cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact of Graft–Recipient ABO Compatibility on Outcomes after Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant for Nonmalignant Disease

Abstract Existing literature shows mixed conclusions regarding the impact of ABO incompatibility on outcomes after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Because the future for umbilical cord blood (UCB) expansion technologies is bright, we assessed whether this typically overlooked graft characteristic impacted various outcomes after UCB transplantation (UCBT) for nonmalignant disorders (NMDs). A prospectively maintained institutional blood and marrow transplant program database was queried for all patients undergoing first UCBT for NMDs. UCB and recipient ABO compatibility was considered as matched, major mismatched, minor mismatched, or bidirectional mismatched. The impact of ABO incompatibility was assessed on overall survival, graft failure, acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), time to neutrophil and platelet recovery, day 0 to day 100 RBC transfusion burden, and donor hematopoietic chimerism. Through December 2014, 270 patients have undergone first UCBT for various NMDs. In both univariable and multivariable analyses, ABO compatibility status did not appear to impact any outcomes assessed, although a trend toward increased grades III to IV acute GVHD was seen in recipients of major mismatched units. When considering UCBT for treatment of NMDs, ABO compatibility between the donor unit and intended recipient does not appear to be an important consideration in the UCB unit choice.
Characterizing Suspension Plasma Spray Coating Formation Dynamics through Curvature Measurements

Suspension plasma spraying (SPS) enables the production of variety of microstructures with unique mechanical and thermal properties. In SPS, a liquid carrier (ethanol/water) is used to transport the sub-micrometric feedstock into the plasma jet. Considering complex deposition dynamics of SPS technique, there is a need to better understand the relationships among spray conditions, ensuing particle behavior, deposition stress evolution and resultant properties. In this study, submicron yttria-stabilized zirconia particles suspended in ethanol were sprayed using a cascaded arc plasma torch. The stresses generated during the deposition of the layers (termed evolving stress) were monitored via the change in curvature of the substrate measured using an in situ measurement apparatus. Depending on the deposition conditions, coating microstructures ranged from feathery porous to dense/cracked deposits. The evolving stresses and modulus were correlated with the observed microstructures and visualized via process maps. Post-deposition bi-layer curvature measurement via low temperature thermal cycling was carried out to quantify the thermo-elastic response of different coatings. Lastly, preliminary data on furnace cycle durability of different coating microstructures were evaluated. This integrated study involving in situ diagnostics and ex situ characterization along with process maps provides a framework to describe coating formation mechanisms, process parametrics and microstructure description.
A Software-Defined Ultrasonic Networking Framework for Wearable Devices

Wearable medical devices with wireless capabilities have become the cornerstone of many revolutionary digital health applications that promise to predict and treat major diseases by acquiring and processing physiological information. Existing wireless wearable devices are connected through radio frequency electromagnetic wave carriers based on standards, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. However, these solutions tend to almost blindly scale down traditional wireless technologies to the body environment, with little or no attention to the peculiar characteristics of the human body and the severe privacy and security requirements of patients. We contend that this is not the only possible approach, and we introduce U-Wear, the first networking framework for wearable medical devices based on ultrasonic communications. U-Wear encloses a set of physical, data link, and network layer functionalities that can flexibly adapt to application and system requirements to efficiently distribute information between ultrasonic wearable devices. U-Wear also offers reconfiguration functionalities at the application layer to provide a flexible platform to develop medical applications. We design two prototypes that implement U-Wear and operate in the near-ultrasonic frequency range using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) speakers and microphones. Despite the limited bandwidth, i.e., about $2~{kHz}$ , and COTS hardware components not optimized for operating at high frequency, our prototypes: 1) achieve data rates up to $2.76~{kbit/s}$ with bit-error-rate lower than $10^{-5}$ using a transmission power of $13~{dBm}$ ( $20~{mW}$ ); 2) enable multiple nodes to share the medium; and 3) implement reconfigurable processing to extract medical parameters from sensors with high accuracy.
Bad data detection for smart grid state estimation

Bad data detection and identification is an important step in state estimation procedures. Finding the values of the state variables relies on real time measurements which are normally contaminated by noise or may suffer some error due to misconfiguration. Furthermore, the data is a target for hackers who try to change some measurement readings that lead operators to take wrong decisions. The need for accurate and reliable measurements is one of the research areas that have been extensively investigated in the last few decades. in this paper, Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) is used as a new technique to identify the source of the bad data in the network. Weighted least square and Chi-squared test have been used to calculate the state variables and to test the presence of the bad data. Finally, MDS is used to identify the source of the bad data. Different scenarios have been tested on the IEEE 14 bus system by using the proposed method.
Regulation of KcsA by Bilayer-Modifying Molecules

