cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Diabetes Risk Assessment in Latinas: Effectiveness of a Brief Diabetes Risk Questionnaire for Detecting Prediabetes in a Community-Based Sample.

Objective. Numerous validated questionnaires use self-reported data to quantify individuals’ risk of having diabetes or developing it in the future. Evaluations of these tools have primarily used nationally representative data, limiting their application in clinical and community settings. This analysis tested the effectiveness of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) risk questionnaire for identifying prediabetes in a community-based sample of Latinas. Methods. Data were collected using the ADA risk questionnaire and assessing A1C. Among 204 participants without diabetes, we examined the association between individual characteristics and glycemic status. We then calculated the performance characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value [PPV], and negative predictive value [NPV]) of the ADA risk questionnaire for detecting prediabetes, using A1C results as the gold standard to define the outcome. Results. All participants were women of self-reported Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. Their mean ADA risk score was 5.6 ± 1.6. Latinas who had prediabetes were older, with significantly higher rates of hypertension and a higher ADA risk score than those without prediabetes. At a risk score ≥5—the threshold for high risk set by the ADA—the questionnaire had the following test performance characteristics: sensitivity 77.8%, specificity 41.7%, PPV 76.2%, and NPV 43.9%. Conclusion. The ADA risk questionnaire demonstrates reasonable performance for identifying prediabetes in a community-based sample of Latinas. Our data may guide other groups’ use of this tool in the same target population. Future research should examine the effectiveness of this questionnaire for recruiting diverse populations into diabetes prevention programs. In addition, unique diabetes risk assessment tools for specific target populations are needed and may outperform questionnaires developed using nationally representative data.
Women in Academic Science: Experimental Findings From Hiring Studies

Although women are underrepresented in the most mathematically intensive fields, the gender gap in these fields has narrowed over the past 2 decades. In my E. L. Thorndike address I summarized the temporal trends in sex differences for 8 fields and considered factors that drive both the underrepresentation of women and its recent narrowing. I reviewed evidence concerning sex differences in mathematical and spatial aptitude, biases in hiring, funding, publishing, remuneration, and promotion, and gendered preferences. I conclude that the most important causes of underrepresentation appear to occur before women matriculate in college and are concerned with ability-related beliefs, stereotypes, and preferences starting in early elementary school, which by the end of high school have reduced the size of the potential pool. By the time women reach graduate school, there is evidence that they are as successful as their male counterparts in being interviewed and hired for tenure-track positions, funded, and publi...
Transient thermal analysis of flash-boiling cooling in the presence of high-heat-flux loads

Abstract A flash-boiling fluid rapidly cools and expands, responding to depressurization in as little as 10–100 ms. The presented dynamic cooling mechanism harnesses this phenomenon. Applications include pulsed, high-heat-flux ( ∼ 100 W cm−2) devices, particularly those requiring strict temperature stability ( ± 5 °C) for a short duration ( ∼ 0.1 to 10 s). A highly conductive graphitic foam is included as an extended surface, while enhancing phase-change phenomena. In addition to quantifying the rate of heat transfer as it varies spatially and temporally, the temperature stability of the surrogate heat source is evaluated. The experiments were designed using a statistical framework, allowing for the efficient generation of surrogate models. These surrogate models are used to explore the multi-parameter design space, identifying design criteria that optimize different performance objectives, such as temperature stability, efficiency, and cooling rate. An inverse-heat-transfer technique is applied to determine the dynamic rate of cooling during the event. Cooling rapidly peaks after 0.5–1 s, reaching approximately 30–50 W cm−2, and steadily decays thereafter. The cooling device maintains stable system temperatures ( ± 5 °C) during heat loads of up to 104 W cm−2.
Fossil Evidence on the Evolution of the Neocortex

Yes, there is fossil evidence. That is the most surprising thing. The story the fossils tell is less surprising, because it is consistent with what one learns from living species by accepting the consensus about which are primitive and which are advanced (Sarnat and Netsky, 1974). There are a few other surprises, however, which may make this chapter worth reading.
Online Education: Foundations, Planning, and Pedagogy

Online Education is a comprehensive exploration of blended and fully online teaching platforms, addressing history, theory, research, planning, and practice. As colleges, universities, and schools around the world adopt large-scale technologies and traditional class models shift into seamless, digitally interactive environments, critical insights are needed into the implications for administration and pedagogy. Written by a major contributor to the field, this book contextualizes online education in the past and present before analyzing its fundamental changes to instruction, program integration, social interaction, content construction, networked media, policy, and more. A provocative concluding chapter speculates on the future of education as the sector becomes increasingly dependent on learning technologies.
Food Sovereignty, Safety and Security: The Role of Rice in Japan and Asia

