cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparative physical mapping reveals features of microsynteny between Glycine max, Medicago truncatula, and Arabidopsis thaliana

To gain insight into genomic relationships between soybean (Glycine max) and Medicago truncatula, eight groups of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) contigs, together spanning 2.60 million base pairs (Mb) in G. max and 1.56 Mb in M. truncatula, were compared through high-resolution physical mapping combined with sequence and hybridization analysis of low-copy BAC ends. Cross-hybridization among G. max and M. truncatula contigs uncovered microsynteny in six of the contig groups and extensive microsynteny in three. Between G. max homoeologous (within genome duplicate) contigs, 85% of coding and 75% of noncoding sequences were conserved at the level of cross-hybridization. By contrast, only 29% of sequences were conserved between G. max and M. truncatula, and some kilobase-scale rearrangements were also observed. Detailed restriction maps were constructed for 11 contigs from the three highly microsyntenic groups, and these maps suggested that sequence order was highly conserved between G. max duplicates and generally conserved between G. max and M. truncatula. One instance of homoeologous BAC contigs in M. truncatula was also observed and examined in detail. A sequence similarity search against the Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence identified up to three microsyntenic regions in A. thaliana for each of two of the legume BAC contig groups. Together, these results confirm previous predictions of one recent genome-wide duplication in G. max and suggest that M. truncatula also experienced ancient large-scale genome duplications.
Lack of Genotoxic Effects of Fluoride in the Mouse Bone-marrow Micronucleus Test

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the potential genotoxic influence of sodium fluoride (NaF) on mammalian cells by means of a mouse bone-marrow micronucleus test. Mice of genotype B6C3F1 were obtained at about eight weeks of age and maintained on a low-fluoride diet (< 0.2 ppm F) and distilled water ad libitum throughout the experiment. At approximately 12 weeks of age, the animals were randomly assigned to seven groups, with multiple sampling schedules. The animals were intubated with various doses of NaF, ranging from 0.1 mg/kg to the Maximum Tolerable Dose (MTD), with sampling at 30, 48, and 72 hours after treatment. Negative (distilled water) and positive (cyclophosphamide) controls were included. Coded slides of femur marrow cells were prepared and examined, without identification as to treatments, for the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MN-PCE). The humera were analyzed for fluoride for monitoring of the absorption of fluoride following oral intubation. The res...
Bilateral spontaneous rupture of the flexor digitorum superficialis and the flexor digitorum profundus in a diabetic patient

Closed flexor tendon rupture is an unusual condition that has been described in association with distinct underlying disease processes. Several theories have been implicated in the pathogenesis, including labor-associated forceful usage, gender, and age. The effect of diabetes on the native tendon tissue is not yet fully understood; however, the metabolic perturbations of diabetes have been shown to result in detrimental changes to the musculoskeletal system. We report an unusual case of bilateral spontaneous rupture of the flexor digitorum superficialis and flexor digitorum profundus in a 58-year-old woman with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. The clinical course, radiographic findings, and the biomechanical factors and mechanisms through which diabetes may affect the native tendon are presented.
Transcriptional control by protein phosphorylation: signal transmission from the cell surface to the nucleus

Two general mechanisms have evolved for the rapid and accurate transmission of signals from cell-surface receptors to the nucleus, both involving protein phosphorylation. One mechanism depends on the regulated translocation of activated protein kinases from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where they phosphorylate target transcription factors. In the second mechanism, transcription factors are kept in a latent state in the cytoplasm and are translocated into the nucleus upon activation.
The Male Bond in Chinese History and Culture

HISTORIANS OF EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA credit feminist theory and women's history for introducing gender as a category of analysis, sparking interest in gender identity and performance, leading in turn to new work on "the history of men as men."1 Not so-at least not yet-in the field of Chinese history. Among historians of China, women's studies and feminist theory have stimulated reams of published work. Much of this work, however, remains at the margins of mainstream academic research, which may partly explain why scholars of China have been slow to grasp the significance of gender theory for the study of Chinese history. But it is not simply the reluctant reception of women's history that makes the China field anomalous when it comes to the study of men. In point of fact, historians of China have yet to develop a sustained interest in the study of sexuality, which has been the starting point for work on the history of men and of masculinity in European and North American studies.2 And even China scholars drawn to women's history have been slow to appreciate the importance of men's studies to their own enterprise.3 It is worth noting, then, that the articles in this Forum constitute the first collaborative attempt by historians of China writing in English to investigate social relationships among men, using gender as a category of analysis. Why have historical studies of Chinese men "as men" been so few? The question
Cognitive Impairments and Disordered Speech in Schizophrenia: Thought Disorder, Disorganization, and Communication Failure Perspectives.

