cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pilot Study to Test the Efficacy and Safety of Recombinant Factor VIIa (rFVIIa, NovoSeven™) in the Treatment of Refractory Hemorrhagic Cystitis Following High Dose Chemotherapy.

Background: Hemorrhagic cystitis (HC) is a known complication of high-dose cyclophosphamide, which is part of the conditioning regimen for stem cell transplantation, and is associated with significant morbidity. Treatment of HC is frequently unsatisfactory, leading to prolonged hospitalization and utilization of health care resources. High-dose recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa) is used as a hemostatic agent in patients with hemophilia with inhibitors. As rFVIIa enhances the generation of thrombin on activated platelets and facilitates the formation of a stable fibrin plug that is resistant to premature lysis, we conducted a pilot study to assess its efficacy and safety in the treatment of HC. Methods: Subjects between 18–65 years with severe HC that was judged unresponsive to (a) optimization of hemostatic parameters, and (b) a trial of at least 24-hours of continuous bladder irrigation using a standardized protocol were eligible. Consented subjects were administered 80 μg/kg of rFVIIa for the first dose, and 120 μg/kg every 3 hours for up to 2 additional doses if hematuria was persistent. Response was evaluated by monitoring urine color photographically and by measuring urine hemoglobin content, using spectrophotometer. Subjects were followed for 24 hours. Complete response was defined as complete clearing of the color of urine at any time point in the 24-hour study period, and partial response was defined as slowing of hematuria, as evidenced by lightening of the color of urine. Results: Of the 7 subjects who participated in the study, 4 had a complete response, 2 had a partial response, and 1 had no response. The response duration was temporary, and all the subjects required the administration of the three doses of rFVIIa. No major adverse effects were encountered. Conclusion: rFVIIa appears to be effective in temporarily abating bleeding in HC. Further trials should include multiple dosing and/or addition of antifibrinolytic agents for a more durable effect.
Dependable Infrastructures and Data Managers for Sensor Networks

This paper provides some directions for developing infrastructures and data managers for dependable sensor networks. By dependable systems we mean systems that adapt to the environment and are secure, fault tolerant and process data in real-time as needed. We start with a discussion of the need for dependable sensor information management and then provide an overview of dependable infrastructures and data managers for such networks. We also discuss some security issues for sensor information management. Finally some directions for further research are given.
Hypertensive Urgencies and Emergencies

As persons age, their life styles change, and they become more affluent and obese. If this trend continues, the incidence of associated hypertension (HTN) will continue to increase worldwide [1]. At the same time, despite widely recognized dangers of uncontrolled HTN, it is still under-treated in most patients. Such inadequate HTN control is seen not only in closely followed populations, but also in closely monitored anti-HTN drug trials [1]. Moreover, cardiovascular risk remains high in the majority of people with HTN, whether they are treated or not.
Symmetrization of the nuclear wavefunctions defined by the quantum trajectory dynamics

In a rigorous quantum-mechanical (QM) description of indistinguishable particles, the correct symmetry is often built-in into the form of an approximate wavefunction, with the electronic wavefunctions constructed as Slater determinants of the single-particle functions being the prime example. In contrast, when evaluating QM effects for the nuclei, often described by approximate wavefunctions of full dimensionality, the wavefunction symmetry can be included directly into calculation of expectation values. The straightforward implementation, however, may be impractical for a large system due to factorial scaling of particle permutations. In this work, the leading correction due to the wavefunction symmetrization within the quantum trajectory (QT) framework is presented. The correction is based on the non-symmetrized wavefunction evolved using QT dynamics with empirical friction, yielding the lowest energy states. Use of symmetry improves the accuracy and efficiency of this dynamics approach as shown on model systems of up to four dimensions.
Promiscuous activation of adrenoreceptors by dopamine in modulation of GABAergic transmission in the entorhinal cortex

W the entorhinal cortex (EC) receives profuse dopaminergic innervations from the midbrain, the effects of dopamine (DA) on GABAergic interneurons in this brain region have not been determined. We probed the actions of DA on GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission in the EC. Application of DA increased the frequencies not the amplitudes of sIPSCs and mIPSCs recorded from entorhinal principal neurons but slightly reduced the amplitude of the evoked IPSCs. The effects of DA were unexpectedly found to be mediated by α1 adrenoreceptors not by DA receptors. DA endogenously released by application of amphetamine also increased sIPSC frequency. Ca2+ influx via T-type Ca2+ channels was required for DA-induced facilitation of sIPSCs and mIPSCs. DA depolarized and enhanced the firing frequency of action potentials of interneurons. DA-induced depolarization was independent of extracellular Na+ and Ca2+ and did not require the functions of Ih channels and T-type Ca2+ channels. DA-generated currents showed a reversal potential close to the K+ reversal potential and inward rectification suggesting that DA inhibits the inward rectifier K+ channels (Kirs). Our results demonstrate that DA facilitates GABA release by activating α1 adrenoreceptors to inhibit Kirs which further depolarize interneurons resulting in secondary Ca2+ influx via T-type Ca2+ channels.
385. Inhibiting the Myostatin Signaling Pathway using CRISPR/Cas9-Based Repressors

