cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parallel robots in construction

Parallel robots have been in existence since the first half of the 20 century. Applications of parallel robots have ranged from tire testing machines to robots for performing surgery. The high load-to-weight ratio and high stiffness of parallel mechanisms sets them apart from more common serial robots. This presentation will discuss the relevant history of parallel robots and their kinematics, and presents past and current work on their application to construction.
Structural features of the human salivary mucin, MUC7

Human salivary mucin (MUC7) is characterized by a single polypeptide chain of 357 aa. Detailed analysis of the derived MUC7 peptide sequence reveals five distinct regions or domains: (1) an N-terminal basic, histatin-like domain which has a leucine-zipper segment, (2) a moderately glycosylated domain, (3) six heavily glycosylated tandem repeats each consisting of 23 aa, (4) another heavily glycosylated MUC1- and MUC2-like domain, and (5) a C-terminal leucine-zipper segment. Chemical analysis and semi-empirical prediction algorithms for O-glycosylation suggested that 86/105 (83%) Ser/Thr residues were O-glycosylated with the majority located in the tandem repeats. The high (∼25%) proline content of MUC7 including 19 diproline segments suggested the presence of polyproline type structures. CD studies of natural and synthetic diproline-rich peptides and glycopeptides indicated that polyproline type structures do play a significant role in the conformational dynamics of MUC7. In addition, crystal structure analysis of a synthetic diproline segment (Boc-Ala-Pro-OBzl) revealed a polyproline type II extended structure. Collectively, the data indicate that the polyproline type II structure, dispersed throughout the tandem repeats, may impart a stiffening of the backbone and could act in consort with the glycosylated segments to keep MUC7 in a semi-rigid, rod shaped conformation resembling a ‘bottle-brush’ model.
A Mixture of Personalized Experts for Human Affect Estimation

We investigate the personalization of deep convolutional neural networks for facial expression analysis from still images. While prior work has focused on population-based (“one-size-fits-all”) approaches, we formulate and construct personalized models via a mixture of experts and supervised domain adaptation approach, showing that it improves greatly upon non-personalized models. Our experiments demonstrate the ability of the model personalization to quickly and effectively adapt to limited amounts of target data. We also provide a novel training methodology and architecture for creating personalized machine learning models for more effective analysis of emotion state.
Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplantation

The lack of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched related or unrelated donors (or the time necessary to locate and procure stem cells from HLAmatched unrelated donors), and the unavailability of suitable cord blood units are major limitations to the successful application of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Genetically haploidentical family members represent another potential source of HSC and they are readily available for almost all patients. While initial attempts at haploidentical stem cell transplantation were largely unsuccessful due to an exceedingly high risk of Graft-versus-Host Disease (GVHD) and transplant-related mortality, recent advances in our understanding of the immunologic complications of HLA-mismatched stem cell transplantation, our ability to mobilize and select HSC, and the identification of new immunosuppressive agents and effective prophylactic and preemptive strategies for opportunistic infections, have led to decreased transplant-related mortality and improved survival outcomes. The negative consequences often encountered with haploidentical HSCT, such as increased rates of graft failure, increased probability of disease relapse and delayed immune reconstitution which may lead to fatal infectious complications, are largely due to the rigorous T cell depletion that is necessary to prevent fatal GVHD. Therefore, transferring a functional lymphohematopoietic system from the donor to the recipient in a timely fashion likely determines the ultimate success of haploidentical HSCT, if this can be performed without the risk of severe GVHD. Recently, refinements in transplant strategies, including the transplantation of “megadose” peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) have substantially improved donor engraftment. Furthermore, the add-back of (1) donor lymphocytes that are selectively depleted of host-reactive T cells, (2) regulatory T cells (Tregs and NK/Tregs) or (3) herpes simples virus-tyrosine kinase (HSV-TK) engineered donor lymphocytes are producing encouraging results in terms of earlier immune reconstitution with acceptable rates of GVHD both in preclinical and clinical models. Additionally, novel approaches using the adoptive transfer of ex vivo expanded pathogen or tumor antigenspecific effector cells are being evaluated following transplantation with promising early outcomes. Chapter 15
Turn to the Self in Human-Computer Interaction: Care of the Self in Negotiating the Human-Technology Relationship

Everyday life is increasingly mediated by technology. Technology is rapidly growing capacity and complexity, especially evident in developments in artificial intelligence and big data analytics. As human-computer interaction (HCI) endeavors to examine and theorize how people act and interact with the ever-evolving technology, an important, emerging concern is how the self-the totality of internal qualities such as consciousness and agency-plays out in relation to the technology-mediated external world. To analyze this question, we draw from Michel Foucault's ethics of "care of the self," which examines how the self is constituted through conscious and reflective work on self-transformation. We present three case studies to illustrate how individuals carry out practices of the self to reflect upon and negotiate their relationship with technology. We discuss the importance of examining the self and foreground the notion of care of the self in HCI research and design.
Communicating Climate Change: Probabilistic Expressions and Concrete Events

