cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nitric-oxide-induced depolarization of neuronal mitochondria: implications for neuronal cell death.

Abstract Nitric oxide (NO•) has known toxic effects on central nervous system neurons. This study characterized the effect of NO• on mitochondrial membrane changes by exploring the relationship among NO•, excitatory receptor activation, and the induction of peroxynitrite, a highly toxic NO• reactant, to neuronal injury. Cultured rat cortical neurons were exposed to the NO• generator, diethylenetriamine/nitric oxide adduct, and were examined for signs of cell death, mitochondrial membrane potential changes (Δψm), and the induction of a mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT). Neurons were also examined for nitrotyrosine (NT) immunoreactivity, a marker of reactive nitrogen species (RNS) formation. Neurons exposed to NO• or to N-methyl- d -aspartate (NMDA) exhibited similar rapid depolarization of mitochondria, which was prevented by an NMDA receptor antagonist. Electrophysiological studies demonstrated NO• potentiation of NMDA-induced NMDA receptor currents. NO• and NMDA-treated neurons had evidence of mitochondrial-specific NT immunoreactivity that was prevented by a SOD/catalase mimetic (EUK-134). EUK-134 treatment reduced both NO• and NMDA-induced NT formation and neuronal cell death. EUK-134 did not prevent NO-induced Δψm but partially prevented NMDA-induced Δψm loss. Although NO• and NMDA both induced MPT and MPT inhibitors prevented NO-induced Δψm, they did not result in significant neuroprotection, in contrast to treatment designed to decrease peroxynitrite formation. These data suggest that NO-induced NMDA receptor activation is closely linked to intramitochondrial NO-peroxynitrite/RNS formation and thereby acts as a major mediator of neuronal cell death.
Time-Dependence of Molecular Mobility during Structural Relaxation and its Impact on Organic Amorphous Solids: An Investigation Based on a Calorimetric Approach

To develop a calorimetry-based model for estimating the time-dependence of molecular mobility during the isothermal relaxation of amorphous organic compounds below their glass transition temperature (T g). The time-dependent enthalpy relaxation times of amorphous sorbitol, indomethacin, trehalose and sucrose were estimated based on the nonlinear Adam‐Gibbs equation. Fragility was determined from the scanning rate dependence of T g. Time evolution of the fictive temperature was determined from T g, the heat capacity of the amorphous and crystalline forms, and from the enthalpy relaxation data. Relaxation time changes significantly upon annealing for all compounds studied. The magnitude of the increase in relaxation time does not depend on any one parameter but on four parameters: T g, fragility, and the crystal–liquid and glass–liquid heat capacity differences. The obtained mobility data for indomethacin and sucrose, both stored at T g−16 K, correlated much better with their different crystallization tendencies than did the Kohlrausch‐Williams‐Watts (KWW) equation. The observed changes in relaxation time help explain and address the limitations of the KWW approach. Due consideration of the time-dependence of molecular mobility upon storage is a key element for improving the understanding necessary for stabilizing amorphous formulations.
Quantifying and relating land-surface and subsurface variability in permafrost environments using LiDAR and surface geophysical datasets

The value of remote sensing and surface geophysical data for characterizing the spatial variability and relationships between land-surface and subsurface properties was explored in an Alaska (USA) coastal plain ecosystem. At this site, a nested suite of measurements was collected within a region where the land surface was dominated by polygons, including: LiDAR data; ground- penetrating radar, electromagnetic, and electrical-resis- tance tomography data; active-layer depth, soil tempera- ture, soil-moisture content, soil texture, soil carbon and nitrogen content; and pore-fluid cations. LiDAR data were used to extract geomorphic metrics, which potentially indicate drainage potential. Geophysical data were used to characterize active-layer depth, soil-moisture content, and permafrost variability. Cluster analysis of the LiDAR and geophysical attributes revealed the presence of three spatial zones, which had unique distributions of geomor- phic, hydrological, thermal, and geochemical properties. The correspondence between the LiDAR-based geomor- phic zonation and the geophysics-based active-layer and permafrost zonation highlights the significant linkage between these ecosystem compartments. This study suggests the potential of combining LiDAR and surface geophysical measurements for providing high-resolution information about land-surface and subsurface properties as well as their spatial variations and linkages, all of which are important for quantifying terrestrial-ecosystem evolution and feedbacks to climate.
Factorization and high-energy effective action

The author demonstrates that the amplitude for high-energy scattering can be factorized as a convolution of the contributions due to fast and slow fields. The fast and slow fields interact by means of Wilson-line operators -- infinite gauge factors ordered along the straight line. The resulting factorization formula gives a starting point for a new approach to the effective action for high-energy scattering in QCD.
Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan

