cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Biosensing with plasmonic nanosensors

Recent developments have greatly improved the sensitivity of optical sensors based on metal nanoparticle arrays and single nanoparticles. We introduce the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensor and describe how its exquisite sensitivity to size, shape and environment can be harnessed to detect molecular binding events and changes in molecular conformation. We then describe recent progress in three areas representing the most significant challenges: pushing sensitivity towards the single-molecule detection limit, combining LSPR with complementary molecular identification techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and practical development of sensors and instrumentation for routine use and high-throughput detection. This review highlights several exceptionally promising research directions and discusses how diverse applications of plasmonic nanoparticles can be integrated in the near future.
Banner ads hinder visual search and are forgotten

Banner ads persist on the Internet in spite of evidence against their efficacy. Many ads include animation in an attempt to increase their attentional capture. An experiment was conducted to examine how various banner ads affect the visual search of news headlines on the Web, and whether participants could recall the ads they saw. The results both support and contradict the notion of "banner blindness," the idea that people ignore banner ads. Participants could not recall the ads that they saw, but those ads did distract the users and significantly increased search times. The most surprising result is that recall was especially bad for animated banners. This paper examines issues of attentional capture in an applied domain and provides guidance for web designers.
Failure of Systemic Empirical Treatment with Amphotericin B to Prevent Candidemia in Neutropenic Patients with Cancer

We undertook a retrospective review of all patients with hematologic malignancies in whom candidemia developed during chemotherapy-induced neutropenia in 1989 and 1990. Candidemia developed in 11 patients ; five were receiving therapeutic doses of amphotericin B at the time of infection. Disseminated infection occurred in 2 of 5 patients with breakthrough infection and 3 of 6 patients with candidemia before receipt of amphotericin B. Among patients with breakthrough candidemia there was a trend toward more-prolonged neutropenia prior to infection (P =.069), but otherwise they were indistinguishable from other candidemic patients with regard to risk factors for candidemia. Amphotericin B-susceptible Candida albicans was isolated from two patients and Candida krusei from three patients with breakthrough infection. All patients were treated with amphotericin B ; all breakthrough infections responded to treatment. Neutropenic patients with breakthrough candidemia were clinically similar to those whose candidemia preceded amphotericin B therapy, and there was no increase in morbidity and mortality among individuals with breakthrough infection.
Rehabilitation After Shoulder Replacement: Be All You Can Be!

Rehabilitation after shoulder arthroplasty should reflect an understanding of the postsurgical phases of healing. The surgeon must balance the need to allow healing while gradually restoring flexibility, functional active motion, endurance, strength, and ultimately return to daily function at home, at workplace, and in participation of recreational activities. At the completion of the surgical procedure, the surgeon should provide an environment that will allow mobility, restore stability, and ultimately allow use of the surrounding and supportive musculature to attain functional goals. The stages of rehabilitation include early passive exercises followed gradually by active and active-assisted exercises, including the use of therapeutic aqua exercises. Gradually, progressive muscular endurance and strengthening exercises are added over time, specifically designed to achieve each individual's unique functional goals. Clearly, the physiological age, the general health quality, and the severity of the preexisting pathology will dictate the degree of activity that can be ultimately achieved. Essentially, patients want relief of pain and restoration of function. A detailed approach to the phases of rehabilitation, nuances based on the type of arthroplasty, and limitations based on the initial pathology and specifics of arthroplasty will be discussed.
Development of an underwater mass-spectrometry system for in situ chemical analysis

Progress in the design, construction and packaging of small portable mass spectrometers for operation on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is described. Our first deployable version consists of a membrane introduction interface coupled with a linear quadrupole mass filter for in situ detection and quantification of dissolved gases and volatile organic compounds. We present laboratory results which demonstrate that sub-parts-per-billion detection limits have been achieved for toluene. The mass-spectrometer system is compatible with AUV constraints and operates on 24 V dc, consuming of the order of 100 W of power. Technical challenges of performing underwater mass spectrometry are addressed, in particular sample introduction from the water column and the maintenance of a vacuum system. Initial operation will be in shallow water of 30 m depth or less. Alternative versions of interfaces and mass spectrometers are also discussed. We anticipate that providing the capability of performing in situ underwater mass-spectrometric analysis will have a significant impact in the areas of marine science and environmental monitoring.
Gender and Violence in Dyadic Relationships

In responses to the questions of whether individual distress, severity of violence, and dyadic adjustment vary according the gender, we explored how gender and reported level of physical violence relate to relational and individual adjustment in males and females. Using data from a clinical sample of 604 adults, 2 × 3, between-subjects MANOVA indicated that when the respondent is the perpetrator of physical violence, ratings of individual and dyadic distress are significantly greater for cases classified as severely violent in comparison to no and mild violence cases. We also found that when the respondent is the victim of physical violence, females reported greater individual distress in comparison to males across all three levels of violence.
Quantification of total T-cell receptor diversity by flow cytometry and spectratyping

