cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SPECT/CT in intra-abdominal leaks. The benefits of fusion imaging

744 Learning Objectives: 1. Understand the concept of fusion imaging as it applies to single-photon emitting radiopharmaceuticals. 2. Describe and illustrate the various types of intra-abdominal leaks that occur after surgeries or interventional procedures. 3. Explain the benefits and advantages of fusion SPECT/CT imaging over conventional nuclear imaging methods. Abstract Body: Radiopharmaceuticals help demonstrate abnormalities in physiologic processes. However, conventional nuclear imaging techniques are limited by difficulty with localization of the findings. Although SPECT imaging has enhanced many nuclear medicine studies by allowing abnormalities to be appreciated in three-dimensional space, only approximations of their locations can be made. The fusion of functional images with CT has tremendously improved localization capabilities, which is very important in cases of intra-abdominal leaks following transplants, surgical procedures and interventions. Organ transplants, particularly of the liver and kidney are performed increasingly these days. Large surgical procedures are avoided and to minimize invasiveness, many cholecystectomies, partial nephrectomies, and dialysis catheter placements are performed using laparoscopic methods. In any of these procedures, leakage of contents of a particular organ can occur at the surgical sites. When the accumulation of radiotracer in an abnormal location is found in the correct clinical setting, an intra-abdominal leak is a possibility. By fusing SPECT with CT images obtained in the SPECT/CT scanner , the extent and exact location of the leak can be detected. An illustration displaying the utility of SPECT/CT in the case of an intra-abdominal leak following cholecystectomy is included.
Well-Clear Recommendation for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Based on Unmitigated Collision Risk

Unmanned aircraft systems must demonstrate a capability to sense and avoid air traffic as part of a layered conflict management system to enable safe operations in the National Airspace System. Dur...
Telepsychiatry by a Public, Academic Medical Center for Inpatient Consults at an Unaffiliated, Community Hospital

Background Telepsychiatry has the potential to help address the uneven distribution of psychiatrists between urban and rural areas. While telepsychiatry has been used for several decades, employing video conferencing technologies to conduct psychiatry consults to the medical wards of rural hospitals is a more recent application. Objective To develop the first US program wherein psychiatrists covering the consult service at a public, academic medical center also delivered same-day consults to patients on the medical wards of unaffiliated, rural hospitals. Methods We describe the rationale, workflow, technology, case distribution, benefits, and lessons learned from the first 24 months of the service. Results The program resulted in 156 initial and follow-up consults wherein patient interviews were conducted via live videoconference. An additional 19 “curbside” consults were done via hospitalist-to-psychiatrist phone calls. Though the initial impetus for the development of the program was to manage involuntarily-detained patients awaiting the availability of a psychiatric bed, the availability of the psychiatrists resulted in the service being used for a wide range of situations and diagnoses. Conclusion Given the benefits noted by consultants, patients, and community hospital medical staff, the program could be replicated by other institutions.
Energetics and the Role of Defects in Fe(II)-Catalyzed Goethite Recrystallization from Molecular Simulations

Goethite is one of the most stable and common iron(III) minerals at the Earth’s near surface. However, recent isotope tracer studies have suggested that goethite continuously recrystallizes in the presence of aqueous Fe(II) ions. Some of these studies indicate the presence of two regimes of atom-exchange kinetics, a rapid stage assigned to reactive defect sites initially available at particle surfaces, followed by slower continuous exchange. An autocatalytic solid-state electron conduction model coupling Fe(II) oxidative adsorption to its reductive release at spatially distinct sites has been proposed, but the thermodynamic driving force has yet to be pinpointed. Here, using a novel hybrid/reactive molecular simulation method, for goethite (110) surfaces at circumneutral pH, we rigorously tested whether surface free energy minimization, including examining the role of structural defects, is sufficient to overcome the activation energy for interfacial electron transfer and conduction. The simulations quant...
Two-way translation: Advancing knowledge of politics and psychology via the study of bilingual voters

Abstract The number of bilingual voters in the United States is at an all-time high. As a consequence, political candidates and interest groups often engage in persuasive communications in languages other than English; some states translate ballots measures into multiple languages, and disinformation campaigns are conducted using several languages. However, we still know very little about how this multilingual information environment affects voters’ political attitudes and behaviors. In this chapter, we make two points. First, we argue that political scientists and communication researchers can use basic insights from psychology to advance our understanding of how bilingual voters make sense of the political world. Second, studying bilingual decision making in the domain of politics can provide psychologists with important theoretical insights into how the information environment interacts with psychological processes to influence behaviors. To best illustrate our arguments, we use examples from three important domains: voting, political persuasion, and the generation and spread of political misinformation.
Single-Cell RNA-seq Identifies Cell Diversity in Embryonic Salivary Glands.

