cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Feeding rapidly stimulates protein synthesis in skeletal muscle of neonatal pigs by enhancing translation initiation

Food consumption increases protein synthesis in most tissues by promoting translation initiation, and in the neonate, this increase is greatest in skeletal muscle. In this study, we aimed to identify the currently unknown time course of changes in the rate of protein synthesis and the activation of factors involved in translation in neonatal muscle after a meal. After overnight food deprivation, 36 5- to 7-d-old piglets were administered a nutritionally complete bolus i.g. meal and were killed immediately before or 30, 60, 90, 120, or 240 min later. The increase in skeletal muscle protein synthesis peaked 30 min after the meal and this was sustained through 120 min, returning to baseline thereafter. The relative proportion of polysomes to nonpolysomes was higher only after 30 min. Protein kinase B phosphorylation peaked 30 min after feeding and returned to baseline by 90 min. The phosphorylation of mammalian target of rapamycin, eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4E binding protein (4E-BP1), ribosomal protein S6, and eIF4G was increased within 30 min of feeding and persisted through 120 min, but all had returned to baseline by 240 min. The association of 4E-BP1.eIF4E was reduced and eIF4E.eIF4G increased 30 min after receiving a meal, remaining so for 120 min, before returning to baseline at 240 min. Thus, in neonates, food consumption rapidly increased skeletal muscle protein synthesis by enhancing translation initiation and this increase was sustained for at least 120 min after the meal but returned to baseline by 240 min after the feeding.
Review of Signaling Pathways Governing MSC Osteogenic and Adipogenic Differentiation.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent cells, functioning as precursors to a variety of cell types including adipocytes, osteoblasts, and chondrocytes. Between osteogenic and adipogenic lineage commitment and differentiation, a theoretical inverse relationship exists, such that differentiation towards an osteoblast phenotype occurs at the expense of an adipocytic phenotype. This balance is regulated by numerous, intersecting signaling pathways that converge on the regulation of two main transcription factors: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) and Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2). These two transcription factors, PPARγ and Runx2, are generally regarded as the master regulators of adipogenesis and osteogenesis. This review will summarize signaling pathways that govern MSC fate towards osteogenic or adipocytic differentiation. A number of signaling pathways follow the inverse balance between osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation and are generally proosteogenic/antiadipogenic stimuli. These include β-catenin dependent Wnt signaling, Hedgehog signaling, and NELL-1 signaling. However, other signaling pathways exhibit more context-dependent effects on adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation. These include bone morphogenic protein (BMP) signaling and insulin growth factor (IGF) signaling, which display both proosteogenic and proadipogenic effects. In summary, understanding those factors that govern osteogenic versus adipogenic MSC differentiation has significant implications in diverse areas of human health, from obesity to osteoporosis to regenerative medicine.
Integrated Mobile and Static Sensing for Target Tracking

Networks of low-power, low-cost, and widely distributed wireless sensor nodes are being envisioned and developed for many military applications including surveillance and localization. However, due to energy and communication constraints, combinations of static nodes (such as unattended ground sensors (UGS)) and mobile nodes (such as robotic ground vehicles (RGV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)) are being used to expand or fill in coverage areas and reduce energy costs. A multi-chaser target tracking scenario is developed where mobile nodes, or chasers, use information provided by static nodes to infer the position of an intruder in the sensor grid. In large-scale sensor networks with mobile access, the communication range of static nodes may be limited by terrain and signal transmission energy. A drop-box static sensor architecture is developed to aid data propagation in such limited range networks. Chasers will "drop off" previously collected information about the target and retrieve new information stored in the static sensors. An algorithm is presented which takes advantage of this particular architecture. It is used to demonstrate that the drop-box nature of the static nodes improves performance.
Involvement of 5-lipoxygenase activating protein in the amyloidotic phenotype of an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model

Background The 5-lipoxygenase enzyme is widely distributed within the central nervous system and its activity is regulated by the presence and availability of another protein, called 5-lipoxygenase activating protein. While previous works have shown that 5-lipoxygenase is involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, no data are available on the role that 5-lipoxygenase activating protein plays in Alzheimer’s disease.
Defective removal of DNA cross-links in a repair-deficient mutant of Chinese hamster cells.

