cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Posttranslational alanine trans-stimulation of zwitterionic amino acid transport systems in human intestinal Caco-2 cells.

Abstract Background. Neutral dietary amino acids, such as alanine, are transported across the gut lumen by both Na + -dependent (System B) and Na + -independent (System L) carriers, but the nature of the acute phase of substrate-induced uptake is unknown. This study examined the effects of acute amino acid substrate exposure on the rapid modulation of apical membrane alanine transport in cultured human intestinal cells. Methods. System B and System L transport activity kinetics, as well as ATB 0 mRNA levels, were measured in confluent Caco-2 monolayers treated with various metabolic agents during short-term and extended time periods. Results. Depleting the incubation medium of alanine attenuated both System B and System L uptake activities within 30 mins, with a complete return to baseline values within 3 h. Extracellular alanine added to depleted Caco-2 cells rapidly (within 5 min) increased alanine transport activities. Kinetic analysis showed that acute alanine exposure increased both K m and V max of each transport system, indicative of a trans -stimulation effect. Augmenting intracellular alanine levels using the cytosolic alanine aminotransferase inhibitor, aminooxyacetic acid, increased alanine uptake activity. Acute exposure to other substrates of Systems B and L also increased the uptake of alanine, while nonsubstrates did not affect alanine uptake. Cycloheximide or actinomycin did not affect substrate acute activation of System B, and the steady-state level of ATB 0 mRNA was not altered by amino acid exposure. Conclusion. Increasing alanine availability to intestinal cells, by either exogenous substrate exposure or inhibition of intracellular catabolism, acutely and reversibly increases apical membrane alanine transport activity via a posttranslation trans -stimulation mechanism.
Necroscopic Findings of Pleomorphic, Variably Acid‐Fast Bacteria in a Fatal Case of Kaposi's Sarcoma

Bacteriologic findings in a fatal case of Kaposi's sarcoma are recounted and the issue of an infectious cause for Kaposi's sarcoma is explored.
Emotional Capital and Professional Socialization: The Case of Mortuary Science Students (and Me)*

This article is based on an ethnographic study of an accredited mortuary science progam. It describes a variety of ways in which this program and its students' social lives normalize work with and around the dead. It also draws contrasts between the successful mortuary science students' emotional reactions to the work of funeral direction and those of unsuccessful students (and my own), and explains those contrasts in terms of biographical backgrounds. Drawing on these observations, I introduce the concept of "emotional capital" and explore how it may be implicated in processes of professional socialization and of occupational selection and exclusion, and in the social reproduction of status distinctions in general.
THE TRANSMITTING TRACT IN GLADIOLUS. I. THE STIGMA AND THE POLLEN-STIGMA INTERACTION

The stigma papillae in Gladiolus are of the "dry" type and are highly vacuolated cells with an organelle-rich peripheral cytoplasm. The cell wall of each papilla is overlain by a distinctive cuticle possessing an irregularly scalloped inner margin. Between the cell wall and cuticle is a layer of amorphous sub-cuticular material. Lipids are detected on the papilla surface. A pollen grain will hydrate and germinate only on a papilla and not on any other (non-papillate) portion of the stigma. The pollen tube penetrates the papilla cuticle, which is forced away from the papilla cell wall by sub-cuticular pollen tube growth. As the cuticle lifts away, the sub-cuticular material disperses. At the base of the papilla, the pollen tube grows onto the adaxial nonpapillate surface of the stigma lobe. At this site, the cuticle has been lifted away from the underlying cells by release of a mucilaginous substance from the latter, and the pollen tube grows within this substance beneath the detached cuticle. The cytological features of Gladiolus papillae are compared with other stigma papillae described in the literature. Also, a review of the literature, as well as some of the findings of the present study, suggest that certain prevalent interpretations of dry stiema structure and function may be onen to auestion.
Patterns of metastasis in sex cord-stromal tumors of the ovary: Can routine staging lymphadenectomy be omitted?

Abstract Objective Given the paucity of data regarding the patterns of metastasis from ovarian sex cord-stromal tumors (SCSTs), we sought to determine the risk of lymph node metastasis in patients with SCSTs. Methods A retrospective chart review was performed after clinical and pathology databases were queried for ovarian SCST patients who were treated at our institution between 1985 and 2005. Results We identified 262 patients with pathology-confirmed ovarian SCSTs; 5 had additional non-stromal histology and were excluded, leaving 257 evaluable patients. Of these patients, 178 had adult granulosa cell tumors, 27 had juvenile granulosa cell tumors, 31 had Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors, 6 had sex cord tumors with annular tubules, 13 had mixed SCSTs, and 2 had SCSTs not otherwise specified. Our evaluation showed that 111 patients underwent a complete or partial staging procedure; 75 had stage I disease, 11 had stage II disease, and 25 had stage III disease. Fifty-eight of these 111 patients (52%) had lymph nodes removed as part of the staging procedure. Of the 58 patients who had lymph nodes sampled during the primary surgery, none had positive nodes. Of 117 patients whose disease eventually recurred, 6 patients (5.1%) had nodal metastases at the time of recurrence. Three of these patients had negative lymph nodes at initial staging. Conclusions Lymph node metastasis in ovarian SCSTs is rare. These findings suggest that lymphadenectomy may be omitted when staging patients with ovarian SCSTs.
Characterization of Surface Metal Contaminations on Fused Quartz