This article posits that basic cognitive impairments in schizophrenia are more highly related to speech disorder measured as communication failures than speech disorder measured as thought disorder or disorganization. The author tested 47 schizophrenia patients and 36 control participants for sustained attention, sequencing, and conceptual sequencing ability. Their speech was also rated for communication failures, thought disorder, and conceptual disorganization. Attention and sequencing impairments, examined hierarchically, explained a substantial 38% of the variance in the communication measure of speech disorder but little of the variance in formal thought disorder or conceptual disorganization. The author concludes that (a) impairments in attention and sequencing abilities contribute substantially to schizophrenic communication failures, and (b) it is important to consider lower level cognitive "3rd variables" when examining higher level cognitive associates of speech disorder.
Histone deacetylase inhibitors and epigenetic modifications as a novel strategy in renal cell carcinoma

Recent investigations of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have revealed several epigenetic modifications, as well as alterations in the genes and enzymes that regulate these changes. Preclinical models have revealed that histone gene modifiers and epigenetic alterations may play a critical role in RCC tumorigenesis. Specific changes in DNA methylation and mutations of histone modifiers have been identified and may be associated with an aggressive phenotype. In addition, the potential of reversing the effects of these enzymes and hence reversing the cellular epigenetic landscape to a "normal phenotype" have led to an increasing interest in developing targeted chromatin remodeling agents. However, the translation of the understanding of these changes to the clinic for the treatment of RCC has posed significant challenges, partly due to tumor heterogeneity. This review describes the aberrant histone and DNA alterations recently reported in RCC and highlights the potential targeted chromatin remodeling therapies in the management of this disease.
The Structure and Rotation of the Solar Corona: Implications for the Heliosphere

Observations of the solar corona and measurements of its rotation are reviewed in order to suggest what rotational characteristics of the solar wind might be observed from the Ulysses mission. Results from 20 years of data from the HAO K-coronameters on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, are described. They show that the corona rotates, on average, rather more rigidly than do any of the usual photospheric or chromospheric tracers on the sun, displaying an average synodic rotation rate of 14.2 degrees per day. The suggestion is made that a similar rotation character will be observed by Ulysses, and some evidence to support that from interplanetary observations is discussed.
Effects of Chromosomal Rearrangements on Transvection at the yellow Gene of Drosophila melanogaster

Homologous chromosomes are paired in somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster. This pairing can lead to transvection, which is a process by which the proximity of homologous genes can lead to a change in gene expression. At the yellow gene, transvection is the basis for several examples of intragenic complementation involving the enhancers of one allele acting in trans on the promoter of a paired second allele. Using complementation as our assay, we explored the chromosomal requirements for pairing and transvection at yellow. Following a protocol established by Ed Lewis, we generated and characterized chromosomal rearrangements to define a region in cis to yellow that must remain intact for complementation to occur. Our data indicate that homolog pairing at yellow is efficient, as complementation was disrupted only in the presence of chromosomal rearrangements that break ≤650 kbp from yellow. We also found that three telomerically placed chromosomal duplications, containing ∼700 or more kbp of the yellow genomic region, are able to alter complementation at yellow, presumably through competitive pairing interactions. These results provide a formal demonstration of the pairing-dependent nature of yellow transvection and suggest that yellow pairing, as measured by transvection, reflects the extent of contiguous homology flanking the locus.
Fault current allocation by the least-squares method

This letter contains the analysis of the increase of fault current due to the installation of distributed resources or merchant plants. An index called the average change of fault (ACF) current is proposed. The ACF can be applied to indicate the contribution of the increase of fault current and to allocate the responsibility of system upgrades among the owners of distributed resources.
Visual acuity loss and clinical observations in a large series of patients with Stargardt disease.

Abstract Purpose To assess visual acuity impairment in Stargardt disease. Design Retrospective clinic-based cross-sectional study. Participants Three-hundred sixty-one patients with Stargardt disease. Methods Clinical findings in 361 patients were analyzed as part of a cross-sectional evaluation. Visual acuity at their most recent visit, fundus photographs, and electroretinographic findings were reviewed, and patients were categorized into four clinical phenotypes. Seventy-three patients with 20/40 or better vision and 38 patients with 20/50 to 20/100 vision in the better seeing eye at their initial visit who were followed for at least 1 year were included in a survival analysis. For analysis purposes, these latter patients were categorized into four 20-year age groups according to their age at initial visit. Main outcome measures Best-corrected visual acuity from the eye with better vision on the most recent visit was used in the cross-sectional analysis. For the survival analysis, best-corrected visual acuity was used from the eye with better vision on the initial visit. Results Eighty-two of the 361 patients (23%) had 20/40 or better acuity in at least one eye, 64 (18%) 20/50 to 20/100, and 199 (55%) 20/200 to 20/400, whereas 16 (4%) had worse than 20/400 in each eye at their most recent visit. In the patients with visual acuity of 20/40 or better, 59 (72%) had foveal sparing visible on ophthalmoscopic examination. The median time to develop visual acuity of 20/200 or worse was 22 years for the patients with 20/40 or better visual acuity at their initial visit. Those seen initially in the first two decades of life with this level of acuity showed a median time of 7 years to reach a visual acuity of 20/200 or worse compared with 22 years and 29 years for those who were initially seen at ages 21 to 40 or 41 to 60, respectively. Analyzing by the four 20-year age groups, the log rank statistic indicated significant differences in the survival experience among the four groups ( P = 0.004). The median time to develop 20/200 vision or worse was 6 years for the patients with 20/50 to 20/100 visual acuity at their initial visit, and this result, based on the log rank statistic, was independent of age group at initial visit ( P = 0.852). Conclusions In a large cohort of Stargardt patients, a cross-sectional analysis showed that almost a quarter had vision of 20/40 or better, whereas 4% had acuity of worse than 20/400. The presence of foveal sparing ophthalmoscopically was associated with a higher prevalence of 20/40 or better visual acuity. Survival analysis showed that the prognosis of patients who initially were seen with visual acuity of 20/40 or better is related to age at initial visit.
The effects of set size on color matching using CRT displays

