cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three Mile Island: meltdown of democracy?

As the government considers restarting the Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor, local opposition remains strong. This case raises fundamental questions about democratic decision-making in the age of high technology.
The Resonating Valence Bond State and High-Tc Superconductivity in La2CuO4+

A novel mechanism is proposed to explain the high-Tc superconductivity in oxide materials obtained from La2CuO4 by doping it sufficiently strongly. The insulating state of pure La2CuO4, an odd electron insulator, is proposed to be the long sought “resonating valence bond” state or “quantum spin liquid”, hypothesized in 1973. This state is visualized as consisting of a linear combination of pairwise singlet states, and has strong antiferromagnetic correlations, without however, displaying Neil long ranged order. It is a variational state relevant to the Hubbard model in the limit of strong coulomb repulsions with one electron per site -or equivalently the spin 1/2 Heisenberg model -and has no energy gap for spin channel excitations. This leads to interesting Pauli-like low temperature thermodynamics despite its insulating character. The formal similarity of this state to the BCS state is pointed out. Such a state is favoured by low dimensionality, low spin (s = 1/2) and magnetic frusration. Doping the insulator sufficiently strongly creates mobile carriers and hence a metal. The preexisting singlets in the insulating state now become charged superconducting pairs. This mechanism for superconductivity should be common to several oxide superconductors and is predominantly magnetic and electronic in origin, although moderately strong electron-phonon interactions may favour this state. Extremely strong phonon interactions leading to spin-Peierls distortions however, are not favourable. Several unusual properties are predicted, especially in the insulating state.
Dense Genotyping of Immune-Related Regions Identifies Loci for Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk and Damage in African Americans.

More than 100 risk loci for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been identified in individuals of European and Asian descent, but the genetic basis for RA in African Americans is less well understood. We genotyped 610 African Americans with autoantibody-positive RA and 933 African American controls on the Immunochip (iChip) array. Using multivariable regression, we evaluated the association between iChip markers and the risk of RA and radiographic severity. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1964995 (odds ratio = 1.97, p = 1.28 × 10−15) near HLA-DRB1 was the most strongly associated risk SNP for RA susceptibility; SNPs in AFF3, TNFSF11 and TNFSF18 loci were suggestively associated (10−4 < p < 3.1 × 10−6). Trans-ethnic fine mapping of AFF3 identified a 90% credible set containing previously studied variants, including rs9653442, rs7608424 and rs6712515, as well as the novel candidate variant rs11681966; several of these likely influence AFF3 gene expression level. Variants in TNFRSF9, CTLA4, IL2RA, C5/TRAF1 and ETS1 — but no variants within the major histocompatibility complex — were associated with RA radiographic severity. Conditional regression and pairwise linkage disequilibrium (LD) analyses suggest that additional pathogenic variants may be found in ETS1 and IL2RA beyond those found in other ethnicities. In summary, we used the dense genotyping of the iChip array and the unique LD structure of African Americans to validate known risk loci for RA susceptibility and radiographic severity, and to better characterize the associations of AFF3, ETS1 and IL2RA.
Proliferative and metastatic roles for Phospholipase D in mouse models of cancer

Phospholipase D (PLD) activity has been proposed to facilitate multiple steps in cancer progression including growth, metabolism, angiogenesis, and mobility. The canonical enzymes PLD1 and PLD2 enact their diverse effects through hydrolyzing the membrane lipid phosphatidylcholine to generate the second messenger and signaling lipid phosphatidic acid (PA). However, the widespread expression of PLD1 and PLD2 in normal tissues and the additional distinct enzymatic mechanisms through which PA can be generated have produced uncertainty regarding the optimal settings in which PLD inhibition might ameliorate cancer. Recent studies in mouse model systems have demonstrated that inhibition or elimination of PLD activity reduces tumor growth and metastasis. One mechanism proposed for this outcome involves proliferative signaling mediated by receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR), which is attenuated when downstream PLD signal propagation is suppressed. The reduced proliferative signaling has been reported to be compounded by dysfunctional energetic metabolism in the tumor cells under conditions of nutrient deprivation. Moreover, cancer cells lacking PLD activity display inefficiencies across multiple steps of the metastatic cascade, limiting the tumor's lethal spread. Using PLD isoform knockout mice, recent studies have reported on the net effects of inhibition and ablation in multiple cancer models through examining the role of PLD in the non-tumor cells comprising the stroma and microenvironment. The promising results of such in vivo studies, combined with the apparent low toxicity of highly-specific and potent inhibitors, highlights PLD as an attractive target for therapeutic inhibition in cancer. We discuss here the array of anti-tumor effects produced by PLD inhibition and ablation in cancer models with a focus on animal studies.
Developing the Hidden Dimension: Coaching Tips to Assist Adolescent Athletes' Pre-Performance Preparation

This article provides tips on how coaches can facilitate learning, practicing and performance using effective pre-performance routines with young athletes to foster success.
Cutaneous Adnexal Cylindroma of Breast: Epithelial Immunoreactivities for GATA-3, Mammaglobin, and E-Cadherin Do Not Equate to a Mammary Ductal Neoplasm