Micro-contamination exerts ever-increasing adverse impact on semiconductor manufacturing as device integration scale keeps increasing and device geometry continues decreasing. In particular, contaminations from particles, trace metals, and/or organic compounds can reduce device yield, quality, and reliability [. Metallic impurities from materials used for process equipment are one of the major contamination sources.
Serum angiotensin-I-converting enzyme activity in women with cardiological syndrome X: relation to blood pressure and lipid and carbohydrate metabolic risk markers for coronary heart disease.

Polymorphism of the angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) gene is associated with variations in serum ACE activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Whether a similar association exists with cardiological syndrome X (chest pain, positive ECG exercise test, and normal angiography) is unclear. As ACE activity affects vascular tone, it could be involved in the pathogenesis of this syndrome. We measured serum ACE activity in 18 postmenopausal women with syndrome X and in 18 healthy controls matched for age, adiposity, and menopausal status. The relationship of ACE activity to coronary heart disease risk factors was also examined within these groups. Serum ACE activity did not differ significantly between women with syndrome X and controls. Neither blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, nor high density lipoprotein subfraction 2 cholesterol was associated with ACE activity in either patient group. However, serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein subfracti...
Normalization of lithium-induced hypercalcemia and hyperparathyroidism with cinacalcet hydrochloride.

An underrecognized side effect of long-term lithium carbonate therapy is hyperparathyroidism with associated hypercalcemia and hypocalciuria. Because cessation of lithium carbonate therapy usually does not correct the hyperparathyroidism and associated hypercalcemia, parathyroidectomy frequently is necessary. This is the initial report of 2 patients with lithium carbonate–induced hyperparathyroidism treated with cinacalcet hydrochloride (HCl), which normalized serum calcium levels and reduced intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) secretion. The patients, both with bipolar disease and a 15- to 30-year history of lithium carbonate therapy, were evaluated for stage 3 chronic kidney disease, persistent hypercalcemia, and hyperparathyroidism. A 67-year-old woman was administered cinacalcet HCl, 30 mg/d, for 11 months. Mean serum calcium level decreased from 10.8 ± 0.4 mg/dL (2.69 ± 0.10 mmol/L) to 9.9 ± 0.4 mg/dL (2.47 ± 0.10 mmol/L; P
Decreases in CaMKII Activity Trigger Persistent Potentiation of Intrinsic Excitability in Spontaneously Firing Vestibular Nucleus Neurons

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) has been described as a biochemical switch that is turned on by increases in intracellular calcium to mediate synaptic plasticity. Here, we show that reductions in CaMKII activity trigger persistent increases in intrinsic excitability. In spontaneously firing vestibular nucleus neurons, CaMKII activity is near maximal, and blockade of CaMKII activity increases excitability by reducing BK-type calcium-activated potassium currents. Firing rate potentiation, a form of plasticity in which synaptic inhibition induces long-lasting increases in excitability, is occluded by prior blockade of CaMKII and blocked by addition of constitutively active CaMKII. Reductions in CaMKII activity are necessary and sufficient to induce firing rate potentiation and may contribute to motor learning in the vestibulo-ocular reflex.
A new method for power system transient instability detection

Reliability and computational simplicity are of primary importance in developing on-line instability detection methods. With regard to these requirements, this paper has proposed a new method for instability detection based on generator angles, angular velocities, and their rates of change. According to the developed method, system instability or out-of-step condition is detected by identifying the characteristics-concave or convex-of a surface on which the post-fault system trajectory lies. The variation mode and probabilistic property of the proposed index are investigated by using the 10 machine 39 bus IEEE test system.
Epidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the United States

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic emerged in the early 1980s with HIV infection as a highly lethal disease among men who have sex with men and among frequent recipients of blood product transfusions. Advances in the treatment of HIV infection have resulted in a fundamental shift in its epidemiology, to a potentially chronic and manageable condition. However, challenges in the prevention of this infection remain. In particular, increasing evidence suggests that transmission of drug-resistant virus is becoming more common and that the epidemic is having a profound impact on morbidity and mortality in ethnic and racial minority subgroups in the United States. New population-based data collection systems designed to describe trends in behaviors associated with HIV transmission and better methods for measuring the true incidence of transmission will better elucidate the characteristics of HIV infection in the United States and inform future public health policies.
Chronic meningitis with cranial neuropathies in Wegener's granulomatosis. Case report and review of the literature

