cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Increasing passive compliance to wearing a facemask in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The current study taught 6 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to increase passive compliance of wearing a facemask across sequentially increasing durations of time. A changing-criterion design embedded within a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a resetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) without escape extinction procedure on passive compliance. Terminal probe sessions determined DRO fading intervals. Results showed that 2 participants acquired mastery level passive compliance (30 min) without fading during the initial baseline sessions. The remaining 4 participants acquired mastery level passive compliance following fading intervals within the DRO intervention. Participants' passive compliance generalized across 2 novel settings. This study replicates previous studies and extends empirical support for the use of DRO without escape extinction interventions for increasing passive compliance with medical devices in children with ASD.
Made for each other: Vector-pathogen interfaces in the Huanglongbing pathosystem.

Citrus greening, or Huanglongbing (HLB), currently is the most destructive disease of citrus. HLB disease is putatively caused by the phloem-restricted α-proteobacterium, ‛Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus'. This bacterium is primarily transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Liviidae). Most animal pathogens are considered pathogenic to their insect vectors, whereas the relationships between plant pathogens and their insect vectors are variable. Lately, the relationship of ‛Ca. L. asiaticus' with its insect vector, D. citri was well investigated at the molecular, biochemical, and biological levels in many studies. Herein, the findings concerning this relationship are discussed and molecular features of the acquisition of ‛Ca. L. asiaticus' from the plant host and its growth and circulation within D. citri, as well as its transmission to plants, are presented. In addition, the effects of ‛Ca. L. asiaticus' on the energy metabolism (respiration, TCA cycle, the ATP production), metabolic pathways, immune system, endosymbionts, and detoxification enzymes of D. citri are discussed together with other impacts such as shorter lifespan, altered feeding behavior, and higher fecundity. Overall, although ‛Ca. L. asiaticus' has significant negative effects on its insect vector, it increases its vector fitness, indicating that it develops a mutualistic relationship with its vector. This review will help in understanding the specific interactions between ‛Ca. L. asiaticus' and its psyllid vector in order to design innovative management strategies.
Impact of a multidisciplinary acute aortic dissection program: Improved outcomes with a comprehensive initial surgical repair strategy.

Abstract Objective As part of a multidisciplinary aortic dissection (AD) program, a more comprehensive repair strategy for patients with acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) and frequent endografting for suitable patients with type B aortic dissection (ATBAD) was adopted in 2015. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of these changes. Methods This study is a retrospective review of a prospective database containing all patients treated for acute AD between 2003 and 2020. Patients were grouped based on differing repair strategies (pre 2015 vs post 2015). Clinical characteristics, procedural details, and survival data were analyzed. Results During this time, 323 patients (210 pre, 113 post) were treated for acute AD at our institution. There were 221 patients with ATAAD (149 pre, 72 post) and 102 patients with ATBAD (61 pre, 41 post). The majority (60%) were males, with a mean age of 65.9 ± 15.2 years. There were no differences in cardiovascular risk factors or demographics between the groups. After 2015, fewer patients with ATAAD underwent medical management alone (15% pre vs 4% post; P = .014), and most that underwent surgical intervention had a total arch or aggressive hemiarch repair (27% pre vs 78% post; P Conclusions A more comprehensive repair strategy in the management of patients with acute AD resulted in improved overall patient outcomes and significantly decreased 30-day mortality, even though more complex repairs were performed. The long-term impact of the changes made to our program remains to be evaluated.
The Countable-armed Bandit with Vanishing Arms

We consider a bandit problem with countably many arms, partitioned into finitely many "types," each characterized by a unique mean reward. A "non-stationary" distribution governs the relative abundance of each arm-type in the population of arms, aka the "arm-reservoir." This non-stationarity is attributable to a probabilistic leakage of "optimal" arms from the reservoir over time, which we refer to as the "vanishing arms" phenomenon; this induces a time-varying (potentially "endogenous," policy-dependent) distribution over the reservoir. The objective is minimization of the expected cumulative regret. We characterize necessary and sufficient conditions for achievability of sub-linear regret in terms of a critical vanishing rate of optimal arms. We also discuss two reservoir distribution-oblivious algorithms that are long-run-average optimal whenever sub-linear regret is statistically achievable. Numerical experiments highlight a distinctive characteristic of this problem related to ex ante knowledge of the "gap" parameter (the difference between the top two mean rewards): in contrast to the stationary bandit formulation, regret in our setting may suffer substantial inflation under adaptive exploration-based (gap-oblivious) algorithms such as UCB vis-`a-vis their non-adaptive forced exploration-based (gap-aware) counterparts like ETC.
Nonlinear stability of diffusive contact wave for a chemotaxis model

