cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Adolescents and Social Media: Privacy, Brain Development, and the Law

Adolescents under the age of 18 are not recognized in the law as adults, nor do they have the fully developed capacity of adults. Yet teens regularly enter into contractual arrangements with operators of websites to send and post information about themselves. Their level of development limits their capacity to understand the implications of online communications, yet the risks are real to adolescents' privacy and reputations. This article explores an apparent contradiction in the law: that in areas other than online communications, U.S. legal systems seek to protect minors from the limitations of youth. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act provides some protection to the privacy of young people, but applies only to children under age 13, leaving minors of ages 13 to 17 with little legal protection in their online activities. In this article, we discuss several strategies to mitigate the risks of adolescent online activity.
A low power and highly reliable 400Mbps mobile DDR SDRAM with on-chip distributed ECC

512 Mb Mobile SDRAM with on-chip error-correction code (ECC), which supports either single or double data rate and operates on a 1.8 V power supply, is developed. The ECC circuit is optimized with respect to the increase in the chip area and the access-time penalty. The ratio of ECC area increase compared with the conventional mobile DRAM is 15%, and the fast comparing circuits of built-in Hamming code technique check 12 cell data simultaneously and satisfy the specification of 400Mbps DDR SDRAM. The self refresh period at standby state shows about 6 times increase reducing the self refresh current to be less than 100uA at 85degC. The newly adopted DCCS in the ECC, which is resistant from the clustered failures, and the concurrent row redundancy produce a synergistic fault-tolerance effect. The reliability could be 106 times higher by the ECC than that of the conventional DRAM.
Abstract 187: Regulation of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell (VSMC) Inflammation and Migration by the Pro-resolving Lipid Mediator Maresin-1 (mar1)

IntroductionResolution of acute inflammation is regulated by endogenous lipid mediators derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), however little is known about me...
Matrix Biology of the Salivary Gland: A Guide for Tissue Engineering

Salivary glands produce saliva needed to carry out daily functions such as initiation of food digestion, lubrication of the oral cavity, and prevention of oral diseases. Xerostomia, or dry mouth due to hyposalivation, can occur in individuals with Sjogren’s syndrome or in patients who receive radiation therapy to treat head and neck cancer. This chapter will focus on the bioengineering approaches in salivary gland regeneration that seek to restore salivary function in patients suffering from xerostomia. A brief description of salivary gland function, structure, and development will be provided first as this information is vital to inform any salivary gland tissue engineering efforts. Additionally, examples of salivary gland-derived stem/progenitor cells that are used in various salivary gland regeneration models will be introduced along with a brief description of each utility as source material for tissue engineering. Lastly, we will review matrices for three-dimensional cell culture, including decellularized native extracellular matrix scaffolds, Matrigel®, and scaffolds containing biologically derived natural polymers, polysaccharides, and biologically active protein fragments. Together, these elements will provide a current view of the state-of-the-art clinical approaches to relieve xerostomia using three-dimensional culture techniques.
Caught between Aspiration and Actuality:: The Etiler Housing Cooperative and the Production of Housing in Turkey

The Turkish government promoted the building of housing cooperatives as a social housing program beginning in the second half of the 1930s. While these cooperatives received government aid, they did not produce affordable housing for lower-income groups. Instead, they provided fashionable modern houses to middle- and high-income homeowners. In architectural journals, these new houses were understood and critiqued as exemplars of a specifically Turkish modern style, rather than as pragmatic solutions to a housing crisis. Caught between Aspiration and Actuality: The Etiler Housing Cooperative and the Production of Housing in Turkey analyzes the transformation of housing cooperatives from a social housing program into a method to enable middle-class homeownership by examining the story of the Etiler Housing Cooperative, built between 1952 and 1957 in Istanbul. Gul Nese Dogusan Alexander follows the story of Etiler through a detailed examination of laws, parliamentary minutes, popular media, professional publications on architecture, maps, and other published materials.
Improved infrared detection using nanoantennas

We examine integration of a patterned metal nanoantenna (or metasurface) directly onto long-wave infrared detectors. These structures show significantly improved external quantum efficiency compared to their traditional counterparts. We will show simulation and experimental results.
Stochastic Optimization for Energy Management in Power Systems With Multiple Microgrids

This paper is motivated by a power system with one main grid (arbiter) and multiple microgrids (MGs) (agents). The MGs are equipped to control their local generation and demands in the presence of uncertain renewable generation and heterogeneous energy management settings. We propose an extension to the classical two-stage stochastic programming model to capture these interactions by modeling the arbiter’s problem as the first-stage master problem and the agent decision problems as second-stage subproblems. To tackle this problem formulation, we propose a sequential sampling-based optimization algorithm that does not require a priori knowledge of probability distribution functions or selection of samples for renewable generation. The subproblems capture the details of different energy management settings employed at the agent MGs to control heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, home appliances, industrial production, plug-in electrical vehicles, and storage devices. Our computational experiments conducted on the U.S. western interconnect (WECC-240) data set illustrate that the proposed algorithm is scalable and the solutions are statistically verifiable. Our results also show that the proposed framework can be used as a systematic tool to gauge: 1) the impact of energy management settings in efficiently utilizing renewable generation and 2) the role of flexible demands in reducing system costs.
Modeling Reliable M2M/IoT Traffic Over Random Access Satellite Links in Non-Saturated Conditions

