cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Peripheral Inflammatory Biomarkers and Risk of Parkinson's Disease

Experimental and postmortem evidence indicates a role of neuroinflammation in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. The authors prospectively examined whether plasma concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers assessed before Parkinson’s disease diagnosis were predictive of future risk of the disease in a nested case-control study in the United States (1993–2002), including 84 incident cases and 165 matched controls. Blood was collected from patients on average 4.3 years before the diagnosis. After adjustment for potential confounders, higher level of interleukin-6 was associated with a greater risk of Parkinson’s disease. Compared with the lowest quintile, the odds ratios were 1.5 for the second, 1.6 for the third, 2.7 for the fourth, and 3.4 for the fifth quintiles (p for trend ¼ 0.03). In contrast, concentrations of other inflammatory biomarkers including C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and tumor necrosis factor-a receptors were not related to the risk. These data suggest that men with high plasma concentrations of interleukin-6 have an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size and the lack of associations with other biomarkers of inflammation. biological markers; C-reactive protein; inflammation; interleukin-6; odds ratio; Parkinson disease; tumor necrosis factor-a Abbreviations: IL, interleukin; TNF, tumor necrosis factor. Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation has been hypothesized to play an important role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease, primarily based on findings from postmortem studies and animal experiments (1, 2). Consistently, concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1b, IL-2, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a were elevated in the brain and cerebral spinal fluid of Parkinson’s disease patients (3). Two small studies further showed plasma elevations of some of these cytokines when comparing Parkinson’s disease patients with controls (4, 5). However, these studies involved prevalent cases and provided little information on whether prediagnostic levels of inflammatory biomarkers are predictive of future risk of Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, by taking advantage of the prospective Health Professionals Follow-up Study, we conducted a nested case-control investigation to examine whether peripheral elevations in inflammatory biomarkers assessed years before disease diagnoses were associated with greater risk of Parkinson’s disease.
The Supreme Court and the Purposes of Medicine

What role should physicians have in defining the purposes of their profession — the functions that medicine should and should not serve? Dr. Gregg Bloche writes that any observers hold that medicine's aims are for doctors and patients to decide, without interference from the state. But in fact, government limits medicine's purposes in many ways.
Protein tyrosine phosphatase-dependent proteolysis of focal adhesion complexes in endothelial cell apoptosis

Adenosine and/or homocysteine causes endothelial cell apoptosis, a mechanism requiring protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) activity. We investigated the role of focal adhesion contact disruption ...
Effect of piperacillin/tazobactam restriction on usage and rates of acute renal failure

A piperacillin/tazobactam (PT) restriction was initiated at our institution on 15 July 2012 requiring clinical pharmacy or infectious diseases approval for durations exceeding 72 h. A retrospective review was undertaken to determine whether this restriction decreased PT usage and/or rates of acute renal failure (ARF) (defined as a 50% increase or 0.5 mg dl(-1) increase in serum creatinine from baseline). Patients prescribed at least 1 day of PT with a creatinine clearance of ≥ 39 ml min(-1) at the time of initiation in the 3 months prior to the restriction were compared with patients in the 5 months after restriction implementation. Overall, 115 unique patients were included in the pre-implementation group and compared with 117 unique patients in the post-implementation group. The pre-implementation group received a mean of 5.22 days of PT, compared with 4.71 days in the post-implementation group (P = 0.224). Ten per cent (12/115) of patients in the pre-implementation group developed ARF compared with 9.17% (11/120) of patients in the post-implementation group (P = 0.0309). Ninety-five patients in the pre-implementation group and 91 in the post-implementation group received combination therapy with vancomycin. ARF occurred in 11.6% (11/95) of those in the pre-implementation group and 12.1% (11/91) in the post-implementation (P>0.05). Overall, 11.8% (22/186) of patients who received therapy with PT and vancomycin developed ARF, compared with 1.7% (1/56) who received PT monotherapy (P < 0.0001). This restriction resulted in a numeric reduction in the number of PT days in the post-implementation group and a significant reduction in the rate of ARF.
Teacher Turnover in High-Poverty Schools: What We Know and Can Do:

Background/ContextOver the past three decades, teacher turnover has increased substantially in U.S. public schools, especially in those serving large portions of low-income students of color. Teach...
Comparing the effect of pruning on a best path and a naive-approach blackboard solver

