cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The neglected saliva: medically important toxins in the saliva of human lice

Although there has been a great deal of research effort within the last two decades on identifying the active components of the saliva of blood-sucking ticks, mosquitoes, biting flies, fleas and bugs, essentially neglected have been the human lice. Despite initial reports in the early part of this century suggestive of vasodilatory, anticoagulant and immunosuppressive properties of the saliva, for the next 50 years there were no biochemical studies on the active principles. Very recently, anatomical and biochemical studies have begun to characterize the bioactive molecules in lice saliva. The louse stocks a salivary vasodilator in excess over what is needed for a single bite, and injects similar amounts at each successive bite. The vasodilator in lice saliva appears to have different pharmacological properties than peroxidative, oxidative and maxidilan types of vasodilators reported from other blood-sucking insects. Possible anticoagulant activities have also been characterized. This belated, but welcome, interest comes at a time of resurgence of lice-born disease in certain parts of Africa, and of resistance to chemical control in Europe and North America.
Comparing approaches to spatially explicit ecosystem service modeling: A case study from the San Pedro River, Arizona

Although the number of ecosystem service modeling tools has grown in recent years, quantitative comparative studies of these tools have been lacking. In this study, we applied two leading open-source, spatially explicit ecosystem services modeling tools – Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) – to the San Pedro River watershed in southeast Arizona, USA, and northern Sonora, Mexico. We modeled locally important services that both modeling systems could address – carbon, water, and scenic viewsheds. We then applied managerially relevant scenarios for urban growth and mesquite management to quantify ecosystem service changes. InVEST and ARIES use different modeling approaches and ecosystem services metrics; for carbon, metrics were more similar and results were more easily comparable than for viewsheds or water. However, findings demonstrate similar gains and losses of ecosystem services and conclusions when comparing effects across our scenarios. Results were more closely aligned for landscape-scale urban-growth scenarios and more divergent for a site-scale mesquite-management scenario. Follow-up studies, including testing in different geographic contexts, can improve our understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of these and other ecosystem services modeling tools as they move closer to readiness for supporting day-to-day resource management. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Precise Quantitation of the Latent HIV-1 Reservoir: Implications for Eradication Strategies

The quantitative viral outgrowth assay (QVOA) provides a precise minimal estimate of the reservoir of resting CD4(+) T-cell infection (resting cell infection [RCI]). However, the variability of RCI over time during antiretroviral therapy (ART), relevant to assess potential effects of latency-reversing agents or other interventions, has not been fully described. We performed QVOA on resting CD4(+) T cells obtained via leukapheresis from 37 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients receiving stable suppressive ART for a period of 6 years. Patients who started ART during acute (n = 17) or chronic (n = 20) HIV infection were studied once HIV RNA levels were 6-fold were rare. We suggest that a 6-fold decline is a relevant threshold to reliably identify effects of antilatency interventions on RCI.
Generalized Maximum Margin Clustering and Unsupervised Kernel Learning

Maximum margin clustering was proposed lately and has shown promising performance in recent studies [1, 2]. It extends the theory of support vector machine to unsupervised learning. Despite its good performance, there are three major problems with maximum margin clustering that question its efficiency for real-world applications. First, it is computationally expensive and difficult to scale to large-scale datasets because the number of parameters in maximum margin clustering is quadratic in the number of examples. Second, it requires data preprocessing to ensure that any clustering boundary will pass through the origins, which makes it unsuitable for clustering unbalanced dataset. Third, it is sensitive to the choice of kernel functions, and requires external procedure to determine the appropriate values for the parameters of kernel functions. In this paper, we propose "generalized maximum margin clustering" framework that addresses the above three problems simultaneously. The new framework generalizes the maximum margin clustering algorithm by allowing any clustering boundaries including those not passing through the origins. It significantly improves the computational efficiency by reducing the number of parameters. Furthermore, the new framework is able to automatically determine the appropriate kernel matrix without any labeled data. Finally, we show a formal connection between maximum margin clustering and spectral clustering. We demonstrate the efficiency of the generalized maximum margin clustering algorithm using both synthetic datasets and real datasets from the UCI repository.
Why I Like the Free Water Protocol

In this opinion piece, I present my major reasons for advocating for the free water protocol (FWP). Although there is a lack of strong direct evidence in support of the FWP, there are multiple bits...
Toward Defining Basic Emotions

This essay proposes a group of six basic emotions defined as concepts for scholarly use. Such a step seems to be needed because of the present chaos of emotion terminology. The public and most scie...
Intranuclear location of the adenovirus type 5 E1B 55-kilodalton protein.

