cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Coreceptor Dependent Signaling in Individual Primary Resting CD4+ T-cells Mediated by Low Levels of HIV Binding

In order to enter into the target cell, HIV requires functional contact with CD4 and CCR5 or CXCR4. The last two are G-protein coupled receptors that when activated with chemokines, or HIV envelope can initiate a wide range of biological responses, including Ca2+ mobilization, cytoskeletal rearrangements and cell migration. To determine the specificity of X4-tropic gp120-mediated signaling through CXCR4, we have chosen a microscopybased approach to observe the response at the level of individual cells providing greater sensitivity. Target cells were able to activate a signaling cascade in response to both monomeric recombinant gp120 and virion-bound trimeric gp120. C2+ elevation was a direct measurement of CXCR4 engagement because it was dependent on the tropism of the envelope, engagement of CD4, and sensitive to the CXCR4 antagonist AMD-3100. Signaling required much lower levels of envelope when virion associated. Imaging analysis allowed the correlation of the pattern of virion-mediated C2+ fluxing with the exact number of viral particles bound to cells. This analysis revealed that an average of four virions, and as few as two virions associating with a primary resting T cell could mediate C2+ mobilization. The ability of several virions to stimulate signaling in primary resting T cells is physiologically relevant and has important implications for AIDS pathogenesis. Funded in part by DHHS NO1-CO-12400 and RO1AI052051. from 2005 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology Baltimore, USA, 29 August – 2 September 2005
Conversion of 2-Hydroxy-4-(Methylthio)butanoic Acid to L-Methionine in the Chick: A Stereospecific Pathway

Conversion of 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)butanoic acid (HMB) to L-methionine (L-Met) was studied by using chick liver homogenates. The first step was found to be stereospecific with different enzymes for the D- and L-isomers of HMB. L-HMB was the substrate for L-2-hydroxy acid oxidase, a peroxide-producing flavo-enzyme found in peroxisomes of liver and kidney. The enzyme for D-HMB, identified as mitochondrial D-2-hydroxy acid dehydrogenase, had not been previously described in the chick. This enzyme was found in every tissue tested including intestinal mucosa and skeletal muscle. Thus, D-HMB could be used by any organ for protein synthesis, like L-Met itself. These results provide a biochemical explanation of equimolar incorporation of HMB and DL-methionine (DL-Met) into chick hepatocyte protein in that the two HMB enzymes can simultaneously convert both HMB isomers to L-Met while only one enzyme, D-2-amino acid oxidase, converts D-Met to L-Met.
The Irrelevance of Market Incompleteness for the Price of Aggregate Risk

In models with a large number of agents who have constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) preferences, the absence of insurance markets for idiosyncratic labour income risk has no effect on the premium for aggregate risk if the distribution of idiosyncratic risk is independent of aggregate shocks. In spite of the missing markets, a representative agent who consumes aggregate income prices the excess returns on stocks correctly. This result holds regardless of the persistence of idiosyncratic shocks, as long as they are not permanent, even when households face binding, and potentially very tight borrowing constraints. Consequently, in this class of models there is no link between the extent of self-insurance against idiosyncratic income risk and aggregate risk premia.
Effects of Water Temperature on Bed-Load Movement

LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS HAVE INDICATED THAT THE EFFECTS OF WATER TEMPERATURE ON THE MOVEMENT OF SEDIMENT AND ON FLOW IN ALLUVIAL STREAMS CAN BE APPRECIABLE. SOME VARIATIONS NOTED IN FLOW CONDITIONS IN THE FIELD CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE EFFECTS OF WATER TEMPERATURE. INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE SUBJECT HAS BEEN CONFUSING, OR TOO GENERAL TO PERMIT THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEFINITE RELATIONS. AN INVESTIGATION UNDERTAKEN TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN WATER TEMPERATURE ON SEDIMENT TRANSPORT, STREAM-BED FORMS, AND BED ROUGHNESS FOR VARIOUS TYPES OF MATERIAL IS DESCRIBED. AN INTERIM REPORT ON PROGRESS OF THIS INVESTIGATION AND PROCEDURES USED INCLUDES SOME OF THE PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. /ASCE/
John Updike Packing

Immortal DNA offers as cold a comfort as the transmigration of souls. This is an invited review. If we can't take our memories with us, why go? (Updike, 1997, p. 74) John Updike succinctly summariz...
Harvesting a knowledge commons: collective action, transparency, and innovation at the Portland Fish Exchange

