cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Endodontic guided treatment using augmented reality on a head-mounted display system

Endodontic treatment is performed to treat inflamed or infected root canal system of any involved teeth. It is estimated that 22.3 million endodontic procedures are performed annually in the USA. Preparing a proper access cavity before cleaning/shaping (instrumentation) of the root canal system is among the most important steps to achieve a successful treatment outcome. However, accidents such as perforation, gouging, ledge and canal transportation may occur during the procedure because of an improper or incomplete access cavity design. To reduce or prevent these errors in root canal treatments, this Letter introduces an assistive augmented reality (AR) technology on the head-mounted display (HMD). The proposed system provides audiovisual warning and correction in situ on the optical see-through HMD to assist the dentists to prepare access cavity. Interaction of the clinician with the system is via voice commands allowing the bi-manual operation. Also, dentist is able to review tooth radiographs during the procedure without the need to divert attention away from the patient and look at a separate monitor. Experiments are performed to evaluate the accuracy of the measurements. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that an HMD-based AR prototype is introduced for an endodontic procedure.
Substance/Medication-Induced Mood Disorders and Co-occuring Mood and Substance Use Disorders: Evaluation and Management in Emergency Department and Psychiatric Emergency Service Settings

Many substances, illicit or legal, as well as prescribed and over-the-counter medications, have been associated with transient or sustained symptoms of mood disorder due to acute intoxication or withdrawal. Mood disorders are also frequently comorbid with substance use disorders. These disorders are costly to society due to lives lost to suicide and accidents, associated psychiatric and medical illnesses, decreased productivity, and healthcare utilization. While substance-induced mood disorders and co-occurring mood and substance use are prevalent in emergency department settings and in primary care and mental health clinics, few controlled studies have been published. Management of those patients who present to emergency departments in crisis entails medical stabilization, thorough evaluation of the substance use, comprehensive and systematic risk assessment, and meticulous psychiatric evaluation for preexisting psychiatric conditions, newly emerging psychiatric symptoms in conjunction with substance use, as well as plans for appropriate disposition and follow-up. Since a substance-induced mood disorder may be a brief and short-lived clinical phenomenon, it may go unrecognized as such in emergency settings and be attributed solely to substance use or to a reported history of prior psychiatric conditions. Research on the epidemiology, validity, and reliability of this group of diagnoses, standardized clinical tools, and treatment modalities is needed, in order to provide evidence-based and consistent care to patients.
Road Scene Understanding by Occupancy Grid Learning from Sparse Radar Clusters using Semantic Segmentation

Occupancy grid mapping is an important component in road scene understanding for autonomous driving. It encapsulates information of the drivable area, road obstacles and enables safe autonomous driving. Radars are an emerging sensor in autonomous vehicle vision, becoming more widely used due to their long range sensing, low cost, and robustness to severe weather conditions. Despite recent advances in deep learning technology, occupancy grid mapping from radar data is still mostly done using classical filtering approaches. In this work, we propose learning the inverse sensor model used for occupancy grid mapping from clustered radar data. This is done in a data driven approach that leverages computer vision techniques. This task is very challenging due to data sparsity and noise characteristics of the radar sensor. The problem is formulated as a semantic segmentation task and we show how it can be learned using lidar data for generating ground truth. We show both qualitatively and quantitatively that our learned occupancy net outperforms classic methods by a large margin using the recently released NuScenes real-world driving data.
Origins of Early Democracy

The idea that rulers must seek consent before making policy is key to democracy. We suggest that this practice evolved independently in a large fraction of human societies where executives ruled jointly with councils. We argue that council governance was more likely to emerge when information asymmetries made it harder for rulers to extract revenue, and we illustrate this with a theoretical model. Giving the population a role in governance became one means of overcoming the information problem. We test this hypothesis by examining the correlation between localized variation in agricultural suitability and the presence of council governance in the Standard Cross Cultural Sample. As a further step, we suggest that executives facing substantial information asymmetries could also have an alternative route for resource extraction—develop a bureaucracy to measure variation in productivity. Further empirical results suggest that rule by bureaucracy could substitute for shared rule with a council.
Rearranged Fourier Series and Generalizations to Non-Commutative Groups

It is well-known that the Fourier series of continuous functions on the torus are not always uniformly convergent. However, P. L. Ulyanov proposed a problem: can we permute the Fourier series of each individual continuous function in such a way as to guarantee uniform convergence of the rearranged Fourier series? This problem remains open, but nonetheless a rather strong partial result was proved by S. G. Revesz which states that for every continuous function there exists a subsequence of rearranged partial Fourier sums converging to the function uniformly.We give several new equivalences to Ulyanov’s problem in terms of the convergence of the rearranged Fourier series in the strong and weak operator topologies on the space of bounded operators on L 2 ($\mathbb{T}$). This new approach gives rise to several new problems related to rearrangement of Fourier series. We also consider Ulyanov’s problem and Revesz’s theorem for reduced C*–algebras on discrete countable groups.
Umbilical cord blood: The promise and the uncertainty.

