cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
p53 protein expression and gene mutation in phyllodes tumors of the breast

The malignant potential of mammary phyllodes tumors is difficult to assess on initial pathologic examination. Studies on the p53 tumor suppressor gene have shown that it has an important role in the development of a variety of malignancies, yet the specific contribution to the pathogenesis and development of the malignant potential of phyllodes tumor is largely unknown. We studied p53 protein expression in 25 cases of phyllodes tumors histologically classified as either malignant (12 cases) or benign (13 cases). Using microdissection approach, we also analyzed the p53 gene sequence in a case that demonstrated progression from benign to malignant phenotype. Nuclear p53 staining was detected in various proportions (1-90%) of neoplastic stromal cells of malignant tumors. No staining was found in benign tumors. Progression from benign to malignant phenotype was associated with a significant increase in the accumulation of p53 (more than 20 times). This was caused by an underlying missense mutation in exon 7, resulting in a change from Arg248 to Trp248 in the malignant component of the tumor. Stromal p53 over-expression was observed only in neoplasms histologically classified as malignant and was associated with an increased proliferation index (MIB-1 staining). These two markers may be used as useful adjuncts in the diagnosis of malignancy in difficult cases or when only a limited sample size is available. Somatic mutation in exon 7 of p53 gene in malignant phyllodes tumor points toward the importance of p53 in the malignant transformation of phyllodes tumors.
Stress-corrosion cracking and its propagation in aligned short-fibre composites

Stress-corrosion tests are conducted on aligned short-fibre composites to assess their performance in both air and 1 N H2SO4 environments. The materials used are 3 mm E-glass, AS4 carbon, and their hybrid fibre reinforced epoxy composites. Several crack propagation models are developed to describe different cracking behaviour; the observed composite fracture modes verify these proposed models. Pre-immersion has significant effects onKl-tf and crack arrest of hybrid composites. A comparison of theoretical and experimentalKl-tf curves indicates good agreement of time to failure. The present research has quantified the susceptibility of these composites to environmental attack.
Thermomechanical aspects of NiTi

Abstract The uniaxial behavior of a nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy is studied experimentally. Experiments are conducted in a temperature and deformation regime in which the alloy exhibits the shape memory effect and pseudoelasticity. These characteristics are due to the displacive nature of transformation between the two major phases of the material, austenite and martensite, and to the fact that in this alloy martensite accommodates deformation by twinning. A series of uniaxial experiments is conducted on NiTi wire at temperatures in the range of approximately −20 to 100 °C where the fundamental material response changes drastically. In addition, the loading rate and the choice of ambient medium were found to have a significant influence on the recorded stress-strain responses due to a complex interaction between the inherent mechanical properties of the material and the prevailing heat transfer conditions of the experiment. It is demonstrated that local measurements of strain and temperature can help clarify events that take place at different stages of a typical loading-unloading history. These local measurements are used to track the movement of the interfaces between phases during stress-induced phase transformations at different loading rates.
Effects of Mechanical Stretching and Quadratic Coupling on Critical Behavior

Assuming the existence of certain limits we give an exact solution of a two-dimensional elastic Ising model with quadratic coupling. The main results are these: (I) If the lattice is slightly stretched, thermodynamic instability occurs for temperatures in a neighborhood of the critical point. (II) Outside this neighborhood, ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{T}$, $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, and ${C}_{p}$ diverge. (III) The nearest-neighbor spin-spin correlation function is nonzero for any pressure when $T$ becomes infinite. (IV) Antiferromagnetic as well as ferromagnetic behavior can occur for weak coupling at any pressure. (V) For strong coupling, at 0 pressure the model can have a Curie and N\'eel point or no critical point.
From victim to heroine: Children's stories revisited

Abstract: The need to escape reality and the taste for adventure with the unknown fills a universal need for both adults and children. Fairy tales have a powerful grip on the imagination because they are homespun versions of myths and have passionate intensity without epic grandeur. The happy ending of fairy tales reflects gender stereotyping because the heroine usually does very little except sit, wish, and wait for marriage. She has no control over her destiny and no active involvement in selecting or planning her future. These heroines are really passive victims. Sexism was once rampant in children's books. The Oz books, with their independent, courageous, and active heroine were way ahead of their time. The advent of women's liberation has led to a reappraisal of the female in folk literature. Anthologists have now discovered stories of admirable women who were strong characters in their own epic dramas.
Using species distribution and occupancy modeling to guide survey efforts and assess species status

