cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
N-Acetylglucosamine Metabolism Promotes Survival of Candida albicans in the Phagosome.

ABSTRACT Phagocytosis by innate immune cells is one of the most effective barriers against the multiplication and dissemination of microbes within the mammalian host. Candida albicans, a pathogenic yeast, has robust mechanisms that allow survival upon macrophage phagocytosis. C. albicans survives in part because it can utilize the alternative carbon sources available in the phagosome, including carboxylic acids and amino acids. Furthermore, metabolism of these compounds raises the pH of the extracellular environment, which combats the acidification and maturation of the phagolysosome. In this study, we demonstrate that metabolism by C. albicans of an additional carbon source, N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), facilitates neutralization of the phagosome by a novel mechanism. Catabolism of GlcNAc raised the ambient pH through release of ammonia, which is distinct from growth on carboxylic acids but similar to growth on amino acids. However, the effect of GlcNAc metabolism on pH was genetically distinct from the neutralization induced by catabolism of amino acids, as mutation of STP2 or ATO5 did not impair the effects of GlcNAc. In contrast, mutants lacking the dedicated GlcNAc transporter gene NGT1 or the enzymes responsible for catabolism of GlcNAc were defective in altering the pH of the phagosome. This correlated with reduced survival following phagocytosis and decreased ability to damage macrophages. Thus, GlcNAc metabolism represents the third genetically independent mechanism that C. albicans utilizes to combat the rapid acidification of the phagolysosome, allowing for cells to escape and propagate infection. IMPORTANCECandida albicans is the most important medically relevant fungal pathogen, with disseminated candidiasis being the fourth most common hospital-associated bloodstream infection. Macrophages and neutrophils are innate immune cells that play a key role in host defense by phagocytosing and destroying C. albicans cells. To survive this attack by macrophages, C. albicans generates energy by utilizing alternative carbon sources that are available in the phagosome. Interestingly, metabolism of amino acids and carboxylic acids by C. albicans raises the pH of the phagosome and thereby blocks the acidification of the phagosome, which is needed to initiate antimicrobial attack. In this work, we demonstrate that metabolism of a third type of carbon source, the amino sugar GlcNAc, also induces pH neutralization and survival of C. albicans upon phagocytosis. This mechanism is genetically and physiologically distinct from the previously described mechanisms of pH neutralization, indicating that the robust metabolic plasticity of C. albicans ensures survival upon macrophage phagocytosis.
Two-Year Stability and Change in Access to and Reasons for Lacking a Usual Source of Care Among Working-Age US Adults.

Objective:The objective of this study was to investigate usual source of care (USC) over time.Methods:A nationally representative sample of working-age adults in the Medical Expenditure Panel Surve...
Rituximab maintenance therapy after first-line induction chemoimmunotherapy for follicular lymphoma

Clinical Question Is rituximab maintenance therapy after first-line induction chemoimmunotherapy for follicular lymphoma associated with improved outcomes? Bottom Line Compared with observation, rituximab maintenance therapy prolongs progression-free survival without an improvement in overall survival or quality of life after first-line induction chemoimmunotherapy.
Human Rights as a New Standard of Civilization in Weapons Control

This article is an attempt to explore the intersecting dynamic of human rights and weapons control from a postcolonial perspective. It seeks to bring to the fore the contested terrain of human righ...
Introduction to High-Density Lipoprotein, Dyslipidemia, and Coronary Heart Disease

Alterations in plasma lipoproteins are major risk factors for coronary heart disease caused by atherosclerosis. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an overview of lipids, lipoprotein composition, lipoprotein metabolism, and lipoprotein disorders, with particular relevance to coronary heart disease risk (CHD). This chapter will then provide a framework for the reader to understand the remaining chapters in this book which have a primary focus on high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). This chapter will also allow the reader to rapidly move from a rudimentary view of lipids to a more thorough understanding of HDL, dyslipidemia, and CHD. Both increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (>160 mg/dl or 4.2 mmol/l) and decreased HDL cholesterol ( 1,000 mg/dl or 11 mmol/l) can be associated with recurrent pancreatitis. In this chapter we cover lipoprotein composition, metabolism, and briefly review the rare lipoprotein disorders cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis, phytosterolemia, abetalipoproteinemia, hypobetalipoproteinemia, and lipoprotein lipase deficiency, as well as the more common disorders dysbetalipoproteinemia, dyslipidemia, combined hyperlipidemia, lipoprotein (a) excess, and familial hypercholesterolemia. Disorders of HDL metabolism are covered in other chapters in this book. The concluding chapter will summarize where we are with CHD risk assessment, lipid management, the current state of our knowledge about HDL metabolism, and therapies for the treatment of HDL deficiency.
Ceramic joining IV. Effects of processing conditions on the properties of alumina joined via Cu/Nb/Cu interlayers

