cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Family of Putative Tumor Suppressors Is Structurally and Functionally Conserved in Humans and Yeast

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the CDC14 gene is essential for cell cycle progression. Strains carrying thecdc14-1 ts allele enter the cell cycle and arrest at restrictive temperatures. We have identified two human cDNAs encoding proteins which share sequence identity to the yeast CDC14p. The cell cycle arrest in cdc14-1 ts can be specifically complemented by the human cDNAs suggesting that they are functionally equivalent to the yeast CDC14 gene. Another clone identified in the search for human CDC14-like proteins corresponded to the putative tumor suppressor gene PTEN/MMAC1 (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 or mutated in multiple advanced cancers 1). Analysis of the PTEN/MMAC1 showed that it did not complement the cdc14-1 ts allele and that it is more closely related to the yeast open reading frame YNL128W. Human CDC14p and PTEN/MMAC1 were expressed as recombinant proteins, and both were shown to have kinetic properties characteristic of dual specific phosphatases. The human CDC14p was localized in the nucleus while PTEN/MMAC1 has been reported to be localized in the cytoplasm. Our results suggest that CDC14 and YNL128W/PTEN/MMAC1 represent two related, but distinct, families of human and yeast phosphatases.
NPEBseq: nonparametric empirical bayesian-based procedure for differential expression analysis of RNA-seq data

Background RNA-seq, a massive parallel-sequencing-based transcriptome profiling method, provides digital data in the form of aligned sequence read counts. The comparative analyses of the data require appropriate statistical methods to estimate the differential expression of transcript variants across different cell/tissue types and disease conditions.
FPGA based CPU instrumentation for hard real-time embedded system testing

The addition of system instrumentation features have been sporadically incorporated into processor architectures over the last several decades. Particular emphasis areas of high performance, embedded and real-time computing are reviewed in terms of software and hardware measurements and approaches representing active research directions. A novel approach is described that may be readily used with recent advances in Field Programmable Gate Array technology using embedded processors. The approach and preliminary results are described using a Xilinx device with a MicroBlazeTM 32 bit architecture. Some system level problems are outlined and examined.
Shape-Selective Separation of Molecular Isomers with Tunable Hydrogen-Bonded Host Frameworks

The propensity of hydrogen-bonded guanidinium (G) organodisulfonates (S) to form crystalline inclusion compounds has been investigated in the context of separating isomeric mixtures of xylenes and dimethylnaphthalenes via selective inclusion. Pairwise competition experiments, in which inclusion compounds are grown from solutions containing an isomeric mixture of guests, map the inclusion selectivity of a particular host as a function of guest content in solution. Whereas the G2[4,4‘-biphenyldisulfonate] host is minimally selective with respect to inclusion of o-, m-, or p-xylene, the homologous G2[2,6-naphthalenedisulfonate] is highly selective toward the inclusion of p-xylene, by a factor of 36 and 160 versus o-xylene and m-xylene, respectively. Similarly, the hosts of the homologous series G2[2,6-naphthalenedisulfonate], G2[4,4‘-biphenyldisulfonate], G2[2,6-anthracenedisulfonate], and G2[4,4‘-azobenzenedisulfonate] display different selectivity for the 10 isomers of dimethylnaphthalene. The details of t...
Retention of Avoidance: Time since Original Training or Time since Shock

4 groups of 9 Holtzman rats were run on a brightness discrimination task in a T-maze under the conditions of shock-train-shock-retest or transfer. Under like manipulation intervals of 1 hr. or 24 hr. between shock-train and shock-retest or transfer and with constant 24-hr. intervals between train-shock, there was no decrement in avoidance for the 1-hr. retest group nor an increment for the 24-hr. transfer group. This supports memory retrieval rather than behavioral inhibition.
Present thinking of the use of the singularity expansion in electromagnetic scattering computation

Abstract While the singularity expansion of electromagnetic scattering responses has received a great deal of attention over the last several years, a number of uncertainties have persisted in connection with its applicability and completeness. Recently, the dominant questions have been clarified, at least for one with pragmatic computational goals. This paper surveys the present understanding of the singularity expansion from the pragmatist's point-of-view. Attention is given to recent work which clarifies points which have been debated in the past. The interpretation of the expansion in the presence of a time-limited excitation function is discussed. Various means for determining the expansion parameters for a given object are surveyed.
Photon and neutron interrogation techniques for chemical explosives detection in air cargo: A critical review

Abstract Scanning cargo transported via aircraft (“air cargo”) for explosive threats is a problem that presently lacks a comprehensive technical solution. While chemical explosives detection in the baggage-scanning domain has a rich history that sheds light on potential solutions, air cargo differs in several important ways, and thus one cannot look to the present array of technologies. Some contemporary solutions, such as trace analysis, are not readily applied to cargo because of sampling challenges while the larger geometry of air cargo makes others less effective. This review article examines an array of interrogation techniques using photons and neutrons as incident particles. We first present a summary of the signatures and observables chemical explosives provide and review how they have been exploited in baggage scanning. Following this review is a description of the challenges posed by the air-cargo application space. After considering sources of photons and neutrons, we describe methods focused on transmission imaging, sub-surface examination, and elemental characterization. It is our goal to expand the understanding of each method's technical promise while largely deferring questions that revolve around footprint, safety, and conduct of operations. Our overarching intent is that a comprehensive understanding of potential techniques will foster the development of a comprehensive solution.
Systematic Assessment of Geographically and Clinically Diverse Aeromonads

