cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Utilization of Nitrogen in [15Nitrogen] Ammonia Treated Corn Silage Fed to Lactating Cow

Abstract Three lactating, rumen fistulated cows (two Jerseys and one Holstein) were fed mixed diets containing (dry matter) 40% corn silage, 45% concentrate, and 15% coarse ground alfalfa hay. The corn silage was treated prior to ensiling with 1.4% ammonia (dry matter) to which 15 nitrogen was added. Total fecal and urine collections and rumen sampling at 0, 2, and 4h after feeding were conducted for all three cows during the 3rd wk on the diet and again during the 6th wk on the diet for one of the cows. Average daily intake of dry matter and milk yield ranged from 7.4 to 7.2kg for the smallest Jersey to 18.3 and 33.0kg for the Holstein. Apparent digestibilities of total dietary dry matter, energy, and nitrogen were 65.6, 65.1, and 66.9%. Percent 15 nitrogen excess in rumen ammonia was slightly greater than that in rumen bacteria prior to feeding. Concentrations of 15 nitrogen in ammonia and bacteria increased during the first 2h after feeding, with the increase greatest for ammonia, and then plateaued to 4h after feeding. Ratios of 15 nitrogen excess indicated that up to 70% of bacterial nitrogen was derived from rumen ammonia. All cows were at equilibrium or in positive nitrogen and 15 nitrogen balance during collection periods. Proportion of 15 nitrogen retained was much greater than that for nitrogen at 3 wk but was similar during the 6th wk on the diet, indicating that body 15 nitrogen was essentially in equilibrium with diet or absorbed 15 nitrogen at that time. Ratios of total nitrogen to 15 nitrogen excretion in milk suggest that the [ 15 nitrogen] ammonia added to corn prior to ensiling was utilized about 80% as efficiently for milk nitrogen as was total feed nitrogen and that the soluble and insoluble nitrogen compounds from the added ammonia were utilized with the same efficiencies as other nitrogen compounds in the diet with similar solubilities.
Modulation of Rac Localization and Function by Dynamin

The GTPase dynamin controls a variety of endocytic pathways, participates in the formation of phagosomes, podosomal adhesions, and invadopodia, and in regulation of the cytoskeleton and apoptosis. Rac, a member of the Rho family of small GTPases, controls formation of lamellipodia and focal complexes, which are critical in cell migration and phagocytosis. We now show that disruption of dynamin-2 function alters Rac localization and inhibits cell spreading and lamellipodia formation even though Rac is activated. Dominant-negative K44A dynamin-2 inhibited cell spreading and lamellipodia formation on fibronectin without blocking cell adhesion; dynamin-2 depletion by specific small interfering RNA inhibited lamellipodia in a similar manner. Dyn2(K44A) induced Rac mislocalization away from cell edges, into abnormal dorsal ruffles, and led to increased total Rac activity. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer imaging of Rac activity confirmed its predominant localization to aberrant dorsal ruffles in the presence of dominant-negative dyn2(K44A). Dyn2(K44A) induced the accumulation of tubulated structures bearing membrane-bound Rac-GFP. Constitutively active but not wild-type GFP-Rac was found on macropinosomes and Rac-dependent, platelet-derived growth factor-induced macropinocytosis was abolished by Dyn2(K44A) expression. These data suggest an indispensable role of dynamin in Rac trafficking to allow for lamellipodia formation and cell spreading.
Roles of small RNAs in tumor formation

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that act as post-transcriptional repressors of gene expression in organisms ranging from plants to humans. A widespread role for miRNAs in diverse molecular processes driving the initiation and progression of various tumor types has recently been described. Here, we discuss the etiology of the aberrant expression of miRNAs in human cancers and their role in tumor metastasis, which might define miRNAs as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Moreover, we highlight the genomic/epigenetic alterations and transcriptional/post-transcriptional mechanisms associated with the misexpression of miRNAs in cancer. A better understanding of miRNA biology might ultimately yield further insight into the molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis and new therapeutic strategies against cancer.
Response of agronomic and forest species to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide

The effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on corn, soybeans, loblolly pine, and sweetgum were studied in the field during a growing season. The plants were exposed to a range of concentrations of carbon dioxide day and night in open-topped, flow-through chambers. At a mean daytime carbon dioxide concentration of 910 parts per million, increases in total biomass ranged from 157 to 186 percent of the control values. Seed yield and wood volume increased and there were changes in plant anatomy and form. Net photosynthesis increased with increasing carbon dioxide concentration in soybeans and sweetgum, but was unaffected in corn. Water use efficiency also increased in corn, soybeans, and sweetgum.
An O(n) algorithm for determining the subregion-tree representation of a rectangular dissection

