cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Biologic and pathologic aspects of osteocytes in the setting of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ).

Abstract Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is a potentially severe, debilitating condition affecting patients with cancer and patients with osteoporosis who have been treated with powerful antiresorptives (pARs) or angiogenesis inhibitors (AgIs). Oral risk factors associated with the development of MRONJ include tooth extraction and inflammatory dental disease (e.g., periodontitis, periapical infection). In bone tissues, osteocytes play a bidirectional role in which they not only act as the “receiver” of systemic signals from blood vessels, such as hormones and drugs, or local signals from the mineralized matrix as it is deformed, but they also play a critical role as “transmitter” of signals to the cells that execute bone modeling and remodeling (osteoclasts, osteoblasts and lining cells). When the survival capacity of osteocytes is overwhelmed, they can die. Osteocyte death has been associated with several pathological conditions. Whereas the causes and mechanisms of osteocyte death have been studied in conditions like osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH), few studies of the causes and mechanisms of osteocyte death have been done in MRONJ. The three forms of cell death that affect most of the different cells in the body (apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis) have been recognized in osteocytes. Notably, necroptosis, a form of regulated cell death with “a necrotic cell death phenotype,” has also been identified as a form of cell death in osteocytes under certain pathologic conditions. Improving the understanding of osteocyte death in MRONJ may be critical for preventing disease and developing treatment approaches. In this review, we intend to provide insight into the biology of osteocytes, cell death, in general, and osteocyte death, in particular, and discuss hypothetical mechanisms involved in osteocyte death associated with MRONJ.
To cross or not to cross: collective swimming of Escherichia coli under two-dimensional confinement

Bacteria in bulk fluids swim collectively and display fascinating emergent dynamics. Although bacterial collective swimming in three-dimensional (3D) geometries has been well studied, its counterpart in confined two-dimensional (2D) geometries relevant to natural habitats of bacteria is still poorly understood. Here, through carefully designed experiments on Escherichia coli in Hele-Shaw chambers, we show that a small change in the degree of confinement leads to a drastic change in bacterial collective swimming. While long-range nematic order emerges for bacteria that can cross during encounters, a slight decrease of the chamber height prevents the crossing, leading to the formation of bacterial clusters with short-range polar order. By tracking the swimming kinetics of individual bacteria, we reveal the microscopic origins of the two collective phases. Our study provides important insights into bacterial collective swimming under confinement and demonstrates a convenient way to control the emergent symmetry of collective phases.
Hormonal Regulation of Neural and Behavioral Plasticity in Insects

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the proleg withdrawal reflex, the metamorphosis of leg motor neurons, gin trap reflex, and the initiation of wandering—all provide clear demonstrations of hormonal regulation of behavioral plasticity in insects. Substantial progress has been made because several different laboratories have concentrated their efforts on a single insect, the tobacco hornworm or Manduca sexta. Study of the neural bases of behavior in this insect has been facilitated by exploitation of identified cells in both neuroanatomical and electrophysiological studies. Instead of efforts focused on the identification of hormone target cells, the widespread distribution of the EcR gene product in the nervous system and associated structures has resulted in an emphasis on characterization of functional sites of hormone action within defined neural circuits. The field also retains a strong emphasis on behavioral assays.
Acute inhalation of vaporized nicotine increases arterial pressure in young non-smokers: a pilot study

Electronic cigarettes are growing in popularity, but the physiological consequences of vaporized nicotine are unknown. Twenty healthy non-smokers inhaled vaporized nicotine and placebo (randomized). Nicotine inhalation was associated with higher arterial pressures in the seated position, and increased arterial pressures in the head-up positions with no other effects on autonomic control. Our results show that vaporized nicotine inhalation is not innocuous. Longitudinal studies in otherwise healthy non-smokers should be conducted.
Mitochondrial d-β-Hydroxybutyrate Dehydrogenase IV. KINETIC ANALYSIS OF REACTION MECHANISM

Abstract A kinetic analysis of the reaction mechanism of d-β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, a lipid-requiring enzyme from mitochondria, was made for both the membrane-bound enzyme in submitochondrial particles and for a purified soluble preparation. The results are consistent with an Ordered Bi Bi mechanism (nomenclature of Cleland) where NAD is the first substrate to add to the enzyme and NADH is the last product to leave. The mechanism is the same whether or not the enzyme is bound to the membrane. The dissociation constants for NADH and NAD of the soluble enzyme reactivated with mitochondrial phospholipid are the same as that for the membrane-bound enzyme. Replacing mitochondrial phospholipid with purified lecithin when reactivating the soluble enzyme results in tighter binding of these nucleotides to the enzyme. These studies (a) indicate that the enzyme is not appreciably altered by release from the membrane and by the purification procedure, (b) that the lipid environment of the enzyme in the membrane more closely approximates that of mitochondrial phospholipid than lecithin alone, and (c) provide insight into how phospholipid can modulate important parameters of enzymic catalysis.
Endocardial and epicardial radiofrequency ablation of ventricular tachycardia associated with dilated cardiomyopathy: the importance of low-voltage scars.

