cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Role of Growth Arrest and DNA Damage–inducible α in Akt Phosphorylation and Ubiquitination after Mechanical Stress-induced Vascular Injury

Rationale: The stress-induced growth arrest and DNA damage–inducible α (GADD45a) gene is up-regulated by mechanical stress with GADD45a knockout (GADD45a−/−) mice demonstrating both increased susceptibility to ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) and reduced levels of the cell survival and vascular permeability signaling effector (Akt). However, the functional role of GADD45a in the pathogenesis of VILI is unknown. Objectives: We sought to define the role of GADD45a in the regulation of Akt activation induced by mechanical stress. Methods: VILI-challenged GADD45a−/− mice were administered a constitutively active Akt1 vector and injury was assessed by bronchoalveolar lavage cell counts and protein levels. Human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (EC) were exposed to 18% cyclic stretch (CS) under conditions of GADD45a silencing and used for immunoprecipitation, Western blotting or immunofluoresence. EC were also transfected with mutant ubiquitin vectors to characterize site-specific Akt ubiquitination. DNA methylation was measured using methyl-specific polymerase chain reaction assay. Measurements and Main Results: Studies exploring the linkage of GADD45a with mechanical stress and Akt regulation revealed VILI-challenged GADD45a−/− mice to have significantly reduced lung injury on overexpression of Akt1 transgene. Increased mechanical stress with 18% CS in EC induced Akt phosphorylation via E3 ligase tumor necrosis factor receptor–associated factor 6 (TRAF6)–mediated Akt K63 ubiquitination resulting in Akt trafficking and activation at the membrane. GADD45a is essential to this process because GADD45a-silenced endothelial cells and GADD45a−/− mice exhibited increased Akt K48 ubiquitination leading to proteasomal degradation. These events involve loss of ubiquitin carboxyl terminal hydrolase 1 (UCHL1), a deubiquitinating enzyme that normally removes K48 polyubiquitin chains bound to Akt thus promoting Akt K63 ubiquitination. Loss of GADD45a significantly reduces UCHL1 expression via UCHL1 promoter methylation resulting in increased Akt K48 ubiquitination and reduced Akt levels. Conclusions: These studies highlight a novel role for GADD45a in the regulation of site-specific Akt ubiquitination and activation and implicate a significant functional role for GADD45a in the clinical predisposition to VILI.
Effects of varying machine stiffness and contact area in ultraform finishing

UltraForm Finishing (UFF) is a deterministic, subaperture, computer numerically controlled, grinding and polishing platform designed by OptiPro Systems. UFF is used to grind and polish a variety optics from simple spherical to fully freeform, and numerous materials from glasses to optical ceramics. The UFF system consists of an abrasive belt around a compliant wheel that rotates and contacts the part to remove material. This work aims to measure the stiffness variations in the system and how it can affect material removal rates. The stiffness of the entire system is evaluated using a triaxial load cell to measure forces and a capacitance sensor to measure deviations in height. Because the wheel is conformal and elastic, the shapes of contact areas are also of interest. For the scope of this work, the shape of the contact area is estimated via removal spot. The measured forces and removal spot area are directly related to material removal rate through Preston’s equation. Using our current testing apparatus, we will demonstrate stiffness measurements and contact areas for a single UFF belt during different states of its lifecycle and assess the material removal function from spot diagrams as a function of wear. This investigation will ultimately allow us to make better estimates of Preston’s coefficient and develop spot-morphing models in an effort to more accurately predict instantaneous material removal functions throughout the lifetime of a belt.
Civil engineering airman at increased risk for injuries and injury-related musculoskeletal disorders.

BACKGROUND: With the advent of electronic records, the opportunity to conduct research on workplace-related injuries and musculoskeletal disorders has increased dramatically. The purpose of this study was to examine the United States Air Force Civil Engineering career field to determine if they are negatively impacted by their work environment. Specifically, the objective of this study was to determine if enlisted Civil Engineering Airmen (n = 25,385) were at increased risk for injury or injury-related musculoskeletal disorders compared to enlisted Information Management/Communications Airmen (n = 28,947). METHODS: Using an historical prospective design, electronic data were assembled and analyzed using Cox's proportional hazards modeling. Models were stratified by gender and adjusted for race/ethnicity, marital status, birth year, and deployment status. RESULTS: Male Civil Engineers were observed to be at greater risk for both inpatient injury-related musculoskeletal disorders (HR = 1.86; 95% CI = 1.54-2.26) and injuries (HR = 1.77; 95% CI = 1.48-2.11), while female Civil Engineers were more than double the risk for both inpatient injury-related musculoskeletal disorders (HR = 2.18; 95% CI = 1.28-3.73) and injuries (HR = 2.22; 95% CI = 1.27-3.88) compared to Information Management/Communications Airmen. CONCLUSIONS: Although analyses do not allow exploration of specific causes, they highlight the utility of using electronic data to identify occupations for further evaluation. Based on these results, additional resources were allocated to survey Civil Engineers on their physical work demands and job requirements to identify key problem areas for further study and mitigation. Am. J. Ind. Med. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Language: en
The projection argument in Galileo and Copernicus: Rhetorical strategy in the defence of the new system