While Japan’s rice growing lifestyle will surely be affected by the global trade order, other countries in the region such as India and Indonesia have growing consumer demand for rice as their populations increase as Japan’s declines. China in particular has a pressing need for access to grains sources such as rice for its large population and it has played an extremely important role in shaping the way the most powerful grain suppliers in the world (The United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil) seek to shape the global market for grains. India is also an expanding economy that is a large consumer of rice, both of these countries markets impact Japanese agricultural policies regarding rice. This chapter presents the Japanese case in comparative context with the evolving security situation in East Asia.
FLOW: A Software Application Designed to Help Older Adults Build Distance Interaction

Lack of communication methods due to older adults’ physical and mental decline produce a significant communication gap with friends and family, which creates social and mental distance with them. Also, relatively few studies have been dedicated to developing social media technologies that are older-adult-friendly. The main goals of this initial study were (1) to develop a prototype of story-based communication application based on a touch-based tablet application; and (2) to assess the prototype design using a mixed-method approach. Although anecdotal stereotypes suggest that technology is harder for older adults to learn, this research found that older adults are willing to learn and use communication applications. Results also suggested that intuitive visual cues might play an important role in enabling older adults to grasp and understand the structure of an application. Therefore, this paper tries to expand the scope of designers’ knowledge for the development of tablet-based applications for older adults and find the possibilities of data usage for the related gerontology areas of study.
Women's Shakespeare Clubs: Fandom in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century America

In 1929, as recorded and distributed in the Shakespeare Association Bulletin, a member of the Hathaway Shakespeare Club of Philadelphia explained that what drew her and her fellow club members together to discuss and analyze the works of the Bard each week was "the strong bond of fellowship due to our common literary interest and singleness of purpose" (4.4:119). Meanwhile, in her 2000 book, Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth, Camille Bacon-Smith detailed the purpose of 'fandom' communities, stating "the clubs in fandom are run by the fans, for the love of the source products— the books, comics, television and movie series around which fans rally— and for the community" (8). These two women are connected by more than just their "common literary interest"and their "love of the source products." The structures upon which modern fan communities stand and the products they put forth are also found in the women's Shakespeare clubs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, vice versa, the comradery of spirit and foundations of female community that women found in Shakespeare clubs continued into the female fan communities of television shows like TheX-Files and Star Trek.
Asymmetric Responses of Conditional Variances to Earnings Surprises: A Bayesian Approach

This paper studies the relation between stock returns and innovations to the conditional variance on earnings announcement dates using a simple Bayesian information processing model. The distribution of the earnings announcement returns greatly influence the way investors update their beliefs about the firms' equity value. On the earnings announcement date, most of the large returns are negative and these large negative returns are more informative than the positive returns. This evidence is supported by the mixture of distribution hypothesis and the discretionary disclosure theory. If investors use this information while updating their prior beliefs about the firms' equity value, then they are more likely to ignore the large positive returns as outliers and not revise their prior beliefs. Thus perceived uncertainty will not be affected by the large positive news. On the other hand if they observe a large negative return they will be forced to damp their prior beliefs and reformulate their posterior thus increasing their uncertainty about the firms' equity value. This explains why returns and conditional variances are negatively correlated, and why conditional variances respond more strongly to negative returns than to positive returns on announcement dates. We formally present this argument using a simple Bayesian updating problem with non-normally distributed prior beliefs. The behavior of option-implied measures of conditional variances around earnings announcements is consistent with our proposed explanation but is at odds with the leverage hypothesis.
Technical Strategies for Real-time Geocoding in Healthcare

The open data movement provides city, state and national data that can be useful in providing healthcare providers with contextual information about their patients. For example, data about social determinants of health or environmental exposures, the “envirome”, can help clinicians adapt their patient conversations. Enabling health care providers with real-time access to this information during a patient encounter is an important step toward “Smart Cities”. Often open data sources are keyed by geospatial parameters such as census tract. Integrating this contextual information into electronic health record workflows is an optimal strategy to bring envirome data to the point of care but requires careful consideration to comply with privacy regulations. We discuss three technical strategies for geocoding patient addresses and review the benefits and challenges of each. One novel strategy separates the IP address of the site requesting geocoded data from the transmission to a geocoding service, offering a unique mitigation to concerns about using cloud-based services.
Automatic Virtualization of Accelerators

Applications are migrating en masse to the cloud, while accelerators such as GPUs, TPUs, and FPGAs proliferate in the wake of Moore's Law. These technological trends are incompatible. Cloud applications run on virtual platforms, but traditional I/O virtualization techniques have not provided production-ready solutions for accelerators. As a result, cloud providers expose accelerators by using pass-through techniques which dedicate physical devices to individual guests. The multi-tenancy that drives their business is lost as a consequence. This paper proposes automatic generation of virtual accelerator stacks to address the fundamental tradeoffs between virtualization properties and techniques for accelerators. AvA (Automatic Virtualization of Accelerators) re-purposes a para-virtual I/O stack design based on API remoting to present virtual accelerator APIs to guest VMs. Conventional wisdom is that API remoting sacrifices interposition and compatibility. AvA forwards invocations over hypervisor-managed transport to recover interposition. AvA compensates for lost compatibility by automatically generating guest libraries, drivers, hypervisor-level schedulers, and API servers. AvA supports pluggable transport layers, allowing VMs to use disaggregated accelerators. With AvA, a single developer could virtualize a core subset of OpenCL at near-native performance in just a few days.
Calcium Influx Guards Replication Forks against Exonuclease 1.