Summary Numerical taxonomy was used to analyze data obtained on 167 Aeromonas strains collected from the USA, N.E. Africa, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Puerto Rico. The strains included clinical, environmental, and veterinary isolates. Each strain was tested at 36°C ± 1°C for 80 unit characters that included morphological, biochemical, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence-associated markers. The data for 50 of these characters were analyzed by the SAS/TAXAN® program using Simple Matching and Jaccard coefficients. At a similarity coefficient of 85%, the 167 strains clustered into 12 phenons plus 13 single unclustered strains. All clusters but one contained only one DNA group definition strain. The major clusters resembled the three clinical species Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria, and Aeromonas caviae , with smaller clusters for the species Aeromonas veronii biovar veronii and Aeromonas schubertii . Additional clusters delineated were: an “arabinose-negative” biovar of A. hydrophila and clusters for two newly validated species, A. jandaei and A. trota . This systematic assessment provides a comprehensive taxonomic study of a geographically and clinically diverse group of aeromonads and delineates, for the first time, essentially all of the currently recognized genospecies using phenotypic clustering.
Cruciate paralysis, hypothesis for injury and recovery.

Study Design: Case Report and review of the literature. Objectives: Discuss a case of cruciate paralysis, a review of the literature and the hypotheses regarding the pathogenesis and recovery in spinal cord injuries that cause disproportionate weakness of the upper extremities. Setting: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Methods: Case Report. Results: A case of cruciate paralysis is presented involving a 59-year-old female who experienced a gunshot wound to the face. Initial motor exams revealed mild lower limb weakness and absent upper limb function with an upper limb modified American Spinal Injury Association motor score of 0/50 (a modified impairment scale using half point muscle grades). Spinal imaging revealed fractures of the C1 anterior ring and the odontoid process, both associated with multiple bullet fragments. No spinal surgery was performed and she was placed in halo fixation. By 3 weeks she had regained enough upper limb function to manipulate large objects with her left hand and move her right hand. At that time, her upper limb ASIA score was 16/50. By 5 weeks, her upper limb modified ASIA motor score had improved to 31.5/50 and she began manipulating feeding utensils, writing legibly, and brushing her teeth with her left hand. Conclusions: In this case report we present a patient's motor and functional recovery. We also discuss the hypothesis that the acute central cord syndrome and cruciate paralysis are a likely result of similar pathologic mechanisms and that good functional outcome resulted from an initially disabling trauma. Spinal Cord (2000) 38, 120–125.
Quantity Discounts: Managerial Issues and Research Opportunities

Marketing managers frequently administer pricing policies involving substantial quantity discounts. However, our understanding of the precise role of these discounts, and their design, is quite limited. This paper reviews and integrates the economics and marketing literature and presents a detailed analysis of the policies of four firms in order to: i specify the variety of motivations for quantity discounts, ii provide guidelines to managers in designing quantity discount schedules, and iii set out the most fruitful directions for future research.
Prioritizing journals relevant to a topic for addressing clinicians' information needs

Objective: Point of care access to knowledge from full text journal articles supports decision making and decreases medical errors. However, it is an overwhelming task to obtain full text for all journals and the quality of information for a specific topic such as Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) varies across the journals. In this paper, we develop a method to automatically rate journals for a given clinical topic to enable filtering journals or ranking the articles based on source journal. Materials and Methods: We surveyed 169 cardiologists chosen across the US that practice medicine and publish on the topic of CHF. They provided subjective opinion on how valuable the information provided in 60 journals (chosen by Mayo Clinic cardiologists) is for their clinical decision-making. Results: We identified the top CHF journals chosen by cardiologists and the objective metrics that correlate with their scores. Our best Multiple Linear Regression model has a correlation of 0.880 based on five-fold cross-validation. Discussion: We demonstrated that general journal metrics such as impact factor, h-index and number of articles per year provide better results when used in combination with topic-specific metrics such as number of abstracts indexed with the corresponding MeSH® terms. Conclusion: We obtained a journal priority score formula based on different journal metrics to automatically rate any journal in relation to its perceived importance in CHF. Our study shows that using this formula might yield a reliable list of prioritized journals even across other clinical topics such as Multiple Sclerosis.
Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Alkali Metal Cation Interactions with Hydroxyl Side-Chain Amino Acids

Absolute bond dissociation energies of serine (Ser) and threonine (Thr) to alkali metal cations are determined experimentally by threshold collision-induced dissociation of M+AA complexes, where M+ = Li+, Na+, and K+ and AA = Ser and Thr, with xenon in a guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometer. Experimental results show that the binding energies of both amino acids to the alkali metal cations are very similar to one another and follow the order of Li+ > Na+ > K+. Quantum chemical calculations at three different levels, B3LYP, B3P86, and MP2(full), using the 6-311+G(2d,2p) basis set with geometries and zero-point energies calculated at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level show good agreement with the experimental bond energies. Theoretical calculations show that all M+AA complexes have charge-solvated structures (nonzwitterionic) with [CO, N, O] tridentate coordination.
Effect of retinoids and estrogens on testosterone-induced hyperplasia of mouse prostate explants in organ culture.