Multilayer copper/niobium/copper interlayers consisting of 3 μm thick cladding layers of copper on a 125 μm thick niobium core layer were used to join aluminum oxides at 1150°C or 1400°C, or both. Three microstructurally distinct aluminum oxides were joined—a 25 μm grain size 99.5% pure alumina, a submicron grain size 99.9% pure alumina, and single crystal sapphire. Two-phase interlayer microstructures containing both copper-rich and niobium-rich phases developed during bonding. In some cases, the initially continuous copper film evolved via Rayleigh instabilities into an array of discrete copper-rich particles along the interlayer/alumina interface with concurrent increases in the niobium/alumina contact area. Processing conditions (temperature and applied load) and the alumina microstructure (grain size) impacted the extent of film breakup, the morphologies of the copper-rich and niobium-rich phases, the interlayer/alumina interfacial microstructure, and thereby the strength characteristics. Joints possessing a large copper/alumina interfacial area fraction were comparatively weak. Increases in bonding pressure and especially bonding temperature yielded interfaces with higher fractional niobium/alumina contact area. For joined polycrystals, such microstructures resulted in higher and more consistent room temperature fracture strengths. Joined 99.9% alumina polycrystals retained strengths >200 MPa to 1200°C. Relationships between processing conditions, interlayer and ceramic microstructure, and joint strength are discussed.
Algebraic Riccati equations arising in boundary/point control: A review of theoretical and numerical results Part II: Approximation theory

The present Part II is a continuation of Part I of the paper bearing the same title. Part I referred to the continuous case. The present Part II refers to the corresponding discrete problem. To emphasize the continuity of the two parts, we keep a progressive numbering of the sections.
The Importance of Process in Resolving National Forest Management Disputes

Since the mid-1960s, turmoil in national forest management has been, for the most part, unavoidable. It has been the product of changing societal demands for both commodity outputs and recreation and scenic amenities from the national forests. It has been the product of a dramatically advanced technology and, moreover, a greater awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the wilderness, wildlife, and other natural values harbored by the national forests. And, moreover, it has been the product of a cavalcade of new national and state legislation altering the mandates before the U.S. Forest Service.
DESIGNING PRODUCTS WITH OLDER ADULTS: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY AGE-FRIENDLY UNIVERSITY (AFU) PROGRAM

InnoVenture Weekend at FSU, an AFU member institution, was a joint effort of the Institute for Successful Longevity (ISL), the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship. ISL worked with the organizing committee to set aging as the theme for the product design and business pitch event. ISL queried its participant registry (1500+ senior volunteers), asking registrants to identify product needs for seniors. After 10 themes were identified and product statements written, ISL invited seniors who generated the selected ideas to serve as mentors to student design teams. Student feedback indicated that they were highly appreciative of the guidance as they drew up product design solutions to the problems. Seniors reported positive interactions with students. I will discuss how the program was structured and lessons learned in light of AFU principles that call for greater attention to aging issues and engaging older adults in program development.
Establishment of a human induced pluripotent stem cell line (SDQLCHi005-A) from a patient with mastocytosis carrying heterozygous mutation in KIT gene.

Abstract We established an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a Chinese neonate with mastocytosis carrying heterozygous mutation (c.2447A > T (p.D816V)) in KIT gene by episomal vector (EV) reprogramming system. This iPSC line carrying KIT gene mutation, was free of exogenous gene, showed a normal karyotype, expressed pluripotency markers and exhibited differentiation potential.
Robust Optimization-Based Affine Abstractions for Uncertain Affine Dynamics

This paper considers affine abstractions for over-approximating uncertain affine discrete-time systems, where the system uncertainties are represented by interval matrices, by a pair of affine functions in the sense of inclusion of all possible trajectories over the entire domain. The affine abstraction problem is a robust optimization problem with nonlinear uncertainties. To make this problem practically solvable, we convert the nonlinear uncertainties into linear uncertainties by exploiting the fact that the system uncertainties are hyperrectangles and thus, we only need to consider the vertices of the hyperrectangles instead of the entire uncertainty sets. Hence, affine abstraction can be solved efficiently by computing its corresponding robust counterpart to obtain a linear programming problem. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for abstracting uncertain driver intention models in an intersection crossing scenario.
(Mis)matching: Journalistic uses of gender pronouns and names can influence implicit attitudes toward transgender people, perceived news content credibility, and perceived reporter professionalism:

The emerging transgender phenomenon has ignited the national debate on journalistic practices of reporting on transgender issues. This study, via an experiment, investigates the effects of the jour...
Foundations of water quality monitoring and assessment in the United States

Water quality monitoring and assessment in the United States grew from small-scale, local surveys to statewide, regional, and national-scale programs from 1800 to 1975. Major technical and scientific advances were made in the analysis and interpretation of data on organic and inorganic chemistry, isotope chemistry, aquatic biology, toxicology, hydrology, and hydrogeology. These advances produced new knowledge about the sources, transport, and fate of contaminants in the water environment. New knowledge provided a scientific basis for drinking water and recreational standards to protect human health, water quality criteria to protect aquatic life, and laws for the safe disposal of solid and liquid wastes to protect surface and groundwater quality.
The Role and Partial Purification of CTP: Ethanolaminephosphate Cytidylyltransferase in Postgermination Castor Bean Endosperm