Abstract We consider a 2 × 2 system of hyperbolic-parabolic balance laws. Our system is the converted form under inverse Hopf-Cole transformation of a Keller-Segel type chemotaxis model with logistic growth, logarithmic sensitivity, non-diffusive chemical signal and density-dependent production/consumption rate. We study Cauchy problem when the Cauchy data are near a diffusive contact wave. The contact wave connects two different end-states as x → ± ∞ , reflecting the situation when the logarithmic singularity plays an intrinsic role in the original chemotaxis model. We establish global existence of solution and study time asymptotic behavior of the solution. Consequently, we obtain nonlinear stability of the diffusive contact wave. Our result shows a significant difference when comparing our model to Euler equations with damping. In our case, there exists a secondary wave in the asymptotic ansatz. Therefore, the solution to Cauchy problem converges to the diffusive contact wave slower than in the case of Euler equations with damping. Besides its own physical relevance, our model is a prototype of a general system of hyperbolic-parabolic balance laws. Our results shed light on the future study of nonlinear stability of elementary waves for a general system.
Intestinal Disappearance and Portal Blood Appearance of Amino Acids in Sheep

The intestinal disappearance and simultaneous arterial inflow and portal appearance of individual amino acids (AA) were studied in sheep fed closed formula, unrefined high (H.P.) and medium (M.P.) protein diets. Gut contents were sampled through four intestinal cannulae and blood was sampled through portal and arterial catheters. The amount of total and amino N that was fed decreased on passage into the duodenum but increased in the jejunum, and then again decreased steadily towards the terminal ileum. The amounts of AA passing into the duodenum were significantly higher when the H.P. rather than the M.P. diet was fed. No dietary differences in AA were noted at the ileo-cecal junction, however, meaning that greater amounts of AA disappeared from the intestine when the H.P. diet was fed. The amounts of AA appearing in portal blood were 30 to 80% of those disappearing from the intestine and were greater in sheep fed the H.P. diet. The amount of AA passing into the duodenum also significantly affected the concentrations of AA in arterial blood. Less [U-14C]glutamic acid than [U-14C]alanine, that was infused into abomasum, was detected in the digesta passing through the pylorus. The same also was true for the unlabeled free form of glutamic acid. The portal appearance of both unlabeled and labeled glutamic acid was negligible, but that of alanine was considerable. Variable amounts of [14C]citrulline, [14C]arginine, and [14C]urea were detected in the blood following the abomasal infusions of labeled glutamic acid or alanine. The portal appearance of these labeled metabolites was always negative, however, implying that they were utilized, and not formed, by gut tissues.
West Florida Shelf Circulation on Synoptic, Seasonal, and Interannual Time Scales

The continental shelf ocean circulation is driven by a combination of local and deep ocean forcing, where the local forcing is by surface momentum and buoyancy (heat and fresh water) fluxes and by land-derived fresh water fluxes, and the deep ocean forcing is by momentum and buoyancy fluxes transmitted across the shelf break. While all continental shelves share the same response physics, their geometries, river distributions, and boundary currents make their individual behaviors unique. Here we consider the responses of the West Florida Continental Shelf (WFS) to external forcing on time scales ranging from the passage of synoptic scale weather systems to interannual anomalies. Our approach is to combine measurements made over several years with applied numerical model experiments, and we describe several features of the time and space varying circulation that may have relevance to the ecological workings of the WFS. These include the role of the bottom Ekman layer in transporting cold, nutrient-rich waters of deep-ocean origin to the nearshore; seasonal reversals of the inner shelf currents; seasonal reversals of the outer-shelf currents that can occur independent of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current to provide a WFS pathway for Mississippi River water in spring and summer; the formation of a spring cold tongue and the associated Green River phenomenon; and ventilations by deep-ocean water that may occur interannually.
The Application of POSIX Threads and OpenMP to the U.S. NRC Neutron Kinetics Code PARCS

POSIX Threads and OpenMP were used to implement parallelism in the nuclear reactor transient analysis code PARCS on multiprocessor SUN and SGI workstations. The achievable parallel performance for practical applications is compared for each of the code modules using POSIX threads and OpenMP. A detailed analysis of the cache misses was performed on the SGI to explain the observed performance. Considering the effort required for implementation, the directive based standard OpenMP appears to be the preferred choice for parallel programming on a shared memory address machine.
Brain-stem relays mediating stimulation-produced antinociception from the lateral hypothalamus in the rat

Several lines of evidence have demonstrated a role for the lateral hypothalamus (LH) in an endogenous system of descending inhibition. The present study, in rats lightly anesthetized with pentobarbital, was undertaken to examine systematically the organization in the brain stem of pathways mediating descending inhibition of the nociceptive tail flick (TF) reflex produced by focal electrical stimulation in the LH. The microinjection of lidocaine into the midbrain, dorsolateral pons, or medial medulla resulted in significant increases in stimulation thresholds in the LH for inhibition of the TF reflex (89.1, 67.4, and 73.6%, respectively). Selective lesions of cell bodies in the midbrain or medulla by the neurotoxin ibotenic acid also produced significant increases in stimulation thresholds in the LH for inhibition of the TF reflex (31.6 and 131.6%, respectively), thus revealing relays in the periaqueductal gray and the nucleus raphe magnus located between the LH and the lumbar spinal cord. The failure of ibotenic acid to affect LH-produced descending inhibition when microinjected into the dorsolateral pons, and the significant effect produced by lidocaine microinjected into the same area, implicates fibers of passage in the dorsolateral pons in descending inhibition of the TF reflex produced by focal electrical stimulation in the LH. The fluorescent dye Fast blue and HRP conjugated to wheat germ agglutinin were used to confirm that the area stimulated in the LH has reciprocal connections with the periaqueductal gray and nucleus raphe magnus.
Spatial Tax Competition and Domestic Wages