The coupling between membrane proteins and their surrounding lipid bilayer make understanding the membrane lipid regulation of membrane proteins key to understanding their function. The membrane lipid regulation of membrane protein function ranges from specific lipid binding to more general lipid bilayer regulation. The latter mechanism arises from energetic coupling between the lipid bilayer and membrane protein where protein conformational change will alter the organization of the adjacent bilayer. To gain insight into, and tease apart, the specific and general mechanism(s) of membrane protein regulation by the membrane lipids, we examine how the prototypical bacterial potassium channel, KcsA, is regulated by bilayer modifying compounds and drugs using a fluorescence-based technique. The concentration ranges at which the compounds alter the lipid bilayer is determined using gramicidin channels as probes. Comparing the concentration ranges at which molecules alter KcsA function and lipid bilayer properties, enable us to determine whether the underlying mechanism primarily involves specific interactions with KcsA or is bilayer-mediated. Most compounds tested slowed activation and accelerated inactivation at concentrations below those where they alter bilayer properties, suggesting that KcsA likely has a non-specific site that allows hydrophobic molecules to bind and alter channel properties. This site may be the fenestrations proposed to be located on the cytosolic side of aqueous pore of potassium channels (and evident in the x-ray structure). The same compounds alter KcsA function at the concentrations where they alter lipid bilayer properties. These, bilayer-modifying, molecules slow recovery from inactivation at concentrations at which they alter bilayer properties. These results suggest that conformational changes responsible for recovery from inactivation are regulated by a bilayer-mediated mechanism. Our results point to a complicated relationship between direct and bilayer-mediated mechanisms, which both are rather non-specific and may affect a diverse range of ion channels.
American Iconographic: National Geographic, Global Culture, and the Visual Imagination by Stephanie L. Hawkins Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 252 pp

(2011). American Iconographic: National Geographic, Global Culture, and the Visual Imagination by Stephanie L. Hawkins Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 252 pp. American Journalism: Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 146-148.
Reducing low-frequency noise during reversible fluctuations

The noise from most materials exhibits a power-spectral density that tends to diverge as S(f) ∝ 1/f at low frequencies, f. A fundamental mechanism for this 1/f noise comes from the thermodynamics of small systems applied to reversible fluctuations of nanometer-sized regions inside bulk samples. Here this “nanothermodynamics” is used to derive a nonlinear correction to Boltzmann’s factor. Specifically: Boltzmann’s factor comes from the first-order (linear) derivative of entropy with respect to energy, whereas the nonlinear correction comes from higher-order terms. The nonlinear correction is applied to Monte Carlo simulations of small regions in the Ising model, yielding a low-frequency crossover to white noise that keeps the power-spectral density finite as f → 0. It is shown that the low-frequency noise in the model is reduced by reducing the size of the regions.
ITRI mmWave radio access technology development

The exceptional growth in areas of mobile subscriber, wireless network access, mobile services and applications shows evidences of the continuous expansion of cellular communication. The 5G (fifth generation) mobile communication standard, the formulation of which is still in incubation, aims to solve the avalanche of traffic volume. One of the promising candidates is to adopt the millimeter wave frequency band to get the wide available width. To overcome the unfavorable channel properties of transmission in millimeter wave frequency band, i.e. high path loss, propagation loss, rain fading…,e.t.c., the beam-forming, beam tracking together with phased array antenna are the most crucial key technologies, which therefore induce some other technology challenges. In this paper, we developed an integrated 38GHz 5G millimeter-wave radio access experiment platform which adopts the hybrid beam-forming architecture designed with a 8-by-8 64-antenna phased antenna array for eNB and a 1-by-8 8-antenna phased antenna array for UE to implement the beam-forming technology, also a beam-tracking algorithm is developed to support the mobile transmission up to 30Km/hr. To be specific, this highly flexible and scalable millimeter platform is developed to achieve a data rate higher than 1Gbps data rate in millimeter wave band supporting up to 30Km/hr mobile transmission in the outdoor scenario over 100m coverage.
Specificity of Depressive Symptoms and Suicidality in a Juvenile Delinquent Population

Research which has related scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) to suicidality have generally neglected to examine the possibility that specific depressive factors within the CDI may be more predictive of suicidality than the full scale score. Knowledge of such factors would help to explain the relationship between depression and suicidality and improve the prediction of suicidal behavior. The current study examined the relationship of depressive factors to suicidality in a sample of 200 incarcerated juvenile delinquents. The published factor structure for the CDI and one derived from the delinquent population were compared. Results revealed two factors from the derived solution, hopelessness and low self-esteem, to be more powerful predictors of suicidal ideation than the full-scale CDI score. These results suggest that symptoms such as low self-esteem and hopelessness may be responsible for the well-documented relationship between depression and suicidality. Furthermore, it appears that the prediction of suicidality may be improved by examining specific depressive factors in suicide research as opposed to full-scale scores from depression inventories such as the CDI.
Personalizing Embedded Assessment Sequences in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments: A Collaborative Filtering Approach