Branching organs, including the salivary and mammary glands, lung, and kidney, arise as epithelial buds that are morphologically very similar. However, the mesenchyme is known to guide epithelial m...
OCTAD: an open workplace for virtually screening therapeutics targeting precise cancer patient groups using gene expression features

One approach to precision medicine is to discover drugs that target molecularly defined diseases. Voluminous cancer patient gene expression profiles have been accumulated in public databases, enabling the creation of a cancer-specific expression signature. By matching this signature to perturbagen-induced gene expression profiles from large drug libraries, researchers can prioritize small molecules that present high potency to reverse expression of signature genes for further experimental testing of their efficacy. This approach has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective way to identify efficacious drug candidates. However, the success of this approach requires multiscale procedures, imposing significant challenges to many labs. Therefore, we present OCTAD: an open workplace for virtually screening compounds targeting precise cancer patient groups using gene expression features. We release OCTAD as a web portal and standalone R workflow to allow experimental and computational scientists to easily navigate the tool. In this work, we describe this tool and demonstrate its potential for precision medicine.
Pharmacokinetics of flucytosine in a critically ill patient on continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration.

Purpose To describe the pharmacokinetics of flucytosine in a critically ill patient undergoing continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) treated for cryptococcal meningitis. Summary A 20-year-old female weighing 93.4 kg with a body mass index of 34.3 kg/m2 with a past medical history of systemic lupus erythematous with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis (class IV) was admitted to the hospital after several months of worsening dyspnea, fatigue, myalgia, vomiting, and diarrhea. The patient developed worsening renal function and volume overload requiring CVVHDF on hospital day 7. She was diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis on hospital day 8, and flucytosine 2,500 mg enterally every 12 hours and liposomal amphotericin B 500 mg intravenously every 24 hours were initiated. Flucytosine serum concentrations were collected on day 4 of therapy, and pharmacokinetics were performed on 2 sequential levels. Pharmacokinetic calculations displayed an elimination rate constant of 0.0338 h-1, a volume of distribution between 0.42 and 0.43 L/kg, a half-life of 20.5 hours, and a total drug clearance between 1.32 and 1.36 L/h while on CVVHDF. The nonsequential levels displayed good correlation, and no further monitoring or dosage adjustment was required. The patient completed therapy, with clinical resolution of her infection, and no toxicities due to flucytosine were noted. Conclusion Flucytosine dosed at 25 mg/kg of actual body weight every 12 hours during CVVHDF conferred therapeutic levels with no appreciable toxicities. Because of its narrow therapeutic index and risk of toxicity, additional pharmacokinetic studies are needed to determine optimal drug dosing of this medication in patients requiring renal replacement therapy.
Adrenocortical tumors in children

Adrenocortical neoplasms are rare in childhood. Unlike their adult counterparts, they are often hormonally active and malignant. Despite being uncommon, adrenocortical neoplasms in children have significant associated morbidity and require complete surgical resection for effective management. Furthermore, the clinical overlap between adrenocortical neoplasms, adrenal medullary neoplasms, and functional disorders of the adrenal cortex requires that the practicing pediatric surgeon have a solid working knowledge of the presentation, diagnostic workup, and management of these anatomically related yet disparate pathologies.
Determining the Indoor Location of an Emergency Caller in a Multi-story Building

A method to determine the indoor location of a caller who uses a smartphone to call for emergency assistance in a multi-story building is described. The system uses the signals broadcast by an array of BlueTooth Low Energy iBeacons deployed in the building as input to a trilateration calculation. The method described could be applied to RF emitters other than BlueTooth, including WiFi access points. The results of experiments conducted in a live classroom building in which the iBeacons are deployed demonstrate 100% accurate floor identification and mean distance accuracies within 5 meters. The solution’s multistory accuracy and its low cost in terms of money, data collection effort, and simplicity of the calculations demonstrate this as a reasonable solution to the problem of locating emergency callers in multistory buildings.
Cluster abundance normalization from observed mass-temperature relation

