cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Virtual memory CD8 T cells expanded by helminth infection confer broad protection against bacterial infection.

Epidemiological data and animal studies suggest that helminth infection exerts potent immunomodulatory effects that dampen host immunity against unrelated pathogens. Despite this notion, we unexpectedly discovered that prior helminth infection resulted in enhanced protection against subsequent systemic and enteric bacterial infection. A population of virtual memory CD8 T (CD8 TVM) cells underwent marked expansion upon infection with the helminth Heligmosomoides polygurus by an IL-4-regulated, antigen-independent mechanism. CD8 TVM cells disseminated to secondary lymphoid organs and established a major population of the systemic CD8 T cell pool. IL-4 production elicited by protein immunization or selective activation of natural killer T cells also results in the expansion of CD8 TVM cells. Notably, CD8 TVM cells expanded by helminth infection are sufficient to transfer innate non-cognate protection against bacteria to naive animals. This innate non-cognate "collateral protection" mediated by CD8 TVM might provide parasitized animals an advantage against subsequent unrelated infections, and represents a potential novel strategy for vaccination.
A Diagnostic Conundrum: Progressive Tubular Lung Mass in Asymptomatic Young Woman.

Case Presentation A 39-year-old female avid marathon runner presented with an abnormal chest radiograph obtained during preoperative evaluation prior to bilateral knee replacement because of osteoarthritis. As shown in Figure 1 , chest radiograph revealed a focal nodular opacity in the middle lobe. She did not have any prior imaging for comparison.
Indistinguishable Photon Source in the 1550-nm Band Optimized by Machine Learning

We report a recipe for optimized poling design to generate spectrally-pure photons around 1550 nm. Our approach hinges on machine-learning techniques without requiring group-velocity matching. © 2019 The Author(s)
SRAC: Simultaneous Ranging and Communication in UWB Networks

Ultra-wideband signals have been used for accurate ranging and localization application during the last few years. State of the art UWB ranging applications can estimate the distances with less than a 5 cm error. Existing localization solutions create their own ranging traffic. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of piggybacking the information required by ranging application over existing network traffic. In addition, we study the feasibility of piggybacking of sensing information over ranging traffic and finally, we propose our technique for Simultaneous Ranging and Communication (SRAC) in UWB networks which adaptively changes the ranging mode from active to passive by using either ranging traffic or sensing traffic to accomplish the ranging and sensing goals while reducing the network traffic to minimum possible. We integrated our proposed solution to RIOT operating system and evaluated its performance over a mesh of UWB-enabled nodes. Our results indicate almost 40% reduction in network traffic.
Temporary Abdominal Closure Is Associated with Increased Risk for Fungal Intra-Abdominal Infections in Trauma Patients.

Background: Fungal infections are associated with increased morbidity and death. Few studies have examined risk factors associated with post-operative fungal intra-abdominal infections (FIAIs) in t...
Nerve trauma-caused downregulation of opioid receptors in primary afferent neurons: Molecular mechanisms and potential managements.

Neuropathic pain is the most common clinical disorder destroying the quality of patient life and leading to a marked economic and social burden. Opioids are still last option for pharmacological treatment of this disorder, but their antinociceptive effects are limited in part due to the downregulation of opioid receptors in the primary afferent neurons after peripheral nerve trauma. How this downregulation occurs is not completely understood, but recent studies have demonstrated that peripheral nerve trauma drives the alterations in epigenetic modifications (including DNA methylation, histone methylation and mciroRNAs), expression of transcription factors, post-transcriptional modifications (e.g., RNA methylation) and protein translation initiation in the neurons of nerve trauma-related dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and that these alternations may be associated with nerve trauma-caused downregulation of DRG opioid receptors. This review presents how opioid receptors are downregulated in the DRG after peripheral nerve trauma, specifically focusing on distinct molecular mechanisms underlying transcriptional and translational processes. This review also discusses how this downregulation contributes to the induction and maintenance of neuropathic pain. A deeper understanding of these molecular mechanisms likely provides a novel avenue for prevention and/or treatment of neuropathic pain.
“I Wanted to Give Back to the Profession:” Preservice Teacher Supervision as Service Work

For decades, university supervisors of preservice teachers (PSTs) have been undervalued and ignored. Following neoliberal reforms, post-secondary institutions have outsourced PST supervision to contingent faculty, failed to provide professional development for supervisors, offered poor employment conditions, and overlooked PST supervision in tenure and promotion decisions. These actions, combined with the service orientation of teacher education, have framed PST supervision as service work. This case study sought to understand how supervisors and administrators in one teacher education department positioned supervisors’ work as service and the influence of the institution and department on that positioning. Using a survey, interviews, and document analysis, this study found that supervisors positioned their work as professional, financial, and emotional service. In turn, the institution and teacher education department positioned supervisors’ work as service by providing minimal compensation and no institutional rewards and expecting supervisors to enact roles that were not officially required of them. The study’s implications are that teacher educators and higher education administrators should strive to recruit and retain a professional corps of supervisors, provide ongoing professional development to supervisors to assist in the professionalization of the role, and resist notions of supervision as service.
Blockchain: Inclusive Technology? (Blockchain: Tecnologia Inclusiva?)