The nucleotide pathway is the major pathway of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) headgroup biosynthesis by plants (Sparace, et al., 1981). It is catalyzed in sequence by ethanolamine kinase (EK), ethanolaminephosphate cytidylyltransferase (ECT) and ethanolamine phosphotransferase (EPT). EK has been characterized and purified from spinach leaves (Macher and Mudd, 1976) and soybean seeds (Williams and Harwood, 1994), EPT has been characterized in several plants (10), but little information is available about ECT. The only plant tissue in which ECT has been characterized is castor bean endosperm, where approximately 80% of the activity is in the outer mitochondria) membrane and the remainder in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER; Wang and Moore, 1991). ECT is soluble in mammals and yeast (Sundler, 1975).
Lower Bounds on the Range of Spherical Minimal Immersions

In this section, we define a new operator acting on eigenmaps, the operator of infinitesimal rotations. The name comes from the fact that this operator associates to a p-eigenmap f : S m → S V another p-eigenmap \( f:{S^m} \to {S_V}_{ \otimes so\left( {m + 1} \right)*} \), where the components of \( \hat f \) are obtained by rotating infinitesimally the components of f in each coordinate plane of Rm+1. We will study the self-map on the moduli L p defined by the correspondence 〈f〉 ↦ \( \left\langle {\hat f} \right\rangle \). It turns out that this self-map is the restriction of a symmetric SO(m + 1)-module endomorphism of ɛ p that can be expressed in terms of the Casimir operator in a simple manner. In view of later applications to SU(2)-equivariant eigenmaps and for greater generality, we will define the operator of infinitesimal rotations for an arbitrary closed subgroup G ⊂ SO(m + 1) acting transitively on S m .
The Light on Hartman Green: Natural Scientists, Business Education, and an Ecological Business Paradigm

Considerable effort has been devoted over the last fifteen years by faculty and administrators in numerous colleges and universities, and by organizations such as the Aspen Institute and Teagle Foundation, to enhancing business education through broad infusion of the perspectives and content of the liberal arts. The emphasis has been on integration of the social sciences and especially the humanities. The author—a natural scientist—recounts a seminal experience that motivated him to work more intensively on this initiative with his colleagues across academic divisions at his home institution and beyond. He also argues for more engagement by natural science faculty in this process and examines the transdisciplinary re-visioning required to transform business teaching, learning, and practice into a new paradigm consistent with ecological reality.
From Interpretation to Instructional Practice: A Network Study of Early-Career Teachers’ Sensemaking in the Era of Accountability Pressures and Common Core State Standards:

Accountability pressures and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics have created complex demands for educators, especially early-career teachers (ECTs). Analyzing longitudinal data, includ...
Detection of FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication in acute myeloid leukemia patients and its clinical significance

Objective To analyze the mutations of FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3/ITD) in bone marrow cells of patients with newly-diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML).Methods The mutations of FLT3/ITD in 96 AML cases were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)and the clinical features of FLT3/ITD positive patients were analyzed.Results FLT3/ITD mutations were identified in 18 patients (18.8 ％),2 cases were M2,11 cases were M3,2 cases were M4,3 cases were Ms.Patients with FLT3/ITD mutations presented higher initial white blood cell count than that of patients without FLT3/ITD mutations [18.0×109/L (3.6×109-137.6×109/L) vs 6.3×109/L (4.5×109-113.0×109/L),t =3.04,P ＜ 0.05].Out of FLT3/ITD positive patients,13/16 (81.3 ％) obtained complete remission and 13 patients remained in first remission in a median follow-up of 10 months(6-15 months).Conclusion The mutations of FLT3/ITD are frequently identified in newly-diagnosed AML patients,patients with FLT3/ITD mutations present high white blood cell count. Key words: Leukemia; FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3; Tandem repeat sequences; Polymerase chain reaction
Healthcare service utilization and cost among transition-age youth with autism spectrum disorder and other special healthcare needs:

Youth with autism spectrum disorder often have complex medical needs. Disruptions of healthcare during the transition from pediatric to adult healthcare may put youth with autism spectrum disorder ...
Supplementation Practices and Donor Milk Use in US Well-Newborn Nurseries.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Guidelines encourage exclusive breastfeeding for healthy newborns but lack specificity regarding criteria for medically indicated supplementation, including type, timing, and best practices. We set out to describe practice patterns and provider perspectives regarding medically indicated supplementation of breastfeeding newborns across the United States. METHODS: From 2017 to 2018, we surveyed the Better Outcomes through Research for Newborns representative from each Better Outcomes through Research for Newborns hospital regarding practices related to medically indicated supplementation. We used descriptive statistics to compare practices between subgroups defined by breastfeeding prevalence and used qualitative methods and an inductive approach to describe provider opinions. RESULTS: Of 96 providers representing discrete hospitals eligible for the study, 71 participated (74% response rate). Practices related to criteria for supplementation and pumping and to type and caloric density of supplements varied widely between hospitals, especially for late preterm infants, whereas practices related to lactation consultant availability and hand expression education were more consistent. The most commonly reported criterion for initiating supplementation was weight loss of ≥10% from birth weight, and bottle-feeding was the most commonly reported method; however, practices varied widely. Donor milk use was reported at 20 (44%) hospitals with ≥81% breastfeeding initiation and 1 (4%) hospital with CONCLUSIONS: Strategies related to supplementation vary among US hospitals. Donor milk availability is concentrated in hospitals with the highest prevalence of breastfeeding. Implementation of evidence-based management of supplementation among US hospitals has the potential to improve the care of term and late preterm newborns.
Flortaucipir (tau) PET in LGI1 antibody encephalitis.

The contributors to persistent cognitive impairment and hippocampal atrophy in leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 antibody encephalitis (LGI1) patients are unknown. We evaluated whether tau neuropathology measured with [18 F]flortaucipir PET neuroimaging associated with persistent cognitive impairment and hippocampal atrophy in four recovering LGI1 patients (3 men; median age, 67 [37-88] years). Imaging findings in cases were compared with those observed in age- and gender-similar cognitively normal individuals (n = 124) and individuals with early-symptomatic Alzheimer disease (n = 11). Elevated [18 F]flortaucipir retention was observed in the two LGI1 patients with hippocampal atrophy and persistent cognitive impairment, including one with autopsy-confirmed Alzheimer disease. Tau neuropathology may associate with cognitive complaints and hippocampal atrophy in recovering LGI1 patients.
Social network and behavioral synchrony influences on maternal and infant cortisol response

This study examined the contributions of mothers’ social network stability and mother-infant behavioral synchrony on cortisol response in infants and their mothers during separation. The quality an...
High Defect-Density Yield Learning using Three-Dimensional Logic Test Chips

Test vehicles of various types that aim to identify yield detractors are essential for maturing a new semiconductor process before high volume production. Due to large number of unpredictable geometries created by place-and-route, test vehicles that focus on random logic are of the utmost importance. Prior work that utilizes a two-dimensional regular array of logic blocks has demonstrated significant superiority over conventional approaches. In this work, a third dimension is added to ensure efficient diagnosis of multiple defects that frequently occur within a high defect-density environment. Experiments demonstrate a significant improvement in perfect diagnoses over the two-dimensional LCV.
Arthroscopic Repair of Batter’s Shoulder:

Background:Batter’s shoulder is a condition in which the posterior labrum is typically torn during the baseball swinging motion, producing a traumatic tear and posterior instability. The injury com...
Boolean Relation Theory Notes

We give a detailed extended abstract reflecting what we know about Boolean relation theory. We follow this by a proof sketch of the main instances of Boolean relation theory, from Mahlo cardinals of finite order, starting at section 19. The proof sketch has been used in lectures.
The Sociology of Kinship: A Case for Looking Back to the Future

Kinship fired the imagination of scholars in sociology and anthropology for generations, although kinship per se is no longer regarded as a particularly useful concept for the study of family life in modern societies. Kinship theory rests on a global literature stockpiled over the last 150 years with clashing theories over whether kinship is a biological, sociological, or psychological phenomenon, how and why exogamy and the incest taboo originated, the role kinship plays in social integration, and even whether kinship and the nuclear family are a facet of human nature or an invented social construct. This essay reviews the compelling ideas of the leading kinship theorists in sociology and anthropology during the Axial Age of kinship. And, surprisingly, as this chapter will document, some early speculations on kinship and its related elements have now been corroborated in the light of primate data and the fossil, molecular, sociological, and archeological records, with findings that have the potential to revitalize sociological theory and practice. The near discarding of kinship theory in sociology is thus a rather foolish line of reasoning.
Statistical learning of new visual feature combinations by infants

The ability of humans to recognize a nearly unlimited number of unique visual objects must be based on a robust and efficient learning mechanism that extracts complex visual features from the environment. To determine whether statistically optimal representations of scenes are formed during early development, we used a habituation paradigm with 9-month-old infants and found that, by mere observation of multielement scenes, they become sensitive to the underlying statistical structure of those scenes. After exposure to a large number of scenes, infants paid more attention not only to element pairs that cooccurred more often as embedded elements in the scenes than other pairs, but also to pairs that had higher predictability (conditional probability) between the elements of the pair. These findings suggest that, similar to lower-level visual representations, infants learn higher-order visual features based on the statistical coherence of elements within the scenes, thereby allowing them to develop an efficient representation for further associative learning.
Fish on the range

