cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Exogenous Androgen and Gonadotropins on the Testes and Hypophysial Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Content of the Immature Male Rat

Administration of 50 μg of LH for 7 days to 30-day-old male rats simultaneously treated with 15, 50, 100, 200 or 300 μg of testosterone propionate (TP) maintained normal testicular weight and morphology. FSH at 200 μg daily was much less effective in preventing the testicular weight reduction associated with 50 μg of TP and did not significantly alter the effect of higher doses. Hypophysial FSH content was directly proportional to testicular weight. This relationship was maintained when FSH was added to doses of androgen up to 300 μg. However, 300 μg of TP plus FSH resulted in a 66 % drop in stored FSH. While LH prevented much of the reduction in FSH potency seen in males treated with 50 μg of TP alone, it did not alter effects produced by higher doses. After 7 days of castration pituitary weight was increased, and FSH content was significantly decreased. Administration of 50 μg of TP alone, or in combination with FSH, prevented the weight increase and elevated pituitary FSH stores, but the latter were st...
Serine 31 phosphorylation of histone variant H3.3 is specific to regions bordering centromeres in metaphase chromosomes

Histones are the fundamental components of the nucleosome. Physiologically relevant variation is introduced into this structure through chromatin remodeling, addition of covalent modifications, or replacement with specialized histone variants. The histone H3 family contains an evolutionary conserved variant, H3.3, which differs in sequence in only five amino acids from the canonical H3, H3.1, and was shown to play a role in the transcriptional activation of genes. Histone H3.3 contains a serine (S) to alanine (A) replacement at amino acid position 31 (S31). Here, we demonstrate by both MS and biochemical methods that this serine is phosphorylated (S31P) during mitosis in mammalian cells. In contrast to H3 S10 and H3 S28, which first become phosphorylated in prophase, H3.3 S31 phosphorylation is observed only in late prometaphase and metaphase and is absent in anaphase. Additionally, H3.3 S31P forms a speckled staining pattern on the metaphase plate, whereas H3 S10 and H3 S28 phosphorylation localizes to the outer regions of condensed DNA. Furthermore, in contrast to phosphorylated general H3, H3.3 S31P is localized in distinct chromosomal regions immediately adjacent to centromeres. These findings argue for a unique function for the phosphorylated isoform of H3.3 that is distinct from its suspected role in gene activation.
Dysbiotic Bacteria Translocate in Progressive SIV Infection

Infection of gut-resident CD4(+) memory T cells during acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection is associated with rapid loss of these cells and damage to the epithelial barrier. Damage to the epithelial barrier allows translocation of microbial products from the intestinal lumen into the body. Immune activation caused by these microbial products has been associated with disease progression. Although microbial translocation has been demonstrated in SIV-infected nonhuman primates, the identity of translocating bacteria has not been determined. In this study we examined the communities of bacteria both within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and systemic tissues of both healthy and experimentally SIV-infected Asian macaques. Although there were only modest changes in the GI tract-associated microbiome resulting from infection, there is substantial dysbiosis after administration of antiretrovirals. Analysis of bacterial DNA isolated from tissues of infected animals revealed a preference for the phylum Proteobacteria, suggesting that they preferentially translocate. Consistent with this finding, we observed increased metabolic activity of Proteobacterial species within the colonic lumen of SIV-infected animals. Overall, these data provide insights into disease progression and suggest that therapies aimed at altering the composition and metabolic activity of the GI tract microbiome could benefit chronically HIV-infected individuals, particularly those on antiretroviral therapies.
Biosynthesis of Insoluble Glucans From Uridine-Diphosphate-d-Glucose With Enzyme Preparations From Phaseolus aureus and Lupinus albus

Particulate, and digitonin-solubilized, enzyme systems from Phaseolus aureus and Lupinus albus catalyze the biosynthesis of aqueous-insoluble glucans from UDP-d-glucose. The digitonin treatment greatly increases the enzymic activity of (per unit protein) both the 34,000g pellet and the supernatant liquid as compared with that of the original particles. Most of the polymer produced (90-95%) is soluble in hot, dilute alkali; the interglucosidic linkages of the alkali-soluble and alkali-insoluble polymers are identical. The optimum concentration for the incorporation of radioactivity from UDP-d-glucose-(14)C into soluble glucan is high; at 10(-3)m at least 50% of the added radioactive glucosyl donor is incorporated.Careful examination of the products of degradation of the polymers produced by various enzymic preparations showed that beta-(1-->3)-glucans are produced. No evidence was obtained for any measurable amount of beta-(1-->4)-d-glucose linkages.
Breast cancer—Can we prevent it?