AbstractDespite near unanimous agreement among climate scientists about global warming, a substantial proportion of Americans remain skeptical or unconcerned. The two experiments reported here test...
Prevalence of Patellar Tendinopathy and Patellar Tendon Abnormality in Male Collegiate Basketball Players: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Context Patellar tendinopathy (PT) is a degenerative condition known to affect athletes who participate in sports such as basketball and volleyball. Patellar tendinopathy is a challenging condition...
Passing on religion as identity? Anglo-western Islamic children’s literature and Muslim acculturation

Drawing upon a classical cultural studies perspective and employment of participant observation in the socio-cultural scene of Anglo-western Islamic children’s literature in Britain and North Ameri...
Correlations Between COVID-19 Cases and Google Trends Data in the United States: A State-by-State Analysis.

Objective To evaluate whether a digital surveillance model using Google Trends is feasible for obtaining accurate data on coronavirus disease 2019 and whether accurate predictions can be made regarding new cases. Methods Data on total and daily new cases in each US state were collected from January 22, 2020, to April 6, 2020. Information regarding 10 keywords was collected from Google Trends, and correlation analyses were performed for individual states as well as for the United States overall. Results Among the 10 keywords analyzed from Google Trends, face mask, Lysol, and COVID stimulus check had the strongest correlations when looking at the United States as a whole, with R values of 0.88, 0.82, and 0.79, respectively. Lag and lead Pearson correlations were assessed for every state and all 10 keywords from 16 days before the first case in each state to 16 days after the first case. Strong correlations were seen up to 16 days prior to the first reported cases in some states. Conclusion This study documents the feasibility of syndromic surveillance of internet search terms to monitor new infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019. This information could enable better preparation and planning of health care systems.
Cognition and Take-up of the Medicare Savings Programs

This cross-sectional study examines the association between cognition and Medicare Savings Program enrollment among qualified elderly Medicare beneficiaries.
Adaptive Test Pattern Reordering for Diagnosis using k-Nearest Neighbors

Logic diagnosis is a software-based methodology to identify the behavior and location of defects in failing integrated circuits, which is an essential step in yield learning. However, accurate diagnosis requires a sufficient amount of failing data, which is in contradiction to the requirement of reducing test time and cost. In this work, a dynamic test pattern reordering method is proposed to “recommend” which test patterns should be applied for a given failing chip, with the goal of maximizing failing data while minimizing test time. Unlike prior work that uses population statistics from already tested chips, this method uses a machine learning technique, namely k-Nearest Neighbors. Experiments using three industrial chips demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology; specifically, the recommended test pattern order led to a 35% reduction, on average, while maximizing the amount of failure data collected.
User Selection and Power Allocation in Full-Duplex Multicell Networks

Full-duplex (FD) communications has the potential to double the capacity of a half-duplex (HD) system at the link level. However, in a cellular network, FD operation is not a straightforward extension of HD operations. The increased interference due to a large number of simultaneous transmissions in FD operation and real-time traffic conditions limits the capacity for improvement. Realizing the potential of FD requires careful coordination of resource allocation among the cells, as well as within the cell. In this paper, we propose a distributed resource allocation, i.e., joint user selection and power allocation for an FD multicell system, assuming FD base stations (BSs) and HD user equipment (UE). Due to the complexity of finding the globally optimum solution, a suboptimal solution for UE selection and a novel geometric-programming-based solution for power allocation are proposed. The proposed distributed approach converges quickly and performs almost as well as a centralized solution but with much lower signaling overhead. It provides a hybrid scheduling policy that allows FD operations whenever it is advantageous, but otherwise, it defaults to HD operation. We focus on small-cell systems because they are more suitable for FD operation, given practical self-interference cancelation limits. With practical self-interference cancelation, it is shown that the proposed hybrid FD system achieves nearly twice the throughput improvement for an indoor multicell scenario and about 65% improvement for an outdoor multicell scenario, compared with the HD system.
Conditional Projection: How Own Evaluations Influence Beliefs about Others Whose Choices Are Known:

Abstract The authors study how a person's evaluation of choice options influences his or her estimates of other people's evaluations when their choices are known. The study shows that people rely on the relationship between their own evaluations and their final decision to make sense of others, projecting their evaluations of the corresponding options. A person's liking of the option he or she chose between two alternatives influences the person's estimates of others' liking of the option they chose, regardless of whether it matches his or her own choice. Likewise, a person's evaluation of the rejected option affects his or her estimate of others' evaluations of the option they rejected. Across four studies, the authors provide evidence of conditional projection in political and consumer decisions, using across-people differences in ratings of choice options, within-person changes in ratings, and manipulated differences in participants' ratings. The authors also demonstrate that existing accounts of proje...
Patient, prescriber, and Community factors associated with filled naloxone prescriptions among patients receiving buprenorphine 2017-18.