We report the case of a 41-year-old man with chronic meningitis and cranial neuropathies in whom leptomeningeal biopsy demonstrated Wegener's granulomatosis. The literature on meningitis in this disease is reviewed. This case illustrates that Wegener's granulomatosis can cause chronic meningitis.
Handling long-latency loads in a simultaneous multithreading processor

Simultaneous multithreading architectures have been defined previously with fully shared execution resources. When one thread in such an architecture experiences a very long-latency operation, such as a load miss, the thread will eventually stall, potentially holding resources which other threads could be using to make forward progress. This paper shows that in many cases it is better to free the resources associated with a stalled thread rather than keep that thread ready to immediately begin execution upon return of the loaded data. Several possible architectures are examined, and some simple solutions are shown to be very effective, achieving speedups close to 6.0 in some cases, and averaging 15% speedup with four threads and over 100% speedup with two threads running. Response times are cut in half for several workloads in open system experiments.
Lenalidomide enhances anti-myeloma cellular immunity

Lenalidomide is an effective therapeutic agent for multiple myeloma that exhibits immunomodulatory properties including the activation of T and NK cells. The use of lenalidomide to reverse tumor-mediated immune suppression and amplify myeloma-specific immunity is currently being explored. In the present study, we examined the effect of lenalidomide on T-cell activation and its ability to amplify responses to a dendritic cell-based myeloma vaccine. We demonstrate that exposure to lenalidomide in the context of T-cell expansion with direct ligation of CD3/CD28 complex results in polarization toward a Th1 phenotype characterized by increased IFN-γ, but not IL-10 expression. In vitro exposure to lenalidomide resulted in decreased levels of regulatory T cells and a decrease in T-cell expression of the inhibitory marker, PD-1. Lenalidomide also enhanced T-cell proliferative responses to allogeneic DCs. Most significantly, lenalidomide treatment potentiated responses to the dendritic cell/myeloma fusion vaccine, which were characterized by increased production of inflammatory cytokines and increased cytotoxic lymphocyte-mediated lysis of autologous myeloma targets. These findings indicate that lenalidomide enhances the immunologic milieu in patients with myeloma by promoting T-cell proliferation and suppressing inhibitory factors, and thereby augmenting responses to a myeloma-specific tumor vaccine.
The Political Role of Organized Labor in Western Europe

N ON-POLITICAL trade unionism, as a governing concept for organized labor, has elicited much comment and attention in the recent history of Western Europe. At a time when the need for labor's responsible participation in the political process was desperate, many European unions re-emerged at war's end voicing the pious hope of an outmoded syndicalism-trade unions completely free of political party ties.' To be sure, the advocates of the "new look" were not thinking in terms of the revolutionary syndicalism recorded by Georges Sorel. Instead, non-political unionism was to provide the magic whereby a completely united labor movement could strive peacefully to attain a "suitable" place for the working classes in the reconstructed societies of a war-ravaged Europe.2
Corporate Control, Crime, and Compensation: An Empirical Examination of Large Corporations

This study investigates whether the agency cost of corporate crime leading to executive pay is greater when monitoring and incentive alignment activities by principals is low. The results indicate that executive compensation is positively associated with the incidence of corporate crime in manager controlled firms but not in owner controlled firms. Implications for the monitoring of business activities in owner and manager controlled firms are developed.
The Price of Uncertainty in Security Games

In the realm of information security, lack of information about other users' incentives in a network can lead to inefficient security choices and reductions in individuals' payoffs. We propose, contrast and compare three metrics for measuring the price of uncertainty due to the departure from the payoff-optimal security outcomes under complete information. Per the analogy with other efficiency metrics, such as the price of anarchy, we define the price of uncertainty as the maximum discrepancy in expected payoff in a complete information environment versus the payoff in an incomplete information environment. We consider difference, payoffratio, and cost-ratio metrics as canonical nontrivial measurements of the price of uncertainty. We conduct an algebraic, numerical, and graphical analysis of these metrics applied to different well-studied security scenarios proposed in prior work (i.e., best shot, weakest-link, and total effort). In these scenarios, we study how a fully rational expert agent could utilize the metrics to decide whether to gather information about the economic incentives of multiple nearsighted and naive agents. We find substantial differences between the various metrics and evaluate the appropriateness for security choices in networked systems.
Rotatory Brownian motion of a rigid dumbbell

The frictional torque on a dumbbell rotating with time-dependent angular velocity is calculated from the hydrodynamic interaction between the two ends of the dumbbell. This leads to the correlation function for the random torque in rotatory Brownian motion. Although the motion of each dumbbell end has the characteristics of a translational motion, the correlation function at large times decays like t −5/2 , as in the case of a solid sphere. The correlation function may be calculated for the limiting case of very small angular displacements. The results for displacements of arbitrary magnitude are the same provided that terms quadratic in the angular velocity are negligible.
Statistical study for electromigration reliability in dual-damascene Cu interconnects

