cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Nanotube Functionalization on the Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Nanocomposites

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are functionalized through both covalent and noncovalent bonding approaches to enhance dispersion and interfacial bonding. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the functionalized-SWNT-reinforced epoxy composites are measured with a thermal mechanical analyzer (TMA). Experimental results indicate that changes of the glass-transition temperature (Tg) in functionalized SWNT–polymer composites are dependent upon the functionalization methods. The CTE below the glass-transition temperature of nanocomposites with a 1 wt % loading of nanotubes is substantially diminished compared to a neat polymer. A reduction in the CTE of up to 52 % is observed for nanocomposites using functionalized nanotubes. However, the CTE above the Tg significantly increases because of the contribution from phonon mode and Brownian motions of a large number of SWNTs in resin-crosslinked networks, but the increments are compromised by possible interfacial confinement. A tunable CTE induced through nanotube functionalization has application potentials for high-performance composites, intelligent materials, and circuit protections.
Methionine enkephalin accumulates in plasma but not in brain or cerebrospinal fluid of rats with acute toxic hepatitis.

Abstract In order to determine whether acute toxic hepatitis in the rat is associated with an accumulation of methionine enkephalin in plasma and increased blood-to-brain transfer of methionine enkephalin, immunoreactive methionine enkephalin levels were determined by radioimmunoassay in plasma, cerebrospinal fluid and whole brain samples from rats with thioacetamide induced acute toxic hepatitis. Thioacetamide treatment was associated with an 8.7-fold increase in plasma immunoreactive methionine enkephalin levels ( P ≤ 0.005) 24 h after treatment. However, this marked elevation in plasma immunoreactive methionine enkephalin levels was not associated with an increase in whole brain or cerebrospinal fluid immunoreactive methionine enkephalin levels. These data suggest that increased plasma-to-brain transfer of methionine enkephalin does not occur in this model of acute toxic hepatitis.
Human cDNA mapping using a high-resolution R-banding technique and fluorescence in situ hybridization

High-resolution fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is now an essential element in both human gene mapping and clinical cytogenetics. To facilitate its application, a series of techniques have b
Neural levels of cholecystokinin peptide and mRNA during dietary stimulation of growth and LH secretion in growth-retarded lambs.

Chronic feed restriction of prepubertal male lambs adversely affects reproductive development by inhibiting the pulsatile release of luteinizing hormone (LH). Because this effect can be reversed by ad libitum feeding, the associations between diet-induced increases in LH release and concurrent changes in body weight gain, serum glucose. CCK peptide, and CCK mRNA were examined. Neonatally castrated male lambs received a restricted ration to maintain their respective weaning weights beginning at 8 wk of age. At 23 wk of age, lambs were assigned randomly to receive additional feed equivalent to 0%, 50%, or 100% of their previous daily intake. Serum profiles of LH and glucose were determined 2 and 4 wk after onset of the increased intakes. At 27 wk of age, lambs were euthanized and both hypothalamic and cerebral cortical tissues were collected for analysis of CCK peptide and CCK mRNA. With additional intakes, body weight gain increased (P 0.05) among dietary groups suggesting that endogenous CCK in the whole hypothalamus did not change with the feeding-induced increase in LH release. Concentrations of CCK peptide in cerebral cortex were greater (P < 0.05) than hypothalamic concentrations, but there were no differences between hypothalamus and cerebral cortex in the relative abundance of CCK mRNA. In summary, dietary stimulation of growth-retarded male lambs resulted in progressive increases in body weight gain, mean serum LH, serum glucose, and LH peak frequencies. Because hypothalamic levels of CCK peptide and CCK mRNA did not change during feeding-induced secretion of LH, endogenous CCK in the hypothalamus seems unlikely as a chronic mediator of nutrition-sensitive LH release.
Perinatal toxicity and carcinogenicity studies of styrene-acrylonitrile trimer, a ground water contaminant

Styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) trimer is a by-product in the production of acrylonitrile styrene plastics. Following a report of a childhood cancer cluster in the Toms River section of Dover Township, New Jersey, SAN Trimer was identified as one of the groundwater contaminants at Reich Farm Superfund site in the township. The contaminants from the Reich Farm site's ground water plume impacted two wells at the Parkway well field. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) studied the toxicity and carcinogenicity of SAN Trimer in rats exposed during their perinatal developmental period and adulthood. The chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies in F344/N rats were preceded by 7- and 18-week perinatal toxicity studies to determine the exposure concentrations for the 2-year studies. Subsequently, Fisher 344 pregnant dams were exposed to SAN Trimer containing diet at 400, 800, or 1600ppm concentrations during gestation, nursing and weaning periods of offspring followed by two year of adult exposures to both male and female pups. There was no statistically significant evidence of carcinogenic activity following SAN-Trimer exposure; however, rare neoplasms in the brain and spinal cord were observed in males and to lesser extent in female rats. These incidences were considered within the range of historical background in the animal model used in the current studies. Therefore, the presence of a few rarely occurring CNS tumors in the treated groups were not judged to be associated with the SAN Trimer exposure. The major finding was a dose-related peripheral neuropathy associated with the sciatic nerves in females and spinal nerve roots in males and females thereby suggesting that SAN Trimer is potentially a nervous system toxicant.
A risk adjusted method for comparing adverse outcomes among practitioners in pediatric and congenital cardiac catheterization.