Cylindromas are benign epithelial neoplasms derived from cutaneous eccrine adnexal structures. These tumors are most commonly encountered on the head, neck, and scalp of older women. In rare instances, solitary cylindromas may arise at other body sites. In the current case, a cylindroma of the skin of the breast was diagnosed by complete excision. Immunohistochemical studies confirmed the tumor cells to be immunoreactive with cytokeratin AE1/3, cytokeratin 5/6, cytokeratin 7, p63, and SOX10. The neoplastic cells were also noted to be immunoreactive with markers typically expected to be positive in ductal epithelium of the breast including GATA3, mammaglobin, and E-cadherin. The case emphasizes the importance of correlating clinical setting, imaging studies, patient history, and careful microscopic evaluation in arriving at an accurate diagnosis. This case also illustrates the point that not all “breast” tumors that are confirmed to be positive for GATA3, mammaglobin, and E-cadherin are derived from mammary ducts.
Charles Darwin, Richard Owen, and Natural Selection: A Question of Priority

No single author presented Darwin with a more difficult question about his priority in discovering natural selection than the British comparative anatomist and paleontologist Richard Owen. Owen was arguably the most influential biologist in Great Britain in Darwin’s time. Darwin wanted his approbation for what he believed to be his own theory of natural selection. Unfortunately for Darwin, when Owen first commented in publication about Darwin’s theory of descent he was openly hostile (Edinb. Rev. vol. 111, Article VIII, 1860, pp. 487–533, anonymous). Darwin was taken off-guard. In private meetings and correspondence prior to 1860 Owen had been nothing but polite and friendly, even helping Darwin in cataloguing and analyzing Darwin’s zoological specimens from the Beagle voyage. Every early indication predicted a life-long friendship and collaboration. But that was not to be. Owen followed his slashing review with a mounting campaign in the 1860s to denounce and discredit both Darwin and his small but ascendant circle of friends and supporters. But that was not enough for Owen. Starting in 1866, perhaps by now realizing Darwin had landed the big fish, Owen launched a new campaign, to claim the discovery of “Darwin’s theory” for himself. Darwin naturally fought back, mainly in the “Historical Sketch” that he prefaced to Origin starting in 1861. But when we peel back the layers of personal animus and escalating vituperation we discover in fact their quarrel was generated more by mutual misunderstanding than scientific disagreement. The battle ended only when Darwin finally penetrated to the crux of the matter and put an end to the rivalry in 1872, in the final version of the Sketch.
Public Cloud Differential Pricing Design Under Provider and Tenants Joint Demand Response

As the cloud computing market matures, effective pricing design remains a challenging problem. Electricity is a major contributor to the cloud's recurring costs and may increase significantly in the near future. As the cloud market gets more competitive, there will be a need for more cost-conscious dynamic pricing design. Additionally, today's cloud provider's pricing mechanisms act almost oblivious to the fact that the large tenants of the cloud are able to perform automated demand response in the form of delaying and dropping jobs. In this work we introduce differential dynamic pricing which provides different tenants with tailored prices according to their price sensitivity, while accounting for each tenant's energy costs. Furthermore, the cloud providers can engage in demand response to utility prices using on-site batteries. Battery management complicates things further, as it brings in additional costs, e.g., wear-and-tear, which is challenging to attribute to each tenant. So, we use virtual battery management which accounts for individual tenant's usage of batteries. We also, show how virtual battery management can alleviate possible price fluctuations and act in synergy with differential dynamic pricing scheme and result in a less variable and more predictable (stable) pricing framework, called Stable Differential Dynamic Pricing (SD2P). We navigate different real-world IBM tenants' incident power demands with different price elasticities in conjunction with real-world electricity prices, and realistic battery degradation costs, to show the efficacy of our pricing mechanism. We show that under SD2P cloud's profit increases up to 31% while average tenants' utility increases up to 18%. Prices under SD2P exhibit up to 54% less variation compared to other dynamic pricing schemes, as a result of engaging the batteries at times of energy price spikes.
Disorders of ECF Volume: Cirrhosis of the Liver

Na+ and water retention, and extracellular fluid (ECF) volume expansion, leading to formation of edema and ascites are the most common clinical findings in patients with severe liver disease. The initiating process for these clinical manifestations is hepatic cell death. Pathologically, in cirrhosis, the liver is characterized by fibrosis and nodular regeneration. Liver function tests (aminotransferases, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase) are abnormal. Similar to congestive heart failure (CHF), retention of Na+ and water occurs in cirrhosis as a result of activation of salt and water-retaining mechanisms rather than intrinsic abnormalities of the kidney. As in CHF, there is a decrease in effective arterial blood volume (EABV) due to arterial vasodilation in the splanchnic circulation prior to edema formation. This decrease in EABV, in turn, activates the neurohumoral vasoconstrictors and antidiuretic hormone (ADH) release. As a result, Na+ reabsorption is increased in the proximal and distal tubules. Water reabsorption is promoted by ADH. Resistance to atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) also seems to contribute to Na+ retention. When these mechanisms persist despite adequate plasma volume, alterations in Starling forces promote edema formation. The mediators of the splanchnic vasodilation seem to be nitric oxide, endotoxin, and prostaglandins.
The Poetics of Fire in Jean Giono’s Le Chant du Monde