Abstract The Breast Cancer Prevention Trial, a clinical trial to determine whether women evaluated to be at high risk for breast cancer will demonstrate a lower incidence of breast cancer and secondarily a lower incidence of osteoporosis and cardiac disease by taking tamoxifen 20 mg/day for 5 years and to determine whether for these women the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks, has reopened.
Image reconstruction in electron microscopy

Maximum likelihood statistical algorithms are described for estimating the 3-D variation of the electron scattering intensity of biological objects from cryo electron microscopy images of multiple instances of the object. Three virus objects, two spherical and one helical, are considered. Solution of the maximum likelihood problem by expectation maximization algorithms or by direct maximization of the log likelihood requires large scale computing and end-to-end codesign of biological problem formulation, statistical models, algorithms, and software design and implementation have contributed to achieving practical results.
Enhanced vision screening of highway patrol applicants

BACKGROUND: The Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) required that its vision standards be updated in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This act prohibits employers from using qualification standards to screen out people with disabilities, including vision, unless they are job-related and necessary. METHODS: Since 1992 the author and a team of optometry students have screened all MSHP applicants using the American Optometric Association (AOA)'s Vision Standards for Police Officers with the addition of grating contrast sensitivity. RESULTS: The mean age of this group was 24.8 years and most (87%) were male. Thirty percent wore spectacles, contact lenses, or had refractive modification. Ninety-seven percent of the applicants were able to pass all aspects of the enhanced vision screening. CONCLUSION: The initiation of optometric screening to ensure that all future troopers meet the recommended vision standards for police officers should ensure uniformity of these standards for the MSHP. Language: en
Adjusting the parameters in elliptic-function filters

When designing elliptic-function filters there is usually some margin in performance to ber distributed over the defining parameters. A recent paper by M. Vlcek and R. Unbehauen (see ibid., vol.CAS-36, p.469-72, 1989) offered some comparatively complicated formulas for use in this stage of the design. However, a simpler method, originally due to S. Darlington (1939), is available and is described briefly. >
Providing green SLAs in High Performance Computing clouds

Demand for clean products and services is increasing as society is becoming increasingly aware of climate change. In response, many enterprises are setting explicit sustainability goals and implementing initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. Quantification and disclosure of such goals and initiatives have become important marketing tools. As enterprises and individuals shift their workloads to the cloud, this drive toward quantification and disclosure will lead to demand for quantifiable green cloud services. Thus, we argue that cloud providers should offer a new class of green services, in addition to existing (energy-source-oblivious) services. This new class would provide clients with explicit service-level agreements (which we call Green SLAs) for the percentage of renewable energy used to run their workloads. In this paper, we first propose an approach for High Performance Computing cloud providers to offer such a Green SLA service. Specifically, each client job specifies a Green SLA, which is the minimum percentage of green energy that must be used to run the job. The provider earns a premium for meeting the Green SLA, but is penalized if it accepts the job but violates the Green SLA. We then propose (1) a power distribution and control infrastructure that uses a small amount of hardware to support Green SLAs, (2) an optimization-based framework for scheduling jobs and power sources that maximizes provider profits while respecting Green SLAs, and (3) two scheduling policies based on the framework. We evaluate our framework and policies extensively through simulations. Our main results show the tradeoffs between our policies, and their advantages over simpler greedy heuristics. We conclude that a Green SLA service that uses our policies would enable the provider to attract environmentally conscious clients, especially those who require strict guarantees on their use of green energy.
Transforming growth factors from human colonic carcinoma cells induced molecular alterations in untransformed mouse AKR embryo fibroblasts

Over 700 polypeptide spots could be detected by two-dimensional electrophoretic analyses of membranes prepared from the murine AKR fibroblastic cells. Out of this abundance of polypeptides, only 9 polypeptide spots were found to be differentially expressed between the untransformed AKR-2B cells and their methylcholanthrene-transformed counterparts, the AKR-MCA cells. Treatment of the untransformed AKR-2B cells with transforming growth factors, prepared from the serum-free conditioned medium of HCT 116 MOSER human colonic carcinoma cells, induced the altered expression of 6 of these polypeptides which paralleled the electrophoretic profile of their permanently transformed counterparts, the AKR-MCA cells.
Spatial validation of cotton simulation model in relation to soils and multispectral imagery

