cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Studies on a procoagulant fraction of southern copperhead snake venom: The preferential release of fibrinopeptide B

Abstract The venom of the southern copperhead snake ( Ancistrodon contortrix contortrix ) possesses procoagulant and fibrinolytic properties. A procoagulant fraction, separated by chromatography and gel filtration, clotted fibrinogen directly and possessed proteolytic, esterolytic, and amidase activities. In its action upon fibrinogen, the fraction released fibrinopeptide B at a much faster rate than fibrinopeptide A, the reverse of the effect of thrombin. Despite the rapid release of fibrinopeptide B, visible clotting did not take place until appreciable fibrinopeptide A was also removed. These experiments support the view that visible clotting depends upon the removal of fibrinopeptide A from the fibrinogen molecule, permitting aggregation of monomeric units.
Watching Ghosts: Supervised Release of Deportable Defendants

Federal criminal sentences do not end when a convict walks out of prison. Beyond a term of imprisonment, most people convicted of a federal crime also receive a term of supervised release: a period of “community supervision” that helps convicts adjust to life outside of prison. Supervised release is governed by an elaborate interplay of federal statutes, and its implementation is further complicated when a defendant is not a United States citizen. I will examine these complications by first giving an overview of how supervised release functions and then detailing how deportation and immigration detention affect it. My goal is to expose the one-sided interaction between supervised release and immigration law and show how immigration law steamrolls the nuances of the supervised release statutory scheme.
Is Gender Associated With Success in Academic Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Purpose Several studies of surgical specialties have shown disparities in measures of research productivity and academic rank between female and male surgeons. The purpose of this work was to measure the role of surgeon gender in academic success in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Materials and Methods We performed a cross-sectional study of full-time academic oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMSs) in the United States as of June 2017. The primary study variable was surgeon gender (male or female). The primary outcome variable was research productivity assessed using 2 different parameters: 1) h index (number of publications h with at least h citations each) and 2) academic rank. The other study variables were demographic characteristics potentially related to the outcome measures. Descriptive, bivariate, and regression statistics were computed. Results The study sample comprised 306 full-time academic OMSs, 53 (17.3%) of whom were women. On average, female OMSs had shorter academic careers (mean time since completion of training, 11.0 ± 8.2 years for female OMSs vs 22.0 ± 14.1 years for male OMSs; P Conclusions Although female surgeons represent a minority of full-time academic OMSs, academic success measured using research productivity and academic rank was not associated with gender.
Classifier for Activities with Variations

Most activity classifiers focus on recognizing application-specific activities that are mostly performed in a scripted manner, where there is very little room for variation within the activity. These classifiers are mainly good at recognizing short scripted activities that are performed in a specific way. In reality, especially when considering daily activities, humans perform complex activities in a variety of ways. In this work, we aim to make activity recognition more practical by proposing a novel approach to recognize complex heterogeneous activities that could be performed in a wide variety of ways. We collect data from 15 subjects performing eight complex activities and test our approach while analyzing it from different aspects. The results show the validity of our approach. They also show how it performs better than the state-of-the-art approaches that tried to recognize the same activities in a more controlled environment.
Phaseless Passive Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging via Wirtinger Flow

In this paper, we present a novel method for passive imaging of stationary targets using phaseless measurements. One of the main benefits of the proposed approach is increased robustness to uncertainties inherent in passive imaging. Furthermore, unlike most passive radar imaging methods, our approach circumvents the need for two receivers by auto-correlating the received bistatic signal. Since the resulting measurements are phaseless, coherent imaging algorithms previously used in radar are no longer applicable. Thus, we propose an optimization based approach using the Wirtinger Flow algorithm. This is a non-convex approach, offering computational efficiency not realizable by convex alternatives. Through numerical simulations we demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.
Living Waste and the Labor of Toxic Health on American Factory Farms

In the 1930s, erosion caused storms of dust to hurtle across the American Great Plains and Midwest. While agricultural conservation methods helped remediate this landscape, recent studies suggest the region is contending with a new type of particle cloud: desiccated fecal dust that renders the vitalities of factory farms airborne, potentially exposing those in their surrounds to various forms of illness while spreading antibiotic resistance genes. Thinking alongside these findings, and based on research within corporate hog farms, this article develops an ethnography of excrement by tracing the practices and knowledge of people who live and labor in proximity to late industrial lifeforms, such as confined pigs and resistance genes, and who are tasked with intimately shaping this unruly waste that has the potential to affect broader populations. In so doing, it analyzes the maintenance of American animals' toxic health alongside the politics of labor with complex anthropogenic materials.
An Ethical Case for Dual-Role Consent: Increasing Research Diversity as a Matter of Respect and Justice.