T-cell receptor diversity correlates with immune competency and is of particular interest in patients undergoing immune reconstitution. Spectratyping generates data about T-cell receptor CDR3 length distribution for each BV gene but is technically complex. Flow cytometry can also be used to generate data about T-cell receptor BV gene usage, but its utility has not been compared to or tested in combination with spectratyping. Using flow cytometry and spectratype data, we have defined a divergence metric that quantifies the deviation from normal of T-cell receptor repertoire. We have shown that the sample size is a sensitive parameter in the predicted flow divergence values, but not in the spectratype divergence values. We have derived two ways to correct for the measurement bias using mathematical and statistical approaches and have predicted a lower bound in the number of lymphocytes needed when using the divergence as a substitute for diversity. Using both flow cytometry and spectratyping of T-cells, we have defined the divergence measure as an indirect measure of T-cell receptor diversity. We have shown the dependence of the divergence measure on the sample size before it can be used to make predictions regarding the diversity of the T-cell receptor repertoire.
Nodal stage after induction therapy for stage IIIA lung cancer determines patient survival.

Abstract Background . This study was undertaken to determine the predictive value of nodal status at resection in regards to long-term outcome of patients undergoing neo-adjuvant therapy and resection for stage IIIA N2-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods . We reviewed the medical records of all patients found on surgical staging to have N2-positive NSCLC and who underwent induction therapy followed by resection between 1988 and 1996 at our hospital. Complete follow-up information was examined utilizing Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards multivariate analysis. Results . One hundred three patients (59 men) with stage IIIA N2-positive NSCLC received neoadjuvant therapy before surgical resection. Preoperative therapy consisted of platinum-based chemotherapy (76), radiotherapy (18), or chemoradiation (9). Operations included pneumonectomy (38), bilobectomy (6), and lobectomy (59). There were four deaths and seven major complications. Eighty-five patients were followed until death. Median survival among 18 living patients is 60.9 months (range 29 to 121 months). Twenty-nine patients were downstaged to N0 and had 5-year survival of 35.8% (median survival 21.3 months). Seventy-four patients with persistent tumor in their lymph nodes (25 N1 and 49 N2) had significantly worse, 9%, 5-year survival, p = 0.023 (median survival 15.9 months). Other negative prognostic factors were adenocarcinoma and pneumonectomy. Conclusions . Patients with N2-positive NSCLC whose nodal disease is eradicated after neoadjuvant therapy and surgery enjoy significantly improved cancer-free survival. These data support surgical resection for patients downstaged by induction therapy; however, patients who are not downstaged do not benefit from surgical resection. Direct effort should be made to improve the accuracy of restaging before resection.
First-principles phase stability, bonding, and electronic structure of actinide metals

Abstract The actinide elemental metals are scare, often toxic and radio active, causing challenges for both experiments and theory while offering fascinating physics. For practical purposes they are the prevalent building blocks for materials where nuclear properties are of interest. Here, however, we are focusing on fundamental properties of the actinides related to their electronic structure and characteristic bonding in the condensed state. The series of actinides is naturally divided into two segments. First, the set of lighter actinides thorium through plutonium, often referred to as the early actinides, displays a variation of the atomic volume reminiscent of what is seen in transition metals, suggesting a gradual occupation of bonding 5 f states. Second, the heavier (late) actinides, Am and onwards, demonstrate volume behaviors comparable to the rare-earth metals that implies nonbonding 5 f states. Arguably, one can distinguish plutonium metal as special case lying between these two subsets because it shares some features from both. Therefore, we discuss the early actinides, plutonium metal, and the late actinides separately applying first-principles density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations. The analysis includes successes and failures of the theory to describe primarily phase stability, bonding, and electronic structure.
A three-dimensional model of the upper tracheobronchial tree

A new model of the upper tracheobronchial tree is proposed to account for the three-dimensional nature of the airway system. In addition to the tube length, the tube diameter, and the branching angle, the model includes information on the orientation angle of each tube relative to its parent tube. The orientation angle, defined as the angle between two successive bifurcations, is useful for calculating the gravitational inclination of each tube. The information on orientation angle is further used to construct a binary coding system for identifying individual tubes in the airway tree. The proposed model is asymmetrical, but the same principles can be readily used to construct a symmetrical one.
Enhanced expression of TNF-R1 protein in NMDA-mediated cell death in the retina