Summary The anti-Copernican argument that the diurnal rotation of the earth would have catastrophic centrifugal effects on terrestrial objects has a curious history. Copernicus, who falsely ascribes it to Ptolemy, seems to have introduced it in De Revolutionibus as a foil for his own arguments, to create a rhetorically favourable context of discussion. Galileo, who tried to deal with the complexities of the argument (as Copernicus had not), managed to produce a rejoinder perhaps unequalled in scientific literature, a reasonably complex geometrical argument with rhetorical appeal to the literate mass audience. It is also fallacious, as (I argue) Galileo very probably knew. Various specific points are made concerning Galileo's rhetorical strategy. I also explain why Galileo (unlike contemporary commentators with Newtonian biases) would not have thought his conclusion is open to simple counterexample.
The Gelfand-Levitan Theory Revisited

Gelfand and Levitan in their celebrated article in 1951, and later Gasymov and Levitan in 1964 have shown that a monotone increasing function is a spectral function of a singular Sturm-Liouville problem on a half-line in the limit point case at infinity if and only if it satisfies an existence and a smoothness condition. In this article, a closer look at the original statement reveals that the existence condition in fact follows from the smoothness condition which simplifies significantly the statement of the Gelfand-Levitan theory. We also provide two sufficient and verifiable conditions for a nondecreasing function to be the spectral function of a singular Sturm Liouville operator.
Studies of Chloroplast Development in Euglena. 4. Electron and Fluorescence Microscopy of the Proplastid and its Development into a Mature Chloroplast.

Electron and fluorescence microscopy reveal a proplastid about 1 μ in diameter in dark-grown Euglena gracilis quite like those in higher plants. After the cells are placed in the light these structures lengthen, probably in part by coalescence of several proplastids. Full size is reached in some cells after about one day in light. Lamellae, growing as blebs off the inner proplastid membrane, develop in a roughly linear fashion with time, art average of one new lamella appearing after each 6 hours in the light. The maturation of the proplastid thus appears to differ appreciably from that in higher plants since the latter presumably create several lamellae simultaneously, and these appear able to replicate themselves in a geometrically parallel fashion. The question is raised whether the apparent differences in development may not be due to lesser discrimination in observing the sequence in the higher plants, for there are no observations necessarily inconsistent with the sequence found in Euglena.
Tagging over time: real-world image annotation by lightweight meta-learning

Automatic image annotation has been a hot-pursuit among multimedia researchers of late. Modest performance guarantees and limited adaptability often restrict its applicability to real-world settings. We propose tagging over time (T/T) to push the technology toward real-world applicability. Of particular interest are online systems that receive user-provided images and feedback over time, with user focus possibly changing and evolving. The T/T framework consists of a principled probabilistic approach to meta-learning, which acts as a go-between for a 'black-box' annotation system and the users. Inspired by inductive transfer, the approach attempts to harness available information, including the black-box model's performance, the image representations, and the WordNet ontology. Being computationally 'lightweight', this meta-learner efficiently re-trains over time, to improve and/or adapt to changes. The black-box annotation model is not required to be re-trained, allowing computationally intensive algorithms to be used. We experiment with standard image datasets and real-world data streams, using two existing annotation systems as black-boxes. Both batch and online annotation settings are experimented with. It is observed that the addition of this meta-learning layer produces much improved results that outperform best-known results. For the online setting, the T/T approach produces progressively better annotation with time, significantly outperforming the black-box as well as the static form of the meta-learner, on real-world data.
Conversation Effects on Neural Mechanisms Underlying Reaction Time to Visual Events while Viewing a Driving Scene using MEG

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) imaging examined the neural mechanisms that modulate reaction times to visual events while viewing a driving video, with and without a conversation. Twenty-four subjects ages 18-65 were monitored by whole-head MEG. The primary tasks were to monitor a driving video and to depress a foot pedal in response to a small red light presented to the left or below the driving scene at unpredictable times. The behavioral reaction time (RT) to the lights was recorded. The secondary task was a hands-free conversation. The subject pressed a button to answer a ring tone, and then covertly answered pre-recorded non-emotional questions such as "What is your birth date?" RTs for the conversation task (1043 ms, SE=65 ms) were slightly longer than for the primary task (baseline no conversation (944 ms, SE=48 ms)). During the primary task RTs were inversely related to the amount of brain activity detected by MEG in the right superior parietal lobe (Brodmann's Area 7). Brain activity was seen in the 200 to 300 ms range after the onset of the red light and in the visual cortex (BA 19) about 85 ms after the red light. Conversation reduced the strengths of these regression relationships and increased mean RT. Conversation may contribute to increased reaction times by (1) damping brain activation in specific regions during specific time windows, or (2) reducing facilitation from attention inputs into those areas or (3) increasing temporal variability of the neural response to visual events. These laboratory findings should not be interpreted as indicative of real-world driving, without on-road validation, and comparison to other in-vehicle tasks.
Encountering the Hindu “Other”Tantrism and the Brahmans of South India

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP has done much to reclaim the largely unexplored field of Hindu esotericism known as Tantra or Tantrism. Unlike in the nineteenth century, when the Hindu Tantric canon was dismissed as "mere manuals of mysticism, magic, and superstition of the worst and most silly kind" (Monier-Williams:129), contemporary indologists admit with more sympathy "the presence of Tantric elements nearly everywhere in Hinduism from the Middle Ages to our own day" (Padoux 1981:350).
Characterization of an NF-1/CTF family member as a functional activator of the mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat 5' enhancer.

