cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Changes in the activity and amounts of enzymes synthesizing catecholamines and acetylcholine in brain, adrenal medulla, and sympathetic ganglia of aged rat and mouse.

The effects of aging on the activities of the catecholamine synthesizing enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), aromatic L-amino acid decar☐ylase (DDC), dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH), and phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT), and on choline acetyltransferase (CAT), the enzyme synthesizing acetylcholine, were investigated regionally in brain, in adrenal medulla, and in sympathetic ganglia of young (4 month) and aged (24–26 month) rats and mice. In brain, significant changes in enzyme activity were variable, regional, present only in rats and were small, usually less than 20%. In both species, however, the activities of CAT, TH and DDC, but not DBH, were increased 1.5–2.5-fold in the adrenal of aged animals when compared with 4 month old animals. The increase in adrenal TH and DDC activities with age occurred without a change in the Km for substrate or cofactor and could be demonstrated by immunotitration with specific antibodies to be due to accumulation of enzyme protein. A comparable pattern of changes in enzyme activities occurred in rat superior cervical ganglion. We conclude that significant elevations in the activities and amounts of several enzymes synthesizing catecholamines and acetylcholine occur in the adrenals of aging rats and mice and are not paralleled by comparable changes in these enzymes in brain. The pattern of change in adrenal enzymes appears unique for aging and suggests an increased capacity for biosynthesis of circulating catecholamines. The absence of changes in brain TH and DBH activity, found in this study and contradicting observations made by others in man and another strain of rat, suggests that some changes in brain catecholamine enzymes in aging may be a species- and even strain-specific event and not a universal concomitant of aging.
STABILITY OF A TRANSLATING BEAM WITH FIXED AND MOVING VISCOUS DAMPING

The vibration and stability of moving media, such as magnetic tapes in computer systems, are often analyzed by using a translating string as a model. In this note, the influence of moving and stationary damping coefficients on the stability of the moving elastic medium is investigated
Dosimetric accuracy at low monitor unit settings

Abstract Dosimetric accuracies at low monitor units are evaluated for linear accelerators from various manufacturers. A large error is observed in the majority of the accelerators. The error can be positive or negative. Although the error can exceed 20% for the first few monitor units, it is usually less than 5% when more than 10 monitor units are delivered. When low doses are required proper precautions should be taken for dosimetric accuracy including the beam energy, beam flatness and dose per monitor unit.
Lime for Chest Congestion, Bitter Orange for Diabetes: Foods as Medicines in the Dominican Community in New York City

Lime for Chest Congestion, Bitter Orange for Diabetes: Foods as Medicines in the Dominican Community in New York City. Several plants serve a dual purpose as foods and medicines in the Dominican immigrant community in New York City. Data show that foods used for self–medication by this community are plants that are well known and readily available in an urban environment, such as lime, bitter orange, garlic, cinnamon, onion and shallot, coconut, watercress, ginger, soursop, and radish. These plants are significant for Dominicans in New York City for treatment of non–communicable diseases, colloquially called “lifestyle diseases” (such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and asthma/chest congestion), self–limiting diseases (including common cold, flu, cough, acute bronchitis), and female reproductive health (such as vaginal infections and infertility). Our findings emphasize the contemporary role of traditional medicine as an alternative and parallel healthcare system that dynamically adapts to current urban epidemiological trends. The double use of foods as medicines has important implications for urban outreach projects, such as Green Carts and community gardens, that play a role in disease prevention of vulnerable populations, especially those living in areas identified as food deserts.
Clinical acceptability of two self-etch adhesive resins for the bonding of orthodontic brackets to enamel.

Objective: To determine whether two self-adhesive resin cements, Clearfil SA and RelyX, can be used to successfully bond orthodontic brackets to enamel. Materials and methods: Seventy extracted premolars were custom mounted, cleaned and randomly divided into three groups. In group 1 (control), orthodontic brackets were bonded to 25 premolars using the Transbond Plus and Transbond XT two step adhesive systerm adhesive. In group 2, brackets were bonded to 25 premolars using Clearfil SA. In group 3, brackets were bonded to 20 premolars using RelyX. The brackets were debonded using a universal testing machine and shear bond strengths recorded. After debonding, each tooth was examined under 20× magnification to evaluate the residual adhesive remaining. An ANOVA with Duncan’s Multiple Range Test was used to determine whether there were significant differences in shear bond strength between the groups. A Kruskal–Wallis Test and a Bonferroni multiple comparison procedure were used to compare the bond failure mode...
Motion compensation for two photon microscopy by optical coherence tomography feedback

Active motion compensation using a Fourier-domain optical coherent tomography as a distance sensor of a two-photon microscope has been implemented. It demonstrated good feasibility and corrected the images under the sample motion in the z-direction.
Variation among populations of Clarkia Unguiculata (Onagraceae) along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients

We investigated phenotypic variation in 15 traits in greenhouse-grown plants from 16 populations of Clarkia unguiculata from three elevational habitats and six latitudinal transects. Populations from the lowest and highest elevations were geographically and ecologically marginal within the species’ range. We (1) describe patterns of trait variation with elevation and latitude; (2) compare latitutidinal variation between marginal and central areas of the species’ range; and (3) compare patterns of variation within C. unguiculata to interspecific patterns within the genus. Although there was some evidence that traits varied clinally (i.e., increased/decreased monotonically) along environmental gradients, interaction effects between altitude and latitude dominated patterns of variation. For most traits, latitudinal trends at the low-elevation margin of the species’ range differed from trends at mid- and high-elevation areas. Based on interspecific comparisons, populations at the hotter, more arid ends of both environmental gradients were expected to have rapid development, small flowers and vegetative size, low levels of herkogamy and protandry, and high rates of gas exchange. Instead, we found that while some traits were correlated with one gradient in the expected way (e.g., development time with elevation, gas-exchange physiology with latitude), all traits were not consistently associated with each other along both gradients, and intraspecific patterns of variation differed from interspecific patterns.
Rubber elasticity in highly crosslinked systems: Crosslinked styrene, methyl methacrylate, ethyl acrylate, and octyl acrylate

Abstract : STYRENE, METHYL METHACRYLATE, AND OCTYL ACRYLATE WERE EACH COPOLYMERIZED WITH TETRAETHYLENE GLYCOL DIMETHACRYLATE OVER THE COMPLETE RANGE OF COPOLYMER COMPOSITIONS. MODULUS TEMPERATURE CURVES OF THESE POLYMERS WERE CONSTRUCTED AND COMPARED. THE EQUATION OF STATE FOR RUBBER ELASTICITY WAS APPLIED TO THE RUBBERY PLATEAU REGIONS OF THESE POLYMERS. (AUTHOR-PL).
Defective response of CD4 + T cells to retinoic acid and TGFβ in systemic lupus erythematosus

CD25+ FOXP3+ CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are induced by transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) and further expanded by retinoic acid (RA). We have previously shown that this process was defective in T cells from lupus-prone mice expressing the novel isoform of the Pbx1 gene, Pbx1-d. This study tested the hypothesis that CD4+ T cells from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients exhibited similar defects in Treg induction in response to TGFβ and RA, and that PBX1-d expression is associated with this defect. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected from 142 SLE patients and 83 healthy controls (HCs). The frequency of total, memory and naive CD4+ T cells was measured by flow cytometry on fresh cells. PBX1 isoform expression in purified CD4+ T cells was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). PBMCs were stimulated for three days with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 in the presence or absence of TGFβ and RA. The expression of CD25 and FOXP3 on CD4+ T cells was then determined by flow cytometry. In vitro suppression assays were performed with sorted CD25+ and CD25- FOXP3+ T cells. CD4+ T cell subsets or their expansion were compared between patients and HCs with two-tailed Mann-Whitney tests and correlations between the frequencies of two subsets were tested with Spearman tests. The percentage of CD25- FOXP3+ CD4+ (CD25- Tregs) T cells was greater in SLE patients than in HCs, but these cells, contrary to their matched CD25+ counterparts, did not show a suppressive activity. RA-expansion of TGFβ-induced CD25+ Tregs was significantly lower in SLE patients than in HCs, although SLE Tregs expanded significantly more than HCs in response to either RA or TGFβ alone. Defective responses were also observed for the SLE CD25- Tregs and CD25+ FOXP3- activated CD4+ T cells as compared to controls. PBX1-d expression did not affect Treg induction, but it significantly reduced the expansion of CD25- Tregs and prevented the reduction of the activated CD25+ FOXP3- CD4+ T cell subset by the combination of TGFβ and RA. We demonstrated that the induction of Tregs by TGFβ and RA was defective in SLE patients and that PBX1-d expression in CD4+ T cells is associated with an impaired regulation of FOXP3 and CD25 by TGFβ and RA on these cells. These results suggest an impaired integration of the TGFβ and RA signals in SLE T cells and implicate the PBX1 gene in this process.
On the Nash equilibria of a timed asymmetric skirmish

In this work, we present a Nash equilibrium solution for a timed, asymmetric skirmish between two agents: an attacker, and a defender. We derive a solution by focusing on strategy profiles in which both the attacker and defender randomize their actions, which correspond to times, over a common atomic support. We show this class of strategies admits a unique mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium and give an algorithm for its computation. A numerical example highlights interesting features of a typical equilibrium strategy profile.
S-PLUS for Unix and DOS