Using a unique, self-compiled dataset on international tax rates, we explore the link between taxes and manufacturing wages for a panel of 65 countries over 25 years. We find, controlling for other macroeconomic variables, that wages are significantly responsive to corporate taxation. Higher corporate tax rates depress wages. We also find that tax characteristics of neighboring countries, whether geographic or economic, have a significant effect on domestic wages. These results are consistent with the frequently employed assumptions in the public finance literature that capital is highly mobile, but labor is not. Under these conditions labor will bear the burden of capital taxes.
A Context Aware Interruption Management System for Mobile Devices

To prevent unwanted interruptions from cell phones, this paper proposes a system solution considering user’s unavailability. We first look at desirable characteristics of the system, then design a system architecture which takes as input user preferences, relevant context information and then produces as output if an incoming call should be allowed to ring. We also present a case study application that benefit by using the interruption management system. Finally, we discuss evaluations of the system by (i) evaluating the prototype and (ii) undertaking cognitive walkthroughs of the application.
Treatment of respiratory failure in an infant with bronchopulmonary dysplasia infected with respiratory syncytial virus using inhaled nitric oxide and high frequency ventilation

A 2-month-old, former 28-week premature infant with bronchopulmonary dysplasia infected with respiratory syncytial virus was treated with nitric oxide and high frequency oscillatory ventilation after conventional therapy failed. Nitric oxide and high frequency oscillatory ventilation rapidly improved oxygenation allowing recovery without the need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This treatment regimen should be considered as an option in high-risk infants with respiratory syncytial virus infection who meet extracorporeal membrane oxygenation criteria.
Alternative spatial encoding for imaging magnetic nanoparticles

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) was introduced in 2005 and is one of the very few imaging methods capable of sensitivities that allow the term "molecular imaging" to be applied. Estimates of sensitivity allow nanograms of iron oxide nanoparticles to be imaged. MPI cyclically saturates the nanoparticles with an alternating magnetic field termed the drive field. The signal from the harmonics of the drive frequency is recorded. Localization is achieved by saturating the nanoparticles outside a "field free point." We present an alternative method of encoding the position of the magnetic nanoparticles. Signal is generated at the 2nd harmonic of the drive field only when a static magnetic field is present. Localization is achieved by placing a small static magnetic field gradient across the sample and the phase of the signal depends on the sign of the static field. The response of the nanoparticles at different static fields provides the localization. The localization can be modeled as a wavelet transform if the gradient is approximately linear. Smaller field gradients are required than in MPI. The sensitivity is potentially significantly higher than that of MPI; when minimum bandwidths are employed to achieve the maximum SNR, the SNR is 85% larger for new method. Variable resolution can be achieved. This is the first method capable of imaging the signal from a single harmonic independently of other harmonics. The new method has promise for low cost screening applications where only coarse localization might be required.
Pinch-off maps for the design of morphologically stable multilayer thin films with immiscible phases

Abstract Design maps are developed for the time to pinch-off via grain boundary grooving in multilayer thin films consisting of two immiscible phases. Variables include the (isotropic) interfacial/grain boundary energies, interfacial diffusivities, initial grain aspect ratio, and imposed in-plane strain rate. The maps are based on a new 2D analysis of grooving in multilayer thin films that extends earlier work by Thouless [Thouless MD. Acta Metall Mater 1993;41:1057] for single phase films. A modified Mullins [Mullins WW, J Appl Phys 1957;28:333] parameter B ∼ multi and time scale τmulti are found to control grooving kinetics, with initial groove depth scaling as t1/4, t3/4, or t, depending on the magnitude of in-plane strain rate and geometry. The maps predict that nano-scale films may or may not be more unstable to pinch-off at elevated temperature compared to micro-scale counterparts, depending on morphology, interfacial/grain boundary energies, and in-plane strain rate.
Crystallization of human rhinovirus 1A.