The languages of Northeast Asia show evidence of dispersal from south to north, consistent with the hypothesis that agriculture spread north and east from the vicinity of Liaoning, beginning with the millets approximately 5500 BP. Wet rice agriculture in Korea and Japan results from a later spread, also beginning in Shandong, crossing via the Liaodong peninsula and reaching the Korean peninsula around 1500 BCE. This dispersal is associated with the Mumun archaeological culture after 1500 BCE in the Korean peninsula and the Yayoi culture after 950 BCE in the Japanese archipelago. From a linguistic standpoint, it is associated with the entry of the Japonic language family, first into the Korean peninsula, subsequently into the Japanese archipelago. The arrival of Koreanic is associated with the advent of the Korean-style bronze dagger culture and a temporary hiatus in wet rice agriculture sites around 300 BCE. Both Koreanic and Japonic are relatively shallow language families, with Koreanic the shallower of the two, consistent with the chronology above. The gap between the earliest linguistically motivated dates for these language families and the archaeological events is the result of a linguistic founders effect, providing further evidence for demic diffusion as a source for their distribution.
Ultrastructure of Collagen Thermally Denatured by Microsecond Domain Pulsed Carbon Dioxide Laser

Background Clinical improvement in photodamaged skin after carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) laser resurfacing is thought to result in part from thermal collagen shrinkage. The presence of such collagen has not been unequivocally demonstrated. To identify and characterize the morphological features of collagen after CO 2 laser exposure, we irradiated ex vivo human facial skin and bovine calcaneus tendon with microsecond domain pulsed CO 2 laser energy and examined specimens for histopathological and ultrastructural changes in collagen. Observations In dermis and tendon, 3 zones of collagen structure were apparent on electron microscopy. The first, most superficial zone demonstrated loss of collagen structure. The second zone consisted of admixed normal collagen fibers and thickened collagen fibers. Zone 3 consisted of normal-appearing collagen fibers. Conclusions Ultrastructural examination of irradiated collagen revealed distinct morphological zones of denatured collagen fibers. Partially denatured fibers had an increased diameter consistent with lineal shrinkage. Zonal distinction was undetectable by light microscopy. Ultrastructurally, the zones of denatured collagen located above the normal fibers correlated with the zone of altered material seen on light microscopy. These findings suggest that collagen fiber shrinkage does occur after pulsed CO 2 laser irradiation and that this phenomenon contributed, at least in part, to the immediate tissue contraction observed clinically.
Condensation and pattern formation in cold exciton gases in coupled quantum wells

Bound electron?hole pairs?excitons?are light Bose particles with a mass comparable to or smaller than that of the free electron. Since the quantum degeneracy temperature scales inversely with the mass, it is anticipated that Bose?Einstein condensation of an exciton gas can be achieved at temperatures of about 1?K, orders of magnitude larger than the micro-Kelvin temperatures employed in atomic condensation. High quantum degeneracy temperatures and the possibility to control exciton density by laser photoexcitation make cold excitons a model system for studies of collective states and many-body phenomena in a system of cold bosons. Experimentally, an exciton temperature well below 1?K is achieved in a gas of indirect excitons in coupled quantum-well semiconductor heterostructures. Here, we overview phenomena in the cold exciton gases: condensation, pattern formation, and macroscopically ordered exciton states.
Ganciclovir-Resistant Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Retinitis in a Patient with Wild-Type CMV in Her Plasma

A patient with systemic cytomegalovirus (CMV), including chorioretinitis, received localized and systemic ganciclovir, systemic cidofovir analog, and localized foscarnet. Mutations conferring ganciclovir and cidofovir resistance were detected in CMV from the aqueous fluid but not in CMV from plasma. Quantifying CMV from aqueous fluid was valuable for monitoring the clinical response and predicting resistance.
ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION AND PHYLOGENETIC UTILITY OF ACR (ACROSIN), A RAPIDLY EVOLVING MAMMALIAN FERTILIZATION GENE

Many genes involved in reproduction have evolved at a rapid rate in diverse taxonomic groups. We use new data for the mammalian reproductive gene that encodes acrosin to document patterns of adaptive evolution and rapid divergence. Likelihood scores for neutral and selection models indicate that molecular evolution of the Acr gene is driven by positive selection. Comparisons of Acr sequences to mitochondrial genes and a nuclear intron show that reproductive genes can be informative phylogenetic markers. In bovid artiodactyls (cattle, sheep, goats, and antelopes), exon 5 of Acr is highly variable, is characterized by a low level of homoplasy, and has a fairly even spread of substitutions across the 3 codon positions. Impressive congruence with independent DNA data sets suggests that Acr, and perhaps additional rapidly evolving reproductive molecules, show promise for resolving evolutionary radiations of mammals.
Sensitivity of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) preservation in snow to changing environmental conditions: Implications for ice core records

[1] Sensitivity studies with physically based numerical air–snow–firn transfer models for formaldehyde (HCHO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) show that even though nonlinear processes determine the preservation of HCHO and H2O2 in snow and firn, changes in atmospheric mixing ratios are linearly recorded in ice cores under otherwise constant environmental conditions. However, temperature, snowpack ventilation, and rate and timing of snow accumulation also affect the ice core records of reversibly deposited species and must be considered when inferring past atmospheric mixing ratios. The results of the sensitivity studies allow quantitative separation of these factors in ice core records. Past temperatures and accumulation rates are generally determined in ice cores and the preservation of HCHO and H2O2 is not highly sensitive to snowpack ventilation, leaving changes in seasonality of snow accumulation as the main source of uncertainty in a reconstruction of past atmospheric mixing ratios.
The Virtual Mass of a Sphere Moving Toward a Plane Wall

