cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evidence against enhanced platelet activity in sickle cell anaemia

Although numerous studies have provided indirect evidence for enhanced platelet activity in sickle cell anaemia, little attention has been directed to examination of platelet alpha and dense granule release in the sickling disorders. We simultaneously measured by radioimmunoassay plasma levels of the alpha granule constituents beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) and platelet factor 4 (PF4) in 43 children with sickle cell anaemia in steady state and 24 patients during severe vaso-occlusive crisis. beta-TG levels during steady state (50 +/- 3.6 ng/ml, mean +/- SEM) were greater (P less than 0.001) than in normal controls (36 +/- 1.6), but there was no additional significant rise during crisis (55 +/- 5.9). PF4 levels were similar (P = 0.12) in both steady state (10 +/- 1.2 ng/ml) and crisis (9.3 +/- 2.3) to those of normal controls (6.0 +/- 0.8). The similarity of beta-TG/PF4 ratios in normal and sickle cell anaemia patients as well as the positive correlation (P less than 0.05) between platelet count and beta-TG and PF4 suggested that an artefactual in vitro platelet activation was responsible for some of the observed increased beta-TG and PF4 levels. Further evidence against enhanced platelet activity in these sickle cell patients included normal intraplatelet content of the dense granule constituent 5-HT and a normal ATP/ADP ratio. From this data we conclude that platelet activation in children with sickle cell anaemia appears minimal.
An Unusual Association between Sweet's Syndrome and Metastatic Papillary Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma

Sweet's syndrome (SS), or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis, is marked by fever, leukocytosis, and painful erythematous papules/plaques resulting from neutrophil migration and accumulation in the dermis. This condition has been associated with underlying hematologic as well as solid malignancies. We describe a unique case of SS in a patient with metastatic papillary follicular thyroid carcinoma and group A streptococcal pharyngitis. The distribution of the patient's SS rash was similar to the rash of neutrophilic dermatosis (pustular vasculitis) of the dorsal hands.
Wolof Noun Classification: The Social Setting of Divergent Change.

Ongoing change in Wolof noun classification is traced by comparing nineteenth-century linguistic evidence with modern sociolinguistic data. On the rural scene, the noun class system today displays competing generalizations, associated with different social groups. Upwardly mobile middle-aged men of high caste tend to reduce the system, whereas other speakers tend to elaborate it. The source of both tendencies can be found in Wolof cultural assumptions relating social rank to norms of verbal conduct. In particular, an idea that linguistic 'error' can be appropriate for high-ranking persons underlies the reductionist tendencies of upwardly mobile speakers. Although the two tendencies compete on one level, on another they combine to form a more general systemic trend toward the incorporation of social features into Wolof syntax. (Sociolinguistic change, noun classification, norms for performance, 'appropriate error', criteria for inference of change; Wolof language of Senegal.) This paper investigates the trend of linguistic change in the Wolof system of noun classification. We will see that the system is subject to two competing pressures, one tending toward reduction of the surface morphology, the other toward its elaboration; that these tendencies are associated with different social groups; and that the association is grounded in more general cultural assumptions about verbal performance and social status. Linguistic considerations alone would not suffice either to discover or to explain the course of change in Wolof noun classification. Some consideration of Wolof culture and society is also needed. Of course, many scholars have argued that social factors must contribute to the explanation of linguistic change, and studies of socially conditioned variation and ongoing language change have become familiar. Yet one might perhaps question the extent to which some of their explanations really integrate social and linguistic factors.' The difficulty lies partly in the nature of the data they have used. Many of these studies concern cases in which the direction of linguistic change is uniform, so that the population of speakers varies only in that certain groups have carried the change further than [i] For a similar argument but one which addresses a different aspect of sociolinguistic analysis the nature of formal statements see Darnell (I975).
Patient education and the impact of new medical research

We examine the impact that medical research published in peer-reviewed journals has on the practice of medicine. We exploit the release of a recent New England Journal of Medicine article which demonstrated that the risks of attempting a vaginal birth after having a previous C-section birth (VBAC) were higher than previously thought. We find that immediately following this article, the national VBAC rate dropped by 16% and this change was largest among more educated mothers, particularly those with a graduate degree.
Field penetration and its contribution to field enhanced thermionic electron emission from nanocrystalline diamond films

Abstract Field emission from sulfur doped nanocrystalline diamond films is characterized by intense emission sites with nm scale diameters. Field emission measurements were obtained at room temperature and analyzed in terms of the Fowler–Nordheim expression where electron emission is due to tunneling through a diminished barrier. The electron emission versus temperature was also recorded at a series of applied fields from 0.5 to 0.8 V/μm. These results were analyzed in terms of a modified Richardson–Dushman relation which describes field dependent thermionic emission. It was found that both sets of data could be fit with a work function of 2.0 eV and a field enhancement factor of ∼ 1750. The large field enhancement could not be correlated with specific structures on the relatively flat surfaces. The field and thermionic-field emission from the sulfur doped nanocrystalline diamond films is evaluated by a model which includes barrier lowering as a result of field penetration effects.
Spreading in the near-field Merrimack River plume

