cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Deleted in liver cancer 3 (DLC-3), a novel Rho GTPase-activating protein gene, inhibits cell growth and is down-regulated in cancer

2569 Two members of the deleted in liver cancer gene family, DLC-1 and DLC-2, are emerging as bona fide tumor suppressor genes that can inhibit cancer cell growth and motility. DLC-1 and DLC-2 are approximately 120 kDa polypeptides that serve as GTPase activating proteins (GAPs) for members of the Rho family of small GTPases, converting them to the inactive, GDP-bound form. In this report, we characterize a gene on chromosome Xq13 that encodes DLC-3 (also known as STARD8), a novel member of the DLC family. Two DLC-3 transcripts that differ at the 5’ end have been identified. DLC-3a encodes a polypeptide of 1103 amino acids that is around 50% identical in amino acid sequence to DLC-1/DLC-2 and has a similar structural organization, consisting of an N- terminal sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain, a serine-rich domain, the RhoGAP domain, and a C-terminal lipid binding START domain. A second isoform (DLC-3b, KIAA0189) appears to arise from the use of an alternative promoter and would yield a protein lacking the SAM domain. The high degree of sequence identity between the RhoGAP domain of DLC-3 and those of DLC-1 and DLC-2, which were shown to act as GAPs for RhoA and Cdc42, suggests that DLC-3 may have similar activity. The DLC-3 gene is widely expressed, overlapping with the distribution of the DLC-1 and DLC-2 transcripts. DLC-3 mRNA levels were low or absent in a significant number of breast, ovarian, liver, and prostate cancer cell lines. Using a Cancer Profiling Array (Clontech) to compare DLC-3 expression in matched tumor and normal human tissues, a decrease or loss of DLC-3 mRNA was observed in kidney, lung, ovarian, uterine, and breast cancer samples. By RT-PCR, down-regulation of DLC-3 was detected in primary prostate carcinomas and benign prostate hyperplasia relative to normal prostate tissue. Transfection of MCF-7 breast cancer cells and 22Rv1 prostate cancer cells with a DLC-3a expression vector suppressed cell growth and colony formation. These results indicate that DLC-3 may play a role in the control of cell proliferation, and its deregulation may contribute to breast and prostate tumorigenesis.
Pulmonary Venous Remodeling in Pulmonary Hypertension: The Veins Take Center Stage.

Article, see p 1796 There is a complex relationship between pulmonary vascular remodeling and pulmonary hypertension with structural and functional changes in the vasculature being causal for, or occurring as a consequence of, elevated filling pressures in the cardiopulmonary system. Owing to this interplay, the primary pathology (pulmonary vascular versus cardiac) and resultant pulmonary hypertensive hemodynamic profile may both be key determinants of the location and the extent of architectural changes in the pulmonary vasculature. Although the pulmonary arterial and venous vessels form a contiguous unobstructed structure, it is well recognized that the genetic, molecular, and metabolic factors or exposures that initiate pulmonary vascular remodeling have a propensity to target either the arteries or the veins, preferentially.1,2 For example, in pulmonary arterial hypertension, the distal pulmonary arteries develop intimal and medial hypertrophy, fibrosis, inflammation, and thrombosis in situ, while the pulmonary veins are spared.1,2 In contrast, in pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, these pathological changes are restricted to pulmonary veins with the observed effect on pulmonary arteries considered a secondary finding.1,2 The aberrant structural remodeling characteristic of these pulmonary vascular diseases creates a segment of increased resistance in the cardiopulmonary circuit that ultimately leads to the hemodynamic findings consistent with pulmonary hypertension, which are discoverable clinically during invasive interrogation. These elevated filling pressures, in turn, may modulate disease progression via pressure- or flow-related compensatory remodeling in previously unaffected parts of the pulmonary vascular tree, as well as the right ventricle. Thus, while pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary veno-occlusive disease are diseases of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins, respectively, they are illustrative of the fact that vascular remodeling and cardiopulmonary hemodynamics serve as interrelated …
Frailty and CKD: Chicken or the Egg?