A rectangular dissection is a partition of a rectangular space R into $n \geqslant 1$ disjoint rectangles $\{ {r_1 ,r_2 , \cdots ,r_n } \}$. A $T_ * $-plan is a dissection that is obtained by repeated application of the (1) horizontal, (2) vertical, (3) left-spiral, and (4) right-spiral partitioning operations. Two common ways of representing a $T_ * $-plan are the wall representation $w(D)$ and the subregion-tree representation $t(D)$. It is known [S. Kundu, Comm. ACM, 31 (1988), pp. 752–763] that these two representations are equivalent in that one can be uniquely determined from the other. This paper presents an optimal $O(n)$ algorithm for constructing $t(D)$ from $w(D)$, which improves the previous bound of $O(n^2 )$ in [S. Kundu, Comm. ACM, 31 (1988), pp. 752–763]. The new algorithm is based on a domination relationship among the walls, which is defined here and represented by a digraph $G_w (D)$. The algorithm exploits the disjoint cycle property of $G_w (D)$ and the relationship between the tree $...
Interleukin-2 and Regulatory T Cells in Graft-versus-Host Disease

Background Dysfunction of regulatory T (Treg) cells has been detected in diverse inflammatory disorders, including chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Interleukin-2 is critical for Treg cell growth, survival, and activity. We hypothesized that low-dose interleukin-2 could preferentially enhance Treg cells in vivo and suppress clinical manifestations of chronic GVHD. Methods In this observational cohort study, patients with chronic GVHD that was refractory to glucocorticoid therapy received daily low-dose subcutaneous interleukin-2 (0.3×106, 1×106, or 3×106 IU per square meter of body-surface area) for 8 weeks. The end points were safety and clinical and immunologic response. After a 4-week hiatus, patients with a response could receive interleukin-2 for an extended period. Results A total of 29 patients were enrolled. None had progression of chronic GVHD or relapse of a hematologic cancer. The maximum tolerated dose of interleukin-2 was 1×106 IU per square meter. The highest dose level induced unacc...
Effect of ethanol, haloperidol, and lorazepam on cardiac conduction and contraction

Haloperidol and lorazepam are commonly used to sedate ethanol (E)-intoxicated patients in emergency departments. This study was conducted to explore the role of ethanol in altering the potency of haloperidol and lorazepam with respect to cardiac conduction and contraction. For mechanical studies, isolated rat hearts were studied under isovolumetric conditions by using standard Langendorff technique. Hearts were perfused with Krebs-Heinseleit-Bicarbonate buffer containing haloperidol or lorazepam in concentrations ranging from 100 to 750 ng/ml (one heart per drug concentration). For both haloperidol and lorazepam individually, significant reductions in Left ventricular-generated pressure (LVGP) were observed at a concentration of 750 ng/ml (haloperidol = 2,250 nM and lorazepam = 2,000 nM). The addition of 20 and 65 mM ethanol shifted the concentration-response effect of haloperidol such that LVGP was significantly reduced at haloperidol = 500 and 300 ng/ml, respectively (p < 0.05 vs. basal control; paired t test). Ethanol produced no observable shift on the lorazepam concentration-response for LVGP. For electrophysiologic studies, hearts were perfused with haloperidol and lorazepam (300 ng/ml) +/- 65 mM ethanol. Compared with basal control, E + H significantly decreased heart rate (-74 +/- 12 beats/min) and increased His-ventricular conduction time (+7.6 +/- 1.5 ms vs. +1.7 +/- 0.6 ms for control hearts). Both haloperidol and EH significantly increased atrioventricular (AV) effective refractory period and the atrioventricular-His (AH) conduction interval. No significant changes in any electrophysiologic parameter were observed with ethanol or lorazepam perfused individually or with the combination of ethanol and lorazepam. Ethanol potentiates haloperidol-induced electromechanical depression of isolated rat hearts. Ethanol had no such effect on lorazepam.
Outcomes of single-level cervical disc arthroplasty versus anterior cervical discectomy and fusion

Abstract Several studies have established the short-term safety and efficacy of cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) as compared to anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). However, few single-center comparative trials have been performed, and current studies do not contain large numbers of patients. We retrospectively reviewed all patients from a single military tertiary medical center between August 2008 to August 2012 who underwent single-level CDA or single-level ACDF and compared their clinical outcomes and complications. A total of 259 consecutive patients were included in the study, 171 patients in the CDA group with an average follow-up of 9.8 (±9.9) months and 88 patients in the ACDF group with an average follow-up of 11.8 (±9.6) months. Relief of pre-operative symptoms was 90.1% in the CDA group and 86.4% in the ACDF group with rates of return to full pre-operative activity of 93.0% and 88.6%, respectively. Patients who underwent CDA had a higher rate of persistent posterior neck pain (15.8% versus 12.5%), and patients who underwent ACDF were at risk for symptomatic pseudarthrosis at a rate of 3.4%. Reoperation rates were higher in the ACDF group (5.7% versus 3.5%). To our knowledge, this review is the largest, non-funded, comparison study between single-level CDA and single-level ACDF. This study demonstrates that CDA is a safe and reliable alternative to ACDF in the treatment of cervical radiculopathy and myelopathy resulting from spondylosis and acute disc herniation.
Configuring Trees of Classifiers in Distributed Multimedia Stream Mining Systems