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the occurrence, locations, and relationship of ventricular tachycardia (VT) to low-voltage areas in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Background The substrate causing monomorphic VT after infarction is characterized by regions of low-voltage ( Methods A total of 28 patients were studied with endocardial (26 patients) and epicardial (8 patients) electroanatomic mapping. The VT circuits were defined by entrainment or pace mapping. Results Ventricular tachycardia was due to focal VT in 5, bundle-branch re-entry in 2, and myocardial re-entry in 22 patients (both focal and re-entry VTs in 1 patient). All patients with myocardial re-entry had endocardial (20 of 20 patients) and/or epicardial (7 of 7 patients mapped) scar. Most (63%) endocardial scars were adjacent to a valve annulus. Of the 19 VT circuit isthmuses identified, 12 were associated with an endocardial scar and 7 with an epicardial scar. All myocardial re-entrant VTs were abolished in 12 of 22 patients, and inducible VT was modified in 4 patients. During follow-up of 334 ± 280 days, 54% of patients with myocardial re-entry were free of VT despite frequent episodes before ablation. Conclusions The VTs in DCM are most commonly the result of myocardial re-entry associated with scar. Scars are often adjacent to a valve annulus, deep in the endocardium, and can be greater in extent on the epicardium than on the endocardium. The use of epicardial mapping and radiofrequency is likely to improve success.
The numbers game for virus-specific CD8+ T cells

Recent advances have, for the first time, allowed accurate quantitation of the virus-specific effector and memory CD8T lymphocyte responses. The T cell numbers are much higher than anyone had previously suspected. The consequence is a revolution in our understanding of cell-mediated immunity in virus infections.
Playing with Trolleys: Intuitions About the Permissibility of Aggregation

We explore when experimental subjects think aggregation across persons—deciding that some parties should be worse off, so that others might gain more, compared to an alternative option—is permissible through subjects' responses to trolley problem vignettes. Two classic vignettes are: (1) whether to divert a runaway trolley on to a spur track, killing one, to save multiple potential victims on a main track, and (2) whether to push an overweight person off a bridge to block the trolley from hitting the potential victims. Subjects typically judge diverting in the first problem permissible and pushing in the second problem impermissible. We first show that respondents reject Taurek's claim that the number of victims is irrelevant. Our central novel finding is that the intuition to distinguish the two cases is weaker than the extensive literature emphasizing its significance has implied. Responses to the two problems often converge to a significant extent on the position that aggregation is impermissible because the intuition to divert is both more weakly held and more subject to revision than the intuition against pushing. We show this convergence when the problems are presented together. Moreover, while the strictures against pushing are typically seen as mandatory (and hold even when following the strictures disadvantages kin or more identified parties), the obligation to divert is rarely unqualifiedly mandatory, and even its permissibility is sensitive to potential harm to kin and identifiable people.
Emotion Dysregulation, Gender, and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: An Exploratory Study in College Students

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent problem, as it is bidirectional and perpetrated by both men and women. Emotion dysregulation may influence IPV perpetration among men and women. This cross-sectional survey study of 598 college students investigated the associations between two important factors related to IPV perpetration: gender and emotion dysregulation. Findings illustrated an association between emotion dysregulation and IPV perpetration. The bivariate association between physical violence and one facet of emotion dysregulation differed by gender, such that lack of emotional awareness was associated with violence perpetrated by women, but not men; however, this was not supported in multivariate analyses. These preliminary findings suggest that future work should examine how different emotion regulation deficits may increase IPV by gender.
The potential power output for skeletal muscle to provide cardiac assistance.

Abstract It is clear that autologous skeletal muscle offers a potential power source, free of invasive tubes and wires and without the need for immunosuppressive or antibiotic therapy, with the capability of assuming at least 25% to 50% of the natural heart's workload. The application of this power source as either a heart wrap in CMP procedures or as an assist ventricle in SMV designs is not only possible, but in fact, reality in the case of CMP procedures. Optimization of these applications requires continued research, but offers renewed hope for patients with CHF who currently depend on indefinite pharmacologic therapy, the total artificial heart, or the too few donor hearts for transplantation.
Knowing Self Through the Journey: Graduate Students’ Experiences of Self-Knowledge Development