Field studies were conducted in 1998 and 1999 in Livingston Field at Perthshire Farm, Bolivar County which is located in west-central Mississippi along the Mississippi River. It is a 162 ha field and has a 2-m elevation range. The dominant soil series of the field are Commerce silt loam, Robinsonville fine sandy loam and Souva silty clay loam. The objectives of the study were to (1) compare GOSSYM simulated yield with actual yield, (2) study spatial and temporal pattern of cotton crop across two growing seasons using multispectral imagery, 3) predict field based lint yield from remote sensed data, and determine age of the crop most suitable for aerial image acquisition in predicting yield and/or discriminating differences in cotton growth. Two transects were selected for GOSSYM study, each containing twelve sites. A 1-m length of single row plot was established at each profile. Plant mapping was done five times in 1998 and seven times in 1999 growing seasons. GOSSYM simulation runs were made for each profile and compared with actual crop parameters using root mean square error (RMSE). Results based on averaging common soil mapping units indicate that GOSSYM accuracy in predicting yield varied from 0.45 bales acre -1 to 0.61 bales acre -1 . To monitor and estimate the biophysical condition of the cotton crop, airborne multispectral images were acquired on 10 dates in 1998 and 17 dates in 1999 from April to September. In both years site-specific yield and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were significantly (p < 0.0001) correlated in July. Changes in NDVI in 1999 across sampling dates for the different sites showed the least distinctiveness due to somewhat wetter weather conditions, as compared to drier weather in 1998. Crop growing in or near the drainage areas were low in NDVI and lint yield. Multispectral images acquired between ~ 300 - 600 growing degree days above 60°C (GDD60) may be useful decision tools for replanting certain areas of the field, especially in dry weather conditions when variability in crop growth pattern is enhanced due to spatial variability in soil texture, which influences the capacity of a soil to hold moisture and to release it to plants for growth. Results suggest that 2-3 multispectral images acquired between 800 and 1500 GDD60 can be used to monitor crop health and predict yield in a normal weather condition.
1071 Interobserver variability differences for cardiac MRI right ventricular (RV) volumetry and mass measures between standard and "modified" right ventricular short axis imaging in patients with chronic pulmonary insufficiency

Introduction Standard MRI assessment of right ventricular (RV) volume and mass is based on assessment of a stack of "standard" short axis images (fig. 1) obtained with respect to the horizontal long axis of the heart. A "modified" RV short axis stack of images, based on cross-sections of the RV outflow long axis (fig. 2), has recently been demonstrated to overcome observed inaccuracies in definition of the tricuspid valve plane for the "standard" image stacks, and therefore to result in less interobserver variability and more reliable RV volume estimates in subjects with anatomically and functionally normal RVs.
Adolescents and genetic testing: what do they think about it?

Abstract Purpose To examine adolescents' attitudes toward screening for hereditary disorders. Methods A survey was distributed among 672 students in grades 10 to 12 attending a public suburban high school. The first part of the survey consisted of information about three diseases: familial breast cancer, Tay-Sachs disease, and hypercholesterolemia. The second part was a questionnaire developed by the authors, which explored students' attitudes toward testing for these diseases. Comparisons between and within groups were performed using X 2 analysis. Results Out of the 672 surveys distributed, 361 were returned (54% response rate). Mean age of participants was 17 ± 1 years. Most girls (67%) wanted to be tested for familial breast cancer. Girls were significantly more willing than boys to be tested for Tay-Sachs disease (23% vs. 13%, p p p p p Conclusions The main motivator for genetic testing is having someone in the family affected by the disease in question. Adolescent girls are more willing to be tested for genetic diseases than are boys.
Nanoscale near-surface deformation in polymer nanocomposites

Abstract The objective of the study is to understand the nanoscale near-surface deformation response of two polymer nanocomposite systems with significant differences in ductility during nanoscratching with a Berkovich indenter using a load of 1 mN and a scratch velocity of 1 μm s −1 . An accompanying objective is to investigate the commonality in surface deformation behavior between nano- and microscale deformation to reinforce the underlying fundamental principles governing surface deformation. An understanding of surface deformation response is accomplished through determination of physical and mechanical properties, structural characterization and electron microscopy analysis of surface deformation tracks and residual plastically deformed structures. The study suggests for the first time that the understanding derived from microscale surface deformation studies can be extended to nanoscale surface deformation. The microscale response in a polypropylene-based system is characterized by periodic multiple ripple-type deformation tracks that form via a mechanism identical to the periodic single-ripple-type tracks during nanoscale deformation. Similarly, in a less ductile polyethylene-based system, the periodic parabolic tracks and ironing mode of deformation during microscale deformation tend to be significantly reduced in intensity, with ironing being the primary deformation mechanism at the nanoscale. The surface deformation topography suggests that both micro- and nanoscale response is material specific. Additionally, the study suggests that reinforcement of polymers with nanoclay is a viable route to significantly decrease the susceptibility of polymeric materials to micro- and nanoscale deformation and can be discussed in terms of physical and mechanical properties of materials notably percentage crystallinity and elastic recovery.
Adult undergraduate students: Evaluating the appropriateness of a traditional model of academic performance

Adult learners (age 25 or older) now comprise approximately 40 percent of under-graduate enrollment. However, predictive models of undergraduate academic success are usually based on traditional young undergraduate students, presenting a problematic picture for the adult undergraduate population. Past research indicates that many older adult learners enter higher education from family backgrounds that tend to place them at an academic disadvantage, bring with them deficiencies in academic skills, and are less involved in academic and social aspects of campus life. Therefore, conventional wisdom would suggest that older students should have lower cumulative grade-point averages than younger students. However, past research on academic performance of adult undergraduates does not substantiate this prediction. This study focused on the validity of generalizing a traditional model of academic performance to older adult students. Results from this study indicate that a traditional model of academic performance prediction is inappropriate for use with older adult undergraduates.
The Nonlinear Relationship between Education and Mortality: An Examination of Cohort, Race/Ethnic, and Gender Differences.