Blockchain has the potential to improve the access, quality and cost of financial services, but technical challenges remain: both operational and related to governance.
Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity

Housing is shaped by culturally-specific expectations about the kinds of architecture and furnishings that are appropriate; about how and where different activities should be carried out; and by and with whom. It is those expectations, and the wider social and cultural systems of which they are a part, that are explored in this volume. At the same time, the book as a whole argues two larger points: first, that while houses, households and families have in recent years become increasingly important as objects of inquiry in Greek and Roman contexts, their potential as sources of information about broader social-historical issues has yet to be fully realised; and second, that greater weight and independence should be given to material culture as a source for studying ancient history. The book will be invaluable for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students and scholars.
Advancement of tree species across ecotonal borders into non-forested ecosystems

Woody species are increasing in density, causing transition to more densely wooded vegetation states, and encroaching across ecotonal borders into non-forested ecosystems. We examined USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data to identify tree species that have expanded longitudinally in range, particularly into the central United States. We analyzed compositional differences within ecological regions (i.e., subsections) in eastern and western ranges of species using repeated measures ANOVA. We considered differences in outer ranges to indicate range expansion or contraction. We also estimated the shift in forest area and basal area relative to the center of the US and compared change in deciduous forest land cover. Out of 80 candidate species, 22 species expanded to the west, seven species expanded to the east, and five species expanded in both directions. During the survey interval, eastern tree species advanced into the predominantly non-forested ecosystems of central United States. Eastern cottonwood, eastern hophornbeam, eastern redbud, honeylocust, Osage–orange, pecan, red mulberry, and Shumard oak represent some of the species that are advancing eastern forest boundaries across forest-grassland ecotones into the central United States. Forest land has shifted towards the center of the continent, as has the center of mean tree basal area, and a simple comparison of deciduous cover change also displayed forest advancement into the central United States from eastern forests. The expanding species may spread along riparian migration corridors that provide protection from drought. Humans use the advancing tree species for windbreaks, fencerows, and ornamental landscaping, while wildlife spread fruit seeds, which results in unintentional assisted migration, or translocation, to drier sites across the region.
Vision-based Convoy Following by Recursive Filtering

The problem of convoy following includes automatic speed and steering control of an intelligent vehicle following the motion of a lead vehicle. In this paper, we describe a vision-based scheme to achieve convoy following in real-time. Our approach has been based on Kalman-Bucy filtering (KBF) requiring a simple vision cue. KBF allows recursive estimation of speed and steering as new image measurements are made available from a stereo vision system mounted on the intelligent vehicle. Simulation results demonstrate the robustness of our scheme in the presence of noise. Ongoing research is directed towards testing our module on BART, a testbed vehicle which has been developed at Texas A&M-University for autonomous mobility.
Building and Maintaining an Effective Campus-Wide Coalition for Suicide Prevention

Preventing suicide is a commonly shared priority among college administrators, faculty, staff, students, and family members. Coalitions are popular health promotion mechanisms for solving community-wide problems and are valuable in campus-wide suicide prevention efforts. This article provides an example of an effective suicide prevention coalition. Recommendations are offered for other campus-based suicide prevention coalitions. These suggestions are based upon the steps taken to create and implement a suicide prevention coalition at our institution and feedback from our coalition members. Attention is paid to challenges in building and implementing coalitions. Data are provided with regard to perceptions of the coalition's efforts on campus. Future directions for effective coalitions are offered.
Lipids of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Cells Grown on Hydrocarbons and on Trypticase Soy Broth

Lipids were extracted from cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa grown on a pure hydrocarbon (tridecane), mixed hydrocarbons (JP-4 jet fuel), and on Trypticase Soy Broth. Total lipids produced from each substrate represented from 7.1 to 8.2% of cellular dry weight, of which 5.0 to 6.4% were obtained before cellular hydrolysis (free lipids) and 1.7 to 2.0% were extracted after cellular hydrolysis (bound lipids). Free lipids from cells grown on each medium were separated into four fractions by thin-layer chromatography. All fractions were present in cells from each type of medium, and the "neutral fraction" constituted the largest fraction. The fatty acid composition of free lipids was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Cells grown on each medium contained saturated and unsaturated C(14) to C(20) fatty acids. Trace amounts of C(13) fatty acids were found in tridecane-grown cells. Saturated C(16) and C(18) were the major acids present in all cells. Quantitative differences were found in fatty acids produced on the three media, but specific correlations between substrate carbon sources and fatty acid content of cells were not evident. Tridecane-grown cells contained only traces of C(13) acid and small amounts of C(15) and C(17) acids, suggesting that the organism's fatty acids were derived from de novo synthesis rather than by direct incorporation of the hydrocarbon.
Pure-state informationally complete and “really” complete measurements