A key challenge posed by narrative-centered learning environments is dynamically tailoring story events to individual students. This paper investigates techniques for sequencing story-centric embedded assessments—a particular type of story event that simultaneously evaluates a student’s knowledge and advances an interactive narrative’s plot—in narrative-centered learning environments. We present an approach for personalizing embedded assessment sequences that is based on collaborative filtering. We examine personalized event sequencing in an edition of the Crystal Island narrative-centered learning environment for literacy education. Using data from a multi-week classroom study with 850 students, we compare two model-based collaborative filtering methods, including probabilistic principal component analysis (PPCA) and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), to a memory-based baseline model, k-nearest neighbor. Results suggest that PPCA provides the most accurate predictions on average, but NMF provides a better balance between accuracy and run-time efficiency for predicting student performance on story-centric embedded assessment sequences.
Territoriality, Public Policy and the Conflict of Laws

Dicey calls attention to the fact that there are two great schools of writers on the Conflict of Laws-the theoretical and the positive. The theoretical writers attempt to deduce the rules of the Conflict of Laws from some a priori principle. Starting with some general principle, they try to derive therefrom a body of consistent rules. The positive method, on the other hand, studies the actual rules in force and attempts to reduce them to systematic order. The theoretical method is adopted by the great majority of continental writers, whereas the positive method is preeminently that of the English and American writers. Concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the theoretical method Dicey
Role of NMDA receptors in pentobarbital tolerance/dependence

Effects of continuous pentobarbital administration on binding characteristics of [3H]MK-801 in the rat brain were examined by autoradiography. Animals were rendered tolerant to pentobarbital using i.c.v. infusion of pentobarbital (300μg/10μl/hr for 7 days) by osmotic minipumps and dependent by abrupt withdrawal from pentobarbital. The levels of [3H]MK-801 binding were elevated in rats 24-hr after withdrawal from pentobarbital while there were no changes except in septum and anterior ventral nuclei in tolerant rats. For assessing the role of NMDA receptor in barbiturate action, an NMDA receptor antagonist (MK-801, 2.7 femto g/10μl/hr) was co-infused with pentobarbital. The pentobarbital-infused group had a shorter duration of pentobarbital-induced loss of righting reflex (sleeping time) than that of the control group, and MK-801 alone did not affect the righting reflex. However, co-infusion of MK-801 blocked hyperthermia, and prolonged the onset of convulsions induced by t-butylbicyclophosphorothionate (TBPS) in pentobarbital withdrawal rats. In addition, elevated [35S]TBPS binding was significantly attenuated by co-infusion with MK-801. These results suggest the involvement of NMDA receptor up-regulation in pentobarbital withdrawal and that the development of dependence can be attenuated by the treatment of subtoxic dose of MK-801.
Risk stratification of smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM): Predictive value of free light chains and group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM).

8031Background: A serum free light chain ratio (FLCR) ≥ 100 and bone marrow plasma cell (BMPC) ≥ 60% have recently been classified as myeloma defining events to identify a group of SMM patients at ...
High Rated Current Fe-Base Metal Core Multilayer Power Inductor

Recently, mobile devices are growing popularity in human life, and make very valuable and developing markets. Newer developments in mobile devices technology tend to be embedded, networked, multifunctional and individual. Take the smart phone as an example, the trends take of using high-speed multicore processors to satisfy multi-application functions and high efficiency simultaneously. Such processors require very high current for suppling power to each core. In addition, to meet the smaller and thinner design of smart phone, there is increasing demands for smaller and lower-profile electronic components. At a result, higher operating current power inductor in a small size is needed. In order to achieve this demand, the optimizing design of characteristics for core material, coil pattern and layer structure are very important and necessary.
Product Measurement: Documentation

Measuring the quality of documentation, while a less formidable problem than the quality of the process, offers a major challenge. Documentation measurement can be approached with varying degrees of syntactic and semantic analysis. The simplest approach is to note whether the document exists, irrespective of its contents. Examination of the contents leads to syntactic considerations: structure, format, correspondence. Semantic analysis in the attempt to understand and exploit meaning, especially using automated techniques, represents an exceedingly difficult problem.
Satisfaction and Preferences on Student Publication

The students’ satisfaction and expectations are a tool to re-invent and improve student publication. The goals of this quantitative research are to discover the degree of satisfaction and the extent of preferences of the students of The Wheelhouse publication; hence, it utilized descriptive, correlational, and comparative methods to reveal the expectations of 270 student-readers. Results revealed that the students are satisfied with their school paper while they prefer the three journalistic styles. In terms of sex, the results showed that there is a significant difference between the male and the female. However, there is no significant difference when they are compared according to course. Finally, in the variable year level, there is a significant difference revealed in the technicalities among the second-year students. The outcome of this study was used as a guide in the composition of a campus journalism manual and a publishable dummy of a magazine.
The challenge hypothesis revisited: Focus on reproductive experience and neural mechanisms