Researchers investigating the relationship between education and mortality in industrialized countries have consistently shown that higher levels of education are associated with decreased mortality risk. The shape of the education–mortality relationship and how it varies by demographic group have been examined less frequently. Using the U.S. National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files, which link the 1986 through 2004 NHIS to the National Death Index through 2006, we examine the shape of the education–mortality curve by cohort, race/ethnicity, and gender. Whereas traditional regression models assume a constrained functional form for the dependence of education and mortality, in most cases semiparametric models allow us to more accurately describe how the association varies by cohort, both between and within race/ethnic and gender subpopulations. Notably, we find significant changes over time in both the shape and the magnitude of the education–mortality gradient across cohorts of women and white men, but little change among younger cohorts of black men. Such insights into demographic patterns in education and mortality can ultimately help increase life expectancies.
Sleep-Disordered Breathing During Pregnancy: Future Implications for Cardiovascular Health

IMPORTANCE Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a common condition in postreproductive females. Key risk factors for later-life CVD include gestational hypertension (GHTN) and preeclampsia (PE). Although several risk factors of hypertension in pregnancy are well recognized, a novel risk factor that has emerged recently is sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), a condition characterized by repeated closure of the upper airway during sleep with disrupted ventilation and sleep fragmentation. In the nonpregnant population, SDB is now known to play a causal role in future CVD. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to propose the hypothesis that occult SDB during pregnancy may play a role in long-term CVD in women who had hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION This study is a review and synthesis of empirical evidence that links SDB to GHTN/PE and GHTN/PE to future CVD. RESULTS An increasing body of evidence supports the relationship between SDB and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy via mechanisms of inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction. It is well established that hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are associated with long-term risk for CVD via similar mechanisms. However, no studies have addressed the potential role of SDB in long-term outcomes of women with GHTN/PE during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS Given the suggested mechanisms that explain these associations, it is plausible that SDB during pregnancy may increase long-term cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. RELEVANCE Pregnancy may offer a window of opportunity for identification and treatment of SDB, which could provide substantial health benefit for many years to come.
Deterioration of circular-polarisation clutter cancellation in anisotropic precipitation media

Results are presented that show deterioration in the radar clutter cancellation caused by progressive depolarisation of circularly polarised waves in rain and snow. The data were obtained with a 1.8 cm dual-channel polarisation diversity radar. The use of optimum elliptical polarisation in heavy rain shows up to 12 dB improvement in cancellation over that obtained with circular polarisation.
β -Spectrin limits α -spectrin assembly on membranes following synthesis in a chicken erythroid cell lysate

Spectrin, the major protein of the subcortical actin network in erythrocytes, contains two non-identical subunits, alpha and beta (refs 1, 2). Spectrin is indirectly associated with the transmembrane anion transporter through the binding of beta-spectrin to an extrinsic protein, ankyrin. In chicken embryo erythroid cells, alpha-spectrin is synthesized in a threefold excess relative to beta-spectrin, although the two subunits are assembled in equimolar amounts. To investigate the regulation of assembly of equimolar amounts of spectrin, an in vitro system from chicken embryo erythroid cells has now been developed where synthesis and assembly of spectrin can be uncoupled and studied separately. Following the in vitro translation of threefold more alpha- than beta-spectrin, 95% of the beta-spectrin and equimolar amounts of alpha-spectrin bind post-translationally to spectrin-depleted rabbit red blood cell membranes, and the excess alpha-spectrin remains unbound. This alpha-spectrin cannot bind spectrin-depleted plasma membranes subsequently added to the lysate. The assembly of alpha-spectrin is, therefore, limited by the availability of beta-spectrin, and both subunits assemble post-translationally.
Quantitative phase-contrast microscopy by angular spectrum digital holography

Techniques of digital holography are improved in order to obtain high-resolution, high-fidelity images of quantitative phase-contrast microscopy. In particular, the angular spectrum method of calculating the holographic optical field is seen to have several advantages over the more commonly used Fresnel transformation or Huygens convolution method. Spurious noise and interference components can be tightly controlled through the analysis and filtering of the angular spectrum. The reconstruction distance does not have a lower limit and the off-axis angle between the object and reference can be lower than the Fresnel requirement and still be able to cleanly separate out the zero-order background. Holographic phase images are largely immune from the coherent noise common in amplitude images. Together with the use of a miniature pulsed laser, the resulting images have 0.5μm diffraction-limited lateral resolution and the phase profile is accurate to about 30 nm of optical path length. SKOV-3 (ovarian cancer cells) and HUVEC (human umbilical vein endothelial cells) are imaged that display intra-cellular and intra-nuclear organelles with clarity and quantitative accuracy. The technique clearly exceeds currently available methods in phase-contrast optical microscopy in the level of resolution and detail, and provides a new modality for imaging morphology of cellular and intracellular structures that is not currently available.
Morphological representation of nonlinear filters

