cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Robert Thomas Crucefix, Redux

Robert Thomas Crucefix (1788-1850) was a charismatic and polarizing figure in English freemasonry through the 1830s until his death. He is best remembered for founding the Freemasons’ Quarterly Review and as the primary force behind the establishment of the Asylum for Worthy, Aged and Decayed Freemasons. He was not only an active Craft mason and Junior Grand Deacon in the Grand Lodge, but he also joined, and often dominated, other degrees and orders in England, Scotland, Ireland, France and the United States. Though there has been no proper biography of Crucefix, much has been written about his masonic activities, and especially about his ongoing confrontations with the Duke of Sussex, who served as Grand Master for much of the time Crucefix was a freemason. His private life has been virtually ignored, and this is especially true for his medical career, around which a cordon sanitaire seems to have been thrown, fending off inquiry. This study is a preliminary foray beyond that boundary, exploring both Crucefix’s medical career and its broader implications.
Distribution of Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Cucujidae) in response to temperature gradients in stored wheat

Abstract Temperature gradients were established in a 56 cm diameter cylinder with 9 cm high sides filled with 19.9 kg of hard red winter wheat to determine if adult rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), would disperse to warmer areas. C. ferrugineus moved into and remained in warmer areas of the grain mass after 24 h. Beetle preference for the warmest area of the grain mass occurred at 21–20°C, 24–20°C, and 42–20°C temperature gradients. No preference was shown for any area of the grain mass when no gradient was established. The beetles were able to locate the warmest area even at the 21–20°C gradient. In autumn, grain stored in bins cools fastest on the outside of the bulk and remains warmer longer in the center. This study suggests that C. ferrugineus should move toward the warmer center region of a grain mass as the periphery of the grain cools in the fall. This would allow C. ferrugineus populations to continue to increase in the center of the grain mass during the winter months in large, unaerated, grain bins.
Purification of the saxitoxin receptor of the sodium channel from rat brain

The saxitoxin (STX) receptor has been purified 740-fold from rat brain by a combination of ion exchange chromatography, wheat germ agglutinin chromatography, and sedimentation on sucrose gradients to a specific activity of 1488 pmol/mg of protein. The best fractions were estimated to be 47% pure from their specific activity or 66% pure on the basis of NaDodSO4 gel electrophoresis. Two polypeptides, alpha (Mr approximately equal to 270,000 +/- 10,000) and beta (Mr approximately equal to 38,300 +/- 2000) (mean +/- SD) copurify with STX binding activity. Two polypeptides of the same apparent Mr are specifically covalently labeled by photoreactive derivatives of 125I-labeled scorpion toxin in rat brain synaptosomes and are likely to be identical to alpha and beta. The solubilized STX receptor has a Mr of 316,000 +/- 63,000, limiting its composition to one alpha polypeptide and one or more beta polypeptides per soluble receptor. Our results suggest that the alpha and beta polypeptides contain both the STX binding site and the scorpion toxin binding site of the mammalian sodium channel.
Geology, Palynology, and Climatic Significance of Two Pre-Pinedale Lake Sediment Sequences in and Near Yellowstone National Park

Pollen analysis of a section of lake sediments at Grassy Lake Reservoir indicates a vegetational sequence changing from tundra, to spruce-fir-pine forest, to pine forest, to tundra at the top. Pollen analysis of a section of lake sediments on Beaverdam Creek indicates a tundra vegetation at the base, followed by a brief episode of spruce-fir forest and a return to a tundra vegetation at the top. The analyses of both sections suggest a cold to cool to cold climatic sequence, interpreted as interstadial in character. However, differences suggest that they represent separate interstadials. Pinedale Till disconformably overlies the lake deposits at Grassy Lake Reservoir. The upper sediments contain wood 14C dated at >42,000 yr; the lowermost interfinger with till shown to be more than about 70,000 yr old. The deposits at Beaverdam Creek grade upward into proglacial Pinedale deposits, contain an ash that is probably about 70,000 yr old near their base, and rest comformably on gravel that grades down into lake sediments containing wood debris suggestive of an older climatic amelioration. We conclude that the warmest part of the interstadial at Grassy Lake Reservoir is probably more than 70,000 yr old, and that the warmest part of the interstadial analyzed at Beaverdam Creek is slightly younger than 70,000 yr old.
Priapism: review of 34 cases.

