cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Differential Association Between Circulating Lymphocyte Populations With Outcome After Radiation Therapy in Subtypes of Liver Cancer.

Purpose Irradiation may have significant immunomodulatory effects that impact tumor response and could potentiate immunotherapeutic approaches. The purposes of this study were to prospectively investigate circulating lymphoid cell population fractions during hypofractionated proton therapy (HPT) in blood samples of liver cancer patients and to explore their association with survival. Methods and Materials We collected serial blood samples before treatment and at days 8 and 15 of HPT from 43 patients with liver cancer—22 with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 21 with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC)—enrolled in a phase 2 clinical trial. All patients received 15 fractions of proton therapy to a median dose of 58 Gy (relative biological effectiveness). We used flow cytometry to measure the changes in the fractions of total CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells; CD4+ CD25+ T cells; CD4+ CD127+ T cells; CD3+ CD8+ CD25+ activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs); and CD3– CD56+ natural killer cells. Results With a median follow-up period of 42 months, median overall survival (OS) in the study cohort was 30.6 months for HCC and 14.5 months for ICC patients. Longer OS was significantly correlated with greater CD4+ CD25+ T-cell (P = .003) and CD4+ CD127+ T-cell (P = .01) fractions at baseline only in ICC patients. In HCC patients, the fraction of activated CTLs mid treatment (at day 8) was significantly associated with OS (P = .007). These findings suggest a differential relevance of immunomodulation by HPT in these liver cancers. Conclusions Antitumor immunity may depend on maintenance of a sufficiently high number of activated CTLs during HPT in HCC patients and CD4+ CD25+ T cells and CD4+ CD127+ T cells prior to treatment in ICC patients. These results could guide the design of future studies to determine the optimal treatment schedules when combining irradiation with specific immunotherapy approaches.
Pentoxifylline decreases tumor necrosis factor expression and serum triglycerides in people with AIDS. NIAID AIDS Clinical Trials Group

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF)-cachectin increases the expression of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reverses the therapeutic efficacy of zidovudine (ZDV), and may contribute to the wasting syndrome. Pentoxifylline (Trental) decreases TNF activity; in cell culture, it decreases HIV replication and down-regulates expression of the HIV long terminal repeat (LTR). Therefore, pentoxifylline was administered to 25 patients with advanced AIDS in this AIDS Clinical Trial Group study (ACTG #160), the goal of which was to investigate the ability of the drug to decrease TNF expression and HIV replication in this patient population. One patient discontinued drug treatment because of toxicity. Data were analyzed on the 17 patients who completed the 8-week study treatment with pentoxifylline, 400 mg, thrice daily. The median pretreatment CD4+ lymphocyte count was 32 cells/mm3. Fasting serum triglycerides, which have previously been shown to correlate with levels of interferon-alpha and/or TNF, fell on average by 66 mg/dl (p = 0.06). TNF mRNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells fell in 10 of 16 patients (p = 0.02). HIV load decreased and increased significantly in four and one patients, respectively, but did not change in the group as a whole. This study demonstrates the safety of pentoxifylline in AIDS patients and its ability to decrease triglycerides and TNF mRNA levels.
Robotic Simple and Radical Nephrectomy

Nephrectomy for the treatment of various conditions has existed since the nineteenth century. While first performed exclusively as an open operation, various technologies and advancements led to development of minimally invasive means to perform the operation in a safe and effective manner. This was furthered by the development of robotic-assisted surgery. With proper patient selection and preoperative considerations, we present a logical means of performing a simple or radical nephrectomy in the urologic patient. A step-by-step guide is included to lead the surgeon through proper room setup and patient positioning. Trocar placement and surgical technique are then outlined for both a right- and left-sided robotic-assisted nephrectomy. Finally, postoperative complications, management, and follow-up are described.
An Ordinal Partition from a Scale

In this paper, some theorems of Hajnal are revisited to weaken the hypothesis of CH to the existence of a short scale (∂ = N1). In particular, if ∂=N1, then there is a triangle-free graph G on ω 1 · ω such that every subset X ⊆ ω 1 2 of order type ω 1 2 has an edge.
A Survey of Medicare Data Processing and Integration for Fraud Detection

Healthcare is an important aspect in everyday life, with quality and affordable care being essential for a population's well-being and life expectancy. Even so, associated costs for medical services continue to rise. One aspect contributing to increased costs in healthcare is waste and fraud. In particular, with the rapidly rising elderly population in the United States, programs like Medicare are subject to high losses due to fraud. Therefore, fraud detection approaches are critical in lessening these losses. Even so, many studies using Medicare data do not provide sufficient details regarding data processing and/or integration making it potentially more difficult to understand the experimental results and challenging to reproduce the experiments. In this paper, we present current research using Medicare data to detect fraud, focusing on data processing and/or integration, and assess any gaps in the provided data-related details. We then present discussions on important details to look for when processing and merging different Medicare datasets indicating opportunities for future work.
Patterns of Use and Correlates of Patient Satisfaction with a Large Nationwide Direct to Consumer Telemedicine Service

