cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
PS-341 Induces Selective Radiosensitization of Multiple Myeloma Cells.

Abstract Sublethal doses of ionizing radiation induce a complex cellular survival response, one component of which is activation of the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) pathway. PS-341 is a selective inhibitor of the 26S proteasome which prevents the proteasomal degradation of I-kB and thereby inhibits the activation of NF-kB. We therefore hypothesized that PS-341 should synergistically enhance the anti-myeloma effect of ionizing radiation (IR). The individual and combined effects of PS-341 and IR were analyzed using human MM cell lines (MM1, RPMI 8226, JJN-3 and ARH-77) and bone marrow samples from myeloma patients. Treatment of myeloma cell lines with 10nM PS-341 produced a modest anti-proliferative effect with G2/M-phase arrest and p21cip/waf-1 induction but minimal procaspase-3 cleavage and minimal apoptotic cell death: Similar sublethal damage was observed after single exposure to IR at a dose of 6 Gy. In contrast, sequential exposure to PS-341 (10 nM) and IR (6 Gy) resulted in potent (synergistic) induction of apoptosis, assayed by both fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugated annexin V-propidium iodide assay and cell cycle analysis. Overall cell viability was greatly reduced by the combination of PS3451 and IR, but not by either modality alone, as determined by 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2yl) 2–5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and analysis of polyadenosine-5′-diphosphate-ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage -product after 72 hours. As predicted, exposure to 6 Gy IR led to potent induction of nuclear NF-kB activity and this response was almost completely inhibited by simultaneous treatment with PS-341. The combination of PS341 and IR was next evaluated on CD138+ve and CD138-ve cell fractions from bone marrow aspirates of myeloma patients. Synergistic killing of primary myeloma (CD138+) cells was observed with relative sparing of normal marrow elements (CD138−). We conclude that PS-341 is a potent radiosensitizer for myeloma cell lines and primary myeloma cells. This provides a strong rationale to combine PS-341 with conventional external beam or with targeted radionuclide therapy for effective treatment of MM patients.
Responding to a Respiratory Complication in the Recovery Room: A Simulation Case for Anesthesiology Students

Introduction Postoperative respiratory complications have multiple etiologies, are commonly occurring, and are potentially life-threatening complications of anesthesia. Adverse outcomes associated ...
Cardiorespiratory instability in monitored step-down unit patients: using cluster analysis to identify patterns of change

Cardiorespiratory instability (CRI) in monitored step-down unit (SDU) patients has a variety of etiologies, and likely manifests in patterns of vital signs (VS) changes. We explored use of clustering techniques to identify patterns in the initial CRI epoch (CRI1; first exceedances of VS beyond stability thresholds after SDU admission) of unstable patients, and inter-cluster differences in admission characteristics and outcomes. Continuous noninvasive monitoring of heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), and pulse oximetry (SpO2) were sampled at 1/20 Hz. We identified CRI1 in 165 patients, employed hierarchical and k-means clustering, tested several clustering solutions, used 10-fold cross validation to establish the best solution and assessed inter-cluster differences in admission characteristics and outcomes. Three clusters (C) were derived: C1) normal/high HR and RR, normal SpO2 (n = 30); C2) normal HR and RR, low SpO2 (n = 103); and C3) low/normal HR, low RR and normal SpO2 (n = 32). Clusters were significantly different based on age (p < 0.001; older patients in C2), number of comorbidities (p = 0.008; more C2 patients had ≥ 2) and hospital length of stay (p = 0.006; C1 patients stayed longer). There were no between-cluster differences in SDU length of stay, or mortality. Three different clusters of VS presentations for CRI1 were identified. Clusters varied on age, number of comorbidities and hospital length of stay. Future study is needed to determine if there are common physiologic underpinnings of VS clusters which might inform clinical decision-making when CRI first manifests.
Early Intracellular Trafficking of Granulibacter bethesdensis in Human Macrophages.

ABSTRACT Granulibacter bethesdensis is a Gram-negative bacterium that infects patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), a primary immunodeficiency marked by a defect in NOX2, the phagocyte NADPH oxidase. Previous studies have shown that NOX2 is essential for killing of G. bethesdensis by neutrophils and monocytes and that the bacteriostatic activity of monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) requires NOX2 and gamma interferon (IFN-γ) pretreatment. To determine whether G. bethesdensis evades phagolysosomal killing, a host defense pathway intact in both normal and CGD MDM, or whether it occupies a distinct intracellular niche in CGD MDM, we assessed the trafficking patterns of this organism. We observed colocalization of G. bethesdensis with an early endosome antigen 1 (EEA1)-positive compartment, followed by colocalization with lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1)-positive and LysoTracker-positive late phagosomes; these characteristics were similar in both normal and CGD MDM. Despite localization to acidified late phagosomes, viable G. bethesdensis cells were recovered from viable MDM in numbers greater than in the initial input up to 6 days after infection. G. bethesdensis remains, and in some cases appears to divide, within a membrane-bound compartment for the entire 6-day time course. These findings indicate that this organism resists both oxygen-dependent and oxygen-independent phagolysosomal antimicrobial systems of human macrophages.
The Homecare Aide Workforce Initiative: Implementation and Outcomes:

Improved training and support are thought to improve retention among direct care workers. However, few studies have examined actual retention. This study examined satisfaction and retention among home health aides enrolled in the "Homecare Aide Workforce Initiative" (HAWI) at three New York agencies. Data included surveys of HAWI trainees and new hires and payroll data for HAWI graduates and others. Three months after hire, 91% of HAWI hires reported they were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the job; 57% reported they were "not at all likely" to leave their job in the coming year. At 365 days, 60% were still working. In logistic regression, the odds of being retained at 3, 6, and 12 months were significantly higher among HAWI graduates than non-HAWI new hires. Although not a randomized trial, the study demonstrates an association between participation in an innovative entry-level workforce program and superior 3-, 6-, and 12-month retention.
High-speed anomaly detection with single pixel camera

We are presenting an anomaly detection system with compressive single-pixel camera and statistic metrics to identify existence of anomalies against a complex background. We illustrate the utility of our approach via both simulations and experiments.
The Leadership Literature and Its Relevance to Psychotherapy

When leadership is mentioned, it summons up images of great men and women, of power and its uses, of risk-taking initiatives, and imaginative forward movement. Yet the essence of leadership is that it is a relationship. For every leader there must be those who are willing to follow. Critical in understanding leadership is understanding the influence relationship that must develop between the people who are the leaders and those who are the followers. Not surprisingly, interest in the study of leadership has roots in the beginnings of recorded history; the empirical study of leadership has its origins in the beginnings of the social sciences (Allport, 1954). The concern of the present chapter is whether this long tradition of empirical study of leadership can contribute to our understanding of another very special influence relationship: psychotherapy.
Stochastic failure dynamics in communication network under the influence of power failure

Various large-scale failures and attacks (e.g., natural disasters, high-altitude electromagnetic pulses (HEMPs), weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), etc.) can instigate initial failures of critical network components (e.g., router, generator) in a cyber-physical infrastructure. In addition, the intra-dependency among various components inside a communication network and the inter-dependency with supporting power supply nodes can contribute to the propagation of the initial failures. Under the probabilistic initial failures of the networks' physical infrastructures, in this paper, we develop a stochastic model to track the functionality dynamics in a communication network considering dependency among communication nodes as well as with power nodes. A closed-form analytical formula is derived to find the steady state probabilities of all communication nodes in the communication network which are influenced by power node functionalities. Using this model, we show that both intra-dependencies among communication nodes and inter-dependencies with power nodes play a key role to the failure dynamics of communication network, which is also validated by numerical simulation on a real network topology.
Method for accurate registration of tissue autofluorescence imaging data with corresponding histology: a means for enhanced tumor margin assessment

An important step in establishing the diagnostic potential for emerging optical imaging techniques is accurate registration between imaging data and the corresponding tissue histopathology typically used as gold standard in clinical diagnostics. We present a method to precisely register data acquired with a point-scanning spectroscopic imaging technique from fresh surgical tissue specimen blocks with corresponding histological sections. Using a visible aiming beam to augment point-scanning multispectral time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy on video images, we evaluate two different markers for the registration with histology: fiducial markers using a 405-nm CW laser and the tissue block’s outer shape characteristics. We compare the registration performance with benchmark methods using either the fiducial markers or the outer shape characteristics alone to a hybrid method using both feature types. The hybrid method was found to perform best reaching an average error of 0.78±0.67 mm. This method provides a profound framework to validate diagnostical abilities of optical fiber-based techniques and furthermore enables the application of supervised machine learning techniques to automate tissue characterization.
Building a body of knowledge: sickle cell and libraries.

Lemuel Whitley Diggs spent his career seeking a cure for sickle cell anemia. As with many successful researchers, his work was informed by the publications that he found in the medical library. This article describes Diggs’s relationship to the library as an integral part of his research methodology.
Credentialing and Privileging

Credentialing and privileging are often the last and most difficult processes in an US program that require significant understanding, review, implementation, and strategy to legitimize ultrasound in clinical practice. Definition of the key processes with commentary and suggested steps in regard to credentialing and privileging.
Analysis and optimization of bone machining for robotic orthopedic surgeries.