Abundance of rich clusters in local universe is currently believed to provide the most robust normalization of power spectrum at a scale of 10 Mpc. This normalization depends very sensitively on the calibration between virial mass M and temperature T, which is usually taken from simulations. Uncertainties in the modelling, such as gas cooling and heating, can lead to a factor of two variations in the normalization and are thus not very reliable. Here we use instead an empirical M_{500}-T relation derived from X-ray mass determinations to calibrate the method. We use results from dark matter simulations to relate the virial mass function to the mass function at observed M_{500}. We find that the best fitted value in flat models is sigma_8=(0.7 \pm 0.06) (\Omega_m/0.35)^{-0.44}(\Gamma/0.2)^{0.08}, where only the statistical error is quoted. This is significantly lower than previously obtained values from the local cluster abundance. This lower value for sigma_8 is in a better agreement with cosmic microwave background and large scale structure constraints and helps alleviate small scale problems of CDM models. Presently the systematic uncertainties in the mass determination are still large, but ultimately this method should provide a more reliable way to normalize the M-T relation. This can be achieved by obtaining a larger sample of well measured cluster masses out to a significant fraction of virial radius with BeppoSAX, Chandra and XMM-Newton.
Characteristics and outcomes of Hispanic/Latinx patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) requiring hospitalization in Rhode Island: a retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Explore potential racial/ethnic differences, describe general clinical characteristic, and severe outcomes (intensive care unit [ICU] admission, mechanical ventilation [intubation], and death) between Hispanic/Latinx (hereafter: Hispanics or Latinx community) and non-Hispanic patients hospitalized with COVID-19. METHODS: Retrospective cohort of 326 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 through April 19, 2020. Sociodemographic and hospital course data were collected and analyzed. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was implemented to examine associations. RESULTS: Compared with non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), Hispanics were younger (53 years, median age) and had higher rates of Medicaid and less commercial/HMO/PPO coverage (P < .001). Similarly, in the age sub-grouped multivariate analysis for outcomes, Hispanics ≥65-year-old were 2.66 times more likely to be admitted to ICU (95% CI: 1.07-6.61; P = .03), and 3.67 times more likely to get intubated (95% CI: 1.29-10.36; P = .01). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized Hispanic patients of ≥65-year-old with COVID-19 were more likely to have higher risk of more severe outcomes (ICU admission and intubation) compared with NHW. Hispanic patient's social determinants of health and underlying medical conditions may explain the heightened risk for severe outcomes. Further studies are necessary to more accurately identify and address health disparities in Hispanics and other vulnerable populations amidst COVID-19 and future pandemics.
Changes in unhealthy exercise in outpatient eating disorder treatment: examining emotion avoidance mechanisms.

Unhealthy exercise (UE) is a common symptom of eating disorders (EDs) associated with elevated chronicity and relapse. Previous research suggests that UE serves an emotion regulation function, especially to reduce negative affect. UE may be especially prevalent among individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN), as UE and restrictive eating may be used to avoid unpleasant emotions. It is unclear whether changes in emotion avoidance (EA) can lead to changes in UE over time. The current study examined whether month 1 EA mediated the relation between baseline UE and month 2 UE in a clinical sample of 127 patients (Mage = 22.52 [SD = 11.75], 92.9% female) recruited from an ED outpatient treatment program. The current study also explored whether this mediation was stronger for individuals with AN than other ED diagnoses. Findings revealed that changes in EA significantly mediated the relation between changes in UE from baseline to month 2 of treatment. ED diagnosis did not moderate this relation. Findings suggest that improvements in EA may reduce UE over time. Treatment should target UE through cultivation of increased emotion acceptance. Level of evidence Level III: evidence obtained from well-designed cohort study.
Abstract 23: Neuroimaging and Echocardiographic Predictors of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation on Outpatient Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry in Cryptogenic Ischemic Stroke and TIA Patients

Background: The objective of our study was to identify factors on MRI neuroimaging and echocardiography as part of routine workup of patients with cryptogenic ischemic stroke (IS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) to identify those patients who are likely to have paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) as detected by subsequent outpatient mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry (MCOT). Methods: All cryptogenic IS or TIA patients seen at Emory University Hospital and The Emory Clinic from 2009-2013 and who underwent outpatient MCOT were included in this analysis.Using logistic regression, we analyzed the association between lesions seen on MRI FLAIR sequences with PAF and categorized them as the following: Cortical lesions (CL), defined as T2-hyperintense cortical-based infarcts; high subcortical (HS) T2-hyperintense lesions, defined as <5mm beneath the cortex without any cortical involvement, or none. Left atrium (LA) functional and dimensional echocardiographic parameters were evaluated to determine their asso...
Mutant Strains of Rhodopseudomonas spheroides Lacking δ-Aminolevulinate Synthase: Growth, Heme, and Bacteriochlorophyll Synthesis

Two mutant strains of Rhodopseudomonas spheroides were described which lacked δ-aminolevulinate synthase activity. They required δ-aminolevulinate for growth; they did not respond to protoporphyrin or magnesium photoporphyrin, and only poorly to hemin. Synthesis of cytochromes and heme by mutant H-4 was dependent upon δ-aminolevulinate; this strain did not form bacteriochlorophyll either with or without δ-aminolevulinate and, consequently, grew only under aerobic conditions. Mutant H-5 formed bacteriochlorophyll in response to δ-aminolevulinate and grew both anaerobically in the light and aerobically in the dark; the amount of δ-aminolevulinate needed for optimal anaerobic growth was higher than that required aerobically. Synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll and heme by suspensions of mutant H-5 incubated anaerobically in the light was dependent upon δ-aminolevulinate; bacteriochlorophyll production was completely inhibited by high aeration and by puromycin. The mutants differed in their ability to take up radioactive δ-aminolevulinate from the external environment; mutant H-5 was less active than mutant H-4 or the wild type. It was suggested that R. spheroides made only one form of δ-aminolevulinate synthase, which provided δ-aminolevulinate for bacteriochlorophyll and heme synthesis.
Trajectory Generation on Rough Terrain Considering Actuator Dynamics