While localist visions of alternative food systems advocate for the expansion of local ecological knowledge through more proximate producer-consumer relationships, globalized seafood supply-demand chains persist. Moving beyond this dichotomy, commons scholars recognize that collective action among resource users at the local level can shape cross-scalar producer relations with government and more capitalized firms operating in regional and global markets. In the case of the New England groundfishery, a quasi-public fish auction not only transformed the scalar, logistical, and financial parameters of harvester-buyer relationships, it altered the production and use of local knowledge among some harvesters, and their technological choices. Resulting markets offer potential benefits that extend to broader publics, by increasing the monetary value and experimental development of a knowledge commons. Qualitative analysis of field data shows that with new market transparency, fish are no longer valued as an undifferentiated commodity, but as a variety of products with individually nuanced price structures. Displacement of local seafood buyers incurred some shoreside job losses, but fishers on smaller, owner-operated boats in multi-generational fishing harbours benefit particularly from new opportunities compared to larger, fleet boats due to different labour relations, allocations of decision-making responsibilities, observational contexts, and associated information flows. Implications for the mobilization of knowledge-action linkages to influence formal resource management arenas merit further research.
Ductile failure behavior of polycrystalline Al 6061-T6 under shear dominant loading

Ductile failure in polycrystalline aluminum alloys under pure shear as well as with superposed tension and compression loading is explored through the modified Arcan shear experiments. Specimens obtained through tests interrupted at various stages of deformation and failure evolution are examined through quantitative microscopy to discern the mechanisms of failure and to evaluate the local strain evolution quantitatively. Fractographic observations are used to identify the onset and evolution of damage processes during deformation and failure of these aluminum alloys. Local strain levels are estimated from measurements of the change in grain size with deformation and used to indicate that the local values of failure strains are likely to be much larger than that estimated from strains averaged over characteristic specimen dimensions such as the gage length or the specimen diameter. Lower bound estimates of the failure strain in low triaxiality conditions are obtained from the experiments. It is shown that strain-to-failure decreases monotonically with stress triaxiality in stark contrast with recent works where a reverse behavior in low stress triaxiality levels was reported. Eventual failure that occurs through void growth and coalescence is shown to be restricted to a very small region within the localized deformation band.
Down-regulation of Bcl-2 enhances estrogen apoptotic action in long-term estradiol-depleted ER(+) breast cancer cells.

Postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer frequently respond paradoxically to estrogen administration with tumor regression. Using both LTED and E8CASS cells derived from MCF-7 breast cancer cells by long-term estrogen-deprivation, we previously reported that 17β -estradiol (estradiol) is a powerful, pro-apoptotic hormone which kills the cancer cells through activation of the Fas/FasL death receptor pathway. We postulated that the mitochondrial interactive protein Bcl-2 might play a role in the regulation of estradiol-induced apoptosis in both LTED and E8CASS cells. In this study, we assessed estradiol effects on cell growth, proliferation and apoptosis. Additionally we investigated the effect of estradiol on caspase activation, NF-KB and Bcl-2 expression. The functional role of Bcl-2 in estradiol-induced apoptosis was further studied by knockdown or decrease of Bcl-2 with siRNA. Our results show that estradiol significantly inhibited cell growth primarily through a pro-apoptotic action involving caspase-7 and 9 activations (p < 0.01). Basal Bcl-2 and NF-KB levels were greatly elevated and estradiol decreased NF-KB, but not Bcl-2 expression. Knockdown of Bcl-2 expression with siRNA decreased the levels of this protein by 9 fold (p < 0.01). This reduction markedly sensitized both LTED and E8CASS cells to the pro-apoptotic action of estradiol, leading to a synergistic induction of apoptosis and a concomitant reduction in cell number (p < 0.01). Therefore, down-regulation of Bcl-2 synergistically enhanced estradiol-induced apoptosis in ER+ postmenopausal breast cancer cells.
Parsing Generalized ID/LP Grammars

The Generalized ID/LP (GIDLP) grammar formalism (Daniels and Meurers 2004a, b; Daniels 2005) was developed to serve as a processing backbone for linearization-HPSG grammars, separating the declaration of the recursive constituent structure from the declaration of word order domains. This paper shows that the key aspects of this formalism -- the ability for grammar writers to explicitly declare word order domains and to arrange the right-hand side of each grammar rule to minimize the parser's search space -- lead directly to improvements in parsing efficiency.
Failure To Open the Blood-Brain Barrier and Deliver Immune Effectors to Central Nervous System Tissues Leads to the Lethal Outcome of Silver-Haired Bat Rabies Virus Infection

Rabies is a lethal disease caused by neurotropic viruses that are endemic in nature. When exposure to a potentially rabid animal is recognized, prompt administration of virus-neutralizing antibodies, together with active immunization, can prevent development of the disease. However, once the nonspecific clinical symptoms of rabies appear conventional postexposure treatment is unsuccessful. Over the last decade, rabies viruses associated with the silver-haired bat (SHBRV) have emerged as the leading cause of human deaths from rabies in the United States and Canada as a consequence of the fact that exposure to these viruses is often unnoticed. The need to treat SHBRV infection following the development of clinical rabies has lead us to investigate why the immune response to SHBRV fails to protect at a certain stage of infection. We have established that measurements of innate and adaptive immunity are indistinguishable between mice infected with the highly lethal SHBRV and mice infected with an attenuated laboratory rabies virus strain. While a fully functional immune response to SHBRV develops in the periphery of infected animals, the invasion of central nervous system (CNS) tissues by immune cells is reduced and, consequently, the virus is not cleared. Our data indicate that the specific deficit in the SHBRV-infected animal is an inability to enhance blood-brain barrier permeability in the cerebellum and deliver immune effectors to the CNS tissues. Conceivably, at the stage of infection where immune access to the infected CNS tissues is limited, either the provision or the development of antiviral immunity will be ineffective.
A nolC-lacZ gene fusion in Rhizobium fredii facilitates direct assessment of competition for nodulation of soybean