Abstract The New S language is a remarkably effective tool for performing scientific data analysis. S-PLUS, an expanded version of New S, has significant features that are missing in New S, including nonlinear optimization, several multivariate analysis and time series techniques, to name but a few. The reader should be aware however that S-PLUS does require some effort to use. It is command-driven as opposed to menu-driven and does require learning some arguments of some functions. The small amount of effort to use it is greatly rewarded every time it is used not only to analyze data but to create remarkably good graphics for presentations and publication.
Evaluation of Clinical Stereoacuity Tests

Abstract Sixty children ages two to seven were separated into two age-matched groups of thirty each, one consisting -of a group of normal children, and the other a strabismic-anisometropic group. All subjects were examined with four currently available stereoacuity tests, the RIDE, Randot, Titmus, and the TNO. Significant differences in performance were found between the two groups. Across all tests there was a 10 to 17% over-referral rate and a 33-37% under-referral rate. Untestability in the normal group ranged from 3.3-6.7% across tests, while in the patient group it ranged from 3.3-20.0%. The under-referral rate is unacceptable and casts doubt on the value of our present stereoacuity tests in screening for subtle defects in binocular function in the young child.
Optimized Perturbation Theory

Conventional perturbation theory gives different results in different renormalization schemes, a problem which is especially serious in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). I propose a theoretical resolution of this ambiguity which uses the full renormalization-group invariance of the theory. The idea is that, in any kind of approximation scheme which does not respect the known invariances of the exact result, the "optimum" approximant is the one that is "most invariant," i.e., least sensitive to variations in the unphysical parameters. I discuss this principle in several examples, including the Halliday-Suranyi expansion for the anharmonic oscillator. Turning to massless field theories, I identify the unphysical variables which label a particular renormalization scheme as the renormalization point $\ensuremath{\mu}$, and the $\ensuremath{\beta}$-function coefficients. I describe how perturbative approximations depend on these unphysical variables, and show how to find the stationary point which represents the "optimum" result. Certain renormalization-scheme invariants, in one-to-one correspondence with the perturbation-series coefficients, arise naturally in the analysis. An application to the $e$,$\ensuremath{\mu}$ magnetic moments in QED provides a partial test of these ideas, with encouraging results. I suggest possible further theoretical developments, and advocate the method as a sound basis for quantitative QCD phenomenology.
Continuous Robot Motion Planning In Unknown Environment

An overview is given of a class of non-heuristic algorithms for planning collision-free motion for robotic systems (such as an autonomous vehicle or a manipulator arm) operating in an environment with obstacles, when any point of the (multi-link) robot body can be subject to collision. In this approach (called Continuous Path Planning, CPP), obstacles are considered to be unknown, and the system has a feedback providing it with information about its immediate surroundings. Such local information is shown to be sufficient to guarantee reaching a global goal, while generating reasonable (if, in general, not optimal) paths. No constraints on the shape of the robot or of the obstacles are imposed. The general idea is to reduce motion planning to the analysis of simple closed curves on the surfaces of appropriate two-dimensional manifolds. The approach is readily compatible with real-time and sensory feedback applications, and thus presents an attractive alternative to the Piano Mover’s approach [1,3] where full information about the environment is assumed. In this paper, versions of CPP algorithms are reviewed and examples are given for the cases of a point automaton and of planar and three-dimensional manipulator arms.
Crystal structure of the unactivated ribulose 1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase complexed with a transition state analog, 2-carboxy-D-arabinitol 1, 5-bisphosphate

The crystal structure of unactivated ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase from Nicotiana tabacum complexed with a transition state analog, 2-carboxy-D-arabinitol 1,5-bisphosphate, was determined to 2.7 A resolution by X-ray crystallography. The transition state analog binds at the active site in an extended conformation. As compared to the binding of the same analog in the activated enzyme, the analog binds in a reverse orientation. The active site Lys 201 is within hydrogen bonding distance of the carboxyl oxygen of the analog. Loop 6 (residues 330-339) remains open and flexible upon binding of the analog in the unactivated enzyme, in contrast to the closed and ordered loop 6 in the activated enzyme complex. The transition state analog is exposed to solvent due to the open conformation of loop 6.
Recruiting Anxious Older Adults for a Psychotherapy Outcome Study

Although anxiety is a serious problem among the elderly, very little research has been conducted with anxious older adults. One reason is that although anxiety disorders overall are more common than depression in older community samples, many specific anxiety disorders are relatively rare. Furthermore, anxious older adults often do not seek treatment or otherwise come to the attention of mental health researchers. This paper describes the first year of recruitment efforts for a treatment outcome study of psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorder in adults at least 55 years old. Successful methods included collaborations with hospital-based health education programs and senior centers, as well as notices in local and senior newspapers. Less successful methods included radio public service announcements and mailings to residential facilities, churches and synagogues, and physicians. Recommendations for recruitment of anxious older adults into research projects are discussed.
Violence, Disability, and the Politics of Healing: The Inaugural Nancy Eiesland Endowment Lecture

