cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Experimental analysis and treatment of multiply controlled problem behavior : A systematic replication and extension

We evaluated interventions designed to reduce multiply controlled problem behavior exhibited by a young boy with developmental disabilities, using a multiple baseline design. Each intervention was designed to address a specific social function of problem behavior. Results showed that the separate interventions were useful in reducing problem behavior, and terminal schedules were reached by way of schedule thinning (attention condition) and delays to reinforcement (tangible and escape conditions).
Semiparametric estimation with recurrent event data under informative monitoring

Consider a study where the times of occurrences of a recurrent event for n units are monitored. For the ith unit, T i1, T i2, …, denote the successive event inter-occurrence times and this unit is monitored over a random period [0, τ i ] with τ i independent of the T ij s. Over this monitoring period, is the random number of event occurrences. The T ij s are independent and identically distributed (IID) from an unknown continuous distribution function F and the τ i s are IID from a distribution function G. A generalised Koziol–Green (GKG) structure wherein 1−G=(1−F)β for some β>0 is assumed. Under this model, Nelson–Aalen and product-limit type estimators of Λ=−log(1−F) and F are obtained, as well as an estimator of β. Asymptotic and small-sample properties of these estimators are obtained and the estimator of F is compared to the fully nonparametric estimator in Pena et al. [(2001), ‘Nonparametric Estimation with Recurrent Event Data’, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 96, 1299–1315] in te...
EARLY DETERMINATION OF ANDROGEN-RESPONSIVENESS IS IMPORTANT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MICROPHALLUS

Of fourteen boys with microphallus who were studied consecutively, nine had hypopituitarism that might otherwise have not been recognised. All fourteen were treated with low-dose, intramuscular testosterone enanthate administered in one or two 3-month courses. In each case, penile size was increased into the normal range without evoking either a significant increase in height velocity or an advancement of skeletal maturation. Before considering surgical sex reversal in infants and young children with microphallus, it is essential to assess whether treatment with intramuscular testosterone will induce clinically significant growth of the microphallus.
I don't get it: humour and hermeneutics

Poststructural emphasis on the intertextual character of texts appears to threaten the integrity of texts, opening them to a dizzying infinite variety of meanings. One might respond by trying to shore up the boundaries around texts, but it is undeniable that texts take their meaning by harmonising with other texts. How can this dilemma be resolved? Using jokes as a paradigm, the paper defends the notion that texts are ‘porous’. A text has its own integrity and specific meaning, but the boundaries between text and text are permeable. In dialogue with Kevin Vanhoozer, I argue that texts must be permeable if they are to have meaning at all. Jokes only work when the hearer has relevant information from outside the joke itself. The porosity of texts does not destroy authorial intention; the joker intends for the hearer to bring outside information to bear on the text. In these senses, every text is a joke, and a good interpreter knows the information from outside the text and has the wit to know what information is relevant. Good interpretation is always a matter of ‘getting it’.
Prickly Ambivalence: State, Society and Semidemocracy in Malaysia

British colonial policies set the stage for the subsequent balance between state and civil society in Malaysia, including the persistent racial stratification of the public sphere, cross-racial differences in modes of state–society engagement and the focus on development of citizenship skills for some groups and autonomous self-regulation for others. This article explores the vestiges and implications of this legacy in Malaysia to assess, first, how determining an effect the colonial experience had on later political developments; and, second, how consideration of the sort of civil society and state–society relations that emerged out of this historical context adds nuance to our understanding of semi-democracy.
Biochemical, Biophysical, and Mutational Analyses of Subunit Interactions of the Human Cytomegalovirus Nuclear Egress Complex

Nuclear egress, the trafficking of herpesvirus nucleocapsids from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, involves two conserved viral proteins that form a complex at the nuclear envelope, referred to as the nuclear egress complex. In human cytomegalovirus, these two proteins are called UL50 and UL53. To study UL50 and UL53 in molecular detail, these proteins were expressed in bacteria and purified. To obtain highly expressed, pure proteins, it was necessary to truncate both constructs based on sequence conservation and predicted secondary structural elements. Size exclusion chromatography and analytical ultracentrifugation studies indicated that the truncated form of UL50 is a monomer in solution, that the truncated form of UL53 is a homodimer, and that, when mixed, the two proteins form a heterodimer. To identify residues of UL53 crucial for homodimerization and for heterodimerization with UL50, we constructed and expressed mutant forms of UL53 containing alanine substitutions in a predicted helix. Isothermal titration calorimetry was used to measure the binding affinities of the UL53 mutants to UL50. UL53 residues, the replacement of which reduced binding to UL50, form a surface on one face of the predicted helix. Moreover, most of the substitutions that reduce UL53-UL50 interactions also reduced homodimerization. Substitutions that reduced the interaction between UL50 and UL53 in vitro also reduced colocalization of full-length UL50 and UL53 at the nuclear rim in transfected cells. These results demonstrate direct protein-protein interactions between these proteins that are likely to be mediated by a helix, and they have implications for understanding nuclear egress and for drug discovery.
Precipitation type determination from spaceborne radar observations

