cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cell-to-Cell Movement of Homeodomain Transcription Factors: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Cell-to-cell communication is pivotal for the coordinated behavior of cells, and thus the orchestrated development of any multicellular organism. One special means of communication is the direct transfer of macromolecules, including transcription factors, between plant cells through plasmodesmata. KNOTTED1 (KN1), a maize homeodomain transcription factor, was the first plant protein identified to traffic between cells. KN1 belongs to a family of essential proteins functioning during stem cell maintenance in the shoot apical meristem. Here we recall the history of the remarkable finding of KN1 trafficking, and summarize our current understanding of its mechanism, regulation and potential significance. We also touch upon some of the important questions remaining for future exploration.
Music and Hyperspace

Thus, throughout my childhood, I thought a poem was first of all to sing, though I read my way through many of Louis Untermeyer’s poetry anthologies unaccompanied, which taught me that even without a melody, poems could tell a story or make an argument or ring true enough to remember. (Of course, I didn’t know that the abstract form of argument had become mathematical logic or that the Russian formalists and their structuralist heirs had been trying to make an algebra out of plot and character.) Throughout my teenage years, songs continued to play a central role in my life. I sang in the choir at the church of St. Martin in the Fields in Radnor, Pennsylvania, and learned to read musical notation there, while singing the poems of Robert Bridges, George Herbert, John Masefield, John Milton, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Tennyson, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Isaac Watts in the Episcopalian/Anglican Hymnal (Washburn et al. 1940); we also listened attentively to the prose-poetry of the King James Bible (Blayney 1769) and the Book of Common Prayer (Suten 1945). Later, in my high school choir, we sang Benjamin Britten’s beautiful setting of W. H. Auden’s “Hymn to St. Cecilia,” whom I re-discovered last year at the church of Santa Cecilia, founded in the fourth century, in the Trastevere district of Rome: she was the patron saint of musicians, though martyrdom ended her earthly singing. I listened to Anna Moffo (she came from Wayne—I have often shown visitors exactly where her father’s barber shop was), Marian Anderson (she grew up in Philadelphia), and Joan Baez (she starred at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1968) sing art songs, poems in Italian, French, German and Spanish turned into music.
APOE region molecular signatures of Alzheimer’s disease across races/ethnicities

Abstract The role of even the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 allele, in its etiology remains poorly understood. We examined molecular signatures of AD defined as differences in linkage disequilibrium patterns between AD-affected and -unaffected whites (2673/16,246), Hispanics (392/867), and African Americans (285/1789), separately. We focused on 29 polymorphisms from 5 genes in the APOE region emphasizing beneficial and adverse effects of the APOE e2- and e4-coding single-nucleotide polymorphisms, respectively, and the differences in the linkage disequilibrium structures involving these alleles between AD-affected and -unaffected subjects. Susceptibility to AD is likely the result of complex interactions of the e2 and e4 alleles with other polymorphisms in the APOE region, and these interactions differ across races/ethnicities corroborating differences in the adverse and beneficial effects of the e4 and e2 alleles. Our findings support complex race/ethnicity-specific haplotypes promoting and protecting against AD in this region. They contribute to better understanding of polygenic and resilient mechanisms, which can explain why even homozygous e4 carriers may not develop AD.
The Number of Maximal Matchings in Polyphenylene Chains

A matching is maximal if no other matching contains it as a proper subset. Maximal matchings model phenomena across many disciplines, including applications within chemistry. In this paper, we study maximal matchings in an important class of chemical compounds: polyphenylenes. In particular, we determine the extremal polyphenylene chains in regards to the number of maximal matchings. We also determine recurrences and generating functions for the sequences enumerating maximal matchings in several specific types of polyphenylenes and use these results to analyze the asymptotic behavior.
Chinese and Western Approaches to Infrastructure Development

Particularly since the announcement in 2013 of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), infrastructure development has become one of the chief axes of competition between China and the West. Chinese infrastructure finance has gone from about 25% of total lending by international development institutions in 2002 to nearly 75% in 2016. The respective approaches reflect the broader development models of the two sides: China’s is heavily state-centric and draws upon the huge domestic construction industry that has fueled its own rise; Western approaches tend to be market-oriented and embedded in legal constraints designed to mitigate a host of environmental, social, safety, and other types of risks. There are systematic biases in both approaches. We find that Chinese project developers tend to overestimate the positive externalities and underestimate negative ones, reflecting their own domestic experience. This leads, on the one hand, to problems with fiscal sustainability, as well as negative environmental and social consequences. One of the consequences is a high level of non-performing loans, whose aggregate size may be approximated by the bailouts provided by the Chinese central bank to its development banks, the China Exim Bank and the China Development Bank. Western developers, by contrast, focus on internal rates of return, and place great emphasis on mitigating risk. This tends to lengthen the time to complete projects and increases their costs. This often makes their projects non-competitive when faced with Chinese competition. Efforts by the World Bank to revise its safeguards regime over the past decade do not appear to have mitigated this problem. The ideal approach to needed infrastructure projects lies somewhere between the Chinese and Western models: China needs to become more compliant with international standards, while Western development agencies need to adopt more realistic standards to meet a newly competitive infrastructure world.
In the Relationship Between Change in Kyphosis and Change in Lordosis: Which Drives Which?:

Study Design:Retrospective single-center study.Objective:Investigate the effect of posterior instrumentation on the relationship between lordosis and kyphosis.Methods:Surgically treated patients wi...
Toxoplasma ferlin1 is a versatile and dynamic mediator of microneme trafficking and secretion

Calcium-dependent exocytosis of the microneme organelles that facilitate host cell invasion is critical for obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii. Ferlins represent a protein family with roles in exocytosis containing multiple Ca2+-sensing C2 domains. Here we defined the role of T. gondii9s ferlin 1 (FER1) in microneme biology. FER1 localized dynamically to several compartments of the parasite9s secretory pathway as well as to an apical spot near the site of microneme secretion. FER1 function was dissected by overexpression of a variety of N-terminally tagged alleles causing dominant negative phenotypes. This demonstrated FER1 traffics microneme organelles at several discrete steps of their natural trajectories: 1. from ELC to the subpellicular microtubules; 2. along the subpellicular microtubules to the apical end; 3. into the conoid; 4. and inferred from observed retrograde transport from the subpellicular microtubules, recycling of micronemes from mother to daughter parasites. Furthermore, full-length FER1 overexpression results in a squirt of microneme release sufficient for host cell egress. This indicates FER1 facilitates fusion of the most apical, radially organized micronemes with the plasma membrane. Moreover, FER1 acts differentially on the Rab5A/C-dependent and -independent microneme sub-populations. Finally, apical FER1 overlaps with the presence of VP1, a pyrophosphatase proton pump. Integrating all new insights, we propose a model of microneme exocytosis wherein the radial micronemes constitute a readily releasable vesicle pool primed by acidification.
Impact of the Emergency Transition to Remote Teaching on Student Engagement in a Non-STEM Undergraduate Chemistry Course in the Time of COVID-19

In Spring 2020, we began a study focused on the development of inclusive teaching practices in an undergraduate chemistry lecture course for non-STEM students. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing educational disruptions, we changed the design of our study to focus on the learning and teaching experiences of students and instructors. Here, we conducted student surveys before and after the emergency transition to remote teaching and analyzed data on student participation in the online setting. We observed that student engagement was likely negatively impacted by the emergency transition. We also found that lectures engaged students less after the transition. By contrast, course activities that did not heavily rely on a physical classroom, such as students blogging about their research of chemistry literature and crafting an independent research paper about a chemical question, were more effective in retaining student engagement after the transition. We also analyze student utilization of synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities (for example, recorded lectures). We contextualize student engagement in the course relative to policies adopted by the educational institution, notably a mandatory universal pass/fail grading policy. Finally, we communicate thematic reflections from students, undergraduate peer tutors, graduate student teaching fellows, and the course instructor about learning chemistry and teaching non-STEM undergraduates in the time of COVID-19. On the basis of these studies, we recommend seven instructional strategies for teaching chemistry during sustained educational disruptions.
S 4 oC: A Self-Optimizing, Self-Adapting Secure System-on-Chip Design Framework to Tackle Unknown Threats — A Network Theoretic, Learning Approach

We propose a framework for the design and optimization of a secure self-optimizing, self-adapting system-on-chip (S4oC) architecture. The goal is to minimize the impact of attacks such as hardware Trojan and side-channel, by making real-time adjustments. S4oC learns to reconfigure itself, subject to various security measures and attacks, some of which possibly unknown at design time. Furthermore, the data types and patterns of the target applications, environmental conditions, and sources of variations are incorporated. S4oC is a manycore system, modeled as a four-layer graph, representing the model of computation (MoCp), model of connection (MoCn), model of memory (MoM) and model of storage (MoS), with a large number of elements including heterogeneous reconfigurable processing elements in MoCp, and memory elements in the MoM layer. Security driven community detection, and neural networks are utilized for application task clustering, and distributed reinforcement learning (RL) for task mapping.
TU-G-PinS Room/Hall E-00: Digital Breast Tomosynthesis III

This session along with the others on Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) offered at this years meeting as part of the Educational, Scientific and Partners in Solutions is intended to meet the FDA requirements for physicists to survey a DBT system. Specifically, this vendor offered session held as part of the Partners in Solutions is also meant to focus on those requirements. This session is being done along with the other two vendors of approved DBT systems in order to cover the machine specific features of those systems.
The Role of Diagnostic Uncertainty in Health Care Outcomes and its Potential for Modification with Decision Support