Despite its rapid expansion, little is known about use of direct to consumer (DTC) telemedicine. To characterize telemedicine patients and physicians and correlates of patient satisfaction Cross-sectional study Patients and physicians of a large nationwide DTC telemedicine service Patient characteristics included demographics and whether or not they reported insurance information. Physician characteristics included specialty, board certification, and domestic versus international medical training. Encounter characteristics included time of day, wait time, length, coupon use for free or reduced-cost care, diagnostic outcome, prescription receipt, and patient/physician geographic concordance. Patients rated satisfaction with physicians on scales of 0 to 5 stars and reported where they would have sought care had they not used telemedicine. Logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with 5-star physician ratings. The analysis included 28,222 encounters between 24,040 patients and 277 physicians completed between January 2013 and August 2016. Sixty-five percent of patients were under 40 years and 32% did not report insurance information. Family medicine was the most common physician specialty (47%) and 16% trained at a non-US medical school. Coupons were used in 24% of encounters. Respiratory infections were diagnosed in 35% of encounters and 69% resulted in a prescription. Had they not used telemedicine, 43% of patients reported they would have used urgent care/retail clinic, 29% would have gone to the doctor’s office, 15% would have done nothing, and 6% would have gone to the emergency department. Eighty-five percent of patients rated their physician 5 stars. High satisfaction was positively correlated with prescription receipt (OR 2.98; 95%CI 2.74–3.23) and coupon use (OR 1.47; 95%CI 1.33–1.62). Patients were largely satisfied with DTC telemedicine, yet satisfaction varied by coupon use and prescription receipt. The impact of telemedicine on primary care and emergency department use is likely to be small under present usage patterns.
Mortality after deferral of treatment or no treatment for choroidal melanoma

Purpose: To report mortality of patients who were eligible for enrollment in the Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS) clinical trials of medium-sized choroidal melanoma or large-sized choroidal melanoma but chose to defer treatment or receive no melanoma treatment. Design: Prospective nonrandomized multicenter cohort study as an adjunct to COMS randomized clinical trials. Methods: Patient follow-up procedures included examinations, correspondence, telephone contacts, and National Death Index searches. Primary outcome was patient death measured by all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were melanoma treatment and melanoma metastasis. Results: Of 77 patients eligible for COMS clinical trials who chose to defer or receive no melanoma treatment, 61 were appropriate candidates and 45 (74%) enrolled in the natural history study (NHS). In all, 42 patients (42 eyes) had medium melanoma, and the median follow-up was 5.3 years (range, 4–10.7 years). In all, 22 patients (52%) had subsequent melanoma treatment, and 20 (48%) had no melanoma treatment. For the 42 patients, Kaplan–Meier estimate of 5-year mortality was approximately 30% [95% confidence interval (CI), 18%–47%]. For COMS medium melanoma trial, 5-year mortality was 18% (95% CI, 16%–20%), not statistically significantly different from the NHS patients. After adjusting for differences in age and longest basal diameter, the 5-year risk of death for NHS patients versus COMS trial patients was 1.54 (95% CI, 0.93–2.56). Three patients had large melanoma. Melanoma metastasis was confirmed or suspected in 8 (42%) of 19 deaths. Conclusion: Greater mortality and higher risk of death for NHS patients are probative but not conclusive evidence of a beneficial, life-extending effect of medium melanoma treatment.
Experimental study of soft porous lubrication

Lessons learned from the motion of red cells in capillaries are applied to a novel experimental study of soft porous lubrication, which conclusively demonstrates a dramatic decrease of friction coefficient with tremendously enhanced pore pressure as a planar board glides over a soft porous layer.
The Effects of Gender Role Stereotypes in Digital Learning Games on Motivation for STEM Achievement

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has become an essential part of school curricula and is crucial to filling future jobs, so research examining ways to increase STEM motivations is essential. While an abundance of research has examined STEM in relation to traditional media, research examining the impact of digital learning games has only recently become more common. The present study attempts to add to this growing research area by exploring how different scientist depictions within an evolution learning game might affect STEM motivations. The unique methodology of this study allowed for the inclusion of a diverse range of ages not often present in similar research. A significant interaction for the 9–10-year-old age group and subsequent pairwise comparisons found that motivation was higher when students played with a high-masculine male and low-feminine female scientist mentor. Effects specifically related to gender of the scientists dissipated as the age of participants increased. These results show the impact that scientist depictions can have on different age groups, as well as the importance of further exploring the impact of digital learning games on STEM motivations.
A novel air management system for a large bore two-stroke naturally aspirated gas engine to reduce emissions:

The oil and gas industry operates by reciprocating natural gas engines which must comply with regulated emission standards for hazardous air pollutants, including NOx, CO, and volatile organic comp...
Adolescents Presenting to the Emergency Department with Heavy Menstrual Bleeding.