Nowadays, Machine-to-Machine and Internet of Things traffic sources puts the terrestrial networks under great pressure. While 5G is still on its way, satellites are used to deliver a fraction of such an enormous traffic rate. In this work, we investigate the use of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) to reliably deliver Machine-to-Machine and Internet of Things traffic in a push fashion, which also implements a Selective Repeat Automatic Repeat reQuest and a sender-based variant of the TCP Friendly Rate Control protocol. We aim at providing an analytical model to evaluate the working point of the system in non-saturated conditions as a function of the MAC parameters in use, when such a closed-loop congestion control mechanism is in use over a random access satellite channel. The proposed analytical model is then validated against simulation results, showing a good precision.
SPATIAL AND SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN CONCENTRATION OF TRIHALOMETHANES IN DRINKING WATER

Effective environmental monitoring of drinking water implies recognition and appreciation of the fact that water quality in a dynamic system varies both in space and over time. To date, there is limited experimental verification of this important aspect with respect to water borne halogenated hydrocarbons. This communication is the second in a series addressing the formation and distribution of trihalomethanes (THMs) in the complex water supply system of a large urban center-Houston, Texas. While the first article (Smith and others, 1980) addressed patterns of temporal (24-h and longer) fluctuations in THM concentrations, this paper concentrates on spatial and seasonal aspects of variation; it addresses the differences in THM content of chlorinated and unchlorinated water, the differences in concentrations between surface and ground water supplies and relationships of THM concentration to water source characteristics such as the dose of chlorine applied for disinfection, organic content, concentration of bromide ion, water temperature, pH and others.
FoV-Aware Edge Caching for Adaptive 360° Video Streaming

In recent years, there has been growing popularity of Virtual Reality (VR), enabled by technologies like 360° video streaming. Streaming 360° video is extremely challenging due to high bandwidth and low latency requirements. Some VR solutions employ adaptive 360° video streaming which tries to reduce bandwidth consumption by only streaming high resolution video for user's Field of View (FoV). FoV is the part of the video which is being viewed by the user at any given time. Although FoV-adaptive 360° video streaming has been helpful in reducing bandwidth requirements, streaming 360° video from distant content servers is still challenging due to network latency. Caching popular content close to the end users not only decreases network latency, but also alleviates network bandwidth demands by reducing the number of future requests that have to be sent all the way to remote content servers. In this paper, we propose a novel caching policy based on users' FoV, called FoV-aware caching policy. In FoV-aware caching policy, we learn a probabilistic model of common-FoV for each 360° video based on previous users' viewing histories to improve caching performance. Through experiments with real users' head movement dataset, we show that our proposed approach improves cache hit ratio compared to Least Frequently Used (LFU) and Least Recently Used (LRU) caching policies by at least 40% and 17%, respectively.
Endovascular Repair of the Ascending Aorta and Aortic Arch

Endovascular repair of the ascending aorta and aortic arch is an emerging field of aortic surgery currently reserved for patients not candidates for traditional cardiac surgery. Techniques to avoid hypothermic circulatory arrest, cardiopulmonary bypass, and even chest incisions range from total endovascular procedures to a panoply of surgical debranching procedures in combination with thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). Here, we describe the indications, approach, techniques, and outcomes of ascending and arch TEVAR. Ascending TEVAR can be performed using existing endografts designed for the descending and abdominal aorta or investigational devices which are specifically designed for the ascending aorta. Techniques for arch TEVAR is determined by the method of great vessel revascularization and includes cervical (extra-thoracic) debranching, thoracic debranching, chimney stent grafting, and branched stent grafting. Current challenges include device durability and minimizing the rates of neurological, vascular, and cardiac complications. Device innovation and demonstration of long-term efficacy may lead to expansion of the indications for endovascular repair of the ascending aorta and aortic arch to candidates of lower surgical risk.
Changes in Infective Endocarditis Admissions in Pennsylvania During the Opioid Epidemic.