INTERNIST-1 and its successor Quick Medical Reference (QMR), are computer programs which utilize an extensive knowledge base of diseases in internal medicine to assist clinicians in the task of diagnosis. The provision of medical care, in general, and the utilization of the diagnostic laboratory, in particular, are known to exhibit wide variation among physicians. A neglected reason for some of this variation may be the degree of diagnostic uncertainty accompanying each patient case. We propose that computer programs like QMR may decrease some of this variability by providing more information to the physician, and we discuss a methodology for testing this proposal.
Ethical Marketing and Marketing Strategy

This article begins with a definition of ethical marketing and its relationship to marketing strategy. In the body of this work, seven basic perspectives for the ethical practice of marketing are outlined. Each basic perspective is discussed with reference to the American Marketing Association Statement of Ethics as well as exemplary corporate policies and behaviors that can serve as illustrations of ethical marketing approaches. Keywords: ethical marketing; marketing ethics; corporate social responsibility; CSR; trust
Hydrographs by Single Linear Reservoir Model

A single linear reservoir (SLR) model is presented which provides a simple means for developing runoff hydrographs for small, urban watersheds. The model only requires one parameter, K, which can be estimated from watershed and precipitation characteristics. Several methods for estimating K and the results of testing the model on various watersheds are presented.
Cytochrome c Interaction with Yeast Cytochrome b2. Heme Distances Determined by Energy Transfer in Fluorescence Resonance

Fluorescent derivatives of cytochrome c were prepared by replacing the heme iron with closed-shell metals such as zinc or tin. The iron-free derivatives of cytochrome c bind to yeast lactate dehydrogenase (cytochrome b2) stoichiometrically and with high affinity. Spectral overlap exists between the fluorescence of porphyrin, Zn(II) or Sn(IV) cytochrome c and the absorption of the heme of cytochrome b; therefore dipole-dipole interaction is possible as predicted by Forster's theory of energy transfer. Changes in the fluorescence yield and the fluorescent decay profile of the cytochrome c derivatives are consistent with the view that the heme distance is sufficiently close for dipolar interactions. The distance calculated from the data depends upon assumptions in the theory for energy transfer and uncertainties in the experiment. It can be argued that due to the symmetry of the metalloporphyrins the relative orientations of the two hemes do not introduce a significant uncertainty in the calculation. However the decay profiles of the iron-free cytochromes are complex, possibly reflecting structural rearrangement of the polypeptide chain during the fluorescent lifetime. The steady-state fluorescent yields would indicate that the mean distance is around 1.8 nm.
Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799–1914 – By Robert Gildea

The children that the author refers to are the five generations of French men and women who reached maturity between Napoleon's Brumaire coup of 1799 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Robert...
Boumediene v. Bush and Guantanamo, Cuba: Does the 'Empire Strike Back'?

Commenting on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush (2008) and the U.S. occupation of the Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this Article argues that anomaly on the base heavily influences "War on Terror" detention jurisprudence. Anomaly is created by agreements between the U.S. and Cuba in 1903 and 1934. They affirm that the U.S. lacks sovereignty over Guantanamo but retains "complete jurisdiction and control" for an indefinite period; while Cuba has "ultimate sovereignty." Gerald Neuman labels this an "anomalous zone" with fundamental legal rules locally suspended. The base was chosen as a detention center because of this anomaly, with checks in constitutional and international law perceived to not apply. This Article makes three arguments about what legal norms apply on Guantanamo. First, the base's legal anomaly is not an aberration, but instead is a precise objective of U.S.-Cuba relations, evident in the Platt Amendment and international agreements. Second, four legal objectives frame this anomaly, historically and presently. They are that the U.S.: avoids sovereignty abroad, limits incidents of Cuban sovereignty, avoids constitutional limits for its overseas authority, and protects strategic overseas interests. Using these objectives, Boumediene addresses this current anomaly. To hold that detainees have access to the writ of habeas corpus in the Constitution's Suspension clause, the Court finds that the U.S. exercises de facto sovereignty over the base and that the Constitution has extraterritorial application. Third, tracking legal similarities in base occupation and base detention, post-colonial analysis illuminates how current doctrine evades individual rights protections with overseas authority. These three points illuminate how in the future U.S. law may determine what legal norms check (or not) overseas authority, whether on Guantanamo or in other extraterritorial settings.
Intra-Individual Consistency in Endocrine Profiles Across Successive Pregnancies

Context: It is yet unknown how similar women's hormone levels are during successive pregnancies, and very little is known about the degree to which siblings experience similar prenatal environments. Given the importance of understanding how women's reproductive life histories exert cumulative effects on health via hormone exposure, and the importance of understanding how fetal programming via endocrine signaling affects sibling trait concordance, here, we address this important lacuna in the literature. Objective: This study aimed to investigate how consistent women's hormone profiles are across two successive pregnancies. Design and Main Outcome Measures: This longitudinal, prospective study followed a cohort of 28 women across two pregnancies (PREG 1 and PREG 2). Women's circulating hormone levels were assessed from blood samples at 25, 31, and 37 weeks' gestation for adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (pCRH), cortisol, estradiol, and progesterone. ACTH and cor...
Measurement of Affective and Activity Pain Interference Using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI): Cancer and Leukemia Group B 70903