Morain et al. (2019) argue persuasively that restrictions on allowing physician-investigators to obtain consent for research are overly broad, especially when considered in light of contemporary re...
The twenty-first century revolutions and internationalism: a world historical perspective

In his essay, “It is imperative to reconstruct the Internationale of workers and peoples”, Samir Amin (2018) suggested that in order to “deconstruct the extreme centralization of wealth and the power that is associated with the [capitalist world] system”, we should seriously study “the experience of the worker Internationales [...], even if they belong to the past. This should be done, not in order to ‘choose’ a model among them, but to invent the most suitable form for contemporary conditions.” In this paper, I will follow Amin’s (2018) suggestion and provide a brief examination of the past experiences of first Internationales in the nineteenth century and conditions that produced them with an eye to the present moment. By comparing the political climate of the early twenty-first century to analogous comparable periods in world history, I will argue that today we need two distinct forms of global political organizations that are modeled after the International Workingmen’s Association and the Communist League. First one should serve as a horizontal “movement of movements” that would reflect the spontaneous and creative energy of mass movements from below; the second one should serve as a hierarchically organized world communist party.
Young Men's Communication With Partners and Contraception Use: A Systematic Review.

Abstract Purpose The rate of adolescent unintended pregnancy in the U.S. is high compared with that in other developed countries. While past research and interventions have focused on young women, the role of young men in pregnancy prevention has increasingly been recognized. Studies have assessed young men's knowledge and attitudes toward pregnancy prevention as well as their role in male-controlled methods of birth control such as condoms or withdrawal. However, less is known about how young men contribute to decision-making about contraceptive methods other than condoms with female partners. The purpose of this systematic review was to explore how young men communicate with their female partners and the effect of such communication on contraception use to prevent pregnancy. Methods We conducted a systematic review of six databases to identify English language articles published from January 1, 2002, through March 24, 2019. The review specifically explored how young men aged 11–24 years communicate with and affect their female partner (noncondom) contraceptive use. The systematic review explored additional questions, including those pertaining to the timing of partner communication in a relationship, communication strategies used by young men, and which dynamics of partner communication were measured in studies. Results Of the 12 articles identified as exploring male partner communication, five of the articles used quantitative analysis to measure any association between partner communication and contraception use, three of which produced statistically significant findings suggesting that communication increases the use of contraception other than condoms. Seven qualitative studies provided supporting narratives from young men describing communication with partners and how they influence contraception use by female partners. The articles also explored timing and strategies of communication, as well as topics, prompts, and communication cues used by young men. Measurements of both communication and contraception varied across studies. Conclusions With the small number of studies identified in this systematic review, we conclude that future research needs to corroborate the relationship between partner communication and contraception use with more robust and precise measurements of both communication and contraception.
Chapter 23 – INTRODUCTION

Publisher Summary In crystals or in systems engineered by man, where lines are neatly arranged in parallel rows and cross at constant angles, the immediate impression is one of regularity. As biological systems exhibit specificity of function and are well adapted to complex environments, one might think that the impression of randomness is because only of an initial ignorance that disappears when the details of function and design are understood. Randomness and design are treated not as mutually exclusive, but as complementary. The interesting questions concern the functional significance of random factors and not the manner in which functional specificity could have arisen, if ever it did, from random and inherently nonspecific states.
Inhibition of human lung cancer cell growth by angiotensin II (Ang II) type 2 receptor (AT2) over-expression

1395 Lung cancer mortality is the highest among all cancer-associated deaths. Development of new therapeutic agents and effective treatment procedures are urgently needed. Endogenous Angiotensin II (Ang II) type 2 receptor (AT2), one of two isoforms of Ang II, has been shown to mediate apoptosis. Nanotechnology is a rapidly emerging drug-delivery system which makes possible the targeted drug delivery and the controlled release of therapeutic molecules and genes. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the anti-cancer effect of over-expressed AT2 gene on lung adenocarcinoma cells in vitro using adenoviral vectors (Ad) and nanoparticles (NPs) conjugated with Ang II to specifically target lung tumor tissue. Here, we show that over-expression of Ad-AT2 induces cancer cell-specific apoptosis in several human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines with minimal effect on normal lung epithelial cells and fibroblasts. Ad-AT2 significantly attenuated multiple human lung cancer cell growth (A549, and H358) in vitro compared to the control viral vector, Ad-LacZ when cell viability was examined by direct cell count using trypan blue exclusion test. The growth attenuation effect was detected as early as 24h after Ad-AT2 transfection and lasted for 12 days. Western Blot analysis revealed the activation of the caspase pathway through caspases-9 and-3. Examination for Annexin V by flow cytometry also confirmed the activation of the apoptotic pathway via AT2 over-expression. Therefore, it is suggested that the mechanism by which AT2 over-expression attenuates lung cancer cell growth is due to intrinsic apoptosis. Similary, AT2 cDNA encapsulated poly(dl-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) biodegradable nanoparticles (NPs) were shown to be effectively taken up into the lung cancer cell. The surface conjugation of angiotensin II peptide significantly stimulated uptake of the particles. This PLGA vector-dependent AT2 transfection was very effective in sustained gene expression. These results indicate that the AT2 over-expression effectively attenuated growth of lung adenocarcinoma cells through activation of apoptosis. Ang II conjugated PLGA nanoparticles can be used as lung adenocarcinoma targeted therapeutic gene delivery vehicles. This work was supported by KSU Terry C. Johnson Center for Basic Cancer Research, KSU CVM Dean’s fund, NIH P20 RR017686 and Joan’s Legacy Foundation Research Grant.
Pilot randomized controlled trial of a video self‐help intervention for depression based on acceptance and commitment therapy: Feasibility and acceptability