Inhibition of myostatin signaling is a potential method to enhance skeletal muscle growth and has been proposed as a strategy to treat muscle weakness associated with sarcopenia, cachexia, and muscular dystrophies. Current approaches under clinical investigation for inhibiting the myostatin pathway rely on systemic administration of soluble factors, including myostatin blocking antibodies and soluble myostatin receptors. Treatment with these protein-based inhibitors has led to enhanced muscle mass in mouse models of muscular dystrophy and cachexia, but has demonstrated limited efficacy and some adverse side effects in subsequent clinical trials. We hypothesized that a targeted gene regulation strategy to localize inhibition of the myostatin pathway to skeletal muscle fibers may increase the effectiveness and safety of this therapy. The RNA-guided CRISPR/Cas9 system has emerged as a promising platform for targeted gene regulation. Fusion of catalytically inactive, “dead” Cas9 (dCas9) to the Kruppel-associated box (KRAB) domain generates a synthetic repressor capable of highly specific silencing of target genes. dCas9-KRAB repressors can be employed in gene therapy to silence detrimental gene products, repress oncogenes, inhibit viral replication, and treat dominant negative diseases. However, gene delivery of dCas9-KRAB to skeletal muscle in vivo is challenging because the size of the S. pyogenes dCas9 and KRAB domain fusion exceeds the packaging limit of standard AAV vectors. Recently, a smaller Cas9 protein derived from S. aureus was described for AAV delivery and in vivo gene editing. We generated a S. aureus dCas9-KRAB fusion and targeted the myostatin receptor, Acvr2b, for silencing. In cultured mouse myoblasts, S. aureus dCas9-KRAB potently repressed Acvr2b expression by qPCR and resulted in reduced myotube formation following differentiation compared to controls. The S. aureus dCas9-KRAB repressor was packaged into AAV vectors and expressed efficiently in vitro in cultured myoblasts and in vivo following direct injection into the mouse tibialis anterior muscle. Ongoing studies will determine the effects of transcriptional silencing of Acvr2b on myotube diameter in vitro and the efficiency of Acvr2b silencing achieved by engineered dCas9-KRAB repressors in vivo. These studies establish how transcriptional modulation with the CRISPR/Cas9 system can be used to investigate potential therapeutic gene targets for treating neuromuscular disorders.
Rattus (Mastomys) natalensis (African mouse, mastomys)

Identification of the X chromosome is unequivocal. In females, the two X chromosomes may differ in morphology, one being more metacentric than the other, presumably the result of differential heteropycnotic behavior.
Ambient temperature-mediated changes in hepatic gene expression of a mammalian herbivore (Neotoma lepida).

Herbivores regularly ingest natural toxins produced by plants as a defence against herbivory. Recent work suggests that compound toxicity is exacerbated at higher ambient temperatures. This phenomenon, known as temperature-dependent toxicity (TDT), is the likely result of decreased liver function at warmer temperatures; however, the underlying cause of TDT remains speculative. In the present study, we compared the effects of temperature and dietary plant toxins on differential gene expression in the liver of an herbivorous rodent (Neotoma lepida), using species-specific microarrays. Expression profiles revealed a greater number of differentially expressed genes at an ambient temperature below the thermal neutral zone for N. lepida (22°C) compared to one within (27°C). Genes and pathways upregulated at 22°C were related to growth and biosynthesis, whereas those upregulated at 27°C were associated with gluconeogenesis, apoptosis and protein misfolding, suggestive of a stressed state for the liver. Additionally, few genes associated with xenobiotic metabolism were induced when woodrats ingested plant toxins compared to nontoxic diets, regardless of temperature. Taken together, the results highlight the important role of ambient temperature on gene expression profiles in the desert woodrat. Temperatures just below the thermal neutral zone might be a favourable state for liver metabolism. Furthermore, the reduction in the number of genes expressed at a temperature within the thermal neutral zone indicates that liver function may be reduced at temperatures that are not typically considered as thermally stressful. Understanding how herbivorous mammals will respond to ambient temperature is imperative to accurately predict the impacts of climate change.
The Changing Safety Net for Low-Income Parents and Their Children: Structural or Cyclical Changes in Income Support Policy?