Much has been written on the power of fire. Fire imagery can be traced as far back as prehistoric times. Bachelard notes that “in our conscious lives, we have broken off direct contact with the original etymologies. But the prehistoric mind, and a fortiori the unconscious, does not detach the word from the thing. If we speak of man as full of fire, it wills something to the burning within him.”1 Fire, for example, apart from its kindling, burning and metamorphic quality has been associated by the imagination, as Northrop Frye suggests, to the internal fire: “its sparks are analogous to seeds, the unity of life; its flickering movement is analogous to vitality; its flames are phallic symbols, providing a further analogy to the sexual act, as the ambiguity of the word ‘consummation’ indicates, its transforming power is analogous to purgation.”2
A Paradox in Polarization? Cross-pressured Representatives and the Missing Incentive to Moderate:

Members of the public are often left choosing between two extreme candidates who will not represent the moderate, aggregate, public effectively. Cross-pressured members of the U.S. Congress serve a...
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients With Symptomatic Severe Aortic Stenosis and Prior External Chest Radiation.

Abstract Background/purpose Surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis (AS) and prior chest radiation is associated with poor outcomes in comparison with patients without prior radiation. Our objective was to compare clinical outcomes of patients with and without prior chest radiation undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for symptomatic severe AS. Methods/materials Between January 2003 and January 2017, 1150 patients underwent TAVR at our institution. Of these, 44 had prior chest radiation. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics, procedural details, and clinical outcomes were prospectively collected. Results Patients with prior chest radiation were younger, 76 ± 13 years, compared with those without prior chest radiation, 82 ± 8 years (p = 0.002). Median Society of Thoracic Surgeons score for chest radiation patients was 7 ± 4, compared to 8 ± 5 in those without prior radiation. Despite higher prevalence of complete heart block , there was no significant difference between the 2 groups with regard to the need for permanent pacemaker implantation. There was a trend toward longer length of intensive care unit stay in chest radiation patients, but there was no significant difference in 30-day or 1-year mortality. Conclusions Thus, TAVR appears to be a safe treatment option in the short and medium term for patients with symptomatic severe AS and prior chest radiation.
Prediction from Latent Classes: A Demonstration of Different Approaches to Include Distal Outcomes in Mixture Models

Including auxiliary variables such as antecedent and consequent variables in mixture models provides valuable insight in understanding the population heterogeneity embodied by a latent class variab...
Abstract 1420: Novel expansion of CD8+PD1+ spleen cells for therapeutic intent in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease with poor prognosis and overall survival. In 2018 it is estimated that there will be 44,333 deaths making PDAC the 3rd cause of cancer related deaths. A distal pancreatomy for PDAC in the body/tail of the pancreas usually includes a splenectomy, with current practice to discard the spleen post-surgery. Spleens can provide a large number of lymphocytes, including CD8+ T-cells with potential to be utilized for adoptive cellular therapy. Our studies have focused on spleen from this patient population, which we posit (and show herein) provides a large number of CD8+PD1+ cells for expansion and the first clinical strategy to expand activated, tumor specific T-cells for subsequent infusion with therapeutic intent. In our studies we used Milteny magnetic bead isolation of CD8+PD1+ T-cells from the spleens of PDAC patients with disease in the distal pancreas. The purity of the cells was 98% with a yield of 79% providing 9x108 CD8+PD1+ cells from an idealized 160 gm spleen. CD8 expansion was undertaken with various growth factor cocktails incorporating combinations of three interleukins (IL); IL-7, IL-15, and IL-21 at varying concentrations. IL-7 supports T-cell survival and proliferation, IL-15 is a potent T-cell growth factor and promotes naive and memory T-cell survival, and IL-21 limits T-cell exhaustion in response to chronic stimulation. The optimized cocktail incorporated IL-7, IL-15, and IL-21 at 40 ng/mL, which demonstrated maximum T-cell expansion, based on cellularity and cell viability. The predominant T-cell memory phenotype of the CD8+PD1+ cells following expansion was transitional memory (TTM) T-cells that increased from 35.6 ± 4.3 to 52 ± 3%. This memory T-cell phenotype has a high proliferative potential while retaining effector function. Following six days of culture with the three interleukins we observed a 10 fold increase in CD8+PD1+ cells such that 9x109 cells are obtained from the 160 gm spleen. These cells, based on ELISPOT analysis with autologous tumor lysate pulsed dendritic cells retained tumor specificity. In conclusion, CD8+PD1+ cells can be isolated from resected spleen, expanded with retention of tumor specificity and potentially used for adoptive cellular therapy. Citation Format: Kathryn Cole, Quan P. Ly, Jesse L. Cox, Michael A. Hollingsworth, James C. Padussis, Jason M. Foster, Luciano M. Vargas, James E. Talmadge. Novel expansion of CD8+PD1+ spleen cells for therapeutic intent in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1420.
Social work: Addressing substance use in the 21st century.