BACKGROUND With the current opioid crisis in the United States, infectious complications related to injection drug use are increasingly reported. Pennsylvania is at the epicenter of the opioid crisis, with the third highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was performed using the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council database of all residents hospitalized for infective endocarditis (IE) in an acute care hospital from 1 January 2013 through 31 March 2017. Patients were separated into those with and those without substance use via diagnosis codes. The primary outcome was length of stay. Secondarily, we evaluated demographics, infection history, hospital charges, and insurance status. RESULTS Of the 17 224 hospitalizations, 1921 (11.1%) were in patients with drug use-associated IE (DU-IE). Total quarterly IE admissions increased 20%, with a 6.5% increase in non-drug use-associated IE (non-DU-IE) admissions and a 238% increase in DU-IE admissions. In adjusted models, DU-IE was not associated with significant changes in length of stay (incidence rate ratio, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, .975-1.072; P = .36). Patients with DU-IE were predominantly insured by Medicaid (68.3% vs 13.4% for non-DU-IE), they had higher hospital charges ($86 622 vs $66 802), and they were more likely to leave against medical advice (15.7% vs 1.1%) (all P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates an increase in IE admissions, driven by an increase in admissions for DU-IE. The higher charges, proportion of patients on Medicaid, and rates of leaving against medical advice among the DU-IE group shows the downstream effects of the opioid crisis.
Multi-Access Edge Computing: A Comparative Analysis of 5G System Deployments and Service Consumption Locality Variants

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is a key technology for 5G systems and offers cloud computing capabilities to application developers and content providers along with an information technology service environment at the edge of the network. In terms of system deployment, MEC infrastructure may, among other options, exist either at the edge of the radio access network (RAN), or at a "smart" central office (CO). Moreover, various MEC service consumption variants can be considered, depending on the degree of proximity between service consumers (i.e., MEC applications) and service producers (i.e., running on MEC platforms or exposed by service-producing MEC applications). Consequently, different system scenarios are expected to achieve different performance, e.g., in terms of the round-trip time (RTT) experienced at the user side. In this article, we present a first MEC performance case study to focus on different system deployments and service consumption localities for a number of workloads. It is observed that in all cases, the RTT is highly impacted by the MEC application workload; higher RTT is observed when a MEC application consumes remote MEC services; whereas low RTT gain is observed when moving from smart CO to RAN edge deployments, regardless of the considered workload.
Liquid phase human papillomavirus genotype analysis of aspirated metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Fine needle aspiration supernatant is a rich source of tumor DNA that can increase the diagnostic yield.

Background Most patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) present with lymph node metastasis. In these patients, fine needle aspiration (FNA) is not only a diagnostic tool, but a means for determining HPV status. HPV status, in turn, is used to determine tumor origin, prognosis, and even guide therapy. Thus, the limited sampling afforded by FNA must be optimized to meet heavy clinical demands. Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether the residual supernatant portion of the FNA could serve as a resource for reliable determination of HPV status DESIGN/METHOD: 25 FNAs from 24 patients with metastatic HNSC underwent HPV genotyping of post-centrifuged supernatant fluid from FNA needle rinses. HPV genotyping was performed using two real time PCR-based assays, the two-step LightCycler and the one-step automated cobas HPV tests. HPV status of the supernatant was compared with the paired FNA cell blocks and/or surgical tissue samples. Results The supernatant was adequate for HPV testing in 24 (96%) of 25 cases. Of these, 14 (56%) were HPV positive and 11 (44%) negative by the LightCycler assay. HPV16 was the most commonly detected genotype (n = 12). When results of supernatant and paired cell block testing were compared, HPV status was concordant in all cases. The LightCycler method was more sensitive than the cobas assay due to its ability to detect an expanded profile of HPV variant genotypes. Conclusion The current standard of practice for patients with HNSC who undergo FNA is to construct a cell block and then discard the supernatant. This supernatant is a rich source of tumor DNA that can be used to detect HPV status. It should not be wasted.
Diverse sources and an internal foundation for voiced onsets in Northern Mǐn

Abstract The voiced onsets and associated tonal reflexes of Northern Mǐn (NM), motivation for Norman’s (1973; 1974) proto-Mǐn “softened” stops and affricates, remain a subject of controversy. Following a brief introduction (§ 1), I begin by reviewing the various apparent sources of voiced onsets in NM, including old complex onsets, non-Sinitic substrate, voicing alternations, and late koine material (§ 2). I then take up Akitani’s (2008) colloquial glossary of Shibēi 石陂 and Norman’s (1969) of Jianyang 建陽, outlining on this basis an adjusted account of the subgroup’s development: pre-PNM preserved early Sinitic voiced onsets in Tone A2, with a conditioned split isolating voiced stops in so-called Yangping yǐ 陽平乙, here “A2+” (§ 3). It was this conservative feature which allowed items in § 2 to take on voiced onsets across tonal categories, at times leading to further splits. A conclusion considers Mǐn more generally, proposing that the voicing alternants of Huang Chin-wen (2001a) may be NM reflections of group-wide tone sandhi processes (§ 4).
Timing Is Everything: Measuring Outcomes in Primary Cleft Rhinoplasty