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) program is dedicated to observing and understanding the impact of tropical rainfall. Two important products of the TRMM precipitation radar include the classification of precipitation into convective and stratiform type as well as determination of the height of the brightband. Currently, TRMM uses an algorithm to arrive at these products based on a characterization of horizontal and vertical variability of reflectivity. This paper presents a new algorithm for classifying precipitation type into convective or stratiform as well as detect the height of brightband developed using wavelet analysis. The results obtained from wavelet analysis are compared against simultaneous ground validation products from the TRMM program. The results show that the wavelet-based algorithms provide fairly accurate results for both convective/stratiform classification as well as brightband determination.
EFFECT OF ALPHA ESTRADIOL BENZOATE ON LOCAL AREAS OF INFLAMMATION IN THE SKIN OF THE RABBIT1

THERE ARE MANY OBSERVATIONS to show that hormones have a favorable effect upon infections. The mechanism of such action is not well understood. Sprunt(1) has expressed the opinion that all the cells of the body are influenced by preg-nancy. This effect results from alterations, in the estrogenic and probably other hormones, associated with pregnancy. The reactivity of the tissues during pregnancy is altered to the virus of infectious myxomatosis. Larger amounts of this virus are required to produce infection in rabbits that are castrated and given estrogenic hoiv mones than are required to produce infection in castrates without the hormone. Preg- nant animals are more resistant to vaccinia injection than non-pregnant ones (2). It is well known that pregnancy affects the course of syphilis (3). Ziskin and associates (4) have observed that the daily injection of follutein follow-ing bilateral oophorectomy produces a clinical picture resembling Vincent’s infection.
Judgments of the lucky across development and culture.

For millennia, human beings have believed that it is morally wrong to judge others by the fortuitous or unfortunate events that befall them or by the actions of another person. Rather, an individual’s own intended, deliberate actions should be the basis of his or her evaluation, reward, and punishment. In a series of studies, the authors investigated whether such rules guide the judgments of children. The first 3 studies demonstrated that children view lucky others as more likely than unlucky others to perform intentional good actions. Children similarly assess the siblings of lucky others as more likely to perform intentional good actions than the siblings of unlucky others. The next 3 studies demonstrated that children as young as 3 years believe that lucky people are nicer than unlucky people. The final 2 studies found that Japanese children also demonstrate a robust preference for the lucky and their associates. These findings are discussed in relation to M. J. Lerner’s (1980) just-world theory and J. Piaget’s (1932/1965) immanent-justice research and in relation to the development of intergroup attitudes.
Wireless sensors on rotating structures: performance evaluation and radio link characterization

Wireless sensors capable of sensing, processing, and wireless communication can be useful for many monitoring purposes. Wireless sensor network testbeds to date have not considered sensors placed on fast moving structures. Fast rotating structures are commonly found in mechanical and vehicular systems, and the challenges of using wireless sensors on such structures have not been adequately addressed. The paper presents a testbed built of wireless sensors affixed to the spindle of a computer controlled lathe. By examining sensor communication errors with respect to rotation speeds and sensor locations, the study revealed an eminent dependency of packet error rates on rotation speeds, burstiness of bit errors, periodic received signal strengths, and dominance of multipath effects in the testbed. The study found the effects of non-uniform antenna gains, machine noise, hardware stability, and automatic gain control to be insignificant. While analytic derivation of Doppler effects with simplified assumptions has shown it to be insignificant, their coupled effects in a multipath environment remain to be studied further.
Optimizing Antibiotic Pharmacodynamics in Hospital-acquired and Ventilator-acquired Bacterial Pneumonia

Nosocomial pneumonia carries a high morbidity and mortality and creates a large burden on health care use. As resistance to currently available antibiotics continues to increase, the role of pharmacodynamics in drug regimen optimization becomes pivotal to the clinical success of patient therapy. This article reviews the evidence behind pharmacodynamic optimization including the use of Monte Carlo simulations, changes in pharmacokinetic parameters of critically ill patients, and differing strategies to optimize drug regimens. Emphasis is placed on drugs used to treat hospital-acquired and ventilator-acquired pneumonia, and programs implementing pharmacodynamic optimization are highlighted.
Using SPARQL to test for lattices: application to quality assurance in biomedical ontologies