Morphological operators provide very efficient algorithms for signal (image) processing. The efficiency of morphological operators has been captured by using them as approximations of nonlinear operators in numerous applications (e.g., image restoration). Our approach to the approximation of nonlinear operators is the construction of morphological bounds on them. We present a general theory on the morphological bounds on nonlinear operators, propose conditions for the existence of these bounds, and derive several fundamental morphological bounds. We also derive morphological bounds on iterations of nonlinear operators, which are superior to the original nonlinear operator in some applications. Because obtaining the results of the convergence of iterations of a nonlinear operator is often particularly desirable, we provide morphological bounds on the convergence of such iterations, and propose conditions for their convergence based on morphological properties. Finally, we propose several criteria for the morphological characterization of roots of nonlinear operators.
Weakness and Fatigue in Diverse Neuromuscular Diseases

Weakness and fatigue are captured by the 6-minute walk test, but the relationship between these symptoms is uncertain. Comparison across neuromuscular diseases has not been examined. A cohort study of 114 patients with spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy, myasthenia gravis, and energy failure syndromes were included. Percent-predicted distance on the 6-minute walk test was computed from normative values to determine weakness. Fatigue was determined by the decrement in distance from the first to sixth minute. Weakness was seen across all groups (61.9%) but significant fatigue was seen only in spinal muscular atrophy (21.0%). Other groups showed little fatigue. Correlation between weakness and fatigue was significant only in spinal muscular atrophy (R = –0.71; P < .001). Longitudinally, distance walked declined only in Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy. In spinal muscular atrophy, weakness did not change, but fatigue increased significantly. These findings suggest independent mechan...
Studies on the satellite DNAs of Drosophila nasutoides: Their buoyant densities, melting temperatures, reassociation rates and localizations in polytene chromosomes☆

Abstract The karyotype of Drosophila nasutoides reveals a very large autosome pair at the metaphase plate. The application of the C-banding technique shows that this chromosome is almost entirely heterochromatic and an isochromosome (Cordeiro et al., 1975). Examination of the DNA isolated from purified nuclei of D. nasutoides in neutral CsCl gradients reveals four major satellites. As much as 60% of the total DNA appears as satellites in the DNA from larval brains. The buoyant densities of the four satellites, designated as I through IV in the order of descending density, are 1.687, 1.682, 1.669 and 1.665 g/cm3, respectively. All four satellites show strand separations in alkaline CsCl gradients with the least separation in satellite III. Thermal denaturation studies with purified native satellites show that satellites I and IV consist of repeats of identical sequences, whereas satellites II and III show a large sequence variation between repeating units. As much as 10 to 24% base-pair mis-matching is observed in the reassociated satellite II. The sequence complexities obtained from DNA reassociation kinetics data are 5, 103, 2.3 × 106 and 46 nucleotide pairs for the satellites I, II, III and IV, respectively. The complexity of satellite III is almost as large as that of Escherichia coli, when the reassociation rate is corrected according to the amount of mis-matching in this satellite. All four satellite sequences are localized in one chromosome (dot chromosome) according to in situ hybridizations to polytene chromosomes. The large heterochromatic chromosome seen at the metaphase plate appears as the dot chromosome after polytenization. Therefore, the large heterochromatic chromosome contains all four satellite DNA components.
Inhibition of Human Liver Aldehyde Oxidase: Implications for Potential Drug-Drug Interactions

During the course of our research efforts to understand the kinetics of human aldehyde oxidase as a xenobiotic-clearing enzyme, we investigated the effect of eight different inhibitors on the oxidation of the probe substrate phthalazine. Saturation kinetic parameters for phthalazine oxidation in human liver cytosol were found to be the following: Km = 8.0 ± 0.4 μM and Vmax = 4.3 ± 0.1 nmol · min−1 · mg protein−1. Inhibitory potency of the inhibitors tested ranged from 0.1 to 5 μM. Of the eight different inhibitor compounds tested, seven were observed to inhibit through a mixed mode and one through a strictly competitive mode. A ratio of the Kii and Kis values was used to assess the relative competitiveness of each inhibitor. For the mixed inhibitors, the mode of inhibition varied from mostly uncompetitive to predominantly competitive (Kii/Kis values ranging from 0.1 to 15). The implications for potential drug-drug interactions and inhibition mechanism are discussed. We found two inhibitors, clozapine and chlorpromazine, that have a moderate predicted risk of drug-drug interactions based on the Ki value relative to the inhibitor concentration in human plasma, having a calculated [I]/Ki value of 0.4 and 0.8, respectively.
Performance evaluation of low-density parity-check codes on partial-response channels using density evolution