This article explores graduate students’ experiences of a self-knowledge development course that is framed by the Heroic Journey model. Through a consideration of several theorists’ perspectives and through the voices of 13 study participants, this article examines the nature of this self-study experience and its impact on participants’ lives. In light of feminist critiques of the traditional Heroic Journey model, the author pays particular attention to the experiences of women in this course. The author identifies three major findings: First, when the Heroic journey model is understood as a process and not just a theoretical construct, it gains significant power as an inclusive tool for fostering self-knowledge development. Second, self-knowledge development is not solely an individual endeavor. Self-knowledge is socially constructed through interaction with others. Third, self-knowledge development has critical spiritual dimensions, and this deeper level of knowing can lead to significant, long-lasting growth and change.
Portfolio selection with skewness: A multiple-objective approach

In the presence of skewness, the portfolio selection entails considering competing and conflicting objectives, such as maximizing both its expected returns and skewness, and minimizing its risk for decreasing absolute risk-aversion investors. Since it is unlikely that a portfolio can solve the multiple-objectives problem simultaneously, a portfolio selection must depend on the investor's preference among objectives. This article shows that investor preference can be incorporated into a polynomial goal programming problem from which a portfolio selection with skewness is determined. An inefficient mean-variance portfolio may be optimal in the mean-variance-skewness content. The features of applying polynomial goal programming in portfolio selection are 1) the existence of an optimal solution, 2) the flexibility of the incorporation of investor preference, and 3) the relative simplicity of computational requirements.
Smoking As a Risk Factor for Cystoid Macular Edema Complicating Intermediate Uveitis

Purpose To describe risk factors for the presence of cystoid macular edema (CME) among patients presenting with intermediate uveitis. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods settings: Single-center, academic practice. study population: Two hundred and eight patients with intermediate uveitis evaluated from July 1, 1984 through September 30, 2006. procedures: Clinical and demographic data were entered retrospectively into a database and analyzed. outcome measures: Presence of CME at presentation to our clinic; risk factors for presenting with CME. Results Of the 208 patients, 74% had bilateral intermediate uveitis, yielding 363 affected eyes. Eighty-nine patients (43%) had CME in at least one eye at the time of presentation to our clinic. After controlling for potentially confounding variables including demographics, duration of disease, active intraocular inflammation, history of diabetes mellitus or hypertension, and presence of epiretinal membrane, actively smoking at presentation was associated with a four-fold increased risk of CME at presentation vs never smoking (odds ratio (OR), 3.90; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.43, 10.66; P = .008). Former smoking also appeared to increase the risk of CME at presentation in the multivariate analysis, but the result was of borderline statistical significance (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 0.99, 3.94; P = .055). After adjusting for confounding, there was a 4% increased risk of CME at presentation for each cigarette smoked per day (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01, 1.7; P = .005). Conclusions CME was a common structural ocular complication observed in our cohort. Current smoking was associated with a dose-dependent increased risk of having CME at the time of presentation to our clinic.
Sensing scaled scintillations

We review some of the ways in which the fractal concept has found application in wave-propagation contexts. The scaling properties of fractals in both geometrical and statistical situations are reviewed and the relation to inverse power laws discussed. The relationship among the self-similar scaling properties of fractals, Levy distributions, and renormalized group theory is explored to provide a simple picture of wave propagation through multiscale media. Finally, the notion of using a wavelet transform in the processing of fractal time series is considered.
26Al and the Formation of the Solar System from a Molecular Cloud Contaminated by Wolf-Rayet Winds

In agreement with previous work, we show that the presence of the short-lived radionuclide (SLR) 26Al in the early solar system was unlikely (less than 2% a priori probability) to be the result of direct introduction of supernova (SN) ejecta into the gaseous disk during the Class II stage of protosolar evolution. We also show that Bondi-Hoyle accretion of any contaminated residual gas from the Sun's natal star cluster contributed negligible 26Al to the primordial solar system. Our calculations are consistent with the absence of the oxygen isotopic signature expected with any late introduction of SN ejecta into the protoplanetary disk. Instead, the presence of 26Al in the oldest solar system solids (calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs)) and its apparent uniform distribution with the inferred canonical 26Al/27Al ratio of (4.5-5) × 10–5 support the inheritance of 26Al from the Sun's parent giant molecular cloud. We propose that this radionuclide originated in a prior generation of massive stars that formed in the same molecular cloud and contaminated that cloud by Wolf-Rayet winds. We calculated the Galactic distribution of 26Al/27Al ratios that arise from such contamination using the established embedded cluster mass and stellar initial mass functions, published nucleosynthetic yields from the winds of massive stars, and by assuming rapid and uniform mixing into the cloud. Although our model predicts that the majority of stellar systems contain no 26Al from massive stars, and that the a priori probability that the 26Al/27Al ratio will reach or exceed the canonical solar system value is only ~6%, the maximum in the distribution of nonzero values is close to the canonical 26Al/27Al ratio. We find that the Sun most likely formed 4-5 million years (Myr) after the massive stars that were the source of 26Al. Furthermore, our model can explain the initial solar system abundance of a second, co-occurring SLR, 41Ca, if ~5 × 105 yr elapsed between ejection of the radionuclides and the formation of CAIs. The presence of a third radionuclide, 60Fe, can be quantitatively explained if (1) the Sun formed immediately after the first SNe from the earlier generation of stars; (2) only 5% of SN ejecta was incorporated into the molecular cloud, or (3) the radionuclide originated in an even earlier generation of stars whose contributions to other radionuclides with a shorter half-life had completely decayed.
Pesticide poisoning and depressive symptoms among farm residents.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study presented is to evaluate the association between pesticides and depressive symptoms among a population exposed to chemicals as a result of agricultural use. Chronic sequelae of acute pesticide poisoning from organophosphate compounds may include anxiety and depression. In some states, farmers have been reported to have higher rates of depression than other population groups. Little work has been done to describe the effects of exposure to organophosphate compounds and depressive symptoms among the farming population. METHODS: Data for this study came from a cross sectional survey of farmers and their spouses conducted in an eight county area in northeastern Colorado. Personal interviews were conducted with the study participants. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. Pesticides applied on the farms were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. Conditional logistic regression was used to model the relationship between depression and pesticide-related illness in a stratified analysis. RESULTS: Between 1992-1997, 761 individuals were enrolled in this cross sectional survey. Adjusting for a number of potential confounders, the odds ratio for depression associated with pesticide-related illness was 5.87 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.56-13.44]. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to pesticides at a high enough concentration to cause self reported poisoning symptoms was associated with high depressive symptoms independently of other known risk factors for depression among farm residents.
Effect of Thimet on incidence of virus Y and purple-top wilt in potatoes