The axisymmetric potential flow past a sphere almost touching a plane wall is solved in closed form and the solution used to show that the Virtual mass of the sphere is finite This result clears up a difficulty uncovered in calculations by Small and Weihs.
Role of Arginase in the Male and Female Sexual Arousal Response

The NO-cGMP pathway plays a key role in the male and female genital sexual arousal response. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) utilizes L-arginine and oxygen as substrates to produce nitric oxide (NO) and citrulline. Arginase is a metalloenzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of L-arginine to produce L-ornithine and urea. It is proposed that arginase competes for L-arginine and reduces NOS activity in genital tissues, thus modulating sexual function. Using 2 transition state analogue inhibitors of arginase, 2(S)-Amino-6-boronohexanoic acid (ABH) and S-(2-boronoethyl)-L-cysteine (BEC), we have characterized arginase activity in penile and vaginal tissue. Neither of these inhibitors has activity against NOS. Thus, ABH and BEC are useful compounds for examining the role of arginase in genital tissue physiology, without directly influencing NOS activity. We present data to suggest that arginase may regulate NO production by competing for endogenous pools of L-arginine. In this fashion, arginase is an indirect regulator of penile and vaginal blood flow and specific arginase inhibitors may improve genital blood flow during sexual arousal. As evidenced by the upregulation of arginase in specific disease states, its distribution in the vagina, and its modulation by sex steroid hormones, this enzyme may also participate in numerous other physiological and pathophysiological processes, such as tissue growth, fibrosis, and immune function.
Ideophone-gesture composites: depictive type, sendory class, and modality

Our paper seeks to clarify the interrelations between ideophones and gestures in the Pastaza dialect of Ecuadorian Quichua. We argue that in some instances there is a very straightforward semantic relationship between ideophones and gestures, especially when they depict visually observable motion. In other instances, it’s necessary to consider not only the interrelations between ideophones and gestures, but between ideophones, verbs and gestures, because the ideophone and its gesture are specifying the manner of a verb’s motion, or an image of the verb’s action as ongoing, or accomplished and complete. Gestures, therefore, not only illustrate ideophones’ meanings, but also tie those meanings together with a verb’s grammatical and semantic specifications.
Dorsal arachnoid web

Dorsal thoracic arachnoid web is a rare but often overlooked cause of progressive myelopathy. Syringomyelia, either above or below the compressive arachnoid band, may also be present. Dorsal arachnoid cyst and ventral spinal cord herniation may be mistaken for this condition. This video demonstrates the microsurgical identification and techniques of resection of a dorsal arachnoid band producing a progressive myelopathy in a 63-year-old man. The video can be found here: http://youtu.be/KDNTqiyW6yo.
Comparison of survey methods for an invasive plant at the subwatershed level

Invasive plant survey methods that are practical and economical are needed to describe established colonies and detect nascent invaders. We compared results from random and roadside surveys of Alliaria petiolata (Bieb.) Cavara & Grande across a 5730-ha subwatershed. The random survey included 150 1-ha plots; the roadside survey examined 0.1-mile increments (10-m deep) along paved roads (totaling 1104 0.16-ha plots). In the random survey, agriculture was the dominant land use (49% of sampled area), and most A. petiolata patches were in wooded, shaded riparian, and waste areas (34%, 34%, and 29% of patches, respectively). In the roadside survey, right-of-way land use was dominant (38% of sampled area), and most A. petiolata patches were in right-of-way, wooded, and shaded riparian areas (53%, 22%, and 19% of patches, respectively). According to generalized linear model analysis, survey methods did not differ in the overall probability of finding A. petiolata (P=0.17 and 0.11 for random and roadside surveys, respectively). Shaded riparian, wooded, and mixed-species right-of-way land uses were the dominant habitat for A. petiolata in both surveys, but only the random survey indicated waste areas as significant habitat. Alliaria petiolata occurred mostly as small patches in roadsides, but as large patches in random plots, suggesting faster spread in the roadside. Results indicated that disturbed lands along roadsides were important for invasion and spread of A. petiolata; therefore, the roadside survey was a useful, practical method for detecting nascent invasions and management planning. The random sampling lacked a land use bias, and provided data that could be generalized across the subwatershed; however, this method required at least four times more person hours to complete than the roadside survey for a similar amount of area. Although roadside sampling did not provide a completely reliable assessment of target plant populations within the landscape, it may provide an adequate approximation, depending on the specific goals of the survey. Concurrent surveys would provide the most complete information.
Frequency warping for VTLN and speaker adaptation by linear transformation of standard MFCC