Abstract Human rhinovirus 1A virions are found at two densities after cesium chloride gradient centrifugation. Dialysis of the virus against ammonium formate converts all the virus into the more dense form. Virus, dialyzed against ammonium formate and left for several days at 6 C forms crystals. Viral infectivity associated with washed crystals is lost by treatment at either pH 5 or pH 10.3, however, the integrity of the crystals is retained at the acidic pH. The crystals, as characterized by light and electron microscopy, are hexagonally prismatic with tapered, pyramidal ends. Electron images of replicated surfaces and thin sections of crystals show ordered packing of virus with a center-to-center repeat of 28.5 nm.
RAPID: An Inexpensive Open Source Dynamometer for Robotics Applications

This paper describes the development of an automated dynamometer to characterize brushed direct current motors. The unique mechanical design allows the testing of a wide range of motor sizes. The motor under test is subjected to a given pulse width modulated voltage signal and position, current, and voltage measurements are simultaneously recorded from the integrated sensor suite. An electromechanical motor model is developed by combining the voltage and torque balance equations of the system. A least-squares algorithm is used to estimate the parameters that best fit the observed data to the specified gray box model. The system retains a low cost by using off-the-shelf electronics and cheaply fabricated mechanical parts. The inertia and friction of the system are carefully modeled, removing the need for an expensive torque sensor. The mechanical drawings, electrical schematics, and software are open source and freely available for download. Consistent parameter estimates from a set of high-tolerance and well-documented identical motors demonstrate the accuracy and precision of the system.
Divergence-free bases and multiresolution methods for reduced-order flow modeling

Although reduced-order modeling methods have e ourished in the study of structural system dynamics, similar methodologies for the representation of e ow are few in comparison. A novel methodology based on biorthogonal wavelet constructions and multiresolution analysis for order reduction of velocity e elds obtained via digital particle image velocimetry or computational e uid dynamics is presented. The derivation, algorithmic implementation, and experimental verie cation of fast projective e ltering methods based on divergence-free wavelets are discussed. Experimental evidence presented demonstrates the feasibility of achieving several hundredfold compression for typical velocity e elds obtained via experiments using particle image velocimetry. The results also suggest the feasibility and amenability of wavelet methods for diverse problems of interest to the aerospace community including 1) experimental data denoising, 2 ) local cross-correlation calculations, and 3 ) feature extraction.
Three Bush Administration Management Reform Initiatives: The President’s Management Agenda, Freedom to Manage Legislative Proposals, and the Program Assessment Rating Tool

In response to the foregoing essay by James P. Pfiffner on President George W. Bush’s legacy as a public administrator, this essay takes a practical look at three government-wide Bush administration management reform initiatives: the President’s Management Agenda, the Freedom to Manage legislative proposals, and the Program Assessment Rating Tool.
Evidence for neuropeptide Y mediation of eating produced by food deprivation and for a variant of the Y1 receptor mediating this peptide's effect.

Abstract Neuropeptide Y (NPY) elicits eating when injected directly into the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) or perifornical hypothalamus (PFH). To identify the essential regions of the NPY molecule and the relative contributions of Y 1 and Y 2 receptors, the eating stimulatory potency of NPY was compared to that of its fragments, analogues, and agonists when injected into the PVN or PFH of satiated rats. Additionally, antisera to NPY was injected into the cerebral ventricles (ICV) to determine whether passive immunization suppresses the eating produced by mild food deprivation. Tests with NPY fragments revealed that NPY(2–36) was surprisingly potent, nearly three times more so than intact NPY. In contrast, fragments with further N- terminal deletions were progressively less effective or ineffective, as was the free acid form of NPY. Collectively, this suggests that both N - and C- terminal regions of NPY participate in the stimulation of eating. Tests with agonists revealed that the putative Y 1 agonist [Pro 34 ]NPY elicited a strong dose-dependent feeding response, while the putative Y 2 agonist, C2-NPY, had only a small effect at the highest doses. Although this suggests mediation by Y 1 receptors, the uncharacteristically high potency of NPY(2–36) may additionally suggest that the receptor subtype underlying feeding is distinct from that mediating other responses. Additional results revealed that ICV injection of antisera to NPY, which should inactivate endogenous NPY, produced a concentration-dependent suppression of eating induced by mild food deprivation. This finding, along with published work demonstrating enhanced levels of hypothalamic NPY in food-deprived rats, suggests that endogenous NPY mediates the eating produced by deprivation.
Numerical transfer-matrix study of surface-tension anisotropy in Ising models on square and cubic lattices.

We compute by numerical transfer-matrix methods the surface free energy \ensuremath{\tau}(T), the surface stiffness coefficient \ensuremath{\kappa}(T), and the step free energy s(T) for Ising ferromagnets with (\ensuremath{\infty}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L) square-lattice and (\ensuremath{\infty}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}M) cubic-lattice geometries, into which an interface is introduced by imposing antiperiodic or plus/minus boundary conditions in one transverse direction. These quantities occur in expansions of the angle-dependent surface tension for either rough or smooth interfaces. The finite-size scaling behavior of the interfacial correlation length provides the means of investigating \ensuremath{\tau}(T), \ensuremath{\kappa}(T), and s(T). The resulting transfer-matrix estimates are fully consistent with previous series and Monte Carlo studies, although current computational technology does not permit transfer-matrix studies of sufficiently large systems to show quantitative improvement over the previous estimates.
What Do We Mean by 'Friend'? An Inductive Study*