Unfortunately, many patients referred for hematopoietic cell transplant will not have a fully matched related donor, and finding matched unrelated donors through the registry may be difficult, especially if the recipient is not of Northern European descent [N Engl J Med 2014;371:339-348]. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) has been an available graft source for hematopoietic cell transplant for more than 30 years, since the first UCB transplant was performed in the late 1980s [N Engl J Med 1989;321:1174-1178]. UCB is readily available, has low immunogenicity, and does not require as strict of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching compared to other graft sources [N Engl J Med 2004;351:2265-2275]. According to data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), an estimated 500 patients in the US will have received a UCB transplant in 2018. Since 2014, haploidentical transplants have surpassed UCB transplants performed in the United States (CIBMTR Summary Slides, 2018, available at https://www.cibmtr.org). Increased use of haploidentical transplants has brought to light concerns about UCB transplants, including delayed engraftment and graft failure, increased nonrelapse mortality, increased infection risk, and UCB acquisition costs [Lancet Oncol 2010;11:653-660; Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2019;1456-1464]. These concerns will need to be addressed for UCB to remain a viable option as a graft source for hematopoietic cell transplant. Other promising therapeutic benefits for UCB, in addition to hematopoietic cell transplant, is its use in regenerative medicine and immune modulation, which is currently being evaluated in ongoing clinical trials.
Exercise Training Decreases Hepatic Injury and Metastases Through Changes in Immune Response to Liver Ischemia/Reperfusion in Mice.

Background and aims Liver ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) induces local and systemic inflammation in which neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are major drivers. IRI markedly augments metastatic growth, which is consistent with the notion that the liver IRI can serve as a premetastatic niche. Exercise training (ExT) confers a sustainable protection, reducing IRI in some animal models, and has been associated with improved survival in patients with cancer; however, the impact of ExT on liver IRI or development of hepatic metastases is unknown. Approach and results Mice were randomized into exercise (ExT) and sedentary groups before liver IRI and tumor injection. Computerized dynamic network analysis of 20 inflammatory mediators was used to dissect the sequence of mediator interactions after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) that induce injury. ExT mice showed a significant decrease in hepatic IRI and tissue necrosis. This coincided with disassembly of complex networks among inflammatory mediators seen in sedentary mice. Neutrophil infiltration and NET formation were decreased in the ExT group, which suppressed the expression of liver endothelial cell adhesion molecules. Concurrently, ExT mice revealed a distinct population of infiltrating macrophages expressing M2 phenotypic genes. In a metastatic model, fewer metastases were present 3 weeks after I/R in the ExT mice, a finding that correlated with a marked increase in tumor-suppressing T cells within the tumor microenvironment. Conclusions ExT preconditioning mitigates the inflammatory response to liver IRI, protecting the liver from injury and metastases. In light of these findings, potential may exist for the reduction of liver premetastatic niches induced by liver IRI through the use of ExT as a nonpharmacologic therapy before curative surgical approaches.
Modular synthesis and transition metal-free alkynylation/alkenylation of Castagnoli–Cushman-derived N , O - and N , S -heterocyclic vinyl chlorides

A modular and functional group-tolerant protocol for the transition metal-free coupling of novel N,O- and N,S-heterocyclic vinyl chlorides with terminal acetylenes and styrenes has been developed, leading to the epimerization-free synthesis of fully carbofunctionalized dihydro-1,4-oxazines/thiazines. Bicyclic morpholines have also been prepared through the interrogation of newly synthesized cross-conjugated dienes in Diels–Alder reactions. The use of environmentally benign reaction media endows the current strategy with a practical advantage.
Standing on Holy Ground: How Rethinking Justiciability Might Bring Peace to the Establishment Clause

The Establishment Clause is home to both procedural and substantive disorder. Particularly when evaluating religious speech by the government, the Supreme Court has applied a number of distinct tests, with varying degrees of strictness. There has never been an overarching principle for determining which test would appear at which time; commentators, and occasionally the Justices themselves, have suspected that desired results drove the choice of tests. At the same time, the Court has articulated a series of requirements necessary for a plaintiff to have standing to challenge government action, only to ignore them in government religious speech cases. The resulting lack of clarity leaves lower courts to their own devices in endeavoring to calm increasingly intense struggles. This article sets out a theory that altering one of these problems might correct the other. Analogizing to the Treaty of Westphalia’s temporal limit on the airing of grievances, the Supreme Court could replace the current standing chaos with a limit to claims against current government activity. Such a rule would foreclose the ability of pro-religion forces to new domination of the public square, but would also prevent anti-religion forces from removing the vestiges of past government activity that are central to the American experience. Current doctrine ends with many of the same results, but doing so under the standing doctrine would remove the camouflage of alternative substantive tests. Simultaneously, it would decrease the incentive of participants in the national political struggle over religion to ever more hostile moves. The clarity this doctrinal shift would provide could help improve both religious freedom and peace in the national dialogue.
Case Study of Drone Delivery Reliability for Time-Sensitive Medical Supplies With Stochastic Demand and Meteorological Conditions

