cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Lung-Restricted Macrophage Activation in the Pearl Mouse Model of Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome

Pulmonary inflammation, abnormalities in alveolar type II cell and macrophage morphology, and pulmonary fibrosis are features of Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome (HPS). We used the naturally occurring “pearl” HPS2 mouse model to investigate the mechanisms of lung inflammation observed in HPS. Although baseline bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cell counts and differentials were similar in pearl and strain-matched wild-type (WT) mice, elevated levels of proinflammatory (MIP1γ) and counterregulatory (IL-12p40, soluble TNFr1/2) factors, but not TNF-α, were detected in BAL from pearl mice. After intranasal LPS challenge, BAL levels of TNF-α, MIP1α, KC, and MCP-1 were 2- to 3-fold greater in pearl than WT mice. At baseline, cultured pearl alveolar macrophages (AMs) had markedly increased production of inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, pearl AMs had exaggerated TNF-α responses to TLR4, TLR2, and TLR3 ligands, as well as increased IFN-γ/LPS-induced NO production. After 24 h in culture, pearl AM LPS responses reverted to WT levels, and pearl AMs were appropriately refractory to continuous LPS exposure. In contrast, cultured pearl peritoneal macrophages and peripheral blood monocytes did not produce TNF-α at baseline and had LPS responses which were no different from WT controls. Exposure of WT AMs to heat- and protease-labile components of pearl BAL, but not WT BAL, resulted in robust TNF-α secretion. Similar abnormalities were identified in AMs and BAL from another HPS model, pale ear HPS1 mice. We conclude that the lungs of HPS mice exhibit hyperresponsiveness to LPS and constitutive and organ-specific macrophage activation.
Correlates of Adherence among Rural Indian Women Living with HIV/AIDS

In this prospective, randomized clinical trial, correlates of adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) were assessed using a baseline questionnaire among 68 rural women living with AIDS (WLA) in India. Unadjusted analyses revealed positive relationships of ART adherence with Hindu religion, and support from spouses and parents, whereas negative associations were found with depression, poor quality of life, and having ten or more HIV symptoms. Multiple linear regression analysis also revealed that WLA who were Hindu, not depressed, had ART support from spouses and parents, and perceived some benefit from ART were more adherent to ART than their respective counterparts. This study reveals the unique challenges which rural WLA experience and the need to mitigate these challenges early in ART treatment. Further, the findings enable the refinement of an intervention program which will focus on strengthening ART adherence among rural WLA.
Receiver/transmitter configuration optimization for compressed computational millimeter-wave imaging

Millimeter wave (mmw) imaging is gaining popularity in surveillance systems as it provides good tradeoff between high resolution (optical/IR imaging) and high penetration depth (microwave). Conventional mmw Fourier transform based holographic imaging systems (D.M. Sheen et. al., MTT, IEEE Transactions on, vol.49, no.9, Sep 2001) require as many measurements as the required space-bandwidth product (M) of the target image. However, in compressed imaging systems (Guy Lipworth et. al., JOSA A, Vol. 30, Issue 8, 2013), apriori knowledge of the target object to be imaged can considerably reduce the number of measurements required. General priors such as sparsity can almost always be used, but more target specific priors can be used for further reducing the number of measurements needed.
Keeping a Distance

Distance is central to both Heidegger’s depiction of being-in-the-world and Derrida’s theorization of the culture of friendship. It is equally fundamental to the structure of language and, I argue, to the concept of the foreign. This essay brings together these theories of distance and demonstrates the ways they act on and through each other, the role that linguistic distance plays in constructing both foreigners and friends, and the permeable semantic boundaries that the concept of distance shares with movement, strangeness, instability, and indefiniteness. It further contends that this semantic seepage has proven threatening to certain species of philosophy and politics and prompted disciplinary efforts – to eradicate distance, regulate foreigners, immobilize meaning, and stabilize friendship – that are remarkably structurally similar and sometimes mutually supportive, but that both Heidegger and Derrida, by contrast, undertake a significant revaluation of distance and the foreignness and indeterminacy ...
A note on minimum wind stress for wave inception

Many experiments have been conducted to evaluate the rate of energy transfer from wind to waves through the measurement of fetch-wise wave growth under a steady wind. There has been little systematic study, however, of local inception of waves by the wind. Earlier experiments on wave initiation were performed with conventional wave height gauges (Ursell, 1956) which are inaccurate for such purpose, while optical wave-slope gauges were used in recent experiments (Cox, 1958; Scott, 1974; Long & Huang, 1976) where the wind stress was not measured. Both macro- and microscopic structures of the disturbed water surface were measured in the present study along with the wind profiles. There is no minimum wind velocity found for the inception, but there is a critical wind-friction velocity for effective wave growth. The conditions of this effective growth are compared favorably with both resonance (Phillips, 1957) and viscous interaction (Miles, 1962) mechanisms. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1978.tb00821.x
Investigations On the Biology and Monoxenic Culturing of Tetylenchus Joctus