Abstract Habitat loss and fragmentation continue to be major issues affecting the persistence and conservation of species, but identification of critical habitat remains a challenge. Species distribution modeling and occupancy modeling are both approaches that have been used to predict species distributions and can identify critical habitat characteristics associated with species occurrence. Additionally, occupancy sampling can provide measures of detectability, increasing the confidence that a species is truly absent when not detected. While increasingly popular, these methods are infrequently used in synergy, and rarely at fine spatial scales. We provide a case study of using distribution and occupancy modeling in unison to direct survey efforts, provide estimates of species presence/absence, and to identify local and landscape features important for species occurrence. The focal species for our study was Ambystoma jeffersonianum, a threatened salamander in the state of Illinois, U.S.A. We found that fine-scale distribution models accurately discriminated occupied from unoccupied breeding ponds (78–91% accuracy), and surveys could be effectively guided using a well-fit model. We achieved a high detection rate (0.774) through occupancy sampling, and determined that A. jeffersonianum never used ponds inhabited by fish, and the probability of a pond being used for breeding increased as canopy cover increased. When faced with limited resources, combining fine-scale distribution modeling with a robust occupancy sampling design can expedite survey efforts, confidently designate species occupancy status, prioritise habitat for future surveys and/or restoration, and identify critical habitat features. This approach is broadly applicable to other taxa that have specific habitat requirements.
Preserved myocardial blood flow and oxygen supply-demand balance with active coronary perfusion during simulated off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

Abstract Background: During off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, concern remains about the possible myocardial injury associated with the transient occlusion and stabilization of the target vessels. Although intraluminal shunts are used to avoid ischemia during graft anastomosis, blood flow through the shunts can be affected by upstream pressure and inherent resistance, resulting in reduced blood flow during hypotension or severe proximal stenosis. Methods: In anesthetized dogs regional myocardial blood flow (microspheres), oxygen consumption, lactate extraction, and systolic shortening (sonomicrometry) were measured in the myocardium served by the left anterior descending coronary artery with native perfusion after interposition of a 2.25-mm shunt (≥90% of left anterior descending diameter) and during active coronary perfusion with a constant flow pump. Measurements were made under normotension and hypotension produced by partial caval occlusion to reduce arterial pressure by 50%. Results: Interposition of the shunt reduced blood flow by 67.8%, regional oxygen delivery by 59.8%, and systolic shortening by 45.6% relative to baseline, but lactate extraction (31.0% vs 31.2%) and oxygen supply-consumption (O 2 S/myocardial oxygen consumption ratio, 2.7 ± 0.5 vs 2.6 ± 0.5) were comparable with baseline values. Hypotension further decreased these physiologic values and was associated with local lactate production (–67.4% extraction) and decreased O 2 S/myocardial oxygen consumption ratio (1.3 ± 0.1). Active coronary perfusion was associated with regional blood flow, oxygen delivery, systolic shortening, and lactate extraction comparable with baseline values. In contrast to the shunt, active perfusion maintained myocardial flow, oxygen delivery, and lactate extraction during hypotension and normalized the O 2 S/myocardial oxygen consumption ratio, although systolic shortening decreased as a result of ventricular unloading. Conclusion: Intraluminal shunts may impede oxygen delivery to the target myocardium, which precipitates regional ischemia during transient hypotension. Active coronary perfusion provides adequate oxygen supply independent of systemic blood pressure.
Genetic association of ubiquilin with Alzheimer's disease and related quantitative measures.

The gene coding for ubiquilin 1 (UBQLN1) is located near a linkage peak on chromosome 9q22.2 and it also impacts the function of presenilin proteins involved in early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recently, genetic variation in UBQLN1 has been shown to affect the risk of AD in two independent family-based samples. The purpose of this study was to confirm the reported association in a large case–control sample and to also examine the association of UBQLN1 SNPs with quantitative measures of AD progression, namely age-at-onset (AAO), disease duration and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. We examined the associations of three SNPs in the UBQLN1 gene (intron 6/A>C, intron 8/T>C and intron 9/A>G) in up to 978 LOAD cases and 808 controls. All SNPs were in significant linkage disequilibrium (P<0.0001). While modest significant associations were observed in the single-site regression analysis, 3-site haplotype analysis revealed significant associations (P<0.0001 for overall haplotype analysis). One common haplotype (H4) defined by intron 6/A–intron 8/C–intron 9/G alleles was associated with AD risk and one less common haplotype (H5) defined by intron 6/C–intron 8/C–intron 9/A alleles was associated with protection. The adjusted odds ratios with potentially one and two copies of risk haplotype H4 were 1.5 (95% CI: 0.99–2.26; P=0.054) and 3.66 (95% CI: 1.43–9.39; P=0.007), respectively, and odds ratio for haplotype H5 carriers was 0.31 (95% CI: 0.10–0.95; P=0.0398). In addition to disease risk, the homozygosity of the risk haplotype was also associated with older AAO, longer disease duration and lower MMSE score. In summary, our data from a large case–control cohort indicate that genetic variation in the UBQLN1 gene has a modest effect on risk, AAO and disease duration of AD. Our haplotype data suggest the presence of additional putative functional variants either in the UBQLN1 gene or nearby genes and provide strong justification for additional work in this region on chromosome 9.
Color transparency and Landshoff multiple-scattering processes.