In this issue, Li et al. (2019) report a previously unknown Ca2+-CaMKK2-AMPK signaling cascade that protects stalled forks from degradation by phosphorylating and inhibiting the EXO1 nuclease, revealing a surprising role for Ca2+ influx in the maintenance of genomic stability.
Abstract 16: EARLY: EMS Prenotification Augments Stroke Code Timepoints But Rigorous Training is Needed for Larger Yield in stroke.

Background: rtPA for AIS is time sensitive, requiring efficient and coordinated acute care. We evaluated time to evaluation, stroke diagnosis, treatment rate, and 90 day outcome in patients with stroke team prenotification by EMS and those identified after arrival. Methods: The UCSD SPOTRIAS prospectively collected database was analyzed for patients with stroke team prenotification by EMS and other patients seen in stroke code, excluding inpatient codes. Multivariable regression models used outcome of interest as independent variable. Models were adjusted for pre-specified covariates: pre-stroke mRS, age, gender, smoking, baseline NIHSS and glucose. Time differences between groups were analyzed using Wilcoxon Rank Sum Tests. Results: We assessed 2867 patients, with EMS prenotification in 643 (22.4%). Assessment at 90 days was obtained in 216 with prenotification and 807 others. Those with prenotification were older (mean 68 vs 66, p=0.0498), with higher pre-stroke mRS (p=0.0243), NIHSS (10.9 vs 8.5, p Conclusions: In the UCSD experience, EMS prenotification leads to faster evaluation critical in stroke. Prenotification occurred in patients at a medically worse baseline, but did not result in higher rates of final stroke diagnosis or IV rtPA. With improved education, accurate identification of AIS patients may improve, further expediting care and improving treatment and outcomes.
Self-directed learning readiness and learning style preferences of adult learners

concrete and active-reflective dimensions/continua of learning, based on the norms scores of the group. Although these four categories were used for comparison of groups, the LSI raw scores provided information on the dominant learning abilities or modes within and across groups. Also, the computed learning orientation scores—abstract-concrete (AC-CE) and activereflective (AE-RO) continua were treated as continuous variables for the correlational analysis. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS*) of the ISU computer services was employed to process the data collected. Descriptive statistics, breakdown and crosstabulation analysis procedures were carried out on all the variables in different combinations to address objectives l and 2—identification and description of learning styles and inner-outer directedness of respondents across demographic variables. Objective 3 involved the comparison of subjects' learning style preferences and preparedness for selfdirected learning across demographic groups. This was addressed by the results of testing hypotheses related to objective 4 and post hoc analyses involving two auxiliary null hypotheses. Oneand two-way analyses of variance were conducted to evaluate whether there is a significant difference in the mean LSI and SDLRS scores by the
Infected Ischemic Foot: Investigation

An infected, ischemic foot is a common occurrence amongst diabetic patients. The wound infection and the accelerated and premature peripheral vascular disease result in decreased healing capacity. These pathologic processes coupled with the fact that the foot is the most distal part of the human body and is subject to the mechanical stress of walking make the foot a primary location for ulceration and infection. The investigation of the infected ischemic foot, if done at the appropriate time and with due diligence, can allow for limb salvage and prevent amputation. This investigation consists of a general gathering of the patient’s history, a thorough and focused physical exam, laboratory testing, ancillary testing and diagnostic imaging. Although there is a great deal of overlap in the assessment of ischemia and infection, the two should be considered as distinct diagnoses and should only be evaluated together after the separate diagnoses have been made.
Advanced Imaging in Female Infertility