Our review focuses on findings from mammals as part of a Special Issue "30th Anniversary of the Challenge Hypothesis". Here we put forth an integration of the mechanisms through which testosterone controls territorial behavior and consider how reproductive experience may alter these mechanisms. The emphasis is placed on the function of socially induced increases in testosterone (T) pulses, which occur in response to social interactions, as elegantly developed by Wingfield and colleagues. We focus on findings from the monogamous California mouse, as data from this species shows that reproductive status is a key factor influencing social interactions, site fidelity, and vigilance for offspring defense. Specifically, we examine differences in T pulses in sexually naive versus sexually experienced pair bonded males. Testosterone pulses influence processes such as social decision making, the winner-challenge effect, and location preferences through rewarding effects of T. We also consider how social and predatory vigilance contribute to T pulses and how these interactions contribute to a territory centered around maximizing reproduction. Possible underlying mechanisms for these effects include the nucleus accumbens (rewarding effects of testosterone), hippocampus (spatial memories for territories), and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (social vigilance). The development of the challenge effect has provided an ideal framework for understanding the complex network of behavioral, environmental, physiological and neural mechanisms that ultimately relates to competition and territoriality across taxa. The opportunity to merge research on the challenge effect using both laboratory and field research to understand social behavior is unparalleled.
The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program: Who Benefits?

The objective of the (U.S.) Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program (AIP) is “to help in developing a nationwide system of public-use airports that meets the current needs and the projected growth of civil aviation” (FAA 2002). Despite its importance to airports, academic study of the program – its effect, benefits, and deficiencies - has been limited. This paper explores funding decisions in light of AIP grantee characteristics using a regression analysis. It is suggested that the decision-making apparatus supporting the AIP program does not clearly take into consideration current needs, or the projected growth of civil aviation.
Prevenção primordial, Envelhecimento ativo e Reforma faseada: Um Triângulo Saudável? Primordial Prevention, Active Ageing and Phased Retirement: An Healthy Triangle?

Segundo a Carta de Ottawa (Organizacao Mundial de Saude, 1986) a Promocao da Saude consiste no processo que visa criar condicoes para que as pessoas aumentem a sua capacidade de controlar os fatores determinantes da saude, no sentido de a melhorar.1 A Prevencao e uma das principais componentes de promocao da saude e ocupa uma grande dimensao no quotidiano do medico de familia, implicando o desenvolvimento de diferentes atividades, que podem ser sistematizadas em tres vertentes de acao inter-relacionadas e complementares: Educacao para a saude, Prevencao da doenca e Protecao da saude. Atualmente consideram-se 5 niveis de prevencao, mas para o presente assunto destaco a Prevencao Primordial como forma de evitar o estabelecimento de estilos de vida que se sabem contribuir para um riscoacrescido de doenca, contemplando para isso politicas e programas de promocao de determinantes positivos de saude.2 1. World Health Organization. Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. An international conference on health promotion: The move towards a new public health; 1986 Nov 17-21, Ottawa. Ottawa: WHO; 1987.2. Hespanhol AP, Couto L, Martins C. A
Combination percutaneous and medical management of cardiac rhabdomyomas obstructing tricuspid valve inflow: Case report.

Background Cardiac rhabdomyomas can be prenatally diagnosed in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex. Many neonates require no intervention in early life other than close monitoring for regression of tumor over the period of months to years. In rare instances, cardiac rhabdomyomas can result in obstruction to blood flow or decreased ventricular function. Case report We describe the case of a neonate who was prenatally diagnosed with multiple large cardiac rhabdomyomas, one of which caused clinically significant obstruction to prograde blood flow across the tricuspid valve in the newborn period. To address the disturbance to prograde pulmonary blood flow, the patient underwent successful ductal stent placement in the neonatal period. A troponin elevation was noted shortly after birth, but no evidence of coronary compression or involvement was demonstrated by coronary angiography. The patient has subsequently been treated with sirolimus over a period of three months, with noted regression in tumors and improvement in tricuspid valve inflow. Conclusions A brief review of the literature regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and management of neonatal patients with cardiac rhabdomyomas is presented. A combined percutaneous and medical management approach may be of benefit in future cases of rhabdomyomas causing obstruction to pulmonary blood flow.
Whole Chromosome Haplotype Phasing from Long-Range Sequencing

Abstract Haplotype phase represents the collective genetic variation between homologous chromosomes and is an essential feature of polyploid genomes. Determining the haplotype phase requires knowledge of both the genotypes at variant sites and their linkage across each homologous chromosome. Although short-read sequencing can produce accurate genotype information, it cannot resolve linkage between genotypes due to the short size (≲1kb) of sequencing fragments. Long-read and long-range sequencing technologies can reveal linkage information across a wide range of genomic lengths (10kb-100 Mb), but such information is often sparse and contaminated with different sources of errors. To what extent can long-range sequencing produce accurate long-range haplotype information remains unknown. Here we describe a general computational framework for inferring haplotype phase and assessing phasing accuracy from long-range sequencing data using a one-dimensional spin model. Building on this model, we demonstrate a two-tier phasing strategy that enables complete whole-chromosome phasing of diploid genomes combining 60× linked-reads sequencing and 60× Hi-C sequencing. The computationally inferred haplotypes from long-range sequencing show high completeness (>95%) and accuracy (~99%) when compared to haplotypes directly determined from sequencing of single chromosomes. Our results provide a scalable solution to generating completely phased genomes from bulk sequencing and enable haplotype-resolved genome analysis at large.
Can atypical dysgeusia in depression be related to a deafferentation syndrome

