cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Functional Correction of Short-Chain Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Transgenic Mice: Implications for Gene Therapy of Human Mitochondrial Enzyme Deficiencies

We report the therapeutic effects of liver-specific expression of a short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (SCAD) transgene in the SCAD-deficient mouse model. Transgenic mice were produced with a rat albumin promoter/enhancer driving a mouse SCAD minigene (ALB-SCAD) on both the SCAD normal genetic background and a SCAD-deficient background. In three transgenic lines produced on the SCAD-deficient background, recombinant SCAD activity and antigen in liver mitochondria were found up to 7-fold of normal control values. All three lines showed a markedly reduced organic aciduria and fatty liver, which are sensitive indicators of the metabolic abnormality seen in this disease found in children. We found no detrimental effects of high liver SCAD expression in transgenic mice on either background. These studies provide important basic and practical therapeutic information for the potential gene therapy of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial enzyme deficiencies, as well as insights into the mechanisms of the disease.
Experiences in initiating Baldrige‐based quality in a NIST technical division

Within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which administers the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), a NIST technical division has initiated a Baldrige‐based effort to increase the effectiveness of its research and services. The Precision Engineering Division is responsible for providing US industry with practical access to the international and national standards of length and for conducting a diverse program of RD training on leading and facilitating teams and site visits to other agencies and industry organizations carrying out TQM‐type programs. This paper reports on employee‐identified successes and failures, managerial lessons learned, and some potential next steps in the start‐up effort’s further development.
Influence of Industry on Renal Guideline Development

There is ongoing controversy concerning the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on physicians, research publications, medical societies, and disease advocacy groups (1–7). Nowhere is the potential influence of industry more concerning than in development of clinical practice guidelines (8), which are designed to improve and standardize patient care yet also have enormous economic implications. As outlined herein, industry has provided major financial support to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the principal organization that develops and promulgates management guidelines in nephrology, and honoraria and/or research support to many participants who are involved in nephrology guideline development. Opinion-based recommendations have benefited some industries and harmed others. If not managed appropriately, then these relationships have the opportunity to undermine the guidelines and harm industry’s reputation. They also may reflect poorly on the renal community in general and threaten our independence. Major changes are necessary to limit the influence of conflicts of interest and the appearance of undue influence. The recent 2006 Kidney and Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) anemia guidelines highlight many of these issues. The recent 2006 KDOQI anemia guidelines increased the target hemoglobin range from 11 to 12 to 11 to 13 g/dl for all patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) (9). Because of the tight relationship in patients with CKD between target hemoglobin and erythropoietin-stimulating protein (ESP; epoetin or darbepoetin) dosage (Figure 1), this undoubtedly will increase ESP use and cost to the health care system. Figure 1. US hemodialysis prevalent patient mean weekly epoetin dosage (dashed line) and hemoglobin (solid line) from 1993 to 2004. Rate of deaths per 1000 patient-years (–•–) in prevalent US hemodialysis patients, adjusted for age, gender, race, and primary renal disease. Adapted from reference (10), pp 16, 26. Since 1991, the mean hemoglobin and mean epoetin dosage in dialysis patients have risen steadily. Medicare’s …
Frequency of a Loss-of-Function Mutation in Oleoyl-PC Desaturase ( ahFAD2A ) in the Mini-Core of the U.S. Peanut Germplasm Collection

High oleic acid to linoleic acid ratios (high O/L) in tetraploid peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) are controlled by the activity of oleoyl-PC desaturase, which is encoded by two homeologous genes (ahFAD2A and ahFAD2B). In a naturally occurring high O/L peanut, a spontaneous mutation (G-to-A at position 448 resulting in a D150N amino acid substitution) has been found in ahFAD2A, which resulted in a dysfunctional desaturase. In normal × high O/L crosses, segregation ratios for high:normal O/L are either 1:3 or 1:15 suggesting that one gene in some normal O/L lines may be mutated. We designed a cleaved amplifi ed polymorphic sequence (CAPS) marker to differentiate the mutant and wild-type ahFAD2A alleles at the critical point mutation. The mutant allele was present in 31.6% of the accessions from the mini-core collection of peanut germplasm and was confi rmed by DNA sequence analysis. The mutant allele was frequent among subspecies hypogaea accessions but absent from subspecies fastigiata accessions and the putative diploid, A-genome progenitor of peanut, Arachis duranensis. These data will be useful to breeders who would like to transfer disease resistance traits from mini-core accessions to high oleic acid cultivars.
Insulin enhances the effect of nitric oxide at inhibiting neointimal hyperplasia in a rat model of type 1 diabetes

Diabetes confers greater restenosis from neointimal hyperplasia following vascular interventions. While localized administration of nitric oxide (NO) is known to inhibit neointimal hyperplasia, the...
Composite synthetic lethal identification of membrane traffic inhibitors