Objective The Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) was designed to yield separate scores for pain intensity and interference. It has been proposed that the pain interference factor can be further broken down into unique factors of affective (e.g., mood) and activity (e.g., work) interference. The purpose of this analysis was to confirm this affective/activity interference dichotomy. Patients and Methods A retrospective confirmatory factor analysis was completed for a sample of 184 individuals diagnosed with castrate-resistant prostate cancer (age 40–86, mean = 65.46, 77% White non-Hispanic) who had been administered the BPI as part of Cancer and Leukemia Group B trial 9480. A one-factor model was compared against two-factor and three-factor models that were developed based on the design of the instrument. Results Root mean squared error of approximation (0.075), comparative fit index (0.971), and change in chi-square, given the corresponding change in degrees of freedom (13.33, P < 0.05) values for the three-factor model (i.e., pain intensity, activity interference, and affective interference), were statistically superior in comparison with the one- and two-factor models. This three-factor structure was found to be invariant across age, mean prostate-specific antigen, and hemoglobin levels. Conclusions These results confirm that the BPI can be used to quantify the degree to which pain separately interferes with affective and activity aspects of a patient's everyday life. These findings will provide clinical trialists, pharmaceutical sponsors, and regulators with confidence in the flexibility of the BPI as they consider the use of this instrument to assist with understanding the patient experience as it relates to treatment.
The Crimes of Womanhood: Defining Femininity in a Court of Law – By A. Cheree Carlson

The notion of courtroom trials as political theater is nearly as old as the American republic, dating to early‐nineteenth‐century penny papers. It was not until relatively recently that scholars be...
Higher-Order Separation Logic in Isabelle/HOLCF

We formalize higher-order separation logic for a first-order imperative language with procedures and local variables in Isabelle/HOLCF. The assertion language is modeled in such a way that one may use any theory defined in Isabelle/HOLCF to construct assertions, e.g., primitive recursion, least or greatest fixed points etc. The higher-order logic ensures that we can show non-trivial algorithms correct without having to extend the semantics of the language as was done previously in verifications based on first-order separation logic [Birkedal, L., N.T. Smith and J.C. Reynolds, Local reasoning about a copying garbage collector, in: Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (2004), pp. 220-231; Yang, H., An example of local reasoning in BI pointer logic: the Schorr-Waite graph marking algorithm (2000)]. We provide non-trivial examples to support this claim and to show how the higher-order logic enables natural assertions in specifications. To support abstract reasoning we have implemented rules for representation hiding and data abstraction as seen in [Biering, B., L. Birkedal and N. Torp-Smith, BI-hyperdoctrines, higher-order separation logic, and abstraction, ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 29 (2007)]. The logic is represented as lemmas for reasoning about the denotational semantics of the programming language. This follows the definitional approach common in HOL theorem provers, i.e., the soundness of our model only relies on the soundness of Isabelle/HOL [Gordon, M., Introduction to the HOL system, in: HOL Theorem Proving System and Its Applications, 1991., International Workshop on the, 1991, pp. 2-3]. We use our formalization to give a formally verified proof of Cheney's copying garbage collector [Cheney, C.J., A nonrecursive list compacting algorithm, Commun. ACM 13 (1970), pp. 677-678] using a tagged representation of objects. The proof generalizes the results in [Birkedal, L., N.T. Smith and J.C. Reynolds, Local reasoning about a copying garbage collector, in: Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (2004), pp. 220-231]. The proof uses an encoding of the separation logic formula this(h) to capture the heap from before the garbage collection and thus shows another novel use of higher-order separation logic.
Thermal Pulse Combustion

Abstract This paper describes theoretical and experimental observations of combustion oscillations produced in a continuously mixed, jet-stirred combustion system. This work is distinct from other investigations of pulse combustion, because it is shown both theoretically and experimentally that combustion oscillations can be produced with a steady supply of fuel and air, requiring no mechanical or aerodynamic valves. The theory is a direct extension of thermal theories of combustion in back-mixed reactors, extended to include the unsteady behavior of the combustor and tailpipe. Because of the demonstrated effect of heat transfer on the oscillations, the name thermal pulse combustion is chosen to describe these oscillations. Effects of friction in the combustor tailpipe, heat loss from the combustion zone, and flow rate, are investigated theoretically. Depending on operating parameters, oscillating combustion, steady flames, or blow-out are all predicted. The effects of finite mixing rate are investigated ...
Enhancement of Phototransduction G Protein-Effector Interactions by Phosphoinositides