The systemic insecticide Thimet, O, O-diethyl S-(ethylthiomethyl) phosphorodithioate, was formulated at the rate of3 1/3 pounds actual in 250 pounds of 12-12-12 granular fertilizer and applied in bands at this rate per acre at planting of cut Red Pontiac seed potatoes. To insure sufficient transmission of virus Y, the green peach aphid,Myzus persicae, was cultured on the potato selection ND530, a virus Y carrier, in the greenhouse. Aphid-infested leaves were taken to the plot June 17 and 24, and July 3, and placed on rows of ND530 growing between and on the outsides of the Red Pontiac rows. The aster yellows virus, causing purple-top wilt, was transmitted by a natural infestation of the 6-spotted leafhopper,Macrosteles fascifrons. The use of Thimet in this manner was not effective in reducing the incidence of virus Y but there was a significant decrease in the incidence of purple-top wilt.
Radio and infrared emission from Markarian starburst galaxies

Radio and infrared emission were compared for a sample of 58 Markarian starburst galaxies, chosen to cover a wide range of 60-micron luminosity density. New radio observations were from the VLA at 6 and 20 cm in the B and A configurations. IRAS data were reanalyzed for 25 of the starbursts that were previously undetected at either 25 or 100 microns. The correlation between the global radio and IR emission for the starbursts in the sample is strongest at 25 and 60 microns, wavelengths in which the warm dust dominates. The radio spectral index steepens away from the center. This indicates that nonthermal emission leaks out of the starburst region. The change in the spectral index implies that while nonthermal sources dominate in the entire region, the bulk of the interior emission at 6 cm is thermal. The radio spectral index does not appear to vary as a function of the infrared luminosity or the infrared colors, which indicates that the slope of the initial mass function does not appear to be a function of either the mass or temperature of the starburst.
Regulation of Ionizing Radiation-induced Rad52 Nuclear Foci Formation by c-Abl-mediated Phosphorylation

The RAD52 epistasis group of proteins, including Rad51, Rad52, and Rad54, plays an important role in the homologous recombination repair of double strand breaks. A well characterized feature associated with the ability of these proteins to repair double strand breaks is inducible nuclear foci formation at the sites of damage. How the process is functionally regulated in response to DNA damage, however, remains elusive. We show here that c-Abl tyrosine kinase associates with and phosphorylates Rad52 on tyrosine 104. Importantly, the very same site of Rad52 is phosphorylated on exposure of cells to ionizing radiation (IR). The functional significance of c-Abl-dependent phosphorylation of Rad52 is underscored by our findings that cells that express the phosphorylation-resistant Rad52 mutant, in which tyrosine 104 is replaced by phenylalanine, exhibit compromised nuclear foci formation in response to IR. Furthermore, IR-induced Rad52 nuclear foci formation is markedly suppressed by the expression of dominant-negative c-Abl. Together our data support a mode of post-translational regulation of Rad52 mediated by the c-Abl tyrosine kinase.
A new genetic element affecting somaticmnd recombination inSchizophyllum commune