Social workers have traditionally focused on treatment rather than prevention, thus working with people on the more severe end of the substance use continuum. In recent years, public health social ...
E-Cigarette and Cigarette Use Among U.S. Adolescents: Longitudinal Associations With Marijuana Use and Perceptions.

Introduction Researchers have shown a connection between e-cigarette use and subsequent cigarette use. This study prospectively examines the connection between e-cigarette use and marijuana use. Methods This study used data from the Monitoring the Future panel study of 12th graders in 2014 who were followed up 1 year later (n=305). Past-30-day marijuana use and perceived riskiness of marijuana use for 12th graders who used neither e-cigarettes nor cigarettes (78.6%), only e-cigarettes (10.3%), and cigarettes (with or without e-cigarettes; 11.1%) were compared. Data was analyzed in 2019. Results At baseline, 40.1% of e-cigarette only users, 48.8% of cigarette users, and 13.2% of nonusers reported past-30-day marijuana use at baseline. E-cigarette only users were less likely to perceive any marijuana as risky at follow-up than nonusers (AOR=0.15, 95% CI=0.04, 0.65). Similarly, e-cigarette only users were more likely to report past-30-day marijuana use at follow-up than nonusers (AOR=3.82, 95% CI=1.45, 10.04), as were those who used cigarettes (AOR=7.63, 95% CI=2.65, 21.97). Conclusions E-cigarette use, even when not in conjunction with cigarette use, may be a marker of marijuana use risk during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The e-cigarette and marijuana use link may strengthen in the future with the increasing trend of adolescents vaping marijuana.
Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Severity Level Classification Using Multimodel Convolutional Neural Networks

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a progressive eye disease that affects a large portion of working-age adults. DR, which may progress to an irreversible state that causes blindness, can be diagnosed with a comprehensive dilated eye exam. With the eye dilated, the Doctor takes pictures of the inside of the eye via a medical procedure called Fluorescein Angiography, in which a dye is injected into the bloodstream. The dye highlights the blood vessels in the back of the eye so they can be photographed. In addition, the Doctor may request an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) exam, by which cross-sectional photos of the retina are produced to measure the thickness of the retina. Early prognostication is vital in treating the disease and preventing it from progressing into advanced irreversible stages. Skilled medical personnel and necessary medical facilities are required to detect DR in its five major stages. In this paper, we propose a diagnostic tool to detect Diabetic retinopathy from fundus images by using an ensemble of multi-inception CNN networks. Our inception block consists of three Convolutional layers with kernel sizes of 3x3, 5x5, and 1x1 that are concatenated deeply and forwarded to the max-pooling layer. We experimentally compare our proposed method with two pre-trained models: VGG16 and GoogleNets. The experiment results show that the proposed method can achieve an accuracy of 93.2% by an ensemble of 10 random networks, compared to 81% obtained with transfer learning based on VGG19.
Abstract MP17: Time Restricted Feeding Improves Cardiovascular Rhythms And Vascular Metabolism In Mice On A Chronic High Fat Diet

Irregular timing of food intake increases hypertension and cardiometabolic disease risk. A chronic high fat diet (HFD) also disrupts circadian rhythms. We hypothesized that active period time restr...
The Submandibular Gland and The Aging Neck: A Longitudinal Volumetric Study.

The true effect of aging and other patient factors on submandibular gland (SMG) volume is unclear. We sought to evaluate the effects of age, body mass index (BMI), sex and race on SMG volume using computed tomography (CT) imaging. We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study of adult subjects with multiple CT images of the neck at least 7 years apart. Subjects with history of salivary gland pathology, neck dissection, head and neck radiation, active infection or dental artifact were excluded. Three-dimensional volumes were measured. Age, BMI, sex and race data were analyzed to track their longitudinal effect on SMG volume. The study comprised 64 patients (Females n=36; Males n=28) with mean age of 47.1 and 58.5 at each respective time point (mean difference 11.4). Mean SMG volume increased from 10.1 ml to 10.5 ml (P < 0.05). Males had significantly greater SMG volume compared to females. Majority of growth occurred in the < 40 year age bracket (0.1 ml/year), more significantly in the male cohort. When controlling for aging and sex, a change in BMI was the only patient factor that predicted a change in SMG volume. An increase of 1.0 kg/m2 predicted a 0.17 ml increase in gland volume. Race had no significant effect. Our findings suggest that the majority of SMG volume change occurs in early adulthood ( < 40 years), especially in males. Among the factors we studied, a change in BMI was the only significant predictor of SMG volume change. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 . Genital Surgery
The association of polygenic risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression with neural connectivity in adolescents and young adults: examining developmental and sex differences.