I construct a positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) which has $2d$ rank-1 elements and which is informationally complete for generic pure states in $d$ dimensions, thus confirming a conjecture made by Flammia, Silberfarb, and Caves (e-print quant-ph∕0404137). I show that if a rank-1 POVM is required to be informationally complete for all pure states in $d$ dimensions, it must have at least $3d\ensuremath{-}2$ elements. I also show that, in a POVM which is informationally complete for all pure states in $d$ dimensions, for any vector there must be at least $2d\ensuremath{-}1$ POVM elements which do not annihilate that vector.
AV3V lesions attenuate the cardiovascular responses produced by blood-borne excitatory amino acid analogs

Systemic injections of the excitatory amino acid (EAA) analogs, kainic acid (KA) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), produce a pressor response in conscious rats that is caused by a centrally mediated activation of sympathetic drive and the release of arginine vasopressin (AVP). This study tested the hypothesis that the tissue surrounding the anteroventral part of the third ventricle (AV3V) plays a role in the expression of the pressor responses produced by systemically injected EAA analogs. Specifically, we examined whether prior electrolytic ablation of the AV3V region would affect the pressor responses to KA and NMDA (1 mg/kg iv) in conscious rats. The KA-induced pressor response was smaller in AV3V-lesioned than in sham-lesioned rats (11 +/- 2 vs. 29 +/- 2 mmHg; P < 0.05). After ganglion blockade, KA produced a pressor response in sham-lesioned but not AV3V-lesioned rats (+27 +/- 3 vs. +1 +/- 2 mmHg; P < 0.05). The KA-induced pressor response in ganglion-blocked sham-lesioned rats was abolished by a vasopressin V1-receptor antagonist. Similar results were obtained with NMDA. The pressor response to AVP (10 ng/kg iv) was slightly smaller in AV3V-lesioned than in sham-lesioned ganglion-blocked rats (45 +/- 3 vs. 57 +/- 4 mmHg; P < 0.05). This study demonstrates that the pressor responses to systemically injected EAA analogs are smaller in AV3V-lesioned rats. The EAA analogs may produce pressor responses by stimulation of EAA receptors in the AV3V region, or the AV3V region may play an important role in the expression of these responses.
It’s a SMAD/SMAD World

DPC4/SMAD4 mutations are associated with aggressive pancreatic cancer. In this issue of Cell , Whittle et al. demonstrate that Runx3 expression combined with Dpc4/Smad4 status can predict the metastatic propensity of pancreatic tumors, providing valuable guidance for personalized therapy for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Increased CD8+ Cytotoxic T Cell Responses to Myelin Basic Protein in Multiple Sclerosis

Autoreactive T cells of CD4 and CD8 subsets recognizing myelin basic protein (MBP), a candidate myelin autoantigen, are thought to contribute to and play distinct roles in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). In this study we identified four MBP-derived peptides that had high binding affinity to HLA-A2 and HLA-A24 and characterized the CD8(+) T cell responses and their functional properties in patients with MS. There were significantly increased CD8(+) T cell responses to 9-mer MBP peptides, in particular MBP(111-119) and MBP(87-95) peptides that had high binding affinity to HLA-A2, in patients with MS compared with healthy individuals. The resulting CD8(+) T cell lines were of the Th1 phenotype, producing TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma and belonged to a CD45RA(-)/CD45RO(+) memory T cell subset. Further characterization indicated that the CD8(+) T cell lines obtained were stained with MHC class I tetramer (HLA-A2/MBP(111-119)) and exhibited specific cytotoxicity toward autologous target cells pulsed with MBP-derived peptides in the context of MHC class I molecules. These cytotoxic CD8(+) T cell lines derived from MS patients recognized endogenously processed MBP and lysed COS cells transfected with genes encoding MBP and HLA-A2. These findings support the potential role of CD8(+) CTLs recognizing MBP in the injury of oligodendrocytes expressing both MHC class I molecules and MBP.
Power usage of production supercomputers and production workloads

Power is becoming an increasingly important concern for large supercomputer centers. However, to date, there have been a dearth of studies of power usage 'in the wild'-on production supercomputers running production workloads. In this paper, we present the initial results of a project to characterize the power usage of the three Top500 supercomputers at Los Alamos National Laboratory: Cielo, Roadrunner, and Luna #15, #19, and #47, respectively, on the June 2012 Top500 list. Power measurements taken both at the switchboard level and within the compute racks are presented and discussed. Some noteworthy results of this study are that 1 variability in power consumption differs across architectures, even when running a similar workload and 2 Los Alamos National Laboratory's scientific workload draws, on average, only 70-75% of LINPACK power and only 40-55% of nameplate power, implying that power capping may enable a substantial reduction in power and cooling infrastructure while impacting comparatively few applications. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Toward a History of Brazil's "Cordial Racism": Race Beyond Liberalism