We present a scalable, SPARQL-based computational pipeline for testing the lattice-theoretic properties of partial orders represented as RDF triples. The use case for this work is quality assurance in biomedical ontologies, one desirable property of which is conformance to lattice structures. At the core of our pipeline is the algorithm called NuMi, for detecting the Number of Minimal upper bounds of any pair of elements in a given finite partial order. Our technical contribution is the coding of NuMi completely in SPARQL. To show its scalability, we applied NuMi to the entirety of SNOMED CT, the largest clinical ontology (over 300,000 conepts). Our experimental results have been groundbreaking: for the first time, all non-lattice pairs in SNOMED CT have been identified exhaustively from 34 million candidate pairs using over 2.5 billion queries issued to Virtuoso. The percentage of non-lattice pairs ranges from 0 to 1.66 among the 19 SNOMED CT hierarchies. These non-lattice pairs represent target areas for focused curation by domain experts. RDF, SPARQL and related tooling provide an efficient platform for implementing lattice algorithms on large data structures.
Anytime Algorithms for GPU Architectures

Most algorithms are run-to-completion and provide one answer upon completion and no answer if interrupted before completion. On the other hand, anytime algorithms have a monotonic increasing utility with the length of execution time. Our investigation focuses on the development of time-bounded anytime algorithms on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to trade-off the quality of output with execution time. Given a time-varying workload, the algorithm continually measures its progress and the remaining contract time to decide its execution pathway and select system resources required to maximize the quality of the result. To exploit the quality-time tradeoff, the focus is on the construction, instrumentation, on-line measurement and decision making of algorithms capable of efficiently managing GPU resources. We demonstrate this with a Parallel A* routing algorithm on a CUDA-enabled GPU. The algorithm execution time and resource usage is described in terms of CUDA kernels constructed at design-time. At runtime, the algorithm selects a subset of kernels and composes them to maximize the quality for the remaining contract time. We demonstrate the feedback-control between the GPU-CPU to achieve controllable computation tardiness by throttling request admissions and the processing precision. As a case study, we have implemented AutoMatrix, a GPU-based vehicle traffic simulator for real-time congestion management which scales up to 16 million vehicles on a US street map. This is an early effort to enable imprecise and approximate real-time computation on parallel architectures for stream-based timebounded applications such as traffic congestion prediction and route allocation for large transportation networks.
The Post-Translational Modifications of Tubulin

The tubulin molecule is unusual because of the number and nature of post-translational modifications that it undergoes. These modifications may be involved in regulating microtubule stability and interactions with microtubule-associated proteins, but they also may have as yet undiscovered functions. Certain of these modifications are found in many other proteins; these include phosphorylation of a serine residue in β-tubulin and acetylation of a lysine residue in α-tubulin. Other modifications occur exclusively, or almost exclusively in tubulin. Among these are the removal and addition of a tyrosine at the C-terminus of α and the addition of several glutamate or glycine residues to the γ-carboxyl group of glutamate residues in the C-terminal regions of both α and β. The identification of the mechanisms by which these modifications occur and of their roles in microtubule assembly and function are currently very active topics of research; they will be addressed in this chapter.
Fault Localization for Dynamic Web Applications

In recent years, there has been significant interest in fault-localization techniques that are based on statistical analysis of program constructs executed by passing and failing executions. This paper shows how the Tarantula, Ochiai, and Jaccard fault-localization algorithms can be enhanced to localize faults effectively in web applications written in PHP by using an extended domain for conditional and function-call statements and by using a source mapping. We also propose several novel test-generation strategies that are geared toward producing test suites that have maximal fault-localization effectiveness. We implemented various fault-localization techniques and test-generation strategies in Apollo, and evaluated them on several open-source PHP applications. Our results indicate that a variant of the Ochiai algorithm that includes all our enhancements localizes 87.8 percent of all faults to within 1 percent of all executed statements, compared to only 37.4 percent for the unenhanced Ochiai algorithm. We also found that all the test-generation strategies that we considered are capable of generating test suites with maximal fault-localization effectiveness when given an infinite time budget for test generation. However, on average, a directed strategy based on path-constraint similarity achieves this maximal effectiveness after generating only 6.5 tests, compared to 46.8 tests for an undirected test-generation strategy.
Moisture modulates rhizosphere effects on C decomposition in two different soil types

While it is well known that soil moisture directly affects microbial activity and soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, it is unclear if the presence of plants alters these effects through rhizosphere processes. We studied soil moisture effects on SOM decomposition with and without sunflower and soybean. Plants were grown in two different soil types with soil moisture contents of 45% and 85% of field capacity in a greenhouse experiment. We continuously labeled plants with depleted 13 C, which allowed us to separate plant-derived CO2C from original soil-derived CO2-C in soil respiration measurements. We observed an overall increase in soil-derived CO2-C efflux in the presence of plants (priming effect) in both soils. On average a greater priming effect was found in the high soil moisture treatment (up to 76% increase in soil-derived CO2-C compared to control) than in the low soil moisture treatment (up to 52% increase). Greater plantderived CO2-C and plant biomass in the high soil moisture treatment contributed to greater priming effects, but priming effects remained significantly higher in the high moisture treatment than in the low moisture treatment after correcting for the effects of plant-derived CO2-C and plant biomass. The response to soil moisture particularly occurred in the sandy loam soil by the end of the experiment. Possibly, production of root exudates increased with increased soil moisture content. Root exudation of labile C may also have become more effective in stimulating microbial decomposition in the higher soil moisture treatment and sandy loam soil. Our results indicate that moisture conditions significantly modulate rhizosphere effects on SOM decomposition. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reciprocity Considerations in Microstrip Reflectarrays