Abstract This paper examines the recurring theme that fisheries management ought to emulate the institutional arrangements governing other natural resources, such as public rangelands. Overly facile comparisons between fisheries and range have been based on a misguided vision of range policy and an obsession with the structure of property rights. The result has been a condition of “structural narcosis” that obscures obvious but important differences between range and fisheries and obstructs more productive and sophisticated attempts at comparative inquiry. This paper provides a more detailed contrast between past range and current fisheries policy in the United States, in pursuit of more realistic lessons for policy makers. Range management, the paper concludes, is evolving in directions that are instructive for fisheries, but the crossing of conceptual boundaries between these two resources must be undertaken with care and greater attention to detail.
A quantitative relationship between Cl− enhanced [3H]flunitrazepam and [35S]-t-butylbicyclophosphorothionate binding to the benzodiazepine/GABA receptor chloride ionophore complex

Abstract A quantitative relationship between the efficacy (i.e. maximum enhancement) of Cl− to increase [3H]flunitrazepam binding and the density of [ 35 S] -t- butylbicyclophosphorothionate binding sites was observed in well-washed membrane fragments of rat cerebral cortex previously exposed to phospholipase A2. This relationship (described by the equation y = ABx) was maintained when [3H]flunitrazepam was assayed at Cl− concentrations between 100 and 600 mM, and was not qualitatively altered by the presence of 100 μM pentobarbital. However, under experimental conditions that reduced the ratio of [35S]TBPS binding sites/benzodiazepine receptors, the effects of pentobarbital suggest that the conductance state of benzodiazepine receptor-coupled chloride channels may be the primary determinant of Cl− enhanced [3H]flunitrazepam binding.
Self-Driven Synchronous Rectification Scheme for Wide Range Application of DC/DC Converters with Symmetrically Driven Transformers

Synchronous rectifiers are widely used in low voltage and high current DC/DC converters to reduce conduction power loss. For popular and reliable topologies, such as Half-bridge, Push-pull and Phase-shifted Full-bridge, the application of self-driven synchronous rectification has design challenges due to the existence of dead times. Existing solutions are not suitable for wide input voltage ranges. This paper presents a new self-driven scheme which properly combines the signal from the transformer and output inductor to drive the MOSFETs. This method provides a suitable solution for wide range input application, since the risk of exceeding the gate voltage rating is greatly reduced. The synchronous rectifier is driven during all the conduction period, and thus greatly reduces the power loss. The influence of the leakage inductance in practical application is also analyzed. Experimental results based on a 36–75V input, 2.5V/30A output prototype are shown to verify the proposed scheme.
ROADS TO RECONCILIATION: AN EMERGING PARADIGM OF AFRICAN THEOLOGY

The heart of contemporary African Christian theology is the notion of “reconciliation.” Contextualizing this movement, the article begins by surveying the three major theological paradigms—inculturation, liberation, and reconstruction—that shaped post-colonial African theology. Drawing on the writings of Desmond Tutu, John Rucyahana and Emmanuel Katongole and three grassroots reconciliation ministries, I delineate four principles of African reconciliation theology: interdependence, prophetic advocacy, holistic transformation, and alternative Christian community. The article concludes by addressing outstanding challenges of memory, justice, brokenness, and pluralism and considers how the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation could offer further theological resources for the emerging paradigm.
Sodium intake alters the effects of norepinephrine on the renin system and the kidney.

To examine the interactions between sodium intake and the sympathetic nervous system and their influences on the blood pressure control system we studied eight normotensive men after high (800 mEq/d) and low (10 mEq/d) sodium intake. We measured blood pressure, arterial, venous and urinary norepinephrine (NE), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal blood flow (RBF), plasma renin activity (PRA) and aldosterone (PA), and the fractional excretion of sodium (FENa) and potassium (FEK) before and during incremental infusion of norepinephrine. High salt intake influenced the sensitivity to NE as well as subsquent pressor responses. The NE-induced decrease in RBF and GFR was not different on high and low sodium intakes. A significant decrease in FENa ( p p p
Biosynthesis of fatty acids by lactating human breast epithelial cells: an evaluation of the contribution to the overall composition of human milk fat.

ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to characterize the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway of the lactating human breast. Mixed cell populations, obtained by centrifugation of human milk, were enriched in breast epithelial cells by a selective adsorption procedure. Confirmation of the identity of the breast epithelial cells was obtained immunohistochemically. These viable breast epithelial cells incorporated radioactively labeled acetate predominantly into fatty acids with less than 16C atoms. The presence of the two key enzymes characteristic of the medium-chain fatty acid biosynthetic pathway of nonruminants, fatty acid synthetase, and thioesterase II, was demonstrated both qualitatively, by immunohistochemistry, and quantitatively, by enzyme assay. The results indicate that the lipogenic system of the human breast is qualitatively very similar to that of rats, mice, and rabbits, which also secrete milk fats containing medium-chain fatty acids. Quantitatively, however, the mammary fatty acid biosynthetic pathway appears to be less active in humans than in these other species.
Density functional theory and complete basis set ab initio computational study of the molecular interaction between the magnesium atom and nitrogen oxide cation: is the nitrogen oxide cation responsible for higher magnesium cation/atom ratio in the Earth's upper atmosphere?