Abstract One hundred ninety-seven cases of priapism have been recorded in the medical files of Charity Hospital Louisiana in New Orleans from 1938–1982. One hundred seventy-two adults and 25 children were registered in this series. Ninety-three per cent of the patients with priapism were black, and 86 patients of this group underwent 93 surgical procedures. The cases of 34 patients treated between July 1, 1981, and December 31, 1982, were thoroughly reviewed. Sixteen patients had a previous history of priapism. Average delay between onset of symptoms and presentation to the hospital for treatment was thirty hours. Sickle cell screens were obtained in 28 patients and were positive in 17. Twenty-nine patients were initially treated conservatively, with 17 priapsm eventually resolving, but the remaining 12 patients required surgical intervention. Overall, 50 per cent of the 34 patients had surgery. All of the surgical cases resolved satisfactorily with the Winter procedure. Complications with this procedure were uncommon, but postoperative bandaging was the chief cause of morbidity. Follow-up for at least six months revealed comparable sexual potency (80–83 %) in either conservatively or surgically managed patients.
Impact of energy efficient motors in the petrochemical industry

Abstract This paper presents an in-depth survey of moors in two chemical plants of similar size. Survey information includes number of motors, total horsepower, and the number of motor failures. The potential for energy and demand savings is then determined and hence the dollar savings using a sliding rate structure currently applicable to the petrochemical industry in Louisiana. Extensive use of the program MotorMaster is used to determine energy and demand savings.
Direct growth of germanium and silicon nanowires on metal films

We describe the basic thermodynamic and kinetic aspects that govern the growth of Si and Ge nanowires directly on bulk metal films. We illustrate essential differences between the vapour–solid–solid and the conventional vapour–liquid–solid nanowire growth. Ge and Si nanowires were formed on a select set of metal films including Ag, Al, Au, Cr, Cu and Ni. Metals that form silicides or germanides (Cr, Cu, and Ni) generally yield higher quality nanowires compared to nanowires grown on metal films whose equilibrium phases are defined by alloyed phases below eutectic temperatures (Al, Ag, Au). Combinatorial experiments presented here provide new basic insights into nanowire formation in the context of metal germanide and silicide formation rates. The mechanism established from our experiments successfully predicts the nanowire growth under a broad range of conditions and also predicts the nanowire growth on other metals to provide guidance to future progress in nanowire synthesis.
Infection and Autoimmunity as Etiologic Factors in Schizophrenia: A Review and Reappraisal

The focus of schizophrenia research has been turning from studies of structural and functional brain abnormalities to an increasing emphasis on possible etiologic factors. One etiologic hypothesis is that schizophrenia is the result of an infection (especially by a virus) or of an autoimmune reaction (perhaps following an infection) against central nervous system (CNS) tissue. Indirect evidence supporting this hypothesis includes possible geographic variance in the prevalence of schizophrenia, a season-of-birth effect, and observed associations between schizophrenia and prenatal exposure to viral epidemics. Several studies of cell-based and humoral immunity, as well as studies of cytokines, have indicated abnormalities in the immune function of schizophrenia patients, but many of these findings have not been replicated consistently. In addition, most observed alterations in immune function have been modest in degree and nonspecific. Attempts to identify a specific infectious agent or an antibody directed against CNS tissue have not produced a consistently replicable finding. In summary, no research evidence to date irrefutably indicates an infectious or autoimmune etiologic process in schizophrenia. It is probably unreasonable, however, to view schizophrenia as having a single cause. It is much more likely to be a heterogeneous disorder resulting from interactions between multiple factors, including the person's genetic endowment and various environmental influences. Infectious agents or CNS autoantibodies may well be among these environmental variables. A major current emphasis is on studying potential interactions between exposure to an infection or an autoimmune response and key early phases of brain development. A corresponding priority in the research agenda will be the development of animal models of CNS development that might elucidate the pathogenic mechanisms of such an interaction.
Noisy speech recognition via wavelet transform enhancement

A speech enhancement system based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) representation and solved by the estimation maximization algorithm is proposed. This technique can find its counterpart in Wiener filtering where Fourier transform or all-pole modeling representation are used. Very encouraging enhancement results based on the proposed DTW generalized Wiener filtering were obtained, using a time-delay neural network for recognition. >
Metapelite phase equilibria modeling in MnNCKFMASH: The effect of variable Al2O3 and MgO/(MgO + FeO) on mineral stability