Objective. We sought to develop a method to adjust for case mix diversity and allow comparison of adverse outcome rates among practitioners in pediatric and congenital cardiac catheterization. Patients and Methods. A single institutional database that captured demographic and procedural data was used to identify patient and procedural characteristics associated with adverse events (AE) and any high severity event classified as preventable or possibly preventable (P/PP). Diagnostic and procedural risk groups were created and indicators of hemodynamic vulnerability were defined. Expected event rates by the practitioners adjusting for case mix were calculated. Standardized adverse event ratios (SAER), defined as the observed rate divided by the expected rate for each practitioner were calculated with 95% confidence intervals. Results. The database included 1727 hemodynamic (30%) and interventional (70%) cases performed by seven practitioners in 18 months. During 147 cases, at least one P/PP AE occurred; among the seven practitioners observed, event rates ranged from 3.2 to 14.2%. In multivariable analysis, risk factors for all P/PP events included highest procedure risk group (odds ratio [OR] 2.1 for group 2, and 2.8 for group 3, relative to group 1, P = .001 and P < .001, respectively) and weight less than 4 kg (OR 2.8, P < .001). High severity P/PP events occurred in 67 cases with rates ranging from 2.0 to 6.6% by the practitioners. For these events, risk factors included: highest procedure risk group (OR 4.5 for group 2, and 4.9 for group 3, both P < .001) and an indicator of hemodynamic vulnerability (OR 1.8, P = .026). For the seven practitioners, the SAER ranged from 0.41 to 1.32 for any P/PP AE and from 0.69 to 1.44 for P/PP high severity events. In this cohort, we did not identify any statistically significant performance differences. Conclusion. Despite wide variations in case mix complexity in pediatric and congenital cardiac catheterization, this study demonstrates a method for risk adjustment which allows equitable comparisons among practitioners at a single institution.
The acute phase response stimulates the expression of angiopoietin like protein 4

The acute phase response is characterized by elevations in serum triglyceride levels due to both an increase in hepatic VLDL production and a delay in the clearance of triglyceride rich lipoproteins secondary to a decrease in lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity. Recently there has been a marked increase in our understanding of factors that regulate LPL activity. GPIHBP1 facilitates the interaction of LPL and lipoproteins thereby allowing lipolysis to occur. Angiopoietin like proteins (ANGPTL) 3 and 4 inhibit LPL activity. In the present study, treatment of mice with LPS, an activator of TLR4 and a model of Gram-negative infections, did not alter the expression of GPIHBP1 in heart or adipose tissue. However, LPS decreased the expression of ANGPTL3 in liver and increased the expression of ANGPTL4 in heart, muscle, and adipose tissue. Serum ANGPTL4 protein levels were markedly increased at 8 and 16h following LPS treatment. Administration of zymosan, an activator of TLR2 and a model of fungal infections, also increased serum ANGPTL4 protein and mRNA levels in liver, heart, muscle, and adipose tissue. Finally, treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes with LPS or cytokines (TNF alpha, IL-1 beta, and interferon gamma) stimulated ANGPTL4 expression. These studies demonstrate that ANGPTL4 is a positive acute phase protein and the increase in ANGPTL4 could contribute to the hypertriglyceridemia that characteristically occurs during the acute phase response by inhibiting LPL activity.
Theory of Nuclear Quadrupole Interaction in Beryllium Metal

The theory of the origin of the field gradient at nuclei in metals has been analyzed. The contributions of the ion cores and conduction electrons have been separately considered. In the case of beryllium metal, using orthogonalized plane wave functions, the conduction electrons are shown to enhance, by about eight percent, the field gradient due to the ion cores. Combining the results of our calculations with Knight's experimental value of 48 kc/sec for the ${\mathrm{Be}}^{9}$ coupling constant $\frac{{e}^{2}\mathrm{qQ}}{h}$, a value of $Q=0.032\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}24}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ is obtained. The dependence of the potential for the conduction electrons on the model chosen is analyzed in some detail. The various uncertainties in our field-gradient calculation and the theoretical value of the Knight shift in beryllium metal are discussed.
ESWL: stone-free efficacy based upon stone size and location