The long terminal repeat of the mouse mammary tumor virus restricts virus expression primarily to the mammary epithelium. The extreme 5′ end of the long terminal repeat contains an enhancer that has been associated with tissue-specific expression of the virus. A total of six functional cis-acting elements have been identified in the enhancer. Although proteins binding to these elements have been reported, only one has been identified; this factor, mp5, is identical or closely related to the transcription factor AP-2 (Mellentin-Michelotti, J., John, S., Pennie, W. D., Williams, T., and Hager, G. L. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 31983-31990). The other factors are hitherto unidentified and poorly described. We report here the characterization of another of the six elements, previously referred to as the F3 site (Mink, S., Hartig, E., Jennewein, P., Doppler, W., and Cato, A. C. (1992) Mol. Cell Biol. 12, 4906-4918). We show that the F3 binding activity and AP-2 act synergistically to enhance mouse mammary tumor virus-directed transcription, but only in the presence of glucocorticoid hormone. The F3 element has an NF-1-like half-site, but the activity recognizing this element has binding characteristics distinct from the NF-1/CTF family as well as the rest of the CCAAT-binding proteins. We conclude that the F3 activity represents a new member of the NF-1/CTF family.
Compressive multispectral sensing algorithm with tunable quantum dots-in-a-well infrared photodetectors

In recent years, our group has developed and reported two multispectral sensing algorithms that aim to exploit the continuous bias-dependent spectral tunability of the quantum dots-in-a-well (DWELL) infrared photodetector and enable higher spectral resolutions without using spectral filters. The key idea is to probe an unknown target of interest sequentially with the DWELL detector at multiple biases, producing a set of bias-dependent photocurrents. Then, a post-processing algorithm performs a linear superposition of these bias-dependent photocurrents with a pre-determined set of weights, which is the optimal solution for a specific multispectral sensing task. The first algorithm, termed the spectral-tuning algorithm, is designed to perform algorithmic spectrometer, which is capable of reconstructing the spectrum of any unknown target of interest (admitted by the DWELL's spectral response) without utilizing any physical spectral filters or spectrometer. The set of weights obtained by the spectral-tuning algorithm can optimally approximate the desired shape of narrowband tuning filter with a specified bandwidth. According to this optimal set of weights, the spectrum of the unknown target at each desired tuning wavelength is reconstructed by performing a weighted linear superposition with the set of bias-dependent photocurrents. This algorithm has been experimentally demonstrated by our group [1] and other groups [2]. The second algorithm, termed, the spectral matched-filtering algorithm, is geared toward performing target classification [3]. With known multiple spectra, representing classes of targets of interest, the idea is to obtain the optimal sets of weights, which form a linear superposition with the bias-dependent DWELL's spectral bands. Each superposition band is regarded as the most informative “spectral direction” (in a vector-space sense) for a given target spectrum. Then, the classifier uses these sets of weights to perform a linear superposition with the measured set of bias-dependent photocurrents. The outcome from the classifier is the set of extracted superposition features, which is used to classify the unknown target.
Management of CMV Infections after Bone Marrow Transplantation: A Paradigm Shift

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) historically has been the major infectious cause of death after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). During the 1970s and 1980s, clinical trials identified risk factors for CMV disease. During the 1980s, new diagnostic tools led to more accurate and earlier detection of disease and identified patients with active infection before the onset of disease. These methods permitted the development of strategies to prevent infected patients from developing disease, which in the 1990s culminated in substantial reduction in CMV morbidity and mortality. In seronegative patients, prevention of acquisition of virus from blood product support has proven to be highly effective. In other patients (who are already infected or whose donor is infected), the use of immunoglobulin and, more recently, several antiviral prophylactic or “pre-emptive therapies” have proven to be highly effective. Unfortunately, once antiviral therapy is stopped, infection can recur with subsequent disease. The incre...
GEOMETRY OF THE GEOMAGNETIC TAIL.

