cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Phospholipase C from Bacillus cereus, a zinc-requiring metalloenzyme.

Abstract Phospholipase C (EC 3.1.4.3) from Bacillus cerens was found to be inactivated by ethylenediaminetetraacetate and o-phenanthroline. The inactivation was both time and concentration dependent and was reversed by the addition of Zn2+ and to a lesser extent Mn2+. Other cations including Ca2+ did not reverse the inhibition. Extensive dialysis inactivated the enzyme, and this inactivation could be reversed by the addition of thiol-containing compounds. The ratio of Zn2+ to protein increased with purification of the enzyme, and spectra of o-phenanthroline-treated enzyme showed Zn2+ bound to the protein. The evidence would indicate this phospholipase is a metalloenzyme requiring Zn2+ and thiol groups for activity ; this is in contrast with the classical idea of Ca2+ requirement for phospholipase-C activity.
Advance Care Planning Does Not Adversely Affect Hope or Anxiety Among Patients With Advanced Cancer

Abstract Context Many physicians avoid advance care planning (ACP) discussions because they worry such conversations will lead to psychological distress. Objectives To investigate whether engaging in ACP using online planning tools adversely affects hope, hopelessness, or anxiety among patients with advanced cancer. Methods Patients with advanced cancer and an estimated survival of two years or less (Intervention group) and a Control group were recruited at a tertiary care academic medical center (2007–2012) to engage in ACP using an online decision aid ("Making Your Wishes Known"). Pre/post and between-group comparisons were made, including hope (Herth Hope Index), hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale), and anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory). Secondary outcomes included ACP knowledge, self-determination, and satisfaction. Results A total of 200 individuals completed the study. After engaging in ACP, there was no decline in hope or increase in hopelessness in either the Control or Intervention group. Anxiety was likewise unchanged in the Control group but decreased slightly in the Intervention group. Knowledge of ACP (% correct answers) increased in both the groups, but more so in the Intervention group (13% increase vs. 4%; P P Conclusion Engaging in ACP with online planning tools increases knowledge without diminishing hope, increasing hopelessness, or inducing anxiety in patients with advanced cancer. Physicians need not avoid ACP out of concern for adversely affecting patients' psychological well-being.
Simulation of Hematopoiesis: Implications for the Gene Therapy of Lysosomal Enzyme Disorders

Although the hematopoietic stem cell is an attractive target for gene transfer, little is known about its biology in vivo in large animals (including humans). We have studied the in vivo behavior of hematopoietic stem cells in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase heterozygous (female Safari) cats, and demonstrated that clonal instability persists for up to 4.5 years after autologous marrow transplantation. This contrasts with the 2-6 months of clonal disequilibrium reported in comparable murine studies. Our data also suggest that hematopoietic stem cells do not self-renew more than once every 3 weeks. These data may have relevance for strategies to optimize gene therapy in large animals and, by extension, in humans.
Cerebral cortical activity associated with the orientation of visual attention in the rhesus monkey

Attentional mechanisms in the posterior parietal cortex and the frontal eye fields have been studied in the rhesus monkey. In each of these areas single neurons discharge in response to visual stimuli and the discharge is enhanced when the monkey makes a saccade to the stimulus. In the posterior parietal cortex this enhancement also occurs whenever the monkey attends to the target, regardless of the movement or nonmovement that the monkey might make. Conversely, neurons in the frontal eye fields give enhanced responses only before saccades, and some discharge before purposive saccades made to remembered targets, with no overt current visual guidance. Some cells in the frontal eye fields also anticipate the onset of predictable saccades.
Fabrication of custom trays from existing dentures

This technique rapidly and simply provides a custom tray which duplicates the tissue surface of the patient's previous denture. The custom tray is then used as if it were the denture in a reline technique to make a final impression.
The stimulation of epidermal keratinization by a protein isolated from the submaxillary gland of the mouse.

A heat-stable protein has recently been isolated from the submaxillary gland of the male mouse which, upon injection, elicits precocious eyelid separation and tooth eruption in the newborn mouse and rat (1). The eyelids of the treated newborn mouse will separate as early as the sixth day after birth, whereas the eyelids of control animals require twelve to thirteen days to separate. The protein has a molecular weight of approximately 15,000 and has the unusual property of being namely, an enhancement of epidermal keratiniza-tion and an increase in the overall thickness of the epidermis.
Subtotal destruction of central noradrenergic projections increases the firing rate of locus coeruleus cells

Abstract The intraventricular administration of 6-hydroxydopamine was used to destroy 80–90% of the noradrenergic terminals in the forebrain of male rats with little apparent damage to the cells of origin in locus coeruleus. Both 36 h and 21 days later the basal firing rate of these cells was elevated 4-fold above control levels. Moreover, microiotophoretic application of norepinephrine was significantly less effective in inhibiting the spontaneous activity of locus coeruleus cells in these rats relative to control animals. The increased firing may represent a compensatory response to the injury, leading to increased transmitter release from terminals spared by the lesion.
Crystallographic structural analysis of phosphoramidates as inhibitors and transition‐state analogs of thermolysin