To further understand the relationships between DNA damage, DNA repair, and cellular end points such as survival and mutation, the repair capacity of a DNA repair-deficient mutant (strain UV-20) of Chinese hamster ovary cells was characterized in response to DNA cross-linking agents. This mutant, previously shown to be hypersensitive to killing by both ultraviolet light and the cross-linking agent mitomycin C, was also found to be extremely sensitive to cis -diamminedichloroplatinum, another DNA cross-linking agent. The efficiency of DNA cross-link removal after treatment with mitomycin C or cis -diamminedichloroplatinum was measured using the technique of alkaline elution and compared in wild-type Chinese hamster ovary cells and strain UV-20. Wild-type cells removed 80 or 95% of the cross-links within 24 hr after treatment with cis -diamminedichloroplatinum or mitomycin C, respectively. In contrast, UV-20 cells, which were equally as susceptible to cross-link damage as were wild-type cells, removed only a small proportion of the cross-links made by either agent. These results emphasize the importance of DNA repair processes in modulating the cytotoxic effects of chemicals that produce DNA cross-link damage and suggest that cross-link repair in Chinese hamster ovary cells is controlled by a pathway that also repairs damage from ultraviolet radiation.
Toward Far-Field Sub-Diffraction-Limited CARS Microscopy via Molecular Coherence Driven by a Short-Pulse Sequence

We use timed femtosecond laser pulses to demonstrate effective doubling of spatial resolution with which Raman coherence is prepared, and discuss implications for CARS microscopy, with potential extensions to far-field imaging not limited by diffraction.
ATP and Sulfonylurea Linkage in the KATP Channel Solves a Diabetes Puzzler

At 30,000 feet, ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels are seen coupling the metabolic status of the cell to its electrical excitability. But down at the molecular level of the β-cell, there is a lot more coupling going on in exactly how the KATP channel does this. Coupling is developed in the conceptual framework of linkage (1), which thermodynamically quantifies how conformational states of high and low affinity in regulatory ligand binding sites reciprocally link with additional sites, and active and inactive conformations of proteins. It is also at the heart of a molecular medicine puzzler with a satisfying solution originating from a study by Proks et al. (2) reported in this issue. The main gate of the KATP channel opens and shuts to regulate β-cell electrical excitability and insulin secretion. Only a small number of the channels need be open for outflow of potassium ions to keep the β-cell electrically at rest, thus preventing insulin secretion. In a high glucose setting, however, β-cell metabolism generates ATP at the expense of ADP, which effectively shuts all KATP channels to stop potassium ion outflow. This leads to activation of voltage-dependent calcium channels and calcium influx, which triggers secretory granule exocytosis mediating insulin secretion. Regulatory ligand binding sites link the main gate of the KATP channel to glucose metabolism via ATP, MgATP, and MgADP (3). The β-cell KATP channel is a hetero-octameric protein of four inner pore-forming Kir6.2 and four outer sulfonylurea receptor 1 (SUR1) subunits (Fig. 1). The gate is formed by concerted action of all four Kir6.2 subunits (4). Each Kir6.2 subunit also has an independent ATP site whose occupancy effectively can shut the gate and can keep it shut (5), referred to as inhibition. Pharmacological ligands also inhibit the KATP channel. Each SUR1 subunit …
Remarks on Two Nonstandard Versions of Periodicity in Words

In this paper, we study some periodicity concepts on words. First, we extend the notion of full tilings which was recently introduced by Karhumaki, Lifshits, and Rytter to partial tilings. Second, we investigate the notion of quasiperiods and show in particular that the set of quasiperiodic words is a context-sensitive language that is not context-free, answering a conjecture by Domosi, Horvath and Ito.
Reconstructing cancer genomes from paired-end sequencing data

A cancer genome is derived from the germline genome through a series of somatic mutations. Somatic structural variants - including duplications, deletions, inversions, translocations, and other rearrangements - result in a cancer genome that is a scrambling of intervals, or "blocks" of the germline genome sequence. We present an efficient algorithm for reconstructing the block organization of a cancer genome from paired-end DNA sequencing data. By aligning paired reads from a cancer genome - and a matched germline genome, if available - to the human reference genome, we derive: (i) a partition of the reference genome into intervals; (ii) adjacencies between these intervals in the cancer genome; (iii) an estimated copy number for each interval. We formulate the Copy Number and Adjacency Genome Reconstruction Problem of determining the cancer genome as a sequence of the derived intervals that is consistent with the measured adjacencies and copy numbers. We design an efficient algorithm, called P aired-end Re construction of G enome O rganization (PREGO), to solve this problem by reducing it to an optimization problem on an interval-adjacency graph constructed from the data. The solution to the optimization problem results in an Eulerian graph, containing an alternating Eulerian tour that corresponds to a cancer genome that is consistent with the sequencing data. We apply our algorithm to five ovarian cancer genomes that were sequenced as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas. We identify numerous rearrangements, or structural variants, in these genomes, analyze reciprocal vs. non-reciprocal rearrangements, and identify rearrangements consistent with known mechanisms of duplication such as tandem duplications and breakage/fusion/bridge (B/F/B) cycles. We demonstrate that PREGO efficiently identifies complex and biologically relevant rearrangements in cancer genome sequencing data. An implementation of the PREGO algorithm is available at http://compbio.cs.brown.edu/software/ .
Metabolomic profiling of regulatory lipid mediators in sputum from adult cystic fibrosis patients

