cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Forest ecosystem recovery in the southeast US: soil ecology as an essential component of ecosystem management

Abstract The forestry industry in the southeastern United States relies upon soils that are highly eroded and depleted of their original organic matter and nutrient content. Pro-active land management can ensure continued and possibly increased production and revenue through the management and recovery of the soil resource. With an emphasis on loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forests, this review integrates land-use history, pine ecology, silviculture, soil ecological research and the implications for forest management into a single discussion. Promoting soil recovery involves knowledge of ecosystem history and disturbance as well as nutrient cycling mechanisms, pools, fluxes and soil forming factors. Research on the rhizosphere is an area that is needed. Recovery of regional soils may confer benefits of drought and disease resistance. The goal of sustainable forestry is compatible with soil recovery; however, the technology and practices of modern forestry deserve thorough evaluation. Emphasis on the continued production of commodities, the agricultural model, is much different from managing for the functioning of healthy forest ecosystems. Many of the practices and outcomes of intensive forest management, including short rotations, harrowing, subsoiling, and burning or removal of logging slash, seem to be at odds with the goal of soil recovery. Best management practices that foster soil recovery include less intensive stand utilization and reduced soil disturbance. Stem-only harvest and longer rotations permit a recovery of soil biodiversity and an accrual of detritus and soil organic matter. Windrowing and similar techniques have dramatic and lasting effects on soil development. No-tillage agriculture as a model for pine plantations is discussed.
A Novel Laser Vaccine Adjuvant Increases the Motility of Antigen Presenting Cells

Background Development of a potent vaccine adjuvant without introduction of any side effects remains an unmet challenge in the field of the vaccine research. Methodology/Principal Findings We found that laser at a specific setting increased the motility of antigen presenting cells (APCs) and immune responses, with few local or systemic side effects. This laser vaccine adjuvant (LVA) effect was induced by brief illumination of a small area of the skin or muscle with a nondestructive, 532 nm green laser prior to intradermal (i.d.) or intramuscular (i.m.) administration of vaccines at the site of laser illumination. The pre-illumination accelerated the motility of APCs as shown by intravital confocal microscopy, leading to sufficient antigen (Ag)-uptake at the site of vaccine injection and transportation of the Ag-captured APCs to the draining lymph nodes. As a result, the number of Ag+ dendritic cells (DCs) in draining lymph nodes was significantly higher in both the 1° and 2° draining lymph nodes in the presence than in the absence of LVA. Laser-mediated increases in the motility and lymphatic transportation of APCs augmented significantly humoral immune responses directed against a model vaccine ovalbumin (OVA) or influenza vaccine i.d. injected in both primary and booster vaccinations as compared to the vaccine itself. Strikingly, when the laser was delivered by a hair-like diffusing optical fiber into muscle, laser illumination greatly boosted not only humoral but also cell-mediated immune responses provoked by i.m. immunization with OVA relative to OVA alone. Conclusion/Significance The results demonstrate the ability of this safe LVA to augment both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. In comparison with all current vaccine adjuvants that are either chemical compounds or biological agents, LVA is novel in both its form and mechanism; it is risk-free and has distinct advantages over traditional vaccine adjuvants.
Cyclodextrin-Enhanced Extraction and Removal of 2,4-Dinitrotoluene from Contaminated Soils

The extraction and removal of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) from contaminated soils were evaluated using aqueous solutions of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPCD). The cyclodextrin-enhanced removal of 2,4-DNT from soils was investigated as function of soil type and concentration of HPCD solutions up to 5% HPCD (w/w). Three soils were spiked with 480 mg of 2,4-DNT per kg of soil: kaolin, a low-buffering clayey soil; montmorillonite, a soil with high specific surface area; and glacial till, a high-buffering silty soil with organic matter. The glacial till was a field soil containing 2.8% organic matter. The solubility of 2,4-DNT in 5% HPCD solution increased approximately threefold compared to solubility of 2,4-DNT in water. For kaolin, water was as effective as HPCD solutions. For montmorillonite, the 5% HPCD solution was the most effective extractant. For glacial till, the 2% HPCD solution was as effective an extractant as the 5% HPCD solution. Although the solubility of 2,4-DNT in 2% HPCD was enhanced appr...
The influence of adhesive bondline thickness imperfections on stresses in composite joints

Adhesively-bonded joints can have spatial variations in bondline thickness with respect to their overlap length. Assumptions pertaining to shear-lag and adherend transverse shear deformation are used to compose a governing differential equation that permits any mathematical function to be used for representing the variation in bondline thickness, t a (x). Finite Difference solution techniques are employed to solve this equation, and it is shown by a series of case study example calculations that the adhesive shear stress changes significantly for deviations about a baseline, uniform thickness, configuration. It is also shown that for cases when the gradient in bondline thickness is small, simple closed-form solutions developed strictly for uniform thickness joints can provide reasonable accuracy. Numerical results are summarized as "stress concentration factor" curves, allowing quick estimation of the upper and lower bounds of normalized peak shear stress in joints having varying degrees of thickness impe...
Devirtualizable virtual machines enabling general, single-node, online maintenance