This paper summarizes results from recent studies on electromigration (EM) reliability of Cu dual-damascene interconnects using a statistical approach. First, mass transport in Cu damascene structure was discussed, where the activation energies for oxide, porous MSQ (methylsilsesquioxane), and organic polymer dielectrics were found to be in the range of 0.8-1.0 eV, suggesting mass transport is dominated by interfacial diffusion at the Cu and SiN/sub x/ cap-layer interface regardless of the dielectric material. Then the impact of low-k inter-layer dielectrics on EM characteristics was investigated by measuring the critical product of current density and conductor length, (jL)/sub c/. Compared with oxide, the weaker mechanical strength of low-k dielectrics reduces (jL)/sub c/ due to less confinement and a smaller back flow stress gradient /spl Delta//spl sigma//L in Cu/low-k interconnects. Extrinsic failure due to interfacial delamination was observed in Cu/organic polymer interconnects, which caused further decrease in (jL)/sub c/. Complementing EM tests, Monte Carlo simulation was developed based on the weakest link approximation to separate the bimodal failure distribution into two individual lognormal distributions and deduce the characteristics of the weak-mode (early) and the strong-mode failures. Failure analysis using FIB confirmed the bimodal failure behavior with void formation at the cathode via bottom found to be responsible for the early failures.
Narcolepsy in children

Childhood narcolepsy is frequently under-diagnosed. Hypersomnolence may not always be accompanied by cataplexy, sleep paralysis, or hypnagogic hallucinations in the early stages. Pathophysiologic considerations revolve around an altered central nervous system catecholamine-acetylcholine balance. Both idiopathic and symptomatic forms have been described. Serial polysomnography and multiple sleep latency tests may be required to establish a definitive diagnosis. The long-term management requires the provision of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological forms of therapy.
One, Two, Hash! Counting Hash Tables for Flash Devices

In recent years, advances in hardware technology have led to the increasingly wide spread use of flash storage devices. Such devices have clear benefits over traditional hard drives in terms of latency of access, bandwidth, and random access capabilities particularly when reading data. However, there are some interesting tradeoffs. On a relative scale, writing to such devices can be expensive. This is because typical flash devices (NAND technology) are updated in blocks. A minor update to a given block requires the entire block to be erased, also referred to as cleaned, followed by a re-writing of the block. On the other hand, sequential writes can be two orders of magnitude faster than random writes. In addition, random writes are degrading to the life of the flash drive because each block can support only a limited number of cleaning operations. Hash tables are a particularly challenging case for the flash drive because this data structure is inherently dependent upon the randomness of the hash function, as opposed to the spatial locality of the data. Thus it is difficult to avoid random writes. In this paper, we will study the design landscape for the development of a hash table for flash storage devices. We demonstrate design tradeoffs with the design of a hash table by using two related hash functions, one of which exhibits a data placement property with respect to the other. Specifically, we focus on three designs based on this general philosophy and evaluate the trade-offs among them along the axes of query performance, insert and update times, and I/O time.
Pontine myelinolysis following excessive consumption of commercial energy drinks

Central pontine myelinolysis (CPM) is a rare neurologic entity of varied etiology characterized by the destruction of the myelin sheath in pontine structures. Initially described in chronic alcohol abuse and malnourished patients,1 CPM has also been associated with the rapid correction of hyponatremia and alterations in blood glucose homeostasis.
Flowback or the End of Globalization

The processes of globalization have often been described by way of the metaphor of ‘flows’—flows of people, goods, capital or ideas. Since the recent worldwide economic recession the nature, direct...
BodyQoS: Adaptive and Radio-Agnostic QoS for Body Sensor Networks

As wireless devices and sensors are increasingly deployed on people, researchers have begun to focus on wireless body-area networks. Applications of wireless body sensor networks include healthcare, entertainment, and personal assistance, in which sensors collect physiological and activity data from people and their environments. In these body sensor networks, quality of service is needed to provide reliable data communication over prioritized data streams. This paper proposes BodyQoS, the first running QoS system demonstrated on an emulated body sensor network. BodyQoS adopts an asymmetric architecture, in which most processing is done on a resource rich aggregator, minimizing the load on resource limited sensor nodes. A virtual MAC is developed in BodyQoS to make it radio-agnostic, allowing a BodyQoS to schedule wireless resources without knowing the implementation details of the underlying MAC protocols. Another unique property of BodyQoS is its ability to provide adaptive resource scheduling. When the effective bandwidth of the channel degrades due to RF interference or body fading effect, BodyQoS adaptively schedules remaining bandwidth to meet QoS requirements. We have implemented BodyQoS in NesC on top of TinyOS, and evaluated its performance on MicaZ devices. Our system performance study shows that BodyQoS delivers significantly improved performance over conventional solutions in combating channel impairment.
Oocyte Retrieval and Embryo Transfer