Retained respiratory tract (RT) secretions, infection, and exuberant inflammatory responses are core abnormalities in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Factors contributing to the destructive CF airway inflammatory processes remain incompletely characterized. The pro-oxidative inflammatory CF RT milieu is known to contain enzymatically and nonenzymatically produced regulatory lipid mediators, a panel of structurally defined oxidized metabolites of polyunsaturated fatty acids known to play a role in pathology related to inflammation. Using an extraction protocol that maximizes recoveries of sputum-spiked deuterated standards, coupled with an LC/MS/MS detection system, this study presents a metabolomic method to assess a broad spectrum of regulatory lipid mediators in freshly obtained sputum from CF patients. A broad range of both proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory lipid mediators was detected, including PGE2, PGD2, TXB2, LTB4, 6-trans-LTB4, 20-OH-LTB4, 20-COOH-LTB4, 20-HETE, 15-HETE, 11-HETE, 12-HETE, 8-HETE, 9-HETE, 5-HETE, EpETrEs, diols, resolvin E1, 15-deoxy-PGJ2, and LXA4. The vast majority of these oxylipins have not been reported previously in CF RT secretions. Whereas direct associations of individual proinflammatory lipid mediators with compromised lung function (FEV-1) were observed, the relationships were not robust. However, multiple statistical analyses revealed that the regulatory lipid mediators profile taken in aggregate proved to have a stronger association with lung function in relatively stable outpatient adult CF patients. Our data reveal a relative paucity of the anti-inflammatory lipid mediator lipoxin A4 in CF sputum. Patients displaying detectable levels of the anti-inflammatory lipid mediator resolvin E1 demonstrated a better lung function compared to those patients with undetectable levels. Our data suggest that comprehensive metabolomic profiling of regulatory lipid mediators in CF sputum should contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying CF RT inflammatory pathobiology. Further studies are required to determine the extent to which nutritional or pharmacological interventions alter the regulatory lipid mediators profile of the CF RT and the impact of potential modulations of RT regulatory lipid mediators on the clinical progression of CF lung disease.
Phylogenetic and Physiological Diversity of Microorganisms Isolated from a Deep Greenland Glacier Ice Core

We studied a sample from the GISP 2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project) ice core to determine the diversity and survival of microorganisms trapped in the ice at least 120,000 years ago. Previously, we examined the phylogenetic relationships among 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences in a clone library obtained by PCR amplification from genomic DNA extracted from anaerobic enrichments. Here we report the isolation of nearly 800 aerobic organisms that were grouped by morphology and amplified rDNA restriction analysis patterns to select isolates for further study. The phylogenetic analyses of 56 representative rDNA sequences showed that the isolates belonged to four major phylogenetic groups: the high-G+C gram-positives, low-G+C gram-positives, Proteobacteria, and the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides group. The most abundant and diverse isolates were within the high-G+C gram-positive cluster that had not been represented in the clone library. The Jukes-Cantor evolutionary distance matrix results suggested that at least 7 isolates represent new species within characterized genera and that 49 are different strains of known species. The isolates were further categorized based on the isolation conditions, temperature range for growth, enzyme activity, antibiotic resistance, presence of plasmids, and strain-specific genomic variations. A significant observation with implications for the development of novel and more effective cultivation methods was that preliminary incubation in anaerobic and aerobic liquid prior to plating on agar media greatly increased the recovery of CFU from the ice core sample.
Dietary Calcium Negatively Affects the Size of a Status Signal in Juvenile Male House Sparrows (Passer domesticus)

ABSTRACT. The production of some types of signals is often assumed to be cost-free, yet we know relatively little about the factors that affect signal development. In birds, many plumage signals are produced by the pigment melanin being deposited into growing feathers. Birds synthesize melanin in a complex pathway involving many potentially limiting resources, one of which may be dietary calcium. We tested the effect of dietary calcium on the development of the black throat patch (bib) of juvenile male House Sparrows (Passer domesticus). Subjects were maintained throughout their molt on artificial diets containing either a low, medium, or high level of calcium, or a bicarbonate control diet with a low level of calcium but an acid—base balance equivalent to that of the high-calcium diet. Dietary calcium affected the size of the bib, but not in the predicted direction: birds on the low-calcium diet produced the largest bibs. Birds on the bicarbonate control diet produced bibs intermediate in size that were ...
DNA polymerase and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase activity of normal and bacteria-free crown gall tumor tissue cultures of tobacco

Abstract About 80 % of the DNA polymerase activity, extractable with buffer [0.05 M Tris-HC1 (pH 8.0), 0.001 M MgCl2, 0.01 M β-mercaptoethanol, 0.25 M sucrose] from normal and bacteria-free crown gall tumor tissue cultures of tobacco, was found in the 37 000 × g supernatant. This DNA polymerase, which utilized as a template denatured calf thymus DNA more efficiently than native DNA, was 10 times higher in tumor than in normal tissue. Only limited polymerization (10 % for normal and 2 % for tumor, compared to the complete mixture) was found when dATP, dCTP and dGTP were omitted. Chromatin was a poor template for endogenous DNA polymerase but a relatively better primer for endogenous terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase activity. DNA polymerase activity of the chromatin as assayed in the presence of denatured calf thymus DNA was 30-fold higher in tumor than in normal tissue. On the other hand, the terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase activity (assayed in the presence of denatured DNA) of normal tissue chromatin was twice that of tumor tissue.
Evaluation of common gene expression patterns in the rat nervous system