The mode of binding to thermolysin of the unsubstituted phosphoramidate inhibitor N-phosphoryl-L-leucinamide (P-Leu-NH2) has been determined crystallographically and refined at high resolution (R= 17.9% to 0.16-nm resolution). The mode of binding of the naturally occurring thermolysin inhibitor phosphoramidon reported previously [Weaver, L. H., Kester, W. R. and Matthews, B. W. (1977) J. Mol. Biol. 114, 119–132] has also been confirmed by crystallographic refinement (R= 17.4% to 0.23-nm resolution). Phosphoramidon binds to the enzyme with a single oxygen of the phosphoramidate moiety as a zinc ligand. Together with three ligands to the metal from the protein the resultant complex has approximately tetrahedral geometry. However, in the case of P-Leu-NH2, two of the phosphoramidate oxygens interact with the zinc to form a complex that tends towards pentacoordinate. In this respect, P-Leu-NH2 appears to be a better transition-state analog than is phosphoramidon. In addition, the phosphorus-nitrogen bond length in P-Leu-NH2 is 0.18 nm, suggesting that the nitrogen is protonated whereas the same bond in phosphoramidon is much shorter (0.15 nm) suggesting that the nitrogen does not carry a charge. In phosphoramidon the distance from the phosphoramide nitrogen to Glu-143 is 0.39 nm whereas in P-Leu-NH2 this distance decreases to 0.34 nm. Taken together, these observations provide additional evidence in support of the participation of pentacoordinate intermediates in the mechanism of action of thermolysin [Holmes, M. A. and Matthews, B. W. (1981) Biochemistry 20, 6912–6920] and the role of Glu-143 in first promoting the attack of a water molecule on the carbonyl carbon of the scissile bond and subsequently acting as a ‘proton shuttle’ to transfer the proton to the leaving nitrogen [Monzingo, A. F. and Matthews, B. W. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 5724–5729; Hangauer, D. G., Monzingo, A. F. and Matthews, B. W. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 5730–5741].
New light-induced EPR signal in Anacystis nidulans.

IT has been known for more than 10 years that there are two light-induced electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signals in plants. A recent review has summarized what is known about them1. My purpose here is to characterize in a preliminary way a hitherto unreported light-induced EPR signal in Anacystis nidulans, which I name signal III. This signal can readily be distinguished from the other two signals. I do not know why nobody has detected it before, but it is real, and its source is being investigated.
Direct-path mitigation for underground imaging in RF Tomography

Belowground imaging using RF Tomography is challenged by strong direct-path coupling between sensors. In this work, a direct-path mitigation procedure is introduced, consisting of two steps. First, the Tx and Rx dipoles are rotated in along particular directions that maximizes the signal with respect to the direct-path contribution. Then, the remaining contribution is removed by using a hybrid analog/digital feedback loop at the receiver side.
Faster GPU computations using adaptive refinement

Figure 2: A fragment shader implementing an iterative Mandelbrot Set solver. The left image is a visualization of the result, and the right image shows the active tiles. We have experimented with both points and quads when tiling the screen. A quad can be a single pixel pixel up to the full size of the viewport. Points are square-shaped and generally have limited size, which means more points are required to tile the viewport. Conceptually, points are easier to draw: only one vertex (rather than four) needs to be transformed, and the point can potentially be rasterized with a pixel template of some kind in screen space. Setting different point sizes when doing adaptive refinement, however, requires changing rendering state, which is known to be inefficient. 3 Results To test our methods, we have used a GPU-based photon mapping implementation using the stencil sort routing method [Purcell et al. 2003]. To investigate the effectiveness of adaptive refinement for simple algorithms, we also implemented a small iterative Mandelbrot fractal fragment shader. Our results have varied from small gains to speedups of almost three orders of magnitude, depending on tile size and the algorithm considered. In general, the results show significant speedups compared with the standard method that uses a single viewport-sized quad. The optimal tile size depends on the algorithm itself; slightly larger tiles work better with smaller fragment programs that finish quickly, while smaller tiles may be better suited to complex algorithms with long fragment programs. When using a fixed tile size, our results indicate that the best tile size is from 8 to 32 pixels wide on current hardware. For adaptive refinement, our results show that subdividing when 40%-60% of fragments are active gives the best results. In addition, we found that setting a minimum tile size of 4 to 8 pixels wide prevents overloading the hardware; smaller tiles slow down the computation due to the instruction overhead as well as limited bandwidth from the CPU to the GPU. We did not find significant speed differences between using points or quads. For very sparse computations with many passes, the use of adaptive refinement can result in significant speedups. As an example, we observed that the per-pass speedup in the last stages of the photon mapping renderer approached three orders of magnitude.
The Princess and the Poor Self-Image: An Analysis of Newbery Medal Winners for Gender Bias and Female Underrepresentation Leading into the Twenty-First Century