Multiple apoptosis-related genes are expressed in the retina after exposure to N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA). For example, the mRNAs for TNF-R1, FasL, and Nur77 are up-regulated between 2.8 and 7-fold [Mol. Brain Res. 91 (2001) 34-42]. The purpose of the present study is to examine prospective changes in protein expression for these genes and to determine their cellular localizations subsequent to NMDA stimulation. Following anesthesia, a single intravitreal injection of 4 mM NMDA was administered into the right eye of anesthetized rats. The left eye was injected with phosphate-buffered saline. Retinae were harvested at 2 and 24 h postinjection. Western-blot and immunocytochemical techniques were used to detect changes in protein expression levels, and to localize their distributions within the retina. Analyses of Western blots demonstrated a significant increase in TNF-R1 (100 and 80%) compared to the sham-controls at 2 and 24 h postinjection with NMDA. Immunolabeling of TNF-R1 was observed in the inner nuclear layer (INL) at 2 h postinjection with NMDA. TNF-R1 was also clearly evident in cells within the INL and ganglion cell layers (GCL) at 24 h post-injection with NMDA. In contrast to these changes in TNF-R1 there were no significant changes in the levels or distributions of FasL or Nur77 in NMDA-stimulated animals at either 2 or 24 h when compared to the sham-controls. These results implicate the TNF-R1 signal transduction pathway in NMDA-induced cell death in the INL and GCL of the retina.
Synthesis of a cluster containing Eu(III) α2-P2W17O6110- and preliminary luminescence experiments

Abstract We have prepared an unique cluster, [Eu(H2O)3(α2-P2W17O61)(Eu2(H2O)7)]44–, 1, in high yield and the preparation and crystallization is highly reproducible. This compound is based on the 1:1 [Eu (α2-P2W17O61)] 214– cluster where Eu2 is bound in the defect of the cap region of the α2-P2W17O61. Two other Eu(III) ions, Eu1 and Eu3 are each bound to two terminal oxygen atoms in that defect cap region. These two Eu(III) ions are bound through a bridging oxygen to other [Eu (α2-P2W17O61)] 214– clusters to form a network of [Eu (α2-P2W17O61)] 214– dimers, each connected by two aquated Eu(III) ions. Preliminary luminescence studies of a crystalline sample of 1, suspended in methanol and reacted with organic ligands, show that the organic ligands indeed are capable of sensitizing the luminescence of the Eu(III). For comparison in solution, the organic soluble TBA3H[EuPW11O39], 3, was prepared and characterized. As shown from luminescence titrations and 31P and 1H NMR spectroscopy, this species reacts with phenanthroline and bipyridine, in acetonitrile, to form the 2:1 organic ligand: [Eu (PW11O39)] adduct. To cite this article: C. Zhang et al., C. R. Chimie 8 (2005).
On the time course of negative priming: Another look

In two experiments, the pattern of persistence of negative priming effects across delay intervals of 500 and 2,500 msec was assessed using a within-subjects, random sequencing of delays. Neill and Valdes (1992; Neill, Valdes, Terry, & Gorfein, 1992) have argued that a within-subject experimental design is required for decay of negative priming to be seen, in contrast to results reported elsewhere (e.g., Tipper, Weaver, Cameron, Brehaut, & Bastedo, 1991) showing stable negative priming effects across delays. In neither experiment was substantial evidence of decay detected, raising questions for the notion that suppression necessarily declines across brief temporal intervals and for the assertion that episodic retrieval is the sole source of negative priming.
Using Social Networks to Understand and Prevent Substance Use: A Transdisciplinary Perspective

We review findings from research on smoking, alcohol, and other drug use, which show that the network approach is instructive for understanding social influences on substance use. A hypothetical network is used throughout to illustrate different network findings and provide a short glossary of terms. We then describe how network analysis can be used to design more effective prevention programs and to monitor and evaluate these programs. The article closes with a discussion of the inherent transdisciplinarity of social network analysis.
THE MEASUREMENT OF RATE COEFFICIENTS IN SLURRY REACTORS

An analytical expression is derived from the equation of diffusion with a reversible reaction which allows the direct calculation of diffusion, mass transfer and kinetic coefficients from transient...
DNA-Templated Molecular Silver Fluorophores

Conductive and plasmon-supporting noble metals exhibit an especially wide range of size-dependent properties, with discrete electronic levels, strong optical absorption, and efficient radiative relaxation dominating optical behavior at the ∼10-atom cluster scale. In this Perspective, we describe the formation and stabilization of silver clusters using DNA templates and highlight the distinct spectroscopic and photophysical properties of the resulting hybrid fluorophores. Strong visible-to-near-IR emission from DNA-encapsulated silver clusters ranging in size from 5 to 11 atoms has been produced and characterized. Importantly, this strong Ag cluster fluorescence can be directly modulated and selectively recovered by optically controlling the dark state residence, even when faced with an overwhelming background. The strength and sequence sensitivity of the oligonucleotide-Ag interaction suggests strategies for fine-tuning and stabilizing cluster-based emitters in a host of sensing and biolabeling applicatio...
Pouch function and gastrointestinal complications during pregnancy after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis

Objective. To estimate the risk of gastrointestinal and pouch complications and alterations in pouch function related to pregnancy in women treated with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA).Methods. Pregnancies following IPAA were identified in our center, and in the literature through MEDLINE and PUBMED searches. The incidence of each complication was calculated. Pouch function was compared before and after pregnancy, by mode of delivery, and between women who became pregnant versus those that did not.Results. The incidence of complications in 283 pregnancies after IPAA was 12.7% including antepartum (2.8%) or postpartum (6.7%) small bowel obstruction, pouchitis (1.8%), and perianal abscess (0.4%). Stool frequency and incontinence were not significantly affected by pregnancy or mode of delivery.Conclusion. Pregnancy after IPAA is overall safe, associated with limited complications and no significant alteration in pouch function. Vaginal delivery appears as safe as cesarean section for most women.
Chalcopyrite dissolution rate laws

Abstract Meta-analysis of 173 rate measurements from 21 publications was used to develop rate laws for chalcopyrite dissolution under environmentally relevant conditions. Multiple linear regression analysis of 28 data for nonoxidative chalcopyrite dissolution in the presence of O2 and Cl− produced the following rate law: r = 10 - 1.52 e - 28200 / RT [ H + ] 1.68 Here, r is the rate of chalcopyrite dissolution in units of mol m−2 s−1 where the surface area is expressed on a geometric basis. Multiple linear regression analysis of 36 data for chalcopyrite dissolution caused by reaction with Fe(III) in the presence and absence of O2 and Cl− produced the following rate law: r = 10 1.88 e - 48100 / RT [ H + ] 0.8 [ Fe ( III ) ] 0.42 Some data were excluded from these rate law models because they were inconsistent with the overall dataset and/or were relatively unconstrained. There were no published rate data that could be clearly identified as representing chalcopyrite dissolution caused by O2 oxidation alone. Although there are numerous reports that suggest that chalcopyrite dissolution rates are increased by the presence of Cl− in solution, the regression models documented that the effect of Cl− on dissolution was insignificant for this dataset. The rate laws developed in this work are most appropriate for characterizing chalcopyrite dissolution at low pH (⩽3), and will ultimately allow better modeling of acid, sulfate, Fe, and Cu release to the environment.
Isolation of Brucella abortus total RNA from B. abortus-infected murine RAW macrophages.

Brucella is a Gram-negative facultative bacterium that persists intracellularly in macrophages. However, the intracellular survival mechanisms used by Brucella are not fully understood. Isolation of Brucella RNA from infected macrophages has been challenging, and the inability to isolate sufficient Brucella RNA from infected macrophages has contributed to the failure in understanding bacterial transcriptional events. We describe the isolation of sufficient Brucella abortus RNA from its infective host cell environment using osmotic lysis and RNase and DNase digestion. This method takes advantage of the B. abortus cell envelope 1that protects bacterial RNA and DNA. The cell envelope of B. abortus was digested using SDS/proteinase K (PK) that, importantly, inhibits any residual RNase after digesting macrophage RNA permitting the extraction of B. abortus RNA. In our experiments, 4.5 μg of RNA was routinely isolated from 1 ml bacterial culture and 2–9 μg of bacterial RNA from infected macrophages without detectable host cell RNA or DNA contamination. The method is rapid and uses inexpensive, commonly available reagents. Total bacterial RNA was isolated in quantities sufficient for RT-PCR and microarray analysis.
Using the National Geography Standards and Your Local River to Teach About Environmental Issues

Abstract The six essential elements of the National Geography Standards—“The World in Spatial Terms,” “Places and Regions,” “Physical Systems,” “Human Systems,” “Environment and Society,” and the “Uses of Geography”—provide a means to organize an integrated approach to environmental learning that is needed if our students are to understand the full range of issues regarding the environment. Your local river offers an exciting real-life arena in which these issues and concepts can be learned.
A DYNAMIC MODEL FOR WATER AND RELATED LAND RESOURCE PLANNING

. Planning an optimal system of activities for generating economic goods and services within an existing natural resource capacity is a difficult problem to solve. A mathematical programming model with the capacity to check multiple resource demand and supply compatibility over many time periods was developed for the solution to this type of problem. The characteristics of natural resource supply and the demand of activities were utilized to reduce the number of time periods and to minimize the loss of the dynamic reality of the problem. Reduction in the number of time periods extended the capability of the model to the solution of complex resource planning problems without oversimplification.
Morphological and physiological identification of excitatory pontine reticular neurons projecting to the cat abducens nucleus and spinal cord

Abstract The current study provides strong morphological and physiological evidence for identifying reticular neurons which project to the ipsilateral abducens nucleus. In conjunction with recent work in the alert cat, these neurons are believed to be excitatory and are implicated to play a role in the generation of saccadic and/or vestibular fast phase eye movements.
Bank charter values and capital levels: An international comparison