Maintenance is the dominant source of downtime at high availability sites. Unfortunately, the dominant mechanism for reducing this downtime, cluster rolling upgrade, has two shortcomings that have prevented its broad acceptance. First, cluster-style maintenance over many nodes is typically performed a few nodes at a time, mak-ing maintenance slow and often impractical. Second, cluster-style maintenance does not work on single-node systems, despite the fact that their unavailability during maintenance can be painful for organizations. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for online maintenance that uses virtual machines to provide maintenance on single nodes, allowing parallel maintenance over multiple nodes, and online maintenance for standalone servers. We present the Microvisor, our prototype virtual machine system that is custom tailored to the needs of online maintenance. Unlike general purpose virtual machine environments that induce continual 10-20% over-head, the Microvisor virtualizes the hardware only during periods of active maintenance, letting the guest OS run at full speed most of the time. Unlike past attempts at virtual machine optimization, we do not compromise OS transparency. We instead give up generality and tailor our virtual machine system to the minimum needs of online maintenance, eschewing features, such as I/O and memory virtualization, that it does not strictly require. The result is a very thin virtual machine system that induces only 5.6% CPU overhead when virtualizing the hardware, and zero CPU overhead when devirtualized. Using the Microvisor, we demonstrate an online OS upgrade on a live, single-node web server, reducing downtime from one hour to less than one minute.
The induction of the p53 tumor suppressor protein bridges the apoptotic and autophagic signaling pathways to regulate cell death in prostate cancer cells.

// Lymor Ringer 1,* , Paul Sirajuddin 1,* , Lucas Tricoli 1,* , Sarah Waye 1 , Muhammad Umer Choudhry 1 , Erika Parasido 1 , Angiela Sivakumar 1 , Mary Heckler 1 , Aisha Naeem 1 , Iman Abdelgawad 1,6 , Xuefeng Liu 2 , Adam S. Feldman 3 , Richard J. Lee 3 , Chin-Lee Wu 3 , Venkata Yenugonda 1 , Bhaskar Kallakury 2 , Anatoly Dritschilo 4 , John Lynch 4 , Richard Schlegel 1,2 , Olga Rodriguez 1 , Richard G. Pestell 5 , Maria Laura Avantaggiati 1,* and Chris Albanese 1,2,* 1 Department of Oncology and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA 2 Department of Pathology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA 3 Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA 4 Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA 5 Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA 6 National Cancer Institute of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence: Chris Albanese, email: // Keywords : p53, apoptosis, autophagy, primary cells, prostate Received : July 14, 2014 Accepted : September 25, 2014 Published : September 26, 2014 Abstract The p53 tumor suppressor protein plays a crucial role in influencing cell fate decisions in response to cellular stress. As p53 elicits cell cycle arrest, senescence or apoptosis, the integrity of the p53 pathway is considered a key determinant of anti-tumor responses. p53 can also promote autophagy, however the role of p53-dependent autophagy in chemosensitivity is poorly understood. VMY-1-103 (VMY), a dansylated analog of purvalanol B, displays rapid and potent anti-tumor activities, however the pathways by which VMY works are not fully defined. Using established prostate cancer cell lines and novel conditionally reprogrammed cells (CRCs) derived from prostate cancer patients; we have defined the mechanisms of VMY-induced prostate cancer cell death. Herein, we show that the cytotoxic effects of VMY required a p53-dependent induction of autophagy, and that inhibition of autophagy abrogated VMY-induced cell death. Cancer cell lines harboring p53 missense mutations evaded VMY toxicity and treatment with a small molecule compound that restores p53 activity re-established VMY-induced cell death. The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms governing VMY-dependent cell death in cell lines, and importantly in CRCs, provides the rationale for clinical studies of VMY, alone or in combination with p53 reactivating compounds, in human prostate cancer.
Surface-plasmon dispersion relations in chains of metallic nanoparticles: An exact quasistatic calculation

We calculate the surface-plasmon dispersion relations for a periodic chain of spherical metallic nanoparticles in an isotropic host, including all multipole modes, in a generalized tight-binding approach. For sufficiently small particles $(kd\ensuremath{\ll}1,$ where k is the wave vector and d is the interparticle separation), the calculation is exact. The lowest bands differ only slightly from previous point-dipole calculations provided the particle radius $a\ensuremath{\lesssim}d/3,$ but differ substantially at smaller separation. We also calculate the dispersion relations for many higher bands, and estimate the group velocity ${v}_{g}$ and the exponential decay length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{D}$ for energy propagation for the lowest two bands due to single-grain damping. For $a/d=0.33,$ the result for ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{D}$ is in qualitative agreement with experiments on gold nanoparticle chains, while for smaller separation, such as $a/d=0.45,$ ${v}_{g}$ and ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{D}$ are expected to be strongly k dependent because of the multipole corrections. When the particles touch, we predict percolation effects in the spectrum, and find surprising symmetry in the plasmon band structure. Finally, we reformulate the band-structure equations for a Drude metal in the time domain, and suggest how to include localized driving electric fields in the equations of motion.
Baroreflex control of renal sympathetic nerve activity is preserved in heart failure despite reduced arterial baroreceptor sensitivity

