cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Kinematic mirror mount design for ultra-precision manufacturing, metrology, and system level integration for high performance visible spectrum imaging systems

Abstract High-performance freeform optical systems, designed for broad spectral imaging from the visible to the far infrared, place new demands on optical design, precision manufacturing, and precision metrology. To meet the tolerances on figure, roughness, and relative positioning in such systems requires the ability to perform metrology and manufacturing corrections on freeform optics in a continuous feedback loop. This feedback loop requires a common interface for machining and manufacturing platforms. This paper describes the design, analysis, and testing of such an interface suitable for use with single point diamond turning and deterministic micro-grinding. The interface utilizes a torsionally preloaded, robust, kinematic mount capable of supporting manufacturing process loads while maintaining the position repeatability in five degrees of freedom required for the measurement and correction of optical figure. Results from a prototype system demonstrate absolute in-plane position uncertainty less than 200 nm and 50 nm, respectively, and axial position uncertainty is 40 nm absolute and 10 nm relative. The absolute and relative angular positioning uncertainties less than 1 µrad and 0.25 µrad respectively. The results exceed the requirements for many optical systems. The mount is also suitable for use in opto-mechanical assembly, so that the same platform can be used for manufacturing, metrology, final assembly, testing, and service.
Rolling the dice on theory: one department's decision to strengthen the theoretical computing aspect of their curriculum

For today's undergraduate computer science students, topics such as computer graphics, security, game design, and others are areas that typically have the most interest. As educators know, properly teaching these advanced topics is not possible without students having learned fundamental skills such as programming, problem solving and by gaining a background in theoretical computer science. While innovations have occurred in the way to teach programming, teaching theoretical computer science remains difficult. Part of the problem is that many students view this area as difficult and postpone taking these courses until late in their program. Furthermore, the topics are seen by students as not very exciting and they cannot see their applications. At Indiana University South Bend, three core courses in the computer science curriculum are deemed primarily theoretical (Foundations of Digital Computing, Programming Languages, and Analysis of Algorithms). While the department has been satisfied with the latter two courses, the first course has been a source of frustration for many years. In its current incarnation, the Foundations course is four credits and the faculty assigned to teach it have consistently said that there is not enough time to cover all of the necessary topics. This past year the department met regularly to discuss the course and decided to take steps to substantially improve the theoretical aspects of the curriculum. New courses were proposed and adopted, changes to other courses were considered, and a move to make a course acceptable as a campus-wide critical thinking course was approved and enacted. This paper describes these changes and chronicles the challenges faced in adopting them.
Characteristics of Ca 2+ -Selective Microelectrodes and Their Application to Cardiac Muscle Cells

The direct measurements of cytosolic Ca2+ activities are important for the study of roles of the ion in the regulation of cellular functions. One of the methods for such measurements is to use Ca2+-selective microelectrodes. It appears that activities of cytosolic Ca2+ are much lower than those of othet cytosolic ions such as K+, Na+ and Mg2+. Therefore, Ca2+-selective microelectrodes must have sufficient selectivities for Ca2+ over the interfering ions, i.e., K+, Na+ and Mg2+ so that the influence of the interfering ions on the microelectrodes could not produce errors. In this study, Ca2+-selective microelectrodes were made and some of their properties were investigated to measure sarcoplasmic Ca2+ activities in cardiac muscle cells.
Nitrogen oxyanion reduction by Co(II) augmented by a proton responsive ligand: recruiting multiple metals

Deoxygenation of nitrite oxygen with divalent cobalt was achieved using (PNNH)CoCl2, carrying a pyridyl pincer ligand with one P(t-Bu)2 arm and one pyrazole arm. Reaction of (PNNH)CoCl2 with NaNO2 at a 2 : 5 mole ratio promptly forms equimolar (PNNH)Co(NO2)3 and (PNN)Co(NO2)(NO), {CoNO}8 with the lost ligand proton combined with removed oxo as hydroxide. These two CoIII products are characterized, showing a bent CoNO unit as the fate of the reduced nitrogen. DFT calculations are consistent with two one-electron CoII reductants binding to one NO2− bridge, then proton transfer being needed for facile N/O bond scission. A species detected by low temperature execution of this reaction contains cobalt in two oxidation states with an N,O bridging nitro group and pincer ligands that have been deprotonated, showing the active participation of the proton responsive ligand.
Incidence of diabetes and prediabetes unmasked by dexamethasone in women undergoing (neo) adjuvant taxane therapy.

e12526Background: Women with early stage breast cancer receive premedication with dexamethasone prior to administration of paclitaxel and docetaxel. We undertook a retrospective chart review to det...
Did Oregon’s tough mandatory sentencing law “measure 11” improve public safety? New evidence about an old debate from a multiple-design, experimental strategy

This research contributes to policy debates about whether mandatory sentences improve public safety and are responsible for maintaining lower rates of crime. The current study used two quasi-experi...
Beyond Bathroom Bills and the Gender Identity Debate: Complicating the Policy Conversation About Supporting Trans Students in Schools:

Schools and districts across the country have been thrust into the political limelight as they grapple with sometimes competing policy messages about the education of transgender and gender expansi...
Electric boost of MRI contrast for epileptic foci.