A numerical simulation of the near-field Merrimack River plume is used to investigate how buoyant plumes spread within a few kilometers of an estuary mouth. There are three principal findings of this study. First, many properties of the plume are primarily a function radial distance from the estuary mouth, and are uniform across the arc of the plume. Second, the percent change of plume width (in the cross-flow direction) is proportional to the percent change in radial distance from the mouth; the percent change in width is shown to be about 1.2 times the percent change in radial distance, resulting in a plume with splaying streamlines within the core of the plume. Third, plume spreading is related to the local internal gravity wave speed. These finding allow the width of the plume to be estimated as a function of distance from the estuary mouth. The principal findings are compared favorably to observations.
Telomerase: A target for cancer therapeutics

The continuous growth of advanced malignancies almost universally correlates with the reactivation of telomerase. While there is still a great deal of basic and applied research to be done, telomerase remains a very attractive novel target for cancer therapeutics. In this review, we will discuss the challenges and the pros and cons of the most promising antitelomerase approaches currently being investigated.
Supply Chain Management Research and Production and Operations Management: Review, Trends, and Opportunities

We reviewed the manuscripts focused on Supply Chain Management that had been published in Production and Operations Management (POM) over roughly 15 years (1992 to 2006). The manuscripts covered dealt with topics including supply chain design, uncertainty and the bullwhip effect, contracts and supply chain coordination, capacity and sourcing decisions, applications and practice, and teaching supply chain management. In the process of this review, we highlight the significant contribution of POM to the field of supply chain management, and illustrate how this body of work has served to further the mission of the journal. We then highlight works from this group along with the discussion of selected papers from other top journals in an effort to provide a reasonably complete overview of important issues addressed in recent supply chain management research. Using our research survey and conceptual overview of the area as a foundation, we offer comments which highlight opportunities and suggest ideas on how to usefully expand the body of work in the supply chain management area.
53BP1 and the LINC Complex Promote Microtubule-Dependent DSB Mobility and DNA Repair

Summary Increased mobility of chromatin surrounding double-strand breaks (DSBs) has been noted in yeast and mammalian cells but the underlying mechanism and its contribution to DSB repair remain unclear. Here, we use a telomere-based system to track DNA damage foci with high resolution in living cells. We find that the greater mobility of damaged chromatin requires 53BP1, SUN1/2 in the linker of the nucleoskeleton, and cytoskeleton (LINC) complex and dynamic microtubules. The data further demonstrate that the excursions promote non-homologous end joining of dysfunctional telomeres and implicated Nesprin-4 and kinesins in telomere fusion. 53BP1/LINC/microtubule-dependent mobility is also evident at irradiation-induced DSBs and contributes to the mis-rejoining of drug-induced DSBs in BRCA1-deficient cells showing that DSB mobility can be detrimental in cells with numerous DSBs. In contrast, under physiological conditions where cells have only one or a few lesions, DSB mobility is proposed to prevent errors in DNA repair. PaperClip
Colloquial Arabic (Levantine): The Complete Course for Beginners by MCLOUGHLIN, LESLIE

The article reviews the book "Colloquial Arabic (Levantine): The Complete Course for Beginners," second edition, by Leslie McLoughlin.
Heat Transfer from Aluminum Surfaces to Pool Boiling He I

Heat transfer measurements between different aluminum surfaces and pool boiling He I at 4.21 K are reported. The samples are contained in a channel configuration similar to what might be found in a large bath cooled superconducting magnet. Results include heat transfer coefficients in the nucleate and film boiling regimes as well as values for the peak nucleate and minimum film boiling heat flux. The effects of sample orientation and surface condition are also studied.
Herd Behavior and Software Adoption on the Internet: An Empirical Investigation

Online users often need to make adoption decisions without accurate information about the product values. Herding is common in such situations where users infer values from other customers' choices and incorporate that information into their own decision-making process. Herding is often rational for individual decision-making; however, it may lead to adoption of inferior products. The Internet affects the herding phenomenon in adoption decisions in two ways. On the one hand, it provides more information about other users' choices, therefore making herding more feasible. On the other hand, the Internet provides more details about product values, thus making herding less desirable. In this paper, we empirically examine herd behavior in the context of online software adoption. Consistent with the predictions of the informational cascades literature, we find that online users engage in significant herd behavior in choosing software programs, and professional product reviews and user reviews have little impact on the popularity of software programs. We also find that, while product reviews do not directly affect software popularity, their availability mitigates the herd behavior. Our results validate informational cascades as an important driver for decision-making on the Internet.
Abstract 16: Physiological Characterization of a Selective Knockout of the Intracellular Isoform of Renin in the Brain of Mice