The life stages of Tetylenchus joctus are described and measurements related to the identification of these stages are presented. Eggs are laid generally before undergoing cleavage, and hatch in 5 to 8 days in distilled water at 23 to 25° C. The life cycle from adult to adult takes approximately 5 weeks and is directly affected by temperature. Fluctuations in field environment over a 1-year period did not significantly affect the morphology of T. jortus. T. joctus was maintained for up to 3 months on garden balsam callus, root tips and seedlings grown on artificial media in the laboratory, but did not survive long after being placed in contact with tissues of several other plants. Populations of T. joctus on garden balsam in the greenhouse caused no pathological symptoms nor statistically significant differences in dry root weights between inoculated and control plants.
Meteoroid Storms Detected on the Moon

Seismometers on the moon have detected several brief periods of enhanced meteoroid-impact activity, believed to represent encounters of the moon with 'clouds' of objects in the kilogram range. The latest and most active encounter, in June 1975, is interpreted as a meteoroid cloud of diameter 0.1 astronomical unit and total mass 10 to the 13th power to 10 to the 14th power grams.
Integrating File Operations into Transactional Memory

Abstract Researchers have proposed transactional memory as a concurrency primitive to simplify the development of multi-threaded programs. In this paper we present a new approach for supporting I/O operations in the context of transactional memory. Our approach provides isolation between the file operations of different transactions while allowing multiple transactions to concurrently perform I/O. To ease adoption, our approach attempts to implement the traditional I/O programming interface as closely as possible. We formalize aspects of our approach and use the formalization to reason about the correctness of the approach. We have implemented our approach as a Java library and have integrated it with the DSTM2 transactional memory system. We have evaluated the approach with several benchmarks including JCarder, TupleSoup, a financial transaction benchmark, a parallel sort benchmark, and a parallel grep benchmark. Our experience shows that the approach provides a straightforward mechanism for developers to integrate I/O in a transactional memory environment and that it performs well.
Removing ocean surface clutter in multispectral and hyperspectral imagery

We present two approaches for removing ocean surface (and subsurface) clutter in multispectral and hyperspectral imagery. The first approach is a computationally simple, physics-based algorithm that models surface clutter as a two-component mixture of surface-reflected light (glint) and scattered upwelling light. The model exploits the difference in the spectral content of the two components in order to differentiate glint from subsurface scattered light. The second approach is a statistics-based algorithm that simultaneously models the local spectral and spatial correlation structure with a linear predictive filter that spatially adapts to the statistical properties of the image on a region-by-region basis as determined by a spectrally generated segmentation map. The filter coefficients for each image segment are estimated via autoregression using a multichannel, multidimensional formulation of the Yule- Walker equations. The combined spatial-spectral processing allows the filter predictor to remove subsurface background clutter, as well as glint. In both algorithms, decluttered residuals are obtained by subtracting the background estimate from the input image data. In a test of effectiveness, the data conditioning provided by decluttering on a regional basis improved the performance of our set of matched-filter detectors by an average of 3 dB. The performance enhancement demonstrates the need for regional estimates of background when the assumption of spatially stationary data is no longer valid. Examples of both decluttering and matched-filter detection processing are presented using data collected by the AAHIS sensor.
High Harmonic Generation from Ultrafast Pump Lasers

Using an ultrafast pump pulse affects the spectral and temporal characteristics of high order harmonics in an unexpected and fortuitous way. Calculations of spectra for rare gases using 10100fs, 800nm pulses show that as the pump pulse length decreases the highest harmonics become correspondingly shorter while their conversion efficiencies increase dramatically. Especially significant is that we find these highest harmonics have phase characteristics that allow for the possibility of compression to subfemtosecond time scales. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
O 1D quantum yields from O3 photolysis in the near UV region between 305 and 375 nm

The formation of O 1D from the photolysis of ozone has been observed at photolysis wavelengths between 305 and 375 nm and relative quantum yields for O 1D production have been determined. Ozone was photolyzed using a frequency doubled, optical parametric oscillator. O 1D was monitored indirectly, using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) detection of vibrationally excited OH as a ‘‘spectroscopic marker’’. Relative O 1D yields were measured from 305 to 375 nm at 295 K and from 305 to 340 nm at 273 K. The quantum yield decreases between 305 and 325 nm with a temperature dependence in the range between 310 and 325 nm. This is consistent with O 1D production via both spin-allowed and spin-forbidden processes. Between 325 and 375 nm a constant quantum yield of 0.064±0.006 was obtained suggesting production via an exclusively spin-forbidden process and indicating that absorption takes place to a single excited state which either predissociates, yielding O3P and O23Σ−, or crosses to another surface before dissociating to produce O 1D and O23Σ−.
Infrared scans of Saturn