Multimedia stream mining applications require the identification of several different attributes in data content, and hence rely on a set of cascaded statistical classifiers to filter and process the data dynamically. In this paper, we introduce a novel methodology for configuring such cascaded classifier topologies, specifically binary classifier trees, in resource-constrained, distributed stream mining systems. Instead of traditional load shedding, our approach configures classifiers with optimized operating points after jointly considering the misclassification cost of each end-to-end class of interest in the tree, the resource constraints for every classifier, and the confidence level of each data object that is classified. The proposed approach allows for both intelligent load shedding as well as data replication based on available resources dynamically. We evaluate the algorithm on a sports video concept detection application and identify huge cost savings over load shedding alone. Additionally, we propose several distributed algorithms that enable each classifier in the tree to reconfigure itself based on local information exchange. We analyze the associated tradeoffs between convergence time, information overhead, and the cost efficiency of results achieved by each classifier for each of these algorithms.
Effect of CMAS Infiltration on Radiative Transport Through an EB‐PVD Thermal Barrier Coating

One of the adverse effects of sand ingestion in gas turbines is that the thermal barrier coatings on the blades and vanes can be infiltrated at high temperatures by molten calcium–magnesium–aluminum–silicate (CMAS) and cause premature failure of the coating. To investigate the effect of CMAS penetration, the optical properties of a synthetic glass representative of CMAS are reported from 500 nm to 2.5 μm. Results are then presented to show that silicate infiltration of an electron beam-deposited TBC can increase radiative transport through the coating. The results are qualitatively consistent with a simple optical scattering model for radiative transport through a porous coating.
Drug use, misuse, and the urban environment

Urbanization is probably the single most important demographic shift world-wide throughout the past and the new century and represents a sentinel change from how most of the world's population has lived for the past several thousand years. As urban living becomes the predominant social context for the majority of the world's population, the very ubiquity of urban living promises to shape health directly and to indirectly affect what we typically consider risk factors or determinants of population health. Although a growing body of research is exploring how characteristics of the urban environment may be associated with health (e.g. depression) and risk behaviours (e.g. exercise patterns), relatively little research has systematically assessed how the urban environment may affect drug use and misuse. In this paper we will propose a conceptual framework for considering how different characteristics of the urban environment (e.g. collective efficacy, the built environment) may be associated with drug use and misuse, summarize the existing empiric literature that substantiates elements of this framework, and identify potential directions for future research.
Chinese travellers to the United States — An emerging market:

The study was designed to achieve a twofold objective. It examined the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and trip-related attributes of outbound Chinese travellers to the United States. This particular market was then compared with Chinese visitors bound for nine Asia-Pacific countries and regions designated by the Chinese government as leisure travel destinations, and Chinese visitors to Japan and Western Europe. The purpose was to provide a profile of the US-bound Chinese market and identify a number of characteristics and attributes that significantly differentiated it from the other markets.
A study of the freezing of sea water

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer was used to study the interaction between convection currents in the sea water and the ice-water interface during freezing. The temperature at the ice-water interface during the early stages of freezing was approximately 0 °C, not the equilibrium freezing temperature. Salt plumes were observed to appear first at specific sites on the ice-water interface. This is contrary to earlier results reported by Farhadieh & Tankin (1972). The salinity profiles in the salt plumes were measured using interferograms in conjunction with Abel inversion. The maximum salinity, along the centre-line of the salt plume, is an indication of the salinity of the brine trapped within the ice.
MEMBRANE AND PROTOPLASM RESISTANCE IN THE SQUID GIANT AXON.

The direct current longitudinal resistance of the squid giant axon was measured as a function of the electrode separation. Large sea water electrodes were used and the inter-electrode length was immersed in oil. The slope of the resistance vs. separation curve is large for a small electrode separation, but becomes smaller and finally constant as the separation is increased. An analysis of the resistance vs. length curves gives the following results. The nerve membrane has a resistance of about 1000 ohm cm.2 The protoplasm has a specific resistance of about 1.4 times that of sea water. The resistance of the connective tissue sheath outside the fiber corresponds to a layer of sea water about 20µ in thickness. The characteristic length for the axon is about 2.3 mm. in oil and 6.0 mm. in sea water.
Beam heating of a moderately thick cold stage specimen in the SEM/STEM

SUMMARY A mathematical model for the electron beam heating problem of thick specimens (thickness less than the electron range) in the cold stage of SEM/STEM is proposed, and an analytic solution for the problem is provided. The use of the model is demonstrated by calculating the maximum temperature rise in a red blood cell mounted on a metallized polymer film, for a large range of operating conditions. With a probe size of 20 nm and probe current of less than 10 nA the temperature rise was found to be on the order of 5 K. This temperature rise increases proportionally to the probe current if all other variables are kept constant. Although the amount of energy dissipated in thick specimens is large relative to thin films, temperature rise can be minimized by mounting the thick sample on a metal stub or on a metallized film thus providing large heat transfer area through a high thermal conductivity substrate. Of course our calculations only have meaning if the specimen is in good thermal contact with the underlying support.
Geometric reasoning for single image structure recovery