Abstract Study Objective To describe the adolescent population that seeks care in the emergency department (ED) for heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB), and to compare those who are discharged to those who are admitted to the hospital. Design Retrospective study. Setting Emergency department and inpatient unit at a national tertiary care hospital from 2006-2018. Participants Adolescents 11-19 years old with ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for HMB. Interventions Chart abstraction for demographic data, symptoms, laboratory tests, outcomes, and treatments. Main Outcome Measure Adolescents who were admitted were compared to girls who were treated as outpatients. Results There were 258 adolescents who sought care for HMB in the ED during the study period. A total of 44 patients (17%) were admitted to the hospital, whereas 214 (83%) were discharged. The average age of those admitted was 15 years, compared to 17 years for those discharged (P Conclusion The majority of adolescents who presented to the emergency department for HMB were not anemic and did not receive any treatment. Of those admitted, almost one-third had an underlying BD, which is higher than previously reported.
Vecuronium- and Esmolol-Induced Pseudohypernatremia Due to Drug Interference With Ion-Selective Electrodes

Objectives We observed that patients treated with continuous vecuronium or esmolol infusions showed elevated plasma sodium measurements when measured by the routine chemistry analyzer as part of the basic metabolic panel (Vitros 5600; Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ), but not by blood gas analyzers (RAPIDLab 1265; Siemens, Tarrytown, NY). Both instruments use direct ion-selective electrode technology, albeit with different sodium ionophores (basic metabolic panel: methyl monensin, blood gas: glass). We questioned if the basic metabolic panel hypernatremia represents artefactual pseudohypernatremia. Design We added vecuronium bromide or esmolol hydrochloric acid to pooled plasma samples and compared sodium values measured by both methodologies. We queried sodium results from the electronic medical records of patients admitted at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from 2016 to 2018 and received vecuronium and/or esmolol infusion treatment during their admissions. Setting PICU of a quaternary, free-standing children's hospital. Patients Children admitted to the hospital who received vecuronium and/or esmolol infusion. Measurements and Main Results Sodium was measured in pooled plasma samples by basic metabolic panel and blood gas methodologies after adding vecuronium bromide or esmolol hydrochloric acid, leading to a dose-response increase in basic metabolic panel sodium measurements. A repeated measures regression analysis of our electronic medical records showed that the vecuronium dose predicted the Δ sodium (basic metabolic panel-blood gas) sodium within 12 hours of the vecuronium administration (p < 0.0018). Esmolol showed a similar trend (p = 0.13). This occurred primarily in central line samples with continuous vecuronium or esmolol infusions. Conclusions Vecuronium and esmolol can falsely elevate direct ion-selective electrode sodium measurements on Vitros chemistry analyzers. Unexpectedly high sodium measurements in patients receiving vecuronium and/or esmolol infusions should be further investigated with an alternate sample type (i.e., peripheral blood) or measurement methodology (i.e., blood gas) to guide treatment decisions.
Configuring Audiences: A Case Study of Email Communication

When people communicate with each other, their choice of what to say is tied to their perceptions of the audience. For many communication channels, people have some ability to explicitly specify their audience members and the different roles they can play. While existing accounts of communication behavior have largely focused on how people tailor the content of their messages, we focus on the configuring of the audience as a complementary family of decisions in communication. We formulate a general description of audience configuration choices, highlighting key aspects of the audience that people could configure to reflect a range of communicative goals. We then illustrate these ideas via a case study of email usage-a realistic domain where audience configuration choices are particularly fine-grained and explicit in how email senders fill the To and Cc address fields. In a large collection of enterprise emails, we explore how people configure their audiences, finding salient patterns relating a sender's choice of configuration to the types of participants in the email exchange, the content of the message, and the nature of the subsequent interactions. Our formulation and findings show how analyzing audience configurations can enrich and extend existing accounts of communication behavior, and frame research directions on audience configuration decisions in communication and collaboration.
Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing for Food Animal Source Attribution of Human Campylobacter jejuni Infections