Vocal tract length normalization (VTLN) for standard filterbank-based Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features is usually implemented by warping the center frequencies of the Mel filterbank, and the warping factor is estimated using the maximum likelihood score (MLS) criterion. A linear transform (LT) equivalent for frequency warping (FW) would enable more efficient MLS estimation. We recently proposed a novel LT to perform FW for VTLN and model adaptation with standard MFCC features. In this paper, we present the mathematical derivation of the LT and give a compact formula to calculate it for any FW function. We also show that our LT is closely related to different LTs previously proposed for FW with cepstral features, and these LTs for FW are all shown to be numerically almost identical for the sine-log all-pass transform (SLAPT) warping functions. Our formula for the transformation matrix is, however, computationally simpler and, unlike other previous LT approaches to VTLN with MFCC features, no modification of the standard MFCC feature extraction scheme is required. In VTLN and speaker adaptive modeling (SAM) experiments with the DARPA resource management (RM1) database, the performance of the new LT was comparable to that of regular VTLN implemented by warping the Mel filterbank, when the MLS criterion was used for FW estimation. This demonstrates that the approximations involved do not lead to any performance degradation. Performance comparable to front end VTLN was also obtained with LT adaptation of HMM means in the back end, combined with mean bias and variance adaptation according to the maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR) framework. The FW methods performed significantly better than standard MLLR for very limited adaptation data (1 utterance), and were equally effective with unsupervised parameter estimation. We also performed speaker adaptive training (SAT) with feature space LT denoted CLTFW. Global CLTFW SAT gave results comparable to SAM and VTLN. By estimating multiple CLTFW transforms using a regression tree, and including an additive bias, we obtained significantly improved results compared to VTLN, with increasing adaptation data.
Vagus nerve modulates secretin binding sites in the rat forestomach

Secretin is well known for its inhibitory action on gastric motility. It has been reported that secretin in a physiological dose inhibits gastric motility through mediation by the vagal afferent pa...
Using ‘The Japanese Problem’ as a Corrective to the Ethnocentricity of Western Theory

This reflection on the essay by Rothbaum, Pott, Azuma, Miyake, and Weisz focuses on how knowledge about Japanese psychological development and culture can serve as a corrective to the ethnocentrism of Western theory. Particular attention is given to the Japanese cultural concepts of amae and kejime.
The Two Giants of Asia: Trade and Development in China and India:

The literature on trade and development has supported the existence of a strong negative relationship between trade share and country size. The larger the country in size, the smaller is the trade ...
Exploring the energy-time tradeoff in MPI programs on a power-scalable cluster

Recently, energy has become an important issue in high-performance computing. For example, supercomputers that have energy in mind, such as BlueGene/L, have been built; the idea is to improve the energy efficiency of nodes. Our approach, which uses off-the-shelf, high-performance cluster nodes that are frequency scalable, allows energy saving by scaling down the CPU. This paper investigates the energy consumption and execution time of applications from a standard benchmark suite (NAS) on a power-scalable cluster. We study via direct measurement and simulation both intra-node and inter-node effects of memory and communication bottlenecks, respectively. Additionally, we compare energy consumption and execution time across different numbers of nodes. Our results show that a power-scalable cluster has the potential to save energy by scaling the processor down to lower energy levels. Furthermore, we found that for some programs, it is possible to both consume less energy and execute in less time when using a larger number of nodes, each at reduced energy. Additionally, we developed and validated a model that enables us to predict the energy-time tradeoff of larger clusters.
Cloning and Functional Expression of a Human Liver Organic Cation Transporter

Polyspecific organic cation transporters in the liver mediate the elimination of a wide array of endogenous amines and xenobiotics. In contrast to our understanding of the mechanisms of organic cation transport in rat liver, little is known about the mechanisms of organic cation transport in the human liver. We report the cloning, sequencing, and functional characterization of the first human polyspecific organic cation transporter from liver (hOCT1). hOCT1 (554 amino acids) is 78% identical to the previously cloned organic cation transporter from rat, rOCT1 [Nature (Lond.) 372:549–552 (1994)]. InXenopus laevis oocytes injected with the cRNA of hOCT1, the specific uptake of the organic cation3H-1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (3H-MPP+) was significantly enhanced (8-fold) over that in water-injected oocytes. Uptake of3H-MPP+ was saturable (Km = 14.6 ± 4.39 μm) and sensitive to membrane potential. Both small monovalent organic cations such as tetraethylammonium andN1-methylnicotinamide and bulkier organic cations (e.g., vecuronium and decynium-22) inhibited the uptake of3H-MPP+. In addition, the bile acid taurocholate inhibited the uptake of 3H-MPP+ in oocytes expressing hOCT1. Northern analysis demonstrated that the mRNA transcript of hOCT1 is expressed primarily in the human liver, whereas the mRNA transcript of rOCT1 is found in rat kidney, liver, intestine, and colon [Nature (Lond.) 372:549–552 (1994)]. In comparison to rOCT1, hOCT1 exhibits notable differences in its kinetic characteristics and tissue distribution. The functional expression of hOCT1 will provide a powerful tool for elucidation of the mechanisms of organic cation transport in the human liver and understanding of the mechanisms involved in the disposition and hepatotoxicity of drugs.
Neurosurgical training with a novel cervical spine simulator: posterior foraminotomy and laminectomy.