Frailty is a process theorized to be, at least in part, attributable to chronic inflammation marked by hormonal changes, anorexia, decreased muscle strength, and depression. The phenotypic definition operationalized by Fried et al. ([1][1]) includes any three or more of the following: weight loss,
Fabrication of a nanoelectromechanical bistable switch using directed assembly of SWCNTs

As CMOS scaling limit is reached, no-charge based devices and non-equilibrium systems need to be investigated as alternative switching units. We present a non-volatile nanoelectromechanical switch with state variable mechanical positioning of a single-walled CNT bundle suspended over metal electrodes deposited in dry-etched trenches. The switch is fabricated using a single mask fabrication process followed by dielectrophoresis-based directed assembly of the CNT bundle. The design exhibits symmetric behavior with the same actuation voltage (<5 V) for both ON and OFF states. A coarse grain model is used to investigate the effect of the slack of the assembled CNT bundle over the shoulder of the trench, CNT bundle diameter, surface interaction between the CNT bundle and the underlying substrate, and the actuation voltage on the operational dynamics of these devices.
A Whale Is a Palimpsest: Dismembering and Remembering in Moby-Dick and Fighting the Whales

In Chapter 104, “The Fossil Whale,” Melville’s Ishmael pronounces leviathan a “text” (“But when leviathan is the text, the case is altered”), later daring his comrades and his audience to “Read it if you can.” In Moby-Dick (1851) and the lesser-known Fighting the Whales (1863) by Scottish novelist R.M. Ballantyne, whalemen read the whale’s flesh like a text to imaginatively “remember” (put back together) its life story while industriously dismembering its body. They read the text of the whale’s body as a palimpsest with multiple layers of physical semiotic inscription: harpoons embedded in the whale from previous skirmishes with whalemen in addition to scars and distinguishing marks all help craft this life story (which also materially contributed to early scientific knowledge about whales). The whale is endowed with this “memory” and funereally commemorated after the cutting-in and trying-out. This act of “remembering” is then set against the constant danger of the whaleman’s life—the dismembered body is sometimes his own—and the familiar nineteenth-century trope of burial at sea in which the lack of a fixed grave marker necessitates alternate forms of commemoration for the slain whale hunter.
Abstract LB-159: The association of alveolar lipid laden macrophages with inflammatory cytokines in electronic cigarette users

Introduction: Lipid laden macrophages (LLM) from lung bronchoscopies have been identified as characteristic for some patients with e-cigarette (e-cig) or vaping product use associated lung injury (EVALI). While vaping with THC oils containing vitamin E acetate is thought to have caused the outbreak, there is a subset of the EVALI cases who reported vaping only with nicotine-containing e-cigs. A recent animal study showed that propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin altered lipid homeostasis and induced LLM. In addition to the associations with EVALI, understanding the health effects of vaping with e-cigs in general needs additional investigation. Objective: We examined alterations in alveolar lipid homeostasis comparing e-cig users to cigarette smokers and never-smokers. Further, we determined the association of LLM with inflammatory cytokines. Methods: LLMs, inflammatory cell counts, and cytokines were determined in bronchial alveolar fluids (BAL) from a cross-sectional study of 62 volunteer subjects, age 21-45. Participants who were e-cig users were either never-smokers or former smokers. Cigarette smoking and e-cig use were confirmed by biomarkers of exposure, including lung and urine cotinine and 3-hydroxycotinine and urine anatabine, nicotelline, and PG. Results: High LLM counts were found in the lungs of almost all smokers and about half of the e-cig users, but not in any never-smokers (P 0.05). LLMs were not related to THC exposure. Discussion: This is the first report comparing LLMs in the lungs of e-cig users with smokers and never-smokers. LLMs were found in lungs of both smokers and a portion of e-cig users. Given their presence among smokers, they are not likely to be useful as a marker identifying those with EVALI. However, LLMs may be one of the markers for specific disease risks associated with e-cig usage, but not smoking. Citation Format: Min-Ae Song, Peter G. Shields, Jo L. Freudenheim, Theodore M. Brasky, Joseph P. McElroy, Joseph P. McElroy, Sarah A. Reisinger, Daniel Y. Weng, Rongqin Ren, Thomas Eissenberg, Mark D. Wewers, Konstantin Shilo. The association of alveolar lipid laden macrophages with inflammatory cytokines in electronic cigarette users [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-159.
Cardiac Pressure Overload Decreases ETV1 Expression in the Left Atrium, Contributing to Atrial Electrical and Structural Remodeling.

Background: Elevated intracardiac pressure attributable to heart failure induces electrical and structural remodeling in the left atrium (LA) that begets atrial myopathy and arrhythmias. The underl...
A reagentless and rapid method to measure water content in oils.