Abstract To facilitate the experimental simulation of the electron transfer reaction between the magnesium atom and the nitric oxide cation, complete basis set and density functional theory computational studies were performed to explore the Mg+NO+ potential energy surface in both its singlet and triplet states. In general, two isomers MgNO+ and MgON+ in their singlet and triplet states were located with optimization of their geometries, computation of the energy of association, and energies of dissociation after the electron transfer reaction had occurred. It was determined that all these isomers were very close in energy (around 100 kcal/mol) and therefore they might all be present in same amounts when the magnesium atom is transferred into the magnesium mono-cation. The association energy between the magnesium atom and the nitric oxide cation is predicted to be around 50 kcal/mol. On the contrary, the enthalpy for the transformation into the magnesium mono-cation and nitric oxide is below 10 kcal/mol and for some Mg–NO+ isomers even less than 2 kcal/mol. The estimated NO stretching harmonic frequencies for all the isomers are quite distant from NO+ and other isomers and should be used for the determination of these isomers in reaction mixtures. Further, their IR intensity is very strong and can be used for the estimation of the Mg–NO+ complexes relative energies.
A test platform for cognitive delays: target tracking problem with multiple time-delayed feedback control

This paper studies a baseline 2-dimensional (2-D) target tracking problem from a new perspective. The dynamics entail two rationally independent time delays in an otherwise traditional feedback controller. A pursuer tries to track a moving target. When there are no time delays, capture is enabled using any stable control logic (for instance, LQR). If there are different delays in the sensing of position and velocity of the target, however, the performance of the pursuit changes dramatically. We explore the stability of the dynamics for a broad range of delay compositions. An exhaustive and exact determination of those stable delay combinations is achieved using the recent cluster treatment of characteristic roots (CTCR) paradigm. It declares the complete stability outlook in the domain of the two delays. This method starts with the determination of all the potential stability switching curves in the domain of the delays. For this, a recent concept called the “spectral delay space (SDS)” is used. As a paradoxical outcome of this work, we show that the stability of the dynamics can be recovered by increasing the delays. The paper is accompanied by an interactive MATLAB-based game which is also available online.
Trends in upper-tropospheric humidity

Water vapor is the most radiatively active greenhouse gas, and the process of water-vapor feedback may significantly amplify global warming induced by anthropogenic greenhouse gasses. Satellite radiance observations from the past 20 years, which are sensitive to the water vapor and temperature of the upper troposphere, provide the first global observations of trends in upper-tropospheric humidity. These decadal trends are strongly positive in the deep tropics, negative in the Southern Hemisphere subtropics and midlatitudes, and of mixed sign in the Northern Hemisphere subtropics and midlatitudes. The trends are shown to be consistent with atmospheric circulation changes observed in the past 20 years, including a tendency toward more El Nino-Southern Oscillation warm events and changes in transient eddy activity in the subtropics.
Metal attenuation at the abandoned Spenceville copper mine

Acid mine drainage from the abandoned Spenceville Cu mine contributes toxic levels of metals to nearby streams. The majority of metal contamination, however, is removed from the system over a short spatial distance. The primary mechanism responsible for this geochemical scavenging is adsorption onto Fe, Mn and Al-hydroxide precipitates that are clearly visible in the streambed. A 5-step sequential extraction procedure was performed on the streambed sediments in order to characterize solid phase speciation of metals in this area. Two fractions (carbonate and amorphous Fe-Mn hydroxide) were considered to be bioavailable, with the possibility of the metals in these phases being remobilized under changing ambient conditions. Copper and Zn were found to have the highest bioavailability, followed by Cd, Pb and Al. Although most metal in the acid mine drainage was rapidly removed from the system, aqueous concentrations of Cu and Zn exceeded California water quality criteria 0.5 km downstream of the mine site.
MANAGEMENT OF SPINAL METASTASES FROM RENAL CELL CARCINOMA USING STEREOTACTIC BODY RADIOTHERAPY

Purpose: To evaluate the outcomes associated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in the management of spinal metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Methods and Materials: SBRT was used in the treatment of patients with spinal metastases from RCC. Patients received either 24 Gy in a single fraction, 27 Gy in three fractions, or 30 Gy delivered in five fractions. Effectiveness of SBRT with respect to tumor control and palliation of pain was assessed using patient-reported outcomes. Results: A total of 48 patients with 55 spinal metastases were treated with SBRT with a median follow-up time of 13.1 months (range, 3.3-54.5 months). The actuarial 1-year spine tumor progression free survival was 82.1%. At pretreatment baseline, 23% patients were pain free; at 1 month and 12 months post-SBRT, 44% and 52% patients were pain free, respectively. No Grade 3-4 neurologic toxicity was observed. Conclusions: The data support SBRT as a safe and effective treatment modality that can be used to achieve good tumor control and palliation of pain associated with RCC spinal metastases. Further evaluation with randomized trials comparing SBRT to conventional radiotherapy may be warranted.
Anger management style, blood pressure reactivity, and acute pain sensitivity: Evidence for “trait × situation” models