In the following, the leading and nonleading contributions to fixed angle hadron-hadron elastic scattering are included in a qualitative analysis of {ital T}({ital s}), the transparency of {ital pN} quasielastic scattering. A simple model is given to predict the center-of-mass energies at which a target nuclei will become transparent to hard- and triple- (Landshoff-) scattered protons.
TRANSLOCATION OF C14-LABELED PHOTOSYNTHATE IN NODULATED LEGUMES AS INFLUENCED BY NITRATE NITROGEN'

A B S T R A C T Translocation of C14-labeled photosynthate was studied in nodulated pea and subterraneanclover plants which were grown either continuously without combined nitrogen or exposed to NaNO3 in the nutrient solution for five days prior to C1402 assimilation. Supplying combined nitrogen decreased the proportion of photosynthate translocated to nodules with a corresponding increase in the proportion going to roots. Nodules on plants grown without combined nitrogen had a higher radioactivity than nodules on plants treated with sodium nlitrate. IT IS WELL KNOWN that high levels of combined nitrogeni will inhibit nodulation and nitrogen fixation in legumes and non-legumes (Allos and Bartholomew, 1955; Stewart and Bond, 1961; Small, in press). A satisfactory hypothesis to explain the inhibition of nitrogen fixation has not been advanced. A number of aspects, e.g., internal carbohydrate: nitrogen ratio (Wilson, 1940) and hormonal effects (see Stewart, 1966, p. 42), may be involved. The present investigation was carried out to try to ascertain whether combined nitrogen, applied after nitrogen fixation had proceeded, could affect translocation of photosynthate to nodules. This in turn may have an effect on nodule function by influencing substrate available for respiration, growth, and organic nitrogen synthesis.
Evaluating the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing

What works in policing? David Weisburd, Cody W. Telep, Joshua C. Hinkle, and John E. Eck (2010, this issue) sought to answer this core question in their review of problem-oriented policing. Herman Goldstein proposed the problem-oriented approach in 1979 as the means by which the police could achieve their objectives more effectively and, thereby, improve the overall police institution. Weisburd et al. set out to put the problem-oriented approach to the test some 30 years later. Given the ambitiousness of Goldstein’s proposal, it follows that Weisburd et al.’s study is equally ambitious and important. If problem-oriented policing is proven to work, then it would stand to reason that police and the local governments should commit to the approach more fully. If it is proven not to work, then reconsideration of the approach—either to better understand why it is not working or to pursue alternative approaches to policing—would be warranted. Weisburd et al.’s (2010) overall conclusion was that reliable evidence, albeit modest in strength and limited in quantity, indicates that problem-oriented policing is an effective approach to reducing crime and disorder. Accordingly, they recommend that police agencies and government funding agencies alike maintain or strengthen their commitment to the problemoriented policing approach. As important and interesting as Weisburd et al.’s (2010) conclusions are, how they reached them is nearly equally so. Their study—a meta-analysis of problem-oriented studies and interventions—was conducted under the auspices and guidelines of the Campbell Collaboration (an international research network dedicated to reviewing the knowledge basis of the efficacy of social interventions in the criminal justice, education, and social welfare realms). The research guidelines of the Campbell Collaboration strongly favor experimental and quasi-experimental studies that include comparison groups and research designs that generally are regarded as yielding more reliable inferences about causal relationships than alternative research designs
Fundamental physical ontologies and the constraint of empirical coherence: a defense of wave function realism

This paper defends wave function realism against the charge that the view is empirically incoherent because our evidence for quantum theory involves facts about objects in three-dimensional space or space-time (local beables). It also criticizes previous attempts to defend wave function realism against this charge by claiming that the wave function is capable of grounding local beables as elements of a derivative ontology.
Porphyrin—Nucleic Acid Interactions: A Review

Research involving three important interactions of synthetic cationic porphyrins with nucleic acids: DNA binding, oxidative-reductive strand scission and photosensitized strand scission, is examine...
Why Woman Partners of Drug Users Will Continue to Be at High Risk for HIV Infection

Women infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) via a sexual relationship with an infected drug using partner are the second largest group of women diagnosed with AIDS in this country. Since 1983, they have been the most rapidly growing subgroup of adults with AIDS, and the increase has been even more rapid among black and hispanic women. Because they are a diverse group and are not readily identified, women partners of drug users and their needs have been unknown to or neglected by service providers and programs that could help them avoid becoming infected. More complete understanding of their characteristics and needs can help in the development of sensitive educational, preventative, and therapeutic strategies to help slow the dramatically increasing burden of AIDS-related morbidity and mortality among them and their families.
On Sequence Design for Relay Networks with Multipath