Trajectory generation has traditionally been formulated on the assumption that the environment is flat. On rough terrain, however, deviations of the angular velocity vector from the vertical lead to errors which accumulate in a manner similar to the accumulation of attitude errors in odometry. In practice, feedback control can compensate for these errors in modeling by adjusting the path in real time. In many realistic cases, however, the 3D shape of the terrain is known beforehand, so it is possible to incorporate terrain shape into the predictive model — rather than treat it as an unknown disturbance. This paper presents an algorithm for trajectory generation which compensates for terrain shape in a predictive fashion. The numerical implementation makes it adaptable readily to a broad class of vehicles and even a broad class of predictable disturbances beyond terrain shape. In support of the latter, we demonstrate the ability to invert models of actuator dynamics and wheel slip concurrently with 3D terrain. An example application for a the Rocky 7 Mars rover platform is presented.
GeoParsing Web Queries

In this paper we present preliminary results for a pattern-based approach to parse web-based queries. The approach is designed to identify and categorize queries that include a geographical reference. Due to the ungrammaticality, multilinguality and ambiguity of the language in the 800,000 web-based queries in the collection, we started by building a list of all the different words in the queries, similar to creating an index. Next, a lookup of the words was done in a list of countries to identify potential locations. Because many locations were missed, we further analyzed the queries looking for spatial prepositions and syntactic cues. Queries were processed by combining search in gazetteers with a set of patterns. Categorization was also based on patterns. Results were low in terms of recall and precision mainly because the set of patterns is incomplete. Further statistical analysis and application of machine learning techniques is likely to improve performance. Error analysis of the results is discussed in detail.
Novel secA alleles improve export of maltose-binding protein synthesized with a defective signal peptide.

Mutations previously designated prlD were described that suppressed malE signal sequence mutations and were located in the vicinity of the secA gene on the Escherichia coli chromosome. In this study, we demonstrated that four such independently isolated prlD mutations represented three unique single-base substitutions in secA, resulting in alterations at residues 111, 373, and 488 of the 901-residue SecA protein. Heretofore, the only mutations that had been described for secA were located early in the gene and resulted in a general protein export defect. Insertion mutations in the cloned gene X-secA operon that reduced or eliminated suppression by a prlD mutation also have been obtained. The properties of these suppressor and insertion mutations provide some insight into the role of SecA in the protein export process. Images
Using limited time period trends as a means to determine attribution of discrepancies in microwave sounding unit–derived tropospheric temperature time series

[1] Limited time period running trends are created from various microwave sounding unit (MSU) difference time series between the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Remote Sensing System (RSS) group's lower troposphere (LT) and mid troposphere to lower stratosphere channels. This is accomplished in an effort to determine the causes of the greatest discrepancies between the two data sets. Results indicate the greatest discrepancies were over time periods where NOAA 11 through NOAA 15 adjustments were applied to the raw LT data over land. Discrepancies in the LT channel are shown to be dominated by differences in diurnal correction methods due to orbital drift; however, discrepancies from target parameter differences are also present. Comparison of MSU data with the reduced Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate radiosonde data set indicates that RSS's method (use of climate model) of determining diurnal effects is likely overestimating the correction in the LT channel. Diurnal correction signatures still exist in the RSS LT time series and are likely affecting the long-term trend with a warm bias. Our findings enhance the importance of understanding temporal changes in the atmospheric temperature trend profile and their implications on current climate studies.
Spatial regulation of a common precursor from two distinct genes generates metabolite diversity

In secondary metabolite biosynthesis, core synthetic genes such as polyketide synthase genes usually encode proteins that generate various backbone precursors. These precursors are modified by other tailoring enzymes to yield a large variety of different secondary metabolites. The number of core synthesis genes in a given species correlates, therefore, with the number of types of secondary metabolites the organism can produce. In our study, heterologous expression of all the A. terreus NRPS-like genes showed that two NRPS-like proteins, encoded by atmelA and apvA, release the same natural product, aspulvinone E. In hyphae this compound is converted to aspulvinones whereas in conidia it is converted to melanin. The genes are expressed in different tissues and this spatial control is probably regulated by their own specific promoters. Comparative genomics indicates that atmelA and apvA might share a same ancestral gene and the gene apvA is located in a highly conserved region in Aspergillus species that contains genes coding for life-essential proteins. Our data reveal the first case in secondary metabolite biosynthesis in which the tissue specific production of a single compound directs it into two separate pathways, producing distinct compounds with different functions. Our data also reveal that a single trans-prenyltransferase, AbpB, prenylates two substrates, aspulvinones and butyrolactones, revealing that genes outside of contiguous secondary metabolism gene clusters can modify more than one compound thereby expanding metabolite diversity. Our study raises the possibility of incorporation of spatial, cell-type specificity in expression of secondary metabolites of biological interest and provides new insight into designing and reconstituting their biosynthetic pathways.
Quantum model for gas-solid energy transfer: Role of phonon polarization and propagation direction