Technical aspects of the oocyte retrieval and embryo transfer are critical to the success of an assisted reproductive technologies program. The clinician must be able to master challenging clinical situations, such as accessing ovaries in abnormal anatomic locations at oocyte retrieval and performing embryo transfer in the face of cervical stenosis. Anticipation of challenges, equipment selection and setup, and patient preparation are all critical in maximizing the likelihood of optimal outcomes.
"SHREWD WOMEN OF BUSINESS": MADAME RACHEL, VICTORIAN CONSUMERISM, AND L. T. MEADE'S THE SORCERESS OF THE STRAND

STANLEY FISH RECENTLY IDENTIFIED the intersection between crime and religion as a hot topic, a trend that he gauged by paying attention to a popular television show: “Law and Order…from its beginning…has had its plots follow the headlines. Only if the tension between commitment to the rule of law and commitment to one's ethnic or religious affiliation was, so to speak, in the news would a television writer put it at the heart of a story.” During the same week that Fish published this claim, a Texas woman who drowned her five children had her guilty verdict overturned when it was revealed that an expert witness for the prosecution had made false statements to the court about an episode of the very same show. Commentators on the case said the witness had confused plots from Law and Order with real-life trials. One need not be Oscar Wilde to see a meta-dramatic chiasmus at work here: Law and Order imitates life, but life also imitates Law and Order. The same could be said of popular Victorian crime fiction, which was serialized in eagerly awaited autonomous episodes in a manner not unlike televised crime drama. Victorian authors, moreover, commonly sought inspiration in real-life criminal plots. Like Law and Order, such fictional representations both mirrored and created readers' “reality” outside the text. In this article, I will examine a previously unexplored instance of such fictional recycling and reinvention: L. T. Meade's popular detective series The Sorceress of the Strand, I argue, is an overt rewriting of the strange case of “Madame Rachel,” a notorious female criminal of the 1860s. Before I make my case concerning how, why, and to what end Meade revised Madame Rachel's story, let me briefly summarize the evidence for this connection.
When is a vesicle not just a vesicle: mitochondrial spheroids and mitochondrial autophagosomes.

To the Editor: The commentary by Ding and Eskelinen “Do mitochondria donate membrane to form autophagosomes or undergo remodeling to form mitochondrial spheroids?” on our recently published manuscript raises several important points that we wish to address. To do so, we here include several key experiments to clarify further that the mitochondrial vesicles observed in Cook et al. are likely to be autophagosomes [1], rather than “mitochondrial spheroids”. Ding et al. previously showed that when mouse embryonic fibroblasts are treated with the mitochondrial de-coupler agent CCCP, a structure they called a “mitochondrial spheroid” develops. These authors concluded that the spheroids are not autophagosomes because they still form in ATG5 and ATG7 embryonic fibroblasts [2]. However, autophagy is a complex pathway involving multiple mechanisms of activation. While ATG5 and ATG7 can play an important role in autophagosome formation, they are not obligatory in all cases. For example, autophagy can be activated in an ATG5/ATG7 independent manner involving ULK1 and Rab9 [3]. Ding and Eskelinen’s criticism of our study is the lack of electron microscopy (EM) images from cells with inhibited autophagy. We now show EM images from LCC9 cells transfected with ATG7 siRNA (Figure 1). We confirmed that ATG7 knockdown inhibits autophagy as shown by a reduction of LC3-II formation and an accumulation of p62 (Figure 1A). Furthermore, EM images indicate that ATG7 knockdown reduces autophagosome formation approximately by 50% (Figure 1D). Knockdown of ATG7 by RNAi also resulted in the accumulation of mitochondria as measured by COXIV (Figure 1B). We also observed increased mitochondria number (average 13.8 mitochondria per EM image versus 9.1 mitochondria per EM image) in ATG7 siRNA transfected cells when compared with control transfected cells. Taken together, these data imply that autophagy is a major pathway for
Simultaneous determination of ammonium and nitrate in soils

Abstract Continuous flow instrumentation for the automated measurement of ammonium and nitrate was developed at University of California, Davis. The method has been refined and adapted for routine analyses. Soil samples are extracted in 2N KC1 and the extracts are mixed with an alkali solution to liberate ammonia (NH3). The instrument has two channels for simultaneous measurements of ammonia and nitrate. Reduction of nitrates to ammonia takes place in one channel. The amount of ammonia in each channel is then measured by a diffusion‐conductivity method in which the ammonia gas is diffused through a micro‐porous Teflon tube and then redissolved in water to form ammonium hydroxide. The measured conductivity of the ammonium hydroxide is directly related to the ammonium content of the samples. The method is both rapid and reliable.
Vesicles and Passages Between Lamellas in L α Membrane Phases

We consider entropic effects of vesicles and passages confined between lamellas in fluid membrane lamellar (Lα) phases. We show that their presence induces attractive interactions between lamellas which strongly compete with steric repulsion in the vicinity of phase transitions from the lamellar to isotropic membrane phases. An interplay between steric repulsion and entropic interactions mediated by passages and vesicles determines the inter-lamellar distance reached at these transitions. This distance crucially depends on the membrane Gaussian bending rigidity constant.
Electronic health records-driven phenotyping: challenges, recent advances, and perspectives