The time required to match a colored stimulus to one of a set of colors was measured as a function of color sets ranging in size from 2 to 10. Reaction time (RT) increased linearly with increases in set size to 5 or 6, after which the increase, although still linear, was less steep. Error rate increased sharply with set sizes of 8, 9, and 10. The relative RTs to the different colors remained constant despite changes in the experimental method.
The effects of lithium, valproic acid, and carbamazepine during pregnancy and lactation.

The chronic, complex, and episodic course of bipolar mood disorder presents a particularly formidable challenge to the clinician making a treatment plan for the onset or recurrence of the illness d...
New Guidelines for Hypertension Raises the Bar on Treatment

Recently, the new hypertension guidelines were revealed. It raised much conversation and controversy about what might happen to older individuals who fall into the “gray zone” and should treatment be held for older adults aged 60 years and older until a blood pressure reading of 150/90 mmHg is reached? Arguments supporting this change point to the strong evidence that supports this new change. In fact, flexing the old guidelines may improve quality of life through the reduction of hypertensive medication side effects. Those adamantly against this change fear that relaxing the guidelines may undo the progress made in lowering cardiovascular disease, particularly strokes. This article discusses these viewpoints after discovering the new hypertension guidelines.
Improving the speed of convergence of GMRES for certain perturbed tridiagonal systems

Numerical approximations of partial differential equations often require the employment of spatial adaptation or the utilization of non-uniform grids to resolve fine details of the solution. While the governing continuous linear operator may be symmetric, the discretized version may lose this essential property as a result of adaptation or utilization of non-uniform grids. Commonly, the matrices can be viewed as a perturbation to a known matrix or to a previous iterate's matrix. In either case, a linear solver is deployed to solve the resulting linear system. Iterative methods provide a plausible and affordable way of completing this task and Krylov subspace methods, such as GMRES, are quite popular. Upon updating the matrices as a result of adaptation or multi-grid methodologies, approximate eigenvector information is known stemming from the prior GMRES iterative method. Hence, this information can be utilized to improve the convergence rate of the subsequent iterative method. A one dimensional Poisson problem is examined to illustrate this methodology while showing notable and quantifiable improvements over standard methods, such as GMRES-DR.
Dynamic elongation of fluid and air filled elastic tubes: model for cerebral blood vessel trauma

A series of experiments involving dynamic elongation of both fluid- and air-filled elastic tubes has been conducted. This physical model allows closer study of the coupled fluid and solid mechanics problem associated with small cerebral blood vessels undergoing high-strain-rate loading as seen in traumatic head injuries. A small-scale materials testing device has been developed. The device consists of a solenoid driver, an isometric force transducer, an angular displacement transducer, and a fluid reservoir system. This device has been designed to produce high-strain-rate deformations in the specimens. >
Tissue distribution of silibinin, the major active constituent of silymarin, in mice and its association with enhancement of phase II enzymes: implications in cancer chemoprevention