We study the problem of generating plausible interpretations of a scene from a collection of line segments automatically extracted from a single indoor image. We show that we can recognize the three dimensional structure of the interior of a building, even in the presence of occluding objects. Several physically valid structure hypotheses are proposed by geometric reasoning and verified to find the best fitting model to line segments, which is then converted to a full 3D model. Our experiments demonstrate that our structure recovery from line segments is comparable with methods using full image appearance. Our approach shows how a set of rules describing geometric constraints between groups of segments can be used to prune scene interpretation hypotheses and to generate the most plausible interpretation.
Literature overview: Emerging organic contaminants in water and their remediation

Emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) are widespread in the environment, and concentrations above the acceptable limits are being detected due to improved detection methods, technologies, and regulations for their monitoring. Increasing use of new consumer, pharmaceutical, and scientific products has introduced EOCs, such as nanomaterials and siloxanes, into the environment. The releases of EOCs into the environment can lead to surface-water, soil, and groundwater contamination. The presence of pharmaceuticals and their enantiomers can lead to resistant algal strains and, thus, more persistent algal toxins. This review discusses some of the prominent EOCs and the methods for their remediation. This is useful for assessing current remediation technologies and for developing new technologies to treat EOCs in water. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Examining Stools for Colon Cancer Prevention: What Are We Really Looking for?

Fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) is superior to guiac-based testing if we are looking for blood in stools, as it has better one-time colorectal cancer sensitivity and specificity and better patient acceptance. In this issue of the journal, Cai and colleagues (beginning on page 1572) and Khalid-de Bakker and colleagues (beginning on page 1563) present new information about the one-time test performance of FIT. FIT will have a growing appeal to providers and health care systems as resources for clinical preventive services shrink and as incentives to expand colorectal screening rates increase, but there are good reasons to be cautious about the temptation to organize new FIT screening programs. Colorectal screening has two potential objectives: To find cancers in an earlier, more-treatable stage and to find and remove adenomas to prevent cancers from forming in the first place. Because most adenomas, even advanced adenomas, do not bleed, tests designed to identify occult blood in the stool are better for detecting colorectal cancer, whereas direct endoscopic visualization of the colorectum is better for prevention. Even if advanced adenomas did commonly bleed, low compliance with repeat annual testing will seriously erode the benefit of FIT.
A test phantom for estimating changes in the effective frequency of an ultrasonic scanner.

Objective. Ultrasonic frequency is an important performance feature of B-mode scanners. It is particularly relevant when comparing instruments from different manufacturers and reporting clinical results. We investigated a test phantom to independently measure an effective imaging frequency, including effects of depth-dependent attenuation and frequency filtering during echo reception. Methods. The approach capitalizes on variations of the frequency dependence of backscatter with scatterer size. A tissue-mimicking phantom containing 48-µm-diameter scatterers was constructed. Embedded at depths of 1, 3, 7, and 9 cm were sets of cylindrical inclusions, each containing tissue-mimicking material with a different scatterer size and number density. Computer simulations helped establish scatterer parameters for the cylinder bodies that resulted in image contrast versus the background that varied with frequency, with each cylinder transitioning from negative to positive contrast at a different frequency. Acoustic properties of the phantom were verified by a laboratory apparatus. Initial tests of the effectiveness of the phantom were done by imaging with several scanners using various frequency and imaging settings on transducers. Results. Images were obtained with 2 clinical scanners in which modest changes in the image acquisition parameters were adjusted. Image contrast between test cylinders and background corresponded to operating frequency with a multihertz transducer. Changes in observable contrast consistent with a shift in operating frequency were not always accompanied by visual indicators that such changes in the scanning protocol had occurred. Conclusions. The test phantom performs as predicted by computer simulations and theoretical calculations of backscatter versus frequency. Contrast on images of the test phantom produced by clinical systems correlates with scanner
The clinical relevance of multidrug resistance

(1990). The Clinical Relevance of Multidrug Resistance. Cancer Investigation: Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 547-562.
The design of the 'Babble' timeline: a social proxy for visualizing group activity over time

We describe the design and implementation of the Timeline social proxy, a visualization widget that provides cues about the presence and activity of participants in an online conversation system. Unlike most awareness indicators (but see [4] for an exception), the Timeline shows the history of participants' presence and activities, thus providing cues about who has been 'listening' in asynchronous conversations. We discuss our experience with the Timeline, describing some of the ways in which it is used, as well as its design flaws and potential remedies.
Studying multi-user settings for pervasive games