The purpose of this study was to determine if arterial baroreflex control of sympathetic nerve traffic is impaired in heart failure. We recorded renal nerve activity during changes in arterial pressure while simultaneously recording from aortic baroreceptor afferent fibers in 10 dogs with heart failure induced by rapid ventricular pacing and in 10 sham animals. Sensitivity of the aortic baroreceptors (percent change in nerve activity per millimeters mercury change in mean arterial pressure) was reduced in the heart failure group (heart failure, 2.3 +/- 0.3; sham, 3.6 +/- 0.4, p = 0.02). Despite the reduced sensitivity of aortic baroreceptors in heart failure, there was no difference in the baroreflex gain of renal nerve activity (heart failure, -5.5 +/- 1.4; sham, -5.8 +/- 1.3, p = NS). These values tended to decrease in both groups after vagotomy. The relation between baroreceptor input and renal sympathetic output, or central baroreflex gain (percent change in renal nerve activity divided by percent change in aortic nerve activity) was similar in both groups before vagotomy (heart failure, -2.4 +/- 0.6; sham, -2.3 +/- 0.5, p = NS). Vagotomy reduced central gain in the sham group (-0.9 +/- 0.1, p = 0.03) but not in the heart failure group (-1.7 +/- 0.5, p = NS), suggesting that the contribution of vagal afferents in the baroreflex arc is reduced in heart failure. Baroreflex control of R-R interval was attenuated in heart failure when assessed by blood pressure elevation but not reduction, indicating abnormal parasympathetic but preserved cardiac sympathetic mechanisms in heart failure. Thus, dogs with heart failure exhibit reduced sensitivity of aortic baroreceptors but preserved baroreflex control of renal nerve activity. Reduced baroreceptor sensitivity with preservation of baroreflex control of sympathetic nerve activity may contribute to the sympathoexcitatory state known to exist in heart failure.
Improving accuracy of total knee component cementation: description of a simple technique.

Background: Total knee arthroplasty represents a common orthopedic surgical procedure. Achieving proper alignment of its components with the predrilled patellar and tibial peg holes prior to polymerization of the bone cement can be challenging. Technique: After establishing the femoral, patellar and tibial bone cuts, the cancellous bone around the tibial keel, as well as the peg holes for the patella and femoral components are marked with methylene blue using a cotton swab stick. If bone cement is then placed onto the cut and marked bone edges, the methylene blue leaches through the bone cement and clearly outlines the tibial keel and predrilled femoral and patellar peg holes. This allows excellent visualization of the bone preparations for each component, ensuring safe and prompt positioning of TKA components while minimizing intraoperative difficulties with component alignment while the cement hardens. Conclusion: The presented technical note helps to improve the accuracy and ease of insertion when the components of total knee arthroplasty are impacted to their final position.
Pluronic L81 enhances triacylglycerol accumulation in the cytosol and inhibits chylomicron secretion

Pluronic L81 (PL81) inhibits fat absorption, and other Pluronic copolymers help overcome drug resistance in cancer cells. To understand how PL81 acts, we synthesized a radiolabeled analog, [14C]PL81, and showed that it was structurally similar to PL81 based on (1)H NMR as well as mass spectrometric analysis. [14C]PL81 inhibited the secretion of chylomicrons (CMs), lipoproteins essential for fat absorption, by differentiated Caco-2 cells similar to PL81. Moreover, PL81 competed with the cellular uptake of [14C]PL81. Thus, [14C]PL81 and PL81 behave similarly in these physiologic assays. Uptake of [14C]PL81 by Caco-2 cells was concentration-, time-, and temperature-dependent and occurred mainly from the apical side. Intracellularly, it was assimilated in the cytosol. Cells excreted PL81 toward the apical side via a pathway partially sensitive to verapamil. Small amounts were secreted toward the basolateral side unassociated with CM, and this secretion was unaffected by the inhibition of CM assembly. Nonetheless, PL81 significantly inhibited the secretion of triacylglycerols (TGs) and phospholipids as part of CM. PL81-treated cells showed decreased activity of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein and accumulated more TGs, but not phospholipids, in their cytosol. We propose that Pluronic copolymers act by interfering with the export of molecules from the cytosol. They inhibit fat absorption by decreasing TG transport to the endoplasmic reticulum and increase drug efficacy against cancer cells by competing for their excretion.
Collateral capillary arterialization following arteriolar ligation in murine skeletal muscle.