This review highlights the role of imaging in the diagnosis and management of reproductive disorders. The additional information that imaging studies can contribute to reproductive medicine is emphasized, including the role of pelvic ultrasonography (US, including sonohysterography and contrast-enhanced hysterosalpingosonography), hysterosalpingography (HSG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the female reproductive tract. In addition, the implications of congenital causes of infertility on the urinary tract in females are reviewed. While the evaluation of infertility in women is initially focused on the assessment of ovulation via serum hormone levels, imaging plays a role in evaluating other causes of infertility. Recent research in this field focuses on the establishment of a comprehensive single imaging study for the assessment of female reproductive disorders. Two proposed methods are MR hysterosalpingography and Fertiliscan, a combination of high-quality 3D ultrasound and assessment of tubal patency with hysterosalpingo-foam-sonography, though more research is needed to determine the risks and benefits of each method, as well as their reliability.
Use of Family History and Genetic Testing to Determine Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Approximately 35% of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) have a family history of the disease attributed to genetic factors, common exposures, or both. Some families with a history of CRC carry genetic variants that cause CRC with high or moderate penetrance, but these account for only 5% to 10% of CRC cases. Most families with a history of CRC and/or adenomas do not carry genetic variants associated with cancer syndromes; this is called common familial CRC. Our understanding of familial predisposition to CRC and cancer syndromes has increased rapidly due to advances in next-generation sequencing technologies. As a result, there has been a shift from genetic testing for specific inherited cancer syndromes based on clinical criteria alone, to simultaneous testing of multiple genes for cancer-associated variants. We summarize current knowledge of common familial CRC, provide an update on syndromes associated with CRC (including the nonpolyposis and polyposis types), and review current recommendations for CRC screening and surveillance. We also provide an approach to genetic evaluation and testing in clinical practice. Determination of CRC risk based on family cancer history and results of genetic testing can provide a personalized approach to cancer screening and prevention, with optimal use of colonoscopy to effectively decrease CRC incidence and mortality.
Analysis of Biological Filter Variables

A mathematical model has been formulated for biological filters based on the independent variables of depth, recirculation, hydraulic rate, temperature, and BOD loading, with the BOD remaining in the effluent as the dependent variable. Extensive experimental data were used and a high multiple correlation coefficient was obtained. The study indicates that all of the independent variables except the hydraulic rate have a signigicant effect on BOD reduction in the liquid being treated. It was also indicated that the recirculation of organisms adapted to the filter environment aid in increasing the BOD removal.
Cannabis Use and Emotional Awareness Difficulties in Adolescents with Co-Occurring Substance Use and Psychiatric Disorders.

Background: Assessing predictors of cannabis use following adolescent substance use treatment may inform essential treatment elements to be emphasized before discharge. Adolescents with low emotion...
Water only fasting and its effect on chemotherapy administration in gynecologic malignancies.

Abstract Objective As a protective response, during starvation organisms withdraw energy from growth and reproduction to focus on cellular maintenance. Cancer cells cannot undergo this differential response which has been theorized as an adjunct to improve both the effect of chemotherapy treatment and reduce treatment side effects. We sought to investigate the feasibility and effect of short-term fasting in patients receiving chemotherapy for gynecologic malignancy. Methods A randomized control trial was conducted of women with gynecologic malignancies receiving at least 6 planned chemotherapy cycles. Fasting patients maintaining a water-only fast for 24 h before and 24 h following each chemotherapy cycle were compared to nonfasting patients. Treatment related side effects and quality of life (QOL) was assessed using NCCN-FACT FOSI-18 questionnaire. Results Analysis included data from 120 cycles of chemotherapy. The majority of patients had stage 3 and 4 malignancy requiring multi-agent chemotherapy. Eleven patients had ovarian, 8 had uterine, and 1 had cervical cancer. Ninety percent received taxane and platinum-based doublet therapy. Weight loss and unanticipated hospitalizations were similar between treatment groups. Fewer dose reductions or delays were seen in the fasting group. There was no significant difference in mean QOL scores, but fasting group QOL scores improved over the course of treatment to a level that reached the minimal clinically important difference. Conclusion A 48-h fast is well tolerated without increasing weight loss, hospital admissions, or chemotherapy dose reduction/delays. Fasting resulted in fewer treatment modifications and improved quality of life scores over the course of treatment.
Topology-based group routing in partially known environments

Multi-agent routing is an important aspect to studying livestock management, traffic patterns, and pedestrian egress. However, much of the literature does not fully account for the underlying dynamics of the agents' group level behavior or fluctuating quality of the paths through an environment. We present an online adaptive learning algorithm for maximizing the throughput of a group of agents operating under uncertain dynamics through a partially known environment. Our approach relies on the novel use of a representation of an environment's topology, specifically, a Reeb Graph. The approach places directing agents at the vertices of this graph and provides an initial graph weighting and update step to progressively determine which paths that subgroups of agents should navigate in order to traverse the space. We validate our algorithm with four complex scenarios showing its flexibility to varying topological structures, uncertain group dynamics, and sudden environmental changes.
Dielectric Properties of x BiInO₃–(1- x ) Pb(Zr₀.₅₂Ti₀.₄₈)O₃ Solid Solutions

This study focused on the synthesis and electrical property measurements of the lead zirconate titanate (PZT)-bismuth indate (BI) perovskite solid solution system. As the PZT binary system is a very well-developed and integrated materials system, identifying new ternary systems based on PZT would allow for a new dimension of control into the exploration and improvement of its electrical properties, which could enable enhancements in the performance of current technology and devices. Here, the solid solution of BiInO3–PbZrO3–PbTiO3 ( ${x}$ BI–(1- ${x}$ ) PZT 52/48) was explored. Through calcination studies, stable solid solutions were obtained, and compositions up to a maximum of 15-mol% BI were synthesized. With increasing BI content, the symmetry transitioned from a tetragonal P4mm phase toward a rhombohedral R3m phase. The Curie temperature of these samples decreased with increasing mol% BI from ~390 °C in pure PZT 52/48 to 322 °C in 10% BI. Ferroelectric and piezoelectric studies of the 2.5% BI sample showed a coercive field of 14.4 kV/cm, ${P}_{\text {max}} = {38}\,\,\mu \text{C}$ /cm2, ${P}_{r} = {29}\,\,\mu \text{C}$ /cm2, and a ${d}_{{33}}^{\ast } = {280}$ pC/N under a maximum applied field of 70 kV/cm at 1 Hz.
Design a 5G Backhaul Network Based on Free Space Optics and Analyze the Link Performances

