cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Arrhythmogenic Effect of Inhalation Anesthetics: Biochemical Heterogeneity between Conduction and Contractile Systems and Protein Unfolding

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes the studies on arrhythmogenic effect of inhalation anesthetics. Anesthetics dissolve into the high-temperature state (D-stage) of the enzyme protein. Hence, the phase-transition temperature decreases. The competitive inhibitors—namely, anilinonaphthalenesulfonate (ANS) and long-chain fatty acids—cannot bind to the unfolded D-state. The result that extremely high concentrations of volatile anesthetics displaced ANS molecules from firefly luciferase represents the above situation, where anesthetics damaged the luciferin recognition site. The mode of displacement of ANS by anesthetics is not identical with the competitive inhibitor myristate. The chapter also reviews earlier studies, in which pretreatment of dogs with inhibitors of cyclic-nucleotide phosphodiesterase by methylxanthines induced ventricular fibrillation when challenged with subarrhythmogenic doses of epinephrine. The effects of cyclic AMP and the second messenger Ca2+ in controlling myocardial contractility are now well popularized. Anesthetic actions on myocardium involve protein binding. The multifaceted actions of anesthetics on various functions of the heart favor nonspecific interaction. ANS is a probe to identify hydrophobic patches on protein molecules. The ANS molecule increases its fluorescence intensity more than 150-fold when bound to proteins. When ANS molecules are released from the binding site, the fluorescence intensity practically disappears. The metabolism of the conduction system depends on glycogenolysis and subsequent hydrolysis of sugars, whereas that of the contractile system depends predominantly on oxidation of lipids. The conduction system contains large amounts of glycogen. As the heart is not an ideal place to store glycogen cardiac metabolism depends on cytoplasmic glycogenolysis.
The Pathology of Adulterated Injected Cosmetic Filler Materials

We report five cases of illicit injections of filler-substances for cosmetic purposes in non-medical clinics. The first two patients, a mother and 30-year-old daughter, presented with skin lesions in both legs after calf-augmentation by paraffin injection 4 years prior. One week later calf hyperpigmentation and induration developed, with progression up the legs, and eventual purulent draining ulceration (daughter). The third patient, a 34-year-old female, presented with pink-brown macules on both buttocks after receiving silicone injections 9 months earlier. The fourth patient, a 31-year-old female, developed skin lesions on the buttocks after silicone injections. The fifth patient, a 43-year-old female, developed sclerodermoid plaques on the buttocks after silicone injection. The first two biopsies showed large spaces in tissue, calcinosis cutis, dermal sclerosis, granulation tissue, and lymphedema. The third biopsy revealed foreign body reaction to non-polarizing material, the fourth lipogranulomatous reaction, and the fifth microvacuolar change with scar. Biopsies post-injection of cosmetic filler materials typically show macrovacuolar “swiss cheese” changes, and later microvacuolar changes with considerable granulomatous reaction. The reactions here were clinically severe, and may reflect adulteration of injected materials. We believe these cases augur a public health epidemic given a proliferation of non-medical cosmetic “mills” which offer illicit cosmetic procedures.
A Second Example of Blood Group B3

I N THE routine preoperative blood typing and crossmatching of a patient for transfusion, the failure of the serum typing to corroborate the cell typing attracted attention. The patient’s cells had been typed as Group 0. The serum typing, however, revealed the presence of anti-A only, rather than the expected anti-A and anti-B isoagglutinins. The major and minor crossmatches, using Group 0 donors, were reported as compatible by the saline, antihuman globulin and high protein methods. Further study to investigate the reason for this apparent discrepancy to Landsteiner’s Law revealed that after several hours incubation at 25 C. of the patient’s red blood cells in potent anti-B serums, and in several Group 0 ( anti-A and -B ) serums some agglutination of the erythrocytes occurred. The agglutinates were barely visible macroscopic clumps of 5-10 cells surrounded by many unagglutinated cells. Using a high titer “immune” 0 serum ( anti-A and -B) , the degree of agglutination was read as one plus. This established the presence of B cells in the patient and could account for the absence of the expected anti-B agglutinin. Crossmatching by means of the ficin-treated cell technic gave consistently incompatible results on the minor side with “immune” 0 serums and some random 0 serums. On the other hand, all Group B serums and some random 0 serums were compatible by this method. The following studies were then undertaken to elucidate these findings.
In search of chemical clues: Single-crystal structural studies of PrBa2Cu3O6 and PrBa2Cu3O7