A method for a spreading sequence design based on signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is presented in this paper. It considers the relay channel where sources communicate with the receiver via relays under frequency selective fading. We examine the design of the user spreading sequences based on exploiting channel state information. We also examine the sensitivity of the proposed schemes to broadband noise jamming at the destination.
Beliefs and attitudes towards participating in genetic research – a population based cross-sectional study

Biobanks have the potential to offer a venue for chronic disease biomarker discovery, which would allow for disease early detection and for identification of carriers of a certain predictor biomarker. To assess the general attitudes towards genetic research and participation in biobanks in the Long Island/Queens area of New York, and what factors would predict a positive view of such research, participants from the NSLIJ hospital system were surveyed. Participants were recruited at six hospital centers in the NSLIJ system during the summers of 2009 and again in 2011 (n = 1,041). Those who opted to participate were given a questionnaire containing 22 questions assessing demographics, lifestyle and attitudes towards genetic research. These questions addressed individual participant’s beliefs about the importance of genetic research, willingness to participate in genetic research themselves, and their views on informed consent issues. Respondents took a generally positive view of genetic research in general, as well as their own participation in such research. Those with reservations were most likely to cite concerns over the privacy of their medical and genetic information. Those who were married tended to view genetic research as important, while those in the younger age group viewed it as less important. Prior blood donation of respondents was found to be a predictor of their approval for genetic research. Demographic factors were not found to be predictive of personal willingness to participate in genetic research, or of approval for the opt-out approach to consent. While respondents were generally inclined to approve of genetic research, and those who disapproved did not do so based on an underlying moral objection to such research, there is a disconnect between the belief in the importance of genetic research and the willingness of individuals to participate themselves. This indicates a continued concern for the ways in which genetic materials are safeguarded once they are collected. Also indicated was a general lack of understanding about the various consent processes that go along with genetic research, which should be addressed further to ensure the successful continuation of biobanks.
Temperamental Task Orientation: Relation to High School and College Educational Accomplishments.

Abstract To evaluate the role of temperamental task orientation in adolescents' academic success, we examined its relation to educational accomplishments in high school and college using longitudinal data. Participants (N = 110) were assessed at 15, 16, and 17 years of age with a follow-up at 24 years. Adolescent self-report and parent reports of task orientation at 16 were used to predict high school and college GPA, SAT scores, perseverance in college, and degree attainment. Task orientation related to high school GPA and accounted for variance above and beyond SES and IQ in predicting high school and college GPA. An interaction emerged between IQ and task orientation: increasing levels of task orientation were associated with higher GPA for students with higher intelligence, but not for those with relatively lower intelligence. These findings highlight the contribution of non-intellective factors to academic achievement in secondary and post-secondary education.
P59fyn is upregulated in anergic CD8+ T cells

Abstract The ultimate goal in clinical transplantation is achievement of graft tolerance. Despite long-term immunosuppression, alloantigens on transplants elicit alloresponses that can initiate organ rejection. Acute rejection is mediated by CD8 + cytotoxic T cells, whereas chronic rejection is a result of many factors including non-immunological events. The aim of this study was to examine the molecular requirements of T cell anergy, a cellular state that is an integral component of tolerance in vivo . In vitro , the tolerant state is usually best represented by T cell anergy, which is defined by loss of the ability of T cells to produce and secrete interleukin-2 upon restimulation. In the literature, molecular changes in anergic CD4 + T cells have been studied in great detail, but only little is known about functional and biochemical characteristics of anergic CD8 + T lymphocytes. In this study, we demonstrate, that CD8 + T cells are rendered anergic by TCR stimulation without costimulation. They exhibit impaired interleukin-2 production and tyrosine-phosphorylation, but markedly upregulated p59 fyn expression, which could be shown to be an early event during anergization. Anergic CD8 + T lymphocytes show elevated surface expression of early activation markers as well as costimulatory molecules, especially that of CTLA4. These results, are an important component for the discovery of potential molecular targets, which contribute to the development and maintenance of tolerance.
Excretion of bile acids and β-hydroxysterols by rats