A constitutively expressed chromosomal gene, nolC, regulates the ability of Rhizobium fredii strain USDA257 to nodulate certain agronomically improved soybean cultivars. Other advanced cultivars, as well as unimproved varieties such as 'Peking', form nitrogen-fixing nodules with parental strain USDA257 and with nolC mutants. We have used 257DH512, a derivative of USDA257 that contains a nolC-lacZ fusion, to directly measure strain competition for nodule occupancy. Seedlings of the soybean cultivar 'Peking' were inoculated with mixtures containing various ratios of 257DH512 and R. fredii USDA208; nodules were harvested 14 days later and stained histochemically with X-gal, a chromogenic substrate for the β-galactosidase product of lacZ. We were able to stain and evaluate batches of nearly 500 nodules in just 4 h, without the use of expensive equipment. Under the conditions of these experiments, USDA208 was considerably more competitive than 257DH512, even when it had been present in the inoculum at a numeri...
Data-driven techniques to estimate parameters in a rate-dependent ferromagnetic hysteresis model

Abstract The quantification of rate-dependent ferromagnetic hysteresis is important in a range of applications including high speed milling using Terfenol-D actuators. There exist a variety of frameworks for characterizing rate-dependent hysteresis including the magnetic model in Ref. [2] , the homogenized energy framework, Preisach formulations that accommodate after-effects, and Prandtl–Ishlinskii models. A critical issue when using any of these models to characterize physical devices concerns the efficient estimation of model parameters through least squares data fits. A crux of this issue is the determination of initial parameter estimates based on easily measured attributes of the data. In this paper, we present data-driven techniques to efficiently and robustly estimate parameters in the homogenized energy model. This framework was chosen due to its physical basis and its applicability to ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and ferroelastic materials.
Stable Vindoline Production in Transformed Cell Cultures of Catharanthus roseus

Catharanthus roseus L. (G. Don) leaf disks were transformed by cocultivation with seven strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Four distinct transformed cell lines were obtained with A. tumefaciens strains A281, BO542, and A. rhizogenes strain K599, and selected on hormone-free medium. Transformation of the cell lines was confirmed by Southern blot analysis, and preliminary data on the alkaloid profiles was determined by 2D TLC and HPLC/MS. Stable vindoline production was demonstrated in the undifferentiated suspension cell lines strains, CR-BO542, CR-K599, and strain CR-A281S (shooty teratomas), by HPLC/MS analysis of the alkaloid fractions. Active vindoline biosynthesis in the suspension-cell lines was further confirmed by measuring the activity of acetyl-coenzyme-A-deacetylvindoline-O-acetyltransferase, one of the final enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of vindoline, in cell-free extracts.
Tissue Doppler septal Tei index indicates severity of illness in pediatric patients with congestive heart failure.

The Doppler Tei index is an independent predictor of outcomes in adult heart failure. Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) may be a superior method to measure the Tei index in children because it is less affected by heart rate variability. We hypothesized that the TDI Tei index reflects severity of illness in pediatric heart failure. Twenty-five pediatric heart failure patients were prospectively enrolled. Listing for heart transplantation or death were the outcomes used to define severity of illness. Baseline demographics, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and standard echocardiographic and TDI-derived parameters were analyzed to determine outcome indicators. Ten of the 25 patients (40 %) were listed for transplantation. There were no deaths. Multivariate analysis combining age, heart rate, standard echocardiographic parameters, and BNP resulted in shortening fraction (p = 0.002) as the best indicator of listing for transplantation (R2 = 0.32). A second multivariate analysis combining age, heart rate, TDI parameters, and BNP resulted in age (p = 0.03) and septal Tei index (p = 0.03) as the best predictive model (R2 = 0.36). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for septal Tei index was 0.84 (95 % confidence interval = 0.64–0.96,), and it was comparable with the ROC curve for shortening fraction, p = 0.76. Optimal values of sensitivity (100 %) and specificity (60 %) were obtained with septal Tei index values >0.51. The TDI septal Tei index is an indicator of disease severity in pediatric heart failure patients and offers potential advantages compared with standard echocardiographic measures of left-ventricular ejection.
Haploidploidy and the evolution of the social insect