Campylobacter jejuni is a major foodborne pathogen and common cause of bacterial enteritis worldwide. A total of 622 C. jejuni isolates recovered from food animals and retail meats in the United States through the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System between 2013 and 2017 were sequenced using an Illumina MiSeq. Sequences were combined with WGS data of 222 human isolates downloaded from NCBI and analyzed by core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) and traditional MLST. cgMLST allelic difference (AD) thresholds of 0, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200 identified 828, 734, 652, 543, 422, 298 and 197 cgMLST types among the 844 isolates, respectively, and traditional MLST identified 174 ST. The cgMLST scheme allowing an AD of 200 (cgMLST200) revealed strong correlation with MLST. cgMLST200 showed 40.5% retail chicken isolates, 56.5% swine, 77.4% dairy cattle and 78.9% beef cattle isolates shared cgMLST sequence type with human isolates. All ST-8 had the same cgMLST200 type (cgMLST200-12) and 74.3% of ST-8 and 75% cgMLST200-12 were confirmed as sheep abortion virulence clones by PorA analysis. Twenty-nine acquired resistance genes, including 21 alleles of blaOXA, tetO, aph(3′)-IIIa, ant(6)-Ia, aadE, aad9, aph(2′)-Ig, aph(2′)-Ih, sat4 plus mutations in gyrA, 23SrRNA and L22 were identified. Resistance genotypes were strongly linked with cgMLST200 type for certain groups including 12/12 cgMLST200-510 with the A103V substitution in L22 and 10/11 cgMLST200-608 with the T86I GyrA substitution associated with macrolide and quinolone resistance, respectively. In summary, the cgMLST200 threshold scheme combined with resistance genotype information could provide an excellent subtyping scheme for source attribution of human C. jejuni infections.
Pristine or Highly Defective? Understanding the Role of Graphene Structure for Stable Lithium Metal Plating

We are the first to examine the role of graphene host structure/chemistry in plating-stripping in lithium metal anodes employed for lithium metal batteries (LMBs). Structural and chemical defects are bad since highly defective graphene promotes unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth. This consumes the FEC additive in the carbonate electrolyte and is correlated with rapid decay in CE and formation of filament-like Li dendrites. A unique flow-aided sonication exfoliation method is employed to synthesize "defect-free" graphene (df-G), allowing for a direct performance comparison with conventional reduced graphene oxide (r-GO). At cycle 1, the r-GO is better electrochemically wetted by Li than df-G, indicating that initially it is more lithiophilic. With cycling, the nucleation overpotential with r-GO becomes higher than with df-G, indicating less facile plating reactions. The df-G yields state-of-the-art electrochemical performance; stable plating at 0.5 - 4 mA/cm2, areal capacity up to 2 mAh/cm2, cycle 1 CE at 98% and cycle 100 CE at 94%. With df-G the post cycled metal surface is relatively smooth and dendrite-free. Conversely, r-GO templates have CE rapidly degrade from the onset, with extensive dendrites after cycling. Extensive SEI growth and associated FEC depletion with r-GO are further confirmed by electrochemical impedance analysis and surface science methods (XPS). We therefore propose the following design rule for next-generation supports for LMBs: An ideal architecture will promote copious heterogenous nucleation of the plating metal, shielding it from the electrolyte. In addition, it is essential that the host is itself non-catalytic towards SEI formation.
Managing financial crises: the experience in East Asia

Abstract The Asian financial crisis of 1997–98 was one of the most dramatic economic events of recent times, which raised many questions regarding the appropriate policy response to financial crises. This paper reviews the experience of this crisis, focusing on the overall strategy of crisis management and the way that strategy was implemented including, with regard to official and private financing, structural reforms, and monetary and fiscal policies.
ConceptWAS: A high-throughput method for early identification of COVID-19 presenting symptoms and characteristics from clinical notes.

Abstract Objective Identifying symptoms and characteristics highly specific to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would improve the clinical and public health response to this pandemic challenge. Here, we describe a high-throughput approach – Concept-Wide Association Study (ConceptWAS) – that systematically scans a disease's clinical manifestations from clinical notes. We used this method to identify symptoms specific to COVID-19 early in the course of the pandemic. Methods We created a natural language processing pipeline to extract concepts from clinical notes in a local ER corresponding to the PCR testing date for patients who had a COVID-19 test and evaluated these concepts as predictors for developing COVID-19. We identified predictors from Firth's logistic regression adjusted by age, gender, and race. We also performed ConceptWAS using cumulative data every two weeks to identify the timeline for recognition of early COVID-19-specific symptoms. Results We processed 87,753 notes from 19,692 patients subjected to COVID-19 PCR testing between March 8, 2020, and May 27, 2020 (1,483 COVID-19-positive). We found 68 concepts significantly associated with a positive COVID-19 test. We identified symptoms associated with increasing risk of COVID-19, including “anosmia” (odds ratio [OR] = 4.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.21–7.50), “fever” (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.28–1.59), “cough with fever” (OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.75–2.96), and “ageusia” (OR = 5.18, 95% CI = 3.02–8.58). Using ConceptWAS, we were able to detect loss of smell and loss of taste three weeks prior to their inclusion as symptoms of the disease by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Conclusion ConceptWAS, a high-throughput approach for exploring specific symptoms and characteristics of a disease like COVID-19, offers a promise for enabling EHR-powered early disease manifestations identification.
Active learning with generalized sliced inverse regression for high-dimensional reliability analysis