Abstract Complete refinements of single-crystal X-ray diffraction intensity data for two tetragonal PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 crystals and for two detwinned orthorhombic PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 crystals, along with a more precise refinement for YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 , have confirmed that the praseodymium compounds are strictly isostructural with the yttrium congeners. Crystallographic data available for the superconducting orthorhombic RBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 analogs (R=Y, rare earth) were used to establish overall structural trends as a function of lanthanide size. In comparison with these trends, the present results obtained for orthorhombic PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 indicate no markedly unusual structural features; the crystallographic behavior of Pr corresponds to that of the trivalent ion. However, subtle structural anomalies in the PrBa 2 Cu 3 O x system were revealed by detailed comparisons of structural trends in RBa 2 Cu 3 O x systems as a function of oxygen content. The axial CuO bond distance is unusually short in both PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 and PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 , indicating stronger chemical linkage of the chains and planes as compared to the superconducting systems. Trends in the bond-valence sums and polyhedral volumes about R 3+ suggest that in PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 the increased spatial extension of the 4f-orbitals (as compared to neighboring Nd 3+ ) mediates strong interactions with the CuO manifold that are capable of inhibiting superconductivity. The retention of superconductivity in Pr 1.85 Ce 0.15 CuO 4 may arise from significant crystal-chemical differences between the T′ — and the YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 -type structures: the T′ structure features (1) oxygen layers that are bonded only to Pr, not Cu, and (2) a larger R 3+ polyhedral volume that results in greater isolation of the 4f-orbitals.
Urban Destruction in Hollywood Movies of Late 1990s

Images of destruction of life and property in urban agglomerations are blurring the line between fact and fiction. The destruction of Twin Towers has become an iconic image depicting the ‘war on terror’. Strikingly, similar images have been seen in Hollywood movies. Hollywood has been accurate with not just the images but also the responses brought forth by such acts of terror. How do media narratives emanating from specific cultures weave events and responses within culturally admissible rhetoric? The paper argues through a textual analysis of some contemporary action flicks that there is a discourse of ‘urban destruction’ identifiable in the media narratives through which we interpret events.
Hydrogen Peroxide and Di(hydroperoxy)propane Adducts of Phosphine Oxides as Stoichiometric and Soluble Oxidizing Agents.

Aqueous hydrogen peroxide is widely used as an oxidizing agent in industry and academia. Herein, the hydrogen peroxide adducts of phosphine oxides, [tBu3PO⋅H2O2]2 and [Ph3PO⋅H2O2]2⋅H2O2, are described. Additionally, the corresponding di(hydroperoxy)propane adducts R3PO⋅(HOO)2CMe2 (R=Cy, Ph) were synthesized and characterized. All adducts could be obtained as large single crystals suitable for structural characterization by X-ray crystallography and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The di(hydroperoxy)propane adducts are soluble in organic solvents which enables oxidation reactions in one phase. As the adducts are solid and molecular, they can easily be applied stoichiometrically. No loss of oxidizing power occurs upon long-term storage of the single crystals at room temperature or the powders at -20 °C.
Amplifier structure for high gain and fast settling applications

High gain amplifiers with fast settling times are needed for high-speed data converter applications. A cascaded amplifier architecture is discussed that can make use of several architecturally identical amplifies to achieve the desired gain. Only one of the amplifiers has a gain-bandwidth product requirement that is modestly higher than the rest to keep the overall structure stable in the presence of negative feedback. The performance of a three-amplifier cascade is compared with that of single amplifier performance for applications at the 10-22 bit level range when used as an inverting amplifier with a gain of -1.
Ex vivo human platelet aggregation induced by decompression during reduced barometric pressure, hydrostatic, and hydrodynamic (Bernoulli) effect.

Abstract Decompression of human platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in siliconized glass or plastic to 380 mm Hg for 3 hours at 38°C produced platelet aggregation independent of pO2. Aggregation also took place when PRP was compressed to 8,000 PSI and then decompressed slowly to one atmosphere (14.7 PSI) without gas bubble formation. Platelets also aggregated when plasma was decompressed hydrodynamically (Bernoulli effect) at room temperature. It was also found that the drugs piracetam (2-oxypyrolidine acetamide) and pentoxifylline (1-(5-oxohexyl)-theobromine) at 0.5 and 1.0 mM prevent thrombocyte aggregation. Implications for mountain sickness are discussed.
Laminar dispersion in capillaries: Part I. Mathematical analysis

Since 1953, when G. I. Taylor first considered the problem, numerous studies of the miscible displacement of fluids in capillaries have produced several approximate mathematical solutions which are purported to be valid under different conditions. Their form and ranges of applicability have been in conflict to some extent, since no exact solution is available to check these expressions. This study has resulted in exact numerical solutions to this problem with both axial and radial molecular diffusion accounted for. The range of parameters investigated is wide enough for comparison with all known analytical and empirical results and covers τ from 0.01 to 30 and NPe from 1 to 23,000. It is shown that for sufficiently large values of τ the Taylor-Aris theory is valid and thus results for all τ and NPe of any practical interest are now known. Axial molecular diffusion is significant at lower values of the Peclet number but the magnitude of NPe at which this occurs depends on the value of τ. In general, axial molecular diffusion is important for Peclet numbers less than about 100. Present results show that there is no justification for Bailey and Gogarty's empirical modification which yields an exponent of 0.541 rather than 0.50 for τ in Equations (35) and (36). Also, for the system studied here, no justification was found for the conjecture of Bournia et al. that Aris' low NPe modification may not account for axial diffusion properly. Simple expressions given by Equations (48) and (50) were developed empirically and they give with good accuracy the average concentration distribution over wider ranges of NPe and τ than previously reported expressions.
Cardiac Surgery With Percutaneous Interventional Backup: A Paradigm Shift