A quantum mechanical treatment of inelastic scattering of inert gases from a silver (111) surface using the close-coupling approach is presented. Relative contributions to the energy transfer process from phonons traveling in different directions and having different polarization are assessed. The results suggest that, under the conditions used in the study, longitudinal phonons traveling in a direction perpendicular to the surface make the largest contribution to energy transfer.
PASA: Passive broadcast for smartphone ad-hoc networks

Smartphones have become more and more popular in the past few years. Motivated by the fact that location plays an extremely important role in mobile applications, this paper develops an efficient local message dissemination system PASA based on a new communication model called passive broadcast. It is based on the method of overloading device names described in MDSRoB [14] and Bluejacking [23]. In this new model, each node does not maintain connection state and data delivery is initialized by a receiver via a ‘scan’ operation. The representative carriers of passive broadcast include Bluetooth and WiFi-Direct, both of which define a mandatary ‘peer discovery’ scan function. Passive broadcast features negligible cost for establishing and maintaining direct links and is extremely suitable for short message dissemination in the proximity. In this paper, we present PASA with complete protocols and in-depth analysis for optimization. We have prototyped our solution on commercial phones and evaluated it with comprehensive experiments and simulation.
Oxygen uptake by big sagebrush litter under four temperature-moisture regimes

Abstract O 2 consumption by various ages of big sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) litter was measured in the laboratory under different temperature-moisture regimes. Age, temperature, and moisture were significantly correlated with rates of O 2 uptake. Temperature was more influential; age compensated for moisture at higher temperatures. Old leaf-litter had a higher rate of O 2 uptake than young litter. Simple linear regression models fit the observed data and correspond to field results.
Efficient Hardware Architecture for Sparse Coding

Sparse coding encodes natural stimuli using a small number of basis functions known as receptive fields. In this work, we design custom hardware architectures for efficient and high-performance implementations of a sparse coding algorithm called the sparse and independent local network (SAILnet). A study of the neuron spiking dynamics uncovers important design considerations involving the neural network size, target firing rate, and neuron update step size. Optimal tuning of these parameters keeps the neuron spikes sparse and random to achieve the best image fidelity. We investigate practical hardware architectures for SAILnet: a bus architecture that provides efficient neuron communications, but results in spike collisions; and a ring architecture that is more scalable, but causes neuron misfires. We show that the spike collision rate is reduced with a sparse spiking neural network, so an arbitration-free bus architecture can be designed to tolerate collisions without the need of arbitration. To reduce neuron misfires, we design a latent ring architecture to damp the neuron responses for an improved image fidelity. The bus and the ring architecture can be combined in a hybrid architecture to achieve both high throughput and scalability. The three architectures are synthesized and place-and-routed in a 65 nm CMOS technology. The proof-of-concept designs demonstrate a high sparse coding throughput up to 952 M pixels per second at an energy consumption of 0.486 nJ per pixel.
A simple method of computing the sample size for Chi-square test for the equality of multinomial distributions

Computing the appropriate sample size is one of the most important aspects of designing an experiment. For the Chi-square test of the equality of multinomial populations a very simple method is proposed for calculating the sample size to satisfy specified significance level and power. This method is especially understandable and does not require software nor the non-central Chi-square tables. Simulations are used to verify the accuracy of the new method.
On the difficulty of finding the nearest peer in p2p systems

Finding the nearest peer, in terms of latency, is an important problem in many Internet applications. In this paper, we argue that existing solutions, which only examine inter-peer latencies as part of their operation will find it costly, in certain commonly occurring scenarios, to discover the nearest peer in P2P systems. The difficulty arises out of the way the PoP access networks are laid out in the Internet, where a single PoP (point of presence) belonging to an ISP provides connectivity to numerous client networks. This setup makes a group of peers all appear roughly the same distance from each other, leading to inefficiencies in the existing solutions. In this paper, we use large-scale measurements to show that the problematic topology does occur, use simulations of the Meridian closest-server algorithm to show that the condition does indeed lead to difficulty in finding the exact-closest peer, and propose solutions.
InGaAsP-InP nanoscale waveguide-coupled microring lasers with submilliampere threshold current using Cl/sub 2/--N/sub 2/-based high-density plasma etching