Halminton (1) was apparently the first to appreciate that the synthesis of Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of natural selection had profound implications for social theory. In particular, insofar as almost all social behavior is either selfish or altruistic (or has such effects), genetical reasoning suggests that an individual's social behavior should be adjusted to his or her degree of relatedness, r, to all individuals affected by the behavior. We call this theory kinship theory. The social insects provide a critical test of Hamilton's kinship theory. When such theory is combined with the sex ratio theory of Fisher (9), a body of consistent predictions emerges regarding the haplodiploid Hymenoptera. The evolution of female workers helping their mother reproduce is more likely in the Hymenoptera than in diploid groups, provided that such workers lay some of the male-producing eggs or bias the ratio of investment toward reproductive females. Once eusocial colonies appear, certain biases by sex in these colonies are expected to evolve. In general, but especially in eusocial ants, the ratio of investment should be biased in favor of females, and in it is expected to equilibrate at 1 : 3 (male to female). We present evidence from 20 species that the ratio of investment in monogynous ants is, indeed, about 1 : 3, and we subject this discovery to a series of tests. As expected, the slave-making ants produce a ratio of investment of 1 : 1, polygynoys ants produce many more males than expected on the basis of relative dry weight alone, solitary bees and wasps produce a ratio of investment near 1 : 1 (and no greater than 1 : 2), and the social bumblebees produce ratios of investment between 1 : 1 and 1 : 3. In addition, sex ratios in monogynous ants and in trapnested wasps are, as predicted by Fisher, inversely related to the relative cost in these species of producing a male instead of a female. Taken together, these data provide quantitative evidence in support of kinship theory, sex ratio theory, the assumption that the offspring is capable of acting counter to its parents' best interests, and the supposition that haplodiploidy has played a unique role in the evolution of the social insects. Finally, we outline a theory for the evolution of worker-queen conflict, a theory which explains the queen's advantage in competition over male-producing workers and the workers' advantage regarding the ratio of investment. The theory uses the asymmetries of haplodiploidy to explain how the evolved outcome of parent-offspring conflict in the social Hymenoptera is expected to be a function of certain social and life history parameters.
Vacant postsynaptic densities on supraoptic dendrites of adult rats diminish in number with chronic stimuli.

In earlier ultrastructural studies of the supraoptic nucleus in adult rats we noted “free” and incompletely covered postsynaptic densities (collectively referred to here as vacant postsynaptic densities) on dendritic shafts. Free postsynaptic densities have been reported in other parts of the central nervous system of normal rodents. We investigated the possibility that physiological activation of the supraoptic cells, which produces changes in many aspects of their morphology, would alter the incidence of the free or incompletely covered postsynaptic densities on dendrites in the supraoptic basal dendritic zone. The cells of the supraoptic nucleus are activated to increase cell firing and secretion of oxytocin and/or vasopressin in response to dehydration, gestation, and lactation. We have examined: (i) untreated virgin females; (ii) untreated males; (iii) 24 h water-deprived males; (iv) prepartum (21st day of gestation) females; (v) postpartum females (on the day of parturition); (vi) lactating females (14 days of suckling); (vii) mothers 10 days after weaning their pups; (viii) females given 2% saline to drink (dehydrated) for 10 days; and females or males given 2% saline to drink for 10 days, then given tap water for (ix) 2 or (x) 5 weeks to allow rehydration. Only long-term activation of the supraoptic nucleus by lactation or by drinking saline for 10 days brought about significant decreases in the percentage of dendrites with vacant postsynaptic densities. These densities did not reappear in saline treated rats which had been rehydrated for 2 weeks, but did return in both the 5-week rehydration and the 10-day postweaning groups. Short-term activation of the supraoptic nucleus, such as occurs at parturition or in acute dehydration, did not affect the vacant postsynaptic densities. Analysis of semiserial thin sections indicated that presynaptic elements facing the incompletely covered postsynaptic densities contain predominantly clear round vesicles and also that apparently free postsynaptic densities were usually at least partially contacted by a presynaptic ending in adjacent sections.
Progress in xenotransplantation.

Organ transplantation is considered the most effective treatment for end-stage organ failure; currently it is limited by a severe worldwide shortage of human donor organs. This has led to investigation of the potential use of animals as organ donors. For a number of reasons, the pig represents the most likely organ donor candidate. Transplantation of a vascularised porcine organ into a human or non-human primate results in an immediate and dramatic rejection process, known as hyperacute rejection, which is mediated by the binding of pre-existing antibody to the porcine graft and the subsequent activation of host complement. Strategies aimed at preventing this initial rejection have been largely successful in experimental models. This has allowed attention to turn towards an understanding of the immunological barriers comprising the next phase of xenograft rejection, termed acute vascular rejection. This delayed rejection process appears to be a humoral event, and it is likely that the control of antibody ...
LOW COST SCHEMES FOR FAULT TOLERANCE IN MATRIX OPEBATIONS WITH PROCESSOR ABBAYS

Matrix encoding schemes are proposed to detect and correct errors when matrix operations are performed using processor arrays. The method proposed assumes that failures are confined to a single processor. Such a fault model covers a broad class of faults. This method is not only applicable to errors caused by permanent faults but also to transient errors. Two processor array architectures for matrix multiplication are investigated and compared from a fault-tolerance viewpoint; it is shown that only small redundancy ratios - O(1/n) of hardware and O(log 2 (n)/n) of time, are required for processor array systems to achieve reliable matrix operations.
Adjacent pioneer commissural interneuron growth cones switch from contact avoidance to axon fasciculation after midline crossing.