Abstract Light responses in photoreceptor cells are mediated by the action of the G protein transducin (Gt) on the effector enzyme cGMP phosphodiesterase (PDE6) at the surface of disk membranes. The enzymatic components needed for phosphoinositide-based signaling are known to be present in rod cells, but it has remained uncertain what role phosphoinositides play in vertebrate phototransduction. Reconstitution of PDE6 and activated Gαt, on the surface of large unilamellar vesicles containing d-myo-phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2), stimulated PDE activity nearly 4-fold above the level observed with membranes containing no phosphoinositides, whereas G protein-independent activation by trypsin was unaffected by the presence of phosphoinositides. PDE activity was similarly stimulated by d-myo-phosphatidylinositol-3,4-bisphosphate and d-myo-phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI(4)P), but much less by d-myo-phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate (PI(5)P) or d-myo-phosphatidylinositol-3,5-bisphosphate. Incubation of rod outer segment membranes with phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C decreased G protein-stimulated activation of endogenous PDE6, but not trypsin-stimulated PDE activity. Binding experiments using phosphoinositide-containing vesicles revealed patterns of PDE6 binding and PDE6-enhanced Gαt-GTPγS binding, consistent with the activation profile PI(4,5)P2 > PI(4)P > PI(5)P ∼ control vesicles. These results suggest that enhancement of effector-G protein interactions represents a possible mechanism for modulation of phototransduction gain by changes in phosphoinositide levels, perhaps occurring in response to longterm changes in illumination or other environmental cues.
Scaling Behavior of Permeability and Conductivity Anisotropy near the Percolation Threshold

We use the finite-size scaling method to estimate the critical exponent λ that characterizes the scaling behavior of conductivity and permeability anisotropy near the percolation thresholdpc. Here λ is defined by the scaling lawkl/kt−1∼(p−pc)λ, wherekt andkt are the conductivity or permeability of the system in the direction of the macroscopic potential gradient and perpendicular to this direction, respectively. The results are λ(d=2)≃0.819±0.011 and λ(d=3)≃0.518±0.001. We interpret these results in terms of the structure of percolation clusters and their chemical distance. We also compare our results with the predictions of a scaling theory for λ due to Straley, and propose that λ(d=2)=t-βB, wheret is the critical exponent of the conductivity or permeability of the system, and βB is the critical exponent of the backbone of percolation clusters.
Photothermal waves in a periodically modulated structure

The generation of thermal waves in a one-dimensional structure with a sinusoidal variation in thermal diffusivity can be described by an inhomogeneous Mathieu equation. An exact solution to the frequency-domain Mathieu equation can be found by using a variation of parameters method to give the alternating component of the temperature along the structure. From the theory of Mathieu functions a dispersion relation for the thermal waves is found, which does not display band gaps, but which shows damping that departs from that for thermal waves in a uniform medium.
Deep Vein Thrombosis Anticoagulants Contemporary Standard of Care Affirms

The selection of a prophylaxis regimen for total hip and knee arthroplasty represents a balance between efficacy and safety. Both traditional and new chemoprophylaxis regimens have been found to be both effective and safe in randomized clinical trials and cohort studies. The new American College of Chest Physicians guidelines recommend a variety of chemoprophylaxis agents after total joint arthroplasty. Chemoprophylaxis agents and mechanical compression devices should be used together during the hospital stay. In the future, risk stratification is necessary to select the prophylaxis regimen with the appropriate balance between efficacy and safety for a patient undergoing a specific operative procedure.
In vitro killing of parenteral beta-lactams against standard and high inocula of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase and non-ESBL producing Klebsiella pneumoniae

Minimum inhibitory concentrations and time-kill curves were performed against 8 Klebsiella pneumoniae (4 non-extended-spectrum beta-lactamase[ESBL] and 4 ESBL) for piperacillin/tazobactam (40/5 microg/mL), cefepime (20 microg/mL), and meropenem (4 microg/mL) by using a standard and high inocula. Imipenem was evaluated only at the standard inoculum for the non-ESBL and ESBL isolates. Samples were withdrawn at 7 predetermined time-points over 24 hours and plated on trypticase soy agar plates. Minimum inhibitory concentrations were: piperacillin/tazobactam 4 to 8 microg/mL (ESBL and non-ESBL), cefepime 1 to 2 microg/mL (ESBL) and 0.06 to 0.125 microg/mL (non-ESBL), imipenem 0.125 to 0.25 microg/mL (ESBL and non-ESBL), and meropenem 0.03 to 0.06 microg/mL (ESBL and non-ESBL). Each antibiotic reached and maintained bactericidal killing (> or =3 log killing) for 24 hours against all non-ESBL isolates for both the standard and high inoculum. Cefepime, imipenem, and meropenem showed the same bactericidal activity against each ESBL isolate at the standard inoculum, whereas piperacillin/tazobactam showed bactericidal killing against only 1 ESBL isolate. At the high inoculum, cefepime and piperacillin/tazobactam were unable to maintain bactericidal activity against any of the ESBL isolates. Only meropenem was able to maintain bactericidal killing over 24 hours against the ESBL isolates at the high inoculum. In summary, meropenem and imipenem maintained bactericidal activity against non-ESBL and ESBL K. pneumoniae irrespective of the inoculum size. While piperacillin/tazobactam and cefepime are bactericidal against non-ESBL K. pneumoniae, their activity against ESBL K. pneumoniae is limited and based on the size of the inoculum. Until more data are available, piperacillin/tazobactam and cefepime should not be used for the treatment of ESBL K. pneumoniae.
Towards elucidating the effects of purified MWCNTs on human lung epithelial cells