The leading mobile operator in several regions of the world has already launched the 5G networks with midfrequency bands (i.e., 3-6 GHz) and achieved a significant performance boost over 4G networks. However, the 5G network still needs to evolve to unfold the full potential where the network will use the higher frequency bands (i.e., millimeter-wave band) for the additional spectrum (i.e., 400~800 MHz) and boost the network capacity by several folds. The cell site coverage reduces significantly in higher frequency bands which is 100m radius compared to several kilometers in 4G networks. Therefore, the small cell densification will be the key to meet the high availability requirements of 5G networks. But each cell site will need to have a direct connection with the core network called the backhaul network, and it must meet the ultra-low latency requirements of the 5G network, which will be a new challenge. This paper introduces a backhaul network for 5G based on free-space optics and analyzes the backhaul link performances. It is found that there are several mechanisms that negatively affect the optical backhaul link while some of them are climate-related (e.g., rain, fog, and snow), others are related to atmospheric constituents (e.g. gaseous molecules).
Modeling and mapping permafrost active layer thickness using field measurements and remote sensing techniques

Abstract Quantifying end of summer season Active Layer Thickness (ALT) of permafrost is critical for understanding the effects of climate warming, disturbance, and hydrologic changes on permafrost. Current research mainly focuses on ALT estimation and mapping at large scales using process-based or statistical-empirical models with biophysical variables as predictors. Here we modeled multi-year ALT field measurements between 2014 and 2019 at a site in Interior Alaska using 1-m hyperspectral imaging data and an object-based ensemble approach at a local scale (1 km2), examined the efficacy of the multispectral sensor WorldView (WV)-2 for ALT estimation, and explored the potential of integrating single-date imaging data with multi-year in-situ measurements for mapping the spatial and temporal variation of ALT. Modeling results showed hyperspectral imaging was accurate for estimating ALT with a correlation coefficient (r) larger than 0.7, while application of WV-2 data produced an r around 0.4. Reasonable ALT patterns were generated, and the spatial and temporal variation of ALT was delineated between the shallowest (2015) and deepest (2019) years using hyperspectral data. This study suggests hyperspectral imaging is a promising tool for predicting field ALT measurements and monitoring ALT change at local scales. We expect this study will stimulate hyperspectral optical sensors for permafrost studies in general, and particularly for ALT upscaling.
Intra- and Interobserver Reliability of the New Classification System of Progressive Collapsing Foot Deformity.

BACKGROUND Historical concept of flatfoot as posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) has been questioned. Recently, the consensus group published a new classification system and recommended renaming PTTD to Progressive Collapsing Foot Deformity (PCFD). The new PCFD classification could be effective in providing comprehensive information on the deformity. To date, there has been no study reporting intra- and interobserver reliability and the frequency of each class in PCFD classification. METHODS This was a single-center, retrospective study conducted from prospectively collected registry data. A consecutive cohort of PCFD patients evaluated from February 2015 to October 2020 was included, consisting of 92 feet in 84 patients. Classification of each patient was made using characteristic clinical and radiographic findings by 3 independent observers. Frequencies of each class and subclass were assessed. Intraobserver and inteobserver reliabilities were analyzed with Cohen kappa and Fleiss kappa, respectively. RESULTS Mean sample age was 54.4, 38% was male and 62% were female. 1ABC (25.4%) was the most common subclass, followed by 1AC (8.7%) and 1ABCD (6.9%). Only a small percentage of patients had isolated deformity. Class A was the most frequent component (89.5%), followed by C in 86.2% of the cases. Moderate interobserver reliability (Fleiss kappa = 0.561, P < .001, 95% CI 0.528-0.594) was found for overall classification. Very good intraobserver reliability was found (Cohen kappa = 0.851, P < .001, 95% CI 0.777-0.926). CONCLUSION Almost half (49.3%) of patients had a presentation dominantly involving the hindfoot (A) with various combinations of midfoot and/or forefoot deformity (B), (C) with or without subtalar joint involvement (D). The new system may cover all possible combinations of the PCFD, providing a comprehensive description and guiding treatment in a systematic and individualized manner, but this initial study suggests an opportunity to improve overall interobserver reliability. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level III, retrospective diagnostic study.
Cycles in Sparse Graphs II