Refundable tax credits and food assistance are the largest transfer programs available to able-bodied working poor and near-poor families in the United States, and simultaneous participation in these programs has more than doubled since the early 2000s. To understand this growth, we construct a series of two-year panels from the 1981–2013 waves of the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement to estimate the effect of state labor-market conditions, federal and state transfer program policy choices, and household demographics governing joint participation in food and refundable tax credit programs. Overall, changing policy drives much of the increase in the simultaneous, biennial use of food assistance and refundable tax credits. This stands in stark contrast from the factors accounting for the growth in food assistance alone, where cyclical and structural labor market factors account for at least one-half of the growth, and demographics play a more prominent role. Moreover, since 2000, the business cycle factors as the leading determinant in biennial participation decisions in food programs and refundable tax credits, suggesting a recent strengthening in the relationship between economic conditions and transfer programs.
Case 3: Acute Hypotonia, Hypothermia, and Altered Mental Status in a 10-month-old Girl

1. Dan Beardmore, DO* 1. *Albert Einstein Medical Center and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA A 10-month-old previously healthy girl presents to the emergency department after being found unresponsive by her parents. The parents report she was a little fussy last night when they put her to bed, but it was not out of the ordinary. This morning she was found unresponsive to verbal or physical stimuli, completely limp, and blankly staring, and they immediately rushed her to the hospital. She has no medical problems, takes no medication, has had regular follow-up with her pediatrician, and all her shots are up to date. She has been hospitalized only once previously, a less than 3-day stay before turning 1 month old, for a fever and to rule out sepsis. She was then discharged with normal laboratory values and only 2 days of antibiotic drug therapy for a presumed viral illness. On arrival at the emergency department her immediate general assessment shows her eyes open and blankly staring, with complete loss of tone. Her vital signs include rectal temperature of 95.3°F (35.2°C), heart rate of 100 beats/min, respiratory rate of 30 breaths/min, pulse oximetry …
The Second Wave of Concession Bargaining: The New Ultra-Concession Bargaining

Concession bargaining reappeared with great intensity and frequency at the start of the twenty-first century. We witnessed a new ultra-concession bargaining that was not based on the usual assumptions of the 1980s first-wave concession bargaining. Ultra-concession bargaining began at the airlines, was widely adapted, again, by the Detroit Three (the Detroit automakers, i.e., General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) and the auto parts makers, and then spread through manufacturing. It took hold in the public sector as employers tried not only to cut labor costs to reduce budget gaps but also to weaken and displace unions as well. Six brief bargaining profiles and a review of the union upheaval in Wisconsin suggest the diversity and intensity of the new collective bargaining.
Autonomous visualization of real environments for telepresence applications

The autonomous, noncontact creation of virtual environments from existing, real environments is described. The technique uses structured light to provide direct estimation of 3D surface patch parameters. Active laser cameras are used to determine 3D object models, and passive camera images are used to generate color and texture. This process, termed virtualization, has immediate application to providing telepresence in previously unmodeled or unstructured environments. An example of the process is shown and directions for future research are indicated.
RETRAN Analysis of the Turbine Trip Tests Performed at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Unit 2

A model based on the RETRAN code was developed for analyzing the turbine trip tests performed at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Unit 2, near the end of the second fuel cycle. Special feature...
Die rheumatische Hand

Schwellungen, Schmerzen der Fingergelenke und Behinderungen fuhren die Patienten zum Arzt. Solange trotz Deformierungen der Finger die Beschwerden fehlen, wird kaum ein Arzt konsultiert. Die Frage, die sich beim Erstkontakt mit dem Patienten stellt, ist die vordringlichste: Ist es Arthritis oder ist es Arthrose? Viele der Finger-Handgelenkserkrankungen oder Polyarthropathien konnen dabei auch haufig verwechselt werden. In der Folge werden die wichtigsten Arthropathien im Bereich der Hand besprochen, und es wird auf grundlegende klinische Unterscheidungsmerkmale aufmerksam gemacht.
Testing the Neuroevolutionary System

In this chapter we test the newly created basic neuroevolutionary system, by first testing each of its mutation operators, and then by applying the whole system to the XOR mimicking problem. Though the XOR problem test will run to completion and without errors, a more detailed, manual analysis of the evolved topologies and genotypes of the fit agents will show a number of bugs to be present. The origins of the bugs is then analyzed, and the errors are fixed. Afterwards, the updated neuroevolutionary system is then successfully re-tested.
Review of Larissa M. L. Zaleska Onyshkevych, compiler, editor, and with introductory essays. An Anthology of Modern Ukrainian Drama.

Book review of Larissa M. L. Zaleska Onyshkevych, compiler, editor, and with introductory essays. An Anthology of Modern Ukrainian Drama. CIUS P, 2012. xviii, 522 pp. $64.95, paper.
Defining CRISPR-Cas9 genome-wide nuclease activities with CIRCLE-seq.