The intracellular location of the adenovirus type 5 E1B 55-kilodalton (kDa) protein, particularly the question of whether it is associated with nuclear pore complexes, was examined. Fractionation of adenovirus type 5-infected HeLa cell nuclei by an established procedure (N. Dwyer and G. Blobel, J. Cell. Biol. 70:581-591, 1976) yielded one population of E1B 55-kDa protein molecules released by digestion of nuclei with RNase A and a second population recovered in the pore complex-lamina fraction. Free and E1B 55-kDa protein-bound forms of the E4 34-kDa protein (P. Sarnow, C. A. Sullivan, and A. J. Levine, Virology 120:387-394, 1982) were largely recovered in the pore complex-lamina fraction. Nevertheless, the association of E1B 55-kDa protein molecules with this nuclear envelope fraction did not depend on interaction of the E1B 55-kDa protein with the E4 34-kDa protein. Comparison of the immunofluorescence patterns observed with antibodies recognizing the E1B 55-kDa protein or cellular pore complex proteins and of the behavior of these viral and cellular proteins during in situ fractionation suggests that the E1B 55-kDa protein does not become intimately or stably associated with pore complexes in adenovirus-infected cells. Images
Black race is not protective against hazardous bilirubin levels.

Although black race is considered protective against hyperbilirubinemia, black infants appear at increased risk of kernicterus. We found that although black infants have a lower risk of developing total serum bilirubin levels ≥20 mg/dL than white infants, they appear at greater risk of developing levels ≥30 mg/dL.
The Graphic Novel: A "Cool" Format for Communicating to Generation Y

The graphic novel provides an attractive medium to communicate business concepts with a number of characteristics that may aid student learning in a more effective manner than traditional textbooks. The authors provide an overview of the graphic novel format and use McLuhan’s research on “hot” versus “cool” media as a theoretical base that highlights how and why this format can be a useful tool to present management content relevant for the current generation of business students. The authors provide examples of how the graphic novel medium could be applied to business concepts and conclude with an agenda for future empirical research.
Tropical East–West Circulations During the Northern Winter

Abstract In this Paper we present the geometry and intensity of the mean east–west circulation during the northern winter. We show that near the equatorial latitudes two pronounced regions of divergent mass outflow in the upper troposphere are found near the convective regions over the northwestern part of South America and Indonesia. The intensity of the east–west circulation is shown to be of the order of 1 m sec−1 which is comparable to the intensity of the Hadley circulation. The divergent streamlines are shown to be important for the maintenance of the three waves of the subtropical westerly jet in the Northern Hemisphere, and are shown to exhibit asymptotes of convergence in the regions of mid-oceanic upper tropospheric troughs over the tropical southern oceans. Kinetic energy exchanges for a tropical belt 15S to 15N at 200 mb are expressed as a function of zonal wavenumber. Results for northern summer and winter seasons are compared. We find that wave interactions with the mean zonal flow differ in...
Low-Power Pipelined A/D Conversion

This paper reviews recent developments and low-power design techniques for high-speed pipelined A/D converters. The discussion spans a review of the fundamental operation principles, a summary of widely used low-power techniques, and an examination of ideas that have been proposed in recent research publications. As we will show, the best research-level designs reach a power efficiency that lies within an order of magnitude of practically achievable limits in today’s architectures. This corresponds to a 2–3 order of magnitude improvement relative to the first pipelined ADCs designed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Effect of graphene layer thickness and mechanical compliance on interfacial heat flow and thermal conduction in solid-liquid phase change materials.

Solid–liquid phase change materials (PCMs) are attractive candidates for thermal energy storage and electronics cooling applications but have limited applicability in state-of-the-art technologies due to their low intrinsic thermal conductivities. Recent efforts to incorporate graphene and multilayer graphene into PCMs have led to the development of thermal energy storage materials with remarkable values of bulk thermal conductivity. However, the full potential of graphene as a filler material for the thermal enhancement of PCMs remains unrealized, largely due to an incomplete understanding of the physical mechanisms that govern thermal transport within graphene-based nanocomposites. In this work, we show that the number of graphene layers (n) within an individual graphene nanoparticle has a significant effect on the bulk thermal conductivity of an organic PCM. Results indicate that the bulk thermal conductivity of PCMs can be tuned by over an order of magnitude simply by adjusting the number of graphene ...
Performance Measures and Subjective Evaluations for Two Color Displays