In the postgenomic era, integrating data obtained from array technologies (e.g., oligonucleotide microarrays) with published information on eukaryotic genomes is beginning to yield biomarkers and therapeutic targets that are key for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nevertheless, identifying and validating these drug targets has not been a trivial task. Although a plethora of bioinformatics tools and databases are available, major bottlenecks for this approach reside in the interpretation of vast amounts of data, its integration into biologically representative models, and ultimately the identification of pathophysiologically and therapeutically useful information. In the field of neuroscience, accomplishing these goals has been particularly challenging because of the complex nature of nerve tissue, the relatively small adaptive nature of induced-gene expression changes, as well as the polygenic etiology of most neuropsychiatric diseases. This report combines published data sets from multiple transcript profiling studies that used GeneChip microarrays to illustrate a postanalysis approach for the interpretation of data from neuroscience microarray studies. By defining common gene expression patterns triggered by diverse events (administration of psychoactive drugs and trauma) in different nerve tissues (telencephalic brain areas and spinal cord), we broaden the conclusions derived from each of the original studies. In addition, the evaluation of the identified overlapping gene lists provides a foundation for generating hypotheses relating alterations in specific sets of genes to common physiological processes. Our approach demonstrates the significance of interpreting transcript profiling data within the context of common pathways and mechanisms rather than specific to a given tissue or stimulus. We also highlight the use of gene expression patterns in predictive biology (e.g., in toxicogenomics) as well as the utility of combining data derived from multiple microarray studies that examine diverse biological events for a broader interpretation of data from a particular microarray study.
On the origin of impact glass in the Apollo 16 regolith

This study addresses the issue of what fraction of the impact glass in the regolith of a lunar landing site derives from local impacts (those within a few kilometers of the site) as opposed to distant impacts (10 or more kilometers away). Among 10,323 fragments from the 64–210-lm grain-size fraction of three Apollo 16 regolith samples, 14% are impact glasses, that is, fragments consisting wholly or largely of glass produced in a crater-forming impact. Another 16% are agglutinates formed by impacts of micrometeorites into regolith. We analyzed the glass in 1559 fragments for major- and minor-element concentrations by electron probe microanalysis and a subset of 112 of the fragments that are homogeneous impact glasses for trace elements by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Of the impact glasses, 75% are substantially different in composition from either the Apollo 16 regolith or any mixture of rocks of which the regolith is mainly composed. About 40% of the impact glasses are richer in Fe, Mg, and Ti, as well as K, P, and Sm, than are common rocks of the feldspathic highlands. These glasses must originate from craters in maria or the Procellarum KREEP Terrane. Of the feldspathic impact glasses, some are substantially more magnesian (greater MgO/FeO) or have substantially lower concentrations of incompatible elements than the regolith of the Apollo 16 site. Many of these, however, are in the range of feldspathic lunar meteorites, most of which derive from points in the feldspathic highlands distant from the Procellarum KREEP Terrane. These observations indicate that a significant proportion of the impact glass in the Apollo 16 regolith is from craters occurring 100 km or more from the landing site. In contrast, the composition of glass in agglutinates, on average, is similar to the composition of the Apollo 16 regolith, consistent with local origin. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
COTS integration: plug and pray?

For most software applications, the use of commercial off-the-shelf products has become an economic necessity. Gone are the days when upsized industry and government information technology organizations had the luxury of trying to develop-and, at greater expense, maintain their own database, network, and user-interface management infrastructure. Viable COTS products are climbing up the protocol stack, from infrastructure into applications solutions in such areas as office and management support, electronic commerce, finance, logistics, manufacturing, law and medicine. For small and large commercial companies, time-to-market pressures also exert a strong pressure toward COTS-based solutions. However, most organizations have also found that COTS gains are accompanied by frustrating COTS pains. The paper summarizes experience on the relative advantages and disadvantages of COTS solutions.
Radiocarbon Ages and Environments of Deposition of the Wono and Trego Hot Springs Tephra Layers in the Pyramid Lake Subbasin, Nevada

Uncalibrated radiocarbon data from core PLC92B taken from Wizards Cove in the Pyramid Lake subbasin indicate that the Trego Hot Springs and Wono tephra layers were deposited 23,200 ± 300 and 27,300 ± 30014C yr B.P. (uncorrected for reservoir effect). Sedimentological data from sites in the Pyramid Lake and Smoke Creek–Black Rock Desert subbasins indicate that the Trego Hot Springs tephra layer was deposited during a relatively dry period when Pyramid Lake was at or below its spill point (1177 m) to the Winnemucca Lake subbasin. The Wono tephra layer was deposited when lake depth was controlled by spill across Emerson Pass sill (1207 m) to the Smoke Creek–Black Rock Desert subbasin.18O data from core PLC92B also support the concept that the Trego Hot Springs tephra fell into a relatively shallow Pyramid Lake and that the Wono tephra fell into a deeper spilling lake.
Gene manipulated peritoneal cell patch repairs infarcted myocardium