As anyone who has tried knows, the central problem in thinking about race in Brazil is how to. The almost quantum-theory-like indeterminacy of the ways Brazilians of different skin colors interact has exercised imaginations for decades, from fin-de-siecle scientific racists, to the eugenists of the 1920s, to interwar modernists who promoted the idea of racial democracy, to the Brazilian and later North American revisionists of the 1950s and beyond. The complexities of Brazilian race have not always been in the forefront of these debates. For much of the period up to the 1970s, scholars focused on debunking Brazil's vaunted myth of racial democracy-the national ideology claiming Brazil to be free of racial prejudice (Costa 1985). The effort was roundly successful. From this literature, we learned not only how wide a gap there has been between the ideal of racial democracy and the reality of racial and color prejudice in Brazil, but also the role elites have played in manipulating the myth to defuse racial and other social tensions (Hanchard 1994). Recently, some scholars have suggested that it is high time to look beyond the debunking agenda and take up once again the complexities of the Brazilian situation. Anthropologists have led the way, seeking to reveal "the range of contemporary understandings" of racial democracy and to explain something of its persistence as a tangible "dream" in the face of ongoing discrimination and prejudice in everyday Brazilian life (Sheriff 2001:8). This turn opens out to broad questions regarding the conceptualization of race in the Brazilian context. The central issue is how to understand what might be thought of as Brazil's distinctive cultural option with regard to race. According to anthropologist Peter Fry, the United States has "opted definitively for the particularism of the races," the presumed naturalness and fixity of racial identities. In Brazil, by contrast, a sense of unity that transcends race, what Fry calls "universalism," remains a vibrant part of everyday life. Failure to acknowledge the distinction, argues Fry, has often led scholars-especially, though not exclusively North Americans-to a careless use of language. Terms and expressions such as "nonwhites," "whites," "blacks," "African Brazilians," "racial groups," and many others, says Fry, are not analytically neutral. They are, rather, "carriers of value in the context of North American 'racial politics.'"
A Mössbauer effect and Fenske-Hall molecular orbital study of some sulfur containing organoiron-cobalt clusters

Abstract The electronic properties of a series of iron-cobalt clusters, H2Fe3S(CO)9 (I), HFe2CoS(CO)9 (II), FeCo2S(CO)9 (III), and Fe2S2(CO)6 (V) have been studied by the Mossbauer effect at 78K. The electronic properties of these clusters and CO3(CO)9S (IV) have also been studied theoretically with Fenske-Hall molecular orbital calculations. The Mossbauer effect isomer shifts in clusters I–III and V are small and positive, ranging from 0.00 to 0.076 mm / s. The quadrupole splittings range from 0.563 to 1.109 mm / s. The s-electron density, measured by the Mossbauer effect, is similar for clusters with two iron-hydrogen groups or one iron-hydrogen group and one cobalt atom. The s-electron density is also similar for clusters with two iron-hydrogen groups or two cobalt atoms. The quadrupole splittings show a general increase with a decrease in the hydrogen content and an increase in the cobalt content. The cobalt carbonyl ligand charges and the cobalt charges are nearly constant. The sum of the iron and hydrogen charges increases as the iron carbonyl ligand charge decreases. The iron electronic configuration which begins with the 4s03d84p0 atomic configuration, becomes on average, 4s0.353d6.804p0.83 with a range from 4s0.343d6.804p0.74 in I to 4s0.313d6.854p0.89 in V. The cobalt electronic configuration which begins with the 4s03d94p0 atomic configuration, becomes on average, 4s0.433d7.674p1.13 with a range from 4s0.413d7.704p1.08 in IV to 4s0.443d7.664p1.17 in II. The isomer shift is well correlated with the sum of the iron 4s Mulliken population and the Clementi and Raimondi effective nuclear charge which they experience. The Mulliken charges and the coefficients of the molecular wave functions are used to calculate the quadrupole splittings in I–III and V.
Multiprocessor acceleration of cross-coupled neural network calculations

Neural networks have demonstrated useful computational abilities, and their use is anticipated in future computing systems where associative memory and constrained optimization are important functions. This paper discusses a method of the acceleration of the Glauber dynamics paradigm on a local-memory, multiprocessing system. In general, the most acceleration that one can hope for using M concurrent processors is a 1/M reduction in the process time. The technique can approach and, in some cases, even exceeded the 1/M limit. The technique is applicable to large problems and is capable of handling a wide variety of problem types. The discovery of accelerations exceeding the 1/M limit suggests that an algorithm faster than those in common use for simulating the network on a single processor exists.
Some unanswered questions about vaccination.