Abstract Background Prescribing naloxone to patients at increased opioid overdose risk is a key component of opioid overdose prevention efforts, but little is known about naloxone fills among patients receiving buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, one such high risk group. Methods This retrospective cross-sectional study used de-identified pharmacy claims representing 90% of all prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies in 50 states and the District of Columbia. We performed a multivariable logistic regression to examine filled naloxone prescriptions among patients receiving buprenorphine treatment and assessed how filled naloxone prescriptions vary by patient, prescriber, and community characteristics. Results Filled naloxone prescriptions occurred among 4.5% of buprenorphine treatment episodes. Episodes paid through Medicaid (aOR 2.40, 95%CI 2.33–2.47) and Medicare (aOR 1.53, 95%CI 1.46–1.60) had higher odds of filled naloxone prescriptions than commercial insurance episodes. Compared to episodes where the primary prescriber was an adult primary care physician, odds of filling a naloxone prescription were higher among episodes prescribed by addiction specialists (aOR 1.30, 95% CI 1.24–1.37) and physician assistants/nurse practitioners (aOR 1.57, 95% CI 1.53–1.61). Conclusions Prescribing naloxone to patients receiving buprenorphine represents a tangible clinical action that can be taken to help prevent opioid overdose deaths. However, despite recommendations to co-prescribe naloxone to patients at increased risk for opioid overdose, rates of filling naloxone prescriptions remain low among patients dispensed buprenorphine. States, insurers, and health systems should consider implementing strategies to facilitate increased co-prescribing of naloxone to at-risk individuals.
Shame: A Genealogy of Queer Practices in the 19th Century

Bogdan Popa brings together Ranciere's techniques of disrupting inequality with a queer curiosity in the performativity of shame to show how 19th-century activists embraced certain forms of shame to denaturalise conventional beliefs about sexuality and gender.
Cost and energy intensity of U.S. potable water reuse systems

This paper reports on a new and open-source dataset, curated from facility-specific engineering reports, that details facility features for an aggregated total of 70 operating, demonstration, pilot and unbuilt U.S. potable water reuse systems. The dataset and our following analysis reviews treatment train design, estimated electricity consumption, facility capital and operation and maintenance costs, and air emission externalities of those systems. Despite a wide variety of feedwater qualities and augmentation strategies, we observe remarkable consistency in potable reuse treatment train design. We estimate potable reuse electricity intensity for each facility as a function of feedwater quality and installed unit processes, finding that advanced treatment train electricity intensities fall within the range of 0.23–2.5 kWh m−3. This range excludes the energy required for conveying water to advanced treatment facilities or pumping the water for supply augmentation. For 25 facilities with capital cost data, we find that potable reuse capital costs normalized by system design capacity fall between 1000 and 5300 $ per m3 d. Subsequent cost analysis of the subset of full advanced treatment (FAT) systems suggests capacity normalized capital costs between 1800 and 4100 $ per m3 d and capacity normalized operation and maintenance costs between 100 and 200 $ per m3 d. These ranges validate previously reported bottom-up cost estimates for FAT facilities. Finally, we use the Water AHEAD model to estimate the annual human health, environmental, and climate damages for representative advanced treatment trains. Air emission externalities from U.S. potable reuse facilities fall between 10 and 40 $ per thousand m3, with the majority of damages associated with electricity consumption at potable reuse facilities.
Relationship between inter-annual variations of microwave land surface emissivity and climate factors over the desert

Microwave land surface emissivity of the Taklimakan Desert was retrieved based on AMSR- E( advanced microwave scanning radiometer-earth observing system) Leval 2A measurements and land surface and atmosphere products from GDAS( global data assimilation system) in 2008 under clear atmospheric conditions.Then,the spectral characteristics of the retrieved emissivity were classified and analyzed with respect to the soil types,and the relationships between desert emissivity annual variability and climate factors were also analyzed. The analyses indicate that the desert microwave emissivity and its annual variability are closely related to soil types.Moreover,there is a significant correlation between soil volume water content as well as land skin temperature and inter- annual variations of emissivity,which decreases with both of the two land surface parameters. Furthermore,vegetation coverage,canopy water content and surface roughness depending on the soil moisture are also the influencing factors of emissivity,and the soil moisture is restricted by both the atmospheric total precipitable water and the underlying soil type. Additionally,the surface emissivity of the desert mostly composed of sand observably decreases with the desert depth.
Evaluating the Performance of a Transformer-based Organic Reaction Prediction Model

Forward and retrosynthetic organic reaction prediction are challenging applications of artificial intelligence (AI) research in chemistry. IBM’s freely available RXN for Chemistry (https://rxn.res.ibm.com) treats reaction prediction as a translation problem, by using transformer-based machine learning models trained on patent data to convert reactant SMILES string sequences into product strings. Here we characterize the performance of transformer models on 100 undergraduate text-book problems to expose reaction classes where the fundamentals of organic chemistry are violated. The forward prediction model is generally successful in predicting outcomes for substitution reactions and unsuccessful for elimination and organocopper reactions. For the retrosynthesis model, we found characteristic examples of a lack of atom conservation and nonsensical chemical transformations. We also compared the dif- ferences in molecular complexity and synthetic accessibility between predicted and literature reactions to probe how AI plans reactions compared to humans. Forward predictions replicated a similar distribution of differences in molecular complexity as the human reactions from the literature, whereas retrosynthetic predictions resulted in both positive and negative deviations from literature complexity. Finally, we analyzed the atom mapping in test reactions to expose errors in how the model identifies reactive atoms and species.
Brainstem network connectivity with mid-anterior insula predicts lower systolic blood pressure at rest in older adults with hypertension.