Scans are presented at five wavelengths between 7.8 and 25 microns north-south along Saturn's central meridian and east-west parallel to the equator through the subearth point. The brightening of Saturn's South Pole at 12.7 microns was more enhanced in 1977 than in 1978 due to the 5 deg greater declination of the polar axis in 1977. There is a plateau in the Southern Hemisphere between -30 and -60 deg latitude in the 7.8 and 12.7 micron scans. The apparent temperature of the rings decreased as Saturn approached the equinox. It is found generally that the strongest ring emission arises from the C ring.
A dance between interferon-α/β and p53 demonstrates collaborations in tumor suppression and antiviral activities

In the recent paper by Takaoka et al. (2003), the authors demonstrate that interferons-alpha and -beta stimulate p53 expression but not p53 activation. The increase in p53 expression translates into significant enhancement of apoptosis and reduction of chemotherapeutic dosages in vitro to destroy tumor cells. Furthermore, viral infections are also modulated by p53 in collaboration with interferons-alpha and -beta. These observations are significant and may lead to new paradigms for therapy if the high doses of interferon necessary to obtain the effects in vitro can be combined with more active interferons, interferons with minimal side effects, and/or novel delivery systems to target interferons directly to tumors.
Acute suppurative thyroiditis and necrosis of the thyroid gland: A rare endocrine manifestation of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

PNEUMOCETIS C,WNII PNELMONL-\ remains the most common serious opportunistic infection in patients with acquirecl immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Although most P. car-inii infections involve the lungs, an increasing number of extrapulmonary infections have been reported in patients witl~ ,XIDS.l P. carinii has been isolated at autopw from most organs in patients with widely disseminated’ infection, most commonly affecting the lymph nodes, followed by the bone marrow, spleen, and liver.’ clinic~ly significant thyroid disease caused by P. carinii is rare, and to date it has been reported in only 10 other patients infected with the human immunodeficiency ktts (H1TT) (Table) .‘-’ In addition, P. ccm’niiin~olvement of the thyroid gland has been reported at postmortem examination in six patients who did not have clinically apparent thyroid disease, five of whom had AIDS and one of whom had thymic alynphoplasia.‘~ ’ We report a case of severe suppuratke thyroiditis caused by a dual infection by P. car&ii and Haemoj??uks injkertxz in a patient with AIDS.
Decision Making in Eurocentric and Afrocentric Organizations

This article lays the foundation for how Eurocentric and Afrocentric organizations employ decision-making models differently. An investigation of the archetypes for each organization and its cultural dimensions develops the bases from which to draw conclusions about their decision-making preference. For the purposes here, decision-making includes rational, emotional, political-coalitional, and garbage-can models. This paper also reviews how emotions impact those processes. Findings show that Eurocentric organizations tend toward more rational and political models with strategic use of emotions. Afrocentric organizations deploy more garbage-can or holistic models. When members from Eurocentric organizations employ political models, they aim to please leadership. Members in predominately Afrocentric organizations frown on such behavior. Members from Afrocentric organizations express emotions more freely and with less strategic intent than their counterparts. When members from these cultures encounter each o...
Hopping conduction in partially compensated doped silicon.

We have measured the dc electrical resistance of partially compensated (5\char21{}50 %) ion-implanted Si:P,B (both n and p type), over the temperature range 0.05\char21{}30 K. The temperature behavior is consistent with the prediction of the model for variable-range hopping (VRH) with a Coulomb gap \ensuremath{\rho}(T)=${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{0}$exp(${\mathit{T}}_{0}$/T${)}^{1/2}$ over a temperature range 6.5${\mathit{T}}_{0}$/T24. We observe deviations from this behavior at our high- and low-temperature extremes. In the low-temperature region, the resistivities show a stronger temperature dependence than the Coulomb-gap model prediction. The high-temperature deviation appears consistent with a transition from Coulomb-gap VRH to Mott VRH.
Quantitative Mapping of Reversible Mitochondrial Complex I Cysteine Oxidation in a Parkinson Disease Mouse Model

Differential cysteine oxidation within mitochondrial Complex I has been quantified in an in vivo oxidative stress model of Parkinson disease. We developed a strategy that incorporates rapid and efficient immunoaffinity purification of Complex I followed by differential alkylation and quantitative detection using sensitive mass spectrometry techniques. This method allowed us to quantify the reversible cysteine oxidation status of 34 distinct cysteine residues out of a total 130 present in murine Complex I. Six Complex I cysteine residues were found to display an increase in oxidation relative to controls in brains from mice undergoing in vivo glutathione depletion. Three of these residues were found to reside within iron-sulfur clusters of Complex I, suggesting that their redox state may affect electron transport function.
Using Commonality and Variability Analysis to Define the Platform/Waveform Boundary in A2G Systems