I pondered for several months over what I should write for this 100th Volume of FEMS Microbiology Letters before deciding that it might be useful to pose some questions about vaccination for which there seem to be no adequate answers. Although I have put these questions verbally to colleagues over several years, I thought that by putting the same questions in writing, it would not only help to clarify my own thoughts, but it might even bring some answers. To avoid accusations that I may have become too philosophical and impractical, I have also focussed on one of these problems, namely antigenic variation, which I think could be overcome within the foreseeable future as we learn more about the structure of epitopes which evoke protective immune responses. The questions that intrigue me are: (1) Why do we only get measles once, but are constantly getting colds or influenza? Antigenic variation is the usual answer to the second part of the question. But the question I am asking is why there is antigenic variation with some agents but not with others.
Stretch flanging of “V”-shaped sheet metal blanks

This paper describes a mathematical model of the stretch flanging of sheet metal blanks which are initially curved in the shape of a “V.” By assuming that all intermediate flange surfaces are developable and the effect of tool friction is negligible, the deformation in the flange is equivalent to that of an in-plane stretching operation. Strain distributions in the latter are shown to be conveniently calculated by elastic-plastic finite element analyses. To assess the applicability of the model, an existing flanging apparatus was used to produce specimens for a variety of flange configurations with AKDQ steel, HSLA-60 steel, and 2036-T4 aluminum. Comparison of the calculated and measured strain distributions along the free edges of these specimens show that the present model is reasonably accurate to be useful in feasibility studies of the design of sheet metal parts.
Amantadine does not have antiviral activity against Borna disease virus

We have investigated the antiviral activity of amantadine (AD) against Borna disease virus (BDV) in several culture cell systems. We present evidence that AD, in the range 5 to 10 μM, does not have antiviral activity against BDV. Treatment of BDV infected cells with AD for six days caused neither a reduction in the number of infected cells, nor a decrease in steady state levels of BDV RNA or proteins. Moreover, treatment of cells with AD prior infection did not affect BDV multiplication, whereas influenza A virus yield was less than 1% with respect to that obtained in untreated control cells.
Bias from misspecification of the component variances in a normal mixture

Bias in parameter estimates can be substantial when heteroscedastic normal mixtures are misspecified as homoscedastic normal mixtures, and vice versa. We show through simulations that the maximum likelihood estimators under the false assumption of equal variances are inconsistent and bias in parameter estimates is appreciable and even substantial when the mixture components are not well-separated. Finite sample bias in parameter estimates is close to the asymptotic bias even for a sample size of 200 or less. When homoscedastic normal mixtures are misspecified as heteroscedastic normal mixtures, the maximum likelihood estimators are consistent. However, the maximum likelihood estimators under a correctly specified homoscedastic mixture model converge to the true parameter values faster than those under a misspecified heteroscedastic mixture model. The bias of the maximum likelihood estimators is less dependent on the lower bound imposed on the component variances to ensure that the likelihood is bounded under the false assumption of unequal variances when the sample size is 500 or more and the component distributions are well-separated. An example is given to demonstrate the effects of a misspecification of the component variances on estimates of the prevalence of hypertension using normal mixtures.
Teachers for the 21st Century: Redefining Professionalism:

The twenty-first century will dawn with a continuing public concern about education. Educators know the immense importance of the ser vices they deliver to the society. We need to work together to ...
Cracking and paving": a novel technique to deliver a thoracic endograft despite ilio-femoral occlusive disease

Background The use of endoluminal grafts to treat thoracic aortic aneurysms has been associated with a decreased morbidity and mortality compared with open thoracic aortic aneurysm repair. High-risk surgical patients with ilio-femoral occlusive disease may not be amenable to general anesthesia and the construction of a retroperitoneal conduit. Methods and results We report the use of a novel technique consisting of cracking and paving of the ilio-femoral vessels with balloon angioplasty, followed by deployment of an endoconduit to deliver an endoluminal graft under local sedation to treat a high-risk 80-year-old patient with a thoracic aneurysm. Conclusion High-risk surgical patients with iliofemoral disease can undergo endoluminal graft therapy to threat thoracic aortic aneurysms.
A tunable band-pass filter

This paper reports a theoretical and experimental investigation of a microwave magnetically tunable band-pass filter. Based upon this work a filter, tunable over more than 1200 MHz at x band with a bandwidth in the range from 230 to 17 MHz having an insertion loss as low as 1 dB can be obtained. The filter is remarkably free of spurious responses and has a rejection band of over 2 G (Hz) whose attenuation is more than 25 dB. The theoretical study has led to formulas giving center frequency, bandwidth, and insertion loss as functions of filter geometry. The filter has important application for electronic tuning in microwave circuits being particularly suitable as an electronically tunable preselector.
Use of Polymers in Concrete Technology

Abstract The technology of composite materials has spread for the past two decades to concrete, one of the most common structural materials. A concrete-polymer composite combines the advantages of both materials to produce properties superior to either single component [1–20]. Traditional construction material, namely portland cement concrete, suffers from serious drawbacks of little or no resistance to chemical attack; rapid freeze–thaw deterioration; low tensile, shear, and bond strengths; and inherent microstructural problems such as air voids and shrinkage cracks [12, 17, 21].
When Finiteness Matters: Counterexamples to Notions of Covariance, Correlation, and Independence