Small molecule inhibitors provide powerful tools to characterize highly dynamic and complex eukaryotic cell pathways such as those mediating membrane traffic. However, a lack of easy and generalizable assays has constrained identification of novel inhibitors despite availability of diverse chemical libraries. Here, we report a facile growth-based strategy in yeast to screen for pathway-specific inhibitors. The approach uses well characterized synthetic genetic growth defects to guide design of cells genetically sensitized for inhibition of chosen pathways. With this strategy, we identified a family of piperazinyl phenylethanone compounds as inhibitors of traffic between the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and endosomes that depends on the clathrin adaptor complex AP-1. The compounds did not significantly alter other trafficking pathways involving the TGN or endosomes, indicating specificity. Compound treatment also altered localization of AP-1 in mammalian cells. These previously uncharacterized inhibitors will be useful for future studies of clathrin-mediated transport in yeast, and potentially in other organisms. Furthermore, the easily automated technology should be adaptable for identification of inhibitors of other cellular processes.
Sterility of Filgrastim (G-CSF) in Syringes

OBJECTIVE:To determine if the sterility of filgrastim (G-CSF) is maintained for up to 7 days when aseptically transferred from the vial to tuberculin syringes in a laminar air flow environment.DESIGN:The study was conducted in two phases: a validation and an experimental phase. The method was validated by inoculating samples of sterile filgrastim solution with common bacterial and fungal skin contaminants. Samples were aseptically drawn into syringes in a class 100 horizontal laminar air flow hood and refrigerated. The samples were equally divided and transferred to microbiology culture media at times 0,24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days; incubated; and the organisms identified and quantitated. In the experimental phase, samples of filgrastim were aseptically drawn into syringes, separated into three groups, and refrigerated. At 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days, the samples were transferred to broth, incubated, and observed for the development of turbidity.SETTING:A class 100 laminar air flow hood in a pediatri...
Overcoming the Adverse Effects of Geography: Infrastructure, Health, and Agricultural Policies:

Geography strongly affects development, but geography is not destiny. Public infrastructure investments, health policy, and agricultural policies can help overcome the adverse effects of geography ...
Bayesian body localization using mixture of nonlinear shape models

We present a 2D model-based approach to localizing human body in images viewed from arbitrary and unknown angles. The central component is a statistical shape representation of the nonrigid and articulated body contours, where a nonlinear deformation is decomposed based on the concept of parts. Several image cues are combined to relate the body configuration to the observed image, with self occlusion explicitly treated. To accommodate large viewpoint changes, a mixture of view-dependent models is employed. Inference is done by direct sampling of the posterior mixture, using Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) simulation enhanced with annealing and kernel move. The fitting method is independent of the number of mixture components, and does not require the preselection of a "correct" viewpoint. The models were trained on a large number of interactively labeled gait images. Preliminary tests demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed approach.
The Impact of Sequential Data on Consumer Confidence in Relative Judgments

We examine how consumers update their confidences in ordinal (relative) judgments while evaluating sequential product-ranking and source-accuracy data in percentage versus frequency formats. The results show that when sequential data are relatively easier to mathematically combine (e.g., percentage data), consumers revise their judgments in a way that is consistent with an averaging model but inconsistent with the normative Bayesian model. However, when the sequential data are difficult to mathematically combine (e.g., frequency data), consumers update their confidence judgments in a way that is more consistent with the normative Bayesian model than with an averaging model. Interestingly, greater processing motivation for sequential frequency data leads to updated confidence judgments that are lower than normative Bayesian predictions but consistent with the averaging model. Overall, the results of the experiments reveal counterintuitive findings; updated confidence judgments are higher and more accurate when sequential data are more difficult to process and also when consumers have lower processing motivation.
Gene Expression of Endothelial Cells due to Interleukin-1 Beta Stimulation and Neutrophil Transmigration

During the inflammatory response, endothelial cell (EC) functions and mechanics change dramatically. To understand these responses, the authors analyzed changes in EC gene expression in an in vitro model of inflammation using cDNA microarrays. After interleukin-1 beta (IL1beta) stimulation, over 2500 genes were differentially expressed, of which approximately 2000 had not been previously identified by microarray studies of IL1beta stimulation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Functional grouping of these genes according to gene ontologies revealed genes associated with apoptosis, cell cycle, nuclear factor (NF)-kappa B cascade, chemotaxis, and immune response. Interestingly, claudin-1, known to exist in endothelial cell-cell junctions was up-regulated, but claudin-5 and occludin, which also exist in EC junctions, were down-regulated. Pre-b-cell colony enhancing factor (PBEF), a cytokine which may play a role in regulating endothelial permeability, was also up-regulated following IL1beta stimulation. Neutrophil transmigration across IL1beta-stimulated ECs did not induce changes in EC gene expression as strongly as IL1beta stimulation alone. Nineteen genes after 1 h and 22 genes after 3 h of neutrophil application were differentially expressed. These results indicate that, in terms of transcriptional effects on ECs, neutrophil transmigration is a relatively small perturbation in comparison to the background of large scale changes induced in ECs by cytokine stimulation. Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Endothelium for the following free supplementary resources: supplementary figures and tables.
Detection and Analysis of an Amplified Warming of the Sahara Desert