Interventional cardiology is now acknowledged as a discipline of medicine. It has all the essential ingredients of a medical subspecialty, including an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited training program and an American Board of Internal Medicine board examination with certification. What is remarkable is the brief time over which these milestones have been achieved. Within the course of the careers of many of our peers, interventional cardiology did not even exist. Interventional cardiology is a young discipline still being refined. The first coronary angioplasty was done in 1976, only 28 years ago. Compare this brief life span with the 16 years of formal education now required to train an interventional cardiologist. Nevertheless, memories are short and interventional cardiologists exist today who do not recognize the name of Andreas Gruentzig, who with the assistance of his wife Michalia and Walter and Maria Schlumpf crafted the first balloon catheters on Gruentzig’s kitchen table.1 Andreas was a pioneer and a true clinician–investigator. He was careful with the initial application of coronary balloon angioplasty, limiting its use to highly selected patients under a strict protocol that was designed to ensure safety and demonstrate the effectiveness of this revolutionary procedure. Just as much as coronary disease was the target for this innovation so was coronary surgery. The motivation to develop percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was to achieve coronary revascularization in a nonsurgical manner. In fact, the first published series of patients who were treated with this technique was entitled “Nonoperative dilation of coronary artery stenosis-percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty.”2 Then, cardiac catheterization was well established as a minimally invasive technique to obtain diagnostic information about cardiac anatomy and function, but aside from establishing atrial septal communication in congenital heart disease, catheterization had no real therapeutic role. During a relatively short period of time, …
Oscillations in the near field of a heated two-dimensional jet

A two-dimensional hot-air jet is investigated experimentally in the transitional regime. The density effect on the near-field behaviour of the initially laminar jet is explored by flow visualization, mean flow measurements and spectral analysis of fluctuating data. It is shown that the broadband amplitude spectra which characterize cold jets become line-dominated for hot jets when the ratio of the jet-exit to the ambient density is below approximately 0.9. Below this critical density ratio the oscillations in the hot jet are shown to be self-excited. That is, the onset of the global oscillations is identified as a Hopf bifurcation and the critical parameter is determined from amplitude spectra and autobicoherence, with the latter proving to be more reliable. Furthermore, the development of three-dimensional structures, which contribute to the jet spreading, is revealed by flow visualization. It is found that, for the parameters investigated, the spreading of the two-dimensional hot jet is not as spectacular as in the axisymmetry case.
A Thermodynamically-Based Mesh Objective Work Potential Theory for Predicting Intralaminar Progressive Damage and Failure in Fiber-Reinforced Laminates

A thermodynamically-based work potential theory for modeling progressive damage and failure in fiber-reinforced laminates is presented. The current, multiple-internal state variable (ISV) formulation, enhanced Schapery theory (EST), utilizes separate ISVs for modeling the effects of damage and failure. Damage is considered to be the effect of any structural changes in a material that manifest as pre-peak non-linearity in the stress versus strain response. Conversely, failure is taken to be the effect of the evolution of any mechanisms that results in post-peak strain softening. It is assumed that matrix microdamage is the dominant damage mechanism in continuous fiber-reinforced polymer matrix laminates, and its evolution is controlled with a single ISV. Three additional ISVs are introduced to account for failure due to mode I transverse cracking, mode II transverse cracking, and mode I axial failure. Typically, failure evolution (i.e., post-peak strain softening) results in pathologically mesh dependent solutions within a finite element method (FEM) setting. Therefore, consistent character element lengths are introduced into the formulation of the evolution of the three failure ISVs. Using the stationarity of the total work potential with respect to each ISV, a set of thermodynamically consistent evolution equations for the ISVs is derived. The theory is implemented into commercial FEM software. Objectivity of total energy dissipated during the failure process, with regards to refinements in the FEM mesh, is demonstrated. The model is also verified against experimental results from two laminated, T800/3900-2 panels containing a central notch and different fiber-orientation stacking sequences. Global load versus displacement, global load versus local strain gage data, and macroscopic failure paths obtained from the models are compared to the experiments.
Expression, activation, and processing of the recombinant snake venom metalloproteinase, pro-atrolysin E.

Abstract The expression in human embryonic kidney (HEK 293) cells of the recombinant zymogen form (pro-) of the Crotalus atrox hemorrhagic metalloproteinase, atrolysin E, is presented. The nascent protein is comprised of pre-, pro-, proteinase-, spacer-, and disintegrin domains. The biochemical characterization of the recombinant zymogen is described along with its activation by C. atrox crude venom and other hemorrhagic toxins. Unlike the zymogen forms of the matrix metalloproteinases, pro-atrolysin E is not activated by the organomercurial, (4-aminophenyl)mercuric acetate. Pro-atrolysin E could be enzymatically activated by C. atrox crude venom, PMSF-inhibited crude venom, atrolysin A, and atrolysin E itself. There is no evidence of autoactivation. Using two polyclonal antibodies directed against the proteinase domain and the disintegrin domain of atrolysin E, the proteolytic processing of the recombinant protein by atrolysin A was followed. The first cleavage of pro-atrolysin E by atrolysin A removes the pro-domain. The second proteolysis step removes the disintegrin domain to produce the proteinase/spacer protein. These studies have identified potential activators of snake venom pro-metalloproteinases in crude venom and suggest a general scheme for the activation and processing of venom pro-metalloproteinases by the endogenous, active metalloproteinases.
Actinyls in Expanded Porphyrin: A Relativistic Density-Functional Study†