A gene manipulated cell patch using a homologous peritoneum substrate was developed and applied after myocardial infarction to repair scarred myocardium. We genetically engineered male rat mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) using adenoviral transduction to over-express CXCR4/green fluorescent protein (GFP) (MSCCXCR4) or MSCNull or siRNA targeting CXCR4 (MSCsiRNA). Gene expression was studied by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cells were cultured on excised peritoneum for 9 days. Two weeks after left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery ligation in female hearts, the peritoneum patch was applied over the scarred myocardium, cell side down. Efficacy of engraftment was determined by presence of GFP positive cells. One month after cell implantation, echocardiography was performed and hearts were harvested for histological analysis. Left ventricle (LV) fibrosis, LV anterior wall thickness (AWT) and blood vessel density at the margins of the graft were measured. There was significant up-regulation of the chemokines in the MSCCXCR4 group cultured under normoxic conditions when compared to the MSCNull group and a further increase was observed after exposure to hypoxia. One month after cell transplantation with the peritoneum patch, substantial numbers of GFP-positive cells were observed in and around the infarcted myocardium in MSCCXCR4 group. LV AWT, LV fibrosis and LV function were significantly improved in the MSCCXCR4 group as compared to these same variables in the MSCNull control. These salutary effects were absent in MSCsiRNA group. The gene manipulated MSC-seeded peritoneum patch promotes tissue nutrition (angiogenesis), reduces myocardial remodeling, and enhances heart function after myocardial infarction.
Discussion: Toward a social‐constructivist view of the psychoanalytic situation

The three papers by Modell, Aron, and Greenberg are discussed in terms of their relationship to a new paradigm for understanding the psychoanalytic situation. The paradigm is called social‐construct‐ivist to capture both the idea of the analyst's participation and the idea of construction of meaning. It is argued that these theorists, as well as many of the authors they cite as part of a broad movement in the field, do not consistently meet the criteria for this paradigm, although they seem to be aiming for it. An important source of inconsistency and confusion derives from the confounding of the two axes: drive‐relational and positivist‐constructivist. Many relational theorists who hold fast to the idea that analysts can grasp the truth of both their own experience and that of the patient are no closer to the constructivist point of view than was Freud. The call by Aron and Greenberg for greater attention to the patient's resisted experience of the analyst's subjectivity is discussed in terms of its pote...
Parallel converter systems with maximum current limit control scheme for reliability improvement

A control strategy for improving parallel converter system reliability is proposed. This control combines the central-limit control with a maximum current limit and a fault-tolerance control feature to increase the degree of converter redundancy. This schedule assumes that the system consists of converter modules (CMs) operated in a continuous conduction mode, a current reference generator, and a system controller. There is no interconnection between CMs. Also, because each individual CM is directly controlled by the system controller, its failure can be detected and approximate correction actions can be given subsequently. Moreover, the proposed scheme is capable of determining a required number of CMs in the active state for any load condition. Thus, the degree of redundancy in the system is increased significantly. Only a few converters are activated at light loads. Therefore, the number of spare CMs increases virtually and the overall system reliability and performance is increased. The comparison between the proposed and conventional approaches on the aspects of system reliability is presented. In this comparison, the merit of the proposed control strategy in improving system reliability is highlighted. >
Developing and Implementing an Assessment Technique to Measure Linked Concepts.

The links students make among chemistry content is considered essential for a robust, enduring understanding in multiple learning theories. This article describes the development and implementation of an assessment technique, termed a Measure of Linked Concepts, designed to inform instructors on students’ understanding of linking content throughout General Chemistry. Student performance on the assessment technique has provided unique insights relevant for instruction. For example, a substantial proportion of students could not identify when a model was used beyond its intended limit or show proficiency in tasks that the course assumed was prior knowledge. The use of these assessments also provides a means for instruction to show the relevance for topics such as periodic trends or ionic/molecular classification in a variety of subsequent topics throughout the course.
TSV Interposers With Embedded Microchannels for 3D IC and LED Integration

A low-cost (with bare chips), high cooling ability and very low pressure drop 3D IC integration system-in-package (SiP) is designed and described. This system consists of a silicon interposer with through-silicon vias (TSV) and embedded fluidic microchannels, which carries all the Moore’s law chips and optical devices on its top and bottom surfaces. TSVs in the Moore’s law chips are optional but should be avoided. This novel structural design offers potential solutions for high-power, high-performance, high pin-count, ultra fine-pitch, small real-estate, and low-cost 3D IC SiP applications.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Some Fundamental Objections to Mandatory A B C Grades

