cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia following Lenalidomide Maintenance for Multiple Myeloma: Two Cases with Unexpected Presentation and Good Prognostic Features

Lenalidomide maintenance following autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) is considered the standard of care for eligible patients with multiple myeloma (MM). A recent meta-analysis has provided additional evidence that lenalidomide maintenance is associated with a higher incidence of second primary malignancies, including both hematologic and solid malignancies. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as a second primary malignancy is rarely described in the literature. Herein, we describe two patients with MM treated with induction therapy, ASCT, and lenalidomide maintenance that experienced cytopenias while on maintenance. ALL was unexpectedly diagnosed on bone marrow biopsy. One patient was diagnosed on routine biopsy performed as part of requirements of the clinical trial. Both patients had B-cell ALL, without known poor risk cytogenetics, and were managed with standard induction therapies resulting in complete remission. We also reviewed the literature for similar cases of secondary ALL (sALL) in MM patients exposed to immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs). In conclusion, persistent cytopenias in responding MM patients receiving IMiDs maintenance should be an indication for bone marrow biopsy. Patients develop sALL after median of 32.5 months (range, 20–84) from being on lenalidomide or thalidomide maintenance, often presenting with cytopenias, display low tolerance to chemotherapy, but remission can often be achieved.
Chemistry and processing of resists for nanolithography

Abstract: This chapter serves as a review of the synthesis and radiation induced chemistry of resist materials and applicable steps used in pattern delineation processes. Fundamental requirements and limitations influencing the choice of a resist for a particular lithography exposure technology are described. An extensive discussion of the use of chemically amplified resist platforms in the current and proposed states of art lithography processes is also highlighted. Suitable resist materials for non-radiation-based lithography processes are also presented as part of the discussion on forward looking lithography technologies.
Empirical evidence of the effect of personality pathology on the outcome of panic disorder.

Abstract Background Treatment resistant disorders are a significant clinical problem. Impediments to good outcome need to be identified and addressed. Personality pathology has been hypothesized to be one such factor in panic disorder. There is no consensus as to the effects of personality pathology on the outcome of panic disorder. This study examined empirical evidence. The hypothesis was that personality pathology would cause poorer outcome of panic disorder. Methods A literature search was conducted that winnowed 2627 articles down to 27 based on 1) longitudinal design; 2) validated measures of personality; 3) validated outcome measures; and 4) the presence of effect size or data to calculate effect size. All effect sizes were translated into odds ratios (ORs) for ease of comparison. Results An overall median OR of 2.7 was found, indicating personality pathology negatively affected outcome. This finding persisted even when adjusted for baseline severity of illness. The effects were found for both clinical outcomes (OR = 2.7) and for social adjustment (OR = 2.9). There was a tendency for more dropouts in the personality pathology group. More highly structured drug therapy regimens and highly structured psychotherapy seemed to partially mitigate this outcome. Conclusion The negative effect of personality pathology was confirmed in well-designed longitudinal studies. This was not related to initial clinical severity. Clinical implications are that patients with personality pathology require the therapist to stick more closely to treatment protocols and to mitigate the tendency of these patients to drop out of treatment.
Determination of exterior convective heat transfer coefficient for low-rise residential buildings

This study is focused on the determination of exterior convective heat transfer coefficient for low-rise residential buildings. The convective heat transfer coefficient is an important parameter in...
Comparing the Noncomparable: The Need for Equivalence Measures That Make Sense in Health-Economic Evaluations

Abstract Background The popularity of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) has been resistant to concerns about validity and reliability. Utility-theoretic outcome equivalents are widely used in other areas of applied economics. Equivalence values can be derived for time, money, risk, and other metrics. These equivalence measures preserve all available information about individual preferences and are valid measures of individual welfare changes. Objective The objective of this study was to derive alternative generalized equivalence measures from first principles and illustrate their application in an empirical comparative-effectiveness example. Methods We specify a general-equilibrium model incorporating neoclassical utility functions, health production function, severity-duration preferences, and labor-market tradeoff function. The empirical implementation takes advantage of discrete-choice experiment methods that are widely accepted in other areas of applied economics and increasingly in health economics. We illustrate the practical significance of restrictive QALY assumptions using comparative-effectiveness results based on both QALYs and estimates of welfare-theoretic time-equivalent values for anti-tumor necrosis factor and prolonged corticosteroid treatments for Crohn’s disease in three distinct preference classes. Results The QALY difference between the two treatments is 0.2 months, while time-equivalent values range between 0.5 and 1.3 months for aggregate and class-specific differences. Thus, the QALY-based analysis understates welfare-theoretic values by 60%-85%. Conclusion These results suggest that using disease-specific equivalence values offer a meaningful alternative to QALYs to compare global outcomes across treatments. The equivalence values approach is consistent with principles of welfare economics and offers several features not represented in QALYs, including accounting for preference nonlinearities in disease severity and duration, inclusion of preference-relevant nonclinical healthcare factors, representing preferences of clinically-relevant patient subpopulations, and including utility losses related to risk aversion.
A Great Deal of Ruin: Financial Crises since 1929