A naive solver is one approach that can be used to identify prospective solutions based on data on (or projected to be on) a Blackboard Architecture's blackboard. The naive solver approach doesn't implement heuristics or other techniques to determine what solution paths to attempt first. Instead, it runs the blackboard forward (simulating what would occur if data were gradually added to the blackboard at a faster-than-real time rate). The approach doesn't guarantee that an optimal solution will be found and will need to be run repetitively to create multiple solutions for comparison. This paper assesses the effect of pre-pruning the blackboard's facts and rules to remove those that are not relevant (e.g., facts that cannot be asserted, rules that cannot be triggered) or which produce irrelevant facts and pruning actions that produce irrelevant facts (and/or trigger other similarly useless actions). It describes the Blackboard implementation and its utility, explains the pruning process used and presents quantitative and qualitative assessment of the utility of pruning to a naive solver's operations. This value is extrapolated to facilitate consideration of a more robust pruning process which also removes low-value facts, actions and rules in addition to those being removed due to their uselessness.
High-resolution spectroscopy of laser-cooled rubidium in a vapor-cell trap

A goal of the wavelength-standard research at NIST is to produce a primary wavelength standard in the 1.5-µm region with a linewidth and reproducibility' of better than 1 MHz. Accurate wavelength standards in this region are important for many of the proposed optical-communication schemes involving frequency-division multiplexing and coherent detection.
Towards Creative Humanoid Conceptualization Learning from Metaphor-Guided Pretense Play

This paper describes a newly proposed approach towards investigating how social humanoid robots can learn creative conceptualizations through interaction with children in metaphor-guided pretense play using a componential creativity framework. We describe this metaphor-guided pretense play approach and then illustrate it by describing a social robot interaction pretense play scenario between a child and a humanoid robot.
Targeted proteomic quantitation of the absolute expression and turnover of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator in the apical plasma membrane.

Deficient chloride transport through cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) causes lethal complications in CF patients. CF is the most common autosomal recessive genetic disease, which is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene; thus, CFTR mutants can serve as primary targets for drugs to modulate and rescue the ion channel’s function. The first step of drug modulation is to increase the expression of CFTR in the apical plasma membrane (PM); thus, accurate measurement of CFTR in the PM is desired. This work reports a tandem enrichment strategy to prepare PM CFTR and uses a stable isotope labeled CFTR sample as the quantitation reference to measure the absolute amount of apical PM expression of CFTR in CFBE 41o- cells. It was found that CFBE 41o- cells expressing wild-type CFTR (wtCFTR), when cultured on plates, had 2.9 ng of the protein in the apical PM per million cells; this represented 10% of the total CFTR found in the cells. When these cells were polarized on filters, the apical...
Water-Soluble Nanodiamond

Reduction of the graphenic edges of annealed nanodiamond by sodium in liquid ammonia leads to a nanodiamond salt that reacts with either alkyl or aryl halides by electron transfer to yield radical anions that dissociate spontaneously into free radicals and halide. The free radicals were observed to add readily to the aromatic rings of the annealed nanodiamond. Nanodiamonds functionalized by phenyl radicals were sulfonated in oleum, and the resulting sulfonic acid was converted to the sodium salt by treatment with sodium hydroxide. The solubility of the salt in water was determined to be 248 mg/L. Nanodiamond functionalized by carboxylic acid groups could be prepared by reacting 5-bromovaleric acid with the annealed nanodiamond salt. The solubility of the sodium carboxylate in water was found to be 160 mg/L.
High-performance surface integral equation solvers towards extreme-scale electromagnetic modeling and simulation

This work investigates an adaptive, parallel and scalable integral equation solver for very large-scale electromagnetic modeling and simulation. A complicated surface model is decomposed into a collection of components, all of which are discretized independently and concurrently using a discontinuous Galerkin boundary element method. An additive Schwarz domain decomposition method is proposed next for the efficient and robust solution of linear systems resulting from discontinuous Galerkin discretizations. The work leads to a rapidly-convergent integral equation solver that is scalable for large multi-scale objects. Furthermore, it serves as a basis for parallel and scalable computational algorithms to reduce the time complexity via advanced distributed computing systems. Numerical experiments are performed on large computer clusters to characterize the performance of the proposed method. Finally, the capability and benefits of the resulting algorithms are exploited and illustrated through different types of real-world applications on high performance computing systems.
Molecular Characterization of Transgenic Events Using Next Generation Sequencing Approach

Demand for the commercial use of genetically modified (GM) crops has been increasing in light of the projected growth of world population to nine billion by 2050. A prerequisite of paramount importance for regulatory submissions is the rigorous safety assessment of GM crops. One of the components of safety assessment is molecular characterization at DNA level which helps to determine the copy number, integrity and stability of a transgene; characterize the integration site within a host genome; and confirm the absence of vector DNA. Historically, molecular characterization has been carried out using Southern blot analysis coupled with Sanger sequencing. While this is a robust approach to characterize the transgenic crops, it is both time- and resource-consuming. The emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has provided highly sensitive and cost- and labor-effective alternative for molecular characterization compared to traditional Southern blot analysis. Herein, we have demonstrated the successful application of both whole genome sequencing and target capture sequencing approaches for the characterization of single and stacked transgenic events and compared the results and inferences with traditional method with respect to key criteria required for regulatory submissions.
Selecting endocrine therapy for metastatic breast cancer.