Abstract Atypical dysgeusia such as having the sensation of a sweet tooth is an uncommon clinical presentation in severe depression. First, we present the case of a 67 year-old-man admitted to the psychiatric ward for depression after a suicide attempt by drug ingestion. The patient manifested a sweet taste sensation in the upper and lower gums that increased with mood swings and notably with severe depressive symptoms. Blood tests showed an elevated serum creatinine level (115 μmol/L), a normocytic anemia (hemoglobin 6.5 mmol/L; MCV 96 fL) and a deficit in vitamin B12 (122.4 pmol/L). The patient received vitamin B12 supplementation and was treated with clomipramine, lithium, mirtazapine, modafinil, and olanzapine. He was discharged after improvement of his depressive symptoms and decrease in the sweet taste. On follow-up, the patient’s dysgeusia had subsided. Second, we hypothesize that the atypical dysgeusia may have been induced by vitamin B12 deficiency and medical comorbidities, leading to deafferentation (development of erroneous mouth mucosae sensations felt by the patient). This could have been increased by depression. Dysgeusia in elederly patients with depression should be extensively investigated in order to elucidate somatic contributing factors but it may not resolve until improvement of the depressive symptoms.
Bortezomib (PS-341) downregulates the androgen receptor (AR) and induces growth arrest and apoptosis in human prostate cancer cell lines

2287 Proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (PS-341) has been shown to confer antitumor activity in a number of malignancies including prostate cancer. Its primary mechanism of action is postulated to be mitigated through the inhibition of the nuclear translocation/activation of the nuclear factor kB (NF-kB). However, additional mechanisms may account for the drug’s potent cytotoxic activity. In this report we set out to investigate possible additional mechanisms that could account for bortezomib’s activity in prostate cancer. Bortezomib was very effective in inhibiting the growth of both PC-3 and LNCaP human prostate cancer cell lines with IC50s (approximately 15 to 25 nM) that are clinically relevant. When these cells were exposed to bortezomib, cells rapidly underwent G2/M arrest at 24 h followed by a dramatic increase of apoptotic cell death at 48 h, indicating that bortezomib inhibited cell growth through induction of growth arrest and apoptosis. In conjunction with growth arrest and apoptosis, we found that bortezomib inhibited the levels of phosphorylated Akt in these cell lines, suggesting that suppression of Akt signaling pathway may play a role in mediating bortezomib-induced growth arrest and apoptosis. In addition, we found that bortezomib reduced the levels of the androgen receptor (AR) and its downstream target PSA in a dose dependent fashion in the AR-expressing LNCaP cell line. Down regulation of the AR may be central to the drug’s activity in advanced prostate cancer since functional AR is reported in the vast majority of clinical specimens from patients with androgen independent prostate cancer. Therefore, we are currently investigating how bortezomib down-regulates AR expression. Furthermore, we are interested in probing the potential synergy of bortezomib with non-cytotoxic steroids as it relates to the inhibition of redundant signaling pathways that allow survival and proliferation in androgen independent prostate cancer.
SU-E-J-89: Comparative Analysis of MIM and Velocity’s Image Deformation Algorithm Using Simulated KV-CBCT Images for Quality Assurance

Purpose: Deformable image registration (DIR) is used routinely in the clinic without a formalized quality assurance (QA) process. Using simulated deformations to digitally deform images in a known way and comparing to DIR algorithm predictions is a powerful technique for DIR QA. This technique must also simulate realistic image noise and artifacts, especially between modalities. This study developed an algorithm to create simulated daily kV cone-beam computed-tomography (CBCT) images from CT images for DIR QA between these modalities. Methods: A Catphan and physical head-and-neck phantom, with known deformations, were used. CT and kV-CBCT images of the Catphan were utilized to characterize the changes in Hounsfield units, noise, and image cupping that occur between these imaging modalities. The algorithm then imprinted these changes onto a CT image of the deformed head-and-neck phantom, thereby creating a simulated-CBCT image. CT and kV-CBCT images of the undeformed and deformed head-and-neck phantom were also acquired. The Velocity and MIM DIR algorithms were applied between the undeformed CT image and each of the deformed CT, CBCT, and simulated-CBCT images to obtain predicted deformations. The error between the known and predicted deformations was used as a metric to evaluate the quality of the simulated-CBCT image. Ideally, themore » simulated-CBCT image registration would produce the same accuracy as the deformed CBCT image registration. Results: For Velocity, the mean error was 1.4 mm for the CT-CT registration, 1.7 mm for the CT-CBCT registration, and 1.4 mm for the CT-simulated-CBCT registration. These same numbers were 1.5, 4.5, and 5.9 mm, respectively, for MIM. Conclusion: All cases produced similar accuracy for Velocity. MIM produced similar values of accuracy for CT-CT registration, but was not as accurate for CT-CBCT registrations. The MIM simulated-CBCT registration followed this same trend, but overestimated MIM DIR errors relative to the CT-CBCT registration.« less
Trafficking of cholinesterases and neuroligins mutant proteins An association with autism