Actinyls AnO2 with An = U, Np, and Pu in an expanded porphyrin, alaskaphyrin (AP), are studied by a relativistic density-functional method. The electronic structures of both AnO2 and AnO2AP are investigated by considering all possible low-lying states. To examine the importance of relativity, nonrelativistic calculations were also performed. For UO2 and NpO2, the ground state is altered by the relativistic effects, but it remains unchanged for PuO2. The nonrelativistic ground states of the AnO2AP complexes are all high spin, where the AP highest occupied molecular orbital, b2g, is singly occupied. At the relativistic level, there are two electrons in b2g. The bonding characteristics in AnO2AP are examined by calculations of the AnO2−AP binding energy and charge distribution on AnO2. Other properties such as ionization potentials and electron affinities are also calculated. The predicted spectroscopic constants for NpO2, PuO2, NpO2AP, and PuO2AP would aid in future spectroscopic studies of these molecules.
Molecular basis for the action of macrocyclic carriers on passive ionic translocation across lipid bilayer membranes.

Substantial energies in living cells are stored in ionic gradients across membranes. One of the central problems of biological energy transduction is that of understanding how these gradients arise and conversely, how the energy stored in such gradients is utilized to drive chemical reactions. These are two aspects of the reversible coupling of the energy of transmembrane ionic concentration gradients with the energy of chemical reactions—an electrochemical problem which may be thought of as involving, on the one hand, a mechanism for selective ion permeation and, on the other, a means of coupling that mechanism to the appropriate chemical reaction.
An Inpatient Skills Training Stabilization Model

A recovery orientation during brief psychiatric hospitalization focuses on improving adjustment and functioning and reducing future psychiatric crises and hospitalizations. Crisis rehabilitative skills training imparts knowledge, understanding, and abilities during a critical period of restabilization. After describing a rehabilitation oriented skills training program that occurs during brief inpatient treatment, information about its effectiveness and efficiency are examined. The preliminary data indicate rehabilitative skills training during acute inpatient crisis stabilization is an effective and economic tool for improving current functioning and reducing subsequent hospital eliciting crises. Given the promising results gathered from this project, there is a need for controlled studies. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2:315–324 (2002)]
Theology and Logology

T m HERE is the possibility of confusion, in connection with my use of the term "logology." Though I shall constantly be encountering occasions where theology (as "words about God") and logology (as "words about words") overlap, particularly as when logology was taken literally to mean "the Doctrine of the Logos" (the reference to Christ as The Word in the book of John), in my discussion I shall be stressing the secular meaning of the term. Technically, each term could treat the other as of narrower scope. For logology in the secular sense could class all sorts of "isms" and "ologies" and many other kinds of utterance, including itself, as modes of "verbal behavior." And theology would certainly look upon any such theorizing as far less comprehensive in scope than theology's concern with the relations between the human, word-using animal and the realm of the supernatural. Professor J Hillis Miller, most notably in his essay on "The Linguistic Moment in 'The Wreck of the Deutschland' " (The New Criticism and After, edited by Thomas Daniel Young [Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976], pp 47-60), has expertly discussed Hopkins's way of fusing a fascination with words in general and a devotion to Christ as the creative Logos. And when elsewhere he refers to "the peculiarly precarious Feuerbachian poise which says, in effect, 'All the affirmations of Christianity are true, but not as the believers believe,' " I thought of the Kabbalists who said that Biblical references to God as though he had a human body are not figurative; they are literal. But only God knows how to interpret their literal meaning-and the nearest we can come is by understanding them as figures of speech. Our bodies are gestated and born in wordlessness-and out of such a state grows the doctrinal (that is, the verbal, the scriptural even). Themselves speechless, they help us learn to speak.
Intensive insulin therapy in the neurocritical care setting is associated with poor clinical outcomes.