Neurodevelopmental abnormalities in neural connectivity have been long implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ); however, it remains unclear whether these neural connectivity patterns are associated with genetic risk for SCZ in unaffected individuals (i.e., an absence of clinical features of SCZ or a family history of SCZ). We examine whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for SCZ are associated with functional neural connectivity in adolescents and young adults without SCZ, whether this association is moderated by sex and age, and if similar associations are observed for genetically related neuropsychiatric PRS. One-thousand four-hundred twenty-six offspring from 913 families, unaffected with SCZ, were drawn from the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) prospective cohort (median age at first interview = 15.6 (12-26), 51.6% female, 98.1% European American, 41% with a family history of alcohol dependence). Participants were followed longitudinally with resting-state EEG connectivity (i.e., coherence) assessed every two years. Higher SCZ PRS were associated with elevated theta (3-7 Hz) and alpha (7-12 Hz) EEG coherence. Associations differed by sex and age; the most robust associations were observed between PRS and parietal-occipital, central-parietal, and frontal-parietal alpha coherence among males between ages 15-19 (B: 0.15-0.21, p < 10-4). Significant associations among EEG coherence and Bipolar and Depression PRS were observed, but differed from SCZ PRS in terms of sex, age, and topography. Findings reveal that polygenic risk for SCZ is robustly associated with increased functional neural connectivity among young adults without a SCZ diagnosis. Striking differences were observed between men and women throughout development, mapping onto key periods of risk for the onset of psychotic illness and underlining the critical importance of examining sex differences in associations with neuropsychiatric PRS across development.
Intermediaries in Two-Sided Markets: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Local television stations are platforms in a two-sided market connecting advertisers and viewers. This paper explicitly examines the effect that important intermediaries (such as cable, telephone, and satellite distributors) may have on a platform’s pricing behavior in a two-sided market. I find that stations raise their fees to cable distributors because stations prefer that viewers access their content through satellite distributors with whom they do not compete in the local advertising market, and that station mergers lower stations’ fees to distributors by partially internalizing a pricing externality that results from the mandatory bundling of local content.
Impact of Preexisting Cognitive Impairment and Race/Ethnicity on Functional Outcomes Following Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Background and Purpose: In intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), preexisting cognitive impairment has been identified as a risk factor for increased mortality and morbidity. However, previous studies exa...
Sociodemographic Factors Associated With Decreased Compliance to Prescribed Rehabilitation After Surgical Treatment of Knee Injuries in Pediatric Patients

Background Rehabilitation is an important component of care in postsurgical knee patients, especially as it pertains to return to preinjury activity level. Despite the established significance of rehabilitation in improving outcomes after certain surgical procedures, there is a lack of investigation into compliance rates and factors that affect compliance in pediatric patients. Purpose/Hypothesis The purpose of this study was to evaluate sociodemographic factors associated with noncompliance in pediatric patients after knee surgery to characterize health disparities in this population. Our hypothesis was that certain sociodemographic factors would be associated with decreased compliance. Study Design Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods A retrospective review of medical records was used to gather data on compliance rate, demographics, and socioeconomic factors for pediatric patients undergoing rehabilitation after knee surgery. Compliance rate was determined by counting the total scheduled appointments, cancellations, and no-shows (defined as visits for which patients did not show up and did not provide notification of cancellation). Various types of knee injuries were included in this study. Data were evaluated using bivariate analyses in addition to hierarchical linear and binary logistic regression to assess for associations between sociodemographic factors and compliance rate. Results Our total sample size was 186 patients. When compared with patients from non-single-parent households, patients from single-parent households were found to have a lower rate of physical therapy compliance (72.2% vs 80.1%; P < .001), were less likely to reach the 85% compliance threshold (9.1% vs 42.4%; P < .001), and had an increased amount of cancellations and no-shows (16.7 vs 11.7 visits; P = .02). Although a small sample size, Hispanic/Latino patients were shown to have a lower achievement of the 85% compliance threshold compared with non-Hispanic/Latino patients (0% vs 38.2%; P = .04). Increased distance from the rehabilitation clinic was associated with lower achievement of the 85% compliance threshold (P = .033). Conclusion Overall, there were several significant demographic and socioeconomic variables associated with rehabilitation compliance, specifically single-parent status, distance to rehabilitation clinic, and ethnicity. These results suggest potential predictors of decreased compliance that warrant prospective investigation.
Kin Selection in Primate Groups