A series of MnO-Na2O-CaO-K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O (MnNCKFMASH) metapelite pseudosections highlights the dependence of predicted mineral assemblages on bulk rock Al2O3 and Mg# [MgO/(MgO + FeO)]. T-XAl pseudosections portray the dependence of staurolite, biotite, and aluminum silicate on Al2O3 content, allowing the distinction between high-Al and low-Al pelite, as commonly portrayed with KFMASH modeling. The MnNCKFMASH system also shows the effect of Al2O3 on plagioclase and zoisite stability, which cannot be done in the KFMASH system. Comparison of MnNCKFMASH to KFMASH pseudosections highlights the consequence of ignoring the important rock constituents MnO, Na2O, and CaO when constructing pseudosections. KFMASH cannot model important phases such as plagioclase and zoisite, and there are significant differences in predicted garnet, biotite, and chloritoid stability in the two different systems. In particular, KFMASH does not model garnet stability appropriately at low pressures and temperatures because it cannot account for the stabilizing effect of Mn. The comparisons also show that the method of calculating a KFMASH bulk rock composition equivalent to a real rock composition is problematic and has significant implications for the predicted pseudosection assemblage stability. Comparison of the MnNCKFMASH pseudosections to natural assemblages observed in the Waterville Fm., Maine, indicates that the MnNCKFMASH system comes very close to modeling naturally developed mineral assemblages successfully. The only major discrepancy between predicted and observed assemblages is the inability to predict the paragenesis staurolite + andalusite using an average or natural Waterville Fm. composition. Garnet thermobarometric results from the Waterville Fm. are in poor agreement with pseudosection topology for an average Waterville Fm. composition. This suggests that if quantitative P-T path information is to be derived through a combination of pseudosections and thermobarometry, samples will have to be investigated on an individual basis in more detail than was done in this study.
Six sigma approach of eliminating device trimming issue

Trimming is a test methodology wherein blowing of fuse which is parallel to a resistor to attain the expected output voltage of a DUT as shown in Figure 1. A trim attempt is a condition that the program inject a surge of current to a particular connecting fuse to attain the require output reading on device parameter.
A numerical study of time-reversed UWB electromagnetic waves in continuous random media

We investigate superresolution effects on ultrawideband (UWB) electromagnetic waves (EM) produced by time-reversal (TR) arrays in continuous random media. The investigation is done via numerical simulations employing the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. A Gaussian random background medium is considered. We compare the effect of statistical parameters, viz. variance, and correlation length, on the focusing resolution of transmitted waves by the TR array (TRA). The effect of depolarization is also briefly considered.
Serum Ferritin and Risk of the Metabolic Syndrome in U.S. Adults

OBJECTIVE —We examined the relationship among iron stores, the metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —We conducted a cross-sectional study of 6,044 adults >20 years of age who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Metabolic syndrome was defined as the presence of at least three of the following: elevated blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, elevated serum triglycerides, elevated plasma glucose, and abdominal obesity. Insulin resistance was estimated using homeostasis model assessment (for insulin resistance), fasting insulin, and triglyceride–to–HDL cholesterol ratio. RESULTS —After excluding individuals with likely hemochromatosis, mean serum ferritin values in premenopausal women, postmenopausal women, and men were 33.6, 93.4, and 139.9 μg/l, respectively. Metabolic syndrome was more common in those with the highest compared with the lowest levels of serum ferritin in premenopausal women (14.9 vs. 6.4%, P = 0.002), postmenopausal women (47.5 vs. 28.2%, P P CONCLUSIONS —Elevated iron stores were positively associated with the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and with insulin resistance.
Dialogues on Causality and the Limits of Empiricism

This paper presents the main lines of reasoning in the Wittgenstein notes entitled ‘Cause and Effect: Intuitive Awareness,’ in the form of a series of dialogues between Wittgenstein, Russell, and a few other philosophical voices. Two of the dialogues relate to what, in Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, Wittgenstein called ‘the similarity of my treatment with relativity theory.’
HomeNote: supporting situated messaging in the home

In this paper we describe a field trial designed to investigate the potential of remote, situated messaging within the home. Five households used our "HomeNote" device for approximately a month. The results show a diversity of types of communication which highlight the role of messaging both to a household and to a place. It also shows the ways in which these kinds of messages enable subtle ways of requesting action, expressing affection, and marking identity in a household -- communication types which have received little attention in the research literature. These in turn point to new concepts for technology which we describe.
Understanding Emotional Reactions for Negative Services: The Impact of Efficacy Beliefs and Stage in Process:

This article examines consumers' emotional reactions for a specific negative service—a mammography screening test—and measures how such reactions are influenced by the consumer's stage in the screening process and her beliefs in the efficacy of the test. Stage in process moderates the relationship between test efficacy beliefs and stress, such that those obtaining screening tests feel more stress as their belief in the efficacy of mammography increases while those obtaining follow-up diagnostic tests feel less stress as their belief in the efficacy of mammography increases. Process measures indicate that fear of a positive mammogram result is uniquely associated with stress for those receiving a screening mammogram, while uncertainty regarding diagnosis is uniquely associated with stress for those receiving a diagnostic mammogram. Implications for better managing the testing experience and for understanding negative services more generally are discussed.
They Say It’s in the Genes: Decoding Racial Ideology in Genomics

Science is delving into genetics more deeply and thoroughly than ever before, and in the process, scientists are uncovering new layers of “truth” about the essence of humanity and human disease. But in a social world colored by inequalities and value judgments that place some members of humanity above others, to what degree is genome science codifying ideology in our very genes? Thirty secondary interviews with genome researchers from various subfields are analyzed to determine the extent to which the ideology of “race” enters their discourse on genome variation. Findings suggest that unexamined and unrecognized racial thinking is an integral part of genetic researchers’ interpretations and understandings of genetic variation.
Accurate solution of an idealized one-carrier metal-semiconductor junction problem