Background Neurosurgical residents have traditionally been instructed on surgical techniques and procedures through an apprenticeship model. Currently, there has been research and interest in expanding the neurosurgical education model. Objective To establish a posterior cervical decompression educational curriculum with a novel cervical simulation model. Methods The Congress of Neurological Surgeons developed a simulation committee to explore and develop simulation-based models. The educational curriculum was developed to have didactic and technical components with the incorporation of simulation models. Through numerous reiterations, a posterior cervical decompression model was developed and a 2-hour education curriculum was established. Results Individual's level of training varied, with 5 postgraduate year (PGY) 2 participants, 1 PGY-3 participant, 2 PGY-5 participants, and 1 attending, with the majority being international participants (6 of 9, 67%). Didactic scores overall improved (7 of 9, 78%). The technical scores of all participants improved from 11 to 24 (mean, 14.1) to 19 to 25 (mean, 22.4). Overall, in the posterior cervical decompression simulator, there was a significant improvement in the didactic scores (P = .005) and the technical scores (P = .02). Conclusion The posterior cervical decompression simulation model appears to be a valuable tool in educating neurosurgery residents in the aspects of this procedure. The combination of a didactic and technical assessment is a useful teaching strategy in terms of educational development.
Java's insecure parallelism

The author examines the synchronization features of Java and finds that they are insecure variants of his earliest ideas in parallel programming published in 1972-73. The claim that Java supports monitors is shown to be false. The author concludes that Java ignores the last twenty-five years of research in parallel programming languages.
Speaker association with signal-level audiovisual fusion

Audio and visual signals arriving from a common source are detected using a signal-level fusion technique. A probabilistic multimodal generation model is introduced and used to derive an information theoretic measure of cross-modal correspondence. Nonparametric statistical density modeling techniques can characterize the mutual information between signals from different domains. By comparing the mutual information between different pairs of signals, it is possible to identify which person is speaking a given utterance and discount errant motion or audio from other utterances or nonspeech events.
A web‐based high‐performance multicriteria decision support system for medical diagnosis

Multicriteria decision making ~MCDM! methods can be powerful aids for evaluating patients’ medical information in medical diagnostic systems. Technique ordered preference by similarity to the ideal solution ~TOPSIS! is one of the more widely used MCDM methods in decision support systems. For the purpose of this work, the TOPSIS method is modified into a more suitable form and used for the implementation of a web-based medical diagnostic system. In our modifiedTOPSIS method, we have utilized fuzzy logic so that users can more accurately describe their symptoms. The data given to the modified TOPSIS method are often massive in proportions and may take a considerable amount of time to generate a ranking of alternatives. TOPSIS lends itself to parallel computation because it is virtually a combination of matrix computations. Therefore, computer parallelism is implemented so that a large amount of input data can be handled simultaneously, hence decreasing overall execution time. In addition, to make our MCDM system more accessible, we have designed our system to be web based. The web-based medical diagnosis system includes a dynamically generated web-based user interface, while the parallel implementation of the modified TOPSIS component, in conjunction with the Common Gateway Interface, forms the back end of the system. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
RESPONSES OF BIRD COMMUNITIES TO EARLY SUCCESSIONAL HABITAT IN A MANAGED LANDSCAPE

Abstract I examined short and long term responses of breeding bird communities to the systematic creation of early successional habitat resulting from forest management at a 1,120-ha study site in the Ridge and Valley Province of Pennsylvania, from 1998 through 2002. Species richness and abundances of all species combined and of early successional species increased from precut (1998–1999) to postcut eras (2001–2002) in a treated sector (aspen, Populus spp., and mixed oak, Quercus spp., areas combined), an uncut control sector, and the total study site (treated and control sectors combined) after the fourth cutting cycle. Abundances of a woodland species (Red-eyed Vireo, Vireo olivaceus) and four early successional species (e.g., Field Sparrow, Spizella pusilla) also increased. Over the past 15 years, which spans the third and the fourth cutting cycles at the study site, three woodland species increased significantly in both treated and control sectors (Red-eyed Vireo) or in the treated sector only (Ovenbi...
Planar Posets, Dimension, Breadth and the Number of Minimal Elements

In recent years, researchers have shown renewed interest in combinatorial properties of posets determined by geometric properties of its order diagram and topological properties of its cover graph. In most cases, the roots for the problems being studied today can be traced back to the 1970’s, and sometimes even earlier. In this paper, we study the problem of bounding the dimension of a planar poset in terms of the number of minimal elements, where the starting point is the 1977 theorem of Trotter and Moore asserting that the dimension of a planar poset with a single minimal element is at most 3. By carefully analyzing and then refining the details of this argument, we are able to show that the dimension of a planar poset with t minimal elements is at most 2t + 1. This bound is tight for t = 1 and t = 2. But for t ≥ 3, we are only able to show that there exist planar posets with t minimal elements having dimension t + 3. Our lower bound construction can be modified in ways that have immediate connections to the following challenging conjecture: For every d ≥ 2, there is an integer f(d) so that if P is a planar poset with dim(P) ≥ f(d), then P contains a standard example of dimension d. To date, the best known examples only showed that the function f, if it exists, satisfies f(d) ≥ d + 2. Here, we show that lim d→∞ f(d)/d ≥ 2.
Implementation of on Advanced Pairing Correction for Particle-Hole State Densities in Precompound Nuclear Reaction Theory