A common setting where depression is identified and treated is in primary care, where there is a need for low-intensity and cost-effective interventions to be used as part of a stepped-care model. The current study involved a pilot, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial of a video self-help intervention for primary care patients based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The intervention, called LifeStories, consisted of storytelling vignettes of patients describing their use of ACT-consistent coping skills for depression. Primary care patients were recruited to determine feasibility, acceptability, and potential clinical effects of the intervention. Twenty-one participants were assigned to use LifeStories over a period of 4 weeks, and 19 participants were assigned to an attention-matched comparison group. Qualitative feedback indicated that participants using LifeStories found the intervention to be engaging and useful in transmitting key ACT principles. Furthermore, those receiving LifeStories rated their level of "transportation" or immersion in the videos higher than the control group. Both conditions showed large improvements in levels of depression at a 12-week follow-up. There were no significant differences in symptom outcomes between groups; however, because this was a pilot study, it was not powered to detect differences between interventions. Both conditions additionally showed smaller effect size changes in psychological flexibility, a key ACT mechanism. The results suggest LifeStories to be a feasible and acceptable psychological intervention that may improve depression, and further research is warranted to determine its effectiveness as part of a stepped-care approach to treating depression in primary care.
Targeting Cyclic Dinucleotide Signaling with Small Molecules

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) are now established as master regulators of bacterial physiology (cyclic di-GMP, cyclic di-AMP, 3′3′-cGAMP) and immune function (bacterial cyclic dinucleotides and host’s 2′3′-cGAMP). Metabolic enzymes that modulate the concentrations of CDNs and/or effector proteins or nucleic acids that bind to these second messengers are potential therapeutic targets for the development of antibiofilm, antivirulence, and immunomodulatory agents. Here, we discuss some of the recent advances in the development of small molecule regulators of cyclic di-GMP, cyclic di-AMP, and cGAMP signaling.
Chinese Health Care Workers and COVID-19: For Whom the Bell Tolls.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am
Pre-atherosclerotic flow and oncotically active solute transport across the arterial endothelium.

Abstract Atherosclerosis starts with transmural (transwall) pressure-driven advective transport of blood-borne low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol across rare endothelial cell (EC) monolayer leaks into the arterial subendothelial intima (SI) wall layer where they can spread, bind to extracellular matrix and seed lesions. The local SI LDL concentration, which governs LDL’s binding kinetics, depends on the overall diluting transmural liquid flow. Transmural pressures typically compress the SI at physiological pressures, which keeps this flow low. Nguyen et al. (2015) showed that aortic ECs express the water channel protein aquaporin-1 (AQP1) and the transEC (δP) portion of the transmural (ΔP) pressure difference drives, in parallel, water across AQP1s and plasma across interEC junctions. Since the lumen is isotonic, selective AQP1-mediated water flow should quickly render the ECs’ lumen side hypertonic and the SI hypotonic; resulting transEC oncotic pressure differences, δπ, should oppose δP and quickly halt transEC flow. Yet Nguyen et al.’s (2015) transAQP1 flows persist for hours. To resolve this paradox, we extend our fluid filtration theory Joshi et al. (2015) to include mass transfer for oncotically active solutes like albumin. This addition nonlinearly couples mass transfer, fluid flow and wall mechanics. We simultaneously solve these problems at steady state. Surprisingly it finds that media layer filtration causes steady SI to exceed EC glycocalyx albumin concentration. Thus δπ reinforces rather than opposes δP, i.e., it sucks water from, rather than pushing water into the lumen from the SI. Endothelial AQP1s raise the overall driving force for flow across the EC above δP, most significantly at pressures too low to compress the SI, and they increase the ΔP needed for SI compression. This suggests the intriguing possibility that increasing EC AQP1 expression can raise this requisite compression pressure to physiological values. That is, increasing EC AQP1 may decompress the SI at physiological pressures, which would significantly increase SI thickness, flow and subsequently SI LDL dilution. This could retard LDL binding and delay preatherosclerotic lesion onset. The model also predicts that glycocalyx-degrading enzymes decrease overall transEC driving forces and thus lower, not raise, transmural water flux.
On a joint approximation question in $$H^p$$ H p spaces