Epileptic foci in mice can be better visualized with magnetic resonance imaging by using an intravenously administered nanoparticle that crosses the blood–brain barrier and is sensitive to the abnormal electrical activity of foci.
Mobility inference of the Cahn–Hilliard equation from a model experiment

A challenge in phase field modeling of phase-separating binary systems using the Cahn–Hilliard equation (CHE) is the determination of the mobility coefficient, which controls the kinetics of order parameter evolution. This work presents numerical simulations to assess the feasibility of determining mobility in the CHE from a notional, model experiment. The qualitative behavior of these simulations differentiates between a mobility that is uniform throughout the system and one that is restricted only to phase interfaces. Moreover, quantitative analysis of the proposed model experiment permits inference of the product of mobility and the coefficient of the uniform-free energy term as well the characteristic length of the CHE. If the free energy coefficient is determined by other means (e.g., form thermodynamic or atomistic models), then the mobility may be calculated, as well.
Option to cooperate increases women's competitiveness and closes the gender gap

Abstract We advance the hypothesis that women are as competitive as men once the incentive for winning includes factors that matter to women. Allowing winners an opportunity to share some of their winnings with the low performers has gendered consequences for competitive behavior. We ground our work in an evolutionary framework in which winning competitions brings asymmetric benefits and costs to men and women. In the new environment, the potential to share some of the rewards from competition with others may afford women the benefit of reaping competitive gains without incurring some of its potential costs. An experiment (N = 438 in an online convenience sample of U.S. adults) supports our hypothesis: a 26% gender gap in performance vanishes once a sharing option is included to an otherwise identical winner-take-all incentive scheme. Besides providing a novel experiment that challenges the paradigm that women are not as motivated to compete as men, our work proposes some suggestions for policy: including socially-oriented rewards to contracts may offer a novel tool to close the persistent labor market gender gap.
Studying Police Integrity

Police misconduct is a serious concern to scholars, police administrators, the media, and the general public. For a variety of reasons, a direct approach to the study of police misconduct poses considerable challenges. To ameliorate research hindrances, an alternative approach has been developed, focusing instead on its complement—police integrity. This chapter presents the theory of police integrity and the accompanying methodology. Each of the four dimensions of the theory, from the emphasis on official rules, curtailing of the code of silence, and the reliance on the internal control efforts, to the influence of the society at large, is described in detail. This chapter describes what an agency of high integrity should be doing along each of these dimensions. Next, a comprehensive account of the methodology has been presented and the two versions of the questionnaire described. The chapter also includes an extensive literature review of the studies that utilized the two questionnaires.
Sequence similarity between Borna disease virus p40 and a duplicated domain within the paramyxovirus and rhabdovirus polymerase proteins.

Abstract We report the sequence of a Borna disease virus clone (pBDV-40) that encodes a 40-kDa protein (p40) found in the nuclei of infected cells. Comparative sequence analysis indicates that p40 is distantly similar to two different regions in the L-polymerase proteins encoded by paramyxoviruses and rhabdoviruses. The p40 sequence similarity indicates a previously undetected duplication in these viral polymerases. Phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that the gene that encodes p40 last shared a common ancestor with these viral polymerase genes prior to the duplication event. These findings support the hypothesis that Borna disease virus is a negative-strand RNA virus and suggest that p40 is involved in transcription and/or replication. The discovery of a duplication within the polymerase proteins of paramyxoviruses and rhabdoviruses has profound implications for the mapping of enzymatic activities within these multifunctional proteins.
Linkage of Cardiac Gene Expression Profiles and ETS2 with Lifespan Variability in Rats

Longevity variability is a common feature of aging in mammals, but the mechanisms responsible for this remain largely unknown. Using microarray datasets coupled with Prediction analysis of microarrays (PAM), we identified a set of 252 cardiac transcripts predictive of relative lifespan in Wistar and Fisher 344 rats. PAM “tests” of rat heart transcriptomes from a third longer lived Fisher × Norway Brown rat strain validated the predictive value of this gene subset. The expression patterns of these genes were highly conserved, and corresponding promoter regions were employed to identify common cis–elements and trans-activating factors implicated in their control. Specifically, four transcription factors (Max, Ets2, Erg, and Msx2) present in heart displayed longevity-dependent, strain-independent changes in abundance, but only ETS2 had an expression profile that directly correlated with the relative lifespan gene set. In heart, ETS2 was prevalent in CMs and showed a high degree of myocyte-to-myocyte variability predominantly in adult rat hearts prior to the exponential increase in the rate of mortality. Exclusively in this group, elevated ETS2 significantly overlapped with TUNEL staining in heart myocytes. In response to sympathetic stimuli, ETS2 is also up-regulated, and functionally, adenovirus mediated over-expression of ETS2 promotes AIF-mediated, caspase-independent programmed necrosis exclusively in CMs that can be fully inhibited by the PARP-1 inhibitor DPQ. We conclude that variations in ETS2 abundance in hearts of adult rodents and the associated loss of CMs, contribute at least partially, to the longevity variability observed during normal aging of rats through activation of programmed necrosis.
Measurement of minority carrier lifetimes and surface recombination velocities in solar cells