Drones are increasingly being utilized to deliver medical supplies, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. Drones arrive quickly by taking more direct paths and avoiding ground-based obstructions. However, drones are not completely reliable and may also experience failures and delays. For consumer products, delivery delays are an inconvenience, but for some medical supplies, delays may be fatal. This research focused on the drone reliability of one particular type of supply and event: automatic defibrillators for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. A modeling framework was developed to analyze drone delivery reliability with stochastic demands and meteorological conditions. Using probability distributions based on real data from Portland, OR, this research quantified the failure rates as a function of drone range and meteorological conditions that included temperature, precipitation, and wind. Tradeoffs among drone reliability, fleet size, population size, and meteorological conditions were analyzed.
Toxicokinetic and Genotoxicity Study of NNK in Male Sprague Dawley Rats Following Nose-Only Inhalation Exposure, Intraperitoneal Injection, and Oral Gavage.

The tobacco-specific nitrosamine NNK [4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone] is found in tobacco products and tobacco smoke. NNK is a potent genotoxin and human lung carcinogen; however, there are limited inhalation data for the toxicokinetics (TK) and genotoxicity of NNK in vivo. In the present study, a single dose of 5 × 10-5, 5 × 10-3, 0.1, or 50 mg/kg body weight (BW) of NNK, 75% propylene glycol (vehicle control), or air (sham control) was administered to male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (9-10 weeks age) via nose-only inhalation (INH) exposure for 1 h. For comparison, the same doses of NNK were administered to male SD rats via intraperitoneal injection (IP) and oral gavage (PO). Plasma, urine, and tissue specimens were collected at designated time points and analyzed for levels of NNK and its major metabolite 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) and tissue levels of DNA adduct O6-methylguanine by LC/MS/MS. TK data analysis was performed using a non-linear regression program. For the genotoxicity subgroup, tissues were collected at 3 h post-dosing for comet assay analysis. Overall, the TK data indicated that NNK was rapidly absorbed and metabolized extensively to NNAL after NNK administration via the three routes. The IP route had the greatest systemic exposure to NNK. NNK metabolism to NNAL appeared to be more efficient via INH than IP or PO. NNK induced significant increases in DNA damage in multiple tissues via the three routes. The results of this study provide new information and understanding of the TK and genotoxicity of NNK.
Pericardiocentesis in children: 20-year experience at a tertiary children's hospital

BACKGROUND Pericardiocentesis is the invasive percutaneous procedure for acute and chronic excessive accumulation of pericardial fluid. There is a paucity of data on the effectiveness and safety of pericardiocentesis in children. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of pericardiocentesis and factors associated with acute procedural failure and adverse events. METHODS This was a single-centered retrospective study to describe all the children aged ≤20 years who underwent pericardiocentesis. Data on demographics, etiologies of pericardial effusion, and repeat intervention at follow-up were collected. RESULTS A total of 127 patients underwent 153 pericardiocentesis. The median age was 6.5 years (1 day-20 years) with weight of 17 kg (0.5-125). Most common etiology was post-pericardiotomy syndrome (n = 56, 44%), followed by infectious (12%), malignant (10%), and iatrogenic (9%). Pericardiocentesis was performed more commonly in the catheterisation laboratory (n = 86, 59%). Concurrent pericardial drain placement was performed in 67 patients (53%). Acute procedural success was 92% (141/153). Repeat intervention was performed in 33 patients (22%). The incidence of adverse events was 4.6% (7/153): hemopericardium requiring emergent surgery (n = 2); hemopericardium with hypotension (n = 2); seizure with anesthesia induction (n = 1); and right ventricle puncture with needle (n = 2). Pericardiocentesis at the bedside had a higher rate of acute procedural failure than that in the catheterisation lab (17 versus 1%, p < 0.01). No identifiable risk factors were associated with adverse events. CONCLUSIONS Pericardiocentesis was life-saving in children with its high effectiveness and safety even in urgent situations. Although initial pericardiocentesis was effective, one of five patients required re-intervention for recurrent pericardial effusion.
Sum-of-Squares Lower Bounds for Sparse Independent Set

The Sum-of-Squares (SoS) hierarchy of semidefinite programs is a powerful algorithmic paradigm which captures state-of-the-art algorithmic guarantees for a wide array of problems. In the average case setting, SoS lower bounds provide strong evidence of algorithmic hardness or information-computation gaps. Prior to this work, SoS lower bounds have been obtained for problems in the "dense" input regime, where the input is a collection of independent Rademacher or Gaussian random variables, while the sparse regime has remained out of reach. We make the first progress in this direction by obtaining strong SoS lower bounds for the problem of Independent Set on sparse random graphs. We prove that with high probability over an Erdos-Renyi random graph $G\sim G_{n,\frac{d}{n}}$ with average degree $d>\log^2 n$, degree-$D_{SoS}$ SoS fails to refute the existence of an independent set of size $k = \Omega\left(\frac{n}{\sqrt{d}(\log n)(D_{SoS})^{c_0}} \right)$ in $G$ (where $c_0$ is an absolute constant), whereas the true size of the largest independent set in $G$ is $O\left(\frac{n\log d}{d}\right)$. Our proof involves several significant extensions of the techniques used for proving SoS lower bounds in the dense setting. Previous lower bounds are based on the pseudo-calibration heuristic of Barak et al [FOCS 2016] which produces a candidate SoS solution using a planted distribution indistinguishable from the input distribution via low-degree tests. In the sparse case the natural planted distribution does admit low-degree distinguishers, and we show how to adapt the pseudo-calibration heuristic to overcome this. Another notorious technical challenge for the sparse regime is the quest for matrix norm bounds. In this paper, we obtain new norm bounds for graph matrices in the sparse setting.
A metabolome-wide association study of in utero metal and trace element exposures with cord blood metabolome profile: Findings from the Boston Birth Cohort