Polyphenolic antioxidants are being identified as cancer preventive agents. Recent studies in our laboratory have identified and defined the cancer preventive and anticarcinogenic potential of a polyphenolic flavonoid antioxidant, silymarin (isolated from milk thistle). More recent studies by us found that these effects of silymarin are due to the major active constituent, silibinin, present therein. Here, studies are done in mice to determine the distribution and conjugate formation of systemically administered silibinin in liver, lung, stomach, skin, prostate and pancreas. Additional studies were then performed to assess the effect of orally administered silibinin on phase II enzyme activity in liver, lung, stomach, skin and small bowel. For tissue distribution studies, SENCAR mice were starved for 24 h, orally fed with silibinin (50 mg/kg dose) and killed after 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 h. The desired tissues were collected, homogenized and parts of the homogenates were extracted with butanol:methanol followed by HPLC analysis. The column eluates were detected by UV followed by electrochemical detection. The remaining homogenates were digested with sulfatase and beta-glucuronidase followed by analysis and quantification. Peak levels of free silibinin were observed at 0.5 h after administration in liver, lung, stomach and pancreas, accounting for 8.8 +/- 1.6, 4. 3 +/- 0.8, 123 +/- 21 and 5.8 +/- 1.1 (mean +/- SD) microg silibinin/g tissue, respectively. In the case of skin and prostate, the peak levels of silibinin were 1.4 +/- 0.5 and 2.5 +/- 0.4, respectively, and were achieved 1 h after administration. With regard to sulfate and beta-glucuronidate conjugates of silibinin, other than lung and stomach showing peak levels at 0.5 h, all other tissues showed peak levels at 1 h after silibinin administration. The levels of both free and conjugated silibinin declined after 0.5 or 1 h in an exponential fashion with an elimination half-life (t((1/2))) of 57-127 min for free and 45-94 min for conjugated silibinin in different tissues. In the studies examining the effect of silibinin on phase II enzymes, oral feeding of silibinin at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg/day showed a moderate to highly significant (P < 0.1-0.001, Student's t-test) increase in both glutathione S-transferase and quinone reductase activities in liver, lung, stomach, skin and small bowel in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Taken together, the results of the present study clearly demonstrate the bioavailability of and phase II enzyme induction by systemically administered silibinin in different tissues, including skin, where silymarin has been shown to be a strong cancer chemopreventive agent, and suggest further studies to assess the cancer preventive and anticarcinogenic effects of silibinin in different cancer models.
A FERROAN NONTRONITE FROM THE RED SEA GEOTHERMAL SYSTEM

A smectite rich in ferrous iron and low in aluminum occurs abundantly in the Red Sea Geothermal Deposits, and appear to be forming at present. Chemical analyses and M/Assbauer spectra indicate the mineral is intermediate in composition between nontronite and the as yet undescribed trioctahedral ferrous iron end member.
Feature selection: evaluation, application, and small sample performance

A large number of algorithms have been proposed for feature subset selection. Our experimental results show that the sequential forward floating selection algorithm, proposed by Pudil et al. (1994), dominates the other algorithms tested. We study the problem of choosing an optimal feature set for land use classification based on SAR satellite images using four different texture models. Pooling features derived from different texture models, followed by a feature selection results in a substantial improvement in the classification accuracy. We also illustrate the dangers of using feature selection in small sample size situations.
Scoliosis—Current Concepts Early Recognition and Aggressive Treatment are Most Important

Not until the beginning of this century has helplessness and frustration given way to success and optimism in dealing with scoliosis. This difficult problem is a disease of childhood that can plague the adult for the remainder of his life, but can be eliminated by early recognition and safe effective treatment.
On the Importance of Pedal Edema in Hemodialysis Patients

Background and objectives: Volume control is a key component of treatment of hemodialysis patients. The role of pedal edema as a marker of volume is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine factors that are associated with edema. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: A cross-sectional study of asymptomatic hemodialysis patients (n = 146) in four university-affiliated hemodialysis units was conducted. Echocardiographic variables, blood volume monitoring, plasma volume markers (plasma renin and aldosterone and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide), and inflammation markers (C-reactive protein and IL-6) were measured as exposures, and edema was measured as outcome. Results: In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, age, body mass index, and left ventricular hypertrophy were independent determinants of edema. Compared with patients with normal or low weight, overweight patients had odds ratio for edema of 5.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0 to 31.8), and obese patients of 44.8 (95% CI 9.0 to 223). Patients in the top quartile of left ventricular mass index and normal to low weight had odds ratio of edema of 7.7 (95% CI 2.3 −25.9), those who were overweight of 43.5 (95% CI 3.9 to 479.8), and those who were obese of 344.8 (95% CI 33.8 to 3515). Inferior vena cava diameter, blood volume monitoring, plasma volume markers, and inflammation markers were not determinants of edema. Conclusions: Pedal edema correlates with cardiovascular risk factors such as age, body mass index, and left ventricular mass but does not reflect volume in hemodialysis patients.
Theory of Mind in the Pacific: Reasoning Across Cultures, edited by Jürg Wassmann, Birgit Träuble and Joachim Funke

Theory of mind is a relatively specific psychological construct that really ought to be opened up to a wider scholarly conversation. The phenomenon captured by the term is quite robust. Somewhere a...
Answer Set Programming on Expert Feedback to Populate and Extend Dynamic Ontologies

The next generation of online reference works will require structured representations of their contents in order to support scholarly functions such as semantic search, automated generation of cross-references, tables of contents, and ontology-driven conceptual navigation. Many of these works can be expected to contain massive amounts of data and be updated dynamically, which limits the feasibility of “manually” coded ontologies to keep up with changes in content. However, relationships relevant to inferring an ontology can be recovered from statistical text processing, and these estimates can be verified with carefully-solicited expert feedback. In this paper, we explain a method by which we have used answer set programming on such expert feedback to dynamically populate and partially infer an ontology for a well-established, open-access reference work, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Ultrasonic nondiffracting transducer for medical imaging