Abstract Several spontaneous variants of Schizophyllum commune , recovered both from unstable diploids and from meiotic progeny, have been found to prevent the conventional pattern of internuclear transfer of the recessive morphological marker mnd . These variants, designated mnd mob , still express the mound phenotype of unregulated hyperplasia in monokaryons and a modified mound phenotype in dikaryons homoallelic for mnd . The high incidence of mnd mob variants (ca. 2.5%) occurring among meiotic progeny of the cross mnd mob + × mnd + mob + , together with the failure to obtain mnd + mob recombinants from crosses between mnd mob and mnd + mob + , suggests some origin other than point mutation as the basis for generating mnd mob variants. It is proposed that mob + is a transposable element closely linked to or within mnd and that this element might be responsible for the internuclear transfer of the mnd locus suggested to occur in the somatic mnd recombinations reported previously in [ mnd + mnd + ] dikaryons.
Using quadratic convex reformulation to tighten the convex relaxation of a quadratic program with complementarity constraints

Quadratic Convex Reformulation (QCR) is a technique that has been proposed for binary and mixed integer quadratic programs. In this paper, we extend the QCR method to convex quadratic programs with linear complementarity constraints (QPCCs). Due to the complementarity relationship between the nonnegative variables $$y$$ and $$w$$ , a term $$y^{T}Dw$$ can be added to the QPCC objective function, where $$D$$ is a nonnegative diagonal matrix chosen to maintain the convexity of the objective function and the global resolution of the QPCC. Following the QCR method, the products of linear equality constraints can also be used to perturb the QPCC objective function, with the goal that the new QP relaxation provides a tighter lower bound. By solving a semidefinite program, an equivalent QPCC can be obtained whose QP relaxation is as tight as possible. In addition, we extend the QCR to a general quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP), of which the QPCC is a special example. Computational tests on QPCCs are presented.
The appraisal of ego strength in evaluation, treatment, and consultation "is this the one?".

This is a time of rampant violence at home and abroad, a time of dehumanization of ourselves and others. This is a time of opportunity for those of us from various disciplines who daily appraise “the other” from backgrounds and histories, perhaps differing from our own, to ask the question, “Is this the one?” Is this the one who will contribute to his own and society’s reconstruction? Reconstruction is a term from an adaptive approach to psychoanalysis. Is this the one who can work toward his own and society’s redemption? Redemption is a messianic hope. The question itself is a true one, shared by myths, of which all of us, from various backgrounds, are a part. It was most poignantly asked by Miss Jane Pittman (played by Cicely Tyson) in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” Miss Pittman, a black woman born in slavery, and already old, cradled a black manchild on her knee. She asked of herself, the small group that surrounded her, and the child himself, “Is thisAre you the one?” It is the appraiser who asks this question of the one who is being appraised; a person, infant or adult, is fully cognizant of the mood in which this question is asked or if it is being asked at all. The question is significant to his or her ability to join in the work, which first and foremost, I propose, is the identification of ego strength. An attitude of positive expectation on the part of one who appraises reaches out and stimulates the child’s or adult’s search for latent ego strength. Ego strength may be recalled from as long ago
Influenza vaccination by pharmacists in a health sciences center: A 3-year experience

Abstract Objective To assess the design and implementation of influenza vaccination clinics across campus, assess participant satisfaction with the pharmacist-led clinics, and educate and increase visibility of the role of pharmacists as vaccinators. Setting University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), a comprehensive health sciences center. Practice innovation The College of Pharmacy on the OUHSC campus developed and implemented a vaccination program to increase influenza vaccination of OUHSC employees. Main outcome measures Number of employees receiving influenza vaccination, employee satisfaction with the pharmacist-led clinics, and employee awareness of the pharmacist's role in vaccination. Results Reported OUHSC employee influenza vaccination rates increased from approximately 35% before implementation of the pharmacy-based program to 54% in 2012 after implementation. The increase was attributed to maintaining no out-of-pocket costs for employees, offering various clinic locations, and using media resources to educate employees about influenza infection and vaccination. Employees reported high satisfaction with the influenza vaccination clinics and with receiving vaccinations from pharmacists and student pharmacists. In the first 2 years of the program, the percentage of surveyed employees "very familiar" with the pharmacist's role in vaccinations increased from 23% to 66%. Conclusion A college of pharmacy on a large health sciences center developed and successfully implemented an influenza vaccination program, providing an accessible and convenient route for influenza prevention to employees, as well as enhanced the visibility of pharmacists as vaccination providers.
An activated renin-angiotensin system maintains normal blood pressure in aryl hydrocarbon receptor heterozygous mice but not in null mice