Microcirculation (2010) 17, 333–347. doi: 10.1111/j.1549-8719.2010.00034.x Abstract Objective: Chronic and acute ischemic diseases—peripheral artery disease, coronary artery disease, stroke—result in tissue damage unless blood flow is maintained or restored in a timely manner. Mice of different strains recover from arteriolar ligation (by increasing collateral blood flow) at different speeds. We quantify the spatio-temporal patterns of microvascular network remodeling following arteriolar ligation in different mouse strains to better understand inter-individual variability. Methods: Whole-muscle spinotrapezius microvascular networks of mouse strains C57Bl/6, Balb/c and CD1 were imaged using confocal microscopy following ligation of feeding arterioles. Results: Baseline arteriolar structures of C57Bl/6 and Balb/c mice feature heavily ramified arcades and unconnected dendritic trees, respectively. This network angioarchitecture identifies ischemia-protected and ischemia-vulnerable tissues; unlike C57Bl/6, downstream capillary perfusion in Balb/c spinotrapezius is lost following ligation. Perfusion recovery requires arterialization (expansion and investment of mural cells) of a subset of capillaries forming a new low-resistance collateral pathway between arteriolar trees. Outbred CD1 exhibit either Balb/c-like or C57Bl/6-like spinotrapezius angioarchitecture, predictive of response to arteriolar ligation. Conclusions: This collateral capillary arterialization process may explain the reported longer time required for blood flow recovery in Balb/c hindlimb ischemia, as low-resistance blood flow pathways along capillary conduits must be formed (“arterialization”) before reperfusion.
“Extra‐class” communication: Frequency, immediacy, self‐disclosure, and satisfaction in student‐faculty interaction outside the classroom

Abstract Although hundreds of studies investigate in‐class communication in higher education, few assess student‐faculty interaction outside the classroom. This study explores students’ and instructors’ perceptions of “extra‐classroom” communication (ECC). Substantive differences are posited in four categories: frequency, content (self‐disclosure and task‐orientation), immediacy, and satisfaction. Since no instrument existed to measure such communication exclusively, parallel inventories for students and faculty were created using the ECC context. A community college was selected to test the efficacy of the inventories and to generate preliminary findings. Data were subjected to within group univariate analysis of all items by all factors; correlation, regression analysis, and MANOVA of summary variables; and matched between group comparisons of both individual and summary variables based on student or faculty status. Significant differences were found relative to status, sex, age, years in college, major...
Comparison of human-machine interfaces designed for novices teleoperating multi-DOF hydraulic manipulators

Hydraulic manipulators are commonly used for tasks that require large forces over a large workspace. Current hydraulic manipulators are often operated using individual joint control. Since many of these manipulators are long kinematic chains, such as excavators and concrete pump trucks, it can take years of training and experience to become a true expert operator, resulting in a large number of novice operators. Haptics and coordinated control have been shown to improve various operator performance measures such as task completion time and the amount of applied force. This paper outlines a novel coordinated control scheme and shows that coordinated position control is feasible for slow and/or large-workspace manipulators. It discusses the results of these two coordinated control modes with and without haptics on operator task completion time. The performance of a single expert operator is provided as a comparison. This paper also includes a fuel efficiency measurement absent in previous work. The results are benchmarked against current joystick control.
Milling and mechanical alloying of inorganic nonmetallics

The versatility of mechanochemical processing was investigated in a number of nonmetallic inorganic systems. It is shown that high energy grinding can be used to produce amorphous carbon from synthetic graphite and some forms of natural graphite. Elemental sulfur can likewise be amorphized by prolonged high energy grinding. Phase transformations of αFe2O3 (hematite) and mechanochemical reactions of this phase with ZnO and NiO are strongly influenced by the presence of iron resulting from wear of the grinding media. Thus spinel type ferrites were obtained by grinding of such mixtures for short times (1–3 h in a Spex mill); however, longer grinding times resulted in the formation of FeO or (Fe,Zn)O (when grinding ZnO) or FeO or (Fe, Ni)O (when grinding NiO), presumably as a result of the reaction of mill wear debris with the mill charge. The suspected (Fe, Zn)O phase is most likely a nonequilibrium solid solution. Negligible were accompanied the mechanochemical synthesis of NiS and ZnS from elemental powders. These sulfides were formed for short milling times. In contrast, sulfides of tungsten were not formed even when rather long milling times were employed. The survey of mechanochemical reactions presented here further reinforces the concept that this low temperature synthesis method is a robust process route for production of a wide range of materials.
Training a Limited-Interconnect, Synthetic Neural IC

Hardware implementation of neuromorphic algorithms is hampered by high degrees of connectivity. Functionally equivalent feedforward networks may be formed by using limited fan-in nodes and additional layers, but this complicates procedures for determining weight magnitudes. No direct mapping of weights exists between fully and limited-interconnect nets. Low-level nonlinearities prevent the formation of internal representations of widely separated spatial features and the use of gradient descent methods to minimize output error is hampered by error magnitude dissipation. The judicious use of linear summations or collection units is proposed as a solution.
A grid computing environment for undergraduate research

This paper presents the establishment of cluster computing lab at a minority serving institution that aims to provide computing resources to support undergraduate student research. We will firstly a project for building, configuring, and maintaining the cluster in the lab. The computing resources of the cluster are managed by a job distribution environment that allows the users to upload, compile, and run their jobs. The job distribution software distributes the submitted jobs to the computing nodes of the cluster. Load balancing issues are addressed. Next, we present student research activities performed on the cluster. We will present two related projects that aim to implement the Chemical Reaction Models (CRM) on the cluster using TSpace, and implement CRM on a GPU machine. Participating students were actively involved in presentation and publication of research results.
Superradiance and motional narrowing of exciton-polaritons in J-aggregate thin films