Abstract Background Exposure to metals lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and cadmium (Cd) and trace elements selenium (Se) and manganese (Mn) has been linked to the developmental origins of cardiometabolic diseases, but the mechanisms are not well-understood. Objective Conduct a metabolome-wide association study to understand how in utero exposure to Pb, Hg, Cd, Se, and Mn affects the metabolic programming of fetuses. Methods We used data from the Boston Birth Cohort, which enrolled mother-child pairs from Boston, MA. We measured metals and trace elements in maternal red blood cells (RBCs) collected 24–72 h after delivery, and metabolites in cord blood collected at birth. We used multivariable linear regression to examine associations of metals and trace elements with metabolites and Bonferroni correction to account for multiple comparisons. We assessed non-linear associations of metals and trace elements with metabolites using restricted cubic spline plots. Results This analysis included 670 mother-child pairs (57% non-Hispanic Black and 24% Hispanic). After Bonferroni correction, there were 25 cord metabolites associated with at least one of the metals or trace elements. Pb was negatively associated with the xenobiotic piperine, Cd was positively associated with xenobiotics cotinine and hydroxycotinine, and Hg was associated with 8 lipid metabolites (in both directions). Se and Mn shared associations with 6 metabolites (in both directions), which mostly included nucleotides and amino acids; Se was additionally associated with 7 metabolites (mostly amino acids, nucleotides, and carnitines) and Mn was additionally associated with C36:4 hydroxy phosphatidylcholine. Restricted cubic spline plots showed that most associations were linear. Discussion Maternal RBC metal and trace element concentrations were associated in a dose-dependent fashion with cord blood metabolites. What remains to be determined is whether these metals- and trace elements-associated changes in cord metabolites can influence a child’s risk of cardiometabolic diseases.
Transatlantic Engagements with the British Eighteenth Century

Acknowledgments Introduction: Transatlantic Retrospections Chapter One: Reading Periodically: Beryl Gilroy's Inkle and Yarico and Richard Steele's Spectator No. 11 Chapter Two: Novel Poetics and Pantomimes: Derek Walcott's Crusoe Poems, Pantomime, and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe Chapter Three: Satire's Spectacles: Wole Soyinka's "Gulliver" and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels Chapter Four: Visual and Textual Narratives: David Dabydeen's A Harlot's Progress and William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress Chapter Five: Literary Impersonations: Beryl Gilroy's Stedman and Joanna and John Gabriel Stedman's Journal and Narrative Epilogue: Global Retrospections Notes Bibliography Index
Physical Design of CMOS Chips in Six Easy Steps

Aimed at software professional not familiar with design processes of semiconductor elements that execute their programs. This paper focuses on algorithms and software involved in a design, layout and verification of CMOS parts. The first section introduces basic building elements of a design--transistor and standard cell--and shows their representation in design database. The design flow is segmented into six distinct steps: design capture, synthesis, floorplanning, placement and routing, extraction and verification.
Influence of Specimen Tabs on the Compressive Strength of a Unidirectional Composite Material

An experimental study was performed to determine the effect of type of tabbing material and tab taper on the measured axial compressive strength of a unidirectional carbon/epoxy material. Two types of tabbing materials (hot-rolled, low carbon steel and glass-fabric/epoxy) and two tab taper geometries (untapered and 30° taper) were utilized. Additionally, the influence of partial tab debonding on the measured compressive strength was determined. A standard IITRI compression test fixture was used. Tapered steel tabs provided consistently higher compressive strengths than tapered glass-fabric/epoxy tabs, or untapered steel or glass-fabric/epoxy tabs. Deliberately introducing regions of tab debonding in untapered glass-fabric/epoxy tabbed specimens resulted in only a small decrease in compressive strength.
The Sweetness of Freedom: Stories of Immigrants

A first look at The Sweetness of Freedom: Stories of Immigrants could be misleading: the cover design bears an image of a passenger ship and old wooden trunks on a wharf, thus strongly suggesting t...
Propagation and Identification of Viruses

1 Systems for Propagating Viruses 2 Preparation of Reagents for Virus Identification 3 Isolation and Identification of Viruses from Clinical Specimens 4 Acknowledgments Keywords: propagation and identification of viruses; systems for propagating viruses; cell cultures; cell propagation; maintenance of cultures; storage of cells; tissue and organ cultures; releasing virus from culture cells
3‐Bromo‐1,2‐propanediol