SummaryTestosterone produced epithelial hyperplasia in mouse prostate explants in organ culture. Simultaneous treatment of ex-plants with testosterone and 13-cis-retinoic acid inhibited the induction of hyperplasia. When explants were first made hyperplastic by treatment with testosterone for 8 days and followed by simultaneous treatment with testosterone and a retinoid for an additional 96 hr, the following retinoids reversed the hy-perplasia: 13-cis-retinoic acid, the 1-methox-yethylcyclopentenyl analog of retinoic acid, the trimethylmethoxyphenyl analog of retinoic acid, the trimethylphenyl analog of retinoic acid ethylamide, and the trimethylmethoxyphenyl analog of retinoic acid ethyl ester. The data indicate that these retinoids prevent androgen-induced hyperplasia in prostatic tissue in this system by a direct influence on the tissue.Since estrone or 17β-estradiol had no effect on testosterone-induced hyperplasia in the prostate explants, it is concluded that these estrogens may act by way of an ind...
Abstract 4540: Preclinical pharmacology and antitumor activity of CP-744809, a highly selective orally available small molecule inhibitor of aldose reductase

Aldose reductase (AKR1B1) mediates the first and rate limiting step in the conversion of glucose to polyols that contribute to redox imbalance, formation of reactive oxygen species, and activation of signal transduction pathways that can promote tumor formation and tumor growth. Aldose reductases are overexpressed in a variety of human tumors, and genetic or pharmacological blockade of AKR1B1 has been reported to attenuate these processes. CP-744809 is a highly potent and selective aldose reductase enzyme inhibitor which has been previously shown to provide efficacy in an experimental model of diabetic retinopathy. The compound has properties of high oral bioavailability, very high protein binding, and a very long half life in vivo. In this study, we have characterized the activity of this agent in animal models of angiogenesis and tumor growth. CP-744809 treatment significantly reduced VEGF-induced angiogenesis in a dose-dependent manner in the rat corneal micropocket assay, suggesting a heretofore unrecognized role for aldose reductase in this process. Interestingly, when the related aldose reductase inhibitor Zopolrestat was administered to normal rats, a significantly decreased level of the angiogenic lipid mediator sphingosine-1-phosphate was observed along with other lipid changes. In xenograft models, the CP-744809 treatment was associated with significant and reproducible reduction in tumor size that was dose dependent and superior to treatment with Zopolrestat. Final tumor mass in individual animals was highly correlated with the corresponding intratumoral drug concentration. In contrast, drug concentrations in serum were poorly correlated with drug concentrations in tumor or with tumor mass. Serum drug concentrations at every dose were consistently 7-10 fold higher than those observed in tumor, suggesting a barrier to optimal penetration of tumor tissue by the compound. Pooling data from multiple in vivo studies, the total intra-tumoral drug concentration (protein bound and unbound) required to achieve half maximal efficacy (EC 50 ) was estimated to be 77 micrograms/ml. These results confirm the therapeutic potential of aldose reductase as an interesting cancer target, and have uncovered a novel antiangiogenic activity. They also highlight the obstacle that adequate tumor tissue penetration may pose for clinical development of agents such as CP-744809. Combination treatments with other agents are being evaluated to assess the potential for synergistic activity with the vascular and inflammation modulating properties of aldose reductase inhibitors. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4540.
Societal issues in adopting life-cycle concepts within the political system

The basis of all political systems is retention of power for those in office; this is true for democratic, representative, royalty and autocratic systems. Public perception of service to the public at large (at least those with influence) enhances this goal. As people tend to value immediate returns, the concept of optimal design selection based on life-cycle cost analysis is, therefore, fundamentally at odds with political systems. Instead, producing the most immediate benefit for the least cost is a natural inclination when designing public infrastructure such as bridges, transportation and other networks. Recognizing this conflict and developing procedures to enhance the acceptability of life-cycle costing will result in increased acceptance and use of this clearly optimal method. Several methods are suggested that will make life-cycle costing more consistent with political rewards. These include public forums to educate people on the increased long-term value of life-cycle costing, case studies of pro...
Optimization of FRET Microscopy for Live-Cell Imaging of Multiple Protein-Protein Interactions