Abstract Cholic acid-24-C 14 was used to determine the quantities of cholate and degradation products of cholate in feces of rats fed different diets. Quantities of β-hydroxysterols (cholesterol and analogs) excreted by the same groups of rats were also measured. Rats fed Purina laboratory chow excreted a mean total of 36.4 mg. cholate and degradation products of cholate/day/kg. body weight. This compared with values of 10.3 mg. for rats fed completely purified diets including corn starch and a mean excretion of 7.7 mg. for rats fed the same purified diet with sucrose in lieu of starch. Inclusion of 20% Celluflour in the sucrose synthetic diet resulted in a mean excretion of 23.4 mg./kg. body weight/ day. The quantities of β-hydroxysterols were greater than the quantities of cholic acid in all dietary groups. Four hours after the intraperitoneal administration of cholate-24-C 14 , all of the radioactivity (paper chromatography) in the bile and portal blood was as taurocholate. Separation of the radioactivity in feces by chromatography indicated that those groups of animals with the most rapid turnover rates of cholate had bile acids in feces which appeared to have a different pattern of modification by intestinal bacteria.
Vertical junction silicon microdisk modulators and switches

Vertical junction resonant microdisk modulators and switches have been demonstrated with exceptionally low power consumption, low-voltage operation, high-speed, and compact size. This paper reviews the progress of vertical junction microdisk modulators, provides detailed design data, and compares vertical junction performance to lateral junction performance. The use of a vertical junction maximizes the overlap of the depletion region with the optical mode thereby minimizing both the drive voltage and power consumption of a depletion-mode modulator. Further, the vertical junction enables contact to be made from the interior of the resonator and therein a hard outer wall to be formed that minimizes radiation in small diameter resonators, further reducing the capacitance and drive power of the modulator. Initial simple vertical junction modulators using depletion-mode operation demonstrated the first sub-100fJ/bit silicon modulators. With more intricate doping schemes and through the use of AC-coupled drive signals, 3.5μm diameter vertical junction microdisk modulators have recently achieved a communications efficiency of 3fJ/bit, making these modulators the smallest and lowest power modulators demonstrated to date, in any material system. Additionally, the demonstration was performed at 12.5Gb/s, required a peak-to-peak signal level of only 1V, and achieved bit-error-rates below 10−12 without requiring signal pre-emphasis. As an additional benefit to the use of interior contacts, higher-order active filters can be constructed from multiple vertical-junction modulators without interference of the electrodes. Doing so, we demonstrated second-order active high-speed bandpass switches with ~2.5ns switching speeds, and power penalties of only 0.4dB. Through the use of vertical junctions in resonant modulators, we have achieved the lowest power consumption, lowest voltage, and smallest silicon modulators demonstrated to date.
Frequency of occurrence as a psychophysical continuum: Weber's fraction, Ekman's fraction, range effects, and the phi-gamma hypothesis

Using the continuum of frequency of occurrence of words in English, it was found that: (1) errors in judgment are distributed lognormally rather than normally, and therefore the standard method of calculating Weber’s fraction underestimates its definition, (2) Weber’s fraction has an extremely large value of 3.3, (3)Ekman’s fraction equals 1.81, not .03 as with sensory continua, and (4)the logarithm of the dynamic range times Stevens’ law exponent equals 3.83, not 1.53 as with sensory continua. The last two results favor Teghtsoonian’s underlying sensory scale interpretation over Poulton’s range effects interpretation of the range-exponent relation.
The Good Life: Good Money, Good Work, Good Friends, Good Questions

This essay explores whether there is a general definition of the good life applicable cross-culturally to everyone, yet sufficiently open to permit infinitely idiosyncratic personal experience and lifetimes of inquiry. The essay proposes that four goods-good money, good work, good friends, and good questions-make up the good life, if they are pursued in the proper rank order of relative priority and with the proper blending. Readers are invited to test their own intuitive or explicit sense of the good life and the path toward it against the perspective offered here.
Reoperation rates after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion versus posterior cervical foraminotomy: A propensity-matched analysis

Abstract Background context Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and posterior cervical foraminotomy (PCF) are both used to surgically treat patients with cervical radiculopathy and have been shown to have similar outcomes. Nonetheless, ACDF has become increasingly more commonplace compared with PCF, in part because of a pervasive belief that PCF has a higher incidence of required reoperations. Purpose To determine the reoperation rate at the index level of ACDF versus PCF 2 years postoperatively. Study design A retrospective case-control. Patient sample All patients that underwent ACDF and PCF for radiculopathy (excluding myelopathy indications) between January 2005 and December 2011. Outcome measures Revision surgery within 2 years, at the index level, was recorded. Methods Propensity score analysis between the ACDF and PCF groups was done, matching for age, gender, race, body mass index, tobacco use, median income and insurance status, primary surgeon, level of surgery, surgery duration, and length of hospital stay. Results Seven hundred ninety patients met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, including 627 ACDF and 163 PCF. Before propensity matching, the PCF group was found to be significantly older and more likely to be male. After matching, there were no significant differences between groups for any baseline characteristics. Reoperation rate at the index level was 4.8% for the ACDF group and 6.4% for the PCF group (p=.7) within 2 years of the initial surgery. Using equivalence testing, based on an a priori null hypothesis that a clinically meaningful difference between the two groups would be ≥5%, we found that the absolute difference of 1.6% was significantly (p=.01) less than our hypothesized difference. Conclusions This study demonstrates that even after accounting for patient demographics, operative characteristics, and primary surgeon, there are no significant differences in 2-year reoperation rates at the index level between ACDF and PCF. The reoperation rates are statistically equivalent. Thus, spine surgeons can operate via the posterior approach without putting patients at increased risk for revision surgery at the index level.
Learning Triggering Kernels for Multi-dimensional Hawkes Processes