Endocrine therapy for metastatic breast cancer may involve either surgical removal of hormone-producing glands or pharmacologic hormone therapy. The estrogen receptor, or ER, test can now be used to help in predicting whether a patient will benefit from endocrine therapy.
Vasopressin Type 1A Receptor Deletion Enhances Cardiac Contractility, β-Adrenergic Receptor Sensitivity and Acute Cardiac Injury-induced Dysfunction.

Vasopressin type 1A receptor (V1AR) expression is elevated in chronic human heart failure (HF) and contributes to cardiac dysfunction in animal models, in part via reduced β-adrenergic receptor (βAR) responsiveness. Although cardiac V1AR overexpression and V1AR stimulation are each sufficient to decrease βAR activity, it is unknown whether V1AR inhibition conversely augments βAR responsiveness. Further, although V1AR has been shown to contribute to chronic progression of HF, its impact on cardiac function following acute ischaemic injury has not been reported. Using V1AR knockout (V1AR KO) mice we assessed the impact of V1AR deletion on cardiac contractility at baseline and following ischaemic injury, βAR sensitivity and cardiomyocyte responsiveness to βAR stimulation. Strikingly, baseline cardiac contractility was enhanced in V1AR KO mice and they experienced a greater loss in contractile function than control mice following acute ischaemic injury, although the absolute levels of cardiac dysfunction and survival rates did not differ. Enhanced cardiac contractility in V1AR KO mice was associated with augmented β-blocker sensitivity, suggesting increased basal βAR activity, and indeed levels of left ventricular cAMP, as well as phospholamban (PLB) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) phosphorylation were elevated compared with control mice. At the cellular level, myocytes isolated from V1AR KO mice demonstrated increased responsiveness to βAR stimulation consistent with the finding that acute pharmacological V1AR inhibition enhanced βAR-mediated contractility in control myocytes. Therefore, although V1AR deletion does not protect the heart from the rapid development of cardiac dysfunction following acute ischaemic injury, its effects on βAR activity suggest that acute V1AR inhibition could be utilized to promote myocyte contractile performance.
A Culinary Computational Creativity System

Compared to artifacts in expressive or performance domains, work products resulting from scientific creativity (including culinary recipes) seem much more conducive to data-driven assessment. If such products are viewed as an assembly of constituents that follow certain association principles, one could apply computationally intensive techniques to generate many possible combinations and use automated assessors to evaluate each of them. Assembly work plans for the selected novel products could subsequently be inferred from existing records. In this chapter, we report on our efforts to build a computational creativity system for culinary recipes. After gathering data and creating a knowledge base of recipes and ingredients, the system generates ingredient combinations that satisfy user inputs such as the choice of key ingredient, desired dish, and cuisine. Once a combination has been selected with the help of novelty and quality evaluators, the system further recommends ingredient proportions using a distributional conformance method and generates recipe steps using a subgraph composition algorithm. The time durations or efforts of atomic steps are estimated by solving an inverse problem from data on complete recipes. The example of culinary recipes could be generalized and applied to other scientific domains; manufacturing products and business processes could potentially follow a similar recipe for success.
Function of the Normal Hip

The function and inherent stability of the hip are dependent upon the passive osseous and ligamentous structures of the joint and the activity of its musculotendinous structures. The purpose of this chapter is to review these general osseous and ligamentous support structures as well as the neuromuscular control strategies associated with normal hip joint function and mechanics. The musculoskeletal contributions to hip stability during gait will be provided in detail since these data largely represent the largest body of knowledge pertaining to hip function. In addition, this chapter will describe in vivo hip joint muscular strength, kinematics, and kinetics of many common sport motions, some of which have been linked to mechanisms of hip injury.
Long-Lived Photoinduced Charge Separation in a Trinuclear Iron-μ3-oxo-based Metal–Organic Framework

The presence of long-lived charge-separated excited states in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) can enhance their photocatalytic activity by decreasing the probability that photogenerated electrons and holes recombine before accessing adsorbed reactants. Detecting these charge-separated states via optical transient absorption, however, can be challenging when they lack definitive optical signatures. We investigate the long-lived excited state of a MOF with such vague optical properties, MIL-100(Fe), composed of Fe3-μ3-oxo clusters and trimesic acid linkers, using Fe K-edge X-ray transient absorption (XTA) spectroscopy to unambiguously determine its ligand-to-metal charge-transfer character. Spectra measured at time delays up to 3.6 μs confirm the long-lived nature of the charge-separated excited state. Several trinuclear iron μ3-oxo carboxylate complexes, which model the trinuclear cores of the MOF structure, are measured for comparison using both steady-state X-ray absorption spectroscopy and XTA to furthe...
Anticoagulation in Pulmonary Embolism: Update in the Age of Direct Oral Anticoagulants

The emergence of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) represents a major advancement and paradigm shift in the treatment of venous thromboembolism. Currently, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixiban, and edoxoban are approved and used routinely for the prevention and treatment of patients with venous thromboembolism. Because each of the DOACs has different doses and dosing regimens, clinicians need to become familiar with their use. This article focuses on the practical considerations of how and when to use the DOACs. It also aims to explore follow-up monitoring, use in special populations, reversal agents, periprocedural management, and how to handle bleeding complications with the DOACs.
Surveillance of infectious diseases is information for action.