Although the concept 'friend' is critical to both theoretical and empirical studies of social relations, it is a very ambiguous term. Most researchers seem to take its meaning for granted. This paper reports an inductive study designed to find out what aspects of real relations are correlated with applications of the label 'friend'. In a cross-sectional survey of 1050 adults living in northern California in 1977, we obtained the names and descriptions of 19417 associates. Of these, 59% were labelled 'friends'. Several regression analyses suggest that this label is likely to be applied: to an overwhelming majority of non-relatives in a largely unsystematic way; to associates lacking other, specialized role-relations; to people of the same age: to people known a long time; and to people with whom respondents had primarily sociable, rather than intimate or material, involvements.
Correlation and prediction in ordinal test theory

Based on the test theory model for ordinal measurements proposed by Schulman and Haden, the present paper considers correlations between tests, attenuation, regressions involving true and observed scores, and prediction of test reliability.
Reconciling Two Maps: Archaeological Evidence for the Kingdoms of David and Solomon

Two maps recently appeared, each describing some aspect of the tenth century B.C.E. In his recent book, Halpern argued that 1 Kgs 4:7-19 is an accurate representation of the Israelite part of Solomon's kingdom. In a series of articles in 1998 and 1999, Kochavi presented a map highlighting the location of 11th/10th-century B.C.E. tripartite pillared buildings. I argue that these two maps are one and the same. If true, then aspects of the functions of these structures are clarified, the locations of borders are clarified, the generally accepted absolute/ceramic chronology of the tenth century is supported, and the United Kingdom becomes more tangible and less mythic.
Properties of Carbonate-Containing Aluminum Hydroxide Produced by Precipitation at Constant pH

Carbonate-containing aluminum hydroxide was precipitated at constant pH at intervals of 0.5 pH units from pH 6 to 10 by pumping 0.5 M AlCl3 into the reaction vessel at a constant rate of 2 mL/min and infusing 2 M Na2CO3 at a rate necessary to maintain the desired pH. The pH of precipitation affected both the particle size and the composition of the precipitate. The particle size of the precipitate decreased as the pH of precipitation was increased from 6 to 10. The precipitates formed between pH 7.5 and 9.5 contained crystalline sodium aluminum hydroxycarbonate (dawsonite) in addition to amorphous carbonate-containing aluminum hydroxide.
Effect of translational energy on the chemisorption of N2 on Fe(111): Activated dissociation via a precursor state.

Determination de la probabilite de chimisorption dissociative initiale en fonction de l'energie cinetique et de la temperature de surface
Pool boiling cooling for melt spinning quench wheels

The production of rapidly quenched metal ribbons by melt spinning on a cylinder produces very high average heat fluxes through the cylinder. The problem of maintaining a low average casting surface temperature can be solved by boiling on the plain interior of the cylinder. An experimental, boiling cooled, amorphous iron alloy ribbon casting wheel was constructed to verify the concept and expand the available data on boiling heat transfer. Experiments were performed with water, near atmospheric pressure, in pools less than 0.03 m deep and at accelerations between 100 and 200 times earth gravity. Heat fluxes between 0.6 and 3.5 million W/m2 were achieved. Heat transfer coefficients up to 0.1 million W/m2 • K were measured. A loss of cooling occurred in a number of instances, at heat fluxes well below the predicted critical heat flux, and at heat flux conditions which were duplicated or exceeded in the remaining experiments. These conditions, possibly precipitated by local variations in the boiling heat transfer coefficient, are not considered to represent new boiling phenomena associated with high acceleration.
Short-range incommensurate magnetic order near the superconducting phase boundary in Fe 1 + δ Te 1 − x Se x

We performed elastic neutron-scattering and magnetization measurements on Fe{sub 1.07}Te{sub 0.75}Se{sub 0.25} and FeTe{sub 0.7}Se{sub 0.3}. Short-range incommensurate magnetic order is observed in both samples. In the former sample with higher Fe content, a broad magnetic peak appears around (0.46,0,0.5) at low temperature, while in FeTe{sub 0.7}Se{sub 0.3}, the broad magnetic peak is found to be closer to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) wave vector (0.5,0,0.5). The incommensurate peaks are only observed on one side of the AFM wave vector for both samples, which can be modeled in terms of an imbalance of ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic correlations between nearest-neighbor spins. We also find that with higher Se (and lower Fe) concentration, the magnetic order becomes weaker while the superconducting temperature and volume increase.
Multi-layer graphene grid and nanowire fabrication and printing

Molecular sensor fabrication requires the development of methods to produce nanostructures and transfer them onto useful substrates. This paper will briefly describe methods of patterning and printing of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). HOPG has been patterned at the micron and ∼100 nanometer scale, using oxygen plasma etching and phase-shift lithography, respectively. The micron scale patterned HOPG was exfoliated using a thermal tape printing process, to transfer highly crystalline multi-layer graphene (MLG) constructs onto glass substrates. A soft lithography technique, stamping, was employed to print 100nm wide few layer graphene (FLG) nanowires onto PDMS substrates.
Rhodopsin Controls a Conformational Switch on the Transducin γ Subunit

Abstract Rhodopsin, a prototypical G protein-coupled receptor, catalyzes the activation of a heterotrimeric G protein, transducin, to initiate a visual signaling cascade in photoreceptor cells. The βγ subunit complex, especially the C-terminal domain of the transducin γ subunit, Gtγ(60–71)farnesyl, plays a pivotal role in allosteric regulation of nucleotide exchange on the transducin α subunit by light-activated rhodopsin. We report that this domain is unstructured in the presence of an inactive receptor but forms an amphipathic helix upon rhodopsin activation. A K65E/E66K charge reversal mutant of the γ subunit has diminished interactions with the receptor and fails to adopt the helical conformation. The identification of this conformational switch provides a mechanism for active GPCR utilization of the βγ complex in signal transfer to G proteins.
Childhood obesity: a review of increased risk for physical and psychological comorbidities.