Circularization for in vitro reporting of cleavage effects by sequencing (CIRCLE-seq) is a sensitive and unbiased method for defining the genome-wide activity (on-target and off-target) of CRISPR–Cas9 nucleases by selective sequencing of nuclease-cleaved genomic DNA (gDNA). Here, we describe a detailed experimental and analytical protocol for CIRCLE-seq. The principle of our method is to generate a library of circularized gDNA with minimized numbers of free ends. Highly purified gDNA circles are treated with CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes, and nuclease-linearized DNA fragments are then ligated to adapters for high-throughput sequencing. The primary advantages of CIRCLE-seq as compared with other in vitro methods for defining genome-wide genome editing activity are (i) high enrichment for sequencing nuclease-cleaved gDNA/low background, enabling sensitive detection with low sequencing depth requirements; and (ii) the fact that paired-end reads can contain complete information on individual nuclease cleavage sites, enabling use of CIRCLE-seq in species without high-quality reference genomes. The entire protocol can be completed in 2 weeks, including time for gRNA cloning, sequence verification, in vitro transcription, library preparation, and sequencing. This protocol describes CIRCLE-seq (circularization for in vitro reporting of cleavage effects by sequencing), a sensitive and unbiased method for defining the on-target and off-target activity of CRISPR–Cas9 nucleases genome-wide.
Relationship Between F2 Slope and Intelligibility in Parkinson's Disease: Lexical Effects and Listening Environment

Purpose There is a complex relationship between speech production and intelligibility of speech. The current study sought to evaluate the interaction of the factors of lexical characteristics, list...
Solving Mathematical Problems: A Personal Perspective

Preface 1. Strategies in problem solving 2. Examples in number theory 3. Examples in algebra and analysis 4. Euclidean geometry 5. Analytic geometry 6. Sundry examples References Index
Hospitalization Rates in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in the State of Maryland (MD): No Change Since Approval of Hydroxyurea (HU).

Background : In 1998 the FDA approved the use of HU for use in patients (pts) with SCD. The trial on which the approval was based demonstrated that adult pts that were on HU had fewer hospitalizations, fewer episodes of acute chest syndrome and required fewer transfusions than those patients that were not on HU. The authors of this original study were able to calculate a cost savings of over 20 million dollars a year if every eligible patient in the US were taking HU. There is currently no literature that addresses the use of HU outside the setting of a clinical study. Methods: We reviewed the inpatient and outpatient charts of all adults with SCD, admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) in FY2003. We also reviewed hospital admission data for MD in FY2003 and FY1995, using data from the MD Health Services Cost Review Commission. Data was pulled using the following ICD9 codes 28260,28261,28263,28269,28262. An estimate of total number of individuals with SCD in MD was made using 1990 and 2000 census data and a prevalence of SCD of 1 in 400 African Americans (AA). Fisher’s exact test was used to compare proportions. As readmission data was unavailable we assumed that the rates of readmission were similar for 1995 and 2003. Results : Review of the JHH data (Table 1) showed that 25% of pts with SCD accounted for half of the hospital days for all pts with SCD and almost 40% of total charges. 66% of eligible pts with Hgb SS were not receiving HU. The reasons for not being on HU varied; 4/9 did not have regular outpatient follow-up, 1 was pregnant, 2 had compliance issues related to side effects, 1 patient refused to take HU and 1 patient started during FY2003. For the pts with hgb SC disease, the indications for use of HU are not established and in our pt cohort those that had received HU in the past did not attain significant benefit without toxicity. Based on US census data the number of individuals of African decent, 18 years and older with SCD in MD for 2003 was 2760. By comparison the number estimated to be in MD in 1995 was 2361. The number of adult admissions for the diagnosis of SCD to hospitals in MD in FY1995 was 1313 and in FY2003 it was 1961. The number of admissions per estimated AA adult with SCD in MD for 1995 was .56 and for 2003 was .71. (p Conclusions : Hospital generated data for MD demonstrates that admissions and costs of caring for adult sickle cell pts have increased significantly since the approval of HU by the FDA. Data from JHH shows that a large number of eligible patients are not taking HU. Further investigation into the issues affecting hospitalizations of individuals with SCD and the use of HU in this patient population is warranted. Characteristics of SCD Patients Admitted to JHH
Discussion of “A novel approach to the analysis of spatial and functional data over complex domains”

I commend Dr. Sangalli on her interesting article that proposes and explores methodologies for analyzing spatial and functional data over complex domains. The demand for these techniques is driven ...
Additivity of apparent and standardized ileal digestibility of phosphorus in mixed diets containing corn and soybean meal fed to broiler chickens.

Abstract Phosphorus (P) is an integral part of diet formulation for broiler chickens as P is required for various biochemical processes essential to life. A study was designed to examine the additivity of apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of P in mixed diets containing corn and soybean meal (SBM) with or without phytase supplementation. Birds were fed a commercial starter diet from day 0 to 21 after hatching and then allotted to 7 dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design with the BW as a blocking factor. Four semipurified diets were prepared to contain corn or SBM as the sole source of P with or without the addition of phytase at 1,000 phytase units/kg of diet. Two mixed diets were also prepared to contain corn and SBM with or without the addition of phytase at 1,000 phytase units/kg diet. A P-free diet (PFD) was formulated to determine the basal ileal endogenous loss of P. There were 16 replicate cages of the PFD and 8 replicate cages of the 6 experimental diets, with 8 birds per replicate cage for a total of 512 birds. Diets were fed for 3 d. The ileal digesta of birds were collected from the distal two-thirds of the ileum on day 24 after hatching. The SID of P in corn and SBM were 52.2 and 65.4%, respectively (SEM = 1.37). The addition of phytase improved (P
Attitudinal Attributes of Professionalism in Health Sciences Librarians

The establishment of professional credentials within health sciences librarianship has become an important initiative; however, the examination of librarian attitudes about professionalism has not ...
COVID-19 Pandemic and the Burden of Acute Kidney Injury: The Known and the Unknown.