A generic comparison has been carried out of all methods for recombination parameter determination that are based on measurement of a current and/or voltage in either steady-state, transient, or frequency-dependent approaches. The theoretical background for the time-dependent methods has been extended from prior work to include drift fields and be applicable to compound (multilayered) regions. The key findings were: (1) all methods have essentially the same limitations to determination of only the dominant recombination parameters; (2) open-circuit measurements have more sensitivity to the recombination parameters than short circuit measurements, but they present much more difficulty in eliminating spurious effects; (3) transient and frequency-dependent methods have exactly the same expressions for the relaxation constants and the breakpoint frequencies; and (4) in compound regions there exists only one set of relaxation constants for all the coupled layers. These constants include all relevant parameters of these layers. It is thus difficult to separate these parameters in time- or frequency-domain measurements. ASLBIC seems still to be the most suitable method for determination of emitter parameters.
Global weak solution to the inhomogeneous Navier-Stokes-Vlasov equations

Abstract The inhomogeneous Navier–Stokes–Vlasov equations for fluid-particle flows are considered in the three-dimensional space. The coupling in the fluid-particle system arises from the drag force in the fluid equations and the acceleration in the Vlasov equation. An initial-boundary value problem is studied in a bounded domain with large initial data. The existence of global weak solution is established through an approximation scheme, a fixed point argument, energy estimates, and a weak convergence method.
Anatomy of herpes simplex virus DNA VII. alpha-RNA is homologous to noncontiguous sites in both the L and S components of viral DNA.

Abstract Previous reports from this laboratory (Honess and Roizman, 1974) have operationally defined alpha polypeptides as the viral proteins that are synthesized first in HEp-2 cells treated with cycloheximide from the time of infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 until the withdrawal of the drug 12 to 15 h after infection. It has also been shown that the viral RNA (designated alpha RNA) that accumulates in the cytoplasm during cycloheximide treatment and on polyribosomes immediately upon withdrawal of the drug is homologous to 10 to 12% of viral DNA, whereas the viral RNA accumulating in the cytoplasm of untreated cells at 8 to 14 h after infection is homologous to 43% of viral DNA (Kozak and Roizman, 1974). In the present study, alpha RNA and cytoplasmic RNA extracted from untreated cells 8 h after infection were each hybridized in liquid to in vitro labeled restriction endonuclease fragments generated by cleavage of herpes simplex virus type 1 DNA with Hsu I, with Bgl II, and with both enzymes simultaneously. The data show that only a subset of the fragments hybridized to alpha RNA, and these are scattered within both the L and S components of the DNA. There are at least five noncontiguous regions in the DNA homologous to alpha RNA; two of these are located partially within the reiterated sequences in the S component. All fragments tested hybridized more extensively with 8-h cytoplasmic RNA than with alpha RNA. Four adjacent fragments, corresponding to 30% of the DNA and mapping within the L component, hybridized exclusively with the cytoplasmic RNA extracted from cells 8 h after infection.
Developing Intercultural Competence: An Action Plan for Health Educators

Abstract In today's multicultural society, intercultural competence has become a critical component of the health educator's skill portfolio. This competency is required for understanding ourselves and others from different cultures, managing relationships, developing and implementing programs that match the needs of target audiences, and integrating our insights as educators into larger political and economic institutions. Intercultural competence requires knowledge of culture theory; awareness of the impact of culture on health beliefs, health behaviors, and learning styles; and a willingness to change behavior in ways that promote cultural synergy. Health educators can improve their intercultural competence by studying culture theory; participating in cross-cultural simulations; developing insights into the behavior of individuals and groups experiencing cross-cultural tensions; developing personal strategies for responding to cross-cultural conflicts; expanding opportunities to interact with individua...
RPE necroptosis in response to oxidative stress and in AMD

Abstract Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the elderly. The underlying mechanism of non-neovascular AMD (dry AMD), also named geographic atrophy (GA) remains unclear and the mechanism of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell death in AMD is controversial. We review the history and recent progress in understanding the mechanism of RPE cell death induced by oxidative stress, in AMD mouse models, and in AMD patients. Due to the limitation of toolsets to distinguish between apoptosis and necroptosis (or necrosis), most previous research concludes that apoptosis is a major mechanism for RPE cell death in response to oxidative stress and in AMD. Recent studies suggest necroptosis as a major mechanism of RPE cell death in response to oxidative stress. Moreover, ultrastructural and histopathological studies support necrosis as major mechanism of RPE cells death in AMD. In this review, we discuss the mechanism of RPE cell death in response to oxidative stress, in AMD mouse models, and in human AMD patients. Based on the literature, we hypothesize that necroptosis is a major mechanism for RPE cell death in response to oxidative stress and in AMD.
Symbolic Innovation in Agile Transformations