AbstractEvaluation of three reanalyses (ERA-Interim, NCEP-2, and MERRA) and two observational datasets [CRU and Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)] for 1979–2012 demonstrates that the surface temperature of the Sahara Desert has increased at a rate that is 2–4 times greater than that of the tropical-mean temperature over the 34-yr time period. While the response to enhanced greenhouse gas forcing over most of the globe involves the full depth of the atmosphere, with increases in longwave back radiation increasing latent heat fluxes, the dryness of the Sahara surface precludes this response. Changes in the surface heat balance over the Sahara during the analysis period are primarily in the upward and downward longwave fluxes. As a result, the warming is concentrated near the surface, and a desert amplification of the warming occurs. The desert amplification is analogous to the polar amplification of the global warming signal, which is concentrated at the surface, in part, because of the vertical ...
A look at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's knowledge management initiatives

As we move from the Information Age to the Knowledge Era, knowledge is being treated as a key asset. NASA and others are realizing that, to maximize their organizations' potential, they must fully leverage their knowledge or intellectual capital. To accomplish this task, an emerging trend is to develop knowledge management and knowledge-sharing initiatives within organizations.
Design and control of tensegrity robots for locomotion

The static properties of tensegrity structures have been widely appreciated in civil engineering as the basis of extremely lightweight yet strong mechanical structures. However, the dynamic properties and their potential utility in the design of robots have been relatively unexplored. This paper introduces robots based on tensegrity structures, which demonstrate that the dynamics of such structures can be utilized for locomotion. Two tensegrity robots are presented: TR3, based on a triangular tensegrity prism with three struts, and TR4, based on a quadrilateral tensegrity prism with four struts. For each of these robots, simulation models are designed, and automatic design of controllers for forward locomotion are performed in simulation using evolutionary algorithms. The evolved controllers are shown to be able to produce static and dynamic gaits in both robots. A real-world tensegrity robot is then developed based on one of the simulation models as a proof of concept. The results demonstrate that tensegrity structures can provide the basis for lightweight, strong, and fault-tolerant robots with a potential for a variety of locomotor gaits
Absorbed dose measurements using parallel plate polystyrene ionization chambers in polystyrene phantoms

Abstract Ionometric methods are commonly used for the routine calibration of high energy photon and electron beams. Since the basis for all ionometric dose measurements for high energy radiation is the Bragg-Gray relation, the dosimeter and phantom used clearly must achieve close approximation to ideal Bragg-Gray conditions. A polystyrene parallel plate ionization chamber used by the authors in polystyrene phantoms is described which closely fulfills the Bragg-Gray conditions. Intercomparison of dose measurements made in a polystyrene phantom with this chamber and a tissue-equivalent (A-150) calorimeter are described for cobalt-60 gamma rays and 10 MV X-rays, as well as for 11 MeV electrons and 20 McV electrons. The agreement between the two methods was within 1.3% or better. From this it is concluded that the use of a polystyrene parallel plate ionization chamber in a polystyrene phantom provides an accurate, reliable and simple method for the calibration of high energy photon and electron beams.
Online, Instructional Television and Traditional Delivery: Student Characteristics and Success Factors in Business Statistics.

Distance education has surged in recent years while research on student characteristics and factors leading to successful outcomes has not kept pace. This study examined characteristics of regional university students in undergraduate Business Statistics and factors linked to their success based on three modes of delivery - Online, Instructional Television (ITV), and Traditional classroom. The three groups were found to have similar GPAs prior to taking their statistics courses. Online students were more likely to be repeating the course, to have earned more credit hours prior to enrolling, and to be significantly older. Ordinary Least Squares regression identified GPA and % absences (or an effort proxy) as highly significant predictors of course performance. Academic advisors are encouraged to suggest a traditional format to students who are repeating the course and to caution students that previous online coursework may produce expectations that are not appropriate for online courses in statistics.
Scalable Telemetry Classification for Automated Malware Detection

Industry reports and blogs have estimated the amount of malware based on known malicious files. This paper extends this analysis to the amount of unknown malware. The study is based on 26.7 million files referenced in telemetry reports from 50 million computers running commercial anti-malware (AM) products. To estimate the undetected malware, a classifier predicts the underlying nature of unknown files recorded in the telemetry reports. The telemetry classifier predicts that 69.6% (4.27 million) of the unknown files are malicious. Assuming the unknown files predicted to be malicious by the classifier are malware, the telemetry classifier also allows us to estimate the efficacy of the AM system indicating that signatures detected 82.8% (20.6 million) of the malicious files. We have validated our system by conducting a longitudinal study to measure the false positive and false negative rates over a period of thirteen months.
Operationalizing Heedful Interrelating: How Attending, Responding, and Feeling Comprise Coordinating and Predict Performance in Self-Managing Teams.