The HC3 supports a network centric, reconfigurable, multi-band, family of communications platforms. These platforms range from fixed site to Communications On The Move (COTM), vehicle and ship-board mounted examples. The architecture supports multiple, simultaneous, above 2 GHz waveforms including both military and commercial SATCOM and Line Of Sight (LOS). An architecture goal is to promote waveform commonality and reuse. This paper focuses on how commonality and variability analysis can be performed to partition the waveform components from platform and components that will maximize waveform portability and reuse
Adrenalectomy of the Pregnant Rat and Behavior of the Offspring

Albino rats were adrenalectomized on either Day 10½ or Day 16½ of gestation. The offspring were reared by foster mothers. At 25, 30, 35, 40, or 45 days of age they were evaluated on the open field and timidity box tests. There were no behavioral or adrenal size differences among the offspring of adrenalectomized and sham-operated or unoperated control mothers. Consistent and significant sex differences on all measures were found, with females showing higher activity, greater emotionality, and larger adrenal glands than the males.
Rational choice theory as social physics

Donald Green and Ian Shapiro discover a curious gulf between the prestige of rational choice approaches and the dearth of solid empirical findings. But we can understand neither the prestige of rational choice theory nor its pathologies unless we see it as a variant of the equilibrium analysis found in physics, economics, and biology. Only such a global perspective on rational choice theory will reveal its core assumptions and the likely shape of its future in political science. In this light, the growing dominance of rational choice theory in political science is all but inevitable and its pathologies are all but inescapable.
Preference and aversion for deterrent chemicals in two species of Peromyscus mouse

Abstract Deterrent chemicals such as quinine hydrochloride (QHCl) are generally considered to be aversive to mammals at all detectable concentrations. However, several species contain individuals that drink solutions containing low concentrations of deterrents in preference to plain water. The present study examines this paradoxical preference in two species of mouse, Peromyscus melanotis and P. aztecus . Preliminary findings had suggested that whereas some P. aztecus prefer low concentrations of QHCl, no P. melanotis prefer any concentration of QHCl. Experimen 1 tested the hypothesis that individual mice that prefer low concentrations of QHCl would respond similarly to four other deterrents described by humans as bitter and/or astringent (ouabain, hop extract, sucrose octaacetate, and tannic acid) in 48-h, two-bottle choice tests. Peromyscus aztecus displayed a large amount of intraspecific variation in response to all five deterrents. Those P. aztecus that drank low concentrations of QHCl in preference to plain water were significantly more likely to respond similarly to low concentrations of the other deterrents. No P. melanotis displayed a preference for any concentration of either deterrent. Experiment 2 examined the temporal stability of the response to 0.1 m M QHCl in P. aztecus over six consecutive choice tests. Mice were divided into three groups based on their initial response to the QHCl solution (preference, no response, or rejection) and then subjected to the 12-day test. The response of mice within each of the groups did not change significantly over time. Because the preference for low concentrations of the deterrent chemicals is reminiscent of the preference many humans show for the taste of QHCl in Schweppes Tonic Water ™ , this phenomenon is referred to as the Schweppes effect. Based on the results of this study and others, it appears that the Schweppes effect is: (i) widespread in the animal kingdom, (ii) species specific, (iii) polymorphic within a species, (iv) apparent during the forst night of exposure, (v) gender nonspecific, and (vi) elicited by chemically unrelated deterrents. While the physiological mechanism(s) underlying the Schweppes effect and its ecological relevance remain obscure, several possibilities are discussed.
The enteric surface coat on cat intestinal microvilli.

The enteric microvilli of the cat, bat, and man are coated with a conspicuous layer composed of fine filaments radiating from the outer dense leaflet of the plasma membrane. This surface coat is prominent on the absorptive cells but is not so thick on the goblet and undifferentiated crypt cells. In other species the surface coat is poorly developed or inconsistent, but all intestinal microvilli have traces of such a coating over the tips and sides of the microvilli. Tissues prepared by the ordinary sectioning techniques for electron microscopy usually reveal this component when stained with uranyl acetate followed by lead staining. The surface coat is intensely periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) positive and reacts with Alcian blue or Hale's colloidal iron stain for acid mucopolysaccharide. It is also stained by toluidine blue at low pH. Repeated washings or incubation with various chemical agents have failed to remove or markedly alter the appearance of the coating, but extruded cells undergoing autolysis lose their surface coats. The stability, consistent presence, and intimate association of the mucopolysaccharide coat suggest that it may be an integral part of the plasmalemma rather than an "extraneous coat."
The application of sociological research methods to food and nutrition problems on a Caribbean Island

A household frequency survey was carried out in 200 households in two villages and one suburban area of the island of St. Vincent over a period of two months (June to August, 1968). The survey was designed to identify ecological areas on a household basis, investigate patterns of food consumption, their socio‐economic correlates and their relationship to the incidence of malnutrition in pre‐school children (0—5 years old) as evaluated by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) in the Fall of 1967. The theoretical framework of the study was centered aroung Young's theory of “structural differentiation”. The distribution of households by several variables or ecological indicators believed to tap differentiation was investigated in all three areas. The food consumption pattern was found to follow a pattern of development which fitted into a Guttman scale, therefore dividing the population into strata of different levels of differentiation. It was concluded that a classification of areas in terms of...
Panelist Number II

Focuses on the objectives of executive development programs. Length, methods and the content of a variety of the executive development programs; Comparison between the status of executive developme...
Prevalence of different horticultural taxa of ivy (Hedera spp., Araliaceae) in invading populations.