The relationships among covariance cov(X, Y), correlation coefficient ρX,Y, and independence between X, Y are widely quoted in the literature. For example, in numerous textbooks one often finds quotes such as (i) when cov(X, Y) = 0, one has ρX,Y = 0, and (ii) cov(X, Y) = 0 and ρX,Y = 0 when X, Y are independent. Unfortunately, both statements are false “as is” and we prove our claim with counterexamples.
IS THERE A GENETIC BASIS FOR ANTLER AND PEDICLE MALFORMATIONS IN REINTRODUCED ELK IN NORTHERN ARIZONA

Abstract Morphological abnormalities can be associated with inbreeding depression or heritability in natural populations. We explored a genetic basis for antler and pedicle deformities documented in a population of reintroduced elk (Cervus elaphus) on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in northwestern Arizona. We used 12 microsatellite loci to compare individual multi-locus heterozygosity (IH) and internal relatedness (IR) between bull elk with antler malformations (n = 23) and individuals with normal antler conformation (n = 17). Additionally, we used 3 pairwise relatedness coefficients to determine whether males with deformed antlers were more closely related than males with normal antlers. Mean IH and mean IR were not significantly higher for the group with deformed antlers. Similarly, the relationship between antler malformations and pairwise relatedness also was not significant, suggesting that deformed males did not share the antler trait because of a closer genetic relationship. Other factors, such as...
Evidence for Acyl-Ghrelin Modulation of Growth Hormone Release in the Fed State

Context: The timing and frequency of GH secretory episodes is regulated by GHRH and somatostatin. This study provides evidence for amplification of these GH pulses by endogenous acyl-ghrelin. Design: Blood was sampled every 10 min for 26.5 h during a fed admission with standardized meals and also during the final 24 h of a 61.5-h fast. GH secretion profiles were derived from deconvolution of 10-min sampling data, and full-length acyl-ghrelin levels were measured using a newly developed two-site sandwich assay. Setting: The study was conducted at a university hospital general clinical research center. Participants: Participants included eight men with mean (± sd) age 24.5 ± 3.7 yr (body mass index 24 ± 2.1 kg/m2). Results: Correlations were computed between amplitudes of individual GH secretory events and the average acyl-ghrelin concentration in the 60-min interval preceding each GH burst. In the fed state, the peak correlations were positive for all subjects and significantly higher than in the fasting state when acyl-ghrelin levels declined [mean (± sem): 0.7 (0.04) vs. 0.29 (0.08), P = 0.017]. In addition, long-term fasting was associated with an increase in the GH secretory pulse mass and amplitude but not frequency [fed vs. fasting pulse mass: 0.22 (0.05) vs. 0.44 (0.06) μg/liter, P = 0.002; amplitude: 5.2 (1.3) vs. 11.8 (1.9) μg/liter/min, P = 0.034; pulses per 24 h: 19.4 (0.5) vs. 22.0 (1.4), P = 0.1]. Conclusion: Our data support the hypothesis that under normal conditions in subjects given regular meals endogenous acyl-ghrelin acts to increase the amplitude of GH pulses.
Polymethacrylate polymers with appended aluminum(III)-tetraphenylporphyrins: Synthesis, characterization and evaluation as macromolecular ionophores for electrochemical and optical fluoride sensors.

Abstract The synthesis and characterization of a novel polymethacylate polymer with covalently linked Al(III)-tetraphenylporphyrin (Al(III)-TPP) groups is reported. The new polymer is examined as a potential macromolecular ionophore for the preparation of polymeric membrane-based potentiometric and optical fluoride selective sensors. To prepare the polymer, an Al(III) porphyrin monomer modified with a methacrylate functionality is synthesized, allowing insertion into a polymethacrylate block copolymer (methyl methacrylate and decyl methacrylate) backbone. The resulting polymer can then be incorporated, along with appropriate additives, into conventional plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) films for testing electrochemical and optical fluoride response properties. The covalent attachment of the Al(III)-TPP ionophore to the copolymer matrix provides potentiometric sensors that exhibit significant selectivity for fluoride ion with extended lifetimes (compared to ion-selective membrane electrodes formulated with conventional free Al(III)-TPP structure). However, quite surprisingly, the attachment of the ionophore to the polymer does not eliminate the interaction of Al(III)-TPP structures to form dimeric species within the membrane phase in the presence of fluoride ion. Such interactions are confirmed by UV/visible spectroscopy of the blended polymeric films. Use of the new polymer-Al(III)-TPP conjugates to prepare optical fluoride sensors by co-incorporating a lipophilic pH indicator (4′,5′-dibromofluorescein octadecyl ester; ETH7075) is also examined and the resulting optical sensing films are shown to exhibit excellent selectivity for fluoride, with the potential for prolonged operational lifetime.
Environmental Sound Training in Cochlear Implant Users

Purpose The study investigated the effect of a short computer-based environmental sound training regimen on the perception of environmental sounds and speech in experienced cochlear implant (CI) pa...
Hare on Possible People

R. M. Hare claims that we have duties to take the preferences of possible people into consideration in moral thinking and that it can harm a merely possible person to have been denied existence. This essay has three parts. First, I attempt to show how Hare's universalizability argument for our obligations to possible people may fail to challenge the consistent proponent of the actuality restriction on moral consideration, regardless of whether this proponent is construed as an amoralist or a fanatic. Second, I raise some objections to Hare's claim that a merely possible person can be harmed. Even if Hare could successfully overcome the objection that a possible person cannot be the recipient of harm, he would still need to show that this harm is morally significant. Third, whether or not Hare is able to answer these objections, I indicate how his moral theory still supports his general position on possible people - namely, that we are ceteris paribus morally bound to bring happy people (and avoid bringing miserable people) into existence.
Chromosomal instability in cell lines derived from patients with xeroderma pigmentosum.