Ancient and contemporary communities frequently portray the ideal, utopian society as a place without disability. Christian, Jewish, and secular eschatologies are often potent sites of disability erasure, forms of eugenic imagination that envision liberation through the denial of bodily and sensory difference. This lecture examines the complex relationship between violence, disability, and domination—and contests notions of healing that depoliticize disability or devalue the integrity of disabled lives. Bringing sacred texts into conversation with feminist disability studies and the lived experiences of disability justice activists, the lecture offers resources for religious voices seeking to reimagine disability, healing, and liberation.
The Law and Ethics of Restitution: Restitution in contexts of informal intimacy

The preceding chapters, as well as the ones to follow, correspond by and large to the accepted categories of the law of restitution. This chapter is different. It covers an amalgam of restitutionary rules, claiming that together they have a coherent and normatively appealing theme that goes unobserved by the existing literature. The structure of the chapter follows this goal. Sections A–C discuss the three doctrines I seek to integrate: unjust enrichment between cohabitants, restitution for the supply of necessaries, and rescission of gifts due to undue influence. These three doctrines do not easily fit into the familiar categories of restitution. The conferrals of benefits addressed by these seemingly unrelated doctrines can be properly characterized neither as sheer pursuit of self-interest (like the cases discussed in chapter 5) nor as acts of good-samaritanism (like the cases analyzed in chapter 4). As we will see throughout sections A–C, they are better characterized as different aspects of the legal facilitation of relationships of long-term reciprocity. More precisely, this chapter shows how the law of restitution supports the liberal vision of community. By community I refer to “any group of people who share a range of values, a way of life, identify with the group and its practices and recognize each other as members of that group.” In identifying themselves with a community, individuals commit themselves to it: they endorse and promote its projects and regard their own well-being as intimately linked to its flourishing.
Drawing lines: the abortion perplex and the presuppositions of applied ethics.

Consider the odd fact?later I will try to show how very odd it is?that the only popular views about the morality of abortion are also the most ex treme. Philosophical views are no exception; indeed I will argue that this ex tremism has deeply philosophical roots. It follows directly from the in sistence on "drawing a line" dividing persons from non persons. We can't, so the usual arguments go, draw such a line anywhere except at the very beginning or the very end of fetal development. But on the practical level, as most of us know first-hand, that extremism remains problematic: it yields a factious and clumsy casuistry. It is equally difficult?and, surely, equally inhumane?to believe that a conceptus two days old is the moral equivalent of a fully functioning human being and that a fetus just prior to birth is the moral equivalent of a tumor. The division between persons and non per sons, however, is linked in turn with certain others. Not only may the possibility of dividing any concept's denotation from its neighbors' seem to be at stake here; the division between persons and non persons depends more particularly?so I will argue?on the contemporary division in moral theory between moral reasons and other kinds of reasons, and in particular on the division between the moral and the self-interested "points of view." That division in turn I trace back, in part, to the Hobbesian picture of the social world, on which the most fundamental division of all runs between persons and other persons. So one division points beyond itself to others. The critic is launched on a kind of Odyssey through the theoretical presup positions of applied ethics. I propose simply to follow this transit with that "first-hand" casuistical concern in mind. That concern will in time become more ar ticulate; it will lay before us certain difficult questions that are seldom asked; it will also connect with certain critical approaches in moral philosophy and in feminist thought to suggest?although of course only "suggest"?alternative theoretical presuppositions. Finally we will have sketched the background for an alternative casuistry of abortion, which I conclude by briefly outlining. Still, that "application" is not my chief goal here: it is primarily intended to make vivid the systematic contrasts which I shall try to draw out on the level of background assumptions.
The CubeSat: The Picosatellite Standard for Research and Education

The development of the CubeSat standard, a picosatellite standard, has become a tool that encourages engineering collaboration, trains students with real-world satellite experience, and provides technology advancement in the aerospace industry. The Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD), in conjuction with the CubeSat standard, plays a key role in providing access to space for CubeSats. Developing satellites at the CubeSat level highlight the increasing opportunities for access to space while yielding quicker development times. The upcoming launches demonstrate the growing interest of universities, companies, and government organizations to develop CubeSats to perform valuable scientific experiments and missions. The educational benefits of CubeSat development are emphasized by providing an ideal training ground for future scientists and engineers. I. Background
Discharge Planning and Hospital Readmissions.