How does the activity of one person affect that of another person? Does the strength of influence remain periodic or decay exponentially over time? In this paper, we study these critical questions in social network analysis quantitatively under the framework of multi-dimensional Hawkes processes. In particular, we focus on the nonparametric learning of the triggering kernels, and propose an algorithm MMEL that combines the idea of decoupling the parameters through constructing a tight upper-bound of the objective function and application of Euler-Lagrange equations for optimization in infinite dimensional functional space. We show that the proposed method performs significantly better than alternatives in experiments on both synthetic and real world datasets.
Temperature dependency analysis of light output from an NE-213 liquid sintillator

NE-213 liquid scintillation detectors are currently used in radiation fields consisting of both gamma rays and fast neutrons and are an excellent tool for differentiating between each type of radiation via their respective interactions. In this experiment, an analysis was performed on an NE-213 liquid scintillation detector to investigate the effects of temperature changes on the light output. The two effects measured were the amount of the individual light decay components have to the total pulse height and the total gain of the system as a function of temperature.
Long‐Lived Cyclopropylcarbinyl Cations

1 Introduction 2 General Methods of Preparation of Long-Lived Cyclopropylcarbinyl Cations 3 Primary Cyclopropylcarbinyl Cations 4 Secondary and Tertiary Cyclopropylcarbinyl Cations 5 Spirocyclopropylcarbinyl Cations 6 Cyclopropylcarbinyl Dications 7 Extent of Positive Charge Delocalization into the Cyclopropyl Group 8 X-Ray Crystallographic Studies 9 Conclusions and Outlook Keywords: long-lived cyclopropylcarbinyl cations; primary cyclopropylcarbinyl cations; alcohol or halide ionization; hydride ion abstraction from hydrocarbons; secondary and tertiary cyclopropylcarbinyl cations; allyl substituted cyclopropylcarbinyl cations
Why Action Research

Members of the editorial board of Action Research responded to the question, `Why action research?' Based on their responses and the authors' own experiences as action researchers, this article examines common themes and commitments among action researchers as well as exploring areas of disagreement and important avenues for future exploration. We also use this opportunity to welcome readers of this new journal and to introduce them to members of the editorial board.
Electric drives technology-part way to where?

Power electronic converters have clearly had a dramatic impact on motor drive technology. However, successful applications of this technology have not been all pervasive but relatively selective. This paper attempts to summarize the present status of this technology at to illustrate that, perhaps, the greatest challenges and rewards lie ahead of us.
Quantification of transcription factor expression from Arabidopsis images

Motivation: Confocal microscopy has long provided qualitative information for a variety of applications in molecular biology. Recent advances have led to extensive image datasets, which can now serve as new data sources to obtain quantitative gene expression information. In contrast to microarrays, which usually provide data for many genes at one time point, these image data provide us with expression information for only one gene, but with the advantage of high spatial and/or temporal resolution, which is often lostin microarray samples. Results: We have developed a prototype for the automatic analysis of Arabidopsis confocal images, which show the expression of a single transcription factor by means of GFP reporter constructs. Using techniques from image registration, we are able to address inherent problems of non-rigid transformation and partial mapping, and obtain relative expression values for 13 different tissues in Arabidopsis roots. This provides quantitative information with high spatial resolution, which accurately represents the underlying expression values within the organism. We validate our approach on a data set of 122 images depicting expression patterns of 30 transcription factors, both in terms of registration accuracy, as well as correlation with cell-sorted microarray data. Approaches like this will be useful to lay the groundwork to reconstruct regulatory networks on the level of tissues or even individual cells. Contact: uwe.ohler@duke.edu Availability: Upon request from the authors. Supplementary Data:
Directed evolution of a biterminal bacterial display scaffold enhances the display of diverse peptides