Abstract A simple method for measuring water levels from 1 mg L−1 to 5000 mg L−1 in oils that uses no chemical reagents or matrix specific calibrations is described. The approach involves capturing the water from the oil on an infrared transparent membrane and then recording an IR spectrum in transmission mode through the membrane. A classic spectrum of liquid water is obtained for all oil types, as both dissolved water and emulsion-based water are extracted to form an adsorbed layer of water on the membrane surface. The method was tested with three types of oils that are identified as difficult in the ASTM method E2412, as these oils, exhibit distortions in the water bands due to interactions of the water with the oil, or have significant levels of scattering due to the presence of water droplets. In comparing water concentrations measured by Karl Fischer titration, a high level of linearity (R2 > 0.995) is obtained over the range of 1 mg L−1 to 5000 mg L−1 with slope values of 0.99 for power steering fluid, 0.98 for vegetable oils, and 0.95 for extreme pressure fluid. This shows that water concentration obtained by the membrane method were comparable to those obtained by Karl Fischer. No matrix calibrations were needed as the concentration of water in oil was determined using literature values for the extinction coefficients of water. The wide detection range is obtained by varying the volume of oil (30 μL-30 mL) passed through the membrane and by choosing the water band for quantification.
Salmonella-Based Therapy Targeting Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Restructures the Immune Contexture to Improve Checkpoint Blockade Efficacy.

Therapeutic options for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment have changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of novel immunotherapeutic approaches. Among these, immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) using monoclonal antibodies has shown tremendous promise in approximately 20% of patients. In order to better predict patients that will respond to ICB treatment, biomarkers such as tumor-associated CD8+ T cell frequency, tumor checkpoint protein status and mutational burden have been utilized, however, with mixed success. In this study, we hypothesized that significantly altering the suppressive tumor immune landscape in NSCLC could potentially improve ICB efficacy. Using sub-therapeutic doses of our Salmonella typhimurium-based therapy targeting the suppressive molecule indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (shIDO-ST) in tumor-bearing mice, we observed dramatic changes in immune subset phenotypes that included increases in antigen presentation markers, decreased regulatory T cell frequency and overall reduced checkpoint protein expression. Combination shIDO-ST treatment with anti-PD-1/CTLA-4 antibodies enhanced tumor growth control, compared to either treatment alone, which was associated with significant intratumoral infiltration by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells. Ultimately, we show that increases in antigen presentation markers and infiltration by T cells is correlated with significantly increased survival in NSCLC patients. These results suggest that the success of ICB therapy may be more accurately predicted by taking into account multiple factors such as potential for antigen presentation and immune subset repertoire in addition to markers already being considered. Alternatively, combination treatment with agents such as shIDO-ST could be used to create a more conducive tumor microenvironment for improving responses to ICB.
Ambulatory Assessment Methods to Examine Momentary State-Based Predictors of Opioid Use Behaviors.

Addiction scientists have begun using ambulatory assessment methods—including ecological momentary assessment (EMA), experience sampling, and daily diaries—to collect real-time or near-real-time reports of participants’ internal states in their natural environments. The goal of this short review is to synthesize EMA findings from our research group, which has studied several hundred outpatients during treatment for opioid-use disorder (OUD). (We cite pertinent findings from other groups, but have not tried to be comprehensive.) One of our main goals in using EMA is to examine momentary changes in internal states that proximally predict, or concurrently mark, events such as lapses to opioid use. We summarize findings evaluating several classes of momentary markers or predictors (craving, stress, negative and positive moods, and physical pain/discomfort) of lapses and other states/behaviors. Craving and some negatively valenced mood states are concurrently and prospectively associated with lapses to opioid use during treatment. Craving is also concurrently and prospectively associated with momentary changes in stress and mood. Convincing evidence has not yet emerged for stress as a robust redictor of lapse to opioid use; it appears to be contributory, but neither necessary nor sufficient. Ambulatory assessment can capture changes in internal states and drug-related behaviors in situ and at high temporal resolution. We recommend research strategies that may increase the clinical and prognostic utility of ambulatory assessment, including denser sampling (i.e., more assessments per day) and more attention to heterogeneity across people and across populations.
Importance of math prerequisites for performance in introductory physics

Physics 2 students do better when they have taken a vector calculus class because it allows them to reason better about vectors and geometry.
Dermatologic Adverse Effects of Anticancer Therapy I: General Principles

This chapter provides an overview of issues, concepts, and general approaches to caring for the patient experiencing dermatologic adverse effects of anticancer therapy. Reviewed are strategies and protocols for treating common symptoms and conditions experienced by these patients. Specific anticancer therapeutic classes are addressed in greater detail in the following three chapters.
Once bitten, twice shy: A French traveller and go-between in Mughal India, 1648–67:

This article examines the materials around Francois le Gouz de la Boullaye, a French gentilhomme (gentleman or minor aristocrat) from the Anjou Province of western France, who visited India twice, ...
The weighted intruder path covering problem