The implementation of electronic disease reporting systems throughout the United States will automate infectious disease reporting, resulting in more complete and timely reporting and improved recognition of outbreaks. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Love as a Language for Educational Justice

AbstractSchools need to do a better job of recognizing the contributions and gifts students bring with them. Such a community-spirit approach could help everyone, from teachers and parents to district leaders and the Secretary of Education, dissuade the public from individualistic school structures and instead focus on equitable solutions that include the norms and histories of the people schools serve.
Maternal Education, Literacy and Child Mortality -- Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

There is extensive evidence confirming the positive effect of maternal education on reducing child mortality. But, there is limited empirical evidence about the potential pathways through which this effect operates. In this paper I examine the role that maternal literacy has to play in mediating this relationship. I use detailed household survey data on about 2 million children born to nearly 500,000 mothers between 1990-2014 spread across 32 Sub-Saharan African countries to analyze the role of measured reading ability of the mother as a mediator for the effect of maternal education on child mortality. I find that in majority of the countries mother’s education and literacy individually have a significant positive impact on child mortality reduction. I also find evidence that literacy is an important mediator of this effect but limited evidence for it being the only mediator of this impact. In other words, maternal education impacts child mortality through more channels than just the enhanced reading ability of the mother. Results persists even after a variety of robustness checks.
Improved object pose estimation via deep pre-touch sensing

For certain manipulation tasks, object pose estimation from head-mounted cameras may not be sufficiently accurate. This is at least in part due to our inability to perfectly calibrate the coordinate frames of today's high degree of freedom robot arms that link the head to the end-effectors. We present a novel framework combining pre-touch sensing and deep learning to more accurately estimate pose in an efficient manner. The use of pre-touch sensing allows our method to localize the object directly with respect to the robot's end effector, thereby avoiding error caused by miscalibration of the arms. Instead of requiring the robot to scan the entire object with its pre-touch sensor, we use a deep neural network to detect object regions that contain distinctive geometric features. By focusing pre-touch sensing on these regions, the robot can more efficiently gather the information necessary to adjust its original pose estimate. Our region detection network was trained using a new dataset containing objects of widely varying geometries and has been labeled in a scalable fashion that is free from human bias. This dataset is applicable to any task that involves a pre-touch sensor gathering geometric information, and has been made publicly available. We evaluate our framework by having the robot re-estimate the pose of a number of objects of varying geometries. Compared to two simpler region proposal methods, we find that our deep neural network performs significantly better. In addition, we find that after a sequence of scans, objects can typically be localized to within 0.5 cm of their true position. We also observe that the original pose estimate can often be significantly improved after collecting a single quick scan.
Mast cell heterogeneity underlies different manifestations of food allergy in mice.

Food can trigger a diverse array of symptoms in food allergic individuals from isolated local symptoms affecting skin or gut to multi-system severe reactions (systemic anaphylaxis). Although we know that gastrointestinal and systemic manifestations of food allergy are mediated by tissue mast cells (MCs), it is not clear why allergen exposure by the oral route can result in such distinct clinical manifestations. Our aim was to assess the contribution of mast cell subsets to different manifestations of food allergy. We used two common models of IgE-mediated food allergy, one resulting in systemic anaphylaxis and the other resulting in acute gastrointestinal symptoms, to study the immune basis of allergic reactions. We used responders and non-responders in each model system, as well as naive controls to identify the association of mast cell activation with clinical reactivity rather than sensitization. Systemic anaphylaxis was uniquely associated with activation of connective tissue mast cells (identified by release of mouse mast cell protease (MMCP) -7 into the serum) and release of histamine, while activation of mucosal mast cells (identified by release of MMCP-1 in the serum) did not correlate with symptoms. Gastrointestinal manifestations of food allergy were associated with an increase of MMCP-1-expressing mast cells in the intestine, and evidence of both mucosal and connective tissue mast cell activation. The data presented in this paper demonstrates that mast cell heterogeneity is an important contributor to manifestations of food allergy, and identifies the connective tissue mast cell subset as key in the development of severe systemic anaphylaxis.
Comparison of Scientific Computing Platforms for MCNP4A Monte Carlo Calculations