An analysis of magnetic field measurements in the geomagnetic tail from Explorers 33 and 35 during 1967–1968 has shown that there is a broad region of depressed field magnitude approximately 12 RE thick and centered on the neutral sheet. The solar magnetospheric Bz component is proportionately larger within that region than outside of it. Bz is found to decrease with distance from the earth but to be positive on the average within the depressed field region out to a distance of 70 RE, indicating that although for short periods of time the neutral line may be closer to the earth than the orbital distance of the moon, on the average it is beyond that distance. A negative Bz component was found in ⅔ of the measurements outside the depressed field region. This analysis has shown that the magnetotail field diverges from the tail axis with distance from the earth. This result, together with the Bz observations, supports a geometry in which for large |Zsm| the tail field is diverging in the Zsm as well as the Ysm direction, but is converging slightly toward the neutral sheet within the depressed field region. The combination of expanding tail and reconnection at the neutral sheet can account for the observed tail field magnitude gradient. The Explorer 33 and 35 measurements also indicate that the average angle between the tail axis and the earth-sun line is 3.1°±1.5°.
Do Damaged Proteins Accumulate inCaenorhabditis elegansl-Isoaspartate Methyltransferase (pcm-1) Deletion Mutants?1

The protein l-isoaspartate (d-aspartate) O-methyltransferase (E.C. 2. 1.1.77) can initiate the conversion of isomerized and racemized aspartyl residues to their normal l-aspartyl forms and has therefore been hypothesized to function as a repair enzyme, responsible for helping to limit the accumulation of damaged proteins in aging organisms. In this study, the effect of a disruption in the pcm-1 gene encoding the l-isoaspartyl methyltransferase was investigated in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. It was found that damaged proteins recognized by this enzyme accumulated to significant levels during long-term incubation of both pcm-1+ and pcm-1- nematodes in a specialized larval stage called the dauer. The l-isoaspartyl methyltransferase-deficient mutants accumulated about twice the level of damaged proteins as the control nematodes during dauer aging. The mutants also accumulated higher levels of damage when both strains were incubated at 30 degrees C for up to 3 days. However, when nonviable nematodes were removed in a Percoll separation, similar levels of damage were measured between the two strains following both dauer aging and 30 degrees C incubation. Both strains were able to effectively eliminate damaged proteins recognized by the methyltransferase after recovery from dauer. Characterization of the methyl-accepting polypeptide substrates which accumulate in aged dauers revealed that although substrates of all molecular weights are present, the majority of substrates are peptides not precipitated by acetone. These results suggest that protein degradation, rather than repair, may be the major mechanism by which C. elegans eliminates damaged proteins containing l-isoaspartyl residues.
Regulation of cabbage (Brassica oleracea capitata) hypocotyl elongation, and infection by Peronospora parasitica, with B-indolylacetonitrile and chloramphenicol

Untreated excised segments of the hypocotyls of dark grown cabbage seedlings are always systemically infected when inoculated with the conidia of the obligate parasite Peronospora parasitica (Downy mildew). Cabbage hypocotyl elongation is promoted by 10−4M indolylacetonitrile (IAN) and this elongation is inhibited by 100 μg mL−1 chloramphenicol (CAM). The fungus remains localized in 5–8 day old hypocotyl segments exposed to CAM, but this inhibition is reversed by IAN. Indol-3-acetic acid (IAA) has the same effect as IAN. Both gibberellic acid and kinetin inhibit systemic infection. Conidial spore germination is not reduced by the CAM concentration used in these experiments. The success of the pathogen in the host is not correlated with host elongation, but is probably related to a common metabolic site in either host or pathogen affected by both CAM and IAN.
Comparison of the illumigene Mycoplasma DNA Amplification Assay and Culture for Detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae

A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) system, the illumigene Mycoplasma DNA amplification assay (Meridian Bioscience, Inc., Cincinnati, OH) was evaluated to determine its analytical sensitivity, specificity, and clinical application in comparison to historic culture in a collection of archived respiratory specimens. The illumigene limit of detection was ≤88 CFU/reaction for 10 Mycoplasma pneumoniae reference strains. This assay correctly identified 36 M. pneumoniae reference strains and clinical isolates from various geographic origins, including both of the main subtypes. No cross-reactions were detected with other mycoplasmas, ureaplasmas, other bacterial species, viruses, yeasts, or human DNA. Among 214 respiratory specimens previously cultured for M. pneumoniae, when real-time PCR with bidirectional sequencing of the PCR products was used to resolve discrepancies, the sensitivity was 22 of 22 (100%) and the specificity was 190 of 192 (99%). This commercial LAMP assay is a useful rapid method for detecting M. pneumoniae in clinical specimens. Additional prospective clinical trials with direct comparison to culture and PCR are warranted.
Diverse Distribution of Red Cells and Albumin in the Dog Kidney

Cr31 labeled red cells and I131 human serum albumin were injected intravenously into 8 mongrel dogs. After 1 hour kidneys were removed and frozen rapidly with dry ice. Sections of outer cortex, inner cortex, outer medulla, inner medulla, outer papilla and inner papilla were removed and analyzed for Cr51 and I131 radioactivity. Tissue radioactivity was compared with that of arterial blood and concentrations of labeled red cells and albumin were calculated. No significant difference was found in relative red cell and albumin content between outer and inner cortex. The magnitude of the I131 albumin content in the cortex is interpreted to indicate a sizeable extnivascular exchangeable albumin pool. The renal papillae were extraordinarily deficient in red cells, but contained per 100 Gm., albumin equivalent to that of 39 ml. of plasma.
Solubilization of Cell Wall Bound, Thermostable Pectinesterase from Valencia Orange