We consider Mergelyan sets and Farrell sets for $$H^p$$ $$(1\le p < \infty )$$ spaces in the unit disc for both the weak topology and the norm topology, and give a short proof of a theorem of Perez-Gonzalez which answers a question proposed by Rubel and Stray (J Approx Theory 37:44–50, 1983).
Linking gradient echo plural contrast imaging metrics of tissue microstructure with Alzheimer disease

Abstract In this chapter we provide a brief overview of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based gradient echo plural contrast imaging (GEPCI) technique and its applications to study Alzheimer disease (AD)—one of the major global health problems. GEPCI provides surrogates for quantitative assessments of AD-related changes in the brain tissue structure that are sensitive to accumulation of amyloid plaques and neuronal loss and can distinguish between healthy control, preclinical and mild stages of AD. GEPCI technique has also been applied for evaluating tissue damage in multiple sclerosis and some psychiatric diseases. As GEPCI is based on MRI that is widely available worldwide, is noninvasive, and does not require radiation exposure, it has a potential for screening populations for early signs of AD pathology when drug intervention can be most efficient, and potentially provide a means of monitoring therapeutic efficacy in clinical drug trials. GEPCI data are quantitative, reproducible, and MRI scanner independent, thus allowing multicenter applications.
Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care Literacy Initiatives in African American Faith Communities: A Systematic Integrative Review:

African Americans (AA) experience health inequalities that affect their utilization of advance care planning (ACP) and hospice and palliative care at end of life (EOL). Faith-based health promotion models may be applicable to ACP and EOL care literacy for this population. The purpose of this integrative review was to examine the literature highlighting participant responses to ACP and EOL care literacy initiatives in AA faith communities. An integrative literature review was conducted using the following databases: PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PsychINFO. Eight primary sources met inclusion criteria. Findings from these studies indicate that integration of AA religious beliefs and practices into ACP and EOL care educational programs may enhance the efficacy of these efforts in promoting ACP, advance directive completion, and hospice use. Building trust, creating community partnerships, and involving church leadership in ACP and EOL care literacy promotion efforts serve as important elements to inform future initiatives.
Measuring Patients' Trust in their Primary Care Providers

Existing scales to measure trust in physicians have differing content and limited development and testing. To advance the ability to measure trust, a detailed conceptual model was constructed and a large item pool (n=78) was generated, pilot tested, and revised using focus groups, expert reviewers, and convenience samples. The best performing items were validated with a random national sample (n=959) and a regional sample of HMO members (n=1199). Factor analysis and other psychometric tests produced a 10-item unidimensional scale consistent with most aspects of the conceptual model. This scale is similar to previous ones, but it has important differences, as well as an improved combination of internal consistency, variability, and discriminability. Compared with the most recently published trust scale, the Wake Forest physician trust scale is more strongly correlated with satisfaction, desire to remain with a physician, willingness to recommend to friends, and not seeking second opinions; it is somewhat less correlated with insurer trust, membership in managed care, and choice of physician; and correlations are equivalent with lack of disputes with a physician and length of relationship and number of visits.
The effects of flipped classrooms on K-16 students’ science and math achievement: a systematic review

One response to a pedagogical shift towards student-centred and active learning approaches to promote student learning in STEM is the flipped classroom. However, there has been inconsistency in the...
Cytomorphological features of extramammary Paget's disease of the vulva in a patient with diagnoses of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix status post-chemoradiation, and high-grade vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia: The importance of basic principles.

BACKGROUND Extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) is a rare neoplasm that commonly affects post-menopausal women. It usually presents in the anogenital area where apocrine sweat glands are abundant, most commonly in the vulva. The disease is characterised by slow growth and high local recurrence rates. Clinically, EMPD presents as well-demarcated erythematous lesions or plaques that may be ulcerated. Microscopically, it shows a group of atypical cells with abundant clear cytoplasm and nuclear pleomorphism. METHODS We present the case of a 58-year-old female with a history of poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix, status post-radical-hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and chemoradiation in 2016. The patient also had a long-standing history of vulvar pain, skin changes on her left labia, and itching. RESULTS Punch biopsies of the vulva revealed acanthosis and acantholysis of the epidermis with an intraepidermal scattering of single, or clusters of, large cells with round/oval nuclei and abundant clear cytoplasm. The cells were positive for p16, CK19, CK7, and PAX8, supporting the diagnosis of EMPD without evidence of dysplasia. The concurrent Papanicolaou smear showed a hypercellular specimen composed of hyperchromatic tissue fragments with high nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratios and apoptotic bodies. The presence of intracytoplasmic mucin and the tridimensionality of the fragments supported the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSIONS This study compares the histological and cytomorphological features of EMPD with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, since the pathogenesis, precursor lesions, etiological associations, staging, clinical treatment, and prognosis differ substantially and may have a significant clinical impact on the patient's treatment.
Arkansas Settler: Minari and Movies About Immigrants to the Heartland