The performance of seven computer platforms is evaluated with the widely used and internationally available MCNP4A Monte Carlo radiation transport code. All results are reproducible and are presented in such a way as to enable comparison with computer platforms not in the study. The authors observed that the HP/9000-735 workstation runs MCNP 50% faster than the Cray YMP 8/64. Compared with the Cray YMP 8/64, the IBM RS/6000-560 is 68% as fast, the Sun Sparc10 is 66% as fast, the Silicon Graphics ONYX is 90% as fast, the Gateway 2000 model 4DX2-66V personal computer is 27% as fast, and the Sun Sparc2 is 24% as fast. In addition to comparing the timing performance of the seven platforms, the authors observe that changes in compilers and software over the past 2 yr have resulted in only modest performance improvements, hardware improvements have enhanced performance by less than a factor of [approximately]3, timing studies are very problem dependent, MCNP4Q runs about as fast as MCNP4.
Development and Application of Sensors for Brazing Robot

A robot system was developed, in which the robot arm having a 6 degree of freedom are equipped with human interface technology enabling 3-dimensional visual recognition and easy operation. And a personal computer-based image recognition system was developed for realization of high speed and high accuracy visual recognition. In this paper, as one step of the development of an INTELLIGENT ROBOT, we would introduce an example in which a visual sensing robot was applied for phosphor bronze brazing of the air-conditioning refrigeration cycle.
Integrative Approach to Extract the Single-cell Dynamics of LPS-induced $\text{NF}\kappa\mathrm{B}$ Signal Pathway through Flow Cytometry Measurements and Parameter Estimation

It is well established that the dynamics of signaling and gene expression in a clonal population of cells vary both in the absence and presence of stimuli. In order to elucidate the stochasticity in signaling and downstream cellular responses, we have formulated a mathematical model and utilized it along with single-cell experimental measurements to investigate the cell-to-cell variability in the response of mouse macrophages to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Since the single-cell mathematical model is computationally expensive to simulate, a semi-stochastic model that combines a deterministic model with parameters that have distributions at the single-cell level is more viable than a stochastic model. This modeling approach requires an accurate deterministic model a priori. Motivated by above considerations, this work aimed to quantitatively calibrate the deterministic model that can simulate the average single-cell dynamics via a systematic approach, which combines single-cell experimental measurements and a parameter selection method, with the LPS-induced $\text{NF}\kappa\mathrm{B}$ signal pathway as an example case.
Framework for Supporting Adolescent Peer Leaders: A Pilot Using Text Messaging in a School-Based Substance Use Prevention Program.

Training peer leaders (PLs) as implementation agents is a state-of-the-art approach in prevention, but the field lacks frameworks for providing support. Text messaging, a powerful tool for direct intervention, may be useful in this regard. We introduce a conceptual framework for engaging, retaining, and educating adolescent PLs and conduct a pilot test of this framework using text messages for delivery to middle school PLs in a new, peer-led substance use prevention program. Fifty eighth-graders were recruited as PLs. We used a newly-developed framework to create text messages to strengthen peer leaders’: (a) mission, agency, and team identity; (b) connection to adult mentors; (c) content knowledge and application to their own lives; and (d) preparation for prevention activities. Thirty-four texts were sent to PLs over 4 months. PL replies and participation were recorded to track engagement. Forty-one PLs (71%) received texts and completed baseline and post-program surveys. Parents and school staff completed post-program questionnaires. Eighty-five percent of PLs responded to at least one text message. Response rates for specific messages varied from 22 to 56%. Students were most likely to reply to texts about preparation for their own prevention activities in the school. Ninety-five percent of PLs said they read messages even when they did not reply. Eighty-three percent of PLs said the messages helped them accomplish their mission. PLs reported that they wanted to receive messages in the future. PL attendance had very little variability in two of the three schools, but replies to texts were associated with better attendance in one school. Our study provides a framework for supporting adolescent peer leaders in a network intervention. Automated text messaging supporting middle school PLs was feasible, engaging, and well-received. Texting activity was associated with participation in school-based activities. Future priorities include systematically varying text support to determine its true effect on implementation and on involvement by less engaged PLs.
The history of Aplomado Falcon Falco femoralis subspecies diagnoses

I present the historical details associated with early 20th century descriptions of Aplomado Falcon subspecies. I identify potential weaknesses in these diagnoses that justify re-examination of traditional taxonomy, and stress that climate change, habitat modification and large-scale reintroduction efforts may have altered or eliminated any valid subspecies boundaries that once existed. I recommend that conservation efforts in the Northern Hemisphere focus on the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico where Aplomado Falcons have declined severely in recent years.
The Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Protein ORF42 Is Required for Efficient Virion Production and Expression of Viral Proteins.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), the etiologic agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma and other aggressive AIDS-associated malignancies, encodes over 90 genes, most of which are expressed only during the lytic replication cycle. The role of many of the KSHV lytic proteins in the KSHV replication cycle remains unknown, and many proteins are annotated based on known functions of homologs in other herpesviruses. Here we investigate the role of the previously uncharacterized KSHV lytic protein ORF42, a presumed tegument protein. We find that ORF42 is dispensable for reactivation from latency but is required for efficient production of viral particles. Like its alpha- and beta-herpesviral homologs, ORF42 is a late protein that accumulates in the viral particles. However, unlike its homologs, ORF42 appears to be required for efficient expression of at least some viral proteins and may potentiate post-transcriptional stages of gene expression. These results demonstrate that ORF42 has an important role in KSHV replication and may contribute to shaping viral gene expression.
Rail intermodal management at marine container terminals: Loading double stack trains