This study was conducted to evaluate task performance and subjective preference for two color displays with differing image generation technologies, the standard cathode ray tube shadow mask display and the newer liquid crystal/cathode ray tube display. Six subjects performed three different information processing tasks using each of the two color display technologies and expressed their display preference via evaluation questionnaires. Ambient illumination measurements were obtained to determine optimal conditions for each display. Performance data were obtained as errors per unit task quantity for each of the task types. Subjective evaluations consisted of 5-interval bipolar adjective scales and a forced choice rating. Parametric analyses of the performance measures indicated minor differences between the two display technologies, while nonparametric analyses of the subjective data indicated a preference for the liquid crystal display technology.
P3.307 Population Growth Within Regional Pattern of Population Change and Male Clients of Sex Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Background Male clients of sex workers are at high-risk of HIV and are a key group in the spread of sexually transmitted infections to the general population. Places undergoing population growth are altering their economic, physical and social environments which may influence the pattern of sexual risk behaviour. However population growth is not uniform within or between U.S. metropolitan areas and there is an interrelated pattern of growth within a metropolitan area. This study examined the association of county population growth that was slower versus similar and faster than its own metropolitan area’s pace of population change with male clients in a sample of men (N = 303) residing in U.S. metropolitan areas embedded in a 1999–2000 national probability telephone survey of STD behavioural measurements. Methods Population counts for non-institutionalised population at the county level were obtained from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census and the total household population in each metropolitan area was calculated by adding the household population of all its component counties. County population change relative to its metropolitan area was quantified using location quotient. Poisson regression was used to obtain prevalence ratio (PR). Results The prevalence of male clients was 17.5%. In unadjusted analysis, there was no statistically significant relationship between clients and whether the county of residence experienced a rate of growth that was slower versus similar (PR = 1.79, 95% CI 0.9–3.3, P > 0.05) or faster (PR = 1.4, 95% CI 0.7–2.9, P > 0.05) to its overall metropolitan area. After adjusting for county-level demographical differences at the starting period, clients were however more likely to reside in counties that experienced a similar (PR = 2.33, 95% CI 1.1–5.0, P Discussion Male clients of sex workers may not be similarly distributed across metropolitan areas and demographic changes may influence patterns of STI risks.
Epidemiologic characteristics of measles in Shanghai,2006-2011

Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of measles in Shanghai during the year of 2006-2011,so as to provide evidence for measles control.Methods Data were collected through surveillance system of infectious disease and measles.Descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on measles surveillance data in Shanghai.Results A total of 5 180 measles cases were reported and the average annual incidence was 4.17/100 000,with the highest incidence in 2008 and lowest incidence in 2011.The incidence of measles in immigrant population was significantly higher than that in resident population.The measles cases were mainly children under 5 years old and young adults aged in 20-35 years.And scattered children,workers,farmers and household service had high incidence of measles.Conclusions The incidence of measles dropped to the lowest level in this decade,suggesting a coming era of measles elimination.Furthermore,it is essential needs to strength measles surveillance and promote vaccination program in children and immigrant workers in Shanghai,so as to improve the level of herd protection in the whole population.
A review of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata, Brassicaceae) as an allelopathic plant

Alliaria petiolata is a widespread biennial herb from Eurasia that is one of the most recognizable invasive plants of forests in the eastern United States and southern Canada. After two decades of intensive study on its physiology, ecology, and impacts, this plant has come to be known in both the scientific and gray literature as an allelopathic plant capable of exerting negative, chemically mediated effects on plants and microbes in its environment. A critical review of the literature reveals that there is evidence both supporting and failing to support this assertion, and that conclusions can be affected greatly by the experimental approaches taken, the target species examined, the sources of allelopathic inputs, and environmental factors. The objective of this review is to provide a history of allelopathy research in A. petiolata, describing the various approaches that have been taken and conclusions drawn, and to summarize the current standing of A. petiolata as an allelopathic plant using the most ecologically relevant data on this phenomenon. Finally, we discuss the degree to which allelopathy, versus other mechanisms, may contribute to the invasive success of this plant.
Kinetic Study of Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation in Continuous Culture

Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation by clostridia has shown promise for industrial-scale production of biobutanol. However, the continuous ABE fermentation suffers from low product yield, titer, and productivity. Systems analysis of the continuous ABE fermentation will offer insights into its metabolic pathway as well as into optimal fermentation design and operation. For the ABE fermentation in continuous Clostridium acetobutylicum culture, this paper presents a kinetic model that includes the effects of key metabolic intermediates and enzymes as well as culture pH, product inhibition, and glucose inhibition. The kinetic model is used for elucidating the behavior of the ABE fermentation under the conditions that are most relevant to continuous cultures. To this end, dynamic sensitivity analysis is performed to systematically investigate the effects of culture conditions, reaction kinetics, and enzymes on the dynamics of the ABE production pathway. The analysis provides guidance for future metabolic engineering and fermentation optimization studies.
Mining kidney toxicogenomic data by using gene co-expression modules