Abstract Although recent regulatory policies, such as the Basle capital requirements, purport to level the international financial playing field, country-specific effects may still endure. These country-specific factors may stem from regulatory policies (such as deposit insurance, access to discount window borrowings, too big to fail and forbearance policies, lender of last resort privileges), or may be the result of market forces (such as monopoly power, cost synergies, information impediments to development of domestic financial markets). In this paper, we utilized a market-based valuation measure, Tobin's Q, to determine whether bank charter values include a country-specific component. Although we found the existence of country-specific components in Spain, Japan, and the United States, their significance declined over the period 1991–1993. We examined whether country-specific factors have an impact on bank capital levels. We isolated two opposing effects: the “moral hazard effect” (implying a negative relationship between charter values and capital levels) and the “market rents effect” (implying a positive relationship between bank charter values and capital levels). We found that the market rents effect dominates for banks in countries with insignificant levels of country-specific components in their charter values, while the moral hazard effect dominates in countries where the country-specific factor is strong. This is consistent with risk enhancing (i.e., capital reducing) bank behavior in countries with subsidized governmental safety nets which enhance bank charter values.
Hippies and cynics

Hippiedom is the latest Cynic apparition. Both make fun of the rat race, money‐making, accumulation, consumerism, uptightness, egodependence, Puritanism, racism, nationalism, sexism. Their rebellions transcend particular times and places and share a common target. Even the expressions of rebellion are largely the same, from long hair to panhandling to sexualizing in public. Of course there are differences. Thus the Cynics were not social dropouts, although remember hippie offshoots like the yippies. Nor did they go for artificially‐induced highs and self‐confidence, though to them guts and freedom (as liberation, not primarily as option or responsibility) were the wildest things, man.
Combinational image watermarking in the spatial and frequency domains

In order to provide more watermarks and to minimize the distortion of the watermarked image, a novel technique using the combinational spatial and frequency domains is presented in this paper. The splitting of the watermark image into two parts, respectively, for spatial and frequency insertion relies on the user's preference and data importance. Experimental results provide the comparisons when different sized watermarks are embedded into a grayscale image. The proposed combinational image watermarking possesses the following advantages. More watermark data can be inserted into the host image, so that the capacity is increased. The splitting of the watermark into two parts makes the degree of protection double. The splitting strategy can be designed even more complicated to be unable to compose. Furthermore, to enhance robustness, a random permutation of the watermark is used to defeat the attacks of signal processing, such as image crops.
Risk factors for atherosclerosis and the development of preatherosclerotic intimal hyperplasia.

Abstract Background Intimal hyperplasia or thickening is considered to be the precursor lesion for atherosclerosis in humans; however, the factors governing its formation are unclear. To gain insight into the etiology of preatherosclerotic intimal hyperplasia, we correlated traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis with the intimal hyperplasia in an atherosclerosis-resistant vessel, the internal thoracic artery. Methods Paired internal thoracic arteries were obtained from 89 autopsies. Multivariate logistic regression and multiple regression models were used to examine the association of preatherosclerotic intimal hyperplasia with traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis: age, gender, hypertension, smoking, body mass index, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia. Results Atherosclerotic lesions consisting of fatty streaks and/or type III intermediate lesions were identified in 19 autopsies. Only age >75 years was found to be significantly correlated with atherosclerotic lesion development (P=.01). Multiple regression model of the intima/media ratio in all 89 cases revealed age >75 years (P Conclusions In the atherosclerosis-resistant internal thoracic artery, preatherosclerotic intimal hyperplasia routinely forms during adulthood after the fourth decade and is associated with at least two traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis: age and smoking. These observations indicate that in some settings, intimal hyperplasia may be part of the disease process of atherosclerosis and that its formation may be influenced by traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis.
Tribological Issues of Polysilicon Surface-Micromachining

Polysilicon surface-micromachining is a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) manufacturing technology where the infrastructure for manufacturing silicon integrated circuits is used to fabricate micro-miniature mechanical devices. This presentation describes a multi-level mechanical polysilicon surface-micromachining technology and includes a discussion of the issues which affect device manufacture and performance. The multi-level technology was developed and is employed primarily to fabricate microactuated mechanisms. The intricate and complex motion offered by these devices is naturally accompanied by various forms of friction and wear in addition to the classical stiction phenomena associated with micromechanical device fabrication and usage.
Stressful life change and delinquent behavior

The study examined life change in relation to self-reported involvement in five specific types of crime and delinquency among members of a noninstitutionalized sample. A group of 531 in-school youths, age 14 to 19, were asked to report how frequently in the 6 months since school started they had performed each of 26 criminal or delinquent acts and how many of 20 potentially stressful life events they had experienced in the year preceding the start of school. Regression analyses showed that, for both males and females, life change added significantly to age and SES in predicting violence, theft, drug use, property damage, and a group of relatively nonserious delinquent acts. On the basis of social psychological theory and research, possible explanatory mechanisms in the link between life stress and specific forms of crime and delinquency are discussed as part of a proposed life stress-deviance model.
Further Data on the Obtaining of Thurstone Scale Values