This study analyzes how 12 recent (2000-2011) Newbery Medal-winning books represent gender. The study counts how many of the books’ characters represent progressive or traditional gender roles, how many male and female characters represent each character category (protagonist, antagonist, major, and minor), how many strong female characters are accepted or rejected by their peers, how many characters hold stereotypical gender beliefs about themselves or their peers, and how many works contain balanced feminist perspectives. The study finds equitable female representation, but the study also finds a bias toward traditional male stereotypes. The results indicate a general acceptance of strong female characters and a balanced representation of females, regardless of a historical fiction classification. These results suggest that characters in Newbery Medal-winning books represent gender more equally and less stereotypically compared to characters in works of earlier decades.
The transformation of American midwifery: 1975 to 1988.

BACKGROUND. The use of midwives is a natural solution to the problem of improving access to skilled perinatal services while lowering costs. The number of midwife-attended births has grown from 0.9% of all births in 1975 to 3.4% of all births in 1988. The purpose of the study was to determine how mothers served by midwives and the settings in which they are served have changed in that period. METHODS. The analysis is based on birth certificate data from 1975 to 1988 from the Natality, Marriage and Divorce Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control. RESULTS. Almost all of the growth (93.2%) in midwife-attended births from 1975 to 1988 was in hospitals; 87.3% of all births attended by midwives occurred in hospitals. Pronounced differences exist between mothers served by midwives in and outside of hospitals, and there are strong regional patterns in midwife attendance at birth. CONCLUSIONS. Given the positive outcomes associated with midwifery practice, furthe...
A pilot study of Ipilimumab in patients with stage IV melanoma receiving palliative radiation therapy.

Hypothesis Local palliative radiation therapy can be safely used in combination with anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy. This therapy may have the potential to enhance the induction of systemic anti-melanoma immune responses, which will inhibit growth and kill melanoma cells in sites of established metastasis outside of the radiation therapy field more effectively than with anti-CTLA-4 alone. Objectives The primary objective is to assess the safely of combining Ipilimumab with palliative radiation therapy in patients with unresectable Stage IV melanoma. Secondary objectives include assessment of 1) induction of anti-melanoma immune responses using laboratory correlative studies of immune responses to melanoma antigens, 2) comparison of tumor response rates and duration of response at unirradiated tumor sites in patients with Stage IV disease with historically stage IV patients treated with Ipilimumab alone. Methods
Maya Rulersof Time: A Study of the Architectural Sculpture at Tikal, Guatemala

Maya Rulersof Time: A Study of the Architectural Sculpture at Tikal, Guatemala. ARTHUR G. MILLER. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1986. 96 pp. $26.95 (paper) ISBN 0-8122-0956-7
MiR-155 at the heart of oncogenic pathways.

MicroRNAs are increasingly being recognized as oncogenes and tumor suppressors in cancer. MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) is an established oncomiR in breast cancer and regulates several pro-oncogenic pathways. In light of this, Chiang’s group has discovered a novel pathway regulated by miR-155. MiR-155 directly targets the VHL tumor suppressor and, by doing so, promotes the activity of HIF transcription factors and angiogenesis. This pathway appears to be particularly relevant in triple-negative breast cancer.
Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised?

From Hellenistic to modern times, in the eyes of Jews and non-Jews alike, circumcision is a sign that marks the boundary between Jews and non-Jews. Jews are circumcised, gentiles are not. What, then, of Jewish women? Why are they not marked with a bodily sign attesting to their place within the covenant? Cohen argues that the Jews of antiquity seem not to have been bothered by this question probably because the fundamental Otherness of women was clear to them. Jewish women were Jewish by birth, but their Jewishness was assumed to be inferior to that of Jewish men. Jews and Christians, however, who opposed circumcision, used the non-circumcision of women as one of their supporting arguments.
Upstream toward the “DRiP”-ing Source of the MHC Class I Pathway

MHC class I binding peptides are generated via cytosolic degradation of a previously undefined substrate. In this issue of Immunity, Kunisawa and Shastri (2006) isolate pre-degradation polypeptide intermediates bound to a cytosolic chaperone.
Distinguishing dark matter annihilation enhancement scenarios via halo shapes

Abstract Sommerfeld enhancement and Breit–Wigner enhancement of the dark matter annihilation have been proposed to explain the “boost factor” which is suggested by observed cosmic ray excesses. Although these two scenarios can provide almost indistinguishable effects on the cosmic ray fluxes, the cross sections of the self-interaction in those enhancement mechanisms are drastically different. As a result, we might be able to distinguish them by examining the effects of the self-interaction on the dark matter halo shapes. In the Sommerfeld enhancement models with m ϕ ≲ 100 MeV and m DM ≲ 3 TeV , the self-interaction of dark matter can lead to more spherical dark halo. In the Breit–Wigner models, the dark matter is effectively collisionless.
Detection of stealthy outliers in thermal-kinetics modeling