Purpose The timing of ideal repair of the cleft nasal deformity has been a contentious topic among craniomaxillofacial surgeons over the last several decades. Several tissues are adversely affected, from bone through the vestibule, cartilage, and external skin. While surgical techniques, paradigms and philosophies have evolved, several important considerations are factored into the clinical decision making to perform a rhinoplasty at the time of cleft repair, such as growth interruption and several craniofacial growth centers, scarring, and the predicted aesthetic result at growth maturity. To this end, we investigated the safety profile, hospitalization characteristics and costs of primary cleft lip repair with and without rhinoplasty. Methods A retrospective cohort was designed using the Kids Inpatient Database (KID), which is comprised of databases organized by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Data were collected from January 2000 to December 2011 and included infants 12 months and younger who underwent complete and incomplete cleft lip repair. Data were excluded if records did not include age at time of cleft lip repair. Predictor variables included extent of the initial cleft surgery, with or without rhinoplasty. Outcome variables included length of stay, total charges, and overall complications. Demographic characteristics included age, gender, race, insurance status, and median household income. Independent t-tests and chi-square tests were performed. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyze continuous variables, and a P value of .05 was considered statistically significant. Results The study sample included 4559 infants, of whom 1422 (31.2%) underwent primary cleft rhinoplasty. Primary cleft rhinoplasty patients had a significantly shorter length of stay (1.6 vs 2.8 days, P Conclusion Performing primary cleft rhinoplasty is becoming more commonplace among pediatric craniomaxillofacial surgeons. Although concomitant rhinoplasty at the time of primary cleft lip repair is more costly, the length of stay in the hospital setting was shown to be shorter. Future studies should further investigate the safety profile and risk of postoperative complications in the rhinoplasty vs non-rhinoplasty cohort in primary cleft lip repair patients.
On the design and the analysis of stratified biomarker trials in the presence of measurement error.

A major emphasis in precision medicine is to optimally treat subgroups of patients who may benefit from certain therapeutic agents. And as such, enormous resources and innovative clinical trials designs in oncology are devoted to identifying predictive biomarkers. Predictive biomarkers are ones that will identify patients that are more likely to respond to specific therapies and they are usually discovered through retrospective analysis from large randomized phase II or phase III trials. One important design to consider is the stratified biomarker design, where patients will have their specimens obtained at baseline and the biomarker status will be assessed prior to random assignment. Regardless of their biomarker status, patients will be randomized to either an experimental arm or the standard of care arm. The stratified biomarker design can be used to test for a treatment-biomarker interaction in predicting a time-to event outcome. Many biomarkers, however, are derived from tissues from patients, and their levels may be heterogeneous. As a result, biomarker levels may be measured with error and this would have an adverse impact on the power of a stratified biomarker clinical trial. We present a trial design and an analysis framework for the stratified biomarker design. We show that the naive test is biased and provide bias-corrected estimators for computing the sample size and the 95% confidence interval when testing for a treatment-biomarker interaction in predicting a time to event outcome. We propose a sample size formula that adjusts for misclassification and apply it in the design of a phase III clinical trial in renal cancer.
Characterization of Human Keratinocyte Cell Lines for Barrier Studies

Epidermal cell models are critical for studying skin biology. The gold standard used by the scientific community has historically been primary cell cultures from discarded tissue, typically from neonates (foreskin). Although directly applicable to humans, this system suffers from multiple issues, including substantial donor-to-donor variability and a finite number of divisions in culture. As such, we have identified a faithful alternative called N/TERT2G cells. These cells show many of the characteristics of primary cells, including barrier formation, differentiation kinetics and/or protein expression, and pathogenesis. From our observations, N/TERT2G cells can serve as a reproducible and genetically manipulatable platform in studying skin biology.
Vitamin D regulation of and by long non coding RNAs.

Abstract Two percent or less of the genome is used to transcribe mRNAs encoding proteins. Nearly all the remainder is utilized in transcribing non coding RNAs, the bulk of which are RNAs at least 200 base in length, long non coding RNAs (lncRNA). Their number is estimated to be about 28,000, but only a small fraction of lncRNAs are well characterized. That said lncRNAs have been found to regulate a very diverse array of biochemical and genomic functions. One of the transcription factors found to be regulated by and to regulate lncRNA is the vitamin D receptor (VDR). Like lncRNAs VDR is involved in the regulation of numerous biochemical and genomic processes, so it is not surprising that there would be a number of interactions between lncRNAs and VDR in their diverse functions. However, the study of these interactions is in its infancy. To date most attention has been paid to their interactions in cancer. Our own studies have focused on non melanoma skin cancers, keratinocyte carcinomas to be precise. Deletion of VDR from keratinocytes predisposes them to malignant transformation. Among a number of potential mechanisms we found that VDR deletion from these cells alters the lncRNA profile to a more oncogenic configuration, increasing the expression of well known oncogenic lncRNAs and decreasing the expression of well known tumor suppressor lncRNAs. Subsequent studies in other cancers have found similar associations between VDR and oncogenic lncRNAs with evidence of tumor specificity. To date these studies primarily reveal associations rather than causality, but causal links should be expected as research in this field continues to develop.
Strategies for Vascularizing Pancreatic Islets and Stem Cell–Derived Islet Organoids