(1945). Further Data on the Obtaining of Thurstone Scale Values. The Journal of Psychology: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 69-73.
Immigrating to the US: What Brazilian, Latin American and Haitian Women Have to Say About Changes to Their Lifestyle That May be Associated with Obesity

Our goal was to explore the perceived determinants of obesity in Brazilian, Latin American and Haitian women. This is part of an ongoing community-based participatory intervention. Focus groups by immigrant group were conducted and themes extracted. Women expressed differences in beliefs, attitudes, and barriers regarding diet and physical activity in the US versus their home country. Participants thought food in the US is “less natural,” there is less time for preparation, and there is more variety. The weather is a barrier to physical activity in the US and work is more physically demanding. Job-related efforts were not considered physical activity. They reported higher levels of stress, less control of their time and less social support in the US. Providing immigrants with appropriate support and education early in the acculturation process has the potential to help prevent obesity.
Some chemical properties of carboxymethyl derivatives of amino acids.

Abstract Tritium-labeled carboxymethyl derivatives of various functional groups in proteins show ready exchange of the tritium label when exposed to standard protein hydrolysis conditions (6 n HCl, 21 h, 110 °C). While N ϵ -[ 3 H]carboxymethyl lysine does not show any tritium exchange, the two N -[ 3 H]carboxymethyl histidine derivatives lose their tritium with a half time of about 15 h, and S -[ 3 H]carboxymethyl cysteine loses its tritium with a half time of about 1.5 h. The tritium exchange of S -[ 3 H]carboxymethyl methionine was so fast that the derivative could not be prepared with any of the tritium label intact. The rate of exchange for this compound was consequently determined by following the disappearance of the methylene NMR signal when S -carboxymethyl methionine was dissolved in D 2 O. The half time for the exchange was about 12 min. Mechanisms involving either a sulfonium ion or enolization of the protonated conjugate carboxylic acid appear to give a satisfactory explanation of the relative stability of the different derivatives. The practical use of the differential rate of hydrogen exchange as a means of establishing rapidly and with small quantities of material the site of carboxymethylation in unknown proteins is suggested.
Consolidated Conversion of Hulled Barley into Fermentable Sugars Using Chemical, Thermal, and Enzymatic (CTE) Treatment

A novel process using chemical, thermal, and enzymatic treatment for conversion of hulled barley into fermentable sugars was developed. The purpose of this process is to convert both lignocellulosic polysaccharides and starch in hulled barley grains into fermentable sugars simultaneously without a need for grinding and hull separation. In this study, hulled barley grains were treated with 0.1 and 1.0 wt.-% sulfuric acid at various temperatures ranging from 110 to 170 °C in a 63-ml flow-through packed-bed stainless steel reactor. After sulfuric acid pretreatment, simultaneous conversion of lignocellulose and starch in the barley grains into fermentable sugars was performed using an enzyme cocktail, which included α-amylase, glucoamylase, cellulase, and β-glucosidase. Both starch and non-starch polysaccharides in the pre-treated barley grains were readily converted to fermentable sugars. The treated hulled barley grains, including their hull, were completely hydrolyzed to fermentable sugars with recovery of almost 100% of the available glucose and xylose. The pretreatment conditions of this chemical, thermal, and enzymatic (CTE) process for achieving maximum yield of fermentable sugars were 1.0 wt.% sulfuric acid and 110 °C. In addition to starch, the acid pretreatment also retained most of the available proteins in solid form, which is essential for subsequent production of fuel ethanol and high protein distiller’s dried grains with solubles co-product.
Aging alters the functional expression of enzymatic and non-enzymatic anti-oxidant defense systems in testicular rat Leydig cells.