Abstract Effectively detecting and interdicting intruders within a defender’s territory is a common security problem. Often, the defender’s territory is decomposed into spatially distinct stages for organizational convenience. Given an intruder attempting to traverse a spatially-decomposed region via multiple possible paths, this research aims to effectively and cost-efficiently identify a defensive strategy that locates sets of detection resources and interdiction resources, each of which has different types of resources that vary by cost and capability. We formulate and validate a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model to solve the underlying problem first using a leading commercial solver (BARON) and then via two genetic algorithms (RWGA and NSGA-II). Computational testing first identifies instance size limitations for identifying a global optimal solution via BARON, motivating the use of metaheuristics. Subsequent testing demonstrates the superior performance of RWGA and NSGA-II on 10 randomly generated instances for each of 20 various instance sizes. For each 20 of these instance sizes, both RWGA and NSGA-II produce higher-quality and more non-dominated solutions than BARON while using much less computational effort. Subsequent testing of only RWGA and NSGA-II over a designed set of test instances identifies NSGA-II as the recommended technique to solve larger-sized instances of the underlying problem.
High Frequency Model of Double-Barrier Resonant Tunneling

A theory of resonant tunneling in the presence of an ac field is presented. An analytical high frequency model is formulated, and the device frequency characteristics are discussed.
Opioid Usage in Peripheral Neuropathy: A Population-Based Study (P6.096)

OBJECTIVE: To determine opioid use patterns in a population-based cohort of peripheral neuropathy cases. BACKGROUND: Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a common neurologic condition with a prevalence of approximately 2% in the general population and 8.1% in those 60 years and older. Pain is a significant part of the disease burden of PN. Formal guidelines recommend non-opioid agents as first-line therapy for neuropathic pain, with opioids considered as second- or third-line therapy. Despite such recommendations, opioids are prescribed for acute and chronic pain management in patients with PN. Increased opioid use, especially chronic use, could put this population at increased risk for opioid-related side effects. DESIGN/METHODS: Electronic health records for 2,982 patients with a diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy (PN) between 2006 and 2010 in Olmsted County, MN and 14,435 matched controls were screened for outpatient opioid prescriptions from 2006 to 2010. Opioid use patterns were divided into those receiving only opioid prescriptions without refills and those with at least one opioid prescription with refills. RESULTS: Seventy percent of PN cases and 41% of controls had at least one opioid prescription between 2006 and 2010. Opioid refill information was known for 98% and 99% of cases and controls, respectively. Opioid prescription with refills was more common in PN cases (24%) than in controls (11%). Opioid prescription without refills was also more common in PN cases than in controls, but the difference was less dramatic (43% versus 29%). CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral neuropathy is associated with higher opioid use. Greater chronic opioid use in those with PN may reflect the disease burden of chronic neuropathic pain, while greater acute opioid use may reflect a greater susceptibility for experiencing acute pain. These findings emphasize the importance of optimizing non-opioid therapy for PN patients to reduce opioid-related side effects, which can confer additional disability. Study Supported by: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Rochester Epidemiology Project, and the NIH (R01 AG034676, K08 NS065007-01A1, NS36797, K08 CA169443-02) Disclosure: Dr. Hoffman has nothing to disclose. Dr. Staff has nothing to disclose.
Ser, ciencia y lógica en el Siglo de Oro

Spanish and Spanish-American logicians of the 16th and 17th centuries worked with a complex "theory of types"to account for the various kinds of beings denoted or signified in language. A. de la Vera Cruz and his colleagues supposed a many-sorted logical system where general sentences are reducible to strings of identities whose terms refer to singular things and which lend themselves to basic semantic analysis.A. Rubio worked out a theory of scientific language and applied it to logic itself, defining propositions of logic as attributions of second-ordermental relational properties to first order contents, themselves attribut able to singular objects.
Mechanism-based inactivation of leukotriene A4 hydrolase/aminopeptidase by leukotriene A4. Mass spectrometric and kinetic characterization.

Abstract "Suicide" inactivation of leukotriene (LT) A4 hydrolase/aminopeptidase occurs via an irreversible mechanism-based process which is saturable, of pseudo firstorder, and dependent upon catalysis. Data obtained with either recombinant enzyme or enzyme purified from human leukocytes were similar. Apparent binding constants and inactivation rate constants are equivalent, compatible with a single type of substrate-enzyme complex which partitions between two fates, turnover and inactivation. Both catalytic functions are inactivated, consistent with an overlapping active site for this bifunctional enzyme. The partition ratio (turnover/inactivation) for the LTA4-enzyme complex is 129 +/- 16 for LTA4 hydrolase activity and 124 +/- 10 for aminopeptidase activity. The pH dependence for turnover and inactivation are indistinguishable with a maximum at pH 8. L-Proline p-nitroanilide, a weak substrate with a high Km for the aminopeptidase affords only partial protection against inactivation by LTA4. However, two potent competitive inhibitors, bestatin and captopril, protect both catalytic processes from inactivation, consistent with an active-site specificity for the suicide event. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry indicates that the molecular weight of pure recombinant enzyme is 69,399 +/- 4 and that covalent modification accompanies catalysis, producing an LTA4:enzyme adduct with a molecular weight 69,717 +/- 4 and a 1:1 stoichiometry. In agreement with kinetic data, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry shows that bestatin inhibits the covalent modification of enzyme by LTA4 and that the extent of modification is proportional to the loss of enzymatic activity.
Spatial Modulation in MIMO Limited-Feedback Spectrum-Sharing Systems With Mutual Interference and Channel Estimation Errors