Central regulation of heart rate and blood pressure provides the bases for a neurogenic mechanism of hypertension (HTN). Post menopause (PM) age coincides with changes in resting state functional brain connectivity (rsFC) as well as increased risk for HTN. Whether the neural networks underpinning cardioautonomic control differ between PM women with and without HTN is unclear. Phenotypic and functional neuroimaging data from the Nathan Kline Institute was first evaluated for group differences in intrinsic network connectivity between 22 HTN post menopausal women and 22 normotensive controls. Intrinsic rsFC of the midbrain-brainstem-cerebellar network with bilateral mid-anterior insula was lower in women with HTN (FWE-corrected, p < 0.05). Z-scores indicating rsFC of these regions were extracted from the 44 PM women and a cohort of 111 adults, not presenting with metabolic or neurodegenerative disease, and compared to in-office systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Lower rsFC of the left (r = −0.17, p = 0.019) and right (r = −0.14, p = 0.048) mid-anterior insula with brainstem nuclei was associated with higher systolic blood pressure in the combined sample. The magnitude of this effect in men and women of post menopausal age supports a neurogenic mechanism for blood pressure regulation in older adults with HTN.
Chapter II.17 – Tissue Engineering: Product Applications and Regulatory Issues

Publisher Summary The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes that an important segment of the products that it regulates arises from new technological achievements and innovations. One example is products developed through tissue engineering (TE) technology, i.e., tissue engineered medical products. Tissue engineering is the application of the principles of life sciences and engineering to develop biological substitutes for the restoration, maintenance, modification, improvement, or replacement of tissue or organ function. In the broadest sense, tissue engineered medical products span a spectrum of products including transplanted human tissues or organs (i.e., autologous or allogeneic tissue); animal tissues or organs (e.g., transgenic animals or xenotransplants); processed, selected, or expanded mammalian cells (e.g., somatic and genetic cellular therapies) in combination with or without biomaterials; and totally synthetic materials of biomimetic design. Both the range of products and the rapid evolution in product design have generated a certain degree of ambiguity in the definition of tissue engineered medical products. There is no precise and globally accepted definition for tissue-engineered products (TEPs).
R&D Target-Setting Difficulties Addressed through Emergent Method: Technology Forecasting Using Data Envelopment Analysis

The aim of this study is to provide a foundation for researchers and managers to discuss and resolve difficulties associated with research and development (R&D) target-setting. While multiple studies mention the difficulty of R&D target-setting, few have compiled reasons for these difficulties or addressed this issue in detail. This paper provides one of the first studies outlining reasons for R&D target-setting difficulties through a literature review. It also provides an initial set of analyses and results after applying an emerging quantitative method, Technology Forecasting Using Data Envelopment Analysis (TFDEA), to illustrate these difficulties step-by-step to commercial airplanes. Results include determining the state of art in commercial airplane technology and technological rate-of-change variants in setting R&D targets.
Ab initio evidence for the formation of impurity d 3 z 2 − r 2 holes in doped La 2 − x Sr x CuO 4

Using the spin unrestricted Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr density functional, we computed the electronic structure of explicitly doped ${\mathrm{La}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{x}{\mathrm{CuO}}_{4}$ $(x=0.125,$ 0.25, and 0.5). At each doping level, an impurity hole band is formed within the undoped insulating gap. This band is well localized to ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{6}$ octahedra adjacent to the Sr impurities. The nature of the impurity hole is ${A}_{1g}$ in symmetry, formed primarily from the ${z}^{2}$ orbital on the Cu and ${p}_{z}$ orbitals on the apical O's. There is a strong triplet coupling of this hole with the intrinsic ${B}_{1g}$ Cu ${x}^{2}\ensuremath{-}{y}^{2}/\mathrm{O}1$ ${p}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}$ hole on the same site. Optimization of the c coordinate of the apical O's in the doped ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{6}$ octahedron leads to an asymmetric anti-Jahn-Teller distortion of the O2 atoms toward the central Cu. In particular, the O2 atom between the Cu and Sr is displaced $0.26 \mathrm{\AA{}}$ while the O2 atom between the Cu and La is displaced $0.10 \mathrm{\AA{}}.$ Contrary to expectations, investigation of a $0.1 \mathrm{\AA{}}$ enhanced Jahn-Teller distortion of this octahedron does not force formation of an ${x}^{2}\ensuremath{-}{y}^{2}$ hole, but instead leads to migration of the ${z}^{2}$ hole to the four other ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{6}$ octahedra surrounding the Sr impurity. This latter observation offers a simple explanation for the bifurcation of the Sr-O2 distance revealed in x-ray absorption fine structure data.
Improved Wind Power Forecasting with ARIMA Models