A method to evaluate the performance of a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code on partial-response (PR) channels in terms of the noise threshold and decoding error is presented. Given a particular codeword or assuming an independent and uniformly distributed (i.u.d.) codeword for transmission, the density-evolution algorithm is used to compute the probability density function of messages passing in the decoding process, from which the decoding error is extracted. This estimated i.u.d. decoding error is used to approximate the decoding error of an ensemble of LDPC codes on arbitrary PR channels. Comparison with simulation results shows that it is a very good approximation for the simulated codes, provided their length is large enough.
Special Section Introduction-Information, Technology, and the Changing Nature of Work

The information systems field started with the expectation that information and technology will significantly shape the nature of work. The topic provides ample scope for significant scholarly inquiry. Work content, process, and organization are now different from what they were in the 1960s and 1970s, which provided a foundation for theories and understanding. Although investigations about the changing nature of work have been made for years, this special section recognizes that the time of reckoning has come again. There is a growing need for deeper understanding of information, technology, and work. The specific contributions of this special section are at the heart of new frontiers of research in information, technology, and work. We observe a continued need to study their relationships, and to separate short-term and long-term effects. We expect continued surprises and conclude that patience is required to achieve increased understanding in this important domain.
Mass digitization as fair use

Considering the implications of the late-2013 ruling in favor of Google in the Authors Guild case.
Altered Patterns of Mucin Secretion in Gastric Hyperplasia in Mice

Gastric hyperplasia occurred more frequently among densely housed mice than mice housed singly, and crowding stress may have been implicated in this increased prevalence. Affected stomachs had striking increases in sulfomucin secretion when compared with unaffected gastric mucosa. The mucin changes suggested incomplete maturation of mucous cells in this condition and were similar to those reported in association with early neoplastic or pre-neoplastic lesions in the stomach of both man and rodents. Gastric mucosal hypertrophy associated with glan- dular proliferation, cystic change, and inflammation characterizes a number of conditions in both the human and animal stomach. Cystic change with chronic in- flammation and foveolar hyperplasia is not uncommon in biopsies taken from the edges of gastric ulcers or chronic erosive lesions in man? Menettrier's disease in man also is characterized by hypertrophy and hyperpla- sia of mucous glands as well as the presence of cystic glands which often extend into the submucosa.2* Hyperplastic gastric mucosa has been observed in several animal species in association with nematode parasites in the gastric lumen.13 Similar changes also have been described in the rat as a response to experi- mental hepatic infestation with the cestode Taenia taeniaeformis.'. Certain strains of mice spontaneously develop histo- logically similar hyperplastic lesions with aging, termed adenomatous hyperplasia, giant hypertrophic gastritis, proliferative gastritis or hypertrophic gastropa- thy.16.19.23 A s imilar gastric lesion recently has been reported in some strains of mice which were thymec- tomized shortly after birth.26 A recent experiment in our laboratory was designed to study the long-term effects of housing conditions on mice; a high incidence of these hyperplastic lesions were observed among more densely housed groups, although no histologic details were reported." This present study was designed to examine the his- tology and the mucin changes of this condition. Little attention has been given previously to mucin alterations in any of these experimental models. This study can increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of cer- tain gastric disease^.^
Assessing mobile food vendors (a.k.a. street food vendors)—methods, challenges, and lessons learned for future food-environment research

Objectives: Mobile food vendors (also known as street food vendors) may be important sources of food, particularly in minority and low-income communities. Unfortunately, there are no good data sources on where, when, or what vendors sell. The lack of a published assessment method may contribute to the relative exclusion of mobile food vendors from existing foodenvironment research. A goal of this study was to develop, pilot, and refine a method to assess mobile food vendors. Study design: Cross-sectional assessment of mobile food vendors through direct observations and brief interviews. Methods: Using printed maps, investigators canvassed all streets in Bronx County, NY (excluding highways but including entrance and exit ramps) in 2010, looking for mobile food vendors. For each vendor identified, researchers recorded a unique identifier, the vendor’s location, and direct observations. Investigators also recorded vendors answers to where, when, and what they sold. Results: Of 372 identified vendors, 38% did not answer brief-interview questions (19% were ‘in transit’, 15% refused; others were absent from their carts/trucks/stands or with customers). About 7% of vendors who ultimately answered questions were reluctant to engage with researchers. Some vendors expressed concerns about regulatory authority; only 34% of vendors had visible permits or licenses and many vendors had improvised illegitimateappearing set-ups. The majority of vendors (75% of those responding) felt most comfortable speaking Spanish; 5% preferred other non-English languages. Nearly a third of vendors
Fast reliability evaluation of backend dielectrics using lifetime prediction techniques at wafer level

Two methods of predicting device lifetime for fast reliability evaluation are demonstrated. These methods are based on direct correlation using breakdown signature parameters. The first method is based on the correlation between voltage data from a ramped voltage stress (RVS) test and lifetime data from a time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) test. The second method uses a homogeneous correlation technique using near-time-zero leakage current data and the corresponding lifetime data, both from the same TDDB test. There have been some findings indicating that these correlation techniques may provide a promising way for fast reliability evaluation without a TDDB test.
The Spectacle of American Conservatism: a Quantum Leap Into the Darkness of Authoritarianism?