A method is presented to uncover outliers in data from small-scale process-safety studies. Points along an adiabatic runaway reaction, especially at the onset and conclusion of the experiment, may be vaguely jittery and difficult to recognize as outliers. Even though they fit well visually, their stealthy misalignment may have a profound impact on the estimate of kinetic parameters, such as reaction order, pre-exponential factor and activation energy. The proposed technique combines temperature and its time derivatives to magnify the effect of hidden outliers. Once identified, these points can be excluded from regression, in order to generate kinetic parameters with minimal distortions. This method is also suited to recognize autocatalysis.
α-Lipoic Acid Antioxidant Treatment Limits Glaucoma-Related Retinal Ganglion Cell Death and Dysfunction

Oxidative stress has been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, including glaucoma. However, due to the lack of clinically relevant models and expense of long-term testing, few studies have modeled antioxidant therapy for prevention of neurodegeneration. We investigated the contribution of oxidative stress to the pathogenesis of glaucoma in the DBA/2J mouse model of glaucoma. Similar to other neurodegenerative diseases, we observed lipid peroxidation and upregulation of oxidative stress-related mRNA and protein in DBA/2J retina. To test the role of oxidative stress in disease progression, we chose to deliver the naturally occurring, antioxidant α-lipoic acid (ALA) to DBA/2J mice in their diet. We used two paradigms for ALA delivery: an intervention paradigm in which DBA/2J mice at 6 months of age received ALA in order to intervene in glaucoma development, and a prevention paradigm in which DBA/2J mice were raised on a diet supplemented with ALA, with the goal of preventing glaucoma development. At 10 and 12 months of age (after 4 and 11 months of dietary ALA respectively), we measured changes in genes and proteins related to oxidative stress, retinal ganglion cell (RGC) number, axon transport, and axon number and integrity. Both ALA treatment paradigms showed increased antioxidant gene and protein expression, increased protection of RGCs and improved retrograde transport compared to control. Measures of lipid peroxidation, protein nitrosylation, and DNA oxidation in retina verified decreased oxidative stress in the prevention and intervention paradigms. These data demonstrate the utility of dietary therapy for reducing oxidative stress and improving RGC survival in glaucoma.
Model robust regression: combining parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric methods

The proper combination of parametric and nonparametric regression procedures can improve upon the shortcomings of each when used individually. Considered is the situation where the researcher has a...
Static and dynamic partitioning of pointers as links and threads

Identifying some pointers as invisible threads, for the purposes of storage management, is a generalization from several widely used programming conventions, like threaded trees. The necessary invariant is that nodes that are accessible (without threads) emit threads only to other accessible nodes. Dynamic tagging or static typing of threads ameliorates storage recycling both in functional and imperative languages.We have seen the distinction between threads and links sharpen both hardware- and software-supported storage management in SCHEME, and also in C. Certainly, therefore, implementations of languages that already have abstract management and concrete typing, should detect and use this as a new static type.
School Functioning and Chronic Tension Headaches in Adolescents: Improvement Only After Multidisciplinary Evaluation

Pediatric patients with chronic tension-type headaches often experience significant school impairment. Although some improve after treatment with a neurologist, many require more comprehensive treatment. The authors examined whether school functioning and attendance improved after a multidisciplinary evaluation focusing on a return to functioning despite headaches. They also examined whether patients' headaches improved. Participants were 47 adolescents ages 12-17, most of whom had not responded to past neurological treatment. Adolescents completed the PedsQL School Functioning Scale at evaluation, 2-3 months later, and again 6 months after evaluation. Information regarding headache frequency, severity and duration, and school attendance was obtained from medical records. Using repeated measures analyses of variance, the authors found that school functioning and attendance improved significantly from evaluation to follow-up, as did headache frequency and duration. An emphasis on returning to functioning can help patients with chronic, difficult-to-treat tension-type headaches improve in their school functioning and experience fewer, shorter headaches.
Light intensity and the vertical distribution of algae in tertiary oxidation ponds