This study examines the association between the quality of hospital discharge planning and all-cause 30-day readmissions and same-hospital readmissions. The sample included adults aged 18 years and older hospitalized in 16 states in 2010 or 2011 for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, or total hip or joint arthroplasty. Data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems measured discharge-planning quality at the hospital level. A generalized linear mixed model was used to estimate the contribution of patient and hospital characteristics to 30-day all-cause and same-hospital readmissions. Discharge-planning quality was associated with (a) lower rates of 30-day hospital readmissions and (b) higher rates of same-hospital readmissions for heart failure, pneumonia, and total hip or joint replacement. These results suggest that by improving inpatient discharge planning, hospitals may be able to influence their 30-day readmissions and increase the likelihood that re...
Transporting Evidence-Based Therapy for Adolescent Depression to the School Setting.

This paper describes the Adolescent Mood Project (Project AMP), a study transporting an evidence-based, cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for adolescent depression from the university lab setting to a school-based setting. Extant research on the psychosocial treatment of adolescent depression is reviewed and rationale for transporting evidence-based treatments to the school-setting is provided. Project AMP is described, with attention paid to the modifications and adaptations necessary for the transportation of a cognitive-behavioral treatment to the school setting. Project AMP is a hybrid of efficacy and effectiveness research since the treatment is delivered by research therapists within the school setting. This paper describes issues that emerge as steps are taken to transport evidence-based therapies to the school setting. In addition, we outline the obstacles and barriers encountered in school-based treatment research and provide recommendations to overcome these challenges. Finally, we discuss preliminary results of Project AMP and provide suggestions for future directions of school-based treatment research. Language: en
Pregnancy-Associated Bleeding

In no other time during a person’s life is loss of up to 5 % of the circulating blood volume considered “natural” other than at the time of childbirth. Although pregnancy-associated bleeding is often physiologic, hemorrhage is among the leading causes of pregnancy-related death in women worldwide, especially in developing regions of the world. Blood loss during pregnancy can approximate that lost during major trauma and can lead to disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Virtually all organ systems, including the cardiovascular and hematologic systems, are altered during gestation and an understanding of these changes is critical to management of the bleeding gravida. This chapter provides a review of physiologic changes in pregnancy that impact bleeding and hemostasis, risk factors for bleeding during pregnancy and delivery, and key pregnancy-related diagnoses that place women at especially high risk for massive hemorrhage. Additionally, the role of massive transfusion protocols in obstetrical and gynecological care will be discussed.
Thermodynamic and Modeling Study of n-Octane, n-Nonane, and n-Decane Films on MgO(100)

The thermodynamic properties of n-octane, n-nonane, and n-decane adsorbed on the MgO(100) surface were investigated using high-resolution, volumetric adsorption isotherms in the temperature ranges of 225–295, 245–280, and 250–310 K, respectively. Two distinct molecular layers were observed in all isotherms. The heat, differential enthalpy, differential entropy, and isosteric heat of adsorption were determined. The temperature dependence of the two-dimensional compressibility was used to identify that two-phase transitions occur for the first and second layers, respectively. The average area per molecule of 137 ± 5,128 ± 5, and 202 ± 5 A2 for octane, nonane, and decane, respectively, suggests that the carbon backbone is preferentially oriented parallel to the MgO(100) surface. A substantial set of molecular dynamics (MD) temperature and coverage runs for all three molecules using the COMPASS force field were used to calculate both the minimum energy configurations for individual molecules and near-complete...
Biomechanical Comparison of Five Posterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Techniques.

No surgical technique recreates native posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) biomechanics. We compared the biomechanics of five different PCL reconstruction techniques versus the native PCL. Cadaveric knees (n = 20) were randomly assigned to one of five reconstruction techniques: Single bundle all-inside arthroscopic inlay, single bundle all-inside suspensory fixation, single bundle arthroscopic-assisted open onlay (SB-ONL), double bundle arthroscopic-assisted open inlay (DB-INL), and double bundle all-inside suspensory fixation (DB-SUSP). Each specimen was potted and connected to a servo-hydraulic load frame for testing in three conditions: PCL intact, PCL deficient, and PCL reconstructed. Testing consisted of a posterior force up to 100 N at a rate of 1 N/s at four knee flexion angles: 10, 30, 60, and 90 degrees. Three material properties were measured under each condition: load to 5 mm displacement, maximal displacement, and stiffness. Data were normalized to the native PCL, compared across techniques, compared with all PCL-intact knees and to all PCL-deficient knees using one-way analysis of variance. For load to 5 mm displacement, intact knees required significantly (p
Brownian Dynamics Simulations of Magnetic Nanoparticles Captured in Strong Magnetic Field Gradients