Much of the empirical research on agile transformations concentrates on the success factors for effective change management. Although these factors are essential in establishing beneficial norms and practices, the existing research does not adequately address the importance of language in distinguishing the current plan-driven processes from their agile counterparts. The labels in agile and plan-driven processes represent practices that are well established. Accurate process labeling is the foundation for creating any inter-organizational lessons. This paper establishes the link between linguistic manipulation and how it might lead to a form of symbolic innovation that can impede a greater understanding of transformational challenges. During an agile transformation some organizational actors re-label deterministic plan-driven processes using agile language. The symbolic innovation leads to no improvement and as a result is more easily abandoned without meaningful process change.
A study of variable decelerations in association with other heart rate patterns during monitored labor.

Abstract A review of 1,011 consecutive intrapartum heart rate tracings yielded 37.3% with some degree of variable deceleration pattern. No differences in Apgar score distribution were observed in the presence of uncomplicated variable deceleration pattern when compared to those tracings marked normal. However, the presence of variable decelerations in association with other heart rate patterns resulted in lower mean Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes, which were significantly different from those of the fetal heart rate (FHR) normal group. Mean Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes were significantly different from normal when variable decelerations were noted in the presence of tachycardia and loss of variability. Mean Apgar scores were lower when bradycardia (prolonged episodes of heart rate
Assay of prokaryotic enhancer activity over a distance in vitro.

Publisher Summary This chapter aims to describe the key experimental techniques used for the analysis of the mechanism of enhancer action. Prokaryotic enhancer share several key properties: activation over a large distance, tight coupling of DNA melting with ATP hydrolysis, high stability of the initiation complexes, and absolute dependence of transcription on the presence of an activator are crucial features of eukaryotic transcription machinery shared only by enhancer-dependent promoters in E. Coli. These properties of prokaryotic enhancers make them a valuable system for the investigation of enhancer function, providing data complementary to in vivo studies of their eukaryotic counterparts. The chapter discusses the progress of studies of the mechanism of prokaryotic enhancer action that is somewhat limited by the lack of an experimental system supporting multiple-round transcription. Some models for the action of eukaryotic enhancers propose existence of a “molecular memory” facilitating enhancer action during multiple-round transcription. This class of the models can only be analyzed properly using a multiple-round transcription assay.
Immediate and delayed effects of cognitive interventions in healthy elderly: a review of current literature and future directions.

Abstract Background Research on the potential effects of cognitive intervention in healthy elderly has been motivated by (1) the apparent effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients; (2) the face validity of bolstering skills eventually burdened by disease; (3) interest in low-cost/noninvasive methods of preventing or delaying onset of disease; (4) the epidemiologic research suggesting protective effects of educational attainment and lifelong participation in cognitively stimulating activities; (5) the burgeoning industry of brain training products and requisite media attention; and (6) the aging world population. Methods We performed a systematic review with meta-analytic techniques to analyze randomized controlled trials of cognitive interventions in healthy elderly. Results The weighted mean effect size (Cohen's d ) of cognitive intervention across all outcome measures after training was .16 (95% confidence interval, .138 to .186). The existing literature is limited by a lack of consensus on what constitutes the most effective type of cognitive training, insufficient follow-up times, a lack of matched active controls, and few outcome measures showing changes in daily functioning, global cognitive skills, or progression to early AD. Conclusions Our review was limited by a small, heterogeneous, and methodologically limited literature. Within this literature, we found no evidence that structured cognitive intervention programs delay or slow progression to AD in healthy elderly. Further work that accounts for the limitations of past efforts and subsequent clear and unbiased reporting to the public of the state and progress of research on this topic will help the elderly make informed decisions about a range of potential preventive lifestyle measures including cognitive intervention.
Preservation of system properties for networked linear, time-invariant control systems in the presence of switching delays

We consider a networked control system in which the controller must communicate with the sensors and actuators of the plant through a physical network with fewer communication channels than inputs and outputs. To handle such a system, one typically defines a periodic communication policy specifying which sensors and actuators are connected at any given time. This work considers the situation where the act of switching the physical access to the network takes a finite amount of time, during which no information can be sent. We consider both single-input, single-output and multiple-input, multiple-output, linear, time-invariant plants and determine conditions under which these switching delays cause the system to lose the properties of reachability and observability.
A General Framework for Fast Co-clustering on Large Datasets Using Matrix Decomposition

Simultaneously clustering columns and rows (co- clustering) of large data matrix is an important problem with wide applications, such as document mining, microarray analysis, and recommendation systems. Several co-clustering algorithms have been shown effective in discovering hidden clustering structures in the data matrix. For a data matrix of m rows and n columns, the time complexity of these methods is usually in the order of mtimesn (if not higher). This limits their applicability to data matrices involving a large number of columns and rows. Moreover, an implicit assumption made by existing co-clustering methods is that the whole data matrix needs to be held in the main memory. In this paper, we propose a general framework, CRD, for co-clustering large datasets utilizing recently developed sampling- based matrix decomposition methods. The time complexity of our approach is linear in m and n. And it does not require the whole data matrix be in the main memory. Experimental results show that CRD achieves competitive accuracy to existing co-clustering methods but with much less computational cost.
Factorial ecology: Helsinki, 1960