Background Studies devoted to intensive glucose control suggested that the intensive insulin therapy (IIT) approach could effectively reduce complications associated with critical illness. A program of IIT with the goal of achieving a blood glucose of 80–120 mg/dL was, therefore, adopted in this study. To explore the impact of this approach in patients admitted to a neurocritical care unit, we compared the short-term outcomes of patients treated before and after our policy change.
A Five-Step Process To Help Educators Decide How To Use Computers in Schools

Principals must think seriously about the role of computers in their schools and how they can be used to improve instruction. Doing the right thing, however, depends greatly on first having a proce...
Pulmonary Aspergillosis in Cystic Fibrosis Lung Transplant Recipients

Study objective To define the prevalence of colonization and infection of the lower respiratory tract (LRT) with Aspergillus in lung transplant recipients with and without cystic fibrosis (CF). Design Retrospective review. Setting Large university lung transplant center. Materials and Methods The postoperative course of 31 CF and 53 non-CF double lung or double lobar transplant recipients receiving allografts from April 1991 to February 1996 was reviewed. All recipients were subjected to surveillance bronchoscopy and biopsy at predetermined intervals and when clinically indicated. RAL fluid (RALF) and biopsy material were examined by appropriate fungal culture and staining techniques. Infection was defined by the finding of tissue-invasive disease on biopsy specimens. Results Seven of the 31 CF recipients (22%) had Aspergillus isolated from cultures of sputum prior to transplantation. Following transplantation, 15 CF recipients (48%) had Aspergillus isolated from either sputum or BALF, including 4 of the 7 recipients identified with the fungus prior to transplantation. By contrast, 21 of the 53 non-CF recipients (40%) had Aspergillus isolated from the LRT following transplantation, none having had the fungus isolated prior to transplantation. The prevalence of Aspergillus did not differ between these groups (p = 0.51). Infections with Aspergillus occurred in 4 of the CF recipients (27%) and did not differ from the 3 infections (14%) identified in the non-CF recipients (p = 0.36). However, three of the four infections in the CF recipients involved the healing bronchial anastomosis and occurred prior to postoperative day 60. All three of these recipients had Aspergillus preoperatively. Postoperative infection was more common in the CF recipients having Aspergillus preoperatively than in those CF recipients without preoperative Aspergillus (p = 0.02). Conclusions Isolation of Aspergillus from the LRT following double lung transplantation is common and generally not associated with tissue-invasive disease. Those CF recipients with Aspergillus isolated in cultures of sputum preoperatively are at risk for postoperative infections with this agent. The healing bronchial anastomosis is particularly vulnerable.
URINARY EXCRETION OF PREGNANDIOL GLUCURONIDATE IN THE HYPERTENSIVE DISORDERS OF PREGNANCY

IT HAS BEEN SHOWN that pregnant women suffering from eclampsism, the acute hypertensive toxemia of pregnancy, excrete abnormally small amounts of pregnandiol glucuronidate in the urine (1–6). No study has yet been made, however, of excretion in pregnant women afflicted with chronic hy pertensive disease.1 Although the latter disease is obviously not confined to the gestational period, it accounts for a majority of the abnormal elevations of blood pressure encountered therein (7). We have accordingly examined the output of pregnandiol glucuronidate in a group of chronically hypertensive pregnant women, as well as in a group exhibiting typical eclampsism. Particular attention has been directed to the time in gestation at which abnormali-ties of excretion are first encountered, since previous studies of toxemic patients have thrown little light on this. Our purpose has been to determine whether abnormalities of excretion in toxemic women can be correlated with any of the clinical phenomena exhibited by such ...
Alpha Decay of Spheroidal Nuclei

The consequences of spheroidal deformation of nuclei on the barrier transmission in alpha decay are considered. A set of coupled differential equations is derived relating the amplitudes of the various groups of alpha particles emitted from a nucleus described by the Bohr-Mottelson model. The cases of the decay of ${\mathrm{Th}}^{228}$ and ${\mathrm{Cm}}^{242}$ were studied numerically and from them information regarding the probability distribution of alpha particles on the nuclear spheroidal surface is obtained. It is found that the one-body model of an alpha particle in a well does not yield these distributions, and it is thus concluded that "alpha-particle clusters" have a short mean free path in nuclear matter. The shift in the surface distributions of ${\mathrm{Th}}^{228}$ and ${\mathrm{Cm}}^{242}$ may be explained qualitatively in terms of the order of nucleon orbital filling.
Fatal Embolism in Mitral Valve Prolapse

The postmortem demonstration of fatal cerebral embolism arising from a thrombus detected at the base of a prolapsing and myxomatous mitral valve is reported. The clinical demonstration of recurrent atrial fibrillation in this patient lends support to the suggested use of anticoagulant therapy in similar patients.
Low-dose mecamylamine improves learning of rats in the radial-arm maze repeated acquisition procedure

The nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine has been widely shown to cause cognitive impairment. However, these effects are mainly seen with high doses. There have been scattered findings that low doses of mecamylamine can have the opposite effect. This may be due to opposite effects of low doses of mecamylamine. In the current study, an extensive dose-effect function of mecamylamine was characterized in the low-dose range. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a repeated acquisition procedure on an automated 8-arm radial maze. Three of the eight arms were designated as correct for any particular session. Five trials per session were run. The number of errors per trial to find the three correct arms was determined. The rats were trained on the repeated acquisition procedure for at least 18 sessions at which time they showed reliable learning each session. Then, the effect of low doses of mecamylamine between 0 and 1 mg/kg were assessed in a repeated measures counterbalanced design. This dose range of mecamylamine did not affect performance on the first trial when the rats were naive to the array to be learned. On trials 2-5 a significant (p<.025) quadratic dose-effect function was seen over this dose range. The most substantial effect was seen with 0.125 mg/kg of mecamylamine, which caused a significant (p<.05) improvement relative to the saline control condition. The effect diminished with increasing mecamylamine doses and with the 1 mg/kg dose choice accuracy was back to control levels. This study showed that low doses of mecamylamine can effectively improve learning. A U-shaped dose-effect curve was documented. This suggests possible low-dose nicotinic antagonist lines of treatment for cognitive impairment.
An approach to teaching general chemistry II that highlights the interdisciplinary nature of science.