A Great Deal of Ruin provides an accessible introduction to the enduring problem of financial crises. Illustrated with historical analysis, case studies, and clear economic concepts, this book explains in three parts what financial crises are, how they are caused and what we can learn from them. It begins with a taxonomy of crises and a list of factors that increase the risk for countries experiencing a financial crisis. It then examines five of the most important crises in modern economic history, beginning with the Great Depression and ending with the subprime crisis in the United States and its evolution into a debt crisis in the Eurozone. The book concludes with a set of lessons that can be learnt from the crises of the past. It will appeal to university students as well as general readers who are curious to learn more about the recent subprime crisis and other financial crises.
Field Sampling Strategies for POD Model Order Reduction of Particle-in-Cell Simulations

Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations are an useful tool for the analysis of kinetic collisionless plasmas such as those found in high power microwave devices, vacuum electronics, directed energy devices, among others. However, PIC simulations remain computationally costly, and model order reduction strategies such as the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) can be instrumental in reducing some of these costs. The efficacy of the reduced-order model resulting from application of POD depends on several factors, among them the strategy employed to sample field values when constructing the reduced order model. In this work we analyze and compare several such field sampling strategies.
Is Business Ethics Getting Better? Business Ethics and Business History

It always strikes me as silly, when I read an article about business ethics that begins by saying something like, “because of the global financial crisis, people have started to pay attention to business ethics.” This shows either a profound ignorance of history or, perhaps more plausibly, that business and society suffer from an acute case of amnesia, where every scandal seems completely new and unprecedented. Either way, this attitude speaks to the importance of history not only for business ethics but for teaching students about business.
The 1961 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition

(1962). The 1961 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 69, No. 8, pp. 759-767.
Bought in? The contingent effect of stakeholder support upon strategic implementation success in American municipalities

Strategic management scholars recognize the importance of stakeholder support for implementation. While they have assessed different stakeholder groups, research examining temporal and contextual a...
Cryopreservation method for Drosophila melanogaster embryos

The development of a widely adopted cryopreservation method remains a major challenge in Drosophila research. Here we report a robust and easily implemented cryopreservation protocol of Drosophila melanogaster embryos. We present innovations for embryo permeabilization, cryoprotectant agent loading, and rewarming. We show that the protocol is broadly applicable, successfully implemented in 25 distinct strains from different sources. We demonstrate that for most strains, >50% embryos hatch and >25% of the resulting larvae develop into adults after cryopreservation. We determine that survival can be significantly improved by outcrossing to mitigate the effect of genetic background for strains with low survival after cryopreservation. We show that flies retain normal sex ratio, fertility, and original mutation after successive cryopreservation of 5 generations and 6-month storage in liquid nitrogen. Lastly, we find that non-specialists are able to use this protocol to obtain consistent results, demonstrating potential for wide adoption. The development of a widely adopted cryopreservation method remains a major challenge in Drosophila melanogaster research. Here the authors report a robust cryopreservation protocol of Drosophila embryos and showcase its implementation in 25 distinct strains from different sources.
MicroRNA-338 inhibition protects against focal cerebral ischemia and preserves mitochondrial function in vitro in astrocytes and neurons via COX4I1.

Abstract Brain-enriched microRNA-338 (miR-338) is known to play a central role in brain mitochondrial function, however the role of miR-338 in stroke injury remains unknown. This study investigated the role of miR-338 in injury from transient focal cerebral ischemia in mice, and in cell survival and mitochondrial function after in vitro ischemia in astrocyte and neuronal cultures. Pre-treatment of mice with intracerebroventricular injection of miR-338 antagomir 24 h prior to 1 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) significantly reduced infarct size and improved neurological score at both 24 h and 7d after injury. Levels of the miR-338 target cytochrome-c oxidase subunit 4I1 (COX4I1), which plays an essential role in maintaining brain mitochondrial ATP production, were increased in miR-338 antagomir-treated mice. Mouse primary astrocyte cell cultures subjected to glucose deprivation exhibited increased cell survival when pre-treated with miR-338 inhibitor, and greater cell death with miR-338 mimic. Decreased miR-338 levels were associated with increased ATP production, augmented cytochrome c oxidative (CcO) activity and preservation of COX4I1. In vitro protection with miR-338 inhibitor was blocked by concurrent knockdown of COX4I1 with small interfering RNA. Parallel studies in mouse neuronal N2a cultures resulted in preserved ATP content and CcO activity with miR-338 inhibition, indicating a shared miR-338-dependent response to ischemic stress between brain cell types. These results suggest that miR-338 inhibition and/or COX4I1-targeted therapies may be novel clinical strategies to protect against stroke injury via preservation of mitochondrial function in multiple cell types.
Attribution Bias on Online Reputation Systems