Toxicity of engineered nanomaterials is associated with their inherent properties, both physical and chemical. Recent studies have shown that exposure to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) promotes tumors and tumor-associated pathologies and lead to carcinogenesis in model in vivo systems. Herein, we examined the potential of purified MWCNTs used at occupationally relevant exposure doses for particles not otherwise regulated to affect human lung epithelial cells. The uptake of the purified MWCNTs was evaluated using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), while the effects on cell fate were assessed using a 2-(4-iodophenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-(2,4-disulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium salt colorimetric assay, cell cycle and nanoindentation. Our results showed that exposure to MWCNTs reduced cell metabolic activity and induced cell cycle arrest. Our analysis further emphasized that the MWCNTs-induced cellular fate result from multiple types of interactions that could be analyzed by means of intracellular biomechanical changes and are pivotal in understanding the underlying MWCNT-induced cell transformation.
Inheritance of the Katahdin knobby tuber

The data obtained gave a good fit to a model of duplicate recessive epistasis for the misshapen tuber form described. The pattern of inheritance was unaffected by the presence of PSTV in the parents and the distribution of offspring between knobby and smooth was independent of their possession of the PSTV. The knobby characteristic was not transmitted through a graft union to progenies produced on healthy scions. Some of the phenotypes observed are markedly similar to distinctive tuber shapes of some forms presently cultivated in S. America and also found in Peruvian pottery.
Dengue hemorrhagic fever and rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia: Some suggested relationships

Abstract Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is a viral disease which has spread throughout Southeast Asia over the past 25 years. Ae. aegypti is the main vector of the disease. The location of DHF outbreaks, the number of infected individuals, and the diffusion of the disease are related to several socio-economic, environmental and host factors. A number of writers have discussed the relationships between DHF outbreaks and rainfall in different parts of Southeast Asia. A review of the literature suggests that there are positive correlations between the two variables in Burma, Thailand and the Philippines, all of which have one wet season and prolonged “dry periods”, but that the relationships in countries closer to the equator, such as Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, where there are two wet seasons, are unclear. In two case studies of Selangor and Johore in Peninsular Malaysia for the period 1973–1977, the relationships between DHF cases and moisture surpluses and deficits, the latter derived from Thornthwaite's method for calculating the water balance, are investigated on a monthly basis. It is shown that there is an increase in DHF cases following the March to May wet season and that the size of the increase is positively related to the size of the moisture surplus. The importance of moisture deficits is also underscored. There is, however, an apparent lack of association between DHF cases and rainfall during the second wet season, September–November, of each year. It is suggested that relationships between DHF and rainfall should be sought for a sequence of years, and that investigations must be based on a more sophisticated measure of moisture availability than raw monthly rainfall data. Topics for further research are outlined.
Subsidized adoption in Illinois

Abstract Subsidized adoption programs are a relatively new child welfare option for children in need of long-term substitute care. Unfortunately, little data on subsidized adoption has been reported at a time when children with special needs constitute an increasing percentage of those available for adoptive placement. The recent passage of the “Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980” will focus even greater attention on these programs. This paper is based on data collected from a stratified random sample of children and families participating in the State of Illinois subsidized adoption program from October 1969 through June 1976. Records of 348 families were reviewed. The subsidy program is described as are the characteristics of the children being subsidized and the families with whom they are placed. Findings indicate that nontraditional adopters are subsidized, budgetary savings can be achieved, and significant differences exist among identified groups of adopters and children. Factors such as program cost, length of time in care, single parent adopters and handicapped status of the child are examined. Program strengths and weaknesses are identified and the caution is made that subsidy programs are no cure-all for children in substitute care.
Synthesis of functionalized platinum complexes containing dimethylsulfoxide as leaving group. Observation of novel steric control of intrastrand versus interstrand cross-linking by use of bulky ligands