Efficiency of revascularization is one of the key factors dictating the success of islet transplantation, concerning both donor islets and the future of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived islet mimetics. This review focuses on the strategies that have been developed to vascularize donor islets and current status of vascularized hPSC islets being developed. The primary theme for vascularizing primary islets has been to exploit factors constituting the islet microenvironment. Accordingly, the strategies can be categorized as scaffolds, supporting cells and secreted factors and combinations of these. The underlying theme for vascularizing hPSC islets, on the other hand, has exploited the principles of self-organization. This review summarizes the strategies for vascularizing donor islets and how these can be translated to vascularizing hPSC islets to enable cell therapy. Successful vascularization of islet organoids will likely engage a balance between 3D-printed structural patterning with inherent self-organization nature of the islet organoids.
Enhancing the compatibility of abiotic and biological components for efficient nitrogen fixation

The realization of compatibility between the abiotic and biological components is critically important for building a successful hybrid biological/inorganic system. In this issue of Chem Catalysis, Lu et al. demonstrate a prototype hybrid system along with a unique methodology to enhance the communication between the abiotic and biological components for electrically converting N2/CO2 into value-added chemicals.
Comparing approaches to tag discourse relations

It is widely accepted that in a text, sentences and clauses cannot be understood in isolation but in relation with each other through discourse relations that may or may not be explicitly marked. Discourse relations have been found useful in many applications such as machine translation, text summarization, and question answering; however, they are often not considered in computational language applications because domain and genre independent robust discourse parsers are very few. In this paper, we analyze existing approaches to identify five discourse relations automatically (namely, comparison, contingency, illustration, attribution, and topic-opinion), and propose a new approach to identify attributive relations. We evaluate the accuracy of each approach with respect to the discourse relations it can identify and compare it to a human gold standard. The evaluation results show that the state of the art systems are rather effective at identifying most of the relations considered, but other relations such as attribution are still not identified with high accuracy.
On-the-fly processing of continuous data streams with a pipeline of microprocessors

A pipeline of microprocessors which is able to perform substantial on-the-fly transformations with large amounts of data has been developed. The general concept is a pipelined structure for associative processing. This structure is based on the use of a long sequence (pipeline) of identical, relatively simple associative pattern matching/transforming elements. The associative pipeline achieves high performance for relatively small algorithms with a large volume of data and so is well suited for use with very large databases. The effectiveness of the developed pipeline has been analyzed for various database applications. This system can implement basic operations of relational algebra, as well as rather sophisticated filtering functions; in particular, it can be used to control the I/O operations for the purpose of computer security. >
Ethical Audit Decisions: A Structuration Perspective

The public accounting profession has long relied on its reputation for integrity and veracity as justification for its professional status and monopoly privilege predicated on claims of acting in the public interest. If such status and privilege are to be justified and sustained, serious consideration of what constitutes ethical behavior, how such behavior is motivated as well as an explicit recognition of the rights and interests of affected parties constitutes an ethical imperative for the profession. Traditionally, work on ethics and auditing is quite narrow, failing to recognize the social context of individual actions, failing to identify the relevant constituencies of the profession, and failing to articulate processes through which the constituencies interests can be identified. Generally, the accounting literature has taken a cognitive perspective on ethical decision making which views the resolution of ethical dilemmas as primarily a function of the moral makeup of the actor responding within the context of the Code of Professional Conduct. The purpose of this paper is to broaden the theoretical base of ethical research, specifically within the area of professional accounting and more generally in the area of business. We propose the application of structuration theory in conjunction with stakeholder theory and a responsibility ethic. The application of stakeholder theory is a means for identifying affected constituencies. A responsibility ethic recognizes the situatedness of an individual within an ongoing professional community. Structuration theory provides a theoretical framework for articulating and investigating both the structures within which action is carried out as well as the interaction between the social structures and the actors. Taken together, the theories allow for an enhanced ability to define ethical behavior within a business context and to understand the contextual antecedents and consequences of ethical acts.
Regulation of programmed cell death in maize endosperm by abscisic acid.

Cereal endosperm undergoes programmed cell death (PCD) during its development, a process that is controlled, in part, by ethylene. Whether other hormones influence endosperm PCD has not been investigated. Abscisic acid (ABA) plays an essential role during late seed development that enables an embryo to survive desiccation. To examine whether ABA is also involved in regulating the onset of PCD during endosperm development, we have used genetic and biochemical means to disrupt ABA biosynthesis or perception during maize kernel development. The onset and progression of cell death, as determined by viability staining and the appearance of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation, was accelerated in developing endosperm of ABA-insensitive vp1 and ABA-deficient vp9 mutants. Ethylene was synthesized in vp1 and vp9 mutant kernels at levels that were 2–4-fold higher than in wild-type kernels. Moreover, the increase and timing of ethylene production correlated with the premature onset and accelerated progression of internucleosomal fragmentation in these mutants. Treatment of developing wild-type endosperm with fluridone, an inhibitor of ABA biosynthesis, recapitulated the increase in ethylene production and accelerated execution of the PCD program that was observed in the ABA mutant kernels. These data suggest that a balance between ABA and ethylene establishes the appropriate onset and progression of programmed cell death during maize endosperm development.
Flavensomycin, an Inhibitor of Enzyme Reactions Involving Hydrogen Transfer