The {\em independence ratio} of a graph $G$ is defined by \[ \iota(G) := \sup_{X \subset V(G)} \frac{|X|}{\alpha(X)},\] where $\alpha(X)$ is the independence number of the subgraph of $G$ induced by $X$. The independence ratio is a relaxation of the chromatic number $\chi(G)$ in the sense that $\chi(G) \geq \iota(G)$ for every graph $G$, while for many natural classes of graphs these quantities are almost equal. In this paper, we address two old conjectures of Erdős on cycles in graphs with large chromatic number and a conjecture of Erdős and Hajnal on graphs with infinite chromatic number.
Structural and catalytic properties of lobster muscle glycogen phosphorylase

Abstract Purification of lobster phosphorylase was achieved by a mild method which involves ammonium sulfate and diethylaminoethyl cellulose column chromatography. Both lobster phosphorylase b and a were crystallized by dialysis against 0.01 m EDTA, pH 6.8, which was 30% saturated in ammonium sulfate. Structural and catalytic studies on crystalline lobster phosphorylase are reported. Striking differences from rabbit muscle phosphorylase were found in the amino acid composition, association-dissociation behavior, catalytic efficiency at cold temperature, cold inactivation, energy of activation, and kinetic constants including the allosteric constant. The molecular weight and the extinction coefficient for lobster phosphorylase b are also reported in this study and a model is presented to account for the allosteric properties of this enzyme.
Type 1 Sphingosine 1-Phosphate G Protein-Coupled Receptor (S1P1) Mediation of Enhanced IL-4 Generation by CD4 T Cells from S1P1 Transgenic Mice

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) is a natural lipid mediator that regulates immune cell traffic, Ab production, and T cell cytokine generation by mechanisms that enhance Th2 activities. Responses to S1P are controlled principally by the diverse expression patterns of its receptors in different cells. In T cells, the type 1 (S1P(1)) and type 4 (S1P(4)) G protein-coupled receptors are predominant. S1P(1) mainly transduces effects on T cell migration and trafficking, whereas S1P(4) transduces immunosuppression via its effects on T cell proliferation and cytokine production. Using T cell-specific S1P(1) transgenic (TG) mice, we investigated the regulatory effects of the S1P-S1P(1) axis on T cell cytokine production. The production of IL-4, but not IL-2 or IFN-gamma, was significantly up-regulated >10-fold in activated CD4 T cells from S1P(1) TG mice compared with those from wild-type mice. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that IL-4 up-regulation was initiated at the mRNA level as early as 4 h after T cell activation. The up-regulation of IL-4 mRNA was mediated by c-Maf, Jun B, and Gata3 as demonstrated by increases in their protein expression and DNA-binding activities. In contrast, the expression and DNA-binding activities of T-bet, FosB, C-Fos, Jun D, Fra-1, Fra-2, and c-Jun all were identical in wild-type and TG CD4 T cells. Immunological assays showed that increased IL-4 levels induced greater production of IgE. Thus, the S1P-S1P(1) axis specifically up-regulates c-Maf, Jun B, and Gata3, which consequently enhance IL-4 production that may lead to a Th2 phenotype.
Genetic defects of the growth-hormone-IGF axis associated with growth hormone insensitivity.

The central feature of growth hormone (GH) insensitivity is deficiency of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in association with elevated GH secretion. This condition is also known as primary IGF
A Variable-Displacement Spark-Ignition Engine

A five-cylinder variable displacement research engine has been designed, built, and tested for over one year. Displacement is varied by changing the piston stroke using a four-bar linkage. By proper choice of the linkage dimensions, compression ratio can be held constant as the stroke changes, or it can be tailored to optimize economy and performance. Before the engine was built, its dynamics were thoroughly analyzed, and a five-cylinder configuration was selected to minimize vibration. Test data show that BSFC is, as expected, less dependent on load than in conventional engines, and averages less than 0.5 lb/bhp-hr over the load and speed range of ordinary automobile operation. Several methods for estimating urban fuel economy from dynamometer data predict a significant improvement compared with conventional engines. Emission controls have not yet been applied to this engine.
Does Medical School Training Relate to Practice? Evidence from Big Data.

On April 2nd, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a historic policy in its effort to increase the transparency in the American healthcare system. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) would publicly release a dataset containing information about the types of Medicare services, requested charges, and payments issued by providers across the country. In its release, HHS stated that the data would shed light on “Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse.” While this is most certainly true, we believe that it can provide so much more. Beyond the purely financial aspects of procedure charges and payments, the procedures themselves may provide us with additional information, not only about the Medicare population, but also about the physicians themselves. The procedures a physician performs are for the most part not novel, but rather recommended, observed, and studied. However, whether a physician decides on advocating a procedure is somewhat discretionary. Some patients require a clear course of action, while others may benefit from a variety of options. This article poses the following question: How does a physician's past experience in medical school shape his or her practicing decisions? This article aims to open the analysis into how data, such as the CMS Medicare release, can help further our understanding of knowledge transfer and how experiences during education can shape a physician's decision's over the course of his or her career. This work begins with an evaluation into similarities between medical school charges, procedures, and payments. It then details how schools' procedure choices may link them in other, more interesting ways. Finally, the article includes a geographic analysis of how medical school procedure payments and charges are distributed nationally, highlighting potential deviations.
Molecular simulations and lattice dynamics determination of Stillinger-Weber GaN thermal conductivity