Abstract An accurate digital-computer solution is presented of the differential equations describing an idealized metal-semiconductor junction. Mobile charges of negative sign only are considered which arise from a uniform, fixed-donor charge distribution. The situation is similar to that considered earlier by W agner , S chottky and S enke , and accurate results for the static current-voltage characteristic and distance dependence of field, electrostatic potential, and quasi-Fermi-level potential are compared with previous approximate results. Primary attention is devoted to a structure involving one ohmic and one barrier electrode separated by a fixed distance, but that involving two barrier electrodes a fixed distance apart is also investigated. The problem is idealized by omitting trapping, image effects, tunneling, recombination, breakdown and hot-electron effects. Earlier approximate treatments are rather inaccurate in their predictions of the space dependence of various quantities but are quite close in their current-voltage predictions, even in the forward-bias direction of current flow. The results for a fixed length of material between electrodes are compared with those of the more usual approximate analyses which pertain to a variable-length barrier region alone. The influence of the fixed length, which corresponds to the experimental situation, is large, under some conditions, on current-voltage relations, resistance and on the forward and reverse differential capacitance of the system.
Modeling and Simulation of Enzymatic Biofuel Cells with Three-Dimensional Microelectrodes

The enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) are considered as an attractive candidate for powering future implantable medical devices. In this study, a computational model of EBFCs based on three-dimensional (3-D) interdigitated microelectrode arrays was conducted. The main focus of this research is to investigate the effect of different designs and spatial distributions of the microelectrode arrays on mass transport of fuels, enzymatic reaction rate, open circuit output potential and current density. To optimize the performance of the EBFCs, numerical simulations have been performed for cylindrical electrodes with various electrode heights and well widths. Optimized cell performance was obtained when the well width is half of the height of the 3-D electrode. In addition, semi-elliptical shaped electrode is preferred based on the results from current density and resistive heating simulation.
A Performance Model of the Krak Hydrodynamics Application

We present an analytic performance model of a large-scale hydrodynamics code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This modeling work is part of an ongoing effort to develop models and modeling techniques for large-scale codes and systems of interest to Los Alamos and the national laboratory community (Kerbyson et al., 2001). Krak (Burton, 1994) comprises over 270,000 lines of source code and is capable of executing on a large number of parallel processors. Developing an accurate model is complicated by the irregular partitioning of input spatial grid cells to processors and the various material properties assigned to each cell. Model development proceeds by separating inter-processor communication from computation and modeling each individually. In addition, several approximations concerning subgrid size, shape, and material composition are made which reduce modeling complexity without adversely impacting prediction accuracy. We validate our model on several spatial grid sizes and processor configurations and demonstrate an accuracy at the largest scale on 512 processors to within a 3% error
Two New Efficient CCA-Secure Online Ciphers: MHCBC and MCBC

Online ciphers are those ciphers whose ciphertexts can be computed in real time by using a length-preserving encryption algorithm. HCBC1 and HCBC2 are two known examples of Hash Cipher Block Chaining online ciphers. The first construction is secure against chosen plaintext adversary (or called CPA-secure) whereas the latter is secure against chosen ciphertext adversary (or called CCA-secure). In this paper, we have provided simple security analysis of these online ciphers. We have also proposed two new more efficient chosen ciphertext secure online ciphers modified-HCBC (MHCBC) and modified-CBC (MCBC). If one uses a finite field multiplication based universal hash function, the former needs one less key and one less field multiplication compared to HCBC2. The MCBC does not need any universal hash function and it needs only one blockcipher key unlike the other three online ciphers where two independent keys (hash function and blockcipher) are required.
Aortopulmonary Fistula After Outflow Tract Stent in Repaired Truncus

We present a case of an iatrogenic aortopulmonary (AP) fistula in a 9-year-old patient with a history of repaired truncus arteriosus without the use of a right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduit and subsequent transcatheter placement of a right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) stent. Redilation of the stent resulted in a defect in the aortic wall and the creation of an AP fistula with an associated hemodynamically significant left to right shunt. This case demonstrates a previously unreported adverse event of transcatheter RVOT reintervention after truncus arteriosus repair.
Shape‐memory behavior of thermally stimulated polyurethane for medical applications