Abstract Studies on the use of oxidation ponds for the tertiary treatment of municipal waste waters had shown that solar heating results in thermal stratification. Under these conditions there is probable short circuiting of flow. Installation of weirs to minimize stratification by forcing an under-over flow pattern was followed by the development of two distinct algal associations as a result of the skimming action of the surface weir. Upstream of the surface weir a thick algal mat developed which consisted of an interlocking complex of cysts of Euglena rostifera Johnson and filaments of Oscillatoria tenuis. Downstream of the skimming weir, the surface of the pond was free of the mat but deep green in appearance. This color was due to a population of a single species, Euglena rostifera. The green color of the clear pond areas was observed to change considerably in intensity in the course of the diurnal cycle. Detailed investigation of this phenomena revealed a vertical migration rhythm of the Euglena associated with the diurnal cycle. Examination of the diurnal migration and associated factors showed the following: 1. (1) The Euglena moved from the bottom sludge, where it settles at night to levels in the pond where light intensity measurements did not exceed 75 c ft−2. 2. (2) Diurnal temperature changes did not affect the vertical migration of the Euglena. 3. (3) Under the algal mat, consisting of Oscillatoria tenuis and encysted Euglena rostifera, there was no vertical migration. Isolation and growth of single cell isolates of E. rostifera showed that optimum growth was at the same light intensity range found in the ponds where the maximum populations were located. At higher light intensities the proportions of chlorophylls a, b, and c decreased and carotenoid pigments increased. Growth in total darkness produced complete loss of chlorophylls but also a sharp increase in carotenoid pigments.
“My space”: A moderated mediation model of the effect of architectural and experienced privacy and workspace personalization on emotional exhaustion at work

Abstract This research examined a model in which experience of privacy served as a mediator between architectural privacy and emotional exhaustion in the workplace and personalization of one's workspace served as a moderator, mitigating the adverse effect of low levels of experienced privacy at work on emotional exhaustion. The results generally supported our hypotheses by indicating that in its role as a mediator, experience of privacy is initially affected by architectural privacy and its effect on emotional exhaustion is contingent on (moderated by) personalization of the employee's personal work area (i.e., quantity of personal items in one's work area). As expected, higher personalization at work reduced the adverse effect of the experience of low levels of privacy on emotional exhaustion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Critical Behavior of Noninteracting Spin Waves

Monte Carlo techniques are used to show that a free-spin-wave theory of the quantum Heisenberg spin-1/2 ferromagnet, formulated to accurately represent the state space of the underlying system, predicts the critical temperature of the interacting theory to within 1% and critical exponents to within a factor of two.
Scheduling heterogeneous wireless systems for efficient spectrum access

The spectrum scarcity problem emerged in recent years, due to unbalanced utilization of RF (radio frequency) bands in the current state of wireless spectrum allocations. Spectrum access scheduling addresses challenges arising from spectrum sharing by interleaving the channel access among multiple wireless systems in a TDMA fashion. Different from cognitive radio approaches which are opportunistic and noncollaborative in general, spectrum access scheduling proactively structures and interleaves the channel access pattern of heterogeneous wireless systems, using collaborative designs by implementing a crucial architectural component--the base stations on software defined radios (SDRs). We discuss our system design choices for spectrum sharing from multiple perspectives and then present the mechanisms for spectrum sharing and coexistence of GPRS+WiMAX and GPRS+WiFi as use cases, respectively. Simulations were carried out to prove that spectrum access scheduling is an alternative, feasible, and promising approach to the spectrum scarcity problem.
Red Net over China: China's New Online Media Order and its Implications

A nation's media order is the fundamental structure, management strategy, and operational pattern of all the media organizations within one country. In this paper, through stylizing China's online media development in the past decade, and interviewing with insiders in several major online media in China, the author analyzed the evolution of China's new online media order and its major characteristics. The implications of this newly established online media order were also discussed.
Activation of the RAF/Mitogen-Activated Protein/Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Kinase/Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Pathway Mediates Apoptosis Induced by Chelerythrine in Osteosarcoma

Purpose: Chelerythrine, a widely used broad-range protein kinase C inhibitor, induces apoptosis in many cell types. In this study, the mechanism of chelerythrine-induced apoptosis in osteosarcoma was investigated. Experimental Design: Signaling pathways activated by chelerythrine in osteosarcoma were detected by Western blots. Impacts of RAF/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) kinase (MEK)/ERK MAPK on apoptosis and cell survival were studied using genetic approaches and pharmacologic pathway–specific inhibitors. Results: Osteosarcoma cells underwent apoptosis rapidly after treatment with chelerythrine. Three parallel MAPKs pathways, including the ERKs, c-Jun NH 2 kinases, and p38, were activated by chelerythrine in a dose-dependent and time-dependent fashion. For the ERKs, the activation was evident at the earliest time point tested (2 minutes) and sustained for >4 hours. Introduction of a dominant-negative H-RAS mutant (17N) partially attenuated ERK activation and delayed the onset of apoptosis induced by chelerythrine. The ERK activation and apoptotic effects of chelerythrine were greatly abrogated by the pharmaceutical inhibitors of MEK, but not by those of c-Jun NH 2 kinase or p38. Moreover, osteosarcoma cells were sensitized to chelerythrine by transient transfection with wild-type MEK1 or constitutively active MEK1 and became resistant with dominant-negative MEK1. Other protein kinase C inhibitors, including GF109203X or Go6976, did not cause ERK activation or apoptosis in the same timeframe tested. Conclusion: In osteosarcoma, chelerythrine-induced apoptosis is mediated through activation of the RAF/MEK/ERK pathway. These findings suggest that activating the ERK MAPK, as opposed to inhibiting it, may be a therapeutic strategy in osteosarcoma.
Stimulation of Adenylate Cyclase by Vibrio cholerae Toxin and Its Active Subunit