The bulk thermal conductivity of Stillinger-Weber (SW) wurtzite GaN in the [0001] direction at a temperature of 300 K is calculated using equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD), non-equilibrium MD (NEMD), and lattice dynamics (LD) methods. While the NEMD method predicts a thermal conductivity of 166 ± 11 W/m·K, both the EMD and LD methods predict thermal conductivities that are an order of magnitude greater. We attribute the discrepancy to significant contributions to thermal conductivity from long-mean free path phonons. We propose that the Gruneisen parameter for low-frequency phonons is a good predictor of the severity of the size effects in NEMD thermal conductivity prediction. For weakly anharmonic crystals characterized by small Gruneisen parameters, accurate determination of thermal conductivity by NEMD is computationally impractical. The simulation results also indicate the GaN SW potential, which was originally developed for studying the atomic-level structure of dislocations, is not suitable for prediction of its thermal conductivity.
Functional states of resident vascular stem cells and vascular remodeling

Recent evidence indicates that different types of vascular stem cells (VSCs) reside within the mural layers of arteries and veins. The precise identities of these resident VSCs are still unclear; generally, postnatal vasculature contains multilineage stem cells and vascular cell lineage-specific progenitor/stem cells which may participate in both vascular repair and lesion formation. However, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this review, we summarize the potential molecular mechanisms, which may control the quiescence and activation of resident VSCs and highlight a notion that the differential states of resident VSCs are directly linked to vascular repair or lesion formation.
Cinema and Classical Texts: Helen of Troy: Marriage and adultery according to Hollywood

The most beautiful among mortal women in ancient myth is Helen of Troy (originally, of Sparta). Famous in Western culture long before Eve, whose story depended for its familiarity on the spread of Christianity, Helen is the West's original femme fatale . The most fascinating aspect of her story is her illicit love for Paris, the handsome son of King Priam of Troy. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, had promised Paris the most beautiful mortal woman in return for awarding Aphrodite the prize of supreme divine beauty. Unable to resist such a tempting bribe, Paris made his fateful judgment. He then traveled from Troy to Greece for his reward. Helen was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and mother of Hermione. But she fell victim to the passion instilled in her by Aphrodite. As Virgil famously put it, if in a different context: “Love conquers all.” Helen, “crazed by the Trojan man,” followed Paris to Troy. Hence the Trojan War and the fall of Troy, antiquity's biggest myth. Dangerous beauties for whose sake men rush to ruin themselves and others are naturals for popular storytelling in word and image. Especially gripping in tales of two lovers' irresistible passion for each other is the added complication of adultery, which makes one or both of them leave behind all sense of morality, shame, and responsible behavior.
Regulation of behavioral and pheromonal aspects of sex determination in Drosophila melanogaster by the Sex-lethal gene

We have shown that the Sex-lethal (Sxl) gene, which controls morphological aspects of sex determination in Drosophila melanogaster, also regulates sexual behavior. Chromosomal males that are hemizygous for a deletion of the entire Sxl locus perform normal courtship and synthesize the two courtship-inhibiting pheromones that normal males make. However, ectopic expression of female-specific Sex-lethal gene products drastically alters chromosomal males' ability to perform and elicit courtship and increases the probability that they will synthesize a courtship-stimulating pheromone or fail to synthesize one of the inhibitory pheromones. These observations suggest that male sexual behavior is a consequence of the Sxl gene's being functionally inactive in haplo-X flies.
Determination of 99Tc, 63Ni and 121m+126Sn in the marine environment

Abstract Four artificially produced radionuclides ( 99 Tc, t 1 2 = 2·15 × 10 5 y; 63 Ni, t 1 2 = 93 y and 121m+126 Sn, t 1 2 = 55·5 y ) have been analyzed in sediments and organisms from the marine environment. The samples were obtained from the vicinities of nuclear energy facilities, at sites of nuclear weapon tests and at sites remote from both of these locales. The activities of these nuclides per unit dry weight are remarkably similar at the first two of the above areas but are usually detectable only with difficulty, if at all, in the third area. Techniques for sample treatment and measurement are given.
Multiphase reacting flow modeling of singlet oxygen generators for chemical oxygen iodine lasers.

Singlet oxygen generators are multiphase flow chemical reactors that produce energetic oxygen to be used as a fuel for chemical oxygen iodine lasers. In this paper, a theoretical model of the generator is presented that consists of a twophase reacting flow model that treats both the gas phase and dispersed (liquid droplet) phase. The model includes the discretization over droplet size distribution as well. Algorithms for the robust solution of the large set of coupled, nonlinear, partial differential equations enable the investigation of a wide range of operating conditions and even geometric design choices.
Bioidentical hormone therapy.