Team coordination implies a system of individual behavioral contributions occurring within a network of interpersonal relationships to achieve a collective goal. Current research on coordination has emphasized its relational aspects, but has not adequately accounted for how team members also simultaneously manage individual behavioral contributions and represent the whole system of the team’s work. In the current study, we develop theory and test how individuals manage all three aspects of coordinating through the three facets described in the theory of heedful interrelating. We operationalize the facet of contributing as distributing attention between self and others, subordinating as responsively communicating, and representing as feeling the system of the team’s work as a cohesive whole. We then test the relationships among these facets and their influence on team performance in an experiment with 50 ad hoc triads of undergraduate student self-managing teams tasked with collectively composing a song in the lab. In analyzing thin-slices of video data of these teams’ coordination, we found that teams with members displaying greater dispersion of attentional distribution and more responsive communicating experienced a stronger feeling of the team as a whole. Responsive communication also predicted team performance. Accounting for how the three aspects of coordinating are managed by individual team members provides a more critical understanding of heedful interrelating, and insight into emergent coordination processes.
A Novel Approach to Synthesis and Characterization of Biocompatible Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Nanoparticles

Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO) being biocompatible and chemically stable have great potential for bio-medical applications that includes anti-bacterial and mold prevention, air ventilation and purification, water purification, self cleaning and photosynthesis, and disease detection. Also ZnO is a wide band gap semiconductor and exhibits piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties, which makes it a perfect candidate for building electrochemically coupled sensors and transducers. With all these unique properties, ZnO has the potential to be very important nanomaterial in material research area. Therefore, research, development, and production of ZnO nanoparticles would make notable contributions to the field of nanotechnology. In this paper we report a novel approach for the fabrication of ZnO nanoparticles suspension in deionized water at room temperature using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Particle size was controlled by the number of shots of the laser beam used. Characterization of the nanoparticles has been done using UV-Visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). UV-Visible study confirmed the existence of ZnO nanoparticles showing a peak at around 300 nm which is consistent with the absorption spectra of standard ZnO nanoparticles. Presence of ZnO was reconfirmed by the excitation and emission spectra obtained from fluorescence spectroscopy. The excitation and emission peaks were found at 305 nm and 410 nm respectively, strongly suggesting the characteristic peaks for ZnO nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) photographs established that we have successfully prepared ZnO nanoparticles suspension with particle size ranging from 6 nm to 90 nm.
Characterization of Hip’ed, High Purity Si3N4 Grain Boundaries

Laser synthesized, ultra-fine, amorphous, Si3N4 powders were densified via HIP’ing without any oxide sintering aids. Exposed samples were made from powder that had been exposed to the atmosphere, thereby picking up an oxide surface layer, and unexposed samples were made from powders processed entirely under glove box conditions, i.e. without oxygen contamination. TEM (and sintering) studies indicate that the exposed samples HIP’ed at temperatures in excess of the melting point of SiO2, densified via a solution-reprecipitation mechanism, with a resultant intergranular glassy phase of high purity SiO2. In contrast, unexposed samples had to be HIP’ed to 2050°C to achieve a density of ~70 % ρ Th. These samples consisted of equiaxed β-Si3N4 grains, with localized high density regions where no inter-granular phase (crystalline or glassy) was detected to within 0.66 nm.
Virtual multi-offset reflection profiling with interferometric imaging for borehole radar