La ventaja meiodoloqica que siqnifica usar la estructura de factores como modelo de la estructura ecologica, se comprueba demostrando la invariabilidad general de los factores ecoloqicos al agregarse variables que se mueven desde una variable-20 a una matriz variable-42. En el fondo, la estructura ecologica de Helsinki se describe en funcion de seis dimensiones (factores) fundamentales: status economico-sociol, ascendencia, profesior femenina, residencia, familia establecida y descendencia. La raza no es una dimension ecologica fundamental en Helsinki. El status economico-sociol es muy estable, pero la correspondencia entre los tree factores relacionados con la familia (ascendencia, familia establecida y descendencia) y las etapas del ciclo de vida familiar sugiere que la teoria ecologica permitiria anticipar las diferencias en las dimensiones del “familismo” en el espacio y en el tiempo.
Distribution and diagenesis of organic compounds in JOIDES sediment from Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic

Abstract Fifteen sediment samples were studied from five drill sites recovered by the ‘Glomar Challenger’ on Legs I and IV in the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic. This study concentrated on compounds derived from biogenic precursors, namely: (1) hydrocarbons, (2) fatty acids, (3) pigments and (4) amino acids. Carbon isotope (δC13) data (values The study was primarily designed to investigate: (i) the sources of the organic matter present in the sediment, (ii) their stability with time of accumulation and (iii) the conditions necessary for in situ formation of new compounds.
Unexpectedly High Clonal Diversity of Two Salt Marsh Perennials Across a Severe Environmental Gradient

In salt marsh habitats, noted for their extreme environments, a widely held assumption is that a few large clones dominate plant populations. Using a large number of polymorphic genetic markers, we were able to test this assumption for two salt marsh plants known to span extreme salinity gradients. For both species, clonal diversity was surprisingly high across populations: Simpson's diversity indices were 0.96 and 0.99. Although clonal diversity was high, there was no pattern of association between specific clones or alleles with salt microhabitat. Our findings suggest that sexual reproduction and recruitment from seeds may have been generally underappreciated as an important ecological force in the salt marsh. Furthermore, clonal diversity has implications for conservation and restoration of these critical coastal habitats, particularly with regard to buffering environmental change or disease. Recent studies also suggest that high levels of intraspecific diversity can affect a variety of community and ecosystem processes.
The first synthesis of [11C]SB-216763, a new potential PET agent for imaging of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3)

SB-216763 is a novel, potent and selective glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) inhibitor with an IC(50) value of 34 nM. [(11)C]SB-216763 (3-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-(1-[(11)C]methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione), a new potential PET agent for imaging of GSK-3, was first designed and synthesized in 20-30% decay corrected radiochemical yield and 370-555 GBq/μmol specific activity at end of bombardment (EOB). The synthetic strategy was to prepare a carbon-11-labeled maleic anhydride intermediate followed by the conversion to maleimide.
Human Growth Hormone Adsorption Kinetics and Conformation on Self-Assembled Monolayers

The adsorption process of the recombinant human growth hormone on organic films, created by self-assembly of octadecyltrichlorosilane, arachidic acid, and dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine, is investigated and compared to adsorption on silica and methylated silica substrates. Information on the adsorption process of human growth hormone (hGH) is obtained by using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF). The intensity, spectra, and quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence emitted by the growth hormone's single tryptophan are monitored and related to adsorption kinetics and protein conformation. For the various alkylated hydrophobic surfaces with differences in surface density and conformational freedom it is observed that the adsorbed amount of growth hormone is relatively large if the alkyl chains are in an ordered structure while the amounts adsorbed are considerably lower for adsorption onto less ordered alkyl chains of fatty acid and phospholipid layers. Adsorption on methylated surfaces results in a relatively large conformational change in the growth hormone's structure, as displayed by a 7 nm blue shift in emission wavelength and a large increase in the effectiveness of fluorescence quenching. Conformational changes are less evident for hGH adsorption onto the fatty acid and phospholipid alkyl chains. Adsorption kinetics on the hydrophilic head groups of the self-assembled monolayers are similar to those on solid hydrophilic surfaces. The relatively small conformational changes in the hGH structure observed for adsorption on silica are even further reduced for adsorption on fatty acid head groups.
Pursestring closure of radial forearm fasciocutaneous donor sites.