The paper attempts to do justice to the complexities involved in the relations between a market economy, democratic polity, and free society on the one hand, and social conservatism on the other. This attempt is undertaken given various simplifications and conflations committed by the conventional wisdom especially in the U.S. One of these is the untenable equation of economic conservatism or the laissez-faire economy with a free society. Another is the broader but equally dubious equivalence of the mixture of economic conservatism and political liberalism, i.e., a laissez-faire economy and political democracy, with a free social system. The purpose of this article is to put these conceptions in a proper perspective. Special emphasis is placed on a peculiar social system named authoritarian conservatism in light of its increasing salience in the U.S. in recent years. The conclusion is that modern America (especially the South) displays tendencies to conservative authoritarianism rather than to the renaiss...
Hydrogen Equilibration and Metastability in Amorphous Silicon

We review evidence for the vital role of H in metastability and defect equilibration in hydrogenated amorphous silicon. H pairs act both as an H reservoir that equilibrates with DB's and dopants and as the metastable H state of light-induced metastability. With ab initio pseudopotential theory, we calculate energies and configurations for two novel H pairing sites associated with small hydrogenated vacancies. We describe microscopic models of equilibration and metastability based on our calculations.
Application of Fourier transforms for microwave radiometric inversions

Existing microwave radiometer technology now provides a suitable method for remote determination of the ocean surface's absolute brightness temperature. To extract the brightness temperature of the water from the antenna temperature, an unstable Fredholm integral equation of the first kind is solved. Fourier transform techniques are used to invert the integral after it is placed into a cross correlation form. Application and verification of the methods to a two-dimensional modeling of a laboratory wave tank system are included. The instability of the ill-posed Fredholm equation is examined and a restoration procedure is included which smooths the resulting oscillations. With the recent availability and advances of fast Fourier transform (FFT) techniques, the method presented becomes very attractive in the evaluation of large quantities of data. Actual radiometric measurements of sea water are inverted using the restoration method, incorporating the advantages of the FFT algorithm for computations.
Testing gene set enrichment for subset of genes: Sub-GSE

Background Many methods have been developed to test the enrichment of genes related to certain phenotypes or cell states in gene sets. These approaches usually combine gene expression data with functionally related gene sets as defined in databases such as GeneOntology (GO), KEGG, or BioCarta. The results based on gene set analysis are generally more biologically interpretable, accurate and robust than the results based on individual gene analysis. However, while most available methods for gene set enrichment analysis test the enrichment of the entire gene set, it is more likely that only a subset of the genes in the gene set may be related to the phenotypes of interest.
Levofloxacin pharmacokinetics in ESRD and removal by the cellulose acetate high performance-210 hemodialyzer.

Abstract Background: No published data are available describing the pharmacokinetics of intravenous levofloxacin in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Objectives of this study are to determine the pharmacokinetics and dialytic clearance of levofloxacin and develop dosing strategies in these patients. Methods: Eight noninfected subjects receiving long-term thrice-weekly hemodialysis, with no measurable residual renal function, were administered intravenous levofloxacin, 250 mg, over 1 hour after a scheduled hemodialysis session. Blood samples were collected serially during the interdialytic period, during the next intradialytic period, and immediately after the next hemodialysis session. Serum concentrations of levofloxacin were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. Differential equations describing a 2-compartment open-infusion pharmacokinetic model were fit to each individual subject's serum concentration-time data by iterative nonlinear weighted least-squares regression analysis using Adapt II (Biomedical Simulations Resource, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA). Ratios of maximum serum concentration (Cmax) to minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) were calculated for common respiratory pathogens by using MIC for 90% of isolates (MIC90) data from published studies. Results: All subjects completed the study, and no adverse events were reported. Median systemic clearance, volume of distribution at steady state, elimination half-life, and Cmax were 37.0 mL/min (range, 12.8 to 42.7 mL/min), 103.3 L (range, 39.8 to 139.3 L), 34.4 hours (range, 28.4 to 39.3 hours), and 5.2 μg/mL (range, 4.1 to 11.3 μg/mL), respectively. Median dialytic clearance and levofloxacin reduction ratios were 84.4 mL/min (range, 61.8 to 107.6 mL/min) and 0.244 (range, 0.181 to 0.412), respectively. Median Cmax-MIC90 ratios were 10 or greater for Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Enterobacter cloacae, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, approximately 5 for Streptococcus pneumoniae, and less than 1 for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Conclusion: The administration of levofloxacin to patients with ESRD as 500 mg initially, followed by 250 mg every 48 hours, will provide adequate Cmax-MIC ratios after the first and subsequent doses for most patients with respiratory tract infections caused by organisms with levofloxacin MICs of 1 μg/mL or less.
Control plane design in multidomain/multilayer optical networks

As optical networks proliferate, there is a growing need to address distributed multi- domain provisioning. Although multi-domain operation has been well-studied in packet/cell- switching networks, the multilayer (granularity) circuit-switched nature of modern optical networks presents a unique set of challenges. This survey addresses control plane design for such heterogeneous infrastructures and describes new challenges in the areas of state dissemination, path computation, and survivability. Sample results from a recent study also are presented.
Maternal periconceptional alcohol consumption and congenital limb deficiencies.