Whenever a pervasive game has to be developed for a group of children an appropriate multi-user setting has to be found. If the pervasive game does not support the children with an adequate multi-user setting, unintended situations can emerge, such as a single user can dominate the game while the other users are bored and disinterested. In our research we approach that problem by investigating various multi-user settings that are characterized by a different distribution of interaction devices. We describe three multi-user settings, a pervasive game which we used as a test bed, and a user study with 18 children to find out how the multiuser settings influence the children's social behaviour as expressed by the level of activity for all group members, the off-task behaviour and the level of task-related conversations.
The Quest for East African Neutrality in 1915

When Britain's foreign secretary on 3 August 1914 ruefully observed that the lamps were going out all over Europe, he had not yet fully grasped the dimensions of the war about to begin. Within three days, however, Sir Edward Grey was attending a cabinet meeting in which he and his fellow members sketched a war strategy against Germany which was global in context. Whatever prewar British respect had existed for German empire-builders (Stengers, 1967: 345), the new War Sub-Committee of Britain's cabinet decided to seize as soon as possible all of Germany's overseas possessions. The initial motive was to secure the sealanes by occupying German overseas ports that could serve commerce raiding German cruisers and by destroying the German wireless stations which would serve those cruisers. Even then, however, Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt entertained the notion of British annexation of the whole German colonial empire (Louis, 1967: 36-37). As Winston Churchill described that session,
Elastic dielectric composites: Theory and application to particle-filled ideal dielectrics

Abstract A microscopic field theory is developed with the aim of describing, explaining, and predicting the macroscopic response of elastic dielectric composites with two-phase particulate (periodic or random) microstructures under arbitrarily large deformations and electric fields. The central idea rests on the construction — via an iterated homogenization technique in finite electroelastostatics — of a specific but yet fairly general class of particulate microstructures which allow to compute exactly the homogenized response of the resulting composite materials. The theory is applicable to any choice of elastic dielectric behaviors (with possibly even or odd electroelastic coupling) for the underlying matrix and particles, and any choice of the one- and two-point correlation functions describing the microstructure. In spite of accounting for fine microscopic information, the required calculations amount to solving tractable first-order nonlinear (Hamilton-Jacobi-type) partial differential equations. As a first application of the theory, explicit results are worked out for the basic case of ideal elastic dielectrics filled with initially spherical particles that are distributed either isotropically or in chain-like formations and that are ideal elastic dielectrics themselves. The effects that the permittivity, stiffness, volume fraction, and spatial distribution of the particles have on the overall electrostrictive deformation (induced by the application of a uniaxial electric field) of the composite are discussed in detail.
Variation of the North American Summer Monsoon Regimes and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Abstract The North American summer monsoon holds the key to understanding warm season rainfall variations in the region from northern Mexico to the Southwest and the central United States. Studies of the monsoon have pictured mosaic submonsoonal regions and different processes influencing monsoon variations. Among the influencing processes is the “land memory,” showing primarily the influence of the antecedent winter season precipitation (snow) anomalies in the Northwest on summer rainfall anomalies in the Southwest. More intriguingly, the land memory has been found to vary at the multidecadal time scale. This memory change may actually reflect multidecadal variations of the atmospheric circulation in the North American monsoon region. This notion is examined in this study by first establishing the North American monsoon regimes from relationships of summer rainfall variations in central and western North America, and then quantifying their variations at the multidecadal scale in the twentieth century. Re...
Rigid substructure search

Motivation: Identifying the location of binding sites on proteins is of fundamental importance for a wide range of applications, including molecular docking, de novo drug design, structure identification and comparison of functional sites. Here we present Erebus, a web server that searches the entire Protein Data Bank for a given substructure defined by a set of atoms of interest, such as the binding scaffolds for small molecules. The identified substructure contains atoms having the same names, belonging to same amino acids and separated by the same distances (within a given tolerance) as the atoms of the query structure. The accuracy of a match is measured by the root-mean-square deviation or by the normal weight with a given variance. Tests show that our approach can reliably locate rigid binding scaffolds of drugs and metal ions. Availability and Implementation: We provide this service through a web server at http://erebus.dokhlab.org. Contact: [email protected]
Key Features of the Intragraft Microenvironment that Determine Long-Term Survival Following Transplantation.