Abstract It is computationally expensive to predict reliability using physical models at the design stage if many random input variables exist. This work introduces a dimension reduction technique based on generalized sliced inverse regression (GSIR) to mitigate the curse of dimensionality. The proposed high dimensional reliability method enables active learning to integrate GSIR, Gaussian Process (GP) modeling, and Importance Sampling (IS), resulting in an accurate reliability prediction at a reduced computational cost. The new method consists of three core steps, 1) identification of the importance sampling region, 2) dimension reduction by GSIR to produce a sufficient predictor, and 3) construction of a GP model for the true response with respect to the sufficient predictor in the reduced-dimension space. High accuracy and efficiency are achieved with active learning that is iteratively executed with the above three steps by adding new training points one by one in the region with a high chance of failure.
Of Pattern and Place in Dendrites12

Publisher Summary The dendritic extensions of neurons have come to occupy a central role in all considerations of synaptic activity and integrative operations undertaken by nerve cells. This chapter describes the specific patterning in dendritic domains and the specificity of synaptic position. The chapter shows that there is some degree of precision in the ordering of the synaptic scale of terminating afferents. In some cases, such as the large lamina IV cells of the spinal cord, specific dendrites appear allocated to specific inputs. Electron microscopy has added an important dimension of data to dendrite studies, with enhancement of resolution of visible detail, often by several orders of magnitude. Distance from the cell body may no longer be the sole criterion of importance, instead, the position of the terminals in relation to dendritic trigger zones in various positions throughout the dendrite field become of increasing significance.
Biochemistry of Toll‐Like Receptors

Recognition of potentially pathogenic organisms is a critical first step in an immune response. To prevent pathogen outgrowth, this detection must be rapid and initiate a robust inflammatory response. However, inflammation is dangerous, and spurious activation in response to nonthreatening stimuli has the potential to cause autoimmunity and other inflammatory disorders. For this reason, the pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) of the innate immune system have evolved to recognise pathogen-associated molecular patterns to distinguish between self and potentially infectious nonself. The first discovered and most well-studied PRRs are the toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are transmembrane receptors that detect a diverse set of microbe-specific products. Extensive work has uncovered the proteins required in TLR signalling, but a more complete understanding of the biochemistry of signalling molecules in their cellular context is required to understand the role of TLRs in pathogen detection and clearance. Key Concepts: Pathogen-associated molecular patterns are molecular patterns unique to potentially pathogenic microbes, conserved among many species, and essential to the fitness of the microbes that use them. Pattern recognition receptors distinguish self from nonself. Toll-like receptor ‘sorting adaptors’ define the subcellular location of signal transduction. Toll-like receptor ‘signalling adaptors’ link the cytosolic TIR domain of the receptor to signalling enzymes. Keywords: toll-like receptor; pathogen-associated molecular pattern; pattern recognition receptor; lipopolysaccharide; innate immunity
Intentional Integration of Mathematics Content Instruction with Constructivist Pedagogy in Elementary Mathematics Education

The purpose of the research was to improve the effectiveness of instruction in constructivist pedagogy in a college elementary mathematics education course through intentional integration of instruction in mathematics content. Instructors of this course previously used examples involving mathematics content on an ad hoc basis in an attempt to illuminate desirable constructivist pedagogy but discovered that they were ineffective because students experienced difficulty with the mathematics content itself. An instrument was created to assess students' mathematics content knowledge required to understand these examples. Based on the outcome of the assessment, intentional instruction of mathematics content using anchoring examples was integrated with pedagogical instruction. Results showed significant improvement in mathematics content knowledge and confidence in that knowledge with a better understanding of constructivist pedagogy.
The engineer: neglected target of technical writing instruction

Although technical writing programs have grown in size and number in academic institutions, analysis and discussion of the specialized writing tasks and communications needs of the engineer have not developed accordingly. The emphasis in traditional English composition instruction has been increasingly upon innovation in compositional strategies and upon writing as a process, not as a product. But there has not been a corresponding interest in the basic writing task facing engineers-the description and analysis of a technical problem as it occurs in the laboratory or in actual field applications. Few innovative composition strategies address the issue of describing in written form the problem-solving tasks faced by engineers and technicians. It is concluded that the long-term effect of this trend could be a reduction in the communications effectiveness of engineers and technicians, as they are taught those skills they do not need, and not taught those they do need. >
The Nagoya Protocol and Synthetic Biology Research: A Look at the Potential Impacts

This report, prepared for the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, analyzes the 2010 Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity and how it may affect U.S. researchers working in the field of synthetic biology. The objective of the Protocol is to provide a transparent framework for the acquisition and sharing of genetic resources on fair and equitable terms that facilitate the conservation of biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge. The report finds significant uncertainty surrounding the temporal scope of the Agreement as well as the types of genetic material that will be covered at the implementing country level. Even though the United States is not a signatory to the Protocol, the report recommends that U.S. researchers should engage in discussions regarding the crafting of implementing legislation as they develop, verify the origin of the genetic material that they use, and ensure that such material was taken in compliance with the domestic law of a provider country.
The Influence of Prenatal Stress and Adverse Birth Outcome on Human Cognitive and Neurological Development