Renin gene expression is regulated by two distinct promoter-first exon combinations that target renin for either secretion (exon 1a initiating secreted renin, sREN) or for cytoplasmic retention (ex...
409 FLOW CYTOMETRY-POSITIVE, CYTOTOXICITY-NEGATIVE DONOR-SPECIFIC CROSSMATCH: TO TRANSPLANT OR NOT TO TRANSPLANT, THAT IS THE QUESTION.: Table

The phone rings at night. You are asked whether to proceed with heart transplant if the donor-specific crossmatch is flow cytometry T cell positive, cytotoxicity negative. What do you do? The importance of positive T-cell donor-specific crossmatch by flow cytometry, yet cytotoxicity negative, has not yet been established. Furthermore, outcome for these patients after heart transplant may be poor. To evaluate this, we reviewed 216 patients who underwent heart transplant (with noninduction immunosuppression) between June 2000 and August 2003 in our program. We found 13 heart transplant patients who were retrospectively tested and found to be flow T-cell positive yet cytotoxicity negative. Results None of the flow cytometry-positive, cytotoxicity-negative patients had hyperacute or delayed hyperacute rejection. Survival at 2 years was 100%. Only 1 of 13 patients had biopsy-proven rejection while 4 of 13 patients had any treated rejection (suggesting these patients had humoral rejection). No patients developed cardiac allograft vasculopathy within 2 years. For 203 control patients during the same time period, freedom from rejection was comparable (Table). Of these 13 study patients, 5 were also found to be B-cell positive by flow cytometry and cytotoxicity negative. Only 1 patient was found to be B-cell flow cytometry positive and cytotoxicity positive. This had no impact on outcome. Conclusion T-cell flow cytometry-postive, cytotoxicity-negative donor-specific crossmatch appears safe to allow heart transplantation. A larger cohort of patients is needed to confirm this finding.
The Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Stimulator IWP-953 Increases Conventional Outflow Facility in Mouse Eyes.

Purpose The nitric oxide (NO)-cyclic guanosine-3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) pathway regulates aqueous humor outflow and therefore, intraocular pressure. We investigated the pharmacologic effects of the soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator IWP-953 on primary human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cells and conventional outflow facility in mouse eyes. Methods Cyclic GMP levels were determined in vitro in HEK-293 cells and four HTM cell strains (HTM120/HTM123: predominantly myofibroblast-like phenotype, HTM130/HTM141: predominantly endothelial-like phenotype), and in HTM cell culture supernatants. Conventional outflow facility was measured following intracameral injection of IWP-953 or DETA-NO using a computerized pressure-controlled perfusion system in enucleated mouse eyes ex vivo. Results IWP-953 markedly stimulated cGMP production in HEK-293 cells in the presence and absence of DETA-NO (half maximal effective concentrations: 17 nM, 9.5 μM). Similarly, IWP-953 stimulated cGMP production in myofibroblast-like HTM120 and HTM123 cells, an effect that was greatly amplified by the presence of DETA-NO. In contrast, IWP-953 stimulation of cGMP production in endothelial-like HTM130 and HTM141 cells was observed, but was markedly less prominent than in HTM120 and HTM123 cells. Notably, cGMP was found in all HTM culture supernatants, following IWP-953/DETA-NO stimulation. In paired enucleated mouse eyes, IWP-953 at 10, 30, 60, and 100 μM concentration-dependently increased outflow facility. This effect (89.5%) was maximal at 100 μM (P = 0.002) and in magnitude comparable to DETA-NO at 100 μM (97.5% increase, P = 0.030). Conclusions These data indicate that IWP-953, via modulation of the sGC-cGMP pathway, increases aqueous outflow facility in mouse eyes, suggesting therapeutic potential for sGC stimulators as novel ocular hypotensive drugs.
On the unified theory of atmospheric particle systems part ii: self–affine particles

As the second attempt at unifying treatment of atmospheric particle systems, this paper further examines shape characterization of atmospheric particles. First, to support the theoretical framework developed in Part I, methods for studying non-spherical particles are reviewed. It is argued that these different methods can be unified under fractal geometry through the generalized power laws given in Part I. Empirical power-laws for hydrometeors scattered in literature since 1935 are summarized and reevaluated in terms of fractals. Second, generalization from self-similar to self-afflne particles is discussed. Self-affinity of atmospheric particles is exemplified by examining the exponents in the power laws between the length along a- and c-axis of ice crystals. It is argued that unlike Euclidean and self-similar particles, self-affine particles do not have a simple dimensional relation between original particles and their projections; the relation for projection of self-similar particles and Mandelbrot’ thumb rules for intersection respectively set the lower and upper bound. Using published data, self-affine particles are shown to exist in the atmosphere. The existence of self-affine particles in turn calls for instruments that can simultaneously measure mass, area and maximum diameter (or their equivalents).
Serum Follicle-Stimulating Hormone in Sheep as Measured by Radioimmunoassay