Abstract It has been postulated that fetal vascular abnormalities in aryl hydrocarbon receptor null ( ahr −/− ) mice may alter cardiovascular homeostasis in adulthood. We tested the hypothesis that blood pressure regulation in adult heterozygous mice ( ahr +/− ) would be normal, compared to ahr −/− mice, since no vascular abnormalities have been reported in the heterozygote animals. Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) was measured using radiotelemetry prior to and during treatment with inhibitors of the autonomic nervous system, nitric oxide synthase (NOS), angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), or endothelin-1 A receptor (ET A ). Also, indices of renin–angiotensin system (RAS) activation were measured. ahr +/− and ahr −/− mice were normotensive and hypotensive, respectively, compared to wild-type ( ahr +/+ ) littermates. Responses of all genotypes to autonomic nervous system inhibition were normal. ahr +/− mice responded normally to NOS inhibition, while the responses of ahr −/− mice were significantly blunted. In contrast, ahr +/− mice were significantly more responsive to inhibition of ACE, an ET A antagonist, or both, while ahr −/− mice were significantly less responsive to ACE inhibition and more responsive to an ET A antagonist. ahr +/− mice also exhibited significant increases in plasma renin and ACE activity, plasma sodium, and urine osmolality, indicative of RAS activation. Thus, normotension in ahr +/− mice appears to be maintained by increased RAS and ET-1 signaling, while hypotension in ahr −/− mice may result from decreased RAS signaling. In conclusion, despite the lack of overt fetal vascular abnormalities in ahr +/− mice, the loss of a single ahr allele has a significant effect on blood pressure regulation.
Drinking hot coffee: Why doesn't it burn the mouth?

Coffee served at temperatures recommended by the hospitality and food literatures for brewing and holding are above thermal pain and damage thresholds. Yet, consumers do not report pain or damage on drinking coffee at such temperatures. To investigate this discrepancy, the temperature of hot coffee before and during sipping was investigated for 18 subjects. Coffee temperature was continuously monitored by thermocouples in the cup, in the coffee bolus in the oral cavity and on the surface of the tongue. There was minimal cooling as the coffee entered the mouth from the cup, yet the coffee temperature was still above threshold for inducing burn damage. It is hypothesized that during drinking, the bolus of hot coffee is not held in the mouth long enough to heat the epithelial surfaces sufficiently to cause pain or tissue damage.
Tolerance, hemodynamic changes, and safety of dobutamine stress perfusion imaging

Background Dobutamine myocardial perfusion perfusion imaging is being used increasingly for assessment of coronary artery disease. Heretofore, there have been no large series documenting its tolerance and safety. The aims of this study were to assess the tolerance, hemodynamic changes, and safety of dobutamine stress in conjunction with myocardial perfusion imaging.
CHARTING THE CIRCUITOUS ROUTE TOWARD RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Arguably, with respect to religious practice, the United States Constitution sought to metamorphose what had been restricted practices of religious toleration into what we more commonly and with more generous spirit call religious tolerance. The provisions of toleration laws, making legal concessions under the aegis of an official religion, were better than burning heretics at the stake, a practice that after the bloody Thirty Years War in Europe (1618–48) usually caused more trouble than it was worth. Still they extended only a grudging permission to “dissenters.” The category “dissenter” did not include all religious minorities, and it placed the tolerated minorities at a disadvantage in almost all civil capacities. Religious toleration before the end of the eighteenth century gave some religious believers license to be wrong, but it carried no pledge of respect.
A 2-Stage Genome-Wide Association Study to Identify Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated with Development of Urinary Symptoms After Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer

Purpose: We identified single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with change in the AUA Symptom Score after radiotherapy for prostate cancer.Materials and Methods: A total of 723 patients treated with brachytherapy with or without external beam radiation therapy were assessed at baseline and annually after radiotherapy using the AUA Symptom Score. A 2-stage genome-wide association study was performed with the primary end point of change in AUA Symptom Score from baseline at each of 4 followup periods. Single nucleotide polymorphism associations were assessed using multivariable linear regression adjusting for pre-radiotherapy AUA Symptom Score severity category and clinical variables. Fisher's trend method was used to calculate combined p values from the discovery and replication cohorts.Results: A region on chromosome 9p21.2 containing 8 single nucleotide polymorphisms showed the strongest association with change in AUA Symptom Score (combined p values 8.8×10−6 to 6.5×10−7 at 2 to 3 years after radiothe...
Weaving Assessment Information into Intervention Ideas: Planning Communication Interventions for Young Children with Disabilities

What is communication? What is involved in conducting a high-quality communication assessment? How can educators use information gathered during the assessment process to guide intervention plans f...
Characteristics of dementia admissions to standard nursing homes and to special care units

As a result of using admission criteria, the characteristics of special care unit (SCU) admissions are generally different from dementia admissions. As part of the National Evaluation of Special Care Units Project, all dementia admissions to a nationwide sample of SCUs and comparable non-SCU nursing facilities were screened during a 13-month recruitment window. Results show that SCU admissions are younger, more likely to be male, admitted from home, admitted under private-pay status, have recorded AD diagnoses, are independently mobile, and have fewer physical health problems. Program and policy implications of these findings are discussed.
The Mammalian Exocyst, a Complex Required for Exocytosis, Inhibits Tubulin Polymerization