Acute kidney injury (AKI) caused by drug and toxicant ingestion is a serious clinical condition associated with high mortality rates. We currently lack detailed knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms and biological networks associated with AKI. In this study, we carried out gene co-expression analyses using DrugMatrix—a large toxicogenomics database with gene expression data from rats exposed to diverse chemicals—and identified gene modules associated with kidney injury to probe the molecular-level details of this disease. We generated a comprehensive set of gene co-expression modules by using the Iterative Signature Algorithm and found distinct clusters of modules that shared genes and were associated with similar chemical exposure conditions. We identified two module clusters that showed specificity for kidney injury in that they 1) were activated by chemical exposures causing kidney injury, 2) were not activated by other chemical exposures, and 3) contained known AKI-relevant genes such as Havcr1, Clu, and Tff3. We used the genes in these AKI-relevant module clusters to develop a signature of 30 genes that could assess the potential of a chemical to cause kidney injury well before injury actually occurs. We integrated AKI-relevant module cluster genes with protein-protein interaction networks and identified the involvement of immunoproteasomes in AKI. To identify biological networks and processes linked to Havcr1, we determined genes within the modules that frequently co-express with Havcr1, including Cd44, Plk2, Mdm2, Hnmt, Macrod1, and Gtpbp4. We verified this procedure by showing that randomized data did not identify Havcr1 co-expression genes and that excluding up to 10 % of the data caused only minimal degradation of the gene set. Finally, by using an external dataset from a rat kidney ischemic study, we showed that the frequently co-expressed genes of Havcr1 behaved similarly in a model of non-chemically induced kidney injury. Our study demonstrated that co-expression modules and co-expressed genes contain rich information for generating novel biomarker hypotheses and constructing mechanism-based molecular networks associated with kidney injury.
A novel iterative image reconstruction method for high-resolution PET Imaging with a Monte Carlo based positron range model

Positron range is one of the fundamental factors that limit the spatial resolution of positron emission tomography (PET). While empirical expressions are available to describe positron range in homogenous media, analytical calculation of positron range in biological objects where complex bone/tissue/air boundaries exist is extremely difficult. One solution is to use Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. However, on-the-fly MC simulation of positron migration is computationally intensive and is impractical to be used in every forward and back projection operation in an iterative image reconstruction algorithm. To address this problem, we have developed a maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction algorithm with residual correction capability. To reduce the computational cost, the new algorithm uses a simplified, but computationally efficient system model in reconstruction and uses MC simulation to remove the reconstruction artifacts caused by the simplified system model. We performed computer simulations using the Geant4 MC simulation package to validate the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is much more computationally efficient than the traditional MC-based MAP algorithm, and produces higher resolution images than the method that uses the simplified system matrix alone.
Use of Sub-Ensembles and Multi-Template Observers to Evaluate Detection Task Performance for Data That are Not Multivariate Normal

The Hotelling Observer (HO) is widely used to evaluate image quality in medical imaging. However, applying it to data that are not multivariate-normally (MVN) distributed is not optimal. In this paper, we apply two multi-template linear observer strategies to handle such data. First, the entire data ensemble is divided into sub-ensembles that are exactly or approximately MVN and homoscedastic. Next, a different linear observer template is estimated for and applied to each sub-ensemble. The first multi-template strategy, adapted from previous work, applies the HO to each sub-ensemble, calculates the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) for each sub-ensemble, and averages the AUCs from all the sub-ensembles. The second strategy applies the Linear Discriminant (LD) to estimate test statistics for each sub-ensemble and calculates a single global AUC using the pooled test statistics from all the sub-ensembles. We show that this second strategy produces the maximum AUC when only shifting of the HO test statistics is allowed. We compared these strategies to the use of a single HO template for the entire data ensemble by applying them to the non-MVN data obtained from reconstructed images of a realistic simulated population of myocardial perfusion SPECT studies with the goal of optimizing the reconstruction parameters. Of the strategies investigated, the multi-template LD strategy yielded the highest AUC for any given set of reconstruction parameters. The optimal reconstruction parameters obtained by the two multi-template strategies were comparable and produced higher AUCs for each sub-ensemble than the single-template HO strategy.
Abstract 3203: Multiple myeloma microenvironment and obesity

Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA Multiple myeloma accounts for roughly 1% of all cancers diagnosed in the United States each year. Risk factors include environmental exposure, age, ancestry, gender, and obesity. Rates of obesity are on the rise in the United States and around the world; in the United States alone, 69% of adults are either overweight (BMI 25-30) or obese (BMI 30-35) and 6.3% of adults are extremely obese (BMI > 35). Although there is a strong epidemiological correlation between obesity and multiple myeloma, the mechanism by which adipocytes contribute to the development and progression of the cancer has yet to be identified. In this study, we isolated stem cells from patients undergoing elective liposuction surgery, differentiated the stem cells into adipocytes, and co-cultured the adipocytes with RPMI 8226 or NCI-H929 multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines. MM cells proliferated faster when co-cultured with adipocytes versus growing alone. MM growth rate was significantly higher in response to adipocytes from obese patients in comparison to adipocytes from normal weight individuals. Further, conditioned media from adipocytes from obese patients significantly increased pro-angiogenic signaling within a tube formation assay, induced an increase in MM cell adhesion, and increased expression of matrix metalloproteinases. In summary, our data suggests that adipocytes in the MM microenvironment contribute to MM progression and should be further evaluated as a possible therapeutic target. Citation Format: Erica Bullwinkle. Multiple myeloma microenvironment and obesity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3203. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3203
A small, “wader-like” bird from the Early Eocene of Messel (Germany)

Abstract A small bird with a shorebird-like beak and a very long hind toe is described from the Early Eocene of Messel in Germany. Vanolimicola longihallucis, gen. et sp. nov. is one of the few candidate species for a “wading bird” from Messel, that is, a bird that may have foraged along the shoreline of the ancient lake. A few features indicate a relationship to charadriiform birds and Jacanidae (jacanas) in particular, but charadriiform affinities are only weakly supported. In the preserved skeletal elements, V. longihallucis also resembles the taxon Songzia from the Early Eocene of China, which is considered to be a representative of the Ralloidea (rails and allies). A potential biogeographic significance of the new Messel fossil is strengthened by similar fossils from the North American Green River Formation.
Three-Component Coupling–Oxidative Amidation–Heterocycloannulation: Synthesis of the Indole Alkaloids Hamacanthin A and trans-2,5-Bis(3′-Indolyl)piperazine

Concise and highly convergent syntheses of antifungal marine bis(indole) alkaloids, hamacanthin A and trans-2,5-bis(3′-indolyl)piperazine is described. The total synthesis of hamacanthin A is ­accomplished via the oxidative amidation–chemoselective heterocycloannulation of 2,2-dibromo-1-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethanone with 1-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethane-1,2-diamine. The reduction of desbromo hamacanthin with aluminum borohydride afforded the alkaloid trans-2,5-bis(3′-indolyl)piperazine. Two novel and convenient protocols for the synthesis of indolyl-1,2-diaminoethane are also developed in moderate to good yields.
Anomalous plasticity of body-centered-cubic crystals with non-Schmid effect

Abstract Plastic deformations in body-centered-cubic (bcc) crystals have been of critical importance in diverse engineering and manufacturing contexts across length scales. Numerous experiments and atomistic simulations on bcc crystals reveal that classical crystal plasticity models with the Schmid law are not adequate to account for abnormal plastic deformations often found in these crystals. In this paper, we address a continuum mechanical treatment of anomalous plasticity in bcc crystals exhibiting non-Schmid effects, inspired from atomistic simulations recently reported. Specifically, anomalous features of plastic flows are addressed in conjunction with a crystal plasticity model involving two non-Schmid projection tensors widely accepted for representing non-glide components of an applied stress tensor. Further, modeling results on a representative bcc tantalum are presented and compared to experimental data at a range of low temperatures to provide physical insight into deformation mechanisms in these crystals with non-Schmid effects.
Spending, Relationship Quality, and Life Satisfaction in Retirement

Prior economic research has focused on the relation between money and well-being, rather than how resources are used to elicit life satisfaction in retirement. Using Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) along with data from the Health Retirement Study (HRS), this research explores how spending and relationship quality contribute to life satisfaction in retirement, controlling for financial and human capital factors. The results provide evidence to suggest that leisure spending, health status, and spousal and friend relationships have the greatest impact on creating life satisfaction during retirement, while other type of spending and children relationships do not.
Answer to May 2014 Photo Quiz

Answer: Alternaria spp. A calcofluor white staining was performed on the synovial fluid sample the next day to help in the identification of the possible causal pathogen. The fluorescent stain showed many true septate hyphae (see Fig. S1 in the supplemental material) that had been missed on the
Reconciling the Case of Jahi McMath.

The case of Jahi McMath has captured the attention of the public, healthcare professionals, and ethicists. Jahi was declared brain dead in late 2013, but her family transferred her to New Jersey to continue organ support. A lengthy legal battle has been ongoing since then. Jahi’s family and two neurologists, Drs. Calixto Machado and Alan Shewmon, believe that she is not brain dead. Her family and Dr. Shewmon think that she is capable of following commands, thus making her minimally conscious. Review of case materials. Because brain death is an irreversible coma, one of three conclusions must be drawn: 1) Jahi was never dead; 2) Jahi met the criteria for brain death, but she isn't dead now; or 3) Jahi's movements are not purposeful responses, and she has been brain dead since 2013. The possibility that a person who was declared brain dead is now following commands threatens to erode the notion that brain death should be considered legal death. The discordant ideas that Jahi is brain dead and is following commands can only be reconciled if a formal evaluation for determination of death is repeated by reputable examiners.
Direct quantification of unencapsulated doxorubicin in liposomal doxorubicin formulations using capillary electrophoresis.