Antiovine FSH sera, obtained from 32 different rabbits, were tested with radioiodinated ovine FSH and found to be unsuitable for the development of a specific ovine FSI-I radioimmunoassay. In contrast, when utilized with labeled human FSH, two antisera appeared to be suitable. Inhibition curves with ovine serum, crude pituitary extract, and other preparations containing FSH were parallel to the standard when analyzed with either antiserum. With the exception of two preparations containing very large amounts of LH, estimates of FSH activity obtained by either radioimmunoassay in preparations containing widely varying amounts of FSH, LH, TSH, GH, and prolactin, were in good agreement with the values obtained by bioassay or predicted on the basis of the extraction procedures employed. When a pituitary homogenate and one of the LH-rich preparations were subjected to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, single peaks of radioimmunoassayable FSH activity, completely separated from LH and possessing a mobility comparable to that of highly purified and biologically active FSH, were found for each preparation. Complete recovery of exogenous FSH from serum demonstrated that serum components did not interfere with either assay. Serum concentrations of FSH, expressed in equivalents of NIH-FSH-S4 as ng/ml were: normal males, 60-119; castrated males, 280-975; castrated females, 205-690; females during the cycle except on estrus, 100-160; females on the day of estrus, 180-220. These results suggest that the two antiovine FSH sera can each be used in a heterologous radioimmunoassay system for the specific quantitation of ovine FSH.
Symposium on the International Legal Obligation to Criminalize Marital Rape - Considering the Role of the State; Comment on 'Criminalizing Sexual Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships'

This essay comments on the paper by Melanie Randall and Vesanthi Venkatesh, "Criminalizing Sexual Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships," which argues for explicit criminalization of marital rape. The essay argues that the due diligence obligation of international human rights law demands a broader approach that calls on states to take meaningful steps to prevent, protect and provide redress for marital rape, in addition to prosecuting and punishing perpetrators. Framing states' obligations in terms of that comprehensive approach would reach more deeply to address the cultural and social barriers that allow marital rape to continue without sanction.
Effect of fed-batch vs. continuous mode of operation on microbial fuel cell performance treating biorefinery wastewater

Abstract Bioelectrochemical systems have been shown to treat low-value biorefinery streams while recovering energy, however, low current densities and anode conversion efficiencies (ACE) limit their application. A bioanode was developed via enrichment of electroactive biofilm under fed-batch and continuous feeding conditions using corn stover-derived waste stream. The continuously-fed MFC exhibited a current density of 5.8 ± 0.06 A/m2 and an ACE of 39% ± 4. The fed-batch MFC achieved a similar current density and an ACE of 19.2%, however, its performance dropped after 36 days of operation to 1.1 A/m2 and 0.5%, respectively. In comparison, the ACE of the continuously-fed MFC remained stable achieving an ACE of 30% ± 3 after 48 days of operation. An MFC treating a biorefinery stream post fuel separation achieved a current density of 10.7 ± 0.1 A/m2 and an ACE of 57% ± 9 at an organic loading of 12.5 g COD/L-day. Characterization of the microbial communities indicate higher abundance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria and lower abundance of Bacteriodetes and a higher level of Geobacter spp. (1.4% vs. 0.2%) in continuously-fed MFC vs. fed-batch MFC. The results demonstrate that limiting substrate to the equivalent maximum current that the anode can generate, maintains MFC performance over a long term for high strength wastewaters, such as those generated in the biorefinery.
Analysis of Similarities and Differences of School Moral Educati on between China and the Western World and Its Enlightenment

School moral education plays an important role in the ethical construction of all the countries and has been a subject focused by all human beings. Both China and the Western countries have formed their own characteristics in this respect theoretically and practically. To strengthen and improve it, we Chinese people should give prominence to its conformance to the times and humanism, adjust its content, give fuller scope to the advantage of ideal education and explore new approaches to moral education.
An architecture for spoken dialogue management.