BACKGROUND Robot-assisted joint replacement surgery is becoming increasingly more common worldwide, therefore it is important to characterize and improve the bone-cutting mechanics of surgical tools. METHODS Linear coefficients relating cutting force and chip thickness were derived for a surgical spindle. The cutting coefficients were integrated into an analytical simulation which calculated cutting forces, torque, and power consumption. An optimization experiment was performed. High speed video was taken at various tool parameter settings. RESULTS Varying machining parameters resulted in lower cutting forces. The surgical spindle stalled at the current spindle speed used in surgery, but did not for the new, optimized conditions. Multiple anomalies were identified in the videos that confirmed observations from the cutting force data. CONCLUSIONS Improved surgical performance and accuracy were achieved using slower spindle speeds, decreased cutting depth, and increased feed rates, as well as improving motor torque to ensure a smooth cutting process.
Prefrontal high gamma during a magnetoencephalographic working memory task

In human electrophysiology research, the high gamma part of the power spectrum (~>60 Hz) is a relatively new area of investigation. Despite a low signal-to-noise ratio, evidence exists that it contains significant information about activity in local cortical networks. Here, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found high gamma activity when comparing data from an n-back working memory task to resting data in a large sample of normal volunteers. Initial analysis of power spectra from 0-back, 2-back, and rest trials showed three frequency bands exhibiting task-related differences: alpha, beta, and high gamma. Unlike alpha and beta, the high gamma spectrum was broad, without a peak at a single frequency. In addition, power in high gamma was highest for the 2-back and lowest during rest, while the opposite pattern occurred in the other bands. Beamformer source localization of each of the three frequency bands revealed a distinct set of sources for high gamma. These included several regions of prefrontal cortex that exhibited greater power when both n-back conditions were compared to rest. A subset of these regions had more power when the 2-back was compared to 0-back, which indicates a role in working memory performance. Our results show that high gamma will be important for understanding cortical processing during cognitive and other tasks. Furthermore, data from human intracortical recordings suggest that high gamma is the aggregate of spiking in local cortical networks, which implies that MEG could serve to bridge experimental modalities by noninvasively observing task-related modulation of spiking rates.
Digital Vulnerability: The Unequal Risk of E-Contact with the Criminal Justice System

Increased citizen interaction with the criminal justice system on digital platforms renders citizens more vulnerable to breaches of information to third parties. We introduce the concept of digital vulnerability to measure the extent to which technology produces unequal exposure to risk of data breaches. Using police-dispatcher radio communication, we examine the extent to which dispatchers reveal identifiable information about callers reporting crime. Data come from sixty audio-recorded hours of police-dispatcher radio communication across three racially distinct police radio zones in Chicago. Findings revealed that one of every ten calls made to police in zones serving racial minorities disclosed caller names or home addresses. We discuss implications for research on racial inequality in criminal justice contact, police-community relations, and policies concerning police-dispatcher radio communication.
Inflammatory consequences of inherited disorders affecting neutrophil function

Primary immunodeficiencies affecting the function of neutrophils and other phagocytic leukocytes are notable for an increased susceptibility to bacterial and fungal infections as a result of impaired leukocyte recruitment, ingestion, and/or killing of microbes. The underlying molecular defects can also impact other innate immune responses to infectious and inflammatory stimuli, leading to inflammatory and autoimmune complications that are not always directly related to infection. This review will provide an update on congenital disorders affecting neutrophil function in which a combination of host defense and inflammatory complications are prominent, including nicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate oxidase defects in chronic granulomatous disease and β2 integrin defects in leukocyte adhesion deficiency.
Texas Community Colleges Respond to the Threatened End of DACA: A Document Analysis

Undocumented students continue to face unique barriers in American higher education. Community colleges are being challenged to enhance the ways in which they serve, support, and advocate for undoc...
Bacterial antibiotic resistance development and mutagenesis following exposure to subminimal inhibitory concentrations of fluoroquinolones in vitro: a systematic literature review protocol.

Introduction Antibiotic resistance (AR) is among the most pressing global health challenges. Fluoroquinolones are a clinically important group of antibiotics that have wide applicability in both humans and animals. While many drivers of AR are known, the impact of medicine quality on AR remains largely unknown. The aim of this review is to systematically evaluate the evidence of the impact of in vitro subinhibitory antibiotic exposure, a major tenet of substandard antibiotics, on the development of AR and mutagenesis, using fluoroquinolones as a case study. Methods and analysis EMBASE, Web of Science and PubMed will be systematically searched for primary experimental in vitro studies, from earliest available dates within each database (1947, 1965 and 1966, respectively) through 2018, related to subinhibitory fluoroquinolone exposure and AR. A specifically developed non-weighted tool will be used to critically assess the evidence. Subgroup analyses will be performed for different variables and outcomes. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required as no primary data are to be collected. The completed systematic review will be disseminated through conference meeting presentations and a peer-reviewed publication.
Training to Detect Phishing Emails: Effects of the Frequency of Experienced Phishing Emails:

We studied people’s success on the detection of phishing emails after they were trained under one of three phishing frequency conditions, where the proportion of the phishing emails during training...
Young-Onset Ischemic Colitis: A Condition of Elusive Etiology Frequently Associated With Immune Dysregulation:

Ischemic colitis (IC) associates with older age, hypertension, and heart disease, among others. Young-onset IC is rare. We aimed to delineate clinical characteristics of young patients (<40 years) with IC. Cases from 1984 to 2017 were re-reviewed. Of the 60 cases available, 52% (n = 31) had histologic features of IC. Fifty-five percent were female with a mean age of 32 (range = 14-40) years. Fifty-eight percent (n = 18) were resections. The most common presentations were diarrhea and abdominal pain. Three teenagers had IC associated with prior surgery, volvulus, and constipation. In the 21- to 40-year group, 43% (n = 12) lacked clinical associations. A second subset (n = 6, 21%) had histories of immune dysregulation (lupus, dermatomyositis, vasculitis) and poorly controlled HIV/AIDS (n = 5, 18%). Smoking and cocaine were endorsed by 1 and 2 patients, respectively. One patient had premature atherosclerosis while another had HMG Co-A lyase deficiency. Vasculitis was identified in 22% of the resections and in none of the biopsies. Nineteen percent of patients died (n = 6) from complications of IC, all treated surgically, including 1 patient previously misdiagnosed as ulcerative colitis; 2 patients died of unrelated causes. While rare before 20 years of age, IC in teenagers relates to mechanical issues and is rare in children. Associations in young adults include immune dysregulation, cocaine and cigarette use, and premature atherosclerosis. Our retrospective cohort had a surgical mortality rate within the range reported by others, highlighting the importance of accurate diagnosis in young individuals.
Ketorolac use and anastomotic leak in patients with esophageal cancer.

Abstract Objectives Recent evidence has shown an association between postoperative ketorolac use and anastomotic leak in patients undergoing intestinal and colorectal operations, but this relationship has been minimally explored after esophagectomy. As the use of nonopioid pain control and enhanced recovery protocols is increasingly prioritized, determination of a possible correlation between perioperative ketorolac use and leak is essential. Methods Records of patients undergoing esophagectomy for adenocarcinoma at a single institution from 2006 to 2018 reviewed for occurrence of anastomotic leak. Institutional pharmacy records were queried for ketorolac administration during the surgical case through the time of discharge. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between ketorolac administration and anastomotic leak. Results A total of 1019 patients met inclusion criteria, the majority of whom were male (907, 89%) with a median age of 62 years. Patients predominantly presented with locoregionally advanced disease and were treated with initial chemoradiation. Ketorolac was administered to 686 patients (67%); use was observed to increase over the study period from 49% in 2006 to 92% in 2016. Conversely, anastomotic leak occurred in 87 patients (9%) overall and decreased over time from 15% (11/72) in 2006 to 2% (2/83) in 2018. Upon multivariable analysis, neither ketorolac administration evaluated as a categoric variable (odds ratio, 0.99; P = .958) or as a continuous variable using dose (odds ratio, 1.00; P = .843) demonstrated an association with anastomotic leak. Conclusions Ketorolac in the postoperative period after esophagectomy has become an integral component of enhanced recovery pathways and does not appear to be associated with anastomotic leak.
Perturbative PDF of the total magnetization of the 4D Ising model

We compute, at one loop in perturbation theory, the probability density function of the total magnetization $M$ of the Ising model on the 4-torus and the 4-sphere. We develop a single perturbative expansion that is valid in the symmetric phase as well as the broken symmetry phase, provided that the correlation length is large compared to the system size $L$. We find that, at the critical point, for large system size in lattice units, the PDF approaches $p(M)\sim \exp(-f(L) M^4)$. Consequently, the critical value of the Binder cumulant of the total magnetization is $U = 1 - \frac{4\,\Gamma(5/4)^2}{3\,\Gamma(3/4)^2}$. We validate our results by comparison with Monte Carlo simulation.
Stress ulcer prophylaxis versus placebo—a blinded randomized control trial to evaluate the safety of two strategies in critically ill infants with congenital heart disease (SUPPRESS-CHD)