Consumers benefit from reading ratings online before making their purchases, yet this information aggregation process may have some potential problems that was not previously credited in the literature. Through an empirical approach, I showed how people could review businesses inconsistently when their expectations are formed by ratings on crowd-sourced review websites. Using data from Yelp, I tested how potential disappointments may affect customers' reviews by applying a regression discontinuity design to control for unobserved factors that may also simultaneously influence ratings. In addition, I developed a model illustrating rating behaviors with reference-dependent utilities to establish testable hypotheses and showed that comparisons between their true experience and expectation, when consumers write their reviews, could impede their assessment of businesses' qualities and cause attribution bias. After carefully excluding confounding variables, my results support the hypothesis that consumers have attribution bias when they write reviews. Several robustness checks support these findings and shed further light onto this example of attribution bias. This paper links to an emerging literature of attribution bias in economics and provides empirical evidence and implications of attribution bias on online reputation systems.
Automatic Extraction of Opinion-based Q&A from Online Developer Chats

Virtual conversational assistants designed specifically for software engineers could have a huge impact on the time it takes for software engineers to get help. Research efforts are focusing on virtual assistants that support specific software development tasks such as bug repair and pair programming. In this paper, we study the use of online chat platforms as a resource towards collecting developer opinions that could potentially help in building opinion Q&A systems, as a specialized instance of virtual assistants and chatbots for software engineers. Opinion Q&A has a stronger presence in chats than in other developer communications, thus mining them can provide a valuable resource for developers in quickly getting insight about a specific development topic (e.g., What is the best Java library for parsing JSON?). We address the problem of opinion Q&A extraction by developing automatic identification of opinion-asking questions and extraction of participants' answers from public online developer chats. We evaluate our automatic approaches on chats spanning six programming communities and two platforms. Our results show that a heuristic approach to opinion-asking questions works well (.87 precision), and a deep learning approach customized to the software domain outperforms heuristics-based, machine-learning-based and deep learning for answer extraction in community question answering.
Interdisciplinaridade e aprendizagem baseada em problemas (ABP): uma breve revisão bibliográfica/ Interdisciplinarity and problem-based learning (PBL): a brief bibliographic review

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma pequena revisao bibliografica sobre interdisciplinaridade e metodologia de ensino denominada aprendizagem baseada em problemas (ABP). A interdisciplinaridade tem como objetivo englobar disciplinas que podem contribuir com o conteudo a ser desenvolvido com alunos. Alem de despertar na comunidade escolar um espirito coletivo, voltado para o trabalho em equipe, uma interdisciplinaridade possibilita uma visao sistemica dos conteudos individualizados de cada disciplina, combinando tambem com o conhecimento previo do aluno. A interdisciplinaridade possibilita aos docentes quebrar paradigmas, despertar para o trabalho em conjunto, tornando as praticas em sala de aula mais enriquecedoras e dinâmicas. O modelo de aprendizagem baseada em problemas tambem enfatiza o trabalho em equipe,
Sex-specific biomechanics and morphology of the anterior cruciate ligament during skeletal growth in a porcine model

Pediatric anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are on the rise, and females experience higher ACL injury risk than males during adolescence. Studies in skeletally immature patients indicate differences in ACL size and joint laxity between males and females after the onset of adolescence. However, functional data regarding the ACL and its anteromedial and posterolateral bundles in the pediatric population remain rare. Therefore, this study uses a porcine model to investigate the sex-specific morphology and biomechanics of the ACL and its bundles throughout skeletal growth. Hind limbs from male and female Yorkshire pigs aged early youth to late adolescence were imaged using magnetic resonance imaging to measure the size and orientation of the ACL and its bundles, then biomechanically tested under anterior-posterior drawer using a robotic testing system. Joint laxity decreased (p < 0.001) while joint stiffness increased (p < 0.001) throughout skeletal growth in both sexes. The ACL was the primary stabilizer against anterior tibial loading, while the functional role of the anteromedial bundle increased with age (p < 0.001), with an earlier increase in males. ACL and posterolateral bundle cross-sectional area and ACL and anteromedial bundle length were larger in males than females during adolescence (p < 0.01 for all), while ACL and bundle sagittal angle remained similar between sexes. Additionally, in situ ACL stiffness versus cross-sectional area regressions were significant across skeletal growth (r2 = 0.75, p < 0.001 in males and r2 = 0.64, p < 0.001 in females), but not within age groups. This study has implications for age and sex-specific surgical intervention strategies and suggests the need for human studies.
Induction of hypericins and hyperforin in Hypericum perforatum L. in response to biotic and chemical elicitors