Abstract In aged rats, trophic hormone-stimulated testosterone secretion by isolated Leydig cells is greatly reduced. The current studies were initiated to establish a functional link between excess oxidative stress and the age-related decline in steroidogenesis. Highly purified Leydig cell preparations obtained from 5-month (young mature) and 24-month (old) Sprague–Dawley rats were employed to measure and compare levels of lipid peroxidation, non-enzymatic (α-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, and reduced/oxidized glutathione) and enzymatic (Cu, Zn-superoxide dismutase, Cu, Zn-SOD; Mn-superoxide dismutase, Mn-SOD; glutathione peroxidase-1, GPX-1, and catalase, CAT) anti-oxidants. The extent of lipid perxoidation (oxidative damage) in isolated membrane fractions was quantified by measuring the content of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) under basal conditions, or in the presence of non-enzymatic or enzymatic pro-oxidants. Membrane preparations isolated from Leydig cells from old rats exhibited two- to three-fold enhancement of basal TBARS formation. However, aging had no significant effect on TBARS formation in response to either non-enzymatic or enzymatic pro-oxidants. Among the non-enzymatic anti-oxidants, the levels of reduced gultathione were drastically reduced during aging, while levels of α-tocopherol and ascorbic acid remained unchanged. Both steady-state mRNA levels and catalytic activities of Cu, Zn-SOD, Mn-SOD, and GPX-1 were also significantly lower in Leydig cells from 24-month-old rats as compared with 5-month-old control rats. In contrast, neither mRNA levels nor enzyme activity of catalase was sensitive to aging. From these data we conclude that aging is accompanied by reduced expression of key enzymatic and non-enzymatic anti-oxidants in Leydig cells leading to excessive oxidative stress and enhanced oxidative damage (lipid peroxidation). It is postulated that such excessive oxidative insult may contribute to the observed age-related decline in testosterone secretion by testicular Leydig cells.
Effects of near-UV radiation on the protein of the grey squirrel lens.

In vivo exposure of grey squirrels to 40W BLB illumination resulted in alterations in the state of the lens crystallins; mainly in the outer layer of the lens. HPLC revealed an increase of the void volume or crosslinked crystallins and an increase in peptides with molecular weights lower than 20,000 d. In vitro exposure of squirrel lens aqueous extracts to Woods lamp radiation (predominantly 365 nm) led to similar but more exaggerated changes as viewed by high performance liquid chromatography. When viewed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), soluble protein crosslinking was also observed. The near-UV absorbing chromophores of low molecular weight present in the lens served as photo-sensitizers that enhanced the protein changes. Sodium azide inhibited the changes, indicating a role for singlet oxygen in the crosslinking.
The Transmission of AIDS: The Case of the Infected Cell

CURRENT approaches to preventing infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have focused on the retrovirus itself. However, biologic and epidemiologic studies of HIV and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) indicate that more emphasis should be placed on the virus-infected cell. Several groups of researchers 1-10 have demonstrated the presence of HIV in many different hematopoietic cells, including T and B lymphocytes and macrophages, as See also p 3023. well as in cells (macrophages and endothelial and glial cells) of the brain. These infected cells can survive and serve as reservoirs (factories) for continual virus production and spread. When found in body fluids, they can transfer the infection to other individuals. T-helper lymphocytes generally die after HIV infection, 1-4 but some can replicate HIV to high titer in culture without undergoing cell death. 11 Thus, they too could serve as a source of virus transmission. In studies from our laboratory,
Emerging media and challenges in Chinese communities

Media technologies are adopted and promoted by many countries as a trigger for economic growth. Governments of developing countries and international agencies alike view the technologies as a tool ...
Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and survival of HIV infected patients with end-stage renal disease.

Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and survival of HIV infected patients with end-stage renal disease. As the number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients has increased in the U.S., the number of infected patients treated for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has stabilized at about 1 to 2% of the hemodialyzed population. Little has been written regarding the role of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) in the treatment of HIV infected patients with ESRD. To evaluate the effectiveness of CAPD as a long term therapy for HIV infected patients with ESRD, we reviewed our ESRD program's experience. We entered 392 patients from its inception in February 1984 until April 1992. Thirty-one, or 7.9% of our population were HIV infected. Twenty, or 64.5% had stage IV infection. Patients were entered into our chronic hemodialysis (HD) or CAPD program according to standard clinical criteria. Eight HIV infected patients elected to start CAPD, while 23 patients were treated exclusively with HD. The proportion of stage IV infected patients was similar in both treatment modality groups. HIV infected ESRD patients were younger than non-HIV infected patients (37.5 ± 9.7 vs. 49.8 ± 15.7 years, respectively, P
Residence of Adenylyl Cyclase Type 8 in Caveolae Is Necessary but Not Sufficient for Regulation by Capacitative Ca2+Entry