Critically ill infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) are often prescribed stress ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) to prevent upper gastrointestinal bleeding, despite the low incidence of stress ulcers and limited data on the safety and efficacy of SUP in infants. Recently, SUP has been associated with an increased incidence of hospital-acquired infections, community-acquired pneumonia, and necrotizing enterocolitis. The objective of this pilot study is to investigate the feasibility of performing a randomized controlled trial to assess the safety and efficacy of withholding SUP in infants with congenital heart disease admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit. A single center, prospective, double-blinded, randomized placebo-controlled pilot feasibility trial will be performed in infants with CHD admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit and anticipated to require respiratory support for > 24 h. Patients will be randomized to receive a histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H2RA) or placebo until they are discontinued from respiratory support. Randomization will be performed within 2 strata defined by admission type (medical or surgical) and age (neonate, age < 30 days, or infant, 1 month to 1 year). Allocation will be a 1:1 ratio using permuted blocks to ensure balanced allocations across the two treatment groups within each stratum. The primary outcomes include feasibility of screening, consent, timely allocation of study drug, and protocol adherence. The primary safety outcome is the rate of clinically significant upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The secondary outcomes are the difference in the relative and absolute abundance of the gut microbiota and functional microbial profiles between the two study groups. We plan to enroll 100 patients in this pilot study. Routine use of SUP to prevent upper gastrointestinal bleeding in infants is controversial due to a low incidence of bleeding events and concern for adverse effects. The role of SUP in infants with CHD has not been examined, and there is equipoise on the risks and benefits of withholding this therapy. In addition, this therapy has been discontinued in other neonatal populations due to the concern for hospital-acquired infections and necrotizing enterocolitis. Furthermore, exploring changes to the microbiome after exposure to SUP may highlight the mechanisms by which SUP impacts potential microbial dysbiosis of the gut and its association with hospital-acquired infections. Assessment of the feasibility of a trial of withholding SUP in critically ill infants with CHD will facilitate planning of a larger multicenter trial of safety and efficacy of SUP in this vulnerable population. ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT03667703. Registered 12 September 2018, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03667703?term=SUPPRESS+CHD&draw=2&rank=1 . All WHO Trial Registration Data Set Criteria are met in this manuscript.
The UCSC SARS-CoV-2 Genome Browser.

Background: Researchers are generating molecular data pertaining to the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome and its proteins at an unprecedented rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, there is a critical need for rapid and continuously updated access to the latest molecular data in a format in which all data can be quickly cross-referenced and compared. We adapted our genome browser visualization tool to the viral genome for this purpose. Molecular data, curated from published studies or from database submissions, are mapped to the viral genome and grouped together into “annotation tracks” where they can be visualized along the linear map of the viral genome sequence and programmatically downloaded in standard format for analysis. Results: The UCSC Genome Browser for SARS-CoV-2 ( https://genome.ucsc.edu/covid19.html ) provides continuously updated access to the mutations in the many thousands of SARS-CoV-2 genomes deposited in GISAID and the international nucleotide sequencing databases, displayed alongside phylogenetic trees. These data are augmented with alignments of bat, pangolin, and other animal and human coronavirus genomes, including per-base evolutionary rate analysis. All available annotations are cross-referenced on the virus genome, including those from major databases (PDB, RFAM, IEDB, UniProt) as well as up-to-date individual results from preprints. Annotated data include predicted and validated immune epitopes, promising antibodies, RT-PCR and sequencing primers, CRISPR guides (from research, diagnostics, vaccines, and therapies), and points of interaction between human and viral genes. As a community resource, any user can add manual annotations which are quality checked and shared publicly on the browser the next day. Conclusions: We invite all investigators to contribute additional data and annotations to this resource to accelerate research and development activities globally. Contact us at genome-www@soe.ucsc.edu with data suggestions or requests for support for adding data. Rapid sharing of data will accelerate SARS-CoV-2 research, especially when researchers take time to integrate their data with those from other labs on a widely-used community browser platform with standardized machine-readable data formats, such as the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Browser.
Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting

Goal setting is one of the most replicated and influential paradigms in the management literature. Hundreds of studies conducted in numerous countries and contexts have consistently demonstrated that setting specific, challenging goals can powerfully drive behavior and boost performance. Advocates of goal setting have had a substantial impact on research, management education, and management practice. In this article, we argue that the beneficial effects of goal setting have been overstated and that systematic harm caused by goal setting has been largely ignored. We identify specific side effects associated with goal setting, including a narrow focus that neglects non-goal areas, a rise in unethical behavior, distorted risk preferences, corrosion of organizational culture, and reduced intrinsic motivation. Rather than dispensing goal setting as a benign, over-the-counter treatment for motivation, managers and scholars need to conceptualize goal setting as a prescription-strength medication that requires careful dosing, consideration of harmful side effects, and close supervision. We offer a warning label to accompany the practice of setting goals.
The ethical decision-making gap in student ethics: examining how university students approach ethical dilemmas

This study investigates university students’ approach to evaluate and solve ethical dilemmas and the rationale behind this approach. In evaluating ethical dilemmas, students form judgments and recognize what is right or wrong in a given dilemma. However, in solving ethical dilemmas, their decisions may be congruent or incongruent with the judgment, thereby creating a gap between judgment and intention in cases of incongruency. The research also examines the rationale or motivations for why students cheat and plagiarize, and the contribution of personal and institutional characteristics as covariates. A scenario-based 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design is applied to 221 U.S.-based university students. The findings reveal a gap between the judgment that evaluates an ethical dilemma and the intention to act to solve (by rewarding or punishing) such ethical dilemma. The results also identify five factors reflecting 26 items explaining why students cheat and plagiarize. This study can help educators address the incongruency in a student’s approach to evaluate and solve ethical dilemmas and improve student’s ethical education and critical thinking.
Dispersion Compensation in Acoustic Emission Pipeline Leak Location