The change in hormonal milieu associated with perimenopause and menopause can lead to a variety of symptoms that can affect a woman's quality of life. Postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) is an effective, well-tolerated treatment for these symptoms. However, combined HT consisting of conjugated equine estrogen and medroxyprogesterone acetate has been associated with an increased number of health risks when compared with conjugated equine estrogen alone or placebo. As a result, some women are turning to alternative hormonal formulations known as compounded bioidentical HT because they perceive them to be a safer alternative. This article defines compounded bioidentical HT and explores the similarities and differences between it and US Food and Drug Administration–approved HT. We will examine the major claims made by proponents of compounded bioidentical HT and recommend strategies for management of patients who request bioidentical HT from physicians.
Spin decoherence and electron spin bath noise of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

We theoretically investigate spin decoherence of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Using the spin coherent-state $P$-representation method, we simulate coherence evolution of the NV center coupled to surrounding nitrogen electron (N) spins. In the system, the strength of N-N coupling is the same order as that of NV-N coupling (the strong intrabath coupling regime). We find that spin decoherence time as well as free-induction decay of the NV center depend on the spatial configuration of N spins. Both the spin decoherence rate ($1/{T}_{2}$) and dephasing rate ($1/{T}_{2}^{*})$ of the NV center increase linearly with the concentration of the N spins. Using the $P$-representation method, we also demonstrate extracting the noise spectrum of the N spin bath. The capability to calculate the noise spectrum will provide promising pathways to suppress decoherence of spin systems in the strong intrabath coupling regime.
Lumbar spinal fusion rates as influenced by bone grafts and bone graft alternatives: a critical appraisal of common clinical and radiographic comparative methodologies

COMMENTARY ON: Dimar II JR, Glassman SD, Burkus JK, et al. Two-year fusion and clinical outcomes in 224 patients treated with a single-level instrumented posterolateral fusion with iliac crest bone graft. Spine J 2009;9:880–5 (in this issue) .
Microstructural Analysis of Copper Interconnections Using Picosecond Ultrasonics

We demonstrate that picosecond ultrasonics provides detailed information on the structure and properties of patterned arrays of copper fine lines used in silicon chip interconnections. In this method, the sample surface is momentarily heated several °C using a pump laser beam, and the transient change in the optical reflectivity is measured by a probe laser beam. Measurements of the optical reflectivity are made on time scales ranging from picoseconds to nanoseconds, revealing information on electronic, acoustic and thermal properties. We have applied this method to samples consisting of copper line arrays of 0.4 µm linewidth, 0.65 µm pitch and 0.35 µm depth in SiO2 on silicon wafers. For comparison, we examined the picosecond ultrasonic response of 200 nm-thick blanket copper thin films. The patterned Cu lines are found to have long-term oscillations at frequencies of 4.39 and 8.29 GHz with lifetimes at least 10 times longer than the oscillations in the blanket Cu film. A two-dimensional mechanical analysis was developed which uses as input parameters the dimensions and sound velocities of the materials in the sample, and finds the normal mode frequencies and displacements. The main vibrational modes are identified and described for the patterned lines, and the simulations confirm that the lowest frequency modes have very small damping coefficients. Also, the time-dependent signal is shown to reveal details of interface layers and integrity of the copper/liner interface.
Phenotypically selective promotion of diethylnitrosamine-initiated altered hepatocyte foci by dietary phenobarbital or a topically applied coal-derived organic mixture in male and female rats.

Abstract Relative frequencies of diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-initiated foci of altered hepatocytes appearing in response to promotion by either dietary phenobarbital or a topically applied coal-derived organic mixture (CDM) were investigated in male and female rats. The focus population was examined for two histochemical markers, elevated gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase [GG(+)] and iron exclusion [FE(−)], giving rise to 3 detectable focus phenotypes, i.e., GG(+) foci, FE(−) foci, and GG(+) (FE(−) foci. Frequencies of the 3 phenotypes were quantitated through the use of serial frozen sectioning and computer-assisted image analysis. In agreement with our prior observations, cutaneous exposure to CDM or dietary phenobarbital promoted the expression of DEN-initiated foci. However, the current data showed that this promoting effect of CDM occurred only in females and was restricted to foci with the GG(+) FE(−) phenotype. Dietary phenobarbital, on the other hand, promoted both the GG(+) and GG(+) FE(−) phenotypes and was effective in both males and females, althouth a sex-related differential in the promoting efficiency of phenobarbital was also observed. The pronounced heterogeneity in the responses of the 3 focus phenotypes suggests that each phenotype is the consequence of a specific type of genomic alteration with a specific capacity to undergo phenotypic expression in response to a given promoting stimulus.