The need for a revised curriculum within the life sciences has been well-established. One strategy to improve student preparation in the life sciences is to redesign introductory courses like biology, chemistry, and physics so that they better reflect their disciplinary interdependence. We describe a medically relevant, context-based approach to teaching second semester general chemistry that demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of biology and chemistry. Our innovative method provides a model in which disciplinary barriers are diminished early in the undergraduate science curriculum. The course is divided into three principle educational modules: 1) Fundamentals of General Chemistry, 2) Medical Approaches to Inflammation, and 3) Neuroscience as a connector of chemistry, biology, and psychology. We accurately anticipated that this modified approach to teaching general chemistry would enhance student interest in chemistry and bridge the perceived gaps between biology and chemistry. The course serves as a template for context-based, interdisciplinary teaching that lays the foundation needed to train 21st century scientists. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 110–116, 2011
A Homogeneous System for the Photogeneration of Hydrogen from Water Based on a Platinum(II) Terpyridyl Acetylide Chromophore and a Molecular Cobalt Catalyst

The complex [Co(dmgH)2pyCl]2+ (1, dmgH = dimethylglyoximate, py = pridine) has been used as a molecular catalyst for visible light driven hydrogen production in the presence of [Pt(tolylterpyridine)(phenylacetylide)]+ (3) as a photosensitizer and triethanolamine (TEOA) as a sacrificial reducing agent. Complex 3 is quenched oxidatively by [Co(dmgH)pyCl]2+ (1) with a rate constant kq of 1.27 x 10(9) M(-1) s(-1). Photogeneration of H2 is only seen when 1 + 3 + TEOA are all present. H2 production is maximized for this system at pH 8.5 and declines to very low levels at pH 12. Irradiation of the reaction solution initially containing 1.61 x 10(-2) M TEOA, 1.11 x 10(-5) M of 3, and 1.99 x 10(-4) M of Co catalyst 1 in MeCN/water (3:2 v/v) at pH = 8.5 for 10 h with lambda > 410 nm yields 400 turnovers of H2. When TEOA is 0.27 M, approximately 1000 turnovers are obtained after 10 h of irradiation. Spectroscopic study of the photolyses solutions suggests that H2 formation proceeds via Co(I) and protonation to form Co(III) hydride species.
Transcription termination sites at the distal end of the leu operon of Salmonella typhimurium.

Abstract Transcription terminates at two different sites at the distal end of the leucine operon of Salmonella typhimurium . The first of these sites ( leut ), located 140 base-pairs past the end of leuD , contains a G + C-rich palindrome followed by a run of T residues in the non-coding strand. Termination at leut , both in vitro and in vivo , is independent of rho protein, but is stimulated by the NusA protein. The second termination site ( leut′ ), located 145 base-pairs beyond the first, is rho-dependent both in vitro and in vivo , and is not influenced by NusA protein. The organization of transcription termination sites at the distal end of the leu operon (a rho-independent site followed by a rho-dependent site) is similar to that for the trp operon of Escherichia coli .
TH-B-110-01: Informatics in Radiation Oncology

Informatics covers not only the information technology (IT) and infrastructure required to support data collection and management but also the computer science concepts that turn data into knowledge. In radiation oncology,medical physicists need to be familiar with the basic IT infrastructure that makes it possible to transfer and transform data through clinical processes that ultimately control radiation treatment delivery. The application of informatics continues with patient outcomes. Typically, this happens through participation in national protocols (e.g. RTOG). While they provide a framework for evidence‐based medicine, the data are often limited to parameters that were designed to test a pre‐defined hypothesis. As the ability to acquire and distribute data increases, we may be able to adopt data mining approaches to discover knowledge, even without asking specific questions. While simple database queries can efficiently provide statistical information (e.g. the NCI Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results, SEER), data mining seeks hidden patterns through clustering, classification, regression and association. These principles can be applied to large volumes of concisely described data sets, similar to what can be found in clinical trials. Researchers in radiation oncologyinformatics are developing the infrastructure to acquire large data sets. The Radiation Oncology Data Alliance (RODA) initiative aims to provide online aggregate de‐identified data from participating users of the MOSAIQ EMR. Borrowing from the field of astronomy, researchers from Johns Hopkins used the SkyServer framework to build the OncoSpace project. The NCI caBIG (Cancer Bioinformatics Grid) also provides infrastructure support. Data analytics have also been developing in parallel, with researchers structuring the data collection phases to answer questions in Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER). While a majority of researchers look for links between treatment and outcome, others have used informatics to improve not only the efficiency and business of providing care but also its quality and safety, which ultimately affects outcome. Learning Objectives: 1. Review the information technology and infrastructure required to deliver radiation therapy. 2. Understand the use of informatics in radiotherapy clinical trials. 3. Learn the basics of data mining and its applicability to radiation oncology. 4. Become familiar with the information technology that can be leveraged to improve clinical operations.
Executive Assaults and the Social Foundations of Democracy in Ecuador