Abstract Commissural interneurons (CI) of the vertebrate spinal cord are guided ventrally toward the floor plate, but subsequently cross the midline and select a longitudinal fascicle at specific dorsal–ventral (D–V) positions. We examined at high resolution the detailed behaviors of individual pathfinding CI growth cones on the ipsilateral and contralateral sides of the spinal cord of living Xenopus embryos. We find that pre-crossing CI growth cones exhibit distinct pathfinding behaviors compared to post-crossing axons and that the behavioral switch occurs immediately upon crossing to the contralateral side. Groups of pioneer commissural axons typically extend simultaneously toward the ventral midline following discrete paths with separation between adjacent commissurals apparently maintained through contact inhibition. In contrast, shortly after crossing the midline, commissural axons turn longitudinally and begin to fasciculate with other crossed CIs. However, growth cones of crossed commissurals often select their final D–V longitudinal track through a series of rapid step-like dorsal adjustments that may be due to differential fasciculation with longitudinal axons. Together, our results suggest that guidance of commissural axons is controlled in part through interactions among CIs that switch rapidly from avoidance to fasciculation after midline crossing.
Damping Characteristics of Laminated Thick Plates

We develop the analysis for the exact three-dimensional viscoelastic solution for simply supported, thick multilayered composite plate strips. Each layer is assumed to possess monoclinic or higher material symmetry and to be perfectly bonded to adjacent layers. The damping capacity, or loss factor, of the composite plate is derived using energy principles, allowing analysis of arbitrary through-the-thickness geometry for the composite plate. The damping characteristics of the composite plate, as well as its natural modes of vibration, are obtained with the aid of the matrix transfer technique. The matrix transfer method simplifies the requisite analytical developments as well as speeding the numerical calculations. While our analysis treats general material anisotropy and arbitrary through-the-thickness geometry, we examine, as special cases of our analysis, constrained layer damping treatments and sandwich plates. We compare our solution with previous well-known solutions that rely on complex bending modulus formulations and isotropic materials in simple layered treatments. The modal damping capacity of the composite plate is investigated as a function of both frequency of vibration and as a function of material damping modulus.
Highly quantized realizations of the digital filter system matrix

Abstract Second-order digital filter realizations are investigated for a minimum number of noninteger elements in the system matrix. With some restrictions on pole placement, second-order system matrices are realized with only one noninteger element. Some illustrative examples are given.
Towards first-principles theories of materials and biological systems—the need for massive parallelism

Abstract The first-principles paradigm, i.e. the calculation of a physical, chemical, or biological system's properties without including any fitted or adjustable parameters, is one of the most powerful in the scientist's quest to understand nature. Unfortunately most first-principles computations involve quite complicated governing equations and large system sizes, both of which have a detrimental effect on memory size and computer time requirements. Using two relatively simple yet realistic models, one in materials science and one in biophysics, it is discussed here how massive parallelism can make such studies feasible.
NF-kB: a pivotal role in asthma and a new target for therapy

Asthma is a complex chronic inflam- matory disease of the airways that is increasing in prevalence and morbid- ity world-wide. While the causes of asthma remain obscure, there have been important advances in under- standing the underlying inflamma- tory processes. Many inflammatory cells are involved and a large number of inflammatory mediators have now been identified in the airways. Cytokines play a crucial role in the chronic inflammatory process and they appear to determine the nature of the inflammatory response by directing the selective recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells and their perpetuation within the air- ways’. Several factors exacerbate asthma, including allergen exposure, virus infections (which underlie most severe exacerbations that need hospital admission) and possibly exposure to air pollutants, such as ozone (0,) and NO. Many inflammatory cells are involved in asthmatic inflammation, including mast cells, eosinophils, T- lymphocytes and macrophages, all of which release a large variety of inflammatory mediators, including multiple cytokines. Structural cells of the airways, such as epithelial cells, fibroblasts, airway smooth muscle cells and endothelial may be an even more important source of medi- ators. These mediators then have
Molecular simulations predict novel collagen conformations during cross-link loading

Collagen cross-linking mechanically strengthens tissues during development and aging, but there is limited data describing how force transmitted across cross-links affects molecular conformation. We used Steered Molecular Dynamics (SMD) to model perpendicular force through a side chain. Results predicted that collagen peptides have negligible bending resistance and that mechanical force causes helix disruption below covalent bond failure strength, suggesting alternative molecular conformations precede cross-link rupture and macroscopic damage during mechanical loading.
Active Separation Control on Highly Loaded LPT Blades using Microjets