Abstract Background Worldwide estimates of childhood overweight and obesity are as high as 43 million, and rates continue to increase each year. Researchers have taken interest in the childhood obesity epidemic and the impact of this condition across health domains. The consequences of childhood and adolescent obesity are extensive, including both medical and psychosocial comorbidities. Objective The purpose of this review was to consolidate and highlight the recent literature on the comorbidities associated with childhood obesity, both nationally and internationally. Methods PubMed and PsychINFO searches were conducted on childhood obesity and comorbidities. Results The initial search of the terms obesity and comorbidity yielded >5000 published articles. Limits were set to include studies on children and adolescents that were published in peer-reviewed journals from 2002 to 2012. These limits narrowed the search to 938. Review of those articles resulted in 79 that are included in this review. The major medical comorbidities associated with childhood obesity in the current literature are metabolic risk factors, asthma, and dental health issues. Major psychological comorbidities include internalizing and externalizing disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and sleep problems. Conclusions The high prevalence rates of childhood obesity have resulted in extensive research in this area. Limitations to the current childhood obesity literature include differential definitions of weight status and cut-off levels for metabolic risk factors across studies. Additionally, some results are based on self-report of diagnoses rather than chart reviews or physician diagnosis. Even so, there is substantial support for metabolic risk factors, internalizing disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and decreased health-related quality of life as comorbidities to obesity in childhood. Additional investigations on other diseases and conditions that might be associated with childhood obesity are warranted and intervention research in this area is critical.
Toll-like Receptor 4 Asp299Gly Gene Polymorphism and Risk of Atherothrombosis

Background and Purpose— Recent findings of an association between a functional toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) D299G gene variant and reduced risk of atherothrombotic disorders have generated great interest. Methods— We evaluated the TLR4 D299G polymorphism among 695 individuals with incident myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke and among 695 age- and smoking-matched individuals who remained free of reported cardiovascular disease during follow-up within the Physicians’ Health Study. Results— Overall, we observed little evidence of association between the D299G polymorphism and risk of any atherothrombotic event (P=0.25), incident MI (P=0.89), or stroke (P=0.09), assuming an additive model. Adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors or assuming a dominant model yielded similar null findings. Whereas the observed carrier frequency of the D299G polymorphism in our data (13.0%) is consistent with those observed in most other studies, it was higher than the 6.8% carrier frequency observed in the initia...
Characterization of Multicultural Values: Affective Impact of Writing Extensive Journals in a University-Level Course

The highest educational objective of affective domain is characterization, which refers to the level of character development where individuals’ behaviors and values remain consistent. Because the educational objectives of affect are categorically different from cognitive educational objectives, an alternative pedagogical conceptualization that integrates teaching, learning, and evaluating aspects of character development is essential in multicultural education. The current action research presents: 1) a rubric of multicultural education journal writing that evaluates the quality of students’ journals; 2) coherent journal topics and accessible resources for journal entries; and 3) exemplary student journals that sufficiently meet the criteria of rubric, topic, and resource requirements. The presented rubric, topics, resources, and actual student journal examples may serve as a model that both multicultural education teachers and students alike can utilize in their teaching and learning practices.
Physical Causal Closure and Non-Coincidental Mental Causation

In his book Personal Agency, E. J. Lowe has argued that a dualist theory of mental causation is consistent with “a fairly strong principle of physical causal closure” and, moreover, that it “has the potential to strengthen our causal explanations of certain physical events.” If Lowe’s reasoning were sound, it would undermine the most common arguments for reductive physicalism or epiphenomenalism of the mental. For it would show not only that a dualist theory of mental causation is consistent with a widely held scientific principle, but also that there is some positive reason for accepting the theory. However, I argue that Lowe’s reasoning is unsound, for it requires that causation both is, and is not, transitive: a contradiction. I conclude that if Lowe succeeds in proving that a dualist theory is consistent with physical causal closure, he fails to show that it serves an explanatory purpose.
Photonic plasmid stability of transformed Salmonella Typhimurium: A comparison of three unique plasmids

Background Acquiring a highly stable photonic plasmid in transformed Salmonella Typhimurium for use in biophotonic studies of bacterial tracking in vivo is critical to experimental paradigm development. The objective of this study was to determine stability of transformed Salmonella Typhimurium (S. typh-lux) using three different plasmids and characterize their respective photonic properties.
Straightening out rectangular differential inclusions