Abstract To understand the quality, efficacy, and safety of liposomal drugs, it is necessary to develop a robust and accurate method for the separation and the quantification of unencapsulated and liposome-associated drugs (or liposomal encapsulated drugs). Conventional methods involve separation of unencapsulated and liposome-associated drug using solid phase extraction and further drug quantification. This is a lengthy process, and sometimes solid phase extraction induces drug leakage from the liposomes causing erroneous results. In this study, a capillary electrophoresis (CE) with UV–Vis detection method was developed for the simultaneous separation and quantification of unencapsulated drug from liposome-associated drug using a doxorubicin-containing liposome formulation as the model drug. CE separates the unencapsulated drug and liposomal drugs based on their electrophoretic mobility under the electric field. Liposomal drugs were diluted to the appropriate concentrations with running buffer or 5% dextrose before hydrodynamic sample injection. Using a high-sensitivity detection cell, the doxorubicin detection sensitivity was enhanced about 10-fold compared to the conventional on-column UV–Vis detection with a 75 µm i.d. capillary column. The optimal separation of unencapsulated doxorubicin from liposome-associated doxorubicin with minimal perturbation of liposomes was accomplished using phosphate buffer (20 mM, pH 6.5) in the presence of 10% sucrose.
Clinical Trials and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies in Bladder Cancer

The development of new and improved therapeutics is a key goal of the oncology community and such efforts are ongoing in the field of bladder cancer. In this chapter, we discuss the objectives, design and suitable endpoints for phase I, II and III clinical trials in the setting of bladder cancer. We discuss the historical difficulties that have been encountered when attempting to accrue patients to bladder cancer trials due to an elderly population with smoking-related co-morbidities.
Purification of axonemal dyneins and dynein-associated components from Chlamydomonas.

Axonemal dyneins are responsible for generating the force required to power ciliary and flagellar motility. These highly complex enzymes form the inner and outer arms associated with the outer doublet microtubules. They are built around one or more ~520 kD heavy chains that exhibit motor activity and also include additional components that are required for assembly within the axonemal superstructure and/or regulation of motor function in response to a broad range of signaling inputs. The dyneins from flagella of Chlamydomonas have been extensively studied as this organism is amenable to genetic, biochemical, and physiological approaches. In this chapter, I describe methods that have been devised by a number of laboratories to extract and purify individual dyneins from Chlamydomonas. When combined with the wide range of available mutants, these methods allow for the analysis of dyneins lacking individual components or motor units.
Glucokinase Activators for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the mechanism of enzymatic catalysis by glucokinase (GK), its function in the liver and pancreatic β-cells, and key publications on small-molecule GK activators (GKAs) that report full characterization. Key compound disclosures from patents are also discussed. Studies have ascertained an essential function for GK, also known as hexokinase IV or hexokinase D, in regulating glucose homeostasis. GK is expressed mainly in the two tissues of high importance to glucose homeostasis and therapeutic strategies to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D), pancreatic β-cells, and hepatocytes. In the liver, GK functions as a high-capacity enzyme that removes glucose from the blood and helps it react with adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to form glucose-6-phosphate (G-6-P)—the first biosynthetic step in the conversion of glucose to its storage form, glycogen. In pancreatic β-cells, through its ability to sense glucose concentrations, GK operates as a glucose sensor to determine the threshold for glucose-stimulated insulin release (GSIR). To seek out small molecules that increase GK enzymatic activity, a library of 120,000 structurally diverse synthetic compounds are screened. A solitary hit was identified from this high-throughput screening (HTS) enzyme coupled assay, in the presence of GK regulatory protein (GKRP). Ensuing kinetic analysis, in the absence of GKRP, confirmed the capacity of the hit molecule to directly bind and activate GK, rather than activating by disrupting the interaction of GKRP with GK.
Combined Research and Curriculum Development of Web-based Educational Modules on Mechanical Behavior of Materials