Abstract Dinuclear bis(platinum) cations, containing as potential leaving group dimethylsulfoxide (Me2SO), were prepared. The general formula is [{trans-Pt(Me2SO)(NH3)2}2NH2(CH2)nNH2]4+. These complexes were found to induce the Z form of poly(dG-dC).poly(dG-dC). The complexes also appear to bind to DNA forming interstrand cross-links by displacement of Me2SO. In aqueous solution, rapid hydrolysis occurs to free diamine and the trans-[Pt(H2O)(Me2SO)(NH3)2]2+ cation. In a surprising finding, this monomeric species (as the chloride trans-[PtCl(Me2SO)(NH3)2]+) was found to be a much more efficient interstrand cross-linking agent than the parent trans-[PtCl2(NH3)2]. Thus, steric control by bulky ligands such as Me2SO may be used to affect relative tendencies to inter- or intrastrand cross-link formation in platinum complexes.
Hot gas defrost model development and validation

Abstract This paper describes the development, validation, and application of a transient model for predicting the heat and mass transfer effects associated with an industrial air-cooling evaporator during a hot gas defrost cycle. The inputs to the model include the space dry bulb temperature, space humidity, coil geometry, frost thickness, frost density, and hot gas inlet temperature. The model predicts the time required for a complete frost melt as well as the sensible and latent loads transferred back to the conditioned space during the defrost period. The model is validated by comparing predicted results to actual defrost cycle field measurements and to results presented in previously published studies. A unique contribution of the present model is its ability to estimate parasitic space loads generated during a defrost cycle. The parasitic energy associated with the defrost process includes thermal convection, moisture re-evaporation, and extraction of the stored energy in the coil mass following a defrost cycle. Each of these factors contribute to the parasitic load on compressors connected to the defrost return. The results from the model provide quantitative information on evaporator operation during a defrost cycle which forms the basis to improve the energy efficiency of the defrost process.
The beta-Pareto distribution

In this paper, a four-parameter beta-Pareto distribution is defined and studied. Various properties of the distribution are discussed. The distribution is found to be unimodal and has either a unimodal or a decreasing hazard rate. The expressions for the mean, mean deviation, variance, skewness, kurtosis and entropies are obtained. The relationship between these moments and the parameters are provided. The method of maximum likelihood is proposed to estimate the parameters of the distribution. The distribution is applied to two flood data sets.
Modelling of complex RF/wireless structures using computationally optimized time‐domain techniques

The modelling of RF integrated structures with fine metallic details using time-domain simulators is addressed. The key features identified as difficulties in modelling metallic structures in these techniques are dielectric and metal loss and complexity of geometry. A method to model loss that involves the use of a quasi-static simulator to identify correction factors that can be applied to a time domain simulator is presented. In addition, a novel MRTD subcell method is presented that can be used to simulate fine metallic structures and other subcell effects such as the presented correction factors. An example simulation of a finely detailed structure using this technique is presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The pendulum swings Tolerance versus priming to nImA

Fetal and/or perinatal exposure to noninherited maternal antigens (NIMA) has been reported to induce NIMA-specific tolerance. This tolerant state is highly beneficial in transplantation settings; enhanced graft acceptance has been observed when transplanted tissues express NIMA. Reduction in severe graft-vs-host disease has also been noted when bone marrow grafts originate from donors exposed to NIMA in early life. However, there is emerging evidence that exposure to NIMA can alternatively lead to specific priming. The processes regulating tolerance versus priming to NIMA are poorly understood and probably multifactorial. Based on studies in both humans and mice, we propose that both the quality and the quantity of NIMA exposure will be found to be key determinants of these opposing outcomes.
Phosphopeptide mapping and phosphoamino acid analysis by electrophoresis and chromatography on thin‐layer cellulose plates

Identification of protein phosphorylation sites is essential in order to evaluate the contribution of individual sites to the regulation of a particular protein by phosphorylation. Here we review a method we have developed for the identification of phosphorylation sites based on digestion of 32P-labeled proteins with site-specific proteases and separation of the digestion products in two dimensions on thin-layer cellulose plates using electrophoresis in the first dimension followed by chromatography. This method is very sensitive, requiring only a few hundred 32P-disintegrations per minute to obtain reproducible phosphopeptide maps. We also report methods for the analysis of the phosphoamino acid content of both intact phosphoproteins and individual phosphopeptides recovered from two-dimensional separations, in which the material is subjected to partial acid hydrolysis, and the hydrolysis products are separated on thin-layer cellulose plates by electrophoresis in one or two dimensions. Finally, we describe methods for analyzing the structure of isolated phosphopeptides by secondary digestion with site-specific proteases, by manual Edman degradation, and by immunoprecipitation, and indicate how this information can be used in conjunction with the two-dimensional mobility of the peptide to deduce the identity of a phosphopeptide from the known sequence of a protein.
Coding a family of sets

Abstract In this paper, we state a metatheorem for constructions involving coding. Using the metatheorem, we obtain results on coding a family of sets into a family of relations, or into a single relation. For a concrete example, we show that the set of limit points in a recursive ordering of type ω2 can have arbitrary 2-REA degree.
Impact of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer on Mountain Waves