Publisher Summary Intrauterine experience and birth outcome have been linked to a wide range of disease outcomes including hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and polycystic ovary disease as well as psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders, and suicide. The prenatal experience also appears to exert persisting and widespread influences on cognitive and neurological function later in life. This chapter focuses on the influence of preterm birth (children who are born prior to 37 completed weeks of gestation) and low birth weight (those that are born at a weight of less than 2500 g) and prenatal maternal stress on cognitive, motor, and neurological development in the human. The chapter discusses at least two direct ways through which prenatal stress might affect the structure and function of the brain. First, there is evidence in humans that prenatal stress is associated with decreased growth including head size. Second, areas of the brain that are particularly sensitive to stress hormones, such as glucocorticoids (GCs), may be altered through stress exposure.
L-lactate 2-monooxygenase from Mycobacterium smegmatis. Cloning, nucleotide sequence, and primary structure homology within an enzyme family.

L-Lactate 2-monooxygenase catalyzes the oxidation of L-lactate to acetate and carbon dioxide. The catalytic mechanism has been extensively investigated but very little is known about which amino acid residues may play a role in catalysis. As a first step toward this goal, the gene for this protein from Mycobacterium smegmatis has been cloned and sequenced. Peptide sequencing data for L-lactate 2-monooxygenase was used to construct three sets of fully redundant tetradecamer oligonucleotide probes, which were hybridized to restriction-digested M. smegmatis DNA. An approximately 3-kilobase pair PstI fragment hybridized with two of the probes. This region was subsequently isolated and cloned into Escherichia coli. From this size-fractionated gene bank, a 3.1-kilobase pair genomic DNA fragment was isolated by colony hybridization to two of the oligonucleotide probes. The complete gene for L-lactate 2-monooxygenase was contained on this fragment as shown by DNA sequencing of the whole insert. The DNA sequence codes for a mature protein that is 393 amino acids in length with a subunit molecular weight of 43,072 (including the FMN). The protein sequence shows impressive homology with the primary structures of two mechanistically related proteins, yeast flavocytochrome b2 (Lederer, F., Cortial, S., Becam, A.-M., Haumont, P.-Y., and Perez, L. (1985) Eur. J. Biochem. 152, 419-428; Guiard, B. (1985) EMBO J. 4, 3265-3272) and spinach glycolate oxidase (Volkita, M., and Somerville, C. R. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 15825-15828; Cederlund, E., Lindqvist, Y., Soderlund, G., Branden, C.-I., and Jornvall, H. (1988) Eur. J. Biochem. 173, 523-530). For each residue proposed from the crystal structure of glycolate oxidase to be involved in catalysis (Lindqvist, Y., and Branden, C.-I. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 3624-3628), an identical residue was found in a homologous position in lactate oxidase. Furthermore, most of these residues occur in regions whose sequences are highly conserved between lactate oxidase, flavocytochrome b2, and glycolate oxidase.
Application of genetic algorithms for optimal seasonal furrow irrigation

A quasi-optimum irrigation season calendar based on economic profit maximization for sloping and runoff-free furrows can be obtained by OPTIMEC (EConomic OPTIMization, in Spanish), a seasonal furrow irrigation model based on the concept of comprehensive irrigation. The model features four components: a soil moisture model, an irrigation hydraulic model, a crop yield model and an economic optimization module. This module uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA), a heuristic technique based on the laws of natural selection, to maximize farmer profit. The GA is a suitable technique to solve the problem of profit maximization due to the difficulties inherent in traditional optimization procedures, which require an explicit function relating flow rate, water depth and profit. For its practical application the model has been implemented in a Visual Basic program. A real case is analysed to compare the irrigation season scheduling using traditional criteria (event by event scheduling) and optimization-based criteria.
The proportionality between mutation rate and ultraviolet dose after photoreactivation in Drosophila.

The polar cap cells of Drosophila (early germ track cells) were posttreated with photoreactivating light after treatment with various doses of ultraviolet and the resulting lethal mutation rates compared with the rates induced by the same doses of ultraviolet in a nonposttreated series. In the nonposttreated, the dose-rate curve was found to rise rapidly at the lower doses employed, becoming less steep with increase in dose until it reaches a plateau, and finally falling off somewhat (these results confirming those earlier reported). By contrast, in the photoreactivated series, the dose-rate relationship appears best to fit a linear curve through the entire range of doses tested, the photoreactivated rates being well below those of the nonposttreated at the lower dosage ranges (0.7 plus or minus 0.4% versus 5.9 plus or minus 1.8% at the dose which shows the greatest difference), the difference in the rates getting less with increasing ultraviolet dose and the two rates (posttreated and nonposttreated) finally becoming much closer at the highest dose (2.5 plus or minus 0.8% versus 4.3 plus or minus 1.2%). These results would indicate that there is a difference in the nature of the photoreactivable and nonphotoreactivable parts of ultraviolet mutagenesis. (auth)
A low cost system for the graphical display of space-filling models of proteins