The general practice of acoustic leak location relies on two different physical phenomena for determining source location: 1) reduction in signal amplitude with increasing distance from the source (attenuation-based methods), and 2) increase in signal transit time with increasing distance from the source (time-of-flight-based methods). The work discussed here describes efforts at ISU directed at gaining first-principle understanding of the underlying physical phenomena of multi-mode dispersion in fluid filled pipes and to developing time-of-flight source location data processing for such dispersive systems. Results are presented for work detailing the characteristics of pipe propagation, as well as the effect of those characteristics on cross-correlation analysis. Theoretical and experimental results are also shown for two approaches which potentially overcome the limitations of cross-correlation techniques.
Bayesianism I: Introduction and Arguments in Favor

Bayesianism is a popular position (or perhaps, positions) in the philosophy of science, epistemology, statistics, and other related areas, which represents belief as coming in degrees, measured by a probability function. In this article, I give an overview of the unifying features of the different positions called ‘Bayesianism’, and discuss several of the arguments traditionally used to support them.
Motivating Effects of the Use of Norms and Goals with Endurance Testing

Abstract College men (N = 100) were randomly assigned to four groups. All subjects were tested for maximal elbow flexion strength with a cable tensiometer prior to an endurance exercise bout. All subjects were instructed to perform to the best of their abilities. The control group received no further information. A second group was given realistic norms; subjects in a third group were casually informed of very high fictitious norms; and subjects in the obtainable group were told that they were expected to be able to do at least 40 repetitions. Analysis of variance revealed that all three treatment groups surpassed the control group. The fictitious norms group exhibited the highest and most varied performance. The findings indicated that endurance is highly influenced by motivation. Supplementary information such as norms, ego-threatening false norms, and suggested goals given along with regular test instructions can markedly affect performance.
Comparing domestic and international distributors’ performance

Discusses a survey which was administered to a group of manufacturers wherein they were asked to evaluate the performance of their domestic and international distributors. These evaluations were then compared to ascertain potential problem areas for international distributors and those activities which they were doing adequately (according to the manufacturers). Generally, domestic distributors out‐performed their international counterparts, with the distributor′s handling of damaged merchandise and terms of payment being some of the areas where there was not a significant difference. Kenichi Ohmae′s framework for international involvement could be considered to be a firm′s evolution of their international involvement. A firm′s position in this framework was shown to be independent of the time they had been distributing internationally.
Radical mechanisms of S-adenosylmethionine-dependent enzymes

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the family of S-adenosylmethione (SAM)-dependent enzymes that make use of the 5’-deoxyadenosyl radical, with special reference to the mechanism by which SAM is cleaved reversibly at the active site. One member of the family, lysine 2,3-aminomutase, makes use of the 5’-deoxyadenosyl radical to initiate the molecular rearrangement of a substrate, and the radical is subsequently regenerated in the catalytic cycle, such that SAM functions in a catalytic role as a true coenzyme. The other family members use SAM as a substrate, and the 5’-deoxyadenosyl free radical appears to be an intermediate in an irreversible hydrogen abstraction reaction. The latter enzymes include the pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme, the anaerobic ribonucleotide reductase from escherichia coli , biotin synthase, and lipoic acid synthase. The chapter also considers the functions of the 5’-deoxyadenosyl radical and the mechanisms of these diverse reactions. Photolytic or thermal cleavage of adenosylcobalamin produces cob(II)alamin and the 5’- deoxyadenosyl radical through homolytic scission of the Co-C bond. Spectral and kinetic evidence indicate that this same cleavage is brought about at the active sites of adenosylcobalamin-dependent enzymes, and the ensuing 5’-deoxyadenosyl radical is thought to initiate the free radical-based reaction mechanisms catalyzed by those enzymes.
Perceived Similarity of Exemplar Traits and Behavior Effects on Message Evaluation

Communicators often seek effective messages for attempting to influence people’s behaviors, such as reducing college students’ drinking. Social cognitive theory suggests that identification with a character or example may increase the likelihood that audiences will model behavior presented in an anti-alcohol message. Exemplars such as those sometimes used in news stories may elicit desirable modeling. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the relationships among social desirability and social orientation, alcohol consumption, perceived similarity of exemplars, and message effectiveness. An experiment exposed 204 university students to magazine messages on tanning in which a demographically similar exemplar’s alcohol consumption and socializing were manipulated. Perceived similarity of exemplars was positively related to message effectiveness. Messages including alcohol consumption and social situations were most effective. Subjects’ drinking and social orientation were positively related to simila...
Managerial discretion and the economic determinants of the disclosed volatility parameter for valuing ESOs