The behavior of spherical single-domain magnetic nanoparticles in strong inhomogeneous magnetic fields is investigated through Brownian dynamics simulations, taking into account magnetic dipole–dipole interactions, repulsive hard-core Yukawa potential, hydrodynamic particle-wall interactions, and the mechanism of magnetic dipole rotation in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetic capture process of nanoparticles in prototypical magnetic field gradients generated by a sudden reversal in perpendicular magnetization of a flat substrate (defining a “capture line”) is studied as a function of strength of the magnetic field and volume fraction of the magnetic nanoparticles. Capture curves show a regime where capture follows a power law model and suggest that particles with the Brownian relaxation mechanism are captured at a slightly faster rate than particles with the Neel relaxation mechanism under similar conditions of the field gradient. Additionally, evaluation of the shape of the aggregates of captu...
Cloning, expression and bioactivity of porcine soluble TNF receptor 1 and the comparison of PK(15) and WEHI 164(13)-based TNF bioassays

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that activates both leukocytes and endothelium and facilitates the movement of inflammatory cells from circulation to sites of infection or injury. This activation may be beneficial and aid in host defense, or may be detrimental and mediate part of the pathophysiology of disease. Several porcine diseases, such as salmonellosis and mycoplasmal pneumonia, cause an increase in TNF production, which may be either beneficial or harmful to swine health. Two related studies were completed to develop assays and reagents to further study the role of TNF in porcine disease. In the first smdy, we compared the sensitivity of PK(15) and WEHI 164(13) cells to human, murine and porcine TNF-mediated lysis. Our data indicated that the PK(15) cells are 50 times less sensitive to murine TNF and 15-fold less sensitive to human TNF than are WEHI 164(13) cells. The PK(15) ceils are, however, 4 times more sensitive to recombinant porcine TNF and 15 times more sensitive to porcine serum containing TNF. Because the PK(15)-based bioassay was more sensitive for detecting porcine TNF in serum, this bioassay may be particularly useful in the study of infectious disease processes of swine. In mice and humans, sepsis and endotoxemia are also accompanied by a rise in circulating soluble receptors for TNF. Since there is little known about these receptors during porcine sepsis, the objectives of the second study were to clone, express and determine the bioactivity of porcine soluble TNF receptor 1 (TNFRl). Using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based library enrichment technique, a 927 base pair fragment of porcine TNFRl was isolated from a lung cDNA library. The mature extracellular domain consisting of464 amino acids of porcine TNFRl was expressed as a FLAG fusion protein in Escherichia coli. An antiFLAG affinity column was used to purify the fusion protein. The purified protein at a concentration of 5 |ig/ml neutralized 70% of TNF-mediated cytotoxicity in a bioassay. Recombinant porcine soluble TNFRl protein and the PK(15) based bioassay may be useful in smdying die roles of boda TNF and TNFRl in the pathogenesis of infectious disease of swine.
Show Me Your App Usage and I Will Tell Who Your Close Friends Are: Predicting User's Context from Simple Cellphone Activity

Personal interactions using cell phones are so embedded in our everyday lives that they go almost unnoticed. We may try to protect ourselves from releasing sensitive information by increasing privacy protections, but how much can be inferred from our most basic phone usage? Using a large-scale annotated dataset of cell phone usage, we build a predictor to determine location context (home, work, commute) and social relationships (with close friend, with family) based on the clock of the phone and sequences of apps executed. Surprisingly, we show that just using this basic information we can accurately predict whether someone is at home, at work, and/or with close friends, family. We note that this is almost inevitable because it only depends on using the phone and not the privacy settings. Our results suggest that our relationship with technology gives away more than we might suspect. This presents opportunities and challenges discussed in this paper.
Empowering the 99%...One ESOP at a Time

This research project focuses on how ESOPs can accomplish successful acquisitions. Most successful ESOPs implement various types of progressive management strategies including open book management and open door communication policies and procedures. These practices of active employee engagement and participation enhance productivity and profitability because employees are also personally empowered to improve company performance. Somewhat of a mystery is the question of why there are not more ESOPs, and if their numbers are to increase, it can only occur through two methods: 1. Employees purchase the company from an owner 2. Other companies are acquired by an existing ESOP This study focuses on the second option and researches the following questions: 1. How does an ESOP company accomplish a successful acquisition? 2. What, if any, organizational behavior patterns are associated with this process? The investigation used an open ended research methodology interviewing thirty ESOP executives, whose companies...
THE OPPORTUNITY COST(S) OF EMPLOYMENT AND SEARCH INTENSITY

The flow utility of unemployment plays a crucial role in labor search and matching models. Recent evidence by Chodorow-Reich and Karabarbounis suggests that the flow utility is high on average, volatile, and strongly procyclical. Taken together, these facts imply that labor search and matching models perform worse than prevailing conventional wisdom. In contrast, we build a model where unemployed workers choose between home production and job search. Procyclical job search implies that the effective unemployment benefit is countercyclical. Our results suggest that omitting endogenous search will upwardly bias the measured correlation between effective unemployment benefits and productivity.
The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project H-Series climate data record product