We demonstrate InGaAsP-InP nanoscale waveguide-coupled microring lasers fabricated with inductively coupled plasma (ICP) using Cl/sub 2/--N/sub 2/-based gas mixtures. To fabricate optical waveguides, the requirement of anisotropic profiles and sidewall smoothness is stringent. In particular, for strongly lateral confined nanoscale waveguides used for microring resonators, the degree of anisotropy and sidewall smoothness is critical in determining the device performance. For optoelectronic devices such as microcylinder and microring lasers, the requirement of low active-layer damage further adds to the stringency. We show that the excellent etching property of high-density plasma using Cl/sub 2/--N/sub 2/-based gas mixtures satisfies the requirements. The good etching results are demonstrated by using the etching method to realize room-temperature operations of the InGaAsP-InP waveguide-coupled microring lasers. For the waveguide-coupled microring lasers with a diameter of 10 /spl mu/m, we obtained submilliampere threshold current.
Programmed hepatic lipid dysregulation is independent of obesity

GYU YEON CHOI, AMBICA GARG, ROY Z. MANSANO, MICHAEL ROSS, MINA DESAI, Harbor-UCLA Med. Ctr. (LA BioMed), Dept. of Ob/Gyn, Torrance, California OBJECTIVE: Epidemiologic studies demonstrate that IUGR newborns are at increased risk of adult metabolic syndrome. It is unknown whether the associated hyperlipidemia is a direct result of obesity or is secondary to programmed metabolic abnormalities. As lipid homeostasis is regulated primarily by the liver, we hypothesized that hepatic structure and lipid content of IUGR offspring would reflect a primary lipid dysfunction. STUDY DESIGN: From day 10 to term gestation, control pregnant rats received ad libitum diet (n=6), whereas study rats were 25% food-restricted (FR; n=6). Following delivery, all dams received ad libitum diet throughout lactation. At birth, litter size was culled to 8 offspring. At 21 days of age, pups were sacrificed and liver from 1 male and 1 female per litter was weighed. Liver lobule size was determined in formalin fixed 5mm section using histomorphometric analysis. Liver triglyceride and cholesterol content were determined enzymatically. RESULTS: At 1d of age, pups from FR dams had lower mean (GSEM) body weight (6.3G0.1 vs 7.1G0.2 g, p!0.01) with increased relative liver weight (4.6G0.1 vs 4.2G0.1 g/100gBW, p!0.01). At 21d of age, FR offspring had body and liver weights comparable to the controls. Despite this, FR males and females had significantly reduced hepatic lobule size as compared to controls (289G4 vs 303G4 mm, p!0.05) and significantly increased hepatic triglyceride (7.1G0.7 vs 4.6G0.5 mg/g liver, p!0.02). FR males, though not females, exhibited significantly increased hepatic cholesterol (4.2G0.3 vs 2.5G0.7 mg/g liver, p!0.01). CONCLUSION: Exposure to 25% maternal FR during pregnancy results in IUGR offspring with smaller hepatic lobule size, elevated triglyceride content and gender specific increased cholesterol content independent of obesity. These results suggest that developmental programming occurs during the gestational period, resulting in sex dependent altered lipid metabolism and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Comparative phylogeography reveals deep lineages and regional evolutionary hotspots in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts

Aim We explored lineage diversification within desert-dwelling fauna. Our goals were (1) to determine whether phylogenetic lineages and population expansions were consistent with younger Pleistocene climate fluctuation hypotheses or much older events predicted by pre-Pleistocene vicariance hypotheses, (2) to assess concordance in spatial patterns of genetic divergence and diversity among species and (3) to identify regional evolutionary hotspots of divergence and diversity and assess their conservation status. Location Mojave, Colorado, and Sonoran Deserts, USA. Methods We analysed previously published gene sequence data for twelve species. We used Bayesian gene tree methods to estimate lineages and divergence times. Within each lineage, we tested for population expansion and age of expansion using coalescent approaches. We mapped interpopulation genetic divergence and intra-population genetic diversity in a GIS to identify hotspots of highest genetic divergence and diversity and to assess whether protected lands overlapped with evolutionary hotspots. Results In seven of the 12 species, lineage divergence substantially predated the Pleistocene. Historical population expansion was found in eight species, but expansion events postdated the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in only four. For all species assessed, six hotspots of high genetic divergence and diversity were concentrated in the Colorado Desert, along the Colorado River and in the Mojave/Sonoran ecotone. At least some proportion of the land within each recovered hotspot was categorized as protected, yet four of the six also overlapped with major areas of human development. Main conclusions Most of the species studied here diversified into distinct Mojave and Sonoran lineages prior to the LGM – supporting older diversification hypotheses. Several evolutionary hotspots were recovered but are not strategically paired with areas of protected land. Long-term preservation of species-level biodiversity would entail selecting areas for protection in Mojave and Sonoran Deserts to retain divergent genetic diversity and ensure connectedness across environmental gradients.
How people anthropomorphize robots