‘English’ ivy (Hedera spp.) is a complex of invasive plant pests that are separated into several distinct taxa. To better understand the invasion by ivy of Pacific Northwest native forests, we investigated the taxonomic identity of 58 selected invasive populations in the Pacific Northwest. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers revealed that 83% of the 119 samples from invading populations were derived form H. hibernica (Kirchner) Bean, which has been frequently sold as English ivy, although this apparently is an incorrect common name. It is used widely in urban landscapes in the Northwest. The remaining 20 samples were either H.helix ‘California,’ ‘Pittsburgh,’ ‘Star,’ other cultivars not investigated in the study or possible hybrids.
Effect of salt on the dissolution of novolac in base

The increase in dissolution rate brought about by the addition of salt to the developer is caused by the difference in the diffusivities of the OH - ions of the base and the anions of the salt. Adding salt increases the flux of cations into the film allowing the flux of anions to increase too. The faster OH - ions, which alone control the dissolution of the resin film, benefit more from this opportunity than the anions of the salt. At very high salt concentrations a retardation-of-dissolution effects sets in that can be understood in terms of a competition of different types of ions for the available percolation sites.
Patterns in the distribution of juvenile corals and coral reef community structure in St. John, US Virgin Islands

There is increasing awareness that coral reefs exhibit a high degree of spatio-temporal variability, yet the processes that create these patterns are poorly known. In this study, benthic community structure and scleractinian recruitment on shallow reefs (5 m depth) were quantified at 18 sites along 10 km of the coast of St. John, US Virgin Islands. The goal was to test 2 mechanisms that could create spatio-temporal variation-coral recruitment and early life-history events-by addressing 3 questions: (1) Is the percent cover of scleractinians correlated with the density of juvenile corals? (2) How is the density of juvenile corals affected by coral reef community structure? (3) What are the rates of mortality and growth of juvenile corals and how do they map onto the patterns of variation in juvenile density? Community structure was assessed as the percentage cover of the 4 major substratum components, and coral recruitment was estimated from the abundance of juvenile scleractinians. Temporal variation in the population of juvenile corals was examined over 4 yr (1994 to 1997) at 5 sites. The same 5 sites were used to assess the growth and survivorship of juvenile corals over 1 yr. Overall, the results demonstrate that there is a high degree of spatio-temporal variability in the shallow reefs of St. John. The community structure varied significantly among sites, and the density and taxonomic composition of juvenile corals varied significantly among sites and years. However, the density of juvenile corals was not correlated with the percentage cover of scleractinians, and the overall community structure did not explain a significant portion of the variation in the density of juvenile corals. Similar results were obtained when the juvenile corals were separated by reproductive mode (brooders vs spawners). The variation in density of juvenile corals was unlikely to have resulted from differential growth, as growth rates did not vary among sites. Additionally, mortality was not correlated with density of juvenile corals, although it did vary among sites. Together, these results suggest that the community structure of coral reefs is related only loosely to the contemporaneous distribution of juvenile corals and early life-history events (i.e., survivorship and growth of juvenile corals). Studies on larger spatial (> 10 km) and temporal (> 4 yr) scales probably are necessary to quantify the relationships between coral recruitment and coral community structure.
Absorption Coefficients for Thermal Neutrons

A discussion is given of several integrals arising in the interpretation of experiments on the absorption of thermal neutrons in a $\frac{1}{V}$ absorber. In order to evaluate these integrals they have been expressed in the form of convenient series. There is also given a table of numerical values, which should be useful in the interpretation of experimental data on slow neutron absorption.
On the Lang-Trotter Conjecture

Abstract Let E be an elliptic curve defined over Q having no complex multiplication, and let πE(x) be the number of supersingular primes p ≤ x. The aim of this paper is to show that π E (x)=O x ( log x) 2 −ϵ which improves a result of Serre.
Effects of environmental mercury on gonadal function in Lake Champlain northern pike (Esox lucius)

Levels of mercury in the environment have increased steadily over the past two centuries, primarily because of human activity. Common point sources of this heavy metal include industrial waste discharge from chloralkali and paper pulp plants. More diffuse emissions, which become widely distributed by global wind currents, result from the combustion of fossil fuels and incineration of municipal wastes. Stricter laws in the United States have decreased the amount of pollution from point sources. In contrast, mercury from diffuse atmospheric origins has been increasing, causing a rise in rainwater concentrations and aquatic environments frequently distant from the source of pollution. Once in aquatic systems, mercury is readily converted to the more toxic methylated form and is the only heavy metal that indisputably biomagnifies through the food web. Acid rain compounds the environmental impact of anthropogenic mercury because aquatic organisms concentrate more mercury when living in waters with lower alkalinity. The persistence of this heavy metal in teleosts is illustrated by the finding that mercury, unlike cadmium, arsenic, and lead, did not decrease in North American freshwater fish between 1976 and 1984.
Blood-derived smooth muscle cells as a target for gene delivery.