With the completion of the Human Genome Project1 as well as recent advances in genomic science and comparative biological studies, a new era of individualized medicine is evolving where novel biomedical discoveries are leading to more effective prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of disease. Although altered phenotypes are one of the most reliable manifestations of altered gene functions, research in extracting, representing, and analyzing phenotype–genotype relationships is still evolving. This has led to the emergence of a trans-discipline field, called ‘Phenomics,’2 that aims to capitalize on high-throughput computation and informatics technologies for the systematic study of phenotypes and how they might influence personal genomics.3 Many comparative phenomics studies in the recent past4 ,5 have demonstrated the power of positively correlating phenotypes with several measures of gene functions. However, despite the advances, research in phenomics is presented with various challenges, including (i) developing approaches for high-throughput extraction and representation of phenotypes, (ii) building techniques for storing, integrating, and querying phenotype data, and (iii) advancing phenotypic-driven analysis to derive phenotype–genotype associations. A significant barrier in the discovery of new genetic variants is the requirement to obtain the large sample sizes needed for an effective study (since variants may be rare within a population) leading to time-consuming and onerous sample collection efforts. Electronic health records (EHRs) can accelerate clinical research and genomic medicine, but are hindered by the limited number of validated processes and tools to enable accurate and rapid phenotype extraction.6 EHRs are increasing in ubiquity, functionality, and comprehensiveness across the USA, in part due to Meaningful Use standards7 implemented as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. One recent advance has been the coupling of DNA biorepositories to EHR data,8–13 combined with advances in informatics techniques, … Correspondence to Dr Jyotishman Pathak, Department of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, 200 1st Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA; pathak.jyotishman{at}mayo.edu
The Public Sector in a Model of Growth and Distribution Pasinetti: Existence of One- or Two-Class Economies

This paper explores the implications of different regimes of taxation and fiscal policies on the existence of a one- or two-class economy in the Kaldor-Pasinetti approach of growth and income distribution. A simple model and its diagrammatical representation provide a complete taxonomy of the possible steady state equilibria and synthesize some early and recent contributions. It shows that the distribution among factors and the personal distribution among socio-economic classes depend on the fiscal policy of the government, the behavioural parameters of actors and technology; but, provided that some conditions are fulfilled, the Cambridge Theorem and its distributional implications hold.
Energy and Environment Undergraduate Course Emphasizing Comparative Metrics

This paper presents the pedagogical development of an undergraduate course in energy and the environment at Rice University and the crucial role of comparative metrics in its curriculum. The course, aimed at undergraduate engineering and science majors, overviews the physical principles that constrain energy use and explores how various sectors and fuels affect Earth’s environment and climate. The curriculum emphasizes the application of objective metrics for comparing the cost, energy intensity, and environmental impacts of various energy sources. Such metrics provide alternate approaches for assessing the relative merits of energy options but are neglected in most undergraduate textbooks. Thus, the course relies on assignments derived from supplemental readings to prompt students to compute comparative metrics and critically assess the approaches taken by energy researchers. A term project engages student teams in designing and evaluating original proposals for improving the use of an energy source from...
A Complete Stokes Vector Polarimeter

A scanning photoelectric polarimeter of 16 cm aperture that can measure all four Stokes parameters of the visible radiation of the Sun’s disk, the Corona, Moon and planets, has been constructed at the Institute for Astronomy and is installed on Mt. Haleakala. It is a two (orthogonal) channel system and uses a rotating λ/4 plate modulator. Photon counting is done by a digital computer that also Fourier analyzes the modulated output of the photomultipliers, and, from the Fourier components, computes the Stokes parameters in real time.
RB goes mitochondrial

The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor RB is well known for its capacity to restrict cell cycle progression at the G1/S transition of the cell cycle by controlling the transcription of cell cycle genes. In this issue of Genes & Development, Hilgendorf and colleagues (pp. 1003-1015) have identified a novel tumor suppressor function for RB independent of its role as a transcriptional regulator, in which RB directly activates the apoptosis regulator Bax at the mitochondria to promote cell death.
A score test for determining sample size in matched case-control studies with categorical exposure.