None: The present pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome is caused by the coronavirus (2019-nCoV), commonly called COVID-19. Starting from China, it has spread worldwide, causing major morbidity and mortality. It primarily involves the pulmonary system, but other organ systems are not spared. Treatment is still elusive and evolving. The exact pathogenesis of renal damage from COVID-19 virus and the magnitude of renal failure in this infection are not very clear. PubMed was searched to identify published literature from 2019 to present using the following keywords: COVID-19, acute kidney injury, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, chronic kidney disease, renal replacement therapy, and dialysis. Cited references were also used to further identify relevant articles and literature elsewhere on the web. This review looks at the burden and influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the kidneys and on the implications it will have on public health planning.
Diffusion-based determination of protein homodimerization on reconstituted membrane surfaces.

The transient interactions between cellular components, particularly on membrane surfaces, are critical in the proper function of many biochemical reactions. For example, many signaling pathways involve dimerization, oligomerization, or other types of clustering of signaling proteins as a key step in the signaling cascade. However, it is often experimentally challenging to directly observe and characterize the molecular mechanisms such interactions―the greatest difficulty lies in the fact that living cells have an unknown number of background processes that may or may not participate in the molecular process of interest, and as a consequence, it is usually impossible to definitively correlate an observation to a well-defined cellular mechanism. One of the experimental methods that can quantitatively capture these interactions is through membrane reconstitution, whereby a lipid bilayer is fabricated to mimic the membrane environment, and the biological components of interest are systematically introduced, without unknown background processes. This configuration allows the extensive use of fluorescence techniques, particularly fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy. In this review, we describe how the equilibrium diffusion of two proteins, K-Ras4B and the PH domain of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk), on fluid lipid membranes can be used to determine the kinetics of homodimerization reactions. [BMB Reports 2021; 54(3): 157-163]
AR and ARMA model order selection for time-series modeling with ImageNet classification

Abstract We propose model order selection methods for autoregressive (AR) and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) time-series modeling based on ImageNet classifications with a 2-dimensional convolutional neural network (2-D CNN). We designed two models for two realistic scenarios: (1) a general model which emulates the scenario that validation and test datasets do not necessarily have the same dynamics as the training data, (2) a specific model which emulates the opposite scenario—the validation and test datasets share the dynamics of the training data. The results were compared to those of both Akaike Information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian Information criterion (BIC). Using simulation examples, we trained 2-D CNN-based Inception-v3 and ResNet50-v2 models for either AR or ARMA order selection for each of the two scenarios. The proposed ResNet50-v2 to use both time-frequency and the original time series data outperformed AIC and BIC for all scenarios. For the general model, the average of relative error reduction (ARER) when compared to the BIC method in the clean and three noisy environments was 19.07% (±14.22%) for the AR order for an AR process, and 5.67% (±2.83%) for the ARMA order for an ARMA process. The ARERs significantly improved to 73.92% (±30.95%) and 65.58% (±38.61%) for the AR and ARMA models, respectively, for the specific model scenario.
Donor Anti-Spike Immunity is Related to Recipient Recovery and Can Predict the Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma Units

Abstract Background The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV2 that causes COVID-19 has resulted in the death of more than 2.31 million people within the last year and yet no cure exists. Whereas passive immunization with COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) provides a safe and viable option, selection of optimal units for therapy and lack of clear therapeutic benefit from transfusion remain as barriers to the use of CCP. Study design and methods To identify plasma that is expected to benefit recipients, we measured anti-SARS-CoV2 antibody levels using clinically available serological assays and correlated with the neutralizing activity of CCP from donors. Neutralizing titer of plasma samples was measured by assaying infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein pseudotyped retrovirus particles in the presence of dilutions of plasma samples. We also used this assay to identify evidence of passive transfusion of neutralizing activity in CCP recipients. Results Viral neutralization and anti-spike protein antibodies in 109 samples from 87 plasma donors were highly varied but modestly correlated with each other. Recipients who died of COVID-19 were found to have been transfused with units with lower anti-spike antibody levels and neutralizing activity. Passive transfer of neutralization activity was documented in 62% of antibody naive plasma recipients. Conclusions Since viral neutralization is the goal of CCP transfusion, our observations not only support the use of anti-spike SARS-CoV2 serology tests to identify beneficial CCP units, but also support the therapeutic value of convalescent plasma with high titers of anti-spike antibodies.
A radiographic study of the distal femoral epiphysis