This letter investigates spatial modulation (SM) in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) spectrum-sharing systems in an effort to improve the overall spectral efficiency. Specifically, we study the secondary system performance adopting the SM technique under mutual primary-secondary interferences and channel estimation errors (CEEs). With limited feedback from the primary receiver, a closed-form expression for the average pairwise error probability, a tight upper bounded average bit error rate expression, and an approximate simple, yet accurate expression are derived over Rayleigh fading channels. Simulation results, which corroborate the numerical ones, show the importance of SM in improving the overall secondary performance and its robustness to CEEs.
Diagnostic probes for particle and molecule distributions in laser-generated plumes

Laser microprobe analysis (LMA) offers good spatial and depth resolution for solid sampling of virtually any material. Coupled with numerous optical spectroscopic and mass spectrometric detection methods, LMA is a powerful analytical tool. Yet, fundamental understanding of the interaction between the laser and the sample surface leading to the formation of the high temperature plasma (plume) is far from complete. To better understand the process of plume formation, an imaging method based on acousto-optic laser beam deflection has been coupled with light scattering methods and absorption methods to record temporal and spatial maps of the particle and molecule distributions in the plume with good resolution. Because particles can make up a major fraction of the vaporized material under certain operating conditions, they can reflect a large loss of atomic signal for elemental analysis, even when using auxiliary excitation to further vaporized the particles. Characterization of the particle size distributions in plumes should provide insight into the vaporization process and information necessary for studies of efficient particle transfer. Light scattering methods for particle size analysis based on the Mie Theory are used to determine the size of particles in single laser-generated plumes. The methods used, polarization ratio method and dissymmetry ratiomore » method, provide good estimates of particle size with good spatial and temporal resolution for this highly transient system. Large particles, on the order of 0.02-0.2{mu}m in radius, were observed arising directly from the sample surface and from condensation.« less
The response of area MT and V1 neurons to transparent motion

An important use of motion information is to segment a complex visual scene into surfaces and objects. Transparent motions present a particularly difficult problem for segmentation because more than one velocity vector occurs at each local region in the image, and current machine vision systems fail in these circumstances. The fact that motion transparency is prevalent in natural scenes, and yet artificial systems display an inability to analyze it, suggests that the primate visual system has developed specialized methods for perceiving transparent motion. Also, the currently prevalent model of physiological mechanisms for motion-direction selectivity employs inhibitory interactions between neurons; such interactions would silence neurons under transparent conditions and render the visual system blind to transparent motion. To examine how the primate visual system solves this transparency problem, we recorded the activity of direction-selective cells in the first (area V1) and in a later (area MT) stage in the cortical motion-processing pathway in behaving monkeys. The visual stimuli consisted of random dot patterns forming single moving surfaces, transparent surfaces, and motion discontinuities. We found that area V1 cells responded to their preferred direction of movement even under transparent conditions, whereas area MT cells were suppressed under the transparent condition. These data suggest a simple solution to the transparency problem at the level of area V1. More than one motion vector can be represented at a single retinal location by different subpopulations of neurons tuned to different directions of motion; these subpopulations may represent the early stage for segmenting different, transparent surfaces. The results also suggest that facilitatory mechanisms, which unlike inhibitory interactions are largely unaffected by transparent conditions, play an important role in direction selectivity in area V1. The inhibitory interactions for different motion directions for area MT neurons may contribute to a mechanism for smoothing or averaging the velocity field, computations thought to be necessary for reducing noise and interpolating moving surfaces from sparse information.
Geological Impacts on Nutrition

Humans, like all living organisms, biosynthesize the proteins, nucleic acids, phospholipids, and many of the smaller molecules on which they depend for life functions. Their health and well-being also depend on their ability to obtain from their external chemical environments a number of compounds that they cannot synthesize, or that they cannot produce at rates sufficient to support vital functions. Thus, of the large set of bioactive compounds and metabolites called “nutrients,” some are referred to as “essential” because they must be obtained from the air (oxygen), diet and water. These include vitamins, some fatty acids, some amino acids, and several mineral elements. Foods contain essential nutrients as a result of the capacities of plants and, in some cases, food animals to synthesize and/or store them. The human body, therefore, consists of substantial amounts of mineral elements (see Table 8.1) obtained mostly from such foods. These elements ultimately come from soils and, in turn, from the parent materials from which soils are derived. Therefore, good mineral nutrition is, in part, a geologic issue.
Serum leptin in children with obesity : Relationship to gender and development