Abstract Interaction between mountain waves and the atmospheric boundary layer (BL) has been investigated using a mesoscale model with BL parameterizations and analytical BL models. The impact of the BL diagnosed from the mesoscale model simulations is in qualitative agreement with the analytical BL models. In general, for stratified flow over a mesoscale ridge, the influence of the BL tends to shift wave patterns upstream, decrease the wave drag by up to 60% and the momentum flux above the BL top by up to 80%, and significantly delay the onset of wave breaking. It has been demonstrated that the BL effect is governed by four nondimensional parameters, namely, the nondimensional BL depth, BL shape factor, nonhydrostatic parameter, and frictional adjustment parameter. The BL effect is stronger over a rougher surface, which creates a deeper BL with a smaller shape factor (i.e., slower BL flow). The scale dependence of the BL effect is governed by the nonhydrostatic and frictional adjustment parameters. For n...
Cadmium-mediated toxicity of lung epithelia is enhanced through NF-κB-mediated transcriptional activation of the human zinc transporter ZIP8

Cadmium (Cd), a toxic heavy metal and carcinogen that is abundantly present in cigarette smoke, is a cause of smoking-induced lung disease. SLC39A8 (ZIP8), a zinc transporter, is a major portal for Cd uptake into cells. We have recently identified that ZIP8 expression is under the transcriptional control of the NF-κB pathway. On the basis of this, we hypothesized that cigarette-smoke induced inflammation would increase ZIP8 expression in lung epithelia, thereby enhancing Cd uptake and cell toxicity. Herein we report that ZIP8 is a central mediator of Cd-mediated toxicity. TNF-α treatment of primary human lung epithelia and A549 cells induced ZIP8 expression, resulting in significantly higher cell death attributable to both apoptosis and necrosis following Cd exposure. Inhibition of the NF-κB pathway and ZIP8 expression significantly reduced cell toxicity. Zinc (Zn), a known cytoprotectant, prevented Cd-mediated cell toxicity via ZIP8 uptake. Consistent with cell culture findings, a significant increase in ZIP8 mRNA and protein expression was observed in the lung of chronic smokers compared with nonsmokers. From these studies, we conclude that ZIP8 expression is induced in lung epithelia in an NF-κB-dependent manner, thereby resulting in increased cell death in the presence of Cd. From this we contend that ZIP8 plays a critical role at the interface between micronutrient (Zn) metabolism and toxic metal exposure (Cd) in the lung microenvironment following cigarette smoke exposure. Furthermore, dietary Zn intake, or a lack thereof, may be a contributing factor in smoking-induced lung disease.
“To veil the threat of terror”: Afghan women and the ⟨clash of civilizations⟩ in the imagery of the U.S. war on terrorism

This article explores the role of widely circulated images of Afghan people in building public support for the 2001–2002 U.S. war with Afghanistan. Emphasizing images of women, I argue that these representations participate in the more general category of “the clash of civilizations,” which constitutes a verbal and a visual ideograph linked to the idea of the “white man's burden.” Through the construction of binary oppositions of self and Other, the evocation of a paternalistic stance toward the women of Afghanistan, and the figuration of modernity as liberation, these images participate in a set of justifications for war that contradicts the actual motives for the war. These contradictions have a number of implications for democratic deliberation and public life during wartime.
Effect of growth hormone and protein intake on tumor growth and host cachexia

Background. Growth hormone supplementation has been shown to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and to improve nitrogen balance in a variety of catabolic states. The role of growth hormone to support the tumor-bearing host is complicated by the risk that growth hormone or its intermediaries may stimulate tumor growth. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of growth hormone supplementation in tumor-bearing rats. This is studied in the protein-fed and protein-starved state in an attempt to isolate a selective benefit for the host over the tumor. Methods. Forty Lewis rats bearing a metastatic mammary adenocarcinoma (MAC-33) were divided into four groups: one receiving a regular diet plus saline solution, one receiving a regular diet plus growth hormone (1 IU/kg/day), one receiving protein-depleted diet plus saline solution, and one receiving a protein-depleted diet plus growth hormone. After 25 days of growth hormone treatment, animals were killed to determine primary tumor size, tumor/carcass ratio, host organ composition, pulmonary metastasis, and serum amino acid levels. Results. The tumor/carcass ratio was decreased as a result of growth hormone treatment in both the protein-fed and protein-starved groups. Growth hormone supplementation resulted in increased carcass weight, muscle weight, and muscle protein content in the protein-fed, tumor-bearing animals ( p Conclusions. Growth hormone has a differential effect on tumor and host growth in the protein-fed and protein-starved state. Growth hormone supplementation inhibited tumor growth in protein-deprived animals. This is most likely accomplished indirectly by limiting amino acid substrate availability to the tumor.