We explored anthropomorphism in people's reactions to a robot in social context vs. their more considered judgments of robots in the abstract. Participants saw a photo and read transcripts from a health interview by a robot or human interviewer. For half of the participants, the interviewer was polite and for the other half, the interviewer was impolite. Participants then summarized the interactions in their own words and responded true or false to adjectives describing the interviewer. They later completed a post-task survey about whether a robot interviewer would possess moods, attitudes, and feelings. The results showed substantial anthropomorphism in participants' interview summaries and true-false responses, but minimal anthropomorphism in the abstract robot survey. Those who interacted with the robot interviewer tended to anthropomorphize more in the post-task survey, suggesting that as people interact more with robots, their abstract conceptions of them will become more anthropomorphic.
Investigation of two-time correlations in photon emissions from a single atom

Two-time correlations in the emissions of photons by a single atom of sodium in the presence of a coherent exciting field near resonance have been investigated. In the experiment sodium atoms in an atomic beam are excited by a perpendicular light beam from a tunable dye laser, and they are prepared by optical pumping to behave as two-level quantum systems. The fluorescent light is collected by a microscope objective in a direction that is approximately orthogonal to both beams and imaged on two photomultipliers. Photoelectric pulse correlations are measured in the presence of exciting fields of various strengths and for various detunings from the atomic resonance, and are found to exhibit significant nonclassical features. The results show clearly that the emitted photons exhibit antibunching, in good quantitative agreement with the predictions of quantum electrodynamics.
The effect of piperacillin dose on elimination kinetics in renal impairment

The effect of drug dose on piperacillin elimination kinetics was examined in 27 adult subjects with varying renal function. Piperacillin, 15 mg/kg or 60 mg/kg, was given by bolus intravenous injection. The elimination half-life (t1/2) increased five-fold and plasma clearance (Clp) decreased by 80% in patients with renal failure. Both parameters were dose dependent in patients with normal renal function, but not in patients with renal insufficiency. Piperacillin dose dependent elimination is due primarily to capacity limited renal excretion.
The Complement Fixation Test (Gay's Modification of the Besredka Method) in the Differentiation of Acidfast Bacilli

The great difficulty of substantiating any culture or culturetype obtained from the leprous nodule as the Hansen bacillus has necessitated the employment of the various tests and procedures in an endeavor to find a means to serve this purpose. Among these many efforts were included various serological methods. About 5,000 agglutination tests, utilizing the sera from 20 different cases of human leprosy and the sera of rabbits injected intravenously and subcutaneously with different acidfast bacilli, were performed. As the organisms used formed the more or less representative members of the acidfast group of both the saprophytic and pathogenic varieties, these studies apply to a large extent to this species. The cultures employed were the avian type of B. tuberculosis, the organisms considered as B. lepra by Kedrowski, Levy, Clegg, Karlinski, Duval, and the butter bacillus of Rabinowitsch, grass, dung, and the Smegma bacilli of Moeller; Korn L, B. Phlei and Grassburger's milk bacillus. The sera of these animals were also employed for the Bordet-Gengou reaction using most of the above enumerated organisms as antigens for homologous and cross-reactions. The results of these tests indicated that they were of little value, serving only as a part aid in differentiating certain groups but not affording reactions sufficiently clear-cut to serve for the identification of any culture as B. lepra. The fact that the serum tests were of no avail in the human cases when employing any of the various so-called lepra cultures did not, however, invalidate any of these strains as the Hansen bacillus, since bacillary suspensions prepared directly from the tissue nodules rich in bacilli
Teratogenesis of Dextromethorphan in the Avian Embryo

Author's Reply: Thank you for the opportunity to address the letters from Drs. Polifka and Shepard and Dr. Brent. My responses to the issues are summarized below.
Does phonon scattering give high-resolution images?