The mechanism by which Vibrio cholerae toxin and its active subunit A stimulate adenylate cyclase of rat liver plasma membrane after in vivo or in vitro exposure was investigated. Stimulation of adenylate cyclase was more efficient with cholera toxin than with subunit A in whole animals and in "soluble" preparations of adenylate cyclase. Toxin-stimulated plasma membrane adenylate cyclase activity persisted after solubilization from the membrane by detergent, while subunit A stimulation was destroyed by detergent treatment. Detergent-free "soluble" enzyme could be stimulated in vitro by cholera toxin, but such stimulation by subunit A was very weak. Binding studies with iodotoxin or iodosubunit A confirmed that the interaction of toxin with adenylate cyclase in "soluble" preparations could be the result of specific binding to the enzyme. The uncertainty as to whether G M1 ganglioside (galactosyl-N-acetylgalactosaminyl [sialosyl] lactosyl ceramide; GGnSLC) is present in these fractions limited the interpretation of the data on binding. A biological modification of subunit A prior to the activation of adenylate cyclase is inferred from these data.
Particle tracking by deformable templates

Describes an approach to particle tracking based on deformable templates. Hough transforms are used to give initial conditions for the templates which then converge using a deterministic annealing algorithm. This template approach is closely related to the elastic net algorithm. The authors demonstrate successful results on both simulated and real data. The authors also show how the Hough transform can be derived from the deformable template algorithm as a special case in the low temperature (or gradient descent limit). >
Gated cardiac blood-pool scan: Use in patients with coronary heart disease

M EASUREMENT of ventricular function by calculating ejection fraction or regional myocardial wall motion can provide an objective assessment of the severity of myocardial damage due to ischemic heart disease. Cardiac catheterization and contrast angiography are usually required to obtain the information necessary to determine ejection fraction and regional myocardial wall motion. The risks and expense of these procedures make them unsuitable for recording these important parameters repeatedly over time or for obtaining this information in patients with chronic disease, such as hypertension, many of whom may not be sick enough to otherwise warrant this procedure. The importance of these measurements has led to the development of several noninvasive approaches for the determination of ejection fraction and regional wall motion. The gated cardiac blood-pool scan is a noninvasive scintiphotographic technique that records the regional distribution of a blood-pool tracer in the heart at end-systole and enddiastole. These data are then used to calculate left ventricular ejection fraction and regional myocardial wall motion. Since the examination is noninvasive and poses no risk other than the small radiation burden incurred from the radioactive material,* the gated scan is well suited to serve as both a screening test and for recording repeated measurements in the same patient. The equipment required to perform a gated blood-pool scan is: a scintillation camera with a
An Approach for Modeling and Analyzing Crosscutting Concerns

Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) is a promising technique for modeling crosscutting concerns, but formal specification and analysis of AOSD concerns is not well exploited. In this paper, we propose an approach for formally modeling and analyzing crosscutting concerns in software. We designed an aspect-oriented Petri net with AOSD mechanisms for identifying and modularizing crosscutting concerns. In order to analyze concern interactions and other properties, we developed an automated approach for formally analyzing the software design using a model checking technique. We demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of our approach through modeling and analyzing a clinical diagnostic system.
Preferences for intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus donor insemination in severe male factor infertility: a preliminary report.

With the advent of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), our programme noted a drop in the number of couples using donor insemination (DI) for severe male factor infertility. Over the first 8 months in which our infertility programme offered both treatments, 27 consecutive couples scheduled for ICSI and 15 consecutive couples scheduled for DI were evaluated Since all patients in our infertility programme beginning in-vitro fertilization (TVF) with planned ICSI or starting DI undergo a semi-structure d psychological interview, the psychologist's clinical notes as well as the medical chart were reviewed and coded retrospectively to determine factors related to a couple's treatment choice. Couples who chose IVF-ICSI over DI had a higher occupational status and included husbands with higher educational levels. Their most common motivation was to have the husband's biological child (93% of couples in the ICSI group). The most common motivation for choosing DI (60% of DI couples) was that FVF was not financially affordable. Choice of treatment was not related to psychological adjustment, the husband having prior biological children, or his risk of passing on a genetic defect to offspring. These preliminary data raise the concern that, with the success of ICSI, DI may change in the USA from being an option dictated by semen quality to a second choice treatment utilized for economic reasons.
Selective Formylation of Amino Groups Under Neutral Conditions

Abstract One of us reperted recently1 the synthesis of isopropentyl formate and mentioned its high formylating capecity, especially when neutral conditions are needed. This characteristic should make it an interesting reagant.
Misses in “Hot Hand” Research