Ca2+-sensitive adenylyl cyclases (ACs) depend on capacitative Ca2+ entry (CCE) for their regulation. Residence of the endogenous Ca2+-inhibitable adenylyl cyclase of C6-2B glioma cells in cholesterol-enriched caveolae is essential for its regulation by CCE (Fagan, K. A., Smith, K. E., and Cooper, D. M. F. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 26530–26537). In the present study, we established that depletion of cellular cholesterol ablated the regulation by CCE of a Ca2+-stimulable adenylyl cyclase, AC8, heterologously expressed in HEK293 cells. We considered the possibility that a calmodulin-binding domain in the N terminus of AC8, which is not required for in vitro regulation by Ca2+, might play a targeting role. Deletion and mutation of the N terminus did attenuate the enzyme's sensitivity to CCE without altering its in vitro responsiveness to Ca2+/calmodulin. Both N terminus-deleted AC8 and wild type AC8 were expressed at the plasma membrane, as shown by imaging analysis of green fluorescence protein-tagged constructs. However, not only wild type AC8 but also the CCE-insensitive mutants occurred in caveolar fractions of the plasma membranes, even though a Ca2+-insensitive adenylyl cyclase, AC7, was excluded from caveolae. Finally, the AC8 mutants were no more responsive to nonphysiological elevation of Ca2+ than the wild type. We conclude that (i) not all adenylyl cyclases reside in caveolae, (ii) the calmodulin-binding domain in the N terminus of AC8 does not play a role in caveolar targeting, (iii) the N terminus does play a role in associating AC8 with factors that confer sensitivity to CCE, and (iv) residence of Ca2+-sensitive adenylyl cyclases in caveolae is essential but not sufficient for regulation by CCE.
Semi-Empirical Potential Methods for Atomistic Simulations of Metals and Their Construction Procedures

General theory of semi-empirical potential methods including embedded-atom method and modified-embedded-atom method (MEAM) is reviewed. The procedures to construct these potentials are also reviewed. A multi-objective optimization (MOO) procedure has been developed to construct MEAM potentials with minimal manual fitting. This procedure has been applied successfully to develop a new MEAM potential for magnesium. The MOO procedure is designed to optimally reproduce multiple target values that consist of important material properties obtained from experiments and first-principle calculations based on density-functional theory. The optimized target quantities include elastic constants, cohesive energies, surface energies, vacancy-formation energies, and the forces on atoms in a variety of structures. The accuracy of the present potential is assessed by computing several material properties of Mg including their thermal properties. We found that the new MEAM potential shows a significant improvement over previously published potentials, especially for the atomic forces and melting temperature calculations.
Image classification using wavelet features

Frequently, real world data is degraded by under sampling of intrinsic periodicities, or by sampling with unevenly spaced intervals. This results in dropout or missing data, and such data sets are particularly difficult to process using conventional image processing methods. In many cases, one must still extract as much information as possible from a given data set, although available data may be sparse or noisy. In such cases, we suggest algorithms based on wavelet transform will offer a viable alternative as some early work in the area has indicated. An architecture of an image classification software system is suggested to implement an improved scheme for the analysis, representation, processing and classification of images. The scheme is based on considering the segments of images as wavelets so that small details in the images can be exploited. The objective is to implement this scheme automatically and rapidly decompose a 2D image into a combination of elemental images so that an array of processing methods can be applied. Thus, the scheme offers potential utility for analysis of images and compression of image data. Moreover, the elemental images may be considered patterns that the system is required to recognize, so that the scheme offers potential utility for industrial and military applications involving robot vision and/or automatic recognition of targets.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Hepatorenal glycogenosis (type I glycogenosis) and carcinoma of the liver.

The second reported example of malignant hepatoma developing in a patient with type I glycogen storage disease is presented. Details of the clinical course and of the ultrastructural and biochemical characteristics of the tumor are described.
Impact of California firearms sales laws and dealer regulations on the illegal diversion of guns

Objective The available evidence suggests that more restrictive state firearm sales laws can reduce criminal access to guns. California has firearm-related laws that are more stringent than many other states and regulates its retail firearms dealers to a unique degree. This research seeks to examine the effect of more restrictive state gun laws and regulations on the illegal diversion of guns to criminals. Design Survival analyses are used to determine whether state firearm sales laws, particularly California9s legal context and regulatory regime, impact the distribution of time-to-crime of recovered firearms in that state relative to other US states. Setting USA. Subjects 225 392 traced firearms, where the first retail purchasers and the gun possessors were different individuals, recovered by law enforcement agencies between 2003 and 2006. Results The increased stringency of state-level firearms laws and regulations leads to consistently older firearms being recovered. California was associated with the oldest recovered crime guns compared with guns associated with other states. These patterns persisted regardless of whether firearms were first purchased within the recovery state or in another state. Conclusions These findings suggest that more restrictive gun sales laws and gun dealer regulations do make it more difficult for criminals to acquire new guns first purchased at retail outlets.
A subspace learning approach to evaluating the performance of image fusion algorithms

The fusion of multi-spectral images is an important pre-processing operation for scientists and engineers seeking to design robust detection, recognition and identification (DRI) systems. Due to the multitude of pixellevel fusion algorithms available, there is an extreme need for reliable metrics to analyze their performance. Most recently, subspace learning methods have been applied to the field of information fusion for object recognition and classification. This paper aims to extend the capabilities of existing nonlinear dimensionality reduction algorithms to a new area, evaluating the performance of image fusion algorithms. We prove that distances between points in the low dimensional embedding are essentially equivalent to the results given by estimating the amount of information transfered from source images to resultant fused images (normalized mutual information).