Abstract Electron interaction with atoms in a solid, creating or destroying phonons, gives rise to more scattering at higher angles than does purely elastic scattering. It would seem that atoms would appear smaller in real space, and images generated from phonon-scattered electrons would show sharper contrast. The theory for the distribution of phonon scattering in diffraction patterns has been extended to describe high-resolution imaging. It is shown that if it were possible to form an image involving only one phonon of a given wave vector, then a sharper contrast image could be formed. As the phonon scattering distribution is peaked away from the origin of reciprocal space strong “half-period” fringes would be observed. Summing over all possible phonon scattering accepted by the objective aperture severely attenuates any sharper contrast features. Calculations show that the degree of attenuation is strongly dependent on the phonon dispersion relation and is particularly significant for a constant frequency, Einstein, phonon dispersion.
Horatio Alger and the GED (General Education Development) Diploma: Narratives of success in adult literacy education

This article presents a qualitative analysis of stories of successful students told in adult literacy education. These stories follow a similar narrative, beginning with a protagonist who must overcome life obstacles, makes a conscious decision to change her life, rejects dependency, is of high moral character, remains optimistic despite challenges, and who ultimately succeeds through determination, perseverance, and hard work. After presenting these stories I argue that they are the latest manifestation of a genre of stories told for centuries in the United States and that comprise what many have called the ‘American Myth of Success’. This myth, which has its roots in seventeenth-century Puritanism, states that every person, as a result of hard work and effort, can create the life they want for themselves. While these myths might provide hope for some adult literacy learners and teachers, I conclude that unquestioningly telling these success stories help to perpetuate the assumptions of this myth of success, and results in blaming adult learners for their own failure while ignoring social and structural factors that impede success.
Device-circuit optimization for minimal energy and power consumption in CMOS random logic networks

We demonstrate a new approach minimizing the total ofthe static and the dynamic power dissipation components in aCMOS logic network required to operate at a specified clockfrequency using joint optimization of both device and circuitdesigns for a specific logic schematic and activity profile.We present a new approach to designing ultra low-powerCMOS logic circuits by joint optimization of supply voltage,threshold voltage and device widths for a specified speedconstraints.The static (leakage) and dynamic (switching)energy components are considered and an efficient heuristicis developed that delivers over an order of magnitude savingsin power over conventional optimization methods.
Testing the accuracy of new methods for reconstructing historical structure of forest landscapes using GLO survey data

The accuracy of methods for reconstructing parameters (e.g., tree density) of historical forest structure from General Land Office (GLO) survey data has not been thoroughly assessed. Past simulation and statistical assessments of plotless density estimators have focused on minimizing estimation error, but not congruent with the specific data available in the GLO surveys. Most GLO reconstruction studies do not reconstruct absolute measures of density, basal area, or diameter-class distributions, key measures used for forest restoration. We tested the accuracy of a suite of plotless density estimators and other survey methods to accurately reconstruct forest attributes using both a field-based modern calibration and a cross-validation with tree-ring reconstructions. In addition to the common distance estimators, we developed several Voronoi-based plotless density estimators that can be used with GLO data. Estimators were assessed using modern survey and plot data collected in the same location and spatial arrangement as the original survey locations in three geographically distinct areas. Results showed that Voronoi-based density estimators were superior to distance-based estimators. Data need to be pooled across locations. Voronoi estimators yielded more accurate measures of density and basal area and can be used at smaller pooling levels without sacrificing much accuracy. At spatial extents of 260 and 520 ha (3- and 6-corner pools), relative mean absolute error (RMAE) averaged 29% and 22%, respectively, for density estimates in all three study areas. To estimate basal area as accurately (i.e., 23%), data must be pooled to 780 ha (9-corner pool). Composition and diameter-class distributions also required larger pooling areas to achieve accurate results. In the cross-validation, accuracy of density and basal area were both superior to accuracy in the modern calibration, and RMAE for density and basal area at all pooling levels averaged 16.6% and 15.7%, respectively. Composition and diameter-class distribution estimates were lower in accuracy. Voronoi-based methods can accurately estimate historical forest parameters across large landscapes and are accurate at finer scales (e.g., 260 ha, 3-corner pool) than previously thought possible. GLO reconstructions complement tree-ring reconstructions but can provide more spatially comprehensive estimates of the historical range of forest variability, facilitating landscape-level restoration.
Neighborhood density and reproductive potential in harvester ants

When neighbors compete for resources, the characteristics of a neighborhood may affect fitness. We examined the relationship between reproductive success and the density and size/age characteristics of neighbors in a population of the seed-eating ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, in which the ages of all colonies were known. Reproductive success was estimated by trapping and counting the number of alate, reproductive ants emerging from the nest for the annual mating flight. Alate production was negatively related to neighborhood density. Decreased production of alates by more crowded colonies may be due to competition for food with surrounding colonies. Neighbor size/age was unrelated to alate production. If alate production is correlated with lifetime reproductive success, these results suggest that selection favors colonies that monopolize more space, whatever the size of neighboring colonies.
A new Monte Carlo method for estimating free energy and chemical potential

A new Monte Carlo method of computing the free energy difference between two systems is presented. A universally usable optimal formula of the non-Boltzmann sampling is derived on a theoretical basis. The new technique is designed to sample both ensembles of interest at one simulation. Applications to the free energy difference between two different simple fluids and to the chemical potential of a Lennard-Jones fluid show that the new method is economical as well as reliable. The method can be extended to sampling several ensembles at a time.