The efficacy of separation control on an LPT using microjets was determined through the use of pressure and velocity field measurements over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. The AFRL designed L1A low pressure turbine blade, which was used in this study, is a highly aft-loaded profile which experiences a non-reattaching separation at approximately 62%Cx for low Reynolds Numbers. Microjet actuators have been shown to be very effective for separation control in subsonic conditions and a microjet array has been implemented to the L1A LPT at 60%Cx. Baseline blade pressure distributions as well as wake loss coefficient traverses show that the blade’s non-reattaching separation is present for Re<50000 for a freestream turbulence intensity of 1%. Microjets were activated at various blowing ratios for each Reynolds number of interest and were shown to eliminate the boundary layer separation. At Re≈20000, the minimum effective blowing ratio was B=3 whereas at Re≈40000, the minimum effective blowing ratio was B=1. By utilizing microjet control, the integrated loss coefficient dropped 500% from the no-control case at Re≈20000 and the Re≈40000 case had a drop of 700% from the no-control case. Lower blowing ratios were required as the experimental Reynolds number approached that of the blade’s transition Reynolds number which was found to be between Re≈50000 and Re≈60000. PIV velocity fields show a complete elimination of all reverse flow on the blade’s suction surface when the microjets were steadily actuated during low Reynolds number conditions. Turbulence statistics found through PIV also showed a dramatic reduction in urms and vrms unsteady quantities when the microjets were actuated. These results were achieved with low mass flux and compare favorably with other flow control methods for LPT separation reduction.
EFFICACY OF EDWARDS'S DRAWING TRAINING TECHNIQUES

The Edwards (1979) cognitive-shift model of teaching drawing encourages a mental shift from verbal, logical thinking to a more global, intuitive mode. This shift in "cognitive mode" is assumed to facilitate drawing performance by allowing greater relative activation of the right hemisphere of the brain, but this rationale remains unsubstantiated. The present smdy compared the efficacy of a training procedure derived from Edwards's work, with a placebic sham treatment designed to control for nonspecific training effects. Twenty-five right-handed volunteer participants were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions: Edwards's training (n = 13; 10 women and 3 men) and sham training (n = 12; 10 women and 2 men). Participants were asked to complete four pencil-drawing tasks derived from Edwards (1979). Four judges rated each drawing's realism and precision on a 100-point scale. Edwards's training consisted of insuuctions designed to heighten enthusiasm and encourage relaxation, an overview of Edwards's ideas, and seven standardized drawing and visualization exercises taken from Edwards's text. Sham training was designed to provide a credible control for nonspecific training factors. The sham-uained students were given bogus information about the relation between fine motor coordination and peripheral temperature, to engcnder the belief that relaxation and hand warmth would optimize their drawing performance. Training consisted of seven 10- to 30-min. standard progressive relaxation exercises and instructions to imagine body warmth. Interrater reliability coefficients showed significant consistency across judges (range: .79 to .91). A pre- and posttreatment summary score for each student was calculated by adding scores on the four tests. A t test for independent groups performed on the pretest measure was nonsignificant (control: M = 27.38, SD = 8.92; trained: M = 28.89, SD = 12.10; t = 0.36). To evaluate differences in drawing improvemenr between the experimental and control groups, a t test for independent groups was performed on the posttest scores (total scores on the four posttreatment drawings). There were nonsignificant differences in improvement for the two groups (control: M =
An ODMR study of a luminescence excitation process in ZnSe:Fe

The authors report ODMR (optically detected magnetic resonance) studies of near infrared luminescence from nominally undoped cubic ZnSe. The magnetic resonances of shallow donors and isolated Fe3+ ions are detected in a prominent band at 980 nm. A similar band in ZnS has recently been identified by Skowronski and Liro (1981, 1982) as the internal 3T1 to 5E transition of Fe2+. It is concluded that ODMR detects the radiationless distant shallow donor to Fe3+ deep donor electron transfer. This process creates the excited Fe2+(3T1) state which in turn emits the 980 nm photon in a transition to the 5E ground state.
Systemic Reform and Superficial Compliance: Teacher Loyalty to Lived Experience

This article examines the implications of educational policies on teachers' beliefs and practices for English learners (ELs) in the context of the California educational reform agenda. By utilizing cultural–historical activity theory, this study paints a personal and pedagogical portrait of how 2 educated and experienced bilingual teachers organized their classrooms in cultural, historical, and ideological ways that shaped how they adapted mandated reforms in their instruction for ELs. The findings show that educational policies are filtered by each teacher's need to strike a balance between compliance to authority and her own autobiography and ethos of what it means to be a teacher, making teacher agency and teacher beliefs important variables in the efficacy of reform.
Calcified Telangiectatic Hyperplastic Nodule Associated With Vascular Malformation in a Child: A Case Report

This is a case report of an asymptomatic 4-year-old girl who was found to have a nodule at the lateral left lobe of the liver. She underwent transabdominal liver ultrasound and abdominal MRI that showed calcification and intense arterial enhancement but they failed to clearly exclude malignancy. The patient underwent an unremarkable laparoscopic wedge liver resection of the lesion because of its location and size. Pathological examination showed features compatible with a benign telangiectatic hyperplastic nodule with vascular malformation and calcification. CD34 immunostained the proliferative vascular lining cells while CK7 and CK19 highlighted the normal bile ducts present within the lesion. The diagnosis of a telangiectatic hyperplastic nodule associated with vascular malformation has been scarcely reported in children and our case shows for the first time that it can also present with calcifications.
Disturbances in circadian body temperature rhythms in rats with hypothalamic damage