Although Ecuadorian presidents tolerate most opposition voices most of the time, they routinely try to restrict the basic political liberties of particular critics. In doing so, they initiate executive assaults. Why do some of these executive assaults succeed while others fail? This article analyzes patterns of support for and opposition to publicly contested assaults in Ecuador between 1979 and 2004. Using a combination of statistical tests and a case study, it develops an argument based on the relative power of different types of organizations and associations to influence the outcomes of assault conflicts. The analysis demonstrates that executive assaults fail only when neither the state security forces nor the business sector supports them. In this situation, particular business organizations are able to force presidents to back down. The analysis provides new insights into the social foundations of democratic practice in Ecuador, and Latin America more broadly.
Immune intervention with anti-CD3 in diabetes

Autoimmune processes that destroy insulin-producing cells in the pancreas cause type 1 diabetes. To prevent the disease, autoreactive immune cells need to be suppressed or eliminated without deleterious side effects. Results from a phase 2 clinical trial take steps in this direction.
Motion Control of a Container With Slosh: Constrained Sliding Mode Approach

A constrained sliding mode control methodology developed by the author is applied to the motion control of an open container filled with liquid. The objective is to control the position of the container to meet the performance and robustness requirements, and to specify a safe operating set, i.e., the set of initial conditions from which the system can be operated without exceeding a prescribed liquid level and additional constraints. A conventional sliding mode regulator is designed first to address nominal performance in the sliding mode. Then, a robustly invariant cylinder formed as the Cartesian product of an ellipsoid, and a closed interval is constructed using linear matrix inequalities. A set of constraint qualification conditions are evaluated to ensure that the intersection of the cylinder and the state constraints is robustly positively invariant, constituting the required operating set. Simulations and experimental results corresponding to a high-speed transfer validate the methodology.
Novel Role for the Innate Immune Receptor Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) in the Regulation of the Wnt Signaling Pathway and Photoreceptor Apoptosis

Recent evidence has implicated innate immunity in regulating neuronal survival in the brain during stroke and other neurodegenerations. Photoreceptors are specialized light-detecting neurons in the retina that are essential for vision. In this study, we investigated the role of the innate immunity receptor TLR4 in photoreceptors. TLR4 activation by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) significantly reduced the survival of cultured mouse photoreceptors exposed to oxidative stress. With respect to mechanism, TLR4 suppressed Wnt signaling, decreased phosphorylation and activation of the Wnt receptor LRP6, and blocked the protective effect of the Wnt3a ligand. Paradoxically, TLR4 activation prior to oxidative injury protected photoreceptors, in a phenomenon known as preconditioning. Expression of TNFα and its receptors TNFR1 and TNFR2 decreased during preconditioning, and preconditioning was mimicked by TNFα antagonists, but was independent of Wnt signaling. Therefore, TLR4 is a novel regulator of photoreceptor survival that acts through the Wnt and TNFα pathways.
Photocross-linking of the RNA polymerase I preinitiation and immediate postinitiation complexes: implications for promoter recruitment.

The architecture of eukaryotic rRNA transcription complexes was analyzed, revealing facts significant to the RNA polymerase (pol) I initiation process. Functional initiation and elongation complexes were mapped by site-specific photocross-linking to template DNA. Polymerase I is recruited to the promoter via protein-protein interactions with DNA-bound transcription initiation factor-IB. The latter's TATA-binding protein (TBP) and TAFs photocross-link to the promoter from –78 to +10 relative to the tis (+1). Although TBP does not bind DNA using its TATA-binding saddle, it does photocross-link to a 22-bp sequence that does not resemble a TATA box. Only TAFI96 (the mammalian TAFI 68, yeast Rrn7p homolog) overlaps significantly with the DNA interaction cleft of pol I based on modeling to the pol II crystal structure. None of the pol I-specific subunits that are localized on the lips of the cleft (A49 and A34.5) or the pol I-specific stalk (A43 and A14) cross-link to DNA. Pol I does not extend significantly upstream of the promoter-proximal border of the factor complex (–11 to –14), and similarly in the promoter proximal elongation complex, the enzyme does not contact DNA upstream of its normal exit from the cleft.
Cyclops: A single beam 1.3 millimeter polarimeter

We present the design of a broad band, 1.3 mm polarimeter for astronomical observations and the results of first light observations at the Heinrich Hertz Telescope (HHT). The systematic polarization of the instrument plus telescope is 1.1%. The observed linear polarization of DR 21,P=1.65%±0.14% andθ=16°±2°, is consistent with previous measurements. Our 0.9% upper limit on the linear polarization of Cepheus A is the first 1.3 mm measurement reported. With Cyclops it is possible to map the magnetic fields in several of the brightest molecular cloud dust cores in the Milky Way. We comment on the expected performance of an achromatic Rexolite half-waveplate for λ=800µm to 1.3 mm.
Toward a theory of local resource competition: the minority game with private information