Recent advances in fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy have made it possible to measure simultaneously, multiple protein-protein interactions inside living cells. To further these methods, we integrated an improved multi-spectral imaging analysis method (N-way FRET) with optimized fluorophores for live-cell FRET microscopy. For 3-way FRET we determined the best cyan, yellow, and red (C-Y-R) FRET-trio by comparing the acceptor photobleaching FRET efficiencies of structurally similar linked fluorescent protein constructs. The pool of molecules examined was constrained to the available C, Y, R molecules with the best photophysical properties (CyPet/TFP1, mCitrine/YPet and TagRFP/mCherry, respectively). From this set, we determined that TFP, YPet or mCitrine and mCherry were the optimal FRET trio. For increasingly complex pathways, more fluorescent probes may be required. To extend this method to the analysis of 4-way FRET we examined fluorophore pairs with highly overlapping excitation and emission spectra (e.g. TFP and GFP or Citrine and GFP). These improvements should enhance the spatiotemporal resolution, the number of possible interacting probes and the reliability of FRET experiments leading to improved monitoring of multiple protein-protein interactions in complex pathways.
Fluorescent measurements in whole blood and plasma using red-emitting dyes

We have determined the fluorescence characteristics of albumin blue 670 and Rhodamine 800 in plasma and blood in order to test the feasibility of making direct fluorescence sensing measurements in blood. These dyes were used because of their absorption in the red/NIR where absorption by hemoglobin is minimized. Front face illumination and detection was used to minimize absorption and scattering during measurement. Fluorescence emission was observed for these dyes in plasma and blood. Attenuation of the fluorescence emission was observed in blood because of hemoglobin absorption. Using frequency domain fluorometry, we recovered the expected lifetime parameters for both dyes in blood and plasma. We were able to quantify HSA concentrations using changes in the mean lifetime of AB670, a dye previously shown to bind preferentially to HSA. Rh800 concentrations in plasma and blood were also determined using modulation sensing. Anisotropy measurements revealed high Anisotropy for these dyes in plasma and blood. It also showed an increase in the anisotropy of AB670 with increase in HSA concentration in the presence of red blood cells. These results indicate that qualitative and quantitative fluorescence measurements can be made directly in blood without the need to process the blood.
Padre Pio for sale: souvenirs, relics, or identity markers?

Based on long-term ethnographic research, this paper examines the role of material culture (objects, souvenirs, art and built structures) in the contemporary Catholic cult of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, particularly how it is created, contextualised, contested, and consumed by pilgrims at Pio’s shrine of San Giovanni Rotondo. The shrine’s managers have frequently been criticised for its commercialism and invasive nature. While some critiques are warranted, this paper argues that they fail to consider deeper meanings of these objects. In particular, they are conceived of as relics – social and spiritual mediators – that connect the pilgrim with the saint and with other devotees; they are also identity markers whose employment by diverse groups within the cult both index and construct deeply held cosmological notions of their relationship to Pio and the supernatural. The examination of these factors, therefore, ultimately provides a valuable look at the discourses and practices during the formation of a major saint’s cult.
Remembering and Understanding: The Effects of Changes in Underlying Knowledge on Children's Recollections

This study was designed to explore the influence of changes in children's knowledge on earlier constructed memories. Kindergartners' (N = 102) recall of a series of stories was examined as a function of their interpersonal knowledge about the main story character. Children's knowledge about the protagonist was manipulated prior to presentation of the stories, and the effects of their impressions on story recall were examined. A change in some of the children's impressions was then promoted, and the impact of this second knowledge manipulation on recall of previously heard stories was assessed. The results indicated that children's story recall was affected by their prior impressions. Moreover, following the second knowledge manipulation, children revised their story reports in ways that were consistent with their newly acquired impressions, which suggests that they had reconstructed their memories of previously heard stories. These findings provide evidence for both prospective and retrospective effects of knowledge on memory.
Impact of Sea Surface Temperature and Soil Moisture on Seasonal Rainfall Prediction over the Sahel

Abstract The ensemble rainfall forecasts over the Sahel for July–September (JAS) from the NCEP Coupled Forecast System (CFS) were evaluated for the period 1981–2002. The comparison with the gauge-based precipitation analysis indicates that the predicted Sahel rainfall is light and exhibits little interannual variability. The rain belt is shifted about 4° southward. One major source of rainfall errors comes from the erroneous sea surface temperature (SST) forecasts. The systematic SST error pattern has positive errors in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic and negative errors in the tropical Pacific and the southern oceans. It resembles the decadal SST mode, which has a significant influence on rainfall over the Sahel. Because the systematic SST errors were not corrected during the forecasts, persistent errors serve as an additional forcing to the atmosphere. The second source of error is from the soil moisture feedback, which contributes to the southward shift of rainfall and dryness over West Africa...
Oligoclonal Bands in a 2-Year-Old Female