The reciprocity principle and the reaction concept are employed to develop procedures for the design and analysis of microstrip reflectarrays in the receive mode. The new design procedure is shown to be fast and efficient, especially for dual-polarization applications. Examples are shown to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the receive mode design technique.
Condensin-driven remodelling of X chromosome topology during dosage compensation

The three-dimensional organization of a genome plays a critical role in regulating gene expression, yet little is known about the machinery and mechanisms that determine higher-order chromosome structure. Here we perform genome-wide chromosome conformation capture analysis, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), and RNA-seq to obtain comprehensive three-dimensional (3D) maps of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome and to dissect X chromosome dosage compensation, which balances gene expression between XX hermaphrodites and XO males. The dosage compensation complex (DCC), a condensin complex, binds to both hermaphrodite X chromosomes via sequence-specific recruitment elements on X (rex sites) to reduce chromosome-wide gene expression by half. Most DCC condensin subunits also act in other condensin complexes to control the compaction and resolution of all mitotic and meiotic chromosomes. By comparing chromosome structure in wild-type and DCC-defective embryos, we show that the DCC remodels hermaphrodite X chromosomes into a sex-specific spatial conformation distinct from autosomes. Dosage-compensated X chromosomes consist of self-interacting domains (∼1 Mb) resembling mammalian topologically associating domains (TADs). TADs on X chromosomes have stronger boundaries and more regular spacing than on autosomes. Many TAD boundaries on X chromosomes coincide with the highest-affinity rex sites and become diminished or lost in DCC-defective mutants, thereby converting the topology of X to a conformation resembling autosomes. rex sites engage in DCC-dependent long-range interactions, with the most frequent interactions occurring between rex sites at DCC-dependent TAD boundaries. These results imply that the DCC reshapes the topology of X chromosomes by forming new TAD boundaries and reinforcing weak boundaries through interactions between its highest-affinity binding sites. As this model predicts, deletion of an endogenous rex site at a DCC-dependent TAD boundary using CRISPR/Cas9 greatly diminished the boundary. Thus, the DCC imposes a distinct higher-order structure onto X chromosomes while regulating gene expression chromosome-wide.
Comparative pharmacodynamics of gatifloxacin and ciprofloxacin in an in vitro dynamic model: prediction of equiefficient doses and the breakpoints of the area under the curve/MIC ratio.

To demonstrate the impact of the pharmacokinetics of gatifloxacin (GA) relative to those of ciprofloxacin (CI) on the antimicrobial effect (AME), the killing and regrowth kinetics of two differentially susceptible clinical isolates each of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae were studied. With each organism, a series of monoexponential pharmacokinetic profiles of GA (half-life [t1/2], 7 h) and CI (t1/2 = 4 h) were simulated to mimic different single doses of GA and two 12-h doses of CI. The respective eightfold ranges of the ratios of the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) to the MIC were 58 to 466 and 116 to 932 (μg · h/ml)/(μg/ml). The species- and strain-independent linear relationships observed between the intensity of AME (IE) and log AUC/MIC were not superimposed for GA and CI (r2 = 0.99 in both cases). The predicted AUC/MIC ratio for GA that might be equivalent to a clinically relevant AUC/MIC breakpoint for CI was estimated to be 102 rather than 125 (μg · h/ml)/(μg/ml). The respective MIC breakpoints were 0.32 μg/ml (for a 400-mg dose of GA) and 0.18 μg/ml (for two 500-mg doses of CI). On the basis of the IE-log AUC/MIC relationships, equiefficient 24-h doses (D24hs) of GA and CI were calculated for hypothetical strains of S. aureus, E. coli, and K. pneumoniae for which the MICs were equal to the MICs at which 50% of isolates are inhibited. To provide an “acceptable” IE equal to 200 (log CFU/ml) · h, i.e., the IE provided by AUC/MIC of 125 (μg · h/ml)/(μg/ml) for ciprofloxacin, the D24hs of GA for all three organisms were much lower (115, 30, and 60 mg) than the clinically proposed 400-mg dose. Although the usual dose of CI (two doses of 500 mg) would be in excess for E. coli and K. pneumoniae (D24h = two doses of 40 mg and two doses of 115 mg, respectively), even the highest clinical dose of CI (two doses of 750 mg) might be insufficient for S. aureus (D24h, > two doses of 1,000 mg). The method of generalization of data obtained with specific organisms to other representatives of the same species described in the present report might be useful for prediction of the AMEs of new quinolones.
Data allocation in a dynamically reconfigurable environment