Abstract Purpose Previous studies have described the complex undulation pattern in the distal femoral physis. We investigated whether standard radiographs can visualize these landmarks, in order to guide hardware placement in the distal immature femur. Methods We studied 36 cadaveric immature femora in specimens 3 to 18 years of age. Anteroposterior (AP) and lateral radiographs were obtained with and without flexible radiodense markers placed on the major undulations and were analyzed to determine the relative height or depth of each topographical landmark. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated between measurements taken with and without markers for each undulation on each view. Results Examination of the specimens confirmed a central peak and anteromedial and posterolateral valleys as the major physeal structures. AP radiographs without markers correlated well with marked AP radiographs for all three landmarks (ICC = 0.92, 0.92, 0.91), but the lateral radiographs had lower correlatio...
Differential invariants of maximally symmetric submanifolds

Let G be a Lie group acting smoothly on a manifoldM . A closed, nonsingular submanifold S ⊂M is called maximally symmetric if its symmetry subgroup GS ⊂ G has the maximal possible dimension, namely dimGS = dimS, and hence S = GS · z0 is an orbit of GS . Maximally symmetric submanifolds are characterized by the property that all their differential invariants are constant. In this paper, we explain how to directly compute the numerical values of the differential invariants of a maximally symmetric submanifold from the infinitesimal generators of its symmetry group. The equivariant method of moving frames is applied to significantly simplify the resulting formulae. The method is illustrated by examples of curves and surfaces in various classical geometries. † Supported in part by NSF Grant DMS 08–07317.
Growth and stress tolerance of tomato seedlings (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) in response to seed treatment with paclobutrazol

SUMMARY‘Marglobe’ tomato seeds were soaked (24 h at 22°C) or matric primed (-1.0 MPa for 7 d at 22° C) in 50 mgl-1 of paclobutrazol (PB), a triazole growth retardant. Plants from these treatments and from non-treated seeds or seedlings whose shoots were sprayed with 10 mg PB l-1 at 14 days after planting (DAP) were assessed for growth and physiological responses before and after factorially combined stresses of drought (a 14 d period of drying cycles until severe wilting) or heat (4 h at 50° C) were initiated at 24 DAP in the greenhouse. At 23 DAP, shoot heights and shoot and root dry weights of plants from PB-soaked seeds or PB-sprayed plants were similar, but lower than those from non-treated or PB-primed seeds. This pre-stress PB-mediated growth suppression was associated with greater stress tolerance as revealed by greater increases in shoot and root dry weights during the 10 d post-stress recovery period. Further support for the increased stress tolerance of plants from PB-soaked seeds or PB-sprayed ...
Travel-Time Prediction Using Gaussian Process Regression: A Trajectory-Based Approach.

This paper is concerned with the task of travel-time prediction for an arbitrary origin-destination pair on a map. Unlike most of the existing studies, which focus only on a particular link (road segment) with heavy traffic, our method allows us to probabilistically predict the travel time along an unknown path (a sequence of links) if the similarity between paths is defined as a kernel function. Our first innovation is to use a string kernel to represent the similarity between paths. Our second new idea is to apply Gaussian process regression for probabilistic travel-time prediction. We tested our approach with realistic traffic data.
Model Checking Concurrent Programs

With the growth of multi-core processing and concurrent programming in modern computing systems, there is a great need to develop effective verification techniques for concurrent programs. Static analysis techniques have been shown effective for finding data races, but suffer from a general problem of too many false alarms. Dynamic techniques like testing have also shown promise, but provide limited coverage over the state space including all possible thread interleavings. Model checking alone cannot scale. However, it works better in combination with these techniques, with the potential of finding real error traces on one hand and better coverage on the other. In this talk, I will describe our recent advances in concurrent dataflow analysis, symbolic model checking with partial order reduction, and dynamic techniques for verifying concurrent programs. These techniques have been implemented in a unified verification platform, currently targeted at multi-threaded C programs. I will also report on our experiences on some challenging examples from the public domain and the industry.
In vivo imaging of blood-spinal cord barrier permeability with dynamic contrast enhanced MRI of spinal cord injury

Serial in vivo dynamic contrast enhanced MRI studies were performed on spinal cord injured rats on post-injury days 0, 10, 20 and 30 to determine the distribution of gadopentetate-dimeglumine (Gd) concentration in injured cord tissue. A two-compartment pharmacokinetic model was fitted to describe the time course of the concentration data at the epicenter of injury for each post-injury day. From these fits, the rates of Gd transport between plasma and injured cord tissue were determined to estimate the blood-spinal cord barrier permeability. The results indicated a steady decrease in the Gd transport rates with a concomitant improvement in rat's motor functions with post-injury time. Specifically, the rates of Gd accumulation in injured cord and its clearance correlated with the neurobehavioral scores strongly, suggesting a causal relation between the neurobehavioral function and the restoration of barrier integrity as a result of the ongoing repair and recovery processes within the injured cords.
Biculturalism and Perceived Competence of Latino Immigrant Adolescents