Background The radial forearm fasciocutaneous free flap has become one of the most common methods of reconstructing defects after head and neck ablative surgery. The fasciocutaneous flap is an excellent replacement for the tissue that has been removed. Unfortunately, donor site morbidity remains a problem. Donor site morbidity is primarily related to poor skin graft take, cosmesis, and neural dysfunction. Decreasing the size of the donor site defect may allow for improved cosmesis with decreased morbidity. Material and Methods Prospective evaluation of a pursestring closure of radial forearm fasciocutaneous donor sites over a 16-month period. Results Seventy-one radial forearm free flaps were used. Sixty-seven had a pursestring closure of the donor site. After flap elevation the mean size of the defect was 61 cm2 (range, 28–140 cm2). Pursestring closure decreased the mean of the defect to 34 cm2 (range, 10–104 cm2) (P <.0001). Defect size was decreased by a mean of 44.5% (range, 24.5%–66.7%) (P <.0001). Complications The rate of skin graft loss (>25%) (9% of patients) was less than that reported in the literature. No patient required a second surgical procedure. Neural morbidity was equal in both groups. Cosmesis was much improved. Conclusions Pursestring closure allowed for a significantly decreased donor defect, associated with better cosmesis and less skin graft loss.
Ability of an iron‐efficient and an iron‐inefficient corn inbred to take up 59Fe and FeSO4 added to Yolo loam soil

Abstract The addition of CaCO3 and MgCO3 to Yolo loam soil (pH 6) resulted in lower Fe concentrations in shoots of the Fe‐inefficient Ys1/Ys1 corn inbred (Zea mays L.) and higher levels in shoots of the Fe‐efficient WF9 inbred than in controls. When 59Fe with and without carrier FeSO4 was blended with the soil, the specific activity was similar for the two inbreds in nonamended soils, but was increased in the Ys1/Ys1 for the lime amendments. Sulfur acidification of soil decreased the specific activity of 59 Fe in shoots by increasing the pool of available Fe. From 5 to 33% of the Fe in plants came from the FeSO4 source. It was greatest in Ys1/Ys1 with lime‐amended soils and least in S‐acidified soil.
Dermatomyositis: a dermatology-based case series.

Abstract Background: Dermatomyositis is associated with significant morbidity and occasional mortality. Currently there is no consensus on treatment for patients with dermatomyositis. Objective: Our purpose was to review the clinical features and response to therapy of patients with dermatomyositis and compare these data with previous series of patients with dermatomyositis/polymyositis. Methods: Clinical characteristics of 65 patients seen during a 10-year period were reviewed retrospectively. Twenty-one of these patients were enrolled in a prospective, uncontrolled study of treatment with high-dose prednisone followed by slow tapering. Results: Clinical features were similar to those previously described; however, muscle strength at diagnosis was on average greater in patients in this series than in patients previously reported. Malignancy was present in 5 of 43 adult patients (12%), but was not found in patients with juvenile dermatomyositis. Another connective tissue disease was present in 19% of patients. Twelve patients had dermatomyositis sine myositis. Eighteen of 21 patients (85%) in the prednisone study group had resolution of myositis. Conclusion: Patients with dermatomyositis in this series had less active myositis at presentation, but were otherwise similar to patients with dermatomyositis/polymyositis previously reported. Treatment with high-dose daily prednisone followed by slow tapering was effective. (J Am Acad Dermatol 1998;38:397-404.)
Elevation of gastric pH with ranitidine does not affect the release characteristics of sustained release ibuprofen tablets

The effect of elevating gastric pH on the release characteristics of a single unit sustained release (SR) ibuprofen tablet (MOTRIN-SR®, Upjohn) was evaluated in 12 young, healthy men. Using a randomized crossover-type design, each subject received three treatments – ibuprofen SR 800 mg, ranitidine 300 mg followed by ibuprofen SR 800 mg, and conventional ibuprofen tablets (2 × 400 mg). Gastric pH, which was monitored radiotelemetrically, was maintained above pH 6 for at least 4 h after pretreatment with ranitidine. In absence of ranitidine, the pH remained mostly below pH 3. Serum levels of ibuprofen were measured for 24 h and urine was collected for 48 h after each treatment. Similarity of the serum levels after the two treatments with ibuprofen SR 800 mg indicated that the release of ibuprofen was unaffected by elevation in gastric pH. Comparison of profiles with the immediate release dosage form indicated that dose dumping did not occur in any subject.
Fgfs control homeostatic regeneration in adult zebrafish fins

Adult teleost fish and urodele amphibians possess a spectacular ability to regenerate amputated appendages, based on formation and maintenance of progenitor tissue called a blastema. Although injury-induced, or facultative, appendage regeneration has been studied extensively, the extent to which homeostatic regeneration maintains these structures has not been examined. Here, we found that transgenic inhibition of Fgf receptors in uninjured zebrafish caused severe atrophy of all fin types within 2 months, revealing a requirement for Fgfs to preserve dermal bone, joint structures and supporting tissues. Appendage maintenance involved low-level expression of markers of blastema-based regeneration, focused in distal structures displaying recurrent cell death and proliferation. Conditional mutations in the ligand Fgf20a and the kinase Mps1, factors crucial for regeneration of amputated fins, also caused rapid, progressive loss of fin structures in otherwise uninjured animals. Our experiments reveal that the facultative machinery that regenerates amputated teleost fins also has a surprisingly vigorous role in homeostatic regeneration.
The influence of vitamin E on immune function and response to vaccination in older horses