Autism encompasses a wide spectrum of disorders arising during brain development. Recent studies reported that sequence polymorphisms in neuroligin-3 (NLGN3) and neuroligin-4 (NLGN4) genes have been linked to autism spectrum disorders indicating neuroligin genes as candidate targets in brain disorders. We have characterized a single mutation found in two affected brothers that substituted Arg451 to Cys in NL3. Our data show that the exposed Cys causes retention of the protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) when expressed in HEK-293 cells. To examine whether the introduction of a Cys in the C-terminal region of other alpha/beta-hydrolase fold proteins could promote the same cellular phenotype, we made homologous mutations in acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and found a similar processing deficiency and intracellular retention (De Jaco et al., J Biol Chem. 2006, 281:9667-76). NL3, AChE and BChE mutant proteins are recognized as misfolded in the ER, and degraded via the proteasome pathway. A 2D electrophoresis coupled with mass spectrometry based approach was used to analyze proteins co-immunoprecipitating with NL3 and show differential expression of factors interacting with wild type and mutant NL3. We identified several proteins belonging to distinct ER resident chaperones families, including calnexin, responsible for playing a role in the folding steps of the AChE and NLs.
/spl mu/Complexity: estimating processor design effort

Microprocessor design complexity is growing rapidly. As a result, current development costs for top of the line processors are staggering, and are doubling every 4 years. As we design ever larger and more complex processors, it is becoming increasingly difficult to estimate how much time it will take to design and verify them. To compound this problem, processor design cost estimation still does not have a quantitative approach. Although designing a processor is very resource consuming, there is little work measuring, understanding, and estimating the effort required. To address this problem, this paper introduces /spl mu/Complexity, a methodology to measure and estimate processor design effort. /spl mu/Complexity consists of three main parts, namely a procedure to account for the contributions of the different components in the design, accurate statistical regression of experimental measures using a nonlinear mixed-effects model, and a productivity adjustment to account for the productivities of different teams. We use /spl mu/Complexity to evaluate a series of design effort estimators on several processor designs. Our analysis shows that the number of lines of HDL code, the sum of the fan-ins of the logic cones in the design, and a linear combination of the two metrics are good design effort estimators. On the other hand, power, area, frequency, number of flip-flops, and number of standard cells are poor estimators of design effort. We also show that productivity adjustments are necessary to produce accurate estimations.
Regulation of Aromatic Amino Acid Biosynthesis in Bacillus subtilis 168 PURIFICATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND SUBUNIT STRUCTURE OF THE BIFUNCTIONAL ENZYME 3-DEOXY-d-ARABINOHEPTULOSONATE 7-PHOSPHATE SYNTHETASE-CHORISMATE MUTASE

Abstract A bifunctional enzyme, consisting of 3-deoxy-d-arabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate synthetase and chorismate mutase, has been purified to homogeneity from Bacillus subtilis. Ultracentrifugation revealed a single symmetrical peak of protein. A single protein band also was observed when the homogeneous preparation was subjected to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate at pH 7.0. These data suggest that the protein consists of identical subunits. Following treatment of the purified protein with dimethyl suberimidate, four protein bands could be clearly distinguished upon electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. These four bands correspond to the monomer, dimer, trimer, and tetramer forms of the enzyme, as calculated from their molecular weights. The molecular weight of the monomer is about 38,500 as determined by its mobility following electrophoresis on polyacrylamide in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. This number corresponds closely to the minimum chemical molecular weight as calculated from the amino acid composition. The enzyme can exist as a tetramer of molecular weight 160,000 as determined by superfine Sephadex G-200 thin layer chromatography. Metal ions and chemical inhibitors affect the two enzyme activities quite differently, Cd+2 stimulates 3-deoxy-d-arabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate synthetase without any effect on chorismate mutase, while p-hydroxymercuribenzoate inhibits 3-deoxy-d-arabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate synthetase but not chorismate mutase.
UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center- Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Facilities