Objective To examine the feasibility of using blood-derived smooth muscle cells (BD-SMCs) as a target for to deliver therapeutic proteins. Materials and Methods Mononuclear cells (MNC) were isolated from peripheral blood. The outgrowth colonies from MNC culture were differentiated into BD-SMCs in media containing platelet-derived growth factor BB. Phenotypic characterization of BD-SMCs was assessed by immunocytochemistry. Cell proliferation, gene transfer efficiency with a retroviral vector, apoptosis, and the biological activity of the transduced gene product from the BD-SMCs were evaluated in vitro and in vivo in comparison with vascular derived SMC (VSMCs). Results BD-SMCs stained positive for SMC markers. No significant difference was observed between BD-SMCs and VSMCs in cell proliferation, migration, adhesiveness, and gene transfer efficiency. After BD-SMCs were transduced with a retroviral vector carrying the secreted alkaline phosphatase gene (SEAP), 174 ± 50 μg biologically active SEAP was produced per 10 6 cells over 24 hours. After injecting 5 × 10 6 cells expressing SEAP intravenously into rabbits, SEAP concentration increased significantly in the circulation from 0.14 ± 0.04 μg/ml to 2.34 ± 0.16 μg/ml 3 days after cell injection ( P Conclusion BD-SMCs have similar characteristics to mature VSMCs and can be used as a novel target for gene transfer to deliver a therapeutic protein.
Complex Matter Space and Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

The Special Relativity Theory cannot recognize speed faster than light. New assumption will be imposed that matter has two intrinsic components, 1) mass, and 2) charge, that is M = m + iq. The mass will be measured by real number system and charged by an imaginary unit. This article presents a Complex Matter Space in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics. We are hoping that this approach will help us to present a general view of energy and momentum in Complex Matter Space. The conclusion of this article on Complex Matter Space (CMS) theory will lead help to a better understanding toward the conversion of mass and energy equation, unifying the forces, and unifying relativity and quantum mechanics.
Doing Virtually Nothing: Awareness and Accountability in Massively Multiplayer Online Worlds

To date the most popular and sophisticated types of virtual worlds can be found in the area of video gaming, especially in the genre of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). Game developers have made great strides in achieving game worlds that look and feel increasingly realistic. However, despite these achievements in the visual realism of virtual game worlds, they are much less sophisticated when it comes to modeling face-to-face interaction. In face-to-face, ordinary social activities are "accountable," that is, people use a variety of kinds of observational information about what others are doing in order to make sense of others' actions and to tightly coordinate their own actions with others. Such information includes: (1) the real-time unfolding of turns-at-talk; (2) the observability of embodied activities; and (3) the direction of eye gaze for the purpose of gesturing. But despite the fact that today's games provide virtual bodies, or "avatars," for players to control, these avatars display much less information about players' current state than real bodies do. In this paper, we discuss the impact of the lack of each type of information on players' ability to tightly coordinate their activities and offer guidelines for improving coordination and, ultimately, the players' social experience.
Lack of presystemic inversion of (R)- to (S)-ibuprofen in humans

Presystemic inversion of (R)- to (S)-ibuprofen has been proposed but not directly examined in humans. We investigated the bioavailability of the enantiomers of ibuprofen in 10 healthy volunteers. Low-dose racemic ibuprofen (400 mg) was administered orally and intravenously (60-minute infusion), in random order. There were no significant differences between oral and intravenous doses for the area under the curve values, terminal rate constants, clearances, metabolite formation clearances, and serum protein binding for (R)- and (S)-ibuprofen. The bioavailabilities of (R)-ibuprofen and total ibuprofen were 0.92 ± 0.11 and 0.95±0.08, respectively. The fractional inversion of (R)-ibuprofen was determined by two methods (stable isotope method and from the stereochemical composition of the urinary metabolites) that gave similar estimates of inversion for oral dosing (0.56 ± 0.12 and 0.60 ± 0.07, respectively) and intravenous dosing (0.56 ± 0.09 and 0.60 ± 0.06, respectively). We conclude that the bioavailability of both enantiomers of ibuprofen is complete and find no evidence of significant presystemic inversion. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1993) 53, 393–400; doi:10.1038/clpt.1993.42
Eruptive history and petrology of Mount Drum volcano, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska

Mount Drum is one of the youngest volcanoes in the subduction-related Wrangell volcanic field (80x200 km) of southcentral Alaska. It lies at the northwest end of a series of large, andesite-dominated shield volcanoes that show a northwesterly progression of age from 26 Ma near the Alaska-Yukon border to about 0.2 Ma at Mount Drum. The volcano was constructed between 750 and 250 ka during at least two cycles of cone building and ring-dome emplacement and was partially destroyed by violent explosive activity probably after 250 ka. Cone lavas range from basaltic andesite to dacite in composition; ring-domes are dacite to rhyolite. The last constructional activity occured in the vicinity of Snider Peak, on the south flank of the volcano, where extensive dacite flows and a dacite dome erupted at about 250 ka. The climactic explosive eruption, that destroyed the top and a part of the south flank of the volcano, produced more than 7 km3 of proximal hot and cold avalanche deposits and distal mudflows. The Mount Drum rocks have medium-K, calc-alkaline affinities and are generally plagioclase phyric. Silica contents range from 55.8 to 74.0 wt%, with a compositional gap between 66.8 and 72.8 wt%. All the rocks are enriched in alkali elements and depleted in Ta relative to the LREE, typical of volcanic arc rocks, but have higher MgO contents at a given SiO2, than typical orogenic medium-K andesites. Strontium-isotope ratios vary from 0.70292 to 0.70353. The compositional range of Mount Drum lavas is best explained by a combination of diverse parental magmas, magma mixing, and fractionation. The small, but significant, range in 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the basaltic andesites and the wide range of incompatible-element ratios exhibited by the basaltic andesites and andesites suggests the presence of compositionally diverse parent magmas. The lavas show abundant petrographic evidence of magma mixing, such as bimodal phenocryst size, resorbed phenocrysts, reaction rims, and disequilibrium mineral assemblages. In addition, some dacites and andesites contain Mg and Ni-rich olivines and/or have high MgO, Cr, Ni, Co, and Sc contents that are not in equilibrium with the host rock and indicate mixing between basalt or cumulate material and more evolved magmas. Incompatible element variations suggest that fractionation is responsible for some of the compositional range between basaltic andesite and dacite, but the rhyolites have K, Ba, Th, and Rb contents that are too low for the magmas to be generated by fractionation of the intermediate rocks. Limited Sr-isotope data support the possibility that the rhyolites may be partial melts of underlying volcanic rocks.
Morphology of developing motoneurons innervating the medial gastrocnemius of the cat.

Abstract The morphology of medial gastrocnemius (MG) motoneurons labeled by retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase was quantified in 5 postnatal ages (3 to 79–86 days) and in adults. A bimodal distribution of somal volumes was evident at birth which permitted separating the motoneurons into alpha and gamma subpopulations for analysis. There was a significant increase in the axial dimensions, surface area and volume calculated for both alpha and gamma cell bodies between each of the age-groups studied. A greater relative growth of the major over minor axis for the gammas produced a significant decrease in the form factor (i.e. greater eccentricity) between the youngest and oldest age-groups. The number of primary dendrites observed remained constant throughout postnatal development. The surface area of alpha somata more than tripled while that of the gammas doubled from 3 days to the adult. The mean somal volume of an alpha motoneuron at birth was only 17% of its adult value while the gamma cell bodies were 33% of their adult volume. A positive correlation was found for both alpha and gamma motoneurons when their somal surface area was plotted against postnatal age and weight. The rate of growth of the MG somal surface area is compared to the changes found in axonal conduction velocity and axonal diameter for MG in the literature.
An inter‐polity perspective on the relationships between linguistic heterogeneity, civil strife and per capita gross national product*

Based on an analysis of 238 variables pertaining to 170 polities, it becomes apparent that linguistic heterogeneity is not an independent predictor of either GNP or civil strife. The former is primarily accounted for by modernization and industrialization variables, while the latter is primarily accounted for by long- and short-term deprivation and the inadequacy of prior coercive power. It is hypothesized that linguistic heterogeneity at the polity level will have positive consequences only if positive policies are instituted toward it.
Immunotherapy for invasive fungal infections: from bench to bedside

Immunotherapy for invasive fungal infections has been an area of significant research and clinical interest since the first-half of the twentieth century when hyperimmune equine immunoglobulin was first successfully administered to patients with acute and chronic cryptococcal meningitis. Since that time, effective antifungal compounds have been developed, but a much more complex array of host disorders have also emerged creating an even greater need for immunotherapy in conjunction with conventional antifungal therapy. In this review, the scientific foundation supporting the use of various immunotherapeutic interventions including granulocyte infusions, cytokine growth factors, pro-inflammatory cytokines including IFN-γ and interleukin-12, immunoglobulin therapy, and active immunization will be discussed. Clinical data supporting the use of these interventions are often scant and inconclusive, however, relevant clinical information will be presented. In theory, adjunctive immunotherapy for invasive fungal infections has significant potential for improving clinical outcomes in a growing population of patients at risk for these potentially devastating infections. Clearly, randomized double-blind clinical trials will need to be performed to better understand the precise role of these interventions. There are several obstacles preventing the conduct of these studies, but these pressing clinical issues must be addressed through carefully considered study design and effective implementation.
Ventromedial hypothalamic syndrome: finickiness?