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) have been of great interest because of their ability to be thermally actuated to recover a predetermined shape. Medical applications in clot extracting devices and stents are especially promising. We investigated the thermomechanical properties of a series of Mitsubishi SMPs for potential application as medical devices. Glass transition temperatures and moduli were measured by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis. Tensile tests were performed with 20 and 100% maximum strains, at 37 and 80°C, which are respectively, body temperature and actuation temperature. Glass transitions are in a favorable range for use in the body (35–75°C), with high glassy and rubbery shear moduli in the range of 800 and 2 MPa respectively. Constrained stress–strain recovery cycles showed very low hysteresis after three cycles, which is important to know for preconditioning of the material to ensure identical properties during applications. Isothermal free recovery tests showed shape recoveries above 94% for MP5510 thermoset SMP cured at different temperatures. One material exhibited a shape fixity of 99% and a shape recovery of 85% at 80°C over one thermomechanical cycle. These polyurethanes appear particularly well suited for medical applications in deployment devices such as stents or clot extractors. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 3882–3892, 2007
Frontal lobe involvement in a task of time-based prospective memory

Time-based prospective memory (PM) has been found to be negatively affected by aging, possibly as a result of declining frontal lobe (FL) function. Despite a clear retrospective component to PM tasks, the medial temporal lobes (MTL) are thought to play only a secondary role in successful task completion. The present study investigated the role of the FLs and MTLs in time-based PM, as well as their involvement in clock monitoring, plan generation, and time estimation, each of which may play a role in the execution of time-based PM tasks. Based upon their scores on composite measures of FL and MTL function, 32 older adults were divided into four groups, and were then tested on a time-based laboratory PM task. Overall age effects were also assessed and each of the four groups was compared to a group of 32 younger adults. High-frontal functioning participants demonstrated better prospective memory than low-frontal functioning participants, and were not distinguishable from younger adults. Older adults with high-MTL scores performed significantly better than those with low-MTL scores, but only if they were also high in FL function. FL function, but not MTL function, predicted patterns of clock monitoring, quality of plans generated to assist in time-based PM performance, and the accuracy of time estimation. Again, on each of these measures the performance of the high-frontal group was equivalent to that of the younger adults. The results of this study suggest that it is not aging per se that disrupts PM performance, but it is instead primarily the diminished frontal function seen in a subset of older adults.
Improving Regulatory Education: Can We Reconcile Employers' Expectations With Academic Offerings?

Background:The growing belief that an effective regulatory function is vital to the successful development of medical products has spurred initiatives in regulatory education. To help prepare highl...
Interim results of a phase I/II randomized study of clofarabine, idarubicin, and cytarabine (CIA) versus fludarabine, idarubicin, and cytarabine (FIA) for newly diagnosed or relapsed patients (pts) with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

6607 Background: Outcomes of pts with AML remain suboptimal. The addition of cladribine to 3+7 has been shown to improve complete remission (CR) rates and 3-year survival. The aim of this study was...
Discussion: Quantifying Production Economic Relations

itself. As I understand it, the authors define an industry in a broad sense by relating the final output to the primary products that went into its production. But they do not go all the way in doing so, since only intermediate products are traced back to labor whereas capital is not. As far as the analysis itself is concerned, it may be worthwhile to raise one question for further clarification. The authors state that "(directly) all of p, and (indirectly) 'u21q2 . . . are needed to produce tj." It seems that 01 is the sum of all inputs that go to produce tl, and in fact we have an equality: ti = 01. DEAN E. McKEE
Breaking Sticks, Tossing Needles, and More: Probability on Continuous Sample Spaces

Up to now, we have been working with discrete sample spaces and discrete random variables (see Chapters 1 and 7). There are problems, however, for which a discrete sample space is not appropriate because there are just too many possible outcomes. Suppose, for instance, that I want to choose a number on the interval between 0 and 1 “at random.” Ignoring for a moment exactly what I mean by the term “at random” in this context, we note that the number chosen can be any value on the interval, so there is a continuum of possible values. This continuum has so many numbers in it that they cannot all be counted off using the positive integers; for this reason the sample space of this interval is not discrete but is what is called a continuous sample space.
De-Centering Peer Tutors: Research Applications for Undergraduates in the Writing Program

Until recently, undergraduate involvement in writing programs has been limited to tutoring in writing centers. This article examines the unique position of peer tutors within the writing program, reviews evidence of successful undergraduate participation in writing programs at the administrative and instructive levels, and calls on administrators to involve undergraduates in writing program research and assessment.
Pyridylborates as a New Type of Robust Scorpionate Ligand: From Metal Complexes to Polymeric Materials

The importance of scorpionate ligands in modern coordination chemistry continues to increase, because of their outstanding versatility, tunability and user-friendliness. Herein, we provide a short overview of recent developments in the classes of scorpionate ligands, derived from pyrazoles, triazoles, imidazoles, oxazolines, thioimidazoles and other similar systems, followed by an in-depth discussion of a new type of robust and tunable scorpionate ligand, tris(2-pyridyl)borates. The structure and synthesis of tris(2-pyridyl)borate (Tpyb) ligands are discussed, and key features of coordination of Tpyb ligands with metal ions, as well as supramolecular crystal packing, transmetallation and applications in metallo-supramolecular polymer chemistry are addressed.
State Human Trafficking Laws: A New Tool to Fight Sexual Abuse of Farmworkers