Background. The identification of the ob gene and its adipocyte-specific protein leptin has provided the first physiologic links to the regulatory system controlling body weight. In adults, elevations of serum leptin concentrations were closely correlated with the percentage of body fat. This study investigated whether leptin concentrations were elevated in obese children and the relationship between leptin concentrations and gender, pubertal stage, and race. Methods. Seventy-seven children (44 girls and 33 boys), mean age, 11.3 years, with a body mass indices (BMIs) greater than 95% for age, race, and gender (mean BMI, 34.4) constituted the obese group. Thirty children (20 girls and 10 boys), mean age, 13.3 years, with BMIs less than 85% for age, race, and sex formed the control group. Radioimmunoassay for serum leptin was performed on a blood sample collected from each child after an overnight fast. Results. The mean serum concentration of leptin in the obese group was 38.6 (SD, 21) ng/mL compared with 7.8 (SD, 6.5) ng/mL in the control group. Serum leptin concentrations were highly correlated with BMI (r = .88). Analysis of covariance revealed a main effect for Tanner stage and gender. Conclusions. As in adults, obese children have high concentrations of serum leptin, which were highly correlated with arm fat and BMI. Increased adipose tissue in children is associated directly with serum leptin concentration. Leptin concentrations were found to vary with Tanner stage independent of adiposity. Compared with boys, girls had increased leptin concentrations independent of adiposity. It was hypothesized that children manifest a relative "leptin resistance" to support increased growth and development of reproductive capacity.
A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Games with a Purpose

We present a simple game-theoretic model for the ESP game, an interactive game devised to label images on the web, and characterize the equilibrium behavior of the model. We show that a simple change in the incentive structure can lead to different equilibrium structure and suggest the possibility of formal incentive design in achieving desirable system-wide outcomes, complementing existing considerations of robustness against cheating and human factors.
Robot learning from demonstration by constructing skill trees

We describe CST, an online algorithm for constructing skill trees from demonstration trajectories. CST segments a demonstration trajectory into a chain of component skills, where each skill has a goal and is assigned a suitable abstraction from an abstraction library. These properties permit skills to be improved efficiently using a policy learning algorithm. Chains from multiple demonstration trajectories are merged into a skill tree. We show that CST can be used to acquire skills from human demonstration in a dynamic continuous domain, and from both expert demonstration and learned control sequences on the uBot-5 mobile manipulator.
Accuracy and stability of cognitive structures and retention of geometric content

This study sought to determine whether clear distinctions in cognitive structures which existed at the time of instruction between students classified as formal operational and concrete operational would persist over time and result in prototypical structures for each group. In addition, this study investigated the effect of the ability to produce an accurate cognitive structure on the retention of geometric content and the stability of cognitive structures.
Interactive scaling with individual subjects

A metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure based on computer-subject interaction is developed, and an experiment designed to validate the procedure is presented. The interactive MDS system allows generalization of current MDS systems in two directions: (a) very large numbers of stimuli may be scaled; and (b) the scaling is performed with individual subjects, facilitating the investigation of individual as well as group processes. The experiment provided positive support for the interactive MDS system. Specifically, (a) individual data are amenable to meaningful interpretation, and they provide a tentative basis for quantitative investigation; and (b) grouped data provide meaningful interpretive and quantitative results which are equivalent to results from standard paired-comparisons methods.
The visual and haptic perception of natural object shape

In this study, we evaluated observers’ ability to compare naturally shaped three-dimensional (3-D) objects, using their senses of vision and touch. In one experiment, the observers haptically manipulated 1 object and then indicated which of 12 visible objects possessed the same shape. In the second experiment, pairs of objects were presented, and the observers indicated whether their 3-D shape was thesame ordifferent. The 2 objects were presented either unimodally (vision-vision or haptic-haptic) or cross-modally (vision-haptic or haptic-vision). In both experiments, the observers were able to compare 3-D shape across modalities with reasonably high levels of accuracy. In Experiment 1, for example, the observers’ matching performance rose to 72% correct (chance performance was 8.3%) after five experimental sessions. In Experiment 2, small (but significant) differences in performance were obtained between the unimodal vision-vision condition and the two cross-modal conditions. Taken together, the results suggest that vision and touch have functionally overlapping, but not necessarily equivalent, representations of 3-D shape.
Quantitative histofluorescence of hippocampal mossy fiber zinc