We investigate dispersion of J-aggregate thin films of varying thickness. Reflectance measurements and simulations suggest a "superradiance" effect in thick films similar to that observed in multiple-quantum wells in addition to evidence of motional narrowing.
Does the Stenting Versus Aggressive Medical Therapy Trial Support Stenting for Subgroups With Intracranial Stenosis

Background and Purpose— Although the Stenting Versus Aggressive Medical Therapy for Intracranial Arterial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) trial showed that medical therapy alone was superior to stenting plus medical therapy for preventing recurrent strokes in patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis, we determined whether SAMMPRIS supported the use of stenting in any subpopulations of patients with symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis. Methods— The primary outcome, 30-day stroke and death and later strokes in the territory of the qualifying artery, was compared in those with and without baseline factors in the 2 treatment arms, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting (PTAS) plus aggressive medical therapy versus aggressive medical therapy alone. Baseline factors included sex, age, race, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, lipid disorder, smoking status, type of qualifying event, qualifying event hypoperfusion symptoms, use of antithrombotic or proton pump inhibitor at baseline, days to enrollment, old infarcts in the same territory, percent stenosis, other artery stenosis, and location of the symptomatic artery. Results— A total of 451 patients were enrolled, 227 randomized to aggressive medical therapy and 224 to PTAS. Of all variables evaluated, the observed 2-year event rates were higher with PTAS than with aggressive medical therapy in the vast majority and the interaction with treatment was not statistically significant for any of the factors. Conclusions— The SAMMPRIS results do not provide evidence to support the use of PTAS using the Wingspan stent system compared with medical treatment in any examined subpopulation of patients with symptomatic intracranial stenosis, including those with qualifying event hypoperfusion symptoms. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00576693.
Evaluation of Pulmonary Emergencies Using Point-Of-Care Ultrasound in the Pediatric Emergency Department: A Review

Point-of-care ultrasound has a wide array of applications in the emergency care of children. Over the past 3 decades, lung ultrasound has evolved and become an asset in evaluating both emergent and critically ill patients. Ultrasound of the lung was once thought to be of little utility because normal lung is aerated and ultrasound cannot directly visualize air. Thus, it was unclear how ultrasound would be beneficial. It is now evident that ultrasound of the chest is extremely useful in evaluating not only normal lung but also pathologic conditions. This article reviews the clinical utility of point-of-care transthoracic lung ultrasound in the diagnosis of pneumothorax, lung consolidations, interstitial syndromes, and pleural effusions.
A 74-Year-Old Man With Fatal Gastrointestinal Bleeding

The caliber-persistent artery, or Dieulafoy lesion, is one of the lesser-known causes of gastrointestinal bleeding. The lesion is caused by failure of normal development of arteries below the muscularis mucosa, and can lead to profuse bleeding in the case of rupture. The specific cause of rupture of Dieulafoy lesion is not known, but the subsequent bleeding can carry serious consequences for the patient We present a case of a 74-year-old man with fatal gastrointestinal bleeding caused by a ruptured caliber-persistent artery. Characteristic gross and histologic features of this rare entity are discussed, along with frequently encountered patient characteristics and treatment options.
‘Pulsatile’ vein in a man after a motor vehicle accident

A 57-year-old man with a motor vehicle accident and blunt chest trauma developed refractory hypotension and hypoxia. His external jugular veins were filled, pulsated with an indiscernible waveform. It was difficult to insert a central line into right subclavian vein, because of exceedingly brisk and pulsatile backward blood flow. No murmur was audible in auscultation. No specific cardiac abnormality was indicated in chest X-ray. Creatine kinase-MB was 30.89 and cardiac troponin T (CTnT) was 0.6. The ECG revealed an intermittent right bundle branch block pattern (see online supplementary figure S1). A subcostal view transthoracic echocardiogram with pulse wave Doppler study was shown in Figure 1A (a colour Doppler study was shown in online supplementary video 1). A contrast chest CT was shown in Figure 1B. Figure 1 (A) Hepatic vein pulse wave Doppler …
Induction of NAD(P)H:Quinone Oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) by Glycyrrhiza Species Used for Women’s Health: Differential Effects of the Michael Acceptors Isoliquiritigenin and Licochalcone A

For the alleviation of menopausal symptoms, women frequently turn to botanical dietary supplements, such as licorice and hops. In addition to estrogenic properties, these botanicals could also have chemopreventive effects. We have previously shown that hops and its Michael acceptor xanthohumol (XH) induced the chemoprevention enzyme, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), in vitro and in vivo. Licorice species could also induce NQO1, as they contain the Michael acceptors isoliquiritigenin (LigC) found in Glycyrrhiza glabra (GG), G. uralensis (GU), G. inflata (GI), and licochalcone A (LicA) which is only found in GI. These licorice species and hops induced NQO1 activity in murine hepatoma (Hepa1c1c7) cells; hops ≫ GI > GG ≅ GU. Similar to the known chemopreventive compounds curcumin (turmeric), sulforaphane (broccoli), and XH, LigC and LicA were active dose-dependently; sulforaphane ≫ XH > LigC > LicA ≅ curcumin ≫ liquiritigenin (LigF). Induction of the antioxidant response element luciferase in human he...
Long-term results of femoral-head replacement.