We propose an architecture for integrating discourse processing and speech recognition (SR) in spoken dialogue systems. It was first developed for computer-mediated bilingual dialogue in voiceto-voice machine translation applications and we apply it here to a distributed battlefield simulation system used for military training. According to this architecture discourse functions previously distributed through the interface code are collected into a centralized discourse capability. The Dialogue Manager (DM) acts as a third-party mediator overseeing the translation of input and output utterances between English and the command language of the backend system. The DM calls the Discourse Processor (DP) to update the context representation each time an utterance is issued or when a salient non-linguistic event occurs in the simulation. The DM is responsible for managing the interaction among components of the interface system and the user. For task-based human-computer dialogue systems it consults three sources of nonlinguistic context constraint in addition to the linguistic Discourse State: (1) a User Model, (2) a static Domain Model containing rules for engaging the backend system, with a grammar for the language of well-formed, executable commands, and (3) a dynamic Backend Model (BEM) that maintains updated status for salient aspects of the non-linguistic context. In this paper we describe its four-step recovery algorithm invoked by DM whenever an item is unclear in the current context, or when an interpretation error is, and show how parameter settings on the algorithm can modify the overall behavior of the system from Tutor to Trainer. This is offered to illustrate how limited (inexpensive) dialogue processing functionality, judiciously selected, and designed in conjunction with expectations for human dialogue behavior can compensate for inevitable limitations in SR, NL processor, the backend software application, or even in the user’s understanding of the task or the software system. 1. SPOKEN DIALOGUE SYSTEMS 1.1 Integrating Discourse and SR Waibel et al., (1989) and De Mori et al., (1988) extend stochastic language modeling techniques to the discourse level to improve spoken dialogue systems. The complexity of discourse state descriptions leads to a sparse data problem during training, and idiosyncratic human behavior at run time can defeat even the best probabilistic dialogue model. Symbolic approaches to spoken discourse data identify discourse constraints on language model selection at run time. Our work collects discourse-level processing into a centralized discourse capability as part of a modular user interface dialogue architecture. Its use in a spoken dialogue interface to a distributed battlefield simulation system used for military training is diagrammed in Figure 1.
Mechanical properties of rat lung during prolonged hypercapnia

Young adult rats were exposed to short-term (2 or 4 h) and prolonged (1 day to 3 wk) 5% CO2 to determine whether changes in lung mechanical properties might contribute to ventilatory adaptation. Anaesthetized rats were tracheotomized for measurement of functional residual capacity (FRC) and respiratory rates (chest intact), and for pressure-volume (PV) curves (chest open). Total lung capacity, minimal volume, lung compliance, and lung wet weight-to-dry weight ratio did not change significantly (P greater than 0.05) from air control values with CO2 exposure. From 4 h to 3 wk of hypercapnia, FRC was increased significantly (P less than 0.01) by about 25%; some of this rise could be associated with dynamic factors such as increased breathing frequency. Lung PV curves showed a small (0.5 cmH2O) left shift early in the short exposure period; this reversed into a slight (0.5 cmH2O) right shift after prolonged CO2. It is unlikely that these relatively small changes in FRC and lung recoil could contribute significantly to the previously reported long-term ventilatory adaptation to CO2.
A GUINEA PIG MODEL FOR STUDY OF BLADDER MAST CELL FUNCTION : HISTAMINE RELEASE AND SMOOTH MUSCLE CONTRACTION

Abstract To study the function of mast cells in bladder tissue, guinea pigs were sensitized with ovalbumin by intraperitoneal injections, bladder tissue strips were superfused, and tissue contractile force and histamine release were studied. Upon challenge with ovalbumin, bladder tissue contracted 64 ± 4% (mean ± S.E.M.) of the maximum carbachol contraction and released 14.1 ± 1.6% of the total tissue histamine content. Incubation of sensitized bladder tissue with indomethacin led to an increased force and duration of the contraction while incubation with nordihydroguaiaretic acid combined with pyrilamine reduced histamine release and abolished the contraction. Tissue histamine content was significantly higher in the bladder neck than in the dome, and significantly elevated following sensitization. Histochemical studies of bladder tissue demonstrated mast cell degranulation in antigen challenge experiments. In addition, a group of guinea pigs were sensitized to ovalbumin through bladder instillations. With this model, study of the functional characteristics of bladder mast cells and the acute actions of mast cell products on the bladder microenvironment, should now be feasible. ( J. Urol., 144: 1293–1300, 1990 )
Independent Blood Flow Angle and Velocity Measurement Using Transit Time Broadening of the Doppler Spectrum

One of us has calculated that it should be possible to estimate the angle between the blood stream and transducer independently of its velocity, provided that the transit time is limited by the ultrasound beam width, rather than the properties of the signal. For a small sample volume, these estimates are made from the breadth of the Doppler spectrum and the location of its peak. Experimental tests of these predictions will be presented.
Abundance of Beneficial Arthropods on Woody Landscape Plants at Professionally-Managed Landscape Sites

Eight 0.2–0.4 ha (0.5–1.0 A) sites managed by landscape professionals were monitored biweekly for beneficial arthropod activity. More than 30 generalist predator taxa were identified. Spiders and green lacewings were the most numerous taxa and both were found on all plant taxa sampled. Green lacewings, especially the egg stage, were the most numerous natural enemies detected on birch, crape myrtle, cherry, and oak trees accounting for 52.5, 49.9, 43.5, and 38.1%, respectively. Spiders accounted for 56.2% of the insectivorous arthropods observed on magnolia and were the most abundant predatory arthropod on azaleas comprising 46.5% of all arthropod predators/parasites across all properties. The most abundant predatory arthropods on junipers were spiders accounting for 75.5% of the beneficials encountered with ants (associated with an early season aphid outbreak), green lacewing larvae, lady beetles, harvestmen, and parasitic wasps comprising 15.8, 0.4, 4.3, 0.4, and 1.2%, respectively. Spiders were the most abundant predators on boxwood accounting for 70.6% of the natural enemies.
Larvae in Amphibian Development and Evolution