Patient: Two-year-old Caucasian female. Chief Complaint: Difficulty walking and jerking eye movements. History of Present Illness: The patient’s mother reported that her daughter was well until a week prior to admission when she noticed that the patient’s hands were shaking. In the following days, the patient developed gait instability and jerking movements of her eyes. The symptoms became so severe that the patient was no longer able to ambulate or feed herself. The patient’s mother remarked that her daughter had a fall a few weeks prior, hitting her head on a soft surface, but without loss of consciousness. The mother reported a low-grade fever and some irritability, but denied any rash, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, shortness of breath, or known headache. The patient was not on any medications at presentation and had no known drug allergies. Past Medical History: The patient was the product of an unremarkable term pregnancy. The patient had no prior serious illnesses, hospitalizations, or surgeries and had been reaching developmental milestones appropriately. Social History: The patient lives at home with her mother and father. There are no smokers in the house. Family History: The patient’s paternal uncle has a history of a single seizure during childhood. There is no family history of degenerative or other childhood diseases. Principal Laboratory Findings: At presentation ( Table 1 ). Isoelectric focusing with IgG immunofixation was performed on the patient’s cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) ( Image 1 ). Cultures and herpes simplex virus testing of CSF were negative. Physical Exam: Vital signs: blood pressure, 126/72 mm Hg; heart rate, 101 bpm; respiratory rate, 32 rpm; temperature, 36.1°C. Eyes: Frequent irregular saccadic conjugated eye movements with the ability to tract only intermittently. Full range of eye motion. Pupils equally round and reactive to light. Neck: No lymphadenopathy. Lungs: Clear to auscultation bilaterally without wheezes or rhonchi. Heart: …
Mirex-induced adaptive liver growth: a corticosterone-mediated response

The adaptive liver growth response was investigated in intact and adrenalectomized rats. When adult male rats were given a single oral dose of mirex (100 mg/kg body weight) there was a 72% increase in relative liver weight (RLW) in 72 hr. Based on [3H]-thymidine ([3H]TdR) incorporation into hepatic DNA, there was also a wave of DNA synthesis which peaked at 48 hr and decreased to essentially control values by 96 hr post mirex dose. In mirex-dosed adrenalectomised (Adx) animals, the RLW was increased by only 38% and there was sustained DNA synthesis. When mirex-dosed Adx rats were given corticosterone supplements, the RLW response was similar to the RLW response in intact mirex-dosed rats. However, the 48-hr DNA synthesis peak seen in intact mirex-dosed rats was eliminated. From these data it is suggested that mirex-induced adaptive liver growth has two components: a hypertrophic component which is mediated by corticosterone, and a hyperplastic component which is independent of corticosterone.
Algorithms and architectures for dynamic programming on Markov chains

Algorithms and architectures are developed for dynamic programming on finite-state Markov chains. The results are applied to phase tracking of a phase-jitter carrier, Viterbi decoding of convolutional codes, and isolated-word recognition using hidden Markov models and dynamic time warping. It is argued that a computing ring, which is really a cyclic systolic array of cells, provides a good tradeoff between performance and complexity for implementation in VLSI. The computing ring may be pipelined with a preprocessor and a memory management unit to achieve a modular design. >
Endothelial Cell Interactions with Native Surfaces

Since native vessels are presumably the ideal surface for endothelial cells, we have examined endothelial cell interactions with natural surfaces as a standard to determine the possibilities obtainable on a surface. We have examined three separate types of natural surfaces including human amnion, superficially-injured human arteries, and tanned bovine carotid arteries. When basement membrane collagen Is a principal component of a surface, such as with amnion or a superficially denuded large vessel, very rapid cell attachment and spreading occurs. Intact confluent monolayers covering 100% of the amnion surface are present as early as one hour. Human arteries superficially injured to denude their endothelium also exhibit excellent affinity for EC adherence and spreading. Endothelial monolayers cover 80.8% (± 5.3) of this surface after one hour, with 91.4% (± 1.2) coverage after two hours. For tanned bovine carotid arteries, one and two hour endothelial cell Incubation results in coverage of 59.2% (± 1.3) and 75.9% (± 4.1), respectively. This surface is composed of interstitial collagen of the arterial wall in medial and adventitial layers. Electron microscopy reveals excellent endothelial cell spreading with little or no exposed underlying basement membrane. This suggests that polymeric surfaces designed to mimic injured native surface could allow an endothelialized surface to develop within minutes to hours.
Modifying Fruit Ripening by Suppressing Gene Expression

Ethylene is one of the simplest organic molecules with biological activity. Its effects on plant tissue are spectacular and commercially important (1,2). This hydrocarbon gas is generally considered to be the fruit ripening hormone (2,3). Because of its effects on plant senescence, large losses of fruits and vegetables are incurred annually in the U.S. The losses are much greater in third world countries because of the lack of sufficient refrigeration and transportation. Consequently, it has always been a goal of plant biologists and of postharvest physiologists, in particular, to be able to prevent or delay fruit ripening in a reversible manner by controlling ethylene action or production. Thus, an understanding of ethylene action and biosynthesis is of fundamental as well as of applied significance. This update summarizes the recent advances in manipulating key genes in the ethylene biosynthetic pathway to prevent ethylene production and fruit ripening.
A 2.4-GHz silicon bipolar oscillator with integrated resonator