The exocyst is a 734-kDa complex essential for development. Perturbation of its function results in early embryonic lethality. Extensive investigation has revealed that this complex participates in multiple biological processes, including protein synthesis and vesicle/protein targeting to the plasma membrane. In this article we report that the exocyst may also play a role in modulating microtubule dynamics. Using monoclonal antibodies, we observed that endogenous exocyst subunits co-localized with microtubules and mitotic spindles in normal rat kidney cells. To test for a functional relationship between the exocyst complex and microtubules, we established an in vitro exocyst reconstitution assay and studied exocyst effect on microtubule dynamics. We found that the exocyst complex reconstituted from eight recombinant exocyst subunits inhibited tubulin polymerization in vitro. Deletion of exocyst subunit sec5, sec6, sec15, or exo70 diminished its tubulin polymerization inhibition activity. Surprisingly, exocyst subunit exo70 itself was also capable of inhibiting tubulin polymerization, although exocyst complex with exo70 deletion did not lose its activity completely. Overexpression of exo70 in NRK cells resulted in microtubule network disruption and the formation of filopodia-like plasma membrane protrusions. The formation of these membrane protrusions was greatly hampered by stabilizing microtubules with taxol. Overexpression of exo84, an exocyst subunit that did not show tubulin polymerization inhibition activity, did not cause this phenotype. Results shown in this article, along with a previous report that localized microtubule instability induces plasma membrane addition, implicates a novel role for the exocyst in modulating microtubule dynamics underlying exocytosis.
Nature of Bimetallic Clusters

Bimetallic clusters, as the name implies, are entities composed of atoms of two different metallic elements. They are useful in catalytic materials and were envisioned originally for this kind of application (1–6). Research in this area was initiated by the author in the early 1960s. Thus, the time frame of interest for this review is similar to that considered in the first session of this symposium, which was concerned with developments in the area of metal clusters during the twenty-five year period beginning with the discovery (7) of the quadruple metal-metal bond.
Mean fade time of an optical communication channel under moderate-to-strong atmospheric turbulence

Interest in the use of optical communications over terrestrial links has greatly increased during the last several years. In many applications, the path is horizontal so the index of refraction structure parameter can be taken as constant. In addition, optical communication channels offer a number of advantages over conventional RF channels. However, due to the short wavelength, the reliability of an optical link can be seriously degraded over that of an RF system by atmospheric scintillation. In particular, scintillation can cause severe fading of the channel. In our analysis here we assume that the refractive index structure parameter C2n is constant and use our recently developed gamma-gamma model and the well known lognormal model to consider the fading statistics associated with a spherical wave model for simplicity. The results are similar to a Gaussian-beam wave with perfect pointing. Our analysis show that compared to the gamma-gamma model, the lognormal model predicts optimistic values of probability of fade, underestimate the number of fades per second and consequently does not measure the mean fade time correctly.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Feature distributions and probability of identification

In this paper we present a method of analysis of model based automatic target recognition (ATR) algorithms, as a function of a number of important parameters of the system, including the number and size of the models, the correlations between models, the expected probability of detection of features, the rates of occurrence of unpredicted features, and the spatial resolution of the predicted features, as defined by a local spatial feature density. Analytical results for a two class problem are presented as a function of between-class correlation and feature localization accuracy.
Effect of interphase mixing on a water–organic solvent two-liquid phase microbial system: ethanol fermentation†

Ethanol fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae was investigated in broth-organic solvent two-liquid phase systems with and without interphase mixing. The effect of interphase mixing with aliphatic alcohols as polar solvents and with alkanes as apolar solvents was determined from investigations in three distinct systems: a solvent-saturated broth, a solvent-broth dispersion system and a dispersion-free solvent-broth system. Microbial activities, measured as a function of solvent volume and inoculum size, revealed that a dispersed polar solvent caused a longer growth lag time and a slower growth rate. Viability measurements showed that yeast cells were gradually killed in a dodecanol-water dispersion system and not in a dispersion-free one. This process was believed to be initiated and enhanced by cell adhesion to the solvent interface as observed under a microscope. Yeast activity was also measured as a function of an apolar solvent volume and inoculum size. A full fermentative activity was observed in an initially alkanesaturated broth unlike in an intermixed biphasic system. As a result of these investigations, it was concluded firstly that microbial activity in initially solvent-saturated broths with and without contact with a stagnant solvent phase can be different and secondly that the process efficiency of a biphasic bioreactor, unlike that of a chemical reactor, can be hampered by interphase mixing. The yeast activities in the presence of the various alcohols and alkanes were correlated with ‘log P’ values of the solvents. Full activity was observed at log P > 5 and almost none at log P < 4.
Lateralization of repeated filtered transients