N-(6-methoxy-8-quinolyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide (TS-Q) is a fluorescent probe for histochemically detecting a chelatable pool of zinc in the hippocampal formation and other brain regions. Utilization of zinc:TS-Q histofluorescence as a quantitative tool required further characterization of zinc:TS-Q fluorescence and the development of appropriate zinc standards. Studies of zinc:TS-Q fluorescence in aqueous solutions were conducted to optimize the reaction conditions for TS-Q chelation with zinc. Possible interference of zinc:TS-Q fluorescence by chelation of other biologically significant cations with zinc:TS-Q was shown to be negligible. Zinc standards were developed using a water soluble plastic embedding medium. Varying the concentration of zinc in the plastic sections yielded a standard curve exhibiting a log-linear relationship between 0.15 and 11 fg zinc/100 microns 2. Zinc:TS-Q histofluorescence was characterized in horizontal sections of rat ventral hippocampal formation using a computerized image analysis system. Section thickness and TS-Q concentration were optimized. The concentration of zinc varied between 1.5 and 17 fg/100 microns 2 in different regions of the mossy fiber projection of the ventral hippocampal formation. The development of this quantitative histofluorescence technique should facilitate our understanding of the functional role of zinc in the mossy fiber projection and can be utilized to investigate changes in mossy fiber zinc in a variety of pathological states.
Our Surprising Inability to Predict the Outcomes of Psychological Treatments with Special Reference to Treatments for Drug Abuse

Our ability to predict the outcome of psychological treatments, particularly for drug dependence, is examined by (1) new data on a VA sample, (2) a review of studies predicting the outcome of drug abuse treatment, and (3) a review of predicting the outcome of psychotherapy for other types of patients. For (1), the direct predictions of 13 staff members' ratings of the outcome of treatment correlated. 27 with the outcome. Although staff predictions improved when grosser predictions were examined, the results are disappointing given the level of discrimination required and the modest levels of prediction attained. For (2), prediction success with drug abuse patients in other studies were also disappointing and the bases for predictions often did not hold up on crossvalidation. For (3), direct predictions in the Penn Psychotherapy Study were similar to the VA sample in level of success. Other studies produced insignificant or similarly low levels of prediction success. In our discussion we suggest that rathe...
Femoral Condylar Contact Points Start and Remain Posterior in High Flexing Patients

This study compares kinematic patterns of 136 patients following total knee arthroplasty with high post-operative knee flexion (HighFlex) versus kinematics of 114 patients with limited knee flexion (LowFlex) using a blocked stratified random sampling study design to reduce confounding and bias. The kinematics was collected using fluoroscopy and 2D to 3D registration for a weight-bearing deep knee bend activity. Both the lateral and the medial condylar contact positions for the HighFlex subjects were significantly more posterior than the LowFlex subjects at full extension and remained that way at all flexion angles. The amount translation of the contact points, axial orientation angle and axial rotation were found to be similar for the two groups. Lift-off was significantly higher in the LowFlex indicating mid-flexion instability.
Simple octagonal and dodecagonal quasicrystals.

Penrose tilings have become the canonical model for quasicrystal structure, primarily because of their simplicity in comparison with other decagonally symmetric quasiperiodic tilings of the plane. Four remarkable properties of the Penrose tilings have been exploited in the analysis of the physical issues: (1) the class of Penrose tilings is invariant under deflation (a type of self-similarity transformation); (2) the class contains all tilings consistent with a set of matching rules governing the orientations of neighboring tiles; (3) a certain decoration of the tiles produces grids of quasiperiodically spaced Ammann lines; and (4) the tile vertices can be obtained by projection of a subset of hypercubic lattice points. Each of the first three properties can be explicitly displayed by means of a simple decoration of the tiles, a decoration in which all the marked tiles of a given shape are related by the operations in the orientational symmetry group of the tiling.In this paper, analogues of the Penrose tilings are presented for the cases of octagonal and dodecagonal symmetry, the only other cases in two dimensions for which such analogues exist. The octagonal tiling is composed of two types of decorated tiles: a square and a 45\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} rhombus. The dodecagonal tiling is composed of three tile types: a regular hexagon, a square, and a 30\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} rhombus. Deflation procedures, matching rules, and Ammann-line decorations are explicitly displayed, secondary Ammann lines are defined and their significance with regard to the long-range order of the tilings is elucidated. The quasiperiodic sequences specifying the positions of the Ammann lines are derived and the appropriate projections from hypercubic lattices are described. Both the sufficiency of the matching rules and the equivalence of tilings produced by deflation and projection are demonstrated. The tilings are then used as a basis for a treatment of the elasticity of octagonal and dodecagonal quasicrystals. The irreducible phason strains are derived and the signatures of the different types of phason strain in real space and reciprocal space are determined. Standard analysis of a harmonic free energy reveals that there are three phason elastic constants for octagonal and dodecagonal quasicrystals (as opposed to two for decagonal ones) and there is no coupling of phason strain to conventional strain in the dodecagonal case. In each case, one linear combination of the phason elastic constants is irrelevant for phason fluctuations of wavelengths smaller than the sample size. Finally, some remarks are made concerning the applicability of standard elasticity theory to quasicrystals that are well described as simple decorations of tilings.
Application of the finite element analysis to determine forces and stresses in wound closing.