Abstract The introduction of large amounts of wind power into the electricity system raises potential reliability issues for the grid due to the intermittent nature of wind power. Wind power cannot be scheduled in advance like conventional generation units and thus forecasts of the wind power that will be produced in future hours are used to schedule the amount of wind power available. Any improvements in wind power forecasting have the potential to reduce the amount of reserves necessary in systems with significant amounts of wind power, and eventually lower the cost of electricity in such systems. In this work we examine the ability of statistical time series analysis tools, namely autoregressive integrative moving average (ARIMA) models, to forecast future wind power output from historical data. A systematic approach to determine the best values for the assortment of variables associated with the models, such as training period length and model orders, has been developed and applied. The ability of the models to outperform a standard forecasting benchmark has been examined at a number of different forecast period lengths. The application of the tools to total power output of the many wind farms that may be present within the territory of a single independent system operator is studied. Finally, a case study involving wind farm data from Ontario, Canada is used to show how the improvements that these statistical techniques offer may be beneficial for the independent system operator.
Optimal Information Delivery

Minimizing transmission and storage costs for delivering large amounts of data at specific locations and times is an important aspect of video-on-demand applications. We formulate a broad class of optimization problems of this sort as Steiner tree problems in a time-space product graph. We show that the general problem is NP-complete, we develop a polynomial-time algorithm for an important special case, and a fast heuristic that achieves an approximation ratio of two. Experimental results suggest that the heuristic is usually within a few percentage points of the optimum.
Cloning, Sequencing, and Expression of the Pantothenate Kinase (coaA) Gene of Escherichia coli.

Abstract Pantothenate kinase catalyzes the rate-controlling step in coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthesis. The structural gene (coaA) located at 90 min of the Escherichia coli chromosome was cloned and sequenced. The coaA gene was transcribed in the opposite direction to the flanking genes birA and thrU and produced a single 1.1-kb transcript. Translation of the coaA gene produced two protein products (36.4 and 35.4 kDa) that differed by eight amino acids at the amino terminus. The poor homology of the coaA promoter region to consensus E. coli promoter sequences and the low frequency of optimal codon usage (0.565) were consistent with the low abundance of pantothenate kinase. Strains containing multiple copies of the coaA gene possessed 76-fold-higher specific activity of pantothenate kinase; however, there was only a 2.7-fold increase in the steady-state level of CoA. These data corroborate the conclusion that regulation of pantothenate kinase activity by feedback inhibition is the critical factor controlling the intracellular CoA concentration.
Massive Hemorrhage from Small Intestine, Intubation Biopsy

Summary Massive hemorrhage, of a degree causing shock and requiring transfusion, occurred in an ambulatory patient after jejunal mucosal biopsy with a Shiner tube. Precautions have been suggested to minimize the risk of hemorrhage with this procedure. The incidence of serious complications from intubation biopsy of intestinal mucosa seems to be low.
73: Activation of p38MAPK and senescence in fetal membranes induced by telomere overhang sequence: a novel mechanism for preterm birth

73 Activation of p38MAPK and senescence in fetal membranes induced by telomere overhang sequence: a novel mechanism for preterm birth Jossimara Polettini, Eryn Dutta, Talar Kechichian, Esther Tamayo, Egle Bytautiene, Istvan Boldogh, George Saade, Ramkumar Menon UTMB, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Galveston, TX, UTMB, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Microbiology and Immunology, Galveston, TX OBJECTIVE: Oxidative stress (OS)-induced telomere reduction in fetal tissues has been associated with preterm birth. Telomere sequences are vulnerable to OS and short fragments can be released into tissue environment. We tested if telomere mimetic overhang sequence (Toligo) activates mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in fetal tissues, leading to cellular senescence and inflammation. STUDY DESIGN: Primary human epithelial amniotic cells were exposed to 40mM of T-oligo, [TTAGGG]2) or control oligonucleotides (cont-oligo, [AATCCC]2) for 48h. We evaluated p38MAPK activation by Western blot, DNA damage foci by gamma-histone2A (gH2AX) immunofluorescence staining, senescence by staining of senescence associated b-Galactosidase (b-Gal) and IL-8 as senescence associated secretory phenotype by ELISA and PCR. Further experiments were done with p38MAPK inhibitor (SB203580). In addition, T-oligo or cont-oligo were injected into the uterus of pregnant CD1 mice (n1⁄45/group) on day 14. Amniotic sacs were collected on day 18, subjected to oxidative stress marker staining (3nitrotyrosine modified proteins, 3-NT) and to p38MAPK Western blot. Data were analyzed by Anova, p<0.05 was used for significance. RESULTS: T-oligo treated cells exhibited p38MAPK phosphorylation, gH2AX staining increase, higher b-Gal positivity and IL-8 levels (gene and protein) compared to control. SB203580 decreased p38 activation, b-Gal positivity and IL-8 protein levels (Figure 1-left). Murine amniotic sac showed higher 3-NT staining and p38MAPK phosphorylation after T-oligo treatment compared to control. SB203580 reduced p38 activation (Figure 1-right). CONCLUSION: This study provides firsthand evidences that telomere fragments can promote OS in fetal membrane cells in an autocrine fashion. This in turn leads to further DNA damage resulting in senescence and senescence associated inflammation. Our findings point to a novel OS-induced and non-infectious inflammatory pathway activation that can result in preterm birth.
Noninvasive Prenatal Testing Using Cell-free DNA in Maternal Circulation

Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is revolutionizing prenatal screening and diagnosis. Through the analysis of cell free DNA in maternal plasma, it is possible to screen for trisomies 21, 18, and 13, sex chromosome aneuploidies, triploidy and some microdeletion syndromes. For aneuploidies the sensitivity and specificity approaches, but does not meet, that of diagnostic testing. It is estimated that the positive predictive value for NIPT for the identification of trisomy 21 is approximately 90 % compared to 4–6 % for conventional prenatal screening tests. Depending on the NIPT technology used, discordancy between NIPT and the true fetal karyotype can be due to low fetal DNA concentration, presence of a maternal chromosome abnormality, undetected vanishing twin, or mosaicism (including apparent confined placental mosaicism). NIPT can be expanded to include additional cytogenetic abnormalities such as other small copy number variations and will be increasingly used for monogenic disorders. The testing poses a number of ethical challenges including potentially increased pregnancy termination rates for affected pregnancies, the detection of milder or late onset disorders, and identification of fetal sex. Developing nations such as India have very high rates of birth defects and advanced molecular genetic technologies such as NIPT are needed to help reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality. It is important that the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act that prohibits disclosure of fetal sex does not prevent access to this extraordinarily powerful new technology that offers substantial benefits to the Indian population.
CMOS transconductance amplifiers, architectures and active filters: a tutorial

An updated version of a 1985 tutorial paper on active filters using operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) is presented. The integrated circuit issues involved in active filters (using CMOS transconductance amplifiers) and the progress in this field in the last 15 years is addressed. CMOS transconductance amplifiers, nonlinearised and linearised, as well as frequency limitations and dynamic range considerations are reviewed. OTA-C filter architectures, current-mode filters, and other potential applications of transconductance amplifiers are discussed.
Plasmodium lophurae: Malaria induced nucleotide changes in duckling (Anas domesticus) erythrocytes

Abstract The intraerythrocytic development of a malarial parasite from the ring stage to the schizont requires approx. 8.7 × 10 −16 mol of purine. It has been calculated that the adenylate nucleotide pool could provide approx. 23% of the parasite-required purines. In keeping with this, the ATP level of the infected erythrocyte declined as the parasite grew. But, in spite of such a reduction the adenylate energy charge ratio was maintained constant for the first 20 h, and only by 34 h, when schizogony was essentially complete, did the energy charge ratio fall. Such findings illustrate the close integration of purine metabolism of the parasite with that of the host cell.
A pathway for generation and processing of double-strand breaks during meiotic recombination in S. cerevisiae

We have identified and analyzed a meiotic reciprocal recombination hot spot in S. cerevisiae. We find that double-strand breaks occur at two specific sites associated with the hot spot and that occurrence of these breaks depends upon meiotic recombination functions RAD50 and SPO11. Furthermore, these breaks occur in a processed form in wild-type cells and in a discrete, unprocessed form in certain nonnull rad50 mutants, rad50S, which block meiotic prophase at an intermediate stage. The breaks observed in wild-type cells are similar to those identified independently at another recombination hot spot, ARG4. We show here that the breaks at ARG4 also occur in discrete form in rad50S mutants. Occurrence of breaks in rad50S mutants is also dependent upon SPO11 function. These observations provide additional evidence that double-strand breaks are a prominent feature of meiotic recombination in yeast. More importantly, these observations begin to define a pathway for the physical changes in DNA that lead to recombination and to define the roles of meiotic recombination functions in that pathway.
Local Paclitaxel Delivery for Treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease

Local drug delivery is the process by which therapeutic agents are administered to targeted segments of the circulatory system to treat vascular disease. The aims are to optimize therapeutic efficacy by direct drug administration and to minimize untoward effects associated with systemic delivery. This is accomplished in humans with drug-eluting stents (DES), drug-coated balloons (DCB), and direct catheter delivery. Local drug delivery has revolutionized the percutaneous treatment of coronary artery disease. Though many forms of local drug delivery are used, the most significant advance in this vascular bed relates to reductions in restenosis after DES implantation.1 Interest in translating these successes of local drug delivery from the coronaries to the peripheral vasculature is obvious and desirable, particularly in vascular beds hindered by high restenosis rates. Paclitaxel is a taxane derivative with antiproliferative properties that make it effective in treating coronary restenosis.2 Paclitaxel has been used in most vascular beds, and several trials using different methods of local delivery for the treatment of lower-extremity peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have been recently reported.3–5 The discussion that follows aims to (1) describe the characteristics of paclitaxel that make it suitable for local drug delivery, (2) review the reported literature of paclitaxel use in noncoronary vascular beds, and (3) compare methods and discuss future directions of local drug delivery for PAD. Paclitaxel is a natural diterpenoid found in Taxus species.2 It inhibits microtubule disassembly and disrupts normal cellular processes including protein signaling, mitosis, and migration.6 Paclitaxel is generally cytostatic, though higher drug concentrations may cause tissue necrosis.7 Paclitaxel is highly lipophilic and poorly soluble in water.8 This promotes rapid tissue uptake, a property that enables brief drug exposure to vessel walls to result in adequate tissue concentrations. Compared with other antiproliferatives such as sirolimus, the …
Effect of Nambu-Goldstone modes on wave-number- and frequency-dependent longitudinal correlation functions

We discuss the effect of Nambu-Goldstone modes on the longitudinal wave-number- and frequency-dependent order-parameter correlation functions in the ordered phase. We find that the static wave-number-dependent correlation function diverges as ${q}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\epsilon}}$ ($\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d$) for small $q$ and the linear response function for a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model, with $q=0$, diverges as ${\ensuremath{\omega}}^{\ensuremath{-}\frac{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}{2}}$ for small frequencies. The consequences of these effects are discussed.
Nonlinear Adaptive Flight Control with a Backstepping Design Approach

Abstract : This paper examines the use of adaptive backstepping for multi-axis control of a high performance aircraft. The control law is demonstrated on a 6 Degree-of-Freedom simulation with nonlinear aerodynamic and engine models, actuator models with saturation, and turbulence. Simulation results are demonstrated for large pitch-roll maneuvers, and for maneuvers with failure of the right stabilator. There are substantial differences between the control law design and simulation models, which are used to demonstrate some robustness aspects of this control law. Actuator saturation is shown to be a considerable problem for this type of controller. However, the flexibility of the backstepping design provides opportunities for improvement. In particular, the Lyapunov function is modified so that the growth of integrated error and the rate of change of parameter growth are both reduced when the surface commands are growing at a rate that will likely saturate the actuators. In addition, the deadzone technique from robust linear adaptive control is applied to improve robustness to turbulence.
Carbohydrate Metabolism in Dictyostelium discoideum: I. Model Construction

A model of the transitional changes which occur in fluxes and metabolite concentrations during the course of differentiation of Dictyostelium discoideum is constructed, based on extensive experimental data collected from D. discoideum. Input to the model includes metabolite compartmentation and fluxes, determined by radiotracer analyses, and enzyme mechanisms and constants. This transition model reproduced experimentally measured changes in metabolite concentrations over the last 15 hr of differentiation. The real test of a mathematical model is its ability to correctly predict the effects of an altered environment or a mutation. This model demonstrates that ability. Constraints on model parameters are also examined, and many of the altered parameters result in a model which is unable to reproduce experimental data. These results imply that the model represents many aspects of metabolism in vivo and will provide a means of examining rate-limiting events during differentiation and aging of this organism.
Computer-assisted detection of mammographic masses: a template matching scheme based on mutual information.

The purpose of this study was to develop a knowledge-based scheme for the detection of masses on digitized screening mammograms. The computer-assisted detection ~CAD! scheme utilizes a knowledge databank of mammographic regions of interest ~ROIs! with known ground truth. Each ROI in the databank serves as a template. The CAD system follows a template matching approach with mutual information as the similarity metric to determine if a query mammographic ROI depicts a true mass. Based on their information content, all similar ROIs in the databank are retrieved and rank-ordered. Then, a decision index is calculated based on the query’s best matches. The decision index effectively combines the similarity indices and ground truth of the best-matched templates into a prediction regarding the presence of a mass in the query mammographic ROI. The system was developed and evaluated using a database of 1465 ROIs extracted from the Digital Database for Screening Mammography. There were 809 ROIs with confirmed masses~455 malignant and 354 benign! and 656 normal ROIs. CAD performance was assessed using a leave-one-out sampling scheme and Receiver Operating Characteristics analysis. Depending on the formulation of the decision index, CAD performance as high as Az50.8760.01 was achieved. The CAD detection rate was consistent for both malignant and benign masses. In addition, the impact of certain implementation parameters on the detection accuracy and speed of the proposed CAD scheme was studied in more detail. © 2003 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. @DOI: 10.1118/1.1589494#
Site-Specific Labeling of Enveloped Viruses with Quantum Dots for Single Virus Tracking