THE OBJECTIONS to mandatory A B C grade labeling of consumer goods are so diversified and come from so many different sources that it is doubtful whether any one person can summarize them adequately. Certainly we can scarcely expect an adequate summary from writers who state the arguments against A B C grade labeling in order to refute them. A recent article in the JOURNAL OF MARKETING1 omitted or slighted some of the most fundamental objections. It is the purpose of this article to supplement that discussion by offering some of these objections from the viewpoint of a writer who believes the objections are valid. In judging proposed changes in marketing methods most teachers of marketing regard the effects on consumers as of prime importance.2 Nevertheless, the effect on producers and middlemen cannot be ignored entirely. Indeed, it has become increasingly apparent in the past two years that measures which impose intolerable burdens upon producers and middlemen may react to the detriment of the consuming public for whose benefit the measures were intended. To the superficial observer it may seem that the addition of official symbols signifying quality involves no radi-
An Embedded Atom Model of Epitaxy in Ni-Au and Ni-Pt Bicrystals

The embedded atom model was utilized to study the atomic displacements and the energy of (111) interfaces in Ni-Au and Ni-Pt bicrystals. A sphere of 459 atoms was utilized with the Ni (111) surface as a great circle through the crystal. The Au or Pt atoms were initially placed in perfect registry with the Ni atoms and then the crystal was allowed to relax to equilibrium positions. Shockley partial dislocations formed at the interface. The elastic strains were not in agreement with classical elasticity calculations. The simulation shows that it is easier to pull atoms apart than to push them together; and thus the larger gold lattice was strained less than the smaller nickel lattice even though the elastic modulus of nickel is greater than that of gold. The Ni and Pt crystals exhibited strong bonding at the interface; whereas, the Ni and Au crystals exhibited little evidence of interface bonding. This result is in agreement with alloy heats of solution and the phase diagrams of these alloys.
Do bio-physical attributes of steps and pools differ in high-gradient mountain streams?

The hydrologic and physical structure of streams strongly influences the biological composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Research on step–pool systems in high-gradient streams has focused primarily on physical processes rather than on ecological characteristics. This study examined both the biological and physical attributes of 27 step–pool sequences in three steep mountain streams of the Smith River Basin in northern California, USA. Multivariate analysis using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) found a biological separation of step and pool sites (based on benthic macroinvertebrate data) in all three study watersheds. Step habitats had greater taxa richness, diversity, %Plecoptera, %Heptageniidae, %Nemouridae, and %clingers compared to pools. Steps also differed from pools in physical characteristics such as grain size distribution, whereby steps were dominated by boulders compared to pools characterized by gravel and cobbles. Moreover, steps had higher dissolved oxygen, greater water velocity, and shallower water depths compared to pools. NMS ordinations showed a correlation between physical factors and biological communities. These results suggest the ecological importance of step–pools streams, in that the development of step sequences creates and maintains a repetitive pattern of high-quality ecological environments.
Communication Failure: Basic Components, Contributing Factors, and the Call for Structure

Article-at-a-Glance Background Communication is a taken-for-granted human activity that is recognized as important once it has failed. Communication failures are a major contributor to adverse events in health care. Basic Communication Components and Processes The components and processes of communication converge in an intricate manner, creating opportunities for misunderstanding along the way. When a patient's safety is at risk, providers should speak up (that is, initiate a message) to draw attention to the situation before harm is caused. They should also clearly explain (encode) and understand (decode) each other's diagnosis and recommendations to ensure well coordinated delivery of care. Individual, Group, and Organizational Factors Beyond basic dyadic communication exchanges, an intricate web of individual, group, and organizational factors—more specifically, cognitive workload, implicit assumptions, authority gradients, diffusion of responsibility, and transitions of care—complicate communication. The Call for Structure More structured and explicitly designed forms of communication have been recommended to reduce ambiguity, enhance clarity, and send an unequivocal signal, when needed, that a different action is required. Read-backs, Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation, critical assertions, briefings, and debriefings are seeing increasing use in health care. Coda Although structured forms of communication have good potential to enhance clarity, they are not fail-safe. Providers need to be sensitive to unexpected consequences regarding their use.
An Empirical Study of the Relationship between Occupational Embeddedness and Job Performance——Based on Survey on University-Student Village Officials in Three Provinces in Central China