SummaryThe chromosomes of four cell lines derived from skin biopsies of four patients with xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) were studied and compared with corresponding controls. In the early passages, all XP lines had normal chromosome constitution with rates of polyploidy and chromosome aberrations within the range found in the controls. In the later passages, the XP cell lines had higher levels of chromosome abnormalities. The degree of abnormalities varied greatly among the XP lines; two lines had very high level of polyploidy (up to 50%) and cells with chromosome aberrations (up to 79%), the other two XP lines had a normal level of polyploidy and a slightly higher incidence of cells with chromosome aberrations than normal. The most common type of aberration was dicentrics.
Helping: The Influence of Anticipated Social Sanctions and Self‐Monitoring

ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted to examine the influence of social sanctions and self-monitoring on willingness to help handicapped persons Compared to low self-monitoring individuals, those high in self-monitoring tendencies were more likely to offer help if told that significant social rewards were attached to the act of helping, but were less likely to help if led to believe that these consequences were weak Implications for research on helping and self-monitoring are considered with particular attention being given to the relationship between social sanctions and self-monitoring
Patient preferences for gender of endoscopists

Background: The preference of patients for physician gender has been studied in many areas of medicine, but it has not been well evaluated in those undergoing lower GI endoscopy. This study assessed patient preference, if any, for endoscopist gender and compared the degree of preference expressed by men and women. Methods: A total of 150 consecutive patients scheduled for colonoscopy were prospectively asked to complete 2 sets of questionnaires anonymously. The preprocedure questionnaire asked whether they had a preference for an endoscopist of one gender and attempted to assess the strength of any preference by their willingness to wait until an endoscopist of the preferred gender became available. The postprocedure questionnaire assessed durability of response by asking patients who had expressed a gender preference about a possible change in their attitudes after completion of the examination. Results: The response rate for completion of the questionnaire was 100% (80 women, 70 men). Among women, 45% (36/80) expressed a gender preference (34 for a female and 2 for a male endoscopist), whereas only 4.3% (3/70) of men expressed a preference (p < 0.001). More than 90% (32/34) of the women patients who had expressed a preprocedure gender choice said they were willing to wait until an endoscopist of the preferred gender was available. When questioned after the procedure, the attitudes of all patients who previously expressed a gender choice remained unchanged. Conclusion: Compared with male patients, female patients are more likely to have gender preferences for an endoscopist. (Gastrointest Endosc 2002;56:170-3.)
An evolutionary comparison of homologous mitochondrial plasmid DNAs from three Neurospora species

We have discovered a mitochondrial DNA plasmid in N. crassa 516 (Roanoke, LA) which is homologous to those previously described from N. intermedia 435 (Fiji) and N. tetrasperma 2510 (Hanalei, HA). Subsequent analysis by DNA-DNA hybridization showed that 6 of 14 other Louisiana N. crassa isolates possessed plasmids homologous to these three plasmids, but at lower copy number. Plasmids from the three named strains were studied to examine possible plasmid diversity within each isolate, the extent of the homology between the plasmids, and the possibility that these plasmids could be inherited separately from their host mitochondria. Comparison of cloned plasmids and covalently closed circular mitochondrial DNA showed that only one plasmid line was present in each of the three intensively studied isolates. DNA-DNA hybridization and restriction endonuclease site mapping showed that the mitochondrial plasmids from the three species were very similar; most of the variation was due to presumed nucleotide substitutions. Plasmids judged identical by our analysis were found in different species. The distribution of the homologous plasmids in nature and the presence of these identical plasmids in different species, suggested that these plasmids could be transmitted between isolates independently of their host mitochondria.
Alterations in fatty acid composition of murine keratinocytes with in vitro cultivation

The availability of methods for the in vitro cultivation of keratinocytes has spawned numerous studies utilizing these systems to analyze epidermal biochemical pathways, e.g., eicosanoid production. To determine whether these culture systems are indeed valid models for studies of eicosanoid products, we analyzed the fatty acid (FA) composition, especially of eicosanoid precursors linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA), of cultured and noncultured mouse keratinocytes. Neonatal mouse epidermal keratinocytes were cultivated in Dulbecco's modification of Eagle's medium + 10% fetal calf serum (FCS). Lipids of the cultivated cells, as well as noncultivated keratinocytes and whole epidermis were extracted in CHCl 3 :MeOH (2:1) and lipid classes separated by thin-layer chromatography. The FA composition of the total lipid extract as well as of the phospholipid class was determined by gas-liquid chromatography of FA methyl esters. There was a gradual decrease in the LA levels in the cultured cells; by day 5 of culture the cells demonstrated a 4-fold ( p
Epidemiology and management of mycobacterial infections in the immunocompromised patient