Hypericum perforatum L. produces hyperforins, a family of antimicrobial acylphloroglucinols; and hypericins, a family of phototoxic anthraquinones exhibiting anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-herbivore properties in vitro. To determine whether these secondary metabolites are part of the specific plant defense systems that are mediated by methyl jasmonate or salicylic acid, we used meristem cultures to assess the effects of exposure to exogenous application of these chemical elicitors. Levels of hypericins in plant tissue increased in response to both elicitor treatments; total hypericin levels increased as much as 3.3 times control levels when treated with 200 μM methyl jasmonate for 14 days. Increased hyperforin concentrations were detected when plantlets were treated with 1 m M salicylic acid or 50 μM methyl jasmonate. For assessing responses to a biotic elicitor, greenhouse-grown plant materials were inoculated with the plant pathogen, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Levels of hypericins increased twice as much as the control when inoculated with 1 × 104 spores per ml; higher doses of spores overwhelmed the plant defenses. The elevation of hypericins and hyperforin in response to chemical and biotic elicitors suggests that these secondary metabolites are components in the inducible plant defense responses of H. perforatum.
An effective synchronization network for large multiprocessor systems

The authors propose a single-stage combining network to handle synchronization traffic, which is separated from the regular memory traffic. A single-stage combining network has several advantages: (1) It is very cost effective because only one stage is needed (instead of logN stages). (2) Only one network is needed to handle both forward and returning requests. (3) All synchronization traffic is confined to a single stage; hence, packets have more opportunities to combine. (4) Combined requests are distributed evenly through the network; the wait buffer size is reduced. (5) Fast-finishing algorithms can be used to shorten the network delay. Because of all these advantages, the authors show that a single-stage combining network gives good performance at a lower cost than a multistage combining network. >
New measurements of total ionizing dose in the lunar environment

[1] We report new measurements of solar minimum ionizing radiation dose at the Moon onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) from June 2009 through May 2010. The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument on LRO houses a compact and highly precise microdosimeter whose design allows measurements of dose rates below 1 micro-Rad per second in silicon achieved with minimal resources (20 g, ∼250 milliwatts, and ∼3 bits/second). We envision the use of such a small yet accurate dosimeter in many future spaceflight applications where volume, mass, and power are highly constrained. As this was the first operation of the microdosimeter in a space environment, the goal of this study is to verify its response by using simultaneous measurements of the galactic cosmic ray ionizing environment at LRO, at L1, and with other concurrent dosimeter measurements and model predictions. The microdosimeter measured the same short timescale modulations in the galactic cosmic rays as the other independent measurements, thus verifying its response to a known source of minimum-ionizing particles. The total dose for the LRO mission over the first 333 days was only 12.2 Rads behind ∼130 mils of aluminum because of the delayed rise of solar activity in solar cycle 24 and the corresponding lack of intense solar energetic particle events. The dose rate in a 50 km lunar orbit was about 30 percent lower than the interplanetary rate, as one would expect from lunar obstruction of the visible sky.
Gross Moist Stability Assessment during TOGA COARE: Various Interpretations of Gross Moist Stability

AbstractDaily averaged TOGA COARE data are analyzed to investigate the convective amplification/decay mechanisms. The gross moist stability (GMS), which represents moist static energy (MSE) export efficiency by large-scale circulations associated with the convection, is studied together with two quantities, called the critical GMS (a ratio of diabatic forcing to the convective intensity) and the drying efficiency [a version of the effective GMS (GMS minus critical GMS)]. The analyses reveal that convection intensifies (decays) via negative (positive) drying efficiency.The authors illustrate that variability of the drying efficiency during the convective amplifying phase is predominantly explained by the vertical MSE advection (or vertical GMS), which imports MSE via bottom-heavy vertical velocity profiles (associated with negative vertical GMS) and eventually starts exporting MSE via top-heavy profiles (associated with positive vertical GMS). The variability of the drying efficiency during the decaying ph...
Ectopic primary intrathyroidal thymoma: a clinicopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of 3 cases