Abstract In today’s era of mega ships, rail is increasingly being recognized as an important and sustainable mode to transport containers in and out of congested marine terminals. However, rail’s potential impact on terminal and road congestion is highly dependent on the ability to fully utilize the available train space. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting an optimization model that can create high-utilization loading plans for double stack trains at marine terminals. To facilitate the solution of the model, it will be shown how the initial binary nonlinear model can be linearized. Model properties will also be derived and discussed. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposed model in a practical setting, a realistic case study is conducted. The results demonstrate that the model is able to find optimal loading plans for double-stack trains in realistic settings.
Field Measurement of the Probability of Coarse-Grained Sediment Entrainment in Natural Rivers

AbstractThis study takes advantage of recent advances in field-based sediment motion monitoring to report direct field measurements of the bedload pick-up, or entrainment, function in natural grave...
Reproducing work and family norms through daughter–parent communication:

This study contributes to the literature on work and family socialization by examining the nature of daughter–parent (i.e., mothers vs. fathers) communication and daughters’ likelihood to transmit ...
Securing Sovereign State Standing

There are three main categories of interests upon which states can premise standing to sue as plaintiffs in federal court - proprietary, sovereign, and quasi-sovereign interests. Proprietary and sovereign interests, this Note contends, are held independently by states qua states, whereas quasi-sovereign interests are derivative of citizens’ collective welfare interests. This Note attempts to correct the pervasive confusion clouding the boundary between sovereign and quasi-sovereign interests, arguing that they are meaningfully distinct and should be treated differently. This argument is especially important in the context of the jurisdictional bar instituted by the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. Mellon, which prohibits states from pursuing 'parens patriae' suits to shield their citizens from federal law. Parens patriae is a special type of representative standing through which states can vindicate generalized citizen interests. This Note argues that states act as parens patriae in the relevant context when they assert quasi-sovereign standing only - and thus not when they seek to defend their sovereign interests. The Mellon bar, therefore, should disallow only certain quasi-sovereign suits; it should be wholly inapplicable to sovereignty-vindicating claims.Finally, a look at Virginia’s current attack on the constitutionality of recent federal healthcare reform, Virginia ex rel. Cuccinelli v. Sebelius, sharpens and contextualizes these issues. Virginia has asserted purely sovereign interests, but the federal government defendant has argued that the Mellon bar should nevertheless apply. This discussion is both timely, given the immediacy and prominence of the standing issues underlying the Virginia healthcare challenge, and significant, given its importance for fundamental and enduring issues of American federalism.
Unoccupied electronic structure of Al(111).

The unoccupied electronic states of the Al(111) surface have been studied using k-resolved inverse-photoemission spectroscopy (KRIPES). In addition, a first-principles calculation of the bulk Al electronic structure has been performed to facilitate interpretation of the experimental data. The KRIPES spectra obtained along the [1\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}10], [112\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}], and [1\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{} 1\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}2] azimuths of the surface Brillouin zone are characterized by well-defined features within 5 eV of the Fermi level, and broad, weak features at higher energies. In general, surface states and resonances appeared as strong spectral features while bulk transitions were weak for this surface. First-principles electronic-structure calculations were necessary to obtain a qualitative account of the bulk features, and semiquantitative agreement was obtained when excitation effects were considered. Dispersion of an unoccupied surface resonance along the [112\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}] azimuth is consistent both with an occupied surface resonance found by an earlier photoemission study and with the predictions of surface electronic-structure calculations in the literature. A strong feature observed in the [1\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}12] direction is identified as an odd surface state occurring in a symmetry gap and may account for earlier electron-energy-loss data.
Uncovering the key motivational factors behind students’ enrollment in Spanish classes at institutions of higher education

As language departments increasingly face enrollment concerns, empirical research can provide insights regarding students’ reasons to study Spanish. Motivation has a key influence in learners’ succ...
Dynamic Urban Planning: An Agent-Based Model Coupling Mobility Mode and Housing Choice. Use Case Kendall Square