Complete solubilization of citrus pectinesterase is not effected by alkaline salt buffers but is partially enhanced after degradation of the cell wall by pectinase and cellulase. After heating at 70°C for 2 min, the pectinesterase fractions solubilized after enzymatic cell wall degradation possessed three times the residual activity of the pectinesterase fractions solubilized by alkaline salt buffer. Isoelectric focusing prints of pectinesterase activity and SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis suggest increased solubilization of a heat stable pectinesterase isozyme after cell wall degradation.
A review of superconducting motor technology development

A review of developments in superconducting motor technology is presented. Features of current concepts which have been demonstrated are presented along with future concepts which are on the drawing board. Background information is provided and aspects of the superconducting motor which are critical to its success are discussed. The status of the motor technology, and the high temperature superconducting wire technology as it applies to motors, is presented.
Analysis of Couch Position Tolerance Limits to Detect Mistakes in Patient Setup

This work investigates the use of the tolerance limits on the treatment couch position to detect mistakes in patient positioning and warn users of possible treatment errors. Computer controlled radiotherapy systems use the position of the treatment couch as a surrogate for patient position and a tolerance limit is applied against a planned position. When the couch is out of tolerance a warning is sent to a user to indicate a possible mistake in setup. A tight tolerance may catch all positioning mistakes while as the same time sending too many warnings; while a loose tolerance will not catch all mistakes. We develop a statistical model of the absolute position for the three translational axes of the couch. The couch position for any fraction is considered a random variable x(i). The ideal planned couch position x(p) is unknown before a patient starts treatment and must be estimated from the daily positions x(i). As such x(p) is also a random variable. The tolerance, tol, is applied to the difference between the daily and planned position, d(i) = x(i) - x(p). The di is a linear combination of random variables and therefore the density of di is the convolution of distributions of xi and xp. Tolerance limits are based on the standard deviation of d(i) such that couch positions that are more than 2 standard deviation away are considered out of tolerance. Using this framework we investigate two methods of setting x(p) and tolerance limits. The first, called first day acquire (FDA), is to take couch position on the first day as the planned position. The second is to use the cumulative average (CumA) over previous fractions as the planned position. The standard deviation of d(i) shrinks as more samples are used to determine x(p) and so the tolerance limit shrinks as a function of fraction number when a CumA technique is used. The metrics of sensitivity and specificity were used to characterize the performance of the two methods to correctly identify a couch position as in or out of tolerance. These two methods were tested using simulated and real patient data. Five clinical sites with different indexed immobilization were tested. These were whole brain, head and neck, breast, thorax and prostate. Analysis of the head and neck data shows that it is reasonable to model the daily couch position as a random variable in this treatment site. Using an average couch position for x(p) increased the sensitivity of the couch interlock and reduced the chances of acquiring a couch position that was a statistical outlier. Analysis of variation in couch position for different sites allowed the tolerance limit to be set specifically for a site and immobilization device. The CumA technique was able to increase the sensitivity of detecting out of tolerance positions while shrinking tolerance limits for a treatment course. Making better use of the software interlock on the couch positions could have a positive impact on patient safety and reduce mistakes in treatment delivery.
Seasonal influences on burrowing activity of a subterranean rodent, Thomomys bottae

While many animals respond to seasonal variation in their environment, animals such as pocket gophers Thomomys bottae that live below ground might seem to be buffered against such variation. In some areas, however, the patterns of burrowing activity by pocket gophers are tied to the seasons, one factor of which is rainfall. Variation in activity patterns may result from the ease of digging in moist soil or increased food availability during the wet season. Previous simulation modelling work suggests that food availability influences burrowing patterns, while soil conditions do not. Thus, field experiments were used to investigate how soil conditions and food availability influence seasonal burrowing activity. Results indicate that an increase in soil moisture initiates activity. After this initial increase in activity, mound production declines and reaches a steady rate, which can be supported by vegetation availability, in agreement with previous model results. Our findings support the idea that moist soil promotes a burst of digging activity, potentially for burrow maintenance when soil becomes easily workable, and the eventual growth of vegetation provides the food necessary to support continued activity.
Application of Kalman filter to improve model integrity for securing electricity delivery

Power system model integrity is essential to many planning and operation tasks to ensure the safety and reliability of electricity delivery. Inaccurate system models would result in unreliable assessment of system security conditions and cause large-scale blackouts such as the 2003 Northeast Blackout. This dictates a strong need for model calibration and verification, which should be done periodically and preferably in an automatic manner. Our previous work has demonstrated the feasibility of applying Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to calibrate generator parameters using disturbance data recorded by phasor measurement units (PMU). This paper proposes to use a Riccati equation to investigate EKF's performance, especially regarding parameter identifiability. The covariance, which can be derived from the Riccati equation, offers insight into the uncertainties of parameters estimated by the EKF-based method. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
The initial garnet-in reaction involving siderite–rhodochrosite, garnet re-equilibration and P–T–t paths of graphitic schists in the Black Hills orogen, South Dakota, USA