CF-37 The UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC) is a state-of-the-art campus-wide facility that maintains modern instrumentation for molecular characterizations (www.mic.ucla.edu). The UCLA MIC is composed of five divisions including the W. M. Keck Proteomics Center and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. The equipment for the UCLA Proteomics Center includes Bio-Rad Protean IEF and Criterion and Protean Plus Dodeca electrophoresis cells for 2-D gels; Bio-Rad Fx Fluorescence Imager and GS-800 Densitometer for imaging; Bio-Rad Quantity One and NonLinear Dynamics Progenesis SameSpots softwares for quantitative gel analysis; DIGILAB Genomic Solutions ProPicII spotcutter; Thermo LTQ FT MS with Eksigent NanoLC-2D HPLC and Thermo LTQ Orbitrap XL MS with Eksigent NanoLC-2D HPLC. The Proteomic Bioinformatics Resources include Census Quantitative software for quantitating MS labeling experiments; SEQUEST and Mascot Search Engines for protein identification; Scaffold Software for validating, organizing, interpreting and comparing MS database search results from one or more search engines and PEAKS software to do de novo sequencing and characterize mutations and post-translational modifications of proteins/peptides. The MS Laboratory is located next door and works closely with the Proteomics Center. Their equipment includes Applied Biosystems-MDS Sciex 4000 Q Trap with Autosampler; Applied Biosystems Q-Star Elite Quad-TOF Hybrid LC/MS/MS system; Applied Biosystems Voyager-DE STR MALDI–TOF; Thermo Finnigan LCQ Deca Ion Trap MS with Autosampler and PDA; Agilent 6890-5975 GC-MS with Autosampler and Waters LCT Premier with ACQUITY UPLC and autosampler. The UCLA Proteomics Center and MS Laboratory have five Ph.D. level staff members who are experts in 2-D gel and other electrophoresis, sample preparation, bioinformatics and mass spectrometry. The staff is responsible for operating, maintaining and upgrading the equipment, training users, offering guidance in sample preparation and experiment design and providing services. The MIC is available to researchers at UCLA, other academic institutions and commercial enterprises.
Unique Continuation Problems for Partial Differential Equations

The aim of this article is to give an overview of the main problems and results in unique continuation. Broadly speaking, an unique continuation result is any statement of the following type: Given a linear partial differential operator P and two regions A C B, a solution u to Pu = 0 is uniquely determined in the larger set B by its values (behavior) in the smaller set A.
Immunofluorescent Detection of Enterotoxin B in Food and a Culture Medium

Both Staphylococcus aureus strains 243 and S-6 cells producing enterotoxin B and free enterotoxin in food and culture medium were rapidly demonstrated by using the fluorescent-antibody technique. Comparison of cell fluorescence and enterotoxin B production determined by double gel diffusion showed that an estimation of enterotoxin production could be made by observing the degree of cell fluorescence. The fluorescent-antibody technique was used to determine whether cells were producing enterotoxin under varying nutritional and environmental conditions: NaCl concentration, culture aeration, and time and temperature of incubation in Brain Heart Infusion broth and shrimp slurries. At the various NaCl concentrations, the fluorescence of cells was found positively associated with enterotoxin B production only during the first 12 hr of growth. As the NaCl concentration was increased from 0 to 10%, the fluorescence of cells and toxin production decreased. Maximum for cell fluorescence and enterotoxin production was observed at 37 C. Little or no difference in cell fluorescence and enterotoxin production with both strains was found between Brain Heart Infusion broth and shrimp slurry cultures. All results obtained with the fluorescent-antibody technique were verified with double gel diffusion for enterotoxin detection and quantitation.
Studies of polaron motion: Part III: The Hall mobility of the small polaron

Abstract The one-dimensional molecular crystal model of polaron motion, developed in parts I and II, is suitably generalized to consider the existence of a Hall effect. As in II, the treatment is confined to the case for which the electronic-overlap term of the total Hamiltonian is a small perturbation. In zeroth order—i.e., in the absence of this term—the electron is localized at a given site. The vibrational state of the system is specified by a set of quantum numbers, Nk, giving the degree of excitation of each vibrational mode. The existence of a nonvanishing electronic bandwidth then gives rise to transitions to neighboring sites. Of principal interest in the present paper is the high temperature regime (T > Tt, as defined in II) where polaron motion is predominantly by means of random jumps between neighboring sites. Although the lowest order jump rate is adequate in considering the polaron drift mobility, higher order processes, involving the occupation of (at least) three sites, must be taken into account in treating the Hall effect. In particular, it is demonstrated the relative probability of the electron, initially located on one of the three sites, hopping to one or the other of the remaining two sites, is modified by a contribution which, both in sign and magnitude, is linearly proportional to the applied magnetic field. This effect is shown to arise from the interference between the amplitude for the direct transition from the initial to the final site, and the amplitude for an indirect, second order transition, involving intermediate occupancy of the third site. The (magnetic) field induced components of the jump rates, corresponding to the above processes, are first calculated by a classical occurrence-probability approach which treats the lattice vibrational coordinates as given functions of time. The second approach presents a full quantum mechanical calculation of the jump rates. The results of this treatment agree with those of the occurrence-probability approach in the classical limit (T ⪢ ΘDe bye). The order of magnitude of the calculated Hall Coefficients are found to be greater than or comparable to the “normal” result ( R = −1 nec ) depending on whether or not the three sites involved in the transition are mutually nearest neighbors. A final note corrects an error in a previous paper by one of the authors (T. H.) concerning the sign of the Hall effect in impurity conduction.
YscP of Yersinia pestis Is a Secreted Component of the Yop Secretion System