Abstract. This paper describes the new global long-term International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) H-series climate data record (CDR). The H-series data contain a suite of level 2 and 3 products for monitoring the distribution and variation of cloud and surface properties to better understand the effects of clouds on climate, the radiation budget, and the global hydrologic cycle. This product is currently available for public use and is derived from both geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite imaging radiometers with common visible and infrared (IR) channels. The H-series data currently span July 1983 to December 2009 with plans for continued production to extend the record to the present with regular updates. The H-series data are the longest combined geostationary and polar orbiter satellite-based CDR of cloud properties. Access to the data is provided in network common data form (netCDF) and archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) under the satellite Climate Data Record Program ( https://doi.org/10.7289/V5QZ281S ). The basic characteristics, history, and evolution of the dataset are presented herein with particular emphasis on and discussion of product changes between the H-series and the widely used predecessor D-series product which also spans from July 1983 through December 2009. Key refinements included in the ISCCP H-series CDR are based on improved quality control measures, modified ancillary inputs, higher spatial resolution input and output products, calibration refinements, and updated documentation and metadata to bring the H-series product into compliance with existing standards for climate data records.
Bayesian Hyperparameter Optimization for Machine Learning Based eQTL Analysis

Machine learning methods are being applied to a wide range of problems in biology and bioinformatics. These methods often rely on configuring high level parameters, or hyperparameters, such as regularization hyperparameters in sparse learning models like graph-guided multitask Lasso methods. Different choices for these hyperparameters will lead to different results, which makes finding good hyperparameter combinations an important task when using these hyperparameter dependent methods. There are several different ways to tune hyperparameters including manual tuning, grid search, random search, and Bayesian optimization. In this paper, we apply three hyperparameter tuning strategies to eQTL analysis including grid and random search in addition to Bayesian optimization. Experiments show that the Bayesian optimization strategy outperforms the other strategies in modeling eQTL associations. Applying this strategy to assess eQTL associations using the 1000 Genomes structural variation genotypes and RNAseq data in gEUVADIS, we identify a set of new SVs associated with gene expression changes in a human population.
Activation product analysis in a mixed sample containing both fission and neutron activation products

This work describes a radiochemical separation procedure for the determination of gold (Au), platinum (Pt), tantalum (Ta), and tungsten (W) activation in the presence of fission products. Chemical separations result in a reduction in the minimum detectable activity by a factor of 287, 207, 141, and 471 for 182Ta, 187W, 197Pt, and 198Au respectively, with greater than 90% recovery for all elements. These results represent the highest recoveries and lowest minimum detectable activities for 182Ta, 187W, 197Pt, and 198Au from mixed fission-activation product samples to date, enabling considerable refinement in the measurement uncertainties for neutron fluences in highly complex sample matrices.
Gonadotropins and Testicular Function in Aging

Unlike women, who have an abrupt decline of ovarian function associated with well-defined symptoms at menopause, aging men have a slow and progressive dysfunction of the hypothalamic–pituitary–testis axis, resulting in low serum testosterone concentrations and clinical symptoms of the andropause.
Calcium and proton activities in rat cardiac mitochondria. Effect of matrix environment on behaviour of fluorescent probes.

The ionic composition of the mitochondrial matrix, under both physiological and pathophysiological conditions, remains controversial. Although fura-2 and 2',7'-bis-(2-carboxyethyl)-5(6)-carboxyfluorescein (BCECF), fluorescent probes for [Ca2+] and [H+] respectively, have successfully been loaded into mitochondria [Lukacs & Kapus (1987) Biochem. J. 248, 609-613; Davis, Altschuld, Jung & Brierley (1987) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 49, 40-45], the adaptation of fluorescence-ratio spectroscopy to the study of the matrix ion content poses unique problems. In this report, we describe a method for successfully attaching viable rat cardiac mitochondria to glass coverslips, allowing continuous superfusion of isolated organelles during fluorescence microscopy. This technique obviated the need to correct for the accumulation of ion-sensitive and -insensitive fluorescent species of dye both within the matrix and outside of mitochondria in suspension in a cuvette, a particular problem with fura-2. By using this technique for superfusion of immobilized mitochondria, we found the pKa of BCECF for H+ at 25 degrees C shifted from 6.8 in buffer to 7.2 in rat cardiac mitochondria, with a marked hysteresis effect noted for intramitochondrial BCECF calibration curves. At higher pH, photobleaching of BCECF was enhanced. The dissociation constant (Kd) of fura-2 for Ca2+ was found to be 315 nM at 25 degrees C, pH 8.0, but only at [Ca2+] below 1 microM. At matrix [Ca2+] greater than 1 microM, the Kd shifted into the micromolar range, an effect that appeared to be pH-dependent. Importantly, the matrix [Ca2+] was determined to be between 10 and 100 nM at perfusion buffer [Ca2+] below 500 nM, but rose rapidly at the higher extramitochondrial [Ca2+] reported to occur in ischaemic cardiac myocytes. Importantly, mitochondrial transmembrane H+ and Ca2+ gradients both appeared to be maximal at perfusion buffer [H+] and [Ca2+] that approximate those of the cytosol of many resting cells.
An Algorithm for Trajectory Generation in Redundant Manipulators with Joint Transmission Accommodation