[4704-77-2] C3H7BrO2 (MW 154.99) InChI = 1S/C3H7BrO2/c4-1-3(6)2-5/h3,5-6H,1-2H2 InChIKey = SIBFQOUHOCRXDL-UHFFFAOYSA-N (carbonyl protecting group which can be cleaved under neutral conditions2) Physical Data: bp 92–94 °C/1.5 mmHg; d 1.769 g cm−3. Form Supplied in: widely available as 95% or 98% pure; viscous colorless liquid. Preparative Method: prepared according to the procedure of Winstein and Goodman.4 Epibromohydrin 1 is treated with a catalytic amount of p-toluenesulfonic acid in H2O at refluxing temperature for 7 h (eq 1). Distillation of the final product gives a 65% yield of the desired diol 2. (1) Handling, Storage, and Precautions: harmful liquid and fumes (CO, CO2, HBr); incompatible with strong oxidizing agents; corrosive; irritant; use in fume hood only; refrigerate.3
BsaXI/RFLP analysis of initial or selectively reamplified PCR product is unreliable in detecting the V617F mutation in JAK2.

SUMMARY Introduction: Laboratory testing for the presence of the V617F muta- tion in JAK2 has taken on great importance in the diagnosis of mye- loproliferative disorders. The availability of a facile detection method would bring this testing into greater clinical use. The polymerase chain reaction coupled with restriction fragment length polymor- phisms is such a facile method. BsaXI cleaves the normal sequence but does not cleave the sequence leading to the V617F mutation. Methods: We have examined the use of selective PCR reamplification with BsaXI cleavage to enrich the fraction of V617F and compared the assignment of mutation with an established qPCR method. Results: We found that BsaXI fails to completely cleave normal sequence PCR product, leading to false positivity, particularly at low mutation levels. We also found that first-round standard PCR intro- duces new mutations in which subsequent reamplification and diges- tion cannot distinguish from the V617F mutation. Conclusion: This combination of problems effectively combines to render selective reamplification and redigestion unsuitable for detect- ing low fractions of the V617F mutation.
Minimum Length from Quantum Mechanics and Classical General Relativity

We derive fundamental limits on measurements of position, arising from quantum mechanics and classical general relativity. First, we show that any primitive probe or target used in an experiment must be larger than the Planck length lP. This suggests a Planck-size minimum ball of uncertainty in any measurement. Next, we study interferometers (such as LIGO) whose precision is much finer than the size of any individual components and hence are not obviously limited by the minimum ball. Nevertheless, we deduce a fundamental limit on their accuracy of order lP. Our results imply a device independent limit on possible position measurements.
Selecting image retrieval parameters with a genetic algorithm

Image retrieval (IR) means taking a probe image and finding the most appropriate match in a (possibly very large) image database. Unlike keyword-indexing, our approach is to compute a feature vector (FV) for each image, and to compute the distance from the probe to each image in the database. As a starting point, we studied the system of Jacobs et al ., developed at the University of Washington, which used the Haar wavelet transform to produce feature vectors from images. A genetic algorithm developed weighting parameters which yielded significantly improved image retrieval performance.
EFFECTS OF A DAIDZEIN‐RICH ISOFLAVONE AGLYCONE EXTRACT ON DIET‐INDUCED OBESITY IN AN OVARIECTOMIZED MOUSE MODEL

SUMMARY 1 Obesity is the most common nutritional disorder in affluent societies and an increasingly important health problem in developing countries. Soy protein and soy isoflavone genistein have been investigated for their effects on reduction of bodyweight gain and on modulation of lipid metabolism, and the results have been inconclusive. Conversely, daidzein has been shown to have biological activities that are related to beneficial lipid profiles. 2 The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a daidzein-rich isoflavone aglycone extract (AglyMax; Nichimo Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan) on reduction of bodyweight gain and modulation of lipid metabolism in an oestrogen-deficient female mouse model. Six-week-old female C57BL/6 mice were either ovariectomized (OVX) or sham operated. After 1 week recovery, mice were housed individually and OVX mice were randomly assigned into four of five experimental groups and consumed corresponding experimental diets for 8 weeks: (i) Sham: the high fat (HF; 45% calorie from fat) diet; (ii) OVX: the HF diet; (iii) OVX-Low AglyMax: the HF diet with addition of 0.12% AglyMax; (iv) OVX-High AglyMax: the HF diet with addition of 0.6% AglyMax; and (v) OVX pair-fed: the HF diet consumed at the same amount as that in the OVX-High AglyMax group. 3 Mice treated with AglyMax at 0.6% of the diet significantly reduced food intake by 18.2% (P < 0.001), final bodyweight gain by 63.5% (P < 0.001), white adipose tissue (WAT) mass by 44.1% (P < 0.001) and adipocyte size by 42.9% (P < 0.001) compared with the OVX mice. Mice treated with AglyMax (0.6% of the diet) further reduced bodyweight gain by 39.0% (P < 0.05), WAT mass by 37.3% (P < 0.01) and adipocyte size by 29.1% (P < 0.001) compared with the pair-fed mice. Mice treated with 0.6% AglyMax also had significantly reduced hepatic triglycerides and fecal bile acids excretion, by 41.0% (P < 0.01) and 58.5% (P < 0.05), respectively, compared with the pair-fed mice. 4 The results suggest that AglyMax may be further investigated for its application in the control of bodyweight gain and modulation of lipid metabolism preferentially in a subgroup of subjects with low oestrogen status.
Identification of tubulin as a substrate of Jak2 tyrosine kinase and its role in Jak2-dependent signaling.