We describe development of modules funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) program for Combined Research and Curriculum Development (CRCD). Construction of CRCD modules was designed both for research collaboration and educational pedagogy. Modules described here were used for teaching senior level undergraduate and first-year graduate level courses on mechanical behavior of materials that incorporate results of physics-based simulation models previously used by class instructors in their research. These modules were developed using a Java-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) called the Network Program Interface Builder (NPIB) that runs on a standard Web-server. Emphasis was placed on using existing Web-based commercial software and development of new Web-based software that could be used by others to create and maintain physics-based simulation models, and archive results. Strong emphasis was also placed on providing well documented user's guides so educators and researchers could build their own modules that would extend beyond the CRCD objectives of this project. For the educators and students, Web-access to simulation results allow instructors to monitor students' progress and enhance class participation in sharing and discussing results. As for the researchers NPIB can be used for collaborative development of new simulation models. For students in this project CRCD modules teach the basics of materials mechanical behavior that reflects the experience of the authors. The simulation results span various length scales, starting at the atomistic level, using embedded atom method techniques, and reaching finite element simulations at the continuum level. The modules attempt to stress the way in which macroscopic properties are controlled by phenomena at the atomistic and micro-structural levels. Advanced computation and visualization techniques, including simulation results in a CAVE™, are used to convey structure-property relationships where complex three-dimensional structures could be observed in a fully immersive virtual environment. Both courses were taught by an interdisciplinary team of materials scientists and engineering mechanicians. We will discuss our experience in teaching both courses and the lessons learned.
Trait Jealousy Moderates the Relationship Between Alcohol Problems and Intimate Partner Violence Among Men in Batterer Intervention Programs.

Informed by alcohol myopia theory and Leonard’s heuristic model of intimate partner violence (IPV), we hypothesized that alcohol problems would positively relate to IPV among men with high, but not...
Microsurgical Management of a Spinal Dural Arteriovenous Fistula With Shared Blood Supply to the Artery of Adamkiewicz: 3-Dimensional Operative Video.

The presented case is of a 65-yr-old gentleman referred for thoracic myelopathy. He developed bilateral, nondermatomal foot dysesthesia 14 mo prior to presentation, which progressed to numbness below the L3 level. He reported progressive gait instability, bilateral lower extremity weakness, and required a cane for ambulation. He subsequently developed urinary incontinence, while bowel function was spared. The neurological examination upon presentation revealed lower extremity strength was reduced to 4/5 in all major muscle groups bilaterally, while sensation and proprioception were reduced below the L3 level. Patellar and Achilles reflexes were not elicited and clonus was absent. Gait was unsteady and slow. The patient was not able to perform heel, toe and tandem gait. MRI revealed abnormal T2 hyper-intense signal and spinal cord expansion from T6 through the conus medullaris. Angiography revealed a dural arteriovenous fistula (dAVF) originating from the left T9 radicomedullary pedicle, which also supplied the Artery of Adamkiewicz (AoA). The patient underwent T8-10 laminectomies. Prior to disconnection of the fistula, an aneurysm clip was applied to the fistulous point and an indocyanine green video angiogram was completed to show that the fistula no longer opacified, but that the AoA remained patent, which was later confirmed with angiography. As of discharge, the patient's motor exam had improved substantially, though his sensory deficits persisted. This case demonstrates that surgical disconnection is requisite in the treatment of spinal dAVF that have a shared blood supply with the AoA, as embolization risks spinal cord infarction. The patient consented to presentation of this case in a de-identified fashion.
Impossible Frontiers

A key result of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is that the market portfolio---the portfolio of all assets in which each asset's weight is proportional to its total market capitalization---lies on the mean-variance-efficient frontier, the set of portfolios having mean-variance characteristics that cannot be improved upon. Therefore, the CAPM cannot be consistent with efficient frontiers for which every frontier portfolio has at least one negative weight or short position. We call such efficient frontiers “impossible,” and show that impossible frontiers are difficult to avoid. In particular, as the number of assets, n, grows, we prove that the probability that a generically chosen frontier is impossible tends to one at a geometric rate. In fact, for one natural class of distributions, nearly one-eighth of all assets on a frontier is expected to have negative weights for every portfolio on the frontier. We also show that the expected minimum amount of short selling across frontier portfolios grows linearly with n, and even when short sales are constrained to some finite level, an impossible frontier remains impossible. Using daily and monthly U.S. stock returns, we document the impossibility of efficient frontiers in the data.
Global Data Privacy: The EU Way