Abstract The finite element method of structural analysis was used to analyze the stresses and forces which develop during suturing of two types of defect configurations in skin. In one case, the maximum stress which develops during closing of an elliptical defect was calculated and compared with a modified tension field theory by Danielson and Natarajan. In the second case, the forces necessary to close the Z-plasty incision are calculated and compared qualitative with published experimental data.
Client/Server System Success: Exploring the Human Side

Client/server systems (CSS) are emerging as the new paradigm for systems development, replacing or integrating legacy applications with systems that provide higher quality user interfaces on the client component and substantial user-transparent data processing capability on one or more servers. Due to the dramatically different CSS development approach and the CSS emphasis on user friendliness, research findings based on non-CSS should be retested in the CSS context. Using a relatively well-established theoretical foundation, this study focuses on the human aspects of CSS implementation. Specifically, four major factors important to success with this emerging technology are studied: the degree of end-user involvement in the CSS development process, end-user characteristics, developer skills, and management support for the CSS project. The measures of CSS success are end-user satisfaction with the CSS, system usage, and its impact on end-users' jobs. The results indicate that the four independent variables explain a significant percentage of the variance in the dependent variables. Based on the results, recommendations are made for the management of CSS implementation and for further research on this important emerging technology.
Paleoecological utility of insect trace fossils in dinosaur nesting sites of the Two Medicine Formation (Campanian), Choteau, Montana

Insect trace fossils, such as burrows, pupation chambers and nests, can provide broad paleoecological insights by helping to define paleohydrology, effects of seasonality or conditions of associate...
Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases of the Kidney

Although the most common renal infection, acute pyelonephritis, can typically be diagnosed on clinical and laboratory examinations, radiologic studies play a role in evaluating for complications and in examining the high-risk patient for more serious complications and atypical infections. It is imperative that the radiologist be familiar with renal infections beyond the common acute pyelonephritis.
A square-root law for active wardens

The Square Root Law of Ker, Filler and Fridrich establishes asymptotic capacity limits for steganographic communication, caused by the watchful eye of a passive warden. We exhibit a separate fundamental limit of steganographic communication caused by a second phenomenon, the noise inflicted by an active warden. When a steganographic channel is not protected by a secret key, for example when it is used for key exchange, the number of errors needed to derail the channel grows no faster than the square root of the cover length. This means that contrary to intuition, embedding a message across a larger cover makes transmission less robust. This result is so pessimistic that it applies even to the transmission of a single datagram, a message of constant length, within a cover stream of arbitrary size. It is also true if the warden is forced by channel constraints to inflict noise randomly instead of surgically.While this law does not apply when the sender and receiver share a key in advance, ultimately this result implies that an active warden can indefinitely postpone the initial handshake of steganographic communication with a vanishingly small error rate. It also causes us to question whether the notion of a supraliminal channel is physically realizable, as even very highly robust communications channels become increasingly vulnerable for larger covers.
Labeled Complexes in Liver Cystosol After Administration of [4-14C]-Corticosterone and [4-14C]-Cortisol

Previous work showed a distribution of labeled cortisol in rat liver from 30 sec to 40 min after intravenous administration. The ultracentrifuged supernatant fraction (cytosol), containing about 2'3 of the label in the liver, has now been separated into a sharp, Sephadexchromatographed peak containing most of the supernatant label. Various findings indicate that this material is associated in a complex; this may be of molecular weight 5000 or a little less, a complex that could possibly be composed of steroid, polynucleotide and polypeptide. Further column and paper chromatographic procedures separated this material into 2 bands, each labeled and possessing 260 mμ absorption characteristics. Studies with corticosterone gave similar results. (Endocrinology 87: 486, 1970)
The road to HAMR

Heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) was initially proposed in the 1990's to achieve storage densities not limited by superparamagnetism. The key to HAMR has been to find an efficient near field transducer that can operate with a nearby magnetic recording pole. An integrated HAMR head has now been demonstrated which can record at a track width of 50 nm and an areal density of ∼240 Gb/in2 on high coercivity FePt media.