Thymomas are rare tumors that occasionally arise from ectopic locations. Ectopic thymomas originating within the thyroid gland are an exceedingly uncommon clinical entity that has only been described sporadically. In this study, we present the clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of 3 primary intrathyroidal thymomas. The patients were 2 women and 1 man between the ages of 43 and 53 years (average, 48 years). Clinically, the patients presented with neck pain or enlarged thyroid glands. Physical examination and thyroid ultrasound revealed the presence of nodular masses confined to the thyroid parenchyma. No concurrent mediastinal tumors were identified in any of the cases, and none of the patients had a history of thymoma. Fine needle aspirate performed in 1 case was interpreted as possibly Hashimoto thyroiditis. Surgical resection was performed in all cases. Grossly, the lesions were circumscribed masses measuring from 1 to 4 cm in size. Histologically, the lesions showed the classic biphasic cellular proliferation of thymomas characterized by varying proportions of epithelial cells and lymphocytes. Two patients remain alive and well 1.5 to 2 years after their surgical resection, whereas the third patient was lost to follow-up. The cases herein presented highlight an unusual tumor entity that can be clinically confused for more common lesions affecting the thyroid gland. Awareness of this entity is important to avoid misdiagnosis and secure appropriate clinical management.
The impact of four conferencing formats on the efficiency and quality of small group decision making in a laboratory experiment setting

Abstract This study reports the results of a laboratory experiment which compares the efficiency and quality of small group decision making in four conferencing and teleconferencing formats. 204 subjects randomly assigned to 51 small decision making groups were asked to reach a group consensus on an information exchange task with a criterion solution. These groups were randomly assigned to one of four conference format conditions: Communication via face-to-face, audio, video, or computer channels. Conferencing format was found to be related to the efficiency and quality of group decision making when the four types of conferencing formats were compared. However, when the Tukey studentized range test is considered, this main effect is seen to be generated by the difference of the computer condition from all other conditions. No significant differences were found on either measure between the face-to-face, audio, and video conditions.
On a homoclinic manifold of a coupled long-wave–short-wave system

Abstract A Backlund transformation is obtained for linearly unstable spatially independent plane-wave solutions of a system of coupled long-wave–short-wave resonance equations. Explicit expressions are constructed for the periodic orbits lying on a homoclinic manifold of a torus of planewaves by evaluating the Backlund transformation at double points of an irreducible factor of the Floquet spectral curve of the associated scattering problem.
Core Elements of Construction Engineering Knowledge for Project and Career Success

Design and construction markets are increasing requirements for the constructed product and how the project team delivers it. These market demands for improved infrastructure and a more sustainable built environment are increasing the importance and scope of construction engineering throughout the project development process. Concurrently, many construction degree programs face pressures to increase coverage of construction management topics, leaving less time for construction engineering. Construction research, especially related to modeling and integration, has produced new technologies and capabilities to assist with construction engineering activities. These drivers lead to the central question addressed in this paper: What are the essential core elements of construction engineering knowledge to foster successful projects and careers? The purpose of the paper is to identify these elements of knowledge and their implications, including background and support for many related topics discussed at the Con...
Disaster Image Filtering and Summarization Based on Multi-layered Affinity Propagation

In this paper, a disaster image filtering and summarization (DIFS) framework is proposed based on multi-layered affinity propagation. The proposed framework is able to automatically identify and summarize latent semantic themes (scenes) in a disaster topic and filter junk images at the same time. Specifically, the images belonging to a disaster topic are first clustered into different groups based on visual descriptors using affinity propagation (AP). Then the typical instances within each cluster are collected to perform the second-layer clustering for identifying final positive clusters by utilizing both visual and textual similarities concurrently. At both layers, the proposed curve fitting function is applied to select appropriate preference values for the AP algorithm. The experimental results on the real world Flickr data set demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
Group therapy for chronic physically ill patients.

Abstract Some of the emotional stresses and coping styles most often seen in patients with chronic physical illness are reviewed, and a two-phase group therapy program designed to suit their needs is described. The program consists of several initial didactic or educational group meetings, followed by meetings that stress insight-oriented psychotherapy.
A quick‐scoring guide to the interpretation of children's Kinetic Family Drawings (KFD)

Thirty-two potentially significant clinical signs which may appear on children's Kinetic Family Drawings are presented in the form of an interpretive guide. Cautions and benefits of using such a guide are discussed briefly.
Conductance of tetraalkylammonium salts in propylene carbonate at 25°C

Conductance measurements of 12 quaternary ammonium salts in propylene carbonate (PC) have been made at 25°C. The cations were either tetramethylammonium, tetraethylammonium, or tetra-n-butylammonium, and the concentrations of salt varied from about 2×10−4 to 5×10−3 M. The data were analyzed by the equation of Pitts. The results showed that the benzoate, nitrobenzoate, and pentachlorophenolate salts are completely dissociated. The nitrophenolate, chlorophenolate, methylsulfonate, and nitrate salts are only slightly associated (K A from 2.5 to 6.5), while the acetate, phenylacetate, and nitrophenolate salts display somewhat more extensive association, with ionpair association constants from 17 to 45. Limiting molar conductances for the anions were derived. The factors affecting ionic mobilities in this dipolar aprotic solvent are discussed.
Influence of Nb-Ti Composition on Recrystallization of Ferritic Stainless Steel