This study reports a general method of labeling enveloped viruses with semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) for use in single virus trafficking studies. Retroviruses, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), could be successfully tagged with QDs through the membrane incorporation of a short acceptor peptide (AP) that is susceptible to site-specific biotinylation and attachment of streptavidin-conjugated QDs. It was found that this AP tag-based QD labeling had little effect on the viral infectivity and allowed for the study of the kinetics of the internalization of the recombinant lentivirus enveloped with vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) into the early endosomes. It also allows for the live cell imaging of the trafficking of labeled virus to the Rab5(+) endosomal compartments. This study further demonstrated by direct visualization of QD-labeled virus that VSVG-pseudotyped lentivirus enters cells independent of clatherin- and caveolin-pathways, while the entry of VSVG-pseudotyped retrovirus occurs via the clathrin pathway. The studies monitoring HIV particles using QD-labeling showed that we could detect single virions on the surface of target cells expressing either CD4/CCR5 or DC-SIGN. Further internalization studies of QD-HIV evidently showed that the clathrin pathway is the major route for DC-SIGN-mediated uptake of viruses. Taken together, our data demonstrate the potential of this QD-labeling for visualizing the dynamic interactions between viruses and target cell structures.
Age and Sex Trends in Long-term Opioid Use in Two Large American Health Systems Between 2000 and 2005

Objective. To estimate recent age- and sex-specific changes in long-term opioid prescription among patients with chronic pain in two large American Health Systems. Design. Analysis of administrative pharmacy data to calculate changes in prevalence of long-term opioid prescription (90 days or more during a calendar year) from 2000 to 2005, within groups based on sex and age (18–44, 45–64, and 65 years and older). Separate analyses were conducted for patients with and without a diagnosis of a mood disorder or anxiety disorder. Changes in mean dose between 2000 and 2005 were estimated, as were changes in the rate of prescription for different opioid types (short-acting, long-acting, and non-Schedule 2). Patients. Enrollees in HealthCore (N = 2,716,163 in 2000) and Arkansas Medicaid (N = 115,914 in 2000). Results. Within each of the age and sex groups, less than 10% of patients with a chronic pain diagnosis in HealthCore, and less than 33% in Arkansas Medicaid, received long-term opioid prescriptions. All age, sex, and anxiety/depression groups showed similar and statistically significant increases in long-term opioid prescription between 2000 and 2005 (35–50% increase). Per-patient daily doses did not increase. Conclusions. No one group showed especially large increases in long-term opioid prescriptions between 2000 and 2005. These results argue against a recent epidemic of opioid prescribing. These trends may result from increased attention to pain in clinical settings, policy or economic changes, or provider and patient openness to opioid therapy. The risks and benefits to patients of these changes are not yet established.
ATM and the epigenetics of the neuronal genome.

Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a neurodegenerative syndrome caused by the mutation of the ATM gene. The ATM protein is a PI3kinase family member best known for its role in the DNA damage response. While repair of DNA damage is a critical function that every CNS neuron must perform, a growing body of evidence indicates that the full range of ATM functions includes some that are unrelated to DNA damage yet are essential to neuronal survival and normal function. For example, ATM participates in the regulation of synaptic vesicle trafficking and is essential for the maintenance of normal LTP. In addition ATM helps to ensure the cytoplasmic localization of HDAC4 and thus maintains the histone ‘code’ of the neuronal genome by suppressing genome-wide histone deacetylation, which alters the message and protein levels of many genes that are important for neuronal survival and function. The growing list of ATM functions that go beyond its role in the DNA damage response offers a new perspective on why individuals with A-T express such a wide range of neurological symptoms, and suggests that not all A-T symptoms need to be understood in the context of the DNA repair process.
Full-scale tornado-missile impact tests

Abstract Full-scale poles, pipes, and rods, representing postulated tornado-borne missiles, were rocket-propelled into reinforced concrete panels with thicknesses typical of walls and roofs in the auxiliary buildings of nuclear power plants. Data from the 18 tests can be used directly for structural design or for validating design and analysis techniques. The test panels, constructed with 3000-psi design strength concrete and minimum allowable reinforcement, were 12, 18, and 24 in. thick with 15 × 15-ft unsupported spans. The results show that a 1500-lb utility pole, 1-in rod, and 3-in. pipe are ineffective for producing significant local and structural damage even under the improbably severe tornado-missile impact conditions represented by the tests. The front several feet of the poles disintegrated upon impact without damaging the face of the panels. Although 12-in. pipes produced craters in the face of the panels, impact tests with these missiles showed that 18-in. thick walls are adequate for preventing backface scabbing (secondary missiles) in the highest tornado-intensity region of the US, while 12-in. thick walls are adequate in other regions. Data on penetration depths and scabbing thresholds for 12-in. pipe impacts could be fitted reasonably well only with a modified NDRC design formula. Examination of structural response was aided by electronic records of reaction forces, missile deceleration, panel velocity, and strains during impact. Contrary to the predictions of conventional structural design methods, which do not account for missile deformation, no overall permanent deflections of the panels were produced by any of the missiles.