Bacterial cell-surface display systems coupled with quantitative screening methods offer the potential to expand protein engineering capabilities. To more fully exploit this potential, a unique bacterial surface display scaffold was engineered to display peptides more efficiently from the surface exposed C- and N-termini of a circularly permuted outer membrane protein. Using directed evolution, efficient membrane localization of a circularly permuted OmpX (CPX) display scaffold was rescued, thereby improving the presentation of diverse passenger peptides on the cell surface. Random and targeted mutagenesis directed towards linkers joining the native N- and C-termini of OmpX coupled with screening by FACS yielded an enhanced CPX (eCPX) variant which localized to the outer membrane as efficiently as the non-permuted parent. Interestingly, enhancing substitutions coincided with a C-terminal motif conserved in outer membrane proteins. Surface localization of various passenger peptides and mini-proteins was expedited using eCPX relative to that achieved with the parent scaffold. The new variant also permitted simultaneous display and labeling of distinct peptides on structurally adjacent C- and N-termini, thus enabling display level normalization during library screening and the display of bidentate or dimeric peptides. Consequently, the evolved scaffold, eCPX, expands the range of applications for bacterial display. Finally, this approach provides a route to improve the performance of cell-surface display vectors for protein engineering and design.
Efficient Incremental Optimal Chain Partition of Distributed Program Traces

An important problem in distributed systems is observation of global properties of distributed computations. What makes this problem difficult is that events in the computation can be concurrent, i.e. the relation between events forms a partial order, not a total order. One of the fundamental parameters of a partial order is the width, which corresponds to the maximum number of mutually incomparable elements. For example, a process-time diagram that shows this partial order decomposition in minimum number of chains can be very useful in monitoring or debugging such computations. In this paper, we present an incremental algorithm to compute the optimal chain partition. We compare our algorithm with existing chain reduction algorithms. From a practical point of view, performance evaluation shows that our approach achieves up to 90% run-time improvement over the previously known algorithms.
Strengthening Public Reporting and Maintaining Access to Care

Public reporting of mortality following percutaneous coronary intervention is now mandated in 3 US states (New York, Massachusetts, and Washington) and has been associated with improvement in outcomes. However, there is evidence of growing risk aversion among percutaneous coronary intervention operators in public reporting states, manifest as avoidance of treating those critically ill patients who might benefit the most from appropriate percutaneous coronary intervention. We propose 4 incremental changes to the reporting process that will preserve the benefits of public reporting while mitigating the likelihood of high-risk case aversion, which may threaten access to life-saving care. Public reporting of risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rates after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is intended to encourage adoption of best practices and to provide transparency for patients, payers, and public health officials.1 However, there is controversy regarding the ability of public reporting to improve patient outcomes while preserving access to care.1 Though public reporting was originally expected to encourage educated consumerism, it has proven to have a more demonstrable effect on US physician behavior.2 Progressive risk aversion or “case selection creep”, the withholding of appropriate PCI from the highest risk patients who stand the most to gain from such treatment but have a poor overall prognosis, has become a potential public health concern. Public reporting following PCI has been variously implemented on a state-by-state basis. Assessing the impact of such programs can be difficult, in part because public reporting in PCI is itself not a standardized concept. For example, the New Jersey Department of Public Health’s current public reporting process outlines institutional PCI case volumes and performance on door-to-balloon time in primary PCI, but does not currently report mortality outcomes. Alternatively, an independent state agency in Pennsylvania previously reported mortality outcomes following PCI but has suspended doing so since 2009. In 2012, …
Assessing student performance outcomes in an information security risk assessment, service learning course

This focus of this paper is on the assessment of student performance in an information security risk assessment, service learning course. The paper provides a brief overview of the information security risk assessment course as background information and a review of relevant educational assessment theory with a focus on outcomes assessment. An example of how assessment theory was applied to this service learning course to assess student performance outcomes is described with the aim of sharing performance assessment methods with other educators. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0313871. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Cocaine Stimulates the Human Cardiovascular System via a Central Mechanism of Action

Background—Cocaine is thought to stimulate the cardiovascular system by blocking peripheral norepinephrine reuptake. This study was designed to test the novel hypotheses that cocaine also stimulates the human cardiovascular system by (1) increasing central sympathetic outflow, or (2) decreasing parasympathetic control of heart rate. Methods and Results—In 14 healthy cocaine-naive humans, we measured blood pressure, heart rate, and skin sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) with intraneural microelectrodes before, during, and for 90 minutes after intranasal cocaine (2 mg/kg, n=7) or lidocaine (2 mg/kg, n=7). Intranasal cocaine caused an initial but transient 3.3-fold increase in skin SNA during the period of intranasal administration followed by a sustained 2.4-fold increase lasting for up to 90 minutes after cocaine. Unlike cocaine, intranasal lidocaine caused only a small transient increase in skin SNA due to local nasal irritation. The cocaine-induced increase in SNA was accompanied by decreased skin blood f...
Neoplastic pericardial effusion.