The nondiffracting J/sub 0/ Bessel beam is evaluated, and its application to medical imaging is suggested. Computer simulations and experimental results for a ten-ring annular Bessel shaded transducer are described. Both continuous-wave (CW) and pulse-wave (PW) excitations are shown and compared to conventional Gaussian beams. The nondiffracting beam has about 1.27-nm radius main lobe with a 20-cm depth of field compared to the Gaussian transducer of the same size with a 1.27-mm radius main lobe at a focus of 12 cm and 2*4-cm depth of field. The side lobes of the nondiffracting beam are the same as the J/sub 0/ Bessel function. The effects of heterogeneity due to tissue on the nondiffracting beam and on the focused Gaussian beam are also reported. >
Ethical issues arising from commercial sponsorship and from relationships with the pharmaceutical industry--report and recommendations of the Ethics Subcommittee of the International Headache Society.

Preface These recommendations, the second set developed for the International Headache Society (IHS) by its Ethics Subcommittee, evolved over 3 years. This extended period allowed time for public consultation, an important part of the formulation process, and for consequent revision. The recommendations were presented in this final form to IHS Council in late 2005, and approved for publication in Cephalalgia. The delay from then until now would have been better avoided. The reasons for it, which did not lie with the Subcommittee, are not of current interest. What matters is that these recommendations remain entirely relevant to their purpose. In one area – the registration of clinical trials – matters have moved on in the interim. As the Subcommittee anticipated, registration of trials is becoming standard practice [1]. This goal is not yet achieved, but laudable and largely voluntary initiatives by the pharmaceutical industry have brought about much recent progress. Clear international consensus has yet to emerge on what needs to be included in a clinical trials registry, and when. This does not help, since it is not entirely certain what the desired end is. But it seems likely that, with or without further regulation, this end will be both clear and in sight in not too long. Headache will benefit, along with all other fields of medicine.
Efficient simulation of cell loss probability in ATM networks with heterogeneous connection traffic descriptors

In ATM networks, the purpose of connection admission control is to decide if allowing a new connection into the network violates a quality of service measure of the new connection or the existing connections. Instead of using statistical frame models, we represent the connection entering the network by the connection frame descriptors standardized by the ATM Forum and used by the connection admission control algorithms. We examine traffic sources described by heterogeneous connection frame descriptors in order to analyze constant bit rate sources versus variable bit rate sources, as well as different classes of variable bit rate sources. We use Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the cell loss probability of the combined traffic stream, as well as the individual classes using both random buffer filling and priority buffer filling schemes. Importance sampling is used to increase the efficiency of the simulation. For the experiments example considered, the improvement in simulation efficiency compared to conventional Monte Carlo simulation is inversely proportional to the estimate.
Calmodulin and protein kinase C regulate gap junctional coupling in lens epithelial cells

The mechanisms regulating the permeability of lens epithelial cell gap junctions in response to calcium ionophore or ATP agonist-mediated increases in cytosolic Ca2+ (Cai2+) have been investigated ...
Pleiotropic effects of beneficial mutations in Escherichia coli.

Micromutational models of adaptation have placed considerable weight on antagonistic pleiotropy as a mechanism that prevents mutations of large effect from achieving fixation. However, there are few empirical studies of the distribution of pleiotropic effects, and no studies that have examined this distribution for a large number of adaptive mutations. Here we examine the form and extent of pleiotropy associated with beneficial mutations in Escherichia coli. To do so, we used a collection of independently evolved genotypes, each of which contains a beneficial mutation that confers increased fitness in a glucose-limited environment. To determine the pleiotropic effects of these mutations, we examined the fitnesses of the mutants in five novel resource environments. Our results show that the majority of mutations had significant fitness effects in alternative resources, such that pleiotropy was common. The predominant form of this pleiotropy was positive-that is, most mutations that conferred increased fitness in glucose also conferred increased fitness in novel resources. We did detect some deleterious pleiotropic effects, but they were primarily limited to one of the five resources, and within this resource, to only a subset of mutants. Although pleiotropic effects were generally positive, fitness levels were lower and more variable on resources that differed most in their mechanisms of uptake and catabolism from that of glucose. Positive pleiotropic effects were strongly correlated in magnitude with their direct effects, but no such correlation was found among mutants with deleterious pleiotropic effects. Whereas previous studies of populations evolved on glucose for longer periods of time showed consistent declines on some of the resources used here, our results suggest that deleterious pleiotropic effects were limited to only a subset of the beneficial mutations available.
Three-dimensional displays of left ventricular epicardial surface from standard cardiac SPECT perfusion quantification techniques.