A 2.4 GHz fully-monolithic silicon-bipolar oscillator circuit implemented in a 12 GHz BiCMOS technology is presented. The integrated resonator circuit uses three different versions of a 2 nH multilevel inductor and a wideband capacitive transformer. The measured Q factor is 9.3 for the three-level inductor. An oscillator phase noise of -78 dBc/Hz is achieved at 20 kHz offset. The circuit dissipates 50 mW from a 3.6 V supply.
Mitochondria and the pathogenesis of ALS

Evidence implicating mitochondria as playing a crucial role in both necrotic and apoptotic cell death is rapidly accumulating. Mitochondria are essential in controlling specific apoptosis pathways (Green and Reed, 1998). Mitochondrial calcium uptake is required for glutamate excitotoxicity and there is a correlation between increases in mitochondrial calcium and increases in free radical generation, which are linked with cell death (Stout et al ., 1998). The mitochondrial permeability transition pore may be crucial in both necrotic and apoptotic cell death. Activation of the permeability transition pore increases the mitochondrial membrane permeability to solids with a molecular mass of up to 1.5 kDa (Bernardi, 1999). It is activated by increases in calcium, and free radicals and cyclosporin A inhibits its activation. Cyclosporin A blocks neuronal damage produced by hypoglycaemia and ischaemia in vivo (Friberg et al ., 1998). A potential role of mitochondria in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is gaining increasing support. In this issue of Brain , Vielhaber and colleagues report further evidence implicating mitochondrial dysfunction in ALS (Vielhaber et al ., 2000). The authors examined muscle biopsies of patients with ALS, compared with normal controls and …
Is transabdominal sonography of the cervix after voiding a reliable method of cervical length assessment

Objective. The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation and agreement between transvagi-nal and transabdominal cervical length measurement after bladder emptying as well as the feasibility of transabdominal sonography in cervical length screening. Methods. This was a prospective cohort study involving 287 participants (14–34 weeks' gestation) from January to December 2003. After voiding, transabdominal and transvaginal cervical length measurements were obtained. The optimal trans-abdominal technique was established during an unblinded series of transabdominal and transvaginal cervical length measurements (n = 96). The same measurements were obtained in 191 participants under a blinded 2-sonographer protocol. The transabdominal cervical length cutoff to ensure 100% sensitivity in detecting a short cervix (≤2.5 cm) was determined. Results. There was no difference between mean transabdominal and transvaginal cervical lengths ± SD (3.57 ± 0.74 versus 3.61 ± 0.74 cm; P = .20). The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.824. The 95% tolerance interval for any paired observation (transabdominal minus transvaginal) was −0.92 to 0.84 cm. All transvaginal cervical lengths of 2.5 cm or less were associated with paired transabdominal cervical lengths of 3 cm or less. Conclusions. With an optimal sonographic technique, postvoid transabdominal cervical measurement shows a close correlation and agreement with transvaginal assessment and is useful for cervical length screening.
Youth access interventions do not affect youth smoking.

Objective. To determine the effectiveness of laws restricting youth access to cigarettes on prevalence of smoking among teens. Methods. We conducted a systematic review of studies that reported changes in smoking associated with the presence of restrictions on the ability of teens to purchase cigarettes. We calculated the correlation between merchant compliance levels with youth access laws and prevalence (30-day and regular) prevalence of youth smoking, and between changes in compliance and prevalence associated with youth access interventions. We also conducted a random effects meta-analysis to determine the change in youth prevalence associated with youth access interventions from studies that included control communities. Results. Based on data from 9 studies, there was no detectable relationship between the level of merchant compliance and 30-day (r = .116; n = 38 communities) or regular (r = .017) smoking prevalence. There was no evidence of a threshold effect. There was no evidence that an increase in compliance with youth access restrictions was associated with a decrease in 30-day (r = .294; n = 18 communities) or regular (r = .274) smoking prevalence. There was no significant difference in youth smoking in communities with youth access interventions compared with control communities; the pooled estimate of the effect of intervention on 30-day prevalence was −1.5% (95% confidence interval: −6.0% to +2.9%). Conclusions. Given the limited resources available for tobacco control, as well as the expense of conducting youth access programs, tobacco control advocates should abandon this strategy and devote the limited resources that are available for tobacco control toward other interventions with proven effectiveness.
Xenograft Tolerance and Immune Function of Human T Cells Developing in Pig Thymus Xenografts