Horses have an increased susceptibility to infection because of a decline in immune function with advancing age. Vitamin E has been found to play a key role in normal immune system function. The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of vitamin E supplementation on immune function and response to vaccination in older horses. Predominantly older horses (18.9 +/- 1.3 yr, range 7 to 26 yr; 523 +/- 38 kg of BW) were supplemented orally once daily for 16 wk with either all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (15 IU/kg of BW; n = 8) or a placebo (n = 8). One horse from each group was removed from the study for reasons not related to the study. Serum alpha-tocopherol concentration, neutrophil and monocyte bacterial killing ability, lysozyme activity, immunoglobulin concentration (IgG(a), IgG(b), IgG(T), and IgM), and neutralizing antibody production to West Nile virus vaccination were determined. The overall serum alpha-tocopherol concentration of the vitamin E-supplemented horses was greater than that of placebo-supplemented horses (P < 0.001). Bacterial killing capacity of monocytes and neutrophils increased in the vitamin E-supplemented horses (P < 0.05). Vitamin E-supplemented horses had greater serum IgG(a) (P < 0.001) and IgG(T) (P = 0.003) concentrations but produced less serum IgG(b) (P = 0.023) than placebo-supplemented horses. There was no effect of vitamin E supplementation on IgM production. The neutralizing antibody response to vaccination against West Nile virus was unaffected by vitamin E supplementation. There was a continuous increase in serum lysozyme concentration in placebo-supplemented horses, whereas serum lysozyme concentration did not increase until wk 12 in vitamin E-supplemented horses. In conclusion, vitamin E supplementation of predominantly older horses differentially modulated general cell-mediated and humoral immune function. Further research is needed to fully understand the effect of vitamin E on the immune function of horses.
Ebonics, King, and Oakland: Some Folk Don't Believe Fat Meat Is Greasy

A partir de sa propre biographie, l'A. retrace le developpement de la recherche sur la langue de la communaute noire americaine. Anglais vernaculaire afro-americain, cette langue a surimpose les pratiques linguistique originelles au discours de l'homme blanc, tout ceci dans le contexte de l'esclavage. La recherche commence en 1884 avec les travaux de James A. Harrison. Au 20 e siecle, c'est dans les annees 60 que la recherche sur cette langue connait un essor important, en particulier avec les travaux de Beryl L. Bailey
Microbial Life in the Atacama Desert

In their Report “Mars-like soils in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and the dry limit of microbial life,” R. Navarro-Gonzales et al. found only very low levels of culturable bacteria in the Mars-like soils of the Atacama Desert, and they did not recover DNA (Reports, 7 Nov. 2003, p. [1018][1]). In
Trace Analysis Of Solid Surfaces By Combination Of Energetic Ion Bombardment And Multiphoton Resonance Ionization

Recently, multiphoton resonance ionization (MPRI) has been coupled with energetic ion bombardment to yield a highly efficient and selective tool for solids analysis. Although this method promises to yield sub-ppb analysis for some materials, there are a number of experimental factors which will utlimately limit the analytical sensitivity of the technique. Among these factors are a) duty cycle, b) primary ion current, c) sputter yield, d) fraction of ejecting particles which are ionizable, and e) detection efficiency. This paper discusses the origin of these factors and their influence on the use of MPRI for trace analysis of solids.
Persistence of Phytophthora ramorum in Soil Mix and Roots of Nursery Ornamentals

Shishkoff, N. 2007. Persistence of Phytophthora ramorum in soil mix and roots of nursery ornamentals. Plant Dis. 91:1245-1249. Although most Phytophthora species have a soilborne phase that is crucial for infection of roots and for survival away from the host, the details of the soil phase of Phytophthora ramorum are not yet fully understood. As mycelium ages, it becomes resistant to sterilization by acidic electrolyzed water (AEW), a product of the electrolysis which can be used as a disinfectant. Colonies of P. ramorum could be recovered from moist potting mix or sand for many months, whether buried as infected plant leaf tissue or as mycelium bearing chlamydospores, and the buried material was also resistant to treatment by AEW. There was no significant difference in recovery over time among treatments (sand or potting mix; infected plant tissue or mycelium); after approximately a year, colonies could be recovered at 0.8 to 14.3%. When excised roots were inoculated with P. ramorum sporangia and buried in mesh bags in potting mix, the pathogen was recovered from buried roots for at least 8 to 11 months, but it was not clear whether it was surviving as mycelium or chlamydospores. The roots of living plants of Acer macrophyllum, Buxus sempervirens, Camellia oleifera, C. sinensis, C. sasanqua, Lonicera hispidula, Taxus baccata, Umbellularia californica, Vaccinium macrocarpon, Viburnum davidii, V. tinus, V. × pragense, Rhododendron ‘Gloria’, and Syringa vulgaris were drenched with a sporangial solution of P. ramorum and incubated for a month; the pathogen could be recovered from roots of all plants except those of Buxus sempervirens and Lonicera hispidula. Recovery on selective agar medium (P5ARP) was from both washed and surface-sterilized roots, suggesting that the roots were internally infected. When chlamydospores were placed near roots and observed directly, they were seen to germinate, forming sporangia. Nearby roots became infected, the tips covered with sporangia. Therefore, P. ramorum appears to have a soil phase, at least under greenhouse and nursery conditions.
Sacred space and the city: Greece and Bhaktapur