Abstract The antifungal antibiotic flavensomycin inhibited the oxidation of amino acids and of glucose by Penicillium oxalicum. The compound inhibited l-amino acid oxidase (EC 1.4.3.2) activity for l-leucine and l-phenylalanine, and also d-amino acid oxidase (EC 1.4.3.3) in the oxidation for dl-alanine. The addition of flavin adenine dinucleotide, which is a cofactor for this enzyme, antagonized the action of the antibiotic. Glucose oxidase (EC 1.1.3.4) was also inhibited. The antibiotic inhibited the reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH2) cytochrome c reductase (EC 1.6.2.1) as well as the much slower nonenzymatic reduction of this cytochrome by the nucleotide. Reduced cytochrome c was also oxidized nonenzymatically by flavensomycin. The antibiotic completely inhibited the action of rabbit muscle lactic dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.27) in promoting the reduction of pyruvate by NADH2 but only slightly affected the reverse reaction. Alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1) was also similarly inhibited. Flavensomycin prevented the reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate by isocitrate in the presence of isocitrate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.42). The hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1)-catalyzed phosphorylation of glucose, in which the adenosine triphosphate acts as a phosphate donor, was only slightly affected. Flavensomycin also inhibited the action of yeast lactate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.2.3) on the reduction of cytochrome c. High concentrations of cytochrome c were antagonistic to this reaction. The results point to an interference with enzymatically controlled hydrogen or electron transfer as the mechanism of the antifungal activity of flavensomycin.
Resolution of Experimental Lung Injury by Monocyte-Derived Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase

Although early events in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI) have been defined, little is known about the mechanisms mediating resolution. To search for determinants of resolution, we exposed wild type (WT) mice to intratracheal LPS and assessed the response at intervals to day 10, when injury had resolved. Inducible NO synthase (iNOS) was significantly upregulated in the lung at day 4 after LPS. When iNOS-/- mice were exposed to intratracheal LPS, early lung injury was attenuated; however, recovery was markedly impaired compared with WT mice. iNOS-/- mice had increased mortality and sustained increases in markers of lung injury. Adoptive transfer of WT (iNOS+/+) bone marrow-derived monocytes or direct adenoviral gene delivery of iNOS into injured iNOS-/- mice restored resolution of ALI. Irradiated bone marrow chimeras confirmed the protective effects of myeloid-derived iNOS but not of epithelial iNOS. Alveolar macrophages exhibited sustained expression of cosignaling molecule CD86 in iNOS-/- mice compared with WT mice. Ab-mediated blockade of CD86 in iNOS-/- mice improved survival and enhanced resolution of lung inflammation. Our findings show that monocyte-derived iNOS plays a pivotal role in mediating resolution of ALI by modulating lung immune responses, thus facilitating clearance of alveolar inflammation and promoting lung repair.
Growth kinetics simulation of the Al-Ga self-organization on GaAs(100) stepped surfaces

Abstract We present results of a stochastic kinetic simulation of Al and Ga segregation during the mobility enhanced epitaxial deposition of an Al & Ga monolayer on the As face of a stepped GaAs(100) surface. The simulation deposits the atoms on the surface and moves them from site to site so that the frequency of each event is proportional to its rate. Since the rate constants needed in the simulation have not been measured we use guesses based on the available information and analogies with similar systems. The simulations generate exactly the growth pattern corresponding to a given set of rates. We have found a set of rate constants which generates Al & Ga growth patterns having all the properties observed experimentally. The predicted aggregation patterns are stable with respect to reasonable changes in the numerical values of the kinetic parameters. By varying the corresponding rates we find how the elementary kinetic steps affect segregation. One of the more interesting results is that to obtain good segregation with smooth Al-Ga borders it is essential that the Al-Al interactions are anisotropic and are stronger than the Ga-Ga interactions.
Credible Commitments and the Early American Supreme Court

Conventional wisdom holds that the role of the U.S. federal judiciary was underspecified and undefined until the era of Chief Justice John Marshall. In contrast, I argue that prior to the Marshall era, the Supreme Court had the specific institutional role of providing an administrative remedy to aggrieved nations to deprive potentially hostile nations of any excuse for belligerence. Specifically, concern among the Framers about this nascent country's absence of dispute resolution mechanisms in the areas of trade and admiralty was critical in the institutional design of the judiciary. Original jurisdiction was designed primarily to remedy trade disputes. The independent judiciary made trade commitments more credible and self-help by the aggrieved less likely. By providing this administrative remedy and lowering the uncertainty associated with trading with revolutionaries, the Framers claimed a seat for the new country at the table of nations. Moreover, enhanced commercial credibility that the administrative avenue for redress provided was instrumental in the early economic development of the United States.
Qviz: a framework for querying and visualizing data