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy was used for the treatment of 1060 patients or 1128 kidneys with solitary stones. There were 528 pelvic stones, 82 upper caliceal stones, 120 middle caliceal stones and 398 lower caliceal stones. These groups were divided into two subgroups of large (>15 mm) and small (≤15 mm) stones. A total of 1232 treatments were carried out (1.16/patient or 1.09/kidney) and 91% of the patients underwent a single treatment. Auxiliary procedures were required in 5% of the patients and the complication rate was 3%. Overall, 74% of the patients were stone-free after 3 months of follow-up. Of the 26% with residual stones, 18% had sand (≤2 mm fragments) or match-heads (≤4 mm), 6% had fragments (≤5 mm) and 2% had no fragmentation at all. A stone-free result occurred in approximately 87% with small pelvic and upper caliceal stones, whereas large stones in these locations became stone-free in approximately 70% of cases. Both large and small stones in the lower half of the kidney (mid and lower calices) become stone-free less frequently (to a statistically significant degree) than do similar stones located in the pelvis or upper calices.
Surface Tension Lowering and Dissolution Rate of Hydrocortisone from Solid Solutions of Selected n-Acyl Esters of Cholesterol

The dissolution of hydrocortisone into simulated intestinal fluid from lipid delivery systems followed second-order kinetics. As the ratio of hydrocortisone to lipid was increased from 1:1 to 1:6, the dissolution rate decreased. Solvent deposition of solid solutions of hydrocortisone and lipid on lactose resulted in the enhancement of the dissolution rate. For the 1:1 hydrocortisone-lipid solid solutions, the rank order of the dissolution rate was hydrocortisone-cholesteryl stearate, hydrocortisone, hydrocortisone-cholesterol, hydrocortisone-cholesteryl acetate, hydrocortisone-cholesteryl palmitate, hydrocortisone-cholesteryl n-butyrate, hydrocortisone-cholesteryl laurate, and hydrocortisone-cholesteryl n-decylate. A direct correlation was found between the dissolution rate of hydrocortisone and the surface tension lowering of simulated intestinal fluid by the corticoid and various lipids.
Selenomethionine as an Antioxidant

EVIDENCE has accumulated indicating that: (1) vitamin E functions, at least in part, as a lipid antioxidant; (2) unrelated substances having antioxidant activity can alleviate or prevent some of the symptoms of vitamin E deficiency1; (3) selenium compounds also can alleviate or prevent some of the symptoms of vitamin E deficiency2; (4) the ingestion of selenium oxide renders tissues less susceptible to oxidative attack3; (5) some seleno-amino-acids have antioxidant activity in aqueous lipid emulsions4. The experiments reported here were undertaken to determine whether seleno-amino-acids could act as antioxidants in anhydrous fats and oils.
Multiple Scattering Theory for Two-dimensional Electron Gases in the Presence of Spin-Orbit Coupling

In order to model the phase-coherent scattering of electrons in two-dimensional electron gases in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, a general partial- wave expansion is developed for scattering from a cylindrically symmetric potential. The theory is applied to possible electron flow imaging experiments using a moveable scanning probe microscope tip. In such experiments, it is demonstrated theoretically that the Rashba spin-orbit coupling can give rise to spin interfe rence effects, even for unpolarized electrons at nonzero temperature and no magnetic field.
Kurtöp Tone: A tonogenetic case study

Languages of Asia are well-known for undergoing tonogenesis in recent history. The model established by Haudricourt (1954), Matisoff (1970), Thurgood (2002) and others is well-attested within the Tibeto-Burman language family, amongst others. While the phenomenon is well-documented in history, we rarely have the occasion to document tonogenesis in detail as it occurs. Though we know that loss of codas generally brings tonal contrasts into a language and from there voiceless consonantal onsets condition a high tonal split while voiced onsets condition a low tonal split, the details of such processes remain unknown. Kurtop, a Tibeto-Burman language of Bhutan, is currently undergoing tonogenesis, providing the unique opportunity to analyze the phenomenon in detail. In this article we explore Kurtop tonogenetic properties via comparative data and an acoustic study. We find that tone first entered Kurtop following sonorant consonant onsets, spread to the palatal fricative and appears to be spreading following the remainder of the obstruents.
Study on Saliva Using a Thermo-Recording Balance

STUDIO DE SALIVA UTILISANTE UN BALANCIA THERMO-REGISTRATORL-Le decomposition de saliva parotide esseva studiate con un automatic balancia thermo-registratori. Plus rapide fluxos es associate con un saliva parotide continente un plus alte proportion de un componente volatile inter 80 e 200 C. Lente fluxos, del altere latere, es associate con un componente in le saliva parotide que es volatile inter 300 e 500 C. Iste constationes in un restringite numero de individuos indica que technicas thermogravimetric es possibile utile in plus detaliate recercas chimic de saliva parotide.
Ornithine decarboxylase activity in human endometrium and endometrial cancer cells