Abstract 1. 1.|The range of circadian body temperature amplitudes in normal rats is approx. 36–38°C. After preoptic lesions this range is greatly exaggerated, and can go from 29 to 41°C in a single day. Return to a normal lower limit gradually recovers while the upper limit remains excessively high. 2. 2.|There may be aberrations in the temperature rhythms themselves, irrespective of amplitude, such that body temperature is highest in the light part and lowest in the dark part of a 12:12 light-dark cycle. Rhythms longer than 24 h (3–5 days) become apparent. 3. 3.|A major function of the preoptic area may be to regulate the upper limit of body temperature. It may also be involved in temperature entrainment to the light-dark cycle.
Synthesis, mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradation of polyurethane networks from lysine polyisocyanates

Bone defects, such as compressive fractures in the vertebral bodies, are frequently treated with acrylic bone cements (e.g., PMMA). Although these biomaterials have sufficient mechanical properties for fixing the fracture, they are non-degradable and do not remodel or integrate with host tissue. In an alternative approach, biodegradable polyurethane (PUR) networks have been synthesized that are designed to integrate with host tissue and degrade to non-cytotoxic decomposition products. PUR networks have been prepared by two-component reactive liquid molding of low-viscosity quasi-prepolymers derived from lysine polyisocyanates and poly(epsilon-caprolactone-co-DL-lactide-co-glycolide) triols. The composition, thermal transitions, and mechanical properties of the biomaterials were measured. The values of Young's modulus ranged from 1.20-1.43 GPa, and the compressive yield strength varied from 82 to 111 MPa, which is comparable to the strength of PMMA bone cements. In vitro, the materials underwent controlled biodegradation to non-cytotoxic decomposition products, and supported the attachment and proliferation of MC3T3 cells. When cultured in osteogenic medium on the PUR networks, MC3T3 cells deposited mineralized extracellular matrix, as evidenced by von Kossa staining and tetracycline labeling. Considering the favorable mechanical and biological properties, as well as the low-viscosity of the reactive intermediates used to prepare the PUR networks, these biomaterials are potentially useful as injectable, biodegradable bone cements for fracture healing.
The Critical Role of Social Workers in Home-Based Primary Care

The growing homebound population has many complex biomedical and psychosocial needs and requires a team-based approach to care (Smith, Ornstein, Soriano, Muller, & Boal, 2006). The Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program (MSVD), a large interdisciplinary home-based primary care program in New York City, has a vibrant social work program that is integrated into the routine care of homebound patients. We describe the assessment process used by MSVD social workers, highlight examples of successful social work care, and discuss why social workers' individualized care plans are essential for keeping patients with chronic illness living safely in the community. Despite barriers to widespread implementation, such social work involvement within similar home-based clinical programs is essential in the interdisciplinary care of our most needy patients.
Construction of a non-tumorigenic rat hepatocyte cell line for transplantation: reversal of hepatocyte immortalization by site-specific excision of the SV40 T antigen

Abstract Background/Aims: Hepatocytes immortalized with a temperature-sensitive SV40 large T antigen (SV40Tag) function as well as primary hepatocytes following transplantation to reverse hepatic encephalopathy and improve survival in rodents with liver failure. The continued presence of SV40Tag in the conditionally immortalized hepatocytes may increase the risk of malignant tumor growth in transplant recipients. Methods: We immortalized hepatocytes using a recombinant retrovirus containing the gene encoding SV40Tag flanked by loxP recombination target sites. Excision of SV40Tag from immortalized cells could then be accomplished by site-specific recombination with Cre-recombinase. Results: Cells immortalized with this recombinant virus expressed SV40Tag and doubled in number every 48 h. After excision of the gene encoding SV40Tag with Cre-recombinase, cells stopped growing, DNA synthesis fell by 90%, and production of liver-specific mRNAs was either increased or became newly detectable. In addition, the morphology and epithelial cell polarity of the cells became more characteristic of differentiated hepatocytes. To determine their malignant potential, immortalized hepatocytes were transfected to express a second oncogene, activated H- ras . SV40Tag + /H-ras + -immortalized cells were capable of anchorage-independent growth and developed into tumors when injected in severe combined immunodeficiency mice. While Cre-recombinase delivery by recombinant adenovirus infection was not 100% efficient, when SV40Tag excision occurred anchorage-independent growth stopped and tumor formation in immunodeficient mice was abolished. Immortalized hepatocytes also contained the gene encoding herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase and treatment with ganciclovir produced complete regression of established tumors in mice. Conclusions: These studies extend previous work that indicates that a transplantable hepatocyte cell line could be developed for clinical use.
Blind deconvolution of bar code signals