Abstract In many social and biological systems, agents compete for limited resources over an extended, connected network, but at any moment compete for resources semi-locally using incomplete, private information. To understand such systems, it is important to understand the nature of competition for scarce resources with private information. In this paper we study this question by examining the behavior of minority games in which agents make their decisions based on private information. We first introduce a framework, based on bi-graphs, for discussing local resource competition on a network. We then consider the special case in which the bi-graph model reduces to a minority game. We study several variations of the minority game with private information, including games with a mixture of public and private information. We find that the games with private information share a general structural similarity to the standard minority game with public information in that there are, typically, two phases, a maladaptive phase and an adaptive phase, the latter encompassing a region of emergent coordination in which the scarce resource is well utilized. There are, however, very significant differences between the games with private information and the standard minority game. In both public and private games, the maladaptive phase is characterized by dynamics with a periodicity, but the nature of the periodicity is markedly different in the two cases. Scaling behavior is strongly affected by private information, and, in general, coordination among agent's choices, while possible, is more subtle and often more difficult to achieve.
Optimising tobacco market locations: Part II—Heuristic models

Abstract Heuristic programming models of the flue-cured tobacco marketing system in the southeastern United States were developed to solve capacitated location-allocation problems with trillions of feasible solutions (large numbers of markets in the systems). For several small problems, the heuristic models' results were cmmpared to results generated by the theoretical mixed integer model. The results indicated that the heuristic algorithm rapidly determined optimum or near optimum solutions in all comparisons. The heuristic model was then utilised to solve capacitated market location-allocation problems for the flue-cured tobacco industry by parametrically varying the desired number of markets in the system.
A dual theory of price and value in a meso-scale economic model with stochastic profit rate

Abstract The problem of commodity price determination in a market-based, capitalist economy has a long and contentious history. Neoclassical microeconomic theories are based typically on marginal utility assumptions, while classical macroeconomic theories tend to be value-based. In the current work, I study a simplified meso-scale model of a commodity capitalist economy. The production/exchange model is represented by a network whose nodes are firms, workers, capitalists, and markets, and whose directed edges represent physical or monetary flows. A pair of multivariate linear equations with stochastic input parameters represent physical (supply/demand) and monetary (income/expense) balance. The input parameters yield a non-degenerate profit rate distribution across firms. Labor time and price are found to be eigenvector solutions to the respective balance equations. A simple relation is derived relating the expected value of commodity price to commodity labor content. Results of Monte Carlo simulations are consistent with the stochastic price/labor content relation.
Nonparametric roughness penalties for probability densities

ONE of the most fundamental problems in statistics is the estimation of a probability density function from a sample, the smoothing of a histogram being the usual non-parametric method. This method requires a large sample and even so it is difficult to decide whether “bumps” are genuinely in the population. A method is presented here that should help to overcome this difficulty.
The Stress/Fatigue Link in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

This paper cites preliminary evidence for the relationship between fatigue and stress in chronic fatigue syndrome. Stress may intensify symptoms of CFS and erode positive mood and affect. A model of the stress/fatigue link in CFS will be presented and a specific coping technique will be described as a tool to interrupt the stress/symptom interaction in CFS.
The apparent lack of lunar-like swirls on Mercury: Implications for the formation of lunar swirls and for the agent of space weathering

Abstract Images returned by the MESSENGER spacecraft from the Mercury flybys have been examined to search for anomalous high-albedo markings similar to lunar swirls. Several features suggested to be swirls on the basis of Mariner 10 imaging (in the craters Handel and Lermontov) are seen in higher-resolution MESSENGER images to lack the characteristic morphology of lunar swirls. Although antipodes of large impact basins on the Moon are correlated with swirls, the antipodes of the large impact basins on Mercury appear to lack unusual albedo markings. The antipodes of Mercury’s Rembrandt, Beethoven, and Tolstoj basins do not have surface textures similar to the “hilly and lineated” terrain found at the Caloris antipode, possibly because these three impacts were too small to produce obvious surface disturbances at their antipodes. Mercury does have a class of unusual high-reflectance features, the bright crater-floor deposits (BCFDs). However, the BCFDs are spectral outliers, not simply optically immature material, which implies the presence of material with an unusual composition or physical state. The BCFDs are thus not analogs to the lunar swirls. We suggest that the lack of lunar-type swirls on Mercury supports models for the formation of lunar swirls that invoke interaction between the solar wind and crustal magnetic anomalies (i.e., the solar-wind standoff model and the electrostatic dust-transport model) rather than those models of swirl formation that relate to cometary impact phenomena. If the solar-wind standoff hypothesis for lunar swirls is correct, it implies that the primary agent responsible for the optical effects of space weathering on the Moon is solar-wind ion bombardment rather than micrometeoroid impact.