It is generally thought that garnet in metapelites is produced by continuous reactions involving chlo- rite or chloritoid. Recent publications have suggested that the equilibrium temperatures of garnet-in reactions may be significantly overstepped in regionally metamorphosed terranes. The growth of small spessartine-almandine garnet crystals on Mn-siderite at the garnet isograd in graphitic metapel- ites in the Proterozoic Black Hills orogen, South Dakota, demonstrates that Mn-siderite was the prin- cipal reactant that produced the initial garnet in the schists. Moreover, the positions of garnet compositions in isobaric, T-(C/H) pseudosections for the schists show that the temperature of the garnet-in reaction from Mn-siderite was overstepped minimally at the most. In the Black Hills, garnet was initially produced during regional metamorphism beginning at c. 1755 Ma due to the collision of Wyoming and Superior cratons, and was subsequently partially or fully re-equilibrated at more ele- vated temperatures and pressures during intrusion of the Harney Peak Granite (HPG) at c. 1715 Ma. Garnet occurs in graphitic schists in garnet, staurolite and sillimanite zones, the latter being a product of contact metamorphism by HPG. During metamorphism, coexisting fluid contained both CO2 and CH4. In the garnet zone, garnet crystals contain petrographically distinct cores with inclusions of quartz, graphite and other minerals. Centres of the cores have distinctly elevated Y concentrations that mark the positions of garnet nucleation. The elevated Y is thought to have come from the Mn- siderite onto which Y was probably absorbed during precipitation in an ocean. In the upper garnet and staurolite zones, the cores were overgrown by inclusion-poor mantles. Mantles are highly zoned and have more elevated Fe and Mg and lower Mn and Ca than cores. The growth of mantles is attributed to late-orogenic heating by leucogranite magmas and attendant influx of H2O that caused consumption of graphite in rock matrices. A portion of the Proterozoic terrane that includes the HPG is surrounded by four large faults. In this 'HPG block', garnet is inclusion-poor and its compo- sition does not preserve its early growth history. This garnet appears to have re-equilibrated by inter- nal diffusion of its major components and/or recrystallization of an earlier inclusion-rich garnet. It has equilibrated within the kyanite stability range, and together with remnant kyanite in the high- strain aureole of the HPG, indicates that the HPG block had a ≥6 kbar history. The HPG block has undergone decompression during emplacement of the HPG. The decompression is evident in occur- rences of retrograde andalusite and cordierite in the thermal aureole of the HPG. The data support a polybaric metamorphic history of the Black Hills orogen with different segments of the orogen hav- ing their own clockwise P-T-t paths.
Surface morphology and growth mechanism upon condensation of As4 and Sb4 on arsenic and antimony (111) surfaces

Abstract Shallow, triangular hillocks form when Sb 4 from a source at 600°C condenses on Sb (111) surfaces at ~580°C. Upon subsequent vaporization, oppositely oriented tringular pits appear, many at the apices of hillocks. A variety of growth features, including triangular hillocks, are observed when As 4 beams are condensed upon cleaved As (111) surfaces in ultrahigh vacuum. The features indicate a change in arsenic growth mechanism, with increasing substrate temperature and incident flux, from As 4 agglomeration to dislocation growth to island growth. Hillocks on arsenic and antimony appear to grow by a dislocation growth process which is the microscopic reverse of pit formation upon vaporization. The slopes of hillocks and of pits may be related by considering the effect of surface over-and undersaturation on spiral ledge spacings near dislocation cores.
XML views for electronic editions

In this paper we discuss the implementation of user-defined views over multihierarchical document-centric XML documents.
A View from Europe: Subspecialization in Neurosurgery

The Editor was quite impressed by the Ninth European Lecture given by Professor Rossi at the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies in Copenhagen, February 1988, and requested that Dr. Rossi contribute this special article. Professor Rossi has a unique world approach to these problems and those of us in North America, particularly, can profit by his wisdom. I had asked him really to restate the paper that was published in Acta Neurochirurgica ( 1988;94:1-9), and obtained permission from that journal to have this done. However, the special article that Professor Rossi has contributed is an "original" in itself and will be very much enjoyed by the readers of Surgical Neurology.
Anatomy and histology of the digestive system of the paddlefish (Polyodon spathula).

The paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) is one of the most primitive and unique freshwater fishes of North America. It is adapted as a plankton filter-feeder. The wide mouth and greatly expansible pharyngeal cavity allows it to process a large quantity of water. Numerous setiform gillrakers, which operate against the flattened surfaces of the gill arches and opercula, are capable of filtering out small food particles. The abundance of taste buds and mucus secreting cells in the buccal cavity and pharynx probably aids in selecting and entangling the food. The first segment of the stomach is provided with peculiar, large longitudinal rods of fat which may help in selecting food from water by causing occlusion of the small lumen when the striated fibers of the muscularis contract. Teeth, unnecessary for microphagous fishes, are absent in adults. The digestive tube is one of the most complex present in fishes. It has two distinct divisions of the stomach and four distinct divisions of the intestine besides possessing a large caecum. Ciliated epithelial cells occur in many parts of the gut and may be an aid in moving or processing the small items of food. Besides the presence of cilia, other primitive features of the digestive tract include the lack of distinction between the esophagus and stomach, the presence of a spiral valve, and the presence of some of the diffuse pancreatic tissue within the wall of the gut. The numerous Peyer's patches in the wall of much of the intestine may be an immunological response to the heavy parasitic infestation.
Highly conserved regions of the immunodominant major surface protein 2 of the genogroup II ehrlichial pathogen Anaplasma marginale are rich in naturally derived CD4+ T lymphocyte epitopes that elicit strong recall responses.

Genogroup II ehrlichia, including the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, Ehrlichia phagocytophila, and the bovine pathogen Anaplasma marginale , express a markedly immunodominant outer membrane protein designated major surface protein 2 (MSP2). MSP2 is encoded by a multigene family, resulting in the expression of variant B cell epitopes. MSP2 variants are sequentially expressed in the repeated cycles of rickettsemia that characterize persistent A. marginale infection and control of each rickettsemic cycle is associated with development of a variant-specific IgG response. Importantly, these persistent rickettsemic cycles are controlled at levels 100-1000 times lower than those responsible for clinical disease during acute infection. Control of rickettsemia during persistence could result from an anamnestic Th lymphocyte response to conserved regions of MSP2 that enhances the primary Ab response against newly emergent variants. Comparison of MSP2 variants reveals conserved N and C termini flanking the central, surface-exposed hypervariable region that represents the variant B lymphocyte epitopes. We demonstrate MSP2-specific CD4 + T lymphocyte recognition of epitopes common to several strains of A. marginale and the related pathogen A. ovis . Furthermore, T lymphocyte lines from three individuals identified six to nine overlapping peptides representing a minimum of four to seven dominant or subdominant epitopes in these conserved N and C termini. Immunodominant peptides induced high levels of IFN-γ, a cytokine associated with protection against ehrlichia and needed for rapid generation of variant-specific IgG2. The presented data support the potential importance of a strong Th lymphocyte response to invariant MSP2 epitopes in controlling rickettsemia during persistent infection to subclinical levels.
A Characteristic-to-Defining Shift in the Development of Word Meaning.

Many word meanings seem to have a mixture of two representational types, sometimes known as characteristic and defining features. It is proposed that meanings typically develop from representations in which characteristic features predominate to those in which defining features become more central. (The same shift can also be described without the assumption of featural decomposition of meaning.) A study with preschool and elementary school children confirmed this proposal by showing that children's judgments of whether brief stories described valid instances of a concept shifted in a manner predicted by these hypotheses.
The Effect of the Tax Deductibility of Goodwill on Purchase Price Allocations

This paper examines whether changes in the tax deductibility of goodwill affected the pricing of acquisitions during the early 1990s. We find that tax deductibility led to a change in purchase‐price allocations across asset groups, since an increase in the amount allocated to goodwill was offset by a decrease in the allocation to identifiable assets. Our evidence also suggests that some of the benefits accrued to the target since purchase price increased after the change in the tax status of goodwill. The failure to observe any change in the level or allocation of the purchase price for the tax carryover firms provides additional support that the change for step‐up firms was attributable to changes in the tax law and not to other factors.
Exploring differences in adiposity in two U.S. Hispanic populations of Mexican origin using social, behavioral, physiologic and genetic markers: the IRAS Family Study.

OBJECTIVE: The census classification of Hispanic origin is used in epidemiological studies to group individuals, even though there is geographical, cultural, and genetic diversity within Hispanic Americans of purportedly similar backgrounds. We observed differences in our measures of adiposity between our two Mexican American populations, and examined whether these differences were attributed to social, behavioral, physiologic or genetic differences between the two populations. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In the IRAS Family Study, we examined 478 Hispanics from San Antonio, Texas and 447 Hispanics from the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Associations with body mass index (BMI), visceral adipose tissue area (VAT), and subcutaneous adipose tissue area (SAT) using social, behavioral, physiologic and genetic variables were examined. RESULTS: Hispanics of Mexican origin in our clinic population in San Antonio had significantly higher mean BMI (31.09 vs. 28.35 kg/m2), VAT (126.3 vs. 105.5 cm2), and SAT (391.6 vs. 336.9 cm2), than Hispanics of Mexican origin in the San Luis Valley. The amount of variation in adiposity explained by clinic population was 4.5% for BMI, 2.8% for VAT, and 2.7% for SAT. After adjustment, clinic population was no longer associated with VAT and SAT, but remained associated with BMI, although the amount of variation explained by population was substantially less (1.0% for BMI). CONCLUSION: Adiposity differences within this population of Mexican origin can be largely explained by social, behavioral, physiologic and genetic differences. Ethn Dis . 2012 Winter;22(1):65-71.
Phase II Trial of Sorafenib in Patients with Chemotherapy Refractory Metastatic Esophageal and Gastroesophageal (GE) Junction Cancer.