A study of 436 replacements of the femoral head by Austin Moore, Thompson, Valls, and Judet prostheses, done from 1950 to 1965, revealed best results with the Austin Moore prosthesis. Only 195 patients could be followed for five years or more. The Austin Moore prosthesis gave 31 per cent excellent, 36 per cent good, 25 per cent fair, and 8 per cent poor results; relatively few patients showed much change in the results obtained—roughly as many showed long-term improvement as showed deterioration.
Controlling the Isolation and Pairing of Aluminum in Chabazite Zeolites Using Mixtures of Organic and Inorganic Structure-Directing Agents

Synthetic methods are reported to prepare chabazite (CHA) zeolites (SSZ-13) at fixed elemental composition but with different arrangements of their framework Al atoms (Al–O(−Si–O)x–Al) between paired (x = 1, 2) and isolated (x ≥ 3) configurations. SSZ-13 zeolites (Si/Al = 15–30) that crystallized in hydroxide media and in the presence of only N,N,N-trimethyl-1-admantylammonium cations (TMAda+) contained only isolated framework Al, evident in their inability to exchange divalent Cu2+ or Co2+ cations that titrate paired Al sites. Addition of Na+ to the zeolite crystallization medium, with total cationic charge ((Na+ + TMAda+)/Al) and other synthesis parameters held constant, crystallized SSZ-13 zeolites at a fixed Si/Al ratio but with paired Al densities that increased linearly with the Na+ content incorporated into the crystalline solids. Crystallization media containing equimolar amounts of Na+ and TMAda+, but varying Al content, crystallized SSZ-13 at different compositions (Si/Al = 5, 15, 25) with the p...
Abstract 5291: A preclinical model for investigation of nuclear factor-kappa B inhibitors in ovarian cancer

Most women diagnosed with ovarian cancer initially present with metastatic disease characterized by peritoneal implants and ascites. Critical to the distinct clinical pattern of spread of ovarian tumors is activation of a pro-inflammatory process mediated by nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB). However, NF-κB inhibitors such as bortezomib have been disappointing in the clinic. Alternative NF-κB inhibitors such as thymoquinone (TQ) and curcumin, both derived from natural products, exhibit promise as potential treatments for ovarian cancer and are well tolerated. Therefore, our goals were to validate a newly developed preclinical model system for NF-κB activity in ovarian cancer cells and test the efficacy of TQ and curcumin in combination with cisplatin, standard therapy for ovarian cancer. Mouse ovarian epithelial cancer cells (ID8) derived from C57BL/6 mice were stably transfected with a fusion reporter that expresses a green fluorescent protein (GFP)/luciferase fusion product under the control of a synthetic NF-κB dependent promoter (ID8-NGL). Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) stimulated NGL reporter activity approximately 2.5-fold in luciferase assays in ID8-NGL cells, an effect confirmed by bioluminescence imaging of cell monolayers. The specificity of this effect was demonstrated by the ability of the NF-κB inhibitor, TQ, to abrogate TNF-α-stimulation of NF-κB reporter activity. These effects in ID8-NGL cells were confirmed by parallel Western Blot analysis of IκBα phosphorylation (p-IκBα), with TQ markedly inhibiting TNF-α-induction of p-IκBα. Treatment of ID8-NGL cells with TQ and curcumin inhibited NGL reporter activity and inhibited growth in MTT assays in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the combination of TQ or curcumin with cisplatin induced greater inhibitory effects on growth of ID8-NGL cells than either drug alone, indicative of synergistic effects. Finally, we have confirmed ID8-NGL cells transplanted intraperitoneally into C57BL/6 mice form peritoneal tumors and ascites in a similar manner to parental ID8 cells in vivo. This syngeneic model of ovarian cancer progression will allow us to examine in more detail the effects of promising NF-κB inhibitors in combination with platinum therapy in ovarian cancer cells in vitro and in immunocompetent mice in vivo, providing a powerful platform for future preclinical investigation of novel therapeutic agents that target NF-κB in ovarian cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5291. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-5291
Vitamin B6 Status of Children With Sickle Cell Disease

PurposeIn vitro, vitamin B6 has antisickling properties, but the effect of vitamin B6 status on the health of children with sickle cell disease-SS (SCD-SS) is not well described. The purpose of this study was to assess vitamin B6 status of children with SCD-SS ages 3 to 20 years and determine its re
Misrepresentations of Evolutionary Psychology in Sex and Gender Textbooks

Evolutionary psychology has provoked controversy, especially when applied to human sex differences. We hypothesize that this is partly due to misunderstandings of evolutionary psychology that are perpetuated by undergraduate sex and gender textbooks. As an initial test of this hypothesis, we develop a catalog of eight types of errors and document their occurrence in 15 widely used sex and gender textbooks. Consistent with our hypothesis, of the 12 textbooks that discussed evolutionary psychology, all contained at least one error, and the median number of errors was five. The most common types of errors were “Straw Man,” “Biological Determinism,” and “Species Selection.” We conclude by suggesting improvements to undergraduate sex and gender textbooks.
The Rheology and Components Analysis of the Blood Derived from Homemade BW-8100A Type Autologous Blood Receive Equipment