The present study investigated acculturation to the Hispanic and American cultures and self-perceptions of competence among 123 Latino immigrant adolescents. The study tested a contextual model of biculturalism by examining whether different acculturation styles predicted perceived competence in life spheres with different cultural demands. Perceived competence was assessed using Harter's (1988) Self-Perceptions of Competence Profile for Adolescents for the life spheres of school, peers (both Latino and non-Latino), and global self-worth. In addition, an analogous scale to assess perceptions of competence in the family was constructed for that sphere. The study found some support for a contextual model of acculturation. Acculturation to American culture predicted positive self-perceptions of competence with American peers, while acculturation to Hispanic culture predicted positive self-perceptions of competence with Latino peers. Perceived family competence, however, was predicted by acculturation to American rather than Hispanic culture. Results with respect to biculturalism are tentative, with a trend relating biculturalism to positive self-perceptions of global self-worth. However, because many of the conditions stipulated by the model were not met, results with respect to biculturalism raise questions about current approaches to operationalizing the construct.
Identifying early vascular genes through gene trapping in mouse embryonic stem cells.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the process of identifying early vascular genes through gene trapping in mouse embryonic stem cells. Gene trapping has proven to be a powerful means to identify early vascular genes because the ES cell differentiation in vitro faithfully recapitulates early vascular development in vivo, thus providing an excellent screening tool for genes expressed in vascular lineages. The first example of a gene trap mutagenesis screen in mouse ES cells was reported in 1989. Many different screen designs have been developed since then, and the technology continues to evolve. As a result of these efforts, several public and private large-scale gene traps with the goal of saturation mutagenesis have been established. Significant modifications in the screen design are being implemented and are aimed at increasing the efficiency of the process and to allow for high-throughput screening. These advances in gene trapping, in combination with other molecular genetic technologies such as microarrays and site-specific recombination, provide the individual investigator with powerful tools for gene discovery and vascular development. This chapter focuses on one particular approach, the gene trap screen in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, for discovering genes that are specifically expressed during vascular development.
Defining 'Organ of a Foreign State' Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976

Many foreign states are active players in global commerce. When these states establish or control global enterprises, those entities often seek special treatment available under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Courts only allow such special treatment to enterprises that are "organs of a foreign state," a murky term undefined in the statute and undertheorized in the literature. This Article argues that in determining when an enterprise is an "organ," courts should focus on whether the denial of sovereign status has the potential to interfere with diplomatic relations between the United States and the relevant foreign state. The United States Supreme Court recently highlighted the importance of this question when it granted certiorari to consider whether a Canadian power company was an organ. The Court ultimately dismissed that case on jurisdictional grounds, leaving the issue unresolved for the short term. The need for clarity will only heighten as the web of globalization tightens and the concurrent explosion in the number and variety of entities with significant ties to foreign sovereigns, including Public/Private Partnerships and Sovereign Wealth Funds, increases litigation of this issue. To measure the potential for interference with the conduct of foreign relations, courts must look at the extent to which the sovereign would be justifiably affronted if the entity were not treated as its organ. In creating a workable standard by which to measure this risk, this Article borrows heavily from the conceptually similar doctrines of the "arm of the state" in Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence and "alter ego" veil piercing in corporate law. Ultimately, this Article's proposal synthesizes the existing precedent with those doctrines to provide a coherent approach to resolving the confusion surrounding how far the sovereign's cloak should spread over related entities.
Political geographers of the past V: The political career of Sir Halford Mackinder

Abstract The political career of Halford Mackinder can be divided into three phases. In the first decade of the 20th century Mackinder evolved a broad imperial viewpoint and advocated the balanced development of a multi-ethnic empire within an economic system protected by tariffs. During the second phase, 1910–1922, Mackinder was a Conservative and Unionist Member of Parliament, but failed to gain office in government and, until the end of World War I, did not advance much politically. He was defeated in the 1922 election and did not attempt to get back into Parliament. In the third phase, 1922–1939, Sir Halford devoted himself to creating such mechanisms for imperial economic cooperation as the Imperial Shipping Committee. During World War II his ideas on geostrategy were rediscovered in the United States and widely discussed in journals, periodicals and newspapers. This writing helped educate the American public on the concept of containment.
Abundances in Spiral and Irregular Galaxies in the Local Universe

I will review in a few short pages the vast quantity of data on abundances in spiral and irregular galaxies in the nearby universe, those outside the Local Group but within about 100 Mpc. Nearly all of this data consists of measurements of abundances in H II regions. Optical spectroscopy of H II regions yields relatively complete information on O/H. Where high quality spectroscopy exists for a given spiral galaxy, the dispersion in O/H is found to be quite small: of order ±0.1 dex, which is often smaller than the observational uncertainties for individual points. The implication is that abundance inhomogeneities are quite small on small spatial scales, although there is some evidence that large-scale inhomogeneities may exist. I discuss accumulating data on C and N abundances in H II regions that is providing interesting new information on the evolution of both spirals and irregulars and the origin of these elements. Abundance gradients per unit disk scalelength may have a small range of values in spiral galaxies; barred spirals appear to have shallower gradients than non-barred spirals. The average O/H in spiral and irregular galaxies increases with galaxy mass/luminosity; massive spirals have higher abundances at the same value of disk surface brightness than lower mass spirals.
On the Efficiency of Strategies for Subdividing Polynomial Triangular Surface Patches