An experimental study of the microstructural and texture evolution attending recrystallization of Nb-Ti stabilized ferritic stainless steel is presented. Two specimens with different Nb-Ti compositions, TCS345 and B4003, have been selected for comparison. The result shows that, after annealing at 750 °C for 5min, the major orientation in the TCS345 specimen locates at {111}, microstructures presents an equiaxed grain morphology, whereas the texture in the B4003 is not typical recrystallization texture and remains weak, indicating recrystallization occur preferentially to the TCS345 sheet. And after continuous annealing at 850°C for 5 min, the texture in TCS345 remains stronger than in the B4003, indicating that the additional amount of Nb-Ti acts to significantly hinder the recrystallization process.
Shy, but Funny? Examining Peer-Valued Characteristics as Moderators of the Associations Between Anxious-Withdrawal and Peer Outcomes During Early Adolescence

Research has revealed significant heterogeneity in the group-level peer outcomes associated with anxious-withdrawal, but little is known about possible sources of this heterogeneity during early adolescence. This study of 271 young adolescents (49 % female; M age = 11.54 years) examined whether the concurrent and short-term longitudinal (3 month period) associations between peer-nominated anxious-withdrawn behaviors and three group-level peer outcomes (overt victimization, peer acceptance, popularity) varied as a function of peer-valued characteristics (humor, prosocial behavior, physical attractiveness, athletic ability) and gender, after accounting for the effects of involvement in mutual friendships. Regression analyses revealed that the associations between anxious-withdrawal and peer outcomes were moderated by peer-valued characteristics and, in many cases, gender. For example, anxious-withdrawal was related positively to overt victimization for all adolescents who were high in prosocial behavior. But, anxious-withdrawal was related negatively to popularity for adolescent boys who were high in prosocial behavior and adolescent girls who were low in prosocial behavior. Anxious-withdrawal also predicted increases in acceptance for adolescent girls who were high in humor, but decreases in acceptance for adolescent boys who were high in humor. Several additional moderator effects were found for boys only. The findings highlight the importance of considering the unique constellation of characteristics displayed by anxious-withdrawn young adolescents in studies on peer experiences at the group-level of social complexity.
Ghost hunter: parents and children playing together to learn about energy consumption

We present the design and evaluation of Ghost Hunter, an interactive system to engage parents and children in seeking out hidden sources of energy consumption in their homes. Our system combines an electro-magnetic field (EMF) detector with a mobile tablet computer. Bringing Ghost Hunter within range of an electrical current activates the detector. Through the Ghost Hunter design we attempted to evoke the cultural form of hide-and-seek as a way to help children and parents structure their activity. We present our design and implementation followed by a qualitative evaluation conducted with seven families in their homes. Our findings describe how parents supported their children's learning about energy consumption, and ways in which the activities led to unexpected discoveries.
Characterization of aliphatic, cyclic, and aromatic N-terminally “capped” His-d-Phe-Arg-Trp-NH2 tetrapeptides at the melanocortin receptors

The melanocortin system is implicated in multiple physiological pathways including pigmentation, inflammation, erectile function, feeding behavior, energy homeostasis, weight homeostasis, and exocrine gland function, just to list a few. The endogenous agonists for the melanocortin receptors include the gene transcripts derived from the proopiomelanocortin gene and include the core tetrapeptide His-Phe-Arg-Trp sequence postulated to be important for melanocortin receptor selectivity and stimulation. Posttranslational processing of the proopiomelanocortin derived agonists results in the N-terminal acetylation and C-terminal amidation of alpha-melanocyte stimulation hormone (alpha-MSH). In this study we generated 25 N-terminally "capped" tetrapeptides containing the core sequence X-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-NH(2) and pharmacologically characterized them at the mouse melanocortin MC(1) receptor, melanocortin MC(3) receptor, melanocortin MC(4) receptor, and melanocortin MC(5) receptor. The N-terminal "capping" groups consisted of linear, cyclic, or aromatic moieties and all resulted in full agonist activity at the melanocortin receptors examined in this study. Increasing aliphatic chain length increased potency of the tetrapeptide derivatives, with the addition of octanoyl capping group resulting in 70- to 110-fold increased tetrapeptide potency at the melanocortin MC(1) receptor (EC(50)=0.4 nM), melanocortin MC(3) receptor (EC(50)=4.0 nM), and melanocortin MC(4) receptor (EC(50)=0.4 nM) while only enhancing potency at the melanocortin MC(5) receptor (EC(50)=0.8 nM) by 8-fold, compared to the tetrapeptide His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-NH(2). This octanoyl derivative surprisingly resulted in a 14-fold greater potency than alpha-MSH (EC(50)=5.4 nM) at the mouse melanocortin MC(4) receptor implicated in feeding behavior and obesity. The 3,3,3-triphenylpropionyl derivative resulted in greater than 14 microM agonist potencies at the melanocortin MC(1) receptor, melanocortin MC(3) receptor, and melanocortin MC(4) receptor and possessed a 140 nM agonist EC(50) value at the melanocortin MC(5) receptor. This 3,3,3-triphenylpropionyl-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-NH(2) peptide is a 100-fold selective agonist for the melanocortin MC(5) receptor, versus the other melanocortin receptors studied herein, and is the first melanocortin MC(5) receptor selective tetrapeptide derivative reported to date with nanomolar potency.
Progress in pipe and channel flow turbulence, 1961–2011