Interferometry is one of the most advanced signal-processing and imaging techniques. It is widely used in geophysical detection and remote sensing. Application of interferometric processing significantly improves the resolution in geophysical imaging. This paper reports the application of an interferometric imaging approach to cross-hole multi-offset transmission (CHMOT) borehole radar data to generate a virtual single-hole, multi-offset reflection (SHMOR) profile with the validation of a real SHMOR data set. In subsurface material property imaging, SHMOR is an effective technique for interface and fracture detection. However, borehole radar survey in SHMOR fashion is not practical for most cases. Transforming cross-hole transmission mode radar data to virtual single-hole, multi-offset reflection data using a wave interferometric virtual source (WIVS) approach was proposed previously but not fully validated with real SHMOR data. In this study, we compare WIVS-derived virtual SHMOR to real SHMOR profiles using data sets acquired in two boreholes (SIMA1 and SIMA2) drilled into crystalline igneous bedrocks. As the calibration and validation, the reflection from borehole SIMA2 (as the known object) is clearly imaged by both the real and WIVS-derived virtual SHMOR profiles in SIMA1. The diffractions and amplitude decay from sharp stratigraphic change also registered at both the real and WIVS-derived virtual SHMOR profiles. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of the WIVS approach to improve structural imaging in bedrocks for hydrogeological, geothermal, and petroleum reservoir development applications. The wave interferometry virtual source (WIVS) method for getting the virtual single-hole, multi-offset reflection (SHMOR) profile by comparing with the real single-hole multi-offset radar data was verified.The comparison results show that WIVS derived SHMOR is imaged better, the heterogeneities between the original data.
Evaluation of an Automated Ficoll Procedure To Enrich for Mononuclear Cells for Use in Clinical Trials.

Mononuclear cell fraction (MNC) enrichment from hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) cells is required for a number of clinical applications. Previously, we have used a manual method for enrichment of these cells. We evaluated an automated procedure for better consistency and patient safety (reduce risk of contamination). We have been using the Sepax (BioSafe) for the past 18 months to process Cord Blood (RBC depletion) before cryopreservation. Since the instrument can also do density gradient enrichment of mononuclear cells, we evaluated the ability to process different sources of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) on the Sepax. Methods: Bone marrow, non-mobilized apheresis and cord blood were evaluated as a source of HPC. Briefly, 100ml of Ficoll solution were added to the chamber of the Sepax disposable. After initiating centrifugation, 50–110 ml of HPC were then overlayed onto the density gradient. The cells were fractionated, mononuclear cell fraction isolated, and then washed three times before final resuspension in 50ml of Saline/5% albumin. In some experiments the HPC were divided into two fractions so that a direct comparison of the Manual vs Automated enrichment procedure could be compared. Finally, a recent publication from Seeger et al (European Heart Journal28:766, 2007) suggested different density gradient solutions have an effect on MNC enrichment. Therefore, four different brands of density gradient solution (GE Ficoll-Paque Premium, Sigma Histopaque 1077, Accurate Lymphoprep and Lonza Lymphocyte Separation media) were evaluated to determine if there was a differential separation of subsets of cells. Results: The total nucleated cell (TNC), MNC and CD34 recoveries after MNC enrichment were similar for either bone marrow or cord blood HPC comparing the manual procedure and the automated procedure. The TNC and MNC recovery was higher for apheresis products (66% and 69% respectively) than the other two sources of HPC. This most likely reflects the enriched MNC starting population from an apheresis device. We evaluated the TNC and MNC recoveries over a range of initial TNC (7.5–20 × 108 cells) but could not see an effect of either cell number or cell concentration on recoveries. Nor could we see an effect of initial cell volume (50–100 mls) on recovery of cells post processing. Finally, we could not see a difference in either TNC or MNC recovery when the four different sources of density gradient solution were compared. Conclusion: We have shown that the Sepax instrument can be used for enrichment of mononuclear cells from HPC, Marrow, HPC, Apheresis and HPC, Cord. The benefits of an automated system are consistency, functionally closed system which reduces possibility of contamination documentation of run parameters and shorter processing time.
Toxicology: liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

LC-MS is a powerful tool for toxicology applications in the clinical laboratory. The primary use of an LC-MS in a toxicology laboratory is for drug confirmation testing following an immunoassay screen and for broad spectrum drug screening. Multiple different LC-MS platforms including, LC-MS, LC-MS/MS, LC-TOF, LC-QTOF, and LC-Orbitrap have been used for toxicology testing. In addition, multiple different data acquisition modes have been described; including, targeted and untargeted data acquisition methods with and without data dependent acquisition of product ion spectra (DDA or DIA). This chapter highlights two LC-MS applications; including opioid confirmation testing and broad spectrum drug screening and one laboratory’s experience with method development, validation, and implementation. Several different approaches to both of these applications have been described in the literature, are referenced in this chapter, and can be used as resources for toxicology laboratories considering the implementation of LC-MS.
Routine location of T -phase sources in the Pacific

abstract A program for the routine location of T -phase sources in the Pacific is described. Data for this program are supplied principally by the Pacific Missile Range hydrophone network. Arrival times and power levels are read at Honolulu for processing by an IBM 7040 computer. The solution for location and origin time is the least-squares fit to all hydrophone arrivals which are weighted according to their distribution in azimuth and their distance from the T -phase source. The velocities for the program are obtained from algebraic functions of latitude and longitude which are based upon shot calibrations and upon hydrographic measurements. A T -phase strength is computed from readings of peak power level in a manner analogous to earthquake magnitude. Early results for the r.m.s. difference between T -phase source locations and the corresponding earthquake epicenters were 0.6° in the Aleutians and 1.1° in the Kuril Islands.
University of Buffalo and the Postgraduate Medical School, 1961–1967