Altruism poses a problem for evolutionary biologists because natural selection is not expected to favor behaviors that are beneficial to recipients, but costly to actors. The theory of kin selection, first articulated by Hamilton (1964), provides a solution to the problem. Hamilton's well-known rule (br > c) provides a simple algorithm for the evolution of altruism via kin selection. Because kin recognition is a crucial requirement of kin selection, it is important to know whether and how primates can recognize their relatives. While conventional wisdom has been that primates can recognize maternal kin, but not paternal kin, this view is being challenged by new findings. The ability to recognize kin implies that kin selection may shape altruistic behavior in primate groups. I focus on two cases in which kin selection is tightly woven into the fabric of social life. For female baboons, macaques, and vervets maternal kinship is an important axis of social networks, coalitionary activity, and dominance relationships. Detailed studies of the patterning of altruistic interactions within these species illustrate the extent and limits of nepotism in their social lives. Carefully integrated analyses of behavior, demography, and genetics among red howlers provide an independent example of how kin selection shapes social organization and behavior. In red howlers, kin bonds shape the life histories and reproductive performance of both males and female. The two cases demonstrate that kin selection can be a powerful source of altruistic activity within primate groups. However, to fully assess the role of kin selection in primate groups, we need more information about the effects of kinship on the patterning of behavior across the Primates and accurate information about paternal kin relationships.
Measuring variation in natural populations: a primer

In this brief primer, I will first discuss common kinds of data sources appropriate for measuring variation and then describe statistical computations appropriate to each. With one exception all the methods I discuss are equivalent in the sense that they estimate average coalescence times of pairs of marker loci chosen from a population. Keywords: genetic diversity; variation; Fst; mean pairwise difference; short tandem repeats; segregating sites
Regional and subcellular distribution of HDAC4 in mouse brain.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are part of a system that links epigenetic control of gene expression to a variety of environmental stimuli. Some HDACs, including HDAC4, shuttle between the cytoplasm and nucleus in response to physiological cues such as calcium signaling. HDAC4 mRNA is enriched in the brain, but the regional and subcellular protein expression pattern of HDAC4 is not known. Here we show that HDAC4 is more highly expressed in some brain regions than in others. HDAC4 is present in the perikaryial cytoplasm of most neurons but its nuclear localization is variable. In some areas, such as the dentate gyrus, nuclear expression is not detectable, whereas in other areas some neuronal nuclei contain HDAC4 immunoreactivity whereas others do not. In the cytoplasm, HDAC4 immunoreactivity is punctate. Some of these puncta are present in dendritic spines where the strongest immunoreactivity is associated with the postsynaptic density. These data demonstrate that the regional and subcellular distribution of HDAC4 is heterogeneous and raise the possibilities that HDAC4 acts on nonhistone substrates in dendritic spines or that it shuttles between spine and nucleus to coordinate synaptic activity with gene expression. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:722–740, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
2DFAs and Regular Sets

In this lecture we show that 2DFAs are no more powerful than ordinary DFAs. Here is the idea. Consider a long input string broken up in an ar-bitrary place into two substrings xz. How much information about x can the machine carry across the boundary from x into z? Since the machine is two-way; it can cross the boundary between x and z several times. Each time it crosses the boundary moving from right to left, that is, from z into x, it does so in some state q. When it crosses the boundary again moving from left to right (if ever), it comes out of x in some state, say p. Now if it ever goes into x in the future in state q again, it will emerge again in state p. because its future action is completely determined by its current configuration (state and head position). Moreover, the state p depends only on q and x. We will write Tx (q) = p to denote this relationship. We can keep track of all such information by means of a finite table $${T_x}:(Q \cup \{ \bullet \} ) \to (Q \cup \{ \bot \} ), $$ where Q is the set of states of the 2DFA M, and • and ⊥ are two other objects not in Q whose purpose is described below.
Multiple silencer elements are involved in regulating the chicken vimentin gene.

Abstract Vimentin, a member of the intermediate filament protein family, exhibits tissue- as well as development-specific expression. Transcription factors that are involved in expression of the chicken vimentin gene have been described and include a cis-acting silencer element (SE3) that is involved in the down-regulation of this gene (F. X. Farrell, C. M. Sax, and Z. E. Zehner, Mol. Cell. Biol. 10:2349-2358, 1990). In this study, we report the identification of two additional silencer elements (SE1 and SE2). We show by transfection analysis that all three silencer elements are functionally active and that optimal silencing occurs when multiple (at least two) silencer elements are present. In addition, the previously identified SE3 can be divided into three subregions, each of which is moderately active alone. By gel mobility shift assays, all three silencer elements plus SE3 subregions bind a protein which by Southwestern (DNA-protein) blot analysis is identical in molecular mass (approximately 95 kDa). DNase I footprinting experiments indicate that this protein binds to purine-rich sites. Therefore, multiple elements appear to be involved in the negative regulation of the chicken vimentin gene, which may be important in the regulation of other genes as well.
Liquid-liquid phase separation and static light scattering of concentrated ternary mixtures of bovine α and γB crystallins