In this paper, the classic straightening out theorem from differential geometry is used to derive necessary and sufficient conditions for locally converting rectangular differential inclusions to constant rectangular differential inclusions. Both scalar and coupled differential inclusions are considered. The results presented in this paper have use in the area of computer aided verification of hybrid systems where they represent the frontier of the known decidable models of infinite state systems.
CHRONIC MEDICAL CONDITIONS AND PERCEIVED HEALTH STATUS AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHILDREN

The health status of Mexican-American children (MAC) has been difficult to assess because of the lack of data about this population. Utilizing the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 3, 710 MAC, ages 6 mos. - 18 yrs., were evaluated as to the prevalence of chronic medical conditions, and perceived health status as determined by the physician, mother, and child. The results demonstrated that 140 subjects, or 3.8%, of MAC had at least one chronic condition. There were no differences with respect to poverty status. Physicians rated children (6 mos. - 11 yrs.) in poor health only 1% of the time, while mothers rated them in poor health 15% of the time (P<.001). The national parental norm is 3%. Children 6 years to 11 years and 12 years to 18 years reported poor health 11.3% and 19% of the time respectively. In contrast, the physician's report was 1.2% and 0.7% respectivly. The physician's perception of the child's health status was worse if the child had a chronic condition or lived in poverty (P<.025) while the mother's perception of her child's health was most affected by poverty (P<.001). The child's perception (age 6-12 yrs.) was not associated with either poverty or chronic condition. These results suggest that MAC have prevalence rates of chronic conditions similar to the U.S. norms, but MAC are perceived to be in poorer health by their mothers and themselves than by physicians.
Vascular involvement in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: reassessment by thin-section CT

We defined computed tomographic (CT) criteria of vascular involvement by pancreatic carcinoma and used these criteria to assess vascular involvement in 56 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. CT of the pancreas was performed at 1.5-mm section thickness and 5-mm section intervals during a bolus phase of intravenous contrast enhancement. The type of vascular involvement was correlated with surgical and pathologic findings. When there was fat-plane (type A) or normal pancreatic parenchyma (type B) separating the tumor from adjacent vessels, the tumor could be resected without venous resection in 21 of 22 patients (95%). When the tumor was inseparable from the vessels but the points of contact formed a convexity against the vessel (type C), CT was not reliable in predicting whether or not the tumor was fixed against the vessel. When the tumor was partially encircling (type D) the vessel, the tumor was fixed against the vessels in most cases. The resectable rate was 47%, but resection would also require venous resection. When the tumor was completely encircling (type E) or occluding (type F) the vessel, all tumors were not resectable with a negative margin. Thin-section CT with bolus intravenous contrast enhancement improved the ability to assess vascular involvement in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
WE-C-BRB-08: A GPU/CUDA Based Monte Carlo Code for Proton Transport: Preliminary Results of Proton Depth Dose in Water

Purpose: Although several studies have reported the use of GPUs to accelerate Monte Carlo calculations for x‐ray imaging and treatment planning, there is little effort to demonstrate the utility of this highly parallel yet affordable computing tool for protontreatment planning and dose verification. This paper describes a preliminary project to design a GPU/CUDA based proton transport MC code and to evaluate the timing for proton dose depth distribution. Methods: The proton transport in media was modeled by condensed history method, in which the effect of many interactions was grouped into single condensed step. The Moliere distribution and Valilov distribution were employed to calculate angular deflection and energy loss. The CPU code was written in C++ and GPU‐ based code was developed in CUDA C 4.0. The hardware platform was a desktop with Intel Xeon X5660 CPU and NVIDIA Tesla™ m2090 GPU. Nuclear interactions were not included in the preliminary study and the transport medium was limited to water. Results: The depth dose distributions of proton of different energies were simulated. It was found that 98% of the tallies had relative error less than 1%. The code was benchmarked against MCNPX and GEANT4 codes. For 200 MeV proton pencil beam incident on the water phantom, the dose difference between our code and GEANT4 (nuclear interaction disabled) was within 2% for 95% of all depths. The speedup factor of our GPU code over CPU code was x57. While compared with MCNPX(nuclear interaction on), the GPU code was x620 times faster. Conclusions: This is one of the first reported efforts to demonstrate a GPU/CUDA‐based proton transport MC code for dose calculations. Despite some limitations, this preliminary project was able to show significant gains in the GPU computing time, thus suggesting a promising role of such Monte Carlo tools in the future. This project was funded in part by National Institutes of Health (National Library of Medicine R01LM009362)
The hydrogen-bonding network in heme oxygenase also functions as a modulator of enzyme dynamics: chaotic motions upon disrupting the H-bond network in heme oxygenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Relaxation compensated Carr−Purcell−Meiboom−Gill (rc-CPMG) NMR experiments have been used to investigate μs−ms motions in heme oxygenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (pa-HO) in its ferric state, inhibited by CN- (pa-HO−CN) and N3- (pa-HO−N3), and in its ferrous state, inhibited by CO (pa-HO−CO). Comparative analysis of the data from the three forms indicates that the nature of the coordinated distal ligand affects the μs−ms conformational freedom of the polypeptide in regions of the enzyme far removed from the heme iron and distal ligand. Interpretation of the dynamical information in the context of the crystal structure of resting state pa-HO shows that residues involved in the network of structural hydrogen-bonded waters characteristic of HOs undergo μs−ms motions in pa-HO−CN, which was studied as a model of the highly paramagnetic S = 5/2 resting state form. In comparison, similar motions are suppressed in the pa-HO−CO and pa-HO−N3 complexes, which were studied as mimics of the obligatory oxyferrous and...
Dark Matter Thermalization in Neutron Stars