I had arranged to spend a sabbatical year in the University of Buffalo where Hermann Rahn was the head of the department of physiology. He had been one of the major contributors in the area of pulmonary gas exchange. In the event, the year was not particularly productive in terms of research, but there were several interesting events. One was that I gave a seminar at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and was subsequently offered a position on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. We submitted a large application to the NIH to have a cyclotron installed at the Hospital and remarkably this was funded. However for various reasons I decided not to take up the position, and this astonished many people. But the next 5 years at Hammersmith Hospital turned out to be enormously productive. We concentrated on studying the effects of gravity on the lung, with much of the work being done using an isolated lung preparation. I collaborated with many excellent postdoctoral fellows, and many influential articles were published. However the most important event was my marriage to Penelope in October 1967. Our time together has been extremely happy and I could not have accomplished what I have done without her.
Understanding Responses to Hearsay: An Extension of the Comparative Analysis

Response to Professor Damaska's presentation at the Hearsay Reform Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992.
Management of Acute Retinal Ischemia: Follow the Guidelines!

Acute retinal arterial ischemia, including vascular transient monocular vision loss (TMVL) and branch (BRAO) and central retinal arterial occlusions (CRAO), are ocular and systemic emergencies requiring immediate diagnosis and treatment. Guidelines recommend the combination of urgent brain magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion-weighted imaging, vascular imaging, and clinical assessment to identify TMVL, BRAO, and CRAO patients at highest risk for recurrent stroke, facilitating early preventive treatments to reduce the risk of subsequent stroke and cardiovascular events. Because the risk of stroke is maximum within the first few days after the onset of visual loss, prompt diagnosis and triage are mandatory. Eye care professionals must make a rapid and accurate diagnosis and recognize the need for timely expert intervention by immediately referring patients with acute retinal arterial ischemia to specialized stroke centers without attempting to perform any further testing themselves. The development of local networks prompting collaboration among optometrists, ophthalmologists, and stroke neurologists should facilitate such evaluations, whether in a rapid-access transient ischemic attack clinic, in an emergency department–observation unit, or with hospitalization, depending on local resources.
Neurohumoral Mechanisms in Asthma

An exaggerated responsiveness of airways to inhalation of many different materials is an almost ubiquitous finding in asthma. However, the mechanism of this increased responsiveness appears to be varied. In some individuals bronchial hyperreactivity is due at least in part to an increase in postganglionic cholinergic sensitivity. In others, muscarinic mechanisms appear to play a minor role. Mast cells are involved in both immunologic and nonimmunologic reactions in the lung which may lead to airway hyperreactivity, perhaps by an inflammatory mechanism. Airway epithelial cells may also participate in these reactions.
Transformation of complex type WSDL into OWL-S for facilitating SWS discovery

Web services (WS) are manually mediated with phases such as discovery, selection, composition and invocation. WS uses syntactic description available in WSDL, which are human understandable. WS discovery and selection is made through keyword matching that produces unrelated WS, which raises the problem of finding the exact WS. To overcome this issue the search can be made to produce related web services semantically for which WS should present as semantic web service (SWS). For this human understandable description should be changed into machine understandable description. In the current Web the availability of WS is more populated than SWS, which is described in OWL-S. There is a need for transformation from WS into SWS and this paper proposes a framework for conversion. The WSDL document has two types such as simple and complex. During this conversion simple type remains unchanged, because of attribute element names and complex type contains elements values that are converted into OWL-S. The conversion is implemented and evaluated. The result outperforms the similar conversion method.
A Qualitative Study of Daydreaming Episodes at Work

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiential elements of mind wandering at work and prompt the formation of new research questions addressing this experiential perspective. To do this, we use an episodic framework for mind wandering that is grounded in the subjective work experience and examines mind wandering holistically. Thirty full-time employees participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews exploring the experience of mind wandering at work. Responses were transcribed and then coded using conventional content analysis. Data collection and coding proceeded in an iterative process, as described by Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). This qualitative study provides descriptive evidence for the experiential components of a mind wandering episode (onset, termination cues, and outcomes). Within each of these components, additional themes are identified, discussed, and connected to person- and organization-centric work processes. The thematic organization of daydreaming episodes reveals new aspects of the subjective experience of daydreaming that can be explored further. To aid this, we provide a framework for investigating the inter-relationships between these aspects. The identification of these subjective experiences paves the way for novel research investigating how daydreams, and the accompanying subjective experience, inform momentary work processes. This paper provides a unique subjective experience to understanding mind wandering at work. By directly addressing the phenomenology of mind wandering at work, we encourage a new perspective to the mind wandering phenomena and encourage the development of new research questions.
Study of the polytope of the $${{\,\mathrm{at \text{-} least}\,}}$$at-least predicate