UNLABELLED Two methods for generating left ventricular epicardial surface from SPECT perfusion tomograms are described and validated. Both methods use the locations of the maximal reconstructed count values determined from a perfusion quantification procedure as a basis for generating surfaces. METHODS The first method fits circular contours, which are perpendicular to the long-axis, to the points obtained from perfusion quantification. The second method applies median and linear filters to the points to remove noise but maintain the basic shape of the surface. Both models are validated against an automatic technique and against the user-traced surfaces of both the perfusion image and an MR image of the same patient. RESULTS The median-filtered model was found to be closer to the standard surfaces than the circular model in all cases, and 85% of the points on the median-filtered surfaces were within one SPECT pixel length of the hand-traced MR surfaces. CONCLUSION Accurate, three-dimensional left ventricular epicardial surfaces can be generated quickly and easily from already existing perfusion quantification software. The resulting images may be useful for realistic displays of ventricular size, shape and the three-dimensional distribution of perfusion.
III. Peroxisomal β-oxidation, PPARα, and steatohepatitis

Peroxisomes are involved in the β-oxidation chain shortening of long-chain and very-long-chain fatty acyl-CoAs, long-chain dicarboxylyl-CoAs, the CoA esters of eicosanoids, 2-methyl-branched fatty ...
Learning argumentation through a role-playing game-based curriculum

Research Goals. Argumentation plays a key social and intellectual role in the construction of knowledge, but now we may socialize students into the practice of argumentation in schools is less explored. To address this issue, this design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2004; Brown, 1992) project investigates three middle school students' experince and their argumentative discourse in a 10-day game-based learning curriculum designed for argumentation.
Studies in Compounding Guayule Rubber I

Abstract It has been shown that different solvents used in the extraction of the resin from crude guayule exhibit different time-temperature relations. Of all the solvents tested, 2-furaldehyde was found to be the most efficient solvent for its speed and for the amount of resin extracted. It does not affect adversely the properties of the hydrocarbon.
Aberrant Parasympathetic Stress Responsivity in Pure and Co-Occurring Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are highly comorbid; we know little, however, about the shared physiological features of these disorders. In the present study, we examined whether aberrant parasympathetic stress responsivity represents a transdiagnostic process in MDD, GAD, and co-occurring MDD-GAD. Adult women diagnosed with MDD only, GAD only, and co-occurring MDD-GAD and never-disordered controls (CTLs) completed a standardized laboratory task that involved anticipating, confronting, and recovering from a social stressor. Participants’ levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured to index parasympathetic responses. The three clinical groups combined (participants with MDD only, GAD only, and co-occurring MDD-GAD) exhibited a similar pattern of RSA responsivity that differed significantly from that of the CTL group. Specifically, whereas CTL participants exhibited a sharp decrease in RSA when confronting the stressor and a sharp increase in RSA when recovering immediately following the stressor, the clinical participants exhibited a blunted response pattern that involved weaker fluctuations in RSA when confronting and recovering from the stressor. There were no significant differences among the three clinical groups in RSA responses. Interestingly, clinical and CTL participants did not differ in self-reported fluctuations in negative emotional arousal. Finally, for clinical participants patterns of RSA reactivity to the acute stressor were associated differentially with trait rumination and worry as maladaptive forms of emotion regulation. These findings support the formulation that aberrant parasympathetic stress responsivity is a shared feature of MDD, GAD, and co-occurring MDD-GAD that is characterized by diminished reactivity to and recovery from stress.
The Political Injustice of Communal Coexistence: The Erasure of Paramilitary Violence and Reproduction of Domestic Violence at Justice Houses and Coexistence Centers in Colombia

In the face of massive human rights violations committed by the armed forces and paramilitary collaborators, the Colombian government launched a comprehensive human rights program in the late 1980s meant to reduce impunity and human rights violations. The state embraced human rights discourses, created hundreds of new human rights institutions, and accepted international funding and expertise for human rights projects, including the creation of a system of Justice Houses throughout the country. Justice Houses were supposed to reduce violence and impunity by helping citizens negotiate the complex legal system and report crimes. Yet the Housesﾒ primary programming focuses on teaching civilians how to resolve their own justice problems. Victims of human rights violations are taught mechanisms of peaceful conflict resolution and community justice, including reconciliation, tolerance for difference, and conflict mediation. Based on three months of interviews, archival research, and participant observation at the Justice Houses, I explore the differentiated effects on and responses from community members. I illustrate the local perversion of globalized discourses of conflict resolution and restorative justice. Finally, I demonstrate how these discourses and policies have perpetuated impunity for both crimes against humanity committed by paramilitaries as well as for routinized forms of gender, sexual, and domestic violence.
Personalized home-based interval exercise training may improve cardiorespiratory fitness in cancer patients preparing to undergo hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Impaired cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with inferior survival in patients preparing to undergo hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Exercise training based on short, higher intensity intervals has the potential to efficiently improve cardiorespiratory fitness. We studied home-based interval exercise training (IET) in 40 patients before autologous (N=20) or allogeneic (N=20) HCT. Each session consisted of five, 3 min intervals of walking, jogging or cycling at 65–95% maximal heart rate (MHR) with 3 min of low-intensity exercise (<65% MHR) between intervals. Participants were asked to perform sessions at least three times weekly. The duration of the intervention was at least 6 weeks, depending on each patient’s scheduled transplantation date. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed from a peak oxygen consumption test (VO2peak) and a 6 min walk (6MWD) before and after the intervention period. For the autologous HCT cohort, improvements in VO2peak (P=0.12) and 6MWD (P=0.19) were not statistically significant. For the allogeneic cohort, the median VO2peak improvement was 3.7 ml/kg min (P=0.005) and the median 6MWD improvement was 34 m (P=0.006). Home-based IET can be performed before HCT and has the potential to improve cardiorespiratory fitness.
A POD-based solver for the advection-diffusion equation