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activities were significantly higher in proliferative endometrium during the estrogen-dominated follicular phase of the menstrual cycle than in secretory endometrium after the formation of the progesterone-secreting corpus luteum. The enzymatic activity was increased about fivefold by renewal of the medium during incubations of endometrial fragments or isolated endometrial glands. Endometrial adenocarcinoma cells (HEC-1, HEG-50), both in monolayers and suspension, also responded to medium renewal by increasing ODC activity about 10-fold after 4 h, with subsequent reduction to control levels after 7 h. These effects were blocked by actinomycin D and cycloheximide. Endometrial stromal cells exhibited highly variable ODC activities at different passages. Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) and sodium molybdate had marked antiproliferative effects in HEC-50 cultures, reducing cell numbers to 10 to 20% of control values 11 d after plating and inhibiting ODC activity by approximately 80% on Day 7. The antiproliferative effect of DFMO, but not that of molybdate, was reversed by 10 μM putrescine, the product of ODC activity. In contrast to DFMO, molybdate had no effect on ODC activity of cell homogenates. Molybdate did not elicit antizyme formation in HEC-50 cells under conditions in which putrescine did. These results indicate that ODC activity, present in both epithelial and stromal cells, as shown analytically and also by autoradiography after labeling with [3H]DFMO, may be related to cell proliferation in vivo and that proliferation of human endometrial cancer cells in culture can be arrested by DFMO and by molybdate.
Aluminum oxide nanostructure-based substrates for fluorescence enhancement

A new fluorescence enhancement technical platform based on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nanostructure substrate is reported for the first time. Several fluorophores have been examined on the AAO nanostructure substrates. Systematic experiments found that the enhancement factor can be up to two orders of magnitude compared to the fluorescence signals on a glass substrate, indicating its great potential for ultrasensitive fluorescence detection. Given the simple and cost-effective fabrication process of lithographically patterned AAO nanostructure, this type of AAO nanostructure platform has great potential applications, especially its integration with microdevices and microfluidic devices for fluorescence-based biological analysis.
On cultivating prognosis in cardiovascular research.

I wish this evening to brush gently against a delicate subject, the cost of life. The subject is universal, but the approaches to it are varied and not without national overtones. Let me illustrate the latter by slightly enlarging upon a parable concocted by an Oxford professor discussing the complexities in determining a person’s usefulness to society.’ There is a shipwreck involving two Italians and an Italian woman, two Frenchmen and a French woman, two Englishmen and an English woman and two Russians and a Russian woman. These 12 are stranded on a desert island. By the third day the following situation has developed. One of the two Italians has murdered the other and has settled down with the woman. The two Frenchmen have come to an amicable agreement and have settled down to a m&age a trois. The two Englishmen have done away with the woman and have settled down. And the three Russians have drafted a letter to Moscow asking for instructions. I submit that had the original party been swollen to 15 by the presence of a similar trio of Americans, by the third day, the latter would have been kept fully occupied in dividing the island for better regional planning and by holding a symposium to consider the increase in crime. Social analysis is now a national pastime. This is not to suggest that America has a monopoly on self-criticism or on concern for human values. But we are more and more engaged in the taking of open inventories of social ills. And more and more we are discovering discrepancies between their sum and the resources readily available to correct them. Partly as a result of this, we, as a profession, now find ourselves engaged in tedious amounts of introspection. Indeed, there are times when it seems to practitioners and planners and, above all, to medical school deans, that we have fallen right through the looking glass. And, like Alice, we are confronted with endless unanswerable paradoxes. We sometimes wonder aloud which way we should go. The Cat in the tree at the fork in the road responds, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Just where is it we want to get to? In our own sector of the profession, the current season of cardiovascular research has produced some spectacular demands for forecast of things to come. As of this evening one man has survived over 60 days with the heart of another. Several other patients are now believed to be alive and leading productive lives because man-made pumps assisted their own failing hearts for periods of many hours or even days. Cardiac transplantation will continue. Pumps will be built that can assist the heart indefinitely. And one of these days-as sure as it is that we will go to the moon-some man will have a heart that is entirely manufactured, powered and controlled by systems sufficiently small and well enough concealed to permit him to live among other men without detection. We do not know that such cardiac replacement will be practical. But we can say that prospects are excellent that life will be extended by such unnatural means.
Oxidative stress impairs the function of sarcoplasmic reticulum by oxidation of sulfhydryl groups in the Ca2+-ATPase

Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) microsomes were oxidized by exposure to peroxydisulfate, hydrogen peroxide, or iron/ascorbate or by extended storage. The decline in Ca2+-ATPase activity, Ca2+ transport, and the increase in Ca2+ permeability which occurred under these conditions did not appear to result from lipid oxidation because these functional changes were not correlated with the amount of thiobarbituric acid-reactive lipid. Consistent with this interpretation, lipid antioxidants did not prevent the decline in SR function. This suggests that inhibition was independent of lipid oxidation. Instead, oxidation directly inhibited the Ca2+-ATPase. The decline in enzyme activity may be due to oxidation of SH groups, as suggested by the ability of reducing agents to prevent inhibition, the decline in sulfhydryl content of oxidized SR, and the ability of sulfhydryl-binding agents to inhibit Ca2+-ATPase. Inhibition was not primarily due to crosslinking of the Ca2+-ATPase, because sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels of normal and oxidized SR showed that the area of the Ca2+-ATPase band was not correlated with the Ca2+-ATPase activity. Inhibition of the Ca2+-ATPase by oxidative stress is relevant to models of cellular dysfunction in which toxicity is caused by a rise in intracellular calcium.
Genetic Susceptibility to Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC), defined by the absence of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER-2 expression, account for 12% to 24% of all breast cancers. TNBC is associated with early recurrence of disease and poor outcome. Germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer susceptibility genes have been associated with up to 15% of TNBC, and TNBC accounts for 70% of breast tumors arising in BRCA1 mutation carriers and 16% to 23% of breast tumors in BRCA2 carriers. Whether germline mutations in other breast cancer susceptibility genes also predispose to TNBC remains to be determined. Common variation in a subset of the 72 known breast cancer susceptibility loci identified through genome-wide association studies and other large-scale genotyping efforts have also been associated with risk of TNBC (TOX3, ESR1, RAD51L1, TERT, 19p13.1, 20q11, MDM4, 2p24.1, and FTO). Furthermore, variation in the 19p13.1 locus and the MDM4 locus has been associated with TNBC, but not other forms of breast cancer, suggesting that these are TNBC-specific loci. Thus, TNBC can be distinguished from other breast cancer subtypes by a unique pattern of common and rare germline predisposition alleles. Additional efforts to combine genetic and epidemiologic data are needed to better understand the etiology of this aggressive form of breast cancer, to identify prevention and therapeutic targets, and to impact clinical practice through the development of risk prediction models.
Atomic Structure and Property Correlation in Pulsed Laser Deposited High -TC Films

The atomic structure of grain boundaries in pulsed laser deposited YBCO/MgO thin films have been studied using transmission electron microscopy. The films have perfect texturing with YBCO(001)//MgO(001), giving rise to low-angle [001] tilt boundaries from the grains with the c-axis normal to substrate surface. Low angle grain boundaries have been found to be aligned preferentially along (100) and (110) interface planes. The energy of (110) boundary planes described by an alternating array of [100] and [010] dislocation is found to be comparable to the energy of a (100) boundary. The existence of these split dislocations is shown to further reduce the theoretical current densities of these boundaries indicating that (110) boundaries carry less current as compared to (100) boundaries of the same misorientation angle. Further, Z-contrast transmission electron microscopy of a 42° asymmetric high-angle grain boundary of YBCO shows evidence for the existence of boundary fragments and a reduced atomic density along the boundary plane
A systematic review of the time course of atherosclerotic plaque regression.

Abstract Objective We sought to determine the time required for lipid treatment to produce regression of atherosclerotic plaques. Background The cholesterol content of atherosclerotic plaques contributes to their instability, and most acute cardiac events including myocardial infarction and sudden death are produced by coronary plaque disruption. We systematically reviewed the literature on atherosclerosis regression to identify the time required for cholesterol egress, plaque regression, and possible plaque stabilization. Such information may help decide when patients with statin side effects or other reasons for statin discontinuation could consider a reduction in the intensity of treatment. Methods We performed a PubMed search to identify English language articles reporting atherosclerotic regression. Articles pertinent to the topic were reviewed in detail. Results We identified 189 articles, 50 of which provided sufficient information to establish a rate of regression and 31 of which demonstrated plaque regression with statin therapy in the carotid (n = 11), coronary (n = 16), and aortic (n = 4) vascular beds. Plaque regression occurred after an average of 19.7 months of treatment. Conclusion Regression of atherosclerotic plaque using statin therapy in those studies documenting regression occurred after an average time of 19.7 months. This suggests that patients should undergo approximately two years of aggressive lipid reduction before considering a reduction of statin therapy.
Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb

What is the Internet doing to local community? Analysts have debated about whether the Internet is weakening community by leading people away from meaningful in-person contact; transforming community by creating new forms of community online; or enhancing community by adding a new means of connecting with existing relationships. They have been especially concerned that the globe-spanning capabilities of the Internet can limit local involvements. Survey and ethnographic data from a “wired suburb” near Toronto show that high-speed, always-on access to the Internet, coupled with a local online discussion group, transforms and enhances neighboring. The Internet especially supports increased contact with weaker ties. In comparison to nonwired residents of the same suburb, more neighbors are known and chatted with, and they are more geographically dispersed around the suburb. Not only did the Internet support neighboring, it also facilitated discussion and mobilization around local issues.
THE SALIVARY SODIUM/POTASSIUM RATIO IN HYPERTENSION: RELATION TO RACE AND PLASMA RENIN ACTIVITY