Summary The paper considers the problem of determining the number of matched sets in 1 : M matched casecontrol studies with a categorical exposure having k þ 1 categories, k � 1. The basic interest lies in constructing a test statistic to test whether the exposure is associated with the disease. Estimates of the k odds ratios for 1 : M matched case-control studies with dichotomous exposure and for 1 : 1 matched case-control studies with exposure at several levels are presented in Breslow and Day (1980), but results holding in full generality were not available so far. We propose a score test for testing the hypothesis of no association between disease and the polychotomous exposure. We exploit the power function of this test statistic to calculate the required number of matched sets to detect specific departures from the null hypothesis of no association. We also consider the situation when there is a natural ordering among the levels of the exposure variable. For ordinal exposure variables, we propose a test for detecting trend in disease risk with increasing levels of the exposure variable. Our methods are illustrated with two datasets, one is a real dataset on colorectal cancer in rats and the other a simulated dataset for studying disease-gene association.
Language Fluency as a Factor in Machine Translation Comprehension

Machine translations have been used for nearly 50 years, and although accuracy steadily improves, results do not often attain the standard set for human interpretation. Some people can understand poor translations better than others, but little is known about why this is so. Here, we show that language fluency was not a major factor in the ability of a human reader to comprehend a passage of text translated by computer, but prior topic knowledge could be.
A contextual, theoretical and empirical analysis of the uses of university degrees as symbolic capital in self-initiated expatriation

This paper explores how the internationalisation of universities is impacting the symbolic capital that self-initiated expatriates rely upon to find work abroad. It contributes to the body of knowledge on institutional factors that enable and constrain self-initiated expatriation. Following a review of the literature, the authors develop and examine four hypotheses related to (1) the degree of international orientation of universities, (2) the political and economic globalisation of the countries in which they are located and (3) their academic reputations. Three of the hypotheses are supported by the analysis; a fourth hypothesis is rejected but reveals that talented graduates from well-regarded universities in economically less globalised countries are in high demand from employers in economically more globalised countries. Location, academic reputation and the international orientation of a university are found to be important factors influencing how large international employers perceive and assess global universities as a source of employable talent.
Comparative Molecular Dynamics Studies of Human DNA Polymerase η.

High-energy ultraviolet radiation damages DNA through the formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers, which stall replication. When the lesion is a thymine–thymine dimer (TTD), human DNA polymerase η (Pol η) assists in resuming the replication process by inserting nucleotides opposite the damaged site. We performed extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structural and dynamical effects of four different Pol η complexes with or without a TTD and with either dATP or dGTP as the incoming base. No major differences in the overall structures and equilibrium dynamics were detected among the four systems, suggesting that the specificity of this enzyme is due predominantly to differences in local interactions in the binding regions. Analysis of the hydrogen-bonding interactions between the enzyme and the DNA and dNTP provided molecular-level insights. Specifically, the TTD was observed to engage in more hydrogen-bonding interactions with the enzyme than its undamaged counterpart of two n...
The Impact of Aging on Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic stroke is a complex disease with a growing multitude of risk factors. Aging is the principal risk factor for ischemic stroke, such that stroke occurs more often, and is more severe, in older demographics. Furthermore, among this population, stroke is more frequent and more severe in females as compared to males. This review will first describe the clinical literature on the prevalence of stroke as a function of age, sex, ethnicity and co-morbid conditions, and assess the validity of the statement that age is a non-modifiable risk factor for stroke. This is followed by a discussion of the experimental literature, focusing on the utility of animal models in duplicating age-related severity in stroke outcomes, as well as the mechanism underlying severe stroke outcomes. This review will build the case for the hypothesis that stroke severity in the aging brain is associated with, prior to the event, reduced functional capacity of critical support cells, both within the nervous system and in the immune system. In the brain, astrocytes, microglia and endothelial cells are crucial for detoxification of the brain microenvironment and maintaining neuronal survival in the hours following an ischemic event, while recruitment of peripheral immune cells to the brain also determines the eventual stroke outcome. This chapter will further describe epigenetic changes and age-associated susceptibility to stroke.
Midwest College Art Conference, 1961

An environment Stimulating to mind, body, and spirit describes the character of the recent Midwest College Art Conference held at Urbana, Illinois. As host to the Conference, the Art department of the University of Illinois arranged a program of educational significance for the art community of midwestern colleges and universities.
Trivializing Diversity: The Problem of Overinclusion in Affirmative Action Programs

If we reconstruct affirmative action according to race-neutral criteria, then minimum rationality judicial review would apply. Such a standard would allow us to cope with the problems of under- and over-inclusion in affirmative action programs far better than under current constructs.
Investigation on Lead Poisoning with Red Lead Toilet Powder in Children