A recent award-winning movie, Minari, can be contrasted with other recent movies that focus on grief, rage and disappointment about America’s troubles, injustices, inequalities and cruelties. Minar...
Load Profiling: A California Application

In numerous places, events are rapidly leading to the development of regional power exchanges with visible hourly prices, which are open to purchases by "direct access" customers. Currently, the vast majority of smaller customers have meters that are not capable of recording hourly usage, so that these customers are effectively precluded from power exchange purchases. Load profiling is frequently suggested as an alternative to installation of hourly usage meters, which will allow smaller customers to participate in direct access. This article describes how direct access load profiling can be implemented, discusses the technical challenges, and reports the results of a simulation study.
Worker-Based Parallel Computing on PVM

Networks of workstations (NOW) are emerging as popular platforms for high performance computing. PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) is a software package which provides basic primitives for creating asynchronous tasks on different machines as well as message passing primitives for the communication between tasks. In this paper, we present a worker (or agent) based run-time system on PVM to provide a simple interface between user application programs and the parallel processing subsystem using parallel function calls.
El Rey del Tomate. Migrant Political Transnationalism and Democratization in Mexico

The highly publicized transnational political campaign of Andres Bermudez, who ran for mayor of Jerez, Zacatecas, is considered in terms of a continuum of theoretical frameworks on democratic theory and practice. Grounded in intensive qualitative interviews with key participants in the campaign, the study addresses the following questions: To what extent does the Bermudez candidacy contribute to opening up the Mexican political system to the electoral participation of migrants? What implications do the political processes revealed here have for full-scale dual citizenship, including absentee voting and transnational campaigning by Mexican migrants living in the United States? What does the Bermudez story contribute to our theoretical understanding of the character and significance of migrant political transnationalism at the present moment? Answers to these questions make it possible to determine the role of the Bermudez campaign in the ongoing saga of democratization in contemporary Mexico. RESUMEN La ampliamente publicitada campana politica transnacional de Andres Bermudez, que contendio como candidato para alcalde de Jerez, Zacatecas, es analizada en terminos de un continuum de marcos teoricos sobre teoria y practica de la democracia. Con base en intensivas entrevistas cualitativas con participantes importantes de la campana, este estudio considera las siguientes cuestiones: ?Hasta que punto la candidatura de Bermudez contribuye a la apertura del sistema politico mexicano hacia la participacion electoral de los migrantes? ?Que implicaciones tienen los procesos politicos aqui mencionados para una implementacion a gran escala de la doble ciudadania, incluyendo el voto en el extranjero y las campanas transnacionales de migrantes mexicanos que viven en los Estados Unidos? ?En que contribuye el caso de Bermudez para nuestro conocimiento teorico sobre el caracter y significado del transnacionalismo politico de los migrantes en el momento presente? Las respuestas a estos cuestionamientos hacen posible determinar el papel que tuvo la campana de Bermudez en el proceso actual de democratizacion del Mexico contemporaneo.
The Effect of Hydrogen Annealing on the Impurity Content of Alumina-Forming Alloys

Previously, the effect of hydrogen annealing on increasing the adhesion of Al2O3 scales had been related to the effective desulfurization that occurred during this process. The simultaneous reduction of other impurities has now been reexamined for up to 20 impurity elements, in the case of five different alloys (NiCrAl, FeCrAl, PWA 1480, Rene 142, and Rene N5). Hydrogen annealing produced measurable reductions in elemental concentration for B, C, Na, Mg, Si, P, K, Sr, or Sn in varying degrees for at least one and up to three of these alloys. However, no single element was reduced by hydrogen annealing for all the alloys except sulfur. In many cases spalling occurred at low levels of these other impurities, while in other cases the scales were adherent at high levels of the impurities. No impurity besides sulfur was strongly correlated with adhesion.
Unique TATA-binding protein-containing complexes and cofactors involved in transcription by RNA polymerases II and III