Jak2 is a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase that acts in numerous cellular signal transduction systems. Here, large amounts of recombinant Jak2 protein were expressed in eukaryotic cells, and an unknown 55 kDa protein was copurified with it. Mass spectrometry and Western blot analysis identified the 55 kDa protein as the α- and β-isoforms of tubulin. Biochemical experiments determined that Jak2 and tubulin specifically coassociate with one another, and the region of Jak2 that binds tubulin is the pseudokinase domain. Immunofluoresence indicated that Jak2 and tubulin (microtubules) colocalize within intact cells. The functional consequence of the coassociation between Jak2 and tubulin is that Jak2 phosphorylates tubulin on tyrosine residues. Specifically, in response to growth hormone, tubulin was phosphorylated in a Jak2-dependent manner. Tubulin was also found to interact with signal transducers and activators of transcription 1 (STAT1) and be involved in STAT1 nuclear transport. As such, this work suggests th...
A Conceptual Basis for Ethics in Teacher Education

Interest in ethics teaching within teacher education is growing. Refining this in terest and putting it into practice re quires addressing important questions about the nature and goals of ethics teaching, its content, and appropriate in structional methods. Using an example of an ethical dilemma frequently en countered by practicing teachers, Howe articulates the goals of ethics teaching and argues that engaging students in "critical reflection" should be the over riding aim and activity. The use of discus sions of cases that exemplify ethical problems central to teaching is ad vanced as the kind of instructional method and content that best comple ments the "critical reflection" approach. Next, three alternative ways of ground ing ethics teaching — applied ethical theory, applied Kohlberg, and values clarification — are critiqued. Finally, the author argues that ethics instruction and curriculum development will most likely succeed if they involve the input and par ticipation of experts in ethics.
Peptides derived from the prohormone proNPQ/spexin are potent central modulators of cardiovascular and renal function and nociception

Computational methods have led two groups to predict the endogenous presence of a highly conserved, amidated, 14-aa neuropeptide called either spexin or NPQ. NPQ/spexin is part of a larger prohormone that contains 3 sets of RR residues, suggesting that it could yield more than one bioactive peptide; however, no in vivo activity has been demonstrated for any peptide processed from this precursor. Here we demonstrate biological activity for two peptides present within proNPQ/spexin. NPQ/spexin (NWTPQAMLYLKGAQ-NH(2)) and NPQ 53-70 (FISDQSRRKDLSDRPLPE) have differing renal and cardiovascular effects when administered intracerebroventricularly or intravenously into rats. Intracerebroventricular injection of NPQ/spexin produced a 13 ± 2 mmHg increase in mean arterial pressure, a 38 ± 8 bpm decrease in heart rate, and a profound decrease in urine flow rate. Intracerebroventricular administration of NPQ 53-70 produced a 26 ± 9 bpm decrease in heart rate with no change in mean arterial pressure, and a marked increase in urine flow rate. Intraventricular NPQ/spexin and NPQ 53-70 also produced antinociceptive activity in the warm water tail withdrawal assay in mice (ED(50)<30 and 10 nmol for NPQ/spexin and NPQ 53-70, respectively). We conclude that newly identified peptides derived from the NPQ/spexin precursor contribute to CNS-mediated control of arterial blood pressure and salt and water balance and modulate nociceptive responses.
Porcine malignant hyperthermia : genotype and contractile threshold of immature muscles

We investigated whether malignant hyperthermia (MH)-related contractile abnormalities, such as lowered contractile threshold, were expressed in MH-susceptible (MHS) immature muscles and myotubes. Muscles from neonatal piglets homozygous for Arg615 (normal) or for Cys615 (MHS) ryanodine receptor alleles, and heterozygotes were used. Intact cell bundles from piglet muscles generally were similar in contractile properties to adult muscles of the same genotype. Thresholds for K contractures in normal, heterozygous, and MHS piglet muscles (40 mmol/L, 25 mmol/L and 15 mmol/L K+, respectively) differed significantly. Cultured myotubes were subjected to a series of square pulses of varying strengths (-50 to +50 mV) and durations (25-300 ms) using whole cell patch-clamp techniques. Threshold for contraction differed significantly among the three genotypes, for example, with 300 msec pulses thresholds were -6.9 +/- 0.9, -12.4 +/- 1.6, and -22.6 +/- 2.6 mV for normal, heterozygous and MHS myotubes, respectively. Thus a significantly lower than normal threshold for contraction was expressed in MHS and heterozygous piglet muscles and myotubes. Further, these developmentally immature preparations are likely to express other differences characteristic of adult MHS muscles, and thus provide suitable preparations for clinically relevant studies of MH-related cellular abnormalities.
An assessment of EDI use and other channel communications on trading behavior and trading partner knowledge