Transplantation of xenogeneic thymus tissue allows xenograft tolerance induction in the highly disparate pig-to-mouse model. Fetal swine thymus (SW THY) can support the generation of a diverse human T cell repertoire that is tolerant of the pig in vitro. We demonstrate that SW THY generates all human T cell subsets, including regulatory T cells (Tregs), in similar numbers as fetal human thymus (HU THY) grafts in immunodeficient mice receiving the same human CD34+ cells. Peripheral T cells are specifically tolerant to the mouse and to the human and porcine donors, with robust responses to nondonor human and pig Ags. Specific tolerance is observed to pig skin grafts sharing the THY donor MHC. SW THY–generated peripheral Tregs show similar function, but include lower percentages of naive-type Tregs compared with HU THY–generated Tregs. Tregs contribute to donor-pig specific tolerance. Peripheral human T cells generated in SW THY exhibit reduced proportions of CD8+ T cells and reduced lymphopenia-driven proliferation and memory-type conversion, accelerated decay of memory-type cells, and reduced responses to protein Ags. Thus, SW thymus transplantation is a powerful xenotolerance approach for human T cells. However, immune function may be further enhanced by strategies to permit positive selection by autologous HLA molecules.
Landscape Photography, Geographic Education, and Nation‐Building In Democratic Kampuchea, 1975–1979

On April 17, 1975, Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, fell to the armed forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (). Cambodia, however, was not primed for revolution. This is significant in tha...
Finite conductivity and the interchange instability in railgun arcs

A first-order perturbation expansion of the MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) equation is used to describe the onset of the interchange instability due to the high accelerations in railgun plasma-arc armatures. J.D. Powell (1986) considered the problem of perturbing an initial isothermal equilibrium with appropriate distributed current and density profiles, treating the perturbation equations with infinite conductivity. Here, the authors model the arc the same way, but they include the effects of finite conductivity sigma . A fourth-order mode equation is derived and solved numerically. The authors find continuous spectra of unstable modes for a nonzero plasma acceleration g, whose growth rates are mostly greater than square root kg, depending on the values of k and sigma . The resistivity always raises growth rates higher than Powell's especially for large k and large resistivity. The resulting growth rates in typical railgun situations are large enough to permit full development of the instability. >
Small-molecule activators of TMEM16A, a calcium-activated chloride channel, stimulate epithelial chloride secretion and intestinal contraction

TMEM16A (ANO1) is a calcium-activated chloride channel (CaCC) expressed in secretory epithelia, smooth muscle, and other tissues. Cell-based functional screening of ∼110,000 compounds revealed compounds that activated TMEM16A CaCC conductance without increasing cytoplasmic Ca(2+). By patch-clamp, N-aroylaminothiazole "activators" (E(act)) strongly increased Cl(-) current at 0 Ca(2+), whereas tetrazolylbenzamide "potentiators" (F(act)) were not active at 0 Ca(2+) but reduced the EC(50) for Ca(2+)-dependent TMEM16A activation. Of 682 analogs tested, the most potent activator (E(act)) and potentiator (F(act)) produced large and more sustained CaCC Cl(-) currents than general agonists of Ca(2+) signaling, with EC(50) 3-6 μM and Cl(-) conductance comparable to that induced transiently by Ca(2+)-elevating purinergic agonists. Analogs of activators were identified that fully inhibited TMEM16A Cl(-) conductance, providing further evidence for direct TMEM16A binding. The TMEM16A activators increased CaCC conductance in human salivary and airway submucosal gland epithelial cells, and IL-4 treated bronchial cells, and stimulated submucosal gland secretion in human bronchi and smooth muscle contraction in mouse intestine. Small-molecule, TMEM16A-targeted activators may be useful for drug therapy of cystic fibrosis, dry mouth, and gastrointestinal hypomotility disorders, and for pharmacological dissection of TMEM16A function.
Search and ranking algorithms for locating resources on the World Wide Web

Applying information retrieval techniques to the World Wide Web (WWW) environment is a challenge, mostly because of its hypertext/hypermedia nature and the richness of the meta-information it provides. We present four keyword-based search and ranking algorithms for locating relevant WWW pages with respect to user queries. The first algorithm, Boolean Spreading Activation, extends the notion of word occurrence in the Boolean retrieval model by propagating the occurrence of a query word in a page to other pages linked to it. The second algorithm, Most-cited, uses the number of citing hyperlinks between potentially relevant WWW pages to increase the relevance scores of the referenced pages over the referencing pages. The third algorithm, TFxIDF vector space model, is based on word distribution statistics. The last algorithm, Vector Spreading Activation, combines TFxIDF with the spreading activation model. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of these algorithms. From the results of the experiment, we draw conclusions regarding the nature of the WWW environment with respect to document ranking strategies.
Linear Temporal Models And Tests For Lithological Band Brightness In Mss Data