Two multisubunit complexes containing the TATA-binding protein (TBP) were isolated from HeLa cells constitutively expressing the FLAG epitope-tagged TBP using antibody affinity and peptide elution methods. One of the complexes (f:TFIID), isolated from the P11 0.85 M KCl fraction, contains at least 13 specific TBP-associated factors (TAFs) and can mediate activator-dependent transcription by RNA polymerase II. Importantly, activator function through the highly purified f:TFIID complex still requires a general cofactor fraction containing upstream factor stimulatory activity (USA). As previously observed with partially purified activator-competent natural TFIID, f:TFIID generates extended TATA-dependent footprints on the intrinsically strong adenovirus major late promoter (MLP) but only restricted footprints on the weak adenovirus E1b and E4 and HIV (core) promoters. Along with previous demonstrations of activator-induced downstream TFIID interactions on the E4 promoter, these results argue for a relationship between downstream interactions and overall promoter strength. Initiator-like sequences appear not to be essential for downstream interactions since they have no effect on downstream MLP interactions when mutated, do not effect downstream interactions on the HIV promoter and are not present on the inducible E4 promoter. The other multisubunit complex (f:TFIIIB), isolated from the P11 0.30 M KCl fraction, contains four specific TAFs and can substitute for one of the fractions (TFIIIB) required for RNA polymerase III (pol III) transcription. Neither f:TFIID nor TBP could substitute for this pol III TBP-containing fraction. This plus the fact that f:TFIIIB failed to generate a footprint on the MLP underscores the importance of TAFs in determining promoter specificity by different RNA polymerases.
ZeRow: Design, Energy Performance and Cost Analysis of a Solar Powered Row House

An affordable, solar powered row house is designed and constructed for implementation in a historically low-income area of Houston, Texas. This ZeRow House is tied to the electrical grid for purchase of electricity at night, but completely compensates by generating more power than needed during the day when electric grid demands peak, particularly in the hot, humid summer months. The result is a home with net-zero energy purchased from the grid and the simultaneous elimination of battery storage. This home was one of twenty entries in the 2009 D.o.E. Solar Decathlon. Throughout the project decisions were always mindful of the final purpose: the demonstration of an affordable, easily reproducible solar powered home that honors the row house tradition of Houston’s Third Ward, while taking advantage of modern durable materials and energy conversion technology, and bringing a focus on sustainability and education to the greater community.
Outcomes assessment in rotator cuff pathology: what are we measuring?

Background Assessments used to measure outcomes associated with rotator cuff pathology and after repair are varied. This lack of standardization leads to difficulty drawing comparisons across studies. We hypothesize that this variability in patient-reported outcome measures and objective metrics used in rotator cuff studies persists even in high-impact, peer reviewed journals. Methods All studies assessing rotator cuff tear and repair outcomes in 6 orthopedic journals with a high impact factor from January 2010 to December 2014 were reviewed. Cadaveric and animal studies and those without outcomes were excluded. Outcome measures included range of motion (forward elevation, abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation), strength (in the same 4 planes), tendon integrity imaging, patient satisfaction, and functional assessment scores. Results Of the 156 included studies, 63% documented range of motion measurements, with 18% reporting range of motion in all 4 planes. Only 38% of studies reported quantitative strength measurements. In 65% of studies, tendon integrity was documented with imaging (38% magnetic resonance imaging/magnetic resonance anrhrogram, 31% ultrasound, and 8% computed tomography arthrogram). Finally, functional score reporting varied significantly, with the 5 most frequently reported scores ranging from 16% to 61% in studies, and 15 of the least reported outcomes were each reported in ≤6% of studies. Conclusions Significant variability exists in outcomes reporting after rotator cuff tear and repair, making comparisons between clinical studies difficult. Creating a uniformly accepted, validated outcomes tool that assesses pain, function, patient satisfaction, and anatomic integrity would enable consistent outcomes assessment after operative and nonoperative management and allow comparisons across the literature.
Sediment-Seawater Exchanges of Nutrients and Transition Metals in an Alaskan Fjord

Resurrection Bay (southcentral Alaska) is a single silled fjord-estuary having a basin depth of 290 m (at Station RES 2.5) and a sill at approximately 185 m. The inner basin waters are renewed annually during May-October, but during the oceanographic winter period the basin waters remain relatively isolated from a downwelling flushing of bottom waters that occurs in the outer fjord as a result of a coastal convergence. The seasonal hydrography and dissolved oxygen distributions within this basin have been described by Heggie et al. (1977).
The closed-circuit degassing/fluxing of liquid aluminum alloys by nitrogen-chlorine

Before this system can be applied in the industrial plant, laboratory studies to support the expected experimental results need to be completed. In particular, the management of the reaction enthalpies for the two reaction beds must be optimized, and the endurance of the catalyst to repeated reaction cycling must be tested. Some further funding is required to achieve these goals. The general scheme to use N2−Cl2 in a chemical reaction with the capture and regeneration of the gas might find more general use in other industries where reactions with chlorine are needed.
A study of unsteady forces at low Reynolds number: a strong interaction theory for the coaxial settling of three or more spheres