In this review, we discuss how changes in the intragraft microenvironment serve to promote or sustain the development of chronic allograft rejection. We propose two key elements within the microenvironment that contribute to the rejection process. The first is endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis that serve to create abnormal microvascular blood flow patterns as well as local tissue hypoxia, and precedes endothelial-tomesenchymal transition. The second is the overexpression of local cytokines and growth factors that serve to sustain inflammation and, in turn, function to promote a leukocyteinduced angiogenesis reaction. Central to both events is overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is both pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic, and thus drives progression of the chronic rejection microenvironment. In our discussion, we focus on how inflammation results in angiogenesis and how leukocyte-induced angiogenesis is pathological. We also discuss how VEGF is a master control factor that fosters the development of the chronic rejection microenvironment. Overall, this review provides insight into the intragraft microenvironment as an important paradigm for future direction in the field.
Mcm10 coordinates the timely assembly and activation of the replication fork helicase

Mcm10 is an essential replication factor that is required for DNA replication in eukaryotes. Two key steps in the initiation of DNA replication are the assembly and activation of Cdc45-Mcm2-7-GINS (CMG) replicative helicase. However, it is not known what coordinates helicase assembly with helicase activation. We show in this manuscript, using purified proteins from budding yeast, that Mcm10 directly interacts with the Mcm2-7 complex and Cdc45. In fact, Mcm10 recruits Cdc45 to Mcm2-7 complex in vitro. To study the role of Mcm10 in more detail in vivo we used an auxin inducible degron in which Mcm10 is degraded upon addition of auxin. We show in this manuscript that Mcm10 is required for the timely recruitment of Cdc45 and GINS recruitment to the Mcm2-7 complex in vivo during early S phase. We also found that Mcm10 stimulates Mcm2 phosphorylation by DDK in vivo and in vitro. These findings indicate that Mcm10 plays a critical role in coupling replicative helicase assembly with helicase activation. Mcm10 is first involved in the recruitment of Cdc45 to the Mcm2-7 complex. After Cdc45-Mcm2-7 complex assembly, Mcm10 promotes origin melting by stimulating DDK phosphorylation of Mcm2, which thereby leads to GINS attachment to Mcm2-7.
Explaining the Interbank Loan Market Crisis of 2008: A Teaching Note

This teaching note examines one aspect of the financial crisis: the month-long turmoil in the interbank loan market, which began with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 and ended with the U.S. Treasury Department's $250 billion bank recapitalization on October 14, 2008. We model the crisis as a prisoner's dilemma in which banks with excess reserves play a game of Loan or Don't Loan with each other. The initial game results in a Nash equilibrium where each bank chooses Don't Loan and both are worse off. The second game incorporates the U.S. government's recapitalization program. It is argued that the program solves an asymmetric information problem that revives lending in the interbank loan market.
Variation in Treatment Priorities for Chronic Hepatitis C: A Latent Class Analysis.

Data describing patients’ priorities, or main concerns, are essential to inform important decisions in healthcare, including treatment planning, diagnostic testing, and the development of programs to improve access and delivery of care. To date, the majority of studies performed does not account for variability in patients’ priorities, and as a consequence may not effectively inform end users. The objective of this study was to examine the value of segmentation analysis as a method to illustrate variability in priorities for treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV). We elicited patients’ main concerns when considering antiviral therapy for HCV using a Best–Worst Scaling experiment (Case 1) with ten objects. Latent class analysis was used to estimate part-worth utilities and the probability that each respondent belongs to each segment. In the aggregate, subjects (N = 162) had three main concerns: (1) not being cured; (2) experiencing a lot of side effects; and (3) developing viral resistance to therapy. Segmentation into two groups demonstrated that both groups prioritized the likelihood of cure and coping with side effects, but that only one group (n = 78) was concerned about developing viral resistance to therapy, while subjects in the second group (n = 84) prioritized being able to keep up with their responsibilities. Further segmentation revealed distinct clusters of patients with unique priorities. Patients’ priorities vary significantly. Preference studies should consider including methods to determine whether distinct clusters of priorities and/or concerns exist in order to accurately inform end users’ decision making.
Graphite and Xenon Behavior and their Influence on Molten-Salt Reactor Design

Existing data an dimensional changes in graphite have been fitted to parabolic temperature-sensitive curves. From these, the graphite life, radiation-induced stresses, and permissible geometries ha...
Informative Cheap Talk in International Security Organizations and Crisis Duration

Existing work on security organizations, and the UNSC in particular, has found that condemnations and threats to use coercive measures have been largely ineffective in changing targeted state's policies, likely because they are cheap talk. This paper argues that applying standard conceptions of cheap talk to IOs misunderstands the purpose of these resolutions and leads to incorrect conclusions. In traditional crisis and conflict bargaining models, cheap talk is ineffective at deterring targets because states are assumed to have a conflict of interest which is common knowledge. The value of IO threats and declarations is not necessarily in deterring targeted states but also in revealing information about the distribution of preferences among member states. This information might lead a target to moderate their behavior or escalate a crisis, depending on the content and context of the declaration.This paper proposes a simple model where so-called cheap talk from an IO (e.g. Security Council resolutions), which does not authorize coercive measures, conveys information to targeted states about the likelihood of future enforcement actions. In the model, target states are unsure about the distribution of preferences within the IO and no individual state's preferences are necessarily orthogonal to the targeted state. Resolutions and other costless outputs help inform the target about that distribution. Because these documents must come prior to any coercive action, there are equilibria where the document changes the target state's expectation of punishment in the face of a costless signal. Learning about IO member preferences may embolden targets, deter them from escalating, or result in more modest policy adjustments. The paper then considers how this informative effect is strengthened or weakened by the observable bias of the IO member states. Namely, as the critical state, or pivotal voter, becomes more hostile to the target its condemnations are taken more seriously. A survival analysis of UN Security Council condemnations' effect on crisis duration provides preliminary evidence of the model's mechanisms at work. Outside of security organizations, this mechanism can work in many other situations where there is uncertainty over the distribution of international preferences.
Closed Joint ACL Disruption Murine Model of PTA