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the development and evolution of amphibian larvae. The free-living, aquatic larva is an ancient feature in amphibians. A complex, biphasic life history is phylogenetically widespread among recent taxa and is generally accepted as the primitive condition for each of the three living orders. Variation in developmental timing is a virtually ubiquitous phenomenon in amphibian evolution; it has played a pivotal role in the diversification of morphology, physiology, and ecology in both larvae and adults. The evolution of larvae fundamentally involves modifications in development. Changes in developmental patterns, especially those concerned with the timing of developmental events, that is, heterochrony are well documented. The mechanistic bases of these and other evolutionary changes in developmental pattern, however, generally remain poorly known. Both kinds of information are needed to reliably define the range of evolutionary opportunities and constraints conferred by the ancestral, metamorphic life history, as well as to assess the extent to which these opportunities and constraints vary among different amphibian lineages.
Submicron bipolar-CMOS technology using 16 GHz f/sub T/ double poly-Si bipolar devices

Submicrometer CMOS devices were integrated with self-aligned double-polysilicon bipolar devices, showing a cutoff frequency of 16 GHz and an ECL circuit speed of 65 ps/gate. It was found that an amorphous silicon film deposited at 575 degrees C and used as the base electrode improve the gate oxide breakdown voltage compared to a polysilicon film deposited at 600 degrees C. The PMOS FETs showed good short-channel behavior for effective channel lengths down to 0.6 mu m, while the NMOS FETs showed a hump in subthreshold current. This hump was eliminated by minimizing the overetch during the base polysilicon reactive-ion-etching process. Minimum-cell CMOS, BiCMOS and bipolar ECL (emitter-coupled logic) circuits were characterized as functions of loading capacitance, power dissipation, power supply voltage, and channel length of the MOS devices. The relative circuit speed improvements in the BiCMOS and CMOS circuits as the channel lengths were scaled from 0.8 mu m to 0.4 mu m were almost the same, while the BiCMOS circuit speed became slower than that of the CMOS when the power supply voltage was reduced below 3.3 V. >
GATA-1 Directly Induces Physical Proximity between the LCR and β Globin Promoter in Erythroid Cells.

The regulation of higher-order chromatin folding is a poorly understood aspect of nuclear biology. The beta globin locus is one of the most thoroughly studied mammalian loci with regard to its chromatin organization and sub-nuclear localization. The LCR (locus control region) is a powerful enhancer that acts at great distances to regulate the expression of all beta-like globin genes. Recent evidence suggests that the LCR is in physical proximity with the active but not inactive globin gene promoters, thereby looping out up to tens of kilobases of intervening sequence. The LCR-promoter interaction is dynamically regulated throughout development and cellular differentiation. However, the transcription factors that mediate long range “loops” are unknown. Here we examined the essential erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 for its role in LCR-promoter communication using the 3C (Chromosome Conformation Capture) technique. For our studies we used a genetic complementation assay in which erythroid maturation and globin gene expression depend on the activity of a conditional, drug-activated form of GATA-1. The results suggest that GATA-1 induces proximity of the LCR with the active beta-globin promoter. Kinetic studies revealed that the LCR-promoter interaction occurs rapidly and coincides with or even precedes the onset of globin gene transcription. Moreover, “loop” formation correlates with GATA-1 occupancy as determined by ChIP assay, and occurs in the presence of cyclohexamide, indicating that the effects of GATA-1 are direct. Together, these data suggest GATA-1 is a required component for the formation of a tissue-specific chromatin loop. Additional experiments with mutant versions of GATA-1 that address which known GATA-1 cofactors are required for this novel function of GATA-1 will be discussed.
Land Use Problems and Conflicts: Causes, Consequences and Solutions

The causes, consequences and control of land use change have become topics of enormous importance in contemporary society. Not only is urban land use and sprawl a hot-button issue, but issues of rural land use have also been in the headlines. Policy makers and citizens are starting to realize that many environmental and economic issues have the question of land use at their very core. Comprising papers from a conference sponsored by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, Land Use Problems and Conflicts draws together some of the most up-to-date research in this area. Sections are devoted to problems in the United States and Europe, the consequences of such problems, land use-related data and alternative solutions to conflict. With a lineup including some of the best scholarship on this subject to date, this volume will be of use to those studying environmental and land use issues in addition to policy makers and economists.
Improving Receipt and Preventive Care Delivery for Adolescents and Young Adults: Initial Lessons from Top-Performing States