Prompted by Levy’s observations and questions, our brief review of symbolic space in ancient Greece suggests that some features of Greek culture that at first sight seem rationalist and modernizing, signs of the transformation of the archaic city, were deeply rooted in the culture of the city-states from as early as we can study them.11 It may be that they are factors that contributed to the intellectual process referred to as the breakthrough or enlightenment which is not easily attributed entirely to economic and social changes in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE. The largely secular political tradition is sometimes, and plausibly, invoked as a cause (cf. Humphreys 1986). It should probably be seen as part of the overall ordering of the sacred vis-a-vis the profane. By the later fourth century BCE, contact with a larger, multiethnic world and the growth of impersonal market relationships produced or hastened secondary urbanization and with it the fracturing of a social coherence. In the intervening classical period, in some areas, such as drama, festival, and the visual arts, the first stirrings of the enlightenment may actually have fostered a more intense deployment of traditional resources. The symbolic use of space in the Greek cities probably never matched, despite important similarities, the more complex traditional systems of their South Asian counterparts. Greece’s traditional culture only reached its acme when new winds were blowing (and even because of them), but before they had swept away the delicate links that held the culture together.
Potent Strategy To Inhibit HIV-1 by Binding both gp120 and gp41

The development of an anti-HIV microbicide is critical in the fight against the spread of HIV. It is shown here that the covalent linking of compounds that bind gp120 with compounds that bind gp41 can inhibit HIV entry even more potently than individual inhibitors or noncovalent combinations. The most striking example involves griffithsin, a potent HIV inhibitor that binds to the surface of HIV gp120. While griffithsin inhibits HIV Env-mediated fusion in a CCR5-tropic cell-cell fusion assay with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of 1.31 ± 0.87 nM and the gp41-binding peptide C37 shows an IC(50) of 18.2 ± 7.6 nM, the covalently linked combination of griffithsin with C37 (Griff37) has an IC(50) of 0.15 ± 0.05 nM, exhibiting a potency 8.7-fold greater than that of griffithsin alone. Similarly, in CXCR4-tropic cell-cell fusion assays, Griff37 is 5.2-fold more potent than griffithsin alone. In viral assays, both griffithsin and Griff37 inhibit HIV replication at midpicomolar levels, but the linked compound Griff37 is severalfold more potent than griffithsin alone against both CCR5- and CXCR4-tropic virus strains. Another example of this strategy is the covalently linked combination of peptide C37 with a variant of the gp120-binding peptide CD4M33 (L. Martin et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 21:71-76, 2003). Also, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra for several of these compounds are shown, including, to our knowledge, the first published NMR spectrum for griffithsin.
SET‐LRP of methyl methacrylate initiated with sulfonyl halides

Single electron transfer-living radical polymerization (SET-LRP) represents a robust and versatile method for the rapid synthesis of macromolecules with defined architecture. The present article describes the polymerization of methyl methacrylate by SET-LRP in protic solvent mixtures. Herein, the polymerization process was catalyzed by a straightforward Cu(0)wire/Me6-TREN catalyst while initiation was obtained by toluenesulfonyl chloride. All experiments were conducted at 50 °C and the living polymerization was demonstrated by kinetic evaluation of the SET-LRP. The process follows first order kinetic until all monomer is consumed which was typically achieved within 4 h. The molecular weight increased linearly with conversion and the molecular weight distributions were very narrow with Mw/Mn ∼ 1.1. Detailed investigations of the polymer samples by MALDI-TOF confirmed that no termination took place and that the chain end functionality is retained throughout the polymerization process. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 2236–2242, 2010
DC electric field induced phase array self-assembly of Au nanoparticles

In this work we report the discovery of phase array self-assembly, a new way to spontaneously make periodic arrangements of metal nanoparticles. An initially random arrangement of gold (Au) or silver (Ag) nanoparticles on SiO2/Si substrates was irradiated with linearly polarized (P) laser light in the presence of a dc electric (E) field applied to the insulating substrate. For E fields parallel to the laser polarization (), the resulting periodic ordering was single-crystal like with extremely low defect density and covered large macroscopic areas. The E field appears to be modifying the phase between radiation scattered by the individual nanoparticles thus leading to enhanced interference effects. While phase array behavior is widely known in antenna technology, this is the first evidence that it can also aid in nanoscale self-assembly. These results provide a simple way to produce periodic metal nanoparticles over large areas.