As cities become increasingly populated, urban planning plays a key role in ensuring the equitable and inclusive development of metropolitan areas. MIT City Science group created a data-driven tangible platform, CityScope, to help different stakeholders, such as government representatives, urban planners, developers, and citizens, collaboratively shape the urban scenario through the real-time impact analysis of different urban interventions. This paper presents an agent-based model that characterizes citizens’ behavioural patterns with respect to housing and mobility choice that will constitute the first step in the development of a dynamic incentive system for an open interactive governance process. The realistic identification and representation of the criteria that affect this decision-making process will help understand and evaluate the impacts of potential housing incentives that aim to promote urban characteristics such as equality, diversity, walkability, and efficiency. The calibration and validation of the model have been performed in a well-known geographic area for the Group: Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA.
Meselson, Matthew Stanley

The article highlights Meselson's unique position in science and society as an innovative scientist involved in several ‘crucial experiments’ in molecular biology; a policy analyst in the domain of biological and chemical weapons for US administrations in the 1960s and 1970s; and a public intellectual shaping the public opinion against the use of such weapons in both war and peace times. Meselson's role in the ‘Meselson–Stahl experiment’ (hereafter the ‘M–S experiment’) which established the semiconservative mode of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) replication for which both Meselson and Stahl remain best known, is highlighted. Meselson's role as a public intellectual is discussed mainly in terms of his sustained refutation of the US claim in the 1970s that its East Asian enemies used chemical weapons on civilians in the form of ‘yellow rain’. Meselson's association with Caltech in the 1950s and Harvard, since 1960, is discussed as a pertinent institutional context for his scientific and policy activities. Keywords: DNA replication; density gradient; analytical ultracentrifuge; critical experiment; messenger RNA ; restriction enzymes; biological weapons; chemical weapons
Personality, Interpersonal Theories of

The origins of the interpersonal tradition in personality and clinical psychology are found in Harry Sullivan's highly generative interpersonal theory of psychiatry, which considered interpersonal relations and their impact on the self-concept to be core emphases in understanding personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. The interpersonal legacy that emerged from Sullivan's work is now in its fourth generation and has dramatically evolved over a nearly 60-year history, increasing in level of theoretical integration, methodological sophistication, and scope. Throughout this history, interpersonal theories of personality have had a reciprocally influential history with research programs that have culminated in well-validated, empirically derived, circular (or circumplex) models and methods that are used to describe individual differences in interpersonal motives, dispositions, and behaviors. The integration of interpersonal theory and the interpersonal circle provides a coherent nomological net for the integrative study of personality, personality assessment, psychopathology, psychotherapy, health psychology, and behavioral medicine (Pincus & Cain, 2008; Pincus, Lukowitsky, & Wright, in press). Thus interpersonal theories of personality (IPC) include multiple methods to assess the interpersonal constructs associated with circumplex structural models, and they tie operational definitions of reciprocal interpersonal processes and patterns of validity in interpersonal behavior directly to these models. Figure 1 presents a contemporary version of the interpersonal circumplex model. Keywords: personality theory; interpersonal circumplex; interpersonal complementarity; agency and communion
On a conjecture concerning dyadic oriented matroids.

A rational matrix is totally dyadic if all of its nonzero subdeterminants are in $\{\pm 2^k\ :\ k \in {\bf Z}\}$. An oriented matriod is dyadic if it has a totally dyadic representation $A$. A dyadic oriented matriod is dyadic of order $k$ if it has a totally dyadic representation $A$ with full row rank and with the property that for each pair of adjacent bases $A_1$ and $A_2$ $$2^{-k} \le \left| { {\det(A_1)} \over {\det(A_2)}}\right|\le 2^k.$$ In this note we present a counterexample to a conjecture on the relationship between the order of a dyadic oriented matroid and the ratio of agreement to disagreement in sign of its signed circuits and cocircuits (Conjecture 5.2, Lee (1990)).
Circadian rhythm of stimulated lymphocyte blastogenesis: A 24 hour cycle in the mixed leukocyte culture reaction and with SKSD stimulation

The in vitro measurement of stimulated T lymphocyte blastogenesis by the incorporation of 14C-thymidine can be shown to be an acceptable and precise measurement with highly significant variations in blastogenesis over a 24 hr period. This circadian rhythm for human T lymphocyte blastogenesis has been demonstrated with specific antigen (SKSD) and in mixed leukocyte culture (MLC). The hours of peak reactivity were different for the SKSD stimulation and the MLC reaction. This biologic cycle in T cell reactivity has significant implications for the immunologic response.
Low-Income Homeownership Policy as a Community Development Strategy

Summary Homeownership for the poor increasingly is on the political agenda in the United States. This is due largely to the assumptions made by policy makers and citizens about the benefits of homeownership. Despite this emphasis in recent administrations, little theoretical literature has been developed that specifies the impact of homeownership on community development. This essay reviews relevant theoretical and empirical literature and suggests that homeownership affects communities through the promotion of increased wealth accumulation, improved property upkeep, decreased residential mobility, and increased community participation. This article addresses the special needs of poor communities and households, and the implications for low-income housing policy. Overall it is suggested that community economic development and low-income homeownership be pursued in tandem.
MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING FEATURES OF THE TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT IN NORMAL DOGS