The lateralization of a high‐pass and a low‐pass 40 dB SL, 0.1‐msec transient was measured as a function of the number of repetitions of the transient and the repetition rate. A high‐pass transient presented once required 100 μsec more interaural time for lateralization than did a low‐pass transient presented once. Twelve repetitions of the high‐pass transient yielded the same lateralization performance as that obtained with a low‐pass transient. Repetition rate did not affect the lateralization of the high‐ or low‐pass transients, and number of repetitions did not affect the lateralization of the low‐pass transients. These results were compared with results obtained with gated sinusoids presented with and without rise–decay times.Subject Classification: [43]65.62, [43]65.75, [43]65.58.
Live weight and milk-energy yield in Holstein cows.

Summary Sixty-six records of 22 grade Holstein cows in a feeding experiment at Cornell for 3 successive seasons, show that milk-energy yield per unit initial live weight decreased with live weight during the first season, and increased with live weight during the second and third seasons. It is concluded that milk-energy yield tends to be a multiple of initial live weight (3 days after calving) under continued favorable, practical conditions. Sixty-one records of 32 daughters of the same Holstein bull in a breeding experiment at Beltsville show that milk-energy yield per unit average live weight decreased with live weight; 27 of the 61 records above average live weight show a similar tendency; 34 of the 61 records below average live weight show an opposite tendency. The 61 records show milk-energy yield per unit live weight is independent of age (r = −.01 ± .09); age-corrected milk is independent of age (r = −.07 ± .09). It is concluded that age-correction is an indirect way of allowing for live weight.
HcBench: Methodology, development, and characterization of a customer usage representative big data/Hadoop benchmark

Big Data analytics using Map-Reduce over Hadoop has become a leading edge paradigm for distributed programming over large server clusters. The Hadoop platform is used extensively for interactive and batch analytics in ecommerce, telecom, media, retail, social networking, and being actively evaluated for use in other areas. However, to date no industry standard or customer representative benchmarks exist to measure and evaluate the true performance of a Hadoop cluster. Current Hadoop micro-benchmarks such as HiBench-2, GridMix-3, Terasort, etc. are narrow functional slices of applications that customers run to evaluate their Hadoop clusters. However, these benchmarks fail to capture the real usages and performance in a datacenter environment. Given that typical datacenter deployments of Hadoop process a wide variety of analytic interactive and query jobs in addition to batch transform jobs under strict Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements, performance benchmarks used to evaluate clusters must capture the effects of concurrently running such diverse job types in production environments. In this paper, we present the methodology and the development of a customer datacenter usage representative Hadoop benchmark "HcBench" which includes a mix of large number of customer representative interactive, query, machine learning, and transform jobs, a variety of data sizes, and includes compute, storage 110, and network intensive jobs, with inter-job arrival times as in a typical datacenter environment. We present the details of this benchmark and discuss application level, server and cluster level performance characterization collected on an Intel Sandy Bridge Xeon Processor Hadoop cluster.
Geologic development and morphodynamics of Egmont Key, Florida

Abstract Egmont Key is a small, elongate island located on the huge ebb-tidal delta at the mouth of Tampa Bay, FL, USA. The multiple sets of intersecting beach/dune ridges that comprise the low-lying island indicate several periods of growth spaced between periods of erosion. The island has experienced considerable expansion and erosion during recorded history. The oldest of these ridges represents accumulation that took place about 1000 years before the present. Over the past century of well-documented change, there has been a general reduction in the area of the island as the result of extended periods of erosion punctuated by short accretion periods. The net change during this period has been a loss of approximately 40% of the area of the island. A 1-year, time-series monitoring of the Egmont shoreline during 1996–1997 showed sediment loss of 26 500 m3, while the annual average over the period of 1877–1996 was only 3360 m3. A single storm is responsible for most of this loss leading to the conclusion that the island is storm-dominated. Inferences from time intervals during which hurricanes took place support this conclusion. This island provides a major contrast in its coastal location, development and stratigraphy as compared to typical barrier islands. There is no underlying sediment deposited in shallow, paralic environments. The development of the island was lateral rather than having a vertical component through time, partly because of its relatively young age but also because of its position on a thick, ebb-tidal delta sand body.
Analyzing Test-Taking Behavior: Decision Theory Meets Psychometric Theory

We investigate the implications of penalizing incorrect answers to multiple-choice tests, from the perspective of both test-takers and test-makers. To do so, we use a model that combines a well-known item response theory model with prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk, Econometrica 47:263–91, 1979). Our results reveal that when test-takers are fully informed of the scoring rule, the use of any penalty has detrimental effects for both test-takers (they are always penalized in excess, particularly those who are risk averse and loss averse) and test-makers (the bias of the estimated scores, as well as the variance and skewness of their distribution, increase as a function of the severity of the penalty).