Closed, nonsurgical models of induced mouse OA are becoming more accepted in the field of OA research. These models rely on intra-articular fracture, repeated bouts of mechanical overloading of the joint, or rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. The ACL rupture model described in this chapter results in immediate mechanical damage to the ACL, either as an avulsion fracture or midsection ACL tear depending on the loading rate. This immediate damage causes joint instability and initiates a biological injury response that includes acute changes in gene expression, increased cytokine production, as well as increased expression of proteinases in the ADAMTS and MMP families. The expression of many anabolic genes also results, indicating a wound-repair response. The initial changes in gene expression are followed by substantial remodeling of subchondral bone during the first 2 weeks, and osteophyte formation at later time points. Serum biomarkers of OA development (COMP) and bone resorption (CTX-I) become elevated. Histological assessment shows markers of OA progression that include synovial hyperplasia and fibrosis, loss of surface lamina and superficial zone chondrocytes, and at later time points significant proteoglycan loss and cartilage degradation. In summary, the closed joint ACL rupture model approximates many of the clinical features of joint injury leading to OA, and holds promise for the study of early intervention strategies to prevent OA initiation after injury.
Load balancer discovery for the data center: a holistic approach

Data center migration relies heavily upon the ability to detect critical IT components in the original environment. Not all components are easy to detect using traditional discovery tools. For instance, load balancers are designed to b e transparent to network traffic, making them invisible to normal scans. Also, the discovery task must be minimally invasive, since the IT environment to be migrated is usually in a production state until the relocation is complete. Studying the configuration of discovered host machines can reveal the presence of the network appliances they use, allowing a “short list” of probable appliance locations to b e made, even if such appliances do not themselves respond to traditional network scans. This paper describes a collection of heuristics for detecting the presence of network devices in data centers, with a specific focus on detecting load balancers. Our approach lies in exploiting (1) host-based network data, which is often collected during data center migrations, and (2) knowledge of how load balancer appliances and managed servers are conventionally configured in an enterprise network. The effectiveness of our techniques is evaluated using data from an IBM data center migration project.
The fat of the land : White Rock phase bison hunting and grease production

A focal bison hunting economy is evident for the White Rock phase, a Late Prehistoric Oneota culture of the Central Plains. This adaptation contrasts with the more generalized animalprocurement of ...
Turbo coded BLAST

In this paper we investigate turbo coding for BLAST (Bell Labs layered space-time) by encoding single user data streams and transmitting the symbols in different antennas. At the receiver we adopt an MMSE nulling, incremental decoding and soft cancellation approach to decode the symbols. The simulation results are presented and compared with the ergodic capacity limit.
Validation of Inertial Measurement Units for Upper Body Kinematics

The purpose of this study was to validate a commercially available inertial measurement unit (IMU) system against a standard lab-based motion capture system for the measurement of shoulder elevation, elbow flexion, trunk flexion/extension, and neck flexion/extension kinematics. The validation analyses were applied to 6 surgical faculty members performing a standard, simulated surgical training task that mimics minimally invasive surgery. Three-dimensional joint kinematics were simultaneously recorded by an optical motion capture system and an IMU system with 6 sensors placed on the head, chest, and bilateral upper and lower arms. The sensor-to-segment axes alignment was accomplished manually. The IMU neck and trunk IMU flexion/extension angles were accurate to within 2.9 ± 0.9 degrees and 1.6 ± 1.1°, respectively. The IMU shoulder elevation measure was accurate to within 6.8 ± 2.7° and the elbow flexion measure was accurate to within 8.2 ± 2.8°. In the Bland-Altman analyses, there were no significant syst...
The Role of Minimally Invasive Techniques in the Treatment of Thoracolumbar Trauma