Purpose Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR2) directed therapies result in a modest survival benefit for patients with advanced esophageal and gastroesophageal (GE) junction cancer. Platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) may contribute to escape from VEGFR2 inhibition. We evaluated the efficacy of sorafenib, a broad spectrum tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting VEGFR2 and PDGFR as well as RET and RAF1, in patients with metastatic chemotherapy refractory esophageal and GE junction cancer. Patients and Methods This phase II trial of sorafenib 400 mg twice daily enrolled chemotherapy refractory patients with metastatic esophageal and GE junction cancer with primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) rate at two months. Secondary endpoints included overall survival, objective response rate and toxicity. Results Among 34 patients, 8 week Kaplan-Meier estimated PFS was 61% (90%CI 45 to 73%). Median PFS is 3.6 months (95% CI 1.8 to 3.9 months), with median overall survival OS 9.7 months (95% CI 5.9 to 11.6 months). Grade 3 toxicities were uncommon and included hand foot skin reaction, rash, dehydration and fatigue. One patient (3%) with ongoing complete response and remains on trial for over 5 years. Whole exome sequencing of this tumor revealed mutations in many cancer-associated genes including ARID1A, PIK3CA, and TP53, and focal amplifications of HMGA2 and MET. Conclusion Sorafenib therapy results in disease stabilization and encouraging PFS in patients with refractory esophageal and GE junction cancer. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00917462
Competition and Personality in a Restaurant Entry Game

We explore the question of whether personality traits as measured by standard psychological tests are significant explanators of behavior in an entry game. The experimental data and psychological test results come from classroom experiments designed to teach the concepts of short and long run equilibrium in a competitive market. These experiments were conducted in 42 classroom sessions, each with about 35 students.
107 PIGMENT EPITHELIUM-DERIVED FACTOR, AN ENDOGENOUS INHIBITOR OF TRANSFORMING GROWTH FACTOR β, IS IMPLICATED IN DIABETIC NEPHROPATHY

Diabetic nephropathy is a major microvascular complication of diabetes and a leading cause of end-stage renal diseases. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transformation growth factor β (TGF-β) are known as major pathogenic factors of diabetic nephropathy. Pigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF) is a potent angiogenic inhibitor and neurotrophic factor and has been well studied in the eye. Decreased ocular PEDF levels were associated with diabetic retinopathy in both diabetic patients and diabetic animal models. In the present study, we found that PEDF is expressed in normal kidney, predominantly in the glomeruli, at levels much higher than in the retina. Renal PEDF levels were decreased at both the mRNA and protein levels in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. The decrease mainly occurred in the glomeruli and was reversely correlated with the degree of hyperglycemia and microalbuminuria. In vitro studies showed that PEDF blocked the high glucose-induced fibronectin overproduction in cultured human renal mesangial cells. Furthermore, PEDF decreased high glucose-induced VEGF and TGF-β secretion in human mesangial cells. PEDF also inhibits inflammation induced by high glucose and TGF-β. Taken together, these results suggest that PEDF serves as an endogenous inhibitor of TGF-β and an anti-inflammatory factor and prevents the VEGF, TGF-β and extracellular matrix overproduction in the normal kidney. The decreased expression of PEDF in diabetic kidney may represent a new pathogenic mechanism for diabetic nephropathy.
Quantitative determination of tanshinone IIA and salvianolic acid B in pharmacopoeial prescription Danshen Tablets by HPLC

Objective: To determine tanshinoneⅡA and salvianolic acid B in Danshen Tablets quantitatively. Methods: HPLC with Hypersil ODS column was used in the content determination. For tanshinoneⅡA , the mobile phase was composed of methanol-water (80∶20) and the detective wavelength was at 270 nm. For salvianolic acid B, the mobile phase was composed of methanol-acetonitrile-formic acid-water (30∶10∶1∶59) and the detective wavelength was at 286 nm. Results: The average contents of tanshinoneⅡA and salvianolic acid B in three batch of tablets were 2.83 mg/g and 51.8 mg/g respectively. The extraction rate of the preparation processes were 42.3% and 50.9% respectively. Conclusion: The method is available with a good reproducibility and can control the quality of Danshen Tablets effectively.
Archaeological Studies on the Yelang Kingdom and the Burial Customs of Ancient Peoples

The Yelang Kingdom is a focus of debate and interest for historians.This paper attempts to present a picture of what the ancient kingdom looks like by means of archaeological studies in three sites of Guizhou Province(Zhongshui,Weining County; Kele,Hezhang County;Tonggushan Pu-an County)and one site in Yunnan Province (Qingtong)as well as a probe into the burial customs of ancient peoples.