Unsteady multiparticle creeping motions are complicated by the appearance of Basset, virtual mass and acceleration forces and by the difficulty of calculating fluid-particle interactions for three or more closely spaced particles. The present theoretical and experimental investigation explores the importance of each of these complicating features by examining in detail the gravitational-hydrodynamical interaction between three or more spheres falling along a common axis. The strong interaction theory developed to describe this motion accurately satisfies the viscous boundary conditions along the surface of each sphere and includes all the unsteady force terms in the equations of motion for the spheres. The experimental measurements for the three-sphere chain are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions provided the Basset force is retained in the dynamic force balance. These results indicate, in general, that the Basset force is the most important unsteady force in gravitational flows at low Reynolds numbers in which the flow configuration is slowly changing due to fluid-particle interactions. The unsteady theory for small but finite Reynolds numbers shows that the departures in particle spacings, due to the integrated effect of the Basset force, from those predicted by quasi-steady zero Reynolds number theory grow as $ for large times and are of the order of the particle dimensions if the duration of the interaction is of 0(Re«1a/C/t). Here Rero is based on the terminal settling velocity U t and radius a of the sphere. This condition is satisfied in most sedimentation problems of interest. Virtual mass and particle acceleration forces on the other hand, are of negligible importance except during a short-lived initial transient period. An intriguing new feature of the three-sphere motion for large times was discovered. One finds that there is a critical initial spacing criterion which determines whether the two leading spheres in the chain will asymptotically approach a zero or a finite fluid gap as time goes to infinity. Numerical solutions for longer chains show that there is a tendency for the leading third of the chain to break up into doublets and triplets whereas the spheres in the latter third of the chain tend to space out separately.
A method for automatic inspection of printed circuit boards

Abstract An algorithm for automatic inspection of printed circuits is discussed which includes elements of the reference-comparison and the design-rule methods. First a directed graph, called the segment graph, is created from the image of the PCB. Construction of this graph involves comparison of adjacent rows, and hence each pixel is examined only twice in this construction. Feature points, including wire intersections, wire ends, and circuit defects, which uniquely represent the PCB image are extracted from the segment graph. In this way a very compact representation of the image is extracted. The feature points of the board being tested are then matched against the feature points from a reference board. Simultaneous with feature point extraction, the design-rule checking algorithm performs wire width and spacing inspection, and marks the unsatisfactory regions. Results of the algorithm implementation are demonstrated.
Performance of finned-tube heat exchangers under frosting conditions: I. Simulation model

Abstract This paper describes an analytical model that was developed to predict the performance of finned-tube heat exchangers under frosting conditions. The method models the frost growth mechanism and heat exchanger performance in a comprehensive manner. The results include frost accumulation and its effect on energy transfer in relation to varying humidities, fin densities and ambient conditions.
Contrasts between subsurface microbial communities and their metabolic adaptation to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at a forested and an urban coal-tar disposal site.

The abundance and distribution of microorganisms and their potential for mineralizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in subsurface sediment samples at two geographically separate buried coal-tar sites. At a relatively undisturbed forested site in the northeastern United States, metabolic adaptation to the PAHs was evident: Radiolabeled naphthalene and phenanthrene were converted to 14CO2 in core material from inside but not outside a plume of groundwater contamination. However, at the urban site in the midwestern United States these PAHs were mineralized in sediments from both contaminated and uncontaminated boreholes. Thus, clear qualitative evidence showing an adaptational response by the subsurface microbial community was not obtained at the urban site. Instead, subtler clues suggesting metabolic adaptation by subsurface microorganisms from the urban site were discerned by comparing lag periods and extents of 14CO2 production from radiolabeled PAHs added to samples from contaminated and uncontaminated boreholes. Despite slightly higher PAH mineralization activity in contaminated borehole samples, p-hydroxybenzoate was mineralized equally in all samples from the urban site regardless of location. No striking trends in the abundances of actinomycetes, fungi, and either viable or total bacteria were encountered. However, colonies of the soil bacterium, Bacillus mycoides, were detected on enumeration plates of several samples from unsaturated and saturated zones in both urban boreholes. Furthermore, other common soil bacteria, Myxococcus xanthus and Chromobacterium violaceum, were identified in samples from the uncontaminated urban borehole. The occurrence of bacteria usually restricted to surface soil, combined with the observation of fragments of building materials in many of the core samples, suggested that past excavation and backfilling operations may have caused mixing of surface soil with subsurface materials at the urban site. We speculate that this mixing, as well as non-coal-tar-derived sources of PAHs, contributed to the PAH-mineralizing activity present in the sediment samples from the uncontaminated urban borehole.
Vacuum Rabi splitting with a single quantum dot in a photonic crystal nanocavity

Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems allow the study of a variety of fundamental quantum-optics phenomena, such as entanglement, quantum decoherence and the quantum–classical boundary. Such systems also provide test beds for quantum information science. Nearly all strongly coupled cavity QED experiments have used a single atom in a high-quality-factor (high-Q) cavity. Here we report the experimental realization of a strongly coupled system in the solid state: a single quantum dot embedded in the spacer of a nanocavity, showing vacuum-field Rabi splitting exceeding the decoherence linewidths of both the nanocavity and the quantum dot. This requires a small-volume cavity and an atomic-like two-level system. The photonic crystal slab nanocavity—which traps photons when a defect is introduced inside the two-dimensional photonic bandgap by leaving out one or more holes—has both high Q and small modal volume V, as required for strong light–matter interactions. The quantum dot has two discrete energy levels with a transition dipole moment much larger than that of an atom, and it is fixed in the nanocavity during growth.
Quasi-Emulsion Precipitation of Pharmaceuticals. 2. Application to Control of Polymorphism

Under a number of mixing conditions, a quasi-emulsion is formed during solute precipitation in which the solvent [e.g., 60 mass % polyethylene glycol 300 (PEG300) in water] is more viscous than the antisolvent (e.g., water).8 This microscopically segregated dispersion typically results in an increase in nucleation induction time, and this behavior can be exploited to control the polymorphic form produced during antisolvent precipitation. For three pharmaceutical solutes that form polymorphs (methylparaben, p-aminobenzoic acid, and sulfanilamide), it is demonstrated that quasi-emulsion precipitation results in the formation of the stable polymorphic form. On the other hand, when the fluid is rapidly mixed to homogeneity, a metastable polymorph form is first produced. Thus, polymorph formation can be highly mixing sensitive. When a solute is dissolved in a solvent less viscous than the antisolvent as is the case for the precipitation of glycine from water with aqueous PEG300, quasi-emulsions are not formed,...
Airway Management in the Obese Patient

Any patient can have a difficult airway, but obese patients have anatomic and physiologic features that can make airway management particularly challenging. Obesity does not seem to be an independent risk factor for difficult intubation but is one of the several factors that need to be considered as part of an airway evaluation. To effectively manage airways in obese patients, health care providers working in the intensive care unit setting must be proficient in airway evaluation and management in all types of patients. This article discusses the risk factors for a difficult airway and the methods of managing the airway.
Studies of spin observables in and reactions at intermediate energies

Abstract Recent measurements at 200 MeV of ( p , p ′) spin transfer observables for excitation of discrete states show significant deviations from theoretical predictions based on the free NN t -matrix. Because the nuclear structure and distortions for these transitions are believed to be constrained by other data, this suggests that modifications of the in-medium NN interaction are needed, beyond Pauli blocking, to describe these processes. As a first step towards identifying the physical mechanisms that underlie these modifications, several phenomenological approaches have been tried to improved agreement between experiment and theory. The successes and limitations of these approaches will be discussed. Preliminary results from a detailed study of the ( p , p ′γ) reaction for the 1 + , T=1 state in 12 C at 15.11 MeV will also be presented.
Comparison of patient satisfaction after redo and primary fundoplications.

Background: Although much has been written about the results and patient satisfaction with fundoplication for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease, the reports have focused primarily on surgical successes. With the growing number of fundoplications being performed, more patients are requiring reoperation because of recurrent symptoms or side effects. Reports of success rates for reoperation are available, but information regarding patient satisfaction is limited. Methods: All the patients undergoing fundoplication at our institution were sent short-form health surveys (SF-12), Gastroesophageal reflux disease–specific quality-of-life questionnaires (QOLRAD), and queries regarding long-term satisfaction. Results: Between November 1992 and July 2000, 221 patients (198 primary and 23 redo) underwent fundoplication. There were 19 open cases (3 primary and 16 redo). In the primary group, 173 patients underwent Nissen, 23 underwent Toupet, and 2 underwent Collis fundoplications. In the redo group, 12 patients underwent Nissen, 9 underwent Toupet, 1 underwent Collis, and l underwent Belsey fundoplications. Follow-up surveys were completed for 130 patients (112 primary and 18 redo) at a mean of 32.6 months (range, 0.8–98 months). In the primary group, 87% of the patients were satisfied with their operation, as compared with 75% in the redo group. There was a trend toward higher SF-12 mental scores (46 ± 12 vs 40 ± 14; p = 0.07) and QOLRAD scores (6.2 ± 1.3 vs 5.2 ± 2.0; p = 0.07) in the primary fundoplication group. There was a significant difference in the SF-12 physical scores between the groups (32 ± 13 for the primary group vs 18.5 ± 11 for the redo group; p = 0.0002). Additionally, 61% of the patients in the redo group were again using antireflux medications, whereas only 24% of the patients in the primary group were using medications again. Conclusion: Gastroesophageal reflux disease symptom scores and quality-of-life scores for patients undergoing redo fundoplication are lower than the scores of patients having primary fundoplication. Quality of life is similar between primary and redo fundoplication patients in the mental component. However, redo patients do not do as well physically more than 2 years after surgery.