Sexual abuse of undocumented female farmworkers is a disturbing and widespread occurrence. Federal and state antidiscrimination laws and federal and local criminal prosecutions are the existing law enforcement schemes used to combat this problem. This Note argues that a new and underutilized mechanism may be employed to supplement these efforts: state human trafficking laws. Such laws allow state attorneys general to fill the enforcement gap between uneven federal enforcement and weak local enforcement. And it is valuable to have overlapping enforcement regimes to protect against shifting preferences on the state, local, and federal levels. Moreover, by bringing such claims, prosecutors can classify these crimes as what they truly are: human trafficking violations.
Multi-Drug Resistance of a Doxorubicin-Resistant Bladder Cancer Cell Line

A bladder tumor cell line resistant to doxorubicin (MGH-U1R) has been established previously by culturing a human transitional cell carcinoma cell line (MGH-U1) in increasing concentrations of the drug. MGH-U1R is 40 times more resistant to doxorubicin than MGH-U1. In the present study, MGH-U1R was evaluated for its multi-drug resistance or pleiotropism by testing against other chemotherapeutic agents. MGH-U1R was found to be 188 times more resistant to vinblastine and 13 times more resistant to etoposide than MGH-U1, while remained sensitive to bleomycin. Taken together with earlier evidence that the resistance of MGH-U1R to doxorubicin can be reversed by a calcium-channel blocker verapamil, and the measured over-expression of the mdr1 gene in these cells, MGH-U1R has the characteristic multiple drug resistance properties similar to other established doxorubicin resistant carcinoma cell lines. MGH-U1R may be a useful model for the development of strategies in overcoming drug-resistance in the treatment of transitional cell carcinoma.
The Organization of Sequences in Chromosomal DNA

Late in 1968 a simple experiment was done. A commercial sample of salmon sperm DNA was denatured, annealed and examined in the EM. The results startled us: there were many rings to be found among the denatured chains and unidentifiable material. Bacterial and phage DNA’s did not produce these rings. Since that time we have produced these rings (called “slipped rings”) from every species of eukaryotic DNA that has come into our hands, including Drosophila polytene chromosome DNA. Prokaryotic DNA’s always failed to produce slipped rings. Such rings would be expected if chromosomal DNA contained a lot of tandem repetitions. The experiment was done to see if we could prove or disprove CALLAN’S suggestion that chromomeres were largely organized into tandemly-repeating sequences (Callan and Lloyd, 1960; Callan, 1967).
Mechanisms of Renal Damage in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract Lupus nephritis (LN) is a major complication in systemic lupus erythematosus with considerable mortality and morbidities. The mechanisms of renal damage are complex. Since LN was considered a prototype of immune complex (IC)-mediated disease, major efforts have been focused on the nature of the IC with special emphasis on the nature of the targeted antigens (Ags). The prevailing view is that renal damage in LN is due to IC-mediated glomerulonephritis and anti-dsDNA antibodies–dsDNA IC is the most important system in the pathogenesis of LN. Recent studies suggest that this prevailing view should be reconsidered. Genetic studies provide evidence that anti-dsDNA antibodies and antinuclear antibodies such as antinucleosome antibodies are not required for the establishment of LN. Newer proteomic techniques demonstrated that anti-dsDNA antibodies are not the starters of LN and that antibodies to multiple podocyte antigens and planted antigens such as dsDNA and histones are involved. It is recognized that multiple cells and cytokines in addition to complement are involved in renal damage. The multitudes of mechanisms in renal damage in LN justify the multitarget approach in therapy. Recent genetic data support the thesis that end organ resistance to damage is under genetic control and that IC-mediated acute glomerulonephritis need not progress to chronic glomerulonephritis and end stage renal failure. These and other studies let us postulate that autoimmune response should be separated from end organ damage. The interaction of these two pathways leads to end organ damage. The model reminds us that the targeted organs in autoimmune diseases are active participants and their contribution to the pathology should be considered.
Images of Women in the West African Press