Objective To survey the causes of lead poisoning of 2 children in one family.Methods Two milliliter blood was sampled respectively from each of 2 children by puncturing their veins in elbow after the local skins cleaned by soap and ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid(EDTA)liquor,and sterilized by alcohol,and then were reserved in corvettes with 0.2 mol·L-1 EDTA.The blood lead levels of 2 children were detected by a graphite atomic absorption spectrum and diagnosed by the classification and management principle of elevated blood lead and lead poisoning in children promulgated by the Ministry of Health of China in 2006.The exposure factors were analyzed after field investigation and environmental search for extra lead in the family house with a portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer(XRF).Toilet powder was sampled and detected for lead content with a flame atomic absorption spectrum(FAAS).Results Both children were diagnosed as moderate lead poisoning with blood lead level as 303 g·L-1 and 385 g·L-1,respectively.Calcium disodium edentate liquid was injected in both children through veins for lead discharge from bodies for 5 days,and their blood lead levels reduced to 118 g·L-1 and 88 g·L-1,respectively.XRF in situ did not find out overloaded lead content in foods,drink water,toys and furniture except a toilet powder which was applied to 2 children,and was not produced by the legal manufacturers,and contained lead more than 100 000 mg·kg-1.Its lead content was detected by FAAS in laboratory and 214 000 mg·kg-1 lead content was found,more than 5 000 times compared to national lead limit in toilet powder(40 mg·kg-1)and 40 000 times in foods(5 mg·kg-1).After inquiry,this toilet powder composed of red lead,a traditional medicine,and talcum powder,obtained from Ganzhou county in Jiangxi province.Sixteen red leads sampled in Ganzhou local drugstores were found to contain mean lead of 817 375 mg·kg-1 and 13 toilet powders were found to contain mean lead of 206 784 mg·kg-1;while 6 ordinary toilet powders sampled in supermarkets contained mean lead of 5 mg·kg-1 only.Conclusion The family lead poisoning in 2 children were caused by toilet powder which contained red lead and this kind of toilet powder was very popular in some rural areas in the southern part of China.
Origin and Formation of Sulfate in Soils from Three Ohio Counties

Sulfate induced heave has been attributed to ettringite, which can form when there is an elevated pH as well as sufficient amounts of aluminum, sulfate, calcium and water present. The primary objective of this project was to study the origin and formation of sulfate in Ohio soils in order to assist with selecting appropriate soil stabilization strategies for future roadway construction. Three roadway construction project areas were evaluated: State Route 2 in Lake (LAK) County, US Highway 24 in Paulding and Defiance Counties and Interstate-71 in Morrow (MRW) County. Defiance County had the most soil samples with sulfate concentrations above acceptable risk level (3000 mg/kg SO4). Morrow County had the next highest number of unacceptable sulfate levels. Of the 42 Lake County soils analyzed, 11 contained sulfate above acceptable risk level. The soils surrounding the road construction activities along State Route 2 and US-24 had similar geological characteristics. A potential source of sulfate in Paulding and Defiance Counties was attributed to the direct deposition of gypsum as a soil amendment for farmlands. The most likely sources of soil sulfate in Morrow County were deposition of gypsum for farmland activities and the oxidative weathering of pyrite.
Legal Mobilization in U.S. Schools: The Paradoxes of Race and Rights Among Youth

In this article, we analyze racial and ethnic similarities and differences in youth perceptions of rights violations, and advance a new model of legal mobilization (which includes formal, quasi-, and extralegal action) to understand how youth respond to rights violations. Slightly more than half of the 5,461 students in our sample reported past rights violations involving discrimination, harassment, freedom of expression/assembly, and/or due process violations in disciplinary procedures. Students, irrespective of race, are more likely to take extralegal than formal-legal actions in response to perceived rights violations. Self-identified African American and Latino/a students are significantly more likely than white and Asian American students to perceive rights violations, and are more likely to claim they would take formal-legal action in response to hypothetical rights violations. In the face of perceived rights violations, however, African American students are no more likely than whites to take formal-legal action and Latino/a students are less likely than whites to take formal-legal action in response to perceived past violations. We draw on in-depth interviews with youth and adults to explore the interpretive dynamics underlying these survey findings, especially with respect to how race and ethnicity relate to cultural schemas of law that youth draw upon as they define and respond to rights violations.
Detecting Anatomical Landmarks for Fast Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a very popular and effective technique used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The success of computer-aided diagnosis methods using structural MRI data is largely dependent on the two time-consuming steps: 1) nonlinear registration across subjects, and 2) brain tissue segmentation. To overcome this limitation, we propose a landmark-based feature extraction method that does not require nonlinear registration and tissue segmentation. In the training stage, in order to distinguish AD subjects from healthy controls (HCs), group comparisons, based on local morphological features, are first performed to identify brain regions that have significant group differences. In general, the centers of the identified regions become landmark locations (or AD landmarks for short) capable of differentiating AD subjects from HCs. In the testing stage, using the learned AD landmarks, the corresponding landmarks are detected in a testing image using an efficient technique based on a shape-constrained regression-forest algorithm. To improve detection accuracy, an additional set of salient and consistent landmarks are also identified to guide the AD landmark detection. Based on the identified AD landmarks, morphological features are extracted to train a support vector machine (SVM) classifier that is capable of predicting the AD condition. In the experiments, our method is evaluated on landmark detection and AD classification sequentially. Specifically, the landmark detection error (manually annotated versus automatically detected) of the proposed landmark detector is $2.41 mm$ , and our landmark-based AD classification accuracy is 83.7%. Lastly, the AD classification performance of our method is comparable to, or even better than, that achieved by existing region-based and voxel-based methods, while the proposed method is approximately 50 times faster.