We have studied the relationship between plasma renin activity (PRA) and the salivary Na:K ratio, an index of mineralo-corticoid effect, in 223 patients with essential hypertension. In 24 white patients with low PRA the median Na:K ratio was 0.74, which was significantly lower than the ratio of 1.40 in 54 normal white subjects (P <.005) and the ratio of 1.10 in 34 white hypertensive patients with normal PRA (P <.005). The Na:K ratio in 71 black patients with low PRA was 1.06, which was not significantly lower than the ratio of 1.50 in 38 black normal subjects or the ratio of 1.56 in 94 black hypertensive patients with normal PRA.These findings indicate a difference in salivary Na:K ratios between white and black patients with low renin essential hypertension, and suggest that mineralocorticoid excess may be a more frequent cause of low renin essential hypertension in white than in black patients.
Should non-sensitive attributes be masked? Data quality implications of data perturbation in regression analysis

Ensuring the security of sensitive data is an increasingly important challenge for information systems managers. A widely used technique to protect sensitive data is to mask the data by adding zero mean noise. Noise addition affects the quality of data available for legitimate statistical use. The article develops a framework that may be used to analyze the implications of additive noise data masking on data quality when the data is used for regression analysis. The framework is used to investigate whether noise should be added to non-sensitive attributes when only a subset of attributes in the database are considered sensitive, an issue that has not been addressed in the literature. The analysis indicates that adding noise to all the attributes is preferable to the existing practice of masking only the subset of sensitive attributes.
Molecular mechanics (MM4) study of amines

The MM4 force field has been extended to include aliphatic amines. About 20 amines have been examined to obtain a set of useful molecular mechanics parameters for this class. The vibrational spectra of seven amines (172 frequencies) calculated by MM4 have an overall rms error of 27 cm(-1), compared with corresponding MM4 value of 24 cm(-1) for alkanes. The rms and signed average errors of the moments of inertia of nine simple amines compared with the experimental data were 0.18% and -0.004%, respectively. The heats of formation of 30 amines were also studied. The MM4 weighted standard deviation is 0.41 kcal/mol, compared with experiment. Electronegativity effects occur in the hydrocarbon portion of an amine from the nitrogen, and are accounted for by including electronegativity induced changes in bond lengths and angles, and induced dipole-dipole interactions in the molecule. Negative hyperconjugation results from the presence of the lone pair of electrons on nitrogen, and leads to the Bohlmann bands in the infrared, and also to strong and unusual geometric changes in the molecules (Bohlmann effect), all of which are fairly well accounted for. The conformational energies in amines appear to be less straightforward than those for most other classes of molecules, apparently because of the Bohlmann effect, and these are probably not yet completely understood. In general, the agreement between the MM4 calculated results and the available data is reasonably good.
A Decoupled Scheduling Approach for the GrADS Program Development Environment

Program development environments are instrumental in providing users with easy and efficient access to parallel computing platforms. While a number of such environments have been widely accepted and used for traditional HPC systems, there are currently no widely used environments for Grid programming. The goal of the Grid Application Development Software (GrADS) project is to develop a coordinated set of tools, libraries and run-time execution facilities for Grid program development. In this paper, we describe a Grid scheduler component that is integrated as part of the GrADS software system. Traditionally, application-level schedulers (e.g. AppLeS) have been tightly integrated with the application itself and were not easily applied to other applications. Our design is generic: we decouple the scheduler core (the search procedure) from the application-specific (e.g. application performance models) and platform-specific (e.g. collection of resource information) components used by the search procedure. We provide experimental validation of our approach for two representative regular, iterative parallel programs in a variety of real-world Grid testbeds. Our scheduler consistently outperforms static and user-driven scheduling methods.
Open questions for Alzheimer's disease immunotherapy.

Perhaps more definitively than any other class of novel Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapy, pre-clinical studies in mouse models of amyloid β (Aβ) deposition have established the disease-modifying potential of anti-Aβ immunotherapy. Despite disappointing results to date from anti-Aβ immunotherapy therapeutic trials, there is continued hope that such immunotherapies, especially if used in the preclinical stages, could prove to be the first disease-modifying therapies available for AD. The general optimism that Aβ-targeting and emerging tau-targeting immunotherapies may prove to be disease modifying is tempered by many unanswered questions regarding these therapeutic approaches, including but not limited to i) lack of precise understanding of mechanisms of action, ii) the factors that regulate antibody exposure in the brain, iii) the optimal target epitope, and iv) the mechanisms underlying side effects. In this review I discuss how answering these and other questions could increase the likelihood of therapeutic success. As passive immunotherapies are also likely to be extremely expensive, I also raise questions relating to cost-benefit of biologic-based therapies for AD that could limit future impact of these therapies by limiting access due to economic constraints.
3-dimensional STAP performance analysis using the cross-spectral metric