The Yersinia pestis low-Ca2+ response stimulon is responsible for the environmentally regulated expression and secretion of antihost proteins (V antigen and Yops). We have previously shown that yscO encodes a secreted core component of the Yop secretion (Ysc) mechanism. In this study, we constructed and characterized in-frame deletions in the adjacent gene, yscP, in the yscN–yscU operon. The ΔP1 mutation, which removed amino acids 246 to 333 of YscP, had no effect on Yop expression or secretion, and the mutant protein, YscP1, was secreted, as was YscP in the parent. In contrast, the ΔP2 strain expressed and secreted less of each Yop than did the parent under the inductive conditions of 37°C and the absence of Ca2+, with an exception being YopE, which was only minimally affected by the mutation. The YscP2 protein, missing amino acids 57 to 324 of YscP, was expressed but not secreted by the ΔP2 mutant. The effect of the ΔP2 mutation was at the level of Yop secretion because YopM and V antigen still showed limited secretion when overproduced in trans. Excess YscP also affected secretion: overexpression of YscP in the parent, in either yscP mutant, or in an lcrG mutant effectively shut off secretion. However, co-overexpression of YscO and YscP had no effect on secretion, and YscP overexpression in an lcrE mutant had little effect on Yop secretion, suggesting that YscP acts, in conjunction with YscO, at the level of secretion control of LcrE at the bacterial surface. These findings place YscP among the growing family of mobile Ysc components that both affect secretion and themselves are secreted by the Ysc.
Dietary lecithin: metabolism, fate, and effects on metabolism of lipids and lipoproteins

The phospholipids, of which lecithin is a major component, constitute a major class of lipids in body tissues and in plasma. They play a vital role in cellular function and in transport of lipids. Since they are required for the solubilization of cholesterol, both within cells and in lipoproteins, the question naturally has arisen whether the phospholipids, or lecithin in particular, can be used in the prevention of atherosclerosis. This possibility has led investigators to feed phospholipids and to administer them intravenously with the aim of slowing down the process of atherosclerosis. Results have been conflicting. Some studies in experimental animals have suggested that the feeding of lecithin can reduce the size of atherosclerotic plaques (1,2). Several mechanisms might be responsible for this effect. There could be an increase in the activities of cholesteryl ester hydrolase in the arterial wall (3,4); there might be an activation of triglyceride lipase (5); or there could be changes in the metabolism of high density lipoproteins (HDL) (6). Further, high doses of lecithin in the diet might interfere with absorption of cholesterol, or they might alter the metabolism of triglycerides or low density lipoproteins (LDL). Because of the possible beneficial effects of dietary lecithin, our laboratory has carried out a series of studies on the metabolism of lecithin. Although these studies have not specifically examined whether the feeding of lecithin will prevent the development of atherosclerosis, they have provided new insights into the metabolism of lecithin and the effects of lecithin on the metabolism of other lipids. Our findings will be summarized in this chapter.
Sub-15-femtosecond active synchronization of two passively mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillators

Summary form only given. The ability to synchronize a passively-modelocked laser to an external reference, or to a second laser, has many applications. Previous work synchronizing two mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers has demonstrated timing jitters of at best a few hundred femtoseconds. Since it is now routine to generate pulses with duration <20 fs, improved techniques would make it possible to take full advantage of this time resolution for applications such as sum- and difference-frequency mixing, novel pulse generation and shaping techniques, and for novel laser/accelerator based light sources. This paper presents a new technique that allows us to robustly synchronize pulse trains from separate lasers with a timing jitter of <15 fs. We use two independent mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers, running at 780 nm and 820 nm. Our synchronization scheme consists of three phase lock loops working at different timing resolutions.
The rally 'round the flag effect in U.S. foreign policy crises, 1950–1985

We calculate the rally 'round the flag effect (Mueller, 1970, 1973) for all 41 U.S. foreign policy crises, 1950–1985, identified by the International Crisis Behavior Project (Wilkenfeld, Brecher, and Moser, 1988). The mean change in the president's approval rating is surprisingly small: 1.4 percent among all respondents. The greatest influences on the rallying effect of a crisis are whether or not the United States is involved in an ongoing war and, especially, theNew York Times's coverage of the president's major response to a crisis. When a major response is reported in the headlines, the rally is more than 8 percentage points greater,ceteris paribus, than when it is not reported on the front page. TheNew York Times's reporting is influenced by the nature of the president's response, the efforts of his administration to publicize his actions, the degree of Soviet involvement, the location of the crisis, and the willingness of opposition leaders to take a newsworthy position regarding the president's performance.