Neoplastic pericardial effusion is a serious and common clinical disorder encountered by cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, oncologists, and radiation oncologists. It may develop from direct extension or metastatic spread of the underlying malignancy, from an opportunistic infection, or from a complication of radiation therapy or chemotherapeutic toxicity. The clinical presentation varies, and the patient may be hemodynamically unstable in the setting of constrictive pericarditis and cardiac tamponade. The management depends on the patient's prognosis and varies from pericardiocentesis, sclerotherapy, and balloon pericardiotomy to cardiothoracic surgery. Patients with neoplastic pericardial effusion face a grave prognosis, as their malignancy is usually more advanced. This review article discusses the epidemiology and etiology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, management, and prognosis of neoplastic pericardial effusion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The authors have no funding, financial relationships, or conflicts of interest to disclose.
Lipolysis and fatty acid metabolism in men and women during the postexercise recovery period.

We sought to determine whether lipolysis, fatty acid (FA) mobilization, and plasma FA oxidation would remain elevated for hours following isoenergetic exercise bouts of different intensities. Ten men and eight women received a primed-continuous infusion of [1,1,2,3,3-2H5]glycerol and continuous infusion of [1-13C]palmitate to measure glycerol and plasma FA kinetics. On Day 1 (D1), participants were studied under one of three different conditions, assigned in random order: (1) before, during and 3 h after 90 min of exercise at 45% (E45), (2) before, during and 3 h after 60 min of exercise at 65% (E65), and (3) in a time-matched sedentary control trial (C). For each condition, participants were studied by indirect calorimetry the following morning as well (D2). Rate of appearance (Ra) of glycerol (RaGL) increased above C during exercise in men and women (P < 0.05), was higher in E45 than E65 in men (P < 0.05), and was not different between exercise intensities in women. During 3 h of postexercise recovery, RaGL remained significantly elevated in men (P < 0.05), but not women. FA Ra (RaFA) increased during exercise in men and women and was higher in E45 than E65 (P < 0.05), and remained elevated during 3 h of postexercise recovery in both sexes (P < 0.05), but with a greater relative increase in men than women (P < 0.05). Plasma FA oxidation (Rox) increased during exercise with no difference between intensities, and it remained elevated during 3 h of postexercise recovery in both sexes (P < 0.05). Total lipid oxidation (Lox) was elevated in both sexes (P < 0.05), but more in men during 3 h of postexercise recovery on D1 (P < 0.05) and remained elevated on D2 in men (P < 0.05), but not in women. There were no differences between E45 and E65 for postexercise energy substrate turnover or oxidation in men and women as energy expenditure of exercise (EEE) was matched between bouts. We conclude that the impact of exercise upon lipid metabolism persists into recovery, but that women depend more on lipid during exercise whereas, during recovery, lipid metabolism is accentuated to a greater extent in men.
Hormonal regulation of aggression toward juveniles in female house mice.

Abstract Adult female house mice that had been living in groups inflicted more wounds upon juvenile opponents than did females that had been housed in isolation. Ovariectomy blocked this enhancement of aggression by grouping. Aggression in ovariectomized females was augmented by treatment with testosterone propionate, but not by treatment with estradiol benzoate or progesterone. Preputial gland size was greater in group-housed females than in isolates; this difference was abolished by ovariectomy. Testosterone proprionate, but not estradiol benzoate or progesterone stimulated preputial gland growth in ovariectomized mice. These results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that the groupinginduced enhancement of juvenile-directed aggression in female mice is mediated by an increased secretion of ovarian androgens.
Molecular Evolution of a Portion of the Mitochondrial 16S Ribosomal Gene Region in Scleractinian Corals

Relationships among families and suborders of scleractinian corals are poorly understood because of difficulties 1) in making inferences about the evolution of the morphological characters used in coral taxonomy and 2) in interpreting their 240-million-year fossil record. Here we describe patterns of molecular evolution in a segment of the mitochondrial (mt) 16S ribosomal gene from taxa of 14 families of corals and the use of this gene segment in a phylogenetic analysis of relationships within the order. We show that sequences obtained from scleractinians are homologous to other metazoan 16S ribosomal sequences and fall into two distinct clades defined by size of the amplified gene product. Comparisons of sequences from the two clades demonstrate that both sets of sequences are evolving under similar evolutionary constraints: they do not differ in nucleotide composition, numbers of transition and transversion substitutions, spatial patterns of substitutions, or in rates of divergence. The characteristics and patterns observed in these sequences as well as the secondary structures, are similar to those observed in mt 16S ribosomal DNA sequences from other taxa. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences shows that they are useful for evaluating relationships within the order. The hypothesis generated from this analysis differs from traditional hypotheses for evolutionary relationships among the Scleractinia and suggests that a reevaluation of evolutionary affinities in the order is needed.