Research done in recent years has clearly demonstrated large improvements in clutter suppression and target detection by including elevation adaptivity, otherwise described as 3-dimensional (3D) STAP. The paper further quantifies the performance gains garnered by 3D STAP by fixing the degrees of freedom (DOF) and varying the array dimensions to include the equivalently sized linear array. The focus is placed on performance bounds established by matched filter and 3D cross-spectral metric (CSM) SINR curves generated with known covariances. The mathematical extension of the CSM from 2D to 3D is shown to be straightforward, thus allowing the CSM to serve as a partially adaptive performance bound for eigenvalue-selection based 3D STAP algorithms.
Improving Case-Based Ethics Training with Codes of Conduct and Forecasting Content

Although case-based training is popular for ethics education, little is known about how specific case content influences training effectiveness. Therefore, the effects of (a) codes of ethical conduct and (b) forecasting content were investigated. Results revealed richer cases, including both codes and forecasting content, led to increased knowledge acquisition, greater sensemaking strategy use, and better decision ethicality. With richer cases, a specific pattern emerged. Specifically, content describing codes alone was more effective when combined with short-term forecasts, whereas content embedding codes within context was more effective when combined with long-term forecasts, leading to greater knowledge acquisition and sensemaking strategy use.
Multiuser two-way relaying method for beamforming systems

Relay transceiver processing for multiuser two-way communications is optimized based on zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) formulations under relay power constraints. Cochannel interference (CCI) frommultiusers and self-interference (SI) from two-way communications are efficiently mitigated by the proposed relay processing with multiple antennas. The system performance is examined in relation to the system BER by computer simulation. Numerical results indicate that the beamforming method is more attractive than the spatial multiplexing method for the two-way communications.
Mechanisms of Arctic Surface Air Temperature Change in Response to the Madden–Julian Oscillation

AbstractUsing lagged composites and projections with the thermodynamic energy equation, in this study the mechanisms that drive the boreal winter Arctic surface air temperature (SAT) change associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) are investigated. The Wheeler and Hendon MJO index, which divides the MJO into 8 phases, where phase 1 (phase 5) corresponds to reduced (enhanced) convection over the Maritime Continent and western Pacific Ocean, is used. It is shown that the more zonally localized (uniform) tropical convective heating associated with MJO phase 5 (phase 1) leads to enhanced (reduced) excitation of poleward-propagating Rossby waves, which contribute to Arctic warming (cooling). Adiabatic warming/cooling, eddy heat flux, and the subsequent change in downward infrared radiation (IR) flux are found to be important for the Arctic SAT change. The adiabatic warming/cooling initiates the Arctic SAT change, however, subsequent eddy heat flux makes a greater contribution. The resulting SAT chan...
GRN2SBML: automated encoding and annotation of inferred gene regulatory networks complying with SBML

UNLABELLED GRN2SBML automatically encodes gene regulatory networks derived from several inference tools in systems biology markup language. Providing a graphical user interface, the networks can be annotated via the simple object access protocol (SOAP)-based application programming interface of BioMart Central Portal and minimum information required in the annotation of models registry. Additionally, we provide an R-package, which processes the output of supported inference algorithms and automatically passes all required parameters to GRN2SBML. Therefore, GRN2SBML closes a gap in the processing pipeline between the inference of gene regulatory networks and their subsequent analysis, visualization and storage. AVAILABILITY GRN2SBML is freely available under the GNU Public License version 3 and can be downloaded from http://www.hki-jena.de/index.php/0/2/490. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION General information on GRN2SBML, examples and tutorials are available at the tool's web page.
Antimicrobial-Modified Vascular Catheters

Vascular catheters constitute an essential component of modern health care. The escalating use of vascular catheters has highlighted the need to optimize prevention of infectious complications. Bloodstream infection is the most common serious complication of indwelling vascular catheters. Although strict implementation of traditional infection control measures continues to be the primary measure for preventing infection, the level of adherence by medical staff to such measures varies over time, between different units, and across various medical centers. This limitation underscores the need to assess the potential clinical impact of surface modification of vascular catheters. Since catheter colonization can be a prelude to infection, antimicrobial modification of the surfaces of catheters has the potential of not only inhibiting bacterial colonization of the catheter surfaces but also reducing the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infection. A number of antimicrobial-modified vascular catheters are currently available for patient care, but they differ with regard to the type of antimicrobials, application on the external versus internal catheter surfaces, spectrum and durability of antimicrobial activity, and the ability to clinically protect against catheter-related bloodstream infection. Scientific evidence should guide the present and future applications of antimicrobial-modified catheters.
Larsen B Ice Shelf rheology preceding its disintegration inferred by a control method