We study how many-body effects alter the dark matter (DM) thermalization time inside neutron stars. We find that Pauli blocking, kinematic constraints, and superfluidity and superconductivity in the neutron star significantly affect the DM thermalization time, in general lengthening it. This could change the final DM mass and DM-nucleon cross section constraints by considering black hole formation in neutron stars due to DM accretion. We consider the class of models in which DM is an asymmetric, complex scalar particle with a mass between 1 keV and 5 GeV, which couples to regular matter via some heavy vector boson. Interestingly, we find that the discovery of asymmetric, bosonic DM could motivate the existence of exotic neutron star cores. We apply our results to the case of mixed sneutrino DM.
Hypercalcemia Selectively Decreases Rat Inner Medullary Collecting Duct(IMCD) Vasopressin (AVP)-Elicited Water Permeability (P f ) and Aquaporin-2 (AQP-2) Water Channel Protein Content While Increasing Its Urea Permeability (P urea ) and the UT-2 Urea Channel Protein Content • 1650

Hypercalcemia Selectively Decreases Rat Inner Medullary Collecting Duct(IMCD) Vasopressin (AVP)-Elicited Water Permeability (P f ) and Aquaporin-2 (AQP-2) Water Channel Protein Content While Increasing Its Urea Permeability (P urea ) and the UT-2 Urea Channel Protein Content • 1650
Isotope Separation by Carrier Diffusion

Nitrogen isotope fractionation in the Hoering-Moore experiment, injection of N2 into CO2 carrier and flow through sandstone, is due to diffusion in the gas phase rather than to surface interaction. This process, called "carrier diffusion," produces a characteristic fractionation pattern relative to a fraction coordinate, with points of zero fractionation at 16 and 84 percent and heavy isotope enrichment between these points. Carrier diffusion is an efficient enrichment process for low-abundance isotopes lighter than the abundant species and for helium and hydrogen in gas mixtures.
Comparative effectiveness of flooding and response prevention in the extinction of human fear and avoidance responding

Abstract Nine groups of subjects were trained to make a button-press avoidance response and were then given different treatments before being tested for extinction. During treatment the experimental subjects were exposed to the light (CS) for 2, 5, or 10 sec on each of the ten trials. Subjects in the three response prevention groups (RP 20, 50, and 200) were physically prevented from making the avoidance response while subjects in the three flooding groups (Flooding 20, 50, and 200) were exposed to the CS irrespective of their responding. Subjects in the three Time Control groups (Time Control 20, 50, and 200) were given CS-alone trials until they had been exposed to the CS for 20, 50, or 200 sec. Subjective fear was measured at different stages of the experiment by asking the subjects to report their fear on a 100-point scale. It was found that RP was effective in producing extinction of avoidance at a total CS exposure of 20 sec whereas both the Flooding and Time Control procedures produced avoidance ex...
POSTNATAL CHAHGES IN SKELETAL MUSCLE AND SERUM SODIUM IN THE NEONATAL RABBIT PUP - EVIDENCE FOR AN INTRA-CELLULAR SODIUM RESERVOIR

POSTNATAL CHAHGES IN SKELETAL MUSCLE AND SERUM SODIUM IN THE NEONATAL RABBIT PUP - EVIDENCE FOR AN INTRA-CELLULAR SODIUM RESERVOIR
Morphine-induced suppression of saccharin intake is correlated with elevated corticosterone levels

Rats suppress intake of a saccharin conditioned stimulus (CS) when paired with a drug of abuse. This phenomenon, however, is not uniform across all subjects and is greater following exposure to stress and in animals that more readily self-administer drugs of abuse. The present study was designed to examine these individual differences in intake suppression following seven saccharin-morphine pairings. Plasma corticosterone also was evaluated both before and after conditioning in order to determine whether the magnitude of CS suppression is, or is not, related to circulating corticosterone levels. The findings indicated that, while all rats were exposed to the same number of saccharin-morphine pairings, only half of these animals actually suppressed intake of the saccharin CS. Moreover, the results showed that greater suppression of CS intake was associated with higher corticosterone levels at test (r=-0.84, P<0.0001). Taken together, the results demonstrate that individual differences affect not only the reduction in CS intake following taste-drug pairings, but also the associated cue-induced elevation in circulating corticosterone.