Constraint programming is a powerful tool for modeling various problems in operations research. Its strength lies in the use of predicates, or global high-level constraints, on a few variables to efficiently model complex and varied problem structures. In this paper, we consider the predicate at-least. It bounds the number of variables in a set that may receive a specific value. This is a generalization of the standard logic condition expressed when the sum of binary variables is expressing a lower bound on the cardinality of a set. We have completely determined the convex hull representation of this predicate and provide a polynomial separation algorithm for inclusion in branch-and-bound integer programming software.
Rediscovery of the Freshwater Brown Alga Heribaudiella in Connecticut after 100 Years

Heribaudiella fluviatilis is a freshwater species in the predominantly marine class of brown algae (Phaeophyceae). The first reported North American population was collected in 1898 from Island Brook, CT. Here we confirm that the species was once present in Island Brook but has been extirpated from that location. Our 2016 survey rediscovered Heribaudiella in the New England flora, in 6 streams in western Connecticut ∼70 km inland from marine water. Ecological data indicate these streams are deeper and have large-grained sediments, but lower specific conductance, dissolved NO3-, and inorganic P as soluble reactive phosphorous (SRP) than nearby streams lacking this alga. We ran a multivariate, boosted regression tree (BRT) analysis, which confirmed that the niche of Heribaudiella in Connecticut is limited to minimally disturbed streams with greater pH, a high percentage of streambed boulders, and lower concentrations of dissolved NO3- and SRP.
Using mathematical modelling to investigate the effect of the sexual behaviour of asymptomatic individuals and vector control measures on Zika

Zika is a vector borne disease for which the latest world wide outbreak inspired a renewed interest in epidemiological modelling of vector borne diseases. However, due to the possibility of sexual ...
Bedding of Wetland Soil: Effects of Bed Height and Termite Activity on Wood Decomposition

Microorganisms and termites are the primary wood decay agents in forests of the southeastern United States, whose activity can be affected by forest management practices. Bedding establishes raised planting beds on poorly-drained soils, but little is known about the effect of bedding or soil bed height on wood decomposition. Therefore, a four height bedding study was conducted on a wetland soil in eastern South Carolina: flat (no bedding), half (7.5 cm), single (20 cm), and double (30 cm) above the original soil surface. Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) wood stakes were inserted to 30-cm soil depth, sampled over 23 mo, and decomposition (mass loss) by soil microorganisms and termites assessed. Microbial decay of both aspen and pine stakes increased as bed height increased, approaching 50% mass loss in double beds at the end of the study. Termites were not present in the flat (unbedded) soil, only damaged <1% of stakes in half beds, but were very active in single and double beds. Termites damaged or consumed 43% of aspen stakes in the double beds, which increased aspen mass loss by 30%. In contrast, termites attacked only 11% of pine stakes in double beds, and had little impact on mass loss. Stake decomposition was highest at the 5-cm soil depth and was affected by soil microsite variability among soil bed heights. Soil bedding increased wood decomposition by both soil microorganisms and termites, and their impact on soil organic matter content and productivity deserves more attention.
Interaction of GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphism and cruciferous/alliums vegetable intake in the risk of breast cancer

2598 The high levels of isothiocyanate and garlic allyl sulfides found in cruciferous and alliums vegetables are known to have anti-cancer properties and are inducers of multiple Phase II enzymes including glutathione-s-transferases (GST). Using data and specimens from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, we evaluated the independent and joint effects of diet and GSTP1 gene polymorphism on breast cancer risk. Included in the study were 3039 cases and 3037 controls who completed a dietary survey and were genotyped for the GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphism. Total intake of cruciferous and alliums vegetables was obtained using a validated food-frequency questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression models were used in the statistical analyses. Carrying GSTP1 Val/Val genotype was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer (Odd ratio (OR) =1.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15-2.04), a risk predominately seen in pre-menopausal women (OR = 1.76, 95% CI 1.22-2.55). No apparent overall association was found for intake of crucifers or alliums vegetables. However, an interactive effect was found between GSTP1 Ile105Val polymorphism and intake of cruciferous (Pinteraction=0.002) or alliums vegetables (Pinteraction=0.005). A 2-fold elevated risk ( OR = 1.95, 95% CI 1.20-3.00) was found for women who had the GSTP1 Val/Val genotype and consumed low levels of cruciferous vegetables compared to those who carried the GSTP1 Ile/Ile and Ile/Val genotypes and consumed high levels of this group of vegetables. Similarly, the risk associated with lower alliums vegetable intake was primarily seen in women with the GSTP1 Val/Val genotype (OR = 1.79, 95% CI 0.81-3.98). This study suggests that the effect of cruciferous or alliums vegetable intake on breast cancer risk may depend on the genotype of the GSTP1gene
YejM Modulates Activity of the YciM/FtsH Protease Complex To Prevent Lethal Accumulation of Lipopolysaccharide.

