, and (4) the total number of Black votes lost to mortality gaps in the presidential election of 2004. Preliminary results show that there were 2.7 million excess deaths among Blacks due to mortality gaps between 1970 and 2004. Of those 2.7 million, 2.3 would have survived until 2004 should they had the mortality rates of Whites. These excess deaths resulted in 1.2 million Black votes lost in the presidential election of 2004. These findings suggest that mortality gaps between Blacks and Whites are affecting political determinants of election outcomes and the distribution of power that emanates from the political system.
Heme Attenuation Ameliorates Irritant Gas Inhalation-Induced Acute Lung Injury.

Abstract Aims: Exposure to irritant gases, such as bromine (Br2), poses an environmental and occupational hazard that results in severe lung and systemic injury. However, the mechanism(s) of Br2 toxicity and the therapeutic responses required to mitigate lung damage are not known. Previously, it was demonstrated that Br2 upregulates the heme degrading enzyme, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Since heme is a major inducer of HO-1, we determined whether an increase in heme and heme-dependent oxidative injury underlies the pathogenesis of Br2 toxicity. Results: C57BL/6 mice were exposed to Br2 gas (600 ppm, 30 min) and returned to room air. Thirty minutes postexposure, mice were injected intraperitoneally with a single dose of the heme scavenging protein, hemopexin (Hx) (3 μg/gm body weight), or saline. Twenty-four hours postexposure, saline-treated mice had elevated total heme in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and plasma and acute lung injury (ALI) culminating in 80% mortality after 10 days. Hx treatment signi...
MIRACLES-CURSES OF PAIN MANAGEMENT: A HUMBLE PLEA FOR CONSCIENTIOUS USE OF OPIOIDS

Pain has been recognized as global public health concern [1] and inadequate pain management has been called public health crisis [2] with over six million people annually suffering across the world due to inaccessibility to controlled medications [3]. However, aggressively overcoming inadequacies in non-acute pain management has its costs too [4]; and societies that are at infantile stages in regards to managing these pains (chronic and cancer pains) in their patient population should not compare themselves with the fore-runners in pain management only in terms of per capita consumption of medicinal morphine equivalents [5] for pain relief.