This study investigates the determinants of the expected stock-price volatility assumption that firms use in estimating ESO values and thus option expense. We find that, consistent with the guidance of FAS 123, firms use both historical and implied volatility in deriving the expected volatility parameter. We also find, however, that the importance of each of the two variables in explaining disclosed volatility relates inversely to their values, which results in a reduction in expected volatility and thus option value. This can be interpreted as managers opportunistically use the discretion in estimating expected volatility afforded by FAS 123. Consistent with this, we find that managerial incentives or ability to understate option value play a key role in this behavior. Since discretion in estimating expected volatility is common to both FAS 123 and 123(R), our analysis has important implications for market participants as well as regulators.
Ligand-induced activation of a formin–NPF pair leads to collaborative actin nucleation

Formins associate with other nucleators and nucleation-promoting factors (NPFs) to stimulate collaborative actin assembly, but the mechanisms regulating these interactions have been unclear. Yeast Bud6 has an established role as an NPF for the formin Bni1, but whether it also directly regulates the formin Bnr1 has remained enigmatic. In this paper, we analyzed NPF-impaired alleles of bud6 in a bni1Δ background and found that Bud6 stimulated Bnr1 activity in vivo. Furthermore, Bud6 bound directly to Bnr1, but its NPF effects were masked by a short regulatory sequence, suggesting that additional factors may be required for activation. We isolated a novel in vivo binding partner of Bud6, Yor304c-a/Bil1, which colocalized with Bud6 and functioned in the Bnr1 pathway for actin assembly. Purified Bil1 bound to the regulatory sequence in Bud6 and triggered NPF effects on Bnr1. These observations define a new mode of formin regulation, which has important implications for understanding NPF-nucleator pairs in diverse systems.
Secure multiparty computation between distrusted networks terminals

One of the most important problems facing any distributed application over a heterogeneous network is the protection of private sensitive information in local terminals. A subfield of cryptography called secure multiparty computation (SMC) is the study of such distributed computation protocols that allow distrusted parties to perform joint computation without disclosing private data. SMC is increasingly used in diverse fields from data mining to computer vision. This paper provides a tutorial on SMC for nonexperts in cryptography and surveys some of the latest advances in this exciting area including various schemes for reducing communication and computation complexity of SMC protocols, doubly homomorphic encryption, and private information retrieval.
A Density-Dependent Switch Drives Stochastic Clustering and Polarization of Signaling Molecules

Positive feedback plays a key role in the ability of signaling molecules to form highly localized clusters in the membrane or cytosol of cells. Such clustering can occur in the absence of localizing mechanisms such as pre-existing spatial cues, diffusional barriers, or molecular cross-linking. What prevents positive feedback from amplifying inevitable biological noise when an un-clustered “off” state is desired? And, what limits the spread of clusters when an “on” state is desired? Here, we show that a minimal positive feedback circuit provides the general principle for both suppressing and amplifying noise: below a critical density of signaling molecules, clustering switches off; above this threshold, highly localized clusters are recurrently generated. Clustering occurs only in the stochastic regime, suggesting that finite sizes of molecular populations cannot be ignored in signal transduction networks. The emergence of a dominant cluster for finite numbers of molecules is partly a phenomenon of random sampling, analogous to the fixation or loss of neutral mutations in finite populations. We refer to our model as the “neutral drift polarity model.” Regulating the density of signaling molecules provides a simple mechanism for a positive feedback circuit to robustly switch between clustered and un-clustered states. The intrinsic ability of positive feedback both to create and suppress clustering is a general mechanism that could operate within diverse biological networks to create dynamic spatial organization.
Development and Testing of an Incontinence Monitoring Record

Bladder records can play an important role in the assessment and treatment of incontinence. Many records currently used in long-term care settings are difficult to read and interpret, and they do not provide for the recording of information that can be of value in the assessment and treatment process. Two versions of an incontinence monitoring record (IMR), one using black and white symbols and the other using colored circles, were developed and tested in a quasiexperimental design in three proprietary nonacademically affiliated nursing homes. The IMRs were well accepted by the nursing staff in these homes. Recordings were made more frequently and interrater reliability was highest with the color version of the IMR. Results of this initial study are promising and suggest that the IMR, or a similarly designed record, will be helpful in nursing homes to assess the bladder and bowel status of new admissions, determine patterns of and factors associated with incontinence, design individualized bladder training programs, and monitor the results of these programs and other treatment modalities. In addition, the IMR can provide an opportunity for nurses' aides to meaningfully participate in the assessment and treatment of a condition they manage on a daily basis.
Improved in vitro packaging of coliphage lambda DNA: a one-strain system free from endogenous phage