Objective To save the rare banded blood source,reduce the application of the banked blood,prevent the hematogenic infectous disease and make our receive technique safer.Methods 60 patients were classified into 3 groups randomly:autologous blood group(Ⅰ),imported Hemonetics Cell Saver V type group(Ⅱ),homemade BW-8100A type autologous blood receive equipment group(Ⅲ),and each group contained 20 patients.To identify the characteristics of the received blood by comparing group Ⅱ and Ⅲ with autologous blood group from hemorheology and biochemical aspects.Result ①Hemorheology:the total blood viscosity of received blood derived from group Ⅱ and Ⅲ is significantly higher than group Ⅰ(P0.01),the total blood reductive low-shear rate viscosity is higher than group Ⅰ(P0.05),the plasma viscosity is lower than group Ⅰ(P0.05),the aggregation index is higher than group Ⅰ(P0.01).②Biochemical aspects:the hematocrit of the received blood derived from group Ⅱ and Ⅲ is higher than group Ⅰ(P0.01),the number of platelet and the content of free hemoglobin,fibrinogen,total protein are lower than group Ⅰ(P0.01).No significant differences in hemorheology and biochemical aspects were seen between group Ⅱ and Ⅲ.Conclusion The hemorheology and biochemical criterion of the received blood derived from group Ⅲ are similar to grou Ⅱ,the received blood can be retransfused safely after being absterged and concentrated.
A study on occupational hazard and safety evaluation and hygienic standard for petroleum asphalt fume

Objective To study and work out hygienic standard of petroleum asphalt fume in the air of workplace.Methods Research guide of hygienic standard for industrial toxicant in the air of workplace was referred to,and available information at home and abroad was used,and some toxicologic experiments were replenished.Results According to the information at home and abroad and the research and the study result of toxicologic experiments,hygienic standard was drawn.Conclusion The maximum allowable concentration(MAC) for petroleum asphalt fume is 8 mg/m~3 and the time-weight average(TWA) is 5 mg/m~3.
What are you prepared to see

A hospital system is made up of interconnecting circles of complex activity; however, we are conditioned to see and think in straight lines. What we see depends on what we are prepared to see. This article asks the question: What do you see in terms of patient safety and quality of care?
Dental fears in general practice: new guidelines for assessment and treatment

Dental fear is a world-wide problem and universal barrier to oral health care services. Fears acquired in childhood through direct experience with painful treatment or vicariously through parents, friends or siblings, may persist into adulthood. Symptomatic treatment and lack of trust and control exacerbate fears. Coexisting psychiatric conditions further complicate treatment. Treatment steps recommended in this paper include careful assessment of fears, application of dental and psychological management techniques to enhance trust, feelings of control, and the development of coping skills, and appropriate and targeted use of pharmacological agents. Prevention of fear development through the use of effective behavioural child management techniques combined with preventive dentistry should be a fundamental part of general dental practice throughout the world.
Implementing Health and Fitness Standards for Firefighters

This article briefly summarizes the issues local governments should review prior to implementing health and fitness programs for firefighters. The courts have upheld employer imposed fitness standards for law enforcement officers. This article generalizes the application to firefighters.
The Destruction of the Bison: The Returns of the Bison

The itinerant artist George Catlin reflected, while touring the Missouri River valley in 1832, that the bison was “so rapidly wasting from the world, that its species must soon be extinguished.” To save the herds, Catlin recommended that the federal government create “a nation's Park ” in the grasslands. He imagined that both the bison and the Indians who hunted them “might in future be seen (by some great protecting policy of government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a magnificent park.” For the next forty years, however, the United States government declined to pursue Catlin's vision. Rather, federal authorities welcomed the diminution of the herds because it forced famished Indians of the western plains to submit to the reservation system. Yellowstone, the United States' first national park, was located in the scenic Mountain West, far from the bison's range in the shortgrass plains. In the late nineteenth century, however, Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872, was the only public refuge for the bison apart from city zoos. By the 1880s, a few hundred bison – the largest group of survivors in the United States – had found refuge there from commercial hunters, drought, and the destruction of grazing lands by farmers and livestock. This remnant herd and other scattered survivors might eventually have perished as well had it not been for the efforts of a handful of Americans and Canadians.
Performance Evaluation of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks for Rapid Response Traffic Information Delivery

Vehicular transportation has received rapid growth in many areas thanks to the increase in population density and massive city expansion. Such advancement however leads to the loss of time, money and human lives due to many reasons including driver distraction and serious roadway conditions. Recent trends have shown improvement of vehicular safety on account of design and manufacturing innovations such as additional airbags and pre-collision detection and warning using sensors. Nonetheless, the national averages of fatality, injuries, and property damages due to roadway vehicular crashes still remain at high levels. For the purpose of saving lives, reducing fuel costs and travel time on road, it is demanded to have a vehicular communication system that rapidly learns about the environment and promptly respond and notify drivers for decision making. Our research in this paper aims to design a system that utilizes the communications among vehicles in a Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) and roadside infrastructure-based devices. Our design and analysis indicate that such system can be applied to assist drivers in adjusting their driving for better safety and making route decisions to save time and fuel costs.
Comparison of 5:1 Rectilinear Scans with Scintillation Camera Images in Bone Scanning

Using technetium-labeled radiopharmaceuticals, we obtained bone scans on 138 patients with both a dual-probe rectilinear scanner in 5:1 mode and a scintillation camera. A comparison made later of the recordings of identical anatomic areas produced by each scanning method showed that the scintillation camera images were almost uniformly more "visible." Other advantages, such as improved patient comfort, greater statistical information in a reasonable amount of time, and an ultimately higher detection ratio, suggest that the scintillation camera may be the best instrument available for current bone-scanning studies.
Effect of Sugar and Low-Dose Irradiation on Toxin Production by Clostridium botulinum in Comminuted Bacon.