Abstract An inexpensive system for creating and displaying high resolution color images of space-filling models of proteins is described. The system software consists of two BASIC programs, CONVERT and MOLVIEW, which allow the user to create two-dimensional projections of space-filling models of protein molecules, using data contained in standard Protein Data Bank files. By modifying certain subroutines in the BASIC programs, the user can specify color highlightning to emphasize certain aspects of the molecule. The user can interactively specify the viewing angle or store displayed images on diskettes. The software can be implemented on any MS-DOS personal computer that supports color graphics and GW-BASIC.
Diurnal heat balance for the northern Monterey Bay inner shelf

[1] In the summer of 2007, physical measurements including velocity from acoustic Doppler current profilers, surface gravity wave heights measured acoustically, and temperature from thermistor chain arrays were collected along- and across- the mid to inner shelf (water depths from 10–60 m) in northern Monterey Bay. The oceanic response to a strong (8–15 m s−1 daily maximum) along-shelf sea breeze is examined by evaluating the diurnal heat budget over a cross-shelf section of the inner shelf. The diurnal heat budget closes to within the 95% confidence level with daily warming and cooling periods explained by two separate, but related processes. During evening/early morning warming period, 77% of the observed temperature increase is due to along-shelf advection of a temperature gradient within the upwelling shadow zone, a process which is arrested during the period of wind-forcing. In contrast, 75% of the afternoon cooling period is explained by the cross-shelf heat flux driven by diurnal along-shelf winds. In this study, diurnal tides are found to contribute less than 10% of the observed temperature variability and surface gravity waves do not show any significant diurnal variability. Richardson number estimates show that, on average, wind-induced shear is not strong enough to erode the strength of water column stratification within the upwelling shadow.
Intelligence Testing and its Implications for Disability Evaluation in Individuals with Mental Retardation

Disability evaluation in mental retardation, which is done through assessment of intelligence, has certain inherent problems. The situation gets more complex if the person has additional disabilities, which is very likely in mental retardation. As an initiative, this study aims to study problems faced in intelligence testing in persons with mental retardation. The study included 88 randomly selected files of the individuals with mental retardation registered at the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped (NIMH) Regional Centre, Kolkata during 2007-08. Each file was reviewed for information on diagnosis mental retardation, associated conditions and the intelligence testing reports. The results indicated that specific factors including both the characteristics of mental retardation and the nature of the tests available were interfering with intelligence testing. The problems are discussed in the context of current constructs related to mental retardation, diagnostic systems and legislation.
Simulation-based optimization with surrogate models—Application to supply chain management

Simulation is widely used in the decision-making processes associated with supply chain management. In this paper, we present an extension of the simulation-based optimization framework which has been previously proposed for analyzing supply chains. The extension consists of the iterative construction of a surrogate model based on systematically accumulated simulation results to capture the causal relation between the key decision variables and supply chain performance. The decision variables can then be optimized using the surrogate model in place of individual simulation runs to economize on the overall computational effort. Several techniques are embedded in the framework to achieve the targeted objective: least square support vector machine (LSSVM), Bayesian evidence framework, and design and analysis of computer experiment (DACE). The extended framework is illustrated using two small examples and then applied to optimize the inventory levels in a three-stage supply chain. The results show that the framework identifies good solutions efficiently, can accommodate chance constraints and scales up well.
Experiments and Numerical Simulation on the Laminar Flame Speeds of Dichloromethane and Trichloromethane

The laminar flame speeds of blends of dichloromethane and trichloromethane with methane in air at room temperature and atmospheric pressure were experimentally determined using the counterflow twin-flame technique, varying both the amount of chlorinated compound in the fuel and the equivalence ratio of the unburned mixture. A detailed kinetic model previously employed for simulation of chloromethane combustion was expanded to include the oxidation kinetics of dichloromethane and trichloromethane. Numerical simulation shows that the expanded kinetic model predicted the flame speeds to within 3 cm/s of the measured values. Carbon flux and sensitivity analyses indicate that the reaction kinetics of the methane flame doped with chlorinated methanes are qualitatively similar, despite the variation in the chlorinated methane fuel structure.
Metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma diagnosed by EUS-guided FNA of a rapidly progressive peripancreatic mass.