Qviz is a lightweight, modular,and easy to use parallel system for interactive analytical query processing and visual presentation of large datasets. Qviz allows queries of arbitrary complexity to be easily constructed using a specialized scripting language. Visual presentation of the results is also easily achieved via simple scripted and interactive commands to our query-specific visualization tools. This paper describes our initial experiences with the Qviz system for querying and visualizing scientific datasets, showing how Qviz has been used in two different applications: ocean modeling and linear accelerator simulations.
Isotope dilution models and the mystery of the vanishing 15N

An examination of recently published /sup 15/NH/sub 4//sup +/ uptake data shows that the amount of /sup 15/N which disappeared from the NH/sub 4//sup +/ phase was consistently greater than that which appeared in the particulate phase. The discrepancy, which ranged from 1.5 to 5.6 times at nine stations, did not seem to be caused by analytical errors in NH/sub 4//sup +/ or isotope ratio measurements. A new method for calculating the average atom % excess of the NH/sub 4//sup +/ improves estimates of NH/sub 4//sup +/ assimilation in cases where experimental data indicate that uptake and regeneration are not in balance. Correction of a mathematical misconception regarding the Blackburr-Caperon model allows more accurate estimates of NH/sub 4//sup +/ uptake and regeneration rates.
FOLLOW‐UP IN CLOSING OF ATRIAL SEPTAL DEFECT BY CATHETERISM WITH TRANSESOPHAGEAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY (TEE) GUIDANCE

Background: Follow-up in closing atrial septal defects (ASD) by transcatheter device, with TEE guidance. Methodology: In 137 patients with ASD ostium secundum (os) the mean (X) age of the patients was 8.78 years (range from 2 to 50 years). 120 patients with isolated defects, 12 with other small ASDs, 2 with fenestrated ASDs (fASD),1 patients had patent ductus arteriosus, 2 had ventricular Septal Defects (VSD). Following a routine hemodynamic evaluation in the catheter laboratory a TEE was conducted to measure in millimeters the location and size of the defect, as well as the distance from the defect to the upper pulmonary vein (upv), the tricuspid (TV) and mitral (MV) valves, and the superior (SVC) and inferior (IVC) cava veins. The residual shunt as well as complications were evaluated. Statistical Analysis: Statistical significance p < 0.05. Results: The ASD measured by TEE in short axis: X: 14.4 ± 4.53 mm (range: 7.4 ± 32), in 4-chamber view: X: 14.77 ± 5 mm (range: 6.5–33), in sagittal, at level of cava veins: X: 17.49 ± 10,29 mm (range: 6.5–38); balloon sizing: 18.3 ± 5.39 mm (range: 10–38); mean size of the device: 18.11 ± 5.57 mm (range 10–38). The distance from the upper edge to the upper pulmonary vein (upv): X: 9.11 ± 2.44 mm (range: 5.3–15); to tricuspid valve (T.V): X: 13.35 ± 3.17 mm (range: 6.5–19), mitral valve (M.V): X: 11.26 ± 2.36 (range: 7–14.4), left superior vena cava (SVC): X: 11.21 ± 2.83 mm (range: 6.2–16.9) and inferior vena cava (IVC): X: 10.21 ± 3.12 mm (range: 7–17.7). The Qp/Qs: 1.97 ± 0.45 (range: 1.25–3.5), pressure in RA: 5.79 ± 3 mmhg (range: 2–12), in LA: 7.42 ± 3.19 mmhg (range: 2–12); in RV: 33.82 ± 6.73 mmhg (24–50) and in pulmonary artery: 29.5 ± 5.92 mmhg (range 20–60), the wedge pressure X: 13.76 ± 3.92 mmhg (range: 9–25). The closure was effective in 137 of 134 cases (97.8 %); there were three embolizations: two defects with size in upper limit, and 1 accidental. These three were operated and the device was recovered, 1 died at 48 hours post-surgery. Residual shunts were found in 16 patients: 12 trivial, 4 light. Four remained permeable to another small ASD (3mm); 1patient had progressive mitral regurgitation and required mitral replacement. Ten patients had arrhythmia (2 with complete branch block, 2 with second degree block, 3 with supraventricular arrythmia, and 1 with sinusal tachycardia). Conclusion: Closure with the Amplatzer device was an effective procedure in 97.8% of the cases (137/134). During the procedure dangerous complications could take place (3 embolizations). The arrhythmias were not frequently in later evolution (10/137). Mortality was 0.72%. We still require further experience to be able to determine which procedure is best in each case.
Vapor pressure estimation for organic compounds