Background: Anger management style is related to acute and chronic pain, but it is not clear whether anger arousal is needed for these associations to emerge or whether physiological mechanisms mediate these links.Purpose: “Trait × Situation” models were examined to determine whether relationships between anger-out and pain and anger-in and pain depended on anger provocation’s preceding pain induction and whether pain sensitivity variance explained by anger management style overlapped with variance in harassment-induced blood pressure reactivity.Methods: Healthy individuals (N = 53) underwent either mental arithmetic with harassment and then a cold pressor (MA/CP) or vice versa (CP/MA). The Spielberger Anger Expression Inventory assessed anger-out using the Anger-Out subscale (AOS) and anger-in using the Anger-In subscale (AIS).Results: AOS × Order and AIS × Order interactions for pain tolerance emerged, such that (a) AOS was related negatively to tolerance among MA/CP participants, whereas AOS and tolerance were not related in CP/MA; (b) AIS was related positively to tolerance in MA/CP, whereas AIS was related negatively to tolerance in CP/MA; and (c) tolerance variance accounted for by AOS in MA/CP overlapped substantially with tolerance variance accounted for by diastolic blood pressure reactivity.Conclusions: Findings support the notion that anger management style affects pain and are consistent with evidence that deficient endogenous opioid functioning may be one mechanism through which anger-out is linked to both pain sensitivity and cardiovascular stress reactivity, a connection that appears most reliably when anger is provoked.
Turn down the noise: Information overload, conscientiousness and their connection to individual well-being

In today’s “information society” (Jackson and Farzaneh, 2012), access to information is almost unrestricted, causing the experience of feeling burdened by the large amount of information (information overload, see e.g. Misra and Stokols (2012)). Previous research has found links between information overload and poor physical health, high perceived stress (e.g., Misra and Stokols, 2012), and poor memory recall (Peavler, 1974), among others. No study to date has examined relations between overflow of information – a type of stressor causing psychological distress (Ledzinska, 2009; Mongay Batalla and Ledzinska, 2011) – and well-being; we present the results of this investigation. We posit that people with a high level of information overload would experience lowered well-being. Four measures of well-being were used. The data confirmed our hypothesis: the more information stress one feels, the less happy one is with his life. We have also found that conscientiousness (personality trait) mediates this relation.
Vehicular testbeds — Validating models and protocols before large scale deployment

Vehicular communications are becoming a reality due to the investments by stakeholders like car manufacturers and Public Transport Authorities. The building blocks of the ”Vehicle Grid” (radios, Access Points, spectrum, standards, etc.) are coming into place enabling a broad gamut of applications that range from navigation safety, intelligent transport, entertainment and urban sensing. Vehicular protocols and applications, however, must be carefully tested before deployment in the urban grid and introduction to the users. This validation must be carried out progressively in simulation, emulation and small scale testbed environments. In this paper we discuss the important role of the vehicular testbed in validating models and protocols before deployment in large scale scenarios. We illustrate the concept using two case studies that were carried out in the UCLA open vehicular testbed.
Nakshatra: Towards Running Batch Analytics on an Archive

Long term retention of data has become a norm for reasons like compliance and data preservation for future needs. With storage media continuing to become cheaper, this trend has further strengthened and is testified with introduction of archival solutions like Amazon Glacier and Spectra Logic Black Pearl. On the other hand, analytics and big data have become key enablers for business and research. However, analytics and archiving happens on separate storage silos. This generates additional costs and inefficiencies when part of archived data needs to be analyzed using batch analytics platforms like Hadoop because a) We need additional storage for data transferred from archive to analytics tier and b) Transfer time costs are incurred due to data migration to analytics tier. Moreover, accessing archived data has high times to first byte, as much of the data is stored in offline media like tapes or spun down disks. We introduce Nakshatra, a data processing framework to run analytics directly on an archive based on offline media. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work of its kind available in literature. We leverage batched pre-fetching and scheduling techniques for improved retrieval of data and scalable analytics on archives. Our preliminary evaluation shows Nakshatra to be upto 81% faster than the traditional ingest-then-compute workflow for archived data.
Fluorescence depolarization studies of sol-gel-derived glasses using a rigidochromic probe