Comminuted bacon, processed to contain target levels of 40 μg NaNO2/g and 0, 0.25 or 0.75% sucrose or 0.75% glucose, was inoculated with a mixture of spores of 20 strains of Clostridium botulinum (400 spores per g) and was canned under vacuum. Portions were irradiated using 137Cs at doses of 0, 0.19, 0.38, 0.75, 1.12 and 1.5 Mrad. Cans were incubated for 1, 2, 4 or 8 wk at 30°C. Some cans of nonirradiated bacon without or with 0.25% sucrose became toxic in 2 wk; with 0.75% sucrose, toxin production was delayed to 8 wk. Bacon irradiated at 0.75 Mrad, made with or without sucrose, became toxic in 2 to 4 wk, whereas most cans of bacon irradiated at 1.5 Mrad remained toxin-free for the 8-wk incubation period. A comparison of bacon made with 0.75% sucrose or glucose showed no difference between the sugars in the rates of toxin production by C. botulinum in irradiated cans of bacon. Irradiation at 0.19 Mrad increased the rate of toxin formation over nonirradiated bacon in sugar-containing (0.75%) bacon, but had...
Heterologous synthesis of geranyllinalool, a diterpenol plant product, in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis.

Cyanobacteria are industrially robust photosynthetic microorganisms that can be genetically programmed to synthesize commodity products for domestic and industrial consumption. In the present work, Synechocystis was endowed with the synthesis of the plant secondary metabolite geranyllinalool, a diterpene alcohol of commercial interest. Total average yields of 360 μg of geranyllinalool per gram of dry cell weight were obtained in the course of a 48-h cultivation period. Geranyllinalool was primarily sequestered inside the transformant cells, corresponding to 60–70% of the total heterologous product, instead of being entirely exuded, as the case is with shorter heterologous terpene hydrocarbons. Extraction of geranyllinalool necessitated disruption of the cells in order to release and isolate this chemical product. Moreover, geranyllinalool accumulation in the cells caused a mild inhibitory effect on cell fitness and biomass growth rate, such that the duplication time of Synechocystis transformants was 1.4-fold longer than that of the control. The remaining 30–40% of the geranyllinalool product was found to float on the surface of sealed transformant cultures, where it was siphoned off by applying a hydrophobic overlayer, with no need to disrupt the cells in this case. Concluding, the work extended efforts to heterologously produce terpene and terpenol products in cyanobacteria, and addressed possibilities and constrains inherent to this production system.
Asymptotics for Some Non-classical Conormal Distributions Whose Symbols Contain Negative Powers of $$\log |\xi |$$

We examine distributions on \(\mathbb {T}^1=\mathbb {R}/(2\pi \mathbb {Z})\) whose Fourier coefficients are of the form \((\log n)^{-1}\), and variants. These distributions are smooth except at \(\theta =0\), and the nature of their singularities at \(\theta =0\) turns out to be much more complex than those of their counterparts that involve positive powers of \(\log n\). We also study related Fourier transforms. We move from one dimension to higher dimensions, where a wider variety of phenomena arise, and more subtle analytical techniques are called for.
Discussion: An Intertemporal Price Equilibrium Model

that such an idealized model will help set the stage for fruitful analysis of more realistic markets and in its present form will be applicable for certain meaningful analyses. Also, the model presented is a finite horizon model. Since the future is infinitely long, we have maximized (3) over a finite time span by specifying a final level of inventory and obtaining a maximizing solution for such a level. To obtain the "right" final level of inventory, the question can only be answered by extending our time period further. This, however, leads us into an infinite regression, which means we must go beyond any finite time period. One practical way around this difficulty is to either obtain maximizing solutions for alternative levels of final inventories or to set up the objective function so as to minimize the deviations from the highest attainable level of payoff or satisfaction.12 The formulation is amenable to a variety of time ordered production patterns and thus should have many applications to practical problems of price adjustment and allocation over time and the algorithm suggested is efficient for obtaining a solution.
A perturbation approach for near bound-state resonances of photonic crystal with defect

This paper is concerned with scattering resonances of a 1D photonic crystal of finite extent. We propose a general perturbation approach to study the resonances that are close to the bound-state frequency of the infinite structure when some defect is embedded in the interior. It is shown that near bound-state resonances exist on the complex plane and the distance between the resonance and the associated bound-state frequency decays exponentially as a function of the number of periodic cells. A numerical approach based upon the perturbation theory is also proposed to calculate the near bound-state resonances accurately.