Abstract Female rats with lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) underate and lost weight compared to same-diet control rats when fed a 0.2% quinine-adulterated wet-mash maintenance diet, yet overate and gained weight compared to same-diet control rats when fed a 0.4% quinine-adulterated high-fat maintenance diet. Control rats underate and lost comparable amounts of body weight when fed either adulterated diet. These data question the generality of the concept of VMH finickiness and are discussed in terms of an increased hunger hypothesis.
Partial Dislocation Mobility in GaAS

The dislocation loop shape in high stress deformed GaAs can be used to obtain information on the relative velocity of individual dislocation segments. It is shown that 30/90 β-dislocations and 90/30 β-dislocations have different velocities. A variety of loop shapes observed can be modelled by focussing on differences in mobility of individual kinks. It is shown that the observation of faulted dipoles is only possible in high stress p-type GaAs in which the screw dislocation segments have appreciable velocity at the low temperatures used during the deformation.
Mistakes encountered during automatic peak identification of minor and trace constituents in electron-excited energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.

Automated peak identification in electron beam-excited X-ray microanalysis with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry has been shown to be subject to occasional mistakes even on well-separated, high-intensity peaks arising from major constituents (arbitrarily defined as a concentration, C, which exceeds a mass fraction of 0.1). The peak identification problem becomes even more problematic for constituents present at minor (0.01≤C≤0.1) and trace (C<0.01) levels. “Problem elements” subject to misidentification as major constituents are even more vulnerable to misidentification when present at low concentrations in the minor and trace ranges. Additional misidentifications attributed to trace elements include minor X-ray family members associated with major constituents but not assigned properly, escape and coincidence peaks associated with major constituents, and false peaks owing to chance groupings of counts in spectra with poor counting statistics. A strategy for robust identification of minor and trace elements can be based on application of automatic peak identification with careful inspection of the results followed by multiple linear least-squares peak fitting with complete peak references to systematically remove each identified major element from the spectrum before attempting to assign remaining peaks to minor and trace constituents. SCANNING 31: 91–101, 2009. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Nucleotide sequence of the 5' end including the initiation codon of cDNA for the E1α subunit of the human branched chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase complex

Abstract The 5′ end including the start AUG codon has been defined for the human E1α subunit of the branched chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase complex by rapid amplification of cDNA ends. Considering conservative substitutions the amino acid sequence in the mitochondrial targeting sequence for the human clone is 73% identical to this sequence in rat and 84% identical to the bovine sequence. This peptide also shows similarity to the targeting sequence for the human β subunit but not with targeting sequence for the other subunits of the complex.
Adaptive and efficient abortable mutual exclusion

Scott and Scherer recently pointed out that existing locking algorithms do not meet a need that arises in practical systems. Specifically, database systems and real time systems need mutual exclusion locks that support the abort capability, which makes it possible for a process that waits "too long" to abort its attempt to acquire the lock. Further, to ensure high performance in cache coherent and NUMA multiprocessors, the locking algorithm should generate as few remote references as possible.To help meet this need, Scott and Scherer in 2001 and Scott in 2002 proposed some local-spin abortable mutual exclusion algorithms, but these algorithms have Shortcomings. Specifically, the algorithm by Scott and Scherer allows an aborting process to be blocked by other processes, which is unacceptable. The subsequent algorithms by Scott overcome this shortcoming, but these have unbounded worst-case time and space complexity.In this paper, we present art efficient local-spin algorithm with the following complexity: in each acquisition and release/abort of the lock, a process makes O(min(k, log n)) remote memory references, where k is the point contention and n is the total number of processes for which the lock is designed. Thus, not only is the algorithm adaptive, but also its worst-case time complexity has a small logarithmic bound. The algorithm has O(n) space complexity. To our knowledge, this is the first abortable mutual exclusion algorithm that has bounded time complexity and requires only a bounded number of memory words.
Body size, ration level, and population growth in Asplanchna

1.) The daily ration required to maintain a population growth rate, r m, of zero (threshold ration) increased with increasing Asplanchna body mass. This relationship is described by the equation T=0.342 W0.797 where T=threshold ration (μg day-1 dry mass) and W=Asplanchna body mass (μg adult-1 dry mass). 2.) The threshold ration of large campanulate morphs of A. silvestrii was 3.7 times greater than that of conspecific saccate morphs suggesting that campanulates may be restricted to food-rich habitats. 3.) The daily ration required to maintain r m that is half the maximal population growth rate increased with increasing Asplanchna body mass and is described by the equation H=1.107 W1.103 where H=ration level and W=Asplanchna body mass. This population growth characteristic may reflect adaptations of rotifers to resource level. 4.) The relationships between ration level, food concentration, and Asplanchna body mass do not support the predictions of the size-efficiency hypothesis but are consistent with observed patterns of species distribution in nature.