In this paper, we investigate the efficiency of various strategies for subdividing polynomial triangular surface patches. We give a simple algorithm performing a regular subdivision in four calls to the standard de Casteljau algorithm (in its subdivision version). A naive version uses twelve calls. We also show that any method for obtaining a regular subdivision using the standard de Casteljau algorithm requires at least 4 calls. Thus, our method is optimal. We give another subdivision algorithm using only three calls to the de Casteljau algorithm. Instead of being regular, the subdivision pattern is diamond-like. Finally, we present a "spider-like" subdivision scheme producing six subtriangles in four calls to the de Casteljau algorithm.
Yeast and human TATA-binding proteins have nearly identical DNA sequence requirements for transcription in vitro

We have analyzed the DNA sequence requirements for TATA element function by assaying the transcriptional activities of 25 promoters, including those representing each of the 18 single-point mutants of the consensus sequence TATAAA, in a reconstituted in vitro system that depends on the TATA element-binding factor TFIID. Interestingly, yeast TFIID and HeLa cell TFIID were virtually identical in terms of their relative activities on this set of promoters. Of the mutated elements, only two had undetectable activity; the rest had activities ranging from 2 to 75% of the activity of the consensus element, which was the most active. In addition, mutations of the nucleotide following the TATAAA core strongly influenced transcriptional activity, although with somewhat different effects on yeast and HeLa TFIID. The activities of all these promoters depended upon TFIID, and the level of TFIID-dependent transcription in vitro correlated strongly with their activities in yeast cells. This suggests that the in vivo activities of these elements reflect their ability to functionally interact with a single TATA-binding factor. However, some elements with similar activities in vitro supported very different levels of transcriptional activation by GAL4 protein in vivo. These results extend the degree of evolutionary conservation between yeast and mammalian TFIID and are useful for predicting the level of TATA element function from the primary sequence.
Cell fine structure and function — past and present

Abstract During the past 20 years, our research program has included the following related problems of nerve membrane ultrastructure which are particularly suitable for correlated electron microscopic investigations: 1. 1. elucidation of the organization of cell membranes and of associated multi-enzyme and macromolecular components which carry out energy and information transduction functions, and 2. 2. investigation of the association of nucleic acids and the protein synthetic machinery with cell membranes to gain a better understanding of membrane biosynthesis, including: ( a ) study of DNA and RNA conformations associated with membranes in chloroplasts, mitochondria and nerve cells; and ( b ) study of RNA polymerase and its participation in the differential RNA transcription upon DNA templates.
A note on the dynamic stress field near a propagating crack

Abstract A simple calculation based on the asymptotic crack tip stress distribution is used to determine the stress history due to a propagating crack at points away from the prospective crack line and the results are compared with the experimental measurements in [1]. Very good qualitative correlation is obtained.
Theory of deep inelastic neutron scattering on quantum fluids

The line shape for high-momentum-transfer neutron scattering experiments on quantum fluids is derived by a novel perturbative method which includes the effect of the spatial correlations in the ground state. The final-state broadening of the impulse approximation is shown to be non-Lorentzian, to have a zero second moment, and to be significant for all feasible experiments. There are important implications for the goal of measuring momentum distributions. Numerical results are presented for $^{4}\mathrm{He}$.
Weakness of whole muscles in mice deficient in Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase is not explained by defects at the level of the contractile apparatus

Mice deficient in Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (Sod1−/− mice) demonstrate elevated oxidative stress associated with rapid age-related declines in muscle mass and force. The decline in mass for muscles of Sod1−/− mice is explained by a loss of muscle fibers, but the mechanism underlying the weakness is not clear. We hypothesized that the reduced maximum isometric force (Fo) normalized by cross-sectional area (specific Fo) for whole muscles of Sod1−/− compared with wild-type (WT) mice is due to decreased specific Fo of individual fibers. Force generation was measured for permeabilized fibers from muscles of Sod1−/− and WT mice at 8 and 20 months of age. WT mice were also studied at 28 months to determine whether any deficits observed for fibers from Sod1−/− mice were similar to those observed in old WT mice. No effects of genotype were observed for Fo or specific Fo at either 8 or 20 months, and no age-associated decrease in specific Fo was observed for fibers from Sod1−/− mice, whereas specific Fo for fibers of WT mice decreased by 20 % by 28 months. Oxidative stress has also been associated with decreased maximum velocity of shortening (Vmax), and we found a 10 % lower Vmax for fibers from Sod1−/−compared with WT mice at 20 months. We conclude that the low specific Fo of muscles of Sod1−/− mice is not explained by damage to contractile proteins. Moreover, the properties of fibers of Sod1−/− mice do not recapitulate those observed with aging in WT animals.