Based on the statistics collected through questionnaires among 220 university-student village officials in three provinces of central China,this paper analyzes how occupational embeddedness affects job performance and the moderating influence of proactive personality between the two.The empirical studies show that occupational embeddedness is positively related to core task performance,organizational citizenship behavior and creativity.Results also indicate that the various components of occupational embeddedness have different effects on job performance.In addition,proactive personality positively moderates the relationship between occupational embeddedness and job performance.
Electrostatic Dependent Elastic Behavior of Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a linear, highly-charged semiflexible polysaccharide which is a main component of the extracellular matrix and which functions in roles related to signaling, cell motility, proliferation, and regulation. Because it is highly biocompatible, can be modified with functional groups and can be crosslinked to form networks, its properties have been exploited in a broad range of biotechnological applications including treatment of osteoarthritis, wound healing and tissue engineering. Thus, its mechanical behavior is very important for both biological and technological reasons. Due to its charged nature, electrostatic interactions and the ionic environment play a large role in determining HA's structure and mechanics. Here, we use single molecule magnetic tweezers to quantify the effect of the ionic strength on the elastic behavior of HA. We observe a transition between two separate elastic regimes with a crossover associated with the persistence length. We show the ionic strength dependent persistence length varies as predicted by Barrat and Joanny, consistent with observations of much more flexible polyelectrolytes and in contrast to data for stiff polyelectrolytes. The two observed elastic regimes represent distinct organizations of the polymer that occur on length scales above and below the persistence length, conforming to a snakelike chain picture of polyelectrolyte structure. At long length scales, the polymer behaves as a self-avoiding walk characterized by a chain of swollen blobs. At short length scales, HA behaves as a stiff chain modified by electrostatic interactions. Finally, we compare our data to various existing models which take electrostatic interactions into account to characterize the short length scale behavior.
Structure and Defects at Ionic Crystal Surfaces

This paper presents a discussion of our present understanding of the structure of ionic crystal surfaces. Both theoretical predictions and experimental observations will be reviewed. Emphasis will be placed on surface relaxation effects, point defects in the top monolayer and long range point defect distributions. The role of space charge regions in ionic transport and other processes will be reviewed. Attention will also be given to impurity distribution near interfaces in doped systems.
A sensible approach to targeting STAT3-mediated transcription

Many cancers overexpress oncogenic proteins that drive robust tumorigenic signaling cascades which can be amenable to therapeutic targeting.
Use of germ-line variants in the WNT/β-CATENIN pathway to predict tumor recurrence in adjuvant colon cancer.

e14034 Background: The Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays a central role in the development and progression of most colon cancers. Germline variants in Wnt/β-catenin pathway genes may result in altered ...
Comparison of mRNA and protein expression profiles in the NCI-60 cancer cell panel

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 1563 To evaluate the relationship between transcript and protein expression levels in cancer cells, we compared mRNA and protein levels in the NCI-60 human cancer cell line panel, which represents nine different tissues of origin. We and others have previously reported that mRNA expression patterns differ considerably among measurement platforms and that they also differ considerably from patterns of protein expression. To sharpen the present analysis, we analyzed the transcript expression data for concordance across multiple platforms (cDNA arrays and Affymetrix Hu68, U95, and U133 chips). The resulting consensus data (with largest contribution from U133set) were then compared with protein expression levels obtained from our NCI-60 reverse-phase protein microarray database (Nishizuka, et al., PNAS 100:14229, 2003 and Shankavaram, et al., in preparation). Among 89 genes for which we were matched transcript and protein names using our MatchMiner program (Bussey, et al., Genome Research 4:R27, 2003), the transcript-protein correlations ranged from -0.08 to 0.848. Fifty-eight of the 89 transcript/protein pairs were statistically significantly correlated (r > ∼0.258). The distribution of significant correlations showed a bimodal pattern, indicating two distinct groups. Functional characterization of the significant genes by Gene Ontology classification using GoMiner (Zeeberg, et al., Genome Research 4:R28, 2003) showed that cytoskeleton-related processes are associated with high correlations (mean r = 0.71), whereas processes involved in signaling mechanisms are associated with lower correlation (mean r =0.39). When the transcript data were stratified by intensity of signal, the difference remained. Although, in general, mRNA expression levels do not predict all protein levels across these disparate cell types, our analysis suggests that transcriptional profiling can be a good indicator of protein expression for some functional categories. The MatchMiner and GoMiner program are publicly available at our web site, .
An End User Perspective: The Impact of FSMA on Restaurants

On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA or P.L. 111-353). This act may be the most far-reaching food safety legislation since the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDCA) of 1938. FSMA aims to ensure that the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of regulation from contamination response to prevention. This legislation imposes administrative costs on the food supply chain in the United States by requiring additional record keeping and safety procedures. Previous research has shown that the value of food processing, wholesale and grocery firms was reduced by the passage of this legislation. We hypothesize that the negative value effects caused by the legislation may be partially passed on to end users of food products, specifically, restaurants. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that passage of FSMA reduced the market value of publicly traded restaurants by approximately 5%. This result is roughly one half of the impact borne by other firms in ...
Improving the Timing of Conference Presentations Using Web Applications

Four rules are suggested to keep sessions on time. 1: While the current presenter is answering questions about their presentation, the following presenter should be connecting their laptop and load...
How to sustain a CO2-thermosiphon in a partially saturated geothermal reservoir: Lessons learned from field experiment and numerical modeling