We present a methodology based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). We have implemented the POD-based solver in the large eddy simulation code Nek5000 and used it to solve the advection-diffusion equation for temperature in cases where buoyancy is not present. POD allows for the identification of the most energetic modes of turbulence when applied to a sufficient set of snapshots generated through Nek5000. The Navier-Stokes equations are then reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations by Galerkin projection. The flow field is reconstructed and used to advect the temperature on longer time scales and potentially coarser grids. The methodology is validated and tested on two problems: two-dimensional flow past a cylinder and three-dimensional flow in T-junctions. For the latter case, the benchmark chosen corresponds to the experiments of Hirota et al., who performed particle image velocimetry on the flow in a counterflow T-junction. In both test problems the dynamics of the reduced-order model reproduce well the history of the projected modes when a sufficient number of equations are considered. The dynamics of flow evolution and the interaction of different modes are also studied in detail for the T-junction.© 2011 ASME
Farmers' Beef Cattle Breeding Total Factor Productivity Study Based on Malmquist Index

This paper based on malmquist index method of DEA,analyzed farmers' beef cattle breeding productivity (TFP) growth,then decomposed TFP into technical progress efficiency and technical efficiency,further decomposed into technical progress efficiency,pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency.The results showed that since 1998,farmers' beef cattle breeding TFP and its growth rate showed a downward trend in volatility.In the negative year of farmers' beef cattle breeding TFP growth,mainly due to the technological progress efficiency and technical efficiency are slowing,especially technological progress is slowing.The farmers' beef cattle breeding TFP is in the order of Xinjiang,Henan,Shaanxi,Heilongjiang,Ningxia from high to low.In addition to Ningxia,the other four provinces' TFP are higher than the overall average,five provinces are present technological progress slow.Then put forward the following recommendations,it should increase investment in science and technology,promote scientific and technological innovation,play all levels of technical research institutions and national beef cattle industry technology system role,improve the technical service system,comprehensive approach to improve beef cattle breeding production technology.
Biological Control of Agriculture Insect Pests

This review summarizes the efficacy, advantages and safety of using biological agents to suppress and control damage done to crops by insects. Biocontrol has been generally shown to be safe to plants, animals, humans and the environment. This is in stark contrast to more widely used chemical insecticides that often results in environmental pollution causing harm to humans and the environment. Biocontrol manufacturers continue to develop new protocols for assessing agent safety, deploying and measuring treatment success. Government and manufacturing organizations are developing regulations to assure the safe and appropriate use of biocontrol. The benefits of biological control systems drive the increasing adoption of the technology. Protection of biodiversity and high benefit to cost ratio are obvious reasons to promote the use of biocontrol platforms. It will require education and awareness of the general public and those involved in agriculture to accept these alternative farming practices.
The effects of 22°C and 4°C storage of platelets on vascular endothelial integrity and function.

Background Although a majority of the studies conducted to date on platelet (PLT) storage have been focused on PLT hemostatic function, the effects of 4°C PLTs on regulation of endothelial barrier permeability are still not known. In this study, we compared the effects of room temperature (22°C) stored and (4°C) stored PLTs on the regulation of vascular endothelial cell (EC) permeability in vitro and in vivo. Study design and methods Day 1, Day 5, and Day 7 leukoreduced apheresis PLTs stored at 4 or 22°C were studied in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, PLT effects on EC permeability and barrier function, adhesion, and impedance aggregometry were investigated. In vivo, using a mouse model of vascular leak, attenuation of vascular leak and circulating PLT numbers were measured. Results Treatment of EC monolayers with Day 5 or Day 7 PLTs, stored at both 22°C and 4°C, resulted in similar decreases in EC permeability on average. However, analysis of individual samples revealed significant variation that was donor dependent. Additional in vitro measurements revealed a decrease in inflammatory mediators, nonspecific PLT-endothelial aggregation and attenuated loss of aggregation over time to TRAP, ASPI, ADP, and collagen with 4°C storage. In mice, while 22°C and 4°C PLTs both demonstrated significant protection against vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A)-induced vascular leak 22°C PLTs exhibited increased protection compared to 4°C PLTs. Systemic circulating levels of 4°C PLTs were decreased compared to 22°C PLTs. Conclusions In vitro, 4°C-stored PLTs exhibit a greater capacity to inhibit EC permeability than 22°C-stored PLTs. In vivo, 22°C PLTs provide superior control of vascular leak induced by VEGF-A. This discrepancy may be due to increased clearance of 4°C PLTs from the systemic circulation.
Effect of Early Opening to Traffic on Fatigue Damage to Concrete Pavement