Abstract Reactivation tuberculosis (TB) and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease are significant causes of morbidity in HIV infected patients, especially in resource-constrained settings. These diseases are the most common AIDS-presenting illnesses in some countries. Although morbidity and mortality have significantly decreased with the advent of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, significant challenges exist in treating patients, among them overlapping medication toxicities, drug-drug interactions and the risk of developing Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome. Mycobacterial resistance to existing antimicrobials continues to rise, further complicating the management of these patients and presenting a public health challenge. Solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients are also at increased risk of developing TB and MAC disease. In addition, although patients with cellular immune defects are perceived to be at higher risk for non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection, limited data exist on the frequency of these infections in this patient population. Incidence may be influenced by the degree of immunosuppression and the types of immunosuppressants used. Diagnosis is sometimes challenging, and the clinician needs to keep a high index of suspicion to correctly diagnose the syndromes caused by these bacteria. The author will review the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic methods and principles of treatment of the most common mycobacteria that cause disease in HIV and transplant recipients, and will discuss some of the nuances in the management of these patients.
Before they said I do'': Discriminating among marital outcomes over 13 years

One hundred couples were followed for 13 years from the premarital period well through the primary risk period for divorce. Results of discriminant analysis indicated that couples who remain satisfied, become distressed, and divorce can be reliably classified on the basis of premarital data. Further, both previously identified demographic risk factors and couple interaction variables contributed to classification accuracy, suggesting that both types of variables play important roles in relationship outcomes. The method employed here addresses weakness in previous studies by: (a) following couples for an extended period after marriage, (b) using multiple validated self-report and observational measures, and (c) making predictions simultaneously for divorced, distressed, and satisfied couples.
Inositol lipids and TRPC channel activation.

The original hypothesis put forth by Bob Michell in his seminal 1975 review held that inositol lipid breakdown was involved in the activation of plasma membrane calcium channels or ‘gates’. Subsequently, it was demonstrated that while the interposition of inositol lipid breakdown upstream of calcium signalling was correct, it was predominantly the release of Ca 2+ that was activated, through the formation of Ins(1,4,5)P 3 . Ca 2+ entry across the plasma membrane involved a secondary mechanism signalled in an unknown manner by depletion of intracellular Ca 2+ stores. In recent years, however, additional non-store-operated mechanisms for Ca 2+ entry have emerged. In many instances, these pathways involve homologues of the Drosophila trp (transient receptor potential) gene. In mammalian systems there are seven members of the TRP superfamily, designated TRPC1–TRPC7, which appear to be reasonably close structural and functional homologues of Drosophila TRP. Although these channels can sometimes function as store-operated channels, in the majority of instances they function as channels more directly linked to phospholipase C activity. Three members of this family, TRPC3, 6 and 7, are activated by the phosphoinositide breakdown product, diacylglycerol. Two others, TRPC4 and 5, are also activated as a consequence of phospholipase C activity, although the precise substrate or product molecules involved are still unclear. Thus the TRPCs represent a family of ion channels that are directly activated by inositol lipid breakdown, confirming Bob Michell9s original prediction 30 years ago.
Ethical and Legal Guidelines Related to Adherence to Treatment Protocols in Family Therapy Outcome Research.

Abstract This paper examines the ethical and legal implications of adhering to treatment protocols in family therapy outcome research. Safeguards are proposed to minimize risks to subjects, and guidelines are suggested to prevent therapist deviation from treatment protocols.
The Syracusia as a giant cargo vessel

Les AA reevaluent la capacite potentielle du cargo Le Syracuse. Ces navires geants etaient destines au commerce et construits pour des livraisons specifiques. Les AA donnent donc ici une description du navire : historique, dimensions, capacite, construction, organisation spatiale.
A computer system for inference execution and data retrieval

This paper presents a RAND project concerned with the use of computers as assistants in the logical analysis of large collections of factual data.A system called the Relational Data File was developed for this purpose. The Relational Data File is briefly detailed and problems arising from its implementation are discussed.
A reduced hessian strategy for sensitivity analysis of optimal flowsheets

An efficient and rigorous strategy is presented for evaluating the first-order sensitivity of the optimal solution to changes in process parameters or process models. An algorithm that constructs a reduced Hessian in the null space of the equality constraints is used to solve the sensitivity equations; the resulting effort to solve these equations depends only on the space of the decision (independent) variables. Consequently, large computational savings can be realized because the solution procedure eliminates the need for obtaining second partial derivatives with respect to tear (dependent) variables explicitly. The method is applied to several flowsheeting examples in order to determine efficiently the sensitivity of the optimal solution to parametric and physical property model changes.