Although much progress has been made in pipe and channel flow turbulence over the past 50 years since the Turbulence Colloquium Marseille 1961 (TCM 1961), these simple wall-bounded turbulent flows have continuously baffled us, refusing to reveal their true and complete nature. In a broader sense, almost everything we thought we knew about wall-bounded turbulent flows, including the scaling laws that appear in textbooks, has been the subject of further scrutiny. An overview of the progress that has been made since TCM 1961 is presented, followed by discussions on unresolved issues that would require further investigations.
Capillary isoelectric focusing-tandem mass spectrometry and reversed-phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for quantitative proteomic analysis of differentiating PC12 cells by eight-plex isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification

We report the application of capillary isoelectric focusing for quantitative analysis of a complex proteome. Biological duplicates were generated from PC12 cells at days 0, 3, 7, and 12 following treatment with nerve growth factor. These biological duplicates were digested with trypsin, labeled using eight-plex isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) chemistry, and pooled. The pooled peptides were separated into 25 fractions using reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). Technical duplicates of each fraction were separated by capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF) using a set of amino acids as ampholytes. The cIEF column was interfaced to an Orbitrap Velos mass spectrometer with an electrokinetically pumped sheath-flow nanospray interface. This HPLC-cIEF-electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) approach identified 835 protein groups and produced 2,329 unique peptides IDs. The biological duplicates were analyzed in parallel using conventional strong-cation exchange (SCX)-RPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The iTRAQ peptides were first separated into eight fractions using SCX. Each fraction was then analyzed by RPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The SCX-RPLC approach generated 1,369 protein groups and 3,494 unique peptide IDs. For protein quantitation, 96 and 198 differentially expressed proteins were obtained with RPLC-cIEF and SCX-RPLC, respectively. The combined set identified 231 proteins. Protein expression changes measured by RPLC-cEIF and SCX-RPLC were highly correlated.
Volume Error Analysis for Lung Nodules Attached to Pulmonary Vessels in an Anthropomorphic Thoracic Phantom

High-resolution CT, three-dimensional (3D) methods for nodule volumetry have been introduced, with the hope that such methods will be more accurate and consistent than currently used planar measures of size. However, the error associated with volume estimation methods still needs to be quantified. Volume estimation error is multi-faceted in the sense that it is impacted by characteristics of the patient, the software tool and the CT system. The overall goal of this research is to quantify the various sources of measurement error and, when possible, minimize their effects. In the current study, we estimated nodule volume from ten repeat scans of an anthropomorphic phantom containing two synthetic spherical lung nodules (diameters: 5 and 10 mm; density: -630 HU), using a 16-slice Philips CT with 20, 50, 100 and 200 mAs exposures and 0.8 and 3.0 mm slice thicknesses. True volume was estimated from an average of diameter measurements, made using digital calipers. We report variance and bias results for volume measurements as a function of slice thickness, nodule diameter, and X-ray exposure.
Timbre judgments of Javanese gamelan instruments by trained and untrained adults.

Sandra Serafini University of British Columbia, Canada Timbre similarity judgments were collected from two groups of musicians, one with training in Javanese gamelan music (the gamelan group), and one without training in Javanese gamelan (the western group), to examine whether differences in timbre perception were evident when adults trained in another culture's music were compared with untrained listeners. Two contexts were tested: an isolated tone and a melodic context. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and multiple regression analysis revealed that the two subject groups did not differ in their timbre perception in the isolated tone context, where the initial 50 ms of the tone (the attack centroid) was emphasized equally. In the melodic context, the subject groups diverged in a statistically significant manner. The gamelan group focused their attention almost completely on the attack centroid while the western group divided their attention between the attack centroid and the middle portion of the amplitude envelope. These results indicate that timbre perception can be modified when a listener has received training in Javanese gamelan music as an adult. A musical context is needed for these modifications to become apparent, however; otherwise the effects of training do not result in significantly different timbre judgments.
Physiological burden associated with the use of filtering facepiece respirators (N95 masks) during pregnancy.