EU data protection law is playing an increasingly prominent role in today’s global technological environment. The cornerstone of EU law in this area, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is now widely regarded as a privacy law not just for the EU, but for the world. In the conventional wisdom, the EU has become the world’s privacy cop, acting in a unilateral fashion and exercising de facto influence over other nations through its market power. Yet, understanding the forces for convergence and divergence in data privacy law demands a more nuanced account of today’s regulatory environment. In contrast to the established narrative about EU power, this Article develops a new account of the diffusion of EU data protection law. It does so through case studies of Japan and the United States that focus on how these countries have negotiated the terms for international data transfers from the EU. The resulting account reveals the EU to be both collaborative and innovative. Three important lessons follow from the case studies. First, rather than exercising unilateral power, the EU has engaged in bilateral negotiations and accommodated varied paths for non-EU nations to meet the GDPR’s “adequacy” requirement for international data transfers. Second, while the adequacy requirement did provide significant leverage in these negotiations, it has been flexibly applied throughout its history. Third, the EU’s impressive regulatory capacity rests on a complex interplay of institutions beyond the European Commission. Not only are there a multiplicity of policy and lawmaking institutions within the EU, but the EU has also drawn on non-EU privacy innovations and involved institutions from non-EU countries in its privacy policymaking. Finally, this Article identifies two overarching factors that have promoted the global diffusion of EU data protection law. The first such factor regards legal substance. Public discourse on consumer privacy has evolved dramatically, and important institutions and prominent individuals in many non-EU jurisdictions now acknowledge the appeal of EU-style data protection. Beyond substance, the EU has benefited from the accessibility of its omnibus legislative approach; other jurisdictions have been drawn to the EU’s highly transplantable legal model. In short, the world has weighed in, and the EU is being rewarded for its success in the marketplace of regulatory ideas.
An Analytical Correction to Dowell's Equation for Inductor and Transformer Winding Losses Using Cylindrical Coordinates

Analytical expressions that have been derived to calculate ac resistance and losses of magnetic devices at high frequencies have primarily used a one-dimensional approximation, and have used Cartesian coordinates or approximations that are equivalent to Cartesian coordinates. The result is Dowell's equation. This paper examines the effect of winding curvature on the losses relative to Dowell's equation by solving the problem completely in cylindrical coordinates. The error in Dowell's equation relative to a full cylindrical solution is found to be as great as 33% for some designs. A mathematical model is derived for the relative error between the two solutions, which can be used to assess the accuracy of Dowell's equation for a particular design, as well as a correction factor for Dowell's equation. The corrected Dowell's equation using the model is validated using finite-element analysis simulations as well as previously published experimental data. This paper is accompanied by Python codes to generate all data and figures used in the paper, a Python object that implements the derived mathematical model, and Lua scripts to run the finite-element simulations using FEMM.
Effects of in-person and telephone-based cognitive behavioral therapies on health services use and expenditures among African-American dementia caregivers with depressive symptoms

Objectives: To compare the effects of telephone-based and in-person cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on health services use and expenditures among African-American dementia caregivers (CGs) with ...
Existence of an Optimal Perpetual Gossiping Scheme for Arbitrary Networks

Gossiping is a problem in which a peer-to-peer network must disperse the information held by each machine to all other machines in the minimum number of communication steps. In perpetual gossiping, new information may be introduced to any machine at any time, and the objective is to find a perpetual communication scheme which guarantees that new information will be completely dispersed in optimal time. The basic gossiping problem has a well-known solution, but the perpetual gossiping extension has defied a general solution. Additionally, prior to this paper, it has not been shown that there is even a means to arrive at an optimal solution on a case-by-case basis. Attempts at optimization have thus far taken place in a series of progressive refinements, broadening the scope of network topologies for which optimal or near-optimal solutions are known. This paper proceeds from the opposite direction, by demonstrating an algorithm which is guaranteed to find an optimal perpetual gossiping scheme for an arbitrary graph. The network model is then generalized so as to apply to a broader class of communication schemes.
In-package Antimicrobial Treatment of Chicken Breast Meat with High Voltage Dielectric Barrier Discharge–Electric Voltage Effect1

SUMMARY Microbiological safety and quality of fresh chicken meat are important concerns to industry. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of in-package, non-thermal high voltage dielectric barrier discharge (HVDBD) treatment on microbial quality, safety, and color of fresh chicken breast meat (pectoralis major). Boneless skinless chicken breast meat was collected from a local commercial plant. Non-inoculated meat samples and meat samples inoculated with Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella Typhimurium were packed in polymeric trays under ambient air conditions. The packaged samples were HVDBD-treated at different voltages (0, 55, 70, or 85 kV) for 180 s, and stored at 4°C for 5 d. Microbial counts (psychrophiles, C. jejuni, S. Typhimurium) and meat color (L* a* b*) were measured before HVDBD treatment and after 5 d of post-treatment storage. Psychrophile growth was inhibited (P 0.05) in a* and b* values between pre-treatment and post-treatment measurements; however, all HVDBD treatments resulted in increased L* value (P
Culture and Bias

Several issues have led to concern about the use of intelligence tests with children from cultures different from that of the test developers. The traditions of Galton, Binet, Wechsler, Cattell, and others underlie all modern tests of intelligence. These tests emanated from French, British, German, North American, and other similarly European cultures. Intelligence testing, however, became unusually popular in the United States, a society that is perhaps unusually multicultural, being characterized by diverse values, languages, and religious beliefs.