Purpose Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 hold promise for improving access to and receipt of preventive services for adolescents and young adults (AYAs). The Title V Block Grant transformation also includes a focus on improving adolescent preventive care. This brief report describes and discusses an inquiry of promising strategies for improving access and preventive care delivery identified in selected high-performing states. Methods Two data sources were used to identify top-performing states in insurance enrollment and preventive care delivery: National Survey of Children's Health for adolescents (ages 12-17 years) and Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System for young adults (ages 18-25 years). Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders to identify promising strategies related to increasing AYAs' insurance enrollment and receipt of preventive services. Results Seven top-performing states were selected: California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, Vermont, and Texas; 27 stakeholders completed interviews. Four strategies were identified regarding insurance enrollment: use of partnerships; special populations outreach; leveraging laws and resources; and youth engagement. Four strategies were identified regarding quality preventive care: expand provider capacity to serve AYAs; adopt medical home policies; establish quality improvement projects; and enhance consumer awareness of well-visit. States focused more on adolescents than young adults and on increasing health insurance enrollment than the provision of preventive services. Conclusions This commentary identifies strategies and recommends areas for future action, as Title V programs and their partners focus on improving healthcare for AYAs as ACA implementation and the Title V transformation continues.
Epigenetic modification of nucleic acids: from basic studies to medical applications

The epigenetic modification of nucleic acids represents one of the most significant areas of study in the field of nucleic acids because it makes gene regulation more complex and heredity more complicated, thus indicating its profound impact on aspects of heredity, growth, and diseases. The recent characterization of epigenetic modifications of DNA and RNA using chemical labelling strategies has promoted the discovery of these modifications, and the newly developed single-base or single-cell resolution mapping strategies have enabled large-scale epigenetic studies in eukaryotes. Due to these technological breakthroughs, several new epigenetic marks have been discovered that have greatly extended the scope and impact of epigenetic modifications in nucleic acids over the past few years. Because epigenetics is reversible and susceptible to environmental factors, it could potentially be a promising direction for clinical medicine research. In this review, we have comprehensively discussed how these epigenetic marks are involved in disease, including the pathogenesis, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. These findings have revealed that the epigenetic modification of nucleic acids has considerable significance in various areas from methodology to clinical medicine and even in biomedical applications.
Demographic Characteristics, Components of Sexuality and Gender, and Minority Stress and Their Associations to Excessive Alcohol, Cannabis, and Illicit (Noncannabis) Drug Use Among a Large Sample of Transgender People in the United States

The current study examined demographics, sexual orientation, gender characteristics, and gender minority stress and their association to excessive alcohol, cannabis, and illicit (noncannabis) drug use among 1210 transgender adults living in the United States. The authors conducted a secondary analysis of data that included 680 transgender women (M age = 32.63, SD age = 12.29) and 530 transgender men (M age = 26.14, SD age = 7.42). A modified version of the Risk Behavioral Assessment quantified participants' alcohol, cannabis, and illicit drug use in the past 3 months. Overall, 21.5% of participants reported excessive alcohol use; no significant differences were found on the rates of excessive alcohol use between transgender women and men. Cannabis use among our sample was 24.4%; trangender men reported significantly higher rates of cannabis use compared to transgender women. Illicit drug (noncannabis) use among our sample was 11.6%; transgender men also reported significantly higher rates of illicit drug use compared to transgender women. Multivariate analyses suggested that gender dysphoria was significantly associated with: excessive alcohol use for transgender women, cannabis use among both transgender women and men, and illicit (noncannabis) drug use among transgender women. A nonheterosexual orientation was associated with increased odds of cannabis use among transgender women and men; a nonheterosexual orientation was associated with greater odds of illicit substance use among transgender men but not among transgender women. Gender minority stressors were independently associated with excessive alcohol use among transgender men and cannabis use among transgender women. The authors suggest that minority stress may only partially account for substance use among transgender people. Consequently, the authors suggest that in addition to minority stress, other biopsychosocial mechanisms should continue to be examined to identify pathways that may lead to the development of effective substance use prevention efforts and treatment programs.
Jim Davis, Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England

Review by Heather McPherson (University of Alabama at Birmingham) of Jim Davis, Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. 287; 76 b/w illus. £64.99. ISBN 9781107098855.
Real-Time Novel Event Detection from Social Media

In this paper, we present a new approach for detecting novel events from social media, specially Twitter, at real-time. An event is usually defined by who, what, where and when, and an event tweet usually contains terms corresponding to these aspects. To exploit this information, we propose a method that incorporates simple semantics by splitting the tweet term space into groups of terms that have the meaning of the same type. These groups are called semantic categories (classes) and each reflects one or more event aspects. The semantic classes include named entity, mention, location, hashtag, verb, noun and embedded link. To group tweets talking about the same event into the same cluster, similarity measuring is conducted by calculating class-wise similarity and then aggregating them together. Users of a real-time event detection system are usually only interested in novel (new) events, which are happening now or just happened a short time ago. To fulfill this requirement, a temporal identification module is used to filter out event clusters that are about old stories. The clustering module also computes a novelty score for each event cluster, which reflects how novel the event is, compared to previous events. We evaluated our event detection method using multiple quality metrics and a large-scale event corpus having millions of tweets. The experiment results show that the proposed online event detection method achieves the state-of-the-art performance. Our experiment also shows that the temporal identification module can effectively detect old events.
HTLV-1 viral oncogene HBZ induces osteolytic bone disease in transgenic mice