Bar code reconstruction involves recovering a clean signal from an observed one that is corrupted by convolution with a kernel and additive noise. The precise form of the convolution kernel is also unknown, making reconstruction harder than in the case of standard deblurring. On the other hand, bar codes are functions that have a very special form—this makes reconstruction feasible. We develop and analyse a total variation based variational model for the solution of this problem. This new technique models systematically the interaction of neighbouring bars in the bar code under convolution with a kernel, as well as the estimation of the unknown parameters of the kernel from global information contained in the observed signal.
Benzodiazepines and calcium channel function

Abstract Although the neuronally mediated pharmacological and therapeutic effects of benzodiazepines exerted through central sites are well defined, there is evidence for other sites of action, including peripheral sites, whose functions are less clear. A role for benzodiazepines as regulators of Ca 2+ channel activity has been suggested for both centrally and peripherally acting benzodiazepine ligands. David Rampe and David Triggle review this evidence. Although the properties of the several receptor sites indicate clearly their separate character, the benzodiazepines obviously modulate some Ca 2+ channel processes. Such observations may provide a clue to new structures active at one or more of the several classes of Ca 2+ channels or may indicate a new category of benzodiazepine interaction.
Validity of the Maslach burnout inventory for family practice physicians

This study assesses the utility of Maslach's concept of burnout for family practice physicians. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) subscale correlations for the 67 residents in this sample are compared with Maslach's normative sample. The residents scored in the moderate to high range on the MBI subscales. MBI interscale correlations were similar to the pattern reported by Maslach. Significant correlations between job satisfaction and five of the six MBI subscales suggest that the construct of burnout has considerable psychological import for these physicians. The validity of the emotional exhaustion subscale is demonstrated by significant correlations with self-assessed burnout, job satisfaction, and faculty assessments of resident burnout. Independent observers were most sensitive to residents' emotional exhaustion and less likely to assess accurately the less visible aspects of burnout related to depersonalization and lack of achievement, which suggests the usefulness of multiple measures for assessing the burnout phenomenon.
Synergistic Solvent Extraction of Alkaline Earth Cations by Mixtures of Di-n-octylphosphoric Acid and Stereoisomers of Dicyclohexano-18-crown-6

The partitioning of Ca(II), Sr(II), and Ba(II) in solvent extraction systems comprising di-n-octylphosphoric acid (HDOP) and individual stereoisomers of dicyclohexano- 18-crown-6 (DCH18C6) in tolue...
An analytical model for the interaction of focused ultrasound with biological structures

A model based analysis of the interaction of high intensity focused ultrasound with biological materials is carried out in an effort to predict the path of the sound waves and the temperature field in the focal region. A finite element based general purpose code called PZFlex is used to determine the effects of nonlinearity and geometrical complexity of biological structures. It was found that at frequencies of interest in therapeutic applications, the nonlinear effects are usually negligible and the geometrical complexities can be handled through a sub-structuring procedure. An approximate analytical method is developed as an alternative to the purely numerical approach used in PZFlex. The mechanical and thermal effects in two-layered fluid material systems induced by high-frequency focused ultrasound are calculated through this analytical method. The analytical method is shown to be computationally much more efficient than the numerical method and to yield results with acceptable accuracy for clinical applications.
On the multifractal characterization of river basins

Abstract The spatial organization and scaling properties of a number of physical variables in river basins are analyzed within the framework of the multifractal formalism using data from digital elevation maps. These variables include energy expenditure, slopes, discharges and the channel initiation function, a measure of the processes that trigger channelization in the field. The spatial distribution of these variables have multifractal properties which can be described in terms of a multifractal spectrum. The analysis of nine very different basins in the United States shows that the multifractal spectra for each of the variables are very similar across basins, revealing a common structure of organization. This structure is compared to networks generated with Scheidegger's stochastic model of river basins and the differences are discussed.
American Pediatric Society's 2009 John Howland award acceptance lecture: lessons learned from time.

I am deeply honored to receive this award. In looking over the list of previous awardees, I realized I have had the privilege to have had seven, as my mentors and teachers. Each one had an important role in my education.
The Belief Roadmap: Efficient Planning in Belief Space by Factoring the Covariance

When a mobile agent does not know its position perfectly, incorporating the predicted uncertainty of future position estimates into the planning process can lead to substantially better motion performance. However, planning in the space of probabilistic position estimates, or belief space, can incur a substantial computational cost. In this paper, we show that planning in belief space can be performed efficiently for linear Gaussian systems by using a factored form of the covariance matrix. This factored form allows several prediction and measurement steps to be combined into a single linear transfer function, leading to very efficient posterior belief prediction during planning. We give a belief-space variant of the probabilistic roadmap algorithm called the belief roadmap (BRM) and show that the BRM can compute plans substantially faster than conventional belief space planning. We conclude with performance results for an agent using ultra-wide bandwidth radio beacons to localize and show that we can efficiently generate plans that avoid failures due to loss of accurate position estimation.