This study presents a discourse analysis of images of women in newspapers of West Africa. A total of 869 news articles were studied from five different newspapers published in Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria. The discourse analysis was performed in two stages. In the first stage, all of the news articles were subject to a close reading to determine if the articles described or mentioned women. It was found that the majority of news articles, roughly 2/3 of the sample, did not mention women in any way. In the second stage of the discourse analysis, those news articles which mentioned, described or cited women were subjected to additional close readings. It was found that women were characterized in relatively patterned ways, and nine themes eventually emerged from this analysis. These nine themes can be categorized as positive or negative in their portrayal of women. Three of the themes were positive: (1) women were described in a variety of leadership positions; (2) women were portrayed as entertainment and sport stars; and (3) women were portrayed as fighting for women's rights. Six of the themes were negative: (1) women were portrayed as victims, and frequently as victims of strange misfortunes; (2) women were portrayed as engaging in deviant sexual practices; (3) female criminals were highlighted in several stories; (4) women were either described or charged with professional misconduct; (5) women were charged with witchcraft; and (6) lower class women were described as engaging in a variety of survival activities. These positive and negative themes are illustrated in this paper by examples from the news stories. The authors conclude that women play only a minor role in West African news accounts and that the West African press has strongly ambivalent attitudes towards gender equality and towards women in general.
NONCONVENTIONAL DRUG ADMINISTRATION IN ANESTHESIA

SUMMARY The conventional routes of administration of drugs (IM, IV, subcutaneous, and oral) provide the anesthesiologist with the basic tools that suffice to induce and maintain anesthesia and provide preoperative sedation and postoperative analgesia in virtually all cases; however, the disadvantages are obvious: pain associated with the IM injection, slow and variable absorption of orally and subcutaneously administered drugs, and the need for obtaining IV access for the IV route. These modes may be less than optimal in certain clinical circumstances, e.g., the induction in children without IV access, cancer pain relief, analgesia for short procedures (dressing changes, bone marrow aspiration), and so forth. The intranasal, buccal, and sublingual routes offer the advantages of being easy to administer, painless, cost effective, and less emotionally traumatic in children. In addition, in some cases they may give to the patient the convenience of self-administration. The nonconventional routes of drug administration are promising techniques that need further development. The drugs need changes in formulation to improve their palatability and absorption characteristics. For example, for midazolam, improving its taste and optimizing its pH to increase its lipid solubility will increase its effectiveness. In addition, fentanyl and sufentanil, with their favorable characteristics of high lipid solubility, solubility in water, high potency, and good palatability, sound especially promising and should be further investigated.
Association of Calf Muscle Pump Stimulation With Sleep Quality in Adults.

Prevention of lower extremity fluid pooling (LEFP) is associated with improved sleep quality. Physical activity and compression stockings are non-invasive methods used to manage LEFP, but both are associated with low adherence. Calf muscle pump (CMP) stimulation is an alternative and more convenient approach. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 11 participants between ages 45 and 65 with poor sleep quality. A within-person single-group pre-test-post-test design was used to evaluate changes in sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and functional outcomes sensitive to impaired sleep as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale after 4 weeks of CMP stimulation. Statistical analysis included effect size (ES) calculations. After daily use of CMP stimulation, participants demonstrated improvement in overall sleep quality (ES = -.97) and a large reduction in daily disturbance from poor sleep (ES = -1.25). Moderate improvements were observed in daytime sleepiness (ES = -.53) and functional outcomes sensitive to sleepiness (ES = .49). Although causality could not be determined with this study design, these results support further research to determine whether CMP stimulation can improve sleep quality. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
HPV18 DNA replication inactivates the early promoter P 55 activity and prevents viral E6 expression

HPV18 genome contains two major transcription start sites (TSS) respectively positioned at nt 55 (TSS-55 or promoter P55) and nt 102 (TSS-102 or promoter P102) in the early promoter region upstream of viral E6 open reading frame (ORF). The TATA box driving RNA transcription at the TSS-55 overlaps with a core region of the viral replication origin (Ori), whereas the TATA box for the TSS-102 is downstream and outside of the core Ori. In late stage of HPV18 infection or in highly differentiated keratinocytes, HPV18 DNA replication unwinds the TATA-containing Ori and prevents RNA transcription from the P55 promoter, but not from the P102 promoter. Because RNA transcripts derived from the P55 promoter, but not from the P102 promoter, bears a reasonable length (51 nts) of 5’ untranslational region (5’ UTR), we demonstrated that the P55-derived transcripts are responsible for viral E6 expression and thereby p53 stability. Inhibition of viral DNA replication by phosphonoacetic acid increases the P55 promoter transcription and viral E6 expression, subsequently leading to p53 reduction. Together, our data provide the first evidence that HPV18 DNA replication controls the expression of viral E6 expression from the P55 promoter.
Principles of Genetics and Genomics

The last decade has brought remarkable advances in our understanding of the human genome, inheritance, and the genetic contribution to disease. The field has grown from studies of rare, highly-penetrant mutations to the associations between common genetic variants and common diseases. The analyses of the data generated from these studies have led to the creation of an entirely new scientific discipline, bioinformatics, which combines biology and genetics with advanced computational methods.
Factors Affecting E-Commerce Web Site Effectiveness

This paper reports the results of a survey study involving 117 e-commerce customers. The purpose of the study was to sample the opinions of commercial web users in order to determine the critical f...
Impact of Multiple En Face Image Averaging on Quantitative Assessment from Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images.