We have used light scattering, turbidimetry, and thermodynamic analysis to study the phase diagram of concentrated aqueous mixtures of the bovine lens proteins, gammaB crystallin, and alpha crystallin. We find that dilute alpha crystallin raises the phase separation temperature of concentrated gammaB crystallin, while more concentrated alpha crystallin suppresses phase separation. Very concentrated alpha/gammaB mixtures can reversibly cloud above 37 degrees C, even though gammaB alone phase separates only below temperatures near 0 degrees C, and alpha does not phase separate. At the scattering vector magnitude used, high-concentration alpha/gammaB mixtures scatter less light than the weighted average of their component alpha and gammaB solutions, while low-concentration alpha/gammaB mixtures scatter more than such a weighted average. We use a mean-field thermodynamic analysis of such ternary mixtures to show that the observed light scattering and phase boundaries of alpha and gammaB crystallin mixtures give evidence for prominent local fluctuations of relative protein composition. In the single phase, these fluctuations scatter comparatively little light, but are associated with enhanced thermodynamic instability. By applying this analysis to the experimental tie lines we estimate the magnitude of the saddlelike component of the free energy near the aqueous-gammaB critical point.
alpha-B- and alpha-A-crystallin prevent irreversible acidification-induced protein denaturation.

alpha-Crystallin (alpha), a major structural protein of the mammalian lens, is a large, physically heterogeneous macromolecule with an average molecular weight of approximately 800 kDa and is composed of two 20-kDa polypeptides designated as alphaA and alphaB. A line of evidence strongly suggests that alphaB may have an essential nonlenticular function. Here it is demonstrated that alphaB can bind partially denatured enzymes effectively at acidic pH and prevent their irreversible aggregation, but cannot prevent loss of enzyme activity. However, when the inactive luciferase bound to alphaB was treated with reticulocyte lysate (a rich source of molecular chaperones) and an ATP-generating system, more than 50% of the original luciferase activity could be recovered. Somewhat less activation was observed when alphaA-bound enzyme or the alpha-bound enzyme was renatured similarly. The overall results suggest that alpha acts as a chaperone to stabilize denaturing proteins at acidic pH so that at a later time they can be reactivated by other chaperones.
Breast Cancer Risk Assessment, Prevention, and the Future

Today breast cancer remains a major public health problem, although reducing its risk is now an achievable medical objective. Risk-assessment models may be used in estimating a woman's risk for developing breast cancer and to direct suitable candidates for preventive therapy. Researchers are attempting to enhance individualized risk assessment through incorporation of phenotypic biomarkers. Individual selective estrogen receptor modulators have been approved for breast cancer risk reduction, and other drug categories are being studied. It is critical that obstetrician-gynecologists be familiar with the evolving science of the risk assessment of breast cancer as well as interventional and surveillance strategies.
Damage identification techniques via modal curvature analysis: Overview and comparison

Abstract This paper aims to compare several damage identification methods based on the analysis of modal curvature and related quantities (natural frequencies and modal strain energy) by evaluating their performances on the same test case, a damaged Euler–Bernoulli beam. Damage is modelled as a localized and uniform reduction of stiffness so that closed-form expressions of the mode-shape curvatures can be analytically computed and data accuracy, which affects final results, can be controlled. The selected techniques belong to two categories: one includes several methods that need reference data for detecting structural modifications due to damage, the second group, including the modified Laplacian operator and the fractal dimension, avoids the knowledge of the undamaged behavior for issuing a damage diagnosis. To explain better the different performances of the methods, the mathematical formulation has been revised in some cases so as to fit into a common framework where the underlying hypotheses are clearly stated. Because the various damage indexes are calculated on ‘exact’ data, a sensitivity analysis has been carried out with respect to the number of points where curvature information is available, to the position of damage between adjacent points, to the modes involved in the index computation. In this way, this analysis intends to point out comparatively the capability of locating and estimating damage of each method along with some critical issues already present with noiseless data.
Speech-based cursor control

Speech recognition can be a powerful tool for individuals with physical disabilities that hinder their ability to use traditional input devices. State-of-the-art speech recognition systems typically provide mechanisms for both data entry and cursor control, but the researchers continue to investigate methods of improving these interactions. Numerous researchers are investigating methods to improve the underlying technologies that make speech recognition possible and others focus on understanding the difficulties users experience using dictation-oriented applications, but few researchers have investigated the issues involved in speech-based cursor control. In this article, we describe a study that investigates the efficacy of two variations of a standard speech-based cursor control mechanism. One employs the standard mouse cursor while the second provides a predictive cursor designed to help users compensate for the delays often associated with speech recognition. As expected, larger targets and shorter distances resulted in shorter target selection times while larger targets also resulted in fewer errors. Although there were no differences between the standard and predictive cursors, a relationship between the delays associated with spoken input, the speed at which the cursor moves, and the minimum size for targets that can be reliably selected emerged that can guide the application of similar speech-based cursor control mechanisms as well as future research.
A Liver Full of JNK: Signaling in Regulation of Cell Function and Disease Pathogenesis, and Clinical Approaches

c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) is a mitogen-activated protein kinase family member that is activated by diverse stimuli, including cytokines (such as tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1), reactive oxygen species (ROS), pathogens, toxins, drugs, endoplasmic reticulum stress, free fatty acids, and metabolic changes. Upon activation, JNK induces multiple biologic events through the transcription factor activator protein-1 and transcription-independent control of effector molecules. JNK isozymes regulate cell death and survival, differentiation, proliferation, ROS accumulation, metabolism, insulin signaling, and carcinogenesis in the liver. The biologic functions of JNK are isoform, cell type, and context dependent. Recent studies using genetically engineered mice showed that loss or hyperactivation of the JNK pathway contributes to the development of inflammation, fibrosis, cancer growth, and metabolic diseases that include obesity, hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance. We review the functions and pathways of JNK in liver physiology and pathology and discuss findings from preclinical studies with JNK inhibitors.
Maturational changes of the pituitary-adrenal axis in the fetal lamb