An advanced pairing correction for an existing formula of particle-hole state densities, needed in calculations of cross sections with the precompound nuclear reaction theory, is examined. The Paul...
Metabolism studies in a case of myotonia atrophica

In a thirteen day metabolism study on an individual suffering from myotonia atrophica, we have studied the nitrogen metabolism, and urinary nitrogen partition, the sulphur metabolism and urinary sulphur partition, and the calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, chlorine and fat metabolism. The creatinine excretion was normal. The only striking metabolic anomaly noted in this study was the marked loss of calcium.
Co-occupancy of the interferon regulatory element of the class II transactivator (CIITA) type IV promoter by interferon regulatory factors 1 and 2.

Class II transactivator (CIITA) activates the expression of major histocompatibility class II genes, which encode antigen-presenting molecules recognized by the T-cell receptor of CD4+ T cells. IFN-γ induced CIITA transcription in many cell types is directed by the CIITA Type IV promoter. Here we report that the human CIITA Type IV promoter IRF-E binds IRF-1 and can be activated by exogenous expression of IRF-1. Surprisingly, the CIITA Type IV promoter IRF-E is also activated by IRF-2, another member of the IRF family that generally acts as a transcriptional repressor. In addition, we found that IRF-1 and IRF-2 synergistically activate the CIITA Type IV promoter. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that IRF-1 and IRF-2 can simultaneously occupy the IRF-E of the CIITA Type IV promoter, suggesting a novel mechanism for the role of these two proteins in promoter activation. Our results also indicate that IRF-1 and IRF-2 can cooperatively activate and co-occupy the IRF-E of the guanylate binding protein (GBP) promoter. Finally, CIITA induction by IFN-γ does not occur in a pancreatic tumor cell line that expresses a mutated IRF-2, representing the first IRF-2 mutation identified in a human tumor cell line.
Size/shape-controlled synthesis of colloidal CdSe quantum disks: ligand and temperature effects.

Size/shape-controlled colloidal CdSe quantum disks with zinc-blende (cubic) crystal structure were synthesized using air-stable and generic starting materials. The colloidal CdSe quantum disks were approximately square, and their lateral dimensions were varied between 20 and 100 nm with the thickness controlled between 1 and 3 nm, which resulted in sharp and blue-shifted UV−vis and PL peaks due to one-dimensional quantum confinement. The quantum disks were grown with either ⟨001⟩ or ⟨111⟩ direction, polar directions in the single crystalline disks, as the short axis, and both basal planes were terminated with Cd ions. These surface Cd ions were passivated with negatively charged fatty acid ligands to neutralize the net positive charges caused by the excess monolayer of Cd ions. The coordination of the Cd ions and carboxylate groups further enabled the close-packing monolayer of fatty acid ligands on each basal plane. The close packing of the hydrocarbon chains of fatty acids dictated the up temperature li...
The Fiscal Consequences of Changing Federal and State Revenue Policies: The Case of Small Oregon Cities

This article examines the fiscal consequences for twelve, small Oregon cities of recent changes in federal and state intergovernmental revenue policies. Many small local governments have experienced double revenue reverses in recent years-reductions in own-source revenues because of economic decline as well as decreases in intergovernmental revenues, especially federal aid. The twelve small cities are compared with all 241 cities in Oregon and the 136 Oregon cities in the 1,000 to 49,999 population range. Using aggregate and interview data, a majorfuinding is that although stabilization and/or decline in federal-state revenue sharing and entitlement program funds have accentuated difficult local revenue situations, economic decline has been the more important contributor to the fscal stress of the twelve small municipalities. Most of the twelve cities had limited fscal capacity-as indicated by low assessed property valuationsmaking it difficult to produce sufficient revenue to meet basic public service needs. These cities were also unable to get citizen approval of increases in property taxes
Letting the Data Speak

Journalists in democratic societies perceive their role as guardian of the public’s trust. This ethic of social responsibility has been infused into all tasks related to news production—particularly the act of convening debate surrounding salient issues. The entry of data journalists into the newsroom has upended this shared occupational schema. In processing big data for a lay audience, data journalists place greatest emphasis upon their role as translators of abstract and technical knowledge. While these newsworkers still perceive their work as operating in the public good, data journalists are shifting their professional boundaries when promoting conversation around data products—particularly in the social space. This work, based on in-depth interviews with data journalists in America’s top newspapers, illuminates how data journalists perceive their social responsibility role in fostering democratic conversation with the audience.
Post-prostatectomy incontinence: the influence of bladder dysfunction.