A new, complete velocity field from satellite remote sensing is combined with numerical modeling to infer the rheology of the Larsen B Ice Shelf before its disintegration. The resulting spatial distribution of the flow parameter exhibits large variability, which reflects very well observed ice shelf features. This variability is explained by factors including advection of colder ice from tributary glaciers, bottom melting, and the presence of zones of strong shear and fracture. The inferred distribution is applied to simulate numerically the flow regime ofthe ice shelf and to examine its modification by the presence of open rifts and by the retreat of ice shelf front between 1996 and 2000. Results demonstrate that variable rheology is essential to understanding ice shelf evolution, especially the close relationship among frontal retreat, fracture, ice flow acceleration, and the destabilization of ice shelves. Copyright 2007 by the American. Geophysical Union.
Patterns of bird invasion are consistent with environmental filtering

Predicting invasion potential has global significance for managing ecosystems as well as important theoretical implications for understanding community assembly. Phylogenetic relationships of introduced species to the extant community may be predictive of establishment success because of the opposing forces of competition/shared enemies (which should limit invasions by close relatives) versus environmental filtering (which should allow invasions by close relatives). We examine here the association between establishment success of introduced birds and their phylogenetic relatedness to the extant avifauna within three highly invaded regions (Florida, New Zealand, and Hawaii). Published information on both successful and failed introductions, as well as native species, was compiled for all three regions. We created a phylogeny for each avifauna including all native and introduced bird species. From the estimated branch lengths on these phylogenies, we calculated multiple measurements of relatedness between each introduced species and the extant avifauna. We used generalized linear models to test for an association between relatedness and establishment success. We found that close relatedness to the extant avifauna was significantly associated with increased establishment success for exotic birds both at the regional (Florida, Hawaii, New Zealand) and sub-regional (islands within Hawaii) levels. Our results suggest that habitat filtering may be more important than interspecific competition in avian communities assembled under high rates of anthropogenic species introductions. This work also supports the utility of community phylogenetic methods in the study of vertebrate invasions.
Efficient Dimensionality Reduction for High-Dimensional Network Estimation

We propose module graphical lasso (MGL), an aggressive dimensionality reduction and network estimation technique for a high-dimensional Gaussian graphical model (GGM). MGL achieves scalability, interpretability and robustness by exploiting the modularity property of many real-world networks. Variables are organized into tightly coupled modules and a graph structure is estimated to determine the conditional independencies among modules. MGL iteratively learns the module assignment of variables, the latent variables, each corresponding to a module, and the parameters of the GGM of the latent variables. In synthetic data experiments, MGL outperforms the standard graphical lasso and three other methods that incorporate latent variables into GGMs. When applied to gene expression data from ovarian cancer, MGL outperforms standard clustering algorithms in identifying functionally coherent gene sets and predicting survival time of patients. The learned modules and their dependencies provide novel insights into cancer biology as well as identifying possible novel drug targets.
Mining maximal subnetworks from interaction network with node attributes

Detecting densely connected subgraphs is of great importance in sociology, biology and computer science disciplines where systems are often represented as a large graph. Several approaches have been proposed for detecting dense connected subgraphs in large graphs. Often these large graphs have additional attribute data characterizing either the nodes or edges of a graph. Recent research has combined the problem of dense connected subgraph detection with subspace similarity over attribute data. While detecting dense and cohesive subgraphs is desirable, the density factor can prevent the existing algorithms from reporting highly cohesive subgraphs which are not particularly dense. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm for mining maximal cohesive subgraphs from node attributed graphs. Unlike other approaches for detecting dense subgraphs, this algorithm does not require any density threshold. It discovers all maximal cohesive subgraphs regardless of their density. Experiments on real world datasets show that the proposed approach is effective in mining meaningful biological subgraphs from protein-protein interaction network, where attributes are extracted from gene expression datasets. We compare the proposed approach with the baseline technique, and results show that the proposed algorithm is much faster than the baseline algorithm.
Micro-contact performance and reliability under low frequency, low amplitude, alternating current (AC) test conditions

This paper presents an experimental investigation of micro-contact performance (i.e. contact resistance) and reliability (i.e. successful cycles) evaluated under time-varying, low frequency, low amplitude, alternating current (AC) test conditions. Previous research efforts have focused on either on direct current (DC) or high frequency, radio frequency (RF) test conditions. This works attempts to bridge the gap in prior work by generating knowledge related to frequency, phase, and amplitude effects on micron-sized electrical contacts. Contact support structures, micromachined with gold on gold micro-contacts, were actuated using an externally applied contact load of approximately 200 µN and tested in dry, nitrogen ambient environments to minimize pre-test contact surface contamination. Contact resistances measured were comparable to those obtained using a DC. However, reliability is drastically reduced with AC signals between 100 to 100 kHz. Device failure typically occurred prior to 10k cycles on devices proven to last beyond 100M cycles or more under DC conditions. Phase of the AC appeared to have some influence on the manner of failure, as did AC signals that persisted through contact opening. In all cases examined, noticeable physical damage in the form of material migration was observed using a scanning electron microscope.