Effective communication between trading partners is vital for operational efficiency and better trading relations. Such communication takes place at different managerial levels, using a variety of means, including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Interestingly, past studies report both positive and negative effects of EDI use in trading relations. Yet, missing from these studies is an analysis of the relationship between EDI use, the communication outside EDI, and their impact on trading relations.This study examines retailers and suppliers separately. It analyzes EDI use, trading partner communication frequency between top management and between operational management levels. The focus is on learning how such communications affect partner knowledge, cooperation, conflict, and joint decision making.Survey data from 99 retailers and 72 suppliers found that more partner knowledge by top management resulted in greater EDI use. For retailers, EDI use enhances partner knowledge of operational personnel but it reduces cooperation. For suppliers, in contrast, EDI use does not enhance partner knowledge but it does reduce conflict.
Branch chapter membership reaps rewards: Don't pass up the advantages of membership in an IEEE technical society: It's easy to form a branch chapter

Belonging to a Branch Chapter of an IEEE Society can tremendously enhance the benefits of your student membership in the IEEE. Although membership in a technical Society is in itself valuable because of the accompanying publications and programs, it is as a Branch Chapter member that you can reap the greatest rewards.
Quasiperiodicity and phase locking in stochastic circle maps: A spectral approach

Abstract While there are clear definitions of what it means for a deterministic dynamical system to be periodic, quasiperiodic, or chaotic, it is unclear how to define such notions for a noisy system. In this article, we study Markov chains on the circle, which is a natural stochastic analog of deterministic dynamical systems. The main tool is spectral analysis of the transition operator of the Markov chain. We analyze path-wise dynamic properties of the Markov chain, such as stochastic periodicity (or phase locking) and stochastic quasiperiodicity, and show how these properties are read off of the geometry of the spectrum of the transition operator.
The world-view of Jesus

The Jewish people, in post-exilic and New Testament times, had their lovers of wisdom. Known as the wise, the sages, or the teachers of wisdom, they were the educators of the age, men whose special interest lay in knowing and producing the kind of thought which is technically termed wisdom. These teachers of wisdom were the only philosophers that Judaism produced. They were less speculative, less theoretical, and less systematic than the Greek philosophers, but just as clear thinkers. The work of the Jewish sages developed contemporaneously with that of the Greek philosophers. These Jewish men of wisdom were recognized as a distinct class as far back as Jeremiah's time, ca. 6oo B. C.,1 the time when Greek philosophy was just beginning with Thales. From then onward there grew up a notable body of Jewish wisdom teaching. Jesus of Nazareth thought and taught wisdom. The spirit of the wise was in him. Jesus was the most eminent teacher of wisdom in the first
Comments on Structures Considerations in Design for Space Boosters

S presented in Ref. 1 a very interesting discussion concerning the effect of configuration geometry and size upon structural weight and control requirements. With respect to the latter, he comes to the conclusion that the control problem will be alleviated by increase in vehicle size. The author does not believe that this conclusion is realistic in a practical sense, at least not with respect to vehicles under design now and in the near foreseeable future (10 to 10 Ib gross weight class). The crucial argument is in Ref. 1 based on the equation
Double-Auger decay, Feshbach and shape resonances in negative ions

Abstract Inner-shell photoionization of negative ions is very different from photoionization of neutral or positive ions. The short-range interaction that governs negative ions leads to new and different physics. Negative ions exist because of electron correlation that is so strong that it leads to strong simultaneous double-Auger decay, as well as shape and Feshbach resonances. Our recent work has also shown that inner-shell photoionization obeys the Wigner law even when post-collision interaction affects the cross-section.
Virtualized Optical Network (VON) for Future Internet and Applications

A virtualized optical network (VON) is proposed as a key to implementing increased agility and flexibility into the future Internet and applications by providing any-to-any connectivity with the appropriate optical bandwidth at the appropriate time. The VON is enabled by introducing optical transparentization and optical fine granular grooming based on optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.
Ion Trap versus Low-Energy Beam-Type Collision-Induced Dissociation of Protonated Ubiquitin Ions