Context: Thoracolumbar injuries are common manifestations of spinal trauma. While non-operative therapy is indicated in certain cases of isolated injury, operative therapy via open approaches are widely utilized. Recently, minimally invasive surgical (MIS) approaches have been adapted for the management of thoracolumbar trauma in an effort to avoid the operative morbidity of open thoracolumbar procedures.Purpose: The purpose of this review is to perform a critical analysis of the literature regarding the clinical efficacy and safety of MIS procedures in the management of thoracolumbar trauma.Evidence Acquisition: PubMed and MEDLINE databases were searched for articles published on the topic of MIS treatment of traumatic thoracolumbar injuries. Studies included in this review were comprised of clinical case series, retrospective cohort studies, non-randomized prospective cohort studies, prospective randomized controlled trials, and meta-analyses.Results: The majority of published studies were retrospective clinical case series comprising level IV evidence. The majority of studies demonstrated the viability of MIS approaches as a treatment modality for thoracolumbar trauma in regards to clinical outcomes, radiographic outcomes, and complication rates. Additionally, MIS procedures were associated with reductions in operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and immediate postoperative pain.Conclusions: MIS approaches to thoracolumbar trauma are viable treatment strategies in regards to clinical efficacy and safety. While the results for MIS procedures are promising, more high-quality prospective studies are necessary in order to make definitive conclusions regarding the superiority of MIS over open surgical strategies.
Phylogenetic Analyses Suggest that Factors Other Than the Capsid Protein Play a Role in the Epidemic Potential of GII.2 Norovirus

Norovirus is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. For over two decades, a single genotype (GII.4) has been responsible for most norovirus-associated cases. However, during the winter of 2014 to 2015, the GII.4 strains were displaced by a rarely detected genotype (GII.17) in several countries of the Asian continent. Moreover, during the winter of 2016 to 2017, the GII.2 strain reemerged as predominant in different countries worldwide. This reemerging GII.2 strain is a recombinant virus that presents a GII.P16 polymerase genotype. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary dynamics of GII.2 to determine the mechanism of this sudden emergence in the human population. The phylogenetic analyses indicated strong linear evolution of the VP1-encoding sequence, albeit with minor changes in the amino acid sequence over time. Without major genetic differences among the strains, a clustering based on the polymerase genotype was observed in the tree. This association did not affect the substitution rate of the VP1. Phylogenetic analyses of the polymerase region showed that reemerging GII.P16-GII.2 strains diverged into a new cluster, with a small number of amino acid substitutions detected on the surface of the associated polymerase. Thus, besides recombination or antigenic shift, point mutations in nonstructural proteins could also lead to novel properties with epidemic potential in different norovirus genotypes. IMPORTANCE Noroviruses are a major cause of gastroenteritis worldwide. Currently, there is no vaccine or specific antiviral available to treat norovirus disease. Multiple norovirus strains infect humans, but a single genotype (GII.4) has been regarded as the most important cause of viral gastroenteritis outbreaks worldwide. Its persistence and predominance have been explained by the continuous replacement of variants that present new antigenic properties on their capsid protein, thus evading the herd immunity acquired to the previous variants. Over the last three seasons, minor genotypes have displaced the GII.4 viruses as the predominant strains. One of these genotypes, GII.2, reemerged as predominant during 2016 to 2017. Here we show that factors such as minor changes in the polymerase may have driven the reemergence of GII.2 during the last season. A better understanding of norovirus diversity is important for the development of effective treatments against noroviruses.
Common Spectrum of Particles Accelerated in the Heliosphere: Observations and a Mechanism

Abstract Measurements of accelerated suprathermal particles in various locations of the heliosphere reveal a remarkably simple common spectrum. At low energies the spectrum is always the same, i.e., the velocity distribution is a power law with a spectral index of −5, which corresponds to the limiting kappa distribution with a κ-index = 1.5. At higher energies a rollover occurs, which can often be described as exponential. This common spectral shape cannot be accounted for by any conventional acceleration mechanism, such as diffusive shock acceleration or traditional stochastic acceleration. Thus a new simple “pump acceleration mechanism” has been constructed to account for these observations. In this mechanism, particles are pumped up in energy through a series of adiabatic compressions and expansions. The conditions under which the pump acceleration is the dominant acceleration mechanism are quite general and are likely to occur in other astrophysical plasmas. This chapter reviews relevant observations of the energy spectra of accelerated suprathermal tails throughout the solar system, revealing the first detection of the limiting kappa distribution. Also, the governing equation of the pump acceleration mechanism, responsible for generating this distribution, is derived in detail and applied in a couple of representative examples: acceleration downstream from locally observed shocks and acceleration in impulsive solar energetic particle events.
Aqueous-Processable Redox-Active Supramolecular Polymer Binders for Advanced Lithium/Sulfur Cells

Lithium/Sulfur (Li/S) cells are a promising chemistry with potential to deliver a step-change in energy density compared to state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries. To minimize the environmental impact of the Li/S cell manufacturing and to compete with Li-ion cells in both performance and cost, electrodes cast using an aqueous process are highly desirable. Here we describe the discovery and application of a lithiated redox-mediating supramolecular binder based on the well-known n-type semiconductor, perylene bisimide, that forms high-fidelity sulfur electrodes from water-processed slurries. A 1.4-fold improvement in sulfur utilization at 3.0 C and 58% increase in capacity retention after 250 cycles at 1.5 C are reported for the prelithiated, supramolecular binder compared to control samples. These improvements are attributed to the self-assembly of lithiated perylene bisimide binders in water to yield nanowire web morphologies that increase interfacial area between electrode components and exhibit enhanced elec...