// Alison K. Esser 1,* , Daniel A. Rauch 1,* , Jingyu Xiang 1 , John C. Harding 1 , Nicole A. Kohart 2 , Michael H. Ross 1 , Xinming Su 1 , Kevin Wu 1 , Devra Huey 2 , Yalin Xu 1 , Kiran Vij 1 , Patrick L. Green 2 , Thomas J. Rosol 2 , Stefan Niewiesk 2 , Lee Ratner 1 and Katherine N. Weilbaecher 1 1 Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA 2 Department of Veterinary Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA * Co-authors Correspondence to: Katherine N. Weilbaecher, email: // Keywords : HTLV-1, ATL, leukemia, HBZ, bone Received : June 10, 2017 Accepted : August 03, 2017 Published : August 27, 2017 Abstract Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is an aggressive T cell malignancy that occurs in HTLV-1 infected patients. Most ATL patients develop osteolytic lesions and hypercalcemia of malignancy, causing severe skeletal related complications and reduced overall survival. The HTLV-1 virus encodes 2 viral oncogenes, Tax and HBZ. Tax, a transcriptional activator, is critical to ATL development, and has been implicated in pathologic osteolysis. HBZ, HTLV-1 basic leucine zipper transcription factor, promotes tumor cell proliferation and disrupts Wnt pathway modulators; however, its role in ATL induced osteolytic bone loss is unknown. To determine if HBZ is sufficient for the development of bone loss, we established a transgenic Granzyme B HBZ (Gzmb-HBZ) mouse model. Lymphoproliferative disease including tumors, enlarged spleens and/or abnormal white cell counts developed in two-thirds of Gzmb-HBZ mice at 18 months. HBZ positive cells were detected in tumors, spleen and bone marrow. Importantly, pathologic bone loss and hypercalcemia were present at 18 months. Bone-acting factors were present in serum and RANKL, PTHrP and DKK1, key mediators of hypercalcemia and bone loss, were upregulated in Gzmb-HBZ T cells. These data demonstrate that Gzmb-HBZ mice model ATL bone disease and express factors that are current therapeutic targets for metastatic and bone resident tumors.
Well-Being Tracking via Smartphone-Measured Activity and Sleep: Cohort Study.

Background: Automatically tracking mental well-being could facilitate personalization of treatments for mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder. Smartphones present a novel and ubiquitous opportunity to track individuals’ behavior and may be useful for inferring and automatically monitoring mental well-being. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which activity and sleep tracking with a smartphone can be used for monitoring individuals’ mental well-being. Methods: A cohort of 106 individuals was recruited to install an app on their smartphone that would track their well-being with daily surveys and track their behavior with activity inferences from their phone’s accelerometer data. Of the participants recruited, 53 had sufficient data to infer activity and sleep measures. For this subset of individuals, we related measures of activity and sleep to the individuals’ well-being and used these measures to predict their well-being. Results: We found that smartphone-measured approximations for daily physical activity were positively correlated with both mood (P=.004) and perceived energy level (P<.001). Sleep duration was positively correlated with mood (P=.02) but not energy. Our measure for sleep disturbance was not found to be significantly related to either mood or energy, which could imply too much noise in the measurement. Models predicting the well-being measures from the activity and sleep measures were found to be significantly better than naive baselines (P<.01), despite modest overall improvements. Conclusions: Measures of activity and sleep inferred from smartphone activity were strongly related to and somewhat predictive of participants’ well-being. Whereas the improvement over naive models was modest, it reaffirms the importance of considering physical activity and sleep for predicting mood and for making automatic mood monitoring a reality.
Visualizing Dynamic Gene Interactions to Reverse Engineer Gene Regulatory Networks Using Topological Data Analysis

This research uses visual analytics to better understand genome dynamics, through a novel application of topological data analysis (TDA) to time series gene expression data. TDA is a model-free approach in which relations are obtained directly from the data. We build the dynamics of the system into the topology, then calculate the influence of potential regulatory genes over the expression of other genes. An interactive 3D visualization is provided to aid in the discovery of functional relationships. These capabilities are contained in a new R package. We apply our technique to synthetic data from the DREAM4 gene regulatory network inference challenge and compare our results to both the challenge submissions and those produced by networkBMA, a Bioconductor package designed to work with time series gene expression data. A case study is presented detailing the use of the visual analytics tool.