The authors address the data allocation problem in a dynamically reconfigurable distributed database system. Following the description of the system model and the consequences of node movement, several dynamic allocation strategies are presented. A distributed candidate-selection algorithm using the data from the accounting system in the database servers is proposed to reduce the number of files and nodes considered in reallocation. The allocation algorithms choose the optimal assignment using heuristic benefit functions and greedy search strategy. The experimental results demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the allocation algorithms. >
Insect development. VII. Early stages in the development of grasshopper eggs of known age and with a known temperature history

The rate of maturation and of development during the first 4 days has been followed in Melanoplus differentialis eggs (from mated females) collected (1) just before they were laid, or (2) immediately after oviposition had been completed and (1) either fixed at once, or (2) after incubation at 25°C. for definite periods.
Size-Dependent and Temporal Variability in Batch Number and Fecundity of Red Porgy, a Protogynous, Indeterminate Spawner, in the U.S. South Atlantic

Abstract Contemporary studies have shown that spawning stock biomass can be a poor estimator of total egg production, with the inclusion of fecundity tending to improve stock–recruit relationships. Since many U.S. fisheries now use spawning potential ratio (SPR) to define overfishing, an understanding of fecundity variation is especially valuable. We studied a commercially important, protogynous sparid, the Red Porgy Pagrus pagrus, off the southeast U.S. coast from 2007 to 2010 to estimate annual fecundity ( fa ) as a function of batch fecundity ( fb ) and batch number (nb ) and to investigate size-based and temporal variation. In total, 1,355 Red Porgy (241–478 mm TL) were collected; subsets of individuals were selected for estimating maturity, nb , and fb . Throughout the spawning season, the proportion of females that were capable of spawning increased to 100% on several dates and was generally higher among smaller females than current maturity information would predict. The proportion of females that ...
Cost-efficiency of rural sanitation promotion : activity-based costing and experimental evidence from Tanzania

This paper applies cost-efficiency analysis to an intervention that promotes behaviour change for rural sanitation in Tanzania. The campaign targets a number of potential beneficiaries, out of which some are effectively encouraged to adopt the new practices (beneficiaries). As a result, the cost-efficiency of the programme depends on the extent of take-up of improved sanitation by the target population, unknown in advance. To correctly account for the costs of households gaining access under this demand-driven approach, both costs (investments) and increased access to sanitation are considered outcomes and are estimated from samples of beneficiary and control populations, using a randomised-controlled trial design. Results show that sanitation promotion did not lead to higher investment relative to the control group and that the cost-per-person effectively gaining access to sanitation is substantially higher than the cost-per-person targeted or at-reach of the campaign. Using these estimates, the authors ...
Winning While Backing Down: The Odd History of Bush's Veto Threats

The veto is one of the few formal powers accorded to the President of the United States and it plays a central role in many theories of the executive branch. In particular, rational choice theorists have found it to be a rich topic of inquiry, as it presents great opportunities to study the “second face of power.” As such, the threat of a veto is actually crucial. Most scholars have chosen to focus on the ideological positioning of a president vis-a-vis that of Congress. No less important, however, is that president’s willingness to use the veto, which is not defined only by a president’s ideological ideal point. George W. Bush issued his first veto after over 5 years in office - a modern record. However, in issuing that veto, Bush also broke his own record for veto threats issued without being followed by a veto at over 140, by some counts. Finally, Bush's liberal use of signing statements made it possible for Bush to add a third wrinkle to the veto game. This paper explores the dynamics of Bush's veto threats, focusing on his credibility and Congressional reactions.
Nano-ADEPT aeroloads wind tunnel test

A wind tunnel test of the Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) was conducted in April 2015 at the US Army's 7×10 Foot Wind Tunnel located at NASA Ames Research Center. Key geometric features of the fabric test article were a 0.7 m deployed base diameter, a 70° half-angle forebody cone angle, eight ribs, and a nose-to-base radius ratio of 0.7. The primary objective of this wind tunnel test was to obtain static deflected shape and pressure distributions while varying pretension at dynamic pressures and angles of attack relevant to entry conditions at Earth, Mars, and Venus. Other objectives included obtaining aerodynamic force and moment data and determining the presence and magnitude of any dynamic aeroelastic behavior (buzz/flutter) in the fabric trailing edge. All instrumentation systems worked as planned and a rich data set was obtained. This paper describes the test articles, instrumentation systems, data products, and test results. Four notable conclusions are drawn. First, test data support adopting a pre-tension lower bound of 10 lbf/in for Nano-ADEPT mission applications. Second, test results indicate that the fabric conditioning process needs to be reevaluated. Third, no flutter/buzz of the fabric was observed for any test condition and should also not occur at hypersonic speeds. Fourth, translating one of the gores caused ADEPT to generate lift without the need for a center of gravity offset. At hypersonic speeds, the lift generated by actuating ADEPT gores could be used for vehicle control.
Rescue of Synaptic Phenotypes and Spatial Memory in Young Fragile X Mice