Until recently, no study has found evidence for the “hot hand” in the National Basketball Association. Thus, many researchers have claimed that the hot hand and momentum effects are myths. This article presents simulations that demonstrate how the primary methods for estimating the hot hand effect understate the effect and have a low chance of detecting significance and that the infrequency of the hot hand contributes to the understated estimates and the inability of tests to detect significance. These results suggest that recent research showing a small hot hand effect for free throws is indicative of a much larger hot hand effect.
U.K. Small Firm Bankruptcy Prediction: A Logit Analysis of Financial Trend-, Industry-, and Macro-Effects

Much work has been done in the last two decades to estimate the determinants of bankruptcy of large firms. Very little work appears to have been attempted in the area of small firm bankruptcy. This paper goes some way to remedy the deficiency by estimating conditional logistic probability regressions for small firm bankruptcy on a recently constructed U.K. accounts database.
An attractor embedded in the atmosphere

A procedure for deriving a three-variable, one-level baroclinic model by truncating the familiar two-level quasigeostrophic model is described. The longitude, latitude and isobaric height of the low centre are introduced into the new model as alternative dependent variables. State space then becomes equivalent to geographical space, and the attractor becomes a structure within the atmosphere.
A Nurse Practitioner‐Managed After‐hours Clinic for a Native American Reservation

The Indian Health Service implemented a plan for an after-hours clinic which has been providing services since May 1991 on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Integral to the plan for the after-hours clinic was the family nurse practitioner as primary care provider. The after-hours clinic expands the health care services of the clinic by 3 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on Sundays. The role of the nurse practitioner as a primary care provider was introduced to the Wind River Service Unit, along with an after-hours clinic operation. Since the inception of the after-hours clinic, behavioral health and dental services and a women's clinic have been added.
Differences in African-American Maternal Self-Efficacy Regarding Practices Impacting Risk for Sudden Infant Death

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related deaths, including accidental suffocation, account for ~4000 US deaths annually. Parents may have higher self-efficacy with regards to preventing accidental suffocation than SIDS. The objective of this study was to assess self-efficacy in African-American mothers with regards to safe sleep practices and risk for SIDS and accidental suffocation. As part of randomized clinical trial in African-American mothers of newborn infants, mothers completed a baseline survey about knowledge of and attitudes towards safe sleep recommendations, current intent, self-efficacy, and demographics. Tabular and adjusted, regression-based analyses of these cross-sectional data evaluated the impact of the message target (SIDS risk reduction vs. suffocation prevention) on perceived self-efficacy. 1194 mothers were interviewed. Mean infant age was 1.5 days. 90.8 % of mothers planned to place their infant supine, 96.7 % stated that their infant would sleep in the same room, 3.6 % planned to bedshare with the infant, and 72.9 % intended to have soft bedding in the crib. Mothers were more likely to believe that prone placement (70.9 vs. 50.5 %, p < 0.001), bedsharing (73.5 vs. 50.1 %, p < 0.001), and having soft bedding in the sleep area (78.3 vs. 59.5 %, p < 0.001) increased their infant's risk for suffocation than it did for SIDS. Mothers had higher self-efficacy, viz. increased confidence that their actions could keep their infant safe, with regards to suffocation than SIDS (88.0 vs. 79.4 %, p < 0.001). These differences remained significant when controlled for sociodemographics, grandmother in home, number of people in home, and breastfeeding intention. Maternal self-efficacy is higher with regards to prevention of accidental suffocation in African-Americans, regardless of sociodemographics. Healthcare professionals should discuss both SIDS risk reduction and prevention of accidental suffocation when advising African-American parents about safe sleep practices.
Unlike the Cheese, Performance Management Does Not Stand Alone

In their focal article, Pulakos, Mueller Hanson, Arad, and Moye (2015) have presented a helpful five-step plan for improving the use of performance management (PM) within organizations. As they have pointed out, it is important that an organization's PM system match the organization's values and culture. At the same time, one cannot forget that an organization's PM system should also align with the organization's other human resource (HR) practices. Thus, I suggest that taking time to make sure this alignment happens should be included as a substep under the first step (i.e., plan change) of the model.
On the conductivity of phosphoric acid electrolyte

The specific electric conductivity and viscosity of 7.5–100 wt% aqueous phosphoric acid electrolyte have been measured in the temperature range 25–200°C. The product of conductivity and viscosity was found to decrease exponentially with increasing temperature. This suggests that the electric conduction in phosphoric acid follows the Grotthus proton switching mechanism. The measured conductivity data were correlated by the following empirical equation: $$\begin{array}{*{20}c} {k\mu = {\rm A} exp [BT]}\\ {A = 702.7X^{1.5} - 1734.2X^2 + 1446.5X^{2.5} - 350.7X^3 }\\ {B = - 0.010163 + 0.011634X - 0.08313X^2 }\\ \end{array}$$ wherek is conductivity in mho cm−1; μ is viscosity in centipoise;T is the absolute temperature in K; andX is mole fraction of phosphoric acid in the electrolyte. The standard deviation for the percentage difference between the calculated and experimental values of 188 data points was less than 7.5%.
Surgical management of acute cholecystitis at a tertiary care center in the modern era.