AbstractThe urodynamic studies of 38 patients referred for evaluation of incontinence after prostatectomy were reviewed. Only 15 patients (39.5 per cent) had pure sphincteric insufficiency as the sole cause of the incontinence. Of the 38 patients 16 (42 per cent) had sphincteric insufficiency combined with a significant component of bladder dysfunction (detrusor instability and/or low bladder wall compliance) as the cause of the incontinence. A total of 7 patients (18.5 per cent) had no evidence of sphincteric insufficiency but they had post-prostatectomy incontinence solely caused by detrusor instability and/or low bladder wall compliance. Of the patients referred for post-prostatectomy incontinence 60.5 per cent had bladder dysfunction as a major factor in the incontinence, which emphasizes the need for comprehensive urodynamic evaluation before treatment is recommended. Of 26 patients whose treatment was based on urodynamic findings and who were available for followup 23 (88 per cent) were adequately c...
NSAIDs and the Gastrointestinal Mucosa

In the United States, these double-edged drugs cause as many as 20,000 deaths a year. To blunt their harmful effects, two promising strategies are being pursued: concurrent administration of prostaglandin analogues to support gastric homeostasis, and the development, or identification among existing NSAIDs, of an agent that targets inflammatory prostaglandins while sparing the homeostatic ones.
Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered both Complete and Local?

This chapter offers an analysis of Bohr’s exchanges with Einstein concerning the completeness and, then, locality of quantum mechanics, most especially Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen’s article and Bohr’s reply, both published under the same title—“Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”—in 1935. EPR’s article introduced a thought experiment, the EPR experiment, and offered a particular argument concerning it, EPR’s argument, which led EPR to conclude that quantum mechanics is incomplete, or else nonlocal in Einstein’s sense of entailing instantaneous physical connections, forbidden by relativity. This argument and these conclusions were questioned in Bohr’s counterargument, which offers a different analysis of the EPR experiment and derives different conclusions concerning its meaning and implications. After a general introduction given in Section 8.1, Sections 8.2 and 8.3 focus on those parts of EPR’s and Bohr’s arguments, respectively, that concern the completeness of quantum mechanics. Section 8.4 discusses the question of locality in both arguments. I offer a close overall reading of Bohr’s reply in Chapter 10 where I also discuss Einstein’s arguments that address the statistical nature of quantum mechanics from the perspective of the EPR-type experiments.
Cavity-Enhanced Photothermal Spectroscopy: A Tool for High Sensitivity Experiments

The absorption of thin films, multilayer coatings, solid and liquid surfaces was studied with cavity-enhanced photothermal spectroscopy.
Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy (HMSN)

Thirteen affected males and 25 obligate or probable heterozygous females with X-linked HMSN are reported from the Depts Neurology and Pathology, Duke Univ Med Centr, Durham, NC and Dept Neurology, Univ of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
A family of Fe-N-C oxygen reduction electrocatalysts for microbial fuel cell (MFC) application: Relationships between surface chemistry and performances.

Different iron-based cathode catalysts have been studied for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in neutral media and then applied into microbial fuel cells (MFC). The catalysts have been synthesized using sacrificial support method (SSM) using eight different organic precursors named Niclosamide, Ricobendazole, Guanosine, Succinylsulfathiazole, Sulfacetamide, Quinine, Sulfadiazine and Pyrazinamide. Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) curves were obtained for the catalysts using a O2 saturated in 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer and 0.1 M KCl solution and a Rotating Ring Disk Electrode (RRDE) setup in order to study the ORR characteristics. Additionally, we analyze the peroxide yield obtained for each catalyst which helps us determine the reaction kinetics. Those catalysts have been mixed with activated carbon (AC), carbon black (CB) and PTFE and pressed on a metallic mesh forming a pellet-like gas diffusion electrode (GDE). Results showed that Fe-Ricobendazole, Fe-Niclosamide and Fe-Pyrazinamide had the highest cathode polarization curves and highest power densities output that was above 200 μWcm-2. Fe-Ricobendazole, Fe-Niclosamide, Fe-Pyrazinamide, Fe-Guanosine Fe-Succinylsulfathiazole and Fe-Sulfacetamide outperformed compared to Pt cathode. Fe-Sulfadiazene and Fe-Quinine performed better than AC used as control but less than Pt. Correlation of surface composition with performance showed that power density achieved is directly related to the total amount of nitrogen, and in particularly, N coordinated to metal and pyridinic and pyrrolic types while larger amounts of graphitic nitrogen result in worse performance.
Stereospecific and stereoconvergent cross-couplings between alkyl electrophiles