Evaluation of the canine temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is important in the clinical diagnosis of animals presenting with dysphagia, malocclusion and jaw pain. In humans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the modality of choice for evaluation of the TMJ. The objectives of this study were to establish a technical protocol for performing MRI of the canine TMJ and describe the MRI anatomy and appearance of the normal canine TMJ. Ten dogs (one fresh cadaver and nine healthy live dogs) were imaged. MRIs were compared with cadaveric tissue sections. T1-weighted (T1-W) transverse closed-mouth, T1-W sagittal closed-mouth, T1-W sagittal open-mouth, and T2-W sagittal open-mouth sequences were obtained. The condylar process of the mandible and the mandibular fossa of the temporal bone were hyperintense to muscle and isointense to hypointense to fat on T1-W images, mildly hyperintense to muscle on T2-W images, and were frequently heterogeneous. The articular disc was visible in 14/20 (70%) TMJs on T1-W images and 13/20 (65%) TMJs on T2-W images. The articular disc was isointense to hyperintense to muscle on T1-W images and varied from hypointense to hyperintense to muscle on T2-W images. The lateral collateral ligament was not identified in any joint. MRI allows evaluation of the osseous and certain soft tissue structures of the TMJ in dogs.
β-Alanyl-l-tyrosine. Chemical synthesis, properties and occurrence in larvae of the fleshfly Sarcophaga bullata Parker

1. A naturally occurring peptide, termed sarcophagine, has been isolated from larvae of the fleshfly Sarcophaga bullata. 2. The physicochemical properties of the natural peptide are identical with those of synthetic β-alanyl-l-tyrosine. 3. During larval growth the concentration of the dipeptide increases continuously; in the fully grown larva it is the predominant non-protein ninhydrin-positive material. 4. Sarcophagine is rapidly and extensively utilized at the time of hardening and darkening of the insect puparium. 5. By virtue of its much higher solubility than that of free tyrosine, the peptide may serve as a reservoir to provide large amounts of readily available tyrosine for subsequent puparium formation.
Upregulation of Complement Inhibitors in Association with Vulnerable Cells following Contusion-Induced Spinal Cord Injury

We have previously described the activation of the classical, alternative, and terminal complement cascade pathways after acute contusion spinal cord injury using the New York University (NYU) weight-drop impactor. In the present study, we examined the induction of protein regulators of the complement cascade, factor H (FH), and clusterin, in the same experimental paradigm. The spinal cord of laminectomized adult rats was subjected to mild or severe injury using impactor weightdrop heights of 12.5 and 50 mm, respectively. The spinal cords of control and injured animals were evaluated at 1, 7, and 42 days after injury. Immunocytochemistry revealed a robust increase in the numbers and intensity of staining of FH, and clusterin-positive cells in the injured cord at all three time points, with the highest increases observed at 1 and 42 days after injury. FH and clusterinpositive cells were observed among neurons as well as oligodendrocytes. The increased expression was detected both rostrally and caudally fro...
An application of the mannich reaction using hydroxylamine and some of its derivatives. 6-Substituted-2,4-diamino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydropyrimido[4,5-dpyrimidines

Hydroxylamine and some of its O-substituted derivatives (2) have been used as the amine component in Mannich reactions with 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine (1). The resulting 6-substituted tetrahydropyrimido[4,5-d]-pyrimidines (3) contain an N-0 bond linking the substituent to the ring. These results extend the utility of this modified Mannich reaction to otherwise inaccessible substituents. Reaction conditions, spectral data and certain limitations of the reaction are discussed.
Micro Double Pressure Sensor for Measuring the Applying Forces in Balloon Angioplasty

This paper describes a new catheter based on double pressure sensor for measuring reaction forces of cardiovascular vessel walls in balloon angioplasty. This medical device is based on Wheatstone bridge and a passive transformer module. It assists cardiologists to measure reaction forces exiting between the catheter and the vascular wall. Reaction forces on the catheter can be grouped into two types: 1) reaction forces on the catheter head and 2) reaction forces between the balloon and the vascular wall. Its new proposed transducer module aids doctors decrease cardiology steps leading to the reduction of patients’ pains from inputting consecutive catheters into their bodies. Moreover, its special circuit design reduces needing wires for power supplying of the sensors, and simplifies the fabrication processes. Finally, mechanical behaviors of the sensor have been simulated in SolidWorks and its electrical circuit is modeled in Simulink\electrical. Also, Fabrication processes are projected in the final step of designing.Copyright © 2013 by ASME