The current methods for determining criteria for opening a roadway to traffic are often overly conservative, causing unnecessary construction delays and user costs. This problem can be explained, in part, by the purely empirical nature of the current methods. These criteria require wait periods after concrete placement or certain levels of compressive or flexural strength, or both, after concrete placement, and specific site conditions are not accounted for. Further, the effect of early traffic-related loads on long-term pavement behavior has not been quantified. In this study, the effect of early opening on pavement damage was reexamined through a laboratory study and analytical modeling. The result was a mechanistic-based procedure for evaluating the effect of early opening to traffic on the accumulation long-term damage; this procedure also accounts for critical factors such as climate, traffic level, and pavement design characteristics. The basis of this method is a modification of the fatigue damage ...
My Continuing Evolution as a Surgeon-Scientist: A Decade after the Jacobson Promising Investigator Award.

The Second Joan L and Julius H Jacobson Promising Investigator Awardee, Edith Tzeng MD, FACS In 2005, the Surgical Research Committee of the American College of Surgeons was tasked with selecting the recipient of a newly established award, "The Joan L and Julius H Jacobson Promising Investigator Award." According to the Jacobsons, the award funded by Dr Jacobson should be given at least once every 2 years to a surgeon investigator at "the tipping point," who can demonstrate that his or her research shows the promise of leading to a significant contribution to the practice of surgery and patient safety. Every year, the Surgical Research Committee receives many excellent nominations and has the difficult task of selecting one awardee. The first awardee was Michael Longaker MD, FACS, who 10 years later reflected on the award and the impact it had on his career. 1 This year, Edith Tzeng, MD, FACS, the second Jacobson awardee, reflects on her 10-year journey after receiving the award. Dr Tzeng is now a national and international figure in the field of vascular surgery and has studied the effect of nitric oxide and carbon monoxide on intimal hyperplasia. Kamal MF Itani, MD, FACS and Leigh Neumayer, MD, FACS, on behalf of the Surgical Research Committee of the American College of Surgeons.
A new integrable nonlocal modified KdV equation: Abundant solutions with distinct physical structures

Abstract In this work we study a new integrable nonlocal modified Korteweg–de Vries equation (mKdV) which arises from a reduction of the AKNS scattering problem. We use a variety of distinct techniques to determine abundant solutions with distinct physical structures. We show that this nonlocal equation possesses a family of traveling solitary wave solutions that include solitons, kinks, periodic and singular solutions.
Shock compression response of cold-rolled Ni/Al multilayer composites

Uniaxial strain, plate-on-plate impact experiments were performed on cold-rolled Ni/Al multilayer composites and the resulting Hugoniot was determined through time-resolved measurements combined with impedance matching. The experimental Hugoniot agreed with that previously predicted by two dimensional (2D) meso-scale calculations [Specht et al., J. Appl. Phys. 111, 073527 (2012)]. Additional 2D meso-scale simulations were performed using the same computational method as the prior study to reproduce the experimentally measured free surface velocities and stress profiles. These simulations accurately replicated the experimental profiles, providing additional validation for the previous computational work.
[11 C]Fluoroform, a Breakthrough for Versatile Labeling of PET Radiotracer Trifluoromethyl Groups in High Molar Activity.

Positron-emission tomography (PET) is an immensely important imaging modality in biomedical research and drug development but must use selective radiotracers to achieve biochemical specificity. Such radiotracers are usually labeled with carbon-11 (t1/2=20 min) or fluorine-18 (t1/2=110 min), but these are only available from cyclotrons in a few simple chemical forms. [18F]Fluoroform has emerged for labeling tracers in trifluoromethyl groups but is severely limited in utility by low radioactivity per mass (low molar activity). Here, the synthesis of [11C]fluoroform is described, based on CoF3-mediated fluorination of cyclotron-produced [11C]methane. This process is efficient and repetitively reliable. [11C]Fluoroform shows versatility for labeling small molecules in very high molar activity (>200 GBq μmol−1), far exceeding that possible by using [18F]fluoroform. Therefore, [11C]fluoroform represents a major breakthrough for labeling prospective PET tracers in trifluoromethyl groups at high molar activity.