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is characterized by synaptic immaturity, cognitive impairment, and behavioral changes. The disorder is caused by transcriptional shutdown in neurons of thefragile X mental retardation 1gene product, fragile X mental retardation protein. Fragile X mental retardation protein is a repressor of dendritic mRNA translation and its silencing leads to dysregulation of synaptically driven protein synthesis and impairments of intellect, cognition, and behavior, and FXS is a disorder that currently has no effective therapeutics. Here, young fragile X mice were treated with chronic bryostatin-1, a relatively selective protein kinase Ceactivator, which induces synaptogenesis and synaptic maturation/repair. Chronic treatment with bryostatin-1 rescues young fragile X mice from the disorder phenotypes, including normalization of most FXS abnormalities in 1) hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression, 2) postsynaptic density-95 levels, 3) transformation of immature dendritic spines to mature synapses, 4) densities of the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes, and 5) spatial learning and memory. The therapeutic effects were achieved without downregulation of metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) 5 in the hippocampus and are more dramatic than those of a late-onset treatment in adult fragile X mice. mGluR5 expression was in fact lower in fragile X mice and its expression was restored with the bryostatin-1 treatment. Our results show that synaptic and cognitive function of young FXS mice can be normalized through pharmacological treatment without downregulation of mGluR5 and that bryostatin-1-like agents may represent a novel class of drugs to treat fragile X mental retardation at a young age and in adults.
Carbohydrate Oxidation in Hypophysectomized Rats

It was noted that rats hypophysectomized∗ for 6 to 8 weeks, with metabolic rates 70% of those of normal controls (as determined gravimetrically by the Haldane method), frequently showed high respiratory quotients (R.Q.) after a fasting period of 24 hours. Values as high as 0.78 to 0.81 were sometimes observed, the average of a series of 19 observations being 0.75, while the average of 19 controls was 0.72. If the hypophysectomized rats were fasted longer than 30 hours, the R.Q. usually dropped to 0.73, though in a few instances it remained high for nearly 40 hours. Changes in the acid-base equilibrium were apparently not responsible for the high R.Q., as shown by determinations of the CO2 content of the blood. Glycogen determinations after a 24-hour fast showed that the hypophysectomized animals contained considerably less muscle and liver glycogen than did normal controls. Hypoglycemia was always present, the blood sugar being around 50 mg. %.These findings suggested that the regulatory mechanism which l...
A Modular, Stereoselective Approach to Spiroketal Synthesis

A highly convergent and flexible synthetic approach to stereochemically defined spiroketals is reported. Substituents can be incorporated at various positions around the spiroketal framework without significant disruption to the synthetic scheme. The approach has been exploited to prepare the spiroketal fragment of milbemycin β14.
The Effect of Drugs and Other Compounds on the Ciliary Beat Frequency of Human Respiratory Epithelium

BackgroundCilia in the human respiratory tract play a critical role in clearing mucus and debris from the airways. Their function can be affected by a number of drugs or other substances, many of w...
Inquiry into Legislation of Government Information Publicity

To make government information public is a hot issue that most people focus on, however, it is limited to the publicity and introduction of theory. This thesis has clarified that there is an insufficiency in government information publicity because of the lack of legal protection, emphasizes the necessity of the legislation, makes an inquiry into the content of the legislation and the problem so that we should pay attention to in the process of legislation, we could find an effective way that makes the government information publicity carried out successfully.
Poiseuille Award lecture. New trends in biorheology.

A trend of engineering approach to physiology is to predict physiological events with mathematical accuracy. In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to know the structure of the organs and the mechanical properties of their components; i.e., the anatomy, histology, and rheology of the system. Then one must perform the analysis rationally, avoiding ad hoc assumptions as far as possible. To illustrate this aspiration, procedure, labor, and rewards, the case of pulmonary circulation is discussed. For cat lung, anatomical and rheological data were collected; biorheological analysis was done, and physiological experiments were compared with theoretical predictions. Satisfactory results were obtained. The case of flow under zone 2 condition, when "waterfall phenomenon" prevails, is especially interesting. We proved theoretically that any partial collapse of an interalveolar septum is unstable. Hence if a collapse is initiated in an interalveolar septum, the whole septum will be collapsed. From this theoretical result, the pressure-flow relationship is predicted and is shown to agree well with the experiment. New trends toward cell biology and molecular approach are evident in this meeting. Some anticipated trends are, however, still slow in coming.
Civil Rights and Public Accommodations: The Heart of Atlanta Motel and McClung Cases