Results:Eighthundredninepatients(87.6%)withaprimary diagnosis of AC underwent surgery by 44 surgeons. Proceduresincluded663laparoscopiccholecystectomies (LCs)(82.0%),9opencholecystectomies(1.1%),51conversionsfromLCtoopencholecystectomy(6.3%),and86 cholecystostomytubeplacements(10.6%).Duringthestudy period,cholecystostomytubeplacementsincreased,while opencholecystectomiesandconversionsfromLCtoopen cholecystectomydecreased(P.05).Laparoscopiccholecystectomywasassociatedwithsignificantlybetteroutcomes, includingshorterpostsurgicalstay(2.2vs6.3daysforother modalities) and fewer complications (8.5% vs 17.0%). Conclusions:Based on 5-year results from a tertiary care center, LC was performed with a low conversion rate to open surgery and was associated with decreased morbidity and mortality compared with other surgical modalities totreatAC.Ourdataconfirmthebenefitsandwidespread useofLCinthemodernera,reflectingchangesinthetraining paradigm and learning curve for laparoscopy.
Extreme High-altitude Asian and Andean Pierid Butterflies Are Not Each Others' Closest Relatives

ABSTRACT Some of the world's highest-altitude butterflies belong to the tribe Pierini of the family Pieridae. Two nominal species of Baltia occur in arid-semiarid oreal environments in Central Asia, the Himalaya, and Pamir to over 5500 m. At least 13 species currently placed in four genera (Phulia, Infraphulia, Pierphulia, Piercolias) occur in similar environments at similar altitudes in the high Andes. These genera all share numerous morphospecializations whose functional relation to the oreal environment is not understood. Their evolutionary and biogeographic relationships have been debated for over a century. We performed a phylogenetic analysis based on sequencing portions of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I and subunit II regions (COI and COII), incorporating all the genera but Piercolias and a variety of suspected relatives. The results from analyses of COI and COII were compared to relationships inferred from morphological and ecological characters. We conclude that Baltia is not the ...
When and why hyperinflating monetary authorities abandon a currency

Hyperinflating monetary authorities occasionally abandon the currency with delay to extract remaining seignorage. Modeling the monetary authority as an exhaustible resource extracting monopolist shows the delay increases with higher remaining seignorage or real interest rates or lower seignorage maximizing rates.
Outcomes for Patients With Diabetes After Continuous-Flow Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation

Abstract Background Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a risk factor for mortality among patients with heart failure as well as for patients who undergo cardiothoracic surgery. However it is unknown whether DM is associated with increased mortality or major complications during continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (CF-LVAD) support. Methods and Results We retrospectively reviewed 300 consecutive adults who received CF-LVADs at a single center in the years 2006–2013; 129 patients had DM before LVAD, as defined by American Diabetes Association criteria (HbA 1c ≥6.5% and/or taking DM medications). Compared with the non-DM group, DM patients were older, with a higher pre-LVAD body mass index, more ischemic heart failure etiology, and higher pre-LVAD creatinine. Ninety-three patients died on LVAD support, 43 with DM and 50 without DM ( P = .4526). After control for 9 covariates in a Cox proportional hazards model, DM was unassociated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 0.883, 95% confidence interval 0.571–1.366; P = .5768). Diabetes was also unassociated with the adverse event end points of stroke/transient ischemic attack, intracerebral hemorrhage, pump thrombosis, and device-related infections. Conclusions Diabetes is common in LVAD recipients (43% of the present cohort) but does not increase mortality or rates of major adverse events during CF-LVAD support.
Europe 1992: Issues and Prospects

The process of economic integration in Western Europe is substantively under way; 1992 will herald a transformed competitive landscape in the region. This paper discusses some of the major changes in reducing technical, physical and fiscal barriers in the European Community, presents U.S. concerns regarding this process and suggests selective market opportunities and threats for companies.
Thermoelectric Characterization of Ge2Sb2Te5 Films for Phase-Change Memory

While thermoelectric effects can strongly influence the performance of phase-change memory (PCM), the thermoelectric properties of phase-change materials for thin film structure have received little attention. This work reports the temperature and phase dependent Seebeck coefficient of 25 nm and 125 nm thick Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) films. The Seebeck coefficient of crystalline GST films varies strongly with film thickness, due to changes in crystallization effect and grain boundary scattering. Electrothermal simulations demonstrate that the measured thermoelectric properties can strongly influence the temperature distribution and figures of merit for PCM devices. These data will facilitate cell optimization of novel phase-change memories.Copyright © 2012 by ASME