Purpose To investigate the impact of multiple en face image averaging on quantitative measurements of the retinal microvasculature using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Design Prospective, observational, cross-sectional case series. Participants Twenty-one healthy individuals with normal eyes. Methods Macular OCTA images were acquired from all participants using the Zeiss Cirrus 5000 with Angioplex OCTA software (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA). Nine OCTA cube scans per eye were obtained and 9 superficial retinal layer (SRL) and deep retinal layer (DRL) en face OCTA image slabs were averaged individually after registration. Quantitative parameters from the retinal microvasculature were measured on binarized and skeletonized OCTA images and compared with single OCTA images without averaging. Main Outcome Measures Vessel density (VD), vessel length density (VLD), vessel diameter index (VDI), and fractal dimension (FD). Results Participants with artifact or poor image quality were excluded, leaving 18 eyes for the analysis. After averaging, qualitatively there was apparent reduction in background noise, and fragmented vessels in the images before averaging became continuous with smoother walls and showed sharper contrast in both the SRL and DRL. Binarized and skeletonized derivates of these averaged images also showed fewer line fragments and dots in nonvascular areas and more continuous vessel images than those of images without averaging. In both SRL and DRL, VD ( P = 0.0010 and P = 0.0003, respectively), VLD ( P P P Conclusions Averaging of multiple en face OCTA images improves image quality and also significantly impacts quantitative measurements. Reducing noise that could be misinterpreted as flow and annealing discontinuous vessel segments seem to be major mechanisms by which averaging may be of benefit.
A Primer on Employment and Intellectual Property Law: Legal Guidance for Supervisors of Assessment and Institutional Research Staff

Institutional research (IR) leaders rely on staff members to accomplish office missions and support institutional decisions. Like any supervisors in higher education, IR leaders must be familiar with a host of employment and intellectual property laws that guide the institution/employee relationship. This chapter offers insights into specific issues IR supervisors and staff members should heed.
Masters Program Colon Pathway: Robotic Right Hemicolectomy

The use of robotics for performing a right hemicolectomy is increasing. A detailed, step-by-step description of robotic right hemicolectomy is provided, including positioning of equipment and the surgical team, placement of ports, dissection, and intracorporeal and extracorporeal anastomoses. The robotic platform can assist with complete mesocolic excision by providing enhanced visualization, improved retraction, and increased dexterity with wristed instruments.
Bankrolling Repression? Modeling Third‐Party Influence on Protests and Repression

Ukraine's anti-government protests in 2013–2014, and the ensuing removal of President Yanukovich, raised much speculation about Russia's role in the outcome of the crisis, as well as more general questions related to third-party influence on domestic protests and repression. Does third-party assistance to the government increase the level of government repression or deter protesters? Does the leader removal indicate that foreign involvement was a failure? Or can a third party gain from involvement, even if its protege leader is removed from power? We model external influence on the onset of protests and repression as a game between the government, the protesters, and a third party that supports the government. The main finding is that a third party may “bankroll” repression against the protesters, even at the risk of the removal of their protege leader, with the goal of deterring future protests within its sphere of interest.
The Egyptian Rousette Genome Reveals Unexpected Features of Bat Antiviral Immunity

Bats harbor many viruses asymptomatically, including several notorious for causing extreme virulence in humans. To identify differences between antiviral mechanisms in humans and bats, we sequenced, assembled, and analyzed the genome of Rousettus aegyptiacus, a natural reservoir of Marburg virus and the only known reservoir for any filovirus. We found an expanded and diversified KLRC/KLRD family of natural killer cell receptors, MHC class I genes, and type I interferons, which dramatically differ from their functional counterparts in other mammals. Such concerted evolution of key components of bat immunity is strongly suggestive of novel modes of antiviral defense. An evaluation of the theoretical function of these genes suggests that an inhibitory immune state may exist in bats. Based on our findings, we hypothesize that tolerance of viral infection, rather than enhanced potency of antiviral defenses, may be a key mechanism by which bats asymptomatically host viruses that are pathogenic in humans.
A comparison of free-field and headphone based sound localization tasks

Accurate sound localization is critical for identifying the origin of a sound source and for segregating sources in complex auditory scenes. Sound localization tasks often use free-field presentation of stimuli from a speaker array, or synthetic signals presented over headphones. This study compares localization of ITD and ILD cues presented in the free-field using the SoLoArc (Westerberg et al., 2015), a custom designed speaker array that can systematically present auditory and visual stimuli in a 180-degree free-field environment in both the horizontal and vertical planes, with synthetic ITD and ILD cues presented via headphones. Further, we compared two ways for participants to indicate their response: a manual system where participants pointed a laser at the source, which was identified by a spotter, and an automated potentiometer coupled servo system where the voltage derived from the potentiometer is converted into angular location, allowing the participant to indicate source localization without mo...