Abstract CO2 has been proposed as a working fluid for geothermal energy production because of its ability to establish a self-sustaining CO2 thermosiphon, taking advantage of the strong temperature dependence of CO2 density. To test the concept of CO2 heat extraction, in January 2015 a CO2 thermosiphon was operated at the SECARB Cranfield Site, Cranfield, Mississippi, where a brine-saturated sand at a depth of 3.2 km has been under near continuous CO2 flood since December 2009 as part of a U.S. Department of Energy demonstration of CO2 sequestration, resulting in a partially saturated reservoir surrounding a well pair. The lateral distance between the producer and injector was 112 m at reservoir depth, a distance considered pre-commercial in scale, but great enough that thermal breakthrough was still not significant after several years of injection. Instead of producing power with a turbine, heat was extracted heat from recirculated fluid using a heat exchanger and portable chiller. The well field and surface equipment were instrumented to compare field observations with predicted responses from numerical models. Thermosiphon flow could be initiated by venting, but thereafter flow rate steadily declined, indicating that the thermosiphon was not sustainable. To model the system, the capability of T2Well, a fully coupled wellbore/reservoir numerical simulator, was expanded to enable simulation of the entire loop of fluid circulation in the fully-coupled system consisting of the injection/production wells, the reservoir, and the surface devices (heat exchanger, flow-rate regulator etc.). Combined with the newly developed TOUGH2 equation of state module called EOS7CMA, the enhanced T2Well was used prior to the field experiment to simulate the circulation of a CO2-H2O-CH4 mixture in a model geothermal system patterned after the Cranfield demonstration test. The model predicted that a sustainable thermosiphon could be achieved. After the field thermosiphon did not achieve the pre-test prediction of flow rates and thermosiphon sustainability, the numerical model was modified to improve realism and calibrate certain processes; it was then able to reproduce the major phenomena observed in the field. In a series of sensitivity studies, many factors were found that could potentially contribute to the failing of a sustainable thermosiphon. These factors could be categorized as two types: factors that increase the resistance to flow and factors that increase heat loss of the working fluid. The lessons learned can be applied to both future modeling and to achieving CO2-based geothermal reservoir exploitation.
The cellular biology underlying immune responses against brain tumors: the in vivo formation and function of immunological synapses, and the polarized secretion of effector cytokines

1036 Despite the brain immune privilege, effective anti-tumor immune responses can be generated in a variety of brain tumor models. Our lab has recently shown that effector CD8+ T cells establish characteristic Kupfer-type and non Kupfer-type immunological synapses in vivo with adenovirus infected brain astrocytes. Furthermore, IFN-γ and granzyme-B were found to cluster in a polarized fashion at immunological synapses between CD8 + T cells and infected astrocytes. However, whether immunogical synapses exists between tumor cells and CTLs, and whether they are responsible for the clearance of tumor cells in vivo is unknown. In this study, we have developed an in vivo glioma mouse model to follow the direct antigen-specific interactions between CTLs and tumor cells. We have explored the utility of murine GL26 glioma expressing OVA to visualize specific antigen-specific cell-to-cell communication between CD8+ T cells and tumor cells in vivo . To understand the cellular and molecular basis of anti-tumor T cell responses in brain tumors we are currently characterizing the formation of tumor-antigen specific immunological synapses in vivo. We are characterizing their structure (through immunostaining for TCR, LFA-1, CD8 + T cells, and markers of tumor cells), and their capacity to segregate effector molecules to the immunological synapses. Further, we are also characterizing the molecular and cellular changes undergone by target tumor cells following T cell attack, and the potential role played therein by small Rho GTPases in mediating survival or demise of brain tumor cells. We believe that understanding the cellular and molecular basis of T cells’-brain tumor interactions will provide better ways of eliminating brain tumors by mounting a systemic anti-tumor specific immune response.
Ullazine Donor-π bridge-Acceptor Organic Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

A series of four ullazine-donor based donor-π bridge-acceptor (D-π-A) dyes have been synthesized and compared to a prior ullazine donor-acceptor (D-A) dye as well as a triphenylamine donor with an identical π-bridge and acceptor. The D-π-A ullazine series demonstrates an unusually uniform-in-intensity panchromatic UV/Vis absorption spectrum throughout the visible region. This is in part due to the introduction of strong high-energy bands through incorporation of the ullazine building block as shown by computational analysis. The dyes were characterized on TiO2 films and in DSC devices. Performances of 5.6 % power conversion efficiency were obtained with IPCE onsets reaching 800 nm.
Increasing Maternal Employment Influences Child Overweight/Obesity Among Ethnically Diverse Families:

Maternal employment is associated with child overweight/obesity, but the mechanisms influencing this relationship are not clear among diverse populations. We examined the effects of employment and ...
Using a Sight Word Measure to Predict Reading Fluency Problems in Grades 1 to 3

After considering the relationships between (a) reading fluency and reading rate and (b) reading rate and sight vocabulary, this study addressed a very practical question. Can a cut score on a sigh...