ABSTRACT Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is an essential glycolipid present in the outer membrane (OM) of many Gram-negative bacteria. Balanced biosynthesis of LPS is critical for cell viability; too little LPS weakens the OM, while too much LPS is lethal. In Escherichia coli, this balance is maintained by the YciM/FtsH protease complex, which adjusts LPS levels by degrading the LPS biosynthesis enzyme LpxC. Here, we provide evidence that activity of the YciM/FtsH protease complex is inhibited by the essential protein YejM. Using strains in which LpxC activity is reduced, we show that yciM is epistatic to yejM, demonstrating that YejM acts upstream of YciM to prevent toxic overproduction of LPS. Previous studies have shown that this toxicity can be suppressed by deleting lpp, which codes for a highly abundant OM lipoprotein. It was assumed that deletion of lpp restores lipid balance by increasing the number of acyl chains available for glycerophospholipid biosynthesis. We show that this is not the case. Rather, our data suggest that preventing attachment of lpp to the peptidoglycan sacculus allows excess LPS to be shed in vesicles. We propose that this loss of OM material allows continued transport of LPS to the OM, thus preventing lethal accumulation of LPS within the inner membrane. Overall, our data justify the commitment of three essential inner membrane proteins to avoid toxic over- or underproduction of LPS. IMPORTANCE Gram-negative bacteria are encapsulated by an outer membrane (OM) that is impermeable to large and hydrophobic molecules. As such, these bacteria are intrinsically resistant to several clinically relevant antibiotics. To better understand how the OM is established or maintained, we sought to clarify the function of the essential protein YejM in Escherichia coli. Here, we show that YejM inhibits activity of the YciM/FtsH protease complex, which regulates synthesis of the essential OM glycolipid lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Our data suggest that disrupting proper communication between LPS synthesis and transport to the OM leads to accumulation of LPS within the inner membrane (IM). The lethality associated with this event can be suppressed by increasing OM vesiculation. Our research has identified a completely novel signaling pathway that we propose coordinates LPS synthesis and transport.
Does online incivility cancel out the spiral of silence? A moderated mediation model of willingness to speak out:

This study tested whether different negatively valenced emotional reactions—feeling angry or depressed—to incivility produce varying intentions to speak out. A related goal was to assess whether th...
Regionconnect: Rapidly extracting standardized brain connectivity information in voxel-wise neuroimaging studies.

Abstract Reporting white matter findings in voxel-wise neuroimaging studies typically lacks specificity in terms of brain connectivity. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to develop an approach for rapidly extracting standardized brain connectivity information for white matter regions with significant findings in voxel-wise neuroimaging studies. The new approach was named regionconnect and is based on precalculated average healthy adult brain connectivity information stored in standard space in a fashion that allows fast retrieval and integration. Towards this goal, the present work first generated and evaluated the white matter connectome of the IIT Human Brain Atlas v.5.0. It was demonstrated that the edges of the atlas connectome are representative of those of individual participants of the Human Connectome Project in terms of the spatial organization of streamlines and spatial patterns of track-density. Next, the new white matter connectome was used to develop multi-layer, connectivity-based labels for each white matter voxel of the atlas, consistent with the fact that each voxel may contain axons from multiple connections. The regionconnect algorithm was then developed to rapidly integrate information contained in the multi-layer labels across voxels of a white matter region and to generate a list of the most probable connections traversing that region. Usage of regionconnect does not require high angular resolution diffusion MRI or any MRI data. The regionconnect algorithm as well as the white matter tractogram and connectome, multi-layer, connectivity-based labels, and associated resources developed for the IIT Human Brain Atlas v.5.0 in this work are available at www.nitrc.org/projects/iit . An interactive, online version of regionconnect is also available at www.iit.edu/~mri .
The D0 Detector for Run II

The general purpose D0 collider detector at the Fermilab Tevatron has undergone major upgrades for Run II. We describe the current status and performance of the D0 detector.
Novice to Maestro

The same way a sculptor creates a piece of art, an AI/ML model approximates a manifold. AI/ML models differ in their abilities. Some perform very simple approximation and some can handle highly complex manifolds. Those which are simpler are said to have high bias. Those which are capable of complex approximations have less bias and many degrees. They can carve in flexible ways depending on the training data. They are said to have high variance.