Time variant pattem of band brighmess values from any given lithology in MSS satellite image data has been revealed to be cyclic in terms of seasons. In this study, 29 MSS Landsat images ranging over a 5-year period were collected and grouped into different seasonal categories. Training areas of 9 lithological units from Lincoln County, Nevada, United States, were selected. Linear models M(b, t, 0) = mo + mb + mt + mb,t + E were tested for all the nine lithologies. Where M(b, t, 0) stands for the received radiance brightness within spectral band b recorded in the satellite image from a lithology o in a given area at time t; mo is the “pure effect” from the given ground object, mb is the effect due to the spectral band, mt is the “pure effect” due to time factors, mb,t is the “pure interaction” between the spectral band and the time of measuring, and E is the “pure random” error effect of various sources. Our objective was to test whether or not the seasonal factors have strong effect on the lithological reflectance recorded in MSS data. The results suggest that: (1) the assumed model is acceptable; (2) hypothesis mb,t = 0 could not be rejected, which implies that in the MSS spectral range, the time factors have fair effect on four MSS barids; (3) the temporal effect does exist, i.e. hypothesis mt = 0 should be rejected, (4) M(b, t, 0) could be estimate for given b, t and 0.
Treatment of Murine Coccidioidomycosis with Polymyxin B

An agar dilution method was employed to test the susceptibility of 12 strains of Coccidioides immitis to polymyxin B (PB). After 3 days of incubation, eight strains were markedly inhibited by 5.0 μg of PB per ml and four strains did not grow. PB at 10 μg/ml inhibited the growth of all strains through 20 days of incubation. To determine whether PB has anticoccidioidal activity in vivo, mice in groups of 30 were infected intraperitoneally with a mean lethal dose (LD 50 ) or 20 LD 50 of arthrospores of C. immitis ATCC 28868 (Silveira). Treatment by intraperitoneal injection of PB (2.5 mg/kg) was begun 2 or 5 days after challenge. By 40 days after infection, 47 and 7% of the untreated mice challenged with an LD 50 , respectively, were alive. Of mice infected with an LD 50 or 20 LD 50 and treated with PB beginning 2 days after the challenge, 90% of each group were alive by day 40. Initiation of PB therapy 5 days after infection permitted survival of 84% of the mice infected with an LD 50 ; however, only 27% of the mice infected with 20 LD 50 survived by day 40. In this latter group there was evidence that PB prolonged life since 56% of the treated mice were alive by day 15 as compared with 30% of the controls. PB in vivo was fungistatic since the majority of treated mice had C. immitis in the liver, lungs, and spleen.
Diagnosis of "follicular neoplasm": a gray zone in thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology.

The thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) diagnosis of "follicular neoplasm" does not differentiate between a benign and malignant tumor. Often cases diagnosed as "follicular or Hurthle-cell neoplasm" undergo surgical excision for further characterization. The aim of this study was to identify clinical features that may help in predicting malignancy in patients with an FNA diagnosis of follicular neoplasm. One hundred eighty-four cases in 167 patients were diagnosed as "follicular neoplasm" among 1,024 thyroid FNA evaluated with on-site interpretation from 1998-2000. The cases were evaluated for the following variables: histologic diagnosis, age, sex, and size of the nodule. One hundred thirty-nine patients were female, and 28 were male (age range, 23-80 yr). Among 122 patients (67%) undergoing surgical excision (lobectomy, 96; total thyroidectomy, 26), malignancy was identified in 37 cases (31%). Nonpapillary (follicular/Hurthle) carcinoma was diagnosed in 11 (9%), follicular variant of papillary carcinoma in 25, and medullary carcinoma in 1 case. The risk of malignancy was greater in males (47% vs. 29%, P < 0.0004) than females, in nodules measuring 3 cm or more (55% vs. 23%, P < 0.0001), than in nodules measuring less than 3 cm, and in patients 40 or more yr old (20% vs. 10%, P = 0.0001) than in patients younger than 40 years. The diagnosis "follicular neoplasm" is indeterminate, and the majority of cases (70% in the current study) are benign. However, clinical features, including gender, nodule size, and age, can be a part of the decision analysis in selecting patients for surgery.
Detection free tracking: Exploiting motion and topology for segmenting and tracking under entanglement

We propose a detection-free system for segmenting multiple interacting and deforming people in a video. People detectors often fail under close agent interaction, limiting the performance of detection based tracking methods. Motion information often fails to separate similarly moving agents or to group distinctly moving articulated body parts. We formulate video segmentation as graph partitioning in the trajectory domain. We classify trajectories as foreground or background based on trajectory saliencies, and use foreground trajectories as graph nodes. We incorporate object connectedness constraints into our trajectory weight matrix based on topology of foreground: we set repulsive weights between trajectories that belong to different connected components in any frame of their time intersection. Attractive weights are set between similarly moving trajectories. Information from foreground topology complements motion information and our spatiotemporal segments can be interpreted as connected moving entities rather than just trajectory groups of similar motion. All our cues are computed on trajectories and naturally encode large temporal context, which is crucial for resolving local in time ambiguities. We present results of our approach on challenging datasets outperforming by far the state of the art.
Quantitative reactions for the chain elongation of aliphatic compounds

Procedures are described for the reaction of methanesulfonates with potassium cyanide and for the conversion of the resulting nitriles to methyl esters. Both reactions in this method of chain elongation are quantitative and do not lead to alterations of olefinic double bonds.