Trajectory generation for manipulators involves generating incremental updates of joint variables to achieve a desired end–effector motion. The Jacobian matrix maps incremental joint motion to incremental end–effector motion in a linear fashion and is typically used in manipulator trajectory generation algorithms. In the case of a redundant manipulator, the Jacobian matrix is not square or invertible and therefore algorithms based on pseudoinverses and their variations are commonly used for trajectory generation. These methods either are computationally not efficient or do not utilize all the joints in motion generation and therefore do not completely exploit the redundancy of the manipulator. The method presented in this paper is a simple method that maximizes transmission of all joint variables onto a desired end–effector motion trajectory. The method is based on aligning the null–space of an augmented Jacobian matrix with the path of the desired end–effector motion, from which a linear combination of joints that projects fully onto the desired end–effector trajectory is obtained. In this manner, all joints of the redundant manipulator are used to generate the end–effector trajectory accommodating the ability of each joint in terms of its motion transmission.
Prevention of community-acquired pneumonia

Preventive measures against CAP are important yet underused. Cost-effective preventive measures against CAP include influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, especially in patients over the age of 65 and other high-risk groups. There are now two antiviral agents, amantadine and rimantadine, that can be used both for prophylaxis and for therapy of influenza A virus infections to decrease the morbidity and mortality of this major predisposer of CAP. Because of fewer side effects, rimantadine should be considered the drug of choice. In selected cases (chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, and asplenic patients with poor vaccine response), the early use of antibiotics or prolonged use during winter months may decrease the incidence of lower respiratory infections. Use of monthly gamma globulin infusions in total or selective gamma globulin IgG-deficient patients may be beneficial in reducing the incidence of CAP in selected populations.
Skalierung und Kodierung

The collected data must be encoded for the analysis with statistical computer software. The encoding should be numerical. Depending on the numerical data it can be distinguished between categorical and continuous variables. The categorical variables are divided into the nominal and ordinal variables. The continuous variable is divided into interval and ratio variables. Depending on the scaling of the variables different statistical tests are used. Therefore starting from the beginning of a study design, attention should be paid to the determination of the variable-coding. Insufficient or incorrect data cannot be corrected by sophisticated statistical analysis. Therefore, the data should be completed as best as possible. If there are still missing data it can be handled as following: Accept the missing value and perform the analysis without the value; exclude the patient from the analysis; or replace the missing data with a mean value. A meeting with a statistician is also advisable.
DNA damage and its processing with aging: Human premature aging syndromes as model systems

Publisher Summary Living organisms are constantly exposed to oxidative stress from environmental agents and from endogenous metabolic processes. The resulting oxidative modifications occur in proteins, lipids, and DNA. Many different DNA base changes have been seen following oxidative stress, and these lesions are widely considered as instigators for the development of cancer, aging, and neurological degradation. There are over 100 oxidative base modifications in DNA and one of these is 8-hydroxyguanosine (8-oxoG), which is the lesion that has been most widely studied. Oxidative DNA damage is thought to contribute to carcinogenesis, and studies have shown that oxidative DNA damage accumulates in cancerous tissue. There is evidence for the accumulation of oxidative DNA damage with age, based on studies mainly measuring the increase in 8-oxoG. Human premature aging syndromes are rare disorders where the patients exhibit many of the features of normal aging at an early stage in life. These conditions are also termed “segmental progerias,” indicating that several, but not all of the symptoms, reflect the normal aging process. They are natural human mutants and serve as good model systems for molecular aging research. Two of these conditions are the progeroid disorders: Cockayne syndrome (CS) and Werner syndrome (WS), which share several clinical features that are associated with normal aging.
Authoring Self: GED Students Transforming Their Identities in a Composition Makerspace:

In this case study, I examine the ways adult learners improve skills and practices around communication, problem-solving, motivation, self-esteem, and technology through engagement in a makerspace ...
Drone profiling through wireless fingerprinting

To better address the growing threats of small commercial Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), we developed novel methods to identify specific types of drone models by building their wireless communication profiles with machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we present a basic framework for identifying unique features and discuss basic methods for several drone models. The results based on our proposed methods demonstrate their effectiveness. We continue to collect experimental results involving several popular drones and investigate more features to enhance the accuracy of our methods. We also outline our future work involving additional drone models and further methods used to improve identification accuracy.