In previous systems for in vitro packaging of lambda DNA, phages are produced from the packaging components as well as from added DNA. We have developed a new genetic strategy for in vitro packaging that bypasses this endogenous phage problem. Our system employs a single bacterial strain whose lambda prophage codes for all of the packaging proteins but is deleted for cos, the packaging origin. Crude extracts of the single lysogen: (i) are virtually free from endogenous phages, (ii) package added lambda DNA efficiently and (iii) are easy to prepare. Using the cos- in vitro packaging system we show that packaging of lambda linear monomers is a second-order reaction, but that packaging from concatemers prepared by annealing or ligation is first order. We conclude that in our cos- system, linear monomers are a poor substrate for in vitro packaging but that packaging from concatemers works well.
Identification of multiple rare variants associated with a disease

Identifying rare variants that are responsible for complex disease has been promoted by advances in sequencing technologies. However, statistical methods that can handle the vast amount of data generated and that can interpret the complicated relationship between disease and these variants have lagged. We apply a zero-inflated Poisson regression model to take into account the excess of zeros caused by the extremely low frequency of the 24,487 exonic variants in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 data. We grouped the 697 subjects in the data set as Europeans, Asians, and Africans based on principal components analysis and found the total number of rare variants per gene for each individual. We then analyzed these collapsed variants based on the assumption that rare variants are enriched in a group of people affected by a disease compared to a group of unaffected people. We also tested the hypothesis with quantitative traits Q1, Q2, and Q4. Analyses performed on the combined 697 individuals and on each ethnic group yielded different results. For the combined population analysis, we found that UGT1A1, which was not part of the simulation model, was associated with disease liability and that FLT1, which was a causal locus in the simulation model, was associated with Q1. Of the causal loci in the simulation models, FLT1 and KDR were associated with Q1 and VNN1 was correlated with Q2. No significant genes were associated with Q4. These results show the feasibility and capability of our new statistical model to detect multiple rare variants influencing disease risk.
Identification of G protein-coupled, inward rectifier potassium channel gene products from the rat anterior pituitary gland.

Dopamine (DA) is a physiological regulator of PRL secretion, exerting tonic inhibitory control. DA activates an inward rectifier K+ (IRK) channel in rat lactotropes, causing membrane hyperpolarization and inhibition of Ca2+-dependent action potentials. Both the activation of this effector K+ channel and the inhibition of PRL release are mediated by D2-type receptor activation and pertussis toxin- sensitive G proteins. To study the molecular basis of this physiologically relevant channel, a homology-based PCR approach was employed to identify members of the IRK channel family expressed in the anterior pituitary gland. Nondegenerate primers corresponding to regions specific for IRK channels known to be G protein activated (GIRKs; gene subfamily Kir 3.0) were synthesized and used in the PCR with reverse transcribed female rat anterior pituitary messenger RNA as the template. PCR products of predicted sizes for Kir 3.1, 3.2, and 3.4 were consistently observed by ethidium bromide staining after 16 amplificatio...
Preparation and structure of a pyrochlore and perovskite in the BiRhO3+x system☆

Abstract We have found that the reaction of Bi2O3 with either Rh metal or Rh2O3 ( Bi Rh = 1:1 ) at 600–1000° C in air or oxygen forms a compound Bi2.0Rh2.0O6.8 with the pyrochlore structure ( a = 10.238 A ). We have refined the position parameter for O1, the occupancy factor (OF) for O2 and atomic temperature factors (B) by R-factor minimization on powder data. Resistivity measurements on sintered samples gave π = 3.2 × 10 −3 Ω cm at 300 K and 3.0 × 10 −3 Ω cm at 77K. Reaction of Bi2O3 and Rh2O3 in sealed, evacuated quartz tubes gave a product that could not be identified. However, under pressure (65 kbar) the orthorhombic ( a = 5.354 , b = 5.813 , c = 7.776 A perovskite BiRhO3 was formed.
Detailed Balance Solar Cell Efficiency Limits for Internal Fluorescence Yield Slightly Less than 100

The Shockley-Queisser approach to calculating solar cell efficiencies assumes 100% internal fluorescence yield. This is misleading, as even a slight drop in internal yield to 90% already causes a severe drop below the Shockley-Queisser limit.
Racial differences in the validity of self-reported drug use among men who have sex with men in Atlanta, GA.

Background Men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly young black MSM, are disproportionately affected in the United States’ HIV epidemic. Drug use may contribute to these disparities, yet previous studies have failed to provide evidence of elevated use among black MSM, relying exclusively on self-reported usage. This study uses biological assays to validate self-reports of drug use and explore the potential for misclassification to distort findings on racial patterns of use in this population.