The beam-type and ion trap collision-induced dissociation (CID) behaviors of protonated bovine ubiquitin ions were studied for charge states ranging from +6 to +12 on a modified triple quadrupole/linear ion trap tandem mass spectrometer. Both beam-type CID and ion trap CID were conducted in a high-pressure linear ion trap, followed by proton-transfer ion/ion reactions to reduce the charge states of product ions mostly to +1. The product ions observed under each activation condition were predominantly b- and y-type ions. Fragmentation patterns showed a much stronger dependence on parent ion charge state with ion trap CID than with beam-type CID using nitrogen as the collision gas, with preferential cleavages C-terminal to aspartic acid at relatively low charge states, nonspecific fragmentation at moderate charge states, and favored cleavages N-terminal to proline residues at high charge states. In the beam-type CID case, extensive cleavage along the protein backbone was noted, which yielded richer sequence information (77% of backbone amide bond cleavages) than did ion trap CID (52% of backbone amide bond cleavages). Collision gas identity and collision energy were also evaluated in terms of their effects on the beam-type CID spectrum. The use of helium as collision gas, as opposed to nitrogen, resulted in CID behavior that was sensitive to changes in collision energy. At low collision energies, the beam-type CID data resembled the ion trap CID data with preferential cleavages predominant, while at high collision energies, nonspecific fragmentation was observed with increased contributions from sequential fragmentation.
Restriction fragment patterns of chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA of Dasypyrum villosum (L.) candargy and wheats

To elucidate the phylogenetic relationships and cytoplasmic types, restriction endonuclease fragment patterns of chloroplast (cp) and mitochondrial (mt) DNAs isolated from two different accessions of Dasypyrum villosum (L.) candargy were compared with those of tetraploid wheat (Triticum durum Desf., PI265007), hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L., cv Chinese Spring), Aegilops longissimum (S. and M., in Muschli) Bowden and Hordeum vulgare L. T. aestivum and T. durum had identical restriction patterns for their cp and mtDNAs in digestions with four different enzymes. Likewise, no differences were found between the restriction fragment patterns of two accessions of D. villosum. But, there were distinct differences in chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA restriction fragment patterns between D. villosum and tetraploid and hexaploid wheats. A. longissimum (G609) showed a similar pattern to those wheats for PstI digestion of cpDNA. Organellar DNA from Hordeum vulgare (cv Himalaya) showed a distinctly different restriction pattern from those of wheat and D. villosum. These results suggest that D. villosum is unlikely to be the donor of cytoplasm to wheats, and its cytoplasmic organelles were also different from those of A. longissimum.
C/EBPα-dependent induction of glutathione S-transferase ζ/maleylacetoacetate isomerase (GSTζ/MAAI) expression during the differentiation of mouse fibroblasts into adipocytes

Abstract Western blot analysis of 3T3-L1 adipocyte proteins using an anti-C/EBPα antibody detected a 24 kD polypeptide in addition to the expected 42 and 30 kD isoforms of C/EBPα. Mass spectrometric sequencing of the protein following its purification by HPLC and preparative 2D gel electrophoresis identified it as glutathione S-transferase ζ/maleylacetoacetate isomerase (GSTζ/MAAI). Expression of GSTζ/MAAI mRNA and protein was induced during the terminal phase of adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Ectopic expression of PPARγ2 in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts exposed to insulin and troglitazone-induced perilipin production, but was incapable of activating GSTζ/MAAI unless C/EBPα was also expressed. Similarly, ectopic expression of C/EBPα in PPARγ +/− or PPARγ −/− MEFs demonstrated that the C/EBPα-dependent induction of GSTζ/MAAI production was dependent on expression of endogenous PPARγ. These data suggest a role for GSTζ/MAAI in mature adipocytes that may be responsive to the thiazolidinedione class of insulin sensitizing PPARγ ligands.
Fourth overtone spectra of OH oscillators in simple alcohols

Abstract Fourth overtone (v = 5) spectra of the OH stretch of eight alcohols are reported. Well resolved bands are observed for different conformations of the hydroxyl group about the CO bond axis. Many of the bands exhibit coarse rotational structure, in contrast to overtone bands of CH oscillators in comparable sized hydrocarbons and benzene. Deuteration of the carbon skeleton of methanol, 2-propanol and t -butanol reveals additional structure in the OH overtone spectra.
Intracellular localization of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine in Neurospora crassa wild-type and slime mutant strains

Abstract We examined the subcellular localization of UDP- N -acetyl- d -glucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) in two strains of Neurospora crassa : a wild-type mycelial strain and slime—a unique wall-less mutant. Cells were broken, under osmotic protection to minimize organelle damage, by two different procedures: (a) ballistic disruption with glass beads (both strains), and (b) a milder homogenization procedure with a motor-driven glass tissue homogenizer (slime mutant only). There was no evidence for subcellular compartmentation of the chitin synthetase substrate; essentially all UDP-GlcNAc was found in the cytosol of both wild-type and slime mutant. Hence, substrate localization may be discounted as part of the mechanism determining the spatial orientation of chitin synthesis. The intracellular pool of UDP-GlcNAc survived cell breakage and fractionation; only a small amount was converted into chitin and essentially none sequestered into membranous compartments. The intracellular level of UDP-GlcNAc was seemingly unaffected by the ability or inability of the fungus to make a chitinous wall. Slime and wild-type both contained about 10–12 mg UDP-GlcNac/g of cytosolic protein (5–6 mg/g in terms of total cell protein). This similarity indicates the existence of precise regulatory mechanisms that maintain the levels of wall precursors relatively constant despite extreme differences in their rate of utilization.