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to review the available literature regarding the physiological burden imposed on pregnant women by their wearing filtering facepiece respirators. Methods: A medical literature search was conducted using MEDLINE (1996–2008) for English language articles, bibliographies of retrieved articles, electronic references from medical and governmental agency sources, and selected textbook articles. Results: Two hundred thirty-four articles from the medical literature and 267 electronic references were retrieved, of which 51 articles from the medical literature, 25 electronic references, and 2 textbook articles were selected for data acquisition. Conclusions: Very little rigorous scientific data exist on the physiological burden associated with the use of filtering facepiece respirators by pregnant women, and no definitive conclusions can be reached at this time. Although studies are warranted, they may be difficult to undertake because of health concerns and potenti...
Characterization of rare human papillomavirus type 11 mRNAs coding for regulatory and structural proteins, using the polymerase chain reaction

Certain human papillomavirus (HPV) types cause warts, dysplasias, and carcinomas of the ano-genital and oral mucosa. Because of the inability to propagate HPVs in cultured cells, the paucity of viral mRNAs in human lesions, and the complexity of alternatively spliced transcripts derived from different promoters, it has not been possible to ascertain the exact structures of the majority of the mRNA species and the proteins encoded. We have adapted the recently developed polymerase chain reaction to amplify cDNAs of rare, type 11 HPV mRNAs isolated from a productively infected human foreskin xenograft in an athymic mouse. The oligonucleotide primers were designed to flank each of the mRNA splice sites previously mapped by electron microscopic analysis of heteroduplexes formed between cloned HPV-11 DNA and viral mRNAs isolated from genital warts. The splice junctions were determined by direct sequencing of the PCR-amplified cDNA products or after the cDNA was cloned into a plasmid vector. We provide the first direct evidence for the existence of rare mRNAs with the potential to encode regulatory proteins that have been hypothesized to exist for HPVs. Depending on the lengths of the upstream exons, the translation frame used and the possibility of internal reinitiation during translation, one pair of mRNAs with the same splice junction could encode the viral DNA copy number modulating protein E1-M, the enhancer repression protein E2-C, or both. A second pair of mRNAs, also with identical splice junctions, encode the enhancer-regulating protein E2; the longer of the two could also encode, in its 5' exon, either or both of the E6 and E7 proteins. Finally, we demonstrate that the doubly spliced late message for the major virion capsid protein L1 also contains the entire coding region for the early E1 E4 protein in the first two exons, with the initiation codon for the L1 protein located precisely at the splice acceptor of the third exon. The potential of this late mRNA to encode both the E1 E4 protein and the capsid protein could contribute to the preponderance of the E4 protein in the lesion.
Computing the arithmetic genus of Hilbert modular fourfolds

The Hilbert modular fourfold determined by the totally real quartic number field k is a desingularization of a natural compactification of the quotient space Γ k \H 4 , where Γ k = PSL 2 (O k ) acts on H 4 by fractional linear transformations via the four embeddings of k into R. The arithmetic genus, equal to one plus the dimension of the space of Hilbert modular cusp forms of weight (2,2,2,2), is a birational invariant useful in the classification of these varieties. In this work, we describe an algorithm allowing for the automated computation of the arithmetic genus and give sample results.
Color tomography for 3D fluid density inversion

The optical method of imaging fluid surface gradient is extended to measure multiple fluid interfaces of refractive index changes. The density of a fluid is a function of the fluid's refractive index. This method may be applied to the study of such flows that are associated with density changes caused by either compressibility, thermal effects, or mixing of fluids of different densities. A lens is used to transform the rays of an optical light source into a series of colored parallel light beams by passing the light through a slide of 2D color patterns at the focal planes of the lens. This system of parallel light beams is used to illuminate through the test section of a fluid volume. The out- going rays of refracted light of different directions are instantaneous recorded by multiple cameras located far away from the test section. The different camera captures different light rays. To observed colors of rays provide measurements of the total volume refraction of the rays. According to ray tracing equations, the images of total fluid volume refraction are then used to estimate the fluid isopycnal surfaces. The color tomography proposed here inverts fluid isopycnal surfaces through the measurements of integrated volume refraction rather than the traditional radiological tomography which studies the body properties through measuring the absorption in the ray-path, or seismic and ocean acoustic tomography which inverts the properties of earth or ocean water body by detecting the travel times of rays between sources and receivers.
The synthesis of 3β,16α,19-trihydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one

Abstract The possible significance of Δ 5 -3β,19-dihydroxysteroids and their sulfates as intermediates in placental aromatization induced us to attempt the preparation of 3β,16α,19-trihydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one (VIII), which has not been available thus far. A successful chemical synthesis starting with 33-acetoxyandrost-5-en-17-one (I) is described in this paper. Another approach, the biological 16α-hydroxylation of 3β, 19-dihydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one (IVa) by liver microsomes from male rats or by mycelia from Streptomyces roseochromogenes , was also tried but with less satisfactory results.