The rigidochromic molecule rhenium(I)chlorotricarbonyl-2,2'-bipyridine was used in fluorescence depolarization experiments to probe the gelation, aging, and drying of silica and aluminosilicate sol-gel derived materials. These studies indicate that the local environment of the probe is fluid until well after gelation has occurred. Aluminosilicate gels show an increase in local viscosity after gelation while silica gels show no increase until the drying stage is begun. These results are compared to previous studies in which the shift of the emission band was used to indicate the rigidity in the local environment of the probe.
A platform for developing adaptable multicore applications

Computer systems are resource constrained. Application adaptation is a useful way to optimize system resource usage while satisfying the application performance constraints. Previous application adaptation efforts, however, were ad-hoc, time-consuming, and highly application-specific with limited portability between computer systems. In this work, our goal is to provide a development platform to systematically explore and rigorously apply portable application-specific runtime optimization. We present OCCAM, a software platform for developing multicore adaptive applications. OCCAM's design-time platform consists of APIs and data structures that allow application developers to specify the performance constraints and application-specific optimization techniques. OCCAM's run-time system dynamically manages the application behavior and optimizes system resource usage. OCCAM targets emerging Recognition, Mining, and Synthesis Applications (RMS). Using a set of RMS benchmarks, the experimental study demonstrates that OCCAM can successfully optimize resource usage under application performance constraints across a wide range of computer platforms, with an average of 38% energy savings on an Intel Atom-based, energy-constrained portable system, and an average of 24% energy savings on a high-performance, dual-core computer platform. These savings are accomplished with low overhead. We have also successfully extended OCCAM applications to run on a 16-core setup.
Antimicrobial Activity of Plant Extracts Against Salmonella Typhimurium, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes on Fresh Lettuce

Plant extracts have been found to be effective in reducing microorganisms. This study evaluated antimicrobial activity of 12 plant extracts against Salmonella Typhimurium, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes by using a disk diffusion assay, and Syzygium aromaticum (clove) showed the highest inhibitory effect. To investigate the efficacy of clove extract that inactivates pathogens on lettuce, inoculated lettuce with S. Typhimurium, E. coli O157:H7, and L. monocytogenes was treated with diluted clove extracts or distilled water for 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10 min. Clove extract treatment significantly reduced populations of the 3 tested pathogens from the surface of lettuce. Practical Application: This result indicated that clove extract is a useful antimicrobial agent to reduce the microbial level of foodborne pathogens on fresh lettuce. It also might be a natural antimicrobial for reducing or replacing chemical sanitizers in food preservation.
Target detection and target type & motion classification: Comparison of feature extraction algorithms

This paper addresses sensor network-based surveillance of target detection and target type & motion classification. The performance of target detection and classification could be compromised (e.g., due to high rates of false alarm and misclassification), because of inadequacies of feature extraction from (possibly noisy) sensor data and subsequent pattern classification over the network. A feature extraction algorithm, called symbolic dynamic filtering (SDF), is investigated for solving the target detection & classification problem. In this paper, the performance of SDF is compared with two commonly used feature extractors, namely, Cepstrum and principal component analysis (PCA)). Each of these three feature extractors is executed in conjunction with three well-known pattern classifiers, namely, k-nearest neighbor (k-NN), support vector machine (SVM), and sparse representation classification (SRC). Results of numerical simulation are presented based on a dynamic model of target maneuvering and passive sonar sensing in the ocean environment. These results show that SDF has a consistently superior performance for all tasks - target detection and target type & motion classification.
Evidence for the automaticity of ageism

Abstract Two studies were conducted which provided evidence that ageism (the differential association of negative traits with the aged) has an “automatic” cognitive component. Experiment 1 found that the incidental learning of trait descriptors was different depending upon whether they were encountered in questions concerning “old” persons or “young” persons; in an unannounced memory test, more negative traits were recalled when they had been encoded with reference to an “old” person, and positive traits were retrieved more often when they had been encountered in a question about a “young” person. Experiment 2 showed that the labels “old” and “young” had the effect of increasing the accessibility of associated traits in semantic memory. Subjects were found to make decisions concerning negative traits more quickly after being primed with “old” than after being primed with “young” (the reverse being true for positive traits). These age biases can be unintentional annd unconscious. The semantic priming effects were obtained despite the fact that the labels “old” and “young” were visually “masked” so as to be outside of the subject's conscious awareness.
The biochemical basis of the behavioral disorder in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Abstract An inherited complete deficiency of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase in male children is associated with a severe neurological disorder characterized by choreoform and athetoid movements, hypertonicity, mental retardation, and self-injurious behavior. In the review that follows several possible mechanisms by which the enzyme defect may cause the CNS disorder are discussed. Current evidence suggests that the primary neural deficit in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is a deficiency of dopamine in the basal ganglia. It is argued that this neurochemical lesion results from a deficiency of purine nucleotides which impairs arborization of nigrostriatal neurons during perinatal development. Differences in the ontogenetic timing of the neurochemical lesion may be partly responsible for the different neurological symptoms displayed by persons afflicted with the Lesch-Nyhan and Parkinson's syndromes.