The development of metal-catalysed cross-coupling reactions between one electrophilic and one organometallic nucleophilic partner has revolutionized the practice of chemical synthesis, with coupling reactions between sp2 centres now commonplace in both academic and industrial research. Methods to allow coupling of sp3 centres are rapidly being developed, with many recent advances even enabling control of the absolute configuration of newly formed stereogenic centres. The related cross-electrophile couplings have not been developed as thoroughly owing to the challenge of obtaining cross-selectivity between two substrates with similar reactivity. However, the discovery of improved methods to address this challenge has led to significant recent progress. The development of enantioselective cross-electrophile coupling reactions is an emerging area of research. Both stereoconvergent and stereospecific variants have been reported for the synthesis of a range of products containing tertiary stereogenic centres. Many of these transformations build on lessons learnt from traditional (electrophile–nucleophile) cross-couplings of alkyl electrophiles. For example, all enantioselective transformations described to date use a nickel catalyst. Continued progression is likely to provide strategic disconnections for asymmetric synthesis of natural products and medicinal agents. The cross-electrophile coupling approach to stereocontrolled C–C bond formation provides a complementary alternative to traditional cross-coupling methods. This Perspective provides an overview of the recent development of nickel-catalysed asymmetric cross-electrophile coupling reactions. Both stereoconvergent and stereospecific examples are considered and mechanistic details are highlighted.
CHAPTER 63 – Myocarditis and Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the evidence linking autoimmunity with two important forms of heart disease, myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy. It must be stated that immunologic testing has so far not been effective in allowing a clear distinction between autoimmune and other etiologies of these diseases. The major features of myocarditis include arrhythmias, embolic events, congestive heart failure, or cardiogenic shock. These clinical findings can be supported by electrocardiographic changes, such as nonspecific ST-T wave abnormalities and atrial or ventricular arrhythmias. Two-dimensional echocardiography, a noninvasive way of evaluating heart size and function, may show normal ventricular size with thick walls and decreased contractility early in the illness or progressive heart enlargement with thinning of the muscle in chronic cases. Furthermore, the chapter describes dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), which is a chronic form of heart disease characterized by left and right ventricular dilatation and impaired contraction. The clinical spectrum is broad, ranging from individuals with asymptomatic cardiomegaly to patients who present with severe congestive heart failure.
Efficiency of Enrichment Design for Pre–Post Trials with Binary Endpoint

Enrichment design is a common strategy in personalized medicine in which treatments are given only to patients who are tested positive on a genomic biomarker. Such a targeted trial, as compared to the untargeted trials in which all patients receive the treatments, can substantially reduce the sample size needed for a study as demonstrated in the literature for two-arm trials. To fill in the gaps in the existing literature, we consider trials to evaluate a targeted treatment by comparing pre–post trial outcomes to investigate the intervention effect after the treatment. We investigate the relative efficiency in terms of sample size reduction of an enrichment design against the conventional design, focusing on binary endpoints. The effects of misclassification of the genomic classifier on the relative efficiency are also investigated.
Stimulation of T Cell Activity by a Methanol-Extraction Residue (MER) of BCG

A Methanol Extraction Residue (MER) of BCG nonspecifically stimulates resistance to a variety of microorganisms and to spontaneous and transplanted tumors in mice [10, 11]. It also stimulates both primary and secondary circulating antibody responses to several conventional antigens such as sheep red blood cells (SRBC), T 2 phage and bovine gamma globulin [8, 12, 13, 14]. Our interest in the tumor-protective effects of MER has been focused more recently on its ability to stimulate cellular immune responses, since this type of response is held to be mainly responsible for immunity to foreign cell antigens and more particularly to syngeneic tumor cells [5]. We have investigated whether MER can stimulate cellular immunity to defined antigens, and whether it can enhance formation of specifically sensitized thymus-derived lymphocytes (T cells) which are effector cells for specific cellular immunity and cooperate to trigger antibody-forming cell precursors (B cells) [7, 9]. The effect of MER was examined on four different systems: allograft immunity, delayed hypersensitivity to guinea-pig DNP-globulin, θ + rosette-forming cells (RFC’s), and carrier activity of primed cells. In all cases MER was found to stimulate the given T-cell activities.
A Theorem on Matchings in the Plane

It is shown that any connected planar graph G with at least 8 vertices and having a perfect matching contains a set S of three independent lines with the property that S is not contained in any perfect matching of G .
The Scope and Method of Applied Policy Economics

Much has been written about the methodology of economic science. Little has been written about the methodology of applied economics, and most applied economists think of applied economics as subjec...
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Death From Suicide

This review summarizes the increasing public health concern about PTSD and suicide, and the population-based studies that have examined this association. Further, we discuss methodological issues that provide important context for the examination of this association. The majority of epidemiologic studies have shown that PTSD is associated with an increased risk of suicide; however, a notable minority of studies have documented a decreased risk of suicide among persons with PTSD. Methodological (e.g., sample size and misclassification) and etiologic issues (e.g., complicated psychiatric comorbidity) may explain the conflicting evidence. PTSD may be associated with an increased risk of suicide, but further research is needed. Increasing the use of appropriate methods (e.g., marginal structural models that can evaluate both confounding and effect modification, machine learning methods, quantification of systematic error) will strengthen the evidence base and advance our understanding.
Assessing the impact of early Medicaid expansion on insurance rates among children with cancer.

e18606Background: Some evidence suggests that lack of insurance among children with cancer is associated with poorer outcomes and that cancer outcomes are similar among insured children, regardless...
Late-career unemployment has mixed effects in retirement

Paid work forms a pattern of occupational engagement that shifts during both unemployment and retirement. Similar to unemployment, the occupational disruption associated with involuntary retirement...