1. Brugge WR. Fine needle aspiration of pancreatic masses: the clinical impact. Am J Gastroenterol 2002;97:2701-2. 2. DiMagno EP, Reber HA, Tempero MA. AGA technical review on the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. American Gastroenterological Association. Gastroenterology 1999;117:1464-84. 3. Euscher E, Vaswani K, Frankel W. Eosinophilic pancreatitis: a rare entity that canmimic a pancreatic neoplasm. AnnDiagn Pathol 2000;4:379-85. 4. Gullo L, Golfieri R, Orcioni GE, Pileri S. Multivisceral eosinophilic fibrosis: a new clinical presentation. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2000;12:1037-9. 5. Abraham SC, Wilentz RE, Yeo CJ, et al. Pancreaticoduodenectomy in patients without malignancy: are they all chronic pancreatitis? Am J Surg Pathol 2003;27:110-20. 6. Chim CS, Ho J, Ooi GC, et al. Primary anaplastic large cell lymphoma of the pancreas. Leuk Lymphoma 2005;46:457-9. 7. Levy MJ, Reddy RP, Wiersema MJ, et al. EUS-guided Trucut biopsy in establishing autoimmune pancreatitis as the cause of obstructive jaundice. Gastrointest Endosc 2005;61:467-72. 8. Song JW, Kim MH, Seo WJ, et al. A case of eosinophilic pancreatitis. Korean J Gastroenterol 2003;42:444-50. 9. Bastid C, Sahel J, Choux R, et al. Eosinophilic pancreatitis: report of a case. Pancreas 1990;5:104-7. 10. Hirata J, Koga T, Nishimura J, et al. Pancreatic carcinoma associated with marked eosinophilia. Eur J Haematol 1987;39:462-6. 11. Tokoo M, Oguchi H, Kawa S, et al. Eosinophilia associated with chronic pancreatitis: an analysis of 12 patients with definite chronic pancreatitis. Am J Gastroenterol 1992;87:455-60.
A Golgi study of neuronal types in the neostriatum of monkeys.

Examination of the neostriatum of monkeys prepared by the Golgi-Kopsch perfusion method revealed the presence of at least 6 neuronal types. The spiny type I is medium size with a high density of dendritic spines. The axon extends well beyond the dendritic field and gives off many collaterals. The spiny type II is either medium or large size, has long thick dendrites with a relatively low density of spines, and an axon similar to that of the previous type but with fewer collaterals. The aspiny type I is medium size with varicose dendrites and a thin axon arborizing in the immediate vicinity of the soma. The aspiny type II is large, with many thick and thin varicose dendrites. The aspiny type III is medium size with smooth dendrites and an axon ramifying profusely within the dendritic field. The neurogliform cell is small with many branching processes. Findings indicate that the neostriatum has 2 distinct types of spiny neurons with long axons (spiny I and II), some of which may contribute to the efferent systems. There are also 2 (aspiny I and III) or perhaps as many as 4 categories (aspiny I, II, III and neurogliform) of typical Golgi type II cells. Large neurons belong to 2 separate populations, one with dendritic spines and a long axon (large version of spiny II), and one with varicosities and presumably a short axon (aspiny II). A realistic interpretation of neurophysiologic data on the neostriatum must take into account all cell types instead of the current view of considering it as a pool of interneurons with few output cells.
Adaptive finite element analysis of axisymmetric freezing

Abstract The paper describes an adaptive finite element analysis of the transient axisymmetric freezing process. Adaptivity schemes are applied to both space and time tessellations. Error equidistribution adjusts the nodal positions and Taylor series analysis of time truncation error selects the time step. In implicit time integration, the location of the freezing front and the nodal temperatures at the next time is solved by full Newton all at once. The method appears to be accurate; in cases for which closed-form solutions are available, it agrees well with them. It also avoids the problem found in the Modified Isotherm Migration Method where the freezing front tends to retrogress when solid just forms on the outer surface cooled by convection.
Neuroinflammation mediated by IL-1β increases susceptibility of dopamine neurons to degeneration in an animal model of Parkinson's disease

The etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) remains elusive despite identification of several genetic mutations. It is more likely that multiple factors converge to give rise to PD than any single cause. Here we report that inflammation can trigger degeneration of dopamine (DA) neurons in an animal model of Parkinson's disease. We examined the effects of inflammation on the progressive 6-OHDA rat model of Parkinson's disease using immunohistochemistry, multiplex ELISA, and cell counting stereology. We show that a non-toxic dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced secretion of cytokines and predisposed DA neurons to be more vulnerable to a subsequent low dose of 6-hydroxydopamine. Alterations in cytokines, prominently an increase in interleukin-1beta (IL-1β), were identified as being potential mediators of this effect that was associated with activation of microglia. Administration of an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist resulted in significant reductions in tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ and attenuated the augmented loss of DA neurons caused by the LPS-induced sensitization to dopaminergic degeneration. These data provide insight into the etiology of PD and support a role for inflammation as a risk factor for the development of neurodegenerative disease.
Intercepting noncoding messages between germline and soma.

There is growing evidence to support the notion that small RNAs derived from noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are mobile carriers of epigenetic information in diverse eukaryotic systems. However, challenges remain in defining what messages are being sent and how. In the August 1, 2012, issue of Genes & Development, Schoeberl and colleagues (pp. 1729–1742) reported a detailed analysis of the turnover of small RNAs during the sexual reproduction of the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena. The results revealed surprisingly complicated roles played by small RNAs in shaping the communication between the germline and the soma.