The struggle for civil rights in America was fought at the lunch counter as well as in the streets. It ultimately found victory in the halls of government - but, as Richard Cortner reveals, only through a creative use of congressional power and critical judicial decisions. Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, and shortly after its passage blacks were refused service at the Heart of Atlanta Motel and at Ollie's Barbecue in Birmingham, Alabama, as a test of the new law by business owners who claimed the right to choose their own customers. These challenges made their way to the Supreme Court, becoming landmark cases frequently cited in law. Until now, however, they have never benefited from book-length analysis. Cortner provides an inside account of the litigation in both decisions to tell how they spelled the end to segregation in the South. The fact that blacks could not travel in the South without assured access to food and lodging led Congress to enforce civil rights on the basis of its authority to regulate interstate commerce. The Supreme Court unanimously sustained Title II's constitutionality under the commerce clause in both test cases, joining the executive and legislative branches in defining the power of the federal government to desegregate society, even by circuitous means. Drawing on justice department files, Supreme Court justices' papers, and records of defense attorneys, Cortner provides the background for the cases, including previous legal battles over sitins. He describes the roles of key players in the litigation - particularly Solicitor General Archibald Cox and members of the Warren Court. In addition, he uses presidential files, oral histories, and other primary sources to give readers a clear picture of the forces at work in the creation, implementation, and validation of the Civil Rights Act. Cortner's thorough account illuminates the nature of constitutional litigation and the judicial process, as well as the role of the Constitution and law, in two decisions that marked the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement and changed the face of America forever.
Introduction to historical constructions of journalistic communication in China: on three definitions of news

An introduction is presented to the issue of the journal that discusses topics such as the history of journalism in China, professionalism among journalists, and news and media agencies run by the Chinese Communist Party.
Computational sciences in the upstream oil and gas industry

The predominant technical challenge of the upstream oil and gas industry has always been the fundamental uncertainty of the subsurface from which it produces hydrocarbon fluids. The subsurface can be detected remotely by, for example, seismic waves, or it can be penetrated and studied in the extremely limited vicinity of wells. Inevitably, a great deal of uncertainty remains. Computational sciences have been a key avenue to reduce and manage this uncertainty. In this review, we discuss at a relatively non-technical level the current state of three applications of computational sciences in the industry. The first of these is seismic imaging, which is currently being revolutionized by the emergence of full wavefield inversion, enabled by algorithmic advances and petascale computing. The second is reservoir simulation, also being advanced through the use of modern highly parallel computing architectures. Finally, we comment on the role of data analytics in the upstream industry. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Energy and the subsurface’.
Small antenna measurement on ground reflection range

This paper presents the idea of measuring small antennas, in particular portable radio antenna using common 3 m and 10 m open area test site intended for EMC radiated measurements. This method involves the use of antenna modeling software to compare the free space radiation pattern and the ground reflection pattern of the calibrated standard reference antenna, and the antenna under test. From the patterns, the relationship between the known free space gains of the antenna and the ground reflection pattern is established. This information was later used to predict the positions to place the sensing antenna on the open area test site to pick up the appropriate peaks of the received amplitudes. By scanning the receiving antenna over the heights predicted, the free space gain of the antenna is then predicted using the relationship established earlier between the free space and ground reflection patterns. This paper recommends that portable antennas are should be measured in the horizontal position on the ground reflection range for better accuracy. The actual, measured data verifying the method is also presented.
Incorporating tumor characteristics to the American joint committee on cancer breast cancer staging system

Background The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) breast cancer staging system provides important prognostic information. The recently published eighth edition incorporates biological markers and recommends the use of a complex "prognostic stage." In this study, we assessed the relationship between stage, breast cancer subtype, grade, and outcome in a large population-based cohort and evaluated a risk score system incorporating tumor characteristic to the AJCC anatomic staging system. Materials and methods Patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer stage I-IV between 2005-2008 were identified in the California Cancer Registry. For patients with stage I-III disease, pathologic stage was recorded. For patients with stage IV disease, clinical stage was utilized. Five-year breast cancer specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) rates were determined for each potential tumor size-node involvement-metastases (TNM) combination according to breast cancer subtype. A risk score point-based system using grade, estrogen receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status was designed to complement the anatomic AJCC staging system. Survival probabilities between groups were compared using log-rank test. Cox proportional hazards models were used. Results Among 43,938 patients, we observed differences in 5-year BCSS and OS for each TNM combination according to breast cancer subtype. The most favorable outcomes were seen for hormone receptor-positive tumors followed closely by HER2-positive tumors, with the worst outcomes observed for triple negative breast cancer. Our risk score system separated patients into four risk groups within each stage category (all p Conclusion Our simple risk score system incorporates biological factors into the AJCC anatomic staging system, providing accurate prognostic information. Implications for practice This study demonstrates that stage, but also breast cancer subtype and grade, define prognosis in a large population of breast cancer patients. It shows that a point-based risk score system that incorporates these biological factors provides refined stratification and information on prognosis, improving the anatomic American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system. In addition, the overall mortality and breast cancer specific mortality rates detailed here provide much-needed information about prognosis in the current era, refining the current AJCC staging.
Listeria monocytogenes cytosolic metabolism promotes replication, survival, and evasion of innate immunity