Abstract An accurate and thermodynamically sound equation for the estimation of the vapor pressure of organic solids and liquids is developed. This equation utilizes improved estimation schemes for the entropies of vaporization and melting over Trouton's rule and Walden's rule. It also utilizes improved estimations of the heat capacity changes associated with vaporization and melting. The equation, which has no adjustable parameters, is shown to estimate successfully the vapor pressures of a wide variety of organic compounds.
Results of randomized trials of immunotherapy for acute leukemia

For more than a decade clinical trials have attempted to define the role of immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with acute leukemia. Based on animal studies which indicated that non-specific immune stimulation had an antitumor effect if the tumor burden was small, the use of immunotherapy during remission in patients with acute leukemia seemed appropriate following the initial report of the success of bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) in prolonging remission duration and survival in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Therefore a series of randomized clinical trials was initiated to confirm these original observations. In four studies comparing BCG inoculations, with or without allogeneic leukemia cells, and chemotherapy or no therapy, no advantage of immunotherapy was noted. Immunotherapy appeared to be equally as good as chemotherapy. A combination of BCG and chemotherapy showed some advantage in one study, but no advantage was noted in two other studies. In acute myeloblastic leukemia several randomized trials suggested that BCG or one of its derivatives when given alone, in combination with allogeneic cells, or with chemotherapy had a marginal effect in prolonging remission duration and survival when compared to chemotherapy or rno therapy. In conclusion, immunotherapy during remission has marginal activity in acute leukemia.
Firm characteristics, distress risk and average stock returns

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the empirical relationship between firm-level characteristics and the variability of the average portfolio returns of distressed firms. The cross-sectional role of momentum in the market mispricing of distressed firms is evaluated. Distress risk associated with size and book-to-market ratio is also disentangled. Design/methodology/approach – All of NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ stocks between January 1972 and December 2008 are used, and the individual and joint role of firm characteristics are studied in detail. Using a measure of distressed stocks based on Campbell, Hilscher and Szilagyi (CHS, 2008), new findings on how stock return anomalies are related to the interactions between firm characteristics and financial distress risk are provided. Findings – The findings show that the size and value effects are not due to distress risk. Also, contrary to the existing empirical evidence, momentum does not proxy for distress risk. Furthermore, in the cross-sectional analysis, momen...
Spleen cells from animals neonatally tolerant to h-2kk antigens recognize trinitrophenyl-modified h-2kk spleen cells.

A.TL mice injected with (A.AL × A.TL)F1 cells within 24 hours after birth were rendered tolerant to H-2Kk antigens, as evidenced by acceptance of A.TL skin grafts. When spleen cells from these tolerant animals were cocultured with A.AL stimulator cells, no cytotoxic effector cells were generated in a cell-mediated lympholysis assay. However, when the A.AL stimulator cells were derivatized with trinitrophenol, effector cells that displayed a cytotoxic effect against trinitrophenyl-modified H-2Kk target cells were generated. These data indicate that animals tolerant to H-2 determinants but chimeric to only a minor extent possess cytotoxic precursor cells in sufficient frequency to mount a primary in vitro response against trinitrophenol in the context of an allogeneicH-2K region.
Molecular basis for surface antigen size polymorphisms and conservation of a neutralization-sensitive epitope in Anaplasma marginale.

Abstract Anaplasmosis is one of several tick-borne diseases severely constraining cattle production and usage in many parts of the world. Cattle can be protected from anaplasmosis by immunization with major surface protein 1, a surface protein of Anaplasma marginale carrying a neutralization-sensitive epitope. Marked size polymorphisms exist among different isolates of A. marginale in the AmF105 subunit of major surface protein 1, yet all isolates still contain the neutralization-sensitive epitope. To clarify the basis for these observations, the mspl alpha gene encoding AmF105 was cloned from four isolates and sequenced. The encoded polypeptides share a high degree of overall homology between isolates but contain a domain with various numbers of tandemly repeated sequences and three regions of clustered amino acid substitutions outside the repeat domain. The polypeptide size differences are completely explained by the variations in the numbers of tandem repeat units. We have mapped the neutralization-sensitive epitope to a sequence that is present within each repeat unit. These results identify a basis for size polymorphisms of the surface polypeptide antigen concomitant with B-cell epitope conservation in rickettsiae.
A Method to Identify p62's UBA Domain Interacting Proteins

The UBA domain is a conserved sequence motif among polyubiquitin binding proteins. For the first time, we demonstrate a systematic, high throughput approach to identification of UBA domain-interacting proteins from a proteome-wide perspective. Using the rabbit reticulocyte lysatein vitro expression cloning system, we have successfully identified eleven proteins that interact with p62’s UBA domain, and the majority of the eleven proteins are associated with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, p62 may play a novel regulatory role through its UBA domain. Our approach provides an easy route to the characterization of UBA domain interacting proteins and its application will unfold the important roles that the UBA domain plays.