Background: Women of childbearing age report high rates of alcohol consumption, which may result in alcohol exposure during early pregnancy. Epidemiological research on congenital limb deficiencies (LDs) and periconceptional exposure to alcohol is inconclusive. Methods: Data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) were examined for associations between LDs and patterns of maternal periconceptional (1 month before conception through the first trimester) alcohol consumption among LD case (n = 906) and unaffected control (n = 8352) pregnancies with expected delivery dates from 10/1997 through 12/2007. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals were estimated from unconditional logistic regression analysis for all LDs combined, specific LD subtypes (preaxial/terminal transverse), and LD anatomic groups (upper/lower limbs); interactions with folic acid (FA) supplementation were tested. Results: When compared with nondrinkers, inverse associations were found between all LDs combined, preaxial, and upper LDs and any reported periconceptional alcohol consumption (aORs ranged from 0.56–0.83), drinking without binging (aORs: 0.53–0.75), and binge drinking (≥4 drinks/occasion) (aORs: 0.64–0.94); however, none of the binge drinking aORs were statistically significant. Stratification by alcohol type showed inverse associations between all LDs combined, preaxial, transverse, and upper and lower LDs for drinking without binging of wine only (aORs: 0.39–0.67) and between all LDs combined and upper LDs for drinking without binging of combinations of alcohol (aORs: 0.63–0.87). FA did not modify observed associations. Conclusion: Maternal periconceptional alcohol consumption did not emerge as a teratogen for selected LDs in the NBDPS. Future studies should evaluate additional rare LDs among more highly exposed populations. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 100:863–876, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Oxidative rearrangements of arylalkanones with 1H-1-hydroxy-5-methyl-1,2,3-benziodoxathiole 3,3-dioxide, a 'green' analog of Koser's reagent

Previous methods for the conversion of arylalkanones to alkyl 2-arylesters by oxidative rearrangement utilized reagents which either produced toxic metal salts or halogenated organics as by-products. In this report, 1H-1-hydroxy-5-methyl-1,2,3-benziodoxathiole 3,3-dioxide (HMBI) is used to effect this useful transformation, where the reduced iodine reagent is water-soluble and readily recycled.
Maternal Emotion Socialization: The Contribution of Inhibited Behaviour and Mothers' Dissatisfaction with the Parent–Child Relationship

In the present study, we examined the associations between children's inhibited behaviour, mothers' dissatisfaction with the parent–child relationship and mothers' self-reported reactions to children's emotions. Fifty-three mother–child dyads visited the laboratory, and mothers completed questionnaires about child temperament and emotion socialization. Maternal stress stemming from dissatisfaction with the parent–child relationship was negatively predictive of mothers' supportive reactions to happiness. In addition, the interaction between children's inhibited behaviour and parent–child relationship dissatisfaction significantly predicted mothers' supportive reactions to children's fear; specifically, mothers who reported the highest levels of dissatisfaction in their relationship with their children and had children who exhibited low levels of inhibition reported the lowest levels of supportive responses to their children's fear. Importantly, mothers reported the highest levels of supportive reactions to children's fear when their children were low in inhibition, and they reported low levels of dissatisfaction in their relationship with their child. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evidence for rapid inhibition of ACTH by corticosteroids in dogs

These experiments were designed to determine whether stimulated adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) secretion in dogs can be rapidly inhibited by increases in plasma corticosteroid concentrations. Five dogs were injected with a 2:1 mixture of cortisol to corticosterone (corticosteroids; total doses of 22.5, 45, or 90 micrograms/kg) or vehicle simultaneously with the injection of insulin (0.5 U/kg). These dogs were also injected with corticosteroids (45 micrograms/kg) with ovine corticotropin-releasing factor (oCRF-41; 1 micrograms/kg) or with the same dose of corticosteroids alone. Plasma ACTH and corticosteroid concentrations were measured for 90 min after the injections. The inhibition of ACTH secretion was significant 10 min after injection of oCRF-41 and 40 min after injection of insulin. The first significant increase in ACTH during insulin-induced hypoglycemia does not occur until 30 min, however. Therefore, after both of these stimuli to ACTH, the ACTH response is inhibited within approximately 10 min of its onset. The results suggest that canine ACTH responses to stimuli can be rapidly inhibited and that one site of this inhibition is the pituitary.