Abstract Measurement of CRF-activity in fetal hypothalamic extract from fetal lambs indicated concentrations equal to approximately 18 U. Pitressin/hypothalamus were present from 115 to 130 days of gestation. Older fetuses had lower amounts of CRF activity. Stimulation of fetal pituitary during in vitro incubation with 1.6 U. Pitressin/pituitary half gave a significant response at all stages except the day 135 group. This group also had the first significant increase in fetal plasma glucocorticoids. In vivo administration of Pitressin (0.5U/min) caused a significant increase in ACTH and corticoids at 120–130 days of gestation. Lesser responses were noted at 90–110 days. Administration of PGE2 at 120–130 days (2.0 ug/min) caused a significant increase in ACTH after 20 min. but no increase in corticoids. PGE2 (0.5 ug/min) at 130–140 days had no effect. The fetal hypothalamus and pituitary appear to have a functional capacity throughout the last two months of gestation in the sheep.
Systems Impact: Issues and Trends in Improving School Outcomes for All Learners through Multitier Instructional Models.

The majority of school districts implementing response to intervention use a systemwide, multitier model of delivery. This article describes the common features of multitier models and discusses th...
Autoantibodies in Canine Neoplasms. I. Reactivity of Autologous 7 S γ-Globulins with Tumor Cells

Durch Immunofluoreszenz wird eine spezifische Bindung autologerγ-Globuline an neoplastische Zellen des Hundes nachgewiesen.
Sindbad: a location-based social networking system

This demo presents Sindbad; a location-based social networking system. Sindbad supports three new services beyond traditional social networking services, namely, location-aware news feed, location-aware recommender, and location-aware ranking. These new services not only consider social relevance for its users, but they also consider spatial relevance. Since location-aware social networking systems have to deal with large number of users, large number of messages, and user mobility, efficiency and scalability are important issues. To this end, Sindbad encapsulates its three main services inside the query processing engine of PostgreSQL. Usage and internal functionality of Sindbad, implemented with PostgreSQL and Google Maps API, are demonstrated through user (i.e., web/phone) and system analyzer GUI interfaces, respectively.
Bioenergetics and reproductive efficiency ofAtractomorpha crenulata F. (Orthoptera: Insecta) in relation to food quality

Food consumption and utilization efficiency ofAtractomorpha crenulata feeding on the leaves ofRicinus communis, Arachis hypogaea andPanicum maximum are discussed. Longevity and fecundity of the insect feeding onRicimus communis were higher as compared to feeding on the other plants. Females tend to consume more food than the males in all the tested food plants. Energy allocated by the female to egg production varied between 7 and 15% of the assimilated energy during the adult phase.
GASES IN GLASS

ARSTRACT An apparatus is described for extracting the gas from glass at glass-furnace temperature and determining its composition. Results are given for glasses of various compositions and various melting histories. All ordinary glasses were found to contain appreciable quantities of dissolved (or chemically combined) gas, the amount varying from a few hundredths to a few tenths per cent. Water is frequently the most abundant gas, the content being highest in borosilicate glasses. Carbon dioxide is also usually present, the amount depending on the basicity of the glass. Nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen were never found present in appreciable quantities. All oxidized glasses contain some oxygen. Glasses containing arsenic give off a comparatively large volume of oxygen. The effect of this oxygen on fining is discussed. It has been found that remelting a glass has little effect on the gas content. The gas content is greatly influenced by the size of the melt, being the lowest in small experimental melts.
Bacteriological activity in unfiltered calf sera collected for tissue culture use.

Bacteriological tests were made on 24 lots of unfiltered calf serum collected for subsequent use as a component of tissue culture media. The examination included the isolation and identification of bacteria, assay of phages, and demonstration of endotoxin material. Only Gram-positive bacteria were isolated and 96% of the sera were contaminated with bacteria. The prevalent strains of bacteria found wereBacillus species and streptococci and 63% of the sera coagulatedLimulus amebocyte lysate. More than 90% of the lots contained phages demonstrable with the C-3000 strain ofEscherichia coli. Only one lot of the serum was found to be free from bacteria, phages, and endotoxin by the tests used.
On the periodic nature of the solutions of the reciprocal difference equation with maximum

Abstract We prove that every positive solution of the third order difference equation x n = max A x n−1 , B x n−2 , C x n−3 , n=0,1,…, is eventually periodic of (not necessarily prime) period T, which is explicitly determined by the coefficients A, B, and C.