Listeria monocytogenes, the causative agent of listeriosis, is an intracellular pathogen that is exquisitely evolved to survive and replicate in the cytosol of eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells typically restrict bacteria from colonising the cytosol, likely through a combination of cell autonomous defences, nutritional immunity, and innate immune responses including induction of programmed cell death. This suggests that L. monocytogenes and other professional cytosolic pathogens possess unique metabolic adaptations, not only to support replication but also to facilitate resistance to host-derived stresses/defences and avoidance of innate immune activation. In this review, we outline our current understanding of L. monocytogenes metabolism in the host cytosol and highlight major metabolic processes which promote intracellular replication and survival.
An extended symmetric doherty power amplifier with high efficiency over a wide power range

We propose an extended range Doherty power amplifier (DPA) to achieve high efficiency at 9-dB power back-off (PBO) using a novel loading impedance range. The proposed loading impedance range enables the auxiliary transistor to deliver more current so that symmetric devices can be used in the DPA and results in a compact and low loss output combining circuit. A 20-Watt DPA using Gallium nitride high electron mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) at 3.5 GHz has been developed to demonstrate the concept. Measurements show power added efficiency (PAE) of 69% at 42.9 dBm saturation output power, PAE of 55% at 9-dB PBO, and gain of 12 dB. We believe our proposed DPA has the highest 9-dB PBO PAE of 55% among reported GaN DPA's.
Recurrence of Optimally Treated Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma with Cytoreduction and Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

The prognosis for patients with diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma has dramatically improved with cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Little is known about disease recurrence after treatment. We analyzed the time to and predictors of recurrence in a large cohort of optimally treated patients. We examined 113 patients completing a two-stage cytoreduction and intraperitoneal chemotherapy protocol. All patients achieved optimal surgical resection with completeness of cytoreduction (CC) score ≤ 1 and were divided into two groups based on absence (Group A) or presence (Group B) of gross disease at the outset of the second operation. Predictors of disease recurrence and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were determined using Cox proportional hazard regression modeling, and estimates were obtained by using the Kaplan–Meier method. Forty-six percent of patients had no gross evidence of disease at the second operation; the remaining 54% were cytoreduced to CC ≤ 1 (Group B). Forty-two percent of patients developed disease recurrence with a median recurrence-free survival of 38.5 months for the cohort; 79% of these received a form of iterative treatment. There was no statistically significant difference in recurrence-free survival between Group A (median RFS: 44.6 months) and B (median RFS: 35.5 months) (log-rank test, p = 0.06). Additionally, the only variable significantly associated with RFS was male gender (hazard ratio [HR] 1.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16–3.38). Absence of gross disease at the second operation was not statistically protective against recurrence compared with presence of quantifiable residual disease (Group B) that was effectively cytoreduced. Long-term disease surveillance is recommended, because recurrence continues years after treatment. Where a question of recurrence arises on surveillance, males may benefit from a higher degree of suspicion.
Hypermethylation of human DNA: Fine-tuning transcription associated with development

Tissue-specific gene transcription can be affected by DNA methylation in ways that are difficult to discern from studies focused on genome-wide analyses of differentially methylated regions (DMRs). We studied 95 genes in detail using available epigenetic and transcription databases to detect and elucidate less obvious associations between development-linked hypermethylated DMRs in myoblasts (Mb) and cell- and tissue-specific expression. Many of these genes encode developmental transcription factors and display DNA hypermethylation also in skeletal muscle (SkM) and a few heterologous samples (e.g., aorta, mammary epithelial cells, or brain) among the 38 types of human cell cultures or tissues examined. Most of the DMRs overlapped transcription regulatory elements, including canonical, alternative, or cryptic promoters; enhancers; CTCF binding sites; and long-noncoding RNA (lncRNA) gene regions. Among the prominent relationships between DMRs and expression was promoter-region hypermethylation accompanying repression in Mb but not in many other repressed samples (26 genes). Another surprising relationship was down-modulated (but not silenced) expression in Mb associated with DNA hypermethylation at cryptic enhancers in Mb although such methylation was absent in both non-expressing samples and highly expressing samples (24 genes). The tissue-specificity of DNA hypermethylation can be explained for many of the genes by their roles in prenatal development or by the tissue-specific expression of neighboring genes. Besides elucidating developmental epigenetics, our study provides insights into the roles of abnormal DNA methylation in disease, e.g., cancer, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and congenital heart malformations.